Teen Kidnapped At Dallas Basketball Game Found Days Later Held In Hotel Room

To think that something like this could happen is such a huge arena with so many people.

Huff Post reports:

Six women and two men are facing charges in the sex trafficking abduction of a 15-year-old girl who left her dad at a Mavericks basketball game in Dallas last month to use the restroom.

The teen was tracked down 10 days later in an Oklahoma City hotel 200 miles away after the nonprofit Texas Counter-Trafficking Initiative contacted by her parents found nude photos of her on a website known for prostitution.

The girl’s parents are heartsick for their child and furious with Dallas police, who they said dismissed their concerns about their missing daughter, according to the family’s attorney, Zeke Fortenberry.

The girl’s father immediately contacted security at the American Airlines Center arena when his daughter went missing, and the parents “repeatedly” contacted Dallas police to find the girl, Fortenberry said in a statement earlier this month.

Dallas police “never began an investigation and failed to make any effort to locate the teenage girl,” nor even bothered to obtain a photograph of her, said Fortenberry.

A Dallas police spokesperson told Fox News Friday that an officer at the arena searched for the teen there when her father reported her missing.

Police also cited Texas Family Code, which they said “dictates that missing juveniles” be considered “runaways unless there are circumstances which appear as involuntary such as a kidnapping or abduction.” The case was filed in the suburb where the teen lives, some 30 minutes from the stadium, and information was included in the local police bulletin.

“My daughter went missing in the city of Dallas, this is a Dallas case, but they refused to open a case for her,” the girl’s father said.

Fortenberry said that the “systems and organizations involved in this case continually failed the victim. She should never have had contact with the man at the Mavericks game. The Dallas Police should have worked quickly to investigate leads and locate the teenager before she was trafficked to Oklahoma.”

The teen was found by Oklahoma City police after they were alerted about the internet photos by the Texas Counter-Trafficking Initiative. They arrested the eight suspects last month. A number of them had significant criminal histories.

“These are very bad players we’re talking about,” said Gary Knight of the Oklahoma City Police Department.

The Oklahoma City Police Department has arrested Saniya Alexander, Melissa Wheeler, Chevaun Gibson, Kenneth Nelson, Sarah Hayes, Karen Gonzales, Thalia Gibson and Steven Hill in connection to the trafficking case. Gibson is charged with offering to engage in prostitution; Nelson, Hayes and Gonzales are charged with human trafficking and distribution of child pornography; Hill is charged with rape; Gibson and Alexander have felony warrants; and Wheeler has a robbery warrant.

Mr Fortenberry also slammed the Extended Stay America hotel for allowing a registered sex offender with a fake name and ID to rent rooms.

“The Extended Stay America hotel in Oklahoma City put profits ahead of people by turning a blind eye to the sexual exploitation occurring right before their eyes. This victim’s life will forever be changed. We hope to hold accountable those responsible and create change within these organizations so that this never happens to any other child,” he said.

Fortenberry said there were multiple steps along the way that could have prevented the incident. He said the man that lured the teenage girl from the game found her in an area inside the center that he did not have a valid ticket to be in, and that the fraudulent ticket \ the man had was provided by an individual known to the Dallas Mavericks and American Airlines Center as a seller of fraudulent tickets.

Surveillance video showed the girl leaving the center with a man.

So glad that she was returned safely. Prayers for her soul to be able to heal and move past those 10 days so that she may have a healthy life.