The Ultimate Betrayal: Faking A Pregnancy & Stealing Another Woman's Baby

hey everybody welcome back to an all new episode of 10 to life with me Annie Elise the case we're talking about today guys is one that I would imagine you've heard about and you're familiar with but when I tell you I mean I honestly I thought I was familiar with it I thought I knew everything there was to know when I tell you how wrong I was because when I really researched this case it was more horrific guys than I could have ever imagined and there were so many details that I had never heard that I didn't know that out of watching all of the coverage I've watched over the years I'm shocked that I never had heard these before and that nobody included them in their coverage so I was like I wasn't going to ever cover this case honestly it was never even on my radar but then after researching it I was like I have to cover this case because there's so much that has been left unsaid so when I say maybe you've heard of this case before and but you don't know the details I really mean it the this case is just wild and I feel like it deserves full comprehensive coverage I truly do so that is why I am covering it now before I get into it hi my name is Annie for those of you who have no idea who I am I kind of just like really hit the ground running there right um my name's Annie what I like to do is jump on here talk with you guys you know as though we're friends I feel like we are friends and really break down a true crime case for you that has been bugging me or that is weighing heavily on my mind for one reason or another so that's what we do we just talk about these candidly and we do some really crazy deep Dives we get into like the trenches and the depths of Hell To Source this information if you're returning tent lifer you get it you know what we do here you're not new you understand but uh welcome back and thank you as always for your constant support your watching watchfulness watching I don't know what you would call it you get it I'm thanking you and I'm excited to have the newbies here as well so talking about this case again I've covered a lot of cases where there are some people who are just unfortunate enough to cross paths with the wrong person at the wrong time and those stories are horrible because you get wrapped up in all of those questions about whether something could have played out less tragically if maybe someone had just made one tiny little decision differently but then it's almost creepier when you hear about someone who meets a terrible fate because they were intentional targeted like they're just living their life right going about their business completely unaware that somebody they know somebody they trust is plotting their murder and there's nothing that they could have done to change the circumstances or save themselves and honestly after we hear and talk about so many of these cases it really is enough to make you feel like you can absolutely never let your guard down because you don't want to end up like Heidi brussard guys this is one of the heaviest cases that I will have covered to date like I said there are so many details untouched let's Jump Right [Music] In [Music] okay guys it is what 7:45 which means it is almost time for bed cuz I go to sleep super early but I'm going to take you along with me for my bedtime routine if you have been following for a while you know there is a life hack secret ingredient that I drink every single night to help me sleep and that is all of my Beam not sure what flavor to drink tonight I have sea salt caramel we have got the apple cider donut and brownie batter you can see I've been getting into all of these lately we're going to go with Old Faithful sea salt caramel okay so while I heat up my water let me talk to you a little bit about what beam is basically it is a cup of what literally tastes like hot chocolate it's 15 calories no added sugar and it will put you to sleep it will make you stay asleep when you wake up you won't feel groggy it is the best it has has all of the amazing ingredients like magnesium Aline melatonin I mean all of the good things my husband first introduced me to this and I got like hooked I love it so much now I have introduced it to all my friends and family so while I wait for my water to heat up let me actually play a testimonial of one of the people that I introduced it to who now is just as obsessed as I am hi I just want to send a quick video about BM tea and how much I love it Annie actually introduced me to the tea and I literally cannot get a enough my husband and I both drink it every night before bed it's like our little after dinner treat and it keeps us asleep for the longest period of time I have the best dreams and I travel a lot for work so it's helpful in acclimating me to the time zones I'm in New York right now and I have my beam tea and I couldn't be anywhere without it told you what I love specifically about beam is that unlike other sleep aids I've tried it does doesn't leave me groggy at all it also puts me to sleep 30 minutes after I drink it so I make it 30 minutes before I want to be asleep and then I stay asleep it's clinically proven to improve sleep so click my link in the description below or my QR code on the screen and use my code 10 to life and save 20% off sweet dreams Heidi was born on June 15th 1986 she had a pretty typical childhood she went to church with her family she graduated high school in 2004 and then she moved to Austin Texas that's where she met the absolute love of her life who eventually became her fiance Shane Cary now Shane already had one child from a previous relationship a daughter named Addison Heidi loved Addison and she she was all in she was ready to settle down with Shane have more children with him it was what she envisioned for her life Heidi had always wanted to be a mother and Shane seemed like the right person to start this life with go down this path with in fact a few years into their relationship Heidi and Shane announced that they were expecting their first child and in 2013 silus Tyson Cary was born two years later by 2015 Heidi was now living her dream life she was a devoted mother she and her boyfriend Shane had this very strong relationship she also had a job at Cracker Barrel where she made a pretty decent living and had a pretty flexible schedule she had dreams about going back to school and possibly becoming a vet technician because she loved working with animals and she loved animals in general so why not work with them but that it just wasn't in the cards because in early 2019 Heidi and Shane learned that they were expecting again now even though she was thrilled to have another baby Heidi was also a little bit stressed out and worried especially because now her relationship with Shane it started to