A Pennsylvania man who stole a dead baby’s identity and used it to start a new life more than two decades ago was arrested near Philadelphia on April 10, 2017.
Jon Vincent, age 44, was charged with Social Security fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Vincent was convicted in Texas of indecency with a child, served a prison sentence and then was living in a halfway house when he escaped in 1996.
Shortly after escaping he stole the identity of Nathan Laskoski, a baby who died in 1972 when he was just two months old.
Vincent obtained “a birth certificate for Laskoski, which he used to apply for a Social Security number in Laskoski’s name,” according to this press release issued by the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The scheme came to light after Laskoski’s aunt started using Ancestry.com, a website specializing in genealogy, to research her family tree.
“In researching her family tree, Nathan’s name came up as a ‘green’ leaf on the website, meaning public records showed he was alive,” writes Joe Mandak in this Associated Press story about the incident. “The aunt told Nathan’s mother, who did more research and learned that someone had obtained a Social Security card under her son’s name in Texas. Nathan’s mother also found public marriage and divorce records, and she filed an identity theft complaint with the Social Security Administration.”
Vincent worked for more than two decades under the name Nathan Laskoski, most recently as a nurse’s aide, according to Pennsylvania Department of Health records tracked down by the Associated Press.
If convicted, the defendant faces up to seven years in prison, according to the Associated Press story, as well as a three-year period of supervised release, a fine of up to $500,000 and a special assessment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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