In September 1993, Douglas, a young boy in the United States, received a birthday card. The greeting card reads: "Dear Douglas, my proud little warrior, I hope you grow up quickly, and I wish you a happy birthday!" ”
To his surprise, the card contained a $50 bill. When Douglas saw that the signature of the payment was written "Father", he excitedly ran to his mother Linda, and said excitedly: "Mom, Dad sent me a greeting card!" ”
Linda Eisler was stunned for a long time after comparing the handwriting and confirming that it was the handwriting of her husband Richard, who had been missing for many years.
Linda is reeling from the loss of her husband, Richard Hoagland, because it has been months since he disappeared and even the police have not found any clues.
But what happened when she received a greeting card on her youngest son's birthday? It all started with Christmas six months ago. Richard began to show unusual emotions and began to often be locked up in the bedroom alone and did not take the children out to play.
Before that, Richard had a failed marriage, but after 11 years of marriage with Linda, their relationship has been good. Richard was the breadwinner of his family, working for an insurance company and earning a monthly salary that was considered a high-income group among Americans at the time.
Although Linda's salary is low, it is enough to cover the family's daily expenses. In 1985, they bought a villa of more than 200 square meters and had two sons, 9-year-old Matthew and 6-year-old son Douglas.
Linda said in the interview that Richard is an excellent good husband and father. Despite his busy schedule, he finds time to spend with her and the children. When Linda notices her husband's abnormality, Richard assures her that it's just a busy schedule, and she's relieved.
However, a month later, Richard's mood not only did not improve, but disappeared. On the morning of 10 February 1993, they sent their children to school as usual.
Linda didn't expect that the next time she would see Richard would be 23 years later. Towards the end of work that afternoon, Linda received a ** from Richard, who said that he was sick and needed to go to the hospital.
Linda was expecting to go to the hospital with her husband, but was rejected when Richard suddenly said she was unwell. After picking up her youngest son home, Linda found that her eldest son, Matthew, was already at home, saying that she hadn't been to school for a day, and Richard had driven out early in the morning.
Linda was furious and called her husband's ** many times but no one answered. She realized that Richard might be in the hospital and began to wait anxiously. However, by 8 p.m., Richard had not returned home and could not be reached on his cellphone, so Linda had to search all the hospitals in Indianapolis but could not find him.
Linda was anxiously pacing back and forth in the house when the bell rang, and it was Richard calling. He said calmly, "I'm fed up with this life and can't stay any longer." ”
Then hang up**, Linda calls again to find that his phone is off. Richard's words caused Linda to start thinking cranky, and she suspected that he had a new love outside.
Two hours later, Richard called** again: I feel like our house is like a prison, and I don't have any freedom at all. Then he hung up again and shut down.
Linda was sure that Richard hadn't traveled far because he hadn't brought any clothes with him. Linda thinks it might be due to the stress of work, and Richard wants to go out and relax, so she decides not to give him a ** anymore.
That night, Linda looked out the window at the goose feathers and snow, and stayed up all night, always worried about Richard's outside.
In the restless waiting, Richard never appeared, and in desperation, Linda chose to call the police. ** Quickly arrived at Linda's home for questioning, and after investigation, it was found that Richard's passport was still at home, and it was initially speculated that Richard did not go abroad.
However, surveillance cameras were not widespread on the streets of the United States in the early 90s, so there was no progress in the next few days. Until mid-February, Richard called Linda ** for two days in a row.
As usual, he hung up after mentioning that he didn't want to stay at home**. According to Richard**'s IP address, he was tracked to be near Venezuela and the Caribbean in South America.
However, Richard did not carry a passport and had no exit records, which made his mysterious disappearance even more mysterious. Despite the impasse in the case, life goes on.
Linda still takes her two children to school every day, and the youngest son, Douglas, keeps asking his father about how long he has gone, and Linda has to lie that his father is on a business trip.
A father who left his son with a birthday card and a $50 bill on his younger son's birthday made her mother Linda even more angry.
Because since her father ran away, the family has lost its main economy**, and Linda can only do odd jobs outside of work to support the children's living and school fees. However, the father does not seem to care about this, and is only sending greeting cards and banknotes, not fulfilling his father's responsibilities.
