Couple fraudulently used identities of deceased Texans, feds say
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A former U.S. defense contractor and his wife living a seemingly quiet life in Hawaii are accused of fraudulently using the identities of babies who died decades ago in Texas and working as Russian spies.
Driving the news: Walter Glenn Primrose (who used the name Bobby Edward Fort) and Gwynn Darle Morrison (who went by Julie Lyn Montague) were arrested last week, according to NBC5.
Flashback: Primrose and Morrison were born in 1955 and attended high school and college in Texas together, per CBS News.
- They got married in 1980 and assumed new identities in 1987. They got married again with the names in 1988.
Details: The real Bobby Edward Fort was born in 1967 and died the same year, per NBC5. Julie Lyn Montague was born outside Austin in 1968 and died when she was three weeks old.
What happened: An assistant U.S. attorney has alleged that there are photos of the couple wearing KGB uniforms and that a "close associate" said Morrison lived in Romania when it was aligned with the Soviet Union, per the AP.
- Federal investigators allege the couple obtained Social Security cards, passports and driver’s licenses using Fort and Montague's names.
- Primrose served in the U.S. Coast Guard for over 20 years — with Fort's name — before becoming a defense contractor in Hawaii with special security clearance.
The other side: Morrison's attorney denied the allegations, saying she never lived in Romania.
- "She wants everyone to know she's not a spy," the attorney told the AP. "This has all been blown way out of proportion. It's government overreaching."
What they're saying: "I still can't believe it happened," Montague's 91-year-old mother told the AP. "The odds are like one-in-a-trillion that they found her and used her name. People stoop to do anything nowadays. Let kids rest in peace."