A woman charged with abusing 11 disabled children she adopted in a $1.2m scam is now suspected of killing one of them.
Autistic Shane Graham, who also has Down's syndrome and sickle cell anemia, vanished eight years ago at the age of 11.
Police say he's been missing since his adoptive mum Judith Leekin - who allegedly treated the kids like slaves, handcuffing them and refusing to let them outside - took him from the family's Florida home and returned without him half-a-hour-later.
When she returned, it is claimed she told the rest of the children he had died - and made a "strange remark" to the babysitter, which they would not reveal.
"And that's the last anybody's laid eyes on that kid," said Port St. Lucie Detective Stuart Klearman. "He literally vanished."
Leekin, 62, has been held in a Florida jail since her arrest last summer, when authorities revealed that she used four aliases in New York to adopt the kids and claim $1.2m in benefits.
She had moved to Florida in 1998 with the children and continued receiving subsidies for caring for Shane, even after he disappeared.
Shane was nicknamed "Moo" by his adopted brothers and sisters because that is the only word he could say.
Since arresting Leekin, no traces of the boy - now aged 19 - have been found.
His disappearance only came to light when police started investigating Leekin for the child abuse investigations.
They are now appealing for information to help establish whether he is still alive, or if not, how he died.
But Leekin has so for refused to reveal what happened to the boy. "Whether he's alive or dead, we don't know," said Officer Robert Vega. "But I can tell you that everything is pointing to that he's deceased."
"We're hoping that someone will do the right thing and come forward," detective Klearman added.
But if that does not happen, police are set to seek homicide charges, saying "it's not impossible to prosecute somebody completely on circumstance . . . and without a body."
If convicted, Leekin faces up to 160 years in prison.
By Samantha Lawton, Jan 11 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy
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