Ancestry.com helps family of dead boy find man posing as him
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Federal prosecutors say Ancestry.com helped the family of a baby who died in Texas in 1972 discover that a Pennsylvania man had assumed the child’s identity.
Forty-four-year-old Jon Vincent was arrested in Lansdale, near Philadelphia, on Monday. Prosecutors say Vincent stole Nathan Laskoski’s identity after escaping from a Texas halfway house to start another life.
Prosecutors say he first obtained a Social Security card as Laskoski in 1996.
Federal prosecutors say he’s also lived in Mississippi and Tennessee under his assumed name, holding jobs, getting drivers’ licenses and even getting married and divorced.
Laskoski’s aunt was doing an Ancestry.com search late last year and found a “green” leaf on the family tree for him – meaning he was alive.
Vincent’s public defender hasn’t commented.