Ep. 4: Mary Jane Longo and Her Three Children

He wanted the lifestyle before he had the life. What starts as overspending and small-time theft grows into a web of fake checks, stolen vehicles, and manufactured identities, ends with Mary Jane Longo and her three children losing everything.

We walk through the Mary Jane Longo case with the victims at the center, because so much true crime coverage defaults to making the perpetrator the brand. We talk about Mary Jane’s upbringing, her Jehovah’s Witness faith community, and how quickly her world changes after marriage. 

Christian Longo’s “champagne taste” collides with a reality he refuses to accept. From the infamous engagement ring payments to the constant credit-card juggling, the financial pressure isn’t just background noise. It becomes a pattern of entitlement, deception, and control.

Then the fraud escalates: a stolen minivan, fake invoices, equipment flipped for quick cash, and law enforcement closing in. We follow the family’s journey to the Oregon Coast, the December 2001 murders in Newport and near Waldport, and the investigation that exposes the truth. The story also intersects with Michael Finkel and the True Story book and film, but we keep the focus where it belongs: on Mary Jane, Zachery, Sadie, and Madison, and on what the timeline teaches us about warning signs.

If you’re listening to true crime podcasts for clear reporting, a tight timeline, and victim-first storytelling, this one is for you. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review, and send us cases you want covered at Northwestnightshift.pod at gmail.com.

Transcript

Welcome And Content Warning

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to Northwest Night Shift. I'm Vivian. And I'm Bailey. Uh we are here to discuss the case of Christian Longo. Um buckle up guys, cause this one uh it's my episode this week and um yeah I chose this one because I personally hadn't heard of this one before. I know Bailey said she had.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Yeah, I'd listen to a podcast. Uh what did I say it was? True crime all the time was the one that I listened to. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

But I hadn't known about it. So uh there was definitely a lot to it. Um, but when I was researching it was very disturbing when I was working on it. So uh I just want to give a discretion. Uh this episode contains murder, family violence, and deaths of children. Um, some listeners may find these topics disturbing, and please take care while listening. Mary Jane, I was trying to go back and find information because I like to do a lot of research, and I feel like details like um back backgrounds and how people grew up is really important, and I just wasn't finding much on her at all. And it was kind of really yeah, and I'm like, this like it was everything was just about him and like just very like sensationalized and I feel like that's like the problem with like researching these kinds of things.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah, it's almost like there's more information on the person that murdered the victim than the victims, and that's the frustrating part.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

And so I just I don't like when when most people hear about this case they recognize the name of the person responsible. Um and so in many articles, documentaries, and podcasts used his name in the title of the story. But for this episode, I want to use Mary Jane and her children as a title because it just like it just bugs me. Like just it's not about you. Right, like I don't know. It's just I just wanted to make that put that out there. Um and I also want to be respectful to the victims and the victims' family, and uh I feel like this information is just good to

Centering Mary Jane’s Story

SPEAKER_01 2:08

it's good for women to it to get it out there. Mary Jane Longo. Uh her her name before getting married to a Christian was Mary Jane Irene Baker. She was born April 25th, 1967 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her parents are Jim and Susan Baker. Um when she was born, her parents they were pretty young. Her dad was 23 and her mom was 22. And she was the third of five children. Dang. Yeah. Um her parents got divorced in the early 70s, and after they got divorced, her mom joined the Jehovah's Witness Faith. And it's not I think the dad it's not confirmed, but I think the father was like against joining that faith. Um, but she she found the Jehovah's Witness faith and uh she really enjoyed it. So after her parents got divorced, her mother joined the faith and raised all five children's with the children within the church. So basically I don't know much about this religion, but I know that they don't celebrate holidays. They don't celebrate holidays, birthdays, they don't join the rel uh they don't the religion, obviously they join the religion. They don't in like include themselves in politics or the military. And also like their big no-no is they don't associate with anybody who is a part of the JW Jehovah's Witness community and then leaves. Like you are shunned. Mary Jane really enjoyed this religion and stayed involved even when she got older. Uh she graduated from Huron High School, H-U-R-O-N, uh, in 1985, and she began working at a dental school as a secretary at the University of Michigan. People described her as gentle, sweet, quiet, and committed to her faith. With both of both um Mary Jane and Christian, there was so many different when I was researching there's so many different articles that say different things.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Was he involved in the church as well?

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yes, he was. They both Oh, okay. Both of their families were not like they weren't like born into the Jehovah's Witness, but they both were like introduced to it when they were very young. Door-to-door work. That's how most people find someone knocks on your door.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Um, but I was just used to hide. Right?

SPEAKER_00 4:47

I guess the thing against the Jehovah's Witnesses, I just get really scared because people don't knock on my door and I won't answer it.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

I don't care who you are. Don't if I don't know you or I'm not expecting you, don't knock on my door.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Yeah. Um when we were younger, we would like hear someone knock on the door and I would hide. Like I would get on my stomach and like crawl away. Yeah. I was like, ah, it's scary. Don't knock on my door. And um And we lived right down the road from a Jehovah's Witness. Oh really?

