Adopters Who Abuse & Kill

Adopters Who Abuse & Kill

Although domestic adoptions involve background checks & other pre-adoption investigation of prospective adopters, many adopted children fall through the cracks due to greed of profiteering baby brokers, understaffed public/private agencies, loose foreign adoption controls, & expedience. There is usually no in-home followup to any adoption past the date of finalization. And there's no way to predict nor guarantee future problems. Many children who are too young or too afraid to report abuse end up with adopters who physically, sexually and/or mentally abuse them -- or even kill them -- and not always because these adopters are normally abusive. Often adopters who have the best of intentions are unprepared to deal with the behaviors & problems these children acquire from separation from their original families, & from prior orphanage or foster parent mistreatment or neglect, & are misled to believe that "with a little love" all will be well.

Interestingly, America's first adoptees would have been Mary Moore, 4, & her sister Ellen Moore, 8. They were scheduled for the long voyage from England aboard the Mayflower, because their wealthy parents, Samuel & Katherine Moore of Shropshire, England, went through a bitter separation & divorce. Realizing his children would be in social disgrace due to the divorce, & wanting to punish his wife for her extramarital affair with Jacob Blakeway -- who Samuel found out was the actual biological father of the girls he believed were his -- Samuel paid to have her daughters sent away on the Mayflower. The abandoned, neglected girls died that winter despite being adopted into "respectable families among the Pilgrims."
Source: members.aol.com/calebj/girls.html


PARENTS ARRESTED IN DEATH OF ADOPTED SON
WSB-TV, Georgia (12-29-09)

Jami and David Jones

LOGANVILLE, GA. -- The Walton County Sheriff's Office has not said what exactly killed the child but they do say charges against Louis David Jones and Jami Lea Jones have been upgraded from aggravated battery and child cruelty to murder. According to deputies, paramedics were called out to the Jones' Loganville home on Christmas Eve about the 6-year-old boy. The boy was rushed to a hospital, where he died Monday. "Apparently they saw something that just didn't look right to them," Chief Deputy Bruce Wright said. After paramedics asked deputies to look into the case, Louis and Jami Jones were arrested. "Based on the evidence that was obtained through a search warrant the night this occurred, interviews with the parents and information the doctors have given us, there is enough evidence to proceed with this charge," Wright said. DFCS workers were called in to care for the couple's other children...

FATHER KILLED KIDS, HIMSELF...
By Phil Manzano, The Oregonian, (6-1-09)

Tyler and Kylie Gumm

....Police identified the children as Tyler Gumm, 7; and his sister, Kylie Gumm, 6, of Hillsboro.

....“It appears that James Gumm shot both kids with a handgun, then shot himself," said Hillsboro Police spokesman Lt. Michael Rouches. "The hard ones are the ones involving children. It is an awful, terrible scene.” Lt. Henry Reimann of Hillsboro Police said James Gumm had emotional problems, adding that ‘some mental health issues were starting to emerge.’ But Rouches said he had no idea why Gumm, who did not have a criminal record, killed his two adoptive children.

Oregon court records show Gumm and his wife filed for divorce twice, in 1992 and again in December 2007. The mother of the boy's biological father said via e-mail that both children had the same birth mother but different fathers....Rouches said Gumm and his ex-wife had a custody agreement, and Gumm shot the children during his time with them. There is no record of intervention by the Department of Human Services for abuse or neglect of the children. The adoptive mother, who lives in Hillsboro, asked through the police for privacy Saturday.

FLINT GIRL'S ADOPTIVE MOTHER CHARGED WITH MURDER
by Ben Schmitt, Detroit Free Press Staff Witer - 4-24-09

Shylae Thomas

Genessee County prosecutors charged the adoptive mother of a quadriplegic 9-year old girl with second degree murder, and five other charges, alleging neglect and malnourishment caused the death of the girl who was found dead this week [in a garbage bag] in a storage unit. Lorrie Thomas, 39, of Flint, is charged in connection with the death of her adopted daughter and niece, Shylae Thomas. Thomas is also charged with two counts of welfare fraud, abuse, tampering with evidence, and a misdemeanor count of removing a dead body without the permission of the medical examiner… an autopsy showed that Shylae suffered from malnutrition and weighed 33 pounds at the time of her death. In August, records indicate the girl had weighed 61 pounds… On April 13, Thomas cashed a $2,884 monthly adoption subsidy... Shylae had been dead for about six weeks. Jonette Thomas said her cousin, Lorrie "did the best she could with eight children."


Tai-Ling

AUTHORITIES: TEEN KEPT IN FLA BATHROOM, BEATEN
by Christine Armario, AP; also reported by CBS News, Spring Hill, FL, 2-18-09
For three years, neighbors in a quaint, middle-class community scarcely saw the lanky 16-year-old boy who lived with his adoptive mother and her boyfriend. Now, they know why: According to authorities, the teen was brutally abused and held captive in his own home. Most recently, he'd been confined to a bathroom, locked from the outside and sealed with a piece of plywood over the window. By the time he escaped last week, the Florida boy had a broken forearm and scars, scabs and oozing wounds that investigators say mark years of abuse. Hernando County Sheriff Richard Nugent called it "barbaric." "This is almost like what John McCain went through in Vietnam when he was a prisoner of war," Nugent said.

Tai-Ling Gigliotti and her boyfriend, Anton Angelo, were arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse and false imprisonment last week. Gigliotti, 50, was released on a $15,000 bond. Her attorney did not reply to messages seeking comment, and no one answered when a reporter visited her home. Angelo, 45, was released on a $50,000 bond… Authorities are still piecing together the boy's history, but they believe Gigliotti is the boy's aunt, and that she brought him from Taiwan to the United States when he was a young child.

The teen, whose name was not released because he is an alleged victim of child abuse, told investigators his stepfather was Anthony Gigliotti, who was the Philadelphia Orchestra's principal clarinetist. The stepfather died at age 79 in 2001, before the abuse apparently began. …"He acted very reserved when he was around her," Lynne Gigliotti said of the boy. "And when you would get him away from her, he acted like a little boy." About the time Anthony Gigliotti died, his wife and Angelo began living together. Neighbors said the family moved into their Spring Hill house, about an hour north of Tampa, approximately four years ago… Her nephew didn't seem to be around as much in recent years… Other children said he'd stopped going to school about a year ago…

According to an arrest affidavit, the abuse began at least three years ago, when the boy was forced to sleep in a hallway as punishment. Then in November 2007 daily confinement in a bathroom began. Nugent said the boy seemed to believe the abuse was his fault for minor problems like a messy room. He was also told he'd be deported if he escaped, Nugent said… "The pain had to be horrific," Nugent said. "I think at that point he just became absolutely fearful for his life." …the boy, who weighs 111 pounds, managed to break the door frame and pull the door open, Nugent said. He put on some of Angelo's clothes and ran to a neighbor for help. Authorities took him to a hospital, where the full extent of his injuries were uncovered.

The state has placed the boy with a foster family.


Nina Hilt
("Viktoria Bazhenova")

RUSSIAN GIRL KILLED IN U.S., ADOPTED LEGALLY
from newsfromrussia.com/usa/2005/07/11/60568.html
Investigators began looking into the adoption of [2 year old] Nina Hilt after the girl died earlier this month in Virginia. Her adoptive mother, Peggy Sue Hilt, 33, of Wake Forest, North Carolina, was arrested last week and charged with the girl's murder, reports the AP. The Interfax news agency reported Monday that Russian prosecutors found the girl was adopted with no violations of federal regulations. Hilt's arrest came just weeks after Russian authorities stripped three U.S.-based adoption agencies of their accreditation, saying they failed to monitor the children's well-being in their adoptive families. About 20,000 children are adopted in the United States each year, with Russian children accounting for some 25 percent of their total number. At least 12 adopted Russian children have died since 1996.


