A Mississippi woman who was arrested on suspicion of faking nursing credentials may have used a license number from a deceased person and needs mental health treatment, according to authorities.

Mary Moore was arrested on Nov. 21 and charged with false pretense, a felony, Aberdeen Police Chief Quinell Shumpert told USA TODAY. 

She was booked into the Monroe County Jail.

Woman accused of using deceased person's license number

Shumpert said Moore was properly credentialed at one point but she had a mental breakdown and her license expired in 2017.

It’s not clear who is representing Moore legally and the Monroe County Circuit Clerk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to Shumpert, Moore was hired in October 2023 at Care Center in Aberdeen, about 30 miles north of Columbus. She claimed to be a registered nurse.

“She was supervised the whole time she was there and during her supervision, there were certain things about her which made them suspicious,” he said.

Moore also applied for a job at another nursing home in Fulton, Mississippi. She was hired there but someone called anonymously telling the nursing home she wasn’t really a registered nurse.

When the Fulton nursing home found out what happened, they contacted the Care Center in Aberdeen, Shumpert said.

She is accused of using the license number of someone whose name matches hers. The person is deceased, Shumpert said.

Police chief says woman accused of faking nursing credentials is 'mentally ill'

“She is mentally ill. She needs to be in the hospital somewhere,” Shumpert said, adding that someone is currently trying to get the woman admitted to a mental health facility.

He said the way the judicial system and mental health facilities deal with mental illness needs work.

Mental health facilities don’t accept people who have felonies, he said. Usually what happens is the felony charges must be dropped for them to get help. 

“Once you drop those charges and take them to a mental health facility, they may keep them for two or three days and then they turn them loose, out doing the same thing they were doing before,” he told USA TODAY. “It’s just a mess.”