Tania Head, who fabricated a story of surviving the September 11th terrorist attacks, has been pictured for the first time in years, according to the Daily Mail. Head, who is now 53, fled the United States in 2007 when her elaborate hoax was exposed, along with the truth about her injuries.
At the time of her exposure, Head was a prominent figure, leading the World Trade Center Support Group and speaking at numerous events. She claimed to have been working on the 69th floor of the South Tower when the planes struck, but evidence later revealed she was not in New York City on the day of the attacks and had not been employed at the Merrill Lynch office she cited.
After her deception was revealed, Head returned to her native Spain. She was not prosecuted for fraud because she had not taken any money from the survivor group. However, the exposure led to her withdrawal from public life.
A Spanish-made documentary about her life, "La Superviviente" (The Survivor), was released in August. While she had been working at a call center in Barcelona, reportedly handling sales, she has since changed jobs and, along with her mother, has been sharing an apartment. Her whereabouts are said to be frequently changing, making information about her current situation difficult to confirm.
Head's story first began to circulate on a survivors' internet forum, where she established a writing workshop. This platform allowed her to gather information from genuine survivors, which she then incorporated into her fabricated narrative. The Daily Mail reports that it became apparent that key details of her story were never verified or elaborated upon by her.