Please read the story and poem below. Child sex-trafficking is real and very present in our own backyards. Innocence is being stolen and these beautiful children need you to hear their cries for freedom. Do you hear them? Can you hear her? Read below. (Josh and I will be going to her memorial service tomorrow in Atlanta – if anyone wants to go, please contact us) –
I have just been informed that the memorial service has now been cancelled. Updates will be posted to www.IamKatelyn.org – check on Feb. 2nd for videos.
Bleeding, broken, stabbed and HIV positive, “I ran, but this time I guess I just didn’t run fast enough,” said Katelyn, a child sex slave.
Captured and raped at a young age from Moldova, Katelyn and her younger sister were forced into a trunk, taken to London, and then shipped to America where she was forced into sexual slavery. Overnight Katelyn went from living a life defined as a daughter and a sister to a life exploited by an international prostitution ring.
Based on tradition, if Katelyn had returned to Moldova, a small country between Russia and Romania, she would have been thrown into prison or killed. Marked as trash, her only option was to continue with the one who captured her.
Told that if she behaved well she would not be beaten or deported, Katelyn was made a fake ID and handed papers granting her access into America, and furthermore stripping from her the innocence of her childhood. At this point the joy of living life turned into the uninvited struggle for survival.
Katelyn said it was then that she learned her first lesson about life; it’s all about survival. Somehow finding the strength to fight and the ability to perform as they wished, Katelyn continued on.
Katelyn continued to perform her tasks and meet her quotas, which kept her pimp from beating her. “I got really good at it,” she said.
After years of traveling and performing sexual duties in different international and domestic cities, Katelyn was then relocated to Atlanta to live and work exclusively. While in Atlanta, she contracted HIV, turning her into a poor commodity for her pimp. It was then that the beatings began. “I can’t tell you how many fractures and bruises I have had over… the years I have been in this country”, Katelyn said.”But most importantly, I’ve always managed to survive.”
With little faith in herself, given her situation, the one thing she believed she could do was run. After several attempts at escaping, which always led to bruises and broken bones, Katelyn heard the walls crying out for her.
Next, Katelyn was relocated for the last time in her life to Houston, Texas. Etched into a bathroom wall in a New York shelter where she stopped to clean herself was an 800 number followed by the words GET OUT NOW. Katelyn said. “I was tired of digging into garbage cans for food.” The call was made, her path for freedom was discovered and she was ready to run, but she didn’t know how far she would get. After speaking with the woman on the other end of the phone, Katelyn felt encouraged and redirected toward freedom.
A mere 5’4 and 86 pounds, Katelyn was sick and frail, yet she was determined to survive. Katelyn found herself exchanging sexual deeds for a bus ticket, in order to begin her three-day journey across three states with no food,
Along her journey she was beaten, but that didn’t stop her from running. Survival was her goal and the only way she knew how to achieve it was to run.
Just three hours away from the recovery home and about to board her last bus to freedom, the bus driver realized Katelyn was sick, and instead of allowing her to board the bus, he sent for medical help. Help that she desperately needed, yet time that she couldn’t spare. In fear and urgency, she escaped and continued to run. After phoning her rescuer she was informed that help was only 20 minutes away. For the next 20 minutes Katelyn ran faster than she ever had. “I had to get to her” the recovery director said. “But most importantly I had to get her away from him.”
In those 20 minutes right before her help arrived, Katelyn’s journey for survival came to a tragic end; her pimp caught her for the last time. Keeping her captive in a car and beating her, he broke her collarbone and both legs before throwing her out of the vehicle. “I ran as fast as I could,” she said. “I really did. I am so sorry, but I couldn’t run fast enough.”
Upon the discovery of her body, where she was left to die, she was returned to the hospital where it was reported that she passed away 11 hours later. In her last words to the woman that was coming to rescue her she said. “Don’t close your eyes and go to sleep and forget about me. Please don’t forget me”.
Strung together by the thread of awareness, community leaders, politicians, celebrities, not-for profit organizations, and the media will gather in conjunction with the community to honor a valiant child’s struggle for freedom.
No longer will her running be in vain. Although her physical survival is no longer possible, her heroic attempt to escape child sex trafficking will now be seen as footsteps for all those who feel too weak to run.
DISCLAIMER: Due to the ongoing investigations regarding Katelyn’s life, confirmation of her death has not yet been obtained. Until then, Katelyn’s life will represent the thousands of child sex slaves still trapped on our streets today. All quotes and pertinent information contained in this press release regarding Katelyn’s life was obtained through recorded conversations with Katelyn directly.
Forget Me Not
Jason Sartain
When you close your eyes, please think of me
Remember my picture-perfect-memory
That taunts me with the things of past
Despair and pain the devil’s wrath
The hurt, the curse of lonliness
No one to share my dreams with
I wish I may I wish I might
Find myself FREE tonight
Free from the bondage of Satan’s touch
Into the arms of one who loves
Not sex or lust mind you though
But instead love that surpasses anything I know
That lifts you up, not tears you down
It doesn’t pack you around all parts of town
I believe that this is out there for me
But it costs too much to truly be free
My bones have been broken my skin’s been bruised
But it won’t stop me from running – what more can I lose?
MY LIFE
My life is a symbol of fighting for
A better life out there, something more
Where people care so much about me
And risk their lives to help girls like me
Next time you’re sleeping or lying awake
Think of me and the chance you’ll take
Don’t think of the END, just the means
There are people out to HELP you
Just like they did me
Never give up, don’t lose the fight
Even if it means you run all night
Close your eyes
Think of me
And know that you can be free
