11 September 2001, a date which changed everything for everyone. The U.S. was devastated after the terrorist attack. During this attack, more than 2500 people lost their lives, several were injured and the world changed for thousands of people because they lost someone whom they loved immensely. The memories of this date are still fresh in the minds of those who unknowingly said goodbye for the last time to their loved ones.
Out of so many people who were present in the building only a handful of them could survive. The survivors of the attack are living with excruciating memories. The survivors exactly remember what they were doing at the time of attack and Tania Head was one of the vocal survivors who shared their experience.
A woman with a burnt arm appeared in the news. She told the world how she faced the devastating incident. She told in her interviews how she managed to escape from the burning tower. She gathered an immense spirit to share her story.
The young investment banker was caught in a business meeting for Merrill Lynch, the company where she worked. She was on the 96th floor waiting for the elevator when the plane crashed on the lower floors. The only thought she had on her mind was of her husband Dave who was in the other tower. She was running to save her life.
She was running towards the staircase of the 78th floor when the second plane hit the building. The heavy smoke knocked her down and burned her arm. She gained her consciousness when a man wearing red bandana tapped on her cheek and tried to put the flames out. This young man was Welles.
Welles saved her and asked her to go while he went back to save the other victims. On her way, she met a man who was counting his last breath. He handed her his wedding ring and asked her to give it to his wife. It was a treasure which needed to be returned. She regained her consciousness after five days of the attack. When she inquired about her husband Dave she got the news that he died in the attack.
It took five years for her to get out of the trauma and the loss. She told in a gathering at Baruch College at a memorial event in 2006 -"What I witnessed there I will never forget,” “It was a lot of death and destruction, but I also saw hope.”
There was another survivor Bogcaz who was also in the twin tower during the attack. He was in the north tower where he was making his way through the chaos. He made his way through the exit by 10.00 am. Later, he became one of the founders of WTCSN, World Trade Center Survivors Network. On the other hand, Head also established an online group for the survivors of the attack.
Head had established a group where the survivors of the attack could talk and meet. She once told in the group discussion that "I don’t sleep, I see and hear images and sounds, I’m moody, my stress and anxiety have skyrocketed,” she also told, "I remember this one guy who yelled, ‘Ladies, this is not the Titanic. It’s not women and children first".
After surviving the attack, Gerry Bogcaz, also started an organization founded by the survivors to serve those who were directly affected by the attacks on September 11, 2001. Their mission was to support and represent the interests of the survivors.
While Gerry was looking for the survivors of the attack he came across the name of Tania Head. He told that when he heard about her and the group she established he directly contacted her through the mail.
Tania mentioned about Dave to Gerry also. She told that Dave was her fiance. They got secretly married in Hawaii when they were on a vacation. She was eagerly waiting for 1st October, as she would be officially getting married to him.
Gerry and Tania had a lot of conversations over the mail. They both wrote about their experiences and how they were trying to cope up every day with the flashbacks of the day. Tania mentioned a lot about Dave in her mails.
Gerry and Tania met two months after they had their email conversations. Gerry told she had a magnetic charisma in her. When she talked about the incident people would listen to her tale and get fascinated with the fact that how could she cope up with everything. She was made the President of the organization and was asked to take the first-ever tour of the building when it was opened on September 2006.
Tania organized dinners for the families of people who lost their life. In those dinners, there was the family of Welles Crowther who lost his life while saving others. She told Welles' mother that she still has the burnt pieces of his jacket which he gave to her when her clothes were on fire. She also said that she would give it to them as it was the last thing their son had touched.
At 9.03 am on 11th September, Welles called home to tell that he was fine. His last message was, "Mom, this is Welles. I wanted you to know that I'm OK." This was the last time his family heard his voice. In March 2002, his body was discovered from the remains of the building and the people told that his body was intact.
Whether it was the victim's family or the other survivors' they listened to the tale and could not believe how Head was so full of hope even after seeing so much in front of her eyes and losing the love of her life.
Tania was in news almost every day. She became an inspiration for many. Everything seemed to be fine until a journalist from the New York Times decided to interview her. He thought that it would be a great idea to interview the woman who is an inspiration for many.
The journalist was doing just some fact-checking before the interview. He checked the records of the company she worked in and the university she mentioned she had graduated from, about Dave and about the mysterious man who gave her the ring. But they discovered something no one could ever think of.
When the journalist was looking into her life he found some facts that were about to change the whole image of Tania Head. He also sent an email in which he asked the question about the company she worked in and Dave. But shockingly, Tania denied to give the interview and remained silent.
It was strange that the person who was such an active speaker of the 9/11 attack was absurdly silent when she got the mail. Well, the reason behind her silence was that she wasn't even the survivor of the 9/11 attack! In fact, she wasn't even present in the U.S!
Head's real name was Alicia Steve Head. She belonged to Barcelona, Spain. She was born on 31st July 1973. She had never visited the USA until 2003. Whatever she told the world about her surviving the attack was nothing but a big lie. She was not there in the tower.
