Treva Throneberry

Last updated
Treva Throneberry
Born (1969-05-18) May 18, 1969 (age 53) [1]
Wichita Falls, Texas [1]
NationalityAmerican
Other namesBrianna Stewart in Oregon, Washington state, and Daphne, Alabama,
Stephanie Danielle Lewis in Altoona, Pennsylvania,
Emily Kara Williams in Texas, [1]
Keili T. Throneberry Smitt in Corvallis, Oregon, [2]
Cara Leanna Davis in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, [2]
Keili Smitt,
Stephanie Williams in Pennsylvania, [3]
Emily Kara Williams in North Carolina, [3]
Cara Williams in Texas, [3]
Cara Lewis in Idaho [3]
Criminal statusIn June 2003, after serving two years and three months of her sentence, she was released from a Gig Harbour, Washington, correctional institution [3] [4]
Criminal chargefirst-degree theft (defrauding the state Department of Social and Health Sciences of $3,620.27 that was paid for her foster care),
second-degree theft (defrauding Clark College (Washington), $1,050 in tuition was waived after she claimed to be a homeless teen),
perjury (illegally obtained a Washington State identity card under the false name Brianna Stewart) [1]
Penaltysentenced to three years in prison [4]

Treva Joyce Throneberry (born May 18, 1969) is an American woman who spent most of her twenties pretending to be a teenager and engaging in other forms of con artistry for which she was eventually convicted and imprisoned. She made numerous false claims of sexual abuse, including that she was a victim of satanic ritual abuse, to gain money. [5] During this time she traveled the United States, residing in foster homes, colleges and with any family that would take her in, [6] using false identities. Her father, Carl Throneberry, said, "She's just going cross-country and using different names and receiving welfare." [1]

Contents

As of 2003, she falsely claimed to be a woman named Brianna Stewart who was born in 1981.

After she was arrested in 2001 and charged with fraud and perjury, her true identity was established by DNA testing. Some observers of her post-arrest behavior have speculated that Throneberry's assumption of different identities may have been the result of delusions or disassociation which arose from real trauma that she suffered as a child. [7] Court-appointed psychologists, however, deemed Throneberry to not be delusional and therefore legally responsible for her actions. [8] She was convicted and was given a three-year sentence at a correctional center in Gig Harbor, Washington. She was released after serving two years and three months of her sentence. [3] [4]

Early life and education

Treva Joyce Throneberry was born on May 18, 1969, in Wichita Falls, Texas, to Carl and Patsy Throneberry. [8] Her father had dropped out of school in the sixth grade and was illiterate. [2] Her family later moved to Electra, Texas. She and her sisters were sexually abused by their uncle Billy Ray while they were growing up. [2] After accusing her father of raping her, Throneberry was removed from her family in Electra and placed with a foster family in Wichita Falls, Texas, in December 1985 when she was 16 years old, and enrolled in the local high school. [2] She began to tell stories about how she had been abducted and raped by Satanists.

In May 1986, Throneberry threatened to kill herself and was sent to a local mental hospital, Wichita Falls State Hospital, for five months. [2] While there, doctors said her condition was a characterological disorder and she was given Trilafon, Tofranil and Xanax. [2] She refused to speak with her family when they visited. When she was discharged in October 1986, she was transferred to the Lena Pope Home for Troubled Girls, a residential treatment center in Fort Worth, Texas. While at Lena Pope, her therapist set a goal for her: to develop and maintain interpersonal relationships. [2] She kept a distance from her family, only sending a letter now and then.

Throneberry graduated from Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas in 1987 and moved to Arlington, Texas. In Arlington, she rented her own apartment and worked as a hotel maid. [5] [8]

Crimes

For most of the 1990s, Throneberry wandered around the country using various names and identities. She said she was a teenager with an abusive background, lived in homeless shelters and foster homes and enrolled in local high schools. She said that her Satanist father had raped her and killed her mother and also accused her foster parents, and other families that had taken her in, of sexual abuse for which police could not find any evidence. All cases were dismissed.

