Not Related: Story of multiple identity adoptee

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One woman, many names, lots of trouble: [METRO Edition]

Heron Marquez Estrada; Staff Writer. Star Tribune; Minneapolis, Minn. [Minneapolis, Minn]12 Dec 2004: 1A.

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[Jeannie Lillig] said that is how Ward obtained the identity of [Camille Sweedland], a woman who died last year who was roughly the same age as Ward. Ward befriended Sweedland's mother, who lived and worked at the shelter and felt sorry for Ward.

Ward was given up for adoption in Chicago at birth and was adopted by a missionary couple. She gave birth to fraternal twins in 1983, but her son died in 1986 from illness. Her daughter, now 21, lives in Minneapolis. Ward married three times, divorcing her first husband in 1980 after five years and annulling the second marriage in 1983 after two years. The third marriage, in 1983, lasted less than a week, according to a Minnesota Department of Corrections report. Over the years, she has used variations on her three married names as part of her aliases.

SOME OF THE ALIASES: [Anne Brown], [Pamela Anne Merrifield], Pamela Ann Haning, Doris J. Wortman, Denise C. Full, Ellen Yenzen, Camille Sweedland, Camille K. Rodriguez, Rachael P. Ward, [Prue Dascalos], Joene Doris Ethridge-Wilson, Joenni Ethridge, Prudence Elaine Anderson, Prudence Lattiman, Prudence Srey, [Srey E. Prudence], Produce Elaine Srey, Prudence Elaine Spey, Prudence Thorsby, Rachel Thorsby, Rachel Anderson, R. Prudence Anderson, Rachel Prudence Carlson, Prudence Ward

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When Camille Sweedland got her Iowa driver's license in May, she signed her name as Pamela A. Brown. The mistake was understandable.

Neither Sweedland nor Brown is her real name. Nor is Camille Rodriguez; Pamela Anne Merrifield; Joene Ethridge; Prue Dascalos; Srey E. Prudence, or Prudence E. Spey.

And those are just some of the nearly 50 aliases used by the smooth-talking con artist from Minnesota who's wanted in four states for theft, credit-card scams and identity fraud. She allegedly targeted lawyers, grief-stricken strangers and battered women.

"With so many names, even she gets confused sometimes," chuckled Dickey Joe Turner, a Ramsey County Sheriff's Office investigator who spent much of the year tracking the woman, whom he knows as Rachel Elaine Ward. Minnesota prison records, however, say her real name is Prudence Elaine Ward.

Confused?

So are authorities in Minnesota, Iowa, South Carolina and Oregon. All of whom have had arrest warrants out for her. She's now being held in Iowa after being apprehended in Wisconsin.

"She could have [aliases] in all 50 states for all we know, as transient as she was," said Lt. Arnie Porath of the Ankeny, Iowa, Police Department. Ward, who investigators say they believe is 47, is accused of stealing more than $20,000 from law firms and department stores in and around the Des Moines suburb.

Police in other states estimate that she has stolen tens of thousands of dollars in cash and goods, although no one has an exact figure because of all the aliases involved.

Ward was arrested outside Milwaukee on Nov. 18 (as Anne Brown) and then extradited on Dec. 1 to Iowa as Prudence Elaine Lattman to face multiple theft and fraud charges in Polk County.

Iowa authorities had an arrest warrant for Camille Sweedland, then changed it to Lattman when other identities were exposed. The name on the arrest warrant was changed again to Prudence Elaine Ward on Dec. 3 when she made her first court appearance in Polk County, where she is being held on bail totaling $100,000.

Ward has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Monday and could go to trial early next year. She then might be extradited to Minnesota to face fraud, larceny and motor vehicle theft charges from the Ramsey County attorney's office.

Minnesota authorities almost captured Ward in February 2003 when she was driving home to Roseville, lost control of her car on Hwy. 280 and crashed into a garage in Lauderdale.

Ward abandoned her 1- and 2-year-old grandchildren and stole the car of a woman who'd pulled over to help her, police said.

