Her hair is dyed a different shade now and she's certainly put on weight.
asserted
she → dye → weight
But a quarter of a century later, there's little mistaking the woman who tricked the world with one of the most tasteless confidence tricks in modern times.
asserted
who → be → times
Alicia Esteve Head, a Spanish businesswoman who, as Tania Head, falsely claimed to be a survivor of the 9/11 terror attacks on New York's World Trade Center (WTC) and went on to become a spokeswoman for the victims, makes her way along a busy street in her hometown of Barcelona as she heads off to work.
asserted
she → claim → work
To say that these photographs, obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail, represent a rare sighting is a huge understatement.
asserted
photographs → say → sighting
Head, now 53, has spent decades trying to stay out of public sight after quietly leaving the US in disgrace and returning to her native Spain after she was finally exposed as a fraud in 2007.
asserted
she → spend → 2007
It was rumored she had become estranged from her wealthy parents and even that she was dead, killing herself in 2008 out of shame.
asserted
she → rumor → shame
According to another report in the Spanish media, she was living anonymously with her mother, Acacia Head Ladeveze, who is now 92, in the small Catalonia city of Terrassa, near Barcelona, where she started a small business renovating houses.
uncertain
she → accord → houses
In 2011, she reportedly took a job at a Barcelona insurance firm, dealing with English-speaking clients.
uncertain
she → take → clients
However, the following year, around the time that a documentary came out about her, she was fired after her bosses realized who she was.
asserted
she → come → her
Company records showed an Alicia Esteve Head registering a Barcelona business, Zofrenia SL, in 2021, which offered 'intermediation and coordination in the provision of health services' and advertised for staff to conduct COVID-19 tests in Barcelona.
asserted
staff → show → Barcelona
However, the woman who had once reveled in the media glare managed a complete disappearing act – until now.
asserted
who → revel → act
Now the Daily Mail can reveal that Head is still living with her mother and still doing her best to stay under the radar.
asserted
Head → reveal → radar
She has never had to answer for her awful deception and shows no sign of ever intending to do so.
asserted
She → have → sign
Tania Head, seen here for the first time in decades, quietly left the US in disgrace after being outed as a 9/11 faker
Head falsely claimed to be a survivor of the terror attacks and went on to become a spokesman for the victims
asserted
Head → see → victims
Head, now 53, returned to her native Spain after she was finally exposed as a liar in 2007
Head and her mother have been sharing an apartment in Barcelona located outside the city center but, we are told, move so regularly that information may already be out of date.
uncertain
information → return → date
They remained at their most recent address for just eight months before moving on.
asserted
They → remain → months
Until recently, Head was working at a call center in Barcelona, handling sales for various companies but has reportedly changed jobs as – like her address – her employment often changes, too.
uncertain
employment → work → address
In August, a new Spanish-made documentary about Head, La Superviviente (The Survivor), was released and most likely put an added spring in her step as she continued to try to stay out of reach of those anxious to finally hold her to account.
asserted
she → make → account
It appears that, apart from her mother, she is estranged from the rest of her family, including her four brothers.
asserted
she → appear → brothers
She isn't married and doesn't appear to have a boyfriend.
asserted
She → appear → boyfriend
Head doesn't even have a driving license and has been relying on her mother to take her everywhere.
asserted
Head → have → her
It's somehow fitting that she's back living in Barcelona given that was where the fraud started.
asserted
fraud → live → Barcelona
Head was living in the Spanish city, studying at business school, when she claimed to have been in New York, working in a high-powered job at investment bank Merrill Lynch.
asserted
she → live → Lynch
She would later relate with gripping if awful detail how, on September 11, 2001, she came stumbling, badly burned, out of the crippled south tower of the WTC just before it collapsed and entered into the mythology of that terrible day.
asserted
it → relate → day
Her tale of tragedy, bravery and survival seared itself into the collective memory, leaving so many other accounts of that terrible day pale by comparison.
The 26-year-old manager at Merrill Lynch had been chairing a meeting in its 96th floor conference room in the WTC's south tower when at 8.46am, it was rocked by what felt like an earthquake.
The walls shook, lights flickered and she heard screaming from the corridor outside.
Looking out of the huge, reinforced glass windows, she and her colleagues could see black smoke billowing from the building opposite, the WTC's north tower.
uncertain
she → sear → building
She watched as a terrifying ball of flame spread up the tower from the floors below.
asserted
ball → watch → floors
Some of the workers rushed to the doors in panic, others tried to phone friends and family to break the terrible news and urge them to switch on their TV.
asserted
others → rush → TV
But Head's attention was caught by the sight of small objects falling from a north tower window.
asserted
attention → catch → window
At first she thought they were pieces of furniture but then she saw one of them flapping its arms and realized it was a human being.
asserted
it → think → arms
To say that these photographs, obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail, represent a rare sighting is a huge understatement
Head was living in Barcelona when she claimed to have been in New York, working in a high-powered job at investment bank Merrill Lynch
asserted
she → say → Lynch
Until recently, Head was working at a call center in Barcelona, handling sales for various companies but has reportedly changed jobs
Hers was a story – endlessly repeated in media interviews, to visitors to Ground Zero where she became a volunteer tour guide and as president of the WTC Survivors' Network – that tended to linger in the consciousness of those who heard it.
uncertain
who → work → it
As she told it, the talented young Spanish banker had her own reasons to be particularly appalled by the discovery that people were so desperate they were throwing themselves to their deaths – her fiancé worked in the north tower.
asserted
fiancé → tell → tower
Her fiancé, known to everyone as 'Big Dave' – was a consultant at the financial services company, Deloitte.
asserted
fiancé → know → company
He worked on the 100th floor.
asserted
He → work → floor
Having met in February 1999, soon after she'd moved to New York from her native Barcelona, they lived together with a golden retriever puppy called Elvis and planned to marry the following month.
But first she had to save herself just as scores of others had the same thought, ignoring the entreaties of bank security staff urging them to stay in their offices.
Her assistant, Christine, close behind, Head used the stairs to reach the open 'sky lobby' on the 78th floor.
asserted
Head → meet → floor
There they waited in a huge throng of panicking, shoving people for the 'express elevator' to take them down to the 44th floor where they could switch to another elevator.
uncertain
they → wait → elevator
She tried to ring her fiancé on her Blackberry phone, her anxiety heightened by her knowledge that they parted that morning on a sour note after arguing over whether to give his mother a small birthday gift or take her out for dinner.
asserted
they → try → dinner
She wanted to tell him it didn't matter but at the back of her mind was the fear that might have been their last conversation.
uncertain
that → want → mind
As it transpired, of course, they would indeed never speak again – not because, as she explained, he died on 9/11 but because he never existed.
asserted
he → transpire → 9/11
But that sickening discovery would only come years later for the thousands of people enthralled by her story.
asserted
discovery → come → story
…and 86 more, not listed.
The Aporia
