What Happened to the “Perfect Child” A Dark and Disturbing Mystery
What Happened to the “Perfect Child” A Dark and Disturbing Mystery
Speaker 1: How old were you when you were a doctor?
Speaker 2: I was nine, and that's what I wanted. I want
to feel loved and I want a family.
Speaker 3: I wanted a lot of children. You see your friends
having children, and you try and you can't.
Speaker 4: It was difficult.
Speaker 5: When we finally learned that we were going to be
able to go over to Russia and pick up a
little boy and girl of our own, it was just
a tremendous event and we were very excited.
Speaker 3: We had seen pictures of the children and they were beautiful.
Speaker 1: How did the agency describe currently.
Speaker 6: A wonderful, outgoing, intelligent little girl, loved to be around
all ages of children and desperately looking for parents.
Speaker 1: Was that an accurate description?
Speaker 7: No, it was not.
Speaker 6: Now, after we returned home, we would see her staring
off into the distance blankly, in a trance like state.
Speaker 5: She started to stand over our bed at night, wake up.
Speaker 4: And she'd be right over my face.
Speaker 8: There was a coldness in her and an anger and
just a distance. She became someone I didn't know at all.
Speaker 9: I mean at all.
Speaker 8: Carroly began stealing everything in the house. She stole all
my jewelry, Our knives were disappearing. She would do things
like putting a kitten in the middle of a pack
of dogs, cruel type behavior.
Speaker 5: And then she snapped and tried to kill Joshua.
Speaker 8: She had him in her hands and was going to
throw him over the deck. She had him yes, yes, yes,
and I just started put him down, Caroline, put him down?
Speaker 4: What are you doing? I'm going to kill him?
Speaker 8: I called the psychiatrist.
Speaker 4: What am I gonna do? You know, what?
Speaker 1: What do we do?
Speaker 8: She's becoming violent?
Speaker 1: Doctor?
Speaker 10: There is no question in her mind that Caroly is
a very troubled little girl.
Speaker 11: No, there's no question in my mind about it at all.
This child I would consider to be a homicide risk.
Speaker 8: She has been on all kinds of medication and none
of it has worked. And we've had cameras installed and
we've had alarms installed on her doors. You know, I
don't know what the solution is.
Speaker 4: What am I gonna do? I'm gonna get you the guest.
Speaker 12: Hope you can, okay. I I love him.
Speaker 13: I've done many stories during the course of my career,
but this was one that really stuck with me.
Speaker 1: You want to rescind the adoption.
Speaker 4: We feel like we tried everything.
Speaker 1: It hit me in my heart. So you plan on
taking Caroly back to Russia?
Speaker 10: Yes?
Speaker 13: Yes, I felt helpless leaving her behind. I didn't know
what would become of her.
Speaker 1: You're a strong girl, strong girl, you canna be fine.
Speaker 14: Okay, Oh Josh, I don't.
Speaker 12: See him, Mama.
Speaker 13: More than two decades ago, an American couple adopted this
little girl from Russia.
Speaker 5: Thirty seconds ago. He was terrified her.
Speaker 1: They soon came to believe she was dangerous. Can't you hurry?
Even capable of murder? You take care? Okay, it's I.
Speaker 13: Was with them when they brought her back to Russia
and left her covering. The story changed my life and
left me steeped in a haunting mystery that began when
the couple first arrived in Moscow hoping to find the
perfect child.
Speaker 3: I think it's innate and every woman to want to
be a good parent, to have children, and to share
your life.
Speaker 1: There's Kristal, she's tired.
Speaker 8: Often comments would be made about, well, when are you
gonna have children?
Speaker 4: It was hard. We thought this is going to be.
Speaker 8: A wonderful journey.
Speaker 13: Moscow, nineteen ninety seven. Crystal and Jesse, we agreed not
to use their last name, are both thirty and have
tried for years to have a child of their own.
Speaker 8: It was something we really wanted to do. We wanted
to parent. We really wanted a house full.
Speaker 13: Far away from home. They're finally about to become parents.
