INDIANAPOLIS — All eyes will be on Indianapolis this NBA All-Star Weekend, and Indiana's attorney general is warning that this multi-million dollar event could expose a much darker business — the business of human trafficking.
A Hamilton County woman, who escaped her traffickers, is telling her story that she says every child and parent should hear.
"M" returned to the Carmel gas station where she said her traffickers picked her up on Thanksgiving Day 2021.
"Right there, the sixth parking lot down, that's where it happened," she said, recounting the moment her life changed.
To protect her identity, 13News is not showing her face or giving her real name.
"If we want to start at the true beginning, I was maybe 13, 13 years old."
She says she was going through a difficult time.
"I was being bullied in school. I didn't have a lot of friends. I was seen as the weird kid."
She met her traffickers on TikTok.
"They had a lot of followers, and they noticed me, and I was surprised," she said. "They gave me a lot of comfort, a lot of advice. At the time, what I thought was comfort was actually grooming."
She said they groomed her for years until she turned 18.
"I had known them for so long. I thought these people are doing so many good things for me."
She went with her traffickers to Muncie where she stayed for over a week. She was supposed to be sent overseas before the FBI and her parents rescued her.
"I could have died had I ended up there. I could've been sold off," she said. "It took me months, months after to even realize I was even being trafficked."
She is among 2,344 human trafficking cases in Indiana since 2007, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
"I was naïve. You say, 'this can never happen to me. These are things you see on TV. These are things that happen in other countries. This will never happen to me,' and then it does, and it happens right here in Carmel," she said. "This is happening constantly. It is happening by people you may trust."
"M" found comfort through mentors at Indianapolis nonprofit, Allies, which helps dozens of trafficking survivors like her with resources to recover.
"It's a problem, and it's a big one," Jamie Hergott said. "In my time at Allies, it's really blown my mind."
Hergott also owns the Blue Butterfly, a jewelry-making business helping these survivors heal.
"They just need unconditional love and support because it's going to take them a long time to build trust again and learn how to function, still grappling in this world of trauma that happened to them," Hergott said.
"M" is ready to move forward.
"This is me saying goodbye to everyone who hurt me."
This comes with telling her story with a new mission of advocating.
"If I can save one life by doing this interview, that matters most to me. I know younger me would be proud of what I'm doing today," she said.
Her traffickers were never charged.
It's not uncommon for Allies to have a waitlist of young trafficking survivors who still need a mentor to help guide their recovery. To apply, click here.
Experts said the warning signs of human sex trafficking can be subtle.
"The truth is the trafficker can literally look like anyone, and in fact, the more normal they look, the more effective they're going to be as a trafficker," Hergott said. "That's what makes it tricky is they do look like everyone else. It's how they treat people, and you'd have to watch pretty closely to notice anything remotely off."
Allies said to be suspicious if a child is befriending someone older. Love bombing, when someone is giving them expensive gifts, is also a red flag, along with if your child is anxious, depressed, closed off or spending a lot of time on the internet.
If you or someone you know is being targeted, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733.