Michael Finkel

Chris Longo was in debt, although he bragged to Mary Jane and everyone else that his business was booming.

I think honestly and truly the most important thing to Chris was his image and money.

But neither Mary Jane nor anyone else knew that to keep up appearances, Chris had turned to crime.

He took a minivan for a test drive and never brought it back.

Then he wrote himself nearly $30,000 worth of counterfeit checks from a client and got caught.

Detective Fred Farkas of the Michigan State Police had the goods.

Longo confessed, presenting himself as a financially strapped family man.

And in fact, he did get off easy with only probation and restitution.

Mary Jane believed Chris's promises that his life of crime was over.

But then she discovered a crime of the heart.

I've never heard my sister ever sound that just heartbroken and awful.

and she confided it to her younger sister, Sally Clark.

She had found an email between Chris and this other woman.

So she tries to make herself look better, spoils him, draws him bubble baths.

She didn't want her kids to grow up without their father.

And she loved Chris so deeply that she wanted it to work out.

Chris told Mary Jane he needed a fresh start.

So in June 2001, just seven weeks after his fraud conviction, he packed up the family and skipped town.

Their new home was a warehouse in Toledo, Ohio.

Of course, this whole time Chris is telling her that he's going to make things right, he's going to pay everyone.