get a little rocky in in March of that year Heidi had told some of her closest friends that Shane had become physically abusive now apparently before she learned that she was pregnant again Heidi had even been thinking about breaking up with him entirely one day she had told him about her doubts about this relationship and he apparently pushed back really hard insisting that she could not leave him and at one point he even tried to take away Heidi's dog Zeus now when Heidi tried to stop him Shane grabbed her arm and grabbed it so hard that it left bruises once things finally calmed down Heidi kicked Shane out of the house she also took pictures of her injuries so that she would have proof of the abuse if she ever needed it if she ever needed to use the proof when Heidi opened up about this incident to her friends she also showed them the pictures they would send her text messages saying things like you need to call the cops on him Heidi you cannot keep letting this happen and I think it's interesting that they said keep letting this happen because that seems to me at least like a pretty strong indication that this wasn't the first time that Shane had gotten physical with Heidi and from the sound of it Heidi took her friend's advice pretty seriously she was all set to leave Shane right up until she missed her period and she took that pregnancy test and the next thing you know instead of getting out of this dangerous relationship Heidi was promising to spend the rest of her life with Shane because he proposed and she said yes now this was a terrible situation for Heidi to find herself in she was caught between staying with the man who had hurt her or blowing up her whole life and relationship just when she was about to bring another baby into the world a baby who needed a lot of support both in terms of time and money so there was really no right move in that moment for Heidi at least in her mind but luckily Heidi had one person who promised to be by her side no matter what her best friend Megan fausa Megan and Heidi had known each other for over a decade they first met at a church camp and they grew closer and closer as they got older so while Heidi was living in Austin Megan was living in Houston with her boyfriend Christopher green Austin and Houston are a few hours apart but that didn't prevent Heidi and Megan from having a super close friendship they texted each other and called each other almost every single day like Heidi Megan was also having some pretty serious relationship problems at the time so they really used each other as a form of stability a a friend to confide in a Pillar of Strength if you will somebody to just really lean on now in March which is the same month that Shane left those bruises on Heidi Megan and her boyfriend Christopher broke up right afterward when Heidi announced that she was pregnant in early 2019 Megan told her that she was also expecting she too was pregnant it was almost like they were living these parallel lives they both were having relationship issues they both wanted to leave their Partners only to find out that they were having a baby right when they were ready to end things in fact their due dates were so close to each other that they started joking that their babies might have the same birthday kind of like a dream with your best friend too you're like oh my gosh we're pregnant at the same time maybe they'll share a birthday oh my gosh they'll grow up together just really soaking in all of the happy moments and possibilities I guess you could say of the future and then once Heidi learned that she was having a baby girl it was like destiny it was like fate because Megan was like oh my gosh I'm having a daughter too this is absolutely crazy so everything was pretty much exact carbon copies of each other's lives except Heidi and Shane ended up staying together and Christopher and Megan completely stayed broken up they did agree to keep living together and they committed to co-parenting together but the dynamic was a little odd and the living arrangements weren't ideal but they were taking it one step at a time and trying to make things work for the child's sake so Heidi and Megan were both making the best of their less than perfect situations Megan also went to all of Heidi's doctor's appointments during her pregnancy because she really wanted to be a friend to her she really wanted to be there for her now it's kind of wild that she did that because neither one of them had moved I mean they still lived hours apart but Megan seemed really excited for Heidi and I have to imagine that Heidi in that moment really did appreciate that support and while Heidi was having having a bit of a rough time and trying to figure everything out what her next move was going to be what she was going to do how she was going to handle everything you wouldn't know that she was having a difficult time by looking at her she was absolutely glowing throughout her entire pregnancy the months went by and from the outside looking in she seemed to be doing really well then by November 22nd Heidi was ready to start her maternity leave so she clocked out one final time from Cracker Barrel just a few days later on November 25th Heidi went into labor she called Megan saying hey I'm in labor I'm headed to the hospital and Megan she didn't miss a step she immediately got into her car she drove over 2 hours so that she could be with her best friend as soon as she arrived she held Heidi's hand keeping her calm through every single painful contraction and Heidi's healthy baby girl was born the very next day on November 26th 2006 she and Shane named their new beautiful daughter Margot for 2 weeks afterwards Heidi just soaked in all of the love her friends and family came over to meet Margot and Heidi even took the baby to her first Sunday service at church I mean after all Heidi was still very devout and it was important for her to share her faith with her new baby girl right from the beginning now I don't want to mislead you because I'm not trying to say that motherhood was all roses and sunshine for Heidi she was now a mother of two and Shane hadn't taken much time off of work he was gone for hours a day every day leaving Heidi all alone so Heidi had to take care of the baby she had to make sure that celus got to school and back and she also had to do all of the housework that's a lot as a new mom especially when you're not only trying to Grapple with motherhood but while you're trying to recover physically from the delivery of the child so it was a lot but as of December 12th Heidi seemed to have everything under control that morning started off feeling pretty typical Shane headed to work while Heidi made breakfast and was getting the kids dressed and ready for school and at 8:00 a.m. Heidi dropped Silas off at school and a half an hour