A year after Jeremy pleaded guilty (he received a life sentence), the Strohmeyers believe they found out. Closed adoption records revealed that Jeremy’s mother was a schizophrenic with a history of mental illness. When they adopted him, they had specified on the application that they were willing to accept the child of a drug-addicted mother, but not a mentally ill one. “It was like being hit by a truck,” John told NEWSWEEK. Jeremy himself was never diagnosed with mental illness. But the Strohmeyers have filed a claim against Los Angeles County, which handled the adoption, charging fraud, a move being closely watched by the adoption world. “The victim here is a little girl, not the Strohmeyers,” counters a county spokesman. “And the perpetrator is Jeremy, not the social workers who did their best to find him a good home.”
