An Anchorage grand jury has indicted a woman on charges that she starved and abused her three adopted children.
State prosecutors say the woman faces 15 felony counts including assault and endangering the welfare of a child. She was arrested Tuesday and is being held on $100,000 bail.
The children are biological sisters. They were placed in the woman’s foster care in 2011. She formally adopted them in 2013.
Prosecutors say that under her guardianship, the girls’ health “significantly deteriorated.”
Authorities removed the girls from the woman’s care in September 2014. They were hospitalized for malnutrition, dehydration, neglect and the risk of “refeeding syndrome.”
The National Institutes of Health defines the syndrome as a potentially fatal shift in fluids and electrolytes that may occur in malnourished patients receiving artificial refeeding.
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