EP. 92 OREGON - Christian Longo: Family Annihilator
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On the week of November 19th, 2001, the city of Waldport, Oregon had been experiencing a lot of rain, which wasn't uncommon for the northwestern town. On this gray and dreary day, a man named Aubrey Van Matter was walking towards his parents' house in the Bayview Mobile Home Park. The double-wide trailers were neatly aligned in rows along the Alaysia River.

And before going inside, Aubrey decided to smoke a cigarette near the water's edge. The temperature was in the low 40s, but the wind chill made it feel much colder. And as he stood there smoking his cigarette, staring up into the water ahead, he spotted something bobbing in the tidal current. At first, he couldn't tell what it was, but as he took a closer look, it was clear that it was the body of a small child wearing nothing but underwear.

the week before a fishing boat had capsized and the four people aboard were lost at sea. But from what Aubrey remembered, there were no children on the boat, so he quickly called the authorities to report the body. Little did anyone know at the time that the little boy's body found in the water was not the result of an accident, and they soon found out that it was four-year-old Zachary Longo,

If anyone were to have seen the Longo family before this incident, they would have thought they were an ideal family. Chris and Mary Jane seemed to be great parents to their three young children, Zachary, Sadie, and Madison. The Longos had nice things, like expensive jewelry, boats, jet skis, cars, a nice apartment, and expensive clothing.

Chris even had a successful business that he claimed was bringing in a lot of money. But this was all a facade. In reality, the family had no money and they were thousands of dollars in debt. Soon enough, the Longos moved across the country and cut off all contact with their family. And then, in December of 2001, Zachary Longo's body would be found in the Alaysia River.

Investigators had no idea at the time that the rest of Chris Longo's family could also be found in the dark Oregon waters. This is the story of family annihilator Chris Longo. I'm Courtney Browen. And I'm Colin Browen. And you're listening to Murder in America. ♪♪

Christian Michael Stewart was born in Iowa on January 23, 1974, to his teenage mother, Joy, and his abusive and alcoholic father, Stephen. And the Stewart family was unstable, to say the least. Shortly after Chris was born, his mother got pregnant with their second child,

Dustin. And according to Joy, when she was pregnant with him, her husband repeatedly hit her in the stomach with a chain, trying to induce an abortion. In the corner of the room while this was happening was little Chris, watching his father violently beat his mom. And he too would experience his father's abuse. When Chris was just two years old, his dad would beat him for making a mess with his food while he was eating in his high chair.

The beating was so bad that it left Chris with a black eye. Decades later, psychologists would look into Chris' childhood in order to understand the crimes he would go on to commit. One psychologist named Stephen Schur said the abuse molded Chris into the man he would become, saying: "Exposure to domestic violence as an infant probably stunted the development of Christian Michael Longo's personality, causing him to lack self-worth and to grow needy for others' approval."

But soon enough, Chris wouldn't have to face this abuse anymore. When he was 4 years old, his mother Joy finally decided to leave her husband and take on life as a single mother. She eventually got a job at a Target in Iowa, and it was there where she met a coworker named Joe Longo. Joe was a good man, a lot better than her previous husband, and soon enough the two got married. Joe was also a very good father to Chris and Dustin. He even adopted them, and the boys took his last name.

Little did he know that his stepson would taint his family name decades later. But after this, Joe would end up getting promoted as a district manager for a Target in Kentucky, so the family had to move. But they didn't mind. Joe was bringing in a good amount of money for their family, and Joy was even able to stay home and watch the boys.

Now, at the time, the Longo family was Catholic, but they never really went to church. And then when Chris was 10 years old, his mother was sitting at home when she heard a knock on their front door. Outside were two Jehovah's Witnesses wanting to spread the word about their religion. Joy decided to hear them out and to her surprise, their message really spoke to her.

After they left, she really started thinking about how she wanted her family to be more involved in religion. And not long after, they started attending meetings with the other Jehovah's Witnesses who called themselves "The Organization." She also started going door-to-door with her sons to speak with their neighbors about converting. And it seemed like Chris really loved this part of the religion.

Soon enough, their entire family, including Joe, were very active in the church. Before long, Chris was even speaking to the congregation. Starting at age 11, he would often be called to the front to read and interpret the Bible. According to the people that knew him, they said he was a wonderful public speaker, and he could easily persuade people to listen to what he had to say, a quality that would follow him throughout his life.

The Jehovah's Witness religion was founded in 1872 by a Pittsburgh man named Charles Taze Russell. Jehovah Witnesses believe that God, or Jehovah, is the highest being and Jesus Christ is an agent in which sinful people can become united with Jehovah. They also believe they are living in the last days and God will soon come to establish his kingdom on earth.

They hold strong beliefs about marriage, which they regard as a holy covenant, and divorce is condemned unless adultery can be proven, and they obviously have to marry someone within their religion. Jehovah's Witnesses do not vote, join the military, or believe in any sort of higher education. They also don't celebrate Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter.

because their belief is that these holidays were created through pagan customs. They do not celebrate Halloween, birthdays, Mother's Day, or Valentine's Day because these holidays don't celebrate Jesus. Jehovah's Witnesses also strongly encourage their members to intermingle with other members rather than non-believers. They're allowed to be friends with people outside of their religion, but they usually stick with each other because of their shared beliefs.

And their rules can get pretty strict. For instance, if someone in your family decides to leave the religion, the other family members are supposed to completely cut them off and not speak to them anymore. So in essence, Jehovah's Witnesses pretty much stick to people within their religion. And that was definitely the case for the Longos.

Chris and his younger brother weren't allowed to play with other children who were non-believers. They didn't go to sleepovers, they couldn't go to birthday parties or participate in sports. If someone from their school called their house wanting to speak with the boys, they were only allowed to talk about schoolwork, nothing else. Their lives pretty much revolved around church. And because of this, they were pretty isolated.

But when Chris entered his teenage years, he started to rebel against his parents. He was at the age where hormones are going crazy and the attention of women was exciting. But he wasn't allowed to date and his parents taught him that premarital relations at his age is considered unclean and displeasing to God.

Chris also started getting in trouble at school. In fact, in high school, he hacked the computer system to change his grades. Following this, Joy decided to pull him out of public school and homeschool him. But she wasn't very equipped to homeschool a teenager, so she focused the remainder of his schooling on religion.

By the time Chris was 16 years old, in 1990, his stepfather Joe accepted a position in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the family moved to a small town called Ypsilanti, which didn't really bother Chris much because he was homeschooled at the time. Their family soon got involved with the Jehovah's Witnesses in Michigan, and Chris even started working minimum wage jobs to have some extra cash on hand. He also kept up with his door-to-door service, which he had gotten pretty good at over the years.

Although he was a smart young man, Chris did not receive his high school diploma. Mostly because his family was more focused on steering him towards an obedient, God-filled life. His upbringing was definitely different than most people his age. Chris never attended a school dance or even took a girl out on a date. But that would all change soon. When Chris was 18 years old, he was attending a Jehovah's Witness meeting when a young woman named Mary Jane Baker caught his eye. Mary Jane was 7 years older than Chris.

Born on April 25, 1967, to parents Jim and Susan Baker. She was the third of five children, and she and her family lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And Mary Jane's story was a lot like Christian's story. Her parents divorced when she was just six years old, and like Christian's mother, Susan became a Jehovah's Witness shortly thereafter. Mary Jane was extremely bright and always excelled in school.

