A Web of deceit

When it comes to this pregnant woman and the promises she's made and the hearts she's broken, there is always one question.

Lori Coleman: How could anybody be so cruel and so heartless?

They are from different states, and different backgrounds, but all of these people believe they were conned in the same cruel way by the person we knew as Christy.

A New York woman, Jackie, read one of Christy's e-mails:

“I feel she should be placed in your arms when first born. She is your baby, not mine.”

Jackie: After a few conversations she said we would be the perfect parents for her baby.

And three years ago, thinking a baby was on the way, a couple from North Carolina sent her more than $2,000 before she disappeared.

Cindy Miller: It was just like a piece of my heart had been ripped out of me.

The North Carolina couple knew her as "Jamie."

Dateline found other adoptive families who'd met her online as "Amy Ost Cumbee." They all admit they were easily taken in by her.

Karen Mantooth: You are desperate to have a child when you're willing to go through all of this. 

Victoria Corderi, Dateline correspondent: Isn't that the key here?

Cindy Miller: Yes that's the key.

Corderi: Isn't that what any scammer would know? That you're a bunch of sitting ducks?

Cindy Miller: Yeah.

Mark Mantooth: Yes.

Corderi: You and everyone else who really wants a baby.

We showed the group some of our hidden camera videotape: Christy buying infant supplies with the money meant for food (a sure sign she was keeping the baby), and the easy lies and intimate conversation.

Corderi: What did you think watching that?

Cindy Miller: I think she's sick.

Corderi: What was the worst thing you heard her say? 

Todd Miller: She doesn’t want to touch the baby.

Karen Mantooth: "I want you to cut the umbilical cord."

Mark Mantooth: Yeah.

Karen Mantooth: She was playing in to those emotions because anything that we get to do like that makes it all the more special.

Karen Mantooth: It's just cold and manipulative and how could somebody do that?

Cindy Miller: (Crying) How could they take people like us that can't conceive a child?  How could they come into our life and make us so devastated wantin' that child and walking away with nothing? 

Now, we wanted to look for Christy again.  This time we wanted to get an explanation and to let her know that Dateline was on to her.

We found her in a parking lot the morning after she'd claimed to be in labor.

Corderi (confronting 'Christy' or Amy Ost Cumbee): Christy. Hey. How are you doing?

'Christy': Good. 

For a woman who was supposedly about to give birth, she seemed awfully relaxed. 

Corderi: So are you in labor? You told Lori you were in labor.

'Christy': I stopped contractions.

Corderi: When did they stop?

'Christy': Last night around 11:30.

She had told us her name was Christy Tidwell Miller. 

Corderi: I have some questions for you.

We showed her the real Christy Tidwell. 

Corderi: My name is Victoria Corderi. I’m with Dateline NBC and this is Christy Tidwell. Your friend that we see you going around with…

'Christy' also known as Amy Ost Cumbee: Why is he recording me?

Corderi: Because we're with Dateline NBC and there's a lot of information that you gave us that didn't check out.

Amy Ost Cumbee: I don't have to talk to you until I talk to my lawyer.

Corderi: These are pictures that you sent to other women promising them babies. As Amy in Alabama. This is you. As Amy in Pennsylvania saying this is your daughter.

Cumbee: I’m sorry I have talk to my attorney. (Gets in car and drives off.)

Corderi: Do you have any explanation? Why did you disconnect your phone?

She drove off, but within minutes she called Lori Coleman from a new cell phone number. Later that morning, she surprised us yet again by agreeing to sit down and answer our questions— in the very same room where she'd told a string of lies the day before. 

Corderi: First of all, who are you?

Cumbee: Amy Cumbee.

Corderi: Who is Amy Ost?

Cumbee: That’s my maiden name.

Corderi: Why are you representing yourself as Christy Miller?

Cumbee: I don't know.

She admitted she lied to the Colemans and that she had scammed others as well.

Cumbee: I've done this before and I just need help.

Corderi: You need what kind of help?

Cumbee: I just need help. I didn't mean for it to go this far.

She described how she uses the Internet to find her targets.

Cumbee: I'd go look at Web sites and try to find a family.

Corderi: What do you tell them that makes them believe you?

Cumbee: I just tell them that I want them to have the baby.

Corderi: Do you think this is fraud?

Cumbee: Yeah.  

Corderi: What are you doing it for? Are you just doing it for the money?

Cumbee: I don't know.

Corderi: Do you feel powerful when you're holding a baby over somebody's head basically and they're pleading with you?

Cumbee: No. 

Corderi: So why do you think you're doing it?

Cumbee: I don't know why I’m doing it.

Corderi: You’re not working?

Cumbee: No.

Corderi: So you are doing it for the money?

Cumbee: Part of it, I guess. Yeah.

She told us that she learned the adoption scam from her ex-husband.

Cumbee: He was the one that got away with it the first time. 

Corderi: Where's your ex-husband now? He’s not doing this. This is you.  So whose fault is this?

Cumbee: Mine.

Corderi: I've seen a lot of scams but the level of cruelty in this scam is hard for me to imagine, especially as a mother— to string somebody along who thinks she's going to be a mother, and go so far as to tell them you are in labor and then cut them off.  I can't even conceive of that, I can't even imagine how somebody would think to do that. Do you realize the level of cruelty?

Cumbee: Yes.

Corderi: Were you having a good laugh?

Cumbee: No.

Corderi: Every time you got off the phone?

Cumbee: No.

Corderi: What were you thinking?

Cumbee: I don't know. I wasn't. I guess I just believed it too.

