A young Chinese American woman is suing her adoptive New Hampshire parents for treating her like a slave for years.
The suit, which was filed Monday in Merrimack County Superior Court, also names multiple co-defendants, including the state’s child protection system, the local school district, New Boston police and a Massachusetts adoption agency. The agencies allegedly ignored the plaintiff’s situation, partly because she was a minority child.
Olivia Atkocaitis, now 19, was adopted from China at the age of 14 months in 2004.
The abuse allegedly began when she was 3, with her being tied to a metal column with a dog leash, as per WMUR.
Olivia said her parents, Thomas and Denise Atkocaitis, built her an 8-by-8-foot room in their home’s basement, which is described in the suit as a “dungeon.”
She would reportedly spend the next several years locked up.
The Atkocaitis family had three biological children. They lived in a four-bedroom, 4,300-square-foot New Boston residence that sits on 27 acres of land next to a state forest, as per New Hampshire Union Leader.
Olivia’s dungeon allegedly had only one window, which was secured with chicken wire. She used a bucket for a toilet, causing their home to smell, according to her siblings.
Olivia was allegedly freed from her dungeon to do multiple chores, including tending to farm animals and massaging her mother.
The suit says she repeatedly attempted to escape as a child, but local police would always return her home.
When Olivia attempted to escape, as she did repeatedly as a child, local police hunted her down, reprimanded her for escaping, and returned her to servitude. During her last effort at escape, the police used dogs to track her.
Olivia allegedly attended school only once, while her siblings studied in public schools. In 2011, one sibling reported to…
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