Federal agents arrested a woman on Saturday who was under investigation for stealing identities to gain admission to three universities, according to the Associated Press.

The woman, Esther Elizabeth Reed, was arrested in a Chicago suburb under a federal warrant. She had been sought since July 2006, just before she was revealed as an impostor, and was listed as one of the U.S. Secret Service’s top fugitives. A federal grand jury indicted her last September on charges of wire fraud, mail fraud, false identification documents, and aggravated identity theft.

In addition to using stolen identities to gain admission three times, the authorities said, Ms. Reed managed to obtain $100,000 in student loans. At one of the institutions, Columbia University, she is said to have studied criminology and psychology for two years under the name Brooke Henson — a woman who, according to the New York Post, has been missing since 1999.

Ms. Reed also was admitted to California State University at Fullerton and Harvard. —Hurley Goodall