Peter McDonald
Appearances
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
After opening statements, Adam stepped out of the jury box and stood in front of Tara Lynn.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Ask anyone who was at Tara Lee's sentencing that day, and there's one moment they will all remember. One of the victims, Amber Morey, spoke about her failed match with a birth mother named Stacey. Amber had flown from Arizona to Michigan for the birth of Stacy's baby. Except Stacy never showed up at the hospital. Tara Lee couldn't find her. She disappeared. The baby was gone.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Years had passed, but Amber couldn't let it go. She still had the crib, still had the toys. In court, she looked at Tara Lee and asked the question that haunted her. Did Stacy even exist? Tara Lee said, in my heart, she did. Teresa told me she cried a lot in court that day, but all the emotion was building to one moment, Tara Lee's sentence. There are no federal laws governing adoption.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Maybe there should be, because all the court had to work with were wire fraud laws. When Sarah Woodward got up to speak, she told the court that Tara Lee's fraud was so unimaginable, there were simply no laws to account for it.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
The last person to address the court was Tara Lee. Her mother, husband, and children watched from the gallery. Tara Lee cried as she spoke and acknowledged what she'd done. She said, because of me, people's dreams of becoming parents were crushed. She said she'd spent the last 18 months in jail trying to make sense of where she went wrong.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
What she didn't say is that she spent the time thinking about the people she'd harmed, the families whose dreams she'd crushed. Instead, she confessed to having a shopping addiction. I shopped to fill a void, she said. I shopped to deal with all of the phone calls and all the texts and all the pressure coming from all sides. I asked Sarah Woodward if she thought Tara Lee's statement was heartfelt.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
She said no. Those were crocodile tears. She called it a performance. I read what Tara Lee said that day, and her words are almost all about herself. How she felt. How she had gone astray. How she'd lost her family. Her consequences. Judge Friedman seized on this immediately. He said, I listened to you with remorse, but everything was about you.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Then he said of this case, you knew what you were doing exactly and you picked your victims and you preyed upon their vulnerability. Judge Friedman called it the worst case he'd ever seen. He compared it with a recent case where he'd given someone life in prison and said, I wish I could flip you with the other person because you deserve life.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
In a few months, a judge in Michigan would decide if May's adoption was legal, or if Tammy and Nick would have to give her back. The central concern was if Tara Lee had coerced Sarah into giving up her baby. May was almost four months old. Every night as they put her to bed, Tammy and Nick worried that their days with their daughter were numbered.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
He gave Tara Lee the maximum sentence allowed, 10 years and one month. And she'd have to pay more than $1 million in restitution to the families. When sentencing was over, night had fallen. The blizzard had stopped. It was bitterly cold. There were no cameras allowed in the courtroom. So Heather Catalo rushed outside in gloves and a coat to go live with the WXYZ Channel 7 newsroom.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Mike and Teresa stood on the sidewalk in the bitter cold, looking around for a blonde-haired guy from Chicago, Nick Granath. But Nick had gone out the back door, looking for Mike. Hours earlier, in the middle of the sentencing hearing, Nick had realized who the Mathenies were. During a recess, he rushed out and found them in the hallway.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
They stood in the middle of the hallway, speechless. Nick was choked up, trying to ask any one of a million questions about Stephanie, about her baby boy, before the courtroom doors closed again. When sentencing was over, it was crowded and they couldn't find each other. Nick drove home to Chicago in the snow to tell Tammy he'd met the couple who'd adopted Stephanie's baby.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Teresa and Mike flew back to Atlanta, hunting for Nick's phone number. The next day, they called one another. and spent hours on the phone filling in all the holes on everything that had happened. Then, eventually, the Graniths, with May, flew to Atlanta to meet the Mathenys in person.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
As the snow melted in Detroit, the pandemic took hold. Everything was canceled, people strapped on masks, and video calls replaced seeing each other in person. The case had done long-lasting harm to everyone involved. But for a lot of the families reeling from Tara Lee's fraud, 2020 and the years after were also about renewal. Courtney went home to her family and a newly adopted baby.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Adam and Kyle began working with another agency and successfully adopted a second child. So did the Methenys. So did the Graniths. And Julie Falkenberry got pregnant and had a girl. As Tammy and Nick's daughter May grew into a toddler, they kept in close touch with her birth mother, Sarah. They shared videos, photos, and phone calls. They visited.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
They wanted May to grow up knowing her birth mother. They embraced that there's no one definition of family. But in the fall of 2023, Sarah's mom called Tammy and told her that Sarah had been hospitalized and was on life support.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Tammy told me she can't stop herself from thinking that if Tara Lee had acted in good faith through the adoption process, it might have saved Sarah's life.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
I spent almost a year investigating this story, and about halfway into my reporting, I felt I knew enough to reach out to Tara Lee. I wanted to talk with her.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Meanwhile, doctors had been monitoring May for a potential problem with her spine. When May turned six months old, the Grannis took her to the hospital for an MRI to determine if she needed surgery. Tammy and Nick watched as Mae, lying on a gurney, dressed in a tiny purple hospital gown, and hooked to an IV, was wheeled down the hallway and into the room.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Yes. Tara Lee was incarcerated in Federal Correctional Institution, Alliser, a women's prison in Alabama. I made calls, I wrote letters, but she turned me down. I'd hoped she wouldn't. I'd hoped that in the nearly five years since her sentencing, she'd had time to reflect on how much pain she'd caused. But maybe that's just how it works in the movies.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
I'm not really surprised she declined, and neither are some of her former clients like Courtney. Do you think she's capable of remorse?
