Support for this program comes from the Gayle and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation, committed to funding educational causes.

Support for this program comes from the United Way of Southeast Louisiana.

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It's known as Sportsman's Paradise, where canopies of Spanish moss blanket giant oaks, the sun beats the swamp and the mightiest river flows into tranquil lakes.

But just beneath the surface runs a wicked current that flows through every state and nation and threatens the lives of the most vulnerable.

The room was disgusting.

The men were disgusting.

They stunk.

Their skin was sticky.

I am an investigator with Louisiana State Police.

I am in the Special Victims Unit.

I mean, they wanted to sell me to a drug addict for $300.

It's a lot easier to sell a human and make money than drugs.

He told me I was going to die.

He wanted me to be prepared to die.

He knew that whatever he was going to do to me wasn't going to be nice.

FBI.

I'm running over there now.

These are the faces of three held captive and sold for cash.

They reveal their faces and their stories to destigmatize victims and change the narrative.

See us.

Hear us.

Help us fight them.

I think there was a time when we were told growing up that certain things weren't our business.

And I say these children are absolutely 100 percent our business.

Donna Edwards becomes the First Lady of Louisiana when her husband, John Bel, is elected governor in 2016.

She, along with police.

People say, “What can I do about this?

This has nothing to do with me.

” Everybody has a part in saving a person's life.

Period.

The FBI.

Police!

Get on your hands.

Sit down.

This is new at nine, dozens of sex trafficking victims were rescued recently.

That's according to the FBI.

Survivors.

Trust me, I wanted to give up.

Nope.

You can't give up.

Because if you give up, you let the enemy win.

We just welcome them and love them as they are when they come.

And a group of nuns running a secret healing center in the backwoods of Louisiana have teamed up against a common foe: sex trafficking and perhaps the natural inclination to turn away.

They deserve for us to stand up for them, to talk about what they're going through, to save them, to bring them back.

But to bring them back.

You must understand where they've been and how they got there.

She was the girl who cried herself to sleep while holding on to a secret that wasn't hers to keep.

She was the girl who got anxiety at the sound of any man's voice.

She was the girl in first grade who already knew about boys.

Starting in preschool, Megan is molested by family long before she is trafficked by strangers.

Her poetry becomes a form of therapy.

You know, my mom didnt always have the best characters around.

I know she suffered from addiction problems.

Molested while Ally is still in diapers, her mother moves her to Louisiana to escape.

But it happens again at age ten.

She felt okay enough to leave me with this man as a babysitter while she went to work and he gave me a pill to take.

I don't remember going to bed.

I don't remember getting in the bed.

I don't remember eating anything.

But I do remember waking up the next day in my mom's bed at home naked.

You never know where it could happen.

It could happen in your hometown.

It can happen in your backyard.

Mine happened in the backyard.

Swensen: By your own family?

Dani: My own family.

I thought I could trust them.

But you can't.

You know, I didn't realize this was happening.

I thought these people loved me, but they were just using me.

It's Dani who opens the eyes of the First Lady to sex trafficking.

That it can happen anywhere.

Even in her sleepy hometown, where her own children knew of Dani and her captors.

It's hard to believe that this is happening in our own backyards.

It's hard to believe that this happens in a community that's as small as ours.

She was the light switch for you?

She was the light switch.

They fed her the ashes of her deceased mother.

What kind of a mind does that?

Five people accused of holding a woman with autism captive for an entire year are now facing federal charges.

My name is Dani.

I'm a survivor.

Dani clutches a fidget for comfort as she recounts the past.

Just out of frame sits her support team of caregivers, social workers and a state appointed advocate.

There are going to be people that are going to be wondering why you're showing your face?

I want people to know that I'm the one that was held captive for a year.

I'm the one that was held against her will.

There was abuse and I'm the one that has autism, and I'm proud of it.

It has been seven years since Danny's relatives beat her, starved her, locked her in this backyard cage made of chicken wire and tarp and sold her for sex.

Like, I tried escaping, you know, but when they have guns pointed on you, you know, they threaten you like, hey, if you leave again, were going to kill you, you know?

You know, you have to stay there.

You know, fight for your life, fight for your life every day and not give up.

Dani would take the fight to court addressing her captors in a victim impact statement that sent them to their own cages in federal penitentiaries.

That after she was rescued by police in 2016.

A day she'll never forget, followed by a dream she won't either.

June 29th, I saw my mom.

My mom came to me in a dream and she said that everything's gonna be okay.

You're going to be okay.

You're going to get out of here.

