Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Horrific stories of children, teens sold into sex slavery in their own words. Part 2

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Horrific stories of children, teens sold into sex slavery in their own words. Part 2 · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: Nancy Grace is coming to Fox Nation. I Want Justice.
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  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace premieres March ninth, only on
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  Speaker 1: Fox Nation. The US Department of Health and Human Services
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  Speaker 1: estimates between two hundred and forty and three hundred and
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  Speaker 1: twenty five thousand. That's half a million to three hundred
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  Speaker 1: and twenty five thousand children are at risk for sex trafficking.
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  Speaker 1: Children who are often deemed to be quote runaways are
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  Speaker 1: not runaways. They have been put into sex trafficking. Look
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  Speaker 1: around you. I know it's hard to believe. When I
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  Speaker 1: first heard it, I pooh pooed it myself. But it's real.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sounding the alarm. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. My
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  Speaker 1: favorite hobby are collecting porcelain nolves and playing soccer. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: JS grew up in a typical middle class home with
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  Speaker 1: a great family. I was a happy kid. I did sports,
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  Speaker 1: played musical instruments, violin, piano. I was really kind of
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  Speaker 1: like the jack of all trades, wanted to do everything.
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  Speaker 1: I was really happy. At fifteen years old, she started
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  Speaker 1: to fall behind in one of her classes. Scared to
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  Speaker 1: show her parents her report card, she made a plan.
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  Speaker 1: I ran away. I've gone on a city bus. I
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  Speaker 1: never done that. I didn't even know how city busses worked.
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  Speaker 1: I was like, everything's fine. She made her way to
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  Speaker 1: a homeless shelter where she met a young woman who
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  Speaker 1: promised to help take care of her. The two went
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  Speaker 1: to a party where she was raped. Before that party,
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  Speaker 1: she was a virgin. They wanted to keep my innocence
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  Speaker 1: for like a special person, and like I wasn't able
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  Speaker 1: to our friends at NBC. That child was then that
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  Speaker 1: team girl forced into child sex trafficking. You know, when
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  Speaker 1: I hear the for a sex trafficking, I think of
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  Speaker 1: some foreign country, a third world nation, where children and
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  Speaker 1: women don't have any rights. But that's not true. This
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  Speaker 1: is happening right here in our beloved country. Michelle Terry,
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  Speaker 1: who has now created a business of skincare Vegan Luxury Skincare,
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  Speaker 1: and is devoting part of her profits to stop sex trafficking.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's so easy, Michelle Terry, to turn the
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  Speaker 1: other way and go, oh, that's terrible, or say a
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  Speaker 1: quick prayer or have a good thought. Oh you know,
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  Speaker 1: I wish I could do something about it. What can
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  Speaker 1: I do? Nothing? You saw the same thing that people
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  Speaker 1: see and hear every day and you decided to do
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  Speaker 1: something about it. Why, well, I was I was taught.
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  Speaker 1: My mother raised me to always help the less fortunate
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  Speaker 1: or people that are in trouble and need help. So
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  Speaker 1: I don't have any daughters, I have two sons, but
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  Speaker 1: I do have two granddaughters and ten nieces ten nieces,
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  Speaker 1: and I couldn't imagine one of them being sex trafficked
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  Speaker 1: or just kidnapped off the streets and missing forever. So
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  Speaker 1: with that, you know, my family is everything to me.
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  Speaker 1: And just to see the courts on TV people just
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  Speaker 1: being missing, mass numbers of women and children, it just
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  Speaker 1: breaks my heart. It just truly breaks my heart. So
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to give back. I've always been the type
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  Speaker 1: of person to give back and to help the homeless,
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  Speaker 1: the less fortunate, and so I wanted to help. I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to do something about this. And again, a portion
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  Speaker 1: of the profits will go back to a local organization
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  Speaker 1: here in Atlanta to help the girls get back on
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  Speaker 1: their feet after they're rescued. And we have a lot
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  Speaker 1: of nonprofit organizations here helping the children and women. You know, Michelle,
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  Speaker 1: my twins are twelve, and it hurts me to say
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  Speaker 1: that because I think of them as my little babies.
