Krystal was beaten to death by her adoptive father Donald Lee Tibbets, who was taught to lie across his daughter (who weighed a total of 35 pounds) in what is known in AT circles as “compression therapy,” and punch his fist into her abdomen, which is one technique of “visceral manipulation” (VM), encouraged by attachment therapists. The mother Julia was not charged.

4 year old girl and 5 year old girl adopted by Richard and Christine Dodson were abused by their adopters. The girl's leg and arms were broken and the boy was being starved and beaten. Both children were home-schooled. The boy was made to sleep on a mattress in a closet.

7-year old boy adopted by Joseph and Heather Ciambrone Lucas was diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder by Foster Cline.

In addition to being forced to sleep in a bathroom stripped of towels, soap, toilet paper, and light bulbs;  he was fed through a bucket.  Lucas was thrown to the floor, kicked in the penis, punched, and had his head held under water.  He had been picked up by his ears in such a way, they were nearly pulled from his head.  According to the chief medical examiner,  the degree of injury to the head and nine different breaks or fractures to the ribs were indicative of child abuse, and could not have been caused by an accident, or been self-inflicted.  In addition, when the boy was admitted to the hospital, his body temperature was 84 degrees, suggesting the death blow came at least four hours before Heather and Joe Ciambrone drove him to the hospital.

Autopsy reports indicate at the time of death, the boy weighed only 32 pounds, with a height of only 41 inches.

Joseph Ciambrone - by his own admission - did nothing to keep the child from being kept naked in the bathroom of the family's Rubonia home and did nothing to alleviate the boy's malnutrition.

Holly, 15 and Nicole, 14, adopted as infants in Korea, were shot to death by their adoptive father James Cooke because they were going to report James was sexually abusing the girls. The girls were originally adopted by  Lois and Tom O'Connor, after they divorced Lois married James Cooke and he adopted the girls. James taped a phone call made by Lois explaining she and the girls were going to report the sexual abuse formally on Monday. James killed Lois, Holly, Nicole, and then shot himself.

3 year old boy adopted by Darlene Whiteman Bright  and Marty Lee Bright died of suspicious head injuries. Ms Bright pleaded guilty to third-degree felony child abuse homicide. DFS had multiple reports of abuse prior to Kameron's death.

3-year-old girl about to be adopted by Cleveland and Joquitta Palmer was beaten to death.

9-year-old girl adopted by Stanley and Nellie Rinkel died as a result of a head injury, upon autopsy another head injury was found and more than 100 bruises. In 1997 her death was called a homicide, yet no one was ever charged.

Vicky was adopted a few months prior to her death.

Jessica, adopted in China 6 months earlier, died of a fractured skull in 1993 at 10 months. She had 14 broken bones (hand, wrist, leg, upper arm, collar bone and three ribs) in the 2 months prior to her death. Her adoptive mother Julie McClure was charged with murder and manslaughter. A piece of wallboard from the home had a dent about the size of a baby's head with embedded human hairs. The defense contended that Jessica had brittle bone disease and the skull fracture was caused by a fall when the 10 month girl was standing on a chair. Her body was cremated before tests could be completed; no bone anomalies were noted during the autopsy.

Two separate grand juries indicted Julie before a Juvenile Court judge decided the verdict without a trial saying the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that McClure killed Jessica.
It is not clear if Jessica was abused, suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta, or if both items played a role in her death. Adoptive father Jim McClure was not charged.

Kyle Golebieski (aka Kyle Kelly) was killed by by his mother, Kathleen D. Golebieski, who frequently beat him. Kyle and his younger bio brother were adopted from Honduras in 1992. Ryan Golebieski, a year younger than Kyle, showed no signs of abuse. Kathleen was sentenced to 10 to 20 years. Her then husband Joseph Golebieski pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child.

Kathleen Golebieski (then Kathleen Kelly) adopted Kyle and Ryan, two months before she married Joseph Golebieski. Ryan, who was 2 when Kyle died, was placed in a foster home.

Two girls adopted in the mid-1980's were sexually abused by their adopter George Ogle, a known child molester, who had previously been convicted for the rape of two of his nieces.