A Marriage Con
A Marriage Con is a five-part series looking at four women who all dated or married the same man. While married or dating, the man allegedly stole thousands from them through identity theft. He allegedly opened credit cards in their names and had access to their bank accounts. He declared two women dead.
The death
The phone rang at Patricia Gabriel’s home. A creditor was on the other end. They called to say Gabriel’s daughter, Monica, was dead.
Patricia Gabriel was in disbelief. Her daughter could not be dead.
Monday marks eight years since Monica Gabriel’s death.
No one knows what killed Monica on April 15, 2011. No one except, perhaps, her husband, Curtis Williamson.
Read more | The Frederick News-Post
The pattern
Monica Gabriel picked up the phone. On the other line was a private investigator looking into her ex-husband, a man who had abused her, stolen thousands of dollars, caused her to lose her home and left her with $26 to her name.
Monica had been waiting for the call. Years of being married to Curtis Williamson, and the subsequent divorce proceedings, had made her nervous. So when she learned someone was looking into her, she decided to look back.
The private investigator had been hired by a couple in West Virginia. Williamson had stolen money from their mother, and they were not sure if Williamson’s wife was involved.
Monica was scared. What happened to her was happening again. Another wife, a fifth wife.
Read more | The Frederick News-Post
The child
Stephanie Furr sat in a jail cell as May turned to June in 2018.
The charges against her included financially exploiting an elderly person, embezzlement by misuse of power of attorney, fraud, fraudulent schemes, identity theft and conspiracy, all stemming from an investigation into why her grandmother’s bank account was overdrawn.
Stephanie knew there were unexplained charges on her grandmother’s credit cards and bank accounts. Her aunt and uncle had asked her about the charges.
Stephanie was giving her son a bath and dying her daughter’s hair on May 31, 2018, when police knocked on the door of the home she shared with her husband in Berkeley County, West Virginia.
Read more | The Frederick News-Post
The girlfriend
Monica Gabriel sat before a judge in Frederick County Circuit Court for yet another contempt hearing in her divorce.
On Dec. 18, 2018, she was in the courtroom because her ex-husband, Curtis Williamson, had failed to pay alimony. Monica was awarded indefinite alimony in their divorce six years ago. Williamson owed her more than $90,000.
His failure to appear did not surprise Monica. Williamson has a history. Not showing up for hearings is his modus operandi. During their divorce in 2012 and the years since, Williamson filed nearly a dozen motions to combat the divorce and alimony. When a hearing was scheduled, he never turned up.
Monica, who had no contact with her former husband for several years, did not know where Williamson was. She had not seen him in years, except when she called the police on him in October 2018.
Read more | The Frederick News-Post
The club
Curtis Williamson’s ex-wives and ex-girlfriend waited. They texted one another every day, trying to locate the man they say stole thousands of dollars from them.
But there was no trace of the man. Even social media and dating apps — the ones he used to connect with many of them — were quiet.
No one had heard from or seen Williamson for more than a month, since March 1, when he sped out of North Carolina in a white Mitsubishi.
The women, spread across three Eastern states, were not the only ones looking for Williamson. So was law enforcement. He is still wanted in three states — Maryland, West Virginia and North Carolina.
On April 5, the silence of Williamson’s whereabouts broke. The wives suspected he was in Hagerstown. The news spread quickly among the women.
Read more | The Frederick News-Post
Follow up reporting
Man charged in ‘A Marriage Con’ fails to appear at W.Va. arraignment
Read at The Frederick News-Post
Fraud suspect indicted in West Virginia
Read at The Frederick News-Post