Speaker 8: We really wanted to give a child an opportunity adoptive parents.
Speaker 6: I was adopted myself. I know the benefits that adoption
can bring.
Speaker 13: They found their daughter on an adoption agency's web page
posted on the internet.
Speaker 8: She was a beautiful child for them.
Speaker 13: She was the perfect child, a blond, blue eyed nine
year old.
Speaker 8: We thought, you know, this is an older child we
can give a normal life.
Speaker 13: Before leaving for Russia, the adoption agency gave them the
little girl's medical records.
Speaker 6: The agency described Carey as a wonderful, outgoing, intelligent little
girl who is charming to be around.
Speaker 10: You understood, though, that adopting an older child carries certain risks,
certain risks.
Speaker 13: They took an eight hour train ride from Moscow to
an orphanage in the small town of Borovici. They already
paid nearly thirty thousand dollars to make all the necessary arrangements,
and the child, they called Cara Lee, was anxiously awaiting
their arrival.
Speaker 8: She looked in my eyes very warmly, with my mama.
Speaker 1: She calls your mama.
Speaker 8: She didn't from the very beginning, my American mama, she said.
Speaker 13: At the orphanage, the couple would not only adopt Cara Lee,
they also found her a baby brother, a three year
old they would name Joshua. It was exciting, but there
were signs that the road ahead might be rocky.
Speaker 8: We did see the anger, but it could be explained, certainly,
a child arriving to a new culture or new family,
you know, leaving her home.
Speaker 4: That's the only thing she's ever known.
Speaker 13: Back in the United States, the family settled into a
brand new home in a comfortable suburb of Atlanta, a
short commute to Jesse's computer engineering job, to.
Speaker 8: Make it very homey for and happy little princess. And
we tried to give her everything we thought a little
girl should happen.
Speaker 13: But the beautiful little girl was having big problems.
Speaker 8: As soon as we brought her home, she was very,
very withdrawn and isolating. Didn't cry at all, but just
very angry.
Speaker 13: It was nothing they thought a little love couldn't finish.
Speaker 8: I've spent all the time with her, I quit my job.
I gave her one hundred percent of me.
Speaker 13: It wasn't working, they say off camera, she started acting badly.
Speaker 8: She just began becoming very destructive.
Speaker 13: Then the unthinkable happening. On Caroly's second Christmas in America.
Things seemed to have started off well.
Speaker 8: Carly just got a new bike and we were learning
how to write it. She had never ridden one before.
I really thought that everything was going great.
Speaker 13: It was not long after when Crystal heard the horrible sound.
Speaker 8: So I was over planting and I heard Joshua screaming.
Speaker 13: Crystal says that's when she first saw Carolee holding her
four year old brother Joshua over the railing of the
thirty foot high deck.
Speaker 1: She had him, yes, yes, over the side here. Yes,
this wasn't roughhousing.
Speaker 8: No, her face there was anger and hate.
Speaker 13: Crystal says, that moment changed everything.
Speaker 8: I'm going to kill him, She said, why I'm.
Speaker 4: Mad at him? What did he do?
Speaker 8: He's getting on my nerves. I said, you would kill
him for trying to get on your nerves. Surely you
don't mean it, You don't mean kill him, and she said,
yes I do.
Speaker 7: Why can't you do?
Speaker 1: Yes, I can do that.
Speaker 13: We asked Joshua about it.
Speaker 1: Are you afraid of Caroline, Yes, because she throughout that,
because she tried to throw you off the deck.
Speaker 12: Yes, that's why her failure.
Speaker 8: Are you worried that she's going to do something to
you right now because she's not moments, heered.
Speaker 13: Crystal and Jesse's relationship with Caro Lee was in free
fall after the incident involving Joshua on the family's thirty
foot outdoor deck.
Speaker 8: She started telling me, you know, I'm hearing voices and
I'm saying things.
Speaker 4: She says.
Speaker 8: When the voices tell her to do something, she has
to do it or they'll hurt her. And the voices,
she said, told her to kill him.
