MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A Macomb County couple was sentenced Thursday for keeping a woman with mental and physical disabilities in a shed and selling her online for sex.
Investigators said Misty George, 30, and her boyfriend, Mike Welch, 38, kept the 29-year-old woman in a shed next to their trailer in Macomb Township. They used her to generate money online by selling her for sex, police said.
Welch was charged with human trafficking -- forced labor and accepting earnings from prostitution. He was sentenced to five to 20 years in prison.
George was charged with human trafficking -- forced labor, using a computer to commit a crime and accepting earnings from prostitution. She was sentenced to five years of probation and given credit for 422 days served.
Neighbors were horrified by the news.
"I'm still in shock," neighbor Tracy Byers said. "They didn't seem like they were that kind of people."
Neighbors said George is an adult with special needs herself and Welch had no steady job.
"I would always just see them going to Kroger or just walking around the neighborhood," neighbor Corinna Morgan said.
Nobody said they saw the 29-year-old woman the couple is accused of keeping locked in the shed. Investigators said she was originally staying in the trailer, but when she couldn't afford rent, they kept her outside with no access to a bathroom or shower.
Neighbors said George and Welch have a 4-year-old child together.