Shauna Newell: Sex Slaves in the Suburbs (Video)

, a teenage girl who was sold as a sex slave, is telling her story in "Sex Slaves in the Suburbs," in hopes of preventing other teens from falling prey to human traffickers.

Shauna, now 18, was kidnapped, drugged, gang raped, beaten and sold into sex slavery at age 16 when a new friend she had met in high school asked her to come to a sleepover. Shauna's mother, Lisa Brant, met the girl and her father because she wanted to make sure her daughter was safe.

The girl's "father" was actually a convicted felon, and the girl, an accomplice in the abduction, had a history of prostitution.

Newell recounts her ordeal in an in-depth report with Today's Natalie Morales on "Sex Slaves in the Suburbs."

“Her dad took us to this house and said he'd be right back and he left us there,” Newell recounted in a taped interview. “And I asked for some water because I was thirsty. And I drank the water and I blacked out.”

Shauna woke up while being raped.



“My legs were being held down, and the guy that was raping me was holding my hands back,” she said in a quiet voice. “I kept screaming, ‘Stop, please don't do this. Leave me alone.’ But I was so weak, I couldn't fight them off. Like I was, I was so really out of it. And I blacked out a few times and I kept coming back to. And I was still being raped every time I woke up.”

In a stroke of luck Shauna was rescued, although barely alive, after three days of being raped, beaten and drugged.

Shockingly, no one was ever prosecuted in the case, and unfortunately Newell's story is not unique.

Merideth Vierra's interview with Shauna Newell and her mother can be seen in the video below.

The in-depth report by Morales on “Sex Slaves in the Suburbs” premieres at 10 p.m. ET Sunday, Oct. 12 on MSNBC.

