Transcript of Baby Broker | 3. The Birth Mothers

How does a guy working for a fire department go out and snuff out a fucking mobster in front of 300 people and go home the next morning and feel good about himself? Well, you got to understand this, people, all you civilians out there. These people are evil garbage. The world is a better place without them. You have no idea what these people have done and will continue to fucking do, not unless their lives are snatched from them. So did I feel bad? No, not one fucking bit. It was just a normal fucking kill. That's all. Because I really believe I did the world a favor. I don't know what else to fucking tell you. If you can't live with that, grow the fuck up. Welcome to Crook County.

Available now. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to all episodes of Baby Broker ad-free right now by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page, or visit getthebinge. Com to get access wherever you listen. The Binge. Feed your true crime obsession. The Binge. I I want to tell you about Sarah and why she decided in her late 20s to give up her baby for adoption. Sarah was petite, with brown hair and large eyes. She wore thick glasses. She'd grown up in Michigan, She'd had some bad relationships. She lived with her two young children in a trailer outside Detroit and was pregnant with a girl. There was no washer or dryer, no hot water. When she cooked for her kids, she had to step around a hole in the floor. Sarah decided it was too much, financially and physically, to raise another child on her own. She had a boyfriend, but he wasn't the father. In the summer of 2018, when Sarah was six months pregnant, she put her baby up for adoption with Tara Lee.

Meanwhile, in a middle class suburb in Chicago, Tammy and nick Granath were considering matching for a second time. That's because their match with 19-year-old Sabrina was crumbling. First, she tried to kill herself. Then, she threatened to do it again if they abandoned her. So when Tara Lee invited Tammy and nick to match with Sarah, they jumped at the chance. It hurt when Sarah chose to go with a different family.

A month passed, and then We got a phone call from Tara Lee, and she said, Sarah is not feeling comfortable with the match she made. She was wondering if you guys would still be open to adopting her daughter. We were just thrilled. Oh, my gosh, she wants to match with us. Should we do it?

In mid-august, Tammy and nick signed a new contract and sent Tara Lee $8,000 for Sarah's living expenses. More would be due when she delivered. Later that day, Tara Lee called them again.

She says, Can you come up tomorrow? Because she has an ultrasound.

The next day, after work, Tammy and nick drove to Detroit. The next morning, tired and excited, they drove to a cracker barrel outside the city, snagged a roundtable, and waited for Sarah and Tara Lee to arrive. Then they saw a big suburban pull up.

And in walks this lady who has just She's got black hair and is covered in tattoos. She has her name brand jeans. She has her nails done. I believe she told me they were $125 to get her nails done because she was very... I mean, These were very detailed artwork of art nails.

It was Tara Lee.

Wow, she's like our age. She was a little bit older. She's like I said, three years older than me.

Tara Lee Lee was just 36 years old, and that year, in 2018, she'd make more than a million dollars from adoptions. Enough to have designer nails, enough to look good and know it. She swagged in like a rock star as if the Granites were fans. Except they weren't, but she didn't seem to care. She had them on the hook for two babies. Tara Lee had everything under control, or so she thought. From Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence, this is Baby Broker. I'm Peter McDonald. Episode 3, The birthmothers. 1942, Europe. Sold soldiers find a boy surviving alone in the woods. They make him a member of Hitler's army. But what no one would know for decades, he was Jewish. Could a story so unbelievable be true? I'm Dan Goldberg. I'm from CBC's Personally, Toy soldier. Available now wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Granites were about to discover how much they could endure for the promise of adopting a baby. This breakfast, this day, this match would push them way out of their comfort zone. And the The deeper they went, the harder it would be to get out. Because Taralee's ability to match families so quickly was a double-edged sword. She could also take a match away by turning one side against the other and blowing up the deal. Behind Taralee, Sarah ambled in. She wore a red tank top and jeans, which strained at her pregnant belly.

I just thought she was so pretty. She was blonde blonde, very blonde.

