NEW BOSTON, NH – A lawsuit has been filed against a New Hampshire couple, previously convicted for allegedly abusing their adopted daughter. The couple is now accused of violating her 13th Amendment rights, as they purportedly kept her in a locked basement and subjected her to years of torment and “servitude.”
The plaintiff, 20-year-old Olivia Atkocaitis, a native of China, managed to escape from a squalid “dungeon room” in 2018 at the age of 15, using a bottle cap. The lawsuit, recently made available to the public, provides a chilling account of her ordeal.
Atkocaitis was adopted from China when she was just 14 months old under the country’s “one-child policy.” The lawsuit alleges that her adoptive parents, Thomas and Denise, habitually confined her in an 8-foot by 8-foot room for prolonged durations.
The room was reportedly devoid of basic amenities, with a vinyl twin mattress without sheets, no heat, ventilation, or running water. The only window was allegedly barricaded with chicken wire, and she was compelled to use a bucket for her sanitary needs.
Atkocaitis claims that she was subjected to physical and psychological abuse by her adoptive parents from the age of 3. They allegedly denied her food and medical care and excluded her from attending school with their three biological children.
The lawsuit further alleges that Atkocaitis was tethered with a dog leash and repeatedly threatened with deportation. In one horrific incident, she was forced to stand in a bathtub while her adoptive parents poured hot sauce down her throat and subsequently made her consume her own vomit.
One of Atkocaitis’ siblings reported the abuse to the New Boston Police Department and a local school in 2011. However, despite notification to the state Division of Children, Youth and Families, Atkocaitis was never removed from the home.
The parents’ pleas for the case to be dismissed were recently denied by a Merrimack County Superior Court judge. The couple, who have since relocated to Georgia, contended they were not properly served, that the court lacked jurisdiction over them, and that the statute of limitations had passed.
Atkocaitis is currently pursuing psychology at Plymouth State University. Her attorney, Michael S. Lewis, stated that the lawsuit aims to secure “emancipation” for Atkocaitis.