Gloucester County, Va. - The couple who adopted the Gloucester girl whose biological parents starved her and locked in a cage say "she will spend years trying to relearn and regain what was stolen from her."
In the victim impact statement written by the girl's new adoptive parents, they say she "often cries thinking that she isn't going to eat another meal". They also say "she asks repeatedly when we will eat again and if she will be allowed to have any" and she has to be watched carefully when she eats for she eats so fast that she has choked."
Brian and Shannon Gore, the girl's biological parents, were sentenced to 30 years in prison for their treatment of the girl. Authorities found the girl inside the Gores' home, trapped in a makeshift cage. The girl was literally skin and bones, and had resulted to eating her own hair, flakes of her skin, and feces to survive.
The girl's new parents adopted her in 2011 after authorities rescued the girl. The parents say she was in the hospital nearly three months before she was able to go home with them.
Her mother wrote "at first glance one would see a beautiful blonde haired, blue-eyed little girl" and "a smile that is bright and full of innocence," but her father wrote that she "cries asking why she is different."
Her mother says the girl had to learn how to "stand, walk, use a cup and fork" when they brought her home two years ago.
They say her muscles have been damaged so badly from being hunched over in the cage that "she is not able to do the monkey bars at school."
They say she's can't ride the school bus because "she was unable to climb the three steps necessary to get on the bus."
Her mother writes that while the girl is nearly nine-years-old "she is mentally approximately three years of age."
Her new parents say the girl's biggest struggle is with food.
Her father wrote that his daughter "asks repeatedly when we will eat again and if she will be allowed to have any" and that "she has to be watched carefully when she eats for she eats so fast that she has choked."
Her mother also said "she had to be continually reminded not to eat off the floor."
While the Gores will be released from prison in 30 years, her parents say the girl will forever be burdened by what they did to her.
The girl sees a psychiatrist every other week for issues with food and picking at her skin. Doctors are not optimistic that she can overcome her cognitive delays.
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