The Knife: Off Record – 114

Summary

The Knife: Off Record – Episode 114 Summary

Release Date: June 26, 2025

Hosts: Paisha Eaton and Hannah Smith
Network: Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

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Introduction

In Episode 114 of The Knife: A True Crime Podcast, hosts Paisha Eaton and Hannah Smith delve deep into the emotionally charged and complex world of adoption fraud. This episode, titled "Off Record," unpacks two interconnected stories that shed light on the vulnerabilities and challenges faced by prospective adoptive parents and birth mothers alike.

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Story 1: Shalisha and Eric Milligan’s Encounter with Melody

Background and Adoption Journey

Shalisha and Eric Milligan, a hopeful couple eager to start their family, embarked on their adoption journey in 2020. Faced with infertility issues—Shalisha discovering blocked fallopian tubes—they explored alternative paths to parenthood, including embryo adoption and self-matching via Facebook groups to mitigate the exorbitant costs associated with traditional adoption agencies (04:15).

The Discovery of Fraud

In August 2020, after undergoing a meticulous home study process, Shalisha and Eric received a message from a 16-year-old girl named Melody in Texas, claiming to be pregnant due to abuse by her stepfather. Concerned for her safety, they contacted their lawyer to facilitate Melody's relocation to a safe house in San Antonio (05:30).

However, when Melody arrived at a medical facility in Huntsville, Alabama, under supervision, she abruptly revealed she was actually 19 years old and not pregnant. This revelation left Shalisha and Eric bewildered, as Melody had not requested any financial assistance, making the scam particularly insidious (10:22).

Impact and Aftermath

Feeling deceived and emotionally drained, Shalisha turned to a Facebook group titled "Ending Adoption Scams," only to discover others had been similarly victimized by the same individual. This collective trauma highlighted the emotional manipulation at play, where genuine hopes were exploited without financial gain (14:17).

Shalisha and Eric’s resilience paid off when they eventually matched with a legitimate birth mother and welcomed a child into their home, showcasing a rare happy ending amidst the turmoil of adoption scams (15:48).

Notable Quotes:

• Paisha Eaton [02:32]: “Both of our stories have something to do with adoption fraud, but very different kinds of stories.”
• Hannah Smith [10:24]: “It’s like, what is the end game?”

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Story 2: Tara Lee’s Extensive Adoption Fraud Scheme

Background on Tara Lee and Always Hope Pregnancy Center

Tara Lee, the founder of Always Hope Pregnancy Center in Michigan (2014-2018), presented her agency as a pregnancy crisis center while covertly operating as an adoption agency. The high demand for adoption services in the U.S. often left prospective parents frustrated with lengthy waits and rejections, pushing them towards alternative, and ultimately fraudulent, options (16:52).

Modus Operandi and Victim Stories

Tara Lee exploited this desperation by charging prospective adoptive parents significant fees—approximately $20,000—under the guise of facilitating adoptions. She matched couples with fabricated birth mothers or manipulated genuine cases to ensure the adoption process would fail, thereby securing multiple fees from the same birth mother. For instance, Amber, a single woman eager to adopt, was promised a match with a pregnant teenager named Jessica. After paying Tara, Jessica ultimately never existed, revealing the scam's depth (20:42).

Another couple, Teresa and Mike Matheny, experienced a similar deceit. Rushing through the adoption process, they were introduced to a fabricated birth mother at a falsified favorite restaurant and coerced into paying additional fees shortly after. This pattern of manipulation and financial exploitation was consistent across numerous victim accounts (32:52).

Legal Consequences and Conviction

In 2020, Tara Lee was arrested and charged with multiple counts of wire fraud after an extensive investigation uncovered that she had defrauded victims of approximately $2.1 million between 2014 and 2018. Despite her conviction and a subsequent sentence of roughly ten years, Tara violated her probation terms by using a cell phone, leading to her transfer from federal prison to a halfway house in 2027. This leniency sparked outrage among victims who felt justice was insufficient given the extensive harm inflicted (43:27).

Notable Quotes:

• Hannah Smith [25:00]: “Jessica has ghosted us. I don't know what's going on.”
• Paisha Eaton [26:15]: “To safeguard against this as much as you can.”

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Discussion: The Broader Implications of Adoption Fraud

Emotional and Financial Toll

Adoption fraud not only robs prospective parents of their dreams and financial resources but also inflicts deep emotional scars. Couples like Shalisha and Eric, and Amber, invest their hopes and savings into a process that can already be fraught with uncertainty and rejection. When scammers like Tara Lee exploit these vulnerabilities, the resultant trauma is magnified, leaving victims to grapple with betrayal and loss (26:26).

Legal Safeguards and Challenges

The episode underscores the complexities of regulating adoption processes to prevent fraud. While certain measures—such as mandatory counseling for birth parents—are in place, the clandestine nature of scams like Tara Lee’s makes comprehensive oversight challenging. The balance between safeguarding birth mothers' rights and protecting prospective adoptive parents from deceit remains a delicate issue (27:27).

Psychological Manipulation

Tara Lee’s ability to manipulate emotions and trust highlights the psychological dimension of fraud. Her portrayal as a caring, albeit chaotic, figure enabled her to gain the confidence of victims, making it harder for them to recognize the deceit until significant damage was done (31:04).

Notable Quotes:

• Paisha Eaton [44:22]: “You can't just snap your fingers and come up with that again.”
• Hannah Smith [38:49]: “So, you know, Teresa and Mike at this point are sitting there feeling all this intensity.”

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Conclusion

Episode 114 of The Knife: A True Crime Podcast offers a poignant exploration of adoption fraud, illustrating the profound impact such schemes have on individuals and families. Through the harrowing experiences of Shalisha and Eric Milligan, Amber, and the systematic deceit orchestrated by Tara Lee, Eaton and Smith highlight the urgent need for enhanced protections and support systems within the adoption landscape. This episode serves as a crucial reminder of the human cost behind fraudulent activities and the resilience required to overcome such adversity.