In 1993, Throneberry was living in Corvallis, Oregon, and passing herself off as a teenager named "Keili T. Throneberry Smitt" and "Keili Smitt". She was staying with a family she had met at a church. Throneberry went to court in Benton County, Oregon, to legally change her name to Keili Smitt. Throneberry falsely reported to Corvallis police officers she had been raped by her father, who she at that point falsely claimed was a police officer, in Oregon. [2] Throneberry was charged with filing the false police report in Oregon. [5]

In 1996, Throneberry was in Altoona, Pennsylvania. [9] [10] She said that her name was "Stephanie Danielle Lewis" and that she was sixteen and was fleeing her Satanist parents with the help of the religious underground. After eighteen days of investigation, police contacted a girl she had known in Texas and found out who she really was. She was arrested, charged with giving false information and sentenced to nine days in jail. After her release she disappeared again and continued her wandering.

In 1997, when she was acting as 17-year-old "Brianna Stewart" in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, she falsely accused a 47-year-old security guard named Charles Blankenship of rape. She was actually 28 at the time. He pled guilty to "having sex with a minor" and was sentenced to 50 days in jail. After her fraud was exposed, a judge expunged Blankenship's conviction. [9] [11]

Beginning in 1998, between the ages of 27 and 31, she spent five years in Vancouver, Washington, posing as an initially 16-year-old Evergreen High School student named "Brianna Stewart", living in various strangers' homes. [6] She had a 2.83 grade-point average and got a D grade in drama class. [9] [2] [12] She had a boyfriend for a year and a half and told him about her alleged abuse. First she claimed that she originated from Mobile, Alabama. Sympathetic benefactors gave her money and shelter but she eventually betrayed their trust by making false claims of abuse. In hindsight, many of the foster homes said they began to suspect that she was not a teenager. One dentist noticed that Stewart no longer had wisdom teeth and that the scars from their extraction were healed, unusual in a teenager.

Throneberry, as "Brianna Stewart" graduated from Evergreen High School with the class of 2000 and enrolled at Clark College. [10]

In 2016, Throneberry resurfaced under the alias "Brianna Kenzie", accusing a local man of sexually assaulting her while she worked as a hotel employee. She was later fired after hotel employees learned of her prior record. [13]

Her story inspired "Shangri-La", episode 2 of season 13 of Law & Order , [14] as well as "Pretend", episode 21 of season 8 of Law & Order: SVU . [15]

The song "Souvenir" by the Wisconsin-based rapper Milo, which was released in 2015, includes the line, “Indeed, he's ageless like Treva Throneberry.”

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 The Associated Press (2001-04-09). "This troubled teen is 31 years old". seattlepi.com. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Hollandsworth, Skip (2002-03-01). "The Day Treva Throneberry Disappeared". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "'Imposter Teen' Talks to 'Primetime' – ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. 2004-07-08. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
  4. 1 2 3 "The Girl From Electra". Wweek.com. 2004-11-10. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
  5. 1 2 3 Pruitt, Bernadette (2001-11-11). "Woman portrayed self as abused teen since 1985 – Houston Chronicle". Chron.com. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
  6. 1 2 Dunn, Katia (2001-05-17). "Treva or Brianna". Portland Mercury. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
  7. ↑ "The Day Treva Throneberry Disappeared". Texas Monthly. 2002-03-01. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
  8. 1 2 3 White, Emily (2002-03-10). "Forever Young". The New York Times.
  9. 1 2 3 "Strange cases of 'teen' impostor". Old.post-gazette.com. 2001-04-22. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
  10. 1 2 "East Briefs: 11/21/01". Old.post-gazette.com. 2001-11-21. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
  11. ↑ "The Hoax Project, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park". Jclass.umd.edu. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
  12. ↑ "Woman convicted of posing as teen". Deseret News. 2001-11-21. Retrieved 2013-12-26.
  13. ↑ Hobbs, Andy (2016-06-29). "Suspect in hotel assault cleared of charges". The Olympian. Retrieved 2016-06-30.
  14. ↑ "Law & Order: Season 13, Episode 2". Rotten Tomatoes .
  15. ↑ "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) - Pretend - (2007) -Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
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