MaryJane and Christian Longo - Part 1

0:00 Hi. I'm Tina and I'm Rich. And if there's one thing we've learned in over twenty years of marriage, it's. That some days you'll feel like killing your. Wife, and some days you'll feel like killing your husband. Welcome to love, Mary Kill, Hey Rich, Hey Tina. How are you? I'm doing all right? How are you doing? I'm good, I'm good, feeling a little better still a little rough. Voice is probably still a little raspy, but doing better. Yeah, I'm kind of surprised. This is my first go around with COVID. It's hard to believe, but we neither of us have had it in the four plus years it's been around, and we had recently gotten boosted, which was probably a good thing, but I'm still feeling kind of crappy almost two weeks later.

0:52 Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that. And you never got it, so that's great. I didn't luckily. Yeah. Well, thank you to everyone who sent me a message. It was very nice. You have very nice listeners, don't we Yes. Our listeners are amazing. But recently we've had several people message us about cases that they disagree with us and like disagree with our conclusions. One of them was Karen Reid, and there's been other ones too like that go back because people sometimes, you know, they listen from two older episodes too. And I just want to say that we are not experts. We are just mom and dad sitting here doing a podcast, and if you disagree with us, that's one thousand percent fine.

1:33 Yeah, And we try to you know, when we cover the cases, we try to keep them factual, and then at the end we give our opinions. And today it is just our opinion. Yeah, exactly, it's okay to disagree with us, and we don't mind if you send us a message saying, hey, you guys are way off on this. But just know that we don't see ourselves as experts and we don't have the final say. It's just our opinion, yeah, but we're happy to look at other opinions as well. Absolutely, we can have different opinions and we can still be friends, you sure, ken, And if you leave us a note on Spotify, we don't have a way to respond, and a lot of those messages come in on Spotify. So just wanted to address that really quickly. When we sit down to record, I get amnesia. Do you get amnesia?

2:16 I have amnesia almost all the time. I don't remember. There's always things that I mean to talk about or mention or give people shout outs. And I've been super remiss about a shout out, but I've seriously been meaning to give for like two months. There's a newer podcast. They're friends of ours, Severed Podcast, and they sent us the coolest gift. It is the coolest gift, and I have it sitting in my office in a place of honor because it is so awesome. It should be cherished. Do you want to talk about it for a second. Yeah, it's the it's the painting from the Sopranos that I don't remember the plot exactly, but somebody made a painting of Tony Soprano with a horse. It looks a little like Napoleon or something like that, and they sent. Us a It was in Polly's house.

2:57 Oh that's right. Yes, it was a pain that Tony had commissioned and he wanted to destroy. Yeah, and then Paulie kept it and changed it to put Tony in a general's clothing or something like that. It's great. It was such a sweet gift. And please check out Severed podcast. They are smarter than us. They're funnier than us. Probably they're nicer than us too. They're super nice. I just I really love their podcast, Super in Depth and they do a lot of interesting cases. They also have a lot of fun spinoffs. It's Drew and Harry, but Drew has control of their Instagram feed and she does a great job. She loves her state of New Jersey and takes you on a lot of fun field chips she likes. They like to eat hot dogs and donuts and yeah, they're just great, So.

3:47 Please check them out. Check them out. Before it gets started on today's case, I wanted to briefly talk about last week's case. I think I was having like I was in a fever dream state a little bit. Yeah, you're still pretty sick. And we didn't talk about Molly and James enough. I feel like I didn't express my outrage enough that he that James killed Molly, Like I don't understand why he had to kill her, and he couldn't have just broken up with her. I know what a horrible, horrible person like he made. He made a dumb mistake in saying he was going to marry her, but then he just never put a stop to it. He just easily could have walked away, right. Yeah, and Mollie, you know, she would have been hurt, she would have been devastated. She would still be here.

4:32 Yeah, yeah, it's horrible cowardly man. Anyway, every time we finished an episode, I'm like, oh, I wish I would have said that, And then I was like, I did not express my outrage because it really did make me mad. Yeah, I almost forgot. We have a snack. We have a snack, and you made the snack because I was you know. You're doing some last minute scrambling. I haven't left the house in a week, literally, And yeah, I just said, make some pop chords. Well, not the most exciting sack, but there there are fa I mean really, well, there are two things I think I'm fairly good at making. One is scrambled eggs and the other is popcorn. You're good at both. Also, I'm not like saying you're not good. No, you do make the best scrambled eggs, but I do.

5:12 When I've been making popcorn lately, I've been experimenting with different types of oils, different salts, trying to vary. So today I did something a little bit different with the popcorn. Let's see if you if you can pick out what it is? Okay, well, I already ate half the bowl and I would like more. Popcorn is one of our favorite snaps. Oh yeah, I mean sometimes not about pop. Dinner when no one else is around. We have popcorn for dinner and our kids are like really but yeah, and we always have to put a treat in it because we're health nuts. And I see some nice m and ms here. To me, Eminem's is the classic treat that goes in popcorn. I know you have other things. Lately, I've been into sour Patch Kids, which is really strange, but I really like sour Patch Kids and the popcorn milk duds are my ultimate popcorn add on. But what did you do differently? I'm not really sure. Well, let's take a quick break and I'll try the popcorn and see if my not quite great taste buds right now will discern the special ingredient.

6:10 All right, let's see. Well, it's delicious popcorn. Glad you enjoyed it. Can we just go watch a movie? Sure? I think there's a movie about the case you're going to talk about. Can we just go watch that? I don't think I want to watch that again. Yeah, all right, so tell me what you did, because I don't know. I made it with real butter. I clarified butter. If you're gonna use real butter and popcorn, you have to clarify it otherwise it gets all shrinks up. So I made some clarified butter. I think I might have put a little too much butter on it, but yeah, that's it. I was trying to make it as buttery and movie theater like as possible.

