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Chapter 1: What led to the tragic events involving Christian Longo and his family?
There was nothing that was important to her as much as those kids. Those kids were her world. But the last time we got together, I noticed she wasn't the sister I knew. You thought she was in danger? I knew she was.
It started on December 19th, 2001. We got a report of a child in the bay. My name is Trish Miller and I'm the lead investigator. We did a neighborhood canvas of that area. We knocked on every door.
Every child in the 2,000 person town of Waldport was checked upon. No one was found missing. It was a complete mystery.
We thought that maybe there was a car accident and that a vehicle had gone in the water. And we would find the rest of the family.
A sheriff's office dive team was sent to investigate the waters where the body was found.
And they discovered a second child. This was a little girl, and she was weighted down in the water with a rock.
The feeling in town was of confusion, grief, and a fear. Nobody knew if a killer was living amongst them. Identifications were made. The boy was named Zachary Michael Longo. He was a few months shy of his fifth birthday. The young girl was named Sadie Ann Longo. She was three and a half years old.
About a week after the first body was found, the bodies of Mary Jane Longo and Madison Longo were found at the bottom of a bay.
Once we found Mary Jane and Madison, we knew that our focal suspect was going to be Chris Longo. The whole family's dead. And he's nowhere to be found.
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Chapter 2: How did investigators first uncover the mystery of the Longo family's disappearance?
Every story was extremely thrilling to me.
He had a gorgeous home in Bozeman, Montana, and a beautiful, intelligent girlfriend, Jill Barker. We had this magnetic chemistry between us, so it seemed like we should give this a chance. But Finkel's ambition had a darker side.
He had built his self-esteem around being Mike Finkel at the New York Times, and he was starting to get really intoxicated with all this attention. It was hard to date him, and pretty soon I realized that I had to walk away from this relationship.
And in his drive to outdo his competition and himself... I wanted to write a really good story. ...Finkel fabricated a portion of a story on child slavery in West Africa. You lied?
Yes.
His bosses found out.
I was caught for the deception and promptly fired. It was something I wish I could take back really badly.
In an instant, he lost the career he'd been building his entire adult life. He killed it all. He lied. That was the worst day of your life? By far. Scorned by his colleagues, the shattered shell of Michael Finkel retreated to Montana, awaiting the merciless media inquiries which were sure to come. The first call came sooner than expected.
I asked him, you know, you're calling about the editor's note, right?
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Chapter 3: What was Christian Longo's life like while he was on the run?
He had a really good haircut. The Lincoln County Sheriff released this picture to the local news, hoping to identify the dead boy. I thought, oh, God, that can't be, you know. That can't be Zachary. Denise Thompson had babysat Zachary Longo and his two little sisters, Sadie and Madison. She knew their father, Chris Longo, from the local Starbucks where they both worked.
I thought, well, you know, this can't be happening. By the time Denise got to the police station, the second body had been found. A little girl weighted down with a rock. Denise identified them both, Zachary and Sadie. You never want to be in that position to see a little child.
Investigators have determined that these deaths are not accidental.
As police hunted for Chris, his wife Mary Jane, and their baby... We're actually trying to locate them. They may well be victims. Denise remembered a strange conversation she'd had with Longo the very day Zach's body had been found. He made it a point to come up to me while I was working and said, you won't be seeing the rest of the family. My wife and I are getting a divorce. Were you shocked?
Oh, yeah. That just surprised the heck out of me. I did not expect that. Did they seem like a pretty happy couple? Oh, yeah. He was just, you know, look at us. We're perfect, you know. It was just like that. A surveillance tape taken just days before shows the Longos shopping like any normal family. They had just recently moved into an upscale housing complex.
He was real polite to everyone, seemed real smart, and real willing to just talk to you, you know. He just, he was real normal.
Eight days into the investigation, divers dredged up two suitcases from the harbor just outside the Longos' apartment.
One suitcase contained the body of Mary Jane Longo. The second suitcase contained the body of Madison Longo. It meant that somebody killed those two human beings and stuffed them in suitcases like garbage and put them in the water to hide their bodies.
With all signs pointing in one direction.
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Chapter 4: How did Michael Finkel become involved in the Longo case?
At age 22, Chris Longo took a job with a company that distributes the New York Times here in Ypsilanti. Driven to succeed, he worked his way up to manager and eventually developed a fondness for reading the Times, especially articles written by a reporter named Mike Finkel.
He was somewhat of a fan.
Longo would later tell Finkel that he envied the writer's worldwide adventures.
He told me that if he was a writer, he'd like to write the same sort of stories that I wrote. He was like, okay, I'm holding it.