later she called Shane to chat now usually Shane and Heidi stayed in touch all day calling texting everything but after that call he didn't hear from her again for the rest of the day it was definitely a break from their usual routine too but Shane figured that she was just busy so at around 2:50 p.m. Shane got home from work Heidi's car was parked outside of the apartment just like normal and the door was unlocked now again this was pretty typical when Heidi was home with the kids especially if she was expecting him back but when he got inside Shane found the house totally quiet now I don't know if you've ever been home with a newborn but when it comes to babies the best you can even hope for is Controlled Chaos I mean usually it's a mess now even though Silas was still at school and Heidi was only supposed to be taking care of one child Shane expected to find her stressed out worn out and you know it wouldn't really be quiet if that were the case so instead it felt like everybody was gone and sure enough nobody was home now I'm not sure if Shane walked around looking for Heidi and Margot but either way he figured out pretty quickly that they weren't around except Shane knew Heidi wouldn't go anywhere without telling him especially if she was taking the baby with her so this was all pretty weird but Shane brushed off his worries once again just like he had when Heidi stopped texting him during the day he settled in he grabbed a snack and he went to pick up Silas from school when the school day was over by the time Shane and Silas got back Heidi and baby Margot were still nowhere to be found though they also still hadn't called they still hadn't texted nothing when Shane tried to call Heidi his call immediately went to voicemail like her phone had been turned off so that's when he started to finally begin to worry Shan began looking around and he was trying not to panic and trying to to see if he could maybe find a note or some other sort of clue that would reveal where she was like oh right I totally forgot Heidi said she was going to go do such such and such this afternoon go to Target this afternoon whatever it was except there was nothing there was no sign of what happened he also decided to go through her car which remember was parked out front so it's not like Heidi had driven off when she left or maybe was like going out and running errands and inside the car he found her purse and baby Margo's diaper bag so that had Shane even more worried because there was no way that Heidi would go somewhere even for 5 minutes without the diaper bag and I don't think I have to tell you if you've ever had a newborn you know that's just not an option period that diaper bag is glued to you for like the first year at least it was for me so now Shane was absolutely convinced that something had happened to his wife and daughter he was panicked he was worried so he called the police and he reported them both missing everything was here like all the baby stuff we're all stun because everything's over here car is over here so it then it shows no signs of struggle there's there's nothing and the police immediately started searching for Heidi and the baby but interestingly they never issued an amber alert for Margo now that's because the Texas Department of Public Safety the agency responsible for issuing the alerts didn't think that her disappearance met their criteria as far as the police knew Margo was with her her mom and they had no reason to think that Heidi posed a threat to her and since they weren't sure if Heidi left willingly or if she was abducted they couldn't say with any certainty whether or not Margot was in danger now of course they couldn't rule that possibility out either so the detectives started talking to Witnesses and also notifying Heidi's friends and family of her disappearance now Heidi's parents and her friends were of course horrified however when they called her friend Megan she actually than the detectives for their hard work and she offered to let them know right away if she heard anything from Heidi which was nice but it wasn't like anybody expected her to have a lot of relevant information because remember she lived 2 hours away she was at home when Heidi went missing so what could Megan possibly know and at least this seemed like a safe bet because besides talking to Heidi's loved ones the police also then began establishing a timeline of when Heidi and Margot disappeared they knew that Heidi dropped silus off at school at 7:50 a.m. this thanks to surveillance videos based on the fact that Heidi's car made it back home it seemed fair to say that she drove herself back to the apartment at some point so then the question became why did she leave again did somebody abduct her or did she walk out willingly there weren't any signs of forced entry but that didn't rule out the possibility of a home invasion I mean the door was unlocked when Shane got home so it may have been open all day there also wasn't any mess in the house though the way that you would expect if somebody tried to Rob Heidi or Rob the home in fact there weren't any valuables missing which again suggested that whoever was behind this wasn't interested in stealing from her and wasn't interested in stealing from Shane so far there were no good leads the investigators went door Todo interviewing the neighbors who lived in Shane in Heidi's apartment complex and most of their statements honestly weren't very helpful nobody heard any screams nobody heard anything like that anything suggesting that Heidi and Margot had been taken by force but one person an unidentified neighbor who lived in Shane and Heidi's building ended up being a gold mine of information they told the police that they saw Heidi and another woman another woman around her age and they were hugging outside of Heidi's front door then the two of them left the apartment with a car seat and presumably baby Margot and then later Heidi and this woman got into a car but not Heidi's car and then they drove off together so based on the neighbor's description it sounded like Heidi and this other woman definitely knew each other I mean you wouldn't hug a complete stranger and then willingly get into a car with them right so the detectives went back to Heidi's family and asked them for a list of every single friend every single relative every coworker even any casual acquaintance anybody who might fit This Woman's description they printed out pictures of some of them so that the police could bring them to the neighbor show them to the neighbor hoping that they could be identified and after they looked over every photo the neighbor pointed out one in particular and this person he pointed out was definitely the woman who had been talking to Heidi and it was her best friend Megan which if that's true you've got to wonder