Every so often, an article pops up in the newsfeed that has such a ridiculous title, that there is no real way to resist opening it up. Mindlessly scrolling through today’s feed, it happened: “North Carolina Mom, 45, and son, 25, Arrested and Charged with Incest.” As with most things in today’s polite society that are considered obscene or taboo, I am sure there are many varying opinions on the subject of incest. There should not be. To clarify, family trees were designed to branch off. I know this country has come a long way in becoming more accepting of everyone’s individual sexual preferences, but I feel there is a line to be drawn at some point and here it is.

Still, I was intrigued enough to read the article because, even if out of morbid curiosity, I wanted to know how two people get caught in the act of such a crime. Oddly enough, the article never really explains that outside of stating that arrest warrants “alleged” they had sex. The more I got into the article, the weirder it became. Melissa Nell Kitchens and her son, Shaun Thomas Pfeiffer were arrested on September 9^th and each charged with felony incest. Apparently, incest laws vary from state to state but it seems there is a pretty universal opinion that the act itself is illegal.

The mother is being held on $30,000 bail while her son is being held on $70,500 bail until they can post or appear in the Buncombe County District Court on September 29^th. At first, it seemed a little outrageous that the son would need to post double the bond. However, the son is also facing charges in an unrelated incident where he is accused of “indecent liberties with a child.” Ok, the plot thickens. Obviously, the son is a sexual deviant but how responsible for that is his mother?

After reading the entire article and combining all I have learned from multiple seasons of Law & Order: SVU, I would venture to guess that this is not the first time that the mother has engaged in inappropriate behavior with her son. If these sort of activities were happening when the son was underage, for example, it may have been the catalyst for the charge of indecent liberties with a child that he is facing. I am not excusing any of the behaviors mentioned in this article but I did wonder if the mom is not also somewhat responsible for her son’s other crime. Due to the nature of the crime, I believe it is worth a deeper investigation to attempt to determine how long the mother has been engaging in indecent acts with her child. It is certainly a case of sexual abuse of a child if it has been going on since before he became an adult. The idea is not completely unfounded.

On her Facebook page back in January of 2015, Kitchens wrote, “Can’t get over How Handsome You Are and I’m about to Cry. … You’ve Got a Heart of Gold-- Never Let Anyone Hurt You. … I miss you& wish I had more time w you.” I would say that further investigation is warranted. In even weirder news, this is not the only incest case to make the news recently. In Oklahoma, 43-year-old Patricia Ann Spahn was charged with incest after marrying her daughter, Misty Velvet Dawn Spahn. Yes, that is actually her name. Patricia was previously married to her son in 2008. There is no word of whether or not she faced charges for that one.