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
I keep circling back to the question of why Tara Lee did it. It caused people so much emotional pain, exploited people's desire to start a family, and took advantage of women making one of the hardest decisions of their lives. And this was not a crime of passion. It took an incredible amount of time, focus, deceit, and a staggering absence of empathy.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Hunting for the right word to describe what Tara Lee had done, Judge Friedman called her evil. A few days after this podcast releases, the Bureau of Prisons will transfer Tara Lee to a residential reentry center in Detroit. Due to credits she earned in prison, she'll be released in October of 2026. about three years early. And she's appealed for an even earlier release for medical reasons.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
She says she's pre-diabetic, takes medication for high blood pressure, and has an injured ankle. She attached medical records to back it up. Her latest appeal reminded me of her unsubstantiated claim to the Mathinis that she had a concussion, to Courtney that she had breast cancer, and to others that she'd had a heart attack.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
None of those past ailments appear in the medical history in her appeal, by the way. Reading her most recent appeal, I realized something simple and profound about Tara Lee. That she sees herself as the victim. A victim of too many texts to answer. Of a shopping addiction. Of birth mothers not obeying her. Of adoptive parents breaking her rules.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
of being compelled to lie and cheat and steal, of being taken away from her family and sent to prison, a victim of her own bad decisions. I don't know where that sense of victimhood comes from, but I believe it's at the root of her character and her crimes.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
I wonder if Tara Lee ever truly saw the women she was trying to help, women who had so much less, who needed a ride to their doctor's appointments, who needed somewhere to live, who needed a bed, a refrigerator, and heat. Women like Stephanie and Sarah, who gave the Mathenys, the Graniths, the Bells-Thomases, and others what they wanted most in life, a baby, and got almost nothing in return.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
The irony in Tara Lee's fraud was that so many of the people she harmed persevered and are now raising families. and the family she destroyed most was her own. Unlock all episodes of Baby Broker ad-free right now by subscribing to the Binge Podcast channel.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
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The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. Baby Broker is an original production of Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence. It was hosted and reported by me, Peter McDonald. I'm the executive producer, along with Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch of Sony Music Entertainment. Steve and George recorded the narration at the Invisible Studios, West Hollywood.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
We used music from Audio Network and a few tracks from Epidemic Sound. News clips are courtesy of WXYZ7 in Detroit, Michigan. Our production managers are Tamika Balance-Kolosny and Sammy Allison. Our lawyers are Allison Sherry and Kathleen Farley. Special thanks to Steve Ackerman, Emily Rasek, and Jamie Myers.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
From Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence, this is Baby Broker. I'm Peter McDonald. Episode 7, Gotcha Day.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Listen to all episodes of Baby Broker ad-free right now by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. The Binge. Feed your true crime obsession.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
When Tammy heard that Mae's birth mother wanted her back, she broke down in tears in the hospital hallway. Nurses ran to her, thinking she was upset about her infant daughter being sedated, but it was much worse than that. They got off the phone with the lawyer and called Sarah.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
There was silence on the other end. The hearing to decide if May's adoption was legal was the very next day. But then Sarah said it was all just a misunderstanding. She wasn't really going to try to take May back. She'd lashed out because she was so angry. Angry that Tara Lee took advantage of her. that her adoption experience had been so messed up.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Minutes later, May was wheeled out. She was fine. She didn't need surgery. The next day, March 14th, Tammy and Nick had their day in court. the Michigan judge allowed them to appear on Zoom. Talia Getting and Tanya Corrado were there, and of course, the birth mother, Sarah.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Tammy and Nick gave me a transcript of the hearing, and I discovered some things I didn't know. The judge asked Sarah how many expenses Tara Lee had covered for her from the $8,000 the Graniths had provided. Under oath, Sarah said less than a quarter. After the birth, she'd asked Tara Lee for counseling sessions and Tara blocked her messages, left her high and dry.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
And during Sarah's pregnancy, the Graniths had asked Tara Lee numerous times for a copy of her license to perform adoptions in Michigan, which of course she didn't have. She kept forgetting to give it to them. They hadn't mentioned that to me. Toward the end of the hearing, the judge asked Sarah if she'd been coerced. She said, no.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
The only good thing that came out of Tara was Tammy and Nick, meeting them and my daughter having a loving, caring family. The judge said, I'm going to confirm this adoption. Tammy and Nick signed off, hugged their daughter, and wept.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Gotcha day. In the Granth household, it's a major holiday. A party with balloons and cake. Tara Lee was a conspicuous no-show for the Granth's adoption hearing. She'd avoided jail by paying a $10,000 bond, But to remain free, she had to follow certain rules. Chief among them, avoid using cell phones, an important restriction for someone charged with wire fraud.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
But she broke the rule, and the person who caught her was investigative reporter Heather Catallo.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
The video showed Tara Lee sitting in her SUV in a parking lot, texting on a cell phone. Two days later, she was back in court.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Sarah Woodward reminded the judge that Tara Lee had already violated the conditions of her bond twice. She'd tampered with witnesses, called victims, and tried to twist the arm of a former client to write her a letter of support in exchange for a partial refund for a failed adoption.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
The way an out-of-state adoption works, at least in Michigan, is that the final paperwork goes to the desk of an official in the county where the baby was born. And it can take about three months for it to be approved.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
The magistrate judge, Mona Mazjobe, was exasperated.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Tara Lee was taken to jail. She changed out of her luxury apparel and into a plain set of prison duds. Behind the scenes, the FBI was still investigating her. In July, they arrested a co-conspirator, Angelica Wiggins. Wiggins was a young woman Lee had roped into impersonating birth mothers in phone calls with adoptive parents.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Sarah Woodward told me that they would have arrested her earlier, but they thought she was pregnant. But Wiggins' pregnancy was a hoax. She was indicted on three counts of wire fraud and Tara Lee on six more, bringing her total to 24 counts. Here's Sarah Woodward.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
What's typical in a white collar crime case with wire fraud?