SPEAKER_01 5:10

So yeah, they were always down there. So much conflicting information. Like some some sources were s saying that Christian was born and raised in Michigan. Some were saying he moved to Michigan at a very young age, was raised, and then um where's most of his life was raised in Michigan and all of this different stuff. So I'm trying to go with I listen to many different podcasts, different um

Faith Background And Early Life

SPEAKER_01 5:36

shows, articles, everything. Trying to get as much like as I can. So bear with me. Christian Michael Longo was born on January 23rd, 1974. Um, it's not known the exact city he was born in, but it was somewhere in somewhere in I Iowa. I was gonna say Idaho, Iowa. Uh his mother, Joy Longo, was likely in her late teens, early twenties when Christian was born. And shortly after his younger brother Dustin Longo was born, their parents got divorced. Couldn't figure out who his real like biological father was. Um, so that's nowhere out there. I don't know if he wants to be known at this point. Yeah. So I couldn't find anything about him. Um but according to records, the biological father was abusive to Joy and the two little boys. So Joy um divorced divorced the father right after Dustin, the younger of the two boys was born, and she began to be a single mother raising two children in the Midwest. And since she was recovering from really bad domestic trauma, she found the Jehovah's Witness faith also from door-to-door ministry. Joy noticed how the faith provided community and support after such a chaotic time. She went she enjoyed how the faith taught strict morals for her sons as well. I think that was a big thing for her since her like um her ex-husband was so crazy and chaotic and probably not teaching the boys good morals and being um violent and stuff. So I think she saw that as like, oh, like I can I can teach them how to how to be a real man. Yeah, maybe that's how wife. Joy met Joe longo through activities in the Jehovah's Witness congregations. So they met at church basically.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Wait, wait, wait, wait. So were Christian and Dustin not born longo?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

No, they weren't born long ago. I don't know what the dad's name is.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

That's crazy. Okay. Yeah, that's why. And then they eventually had their names changed, I'm assuming. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Okay. Um, so Joy met Joe Longo through church. Um, what's like the Kingdom H hall? Kingdom Hall, yeah. Yeah, it's not technically church. Yeah. They don't call it that. Um, but they quickly got married, and Christian was four years old when they got married. Joe, Joe, or Joseph, soon after the wedding, adopted both of the boys, and that's where they got Longo. Um, and Joe actually seemed like pretty good stepdad. Um, he he wanted them to follow the s the Jehovah's Witness faith. He was pretty strict, but he wanted a very framed household. And uh they they seemed to be doing pretty well. Um they the family moved to Louisville, Kentucky a little bit after that they got married. Um and Joe got a job as an executive for a national retail chain. The family was pretty well off. Um, they didn't have any money struggles, and Christian was really ever told no to the things he wanted. So clearly. Yeah. Joe Longo's career led the

Christian’s Upbringing And Control

SPEAKER_01 9:03

family to move to Ipsilani Township, Michigan. Mary Jane and Christian met at the Jehovah's Witness Church, and so you're not allowed to marry or date anyone outside their religion. But according according to Chris, a week into being 18 years old, his parents gave him the ultimatum that he can either date Mary Jane or live under their roof. So even though they're both from the same um religion, his parents thought that he was he was not mature enough to be in a relationship. He'd never been in a relationship. And when they met, Mary Jane was around 25 and he was like 17, 18. So I think that was Yeah, that was that was a part of it. They were like, She's probably a little too mature for you. Probably. Um, but he um yeah, a week later he moved out and lived with some friends and some roommates. A week later? Yes. Yes. Five months later, on a group trip to the Jehovah's Witness headquarters in New York City, Chris proposed to marry Jane with a 3.5 carat diamond ring. Dang! Yeah. I'm trying to research like how much that would cost, and like some sources are saying like $20,000 to $50,000 in today's money. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

3.5 carats though? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Well, you're lucky if you even get one these days. Yes. I'm like, uh I don't I was trying to figure I don't know like the details of like the purity. Like that's kinda I don't know much about diamonds anyways, but I was trying to figure out how much it would be.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Well like lab grown versus Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

So um this diamond ring would later cause problems for them because he was not able to afford it. And you'll see that's a very big trend in his life.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

He literally just moved.

The Ring Theft And First Charges

SPEAKER_00 10:51

I'm gonna buyer this big old diamond ring. Yeah, 3.5 that's that's a big problem. I'm like looking at my hand, I'm like, done.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

So he had to make payments on this expensive ring and pay his rent at the same time. Yeah, that's a car payment. Yeah, that's what some people were saying that it was basically like a car payment, this ring. Um he worked at a camera shop at the mall and someone put $108 down payment on a camera. Christian stole the money and took it to the jewelry store in the same mall and used the money on down payment on the ring. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

It wasn't even his money. No!

SPEAKER_01 11:34

He stole the money for this big ass ring. Yeah, no, he's freaking not very smart because obviously if your till is $108 short.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Uh yeah, it doesn't just rain like okay, ten cents, okay, sure. You dropped a dime. Yeah. Or like just a few cents, but dollars, when you get like even a one dollar off, then it's like, mmm.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Yeah, yeah. Okay. What I'm about to say next, it shows that he at least like has a brain in his head and at least feels some remorse. Cause then the next day, Chris put a check for $108, the store keys and a resignated resignation letter on the counter. So yeah, he put that check, store keys, and resignation letter on the counter of the store and left. And his boss pressed charges and he got a misdemeanor for embezzlement and 80 hours of community service. And only 80?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah. That's not even as many dollars as he stole. It should be like an hour for every dollar you stole. An hour every dollar.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Um, and so he fessed up to Mary Jane about what happened, and he promised to never do that again, and so they still had intentions to get married. But when uh Christian's roommates they caught wind of what happened about this theft, they reported it to the church elders and Chris was put on restrictions. That's what happens if you get like a if you do something non-moral. If it's like super, super bad, you get put on restrictions where you have to like you're restricted to going to certain things. Um so he got put on restrictions and they were not allowed to get married in the Kingdom Hall, which they weren't allowed to get married in the Kingdom. Oh, I bet Mary Jane was Yeah, like that was very important to them. So they got some married somewhere else. Don't know where it was, but on March 13th, 1993, they got married. Chris's parents paid for them to have a honeymoon in Jamaica. You'll Chris and um Chris likes very nice vacations. Chris likes very nice things, is what it sounds like. Chris likes nice vacations. He's got a champagne taste on a beer, but yeah. Um soon after the wedding the uh couple moved out with moved out from Christian's roommates and got an apartment together. He got a job for a company that delivered papers for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. But he told his landlord when he was applying for that apartment they moved to that he worked for the New York Times. Yeah. I know. Yeah, I guess in a sense like yeah, technically he's not lying.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

