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CNN Special Reports
Children for Sale. Aired 9-10:00p ET.
Aired July 21, 2015 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
JADA PINKETT SMITH, HOST: I'm Jada Pinkett Smith, and for the next hour, we're going to investigate something deeply disturbing and uncomfortable.
We're going to take a hard look at the lives of girls and women trapped in the sex trade and explore the roots that lure them into the life they could have never imagined.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Human trafficking is second most lucrative crime in the world second only getting narcotics trafficking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He beat me. He raped me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just like somebody paying for a slave.
SERGEANT TORREY KENNEDY, DEKALB COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: Human trafficking is real. This little girl, she's not just a bad kid. See the kid has been dealt a bad life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is nothing like you think it is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was tamping her out of her own home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, we can't make to step up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had sex with almost 40 guys in one day.
SMITH: As a mother, as a human being, this is something that is simply unacceptable. I want to show you traffickers, girls affected, and the people fighting back against modern day slavery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Children for sale, the fight to end human trafficking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Atlanta, Georgia, is the heartbeat of the south.
KENNEDY: I was born and raised in Atlanta, been in Atlanta pretty much all of my life. I love this city.
SMITH: Sergeant Torrey Kennedy runs the internet crimes against children division.
It's late spring, the search begins with ads like this. They use words like, "fresh", "petite", and "open 24 hours".
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the ad in here.
SMITH: Kennedy's team identifies the ads that look suspicious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean she look really young on here, really young on there. Is that...
SMITH: The vice squad sets off the stage. Undercover agents arrange, "date with the girls". Once money is exchanged ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kennedy, I got a green light, room 204.
SMITH: Kennedy's team moves in.
KENNEDY: We just roam in and goes directly to the room, assess the situations, interview the victim, or the child, or whoever it may be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a female (inaudible), like (inaudible) pants and a black shirt.
KENNEDY: Nine millimeter. I assure right now where (inaudible) stolen.
SMITH: Kennedy's first priority, assessing the age of the victim.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not nervous.
KENNEDY: We're right here is the save kids. That's our number one goal.
SMITH: As officers take these women back to the headquarters, Sergeant Kennedy gets a call from a second undercover team.
We followed Sergeant Kennedy and his team on raids for year. They often went exit by exit on the freeway making arrests and attempting rescues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are the rooms up there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's been kind of odd. Well, she's been in (inaudible) since she was 13, 14, she said.
SMITH: This girl says she's 17 and under U.S. law, anyone under 18 years old that is being prostituted, is a victim of human trafficking.
KENNEDY: She has one tattoo (inaudible). We've seen most of the times in this general area, it's likely a brand from a lower (inaudible). They took their little girl on their guru. Pretty much with every girl we (inaudible) with this particular tattoo has been just as hard as she is but we haven't ran unto (inaudible). She's pissed.
SMITH: Underage and unwilling to accept help.
KENNEDY: We want to treat her as a victim real bad. It's not what she wants.
SMITH: For Sergeant Kennedy, a father of three, it's heartbreaking.
KENNEDY: Oh we can grant (inaudible) to see her if she's willing to accept going to a safe house but she simply refuses, outright refuses to do it.
[21:05:00] SMITH: She's not ready to leave the only life she knows.
KENNEDY: Situations like this make me push closer to my daughter because, if you can say (inaudible) have had a real man taking her life.
SMITH: When my daughter was 11, she came to me and she said, "Mommy, did you know that there were girls that were being sold for sex that are my age in this country?" I was like, "I think, that's a mistake. That doesn't happen here." After that, it was just -- I remember I was stuck to the computer for days, story, after story, after story, and I couldn't believe that I didn't know.
Dalla Recene (ph) knows. She's the (inaudible) county's assistant district Attorney and often works with Sergeant Kennedy.
Would you say that there's a difference between prostitution and trafficking?
DALLA RECENE, COUNTY'S ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Trafficking is the manufacturing of children for the sex trade. They're just getting sold and passed on from one exploiter to the other, and a lot of times it's because they don't know another life after this.
SMITH: Those exploiters can come from anywhere.
Is there such thing as trafficking occurring in airports?
RECENE: It is the world's busiest airport which kind of lends to us than being one of the hubs is because that man can get on that computer anonymously say, "I'm coming in" to go have sex with this child. He'll fly in on a 3:00 flight, meet the child at 6:00 and be gone on the 8:00.