why Megan didn't say anything during that initial conversation with the detective you've got to think that if she was in Austin with Heidi on on the day of The Disappearance that that might I don't know maybe be worth mentioning right that is assuming that the neighbor identified her correctly which honestly they may not have we know that eyewitness accounts aren't always 100% accurate we're all human and memory can be unreliable which seemed especially possible in this case so the police asked Shane if he had any reason to think that Megan would be in Austin that day and he said that Heidi never said anything about it and she would have if she had any sort of plans with Megan she would have mentioned it I mean they lived so far apart and they didn't see each other that often so it definitely would have been something that she would share if she was coming to town so then the wheels started turning okay why would Megan hide this from us there was some rocky history in Heidi and Shane's relationship was Megan trying to help her Escape without Shane knowing is that why she's now hiding it and saying that they weren't together if it was in fact Megan maybe she was trying to help Heidi maybe she was trying to help her Escape what Heidi called an abusive relationship so the detectives tried to be really careful before they took any next steps they didn't want to just assume that this woman was Megan and then end up being wrong they also didn't want to have the wrong motive but they also didn't want to dismiss the witness a statement either so they pulled surveillance footage from around Heidi's house and they scoured it until they found some clips of Megan's car and sure enough it was in Austin on December 12th and it looked like she was driving toward Heidi's home the FBI also pulled Megan's cell phone records from T-Mobile they showed that Megan's phone had pinged near Heidi and Shane's apartment again in Austin so now they were 100% positive that this woman was Megan and this was strange because from what I can tell no one thought that Megan had any reason to want to hurt Heidi or her child and it was also odd that Heidi would make plans with Megan and not tell Shane so again what was the motive here was Megan trying to help Heidi Escape there was a big piece to this puzzle that the police hadn't found yet but using all the information they had they did funnel it down to that they made a very serious educated guess maybe Heidi had decided to finally leave Shane and Megan had come to help her get out of the house all while he was at work now I'm not sure if the police knew about the previous abuse or the bruises at that exact point but if Heidi was afraid of Shane she would try to get away when he leased suspected it and when he wasn't around to stop her if that was the case she might even abandon her car and her wallet so that it would be more difficult for Shane to track her down which yes makes sense in theory but also there's parts of it that make no sense to me whatsoever I get that Heidi might have been scared of Shane and she might have wanted to make it harder for him to find her after she took off but her purse had her wallet in it and also her ID meaning if you believe this Theory then you also have to believe that hi left with no money no car and no way to find a new job because she wouldn't be able to prove her identity and her plan involved supporting a newborn on her own and no possible way of bringing in an income I don't know I'm just not buying it and her friends and her family found this whole Theory ridiculous as well first of all even though Heidi allegedly took baby Margo with her syus was in school and Heidi would never abandon her son if she was going to leave she would find a way to take both kids with her tonight two close friends of Heidi brussard say they've told authorities there's no chance the mother of two would leave town on her own accord Heidi would have never left without her son never um never it needs to be known to the world that she didn't leave on her own that is her world and she is his world yeah plain and simple on top of that even if Heidi did ever leave Shane she wouldn't slip off without a word to anyone at the very least least she would call her parents who would probably be happy to give her a safe place to stay so her loved ones were super outspoken any time they had a chance to talk to the media they thought that something had happened to Heidi and that she did not willingly choose to go missing on her own they wanted the police to take her disappearance seriously on Sunday December 15th Shane even appeared on Good Morning America to ask for help in finding Heidi and his daughter Margot and let me just say though this interview did not go over well he came across nervous and fidgety which is understandable given that Heidi and his daughter are missing but he also had these extreme mood swings going from tearful one second to smiling and laughing the next it could have been nerves or just the intensity of the situation but his whole demeanor struck people as really weird on eight and uh she told me that she went to the book fair she bought three books cost about $25 it was amazing like she couldn't wait to uh read to silus and uh I told I love you goodbye and uh this is hard h i take your time yeah so uh I I don't know right now it's been repeating it all day and let me know if you want me to move on to another question no no it's a good question I this is this a weird situation right here I don't know uh I know she's just amazing mom uh I don't know going to P I don't know I I need to stand up I don't know I can't sit here I this is like making me so I feel funny you want to stand him it it's like light I don't know yeah I'm not good in the situation uh yeah stand up hey I'm going to just reframe a little bit sorry no no you're doing you're doing yeah I just want you to look for look yeah and that's the last time I spoke to uh my uh my son dude I can't this is this is weird I I know you're moving my dad you're like I can't be profession I'm not this is dude okay I'm gonna I'm going to call you back or something I don't know what to do man you're makeing me nervous you I don't know man I just want to be natural man I just want to like this is not I don't know yeah you know try and look at the camera whatever you want to look at just what yeah I look I look down I'm sorry it's okay do that you can do just do it no pressure no nothing if it works it works if it don't it don't that's just the way we got to do it that's want to get the word out there I don't care how it look ready you're about ready yeah it's louder now okay yeah so my other question was um is there anything important that's missing right now like there know anything valuable missing there is nothing valuable missing uh her purse and