Pound Pup Legacy

4-year-old boy from Taganrog, Russia, adopted by Jane and Timothy Cochran. The boy had severe bruising, cuts from head to toe. He'd been beaten by hand and with a wooden spoon and had been cut with scissors. Allegedly he was beaten because he couldn't say his prayers properly.

From 1968 to 1990 the Nasons adopted in total 76 children, most of them having special needs, to form their "Celebration Family".

In 1992 things started to fall apart and they were were alleged to allow three small children to die neglected in their beds an infant girl who died of starvation in 1988, and a boy of about 2 and a girl of about 4 who died of a form of dysentery called shigella in 1985, days apart.

Some of the 76 children they adopted have told of being beaten and being shocked with a cattle prod. Younger children, were allegedly caged in their beds.

A 27-year-old woman adopted when she was 10 said that Dennis Nason, 49, molested her and attempted intercourse, and that she was forced to eat a bar of soap. She also said she had been hit with a belt during meals for eating too slowly and was hit again when the first beating caused her to urinate.

The Nasons were acquitted of abuse charges, but convicted of racketeering and forgery.

The girl was sexually abused by her older adopted brother since the age of seven,

3 year old boy adopted by Tim and Billy Jane King, slain by his adoptive mother, who first claimed he had been kidnapped, later she confessed to killing him. Ahmad had been adopted just a month before his death.

At age 6, Alex Pavlis of Illinois, was beaten to death by his U.S. adopted mother, Irma, 6 weeks after his adoption from Russia. He was found to have 32 bruises, scars, and cuts. Irma had a difficult time with Alex. He banged his head on the walls, floors, and defecated and urinated on himself. Reports indicate that his injuries could have been self-inflicted. Irma was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

21 days old infant shaken to death by adoptive father Bruce Keintz.

12 year old girl adopted by Sandra Parker was brutalized kept chained and starving in the basement.

Sent by her adoptive mother to the Attachment Center at Evergreen (ACE), Andrea was put through the usual “two-week intensive,” but then diagnosed as so “damaged” that she had to stay on for periodic treatments at ACE, and live with AT-trained therapeutic foster parents (TFPs), at a cost to the family’s insurance company of $3,500 a week. Supposedly, Andrea made slow progress in the arrangement, until the insurance payments ran out. Whereupon, Watkins and the TFPs began pressuring the adoptive family to allow the TFPs to adopt her — and thereby get new insurance coverage.

One day in November 1990, Andrea returned to her foster home from school and reported to the TFPs that she had been sexually molested at school, which they regarded as typical “Attachment Disorder” behavior — false, manipulative, and attention-getting.

The next day, Andrea took an overdose of aspirin. She was in convulsions and delirious the next morning, but the TFPs did not attend her, and instead went bowling that afternoon. While they were gone, a relative visited the house and found Andrea dead in a hallway.

4-year-old boy, about to be adopted by Larry and Hannah Overton, was forced to drink a mixture of water and Cajun spices as punishment. The Overtons waited nearly three hours before taking the boy to a medical clinic, vomited and drifted in and out of consciousness. He was no longer breathing when he finally arrived there. A day later he died.

4-year-old girl adopted by Mary Perkins was allegedly beaten to death by her adoptive mother. There were also signs Angel had been sexually abused.

14-year-old boy was adopted from foster care by Donald Shissler with the intent to sexually abuse him. At least two other boys were also abused by Shissler, who made sexual explicit photos and videos of the boys while engaging in sexual activity.

16-year-old boy adopted by a former supervisor for the Administration for Children's Services was sexually abused by his adopter.

Eight year old boy was scalded in bathwater. His adoptive parents waited six weeks before seeking treatment for him.

13 year old boy was beaten with a belt by his adoptive mother Jacqueline Anne Lerma. She was sentenced to four years imprisonment.

