Missouri woman pleads government to acknowledge she is alive years after being declared dead
Missouri resident Madeline-Michelle: Carthen, formerly Coburn, tells FOX News Digital about her predicament trying to prove she is still alive after being mistakenly declared dead in 2007.
Madeline-Michelle: Carthen has been dead for 16 years – at least according to the government, she says.
Ever since she discovered her social security number was linked to someone "deceased," the St. Louis native says she has been fighting to prove she is still alive, but to no avail.
"I'm here for the long haul. I just want this over with," she told Fox News Digital. "This is not right. I could've had my PhD by now. I could have been teaching academia right now."
Carthen – who says she was forced to change her last name from Coburn after her life was turned upside down in 2007 – says she has already fought tirelessly to find relief, going to local and state officials and government agencies, even contacting the four presidents that have been in office over the 16-year span.
Madeline-Michelle Carthen is a Missouri woman who was mistakenly declared dead in 2007. (Photo courtesy of Madeline-Michelle Carthen)
She claimed she only received a response from one administration – former President Donald Trump's – but nothing changed.
"I just was willing to [reach out to] anybody bipartisan. Can you help? That's where I was at. So this is a bipartisan situation. I'm not Democrat or Republican at all. I'm just who I am. I just want this problem fixed because I know if it can get fixed, it's going to be able to fix it for all other Americans who have [issues with] Social Security numbers as well."
The challenge started before Carthen could even finish college. She realized something was wrong when she was dealing with financial aid as a student at Webster University in Missouri.
"I was applying for my International Business Intern Exchange program for the summer semester to be in Accra, Ghana, at Legon University in the financial aid office filling out the FAFSA for paperwork for my summer tuition… My financial aid officer went to the fax machine to get the paperwork because she had made contact with Sallie Mae, and it came back ‘applicant deceased, code 29,'" she said.
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The logo of the US Social Security Administration is seen outside a Social Security building, November 5, 2020, in Burbank, California. (VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
The development ignited a series of fears. "Will this mess up my internship? Will this mess up my transcripts… I had so many questions, and it basically did," she explained.
After deciding to withdraw from school, Carthen got a second wind, seeking consultation from attorneys who might help clear the air.
"Everyone I went to, it was convoluted, like it was so congested, they didn't know even where to start… at that time, Social Security wasn't even on my mind…
"It wasn't until CNN came in town to do an interview, and we got on the phone in 2007 with the Social Security Administration out of D.C. and they made mention that my name and my file, meaning master file, is in a deceased warehouse in the District of Columbia. I was like, ‘Well, I’m a native Missourian, why would my information be in D.C.?' So it just spearheaded from there."
After attempting to call local offices, she faced other challenges – losing her home and her car to repossession. She even claimed, when she was pulled over by the police on one occasion, she nearly was arrested because she struggled to prove her identity.
"It was like a movie," she said. "That's all I can say."
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Carthen is upset by the "broken system" she believed let her and others who are mislabeled as deceased fall through the cracks. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Comins)
But she turned to her faith and pressed on, continuing to advocate for herself, but everything pushed her back to getting a private attorney.
"But I had gone through six of them, and, because I was out of what's called statute of limitations with the credit bureaus, there was no case. So then I'm told the government has sovereign immunity, so there was no case, but I couldn't stop there. I had to keep doing research, finding out what's going on," she said.
Carthen's background in I.T. cybersecurity helped her get a little further in the process. She conducted script runs of herself and pulled in the Social Security Inspector General Office of Inspector General Audit report.
"The report was written in 2012 of me, and that helps me to understand why I now have two Social Security numbers. The one that was born was the one flagged with code 29, meaning I was deceased. The new one that I got in 2021, it's under what's called the Congressional Randomization Act of 2011," she said.
Her new social security number is random, she explained, detailing that the first three numbers are not exclusive to Missouri and are, instead, stateless.
She believes this is the source of many problems she faces because she says the number is still somehow linked to her old one.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Social Security Administration's press office and advisory board for comment, but did not hear back from either in time for publication.
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Carthen's situation isn't exclusive, however, according to a report from the Social Security and the Advisory Board which offers a hypothetical example of someone who could wrongfully be declared deceased.
"For the 7,000 to 12,000 people erroneously recorded as dead on SSA’s numident annually, the consequences can be severe: identity authentication may be affected, employment may be difficult to secure, credit may be denied, tax refunds may be delayed, and other adverse actions may be taken by entities that receive SSA’s death data," the report states.
In such events, the Social Security Administration (SSA) urges people wrongfully declared deceased to head to their local Social Security office with proper ID in hand, including a passport, a driver's license, a school ID or employee ID card, among others.
Carthen said, however, after the pandemic, the agency requests people to call and make an appointment to visit, but she is still waiting to hear back for hers.
"I just need to get Congress because no one else can speak on their behalf. They wrote this law [the Congressional Randomization Act of 2011]. This law needs to be changed for the protection of the American people, and they have to upgrade that enumerated numident system with new software to be able to prohibit any infractions or abnormalities. One is too many…" she continued.
But her plea extends higher, not only to the government, but to God.
"My life is at a standstill, and I understand why. The anger has passed. I'm just now looking for forgiveness," she said. "I just want both parties, bipartisan, if they hear me, please, by the grace of God, come together. Stop the bickering, arguing and fighting and hear our voices. We need the help. I've been going through this for 16 years, and this is my only plea. This is my last plea."
The SSA told St. Louis TV station KSDK-5 On Your Side, which covered her strange situation last month, it wasn't able to discuss individual cases but added that, "approximately 3 million deaths are reported to the Social Security Administration each year and our records are highly accurate. Of these millions of death reports we receive each year, less than one-third of 1 percent are subsequently corrected. Deaths are reported to Social Security primarily from the States, but also from other sources, including family members, funeral homes, Federal agencies, and financial institutions. If a person suspects that they have been incorrectly listed as deceased on their Social Security record, they should contact their local Social Security office as soon as possible. They can locate their nearest Social Security office at https://www.ssa.gov/agency/contact. They should be prepared to bring at least one piece of current (not expired) original form of identification. Social Security takes immediate action to correct our records and we can provide a letter that the error has been corrected that can be shared with other organizations."
An Equifax spokesperson told KSDK that anyone mistakenly reported as dead should contact one of the nationwide credit bureaus: Equifax (866) 349-5101; Experian (888) 397-3742; or TransUnion (800) 916-8800.
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