They probably think he's some like big shot writer. He's really a journalist.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

When they moved out, the Bakers, Mary Jane's

Kids Arrive As Money Collapses

SPEAKER_01 14:30

parents uh family believed that she was paying the bills, um, because she still had her job at the university. But he definitely liked his lavish lifestyle and l they he liked to live above his means. They both had jobs but still kept putting everything on credit. His previous and he so he had to move because he wasn't making payments, they had to move a lot. So he moved from that apartment and they had to move into a different apartment, and his previous landlord landlord was suing him for not making rent rent payments and they were always taking vacations out of the country like Mexico and Jamaica, spending he also liked computers, uh, cameras, electronics, so he's spending a ton of money on electronics. And computers were expensive in the 90s.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Well they were like no, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Yeah, my mom said that this was maybe oh no, it's probably nine the nineties. Her first computer. It wasn't like a super fancy one, but it was like four grand. What? Yes. Now you can get a what, like, even a really nice MacBook is what, like six hundred, seven hundred dollars. Yeah. Computers were not cheap when they first came out. Um and he liked expensive cars, and so he started writing counterfeit checks. Um, and then at the paper that's a good choice. At the paper company he was working for, they gave him a decent raise, and he used that money to buy a new car and a pool table. Oh, yeah. That's what everyone needs. And he then put that pool table, um, w in an in a house they bought, which they technically didn't necessarily buy it. Um, which I'll explain in a second. But Mary Jane's sister was very suspicious of how all the nice things they had. Yeah. Uh she was like, not right. Yeah. Um, so their first child, Zachary, was born February 28th, 1997. And soon after having Zachary, they had another baby on the way, and that's when they realized that apartment they were in was a little too small.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Oh, the apartment with the pool table. He turned his pool table into a changing table. He's like, it's multi-purpose, nothing. The pool tables are so heavy, they're like concrete. And I'm thinking like upstairs apartment, right? How are you gonna maneuver that thing into an apartment? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Like, um, so they can he put the plywood on the on the pool table. We're having dinner also so hard to get level. Literally. Um, so they then bought a house, and this house was Mary Jane's um mother's husband. His house he had like is probably one of his investment properties. So he was just making payments to it. So he didn't like go through like the whole house buying process, because he probably I that's why I was like that's why I was like, how can this guy buy a house if he's going through all this stuff? It's not he didn't go through like the process. He was just like basically paying him rent. Like they may might have transferred the title over to him, maybe. Um, but it's not like he got a loan for it. He he was just paying them for it. That's why I was like, how no way. Um, so yeah. They had another baby on the way and it was too crowded. So and Sadie was born on April 30th, 1998. And soon after Sadie was born, Chris was sent down to San Francisco because there was a strike going on, and because people were just not they're on strike, they're not r they're refusing to work. So while down in California, he quit his job because he made he mated. He quit his job because he hated how much he was missing time at home with his family and yeah, the job rough. A little bit before this, Mary Jane had quit her job to care for the children because he's gone. Oh he's gone all the time. And so they have two now and they're literally like a year apart. So his next job was for a company that sold fireplaces.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

And he wasn't making as much money. Um he was on commission.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

And so it was mostly like selling fireplaces places fireplaces to construction companies. And then in 98 he took out a loan to buy a year-old jet ski and a brand new Dodge Durango. Period.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

What and you said did you say it was a brand new Dodge Durango?

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Why would you not do it?

SPEAKER_01 19:16

And then a 97 jet ski.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

So a year Why? I don't know. How do you Okay, listen. Okay, your boyfriend is a paperboy. Not literally. Her boyfriend is not literally a paperboy. No. But think about it. Your boyfriend's a paperboy. Yeah. He brings home a brand new.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

I would be pissed seeing a brand new car in my driveway no matter what. He's a paperboy. Brandon.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

You can't really make such a bad idea at the end of the day, anyway. Literally. I have a car payment and I'm jealous because Vivian does not jealous of that. Car payment? Or yeah. And I'm not even on a paperboy salary.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

It's not recommended. Don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Don't do it.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

It's a trap. Their third child, uh, Madison Longo, was born October 19th, 1999. They're all very 97, 98, and 99.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Good lord. Yeah, they are very close in age.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

That's not even what is that? So there's Irish twins. Is there such a thing as Irish triplets? What's that called? Maybe that might be a thing. You might be right.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

They're very close in age. Um, yeah, me and my brother are Irish twins. And uh it's not very it's very interesting. My mom said it's very difficult, so Um, anyway. Um, so Madison Longa was born October 19th, 1999, and she had some health concerns. She was premature premature, and the baby had to stay in the hospital for longer than they thought. So this was even more money and stress. They did have health insurance, but it was expensive. Yeah. So while Madison was in the hospital, Mary Jane's car was repo'd. Like repossessed. They took her car. That the Durango? No, her car. Her car. Oh, because God forbid they take the freaking Durango. Yeah, so Mary Jane's car was repo repoed, and I don't know what make or model this car was, but she thought that it was more important for Chris to have his Durango, his new car paid off or paid for, because he had to go to work. Um what oh, okay. Yeah, so she she was paying his car payment essentially. Or it was all whatever they could scrape together was going towards a new car. And around the time that um the car was repo'd, his house payments to Mary Jane's uh family were all s his checks were bouncing too.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Oh, imagine that.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Yeah. I was like getting a headache listening or reading this today. I was just like, what the Just terrible with money. Yes, awful, awful, awful.