I'm like, what do you mean, Mom?

She's like, I can't tell you that.

Just trust me, baby.

And the minute I saw them cop cars come Im like this is what she was meaning.

This is what she was saying.

You're coming out.

That's what happens with traffickers.

They want, if youve got special needs, something like autism, Down syndrome, you know, whatever it is, they want to take advantage of you because you're vulnerable.

And that's what it's all about is manipulation and control.

Trafficking is not, it does not see socioeconomics.

It's about vulnerability.

That's what it's about.

The problem is, is unfortunately, we have a lot of these children don't have a family.

I've had victims tell me in interviews, I've been in seven foster homes in the last two weeks.

What are you going to bring me home to?

As a child, Ally prefers juvenile detention to foster care and group homes.

She acts up to get locked up.

And that was home, the people there, were home, were like parents.

Juvenile detention, the guards?

Yeah, they played cards with me.

They drew with me.

They wrote with me.

They read what I wrote.

It mattered to them.

And I just felt heard.

Even though, you know, I was in, like, a small cell the size of someone's bathroom.

You know, I felt like, okay, you know, they're going to come by in 20 minutes.

I know tomorrow I can pick me out a new book.

I know in the morning I'm going to have breakfast.

You know, they know I don't like milk, just juice.

Most of all, she likes sleeping alone.

She's been trafficked since she was 11.

When a friend's family offers to take her in after she runs away from her drug addicted mother.

She said, yeah, you can come spend the night with me.

So I get in the car with them and there's like an older man, you could call him her trick or her Sugar Daddy.

The moms trick.

I get in the car.

He's the first one to, like, speak to me.

Hes like you know where youre going, huh?

And I was like, yeah, to my friend's house.

He was like, No, you're going to Colfax.

That night, in a cramped house in Colfax, Louisiana, Ally, a sixth grader, is sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man.

Obviously, there's many hotels right off the interstate.

It's in and out access, easy access.

It happens at the truck stops, too.

It happens everywhere.

So we have our major corridors in Louisiana.

We have I-20, which is up north.

And then we have 49, I-49, that comes down through Alexandria.

And then we have I-10 that comes from Texas and turns into I-12.

By night two, Ally is trafficked in hotels along I-49 near Alexandria by the very friend who took her in.

And I remember her turning to her mom and asking her mom, Mom, how much for two girls?

And you know, how much for one who's never done it before?

Like many trafficked children, a female trafficker escorts her to the room.

She is 11 years old.

I remember her brother would sit on the stairs and like, wait for us to come out of their room.

And my first time going in, I didn't know, like what to do or how to behave or any of that.

And I remember being offered a drink.

Their skin was sticky.

I felt sticky and disgusting.

I felt small.

Like mentally I felt myself physically shrink.

I felt this small.

It is so important to listen when a kid isnt talking.

She was the girl who held her pain behind her smile as a mask.

She was the girl who needed help, but didn't feel worthy enough to ask.

I think when I was little, I really felt alone because, I don't know, I just, I didn't feel open where I was to be able to communicate or be open.

And that little girl just needed a hug.

Sometimes she just needed to feel loved.

To hear her say those words makes me want to be sick.

Because I think about the times have I ignored signs?

You know, as a former teacher, I think how many kids in my classroom, you know, as a music teacher, I saw every kid in the entire school.

And I think about that often.

You know, I think about certain children and the way they acted.

Megan is four when a family member starts molesting her.

Seven years pass before an art teacher asks a simple question.

She pulled me aside one day and just asked me if I was okay.

She's like, You don't look okay or is something wrong?

And I just broke down.

I fell in love with the food, the weather, just the southern hospitality.

In the picturesque town of Mandeville, Megan happily reunites with her mother, but her mother is struggling financially.

She wanted me down here, I believe that, like she did it out of the goodness of her heart.

But when it fell apart, she didn't try to pick it back up.

She kind of let it just unravel.

She lost her house, so I was already bouncing around to friends I already knew and I ended up just meeting the wrong person.

Megan meets Jared on Facebook a full year before she meets him in person.

She thinks she's vetting him, protecting herself.

Jared is grooming her the whole time and offers her a safe place to stay with his dad while her mom gets back on her feet.

From the time he picked me up, I regretted it.

I regretted even on the car ride to New Orleans on the Causeway, I, I was scared because he didn't look like the pictures at all.

He was a lot bigger.

I now know he had just got out of prison.

So you're driving over the Causeway.

What's going through your mind?

