Oklahoma Woman Learns Husband Was Canadian Man Who Faked Death 37 Years Earlier

Deb Proctor was at work when her phone rang from an unknown number. An investigator told the Oklahoma woman that the man she knew as Jeff Walton was actually Ronald Stan, a Canadian who disappeared 37 years earlier and was presumed dead after leaving behind a wife and two children.

"After gathering my composure, I went to my immediate executive and explained this bizarre phone call," Proctor told Fox News Digital. "My colleagues were very concerned that my life was in danger, that maybe Jeff was in witness protection, and I had just blown it to some stranger who was not real, a so-called investigator."

Proctor is sharing her story in the ABC true crime series "Betrayal: Secrets & Lies." The series examines how people survive scandalous confessions, financial ruin and acts of violence.

"Deb Proctor’s story is an incredible exploration of what happens when the person closest to you is living a double life," said Andrea Gunning, host of the "Betrayal" podcast. "What stayed with me the most while working on Deb’s story was not just the scale of Jeff’s deception, but the deeply human process of Deb rebuilding her life after the truth was exposed."

Proctor, then a 41-year-old divorcee and mother of two sons, joined a dating site in 1998. She met Walton, an Ohio State graduate and former football player who traveled and played golf. After a year of talking, they met in person. Walton proposed on the spot when he stepped off the plane. He moved in a few months later, and they married in 2000.

A year into the marriage, Walton struggled to find work. He told Proctor he was a Vietnam War veteran who had served in the Special Forces at age 18, been captured, tortured and escaped. Proctor, a nurse, said the story moved her. Walton later suffered a heart attack and then a stroke. Medical bills mounted, and he refused to seek Veterans Affairs care, claiming he had been dishonorably discharged.

In 2014, a detective in Canada called Proctor. Investigators had reopened the cold case of Ronald Stan, who vanished in 1977 after a barn fire killed several pigs. Human remains were never found, but Stan was declared legally dead in 1986. Using modern technology, Ontario Provincial Police tracked him to rural Oklahoma, where he lived under the name Jeff Walton. He admitted the truth to police.

Proctor went to the Cherokee Nation Marshals Service to confirm the details. She learned Stan had faked his death in the fire and abandoned his wife and two children. She filed for divorce and stayed with a friend.

Stan called and texted her repeatedly. In one voicemail he said, "If you want to play hardball, then come on." He also contacted one of her sons and emailed friends and colleagues. Proctor said she was frightened and wondered whether he might return to harm her or burn her home.

The statute of limitations for arson had expired in Canada, and too much time had passed for identity fraud charges in the United States. Stan never apologized. The calls stopped, and Proctor never heard from him again. In 2019, his son contacted her to say Stan had died.

Proctor now supports victims of domestic violence in her community. She remarried a longtime friend and fellow golf enthusiast named Richard.

"I never intended to do this again," she said. "But the gentleman I married, Richard, is absolutely the sweetest, kindest, most loving person I’ve ever known in my life. It’s a love that I’ve never experienced before. It’s genuine."

Proctor’s advice is simple: "If something doesn’t feel right, dig out the truth."