Washington: Twenty-three years had passed since Linda Iseler had seen or heard from her husband.
For more than a decade, the Indiana woman had assumed Richard Hoagland - who had mysteriously vanished after 11 years of marriage - was dead.
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Father found 23 years after disappearing
Richard Hoagland disappeared in February 1993 but a chance family ancestry search revealed a very different story.
That all changed this summer when Iseler received a phone from detective Anthony Cardillo of the Pasco County Sheriff's Department in Florida, according to ABC News.
"He asked me if I knew who Richard Hoagland was, and I said, 'Yes, that's my ex-husband,' " Iseler said. "He said, 'We have him in custody.'"
![A screengrab from images aired by the American ABC's 20/20 program showing Richard Hoagland with Linda Iseler and their ...](/web/20161103071301im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/e/d/3/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gse7t7.png/1477876488662.jpg)
After abandoning his family in 1993, Hoagland moved to Florida, where he constructed an entirely new existence from scratch.
Police say he started by stealing the death certificate and adopting the identity of a man named Terry Jude Symansky - a fisherman who drowned in 1991 at the age of 33.
News about Hoagland's arrest broke in July, but his ex-wife and the investigator who uncovered his true identity have recently spoken out on the American ABC's 20/20 program.
"Using that death certificate, he applies for a birth certificate," Cardillo told the ABC show. "He uses that birth certificate to get a driver's licence. Once he has that driver's licence, he starts establishing his name as Terry Symansky."
![Richard Hoagland who disappeared from his family home 23 years ago after telling his wife he had a medical emergency.](/web/20161103071301im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/e/d/3/v/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gse7t7.png/1477876488662.jpg)
For more than two decades, Terry Symansky appeared to lead an ordinary life in Pasco County. He had a wife named Mary and a teenage son, owned property and "worked odd jobs", according to the Tampa Bay Times.
"She said there was always questions, but he would always come up with a reason or an explanation," Cardillo said.
![Fisherman Terry Symansky, who died in 1991, had his identity stolen by Richard Hoagland.](/web/20161103071301im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/e/d/3/u/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gse7t7.png/1477876488662.jpg)
The truth began to surface when a nephew of the real Terry Symansky started an Ancestry.com family search, according to NBC affiliate WFLA. Knowing that his uncle was dead, the nephew was surprised to find someone with the same name living in Central Florida.
"He looks up his real uncle Terry Symansky and realises that he died in 1991, which the family knew," Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco told the station. "He then starts scrolling down the page and sees more details that Terry Symanksy was remarried in 1995. He owns property in Pasco County, Florida."
Fearing that their fake relative might try to harm them, family members waited three years before eventually contacting authorities in April, police told the Tampa Bay Times.
Hoagland, 63, was arrested in July and charged with fraudulent use of personal identification, the paper reported. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, ABC reported.
Hoagland's disappearance in 1993 seemed to come without warning, Iseler said. She said the family lived in a large home, took exotic vacations and appeared to have a healthy marriage. Their two sons were ages 6 and 9 at the time.
Then, one day, without warning, everything changed.
"He called me at work and told me that he was ill . . . and that he needed to go to the emergency room," Iseler told the show. "And I said, 'Well, why don't you just wait, and I'll go with you?' He said, 'No, I don't have time to wait'. "
Iseler was never able to find her husband, even after calling all the local hospitals.
"[His toothbrush was] still there," she said. "He didn't pack any clothes. It was cold. It was in February. He didn't take a coat."
In his absence, Hoagland's family suffered, never knowing what had become of him.
In addition to losing their house and cars, Iseler said there was even a point when police suspected she may have been criminally responsible for her husband's disappearance.
She told investigators that Hoagland told her in the early 1990s that he was wanted by the FBI for embezzling millions of dollars and had no choice but to leave town, according to the Tampa Bay Times. In reality, police told the paper, Hoagland told investigators that he left Indiana to get away from his wife.
Eventually, the paper reported, Hoagland's wife assumed her husband was dead.
"They interrogated me over and over and over. They alluded a lot to the possibility that he was involved in some type of drug trafficking, which I had no clue."
"He devastated us," she added. "He left us with nothing, absolutely nothing. I was very broken."
Gerry Beyer, a law professor at Texas Tech University who studies identity theft, told the Tampa Bay Times that Hoagland's alleged actions were unusual because most identity thieves steal people's names to commit crimes.
He told the paper that because the real Symansky never married or had children made him a "perfect" candidate for identity theft.
Yet, he noted, Hoagland's ability to maintain the lie for more than two decades was shocking. It was a lie that was probably made easier, Beyer said, because it began before digital records were commonplace.
"You just never know," Beyer told the paper. "It will all catch up with you."
Cardillo said Hoagland's new family in Florida was also shocked to learn that its loved one had a former identity.
"Obviously their 20 years of marriage [was] shattered," Cardillo said. "The son came down. He was shocked. It was still his father. It's his blood, but that Symansky name is not his. The emotions they were feeling [were] between anger and sadness and the wonder of why."
Asked why Hoagland left his life behind, Cardillo said Hoagland's explanation was strangely simple: "Family issues with his wife and children," he said.
Washington Post