And after high school graduation, she went to work as a secretary for the School of Dentistry at the University of Michigan. The job paid well and she was good at it, but her ultimate goal in life was to become a wife and mother. She wanted to find a husband, but due to her religion, her options were pretty limited. Like we mentioned, Jehovah's Witnesses are only allowed to date other Jehovah's Witness members.

so she pretty much had to choose from the men in her church. Mary Jane's eyes were set on none other than 18-year-old Christian Longo. Mary Jane was 25 at the time, but she didn't mind the age difference. And when Chris found out that she had a crush on him, he started to pursue her. He even came home and told his parents about her, asking for their blessing. But they didn't think he was ready for a relationship.

Even though he was 18 years old, Chris was pretty immature and his parents weren't happy about the thought of him dating. And they were actually so against their relationship, they even told Chris, "If you date her, you can't live with us anymore." The Bible says that you should not lie. The Bible actually says that there's resurrection of both righteous and unrighteous.

After Christian moved out of his parents' house, he lived with a friend for a couple weeks to get on his feet, and he got a job at a local camera shop in the mall. He even found a few Jehovah's Witnesses from church to rent an apartment with him. Chris was on his own for the first time in his life, and it was an adjustment because, like we mentioned, he had a very sheltered upbringing. But it was worth it to him because he was in love with Mary Jane.

In the beginning, her family thought Chris was a great catch. He was dressed well, spoke well, and presented himself with great confidence. Mary Jane's friends also thought he was a catch. According to them, he was always buying her nice things and surprising her with presents like jewelry and roses. What more could you want?

A few months after they started dating, he and Mary Jane, along with a few of their friends, took a trip to Brooklyn, New York to visit the Jehovah's Witness headquarters. One night, the group all went out to eat at this restaurant and while they were there, Chris pulled Mary Jane aside, got down on one knee, and proposed to her. Mary Jane was ecstatic and she obviously said yes and the two started making wedding plans.

Now, something to note here is that Chris did not make a lot of money from working at the camera shop. And one thing you'll quickly learn about him is that he always seemed to live above his means. For instance, he used a credit card to purchase Mary Jane's $3,000 engagement ring, which was definitely out of his pay grade. And it didn't take him long to realize that he couldn't afford to make payments on the ring and his rent.

So he came up with a plan. About three months after they got engaged, Chris was working a shift at the camera store when a man came in and put a down payment on a camera. And I think it was about $108, but once the man left the store, Chris just pocketed the cash. Then later that day, he walked to the jewelry store where he purchased the ring and he made a payment on it using the stolen cash.

Now, the next day, the manager would notice that over $100 was missing from the register. So she confronted her employees, but no one fessed up. The following day, Chris came in, placed a resignation letter on the desk, along with a $100 eight check,

and he just left. He thought that this would make up for him stealing, but the manager would eventually press charges. Not long after, the police would come knocking on his door with an arrest warrant for embezzlement, which is a misdemeanor. Now, getting arrested for stealing is definitely against the Jehovah's Witness rules, and when they found out about it, they put him on restriction.

which is basically a form of punishment where they take privileges away. And this meant that Chris wasn't allowed inside of the Jehovah's Witness temple, which is a pretty big deal, especially because he and Mary Jane were supposed to get married there. Mary Jane was very upset about this. She had always dreamed of getting married in the temple and now her fiancé wasn't even allowed in there, so they had to pick somewhere else.

Chris profusely apologized to her for his actions, telling her that it would never happen again. He promised her over and over that she had nothing to worry about. It was a one-time stupid thing, but he couldn't have been more wrong.

This was one of many red flags shown by her soon-to-be husband. But Mary Jane believed him, and she loved him so much, she was willing to forgive him and move forward with the wedding.

They would end up getting married on March 13th, 1993. And surprisingly, Chris's parents had finally come around to support their relationship. They even paid for their honeymoon in Jamaica. Now, Chris and Mary Jane's life seemed to be going pretty well at this time. Mary Jane, having been influenced most of her life through the teachings of marriage in the church, was striving to have the perfect marriage.

A marriage where a wife submits to her husband and allows him to take the lead. A marriage where when things turn sour you work through them. A marriage that doesn't end in divorce. Mary Jane was committed to a lifelong partnership with Chris. In an article for Willamette Week, Mary Jane's sister Jenny stated, "That's the way she was brought up, to obey your husband, to love him, to do everything for him. I mean, he's the master. He is it. Because their vows are, 'I will obey.'"

And because of this, Mary Jane let her husband pretty much do whatever he wanted to, since she was supposed to be submissive to him. After their wedding, they rented a small apartment in the historic district of Ypsilanti, and Chris got a job for Publisher Circulation Fulfillment, who delivered the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to the locals. This job paid a lot more than his job at the camera store, but it still wasn't enough. One thing Chris liked about this job, however, was that he worked the early morning shift.

meaning after his shift was over he could go home and spend the rest of the day with his wife. But interestingly enough around this time Chris would tell people like their friends and neighbors that he was working for the New York Times which wasn't true. He was a paper boy that delivered the New York Times but he liked telling people that because it sounded better. Chris Longo cared a lot about his image

And if that meant lying to everyone around him, he didn't care. Their landlord even believed that Chris came from money because of the way he presented himself. He was well-spoken, well-dressed, and always had expensive things. For their apartment, they bought the nicest furniture in town. Chris also bought himself a pool table, expensive cameras, and a computer, which was pretty expensive back in the 90s.

On the outside looking in, they seemed to be very well off. But in reality, the couple was drowning in debt. Within the first few years of marriage, Chris got sued by his previous landlord for not paying rent. He maxed out on thousands of dollars in credit cards that he put in his name and Mary Jane's. And they were barely able to pay rent each month. And their family members always wondered how they were able to afford such nice things.

But Chris always lied and said that they were just making a lot of money and their financial struggles would only grow bigger once they started growing their family. Their first child, Zachary, was born on February 28th, 1997 and it was around this time when Chris would get a promotion at his job. But anytime he made a little bit more money, he was quick to spend it.

He ended up buying a brand new car for himself. And now that their family was growing, they wanted to buy a bigger house as well. The house that they settled on was actually owned by Mary Jane's parents. And they bought it from them for $70,000. And then just 14 months after Zachary's birth, on April 30th, 1998, Mary Jane gave birth to their second child, a daughter named Sadie.

With a new home and Chris's new promotion, Mary Jane decided to be a stay-at-home mom for her two children. And Chris encouraged this. He believed that the husband was supposed to be the provider, even though he wasn't making enough money to maintain their extravagant lifestyle. The day after his daughter's birth, Chris went to San Francisco to help distribute newspapers because there was actually a newspaper distribution strike going on there at the time.

He tried to get out of it since he and Mary Jane had just had a child, but he just couldn't. So Chris was in San Francisco for an entire week, which he wasn't happy about.

At the end of that week, his supervisor sent some people home, but not Chris, and this made him really upset. So upset that he quit his job right then and there. He, understandably, wanted to be home with his wife and kids, but they still had to pay the bills, so right afterwards, Chris began looking for a new job. Eventually, he was hired as a salesman at a company that sold fireplaces, but he worked off commission, and he wasn't that great of an employee, so he wasn't making much.

And at this point in he and Mary Jane's marriage, they were really struggling financially because Chris was spending more money than ever.

In 1998, he took out a loan so that he could buy a jet ski and a brand new Dodge Durango. Chris really valued material possessions, even if it meant that buying it would put them into debt. They had multiple maxed out credit cards, a house payment, and two children to feed. And eventually, the mortgage payments to Mary Jane's parents started to bounce. Susan, her mother, confronted Chris about the bad checks and even threatened foreclosure if he didn't catch up on the payments.

