True Story Media

Before we begin, a quick warning that in this show we discussed child abuse, and this content may be difficult for some listeners.

If you or anyone you know is a victim or survivor of medical child abuse, please go to munchausensen Support.com to connect with professionals who can help.

In April of 2009, Sophie Hartman left her small Christian college in Michigan to become a missionary in Zambia.

While there, she encountered two sisters in an orphanage, C and M. And in May of 2015, after going numerous rounds in court with

the Zambian government, she won the right to take the two sisters into her home. In March of

2021, after her younger daughter had endured countless doctors' visits, testing, and two surgeries,

a court in Washington state, where Sophie had resettled them, took them away.

And in May of 2021, almost six years to the day after the adoptions were finalized,

Sophie was charged with assault of a child in the second degree.

But after a costly and bitterly fought year-long battle, Sophie got her daughters back.

That following summer, the criminal charges were dropped.

This season, we followed the long and windy road of this case

and how it collided with my own family.

And after reading hundreds of pages of documentation,

listening to many hours of police interviews,

and our tireless researcher

scouring the internet for the truth, there's so much of this case that remains unknown.

One of the biggest mysteries is how a judge could look at all of this and still decide to

return Sophie's children to her care. I spoke to Olivia LaVoise, the reporter who broke this story,

to try and unravel the way this case played out.

I think the justice system, for those people who haven't interacted with it,

...