A young mother was arrested and is facing child trafficking charges after allegedly attempting to sell her two children on Facebook.
The 22-year-old Oklahoma mother, Misty VanHorn, tried to sell her two-year-old and 10-month-old baby via the social network in order to raise money to bail her boyfriend out of jail, Sky News reported.
An unnamed female, posing as a potential buyer from Fort Smith, Ark., turned VanHorn in. The mother asked for $1,000 for her two-year-old, or $4,000 for the toddler and young baby.
“Just come to Sallisaw, it’s only 30 minutes away and I’ll give you all of her stuff and let y’all have her forever for $1,000,” she allegedly wrote on Facebook.
She was arrested soon after the posing buyer turned her in, and is currently being held in the Sequoyah County Jail. Her bail is $40,000.
According to Mark Woodward from the Oklahoma Human Trafficking Unit, trafficking deals made over the Internet are not uncommon.
“A lot of the deals, interactions and conversations will take place on social network sites where people can basically hide behind a computer screen, and they can hide their identity,” Woodward said.
Before turning to Facebook, VanHorn tried to raise the $1,000 through door-to-door fundraising, according to her neighbors.
The state currently has custody of Vanhorn’s children.