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
FBI agent Matt Sluss, who has a background in accounting, determined the amount of money Tara Lee made from adoptions from 2016 through 2018 was more than $2 million. Many of those adoptions were fraudulent. But Woodward felt she could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that about half a million came through wire fraud.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
The final paperwork for Mae Granath, the baby girl Tammy and Nick adopted from Sarah, was just days, maybe hours, from being stamped when Tara Lee was arrested and indicted on 18 counts of wire fraud. And just like that, May's adoption was flagged as possibly illegal. Talia Getting, their lawyer, had to call them and tell them the bad news.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
And it wasn't the first time Tara Lee had committed a crime. In 2005, she wrote over $22,000 in bad checks, including to two jewelry stores, and was arrested. She also tried to buy a snowmobile with a bad check.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Woodward sent the plea agreement to Tara Lee's defense attorney. It required Tara Lee to plead guilty to two charges of wire fraud and acknowledge the evidence against her in the other charges. Tara Lee accepted the deal. The next step would be sentencing. And that's where this white-collar crime prosecution came with a twist.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Sarah Woodward wanted to give the families and birth parents who were victims of Tara Lee's scam an opportunity to face her in court. And if they wanted, give what's called a victim impact statement. The judge, Bernard Freedman, scheduled Tara Lee's sentencing for the end of February 2020.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Families, including Teresa and Mike Matheny, Nick Granath, Courtney Edmond, and dozens of others traveled back to Detroit. The night before sentencing, a snowstorm descended. Schools throughout the city were closed, but the court stayed open. The next morning, Adam Bells Thomas got in his truck and drove through it to the federal courthouse downtown. His husband Kyle was with him.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
The defense was going to present the letter Adam wrote in support of Tara Lee as a reason for her to receive a light sentence. But that letter wasn't what Adam believed anymore. And Woodward wanted the court to know it. She'd asked Adam to speak first.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
When Adam and Kyle arrived at the courthouse, Woodward directed them into a separate building where dozens of couples and birth parents were waiting.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Matt is FBI agent Matt Sluss. Tammy Granath stayed home with her daughter May, but Nick was there. Teresa and Mike had met Courtney the night before, when they picked her up from the airport. What's the mood in this room when you all meet for the first time?
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
When it was time, Sarah Woodward led them outside. Here's Teresa Matheny.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
It was almost like telling someone who thought they'd beaten a serious illness that, no, actually, someone had misread the test results.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
And Tara Lee took it a step further.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Agent Sluss tracked down the real person in Tara Lee's photo. Her name wasn't Rashonda. She wasn't pregnant. She had never been shot. Tara Lee just found her photo online and invented the rest. This opportunity was completely fake. If a match failed, Tara Lee often tried to roll the couple into another one.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
I think she developed a sense of how much money each client had, how far she could push them. She knew where they lived, the kind of house they had, the way they reacted when she matched them and asked them for $14,000. She profiled them. While the FBI was figuring out what Tara Lee did, who she did it to, and how, the question of why she did it permeated everything.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
The answer is complicated and, in a way, unknowable. But inside the drawers of Tara Lee's house and on her credit card statements, the FBI found many ways Tara Lee had benefited. While some of her birth mothers lived in squalid conditions with their children, keeping food in the snow, sleeping on the floor, Tara Lee spent $30,000 to renovate her kitchen. She leased a boat. She flew first class.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
She bought a Rolex. She had countless velvet baggies of David Yerman jewelry. She had sunglasses and reading glasses from Prada, Valentino, and Tiffany's. She had more jewelry than anyone could find occasions to wear. Some were unopened, the tags still on them. The FBI took photos of all of it. After the raid, the cat was out of the bag. But the FBI hadn't made anything public.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
So reporters like Heather Catallo were scrambling to figure out what Tara Lee was being accused of. Meanwhile, couples in the Facebook group were anxiously waiting for Tara Lee to be charged. But there was one Detroit couple Tara Lee had worked with, Adam and Kyle Bells-Thomas, who refused to join the Facebook group because they were convinced that Tara Lee was completely innocent.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Oh, we were 100% side Tara. They felt this way even after Courtney and the Facebook group tried to get them to see the truth. Even after the FBI raided Tara Lee's house. Even after Heather Catalo's news reports alleging Tara Lee was a fraudster. And even after they'd been through three failed adoptions with Tara Lee.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Because every night they put their adopted son to bed was a reminder of what Tara Lee had done for them in the beginning. Their gratitude for that successful adoption blinded them to her manipulations. Adam and Kyle lived just 30 minutes away from Tara Lee and had become very close friends.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
As other couples bonded over the shared trauma of being defrauded by Tara Lee, Adam and Kyle bonded with Tara Lee over her trauma of being investigated.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
It would take a lot of time for them to see past what they wanted to believe. It would take reading her indictment to realize they weren't all that different from the other couples she'd defrauded. The couples they thought were the enemy. to realize they'd been duped.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
