At age 13, Shelly ran away for the first time. After returning home, her mother attempted to enforce more stringent rules, but Shelly’s rebellion was already out of her control. When she was 14, she met a man, many years her senior, who began to pay her a great deal of attention – telling her how pretty she was and buying her new clothes. One day she left home and met him around the corner… the beginning of a nearly two-year descent into the world of human trafficking.

At age 13, Shelly ran away for the first time. When she was 14, she met a man, many years her senior, who began to pay her a great deal of attention. She says he taught her “everything.” One afternoon, while he lounged in Montavilla Park, he sent her out to 82^nd Ave. to perform her first act as a prostitute….