A married couple who allegedly lived for decades using the names of two dead children have been charged with identity theft and conspiring against the government.
Federal court records unsealed in Honolulu revealed US defence contractor Walter Glenn Primrose and his wife, Gwynn Darle Morrison, were arrested on Friday in Kapolei on Hawaii's Oahu Island.
The pair, both in their 60s, allegedly lived for years under the names Bobby Edward Fort and Julie Lyn Montague, respectively.
They are also believed to have used other aliases, according to Assistant US Attorney Thomas Muehleck.
The pair have both been charged with conspiracy to commit an offence against the US, false statement in passport application and aggravated identity theft.
Prosecutors say fraudulently obtained drivers' licences, passports and US Defense Department credentials helped Mr Primrose receive security clearances, both as a contractor and with the US Coast Guard.
Faded polaroid photos allegedly show the pair wearing the uniforms of former Russian Spy Agency the KGB.
A "close associate" said Ms Morrison lived in Romania while it was part of the Soviet Union, Mr Muehleck said.
Mr Morrison's lawyer, Megan Kau, said her client had never lived in Romania, and that she and Mr Primrose had posed for photos in the uniform as a joke.
Ms Kau said that, even if the couple had used new identities, they had lived law-abiding lives for three decades.
"She wants everyone to know she's not a spy," Ms Kau said.
"This has all been blown way out of proportion. It's government overreaching."
Mr Primrose's lawyer declined to comment.
Prosecutors wanted the pair held without bail, claiming there was a high risk that they would flee if freed.
They added that Mr Primrose, a former avionics electrical technician in the Coast Guard, had the skills to communicate secretly if released.
Access to 'enormously valuable' US security information
The secret clearance Mr Primrose had was able to provide him with access to information that was "enormously valuable to our enemies", said Honolulu defence attorney Kevin O'Grady, who is not involved in the case.
He noted the Coast Guard works closely with the Army and Navy, helps with counterintelligence and serves as the country's maritime border patrol.
"The Coast Guard has a unique perspective on our vulnerabilities," Mr O'Grady said, including how to infiltrate the country through water ports.
Mr O'Grady said Hawaii, a major military centre, "is a prime target for a lot of espionage and such".
'Let kids rest in peace'
For one family whose deceased child's name was stolen, the news came as a shock.
John Montague lost his daughter, Julie, in 1968 when she was just three weeks old.
"I still can't believe it happened," Mr Montague, 91, told The Associated Press.
"The odds are like one-in-a-trillion that they found her [birth certificate] and used her name. People stoop to do anything nowadays.
"Let kids rest in peace."
When Tonda Ferguson learned from her father that Mr Morrison had allegedly used her late sister's birth certificate to create an alias, she thought of her mother, who died in 2003, and how many years had gone by.
"For all the mothers who are living and have to know this happened to their babies, I can't even begin to imagine," Ms Ferguson said.
"I'm glad my Mama's with the Lord. This would be so traumatic for her."
Ms Ferguson was in eighth grade when her sister died, and had never held nor even saw her.
The baby was buried in Burnet, Texas — the small town where the family lived at the time — outside of Austin.
"She came from a place of love, deep love," Ms Ferguson said.
"For someone to turn around to steal her identity for evil, it's tough. It's hurtful … I hope they rot."
Bobby Fort, who lived fewer than three months, died in October, 1967, at the same hospital where Julie Montague passed away about three months later in January.
Who are Walter Primrose and Gwynn Morrison?
Mr Primrose and Ms Morrison were born in 1955 and went to high school together in Port Lavaca, Texas, and then went to Stephen F. Austin University, according to court records.
They married in 1980.
There was no indication in court papers why, in 1987, the couple assumed the identities of deceased children who would have been more than a decade younger than them.
However, an affidavit filed by Special Agent Dennis Thomas of the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service noted that the couple lost their home in Nacogdoches, Texas, to foreclosure that year.
They remarried under their assumed names in 1988, Mr Thomas said.
He said that what happened from the time they assumed their new identities until 1994 — when Mr Primrose, then about 39, enlisted in the Coast Guard as Bobby Fort — remained a mystery.
The real Bobby Fort would have been about 27 at the time.
If there was an obvious age difference between what Mr Primrose's appearance and the birth certificate he presented, "that's an abject failure", Mr O'Grady said.
"That's something, if they can figure it out now, they should have caught it then."
Mr Montague said that "somebody's not doing their jobs".
Mr Primrose and Ms Morrison applied for, and received, multiple passports under their assumed names, according to court records.
However, in 1999, Mr Primrose also applied for and was issued a passport under his legal name while also holding a passport in Bobby Fort's name.
Mr Primrose was in the service until 2016, when he began to work for an unnamed defence contractor at the US Coast Guard Air station at Barbers Point.
"While he held that secret clearance with the US Coast Guard, defendant Primrose was required to report any foreign travel," prosecutors wrote.
"Investigation has revealed that defendant Primrose did not report several trips to Canada while he did report other foreign travel."
'They kept to themselves, but they were friendly'
The couple lived in a Honolulu suburb in a modest, two-bedroom bungalow beneath palm trees.
They owned a neighbouring house that they rented to military personnel, neighbour Mai Ly Schara said.
She knew them as Bob and Lynn, with Ms Morrison apparently using Julie Lyn Montague's middle name.
Mr Primrose did yard work for Ms Schara for $US50 a month, she said.
Ms Morrison took in and cared for stray cats, had several rabbits and dedicated a room to the pets.
"They kept to themselves, but they were friendly," Ms Schara said. "They just kind of were, like, a little nerdy."
Ms Schara wasn't sure what Mr Primrose did for a living, but thought it was military-related.
Ms Morrison once worked as a parking attendant at a Waikiki hotel but had also been tutoring neighbourhood children.
The FBI created a scene in the quiet neighbourhood when they searched the house and took photos.
The State Department declined to comment on the arrests.
"It was just shocking, like, 'Oh my gosh'," Ms Schara said. "It was pretty crazy."
AP/ABC