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  Speaker 1: Some of these girls are their age when they are
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  Speaker 1: sex trafficked. Daryl Cohen, you have, I know, one gorgeous girl,
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  Speaker 1: and you have more at twelve to think. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we weren't allowed to say this to a jury because
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  Speaker 1: juries cannot be put in opening or closing arguments in
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  Speaker 1: the shoes of the victim. You can't say that it's objectionable,
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  Speaker 1: possibly reversible. But we're not in court. What about it,
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  Speaker 1: Darryl Cohen? Can you even imagine your girl sex trafficking
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  Speaker 1: fifteen men a day, raping her at that young age.
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  Speaker 1: It just it makes me, It makes my stomach hurt.
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  Speaker 1: Darryl Nancy. My youngest is eighteen, and yes she is
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  Speaker 1: an adult as far as the law is concerned, but
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  Speaker 1: she's still a kid. And then if you extrapolate and
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  Speaker 1: bring her by any of the kids, any of these
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  Speaker 1: young girls to eight or ten or twelve, this is
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  Speaker 1: worse than a violent crime. It's insidious, it's horrendous. And
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  Speaker 1: I will tell you that in my view, the penalties
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  Speaker 1: are not even close to what they need to be
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  Speaker 1: for these sex traffickers. And it's normally a he when
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  Speaker 1: he gets or they are apprehended and prosecuted. They need
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  Speaker 1: to be so violated personally, they need to have their
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  Speaker 1: entire lives taken from them, and they need to be
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  Speaker 1: incarcerated for the rest of their lives because what they
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  Speaker 1: have done to these young girls will never ever be there,
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  Speaker 1: will never be a girl again. They will always have
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  Speaker 1: this in their mind. Their bodies may heal, but their
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  Speaker 1: minds will never ever heal from this. It's more than
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  Speaker 1: I can ever imagine. And yes, you're right. If something
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  Speaker 1: happened to my girls, as much as I'm a lawyer,
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  Speaker 1: as much as I'm a former prosecutor, that person or
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: persons better get out of the way. Listen. We took
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  Speaker 1: a ride along with police. In one case, officers found
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  Speaker 1: a fourteen year old sting in a vacant house. He
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  Speaker 1: hadn't eaten a meal in three days. Those are the
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  Speaker 1: types of kids that we're dealing with in this and
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  Speaker 1: it's really sad. Once recovered, the next step is to
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  Speaker 1: ask a series of questions to find out if there
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  Speaker 1: were sex trafficking victims, who did they stay with, Did
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  Speaker 1: somebody pay for, you know, pay for them to stay somewhere,
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  Speaker 1: did they do favors for them, did they give them drugs?
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  Speaker 1: Officials tell us one and six runaways get involved in
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  Speaker 1: sex trafficking. By finding them and not only saves their life,
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  Speaker 1: but it could lead police to the traffickers. In less
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  Speaker 1: than a day long sincials recovered more than one hundred
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  Speaker 1: missing kids from Wayne County. Of those, three sex trafficking
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  Speaker 1: cases have opened. If we can do this more often,
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  Speaker 1: hopefully we won't have this big of a problem. National
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  Speaker 1: Human Trafficking Hotline eight eight three seven three seven eight eight.
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  Speaker 1: If you think you know something eight eight eight three
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  Speaker 1: seven three seven eight eight eight. Michelle Terry, this is
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  Speaker 1: a regular person like you and me, who has taken
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  Speaker 1: it upon herself to make a difference in this world.
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  Speaker 1: Michelle Terry is with me. She is a nanny and
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  Speaker 1: she is now devoting part of her income to stop
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  Speaker 1: child sex trafficking. Michelle Terry, tell me about your product line.
