Campbell's fraud was exposed when a New Mexico motor‑vehicle clerk noticed a passport in the name of Walter Lee Coffman, a deceased 22‑year‑old Arkansas graduate. The passport, first issued in 1984 under Coffman's identity, had survived fraudulent renewals in 2005 and 2015, and was used to renew a driver’s licence in September 2019—an action that triggered federal scrutiny.
The man behind the mask, Stephen Craig Campbell, 76, first slipped into the criminal underworld in 1982 after planting a homemade explosive device at the home of his estranged wife's boyfriend. The detonation tore through the apartment, severing a finger and igniting a conflagration that spread to a neighboring unit, a scene that still haunts the victim.
Because he failed to appear for his 1982 trial, a Wyoming warrant issued in 1983 remained open, while Campbell began the long‑term deception by convincing the Social Security Administration to erase Coffman's death record in 1992. By 1995 he had secured a replacement Social Security card in Coffman's name, and later used it to purchase property in Weed, New Mexico, in 2003.
From 2015 onward, Campbell fraudulently collected more than $138,000 in Social Security Retirement Insurance Benefits, a figure the DOJ later cited as roughly $140,000 at his plea. The federal case was triggered by the license renewal, and on February 19, 2025, FBI SWAT teams from Albuquerque and El Paso, supported by aerial surveillance, executed arrest and search warrants at the Weed property.
After a tense standoff, Campbell surrendered, and investigators recovered 57 firearms, a loaded rifle, and ample ammunition—items he was legally barred from possessing. He pleaded guilty to four federal offenses on June 5, 2026, and was sentenced to 81 months in federal prison, with a potential maximum of 12 years pending appeal.
The victim of the 1982 blast, whose finger was lost, has yet to see justice, while Campbell’s long‑term deception shook the integrity of federal identity records and cost countless Americans a trusted system.