Not too long ago Sandra wrote about the Florida woman who is being charged with abusing the 11 children that she had adopted through the state. The children were bound together by their hands and feet and forced to soil themselves as the woman who adopted them refused to let them use the bathroom. Why would someone adopt so many children, if they had no intentions of actually caring for them, one might ask?

The adopted children had special needs, and Judith Leekin has filled her pockets over the years with the 1.26 million dollars in stipends that had been issued to her in order to take care of the children and their various special needs.

It has now been learned that eight years ago, that’s right folks, eight whole years ago, Florida authorities received a tip that Leekin was abusing the 11 children whom she had adopted from New York. The tip included allegations of Leekin beating an eleven-year-old boy with a metal pipe. A Florida investigator wrote a letter to New York, including both the two social security numbers that had been used by Leekin, as well as all three of the aliases that she has used in the past. The New York Agency was not able to find any active records of Leekin in the system, although there was evidence suggesting that there may have been some sort of case in the past, but nothing that indicated exactly what it might have been about. The New York agency responded to the Florida investigator stating the above, as well as adding that they would need the names of the children in question in order to thoroughly search their records.

After receiving the response from New York, Florida closed the case on Leekin, finding no evidence of abuse.

The worker who investigated the case for Florida eight years ago, Stacey Cason, claims that she did the best job that she could.

Is it just me, or does the ‘best job that you can do,’ entail following up and getting the actual names of the children whom you suspect are being abused by the woman who holds two social security numbers and three aliases, especially when New York found some evidence of their being a case involving Leekin at some point in the past?

While the story is not cut and dry, and Leekin did apparently hide most of the children from authorities during the 1999 investigation, it seems quite interesting how Florida was so quick to drop the case eight years ago, and with the same lightning speed, now point the finger at New York officials, claiming that they had thwarted Florida’s investigation into this woman eight years ago when the letter of inquiry about Leekin was sent.

And what has happened to the children while Florida and New York are busy trying to figure out just who failed these 11 children the most, and of course the bigger issue of who failed the 11 children first? Ranging in ages from 15-27, ten out of the eleven adults and children who were previously in Leekin’s care are now in Florida state care. None have more than what appears to be a fourth grade education, one can barely stand or walk, and yet another is blind and can only mumble. And while the scars on their wrists and ankles from apparently being routinely bound and handcuffed are easily visible, it is the deep emotional scars that cannot be seen, which have undoubtedly done the most damage to these children who have been failed by absolutely everyone involved in their unnecessarily tragic lives.