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  Speaker 1: I'm really interested. I never thought I would connect skin
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  Speaker 1: products to helping save children and abused women. Yes, Nancy,
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  Speaker 1: I created this line first for women or people with
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  Speaker 1: inviety and depression because of the essential oils that I
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  Speaker 1: use in the product called one percent Natural, and it's
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  Speaker 1: a moodlifter to help you feel better and to be
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  Speaker 1: in a happier, peaceful place. And with that, I said, know,
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  Speaker 1: with this crazy world, with these kids being missing, especially
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  Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, I wanted to give back. And I've
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  Speaker 1: always wanted to give back with anything that I have
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  Speaker 1: been affiliated with, So I decided to give a portion
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  Speaker 1: of the profits. The skincare products. One is a sugar scrub.
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  Speaker 1: The sugar scrub will exfoliate the dead skin off of
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  Speaker 1: the body. Michelle Michelle, I had never heard of a
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  Speaker 1: sugar scrub until my daughter Lucy told me about it
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  Speaker 1: and tried to rub it on me, which I let
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  Speaker 1: her once I knew what she was doing. And guess what, Michelle,
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  Speaker 1: you inspired her because she made her own the other
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  Speaker 1: night and was rubbing it on all of us. So
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  Speaker 1: tell me what you've got, sugar scrub? What else are
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  Speaker 1: your products? So we have the body butter. The body
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  Speaker 1: butters one all natural and the scent is sandal wood,
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  Speaker 1: and again it creates a half finess of well being,
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  Speaker 1: feeling good. It's a creamy, rich, silky butter and you
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  Speaker 1: put on top of the skin and it leaves your
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  Speaker 1: skin very hydrated, hydrating and moisturizing. So you have sugar scrub,
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  Speaker 1: you have body butter, and what else do you have?
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  Speaker 1: I have two candles, Nancy. One is one is Lemon
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  Speaker 1: grass and the other one is Patulli Vanilla must They
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  Speaker 1: are very beautiful, they're well scented and there they make
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  Speaker 1: really great gifts. And tell me again, how do I
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  Speaker 1: find it? You can find it on Facebook, Wellness Now
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  Speaker 1: one on one and my Shopify page and Instagram Wellness
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  Speaker 1: Now one on one time stories with Nancy Grace for
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  Speaker 1: one Girl. An interaction online led to five days of horror.
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  Speaker 1: David Gowens is Live and Azel Tonight. David, you talk
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  Speaker 1: to employees at a KFC who actually helped that young girl.
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  Speaker 1: Both of them told me quote, we didn't do anything special,
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  Speaker 1: but Azel police and I'd say their quick actions and
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: accurate suspect description helped get that girl back to safety.
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  Speaker 1: Shannon Kates and Lindsay Sadio said someone walked into their
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  Speaker 1: Azel KFC store before they opened Monday. She was shaking
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  Speaker 1: and could barely talk. She looked up and I as
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  Speaker 1: seking all the blood and insistant help me, please help me,
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  Speaker 1: and if she kept looking and she to please help
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  Speaker 1: me he's gonna get me, He's gonna find me. Please
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  Speaker 1: help me. A random nexttore He's next dooor Azel police
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  Speaker 1: say twenty four year old Diamond Marquise Williams met the
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  Speaker 1: teenager on Snapchat and then kidnapped her from her fort
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  Speaker 1: Worth home, forcing the girl to tell her parents she
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  Speaker 1: was okay and staying with friends, and then held her
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  Speaker 1: for five days. So on Monday, when Williams went inside
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  Speaker 1: this pawn shop next door, the girl ran to Lindsay
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  Speaker 1: and Shannon. They locked the door, called nine one one
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  Speaker 1: and kept the girl closed. Diamond Woods is charged with
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  Speaker 1: aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault of a child. Tonight,
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  Speaker 1: the Azel police chief tells me their investigation into Williams
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  Speaker 1: as far from over and that more charges are possible.
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  Speaker 1: A parents' worst nightmare. A young girl meets the guy
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  Speaker 1: on snapchat, is lured and held a hostage for five days,
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  Speaker 1: being sex assaulted the entire time. And I'm looking at
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  Speaker 1: Domy Marquis Williams, and tell you what if I saw
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  Speaker 1: that in an alley, I would run the other way
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  Speaker 1: much less let my children get lured in. But here's
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  Speaker 1: the kicker. You don't know what's happening. It's all happening
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  Speaker 1: on line. I mean, see Grace, this is crime Stories.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us. You were just hearing
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: our friends at w FAA and Azel, Texas. That was
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Cynthia Cigara and David Going. She lived thanks to Kentucky
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Fried Chicken employees. They locked the doors and call nine
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  Speaker 1: one one. But how many children, how many girls, how
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  Speaker 1: many tweins never make it home? As a matter of fact,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: take a listen to this. Investigators say this is Marillio
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  Speaker 1: hernandez Vaya. Instead of being the teenager he said he was.
