FBI Agent's Family Falls Victim To Oklahoma Adoption Scam

Serena Matthews and Scott Smith will spend more than two years in prison, serve three years of supervised release and have to pay more than $35,000 for engineering an elaborate cross-country adoption scam.

Tuesday, November 8th 2011, 11:48 pm



Serena Matthews and Scott Smith will spend more than two years in prison, serve three years of supervised release and have to pay more than $35,000 for engineering an elaborate cross-country adoption scam.

The crime came to light after an Oklahoma City FBI agent and his wife fell victim.

The scam went like this: Serena Matthews would fake her pregnancy, promise a baby to several couples in exchange for living expenses then back out at the last minute.

"I was devastated, I was crying, we had all the baby items lined up here in this room. I couldn't look at it. I was running around like a mad woman," said Nancy Williams, one of Matthews' victims. "I had sheets, bed sheets and I had to cover everything up because I couldn't look at it. It was too hard. We had to close the door to the nursery, I couldn't go in there."

Nancy and Dan Williams had tried for a baby for seven years. First through IVF that ended in a miscarriage, then adoption.

So when Serena Matthews said she would give them her baby. They thought it was a dream come true. That dream turned into a nightmare when on the day Matthews was supposed to deliver, she simply disappeared.

"That day I felt like we lost our second child," Nancy said.

That's when Dan Williams, a 31-year-veteran FBI agent, asked his investigators to look into what happened to Matthews and uncovered the scam.

"I'm the guy who goes out and solves crimes, I'm not the guy who becomes the victim of a crime,"Dan said.

Still Dan said he thinks God was working through him to stop the scam that made countless other couples victims too.

"One of the most difficult things was getting up in the middle of the night, the night they were arrested and seeing my wife in the nursery, sitting there in the crib playing those lullabies over and over again, knowing after seven years the chances of us having a child probably wasn't going to happen," Dan said.

Still, the Williams didn't lose faith and four months ago adopted Kayla Faith.

"We never lost faith in God and Kayla means pure beloved," Dan said.

The Williams said they are pleased Matthews and Smith got the maximum penalty.

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