The Post-Dispatch has a report on the case from Lebanon, Mo., where a young woman was allegedly the victim of sex trafficking and torture. The paper talked to the wife of one suspect and some townspeople who argue that what happened was consensual.
"You ever watch Big Love?" Marilyn Bagley says suddenly, referring to the HBO show about a polygamous Mormon family. "Ed wasn't married to her or anything like that. But that's what it was. It was just us. ... It was just a normal, happy family."
The paper also quotes experts on cases like this, who say that traffickers are very experienced at manipulating victims.
