The Raid | Episode 1

Summary

Deep Cover: The Family Man, Episode 1 – The Raid

Release Date: May 18, 2026
Host: Jake Halpern
Podcast: Deep Cover (Pushkin Industries)
Summary by an Expert Podcast Summarizer

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Episode Overview

In the season premiere of "Deep Cover: The Family Man," Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jake Halpern explores the extraordinary true story of Marissa and Elise Giamanco, two sisters whose seemingly ordinary upbringing in St. Louis was shattered the night police raided their home. Their father, Keith, who had been living a double life, was unmasked as the "Boonie Hat Bandit." Episode 1 reconstructs the dramatic raid, delves into the family’s complex history, and introduces the themes of secrets, parental deception, and the long shadow they cast over childhood.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The Night Everything Changed

[03:59–06:33]

• Marissa describes going to bed the night of September 18, 2008, only to be awakened by pounding at the door and flashing lights.
  • "They’re all like knocking really loud, like open the door, you know? And I'm like, hold on, I need to find some pants." — Marissa Giamanco [05:22]
• The girls, both 17, are alone and worried—aware that their father never came home that night.
• Law enforcement (local police, FBI, county police) swarm the home; Marissa boldly asks to see a warrant, inspired by "Law and Order."

2. The Search and the Aftermath

[06:33–08:44, 34:45–40:37]

• Officers search every nook: "flipping over couch cushions...looking in the vents...opening the closets" while Marissa waits outside, smoking.
  • "I'm just thinking, damn, I hope they don’t find my weed in my room...and Dad’s gonna be mad at me." — Marissa Giamanco [07:48]
• Neither girl has any idea why such a force is present or what their father could've done.
• The family dog, Lucky, is agitated; Marissa ushers him out as the house is turned upside down.
• Elise is interviewed about her father's activities and the family's finances. The girls realize, "My dad was in trouble...I recognized seriousness because they wouldn't have sent an entire crime scene unit out to my house if it wasn’t serious." — Marissa Giamanco [35:44]

3. Recalling the Family’s Past

[11:22–26:54]

• Jake and Marissa take a road trip to her childhood homes, reflecting on years before the raid.
  • "It almost feels surreal." — Marissa [12:49]
• Memories of their mother, Becky: the perfect '50s homemaker turned troubled, then estranged and an addict.
  • "My favorite memory of my mom is in the kitchen, seeing her put her energy and that love into the food...have very rarely found a meal that feels as loving as Miss Becky Giamanco's." — Marissa [13:34]
• The girls recount escalating family tensions, their mother's erratic and addictive behaviors, and the night she left for good.
  • "Your mom's not coming back here. I just wanted to scream. I might have even screamed out loud. I don't know." — Marissa [21:33]
• Becky, cut off, becomes furtive: knocking at Marissa’s window at night for household items, her addiction evident.

4. Secrets, Silence, and the Cost of Protection

[25:26–27:01]

• Keith’s efforts to protect his daughters through omission: "She's sick in the head," he’d say, but no further explanation.
• The sisters sense layers of secrets but are given little to no truth.
  • "Children are smarter than we think they are. They're so observant. And that was no exception for Marissa and I." — Marissa [22:49]
• Realizations come piecemeal: their mother is addicted, and their father is unreliable as a narrator of reality.

5. Uncertainty and Shifting Realities

[31:06–33:49]

• Keith urges his daughters to "dream big" and enrolls them in a private school after losing his job at the printing press, claiming to be a day trader — but money is inconsistent.
  • Sometimes he’s flashy with cash, other times can’t pay tuition; when they’re 16, he suddenly demands they move out of their childhood home.
  • The girls invent stories to explain his absences, joking: "Dad builds swing sets in his spare time." — Marissa [33:06]
• Attempts by Elise to help with bills are rebuffed: "Dad said, ‘No, save your money. We’re fine.’” — Marissa [33:49]
• Their lives become unpredictable, disjointed, and dominated by unanswered questions.