When Mary Jane found out about this, she was humiliated and she promised her mom and stepfather that they would catch up. But this was a huge red flag for Mary Jane's family and they started to worry that Chris was a fraud. Because to them, they're seeing him buy these jet skis and new cars, so how could he afford those but not rent?

In reality, Chris didn't care that he was burning bridges, as long as he looked good and had nice things. And they did. They even had another baby on the way, who was born on October 19th, 1999. Their daughter, who they named Madison, was born seven weeks premature. And because of this, she suffered from respiratory problems.

She ended up having to stay in the hospital for about a month, which is definitely not cheap here in America. And have you ever been in those situations where one bad thing happens after another? Well, that seemed to be the case for the Longo family. While their daughter was still recovering in the hospital, Mary Jane's car got repossessed.

And the reason was because all of their family's money was going towards Chris's brand new car that he had financed earlier that year. And this led to the couple's very first fight. I was upset about that. I felt that at the outset, I reasoned that this was something that she needed. I think internally, I was probably thinking more about, you know, what am I going to say to people now that are...

But despite all of this, Mary Jane loved and supported her husband. And on the surface, the Longos looked like the perfect family. Here is some audio from their happy home videos. Hi, Maddie.

But Mary Jane had no idea that he was about to embark on a life of crime, taking his innocent family with him. Mary Jane's stepfather said, quote, It was like she took care of him, and then she had the kids. So then it was time to take care of them.

And he couldn't keep up with that lifestyle. And so in order to do that, he had to steal. End quote. Which leads us to February 16th, 2000. The Longo's bank accounts were emptying out pretty quickly. And even though they already had a family car, Chris wanted to buy the family a minivan for her and the kids. It was a sweet gesture, but they couldn't afford it.

So Chris just decided that instead he was going to steal one. He started by taking his expensive computer that came with a scanner and a printer and he used it to create a fake ID. Apparently he scanned his own driver's license, changed the name on it to Jason Fortner.

and then reprinted it. Afterwards, he took it to a store and got it laminated so it looked just like an official ID with his picture and everything but none of his information was on the card. After he created the license, he drove from Michigan to a car dealership in Ohio. Once there,

He asked to test drive one of their brand new Pontiac Montana minivans, which was priced at $34,000. The sales associate recalled that the man was friendly and he didn't seem suspicious, so she took his ID, made a photocopy of it, and handed him the keys. As Chris hopped in the car, he couldn't help but feel a rush of adrenaline, knowing that his plan worked.

and he quickly drove the minivan off the lot with no plans of returning it. Eventually, the car dealership would report it stolen, but because Jason Fortner didn't exist, there was no way of tracking him down. After stealing the car, Chris brought it home to Mary Jane.

making her think that he used his hard-earned money to buy the car. And he even told her that they got a great deal on it, where they didn't have to make any payments for the first 90 days. Mary Jane was so excited about the new car, and Chris was confident that he would never get caught.

He even swapped out the dealer tag with a vanity plate that read Kid Van. And because of this and the fact that Chris stole the car from Ohio, he got away with it. And now we're going to take an ad break.

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but the longos were still in a lot of debt so chris started looking for a second job that he work on the side with his current job he was selling fireplaces to construction companies and he noticed that they were always looking for cleaning crews that could come in and clean up everything after they were finished building so chris decided to start his own company that did just that he named it final touch construction cleaning and it worked out pretty nicely

They had a good amount of clients right off the bat since he knew a lot of people in the construction industry. He even persuaded his mother, stepfather, and members of his congregation to invest in it. And they helped him secure a line of credit for the business in the amount of $100,000. Now, Chris's parents would eventually move to Indianapolis and he convinces them to open up a branch of his company in Indiana. And it was working so well that he had to hire employees to help run the company. It worked out pretty well. It was...

had little to no sleep, but outside of that, the contractor was happy that we started working with and that led to more contractors, which led to

switching into management as opposed to laborers. The only problem was it wasn't coming in as fast as he wanted it to. You see, in the construction business, it usually takes a while for contractors to get paid, and then it takes even longer for subcontractors to get paid. And this was a problem because not only was Chris running out of money, but he also had to pay his employees for their work. So there still wasn't a lot of money coming in, and soon enough, Chris started stealing again, this time for his business.

Using his company's account, Chris wrote a large check for a new trailer in Forklift, but surprise, surprise, the check bounced. The owner of the equipment eventually reported the items stolen, but Chris had already sold them off to someone else for around $5,000, and he kept all the money for himself. When the cops came around to question Chris about the stolen equipment, he lied and told them that both the trailer and Forklift had been totaled in a car accident when he was hauling them across town.

And at this point, Chris was running really low on money. So he did what he does best. Steal. One of the companies he worked for was called Wexford Construction. And they owed him a good amount of money, but he wasn't set to get that money until later on.

So he took some checks that the company had previously given him and he decided to use his trusty computer to make new checks that were blank. He then wrote himself 6 different checks from the company equaling about $35,000 and one by one he deposited them without any issues.

And the average person would be a nervous wreck, stealing cars, writing back checks, and stealing money from people. But Chris wasn't at all. He was constantly stealing and creating ways to cut corners. And he didn't even worry about the possibility of getting caught. He would later say about this time in his life, quote, all I could do was think of right now is that today's problem is solved, end quote.

Meanwhile, Mary Jane had no idea that her husband was scamming people out of their money and she ultimately believed that the company was doing really well. The two even used the stolen money to go on a vacation to Northern Michigan. When the Longos returned from their vacation on July 14th, 2001, Chris attempted to go back to the credit union and cash another bad check. But by then, the teller knew who he was.

Chris walked in with a briefcase, a planner, and he was very well dressed to act the part of a successful businessman. But the bank was on to him. The teller took the check to the back and reported it to her supervisor. But when she didn't come back out for a while, Chris became suspicious. So he decided to hurry out of the credit union, leaving behind his license, briefcase, and daily planner.

The bank reported this to the Michigan State Police and soon enough, they came knocking on his door with a warrant for his arrest. During his questioning, Chris told investigators that he only took the amount of money that the company owed him, so it technically wasn't stealing. But they were quick to inform him that yes, it is stealing and it's punishable by 14 years in prison for each bad check that was forged.

In addition, Chris took thousands more than the company actually owed him, so he definitely was stealing from them. The police also questioned Mary Jane, but they determined she had no idea her husband was scamming people. Afterwards, the police attempted to take Chris' computer, scanner, and printer, since he had been using them to forge the checks.

And Chris was pissed about this and at first he refused to give it to them. So the investigators told him, fine, we'll just get a search warrant. And it wasn't until then when Chris finally decided to cooperate.

He didn't want them snooping around his home and finding the stolen minivan or any of the other skeletons he had in his closet. Chris would end up getting arrested for this offense, and he pled guilty to four felony charges, including forgery for the Wexford checks. And Mary Jane had to pay a $100 bond to get him out of jail. But he really wasn't punished. He didn't have to serve any jail time, just three years probation, and he had to pay a hefty amount of fines.

She...

In an article for The Independent, Mary Jane's sister said, And that's the only reason Chris was able to do what he did. Because she loved him so much, no matter how many times he lied to her.

And Chris continued lying to his wife in more ways than just money. In May 2000, Mary Jane was using Chris's computer when she discovered inappropriate emails between Chris and another woman and their Jehovah's Witness group. When she confronted Chris about the affair, he admitted he had an emotional relationship with the woman, but there had been no sex. He quickly deflected the blame on Mary Jane, claiming that he didn't love her anymore, that she wasn't fun after having children, and she was neglecting his needs.

