PUBLIC SAFETY

Police: Girl kidnapped, forced into prostitution

Marisa Kwiatkowski marisa.kwiatkowski@indystar.com

The 16-year-old girl said she just wanted a ride home.

Instead, according to federal court records, the Indianapolis teen was kidnapped, forced into prostitution and held for ransom. She said her captors forced her to have sex for money in three states over a four-day period — until law enforcement found them.

Kevryn Gaines-Dukes and Myiesha White were arrested Aug. 18 and later charged in federal court.

Law enforcement officials say human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world.

“We should care because our children are being sold for sex,” said Tracy McDaniel, who serves on the Indiana Protection for Abused and Trafficked Humans task force. “Children in our city are being sold for sex.”

McDaniel is the founder and CEO of Restored, which provides services, outreach and education to girls and young women ages 11 to 24 who have been victims of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation in the United States. She said her caseload has tripled since last year.

McDaniel, who said she cannot comment on specific cases, said the rise in her caseload may be due to increased awareness by child welfare officials who have been trained to identify when someone is not just a runaway but also may have been a victim of human trafficking.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimated one in six “endangered runaways” reported to the center were likely sex trafficking victims. But runaways aren’t the only ones at risk.

In the Indianapolis case, the girl’s father contacted police Aug. 16 after his daughter failed to come home from a night out with friends, federal court records state. He received text messages from her that said “police” and “help.”

An individual, later identified as Gaines-Dukes, also used that cellphone to demand $25,000 from the girl’s father in exchange for her safe return. If her father didn’t pay the money, “he would not find his child alive,” court records state.

The 16-year-old’s captor also sent a text to the girl’s sister, who berated him for being “weak, immature and lazy” because he was prostituting young girls instead of getting a job, according to federal court records.

A Marion Superior Court judge authorized police to track the location of the girl’s phone, which led them to a motel in Nashville, Tennessee. Law enforcement identified the suspects and their car through hotel records and surveillance video, but the group already had checked out, federal court records state. Law enforcement issued an all-points bulletin in surrounding states, including Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana.

Indiana State Police pulled over Gaines-Dukes’ car on Aug. 18 near the outlet mall in Edinburgh. Gaines-Dukes and White were in the front seat; the 16-year-old girl was in the back.

The girl told police that she tried to ride an IndyGo bus home on Aug. 15, but the driver kicked everyone off after a “disturbance,” court records state. She walked to a gas station near East 42nd Street and Post Road, where Gaines-Dukes offered her a ride home.

Instead, the girl told police, he took her to a motel and forced her to have sex, according to federal court records. She said Gaines-Dukes and White bought her lingerie, took suggestive photos of her and listed her on a website used for prostitution.

The girl said she watched White have sex for money, then had to do it herself, court records state. The teen estimated that she had sex with more than 10 individuals and received about $1,000.

They traveled from Indiana to Cincinnati to Nashville and back to Indiana, records state.

The 16-year-old said she repeatedly told Gaines-Dukes and White that she wanted to go home and didn’t want to have sex with anyone. She said she couldn’t leave because Gaines-Dukes was always with her.

Gaines-Dukes and White each were charged in federal court with “unlawfully seizing, confining, kidnapping, abducting or carrying away and holding (the 16-year-old) for ransom, and conspiring to unlawfully seize, confine, kidnap, abduct or carry away and hold (her) for ransom,” federal court records state.

The girl was “willfully transported across a state boundary,” according to federal documents.

Call Star reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski at (317) 444-6135. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyMarisaK.

How you can help

If you believe you are the victim of trafficking or have information about a potential trafficking situation, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at (888) 373-7888. You also can submit a tip to the NHTRC online. If it is an emergency, call 911.

For information on how to recognize signs of human trafficking and questions to ask, please visit http://www.purchased.org/know-the-signs/