Editor’s note: Today, Shaw Local is publishing the first installment of its two-part series about human trafficking and the scope of the problem in northern Illinois.

Around 2007, a 24-year-old woman from a loving, two-parent home in North Carolina met a man. This man, she said, presented himself as a faithful churchgoer who said all the right words. Their first date was to a movie, their second to church.

But the mask soon came off. A controlling, manipulative, abusive drug addict emerged. He led her down a decade-long spiral of addiction, homelessness and prostitution.

He set up “dates” for her with men that paid for their drugs while shaming and manipulating her into believing the “dates” were her idea, she recalled.

She was being sold for sex. She was being trafficked.

This woman, who shared her story with Shaw Local in 2024 because, she said, she wanted to help others, is referred to only by her first name, Victoria, to protect her safety. She is among countless numbers of people worldwide entrapped in human trafficking – and her experience is far more common than most people realize.

The hidden crisis

Human trafficking is one of the most underreported and under-identified crimes in Illinois.

“The reality is that human trafficking does not look like what many people imagine,” said Melanie Whitmer, sexual violence program manager for Freedom House in Princeton. “It rarely involves dramatic kidnappings, strangers pulling someone into a van, or traveling across state lines. It involves grooming, manipulation, coercion, financial control or exploiting someone’s vulnerabilities.”

Victims come from all backgrounds. Authorities have identified highly educated, well-traveled and military veteran victims, as well as teenagers from “good” families, according to former McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally, who spoke at a panel addressing human trafficking in 2024.

But the most vulnerable – runaways, homeless youths, abuse survivors and those with mental health or substance abuse issues – are often targeted. Marginalized communities, immigrants and non-English speakers face heightened risk.

Victims and predators can be male or female and come from all walks of life.

“Human trafficking can come in many forms, from commercial sex acts to forced labor,” said Brendan F. Kelly, director of the Illinois State Police. “No one is immune.”

The scope of the problem

The exact number of trafficking victims in Illinois is unknown. There is no way to know the exact number of victims, authorities say, because trafficking is so underreported.

In fiscal 2024, 448 human trafficking survivors were reported to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority as receiving services from an Illinois domestic violence or sexual assault agency. During that same timeframe, 213 possible cases of child trafficking were reported to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, according to state police.

However, these numbers represent just a fraction of the suspected human trafficking victims in Illinois. Authorities in northern Illinois, including Kane and McHenry counties, which operate human trafficking task forces, say the same.

Since its inception in 2007, the National Human Trafficking Hotline has identified 3,129 cases of human trafficking in Illinois, with 6,260 victims identified in these cases.

Susan Bursztynsky, executive director of Safe Journeys in Streator, said her organization lacks comprehensive data documenting clients as trafficking survivors.

“In part, that is because this information comes out after we have built relationships with clients, and some clients do not see it as human trafficking because of how people define it versus how the law defines it,” she said.

“I would estimate that we have three to five clients a year whose abuse could be considered human sex trafficking,” she said. “This comes out of conversations with the client – for example, that they are not allowed to keep their own identification or their abuser forces them to have sex with others.”

How trafficking happens

Victims are often transported into the Northern Illinois region after arrangements are made for them online to have sex for money. Websites are created for the sole purpose of sex trafficking, and there are known hotels and massage parlors where trafficking and exploitation occur, according to McHenry County authorities.

The internet has dramatically expanded predators’ reach. Shelley Marinus, volunteer coordinator with Michigan-based Women At Risk International, an international rescue organization, said there has been “an explosion since Covid” in sex trafficking involving online gaming apps and underground operators.

“The internet now affords access to children,” Marinus said. “Generations ago, there was no access outside your inner circle, but now people are able to access our kids, and you don’t know who is behind that other application.”

Peggy Driesenga, program and administrative lead at WAR, said the threat constantly evolves.

“Once parents start to understand one app or game, another one comes along. It is a thing you have to constantly stay on top of,” she said.

Marinus said traffickers often target multiple victims at once and that traffickers have been known to go through teen girls to get to their siblings and friends.

“This is very pervasive,” she said.

One common misconception is that traffickers are predominantly male. “There is this myth – a lot assume a trafficker is male – but closer to 60% of traffickers are female worldwide,” Marinus said.

Finding freedom and hope

Victoria eventually found her way to freedom after discovering Refuge for Women, a faith-based nonprofit based in McHenry County that provides housing and programs focused on rescuing women from sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

The organization operates two safe houses in northern Illinois as well as in Kentucky, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Texas.

“Anyone is at risk,” said Meredith Hodge, executive director of Refuge for Women. “Vulnerabilities are what traffickers and pimps leverage to get what they need. They step in as their savior, provider and protector. In modern-day 2026, being a tween or teenager with none of these vulnerabilities puts them at risk for trafficking simply because they are accessible through their devices.”

Hodge has witnessed survivors escape in various ways. In one case, a police officer looked beyond drug offenses to see that the woman charged was being forced into sex trafficking. Another woman told her Uber driver. Another testified against her trafficker and sent him to prison.

“We’ve had women trafficked by their mothers, cousins, fathers, brothers,” Hodge said. “We’ve had women who lived on the streets and actively used drugs for decades, where others came from a pastor’s family or had their master’s degree. It just takes that one person, that one relationship to turn things completely upside down.”

Outreach groups go into jails to offer help. WAR Int’l travels the world and goes undercover into brothels and strip clubs to let victims know there is a way out.

Tomorrow: Part 2 examines law enforcement crackdowns, how to recognize trafficking victims, and resources for those seeking help.