6:50 Wow. Well, thank you. It's good, but I don't think it's for me. It's not like, Oh, it's so much better. I think the I don't know what that oil is that we have. I think that works pretty well too. Yeah, that oil is good. You recently went to Iceland and you brought back. Some black salt, some lava salt. Yeah, and that was really yummy on the popcorn too. Well, I just broke that, So the lava salt is gone. Sorry to say. Maybe we can get some more. Maybe sometimes I put lemon pepper on it or you know, other stuff. But anyway, popcorn. It's a good stand. Oh I should we should mention too. We have no exaggeration. Had like forty different pop popcorn makers over the years, but our recent go to has been making it on the stove in the Dutch.

7:38 Dutch of it. Yeah, is that what you did? That's what I did. Yeah, And that's a thank you to my best friend Jennifer Gardner. Thanks Jennifer. She just won't let me alone, but she did that on her Instagram and I was like. Oh, it really is the best way I think. Okay, and one more side note. I'm sorry, We're going to get to the case in a minute. But this year I was like, you know what, I'm just going to buy the four hundred dollars Dutch job and I'm just going to do it because we've had so many over the years, and you know, I've bought like the Walmart version or the Target version or whatever. And I was like, I'm just going to buy the good one. But then I saw Amazon had one and I did buy it. It's beautiful, right, and I can't I think it was like forty or fifty dollars. It wasn't. I got it on sale. But it's a beautiful pot and it works, and I don't know, it works really well. Yeah, So I did not buy the late crusee, you know, a four hundred dollars pot. I just was like, I'm just going to try one more and I don't regret it.

8:37 I think it's a great pot. You're looking at me like I'm crazy for bringing up a pot on our podcast. I don't think you're crazy. It all is coming and I think it's a great pot, and I think people will be happy to I. Think it's a great tip for people, not at all. It's also a great way to make popcorn. It is. Do you want to talk about the method really quick? I mean it's pretty simple really. You just put whatever oil you want in the bottom of the Dutch oven, heat it up, put in like three popcorn kernels to wait for them to pop so you know the oil is hot enough. Oh I don't do that. Put a lid on it, leave a little gap in the lid so the steam can get out. Once those three kernels pop, dump your popcorn in and go to town. And I've also started using this flavor call, which is the salt I use, which is a very buttery flavored salt that's supposed to be much like the movie theater salt.

9:25 Oh good, yeah, great? Ten out of ten excellent. Today's episode, while not graphic, does contain violence against women and children. Please listen with care. Much like the three Horrible Peterson's be covered Drew, Michael, and Scott, there are three horrible family annihilators, each named Chris. We have told two of their stories already, Chris Watts, of course, and Chris Coleman. Today we will finally tell you about the third Horrible Chris. Chris Longo. Oh boy, the Chris Chronicles. Is that what you're going to call this? I mean no, because we already recorded the other two ages ago, but in the back of my mind I was always like, yeah, I want to tell this story too.

10:09 I was on Reddit last night researching a little bit about this case, and it was brought to my attention that there is another. I mean, I'm sure there's other bad crises too, but there's another family annihilator name Chrispanoit, who was a wrestler, and maybe we'll cover that one for me too. On Wednesday, December nineteenth, two thousand and two, in the coastal town of Waldport, Oregon, a young boy was found floating face down in muddy water. He was estimated to be between four and six years old. The boy was about forty inches tall and weighed fifty pounds. He had well groomed blondish hair and hazel eyes. He was wearing only underwear. His body was unscathed, free of any trauma or injury, and otherwise appeared to be in good health. The odd thing was that no child in the area had been reported missing. Police estimated that he'd been in the pond no more than eight to ten hours.

11:05 Officers went door to door in the town of two thousand and every child was accounted for. With few clues to go on, divers plunged into the murky waters seeking evidence. They thought a car may have gone over the bridge. The only thing of note that was found was a pillow case printed with characters from the Rugrat's cartoon, with large rocks inside. As the divers continued their work, another child was found, this time a girl with blond hair and blue eyes. She was also only wearing underwear. A floral pillow case containing a large rock was tied to her right ankle that had weighed her down. She was smaller than the boy, but shared facial features that led investigators to believe the children were related. The FBI was called in to help with the case. The bridge over the body of water was part of Highway thirty four, and soon it became a memorial as the heart broken citizens of Waldport behind flowers, balloons, and cards for the unidentified children. Just days before Christmas, when the police released drawings of the children, a woman named Denise Thompson came forward to identify them. She told police the children were Zachary Michael Longo nearly five, and Sadie Ann Longo three and a half. Denise informed the police that there was a third Longo child, Madison Jeanie Longo, h two. The children's parents were Christian Chris Longo twenty seven and Mary Jane Longo thirty four. Denise had worked with Chris at a local Fredmeyer grocery store. He had worked at the

12:38 Starbucks in side of the store, but he'd recently been promoted to the home furnishing department, with Denise as a favorite of Chris. Denise had babysat the three children just days earlier, on December fifteenth, so he and Mary Jane could go out on a date. Denise told law enforcement that the Longo family had moved to Oregon from Ohio, three months earlier, she drive the family as loving on. In December nineteenth, Denise and Chris had had lunch together. During the lunch, Chris told her that his wife had just fallen back to their home state of Michigan with their three children to be with another man, a man wealthier than him, but Chris gave few other details. Police went to the condo that was the last known residence of the Longo family. They found it vacant except for a few belongings, including two stuffed animals, a Clifford the Dog and Scooby Doo. In a nearby dumpster. Many of the Longo's possessions were found, including Mary Jane's purse and driver's license. To say the Longo family was in crisis in the months before their murders would be a vast understatement.

13:43 They were living on the precipice of houselessness, frequently moving from place to place to keep their family off the streets. They lived in the tent, an abandoned warehouse, several hotels, and finally the condo. Their maroon minivan was filled with the detritus of their lives. The police investigation would later painstakingly catalog the contents of the van. The list was twelve pages long, including toys, diapers, camping gear, videotapes, clothing, a scooter, et cetera. On December twenty seventh, a week after Zachary was found floating in the water, two green suitcases were found in the bay near the condo where the Longos lived. One of the suitcases contained the contorted, naked body of Mary Jane Longo. She appeared to have been bludgeoned and strangled. The smaller suitcase contained random pieces of clothing, a five pound scuba diving weight, and two year old Madison wearing only a diaper. She also appeared to have blunt forest trauma to the head and signs of strangulation. The cause of death of the two older children, Zachary and Sadie, was never determined.

