ROCKWALL, Texas (AP) — A Texas couple has been arrested for allegedly selling a 14-year-old girl to an Illinois family.
Steve Marks has been charged with purchasing or selling a child for sex. He’s being held at Rockwall County Jail on a $1 million bond.
Police affidavits allege Marks knowingly sold the child for sex to a family in Elgin, Illinois. Marks and his wife, Lila Miller, attempted to resell the girl to a different family in Florida after the Illinois family only paid half of the agreed amount.
Marks denied the accusation to WFAA-TV and said that anyone who would sell a child for sex “needs to be put away for the rest of their life.”
Jail records show Marks’ parents have been charged with harboring a runaway.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services reported the teen missing in September.