Police Investigating If Missouri Foster Mom Traded Child For A Monkey

A foster mom in Missouri has been arrested and authorities are investigating her for whether or not she traded one of the children for a monkey.

Brenda Deutsch, in Winfield, Missouri, has fostered over 200 children over the years, and she's also known to be a collector of exotic animals.

She's now behind bars, facing three felony counts - neglect, child abuse, and child endangerment. The charges come from allegations of a missing child that was found in Texas.

"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 in a statement. "Obviously we have to do more investigation to see if that's actually credible or if that's true."

The local news station, KSDK, found a probable cause statement that said Deutsch arranged for the girl to go to Texas to stay with a friend, but when she was down there left alone in a house with exotic animals and dirty conditions.

According to Wood, the things that were said about Deutsch were "particularly heinous and just disturbing to read."

"Two things that really stood out was the number of children that had been fostered through that home and then the allegations that these types of abuse and emotional neglect had been going on for what seemed to be perhaps a decade," Wood told the news station.

In a statement, Wood said: “I’d like to thank the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and Detective Bureau for working with my office to expedite initial charges in the middle of what will end up being a lengthy investigation that must cover over a decade’s worth of allegations of abuse.

Read more at Independent