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Christian Longo
Lincoln County
Born: 1/23/74
Sentenced to death: 4/16/2003
Longo was convicted of killing his wife and three children
on the Oregon coast. The bodies of the four were recovered from two
coastal inlets around Christmas 2001. Longo went on the lam, landing on
the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list before he was captured in Mexico posing
as a travel writer.
Interesting fact:
Michael Finkel, the freelance writer Longo impersonated in Mexico, was
later fired from The New York Times Magazine for fabricating a story
about a young African worker. Since then, he has signed a deal to write
a book that intertwines his firing and Longo's case.
Status: Death Row.
Federal Bureau of
Investigation
Press release
January 14, 2002
Charles Mathews, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in
Oregon, announces that FBI agents have transported Christian Michael
Longo back to the United States. Longo and his FBI escort landed at the
Houston, Texas airport at about 7:45 AM Pacific time today on a
Continental Flight that originated in Cancun. Mexican authorities,
accompanied by FBI agents, arrested Longo Sunday evening at about 6:20
PM Pacific time in the small town of Tulum, Mexico. Tulum is
approximately 60 miles south of Cancun. The arrest was without
incident.
On Friday evening, a woman from the Montreal area called
FBI Headquarters after seeing national and international publicity on
the case and checking the FBI's web site (www.fbi.gov). She had
recently traveled to Cancun, Mexico and recognized the photograph of
Christian Longo. The woman says she arrived in Cancun on December 27,
2001. That day she met a man named "Brad" at a Cancun hostel.
He later told her his name was "Mike". She left the hostel on
December 29, 2001.
Additional information was received at the American
Embassy in Mexico City that Longo had stayed at the Hostel Mexico, a
youth hostel in Cancun. Investigators determined that he had left the youth
hostel on January 7, 2002. Publicity in Mexico helped investigators
locate Longo at a beach camp in Tulum. He was living in a beach camp
there under the name of Michael Longo. When approached by approximately
20 Mexican law enforcement officers and FBI agents, Longo confirmed his
identity. Over the course of the next few hours, he agreed to be
transported back to Cancun and to board a plane to the United States
early this morning.
Upon landing in Houston, the FBI agents formally took
Longo into federal custody. He will go through the normal process for a
fugitive, including questioning and fingerprinting. Later today, he
will be booked into the Harris County, Texas jail where he will await
an appearance before a federal magistrate. At that time, the magistrate
will confirm Longo's identity and begin extradition proceedings.
Longo was wanted on a Lincoln County, Oregon warrant
charging him with multiple counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of
his wife, Mary Jane, and their three children. Federal authorities had
also charged him with Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution.
The FBI would like to thank the Mexican immigration
authorities and Mexican law enforcement authorities for their
assistance.
Ore. v. Longo: A
family's murder
Nov. 21, 2003
(Court TV)
— With his boyish good looks, well-spoken demeanor and religious
upbringing, Christian Longo seemed an unlikely candidate for the FBI's
Ten Most Wanted list. But when the bodies of his wife and three small
children were discovered floating in waters near their Newport, Ore.,
home, Longo vanished and quickly became the prime suspect.
When authorities finally caught up to him in Mexico —
where he had been staying on the beach allegedly impersonating a New
York Times travel writer and courting a young German photographer — the
29-year-old Longo returned to Oregon to face charges that he murdered
his 34-year-old wife Mary Jane and the couple's three children —
Madison, 2, Sadie, 3, and Zachery, 4.
Prosecutors called Longo an ice-cold, calculating serial
liar who grew tired of his family. The defense, however, contended
Longo was broken by extreme financial hardships — and that he was not
responsible for two of the deaths.
Though Longo faced the death penalty if convicted, he
pleaded guilty to murdering his wife and youngest child before his
trial even began on March 10, 2003. In a bizarre move, Longo admitted
to Mary Jane and Madison's murders without any plea deal being offered
by prosecutors.
