My daughter was taken by a sex trafficker and now has a price tag on her

Hundreds of young girls are abducted and forced into sex work in Texas each year. Parents and private investigators are among those working to claim back girls like Kristen Galvan, taken when she was 15.

Robyn Cory (centre) is searching for her daughter Kristen (left and right), who was actively groomed by a sex trafficker.

In this week's episode Dateline follows a mother, private detective and armed bounty hunters trying to rescue teenagers from a sex trafficking underworld in Texas. Watch Children for Sale, Tuesday 18 April, 9.30pm on SBS or stream via SBS On Demand.

Robyn Cory drives down a busy Houston street looking for her daughter Kristen.

She is accompanied by private investigator Betty Simons and a team of armed bounty hunters.

Kristen Galvan, 19, has been missing for three years. This is the second time she has disappeared.

At age 15, Kristen was being actively groomed by a sex trafficker. She ran away with the man she thought to be her boyfriend.

A graph depicting the types of trafficking in Texas reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

A week-and-a-half later, Houston police found Kristen on Bissonnet Street, a thoroughfare in Houston notorious for street prostitution and gun crime

“The detectives were talking with us and clearly she had been sex trafficked,” Robyn said.

“I needed to get her away from Houston.”

Robyn arranged for Kristen to stay at her grandmother's house without a phone. But after observing progress in Kristen’s behaviour following psychiatry, family and trauma counselling, her phone was returned.

Kristen was gone again within the next two days. A cycle of exploitation has kept her tied to her trafficker.

“My daughter has a price tag on her,” Robyn said.

“[She’s] a child.”

I needed to get her away from Houston.

Robyn Cory

Kristen is among the 80,000 young people who have been forced into sex trafficking in Texas. The average age a girl starts to be sold at is 15.

Houston has more cases than any other city in the United States.

Houston's red light district

Bissonnet Street is a major arterial road in Houston lined with cafes, fashion boutiques, international cuisine and nightlife.

While unassuming, it has earned an international reputation for being Houston’s most prominent red light district.

“I was just simply going up there looking for my daughter,” Robyn said.

“But soon realised we had a problem.”

Sex traffickers, or pimps, circling the block on the Bissonnet Track.

As night falls, under-aged girls dressed in lingerie are forced to walk down what is known as the Bissonnet Track. An open-air sex-market where sex traffickers, or pimps, circle the block. Drivers stop their cars to solicit girls.

“These are children that are out there,” private investigator Betty Simons said.

“This isn’t a happy place. This is a very dark place.”

Private investigator Betty Simons works to find girls who are abducted and forced into sex work.

Texas was the first state to increase solicitation of prostitution from a misdemeanour to a felony offence. It is now illegal to ask for sex in exchange for payment of any kind. Even if no sexual conduct occurs and no money is exchanged, offenders can face two years in state prison.

A first offence may become a second-degree felony if the person solicited is under 18 or if the person represents themselves as being under 18. A second-degree felony carries a jail term of between two and 20 years.

What is a sex trafficker?

According to the US State Department, sex trafficking can encompass any activity used by a trafficker to compel another person, including a child, to engage in a commercial sex act.

These activities can include the recruitment, harbouring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronising, or soliciting of a person who is sexually exploited for the financial gain of another.

Sex trafficking is typically synonymous with the use of physical violence and force.

Graphs depicting the ages of people trafficked in Texas and the venues for sex trafficking in Texas reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

When she was 17, Dominique McGee was abducted by a trafficker after accepting a job in a strip club to support her young son. Her trafficker is known as a Guerilla Pimp.

“He said, ‘I'm going to tell you like this, if you try to leave you will be killed before you reach Atlantic City,'” she said.

“‘You will never see your son again and I will spread your body parts everywhere.’

“‘You belong to me.'"

Dominique McGee was abducted by a trafficker after accepting a job in a strip club to support her young son.

But not all methods are the same. Sex trafficking can also happen under the guise of romantic love.

A Romeo Pimp, like Kristen’s trafficker, purports to be in a romantic relationship with their victim.

Through first posing as a romantic partner and promising a life together, Romeo Pimps alienate their victims from friends and family.

When power and control become the currency of a relationship, traffickers can coerce their victims into commercial sex acts. Victims are rewarded with gifts and affection, but the threat of violence for non-compliance is always underlying.

“For years I just called it an abusive relationship. I hid and silenced the whole prostitution part,” sex trafficking survivor, Kathy McGibbon Givens, said.

Sex trafficking survivor, Kathy McGibbon Given.

“I didn’t understand what trafficking was until I finally started embracing what had happened to me.

“There’s a name to it.”

For years I just called it an abusive relationship. I hid and silenced the whole prostitution part.

Kathy McGibbon Givens

Betty Simons says this method preys on Houston’s most vulnerable girls.

“It’s false love, but the only love [these girls] have ever known.”

Recovering underage girls from sex trafficking

Betty started recovery work after her sister was sex trafficked at the age of 14 and later murdered.

“For me it keeps my sister alive,” she said.

“Even though she’s not here, they couldn’t kill her, they couldn’t take her away.”

Betty’s work involves cross referencing advertisements on escort websites with the National Index for Missing Children. She says her concern peaks 90 days after a girl goes missing.

Betty’s work involves cross referencing advertisements on escort websites with the National Index for Missing Children.

“These children are products. They are selling them to make money,” she said.

“If the child is not being advertised or sold then you can’t help but start to wonder ‘What happened to them?’”

When no advertisements appear for a missing girl online, Betty turns to on-the-ground, investigative methods. She drives up and down the Bissonet Track hoping to identify a victim.

But when the police find the victims first and criminalise them for outstanding charges, it complicates the recovery process.

“It’s a Catch 22. You’re going to have her picked up, [but] she’s going to jail,” Betty said.

“When really she’s a victim.”

These children are products. They are selling them to make money.

Betty Simons

Despite the challenges, and while knowing Kristen may never be recovered, Betty and Robyn continue their search.

Robyn concedes the thought has crossed her mind that her daughter may be dead.

“What hasn’t crossed my mind? My daughter is being raped and sold, how much more worse can it get?

“I promised her I wouldn’t let anything more happen to her. So I’m keeping my promise to her.

"I’ve got to continue my search.”

Robyn Cory's daughter Kristen has been missing for three years.

Betty says: “There is never going to be a time that we don’t look for Kristen or that we stop.

“There is still a chance and there will always be a chance until we find her.”

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault/sexual violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au

In an emergency, call 000.

Readers seeking crisis support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged up to 25).

More information and support for mental health is available at Beyond Blue.org.au

and on 1300 22 4636.

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