A Missouri foster mother has been charged with child abuse and endangerment as authorities investigate whether she traded an adopted daughter to someone in Texas for a monkey and mistreated other children in her care. The 70-year-old woman from Winfield has been jailed on US$250,000 bond since her arrest over the weekend, with her next court appearance set for next Tuesday. The Associated Press is not naming her in an effort not to identify her child. No attorney is listed for the woman in online court records. The 1,500-person town Winfield is about 45 miles (72.42 kilometres) northwest of downtown St. Louis. Lincoln County prosecutor Mike Wood said Wednesday that the woman had been a foster or adoptive parent to around 200 children over a span of well over a decade. His office wrote in seeking a cash-only bond that authorities had received information that some of those children suffered physical and emotional abuse similar to the teen at the centre of the case. That girl told authorities she was beaten with wooden trim, shoes and a paddle, a detective with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office wrote in the probable cause statement. The girl said she tried to tell people what was happening but that no one believed her. In February, a deputy who was working as a school resource officer in Missouri was contacted about the girl missing classes, the probable cause statement said. While investigating, the deputy was told of a rumour that the girl was traded for an exotic animal to someone in Texas. The deputy asked authorities in Texas to check on the girl. Child welfare officials in Texas took her into protective custody, and Wood said she is doing well in a group home there. Wood said the suspect and the woman whom the girl was staying with in Texas knew each other because both own exotic animals. He said two witnesses came forward and said they were asked to take the girl to Texas and return with a monkey. He said investigators are trying to firm up if that was just a joke or if it was actually a 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.” According to the probable cause statement, the girl said 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. The girl said she wasn’t subjected to forced labour or sexual abuse. The woman 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 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, the probable cause statement said. 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 has learned that 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 also 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 is the case, how it can be addressed, and to the extent that there’s any criminal behaviour 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 ended by urging people to call the agency’s hotline. Article written by Heather Hollingsworth, The Associated Press