Tammy got up and gave Sarah a big hug. Tara Lee's assistant, Chelsea, came in next with a black eye. Tammy thought she overheard it was from a fight with her partner. She said Tara Lee and Chelsea acted like it was no big deal. But all through breakfast, they couldn't unsee it. A woman with a black eye was helping take care of their birth mother. They tried focus their attention on Sarah, but Tara Lee kept stealing the spotlight.

She was trying to ask us questions. Tara Lee kept cutting her off. She would speak for her.

After breakfast, they all climbed into their cars to go to Hutsle Women's Hospital for the ultrasound, and Tara Lee said she had to run an errand on the way.

She says, I have to make a stop and give a gift card for expenses to a birth mom. Follow me.

And she's flooring it. She's doing like 100 miles an hour to get there.

Through the neighborhood streets.

They passed block after block of boarded up houses with plywood on the windows. And then, Tara Lee slammed on the brakes in front of a shabby bungalow.

You see a pregnant girl walk outside and she hands her something which looked to me to be a gift card. So you think, Oh, okay. This is legit. She does have a ton of birth moms. Look at that. And then we take off and we go to the ultrasound.

The ultrasound showed that Sarah's baby girl was healthy. Sarah was due, as predicted, on September eighth. Tammy and nick planned to stay in Detroit for one more night, but Tara Lee reminded them not to contact Sarah directly.

I was like, We'll forget that. I'm not going through you to talk to our birth mom. I want to get to know her.

The next day, Tammy and nick took Sarah and her older son to lunch. Over $15 hamburgers, Tammy and nick realized that things they took for granted, like Starbucks coffee and a laundry room, were unattainable injuries for Sarah.

They had a hole in their trailer floor. There was no washing machine, there was no dryer. She said she didn't even have money for diapers.

In the wedding business, Tammy and nick were used to rubbing elbows people far wealthier than themselves. Tammy shared one story about a bride who demanded to be called Mariah because she thought she looked like Mariah Carey. When her dad gave her diamond-studded pearl earrings, Mariah threw them on the floor like junk because she wanted double pearls. The point is, Tammy and nick weren't used to being the rich ones, unconsciously signaling their wealth. But eating out, staying in a hotel, filling up their gas tank, texting on fancy cell phones. They'd been signaling it all day. Then they found out from Sarah that none of the $8,000 they'd sent to Tara Lee had trickled down to her yet. Sarah also didn't seem to realize she could ask for it. They urgent her to do so. After lunch, they took Sarah shopping for maternity clothes and diapers for her youngest child. Then they hugged her goodbye and drove home to Chicago. They'd be back in three weeks. A lot went through their minds on that drive home. They really liked Sarah. They trusted her, and they wanted to help her. But Tara Lee had been saying some things behind Sarah's back that made them think twice.

Sarah is not a good person. Sarah is an addict. Sarah puts her kids in really bad situations. Sarah is a liar.

It made them wonder if the things what Sarah Lee said about Sarah were true, why would she match them with her? In any case, it was way too much to investigate and figure out under the time pressure. The bottom line was they liked Sarah, and they went with that. It was the Friday before Labor Day Weekend, 2018, a huge weekend in the wedding industry. Tammy was booked for three days straight. Nick was managing the books and schedules with a coffee in on one hand. The timing couldn't have been worse when Tara Lee called them with urgent news about Sarah.

You've got to get here, and you've got to get here now.

She could pop any minute.

Tara Lee is incredibly pressing us to get there. If I could just get through my weddings, so Friday, Saturday, Sunday, if I can get through my weddings, we could leave on Monday, and we'll be good.

I asked Tammy why she thought Tara Lee wanted them to rush up early to Detroit. Did she really believe Sarah was about to deliver? Did she think she knew better than Sarah's doctor, than Sarah herself?

I can truly say it's because the very first day we were there, she met us for our final payment.

