She thought her spouse was dead, but wait …

Missing man turns up in Florida with whole new family

Twenty-three years had passed since Linda Iseler had seen or heard from her husband.

For more than a decade, the Indiana woman had assumed Richard Hoagland - who had mysteriously vanished after 11 years of marriage - was dead.

That all changed this summer when Iseker received a phone from detective Anthony Cardillo of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Department in Florida, according to ABC News.

“He asked me if I knew who Richard Hoagland was, and I said, ‘Yes, that’s my ex-husband,’” Iseler said. “He said, ‘We have him in custody.’”

After abandoning his family in 1993, Hoagland moved to Florida, where he constructed an entirely new existence from scratch.

Police say he started by stealing the death certificate and adopting the identity of a man named Terry Jude Symansky — a fisherman who died in 1991.

News about Hoagland’s arrest broke in July, but his ex-wife and the investigator who uncovered his true identity have recently spoken out on ABC’s “20/20.”

“Using that death certificate, he applies for a birth certificate,” Cardillo told the ABC show. “He uses that birth certificate to get a driver’s license. Once he has that driver’s license, he starts establishing his name as Terry Symansky.”

For more than two decades, Terry Symansky appeared to lead an ordinary life in Pasco County. He had a wife named Mary and a teenage son, owned property and “worked odd jobs,” according to the Tampa Bay Times.

“She said there was always questions, but he would always come up with a reason or an explanation,” Cardillo told “20/20.”

The truth began to surface when a nephew of the real Terry Symansky — who drowned in 1991 at the age of 33 — started an Ancestry.com family search, according to NBC affiliate WFLA. Knowing that his uncle was dead, the nephew was surprised to find someone with the same name living in Central Florida.

“He looks up his real uncle Terry Symansky and realizes that he died in 1991, which the family knew,” Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco told the station. “He then starts scrolling down the page and sees more details that Terry Symanksy was remarried in 1995. He owns property in Pasco County, Florida.”

Fearing that their fake relative might try to harm them, family members waited three years before eventually contacting authorities in April, police told the Tampa Bay Times.

Hoagland, 63, was arrested in July and charged with fraudulent use of personal identification, the paper reported. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, ABC reported.

Hoagland’s disappearance in 1993 seemed to come without warning, Iseler told “20/20.” She said the family lived in a large home, took exotic vacations and appeared to have a healthy marriage. Their two sons were ages 6 and 9 at the time.

Then, one day, without warning, everything changed. “He called me at work and told me that he was ill … and that he needed to go to the emergency room,” Iseler told “20/20.” “And I said, ‘Well, why don’t you just wait, and I’ll go with you?’ He said, ‘No, I don’t have time to wait.’” Iseler was never able to find her husband, even after calling all the local hospitals.

“(His toothbrush was) still there,” she told “20/20.” “He didn’t pack any clothes. It was cold. It was in February. He didn’t take a coat.”

Hoagland’s family suffered, never knowing what had become of him. With losing their house and cars, Iseler said, there was a point when police suspected she may have been criminally responsible for her husband’s disappearance. Eventually, the paper reported, Hoagland’s wife assumed her husband was dead.

“He devastated us,” she added. “He left us with nothing, absolutely nothing. I was very broken.”