Woman Sold 13-Year-Old Daughter to Man, Used $2000 Payment to Throw Party: Courts

An Indiana woman allegedly sold her 13-year-old daughter to a 27-year-old man and used the money to throw a celebratory party after forcing her to marry him, the Associated Press reported. The mother is facing charges of neglect of a dependent and child selling where the defendant transfers or receives property for terminating the care of a dependent, according to the Journal Gazette.

Court records say that the man, Zee Kdee Ya, gave the girl jewelry and about $2,000 in cash, which the parents used to buy makeup for the girl and food for the party on December 20, 2020. The mother claimed that the girl's father knew that they used the money to fund the party. Ya also allegedly said that when he gave the money to the girl, she told him that she had passed it along to her father.

However, the father told police that he never received the money and "didn't know anything about the money given to the victim," according to court documents.

An investigator from the Department of Child Services said that she told the girl's father twice in December that he could not legally arrange a marriage for his daughter because of her age, the Gazette reported. Two other DCS employees told the mother and father the same thing in separate instances in the week before the wedding.

The girl's father is not currently facing any charges, but Ya was charged Thursday for child solicitation and neglect of a dependent. Arrest warrants have been issued for both Ya and the mother.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

Online court records did not list attorneys Friday who could speak on behalf of either of them.

Police got involved when a friend of the girl called Fort Wayne police on December 20, 2020, to say that her friend was being forced to marry an adult that night, according to court documents.

Officers arrived at a party and saw a sign on the wall celebrating the marriage, court documents said. Adults there denied it was a marriage celebration, saying it was "only an engagement between the girl and Zee Kdee Ya," according to court records.

But when police spoke privately to the girl, she said that seven days prior to the wedding celebration, her parents had signed paperwork in Burmese, arranging the marriage.

Court records allege that Ya gave the girl a gold bracelet, necklace and about $2,000 in cash, which she turned over to her parents. At that point, she was considered married and was moved in with Ya and had to share a bed with him, according to court documents.

When Ya allegedly tried to touch the girl on top of her clothes, she yelled at him to leave her alone, court records state.

He then quoted the Bible to her and told the girl: "I own you now. I can make you do what I want," according to court documents, which also state that the girl said her parents told her she "needed to have sex with Ya because he was now her husband."

Ya allegedly told a police investigator the party was to celebrate the engagement and wedding. He admitted that the girl had moved in with him after they signed the paperwork but denied they stayed in the same bed and said that the wedding was stopped by police and the DCS, according to court documents.

The girl's mother told police her daughter "was only getting engaged and wouldn't get married until she was 18 years old," according to the records.