Putting A Funeral Under Surveillance
Suddenly, a vehicle arrives that we had previously noticed from one of the residences we had previously staked out as being suspicious. Our cameras and binoculars were focused on the car’s interior...
Note from Dottie: These are stories from my memories of rescuing human trafficking victims for the past 20 years. I have changed the details, however the lessons learned, and tactics of the traffickers are real. There were so many cases that I often combine them together to tell a real story and in order to protect the anonymity of all the victims and the teammates who helped us.
The story goes on Sara magically appears and just as magically disappears from her family. While with them, she never comes clean on where she has been, what she has done, etc. Then just as mysteriously as her previous departure, she vanishes once again, only this time it was from her high school.
We went through the same anxious process contacting the school district Chief of Police was once again a frustrating course of action. He for whatever reason refused to cooperate with the family or me. For whatever reason, he decided that a child’s life was not important enough for him to act. He states with the same air of ambivalence as before that he has no time to review CCCTV footage from the school.
So, once again we file a complaint with the Superintendent. The chief reluctantly acquiesces, and the video recording is reviewed. On screen it can readily be seen that a woman can be seen leaving the building with Sara. Unfortunately, the Chief is the only one allowed to review the video. He states he cannot recognize the woman. It seems preposterous to us that an utter stranger would not just be allowed into the school but would be permitted to leave with a student. At this point, we have no recourse and need to really put the motion in gear and find Sara.
We rev up with a series of news stories, social media posts and surveillance on various residences. This begets nothing – there is no sign of Sara, no tips, no nothing.
I reach out to a police officer I knew who worked the online sex classified ads Backpage.com along with the FBI. They were in the middle of their annual weeklong campaign to locate exploited/trafficked minors online. I asked him if he had seen our missing fliers on our website. I guided the law enforcement team to the site. The officer said that he had seen Sara posted many times on Backpage. Unfortunately, he never responded to my many requests, and follow ups.
It is now almost a year since Sara was last seen. We discovered that her other grandmother (maternal) was seriously ill and was close to passing away. This may not have been the break we were waiting for, however if Sara were to be at her grandmother’s funeral, just maybe we could get her away from the bad guys…. Just maybe this could work to our advantage. Obviously, this was never the way we wanted to handle the situation but perhaps it could work to our and Sara’s advantage. We developed a plan and called it Operation Funeral.
Shortly after discovering about her maternal grandmother’s illness, she does pass away. Operation Funeral is put into action, and we gather the intel on the funeral. We set up in the funeral home parking lot as people start to arrive. The lot was on a hill, so we had an unobstructed view of the parking lot. No one would notice us with all the activity taking place.
Suddenly, a vehicle arrives that we had previously noticed from one of the residences we had previously staked out as being suspicious. Our cameras and binoculars were focused on the car’s interior where we spotted four people and lo and behold there was Sara.
We snapped a photo and sent it to Maria (paternal grandmother). She had not known we were going to stake out the funeral and was purposely kept in the dark regarding Operation Funeral. Much to my chagrin, I have learned the hard way, that my clients often trust the wrong person with information which could blow our surveillance. Traffickers often place a trusted person next to the parents. This is someone that the family would never suspect. So quite on purpose we did not tell Maria about the surveillance.
Nevertheless, Maria was overjoyed to see proof that Sara was alive. We asked her to meet us and the local law enforcement at the funeral so she could positively identify her. More misfortune! We had to wait over an hour for the police to arrive. During our wait, the funeral ended. Sara had gone in but in the exceptionally large crowd we could not see her come out. We now had to follow the funeral to the burial site.
Phillip (my associate) went into the funeral home to see if he could spot Sara or determine that she had left with the crowd. However, another funeral was beginning and there was no way to get access to the entire facility. At this point our cover was blown and we were now unable to stay concealed. We did, however, continue to follow the crowd to the burial site, when the police finally arrived.
By this time Phillip and I were getting a bit light-headed because of the ridiculousness of the situation. The deceased woman (Sara’s other grandmother) was herself a bit of a notorious criminal. She was the mother of Sara’s felon mother. The entire family was involved in drugs, crime, and violence. There must have been over three hundred people attending her funeral. When the police arrived, we joked that many of her family must have thought they were coming for them.
By this time, the funeral director noticed us and wanted to know what we were up to. He was genuinely nice, but we must have made his position incredibly stressed. We explained to him and the police about Sara, why we were here and introduced them to her grandmother who had been hidden from the crowd. Together, our Team Sara quietly sifted through the crowd looking for her.
I must say it was never my intention to disrupt a funeral, let alone the grandmother of our trafficked victim. I could never be okay for doing such a thing, however there are times when this work takes you on a journey that you just do not expect.
As it turned out Sara was hiding in the funeral home. To our surprise and disappointment, Sara’s sister Ana, who also lived with Maria had alerted her that we were staking out the funeral and so she hid. This fits with most trafficking cases where the traffickers corrupt a trusted person. Sara hid for hours in the funeral home.
Sara was found under most inauspicious circumstances when she was caught breaking into her former high school. Alarmingly, she was being harbored by her biological mother. And she was not just hiding out there – she was being trafficked as a domestic servant, prostitute and was being drugged. It was our firm belief that Sara’s biological mother had given the phone to the coach to pass on to Sara.
Furthermore, I believe this had been the plan all along. As soon as she was a viable and valuable age she was lured and groomed by several adult criminals to be sold for sex. It is important to note that there is no such thing as a runaway. Children are being lured into trafficking every minute of every day, while many turn a blind eye. They are all in danger of exploitation as soon as they are lured from safety.
Sara is now facing adult criminal charges; she exhibits signs of long-term trauma and other health ailments.
The bio mom is still free!
The coach still has her job!
Sara’s future, however, is forever damaged and potentially destroyed.
Maria especially had a rough go as she was dealing with heart problems throughout the ordeal.
So, this is not a Pollyanna ending and not the outcome we hoped for, I would have genuinely liked to help Sara out of her dire situation before she ended up facing charges. However, Sara is now safe and receiving is receiving treatment for trauma while in the criminal justice system. She has a chance to live and have a future. For that I am forever thankful.