An Iowa Hospital executive stole the identity of a hot dog cart salesman in 1988 to earn $200,000 in loans, get married and have a child under the stolen name – while the victim was locked up in a mental hospital for trying to change his identity to reclaim.
Matthew David Keirans, 58, now faces up to 32 years in prison after being convicted of one count of making false statements to a National Credit Union Administration insured institution and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Keirans stole the identity of William Woods, 55, in 1988 when the pair worked together on a hot dog stand in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
He started living under his name, took out loans, got married and started a successful career in IT.
Woods discovered the fraud thirty years later and tried to reclaim his identity, but authorities did not believe him, and he was imprisoned and sent to a mental hospital for two years.
It was only when Woods contacted the university where Keirans worked as an IT manager with a salary of $140,500 that police investigated the two men and conducted a DNA test, which revealed the truth.
Keirans subsequently admitted to the decades-long fraud, telling investigators “my life is over” and “everything is gone.” He remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals pending sentencing.
Matthew David Keirans stole the identity of 55-year-old William Woods in 1988
He started living under his name, took out loans, got married and started a successful career in IT at the University of Iowa Hospital.
Keirans was born in January 1966 and, along with his brother, was adopted and raised in San Francisco, California. His adoptive parents died in 1986 and 2000, according to court documents.
When he was 16, he ran away from his adoptive family’s home, stole a car and drove to Oregon, where he was arrested but never appeared in court.
He made his way to Albuquerque and began working at a hot dog stand where he met his victim, the real William Woods.
Keirans stole his name and identity and used it “in every aspect of his life” for the next three decades, court documents show.
In 1990, Keirans obtained a fake Colorado ID under Woods’ name and birthday and used it to get a job at a fast food restaurant and a bank account in Colorado. He then bought a car for $600 in 1991, also under Woods’ name, with two $300 checks bouncing.
Keirans drove to Idaho where the stolen car broke down and abandoned him, withdrew all his money from the Colorado account and left the state.
From then on his fraud increased.
In 1994, Keirans married, still using the name Woods, and had a child, whom he gave the surname Woods.
He then moved to Wisconsin and obtained a copy of Woods’ birth certificate using information about his family he found on Ancestry.com.
In 2013, he got a job as a systems architect in the IT department at the University of Iowa Hospital.
He worked there for the next ten years, earning a total of more than $700,000, and in 2023 his salary was $140,501, according to the hospital.
Over the years, he took out multiple auto loans and personal loans from credit unions in Iowa, totaling more than $200,000, under the name Woods.
Meanwhile, the real Woods lived homeless in Los Angeles.
In 2019, Woods went to a National Bank branch and said he discovered someone was using his bank accounts and racking up debt, and asked to close the accounts.
He gave the bank his ID and social security number, which matched the information the bank had, but he was unable to answer the security questions Keirans had prepared.
The bank called the number they had on file for him – Keiran’s number – and Keiran answered the security questions and told the bank employees that no one in California had permission to access his accounts.
The bank teller called LAPD who questioned Woods and Keirans.
Keirans stole Woods’ name and identity and used it ‘in every aspect of his life’ for the next three decades, court documents show
He met his victim, the real Woods, when they worked together at a hot dog stand (not pictured)
After the real Woods tried to reclaim his identity, he was arrested and charged with identity theft and false impersonation
The real Woods was arrested and charged with identity theft and false impersonation, but when he continued to insist he was the real Woods, a judge ruled in February 2020 that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial.
He was sent to a psychiatric hospital in California, where he was medicated and incarcerated.
In March 2021, Woods pleaded no contest to identity theft charges, meaning he accepted the conviction but did not admit guilt, and was sentenced to two years in prison.
He was given credit for the two years he had already spent in jail and hospital and was released on an order to no longer use the name William Woods.
He did not stop and continued to try to regain his identity, contacting the police and financial institutions.
He eventually managed to find out where Keirans worked and in January 2023 he contacted the hospital’s security department.
The hospital referred his complaint to the University of Iowa Police Department, where Detective Ian Mallory opened an investigation.
Mallory found Woods’ biological father and tested his DNA against that of Woods and Keirans.
The DNA proved that Woods was who he said he was and that Keiran was a fraudster.
In July 2023, more than thirty years after Keirans first stole Woods’ identity, Mallory interviewed him.
He asked him what his father’s name was and Keirans accidentally mentioned his own adoptive father’s name.
Mallory then confronted Keiran with the DNA evidence and he responded saying “my life is over” and “everything is gone.”
He subsequently confessed to long-term identity theft, according to court documents, and was taken into custody on July 18, 2023.
Keirans pleaded guilty to false use of birth certificate and the other charge was dropped. He was subsequently charged in federal court on December 12 with five counts of making a false statement to an institution insured by the National Credit Union Administration and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
He pleaded guilty to one count of each charge and the other counts were dropped.
No sentencing has yet been scheduled, he is currently in the custody of the US Marshals Service and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years in prison and a possible maximum sentence of 32 years in prison, a $1.25 million fine and five years of supervised release after possible capture.