EXCLUSIVE: Mother of 17-year-old alleged murderer of U of Texas ballerina is a convicted prostitute who makes porn films and took drugs throughout her pregnancy

The mother of alleged murderer Meechaiel Criner, 17, is a convicted prostitute who makes pornographic films and took drugs throughout her pregnancy.

Vivian Lafrance Criner, 43, claims to be based in Las Vegas but was arrested on prostitution charges in Shreveport, Louisiana last September and still has an active warrant out for her arrest.

She was also part of a prostitution ring busted by Louisiana's Caddo County police department in March 2015 and was, on that occasion, released on a $700 bond.

Criner, who uses the stage name De Collecter, is currently thought to be in Nevada where she sells X-rated videos for $75 each and uses social media sites to promote them.

But although active online, the mother-of-five has not come forward to speak about  her youngest son who was charged with the murder of Portland dance student Haruka Weiser, 18.

Vivian Lafrance Criner, 43, the mother of accused murderer Meechaiel Criner, claims to be based in Las Vegas but was arrested on prostitution charges in Shreveport, Louisiana last September and still has an active warrant out for her arrest

Haruka Weiser was a promising ballet student at the University of Texas at Austin when her life was tragically cut short

On the day Meechaiel's arrest was announced, Criner created a Go Fund Me Page aimed at raising funds for a book she hopes to publish on sexual hygiene.

Written in error-strewn English, the page describes the 'years of research' she did while working as an 'adult star' and says the aim is to create bodies that are 'smell free zones'.

On April 5, the day that Weiser's battered body was discovered beside an Austin creek, Criner was busy plugging a 'bootie clip' on Twitter – and continued to do so, even after her son was charged.

Meechaiel, who had been living rough in a derelict building close to the University of Texas campus, was arrested two days after Weiser's remains were found and was caught with some of the dance student's possessions.

The 17-year-old is thought to have arrived in Austin late last year, having made his way there via Seagoville and McKinley - where he was caught shoplifting – after running away from his grandmother's Texarkana home.

He had lived with Mary Wadley, 62, since the age of 'five or six' according to his great uncle Leo Criner, 61, and spent his earliest years in foster care.

Wadley, who made no effort to find her grandson after he ran away in August 2015, is now thought to be travelling to Austin to visit him in jail.

The teenager, who endured a chaotic upbringing at the hands of his mother and grandmother, also suffers from a panoply of medical conditions – among them schizophrenia, depression and autism.

He is thought to have been taking medication for the latter but, says his uncle, had not had access to the drugs for six months prior to the murder.

Meechaiel was also subjected to violence by Wadley while still very young and, in 2009, was discovered with both of his eyes swollen shut and with marks on his face following a beating.

Although his grandmother claimed to be disciplining the boy and said he had suddenly turned as she hit him on the back with a belt, when asked why he was being punished, the child appeared not to know.

The police file, seen by Daily Mail Online, adds: 'Criner [Meechaiel] spoke as if he were mentally handicapped and "slower" than normal children. At no time was he taken for medical treatment.'

An addendum to the report, written by Criner's CPS case worker, says Wadley described her actions as 'whooping' him and, when asked why, became irate but later said it was because the boy had been 'acting up'.

Criner's grandmother, although initially booked into the local jail, was later freed with a warning and a $2,000 fine.

His health problems, said his uncle Leo, who also lives in Texarkana, can be traced back to his mother, who was 'on drugs real bad' during her pregnancy.

'His mother, when she was carrying him, she was on drugs real bad. Real bad,' he said. 'When she had him, she really didn't want him. She didn't want this kid around.

Leo Criner is the great uncle of Meechaiel Criner,

'Him and his sister were in one foster home after another until their grandmother came into the picture.

'To my knowledge, as long as they were with their grandmother, they were pretty much alright.'

Criner, who continued to plug her X-rated clips on YouTube over the weekend, rarely bothered to see any of her children and allowed two of the five to be permanently taken into foster care.

'She had very little if anything to do with him at all,' he said. 'As he grew up, she would have some contact with him.

'Maybe two or three months at a time. But no extended time to raise him up or teach him anything. She was not that kind of mother.'

He also claims that the convicted streetwalker has no idea who the fathers of any of her five offspring might be and added that the children 'could have been brought by the stork for all I know'.

'I don't know who his [Meechaiel's] daddy is,' Leo said. 'Never saw him, never even heard his name. Never. I don't know who the daddy of any of her babies is.

'She got five kids and I couldn't tell you who the daddy of any of them is. Any of them. I know who the mommy is because that's my sister's child.

Criner, who uses the stage name De Collecter, is currently thought to be in Nevada where she sells X-rated videos for $75 each and uses social media sites to promote them

On the day Meechaiel's arrest was announced, Criner devoted herself to creating a Go Fund Me Page aimed at raising funds for a book she hopes to publish on sexual hygiene

On April 5, the day that Weiser's battered body was discovered beside an Austin creek, Criner was busy plugging a 'bootie clip' on Twitter – and continued to do so, even after her son was charged

Criner, who is yet to comment on her son's arrest, has not been in contact with any of her relations and is thought to be in Las Vegas.

Criner, who is yet to comment on her son's arrest, has not been in contact with any of her relations and is thought to be in Las Vegas. Daily Mail Online has been unable to reach her for comment

She was also part of a prostitution ring busted by Louisiana's Caddo County police department in March 2015 and was, on that occasion, released on a $700 bond

'As for who the daddy is, they could have been brought by the stork for all I know.'

Criner, who is yet to comment on her son's arrest, has not been in contact with any of her relations and is thought to be in Las Vegas.

Daily Mail Online has been unable to reach her for comment. 

Meechaiel remains in the custody of the Austin PD and has been charged with the first degree murder of Oregon native Weiser.

Video footage of the night she was killed appears to show him brandishing a 'sharp silver object', although police have refused to confirm whether or not she was stabbed to death.

The stretch of Waller Creek behind the University of Texas Alumni Center, where Weiser's body was found, remains cordoned off and an autopsy is expected to be completed later this week.

However, despite Meechaiel's arrest, Leo says he still does not believe that his great-nephew is responsible for Weiser's death.

'Truly in my heart, I don't believe he really did this,' he said. It's not in him. He don't have that type of mentality or mindset.

He added: 'He was always an amenable young man, helping me around the yard. He was not no bad kid at all. He was well liked.

'He's been failed by the system and his grandmother failed him really bad. Now he's paying the price for that.'