In June 2007, “Shauna’s Story of Slavery,” written by IN reporter Mari S. Krueger, told the story of Shauna Newell, age 17, who woke up, her clothes torn from her, a man over her, raping her. Her hands were tied, crossed, behind her head. She yelled for them to stop, to leave her alone. She looked into the faces of the four men watching, looked to her friend Jana, looking for a sign that one of them would help her. Instead, she got a gun pressed to her head.
Later she overheard that they were taking her to Texas and selling her as a sex slave. Fortunately her captors dumped her out at a local convenience store when media pressure on the missing girl foiled their plans.
The IN reported in 2007 trafficking of humans was tied with arms dealing as the second largest criminal industry in the world and was the fastest growing. The Panhandle saw 43 rescued victims in May and June 2007 – more than Miami or Orlando.
The story was picked up nationally. CBS News, NBC Today and Air America Radio interviewed Shauna for their investigative reports. Her abductors were never caught.
Today Jessica Forbes looks as human trafficking and the rescue networks in our cover story “Rescue Networks:Combating Modern Slavery One Case at a Time.”
For most people, the notion of an 8-year old forced to participate in the sex trade or parents trying to sell their own children are incomprehensible, but these are instances of trafficking that Brad Dennis has encountered not overseas, but in Pensacola. The 8-year old victim rescued locally was the youngest Dennis has worked with in almost 10 years combating human trafficking throughout the U.S.
Seven years apart. This is problem still exists, not just internationally but here in the Panhandle.