The Pretender
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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.
It was discovered that Christian Longo had caught a plane to Cancun, Mexico. My name is Michael Finkel. I was a writer for the New York Times Magazine. I had a personal connection because I learned that while Christian Longo was in Mexico, he was pretending to be a writer for the New York Times. In fact, he was pretending to be me.
Thank you for seeing me, Mr. Loner. Call me Chris. So why me? I followed your whole career. I guess I felt like I knew you. I want to tell you my side of this. Only you. Maybe at this point it doesn't matter. The truth always matters. It always seems to matter to you.
I just looked him straight in the eye and I said, you know, Chris, did you do what you're accused of doing? And he was, as always, completely unruffled. never betrayed a moment of micro panic, nothing, and looked at me and said, I think you know, and just gave me a little wink.
What was the first thought that went through your mind when you hear there's a man who's about to stand trial for murder who was impersonating you?
I think it was complete confusion into sort of this disbelief, a wrinkle of like sort of creepiness, and also extraordinary curiosity. Like, I would like to know more.
Michael Finkel's curiosity had already taken him to the far corners of the globe.
It was myself and a Korean climber on Cheolyu, the fifth highest mountain in the world.
Now, it was about to take him into the heart of darkness. It changed your life?
Every minute of it.
Four years ago, Finkel was a prize-winning feature writer for the New York Times.
This is from Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip. This is from my story on Haitian refugees.
This is pretty heady stuff.
Absolutely.
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?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What led to the tragic events involving Christian Longo and his family?
0:28–4:50
2
How did investigators first uncover the mystery of the Longo family's disappearance?
4:50–9:06
3
What was Christian Longo's life like while he was on the run?
9:06–14:12
4
How did Michael Finkel become involved in the Longo case?
14:12–19:01
5
What were the key details revealed during Longo's trial?
19:01–24:29
6
What was the reaction of Mary Jane's family during the trial?
24:29–29:54
7
How did Christian Longo justify his actions during the trial?
29:54–35:18
8
What is the current status of Christian Longo and Michael Finkel's lives?
35:18–40:19