14:48 A so so horrible, horrible. Although it's not certain exactly when the murders, likely occurred, in the early hours on a cold morning on December seventeenth, two thousand and one, or at least that's when the bodies were disposed of. That morning, a man named Dick Hack witnessed a maroon Plymouth Montana van with a Michigan plate that read kid Van on a bridge on Highway thirty four near Waldport, Oregon. He pulled over to ask the driver of the van, a white male who appeared to be alone, if he needed assistance. The man said he was fine, just checking the engine, and sent the dew gooder on his way. He would later identify the man stopped on the bridge as Christian Longo in a move that can only be described as shockingly bold. The day after the incident on the bridge, December eighteenth, Chris Longo drove to a Chrysler Town and Country dealership. He removed the kid Van license plate from his vehicle and left the maroon van parked in the parking lot and entered the show room. He found a green, dodged Durringo like one he had previously owned. He found the vehicle unlocked with the keys inside. He brazenly started the vehicle and drove the Duringo off the show room floor and out the door.

16:01 Wow. He sped away undetected. No one at the dealership noticed the car was missing. Until the next That is crazy. Don't want to try it, and I think the doors I don't know if they still do, but they like they automatically opened. Uh huh, So I think he just that is wild. I'm picturing Fargo. Remember in Fargo when the guy, the car sales guy, drives off in the lot and the cop played by Francis McDorman sees him leaving, and she's like, he's flee on the scene. He's flee on the scene. I have no recollection of that scene. It's a classic. It's a great movie. Though. The police were notified about the stolen Duringo on December nineteenth, the day Zach Longo's body was found in the water. As police were working hard to identify the little boy, Christian Longo attended his work Christmas party. When he arrived the next morning at work, he told his manager that his wife and kids had left him and he was now available to work any shift. However, on Friday, December twentieth, the usually punctual Chris did not show up to work. After work on Thursday, Chris had gone to the gym to play volleyball with some friends.

17:11 He overheard a news broadcast on the radio about the body of a young boy being found in the water. He was panicked, but played volleyball for two hours with his friends. Plotting his next move, He returned to the condo one last time and packed up a few possessions, including the microwave and television from the condo that didn't belong to him, and he hurried out of town. He cast his two hundred thirty dollars paycheck, then drove aimlessly for six hundred miles until he found himself in Sacramento. He slept in the stolen duringo and then made his way to San Francisco. With little money and no credit, Chris had few options. He stated a youth hostel and subsisted on triskets, cheese, and ramen noodles. He applied for a job at a Starbux on December twenty third. The manager assured him that he'd call him in a few days.

18:00 When the manager called Chris's references from fred Meyer, they contacted the police. By this time, the FBI had been involved in the case too. Chris never heard back from the Starbucks. He checked the news online and found that the bodies of his family had been located. He felt defeated. He partnered the Golden Gate Bridge and intended to take his own life by jumping from the bridge, but he couldn't make himself do it. I should stop here and mention at this point that a lot of the story is from Chris's perspective, and take that with a grain of writing. Of course, for the next several days, he drove around aimlessly and slept in the duringo. On Christmas Day, he went to see the movie Ali. He watched it twice and then got chinese food. The manager of the San Francisco Starbucks, who was cooperating with the FBI, called Chris for a job interview. The FBI planned to nab Chris when he showed up at the interview, but Chris was a step ahead. He had saved a credit card receipt from a customer at Fredmeyer weeks earlier. He booked a flight to cancuon using that credit card number under his own name. He palmed the stolen television and microwave from his old condo. He now had an extra ninety dollars in his pocket. In total, he had about two hundred dollars. On December twenty seventh, when Chris didn't show up the Starbucks interview, police knew he was on to them, but it was too late. Chris flew from San Francisco and had arrived undetected by law enforcement in Cancun in

19:31 two thousand and one. A passport wasn't necessary for entry into Mexico. Chris was admitted into the country without a problem. An FBI officer appeared on Larry King Live and The Today Show and offered a fifty thousand dollar reward for any information about Christian Longo. America's Most Wanted ran a segment on him too. John Walsh cautioned the audience quote, He's very very charming, he's very very smart, he's very calcul he's really really good at disappearing. End quote. His parents Joy and Joe Longo made a public plea for Chris to turn himself in. In a statement read by a family friend, They said, quote, the whole family is extremely distraught over the events that are occurring in Oregon and deeply grieved over the loss of our four dear family members. We are hopeful that Christian will be found and this mystery will be resolved soon. End quote. The FBI soon discovered that Longo had escaped to Mexico, but they had no other leads, and Mexico is an easy place to disappear. On January sixth, the stolen Dodge Dringo was found at the San Francisco Airport.

20:42 Kristin Michael Stewart was born on January twenty third, nineteen seventy four, in Burlington, Iowa, to parents Joy and Stephen Stewart. Joy became pregnant during her senior year of high school. She and Stephen were married, but it was a difficult and abusive marriage. Step was an alcoholic. Joy's first pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage, possibly because of her husband's abuse. She suffered a second miscarriage after Stephen rolled the car when he was driving drunk. Dustin Anthony was born fifteen months after Christian. After his father gave Chris a black eye when he was three, Joy filed for divorce and a restraining order. The boys never saw their father again.

21:25 He remarried and moved to Iowa, where he works as an electrician. Joy moved home to Des Moines, Iowa. She and the boys lived with her parents until she took a job at Target, where she met and fell in love with Joe Longo, who was the store manager. After they were married, Joe adopted Christian and Dustin, a former football star and homecoming King. Joe was a beloved member of the community. His new sons adored him too. Christian said, quote, my dad was my idol and hero. I couldn't ask for a more loving family. Unquote, Joe is the only father that he remembers. In nineteen eighty the Longos moved to Indianapolis for Joe's job with Target. While living there, Joy became a Jehovah's witness. It took Joe, a former altar boy and devout Catholic, three years to join his wife in her new religion, but eventually he left his job at Target to devote himself fully to the Jehovah's Witnesses.

