Mother from Provo arrested for sexual exploitation and trafficking in her own child

PROVO, Utah — A Provo mother has been arrested for allegedly sexually harassing and trafficking her 10-year-old daughter. Court documents allege the abuse continued for several years.

The 38-year-old woman was arrested on Wednesday and is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, 29 counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, 41 counts of human trafficking of a child and two counts of sodomy of a child.

Provo police received a tip via the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) cyber tip line that a mother was sexually abusing her daughter and uploading the videos to Kik, an instant messaging app. The platform then sent the user-uploaded files to NCMEC, which also contained the user’s account information confirming they were in Provo.

Using the information provided, detectives were able to identify the person who uploaded the videos as the mother from Provo.

The woman agreed to speak to police after they served a search warrant, stating that she had used Kik to engage in “adult sex conversations,” including sending videos of a sexual nature. When investigators asked if anyone else was ever in the videos, she admitted to using her daughter in the videos as well.

The mother told investigators that the messages were a way to get positive attention from someone who wasn’t bullying her, adding that she had met a man, identified as “Chris,” about 10 times in the past. She said that when she and her daughter met “Chris,” she would sexually abuse the young girl, starting when the child was 5 or 6 years old.

“Chris” paid the woman money, usually $20 a night, she told investigators, to make material about her daughter and herself, and sent it off to be paid for.

While searching the mother’s phone, investigators reportedly found hundreds of videos, including one of a baby that the woman said was sent to her by another man named “Shawn.”

When detectives asked her when she and Chris last sexually abused her daughter, she replied that it happened on Tuesday in Springville, when they met Chris in a hotel room in exchange for a laptop and $125.

The woman is now being held without bail by order of the court.