Linda was very confused and angry as to why her father was reluctant to go home and didn't even send back a penny. However, what Linda didn't expect was that her father's trouble was still to come.
Her husband's personality collapsed, and he owed a lot of debts, which Linda had to take over and face high debt pressure.
Linda is surprised to find that her husband Richard not only has 26 overdrawn credit cards, but also a loan in her name, which makes her realize the fact that her husband Richard, who has always loved her, is actually a shameless old man.
After Richard's disappearance, Linda was full of thoughts about him, and even ran to the police station twice a day to find his whereabouts. However, now that Linda is riddled with debt, she has nothing but hatred for Richard.
Doubts arose about Linda, as it was discovered that Richard might be involved in a theft long before he disappeared. Since Richard's disappearance, there has been no progress on his whereabouts, and all information related to Richard has been provided by Linda.
* Suspicion that Linda may have colluded with Richard to fabricate a lie about her husband's disappearance. A police officer was sent to monitor Linda around the clock to see if she was secretly in contact with Richard, but for several days, Linda did not make any suspicious moves except for work and picking up and dropping off her children.
At present, the "Richard disappearance case" is still unsolved, and Linda can only do her best to pay off the high debt, and even ** the family's car and villa, and live with her two children and parents.
Linda and her new husband find themselves suddenly transported to 2003, a U.S. law that states that a missing person is considered legally dead for more than ten years.
Although Linda had remarried through a friend's introduction, the damage Richard had done to her children was enormous. Especially the youngest son, Douglas, due to the lack of his father's discipline since he was a child, he became idle and became a gangster who did not learn and did not know.
However, the advent of the American Genealogy Network has given hope to Linda and her children. Genealogy.com is the world's largest genealogical database through which people can find their relatives, even going back to their ancestors.
In 2016, the Florida Police Department received a special case of a middle-aged man claiming to be from the Samansky family who claimed to be his uncle, Terry, who had been stolen by someone else.
It turned out that when Terry's nephew browsed the family tree website 3 years ago, he found that his uncle Terry Samansky, who had been dead for 22 years, was still alive, and he also married a wife and had children, and even obtained a flight license, which made him feel very weird.
Linda and her children set out to find Richard, hoping to find him and hold him accountable for what he had done. They also started using Genealogy.com, hoping to find his traces.
Through tireless efforts, they eventually find Richard and give him a deep reflection on what he has done. Richard also started a new life of his own, he made up for the damage he did to the children with his actions, and used his story to tell the world that everyone has a chance to correct their mistakes.
Due to doubts about Terry's background, he has been hesitant to report the crime. Recently, however, he plucked up the courage to contact Mary, the current wife of "Terry Samansky," through the genealogy network.
Mary was shocked that her husband had the same name as a deceased man, as she had never seen his family or heard that he had nephews, or even relatives, in the 21 years she had been married to "Terry".
When she asked the question, "Terry" explained that his parents died early, but it was impossible for all relatives to die. Terry's answer was vague, but Mary stopped asking.
Officer, my name is Terry Samansky, did you recognize the wrong person? Just then, the police pulled out a 1991 death certificate from their briefcase with Terry Samansky's name on it.
Richard saw that he was exposed, and began to panic, and was eventually taken away by the police, where he confessed everything. He spent 22 years stealing the identity of a dead man without even being discovered, and his experience surprised sociologists even by surprise.
After leaving Linda's home, he drove to the local airline and then changed more than 30 times in a taxi to confuse the police, eventually arriving in Florida, 1,400 kilometers away.
He chose Florida for three reasons. First of all, he felt that since he was leaving home, he should go to a distant place; Secondly, Florida has a developed economy and is easier to find a job; Finally, he argues that U.S. states are highly independent and have different laws, which makes it more convenient to cross states without being detected by the police.
Richard, who had just arrived in Florida, had to rent an apartment and earn money by doing odd jobs during the day because of financial constraints. His social skills are excellent, and the landlord of the apartment, Eduard Samansky, is one of his beneficiaries.
Edward enjoyed chatting with Richard, and their relationship gradually warmed up. Once, Edward told Richard that he looked a lot like his deceased son, Terry, except that Terry was a little thinner than Richard.
