Treva Throneberry
Treva Throneberry | |
---|---|
Born | Clark College (Washington), $1,050 in tuition was waived after she claimed to be a homeless teen), perjury (illegally obtained a Washington State identity card under the false name Brianna Stewart)[1] | May 18, 1969
Penalty | sentenced to three years in prison[2] |
Treva Joyce Throneberry (born May 18, 1969), also known as Brianna Kenzie, Brianna Stewart, Cara Leanna Davis, Cara Lewis, Cara Williams, Emily Kara Williams, Keili T. Throneberry Smitt, Stephanie Lewis, and Stephanie Williams, is an American woman who spent most of her twenties pretending to be a teenager and engaging in other forms of
Throneberry made numerous false claims of
After she was arrested in 2001 and charged with fraud and perjury, Throneberry's true identity was established by DNA testing. Some observers of her post-arrest behavior have speculated that her assumption of different identities may have been the result of delusions or dissociation which arose from real trauma that she suffered as a child.[7] Court-appointed psychologists, however, deemed Throneberry to not be delusional and therefore legally responsible for her actions.[8]
Throneberry was convicted and sentenced to three years' imprisonment at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor, Washington. She was released after serving two years and three months of her sentence.[4][2]
Early life and education
Treva Joyce Throneberry was born on May 18, 1969, in
In May 1986, Throneberry was sent to a local
Throneberry graduated from Fort Worth's Arlington Heights High School in 1987 and moved to nearby Arlington. There, she rented her own apartment and worked as a hotel maid.[5][8]
Crimes
For most of the 1990s, Throneberry wandered around the country using various
In 1993, Throneberry was living in Corvallis, Oregon, and passing herself off as a teenager named "Keili T. Throneberry Smitt" and "Keili Smitt", staying with a family she had met at a church. She went to court in Benton County, Oregon, to legally change her name to Keili Smitt. Throneberry falsely reported to Corvallis police officers she had been raped by her father, who she at that point falsely claimed was a police officer in Oregon.[3] Throneberry was charged with filing a false police report in Oregon.[5]
Three years later, Throneberry was in Altoona, Pennsylvania.[9][10] She said that she was a 16-year-old named "Stephanie Danielle Lewis" and was fleeing her Satanist parents with the help of the religious underground. After eighteen days of investigation, police contacted a girl she had known in Texas and found out who she really was. She was arrested, charged with giving false information and sentenced to nine days in jail. After her release, she disappeared again and continued her wandering.
In 1997, when she was claiming to be 17-year-old "Brianna Stewart" (she was actually 28 at the time) in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, Throneberry falsely accused a 47-year-old security guard named Charles Blankenship of rape. He pled guilty to "having sex with a minor" and was sentenced to fifty days in jail. After her fraud was exposed, a judge expunged Blankenship's conviction.[9][11]
Beginning in 1998, between the ages of 27 and 31, Throneberry posed as an initially 16-year-old
In 2016, Throneberry resurfaced under the alias "Brianna Kenzie" and accused a local man of sexually assaulting her while she was working as a hotel employee. She was later fired after hotel employees learned of her prior record.[13]
Popular culture
Throneberry's story inspired "Shangri-La", episode 2 of season 13 of
The song "Souvenir" by the
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e The Associated Press (2001-04-09). "This troubled teen is 31 years old". seattlepi.com. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
- ^ a b c "The Girl From Electra". Wweek.com. 2004-11-10. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hollandsworth, Skip (2002-03-01). "The Day Treva Throneberry Disappeared". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
- ^ a b c d e f "'Imposter Teen' Talks to 'Primetime' – ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. 2004-07-08. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
- ^ a b c Pruitt, Bernadette (2001-11-11). "Woman portrayed self as abused teen since 1985 – Houston Chronicle". Chron.com. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
- ^ a b Dunn, Katia (2001-05-17). "Treva or Brianna". Portland Mercury. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
- ^ "The Day Treva Throneberry Disappeared". Texas Monthly. 2002-03-01. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
- ^ a b c White, Emily (2002-03-10). "Forever Young". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c "Strange cases of 'teen' impostor". Old.post-gazette.com. 2001-04-22. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
- ^ a b "East Briefs: 11/21/01". Old.post-gazette.com. 2001-11-21. Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
- ^ "The Hoax Project, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park". Jclass.umd.edu. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
- ^ "Woman convicted of posing as teen". Deseret News. 2001-11-21. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
- ^ Hobbs, Andy (2016-06-29). "Suspect in hotel assault cleared of charges". The Olympian. Retrieved 2016-06-30.
- ^ "Law & Order: Season 13, Episode 2". Rotten Tomatoes.
- ^ "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) - Pretend - (2007) -Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-11-27.