her wallet and everything was up here uh her cell phone is missing it's been turned off whenever I pulled up around 140 it's just been off since then so uh uh like the car seat everything is upstairs there's no signs of anything youn she ever disappeared she ever nod no ma'am she she would never disappear she is amazing mom she she'll never we have a six-year-old son named solish beautiful kid she would never leave him uh she would never do this toward the end of his appearance Shane became extremely emotional he begged whoever took Heidi and Margot to bring them home safe he was crying he was sobbing but a lot of people who saw this broadcast they just weren't buying it some people thought that he was faking his emotions maybe to hide his own guilt I'm sorry if you could say anything to you know the person that she might if you are involved I don't care uh set her to the side she'll find her way home just bring her home safe or put her somewhere safe uh her the baby feed the baby she only 3 weeks old so just find a way you you won't be in trouble and just drop her off she has a beautiful family drop her off anywhere I don't care just make sure she's safe and okay the baby's okay and then ride away I don't know what I just want her home safe it doesn't have to be here just drop her off somewhere safe if it is somebody just please come home or drop her up at my doorstep I don't care just bring my family home it didn't help that just a couple of years earlier was the Chris Watts case and if you are a true crime buff you know it is almost a go-to staple anytime a spouse partner husband whatever it is is on TV giving an interview people jump to speculate and call it out he's giving me Chris Watts Vibes he's acting like Chris Watts and this was actually fresh off of the Chris Watts case so everybody was just looking at him like he was suspicious he was the villain so as Heidi's story spread across the internet people on Reddit and social media just jumped straight to blaming him alleging that Shane must have killed Heidi and he also must have killed his newborn baby girl then those pictures of Heidi's bruises came out and this whole online speculation Rumor Mill wild fire just hit a fever pitch and it really didn't look good for him because now people were saying he has motive he has history of being abusive maybe he lost his temper maybe he couldn't handle the stress of having a newborn he snapped he's hiding them he was at work he has like what all of these things I mean it was just going crazy people were online painting him as a murderer people were suggesting different motives it was really really crazy so 2 days after the disaster ous Good Morning America interview investigators held their very first press conference about the case they admitted that they still hadn't found Heidi or Margot and they were now pulling in the FBI and the Texas Rangers to help them they also shared that they had two leading theories which barely counted as theories at all if I'm going to be honest either Heidi had left on her own or she met Foul Play which obviously that's not a theory that's just a starting point for an invest vestigation it sounded like they hadn't even figured out most of the basic information in the case they' made no progress whatsoever and by now Heidi and Margot had been missing for a full 5 days now during the press conference someone asked the officials if they believed that Heidi and Margot were still alive and the answer was pretty optimistic at that time they had no reason to believe that either one of them had been hurt or killed so after that announcement things started to quiet down for for a few days because there weren't really any new breaks Heidi's family came to town to help with the search efforts but they didn't get any further than the authorities had 3 days later on Friday December 20th the investigators held another press conference but this time they weren't nearly as hopeful after eight long days of searching they found a body on some private property in Houston and they believed that this body belonged to Heidi the only good news in this announcement was that they also had found a baby who was thankfully alive and this baby was on the same property so they thought that it was Margot but they couldn't confirm that until they received the results from the DNA test and that could take somewhere between 48 to 72 hours so in the meant time the baby was in foster care it is heartbreaking circumstances that bring us here today uh as you all are well aware that there has been a lot that has developed uh in the overnight hours this all began back on December 12 when 33-year-old uh Heidi brousard and infant daughter two- week old baby Margot Casey were last seen uh as they dropped off their sibling and their uh son at school and we have been investigating their disappearance since that time on Tuesday APD detective Harry's gave a very thorough briefing to the media on what had been developed at that point through the investigation and there's a lot that has happened since that time most notably the events that took place out in the Houston and Harris County area overnight and into the early morning hours today detective Harry's will give you a briefing here momentarily updating the specifics of what took place but what we will confirm at this point is that we did recover an infant female child that we do believe at this time is Margo however we are awaiting the results of DNA testing to confirm that identity and that testing take us between 48 and 72 hours to get that confirmation additionally we recovered the body of an adult female we do believe that this is Miss brousard however again we are awaiting the results of the autopsy to confirm her identity now I have to imagine this must have been absolute torture for Shane who still had to wait another day or two to learn if his daughter was alive and coming back home he knew or felt like in his bones that Margo might be within his reach ready to come home and I'm sure that he would recognize her in an instant if he saw her but like the rest of the world he had to sit and he had to wait for these results in the meantime he had a lot of questions just like everybody else who had been following this case first in foremost being how did Heidi end up in Houston and who did this to her the answer to that second question came when police made an arrest pretty soon afterward an arrest of Heidi's best friend of over 10 years Megan fausa now like I mentioned before Heidi and Margo had both been found on that same property specifically the home that Megan shared with her ex-boyfriend Christopher so Megan was charged with two counts of kidnapping and one count of tampering with a corpse then the information started coming out and it was wild up until Megan's arrest nobody even knew that the