In a case that has a whiff of espionage to it, a couple who has been living in the United States for decades under fictitious names taken from deceased infants has been charged with identity theft and conspiring against the federal government. The charges stem from an investigation that uncovered the couple’s illegal activities.
On Friday, Walter Primrose and Gwynn Morrison, both of whom were born in 1955, were taken into custody in the state of Hawaii. A photograph of the couple dressed in KGB garb was found during the search of their home, as stated in the documentation, which was found during the search.
A judge in federal court decided on Thursday that the spouse posed a flight risk and ordered that he remain in custody. The spouse is scheduled to make an appearance in front of the judge the following week.
The indictment states that the two individuals attended school together in Texas during the 1970s and went on to be married in the state in 1980. They adopted the identities of Bobby Fort and Julie Montague, newborns who had passed away many years before and were buried in cemeteries that were located nearby, in the year 1987. The reasons for this are unclear.
After that, in 1988, the couple wed once more while concealing their true names. In 1994, a man who called himself Bobby Fort joined the Coast Guard. He remained in that branch of the military for a total of 20 years before transitioning into a career as a defence contractor.
The two individuals were able to acquire a variety of official documents, such as driver’s licences and a number of different passports, under their assumed identities over the course of many years.
Although there is no allegation of espionage in the charge, a document that was submitted in opposition to their bail hints that there may be a more serious case.
A federal prosecutor named Clare Connors claimed that “government investigators have collected letters” that were sent to the pair and “refer to defendants by names other than Bobby, Julie, Walter, or Gwynn.” This leads one to believe that the couple has been employing a variety of aliases.
A further discovery made by agents was that photographs of the pair dressed in KGB garb had been taken.
According to Connors, a member of Morrison’s family revealed to the agents that she had spent time living in Romania when the country was still a part of the communist bloc.
The prosecution said that Primrose had violated the requirement that she record any and all international travel by failing to do so for several trips to Canada. Primrose was supposed to report any and all international travel.
Megan Kau, Morrison’s attorney, sent a brief statement to AFP in which she said that her client categorically refuted the allegations.
