Earlier this week, a 15-year-old high-school sophomore named Charity Stevens was revealed to actually be a 34-year-old woman named Charity Johnson — shocking members of the small community who accepted Charity’s false identity.
Most appalled by the revelation was Tamica Lincoln, the charitable 30-year-old woman who was serving as Charity’s guardian.
“I allowed her to come into my house,” Tamica told ABC News. “I was just trying to be nice and kindhearted and get her out of the situation she was in.”
Tamica and Charity worked together at McDonald’s for the past few months and developed a mother-daughter kind of friendship. Earlier this spring, Charity told Tamica her parents were deceased and her sister was kicking her out of their apartment. Tamica invited Charity to stay with her — and didn’t initially suspect anything was up with the story.
“She acted like a kid. She did her homework. She got good report cards,” Tamica said.
Tamica’s first clue that Charity may not be 15 years old came when a woman from a local group for needy children called. The social worker said they ran the requisite background check when Charity asked to join the group, but we alarmed by the information that was returned. Tamica then started to look into the case for herself.
“I contacted the manager that works at that McDonald’s. He pulled up her file and the date of birth was 1979. The name was Charity Johnson,” Tamica said.
A telling Facebook picture Charity posted in February.
With that information in hand, Tamica approached police and Charity’s school. Stuart Newlin, principal of New Life Christian School, said everyone from the private academy was just as shocked by the news.
“Everyone we talked to assumed she was a teenager like she said she was, because she looked like one. She had friends. Everybody liked her,” said the principal of the small school, which has less than 40 students among all 12 grades and four full-time teachers.
He added Charity enrolled with a guardian last fall. She claimed to be homeschooled, so the administration didn’t request records.
“There was no reason to be suspicious,” the principal explained. “Usually, parents come in, they fill out the paperwork and we take their word for it. If they come from another school, you transfer records. If they come from home school, they don’t have those records.”
Charity’s identity was confirmed on Monday night when she was arrested. She is still detained in the county jail with a $500 bond.
