A Georgiana couple has been arrested and charged with promoting prostitution, after investigators found evidence that a 15-year-old runaway was forced into prostitution, police say.

According to Lt. Justin Lovvorn of the Greenville Police Department, Amanda Pate, 31, and Demontrez Dean, 18, have been charged with promoting prostitution, first degree, and facilitating travel of a child for an unlawful sex act, as well as contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Authorities also arrested Robert Mitchell, 53, and Sidney Thomas, 31, both of Pennington, Ala., for solicitation of prostitution and rape, second degree, after they had sex with the child.

“Pate and (Dean) basically manipulated this girl and coerced her into committing some unlawful acts,” Lovvorn said. “They drove her from Georgiana to Greenville and stopped at the Reid Motel where they started trying to talk adults that were staying there into having sex with the girl, so they could make some money.”

Lovvorn said investigators were able to collect evidence at the motel that allowed them to charge the four adults.

“We’ve had complaints about this sort of thing at the Reid Motel before, and we’ve looked into every instance, but there was never enough evidence to make an arrest,” he said. “This time we had a victim, and we were able to collect enough evidence to make a case. I hope this will show people that are considering something like this that we are serious and we’ll prosecute these cases if we find out they are going on.”

Lovvorn said the 15-year-old has been returned to her mother and is receiving counseling.