DUNCAN, Okla. — An Oklahoma woman and her adult daughter are behind bars after authorities discovered that they were involved in an incestuous relationship in “marrying” each other earlier this year.
According to reports, the Department of Human Services (DHS) contacted the Duncan Police Department after visiting the home of Patricia Spann, 43, for a child welfare investigation. It found that Spann was living with three of her children, who had been previously taken from her custody and adopted by their paternal grandmother.
Spann reportedly had no contact with her children for years, but when she met her daughter Misty, now 25, the two “hit it off,” she told DHS officials. She also said that she looked into the ramifications of marrying her biological daughter, but determined “that because her name was no longer listed on Misty’s birth certificate, she felt no laws had been violated.”
The Duncan Banner confirmed that the two tied the knot in Comanche County on March 25. Spann had previously been “married” to her son Jody, but he annulled the relationship, citing incest. Spann had said that she wed her son to help him avoid being deployed into the military.
Under Oklahoma law, marrying one’s relative is considered felony incest whether or not a sexual relationship exists. Therefore, a warrant was issued for the arrest of both Patricia Spann and Misty Spann, and they were booked in the Stephens County Jail.
On Wednesday, mother and daughter appeared before Judge Ken Graham, who entered a not guilty plea on their behalf. They are being held on $10,000 bond and have been ordered not to have contact with any government witnesses.
Misty’s brother, Cody Spann, told local television station KSWO that he believed his mother had forced his sister into the “marriage.”
“For you to want to put your own daughter through this, what kind of person are you? If that’s what you want, that’s on you, but none of us kids want that,” he said. “And now you got my sister behind bars because of your choices. Why don’t you let that sit on you as a mom.”
Just weeks ago, headlines focused on 19-year-old Caleb Peterson and his 36-year-old mother, Monica Mares, who were was arrested in New Mexico earlier this year for having an incestuous relationship. They told the Daily Mail that they wanted to fight the charges but were willing to go to prison as society “can’t tell me who to love, who not to love.”
“The first time we were physical, [we] ended up holding hands and then we ended up kissing, and the kissing led to other things,” Mares told the outlet. “I felt comfortable with him and we fell even more deeply in love.”
“Honestly, I never thought we would get into trouble for our relationship,” Peterson also stated. “We were both consenting adults—when it comes down to it. She’s adult, I’m adult. I can make my own decisions.”
But some have spoken out against the slippery slope that occurs when God’s word is discarded for man’s opinion.
Last year, Dr. Michael Brown explained in an article for Charisma News that he had been asked to participate in a debate surrounding whether consensual adult incest should be legalized. Brown recalled that he was the only one on the panel that said that such relationships are never okay in the eyes of God.
“All the other participants, including a professor and a psychoanalyst, advocated for removing the laws against consensual adult incest,” he stated. “Are you surprised? But what’s the problem? Love is love [according to society], right? As long it’s consensual, who can say no to love?”
Brown stated that these developments are demonstrating the domino effect that results when the world rebels against God and His Master design for mankind.
“Those who have taken down the fence of marriage as God intended it have opened up a Pandora’s Box of possibilities,” he said, “none of them good.”
Leviticus 18:6-7 reads, “None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord. The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.”
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