Survivors say North Texas sex‑trafficking indictments highlight relentless work behind the scenes
Natalee Cramer, her mother, Brook Morris, and trafficking survivor Whitney Taylor say they still cannot believe their purpose is helping people escape human trafficking.
Cramer said she was sex trafficked for 10 days from Dallas to Oklahoma after disappearing during a Dallas Mavericks game at the American Airlines Center. She was 15.
"I was sex trafficked for 10 days from Dallas to Oklahoma," Cramer said. "I was taken from a Mavericks game. Within those 10 days, I was picked up and sex trafficked. I got money for pimps. And 10 days later, I was found."
Four years later, Cramer said she is inspired by a Department of Justice raid on a home in Plano and the Paris Adult Bookstore on Harry Hines Boulevard in Dallas, which resulted in eight indictments.
"For me, it's an internal victory, but it's also just inspiring to see not just me, but other women come out and men come out of the sex trafficking industry," she said.
Morris said evil "lurks in the shadows" and is not exclusive to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
"I think there's a lot more where that comes from in terms of fronts, like a bookstore front, like a gas station, whatever it may look like, insert, whatever."
She recalled hearing words like "rape" and "sold" used to describe what was happening to her daughter.
"Your daughter's being sold," she said. "My immediate question was, 'For what?' It never occurred to me that somebody would sell her, much less sell her for sex because she's priceless."
Survivors channel their trauma into advocacy
Morris said that once she realized her daughter had been trafficked, she thought, "This can't happen anymore. This is so bad."
She said the men and women working in trafficking environments are still someone's child and deserve to be met where they are.
Cramer and Morris founded Aisling for Life to support victims and survivors. They work alongside Taylor, who said she was groomed as a child within her own family.
"I met an older man online on those AOL disks that used to get in the mail. I met a 22-year-old when I was 12, and a cop just so happened to be in that area by the grace of God, walked up to the window, and saw that he was on top of me. I was incapacitated."
Taylor said it was not her last encounter with a man who took advantage of her. She said a man she believed was "the love of her life" began trafficking her at 17.
"I had had no experience in relationships whatsoever because I didn't have a childhood. I was in and out of jail, in and out of juvenile, different programs."
Taylor now works with Cramer and Morris and is studying to become a licensed social worker to provide additional support to people overcoming trafficking.