How are we to ever find them? How are we to ever know who they are?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:10:00]
SMITH: I think people feel like there are other people that come from other parts of the world to the airports that constitutes for trafficking, that we're like a pit stop and then they go somewhere around, no, no, no. Our children here in the United States being traffic.
Where does it start? How does it happen? Now, how do you think?
It all begins from the house. It really does.
Anique Whitmore is a forensic psychologist focused on understanding the mind of human traffickers and their victims.
ANIQUE WHITMORE, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: They are running away from a home that they are not valued. They are experiencing some sort of trauma in that home that they are not content with, they want to escape.
And so they show a good life maybe for two days and they're in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thirsty, you don't want to (inaudible)...
SMITH: Sacharay (ph) was born and raised in Florida. By the time she was 14, she was constantly being teased at school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I got picked on a lot about was being black, a really, really dark-skinned I guess.
SMITH: She felt alone at home and at school. Sacharay says that's why when an older classmate offered friendship, she jumped at it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My boss, she was like my best friend because I could like tell her anything. One day she asked if, you know, I want to stay in school when (inaudible). So we went to the barbershop, when I was there she introduced me to these guys.
SMITH: Sasha Ray's (ph) new friend had just led her to the man who would eventually become her trafficker.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We talked about how I was going to make money, how it was going to be easy. We'll have to depend on nobody, and it is was all fine and good and stuff so I fell for it.
SMITH: Was there any kind of grooming process like when this first started where it is just something that just happening and you -- he was just expecting you to learn on the way?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He (inaudible) when we got closer and he felt like he got closer to me to use it (inaudible) at the back of the barbershop. I mean, he even have people that work with the post office, mail man, gunman. And then, a man came in and paid their money to him. He came back there with me.
SMITH: This pimp was working out of a barbershop?
LISA WILLIAMS, FOUNDER, LIVING WATER FOR GIRLS: Exactly, where many folks going all the day slapping hands and getting haircuts.
WILLIANS: So we have three agents, man 1 B (ph).
SMITH: Lisa Williams has heard stories like this before, far too many times. She founded Living Water for Girls, a safe house and rehabilitation facility for victims of human trafficking. From your perspective, can you tell us what trafficking is looking like in Atlanta?
WILLIAMS: There is no one profile because whatever that buyer wants, that pimp, that trafficker, will go out and get. Certainly, you want to say that as a young girl or young woman on the streets in high- heels is going to be closed. You know, she could be wearing dungarees or blue jeans and a t-shirt with a backpack on her because that's the fantasy of that man who wants to buy her that day. So she looks let say like a typical school girl.
SMITH: William says most of the girls in her program come from troubled homes where they felt ignored, a vulnerability trafficker's quick to exploit.
[21:15:00] WILLIAMS: This is their job. They will sit down and let your daughter or son talk to them for three to four hours straight without interrupting them. I don't know a mother today, or father today, or grandma that has three hours just to sit there and not say a word or let their children that to talk to them just like they want to.
SMITH: That trafficker, that pimp, all day
WILLIAM: All day. They're going to learn every piece of information about your child because that's how they keep them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was more of the conversation, so (inaudible) how me and my sister, you know, argue me. He was like, "You can't be in argument with your sister like that". He was more like a dad but then again, we have sex so it wasn't -- so it was just the communication and how he talks to me.
SMITH: After gaining her trust, the trafficker began asking her some favors.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He started plead on me like, "I need you to do me favor. I need you to make this money for me because I really need it". So I did and then he was like, "I love you for that. I love you so much". And then he has sold me quick to two or three more guys and I got upset when I first realized what he was doing but I can't do anything because he made me feel like I was special.
SMITH: Night after night, dozens of men one right after the other.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mostly on the weekends, we go to hotels and they'll have sex with me, drugged up and slamming on me. One day when I was like I just -- I can't do this anymore. I was in pain. I felt like my inside is hurt. I felt like in those area hurt really bad. Because one day I have sex with almost 40 guys in one day and I was so tired and I was like, "I can't do this no more".
SMITH: But their trafficker made sure she knew leaving was not an option.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was like, "You ain't going nowhere". I was like, "You want to bet?" And then he went to a room, came back with a gun. And then he was like, "If you go somewhere, we'll see. You say I beat, you'll dead tomorrow, I bet, I bet".