police had been looking at her as a suspect even though the investigators knew that Megan was at Heidi's apartment and that that made her a person of interest it still seemed shocking that she would actually hurt her best friend Heidi everybody had been so focused on Shane at this point too that nobody even thought that it could be the best friend except the police found it interesting that as soon as Heidi realized she was expecting Megan had also announced that she was pregnant which isn't necessarily suspicious but then add in the fact that Megan behaved really oddly around Heidi in the months leading up to The Disappearance and certain details suddenly now weren't adding up you see Heidi and her family hung out with Megan at some point after Heidi realized she was pregnant and before Margot was born at the time Megan seemed to be acting a little weird and almost territorial then when Megan showed up at the hospital for Margo's birth she kept holding a pillow over her stomach the entire time it was almost like she was covering up her baby bump again definitely strange and Megan's Behavior got even weirder afterward when Shane's parents met their granddaughter for the very first time Megan apparently interrupted their visit and said that she needed to hold Margot first because she was about to leave so I need to hold her I'm heading out of here so like let me do it first it was definitely rude and intrusive but apparently nobody thought anything more of it in fact after that incident Heidi and Shane even offered to let Megan stay at their apartment before she drove all the way back to Houston Shane gave her a spare key so that she could come and go on her own and Megan told him that she would just leave it on the counter when she left however Shane never saw that key again which once more it was no big deal at the time Shane and Heidi trusted Megan they didn't think that she was going to do anything bad if she kept this key or if she lost it or whatever I mean it wasn't a major concern to them right so then a few weeks went by and according to Shane Megan announced that she had her baby either on December December 8th or December 9th she texted Heidi about it but Shane said he never saw any pictures it's unclear if that's because Heidi never got any photos or if she did but didn't bother passing them along to Shane but in any event he never saw them so then a few days later Heidi went missing and Megan was spotted at her apartment and then the Texas Rangers started tracking Megan's movements they spotted Megan's ex Christopher leaving their home on Thursday December 19th in a black Nissan SUV he drove to a Target and he bought baby clothing and also baby formula when he was on his way out the investigator stopped him and they started questioning him about Megan and about her pregnancy and here's where everything starts to feel like something straight out of a soap opera I mean it's crazy Christopher said that he broke up with Megan and then learned that she was pregnant so he decided to stay in her life as a co-parent which we already knew over 9 months he saw her stomach get bigger and one time he says he touched it and it felt hard which isn't exactly how pregnant bellies feel but it does feel a little bit more firm I guess he also admitted that he had never seen Megan's naked stomach he figured that it was because they were broken up so they weren't sexually intimate anymore that's why easy explanation right but apparently he was living with Megan for months and he never once saw her with her shirt writing up or stripped down to a sports bra maybe in a towel from getting out of the shower nothing like that he also never went to to a medical appointment with her even for all of those prenatal checkups where the doctor would of course have to lift her shirt do the ultrasound do the checks all of the things so clearly something really weird was going on between Christopher and Megan but from what he told the police it sounded like Christopher never bothered to press her on any of it he admitted he wasn't even present for the birth he said Megan just left the house on December 12th and then came back the next day with a baby a little girl that they named Luna now before I keep going with Christopher's story I do want to make a really quick note about the timeline because I know some of these details can be hard to remember as The Story Goes On so Christopher thought that Luna was born on December 12th or 13th but Heidi got that text from Megan about how she had given birth a few days before then on either the 8th or the 9th already the timeline between what Heidi reportedly told Shane and what Christopher now was telling the police it was not adding up so you might think okay people get confed confused someone remembered the date wrong except there's no way that Heidi got that text from Megan on the 12th and that Shane thought that it came through a few days earlier because the 12th was the day that Heidi went missing literally Megan had to have texted Heidi before December 12th because otherwise Heidi would never have gotten that text and told Shane about it so either Megan had told Heidi that she had her baby when she was actually still pregnant or somebody was telling a mega huge lie to the police anyways when Christopher came home on December 13th and saw Megan with the newborn baby she was super evasive about what had gone down over the past couple of days now I've got to imagine that as the father Christopher would have wanted to be there for the birth at least she should have texted him to give him a heads up but she wouldn't give a straight answer about why she had kept such humongous news to herself she just told him don't be mad don't be mad then Megan told a very vague story about how she had gone to a birthing center and I guess Christopher just accepted it it's amazing how much this guy just took on faith I mean it's truly wild but I get it sometimes guys don't know all the ins and outs like women do so maybe he thought that that was plausible who knows I guess the detectives thought that Christopher's ignorance was a little hard to swallow which honestly no kidding because they pressed him for more information and then he snapped and he said she's been really distant with me about that stuff I don't know why so at least even he thought it was a little strange for Megan to tell him absolutely nothing about how and when Luna was born but it seems like up until this conversation he had never actually paused to say like hey Megan's been evasive and suspicious and her good friend and her baby just went missing I don't know maybe I should prob into this a little deeper so finally the investigator showed Christopher a missing person's flyer with pictures of Heidi and Margot on it and Christopher responded and and this is a direct quote