00:00:01
Axton Betz-Hamilton: Well I think I had a
fairly typical life for a farm kid who grew
00:00:09
up in the Midwest, I lived with both of my
parents. My grandpa lived next door — we all lived
on a farm, we had dogs and cats and chickens
00:00:19
and goats, and just all kinds of animals. I was a 4H kid. Phoebe Judge: Axton Betz-Hamilton grew up
an only child in the small town of Portland,
00:00:30
Indiana. Her father was a department manager for a
regional grocery store chain and her mother
00:00:35
was an accountant, with her own business preparing
people's taxes. Axton describes her childhood as pretty idyllic
and laid back.
00:00:44
But in 1993, when she was 11 years old, pieces
of the family's mail gradually began to disappear.
00:00:52
Axton Betz-Hamilton: Utility bills would come
in the mail and utility bills would never
00:00:56
arrive. My dad's farm magazines would never arrive. Letters from friends and pen pals, back at
that time that's how kids communicated, those
00:01:10
weren't arriving. And initially, we thought that someone was
driving by and just pulling our mail out of
00:01:18
the mailbox. And to solve that problem my mom decided to
get a post office box, but the problem didn't
00:01:27
change. So, it wasn't an improvement, our mail was
still being stolen. So, it was suspicioned that whomever was stealing
our mail was someone from withinside the post
00:01:40
office. Phoebe Judge: And what were the consequences
of someone stealing your mail?
00:01:43
I mean, I understand if a kid's not getting
their pen pal letter, it's annoying, but,
00:01:47
you know, what's so bad about that? Axton Betz-Hamilton: There are documents in
there that have personal information, so there's
00:01:53
a lot of information that can be gleaned from
an electric bill, for example. So, if someone is stealing that information,
over time they can build a composite identity
00:02:08
of you and use that. Now, will they get everything they need from
an electric bill, no.
00:02:13
But over time if they steal enough pieces
of mail, they can glean enough information
00:02:18
to do that. And also, not getting your statements in the
mail that you need, your electric bill, your
00:02:25
health insurance statement, whatever the case
maybe. You're not paying your bills on time, you're
not getting information that important entities
00:02:35
are sharing with you that you may need to
make informed decisions. Phoebe Judge: They went to the police but
had a hard time trying to explain what was
00:02:44
going and getting someone to take a police
report. Remember, this started in 1993, so it wasn't
like today when we're all on guard and changing
00:02:55
our email passwords every other hour. There weren't even any federal laws designating
individuals as victims of identity theft.
00:03:03
The businesses like the credit card companies
were considered victims because technically,
00:03:08
they were the ones being defrauded. This remained the case until 1998. So, Axton's family just tried to manage it,
calling electric companies and credit card
00:03:20
companies one by one. Slowly, clearing
up each tangle as it came. And Axton wasn't really paying attention until
she had to.
00:03:30
And then, she realized, this was just the
tip of the iceberg. I'm Phoebe Judge, this is Criminal.
00:03:38
Axton Betz-Hamilton: At that time I was a
sophomore in college and I found an apartment
00:03:47
that would allow cats. And I was excited to bring my two cats from
home that I had had since I was ten and twelve.
00:03:56
And I contacted the electric company to establish
service and a few days later they sent me
00:04:01
a letter in the mail saying that due to my
credit score they were requiring an additional
00:04:08
$100 deposit for service. Phoebe Judge: There was a number at the bottom
of the letter to call to get a copy of her
00:04:15
credit report. Axton at that point didn't really even know
what a credit score was, but out of curiosity,
00:04:22
she called and ordered a copy of her report. Axton Betz-Hamilton: And I remember seeing
this really large manila envelope sticking
00:04:28
out of my mailbox and it looked very official
and it was one of days at school where it
00:04:33
had been a long day and I thought to myself,
I really don't wanna deal with that.
00:04:39
Because it looks official, it's been a long
day. But I got to the mailbox and I saw it was
from the credit reporting agency.
00:04:47
And it was a very thick envelope. And I naively thought credit reports must
be really difficult to read, so they have
00:04:56
to send a lot of instructions. And I opened up the envelope and sadly realized
that credit reports are not difficult to read,
00:05:06
they don't send you a lot of instructions
with them. But rather my credit report was ten pages
long, full of credit card entries and associated
00:05:17
collection agency entries that dated all the
way back to the time that my parent's identities had been
stolen in 1993.
00:05:24
So, it could be presumed at that point that
whomever had stolen their identities had stolen
00:05:29
mine as well. And the credit score was 380 and up until
that point in my life, 100 meant perfect.
00:05:41
You know, going through school, 100%, you
got everything right. So, 380 must be almost four times as perfect,
you know, given my schema.
