Born in Siberia in 2004, she was adopted two years later from a Russian orphanage by Patric and Geraldine Kriegel, a retired French professor and his Irish-born wife, an employee of the Irish state railway network.
They brought her back to their home in Lucan, a pleasant suburb on the western edge of Dublin, where they brought her up as their own daughter, although they kept her original first name, Anastasia, and raised her to be aware of her Russian past and culture.
A tall, striking girl who excelled at swimming, modeled in a school fashion show and loved singing and dancing, Ana nevertheless lacked self-confidence because of learning difficulties stemming from poor eyesight and a childhood tumor that left her virtually deaf in one ear.
Her parents, who attended every day of the trial in Dublin’s Central Criminal Court, said that while she craved friendship, she had few friends outside her family and had been ruthlessly bullied and sexually harassed for being different from others at her high school. She had started to self-harm, they said, and at one point was caught sending herself bullying messages from a fake social media account.
Despite her behavioral problems, she remained a fun-loving and lively child, and was close to her supportive parents and family. Her mother, returning from work on the evening of the girl’s death, immediately became alarmed when she learned that Ana had gone off alone with Boy B, whom she knew was not a friend of her daughter.
Boy A later told the police that he had sent Boy B to fetch Ana because he knew that she was interested in him and wanted to tell her “gently” that he was not interested in her.
Shortly after the killing, which the police believe happened immediately after Ana entered the room in the abandoned farmhouse, Boy A was seen crossing a local park with injuries to his arm and leg and cuts to his face. Big for his age and with some martial arts training, he claimed to have been attacked by two other “males” whom he successfully fought off. The police believe that Ana inflicted the injuries as she fought desperately for her life.
Source : Nytimes
