‘Home Alone’ Couple’s Girls to Be Adopted

The couple who left their young daughters at home unsupervised while they vacationed in Mexico have given the girls up for adoption, an attorney confirmed Saturday.

Carole J. Grahn-Hayes, the lawyer for Nicole, who was 9, and Diana, who was 4 when their parents, David and Sharon Schoo, left them alone for nine days last year, confirmed the adoption release.

The Schoos, who moved from St. Charles to nearby Geneva this year, have an unlisted phone number and could not be reached.

The Kane County Chronicle on Saturday quoted unidentified court sources as saying the children were voluntarily given up at a hearing Tuesday. The sources said Judge Richard D. Larson, who presided over the hearing in Kane County Circuit Court, had issued a gag order.

The newspaper also quoted Ed McManus, a spokesman for the state Department of Children and Family Services, as saying the newspaper would not be embarrassed if it reported that the children were given up for adoption.

McManus, reached at home Saturday, denied confirming details of the hearing.

Grahn-Hayes said she couldn’t discuss the case in detail because of the gag order. But she said because McManus had indicated the adoption report was correct, she would confirm it.

The children have been in the department’s custody since Dec. 21, shortly after they ran to a neighbor’s house after a smoke alarm went off.

The Schoos were arrested when they arrived in Chicago from Mexico on Dec. 29.

In April they pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of contributing to the neglect of a minor. They were sentenced to probation and community service.