6. The Aftermath of the Raid: The Phone Call and the News

[37:59–38:49]

• The sisters cling to an old corded phone, waiting for contact from their father.
  • "He calls and he's like, I'm fine, I'm safe. I'm just in trouble. But there was no actual explanation on that first phone call." — Marissa [38:08]
  • "He was very upset and crying and he said, everything's going to be okay. I'll be home soon...But in my gut...I just knew that this was just going to be a long, long road." — Marissa [38:49]
• The next morning, TV news reveals shocking footage: Keith’s car after a chase and the moniker "The Boonie Hat Bandit." The girls see their dad’s signature beverage cup and realize: this is real, and it’s their family’s nightmare.
  • "It was just too much of a coincidence to not be my dad's car...We're just like, they have got to have the wrong person in this moment." — Marissa [40:14]
• "This is going to change my life and my family dynamic forever." — Marissa [40:48]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On demanding a warrant:
  "You gotta tell me why you coming into my house, dude?" — Marissa Giamanco [06:15]
• On the living room siege:
  "They're flipping over the couch cushions and looking in the vents and opening the closets. And I'm standing there smoking a cigarette...I'm like, damn, I hope they don't find my weed in my room." — Marissa Giamanco [07:48]
• On fractured realities:
  "What is actually reality? Is everyone lying to me about who they are?" — Marissa [43:15]
• On witnessing her father's grief:
  "You couldn't put your finger on it, but it was anxiety, it was defeat, it was fear." — Marissa [23:54]

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Important Timestamps

• 03:59 – Marissa describes the start of the raid
• 05:58 – Law enforcement enters; Marissa asks for a warrant
• 07:48 – Marissa’s thoughts during the search, fear about her belongings
• 11:22–13:12 – Return visit to childhood home and reflection on past family life
• 21:33 – The moment her father declared her mom was never coming back
• 25:26–26:46 – Marissa describes her mother's late-night visits and addiction
• 31:06–33:49 – After-effects of parental separation and financial confusion
• 34:45–40:37 – Detailed account of the police raid and its immediate aftermath, including the crucial phone call
• 39:20–40:14 – The sisters see their father’s car on the news, realize the gravity of his crimes
• 40:48 – Marissa’s recognition of seismic family change

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Tone and Style

The episode blends memoir, investigative journalism, and conversational storytelling. Halpern maintains a sensitive, probing tone, while Marissa’s recollections are vivid, unfiltered, and often tinged with bleak humor and shock. The episode is rich in emotional detail, always anchored in the sisters’ confusion, longing for truth, and resilience.

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Conclusion

"The Raid" is a gripping introduction to a season dedicated to unraveling a web of deception at the heart of an American family. It sets up questions of guilt, secrecy, the unreliable narratives families construct, and the cost of both protection and betrayal. The investigation expands beyond the crime itself, probing how family members cope when it turns out they never really knew each other at all. The stage is set for a deep dive into Keith’s secret life as “The Boonie Hat Bandit,” and for the daughters’ search for answers—and healing—in the fallout.

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This summary covers all critical plot points, central themes, memorable reflections, and provides timestamped orientation for listeners seeking specific segments.

Transcript

[Marissa Giamanco]

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[Jake Halpern]

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[Jake Halpern]

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[Marissa Giamanco]

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[Jake Halpern]

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[Marissa Giamanco]

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[Marissa Giamanco]

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[Narrator/Supporting Voice]

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[Marissa Giamanco]

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[Jake Halpern]

Pushkin. Jay Kalpern here. Before we get into this episode, I want to let you know that you can hear all episodes of Deep Cover the Family man ad free right now. By signing up for Pushkin plus, you'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks, and true crime binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors. Plus, your support helps independent shows like us continue making the content you crave. Sign up and save on the Deep Cover show page on Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin FM. Plus, use the code DC25 for 25% off on annual subscriptions. All right, let's get into it.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I remember it was late at night. It was like after we had gone to bed.

[Jake Halpern]

For Marissa Giamanco, September 18, 2008 was the moment that everything changed. The last day of one life and the first day of another.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I was sleeping in a big sweater, like one of my dad's sweaters actually. And I remember being like, I need to put some pants on before I answer the door.

