A photographer turned the tables on the woman who stole her identity

The phone rang one late morning in late February 2011, and Jessamyn Lovell's life was changed.

The San Francisco Police Dept.'s financial-crimes unit called to ask if Lovell had given a woman named Erin Coleen Hart permission to use her New Mexico state driver's license. Hart had committed a number of crimes, including petty theft, using Lovell's name and identity.

Lovell, a photographer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, felt a dire need to piece together how her and Hart's lives became connected. Over the next three years, she documented Hart's crime scenes, release from prison, and transition back to normalcy.

We've published snippets of the resulting project, "Dear Erin Hart," with the photographer's permission. You can learn more about Lovell's journey by visiting her website and preordering her book, "Dear Erin Hart."

Watch the photographer's journey unfold »