00:05:49
And there was a bell curve underneath the
words, "your credit score is 380." And that bell curve showed that my credit
score was in the second percentile of all
00:06:01
credit scores in the nation. And I drove to the Indiana state police post
and an officer took my report.
00:06:12
And it essentially said, “unknown thief
opened up credit cards in victim's name.”
00:06:21
And that was it, that was the entirety of
the police response from the Indiana State
00:06:26
police at that time. So, I was given a copy of the police report,
so I could have it to show to creditors as
00:06:38
needed and basically told, ‘good luck’. And the first person I called was my mom,
and I started crying, saying I will never
00:06:45
own anything. I will never be able to own a car, I will
never be able to own a home.
00:06:49
I will never have a credit card, I will never
be able to do the things that everybody else
00:06:54
gets to do because someone did this to me. Phoebe Judge: What did your mother say?
00:06:58
Axton Betz-Hamilton: She was shocked, but
she told me whomever has done this to you
00:07:05
and whomever has done this to us, it's likely
not a personal vendetta it was just an opportunity
00:07:12
for them to gain financially and you kinda
gotta live with it. Phoebe Judge: Her parents were from another
generation, so for them to say, you've kinda
00:07:25
gotta live with it, that was one thing. But Axton didn't share that feeling and the
country was beginning to understand the nature
00:07:33
of this crime. In 1999, the Identity Theft Resource Center
was established to help victims all over the
00:07:41
country resolve their cases, the first of
its kind. So, Axton spent the next few years becoming
intimately acquainted with the ins and outs
00:07:50
of identity theft, and then she took it one
step further. Axton Betz-Hamilton: I decided to do my master's
research project on how people perceive identity
00:08:01
theft and how they're protecting themselves
from becoming victims of identity theft.
00:08:06
I then went on to get my doctorate at Iowa
State University and I focused my dissertation
00:08:14
on the experiences of child identity theft
victims who had their identity stolen while
00:08:21
they were under the age of 18, but they didn't
learn about it until they were age 18 or older.
00:08:29
And through my research work, what I was hoping
to do from a personal selfish standpoint was,
00:08:36
I was hoping to learn some nugget of information
that would lead me to the answer of who had
00:08:45
stolen our identities and... Phoebe Judge: You basically made identity
theft your life.
00:08:50
Axton Betz-Hamilton: I did, I became obsessed
with it, you know, for better or for worse.
00:08:56
Phoebe Judge: On the exact same day that Axton
got her PhD, her mother was diagnosed with
00:09:01
a rare form of cancer. She passed away in February of 2013, and Axton
remembers that very shortly after her mother's
00:09:10
death, about ten days later, she got a phone
call from her father. Axton Betz-Hamilton: He called me because
he was mad at me and he said, "What were you
00:09:18
doing running your credit card over the limit
back in 2001?" I said, " Dad, I didn't, what are you talking
about?"
00:09:25
And he said, "Don't lie to me, I have the
credit card statement in my hand." And I said, "What credit card statement, what
credit card company was it?"
00:09:37
And he told me and I said, "Dad, that was
one of the credit cards that was taken out
00:09:42
in my name as part of the identity theft." And I asked him to put it aside, I said I
would come home over spring break in a couple
00:09:50
of weeks and take a look at it. But he made another very chilling statement
to me and was very chilling from the perspective
00:09:59
of someone who's spent their professional
life studying identity theft, he said, "I
00:10:04
don't know what's going on, but the credit
card statement was in a file folder with your
00:10:09
birth certificate." And that made my blood run cold because I
knew instinctively that mom's identity was
00:10:21
never stolen, she ruined her own credit and
stole my identity and dad's identity.
00:10:31
And by the time I got home, two weeks later,
he had found so many documents. There was a pile sitting on the workbench
in this outbuilding on our farm and he said,
00:10:43
"I don't know what to make of this, you will-
I need you to go through all of this and piece
00:10:50
together what has happened." And ultimately through going all of the documentation
and through continuing to go through my mother's
00:10:59
things and, you know, clean my mother's personal
effects out of the house. She not only stole dad's identity and my identity,
she stole my grandfather's identity which
00:11:11
would have been her father-in-law. And there are indications that she was involved
in tax evasion as well as employment fraud.
00:11:23
Phoebe Judge: You must have been so devastated,
certainly finding this out after she had just
00:11:28
died. Axton Betz-Hamilton: Right, and there's... I have learned through going through this
that there is a social expectation that people
00:11:39
have, who are around you, that they expect
you to be grieving and they expect you to
00:11:42
be going through Kubler-Ross’s five stages
of grief. And in fact, my mother was on hospice care,
the last few days of her life.
00:11:51
And hospice would send us things that would
say, well, now at this point in the grieving
00:11:56
process, you're probably having these feelings
and here's how to cope with that.
00:12:02
And because of this experience, Dad and I
were definitely grieving those first two weeks,
00:12:10
until we discovered all of this and the grieving
process stopped. And has never restarted and it's been over
three years.
