How A Social Media Post Led A Teen Into Sex Trafficking

Hope, 17, says three years ago, she was abducted by someone she met online and forced into prostitution. “It all started because I posted on a social media site that I hated my mother,” she recalls. “A woman messaged me back telling me that I could go stay with her, and we’d go partying. She showed up within the next 45 minutes. I was gone.”

Hope says the woman took her to a motel room, where a male accomplice was waiting. She claims she was beaten, drugged and trafficked for sex — with up to 20 men a day. After three weeks and traveling to eight states, she was finally rescued. “I could never be Hope again after that; I was never going to be the same girl,” she says.

Hope says she still struggles to cope with the ordeal and that her mother, Desiree, lacks sympathy and wants her to just get over the past.

Desiree says she feels at times just as traumatized as her daughter. “Hope is not the only victim; I’m a victim,” she says. “During the time that Hope was gone, I felt lost. It took a lot of strain on my job, my relationship with my other kids. It was an emotional roller coaster.”

Watch their story above, and see Dr. Phil’s advice for how Hope can begin to heal, and how mother and daughter can start to mend their relationship.

Need Dr. Phil’s help in your life? Share your story here.

Like Dr. Phil | Follow Dr. Phil | Be on the Show | Ask Dr. Phil