Renee Bowman

CHILDREN'S REMAINS FOUND IN HOME FREEZER
from FOXNews.com; MyFOXDC.com, 1-29-08
LUSBY, Maryland — Child-sized human remains uncovered in a basement freezer were those of two girls and have been there for months, their adoptive mother told investigators. Authorities said Monday they believe she is responsible for their deaths. Sheriff's deputies were investigating an abuse complaint regarding a third, surviving child Saturday when they discovered the remains encased in ice. The mother told investigators that they had been in her southern Maryland home's freezer for at least seven months, and police said they are considering the case a homicide. Deputies made the gruesome find in Lusby, about 50 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. They were at the home with a search warrant to investigate what happened to a runaway 7-year-old girl who was found wandering the neighborhood, injured and hungry in a blood- and feces-soaked nightshirt.

The girl's mother, 43-year-old Renee Bowman, has been arrested... She is charged with first-degree child abuse in the beating of the 7-year-old. Bowman was a foster mother to all three before adopting them in the District of Columbia, officials said at a news conference. The girl had open sores and lesions on her buttocks and lower thighs, marks on her neck made by a cord, rope or other item and bruises on her hands and lips, police said ....Bowman adopted the oldest girl in July 2001, D.C. officials said. Three years later, she adopted the girl who would now be 9 and her 7-year-old sister. She is not biologically related to them.


Alexis Glover

ARREST MADE IN ALEXIS GLOVER MURDER CASE
by Toni Clark Knight, Black Spin News, Black Voices.com - 2-19-09
Although arrested and released from police custody a little over a month ago, Glover's adoptive mother, who initially told authorities that the girl had run away, has been arrested again. After local police searched her property, she was charged with felony child neglect and filing a false police report. Further charges are "likely." [The] 13-year-old developmentally disabled girl disappeared last Wednesday (Jan. 7) from the parking lot of the Manassas, VA, Central Community Library.

CAGES BUILT FOR [ADOPTED] CHILDREN RAISE ALARM
by Josh Getlin, LA Times, p. A-12 (9-15-05) www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cages 15sep15,1,3128744.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
WAKEMAN, Ohio ? …Nine of the kids were forced to sleep in wooden cages ? and the Gravelles didn't think anything was wrong, officials said. The 11 kids, all adopted, were whisked out of the house on St. John Road and placed temporarily in four foster homes. They are special-needs children, with problems including fetal alcohol syndrome, HIV, autism and Down syndrome.

"We're still trying to figure out where all the kids came from," [said Huron County Prosecutor Russell Leffler]… But he issued a news statement Wednesday evening, saying that the Gravelles, with the approval of a social worker, had constructed "enclosures" around their beds, because the children demonstrated "extreme behavioral problems" and that "traditional methods of behavior control were unsuccessful."… When investigators searched the house, they found few toys lying about. The children's wooden cages had no bedding ? only mats ? and some reeked of urine. A key issue is where the children came from, and how a home with such apparent conditions could have been ignored by child-welfare officials for so many years. None of the children were adopted in Huron County; all came from adoption authorities in other states, officials said. …Although no figures have been released, a 2001 divorce proceeding between Michael and Sharen Gravelle, ultimately dropped, indicated that she was receiving an estimated $4,265 per month in adoption subsidies and Social Security benefits for seven children. The couple adopted four additional kids in subsequent years. Sharen Gravelle alleged in the court documents that her husband had displayed "extreme cruelty and gross neglect of duty"; he denied this and said their relationship had "deteriorated."

GIRL TESTIFIES ABOUT ABUSE BY MOTHER
by David Conti, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (10-19-05)
Haley Liberman buried her head in the side of a prosecutor who led her into a courtroom Tuesday morning. The 9-year-old girl with long brown hair and pudgy cheeks didn't want to look at her adoptive mother, Debra Liberman, who sat at the defendant's table… Officer Connie Diulus found Haley naked, wet and shivering in the closet. Haley's testimony came on the first day of her mother's attempted homicide trial before Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel at the Allegheny County Courthouse, Downtown. Liberman, 52, of Carrick, also is charged with aggravated assault, arson, child endangerment and unlawful restraint. Haley's brother, Noah, who was 4 at the time of the February 2004 attack, was not hurt. Both children now live in Virginia with their adoptive father -- Liberman's ex-husband, Daniel Liberman… After more time in the freezing February air, Liberman brought her daughter back inside and to the basement. "She put me in the coal cellar. She took a (furnace) filter and lit it on fire. And she closed the door," Haley said. "It was still burning when I pushed the door open." And Liberman was still there. Haley said her mother poured cat litter over her head, and then three bottles of bleach. "It went down from the top of my back all the way to my knees," Haley said. "It hurt." Liberman then beat the child with a chain dog choker and forced her outside again -- this time naked -- to "wipe the blood off with the snow," Haley said. Then, after running hot and cold water on the girl in the shower, Liberman locked her in the closet. Neighbor Beth McCann testified that she called 911 about 7:30 a.m. after hearing Haley through a shared wall. "She was coughing and crying and saying, 'Please stop,' " McCann said.

When at last mother and daughter made eye contact yesterday, both buried their faces in their hands and cried. David Conti can be reached at dconti@tribweb.com or (412) 391-0927.

N.J. STARVING BOYS CASE PROMPTS FIRINGS
by John P. McAlpin, Associated Press Writer (10-27-03)
TRENTON, N.J. - The body of a 7-year-old boy found in a box in a Newark basement nearly a year ago prompted a shake-up at New Jersey's child welfare agency. The agency reviewed all open cases, hired 366 more employees and received $30 million in emergency aid.

Despite those changes, four adopted boys -- one of them 19 -- were found earlier this month malnourished and weighing less than 50 pounds each. Their adoptive parents [Raymond and Vanessa Jackson] were charged last week with starving them, and on Monday, nine child welfare employees were fired and the state announced another review of recently compiled safety assessments of children in state care.

Social workers had visited the boys' house in Collingswood as many as 38 times in two years, state officials said. Some of those visits had been ordered of all children in state care after the Newark death last January.

Authorities said the boys were locked out of the kitchen and fed a diet of uncooked pancake batter, peanut butter and jelly and cereal. The boys told investigators they also gnawed on wallboard and insulation. They were found after a neighbor discovered Jackson rummaging through trash for food.

[NOTE: In "Cash Incentives for Adoptions Seen as Risk to Some Children" by Leslie Kaufman (10-29-03), it was reported that: "…States across the country, often in response to cash incentives offered by the federal government, have been under intense pressure in recent years to move children through their foster care systems and into permanent homes. Indeed, the number of annual adoptions nationally almost doubled from 1995 to 2001, and New Jersey adoptions more than doubled in an even shorter time, to 1,364 in 2002 from 621 in 1998.

…The payments to parents willing to adopt can amount to hundreds of dollars a month per child. The Jacksons, with six adopted children and one foster child, received more than $30,000 in government payments last year.

…Once children are formally adopted… the state is no longer entitled to closely monitor their well-being… a greater amount is paid to the families who adopt medically fragile or psychologically troubled children -- the risk exists that families take on more than they can handle, sometimes just for the additional money.

"Have we gone too far too fast?" asks Gary Stangler, executive director of Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, a private foundation in St. Louis focusing on getting children out of foster care. "I worry that with all the applause going to the increasing numbers of adoptions, that we are possibly putting these young people into families not equipped or prepared to handle them."

…Richard Wexler, the director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, says he was concerned that the new law "would create a huge incentive for quick and dirty slipshod placements."]


"MOMMIE DEAREST" by Christina Crawford
ISBN 042504440 Penguin-Putnam 1976, Berkeley 1986;
& 20th Anniversary Edition 0966336989, Seven Springs 1997
When released in 1978, Christina Crawford's "Mommie Dearest" made an indelible impression on America's cultural landscape: it enjoyed 42 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, spawned a cult film classic (starring Faye Dunaway) based on the book, and placed the issue of [adoptive] family violence in the national spotlight… and the book still stands as a catalyst for change. Christina Crawford is an internationally recognized, best-selling author and advocate for adoption reform, the rights of women and children, and a pioneer in making family violence an issue of national concern. While the original book places a spotlight on the physical and emotional abuse famed actress Joan Crawford inflicted on her adopted children, in the 20th Anniversary edition of "Mommie Dearest," Christina Crawford adds a Preface "to reflect the whirlwind that has happened in my life since 'Mommie Dearest ' was first published, and an Afterword on adoption reform."

