Renee Bowman, 44, kept the young girls’ bodies on ice for months while she received £100,000 in subsidies paid to parents who adopt special needs children.
A third girl, aged nine, who was found with more than 80 injuries escaped by jumping from a window from the family house in Rockville, Maryland.
Bowman was able to adopt the three girls despite being a convicted criminal and having filed for bankruptcy – casting a spotlight on the Maryland district’s child welfare agency.