Survivor Lindsey Rayl shares story of human trafficking

Yahoo

06-06-2025

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – During the South Central U.S. Human Trafficking Conference, Lindsey Rayl, a human trafficking survivor and now advocate, shared her story.
At 15, Lindsey Rayl traveled from Dallas, Texas, to San Bernardino, California, to meet a boy who groomed her through a forum.
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Rayl says she grew up in a nice area. She made straight A's, never got in trouble, and always followed her parents' rules.
She says her parents were always aware of what she was doing, but she received a new computer without parental control or tracking.
'One day, I got on something called Scenekids.org (which has since been closed), and it was a forum, and I met somebody named Johnny. And for a year, he groomed me into believing that I was unlovable, that my friends and my family were against me, and so when the time came that I had a big enough disagreement with my parents, I left,' says Rayl.
When she arrived, she was kept in the truck of a car and experienced sexual abuse for three days.
Meanwhile, Rayl's parents were able to afford a private investigator, Logan Clark, from California, who would cost $15,000 to find their daughter.
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'Typically, you've got about 48 hours. I was very fortunate; I got to a third day. They got me before noon on a third day, but typically you've got about 48 hours to assist, so I got lucky,' says Rayl.
In a previous telling of her story, Rayl says if she had not been found, emails revealed that she was going to be sent to a facility in Guadalajara, Mexico, and hooked on heroin. This way, if she ever wanted to leave her captor, she would go into withdrawal.
Rayl details that in the aftermath of her experience, she was treated like a 'bad kid' rather than a victim who was taken and put in a situation she had no control over.
Her story highlights that bad people exist who wish to hurt innocent lives, and it is important to be aware of the signs.
'Educate kids on the dangers and kind of signs to look out for. Things that people should never say to a child and letting them know that hey, if somebody says this to you or this to you, you need to come tell me, even if they say not to tell me,' said Rayl.
Today, Rayl is on her city council, and she is working with Logan Clarke, the private investigator who saved her life.
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'I'm getting my P.I. and I'm going to be able to hopefully one day start helping victims like myself, to get out of those situations and be someone hopefully that can come into that with the understanding of how to interact with someone like that,' said Rayl.
Rayl advises that when talking to victims or survivors of human trafficking, be a listening ear and read the room. Ask the person what you can do for them or what do they need.
'Every trafficking experience is different, and how it impacts every human is different. And so just bringing awareness to the fact that he,y if you're only looking in one area for people that have been through this, then you're doing the wrong thing. Because it's all over the place and it looks different almost every time,' said Rayl.
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