ST. LOUIS – Two recent sex trafficking busts – one at the Renaissance Hotel in April 2023 and another at River City Casino this past February – reveal a pattern.

The hotel case involved missing teens from foster care in Texas. The casino case involved a minor who had been living in a children’s group home.

Crisis Aid International’s Cindy Malott told us, “The national statistics really mirror what we see in St. Louis, which is approximately 78-80% of trafficking survivors have spent time either in foster, adoptive care or in residential placement.”

Crisis Aid has offices in many area police departments where it offers support to victims. On Friday, it held an “Empowering Action” seminar inside Mercy Hospital. It focused on knowing what to look for and how to intervene. In attendance were police officers, medical professionals and service providers.

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Malott said, “I don’t think that’s ever too invasive to say, ‘Are you ok? Are you safe? ‘Do you need something?’”

Retired Sgt. Adam Kavanaugh added, “You’ve got to look outside that bubble because there’s people out there that need help.”

Kavanaugh warned not to intervene if someone in distress is around others. He said you should not hesitate calling police if something feels off.

Kavanaugh said, “You don’t want to put yourself in a dangerous position by interjecting when the trafficker or someone may be right there with that person. “You’re putting yourself in danger, but you might also be putting the victim in danger.”

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Crisis Aid’s Cynthia Hamilton added that the struggle is not over when someone is rescued. She told us they’ll need help learning independence.

“Creating opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise have,” she said. “It’s very easy for a trafficking survivor to be revictimized if they don’t have just their basic needs met.”

Kavanaugh adds that there are no boundaries as he said, “I lived out in Wildwood area years back and my daughter’s friend was being trafficked. She lived out in wildwood as well – it could be someone from Wildwood. It could be someone from a country town. “We’ve had them from Sikeston and these little, small communities as well, so it’s always not important don’t want to get involved until it’s your family member.”

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