PORT TOWNSEND — It was supposed to be a day filled with giddy celebration for Cheniya and Pete Beres of Port Townsend.
Family and friends had scheduled a shower Nov. 6 to help them prepare for the couple’s first child together, due in January.
Instead, it was another day of somberly repeating their story of a dashed dream.
A few weeks ago, the Bereses got a call from police and learned there would be no baby of theirs born to an Astoria, Ore., woman they’d hired as a surrogate mother to help make their dream come true.
Instead, Audrey Magallon, 31, is in jail there, charged with defrauding the Bereses and an Australian couple.
Magallon, who prosecutors said has seven children, is not pregnant from either surrogate arrangement for which she received thousands of good-faith dollars, about $6,000 from the Bereses.
The news sent Cheniya to bed for days with her grief. A bright panda-print blanket made by a relative for her dream baby is always nearby for comfort.
She is 52 and has known for some time she could not bear children.
Adoption even of an older child, or surrogacy through established channels, costs tens of thousands of dollars, far beyond the couple’s modest means.
And even though two previous attempts to find a surrogate turned out to be scams, she couldn’t quit her dream.
Cheniya said this time she prayed for help every day for three months and believed her prayers were answered, that she’d found her last best hope on the Internet at a surrogate website where Magallon offered her services.
They corresponded, and the Bereses traveled to Portland to meet Magallon and her husband.
They seemed normal and well-intentioned, the Bereses said. A background check came up clean, and Magallon’s health aide license lent her credibility. She had even been willing to provide her Social Security number.
Magallon and her husband shared pictures of the four children they said they had, the Bereses said.
Magallon told the Bereses that she was willing to become a surrogate for only $10,000 because she wanted to help good people.
The husband told Pete he was fine with his wife’s decision. It was her body, after all, he said.
“He seemed like a real nice guy,” Pete said.
His wife was down-to-earth and showed no signs of nervousness or discomfort.
The Bereses made a $2,500 deposit, then regular monthly payments.
Anticipation of their new child helped buoy the Bereses’ spirits last summer after a previously repaired heart defect required new surgery for Pete, 46.
Complications caused a month’s hospital stay and left him with post-traumatic anger and depression.
“No matter what complications Pete had in the hospital, no matter what setbacks we had, I kept believing that in the end, we’d have this miracle,” Cheniya said.
Relations with Magallon got a little shaky, too, but the couple were not unduly alarmed.
Magallon confirmed the pregnancy in May after a self-administered conception kit and follow-up pregnancy tests, but the Bereses never got a copy of an ultrasound and received only positive pregnancy test strips, which turned out to be forged.
When the Bereses asked to contact the couple Magallon claimed to have helped, they got only a picture of three children with a male couple.
E-mails became less frequent, Cheniya’s queries went unanswered, and phone calls went unreturned.
It all unravelled when the Australian couple contacted Astoria police after things seemed to be going wrong in their deal.
Police called the Bereses in mid-October after finding two of their checks at Magallon’s former workplace, where they had been told to mail them. She had been fired, officers said.
Magallon knew police were investigating her while she continued to be in touch with the Bereses, the Port Townsend couple said, and she continued to take their money, knowing how medical bills were piling up for the Bereses, facts that still make Cheniya shake her head.
A couple of weeks ago, the Bereses again headed to Oregon, this time to testify before a grand jury.
Magallon is charged with five felonies involving first-degree theft, identity theft and computer crime as well as four forgery counts.
A release hearing Nov. 5 ended when Magallon learned she was not guaranteed release under an earlier agreement to plead guilty to the charges.
She is in jail until at least next Friday, the date of her next hearing, said Clatsop County District Attorney Joshua Marquis.
And while the string of charges may seem damning, under Oregon law, her penalty under sentencing guidelines will likely result in jail time of no more than 60 days total, Marquis said.
Cheniya said her faith slipped steeply at the beginning, but she’s not giving up entirely on her dream.
“If I was ever to do this again, I would get somebody local, and I would be more involved in the pregnancy,” she said.
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Julie McCormick is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. Contact her at 360-385-4645 or juliemccormick10@gmail.com.