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Connect with The Knife:

• Instagram: @theknifepodcast
• Bluesky: @theknifepodcast.bsky.social
• Email: theknifexactlyrightmedia.com

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Note: The episode also briefly touches on other podcast recommendations and personal anecdotes, but these sections have been omitted to focus on the core true crime narratives.

Transcript

[Paisha Eaton]

This is exactly right.

[Brian Herrera]

In 2012, 16 year old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

[Hannah Smith]

I would ask my husband, do you want me to stop? He was like, no, keep fighting.

[Brian Herrera]

After nearly a decade, a breakthrough changed everything. This is Cold Case Files Miami. Stories of families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Hope Woodard]

Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process.

[Paisha Eaton]

Singleness is not a waiting room.

[Hannah Smith]

You are actually at the party right now.

[Marsha P. Johnson]

Let me hear it.

[Hope Woodard]

Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bodi Movin]

Are you obsessed with true crime? Then you're gonna love True Crime tonight. I'm Bodi Movin.

[Hannah Smith]

I'm Courtney Armstrong.

[Stephanie Lydecker]

And I'm Stephanie Lydecker. We've all worked together for years and now we're trying something brand new.

[Hannah Smith]

We're unpacking all the latest true crime headlines.

[Bodi Movin]

We' covering all the major trials that are heating up this summer.

[Stephanie Lydecker]

And yes, we'll also be covering scandals that we're all obsessed with. The fact that he ordered that knife.

[Bodi Movin]

Which he knew he left behind. Listen to True Crime Tonight on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Hannah Smith]

This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is adv.

[Paisha Eaton]

Welcome to the Knife Off Record. I'm Paisha Eaton.

[Hannah Smith]

I'm Hannah Smith. And today we have two stories for you. First, Patia will tell me about a case that she's been looking into, and then I will tell her story after that. And both of our stories are thematically connected. They both have something to do with adoption fraud, but very different kinds of stories. So let's just get right into it.

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah. So a while back, I met with a couple, Shalisha and Eric Milligan, and they wanted to talk about their story with adoption fraud. This all happened back in 2014. Shalesha and Eric met at work. They live in the south, and Eric had been previously married. Shalecia wasn't necessarily interested in him in that way, but he was stopping by her desk A lot. And eventually they go on a date, and the rest is sort of history for their relationship. They were, you know, really excited to start a family together. Shalisha didn't have any children. Eric had children from a previous marriage. And in 2019, they start trying for a baby. So because Eric has children from a previous marriage, when they begin having trouble conceiving, Shlisha pretty quickly decides to get tested. And these tests revealed that both of her fallopian tubes were blocked. So it was going to be extremely difficult for her to conceive. And so they start looking at alternative forms of, you know, becoming parents. They looked into embryo adoption, and they did a transfer that was unsuccessful and actually ended in miscarriage. And that was a very difficult thing to go through, as you can imagine. And they didn't want to, you know, experience that again. And so they started looking into adoption. And by this time, it's 2020, they're just starting their adoption journey. And if you don't know anything about adoption, it can be extremely expensive. It can be upwards of like, $40,000.

[Hannah Smith]

So they were doing, like, private adoption.

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah. So the route that they were planning to go was to avoid an agency because $40,000 is just so much money.

[Hannah Smith]

So much money.

[Paisha Eaton]

And instead, self match and self matching is basically, you put it out there that you're looking to adopt and you, you know, try to reach mothers or, you know, pregnant people who are perhaps interested in finding an adoptive couple for their child. So that's what they did. They joined Facebook groups. So this is July now of 2020. They have a home study. They go through the whole thing. They're by the book. Okay. And in August, they get a message.

[Hannah Smith]

Wow, that's fast.

[Paisha Eaton]

Really, really fast. And one thing that Shalisha and Eric were super aware of and mindful of is doing this the right way. Because adoption, even when it's not, you know, fraudulent, can be a really muddy thing. There's an exchange of money, which sometimes makes sense, but making sense of it can be really difficult. You know, you want to maybe provide for the birth mother for good reasons, but you also don't want to get into a situation where you're paying for a child.

[Hannah Smith]

Right. Buying a baby.

[Paisha Eaton]

Buying a baby and not good. Not good. And they absolutely didn't want to be a part of that either. So they did this home study. They got approved. They get this message. It's like, okay, here's the good luck that we haven't had yet in this journey. And the person who reached out, identified herself, to Shlisha as a 16 year old girl living in Texas. And she identified herself as Melody and she said that she was pregnant by her stepfather. Oh, yeah. Which, you know, that's rape. And Shalisha was immediately concerned for this girl's well being. That was her primary focus. You know, they were not even excited about the prospect of adopting as much in that moment as they were. Okay, let's see if we can get this young woman some help, this girl some help. And let's get in touch with our lawyer.

[Hannah Smith]

Was this just messages back and forth at this time or did they talk on the phone or anything like that?

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah. So it starts out as Facebook messages and then they start talking on the phone. But pretty quickly, Shalisha gets her lawyer involved.

[Hannah Smith]

Okay.

[Paisha Eaton]

Because this girl tells them that she hasn't had prenatal care. She's in a dangerous situation because she still lives in the home with her stepfather. She tells them that her older brother is incarcerated because he actually had a physical altercation with their stepfather about what happened. So they make arrangements to get her to a safe house. And, you know, this is all sort of happening as Shlesha and Eric are talking to her more and more about the pregnancy. She says she's due in December. And so I think in September is when they get her to the safe house. The lawyer makes arrangements to get her somewhere else in Texas, I think in San Antonio. And they pick her up and she goes, okay, so now she's safe. They start talking to her a little more about her situation. And they're like, we really need to get you checked by a doctor for your health and for the health of the baby.

[Hannah Smith]

So sorry, is Shalisha an Eric, Are they there with her or just the attorney?

[Paisha Eaton]

The attorney had representatives from the safe house go and get her.