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  Speaker 1: He's twenty seven years old and charged with raping an
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  Speaker 1: eleven year old girl he met on Snapchat. Police say
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: hernandez Vaya went back and forth with a girl on
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  Speaker 1: Snapchat for a couple of months. Then detectives say he
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  Speaker 1: took an uber from Tacoma to her house in c Tech,
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  Speaker 1: where he sexually assaulted her, a devastating crime. Her mom
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  Speaker 1: was willing to talk to us, but asked us not
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  Speaker 1: to reveal her identity. And I think he knows how
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  Speaker 1: to manipulate in say the right being, twist the stories
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  Speaker 1: and lie repeatedly. And there's more kids that wouldn't fall
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  Speaker 1: for it, and I wouldn't want that on anybody. Investigators
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  Speaker 1: say the girl's mom came home from work on August
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  Speaker 1: twenty eight and found her Nande's vay hiding behind some
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  Speaker 1: luggage in a bedroom. She held the door close, called
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  Speaker 1: nine to one one, and waited for officers to arrest him.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't want this man take advantage of my daughter
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  Speaker 1: to have an opportunity to do it again, or hearn
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  Speaker 1: some other way, or make life harder than it is already.
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  Speaker 1: Can you even imagine coming home and there's a grown
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  Speaker 1: man hiding in your home who has a lured your
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  Speaker 1: eleven year old child on Snapchat, takes an uber to
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  Speaker 1: the home and sex assaults the little girl. That was
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: our friend Alison Grande at k I R O seven
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  Speaker 1: that was in c Tech, Washington. We've gone from Texas
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  Speaker 1: now to Washington, your backyard maybe the next spot. Joining
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  Speaker 1: me right now a colleague and a friend, the CMO
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  Speaker 1: chief Marketing Officer, chief parenting Officer. I like that name.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give that name to myself. Titania Jordan. Titania,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: you and I had a really long talk where I
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: revealed to you my love for Bark Bark as in
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: woof woof. It's it's what bark is. Um, it's a program.
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  Speaker 1: I have it on my phone, my husband has it,
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  Speaker 1: and it's connected to all my children's devices. What does
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: it seek to prevent? Oh, my gosh, Nancy. You know
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the fact that we are able to keep over four
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: point two million children safer across the nation because they're
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: spending upwards of eight hours a day online. Whoa whoa
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: whoa whoa Wait wait wait wait eight hours a day online?
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Wait a minute. Doctor Free has helped me out there.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: You are pediatric emergency mess eight hours a day on line.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: I don't think the Petty Mom podcast would like that
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  Speaker 1: very much. That is not only the truth, but you
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  Speaker 1: have to keep in mind that that's the average, meaning
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: that there's a lot of kids who are actually spending
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: even more time online. So that includes after school, even
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: in school a lot of times, and oftentimes these kids
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: are spending a good portion of their night instead of
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: sleeping online on their phones. So yeah, it's a really
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: really scary number that really risks a lot of damage
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  Speaker 1: to the kids in lots of different ways, even outside
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: of what we're talking about today. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 1: repercussions to spending about much time in front of a screen.
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  Speaker 1: Eight hours a day. Okay, Titania Jordan cmo at bark,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry I interrupted you with that. That studying number.
