A father in Texas has been
charged by authorities for selling his missing teenage daughter for sex.
The girl, kept hidden in a separate location, he was later resuced when
she made an escape to a McDonald’s restaurant and called the
authorities.
The Dallas Morning News reported
that 31-year-old Steve Marks was charged with “purchasing or selling a
child for sex,” according to jail records. His wife, Lila Miller, has
also reportedly been charged for her alleged involvement.
According to documents relating
to Mark’s arrest, he sold his daughter to a family in Elgin, Illinois,
who planned to marry her to a 17-year-old male.
He sold her "so that the child
would engage in sex acts and be involved in a common-law marriage to a
male subject believed to be about three years older than the child,"
arrest warrants alleged.
The family in Illinois did not
pay the full price of $17,500 they had agreed to, and Marks allegedly
made plans to sell the girl to another family, in Florida.
ABC affiliate WFAA8
reported that an investigation into the child’s disappearance began
when the Texas Department of Protective Services reported her missing at
the end of September 2017.
By January, authorities learned that Marks, who has seven children
aged one to 14, was attempting to sell his daughter to the family in
Florida.
When Marks was arrested, authorities questioned his own parents, Davy
and Dorothy Marks, who both said they hadn’t seen the child in four
months. During their interviews, Mark’s mother allegedly phoned her
grandson, Miller Marks, at his home, where the child was being held to
warn him.
As Miller Marks was leaving the home in Mesquit,e the child was able to escape and call 911 from a nearby McDonald’s, Fox News reported.
Miller, Davy and Dorothy Marks
have all been charged with interference with child custody. Steven Marsk
is being held at Rockwall County Jail on a million-dollar bond.
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