Speaker 7: She was loosening that she was doing snakes.
Speaker 13: The couple had her admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She
spent almost four months under constant care before Crystal and
Jesse say their insurance started running out and they were
forced to bring Caro Lee back into their home again.
Speaker 1: This is what you see.
Speaker 6: Yes, she repeated this for months on multiple occasions. If
I get another chance, I will kill him.
Speaker 13: And she told us.
Speaker 7: That too, to kill Joshua.
Speaker 13: So they're installing an elaborate security system.
Speaker 10: So you have cameras installed at various points in the house.
Speaker 8: Yes, in the living room, her bedroom, her bathroom.
Speaker 13: Carolee is forbidden to be alone with Joshua.
Speaker 1: Is he safe now? That's why you have to get out.
Speaker 11: She is a risk to the family members.
Speaker 13: Doctor Brian Kennedy was one of the psychiatrists who saw Carolee.
Speaker 11: She's got a tremendous amount of rage and anger that
she's hidden inside her. There's clear evidence of a clinical depression.
There's definitely clear evidence of an attachment disorder. Now there
may be other developing psychiatric difficulties such as biporter and schizophrenia.
Speaker 13: She was given heavy medication, but they say the medications
aren't working.
Speaker 8: Can you get you the best hope you can?
Speaker 12: Okay, it's gonna be all right.
Speaker 1: You love her, but you're frightened of her.
Speaker 8: Yes.
Speaker 5: The anger that she has focused towards Joshua is like
something I've never seen before.
Speaker 8: Mommy's not ever gonna let her hurt you.
Speaker 6: Four year old boys should never have to ask their
parents the question, why did my sister try to kill me?
Speaker 13: But since being home from the psychiatric hospital, there's already
been another frightening incident. They say Carolly tried strangling the
family dog, Aurora.
Speaker 8: Woke up at three in the morning, and Aurora was
home from her collar with the leash tied to a poe.
Speaker 12: I've got to go to my grandma today.
Speaker 13: So Joshua's being sent six hundred miles away to live
at his grandmother's house in Texas.
Speaker 3: Why do we have to send him to Grandma's to
keep him sin.
Speaker 12: Because I may hurt him.
Speaker 8: Just imagine you think you're bringing a bright girl to
your home, but no one's told you that they're sociopathic
and they have no conscience.
Speaker 13: In fact, they say the agency that arranged Caroly's adoption,
the Frank Foundation, told them the opposite.
Speaker 1: Caroly is mostly nice.
Speaker 10: She's open, she's tender, she's obedient, she's friendly.
Speaker 5: Nothing in that sentence would lead you to question, Wow,
could there be a tremendous variety of hidden medical issues here?
Speaker 13: It was a glowing report except for one thing.
Speaker 4: They did say she was aligophrinic.
Speaker 13: Translated that and as mental retardation, But the couple says
they asked about it and were told not to worry.
Speaker 8: They stated that it was developmental delay just slow to learn.
Speaker 4: And we were sure.
Speaker 8: That this child was healthy and that in a good
home with proper nutrition, with the best of doctors in
America helping her with the developmental issues, that she should
be fine.
Speaker 13: Only after the adoption was official, Crystal and Jesse say,
did the Frank Foundation provide them with more documents that
revealed troubling things about Cara Lee's past.
Speaker 8: Says the mother was a moral and anti social. You know,
these types of words are very loaded. They carry a
lot of psychological meaning.
Speaker 13: The new documents described how Caraly's birth mother left her dirty, hungry,
and in rags. Crystal and Jesse believe the mistreatment had
a lasting effect on Cara Lee.
Speaker 8: Oh and I dreamed of adopting a little girl. This
was not my dream.
Speaker 4: We would not have adopted the child.
Speaker 1: You would not have adopted her.
Speaker 13: And as they continued digging into Caroly's past, they found
out more officials that the orphanage say Caraly was in
a special dorm for children with mental disabilities. Critical information,
the couple says, the adoption agency failed to share with them.
