10 Most Terrifying Stories Involving Mail Order Brides
Mia Horton Quick Links
Many people find love over the internet, and some people feel the need to try and buy love. Who are we to judge? What is interesting is what can happen when you say “I do” to someone you barely know because sometimes, you can end up paying more than expected. A lot of “mail-order bride” relationships work out fine, but here you are going to read about the ones which turned into a living hell on earth.
It's estimated that roughly 200 companies organize between 2,000 to 5,000 mail order marriages each year in the US, with the majority of wives coming from the former Soviet Union, the Philippines and Latin America.
The charges made by Mail Order Bride companies can vary from $1,000 to $15,000, with some people claiming to have paid a hell of a lot more than this. Many in hindsight considered it a bit of a scam. But after relationships begin, some have taken a turn for the worst with people being abused, kidnapped and even murdered. Here are some of those stories.
10) Lies and Abuse
Oksana Makarova, then 25 years old and a single mother, met her soon to be husband Carl in Odessa, Ukraine. Carl, a 50 year old doctor based in Florida had made the trip to the Ukraine for the sole purpose of finding a wife and the two hit it off.
By 2001, Oksana and her son were on a flight to Florida, but upon arrival her soon to be husband became physically and emotionally abusive. Forbidden from having a key to the house, to drive or even to use a computer without permission, Makarova only made it out when Carl gained the attention of a social worker after cruelly twisting her son's ear in public. The social worker visited the following day while Carl was working and helped the Ukrainians to a safer environment. Now divorced from Carl, Oksana and her son live safely in the US.
9) Scammed And Conned
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69 year old Jerry Mentzel of Apollo, Pittsburgh, lost his wife to cancer and after some time decided to find a second wife to help his loneliness. After meeting a 24 year old Moroccan women on the site called Rosebrides.com, he decided to bring her to the US and shortly after, the two were wed but not before he was asked to send $32,000 to his new wife's “brother-in-law” in London.
Their marriage only lasted for two weeks, and the divorce meant that Mentzel also had to pay her alimony before she skipped country. He claims to have lost almost $100,000 dollars and his case is being investigated by Homeland Security. Romance scams cost victims in the US roughly $50 million a year.
8) Heartbreak To Desperate Revenge
Now this is a strange story.
49 year old David Sartin was looking for a wife on a mail order bride site and began a relationship with Ukrainian Elena Barykina. He traveled to the Ukraine six times to meet her, showering her with lavish gifts accumulating to around $50,000 in worth (including a complete diamond marriage set and thousands of dollars in jewelry).
The two promised to not have sex until marriage, which was what Sartin dreamed of all along but the relationship fell apart when he found out Barykina was sleeping with a Russian boyfriend. As revenge, he paid $50,000 to a “criminal group” to kidnap her and ship her to a purpose-built cell in his house where he would poison and kill her, not knowing that these “criminals” were undercover federal agents.
He pleaded guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping.
7) Can't Return To Sender
via:abclocal.go.com
Some people try to end their relationships by moving out or simply moving on, but this one is a bit different. After a friend tipped off police with a phone call, 24 year old Lirim Rufati of West Chester, Pennsylvania, was caught at LA International Airport attempting to force his wife (who he met on a mail order website) back to her home country of Macedonia against her will.
The couple had been together for roughly one year, and it was later revealed that in that time, Rufati had sexually assaulted his wife multiple times while they lived together. He was arrested and charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, false imprisonment and a few other offenses and when unable to post his bail of $250,000, was transported to Chester County Prison.
6) Husband And Gay Lover End Life Of Kyrgyztani Wife
When Anastasia Solovyova met 38 year old Indle King on an online matching site, she was barely 18. Raised in Kyrgyztan, she was a beautiful, intelligent, hard working girl looking for a better chance in life. What she didn't know about her future husband was that she was not his first international wife.
King had been divorced by his previous wife for hitting her in the head and beating her head against a wall, and he had a violent history with other women, too.
