Mum faked her death to impress my dad but I FORGAVE her – she was love bombed, they thought they were Bonnie and Clyde
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TYPING her biological mum’s name into Google for the first time, adopted Donna Freed gasped.
Because Donna, 56, who lives in Acton, west London, couldn’t believe what she’d discovered.
The woman who’d carried her for nine months was a world famous criminal who - jointly with her dad - had faked her own death in a bid to flee to Spain and live off her life insurance policy of £28k.
Echoing ‘canoe man’ John Darwin’s story who, alongside his wife Anne faked his death and fled to Panama, central America, Donna’s parents planned to do virtually the same.
Now Donna is sharing her extraordinary story with Fabulous as part of our new series My Life’s a Soap in which we talk to people whose lives could be plotlines in your favourite shows.
“I was astonished as I read on,” author Donna, married to Brit Simon, 59, who works in publishing, said. “Old newspaper article after old newspaper article told more and more sordid and bizarre details. It was fascinating.”
She learned in 1967 her biological dad, Alvin Brodie, than 36 and mum, Mira Lindenmaier, then 26, took a boat trip out to a New York lake where Mira apparently ‘fell off’ and vanished.
Boat trip mystery
Alvin, seemingly frantic with worry, called the police who dredged the water but couldn’t find her.
But they were straight away suspicious - the boat was of a type unlike to capsize and Mira could swim well.
Their curiosity intensified when it emerged just days before she vanished she’d switched her father with Alvin in her life insurance policy.
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“So they tapped his phone,” said Donna, mum to student Dexter, 17. “And they picked up a recording of my mother saying ‘Where are they coming?”
Caught by The Wire
It emerged she was living in a New York suburb and working as a waitress. There, placed under surveillance, she was arrested and straight away confessed.
Alvin was jailed for three years while Mira received a suspended sentence. Giving birth to Donna shortly afterwards she opted for adoption, a decision Donna later learnt she wrestled with. "It was 1967 and single motherhood was very disapproved of.
"Her and my biological grandmother also worried that it was such a famous case the notoriety would negatively impact me.
“It made international headlines for years and they were very much considered the Bonnie and Clyde of their time.
“She was ‘The Woman Who Faked Her Own Death' and the world was fascinated by them."
Shock realisation
Having now written a book, Duplicity: My Mothers’ Secrets, about her story, Donna told how she didn’t realise she was adopted until she was 18.
“My parents, Ruth and Seymour, who are now both dead, just didn’t mention it,” she said.
“It was mentioned in passing by my mum when I was 18 and that was that. She simply cited ‘fertility issues’ and I didn't pursue the issue as she clearly didn't want to talk about it."
It wasn’t until she died of lymphoma in 2009 Donna started hunting for her biological mum.
Intriguing discovery
“I wanted to,” she said. “I needed to know more about where I came from but didn’t want to cause friction with my mum when she was alive."
She visited New York’s adoption agencies and was given brief information about her adoption - where the word ‘fraud’ was mentioned but not elaborated on.
“I was intrigued,” said Donna. “I had wondered what my biological parents were like - you just don’t know. There could be incest, rape, a teen mother… anything. You have to have low expectations and once you know you can’t unknow. But this was not something I was expecting.”
She also had a name for the first time - ‘Baby Girl Lindenmaier’ which she Googled and it came up with the news reports. “Well, at least she wasn’t a drip,” she said. “That was something…
Indoctrinated by love
“But she was a criminal who pretended to her entire family she was dead with the intention of fleeing the country.
“I know what she did was mad - totally insane - but I honestly believe she was indoctrinated by love.
“It’s not everybody you fake your own death for. Saying that, she was 26, so old enough to know better.”
She learnt her mum’s parents weren’t impressed by Alvin, who had other children who Donna’s spoken to, and was something of a Walter Mitty character.
A silver-tongued charmer
“He was, by all accounts, a total charmer and rogue - a silver-tongued bandit,” she said. "He pulled cons until his dying day.
“My biological brother said if he met you he would probably ask you for money. They genuinely wondered if the film Catch Me if You Can was based on him.”
In late 2011 she asked the adoption agency if her biological mother, who was living in Hollywood, Florida, would be keen to meet and they confirmed she would.
Donna had to track down her number and upon finding it called immediately.
“She started screaming ‘It’s you, it’s you’," she said. "It was crazy.”
Family reunited
After that they regularly chatted on the phone with Donna learning about her life. She worked for a bank and then - ironically - for a sheriff's department. She didn't have any other children, but did did have a partner who died before Donna met her.
She eventually visited her in August 2012 and every year after that.
“It was sad in a way,” she said. “She had no-one and lived a simple life. She had wanted me but felt she couldn’t keep me amidst all the drama.”
Shown pictures of her father, Donna realised both she and her son resembled him strongly. “It was strange to see,” she said. “She told me she’d called me Rada and so we started calling each other Mum Mira and Daughter Donna.”
Over the next years they got to know one another and Donna accepted her mother was a complex character who wanted to "mother her both positively and negatively."
A love which lasted
“She loved having us around and I was glad she got to know us in her final years,” she said.
Donna and her family visited her mother multiple times and she confirmed what Donna suspected - that she did what she did because she was in love with Alvin and always had been.
“There was no hidden agenda,” she said. “She just really fancied him so decided to go along with his plan.
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She died in August 2020 of breathing problems, unrelated to covid, having made Donna her power of health attorney. “So in the end I made the decision to end her life,” she said. “It was the right one but still tough. Still I will never regret meeting my mother."
Buy Donna’s book, published by Muswell Press, via by bookshops or at .