Eventually, their Jehovah's Witness group got word of this affair and that's obviously very against their rules. And Chris was already not in good standing with them from his last arrest and now he had an affair and he had been arrested again for stealing. Because of this, they were left with no choice but to disfellowship him, which basically meant he could no longer be a member.

And a rule in this religion is that if someone is disfellowshipped, all current members are supposed to completely cut off contact with that person.

And that's exactly what happened. Chris' own parents and brother cut him out of their lives. His stepdad even pulled out of their cleaning business in Indiana and he asked Chris for his money back. And this put Mary Jane in a huge predicament because she couldn't cut ties with Chris. He was her husband and the father of her children.

Even more so, she had been taught her entire life that it's very important to support your husband in whatever he does. Now, she continued to go to the Jehovah's Witness meetings for a while, but she always felt like the members were judging her. So she was left with no other choice than to leave the organization.

And I just feel so bad for Mary Jane because she really was an amazing person who loved her children and she gave her all to Chris even when he didn't deserve it. Her family was the most important thing in her life and she loved Chris so much that she gave up her entire religion so that her family could stay together. If only she knew what their fate would be.

Life was quickly going downhill for Chris Longo. In addition to his legal troubles, by 2001, he had used $100,000 in credit and he still owed a lot of people money. And he was being sued by one of his employees. But instead of working hard to pay everyone back, Chris just forged another credit card using his stepfather's name. And believe it or not, he didn't even use this money to pay people back.

Instead, he bought scuba lessons, a bunch of expensive scuba gear, and LASIK eye surgery for his wife. When that credit card maxed out, Chris tried to forge another card using his stepdad's name. And by this point, his parents had found out about it, and they started the process of pressing charges on him. It was also at around this time when investigators started looking into the stolen construction equipment. And after they gathered all the evidence for their case, they were ready to arrest Chris again, this time for larceny.

In June 2001, police arrived at the Longo residence to serve a warrant for Chris' arrest for the trailer and forklift theft. But when they got there, they realized the Longos were gone. By that time, the walls were quickly caving in, and going to jail was just not an option for Chris. So instead, he and Mary Jane packed everything up into their stolen minivan, sold their home, and skipped town with their three kids without telling anyone where they were going.

And once they took off, they didn't even really know where they were going. But they ultimately decided to head towards Toledo, Ohio. The couple didn't have any money for this move, so they had to pawn Mary Jane's expensive engagement ring. Once in Ohio, they ended up finding an abandoned warehouse that was for rent. The owner of the building rented it to Chris for $1,700 a month. Again, way more than they could afford.

But Chris talked the owner into letting him pay just one month's rent for the deposit and luckily for him, she didn't even check his credit before letting them move in. It was a good deal for the Longos considering Chris was running from the law, but the warehouse was not a good living situation for their family. It was this huge run-down open building with no furniture and definitely not ideal for young children.

Mary Jane voiced these concerns to her husband, but he assured her that they were only going to be there for a little while while he worked and saved up some money. He told her that this would be their fresh start and that he was going to pay everyone back that he owed money to and that he was going to pay everyone back and soon enough things would be as good as new.

But at the same time, Chris was telling Mary Jane that she was forbidden to tell anyone where they moved, not even her close friends and family. And one would think that because they were running away from their legal troubles, that Chris would stay out of trouble. But that wasn't the case. In fact, almost immediately after settling into the warehouse,

Chris opened up a new bank account and started forging checks again. And he was even using his own name while forging the checks, so he wasn't even trying to hide it. Eventually, the detective that was in charge of Chris' last forgery charge got word that he had skipped town and was forging more checks in Ohio. But he didn't know where in Ohio he was located, so he couldn't really track him down.

The police even printed wanted signs with Chris's mugshot and distributed them to banks and law enforcement in the area. Now, against her husband's wishes, Mary Jane eventually contacted her sister and she told them where they were living. But when Sally went to visit her, she wouldn't take her to the warehouse and only met up with her in public areas.

Sally told Mary Jane that she was worried about her and the children. But Mary Jane assured her that she was fine and once Chris found a job and was making money again, she would invite her to wherever they were living. A few months after their meeting, the cell phone Mary Jane used to talk to Sally was disconnected and she immediately knew that she would never see her sister again. And she was right.

And now we're going to pause the show for a second and take an ad break. Murder in America is sponsored by BetterHelp.com.

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While Chris and his family were in Toledo, he also started stealing more equipment, like a skid loader, a speedboat, and a trailer for the boat. And then he advertised the stolen equipment in a newspaper ad. Soon enough, a man from New York called, interested in the skid loader, so he went over to the warehouse to take a look at it. But something about the entire situation didn't sit right with this guy. For one, he found Chris to be a little sketchy.

And second off, he was selling the piece of equipment for a couple thousand dollars when it usually sells for around $30,000. After leaving the warehouse, the man went to the police and a few days later, they came by to question him. Sergeant Paul Hickey, head of the auto theft detail in Toledo, met Chris and described him as calm and friendly.

He didn't seem nervous to be questioned about his possible stolen merchandise. When Hickey asked if the skid loader was stolen, Chris laughed and said he purchased the item over a year ago to help start his business, but he didn't need it anymore and was trying to get it off of his hands, which is why he was selling it for so cheap.

Not really buying this story, they asked him to show them the title for the piece of equipment to verify that it was his. Thinking quickly, Chris told them that he and his family had just moved there so he didn't know where the title was at the moment, but he promised them that he would fax it over as soon as he found it. Before leaving, the officers checked the serial number of the skid loader, and from what they could tell, no one had reported it stolen, so they left. But once back at the station, Sergeant Hickey couldn't shake the fact that something sketchy was going on there.

So, he called the dealership that the equipment belonged to and what do you know, they said that the skid loader had turned up missing but they never reported it. After getting this information, the officers made their way back to the warehouse but the Longo family was once again long gone. Inside the warehouse, Chris left the speedboat and a large trailer, both of which once again had been stolen.

Mary Jane's family also came by the warehouse and when they stepped inside their jaws dropped. It was very obvious that they got out of there quickly. Mary Jane had even left her wedding dress. After the police had left the warehouse that day, Chris was getting nervous. He had finally escaped the law in Michigan and now the cops in Ohio were already on to him. Knowing that it was only a matter of time until they showed up with a warrant,

Chris and Mary Jane quickly packed up the minivan once again and started traveling across the country. And they wanted to get as far away from the Midwest as possible, somewhere where no one would find them. As they traveled across the country using money from Chris's stolen checks, the family would often go to remote locations.

sleeping in tents in the middle of nowhere. And even though Mary Jane lost all contact with her family, she would send them postcards along their journey to let them know she was okay. One of the postcards came from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Colin's hometown. Mary Jane told them that Chris had been accepted into a two-month training program for a new company.

which she didn't name. But she told them that once they were settled in, she would call them and let them know where they were living. But that call would never come. By September 12th, 2001, one day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Longos had made their way to the northwestern side of the country, and they stopped in a town called Yajats, Oregon. Once there, Chris went by the Ocean Odyssey vacation rental office,

and he spoke to a woman named Cheryl about renting out a three-bedroom vacation home. Chris told her that he couldn't use his credit card, so he would have to pay in cash. Normally, Cheryl wouldn't have done this, but she said that Mary Jane and the children looked exhausted, so she made an exception. Cheryl agreed to rent it to them for $190 a week, and they only had to put down a $200 deposit.

