An Indiana woman is being charged after allegedly selling her 13-year-old daughter to a 27-year-old man and forcing her to get married, according to ABC News.
The mother—identified as 37-year-old Se Dar Be—is being accused of “child selling,” according to the Journal Gazette. The man who allegedly purchased the child, Zee Kdee Ya, is being charged with child solicitation and neglect of a dependent.
Court documents obtained by the publication show that one of the child’s friends called the Fort Wayne police on Dec. 20, 2020 and claimed she was being forced to marry a man. After authorities arrived at a party seemingly celebrating a marriage, adults claimed it was “only an engagement between the girl and Zee Kdee Ya.” Still, the girl told authorities that her parents signed paperwork already in Burmese to arrange the marriage.
Court documents claim that the girl was already moved in with Ya, who gave her a gold bracelet, necklace and about $2,000 in cash, all of which she handed over to her parents. Ya also allegedly told the girl “I own you now. I can make you do what I want” after she asked to not be touched, and her parents told her she “needed to have sex with Ya because he was now her husband.”
Ya claimed the wedding was stopped by police and the Department of Child Services; and denied sharing a bed with her, according to documents.
The mother claimed her 13-year-old “was only getting engaged and wouldn’t get married until she was 18 years old,” according to documents. She and her husband used the money on makeup for their daughter and food for the party. The father, who has not been charged, reportedly claimed he “didn’t know anything about the money given to the victim.”
