At 13 years old, Masha has already survived the unthinkable."Even if they are afraid to tell somebody, no matter what they think is going to happen, it's going to be for the better," she said. She was born in southern Russia to an alcoholic mother and a father she never knew. Her own mother tried to kill her when she was only 4 years old by stabbing her in the back of the neck with a kitchen knife. Soon after recovering from her traumatic ordeal, Masha was sent to an orphanage where she prayed that a good family would come to rescue her. Meanwhile, 41-year-old Matthew Mancuso, a divorced father in Pennsylvania, was looking for a little girl to adopt.
He contacted a New Jersey adoption agency requesting information on 5-year-old Caucasian girls, and chose Masha from a videotape.
After months of waiting, Mancuso traveled to Russia to meet his new daughter. He visited Masha several times at the orphanage, took her to nice dinners, and bought her candy. Mancuso seemed like her knight in shining armor. But nothing could have been farther from the truth. What she didn't know was the adoption agency failed to properly check her new father's background. No phone calls were made to his ex-wife or to his biological daughter. Back in the states, Masha expected a nice American home with a bedroom all her own. Posing as a pedophile, Chicago area police officer Mike Zaglifa discovered Mancuso in an online chat room. Sergeant Zaglifa says his instinct told him this man was an absolute danger to children. Working with other agents, he traced Mancuso's Internet address to a location near Pittsburgh, where he was later arrested.ĭuring their investigation, police officials had no way of knowing that the little girl in the photographs was Mancuso's adopted daughter. Her rescue, says Sergeant Zaglifa, was an unexpected reward for what he calls the "physically and emotionally draining" work of capturing child predators. Sergeant Zaglifa says that to gain proper perspective on the severity of child pornography, it's important to call them "child sex abuse images." "When those images are being made," says Sergeant Zaglifa, "that's sex abuse in progress." He offers his expert advice for how parents can protect their children: "The number one thing is: No chat rooms." Two years ago, Matthew Mancuso was sentenced to 15 years on federal pornography charges. He also pleaded guilty to the horrible sex crimes he committed against Masha and was sentenced to serve 35 to 70 years in prison. The house where he and Masha lived has since been sold to a new family. Rachelle, Mancuso's biological daughter, says she shares a painful bond with Masha. She grew up in the same house with the same secret shame. She says she painfully remembers how her father began molesting her when she, too, was just 5 years old.Īfter years of abuse, Rachelle's parents divorced when she was 10 years old.
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