When 11-year-old A’Kyri Bell died on June 11, 2025, police immediately knew something terrible had happened to the innocent young girl. The Horry County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina responded to a call about an unresponsive child in Myrtle Beach and found A’kyri with “extensive traumatic injuries.” As police began their investigation, they uncovered what appeared to be a human trafficking operation involving multiple children and adults.
Allegations of abuse included forcing children to work cleaning homes and medical clinics. If they didn’t, they faced horrific punishments such as waterboarding. Police arrested multiple adults who apparently deny any wrongdoing.
A’Kyri’s guardian claimed race played a part in the charges.
Following A’kyri’s death, Camisha McGaskey, the child’s guardian, told WBTW she felt persecuted because she’s Black.
“I feel like they see the color of our skin and immediately we did something to the little girl,” McGaskey said at the time. “And it was disgusting.”
She had a very innocent story for the news outlet. “I sent her upstairs to take a bath with her sister,” McGaskey said. “Like 20 minutes later, her sister called and said she passed out. I went up there to provide aid for her, and as soon as I found out that she was unconscious, I dialed 911. I called the police.”
The investigation revealed some troubling details that didn’t support McGaskey’s story.
WBTW reported that McGaskey and Margaret Roberson had five children living together in a Horry County home. They allegedly forced the children to clean at multiple locations that included medical facilities in the Conway area. According to court documents obtained by the outlet, if the children did not do as they were told, they would have their heads dunked in a bathtub repeatedly.
“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 water boarded,” Leigh Waller, a senior assistant solicitor for the Fifteenth Circuit, said during Roberson’s bond hearing on March 19, 2026, WMBF reported.
Roberson reportedly served as the matriarch of the home.
Waller said that as the children experienced abuse, which included beatings with a belt, Roberson did nothing. A victim testified that Roberson “thought it was funny.”
“Margaret Roberson sits in the videos and watches, while she sits in her bedroom,” Waller claimed, per WMBF. Roberson’s attorney, Morgan Martin, said calling the home a human trafficking hub is a stretch.
“The fact that it’s forced labor just doesn’t seem to be verified by the evidence that I’ve seen,” Martin said. “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.”
Six people have been charged in the case.
McGaskey faces murder charges in A’kyri’s death in addition to trafficking charges, which Roberson also faces. In addition, Lakesha Burnett, Alantis Thomas, Alexandria Thomas, and Darnell Dearmas each stand accused of not reporting the abuse, which “contributed to the circumstances that led to the homicide,” WMBF reported.
These poor children deserve so much better than to live with monsters. Hopefully, the truth will all come out, and if justice is served, these adults will remain behind bars for a very long time.
