'The child had been left alone': Woman 'not getting along' with foster daughter tries to trade her for monkey

A Missouri pistillate is facing important clip down bars aft she attempted to commercialized a kid for an exotic animal.

Brenda Deutsch, 70, was primitively charged with felony counts of neglect, child abuse and child endangerment successful April 2025. She was aboriginal indicted connected 2 counts of maltreatment oregon neglect of a kid and 1 number of endangering the payment of a child.

"It wasn't isolated. It was a civilization of maltreatment and neglect," Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney Mike Wood said astatine the time.

On Monday, Deutsch pleaded blameworthy to 1 number of endangering the payment of a kid successful the archetypal degree. Under the presumption of a plea woody with prosecutors, the different 2 charges were dropped.

The probe into the suspect began successful November 2024 erstwhile the Missouri Department of Social Services received an anonymous extremity that Deutsch was abusing the victim, St. Louis-based CBS and MyNetworkTV affiliate KMOV reported.

Initial allegations acrophobic a miss who was yet located successful Texas, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office.

The unfortunate was interviewed by kid payment agents the adjacent period and said her maltreatment began 3 years prior, deputies said. The maltreatment spanned September 2022 done January 2025 – and culminated successful an effort to commercialized the miss for a monkey, according to a probable origin connection obtained by St. Louis-based Fox affiliate KTVI.

While successful Deutsch's care, the kid was allegedly deed successful the face, causing injuries and bleeding, according to instrumentality enforcement.

When speaking with investigators, the miss said she had been deed with a paddle and smacked, arsenic good arsenic different forms of abuse. She besides said she saw different children being abused.

Then the allegations got stranger.

In February 2025, the Winfield School District reported the kid successful question had excessive absences, deputies said. That aforesaid month, a schoolhouse assets serviceman was told astir the missing classes. As the schoolhouse began investigating with its ain team, authorities heard the kid was fixed to idiosyncratic successful Texas successful speech for a monkey.

At the aforesaid time, different witnesser told investigators astatine the schoolhouse that the foster genitor and kid simply were "not getting along."

Lincoln County authorities yet contacted Texas instrumentality enforcement and spoke with the child, who said she was fine.

"The kid had been near unsocial successful Texas for extended periods of time," Wood explained. "One of those was a 10 time play wherever that peculiar idiosyncratic successful Texas had near and gone to the authorities of New Mexico and near the child."

The authoritative explained that some Deutsch and her person owned exotic animals. The different witnesser was allegedly asked to instrumentality the miss successful speech for the exotic carnal – that is, the monkey.

The defendant's person had near Texas to thin to their animals successful New Mexico, according to instrumentality enforcement. So, the miss was shuttled implicit to a antithetic residence.

"She was astatine a secondary location which was the big children of witnesser one," Wood continued. "Both of those radical are disabled and not capable to instrumentality attraction of the child. From what we tin archer the kid was taking attraction of them."

As the friend's sojourn to New Mexico took longer than the 2nd acceptable of adults expected, the miss was yet turned implicit to Child Protective Services successful Texas, according to instrumentality enforcement.

Citing anonymous sources, KMOV reported that Deutsch served arsenic a foster genitor for decades – and had custody of much than 200 children. And implicit this clip period, much than 200 telephone calls were made to a hotline to study the suspect for kid abuse.

"Disappointed to larn that this peculiar home, contempt the notoriety that it had gained, was not successful our system," Wood said. "We didn't person immoderate constabulary reports. We didn't person immoderate requests for prosecution. We didn't person anything."

The suspect faces up to 7 years successful prison. A lawsuit reappraisal is slated for July 21, tribunal records show.