The dupe began in 2017. Adam and Kyle had just gotten married. Kyle had gone to middle school with Tara Lee and heard she facilitated adoptions. They hadn't talked in years, but he reached out to her. Weeks later, Tara Lee matched them with a 22-year-old birth mother who was pregnant with a boy. She was homeless, staying on people's couches, and living out of her car.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
They helped her move into a rental house, they got her furniture, and they sent Tara Lee $14,000. That was a lot of money for them. Kyle works in IT. Adam had a job at a local bank. They put some of it on their credit cards. And it worked out. Adam and Kyle were in the delivery room when their son was born, and they had a close relationship with their birth mother.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Adam lives in the semi-rural plains north of Detroit. I met him at a recording studio above a Walgreens near his house. He drove there in an old pickup truck after dropping his son off at school. Adam's a visual artist, like his mom. He's around 40, kind, and outgoing. He had a coffee from Tim Hortons, the Canadian Starbucks.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Adam explained to me how, after their successful adoption, he and Kyle became close with Tara Lee. They broke bread with her husband and children. Her oldest daughter babysat for them. Her husband fixed their HVAC. And they talked and texted with her almost every day, the way you do with your closest friends.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Then, in early 2018, Tara Lee told Adam and Kyle that their son's birth mother was pregnant again.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
But Tara Lee didn't like that answer. She flashed a side of herself that they hadn't seen before and questioned their love for their son.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
They looked the other way and put it on credit and got excited again. And they broke the great news to their family. It was all going well until the delivery, when, to their surprise, Tara Lee said the birth mother had changed her mind.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
She matched them again. They put $9,000 more on their credit card to cover the woman's living expenses. But when they found evidence that the birth mother was using drugs during her pregnancy, they backed out of the match. Tara Lee said any money left over would be rolled over to the next match. They recommitted. The next match happened fast. The birth mother had been through an adoption before.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
She knew the steps, and she was due soon. Adam and Kyle felt good about it. A few weeks later, though, Tara Lee told them that the woman had stopped returning her calls. So Kyle, the IT whiz and armchair sleuth, got on Facebook. And he found a profile of the family who'd adopted the woman's previous baby. And their posts showed them celebrating the adoption of her next baby.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
The birth mom had even liked the posts. Kyle sent the family a message. Hey, not sure if you know what's going on, but we were under the impression that we were adopting this baby. He got a response from the birth mother's boyfriend. Back off. This baby's not yours. I don't know who you are or what you're doing. When Adam and Kyle told Tara Lee this, she expressed shock and outrage.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
But the match failed. Adam and Kyle were emotionally and financially exhausted. Days later, the FBI raided Tara Lee's house. When Adam and Kyle found out about it, they called her. And despite all the trauma they'd been through with three failed matches in a row, they were still on side Tara. And they listened as Tara Lee explained to them what, in her mind, was really going on.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Tara Lee asked Adam to write her a letter of support. He did, and he focused entirely on their successful adoption, leaving out the three successive failures. He wrote, Tara was upfront, honest, and trustworthy with every penny that she spent to help our birth mother.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
For weeks, WXYZ Channel 7 aired Heather Catalo's investigative reports about Tara Lee, including this one about a birth mother named Mariah.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Every time one of Heather Catalo's news reports came out, Adam said, Tara Lee would call them and rant. And then, one night in December, they got home from work and found a note from Heather Catalo taped to their door. It terrified them. Heather was the enemy, and they did not want to talk to the enemy. They circled the wagons.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
From Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence, this is Baby Broker. I'm Peter McDonald. Episode 6, Don't Fuck With Parents. By September of 2018, the Facebook group Courtney Edmond helped start had evolved into a crowdsourcing juggernaut of Tara Lee's pissed-off former clients. By October, members of the Facebook group were telling their stories to FBI agent Matt Sluss.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
And then, a few nights before Christmas 2018, Tara Lee called them and sounded excited.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
After New Year's, Tara Lee called them with the opposite message.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
By the way, I interviewed Adam in two different places on two different mics. Sorry. You'll notice it. The day of the court hearing, Adam texted Tara Lee.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Adam sent the text and went to work. Meanwhile, at the FBI's Detroit field office, agent Matt Sluss clicked save on the 31-page criminal complaint he'd written. He'd distilled all the evidence into one monstrous story of probable cause.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
On January 11th, 2019, Sarah Woodward and the FBI made their evidence public.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
And the FBI took Tara Lee to court the same day.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Miles to the north, Adam Bell's Thomas was at his desk at work. But all he could think about was that the criminal complaint against his friend Tara Lee was about to be publicly released. When it was, Adam printed it out and asked his boss if he could take a short break.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
By November, Sluss' investigation had swelled to include 150 couples, all of whom felt Tara Lee had misled, defrauded, or swindled them. Courtney's Facebook group was the seed from which the investigation grew. I want to zoom in on a moment in early October before the FBI got involved, when the seed took root.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