[Hannah Smith]

So Shalisha and Eric notified their attorney, who also, it sounds like, was like, we need to get her out of the situation immediately and then put that in motion. And then they actually do get her away from her house.

[Paisha Eaton]

It sounds like, yeah, they make arrangements to take her to a safe place, a place for girls who need help. And that was in San Antonio. So Shalisha and Eric are not in Texas. Their attorney is not in Texas. This is all happening long distance, but they're in constant contact.

[Hannah Smith]

Okay.

[Paisha Eaton]

And so once she's at the safe house, that's when they start making a plan for her to see a doctor. And it takes some convincing. She's really reluctant. But at this point, you know, it's been multiple months of communication. She's gone to a safe house, and she hasn't taken a dime from them. There's been no money exchanged. So it's like, okay, she must really need our help. She's not asking us for anything. She's just talking to us and saying that she needs this help and that she wants to place the baby for adoption. So Melody eventually, very reluctantly, agrees to go see this doctor, and they make additional arrangements to get her across state lines to Huntsville, Alabama. This is where things go completely haywire. So Melody arrives to the medical facility, and the doctor goes to check on her. You know, they ask you a bunch of questions. They're talking to you, okay, when was your last period? The basic, basic stuff. But then they want to do a sonogram, and she declines. She's like, full stop not doing it. So the doctor leaves the room, and he's like, okay, well, I can't do much with this. And this is a bit strange.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah.

[Paisha Eaton]

And so the lawyer gets on the phone with the people who are with her at the doctor, which was another representative, not Shlisha and Eric themselves. And the lawyer's like, well, I'm 20 minutes away. I'm going to drive up there and talk to her myself, because this is now getting a little weird. So he goes into the room with this girl, Melody, who says she's 16, and for 20 minutes, he's sitting across from her in pretty much silence. She doesn't want to respond to his questions. She doesn't want to talk to him. And in a way, it makes sense. She's a minor. She's in a new place. She's pregnant. She's been through so much trauma.

[Hannah Smith]

Like, it makes sense that she wouldn't want her body touched or inspected.

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah. And so they're trying to sort of toe the line of being sensitive to that and being patient, but also like, well, we need to verify that you're pregnant.

[Hannah Smith]

Right. Right.

[Paisha Eaton]

And so after 20 minutes of asking pretty pointed questions, she comes out and says, I'm not 16.

[Hannah Smith]

Oh, I'm not 16.

[Paisha Eaton]

And he says, okay. And she says, I'm actually 19. And he says, okay, is there anything else? And then she says, I'm not really pregnant.

[Hannah Smith]

Oh, wow.

[Paisha Eaton]

So she had just, well, one. It's like, then, well, who is this person? Why is this happening? Like, what is going on? And so he says to her, well, what were you going to do when you got here?

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah.

[Paisha Eaton]

Like, you're at a doctor's appointment to verify your pregnancy. You can't fake that. And she said she doesn't know money hadn't exchanged hands. So it was pretty baffling. Other than Shalesha and Eric had been working out money for this attorney, so it's not like this was not costing them any money. It just wasn't going to Melody as she said she was.

[Hannah Smith]

It's interesting that she got that far along. You know, I'm guessing she just made this story up then, for whatever reason. But it's interesting that she went along with the plan when they said, we're gonna come pick you up from the house, that she didn't just disappear or that she was like, yeah, okay, great. And she went with them. She even goes to the doctor's office, right?

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah. It's like, what is the end game? Like, did you have an out? Were you just gonna try to, like, sneak out of the office? So bizarre. So now they're asking her, well, why did you do this? And the best answer she can give them is, I can't explain it. And so they make arrangements for her to, you know, go back home to Texas. And Shalesha and Eric are now. It's. It's pretty discouraging. They've been through so much emotionally, trying to start their family, and here's this person who just took them on this emotional rollercoaster. Shalisha said that she was starting to buy baby clothes that were for the wintertime because, yeah, this person had said she was due in December, and she was pretty measured about it. She hadn't gotten in, like, too deep, but it was really hard for them.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah, you get your hopes up. It's gotta be really hard.

[Paisha Eaton]

Really hard. And so in all that time that you're investing your energy into this person, it's not like you're gonna engage with another prospective birth mother. So it was really sad. And Shalisha goes on Facebook and joins a group called Ending Adoption Scams. And she says, has anyone heard of this person? She eventually revealed a different name to them that I'm not gonna say, which I'll tell you why. But she goes to sleep. She thinks nothing of this Facebook post. Like, hopefully someone can see this and not get duped by this same woman. She wakes up to multiple comments saying, I've been scammed by this same person, same thing, all emotional, all attention, didn't take any money from me. And that is probably why she wasn't convicted of a crime. There's actually a famous couple, Bella and Dahlin Lambert, who were scammed by someone I think is the same person. But I wasn't able to verify. And once again, was not about money. So I reached out to this Facebook page to see what I could find out about the woman who had identified herself as Melody. And she said that, you know, there were a couple of posts about a woman doing something similar both in the south and in California. And the reason that they don't face criminal charges is because they're not asking for money. The woman in California eventually did face one charge because she accepted a small amount of money, but she actually wasn't prosecuted because they offered her a mental health program in lieu of prosecution.

[Hannah Smith]

Okay.

[Paisha Eaton]

And that person is actually an adoptee themselves. So, you know, it's like this adopted person goes to scam prospective adoptive parents for attention. I mean, it's really sad. And her parents are aware that she does this, but how do you keep someone off the Internet?

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. I'm so curious what her experience was like as someone who was adopted. Like, what's going on that she's right. Trying to stop adoptions or get back at adoptive parents or something. I don't know. Yeah, I'm not a psychologist.

[Paisha Eaton]

I'm not a psychologist either, but, yeah, it's really strange and unfair to these families. The adoption journey can be really emotional and controversial. It's difficult to regulate. It's expensive. It can be inaccessible and unfair at times. So there's so much to consider. Shleesha and Eric, their story has a happy ending. They eventually did match with someone and had a child placed in their home. They are now proud parents. We actually saw him on the interview crying. It was so cute. Eric rocking him back and forth. Adorable. And so Shalisha and Eric have, you know, come out on the other side of this. But they felt like it was important to talk about because they never really considered that they might be scammed for, you know, someone who wasn't asking for money.