You did! Longo's own life was far less exotic. At age 25, he quit his job to start up Final Touch, a cleaning company for contractors. I thought everything he was doing, he was doing for his family, and he wanted good things for them. And Penny says the Longos had a lot of good things. I was wondering about the vacations that they took. They were always driving brand-new cars.
Either somebody's helping them, thinking Chris's parents, or they are majorly in debt. Penny's suspicions were right. 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.
There was no attempts to cover up anything in this particular investigation.
Detective Fred Farkas of the Michigan State Police had the goods.
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Chapter 5: What were the key details revealed during Longo's trial?
Love, Mary Jane. The police closed the missing person's case. One month later, Mary Jane and her children would turn up dead in Oregon, where their cross-country journey had ended. And Chris Longo was now long gone. Chris Longo's life on the run finally brought him here to Cancun, Mexico.
While Mary Jane's family was still reeling from the shock of the murders, Chris Longo was partying in paradise.
He was always smiling, laughing.
Tom Taft was on vacation when he met Longo.
Everyone seemed to like him around there. He had quite a few friends. He was having a ball.
While police were hunting him, Longo was beginning a new life as the globe-trotting journalist he had always wanted to be.
He said his name was Michael Finkel and that he worked for the New York Times travel section.
Little did Longo know that the real Michael Finkel would soon find him.
Suspected of killing his wife and three children in Oregon, Christian Longo had made it to Mexico where he assumed the identity of a New York Times reporter. He would soon come in contact with the real Mike Finkel. Longo considered himself a pretty good storyteller, but he would tell his most twisted tale to a jury.
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Chapter 6: What was the reaction of Mary Jane's family during the trial?
He was a little lost. Mike was not sure who he was. And Chris came along. The timing was perfect. He just came along at the right time, and a real relationship developed.
He was the only friend or person in my life to whom I felt morally superior.
As the Lincoln County prosecutors decided how to handle their high-profile case... We have elected to seek the death penalty. Longo decided to talk to only one journalist, the one no one else wanted to touch. During more than 50 conversations with Finkel, Longo promised the real story of the murders.
He claimed to me that he had explanations for everything and then he told me point blank No ambiguity. I am not guilty.
In his handwritten letters over the next year, Longo described himself as essentially a good man struggling to live the American dream.
He needed to prove that he could not only make it on his own, but be a blazing success. But he so wanted to be a success so quickly that it blinded him to many things.
Longo claims the checkforging was not an act of greed, but rather a noble attempt to keep his business afloat, all for the benefit of his beloved family.
If there's one thing that Chris Longo is a master at, it is justification.
As circumstances overwhelmed him, Longo says he fell into a vicious cycle of lying, living beyond his means, and then leaving town.
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Chapter 7: How did Christian Longo justify his actions during the trial?
On Valentine's Day 2003, the proceedings begin with a bombshell.
Did you unlawfully and intentionally cause the death of Madison Longo? Yes, I did.
Longo pleads guilty. partly guilty. He admits killing his wife and their youngest child, Madison. But he maintains his innocence in the deaths of his older children, Zach and Sadie, confounding everyone who is following his case.
Why would you admit to two murders and not four? And then, of course, if you didn't kill Zachary and Sadie, then who did?
For now, the defense leaves that a mystery. But prosecutors say the evidence is clear. Longo alone murdered all four victims and dumped their bodies in the water.
He didn't like being tied down with his wife and three kids. And the solution for him was to just get rid of these three children and his wife and assume somebody else's identity.
Oregon District Attorney Josh Marquis followed the case closely. He says Longo is a sociopath who deserves the death penalty.
He made a conscious choice to commit a cosmically evil act.
At trial, truck driver Dick Ho testifies that he met a man he believes was Longo on the Waldport Bridge late one night.
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Chapter 8: What is the current status of Christian Longo and Michael Finkel's lives?
The worst. Because the one thing... That was the most important thing to her, was being a good mom. But Josh Marquis believes Longo's performance has backfired. You think it hurt him? I think it hurt him horribly. It takes the jury little more than four hours to reach its decision.
Guilty of the charge of aggravated murder. Count two. Guilty, guilty, guilty of the charge of aggravated murder.
Christian Longo is guilty of all four murders. Mary Jane's name is for once cleared, as it should be.
And the person that's accountable for these horrible murders is finally being held accountable.
Today, Longo says the verdict didn't surprise him. What do you think your punishment should be?
I think I should spend the rest of my life in prison at the very least.
And at the very most?
At the very most, death.
But now, he may be changing his story. So let me ask you directly, did you kill Sadie and Zachary?
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