At this point, I'm hesitant, but I'm already in the car and in my head this person is not going to do that, do nothing to me.

I've been talking to him for a year, you know, I know this person in my head.

Megan is brought to a hotel where there are other girls.

She is taken on a shopping spree for new clothes, makeup and a manicure.

Three days later, she is drugged and trafficked for the first time.

Her hell continues for nine months.

I was 16.

I spent my birthday, my 17th birthday in a hotel.

And then as soon as I turned 17, they arrested me and called me a prostitute.

And as soon as I got out of jail, he took me to a different hotel.

That's when I realized I'm going to die here.

And by the grace of God, the FBI came and did a SWAT and rescued me.

And another girl.

You can't unhear it.

You can't unknow the information.

And you can't walk away.

So I knew that what I could do was, I call myself the connector, and so I could connect everybody.

First Lady Donna Edwards uses her influence to raise awareness.

She invites state lawmakers to the Governor's mansion, fellow first spouses to Zoom calls where they share what's worked in their states and inspires her husband to create the Governor's Office of Human Trafficking.

You know, it's a bipartisan issue, right?

And so people come together on those issues.

It's one of those issues you don't have to say much because it's the right thing to do.

And when it's the right thing to do, it comes together.

Laws are passed.

One expunges the criminal records of victims forced to commit sexual crimes.

Another mandates truck stop employees along busy interstates be educated on the signs of trafficking and how to report it.

Similar measures will educate hospital employees.

And there's another connection the First Lady makes, through, of all places, the Vatican.

We know that all of us here today believe in the fight for freedom for these victims so they might have joyful life and hope for a better future.

In 2016, Louisiana leaders break ground on a secret healing center.

Metanoia, a place founded by Father Jeff Bayhi and inspired by a Vatican nun.

It translates to change of heart, a place where girls hardened by trafficking are loved into a state of peace and hope.

I just think that when they broke ground on Metanoia, they broke a little bit through hell.

And the devil dont like that at all, to have a little piece of heaven sitting on top of what he calls is, he would never like that.

And to find so much peace in a place like that, it was amazing.

It was beautiful.

When you first get there, I mean, it's so beautiful outside.

And then when you go inside, it only gets more beautiful.

It was a very peaceful place.

But more than it being a peaceful place, the people and the most amazing people running the place.

The five nuns are from the Philippines, Madagascar, Nigeria and India.

Four are trained nurses.

One is a social worker.

Their mission to serve God by serving the girls.

Megan and Ally are the very first to arrive.

Well, the healing started as soon as I got there.

I fell in love with those nuns and I feel like they fell in love with me.

My first question is, do you have kids?

To Sister Anna Maria.

And she's like, No.

I was like, does that make us your kids?

Yeah.

Sister Ruth: That's what we are trying to instill in them, that there is hope for a better future.

Forget the past and you will get there.

We are here to accompany you to get there.

Ally: I would get under the table when I felt stress.

Thats safe for me because I can get under there and like, it was like a hiding spot.

It was plenty of days, plenty of nights too, even past bedtime.

I got the poor nun sitting out of bed.

She's sitting in the corner of the conference room and I'm under the conference room table but she wouldn't leave me.

And I mean, she's going to get snacks.

Shes trying to get under the table with me.

And if it wasnt one of them, it was all of them, waiting for me to come under the table.

You know they was throwing me a life jacket, bringing out snacks.

It's like you can sit here as long as you need to because I'll bring you whatever you need.

While youre under that table.

They would bring me books to read on the table.

I was never ashamed for being under the table.

How did they earn my trust?

They gave me time.

The time I needed.

If I was, wasn't feeling it that day, I would be up in my room Sister would bring me a cookie.

Megan, you want a cookie?

Or just her spirit.

Sister Norma sat one night and just cried with me.

And that's what I needed.

She didn't preach to me.

She just sat with me and let me cry and cried with me.

I never had that before.

The girls receive medical care, therapy and education.

Both finish high school.

The nuns teach them how to sew, cook, grow, nurture, play music, play basketball and laugh again.

But it's not easy.

The nuns are on call 24/7.

They've broken up fistfights, chased would be runaways into the woods.

Sister Ruth even stopped one girl in the midst of a suicide attempt.

So she went to her bathroom, tried to hang herself.

Fortunately, because I go always to Check them in their rooms, I went there and I found her.

And I grabbed her, took off whatever she already put on her neck to put, that was I dont know, was a very big shock, since I can remember.

That incident is still not going away from my mind.

I hold her tight.

90 girls successfully come through the program.

Only one is Catholic.