7-year-old Samoan boy adopted together with his 3-year-old sister by Scott and Catherine Kanani Nelson was malnourished, suffered from frostbite and several other injuries. As a form of punishment he was forced to sleep in his underwear in a shed during subzero temperatures.

17-year-old former foster child was sexually abused by his adoptive father, who was a Devereux Florida state-contracted foster care facility worker

11-year-old boy was allegedly punched and slapped regularly, forced to wear a diaper, sleep on the floor and refused food.

4 year old girl and 5 year old girl adopted by Richard and Christine Dodson were abused by their adopters. The girl's leg and arms were broken and the boy was being starved and beaten. Both children were home-schooled.

1-year old "Baby Andrew" was placed in foster care by James Ryan Hadlock. The boy suffered from fractured legs and ribs, plus bleeding of the brain. Hadlock was sentenced to 100 days imprisonment.

At least four out of eleven boys adopted by David Allen Lindsey were sexually molested by him. Lindsey was the first single man in Florida to adopt.

John Krueger, a 53-year-old Bakersfield man is accused of molesting four young boys, all children adopted from an orphanage in Ukraine.

Two boys adopted by their aunt and uncle in Blackstock Ontario were found caged. One boy was found in a makeshift cage that was strapped to a wall and padlocked.

They were often tied to their beds, sometimes handcuffed. At one time, one brother was forced to sleep in a bare dog cage.

They were kept in diapers because they couldn't get to the washroom, subjected to rectal examinations and often beaten with a variety of household implements.

They lived in such fear, court heard, they ate their own feces to hide evidence of accidents and, deprived of water, felt compelled to drink their own urine. ...

At least two boys placed by Brian John Bergthold were sexually abused by him while being filmed. Bergthold was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for sexual assault and for 70 years for child pornography charges.

9-year-old Brian Edgar, died when he was bound like a mummy in duct tape by his adoptive mother as a punishment for stealing cookies. The boy was left overnight with only his nose uncovered and suffocated on his own vomit at the family's home in Overland Park, west of Kansas City.

Four New Jersey boys who had been systematically starved by their adoptive parents, while state child welfare workers, in a bewildering series of errors, failed to make the most basic checks on the children over a dozen years.

Candace Elizabeth Newmaker (19 November 1989 — 18 April 2000) was a victim of child abuse, killed during a 70-minute treatment session supposedly to treat reactive attachment disorder. The form of diagnosis and the treatments used were unvalidated and non-mainstrean methods practised within the field of attachment therapy.

Four-year old Cassandra adopted by Jennette and Richard Killpack died after they forced her to drink a gallon of water, which caused her brain to swell.

The Killpacks maintained it was a form of therapy to help Cassandra with her emotional problems that she had from being abused before they adopted her.

18 month old adopted son of Charles Thomas McEntire Jr. and Edrina Gibson McEntire. His adoptive father stabbed him to death with a kitchen knife.

21 month old boy from Russia, adopted by Miles and Carol Harrison. His adoptive father left him in the car for hours while being at work, causing Chase to die of the heat. He'd been adopted only three months before.

11 year old girl adopted by her grand parents Charles and  Rita Mensinger. After having shot her husband Mensinger fled, bringing Chelsea with her. She later shot Chelsea and herself. Charles Mensinger survived his wife's attack on him.

Four children adopted from Guatemala, allegedly abused by their adoptive father.

Eight children from foster care were abused by Marjorie; she punched children, hit them with a wooden paddle, locked them outside for hours with no food or water, held their heads under hot water, and threatened them with a gun.

A 4 year-old boy was brought to the hospital at Haute-Loire (France) by his adoptive parents for an injury resulting from falling; but the doctors realized quickly that the injuries were not consistent with a fall. The younger brother of the victim, 18 months-old, was also hospitalized since few days for an injury to his leg. The boys were adopted since May 1, 2008. After having denied any violence, the father admitted that sometime he strikes the children to correct them but he minimizes the brutality of his behaviour saying that it was his way of educating his adoptive son who only speaks an Ehtiopian dialect.  The father is imprisoned for aggravated rape, sexual assault and violence on children. The man is known to be impulsive and violent with his wife. His wife is under investigation for "non-denunciation of ill-treatment".