That night, after they put their son to bed, Tara Lee called. Reluctantly, Kyle picked up. Tara Lee ranted. They listened. And then they hung up. Forever.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Adam told me that in their conversations with the FBI and the two lawyers, Talia Getting and Tanya Corrado, they learned their matches didn't fail for the reasons they originally thought. The birth mother in their second failed adoption wasn't even pregnant.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
And in the last failure, the birth mother said she told Tara Lee that she was not going to give her baby to Adam and Kyle. But Tara Lee never gave them the message.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
In federal court, Tara Lee was charged with 18 counts of wire fraud and freed on a $10,000 bond. She was forbidden from doing any adoption work and from contacting birth mothers and adoptive parents. But then, an unforeseen consequence of Tara Lee's alleged crimes surfaced. Talia Getting, the lawyer, called Tammy and Nick Granath in Chicago.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Tammy was sitting at her kitchen island, holding her infant daughter, May, when she answered.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Tammy and Nick and other couples fight to keep their babies, and Tara Lee goes to court.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Plus, on the first of every month, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series. That's all episodes, all at once. Search for The Binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Not on Apple? Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. Baby Broker is an original production of Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
It was hosted and reported by me, Peter McDonald. I'm the executive producer, along with Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch of Sony Music Entertainment. Steve and George recorded the narration at the Invisible Studios West Hollywood. We used music from Audio Network and a few tracks from Epidemic Sound. News clips are courtesy of WXYZ7 in Detroit, Michigan.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Our production managers are Tamika Balance-Kolosny and Sammy Allison. Our lawyers are Allison Sherry and Kathleen Farley. Special thanks to Steve Ackerman, Emily Rasek, and Jamie Myers.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Julie Falkenberry, one of the three women who started the Facebook group, told Courtney that she wanted to cold call Talia Getting and Tanya Corrado. They were the two lawyers who represented many of the couples in Tara Lee's adoptions. Here's Courtney.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
When I talked with Talia Getting, one of the lawyers, I asked her about this call with Julie. Talia said Julie yelled at them and accused them of fraud. But Talia swore she had no idea who Julie Falkenberry was. Talia told me it was only when Julie said her adoption with Tara Lee had failed that she knew why she'd never heard of her.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Tara Lee would send out all-inclusive adoption contracts with Talia and Tanya's names and fees on them without ever telling them. If an adoption failed, they often never knew. Tara Lee usually only called them when one succeeded, usually at the 11th hour. Talia told me she hated that Tara Lee did this and reprimanded her, but it did no good. When I shared all this with Rob Kirsch, he was appalled.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
He's an attorney who knows how adoptions are supposed to work.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Her scheme worked in part because no one was looking for criminals, con artists, and fraudsters in the adoption industry. Because not only was preying on people involved in adoptions unconscionable, it was unimaginable. Even the feds, at first, needed a minute to wrap their heads around what she'd done. Adoptions, by the way, are regulated at the state level.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
So while there is oversight and there are rules, they differ. In Michigan, Tara Lee knew what the rules were, and she flagrantly violated them. The state had even told her to stop doing adoptions, but she didn't. On the phone, Julie Falconberry told Talia about the baby boy she was adopting through Always Hope. It was a closed adoption, meaning Julie had no contact with the birth mother.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Tara Lee told her that the birth mother went into labor unexpectedly, and the baby had died minutes after birth. Julie deeply mourned the loss. She now suspected, though, it was all a lie, that Tara Lee had made up the baby and the birth mother, that it was all for money.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
While Courtney listened in, Julie told Talia and Tanya about their Facebook group of Tara Lee's former clients and all their failed adoptions, a graveyard of failures. When they hung up, it was early evening in Detroit. Talia and Tanya had a million questions. This was serious. This was potentially criminal. It was also, Talia told me, personal.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Talia had been adopted, and she had an adopted daughter. She said Julie's accusations not only scared her, they upset her. That night, Talia remembered that Tara Lee had given her access to Always Hope's email account. She wasn't sure if the login would still work, but it did. Talia and Tanya began reading over 4,000 emails Tara Lee had sent and received from her clients.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
They created a spreadsheet of names, dates, and payments. Leaning against their office wall was another piece of evidence in a frame, Tara Lee's diploma for her master's in social work from Northwestern. Months earlier, Talia said she'd asked Tara Lee for proof of this degree. And after weeks of these requests, she said, Tara Lee presented them with the framed diploma for display.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
But the FBI would discover that the diploma and her degree were fake, pure fiction. Talia and Tanya shared what they found with another attorney, Maria Penchenko, who represented the birth mothers in many of Tara Lee's adoptions. They took matters into their own hands and together reached out to the FBI's Detroit field office to report Tara Lee.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Days later, they were sitting with Special Agent Matt Sluss and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Woodward. And that's how the three prongs of the investigation, the Facebook group, the lawyers, and the Department of Justice came together to stop Tara Lee. For three weeks in October, agents Matt Sluss and Mark Krieg conducted as many interviews with adoptive parents and birth mothers as possible.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
The evidence piled up. Agent Sluss' butcher paper chart morphed into a huge digital spreadsheet. Cell by cell, it documented the traumatic stories of more than 150 couples in 24 states and dozens of birth mothers from Detroit. Many of these couples kept good records.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