Following are true incidents documenting abuse and murders of adoptees by their adopters (excerpted newsclips, other sources cited).

TWO CHARGED WITH ABUSING ADOPTED KIDS
by Lise Fisher, Gainesville Sun (4-11-03)
"Two Gainesville women, including one who has been adopting abused and neglected children for about 20 years, are accused of abusing many of those children - beating them with pipes and forcing them to fight with each other at their home, police said.

Nellie Jasper Johnson, 60, was at the Alachua County jail Thursday where she was being held in lieu of a $1 million bond on 38 charges including aggravated child abuse, child neglect and tampering with a witness, victim or informant.

Also charged is her adopted daughter, Colony Latrisa Johnson, 29, who was at the jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond. She faces prosecution on six counts of child abuse and four counts of aggravated child abuse.

Police forwarded the names of 19 possible victims to prosecutors, Gainesville Police Detective Patti Nixon said. They were ages 7 to 17 when the alleged abuse occurred, she said.

Nixon said this is one of the worst cases of child abuse she has seen.

…All of the victims were adopted through a Broward County agency called Shepherd's Care Ministries, police and an official with the Florida Department of Children & Families said. The group is licensed by DCF to recruit adults to adopt children and to make adoptive placements, local DCF spokesman Tom Barnes said. The group, Barnes said, would have been responsible for conducting a home study prior to the children being adopted by Nellie Johnson.

…The last adoption occurred in about 1996, Barnes said. The adopted children came from South Florida, including Palm Beach and Broward counties. Nixon said there may have been more victims.

'There are more children out there who are grown and we haven't been able to reach,' she said."

"MAN IN MIDST OF DIVORCE KILLS FAMILY"
from Wire Service Reports, in Salina Journal, 1-28-03
Horner, West Virginia: "A man in the middle of a divorce shot two of his children and a foster child child to death in the woods and killed himself… Gayle Sams estranged wife and their 14-year-old daughter escaped unharmed and ran to a neighbor's house to call 911… Two 4-year olds and a 17 year old boy were killed when Sams who was living elsewhere went to the family home… The sheriff said the family was adopting one of the 4 year olds."


Brian Edgar

"SLAIN BOY'S BIOLOGICAL RELATIVES QUESTION ADOPTION PROCESS"
by Grace Hobson, The Kansas City Star (1-10-03):
"Patricia Jones could not have known a fleeting visit with her 2-year-old grandson, Brian Clark, would be her last. She had not seen the toddler since he was placed in foster care at the age of about 7 months old. But his foster parents arrived late to the meeting, so the visit with the boy she had helped raise was brief. "It was like a flash of light," recalled Jones, of Kansas City. "A hug. A kiss. I haven't seen him since then -- until the news. All I heard was the name Brian, and I knew that was my grandchild. "My heart just dropped," Jones said, tears welling.

This week a social services official confirmed that Brian Edgar, the 9-year-old boy who died Dec. 29 of asphyxiation after being gagged, was her biological grandson. …How, they wonder, could Kansas social services officials allow Brian to be adopted by people who later would be charged in his death? Neil and Christy Edgar, and their baby sitter, Chasity Boyd, are charged with first-degree murder of Brian, who died after he was bound and gagged and his mouth was taped shut. Police allege in court records filed this week that Brian and three other children the Edgars had adopted were routinely bound at night and gagged.

Brian was a happy, well-adjusted baby, Patricia Jones said. His only medical problem was sleep apnea, for which he used a sleep monitor, she said. …Shadden said she did not know why Brian was not placed with anyone in his biological family, and said that under Kansas law she could not discuss any particular case.

To reach Grace Hobson, call (816) 234-7744 or send e-mail to ghobson@kcstar.com.

"POLICE ALLEGATIONS DETAILED IN BOY'S MURDER"
--The Kansas City Star, 1/9/03, by Joe Lambe www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/4904500.htm
A court document filed Wednesday chronicles sweeping police allegations in the slaying of 9-year-old Brian Edgar. Authorities say Brian and two siblings were routinely bound at bedtime and that evidence related to his death was taken to another house and destroyed. …Neil and Christy Edgar, along with the baby sitter, Chasity Boyd, 19, are charged with first-degree murder. The Edgars also are charged with abusing their 16- and 12-year-old sons and 9-year-old daughter. The Edgars adopted all four. The surviving children are now in protective custody…

DEAD GIRL’S KIN SUE ADOPTION AGENCY
by Jennifer M. Fitzenberger, The Fresno Bee, (3-15-02)
"Five siblings of a murdered child on Wednesday sued the agency that placed them in the home of Angela Thompson. The children suffered years of physical and emotional abuse because Family Connections Adoptions didn't properly supervise their placement in the Thompson home or investigate her background, according to a lawsuit filed in Tulare County Superior Court. Alison Foster, executive director of Family Connections, said her agency made a clerical error resulting in improper certification of Thompson, but was never told details of prior cases of abuse.


"A DEATH IN WHITE BEAR LAKE"
-- Ballantine Books, 11/28/00, by Barry Siegel, (ISBN 0345432991)
The true story of how a 3-1/2 year old child was brutally abused and ultimatly murdered by his adopter, Lois Jurgens. You Will learn how her husband, family and friends were very aware of the abuse and did absolutly nothing to help this poor child. You will also read how the justice system and adoption agency failed to save Dennis. And the painful events for the natural mother, Jerry Sherwood and her family to get justice for her dead son. Very well written book that goes into the background of Lois and Harold Jurgens and how this evil women was able to adopt a total of 6 children (all whom ran away and were removed from her home due to abuse). The book also gives a compelling account of the trial and finally the conviction of murder for Lois Jurgens, who for 22 years almost got away with it.

Email to AmFOR about the Jurgens case from Pamela Norton Docken, 1-22-03:

"As an adopted cousin of Dennis, I feel it is important the record shows that my parents DID try to intervene, but were unsuccessful due to circumstances. Social Services was not interested in protecting the children.

The police department was run by Lois's brother, my uncle. Abuse was a common occurance in my mother's family. Often things about my mother's family was covered up. According to the investigators in 1986, it was my uncle who stopped the investigation into Dennis's death.

My parents, Richard and Donna Norton, moved forth and fought to get Robert removed from Lois's house -- and were -- at least temporarily -- successful. They also fought the placement of the four other children into the Jurgen's home. But that too fell on deaf ears. The social service system failed to protect Dennis. Even after Dennis was scalded the system allowed the his adoption to happen. The Catholic Church failed -- Father Riser knew the family well and did nothing to stop her from getting more children -- he actually wrote a letter of support. Neighbors failed. And yes -- most family members failed. While many family members denied knowing about the abuse, other's did not. My mother's family was a very secretive, powerful family who would go to no end to stop a person from talking. I look at both my Mother and my Father as two people who went against the family to fight for all the children that were placed with Lois.

I was just a child when Dennis -- who was not only a cousin but also a playmate of mine had his life taken away. I saw first hand the frustration my parents went through as they tried to find a way to protect Dennis and Robert, and the other children that Lois managed to get. No matter how dangerous it was to our own family.

During this period of time, Lois broke into our home early in the morning and attempted to start a fire in our kitchen while we slept. My father caught her as she left. Lois's attempts to harm our family did not deter my parents from trying to do what they could to protect the children. My parent's efforts fell on deaf ears of social services and local authorities. My father retained an attorney to block the adoptions of the four children from Kentucky. Apparently Lois and Harold managed to get around that. There were people who loved Dennis and tried to save him and to save the other children. In loving memory of Dennis, Pamela Norton Docken."


