RIO GRANDE VALLEY - A sex trafficking seminar attracted more attendees this year. Organizers believe the recent increase in human trafficking bust is driving the attendance.
A few weeks ago Rio Grande City police found three sex trafficking victims who'd been smuggled to the Valley from Camargo, Mexico. Officers say they were raped and forced into prostitution by their traffickers. During the conference, one sex trafficking victim captivated the audience when she told her story. Her name is Theresa Flores. She hopes her story can show victims that they can escape
The story in the pages from the book she wrote is hard to imagine, but Theresa Flores lived through every single disturbing minute of it.
"I was targeted by a group of older guys who were involved in organized crime...they decided they would make money off me," she explained.
Theresa was only 15 and living in Detroit, Michigan with her parents. She was a good kid, didn't do drugs, and she wasn't a runaway. She met the wrong people.
One day, an older boy from school offered her a ride home. He drugged and raped her. A couple of days later, he told her his cousins took pictures of their encounter and they were going to make her earn them back. They demanded she sneak out of her home when they called. One night, two of the criminals took her to a seedy motel.
"There were about two dozen men waiting for me, I was 16...it was a sea of men...they auctioned me off all night long until I passed out and they left me for dead," she recalled.
"There were about two dozen men waiting for me, I was 16...it was a sea of men...they auctioned me off all night long until I passed out and they left me for dead," she recalled.
She woke up in her pajamas, no shoes.
"They threatened to kill my parents and kill me...they would watch me," she said.Two years later, she escaped the torture.
It's been twenty years since that day. Theresa says the most important lesson behind her books is that sexual slavery can happen to anyone.
She is spreading her message and trying to bring awareness to sex trafficking. She made small soap bars, she wrapped and put the National Trafficking Hotline number on them. She gave them out to hotel managers during the Super Bowl. She hopes one of the soaps ended up in the hands of a trafficking victim.
The National Trafficking Hotline is 888-3737-888.
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