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  Speaker 1: Eight hours a day. That's how purvs and predators are
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: getting them. They're on eight hours a day for Pete's sake.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Go ahead, yeah no, And I'm so thankful for doctor
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: free hes put putting a pin in effect. That that's
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: the average. They are children, they're actually online more. And
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: what's pretty staggering is the time that transpires for online
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: predators to groom shouldren. Now that used to be when
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the Internet didn't exist, the relationship between pedophiles and shoulder
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: and it would take months sometimes to evolve into one
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: of danger. Now it's it's seconds, it's minutes. It goes
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: from a high from a man in a DM that's
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: a direct message to a new photo or video and
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: literally a listen. The common denominator in all my sextortion
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: child exploitation cases is that when the parent allows them,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: you to chart them to charge their devices in their
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: rooms at night you're sleeping, they shut the doors so
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: you can't hear them. It's not a matter of talking,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: it's typing, reading and performing with apps like the Chromebook
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: they get from school, going in again, Google Hangouts, Oovu, Omegel, Skype,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: House Party. These are video chat sites that our kids
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: are using and there are two to six people in
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: that chat room while they're in their bedroom. Okay. Detective
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Rich was Stocky, child crime expert present of be Sure Consulting. Ma'am,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I've seen a lot, but you're hitting a nerve right
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: now with my children, my twins. Go ahead, tell me
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: what you're talking about. In my career, I've arrested over
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: three hundred predators in my career. So when a parent
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: allows their child to charge their device in their rooms
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: at night, the child feels safe. The inhibitions are lowered,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: and they feel like they can do and say anything
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and nobody's going to touch them. Because when I teach
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: my kids, they think that the things that I'm talking
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to them about happen somewhere else. Well, it doesn't. When
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: we talk about Fortnite, roadblocks, Minecraft games that they play,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: the average Internet predator has two hundred and fifty victims
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: in their lifetime. They have a device in their rooms,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: they know that numerous kids are doing it and they
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: wait till late at night for the parents go to
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: safe to talk to your child. I want to go
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: back to Tatanya Jordan's CMO, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Parenting
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Officer at BARK. How do predators get in and mate
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: your children on for instance, Minecraft, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok? How
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: does it work? To Tanya Oh, Nancy, we would need hours,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: but I'll try to make it as concise as possible.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: So many children are lonely or don't know better, or
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: their parents have not been comfortable enough with having those
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: conversations with them to let them know that these people
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: who you might think are your friends, you might think
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: are your same age online, are actually adults with bad intentions. Guys,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, here we are heading straight into breaking crime
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: in justice news, But first, how can you keep yourself
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: and your children safe? I have investigated and prosecuted literally
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: thousands of felony cases. I have covered literally thousands of
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: cases of missing people, adults and children, unsolved homicides, violent crimes.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: After all the cases, after speaking to all the victims,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: all the police, all the witnesses, over years, what can
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: we do about it. I don't want to just sit
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: back and report on it. I want to take action.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: And I know you must feel the same way. You
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: don't want to just hear about crime. You want to
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: do something about it and do something to stop it.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: And here is the news. Don't Be a Victim Fighting
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• 20:35
  Speaker 1: interviewing literally hundreds of crime victims and police, we put
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  Speaker 1: Preorder now and know that portions of our proceeds goes
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Crime
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. Letty Serrano was just fifteen. She
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: celebrated her King Sanera in May. A typical high school
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: student with a loving family. She was a great girl,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: good student, friendly, loved her puppies. But on Saturday, she
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: ended her own life, a life it turns out, was
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: not typical. Letty was a sex trafficking victim. According to
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: her loved ones, she disappeared two years ago at age thirteen.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: They say she was drugged and sold and even after
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: they found her near the bayou at Moody Park and
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: brought her home. She was not the same. We got
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: her back damaged. Her father told us she was his life.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: He's broken. She loved him, he loved her. He is destroyed.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: He said it is too painful and he wants justice.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: They want to raise awareness. They want people to know
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: how prevalent sex trafficking is in Houston. How Letty is
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: a cautionary tale that the pain of what happened never
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: goes away. I feel like I let her down. I
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: feel like I let her down. I don't know. I
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: just feel I should have. I don't know. You're hearing
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Letty's godmother, Cynthia Rivera our friends at ABC thirteen Houston.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: That was Tom Abraham's talking about this beautiful girl, Letty.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: At age thirteen, Letty was kidnapped, drugged, and raped, and
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: put into sex trafficking. She was ultimately rescued, but too late.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: At just fifteen years old, after what she had lived through,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Letty commits suicide to Crime online dot Com investigative reporter
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Levi Paige Levi, how did this little girl just thirteen?
