The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "adoptive parents" ...
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To Catch a Baby Broker
The 18-month investigation looked into complaints about international adoption and the people who take advantage of unsuspecting, emotional adoptive parents. It focused on Guatemala's then-private adoption system, which was compared to a baby farm with allegations of fraud, extortion and baby selling.
Tags: adoption; Guatemala; baby; undercover; abduction; children; fraud; extortion
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To Hug a Porcupine
Debbie and Jorge Garcia-Bengoches did not understand why the three little boys they'd adopted were acting so violent. Only years later and by accident did the couple discover that the boys had been horribly abused by a series of adults in early childhood, a fact that the state's foster care system knew but filed to disclose. The technical name for the boys' behavioral ailment is "Reactive Attachment Disorder" but they have been described as sociopaths. The parents successfully sued the state for $10 million but cannot get the money released due to budget cuts and the concept of sovereign immunity.
Tags: reactive attachment disorder; adoption; foster care; budget cuts; mental health; child abuse
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Whose Children Are They?
"Focus on Children, a Utah-based adoption agency, is accused by the U.S. government of tricking Samoan parents into giving up their children for adoption and falsely telling American parents they are orphans." The reporter traveled to Samoa to track down families that were affected; she found adoption agency recruiters exploited the families' religious faith, as well as bribed them with cars.
Tags: foreign relations; adoption; kidnapping; Latter Day Saints
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Daddy's Girl
Reporter Kelly Cramer tells the story of Bruce McMahan and Linda Schutt, a father and daughter who carried on an incestuous sexual relationship in the late 1990s and were married in 2004. Schutt was the biological daughter of McMahan, a rich Wall Street hedge fund manager. She was put up for adoption at birth by her mother. Schutt searched for her real father, and the pair connected in 1990 when Schutt was 21. Eight years later, they began their relationship, which lasted until she was married, and picked up again a few years later, resulting in the marriage of father and daughter.
Tags: Bruce McMahan; Linda Schutt; incest; adoptive parents; Wall Street
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Preying on Parents
A California-based international adoption firm is found to be defrauding prospective parents, taking advantage of "legal loopholes and government neglect." The story involves bribes and kickbacks to foreign government officials, the use of internet fraud on prospective parents, and "the withholding of vital medical information about orphans to misstate their health." In some cases, the children adopted through the agency had such severe medical conditions or other issues, and were institutionalized or sent home to their native countries. Meanwhile, "the company ignored complaints and pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees."
Tags: Adoption; former Soviet Union; child adoption; fraud; Internet adoption agency; orphans; medical problems
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Where Do They Belong?
This 20/20 investigation delves into human trafficking in Cambodia to supply babies to adoptive parents in foreign countries. They discovered that many children were sold by impoverished parents or taken from them under false pretenses and then marketed as orphans to potential adopters. The story includes an interview with Lauryn Galindo, who was convicted of fraud, money laundering and tax evasion in 17 cases related to the adoption scandal.
Tags: adoption; fraud; Cambodia; human trafficking; kidnapping; orphanages
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Failure to protect
This series reveals cases of neglect and abuse in state-sanctioned foster homes and that Indiana has crossed the federally allowable limit for such cases. Exposing dangerous conditions to which the children were subject, the series highlights particular instances of malnourishment and sexual assualt that have proved fatal. Finally, the stories raises questions about confidentiality rules adopted by these foster homes.
Tags: child protection; Child Protective Services; foster parents; Family and Social Services Administration
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"A crisis in foster care: Hardships prevalent for those raising children's children
This investigation found that nearly a third more New York grandparents are raising their grandchildren than a decade ago, and of those, a disproportionate number have fallen into poverty. An unresponsive child-welfare system has forced these grandparents into making a tough decision: Place their grandchildren into foster care and become foster parents themselves in order to receive government aid, or ignore the foster care system and scrounge to support their families.
Tags: grandparents; grandchildren; foster care; poverty; census; child welfare; adoption; Children and Family Services; Department of Social Services; Department of Health and Human Services; guardianship; CAR; computer-assisted reporting
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Florida foster care
ABC reports on "the failure of the Florida Department of Children and Families to protect six children who were under its care." The story reveals that Jacqueline Lynch, a certified foster parent, abused and neglected the six children, siblings of ages between 5 and 15. Nevertheless, the state allowed her and her husband to adopt the children. Lynch has been receiving thousands of dollars for supposedly taking care of the children until the state learned of the abuse from a child abuse hotline. "For almost two years, no caseworker ever came to inspect the Lynch home even though they were supposed to be monthly visits," according to the contest entry summary.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; school; sadistic punishments; physical and sexual abuse; starvation
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Foster Shuffle
Krupa finds, according to the contest questionnaire, that "scores of children who were put in foster care after their parents were accused of sexual abuse wound up back in their homes -- some within days of being removed by the state.".
Tags: foster care; children; sexual abuse; adoption; foster care; neglect; databases