Richard smiled, but when he saw the ** that Edward had taken out, he realized that they did have some similarity. This inspired Richard, who decided to impersonate Edward's son in order to better fit into his life.
In the conversation that followed, Richard began to care for Edward's son in a sympathetic tone, which brought them closer together.
Edward shared his story with Richard without reservation, and they had many in-depth conversations. During these conversations, Richard learns that Edward's son, Terry Samansky, was a fisherman who died in a shipwreck in 1991 and that he never married or had children.
This information strengthened Richard's conviction that the name Terry Samansky was a perfect fit for his "new identity." Richard, who was once a leader in the insurance industry, had a good understanding of the rules that work in American society, which also gave him the opportunity to exploit loopholes in the law.
He was familiar with Edward's habits and stole Terry's death certificate while Edward was out playing golf. Richard then went to the relevant department, claimed that his death information was wrong, that he was still alive, and asked the staff to reissue a birth certificate for him.
The staff saw that the ** on the death certificate was similar to Richard himself, and didn't think much about it, so Richard started a new life with the name "Terry".
Richard said goodbye to Edward's residence, and it wasn't until much later that Edward realized that his son Terry's death certificate had been lost, however, he did not reissue it again.
After all, his son had passed away, and he never thought that anyone would live under Terry's name. With his excellent insurance business skills, Richard's success with an insurance company in Florida, coupled with his humorous personality, quickly attracted the company's colleague Mary.
In 1995, they married in Florida, and although Mary was a dozen years younger than Richard, this did not affect the relationship between them. After a few more years, they had another son.
It was Richard's best time, not only did the couple buy a house, but Richard also got his pilot's license. If it weren't for Terry's nephew's accidental discovery, Richard's "happiness" might have lasted.
When Richard's news came out and Linda was told, she was 59 years old and had no Richard in her heart. They had loved each other, but now, Richard's departure has left her heartbroken.
During the past 23 years of disappearance, Linda has not only had to endure tremendous financial pressure, but also have to raise two sons on her own. The youngest son, Douglas, went further and further down the path of the gangsters, and finally even went to prison for committing a crime while in college, all of which are inextricably linked to Richard's disappearance.
Although Richard is no longer there, his influence on Linda and Douglas can never be erased.
Richard's disappearance" quickly attracted a lot of attention, and American radio station ABC specially invited Linda and her two sons to participate in a show.
The broadcast of this show caused a national sensation and caused a heated discussion on Twitter. On the show, Linda unabashedly expressed her anger at Richard's disappearance, especially when she spoke about Richard's other family, which was so emotional that she could barely speak.
Not only that, but her two sons also strongly condemned Richard, arguing that he was "unworthy of being a father".
Richard's fraud not only harmed Mary's mother and son, but also made him legally unable to marry Mary. He was sentenced to two years in prison. After being released from prison in 2018, Richard became an "outcast" of two families and lived a lonely life.
However, as soon as he was released from prison, he received a lawsuit from his ex-wife, Linda, demanding that he pay $1.8 million in child support. Linda's answer to Richard's question about why he left the family is still that he has had enough of the family.
In the United States, divorce is a very normal thing, according to statistics, the divorce rate in the United States in 2020 was as high as 64%. Even someone like Richard, who has had two marriages, can't avoid this trend.
So, what is the reason for such a high divorce rate in the United States?
The Seven-Year Itch of Social Causes: The Consequences of American Liberalism. Liberalism is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in the United States, and its core is individualism, which emphasizes the independence and self-centeredness of the individual, which is especially prominent among men.
Over time, the romance and passion in marriage will be worn away by the trivialities of life, and the so-called "seven-year itch" will appear. In China, couples can turn their attention to their children and thus maintain their marriage, but not in the United States.
They have limited devotion to their offspring, and once love wears off, life loses its joy. Richard once described his home as a "cage", and a large number of people would choose to divorce and start a new marriage.
But why didn't Richard divorce Linda? The reason may be related to his alleged theft.
Time flies, 23 years have passed, and the time limit for prosecution of the theft has arrived. Now that he is old and alone, whenever he thinks back to everything in the past, does he feel regretful?