Adam Croote, Former Poster Child for Missing & Victimized Kids Gets 25 Years to Life Sentence for Raping 10 Year Old Girl

The sad and tragic life of Adam Croote …

The once poster child for missing and victimized children has now become what he had been victimized by over the years. 23 year old Adam Croote was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the rape and choking of a 10 year old girl. Croote was entrusted with baby sitting the little girl. Instead he raped and left the girl for dead. If the crime was not bad enough, according the court papers the family knew in advance that Adam Croote was a registered sex offender.

However, Adam Croote was not just any registered sex offender, he was the once poster child for missing and victimized children. His story drew national attention and even landed him in the White House. Adam Croote just never had a chance, the adults ion his life saw to that as he wound up becoming exactly what he had been victimized by. The sad, sick and twisted life pf Adam Croote.

At the age of two, Adam’s father murdered his mother and left him alone with her body in Hinesville, GA. Michael Croote, Adam’s  father, is serving a life sentence for the crime in Georgia. Two years later, Adam Croote’s maternal grandparents kidnapped him during a custody fight. In 1992, during an unsupervised visit with then 3 year old Croote, the Ziburas abducted him, setting off a nationwide search that ended in 1995.  The case received so much attention as Adam’s face was on missing child fliers for three years until they were captured. In 1996 Adam Croote was photographed with President Bill Clinton as the then President signed an Executive Order in support of missing children. However, Adam’s life would take and even worse and sad turn. At the age of 17 in Wendell, MA, Adam sexually assaulted a woman who worked at a residential school for sexually abusive youths while she was driving him to school from a doctor’s appointment. Following the incident, Croote was convicted of forcible sexual contact and was labeled a Level 2 sex offender.

Croote has led a troubled life.  His father murdered his mother when he was two.  Two years after that, Adam’s grandparents kidnapped him.  The case received so much attention that Adam was photographed with Bill Clinton as the then President signed an Executive Order in support of missing children.  Later, Croote stood alongside former Attorney General Janet Reno as she lauded the same law.  In 2000, when Adam was a student at Bethlehem Middle School, he sexually assaulted a girl and five years later he sexually assaulted a woman in Massachusetts.

“This case was a tragedy for all concerned. It’s been additionally one more tragic even in Adam Croote’s life,” said Adam’s public defender, James Milstein.

Judge Herrick acknowledged what he called Adam’s “horrible childhood.”  But, ultimately the past didn’t matter and Adam Croote will be spending his future–25 years to life–in prison.

What a tragic story. A one time victimized child who had obviously been exposed to far to much pain and misery in his life becomes everything that he was supposed to be the poster child against.