Toledo, Ohio, may appear to be your typical midwestern city, criss-crossed by interstates, and marked by homegrown American pride.
But on those winding interstates are 18-wheelers carrying something so much more valuable and vulnerable than cargo—sex slaves, who are dying to break free.
The horrifying reality of human trafficking may appear to be far removed from our first-world country, but the truth is, this is happening all over America, to girls just like your very own daughters.
Meet one Toledo teen who’s experienced that traumatizing reality firsthand after being kidnapped by a local prostitution ring, in a time and place she would’ve least suspected it.
The 15-year-old girl was simply on her way to Wendy’s to get Frosties with her cousin before dinner, when a Lincoln pulled up and changed her life forever. The man snatched her and her 14-year-old cousin and coerced the two frightened girls with their harsh threats.
The cousins quickly realized that their only way to survive was to do as they were commanded.