[Jake Halpern]

She had heard voices outside and then pounding on the front door. The Giamanco family lived in a cozy, one story shoebox of a house. There were only two bedrooms. Their dad, Keith, slept on a couch in the living room so that each of his daughters could have their own bedroom. Marissa and her twin sister were both 17 years old seniors in high school. And on this particular night, they were worried about their dad. He hadn't come home or called or left any kind of message. The girls tried texting him, but got no answer. It was weird. The family's dog, Lucky, peered out the window. And then late in the night came that pounding on the front door.

[Marissa Giamanco]

So I'm all, like, scrambling to find some pajama pants to put on. They're all like knocking really loud, like, open the door, you know? And I'm like, hold on, I need to find some pants. And my sister's like, who is that? And I'm like, I don't know. Do you know who it is? Because all we could see were flashlights. Like, it was a very bright light. Like, that's what I remember. You could even see the flashlight light coming underneath the wooden door before I even opened it. And you could just feel the pressure. Like, dude, they're gonna open this door if we don't open this door.

[Jake Halpern]

So Marisa opens the door and sees a whole lot of guys with badges and flashlights. They ask to come in and Marissa asks for a warrant, which I find kind of bold. Like, how did she even think to do that at 17 years old?

[Marissa Giamanco]

I think it might have just been watching Law and Order. Like, honestly, if I'm being deadass, like, you gotta tell me why you coming into my house, dude? So they handed us the warrant, which was a lot of language that I didn't understand at that time.

[Jake Halpern]

And then a whole parade of law enforcement officials starts coming into their house.

[Marissa Giamanco]

And it wasn't just the Florissant police, it was the FBI, it was the county police. And I remember one of them saying, your dad is in a safe place. You don't have to worry about that. He's just in some trouble. Like, that's literally what they said to me. Like, nothing more than that.

[Jake Halpern]

Some trouble. Marissa's like, wtf? Like, what could dad have possibly done to warrant all of this? Meanwhile, Lucky, the family dog, he's on the offensive, lunging at all of these intruders. One of the cops asks Marissa to control her dog. So she takes Lucky to the backyard. It was a hot, sticky night. The last bits of summer lingered. Marissa prided herself as a moody, rebellious, aspiring writer and so very much on brand. Marissa lights a cigarette. And then she just stands there processing the chaos she just witnessed in her house.

[Marissa Giamanco]

They are flipping over the couch cushions and looking in the vents and opening the closets. And I'm standing there smoking a cigarette and I'm just thinking, I'm like, damn, I hope they don't find my weed in my room. Cause I had weed in the closet. So I, you know, I was like, damn, I don't want to get in trouble too. And dad's gonna be mad at me if he finds, you know what I mean?

[Jake Halpern]

Cause at this point, Marisa is still assuming that her dad is coming home, that he's still gonna be the one she has to answer to about school and walking the dog and the weed in her closet. But as this raid on her house continues, Marissa starts to scratch her head a bit.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I racked my brain for anything and I was like, I really don't know what dad would be doing. I'm like, was he like involved in an accident? Or like, did he see something he wasn't supposed to or.

[Jake Halpern]

Marissa and her sister thought they knew who their father was. A mild mannered, kind of goofy, kind hearted Midwestern guy. A single dad who loved hockey and sports trivia. A guy who showed up at their basketball games and orchestra concerts. A guy who Drove them to school in his dad mobile, a light blue Mercury Grand Marquis. And Keith Giamanco was this guy. But he was also someone else. This is a story about a crime, actually a series of crimes carried out by a mysterious figure who managed to evade the authorities. And it's about justice, about what punishment these crimes deserve. But at its core, for me, it's a story about the secrets that can exist within a family. It's about the disguises that parents put on for their kids and for the world. So much of parenting is built on lies. Starting with the stories we tell our kids about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. And then there are the lies of omission. We all withhold things in order to protect our children. We all harbor secrets. It's just that some secrets are much bigger than others. I'm jake halpern and this is deep cover the family man episode 1 the raid. Marissa Giamanco is now 35 years old, and I met her for the first time on the side of a lonely windswept road in east central Missouri. Marissa had suggested this spot close to where she lives as our rendezvous point. She had this idea that we take a road trip together. There were places that she wanted to take me, Places that she thought I should see with my own eyes. Places that still simmered with questions. Peering through my snow encrusted windshield, I saw a woman in a winter parka and a puffy penguin hat. I slowed down the car and she hopped in. Hi.

