EAST ST. LOUIS (KTVI) – A Park Hills, Missouri husband and wife are charged with horrifying crimes involving children and sex.  Marcus and Robin Thompson are charged with luring girls into a multi-state prostitution operation.  The Thompson and his wife are charged with conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of children and by force fraud or coercion.  Marcus Thompson also faces a second count of sex trafficking of a child by force, fraud or coercion.

Court documents indicate a 15-year-old girl was walking down the street in Madison County in early June when the Thompsons, riding in a pickup truck, approached her asking if she wanted to do some modeling. Four other girls were in the vehicle. Instead of modeling its alleged the couple took the 15-year-old and others to Florida, Tennessee, Texas and New Mexico where she was sold for sex acts, it apparently went on for weeks.

The teen told authorities she was beaten if she did not have sex with the men, that she was also threatened with being thrown to the alligators in a swamp. The couple earned $1,000 a day from prostituting the child. The 15-year-old said another girl died in her arms during the multi-state travels.

At one point the teen said she had been sold to a mean trucker for $2,000 dollars but hours later he returned her fearing she would snitch.  And, as for the alligators, she does believe one girl had been thrown to the alligators.

Marcus and Robin Thompson are scheduled to appear at the federal courthouse in East St. Louis Thursday morning.