Renee and David Polreis

"POLREIS SENTENCING"
ICAD Digest, 9-22-97, www.ualberta.ca/~jpdasddc/ abuse/ICAD/digests/vol1no20.html
"Renee Polreis is scheduled to be sentenced today in Colorado for the 2nd degree murder of her two-year-old adopted son David. Sentencing guidelines suggest that she should receive a sentence of not less than 16 or more than 48 years for the savage beating that one forensic expert suggested was one of the worse that she has seen in 1000s of cases.

Renee Polreis adopted her son David from Russia and based her controversial defense on the notion that David had 'reactive attachment disorder' a controversial diagnosis. While the defense suggested that the two-year-old child beat himself to death, it seemed more plausible (in view of overwhelming evidence that he was beaten to death by an adult) that they were trying to convince the jury that the mother's actions were somehow justified.

The jury convicted her in about two hours and seemed to have no doubts that Renee Polreis killed her adopted son David, but did express sympathy with her difficult situation. The sentence will be of great interest."


Marybeth Tinning

"FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE"
Jove Publications, 5/90, by Joyce Egginston (ISBN 0515103012)
She had nine children and every single one of them died before they reached school age.

…Many suspected Marybeth Tinning of having killed the babies, but some thought it was just a genetic deformity in the family. That was, until the Tinning's two-year-old adopted son, Michael, died for no apparent reason. That's when the authorities started to move in. Tinning was sentenced to 20 years to life.

"GIRLS RETURNED TO ADOPTIVE PARENTS"
Los Angeles Times, 2/25/98, story about adopters judged abusive by court
Adoptive parents were found guilty of abusing 2 Russian children they adopted, on the plane ride on the way home from Moscow. The girls were returned to live with Karen and Richard Thorne of Phoenix. The Queens Family Court Judge ordered that the Thornes would be subject to unannounced visits by Arizona Child Welfare authorities and undergo psychological evaluation as a condition of regaining custody.


Lisa Steinberg


Joel Steinberg

"SUIT OVER GIRL'S DEATH SETTLED"
AP story on Lisa Steinberg. 09-30-99, 1726 EDT
NEW YORK (AP) - A woman whose daughter was illegally adopted by Joel Steinberg and later beaten to death by him accepted $985,000 Thursday to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit she filed against several city agencies.

The woman, Michele Launders, refused to comment on the settlement. But her lawyer, Joseph Famighetti, said: ``It gives her closure and allows her to get on with her life.''

Ms. Launders, who was unwed when her daughter was born in 1981, charged that Steinberg, a lawyer, defrauded her when he accepted $500 to place the infant with an adoptive family. Instead of putting the baby up for adoption, Steinberg took her home to his companion, Hedda Nussbaum, named the child Lisa, and killed her six years later by hitting her on the head.

Ms. Nussbaum testified that they used cocaine while the girl lay dying on the bathroom floor.

In 1988, Ms. Launders sued Steinberg, Ms. Nussbaum, the Police Department and other city agencies. She charged that the agencies knew Lisa was being abused and did nothing to protect her.

In settling the case, the city admitted no wrongdoing.

Ms. Nussbaum, 57, will donate $500 to a children's charity to settle the case against her.

Steinberg is serving up to 25 years for manslaughter.

"ABUSE OF ADOPTEES IN ADOPTIVE HOME"
Transcript of Workshop by Elizabeth ("Liz") Payne (social worker-mother-adoptee who was abused in her adoptive home;
workshop attended by adoptees, parents, search group leaders)
LIZ: "As you can see, we're in the most popular seminar this morning. And I think thinks it's very relevent as to why we're doing this workshop in the first place. The reasons… are basically that in recent stories about abuse that occurs in adoptive families, people seem to be startled. And as we found ourselves startled at it as well, we were startled that we were startled. Why should we be startled that there's abuse in adoptive families as well as other families? And we began to think about that in large part we all do have an assumption that there's probably not abuse in adoptive families.

I myself am an adoptee and a birthmother and a social worker and I was abused in my adoptive home. I'm still startled at various times. I catch myself and I realize that many times over the years, the general public often says 'Don't they screen those people?' Don't these people have to go through these horrendous checks before they can adopt? …The assumption being that they are therefore are more psychologically better and less prone to any kinds of abuse.

MOM CALLED 'UNCONCERNED' ABOUT SON
by Dennis Tatz, The Patriot Ledger, (8-16-02) www.ledger.com/display/inn_headlines/news1pl.txt
QUINCY - When police arrived to arrest her, Natalia Higier appeared more concerned about her dog and returning to her job in a jewelry store than about her 2-year-old son, who lay dying at Children's Hospital, a prosecutor said.

Higier, 47, pleaded innocent to manslaughter and assault charges yesterday in Quincy District Court, five hours after her adopted son, Zachary, died of massive internal head injuries. ''Doctors have said that the skull fractures were consistent with a fall from a multi-story building,'' prosecutor Robert Nelson told the judge…

Zachary was born in Russia on May 24, 2000. The Higiers, who have no other children, adopted him eight months ago. A babysitter told police she had seen injuries on the baby previously, but the state Department of Social Services said the family had no record. Police were called to the couple's house on May 2 and 3, 1995. Natalia Higier took out a restraining order accusing her husband of slapping her and punching her, leaving bruises, but she dropped it after one day. She also said he had hit her on April 27 and called her ''fat'' and ''poor.'' Louis Higier also took out a restraining order against his wife in Nofolk Probate and Family Court, but no further information was available… Doctors found brain injuries, including swelling, that they believe occurred several hours earlier than Higier told authorities, Nelson said.

''While police were driving her to the station she said she was a good person and sometimes things just happen,'' Nelson said [and] ''His reaction is not what you would expect from a parent whose 2-year-old had been injured,'' said Nelson.

ADOPTIVE MOTHER CHARGED IN DEATH
by Brian Arrington, International Herald Tribune (2-27-02) www.iht.com
Police have charged the adoptive mother of the 5-year-old Victoria Avenue boy who died in her care Dec. 14 with murder after medical examiners ruled the child died from a blow to the head. Heather Lindorff, 37, of Victoria Avenue was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated assault and child abuse. Her husband, 52-year-old James E. Lindorff, was also arrested and charged with fourth-degree child abuse… The arrest comes after medical examiners ruled that 5-year-old Jacob Lindorff died after sustaining ''blunt trauma to the head,'' according to county Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Dianna Reed-Rolando.

FOSTER MOTHER [ADOPTER] CHARGED IN DEATH
Detroit Free Press, by Jack Kresnak, Staff Writer (3-22-03)
"A Detroit foster mother who had adopted a girl and was set to adopt two boys from Pontiac was charged Friday with first-degree felony murder in the beating death of one of the boys. The foster mother, Lynda Carol Baker, was named in a murder warrant issued late Friday by the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. She is charged in the death on Tuesday of Joshua Causey, 4, who had been placed in Baker's care in August."

ACCIDENT OR MURDER??
Daily World, by Lisa Patterson (1-12-03) - lpatterson@thedailyworld.com
www.thedailyworld.com/daily/ 2003/Jan-12-Sun-2003/news/news1.html
Tap, tap, tap. A little finger poked Nathan Mohler's shoulder. "I think you're my brother," said a blue - eyed little boy with shiny blonde hair.

For most of their lives the Grays Harbor boys had been separated from each other while being shuffled through the foster care system. Andy Mohler, the youngest, was adopted not long after he tapped his big brother's shoulder, and the chance meeting that summer afternoon at a 4 - H camp in Mason County would be their last.

Andy Mohler, later renamed Shawn Lawrence by his adoptive parents, died while on a fishing trip with his new dad and a young friend on Oct. 9, 1999 - about a year after his adoption. At first the 10 - year - old's death was ruled accidental. It was determined that he slipped, hit his head - perhaps on some rocks - and drowned in the remote Brown Creek Campground area north of Shelton. Weeks later, police learned the adoptive parents took out $650,000 in life insurance policies on their new son.

…When Andy was adopted, the ties with his biological mother weren't the only ones severed - his brothers lost their rights to contact Andy, too. Mohler doesn't think that was right. Tears turned to anger when he found out his brother had been dead for at least a week, and that the autopsy and cremation had already come and gone.