[Hannah Smith]

With adoption fraud stories, there's not always happy endings. So I'm glad to hear that Shalisha and Eric did end up with a child.

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah, they're such a sweet couple. And, you know, I think it's not easy to talk about being duped by someone when you're already going through something so difficult and really appreciate them taking the time.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. So when you had mentioned talking about this story that you just told me, it made me, of course, think of Tara Lee. We actually covered Tara Lee years ago, around 2021. Did a couple of episodes all about her, you know, adoption fraud that spanned something like 24 states in the U.S. those episodes are not currently available for free online anymore. So I want to talk about it. I think it's a good time to revisit that story. I really remember so many of those interviews very well. Still, I was so impacted by those conversations. I think that we talked with multiple adoptive parents. We talked with birth parents, the FBI, as well as attorneys who, you know, worked on this. So there's also a couple of updates on the case that are pretty recent, so.

[Paisha Eaton]

Oh, great.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah.

[Hope Woodard]

Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind Voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process.

[Paisha Eaton]

Singleness is not a waiting room.

[Hannah Smith]

You are actually at the party right now.

[Marsha P. Johnson]

Let me hear it.

[Hope Woodard]

Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Marsha P. Johnson]

Marsha P. Johnson is the trans icon of the queer movement, and it's time to listen to her.

[Brian Herrera]

I want to be one of the.

[T.S. Madison]

World'S biggest drag queens.

[Marsha P. Johnson]

Today you can buy T shirts with her face on them. But her death in 1992 was never solved. I'm dying, dying, dying. Hear how Marsha's life and legacy reshaped our world. Just get your heart ready. Listen to afterlives on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[T.S. Madison]

This is your girl, T.S. madison, and I'm coming to you loud, live and in color from the Outlaws podcast. Let me tell you something. I've got the voice. My podcast, the one they never saw coming. Each week I sit down with the culture creators and scroll stoppers. Tina Knowles, Lil Nas X. Will we ever see a dating show? My Next ex.

[Stephanie Lydecker]

That's actually cute, though.

[T.S. Madison]

And Chapel Rome.

[Paisha Eaton]

I was dropped in 2020 working the drive thru and here we are.

[T.S. Madison]

Now listen, make sure you tell Beyonce I'm going right on the phone and call her. Listen to outlaws with TS Madison on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast, honey.

[Hannah Smith]

So Tara Lee founded and ran Always Hope Pregnancy center in Michigan from about 2014 to 2018. And she advertised it as different things at different times to different people, but often as a pregnancy crisis center. Really? She functioned as an adoption agency. And as you mentioned, there's a lot of complications when you're trying to adopt someone, specifically a baby. In the US there's, like, very, very high demand. So oftentimes people will be on a list for a long time. It's not unusual to be on a list waiting for over a year or longer to get any kind of contact or news about a potential adoption. Most of the people who ended up being victims of Tara were in that same situation, wanted to have children for a variety of reasons, were not able to. Right. And so we're looking into adoption. A couple of people that we talked to actually talked about the difficulty even with private adoption agencies in the U.S. we spoke with a woman named Amber, who was a single woman who, you know, had saved up money. She felt like her life was very stable. She was ready to be a parent. She just didn't have a partner. And she was rejected by a lot of adoption agencies because she was single. She didn't have a husband. They didn't like that. It's so wild to think about.

[Paisha Eaton]

There's so much I could say about that.

[Hannah Smith]

So anyway, usually it was like a person or couple would go down this rabbit hole, and then either they're waiting for so long to get matched, or they're rejected even by these agencies. So they end up looking for other options. And somehow or another are connected with Tara Lee in this process.

[Paisha Eaton]

I mean, you're putting your whole life out there. If you look at adoption agencies online, on a lot of them, you can just scroll through these prospective parents, and it's like this whole profile photos of you and your partner, if you have one, your home, your extended family, talking all about your lifestyle and the lifestyle that this child would have if you picked them. I mean, you're putting it all out there.

[Hannah Smith]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's a very vulnerable thing. There's pictures of you, of your partner, there's questionnaires. You have to answer about what the life would be like for this kid. And I think that's really important to remember because Tara, running this sort of adoption agency, had access to all of these booklets that had so much information about people and what they were looking for. She would even have them fill out questions of, like, what would be the ideal scenario for you as far as, like, being matched with a birth parent? She asked Amber. Amber went into detail and said, well, I mean, I'm open to whatever, but, you know, it would be great if it were a young woman who was still in school and had big hopes and dreams for her life and just didn't want to become a parent right then.

[Paisha Eaton]

This is the kind of person she's hoping to help by adopting from them.

[Hannah Smith]

Yes. She's like, that would be my sort of. If I had to write my perfect birth parent match, that would be it. And then, lo and behold, weeks later, Tara comes back to her and says, can you even believe it? There's a young woman, she's a teenager, and because of that, you won't have any access or contact with her. You'll only go through me. She's pregnant. She'd like to have the baby and place her child with someone who wants a kid but can't have one. And I gave her your booklet. She loves you. So Amber was really excited. She started to again buy baby clothes. She started to imagine what her life would be like as a mother. But as Jessica, we'll call her, Jessica's due date approached, all these issues started to arise. Tara would text her things like, well, now Jessica's parents are upset because they want to adopt the baby, but Jessica still wants you to adopt her child. So we're going to keep moving forward. We want to let you know, like, you know, there's some risks. So she started to kind of prep her in that way. So right before her due date, Amber, like, goes to Michigan and, you know, has a crib, is so ready, has the car seat, everything. And then nothing. She doesn't hear from Tara, what's going on. Then Tara, you know, calls her in a panic and is like, oh, my gosh, Jessica's gone missing. We don't know what's going on. She might be in danger. She might be wandering the streets of Detroit. Of course, Amber's in a panic about this. And eventually Tara's just like, I don't know, she basically ghosted us. I don't know what's going on. So sor. It's not going to work out.