When they rolled out on Labor Day, a bad storm rolled in. Buckets of rain and howling winds turned a four-hour cruise into a six-hour slog. In a dark dribble, they met Tara Lee, Chelsea, and Sarah for dinner at Coney Island, a cultish Detroit hot dog chain. They crammed into a booth. Then, over hot dogs, buried in mustard and onions, Tara Lee brought up Sabrina, the 19-year-old birth mother who had been suicidal. In the same offhand way you might say, past the ketchup, she said, Oh, Sabrina gave birth. And oh, yeah. It's all good.

Then she acted like, Oops, you heard. Oops, you me. And so I stopped right away and I looked at her and I said, Wait, Sabrina gave birth? And she was like, Oh, yeah, she gave birth. She says the grandparents are raising the baby with her. And then she says that it has some disease. I googled it right then and there, and it basically is where you don't know if the child will ever hear, they'll ever see. This disease was so intense. So here this baby is with this horrible condition, and then the worst is she says to us, Yeah, she's in the NICU at Hudson.

That was the same hospital on the same floor in the same wing where Sarah would deliver. It meant they'd see Sabrina and her baby. They didn't know what she looked like, but how many blonde 19-year-olds could there be in the labor and delivery ward at any one time? Regardless, she knew what they looked like. She'd picked them because Tammy liked to go fishing, because they were willing to be honest with her child about the rape. From the team that brought you up in Unvanished, comes an all-new podcast that brings you a weekly dose of true crime cases.

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They'd have two babies for the price of one trip to Detroit. Their lives were about to get crazy. Tamey Cammi and nick had never met Stephanie, so just like with Sarah, they reached out to her. Stephanie lived an hour north of Detroit, near Port Huron, a town on the Canadian border. This house had to be well run down. I I think it was a two flat, like an old... You could see the paint is peeling off. It was cold, so the Granite sat in their warm car waiting for Stephanie to appear. They'd never seen a picture of her. They'd only heard her voice on the phone. She walked out.

She has really big eyes, big blue eyes, I want to say. I just remember her eyes being such a focal point, and she's very pretty. She had brown hair. She was in her early 40s, and you could tell that Stephanie had seen a lot in life and had been through some hard times.

nick helped her into the car. I just remember her distinctly just saying, It's nice and warm in here, and this is really sweet. Thank you guys so much for picking me up. They drove to Applebee's. Halfway there, it got quiet. They looked in their rear view mirror and saw that Stephanie had fallen asleep.

She had never been to an Applebee's before. We sat down in the booth, and it was a very, very awkward lunch because just opening the menu, she fell asleep right in front of us.

It's not unusual to be sleepy during pregnancy, but two accidental naps meant Stephanie must have been exhausted. Tammy told Stephanie about her job doing makeup for weddings. They talked about hair and nails, and Then they decided it would be fun to get their hair and nails done together.

And so we did.

Then they went to TJ Maxx.

She didn't have any maternity clothes. She got clothes for herself. She got clothes for her son. She got shoes for herself, shoes for her son. And then she picked out items for baby boy.

Specifically, a stuffed furry bunny rabbit.

And those things were so special to me because she had chosen them.

But during their girls day out, Stephanie told Tammy something that threw her into a tailspin. From the get-go, Tara Lee had pitched them on the fact that Stephanie was due at the same time as Sarah, early September. They could come up to Detroit once and leave with two babies. But Stephanie just shook her head. No, no. She said Tara Lee was way off.

She said, I'm not due till the end of October.

That was a month and a half later. Tammy and nick were speechless. They dropped Stephanie off at home and called Tara Lee.

Hey, Stephanie's saying she's not due until the end of October, but you told us she's due now. Tara Lee said, Oh, she doesn't know what she's talking about. Yes, she's due right now. As a matter of fact, she could probably go any day.

Maybe it's because Tara Lee build herself as the adoption expert, maybe because she seemed so confident when she said it, and maybe because Stephanie didn't have any prenatal care. They trusted Tara Lee's word over Stephanie's. I think Tara Lee perpetuated a myth that poverty and irresponsability go hand in hand. I think even good people like the Granites fell for it.