"I understand that it was a closed adoption and everything, but his biological mom and siblings should have been contacted," Mohler said.

"…Andy had an abrasion in the back of his head, like he fell and hit his head," Mohler said. "But there wasn't any debris in the cut. It makes me think that he didn't fall first. That someone hit him."

…He's afraid the longer the case goes on, the more chance there is that it will be forgotten - that he'll never know what really happened to his little brother. That's why he decided to talk to the media, including NBC's "Dateline," believing that his speaking out will help keep the investigation alive. The TV segment is expected to be aired nationwide sometime soon.

… On the fishing trip, detectives said, the adoptive father separated the two boys and later asked the friend to help him look for Andy.

The mother attempted to cash out one of the life insurance policies five days after the death.


Debra Gatlin and Tiffany Clair

MOTHER ON TRIAL IN DAUGHTER'S DEATH
Star Telegram, by Melody McDonald, (8-28-03)
FORT WORTH - Tiffany Clair was conceived of rape, adopted at birth, had attempted suicide and was shot up drugs together with her adopter, when she overdosed and died at age 15. This week, her adopter, Debra Gatlin Clair, is on trial… accused of manslaughter in the May 3, 2001 death of her adopted daughter.

CLAIM BOY KILLED HIMSELF "UNREAL" COURT TOLD
Brighton & Hove, Newsquest Media Group, by Phil Mills (10-16-01)
…His adoptive mother, Michelle McWilliam, found John in bed and called an ambulance. She and her husband Simon concocted a story that John self-abused, to cover up the abuse that one or both of them were inflicting.

TETHERED BOY'S MOM IS RELEASED
Detroit Free Press, by Jack Kresnak (11-3-99)
Is tying a half-naked disabled child to a plastic bucket with a dog collar and leash, then locking him in a basement room, considered criminal abuse in Michigan? Perhaps not. The boy and his biological brother--both adopted years ago by the woman, a former licensed foster parent, are in foster homes under supervision of the Wayne County Family Independence Agency.

LORETTA REED, Petitioner v. STATE OF FLORIDA,
Respondent, Amended Supplemental Brief Of Petitioner; and Answer by Respondent Florida Supreme Court, Case No. SC01-1238 (1-22-02)
…It was Petitioner [adopter, Loretta Reed's] defense at trial that Petitioner applied punishments as an attempt to manage this "special needs" child…

GUILTY VERDICTS in ABUSE CASE
North County Times, by John Hall (5-17-03)
RIVERSIDE ---- After several days of what they described as "heated" deliberations, a Riverside County jury Friday found Eileen Marie Merchant guilty on all counts and Michael Cody Gramaje guilty on all but one count in their highly publicized child-abuse trial.

The two-week trial of Merchant and Gramaje centered on the near-fatal injuries inflicted upon Kara Sheppard, who was 7 months old when the abuse was discovered in March 2001.

Kara and her slightly older sister, Sarah, were left by their mother in the care of Gramaje's wife, Terri, who previously pleaded guilty to a potential life sentence for torturing and abusing Kara. Merchant lived in a mobile home on the same Wildomar property as the Gramajes.

Once she was taken to a hospital on March 11, 2001, doctors found Kara had a potentially deadly disease that had taken over her left thigh, broken bones, a broken pelvis, bleeding between her brain and skull in two different areas, bleeding behind her eyes, open sores on her mouth and nose, seeping bed sores and a rectal tear.

In December, Kara was legally adopted by a couple who have asked to not be identified. They were in the courtroom when verdicts were read Friday.

PARENTS CONVICTED IN DEATH, DISMEMBERMENT OF DAUGHTER
Associated Press, 12-25-99
MIAMI -- Ken Wilkinson was sentenced to more than 30 years for the 1997 slaying of [4 year old] Kendia Lockhart, who was visiting from the Bahamas. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated manslaughter in exchange for testifying against his wife. Roselene Wilkinson had been on trial for first-degree murder, but was convicted of lesser charges. She was sentenced Thursday to 30 years… Prosecutors said Mrs. Wilkinson shoved Kendia so hard against a wall that a door knob left an imprint in the child's head and killed her. Mrs. Wilkinson said her husband beat Kendia to death in an alcohol-induced rage. Wilkinson, who has a history of violence toward his family, admitted chopping, burning and burying his first-born in an effort to conceal her death.

NO MURDER UPGRADE in WATER-DRINKING CASE
Salt Lake City Tribune, by Ashley Broughton (7-18-03)
PROVO - …Roy Killpatrick, 35, and Jennette Killpatrick, 27, initially were charged with abuse homicide, a second-degree felony, and child abuse, a third-degree felony, in the June 9, 2002 death of their adopted daughter Cassandra. Doctors claim the girl died from water intoxication, in which enough water is ingested to lower a person's sodium and electrolyte levels to a point that causes seizures and brain swelling. A medical examiner has estimated that Cassandra drank at least 2.5 liters of water.

The Killpatricks have said the water drinking was a form of therapy recommended by the Cascade Center for Family Growth in Orem, but the Center has denied recommending any forced water-drinking.

MAN HELD, SUSPECTED OF ABUSING HIS KIDS
Detroit Free Press, by Jack Kresnak (8-27-03)
A Northville man who pleaded guilty earlier this year to sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl living in his mother's foster home was in custody Tuesday after two foster children he had adopted made sexual abuse allegations against him.

Scott Francis, 41, who is on the state's list of sex offenders, was undergoing psychiatric evaluation after a lengthy standoff with Northville police in his Yerkes Street home Monday night. He is being held without bond awaiting trial…

JUDGE THROWS OUT SEVERAL COUNTS IN CUSTODY CASE INVOLVING MURDER
The Associated Press, By Jim Paul (8-22-03)
DECATUR -- A Macon County judge said Thursday evidence does not support prosecutors' allegations that a woman who adopted her sister-in-law's son took part in the woman's murder in 1996.

Mary Slover adopted the boy in April 1999, but the state took the boy from her three years later, claiming she knew of the murder and had engineered the adoption to keep Kolten away from his [birth] mother's family.

Judge Scott B. Diamond found there might be enough evidence to support allegations that Mary Slover helped conceal the murder of Karyn Hearn Slover, who was shot to death. Her dismembered body was found in Lake Shelbyville.

…If Diamond rules against her, Kolten will become a ward of the state and faces another adoption -- perhaps by his natural mother's parents.

Kolten, now 10, has been in foster care since July 2002 while lawyers have argued over whether Mary Slover abused and neglected the boy and should lose her parental rights. Her brother and parents -- Michael Slover Jr., Michael Slover Sr. and Jeanette Slover -- are serving 60-year prison sentences for the murder.

DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER
www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=24&did=228
Patricia Blackman, who is Black and was 29 at the time of the crime, murdered her Black 2 year old adopted daughter in Dothan, Alabama in May 1999 and was sentenced 6-7-02.

CPS WATCH
www.cpswatch.com/news/oh.asp
--(3-8-03) MOTHER CHARGED IN ADOPTED GIRL'S DEATH
A Lancaster woman faces criminal charges related to the death of the 2-year old daughter she adopted from Russia. The girl allegedly died of shaken baby syndrome.

--(5-16-03) ADOPTIVE MOTHER CHARGED IN ABUSE
Prosecutors say Bonnie Hyre suspected her husband was abusing their adopted children while she was away.


Noreen Erlandson

RULING TO ALLOW MOTHER WHO KILLED GIRL, 2, TO BE FREE SOON
The Seattle Times (6-18-03)
When Noreen Erlandson was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 1992 for the brutal murder of her adopted daughter, the judge hoped to send a strong message against child abuse… Erlandson was given an exceptional second-degree murder sentence…

…Under 1992 sentencing guidelines, the maximum sentence for manslaughter is 10 years in prison… Kayla Erlandson, who was adopted from South Korea, died at Harborview Medical Center in April 1991. When she was found unconscious in her mother's arms, the toddler had 65 injuries, including bruises, brain swelling, a lacerated liver, a neck bite and a deep scald on her arm.


