New York Times, December 2021
Laura Oglesby, 48, of Missouri, who pleaded guilty to intentionally providing false information to the Social Security Administration, lived as someone nearly half her age, the authorities said. She seemed like a typical college undergraduate, with student loans, boyfriends and a job. But according to prosecutors, she also happened to be a woman in her 40s who had used the Social Security card information of her estranged daughter to get a driver’s license, enroll in a university and obtain financial aid. For about two years, Laura Oglesby, now 48, pretended to be in her 20s and used her daughter’s name, said Chief Jamie Perkins of the Mountain View Police Department in Missouri.
“Everybody believed it,” Chief Perkins said. “She even had boyfriends that believed that she was that age: 22 years old.”
On Monday, Ms. Oglesby pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally providing false information to the Social Security Administration, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.
Ms. Oglesby could face up to five years in federal prison without parole. A sentencing date has not been set. Under the terms of her plea agreement, Ms. Oglesby must also pay $17,521 in restitution to Southwest Baptist University in Missouri and to her daughter Lauren Ashleigh Hays.
