(WLWT)– Police credit the arrests in a human trafficking case to the mother of the victim’s best friend, who gave them the start the lead needed.
Police say that Michael Nason, Tiffany Cheek, and Carl Hickman kept a 16-year-old Knox County girl locked in the back of a U-Haul truck for days. She was sexually abused and drugged-up during this time.
“I know she told her that she was in Cincinnati. She told her that she had been doing drugs. She told her that she was in the back of a U-Haul truck,” said Tracy Martin, the mother of the girl’s best friend.
Martin began messaging with her daughter’s friend on Facebook.
“We hadn’t heard from her in a while and she messaged us saying that she was stranded in Cincinnati and that she needed money to get home on,” she told WLWT.
The victim told her she was staying with an aunt in Cincinnati, but Martin said she knew the story didn’t add up.
“I contacted her mother the next day and she had ran away,” said Martin. “She did not have any family in Cincinnati.”
Martin and a friend made the victim think that they were sending the money via Western Union and that they needed the address to send it.
She gave the address over to police who say they found the teen locked in the back of a U-Haul truck.
All three suspects face human trafficking charges, and Nason also was charged with rape.
