How flight attendant's hunch saved teens from sex trafficking

A quick-thinking flight attendant has helped save two unsuspecting teenagers from becoming victims of sex trafficking.

American Airlines employee Denice Miracle grew suspicious as she began checking in the two teenagers from California, aged 15 and 17, for a flight to New York City.

Those suspicions were compounded when the unaccompanied teens, neither of whom had identification, presented one-way first-class tickets that were booked using another person’s credit card.

“Between the two of them they had a bunch of small bags,” Ms Miracle explained in a statement to the airline.

“It seemed to me as if they were running away from home. They kept looking at each other in a way that seemed fearful and anxious. I had a gut feeling that something just wasn’t right.”

That gut feeling proved to be accurate.

Ms Miracle notified the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department’s Airport Bureau and reached Deputy Todd Sanderson, who said he believed the girls were just one flight away from becoming “victims of sex trafficking”.

The girls told the deputies they were flying to New York to meet a man named “Drey” who had contacted them through Instagram.

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He had paid for the flights without telling the girls they were one-way flights and offered them $2500 to model and pose in some music videos.

Although the teens were able to reach Drey by phone when Miracle first declined to check them in, subsequent attempts to contact him failed.

His social media profiles quickly disappeared.

Miracle “probably really was their miracle that day, whether they want to believe it or not,” Deputy Todd Sanderson told reporters.

“I’m very, very thankful Ms Miracle with American Airlines was able to use her intuition and concern and actually say something,” Sanderson said.

“Without her, I wouldn’t have been called and we wouldn’t have intervened with these girls.

Sanderson said it would be difficult to prosecute “Drey” from outside the state, as he was also likely using fake details and images on his social media accounts.