Three children were abused for six years by their adoptive parents, in Becancour, Quebec. They have been beaten with fists, feet and with sticks. The children were also subjected to backbreaking works for their age.

Three adopted boys were found severely malnourished, a 5-year-old boy who weighed less than 20 pounds, an 8-year-old who weighed less than 40 pounds and a 7-year-old brother who weighed about 32 pounds when police found. The boys also were treated for bruises, scratches, burns and head lice. The boys told officers they were tied up to be kept from food in the mobile home.

Earnest and Windie Perry, adopted six children in total. Five of them were removed from the house after the couple was charged with eight count of aggravated child abuse. Their eldest, Elizabeth Perry, together with her adoptive mother Windie, was also charged with two counts of rape of a child and two counts of aggravated rape.

In November of 1999 the half-naked disabled adoptive son of Emily Miller was found tied to a plastic bucket partially filled with urine. During the examinations, it was revealed two children in the care of  Emily Miller had died earlier. First in January 1993, 4-month-old Ieisha Dyson died after being born with a significant birth defect and in April 1995 DuJuan Miller, Emily Miller's 2-year-old adopted son died, supposedly of sudden infant death syndrome.

All material kindly provided by Jack Kresnak President & CEO of Michigan's Children

Five children and two disabled women were locked in a basement cell, fed meager food and rarely allowed to bathe. The couple were paid $9,000 a month to care for the seven.

Three boys and two girls were beaten with sticks, belts, shoes, fists and hammers; burned with a clothes iron, the stove, and a curling iron; bitten; kicked; stabbed with knives, forks and sticks; urinated on; forced to eat their own excrement; forced to drink urine; fed rotting food as well as cat food; forced into the clothes dryer and the dryer turned on; beaten while naked; duct taped to a chair or their beds for days; strangled with a belt; held under water; held over a banister by their feet and dropped; made to drink hot sauce with red hot peppers; made to drink from the toilet; forced to go without food for days; forced to wear urine soaked clothing on their heads; and body slammed, along with other abuses.At least two of the victims also detailed sexual abuses and assaults using a toilet plunger.

A 12-year-old girl who weighed 40 pounds and her 10-year-old brother, who weighed 45 pounds, were found unattended near a church playground in Union County, South Carolina. Both children were adopted from Estonia eight years before.

Five children adopted by the Dollars who starved them, shocked them with electricity, pulled out their toenails with pliers, bound them with chains and strips of plastic and struck their feet with hammers.

During 1999 - 2003 DiMaria and her husband, John DiMaria, lived in Jericho and operated the Gypsy Grace Ranch, advertised as "North America's Largest Breeder" of Gypsy horses, an expensive English draft horse. The DiMarias adopted 21 girls from third-world countries. The adopted girls were all impaired; most were deaf. In February, 2003, the State of Vermont learned that John DiMaria had been sexually abusing the older girls for years. He was convicted and jailed by the State.

In 2002 and 2003, after the DiMarias had exhausted Marian DiMaria's trust fund of over $7 million, they deceived the Mellon Bank in Pennsylvania, a trustee of the adopted girls' trusts, into sending them $168,000 for fictitious expenses. Further investigation revealed that DiMaria had received and spent $96,000 from one adopted victim's trust, and had defrauded the Social Security Administration of approximately $13,000, after she learned that her husband had been sexually abusing the children.

Three children adopted a year before, had allegedly been abused and tortured by their adopters.

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.

Three out of thirty-five children adopted by "father of the year" Kodzo Dobosu were sexually abused by him.

Former foster parents of the year Bessie and Mechelle Saffold, neglected and battered five children they adopted.

