Left: Margaret Roberson (Horry County Sheriff's Office). Right: The residence where children were allegedly trafficked in Carolina Forest, S.C. (Horry County Police Department).
A South Carolina woman was denied bond this week in an ongoing human trafficking case brought on by the death of an 11-year-old.
Margaret Roberson, 57, stands accused of five counts of trafficking in persons, three counts of unlawful conduct toward a child, and one count of criminal conspiracy, according to the Horry County Sheriff's Office.
The underlying incidents date back to January 2025, authorities say. Roberson and Camisha Marie McGaskey, 32, allegedly forced five minors to clean medical clinics in and around Conway – a small city located some 15 miles northwest of Myrtle Beach.
In June 2025, the alleged abuse came to light when McGaskey was arrested for the murder of 11-year-old A'Kyri Bell. The girl from Texas was staying with the defendants on Sago Palm Drive in Carolina Forest, a census-designated place between Conway and Myrtle Beach.
"This was a horrific crime," Horry County Police Chief Kris Leonhardtt said at a press conference reported by Florence-based CBS affiliate WBTW. "This poor 11-year-old victim suffered multiple injuries. If you see these types of things in our community, please, please, report these things."
McGaskey and two other defendants – Lakesha Burnett, 34, and Alantis Thomas, 22 – were initially charged with obstruction of justice. Additional charges came later for the other defendants. Meanwhile, McGaskey, A'Kyri legal guardian, had her charges upgraded to murder.
A total of six adults are now charged in the case.
As the investigation continued, the human trafficking charges were leveled against Roberson, who prosecutors referred to as the "matriarch of the house," during a hearing this week, according to a courtroom report by Myrtle Beach-based NBC affiliate WMBF.
Leigh Waller, an attorney for the state, described how abuse would allegedly be meted out to the children who lived in the house.
"They said if they didn't clean they – Camisha McGaskey – they would get what they called 'the upper room treatment' … when a child would be taken into a bathroom, the upstairs bathroom, and essentially waterboarded," the prosecutor told the court.
The state's attorney said there are videos of the abuse occurring. Those videos allegedly implicate Roberson.
"Margaret Roberson sits in the videos and watches, while she sits in her bedroom," Waller told the judge on Thursday.
During the bond hearing, one alleged victim said Roberson knew about the abuse and "thought it was funny."
A defense attorney for Roberson disputed his client's knowledge of any such abuse – and also took issue with claims that the children in the house had been human trafficked under the law.
"The fact that it's forced labor just doesn't seem to be verified by the evidence that I've seen," Morgan Martin, Roberson's lawyer, told the court. "I think that there are situations where children can be working, or asked to work, or told to work, that doesn't amount to human trafficking, because that's got a totally different definition to it."
The defense attorney also said the facts about the work are murky.
"Nobody from Conway hospital, nobody other than these children, who give contradictory statements, the each of them, frankly, about exactly what was happening with regards with their going to Conway hospital to work," Martin went on.
A'Kyri died on June 11, 2025. She was found by authorities and rushed to a hospital that day where she succumbed to blunt force injuries.
Authorities believe A'Kyri was one of five children trafficked by McGaskey and Roberson. Additionally, prosecutors allege Burnett, Alantis Thomas, Alexandria Thomas, 20, and Darnell Dearmas, 21, "contributed to the circumstances that led to the homicide."