SMITH: Sasha Ray (ph) says she found living more difficult that she planned. It wasn't just the treats he made. It was the psychological tactics he employed. When he wasn't threatening her he acted like he loved her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just like that feeling like I still in love to him like he cared about me but I know he didn't but I still went back.
SMITH: When we comeback, we'd star as dancing for the dollar bills.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted to be that independent chick.
SMITH: Turns into.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My boss comes running out and he, you know, telling me, "You got John 1, John 2, John 3."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SMITH: So me, coming up an independent woman was about being educated, being able to stand on your own. And it shocked me that young women now feel like being an independent woman and getting that lifestyle you want, you get on that striper pole.
There are more than 4,000 clubs like this in America. Young girls, adult women, any night of the week, you can find them here. Just ask Casey McClure (ph).
CASEY MCCLURE (?): Hey, baby.
SMITH: She was one of them.
MCCLURE: We're with the organization that works with women that are in the light (ph) and I came from the light (ph) and -- our team move together just to kind to just offer our gift pack to you just want to -- it's free, it doesn't cost anything and we just wanted to make sure you get one so you can choose which -- I'm not sure what color you like but you're able to ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... money.
MCCLURE (?): You know we're here, if you ever need someone to talk to.
SMITH: McClure's (ph) intervention program is called 4Sarah (ph). Named after her daughter whose birth motivated her to leave the adult entertainment industry.
MCCLURE: We're raising awareness about sex trafficking with girls and just let them know that there's help out there.
SMITH: The owner of this club was no part of the trafficking business. Unfortunately, Rachel McCool didn't work in a club like that.
RACHEL MCCOOL, VICTIM: I don't remember any time of my live where I didn't know what sex was.
SMITH: Rachel's journey into that life started very early.
MCCOOL: I do think that it does go back to be in abuse young, at a young age. And at the age of seven, I was actually introduced to pornography.
SMITH: Like thousands of children each year, Rachel was sexually abused and didn't get the help she needed.
MCCOOL: I'm from a very small town in Georgia. Just a year's pass, I continue the destructive lifestyle that everybody just ignored. She's just rebellious, you know. She's just had -- has problem.
SMITH: Her destructive lifestyle soon landed here in a strip club.
MCCOOL: For me, I took about a year and I start being exploited by the club management. I was told we can make more money this way.
SMITH: This way meant giving the men much more than a lap dance.
MCCOOL: The club that I worked at, I would tell anybody it's a modern day brothel. You call me in and they would say, "Oh I want an African-American girl. I want a small girl. I want a girl who looks underage". Yeah, and they just come in and order what they want.
SMITH: What was the moment that you said I'm done?
[21:25:00] MCCOOL: I've got to work and there was I think three men waiting on me. And my boss comes running up and he, you know, he's telling me, "You've got John 1, John 2, John 3, they are there, there, there".
SMITH: Rachel says that night was one of the worst and the next morning was no better.
MCCOOL: I was like walking dead. I was gray. I was with the -- that was -- I was going to end my life that day.
SMITH: In her darkest moment back at the strip club, volunteers from 4Sarah (ph) walked in. One of them reached out to Rachel.
MCCOOL: And she came over and she's like, "Hey girl what's wrong?" Because she -- I was teared up. (Inaudible) lift into me, I did felt drone to her and then before (inaudible) she cried for me.
SMITH: That night, Rachel left the light. Eventually, she enrolled in a center for trafficking victims called Well Spring Living.
Looking back she says she was lured into striping in part of how glamorous it seems in music and videos.
MCCOOL: Now, I wanted to be that independent chick...
SMITH: Right.
MCCOOL: Like I wanted to be that.
SMITH: Right.
MCCOOL: And I wanted to have a Louis (ph) and I want to have -- drive a Cadillac and I wanted to have nothing.
SMITH: We can both agree that with what we see in music videos and all the glorification of the independent chick and the stripper and all that, what you're saying is that what they forget to tell you is the ugly side of it.
MCCOOL: Yes.
SMITH: Right.
MCCOOL: When they take the cameras off, how about they're filming on the next morning.
SMITH: Right.
MCCOOL: How about someone on the end (ph).
SMITH: Next.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something went wrong.
SMITH: This woman was a human trafficker.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was she was duct tape and sent to Alabama.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SMITH: I want these girls have a voice and I want people to see them as people and that they are not bad girls. And that they're not throwaways, and that's very human beings, and they are lights, and they have power, and they have so much to offer. If we just have the love and the humanity, to give them a chance.
