Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Adoption, Fire and Murder

Within a week - two gruesome cases:

One has made headlines around the nation because it involved a wealthy family in Connecticut...a mother and two teenaged daughters killed in a fire after a home invasion burglary.

It soon surfaced that one of two parolees who committed this atrocity, Joshua Komisarjevsky, 26, was adopted.
While this horror was unfolding and being digested, anther story hit the media:

William E. Wheeler was trapped inside his burning home on March 22, while his 16-year-old adoptive daughter, Codee, allegedly stood outside in the front yard "calmly" talking on her cell phone and waving away potential rescuers.

It has now been reported that in the first case, the adoptee perpetrator first learned he was adopted at the age of fourteen - exactly when his criminal career began. Komisarjevsky became a "cat burglar" breaking into homes close to his own in Cheshire.

If there is any doubt in anyone's mind that the connection between adoption, fire and murder is not as random as one would think, they need to read Adoption: Uncharted Waters by David Kirschner.

Kirschner contends that the most crucial part is the way children are told they are adopted. Obviously 14 was not the optimal time...and one wonders if it was said before or after he started "acting out" and how and why it was said.

Kirschner has appeared as expert witness in a number of murder cases and presented Adopted Child Syndrome on behalf of the defense for the trial and/or sentencing, as detailed in his book. He has intensively interviewed adoptee killers including some of the most notorious serial killers - a disproportionate number of whom wreadopted. They all reported strong feelings of abandonment.

The lits of serial killer adoptees includes: David (Son of Sam) Berkowitz, Joel Rifkin, Ken Bianchi (the Hillside Strangler), Eugene Gerald Stano. A list of adoptee killer, exlcuding the most recent is available at: www.geocities.com/Wellesley/9950/adoption_serialkillers.html

UPDATE 12/10/11: Joshua Komisarjevsky was sentenced to death. His "forever" adoptive parents were not present.  Now another young adopted man, Gabriel Hall is charged with murder and his "forever" adopters are not getting him an attorney or attending any of his hearings. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know additional info about the Codee Wheeler situation and believe that it is less about the fact that the girl was adopted, and more about the fact that her birth mother likes to meddle in business where she doesn't belong. She is like a tornado and leaves a lot of damage wherever she goes. From everything I have heard, there was no problem within the household until the birth mother moved back to the area. Coincidence? I think not.

AdoptAuthor said...

Hearsay.

I am sure there are at LEAST two sides to this story. I am quite sure the adoptive family wants to paint the mother as being intrusive. But it sounds like Codee is a very disturbed young woman and was so before she reunited with her mother.

She seems to display classic symptoms of Adopted Child Syndrome and I suggest you - and anyone concerned about her read "Adoption: Uncharted Waters" and contact the author who testifies in such cases.

The root of Codee's anger and disturbance is clearly rooted in her adoption - the loss and abandonment feelings that adoption that some are less able to deal with than others.

Anonymous said...

Hearsay, perhaps. However it was NOT the adoptive family that I heard this from. The birth mother is a person who can easily manipulate the minds of anyone around her. Her own child is not the only child's life she's interfered with. She is manipulative and I believe any and all actions by the girl were in direct relation to how her mother lives her life.

While it may be more likely for an adopted child to commit an act of hatred or any other crime, I feel that a person acts the way a person is raised to act. I have my reasons for saying this, which I would rather not divulge, but just because a person's life doesn't follow the natural flow of things doesn't make them a murderer. The morals that have been taught to them, or not taught to them, seem to have a lot to do with the way people conduct daily living.

It's my opinion. And while it's not a fact, I believe that if you raise your children to be good people, they will be good people. I suppose some people do not have as strong of a will as others though.

AdoptAuthor said...

If what you say is true, that would put the onus on those who raised Codee, not her natural mother, who you previously seemed to blame.

However, behavior is not all as simplistic as you make it out to be. We are all a combination of nature and nurture, genetics and environmental factors. Our genetics give us strengths and weaknesses to deal with what life throws our way. Some of us are stronger than others and we each have different coping mechanisms.

Anonymous said...

This person is actually using being adopted as an excuse to commit a crime? The poor dear, having a home and parents to raise him. Nobody's life is perfect. Our parents are not an excuse to commit a crime. Adopted child syndrome? It's called making excuses. I'm not responsible for my own behavior. What a load of nonsense. He needs to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. I was raised by my biological parents, one of whom was severely mentally ill (oh for a stable adoptive home--sounds good to me). Do I get to murder people I'm upset at because of my home situation, too? I think not.

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