By early November, Agent Sluss and the U.S. Attorney's Office had enough evidence for a search warrant. On November 9th, multiple FBI agents drove to a middle-class neighborhood in New Haven, a semi-rural suburb north of Detroit, and parked their unmarked cars in front of Tara Lee's two-story house.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
someone connected to the Facebook group, whose name remains private, had been tipped off about the raid. They parked out front too, their cell phone camera aimed at the door. Three, two, one. The agents got out and went in. She was there. As the FBI went in, the person secretly recording the raid from her car began posting snippets of video to the Facebook group. Word traveled fast.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Many of the couples Tara Lee had defrauded signed on to watch the raid in real time.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Courtney Edmond watched from her kitchen in Colorado Springs. She'd been through two failed adoptions with Tara Lee and had slept in the house that was being raided. Teresa Matheny, who'd driven from Atlanta to Detroit in a panic to save her adoption, watched too.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Visit The Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you listen. The Binge. Feed your true crime obsession.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
While Courtney watched, she was holding a baby she'd just adopted from another agency.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
That's Heather Catallo, an investigative reporter for WXYZ Channel 7, a popular TV news station in Detroit. Heather didn't know who owned the house and why the FBI was there. She just knew that whoever lived there was being investigated for fraud. And she wanted to find out why.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
The FBI hauled out box after box from Tara Lee's home, but they were most interested in one small item. A sophisticated criminal who needs to communicate with their victims or associates might use a burner phone, text in code, use a pseudonym, and delete everything. Tara Lee's fraud depended on communication, and she'd saved everything.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Every text change she'd monitored, every sketchy or fictitious update she'd sent to anxious adoptive parents, every credit card payment she received on an app was visible on her iPhone. When Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Woodward read through it, she saw the individual strands in Tara Lee's web of fraud.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
She also saw how Tara Lee used her personality to bamboozle people.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Tara Lee had invented a lot of stories, lies rather, to make her fraud work because her con took so long. Here's Matt Sluss.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
One of the ways Tara Lee made fake pregnancies feel real was by sending out ultrasound images purported to be of the baby the couple was adopting. The ultrasound image she sent to Tammy and Nick Granath of Sabrina's baby is an example. It wasn't actually an image of Sabrina's baby, because Sabrina didn't exist. Tara Lee found these images online, and she'd repurposed them for different families.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Last October, I was in the recording studio with Mike and Teresa Matheny, the couple from Atlanta who adopted Stephanie's son. We were taking a break, drinking coffee, when Mike asked me,
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Matt Sluss traced them to a website selling ultrasound images for pranks. But these images were the middle, not the end, of her lie.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Her most common lie was that the birth mother changed her mind and was going to keep the baby. It's believable because it happens. If it was a closed adoption, Tara Lee just told the lie, like she lied to the Graniths about Sabrina.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
But if it was an open adoption and the baby wasn't real, or if she diverted a baby to another family in a double or triple match, Tara Lee might impersonate the birth mother in fake texts, saying she was keeping the baby. Tara Lee would send the devastated couple a screenshot of the fake texts as proof the match failed, and then she'd commiserate with them.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
In other situations, she'd say the birth mother miscarried. She even paid a woman to pretend to be pregnant. I think the real reason Tara Lee wanted to limit communication between the birth mothers and adoptive parents was that when it came time to lie, she had to control the narrative. All of Tara Lee's lies were egregious, but some were extreme.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Remember when she told the Grannis that she couldn't come to Chicago to have dinner with them because a birth mother named Rashonda and her baby had been murdered in Detroit? Tara Lee matched Roshanda with a couple in Georgia, who paid her about $15,000. She also sent them details about Roshanda and photos.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Wire fraud. You've probably heard of it, but might not know what it means. It's the use of physical or electronic communication systems, like email or text, to commit fraud. The name is kind of outdated. It dates back to when we used wired telephones. Wire fraud is a federal offense, which is why the FBI got involved.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Sarah Woodward and Agent Matt Sluss would need to show that Tara Lee used her cell phone or email to defraud people. AUSA's Sarah Woodward was sitting at her L-shaped desk on a high floor of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit when we talked. She was surrounded by case files.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Woodward told me that this case was so novel that she had to come up with new terminology just to describe the alleged fraud. terms like fabricated match and double match. That first week on the case, agents Sluss and Krieg interviewed about a dozen people connected with Tara Lee's adoption business.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
These people were the tip of the iceberg because each interview introduced the FBI to new names and allegations. The scope of the case beneath the surface was way bigger than they initially thought. By Friday, Matt Sluss felt compelled to visually piece it together.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