00:12:18
And the best way I can explain it is how can
you grieve for someone that you obviously
00:12:25
didn't know? Phoebe Judge: Because Axton's mother was an
accountant, of course, she knew an awful lot
00:12:37
about money, where to put it and how to hide
it. It's taken Axton and her father years to get
a clear picture of what was going on, but
00:12:46
they estimate that half a million dollars
in debt had accrued over 20 years. Axton Betz-Hamilton: There are indications
that she was using it to finance a double
00:12:56
life, but I can't confirm that. Because there are bits and pieces of financial
trail that seems to run cold.
00:13:05
Phoebe Judge: It's so odd. Where did the money go? It's so crazy. Axton Betz-Hamilton: It is.
00:13:13
And I hope to someday find those answers. And my mother was very well-educated in financial
matters and business matters.
00:13:25
And she could have created a shell business
to hide the money, and that I just have no
00:13:32
idea where it is or what it's called. She drove a ‘99 Lincoln town car with over
200,000 miles on it.
00:13:41
And it has a salvage title. So, she wasn't spending tons of money on brand
new vehicles and brand new clothes and buying
00:13:51
high-end jewelry. She seemed to live a typical lower-middle
class rural farm community life.
00:14:03
Phoebe Judge: Axton realized that her mother
had likely been using several aliases, including
00:14:09
her maiden name. But she wanted more information, maybe confirmation
that this had actually been going on.
00:14:16
She needed to find other people who'd known
her mother. Axton Betz-Hamilton: My mother graduated from
high school in Ohio.
00:14:23
And, where she was presumed to be living this
other life was in the community where she
00:14:30
graduated from high school. So, I just went to her 40th reunion as me. Phoebe Judge: So, what would people say?
00:14:37
Axton Betz-Hamilton: So, no one... No one that I encountered knew that I existed.
00:14:44
So, when I said, "Well, hello. I'm the daughter of Pam Elliot." They would look at me and say, "Well, that
can't be true.
00:14:52
She never had a daughter, and you don't look
a thing like her." I heard that repeatedly throughout the night.
00:14:59
So, I'm lucky in a sense that I took photographs
because there were photos that I had found
00:15:06
that had my mother in them but I didn't know
who any of the other people were. So, I took photos with me to...
00:15:13
It was kind of a way of proof that yes, I
am indeed Pam Elliot's child. Phoebe Judge: Axton says one of the most confusing
things for them all is that in all those years
00:15:28
there was never any hint, not one red flag
to make them suspicious. They were completely blindsided.
00:15:35
Axton Betz-Hamilton: My mom was very good
at convincing you, if you challenged something
00:15:41
that she said or something that she did or
might have done. She was very good at making you feel like
you were the stupidest person on earth for
00:15:48
challenging her. And after my mom had passed away when, over
the summer, when my dad and I were clearing
00:15:57
her personal effects out of the house, dad
and I got to talking about back then, and
00:16:04
the money, where did it go? And I
said, "Well, I have all this student loan debt."
00:16:09
And dad asked me how much I had. And I told him and he said, "How did you accumulate
that much student loan debt?"
00:16:17
He said, “We paid for your college.” I said, "No, dad, you paid for my tuition,
you didn't pay for all of it."
00:16:26
And dad said, "Yes,
we did." And I said, "No, you didn't. Mom gave me money to cover my tuition and
told me I had to take out loans to cover my
00:16:40
housing." And dad looked at me funny. And I said, "Dad, how much money did you give
mom to give to me, every semester?"
00:16:51
And he said, "$11,000." So, dad was giving mom $11,000 that he thought
was going to me.
00:16:57
I was only getting roughly $3,000 of it. Phoebe Judge: When you were 19 and your mother
was helping you dig out and correct your credit,
00:17:08
or suggesting that you go and talk to an agency,
the police, she was working against herself.
00:17:14
Axton Betz-Hamilton: She was. But I think, in a way, and dad, my dad and
I have talked about this.
00:17:20
I would tell my mom exactly what I was doing
to try and catch the identity thief.
00:17:25
And I think what my mom was doing with that
information was using it to stay a step ahead
00:17:29
of me the entire time. Phoebe Judge: What about your father? I mean, also really sad for your father, right?
00:17:36
Axton Betz-Hamilton: It is. Because my father spent 46 years with my mother. And, you know, dating, and then engaged, and
then married.
00:17:48
And they... Had my mother lived through all of 2013, they
would have been married 39 years.
00:17:56
And my dad has said things like, you know,
"Wow, I really wasted my life." And...
