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Cops: Ex-Queens woman may have killed adoptee

BY CARL MACGOWAN | carl.macgowan@newsday.com

7:57 PM EST, January 10, 2008

Judith Leekin, 62, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., who is accused of fraudulently adopting 11 New York children to bilk a child welfare agency out of $1.2 million. (AP Photo / St. Lucie County Sheriff's Dept)

Florida police say they believe a former Queens woman charged in an adoption scam may have killed one of the 11 children she took into her care.

Shane Graham, 19, who has autism, Down syndrome and sickle cell anemia, has not been seen in almost eight years, since the woman who adopted him, Judith Leekin, took him from their Port St. Lucie, Fla., home and returned without him, police said Thursday.

Police Thursday, in a last-ditch effort to solve the case, held a morning news conference to ask for the public's help in locating Graham. Six hours later, they had no leads, said Officer Robert Vega, a Port St. Lucie police spokesman.

"Whether he's alive or dead, we don't know," Vega said. "But I can tell you that everything is pointing to that he's deceased."

Leekin, 62, has been in St. Lucie County Jail on $4.5 million bail since July, when she pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of child abuse.

Graham, known as "Moo" for one of the few sounds he can make, went missing in 1999 or 2000, Vega said.

Leekin told her other adopted children and a caretaker that Graham died, Vega said.

The possibility of charging Leekin with murder is on the "back burner" as police continue the search, Vega said. Police have checked hospital records, search warrants and the local medical examiner's office, Vega said.

Graham's disappearance came to light within the past six months, as Florida police investigated child abuse charges against Leekin.

"Everything is coming back empty as far as Shane Graham being alive," he said.

Leekin has refused to speak to police, Vega said. "So far she has not cooperated at all in this investigation," he said.

Officials said Leekin, who lived in Laurelton, adopted the children from at least four New York adoption agencies between 1988 and 1996 and moved them to Florida in 1998. The children now range in age from 15 to 27.

Leekin used aliases, fake addresses and forged documents to receive $1.2 million from the New York City Administration for Children's Services, authorities have said.

Florida police said Leekin handcuffed, beat and starved the children, many of whom have physical and mental handicaps. If convicted, she faces up to 160 years in prison.

Nine of the adopted children are in Florida state custody and a 10th, now 19, lives on his own.

A public defender representing Leekin did not return calls for comment Thursday.

This story was supplemented with an Associated Press report.