An Oklahoma mother has been arrested after her 12-year-old daughter gave birth to a 24-year-old man’s baby. Desiree Castaneda was charged with enabling child sex abuse for allowing Juan Miranda-Jara to impregnate the little girl, with whom he later claimed he was “in a relationship” since last October.
- Castaneda knew of the relationship and supported it. The most disturbing fact of this case is that not only did Castaneda fail to protect her daughter, still very much a child, from being sexually abused, but she actively encouraged the relationship and supported it, the Tulsa Police Department says. She went so far as to throwing the little girl a baby shower after it was discovered she was pregnant.
- Pretty much everyone in the family failed the child. “The investigation revealed that the victim’s mother and family members were aware of the relationship between the victim and [Juan] Miranda-Jara,” the police said in a statement.
- The abuse was only discovered when the little girl gave birth. When she arrived at the hospital with Miranda-Jara to give birth, hospital staff contacted police about a potential rape. “They walked in just like any other couple would excited to deliver their newborn child,” Tulsa Police Officer Danny Bean told Fox 23.
- Miranda-Jara seemed confused as to why he was being arrested. Police obviously arrested him and charged him with first-degree rape, but Miranda-Jara seemed perplexed as to why his relationship with a literal child was a problem. He pleaded not guilty and has a preliminary hearing set for August 26.
- Police had no idea how this relationship was allowed to start or continue. Tulsa Police focused much of their investigation on figuring out how a 12-year-old and a 24-year-old could have a “relationship” without anyone in the community having a problem with it or speaking up about it. “We know there are many people in the community who are shocked by this, grossed out by this, disturbed by this, have questions, a whole range of emotions,” Officer Bean said. “But in time, we will be able to give the community the answers they want. We just don’t have all the answers right now to give them, and we don’t want to compromise the investigation that’s still happening and really just now getting started.”
- The girl apparently asked her mother’s permission to be with Miranda-Jara. According to News on 6’s Lori Fullbright, an arrest affidavit reveals that Castenada’s daughter asked her for permission to be in the relationship and Castaneda said yes and gave the girl two condoms. The relationship was very open and the two plastered photos of themselves all over Facebook.
- The girl will now be taken from the home. Her father is currently in jail on unrelated first-degree rape charges, leaving Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services looking for the best place to put the girl and her newborn child.