[Marissa Giamanco]

Hi.

[Jake Halpern]

I'm Jake.

[Marissa Giamanco]

Hi, I'm Marissa.

[Jake Halpern]

In all my years of doing this, I don't think I've ever just done an interview where I got in a car with someone and went on a road trip with them.

[Marissa Giamanco]

Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I love that.

[Jake Halpern]

So where should we go first?

[Marissa Giamanco]

I would say that let's start in Florissant, because that's kind of where the story started.

[Jake Halpern]

And just like that, we were off driving through the snow, heading for the suburbs of St. Louis. An hour and a half later, we turned onto Aubusson Street, a quaint suburban road with rows of handsome brick houses. Which house is it?

[Marissa Giamanco]

It's this one over here on the corner. Wow. The porch is still red.

[Jake Halpern]

This is the house where Marissa and her sister grew up until the age of 16. So not the place where the police raided that night. This is where they lived before that. It's a spacious ranch house on a corner lot. A porch out front, a large front yard, tall trees. It's pretty. In a quiet, unassuming Way. For a while, Marissa just stared at her old home as if captured by its spell, ensnared by the invisible tendrils of memory.

[Marissa Giamanco]

It almost feels surreal. Honestly, it feels surreal. Mom's flowers are gone though. And there was a bird bath too. She had a bird bath right there. But yeah, beautiful house.

[Jake Halpern]

Back when Marissa was a young girl living in this house, her mother, Becky, was still very much in the picture. Becky was also the one the girls went to when something felt hard. She'd sit with you, talk it through. Becky was involved at the PTA at the girls school and was a leader at their church. And she was an amazing cook.

[Marissa Giamanco]

My favorite memory of my mom is in the kitchen, seeing her put her energy and that love into the food and then tasting the food like I still to this day have very rarely found a meal that feels as loving as miss Becky Gmongo's.

[Jake Halpern]

When Marissa talks about her parents, it feels like a very 1950s arrangement. Each day, Becky would pack Keith lunch with a few sandwiches and his Stanley Thermos. Then Keith would go off to the printing press where he worked. He'd come home tired, hands covered in ink. Marisa remembers sitting with her dad at night on the couch. She'd lie down with her head on his belly, feeling the rise and fall of his breaths until she fell asleep. Then he'd carry her off to bed. During the holidays, her parents decorated the whole house, hung a wreath on the front door, wrote the word Noel in cursive, lights on the roof, put a giant bow on the garage. Like the house itself was a beautifully wrapped gift. And it kind of was. Right up into the moment it began to unravel.

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[Jake Halpern]

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[Jake Halpern]

Marissa has a twin sister named Elise and like so many twins, they had a very close bond from the start.

[Marissa Giamanco]

My earliest memory is us in our crib together and conspiring with each other through facial expressions on how we were going to get out of that crib and she climbed up on my back and got out of the crib and my mom had to run down the hallway, and she was like, what are you doing? That is my earliest memory.

[Jake Halpern]

I love this story from Elise because even in toddlerhood, they're already conspiring, already working together, already figuring things out. And in a strange way, they're rehearsing the very skill they'll need most later in life. Escaping. Elise is the older twin by one minute. And even though they're twins in many ways, Elise played the part of the older sibling. She was taller, bigger, more talkative, and very organized. Elise, she always loved checklists.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I would be the one to ask questions to my parents for us, or like, even when we were kids, I would order for her at a restaurant. I was kind of her mouthpiece a lot of the time.

