The Bwog
The Week in "Alums"
Previous Post | Next Post
A curious mention of a Columbia "alum" in the news today in the form of a police report. High school dropout and apparent puppy enthusiast Esther Reed stole the identity of a missing South Carolina woman named Brooke Henson. Using Henson's name and personal information, Reed took her SATs and GED and gained entrance to Harvard and Columbia.

Reed dropped out of school and was on the lam for more than a year before she was arrested on Saturday on charges of fraud and identity theft. Henson—who has been missing for nearly eight years—is still missing.

While at Columbia, Reed is believed to have nabbed $100 grand of financial aid. CU administration has admitted that she was enrolled up until last year, but did not provide any details.

Did you know Brooke Henson/Esther Reed or know any details of her time at Columbia? Let us know, email bwog@columbia.edu
See also: Alumni, Crime

February 4, 2008 @ 3:40 PM | Comments 35 comments | Add comment Post a comment | Link to this article | | | Share on Facebook

Posted by wow bwog....: #1 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 3:46 PM (from campus)
For the first time in ages, Ivygate actually beat you to a story. Get your troops together.
Posted by Anonymous: #2 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 3:55 PM (from campus)
This is the coolest thing I have ever heard.
Posted by elna: #3 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 4:01 PM
This was here last year. Or it was on the news.
Posted by Alum: #4 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 4:06 PM
Do we know whether she attended the College or GS? Since the story first broke my sense has been the latter -- or maybe even Continuing Education. But the claim that she got so much financial aid is a new one on me and suggests that she was in the College, since so much aid would have been hard to come by in the other divisions.

Also, BWOG, you misspelled "Alums" in the headline. Please be more careful with my name from now on.
Posted by SAT: #5 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 5:00 PM
I'm somewhat confused. Did she use the stolen identity to take the exams, or did she also steal the exam scores?
Posted by purple: #6 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 5:06 PM (from campus)
from other articles, it appears as though she faked the exam scores - which, from what I remember of the SAT process seems even more impressive.
Posted by hey lookie!!: #7 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 5:07 PM
At least she's wearing columbia blue instead of crimson in the picture. Atta girl!

Then again, we did give her $100K.
Posted by she's: #8 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 5:17 PM (from campus)
totally gonna kill that puppy. And then steal its identity.
Posted by lets take a minute: #9 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 5:42 PM (from campus)
and acknowledge that the puppy is way cute.
Posted by google is sweet: #10 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 5:43 PM (from campus)
She took the GED and SAT herself under the stolen name and was a student in GS. Let's see if I can link to the info...

[external link to www.amw.com]

Posted by wait...: #11 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 6:23 PM (from campus)
this still doesn't explain why she couldn't use her own identity???
Posted by strange: #12 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 6:32 PM
Very strange. The only thing stranger would be if she had gone to high school under an alias, become valedictorian, etc...
Posted by Zach: #13 (in reply to #11) · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 6:33 PM (from campus)
I'd guess because she was getting financial aid checks that she was planning to run out on. Cash, vanish.
Posted by Haha: #14 (in reply to #13) · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 6:41 PM
Haha. No. Those checks are applied to your tuition bill immediately. You don't get to actually hold the cash.
Posted by Mercy: #15 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 6:45 PM
She's clearly very clever, albeit in a slightly devious way. I say they should have let her stay. She could have been Columbia's next Frank Abagnale.
Posted by wow: #16 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 6:56 PM (from campus)
so did she choose us over harvard?
Posted by Alum: #17 (in reply to #11) · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 7:29 PM
Probably because she would not have been admitted. I gather that she was either a HS dropout or at least poor student.
Posted by Alum: #18 (in reply to #17) · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 7:31 PM
The article actually says she was a dropout; I didn't think to re-read it until after I'd submitted my last post.
Posted by Alum: #19 (in reply to #10) · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 7:41 PM
Thanks for linking to the indictment. The charges say that she intended to obtain over $100K in financial aid, but not that she actually received that much. It also seems to say most of the aid she received was in the form of external loans rather than CU grants. That helps explain how she got so much aid at GS.
Posted by But: #20 (in reply to #18) · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 8:25 PM (from campus)
according to the article, she did take her SATs and GED's before getting admitted.

