A story from 2016 is again going viral because of how absolutely shocking it is. Patricia Spann, a mother of three, stunned the world when news broke of her marrying her 25-year-old biological daughter. Both women ended up getting arrested because Oklahoma, where they married, considered their marriage incest, even though there was no evidence the relationship was ever sexual.
Even though that would be shocking enough, it turned out that the older woman had made marrying her children a bit of a habit.
Patricia Spann and her daughter Misty were arrested in September 2016 after their relationship to each other was discovered. According to KOCO, the Department of Human Services contacted police because they suspected an incestuous relationship between the women.
According to court documents, the two married in March 2016. “Misty and Patricia told me they got married to basically defraud the state in order to receive more benefits under health care. That sort of thing,” Detective Dustin Smith told the outlet at the time.
Smith explained they were also trying to adopt a child that had been in their care. Patricia Spann “felt it would simplify the process of adoption if she was married. Why she chose her daughter, I’m not sure,” Smith said. He called the mother the “mastermind” of the relationship.
“It shocks the senses a little bit I think across the board,” Smith said of the marriage between the mother and daughter, per KOCO. “Of course, you get the goofy jokes, but it’s very shocking. Very surreal case.”
A report from KOTV via CBS News stated that the marriage was annulled after six weeks.
Records showed that Patricia Spann lost custody of her three children when they were young, and they were legally adopted by someone else. She and Misty reconnected in 2014, and she claims they “hit it off,” CBS News reported. The woman also claimed that she didn’t think their marriage was illegal because her name was no longer listed on Misty’s birth certificate.
In March 2018, Patricia Spann pleaded guilty to the felony offense of incest, Fox News reported, citing the Oklahoman. She was sentenced to two years in prison and had to register as a sex offender upon release. Patricia Spann was also sentenced to eight years probation and was fined $1,500.
As investigators dug more into the relationship of Patricia Spann and her daughter, it was discovered that she had previously married her son Jody Spann in 2008, multiple outlets reported, including Fox News. That marriage was annulled in 2010 after her son called the relationship “incestuous.”
“I think she’s just a sick, twisted individual that has something messed up in her head,” Patricia Spann’s third son, Cody, told People in September 2016. “Why would you want to be with one of your own kids? Patricia’s a very disgusting and horrible person.”
Cody Spann told the magazine that his mother re-entered his and his siblings’ lives in 2007, telling them she was a friend and not their mother. He explained that his brother was “manipulated, forced and threatened” by their mother after ending their relationship. “She threatened to poison him,” he said. And she allegedly did the same to her daughter.
“My sister was manipulated and scared into this. Was she an adult? Yes, she was. But my sister was scared,” Cody Spann said.