And with that, the family took their keys and headed towards their new temporary home on the north side of the Alaysia River.

In later statements from Chris, it seemed that Mary Jane had given him one last chance to make things right. He had agreed to quit his criminal behavior, get a job, and the family would start over and go back to their Jehovah's Witness faith. She agreed to stick by him because she believed her husband would do the right thing, and she continued to be a good and supporting wife, cooking him dinner every night, watching the kids,

and even running a bath for him when he would get off work. But as always, Chris wouldn't make do on his promises. The Longo family would only last in this home for a couple of weeks because Chris couldn't afford the weekly payments. So once again, they're on the road trying to find a place to live. They ended up driving to Newport where they found a pay-by-the-week rental at the Newport Motor Inn. But all this moving around and instability was really getting to them.

In addition, Chris knew that he couldn't forge any more checks because that would reveal where he and his family were located and he had a lot of warrants out for his arrest. So Chris decided to go searching around the area for a job while Mary Jane stayed home and watched the kids.

In October of 2001, Chris eventually found a Starbucks that was hiring. And even though he had never worked as a barista, he took the job because it was one of the only jobs that didn't require a background check. At first, Chris was only working part-time, which definitely wasn't paying the bills. But luckily, they eventually gave him a full-time position. And during his shifts, Chris would actually write down the credit card numbers of customers just in case he needed it for a rainy day.

Chris's fellow Starbucks employees would later describe him as "snooty." He bragged about his taste for expensive wine and cheese. He was still wearing expensive clothing. And he also bragged to his coworker, Denise Thompson, that he didn't need the money at Starbucks and was only working there for extra spending money and because he liked coffee.

He told her that his real income was roughly $15,000 a month, which was definitely not the case. In fact, the only money coming in for that family was from Chris's Starbucks job, which paid only $7.40 an hour. It was a strange pathology, the way Chris desperately wanted people to believe he was this rich guy with fancy things.

when in reality, they were barely scraping by. Chris's life in Oregon wasn't turning out as he expected. He dreamed of a better life, a more successful life, with money and nothing to hold him down. The one-room motel was depressing and cramped with five people. In November of 2001, Chris found a luxury condo called The Landing that was about $1,200 a month.

And even though he knew he couldn't afford that, he signed for it anyway. Within the first month of living there, Chris quickly came to terms that he wasn't going to make rent and the Longos were facing yet another eviction. And Chris resented his family because of it. In his mind, they were the root of all of his problems. And if they were out of the picture, life would be a lot better.

These thoughts continued to grow in Chris's mind until December 16th, 2001. That evening, while working a shift at Starbucks, Chris decided that that night he was going to kill his family. Mary Jane could have never known what was going through her husband's mind. In fact, days earlier the family could be seen in surveillance footage, walking around the grocery store,

acting like a perfectly normal family. And the night before, Chris and Mary Jane went on a date to see the movie Ocean's Eleven. Things seemed fine, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth. Chris ended up getting home after midnight that night, and he said that Sadie and Zachary were asleep on the sofa, and one-year-old Madison was sleeping on the floor.

According to Chris, after he walked through the door, Mary Jane wanted to have sex. So they made their way over to the bedroom and while they were having sex, Chris put his hands around Mary Jane's throat and started to squeeze. And this next part obviously isn't true, but Chris said that Mary Jane didn't even try to resist. In an article for Esquire,

Chris told a man named Michael Finkel, "She seemed to relax into it. She never looked at me. Her eyes were closed. She didn't fight me. She didn't seem terrorized." Over the next few minutes, Chris continued to press his fingers into his wife's throat, forming deep bruises. And before long, she was dead. He would later recall that the strangulation took a lot longer than expected.

With his wife's nude body laying on the bed, Chris then walked over to his one-year-old daughter Madison and began strangling her. And he would later say this. To hold on to a little girl's neck is the most weird, uncomfortable, disgusting thing in the world. It tore me up to put my hands around something that small. Chris would later say that strangling his daughter was such a traumatic experience that he didn't even finish the job.

Madison was gasping for air and crying as he quickly grabbed his suitcase and shoved her inside. Next, he grabs another suitcase and does the same thing to Mary Jane. It's not easy to fit a 34-year-old woman into a suitcase, and it's a disturbing image to think about what he had to do to get it zipped. After his wife and two-year-old daughter were secured inside of the suitcases,

Chris wheeled them over to the Embarcadero Marina across the street. Along the walk, he could still hear his daughter making noises inside of the suitcase. Then once he reached the end of the dock, he looked around to make sure no one was watching. And when the coast was clear, he threw the suitcases into the water. Slowly, they began sinking to the bottom of the bay.

as their suitcases filled with water. Chris Longo dusted his hands, knowing that two of the four major problems in his life were taken care of. And now he had to finish the job. Chris had left his two other children, four-year-old Zachary and three-year-old Sadie, back at the condo. You're never supposed to leave children of that age alone, but he didn't care. They weren't going to survive the night anyway.

Back at the condo, he grabbed the two children and put them into his minivan, which still had the kid van license plate. From there, he drove for about 15 minutes until he reached a coastal bridge that went over a body of water called the Lentsleu Reservoir. At this point, it was about 4 a.m. The children were tired and confused as to where they were going.

Once at the bridge, Chris parked and turned his headlights off. He then grabbed two pillowcases and started filling them with rocks. After it was filled, he grabbed his son Zachary, tied the pillow to his leg using a single knot and tossed him into the water. The last image Zachary saw that night was his father frantically tying him to a weight and throwing him off a bridge into the water below.

Zachary quickly sank to the bottom, and he drowned that night at the hands of his father. Next was Sadie, who most likely saw the entire thing. Chris grabbed the other rock-filled pillow and tied it to her legs. And something that really disturbed me about all of this is that Sadie and Zachary were three and four years old, meaning they could talk.

It's likely that while their father was doing all of this, they were speaking to him, asking him what was going on, maybe even crying. But Chris didn't care. He had already made up his mind. And with that, he threw Sadie down into the water, killing the last of his family.

And Chris would later say this: I hope when Chris thinks of his children, he remembers their faces right before killing them. And I hope it haunts him every single day.

After murdering the last of his family, Chris then drove back home. His condo, which was once filled with the laughter of children, was now eerily quiet. And I always wonder what's going through people's minds right after they finish killing. Did Chris feel a sense of peace? Was it worth it? And now we're going to take a short ad break.

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The following day, December 17th, 2001, Chris approached his landlord and told him that his wife and kids were flying to Michigan to visit family, so he wouldn't be seeing them around the condo for a while. For the next few days, Chris stayed in town, enjoying his new stress-free life. He even stole another car. On December 18th, he took the license plates off of his minivan, drove to a Dodge dealership, and left it in the parking lot. He then slowly walked around the dealership, eyeing the cars in the showroom.

He eventually saw a green Dodge Durango with the keys in the ignition. With nothing to lose, Chris hopped into the vehicle and drove it off the lot. Surprisingly, everyone thought he was just a client test driving the car, so no one really knew he was stealing it. And it wasn't until the following day when the vehicle was reported stolen.

Chris even worked a few more shifts at Starbucks, getting some extra cash before he planned to leave town. At one of these shifts, he tells his co-worker, Denise Thompson, that she wouldn't be seeing his family around anymore because his wife was leaving him. And then something happened that Chris hadn't prepared for. On December 17th, 2001, two days after the murders, a local resident named Aubrey Van Matter saw something floating in the water near his parents' home.

