Yana and Toli Kolenda: Two Murdered Russian Adoptees You Never Hear About
There are indeed 20 Russian adoptees that we know of who have been murdered by abuse or neglect. in the US, but the “official” count is 17 (though that can be disputed due to a couple of acquittals, even if the evidence showed otherwise) because the deaths of the other three do not follow the pattern of Russian adoptee murders. Their deaths had nothing to do with their adoptive status, nor were they abused, neglected, or isolated from the community.
On October 20, 2002, Yana and Toli Kolenda, more than five years after their adoption, and their adoptive mother Gienia, were murdered by their depressed out-of-work adoptive father Richard Kolenda who then committed. suicide. In 2010 Kirill Kazankov, (adopted name Jackson Atusso,) 8 was brutally murdered by a teenage stranger during a family outing. Neither the Russian government nor media has cited these cases in their condemnation of the American adoption system.
I am writing about the Kolendas tonight and Kirill Kazankov in a day or so. They are not footnotes and deserve their own separate entries.. I will also add them to In Memoriam. Continue Reading →