One small St. Louis County town is missing dozens of teens
ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) -
Right now there are hundreds of missing kids all around the St. Louis area. Children are disappearing at an alarming rate, especially in one area – North St. Louis County. In the small community of Berkeley, MO alone, 33 kids have disappeared since 2000.
In this report, we`re going to tell you why they're forgotten, what may have happened to them, and what you can do about it. An astounding 219 boys and girls have disappeared from the St. Louis Metro area since 2000 according to our investigation. We compiled names from the Missouri Highway Patrol.
We began running names during the search for Monica Sykes, who disappeared from Berkeley. While her name was on the news, many other names have not brought the same attention. Those that have are now faded into the background behind other news events.
Phoenix Coldon`s parents still search without the same community support as when she first disappeared December 2011. Lawrence Coldon said, "It`s a terrible, crying, deplorable shame that so many people can come up missing in this country with a country with the type of resources that we have."
Phoenix was recently attending the University of Missouri-Columbia and living in North County. Her dad believes she may have been taken to be sold for sex and that she's alive.
"I found out where my daughter went missing -- there were three other girls that went missing in the same area where we were living," he said.
Advocate Kimberly Ritter said, "There`s a demand for child sex unfortunately."
We rode with Ritter who now looks at abandoned buildings as potential hiding places for people who want to enslave children for sex. She said, "You have to be aware because if you pay attention you may be able to save a child."
She learned about sex slaves by accident when working as a travel agent for nuns. The Sisters of St. Joseph asked her to train hotel employees how to spot it.
A judge this month sentenced Kyle Parks for selling girls out of a St. Charles motel. One was a missing teen from Ohio. Detectives traced her phone to the Red Roof Inn at Zumbehl and I-70. If traffickers and kidnappers are brazen enough to use hotels, Ritter thinks it's likely they're also working in abandoned buildings.
"No one comes to a location like this. It is hidden in plain sight," she said.
Like an abandoned North St. Louis house that reportedly hid a 12-year-old girl for days. She'd been reported missing after failing to show up at her school bus stop. A suspect now faces charges of kidnapping and sex assault. The backyard shows signs of people hanging out -- food containers and mattresses. Next door you can see another abandoned house.
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/04/30/one-small-st-louis-county-town-is-missing-dozens-of-teens/22062506/
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