Adopted girl says mother forced her to dig her own grave

photo Nora Gateley

A Tennessee woman says that when her adoptive parents gave her away to new parents at age 14, she and 17 other adoptive kids in her "nightmarish" new home were sometimes forced to dig their own "graves" in the backyard and scrub the floor with toothbrushes.

"'Get out and go dig your own grave," Nora Gateley, now 26, says her new mother told her. "'I don't care if you die. Nobody will find you. You were not even here in the first place."

Americans have adopted nearly a quarter million children from overseas since the late 1990s, but sometimes the children have undisclosed physical or behavioral problems, and sometimes their adoptive parents simply can't cope with their new responsibilities.

Read more from our news partners at WRCB.

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