[Paisha Eaton]

And had Amber been paying for Jessica's prenatal care?

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. So how it worked was when prospective adoptive parents signed up with Tara, they had to immediately pay her fee for her services as well as fees for the birth parent. And that could range depending on how far along they were in their pregnancy. That amount was different, but a lot of people estimated and, you know, in total, it was about $20,000 that they would hand over to Tara, which honestly felt like of a deal because as you mentioned, the average price is more around $40,000, and Tara's services were about half of that. So it was more affordable. Even though a lot of these people, they had saved up for years to have that amount of money to be able to hand over to Tara. And it wasn't like they had a lot more money if something didn't work out to try again. Now, Tara did say that if something falls through with the match, you'll get some of this money refunded, or whatever we haven't spent you can use toward an additional match. Right. So for Amber, though, you know, obviously, this is, like, heartbreaking. She ends up going home. She sort of needs a minute before she can try to pursue adoption again after this.

[Paisha Eaton]

So she went all the way to Michigan?

[Hannah Smith]

All the way.

[Paisha Eaton]

Cause I remember working on this. I don't remember this specific interview. So she goes all the way to Michigan, and that's when Tara chooses to tell her Jessyca is no longer interested.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. Jessica has ghosted us.

[Paisha Eaton]

Right.

[Hannah Smith]

And she might be in danger. The baby might be in danger. It's all of these unknowns, and Amber didn't really get any answers about that. It just was over. So then she goes home. She's heartbroken. She said for years after this, she would think about Jessica and about the baby and, like, wonder what they were doing and if they were okay and, like, hope that they were doing well. She would find out years later that Jessica never existed.

[Paisha Eaton]

Never existed. So Tara meets Amber, says, here's what this person is looking for. I'm just gonna, like, make up a completely fabricated person to match that, and then I'm gonna string her along for nine months, or however many months it ended up being, take $20,000 and just leave.

[Hannah Smith]

Mm. Yeah.

[Paisha Eaton]

It's, like, terrible. I mean, also, just imagine if you're Amber in that situation, not only are your own hopes built up for this, but you're probably already understanding that there is some chance that any birth mother will decide at the final hour to not place their baby for adoption and to raise that baby themselves. And that is their right for a certain amount of time. And so you're.

[Hannah Smith]

It's legal even after the baby is born for, like, three days or something.

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah. You can change your mind totally. And that's a good thing that that's in place. But as someone who's trying to adopt, it's still scary.

[Hannah Smith]

Oh, yeah. Of course.

[Paisha Eaton]

It's still emotional. And so you're already battling that. And then to find out that none of it was true.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. And because of those very real risks with adoption, especially when a person is choosing to place a child that they're giving birth to up for adoption, of course, their rights really need to be paramount here. So if they give birth and then they decide, no, I actually want to raise this kid. They have every right in the world to make that decision, and they should. But because there is that emotional risk, that financial risk for people going through the adoption process as prospective adoptive parents. A lot of states have very strict rules about agencies and what they have to offer birth parents. Prospective birth parents like counseling. They have to have a certain amount of counseling before they are even allowed to say, yes, I would like to place my child up for adoption. You can never really make sure, but to try to safeguard against this right.

[Paisha Eaton]

To safeguard against this as much as you can. And it doesn't mean that someone shouldn't change their mind at the last minute if that's what they want to do. But there's an emotional toll that takes place if for several months you've been telling someone that they'll potentially be the adopted family.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. And then Tara, she said that she was a counselor and that she was providing counseling services to birth parents that she worked with, which will come out as not true.

[T.S. Madison]

This is your girl, T.S. madison, and I'm coming to you loud, live and in color from the Outlaws podcast. Let me tell you something. I've got the Voice, my podcast, the one they never saw coming. Each week I sit down with the culture creators and scroll stoppers. Tina Knowles, Lil Nas X. Will we ever see a dating show? My Next Ex.

[Stephanie Lydecker]

That's actually cute, though.

[T.S. Madison]

And Chapel Rome.

[Paisha Eaton]

I was dropped in 2020. Working the drive thru, and here we are.

[T.S. Madison]

Now listen, make sure you tell Beyonce I'm going right on the phone and call her. Listen to outlaws with TS Madison on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast, honey.

[Hannah Smith]

High Key. Looking for your next obsession?

[T.S. Madison]

Listen to High Key, a new weekly podcast hosted by Ben o' Keefe, Ryan Mitchell and Evie.

[Ben O'Keefe]

Oddly, we got a lot of things to get into. We're going to gush about the random stuff we can't stop thinking about. I am High Key. Going to lose my mind over all things Cowboy Carter.

[Marsha P. Johnson]

I know, girl.

[Ben O'Keefe]

The way she about to yank my bank account.

[Paisha Eaton]

Correct.

[Hannah Smith]

And one thing I really love about this is that she's celebrating her daughters.

[Ben O'Keefe]

Oh, I know.

[T.S. Madison]

Listen to High key on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Marsha P. Johnson]

Marsha P. Johnson is the trans icon of the queer movement, and it's time to listen to her.

[Hannah Smith]

I want to be one of the.

[T.S. Madison]

World'S biggest drag queens.

[Marsha P. Johnson]

Today you can buy T shirts with her face on them. But her death in 1992 was never solved. Hear how Marsha's life and legacy reshaped our world.

[Hannah Smith]

Just get your heart ready.

[Marsha P. Johnson]

Listen to afterlives on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Hannah Smith]

I want to talk about one other couple, because I just really liked them a lot.

[Paisha Eaton]

I think I know which couple you're talking about.