The unwritten rules of streets can be as do wandering as they are brutal. This undercover footage shows a young woman arguing with a suspected exploiter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's the hoe?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, hey not over here, not over here, don't do that over here not over here. SMITH: Other men sense her weakness and surround her. According to Rebecca (ph) a trafficking survivor, a girl can be taken as property simply making eye contact with one of these men.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we look at him, you can be taken from who you're with and he can't do anything about it because you look at another person.
SMITH: On this night, these women made it to safety. And so many others do not.
BROCK NICHOLSON, HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS: It's happening everyday every neighborhood, every social economic status. These guys trade women like kids trade baseball cards.
SMITH: Seeing these pictures...
NICHOLSON: Right.
SMITH: ... is, I mean because of course I've heard this over...
NICHOLSON: Right.
SMITH: ... and over again, but actually having the opportunity to see it make it so real. I mean, he is taking her bags put it in a car you coming with me, coming with them to any place that clients are waiting and willing to pay for sex.
NICHOLSON: One of the places they utilize was a field or woman service over 50 men in a field. And you can -- people can say, "Well she what -- nobody, nobody chooses to do that".
SMITH: Right.
Victims are often tricked into doing these things.
KENNEDY: It's not done on under the must (ph), he come work for me. No, no hey I'm all youngest (inaudible) talent scouts. You're beautiful, I like to shoot you and pass it on to some of my colleagues and see what we go from there.
SMITH: Sergeant Kennedy has heard it all.
KENNEDY: You know, go by many names now not just pimp. When a trafficker and boyfriend, talent scout, model, agent whatever.
SMITH: Traffickers coming all descriptions, all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, and they're not all men.
KENNEDY: Truffee (ph) told us she was actually involved in a recruitment of these girls.
SMITH: Kennedy is talking about this woman. We'll call her Katrina (ph). She served four years in federal prison for trafficking other woman. Katrina's (ph) path started was selling herself. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was (inaudible) couple different strip clubs and different men would approach me with different offers and eventually I just so wanted to offers and overtime just became numb and just continue to offer services.
[21:35:00] SMITH: When did that began for you? How old were you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 17.
SMITH: You were 17 years old.
When did you actually get involved in trafficking other women?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was about 21.
SMITH: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A few years later, end up meeting a guy who was supposed to provide driving services.
SMITH: Got it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it just end up evolving from there.
SMITH: Involving into big money for Katrina (ph) and her partner Solomon Mustafa (ph).
Tell me the amount of women that were working with you guys at once?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Over the course of the time that I was working with him, I was say about 40.
SMITH: 40, 40 women. How much money would you make a day?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it will depend on how many females was working, with one maybe 2,000.
SMITH: So if you have several women working at one time, you could make what? Tell me what if tell me...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Between 3 and 5.
SMITH: $3,000 and $5,000.
$5,000 in a single night it's hard to imagine, but it's inline with the justice department study which found the average trafficker that Atlanta makes $32,000 a week. I'm trying to understand, but when I asked Katrina (ph) about one particularly brutal incident, she if evasive about the details.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something went wrong.
SMITH: You remember want went wrong?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would -- I want to say something maybe she says something or gave him implication that she wasn't then give her money or something.
SMITH: The women testified that Katrina (ph) and Mustafa (ph) struck her in the face lock her in a closet and then took her to Alabama.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was duct tape and sent to Alabama and with no intentions of working just intentions of I guess get rid of her.
SMITH: You said no intentions of work and just intentions of getting rid of her? She was left alive but abandoned, helpless. Like so many victims of trafficking.
What would you tell it young women right now? What could they do to protect themselves?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To just not put their self out there like that. Even something so simple is dancing at a club as you think it so simple, is a bratty (ph) ground and is very tempted. I just wish I can do something different, I wish I were to made choices.
SMITH: Coming up, falling pray to false love.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just feeling right that I'll get to know by.
SMITH: Then being saved by the real thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey I'm going to hug you.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look I'm not going to cry, I'm not going to cry.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SMITH: I always think my mother -- she was a single mom and she was young then I didn't have a father and I suffered because of it. I had to learn a lot, you know, and thank God, I came across a man like Will who didn't take advantage of me because let me tell you something. When I look at these girls, I look at myself. I see myself and that's when I hear their stories, it affects me so much because I go, "Man, that couldn't be me. Man, that was me at one time. I know what that is".