00:18:03
No, no he didn't. But it's really hard for him. Because his reality and what he knew, and
the life he was working hard to build was
00:18:14
all built on lies, essentially, for all of
these years. And so, at his age, that realization and having
to adapt to that, I think has been more difficult
00:18:27
for him. Phoebe Judge: Do you think that they were
in love? Axton Betz-Hamilton: I believe my dad was
head over heels in love with my mother.
00:18:36
And even was until, through her dying day. And one of the interesting aspects of this,
and this is coming from my research training,
00:18:49
is when people pass away there's usually some
sort of confession of sorts if they've done
00:18:57
something wrong. You know, they don't wanna pass to the afterlife
without confessing their sins or they feel
00:19:02
guilt and they know that the family members
are going to have to deal with some sort of
00:19:07
mess. And we didn't get that from mom at all. There was never any indication that anything
was wrong.
00:19:17
There was never any flash of guilt. And before my mom became ill with cancer,
I had received a national award for my child
00:19:27
identity theft research and outreach at a
conference in Indianapolis. And my parents came to the awards dinner so
they could see me get the award.
00:19:38
And there's a picture that was taken of the
three of us, with me holding my plaque and
00:19:43
I'm standing in the middle. And dad is to the right of me and mom is to
the left.
00:19:50
And mom is just beaming in that picture. She's smiling from ear to ear. And, a person who had guilt wouldn't be smiling
from ear to ear that their daughter has just
00:20:05
received an award for child identity theft
outreach when they're the one who's caused
00:20:10
it. So, that got me thinking
and researching what sorts of psychological disorders have lack of guilt as a core feature?
00:20:23
And psychopaths have no guilt. Their brain wiring is as such that they cannot
feel guilt.
00:20:33
They do not feel empathy, they do not experience
emotions like the rest of us do.
00:20:39
I think cognitively, my mom loved my dad on
a complete academic level. Emotionally, I think she was probably incapable
of loving him.
00:20:50
I think she was incapable emotionally of loving
me. Phoebe Judge: Had your mother not gotten sick
and your father, you had come across these
00:21:03
papers, would you have pressed charges against
her? Axton Betz-Hamilton: I would have, yes.
00:21:10
Phoebe Judge: Even if it meant she went to
prison? Axton Betz-Hamilton: Yes. Because of the amount of embarrassment that
I had to go through in establishing myself
00:21:22
financially between the time I was 19 and
31. And when you have poor credit and you are
interacting with the financial industry in
00:21:34
any capacity, whether is to buy a car, obtain
a loan, own a home, et cetera. You are looked at like you are some sort of
dead beat.
00:21:43
Phoebe Judge: The things that Axton's mother
did just keep surfacing more and more.
00:21:49
And Axton never really knows when the damage
will end. Not to mention that she's built her career
around it.
00:21:55
She's now a professor of Consumer Studies,
at Eastern Illinois University, specializing
00:22:01
in child identity theft and financial abuse
within families. Axton Betz-Hamilton: How I have survived this
whole ordeal to date, is I've become extremely
00:22:11
analytical. And, as a professor, I get invited to do presentations
on identity theft.
00:22:17
And, when I share my story, that's an immediate
reaction most people have is that they’ll
00:22:24
tell me, "You have no emotion." You know, people are waiting for me to break
down and cry.
00:22:32
And because I've become so analytical about
it, I don't have any emotion. And it's weird.
00:22:41
Phoebe Judge: What is it like to have your
mother as you know her ripped away and replaced
00:22:47
by this person who was abusing you and your
father, and not ever able to confront her
00:22:54
about it? You know, to just... It is what it is now. Axton Betz-Hamilton: It is.
00:23:00
And one of my mother's final requests was
to be cremated and that I take her ashes to
00:23:08
my house, in Illinois. And at the time that she made the request,
dad and I thought that it was strange.
00:23:15
But, you know, you comply with the wishes
of your loved one who is terminally ill.
00:23:23
And one of my coping mechanisms, and it sounds
crass, but one of my coping mechanisms has
00:23:29
been to yell at my mother whenever I find
out something new that she's done. And I found out different things for months.
00:23:37
I probably will still find out things over
time that she did or didn't do. Phoebe Judge: You mean you yell at the urn?
00:23:45
Axton Betz-Hamilton: I do. 'Cause that's mom in there. And I didn't get the chance to hold her accountable.
00:23:54
[Music.] Phoebe Judge: Criminal is produced by Lauren
Spohrer and me. Audio mix by Rob Byers.
00:24:14
Alice Wilder is our intern. Special thanks to Mary Helen Montgomery and
Russ Henry.
00:24:19
Julienne Alexander makes original illustrations
for each episode of Criminal. You can see them at thisiscriminal.com.
00:24:28
Criminal is recorded in the studios of North
Carolina Public Radio, WUNC. We're a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX,
a collection of the best podcasts around.
00:25:03
I’m Phoebe Judge, this is Criminal. Jingle: Radiotopia, from PRX.