His name is Sasha Riley, and his recently-released recordings raise a very real question about whether adoption monsters are real.
William “Sasha” Riley is an alleged military veteran, who claims to have been a German-born child named Manuel Sasha Barros prior to being adopted by a pilot named William K. Riley and his wife, Irene Riley in June of 1978. According to Sasha, his adoptive mother died and his adoptive dad trafficked him to pedophile rings said to be connected to Jeffrey Epstein and many other powerful, well-known men.
These allegations are unproven (and the online recordings should require trigger alerts), but the questions it raises here are these: are adoption monsters real? Do bad people really adopt kids and do horrendous things to them?
Sadly, the answer is “yes.” (Which warrants more questions… who are the real-life adoption monsters? How are they able to adopt? And what is or can be done to better protect vulnerable children from adoption monsters?)
Adoption Monsters in History
Adoption, like parenting, is an imperfect art, and even back in the days of the orphan trains, there were people who adopted children who should never have been allowed to do so.
During the Holocaust, Himmler’s aide Sigmund Rascher and his wife Karoline, Himmler’s former secretary, illegally adopted three children claiming to have borne them biologically; both were executed when Himmler learned of the deception.
In 1987, a six-year-old girl voluntarily placed for adoption as a baby and illegally adopted by a NY attorney named Joel Steinberg and his partner Hedda Nusbaum was found dead in their home after multiple reports of abuse.
In 2006, a divorced PA man named Matthew Mancuso applied to adopt a Russian orphan through a NY agency which failed to complete crucial background checks before placing a child named Masha with him. None of the required post-placement supervision was done, and Masha was sexually-abused and trafficked by that pornographer and pedophile for more than 5 years before his criminal conviction in 2004. (Even Congress held hearings to review how Masha’s case had been so badly mishandled, but by 2009, Masha’s subsequent adoption with an “Angel In Adoption” named Faith Allen had also fallen apart amidst allegations of abuse.)
These are just a few of the stories of adoption monsters, but the tragedy is that there are countless more, in and beyond American borders. Adoption monsters are real, and sometimes the very people who are supposed to be “rescuing kids” are compounding the nightmares and losses those very children had already survived.
Keeping Kids Safe from Adoption Monsters
Child abuse and neglect run rampant in America and in other countries, and simply ending adoption would do nothing to eliminate that problem. Yet in the known examples of adoption monsters listed above (and so many others), it seems the systems which should’ve been in place to shield adoptees were not– or failed entirely.
Adoption monsters benefit from the vulnerability of children, a lack of transparency, insufficient oversight, rushed proceedings, greed, and an adoption system in which the desires of adults too often trump the child’s best interests.
Nowadays, prospective adopters can purchase homestudy services from sketchy homestudy workers willing to approve them for placement for a large fee after just one face-to-face visit. Desperate parents and hopeful adopters can find each other on social media and hire one attorney to process adoption paperwork without either party having actually met in person or gotten any counseling. Some financially-driven agencies handle “tri-state” adoptions without even being licensed in the states in which the birthparents, adoptive parents and child live. And some paid post-adoption workers will write up approving “supervisory” reports without having actually even personally visited and observed the child being adopted and his entire adoptive family in their actual home, Some states expedite adoptions by allowing termination hearings and adoption hearings to happen concurrently, meaning nobody is checking on an adoptee’s welfare between placement and finalization.
All of these practices put children at risk, and give potential adoption monsters unwarranted power and freedom. None of these things should be allowed in adoptions meant to protect children from harm.
Making Adoption Safe(r)
The key to making adoption safe(r) is to seek to always, only do a child-centered adoption, whether you’re placing or adopting. This means taking your time to do things right– no matter how urgently you may be wanting to get it done. It also means:
- Verify the state licensure of any adoption agency or attorney before paying their fee/s,
- Seek to work only with reputable and licensed adoption agencies and attorneys. (Remember that even in a private adoption, both the placing parents and adopting parents should each have their own attorney and therapist advising them before and after placement.)
- Never let money dictate any adoption process– and run away fast if it does.
- Exchange identifying information and meet in person before and after placement occurs. A truly open adoption can mean the adopters have more accountability, since the birthfamily has more visibility.
- Give any child being adopted adequate time to adapt, and a say in the matter whenever possible.
- Ensure that all household members can speak privately with a post-placement supervisory worker on multiple occasions prior to any placement being approved for adoption finalization.
- Expect adoption professionals to want to stay in touch after the adoption, because they are genuinely invested in the welfare of the child whose adoption they once facilitated.
For the sake of kids like Sasha Riley, the twice-orphaned kids stolen by the Raschers, the late Lisa Steinberg, Masha, the lost Texas kids known as the Hart Tribe (placed through the state foster care system and believed to be drowned by their adoptive mothers) and so many more, let’s work together to expose the adoption monsters so the entire process can be more positive for everyone… forever.