22:23 Christian felt limited by the religion as his parents became stricter about not allowing him to participate in sports or listen to popular music. The religion made him feel awkward and unpopular in school. Though he was smart, his grades suffered. In nineteen eighty nine, the Longos moved again to Louisville, Kentucky. Kristin chose homeschooling to finish high school. He never attended college. I don't know a lot about Jehovah's witnesses. I did just a little bit of research, and I found that Jehovah's Witnesses tend to dissuade their members from participating and higher learning to do to the belief of corrupting influences and the belief that the end of the world is imminent.

23:07 Only nine percent of Jehovah Witnesses receive a bachelor's degree, the lowest of any religious group, and Jehovah's Witnesses are also among the poorest. Interesting. I don't know a lot about Jehovah's witnesses either, but I did go to a Jehovah's witness meeting one time. You did not. I worked at a restaurant and there was a girl that I really liked at the restaurant and she was a Jehovah's witness. That's how they get you, I know. And there was one there's like apparently one day of the year that they're allowed to bring guests to their services. And so they're kingdom halls, yes. And so she brought me on that one day of the year that you're allowed to bring guests. I went and I sat through it. I don't remember a lot. The only thing I remember is they pass around a glass of wine, and you're not supposed to drink from the glass of wine unless you suddenly have a realization that you are one of the chosen. However, they have like a number of people that are going to go to heaven or something like that, and if you suddenly no, it's a limited number that they believe. I just looked it up. It's one hundred and forty four thousand.

24:09 Is a lot of questions. I know they don't have a lot of answers. They probably reached capacity then. I don't know. I don't have the answer to that. But does everyone else go I don't know. I don't have the answers to your questions. I just thought it was really wild that like this glass of wine comes around and if you drink from it, that means you're going to heaven. Because you're like, oh, I think I'm one of the one hundred and forty four thousand. I think a lot of people would be like, oh, I'm just you would think I'm I'm going to drink the wine. Nobody in the meeting I was at drying from the wine. It just got passed around and then it was done. Very interesting. I did not know that story and I know all your story. I have a few. I have a few that you don't know yet. Maybe. The only other thing I know about Jehovah's witnesses is they don't celebrate birthdays and holidays.

24:54 Yes, and they don't accept blood really yeah, no blood transfusions or anything like that. Interesting. Joy Longo recalls her son was a good kid except for one bad habit. He lied a lot, and sometimes about inconsequential things. He would never admit to his lies. Joy said, quote, we tried very hard to get that out of his character unquote. Joy also talked about Chris's obsession with girls and women. Although he was not allowed to date, he found workarounds once he stole Joe's credit card to send flowers to a girl. Joy and Joe Longo moved from Louisville, Kentucky, to Ipsilanti, Michigan, in the fall of nineteen ninety good Old Ipsilanty Ipsilanty. Kristen was sixteen and Dustin was fifteen.

25:42 Okay, I just want to pause for a second and say that a lot of this case takes place near us, very near us, and so there are a few gratuitous like local landmarks that I shout out just. For you and oh thanks, Oh, we are proud of our home state. For sure. Ipsilante is spelled y psi, la and ti, and a lot of people say yipsilante and the why is silent ipsilante. It's good that we know how to pronounce it. It is. When Joy and Joe planned a vacation to Arizona, the teenage boys chose to stay with friends. The Longos hired Mary Jane Baker, twenty three, to house and dog sit.

26:25 Christian stopped home to pick up some things and hit it off with the pretty twenty three year old. He found himself spending more time at his house to be around Mary Jane. He was smitten with the older woman, but she had a serious boyfriend and wasn't interested in a sixteen year old boy. At first, Mary Jane lived at home with her mother and five siblings. She had been born and raised in Ipsilanti. Money had been tied her entire life. She tried to help out her mother any way she could. There had been no time or money for Mary Jane to go to college. She worked as an assistant to a podiatrist. She was a devout Jehovah's witness and frequently did field service, going door to door talking to people about her faith on her days off with her church friends. Her mother had been kicked out of the Kingdom Hall for moral lapses. Who what that's all about, I don't know. In the months that followed, Christian took any opportunity to be close to Mary Jane.

27:22 On a church trip to Mount Brighton to ski the first time for Longo, he fell and hit his head. He required stitches, and he was thrilled when Mary Jane offered to take him to the hospital. When Chris was seventeen, he began working at a camera shop in Briarwood Mall in ann Arbor. He asked for the same day off as Mary Jane so that they could do field service together. They became good friends, but then lost touch until the winter of nineteen ninety two when they went skiing again with their Kingdom Hall, which is how Jehovah's witnesses refer to their churches or places of worship. They realized they both had feelings for each other despite the seven years age difference. Days before Chris turned eighteen, he and Mary Jane became a couple. The Longos were very against Chris dating seriously at such a young age and made him move out of their house. He was happy to if it meant that he could see Mary Jane as much as he wanted. Mary Jane and Chris were observing that Jehovah's witness rules of dating and didn't kiss or hold hands.

28:23 They were required to have a chaperone with them, usually Mary Jane's sister when they took their strolls at Gallup Park. Do you like all of these ann arbor references that are pertin to marvelish? I do. Everyone else may not get them, but we are very familiar with these places. Yeah. We used to go to Gallup Park all the time. We thought about getting married there. Yeah, we did. Yeah, it's a really beautiful park. Bryd Mall is the mall that's nearest to our house that we don't go to very much. Kind of it's kind of a dying mall. But yeah, but yeah, it's just wild that this story largely takes place essentially in our own backyard. Yeah. In June of nineteen ninety two, Chris just eighteen, proposed to Mary Jane by placing a ring box in a bread basket while they were out to dinner.

