In 1993, Richard Hoagland vanished from his Indianapolis home that he shared with his second wife and their two sons. Hoagland was declared legally dead in 2003 and his wife ended up getting remarried.
However, he was alive and well. He was found in July, living in Pasco County, Florida. Police contacted his former wife Linda Iseler to say they arrested him for identity fraud.
jazztizz Richard Hoagland is in jail! Identity theft was discovered when the dead man's relative, doing a genealogy chart, discovered it!
— Mae_Westside (@Mae_Westside) October 28, 2016
Richard Hoagland found alive after 23 years. Story to be on 20-20…. JerrieDean) October 27, 2016
Iseler and Hoagland had a large home, steady income and they went on exotic vacations. When he disappeared, it was after 11 years of marriage. She said her then-husband called her and said he was ill and he was going to the emergency room. She asked him to wait for her to get home from work so she could go with him, but he said he didn’t have time to wait.
She called hospitals in the area to see if she could find Hoagland. However, no hospital had a patient by his name. Iseler said she was devastated that he left. She added he left her and the kids with nothing and she was broken.
What she and her kids didn’t know was Hoagland remarried and was renting a flat in Florida from Edward Symansky. He rented it after he read about the death of Edward’s son, Terry, in 1991. Edward passed away in 1994 and that’s when Hoagland stole Terry’s identity.
Hoagland applied for drivers licenses and birth certificates in different states. He then got married to Mary Hickman, but using his new identity. Together they had a child and lived a quiet life. He even went on to obtain a pilot’s license and became a landlord.
What Hoagland probably didn’t expect was to be caught, and it was thanks to Terry’s nephew. After Hoagland was arrested, his son came down and he was shocked and the emotions were running high.
After Hoagland was arrested, Hickman found a briefcase in their home, and she found details of his past life. She found a deed to a property that he bought in another state in 2015, as well as a key to a storage unit.
As for why he disappeared, he told police he didn’t want to go through another divorce, but he still wanted to get away from his wife. The 63-year-old is now facing numerous fraud charges.
