Cooper Mall

just vanished.

No gate open, no tracks in the mud.

Houdini in diapers.

She hunted everywhere, and all the neighbors were looking for me.

Every backyard was checked, every corner scanned, until the search party spilled out to the boundary where homes end and danger begins.

This was Margot's first great escape.

Stepping into trouble and surviving it would become her signature, the trait that shaped every turn to come.

From Sony Music Entertainment and Glass Podcasts, this is The Crimes of Margot Freshwater.

I'm Cooper Mall.

Episode 4, Born to Run.

Greg Costa spent 10 years chasing Margot Freshwater, trying to stitch together the three decades she lived in hiding.

He had scraps, paperwork, old applications, secondhand memories, pieces of a life, but never the full picture.

Yet he kept looking.

And finally, the trail led him right up to her front door.

And up until now, you've mostly heard about that search.

You're probably wondering what Tanya was doing all those years.

I was too.

Before we get to that, I think we need to sit with what makes Tanya's story unusual.

In most people's lives, 30 years go by collecting the small, ordinary moments that make up a life.

You fall in love.