Missing Charlotte teen found during human trafficking investigation, NC sheriff says
North Carolina sheriff’s deputies found a missing 16-year-old Charlotte girl during a human trafficking investigation on Wednesday and said a 33-year-old felon forced her into prostitution.
In a news release Friday, Rowan County sheriff’s investigators didn’t name the suspect or say if he’s in custody.
The sheriff’s office said it was conducting an undercover investigation into prostitution in Salisbury when deputies located the girl. The 33-year-old man is a convicted felon who was on parole, a news release said.
No further details of the case will be released until a news conference at 2 p.m. Monday at the sheriff’s office in downtown Salisbury, officials said.
NC ranks as human trafficking hot spot
North Carolina consistently ranks in the top 10 to 12 states for human trafficking, and Charlotte is a hub for it in the state, Emily Barnhardt, a clinician with Safe Alliance, told The Charlotte Observer in January.
The Charlotte nonprofit helps victims of human trafficking.
In January, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation awarded Safe Alliance more than $4 million to help pay for several positions to support anti-trafficking organizations and survivors, the Observer reported.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline received 922 contacts from North Carolina in 2021, the Observer reported at the time of the grant announcement. And 318 of those came directly from victims or survivors.