Stolen Minivan And Fake Identities

SPEAKER_01 21:52

And so on February 16th, 2000, a man was going by the name Jason. My dad's name. Uh Jason Joseph Fortner went to the Pontiac Dealership in Sylvania, Ohio, right across the state border from Michigan, and he asked to test drive the Pontiac Montana, which is like the minivan.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Uh like all the bells and whistles, top model, everything. Um the van was worth thirty-three thousand four hundred and forty-five, which is a lot now. Yeah. That's a lot of money now. And so he drove the van off the lot and it was missing for two years after. Um they reported the van as stolen, but nothing came of it. Guess who it was? Oh, was it our boy? Yeah. Was it him? What? Chris stole the van and brought it back home. He put a license plate on his uh, he took the license plate from his Durango and put it on the van. And so it doesn't match the make or model.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

No.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Yeah, and then he ordered a new license plate under the Durango, and it said Kid Van is what it said. What? Yeah. He ordered a new license plate under the Durango, and then once that showed up, he put um he put that license plate, Kid Van, on the Pontiac, the new van, and then took the original one back on the Durango. And by by this time, like I was kind of looking into it a little bit, like, um, traffic, cameras, and like license plate readers were not super common in the early 2000s. Like they're kind of but it was mostly like over like the US border and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

So technically both of these vehicles are still not registered because that license plate that he like put on the van and then put back on is not registered to the vehicle anymore either.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Right, because he got new plates for the Durango. Yeah. But his Durango plates aren't registered to the Durango anymore. And the plates he put on the van aren't on the Durango.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Yeah. So their license plate readers were not super common still in the in 2000, so they didn't get caught, surprisingly.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Did Mary Jane know about this?

SPEAKER_01 24:05

No. And he he um he just got home and he was like, hey babe, new van. What? Yeah. Uh he gave Mary Jane this minivan and told her he has 90 days till the first car payment and that he can afford it with the business he was about to start.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Oh, so we're starting a business. Yep, stole a car.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

She doesn't know what said car. Nope. They just they reported it stolen, but they never they never got it back. Like they didn't really go looking for it either. They just they were like, oh, he didn't come back. I'm like, how did you not notice the power never came back? I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Did they not like take his license?

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Like when he gave him a fake that's what he gave him a fake license. He went by the name Jasph Jofit Joseph. And he had he had all this crazy technology in electronics, like he was able to make fake IDs and like all this crazy stuff. What? Yes. Yeah. So when at his fireplace job he kind of got in contact with contractors because they were they were doing uh they he sold to a lot of um people building homes and stuff. A lot of residential stuff. And so the some of the contractors um that he was selling to said that they needed people to come in and clean the construction sites when the the buildings were done. I see those people all the time. Yeah. Because it gets nasty. So they have to before they turn them out. Yeah, it's disgusting. Before they turn them out. Um so he started his company called Final Touch Construction Cleaning.

The Business Scam Spiral

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

He's a glorified maid, dude.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Yes, he um but his company was doing really well. He had a lot of jobs going, um, and he needed he had like more jobs than he had manpower for. But the problem with the construction business, I kind of know a little bit about this, um, is you need a a decent amount of money up front.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Cause some of these jobs, like especially the jobs we do, they could take years before they're done.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

And you don't get paid material.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

No, you're not sometimes you do, like, we'll have um like our PMs will ask us, like, hey, what have you done? Like they'll charge um the contractors or the the general contractor like monthly, like we did this amount of work through the month. So, like what what did you what equipment did you put on site? What did you hang up in the air? What duck work did you do? All this stuff. And so like that's they like bill them for the month, but you don't get the chunk until the end. But that's not something they all these people were doing. So like you sometimes didn't get paid until it was done. And could be a long time.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

Um, like how long does that do you know how long that usually takes?

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Like is it a quick thing or is it like it's probably not until the whole job's done, and sometimes it sounds like a lot of it was residential, but not like there there probably was a little bit of commercial, um, but c it it's it sometimes takes a long time. Okay. Um, so he had the problem was he didn't have money to pay his employees. Nice. So pajesky. Right. So later on he opened a separate bank account for his business and used it to buy a forklift and a trailer. A forklift? Yeah, like a gradle. Or like a forklift.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Yeah. What is it? Because he was on construction site.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

So this is what he did. This is what he would start doing. He would finance or open a bank account. And sometimes you get like loans specifically for your businesses. Uh-huh. Um, so that's what he did. And he bought the forklift in the trailer and he wrote a check, and the check bounced, obviously. And then he would sell the equipment for like five thousand dollars to get the cash now. Like quick.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Yeah, he would turn around and sell it to people on like Craigslist or online to like get quick cash. But he would never pay it off. No, it would the check would immediately bounce. He would just be writing fake checks all the time.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

