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The Star investigated the adoption of twins by Stephen F. Mellinger, a single New Jersey schoolteacher, who, through the Indiana-based Surrogate Mothers Inc., hired a woman in South Carolina to bear a child for him. Following the twins' premature birth in an Indianapolis hospital, it became clear that Mellinger was unequipped to care for them properly. The newspaper found information on Mellinger unknown to child-welfare officials, who were either unwilling or unable to travel out of state, persuaded a judge to reopen the case file, helped state officials find eight other interstate adoptions similar to this case and brought to light the need for greater oversight in surrogacy and adoption.