Woman Adopted From China Says She Was Held in Home Dungeon, Beaten, Enslaved by Adoptive Parents for 14 Years

Police photos of Thomas and Denise Atkocaitis following their arrest. New Boston, NH Police Department

Held in a makeshift-basement dungeon, whipped, chained, enslaved—this may sound like something that couldn’t happen in America, let alone in a small, picturesque New England town.

But that was the nightmarish childhood endured by a woman, now 19, brought here from China when she was just a baby, according to a lawsuit recently filed in New Hampshire.