Courtney Edmond
Appearances
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
One of her most famous sayings was, my adoptions don't fail. And that was one of my biggest fears. She would tell all of her families right from the start, my adoptions don't fail. All of my adoptions are successful. She would tell me how she would get to know these women personally. She would say that she would take them herself to doctor's appointments.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
So it didn't seem like it was run just like a business. She made it sound personal. She made it sound like it was her passion, her lifeline, like this is what she lived to do.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
Can I back out? What can I do? And she was like, no, I can guarantee you that she's going to place this baby. I can guarantee you that it's going to happen. You don't have anything to worry about. She's just in denial. She can't take care of this baby. I know she can't take care of this baby. She knows she can't take care of this baby. And so hesitantly, I continued.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
And Tara's like, she would get mad at me. She would yell at me. No, you need to set up a nursery. You need to buy a crib. You need to buy a stroller. You need everything. Get everything set up.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
We got to feed him, and, you know, we're talking to the nurses, and they said, well... Well, Tara told us not to be there too long because the birth mom wanted to have her other kids meet the baby. I thought it was weird, but we just went with it. We went out to dinner. We did a little shopping. We'd come up with a name because Tara was pushing us, you have to come up with a name.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
She called me and she's like, hey, she's wavering. I don't know if she's going to place this baby. And I... I went off on Tara. I had lost it. I was in the parking lot on my knees telling her, I told you I didn't want to do this. I told you this was going to happen. And I was like, you have my kids involved. You have my husband involved.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
And my husband had to literally pick me up, put me in the car and take me for a drive because people were looking. I was screaming. I was so broken at that point. I remember just sitting in my shower crying for like an hour. Because it's a very weird feeling when you meet a baby that you think is yours, but it's not really yours.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
They were heartbroken for sure, but I think they were more sad for me.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
She said, my way of therapy is shopping. But she said, I don't ever shop with anybody. It's always me by myself. But this one time she did take me. She's like, you're lucky. I'm taking you. I don't take anybody.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
And we weren't even there an hour, and she probably blew through 10 grand. She walked into the stores. They all knew her name. She would go up to the counter. She would say, I want that. Not look at the price tag. I want that. Pack it up for me. Get it ready. And she would go to the next store.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
Say, I just want you to know that this is not my money. This is not coming from the adoption. I don't, or adoptions, I don't make a lot of, this is all Jeremy's money.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
Jeremy was a HVAC guy. She said he owned the business and made a lot, a lot of money. So she said that that's where all the money would come from.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
No. Jeremy was always home. Jeremy was always home. Jeremy was pretty much the only parent. And then do what Tara said. And while I was there, they did start demoing their kitchen.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
She would get phone calls in the morning from a woman she had never met that would state she was pregnant. Tara would take her word for it, not get any proof, call many, many families that afternoon, match her, and demand money that night.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
We had a birth mom come over to the house, take a pregnancy test that I went and bought, came back negative. I looked at it, and Tara said, it's positive, I'm calling this family.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
Yeah, and this family, this birth mom had already placed with this family, so she said, I'm just going to call the same family.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
Tara did have a relationship with a slumlord that had these junk houses that she would just kind of house her, the women she was working with in. I only saw one. It was trash. Holes in the walls, tarps for roofs, yards overgrown. Smelled like musty mold, like just not clean. Not clean. Just crap houses. Tara put her in a house that had no appliances.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
I don't think it had any heat, didn't have electricity. So she was keeping her food in the snow to keep cold. Her baby's milk, you know, eggs, just the basic stuff. They slept on the floor, no bed, not even an air mattress, no couch, nothing.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
She would send me pictures, and I would come back to Tara and say, Tara, why is she not getting these things? She's keeping her food in the snow. She's sleeping on the floor. She's pregnant. And Tara would be like, she's lying to you. I gave her that money. She had to have used it on something else. She would say, you know, she probably used it to buy drugs. She probably used it to get alcohol.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
It was always something like, you can't trust these girls. You can't trust them.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
I'm done. I'm walking away. I'm going home. And I left and haven't seen Tara since.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
And she's like, you know what? Let's start a little Facebook group. That's just, I'm going to start one up right now. I was like, all right. She's like, okay, it's going to be you and me and I'll add Julie and we'll just see where this goes.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
She's like, I have a question. Do you think there's something not right with Tara? Girl, I'm glad you asked because yes, this is what I am seeing.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
By the third night, we had nine families. After a month, we had 20 families. And then a little bit after that, we were up to 100 families. It wasn't until we started adding more families that we were like seeing patterns of that it was like they would mention the same birth. Two families would mention the same birth mom. And then they would show the same sonogram picture.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
And then it would be in the comments that they would connect. Like, wait a second. I matched with that birth mom. You're matched with her too? Yeah. And they're like, wait, wait. I've already paid this much in fees. Have you? And we were connecting the dots there.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
Yes, and we all became investigators.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
I'm Courtney Edmond, and I have had two fails with Tara Lee. A failed adoption to me was holding a baby to lose them only hours later. To others in the group, failed adoption meant that their baby was deceased at birth. Others were matched with mothers that were never expecting. Others were matched with mothers that never even existed.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Tara, you have managed to steal the purity and the gift of what adoption truly means and is.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
No, I truly believe to this day she still blames us. I think that she sits in jail every day, and every night before she goes to bed, she's like, I can't believe this happened to me. Look at what they did to me.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
One of Tara's favorite sayings was, I can't make this shit up. She would say this all the time. when actually she was making everything up.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
She did. She called them, and after a couple hours of Julie talking to them, Julie called me back, and she's like, I don't know if they're involved. Like, I don't know what's going on, but it doesn't seem like they are.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
She's like, listen, I have another call with them later. I'm going to add you in, but you stay on mute. You listen. So I just listened in to the call. And they did sound pretty distraught. They did sound like they had no idea what was going on. They were scared for their business. They were scared for the families.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
It was a big moment for all of us. It was emotional. It was exciting. It was, oh my God, we were actually right. She's really doing this stuff.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
It was the best. It was the best.