[Jake Halpern]

Around the time the twins were 10 years old, they remember their parents started to argue a lot. The girls floated through this turbulence, kind of the way kids do, listening and not listening, picking up bits and pieces, like their parents bickering about food stamps, among other things. On one occasion, things got so heated that their mom shoved an ice cream cone into their dad's face. There was a lot of shouting. The girls remember the police showing up. It got to the point that Elise told me she actually wanted her parents to separate.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I saw how things were going with them. I'm like, yes, please get away from each other. That really was what I was thinking. I was like, please take time away.

[Jake Halpern]

Sometimes, Elise says, their mom got so fed up, she'd go out to local bowling alley and come home drunk. So drunk that one time she missed her bed and landed on the floor instead. Elise says that her mother changed from the perfect stay at home mom who'd volunteered with the pta morphing into someone else. Like, one time, Elise was playing in a middle school basketball game. She got called for a foul. And then a moment later, a fire alarm went off.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I'm on the court and I'm like, what the fuck? And. And somebody ran over, and she was like, your mom pulled the fire alarm. And I was like, what? She pulled the fire alarm because she disagreed with the call and emptied out the entire gym.

[Jake Halpern]

And it wasn't just erratic behavior. Elise says that her mother would vacillate from being an angel to a devil. No warning, no explanation. When the twins were 12, it all came to a head. Here's how Marissa remembers it.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I remember being in the kitchen in this house, and I remember my dad sitting at the kitchen table. I was like, kind of directly, like, standing behind him, about, like, two feet away, and he had his hands up on the table, like, together, like, clasped, like up against his head. And I remember him saying, your mom's not coming back here. And just. I just wanted to scream. I might have even screamed out loud. I don't know.

[Jake Halpern]

This, apparently, was their dad's decision. He asked her to leave like he just finally had enough. Once Becky was gone, the girls were alone in the house with their father and the silent presence of unanswered questions. With their mother gone, Elise says that their dad did his best to make their life as normal as possible. Keith embraced the role of a single dad, making meals, driving them to school in his light blue Mercury Marquis, the dad mobile, taking them to practice, putting them in therapy with a family counselor, and just encouraging them.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I think he tried to protect us. I think he was partially successful. And I say partially because I think many folks forget that children are smarter than we think they are. And they're so observant. And that was no exception for Marisa and I.

[Jake Halpern]

It was clear to the girls that Keith, despite everything that he was doing, was struggling, grieving the loss of his wife. Once, when Marissa came home from school, she found him on the stairs down to the basement with his wedding album in hand, looking through the pages and weeping. It was one of the only times she ever saw her dad cry. She knew he was grieving, but. But from a kid's perspective, none of it fully made sense. Her mother's behavior, her parents separation, her father's explanation. And despite her best efforts, Marissa just couldn't get through to him.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I remember having to say his name. I would be like, dad, dad, dad, Keith. Like, literally, you'd have to go through, like, the list of names to get him to pay attention. I remember the first time I did that, standing in the kitchen. He was staring out that window right there. And I was literally like, there is something wrong right now. Like, and Obviously I was 12 years old. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it was anxiety, it was defeat, it was fear.

[Jake Halpern]

She says she called him by his first name because she needed to get his attention. But it went deeper than this. Cause in that moment anyway, her father had seemed less like a dad and more like just a guy named Keith. Well meaning, kind, but removed in some way. Unknowable. Meanwhile, their mother did come back, repeatedly, but in the strangest of ways.

[Marissa Giamanco]

She would knock on my bedroom window, so the back window of this house, in the middle of the night, and asked me, can you grab the vacuum cleaner and hand it to me out the window. Can you hand me this piece of jewelry and hand it to me out the window? And don't tell your dad that I was here. That's when I was like, there is something going on. Is when she started visiting my window in the middle of the night.

[Jake Halpern]

Naturally, Marissa asked her dad about this. Like, what was going on with mom?

[Marissa Giamanco]

Yep. Dad was like, your mom's sick. That's how he kind of tried to explain it at the time, was, she's sick. She has a disease. There was no, like, further explanation. It was, she's sick in the head.

