Could Pizzagate have something to do with the missing D.C. girls? People on the online social forum Voat are speculating on a connection between the two, and they’re fueled by the fact that mainstream media outlets failed to bring national attention to the girls’ disappearances until very recently. Some are finding this apparent lack of press coverage highly suspect.

The Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which centers around the belief that Washington politicians and elites have been running a child sex ring operation under the cover of local pizza parlor Comet Ping Pong, has been brought forth from the back burner as a result of a couple of different occurrences.

Firstly, right-wing pundit and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones went public with an apology for Comet Ping Pong owner James Alefantis, of whom Jones and his Infowars staff had accused of overseeing pedophilic activity in his place of business. Jones claims he no longer believes Alefantis to be guilty of any wrongdoing in regard to the allegations surrounding Pizzagate.

Front view of Comet Ping Pong. [Image by Jose Luis Magana/AP Images]

There are, however, plenty of people who still believe there is truth to the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. On Saturday, a large crowd gathered outside of the White House to call for an official investigation into the unproven scandal.

Additionally, a community of people on the social forum site Voat have been actively discussing Pizzagate, and they’ve recently come up with a new twist to the notion of an underground Washington, D.C. child sex business: the missing D.C. girls.

According to the Associated Press, there have been over 500 children who have gone missing in the D.C. area since January 1. Within those occurrences, 10 black children vanished in a matter of a couple of weeks. Black congressional leaders are urging justice department officials to formulate a plan of action to find the girls and figure out who’s behind their disappearances.

Many thanks to the D.C. Police for watching out for #pizzagate protestors. They were overly nice and helpful. Thank you D.C. Police!! pic.twitter.com/3dObGSztjk — Not on my watch (@exposing_wmd) March 26, 2017

In the meantime, American civilians are doing their own investigative work.

Voat is one place on the internet where people are allowed to devote a subforum to Pizzagate, allowing members to muckrake to their heart’s content. Two months ago, a user by the name of “quantokitty” claimed he or she had found proof of unfrequented underground tunnels beneath Washington, D.C.

“I was freaking amazed to run across secret tunnels in Washington, DC! No, these don’t have to do with the already well-established tunnels in the DuPont Circle, BUT they are in that exact same vicinity! How about that?”

Quantokitty had found that these tunnels, which he or she says were created by a man named Harrison G. Dyar for the purpose of physical fitness, were located close enough to Comet Ping Pong to warrant further investigation, which brought the user to an Instagram post from Justin Barrows, who allegedly helped build the pizza joint.

The post by Barrows, or “Jabbaroos” either has been removed or is only able to be seen by those who’ve been approved by Justin to follow him, as he keeps his Instagram profile in private mode. According to the Voat post, Barrows authored an Instagram post about finding a piece of human scalp with a baseball hat near his “place on P Street,” which is close to where the secret tunnels are supposed to be located. To quantokitty, this further confirms that Pizzagate is not a conspiracy theory, but a reality.

Fast forward to two days ago. A user by the name of “Fire_Fly” took to the Voat Pizzagate subforum to discuss where the locations in which some of the missing D.C. girls have allegedly disappeared from are in relation to the presumed whereabouts of the underground tunnels discovered by quantokitty. A map pinpointing these disappearance sites, as well as a map highlighting the location of the tunnels are supplied with the post.

As far as comments from Voat users to Fire_Fly’s post connecting Pizzagate to the missing D.C. girls, at this point there is one comment and its content is unrelated to the subject matter of the main post.

John Podesta, pictured here, was hacked by WikiLeaks, and his emails provided much of the Pizzagate evidence believed by conspiracy theorists. [Image by Andrew Harnik/AP Images]

The possibility that these missing teenagers are the victims of sex crimes (specifically, sex trafficking crimes) has been brought up and taken seriously (minus the part about Pizzagate) by those who have more power than a forum-using conspiracy theorist. However, Washington, D.C. law enforcement has denied that there are ties between the skin trade and the missing D.C. girls, as reported by Daily Caller. Police released a statement on Friday alleging that every teen in the area who has gone missing since the beginning of the year has done so of their own volition.

Whether or not this is true, it doesn’t necessarily mean sex trafficking, Pizzagate or no Pizzagate, is not worth taking a closer look at, according to the website, missingkids. A number of human trafficking victims are duped into the lifestyle as they unknowingly trust and follow someone who they believe genuinely cares for them, according to Child Sex Trafficking in America: A Guide for Parents and Guardians, an e-publication made available by Missingkids. According to this information, someone “leaving voluntarily” does not mean that foul play isn’t involved in the person’s disappearance.

“Pimps are willing to invest a great deal of time and effort in their victim to break down a victim’s natural resistance and suspicion – buying them gifts, providing a place to stay, promising a loving relationship – before revealing their true intent.”

The Pizzagate subforum of Voat has three posts related to the missing D.C. girls. In addition to the one discussed herein, there’s one which features TMZ’s Harvey Levin’s opinion on the disappearances, and another one that links to an article from VeryDicey, which states that Russia Today was the first mainstream news organization to report on the missing Washington, D.C. youth.

[Featured Image by Muhammad Amin/Shutterstock]