Determination: Mom Finds Sex Trafficked Teen by Herself After Cops "Drop Ball"
This is something you see on SVU.
This mother took matters into her own hands when her daughter went missing and found her with the help of social media.
A missing 16-year-old Milwaukee girl, who is believed to be a victim of sex trafficking has been found in Chicago with the help of a social media manhunt.
Armoni Chambers had been missing for more than a month when her mother, Bonnie Bruno, and Milwaukee activist Tory Lowe tracked her down on Wednesday after seeing a disturbing Facebook live video of the 16-year-old being assaulted by a man.
Bruno claims her daughter ran away to Chicago to meet a man she thought was her boyfriend.She said the person behind the computer was actually a group of predators who sold Armoni into sex slavery, beating and drugging her to keep her from escaping.
'Her entire time in Chicago was trauma after trauma after trauma,' Bruno told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Friday.'She was afraid. She thought she was going to die.'Armoni was reported missing on May 17 by her mother, who pleaded with Milwaukee police to classify the case as 'critical' because of concerns about the teen's mental health.Authorities notified the public about her disappearance on June 18 and said that she may have been in an area of West Milwaukee that is known for prostitution, leading Bruno to fear that her daughter may be a victim of sex trafficking.Soon after a man came forward and said he had seen Armoni board a bus to Chicago.A May 25 surveillance video from the Greyhound station confirmed his story.As the mother became increasingly frustrated with what she saw as a weak effort by the police, she decided to take the search into her own hands.She enlisted the help of Tory Lowe, a local activist with more than 50,000 Facebook followers who frequently posts about missing people.Lowe estimates that he has helped reunite about 130 missing people with their families.On June 25 the pair set out for Chicago.The activists in Chicago tracked down the video's point of origin and reported it to the city police, who found Armoni and brought her to the hospital where she was reunited with her mother.The two returned home to Milwaukee on Thursday. Bruno has said she is relieved to have her daughter back despite what she sees as a failure by the Milwaukee police.'They really dropped the ball on this one,' she said of the department.Bruno thanked everyone who lent a hand in the search by posting on social media and said she wanted to share her daughter's story to raise awareness among other parents.'My message for any parent who has a missing child is don't give up,' she said. -(Megan Sheets, Daily Mail)