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/
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.