Police records indicate that Ward, who had arrest warrants pending from Oregon, South Carolina and Minnesota at the time, headed to the Des Moines area after the car crash.

She sought refuge and victims at a woman's shelter run by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Iowa. Her tale of woe was so persuasive to shelter officials that they bought her a car.

"She would play on the sympathies of people and literally get them to give her the IDs," Porath said. "Anything she could grab for an identity she would."

.

Preyed on vulnerable

Police say Ward got her identities by preying on grieving parents and abused women in shelters. She'd tell people she was running from an abusive husband, who she claimed was a police officer in Minneapolis.

"She messed with a lot people's lives down here," Porath said. "What has me the most angry is that she took advantage of the most vulnerable people."

Staying at shelters, she would befriend people who had a daughter who had died. She'd persuade them to give her the dead child's birth certificate or Social Security card. She told people that she needed to assume a new identity in order to hide from an abusive husband, said Porath and Turner.

"I knew her as Joenni, Joenni Ethridge," said Jeannie Lillig, who runs a shelter in Des Moines. "She made it convincing that she was abused."

Lillig said that is how Ward obtained the identity of Camille Sweedland, a woman who died last year who was roughly the same age as Ward. Ward befriended Sweedland's mother, who lived and worked at the shelter and felt sorry for Ward.

"She told her she could have her daughter's identity," said Lillig, who knows the mother. "She also thought this would keep her daughter alive. She never dreamed she'd be using it for anything illegal."

The deception also helped in the workplace because Ward persuaded employers - usually law firms - not to run background checks because she feared her "husband" would find out.

That's what she did this fall, getting hired by a law firm near Milwaukee, according to Turner. She was captured by U.S. marshals who got a tip from Turner that she might be in the area.

Investigators said Ward has above average intelligence and targets law firms because paralegal work gives her access to Social Security numbers and other information needed to create new identities.

Although Ward has spent a lot of time traveling the country, she has spent much of her adult life in Minnesota, according to public records.

Starting in the mid-1980s, Ward was in and out of prison in Minnesota on numerous occasions for theft, larceny and fraud. She escaped from the Shakopee prison on Christmas Eve in 1985 and was recaptured around Valentine's Day in 1986.

"She was a major problem with a lot of law enforcement agencies," said Chris Connolly of the U.S. Marshal's Service in Minnesota, whose East Metro Fugitive Task Force tracked down Ward in Milwaukee in November. "She was definitely at it a long time."

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'Sticky fingers'

Attempts to reach Ward in jail were unsuccessful. The Polk County Public Defender's Office in Des Moines would not comment on the case Friday, saying it had just received the file. Ward's daughter, the mother of the two children abandoned on the highway, refused to comment.

Ward was given up for adoption in Chicago at birth and was adopted by a missionary couple. She gave birth to fraternal twins in 1983, but her son died in 1986 from illness. Her daughter, now 21, lives in Minneapolis. Ward married three times, divorcing her first husband in 1980 after five years and annulling the second marriage in 1983 after two years. The third marriage, in 1983, lasted less than a week, according to a Minnesota Department of Corrections report. Over the years, she has used variations on her three married names as part of her aliases.

Ward told authorities in a prison interview that she can speak six or seven languages and has traveled to or lived on every continent except Antarctica.

"Everybody we talked to says, 'This is the best person I've had working for me,' " Porath said. "She's obviously a bright person. She just has sticky fingers."

.

Heron Marquez is at [email protected]

.

SOME OF THE ALIASES: Anne Brown, Pamela Anne Merrifield, Pamela Ann Haning, Doris J. Wortman, Denise C. Full, Ellen Yenzen, Camille Sweedland, Camille K. Rodriguez, Rachael P. Ward, Prue Dascalos, Joene Doris Ethridge-Wilson, Joenni Ethridge, Prudence Elaine Anderson, Prudence Lattiman, Prudence Srey, Srey E. Prudence, Produce Elaine Srey, Prudence Elaine Spey, Prudence Thorsby, Rachel Thorsby, Rachel Anderson, R. Prudence Anderson, Rachel Prudence Carlson, Prudence Ward


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