TERESA Matheny and her husband Mike both wanted to start a family right away after marrying in 2016 – but when things didn’t work out as planned, they turned their thoughts to adoption.
Hearing about the Always Hope adoption agency, which advertised on Facebook, and the glowing reviews it had received, they were impressed by the enthusiastic and upbeat woman behind it, Tara Lynn Lee.
To their delight, just a week after signing up, Lee texted Teresa to say that she had found a match.
She explains: “Tara said to me, ‘I need you to send me two credit card transactions – one for $8,000 for Sheila, the birth mother, one for $5,000 for my services.’
“Another $3,000 would be due after the baby was born. In addition to that was our attorney’s fees, close to $10,000.
“She told us the baby was due in two weeks. In hindsight, I feel like there were red flags but at the time, I didn’t because I had no experience of the adoption process. So, we went with it. And that’s when all hell broke loose.”
Teresa discovered that Lee was being investigated by the FBI for a lucrative hustle that saw her scamming a stream of couples desperate to adopt, pretending to match them with babies and keeping the fees each time the arrangement supposedly fell through.
She also pocketed the money promised to birth mothers – vulnerable women, desperately in need of cash – spending it all on herself on jewellery, designer purses and shoes.
It was while talking to her attorney that Teresa was told about the FBI investigation into fraudulently double-matching babies with different families as well as promising babies that didn’t exist.
“I just lost it,” says Teresa. “I could not keep myself together.”
FBI agent Matt Sluss recalls, “At that point, we didn’t know if Teresa and Mike’s match was real or just fabricated.
“But we knew there had been one situation where Tara told a couple that their pregnant birth mother had been shot and killed and that their baby died in utero.
“In reality there was no birth mother at all. Lee had even asked the prospective parents to cover funeral cost.”
Teresa added: “Our attorney told us we should go to the hospital to meet our birth mother, Sheila, as planned, but not to let Tara know she was being investigated.
“Tara was waiting for us at the hospital. I was relieved when I saw Sheila. I was like, ‘Oh, thank God, she’s real.’ I had serious questions to ask Sheila but Tara was in the room all the time, so it was difficult.
“The next day the baby was born and he was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. But he was tiny, he was sick, so he wasn’t doing very well. And Tara comes in behind us and immediately starts asking for money.
“At one point, Mike and I were downstairs eating and we were walking back up when we happened to run into Sheila and we took the opportunity to talk with her.”
“I told them that Tara was yelling at me, saying that if they’re not paying her the money, then they’re not getting the baby,’” Sheila recalls.
Teresa and Mike had given Lee $8,000 for Sheila but she had not received any of it.
“I was living from pay check to pay check and Tara lured me into being a birth mother by saying my bills would all be taken care of, along with groceries,” says Sheila.
Their stories are told in the heartbreaking TV documentary We Sell Babies.
Courtney and Curtis Edmond already had four children but wanted a big family. Courtney’s pregnancies had been high risk so they looked at adoption.
“We came across Tara Lee through Facebook and everyone seemed to love her,” says Courtney.
“A week after signing up she called me and said she had a birth mum who she thought would match well with us.
“We were excited and the first thing she said was, ‘Now, I need money.’ At that point she asked for $3,000.
“The baby came a month early. We got a phone call from Tara saying the birth mother was in labour and we needed to go to the hospital. When we arrived, Tara said, ‘Here’s your son.’
“We took photos and videos and sent them to the kids, introduced him as if he were their little brother, and on the way back to the hotel, we got a phone call from Tara saying that the birth mum was changing her mind.
“Families know that adoptions can fail and nothing is guaranteed, but I’d met this baby that I thought was mine and now it wasn’t. I just dropped to my knees, crying.
“But I thought I had built a friendship with Tara and so I still believed in her.
“I was matched with another birth mum and Tara was asking for more money right away.
“At the hospital, I was the first one to hold the baby and it was lovely.
“But when we went back the next day, we were told that the birth mum had instructed staff not to let me into her room.
“It was devastating. I was mad at myself for allowing it to happen again.
“It was also the feeling of betrayal by Tara. Something was just not right.”
Courtney began investigating online and got in touch with other women who had experienced failed adoptions via Tara Lee.
She set up a Facebook group and the list grew from 20 women in a month to 100 in two months.
“In some cases, Tara was promising the same baby to three different couples at the same time,” Courtney says.
Adam Belz-Thomas and his husband Kyle were another couple who had been charmed and put at ease by their initial meeting with Lee.
“We went into the adoption process with a lot of concerns,” says Adam.
“We’re a same sex couple. We’re both males. And we heard stories about strict controls and how you had to wait years to find an adoption.
“But Tara, who was chatty and funny, didn’t think it would be a problem. And, in a matter of three months, she matched us with a baby.
“We had to put money down for birth mother expenses, rents, utilities, gas, food, anything that the birth mother can eat. In addition to that, legal fees and Tara’s fee [totalling $34,500].
“And then Tara took control of all of it. In June, our son was born. Holding him that first time and just having that little life in my hands was amazing.
“And Tara did it. She did exactly what she said she would do. It was all because of her.”
A few months later, Lee contacted them again to see if they would be interested in a second child.
“We were head over heels,” says Adam. “It was to be a little girl. We wrote Tara a giant cheque for $15,000 but then the birth mum decided that she was going to keep the baby.”
The FBI’s investigation got underway in 2018, and saw them interview dozens of Tara Lee’s victims.
They found that although Lee did manage successful adoptions, she was engaging in a great many more fraudulent ones and was not licensed to do adoption work.
“Tara was paying one woman to lie that she was pregnant, when she wasn’t,” says Sheila.
When police arrived at her house to interview her and conduct a search of the place, they found stacks of expensive luxury watches, bracelets, all kinds of jewellery.
The FBI identified 70 birth mothers on Lee’s books and 160 prospective adoptive parents across 24 states.
The amount her victims lost ranged from $9,000 to $55,000 – and in total, she had swindled more than $2.1million.
But Lee’s sweet talk continued to beguile Adam and Kyle.
“After the FBI raided her house, Kyle and I were both in shock,” says Adam. “She was our friend and so we called her and she talked her way out of it, saying she was innocent.
“We still trusted her and we later got a call from her saying we had been matched with another birth mum.
“We were convinced she was still looking out for us but then we took a call from our lawyer, who told us that our fourth match was also a scam.
“She didn’t really care about any of us. She is a brilliant monster.”
On 11 January, 2019, Lee received a 10-year sentence for fraud.
Adam and Kyle did adopt a baby girl through a legitimate agency and, similarly, Courtney and Curtis adopted two children.
Teresa’s birth mum, Sheila, called her directly to say she was pregnant again and she and Mike adopted her baby again – a second son.
“I’m involved with the kids and talk to them all the time,” says Shelia.
“They see my mum, they see my family. Teresa and Michael are the best people I’ve ever met in my life.”
We Sell Babies airs on HBO on April 22
