Left: Margaret Roberson (Horry County Sheriff”s Workplace). Proper: The residence the place kids have been allegedly trafficked in Carolina Forest, S.C. (Horry County Police Division).
A South Carolina lady was denied bond this week in an ongoing human trafficking case introduced on by the demise of an 11-year-old.
Margaret Roberson, 57, stands accused of 5 counts of trafficking in individuals, three counts of illegal conduct towards a toddler, and one rely of legal conspiracy, in response to the Horry County Sheriff’s Workplace.
The underlying incidents date again to January 2025, authorities say. Roberson and Camisha Marie McGaskey, 32, allegedly pressured 5 minors to wash medical clinics in and round Conway – a small metropolis situated some 15 miles northwest of Myrtle Seaside.
In June 2025, the alleged abuse got here to mild when McGaskey was arrested for the homicide of 11-year-old A’Kyri Bell. The lady from Texas was staying with the defendants on Sago Palm Drive in Carolina Forest, a census-designated place between Conway and Myrtle Seaside.
“This was a horrific crime,” Horry County Police Chief Kris Leonhardtt stated at a press convention reported by Florence-based CBS affiliate WBTW. “This poor 11-year-old sufferer suffered a number of accidents. If you happen to see most of these issues in our group, please, please, report this stuff.”
McGaskey and two different defendants – Lakesha Burnett, 34, and Alantis Thomas, 22 – have been initially charged with obstruction of justice. Extra prices got here later for the opposite defendants. In the meantime, McGaskey, A’Kyri authorized guardian, had her prices upgraded to homicide.
A complete of six adults at the moment are charged within the case.
Because the investigation continued, the human trafficking prices have been leveled in opposition to Roberson, who prosecutors known as the “matriarch of the home,” throughout a listening to this week, in response to a courtroom report by Myrtle Seaside-based NBC affiliate WMBF.
Leigh Waller, an lawyer for the state, described how abuse would allegedly be meted out to the kids who lived in the home.
“They stated in the event that they did not clear they – Camisha McGaskey – they’d get what they known as ‘the higher room therapy’ … when a toddler can be taken into a toilet, the upstairs toilet, and basically waterboarded,” the prosecutor informed the courtroom.
The state’s lawyer stated there are movies of the abuse occurring. These movies allegedly implicate Roberson.
“Margaret Roberson sits within the movies and watches, whereas she sits in her bed room,” Waller informed the decide on Thursday.
Throughout the bond listening to, one alleged sufferer stated Roberson knew in regards to the abuse and “thought it was humorous.”
A protection lawyer for Roberson disputed his consumer’s information of any such abuse – and in addition took subject with claims that the kids in the home had been human trafficked underneath the regulation.
“The truth that it is pressured labor simply would not appear to be verified by the proof that I’ve seen,” Morgan Martin, Roberson’s lawyer, informed the courtroom. “I feel that there are conditions the place kids could be working, or requested to work, or informed to work, that does not quantity to human trafficking, as a result of that is acquired a completely completely different definition to it.”
The protection lawyer additionally stated the info in regards to the work are murky.
“No one from Conway hospital, no one apart from these kids, who give contradictory statements, the every of them, frankly, about precisely what was taking place with regards with their going to Conway hospital to work,” Martin went on.
A’Kyri died on June 11, 2025. She was discovered by authorities and rushed to a hospital that day the place she succumbed to blunt drive accidents.
Authorities imagine A’Kyri was one among 5 kids trafficked by McGaskey and Roberson. Moreover, prosecutors allege Burnett, Alantis Thomas, Alexandria Thomas, 20, and Darnell Dearmas, 21, “contributed to the circumstances that led to the murder.”
