Heidi Broussard was just two weeks postpartum when she mysteriously vanished with her new baby.
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The disappearances sparked a frantic search and ultimately revealed a stunning betrayal months in the making by a suspect no one could have imagined, according to a March 22 episode of Oxygen’s A Plan to Kill.
Heidi Broussard and Her Daughter Margot Disappear
Just two weeks after Broussard and fiancé Shane Carey welcomed daughter Margot, the pair was getting back into a regular routine.
While Carey headed to work on Dec. 12, 2019, Broussard dropped off their 6-year-old son Silas at school—confirmed by video surveillance images at the school—then called to check in with Carey around 8:30 a.m.
But when Carey came home from work that afternoon around 2:30 p.m., his fiancee and baby were gone, although the 33-year-old’s car was still in the apartment parking lot with her purse and wallet inside.
Carey initially believed the pair may have just gone to visit someone in the complex, but he grew concerned after he picked up his son from school and they still hadn’t returned.
After calling her closest friends, he reported her missing to the Austin Police around 7:30 p.m. that night.
“Heidi’s case was different,” Retired FBI Special Agent Christopher Combs explained. “It wasn’t just a missing woman. It’s a missing woman with a 2-week-old baby.”
No Signs of Forced Entry in Heidi Broussard’s Apartment
During a search of the apartment, investigators found no signs of forced entry or a struggle.
“There was nothing out of place,” noted host of the Jay is for Justice podcast Jay Youngblood. “There was nothing, you know, thrown around the room. Everything was seemingly normal. They didn’t find any forensic evidence that a crime had been committed there.”
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But they did find one troubling clue that suggested Broussard could have left against her will. Margot was diagnosed with jaundice shortly after her birth and required a special formula to treat the condition, yet it had been left behind at the apartment.
“What woman takes a 2-week-old baby,” Combs asked, “without food, without diapers, without a purse?”
Heidi Broussard Investigation Begins
Investigators considered the possibility that Broussard could have been suffering from postpartum depression, but Carey insisted that hadn’t been an issue for his fiancée.
As the investigation kicked off, authorities deployed what they referred to as “reverse 911” call, where everyone within a certain geographic area was called to see if they had noticed anything suspicious, but they didn’t get any tangible leads from the query.
Suspicion soon fell to Carey—who friends said had an on-again, off-again relationship with Broussard over the years—but investigators were able to rule him out after confirming he had been at work all day.
“Shane was very helpful. He gave police his cell phone. We could see when she called him, that he had in fact talked to her,” Combs said. “On Dec. 12 he had already let him search in the apartment, he had let them look at the car, so there was nothing he was holding back.”
Friends Report Maygen Humphrey’s Strange Behavior
Given that Margot was so vulnerable, the investigation quickly ramped up, with the FBI also joining the search efforts, as authorities took a closer look at everyone in her social circle.
“Investigators learned that Heidi was very bubbly, very social and very outgoing,” Youngblood said. “She was someone who had a lot of friends.”
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Authorities caught a break in the case after a witness remembered seeing a woman and her baby getting into a sedan the day Broussard disappeared.
Around the same time, investigators were learning from those close to Broussard and the hospital staff that her best friend Maygen Humphrey, sometimes referred to in the media as Magen Fieramusca, had acted strangely in the delivery room, “aggressively” taking the baby from Carey’s father and acting possessive of the infant.
“Once we got that story of what happened in the maternity room, our behavioral analysis people right away said ‘Hey, we really got to look at this. This could possibly be a maternal desire-type situation,” Combs said. “Maternal desire is a mental state where a woman has an insatiable drive to acquire a child.”
According to Broussard’s friend Kelly Budd, Broussard and Humphrey—who met years earlier at church camp—had both been pregnant at the same time, even sharing the same due date.
“When Heidi introduced us, unfortunately, I got a bad vibe from Maygen,” Budd remembered. “I didn’t like her right away but Heidi’s heart was so pure. She loved everybody.”
Evidence Trail Leads to Maygen Humphrey
Just weeks after Broussard had given birth, friends remembered Humphrey announcing she had given birth to a daughter named Luna around Dec. 8 or 9, yet no one had seen any photos of the baby, which triggered alarm bells for investigators. Law enforcement authorities also couldn’t find any evidence to suggest that Humphrey had been pregnant.
Cell phone records and license plate readers also put Humphrey, who lived in Houston, in Austin near Broussard’s apartment the day she disappeared.
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With a suspect identified, the Texas Rangers were called in to conduct surveillance at Humphrey’s home.
Meanwhile, other investigators spoke to Humphrey’s ex-boyfriend, who told them that when he returned home from a work trip on Dec. 13, Humphrey told him she’d welcomed their child at a birthing center and introduced him to the baby.
When investigators showed him a photo of Margot, he identified the photo as the baby he believed was his.
Investigators believed they had enough evidence to confront Humphrey and went to her home. Although she insisted the baby was hers, an investigator searching the property noticed a foul odor coming out of the trunk of her car and discovered Broussard’s dead body stuffed into a duffel bag. A coroner later determined she’d been strangled to death.
“We’re all angry,” Budd said of the chilling betrayal. “Why Heidi? Your best friend is supposed to be the person you trust more than anybody.”
Where is Maygen Humphrey Now?
Humphrey was taken into custody and charged with capital murder, two counts of kidnapping and tampering with evidence of a human corpse. Meanwhile, Margot was taken to a hospital, where she was reunited with her grieving father. Investigators believe it had been Humphrey’s plan to kill Broussard and take her baby all along.
“The idea that somebody could lie for nine months to everybody they love is ruthless,” private investigator Stacey Deville said. “It’s calculated. It’s evil.”
Humphrey never spoke to investigators about what happened that day and accepted a plea deal in the case. She was sentenced to 55 years in prison with no chance of parole.