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The mother of Minneapolis shooter Robin Westman appeared in a movie about reuniting with a daughter she had put up for adoption as a child, the Daily Mail can disclose.
Years after relinquishing her baby, Mary Grace Westman, who is now 67, became a committed Catholic and anti-abortion activist, once brandishing a crucifix in protest outside a Planned Parenthood clinic.
Mary Grace has so far refused to cooperate with police seeking information about her son.
She traveled to Minnesota on Wednesday afternoon, just hours following the horrific attack at the Church of the Annunciation Catholic School that resulted in two children dead and 18 wounded.
Faryl Amadeus, 44, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, wrote and directed the film ‘Mary Meet Grace’ in 2021, a fictional retelling of her real-life reunion with her biological mother, Mary Grace.
In interviews, Amadeus – who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, with her adoptive family and was then known as Rachel Millet – has since formed a close bond with Mary Grace.
Amadeus, who did not return calls or emails from the Daily Mail, writes on her website that she was adopted and ‘shipped from Kentucky, like a box of whiskey’ to New York.
‘I was in foster care for a month before I was adopted, and that family sent me a card every birthday,’ Amadeus said in 2021.
‘It meant so much to me to know I wasn’t just, like, in a basket somewhere.’
Mary Grace Westman, 67, (left) mother of the Minneapolis church shooter had given up her daughter, Faryl Amadeus (right), for adoption in Kentucky years earlier, before reuniting with her in 2005
Years after giving up her baby, Mary Grace Westman, now 67, went on to became a devout Catholic and anti-abortion activist who once held a crucifix in protest outside a Planned Parenthood clinic
Her transgender child, Robin Westman, opened fire through the windows of a Minneapolis Catholic Church where he had attended school and where Mary Grace had worked until 2021
Teachers said that Westman was a lonely child at school who did not seem to have any friends, and had behavior problems that often saw Mary (seen together) called into the school
Amadeus was adopted by the Millet family in Brooklyn. The woman believed to be her adoptive mother, Jamie Millet, was not reachable by the Daily Mail on Friday.
Amadeus told the Nerd Daily in 2021 that her film was ‘inspired by that intense yearning an adoptee can feel for who they are and where they come from’.
‘My birth mother, who appears in the film, found me in 2005 and we later reunited with my bio dad in 2012. The emotional mystery of adoption could fuel countless stories,’ she added.
‘I love being adopted. It’s strange and sad and wonderful.’
Amadeus writes about her birth mother contacting her in 2005 and eventually travelling to Minnesota to meet her ‘five half-siblings’, who include Robin Westman.
Amadeus reunited with Mary Grace (right) in 2005, and her mother helped bring their painful journey to life in her short film, providing photos and even a cameo
She also told an outlet that she had an emotional reunion with her bio father (pictured) in 2012, seven years after she reconnected with Mary Grace
On social media, Amadeus (bottom right) posted photos of her mother Mary Grace (top center), together with her half-siblings, with one being her transgender half-sister Robin, born Robert Westman (top right)
On social media, Amadeus has posted photos of Mary Grace and her half-siblings, including transgender Robin, born Robert Westman.
Mary Grace did not return messages from the Daily Mail on Friday, nor did Ryan Garry, the criminal defense attorney she hired this week in Minneapolis.
FBI agents descended on Mary Grace’s first floor condo in Naples, Florida, on Wednesday after she reportedly refused to cooperate with authorities investigating the mass shooting.
But she had already flown to Minnesota, in such a hurry that she called a friend to tell her she feared she had left the patio door open. Police were dispatched to check on the home’s security.
Robin Westman graduated from Annunciation Catholic School in 2017. Mary Grace used to work at the school’s church but retired five years ago, social media posts show.
Amadeus’s last name is courtesy of her husband of many years, Nick Amadeus, also a native New Yorker who is a writer and composer. Among other projects, he co-wrote the screenplay for the 2021 film Separation, co-starring Meryl Streep’s daughter Mamie Gummer.
He is the son of actor and writer John Scoullar and actress Linda Robbins, who appeared in the original Broadway production of Amadeus, which her son chose as a stage name.
The couple have two daughters and currently live in LA, according to information online. Faryl received a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Mary Grace’s brother, Robert Heleringer, a longtime Louisville member of the Kentucky House of Representatives. He told the AP this week that he was Robin Westman’s uncle but hardly knew his nephew.
He hung up on a Daily Mail reporter on Friday.