Speaker 1: You didn't hide any information.
Speaker 15: Never, and why would I back then?
Speaker 13: Nina Castina, a Russian Emigret ran the Frank Foundation. She
said the medical information she received was limited by Russian
privacy laws, but adopted parents once in Russia can get
anything they need.
Speaker 15: Once the parents are in the orphanage, they have access
to any medical records, to the doctors, to anything, and
this is their time when they should ask any questions.
Speaker 1: So it's their fault.
Speaker 15: I'm not telling fault. I'm telling you that this is
their obligation. This is lifetime decision. They should do it
while they're in the orphanage.
Speaker 13: When we first covered this story more than two decades ago,
Nina Castina said that no information had been withheld from
the family. But at the time, forty eight Hours spoke
with eight families who adopted through the Frank Foundation, and
they all said they had received inaccurate medical information. Their
children had been diagnosed with illnesses like fetal alcohol syndrome,
hepatitis C, brain tumors, and a slew of psychological problems.
They claim the Frank Foundation didn't prepare them for. Three
of the families who spoke with sued but lost. Crystal
and Jesse feel like they're out of options, so as
Joshua leaves for the safety of his grandmother's home in Texas.
Speaker 4: Oh, I'm going to miss you so much.
Speaker 13: They make a painful decision.
Speaker 5: We cannot continue to be your parents.
Speaker 13: They say, the only way their son can return home
is to send Caro Lee away forever.
Speaker 8: We've been here every day, loving her, nurturing her, helping her.
Speaker 4: We couldn't savor.
Speaker 5: And because you get your picture made, Carolyn.
Speaker 8: She has so many psychological problems.
Speaker 4: What we're going to do is we canna get your
picture made today.
Speaker 8: She is a danger to society, but more than that,
she is a danger to our son.
Speaker 5: So you still like to get your picture taken after
all this time. The fact of the matter is that
we cannot be her parents anymore.
Speaker 13: One Crystal and Jessee are about to do something that's
difficult to imagine.
Speaker 4: How did you want to see it?
Speaker 13: They are taking Caro Lee back to Russia.
Speaker 8: And.
Speaker 10: There are parents out there that will not be able
to understand what you're about to do.
Speaker 8: If I hadn't been in this position myself, I might
have been stating the very same thing that I expect
to hear from them.
Speaker 4: How could you do this? How could you do this?
Speaker 12: It's a long trip.
Speaker 14: Supt of color.
Speaker 10: There must be a family somewhere in America that would
adopt her.
Speaker 5: We thought that there would be a family out there.
Speaker 4: How are you today?
Speaker 5: And we've actually spoken to a few families in every
case so far, after reviewing the medical information.
Speaker 8: She tried to throw my son off a very high deck.
Speaker 5: They've said thanks, but no thanks.
Speaker 13: They have told ka Lee they are taking her to
a new hospital, but she has no idea. It's a
psychiatric hospital in Russia.
Speaker 10: This twelve year old girl has been abandoned by her
birth parents and now her adoptive parents are also rejecting her.
Speaker 5: Well, it's not a case of her adoptive parents rejecting her,
but that's what she's going It's going to be of
her adoptive parents not being able to care for her.
Speaker 7: What's wrong?
Speaker 4: But you have to understand.
Speaker 8: Psychiatrist tells that Caylee has no bonding, no affection.
Speaker 5: I think the best thing in the rule for her
is he did not see.
Speaker 8: So Carolee most likely will just move on.
Speaker 15: It looks cruel to me, cruel and that's thoughtful.
Speaker 13: Nina Castina, the woman who arranged Caroly's adoption, is distraught
over the decision.
Speaker 15: I feel very sorry for her.
Speaker 13: For her part, she questions whether Caro Lee is even
that sick.
Speaker 1: They say that she tried to kill her little brother.
Speaker 4: This is what they say.
Speaker 1: She tried to kill the family dog. She's extremely violent.
Speaker 4: That's what they say.
