Christian Longo, age 17 meets Mary Jane Baker in the Jehovah's Witness Church that she and her mother attended. She is eight years older than he is. At 18 he moves out of his parents home, gets a job at a local camera store. Mary Jane works as a secretary and is not only very devout, but very active in her church's activities.
Christian is caught stealing from his employers. As a result, church elders refuse to allow the couple to marry in the church.
1993 - March 13 - Mary Jane Baker, marries Christian Longo in Huron School Auditorium by a minister.
Mary Jane is described as "quiet and easy going." Christian is described at this period of time as a self employed construction cleaner who is "charming" and businesslike."
1997 - February - Zachary Michael Longo is born.
1997 - Christian & Mary Jane Longo purchased a brick ranch style home.
1998 - April - Sadie Ann Longo is born. Mary Jane Longo quits her secretarial job.
1999 October - Madison Jeanne Longo is born.
2000 - January Christian Longo quits his job. He utilizes the market value of the house ($80,000) as collateral to open his own construction cleaning firm, "Final Touch Construction Cleaning." It's soon apparent that they are living beyond their means, purchasing expensive cars, boat, and snowmobiles. They have no health insurance.
February 16 - "Jason joseph Fortner" takes a new red minivan for a test drive. He provides the salesperson with a driver's license which is photocopied. Christian Longo drives the Pontiac Montana minivan home and replaces the license plate with a plate from another vehicle.
Spring - Longo engages in an affair with another Jehovah's Witness. Mary Jane becomes aware of the affair.
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2001 - May - Christian & Mary Longo sell the house (in need of repairs) to Aretha Evans and her husband. Shortly thereafter, former clients with complaints show up on their doorstep. Court documents for Christian Longo are pinned to their door. A Sheriff's Deputy and one of Longo's former clients comes to their door.
June - Christian Longo commits check forgery. His main client, Wexford Builders isn't paying him "fast enough" to meet his mounting debts. Longo begins to forge checks to himself from the Wexford account. Between mid- June & mid= July Longo writes 6 fraudulent checks to himself, about $30,000. He cashes them in at various banks. Wexford Builders notify police.
July 14 - Longo tries to cash another Wexford check. The bank calls police. Longo leaves the bank but he's left his ID behind. He is arrested that afternoon. He admits forging the checks. He justifies his actions by saying he was taking what was rightfully his because Wexford had been slow in paying him. Mary Jane Longo picks him up at the police station in the stolen red Montana van. Police soon decide Mary Jane was not in on Longo's check scam. Longo is "disfellowshiped" from the church. This means they all cannot go to the church, all of their friends and his workers from the church shun them.
He defaults on loans. He hires workers and doesn't pay them. He steals two construction trailers and a forklift. He sells the forklift. He is sued by the equipment dealer who purchased it when he finds out it was stolen.
Longo's mother in law, Mary Jane's mother, forecloses on Longo after he stops making payments on a house she had sold him in Ypsilanti, Michigan. (About 30 miles west of Detroit.)
August - Christian Longo forges a driver's license. He takes $8,000 from the house equity and moves his family to a warehouse in Toledo, Ohio. He has run away from 2 warrants, 6 lawsuits and $60,000 of debt. In his possession are a stolen construction trailer, forklift, boat and trailer and the stolen minivan. The rent on the warehouse is $1,650 a month. He uses it as a showroom to sell the stolen goods. He also returns to forging checks. He arranges to sell the forklift (value $32,000) for only $5,000. The buyer becomes suspicious and calls police.
Mary Jane's sisters try to convince her to move back home. They are not successful. Jim Baker (Mary Jane's father) "I told them "you're just overdramatizing this. There's no way he's going to harm these children and my daughter, he just loves them too much." Yet he renovates the lower level of his home in case Mary Jane and the children need a place to stay. Mary Jane's sisters return to Toledo, Ohio and inform Police of Christian Longo's probation violation.
August 30 - Toledo Police Dept. Stolen Vehicles Section Supervisor arrives at the warehouse. He finds Mary Jane and the children in the van. He checks serial numbers on a forklift and rental truck, neither of which were reported as stolen. He also sees a boat, boat trailer, construction trailer. By the time police are onto the fact that the items weren't yet reported as stolen but were missing, Longo was gone with the mini van and rental truck.
Police find stolen goods along with many boxes of the Longo's household items. Photo albums, clothing and toys are also left behind. Mary Jane's sisters decided to visit her. They arrive at the warehouse. It is empty and there is no forwarding address. They file a missing persons report.