Liggins' children, ranging in age from 8 to 17, were discovered a month ago at the Nigerian orphanage by an American missionary. The children, some of them suffering from typhoid and malaria, told the missionary they were from Houston and wanted to go home. The church's pastor told two U.S. congressmen and arrangements were made to return them to Texas.

Liggins said her only mistake was trusting her brother-in-law to care for the children in Nigeria. The relative took money she sent for the kids' benefit, causing the children to be kicked out of their boarding school and put in the squalid orphanage, she said.

The children initially were taken to Nigeria in October so she could take a job in Iraq, working for Houston-based Hallilburton subsidiary KBR.x  

11 children adopted by Michel and Sharen Gravelle were found to be kept in cages.

20 children adopted by Gainesville, Fl woman were beaten with sticks, pipes, belts, extension cords and paddles during more than 10 years of abuse.

In 2004, the Kelleys were accused of burning, beating, and slapping their five adopted children, 10 to 15 years old. Later investigation cast doubt on whether the evidence would hold up in court, according to prosecutors. In January 2007, Superior Court Judge Mike Wolverton accepted no-contest pleas to greatly reduced charges and released the Kelleys, who had served about 17 months in jail.
George and Shirley Long were accused of standing by while their adopted grandchildren were abused for years.
George Long, the adoptive grandfather, is found guilty of chaining his 10-year-old adopted grandson to a dog run. 

Two boys and a girl, all 9 or 10 years old, were sexually abused by their adoptive father.

Four children between 3 and 9 being beaten with boards, locked in a basement without food and doused with cold water as punishment.

A 6 year old girl and an 8 year old boy were deprived food and water, which resulted in severe malnourishment.

Scott Francis, a 41-year-old Northville, MI man, lived with his two adopted children despite a plea agreement that was supposed to stop him from having unsupervised contact with any child, after his previous conviction on two offenses of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The registered sex offender was convicted of violating probation, and also was charged with new counts of sexual assault involving an adopted son. A judge's written order had failed to mention the plea agreement that forbade contact with any child, and a probation officer also admitted to failing to enforce the deal.

A 12 year-old boy and a 13 year-old girl, the adopted children of Shelley Blair, were found wandering a busy road. The children were bruised and malnourished. Shelley Blair is now under investigation.

In 2003, Blair pleaded guilty to three counts of child abuse.

Three teen age children adopted from the foster care system were refused food, beaten and made to stand on a milk crate for hours by their adoptive mother. Shirley Allen received on top of her $600 disability income, $1,500 per month in compensation for each of the three children

Steven Sueppel, indicted for embezzling from the bank that he worked for, killed himself, his wife, and their four adopted Korean children, Ethan (10), Seth (7), Mira (5), and Eleanor (3),in Iowa City, Iowa.

Theresa and Reed Hansen, of Saratoga Springs, had been accused of felony and misdemeanor charges for withholding food, sometimes for days at a time, from two of their three children adopted from Russia, who were of pre-school age at the time. All three adoptees were removed from the home in 2002 and have reportedly thrived since in new adoptive homes.

11 children adopted by Tom and Debbie Schmitz were abused by their adopters. For years the Schmitzes took in disabled and otherwise troubled children in their home and were part of an under-ground network of people taking in children from disrupted adoptions. As adherents of Attachment Therapy, they beat their children, locked them up in cagelike bunk beds, forcing one child to eat his own vomit; holding another child's head underwater as punishment; sitting on a girl and urinating on her; and hurling a wheelchair-bound girl into a swimming pool; placing a hose in a girl's mouth and turning on the water, and lancing a boil on another child with a box cutter as she screamed in pain; forcing children to dig what they were told were their own graves.

Seven children in the "care" of Tom and Debra Schmitz were illegally placed.

Four boys and two girls, between the ages of 7 and 16 were being locked up in the basement of their house.

