Posted on 08/08/2005 2:17:45 PM PDT by jb6
The death of a Russian foster child came to light six months afterwards
Denis Uritsky, an 8-year-old boy from Russia, was killed by his American adoptive parents. Donna and Samuel Merryman, a married couple from the U.S., the pious teachers at a Sunday school, starved their foster son to death. Prior to the ill-fated adoption, the child had lived in an orphanage located in the town of Ochery, Perm region, Russia. His adoptive parents, though it is hard to call those monsters "parents," did not torture or beat up the child. They simply did not give him any food. He eventually died from starvation.
The child was killed back in January 2005. The Russian media reported on the tragic incident just a few days ago. As regards the U.S. media, it simply disregarded the news. Baltimore Sun, a local Maryland newspaper printed a few words on the incident. Anyway, the news apparently was not hot enough to be printed as a headline story by the Maryland paper.
Those who follow the news on the subject can reach some other conclusions. The media measures out an exact dosage of information on the killing of Russian children in the U.S., it does not care whether information is fresh or obsolete. It is quite possible that next month the Russian media will report on yet another horrendous incident involving the death of a Russian child in the U.S. And nobody will be surprised to find out that the child was actually killed a year ago.
Why did not the stories about the killing of Russian foster children in the U.S. cause a sensation in the past? Was it because there were no incidents of that sort in the past? Who wants to stir up the public opinion against the U.S. adoptions? The above questions still need to be answered.
A judge in the state of Maryland released the killers of the boy from custody after $50,000 bail was deposited. The Merrymans are currently under home arrest. It is noteworthy that another judge plainly refused to release Peggy Hilt on bail because of the ghastly details of the case. Peggy Hilt is accused of beating to death her Russian foster daughter. Some U.S. judges apparently believe that the case of a child killed by starvation differs from the case of child put to death by beating.
The weight of 8-year-old Denis at the day of his death was 37 pounds (16.7 kilos). Meanwhile, his medical records show that he weighted 18 kilos in 2000.
When the medical workers arrived in the house of the Merryman, they saw a very scrawny kid. "The child was extremely underweight," said James Eyler, a representative of district police department. He also said that no signs of physical violence had been found on the body of the child.
Numerous "family friends" and relatives claim the accusations are false and groundless. For example, Olivia Merryman, the mother of the "father" of the child, said that all the accusations were "a complete lie." According to her, Denis died from his own numerous diseases. "I personally saw him eat," said Olivia Merryman. "He came home that day, lay down on his bed, and he never got up again," said Samuel's father. These days the relatives of the accused point out that the boy had numerous diseases including rickets and cystitis.
Meanwhile, doctors clearly stated that the boy had died an ultimate stage of emaciation. Denis Uritsky, his elder brother and his two elder sisters were adopted in January 2000. Aside from the adopted Russian children, the Merrymans also have two children of their own, and a daughter of Donna's from her previous marriage.
The above case is one of several cases featuring American adoptive parents who killed their Russian foster children. The case of Peggy Hilt is still going on. The accused brutally beat up Vika Bazhenova, a 2-year-old Russian girl adopted in Russia. The girl died on the following day. A new round of preliminary hearing is slated for October 4th. A forensic psychiatrist will give his expert opinion on certain circumstances pertaining to the crime. An expert's opinion will play a crucial role in the outcome of the trial. Peggy Hilt will get a term of imprisonment lasting from 4 years up to 40 years if she is found guilty as charged.
One Irma Pavlis is another American mom who killed her adopted Russian son. According to her, she got completely out of hand. First she was whipping the boy's buttocks with a rubber cord. Then she began banging his head against the toilet wall until the boy passed out and stopped breathing.
Irma Pavlis was found guilty of killing her 6-year-old foster son. She was sentenced to 12 years in jail. The jury acquitted her of the charges related to premeditated murder under aggravating circumstances. She would have been jailed for 45 years without parole if the court had found her guilty of the first-degree murder of a child. The prosecutor Michael Gerber expressed his disappointment about the verdict and said he would seek maximum punishment for Irma Pavlis.
Looking at it from the other perspective - I was told this by an elderly friend of my wife in Russia over chocolate vodka- "you may have won the cold war, but now we conquer the world with our beautiful women" He is correct.
Sun Staff
Originally published August 4, 2005
A poster of the Ten Commandments stands behind the mailbox outside the Harford County home of Samuel and Donna Merryman, and a hand-painted sign on the front of the house reads, "Pray and Trust in God."