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: That's only about a year and a half older than
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: my Lucy and John David end up drugged rate and
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: sold into sex trafficking in America. Yes, this is in Houston,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Texas as Nancy, and she was thirteen years old attending
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Marshall Middle School and in twenty seventeen. You know, she
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: was a high achieving student, very very nice young woman,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and she ended up in sex trafficking at school. That's
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: where she met up with this person. And her family
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: found her in an abandoned home after looking for her
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: for days, and they say that she had never been
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: the same since she had been abducted, since she had
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: been drugged in sex traffic. Joining me right now, renowned
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: trial lawyer Penny Douglas for a penny, You and I
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: have seen it first hand. And the number one hub
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: for trial sex trafficking is the Atlanta Airport, the number
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: one hub in the US. Penny. People think it's not
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: happening here, it's happening here, It's happening everywhere. And we
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: have sailed as a country because she came out so damaged.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: There's no fun for victims. There's no national health care
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: so she can go and get care. And if she
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: doesn't have any access to any kind of psychological treatment
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: or psychiatric treatment. It gets worse over time, it gets worse.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: You can imagine how this child feels after going through that.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: We have to do something to make sure we have
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: something for victims so that they can get the treatment
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: they need, Otherwise there'll be more suicide. To Adam Cheney,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: co founder of Elijah Rising, you can find it at
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Elijah Rising dot Org. Adam Cheney way in the guest
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: that just looks exactly right. This is happening everywhere. Sex
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: trafficking has existed in the United States forever, and we
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: work here in Houston and it is it's everywhere. I mean,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: it's it's in every neighborhood. It looks like every demographic
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: in terms of age, socioeconomic status, skin tone, all the above.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: And so unfortunately, Letty's story is far more common than
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: most people realize. And I mean, it's an epidemic. At
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Elijah Rising, we say, you know, there's no such thing
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: as a red light district anymore. We've got red light cities,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: we've got red light you know, counties. It's happening everywhere,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: and it's tragic. It's it's absolutely tragic, and there does
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: need to be more outcry. There does need to be
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: more awareness, and that's what we're doing at Elijah Rising
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: is trying to do that and provide the long term
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: care that survivors need. Because your previous guest is exactly right.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Without long term trauma informed care in a resident based
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: system with professional mental health care and physical healthcare, survivors
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: do not have an opportunity to become whole again. It's
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: the biggest gap in this issue is providing that long
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: term traum informed care. This little girl, Leatitia, known by
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: her family as Letty, had just celebrated her fifth eighth
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: birthday party with a lavish kincinera party with a ruby
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: red princess ball gown, roses a dessert bar put on
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: by her family. I'm looking at the pictures of her
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: at the party right now. But then shortly after that,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Letty locked herself in the bathroom and committed suicide as
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: her dad desperately tried to get in touch with her
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: and reach her. By the time he opened the door,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: it was too late and she died in her father's arms.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: This is a direct result of her being drugged, kidnapped,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: and raped at age thirteen and sold into sex trafficking
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: to Ashi Kelly, licensed clinical social worker whose expertise is
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: child abuse and sex trafficking weight in Ashley. Yeah, Unfortunately,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: like the other have said, this is not uncommon. In fact,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: thirteen of the average age of entry for sex trafficking
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: in this country, or doing a lot of research out
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: here in Phoenix, in Las Vegas in recreating techniques and
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: different things like that to try to combat and prevent
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: this from happening to kids like Letty. Unfortunately. Take a
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: listen to Voice of America's Caroline PURSUITI It started when
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Kate was in the ninth grade. Her abductor, Luise, who
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: has never been charged in this case, was enrolled at
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: her high school. He was twenty one years old, she
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: was fourteen. The first thing he ever said when he
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: messaged me on Facebook, before I was high or anything,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: was you have beautiful eyes. Kate fell in love. At night,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Luise would knock on her bedroom window and sneak her
