Columbus Fire and Rescue Chief Duane Hughes had always heard of human trafficking, but he never imagined it could happen in Lowndes County.
About two or three years ago, Hughes got a call from his crew at Fire Station 2, saying a teenage girl had arrived and needed help. When Hughes arrived at the station, he learned the girl was not a typical runaway.
The teenager, who was from Louisville, had come to Columbus with an adult man she was dating, Hughes told The Dispatch on Thursday.
For the first day, everything was normal, Hughes said, recounting the girl’s story. But the second day, the situation turned.
“He was actually having friends come over to have sex with her for money,” Hughes said. “Money that he was getting. And he wasn’t letting her go, wouldn’t let her call anybody for help.”
Eventually, the teenager escaped her captor and made her way near Station 2, where she saw the yellow Safe Place sign out front designating the fire station as a place for minors in need of immediate help and safety to seek help. The teen recognized the sign from learning about the program at school and came into the station.
Once Hughes heard her story, he reported the situation to police, social workers and Sally Kate Winters Family Services, who took over from there.
Hughes doesn’t know what happened to the teenager next. But he said the incident was a “wake up call” for him on how common – and how local – human trafficking is.
Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery where people profit from the exploitation of others. Victims include all people of all backgrounds, genders and ages.
The United States broadly recognizes two primary forms of human trafficking: forced labor and sex trafficking. Sex trafficking occurs when a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or when the person performing the commercial sex act is a minor.
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline website, the hotline received 267 signals from Mississippi in 2023 and 29 of those were received from victims of human trafficking. From those calls, 122 cases were identified, with 169 victims involved.
A complex issue
But when it comes to how human trafficking actually looks, things get more complex.
Amy Bogue, president of Allegro Clinics, also serves on the Tim Tebow Foundation’s task force against human trafficking. She said when most people think of human trafficking, they think of the movie “Taken” – a victim kidnapped and sold into sex slavery in another country.
But trafficking can happen anywhere, not just in large cities or other countries, she said. Traffickers can also be anyone, including trusted relatives.
“The odds are, you know somebody who has been affected,” Bogue said. “But they may or may not choose to talk about it. Creating that safe space is so important, because then you learn from the victims: one, how to identify it; two, what’s helpful at rescuing them.”
Signs to look for include a controlling figure who will not allow the victim to meet or speak with anyone alone. The perpetrator may also monitor the victim’s movements, spending and communications. Other signs include bruises, submissive or fearful behavior, deprivation from food, water, sleep or medical care, and other isolating behaviors, along with other signs of physical or psychological abuse, according to the Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s website.
A Columbus resident in the health care industry, who spoke to The Dispatch anonymously due to the sensitive nature of the subject, said she had a 3-year-old family member who was trafficked by a parent, and drugs were involved.
“I picked up on it with her behavior, physical signs, and a lot of things that she would say,” the health care worker said. “She didn’t know how to decipher her emotions because she was told everything was supposed to be OK all the time, and she wasn’t supposed to talk about anything.”
Recognizing the signs of trafficking, the worker reported the situation to the authorities.
The child’s parents then took the child and ran with her, until authorities recovered her a year later, she said. Once the child was back in Columbus, the health care worker took custody through the foster system. The child has been in therapy ever since.
“When these children are damaged and you get them, they don’t know love,” the source said. “They don’t know respect. So you have to learn how they accept those things. It’s a process. In my situation, it was ‘I don’t want to be talked to’ and nobody was trusted. And even though it was a family member, we had to start from zero.
“But there’s also been positive impacts of how far she’s come, and the fact that our state has fought for her to make sure she’s going to stay in a healthy situation, and to see her progress. It really makes all those hard times worth it,” she added.
Fighting the fight
For Hughes, seeing human trafficking firsthand changed training for his firefighters. While CFR crews previously received training on abuse and other issues as mandatory reporters, Hughes said human trafficking now dominates about a third of that conversation.
“If you don’t know the signs or symptoms, then it doesn’t even enter into your frame of reference that you need to take extra steps for their protection and for our protection,” Hughes said.
Columbus Police Chief Joseph Daughtry said he is looking to institute similar training for his officers within the next six months, as the attorney general’s office offers training sessions on the subject.
Meanwhile, Bogue has been setting up informational sessions for others in the county. She said she hopes to roll out training for her employees at Allegro Clinics later this fall, using courses purchased from nonprofit Safe House.
Bogue also arranged a meeting for more than a dozen regional bankers on July 23, where they discussed the issue with Dark Watch, a company that uses AI technology to enhance anti-money laundering investigations.
Dark Watch CEO Noel Thomas said the goal is to help banks protect themselves from these illicit businesses while also cutting off human traffickers operating in the area. Bogue said by working together, banks can “prevent this evil in our state.”
The Golden Triangle Dream Center is working to bring education on human trafficking to area schools. Cole Bryan, executive director, said the nonprofit received a grant from the 4-County Foundation’s Round Up Program to work with Say Something Assemblies.
Say Something Assemblies went to every school in the Golden Triangle and Noxubee County between November 2023 and February 2024, except some private schools and Columbus Municipal School District campuses, to teach students about human trafficking, he said. Some children admitted to being victims themselves.
“Sometimes, emotionally, the kids are moved so much that the kids seek counseling right there on site,” Bryan said. “And they say, ‘This is what’s happening in my life.’”
Bryan said he is already in conversations with CMSD Superintendent Stanley Ellis to bring those assemblies to Columbus next.
Further down the road, the Dream Center also hopes to establish a residential rescue program for victims of sex trafficking in the Golden Triangle, Bryan said, though he is not sure on an exact location.
The proposed program will serve victims between the ages of 18 to 25, Bryan said, providing them a safe place to get away from their traffickers while learning life skills.
“At the very core of that, it’s trauma-informed care,” he said.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
