Sarah’s Story

One summer night, Sarah left her job at a local fast-food restaurant with someone she thought was a friend, a woman her boyfriend had introduced her to a few weeks before. Sarah’s boyfriend seemed to have money, but no job. No matter. He treated her better than any other boyfriend she’d had before. She fell for him quickly. What Sarah didn’t know was that her boyfriend worked for a human trafficker, spotting girls he could manipulate quickly and bring to the trafficker. He had already sold Sarah to him. When Sarah got in the car with the new friend, she didn’t realize that she was crossing the threshold into slavery … participating in her own abduction. Sarah was taken to the trafficker’s house, where she was repeatedly raped and beaten in a process that human traffickers call “seasoning”. Sarah was then force-fed narcotics in quantities that ensured a fast addiction. She was kept in a dog crate when she was not being sold for sex over the Internet. Sarah was living one of the most brutal lives imaginable, and law enforcement had no idea she was missing or that her trafficker even existed. After a little more than a month, Sarah managed to escape, and ran to the police. She told them her story. Within hours, the trafficker, along with the other women he was holding was located. Days later, the local SWAT team raided his house, freeing all the girls he had enslaved and bringing the trafficker to justice.

Stories like this Sarah’s are unfortunately unfolding in towns and cities across the nation and even in our own “backyard” here in Benton county. Now is the time to take action. Become educated and consider joining our mission here at Hope5one to give hope and freedom to survivors of human trafficking.