Federal court documents that were unsealed in Honolulu reveal that a U.S. defence contractor and his wife were charged with identity theft and plotting against the government after living for years under the names of two deceased Texas children.
Walter Glenn Primrose and Gwynn Darle Morrison, both in their 60s, were detained on Friday in Kapolei on the island of Oahu.
They are accused of living for decades using the aliases Bobby Edward Fort and Julie Lyn Montague, respectively.
The couple is being sought after by prosecutors, which may mean the case involves more than just obtaining IDs from the Defense Department, passports, and drivers’ licences fraudulently.
Five U.S. passports were allegedly issued to Primrose under the name Bobby Fort, according to a criminal complaint that Hawaii News Now has obtained.
According to the complaint, Morrison received a total of three US passports under the name Julie Montague.
According to court papers from Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Muehleck, the couple may be seen in old images donning the uniforms of the KGB, the former Russian espionage agency, which helped Primrose obtain a secret security clearance with the U.S. Coast Guard and as a defence contractor.
The move to have them held contained faded Polaroids of each person wearing their uniform.
According to a “close associate,” Morrison resided in Romania when it was a member of the Soviet Union, Muehleck reported.
As a joke, Morrison and Primrose tried on the same jacket and posed for pictures in it, according to Morrison’s attorney, who also claimed that her client had never lived in Romania.
According to lawyer Megan Kau, the couple had lived law-abiding lives for three decades even if they employed false names.
Kau remarked, “She wants everyone to know she’s not a spy. “Everything has been greatly exaggerated. Government overreach is the cause.”
According to Kau, she is unrelated to Russia. Hawaii News Now.
The couple would likely escape if released, according to the prosecution. Additionally, they said that Primrose, a Coast Guard avionics electrical specialist, had the expertise to communicate covertly in the event of her release.
Muehleck claimed that the couple may go under other names.
Primrose’s attorney declined to comment. On Thursday, a bond hearing was planned in U.S. District Court.
According to Honolulu defence lawyer Kevin O’Grady, who is not involved in the case, Primrose’s access to intelligence is “enormously important to our enemies” because of her secret clearance.
According to O’Grady, an Army reservist and lieutenant colonel judge advocate, the Coast Guard collaborates closely with the Army and Navy, aids in counterintelligence, and patrols the nation’s maritime borders.
He said that the Coast Guard had a special understanding of the country’s vulnerabilities, particularly how to enter through water ports.
He claimed that Hawaii, a significant military hub, “is a top target for a lot of espionage and stuff.”
According to O’Grady, Primrose’s security clearance might have given the Russians access to crucial intelligence.
He said, “They participate in anti-terrorist, anti-drug, and similar activities.
The news on Wednesday shocked one family whose deceased child’s name had been taken.
John Montague was shocked to learn that someone had been using her name for so long after losing his daughter Julie in 1968 at the age of three weeks.
Montague, 91, told AP, “I still can’t believe it happened.” “The likelihood that they located her and used her name is something like one in a trillion. Nowadays, people will do anything.
Let children sleep soundly.”
According to court documents, Primrose and Morrison graduated from high school together in Port Lavaca, Texas, before enrolling at Stephen F. Austin University.
They were both born in 1955. In 1980, they got hitched.
The couple adopted the identities of deceased children who would have been more than ten years younger than them in 1987, but there is no explanation in the court documents for why they did so.
However, a statement made by Special Agent Dennis Thomas of the Diplomatic Security Service of the State Department stated that the couple lost their Nacogdoches, Texas, home to foreclosure in that year.
In 1988, they got remarried using fictitious names, according to Thomas.
What transpired between the time they assumed their new identities and 1994, when Primrose, who was then about 39, enlisted in the Coast Guard as Fort, who would have been about 27 years old, is not documented in court records.
If there was a clear age discrepancy between Primrose’s appearance and the birth certificate he presented, O’Grady characterised that as “an abject failure.”
He remarked, “If they can figure it out now, they ought to have caught it then.”
“Somebody’s not doing their job,” said Montague.
Primrose served in the military until 2016, when he started working at the U.S. Coast Guard Air station in Barbers Point for an unidentified defence contractor.
Prosecutors stated that defendant Primrose was required to report any international travel while he had a secret clearance with the U.S. Coast Guard.
“Investigation has shown that Defendant Primrose failed to report multiple trips to Canada while reporting other foreign travel,” the investigation concluded.
The couple resided in a modest two-bedroom home in a Honolulu suburb surrounded by palm trees.
According to Mai Ly Schara, who lived next door, they owned the house across the street, which they rented out to service members.
Given that Morrison was presumably Julie Lyn Montague’s middle name, she knew them as Bob and Lynn.
She claimed that Primrose worked in the yard for Schara for $50 per month. Morrison adopted, cared for, and neutered cats. She also kept many bunnies and gave them their own room.
They were nice but stayed to themselves, according to Schara.
“They were just a tad nerdy,” said the author.
Schara wasn’t sure what Primrose did for a job, but suspected it was military connected. Morrison had previously tutored nearby kids while working as a parking attendant at a hotel in Waikiki.
When they investigated the home and took pictures, the FBI stirred up trouble in the otherwise peaceful neighbourhood.
Schara remarked, “It was just surprising, like, oh my gosh. It was quite bizarre.
Various neighbours spoke to Hawaii News The pair now maintained a low profile. According to Joshua Guieb-Pangan, they got along well.
Pangan informed the broadcaster that people often waved at him and her as they passed by.
Regarding the arrests, the State Department declined to comment.
The pair is accused with making false statements on passport applications, conspiring to commit an act against the United States, and engaging in serious identity theft.
Fort, who lived for less than three months, passed away in the same hospital in October 1967 where Julie Montague died in January 1968, nearly three months later. They are buried 14 miles (23 kilometres) apart.
Tonda Ferguson considered her mother, who passed away in 2003, and how much time had passed after learning from her father that Morrison had created an identity using the birth certificate of her deceased sister.
Ferguson stated, “I can’t even begin to think for all the mothers who are surviving and have to know what happened to their babies.
“I’m happy that my mother is with the Lord.
She would have such stress from this.”
Ferguson lost her sister when she was in the eighth grade. She was never allowed to hold or see her little sister.
They lived in a small hamlet south of Austin called Burnet, Texas, where she was laid to rest.
Ferguson stated, “She came from a place of love, deep love. “It’s difficult for someone to steal her identity and use it for bad. It is painful. I want them to decay.”