Donald Boss

OLDER BROTHER TESTIFIES IN BOSS TRIAL
www.theiowachannel.com/ news/1813953/detail.html (12-3-02)
Donald Boss Jr., 38, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his adopted 10-year old son Timothy. Timothy's older brother Claxton Boss said Timothy was tied to a chair in the basement of the family home… he watched through a hole in the basement wall while his parents repeatedly struck the younger boy… Timothy spent months locked in a windowless basement, deprived of food and forced to wear diapers before his father tied him to a chair and beat him to death in a fit of rage… all of the Boss family's adopted boys who are Black were kept locked in the basement of the family's northwest Iowa home.

MURDER IN KOREA
AP story at wwwfreerepublic.com/forum/a3704e9182559.htm (4-2-99)
SEOUL, South Korea. …Navy Petty Officer 1st Class James W. Fuhrman, 36, of Quincy Illinois, was charged with premeditated murder and obstruction of justice in the Jan. 25 death of his wife, Choon-ja, 42, and their adopted son, Bobby… Police believe Fuhrman's wife and son were killed somewhere else and then dumped at the construction site, doused with flammable liquid and set on fire to conceal the crime.

KANSAS WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY IN ADOPTED SON'S DEATH
www.religionnewsblog.com/4493.html (9-19-03)
Associated Press. Olathe Kansas. [Christy Edgar] pleaded guilty to murder and child abuse… just as her trial was beginning in the death of her adopted son, who suffocated after he was bound with duct tape… he had been wrapped from head to toe with duct tape, leaving only his nose uncovered and causing him to suffocate on vomit… The Edgars were pastors of God's Christian Outreach Ministry in Kansas City… Five other church members face charges of abusing three of the Edgars' children and a friend of the children.


Roberta Gillin

WOMAN CLEARED IN SLAYING OF ADOPTED DAUGHTER
www.postgazette.com/neigh _south/20020608burned5.asp (6-8-02)
[Roberta Gillin, 50] who withdrew from a plea deal on third-degree murder charges last year was acquitted on all charges in the murder and burning of her mentally retarded, adopted daughter… James Gillin was sentenced to life in prison, plus 14 years in 2001 for first degree murder. Judge Conrad Capuzzi refused to accept Roberta Gillin's plea after hearing gruesome testimony during her husband's trial… Helen Gillin, 25, the couple's adopted daughter, was stomped to death and her body was burned in a backyard fire pit in 1992… The Gillins were arrested and charged in 1999 after their biological daughter, Mary Joe Overly, told police that she witnessed the killing when she was 13… "She has to live with herself," Overly said. "My sister deserves to get her justice and she didn't." Prosecutors said Roberta Gillin made her adopted daughter drink a mixture of bleach and heart medication after finding out her husband was having sex with Helen… the couple dumped the body into a fire pit in the back yard. The body was doused with gasoline and set on fire. But Gillin denied forcing her daughter to drink the poison mixture and said she did not report the sexual abuse or the slaying because she was afraid of her husband. When Gillin was asked why she did not go to the police, when she learned her daughter was being abused, she said she was handling the situation through prayer.


Sally Schofield

'FAILURE TO PROTECT: The Taking of Logan Marr'
with Rachel Dretzin, Producer, FRONTLINE, 1-31-03
In January 2001, 5-year-old Logan Marr was found dead in the basement of her foster mother's home in Chelsea, Maine. The foster mother, Sally Schofield, [who was planning to adopt Logan and Bailey Marr] was a highly respected former caseworker for Maine's Department of Human Services. FRONTLINE's "Failure to Protect: The Taking of Logan Marr," Thursday, Jan. 30, at 9 p.m. ET on PBS examineds the girl's short, troubled life and asked a series of tough questions: Why was a little girl who had never been abused taken from her birth mother? Was her mother given a real opportunity to regain custody? And did the state miss significant clues that she was in danger?


The Killpacks

IT WASN'T DISCIPLINE. IT WAS TORTURE.
by Geoffrey Fattah, Deseret Morning News, 8-7-03
deseretnews.com/dn/view/ 0,1249,510045231,00.html
PROVO It wasn't discipline. It was torture. That's what a psychologist said Wednesday about the actions of a Springville couple [Jennette & Richard Killpack] accused of forcing so much water down their adopted daughter's [Cassandra's] throat that she died.


Ian and Angela Gay



Christian Blewitt

Couple killed child with salt, court told
by James Sturcke, Independent Online (11-20-04)
news.independent.co.uk/uk/ crime/story.jsp?story=584796
A couple killed a three-year-old boy they were hoping to adopt by poisoning him with salt, a court was told yesterday. Ian and Angela Gay, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, were accused of feeding Christian Blewitt up to four teaspoons of salt after he failed to meet their expectations.

Couple Kill Themselves After Baby's Shaking Death
AP/DeseretNews.com (4-21-04)
Southgate, MI - A couple caring for two young children they hoped to adopt committed suicide after the 6-month-old boy was shaken to death, police said. Carissa Columbus, 25, and Leonard Columbus, 35, disappeared after Tyler Vanpopering died last Wednesday. Police broke into their home Saturday and found them in the garage, dead of carbon monoxide poisoning.

PAIR WHO CAGED SONS GET LONGER JAIL TERMS
The Toronto Star, by Tracey Tyler, Legal Affairs Reporter (11-5-04)
Nine months in jail is a "demonstrably unfit" sentence for a Blackstock couple who beat and caged their adoptive sons, crimes that were "shocking to the conscience of the community" and "cry out for a significant penitentiary sentence," the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled.

"The facts as found by the trial judge unequivocally establish the horrendous abuse of two young boys by their parents for more than a decade," Justice Eleanore Cronk wrote on behalf of the court, which set aside the widely criticized sentences yesterday.

ADOPTIVE MOTHER SAYS HER BROTHER-IN-LAW TO BLAME FOR KIDS ABANDONED
The Associated Press (8/20/04)
HOUSTON The lawyer for the adoptive mother of seven children found malnourished and sick in a Nigerian orphanage is defending the woman's actions, blaming a brother-in-law for abandoning them while she was in Iraq.

Mercury Liggins faces a custody hearing on Aug. 26. Harris County Child Protective Services officials have referred to police new abuse complaints from the children, who claim that she struck them with switches and a cane and had repeatedly threatened to take them to Africa if they ever told law officers about earlier abuse reports.


Irma and Alex
Pavlis

WOMAN GETS 12 YEARS, REBUKE, IN SON'S DEATH
by Dan Rozek, Chicago Sun-Times
www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-pavlis05.html
Her lawyers argued that Russian doctors and authorities hadn't fully disclosed Alex's medical problems to [Irma and Dino] Pavlis… any behavioral problems the child exhibited didn't explain or justify the punches, slaps and shoves Pavlis said she used to try to discipline the boy who died of severe brain injuries. …She likely will be released from prison in less than 4 years… Before she was sentenced, Pavlis expressed hopes her adopted son's death would not stall or halt foreign adoptions of Russian children…

AmFOR Note: On 5-21-04, when the Chicago Tribune's first report on this case [which is archived at www.chicagotribune.com/ news/nationworld/chi-0405210351may/ ] stated: "Since 1996, adoptive parents have been accused of killing at least 12 Russian children. Experts know of no other country from which so many children have died" [Evidently the Times hadn't checked this web-page, and the many reports found on Internet, that document the many American adopted children who have also died at the hands of their American adopters].

QUESTION REMAINS WHETHER TEENS KEPT IN CAGE CAN RECOVER
USA Today/wkys.com, by Chris Tye (3-9-05)
wkyc.com/news_fullstory.asp?id=31544
He was 17, but slept in a padlocked crib and police say abuse came at the hands of his adoptive parents… Ten years ago, Wilson Sulivan and his wife Brenda adopted a 10-year-old boy… When authorities stepped in, records show the 17-year old regularly wore a diaper and showed signs of starvation-- weighing only 49 lbs at 41/2 feet tall-- and communicates by grunting.