that's the baby at my house so I think this was the moment that the wheels finally began turning in Christopher's head right there with the police watching he pieced together the fact that Megan's baby wasn't in fact Megan's baby it was baby Margot so he started to freak out and he asked the investigators if they were going to go get his daughter not like he was worried about losing her he actually thought that that's what they should do he even said if she's cap AP able of this please go get that baby it was clear by now that Megan had been faking her pregnancy for months the whole time she had been plotting to take Margot away from her best friend now it seems like it was so that she could pass Margot off as her own with Heidi completely out of the way she made a baby registry she told all of her family that she was expecting and of course she tricked Chris into letting her live in his house with him for 9 months and to be clear Christopher was to toally innocent through all of this he had no idea that Megan was planning anything right until those detectives started talking to him outside of that Target then those investigators shared everything that they had just learned with other police and FBI agents and they were staked out outside of Megan and Christopher's home so literally right as they received that call Megan walked outside with her cell phone and with a baby monitor the FBI agents walked up and they began questioning her she told them a story that mostly fit with what she had told Christopher before supposedly on December 12th she went to the beach with her cousin she ended up going into labor they rushed to a medical facility and that's where Megan gave birth but coincidentally she couldn't remember the name of the birthing center only that it was in The Woodlands which for the record is the name of a very rural area in Texas it's pretty wooded but Megan wasn't trying to claim that she gave birth in the middle of the forest or anything like that but it still was very kind of vague so understandably the detectives I mean they weren't buying it they asked her if anybody could cooporate her story and Megan said that the police would have to talk to the hospital staff who again she couldn't name and she couldn't name any of these people who apparently worked at this mysterious birthing center she also couldn't identify the birthing center itself which okay right now interestingly enough she apparently didn't think to name her cousin who was supposedly with her at the beach I highly doubt this unidentified relative just abandoned Megan when her contractions began but to hear Megan tell it her cousin was only around for the first part of the day and then she was apparently all alone when she actually gave birth convenient it sounds like she claimed that she had driven herself and Baby Luna home afterward which is not how this works I cannot overstate how badly giving birth messes with your body it's not like dropping by the hospital to put a cast on a broken bone or something like that and that's before you get into the intense painkillers that a lot of people take during delivery it's not like you just deliver and drive home L dah not at all so more likely and we know this is what really happened Megan was just telling lies and she couldn't keep her story straight the investigator asked her why her cell phone data pinged in Austin if she was allegedly at this birthing center in The Woodlands she said that she wasn't sure because she definitely was not in Austin that day now by this point there were red flags everywhere so so the investigators obtained a search warrant for Megan and Christopher's home and that's when they found what they had been looking for the entire time Heidi's body had been in the trunk of Megan's gray 2015 Nissan it was stuffed inside a duffel bag Margo was thankfully safe inside the home they also pulled Megan's online search history and some other digital records they showed that before Heidi even gave birth to Margot Megan Googled her friend's name Heidi brousard and she had Googled it 162 times then on the day that Heidi and Margot went missing Megan searched reasons for Amber Alert as well as Amber Alert issued in Austin so obviously she knew that her friend and the baby had disappeared before it even made the news and she knew that because she was responsible for it she just had to wait and see when everybody else would notice once Heidi's body was found the detectives determined that her cause of death was ligature strangulation and asphixiation so in simple terms Megan strangled her best friend with her hands and also with a dog leash I cannot imagine how that must have felt not only to be murdered but to be killed by the one person who was supposed to always be in your corner a friend a best friend that you trusted deeply and not only that but when Heidi took her last breath she had to know that her baby couldn't possibly be safe with Megan so that betrayal probably cut that much deeper on one hand what Megan did was so cruel and it's terrible that Heidi lost her life so senselessly but at the same time it's clear that something was seriously not right with Megan and with her decision making she couldn't possibly have thought that this plan would work how long did she think that she could go before somebody would notice that she never actually got pregnant or that her daughter was born under these super suspicious circumstances is right after her best friend died like I don't know that's not the thinking of a rational person right and that's before you get into the fact that if Megan was desperate for a child there were other methods that she could have tried I'm not sure if she struggled with infertility or if she believed that she couldn't get pregnant but there's adoption there's fostering the fact that she zipped right past those options and just decided that the move was going to be to murder somebody that she loved and cons considered a good friend I mean it just blows my mind but now Megan had been caught and Margo was on her way back home to be reunited with her dad when Margo's DNA test came back they confirmed that she was who everybody thought that she was and she was finally reunited with her family you're so beautiful yes you are yes you are how do you love Megan I mean like they had a great relationship like I went over my head about a thousand times like I should have been there I should have noticed something she was a she was a friend you know like you would not suspect this at all like at all you guys found out Heidi was pregnant do you remember hearing that Megan was pregnant too oh um I think it was like pretty much at the same time Megan said that she had the same date as Heidi you never questioned it I never questioned it at all why [Music] why she came home just in time to attend