These Mexican Parents Tracked Down Their 15-Year Old Daughter Before She Was Trafficked Into Prostitution in NYC

These parents followed their instincts and tracked down their daughter before she was propelled into a world of prostitution via human trafficking.

As BBC News reports, parents Elizabeth and Alejandro knew something was wrong within 15 minutes of their daughter disappearing. In Mexico, thousands of women and girls disappear every year and most are not seen alive again.

Elizabeth and Alejandro's daughter Karen had gone to the bathroom without her phone or money and within minutes the parents knew they had to find their daughter.

"I just knew it, I had an anguish that I'd never felt before. I searched the streets, called friends and family, but no-one had seen her," Elizabeth said.

Karen disappeared in Mexico City at 14 in 2013. As BBC News points out, Mexico City had a "staggering 1,238 women and girls... missing in the state in 2011 and 2012." Moreover, 53% of the missing girls are under the age of 17. To top it off, Mexico City is one of the most dangerous states in Mexico for a woman - with at least 2,228 were murdered here in the last 10 years. 

Elizabeth and Alejandro decided to take matters in to their owns hands since Mexican law does not require the police to open a missing person's file until they are one for 72 hours.

Yikes! Karen's parents decided to take a peek in to her social media networks. They found a Facebook profile they did not even know existed. They searched through her 4,000 friends until they spotted a suspicious looking character. The man was "photographed with girls wearing very few clothes and big guns, and was friends with lots of girls about the same age as our daughter," says Elizabeth. 

"This man rang alarm bells: he talked like a drug trafficker, about territory, about travelling, that he was coming to see her soon. He'd been in contact with her a few days before she disappeared, and had given her a smartphone so they could stay in contact, and we hadn't known," says Alejandro added.

Together the parents covered the state in missing person's fliers, bus terminals and toll booths included. In addition, these dedicated parents pushed the local police to issue an amber alert and even got the news and radio outlets to cover the story. 16 days later Karen showed up abandoned at a bus terminal with another girl. Reportedly, the trafficker was "spooked" by the intense coverage and decided against taking the girls to New York.

Unfortunately, Karen was initially upset with her parents - thinking they had come between her and her music career. "This man had promised her travel, money, a music career and fame. He manipulated her really well, and in her innocence she didn't understand the magnitude of the danger she'd been in," said Alejandro.

Karen's parents took her to a conference with other trafficked girls and women. It was then their daughter realized the true danger she was in. "It was when she heard their stories and realized what hell they'd been through that she finally realized the danger she'd been in. She went to the conference as one girl, and came back another," says Elizabeth.

Elizabeth and Alejandro have since helped reunite 21 other children with their families.