Speaker 1: Yes, do you believe it?
Speaker 4: That's what they say.
Speaker 13: Psychiatrist Brian Kennedy says Caroly suffers from attachment disorder in
effect and inability to love to that, he says, makes
her dangerous.
Speaker 10: It's hard for me to digest because when I look
at her, she seems like a very sweet little girl
and smiles and laughs.
Speaker 11: She does love to smile and laugh, and I think
in certain situations that her non stress were for her.
She presents as a very amiable child. But I think
when you look at what she's been through and when
you see how she functions under stress, she can become
very different and have very significant rage. She has taught
about killing her brother. She has tried to kill him,
and she could not give me assurances that she wouldn't
kill him.
Speaker 13: Others who treated Caro Lee had concerns as well, but
at least one psychiatrist had another opinion. After treating Caro Lee,
he wrote Carolee's behavior was impeccable. He said. The staff
perceived that Crystal and Jessie were too often cool and
distant towards their daughter, and that caroal Lee at times
appear to be fright and by her interactions with them, Cara.
Speaker 8: Lee is a very different person when you relegate to
know her. It took me a year and a half
to break through the facade.
Speaker 13: They have made up their minds Cara Lee must return
to Russia.
Speaker 8: The doctors in America have told me that if she
returns home, she will kill my son. I believe them.
She's already tried it once. It's very strong. Possibly she'll
try it again with success.
Speaker 13: They tapped into their life savings to bring ker Lee
here to be treated by Russian doctors.
Speaker 5: They had worked with kids from Russian orphan agracy.
Speaker 13: They found a bed for ker Lee at this children's
psychiatric hospital in Moscow, but they don't hold out much
hope and they're now thinking about annulling the adoption.
Speaker 16: Doctors suspected they were trying to abandon her and demanded
copies of their passports and made them to return for
Carolee in two months, so Carolye understands that she is
here to be treated by Russian specialists.
Speaker 4: And that's all she's here for at the time.
Speaker 1: But she does not understand that you will not be
returning for No.
Speaker 4: That's not the case at this time.
Speaker 8: The only thing we're stating is that she's here for
a diagnosis and evaluation.
Speaker 13: But Carolee senses something is terribly wrong.
Speaker 12: They tell me that they love me, and Ever told
him I loved them very much, but I didn't believe me.
Speaker 13: Then, just a few minutes before she'll enter the hospital,
Caro Lee tells me something she's never told me before.
Speaker 12: I did not try to kill my brother.
Speaker 13: That she never tried to kill her brother, Joshua.
Speaker 1: You didn't try to kill Joshua. You're telling me the truth.
Speaker 12: Just try to speak him up at because he was
too heavy.
Speaker 13: Caro Lee says, it was all a big misunderstanding. I
love him, but there's no turning back.
Speaker 16: You've pursued every possible avenue and this is the.
Speaker 1: Only thing you can do.
Speaker 5: This is this is the only thing we can.
Speaker 1: Do, honey.
Speaker 13: Crystal and Jesse left her there. Days later, I returned
with a hidden camera and visited Caroline Hey, now in
a locked wards. She was frightened. I'm but Crystal and
Jesse have made a final decision.
Speaker 4: It's been a long trip, oh Usa.
Speaker 13: They're not bringing Carolee back.
Speaker 7: Hey.
Speaker 13: The last time I saw Ka Lee was in Russia,
more than twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: She was terrified.
Speaker 13: She was in a locked ward in her children's psychiatric hospital.
The door slam shut, and I wasn't sure if I'd
ever see her again. Over the years, we repeatedly tried
to find her. I always wondered how she was doing,
if she was thriving, if she was happy. Many years passed,
she was in my thoughts and in my heart, Oh
my gosh, And finally she got in touch with me.
Now she calls herself Sabrina, look at you and is
married with four children.
Speaker 1: What have you been doing over the last twenty one years?
Speaker 4: Making babies so beautiful?