Heidi's memorial service the funeral home was packed with friends and family they all spoke about what a good friend Heidi was and how much she was going to be missed all while her baby daughter just was fussing and cing during the service I mean it's truly heartbreaking we'll get up every day and remember her and like she said let her Legacy live on and do our best to make sure the kids know um how wonderful she was obviously this was all a huge blow to Heidi's family not just her death although that would be really hard by itself but also that they knew Megan they trusted her and they knew that Heidi loved her the Revelation that Megan could do something like this just left them reeling she always thought the best of everybody I mean she she never thought she never saw any anything bad in anybody I'm telling you that the TRU Heidi would want us to forgive her and release her that's my hi but I would really want the chance to talk to her came to our house we loved you you were welcomed into our home and we cared for you in our home you know where what were you thinking to murder our daughter so like I said before it's hard to wrap your mind around the idea that anybody could do something like this but the FBI Behavioral analysis unit released a statement that said Megan met all the criteria to kidnap a child out of maternal desire in simple terms there are apparently people who abduct somebody else's kid because they want one of their own so badly maybe they can't get pregnant or they experience a miscarriage and then they just decide that they'll take a baby these cases are pretty rare though since 1964 there have been 327 reported infant abductions and according to the National Center for missing and exploited children only 5% were maternal desire cases so that's about 16 abductions in 60 years which thank God because if this was a common occurrence I don't think that I would ever sleep again it's still unclear what exactly set Megan on her path to murder and kidnap if she really was pregnant maybe lost her baby or what especially because initially she refused refused to talk about why she did it because she was fighting the charges during a hearing in 2022 Megan's defense team tried to block the prosecution from introducing any evidence related to what the detectives found in her home on December 19th namely Heidi's body and baby Margo her lawyer said that the police didn't have the right warrants but an FBI agent argued that they didn't need one according to him when they were questioning Megan outside she began acting Shifty and talking about how badly she needed to go inside the house the detectives were worried that she was going to do something drastic like kill the baby kind of like a if I can't have you no one can kind of thing so obviously it was urgent to get Margot out of there as quickly as possible but it's a general rule right we all like it and prefer when people follow the rules because the rules exist to make sure everyone's rights are protected and so in Texas we have a myriad of warrantless exceptions to to searches and so it's going to depend on What's called the exigency of it so certainly an emergency right a baby being in danger that would be something the police would rely on as saying hey we didn't have time to wait for a warrant we tried to start that process the emergency nature of it the excy of it we had to run in there and and look after this baby the counterargument to that is hey there's a 24-hour magistrate you started that process and you'd want to as a defense attack the validity of how emergency you know how how what were the excy of that or how ongoing was that was that emergency the judge ended up ruling that the search was was justified even without a warrant this meant that the police could use all of the evidence that they had gathered against Megan and her defense team didn't have a leg to stand on anymore on February 2nd 2023 Megan pled guilty as part of a plea deal the most serious charges against her namely capital murder were thrown out and Megan was sentenced to 55 years in prison counting the three years of time that she had already was allowed to give an impact statement after Megan sentencing and I think Tammy's words really hit home with her because Megan was grabbing for tissues and visibly emotional while tamy spoke this St is about my daughter and who she was and how her life she touched through life she was here hiest hugs was Strong full of love they lingered in the atmosphere I still fill them out she loved beyond measure and she never gave up on anyone when I think of her which is every moment and everything I do I asked what would I to say or think or think it gives me Comfort even when I cook thinking ofart gives me peace amidst the pain and she love Christmas and we miss her dearly she's forever strongly in the midst of all the people people's lives she touched and should live forever this is something I'm never imagined in my whole life my husband and everyone that looking her children would ever face with her because she was just so much fun and she was so full of life and now it's been taken from I wonder if Megan ever sits back and thinks about the fact that her friend is gone forever and it's all her fault she'll never have another amazing Heidi hug they'll never decorate for Christmas and Heidi will never get to see Margot or Silas graduate from school fall in love grow up get married anything all because of Megan's ultimate betrayal this case really reminds me a lot of the Reagan Hancock and Taylor Parker case if you aren't familiar with that case I will link it for you in the show notes below but that case even has a whole different Twisted element to it because of the lengths that Taylor went to to lie about her entire life who she was who family was I mean when I tell you that that case was a roller coaster it was a roller coaster and unfortunately it happened around this time too and it was just like two of very very similar cases that one a little more gruesome in the way that the baby was abducted but I won't share that on here I'll let you watch that if you want to watch that but nonetheless I mean equally heartbreaking now this little girl is growing up without her mom why because somebody thought that she was entitled to having that baby it's sick and deranged thank you guys so much for tuning into another episode and hearing Heidi and Margo's story also Shane's story because he also was just as affected and impacted by this as well it's so heartbreaking and I appreciate you listening because I know all of these cases involving children are never easy to hear so I appreciate you sticking through to the end all right guys thanks again don't forget hit that subscribe button on the way out so that you don't miss future episodes until the next one stay safe bye [Music]