Adopters Who Abuse & Kill

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.

---

US WOMAN FACES CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR KILLING RUSSIAN BOY
from newsfromrussia.com/world/2005/04/15/5913.html

The boy died after being beaten....32 scars, bruises and cuts on his body. Irma Pavlis' 45-minute videotaped testimony was shown at the trial that began on Tuesday. Pavlis is charged with killing Alex Pavlis, six. The boy and his five-year-old sister were adopted in 2003 from a Russian orphanage. The boy was very disobedient, Pavlis noted. She did not know how to deal with the boy, using physical force ever more often.

---

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."

---

"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....

---

"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."

---

"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."

---

"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.

---

"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.

---

MORE ADOPTERS WHO ABUSE & KILL
Evers Case, Bayfield, Colorado
www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/6256/ SocIssues/family/bayfield.html

Dennis and Sandy Evers murdered their 6 year old adopted daughter, Roberta Evers, found restrained in her bed, covered by bruises, dead from choking on her own vomit. She had been malnourished from withholding of food and medical care.

---

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.

....f 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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

'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?

---

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.

---

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.

---

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://www.poundpuplegacy.org/node/2940