Cops: Mom Brands Kids, Promises Ice Cream

A Florida mom has been charged with child abuse after she allegedly branded her children so she could identify them as her kids. Kayla Oxenham, 23, allegedly used a lighter to heat up a stick then burned her 5- and 7-year-old daughters on the arm while noting she "forgot how much she loved fire," police say, per the New York Daily News. The girls say she also told them she branded them so they could get ice cream afterward, according to the police report.

One of the daughters told police that wasn't the only abuse the Port Charlotte woman doled out: The girl says her mom slammed her younger sister's head into a wall a number of times after she locked a cat in the bathroom, reports WFTX. The abuse was alleged to have happened in March; day care workers spotted and reported the injuries. Oxenham was charged with felony child abuse on Tuesday and is out of jail on bond. (More child abuse stories.)