Three year old Colombian girl adopted by Nancy Jane Montalbano on on Oct. 28, 1996. Almost a year later she was beaten to death by her.

1-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl were removed from their parents house, because their father was in prison and their epileptic mother was supposed to be incapable of taking care of them, were eventually placed in foster care with their aunt Crystal Keith. In her home the two children were severely abused. The boy died because of serious head injury and his sister was removed with broken bones and burn marks in her face.

8-year-old Christopher Forder stricken with pneumonia, heavily bruised and nearing death, only to call 911 after he had dies.Kimberly Forder, Christopher's adoptive mother abused and neglected him to the point of death, never seeking outside medical help as his pneumonia grew worse.

8-year-old girl, adopted by Rubin and Bettie Ramirez, was starved, had her arms and legs tied with tape, and was beaten with a cane to the point her brain and skull began bleeding.

At the time 10-year-old girl was sexually abused by her adoptive father, Peter Robertson. Thirty years later she pressed charges. Peter Robertson admitted the abuse and was given a two-year conditional discharge.

July 4, 1997, paramedics went to the North Carolina home of 45 year-old Eddiesenior McLaughlin and found 4-year-old, adoptee, Cory Bradley McLaughlin, severely beaten. He was pronounced brain-dead at the hospital not long before he was taken off life support. Both of his little hands and one foot were burned. There were bruises on his back, stomach, legs, and a lump on his forehead.

9 year old boy, adopted from Romania, had been sexually abused by his adopter William Peckenpaugh who also video taped the assaults.

Chris and Rebecca Tucker first adopted Danielle, who at the age of four was pushed down the stairs by her adoptive mother, in their house in Coldwater, Michigan in December 8, 1995. At the time it was ruled an accident. Despite what had happened, the Tuckers were allowed to adopt two of Danielle's sisters a month after her death.

Soon afterwards, the Tuckers moved to Trenton, Utah after complaints had been made about abuse the of Brittany, one of Danielle's sisters.

In November 1997 authorities found Brittany, 6-year-old at the time, starving in a locked basement room. The basement room was furnished only with bare metal bedsprings, a wooden spool, and a metal tub containing dirty brown water, which the girl drank from and bathed in. She had been in there for at least 5 months.

Rebecca Tucker received a sentence of 5 year imprisonment for the abuse of Brittany and 8 to 15 years for the killing of Danielle. She is currently imprisoned Michigan.

Chris Tucker received a sentence of 1 to 15 year imprisonment.

Two adopted daughters of a pastor in Ocala, Fl were sexually abused by their adopter. The eldest has a child from the pastor.

In October 2000, less than four months after arriving in County Armagh, 14-month-old David died in the care of his adoptive parents Gwen and Geoffrey Briggs.

The Assistant State Pathologist for Northern Ireland, Dr Michael Curtis, failed to examine X-rays which showed multiple fractures on David's body when he carried out an initial post-mortem. Later his body was exhumed and a second post-mortem examination revealed 27 partially-healed fractures.

Two weeks after the death of David Briggs, his 14-month old twin brother Samuel was brought to hospital with a fractured skull. Geoffrey Briggs had punched the child for refusing to take some medicine. Unlike his brother Samuel survived the attack.

Geoffrey Briggs received one year imprisonment for the attack on Samuel and was released after six months when he was being attacked by fellow inmates, after which the couple fled to Scotland. For the death of  David no-one was ever charged.

The boys were adopted from Romania, where there parents were unaware of their adoption.

David Polreis, Jr: age 2, of Greeley, Colorado was beaten to death. Over 90% of David's body was covered in cuts, which his adoptive mother, Renee Polreis, claimed was due to the boys severe RAD. Renee stated that David would hit himself with a wooden spoon. Husband, David Polreis, Sr. was out of town at time of attack and was not implicated. Rene Polreis was convicted of child abuse resulting in death and sentenced to 18 years in prison. David was adopted from Russia 6 months before his death.

