Inset: Brenda Deutsch (Lincoln County Sheriff”s Office). Background: The Lincoln County Justice Center in Troy, Mo. (Google Maps).
A Missouri woman could face substantial prison time after authorities say she tried to exchange a child for an exotic animal.
Brenda Deutsch, 70, was first charged in April 2025 with felony neglect, child abuse and child endangerment. Prosecutors later secured an indictment charging her with two counts of child abuse or neglect and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
“It wasn’t isolated. It was a culture of abuse and neglect,” Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney Mike Wood said at the time.
On Monday, Deutsch pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. As part of an agreement with prosecutors, the remaining two charges were dismissed.
The case began in November 2024, when the Missouri Department of Social Services received an anonymous report alleging that Deutsch was abusing the child, according to St. Louis television station KMOV.
The initial claims involved a girl who was later found in Texas, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said.
The victim was interviewed by child welfare agents the next month and said her abuse began three years prior, deputies said. The abuse spanned September 2022 through January 2025 – and culminated in an effort to trade the girl for a monkey, according to a probable cause statement obtained by St. Louis-based Fox affiliate KTVI.
While in Deutsch’s care, the child was allegedly hit in the face, causing injuries and bleeding, according to law enforcement.
When speaking with investigators, the girl said she had been hit with a paddle and smacked, as well as other forms of abuse. She also said she saw other children being abused.
Then the allegations got stranger.
In February 2025, the Winfield School District reported the child in question had excessive absences, deputies said. That same month, a school resource officer was told about the missing classes. As the school began investigating with its own team, authorities heard the child was given to someone in Texas in exchange for a monkey.
At the same time, another witness told investigators at the school that the foster parent and child simply were “not getting along.”
Lincoln County authorities eventually contacted Texas law enforcement and spoke with the child, who said she was fine.
“The child had been left alone in Texas for extended periods of time,” Wood explained. “One of those was a 10 day period where that particular person in Texas had left and gone to the state of New Mexico and left the child.”
The prosecutor explained that both Deutsch and her friend owned exotic animals. The other witness was allegedly asked to take the girl in exchange for the exotic animal – that is, the monkey.
The defendant’s friend had left Texas to tend to their animals in New Mexico, according to law enforcement. So, the girl was shuttled over to a different residence.
“She was at a secondary home which was the adult children of witness one,” Wood continued. “Both of those people are disabled and not able to take care of the child. From what we can tell the child was taking care of them.”
As the friend’s visit to New Mexico took longer than the second set of adults expected, the girl was eventually turned over to Child Protective Services in Texas, according to law enforcement.
Citing anonymous sources, KMOV reported that Deutsch served as a foster parent for decades – and had custody of more than 200 children. And over this time period, more than 200 phone calls were made to a hotline to report the defendant for child abuse.
“Disappointed to learn that this particular home, despite the notoriety that it had gained, was not in our system,” Wood said. “We didn’t have any police reports. We didn’t have any requests for prosecution. We didn’t have anything.”
The defendant faces up to seven years in prison. A case review is slated for July 21, court records show.