I'm ashamed even to say it, but I didn't question Tara Lee when she said, Well, She doesn't know what she's talking about.

On Friday the seventh, Tammy and nick were in their hotel when Tara Lee's assistant Chelsea called with news, not about Stephanie, but about Sarah, the birth mother with blonde hair who lived with her two children in a trailer with a hole in the floor. Friday the seventh was the day before Sarah had said she was due. Chelsea got right to the point.

She said, I don't want you to panic, but I I want you to slowly and calmly and safely get down to Hudson. And Sarah is in labor. We got to grab our bags, we got to grab everything. And of course, you're wanting to get down there as soon as possible. And we did. And Sarah was in labor. She was in a room, and we walked into the room, and you could tell that something was really off.

Sarah Sarah wouldn't look at them.

Chelsea pulls us outside and she says, Sarah is worried about you having two children. She thought that you were only going to be raising her daughter, and she wants her to be the one and only.

Suddenly, it was like Sophie's choice, Sarah's baby or Stephanie's.

I went into fight or flight mode. My entire world revolved around our baby girl.

Tammy tried to push her way back into the room, but said Chelsea blocked her way. And then Sarah, inexplicably, switched her story.

She's saying, Sarah doesn't know if she wants you to adopt her baby girl because Stephanie is racist. What if this baby boy is racist against his sister? Who was going to be mixed?

Tammy said the accusation came out of nowhere. Sarah didn't even know Stephanie. Tammy had just spent the whole day with Stephanie and found it hard to believe she was a bigot. She begged Sarah to reconsider.

Please do not let this affect us.

She made her way to Sarah's side. In between contractions, they talked. She really wanted Tam in there. She really wanted Chelsea in there. Eventually, Tammy stepped out and found and nick in the waiting room. But the room was narrow, and they had no choice but to sit across from Tara Lee, who had her laptop on her knees and with her long fingernails, was compulsively typing.

And she looks up and she says, Do you want to adopt another baby? She was being dead serious, and she said, Yeah, here in the NICU, there's a 23-week-old baby. She says it's got see-through skin. She pulls a picture. And so I'm trying to match this baby right now. This is what I'm trying to do. And I'm between two families. And I remember at that moment thinking, this is like a machine for her.

How could Tara Lee be dialed into another adoption opportunity when just a few rooms down the hall, their match with Sarah was on thin ice. She was already paid up with us, so at that point, I don't think she cared. Tammy got up and went back in with Sarah. Sarah was still upset. But now what felt like the real source of her frustration came out.

Sarah brought up many things to us that hadn't been paid for, from her rent to her phone bill to things that she needed done in her trailer to food.

Tammy said they had never turned down her request. They wanted her to have what she needed.

There's no way this is real. We knew we had given this money.

Then, Tammy noticed that Sarah had angry red bumps all over her body. Sarah said they were spider bites.

Her trailer was being infested by spiders. You've got two little ones there. Absolutely not.

Tammy stormed down the hallway and into the waiting room.

We tell Tara Lee, we need a trailer. Orkin, go in right now. Yeah, send Orkin. Get it sprayed. Well, I don't have money for that and your expenses. Where's our money going?

Tara Lee said Sarah was lying.

I paid them. No, I gave them a gift card. No, I did this. I'll send you a receipt, and she would make you feel as if you were crazy for questioning it. So right then and there, we do tell her, We need to meet with you after the birth to go through every single expense that you have paid.

nick walked out and called an exterminator to take care of Tara's trailer. Weeks earlier, Tammy had confided in her mom about Tara Lee's shady behavior. Her mom handed her a notebook.

And she was like, You need to start writing down everything.

In the waiting room that night, Tammy took out the notebook.

Because I knew the lawyers had to come. I had to sign a paper with the lawyers. We had to sign a paper with the lawyers. Right there on that day. And so I wrote everything down, every red flag down.

