HONOLULU (AP) — A U.S. defense contractor and his wife who lived for decades under the identities of two dead Texas children have been charged with identity theft and conspiracy against the government, federal court records show not stamped at Honolulu.
Walter Glenn Primrose and Gwynn Darle Morrison, both in their 60s, who allegedly lived for decades under the names Bobby Edward Fort and Julie Lyn Montague, respectively, were arrested Friday in Kapolei on the island of Oahu .
Prosecutors are asking for the couple to be held without bail, which could indicate that there is more to the case than fraudulently obtaining driver’s licenses, passports and Department of Defense credentials.
Those documents helped Primrose get top secret security clearance from the US Coast Guard and as a defense contractor, and old photos show the couple in KGB uniforms, the former Russian spy agency said , Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Muehleck said in court documents. Faded Polaroids of each of them in uniform were included in the motion to keep them.
A “closer” said Morrison lived in Romania when it was a Soviet bloc country, Muehleck said.
Morrison’s lawyer said his client never lived in Romania and that she and Primrose tried on the same jacket as a joke and put pictures on it. Even if the couple used new identities, attorney Megan Kau told The Associated Press, they have lived law-abiding lives for three decades.
“She wants everyone to know she’s not a spy,” Kau said. “This has all been blown out of proportion. It’s government overreach.”
Prosecutors said there is a high risk the couple will flee if released. They also suggested that Primrose, who was an avionics electrical technician in the Coast Guard, was highly skilled at communicating secretly if released.
The couple is also believed to have other aliases, Muehleck said.
A lawyer for Primrose declined to comment. A bond hearing was scheduled for Thursday in U.S. District Court.
The secret clearance that Primrose had provides access to information that is “tremendously valuable to our enemies,” said Kevin O’Grady, a Honolulu defense attorney not involved in the case.
The Coast Guard works closely with the Army and Navy, helps with counterintelligence and serves as the nation’s maritime border patrol, said O’Grady, an Army reservist and Lt. Col. Judge Advocate General.
“The Coast Guard has a unique perspective on our vulnerabilities,” he said, including how to infiltrate the country through water ports. Hawaii, a major military center, “is a prime target for a lot of espionage and such,” he said.
For a family robbed of their late son’s name, Wednesday’s news came as a shock.
John Montague, who lost his daughter Julie in 1968 at 3 weeks old, was shocked to learn that someone had been living under his name for so long.
“I still can’t believe it happened,” Montague, 91, told the AP. “The odds are like one in a billion that they found her and used her name. People stoop to do anything these days. May the children rest in peace.”
Primrose and Morrison were born in 1955 and attended high school together in Port Lavaca, Texas, then attended Stephen F. Austin University, according to court records. They married in 1980.
There is no indication in court documents why the couple in 1987 assumed the identities of deceased children who would have been more than a decade younger than them. But an affidavit filed by Special Agent Dennis Thomas of the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service noted that the couple lost their home in Nacogdoches, Texas, to foreclosure that year.
They remarried under their assumed names in 1988, Thomas said.
Court records do not provide any information about what happened from the time they assumed their new identities until 1994, when Primrose, about 39, enlisted in the Coast Guard as Fort, who would have about 27 years
If there was an obvious age discrepancy between what Primrose looked like and the birth certificate she produced, “it’s an abject failure,” O’Grady said.
“That’s one thing if they can figure it out now, they should have caught it then,” he said.
Montague said “someone is not doing their job.”
Primrose and Morrison applied for and received multiple passports in their assumed names, according to court records. But in 1999, Primrose also applied for and was issued a passport under her legal name, while holding a passport in Fort’s name.
Primrose was in service until 2016, when she began working for an unnamed defense contractor at the US Coast Guard Air Station at Barbers Point.
“While holding this secret clearance with the United States Coast Guard, defendant Primrose was required to report any foreign travel,” prosecutors wrote. “The investigation has revealed that the accused Primrose failed to report several trips to Canada while reporting other trips abroad.”
The couple lived in a suburb of Honolulu in a modest two-room bungalow under palm trees. They owned a house next door that they rented to military personnel, said Mai Ly Schara, who lived next door.
I knew them as Bob and Lynn, with Morrison apparently being Julie Lyn Montague’s middle name.
Primrose did yard work for Schara for $50 a month, he said. Morrison took in, fed, spayed and neutered cats. He also had several rabbits and dedicated a room to pets.
“They kept themselves aloof, but they were friendly,” Schara said. “They were like a little nerdy.”
Schara wasn’t sure what Primrose did for a living, but he thought it was related to the military. Morrison once worked as a parking attendant at a hotel in Waikiki, but had been tutoring neighborhood kids.
The FBI created a scene in the quiet neighborhood when they searched the house and took pictures.
“It was shocking, like, oh my God,” Schara said. “It was crazy.”
The State Department declined to comment on the arrests.
The pair are charged with conspiracy to commit a crime against the US, false statement in passport application and aggravated identity theft.
Fort, who lived less than three months, died in October 1967 in the same hospital where Julie Montague died about three months later in January 1968. They are buried 14 miles (23 kilometers) apart.
When Tonda Ferguson learned from her father that Morrison had used her late sister’s birth certificate to create an alias, she thought of her mother, who died in 2003, and how many years had passed.
“For all the mothers who live and have to know that this happened to their babies, I can’t even begin to imagine,” Ferguson said. “I’m glad my mom is with the Lord. That would be very traumatic for her.”
Ferguson was in eighth grade when his sister died. He never got to see or hold his little sister. She was buried in Burnet, Texas, the small town where they lived at the time outside of Austin.
“It came from a place of love, a deep love,” Ferguson said. “For someone to turn around to steal their identity for evil, it’s difficult. It’s hurtful. … I hope they rot.”
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Melley reported from Los Angeles. Caleb Jones in Kapolei, Hawaii, and Rhonda Shafner in New York City contributed to this report.