29:06 I thought they were at cottage in. Where do you think they were? Probably cottage in. When she opened the box, she saw a three quarter carrot diamond that Chris had bought on credit. He asked, would you dare to be my wife? She said yes, We'll be right back after a break. Christian made nine dollars an hour at his job at the camera shop. His debts, including Mary Jane's engagement ring, quickly became unmanageable. He began taking cash out of the cash register at work. He was racked with guilt and confessed. The camera shop fired him and pressed charges, even though he returned the one hundred and eight dollars. Chris was convicted of misdemeanor embezzlement and sentenced to eighty hours of community service, which he served at the Huron Valley Humane Society.

29:59 That's where we adopted our first two. Cats, Daisy and Lucy. Yeah, before we were married. Oh yeah, our first babies. Mary Jane forgave Chris, but made him tell the church elders. After his admission, they refused to allow Chris and Mary Jane to get married in the Kingdom Hall. Christian took a job with a newspaper fulfillment company, delivering the New York Times and other newspapers for fifteen dollars an hour, which must have been a pretty good age. Yeah. The new job improved his financial situation, but soon the expense of a two hundred and fifty person wedding was upon him and Mary Jane. Pretty big wedding. Huge. They rented the auditorium and cafeteria of Mary Jane's alma mater here On High School in ann Arbor. I didn't know you could rent out.

30:45 I didn't know that either. I was just going to say that. They were married on March thirteenth, nineteen ninety three. Chris was barely nineteen and Mary Jane twenty six. Joy and Joe Longo, despite their doubt of their son's maturity and readiness for marriage, attended the wedding and gave the couple a generous gift of a trip to Jamaica. Mary Jane and Chris rented a loft apartment in Deepottown and Ipsilante. Do you want to talk about Nipsilante just for a second. Sure, because we you know, a lot of times we give geographical background. Didn't do any research here, but I'm sure that you have some information you can share about Ipsilent. Well. Ipslany's kind of like the sister city Dane Arber. It's just east of ann Arbor and they kind of border on each other.

31:26 And ann Arbor is home to University of Michigan and Ipsilante right next door is home to Eastern Michigan University, which is also a great school. Yeah, and in a lot of ways, Ipsilani is kind of thought of as more of like a hip, up and coming place compared to ann Arbor. It's a lot more affordable. Yeah, that's true. Crime rate is higher, yep, But in recent years, I think locals kind of prefer Ipsilenty to ann Arbor in some ways. Yeah, because Ipslani is just it's just a little cooler, it's more affordable, just has. Like a more of a vibe going on, more of a vibe going on. For sure. Christian was doing well in his job. He was promoted to district manager. He was making more money, and they went on frequent trips to Mexico and Jamaica.

32:10 Chris liked to shop for Mary Jane and spoil her with expensive gifts that they really couldn't afford. He bought two new vehicles, a red Camaro from Mary Jane and an SUV for himself. They were in debt up to their ears with twelve maxed out credit cards, but Mary Jane was unaware of their financial situation. Ah, that stresses me out. I know, seriously, this story. Of course, it's horrible everything that happens, but the financial stress. I really have a hard time reading about people's financial stress. And he daily stresses me out. I think Chris is super young and super immature. He's like twenty, and he has all these responsibilities. And yeah, it's a lot for a twenty year old.

32:52 Yeah. In July nineteen ninety six, Mary Jane discovered she was pregnant. Oh, another responsibility. Exactly, Mary Jane and Chris, and we're excited to welcome a baby. Mary Jane knitted a blanket and Chris built an armoire and a toy chest. They painted scenes from Peter Rabbit on the walls of the nursery. On February twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven, Zachary Michael Longo was born. Things were going well for Chris professionally. He had been promoted again to Midwest field manager. Mary Jane soon became pregnant again. She quit working and stayed home to take care of Zachary. Chris's job now required him to travel almost weekly. As his income rose, so did his spending.

33:35 Image was everything to Christian. He liked designer clothes, expensive cars, and home furnishings. The Longos soon purchased a new, three bedroom home for their growing family. On April thirtieth, nineteen ninety eight, Sadie Anne was born, just fourteen months after her brother. After Sadie's birth, Chris scheduled of vasectomy, but he missed the appointment, and Mary Jane soon found herself pregnant again. Christian hated not being home every night to tuck in the children, and he decided to quit his job. Not sure if that's the best decision. Right, he began working in fireplace sales. The job paid significantly less and didn't cover their monthly bills.

34:17 Madison Jeanie Longo was born on October nineteenth, nineteen ninety nine, almost two months early. She required a month long stay in the hospital, which further complicated the Longo's finances. Soon, Mary Jane's car was repossessed while he was selling fireplaces to contractors. Christian decided to start a business with a friend from his Kingdom Hall, Final Touch Construction Cleaning. Chris and his crew would clean newly constructed houses before they went on the market for sale. They did general cleaning, but also cleaned the carpets and windows. It was a great idea for a business. It really is. It is. Yeah. Soon there was more business than Chris and his partner could handle, and they hired more teams.

34:59 Chris he acted that he could potentially make one million dollars a year, but the problem was the contractors were slow to pay their bills and Chris was soon over his head paying his employees and purchasing supplies. When his Dodge dur Ango needed a new engine, he didn't have the money to fix it. That must have been so frustrating because he has this business that's thriving. He has more business than he can take on. It's a ton of employees, but he's not getting paid. Yeah, and he still has to pay his employees. He's too young to get, you know, loans to help him out, so it's a really difficult situation. One of the few things I remember from business school cash is king. So you can have all of the business you want, but if you're not getting the cash flow, you're going to be struggling.

35:46 And I think construction businesses are known to be laid on their bill or not laid on their bills, but just you know, they pay them in their own time, right well, because they don't get paid until like the houses get closed on. Yeah, there's like this whole supply chain that all to kind of trickle down right to the last person. Broke and desperate. In February two thousand, Chris came up with a plan. He picked a random name out of the phone book, Jason Joseph Fortner, and forged a Michigan driver's license. It was a fairly good forgery. He drove to Toledo, Ohio, to a car dealership. He asked to take the vehicle for a test drive. He only needed to give them a copy of his license. He handed over the forged license.