Speaker 13: We met near her home in North Carolina. We have
a lot to catch off on.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 13: I had a thousand questions for Sabrina. How did she
end up here? What she says happened on that deck
that day, and what she thought went wrong with Jesse
and Crystal.
Speaker 1: You liked her?
Speaker 4: I did you liked him. I did.
Speaker 2: It was a family that said, hey, I will adopt
this child and I would like to give them a home,
and that will love me for who I am.
Speaker 13: But to Sabrina, back then, it seemed that Joshua was
always the favorite.
Speaker 1: Did that create any jealousy?
Speaker 2: You didn't create jealousy. I felt more down. I felt
like I wasn't good enough. I felt like I wasn't
this child that they wanted. Because I was older, I
had my own feelings. I already had a history.
Speaker 4: You know. I loved that he was getting loved, he
was having a family. Yes, it sucked for me.
Speaker 13: You didn't have an emotional connection with Crystal and Jesse because.
Speaker 2: Joshua was so centered. I think we lost it. I
think it was just lost. I was starting to become
very depressed. It came to the point I was very
suicidal suicidal.
Speaker 4: I was very suicidal.
Speaker 2: There were days I tried attempt multiple times and I
just couldn't do it.
Speaker 4: That's when I started creating a story. I told Crystal,
you know I'm seeing and hearing things. Are you seeing
something now? Did you see something earlier? Because I wanted out?
Speaker 13: I wanted out, So were you hallucinating at that time, know,
no hearing, no seeing things.
Speaker 4: It's just a child trying to get out.
Speaker 8: She had him in her hands and was going to
throw him.
Speaker 17: Over the deck.
Speaker 13: And as for what happened on the deck, Sabrina has
a decidedly different version of events from Crystal that she
says started when Crystal asked her to get Joshua.
Speaker 2: Cristal was gardening and Joshua was screaming on top of
the deck, and Crystal said I.
Speaker 4: Needed to go get Joshua.
Speaker 2: Trying to pick up a child that's really almost as
big as.
Speaker 4: You is kind of hard. So I'm trying to walk
down the steps.
Speaker 2: I'm just able to hold him so he doesn't fall.
Christa looked and she said, put him down, Carly, put
him down, put him down. I eventually put him down,
and she's like, you tried to kill him, didn't you?
And I said no, I was trying to pick him
up so he doesn't fall because he was sliding off
my hands. And she's like, no, you were trying to
kill him, and she kept saying it and saying it,
and I said yes, so I just I finally said yes.
Speaker 13: Sabrina repeated that story that she tried to kill Joshua
to everyone, including me, what.
Speaker 1: Happened that day out on the deck the deck, You're
trying to push.
Speaker 7: Him off the deck, try to kill Joshua.
Speaker 13: What happened on that deck seemed to take on a
life of its own. Crystal brought Sabrina to various doctors.
Speaker 4: I went to psychiatrists.
Speaker 2: After a psychiatrist and I remember Christ to say, I
just remember if you wanted to kill Joshua.
Speaker 4: I said, okay, I will tell them.
Speaker 13: Doctor Kennedy said you were potentially a schizophrenic, bipolar, you
had homicidal tendencies, and you were a danger to this family.
Speaker 4: Hmm, that's hard to hear.
Speaker 2: If I wanted to hurt somebody, it would have been done,
and that never happened.
Speaker 4: I'm not that person. I was never that person.
Speaker 13: Today, Sabrina said she is not on any medication and
suffers from no mental illness. A number of doctors back then, though,
seemed to think she needed help. We tried to contact
doctor Kennedy but have been unable to reach it. You
were also accused of trying to kill the family dog.
Speaker 2: I don't know where that came from, because I love
that dog, It's okay.
Speaker 1: How did you learn that you were going back to Russia?
Speaker 2: Crystal said, they were running out of options and they
think the Russian institute would be better.
Speaker 1: So how is it going here? Not good?
Speaker 13: How did that make you feel when you're sitting there
in the hospital in Moscow waiting for them to return
to pick you up, and they didn't.
Speaker 4: I knew there weren't coming.