Sasha Ray's (ph) biological father abandoned her when she was young.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't meet my dad until I was about 14. I beg my mom if I can meet him and she told me before you meet him you want to meet him so bad. I'm just letting you know, you might just be setting yourself up for heartbreak. And that's exactly what I did. I said my set myself up for a heartbreak.
SMITH: Psychologist Anique Whitmore says heartbreak at home can provide the perfect setup for a trafficker looking to exploit a child.
WHITMOORE: You become vulnerable because you're looking for attention. You're looking to feel fulfilled and often times, girls with low self-esteem use their body to attract that.
SMITH: Broken and hurting, they're easy prey.
WHITMOORE: They run and it may not be far, it maybe to the corner where that's where this person is waiting. They are lurking in the background waiting for this vulnerable child to come and say you don't want to be there, come with me. I'll love you. I'll do your nails. I'll find you clothes. I'll show you what you're probably desiring.
SMITH: And that's the exact tactic Sasha Ray's exploiter used on her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, this -- the feeling I kind of got from him that I wasn't getting from no one else.
SMITH: What was that feeling? What did they make you feel like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a love feeling from, I guess, a man from like -- I felt like I was missing that part maybe from my dad. That's what I think. And then I felt like somebody will (inaudible).
SMITH: Lisa Williams knows what that feels like. Now, she runs a safe house for trafficking victims. But as a girl, her parents paid her little attention.
WILLIAMS: I was invisible.
SMITH: You're invisible.
[21:45:00] WILLIAMS: When I was talking to a lot of the young ladies yesterday, I got that same idea that there was this feeling of being invincible in their own homes. How much would you say that plays a part in this epidemic that we're dealing with right now?
WILLIAMS: If I had to put a figure on this, about 80 percent, 85 percent of them.
SMITH: As a parent, I have to wonder. What can we do to keep our children safe? What can we tell them, how to protect themselves from, you know, these men and these women who are so keen in finding their vulnerabilities.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is all about elevating that individual to begin their life in a path that they can do and be whatever they want to be. Let them understand and develop who they are as a person because if you have that as your base, then you won't be pushed over. You won't be able to lured in.
SMITH: Rachel broke free from the life. She's in a new path and found herself. She's now 28 with a beautiful son and a healthy outlook in the world around her.
MCCOOL: I have a whole new appreciation for the color of the sky, because when you're an addict and when you're on bondage, you see everything as black and white, as gray. I didn't see the beauty of this world, this world we're living in. Yeah, there's a lot of hurt and I understand that too, but there's a lot of beauty and there's a lot of freedom.
(INAUDIBLE)
SMITH: Sometimes, it takes a perfect stranger to break the bonds of your past.
WILLIAMS: This whole thing was actually my birthday cake.
SMITH: Lisa Williams reached Sasha Ray (ph) by sending her a special gift.
WILLIAMS: OK. I got to hug you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're not...
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: You sent her a birthday gift without even having met her yet.
WILLIAMS: I said, "Hello, beautiful." I have to because she is, first and foremost.
SMITH: Absolutely. It seems as though nobody had told her.
WILLIAMS: I sent her that gift because she wrote me a letter. She said, "I researched you and I looked at all the programs here and I saw your face. And I thought you could help me. And you would know what it would take." So I figured if she was that (inaudible) to write me a letter directly in her own handwriting.
SMITH: Wow.
WILLIAMS: That I had to answer back. We started to write letters to one another and then she said, "Will I ever get to see you?" And it just so happen that day, I showed up where she was.
SMITH: Coming up, finding a missing girl.
KENNEDY: My highest concern is where the 14-year-old girl I've been looking for.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does she have a red hair?
SMITH: Before it's too late.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seen uniforms to the back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have police search warrant.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:50:00] SMITH: We are becoming more aware of this epidemic and becoming more aware of what is needed to uproot it. But once again, now we are citizens of America. We all have a part to play in this and we all have to take responsibility. And it starts in our homes and it starts in our communities.
And it starts with people like Casey McClure (ph).
MCCLURE: So that area right here, there's normally girls walking the street around this area.
SMITH: In January 2015, she led a tour of some of Atlanta's trafficking hot spots and Georgia law makers saw for themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And tonight, local police are searching for a man who...
SMITH: So did local viewers watching the evening news.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: News about sex trafficking.
