Aug 29, 20216 min read

Tania Head | The Woman Who Wasn’t There

Updated: Oct 14, 2021

On a scale of no, I didn't eat the last biscuit, to pretending to have survived 9/11 and becoming President of The World Trade Centre Survivor Network…how big is your lie?

Photo by History in HD on Unsplash

We all remember where we were on 9/11, not unlike the JFK assassination for older generations.

I was 11 and had just gotten home from school to find my dad glued to the TV in horror and confusion.

Tania Head meanwhile, was attending classes at University in Barcelona, 3829 miles away from Ground Zero.

That is not what she would tell the World, however.

, In 2003, Alicia Esteve Head had relocated to New York and was going by the name of Tania.

She was now the daughter of a Diplomat, she had attended both Harvard and Stanford Universities, she had a Fiancé called Dave and a Golden Labrador called Elvis.

They lived on the East Side of Manhattan and she worked for the Investment Management Company, Merrill Lynch, located on the 78th floor of World Trade Centre 2 (the South Tower.)

It would be here she found herself at 9.03 am that fateful morning, when United Airlines Flight 175 hurtled into the skyscraper, 17 minutes after United Airlines Flight 11 had crashed in World Trade Centre 1 (the north tower.)

Tania was waiting for an elevator to evacuate the building when the plane hit, she was thrown across the room and knocked unconscious.

When she came to, she discovered that her arm was hanging off and that her assistant had been decapitated in the blast.

Disoriented, she crawled over the bodies of the dead and dying, through the acrid smoke and debris only to realise that she was surrounded by flames.

She had resigned herself to the fact she was going to die when the cavalry appeared.

A man wearing “a red bandana” around his face, extinguished the flames on her body and carried her to the only functioning stairwell.

She escaped the building just as it began to collapse.

Tania woke up in a burns unit 6 days after the attacks to be told her beloved Dave had not been as lucky and had died in the north tower, where he had worked as a consultant for Deloitte and Touche.

Tania had started to post her sensational “story” on online groups for 9/11 survivors & the families of the victims, before breaking off and setting up her own group for survivors only.

In the aftermath of the attacks, families of 1st responders and those that had died were well catered for in terms of support.

Survivors, however, were lower on the “totem pole of grief.”

They had survived after all?

Gerry Bogacz, who survived the attack on the north tower, founded the World Trade Centre Survivors Network and soon he would come to hear of Tania’s group.

After a few months of email exchanges, the groups merged and Tania officially joined the Survivors Network in 2004.

Within 2 years, Board Members would vote her in as the President of the Network, after its founder, Bogacz had been forced to leave.

Her meteoric rise was not surprising as Tania had thrown herself into the Network with all the gusto of a fancy new career.

“With Tania as a figurehead, the small support group grew into a fully-fledged advocacy organisation with considerable political might.”

She regularly led tours at the Tribute W.T.C Visitor Centre, gave media interviews and spoke at University conferences.

Tania held fundraisers and even secured State Funding.

There is nothing to suggest that she ever benefitted financially from this ruse, although it is common knowledge that she actually gave money to the Network.

Another big success for Tania would be securing access to “The Pit” at Ground Zero, something the group had previously been unable to do.

This access should not be underestimated as it was vital for the healing and closure of some of the survivors.

I'm no time at all, Tania had made herself the face of the 20,000 people who had survived the attacks.

Her fellow Network members had mixed reactions to her, some found her pompous, arrogant, tyrannical and did not like the bubble of “fans” that would hover around her.

There was almost a worshipping of her, that did not sit right.

But the majority of the group found her to be kind, gentle and inspirational.

She had gone through hell and here she was, strong and resilient, not letting the events of that tragic day take anymore from her than they already had.

She was a perfect survivor, someone to look to for guidance and hope.

Tania’s story held up initially as it was still such a raw subject for everyone, politeness and respect stopped people from prying for more than she was ready to tell.

Tania did have extensive scars and burns to her arm (from a car accident in Spain) and she used sprinklings of truth throughout her lies.

Dave, for example, did exist, he did work in the north tower and sadly he did die in the attack.

Red Bandana Man was Welles Crowther, an equities trader and volunteer firefighter. Welles saved 18 people that day but sadly lost his own life whilst aiding the first responders when the south tower collapsed, he was 24.

To Tania however, he was an embellishment.

By 2007, Tania's new life was starting to crumble.

She had been making promises she couldn’t keep as they required proof she didn’t have.

Her story was in a bubble and there was nothing of substance to weigh it all down.

She had no belongings of Dave’s, no photographs of them together.

She would tell how she kept these in another home, a home she repeatedly promised to take people to but never did.

When she held fundraisers at her home, there was no sign of Elvis, the Labrador.

Elvis was never in the building

Brendan Ellis, one of the very small numbers of people who knew Dave's surname, had secretly researched him, he had a gut feeling that something wasn't quite right and his research only added to that.

There was no shortage of information about Dave, the man definitely existed but Tania was never mentioned. Surely, his fiancé would be mentioned in memorials and articles?

It concerned him but he was too scared to mention it. Tania had gotten rid of members for lesser things and he needed the support of his peers.

Brendan wasn't the only one looking into Tania's claims.

The New York Times had contacted her for an interview, they were running a 6th Anniversary piece and they wanted to feature her.

They were, however, having some difficulty in verifying a few aspects of her story.

Tania rebuffed each request for an interview.

Those around her said she was becoming moody, anxious and distant, something they attributed to the impending anniversary and the “harassment” from the reporter.

Still, he persisted, all he wanted was for Tania to answer a “few basic questions.” instead Tania lawyered up.

So the New York Times began reaching out to those around Tania.

The dam was about to break.

On 27/9/07, the New York Times published “In a 9/11 Survival Tale, the Pieces Just Don’t Fit.”

It would reveal that Tania’s Ivy League Alma Maters had no record of her.

Tania's employer, Merrill Lynch had no record of her.

Dave’s family had no idea who she was.

People had told of the discrepancies that peppered her story throughout the years.

Depending on who you asked, Dave was either her husband or her fiancé. They were either a serious long-term couple or new lovers in a clandestine relationship.

They had either married in Hawaii or were meant to marry in October 01.

She was either closing a merger for Merrill Lynch that fateful day or only there to apply for an internship.

The article was the final nail in Tania Heads coffin.

It’s only fitting that her fall from grace was to be just as fast as her rise to the top.

The day after the Times Hit piece, the Network removed her as President.

The Tribute W.T.C Centre had removed her also, citing difficulty in verifying her story.

Tania meanwhile, would simply disappear.

Rumours of suicide in 2008 were unfounded as she was spotted in NYC in 2011.

She has never given those she betrayed an explanation for doing what she did.

Tania may have been able to walk away from the tragedy but the people who she used… have no such luck.