She also wrote that she had a master's degree in social work from Northwestern and that her passion was to help birth mothers. She wrote, I'm constantly teaching life skills to these women who have had no one to help them grow and evolve. That phrase, help them grow and evolve, struck me as pejorative.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Courtney and Curtis Edmond, two failed matches. Tammy and Nick Granath, one failed match, one fabricated match, one success. On October 26th, Agent Sluss added, Mike and Teresa Matheny, success. 20 blocks away, Mike hung up with Matt Sluss and found Teresa in the hospital and told her what had just happened. He now had no doubts that this investigation was real.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
and it was time to turn the tables on Tara Lee. He and Teresa walked the echoey halls talking in hushed tones when they saw two familiar faces coming toward them. It was Stephanie and her partner.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
They paid Stephanie's back rent and three months of advance rent. They paid her overdue electric bill and bought a few months of credit. They paid her car insurance and had her driver's license reinstated. They put new tires on her car. They bought her food, clothes, and shoes. And they felt bad that Stephanie had been taken advantage of. She'd been promised support for her pregnancy.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Instead, she struggled for months. She collapsed in her car. She was alone during the delivery. The truth was, even after what they'd done for her, Stephanie was going to keep living paycheck to paycheck. Her son was going to grow up with a middle-class family. It was going to be hard, no matter what. Tara Lee had made it so much harder.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
A few days later, Tanya Corrado returned to the hospital in secret so the Mathinis could sign the adoption consent forms. In her last adoption, Tara Lee was going to be cut out.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
I'm sure she didn't mean it that way, but it sounds a little like social Darwinism, as if the birth mothers she worked with were inferior and primitive. She said her fee for evolving Stephanie was $9,000. The day after Teresa and Mike had their upsetting call with Courtney Edmond, they drove to Port Huron with their fingers crossed, desperately hoping Tara Lee and Stephanie would show up.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
The Matheny stayed in Detroit for almost two months. Every day, they visited their son in the NICU, rocked him, read to him, fed him. He doubled his weight. In early December, he was released from the hospital. They could go home.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
The only thing that wouldn't fit in the car were the golf clubs. Mike put them on the roof. It was sleeting and snowing as they dressed their son in the monogrammed sailor outfit they'd bought for him back in Brunswick, Georgia.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Teresa squeezed into the backseat next to her son. At a stoplight, Mike aimed his camera at the rearview mirror and snapped a family picture they'd never forget. Teresa and Mike are smiling as if it's the first mile of a spring break road trip.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
The Matheny's dream came true. But after they got home, settled in, they said they felt guilty. Even though they'd been through hell to adopt their son, they got him. But one couple didn't. Teresa told me the name of a couple besides the Graniths who she believes Tara Lee might have matched with Stephanie. The couple who didn't get the baby. I reached out to them and have not heard back.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
So I'm not going to share their names. For many of the couples, the painful experience of working with Tara Lee remains private. In November 2018, while the Mathenys were still in Detroit, FBI agent Matt Sluss was uncovering a trove of evidence of wire fraud, enough to get a search warrant for Tara Lee's house. And Courtney's Facebook group now included the Mathenys and over 100 other couples.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
But one couple wouldn't reply to Courtney's messages because they firmly believed that Tara Lee was innocent. They believed that her side of the story was the truth.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Baby Broker is an original production of Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence. It was hosted and reported by me, Peter McDonald. I'm the executive. Don't want to wait for that next episode? You don't have to. Unlock all episodes of Baby Broker ad-free right now by subscribing to the Binge Podcast channel. Search for The Binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
They parked, went inside, got a booth, and waited. Then they spotted a woman with black hair, tattoo sleeves, and bright designer nails walking toward them. Behind her were a petite pregnant woman with brown hair and two men, the birth father and Tara Lee's assistant, Jay. Teresa and Mike exhaled. From Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence, this is Baby Broker. I'm Peter McDonald.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Not on Apple? Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. As a subscriber, you'll get binge access to new stories on the first of every month. Check out the Binge channel page on Apple Podcasts or getthebinge.com to learn more. Producer, along with Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch of Sony Music Entertainment.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Stephen George recorded the narration at the Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. We used music from Audio Network and a few tracks from Epidemic Sound. News clips are courtesy of WXYZ 7 in Detroit, Michigan. Our production managers are Tamika Balance-Kolosny and Sammy Allison. Our lawyers are Allison Sherry and Kathleen Farley. Special thanks to Steve Ackerman, Emily Rasek, and Jamie Myers.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Teresa and Mike stood up, introduced themselves, and gave Stephanie a hug. Everyone, except Tara Lee, was nervous.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Stephanie and her partner sat next to each other.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Because there'd been so much confusion about Stephanie's due date, Teresa decided to ask the one person at the table who would know for sure. Stephanie said she wasn't due for a few more weeks.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Teresa and Mike smiled and nodded through the dinner, but a whole other conversation was happening in their heads. They realized that if Tara Lee really was running a scam, it was perfect. And she had them. She had them good.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
