State Trooper Senses Something’s ‘Not Right’ During Traffic Stop, Ends Up Saving 15-yr-old Girl From Human Trafficker

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When two Ohio state Highway Patrol officers pulled a car over on Interstate 80 for a routine traffic stop, not everything was as it seemed when the officers asked the passengers to identify themselves. They ended up saving a 15-year-old girl in the car, who was a victim of human trafficking.

Thankfully for this young woman, Patrolman Mitch Ross and his fellow officers sensed that something wasn’t right and didn’t stop until they uncovered what was really going on.

In the summer of 2019, Patrolman Nick Ross first noticed the 2013 Nissan Sentra when it failed to pull over for the trooper car behind it. After the car finally stopped, the officers soon realized that something was not quite right. Video from the officer’s dash cam, per WKYC, revealed the officers’ reason for the decision not to let them go after issuing a ticket.

“She looks like she could be under 18. She can’t identify herself. He’s 35. I'd say that’s good enough to hold for investigation.” There was a problem, however, as neither the driver nor the passenger spoke English.

The troopers who made the stop called in fellow trooper Sergeant Ivan Nunez, who is a fluent Spanish speaker and was able to translate. “She was just like ‘no nothing’s wrong, nothings going on’ and it wasn’t until later that we were able to determine that she did fear for the safety of her family and herself,” Nunez explained to WNWO.

Once they managed to separate the girl from the driver, a female investigator from Lake Township Police Department found out that the girl “had been sexually assaulted,” per WNWO. Police later identified the man as Juan Carlos Pedraza-Morales.

When troopers were finally able to determine the girl’s identity, they entered her name in a national juvenile abduction database and discovered that she had been reported missing from Paterson, New Jersey. The OSHP officers took her to the hospital for medical care and then arranged for her to be sent back to her family. Pedraza-Morales was taken to the jail in Lucas County and charged with abduction and sexual assault.

“To us, every life is important especially a child,” Nunez told WNWO.

While it is impossible to determine the exact number of people being trafficked in the United States, estimates by advocacy groups such as the Polaris Project are in the tens of thousands. In addition to people being trafficked from abroad, many victims in America are children or teens who have left the foster care system.

While law enforcement is constantly working to catch traffickers and bring them to justice, the Department of Homeland Security reminds citizens that everyone’s help is needed to solve the problem. People can download a quick checklist from DHS called the blue card, which gives simple questions to ask yourself if you think you have identified a trafficking situation.

The questions are the same ones that the Ohio State Highway Patrolmen asked during the traffic stop, such as: “Is the victim in possession of identification and travel documents? If not, who has control of the documents?” and “Was the victim forced to perform sexual acts?”

Anyone who sees suspicious signs of trafficking should report these activities via the government hotline 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or DHS.gov.