Snatched from the Streets of Toledo

Not all kids who end up in prostitution are runaways or delinquents. Cousins “Cara” and “Stacy,” 14 and 15, were simply walking along Main Street in East Toledo, Ohio, to get a Frosty when it happened to them in May 2005.

It was raining, and the girls made the mistake of accepting a lift from a man in a white Lincoln they only thought they knew. He turned out to be Deric Willoughby, a Toledo pimp, who made a living selling girls for sex.

Cara and Stacy didn’t return home that evening, or the next. For the next two weeks they were beaten and forced to have sex with men at motels and truck stops. But then Stacy got busted at a truck stop trick, and the racket began to unravel.

When word got back about Willoughby, Cara’s dad called 911 and rushed to the address along with his sister, Stacy’s mom, armed only with a tire iron. Finally tiring of waiting for the police, the dad began busting out door glass with his tire iron and unlocked the door by reaching inside through the broken glass.

“Give me my daughter!” he bellowed.

A bloody melee ensued with Willoughby and his associates, spilling out into the yard. Finally, police arrived and Cara was freed. The two parents were treated and released at a local hospital for minor injuries.

Willoughby was convicted in federal court of conspiracy and interstate transportation of minors for prostitution and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Meanwhile, the FBI capped five years of its Innocence Lost anti-trafficking initiative in June with a major enforcement “takedown” in 16 cities that led to the recovery of 21 children. In all, Innocence Lost investigations have resulted in convictions of 308 sex traffickers in dozens of cities and the recovery of 433 child victims. Innocence Lost also involved the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.