None converts.

None of that matters.

I think this program, a lot of people involved in order to be successful, because not only the sisters, we have a program director that makes sure the program is running and not only focusing on their trauma in whatever they need every day.

Also, they need education to move on.

They need life skills.

So we need volunteers, full time teachers, therapists.

They opened me up to a lot of different activities: writing, painting.

The First Lady would come and she would play the piano for us.

She just kept coming back.

She always made time for us, like each and every one of us.

She would talk to us individually.

We had piano lessons with her individually.

She was ready to see artwork.

She was ready to hear poems.

She was ready to read them if you weren't comfortable reading your own.

Like she was ready to hear about how are you doing in school?

She was ready to hear about what you wanted to do after you get out of here.

She was willing to listen to how much you miss home.

You know, she was willing to listen to and watch you cry as well as, like, comfort you during your crying.

I wanted them to feel normal.

I wanted them to feel loved.

I wanted them to, to know that somebody cared about them in a way that is loving and nurturing.

An outside observer might say you were trying to make up for what they lost.

I think so, because I'm sorry for what they went through.

I mean, we all should be.

[Piano music playing].

Ally and Megan have aged out of the Metanoia program, but the two remain in contact, saying they are sisters.

Megan is now a mother of two in a healthy, loving relationship with the boy's father.

Ally is engaged.

Their journey to healing takes them to the Governor's mansion, where they reunite with the First Lady and share their desire to give back.

The survivors now want to advocate for victims.

You love these girls?

I do, very much.

Meanwhile, at the manor, the nuns are caring for eight new girls; the youngest, just 11.

It is a revolving door.

Do you realize the impact you've had on them?

To tell you the truth, I don't.

They credit you and your sisters for helping them to heal, move forward, to love, and to raise their own families.

It has been five years since Megan left their care.

The reunion is as joyful as it is emotional.

How are you?

Megan, we want to tell you that we see you.

We see you.

I know that you said that you want to help and I think that's so brave of you.

And it just shows the healing that has happened within you.

You know, you're doing amazing, and we're so proud of you.

Just want you to know that.

Thank you.

Sisters, I just want to say thank you for all the sacrifices you've made that I may not have realized at the time.

And as a mother, now I realize how important the role you all played in my life.

And how important of a role yall played in my children's life.

And the kind of mother I am because of yall because you all gave me that family, that sense of family that I never have.

Yall opened up your home and your hearts and your entire life to me.

And if there's ever a day where you wake up and youre just dragging your feet at the manor, I just want yall to know that everything you do is just really amazing.

And it really does matter.

You make a huge difference.

[Crying] South side.

The fight to end trafficking never ends.

As long as there are people willing to pay for sex, children will be sold to meet the demand.

It is said that drugs are consumed once, but a child can be sold ten times a day.

The trade is growing, but so is awareness.

You know, at the end of the day, I am thankful that people are starting to notice more and it's being reported more.

Just be aware.

If it doesn't feel right, it's probably not right.

You know, Id like to thank God, Id like to thank my support system and most of all, I want to thank my mom.

She's not here anymore.

I want to thank her and, you know, my amazing friends.

Dani was too old to go to the manor, but she, too, has found healing.

And like Ally and Megan wants to become an advocate for special needs survivors.

We are all here for you.

We can be your survivor sister.

You know, if you need someone to talk to, somebody to vent to, someone to cry with, I'm here.

I would tell my younger self, you're destined for greatness, which is what I've always told my younger self.

I want more, I feel like I deserve more.

And I feel like I can make more.

The tide is turning.

There is no shame in survival.

Once invisible, they claim their space in the sun.

Proof that from hell can emerge a life of healing and hope.

Good evening.

I'm Karen Swensen.

As you have just seen, the problem of sex trafficking is real.

And while awareness has risen substantially since the release of movies like Taken and Sound of Freedom, some might be led to believe that it's a border problem or an inner city problem.

We hope you now understand it happens everywhere.

But here in Louisiana, significant, impactful efforts are underway to combat it in many ways, thanks to the guests you're about to meet.

Other states are now looking to Louisiana to see what's working.

Joining us to talk about that, share some of the warning signs when to speak up, how to speak up, and what still needs to be done are Louisiana First Lady Donna Edwards.

Michelle Johnson, a sex trafficking expert.

Dr. Dana Hunter, director of the Governor's Office of Human Trafficking Prevention and Charles Koger, the FBI acting assistant special agent in charge of the New Orleans field office.

Thank you all for being with us today.

We appreciate it.

