On Monday, March 27, a Tennessee couple accused of placing an ad on Craigslist to sell their 5-month-old baby for $3,000, then trying to hand the child off to an undercover agent, went to court for their first appearance. The couple, Deanna Lynn Greer, 37, and John David Cain, 26, are now being held in custody while they wait for their case to be closed. The couple’s ad was discovered though a tip sent to the police station and a trap was immediately set up to locate the two. An agent contacted them about the ad and they scheduled to meet on Friday the 24th at a local Dollar General store.

The baby and another child of Greer’s is now in the custody of the State Department of Children’s Services. Pat Hankins, the County Sheriff, said that in his 34 years as an officer, he’d never seen a case like this. He said, “Can you believe this? We bought a baby; it makes my heart drop.” The warrant for the couple’s arrest stated that they “did knowingly place the child in threat of serious danger, bodily injury or death by selling the child to an unknown person, [an] especially heinous, atrocious and cruel act.”

Both Greer and Cain are being charged with not only child abuse, but also aggravated child neglect and offenses in connection with “Haley’s Law,” a Tennessee statute named after a child who suffered severe injuries from being abused by her father and stepmother. The law makes it a Class A felony to abuse a child younger than 9-years-old in a manner that causes bodily injury.

The couple’s bond is set at $150,000 each.