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Treva Joyce Throneberry (born May 18, 1969; also known as Brianna Kenzie, Brianna Stewart, Cara Leanna Davis, Cara Lewis, Cara Williams, Emily Kara Williams, Keili T. Throneberry Smitt, Stephanie Lewis, and Stephanie Williams) is an American woman who spent most of her twenties pretending to be a teenager and engaging in other forms of
con artist A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibi ...
ry for which she was eventually convicted and imprisoned. Throneberry made numerous false claims of
sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...
, including that she was a victim of
satanic ritual abuse The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, or sadistic ritual abuse) starting in North America in the 19 ...
, to gain money. She traveled across the United States, residing in
foster home Foster care is a system in which a underage, minor has been placed into a ward (law), ward, group home (Residential Child Care Community, residential child care community or treatment centre), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, ref ...
s, colleges and with any family that would take her in, using false identities. Her father, Carl Throneberry, said, "She's just going cross-country and using different names and receiving welfare." After she was arrested in 2001 and charged with
fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...
and
perjury Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...
, Throneberry's true identity was established by DNA testing. Some observers of her post-arrest behavior have speculated that her assumption of different identities may have been the result of
delusion A delusion is a fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some other m ...
s or dissociation which arose from real trauma that she suffered as a child. Court-appointed psychologists, however, deemed Throneberry to not be delusional and therefore legally responsible for her actions. Throneberry was convicted and sentenced to three years' imprisonment at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor,
Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...
. She was released after serving two years and three months of her sentence.


Early life and education

Treva Joyce Throneberry was born on May 18, 1969, in
Wichita Falls Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita Counties. According to ...
,
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, to Carl and Patsy Throneberry. Her father had dropped out of school in the sixth grade and was illiterate. The family later moved to Electra, Texas, where Throneberry and her sisters were
sexually abused Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is r ...
by their uncle Billy Ray. In December 1985, after accusing her father of raping her, Throneberry was removed from her family and placed with a foster family back in Wichita Falls and enrolled in the local
high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
. She began to tell stories about how she had been abducted and raped by Satanists. In May 1986, Throneberry was sent to a local
mental hospital A psychiatric hospital, also known as a mental health hospital, a behavioral health hospital, or an asylum is a specialized medical facility that focuses on the treatment of severe mental disorders. These institutions cater to patients with ...
, Wichita Falls State Hospital, after threatening to kill herself. While there, doctors said her condition was a characterological disorder, prescribing her with Trilafon, Tofranil and
Xanax Alprazolam, sold under the brand name Xanax among others, is a fast-acting, potent tranquilizer of moderate duration within the triazolobenzodiazepine group of chemicals called benzodiazepines. Alprazolam is most commonly prescribed in the ...
. Throneberry refused to speak with her family when they visited. When she was discharged in October 1986, she was transferred to the Lena Pope Home for Troubled Girls, a
residential treatment center A residential treatment center (RTC), sometimes called a drug rehabilitation, rehab, is a live-in health care provider#Medical nursing home, health care facility providing therapy for substance use disorders, mental illness, or other behavioral pr ...
in
Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...
. While at Lena Pope, her therapist set a goal for her: to develop and maintain interpersonal relationships. She kept a distance from her family, only occasionally sending letters. Throneberry graduated from Fort Worth's
Arlington Heights High School Arlington Heights High School (AHHS, Heights) is a secondary school located in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. The school serves grades 9 through 12, and is a part of the Fort Worth Independent School District. Its mascot is the Yellow Jacket ...
in 1987 and moved to nearby Arlington. There, she rented her own apartment and worked as a hotel maid.


Crimes

For most of the 1990s, Throneberry wandered around the country using various names and identities. She said she was a teenager with an abusive background, lived in
homeless shelter Homeless shelters are a type of service and total institution that provides temporary residence for homelessness, homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather whi ...
s and
foster home Foster care is a system in which a underage, minor has been placed into a ward (law), ward, group home (Residential Child Care Community, residential child care community or treatment centre), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, ref ...
s, and enrolled in local high schools. Throneberry also claimed that her Satanist father had raped her and killed her mother, and also accused her foster parents and other families that had taken her in of sexual abuse for which police could not find any evidence. All cases were dismissed. In 1993, Throneberry was living in Corvallis,
Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
, and passing herself off as a teenager named "Keili T. Throneberry Smitt" and "Keili Smitt", staying with a family she had met at a church. She went to court in
Benton County, Oregon Benton County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 95,184. Its county seat is Corvallis. The county was named after Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S. Senator who advocated American cont ...
, to legally change her name to Keili Smitt. Throneberry falsely reported to Corvallis police officers she had been raped by her father, who she at that point falsely claimed was a police officer in Oregon. Throneberry was charged with filing a false police report in Oregon. Three years later, Throneberry was in
Altoona, Pennsylvania Altoona ( ) is a city in Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 43,963 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Altoona Metropolitan statistical area, metropolitan area, w ...
. She said that she was a 16-year-old named "Stephanie Danielle Lewis" and was fleeing her Satanist parents with the help of the religious underground. After eighteen days of investigation, police contacted a girl she had known in Texas and found out who she really was. She was arrested, charged with giving false information and sentenced to nine days in jail. After her release, she disappeared again and continued her wandering. In 1997, when she was claiming to be 17-year-old "Brianna Stewart" (she was actually 28 at the time) in
Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
, and
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
,
Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...
, Throneberry falsely accused a 47-year-old security guard named Charles Blankenship of rape. He pled guilty to "having sex with a minor" and was sentenced to fifty days in jail. After her fraud was exposed, a judge expunged Blankenship's conviction. Beginning in 1998, between the ages of 27 and 31, Throneberry posed as an initially 16-year-old Evergreen High School student named "Brianna Stewart", living in various strangers' homes around Vancouver. She had a 2.83 grade-point average and got a D grade in drama class. Throneberry had a boyfriend for a year and a half and told him about her alleged abuse. Sympathetic benefactors gave her money and shelter, but she eventually betrayed their trust by making false claims of abuse. In hindsight, many of the foster home providers said they began to suspect that she was not a teenager; one dentist noticed that Stewart no longer had
wisdom teeth The third molar, commonly called wisdom tooth, is the most posterior of the three molars in each quadrant of the human dentition. The age at which wisdom teeth come through ( erupt) is variable, but this generally occurs between late teens a ...
and that the scars from their extraction were healed, unusual in a teenager. Throneberry graduated from Evergreen High School as "Brianna Stewart" with the class of 2000 and enrolled at Clark College. In 2016, Throneberry resurfaced under the alias "Brianna Kenzie" and accused a local man of sexually assaulting her while she was working as a hotel employee. She was later fired after hotel employees learned of her prior record.


Popular culture

Throneberry's story inspired "Shangri-La", episode 2 of season 13 of ''
Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, launching the ''Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire ...
'', as well as "Pretend", episode 21 of season 8 of '' Law & Order: SVU''.


See also

* False accusation of rape * False allegation of child sexual abuse


References


External links


Crime Library article about Treva Throneberry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Throneberry, Treva 1969 births Living people 20th-century American criminals 21st-century American criminals False allegations of sex crimes Impostors Criminals from Fort Worth, Texas People from Wichita Falls, Texas People from Electra, Texas People from Tumwater, Washington Satanic ritual abuse hysteria in the United States Clark College alumni