The Crimes of Margo Freshwater | 3. Undercover
episode
The Binge Crimes: What Happened to the Harrisons?
42 min
4 speakers
5 chapters
transcribed 2 months ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Why not? I think traditionally people maintain contact with their families and we were not convinced that she had not.
That's Steven Sheerholt, retired BCI agent who eventually became Greg Costas' boss. Sheerholt remembers that as long as Margo's fate was still unknown, Costas wouldn't stop until he found the answer.
Greg was like a dog with a bone.
Call it ego or call it grit, but Costas believed no secret could resist him forever. Every cop before him had pressed her relatives, hoping for a crack, but every attempt had collapsed into silence. So Costas knew he'd need a different way in.
I thought, why couldn't I impersonate the baby that she gave up for adoption in 1966?
Costas was 27 at the time, the exact age the baby would have been. It was a coincidence he could use, the perfect cover for getting close. And since the real child had been adopted as an infant, it's not like anyone would know what he grew up to look like.
and I could approach the family members saying, hey, this is who I am. I'm trying to find my birth mother, Margo Freshwater.
This was a pretty bold plan, ethically blurry for sure.
Everybody thought it was a great idea, but you did have to tread lightly, okay, because you're dealing with three other lives here, meaning the parents that adopted the kid and the kid himself, right?
It was risky. Maybe this kid didn't know he was adopted. Maybe his parents had kept that from him. And if he didn't know, maybe he didn't want to know his biological family. Still, the scheme made sense. If Costas played the part, he could slip right into their world without setting off alarms.
In order to do that, though, I had to figure out who the boy was, his real identity. Because my fear was, what if this boy really did try to find his birth mother and actually made contact with these people? And then here I come saying, hey, you know, I'm looking for my mom, Margo. And you're like, well, no, you know, he was already here. I went through the probate court and subpoenaed the records, but you open up the file and there's nothing in there. It was just literally almost impossible to find out who adopted the kid. All you could really find was the birth certificate.
There was no guarantee it would lead anywhere. But Costas, he doesn't give up that easy.
We'll be right back following...
So one night I'm laying in bed and I'm watching TV and I'm watching the 11 o'clock news. And there's a story on there about a girl who was reunited with her mother. And this girl used this company called Reunite. And what they do is they try to help adoptive kids find their birth parents or vice versa. So I thought, huh, I wonder if they can help me. I called them the next day.
How in the world was he going to explain this? How do you call this well-meaning nonprofit and say, hey, I'm looking for a convicted murderer on the loose. Want to hop on the bandwagon?
They were concerned. You think?
Why did investigators decide to impersonate Margo’s long-lost son to reach her family?
They thought I was somehow investigating them. And they're trying to tell me that everything they do is above board. And I said, look, that's fine. I need your help. So we set up a meeting and I basically told them the whole story.
Costas has got a silver tongue. The guy can talk his way through just about anything.
I'm telling you, it was within three days.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:26
2
Why did investigators decide to impersonate Margo’s long-lost son to reach her family?
4:26–12:34
3
How did Greg Costas identify potential birth-child candidates using adoption records?
12:34–16:38
4
How did the nonprofit 'Reunite' help narrow the search for Margo’s adopted child?
16:38–34:30
5
What cover story and props did agents create for the Great Lakes Investigations ruse?
34:30–42:26