Lang
3/6/25
University of Iowa Police have released details of the investigation that led to an arrest after a decades-long identity theft scheme.
59-year-old Matthew Keirans of Hartland, Wisconsin was sentenced to 12 years in prison earlier this year after his conviction on charges of making a false statement to a credit union and aggravated identity theft. Keirans stole the identity of William Woods in 1988 when they worked together at a hot dog cart in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Woods became homeless and ended up being committed to a mental hospital because he repeatedly claimed that his identity had been stolen, but authorities didn’t believe him. Keirans used Woods’ identity to acquire loans, credit and jobs. He even had a son under Woods’ name.
The UI article, posted on Thursday, details how detective Ian Mallory began investigating the case in February of 2023 after receiving a compliant from Keirans, who was working as a UI Health Care employee. Keirans was using the William Woods identity at the time, and claimed another man in California claiming to be William Woods was harassing him. Mallory says he was initially not going to put much effort into the investigation, as police and courts in California had already believed the real Woods was lying. But when Keirans told him, “You’re not going to be able to do anything,” Mallory was compelled to put in extra work. He pored over hundreds of police and government documents and obtained a DNA test, and Keirans was finally exposed as a fraud.
The full story can be found here.