[Jake Halpern]

I mean, how do you make sense of that as. As a kid?

[Marissa Giamanco]

You don't. It sits with you and you're like, well, guess my mom's sick in the head. Am I sick in the head? I love my mom. My mom is always taking care of me. Is she really that sick in the head? Are you sick in the head? Like, just, there's a lot going on when somebody says that to you.

[Jake Halpern]

The girls were left to think back on their mother and all the strange things that she had done as they tried to make sense of it all. Were there other things besides the handing stuff out the window where you started to see something was off with your mom?

[Marissa Giamanco]

Well, the erratic behaviors, the slurring of words, the nodding out, the not being able to stay conscious. And then there's the opposite. Extremely energetic, talkative, not able to sit still. Like, I remember her howling like a dog at some point in the bathroom, like, saying, can I get more?

[Jake Halpern]

At some point, it became clear to Marissa that can I get more? Meant, can I get more drugs?

[Marissa Giamanco]

So it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, you know, what's going on?

[Jake Halpern]

Keith may have had the best of intentions. He may have wanted what so many parents want, to protect their kids from pain. But his solution was a lie of omission. Ultimately, his daughters would make two realizations. The first was that their mother was struggling mightily with addiction. And the second was that Keith was an unreliable narrator of sorts, someone who could not be counted on to tell them about the harder truths, even the ones that were essential to their understanding of the world. And this is kind of how life went for the twins. Their lives were like a novel where all the transitions and explanations had been stripped out, leaving just a string of disorienting moments that would make any reader feel bewildered. Amazon Health AI Presents Painful Thoughts why did I search the Internet for answers

[Marissa Giamanco]

to my cold, sore problem?

[Jake Halpern]

Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole

[Marissa Giamanco]

filled with images of alarmingly graphic source

[Jake Halpern]

in various stages of ooze.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I can clear my search history, but

[Jake Halpern]

I can never unsee that. Don't go down the rabbit hole.

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[Jake Halpern]

Keith had always told his daughters they needed to dream big and think about a life beyond Florissant, Missouri. When they turned 14, he enrolled them in a fancy all girls private school called Narinks Hall. The girls weren't exactly enthusiastic about this, but Keith insisted on it and claimed they could afford it. By then he had stopped working at the printing press and told the girls that he was day trading, using his own money to buy and sell stocks. But money was always kind of weird with Keith. Elise recalled one time they went to an Outback steakhouse and when it came time to pay, Keith peeled off a crisp $100 bill, half of which was a tip. Super flashy. But then she remembers this other time, midway through high school when she wasn't allowed to take her final exams because dad hadn't paid their tuition. So the family's finances, they felt shaky. And then one day when the girls were 16, Marissa recalls her father telling them they had to move immediately.

[Marissa Giamanco]

Like it was quick. Like I'm saying my dad went in the garage and said, you can keep two bikes. Cause I love bikes. I probably had like 12 bikes. So he was like, you have to set all of them out for free. We'll try to sell some of them. It was like, do you want to keep this? You can't keep that. Like we have to get out of here. That was like super freaky. Like when you're a kid.

[Jake Halpern]

This is when they moved to that shoebox size house, the one where the police raid eventually occurred. Here, you might remember, the girls each had a small bedroom and Keith slept on the couch. During this time, Keith was out of the house a lot and Marissa and her sister Elise used to guess about where their dad went and what he did.

[Marissa Giamanco]

We came up with different scenarios in our head. This was my joke. My joke was, dad builds swing sets in his spare time. I was like, he must be going to build swing sets. That's what I used to say as a joke. Cause I was like, I can't, I literally can't, can't figure it out. So I'm just gonna fucking fill it in with some joke.

[Jake Halpern]

Elise remembers asking him where he was off to and he would sometimes tell her, I don't have to tell you where I'm going. She says with him, it was pure Scooby Doo mystery. Those are her words. When it became undeniable that things were wrong, like when they had to vacate their house, Elise offered to help.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I also had a job at the time at Banana Republic, working at the mall. And I even was like, do you want help with the bills or whatever? And my dad said, you know, no, save your money. We're fine.