"PATHOLOGICAL PARENTING" - an article by Kerry Semon, Registered Nurse and adoptee: http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/2940


Adam

SEARCH STARTS FOR KANSAS BOY NOW MISSING 10 YEARS
by Roxana Hegeman, Associated Press (AP) - 1-5-09
"EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) &emdash; The Kansas parents who failed to report their 11-year-old adopted son missing nearly a decade ago are "people of interest" as authorities search for him nationwide, a sheriff said Monday. Investigators only recently learned Adam Herrman was missing and are focused on finding him, Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said. Adam was 11 when he disappeared in 1999 from a mobile home park in Towanda where he lived. Authorities would not say whether they believed Adam, who would now be 21, is alive. "We are working it as if it is a death &emdash; but we are not leaning one way or the other," Murphy said. Doug and Valerie Herrman adopted Adam at 2 1/2 years old, and he had been in foster care before that. The parents have not been arrested or charged with any crime, and Murphy said no charges would be filed while investigators focused on the search…"


Maria

MARIA BARRAGAN SUCCEEDS IN GETTING ADOPTIVE PARENTS JAILED
Times Online, 4-5-08
…In a landmark decision, a court in Buenos Aires sentenced a former military officer and the adoptive parents of one of the country’s many babies “stolen” during the dictatorship to prison for concealing the child’s identity and falsifying adoption documents.

Maria Eugenia Sampallo Barragan, 30, had brought charges against the three after discovering her true identity seven years ago. Ms Sampallo is one of hundreds of people who were snatched from their parents or born in captivity during the country’s dictatorship of 1976-83, but she was the first to face her adoptive parents in court. Osvaldo Rivas, 65, and Marla Cristina Gómez Pinto, 60, her adoptive parents, were sentenced to eight and seven years in prison respectively. Enrique Berthier, a former army captain who handed Ms Sampallo over to the couple when she was a baby, received ten years.

“These are not my parents,” Ms Sampallo said at a press conference on Monday. “They are my kidnappers . . . there is no emotional bond that binds me to them. These are my parents,” she said, picking up photos of her biological parents. Argentina's military regime arrested Leonardo Sampallo and Mirta Barragan, suspected leftist dissidents, in December 1977. Soon after Ms. Sampallo was born, her parents died in prison and the infant was given to Captain Berthier to pass on to another family, which hid her real identity. Ms Sampallo learnt about her past from the human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. They have found 88 people like Ms Sampallo, children of their own sons and daughters who “disappeared”. Argentine military imprisoned tens of thousands of people suspected of being subversives and killed as many as 30,000. The junta also decided to “rehabilitate” its enemies” children by placing them with families that supported the dictatorship. Many of the children were given to the families of men who may have participated in the torture and deaths of their parents.

The Grandmothers say that up to 500 children were abducted by the military or were born in captivity. During the dictatorship the group kept note of women who suddenly appeared with babies without being pregnant, and began investigations that, with recent advances in DNA technology, have begun to get results. Cases involving abducted children have proved crucial to bringing the dictatorship’s architects and executioners to justice. An amnesty for military and police officers imposed by the first postdictatorship government did not include the theft of babies, jurists contended.

“My hope is that each conviction acts as a step toward building the truth,” said Victoria Donda, an MP and activist who was taken from her biological parents at birth and learnt of her real identity in 2003.

Sources: desaparecidos.org; nuncamas.org; National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons… See the movie "Cautiva", it tells the whole story.

DOUG WARD, Grover Beach, Calif. USA, comments: "What is not stated is that Maria's adoptive parents mistreated and abused her throughout her childhood (her adoptive mother made it clear that she was not her natural daughter and would repeatedly insult her threaten her with abandonment, saying she didn't deserve what they had done for her, she was good for nothing and so on.) "

COUPLE KILLED ADOPTED SON WITH SALT AFTER DECIDING HE WAS TOO NAUGHTY
by Dominic Kennedy, UK News, Times Online, 1-14-05
A WEALTHY couple who killed their adopted three-year-old son by poisoning him with salt were jailed for five years yesterday after a judge called them cold-blooded and selfish.

Christian Blewitt died six weeks after being put into the care of Ian and Angela Gay, who lived in an exclusive gated community. The boy died of brain damage with the equivalent of four teaspoons of salt in his bloodstream, the highest level doctors had seen. A week after Christian arrived into their care, Ian Gay, 37, had described the boy as brainless, a vegetable and a zombie… They were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter. They plan to appeal. After the trial, Detective Chief Inspector Steve Cullen, from West Mercia Police, said: “We are pleased that justice has been done for Christian. “It is difficult to conceive how a little boy would voluntarily eat several teaspoons of salt, and this has been backed up by experts who say a child would reject even a small quantity.” Christian's natural grandfather, Jim Burke, of West Bromwich, said that the Gays should have been jailed for twice as long. Angela Gay had known that she was infertile from the age of 16. The lack of children destroyed their eight-year marriage; her husband wanted a family, she did not. But they agreed to adopt, and remarried in 2002. By now, she was a £200,000-a-year insurance actuary. “I have always dreamed,” she told the jury, “of a child calling me Mummy.” After being given a girl to foster, the Gays were allowed to adopt a family — Christian, his two-year-old brother Nathan, and Chlöe, five months. The children were placed with the Gays at their home in Bromsgrove on November 1, 2002. Their new life was one of a luxury they had never experienced. But Christian, suffering the consequences of neglect in his early life, failed to meet the couple’s expectations. Ian Gay sobbed as he told of his guilt at telephoning social services a week after the children arrived to complain that the boy was a vegetable. After ten days his wife returned to work, flouting an assurance given to the adoption panel that she would take three months off. Mr Gay had given up his job as a service engineer but he had so little experience of children that he had been sent to a nursery to learn basic childcare and was left alone in charge of the children. When his wife returned home at 7pm, Christian would refuse to accept a glass of milk from her. Gay believed his wife wanted to send the children back and their rows led them to sleep in separate beds. On the morning of December 7, Angela Gay was upset when Christian butted, kicked and bit her. Ian Gay held him in front of her and told him to apologise but he refused. The next day Christian smeared gravy over his face, knocked the plate over and stood on his chair, laughing. Gay carried him upstairs where his wife said she found him unconscious. The boy died four days later. The judge said the couple had decided to punish Christian by making him eat salt”. This was not done “by the sort of inadequate and unintelligent people who sadly often are sitting where you are but intelligent people who had made a deliberate choice in cold blood”.


Judith Leekin

ADOPTIVE MOM ACCUSED OF ABUSING, STARVING [ADOPTIVE &] FOSTER KIDS FOR DECADES
Associated Press, 7-30-07
PORT ST. LUCIE, FL. — They were often handcuffed, tethered together with plastic ties and allowed to soil themselves, investigators say. They had scars on their wrists. Some had burns. None appeared to have more than a fourth-grade education, not even the adults in their 20s. All were starving. In all, nine teenagers and young adults were held like prisoners in Judith Leekin's home in what appeared to be a decades-long scheme to line her pockets with the government payments she received for adopting and raising them, police say. From the outside, Leekin's home appeared to be as ordinary as the others in this well-kept working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of this Atlantic coast town, 120 miles north of Miami. But its pink and white stucco exterior hid the horrors inside, authorities say… the identities of the young people and have not established how long Leekin had them. But authorities believe she adopted all of them in New York City under at least five aliases over two decades. They range in age from 15 to 27. One is blind and mumbles. One can barely walk or stand. One can't read. But authorities said they do not know if the handicaps are a result of the alleged abuse. The case came to light on July 4, some 200 miles away across the state in St. Petersburg, when police received a call from a grocery store that a teenager was there wandering aimlessly. The 18-year-old woman, who said she has been with Leekin for 13 years, said Leekin drove her there and abandoned her after telling her they were going to an amusement park.

