February 2001: Michelle and Jeffrey Bignell travel to Ukraine to adopt a 7-year-old boy nicknamed Sasha and an unrelated 4-year-old girl from an orphanage.
2002: Michelle founds Heart to Heart with Ukraine, a nonprofit agency that helps children in the country in orphanages and assists with their adoptions. (The organization still exists; however, though Michelle has helped with 54 adoptions from Ukraine, Jeffrey Bignell said she's taken herself out of the organization because of her experience with Sasha.)
April 2003: Citing violent behavior, the Bignells give the boy to David and Glenda Kinghorn, a family they've met over the Internet who live on a farm near Meadowlands.
Sept. 1, 2003: The Kinghorns file a petition to adopt Sasha.
Oct. 10, 2003: A district court orders the child into pre-adoptive placement with the Kinghorns.
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April 6, 2004: After getting a tip, the St. Louis County Human Services Department begins investigating the Kinghorns. An investigation reveals the couple has 14 children in their home, including eight who had been adopted and four as of result of alleged illegal placement. The home is found in violation of licensing standards for cleanliness, size and/or accommodations for number of children. Shortly thereafter, the Kinghorns are not approved for the adoption. Investigators later find that the Kinghorns have sold their farm, but they don't know where they have gone.
March 2004 to February 2005: Sasha's whereabouts are unknown to St. Louis and Washington counties.
Feb. 2, 2005: The boy is placed by the Kinghorns in an Arkansas psychiatric hospital, where he stays until Feb. 24
March 25, 2005: St. Louis County Social Services and Sheriff's Office receive a letter from Millcreek of Arkansas, a children's treatment center the boy has been placed in. The boy alleges abuse at the hands of the Kinghorns, which they deny.
April 9, 2005: The Kinghorns refuse to retrieve Sasha from the children's home. Jeffrey Bignell travels to Arkansas to take him to Ukraine, where he and Michelle Bignell try to annul the adoption. They place him in a short-term psychiatric facility and return to the United States.
Sources: Washington County court records, St. Louis County Human Services Department