Speaker 13: I felt so guilty because I wanted to take.
Speaker 4: Care of I wanted to take me. I was like,
why is nobody taking me?
Speaker 2: I just brought it out.
Speaker 13: Sabrina said. She cried and was frightened.
Speaker 2: I feel like I was in jail. But then I
think of it. I put myself there, you know, all
those lying and doing what they want me to do.
I put myself there.
Speaker 13: Then after two months, it was Nina Castina from the
adoption agency who arrived at the institute.
Speaker 4: Nina showed up and she brought me clothes. She asked
me if I remembered.
Speaker 13: Her, and she took Sabrina to live with her in Virginia. Eventually,
Sabrina moved in with a new set of parents in
North Carolina.
Speaker 2: I have parents, They're the parents that took me in
that took their time to learn who I am and
make me a better person.
Speaker 13: After high school, she volunteered for the nonprofit Mercy Ships
and spent two years in Africa helping to provide medical
care to underprivileged people.
Speaker 4: Loved it, really, I did.
Speaker 13: When she returned home in twenty ten, she got a
job in a hospital and at church, she met math
teacher Phil Caldwell.
Speaker 2: I fell in love with him when I saw him
antiact with kids and where he was treating them, how
community was.
Speaker 1: She's just very.
Speaker 18: Real and very genuine and I love that about her.
Speaker 13: But before she would even consider getting engaged, she insisted
that Phil watch the original forty eight hours show about
her early life.
Speaker 1: My heart broke for her.
Speaker 18: I really couldn't believe all of the things that she
had gone through. I think she expected me to run,
but it was the opposite reaction of what she expected
me to think.
Speaker 13: They married in twenty fourteen and now have three lovely
daughters and a son.
Speaker 8: Fun kids love them.
Speaker 18: She's very loving and she's very caring.
Speaker 13: Well, it's Lillian.
Speaker 18: And I think probably what Sabrina went through has added
a greater impact on her parenting than she can see herself.
You go, girl, because she is so amazing at it.
Speaker 14: You are doing it all by yourself.
Speaker 13: Phil recently stopped teaching and started a new job at
the same hospital where his wife works.
Speaker 1: Seems like you're in a really good place.
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 4: You're happy, I am.
Speaker 13: But Sabrina, like me, has always wondered what happened to
Crystal and Jesse, and she says that after two decades,
she was ready to find out.
Speaker 9: See more of Sabrina's story and her life now at
forty eight hours dot com.
Speaker 13: After she became a mother, Sabrina, she says she wanted
Crystal and Jessee to know she had a family of
her own, and she wanted to share her side of
the story. She found Crystal on social media and finally,
with the send button, I'd.
Speaker 2: Send her a message stating to her that I hope
she's well and I just want to make this really
clear for you. I've never wanted to heart Joshua, and
I never heard or saw things in my life.
Speaker 1: And how did she respond?
Speaker 2: She said, she prayed that I would have a better family.
Speaker 1: Did you love Crystal and Jessee?
Speaker 2: I did, and I still have a high respect for them,
putting myself in their shoes.
Speaker 4: I would have probably done almost.
Speaker 9: The same thing, but not everything.
Speaker 4: I would never take a child back.
Speaker 13: Still, she says she harbors no hard feelings to them.
Speaker 2: I learned to forgive my past. I have an amazing husband.
I can't thank God enough for him. I have amazing kids.
Speaker 4: But if I didn't go through what I went through,
I won't have.
Speaker 13: That, Sabrina says. Crystal and Jesse have three biological daughters
of their own along with Joshua. They declined our request
for an interview. However, Jesse said that he and Crystal
were glad Sabrina's life had turned out so well, and
that Joshua was now a father too.
Speaker 1: Hi girls.
Speaker 13: In the end, it appears that Crystal and Jesse, like Sabrina,
eventually found families and happiness, and as it turned out,
so did I don't be scared, okay, and my journey
started the minute I left Sabrina in Russia. I cried
as I was leaving. Then I started saying to myself,
you know, maybe one day I can rescue an older child.