[Hannah Smith]

Teresa and Mike Matheny. So there was a podcast that I thought was really well done that the binge just put out this year, Baby Broker. And I noticed that Teresa and Mike also spoke with them. One of the things that Teresa told us, which Amber also told us, it sounds like Tara Lee had this sort of phrase or group of phrases that she would use to describe herself when she met prospective adoptive parents. And she. She would say something along the lines of, to everybody, you know, I cuss like a trucker. I'm covered in tattoos. I've survived a heart attack. I've been shot at. But I just love my work. I love these birth moms. You know, I'm their sister, I'm their mother. I'm their chauffeur. I'm their best friend. I'm changing diapers. I'm driving people to appointments. And multiple people said that this sort of vibe that she put out, it was kind of chaotic, but it also communicated that she cared a lot. She was messy, she was chaotic, but she was all heart. Like, her heart was in the right place. She cared so much. She was sort of stretching herself thin.

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah. If I remember correctly, one thing that Tara did with everyone is she was in pretty constant communication. Texts and phone calls. It was a very. Became a very casual and friendly frequent dialogue between her and these prospective parents. There was not, like, okay, a channel you go through.

[Hannah Smith]

Right. Well, all communication went through Tara. And it sounds like she was very communicative sometimes after she was paid a big chunk of money and there were, like, important questions that people needed answers, she would sort of not be as communicative for a while. You know, like, with Mike and Theresa, they had been very similar kind of story to a lot of people in that they signed up with an agency, were waiting for 18 months without any news. They ended up meeting this woman in South Carolina who, like, went to Teresa's dad's church. Like, very trusted, kind of. They felt really comfortable with her. She has a referral service, so they pay, like, $2,500 just to be part of her referral service. That woman was in contact with Tara, didn't know we don't think. There's no evidence that she knew what Tara was doing. But she would often send prospective adoptive parents to Tara. So that's how they got in contact with Tara. Within a week, they get a call. Tara says, I've already shown your book to a prospective adoptive parent, and she loves you and she wants to place with you. So of course they're freaking out. They're so excited. And then Tara says, I'm gonna patch her in right now. So then they're just on the phone with her right then. It's just happening so fast. And on the phone with them, Tara asks this birth mom, so what do you think? Do you want to place your kid with Teresa and Mike?

[Paisha Eaton]

Okay. I mean. And you know what, though? We see this so often where in hindsight, you're like, well, that's bananas. There's no way that could be real. But in the moment, people get really caught up. We all do in, you know, hoping that something is real. And also, these people had a legitimate referral service connect them to Tara. Yeah, sounds like they had some other connection to the referral service. It's like, who would think?

[Hannah Smith]

Who would think? Totally.

[Paisha Eaton]

Plus, that means that the person she's patching in is also in on it.

[Hannah Smith]

It's a good question. Right? So. And Mike said. He's like, I'm the kind of guy that reads every contract no matter what. Like, my lawyer will read it, but I'm also reading it. But in this moment, we just were so excited about the prospect, and it seemed like, so, like, you gotta act now. So they were just like, great. And the birth mom said, yeah, I really like them. Let's do it. Okay. So then they hang up. Tara immediately calls back and is like, I need you to send me $13,000 immediately to, like, secure this thing. So they do without a contract, you know, so this was September, the end of September 2018, and they're told the baby's due next month. So now you have to like, okay, let's get ready quickly. But things are immediately a little strange. They're having a really hard time getting an exact due date from Tara. She's sort of wishy washy. She finally does send a contract, but it's sort of, like, not well written. They're like, okay. She puts them on a group text with the birth mom and says, you know, just to be respectful, I only want you to communicate with her through this group text so that if anything gets weird, I can be, like, the person that helps it along. She's Like, I have a master's in social work. And they're like, okay, that makes sense. That totally makes sense. 8,000 of the $13,000 is for birth parent expenses, which should be going to the birth parents. Rent, food, you know, transportation to doctor's offices, any medical bills. Those are all legal things for them to pay. It was based on her bills. It was, like, more than enough. Almost double what she would need. But they were like, great, you know, in case she needs something random, like, we want her to be taken care of. So they finally get a date. It's going to be end of October. They're in Georgia. They pack up their car. They're going to drive to Detroit so that they can bring the baby back with, like, you know, in the car, with the car seat, everything. And the day before they leave, they get an email, like, from another agency that's sort of ominous and says something like, are any of our parents working with Tara Lee? Like, contact us immediately. Long story short, they end up getting contact with some attorneys who were working with Tara but didn't realize what was going on. But they said, look, the FBI just contacted us, and they're investigating Tara Lee. You can't tell anyone about this. So Theresa and Mike are just devastated, freaking out. Like, we're getting ready to drive to Detroit, and you're telling me that she is scamming people. What's going on? Like, what should we do? And Tonya, the lawyer, said, look, we're pretty sure your adoption is real. We're pretty sure the birth mom you've been talking to is a real person and is pregnant and. And is in Detroit and does want to place her child for adoption. So you should probably go. But you can't tell Tara anything. In fact, if you even let it slip that you're, like, suspicious of her or do anything that it messes up the FBI investigation, you could be criminally charged.

[Paisha Eaton]

Oh, my gosh.

[Hannah Smith]

For interfering with an FBI investigation.

[Paisha Eaton]

Wow. So they're in Georgia, packing up their car to go to Michigan. And I don't know if that, for me, road trip would be silent or if I would be talking nonstop. Because you're so hopeful, but now you're more nervous than ever, and you have this added fear of messing up the investigation. I mean, I assume they're still texting with Tara and this supposed birth mother. Yeah, I mean, it had to be somewhat reassuring that Tanya said that she thought things were real. That would be good to hear in the midst of hearing something else like that.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah, I think it's the only reason they went right with that hope, because they were hearing stories already. Tanya and Thalia, the other attorney, they had an agency together. They had started to hear all these stories from different people. I mean, horror stories of fake birth parents. Or Tara apparently made up a story with someone, you know, a fake birth parent that she had fabricated. And then what she told the prospective adoptive parent was, oh, my gosh, she was shot and killed, and so is the fetus. Just, like concocting these traumatic stories. She did work with some people that were actually pregnant, but then she would often try to match them with three, four more families, because every time she got a new family on board, she got that match fee. So that was like, five, six, seven thousand dollars in her pocket immediately. And then she would try to get that match to fail so that then she could match the pregnant person again with a different family.