When I started working on this podcast, I reached out to Stephanie through Teresa and Mike, who are now friends with her. But she declined to be interviewed. The day after the Mathinis had dinner with Stephanie and Tara Lee, Mike worked from their Airbnb. Teresa hung out with her sister, who was visiting. And it was way too cold to play golf.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Late that night, Stephanie and her partner ran into trouble. It was dark out and below freezing. Stephanie had driven her partner to a grocery store. She idled while he ran in. Then she passed out. A passerby found her slumped over the steering wheel and called 911. EMTs arrived and revived her, but her blood pressure was dangerously high.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Teresa told me, rather than take her to the hospital, the police arrived and took Stephanie and her partner home. Then they impounded her car because her insurance had lapsed. The next morning, Stephanie called Tara Lee and asked her for a ride to the hospital. Tara Lee called her an Uber.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
When Stephanie arrived at Hutzel Women's Hospital in downtown, her doctor quickly diagnosed her with preeclampsia and decided to induce. Stephanie tried calling her partner, but he wouldn't answer. Amidst the chaos the night before, he'd left his cell phone in their impounded car It was October 25th, Teresa and Mike's third wedding anniversary.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
They said Tara Lee wore a black Lululemon tracksuit, Prada reading glasses, a Rolex watch, and a large diamond ring. She also had diamonds painted on her nails. As Tara Lee dug into her lunch, she told them a story.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
It seemed like every time someone else was in the spotlight, in this case, Stephanie, Tara Lee would try to redirect everyone's attention to herself. When she was done eating, they went up to labor and delivery.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Then, Tara Lee made a phone call to someone to vent about a set of adoptive parents. She called them APs. It sounded like a birth mother was wavering in her decision.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
My biggest takeaway from 30 minutes of recordings that Teresa shared with me was that despite Tara Lee saying to someone on the phone that she protected her mothers till the ends of the earth, I didn't hear her give Stephanie any emotional support. Stephanie was in labor. All the attention should be on her.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
She couldn't get hold of her partner, and although the Mathinis were adopting her baby, she'd only met them once. The person she knew best in the room was Tara Lee, who was supposed to be her doula. Even during the birth of a baby, Tara Lee stole the spotlight. Stephanie, who says almost nothing in these recordings, seems in the shadows, alone, almost as if she wasn't there.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
As the Matheny sat anxiously in the room, trying not to say the wrong thing, Teresa said Tara Lee leaned over to her.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Teresa just nodded. The two attorneys, Talia and Tanya, had told the Mathenys not to give Tara Lee any more money. Hours passed. Around 7 p.m., Tara Lee said Stephanie probably wouldn't deliver until the middle of the night. She encouraged them to go get some sleep and promised she'd call when Stephanie was close. Mike and Teresa went to a nearby restaurant to wait it out.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
And it was a good thing they didn't go back to their Airbnb to take a nap. Because an hour later, Tara Lee texted to say it was happening. The Mathinis paid their bill and rushed back to the hospital. They ran up to the delivery room and found Stephanie sobbing. He'd been born. They'd missed it. The birth father was on his way. And you don't see Tara empathizing with the birth mother?
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
They went into the NICU and for the first time saw their son.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Their son's Ballard score was just 34 weeks, meaning Stephanie was right about her due date. She delivered early. The Mathinis didn't want to leave their son alone. They worried that if they stepped away, something might happen. They told me they just had a gut feeling about it.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Yeah, no intentions at all. But the adoption paperwork couldn't be signed for three days, and they needed sleep. The Mathinis went back to their rental house and crashed. In the morning, they rushed back to the hospital. Baby S was still in the NICU, and Tara Lee was still sitting right next to Stephanie in her recovery room.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Later that morning, the lawyers, Talia Getting and Tanya Corrado, surreptitiously arrived. They messaged the Mathinis to meet them on another floor where they could talk in secret. When they were all out of Tara Lee's earshot, the lawyers said the FBI's investigation was very serious, and this might be Tara Lee's last adoption.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
They gave the Mathienes the phone number for FBI Special Agent Matt Sluss.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
He had his first conversation with the FBI. Last summer, I reached out to the FBI to ask if they'd speak with me about their investigation into Tara Lee. They don't always talk to reporters, but this case was very important to them. Special Agent Matt Sluss is thin, with a neat beard, and talks in a thoughtful and precise way.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Teresa Matheny's initial description of 38-year-old Tara Lee as someone who cussed like a sailor and was covered in tattoos was so striking, it almost sounded like a quote. It was, and I found it in the second paragraph of Tara Lee's introductory email to the Mathenys. She wrote, I swear like a truck driver and am covered in tattoos.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
In 2018, he was a newish agent working white-collar crime, and he said when he got this case, he knew nothing about how adoption works.
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Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
They wouldn't tell me who tipped them off, though. They don't want to discourage people from reporting crimes to the FBI. Regardless, someone told them that Tara Lee was taking money for an adoption that was designed to fail. The FBI had never come across a case like it. The first person to review it was Supervisory Special Agent Mark Krieg.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
As Agent Krieg chewed it over in the office, Agent Sless came in.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
They didn't know if this was a federal crime or a state crime, or if it was a crime at all, but it seemed like it should be. And if you're curious about the timeline of this meeting, it happened about a week before the Mathienes got to Detroit. Agent Krieg called the U.S. Attorney's Office and asked to talk with Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Woodward.