So essentially he was stealing.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Yeah.

unknown 28:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

These were just stolen stolen forklift and trailer.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Great.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Mm-hmm. So he sold both these equip pieces of equipment for $5,000 and wrote himself a check for $5,900 and set um cashed it at a separate bank and that check bounced too.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

From h so it bounced from his work account. Mm-hmm. Got it.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Yeah. So stupid. Cool. Yeah. Um, so the company that Yeah, so he one of the contractors that he had working for him, he claimed that they weren't paying him on time. And so he he claimed that they owed him a ton of money. So he used his computer to make fake invoices that he claimed that he sent to them. He's like, I sent you all these invoices, you never sent me the money. And so he went back and edited fake checks that like from the ones he sent them before. Good. And they were way more than than what Yeah. So way more than what obviously they he they needed to pay. And so he uh and then he would go and make his own like he would save the checks that they sent him and make his own checks that match the invoice and cash them. What? Yeah. Yeah. So he's Okay. So he starts stealing from this other company that is working or he's working for, basically. Oh my god. So he did this a couple times so that he can pay his employees and like keep his business going, but it's not really going that great. And

Affair Fallout And Police Closing In

SPEAKER_01 30:26

then Chris gets caught having an emotional affair with a Jehovah's Witness that he hired as as an assistant. Why would you need an assistant? And Mary Jane found out about the infidelity in May 2000, um, going through Chris's emails. He told her that he didn't love her anymore and she's changed since they had children.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

And you mean like she became a mom?

SPEAKER_01 30:49

Yeah. He basically was resenting her and jealous because she would give the children attention. Oh no, God forbid she's a mom. Mm-hmm. I was like, dude, this guy is insane. Like what? I don't he was just very jealous that she took care of the kids, I guess. She decided to stay with him. Um the Jehovah's Witness Church found out about this and they wanted him to repent for his sins, for his infidelity. Um But Mary Jane decided to keep going to Jehovah's Witness gatherings. They also stayed together. Um Chris was later disfellowshipped in it from the church. July 14th, 2000, Chris opened a line of credit under his father, Joe Longo, and racked up a hundred thousand dollars of debt.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

A hundred thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Under his dad's name, like opened up a new credit account. I've heard of people doing that for your kids and stuff, but I don't even know how you would do it for your dad. Yeah. I don't know. Like I've heard of people doing it for like their five-year-old kids and stuff, like racking up credit cards in their name. Yeah. But that's ins that's insane. And so obviously all these bounce checks and forgeries were uh some red flags. Um so Chris was brought in for questioning by police on July 14th of 2000. Um Finally. Yeah. Um, when Chris had tried to cash another bad check and the teller called the police. He left his ID behind when he like ran out and he was arrested the same day. And the detective threatened to get a search warrant for his home, bank account, and cars. And if he didn't what they mainly wanted was the electronics, these whatever he was using to make these checks. He wa he was like, that's when he gave in. Like he was like, Okay, fine, like 'cause then they would go into his bank account and see all the other fraud and then his car is not his like stolen car. Mm-hmm. He would they would see all the Jason Joseph. Yeah, they would see all the stuff he's been doing. So he gave in and he gave it to him. And Christian was then charged with four felonies for the Wexford checks he was cashing. That's the company he was like scamming. And he could have gotten fourteen years for each f um each check. Or sorry, each felony. He could've gotten fourteen years for each one. I wish he would have. And he pleaded guilt guilty. Um, but since he's the sole provider and had no had no prior criminal history, he got three years probation and restitution. Um so he had to pay back thirty thousand dollars. That's from what he that was from the like company he scammed. He had to pay thirty thousand dollars. That's that's all? Yeah. Um and eighty hours of community service, and so he was ordered to pay nine hundred and five dollars back per month to give them their money back.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Nine hundred and five a month.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

That's like less than what most people pay for rent now.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

Yeah. Um so now after this, this is when the Jehovah's Witness obviously he was arrested and all this stuff, so they found out and that's when he was like actually like this fellowshipped.

Running West And Living On Lies

SPEAKER_01 34:29

This fellowshipped. Um June 2001, the family sold their home and moved to Toledo, Idaho, and they moved into an old warehouse, and at the time it cost it costed seventeen hundred dollars a month, and I looked up, and today that'd be thirty-two hundred dollars a month. Like, why would you move into an old warehouse when you could live in a house probably for cheaper?

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Why an old warehouse?

SPEAKER_01 34:57

I don't because he was oh because he was like continued to sell stuff out of his warehouse. We'll talk about. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Where did they even live? Like, isn't a warehouse just like a big metal building with concrete floors, no rooms?