[Jake Halpern]

But clearly, things were not fine. There were problems. Boxes that needed to be checked and weren't. And you can start to see why. Elise loved checklists. In the small part of the world that she could control, she wanted order. Elise didn't really get much more clarity until the start of her senior year. They'd been living in the shoebox house for about nine months. It seemed like Keith was out a lot, selling swing sets or whatever he did. And then came that muggy night in 2008, the night of the raid.

[Marissa Giamanco]

We're waiting for our dad to finally go home or come home, and that never happened. And I'm thinking about calling hospitals. I'm thinking about calling the police, because it's just not like my dad to not show up like that.

[Jake Halpern]

But it had been a long day. Elise had had school and then a shift at work. She was beat.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I have to lay down at this point, change into my nightgown. I get into bed, and I see a flashlight coming through my window. And then I hear dogs sniffing around. And I get up out of my bed. I turn on the lights because I'm freaked out.

[Jake Halpern]

It's the police. She and her sister open the door, and a whole team of law enforcement officers enters the house.

[Marissa Giamanco]

My dad was in trouble with the. With the law in a serious way because there wouldn't. I recognize seriousness because they wouldn't have sent an entire crime scene unit out to my house if it wasn't serious. They didn't send one or two dudes. They sent, you know, a whole van of people plus dogs. I realized this amount of labor is because my dad did something serious.

[Jake Halpern]

The police moved quickly through the bedrooms, the closets, up into the attic. They took the family computer, boxes of clothing, other odds and ends. The family dog, Lucky, grew so agitated that Marissa had to take him outside. Elise stayed behind, answering the police's questions.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I remember stepping in my room with a couple of the officers and them interviewing me. They asked how much money I'd ever seen my dad have on him. They asked me if I knew, you know, what he was doing earlier that day.

[Jake Halpern]

Her mind raced to make sense of what was happening, but none of it made sense.

[Marissa Giamanco]

I was in Shock. I was in shock, honestly. I felt like I was having an out of body experience, like I was disassociating as I was speaking to the cops.

[Jake Halpern]

The police told Elise that their dad wanted to call them himself and explain what he'd done. That was all they'd say. Then the police gathered the boxes of evidence and left. Marissa remembers they stayed up as long as they could, waiting for their dad to call.

[Marissa Giamanco]

Me and my sister actually laid down in the bed together and we had the old corded phone with the green lights on it. And we had the phone next to our heads because we were like, we don't want to miss it if he calls. But we were so tired because it was like three, four in the morning that we were like, we have to lay down because we were still planning on going to school.

[Jake Halpern]

Finally, at some point, the phone rings. The girls startle suddenly fully awake. They pick up and it's their dad.

[Marissa Giamanco]

He calls and he's like, I'm fine, I'm safe. I'm just in trouble. But there was no actual explanation on that first phone call. It was just, hey, I'm safe. I love you, everything's gonna be okay.

[Jake Halpern]

And that was it. That's all he says. Even in the moment of reckoning, this moment of truth, Keith is kind of deliberately vague. And so the whole situation remains shrouded in mystery. Elise also remembers this call vividly, including the way her dad's voice sounded on the phone.

[Marissa Giamanco]

He was very upset and crying and he said, everything's going to be okay. I'll be home soon. And him saying that I had hope that he was telling the truth and that that would happen. But in my gut, I had a gut feeling that I just knew that this was just going to be a long, long road.

[Jake Halpern]

At some point later that morning, they turned on the TV and there's a big story on the local news. They're replaying footage from the previous day. Marissa remembers seeing an aerial shot taken from a helicopter. She recalls the newscaster saying, they've been

[Marissa Giamanco]

looking for this guy. And then there was a picture of the car that he was driving, the light blue Grand Marquis.

[Jake Halpern]

A light blue Grand Marquis, which was the same type of car that their dad drove.

[Marissa Giamanco]

You could see the car and you could see into the car from this helicopter shot. And there was a cup. It was an emo's cup.