A Lincoln County jury was left to decide whether he was
also guilty of murdering his two elder children, and whether he
deserved to die by lethal injection. In weighing their decision, jurors
considered the words of Longo himself, who offered chilling testimony
from the stand. During his testimony he revealed for the first time his
claim that it was his wife who murdered Sadie and Zachery, which he
said prompted him to strangle Mary Jane and then kill his youngest
child.
A House of Cards
Raised in Ypsilanti Township, Mich., by strict Jehovah's
Witness parents, Longo told investigators that he had a happy
childhood. Actively involved in his church, he received training at a
young age to participate in the door-to-door ministry.
Though he didn't date until his late teens, he was married
at 19 to a woman seven years older, Mary Jane Baker, whom he first met
in the church parking lot.
Even before the wedding, Longo began to experience money
problems when he bought Baker a three-and-a-half carat diamond
engagement ring on a payment plan. One month, he didn't have enough
money to cover both the rent and the ring payment, so he stole $108
from the camera store where he worked. When the employees were
questioned about the missing money, Longo kept quiet.
But the next morning, he said, his conscience got to him
and he left a check for the missing money on the counter along with a
letter of resignation. Rent didn't get paid that month.
Longo's roommates, also Jehovah Witnesses, informed
congregation elders of the incident and Longo was sanctioned, losing
some of his responsibilities within the congregation. Mary Jane stood
by him, but because of the sanctions the two were not able to get
married in the Kingdom Hall. Longo says he was repentant, and felt he'd
learned his lesson.
"I was determined that I would never do anything
along those lines again; anything that was not only illegal, but
immoral, unsavory."
But Longo's admitted addiction to new cars, nice clothes
and tropical vacations tapped out most of his credit even before the
birth of the couple's first child, Zachery. Things only got harder
financially since Mary Jane Longo stopped working to take care of the
baby, and two more children came within the next two years. While the
couple was thrilled about the kids, finances continued to deteriorate.
Longo says he could not go to his parents for help, because of pride.
Christian Longo started a construction clean-up
subcontracting business with another Jehovah's Witness. The business
took off quickly, but despite a booming start was soon in debt because
of a too rapid expansion.
The Longo family's credit cards were maxed out and nothing
was coming in, but to their relatives and other church members,
everything seemed fine. To keep up appearances, Longo exaggerated the
success of his company — so convincingly that his own father invested
tens of thousands of dollars in the business.
Soon after, Longo was showing off a boat and two jet skis
he told friends he'd won in a contest and bought two cars. But the
Longo's money problems were far from over. One morning, Longo said, he
was awoken to the noise of a tow truck in his driveway, repossessing
his Ford Taurus. When their other car broke down, he made himself a
fake driver's license, presented it to take a Pontiac Montana for a
test drive and never returned the car to the dealership lot.
When his wife began asking him why they hadn't received
any billing statements in the mail for the new vehicle, Longo created
bogus ones on his computer and mailed them to their address.
Things were not going well in the Longo marriage either.
In May 2000, Mary Jane Longo called her sister, saying she had
discovered e-mails from her husband to another woman. When she
confronted him about them, he allegedly told her that she hadn't been
any fun since having children and that he didn't love her anymore. In
spite of the troubles, Mary Jane Longo stayed with her husband. She
did, however, tell the elders in the congregation about the situation.
Though there is no indication that Longo had a physical relationship
with another woman, Longo was sanctioned by his church once again.
Soon, the cash-strapped Longo put his computer to more
use. He printed false checks from companies that owed his business
money and cashed them. Before long, the companies contacted police, and
Longo found himself in a courtroom for the first time in September
2000.