But the timing wasn't right. I was single and as
a CBS News correspondent I was still traveling endlessly. Then
I had a story in Johannesburg, South Africa, and I
went to an orphanage there to make a donation. I said,
you know what, I'm close to forty now I'm going
to go for it. In two thousand and three, I
became certified to adopt a child and learned about a
woman in Djibouti, Africa, who wanted to find someone to
adopt her four year old son. And I looked at
his photo and the resemblance was Kenny. This looks like
my kid. I had been to Africa twice and never
heard of Jibouti, but that thing. I flew there to
meet this young boy and his mother. His name was
Anlekadra mahmud Abdi. I noticed that his eyes danced. That's
the signal that he's smart, he's clever. His mother was Kadra.
She gave birth to her son after a short affair
with a French soldier, and ever since then she feared
for the boy's safety because he was mixed race. They
were homeless and living in an abandoned building. He was sleeping
on the floor and so was she. Begging was his routine.
I took them to lunch, and over the course of
the next two weeks I got to know them. I
began bonding over Hamburger's, herd fries and walking around on
the street. He spoke four languages, but not English.
Speaker 1: We mind, like, let's eat, you need to go home sleep.
I mean, that's how basic it was.
Speaker 13: Fortunately, there was a bowling alley and a small beach
at a nearby military base.
Speaker 1: We went bowling a lot with something he had never
done before.
Speaker 13: We didn't know how to swim, so we took a
boat to this small little beach island that was reserved
for the military personnel. I made two more lengthy visits
to Djibouti, but when it came time for the adoption,
there was a problem. Cadra never signed her name before.
She didn't know how to sign her name. Your practice
over and over again, you know, over over again. And
it was such a loving and selfless The attorney's sitting
next to us said to Cadra, Troy will be a
good father. And she looked me dead in the eye
and she said, time will tell.
Speaker 17: My name is Jonah Gray Roberts, and my father is
Troy Roberts.
Speaker 1: That's the stream of moved on in Djibouti.
Speaker 17: The whole adoption process.
Speaker 1: That was four years old.
Speaker 17: There wasn't really much to tell a four year old
you are I was just there's a man here who's
taking care of me, who's feeding me. He also did
get me a tutor, so I was getting education. At
that age, you don't really think anything about it. You're
just this could be, you know, my long lost dad.
Speaker 13: And then ten months after meeting my son, it was
finally time to go.
Speaker 17: That was an intense day. I'm thousands of feet in
the air. This is my first time ever on an airplane.
Then my dad tells me we're in New York City.
This is your new home. And I remember seeing my
first home, my first real home, and he's like, this
is your room. It's my own bed. I didn't have
to share with anyone. I had a desk, a place
where I started studying, had the tutors. It was it
was amazing.
Speaker 13: We did everything together, so much together. I really enjoyed
watching him learn new things and introducing him.
Speaker 1: To a whole new world.
Speaker 17: There was never father and adopted son. It was always
you know, father and son, And.
Speaker 13: Like any father, I have a lot to learn from
my son who three March.
Speaker 17: I am, you don't understand technology.
Speaker 1: Empty Brita.
Speaker 13: We're refrigerating plastic.
Speaker 1: What can I do?
Speaker 7: You just stand there.
Speaker 17: Every Thanksgiving we have this thing where before we start eating,
after I've made the full meal, because he doesn't know
how to cook, would always start off by saying like, well,
we're grateful for this year.
Speaker 13: And now when I think about Sabrina's journey and Crystal
and Jesse's and Jonah's and my own, I realize how
much we all have to be thankful for. It seems
like everyone's story has a happy ending, and that's that's
pretty cool.
Speaker 9: You know, two young women, two unsolved murderers.
Speaker 4: They were both killed the same.
Speaker 9: Night, matching socks found it two different crime scenes. Now
can DNA from a fast food bag finally catch the killer?
It was like forty eight hours next on CBS A
streaming on Paramount Plus.