Alicia Esteve Head

Alicia Esteve Head ( ; ; born July 31, 1973) Head is from a prominent Barcelona family which was involved in a 1992 financial scandal for which her father and brother served prison terms. She attended the University of Barcelona and worked for Hotel de la Villa Olímpica S.A., a Spanish hotel company.

World Trade Center Survivors' Network Head traveled to the U.S. for the first time in 2003. In 2004, she joined the World Trade Center Survivors' Network after Gerry Bogacz, one of its founders, learned through word of mouth that a woman named "Tania Head" had developed an online support group for 9/11 survivors. After many months of email correspondence with Bogacz, she merged the groups. The network's purpose was to provide support for survivors of the attacks, as most public support was paid to a select group of victims, victims' families, and first responders. The organization intended to bring together and support those who were also affected by the attacks, including civilians present at the World Trade Center as well as the personnel and volunteers involved in the extensive rescue and recovery efforts afterwards. Head was never paid for these activities, nor for her involvement with the Survivors' Network, and in fact donated money to the group.

Head claimed to have been inside the South Tower (WTC 2) when United Airlines Flight 175 hit, crawling through smoke and flames on the 78th floor and sustaining severe burns to her arm. If true, that would have made her one of only 19 people at or above the point of impact to have survived. She said that a dying man passed his wedding ring to her so it could be returned to his widow, and that she had been rescued by Welles Crowther, whose heroic actions on that day were widely reported in the media. She was featured in retrospective 9/11 articles as a representative of the 20,000 surviving victims who escaped the damaged buildings. Richard Zimbler, her successor as president of the World Trade Center Survivors' Network, said, "There was no reason to doubt her story. She looked the part. She had a badly injured arm that appeared to have burn scars and her story was very, very realistic." nor did the company have offices in the World Trade Center at the time of the attacks. Head backed out of three scheduled interviews, and later refused to speak to reporters at all. The Times then contacted other members of the Survivors’ Network casting doubt on the veracity of Head's story. By the week of September 27, 2007, the group voted to remove her as president and director. The man's family claimed to have never heard of Tania Head (the man's surname was withheld in the article to respect his family's privacy).

La Vanguardia, a newspaper in Barcelona, ultimately revealed that Head had been in class at ESADE in Barcelona a few days after the 9/11 attacks, where she had told her classmates that her scarred arm was the result of an automobile accident, or alternatively a horse riding accident, many years earlier (A 2012 documentary revealed she had been in a rollover while traveling the Mediterranean coast of Spain). La Vanguardia reported that Head attended classes in the program until June 2002 and had told classmates she wanted to work in New York City.

Aftermath After Head's fraud was exposed, she declined all further interviews and abruptly left Manhattan, New York. The suicide claim turned out to be another lie. In 2012, a book and a feature film documentary produced by Meredith Vieira were released, both titled The Woman Who Wasn't There. They told how Head was involved in the World Trade Center Survivors' Network, utilizing interviews with Head and members of the network before and after her deception was revealed. Both the book and film said that Head was seen with her mother in New York on September 14, 2011; she was spotted by the director of the film and a co-author of the book, Angelo J. Guglielmo Jr., who confronted her on camera.

In July 2012, Head was fired from her position at Inter Partner Assistance, an insurance company in Barcelona, once her employers found out about the ruse she pulled in New York. In 2021 she opened a renovation company in Barcelona.