Kristen Galvan was just 15 years old when she went missing from her Texas home. She was being sold for sex nearby.
In this week's episode Dateline follows a mother, private detective and armed bounty hunters trying to rescue teenagers from a sex trafficking underworld in Texas. Watch Children for Sale, Tuesday 18 April, 9.30pm on SBS or stream via SBS On Demand.She is accompanied by private investigator Betty Simons and a team of armed bounty hunters.At age 15, Kristen was being actively groomed by a sex trafficker. She ran away with the man she thought to be her boyfriend.
Robyn arranged for Kristen to stay at her grandmother's house without a phone. But after observing progress in Kristen’s behaviour following psychiatry, family and trauma counselling, her phone was returned.Kristen was gone again within the next two days. A cycle of exploitation has kept her tied to her trafficker.I needed to get her away from Houston.Kristen is among the 80,000 young people who have been forced into sex trafficking in Texas.
These activities can include the recruitment, harbouring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronising, or soliciting of a person who is sexually exploited for the financial gain of another.Graphs depicting the ages of people trafficked in Texas and the venues for sex trafficking in Texas reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Dominique McGee was abducted by a trafficker after accepting a job in a strip club to support her young son.A Romeo Pimp, like Kristen’s trafficker, purports to be in a romantic relationship with their victim. Betty’s work involves cross referencing advertisements on escort websites with the National Index for Missing Children. She says her concern peaks 90 days after a girl goes missing.
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