A mother and son have pleaded guilty to incest after a romantic reunion. Monica Mares, 37, and Caleb Peterson, 20, were arrested last year in Clovis, New Mexico, following an argument with a neighbour that alerted police to their relationship.
The pair accepted a plea deal and will avoid jail, but must stay away from each other until 2018. Mares met Peterson for the first time in 18 years after he was given up for adoption as a baby. They reconnected via Facebook in late 2015, and Mares picked up her son from his adoptive father's home in Texas.
Romantic feelings developed quickly, becoming sexual within weeks. “It felt like I met somebody new in my life and I fell in love with him,” Mares said. Peterson said he never viewed her as his mother, and the first kiss had “a spark that ever since then it just stayed”.
The pair went public in August to raise awareness of Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA), a term coined in the 1980s for sexual attraction between close relatives who first meet as adults. Support groups suggest it may result from missed bonding due to adoption.