36:28 When the salesperson climbed into the vehicle with him, he panicked and said he was no longer interested. But by the time he arrived at the third dealership, his nerves had calmed and he was allowed to take a van out to test drive on his own. He never returned the van, a maroon Pontiac Montana, valued at thirty four thousand dollars. Longo rationalized to himself that as soon as his business was in the black, he would pay for the vehicle. But unfortunately that day never came. So he's probably, I don't know, twenty two to twenty three at this point, and they'd let him take the van out on his own. Yeah, that was crazy. That is a little bit crazy, and we asked to do that. They look at us like, you know, we're crazy to be really aggressive.

37:11 Yeah. Business continued to grow and the money became steadier, but instead of paying his debts, Chris bought a boat and two jet skis. Are you okay? No, I'm a little stressed. Final Touch now had over three dozen employees, but Kristin was working eighteen hours a day. Joy and Joe Longo had moved to Indiana. They were proud of Chris and invested eighty thousand dollars in his business. They helped him open an Indiana branch of the company, but the business was always underwater and builders were always late paying their bills. Payroll was fifteen thousand dollars every other Friday. Many of Chris's employees were Kingdom Hall friends or family members, and he couldn't stiff them. He was too proud to be honest with them. He was desperate to save his business.

37:59 Why did you buy boat in two jet skis? Then? Yeah, maybe not the best decision making, Chris. I think that the boat and the jet skis were stolen. I think it was a shady He didn't steal them, but whoever he bought them from, it was a shady dealing. Oh okay. Working the long days was affecting every aspect of Chris's life. He was stressed and exhausted. At some point, his business partnership had dissolved and he was running the business by himself. He decided to hire an assistant, Jessica Meadows, who was also a Jehovah's witness. She and her husband, Seebert lived in the same neighborhood as the Long Gooes. Siebert also worked for Christian. Jessica and Chris soon confided in each other that neither was happy in their marriage.

38:45 They realized that they were falling in love. Christian loved Jessica's outgoing personality. It was a better match for his he thought after seven years of marriage, he had tired of Mary Jane's quiet, submissive demeanor. We haven't talked about Mary j a lot, but she really did. Despite their age difference, she really did take a backseat to Chris, and she let him make all of the decisions about the business and their finances. And I get the impression that she had no idea what their true financial picture looked like. Okay, I think he really did love her initially, but she kind of depended on him for everything and their social life, like she would kind of power behind him in social situations.

39:30 Okay, So you think he didn't like that. No, I think it started to wear on him because he was very outgoing, and I think he liked this new woman because you know, she was more outgoing in front of gotcha. One day, Mary Jane found the following email on Chris's computer. No other woman shall ever hold the place in my affection the way you have. You have changed my life. It had no real meaning, no lasting laughter, and no joy. It has come back. I love you and am deeply in love with you and always will be. I would be so devastated to find something like that on your computer. Yeah, I think most spouses would be right. Mary Jane was furious and decided to blow up Chris's affair. He insisted that their relationship had not become physical, but that was irrelevant to Mary Jane. She called Jessica's husband, Chris's parents, and several church elders. Christian was contrite and begged for forgiveness.

40:28 He told Mary Jane he would change. She forgave him, blaming herself for the affair. He had told her he hadn't felt the same about her once she started having children, and he was jealous that she had less time for him. Contractors owed Final Touch over one hundred thousand dollars, but the real estate market had slowed down and Chris wasn't being paid. When payroll checks bounced, Christian felt a deep sense of dread and helplessness. He sat at his computer and tried to think of a solution. Quick Books was open, and he came up with an idea he could forge checks from one of the big builders, who owed him a substantial amount of money. He created several forged checks totaling over seventeen thousand dollars. He nervously took them to the bank The next day when they were put into his account with no questions asked, Christian Longo felt a deep sense of relief. He had been able to meet payroll.

41:21 He was owed that money, he rationalized two weeks later, feeling emboldened after he hadn't been caught the first time, he tried it again. Can you believe that? No? I can't. Like he took there, he made literal checks, he took their account numbers, and. Yeah, this is just continuing to stress me out. With the solution to his payroll problems temporarily behind him, Chris and Mary Jane decided to take a week long vacation. Before returning home, he stopped at the bank to cash another set of counterfeit checks. This time, the teller paused and said they would be right back. Chris realized he was in trouble. He left the bank in a hurry, but when the Longos returned home, a state trooper was there to arrest him. In total, Longo wrote seven fraudulent checks.

42:07 For each infraction, he faced a fourteen year sentence. Mary Jane hadn't been aware of any of Chris's illegal activities. At this point, she was tired and beaten down. She agreed that they should keep the matter private or risk being kicked out of their Kingdom Hall. They sold some things and laid off most of their employees. In September two thousand, Christian pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud. He received three years of probation and eighty hours of community service. He also had to repay the builder thirty thousand dollars. What do you think of that sentence. I think it's a pretty light sentence, super light repaying the builder kind of like the builder owed him the money. So I have a little bit of an issue with him having to repay the building.

42:50 And I don't know the particulars. Maybe the builder still owed him that money, but he had to pay back. Yeah, yeah, I get it. So you're saying it's okay to forge checks. Someone os money money. I do understand how. Why you would. Yeah, absolutely, but you should you should Yeah, no, you should not do that. An article appeared in the ann Arbor News about Chris's legal troubles. After his court date, he was disfellowshipped or kicked out of the Kingdom Hall and was ordered to have no contact with anyone from the Kingdom Hall. This was especially hard on Mary Jane, even Joe long Ago. Chris's father stopped talking to him and demanded repayment of his eighty thousand dollars investment in Final Touch. Oh that's pretty harsh. Your own dad stops talking to you. The Longo's financial situation was more dire than ever, with thirty thousand dollars in credit card debt, one thousand dollars a month in court ordered restitution, a sixteen thousand dollars underwater car lease, twelve thousand dollars in back wages to former employees, a mortgage, et cetera, not to mention three small, fast growing children to take care of.