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: out to parties. But one night she didn't come home.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: I was with all these old men, but all I
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: saw was they thought I was pretty. They gave me attention.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I remember blacking out. Some things are still really blurried
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: to this day had lots of bruises and lots of
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: internal damage. Later she learned Luis was a member of
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: MS thirteen, a vicious Central American gang. Barely a teenager,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Kate was being drugged with heroin and PCP and sold
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: for sex to make money for the gang. Children across
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: our country being recruited, transported, harbored, used for production of
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: child pornography, which is traded over and over and over
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: on the dark Web. Then the child is put into
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: child trafficking. These boys and girls are traded like their
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: pawns for sex trafficking. The biggest child pornography ring on
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: the dark web has just been busted. It spans multiple countries,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: South Korea, Great Breton, of course, the US. The website
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: was called Welcome to Video, and we know that multiple people,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: potentially three hundred and thirty seven users in twelve different countries,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: have been arrested now. According to court filings, Welcome to
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Video's website was seized back in twenty eighteen, and then
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the authorities discovered a quarter of a million unique which
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: means separate video files linked to keywords like pedophile. As
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: a result of this, twenty three children have been rescued
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: across the US and this is according to the Justice Department.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: You wonder what's happening to these children that are taken
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: there go missing. You see a missing child flyer. You
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: never hear what happened to this one? What happened to
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: that one? This it's what's happening to them. Listen. She
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: thought she might die the one day a man took
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: pity on her and helped her escape. There wasn't even
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: time for her to put her shoes on before she
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: snuck out of the house and ran for her life.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: She made it to a police station for help, and
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: officers took her to a hospital. While she escaped to
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: the basement. Kate did not escape prostitution. The pimp who
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: she had been kidnapped from, learned she was there and
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: took her home with him. Stories like hers are more
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: common than you might think here in America. It happens
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: to men, women, and children. The National Human Trafficking Hotline
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: reports about thirteen percent of request for help come from males.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Moner Day slavery and human trafficking still exists very much
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: all throughout our country. In our world, cage traffickers sold
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: her in communities up and down the East Coast. Her
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: slavery ended with an arrest. In Pennsylvania Crime Stories with
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, we took a ride along with Pulleys and
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: one case, officers found the fourteen year old sting in
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: a vacant house. He hadn't eaten a meal in three days.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Those are the types of kids that we're dealing with
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: in this and it's really sad. Officials tell us one
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: and six runaways get involved in sex trafficking. By finding
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: them and not only saves their life, but it could
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: lead police to the traffickers. In less than a day,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Launch and Shoals recovered more than one hundred missing kids
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: from Wayne County. Of those, three sex trafficking cases have opened.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: If we can do this more often, hopefully we won't
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: have this big of a problem. Well it hasn't been done.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: That's w x y z TV. They're in Detroit. To
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Kim Checki from the National Trafficking Sheltered Alliance, the Samaritan
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Women Institute for Shelter Care. People don't believe it. It
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: was hard for me to accept it. It's real. It's
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: happening now. Hundreds of thousands of sex trafficking victims right
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: under our noses, and they're so afraid to say anything.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: We pass them. We see them in nail salons and
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: massage parlors. They're they're they're on the streets. These children
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: were in a vacant house, hadn't eaten for three days, beaten,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: Kim check. I tell me what you know. I have
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the privilege of running a residential therapeutic home specifically for
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: sex trafficking survivors, and we worked with them in so
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: many different areas because the trauma that they were exposed
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: to affected them in every single way possible. And one
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: woman comes to mind. She was with two traffickers and
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: one of his other women defied him and so and
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: she kept some of the quarta, and so he shot
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: her right in front of the woman that we were
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: working with. And she said to mimas Kim, why would
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: I relieve? How could I run? How could I get away?
