Mother Arrested For Selling 7-Year-Old Son, Attempting To Sell Younger Daughters

A Texas mother was arrested Friday for allegedly selling her son and attempting to do the same with two younger daughters.

Authorities confirmed to local daily KRIS 6 News that 29-year-old Esmeralda Garza of Corpus Christi was arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety after she allegedly sold her 7-year-old boy to two men, and was attempting to sell her two-year-old and three-year-old daughters.

She was charged with the sale or purchase of a child and sent to Nueces County Jail with the bond amount set at $100,000.

During the investigation of the case, a man and woman were arrested and sent to the same jail; however, it was unclear if they were involved in drug abuse or the sale of children, Fox News reported. Officials said additional charges could be filed against Garza.

In a similar case, a Texas mother was arrested in June for selling her daughter for $100.

According to Gregg County Jail records, Carrie Sue Kelly, 44, was arrested under charges of “sexual performance by a child under the age of 14 years old with the intention of employing, directing or promoting.”

An investigation found she used social media apps to find men who wanted to have sex with her daughter, Local daily Star-telegram reported.

A man contacted police when she offered the girl for sex. Investigators contacted Kelly through the man’s social media app KIK and convinced her to give her phone number.

A meeting was set between Kelly and an undercover agent after she allegedly offered herself and her daughter for sex, but she did not show up. However, she continued texting and admitted to sex acts with children and having child pornography.

Kelly was confronted by the officials June 4 who questioned her about the messages. Her phone was then taken for forensic examination. She was arrested eight days later and held on $200,000 bond at Gregg County Jail.

In another incident, a 25-year-old woman was found guilty of selling her two daughters for sex in Georgia in May.

She was charged with two counts each of first degree cruelty to children, enticing a child for indecent purposes and trafficking a person for sexual servitude, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Richard Office, 78, the man she sold her daughters to, was sentenced to life and charged with rape, trafficking a person for sexual servitude, child molestation and enticing a child for indecent purposes.

While the mother was detained in a Florida jail, the girls told their temporary guardians they were sent to men’s homes by their mother, where they were sexually assaulted for money.

Irina Khasin, who prosecuted the case, said, “The impact that this ongoing sexual abuse had on those children is tragic, and we are grateful that the jury held the defendant accountable for his depraved conduct.”

“I am hoping these two little girls can somehow survive this abuse and grow into healthy adults who can lead a productive and fulfilling life,” Fulton County District Attorney, Paul Howard said.