43:58 How are you doing? I was just attle, I'm okay, I'm hanging in there. Chris started delivering newspapers again and worked at Final Touch, but the business was on its last legs. Chris had let his workers compensation insurance lapse after an employee fell while cleaning windows and broke both of his ankles. Final Touch was finished. Chris had promised Mary Jane after his conviction that he was on the right path and wouldn't participate in any more illegal activity, but he forged a credit card in his father's name. When the credit card arrived, he bought scuba gear and took classes to become certified, and Mary Jane got lasik surgery. A new credit card was soon maxed out too. On top of other debts and lawsuits, the Longos decided they needed to leave Ipseilani.

44:47 Their reputations were ruined and even most family members wanted nothing to do with them. Chris was still on parole, so they decided to move to Toledo, Ohio, which was less than an hour away. Their house was nearly were closed down, but they were able to sell it and walked away with about eight thousand dollars in cash, much less than they had hoped for. They rented a warehouse in Toledo for sixteen hundred and fifty dollars a month. It was not zoned for occupancy. There was no indoor plumbing or working kitchen, but Chris thought he could make the warehouse livable. Surely Chris could have found a cheaper place to live than one thousand, six hundred and fifty dollars a month, and not in a warehouse that didn't have indoor plumbing.

45:32 Yeah, that's pretty bizarre, and don't call me shirty. By the way, Ah, that part drives me nuts because I know Rent twenty years ago, they definitely could have found something under one thousand dollars. Yeah, it's really bizarre Christian. He just makes one bad decision after another after another after another. Yeah. While Chris worked on the warehouse to try to make it livable, the family moved into a motel. He had another expense. They were again nearly out of money, and Chris had no job. He turned once again to counterfeiting checks. He cashed five checks for nine thousand dollars. Mary Jane's sisters were worried about her. They had heard that she was living in Toledo. They took to driving up and down the streets until they saw the Longos van. They chatted briefly and were very concerned about Mary Jane's frazzled state.

46:22 When they returned three weeks later, the Longos were gone and Mary Jane's cell phone was no longer in service. Mary Jane's family contacted the police. Her sisters filed a missing person's report, but police weren't very helpful. When they entered the warehouse where the Longos had been living, it was a disaster, food, clothing, broken toys and other belongings were strewn about. It appeared that the Longos had left in a hurry, and no one knew where to look. A few weeks later, Mary Jane sent her sister's letters and apologized for not telling them that she had moved. She gave no new address. Mary Jane's sister's hand the letters over to the police, thinking that they would be interested in them. The police thanked them and remove the Longos from the missing person's database.

47:09 I mean, technically they're not missing, right. They left on their own accord, so. I think that's what the police said, right. But it seems like they might have been wanted for some other things too, like counterfeiting. Check said, you know, crimes that they might have wanted to talk to them about. Absolutely. As they slowly made their way towards the West coast, the Longos pond as much as they could along the way, including Mary Jane's wedding rings. They stayed in cheap motels or camped. They ate fast food or cheap canned food. Chris left the family dog at a farm. He told the kids the dog needed an adventure too. A lot of times people tell their kids their dog went to live on a farm when the dog died.

47:50 But in this case, do you think he actually literally left the dog at a farm. I mean, he was a monster, so who knows, But let's just we'll just go that. Eventually, they made it to the Oregon Coast and at first stayed at a crummy motel, but Chris was tired of life on the run and he rented a luxury condo they couldn't afford, with views of the ocean and Walldport, about fifteen miles south of Newport. The only job that Chris could find was at a Starbucks as a part time employee, making seven dollars and fifteen cents an hour. He thought the job was beneath him and it wasn't nearly enough to support his family of five. He had lied to the building manager that he had some money coming in and he would be able to pay the rent soon, but it was another lie. Chris was running out of options and knew that he had let his family down. But they had a few weeks of comfort in the condo and the kids enjoyed exploring the coast. And I would like to think that the last weeks of Mary Jane Zach Sadie and Madison's lives were happy, hope. So that is the perfect place to end Part one. Oh okay, sorry everyone.

49:01 It's an interesting story so far, and this is. One of the most compelling stories I've ever read, partially because of the book that I read. The book is called True Story Murder Memoir Mia Kolpa by Michael Finkel. In part two, we will get very in depth into Michael Finkle's life. He plays a very important part in this story. Yeah, and you remember. You actually read read the book years ago. Years ago. I was surprised because I was trying to find a book on the case and I looked on Goodreads where we were both on Goodreads, and I thought that you read the book and I was like, holy cow, you read it in twenty fifteen. And then I started the book and this story sounds so familiar to me.

49:47 And then I don't know if I read the book before. I'm sure I probably told you about it. But I felt like I read it before, Like just the author's his passages just seem so familiar to me. It's a fabulous book. Yeah, and I can't wait to tell you guys about Part two because it's just mind boggling. I can't wait to hear it, because I did read the book many years ago. But honestly, I have so I have such a bad memory that I don't remember a lot. I think a lot of it will come back to you. But then there's the movie too, which again we will get to that in part two. But what do you think so far? Well, it's just such a horrible and sad story and Christian just made one bad decision after another after another, and obviously it leads to you know, unthinkable horrific events of what he did. And it's just so just so sad that he couldn't figure out a way just to step back and like, you know, get out of this cycle of bad decisions.

50:41 If you see a picture of Chris Longo, he looks like a frat boy. He just looks like, you know, he's you know, probably better than average looking guy. He just always looks clean cut and it looks like a nice guy, like the guy next door. Yeah, but he is a true sociopath, and it begs the question, is just so with you sociopath born or bread. Well, I do not know the answer to that. You I look to you to answer those kind of questions because of your psychology background. But don't do that. I don't know. I mean, I don't see anything in his upbringing that from what you've what we've talked about. I thought I thought about this last night because he admittedly is like I had a good childhood and my dad loved me, my mom loved me. You know, trips, we had enough money. But remember his his birth father did was abusive and an alcoholic, so that his you know, his genetic code is that guy.

