Lex Talamo

alexa.talamo@shreveporttimes.com

Editor's note: The full names of the victims in this series are withheld to protect their identity. Full names only appear for those who've publicly identified themselves as a trafficking victim through books or documentaries. Click here to read more stories in the Modern Day Slavery series.

Brittany was 18 years old when she boarded a Greyhound bus and met the man who would become her trafficker — and the father of her child.

She had no idea the "instant connection" she felt would lead to months of brainwashing — or how long it would take for her to realize the man prostituting her out of hotel rooms wasn't really her "boyfriend."

“He made me feel special. I never wanted to leave him,” Brittany said. “I was in love with him. I thought I was going to be with him for the rest of my life.”

Many people in the United States think of sex trafficking as the portrayal in the movie "Taken": A young woman on an overseas trip kidnapped by a gang and forced into sexual servitude.

But the reality in Louisiana is more complex.

Empty promises



"A majority of the girls we work with were either lured through social media, by someone who pretended to be their boyfriend or made them promises about a modeling or a music career," said Kendall Wolz, assistant director of the Baptist Friendship House, a shelter for trafficking victims and homeless women with children. "We see that avenue a lot more than the forcibly kidnapped."

Brittany said she traveled with her trafficker to different cities and states to stay off the police radar.

But she was arrested for the first time during a sting operation in California. The police had seen one of her online ads and thought she was a victim of underage trafficking. When she opened the door on a "call," she said eight police swarmed into the room and demanded she tell them where her trafficker was.

Terrified, she told them nothing.

“They were the first people to tell me, ‘He’s a pimp. Do you even know what you’re doing? He doesn’t love you, he’s brainwashed you,” Brittany said. “I was like, ‘No, he’s my boyfriend. I love him, he loves me."

Not all victims are romantically linked to their trafficker.

Trafficked by someone trusted

Dee Dee said her abuse first started when she was 4 years old when her father — a native of a developing nation where prostitution is legal — started letting his male friends get into bed with her.

The name of the country is not being named for Dee Dee's safety.

As a child, Dee Dee said her father often would remain in the room so he could "keep an eye" on the men who molested her.

After each incident, her father would tuck her into bed, kiss her on the forehead and tell her she had done a good job and he was proud of her.

"It was confusing. He was protecting me, but he was exploiting me," Dee Dee said.

As she got older, Dee Dee's father encouraged her to accept gifts and spend time with certain older men. Those encounters started with "talking" and then progressed into trafficking.

Eventually, Dee Dee's mother found out about one particular man and reported it to police. Her mother told Dee Dee's father, not realizing his involvement.

Dee Dee's father tipped off his customer, who fled the country. The abuse continued until Dee Dee turned 18.

"What I learned at an early age was that even if you tell, even if your mom does the right things, it doesn't stop," she said.

Finding courage

Dee Dee didn't realize the toll her childhood trafficking took on her until later in life.

But growing up, she looked to men for affirmation, developed an eating disorder and fell into an abusive relationship. At the end of that relationship, she sought therapy for codependency.

Hearing the stories of other women helped her find the courage to share her own, and during that process she first realized she had been trafficked.

"It never even dawned on me that I was a victim," Dee Dee said. "It was what I had always known."

Following her moment of revelation, Dee Dee got in touch with her father, who had divorced her mother after attaining U.S. citizenship and had popped in and out of her life since her teen years.

She asked why he had allowed those men to abuse her.

She is still waiting for an answer.

Meanwhile, because of therapy and dedication to her own "heart work," she has started her journey to healing.

She is married with two children. She also is an activist and treasurer for Crowns of Hope, a Texas-based nonprofit dedicated to helping victims of human trafficking.

She has cut ties with her father for the safety of her own children, but she has forgiven him.

"I love being able to share the story of forgiveness against our perpetrators. I don't have to reconcile but I can forgive and let them go and no longer be enchained to them," Dee Dee said.

"Once I forgive, I am free to become who I am meant to be."

Similar to Dee Dee, Brittany didn't realize she was a victim until years after she was separated from her trafficker.

It seemed like love

Originally from a small town near Fort Worth, Texas, Brittany had a "normal, great" childhood: She came from a loving, two-parent home, was a member of student council, played sports and went to her church's youth group regularly.

