Invisible ink, coded papers add mystery to ID thefts
HONOLULU — Bobby Edward Fort was 27 when he enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1994 and retired 22 years later with a secret security clearance that allowed him to land a job in Honolulu as a defense contractor.
But in reality, Bobby Fort was long dead. He was just short of 3 months old when he choked and died in a Texas hospital in 1967.
The Bobby Fort who enlisted in the Coast Guard had stolen the dead baby’s identity 35 years ago. A false birth certificate helped him get five passports, drivers’ licenses and Department of Defense credentials.
The fraud was uncovered last week. On Thursday, the man authorities said had posed as Fort was before a judge, who asked him to state his name: “Walter Glenn Primrose,” the 66-year-old said.
Primrose was ordered held without bail by a U.S. District Court judge after a prosecutor provided new details about how he and his wife had been fraudulently living for decades under the stolen identities of two dead Texas infants.
While the hearing further deepened the mystery of why the couple shed their past, it provided little clarity about whether the case against them goes beyond stolen identity, though a prosecutor suggested it could have ties overseas.
“We think the defendant is obviously quite adept at impersonating other people, obtaining government ID documents, fraud, avoiding detection,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Myers said. “He may — we’re
not saying for sure — but he may have some troubling foreign connections. And if he does, he might be able to use those to enlist help.”
A search of the couple’s Hawaii home turned up faded Polaroids of the two wearing jackets that appear to be authentic Russian KGB uniforms, Myers said. An expert determined the snapshots were taken in the 1980s.
The search also yielded an invisible ink kit, documents with coded language and maps showing military bases, Myers said.
When the couple were left in a room together, they were recorded saying “things consistent with espionage,” Myers said.
Federal defender Craig Jerome said the government only provided “speculation and innuendo” that the couple was involved in something more nefarious than “purely white-collar nonviolent offenses.”
“If it wasn’t for the speculation that the government’s injected into these proceedings without providing any real evidence
… he would certainly be released,” Jerome said.
Prosecutors feared Primrose would flee if freed. They noted in court papers that he was an avionics electrical technician in the Coast Guard and was highly skilled to communicate secretly if released.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom Trader said he based his detention order on the alleged fraud “over multiple occasions spanning a long period of time.”
Gwynn Darle Morrison faces a bail hearing Tuesday.
Her lawyer said the couple — regardless of the names they used — had lived law-abiding lives. Attorney Megan Kau told the Associated Press the couple posed for photos in the purported KGB jacket for fun.
“She wants everyone to know she’s not a spy,” Kau said. “This has all been blown way out of proportion. It’s government overreaching.”
The couple’s story begins in Texas, where Primrose and Morrison went to high school and college together and married in 1980, according to court documents.
In the early 1980s, they told family they were going into the witness protection program before abruptly abandoning their house and leaving Texas, Myers said. They handed over the keys to their Nacogdoches home and told family members to take anything they wanted. The house was later foreclosed on.
When they reemerged, they had new names and different explanations of what happened.
In 1987, Primrose took on the identity of Fort, an infant who died in 1967 in Burnet. Morrison took the identity of Julie Lyn Montague, who died in 1968 at the same hospital as Fort. They are buried 14 miles apart.
Primrose and Morrison, both born in 1955, were more than a decade older than the birth dates listed on their new IDS.
“The defendant and his wife reportedly told yet other associates that they needed to change their names because of legal and financial reasons,” Myers said. “And that going forward, they can be contacted using their new names, Fort and Montague.”
At some point, Primrose told someone he was a government agent and couldn’t share photos of himself.
The couple remarried under their assumed names in 1988, according to court records.
Primrose had a longstanding interest in espionage, Myers said. His wife had anti-government and anti-military sentiments and was said by an associate to live in Romania when it was part of the communist bloc.
Kau denied that Morrison ever lived in Romania.
For one family whose deceased child’s name was stolen, the news came as a shock.
John Montague, who lost his daughter Julie in 1968 at 3 weeks of age, was stunned to learn someone had been living under her name for so long.
“I still can’t believe it happened,” said Montague, 91. “The odds are like one-in-a-trillion that they found her and used her name. People stoop to do anything nowadays. Let kids rest in peace.”
When Tonda Ferguson learned from her father that Morrison had used her late sister’s birth certificate to create an alias, she thought of her mother, who died in 2003.
“For all the mothers who are living and have to know this happened to their babies, I can’t even begin to imagine,” Ferguson said. “I’m glad my mama’s with the Lord. This would be so traumatic for her.”
Ferguson was in eighth grade when her sister died. She never got to see her little sister or hold her.
“She came from a place of love, deep love,” Ferguson said. “For someone to turn around to steal her identity for evil, it’s tough. It’s hurtful. … I hope they rot.”
The couple, who were arrested July 22 at their Kapolei home, are charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S., false statement in passport application and aggravated identity theft. They face up to 17 years in prison if convicted of all charges.