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Yeah, they were just renting that and living in it. It was probably like a commercial space, but they were like they're just living they didn't live there very long. Okay. Um so as more charges were coming up about the other forged checks that Chris cashed, the police heard rumors that the family had moved to Toledo, and in that warehouse, Chris was selling stolen equipment, and uh one person was there checking out like a forklift, and he was like, Something's off about this. So he called the police and the police raced there to go check it out, and they got there and there was just like a bunch of stolen equipment in there. Nice. And the family left. They began their Yep, they began their drive to Oregon. They were like, peace out. They're we're going to the West Coast. Uh so yeah, when the police got there, they began their drive to Oregon and they were gone. Um, to have some money for this trip. Sorry. It's okay. I hear that all the time. Colin's always fussing with it. Um, to have some money for their trip, Chris sold the engagement ring. Or he pawned it. Um and the family arrived at Yahoot. Which is like not very far from here. I've been to Yahoot's whoops. Multiple times. Um, they But it's all there's like nothing there. No, that's a really small town. Yeah. Um, so both because they left Ohio without saying anything, both their families reported them missing. Um, and so they were basically just going from vacation home to vacation home. Like they would go to Yahawts and then Waldport and Newport, but they weren't paying like they weren't paying to stay there, so they get kicked out, and then the next one, and the next one. Um Chris got a star uh star. Chris got a job at Starbucks inside the Newport Fred Myers. I have been there. That makes me crazy. I've also been there. Wait. Newport Fred Myers. Newport's like my second home because last summer I spent like the whole summer there working in Newport. And like I worked at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, so like I love the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Uh-huh, yeah. So that was like my second home, and a lot of crazy stuff has happened in Newport.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

Um Newport is like I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

I love Newport.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

I love it there, but it feels eerie sometimes. It is.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

No, there's a the amount of people that have been thrown off that bridge is actually insane. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Uh like you can't you're like walking you're like walking downtown, you're like, oh this is fun. And then you're like, I would go over that bridge like every morning.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

Yeah. It has an eerie, creepy feeling to it for sure. Um, but he got a job at Starbucks because he had to get a job that didn't do background checks because the police were looking for him. So Starbucks it is. Alright. What a winner. Yeah. At least he had a legit job. Yeah. I don't know why he would move to Newport. Like it's not cheap to live there. No. At all.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

It's not.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

I don't know what made them choose Newport.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

I don't know what made them choose like the coastal towns. Like those are more expensive, right?

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Yeah. Maybe because they probably knew like all the coastal towns, I think the biggest coastal town, like Newport's like 10,000, I think is the population. And then Coos Bay, I believe, on the Oregon coast is the biggest town and it's only sixteen thousand. Isn't all the cities and towns on the Oregon coast are very small.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Right.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

So maybe they're like, oh we'll just go. Maybe maybe they like the beach and they were like, Oh, the just go to this little town. I don't know. Here's the sad sad part. Um December 17th, 2001.

The Murders In Newport And Waldport

SPEAKER_01 39:07

So they had not been they had not they had only been in Oregon for like a couple months. Jeez. Okay. So in like September of 2001, that's that's when the family the um Longo family started sending. They sent like South Dakota. I think it was Christian. It was never confirmed, but I believe it was Christian that was sending like um what are the like the postcards? It he was sending postcards back to both their families. And it was like he sent like South Dakota. Uh like our family Yeah, like our family's just taking a trip around the country. And so that's when because like I said, they the they opened the um the missing person's case. The missing persons case. And so they closed it once they like found the they showed the police those. They were just like misleading them, basically.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

How how in Oregon do you get a South Dakota postcard?

SPEAKER_01 40:09

I don't know. I have no idea. I'm like Yeah, that's what they would send them like postcards like we're just on a trip in South Dakota and and stuff. I don't know. You could have just called it It was probably like that was probably a part of his plan. Like he might have had this set up for a while.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Oh, I'm sure. Um But he could have just called him and been like, Yeah, we're fine, we're just in South Dakota, like snow biggie. Yeah. But instead like a postcard, okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Um, on December 17th, 2001, Christian attacked Mary while she was asleep on the bed. He strangled Mary Jane and the baby. The baby. Two-year-old baby Madison. He put their bodies in with no clothes on into two separate suitcases. I know. And um so sad. And carried the suitcases across the street, um, and put them in the water and the marina at the yakina bay. It was literally right across the street, and it was a very public area. And then he went back home and put the other two children, and Sadie at the time was three, and Zachary, who was four, in the stolen red minivan. And he drove sixteen miles south to the Lint Slough Bridge on Highway 34 near Waldport, and he tied pillowcases full of rocks around both the children's legs.

SPEAKER_00 41:35

No, he didn't.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

And he threw Zach in the water first. They were still alive. He d And this is December, remember. It's literally below zero degrees.

SPEAKER_00 41:48

It's freezing. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

That water is freezing. Like if they if they didn't die from drowning, they would have drowned or died from cardiac arrest. How cold it was. Yeah. It awful. And so he threw Zachary in first and they used like he used their own pillowcases. No, he didn't. Mm-hmm. It's pretty awful.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

No. Um, and then And this is I mean, this is on the Oregon Coast, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:20

Like this is in the ocean. Flu goes right into, like, right into the ocean.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Okay, so we don't swim in the Oregon Coast. No. Like, you don't swim at the Oregon Coast. Ever. Year round. Summer, spring, winter. Never. You never do. Because it's freezing. Imagine in the middle of winter.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Cold. Mm-hmm. Oh my god. Awful, awful, awful. Um, so after he threw Zachary in, he threw little Sadie in. Um. And the next day Chris went to Wilsonville and stole a new. Wilsonville. Yeah. I don't know why he went all the way there. Why? Probably that's probably one of the I mean there's there's definitely dealerships in Newport, but he probably didn't want to be recognized because he was like, someone probably eventually someone saw his car that night on the bridge. So he was like, but like I have to get rid of this car.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

Corvallis.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Yeah, so I don't know. He decided to go to Wilsonville and stole a new Dodge Durango. Same thing, like went to go test drive it and left that minivan at the dealership. Disgusting. Um Chris stayed around Newport for your f for a few days after this. He even went back to work for like two days. What? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

Um What a psychopath.