To begin with the cross-checking of facts, the journalist first called in Merrill Lynch. When he asked for the records of Tania Head, the company told that there were no records of such name. Then he checked the records of Havard and Stanford and no records of her were found from either of the universities. He later went up to the family of Dave.
The article was published in the New York Times on 27th September 2007. This article changed the whole image of "the Tania Head". This article not only exposed her web of lies but also told about the facts in her story.
Alicia plotted a story in which everyone believed. She was so good at expressing herself that no one ever questioned her. No one thought that what she was telling could be a big lie. Although she had some facts in her story. Welles Crowther was a real person who lost his life while saving others. He carried a woman on his back down to 17 flights of stairs and then went back to save other people.
The journalist tried to get pieces of information about the mysterious dying man who gave her the ring which she was supposed to give to the dying man's wife. But he could not find any evidence of him. Later it was assumed that he could be just a fictional character that she added to give an emotional touch to the story.
When the journalist went to meet Dave's family they told him that they had no knowledge of their son having any relationship with Tania. They told him that Dave was working as a consultant and on the day of the attack he was there in the North Tower. Even Dave's close friends verified that he had no such relationship and he had never been to Hawaii. There was no chance of Tania meeting Dave.
She wrote a very good script of her love story. It was just like a script of a movie. She told that she and Dave first met when they were fighting over a taxi. She tore up his proffered business card in fury but a month later, they ran into each other again at a business meeting and started to date.Head's colleague told that she attended 9/11 anniversaries with a miniature of a yellow taxi.
After she was exposed, Welles Crowther's mother Alison told the paper " I felt it was too private and painful for her," when the journalist asked her why she never thought of verifying the facts.
Alicia appeared at a lot of places while she was the President of WTCSN. She told her story many times. But later it came to the notice that her story was never the same. It always had some different elements in it.
She told in the first version of her story she shared that she was working in a company Merill Lynch. She was on the 79th floor when the airline 175 hit the building. She also mentioned about the mysterious man who had given her the ring to give to his wife. Then she ran towards the staircase. Later she told that her clothes caught fire and she passed out while a man helped her putting the flames out and she gained her consciousness on 7th September in the hospital where she got the news that her husband had died in the attack. She told that she was in the tower for an internship.
In some interviews and events, she told a twisted story. She told that on the morning of the attack she was in the south tower. She was on the 96th floor waiting for an elevator to come after striking a deal for Merrill Lynch. While she was waiting for the elevator, the airline 175 had smashed the building on the lower floors. She rushed to save her life. While she was running she began to lose her consciousness and fell on the floor. She also mentioned that she was given a ring by a mysterious dying man who asked her to give the ring back to his wife. Soon the man died and she passed out. A man helped her gaining consciousness. On her way to the working staircase, her clothes caught fire and the man gave her his jacket and asked her to run and save herself while he went back. She mentioned that Dave was her fiance who lost his life in the attack.
After the truth came out, believing any part of her story was quite difficult for everyone. This was because she not only lied about Dave but also about her purpose of being in the tower. Her colleagues told that when they asked her about the purpose she told she was there for the internship but in some events, she told she was there to strike a deal for Merrill Lynch.
Well, the reality of Tania Head was that on the day of attack she was not in the World Trade Center but she was far away in Barcelona, Spain attending her classes. The scar on her arm was not from the attack but from a car accident she survived in her childhood.
Alicia Steve Head or Tania Head belonged to a wealthy family from Barcelona. After a criminal case against her father and the elder brother, Alicia and her mother cut all the relations with them. She had always been fantasizing about life in the USA. She even expressed her desire to live in New York.
When Gerry, found about the truth behind her story he was traumatized. He told in an interview that, "The constellation of her experiencing the plane crash personally on the 78th floor and her fiancé's being in the other tower and getting killed was just amazing." After the truth came out he told that she used to switch a lot between Merrill Lynch and her fiance, and he thought it could be because of the trauma.
When people read out the article, " In a 9/11 Survival Tale, the Pieces Just Don’t Fit" the rage got over them. They began to question WTCSN and themselves why the facts weren't verified earlier. They asked why she did all the fake act of being a survivor. What was the motive?
Gerry Bogcaz cleared the fact that what she did was definitely not for money. He told that she had never claimed any money from the Victim Compensation Fund which was begun by the Government. He also said that she used to give money as charity to those needed.
Alicia disappeared from the streets of New York after the incident. In 2012, Angelo J. Guglielmo Jr. made a documentary and also published a book with the title " The Woman Who Wasn't There" to interpret the whole mystery of Tania Head.
No one knew about the whereabouts of Tania Head. Later, the survivors' network got an email in which they were informed that Tania had committed suicide. But this was also a lie, she was seen on the streets of New York years after being exposed.
A debate that will go on is whether she was an inspiration or not. She faked a survivor story of an incident which turned the world upside down. Through her fake story she helped the survivors and families who lost their loved ones to get over the trauma. For some, she might be nothing but a fraud on the other side she is an inspiration for some at least for those whom she helped.