It was past midnight when she finished. Then an an alarm rang. Their daughter's heart rate had plummeted. Doctors and nurses rushed into Sarah's room and prepared to do an emergency C-section. But Sarah kept pushing, and her girl, who they named May, was born. Tammy held her and burst into tears. Sarah and nick, too.

She was such a little peanut, and she was so cute and just so beautiful. I got to cut the cord. We got to do skin to in immediately with her, and nick got to give her her first bottle. It was just such a special, special, special time.

The next day, their lawyer, Tanya Corrado, arrived with adoption paperwork. Tammy handed her the list of red flags.

I'll never forget sitting at the table, and Tania was like, Wow. Oh, I've never heard any of this. I will take care of this. This has just got to be a fluke.

When Tania left, Tami Tammy and nick visited their daughter, May, in the NICU. She was surrounded by other bassinets, other baby girls. Tammy and nick looked at all of them, wondering if one of them might be Sabrina's baby, the baby they had thought would also be their daughter, Avery. We're thinking that baby's here somewhere. Down in the hospital lobby, in the elevator, and in every hallway all day and night, they had kept an eye out for Sabrina, but they didn't see her. Toward morning, they were looking around for someone else, too, someone they did not want to see, Sarah's boyfriend. When Sarah was in labor, they learned he wanted Sarah to bring the baby home. He wasn't the father, but he wanted to stop the adoption. His threats had been churning in Sarah's mind as she tried to deliver.

And we start getting reports, this man has guns and was circling the hospital, that basically he's going to come to the hospital and he's going to take the baby, he's going to cause harm. So this amazing nurse says, Okay, I'm alerting security right now. We're going to create code words. We're going to put a restriction on anybody who's allowed to come in and out of this room.

Eventually, when the sun was up, the Granites made their way outside. They scanned the parking lot for a man with a gun. They didn't see anyone and drove back to their hotel. The next day at the hospital, Sarah was gone, but their daughter, May, was still there. One week went by and then another, and they got into a routine, visiting the NICU every day to see her. She getting stronger. And during those weeks, Tammy and nick kept in touch with Stephanie, but she still showed no signs of going into labor. And every time they went to the hospital to see their daughter, they would look for Sabrina. They even looked for her name on charts in the NICU. They asked around, but there was no sign of her. And there's a good reason for that. Months later, the FBI would find no evidence that Sabrina Nina existed. Tara Lee made her up. Her rape, her pregnancy, her love of fishing, her baby's terrible disease, her suicide attempts, her disappearances, and her shifty unreliable commitment to the adoption. You know how these girls are. Next time on Baby Broker. And Tara Lee just kept blowing it off.

No, no, no, the baby's going to be Theresa tells us that she's got this phone call with these women.

I had to. I had to. I didn't know what was going on.

She's like, I have a question. Do you think there's something not right with Tare? And I was like, Girl, I'm glad you asked because yes, this is what I am seeing. I felt like, I know Tara. This is no way. There's no way she did this.

Then we would find Bruce.

Don't want to wait for that next episode? You don't have to. Unlock all episodes of Baby Broker ad-free right now by subscribing to the Binge podcast channel. Search for the Binge on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Not on Apple? Head to getthebing. Com to get access wherever you listen. As a subscriber, you'll get binge access to new stories on the first of every month. Check out the Binge channel page on Apple Podcasts or getthebinge. Com to learn more. Baby Broker is an original production of Sony Music Entertainment and Perfect Cadence. It was hosted and reported by me, Peter McDonald. I'm the executive producer, along with Katherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch of Sony Music Entertainment. Steven George recorded the narration at the Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. We used music from Audio Network and a few tracks from Epidemic Sound. News clips are courtesy of W XYZ7 in Detroit, Michigan. Our Our production managers are Tamika Balance-Kalasny and Sammie Allison. Our lawyers are Allison Sherry and Kathleen Farley. Special thanks to Steve Ackermann, Emily Rasek, and Jamie Myers.