He pleaded guilty and received three years' probation, but
because he exaggerated his income out of his persistent concern for
appearances, he was ordered to pay restitution payments far greater
than he could handle. When elders from the congregation read about
Longo's check forgeries in a local newspaper, Longo was finally
disfellowshipped from the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Longo claimed the incident led to a "watershed
moment" with his wife, in which he promised her he would be
truthful and that they'd straighten out their finances, but not before
giving "one last present to each other" — corrective eye
surgery for Mary Jane and scuba diving lessons for Longo.
With their finances in shambles and their credit run out,
Longo obtained a credit card in his father's name. He amassed nearly
$100,000 in debt in Joseph Longo's name without his knowledge.
On the Move
With friends and church members concerned about Mary Jane
stopping by and creditors relentlessly calling, Christian Longo decided
it was time to make a new start. Though moving out of state would
violate the conditions of Christian's probation, the Longos picked up
and moved from Michigan to a warehouse in Toledo, Ohio.
Longo said he planned to renovate the warehouse into a
loft-style living space. But in the meantime, the family of five had to
make due without kitchen facilities or adequate plumbing. Longo lied to
his wife, telling her the rent had been paid for six months, but
meanwhile was cashing more forged checks around the area to stay
afloat.
After the move, Mary Jane Longo drifted out of touch with
her family. Her sister, Sally Clark, finally managed to find them by
driving to Toledo, canvassing the area and spotting their dog outside
the building. According to Clark, she spoke to Mary Jane to make sure
everything was all right, but Mary Jane refused to leave her husband
and return to Michigan.
Longo was unnerved when cops caught on to stolen machinery
he was attempting to sell. Before he could be charged with receiving
stolen construction equipment and passing bad checks, Longo had already
picked up his family moved once again.
At one point, Mary Jane and her husband were driving
separately down the road in the stolen SUV and a stolen Penske moving
truck, essentially running from the law. Mary Jane, he says, had no
idea that anything was wrong. They kept moving, staying at campsites
and motels, spending little. Later, they hocked Mary Jane's wedding
ring for a few hundred dollars.
Mary Jane's siblings had by this time filed missing
person's reports with authorities. Christian Longo's parents were also
worried, and his mother said she told one federal agency, "Does
somebody have to die before you do something?"
The Longos eventually went to Oregon, where they rented a
small vacation house in Waldport. Only a few weeks after their arrival,
however, he fell behind on payments and was denied a reprieve.
He pawned some "crab rings" he stole from the
property before leaving, and used the money for a room at a Newport,
Ore., motor inn.
They moved onward and upward when Longo convinced the
manager of a nearby bay-front condominium complex that he was a
telephone company employee waiting for a paycheck. The manager bought
his story, and allowed the Longos to move in to the $1,500 a month
condo with no money up front.
Longo found a part-time job at the Starbucks counter in a
Fred Meyer variety store. Humiliated, he told his boss and fellow employees
that he lived off a lucrative Internet business but took the part-time
job because he liked Starbucks coffee.
The family struggled, running out of money only days after
paychecks arrived. The rent on the condo did not get paid and groceries
were scarce. Longo says he was forced to pump a tank of gas and drive
away without paying. In a police interview after his arrest, Longo
described standing on the balcony of his condo with his family sleeping
inside, looking out over the dark bay.
He knew they would soon have to leave the condominium but
hadn't broken the news to his wife yet. Longo would later describe this
night on Dec. 16, 2001, as "the beginning of the end."
Gruesome
Discoveries
On Dec. 19, 2001, a man in a Waldport RV park notified
police about a gruesome find — the body of a small boy floating face
down in the water near his lot. The boy's digitally enhanced photograph
was quickly released to the news media.
A couple who occasionally babysat the children came
forward and told police that the child in the photo looked like
4-year-old Zachery Longo.
Three days later, as divers searched the shallow slough
where Zach was found, the body of a small girl was discovered weighed
down with a rock in a pillowcase tied to her ankle. Both children were clad
only in underwear.