Dennis Craig Jurgens (December 6, 1961 – April 11, 1965) was the most famous and only fatal victim of prolific child abuser Lois Jurgens, who abused a total of six adopted children during a period spanning the 1950s to 1970s. The eventual trial of Lois Jurgens for his murder made national headlines and was the top news story for the state of Minnesota in 1987.

8 year old boy adopted by Samuel and Donna Merryman, .died after suffering cardiac arrest brought on by starvation. He weighed 37 pounds. Both adoptive parents were arrested and charged with manslaughter and first degree child abuse resulting in death and reckless endangerment. He was adopted from Russia almost 5 years before.

13 year-old boy adopted by Michael and Karen Diehl was beaten to death by the couple as result of their fundamentalist Christian belief in strict discipline.

Murdered by her adoptive mother Patricia Blackmon.

Illegally adopted by Joel Steinberg and Hedda Nussbaum, six year old Elizabeth Steinberg was beaten to death by her "adoptive" father,

20 month girl Adopted from China by Jennifer Alvey, eight months earlier, was shaken to death by her adoptive mother.

2 year old adopted daughter of Janet and Ramon Barreto, one of nine children adopted by the couple, died Monday, May 19, 2008, at LeBonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis. Preliminary autopsy report proved that the child's death was not an accident. Ramone and Janet Barreto were initially charged with two counts of child neglect and with the new information could be charged with a more severe crime.

After only being adopted a year before from Czechia, four year old Eric died of untreated pneumonia and blood poisoning. His body was covered with bruises and festering wounds.

14 year old girl was beaten with PVC pipe by adoptive father. The Mann's had been investigated three times before for physical abuse and neglect.

15-year-old girl adopted by David and Christine Nordstrom, adopted at the age of two, was being hand cuffed and beaten by her adoptive mother.

Gilmore sexually abused his 9-year-old adopted daughter. Gilmore and his wife have four biological children under the age of 10 and three children adopted from Russia.

Nine-year-old girl was sexually abused by her adoptive father David Karl Danser. He took sexually explicit photographs of her which he shared with a ring of child pornographers in the Bloomington, Indiana area, further consisting of  Pirie Scott Cleveland, Charles Poole and Bill Platz. The arrest of these four eventually lead to the arrest of Eric Franklin Rosser, who became one of ten America's most wanted fugitive criminals.

David Karl Danser was convicted and sentenced to 370 months imprisonment and was ordered to pay his adoptive daughter restitution in the amount of $309,549.36. He currently stays at the Federal Correctional Institute in Petersburg, Virginia and is scheduled for release in 2025.

14-year-old girl adopted by Douglas Allen Houtz and Beth Marie Houtz, was physically abused by her adoptive mother, she was being holdheld  under water, beaten her with hangers and kitchen utensils, and was restraint while being punched in the face.

In December 2007, Marie Houtz accepted a plea agreement with prosecutors. She pleaded no contest in exchange for a two-year suspended prison sentence.

Charges were dismissed against her husband.

After having fought a gay couple from adopting a girl, Earl Kimmerling was later found to have sexually molested her.

Quickly after she was adopted the sexual abuse started. She was 13 years old at the time. A year later she got pregnant and had a baby in 2000. In 2005 she made a report about the sexual abuse she had endured. Smith was arrested in Transylvania County in 2006 and later indicted. In 2008 he got a 124 year sentence.

Over a period of 2 years the girl was sexually abused by the couple. As age 14 she reported the abuse to Children Youth and Families officials.

5-year-old girl adopted by Ernest Richard Davison and Cynthia Joan Davison, had been bound at her wrists and ankles for a considerable time and was suffering from malnourishment.

15-year-old  girl is taken in by a man who works for a state agency charged with protecting children. He sexually assaults her on several occasions while she is living with him and his family and, after adopting her, impregnates her when she is 17.