Christian Longo moves his family west. In South Dakota he rents a large storage locker and drives the rental truck half full of their household items inside. He paid a month in advance. Then he takes the family and continues driving westward.
August - Christian Longo commits larceny - he opens a credit card account in his adoptive father's name, Joe Longo. He runs up a debt of $100,000.
September 12 - Christian Longo moves his family to Oregon in a stolen van. He takes a job as a Starbucks barista in Newport, Oregon. He flimflams his way into a rental home at Ocean Odyssey Vacation Rentals. Longo has pawned Mary Jane's wedding ring so he can pay in cash.
October - Longo rents a house in Waldport for $300 a week.
Jim Baker receives a post card with an Oklahoma postmark stating that Christian found a job and that things are going well.
Christian Longo is placed on 3 year probation for forgery and writing bad checks in Washtenaw County.
November - After a couple of weeks they move to a $22 a night motel in Newport.
November 30 -Longo moves the family into "The Landing" an upscale condo on Yaquina Bay in Newport. He negotiates the rent to $1,200 a month. The payment is almost his entire paycheck for a month at Starbucks. Longo lies to the manager and tells him he is working for QWest and he'd pay the rent when he was paid. He had no money to pay.
December - 11 - Lincoln County Circuit Judge Robert J. Huckleberry denies a motion to issue a warrant for Christian Longo's arrest. Longo is charged with a crime dating from September 12, 2001.
December - 14 - There's no money, the rent is due, there are no groceries for the family.
December 16 - Longo later claims that he and Mary jane had a serious argument after he "came clean to her about past lies and criminal acts."
December - 17 - Longo later would claim that Mary Jane was "morose" when she picked him up from where he worked at Starbucks. He claims she cried as they walked towards the condo and he became alarmed. He claims he found Madison lying unconscious on the bed and Zachary and Sadie missing. He claims she said "You did this, it's your fault.. she used the word kill and that was the first time I suspected that the children were dead." "She said "They're in the water, they're by the house." "That's when I lost it." He claims he strangled Mary Jane with one hand, then with two, dropped her body when he could no longer hold it up. Instead of calling the police he decided to dispose of the bodies in suitcases. Longo placed Madison's baby clothes into a suitcase and then found she was still alive. "Even though she was breathing, I thought of her as dead. I couldn't put her in the suitcase like that. He strangled Madison. When asked why he didn't summon help when he found the child unconscious Long stated "I was hysterical at that point."
REALITY: Christian Longo was facing eviction from the condo on Yaquina Bay.
December 17 - Christian Longo murders Mary Jane, Zachary, Sadie Ann and Madison at the condominium where they are living. He stuffed their bodies into suitcases with comforters and then throws them into shallow coastal inlets. A person who later becomes a witness at trial, sees a red minivan stopped on Lint Slough bridge at about 4:30 A.M. and speaks to the man in the vehicle, asking if he needed help. The man tells him no and the person went about his business.
Several days later he flees to San Francisco, California in a stolen Dodge Durango.
December 18 - Motel employees at the $22 a night motel find Mary Jane's Michigan ID, baby books and clothes, family photos, Mary Jane's clothing in their dumpster. When he's notified his family photos and baby items were found, Longo claims that "the children must have left some of their stuff when they moved." He does not pick up the items.
December - 19 Wed- Longo tells a co-worker at Starbucks that his wife had been having an affair for 3 years and had taken the children and moved to Michigan.
That same day, a Dodge Durango is missing froma dealership south of Portland, Oregon. Left in its place is a stolen red Montana Minivan with toys, sleeping bags, cell phones and diving gear inside. There were pillows and one pillow without a pillow case. There is also a book "Running from the Law."
Longo drives to San Francisco. He's there for a few days and applys for a job at a local Starbucks. He provides the Newport, Oregon Starbucks as a reference. The manager calls Newport to check on the reference. Employees of the Newport Starbucks notify police. San Francisco police are notified and they find the stolen Dodge Durango in the airport parking lot.
That same day - Zachary Longo's body, clad only in underwear, with a pillow case tied around his ankle, is found floating two feet from shore near the mouth of "Lint Slough" which empties into Alsea Bay.
Saturday - Sadie Ann Longo's body is found submerged about 150 yards from where Zachary was found. She is in 9 feet of water, her ankle tied to a pillowcase full of rocks which keeps her body on the bottom.
Retouched photos of the children are placed on posters. A co-worker from Starbucks who had babysat the children went to police and then identified both children at the morgue.
