A foster mother in Missouri is facing charges after authorities say she may have traded a teenage girl she was caring for a monkey.
Brenda Ruth Deutsch, 70, was charged with two counts of abuse or neglect of a child and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
According to a probable cause statement obtained by KSDK, police began investigating Deutsch last November after getting a tip from the Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division that a child was being mentally and physically abused in Deutsch’s home.
Then, in February, the girl’s school reported numerous absences. A school resource officer charged with investigating the disappearance of the child, who is described in local reports as a teenager, learned she was in Texas, KTVI reported, and the SRO was able to contact the child through law enforcement in Texas.
Investigators learned that Deutsch had arranged for the girl to stay with a friend in Texas, where she was left alone in a home in dirty conditions that also housed several exotic animals.
Deutsch’s friend told police in Texas that she was keeping the child at her home because Deutsch and the girl “were not getting along.” Prosecutors said another witness came forward claiming that he was asked to transport the child to the home and bring the monkey back to Missouri.
“A witness who had come forward with some information regarding the systemic abuse that was going on in the home, had said that they had been asked to bring the child down to Texas and bring the monkey back in return,” Lincoln County Prosecutor Mike Wood said, according to KSDK. “Obviously we have to do more investigation to see if that’s actually credible or if that’s true.”
Recent Comments