[Jake Halpern]

Emo's pizza was a family favorite. Keith had one of their branded cups. Marissa recalls. It was his dad mug, the one he kept in his car.

[Marissa Giamanco]

It's like, you're like, that's dad's emo's cup. It was just too much of a coincidence to not be my dad's car. We're sitting here literally at this house on the couch in the living room, watching the cable television, and we're just like, they have got to have the

[Jake Halpern]

wrong person in this moment. The girls were overwhelmed with shock and confusion. But there was one thing that Elise knew for certain.

[Marissa Giamanco]

This is going to change my life and my family dynamic forever. And I immediately started feeling like I was in survival mode and that I needed to figure out what was going to happen next. Because everything that had existed prior in my reality is now I'm finding out untrue.

[Jake Halpern]

Before long, the TV camera crews started to arrive outside the little shoebox house where Elise and Marissa lived. Because this story about a suburban dad who'd secretly resorted to a life of crime, this would soon be national news. Reporters from around the country would be looking for answers and so too would Elise and Marissa. They wanted to know, what exactly had their dad done? Was he guilty? And if so, how had they not seen this coming? What did that mean about them as a family? Because as of now, the girls had no parents in the picture. No one to pay the bills, no one to answer to but themselves. And this, this was just the beginning. Soon there would be a very public reckoning, including a trial and a lot of lingering questions about their father, a man they thought they knew. Coming up this season on Deep Cover, the Family Man. There was literally a feeling of relief when I knew that they didn't have a make on the vehicle, nor did they have a good picture of me, that somebody that I knew would recognize me for the $5,000 reward or whatever it was at that particular time.

[Marissa Giamanco]

And he showed me the surveillance tape and he's like, do you recognize this person?

[Narrator/Supporting Voice]

This is Detective John Bradley, DSN 3

[Jake Halpern]

of the St. Louis County Police Department, Bureau of Crimes against Persons.

[Marissa Giamanco]

That is not the look of an innocent man.

[Narrator/Supporting Voice]

Can't put that many people in that

[Jake Halpern]

much fear and not expect to pay

[Apple Card Advertiser]

a heavy price for was an all

[Jake Halpern]

out onslaught of police cars, helicopters, cars in front of me, cars behind me.

[Marissa Giamanco]

It was a mess. It made me angry. I didn't trust anyone after that. What is actually reality is everyone lying to me about who they are.

[Jake Halpern]

Deep Cover the Family man is produced by Isaac Carter and Amy Gaines McQuaid. Our show is edited by Karen Shakurji. Our executive producer. Producer is Jacob Smith. Sound design by Jake Gorski. Original scoring and our theme were composed by Luis Guerra. Our show art was designed by Sean Carney. Fact checking by Annika Robbins. Our story consultant was James Foreman Jr. Special thanks to Daphne Chen, Sonja Gerwitt, Morgan Ratner, Kira Posey, Jake Flanagan, Corinne Gilliard Fisher, Eric Sandler, Christina Sullivan and Greta Cohn. I'm Jake Halper. Sam. Foreign.

[Marissa Giamanco]

This is Sophia Donner from OK Storytime this Summer. Find your next obsession on Prime Video and listen. We're not saying you need another obsession, but there could be a lot worse ones. Steamy romance, addictive love stories and the book discussion favorites you've already read twice, so why not watch them a third time off campus? L the Love Hypothesis and more Slow Burns Second Chances Chemistry you can feel through the screen and it makes you wish you were actually in that movie. We've got binge worthy series can't miss movies. Perfect for when you're ignoring your own problems or procrastinating as one does. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime.

[Narrator/Supporting Voice]

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[Jake Halpern]

That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity, which is way more than anyone can do on their own. If we find anything suspicious like new loans or changes to your financial accounts, we alert you right away, all through text, phone, email or the LifeLock app. Save up to 30% your first year. Visit lifelock.com iheart Terms apply Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail]

[Marissa Giamanco]

Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, extra fee, full [e-mail] this is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.