In unsettling news out of the US, a mother and her biological daughter are facing charges of incest after getting married in Oklahoma.
According to Associated Press, Patricia Ann Spann, 43, and her 25-year-old daughter, Velvet Dawn Spann, married in March. Police are said to have uncovered the marriage last month following a child welfare investigation.
In Oklahoma, marriage between close relatives is considered incest regardless of whether or not the relationship is sexual.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognised in the state since October 2014.
They are currently being held on a $10,000 USD bond each.
In an even more disturbing twist, authorities then uncovered the fact that the mother had also married her son a few years earlier in 2008. He filed for annulment 15 months later citing “incest”.
Associated Press states that the motive behind the marriage is unclear, but that Spann told a child services investigator that she had previously lost custody of three children, but reunited with her daughter two years ago. She said that she thought the marriage was OK because her name wasn’t on her daughter’s birth certificate.
