The foster family turned out to be hell: near Tomsk, orphans were treated with “exorcism”

A resident of the village of Mogochino, Tomsk region, Ekaterina D. beat her 6-year-old adopted daughter Polina to death. The girl, “all blue,” ended up in intensive care and fell into a coma. It turned out that in a family that shuns publicity and is fenced off from the villagers with a thick two-meter fence, children are beaten – foster and adopted. Neighbors told MK terrible stories that circulated around the village in the form of rumors, but have now found real confirmation in the form of a criminal case.

What happened behind the dense village fence and what, in the opinion of fellow villagers, caused the love of children of the spouses Ekaterina and Dmitry D.?

Siberian Mogochino is quite numerous by local standards – more than two and a half thousand inhabitants. The cultural and social life of the village is largely built around two monasteries – convents and monasteries. In 2017, a married couple appeared among the parishioners of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery – Ekaterina and Alexey. They came to Mogochino from Novosibirsk with the goal of begging God for children. New parishioners became active members of the community, first settled at the monastery, and then moved to the village. According to locals, the abbot took care of allocating a plot of land for the settlers, where a large two-story brick house soon grew. Locals are sure that the priest’s concerns were caused by large donations to the monastery. But the couple, despite all their efforts, did not have children.

But life does not stand still. Soon Catherine broke up with Alexei and found a new husband, Dmitry, from among the parishioners. The locals decided that Katya would probably give birth now. And indeed, at one moment the woman’s tummy became noticeably rounder. Ekaterina told her fellow villagers that she had finally become pregnant, and with twins. In December 2021, according to neighbors, she went to Novosibirsk, supposedly to give birth, but returned a month later with two boys – one looked to be 7 months old, and the other 4 years old. “What a miracle,” the parishioners of the monastery threw up their hands. Of course, they did not believe in a miraculous conception. Moreover, specialists from the guardianship and trusteeship department frequented the two-meter fence of Katya’s house. “Every month they came and made tea,” says the neighbor.

The adopted children were brothers. Ekaterina wanted a child under one year old, but the baby they liked “came with” his brother. And they pay more for such guardianship. Then the couple fell in love. Soon, two more young children appeared in their family (according to the Investigative Committee for the Tomsk Region – three – Author), including six-year-old Polina, who is currently in critical condition in the hospital. Then Ekaterina and Dmitry adopted two teenagers. Previously, children were raised in a monastic community. Thus, the previously childless Catherine had six children at once.

Raising children is a heavy burden, as every mother will tell you. Moreover, the adopted girl Polina was practically deaf and could not speak.

– Catherine always wanted to look like a rich woman in the eyes of her fellow villagers. She never went near the stove. Only her mother, whom she moved to Mogochino, came to her with huge pots. Her husband, Dmitry, did not work anywhere. “We lived on benefits,” says the neighbor. – And in general she looked arrogant. You are like a village, and I am a charity worker. She wanted to have such an image.”

At first, the locals had no idea what was going on in Catherine’s house. “Only once did my husband notice one peculiarity. The adopted boy was very active. I couldn’t sit still. When the whole village gathered on a sad occasion – the abbot of the monastery died – the boy began to play at the wake. My husband saw Dmitry take him aside and hit him in the chest with his elbow as hard as he could. An adult would have died. And the child is only 5 years old. After that, we began to take a closer look,” says Catherine’s neighbor.

Further more. All last summer, according to the neighbor, heart-rending children’s screams and crying could be heard from the open windows of the house with foster children. They did not declare. After all, they received guardianship every month. This means there are no violations. But when Polina, according to the locals, was taken away “all blue” by an ambulance, everything fell into place.

The older adopted children spoke first. They testified that the adoptive parents resolved all issues with their fists.

“Polina especially suffered because, due to her hearing and speech characteristics, she could not understand her mother and “did not obey,” says the neighbor. – Moreover, at some point, the adoptive mother decided to rid Polina of the “demon of drunkenness” – the girl was removed from a family suffering from alcoholism. The deliverance consisted of a strange procedure: Catherine put a kitchen spatula into the child’s mouth and turned it in her mouth. According to the children, after the “treatment” the girl was bleeding from her mouth. In addition to exorcising the demon, the woman thus wanted to rid the girl of muteness.

The rest of the children, Ekaterina and Dmitry, were raised with hunger – for misdeeds they were deprived of food, or with cold – they were put under an ice-cold shower.

– Unfortunately, there is often a selfish interest in the decision to take custody of a child. If you adopt a child with disabilities (disabilities), a child over 7 years old, as well as a child with a brother or sister, you can receive more than 150 thousand rubles for each child. At the same time, they try to take in children with hearing or speech disabilities, and not “wheelchair users,” thinking that there will be less worries. But that’s not true. Hence the fatigue, burnout, and breakdowns in children. Moreover, for couples who do not have their own children and do not know how hard this work is, – Alexander, an expert in the field of social orphanhood, supporting orphans and children left without parental care and helping people in difficult life situations, comments on the situation Gezalov.

6-year-old Pelageya has been in the hospital for a month now. Ekaterina explained what happened to her as a fall from the stairs, but doctors and prosecutors immediately recorded signs of severe beatings. At the moment, the investigation of the criminal case is under the personal control of the head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee for the Tomsk Region. Three young children under guardianship were removed from the family. The adopted children moved, according to neighbors, to her first husband, Ekaterin, with whom she maintained a good relationship.

A legal assessment will also be given of the actions of officials of the guardianship and trusteeship authorities, who are entrusted with the functions of protecting the rights and legitimate interests of minors, including orphans and children without parental care.

– Now the state says: take adopted children into families, the more, the better. This is a great initiative. Orphanages are certainly worse than foster families. But at the same time the system must be worked out. Parents, before receiving children, four more, had to go through a school for foster parents, then they were given a psychological assessment and specialists in guardianship and trusteeship had to work with them. The fact that they were entrusted with children indicates that incompetent people worked with the family. According to the law, both the adoptive parents and the state are responsible for everything that happens in a foster family. And now it turns out that the parents will fall under criminal liability, and the local guardianship and trusteeship authorities will get off with an administrative fine of 500 rubles,” says Alexander Gezalov.