HOUSTON — Friends say Magen Fieramusca was calling people, even saying she'd be willing to do interviews to help find the missing mother from Austin, Heidi Broussard.
Now, law enforcement sources in Austin say she was pretending to be pregnant in a plot to steal her best friend's baby.
"There was not one single indication she had anything to do with it," said Tim Miller, Texas Equusearch. "She's at the hospital as Heidi has a baby."
It's a story with so many twists and turns, it even shocked Tim Miller.
"You know it's right up there with one of the worst," he said.
He's stepped up to help on hundreds of cases, and when Miller got a list of Broussard's friends, Fieramusca was his first call.
"She said, 'Mr. Miller thank you for what you're doing.' She says, 'I'm going to keep talking to people and everything and if I come up with anything, is it OK if I call you?'"
Miller says Fieramusca told him the last time she talked to Broussard was the morning she went missing.
"Well, she (Heidi) was having problems breastfeeding, I (Miller) said nothing else? No, that was it. She was in a good mood just having problems breastfeeding," said Miller.
Details that have all been hard to process for Heidi's friends.
"She was super friendly – and so bubbly," said Rachel West, who met Heidi waiting tables at Cracker Barrel. "The last time I saw Heidi was a week before she went missing, that's when I met Margo, her daughter, for the first time."
Then days after Broussard went missing, West talked to Fieramusca and heard a baby in the background. A baby she thought was Fieramusca's at the time, not knowing it was all part of what investigators now say was a plan.
"My hope for Margo is that she remembers the two weeks she had with her mom because her mom is incredible," said West.
Police say they're continuing to search several spots between here and Austin. They're not ruling out more charges.
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