Byline: Paul Gustafson; Staff Writer 

  A St. Paul woman whose husband was charged with murdering their  adopted son has drawn criticism from some adoption foes in India for  continuing to try to adopt an Indian girl. 

  Gail Hunt has been trying to adopt a 3-year-old girl from a 
children's home in Hyderabad for years, but she hit a snag last  week
when international adoption critics learned of the murder charges  in St. Paul against her husband, Steven Showcatally. 

  After several Indian newspapers ran stories in the last week about 
the murder case, officials at the St. Theresa's Tender Loving Care 
children's home, which co-sponsored Hunt's adoption petition,  told the Times of India that the home is withdrawing from the case. 

  The 3-year-old girl will be sent to a state adoption home to wait  for prospective Indian parents, they said. 

  Gita Ramaswamy, an activist and outspoken critic of international  adoptions of Indian children, said Hunt's adoption case has upset  many people in her country. 

  "There is much outrage here that adoption agencies can press  to send a second child to a home where a first child has been  murdered," she said. 

  K. Balagopal, an attorney for an activist challenging Hunt's  adoption of the girl, said Thursday that Hunt, 47, had not yet withdrawn  her case. 

  Hunt could not be reached for comment Thursday. 

  Hunt's adoption
case is pending before an Indian appeals court  in the state of Andhra
Pradesh because a Family Court judge in Hyderabad  ruled against her adoption petition in March 2003. 

  Showcatally, 34, who was charged with unintentional second-degree 
murder, is accused of losing his temper March 16 while caring for his 
6-month-old adoptive son, Gustavo Hunt, and deliberately dropping him in
  a bathtub. 

  The father took his son to St. Paul Children's
Hospital, where  he died about three hours later. Doctors determined
that the boy  suffered multiple skull fractures and multiple hemorrhages
beneath his  scalp. 

  Showcatally initially told police that he
accidentally dropped the  boy in the bathtub and then carried him into a
bedroom and did not  notice anything unusual, according to a criminal
complaint. 

  After police challenged his story because of the
severity of his  son's injuries, the father said that he accidentally
dropped the  boy once then intentionally dropped him two more times and
that he was  responsible for the injuries, the complaint states. 

  The boy was adopted and came to live with Showcatally and Hunt last 
November. The couple have lived together since 1997 and got married in 
January. 

  According to Indian court records, Hunt has pursued adoption of the  Indian girl for years. 

  She traveled to India
in March 2002 for a four-month stay during  which she saw the girl for
three to four hours a day. She filed a  petition to adopt the girl in
December 2002. 

  In rejecting Hunt's petition last year, a
Family Court judge  in Hyderabad ruled that Tender Loving Care home
officials could not  prove that the girl's biological parents had signed
a document  agreeing to allow adoption. 

  The judge also ruled that the home's officials had not shown  that they properly sought adoptive parents in India as required by  Indian law before agreeing to let Hunt adopt the girl. 

  Attorneys for Hunt argued in court papers that the judge erred, and  filed an appeal. 

  Ramaswamy and other opponents of international adoptions in India  charge that adoption
agencies there have been engaging in  baby-trafficking: arranging
illegal adoptions for foreign parents  willing to pay thousands of
dollars for children. 

  They have begun intervening in court to stop individual foreign  adoption cases like Hunt's. 

  Indian police in Andhra Pradesh exposed a baby-trafficking ring and 
closed two orphanages in 2001. St. Theresa's also was charged with 
procuring children for financial gain, but it denied the charges and 
remains open while the case is pending. 

  Paul Gustafson is at pgustafson@startribune.com.