Alicia Esteve Head
(born July 31, 1973) is a Spanish
woman who claimed to be a survivor of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, under the name Tania Head. She joined the World Trade Center Survivors' Network
support group, later becoming its president. Her name was regularly mentioned
in media reports of the attacks. In 2007, it was revealed Head's story was a
hoax; she was not in New York City
on September 11, 2001, but in reality, she was attending classes in her native Barcelona.
Background
Alicia Esteve Head
was born in Barcelona, Spain. Head
came from a prominent Barcelona
family that was involved in a 1992 financial scandal for which her father and
brother served prison terms. She
attended the University of Barcelona
and worked for Hotel de la Villa
Olímpicia S.A., a Spanish hotel
company. She later worked in Barcelona as a management secretary from 1998 to 2000 and was
enrolled in a master's degree program at
ESADE in 2001 when the September 11 attacks took place.
World Trade Center
Survivors' Network
Head traveled to the U.S.
for the first time in 2003. The following year, she joined the World Trade Center Survivors' Network
after Gerry Bogacz, one of its
founders learned through word of mouth that a woman named "Tania Head" had developed an online support group for
9/11 survivors. After many months of email correspondence with Bogacz, she
merged their groups. The network's
purpose was to provide support for survivors of the attacks, as most public
support was paid to a select group of victims, victims' families and first
responders; the organization intended to bring together and support those who
were also affected by the attacks, including civilians present at the World Trade Center as well as the
personnel and volunteers involved in the extensive rescue and recovery efforts
afterward. Head was never paid for these
activities, nor for her involvement with the Survivors' Network, and in fact donated money to the group.
Head claimed to have been inside the South Tower (WTC 2) when United
Airlines Flight 175 hit, crawling through smoke and flames on the 78th
floor and sustaining severe burns to her arm. If true, this would have made her
one of only nineteen people at or above the point of impact to have survived. Head claimed that her fiancé Dave was killed
in the North Tower (WTC 1), though
in later tellings of the story, she said that "Dave" was actually her husband. She
also claimed that a dying man passed his wedding ring to her so it could be
returned to his widow, and that she had been rescued by Welles Crowther, whose heroic actions on that day were widely
reported in the media. Head was interviewed in the media, invited to
speak at university conferences, and in 2005, was chosen to lead tours for the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, where she
was photographed with New York City
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former
Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former New
York Governor George Pataki.
Head regularly recounted her claims to Ground Zero tour groups in vivid detail, saying, "I was there at the towers. I'm a
survivor. I'm going to tell you about that." She was featured in retrospective 9/11 articles as a representative of the
20,000 surviving victims who escaped the damaged buildings. Richard
Zimbler, her successor as president of the World Trade Center Survivors' Network, said, "There was no reason to doubt her story. She looked the part. She
had a badly injured arm that appeared to have burn scars and her story was
very, very realistic."
Claims disputed
In September 2007, The
New York Times sought to verify key details of Head's story as part of an
anniversary piece. Head claimed a degree from Harvard University and a graduate business degree from Stanford University, but those institutions
had no record of her. She claimed she
had been working at Merrill Lynch in
the South Tower, but Merrill Lynch had no record of her
employment, nor did Merrill Lynch have offices in the World Trade Center at the time of the attacks. Head backed out of
three scheduled interviews, and later refused to speak to reporters at all. The Times then contacted other members of
the Survivors’ Network and raised
questions about the veracity of Head's story. By the week of September 27,
2007, the Network voted to remove her
as president and as a director of the group.
Among other questionable elements of Head's story was her
engagement to a man nicknamed "Big
Dave", who had perished in the opposite tower. The man's family
claimed to have never heard of Tania Head (the man's surname was withheld in
the article, to respect his family's privacy).
The Barcelona
newspaper La Vanguardia ultimately
revealed that Head had been in class at
ESADE in Barcelona during the 9/11 attacks, where she had told her
classmates that her scarred arm was the result of an automobile accident, or
alternatively a horse-riding accident, many years earlier. La
Vanguardia reported that Head attended classes in the program until June
2002, and had told classmates she wanted to work in New York.
Aftermath
After Head's fraud was exposed, she declined all further
interviews and abruptly left New York. In
February 2008, an anonymous email was sent from a Spanish account to members of the World Trade Center Survivors Network, claiming that Head had
committed suicide. In 2012, a book and
feature film documentary, both titled The
Woman Who Wasn't There, told Head's story from inside the World Trade Center Survivors' Network, utilizing
interviews with Head and members of the Network
before and after her deception was revealed. Both the book and film noted
that Head was seen with her mother in New
York on September 14, 2011.
In July 2012, Head was fired from her position at Inter Partner Assistance, an insurance
company in Barcelona, once her
employers found out about her ruse in New
York.
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