On Dec. 27, divers deployed to search local waterways in
the days that followed found two suitcases under a dock at a marina
adjacent to the condominium complex where the Longo family had been
staying. One contained the tiny body of Madison, 2, some clothing and a
dumbbell. Wisps of hair stuck out of the other, which contained the
naked remains of Mary Jane Longo.
Autopsies later determined the four victims had likely
died of asphyxia, and that there was evidence of blunt force trauma on
the face of Mary Jane Longo. There was also some evidence, although
disputed, that Zachery and Sadie died from drowning.
Police initially sought Christian Longo for questioning as
a witness. But by Dec. 28, the missing Longo had been charged with murdering
his family. He made the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, while Longo's
parents cooperated with "America's Most Wanted." A tip led
authorities to the Mexican cabana where Longo was staying with a German
photographer, whom he allegedly identified himself to as Michael
Finkel, a former travel writer for the New York Times.
On Jan. 13, 2002, Mexican federales and FBI Agent Dan
Clegg nabbed Longo.
Following his arrest, Longo detailed for authorities the
days following his family's demise, but stopped short of providing them
with a confession. Longo said that after Dec. 16 he tried to distract
himself by renting a movie, going to the gym and attending the
Starbucks Christmas party at a local pizzeria, where he told co-workers
that his wife had left him for another man. A day after hearing reports
on the news that the body of a little boy had been discovered, he
picked up his final paycheck and drove to San Francisco. Though he
applied for another Starbucks job there, he left the country and headed
for Cancun, Mexico.
According to authorities, upon his arrival he rented a
cabana, began spending time with a group of young British travelers,
smoked pot, toured ruins and, pretending to be a journalist himself,
was seen cuddling with an attractive travel photographer, Janina
Franke.
He allegedly admitted to a federal agent that his looks
and speaking skills had helped him get away with innumerable cons and
crimes along the way. "That's been my downfall," he said.
The Trial
A flurry of pretrial activity concerned the defense's
claim that Longo had been "tricked" into returning to the
United States after his capture. Clegg, they contended, failed to
inform Longo of his right to counsel, who would have undoubtedly
assured Longo that Mexico would not extradite a criminal with the death
penalty on the table.
Instead, the defense charged, Clegg told Longo that unless
he returned voluntarily, he'd likely spend months in a Mexican prison,
prompting Longo to quickly agree to accompany Clegg on his own
volition.
Before boarding their flight at the Cancun airport, Longo
signed a waiver of rights. The first time Longo learned that Oregon has
the death penalty was reportedly on the flight to their first stop in
Houston, when Clegg casually said, "I don't think they'll give you
the death penalty," the defense claimed.
Longo's attorneys said they tried to bargain with
prosecutors to avoid the death penalty but that the state would not
negotiate.
Shortly before trial, Longo pleaded guilty to the murders
of Mary Jane and Madison Longo, without a deal. At that time, he
refused to enter a plea on the charges of killing Sadie and Zachery,
and the court entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
The defense failed to convince Judge Robert Huckleberry to
grant them a change of venue. The community sentiment, claimed the
attorneys, made a fair trial impossible. Huckleberry, however, ruled
that, short of moving the trial out of state, it would be impossible to
escape the effects of permeating media coverage.
The Prosecution's
Case
The prosecution contended Christian Longo was a
cold-hearted killer who simply decided that his family was too much of
a burden for him. There is evidence, according to prosecutors Steven
Briggs and Paulette Sanders, that Longo planned the murders months in
advance.
On his computer, investigators found information from a
Web site called "Hitman Online," which offers advice on
methods of murder. They also found obituaries with personal information
scribbled in the margins, implying Longo was planning an identity
change.
Longo also made sure that Mary Jane was isolated from her
relatives, they said, even sending a card from her to her sister from
another state to lay a false trail. Perhaps most telling, argued
prosecutors, is that many personal belongings were ditched along the
way, such as family photos, clothing and the children's baby books.
