Dead Toddler’s Identity Stolen For Tax Return – ABC News

Less than a year after a Washington couple buried their 21-month-old daughter, they are fighting to prove to the Internal Revenue Service that they were her parents.

Jessica Struthers and Matt Bock were stunned to learn that someone else had stolen their daughter’s Social Security number and claimed little Ava on a tax form for the deduction benefits.

“We were shocked. Who does this?” Struthers said. “And, of course, we want to know who and they [IRS] won’t tell you.”

The couple, who live in Blaine, Wash., with their three sons and a foster child they are working to adopt, said the person who stole Ava’s identity has already received the federal tax return worth several thousand dollars for their deceased daughter.

“It makes me sick,” Struthers said.

The burden of proof, they said, is now on them.

Ava, born in November 2007, was a twin who made a habit of running on the tips of her toes and stretching out the word “Daddy” with delight when Bock came home from work.

She died in August after she climbed into the family’s backyard swimming pool and drowned.

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