Family of sex trafficking victim who went missing at Mavs game frustrated with police response

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — The previous eight months have been a rollercoaster for Brooke and Kyle Morris. A rollercoaster of feelings, clues, false begins and attempting to place items collectively. 

Kyle Morris admits he is nonetheless indignant. 

“Angry with myself? Yes, as a result of I nonetheless carry that. Angry with the safety personnel? Absolutely. Absolutely,” Kyle Morris stated. 

He took his daughter to a Dallas Mavericks game in early April. During the game, the then-15-year-old left her seat and by no means returned. Morris stated he knowledgeable a safety officer at the game, however she advised him he wanted to report her as a runaway to their native police division in North Richland Hills. 

Eleven days later, she was recovered by police at a lodge in Oklahoma City, the place she was being sex trafficked. 

“There is some frustration and anger at those officers, particularly the one that sent me home that night,” Morris stated. 

In response to a earlier request on this case, Dallas police supplied a Texas state code that lays out how their response to runaway instances, which is how the division labeled Morris’ daughter. 

The Morrises stated surveillance footage from the world confirmed their daughter go away with an unknown man. However, earlier than she left the realm, she was seen strolling across the American Airlines Center, sitting on the steps outdoors and strolling across the space with a number of males earlier than she left. 

Kyle Morris stated he walked by a number of safety officers who may have approached her if that they had been advised to search for her when he reported her missing. 

“I guess I am confused and frustrated as to why they didn’t report that to all the security personnel,” Morris stated. “I knew exactly what she was saying. I told them what she was wearing. She walked past several security personnel.”

On Dec. 12, practically eight months later, Dallas police launched surveillance photographs of three males at the AAC who the division known as “persons of interest” who could have information on the teenager being sexually assaulted the day she was seen leaving the world. 

DPD’s launch states they consider she was assaulted the identical day she was seen with them at the stadium, and so they consider the boys within the photographs can provide them information on the place the assault occurred. 

“It is definitely infuriating to me as a result of she has already advised me the place these items occur, and he or she has advised me particulars,” Brooke Morris stated. 

Her daughter, who has been in restoration for months, has been journaling about what occurred to her as half of her therapeutic course of. Brooke Morris stated in a single of her entries, her daughter gave an in depth account of three males who drugged and assaulted her in Dallas earlier than she was taken to Oklahoma. 

“She says three people all raped her, in Dallas, over a number of days,” Morris stated. 

WFAA requested an interview with the DPD detective assigned to this case for an replace, however was solely supplied the discharge and pictures asking for the general public’s assist figuring out the individuals of curiosity. 

Morris stated she has had bother getting solutions from the division and is frustrated with their response the day her daughter went missing and within the months that adopted. 

“Just not being heard, and there being a scarcity of urgency,” Morris stated. 

Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, a number of individuals have been charged and even sentenced on this case. 

Initially, Oklahoma City police arrested eight individuals. The division says some of the individuals arrested had been picked up on excellent warrants from different instances, however three individuals had been charged with a number of felony expenses on this case. Two of them have already been handed jail sentences. 

Sarah Hayes, 33, and Kenneth Nelson, 44, each pleaded responsible to a number of felony expenses. Those expenses embody manufacturing little one pornography, distributing little one pornography and human trafficking and conspiracy to commit a felony. Nelson additionally pleaded responsible to a baby abuse cost. 

Hayes was sentenced to 10 years in jail, and Nelson was sentenced to 12 years. 

A 3rd suspect, Steven Hill, was with the teenager when police discovered her. He faces a rape cost, and, until he takes a plea deal, can have a jury trial that begins in April. If that occurs, the Morrises anticipate their daughter should testify. 

“She knows there may be a trial, but we haven’t told her the date in case he pleads out,” Brooke Morris stated. “We don’t want to add to her anxiety if we don’t have to.”

Their daughter lately moved to a brand new remedy program that caters to victims of sex trafficking. 

“This might be the primary time the place we really feel utterly assured and cozy figuring out that she’s in an surroundings the place she will heal,” Kyle Morris stated. 

Brooke Morris stated she needs two issues: for her daughter to heal and for the kind of justice on this case that might forestall the identical individuals from doing the identical factor to another person. 

She stated so long as there are individuals concerned who aren’t in custody, the primary half will likely be laborious for her daughter. 

“Knowing that the individuals in Dallas haven’t been picked up and never even been spoken to by regulation enforcement. That scares her. She is aware of what they did to her, and he or she is aware of that they’re nonetheless on the market,” Morris stated.