In a criminal complaint filed in Calhoun Magistrate Court by Brian E. Young of the West Virginia State police, the charges of two counts of “Taking the Identity of Another Person” and “Fraud in connection with Access Device” lodged against Lilly Marie Knopp the 12th of September, 2023.
In his complaint, Trooper Young stated that at about 5:30 p.m. on June 12th, 2023, hehad met with the victim, James Wyer at his residence in Chloe, WV. The victim had contacted Trooper Young after he’d received evidence that Lilly Knopp had taken his identity to gain money and merchandise without his permission.
When Trooper Young met with Mr. Wyer, he presented the trooper with a copy of his Equifax Credit Report dated June 5th, 2023 and a credit collection notice from Resurgent Capital Services for the amount of $443.52 with the original creditor being MVR Banks. Wyer then pointed out that there were two addresses listed on the report in Ivydale, WV belonging to Lilly Knopp, the accused. After he had received the report, Mr. Myers contacted Resurgent Capital Services who advised him that the original debt was from a Visa card issued for that account. When Mr. Wyers attempted to sign up for a Kredit Carma Account to check his activity, he was notified there was an account already active, registered in his name with a gmail account email address belonging to Lilly Knopp.
On Wednesday, June 14th, 2023 at around 11 a.m. Trooper Young recorded a statement from Mr. Wyer where he stated that Resurgent Collection Agency had informed him that the credit issue had originated in November of 2022. At that time, Mr. Wyer informed them that he was living at his current address, and told Trooper Young he had never lived at the addresses listed on the report. He further stated to Trooper Young that Ms. Knopp is the mother of his 15 year old daughter and he has known her since she was 14 years of age. He knew the addresses listed in Ivydale to be hers and he denied having ever given her permission to use any of his information to apply for creditor the other documents or accounts. He advised that he had not opened any accounts for credit because he didn’t believe in using credit.
On or about June 2023, Nigel Jeffries, Prosecutor of Calhoun County sent a subpoena to the Resurgent Capital Services in reference to the victim and the account opened in his name. On or about July 18th, 2023, Jeffries received the response stating the two addresses associated with the account. The first address was that of Mr. Wyers, and the second address was that of Ms. Knopp.
The first credit card statement f rom REVVI, with transactions listed on November 29, 2002 through December 12, 2002, list purchases made on November 26, 2022 from the Ebay Company for $84.79. An administrative order was issue to the Ebay company in reference to the purchase for which Ebay responded with the purchase order listing the buyers email address as that of Lilly Knopp. The purchase was for a set of three 2022 Monster Day Out Frankie Stein.
On August 4th, 2023, Trooper Young filed for a search warrant for the Google account information of two google accounts, lillysims72@google.com and llyknopp1@google.com. “Sims” is the maiden name of Lilly Knopp. The trooper also filed a search warrant for the Ebay account of Lillysims72.
On Tuesday, August 29th, 2023 Trooper Young received the return from Ebay LLC from the search warrant he had submitted. The account holder, physical address where packages were received and email were listed to Lilly Knopp.
Through the investigation, Trooper Brian E. Young discovered that the accused used a credit card she obtained illegally to make a purchase on Ebay for the amount of $84.79 and had created a Credit Karma account using the victim’s information to monitor access to the victim’s credit information for financial gain, credit and merchandise.
Lilly Knopp, age51, was incarcerated in the WV Central Regional Jail for the charges listed above on September 14th, 2023. She is being held on $15,000 bond for felony case number 23M07F00039 and is awaiting trial. She is innocent, until proven guilty in the court of law.