Interestingly, Frank Abagnale chose to forge a Columbia degree. So it's not just Barnard then? *zing*
Posted by Alum: #21 (in reply to #20) · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 8:37 PM
Yes, but she got in without revealing her actual high school record. Presumably the credentials she showed the admissions office under her assumed identity were better than the ones she could have shown with her real name.
Posted by sigh: #22 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 8:49 PM (from campus)
this only adds to the theory that GS is the back door to columbia...
Posted by Does anyone know...: #23 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 9:30 PM
If you she killed person whose identity she stole?
Posted by sigh: #24 (in reply to #22) · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 9:42 PM
considering what comes through the front door to columbia, I'm not sure if that's really a big deal.
Posted by ...: #25 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 9:47 PM (from campus)
i really don't get it...

i can understand some kind of identity theft scheme for financial gain... but seriously, earning a college degree in someone else's name? what's the point? if you want that degree to mean anything, you're going to have to pay back the loans...

unless her time here was, uh, anthropological in nature. perhaps she had always wondered what these sorts of places are like...

or perhaps she killed the other girl and was just operating in autopilot fantasyland, living it up in morningside heights. (although to be honest with you, if i was a murderer on the run, operating on stolen identity cash, i certainly wouldn't be hanging out in butler. c'mon!)

sadly, identity theft is probably the only way to get any meaningful financial support in gs, regardless of academic performance. :/

Posted by hahaha: #26 (in reply to #24) · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 10:09 PM (from campus)
so true!
Posted by butler: #27 · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 10:18 PM
"if i was a murderer on the run, operating on stolen identity cash, i certainly wouldn't be hanging out in butler..."

Why not? Butler has its fair share of suspicious individuals.
Posted by thank you: #28 (in reply to #8) · reply · track
February 4, 2008 at 11:10 PM
that puppy is ridiculously adorable

you know i wouldn't complain if bwog decided to put up a bunch of pictures of yorkies or some similarly cute pup up
Posted by Stephen: #29 · reply · track
February 5, 2008 at 1:47 AM
didn't this happen last year? why is this news?
Posted by i think the : #30 · reply · track
February 5, 2008 at 1:51 AM (from campus)
puppy is a shih tzu. they are so goddamn cute as kids. then they grow out their hair and become dandies. it's really gross.
Posted by she: #31 (in reply to #29) · reply · track
February 5, 2008 at 2:21 AM
was arrested saturday. that is the news. and some potential gossip on what was the point of her batshit insane identity theft scheme.
Posted by FurnaldHall: #32 · reply · track
February 5, 2008 at 5:29 AM
Are people awaiting trial allowed to sign book contracts?

Posted by alum: #33 (in reply to #32) · reply · track
February 5, 2008 at 10:27 AM
Actually, there was a law passed in the 1970s prohibiting criminals from gaining profit from their crimes through books, movies, etc. (FYI - it wasn't a retroactive law -- Frank Lucas -- of American Gangster -- committed his crimes prior to the law's inception and sold his story years later for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Posted by Timothy: #34 · reply · track
February 5, 2008 at 11:06 PM (from campus)
Brooke was in my University Writing class freshman year! She was always pretty sweet. Quite frankly, meeting a con artist was probably the only good thing about Uni writing...
Posted by hmm: #35 (in reply to #33) · reply · track
February 6, 2008 at 2:26 AM (from campus)
Was that the Son of Sam law?

There was also some talk of her being a spy for some terrorist sect or something, or trying to seduce a West Point student to get military secrets...
Name:
(Log In | Register your identity)

Email:
Reply to:

Describe this color in one lowercase word.

About Us

Bwog is compiled by the staff of The Blue and White, Columbia University's undergraduate magazine.

Contact Us

Please send tips to bwgossip@columbia.edu.

Questions or concerns? Email bweditors@columbia.edu.

Bwog is always looking for new writing talent. Email bwog@columbia.edu.

In Print

Search

Comment Policy

Our Favorite Comments

omg: [read]
"the GSSC VP Student Life is like the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher"
Clearly: [read]
"the freshmen yearn for a return to the womb."

Bwogroll

National Blogs
IvyGate
Papertrail
Open University
Wonkette

City Blogs
Gothamist
Gawker
Craigslist
City Room (New York Times)
Overheard in New York
Community Board 9
Stop Columbia
Eater
Curbed

Other School Blogs
Wesleying
Gadfly (Harvard)
MadsVassarBlog
Sex and the Ivy (Harvard)
Elliot Back (Cornell)
OnwardState (Penn State)

Columbia Blogs
WikiCU
Light Reading
GS Lounge
Columbian Cokane
The Hungry Lion
Roar Lions Roar
Phlog
the(pro)be
EcoReps
Columbia Dems
The Blaaag
Editor Josh
The One Train
Lumilux
Igloo on Wheels
Bored@Butler
Five Plus One
The Columbia Critic
Queued Paper
The Columns
ReflectivePundit
wang.
2nd Law
el participante Commentariat
The Core Junction
Off Broadway
CollegeOTR
Greater or Smaller
The Mayor's Hotel
Barnard Zines
Peter and Rob Make Lists of Things

Technical

Our headlines are syndicated through Atom.
This site is powered by the Publicate Content Management System, which is available for free.
Our interface icons are from the free Silk set.