We sat in the congregation wearing black,
watching a slideshow memorializing the life of three small children in Haiti.
“Heather’s children.” Our hearts were broken for the loss of these lives and as
the slideshow and videos played we sat stunned and in pain mourning their loss.
I watched the faces of Heather Elyse’s seven
American-born children. They were sitting perfectly still and proper in the
front row of the sanctuary. Tears rolled down the cheeks of one of the older
girls. We felt for them. And we were confused by how little comfort Heather offered.
We, and the rest of the families adopting
from Heather’s crèche Giving Hope Rescue Mission, had been told by Heather that
the children in Haiti (“her” children) were victims of a “brutal hate crime” but
we still had no idea what had happened and why 2 young children and a baby were
dead. There was no explanation; there were no bodies, nothing during the
memorial that offered any details of what had happened or why.
After the service we stood with Heather and
her children and asked for the story. What had happened and what was this
brutal hate crime?
She told us that the older girl (age
approximately 4?) was going to get a visa to come home to the U.S. with Heather
as her adopted daughter. It was the day of her visa appointment at the U.S.
embassy. She said that that day she, Heather, was at the airport in Port au
Prince and had left the kids at the crèche. Before the little girl left for her
visa appointment with the crèche director, Wesmin, her birthmother arrived. She
described the birthmother as crazy, drug addicted, from the slums of Port au
Prince. She said that the birthmother and a dangerous man who was with her in a
car came and a tug of war ensued over the little girl and her young cousin. A
large crowd grew around the crèche and “things became dangerous.” So the crèche
director released Heather’s children to the birthmother and the man in the car.
According to Heather the police were called
and they set up a roadblock in the small town of Montrouis (it has one main
street approximately one mile long.) When the birthmother and the children
stopped at the road block the woman pulled the children from the car and shot
them point blank in the middle of the street while screaming that if she couldn’t
have them, Heather could not be happy and have them.
I remember bursting into tears. I asked what
had happened to the baby and Heather said “basically the same thing.”
My husband and I were in total shock. We felt
for Heather and for her children. We offered her any help she might need. We
hugged her and the children close. Heather told us that she’d never be able to
get the bodies back because the little girl never did get her visa, etc.
Then things got weird. Heather wrote a blog
post online about visiting the childrens’ blood stains on the street of
Montrouis. She wrote about visiting the murderer in prison and writing “I
forgive you” on her hands.
Missionaries living in and around Montrouis began
researching and stated emphatically that this murder never happened there and
that what Heather was describing was not true.
Stories began to conflict. Heather wrote on a
child update for children living at the creche that the baby had died of a
disease. She apparently forgot that she told us that the baby was murdered.
Heather told others that the children were
murdered by machete, not shot with a gun.
We began to feel very nervous.
Three months later we were back in that same
church. This time for Heather’s baby shower for another little girl she said
she was adopting from Haiti.
Lovely pictures of the little girl and her
big eyes and sweet smile were posted up front.
I sat there with another adoptive mom and
watched this celebration of Heather, her work in Haiti and her supposed
adoption of this child with some level of skepticism. She had not updated us on
our adoption progress and children who were supposed to have gone home by then
had not. We had begun to wonder if she was fabricating the dramatic stories coming
out of her work in Haiti but were still hopeful that nobody working with
children and claiming to be a Christian could be that deceptive.
And then the climax of the baby shower
service arrived. I watched in mounting dismay as Heather played a video of her
seven American-born children re-enacting the trauma surrounding their
adoptions.
Heather had previously detailed for us that
the children had the “worst abuse
stories in the history of social services” in their states. There were stories
of her children’s mutilations, incest and a child locked in a dog cage. I was
nervous as the video started and the children were shown crying and holding on
to one another as they talked about their stories and details surrounding the
reasons they were no longer in their birthparents’ care.
The two of us sitting together were sick and
in shock. Not for Heather and not for the children’s stories. We cried because
what we were watching seemed like such an obvious exploitation of the children
in Heather’s home. No child should ever been shown in such a compromising way.
Shortly after it ended we got up and walked
out.
We agreed that something seemed terribly off
about Heather Elyse’s judgment and parenting choices.
We went out for lunch the following week and
made a list of things we had been told by Heather, things other adoptive
parents had been told, and what we actually knew was true. We began reaching
out to people who might be able to confirm or deny some of the stories.
Nothing added up.
- Heather claimed to be adopted but no online
records supported this. She has several siblings, including a twin, and was raised
in her family of origin.
- Heather claimed that she was sick and dying
of cancer but this seemed to be ongoing without any progression or treatment.
