The Road to Hell...

by Lisa R. Cohen

Between 1,500 and 1,800 children left orphanages in Russia last year, striking out to find real homes in America. But now, because of the chilling new case of seven-year-old Artyom Savelyev, next year there may be none.

Yesterday, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman announced an immediate suspension of U.S. adoptions in Russia, pending an upcoming visit from a U.S. delegation to resolve the issue. It should be noted that other Russian officials disputed this ban, and the State Department says that for the moment it can't figure out who to believe.

Artyom, also known by his American name Justin Hansen, got off a plane from Washington, D.C., in Moscow last week, all by himself, carrying nothing but a backpack with some toys, one pair of outsized underwear, and a letter from his adoptive mother, Torry Hansen.

Did I mention he is SEVEN YEARS OLD?

In the letter Artyom clutched when he got off the plane, where he was met by a driver Hansen hired off the internet to deliver the boy to the Russian Education Ministry, his 26-year-old single mom justified her actions. She said she'd been misled by the Russian adoption agency to believe Artyom was mentally healthy, when, she claimed, he was in fact emotionally disturbed.

"He is violent," she wrote in the letter above, "and has severe psychopathic issues/behaviors." Hansen's mother, Nancy, told reporters later that Artyom grew increasingly  disturbed during the six months he lived in their small-town Tennessee home, and at one point threatened to burn it down.

This might be the most glaring headline to come out of the sad story of Russian adoptions gone awry, but it's only the latest in a string of incidents involving these children, abandoned in orphanages, who languish there for several years before seemingly well-intentioned adoptive parents come forward. But during that time unclaimed, in group homes with inadequate attention, the damage is being done.

"Reactive Attachment Disorder" is often used to describe such lost souls, who missed out on the critical bonds formed in early years with a loving parent or adult. They may never have been held, cuddled, hugged. That yawning developmental hole results in a spectrum of behavioral problems, up to and including extreme violence. Was Artyom about to burn down the house? We'll never know. But there have been cases where the other children in the house, even the adults, were at physical risk.

In fact, in the years since Russia opened its borders to allow these kids out in search of new life with a real family, the number of willing families has slowed. The 1,500 figure of last year is much lower than the 5,800 Russian orphans adopted just six years ago. Taking these kids out of moldering group institutions and resettling them into the arms of strangers is no quick fix.

It's a tough and complicated problem. Hansen says the Russian adoption officials knew of Artyom's problems and lied to her about them. She said she was blindsided and eventually  had no choice but to do what she did. Here are a few choices she did have, however:

She apparently consulted with psychologists, but never took the boy to see one. She's a nurse. She should know better. She didn't seem to contact anyone back in Russia about the problem, and didn't even seem to think her son should be returned personally. One of her critics referred to her act as 'taking out the garbage.' How much preparation and forethought did she put into her choice to adopt this child in the first place?

Artyom, his Russian driver reported, seemed a likeable and unfazed seven-year-old. He gave away his toys to the people around him, pulling them out of his backpack 'like a magician.' He spoke only English in response to Russian questions, and talked about wanting to go back to his home in the U.S.

He won't be going back. And now many others like him, and even in much better shape than he is, won't be going anywhere either. They've lost that choice too.

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Monster Mom

by Tina Dirmann

It's the most horrific of all crimest—he abuse of a small child at the hands of a parent.

As a former crime reporter, I've scanned countless evidence photos, taken by police to record the bruises, scratches, and scars marring small bodies. And yet, those were usually the lucky ones. Often, cases of abuse go too far. And by the time authorities get involved, it's a homicide.

Even though I haven't been a daily cop reporter for many years now, my mind still flashes back to those abuse cases as I take in the latest headlines. "Woman accused of not feeding 4-year-old," read one newspaper report. "Four year old Florida boy nearly starved to death," announced a television newscaster.

Deputies in the Florida Panhandle found this little guy near death, weighing in at just 10 pounds. I turned my eyes from the television and looked on my small cat, curled up on the couch, and couldn't help but think that my little feline probably weighed more than that 4-year-old boy. Normal weight for a child that age is about 35 pounds.

Turns out, he was also severely handicapped and denied medication needed to control frequent seizures.

How could you do it? I thought as they threw up the picture of his 19-year-old mom, Erin Brittany Markes (pictured above). She went by, day to day, knowing that her little boy was hungry, thirsty. His body was trembling at regular intervals from savage seizures.

The act is so unfathomable. Why? That's the only question after hearing a case like this. How could she?

It brought me back to the time I was a young journalist, covering an abuse case in San Bernardino County, California. In that case, the step-father of a 4-year-old little boy told the toddler to stand still and lift his arms so, he looked like a little letter "t."

"Make like an airplane," his step-father said.

And then he proceeded to pummel the kid in the stomach so hard, he ruptured the boy's insides, eventually killing him. Why would his step-father do that? The kid had apparently fallen asleep on the couch and soiled himself in his sleep. The urine soaked through and wet the couch cushions, infuriating the step-dad. It was, after all, a new couch.

I struggled to remain "neutral" or "objective" in that case. I remember looking at that father and just thinking, "Monster. Monster." Instead, I dipped my head into my notebook and dutifully quoted his defense attorney. It was an accident, he said. He didn't mean to kill that little boy. He loved that little boy. And the irony? Closing arguments in the case fell on the Friday before Father's Day.

He was convicted, I'm happy to report. He got 15 years in prison. I wanted to write that it wasn't enough, as I typed up my report on sentencing day. It stings today, as I think he's probably out on parole by now. Living his life.

The good news in this case is that the boy in Florida, in hospital care since Friday, is recovering. He's gained 3 pounds, local authorities said, and the bed sores covering his torso are being treated. The mom, who faces 15 years in prison if she's convicted on multiple child neglect charges, has told police the boy went unfed because she needed more help. True, she did have her son when she was 15. Just a minor herself. Still, I imagined reporters on this case rolling their eyes as they typed up her comments, struggling to hold on to their own objectivity while the investigation unfolds. I'm just glad this time, I won't be among their ranks, trying to make sense of a senseless story.

I once wrote an entire book about two teenage boys who conspired to kill their mom, decapitating her with a kitchen knife. As I investigated the case, I discovered the boys had suffered extreme mental abuse all of their lives at the hands of their mother. The abuse didn't excuse the brutal slaying, but slowly, I understood where all that anger came from. I interviewed one of the young men in jail and he told me what it was like to be young, defenseless, and abused.

"Every day I died a little inside," he told me. "To me, what we did, was just an act of self defense."

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