“48 Hours” contributor Troy Roberts sat down with a girl to listen to her story of how she was adopted overseas, grew up in America, then returned to Russia when her parents began to fear her.
Caralee, as named by her adoptive parents, was only nine when they flew her back to America. The first year and a half was full of promise, and they were a happy family.
The adoption agency gave Crystal and Jesse the girl’s medical records before they flew to Russia.
“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,” Jesse told Roberts.
“And we were very excited,” Crystal added.
They adopted two children, naming them Caralee and Joshua, finally having two kids of their own.
And then Caralee began behaving badly.
“We would see her staring off into the distance blankly in a trance-like state,” Jesse explained.
“There was a coldness in her and an anger,” Crystal said.
Little Caralee then told them that she was hearing voices and that she was hallucinating. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the unimaginable happened. Crystal and Jesse claims Caralee tried to throw her younger brother off a deck outside their home.
A deck that was 30 feet high.
“She had him in her hands and was going to throw him over the deck,” Crystal explained to Roberts twenty years ago.
Crystal demonstrated how Caralee held her brother over the railing. Now look closely at the video and just see how high that deck is. Anyone would be terrified witnessing such a scene.
“And I just started screaming, “Put him down, Caralee!” Crystal said. “Put him down!”
Crystal then asked Caralee, “What are you doing?” and Caralee replied, “I’m gonna kill him.”
The haunting incident had Crystal and Jesse taking Caralee to see several psychiatrists.
Psychiatrist Dr. Brian Kennedy saw Caralee and he described her as “a homicide risk”, that she was likely a danger to the entire family. So the couple installed an elaborate security system in their home.
“We’ve had cameras installed and we’ve had alarms,” Crystal said.
Caralee was sent to several months of treatment. Her parents couldn’t see any improvements and with the rising cost of their problem, Crystal and Jesse decided to send Caralee back to a children’s psychiatric facility in Russia.
Troy Roberts was there the whole time, and he gave Caralee a tearful hug before saying goodbye.
That story came out in 2000 and since then, Roberts was left wondering what happened to the girl from Russia. Until a girl named Sabrina reached out to Roberts over the summer.
It was Caralee.
She now lives in North Carolina with her husband Philip Caldwell. Together, they have three young daughters and newborn son.
This time, Caralee told her side of the story.
Sabrina explauined that she became depressed and suicidal as she felt that Crystal and Jesse preferred her younger brother. She was just a child trying to get out, and it wasn’t easy.
“I did not try to kill my brother,” she said.
Sabrina says she was just having trouble helping her brother down the steps. She’s reached out to Crystal and Jesse as well, just to let them know how life had worked out for her. And she’s so much happier now.
For more on this incredible story, watch below!
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