His relationship with Slolvyova fell through because of his abusive behavior, and they divorced in August 2000. Her body was found on December the 28th, and it was revealed that her husband killed her after she found out about his homosexual love affair. Her 123Kg husband pinned her down while his lover strangled her to death.
King received a sentence of 28 years and 11 months.
5) Daughter Helps Hide The Body
via:sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com
Reina Swierski was a Filipino women who was married to American man Gary Swierski, and in 2005 she was reported missing. Some years went by, until some hikers found a human skull in Castle Rock State Park in 2008, however it wasn't until 2010 that DNA and dental records revealed it was the missing Mrs. Swierski. Then in 2011, Gary's daughter from his first marriage approached authorities, confessing to helping remove the body of Reina after her father choked her to death.
Gary had a long history of abusing his partners, including the mother of his daughter. After being found guilty of first degree murder, the coldcase of his "drowned" girlfriend who died in 1992 was reopened. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
4) Selling Children After Taking Husband's Life
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Ayou, a 21 year old Vietnamese women bought by her Chinese husband Lai Binghao, for roughly ₤3,000, gave birth to twins less than a year after being married. Living in South China's Guangdong province, Ayou's mother-in-law moved in with them to support her and help to raise the children. It wasn't until father-in-law Lai Shehui visited on the 2nd of March this year that he discovered his wife and son strangled to death on the bed with Ayou and the twins missing.
Authorities located her within 24 hours, discovering the twins in a nearby town up for sale for the equivalent of ₤7,000 each. They also arrested other individuals involved with the trafficking and selling of babies.
Ayou is now in prison, leaving the grandfather to raise his two 3 month old grandchildren.
3) Finding Out Your Fiancee Has A Dark Secret
Patrick McAllister traveled to the Phillippines in search of a wife, meeting a special someone who remains unnamed. At the time, she was just 19 years old and while he was considerably older (in his mid 40s) he seemed like a decent enough man, with the two agreeing that sex should wait until after marriage.
Arriving in the US in March 2009, she went and lived with him in a rural community in Hood Canal, Washington. But a month later she went to the police, reporting that he was sexually assaulting her on a daily basis. It began almost as soon as she arrived, and it was revealed that McAllister lied about his abusive behavior in previous relationships when applying for the Fiancee Visa.
He was sentenced to 21 years in state prison at the age of 52.
2) Horrid Act In Front Of Son
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Yana Huss, originally from Russia, met her husband Scott Huss online like so many others. She flew to the US and the couple were married in 2003, bringing her son Peter from her previous marriage with her. Things went well, and they had a daughter together who they named Katrina, but as time went on, calls began to be made to the County Deputies reporting domestic violence and in 2003, Yana filed for divorce.
Within two weeks, Yana was staying in a local church shelter in an attempt to escape from her husband after filing a restraining order, but while packing belongings in their home, Scott showed up brandishing a gun and knife. Telling Peter to go into the bathroom, he took Yana's life with his knife, then dropped Peter outside of his mother Joyce's house, covered in Yana's blood.
Claiming it was the Russian Mafia, Scott was linked to the crime by his bloody footprints through the house and was given a life sentence in prison.
1) Busted Filipino Bride Ring
If you have ever thought of going down this route to find true love, then this final story will hopefully make you be more careful.
In 2013, 29 women were rescued from a “mail order bride” business in the Philippines, one as young as 16 years old. The business focused on sending Filipino women to south Korea, luring the women in with promises of successful, safe, prosperous lives and often falsifying information of their potential husbands.
The potential husbands were informed that money they send would go to the families of the women but instead, was kept for profit, generating thousands of dollars for the group.
It is common there for the women to end up being abused or abandoned with thousands of reports flooding into the Philippine embassy in Seoul. The men involved were charged with violating human trafficking laws, which is worth 20 years in prison each.
Sources: newrepublic.com, marieclaire.com, dailymail.co.uk, nbcphilapelphia.com, seattlepi.com, themoscowtimes.com, huffingtonpost.com