Although they admitted they have no direct evidence to
link Longo with the killings, one witness placed Longo on the Lint
Slough Bridge in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 2001. A local man,
Dick Hoch, contacted authorities after he heard about the bodies found
in the waters and reported he had encountered a man in a reddish
minivan that stopped on the narrow bridge.
Prosecutors contend that that was when the bodies of
Longo's two elder children were thrown into the water.
A couple staying at the same condo complex as the Longos
complained to management the next day about loud "dragging"
sounds coming from a nearby room.
Longo's own statements also trapped him, claimed
prosecutors. Although he steadfastly refused to discuss with police how
the deaths occurred, agent Dan Clegg claimed Longo told him, "I
sent them to a better place."
The Defense's Case
Defense lawyers Steven Krasik and Ken Hadley argued there
was only a single piece of evidence connecting Christian Longo in any
way to the murders of his two older children —Hoch's testimony. But the
attorneys argued the photo identification by Hoch was conducted in a
questionable manner at best. The detectives' office was "a
shrine" to the Longo family, they said, with pictures posted all
over the room. Hoch identified Longo from the FBI wanted poster,
stipulating that it looked like the man he saw except for a fuller face
and thinning hair. This "identification," argued the defense,
tainted any further testimony by Hoch.
The defense claimed that the family was still alive on
Dec. 17 and that they had visited Longo at work. But security tapes
from Fred Meyer that could have proved their contention had already
been recycled, destroying the only concrete proof that the
prosecution's theory is erroneous, they said.
The couple claiming to hear loud noises likely were
hearing rambunctious guests returning from a Christmas party, they
said.
The defense also pointed out that the bodies of Mary Jane
and Madison Longo were disposed in a very different manner and location
than Zachery and Sadie Longo. In addition, they said, there is that the
two older children drowned, further setting their deaths apart from
Mary Jane's and Madison's. Why, ask the attorneys, would Longo kill two
members of his family by asphyxiation yet leave Zachery and Sadie alive
until he threw them into the dark slough?
As for the interviews with investigators, the defense
denied there was anything incriminating about them. Clegg's statement
that Longo told him, "I sent them to a better place," is
simply untrue, his lawyers said. It is inconsistent with his religious
upbringing, they said, since a Jehovah's Witness would not use such
terminology.
Christian Longo was his own key witness. Two days into his
testimony, the defendant revealed for the first time his version of the
events that led to the deaths of his wife and children.
He said he and Mary Jane had a date on Dec. 15, when she
told her husband she felt things were going well for the family, but
confronted him about lies she suspected he had been telling.
After the conversation, Longo said, he struggled with
whether he should come clean with his wife. Realizing their days were
numbered in the condo because of the unpaid rent, he returned from work
on Dec. 16 and had some wine and cheese while pondering his situation.
Longo said he finally went to bed but couldn't sleep. When
Mary Jane asked him what was wrong, he slowly began disclosing many
things to her. During an all-night conversation, he said, Mary Jane
became emotional in a way he'd never seen before. After admitting to
her that even the family van was stolen and contained stolen gasoline,
and that their condo had not been paid for, Mary Jane became fed up, he
testified. Longo said that she berated him for 45 minutes, slapped him
and told him she would never be able to trust him again.
Longo said he left her in the bedroom and went to get a
few hours of sleep on the couch, and was woken up by a playful Zachery.
When he returned to check on Mary Jane, he found that she had vomited
on the floor.
The morning of Dec. 17, Longo said he pleaded with his
wife to let him stay home from work and offered to take care of the
children so she could have time alone. She yelled at him that he had to
get to work, he testified, and that she eventually drove him there.
Longo said he kissed his children goodbye. Madison reached up so that
her Scooby-Doo toy could also give him a kiss before he left the van
and went to work.
After his shift ended, Mary Jane was in the parking lot
waiting for him as usual to pick him up, only she was dressed in
nothing but a bathrobe and was barefoot. The children were not with
her, he said. She would not speak to him on the way home.
