Woman on run from feds discovered living in Lenexa under stolen identity: US Marshals [The Kansas City Star]

Kansas City Star (MO)

A former Virginia nurse on the run from U.S. Marshals after being convicted in a multi-million dollar fraud case was found living under a stolen identity in Johnson County last weekend, according to federal authorities.

Heather Huffman, 53, of Pleasant Hill, California, was arrested Saturday at a Lenexa hotel where she had been staying while using another name. Before her escape, Huffman was out on bond awaiting sentencing in Virginia for her involvement in an unemployment insurance fraud scheme.

While hiding in Kansas, Huffman had stolen the identity of a Georgia resident, obtained a fake driver’s license and opened credit cards in the victim’s name, according to Craig Beam with the U.S. Marshals Service for the District of Kansas.

Huffman had also been working in the area and was found with an employment ID card upon her capture. Beam declined to say where she was employed.

Beam said the woman did not appear to have any ties to the area, and authorities have not identified anyone who may have assisted her.

“She’d done her homework … It’s kind of concerning that she was able to do that,” Beam said. “She was able to fly under the radar because she moved to a completely different area of the United States.”

Fraud across multiple states

Before she came to Johnson County, Huffman was a nurse at the Veteran Affairs Hunter Holmes McGuire Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia.

She worked with several co-conspirators to defraud the Virginia Employment Commission, the Washington State Employment Security Department, and the California Employment Development Department of over $2 million of COVID-19-related unemployment insurance benefits, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

She and three others admitted to their roles in submitting false information on applications after stealing the identities of victims, including inmates from various correctional facilities. She had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to mail and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in July and was scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 29.

However, come Huffman’s sentencing day, she was nowhere to be found.

A warrant was immediately issued for her arrest as marshals began to search for information about Huffman’s whereabouts, Beam said.

Authorities did not catch wind of Huffman’s new life until February, when marshals in Virginia alerted members of the service in Kansas that she was likely in Johnson County. Beam would not share the specifics of how the woman was found but said marshals in Virginia put in a lot of “time and effort,” going through records to locate her.

Authorities from both states worked together to pinpoint Huffman’s exact address and conducted thorough surveillance until the woman was spotted over the weekend walking into the hotel’s lobby, Beam said. Huffman was arrested at the hotel by deputies with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Saturday, though Beam did not reveal the name of the hotel where she had been staying.

The Georgia resident whose identity Huffman allegedly stole has been notified. Beam said the person will likely have to do some “cleanup” of their financial records, though the extent of the damage is not immediately clear.

Beam called the case “unusual,” even for the U.S. Marshals Service’s Fugitive Task Force, based on the woman’s level of preparation and the nature of her crimes. He theorized Huffman’s prior knowledge of defrauding the government helped her efforts

“Most of the fugitives we catch are not living under another person’s identity,” he said. “This was a very interesting case.”

Huffman was initially booked in Johnson County Jail but will be sent back to Virginia to appear in court there, according to Beam. Additional charges have not been filed as of Thursday morning.