More than 20 years later, the devastating events that unfolded during the attacks of September 11 still echo throughout our society today. One of the most tragic stories to come out of 9/11 belonged to a woman named Tania Head.
She rose to fame in the aftermath of 9/11, inspiring many people with her emotional and elaborate accounts of escaping the horrible destruction that the attacks left in their wake.
However, it turned out that her entire story was completely fabricated. She continued embellishing her so-called experience until it stopped making sense. So, what was Tania Head’s story?
Tania claimed she had been in a meeting on the 78th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center when the first plane hit the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. Her fiancé, Dave, was a consultant on the 100th floor of the North Tower, which was right above where the plane hit.
The second plane struck the South Tower at 9:02 a.m. Tania described in detail how her arm was nearly severed and badly burned. She managed to escape the flames and crawl out of the wreckage.
Apparently, a dying man who was covered in rubble handed Tania a wedding ring and asked her to give it to his wife, which she claimed to have done later.
Then, she was led to safety by Welles Crowther, also known as the man in the red bandanna, who lost his own life while rescuing others.
Six days later, she woke up in the burn unit of a hospital and was told that her fiancé was killed in the attacks. Tania quickly became the face of the 9/11 survivors, telling her story to the media. She also joined the World Trade Center Survivors’ Network.
Her traumatic tale stood out from the 500 survivors in the support group. Tania played an instrumental role in the survivor’s group with all her hard work, including preparing materials, hosting fundraisers, using her own money to fund trauma experts, and helping survivors heal and have their stories heard.
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But soon enough, some survivors started to grow suspicious of her story. For instance, her arm injury was not consistent with burns, and she never brought her friends to the support group. No one was willing to confront Tania because they didn’t want to seem rude or callous.
After The New York Times conducted an investigation into Tania’s story, all her lies came to light. Her real name was not even Tania Head—it was Alicia Esteve Head. She did not work at the World Trade Center and was not even in the United States when the attacks happened.
At the time of the attacks, she was enrolled at the Esade Business School in Barcelona, Spain. She was born into a wealthy Spanish family and had a privileged upbringing.
Her “fiancé,” Dave, was a real person, and did die in the attacks. But his family stated that he never had a relationship with Alicia, nor did they ever meet.
When people discovered that her story was a hoax, they felt betrayed. Yet, many could not deny all the good she had done for survivors.
After she was exposed as a fraud, Alicia disappeared from the public eye. Since then, she has not been seen and may still be living in Barcelona, although that was unable to be confirmed.