What he saw was the body of Zachary Longo. Somehow, the rock-filled pillow slipped off his leg and he floated off near the Bayview mobile home park. When the police first came to retrieve the body, they figured it was an accidental drowning. After all, the boy was clean and groomed with a nice haircut and it was clear that he was well nourished and healthy.

A lot of the time in drowning cases, the body will sink to the bottom and then when decomposition kicks in, the gases cause the body to float back to the top. So everyone figured it was just an accident. But when the police checked the missing persons reports in the area, the child didn't match any of them.

Their police department started knocking on doors all over Waldport, seeing if maybe somebody's baby had wandered outside and was missing. They even started looking into the fact that a vehicle may have driven off into the water. But the truth behind this story was far more disturbing.

After this, investigators created a computerized picture of what they thought the boy would have looked like and they plastered the picture all over the news. Since the boy hadn't been reported missing, investigators were sure that foul play was involved. They even concluded that he was probably thrown from the bridge over the Lentz-Slew Reservoir. With Zachary's digital face posted all over TVs across the state of Oregon,

It didn't take long for someone to recognize him and it happened to be Chris' coworker from Starbucks, Denise Thompson. Denise had actually babysat Zachary and his siblings while Mary Jane and Chris went out on a date. So she recognized the boy in the picture as Zachary Longo. And then she remembered that Chris told her the last time she saw him that his family wouldn't be coming around anymore.

She knew without a shadow of a doubt that the boy in the water was Zachary Longo, so she immediately called the authorities. Soon after, the police drove over to the condo where Chris lived, but he was gone. While a team of investigators attempted to locate Chris, another team was tasked with finding the rest of his family.

A group of divers were sent to the Lentslough Bridge and at the bottom of the murky water, they found the rock-filled pillow that was once attached to Zachary's legs. Then shortly after, they found the body of three-year-old Sadie. Denise Thompson was the one who identified them as the two oldest Longo children, a sight she will never be able to forget.

The police now had two bodies that were obviously discarded by someone who did not want them to be found. And while they knew Chris Longo was likely responsible, they still hadn't ruled out Mary Jane, since she and Madison's bodies hadn't been found yet. We're actually trying to locate them. They may well be victims. Investigators have determined that these deaths are not accidental.

Across town at a local motel, the police also got a report from two housekeepers who found some strange things in a dumpster. There were children's toys, birth certificates, children's clothes, Mary Jane's ID, and photos of the Longo family. Things that most people wouldn't just throw away. And since they found Mary Jane's ID,

They figured that she was most likely a victim too, and it was also likely that she and two-year-old Madison could be found in the water as well. The only problem is that there was a lot of water surrounding the area, and because of the tides, they figured it would be incredibly hard to find them. By this point, Chris had gotten word about Zachary being found in the water, and he knew it was only a matter of time until he was caught.

Before Zach was identified, he picked up his last paycheck from Starbucks, hopped in his stolen Dodge Durango, and headed south towards California.

and no one was able to locate him. On December 23, 2001, the FBI began their investigation on the Longo family and discovered that Mary Jane and her children had been reported missing three months earlier by her family, and she stopped contacting them. When detectives arrived to speak with the Bakers, the family was informed that Zachary and Sadie were deceased. Their worst fears had come true.

Her sisters said that the last time they spoke to Mary Jane, they knew deep down that she was in danger. They had even told her, "We're afraid we're never going to see you again." And they were right. When the detectives asked if they thought Mary Jane had something to do with the murders, the Bakers were adamant that she would have never harmed her kids. They were her entire world. And they knew that if Zachary and Sadie were dead, that meant that Madison and Mary Jane were dead as well.

This was confirmed even further by a tip that was sent in to the FBI. It was from a man who claimed to have seen Chris' minivan parked on the bridge the night of the murders. And not only did he see the car, but this guy also said that he pulled over to ask Chris if he needed any help. Chris told the man that his car just needed to cool down a bit and with that he left, thinking nothing of it.

and this man confirmed that it was indeed Christian Longo based on the description. There was also no sight of Mary Jane. On December 27th, divers were sent to search the waters across the marina from their old condo. Neighbors watched in horror knowing that they were looking for bodies.

Here's what some of the neighbors had to say about Chris. I thought everything he was doing, he was doing for his family and he wanted good things for them. And not long after they descended into the cold, dark waters, they saw the suitcases and immediately knew that they had found them. When they spotted Mary Jane's suitcase, they saw her dark hair moving with the flow of the tide outside of the suitcase.

Not far from her was Madison's suitcase. When they brought them to the surface and opened them up, it was a disturbing sight. Mary Jane was found nude with deep bruises along her neck. In Madison's suitcase, they found a dumbbell used to weigh her down. They had now found all four members of Chris Longo's family.

By morning, divers were in the water. K2 was first on the scene as they began their search for bodies, a focused search around nearby boat docks. It's really sad if something's going to develop out of this. Condominium residents say at least one member of the Longo family was living here. We were told that, not to be alarmed, but that somebody had been staying here and they suspected him of killing his wife and two kids.

Last Saturday, divers found the body of three-year-old Sadie Ann Longo in the Alsea Bay. Days earlier, her brother Zachary had washed ashore. Since then, police boats have searched the Alsea River for clues to their murders. All the while, Christian, Mary Jane and Madison Longo remained missing.

Until now. Late in the afternoon, investigators pulled an adult-sized body out of Yequina Bay. Moments later, divers went back in and retrieved a second body about the size of a small child. Authorities say these may very well be the bodies of Mary Jane Longo and her two-year-old daughter, Madison.

Lincoln County Sheriff's deputies and the Oregon State Police returned to the area Saturday where the bodies of Mary Jane Longo and her two-year-old daughter were pulled out of the water this week. Tools normally used for accident reconstruction, they measure carefully various distances on the walkway. Just below their activity, a new photo of Mary Jane appears next to the photo of her children, framed with the words, I love my mommy.

Investigators now turn their focus on locating Chris Longo. The cause of death is homicidal violence. We are still processing scenes. We are still looking at evidence. And of course, with the FBI's help, we are looking for Mr. Longo.

Little did they know, Chris had headed south for California, and he ended up stopping in San Francisco. He considered starting his new life there. He even applied to a Starbucks. Now, he was a little stupid here, because when that Starbucks asked for his references, he put down the Starbucks in Oregon.

Shortly after, the manager called the Oregon Starbucks and the authorities were quickly notified that Chris was in San Francisco. He was last seen in the San Francisco area. We're looking for somebody who does not want to be found.

But by then, he had already decided that he wasn't going to stay in America. It was only a matter of time until everyone in America knew about what he did, and there was no way he could live under the radar here in the States. But before he left, Chris was trying to figure out ways he could assume a new identity. He even wrote down the names of four men he had seen in obituaries, and for money, he wrote down people's credit card numbers while working at Starbucks.

Now that he had his plan in order, Chris needed to get out of America. He ended up going to a Kinko's in San Francisco, and he used their computer to book a $750 flight to Cancun, Mexico using the stolen credit cards. And he even booked the flights in his own name. Now, even though the FBI knew he was in San Francisco, they didn't know exactly where to find him.

And for some reason, they didn't think to check flights. By the time they did, Chris was already out of the country. He arrived in Cancun on December 28th, 2001. When he went through immigration at the airport in Mexico, they asked his name and he replied, "Christian Michael Longo." When they asked if he was wanted on criminal charges in the US, he replied, "No." Chris had successfully made it to his destination, away from the turmoil he had created in Oregon.

