What They Stole: A familicide rooted in intercountry adoption. Talking with author Paige Towers.
South Korea has had an active inter country adoption program with the US. The Holt Adoption Agency is still active with international adoptions and the Sueppel family was created with the adoption of four young Korean kids. Sadly, the story ends in shocking tragedy with the family wiped out.
In the wake of the Korean War (1950-53), intercountry adoptions between South Korea and the United States grew rapidly. More than 120,000 Korean children were adopted by American families from the 1950s to present day. Two evangelical Christians Harry and Bertha Holt, were early leaders and founded the Holt Adoption Agency. A young couple in Iowa , the Sueppels, worked with the agency to adopt four kids from Korea. What began as a storybook tale of family creation through adoption ended in shocking tragedy.