Police and child welfare workers went to Leekin's home, but found nothing awry. Just one child was with her in the house, and Leekin told investigators the 18-year-old ran away a year ago. But police soon returned, and this time they found all the children, who had apparently been hiding on Leekin's orders. Leekin, 62, was arrested and jailed on 11 charges, including aggravated elder and child abuse. She declined to be interviewed. Her attorney had no comment. According to authorities, she was unemployed and lived off the monthly stipends provided by child welfare authorities in New York. She owned at least two homes and several cars. The adopted children said they had never seen a doctor or a dentist and had not been allowed to attend school or even leave the house.

…The 18-year-old told police Leekin threatened to cut her head off if she told anyone what was happening, authorities said. "Was there any kind of emotional attachment? Yes, it was fear," Bartal said… If Leekin did adopt them in New York City, she could have been making as much as $180,000 a year for a time. Parents who adopt special needs children can get as much as $55 a day.


Emelyantsev

WOMAN WHO KILLED ADOPTED DAUGHTER TO BE EVALUATED
Desert News, Salt Lake Cirty, 8-13-08
TOOELE, UT — A woman convicted of killing her 14-month-old adopted daughter will undergo a mental evaluation before being sentenced. Court records said a judge delayed sentencing for Kimberly Emelyantsev, 34, during a hearing in 3rd District Court on Aug. 8, while she underwent the evaluation at the Utah State Prison. Emelyantsev pleaded guilty in June to a charge of child abuse homicide, a second-degree felony, in the death of her adopted child back in March. Emelyantsev will be sentenced on Oct. 10. A child abuse charge against Emelyantsev's husband, Fyodor, was dismissed in June


Calista Springer

CALISTA SPRINGER'S ADOPTIVE MOTHER ENTERS PLEA IN FIRE DEATH
by Kathy Jessup, Kalamazoo Gazette - 8-26-08
CENTREVILLE, MI -- The adoptive mother of a 16-year-old girl who died in a house fire while chained to her bed has pleaded no contest to child abuse/neglect charges. Marsha Springer's plea in St. Joseph County Family Court is separate from potential criminal charges that could stem from the Feb. 27 fire that killed Calista Springer. The plea, entered Friday before Family Court Judge Thomas Shumaker, resulted in the two younger children of Marsha and Anthony Springer becoming temporary wards of the court. It erased the need for a trial, which had been scheduled to start Monday, to determine whether the court should have jurisdiction over Calista's sisters. On Friday, Shumaker ruled there was sufficient evidence to conclude that the Springers' home "is an unfit place for the children to live in" after reviewing a transcript of testimony from a Michigan State Police trooper present at the Feb. 27 fire in downtown Centreville and a photograph of Calista before she was removed from her bed. "At the time of the fire, Calista (Springer) was in the care of the mother, who is legally blind," says the amended court petition regarding the removal of the couple's other minor children. "Calista was chained to her bed and unable to escape the fire or to be rescued by fire and police personnel." Anthony Springer characterized Calista as a "special needs" child prone to wandering off during the night. He said the bed restraint had been used for a short period of time because an alarm that had been used to monitor the girl was broken. Under Michigan child-welfare law, a court finding of abuse/neglect of one child in a home is sufficient to conclude that other children are at risk, according to Douglas Fisher, St. Joseph County prosecutor. Children can be removed from the family home even if only one parent is found responsible for "neglect and cruelty."

Shumaker set a Sept. 9 dispositional hearing during which St. Joseph County Department of Human Services officials are expected to recommend services or other measures the court could take that eventually could reunify the family. The cause of the fire officially remains "undetermined," but reports suggest it may have been connected to an overheated vacuum that Marsha Springer was using just before the fire erupted.


Jazzmin Davis

AUTOPSY: ANTIOCH GIRL WAS WHIPPED, BURNED
by Hilary Costa, Contra Costa Times - 09/04/2008; and updated: 11/30/2008
ANTIOCH, CA — Jazzmin Davis was continually whipped with belts and electrical cords, burned with irons and severely beaten in the Antioch home where she died Tuesday, an autopsy by the Contra Costa County Coroner's Office has revealed. The 15-year-old, emaciated and malnourished, suffered severe lacerations and blunt force trauma to her head, and sustained severe injuries on the day of her death, Antioch police Lt. Leonard Orman said at a Thursday news conference… The children's aunt and foster mother, Shemeeka Davis, 37, remains in County Jail in Martinez, where she is being held on suspicion of murder and corporal punishment. The district attorney is expected to file charges today. Orman said Davis has been cooperative and admitted to beating and whipping the twins. No clear motive has been identified for the abuse. "She talks about the fact that she does lose control," Orman said. Davis has been the twins' foster mother since their infancy. Their case was being handled through the San Francisco County Department of Human Services, Orman said. Trent Rhorer, executive director of the San Francisco Human Services Agency, said the agency had conducted the required regular checks on the children's welfare and had detected no evidence of abuse or neglect. The most recent visit to the home was in March 2008, Rhorer said - six months more recent than earlier reported by Antioch police. …Police said Davis had been receiving a $13,104 annual stipend from San Francisco County for the twins' care; $9,800 annually from Contra Costa County for caring for her elderly mother, who lives in Bay Point; and $1,700 a month from the Contra Costa Housing Authority through the federal Section 8 housing assistance program. Orman said the twins had been confined to the house and restricted largely to the stark second-story bedroom they shared, but it is still unclear how long they had been kept inside. The bedroom contained a bunk bed, one sheet, an empty closet and a few posters on the walls, Orman said. The boy reportedly spent much of his time reading in the bedroom, and is extremely bright, Orman said. His demeanor has been stoic, but he is upset about his sister's death, Orman said. Police said Davis' 7-year-old daughter, also removed from the house, had not been physically abused as was originally reported. The 7-year-old's father had also been living in the house until days before Jazzmin's death, and is cooperating with police. Shemeeka Davis' older sons, 17 and 18, also lived in the house. Orman said police are still investigating whether they are culpable in the abuse and murder… The neighbor said she had not seen Jazzmin for more than a year, and that when she questioned Shemeeka Davis about her whereabouts she was told Jazzmin had been sent to live with other family members. "We all failed her," she said. "Every one of us failed her."


Miles Harrison



Chase Harrison

RUSSIANS AND AMERICANS AGREE SEVERE PUNISHMENT DUE FATHER WHO KILLED ADOPTED RUSSIAN BABY
by Richard Cochrane, 12-26-08
[AmFOR Note: The following is one of several such incidents of American adopters killing children they adopted from Russia and which resulted in Russia halting adoptions.]

Russians and Americans don’t agree on much but they are both angry over the acquittal of a Virginia man was acquitted to killing his 21-month old son by leaving him for 9-hours in a boiling hot car. Russia will toughen adoption requirements for U.S. nationals following the acquittal of Miles Harrison 49 who adopted Russian-born son and then left the baby unattended in front of his workplace for 9-hours. “We are outraged by the court ruling and believe it to be totally unjust and unacceptable,” Alina Levitskaya was quoted by the Education and Science Ministry as saying. “It questions the reliability of the U.S. system of protection of adopted children’s rights, and will lead to tougher requirements for U.S. nationals in Russia.” …Over the last 10 years in the United States there have been approximately 230 fatal cases of parents locking their children in cars on a hot day.

Three adoption agencies, including that which organized Dmitry Yakolev’s adoption but failed to inform Russian authorities of the baby’s death, were banned from operating in Russia in July. Several calls for tighter controls on adoptions have been made in Russia in recent years over a series of scandals, notably the killing of a two-year-old girl from Siberia by her adoptive mother in the U.S. Around 120,000 Russian children were adopted both in Russia and abroad in 2007, a 6.4 percent increase on 2006, according to the Science and Education Ministry.

For adopted children who were murdered during "rebirthing" or other deadly assaults on children advanced by professionals as a "cure" for "Attachment Disorder" commonly diagnosed when adopters simply don't like their adopted children, or when adopted children don't like their adopters, go to "The Daily Bastardette" page on "The Therapeutic Murders of Candace Newmaker, David Polreis, Viktor Matthey, and Jessica Albina Bennett" at
http://bastardette.blogspot.com/2008/08/therapeutic-murders-of-candace-newmaker.html

http://www.amfor.net/KillerAdopters/