By then, Chris Longo was on the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list, right next to Osama Bin Laden. And in January of 2002, my old favorite show, America's Most Wanted, covered the story of Christian Longo. John Walsh pleaded with the public to report any sightings of the family annihilator.

and they also offered a $50,000 reward for any information leading to his capture. Little did they know at the time, shortly after arriving in Mexico, Chris lived in a hostel for a while and attempted to get a few jobs for money, but no one would hire him. And interestingly enough, he actually met a woman while he was there named Janina, and she was a photojournalist.

Chris told Janina that his name was Michael Finkel and this wasn't just a name he made up. The real Michael Finkel worked for the New York Times, traveling the world and writing for the magazine. When Chris worked at the newspaper distribution plant, he read articles written by Michael Finkel and he became an instant fan. So much so, he decided to take on his name while living in Mexico.

Janina, the photojournalist he met, was charmed by Chris and the fact that he too was a journalist. Or so she thought. And believe it or not, shortly after they met, the two started dating. She obviously had no idea that his real name wasn't actually Michael Finkel or that he had just murdered his entire family.

But over the next few weeks, the two were seeing each other and working on a journalism project about Mayan mysticism. During this time, Chris was living his best life. Chris and Janina would work during the day and at night he would party, drinking alcohol and smoking pot with his new friends. Everyone who came into contact with Michael Finkel said he was a great guy,

One tourist said, "Nothing was really creepy about him. He played the role well. Like I say, you've got to meet the guy. He's really something else." But this fake life wouldn't last for very long. You see, by now, with America's Most Wanted covering a story, everyone knew his face. And it didn't take long for people in Mexico to start reporting sightings of him.

The first came from a woman who was staying in the same hostel as Chris. She had talked to him on multiple occasions and at first he told her his name was Brad and then later on he said his name was Mike, which she found suspicious. Then on January 13th, 2002, another person called in having seen Chris Longo.

This time, it was a tour guide in Tulum, which is about 80 miles away from Cancun. The tour guide said that she saw Chris the day before staying in a campsite with Janina. The police quickly made their way over and found him in a hut. When they burst through the hut, lights and guns drawn, everyone thought it was a drug raid. According to Love Daddy, Chris said, quote,

Everyone thought it was a drug raid, including me. I thought it was a drug raid. And they kind of pinned everyone down and pulled me out and arrested me on the spot." An FBI agent then turned to Chris and asked him if he was Christian Longo. And he responded that yes, he was. From there, they quickly placed him under arrest and the hunt of the family annihilator had finally come to an end.

During his arrest, Chris said he was embarrassed because he had been caught in a lie in front of his friends who thought he was Michael Finkel, the brilliant journalist from the New York Times. Chris was escorted back to his hut to grab some belongings, but the door was locked upon arrival. He told police Ganina had the key, and once she was located, she came completely mystified as to what was going on. She unlocked the door to allow police to enter, and that's when they told her that the man she was sharing a bed with wasn't Michael Finkel, the journalist. He was

who was Christian Longo, the man who was wanted by police for killing his entire family in the US. She was stunned. Another interesting part of the story is that at around this time, the real Michael Finkel had actually just been fired from the New York Times because he lied about a certain part of his story on child slavery in Africa. And when the New York Times found out what he had done, they fired him on the spot.

Afterwards, he had gone into the woods in Montana to wait out the media storm surrounding what he had done when his telephone rang. When he picked it up, there was a journalist from Oregon on the other end. Finkel asked the journalist if he was calling about the editor's note in the Times, but he responded,

No, I'm calling about the murders. In an article for NPR, Finkel said, I had just lost my identity. There was something that was completely topsy-turvy. So yes, a person who apparently murdered his family went around telling everyone that he was me at the same time that I basically felt like I was no longer myself. Now, the cosmic coincidence or the divine intervention or whatever you want to call it of those two things was so crazy, so profound, that a million questions went through my mind.

And the reason we're telling you this is because Michael Finkel comes back into the story a little later. But on the morning of January 15th, 2002, Chris boarded a plane at the Cancun airport bound for Houston, Texas. His hands were cuffed in front of him as he patiently waited to be taken back to Oregon. And investigators noticed that Chris was relatively calm during this entire process.

During the flight, officers even asked Chris why he killed his family and all he could say was "I sent them to a better place." Chris also talked with the officers about how he had been disfellowshipped by the church and how his parents would hardly speak to him. When he talked about Mary Jane and the children, he would look down and cry.

The officers even tried to press Chris about the stolen minivan, Dodge Durango, and the credit cards. But Chris didn't want to talk about those things. All he would say is that he knew how to fool everyone around him. On Tuesday, January 15, 2002, Chris was extradited back to Oregon, where three weeks earlier, he had been Chris Longo.

husband to Mary Jane and father to three small children. But now he was nothing but a killer. Christian Longo was facing seven counts of murder, two counts for each child and one count for Mary Jane. During his plea, he ended up saying he was only guilty of two of the murders. - At trial, Chris surprised everyone by taking the stand.

But the story he wanted to share was even more surprising. He claimed he only killed Mary Jane and his youngest daughter Madison. He claimed the day before the murders, he told Mary Jane everything. About the stolen minivan, stolen credit cards, forgery, everything. He said they were living way above their means and would have to move out of their condo or be evicted.

Obviously, Mary Jane was upset because she had no idea what was going on with her finances and she was angry. She didn't want anything to do with me at that point. Then the next day when he came home from work, he said he found that Mary Jane had murdered his three children. She was literally on the floor, curled up into a ball, bouncing back and forth, hitting her back against the wall. After seeing what she did, Chris said he picked her up, threw her against the wall, and began strangling her until she was dead.

However, after killing her, he noticed that their youngest daughter Madison was still alive barely clinging on to life, so he went ahead and put her out of her misery and strangled her too. After his family was dead, Chris knew he was going to get blamed for everything, so he disposed of their bodies and fled the country.

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And now, let's get back and finish out today's story. And this story sounds very familiar. If you listened to episode 15 of our podcast, we covered the story of family annihilator Chris Watts. In 2018, he murdered his pregnant wife and two young daughters. And after he was caught, he too blamed the murders on his wife.

Chris Watts told investigators that Shanann killed her daughters and he strangled her because he couldn't believe what she did. It's literally the exact same story of Chris Longo told 17 years later. Seems like Chris Watts may have taken his idea, but in both of these cases, everyone knew that their story was a lie.

Mary Jane was a good mother who cared deeply for her children and there was absolutely no way she would have killed them. Here is Mary Jane's sister at trial. "And state's exhibit number five, do you recognize this?" "Yes, it's my nephew's egg curry." "Thank you." But the worst part of the entire trial was that Mary Jane's family had to sit there and listen to Chris lie and accuse Mary Jane of something that they just knew she never did.

But just about everyone in that courtroom knew that Chris, and Chris alone, was the one who killed his family. At this time, the court calls for trial of the matter of State of Oregon versus Christian Michael Longo. More than a year after his family's murder, Christian Longo finally faces a jury. His parents looking on from the crowded Lincoln County courtroom. Prosecutors reminded jurors of the victims. This is what they looked like before that night.

His defense team strongly discouraged telling the court that Mary Jane killed his children, but Chris didn't want to take their advice. The prosecutor's argument, however, seemed to be a bit more convincing. He placed his hand on her throat and he began to squeeze. And in a violent struggle, she fought for her life, but she wasn't able to overcome the defendant. In a matter of three or four minutes, she was dead. And you don't call 911, and you don't call the fire department,

and you don't do anything you know you strangle her prosecutors also gave the jury evidence that the murders were not a spur-of-the-moment decision on chris's computer they found a book called hitman which gave step-by-step instructions on how to kill and dispose of someone one sentence read the corpse should be weighed down with the standard concrete blocks but it must be wrapped from head to toe

It also talked about how a professional killer "may be religious in his own way. What the professional lacks is no remorse. He feels no guilt."