SPEAKER_01 43:46

He was telling people at work, like, Oh, my wife just left me and took the kids, like, I'm just a single bachelor now. Telling everyone this. Yeah. That makes me so. That's the worst part.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Because not only did he murder his His wife and three kids. Mm-hmm. Now he separated his wife. Like, he separated them. Yes. The two older kids are separate from the mother and the youngest child. Yeah. Like that is sickening to me.

SPEAKER_01 44:14

Disgusting. The Lint slew December 19th, uh, Zachary's body was found and they couldn't figure out who he was. And they also figured, or they thought maybe that um like there was a car wreck and the car went into the water. Cause sometimes, like, if the window's down, the body will come out.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

So they had immediately had divers go down and see if there was a car down there or anything, because I remember were the pillowcases not still attached? He came undone. He was attached and little Sadie was still down attached to the pillowcase, but yeah. He came undone, or w whatever you would call it, from he came unattached from the pillowcase. And so they put a drawn photo of what the boy looked like on the news. And two days later a lady called and called in and told the police that she baby sa babysat for these kids. And so she knew the family. She's like, they're they're new to the area, there's two other kids, so there's a wife, like praise this lady. Um and so she was like the the guy he she worked with him and she was like, the dad, Chris, he said that the the mom or the mom and the kids, they she took the kids and left. And so they already knew. They were like, We know who to get. Oh, the husband did it. Yeah, and so they they then found the next day they found Sadie tied to a pillowcase with rocks under full of rocks under the water in the the same area. And December 27th, the two suitcases were found. Um, some reports say that the suitcases broke pipes under the water, and that's what led them to discover the suitcase.

Bodies Found And The Net Tightens

SPEAKER_01 46:03

And so right after a day after Christian saw on the news when Zachary's face, the drawing of his face, was on the news, he took his new Durango and drove to San Francisco and he applied to for a Starbucks job down there when he first got there, but he then changed his mind. And while he worked at Starbucks in Newport, he wrote down credit card numbers and he used those numbers to book a plane ride to Mexico. But he still used he for this, he used his own name. For the plane's dumb. Yeah. But by I mean, not saying that he shouldn't have been caught, but he's dumb. Yeah. And so when he was like booked the plane and everything, the police hadn't known quite at that time to look for him. They didn't know to look for him until he was down in Mexico. And he was all over Mexico, like just traveling around. He wasn't just like in one place. Like at one time he was in Cancun and then Toulum, like all over.

unknown 47:03

What?

SPEAKER_01 47:03

And so he left that stolen green Durango at the airp the the San Francisco airport. And he appeared on the FBI's ten most top ten most wanted lists. So he was all over TV. Um and so when he was in Mexico, he met a German photographer and he was going by the name Michael Finkel. Um Michael Finkel was a real person who worked as a journalist for the New York Times.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

I was gonna say, I feel like I remember this from listening to the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

Yeah, this is what that movie's about. So yeah, Michael Finkel was a real person who worked for as a journalist for the New York Times. His most famous book details um a bizarre scandal. Uh this he got fired shortly after this. Finkel was fired from the New York Times for fabricating parts of a 2001 article. So basically he was lying about people. Um, but him and this woman began a romantic relationship, Chris and this woman in Mexico. And so since his face was plastered all over FBI's top ten most wanted list, and like a lot of Americans are down in Mexico and they're still like watching the news and American TV. I mean my family in Mexico, we did. Um, people were seeing him.

SPEAKER_00 48:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

It was not not hard to not see him. So January 11th, 2002, someone reported seeing him in Cancun and he appear appeared on America's Most Wanted, and people began to recognize him, and he was arrested January 13th in Tulume. So I didn't know this, but I guess Mexic Mexico doesn't have does not do capital punishment. I mean we don't really either, but they don't. Like they w do not want to extradite fugitives to countries where they could face where they could face capital punishment.

SPEAKER_00 49:04

I feel like I've heard about this before. They're like, take away capital punishment and we'll send them.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

Yes. And they're like, okay. Yeah. So Christian had made a deal that with the FBI that he would voluntarily go back to the US or he would face time in jail in Mexico, which he did not want to do.

SPEAKER_00 49:22

Right.

Mexico Escape And FBI Arrest

SPEAKER_01 49:23

So he made um a deal with them and so he was basically like not extradited, but they were just like the the FBI was still with him the whole way back. And so they like got him to Texas. And then were able to fly him to s same or Oregon. And so because Longo voluntarily waived the extradition hearing in Mexico, Oregon prosecutors were not legally bound by that restriction to um get rid of or assure that there was no death penalty to Mexico. So they Oregon wasn't? Yeah, because he agreed to waive the r s like the restriction because or else he would have been in jail in Mexico. Mm-hmm. If he would be down there in jail because there is like the jurisdiction, like our FBI has it's a hard it's hard for us to go down there and arrest people in Mexico because there's that jurisdiction problem. Yeah. So he would have to be thrown in jail down there, which would be a rough time for him. Yeah. So he was like, Okay, I'll just willingly, willingly go back. I guess, quote unquote willingly. Um, but since he agreed to that, they they had a way to go around it where he still could get capital punishment.

SPEAKER_00 50:45

Is that why they took him to Texas first? And then brought him.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

Okay. I mean Oregon still had capital punishment as well at this time anyways. Okay. Um but I think Texas was like the closest place. So they had to like get him to Texas and then extradite him to Newport.