Mr. Koger, our documentary really focused on Louisiana, but this obviously is a nationwide problem and at the forefront of fighting it nationally is the FBI.

We heard Megan talk about the way in which the Bureau came to her rescue.

Tell us a little bit more about Operation Cross Country.

So Operation Cross Country is an initiative that the FBI leads that we began back in 2008.

It is an operation that we do annually and we do it across all 56 of our FBI field offices.

And the intention or the main focus of the operations are to target subjects of human trafficking.

So our main focus is to try to arrest, identify and arrest subjects of human trafficking, as well as identify and rescue victims.

We also do our best to try to provide services to victims of human trafficking, as well as bring awareness to this horrible violation of human trafficking.

So actually, this past July, we just completed our 13th iteration of Operation Cross Country where we engaged in over 347 operations across the country with over 200 of our federal, state and local partners.

During those operations, we were able to rescue 59 minor victims, as well as 141 adult victims, and also arrest 126 subjects.

So you guys are combing the internet?

Yes, ma'am.

You're looking at them just as much as the, as the bad guys out there and then you nail them.

Yes, ma'am.

Let's talk about you, Michelle.

You are a sex trafficking expert.

You've testified before lawmakers.

And we really want to hear from you about how we change and destigmatize the victims, right?

We should call them survivors.

Some people would call them prostitutes as if they had some say in the matter.

For those that would say, hey, just walk away, get out.

It's not as easy as that, is it?

Yes.

So with victims, they usually don't even recognize that they are a victim of trafficking.

And so it's basically, you have to really get that victim and make them be able to understand what happened to them.

I'm a survivor myself, so whenever I was trafficked, like you mentioned the movie Taken, I watched that movie with my trafficker while I was being trafficked and I never related to the movie.

I said, oh, wow, that that is messed up.

What happened to them?

But, you know, my trafficker never said that that was trafficking, and I'm trafficking you.

He always said you're a prostitute.

And so with victims, they will identify as prostitutes.

Even children.

I work hands on with children, and they'll say, you know, I'm a prostitute.

And as a prostitute, you can be arrested and you can have a criminal record.

And yet there is a law named after you.

Tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah.

So it's the Michelle Johnson Act.

And so whenever I was recovered, I had many charges.

I was wanted by state police, city police, just all throughout the south of Louisiana.

I did have to spend prison time, which was directly a result of me being trafficked.

And so traffickers, they usually not only make their victims engage in prostitution, but other illicit criminal activity.

So anywhere from stealing from the buyers, their wallets, debit cards, electronics to the actual crime of prostitution, and usually those other crimes are considered felonies.

And so that impacts not only your, your life, but your education, your housing, your, your job.

Like you can't go anywhere.

I remember when I got out and they asked me, you know, at Goodwill, I went to go get a job there.

They said, Are you a convicted felon?

And I said, Yes.

And when it was related to money, they said, whoa, we can't hire you.

So Goodwill, who hires convicted felons.

So this law expunges the record of somebody who was a victim right before they became a survivor.

Yes.

And I was told it would take 96 years to expunge mine from my record in 2016.

So I fought actively to get this changed not only for myself, but for other victims and survivors.

People wanted to request a pardon from Governor John Bel Edwards, and I was like, no, do not do that.

I want something that will impact all victims.

So many people owe you a debt of gratitude.

And we thank you for sharing your story with us.

And you mentioned the governor and the governor's wife is here today, First Lady Donna Edwards.

In the show, we hear how children in the foster care system are often very vulnerable to traffickers.

And I know that's another subject matter that you are so committed to.

Talk about, how you're working to improve the foster care system, to make them less vulnerable.

And you're also tying faith in to it.

Right.

So I just want to say thank you to Michelle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, 60% of children in foster care have some type of connection to trafficking.

Most often, their family are trafficking them.

And so that's a pretty high percentage.

And so one of the things that we started is called One Church, One Family, One Child.

Pretty easy.

Lots of churches are already doing it within their churches.

We just wanted to put a name to it and make it an initiative.

And we rolled it out a couple of months ago.

But basically, it says if every church would recruit one family within their church and that one family go through the foster care program, become a foster family, take in a child, hopefully, you know, children, siblings, and then that that church family wrap themselves around that family, the foster family and that child.

That child hopefully will one day go back to the home because every child wants to go back home and then that child goes back home to the biological home and the child goes into that home and has still a foster family and has a church family still there, supporting them and is still there for them.

And so, you know, hopefully they'll be more than just one family recruited.