When she turned 18, she had an argument with her parents about a man she wanted to date and they grounded her.

“That day I told myself, ‘Tomorrow, I’m running away," Brittany recalled. "While they were gone at work, I literally just threw everything in a trash bag and hitched a ride."

She tried to make it on her own and spent several weeks bouncing among her friends' apartments until she found herself without a place to stay. That was when one of her friends told her he had a cousin in Las Vegas who could help her make money by going on "dates."

She thought her friend meant "normal people dates"— going to the movies or out to dinner— but when she arrived in Vegas, she found the cousin expected her to become part of an escort service.

Finding herself doing unspeakable things to survive, she spent only four days in Vegas before she boarded a Greyhound bus back home.

On that bus, she met the man who would become her trafficker— and ultimately the father of her child.

Brittany said she felt drawn to his aura of wisdom, confidence and charm despite the fact that he was 20 years older than she was. The "instant connection" she felt deepened as they rode the bus together and talked. She agreed when he asked her to get off with him in Dallas.

He took her to a hotel room, where he showed her how to post online ads on Backpage.com, a website used frequently to advertise prostitution services. She had come to see him as her "boyfriend" and wanted to make him happy, so she did what he asked her to do. She started answering "calls" and turned all the money she made over to him.





Brittany thought she would be with him forever—even after police arrested her during a California sting operation and told her she was being pimped. She refused to tell the police anything.

She went to jail for a night. So did her trafficker. Then they met back at the hotel room, packed their belongings and fled to Dallas. Her trafficker promised her things would get better. But Brittany was starting to realize the fairy tale wasn’t going to last.

“It felt like things just kept happening," she said. "He was still promising me these dreams of ‘It’s going to be okay, it’s not always going to be like this, just keep fighting, we’ll get out of this.' Nothing was coming through.”

Soon after they returned to Dallas, Brittany found out she was pregnant. She was elated. She had talked to her trafficker about wanting to be a mom and having a family with him, and he had said they could when the time was right.

“I thought this would make it stop faster, that I wouldn't have to do these things if I was pregnant," she said. "I kept thinking that this relationship was going to turn into a normal one, that eventually we would turn into a normal family."

Shattered illusions

Her illusions shattered one day when her pimp got angry over a comment she had made against him wanting to "get more girls." She said there had been instances of abuse in their relationship along the way but he had never punched her. That night, he punched her in the face. Repeatedly.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen. A guy had never hit me like that before,” Brittany said said. “During all that, I heard a voice tell me, ‘It’s about to get bad. It’s about to get really bad.' But I wasn't going to go to the police, because he had made me think the police were against me.”

Back at the hotel room, she apologized to her trafficker for upsetting him. Then they went to sleep. The next morning, he said he was going to do laundry and left the room. A few seconds later, Brittany heard a knock on the door.

“I swung the door open, thinking it was him,” she said, “and it was my dad. My real dad.”

Her trafficker let her go, promising he would come pick her up from wherever her parents took her.

Helping other women recover

But Brittany's parents set her up with the Purchased program in Shreveport — starting her on a year-long journey to recovery through classes, counseling and living in a recovery home.

Brittany said the most helpful class taught her about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs — among them that every human being needs safety, love, and belonging — and about how she had been manipulated by her trafficker's promises to meet those needs.

She is now a house mom in one of Shreveport's three safe houses for women coming out of prostitution and trafficking and works with women in the final stages of the Purchased recovery program — those who are almost ready to transition back to society.

It’s difficult for the 21 year old to balance her responsibilities as a house mom and a "real mom" to her 2-year-old daughter, but Brittany wants to dedicate her life to helping other women get out of the life.

“I want my life to be about really helping these women and advocate for them," she said. "I want to let them know that life can be different."

She also wants to make sure her daughter won’t be endangered by the drug-dealing or the violence of her former pimp.

“It took me years to realize the depth of what had happened to me. To this day I wish I could have a family with him, that my daughter could know her dad, but it’s not for the best,” she said. “My daughter changed me. It made me realize I have to do this the right way. She deserves it as much as I do.”