- Heather claimed that each of her children
had extreme problems – from mental health to behavior to diseases. But she
traveled all over the U.S. and Haiti with these children and the people we
talked to who had lived with her had not seen her administer any medication. We
called her church as well as a missionary in Haiti that had lived with her and
nobody had seen her educating her children by sending them to school or
homeschooling them. We also found a record online of charges brought against
her for not educating the children.
- Heather told us that she was a very
successful professional photographer who worked for Target and that she had to
fly around the US doing photo shoots but we could not find any evidence of any
career. The only jobs from her past that people have confirmed are a short
stint working for a gift shop and some time as an assistant to a photographer.
Prior to moving to Haiti she was the Children’s minister at Olive Branch Church
of God. They let her go after one year.
- Heather told us and others that she was
involved in lawsuits. Specifically she was suing her former church/employer and
that she was being sued by a missionary family in Haiti. When we looked into
this by contacting the parties involved nobody was aware of any lawsuits
whether from her or against her.
- Heather told us (and also told a newspaper in Indiana, click here.) that the first child she foster/adopted
“Victoria” was murdered by her birthmother. Two witnesses have come forward
stating that Victoria is alive and well and was not murdered.
- Heather claimed to be adopting 10 children
in Haiti. My husband and I met those Haitian children. They lived with her in a
2 bedroom apartment along with her 7 adopted children and her husband at the
time. She never brought any of those children home to the U.S.
- Heather told so many conflicting stories
about whether she had been married, was married or was never married that she lost
control over the stories. We had a firsthand experience of arriving in Haiti in
March of 2012 and meeting her then husband S. Kelly with whom she was living in
a small apartment with 17 children. She wore a large wedding ring. She
introduced S as her husband and S was with us the entire week we were at the
crèche. Only to be completely out of her life just a couple of months later
when we attended the memorial for the “murdered” children in Colorado.
Heather is now charged with child neglect in
the state of Indiana.
This is the least of the charges we believe
she should be faced with.
Families from all over the United States,
many whom have never even met in person, have had the same experience with
Heather. Loss of thousands of dollars to Heather when she could or would not
complete their adoptions of children from Haiti. Conflicting and inappropriate
stories shared by Heather with adoptive families related to
sex/marriage/porn/rape. Conflicting stories of deaths and murder of children in
her care in Haiti. Conflicting stories of where she gets her income and how she
came to parent her seven adopted children.
The link between these families is that we
each met Heather Elyse as the founder of Giving Hope Rescue Mission. She told
us that she does adoptions differently, more ethically, and that we could trust
her with our hearts and our adoptions. She took thousands of dollars – from
some of us through her organization, for projects that were never reported on
in Haiti, for several non-profits she started that have not produced financial
reports and directly to her home address from families that were told they had
to pay or their adoption would not be done.
She then bullied families, lied to them,
punished when asked questions, and concocted increasingly bizarre and
concerning stories that kept a large group of adoptive families emotionally
bound to her and concerned for her – her children, her finances, her marriages,
her future. She processed only a few adoptions and then claimed to have
facilitated 80+ adoptions from Haiti.
Standing at the distance that most of us can
stand now – with our children moved to different organizations or brought home
through our own hard work and legally moving our children to other agencies –
we can see the deception and manipulation.
We believe collectively that something is
wrong with Heather Elyse Savage. Something is seriously wrong. And if her
actions did not impact children we would probably never choose to continue to
be involved in this situation. We would not spend our time writing, making
phone calls, begging to be heard and for something to be done.
Several families contacted the agency,
Embraced by Grace, in Florida. We believe that this is the agency that placed 2
additional children with Heather Elyse this year. We believe they chose to
place the children in her care despite our concerns.
And now we watch this story play out in
Indiana related to the neglect of one of those recently placed children. He
claims that Heather locked him in his room and withheld food.
And We. Are. Not. Surprised.
She left dozens of children, including 10 of
her “own” behind in Haiti when she abandoned her crèche. Children were brought
out of that crèche starving to death. 12 pounds at age 2 is not acceptable.
As Christians it is not our duty to stand by
Heather Elyse. God uses His people as His hands and feet on earth. Children are her victims and the Bible is
clear that we are to stand for the poor, the orphan, and the widow. The
defenseless.
Heather uses the threat of lawsuit to keep
people scared and quiet. But we are not concerned. A courtroom could not
contain the number of families and individuals who have been financially and
emotionally hurt by Heather Elyse.
God did not give us a spirit of fear but of
power, of love and of a sound mind.
