wife finds missing husband married to another woman in the same city

Wife finds missing
husband married
to another woman
November 11, 2014 | 6:55pm
A married man who disappeared
almost a decade ago has been
discovered by his wife online — living
in the same state and married to
another woman.
Karen Marx, 48, had been searching
for her spouse, Adam, ever since he
vanished without an explanation in
2005.
But when she finally tracked him
down on Facebook, she was shocked
to find he was living about 155
miles away in her home state of
Wisconsin, and happily married to
someone else.
“I just thought, ‘How could he get
married again?’” Karen told the Post
Crescent. “Am I dead? What did he do
with my identity?”
Karen, who has three kids from a
previous relationship, said Adam was
married with two children of his own
when she met him at a local carnival
in the 1990s, where he worked as a
ride operator.
But Adam agreed to divorce his first
wife for Karen, whom he married a
year later.
Adam quit his carnival job and moved
in with his new wife, who supported
the family on her machine operator
wages. But after about a year, he
vacated the family home, leaving only
a note.
“The first time he left me, it was like
somebody reached into my chest and
ripped my heart out of me,” Karen
said. “He basically told me it was all
my fault and he couldn’t handle my
kids.”
However, he returned several months
later — right when she was due to
collect her Christmas bonus.
Karen took him back, and used her
savings to buy the family a new home
in Clinton, Montana. He found work
at a timber framing company while
she tried to start a cleaning business.
However, about a year into their new
life, Adam started accumulating debt
and Karen confronted him about
suspected infidelity.
He left in his truck and Karen locked
the door behind him.
“He tried kicking my door in. I was
pretty afraid of him back then,” she
said. “But over the years, I just look at
it and think he’s a coward. He left me
with just a note in Wisconsin and then
he left me in Montana.”
[POLICE] SAID
HE TOLD
PEOPLE IT WAS
HIS FIRST
MARRIAGE, AND
THE [CLERK]
NEVER
CHECKED VITAL
STATISTICS.
 - Karen Marx
A short time later, Adam lost his job
at the timber company and stopped
answering his phone.
Karen, still saddled with Adam’s bills
and debts, bumped into her husband
once at a nearby Kmart and asked
him for a divorce. He said he’d call.
“Needless to say, I never heard from
him,” she said.
In 2012, Karen moved home to New
London, Wisconsin, to look after her
sick dad, and found Adam’s mom on
Facebook. She told Karen of Adam’s
new life — and his new wife, Marcie.
Stunned, Karen contacted the police,
who arrested Adam and charged him
with bigamy, fraud and making a false
statement on his marriage license.
“They said he told people it was his
first marriage, and the [clerk] never
checked vital statistics,” Karen said. “I
think people need to start doing their
job and doing it thoroughly, especially
when it comes to something like this.”
Adam allegedly told investigators he
thought Karen took care of the
divorce in Montana, and that he lied
about his latest marriage being his
first to expedite the procedure.
Karen vowed to finally file for
divorce, and said she wouldn’t date
anyone until it’s finalized.
“I consider myself married,” she said.
“I thought when you married
someone, you married him for life,
through sickness and health.
“Even though he’s married to some
other woman, I’m still a married
woman, and married women don’t do
that.”
If convicted of fraud, the most severe
charge, Adam faces up to six years in
prison.
Bigamy also carries a maximum
penalty of 3½ years’ jail in Wisconsin.
This article originally appeared on
News.com.au .