In early 2016, a blonde stranger with round cheeks arrived at a domestic violence shelter near the small town of West Plains, Missouri, visibly shaken. She said her name was Lauren Ashleigh Hays and that she was 22 years old.
The story Lauren told was both familiar and sad: She was running from a boyfriend who beat her. She needed help starting over. A woman affiliated with the shelter had friends nearby named Wendy and Avery Parker, who offered to take Lauren in. The Parkers, an older married couple, found Lauren an old truck to drive and a place to live in their town of Willow Springs, a quaint community with 2,160 residents and a main street lined with red brick buildings. They helped her enroll at a satellite campus of Southwest Baptist University in another small town called Mountain View, 17 miles east. Lauren expressed interest in becoming a child psychologist.
For the next two and a half years, Lauren thrived. She led story time for the kids at a local library, appeared in a production of a Jesus-centered domestic violence play, and gleefully kissed her fair share of the town's young men. She went to water aerobics and made friends with an excitable mob of young women, who wore a uniform of short summer dresses with tennis shoes in the sticky Missouri heat. But the persona she was building would turn out to be an outrageous lie. And then she was gone, leaving residents to wonder who she really was, and if any of the love and care they had invested in her ever meant a thing.
Esta historia es de la edición December 2022/January 2023 de ELLE US.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición December 2022/January 2023 de ELLE US.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
On Pointe
Gabriela Hearst lends her design ingenuity to a Latin-powered production of Carmen that provides a fresh twist on the classic.
There's Something About Julie
Whether it's acne products or emergency contraception, Julie Schott is upending industries and erasing stigmawith her trademark sense of humor.
Hollywood Rising
Our annual mustknow list of emerging talents we'll all be watching (and obsessing over) this year.
Goodnight Meme
An internet It Girl logs offfor good.
SCENTS OF PLACE
For Fendi, a major move into fragrance meant looking inward.
SEEING INFRARED
The celeb-favorite treatment claims to grow your hair and youth-ify your skin. Could it outshine LED?
FOLLOW THE STARS
With the northern lights peaking this year, celestial-obsessed travelers can watch the skies in luxury.
MUSIC OF THE SPHERES
Van Cleef & Arpels's Perlée collection is a continuation of a long-standing house motif delicate, playful beading that dates back more than a century.
The Language of Flowers
Young designers are falling for the subversive power of a classic motif.
THE MAX FACTOR
Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis is carrying on the brand's Old Hollywood legacy with some of New Hollywood's biggest talents.