Couple Charged with Starving Four Adopted Sons

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=6&u=/nm/20031026/ts_nm/crime_children_dc

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A New Jersey couple on Sunday faced charges of starving their four adopted sons, aged 9 to 19, authorities said, in a case that has raised fresh questions about the state's child welfare system.



The boys, who suffered from stunted growth, rotten teeth and distended bellies, were surviving by supplementing their meager diet of uncooked pancake batter and oatmeal with chips of paint and pieces of wall insulation, authorities said.


Meanwhile, a state case worker made regular visits to the home in the Philadelphia suburb of Collingswood, New Jersey.


Their conditions came to light when neighbors phoned police after seeing the 19-year-old rummaging through their trash can. Officers discovered that the teen-ager weighed only 45 pounds. His adoptive siblings -- aged 9, 10 and 14 -- weighed as little as 23 pounds.

<snip>

Sigh.

[flamingyouth]

1. Lock these "parents" up

and throw away the key. What a horrible, sickening story.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. Sorry...Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=184812