Corderi:  You believed you were in labor?

Cumbee: Just believing my own lies at times.

“Christy,” who we now know is really named Amy Ost Cumbee, says her real due date was months, not days away and that she was buying infant clothing because her girlfriend wants to keep the baby.

As for Jasmine, the 2-year-old she talked about so often and so convincingly? She'd made her up as part of the con.

Cumbee: I can't be a mother. I don't know how to be one, I guess.

Despite her lies, she still tried to insist she planned on allowing the Colemans to adopt her baby.

Corderi: You never intended to give the baby to Lori.

Cumbee: Yes I did.

Corderi: You cut her off last night.

Cumbee: I still called.

Corderi: You called after we caught you. You did exactly with this what you've done before. When you're done you have the phone cut off. Can you just be that honest?

Cumbee: Yeah, that is what I do.

Corderi: I don’t know what to say. What are you saying about yourself?

Cumbee: I'm a terrible person.

Corderi: Do you really think that?

Cumbee: Honestly I do.

Corderi: Did you think that before you got caught?

Cumbee: Yes.

Corderi: But it didn't stop you.

Cumbee: I guess not.

The Colemans were nearby, listening. We invited them in.

Corderi: It's not often that you get to see the face, you know, or see the pain of the people that you hurt. You're emailing and these people are just strangers.

Cumbee: I fell in love with Lori.

Lori Coleman: No, you didn't. You told me what I wanted to hear.

Cumbee: Then I fell in love with you as a friend; you have the perfect family, a loving husband, a wonderful daughter, that's what I want.

Chris Coleman: Here’s what I'd like to see happen. You've been caught.  You've been busted by Dateline.  Just stop the lies.  Tell us the truth. I was sitting in there hearing one lie after another. I had to sit there and listen to my wife cry for two days straight in the room that we had set up for the baby that you were supposed to give us. How do you feel about that?

Cumbee: It hurts me.

Chris Coleman: It hurts you?

Lori Coleman: You don’t know- you should be thankful you can have kids. Even when I knew you were lying; ask Vicky, what did I tell you?

Corderi: She still had hope.

Cumbee: I want you to still have hope.

Lori Coleman: I can't have hope- that's not fair! We have to go home to an empty nursery.

Chris Coleman: You’re sitting there crying and we're the victims here. All the people you scammed are the victims and all you have to say is "I don't know."

Cumbee: I’m sorry.  I wish I did know. Maybe I have mental problems.

Corderi: Was there any satisfaction for you at all in being able to confront her?

Chris Coleman: Yes there was because I got to look in this girl's eyes and make her know that we caught her at her own game and that we were not as stupid as she thought we were.

Corderi: Did you see remorse?

Chris Coleman: No. 

Lori Coleman: Absolutely not. I saw eyes that were just empty.

Chris Coleman: I wanted to choke the girl, I did.

Lori Coleman: At the same time you're sitting there thinking, that poor innocent baby. 

Amy Ost Cumbee: I don't know what else to say.  After I get help I just hope y'all can forgive me. 

“Christy” left our interview a worried woman, afraid her next stop might be jail.

When Amy knew she was caught her first statement to me was, “I guess you hate me.” And then her second question was, “Am I goin’ to jail?”

Cumbee: I’ll take the heat for it you know. If I go to jail, I mean, maybe that’s what I need.

Victoria Corderi asked the heartbroken prospective adoptive parents what should happen to Amy. 

Chris Coleman: She must go to jail.

Lori Coleman: Jail.

Cindy Miller: Jail.

Todd Miller: Jail.

Karen Mantooth: Needs to go to prison.

And there’s at least one more person who would like to see her behind bars: Eric Cumbee. Dateline tracked down Eric Cumbee, the ex-husband Amy claimed had introduced her to adoption scams.

Eric Cumbee, Amy's ex-husband: I think she’s probably one of the most sinister people I’ve ever met in my life. Was I ever involved in an adoption scam? No.

In fact, her former husband says he wasn’t her accomplice, he was her victim. They were married six years ago and after just 2 months, he says she abruptly disappeared.

Eric Cumbee: When she left, I received a stack of bills that were probably about 12 inches high.  I had credit cards I didn’t know I had.  I owed people I didn’t even know money.  She put me about $15,000 in debt. 

Cumbee believes his entire marriage was an elaborate con.

Eric Cumbee: She is a professional con artist. This is her job. This is what she does.  And she’s very good at it.

So it appears there are numerous people who want this woman to  face justice.  But will she?

Three of the couples reported her to the police.  Karen and Mark Mantooth filed reports in Texas and Tennessee, while the Colemans went to the FBI as well to local law enforcement. They all say no one seemed willing or able to prosecute.

Chris Coleman: What our local district attorney told us was, “Chris and Lori, I’m sorry.  I don’t know what to charge it with.”

Proving adoption fraud can be difficult—remember a potential birth mother is allowed by law to change her mind and keep whatever money she’s received for expenses.

Chris Coleman: It’s so frustrating that this girl scammed all of us and many more people—and nothing’s being done, about it.

MORE FROM DATELINE

Dateline Section Front

The Trial of Amanda Knox NBC's People of the Year: Read the interviews The Night Mary Jane Disappeared The Friday the 13th Mystery Mystery at Lost Dog Road Slideshow: Photos in the Bob Duke case When The Smoke Clears   Sneak peek: When The Smoke Clears Slideshow: The Christie Fleming murder Transcript: Dan Brown and Secrets Of The Lost Symbol Dateline Section Front   Add Dateline headlines to your news reader: