Story Archive

If Schrödinger Paid Child Support

In 1993, Richard Hoagland disappeared, leaving behind his wife and two children in Fort Wayne, Ind. Ten years later, he was declared dead. A few years later, a relative of Terry Symanski, who died in 1991, was studying his family history and was shocked to find out that Symanski was alive and well in central Florida. Investigators found Symanski — actually Hoagland living under Symanski’s stolen identity, they say — and arrested him. “This is a selfish coward,” Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said. “This is a person who has lived his life destroying others.” A court ruled that Hoagland owed back child support for his Indiana children, and ordered him to pay it. The total: more than $1.86 million, including $1.4 million in interest. “Also considered is the fact it was clear Richard was not living in poverty,” court documents said, “but had obtained a comfortable lifestyle, had remarried and had children, obtained a pilot’s license, and owned at least one airplane that was acquired for personal use.” (MS/Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette) ...That $1.86 million is nothing compared to what his new wife will get out of him.