Matthew David Keirans, a 59-year-old man from Hartland, Wisconsin, built his life on the stolen identity of a former coworker called William Donald Woods.
Over the last three decades, Keirans has opened bank accounts, taken out loans, and secured employment at a hospital using Woods’ name, personal details, and social security number.
Highlights
- Matthew Keirans stole William Woods’ identity in 1988 and got employed, committed crimes, and even got married under the latter’s name.
- When the authorities got involved years later, Keirans’ well-thought-out plan sent Woods to prison and a psych ward.
- A DNA test and criminal history records finally led to Keirans’ arrest and subsequent prison time.
In 2019, Woods tried to alert the authorities about the truth. However, Keirans gave a false statement to law enforcement, which led to Woods getting arrested and later placed in a mental hospital.
Keirans was apprehended for his crimes in 2023 and appealed the decision after he was sent to jail for 12 years. On April 23, his appeal was rejected.
“He completely ruined an innocent man’s whole life,” a user said about Keirans.
A 59-year-old Wisconsin man stole a coworker’s name and later sued him for “identity theft”
Image credits: Johnson County Sheriff's Office
In the late 1980s, Keirans was working at a hot dog cart in Albuquerque, New Mexico, alongside Woods.
In 1988, Keirans stole Woods’ wallet. He returned it when Woods threatened to punch him, but he had already used Woods’ Social Security card to apply for a driver’s license as “William Woods.”
From there, it was seemingly smooth sailing for Keirans. After opening bank accounts, obtaining credit, and doing some contract work using the fake identity, he got married in 1994 and had kids who bore the “Woods” surname.
His wife and children did not know his real identity.
Image credits: University of Iowa
In 2013, he joined the University of Iowa Hospital as an IT administrator, making over $100,000 a year. He paid taxes under Woods’ name. Any background check done during these procedures revealed no anomalies.
While employed at the hospital, Keirans continued to obtain credit union loans using Woods’ details.
Keirans also stole a few cars during the three decades. He was arrested and booked under Woods’ name.
Image credits: University of Iowa
In August 2019, the real William Woods attempted to intervene. Homeless and transient at the time, he entered a bank in California, according to court documents. He informed the branch manager that someone had obtained lines of credit and accumulated a large amount of debt using his identity.
Woods provided his Social Security number and date of birth — the same ones Keirans had been using.
Upon reviewing the relevant information, the branch manager called the telephone number associated with the bank account. Keirans picked up and could accurately answer the manager’s security questions, while Woods couldn’t, as he never owned the accounts in the first place.
The police were called. The officers spoke with Keirans over the phone, who told them he had not given anyone in California permission to access his bank accounts. He also faxed them copies of a Social Security card, driver’s license, and birth certificate — all with the name “William Woods.”
After convincing the police with his lie, Keirans told them he “wished to prosecute” Woods for “using his identity” and alleged that Woods was actually “Matthew Keirans.” Woods was arrested and charged with felony crimes of identity theft and false impersonation.
Keirans falsely sent Woods to jail and a mental hospital, but a DNA test blew his long-curated con
Image credits: CBS LA
Throughout the criminal proceedings, Woods maintained that he was “William Woods” and not “Matthew Keirans.”
After Woods’ public defender and another evaluating physician expressed concerns about his cognitive function and overall competence, the court decided that Woods was not capable of standing trial and ordered him to be placed in a mental hospital to receive psychotropic medication.
In March 2021, Woods was convicted and sent to jail for 428 days (14 months) and 147 days (nearly five months) in a psychiatric ward.
Image credits: Google Maps
However, Woods did not give up. Following his release, he continued fighting to reclaim his identity.
In January 2023, Woods contacted the University of Iowa Hospital, where Keirans worked, and informed them of the whole situation. This is where things began to take a turn.
Detective Ian Mallory from the University of Iowa Police Department took charge of the case, and he initially assumed Woods was “a professional con man.” He labeled the two men “Wisconsin Bill” and “California Bill” for the case.
Upon digging deeper, Mallory found a discrepancy in Keirans’ story stemming from an old ticketing case.
Mallory first suspected something was wrong when he realized that Keirans’ copy of the birth certificate, which said “William David Woods” on it, was a reprint from June 13, 2012, whereas Woods’ was an original, validated by the Kentucky Bureau of Vital Statistics and with the middle name “Donald.”
Keirans was ticketed for driving without a license on June 12, 2012, and the next day, applied to obtain a copy of the birth certificate from the state of Kentucky under the name “William David Woods.”
“David” was Keirans’ original middle name, which wasn’t known to Mallory’s team at this point. Keirans had explained the name discrepancy to the LAPD in 2019, claiming he went by both middle names.
Image credits: KCCI
Mallory had his first real breakthrough in June 2023 after tracking down Woods’ father and obtaining a DNA swab from him. The old man also picked out the real Woods as his son from a group of photos.
“I admit I did wonder if California Bill could be so low as to talk to this guy and pretend to be his son,” Mallory admitted at the time.
When the DNA test results came back, they confirmed that “California Bill” was the real William Woods.
Matthew Keirans’ criminal history gave away his real identity
Image credits: William Woods
Even after Woods’ identity was confirmed, the authorities did not yet know who “Wisconsin Bill” was, and therefore, could not arrest him.
Tina Salisbury, an analyst in the Iowa Division of Intelligence, helped with that. She discovered that the FBI number associated with William Woods’ criminal history somehow matched two other cases — a 1987 forgery case in Louisville and a 1988 criminal trespass in Albuquerque — linked to one Matthew David Keirans.
Mallory obtained Kierans’ fingerprint from the Louisville case and determined that it matched the one submitted by “William Woods” for the post-1988 motor vehicle thefts.
Image credits: William Woods
Finally, on July 17, 2023, Kierans was arrested with warrants obtained under an unidentified “John Doe.”
“This meant he would have to fight identity and prove who he was,” Mallory explained.
Keirans confessed to his crimes, pleading guilty to making a false statement to a National Credit Union Administration-insured institution and to aggravated identity theft. The district court issued a sentence of 144 months (12 years), along with fines, restitution, and special conditions of supervised release.
Image credits: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
While passing the sentence, the court noted that Keirans “still seems to have not recognized what he’s done to an individual or apologized directly to that individual.” He was also berated for intentionally seeking to persecute Woods.
“He deserved to get every bit of what he got from the judge,” Woods said after the sentencing.
Keirans appealed the decision, arguing that the district court imposed a “substantively unreasonable term of imprisonment” and “improperly based the special conditions of supervised release on his conduct from long ago.”
Keirans’ wife, Nancy Zimmer, wrote to the court defending his actions, saying his motivation was “to create a family and home he did not have in his youth.”
However, on April 23, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit rejected the appeal and affirmed the initial sentence.
While the reason behind Keirans’ actions was not made clear, netizens and the media have long assumed that it was a bid to avoid legal trouble under his real name.
"12 years isn't enough." Netizens voiced their support for William Woods as the identity theft drama unfolded
