So far in this twisted tale we have seen greed lead to probable fraud and abuse did it also lead to the death of a child?
The adopted children and adults have told the investigators that their sibling is dead.
We already have seen the condition the adoptees were in when they were removed from Judith Leekins care. We have seen how two others she was getting money to care for were found and their condition. All had suffered from physical and mental abuse that has been documented.
The four children were in "very poor mental condition" and were described as having Stockholm syndrome, a condition where a hostage bonds to a captor, and were said to have developed a sense of dependence upon Leekin, according to the notes released by the State Attorney's Office. Two of the special-needs adults would not be able to function alone, while two others had problems stemming from their social isolation, but have the potential to become independent. The remaining two adults were noted as being the "brightest and most articulate."
Now it has came out that the male 18-year-old that the investigators are trying to locate
may well be dead. It is believed he had Downs syndrome or was autistic. The other adoptees say he is dead but no other information has been forthcoming. The police are declining to comment at this time as they proceed with their investigations into this twisted case.
Judith Leekin is now charged with 10 felonies. This multi-directional case involves the still missing 11th adoptee, abuse and fraud and has at least two counties in Florida involved and of course New York where the adoptions took place.
The court has ordered the seizure of four of Judith's bank accounts and has asked that more information from the banks regarding her accounts to be released to investigators who will be going over them for possible fraud charges to be added.
A Harriet Kofsky, 62, has came forward and told the police she is a former friend of Judith and claims that she broke from the friendship because Judith wanted to use her social security number and name to adopt more children after she allegedly tried to convince Harriet to adopt herself by comments such as she would never have to work and that Judith supposedly said she had paid a person $1,000 in New York to assist her in these adoptions.
Harriet claims she knew that Judith was verbally abusive to the children but she herself supposedly never witnessed any physical abuse.
"I had no idea (the abuse) was to this extent," Kofsky said Monday.
So far Judith, through her attorney is saying she is not guilty of these charges and not making any other comments.
A pdf document from the Port St Lucie Police of the 1999 investigation into accusations of abuse and just why that case was closed as unfounded
can be viewed here and together with the current knowledge of this woman it tells a tale in itself of the lengths this woman was more than willing to go to to hide her activities and just how good she was at it.
