Couple charged in identity theft mystery had invisible ink, coded papers and said “things consistent with espionage,” prosecutor says

A U.S. protection contractor and his spouse charged with fraudulently dwelling for many years beneath the stolen identities of two lifeless infants informed household they have been going into the witness safety program earlier than abruptly abandoning their home and leaving Texas about 40 years in the past, a federal prosecutor said Thursday.

At some level, Walter Glenn Primrose and Gwynn Darle Morrison reemerged with new names and different explanations for lives cloaked in mystery.

The couple informed folks they have been dodging authorized and monetary hassle, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Myers said. Primrose informed somebody he was a authorities agent who could not be photographed.

Intriguing particulars that emerged throughout a bail listening to in a Honolulu court docket have been sufficient to get Primrose detained with out bail, however supplied little readability why the couple shed their previous and whether or not the prison case towards them is extra severe than identity theft.

Myers efficiently sought to have Primrose detained as a result of his “life has been a fraud for the last several decades,” together with greater than 20 years in the U.S. Coast Guard the place he earned a secret-level safety clearance. After retiring in 2016, he used the key clearance for his protection job.

A search of the couple’s Hawaii residence turned up Polaroids of the couple sporting jackets that seem like genuine Russian KGB uniforms, Myers said. An skilled decided the snapshots have been taken in the Nineteen Eighties.

The search additionally yielded an invisible ink equipment, paperwork with coded language and maps displaying navy bases, Myers said.

When the couple have been left in a room collectively, they have been recorded saying “things consistent with espionage,” Myers said.

“We think the defendant is obviously quite adept at impersonating other people, obtaining government ID documents, fraud, avoiding detection,” Myers said. “He may – we’re not saying for sure – but he may have some troubling foreign connections. And if he does, he might be able to use those to enlist help.”

Federal defender Craig Jerome said the federal government solely supplied “speculation and innuendo” that the couple was concerned in one thing extra nefarious than “purely white-collar nonviolent offenses.”

“If it wasn’t for the speculation that the government’s injected into these proceedings without providing any real evidence … he would certainly be released,” Jerome said.

Morrison faces a bail listening to Tuesday.

Her lawyer said the couple – no matter their names – had lived law-abiding lives. Attorney Megan Kau informed The Associated Press the couple posed for pictures in the purported KGB jacket for enjoyable.

“She wants everyone to know she’s not a spy,” Kau said. “This has all been blown way out of proportion. It’s government overreaching.”

Retired FBI agent Tom Simon told Hawaii News Now the federal government had seemingly been monitoring the couple for a while and he expects extra proof will probably be revealed because the case strikes ahead.

“The FBI counter-intelligence agents are very smart and very thorough,” he informed the station. “They’re not going to make a case with this impact based on someone playing dress-up at a party.”

The couple, who have been arrested Friday at their Kapolei residence, are charged with conspiracy to commit an offense towards the U.S., false assertion in passport software and aggravated identity theft. They withstand 17 years in jail if convicted of all expenses.

Inside their home, investigators found correspondence in which an affiliate believed Primrose had joined the CIA or had turn into a terrorist, Myers said.

When they left Texas in the early Nineteen Eighties and claimed they have been protected witnesses, they handed over the keys to their Nacogdoches home and informed members of the family to take something they needed. The home was later foreclosed on.

In 1987, Primrose took on the identity of Bobby Edward Fort, an toddler who died in 1967 in Burnet, Texas. Morrison took the identity of Julie Lyn Montague, who died in 1968 on the identical hospital as Fort. Primrose and Morrison, each born in 1955, have been greater than a decade older than the delivery dates listed on their new IDs.

“The defendant and his wife reportedly told yet other associates that they needed to change their names because of legal and financial reasons,” Myers said. “And that going forward they can be contacted using their new names, Fort and Montague.”

They remarried beneath their assumed names in 1988, in keeping with court docket information.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by Hawaii News Now, Primrose was allegedly issued a complete of 5 U.S. passports beneath the identity of Bobby Fort. Morrison was issued a complete of three U.S. passports beneath the title of Julie Montague, the grievance says.  

Morrison used her actual title to open a publish workplace field, the place she informed household to contact her. When her father died, her household could not attain her and enlisted native regulation enforcement to trace her down.

“Even the defendant’s family cannot find him when they need to,” Myers said.

Prosecutors feared Primrose would flee if freed. They famous in court docket papers that he was an avionics electrical technician in the Coast Guard and was extremely expert to speak secretly if launched.

The decide said he primarily based his detention order on the alleged fraud “over multiple occasions spanning a long period of time.”