[Paisha Eaton]

And this is so exploitative of the birth mother.

[Hannah Smith]

Yes.

[Paisha Eaton]

I mean, you're explaining these prospective adoptive parents, but you also have this birth mother who thinks that you're going to help her and find the right person, and you're just, like, raking in cash, using her trauma for money.

[Hannah Smith]

And Mike and Teresa are about to learn a lot more about that. They do go to Michigan. They end up meeting Tara and the birth parents, mom and dad, at Texas Roadhouse for a meal. Because Tara told them that that was the birth mom's favorite restaurant. Spoiler alert. It was not. Tara liked the restaurant.

[Paisha Eaton]

No disrespect to Texas Roadhouse, but the lies.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. So, you know, Teresa and Mike at this point are sitting there feeling all this intensity. They see the birth mom, and she's very pregnant. And so that's like, okay, that's a good sign. But Tara shows up, and they're describing her as, like, you know, full Lululemon sweatsuit, nails done, Prada glasses, Rolex watch, Louis Vuitt bag. She sort of tries to intervene. Anytime Theresa and Mike try to actually speak with the birth parents, Tara kind of interjects and tries to shut that communication down. So she's actively trying to get them to not communicate with each other, sort of. And then Tara also. I love this little tidbit. She orders food to go, and it's, like, clear that Mike and Theresa are going to pay for the meal.

[Paisha Eaton]

So shameless. Shameless.

[Hannah Smith]

They think that Tara's plan all along was to sort of have this fail and for them to leave. But what happened while they were there is that the birth mom actually ends up passing not at Texas Roadhouse. They leave. But like a couple days later, she ends up passing out and has to go to the hospital. And what comes out is that she has preeclampsia. And the reason this hasn't been, like, caught or on anyone's radar is that she hasn't been going to doctor's appointments because Tara is not actually doing anything for her. She needs new tires for her car. She keeps telling Tara that. And Teresa and Mike heard her kind of mention that at the dinner and wondered why she didn't have tires for her car when they'd given like $8,000 that was supposed to go directly to anything the birth mom needed. Her power got shut off on her house, and Tara insisted that she give birth at a hospital that was 60 miles from where she was living. And clear that Tara was not actually that involved. She wasn't helping her get to doctor's appointments. She wasn't taking care of her, was not giving her the money that Mike and Teresa had given to Tara to help her.

[Paisha Eaton]

It's terrible. I mean, that's a life threatening condition. It's like pregnancy is this, quote, you know, routine health event. But there is so much danger. And that is why this prenatal care is so important. And just also sad to think of what this person was already going through and then to just pile on this greed.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. So because of that, Mike and Teresa end up in a situation where they are in the hospital. There's a day where Tara's somehow not around, and they end up communicating with the birth parents and get along well. And it turns out that the birth parents realized Tara had been lying to them and was saying that Mike and Theresa just haven't paid. They just won't pay. They won't pay her expenses.

[Paisha Eaton]

So that's why she didn't want them to speak at dinner.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah.

[Paisha Eaton]

Okay.

[Hannah Smith]

The adoption does end up going through. It's one of the few sort of happy stories and everything that Tara Lee was involved with with this. And they're on good terms with their birth parents to this day, which is really cool.

[Paisha Eaton]

That is cool.

[Hannah Smith]

But obviously a very stressful thing to go through. So Tara Lee, her home was, you know, raided. They had a search warrant. She ended up, you know, getting arrested. She was charged with multiple counts of wire fraud. There was another person who was also charged, I think, with three counts of wire fraud who was a woman who was working with her and posing as a birth mom and, like, pretending to be all these other people. And in 2020, she was convicted. She ended up posting bail but then violated her terms multiple times. She wasn't supposed to use a cell phone, and there were pictures of her using a cell phone. So she ended up getting arrested. And the investigation revealed that she basically stole defrauded people $2.1 million from 2014 to 2018. And she was convicted and sentenced to, I think it was 121 months in prison. So she was sentenced to about 10 years, which was actually the maximum that the judge could give her for her plea deal. She ended up pleading guilty to, like, three counts of wire fraud. But the judge took this very seriously. A bunch of people showed up and he let everybody give their victim impact statements and then gave her the maximum sentence. Additionally, he said that she would have to read and record all the victim impact statements once she was incarcerated as part of her punishment.

[Paisha Eaton]

I like that.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah, I think that they said that over 160 couples were affected by her actions. So she was supposed to be released in 2027, but actually at the beginning of this year, she was moved from a federal prison in Alabama to a halfway house. So she's still being monitored, but she's no longer in a federal prison. And I think a lot of the victims were pretty unhappy about that.

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah. I mean, she put people's lives in danger. In the case of the birth mother you were speaking about that never got the prenatal care that she needed. And she also robbed people of money they had set aside to start their family. That you can't just snap your fingers and come up with that again.

[Hannah Smith]

No. And it's like the time to get over that trauma, plus having to save up money again, it was really negatively impactful for a lot of people.

[Paisha Eaton]

What I think about a lot now with this story is Tara is a mother.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah.

[Paisha Eaton]

It's like she knows what that feels like to want a child, to have a child, to be pregnant. I don't know how you can separate your own experience from others. She just drew this line like, well, I'm fine if it happens to them. Even though I went through it and I know how hard pregnancy is. It's like, really, how could you do that?

[Hannah Smith]

It's very hard to believe, Very hard to understand. I remember when we spoke with the FBI, to investigators, they talked about this moment when they interviewed her, and, you know, this is their perception. But they said something like, it was very memorable because she was going through this range of emotions. She would tell us something and she would, like, start kind of crying. And it was clear that we weren't really buying it. Or reacting, and then she would switch, and then, like, she would be, like, more, like, mousy and afraid, and then she would switch, and she would be kind of, like, aggressive and angry. Their read of it was she was trying to manipulate the situation and figure out what would convince them to believe her.

