Honolulu (AP) — A federal court record opened in Honolulu shows that a U.S. defense contractor and his wife, who lived for decades under the identities of two dead children in Texas, were identified. He was charged with theft and conspiracy against the government.
Walter Glen Primrose and Gwin Dar Morrison were arrested on Friday in Kapolei, Oahu, in their 60s, allegedly living for decades under the names Bobby Edward Fort and Julie Lynn Montague, respectively. it was done.
The prosecution wants the couple to be detained without bail. This may indicate that the case was not just a fraudulent acquisition of a driver’s license, passport, or Pentagon qualification.
These documents helped Primrose obtain a secret security clearance with the United States Coast Guard. As a defense contractor, the old photo shows a couple in KGB uniform, a former Russian espionage agency. Each faded polaroid in uniform was included in the movement to hold them.
A “close companion” said Morrison lived in Romania while Romania was a Soviet country, Murek said.
Morrison’s lawyer said her client had never lived in Romania and she and Primrose jokingly wore the same jacket and took pictures in it. Lawyer Megan Cow told The Associated Press, even if the couple used their new identity, they have lived a law-abiding life for 30 years.
“She wants everyone to know she’s not a spy,” Cow said. “It’s all disproportionately blown away. It’s a government overkill.”
The prosecution said there was a high risk of escaping if the couple were released. They also suggested that the Coast Guard’s aeroelectronics electrical engineer, Primrose, was very skilled in secretly communicating when released.
The couple are also believed to have other aliases, Mulek said.
Primrose’s lawyer declined to comment. A bail hearing was scheduled for Thursday in the US District Court.
The secret clearance that Primrose had provided access to information that was “extremely valuable to our enemies,” said Honolulu lawyer Kevin Ogradi, who was not involved in the incident. Told.
The Coast Guard works closely with the Army and Navy to assist counterintelligence and act as a national maritime boundary patrol, said Ogradi, a reserve army reserve and lieutenant colonel judge.
“The Coast Guard has a unique perspective on our vulnerabilities,” he said. And it includes ways to invade the country through water ports. Hawaii, a major military center, is “a major target for many espionage activities,” he said.
Wednesday’s news was a shock to a family whose deceased child’s name was stolen.
John Montagu, who lost his daughter Julie at the age of three weeks in 1968, was stunned to learn that someone had lived in her name for a long time.
“I still can’t believe it happened,” Montague, 91, told AP. “Odds are like a trillionth when they found her and used her name. People crouch down to do anything these days. Rest your kids at ease.”
According to court records, Primrose and Morrison were born in 1955, attended a high school in Port Lavaca, Texas, and then attended Stephen F. Austin College. They got married in 1980.
Court documents do not show why in 1987 the couple assumed the identities of the deceased children, who would have been more than 10 years younger than them. However, an affidavit filed by the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service special agent Dennis Thomas said the couple had lost their home in Nacogdoches, Texas that year due to foreclosure.
According to Thomas, they remarried in 1988 under their supposed name.
Court records do not provide information on what happened from the time they took over their new identities to the time Primrose joined the Coast Guard as a fort in 1994 at the age of about 39.
“It’s a terrible failure,” O’Grady said, if there was a clear age discrepancy between what Primrose would look like and the birth certificate he presented.
“If they can understand it now, that’s what, they should have caught it,” he said.
Montague said, “Someone isn’t working.”
According to court records, Primrose and Morrison applied for and received multiple passports under the assumed names. However, in 1999 Primrose also applied for and was issued a passport in his official name, while holding the passport in the name of Fort.
Primrose worked until 2016 when he began working for an unnamed defense contractor at the United States Coast Guard Air Base in Barberth Point.
“He holds a secret permit with the United States Coast Guard, but defendant Primrose had to report an overseas trip,” the prosecutor said.
The couple lived in the suburbs of Honolulu, a discreet two-bedroom bungalow under a palm tree. They owned a house next door that they rented to military personnel, said Mai Lee Shara, who lived next door.
She knew them as Bob and Lynn. Morrison is clearly the middle name of Julie Lynn Montague.
She said Primrose did garden work for Shala for $ 50 a month. Morrison accepted the cat, fed it, castrated it, and castrated it. She also had some rabbits and dedicated a room for her pet.
“They protected themselves, but they were friendly,” Shara said. “They were kind of geeks.”
Shara didn’t know what Primrose did to make a living, but thought it was related to the army. Morrison used to work as a parking clerk at a hotel in Waikiki, but she was teaching children in the neighborhood.
The FBI created a scene in a quiet neighborhood when it searched for a house and took a picture.
“What a shock,” Shara said. “It was pretty crazy.”
The State Department refused to comment on the arrest.
The couple have been charged with plots to commit crimes against the United States, false statements in their passport applications, and exacerbated personal information theft.
Fort, who lived less than three months, died in October 1967 at the same hospital where Julie Montague died in January 1968, about three months later. They are buried 14 miles (23 km) apart.
Tonda Ferguson wondered how many years had passed with his mother, who died in 2003, when he learned from his father that Morrison used his sister’s birth certificate to create an alias.
“For all mothers who are alive and have to know what happened to their baby, I can’t even imagine,” Ferguson said. This will be very traumatic for her. “
Ferguson was in the second grade when his sister died. She never met or hugged her sister. She was buried in Burnett, Texas, a small town that then lived on the outskirts of Austin.
“She came from a place of love, deep love,” Ferguson said. “It’s hard for someone to look back to steal their identity for evil. It hurts …. I hope they rot.”
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Mary reported from Los Angeles. Caleb Jones of Kapolei, Hawaii and Ronda Schaffner of New York City contributed to this report.