Arrest Warrant Issued for Father
December 29, 2001, 05:15 PM
By Abe Estimada, Doug Irving and Kyle Iboshi, KGW Staff
A nationwide manhunt has turned up no trace of Christian Longo, the Oregon man charged with killing his wife and three young children.
The FBI issued a national fugitive warrant for Longo, as police in Newport searched the bay and marina near where Longo lived with his family. Prosecutors said they believe Longo is on the run, but said they still have no motive for the murders.
Longo has been missing since his son, Zachary, was found floating in a coastal slough. His daughter, Sadie, was found a few days later. Divers pulled his wife, MaryJane, and two-year-old daughter, Madison, from the cold waters of Yaquina Bay late Thursday.
Longo was last seen in the San Francisco area as late as Dec. 26, police said. The FBI called him a fugitive who had crossed state lines and could be armed and dangerous.
Neighbors in the tight coastal town of Newport remembered the Longos as a regular family that showed no signs of trouble. Christian Longo rented a Newport condo and worked at a coffee stand in a Fred Meyer store. His children spent much of their time reading and working on puzzles at the Newport library.
Lincoln County authorities have given few details about the homicides, releasing photographs of the Longo family and confirming the identities of MaryJane, 35, and her children.
Shaken Newport residents left teddy bears, flowers, balloons and a photograph of the three young children in a makeshift memorial on a dock near the Embarcadero resort.
Divers searched near the Embarcadero because it is close to Christian's last known residence. Neighbors said Christian had lived in a condominium, very close to where MaryJane and Madison were found.
Christian told neighbors he worked for Qwest as a surveyor, but he instead worked for the Newport Fred Meyer. He also told neighbors he had two children when in fact he had three.
"He kept his story pretty good," said Newport resident Sarah Johnson. "He said he was from Michigan or wherever, but then come to find out, he was living in Waldport and everywhere else… (it's) just twisted."
The Detroit Free Press reported Friday that Longo had been named in six civil suits seeking more than $30,000 and is wanted on two warrants in Michigan. The warrants included one for violating probation for forging checks and one on a charge of larceny by conversion.
The Free Press reported that for six weeks in June and July 2000, Longo printed checks that looked nearly identical to the ones written from a builder's bank account. The fake checks included bar codes and check numbers, and the checks were made out to his construction cleaning company for amounts of $2,786 and $3,908.
The builder's wife noticed the fake checks because they were a different color from the real checks, and Longo was typically paid in the hundreds of dollars, not in the thousands.
The Ann Arbor News in Michigan reported that the Longos left a total of $60,000 in debt out of Washtenaw County.
Other details in the Free Press and Ann Arbor reports included:
• The Ypsilanti District Court tried to repossess Longo's car in September to repay $5,000 owed to Merchandise Brokers, Inc. When Longo defaulted on his $431 monthly payments for his leased 1999 Dodge Durango, the court garnished his tax refund. The Longos, however, had left the state.
• Longo was convicted in October 2000 for forging $30,000 in checks from builders in Saline, Mich. He stopped reported to his probation officer in Ann Arbor and is wanted on a warrant in Washtenaw County. Longo was last seen on May 21 and missed his June 11 and July 2 meetings.
• Longo also is wanted on a December 2000 warrant out of Pittsfield Township for allegedly using a bad check to buy a $3,000 trailer.
• Longo still owes restitution of $950 a month for another 33 months plus another $30 a month in supervision fees, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. Longo doesn't appear to have showed up for any court-ordered community service.
The Detroit newspaper also reported that MaryJane's siblings in Michigan noticed she was missing in August and feared for her safety. A sister filed a missing person's report in Toledo, Ohio.
At a news conference prior to the discovery of the latest victims, Lincoln County Sheriff John O'Brien said there was nothing to justify naming anyone as a homicide suspect.
The police are also looking for the family's green Dodge Durango with Michigan license plates. Lincoln County authorities searched the Longo residence in Newport Wednesday but declined to say what they found. Evidence is being processed at the state police crime lab.
An affidavit filed in Lincoln County Circuit Court outlining the search was ordered sealed by Judge Thomas E. Branford.