Tom and Carrie had been married for 18 years, had two children, lived in the “White Picket Fence” house and joined their neighborhood “Revolving Wine Parties” for the last four years. Tom traveled a lot and Carrie was a part time stay-at-home mom and part time sales clerk at a friend’s landscaping business. Carrie was content with her marriage, her children and her life until one day she received the following text: “Don’t be an ostrich”. Carrie didn’t recognize the number, so she fluffed it off as an accidental message meant for someone else.
That Friday, Tom returned home from one of his trips early as he and Carrie were hosting the Wine Party at their house. Tom was in a rather foul mood on that particular night, but Carrie contributed it to his lengthy flight and busy night ahead of them. During the party, Carrie overheard Tom making several sarcastic remarks to a few of his friends commenting on how stale life had become the last year.
After everybody left and while Tom and Carrie were cleaning up, Carrie commented on Tom’s behavior. Tom told Carrie his behavior was none of her business and she needed to stay within her boundaries as a mother and wife. Carrie’s feelings were hurt and she went to bed that night with some mixed emotions. During the night, Carrie woke up thinking about the text she had received earlier that day. She got her phone and scrolled through her messages until she found it. The number a Texas area code. She knew that Tom had many business trips to Texas. Carrie found Tom’s phone and tried to view the contents, but it was locked with a password. Tom had never password protected his phone before so this was cause for even more suspicion.
The next morning she confronted Tom about his behavior and his locked cell phone. Tom packed a few bags and stormed out of the house. Tom was gone for a few days and Carrie called a friend who recommended she make contact with . Carrie didn’t think that was necessary until she received divorce papers the following day.
Carrie called our office and relayed the whole story to us. We asked Carrie if Tom was having an affair or if they were having financial difficulties. She didn’t know about the affair, but felt their finances were stable. She told us all bills and bank statements were sent to Tom’s office, she had no idea what their net worth was. This raised a red flag and we strongly suggested conducting a financial investigation and search for assets and a personal asset search upon Tom. We talked about hidden bank accounts and possible off shore accounts for missing assets. Carrie was absolutely dumbfounded that Tom would do anything that would jeopardize their marriage or hiding assets in divorce and agreed she needed to be pro-active. We told Carrie that a lot of divorces started long before they reached an attorney’s desk and we needed to conduct an asset investigation.
Carrie was prepared when she and her attorney met for mediation. She had a folder with all the Banking Institutions Tom was linked to that she had no idea existed, along with the condo he had purchased in Texas in the name of his girlfriend and their 6 month old child.
Carrie was the Ostrich and the sender of the text was none other than Tom’s girlfriend.
-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations
