Missouri foster mom charged with child abuse investigated for 'trading girl for a monkey'

A Missouri foster mother was charged with child abuse and endangerment as the authorities investigated whether she traded her adoptive daughter to someone in Texas — in exchange for a monkey.

Brenda Deutsch was also accused of mistreating other children in her care. The 70-year-old, from Winfield, was jailed on $250,000 bond and has not yet been released after her arrest over the weekend. She has not been identified in an effort not to identify her child.

No attorney was listed for Deutsch in online court records. Lincoln County prosecutor Mike Wood said on Wednesday that Deutsch had been a foster or adoptive parent to around 200 children over the span of more than a decade.

His office wrote this week as it sought a cash-only bond that the authorities had received information that some of the children suffered physical and emotional abuse similar to the teen at the center of the case.

The girl told the authorities she had been beaten with wooden trim, shoes and a paddle, according to a probable cause statement from a detective at the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office. She said she tried to tell people what was happening, but no one believed her.

In February, a deputy who was working as a school resource officer in Missouri was contacted after the girl started missing classes, according to the probable cause statement.

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As they investigated, the deputy was told a rumor that the girl was traded for an exotic animal to someone in Texas. The deputy asked the Texas authorities to check on the girl.

Child welfare officials in Texas took her into protective custody, and Wood said she's doing well in a group home there. Wood said the suspect and the woman with whom the girl was staying with in Texas knew each other because they both own exotic animals.

He said two witnesses came forward to say they were asked to take the girl to Texas and return with a monkey. Investigators are currently trying to firm up if that was just a joke or if it was a real trade.

"There's some smoke there," Wood said. "We just got to find out if there's fire, and it'll take us some time. But, there's at least two witnesses who are coming forward saying that that was the case. As crazy as it sounds, we've had a few human trafficking cases in the past, so we're treating it seriously."

The girl told the authorities that the woman she was staying with in Texas worked out of town and left her for days at a time to take care of exotic animals. She said she was subjected to forced labor or sexual abuse.

Deutsch reportedly told a detective she was friends with the girl's adoptive mother and took her in to give the pair a break from each other. The girl stayed there for over a month, Wood said.

When the authorities interviewed the woman, she said she no longer wanted the girl there, but the girl's mother wouldn't make arrangements to bring her home, according to the probable cause statement.

Charging documents describe the girl's living conditions there as unsanitary and said she was inadequately supervised. The prosecutor's office said in a Facebook post that more charges were expected.

Wood said in an interview that his office learned there were around 250 calls to a child abuse hotline about the adoptive mother's home over the course of about 15 years, yet wood said there were no criminal reports about the home.

He noted that the girl stayed in the home even after the Missouri Department of Social Services Children's Division received a tip in November that she was being abused.

"On its face, it just seems like there was a systemic failure somewhere, and we're looking into it to see if that's the case, how it can be addressed, and to the extent that there's any criminal behavior associated with it, we will look into that as well," Wood said.

Baylee Watts, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Social Services, provided no information about the case, writing in an email that "information related to specific child abuse and neglect investigations is closed and confidential under Missouri law, except under very limited circumstances."

Her email urged people to call the agency's hotline. Winfield, where much of the abuse took place, is about 45 miles northwest of downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Texas, meanwhile, is several states away.