Case Study | Missing Person | Kadijah

Sex traffickers who target young women are usually very adept at keeping them in their circle, and sometimes the lengths traffickers will go to is frightening.

Lauth missing person investigators were contacted by a family whose 15 year-old daughter, Kadijah, was missing. They contacted law enforcement and filed a missing person report, but also had the foresight to seek the expertise of the nation’s foremost expert in missing children and adults.

The Investigation

The intake call and additional interviews with the family generated a credible lead that pointed to Atlanta and the home of a known sex trafficker.

Lauth utilized verified databases to locate the trafficker’s criminal record and his address history to identify possible locations to take Kadijah. Lauth identified a former residence of the trafficker and was able to see the inside of the home before it was sold. Not long after that, Lauth got a lead that the trafficker and Kadijah were headed to Chicago, one of the largest hubs for sex trafficking in the United States. Despite a direct threat from the trafficker, Lauth doggedly pursued the lead to Chicago. Lauth applied proven methodology in Chicago in an attempt to locate Kadijah, but the corner she allegedly frequented turned up no additional leads. After returning from Chicago, Lauth got a tip from one of the human sources identified in the case who said that Kadijah was in the hospital, following an attack from the trafficker that involved running her over and resulted in a broken clavicle.

The Solution

After recovering from her injuries, Kadijah was returned to her mother, and received counseling to cope with the aftermath.