A West Virginia couple has been arrested for allegedly attempting to sell their baby.
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The 3-month-old has been placed in foster care.
“Law enforcement officers frequently deal with some pretty odd situations”, said Sheriff Kessler. “A situation like this is really out of the ordinary though”.
Fayette County police have arrested 20-year-old Jonathan Isaac Lucas Flint and his 25-year-old fiancée Ashley Nichole Harmon, who is also the mother of the three-month old who was abandoned at a neighbor’s house last week.
Deputies say the child’s biological father had no knowledge of the scheme to sell his daughter.
Redden’s granddaughter, Tonya Kessler, said she doesn’t understand how someone could put a price on a child, but said she knew her grandmother would do what was needed to care for the baby.
They are charged with the felony offenses of Selling or Attempting to Sell A Child and gross Child neglect Creating A Risk Of Bodily Injury or Death to A Child. Harmon and Flint then asked if she would babysit the infant while they walked to a convenience store five miles away.
So, the couple left the child behind.
The child has been taken in protective services, and they will determine whether she can go back with her father.
Investigators told WSAZ that the couple were suffering from substance withdrawals and planned to use the money for drugs.
The woman was most anxious because the child was constantly shaking. What is not obvious is what the parents were thinking or if they actually believed the child would be there with the woman when they returned the following day. Kessler thanked everyone who kept the baby safe, according to WVVA.
Both Harmon and Flint were taken to the Southern Regional Jail. We will protect them.
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They were behind bars after their bail was set at $100,000.