Jury ended their first trial day with a bus ride to the murder scenes in Newport and Waldeport. When testimony resumes at 9 o'clock Tuesday morning, prosecutors begin calling witnesses, including Longo's ex-co-workers and members of Mary Jane Longo's family, to try and prove a pattern of deceit on the part of Christian Longo in all four killings. Until the very end, Christian Longo wanted to save his image.

even if it meant blaming his horrible crimes on his innocent wife. But the jury saw right through his lies. And on April 16th, 2003, Christian Longo was found guilty of the murders of Mary Jane, Zachary, Sadie, and Madison. - Guilty of the charge of aggravated murder, count two. Guilty, guilty, guilty. - Chris was stunned when the jury read the verdict. Many people said it looked like he was a deer in headlights.

Throughout his whole life he had been able to persuade people to believe him, but not today. The judge asked if anyone wanted to give a statement and Sally Clark, Mary Jane's sister, stood up. She talked about how Mary Jane was a devoted wife and mother and how she had to sit through the courtroom for six weeks listening to Chris defile her legacy. Chris deserves his punishment.

Outside of the courtroom, her sister said this. 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.

For the penalty phase, the prosecution wanted execution. We have elected to seek the death penalty. Which Mary Jane's family fully supported. Because of what Chris did, there won't be any memories of Zach's first day of kindergarten. There won't be any graduations to attend or weddings to be a part of. After deliberation, the jury finally decided his fate.

Should the defendant receive a death sentence? To this question, the jury has answered yes. And believe it or not, after Chris spent weeks telling this elaborate lie about how his wife killed his children, he admitted at the sentencing trial that none of it was true. I'm starting to feel a remorse and an empathy that I don't think I felt before. I condemn my acts from what I did in the past, and I no longer disassociate myself from those acts.

It's something that I did solely. After Chris' conviction, the real Michael Finkel started communicating with Chris while he was on death row. Finkel would later say, The creepiest thing I could tell you about Christian Longo, the absolute most unsettling thing I can tell you about him, is that there is nothing at all creepy about him. Here's Chris in one of their phone calls. There's a whole other side. No one's room for everyone.

Eventually, Christian Longo would admit to Finkel that he did indeed kill his entire family and that Mary Jane was innocent. Chris confessed that he had always wanted to be successful. He wanted his parents to be proud of him and he had created a false identity of who he really was. The

The financial issues were causing him stress, his warrants were creeping up on him, and the truth was he couldn't afford to put food on the table for his family. The family was struggling to get basic day-to-day items because Chris' selfish needs to present himself as successful were more important. He deemed himself a failure and wanted to start over without the weight of a wife and three children. Michael Finkel's relationship with Christian Longo was eventually turned into a book called Truths.

True Story, Murder Memoir, Maya Koopa. And in 2015, the book was turned into a movie starring James Franco and Jonah Hill called True Story. But now the world knows the true story of what happened to the Longo family and the horror they faced back in 2001. Here's Michael Finkel himself. We wrote each other more than a thousand pages of handwritten letters. We spoke on the phone 51 times. I visited with him in jail. It was a confounding relationship. Did he confess to you?

In the very end of our relationship, after his trial, in a letter, he confessed to me that he murdered all four members of his family. Why did he say he did it? He's blamed his wife for initiating the crime, which is something that I do not believe at all.

I had psychologists read some of his letters and they diagnosed him as what's called narcissistic personality disorder, an extremely inflated sense of self. He thought he was very important, that his family, his family's fortunes were diving and that if he wasn't going to be around to take care of his family, they wouldn't be able to survive without him. How horrified were you hearing him tell...

essentially his side of the story. I mean, wasn't it hard to even have a relationship with this person? For the one year between Longo's impersonation and the start of his trial, we didn't discuss the crimes themselves. Longo told me his entire life story. But at the trial in this very small courtroom, when it was apparent that Longo was guilty, and I mean, this is the most horrific crime imaginable, murdering three young children and your wife. Once,

Christian Longo is now housed in a 6x8 cell at the Oregon State Prison. Finkel, now a husband and father of his own, still speaks to Longo on a regular basis. In an article for Bustle, Finkel said, quote, he calls me the first Sunday of every month.

There's always this internal tug of war over whether I should pick up the phone, but I usually do." Chris's small cell has no windows and a concrete floor. There's a small bunk, a porcelain sink, and a toilet. He gets two daily walks in 90 minutes in the recreation area outside.

surrounded by a cage. This is the only time Chris has human interaction. The majority of his time is spent alone. And even though he is on death row, it's likely that he will never be executed. In 2011, the governor of Oregon put a moratorium on executions, meaning the death penalty was temporarily suspended. And the state hasn't executed anyone since 1997.

So Chris will probably die in prison before he's given lethal injection. And that's where our story ends. But I want to leave you with a picture in your head of the victims. These kinds of stories are the worst kind of stories.

I was born the same year as Zachary and it's heartbreaking to think that he would be my age right now. Sadie and Madison would be adults now too. And all three of them could have lived beautiful lives with endless possibilities. But that was all taken away from them from the person who should have loved them the most.

Mary Jane Baker was a private, easygoing person who loved and adored her children more than anything else in the world. Sadie was a gentle and quiet girl, always trying to keep up with her older brother. Zachary had a deep curiosity for the world and an adventurous spirit.

and the youngest child, Madison, had big brown eyes and always wanted to be close to her mom. In about a week, it'll be the 21st anniversary of their death. And Mary Jane's sister said it best when she told 48 Hours, quote, "'There are four people that are gone that would have made the world a better place.'"

Now, at the Embarcadero Marina, there's a plaque honoring their memory that reads, quote, "...in loving memory of Mary Jane, Zachary, Sadie, and Madison. May they rest in peace."

Hey, everybody, it's Colin here. Thank you again for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America. We're so close to the end of the year. And wow, we have some amazing, amazing episodes coming up. We have a huge change up coming in the new year and some really, really exciting things that we're going to announce soon. But yeah, for this week, I want to shout out our new patrons, Tony, Ken, Jennifer Vig, Peyton Blythe, Shelly Lou 89 and Tilly B.

If you don't know what Patreon is, you just head to patreon.com and search Murder in America. We post the ad-free versions of every episode on Patreon as soon as the show goes live on all streaming platforms. So if you don't like those ads, you can support us for just $5 a month on Patreon. It's super simple. We love talking to you all on there.

But yeah, it's almost the end of the year. It's December. My birthday is the 22nd. I'm going to be 26 years old. That's kind of crazy. But like I said, there is so much that's going to happen next year with the show that Courtney and I are so excited to share with y'all. But we can't talk about it yet. So you got to keep tuning in. If you want to see pictures from every single episode, make sure to follow us on Instagram at Murder in America. Or you can join our Facebook group.

But yeah, just looking back at this whole year, Courtney and I can't believe how many more people we have listening now. And it's been such an incredible, beautiful, fun journey to get here with all of you people out there listening every week. And yeah, we're just so humbled, so thankful. So

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I'm grateful to have everybody out there. So, yeah, it's Colin here. And Courtney. You know, we love you all so much. Get ready for the end of the year and these big things that are happening next year. And, yeah, we'll see you next week. Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend. Bye.