December 22 - Jim Baker, Mary Jane's father is notified that his grandchildren Zachary and Sadie Ann were found dead, floating in the bay.
December 25 - Investigators following leads. Autopsies of the children have been completed. Although the results are not released, authorities did state that they had not died from trauma. The Autopsy reports stated that the cause of death was "consistent with drowning." Speculation is that the children were weighted down and then shoved into a sleeping bag and thrown off into the slough while still alive.
Police go to the condo and find it empty.
December 27 - Mary Jane Longo and their youngest child, Madison, age 2, are found in two suitcases at the bottom of the bay. Divers find the dark green suitcases in the water, mere yards from the condo. Mary Jane Longo, aged 34, exhibited signs of blunt trauma to the head and strangulation. Her body was forced into a fetal position inside the suitcase. Madison, age 2, had been strangled and was clad in a diaper inside the other suitcase.
Lincoln County charges Longo with seven counts of aggravated murder. (Any murder of a child under 14 carries two counts).
That same day, December 27 - A woman from Montreal, Canada arrives in Cancun, Mexico and meets a man named "Brad" at a hostel. Later he tells her his name is "Mike." Longo has been telling his German girlfriend and others that he is a journalist named Mike Finkel, a person who's identity he has stolen.
December 29 - The woman from Montreal leaves the hostel.
Jim Baker described Mary Jane as "strait laced" and states "Mary Jane would never have approved of Christian's lawbreaking. "Yet she was naive and trusting and would have pretty much believed anything he told her.
"I suspect she finally put her foot down. I think that's when he killed her. She wanted to go home. She'd had enough of living out of cars." "There was no history of him beating on her, being abusive verbally or physically. And then to turn around and kill his family - I think he had a nervous breakdown. Something snapped. I think he's sick."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2002 - January - 5 - Ypsilanti, Michigan, a funeral service for Mary Jane, Zachary, Sadie Ann and Madison is held.
Washtenaw County Circuit Court issues a warrant on Christian Longo for probation violation.
January - Friday - Montreal, Canada resident telephones FBI. She had been traveling in Cancun, Mexico and recognized Christian Longo. Longo is sharing a cabana with his photographer girlfriend from Germany in Tulum, Mexico.
January 12 - Longo is placed under surveillance.
January 13 - Sunday - Christian Longo is arrested 6:20 PM Pacifici time in Tulum, Mexico (60 miles south of Cancun, Mexico.) Immigration police, FBI, Mexican State and Federal police other Mexican officials are in on the arrest. Police kick in the door and Longo thinks it is a drug raid. Police find a credit card belonging to Mary Jane Longo, Argentine pesos (stolen from other hostel guests in Cancun), and a notebook.
He pays no attention to his girlfriend as he is arrested.
January 14 - FBI agents transport Christian Michael Longo to the United States. He is locked up in Newport, Oregon jail. Later he would state "I didn't understand the enormity of my crime until I was locke dup. I saw news photos of the makeshift memorial on the bridge at the Slough. Up until then, I was feeling an amazing amoutn of self pity."
Investigators digging into Christian Longo's background find that for years he's been a con man. He told elaborate lies, stold cars, boats and construction equipment. He was also cheating on his wife.
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2002 - Jim Baker "I have no desire to see Christian again. As far as I'm concerned the laws will take care of it and justice will prevail. They have the death penalty out there."
2003 - January 23 - Christian Longo's 28th birthday - he is indicted on 7 counts of aggravated murder. He pled guilty to Mary Jane and Madison's murders, but not guilty to Zachary and Sadie Ann's murders.
April - Christian Longo convicted of killing Mary Jane, Zachary, Sadie Ann and Madison Longo. Four counts of aggravated murder. The jury takes less than 5 hours to convict.
2003 - April 17 - Christian Longo sentenced to death by lethal injection. The jury deliberates 6 1/2 hours. He tells the court "he condemns his "monstrous acts" and expects no forgiveness." He spends 23 minutes in a rambling statement to the court. Longo apologizes for "telling lies about his wife Mary Jane during the trial" but he does not recant his testimony that she killed the older children. "They deserved the best, and that's something I didn't provide. I was the one, in fact that they needed protection from."
Prosecutors say his appeals are likely to take 20 years.
2003 - April 19 - Christian Longo is removed from Lincoln County Jail and processed into the Oregon State penitentiary in Salem Oregon for his transfer to Death Row.
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2005 - Christian Longo is engaged to a woman with two small children. She visits him regularly on Death Row.
2006 - The Oregon Supreme Court upholds Longo's death sentence.
