Adoptive Moms Win $3.2M After Biological Dad Kills Their Son

An Iowa couple won a $3.2 million judgment against their lawyer after their adopted son was reclaimed by his birth mother, and then murdered by his father, the Des Moines Register reports. 

Rachel and Heidi McFarland sued their former lawyer in 2014 for malpractice, charging that Jason Rieper failed to obtain a waiver of parental rights from baby Gabriel's birth parents. A jury last Wednesday agreed, granting them the award for emotional distress. 

Rachel McFarland tells People it felt like "destiny" when a colleague's pregnant teenage daughter agreed to let the couple adopt her baby. “Adoption wasn’t ever our No. 1 choice," she says. But "the birth mom didn’t care if we were a same-sex couple. It just seemed too good to be true—and it was too good to be true." The McFarlands were present at the baby's birth in December 2013, named him Gabriel—"a strong name"—and took him home.

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