But in our state alone, we have over 4,000 churches in our state and we have over 4,000 children in foster care at any given time.

So it matches up.

And so we just, you know, that is a number that matches.

And we hope and pray that our churches step up to the plate and recruit families within their churches.

Fabulous initiative.

And you mentioned one very poignant statistic.

Another is 68% of trafficked people wind up in the ER and yet 90% go unrecognized by the medical personnel who treat them.

Dr. Hunter, talk to us about some of the legislation that Louisiana has passed to mandate education and the importance of doing that, particularly with medical personnel and educators, people that might be on the first line of defense for the kids.

Yes.

So we've spoken with countless providers, medical providers and personnel who says we don't know what to look for?

You know, we know they're in our hospitals.

We know they're coming in our clinics, but we don't know what to look for.

So we created a badge buddy and this is something that medical providers can wear, just like they wear every other badge with some of their important information.

We've gotten permission with hospital systems to allow them to create a new one, and that has the indicators on one side of what to look for, for for a victim.

And on the other side, what do you do if a victim is identified or if you suspect that someone is a victim, whether the process is protocols so they can wear it, they can have it right there with them every day.

And that's just a game changer.

I'm sure it is.

What are some of the signs we should be looking for?

Yes.

So victims present, they're withdrawn often, I mean, sometimes if they present in a hospital or in a school, they don't want to be identified, Michelle mentioned sometimes they don't know they're victims, but they do know that they're experiencing trauma.

And so oftentimes they're withdrawn.

They may not have a residence or an address that they can share.

They may not have any identification or a license or phone or, you know, they may not have eaten.

So they may be food deprived or feeling malnourished.

And so, as we saw in the documentary, being that educator or that medical provider to just say, how are you doing?

What's going on?

You know, can make the world of difference for a victim or a survivor.

On that note, Mr. Koger, let's say you do see something that you think is suspicious.

That just doesn't sound quite right.

And we need to reiterate that this happens everywhere, not just in the sleazy motels, but the five star hotels.

You see something, what do you do?

Do you confront Do you take a picture?

What should somebody do?

Well, I would say kind of the whole adage is, if you see something, say something.

So I would encourage someone, if they see something, to report it to law enforcement.

I would dissuade the public from getting involved in a way that would put themselves in danger or anything like that.

But I would say that they can and should report it to law enforcement and which they can do in a number of ways.

They can, of course, called local law enforcement or if they want to report it directly to us.

There's numerous ways in which they can get the information to us, whether it be through 1-800-Call-FBI, whether it be through the National Human Trafficking Hotline, whether it be anonymously on our tips to the FBI.gov website or they can call the National Threat Operations Center.

So those are the ways in which they can get the information directly to us.

So if you see something strange happening, maybe in a hotel, do you tell the front desk or do you just call the FBI hotline?

I don't know how quickly somebody could respond to that, but you sort of want to raise some sort of.

Yes.

In an instance like that, I would say they probably the best response is to call local law enforcement because they're first responders.

The FBI is not first responders.

So if they see something that needs immediate attention, they need to call local law enforcement.

One of the things I remember now when we were interviewing Ally, she had mentioned that oftentimes female traffickers, which I didn't, to me that was even counterintuitive, will often accompany the young person to the traffic, to the to the person's room, and then somebody else will be standing watch nearby to make sure that they, in fact, go inside.

Yes, of course, you can speak to that.

So a lot of times victims are placed together.

So, for instance, I was a bottom.

And so a lot of people would say, oh, youre a trafficker.

And so what happens is victims compete in the stable because you compete to be able to have the most, you know, affection or love from the trafficker, because at the same time, there's a trauma bond.

So no victim shows up and they're like I want to prostitute or I want to do all these horrific things.

You know, the trafficker does a grooming process.

And so each victim is groomed according to the walk of life that they come from.

And so a lot of times for me, I experienced sexual abuse all my life.

The first 24 years of my life, I never consented to any of the sex that took place.

And so I never received help.

Nobody ever came in.

Every time I reported, you know, sexual abuse throughout my childhood, nobody ever did anything.

So my trafficker, he basically used that against me and he pretended he was the savior.

You know, he was going to save me from everything.

And so I started developing a trauma bond.

And usually it'll start off like boyfriend and girlfriend or it'll be, you know, me bringing my friend over.

And then they start having a relationship.

So a lot of times traffickers, if it's not a family member, they're in some type of intimate relationship with the girls.

And so everybody is in a stable.

And they're all called wife in-laws or wifeys.

