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Research for this book was conducted between 2010 and 2016. Certain names and identifying characteristics have been changed and certain events have been reordered for narrative clarity.

Copyright © 2016 by Elizabeth Greenwood

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition August 2016

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Interior design by Lewelin Polanco

Jacket design by Alison Forner

Jacket image CSA Images/Getty Images

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Greenwood, Elizabeth, 1983– author.

Title: Playing dead : a journey through the world of death fraud / Elizabeth Greenwood.

Description: New York : Simon & Schuster, [2016]

Identifiers: LCCN 2015038731

Subjects: LCSH: Missing persons—Case studies. | Fraud—Case studies. |

Absence and presumption of death.

Classification: LCC HV6762.A3 G74 2016 | DDC 364.16/3—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038731

ISBN 978-1-4767-3933-5

ISBN 978-1-4767-3936-6 (ebook)