In 1997, 16-year-old Brianna Stewart started attending classes at Evergreen High School in Vancouver, Washington. Known for her quiet smile and braided pigtails, she already had quite the tale to tell: She was a native of Mobile, Alabama, who fled to the northwest after the murder of her mother. She was looking for her biological father and had spent time living in youth shelters as she drifted. School counselor Greg Merrill recalled (via Texas Monthly) her saying: "I've never had a normal life. That's all I want — to be a normal teenager like everyone else."
Stewart soon struck up a relationship with sophomore Ken Dunn, confessing to him that she had witnessed her stepfather kill her mother. Dunn later confessed his love to her at the school's Sadie Hawkins dance, and in spite of angry outbursts that were a bit more than the typical teenage drama, she graduated in 2000, petitioned for a new birth certificate and Social Security number, and then was arrested.
She was actually 31-year-old Treva Throneberry, who had disappeared from her hometown of Electra, Texas in the mid-1980s. After accusing her father of sexual assault (a crime that her sisters say had been perpetrated by her uncle) and spending time in a psychiatric ward, she floated from city to city. Eventually, it would be discovered that she had used 18 different aliases across the country, and she was found guilty of felony theft and perjury. According to ABC News, she was released in 2003, still saying she was Brianna Stewart.
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