IN RE: the Matter of R.L.E. IV and J.D.E. (2022)

ORDER

A.W. (“Mother”) appeals the judgment of the Circuit Court of Macon County, Missouri (“trial court”), granting J.D.E.’s (“Stepmother”) petition to adopt B.E. (“Child”) and terminating Mother's parental rights to Child. On appeal, Mother raises three points claiming that the trial court's judgment erred in that: 1) “clear, cogent, and convincing evidence” failed to establish that Mother's parental rights should be terminated; 2) the evidence failed to establish that Mother willfully abandoned or neglected Child such that her parental rights should be terminated; and 3) it concluded Mother's consent for Child's adoption was not needed under section 453.040 ¹ , and the judgment also erred in finding that the effective termination of Mother's parental rights and adoption by Stepmother was in Child's best interests.

FOOTNOTES

1.   All statutory references are to the Revised Statutes of Missouri (2016) as currently updated.

Per curiam: