UPDATE - Savannah Pruitt, a missing 14-year-old from Tennessee, has been found safe in Wisconsin

UPDATE - Savannah Pruitt, a missing 14-year-old from Tennessee, has been found safe in Wisconsin 18 days after she was last seen, according to ABC News.  

At this point, there is no word on where in Wisconsin she was found.  Pruitt was last seen at her home in Madisonville, TN on January 13.  WATE-TV reports Pruitt’s adoptive father, Randall Pruitt, has been arrested and charged with rape. The local sheriff’s office was not able to provide any other details, including the circumstances of Randall Pruitt’s arrest.

MONROE COUNTY, Tenn. (ABC News) - Two weeks into an expanding search for a missing 14-year old girl from Tennessee, federal and local authorities are seeking public assistance, and her devastated parents are using visceral metaphors to describe the depths of their agony and plead for the public's help as the days Savannah Leigh Pruitt has been gone accumulate.

"It's like having your soul ripped out of your body," Randall Pruitt said at a press conference with authorities on Friday. "You can't think, you can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't rest -- life has just ceased for us since she left."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has joined the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to search for the missing teen, who was last seen at her home in Madisonville, Tennessee on Jan. 13, according to the FBI and local authorities.

"At this point in time, we truly need the eyes and ears of the community," a MCSO detective said Friday, according to ABC Knoxville affiliate WATE.

The Pruitt family had just moved back to Madisonville from Lawrenceville, Ga. in late December, according to Randall Pruitt, who opened up about his daughter alongside his wife, Savannah's mother, Christina Pruitt, on Friday, WATE reported.

Savannah loves horses, her pet raccoon and other family farm animals, her parents said on Friday, WATE reported, noting that the only time the girl's parents managed to crack a smile through tears was when they talked about their daughter's love for the family farm.

"We're very heartbroken," Christina Pruitt said Friday of the oldest of her four children. "I miss her. I don't understand...none of us understand."

"We love her dearly and we want her home -- I love you, and come home," the Pruitt parents said, finishing each other's sentences, according to WATE.

“We are asking for public assistance in finding Savannah Leigh Pruitt,” Sheriff Tommy Jones said in the post. "If anyone has information as to the whereabouts of Miss Pruitt, please contact the Sheriff’s Office at 423-442-3911 (423-442-HELP) or the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND.”

A dispatcher at the Monroe Sheriff's office told ABC News the detective was not immediately available to talk about the case, but the FBI confirmed the agency's involvement in the case in a press release this week.

Pruitt is 5 feet and 3 inches, 110 pounds and has blonde hair and blue eyes.

"She may have traveled to the Corbin KY area,' the MCSO's Facebook post said.

Witnesses rescue 8-year-old Cleveland boy from suspicious men

Julia Tullos | January 28, 2019 at 3:14 PM EST - Updated January 28 at 3:14 PM

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - According to police, an 8-year-old boy was walking to school Monday on the city’s East Side, when he was approached by two men in a white truck, with a light on top.

Cleveland police said the child was in the area of 2200 E. 55th Street around 8 a.m. when the suspects pulled up next to the child and asked if he wanted a ride to school due to the cold.

Witnesses thought this looked suspicious and got the child away from the men.

The witnesses then took the child to his school and had staff call police.]

Police said there are no arrests and no better description of the men or truck.

Missing Fort Lauderdale teen featured on new John Walsh investigation series

By Johnny Diaz Contact ReporterSouth Florida Sun Sentinel

John Walsh (right) and his son Callahan Walsh host a new investigation and missing children's show "In Pursuit With John Walsh'' on Investigations Discovery. The show features the cases of two missing children each week. (Scott Witter / Courtesy)
The teen with the wavy brown hair and shy smile was last seen leaving her home in Fort Lauderdale. That was almost two years ago and her family and police continue searching for Sophie Reeder, now 17.

The case is getting renewed attention on the new John Walsh investigation and missing person’s show “In Pursuit with John Walsh,’’ which was scheduled to air a segment on the teen’s disappearance Wednesday on Investigation Discovery.

Reeder lived with her father, Patrick Reeder, in Fort Lauderdale where she was enrolled in a virtual school. Evidence from her computer suggests that she may be with an adult male predator, according to the show.

Flyers with her photo and description have been distributed over the past two years in South Florida and on social media. She was last seen walking away from her home at 1308 Citrus Isle, according to Fort Lauderdale police. And she was known to hang out near Stranahan High School.

The Investigation Discovery show debuted Jan. 16 and highlights two missing children as well as unsolved violent crimes each week. The show airs 10 p.m. Wednesdays on the cable network.

To help spark leads for the missing children cases, the show is using “age-progression photos and descriptions.”

“If at least one child comes home and one homicide is solved, we will have done our job,” said John Walsh, the former South Florida resident who is a host and executive producer of the series, which has a partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children or NCMEC where son Callahan Walsh works. Callahan Walsh also appears on the show as a roving reporter who visits the scenes of violent crimes in search of clues to find fugitives.

Anyone with information on Sophie Reeder or other cases is asked to call the show’s call center at 1-833-3-PURSUE or submit a tip at www.InPursuitTips.com. Anonymous tips are accepted.

Why the Crisis of Missing Black Girls Needs More Attention Than It’s Getting

An academic study analyzed news coverage of missing children and found that only 20 percent of reported stories focused on missing Black children. This, despite the fact that Black children account for 33 percent of total missing children cases. In other words, missing Black youth are grossly underreported in the news. For missing girls, it’s even worse. When Black girls go missing, far too many people don’t know or don’t care.

Consistently, Black teen girls are disproportionately reported missing from their homes and communities, and when they go missing, the disparity in coverage compared to missing White teens is shameful. Black girls’ lives matter. Our girls deserve protection and support, but our society seems content to ignore them at best and dehumanize them at worst.

We see this regularly in Pittsburgh, where I live. When this happens, my organization posts the information on our social media networks using the hashtag #BlackGirlMissing. This community-driven effort is often what returns girls home safely to their family and community with minimal reporting from the media and limited support from the police in those critical first 48 hours.

The same disquieting trend was recently reported in Washington, D.C., with 10 Black and Latina teen girls who have gone missing in the past few months. In most cases, we don’t know whether these young women have run away from home, were abducted, subjected to violence, funneled into the sex industry — put simply, the proper alarm bells are not being rung, and not nearly enough is being done to ensure these girls are brought back to their homes and to safety.

This is a nationwide problem. As of 2014, 64,000 Black womenwere missing across the U.S. That’s a highly disproportionaterate within the total number of missing persons reports. You’d think we’d hear the stories of 64,000 missing women on the news — yet, we don’t.

There is a connection between the frequency with which Black women disappear and the cycle of criminalization and incarceration of Black women and girls. By ignoring or underreporting their stories, the media is failing these girls. But so is the criminal justice system.

The second an opportunity emerges to punish Black girls, legal authorities seize it and push Black girls out of school, into the criminal justice system as Dr. Monique W. Morris discusses in her book, Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. We’re routinely punished for such everyday behaviors as driving our cars, standing on the sidewalk and browsing in stores; instead of showing us empathy and prioritizing alternatives to incarceration, authorities are quick to criminalize our behavior.

Look at Bresha Meadows in Ohio. After enduring years of physical harm from her abusive father, Bresha finally stood up to him in self-defense as he threatened to kill her mother and siblings. At the age of 14, Bresha saved her family members’ lives. But instead of finding trauma-aware, culturally competent care for her as a survivor of abuse, police incarcerated her in juvenile detention and charged her with aggravated murder. No matter the circumstances of Black girls’ lives, we are consistently disregarded and dehumanized by the media and by law enforcement.

The media and criminal justice system should respect, protect and trust Black women and girls — instead of unjustly persecuting us. The media and the criminal justice system should function as tools to support our girls, not as systems that repeatedly fail them. Demanding proper support from formal structures can start at the grassroots level: When we hear of a Black girl who has disappeared, use #BlackGirlMissing to amplify her story. Listening to Black women sometimes means interrogating why they’re not speaking, why their voice has gone silent.

La’Tasha D. Mayes is the founder and executive director of New Voices for Reproductive Justice.

In this article: black girls, missing persons, News Media, Washington D.C.

Original Article

FBI: 30-40 children sex trafficked within metro Detroit during Detroit Auto Show

DETROIT (WXYZ) — The FBI says 30-40 children are trafficking within the greater Detroit area during the North American International Auto Show. The bureau joined Detroit Police Chief James Craig to talk about human trafficking ahead of the auto show opening to the public on Saturday.

According to Michael Glennon with the FBI, there is a 280-300 percent increase in sex trafficking workers in the area. Ten percent of them are under the age of 18.

Chief Craig said that on Wednesday, VICE unit got a tip on a missing girl. They followed up, and found out that the missing girl was abducted and she was sexually assaulted. The suspect was preparing for her and another missing female to move them to Atlanta to continue with sex trafficking activity.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations says human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes, and is akin to modern-day slavery.

"Victims pay to be illegally transported into the United States, only to find themselves in the thrall of traffickers," HSI said. "They are forced into prostitution, involuntary labor and other forms of servitude to repay debts - often entry into the United States."

In certain cases, human trafficking victims are children, surrounded by an unfamiliar culture and language without identification documents.

"Human trafficking cases are notoriously difficult to pursue," said Steve Francis, HSI special agent in charge. "Victims and their families are often intimated into compliance with the threat of violence and other forms of abusive coercion."

"We urge members of the public to educate themselves on these heinous crimes so they recognize the indicators. An educated public can help law enforcement rescue individuals in these situations and ensure those committing these acts are punished.”

HSI says recognizing key indicators of human trafficking is the first step in identifying victims and can help save a life. Not all indicators listed below are present in every human trafficking situation, and the presence or absence of any of the indicators is not necessarily proof of human trafficking.

Does the person appear disconnected from family, friends, community organizations, or houses of worship?

Has a child stopped attending school?

Has the person had a sudden or dramatic change in behavior?

Is a juvenile engaged in commercial sex acts?

Is the person disoriented or confused, or showing signs of mental or physical abuse?

Does the person have bruises in various stages of healing?

Is the person fearful, timid, or submissive?

Does the person show signs of having been denied food, water, sleep, or medical care?

Is the person often in the company of someone to whom he or she defers? Or someone who seems to be in control of the situation, e.g., where they go or who they talk to?

Does the person appear to be coached on what to say?

Is the person living in unsuitable conditions?

Does the person lack personal possessions and appear not to have a stable living situation?

Does the person have freedom of movement? Can the person freely leave where they live? Are there unreasonable security measures?

Does the person appear to have all their belongings in a plastic bag, easy to grab if forced to quickly move locations?

Is the juvenile using a false ID or lying about his or her age?

Does the person appear to not be familiar with his or her surroundings, e.g., not know their location?

HSI urges the public to not attempted to confront a suspected trafficker directly or alert a victim to any suspicions. 
If you notice suspicious activity, please contact HSI through its tip line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services provided the below statement:

Davenport Shelter is licensed by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services as a child-caring agency for youth who are in the care of the department. The Division of Child Welfare Licensing at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services today began a special investigation of Davenport Shelter as a result of the information that surfaced yesterday. The department will conduct an expeditious and thorough investigation.

Case specifics about children in the care of the department are confidential.

MDHHS takes very seriously its duty to protect the safety and well-being of children and thoroughly investigates child safety issues at licensed facilities. Human trafficking of vulnerable children is a national problem that is of extreme concern to the department.

One in every seven missing kids are trafficked

One in every seven missing children ends up getting involved in trafficking. Those children being forced to have sex for money and many of them are right here in our area. January is human trafficking awareness month.

We have known young girls are being forced to have sex for money, but in recent years there have been more reports of young men forced to do the same.

Nationally, there are about 25,000 endangered runaways every year and those children are most at risk for this. Officials at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children say there are at least 100 cases of child trafficking in the Greater  Rochester area and it's even worse in bigger cites.

Even scarier, there are people looking for kids to target. Criminals are using social media, malls, parks and more to find vulnerable children and convince them to join trafficking rings often disguised as "families."

Ed Suk, New York Director for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says there are signs parents and loved ones can watch out for to keep kids safe.

"Maybe there has been changes in their behavior, maybe they're wearing clothing has changed, maybe they're wearing clothes that are more provocative, access to large amounts of money, they may have significant cash in their purse or pockets...multiple cell phones hotel key cards, receipts from hotels in the area...things you wouldn't normally see in the hands of a teenager," Suk said.

Keep in mind, a child doesn't have to be missing to be trafficked. A lot of kids come right back home after experiencing this abuse. If you suspect a child is involved in any sort of sex crime, you can report it online on the CyberTipline by the NCMEC.

Movie filmed in Genesee County raising awareness about human trafficking debuts

by Veronica Meadows

Changing stigmas surrounding human trafficking.

That’s what a movie filmed in Genesee County is doing.

"Ring of Silence" made its debut at Flint's Capitol Theater.

Human trafficking is an issue that's not just happening in Genesee County where director Nicole Bowers Wallace wrote Ring of Silence, but across the globe.

“The more I found how prevalent this epidemic is not only in the cities but the suburbs I knew I had to do this movie,” she said.

Hundreds came to see the debut for Ring of Silence. It's shown through the lens of a 17 year old girl. She falls in love with an older man, eventually leading her to the world of sex trafficking. Michigan State Police Detective Trooper Amy Belanger says that's often how it happens.

“Usually the male in the relationship makes them think they have this future together and that's how this movie starts out and when he flips the switch then you start noticing changes. She's raped she's sexually, assaulted,” Belanger said.

Belanger works with Flushing Township Police Chief Brian Fairchild on the Genesee County Human Trafficking Task Force. He hopes this movie sheds light on the signs parents and teens should look for.

“Change in behavior, change in attitude, a sudden lack of attention in school and distancing not wanting you to know who they're dating,” Fairchild said.

Above all Bowers Wallace hopes this film open's people's eyes.

“Most people have no idea what's happening and how big the problem is and that's the biggest thing I want to take away,” she said.

Organizations across Flint stepped up with donations to make this movie happen.