FOSTER MOTHER FROM HELL

‘Bring the Monkey Back’: Missouri Police Investigating If 70-Year-Old Woman Known for Fostering More Than 200 Children Over the Years Tried to Trade One for an Exotic Animal

 

Atlanta Black Star 

Apr 9, 2025

 

 

Brenda Deutsch accused of abuse of foster child. 

 

A foster mother in Missouri is facing charges after authorities say she may have traded a teenage girl she was caring for a monkey.

Brenda Ruth Deutsch, 70, was charged with two counts of abuse or neglect of a child and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.

According to a probable cause statement obtained by KSDK, police began investigating Deutsch last November after getting a tip from the Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division that a child was being mentally and physically abused in Deutsch’s home.

Then, in February, the girl’s school reported numerous absences. A school resource officer charged with investigating the disappearance of the child, who is described in local reports as a teenager, learned she was in Texas, KTVI reported, and the SRO was able to contact the child through law enforcement in Texas.

Investigators learned that Deutsch had arranged for the girl to stay with a friend in Texas, where she was left alone in a home in dirty conditions that also housed several exotic animals.

Deutsch’s friend told police in Texas that she was keeping the child at her home because Deutsch and the girl “were not getting along.” Prosecutors said another witness came forward claiming that he was asked to transport the child to the home and bring the monkey back to Missouri.

“A witness who had come forward with some information regarding the systemic abuse that was going on in the home, had said that they had been asked to bring the child down to Texas and bring the monkey back in return,” Lincoln County Prosecutor Mike Wood said, according to KSDK. “Obviously we have to do more investigation to see if that’s actually credible or if that’s true.”

Police interviewed the victim who told them that Deutsch has hit her with a paddle, wooden trim, shoes and an open hand in the past. She also claimed that Deutsch had someone hold her down while Deutsch hit her bare buttocks.

The victim also reported that Deutsch would punish the girl by stealing her clothes and giving them away that Deutsch once took her to a psychiatric hospital and even admitted her to a residential facility for nine months.

When Deutsch took the girl to Texas, the victim says her foster mom told her friend they could keep the girl, but that she would “be keeping the check.”

Deutsch has fostered more than 200 children and is a collector of exotic animals, prosecutors reported.

Wood said the allegations were “particularly heinous and just disturbing to read.”

“Two things that really stood out was the number of children that had been fostered through that home and then the allegations that these types of abuse and emotional neglect had been going on for what seemed to be perhaps a decade,” Wood said.

Authorities said that after speaking with community members, they’re surprised that no previous reports had emerged or criminal investigations had been launched to probe Deutsch’s home.

“As we broke it open, it seems like apparently it was a very well-known residence that cycled through this abuse, which is really disturbing and problematic,” Wood said.

Considering the number of children she fostered, Wood said it’s likely that additional charges will be filed.

The girl was taken to child protective services in Texas. According to KTVI, the child had been in Deutsch’s care for the Past four years. At the time of Deutsch’s arrest, two other children were living in her home.

Deutsch was jailed on a $250,000 bond.

“Numerous victims and witnesses have already contacted my office and I would encourage anyone else with information to continue reaching out to my office, as well as investigators,” Wood wrote in a Facebook post. “We will continue to post more information as it comes available.”