New details in case of man who lost identity to fraudster working for UI hospitals

A decades-long saga that ended with a former University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics employee facing a lengthy prison term for identity theft began more than 35 years ago with a missing wallet at a New Mexico hot dog stand.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette first reported the conviction of Matthew Keirans on April 3, citing a news release from the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.

Now, a Los Angeles Times story provides an account of how William Woods, the California man Keirans posed as, fought for years to convince authorities he was the real victim in the case ― and even served a jail term for supposedly scamming the William Woods who worked in Iowa City.

Woods' troubles began when he met Keirans while they worked together at the stand in Albuquerque in 1988.

One day, Woods told the Times, his wallet went missing. He suspected Keirans, and said that after he questioned him and put his fist in his face ― though he didn't hit him ― Keirans handed the wallet back.

Woods ' Social Security card and birth certificate were both still inside.

“I didn’t think anything of it,” he told the Times. “I didn’t think he was actually going to do anything.”

As real Woods struggles, impostor thrives

But over the next two years, Keirans, who left New Mexico a short time later, fully assimilated Woods' identity, calling himself William — sometimes Bill — Woods.

In 1990, court records show, he obtained a Colorado identity card in Woods' name and opened a bank account. He bought a car with bad checks in 1991, then headed north to Idaho. When the checks bounced, an arrest warrant was issued for Woods.

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By 1994, Keirans had met his wife, Nancy. They settled in Oregon for a time and had a son who bears the stolen Woods name.

The real Woods told the Times that, meanwhile, he bounced around the Southwest, working as a day laborer in El Paso, Texas, then at a laundromat in Las Vegas.

Woods was not particularly successful in any of the spots where he landed, and by 2009, he was in San Diego, where he worked in an entry-level tech job.

Two lives continue trending in opposite directions

Keirans continued exploiting his false identity. In 2012, he acquired a copy of Kentucky native Woods' birth certificate using Ancestry.com data, according to court records.

A year later, Keirans, who was now living in suburban Milwaukee, was hired by the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics' information technology department.

Until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 shifted him to full-time remote work, he commuted to Iowa City each week from his family home in Wisconsin, according to a letter his wife, Nancy Zimmer, filed with the court. He was paid more than $700,000 in his decade of employment.

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Accounts provided by family and friends in court documents paint Keirans as a completely normal father and husband, with no hint that he was living under an assumed name and using it to take advantage of the real Woods' credit.

He spent some of his money on college tuition and a car for his son, who in a letter to the court attributed his interest in tech, science fiction and more to his father. A high school dropout, Keirans slowly moved up the ladder at his job, eventually becoming a "Linux architect," according to his wife's letter.

She said Keirans had helped foster the loving home that he himself never had as a child.

In other letters asking the judge to consider pretrial release for Keirans, his sister-in-law described him as a "family first" man in every way over the 30 years she had known him. His neighbor called him "consistent" and "dependable" and said he and his family are "an asset to any community they live in."

Woods, meanwhile, had moved to Santa Monica, California, where he was selling "gem stones, gold scraps and other items he found on the streets" in Los Angeles’ jewelry district to earn money, the Times reported. Prosecutors would later describe him as homeless.

In August 2019, Woods discovered that someone had piled up debt in his name. He visited a local bank, seeking to close the accounts. But Woods failed to correctly answer security questions posed to him by a bank teller because they were meant to be answered by Keirans, court documents show.

After calling the number associated with the account and reaching Keirans, who correctly answered the security questions, the bank employee called police. They arrested Woods, accusing him of identity theft, the Times reported.

Two years in jail, accused of pretending to be ... himself

For two years, Woods, facing felony counts that erroneously accused him of stealing his own identity, spent time in both the Los Angeles County Jail and a psychiatric hospital. He attempted to prove his innocence, but Woods had little evidence to back his claim, and was ordered held without bail.

Investigators had at least one clue something was amiss. A document Keirans faxed to prove his identity had Woods' real middle name, Donald, instead of Keirans' assumed middle name, David. In a follow-up phone call, Keirans told investigators he sometimes went by the middle name David, but that his name was William Donald Woods.

Woods finally decided to plead no contest to the two felony charges he faced and was sentenced to time served. He was released after 428 days in jail and an additional 147 in the psychiatric hospital for stealing his own identity.

As a condition of his release, Woods was ordered by the court to "only use (his) true name, Matthew Keirans."

Finally, a detective listens

Despite that admonition, Woods told the Times that following his release, he continued to fight to reclaim his identity. He learned where Keirans worked and contacted the hospital's security department. Officials referred the allegations to University of Iowa police Detective Ian Mallory.

Unlike the Los Angeles police, Mallory took Woods' story seriously.

He interviewed Keirans, who again insisted that someone in California — implicating the real Woods — had been attempting to steal his identity for four years.

But Mallory went beyond just talking to Keirans. He tracked down Woods' father in Kentucky and ordered a DNA test that showed Woods was indeed his son.

Mallory turned down the Press-Citizen's request for an interview, saying court rules forbid discussion of a case prior to sentencing.

After the DNA test, Mallory again interviewed Keirans. As they spoke, according to court records, Keirans made a fateful stumble, mixing up the names of his adoptive father and Woods' father. When Mallory then confronted him with the DNA evidence, Keirans said, "My life is over," and, "Everything is gone."

He then confessed to the entire scheme.

Woods must start over as long prison term looms over identity thief

In federal court in early April, Keirans pleaded guilty to identity theft and lying to a credit union. He is facing a years- or even decades-long prison stay.

While he awaited trial, Keirans read 16 books in an attempt to become "a better person," a statement that his wife wrote in her letter is "not 'mere puffery,'" but the truth. He has also requested books to help him cope with life in prison, she said.

She said Keirans calls her daily, constantly asking about her well-being and that of his son. He signs letters that he mails every week "I love and miss you" and asks her to tell their son he loves him, too.

The Times in its article described the real Woods as “rambling.” It said he theorized about corrupt politicians and police officers and even posited that police had known he was not an identity thief and conspired with the bank teller to “put me in jail on purpose.”

In response to inquiries by the paper about Woods’ claims, police said no additional information was currently available, citing the ongoing investigation.

The Times also talked to Eric Kilmer, a former co-worker of Woods at the Albuquerque hot dog stand. Kilmer described Woods to the paper as “the most innocent type fellow you’ll ever want to meet,” and said others saw Woods as an easy target.

“I think that since people were taking advantage of him over time, all these names stick in his head,” Kilmer told the Times. “He’s just trying to tie it all together in his own mind, I think.”

Woods was back in Albuquerque in 2023. Now, he's staying in a friend's van in El Paso, Texas, uncertain about his future.

“What’s next for me?” he told the paper. “I guess I have to regain all my stuff back and just rebuild what I was.”

Des Moines Register courts reporter William Morris contributed to this article.

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: New details emerge in identity theft case of ex-UI hospitals employee