Estelle Katz Barkan

Estelle was a friend of Helen Tanos Hope, trained by her.  Estelle worked securing Florida-born babies being adopted in the Philadelphia-New York-New Jersey areas, primarily representing Jewish families. These adoptions followed the same M.O. as  Tanos-Hope's, with adoptions often being finalized in Juarez, Mexico.  Estelle admits to performing only a few of these adoptions, admitting to "maybe 70 or 80", but is suspected of many more, as she was active throughout the 1970s.  Juarez attorney Vincente Gonzalez Santillan claimed that he finalized adoptions for Barkan and Tanos-Hope at an average rate of one or two per week throughout the 1970s. 

When Estelle was accused of finalizing adoptions in Juarez to make search difficult later, she denied doing it on that basis.  She said she did it that way because she was finding babies for people who wanted to be parents, but the legal system at the time would not allow them to be adoptive parents.  By way of explanation, Estelle said it was people who were either too old to adopt because back then there were age restrictions, or there was something about their family which would cause them to not be able to pass the home study.

 Estelle is still alive, and when anyone calls to inquire about their records, she , tells them that she has no records because they were all lost in a move, or a fire, or she never had them, or whatever excuse she chooses. 

Estelle posed as an attorney, but she was never an attorney, as she couldn't pass the bar.  Her husband was an attorney, and although they are now estranged, he still practices law.  She ran the adoption paperwork through him.