51:38 Right, But also he did suffer some abuse in his early years as well. And you know, I think your personality is set by the time you're three, as hard as that is to believe it. If you know, he saw some things and suffered abuse on it his his own experience, that might explain some things. Yeah, I suppose. So. Now, Mary Jane was older, obviously seven years older than Christian, and then I don't know for sure, but presumably she was maybe more mature than him. And maybe she wasn't though. Yeah, I guess we never want to say anything bad about the victim because she was a lovely, lovely lady and a wonderful mother, and she tried her best to be a good wife. Christian could not have been an easy person to be married too.

52:23 But it is surprising that she was seven years his senior that she never said, like, hey, what's the balance on her checking account? Yeah? Yeah, And part of that, I'm sure is from her upbringing in Jehovah's Witness religion, where I know, you know, women are subservient to their husbands and they look to their husbands to make the decisions in the family. So I guess that was just the way she was brought up, and. Someone would prefer that. Some women don't want to be involved in the you know, financial decisions, and every marriage is different, and that's fine if that works for you. Yeah, I don't want to be involved in the financial decisions in our mayor. That's why I let you take care of I thought you were taking care of that.

53:04 I mean, we're very fortunate that, you know, we're older. We have been through some thin times for sure. Right, we're a pretty good team. Though, as long as you don't ask how much my shoes cost? Were I never knew? I guess one question for you. We talked about it a little bit earlier, but were the police looking for them at all? I know they weren't considered missing persons at that point because they knew that they were voluntarily had left. But Christian had done some shady things that I would guess he was wanted for. But maybe they were when he broke his parole parol counterfeited checks, but maybe those were not major enough offenses that the police weren't, like, didn't have an all points bulletin out or anything like that looking for him.

53:51 Yeah, exactly, I think you're right. I don't know for sure, but yeah, those aren't. He was probably on a list somewhere like okay, if if you see this. Guy, there's a warrant for his arrest or whatever. But but they weren't actively out hunting for him exactly. It's like if if you were in I did something like you know, we passed even just passing a bad check that you knew you didn't have money to cover, the anxiety that that would give either one of us would be through the roof, right, we just wouldn't do that. And just the amount of I mean, he wasn't just passing bad check. They were account like he made the checks and he had like this false driver's license and driving the cars off the lot like that.

54:36 He had to know that he couldn't get away with those things indefinitely. It was going to catch up to him. It's just baffling to me that someone that young had that sense of just entitlement. And I mean, I guess it's narcissism, classic narcissism, right, like thinking that these things are owed to you and that the law, if it catches up to you'll be able to just talk. Because he we did quite a bit like his, you know, previous legal issues. He got off pretty easy, right, and we didn't have to do any jail time. And yeah, that was a lot of money, that's true. Anyway, I can't wait to tell you about part two. I can't wait to hear it. And if you can't wait to listen to part two, join us on patreon dot com. Slash love Mary kil We talked last time about our vacation to Mane, specifically my vacation and the kids vacation.

55:34 No. I mean I I had a couple of days. You had a couple of days. It wasn't the best, but the days that I had were great and the Airbnb, you know, even though I didn't feel good, it was a really nice well, Jocelyn, our very kind host, offered our listeners at discount. So if you want to know more about the airbnb, if anyone is going to Mane, specifically to Akadia, let me know and I can hook you up with Jocelyn. Well, that's pretty cool. It's a really nice place. Definitely recommended. Yeah, I absolutely recommend it too. And dear listeners, I'm picky. You are pretty choosy. I am pretty picky. And it was super clean and lovely, and we got to play ping pong.

56:18 Oh, and they had little basketball basketball. I know, I'm kind of bommed that I didn't get to play the basketball. Yeah. I learned that our son is like a he's like a savant when it comes to those you know, basketball like I don't know what they're called. It's just like that little basketball net that you just keep shooting and shooting and accounts how many baskets you made. Yeah, you guys had a good I mean that was fun. And then there's a cute little like video game thing anyway. And they had kayaks there we went. You can go kayaking right from basically the backyard. It sounds like we're getting paid, but we're we're not, although maybe we'll go back someday. I don't know. I would love to. Okay, we're gonna ship topics really quick. But today is a very special day. I am shocked, shocked, Richard when I tell you that, you know it's not her birthday?

57:08 What are you wearing? Uh? Oh? What is today? Oh my god? I am so lat I can't believe I have done this. Today is the first Michigan football game, and I completely forgot about it. You're wearing something. I'm not wearing a T shirt. I mean it's blue, but it's not. Yeah, I would have I would have forgotten to watch it tonight. You would not have forgotten to watch it. I totally would have forgotten. I would would have reminded you. Yeah, pretty good, like I appreciate. So. I mean it's a night game, which you know, it's really really quick. Uh So, what's his name? The guy?

57:51 The guy? We have a pillow up left Michigan because Michigan had a perfect season. Yeah, might as well leave while I'm on top I mean. I guess. So you have no idea what to expect? Do you want to just really quickly give you your predictions? So then you can play this back in three months. I predict that Michigan will win every game this season. They're ranked number nine. Number nine is not bad, not. Badat to start, But you. Know, I have no idea. Really, I think it's probably going to be maybe they'll win three quarters of their games. Really, some of their games are. Really going to win all their games. You know, they're going to beat Ohio State, they're going to beat Michigan State, they're going to beat Penn State. But in reality, I have no idea how they're going to do. I'm just assuming they're going to do well, and I'm looking forward to opening day.

58:38 I didn't ask you what season you wanted. I'd asked you what season you thought. What happened? But the coach, the new coach is the previous defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator, I believe, but close. Why am I laughing? I have no idea why you're laughing. I this stuff the top of my head because I am such an expert all thinks fishy and football. Do you think Chris Longo is a Michigan fan? Oh? I hope not. We don't want him, No, we sure don't. Thank you all so much for listening and hanging out with us today. We appreciate it so much. Please rate, review, follow and subscribe, find us on social media, or send us an email at Lovemarykill at gmail dot com.

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