When the couple reached their apartment, Mary Jane began
hesitate and whimper, he said, and he had to pick her up and help her
inside the house where she slumped on the floor.
Longo claimed he found Madison lifeless on the bed, and
then began to try to shake an answer out of his hysterical wife, who
told him, "You did this, you killed us," and told him the
other two children were "in the water."
Longo said he lost control at that moment, and wrapped his
hands around Mary Jane's neck, dropped her, picked her up, repositioned
his hands, and squeezed until he was unable to hold her up any longer.
After Mary Jane was dead, Longo said he decided to dispose
of the bodies in two large suitcases. But when he went to his baby
daughter he suddenly realized that the child was still alive.
"Even though she was breathing, I thought of her as
dead at that point," he said on the stand, so he began smothering
Madison. He stopped, saw her breathing again, and gripped her throat.
After she, too, had stopped breathing, he said he felt as if the big
suitcase was too big for her tiny body. He filled it with her clothes
"to make it more comfortable." He threw the suitcases in the
water behind the condominium.
While Longo's detailed account stunned the courtroom,
prosecutors would later try to debunk his version of events. Not only
did Mary Jane have no history of violence or even a bad temper, but at
110 pounds would be physically unable to dump her children in the water
with heavy rocks attached, they pointed out.
The Verdict
On April 7, 2003, after approximately four hours of
deliberation, the jury found Christian Longo guilty of the aggravated
murders of two of his children, 4-year-old Zachery and 3-year-old
Sadie. One juror commented that, while the circumstantial evidence
alone did not convince him, Longo's own testimony "did him
in."
The same jury reconvened to hear testimony in the penalty
phase of the trial to determine if Longo deserved the death penalty for
all four murders.
The Penalty Phase
The prosecution contended Christian Longo was a
professional con man who manipulated everyone he encountered with
amazing proficiency. If not confined to death row and eventually put to
death, prosecutors argued, Longo would pose a clear danger to even the
prison community.
Since his capture and incarceration in Lincoln County
Jail, where he was held while awaiting trial, Longo committed several
infractions such as chipping a hole in his cell window in a purported
escape plan that included enlisting the help of a fellow inmate.
Along with other infractions, Longo sent letters to other
inmates, including females ones. Prosecutors argued such behavior would
pose a grave security risk if Longo were allowed into the general
population of the institution.
The defense, however, pointed out there was no evidence of
violence in Longo's history. He didn't have any signs of being violent
as a child, never beat his wife and never started any fights behind
bars. In fact, Longo's lawyers argued, his behavior during his incarceration
was generally good, and his infractions were minor and very common. The
"escape attempt," they say, was simply an effort to make a
small hole to see outside. This has been attempted by many prisoners
since the windows of the jail were sandblasted, following community
complaints that prisoners had better ocean views than the town's
law-abiding citizens.
Defense attorneys also said that Joseph Longo, the man who
raised Christian Longo, is actually his stepfather and adoptive father.
Christian Longo's biological father, they said. was a violent alcoholic
who abused Longo's mother Joy, including an outburst while she was
pregnant with Christian. The defense claimed Longo's biological father
whipped his pregnant wife across the stomach with a bicycle chain in an
attempt to make her miscarry. He occasionally beat Christian as well,
they said, until Longo's parents split up.
The Penalty
On April 16, 2003, the same jury deliberated for six hours
before sentencing Longo to death for all four killings. Several of the
jurors said they felt that someone with Longo's intelligence and people
skills would be a threat — not a victim — in any situation, and that
they therefore had no choice but to put him on death row.
When the trial first began, one of the jurors said he
thought authorities must have made a mistake when he saw the boyish,
clean-cut young man sitting in the defendant's chair.
But by the time they delivered their final verdict, the
jury agreed to "look Longo squarely in the eye" while the
sentence was read to send him a message that he didn't "fool"
them and that he was no longer in control.
CourtTV.com
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