Iowa will pay $10 million to the siblings of an adopted 16-year-old girl who weighed just 56 pounds when she died of starvation in 2017, according to a state board that approved the settlement Monday. Sabrina Ray was severely malnourished when authorities found her body at her home in Perry, about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines. She lived with three other adoptive siblings as well as foster siblings, per the AP. Misty Ray, her adoptive mother, was sentenced to life in prison on kidnapping charges, and Marc Ray, her adoptive father, was sentenced to 80 years for kidnapping and child endangerment. An adoptive grandmother and brother also received prison sentences.
Two of Sabrina Ray's siblings, former foster care children who were also adopted by the Rays, claimed Iowa Department of Health and Human Services authorities failed to protect them from severe physical abuse, torture, and neglect. The siblings—identified only by initials in records—had pushed for $50 million each but settled for $5 million apiece after mediation. Scott Wadding, the lawyer for the surviving siblings, described what they experienced as "the worst torture and abuse that a person can imagine." Some child abuse reports accused the Rays of forcing their foster children to drink soapy water, stand over cold vents, and eat their own vomit.
In an Oct. 31 letter to the State Appeal Board, Iowa Deputy Attorney General Stan Thompson called the abuse "indefensible" and said the state foster care system's "failures to protect the children were significant." He said the "prolonged exposure to such an environment caused significant physical and emotional damage to these children." A state watchdog found in 2020 that Sabrina Ray's life could have been saved if state social workers and contractors had been more thorough when they investigated the girl's living conditions.
(More
Iowa stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
