In December 2001, fishermen were fishing in the state of Oregon when they saw an almost white body floating near the boat. They saw immediately that it was a child.
The fishermen rushed ashore and called the police. The body turned out to be that of a 3 or 4 year old boy, and he was wearing only his underwear. There were no wounds on the body and it was evident that the child had been well cared for as he was well fed, with his hair and nails cut, and during the autopsy it was found that the boy was healthy before death.
He had just died.
Zachary, Madison and Sadie Longo.
Denise comes forward
Police believed the child was walking by the lake, entered the water and the currents caught up with him, drowning him. No missing children were reported, but as the child had obviously died very recently, police assumed the report would arrive within the next few hours.
But no one reported the boy’s death.
Police then took matters into their own hands and as this was a small town, Waldport, officers went door to door asking residents if they knew anything about a missing child . Posters were also put up and Denise Thompson immediately knew which child it was: Zachery Longo.
Christian always seemed like a loving father.
Denise told police she worked with the boy’s father, Christian Longo, at a Starbucks coffee shop. She told police Christian’s wife’s name was Mary Jane and they had three children. Zacher was the eldest, 4, followed by Sadie, 3, and the youngest was little Madison, just a year old. Mary Jane was a housewife.
She added that they were very active in the congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, had married young and still seemed very happy.
Prayers, navigation and riddles
Denise knew the children well as she often cared for the Longos who enjoyed sailing and doing puzzles in their free time between church services. They had been married for eight years.
Denise had worked the same shifts as Christian. He had confided in her that the family was having a lot of financial difficulties and one evening Christian said he had told Denise that Mary Jane wanted a divorce and walked away with the children.
Christian didn’t show up for the next shift and Denise assumed he was getting over the news, being a big family man, and not trusting himself to work. But he was never to reappear again.
The Longo family seemed the happiest.
The police became interested in knowing the whereabouts of the other members of the Longo family. Why had this caring father not reported his son missing?
The family lived in a two-room cottage by the lake, but no one was there.
It appeared that all bags, clothes and other necessities were still in the house and there was no indication that Mary Jane had packed up and left.
The police contacted the man who was renting the house from the Longo family and he said they owed months of rent and that Christian had lied that he had a much better job than at Starbucks.
Little Sadie
It was deemed appropriate to speak to the Federal Police, the FBI, who have already launched a thorough search for the family and even divers have been sent into the water to find out if there are any other family members. Longo.
It wasn’t long before little Sadie was found. A pillowcase filled with pebbles had been tied around his ankles to ensure that the body would sink. Another pillowcase, also full of rocks, was found right next to Sadie’s body, and was thought to have most likely been attached to Zachary but had come loose.
The FBI set up a special hotline and urged the public to call if they had any family information. But few people called. However, a man who had driven across the bridge called in the night that the children are believed to have been thrown into the river. He said he saw a car that had stopped in the middle of the bridge and thought the car might have broken down. He stopped his car and offered to help her. But the man said everything was fine, the car had overheated, but was cooling down and everything was fine.
Mary Jane with the couple’s two children.
The man was asked to describe the man and the description matched Christian Longo exactly.
Christian has already become the prime suspect in the child murders and the police have begun to investigate his background.
Lived long
He was raised by devout Witnesses in Michigan and met Mary Jane at a prayer meeting. They married in 1993. Mary Jane was 19, Christopher was 25.
The couple hadn’t been together long when Christian started committing petty crimes and weaving an ever-widening web of lies. At first he stole $100 from work to pay for an engagement ring. He also robbed his roommates, who were also Witnesses, but he was sorry and paid them back. The theft was never reported to the police, but the elders of the congregation decided on the penalty that the couple could not be married in Vottana’s hall, but had to hold a small ceremony outside.
Mary Jane seems to have known nothing of her husband’s crimes.
The young couple lived high, well beyond what they could afford, and it was Christian who took care of most of the expenses. Gradually the debts piled up, but it is unclear whether Mary Jane knew how serious the situation was.
Christian and his brother created a company specializing in cleaning construction sites. The business was doing well, but Christian was never able to earn enough to maintain the lifestyle he was now accustomed to. He, in turn, told everyone that the business was making money and even asked his father to invest all his savings in the business.
The game city is collapsing
But Christian’s gambling town was collapsing, and he began forging his customers’ checks.
The couple had several cars and when one was repossessed for non-payment, Christian stole one car and gave it to Mary Jane instead of the repossessed one.
Christian had put himself in a corner and ordered Mary Jane to pack up their things, they were moving. Over the next few months, the family oscillated between campsites and cheap motels until they suddenly arrived in Oregon, where Christian got a job at Starbucks and rented the tiny house. He, on the other hand, told Mary Jane that he had a well-paying job at a telephone company, and as inexperienced and downright naive his wife was, she believed every word of it.
He continued to buy cars, expensive furniture, and designer clothes, which he paid for with stolen goods and bounced between credit cards.
Christian’s debts were now exorbitant, and banks and other creditors had begun to follow him closely.
Christian later told police he would rather see his family in paradise than live in poverty, possibly in debt prison.
Mary Jane and Madison
On December 27, eight days after the discovery of the little boy, divers found two suitcases at the bottom of the lake. You could see long hair coming out of the opening of the bag. The remains of Mary Jane were found there. She was naked and had obvious injuries to her neck and had been strangled.
In the other bag was little Madison’s body with a weight, presumably to weigh the bag down to keep it from floating to the surface.
Christian Longo was already on the FBI’s list of the 10 most wanted criminals in the country.
In two days, two people called with the same story. They were in Mexico, one a Canadian tourist and the other a Mexican guide. The guide had led a group of divers and the Canadian was one of the tourists. Both were sure that Christian Longo had also been part of the group.
In cooperation with local authorities, the police began monitoring Christian, who now went by the name Mike Finkel and claimed to be a reporter for The New York Times. He seemed to do nothing but sleep until noon, hang around pubs and clubs late into the night, and pick up women he had left with an apartment he was staying at.
Sweetness of life in Mexico
On January 14, 2002, Christian Longo was arrested for four murders, of his wife and three children.
He was then in a sun shelter on the beach in Cancun, smoking an ion and drinking beer with a naked German girl by his side.
Christian was flown north across the border, tried and sentenced to death for the murders of his family.
Many years passed until Christian Longo finally told what had happened, in a letter he sent to a journalist.
Photo taken by Christian enjoying the sweetness of life in Mexico.
Throw the children alive in the river
He said he was enjoying the love with his wife when he decided he no longer wanted and could live the same life. Humanly, he missed family life and the responsibilities that came with it. He wanted to start over.
He strangled Mary Jane in the middle of sex, then moved over to Madison’s crib and strangled the little baby to death as well.
He said then that he was so filled with horror that he didn’t trust himself to kill Zachery and Sadie in the same way. He put the bodies of Mary Jane and Madison in suitcases and thought about how he could get rid of the other children without using too much violence.
Christian Longo at trial. He was sentenced to death, which was later changed to life imprisonment.
He then woke the children up and said they were going for a drive. He put the bags with the bodies in the trunk. The children were naturally dead tired, being in the middle of the night, and fell asleep in the car. When Christian arrived on deck, where the witness saw him, he had just finished throwing away the suitcases.
He put a stone in a pillowcase he had brought with him, tied it to the feet of the sleeping children, and threw them alive into the river.
Christian Longo has never taken responsibility for his actions, blaming narcissism and other mental disorders for the murders.
The death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment and Christian Longo will never be released.