Trial Claims And Death Sentence

SPEAKER_01 51:06

Christian, when he got back to Newport and he was in front of and during the trial, Christian explained that he killed Mary Jane because she killed Zachary and Sadie. So he said that she killed the two older kids, and in a fit of rage, I or sh he was saying that she killed the all of the kids, but when he found the kids, um little Madison was not dead yet. And yeah. And so in a fit of rage he killed her. And then in a fit of rage, he killed his child. Yes. No, no, sorry. In a fit of rage he killed his wife and then f f killed the baby because she was basically dead, is what he said. What the hell? And I'm like, um it just what not only did he kill his poor wife and his family, but now he's gonna place the blame on her. It's the same thing as Chris Watts. Like, I found out that she killed my kid, so I killed her. It's like Well, they're trying to justify it. They're trying to- She's already dead. Why would you why would you do that to her poor parents and family?

SPEAKER_00 52:21

It's like I feel like when they're dead, they don't like when someone dies, the murderer is like they don't have remorse, and they're gonna rat them out because they can't defend themselves. No, they can't. They're just gonna rat them out for anything and everything they can. Yeah. It's like, well, if she That was like last week on Susan Monica when they were like, Where would these other bodies have come from? And she's like, Oh, I don't know. Maybe maybe one of the other maybe one of the guys.

SPEAKER_01 52:46

Yeah, maybe Steve Steve Steve someone else.

SPEAKER_00 52:49

And they're like, Would you tell us? And she's like, Yeah, don't matter. He's already dead.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

I mean, like, it's they don't want to place blame on somebody that can't defend themselves. Yeah. It's disgusting. Um April 17th, 2003, Longo received a death sentence for four counts of murder. In 2011, he admitted that he killed his family, finally. Uh, he remains in the Oregon State Penitentiary, and in 2022, old Kate Brown replaced everyone on Death Row in Oregon with Life Without Parole. The real Michael Finkel reached out to Chris and interviewed him and went on to write a book about it called Truister Truister. He went on to write a book about it called True Story Mur Murder Memoir Me Copra, released in May of 2005. That book turned into a movie named True Story in 2015 starring Jonah Hill and James Franco. I watched a little bit of it, but I didn't get through it because I was like, I don't know how much of this is actually accurate.

SPEAKER_00 53:58

Yeah. I won't watch it now because I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_01 54:00

I have it. Um But yeah, I had no idea that I was just looking and doing my research and I saw that like I saw the movie pop up and I was like, whoa. Okay, so Kate Brown had what had like She ever in 2022, Kate Brown, she um everyone that in Oregon that had was on death row, she just gave them life without parole. She took away she felt that um You're joking. She felt that the capital punishment was unjust and it wasn't fair to the taxpayers and it was a

True Story Book And Final Updates

SPEAKER_01 54:38

waste of money. You know, as a taxpayer This is just what she had punishment. Yes. That's why that's what I was just like, okay. But I don't know if they are thinking of bringing it back. Kate Brown is no longer in office, but yeah, that's that's that. That's the case of Mary Jane Longo and her three little babies. I'm going to link my um sources down below. Um and uh yeah. That's the case. But yeah, we might be taking a a week break, week-long break, June 12th, the weekend. That whole week. Um Bailey and I both work full-time jobs. We do. Um, we both have animals, relationships, um life things. I've

Break Plans And Listener Requests

SPEAKER_01 55:42

been working out of town. Um Vivian's been doing driving three hours every day to work.

SPEAKER_00 55:50

Um I feel like it's important when I have to get out of bed and go to my computer to start working.

SPEAKER_01 55:56

So yeah, I wish we can do more recording and do more podcasts, but we both are very busy. We have a lot of stuff going on. We could we would. Yeah. So we might have breaks here and there, but we're trying.

SPEAKER_00 56:09

Maybe we can get to like a point sometime where we can record like two in one day. I think two a week or something. I want to. Do you have any idea what you want to do next week for your topic? I don't I do have a couple ideas, but I'm trying to narrow down a couple things first before I say anything about what I want to do.

SPEAKER_01 56:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:28

I'm gonna look at our list of wonderful things that we have.

SPEAKER_01 56:32

If anybody has any cases that they want us to look into and talk about, uh send us an email. Yep. Northwestnightshift.pod at gmail.com. Any just reach out reach out to us on there. Um, reach out to us on Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 56:50

Yeah, message us on Instagram. Tell your friends, like stuff follow us because currently I'm looking at our Instagram. We have 16 followers and we're following 10 of them. So we'll follow you back. Follow you back. Please follow us. I know like we're more begging. Literally, I know that there's more than 16 people that listen. Exactly. I know for a fact y'all have Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 57:19

And I didn't have Instagram for like the longest time until like I know a couple months ago.

SPEAKER_00 57:24

I've been so bad.

SPEAKER_01 57:25

I got rid of it.

SPEAKER_00 57:26

I need to post more on on our Instagram. But if we had more followers, then I would.

SPEAKER_01 57:33

Um, but yeah, reach out to us on there. And uh, I don't know what else we have to say. I don't know. Tell your friends. I've been trying to upload Mondays, Monday mornings.

SPEAKER_00 57:45

So Monday mornings. Yeah. Start off your week with some murder. Yeah. Tell your friends, tell your friends to tell a friend. Tell your friend's friend to tell a friend, or else. Um that's not a threat, I promise. Oh my god. I promise I'm not threatening you. I just realize that sounded so bad out of context. Um, but I think that's it.

SPEAKER_01 58:08

I think that's it. All right. I'll see you guys next week. We'll both see you guys next week. Bye. Bye.