And there's the bottom, the bottom is in charge of making sure the operation runs smoothly.

So, for instance, if a girl tried to leave, I would allow them to leave.

I would say, I'm getting in the shower.

You have 10 minutes to get out.

And what I would do is Id just soak my body and then I'd get out the shower and I would call him and I would say she ran, but I would still get beat.

So people have this perception that bottoms are another form of the trafficker, but really, we're the we were the weakest link in the stable, we're the most brainwashed, we're the most, you know, robotic with the trafficker.

Your story is extraordinary and thank you for sharing it with us.

And you talk about, you know, just different backgrounds and yours sounds very familiar to the ones that we interviewed.

Many of them were sexually abused as children, and yet not everybody is.

So I would ask you to in the women that you've met and the young boys too I'm sure, some of them are probably coming from privileged backgrounds, maybe they had perfect childhoods, but somehow they are lured in.

How does that happen?

College kids?

So my trafficker, he was big on anyone from any walk of life.

You know, he wanted big money.

So my quota was 10,000 a night.

He preferred females that are not strung out on drugs, come from, you know, you come from a bad background, or you could be in college and my trafficker would prey on, you know, he had recruiters.

So in trafficking, not only do you have the victims, the trafficker, but you have recruiters.

And so they would go into the colleges and recruit girls.

And then they would also recruit guys to be a part of the operation.

Surely they're not going there and saying, would you like to become a prostitute?

How do they recruit?

They go there and they'll say, you know, oh, do you want to be in a music video or do you want to be a model?

And then, you know, then they would bring them to the pimp.

There was a recording studio where they would just bring all the college kids there.

I was trafficked with a girl in the army.

She would go to military camp on the weekends and train there.

He liked having her because if we got pulled over, she could pull out her I.D.

for the military.

Another girl, she, her dad was a preacher.

Her mom was a teacher and she was in grad school.

And she just, you know, she just wanted that love.

And he was there to provide that.

It's just terrifying.

Mrs. Edwards, you're going to be leaving office in in January, but you're still so committed to this cause.

Tell us how you're going to stay active on the national level and how you're working with other first spouses to really accomplish some ground in this fight.

Right.

So we started during COVID, zooms and invited all the first spouses across the country to join in and to educate them about how it was happening in their own backyards and throughout their communities.

And so after that, we realized that everybody was contacting us and wanted to learn and know more about human trafficking.

And so out of that came the National Coalition for the Prevention of Human Sex Trafficking.

So we started a coalition of spouses.

And so we're starting to pick up speed and educating them.

And we're starting Zoom summits and continuing that with our Office of, Governor's Office of Trafficking.

And I'm going to continue doing that work and educating and bringing awareness And prevention.

Is one of the biggest myths.

And I guess I was probably part of it, too, thinking that it's happening elsewhere, right?

Not in our own backyards.

We think of somebody else's problem on the on the border.

That's right.

That's right.

And we've seen that through this documentary that it is in our own backyard.

And I think that's what this documentary was all about, that it's not a foreign issue.

It is here locally, and it doesn't take a superhero to save our children.

And these men and women, it, you know, it's our local law enforcement.

They get involved and us who can see something and say something and help.

That was the key, you said it's everybody's it's problem.

Everybody needs to speak out.

Right.

And when they do, there are resources available here.

So, Dr. Hunter, tell us about maybe, maybe somebody is watching this.

If I could only get that help.

What exists.

Yes.

Karen, if I could just speak to very briefly the coercion that everyone is talked about when we think of human trafficking, people often say, why don't they leave?

If we can only imagine traffickers use tactics such as psychological coercion.

That means they find a vulnerability.

They find something that a person is looking for, that could be something as simple as love and acceptance, which even us and in our families, we want love and acceptance.

And so they find that vulnerability.

It could be food, a basic need, someone in foster care who needs housing.

They find that vulnerability and they prey on it and they coerce their victims to come and to meet that need.

But it comes at a high cost.

Indeed, it comes at a very high cost.

And when people say, why don't they leave?

If we can only think about, we think about we have the images of chains and handcuffs, but survivors of trafficking and victims, while they're in it, they're not handcuffed, but they're told, I will kill you, I will murder your child, I will, and they are physically and sexually assaulted to the extent that we cannot imagine.

They have to work long hours in the field.

Labor trafficking, which a lot of people don't talk about, but work long hours in hospitals, in hotel rooms, long hours in places, and they don't get days off.

And so when we talk about if they go to a hospital, they're going because they can no longer make profit for that person because they're injured in such a way, they're physically exhausted.

