Missing 14-year-old seen in sex trafficking advertisement, feds say. Man gets prison
A missing 14-year-old from Colorado was seen in online sex trafficking advertisements, including one showing a photo of her and a man in the background, federal prosecutors said.
The man looked like Denzel Akeem Loftin, a Virginia resident who was already on the FBI’s radar when agents learned in October 2022 that the teen was advertised as a sex worker in the state, according to court documents.
Loftin had been messaging a person he thought was a 17-year-old in Pennsylvania on Tagged, a dating site, since September 2022, prosecutors wrote in documents.
However, he was speaking to an undercover law enforcement officer when he called himself a pimp and “proposed that the girl come to Virginia to work for him,” according to a Dec. 20 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
After the FBI was alerted to the missing 14-year-old on websites that advertised her for sex in the Hampton Roads region — 14 localities including Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake — authorities “set up a ‘date’” with her and another person, officials said.
Investigators learned the other person was a missing 17-year-old from Missouri, according to prosecutors.
Before the “date,” Loftin was seen with both missing teens and a woman who’s accused of helping him, prosecutors said.
When the woman, Emerita Moore, arrived with the two teens for the “commercial sex appointment” she was arrested, according to officials.
Days later, a fugitive apprehension team took Loftin into custody in Norfolk on Nov. 3, 2022, court documents say.
The sentence
A judge sentenced Loftin, 32, of Chesapeake, to 25 years in prison on Dec. 19 for sex trafficking the two teens, the attorney’s office announced in its news release.
Mary T. Morgan, Loftin’s court-appointed defense attorney, declined a request for comment from McClatchy News on Dec. 21.
According to prosecutors, Moore was Loftin’s “‘bottom,’ or the female who supervises the girls being trafficked.”
“When Loftin recruited the children online, Moore spoke to them in advance to make them comfortable in coming to work for Loftin and assisted in arranging their travel,” prosecutors said.
On Nov. 7, Moore, 24, of Norfolk, was sentenced to five years in prison, the attorney’s office said.
McClatchy News contacted Amanda Catherine Connor, Moore’s federal public defender, for comment on Dec. 21 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
The investigation of Loftin revealed the missing 14-year-old ran away from home in Colorado and met him over Tagged, according to court documents.
He offered to buy her a flight to Virginia to “work for him” before she flew from Denver to Norfolk on Oct. 26, 2022, a statement of facts filed in court shows.
After the flight, she took a ride share vehicle to a home, where she later saw Loftin smack the missing 17-year-old in the mouth for “talking back,” according to prosecutors.
The younger teen told investigators Loftin inflicted other violent acts against the 17-year-old, prosecutors said.
Loftin also engaged in a sex act with the 17-year-old, who flew to Norfolk from St. Louis, Missouri, about two weeks before the 14-year-old’s arrival in Virginia, the statement of facts says.
He also posted commercial sex advertisements for the 17-year-old as well as for the fake 17-year-old — the undercover officer, according to prosecutors and court documents.
After Moore’s arrest, Loftin messaged the undercover officer posing as a teen and said “he was in danger of being arrested for sex trafficking,” the statement of facts says.
The undercover officer then duped Loftin into believing the fake 17-year-old agreed to travel to Virginia to meet him near the Youngs Terrace Housing project in Norfolk on Nov. 3, 2022, according to the court filing.
When he arrived, he was apprehended by authorities, the statement of facts says.
Sex trafficking along with forced labor are recognized as two “primary forms” of human trafficking in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of State.
Suspected human trafficking can be reported to federal authorities at 1-866-347-2423.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 911.
To report potential trafficking situations, you can contact the national hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or chat with the online hotline.
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