Foster mom is charged with abuse as authorities investigate whether a
girl was traded for a monkey
[April 10, 2025]
By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
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 $250,000 bond
since her arrest over the weekend, with her next court appearance set
for next Tuesday. The Associated Press is not identifying her in an
effort not to identity 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 kilometers)
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 center
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
rumor 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.
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“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 labor 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
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 ended by urging people to call the agency's hotline.
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