"Weren't Getting Along": Missouri Foster Mom Admits to Trading Child for a Monkey

Foster parents take on a pretty big role for the kids that need it most. They give their foster children a place of safety and security after who knows what they've been through in the past.

At least, you'd hope so. Because that's not what happened with one Missouri foster mom. According to the New York Post, in a pretty depraved turn of events, she ended up trading a foster child for a monkey.

And she'd apparently shipped the girl to Texas to make the deal happen. 70-year-old Brenda Deutsch pled guilty to first-degree child endangerment for the incident on Monday, June 15.

Deutsch had fostered over 200 children over a period of 20 years. But all of that came into question when a school resource officer noticed a pretty strange pattern of unexplained absences back in February 2025.

And when she looked deeper, she heard an extremely perplexing rumor - that she'd been shipped down to Texas for a monkey. She ended up liaising with Texas police and speaking to who the girl was staying with.

Their response? The girl and the foster mother "weren't getting along." Everyone has their stints of arguments with their parents, whether it be biological or otherwise - but no-one would do this over a disagreement... right?

But Deutsch said the child had been enrolled in school down in Texas, and was 100% safe.

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Authorities Explained the Foster Mom's Thought Process Behind the Deal

Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney Mike Wood went into a little more detail as to Deutsch's thought process.

He spoke in an interview with NBC News that "the defendant... became frustrated with this individual child and asked her friend in Texas if she would just take the child and keep her."

And then, the wild part. "And at that point I think is when she says, 'You know, why don't you send a monkey and you can just keep the child?'"

The girl ended up returning to Missouri. She ended up revealing to authorities that she had been mentally and physically abused under Deutsch's care. She recounted horrifying experiences in which Deutsch beat her with wood and shoes.

Deutsch faces up to seven years in prison - it would be more, but prosecutors agreed to eliminate further charges of child abuse and neglect, in exchange for her guilty plea.