Every year the FBI updates its Most Wanted list. It usually features terrorists, violent criminals, or fugitives with blood on their hands. But the December 2025 update surprised the public. A new entry on the list is a seventy-four-year-old woman from California.
The Senior Fugitive Behind the Crimes
Her name is Mary Carole McDonald. She was born in 1951. For most of her career she worked in American television, especially producing true-crime shows. Crime documentary programs always attract their own audience, and McDonald understood that niche well.
In 2004 she founded Bellum Entertainment Group, a company devoted to producing crime programs. Many of their shows can still be found in online databases: titles focused on corruption, murder stories, killer psychology, and sensational relationships. These programs were never intended to win awards. They were low-budget entertainment designed to pass the time and earn modest profit. 
McDonald was the founder, chief executive, and creative lead. The company was essentially built on her shoulders. If she had launched her career twenty years earlier, she might have ended with a different legacy. But media consumption habits were shifting.
The Collapse of a Business Model
Streaming television platforms grew more powerful, and fewer people tuned into traditional television. Bellum Entertainment enjoyed a brief moment of success, then declined. By 2017 the company was struggling. It could not produce new content or cover basic costs.
Employees complained about unpaid salaries. Their reports triggered a state investigation, and Bellum drifted toward bankruptcy.
In June 2017 McDonald lied to her employees. She claimed the company had fallen victim to a banking scam. An industry magazine even published an exclusive story about this so-called bank deception.
The irony is that while she blamed an imaginary fraud, she was preparing to commit a real one.
A Convenient Last Name
The surname McDonald carries a powerful history in American aviation. In 1939 James Smith McDonnell founded McDonnell Aircraft, which rapidly expanded due to World War II. It became a major aviation supplier.
The company later merged with Douglas Aircraft Company in the 1960s, forming McDonnell Douglas. After another merger in the 1990s, this group joined Boeing. Now the Boeing company logo incorporates elements from its predecessor.
Because of this visible legacy, the McDonnell name can be misused. Mary Carole McDonald built a convincing personal mythology. She presented herself as an heir to the aviation empire and as a media entrepreneur facing temporary hardship.
None of it was true, yet banks in California seemed eager to believe.
The Fake Heir and the Loan Scam
McDonald approached banks by claiming she was about to receive an eighty-million-dollar trust. She said she needed a short-term loan and could guarantee repayment once the trust fund was released.
She targeted Banc of California first and told them she could use a twenty-eight-million-dollar trust account as collateral. The bank apparently performed little due diligence. It approved a fourteen-point-seven-million-dollar loan without uncovering her fabrication.
Then she moved through institutions across Los Angeles County and Orange County, California. She repeated the same story. Bank after bank failed to verify her identity or her financial claims. She secured another fifteen million dollars.
Her scheme began in July 2017 and continued until May 2018. By the time the deception unraveled she had stolen almost thirty million dollars.
How Her Web of Lies Fell Apart
In early 2018 Banc of California finally checked the collateral account. The account had already been closed months earlier. It had no link to the aviation family and no relationship to McDonald.
By the time the bank realized the truth she had vanished.
The Commentators Who Knew Her
When the scandal surfaced, former FBI special agent Bobby Chacon discussed her behavior. McDonald had produced many programs about criminals being caught. Chacon speculated she learned tricks from them. She knew how to blur information and stretch resources. As a low-budget producer she was used to bending rules. That mindset can benefit a con artist.
Former Bellum employees remembered her glamorous lifestyle. She owned a mansion in northeast Los Angeles. It had a banquet hall and a swimming pool. She threw lavish parties for her staff. Many assumed she was wealthy. They believed she came from a powerful family. Her clothes looked expensive, and she behaved with perfect confidence.
A Strange Ethical Twist
One of the darkest jokes in this story is the alleged purpose of the stolen funds. According to federal indictments Bellum owed more than one million dollars to creditors and employees. McDonald used part of her fraudulent loans to cover payroll and debt.
Even if the money temporarily repaired obligations, the business collapsed. With the chief executive missing, Bellum was forced into bankruptcy. Public filings show that no one has been willing to take responsibility for the remaining assets.
A Fugitive With a Head Start
The United States issued a federal arrest warrant for McDonald on December 12, 2018. She faced charges including bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. But she disappeared before law enforcement could locate her.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic erupted. The world focused on public health, not runaway executives. Years passed without any clear trail. Seven years after the warrant, investigators had nothing, so the FBI escalated her status.
She became one of the Most Wanted fugitives.
Where Could She Be Now?
Authorities suspect she may have gone to Dubai. Some reports say she passed through London on the way. She allegedly applied for a visa extension in 2019. It is unclear whether she stayed there.
The most ironic point is that for decades she produced crime shows. The best episode of her entire catalog has turned out to be the one she directed and starred in herself.
For her, life did not imitate art. Life became the art.