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I watched them, kim her, They're going to do the
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: same thing to me. And so many of the women
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: that we've worked with, they were they met their trafficker
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: on social media, on Instagram, snapchat, Facebook, on dating apps,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't that they were taken. They began to
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: build a relationship with this trafficker, and just like you
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: said earlier, it became that boyfriend experience. And they're so patient.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: The traffickers are so patient because they know how much
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: money that thirteen year old, that fourteen year old is
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: going to bring in. So it's okay if he has
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: to be patient for a month or for two months,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: because he knows she's going to become his property and
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: he's going to make a fortune off of her. It's
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: so insidious and it's hard to believe that our government
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: has not been able to crack down on it. This
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: is what I'm learning. The researchers have found that the
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: average age of sex trafficking victims are young teens, very
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: young teens. As in thirteen fourteen, fifteen age child purchased
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: an average of five point four times a day, Victims
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: interviewed forced to have sex with more than thirty men
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: in a week, more than one hundred in a months.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Adults purchasing children for sex at least two point five
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: million times a year in the US, and it is
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: growing a thirty five percent increase in reports. How can
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: it stop the exploitation of over a million children, accounts
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: for more than twenty percent of a ninety nine billion
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: dollars a year global sex trafficking industry. Listen, all the
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: money she earned went to the trafficker. It's a common
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: way to control victims. No money, no job, skills, and
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: no place to go, keep stuck. It's not as simple
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: as like, oh, why didn't you just leave? And everyone's like, well,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: asks me that, and it's not as easy as you say.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: It's really not so. For ten years, she suffered being
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: raped multiple times every single day. She was whipped, stabbed, burned,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: and once shot with a baby gun. Once, her trafficker's
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: rival kidnapped her off the street then locked her in
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: a basement with nothing but a twin mattress and a
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: bucket for a bathroom. He had his drug dealers and stuff,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: just like rape me continuously in that particular room. You
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: are listening to gri Monteforte, writer and host of the
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: documentary you just heard what happened to the girl next door.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: I feel, Jeff Cortesy, FBI special Agent former, that we're
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: out here alone fighting it. Why can't the fads stop it? Yeah, Nancy,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: I mean just hearing the stories understanding what goes on,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: having experienced firsthand some of these some of these details
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: that heartbreaking is an understatement. As a husband and father
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: as well of daughter, you know, it's vigilance. You know,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: the FBI and law enforcement are committed to the cause.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: But as you said, there's an evolution that's taking place
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: in the way that we think. You know, these women
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: used to be the targets of the investigation. They're not
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: necessarily women, Jeff Cortesi. Their children under in our law
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: at that age thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, they're children. I think
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: part of the problem, Jeff, this is something for you
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: to think about, is that otherwise ordinary men coming in
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: from the suburbs with wives and families are many of
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: the ones purchasing children. I don't understand that if you
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: found that to be true. To Laurie Monteforte, who created
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: documentary What Happened to the Girl next Door, I'm basing
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: that on what I have learned in an article in
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: USA Today, who buys a traffic child for sex? Quote
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: otherwise ordinary men by Tim Swarin's what have you learned, Laurie?
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: There is no one type of men who buys children
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: for sex. It might be a homeless guy who screeped
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: together some money from begging. It might be the judge.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: It might be a billionaire. There's no profile here. It
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: could be your dentist, your doctor, your neighbor, your lawyer.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: It would shock you. Laurie Monteforte, You're right. If you
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: can't relate to this, think of your child, think of
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: your grandchild, your niece, your little sister, and imagine this
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: life for them. If you can bear it, Each person,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: in their own way can make a difference to all
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: of you. Thank you for being with us and trying
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: to make a difference in this world. You know, I'd
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: like to talk more, but right now I'm logging on
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: to Wellness now one I one at SHOPATHI and I'm
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: going to get a jar of luxury skincare with natural
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: vegan ingredients. Is that I don't know, but I plan
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: to get it and rub it on myself because Michelle Terry,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Daryl co and Jeff Cortesi, Ashi, Kelly kim check Hi
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: and Lari Monteforte are on the same team trying to
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: make a difference. National Human Trafting Hotline eight eight eight
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: three seven three seven eight eight eight If you think
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: you know something eight eight eight three seven three seven
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: eight eight eight And for those of you who want
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: to know more, go to crime online dot com with
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: this and all other breaking crime and justice news. Nancy
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Grace Crime Stories, signing off, goodbye friend,