And so when we talk about resources, mental health services to really help victims begin to cope with the trauma that they've gone through, lifelong trauma.

So helping them to recover, helping them to get trauma focused, victim centered services, housing, legal services, employment.

We talked about all of those things that will reduce their vulnerabilities is so important.

And where would you direct them to go?

Yes.

So thankfully, through our office with the support of First Lady Edwards and our survivor council, we have the state's first statewide resource directory.

It's human trafficking dot L.A. dot gov.

We have a statewide map with just about every resource available to victims and survivors in our state by region.

And so it's it's one of a kind, and we're very proud of it.

And we look at you, Michelle, that healing is possible.

Yet how how likely is it that a victim turned survivor could be victimized again?

So usually victims are always vulnerable.

So just because.

Because they become a survivor, that doesn't mean that they won't be exploited again.

So, for instance, when you think about placement, so me as you know a well with my record, is getting expunged currently, but I remember going to a place and I even called FBI and I was like, look, they're telling me I can't rent.

And I'm like, I'm a victim.

Why?

And they told FBI that I could go to the hood.

But when you look at the hood, like the inner cities, that's where all the sex offenders are placed.

That's the most poverished community in our towns.

And so when we look at that, children who are sexually abused, if they're living in poverty in those areas where there's 800 sex offenders placed within like a two mile radius, five, ten mile radius, they're going to be revictimized again.

I personally, you know, fell victim to Hurricane Ida.

And every storm that came after it and my house was damaged.

And the insurance company, you know, they're not doing their part.

I've been displaced for going on two and a half years.

And so when I lost everything, I was vulnerable.

And when we think about vulnerability as a people, I mean, you could lose everything and then it kind of makes you more vulnerable.

And so because I had a support system in place and, you know, everything worked out to where I was able to be in a Airbnb for months and somebody provided.

And, you know, I was so thankful because I could have been re-exploited.

And now you're an advocate helping so many other people heal.

I think about so many parents who will be watching this piece and there's another statistic: 40% are recruited online, 80% are sold online.

When we're thinking about ways we can protect our kids.

First, Mr. Koger, and then I've asked the First Lady, too, what can we do as parents to try to protect our kids from this?

As a parent I would say, first and foremost, our parents need to educate themselves.

Information is power.

When they are able to educate themselves on the threats that are out that are out there, they're able to then talk to their children to find out if they're victims of said threats.

They need to also be proactively engaged in their children's lives, not just present.

They need to be proactively engaged.

They need to know who their children are hanging out with, where they're hanging out.

They need to know what they're doing online, not just the open Internet.

But I'm talking also about the myriad of social media sites, the online gaming platforms.

Our children today are falling victim to all of these platforms, and they're being victimized throughout all of it.

So parents awareness is the main thing and proactive engagement.

And I also think they need to not shy away from those difficult conversations, engage your children, have those conversations and see what they're involved in and open those lines of communication where they feel safe in talking to you and coming to you.

If they are victims.

I would imagine you would probably echo all of that.

Hundred percent agree with everything you just said.

And I think to just like, you know, I say this so often, just like we teach our kindergartners to stop, drop and roll.

Right.

I, you know, go through scenarios with your children and say, you know, this could happen.

And if you go to this place, this dark hole, or you get into a situation where you're so scared or somebody uses this bribery situation over you, this is what you need to do.

Phenomenal.

You know, the worst case scenario, know that we love you and it doesn't matter what you do, we love you regardless.

And I'm so sorry to cut you off but we are out of time.

This has been so illuminating.

We just want to close with some more resources, phone numbers and websites that are available to both human trafficking victims and survivors and to report information about suspected trafficking.

The National Human Trafficking hotline is 1-888-373-7888.

The FBI hotline is 1-800-call-FB Louisiana State Police also have a hotline and that number is 1-800-434-8007.

The website Human trafficking dot.

Dot gov has a full page of resources, as does the First Lady's foundation.

Louisiana First Foundation dot com.

And you can find even more resources and watch our documentary Turning the Tide A Story of Hell, Healing and Hope any Time on the website.

Turning the Tide film dot org.

Thank you to our guests for joining us and for the work you're doing to fight the problem.

And thank you for joining us.

Have a good evening.

Support for this program comes from the Gayle and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation, committed to funding educational causes.

Support for this program comes from the United Way of Southeast Louisiana.

Celebrating 100 years of driving positive change in our community by improving outcomes and education, income and health for every person, everywhere.

Learn more at United Way SC la.org.