The couple -- both Sunday school teachers -- are on home detention, freed from jail Monday on $50,000 property bonds after being charged with manslaughter, first-degree child abuse resulting in death, and reckless endangerment.
An autopsy report says their adopted 8-year-old Russian-born son, the youngest of seven children they were raising and home-schooling, died in January of starvation -- a finding disputed yesterday by Samuel Merryman's mother, who called the charges "totally false" and maintained that young Dennis Merryman's death was the result of one of his many ailments.
"I was here every day. I saw him eating, I know he was fed," said Olivia Merryman, grandmother of Dennis Merryman and the six other children. "He had cystic fibrosis, digestive problems, and he may have had other problems."
Family members said Dennis, who was adopted with his older brother and two older sisters from an orphanage in Prem, Russia, in 2000, died in January after playing outside in the snow.
"He came in, laid down and never got up," said George Merryman, Samuel Merryman's father.
At his death, Dennis weighed 37 pounds -- 2 pounds less than when he was examined by doctors in October 2000, according to charging documents. He was 3 feet, 5 1/2 inches tall.
---snip---
"the pious teachers at a Sunday school"?
Actually, Christian Scientists, aren't much in favor of medical attention. Then there are the fringy splinter groups from hundreds of "shopping center churches."
Their guilt I don't know about but I DO know that if my eight year old weighed 35 pounds there would be plenty of medical authorities with a file on him as to why.
Horrible as this is it certainly is not unique and there are lunatics capable of doing it to a child.
I can't speak to the truth of this. But we do have friends trying to adopt from Russia. Two American families were FALSELY accused of child abuse before they even left for home with their kids. There seem to be some folks in Russia that don't want Americans adopting their orphans. That's all I know.
Well, a diagnosis of CF is one.
And may also be the motive his new owners could have decided to Terry Schiavo him
"and he may have had other problems." hardly builds confidence they were putting themselves out in seeking medical attention.
My understanding is that rickets is a disease of malnutrition.
As with other things like this, the horrid things is not that these cases don't get covered in the news, but that they happen at all.
Just today there was much exalting that the NYC murder rate is so low. It's down to about 500 murders a year, but that still means that, averaged out, nearly 2 people are murdered every single day in NYC, a city with 3 daily papers. Five now, if you count the 2 free ones. Most of those murders don't make the paper, but the poor victims are still dead.
Offhand, I'd say that the chance of a Russian child ending up a victim after being adopted (at great expense and trouble) by an American family are so small as to be incalculable. OTOH, the odds of these same kids ending up doing smack and drinking and selling themselves in the alleys of Moscow are great. They should do the math.
Attachment disorder run amuck. Lord have mercy.
It's not so easy to parent these kids. We adopted one in 95, one in 96, and a third in 97 and spent the next 4 years in family counseling. They don't come home trusting you and they have a special way of making you want to hit them at times.
It's a very difficult life before they turn around. And thank God, our two oldest have so far turned around wonderfully. The youngest is still in the midst of making that choice.
But I do understand why some adoptive parents go over the edge with these kids. At least while hitting them. It's much harder to understand starvation.
Amen to that. Thousands of Russian/Eastern European children await loving homes and many get them every year, here and abroad. Their life after they've outgrown the homes (dyetsky dom) and are released is even more abysmal, at least at this time. The statistics are devastating. The recent deaths of this child and 2 others are all the media over there sees, not the thousands happily adopted and living in loving homes. Jeopardizing adoptions for them all, especially by Americans at a time when there is already some anti-Americanism.
It's all part of the counter-media pr.
I agree.
The author of this piece is painting with a very broad brush.
I had the advantage of being able to speak Russian so most of our experiences went pretty well. Some other host families never seemed to connect to their kids and they spent the whole time in a state of conflict.
After having spent a lot of time with Russian girls, who are certainly going to be gorgeous, my gut impression is that I'm not sure what it will take to satisfy them. I don't mean specifically such as materially or sexually, I mean in life in general. I get the distinct impression that a relationship with some of them would be a temporary proposition at best, and high maintenance. So much for a mail-order PHD supermodel bride ;)
With the boys, they were merely mischevious and naturally wanted all they could get while they were here. I was surprised to find that with both boys and girls that even though they greatly enjoyed their Summers, they didn't want to come and live here. And I have to admit that some facets of their life over there are simpler and better than over here. As long as you have a source of money, you can live well over there. Very well indeed.
My mother gets paranoid when I travel, and that's her thing about the murder rates. Of course she forgets about our high rates in the US, it's every day news and gets passed up.
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