SMITH: Including this woman, she feared her 14-year-old granddaughter might have been a victim of trafficking. She called McClure's hotline at 4Sarah (ph) and a volunteer answered.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said it's going to take a few days but don't worry. We're going to find her because if you saw it on the news and you called me, it was meant for you to find her.
SMITH: With a little research, they found her granddaughter for sale on the internet. Casey's (ph) volunteer called Sergeant Kennedy. And Kennedy's team started looking.
KENNEDY: Do you run this tape? Whatever comes out over the radio?
SMITH: They soon suspect a local trafficking ring maybe involved.
(INAUDIBLE)
KENNEDY: That's them. That's both the male and the female.
SMITH: They track the suspects to a local bar.
KENNEDY: OK. Go ahead and put your hand behind your back for me, interlace (ph) your fingers. No, no, no. Don't get on the ground. Stand up, my man. Stand up. Don't do this. Don't do this, who's purse is that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's my purse.
KENNEDY: There's a gun in it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's not my gun.
KENNEDY: My highest concern is where the 14-year-old girl I've been looking for. You can help me real a lot, you can take a girl off the street.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does she have a red hair?
KENNEDY: She might, yeah.
SMITH: This suspect appears to cooperate.
KENNEDY: That might be her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I did see her.
KENNEDY: Where?
SMITH: But she's vague on the details.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last week in the department. I think that's where it was.
KENNEDY: OK. Is that her?
[21:55:00] SMITH: Next stop, Kennedy's team searches the house of one of the male suspects.
KENNEDY: Send uniform to the back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have police search warrant.
SMITH: But the 14-year-old is not there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One that we wanted with the girl, but the three guys off to street definitely confirmed that they knew the girl, then, we confirmed that she was in there.
SMITH: Kennedy working with the team of law enforcement agencies continues to search for days until this car stopped near the airport.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They had the suspect from Illinois. We got warrants on him so he is (inaudible).
SMITH: Inside the car the 14-year-old girl they were looking for and with her a 15-year old who told Kennedy she was on the way to meet her first John.
KENNEDY: In this particular situation, actually having two girls. It's pretty good. You need to get the two off the street. In fact, it's actually a welcome to feeling when you get the parents or the guardians involved. And just one thing you look for, you know, to bring the child home and get the parents, you know, say thanks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I started crying, I just couldn't believe it. When you hear something like that your granddaughter was missing for over a month, it was just so exciting.
SMITH: Two girls saved when a community came together. Law enforcement, advocates and eventually caregivers like Lisa Williams. WILLIAMS: We tell them how beautiful they are from the inside out and
we make them believe it. And if they can't believe it, Jada, we believe it for them until they're able to laugh on to it.
SMITH: I got that.
Since graduating from Living Water for Girls, Sasha Ray's life hasn't been perfect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go.
SMITH: But she's working hard on her future. She now has a job and -- you graduated from high school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am, (inaudible).
SMITH: Nice. How do you feel about accomplishing that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first person I call was Lisa. I was like "Oh, my gosh, guess what? I graduated." And she was like, "Yes, yes".
SMITH: And Sasha Ray knows she will have Lisa Williams behind her all the way.
You say when you met Ms. Lisa, you felt a love that felt better than...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yeah.
SMITH: ... that you feel from your exploiter. What makes Ms. Lisa's love better?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just her, when you walk into a room, you'll just feel you could be mad. Just mad (inaudible). We went into a room to she have the brightest smile. She say, "Hey, beautiful". Those are those words really does work. "Hey, beautiful", that does make (inaudible) to the situation.
SMITH: And just as those first words she wrote down in a letter brought Ms. Lisa into her life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For you.
SMITH: Sasha Ray (ph) now has another message she like to deliver.
WILLIAMS: Dear Ms. Lisa, since you've been in my life, things haven't been the same. Yes. I'm not going to lie. I still struggle, but I can say I'm stronger, I'm wiser and I can honestly say I do love myself and I have hope for myself.
SMITH: Love and hope, two things everyone needs, wants and deserves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you, too. That was a good hug.
WILLIAMS: Crazy, girl. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to love you forever. I really needed this, this hug.
SMITH: John's, tricks, pimps, the words all around. People who are exploiting teenage boys and girls aren't pimps. They're human traffickers and the people who are having sex with children aren't John the tricks, they are child rapist, pedophiles so we should call them what they are.
So you ask what can you do, well, you can talk to your kids about human trafficking and if you need more information, go to cnn.com/freedom.
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