A B.C. mom's real-life nightmare and the search to find her trafficked daughter

It was a phone call that would trigger a Victoria-area mom’s real-life nightmare.

“It will always haunt me,” said the mom, who CTV News is only identifying as “Lori”.

She remembers hearing her then-15-year-old daughter’s frightened voice on that call, screaming for help and trying to get away from a man.

“She was screaming out to have him let her go and he was yelling to give (her) the phone. I could tell there was a struggle going on, a lot of yelling,” recalled Lori.

But then the line suddenly went dead.

At the time of the call, Lori’s daughter, who had been going through a difficult time and was in government care, had run away.

Lori only knew her daughter was believed to be somewhere in Calgary.

She had no idea, until that phone call, that her daughter was being sex trafficked.

Lori immediately called the Calgary Police Service, who traced the number to a building in the city.

But in that short time, her daughter had already been moved.

“I didn’t have the time to fall apart,” recalled Lori.

“I needed to figure out a way – any way possible – to try and get help and physically get myself there…I was just determined to find her,” she said.

So the distraught mom flew to Calgary and began her search.

“Just searching and searching, I had her photo, trying to ask people if they had seen her,” the mom recalled.

Three days after Lori got that disturbing phone call, Calgary Police received another call about a distraught teenager in a parking lot.

That teenager turned out to be Lori’s daughter.

“What I know is (that) she was banging on the window, screaming for help, in massive distress,” said Lori.

Her daughter was taken to Alberta Children’s Hospital and Lori rushed there as well.

“It was extremely scary to see the state she was in… I’m seeing her flailing all over the place in a complete state of trauma. And all I wanted to do was just hold her. All of a sudden she saw me standing there and screamed out ‘Mama’”.

Though this happened about nine years ago, Lori still believes that parents who don’t think trafficking is taking place in their communities, or don’t think it could happen to their child, should think again.

“It can (happen). It absolutely can,” she said.

Sue Brown is with Justice for Girls and points out that children in care are disproportionately targeted by traffickers.

“Those are the children that traffickers target because they know they are vulnerable,” she explained.

“They know that the state is a terrible guardian. They know that group homes are staffed by people who don’t have adequate training or resources to properly care for those kids.”

But Brown emphasizes that anyone can fall victim and urges parents to be vigilant with their children’s internet and social media.

“We do see a lot more girls being groomed via online dating apps for example. Snapchat is a fairly common one. Instagram is a another one where there’s a fair amount of exploitation happening,” she said.

Signs that a child or young person is being groomed include a new “boyfriend” or friend showering them with gifts and “love-bombing” them.

Another warning sign is a child secretly creating new social media accounts.

“I’d say if you find a second cell phone or if a boyfriend is providing communications, that they’re sort of trying to isolate the conversation or isolate the relationship through a phone that they tell their girlfriend to hide or not share with the parents, for example, that’s a real big red flag,” she said.

Years later, Lori would learn her daughter, who became addicted to meth, was also trafficked in Victoria.

The trauma the then-teen experienced would change her forever.

“Memories, the trauma of it, will never ever go away,” Lori said.

“It destroys your soul. You don’t ever really come back,” she said.

This is the second story in an in-depth series exploring human trafficking and its connection to British Columbia. Part one can be seen here.

This project was made possible with funding provided by the Lieutenant Governor’s B.C. Journalism Fellowship in partnership with Government House Foundation and the Jack Webster Foundation.