[Paisha Eaton]

And that's what she'd been doing this entire time.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah.

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah, I remember that. We reached out to her family as well, and no one would speak with us. That's a perspective I'm always so curious about in these situations. I mean, maybe they really didn't know what she was doing. But what would that feel like? To know that someone super close to you or the mother of your children had been treating other women like that? It's astounding. And to hear that she's already been released to a halfway house, I think, in Detroit.

[Hannah Smith]

Mm.

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah. So now she's much closer to home. You think about the price these people paid and how it changed their lives forever. And you just have to wonder, is that justice? I don't know.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. Okay, so I have a quick recommendation. It's not true crime, so we'll see if people like it. If you don't yell at me, tell me that you only want true crime recommendations. But I just started watching this because multiple people had recommended it to me, which I did not take personally. You'll see what I mean. It's called Couples Therapy.

[Paisha Eaton]

Okay.

[Hannah Smith]

Have you watched this?

[Paisha Eaton]

No.

[Hannah Smith]

Okay. I think it took me a while to watch it. Cause I was like, what is this? It's a docu series, and it is so fascinating. It is real people, real couples in a couples therapy office. And you're seeing their therapy sessions.

[Paisha Eaton]

Is it over the course of years or months? Or what is the timeline? Do you know? Okay.

[Hannah Smith]

I think it's. Cause I looked it up afterward. They're, like, looking for couples for the new season. I'm not gonna do it. Just they film it in New York. It's 20 free sessions. This therapist is really good. And at first I was like, why would anyone sign up for this? Probably, like, you get 20 free sessions of free therapy with a very good psychoanalyst. Is what the type of therapist that she is. And it's filmed really, really, like, nicely in the episodes. They sort of weave in, like, multiple couples. I'm on the first season. Apparently, there's four the first season. There's multiple couples that you're following over the course of, you know, 20 sessions or something. And it's just so interesting to see, you know, like, every Couple the fights that they get in, the patterns that the things that they're struggling with. Sometimes you're like, God, that's so stupid. And then sometimes you're like, oh, that's so heartbreaking. And you start to feel for these people and.

[Paisha Eaton]

Well, I heard that you like. Or maybe I saw it or read it, I don't remember. But a couples therapist was talking about how long term couples have the same three fights. They're disguised as other things, but they're the same three fights.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. It's interesting. You can really start to see those dynamics at play. And I just also really like the therapist. I think it's interesting to see her and where her brain goes and the advice and the questions that she asks these couples. I didn't think that I would be as interested in it, but I'm very interested in it.

[Paisha Eaton]

Well, I would personally love to do that because my husband puts peanut butter in the refrigerator and this is. I can't understand it.

[Hannah Smith]

How committed are you to this marriage?

[Paisha Eaton]

I don't know anymore. I mean, it's like 10 plus years I've just removed.

[Hannah Smith]

Okay.

[Paisha Eaton]

Why? You know, it's like you want it to be so unspreadable that the sandwich is a disaster. Like, what is. What is the end goal?

[Hannah Smith]

I like shredded bread. Shredded bread.

[Marsha P. Johnson]

Yeah.

[Hannah Smith]

Okay. Well, yeah, check it out. Let me know what you think of it.

[Paisha Eaton]

Yeah, I would love to.

[Hannah Smith]

That's our episode for today. Thanks so much for listening.

[Paisha Eaton]

See you next week. If you have a story for us, we would love to hear it. Our email is the knifexactlyrightmedia.com or you can follow us on Instagram henifepodcast or bluesky at the knifepodcast.

[Hannah Smith]

This has been an exactly right production host, directed and produced by me, Hannah.

[Paisha Eaton]

Smith and me, Peisha Eaton. Our producers are Tom Breyfogle and Alexis Amorosi.

[Hannah Smith]

This episode was mixed by Tom Breyfogle.

[Paisha Eaton]

Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain.

[Hannah Smith]

Our theme music is by Birds in the Airport.

[Paisha Eaton]

Artwork by Vanessa Lilac.

[Hannah Smith]

Executive produced by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark and Danielle Kramer.

[Bodi Movin]

Are you obsessed with true crime? Then you're gonna love true crime tonight. I'm Bodymovin.

[Hannah Smith]

I'm Courtney Armstrong.

[Stephanie Lydecker]

And I'm Stephanie Lydecker. We've all worked together for years and now we're trying something brand new.

[Hannah Smith]

We're unpacking all the latest true crime headlines.

[Bodi Movin]

We'll be covering all the major trials that are heating up this summer.

[Stephanie Lydecker]

And yes, we'll also be covering scandals that we're all obsessed with the fact that he ordered that knife which he.

[Bodi Movin]

Knew he left behind. Listen to true crime Tonight on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Hannah Smith]

Looking for your next obsession?

[T.S. Madison]

Listen to High Key, a new weekly podcast hosted by Ben o' Keefe, Ryan Mitchell and Evie.

[Ben O'Keefe]

Oddly, we got a lot of things to get into. We're gonna gush about the random stuff we can't stop thinking about. I am High Key going to lose my mind over all things Cowboy Carter.

[Marsha P. Johnson]

I know girl.

[Ben O'Keefe]

The way she bout to to yank my bank account.

[Stephanie Lydecker]

Correct.

[Hannah Smith]

And one thing I really love about this is that she is celebrating her daughter.

[Ben O'Keefe]

Oh, I know.

[T.S. Madison]

Listen to High key on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Brian Herrera]

In 2012, 16 year old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

[Hannah Smith]

I would ask my husband, do you want me to stop? He was like, no, keep fighting.

[Brian Herrera]

After nearly a decade, a breakthrough changed everything. This is Cold Case Files Miami. Stories of families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.