Saturday 11 June 2022 12:52 AM Flight attendant-turned-baker is arrested for running two-decade fraud scheme trends now
An Ohio cupcake saleswoman has been arrested after running a fraud by stealing a dead infant's identity for the last two decades.
Ava Virginia Misseldine, 49, was arrested on Thursday in Utah, where she'd moved from Ohio in the last year, according to an affidavit.
She was charged with using the dead child's name - Brie Bourgeois - to get a job, a pilot's license, a passport, college admission and $1.5million in COVID-19 bailout cash.
During her time in Ohio, she'd been praised for running the Koko Tea Salon & Bakery and was even featured on the Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate.
But Misseldine continually changed her story and background for how she became a success.
An Ohio cupcake saleswoman has been arrested after running a fraud by stealing a dead infant's identity for the last two decades
She was charged with using the dead child's name - Brie Bourgeois - to get a job, a pilot's license, a passport, college admission and $1.5million in COVID-19 bailout cash
Misseldine has apparently gone by that name and lived a double life since at least 2003, three years after she was released from prison for theft, forgery and an escape attempt.
When speaking to the Columbus Dispatch in 2013, she said her family had been in the tea business for generations.
In 2014, however, she said she was a former cancer researcher who hailed from Hawaii.
Russell Misseldine, a relative of Ava's, told The Daily Beast from his home in the Cleveland suburbs that Ava was not from Hawaii, nor was she involved in cancer research, nor were her family ever in the tea business.
Both a Brie Bourgeois and Ava Misseldine are on public record as having attended Ohio State University in Columbus.
Misseldine (pictured left) at one of the several baking establishments she ran in the Columbus area
During her time in Ohio, she'd been praised for running the Koko Tea Salon & Bakery and was even featured on the Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate
The real Brie Bourgeois died in 1997 according to Ohio public records.
Under the phony name, she obtained a state ID, social security card and driver's license, providing a copy of Bourgeois' birth certificate and their parents' real names.
She said she was homeschooled her entire life to make up for the fact that she was applying for a social at 31 years old, but now needed it to go to Ohio State.
The Bourgeois family was apparently unaware of this the entire time. Paula Bourgeois, whose husband and Brie's father Jacques died in 2003, said she had no idea who Misseldine was.
'Brie died so young, she had no Social Security number,' Bourgeois said, expressing worry that she could somehow be held liable for any financial crimes committed in her child's name. 'She was only 4 1/2 months old when she passed away… I'm really flabbergasted.' she told The Daily Beast.
