The Knife: Off Record – 114
The Knife: A True Crime Podcast
Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Patia shares a conversation she had with Shileshia and Eric Milligan, a couple who became victims of adoption fraud in 2019 after self-matching through a Facebook group. What began with hope quickly turned to fear when the teen birth mother claimed she was in danger. Then, Hannah unpacks the story of Tara Lee, the woman behind a multi-million dollar adoption scam that operated out of Michigan.
National Council for Adoption: How to Avoid Adoption Scams: https://adoptioncouncil.org/article/howtoavoidadoptionscams/
Recommendations: “Couples Therapy” documentary series
Adoption Scam Artist Sentenced to Federal Prison: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2020/02/26/macomb-co-adoption-scam-artist-tara-lee-sentenced-federal-prison/4879858002/
Couples Therapy Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmmIoCQ40hs
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is exactly right. |
| 0:07.2 | Everyone thinks they'd never join a cult. |
| 0:09.5 | But it happens all the time to people just like you. |
| 0:12.2 | And people just like us. |
| 0:13.5 | I'm Lola Blanc. |
| 0:14.6 | And I'm Megan Elizabeth. |
| 0:15.9 | We're the hosts of Trust Me, a podcast about cults, manipulation, and the psychology of belief. |
| 0:21.4 | Each week, we talk to fellow survivors, former believers, and experts to understand why people get pulled in and how they get out. |
| 0:28.1 | Trust me, new episodes every Wednesday on Exactly Right. |
| 0:31.6 | Listen wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:36.0 | This story contains adult content and language. |
| 0:39.3 | Listener discretion is advised. |
| 0:58.9 | Welcome to The Knife Off Record. |
| 1:00.0 | I'm Pasha Eaton. |
| 1:01.1 | I'm Hannah Smith. |
| 1:03.2 | And today we have two stories for you. |
| 1:09.3 | First, Pesha will tell me about a case that she's been looking into, and then I will tell her a story after that. |
| 1:12.3 | And both of our stories are thematically connected. They both have something to do with adoption fraud, but very different kinds of |
| 1:17.2 | stories. So let's just get right into it. Yeah. So a while back, I met with a couple Shalisha and |
| 1:23.8 | Eric Milligan, and they wanted to talk about their story with adoption fraud. This all |
| 1:30.7 | happened back in 2014. Shalisha and Eric met at work. They live in the South, and Eric had been |
| 1:37.9 | previously married. Shalisha wasn't necessarily interested in him in that way, but he was stopping by her desk a lot. |
... |
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