Lazenko was trafficked when she was a girl.

“I started running away at a very young age and wound up turning to a friend for help who was under pimp control,” Lazenko said. “She took me to a party and turned me out to her pimp. And I was sold that night. In and out of sexual exploitation, I started working the strip clubs at a very young age. Definitely experienced some things along the way.”

Since moving to Williston, she said, she has helped 10 trafficked girls escape the sex trade.

“Word’s gotten out now,” she said. “People trust me.”

Lazenko regularly visits prostitution hot spots to build relationships and help with shelter, sympathy, self-defense classes and even a ticket home. She took “America Tonight” on her rounds at night.

“So this right here is a huge area for prostitution and, I would assume, trafficking,” she said, pulling into a Walmart parking lot. “It’s wherever the money is and wherever the men are. And you know, this is where the men have to come. So that just attracts drug activity and prostitution and stuff like that. So it’s just really crazy.”

The next stops were nearby hotels where, Lazenko said, most of the sex trafficking occurs.

“Some of these hotels along this strip actually have floors that are bought out by pimps, and girls are in those rooms, and it operates pretty much like a brothel,” she said, adding that it’s a very dangerous environment for the women. “The girls that are being trafficked here are not from here. If a girl shows any sign of wanting to exit … there are consequences for that.”