Prosecutors believe that a guy from Hawaii and his wife may have connections to the KGB during the Soviet Union and that they were detained for allegedly taking the identities of two newborns who died in Texas in the 1960s.
John Montague, who lost his daughter Julie in 1968, told The Associated Press: "I still can't believe it happened."
Montague, 91, added: "The odds are like one-in-a-trillion that they found her and used her name. People stoop to do anything nowadays. Let kids rest in peace."
Walter Glenn Primrose and Gwynn Darle Morrison, both in their 60s, were detained on Friday in Kapolei on the island of Oahu. They are accused of living for decades using the aliases Bobby Edward Fort and Julie Lyn Montague, respectively.
USA Today pointed out that the prosecutors sought after the couple. This process could mean the case involves more than falsely getting I.D.s from the Defense Department, passports, and drivers' licenses.
According to court papers from Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Muehleck, the couple may be seen in old images donning the uniforms of the KGB. This former Russian espionage agency helped Primrose obtain a secret security clearance with the U.S. Coast Guard and as a defense contractor. The move to have them held contained faded Polaroids of each person wearing their uniform.
Although Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Muehleck claimed in court documents that he had been informed by a "close associate" that she had resided in Romania while it was a member of the Soviet Union, Morrison's lawyer Megan Kau maintains that the couple had worn the garments as a joke.
"She wants everyone to know she's not a spy," Kau said in an interview with the Associated Press (via The Independent).
Kau said the couple, both U.S. citizens, have lived in the nation for the previous three decades as law-abiding residents.
"This has all been blown way out of proportion. It's government overreaching," Kau added.
According to the arresting paperwork (per Snopes), Morrison and Primrose – married in 1980 – both went to high school in Port Lavaca, Texas and college together at Stephen F. Austin University.
In 1987, they pretended to be two little children who would have been more than ten years younger than the two. The couple lost their Nacogdoches house to foreclosure in the same year.
The couple remarried using their new identities a year after adopting them. They went on to have many official documents, such as multiple passports, created under those bogus names.
Primrose would have been 39 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1994. Still, his enlistment paperwork would have shown that his fictitious name of Fort was 27 years old, which is more than ten years younger than his actual age.
Primrose went so far as to seek a separate passport in 1999 using his own name, Bobby Edward Fort, even though he already had one.
According to the document, the couple is allegedly considered a flight risk, which also notes that the husband neglected to report many travels to Canada despite being required to notify the U.S. government of any international travel due to the secret clearance he maintained for six years.
The application claims that Primrose is a "highly skilled" technician who, if freed, may "communicate covertly," according to the arresting authorities.
The motion further claims that letters taken from the couple's house show them being greeted with names that are neither their legal ones nor the ones usurped from the pair of Texas children. This is in addition to the known aliases used by the couple.
"Federal agents have also seized photographs from the defendants' residence that depict the defendants apparently some years ago wearing what has been identified as KGB uniforms," the motion says (via NBC News).
A U.S. Coast Guard representative confirmed to The Independent that the military branch is cooperating with other federal agencies to investigate the matter. Still, the agency could not show any further information.
"The U.S. Coast Guard and its investigative service are working with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Department of State to conduct a comprehensive investigation of Walter Glenn Primrose," a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard said in an email to The Independent. "The Coast Guard cannot release details about the case in order to uphold the integrity of the investigation."
The couple's bail hearing was slated to take place on Thursday in U.S. District Court.
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