2008 Woodie Awards
Woman recalls horrific events as teen
By: Valerie Carpani
Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
Theresa Flores became a slave when she was 15.
It started when she accepted a ride home from a friend. The friend told her to come in his house because he had to pick something.
Flores said she was a young girl who had a crush and walked in, avoiding what she called "those red flags going up in my mind."
Once she got into the house, she was raped and pictures, which made her seem like she consented to it, were taken. The traffickers said she had to earn the photos or they would expose her to everyone.
"Being raped at 15 years old, Catholic and a virgin - it was devastating," Flores told students Thursday night in Bovee University Center's Lake Michigan room.
Flores, who was living in Birmingham when her ordeal began, now lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her family.
At night, her assailants would call her private bedroom phone at her family house and tell her to come outside. They would take her to an unknown location, lock her in a room and use her as payment to men.
Flores said she became a sex slave to these men, giving her body to no less than three men a night. She said she was forced to go every night for two years.
"I had become a possession. I was a material object," Flores said. "They would enhance their business with my pain."
She said whenever she refused, dead animals would be found in her mailbox, serving as a warning to her. At one point when the police were called - the next day - the family dog was found dead.
"I did what I had to do to keep myself and my family alive," Flores said.
The 42-year-old survivor attributes her healing process to her book, The Sacred Bath.
"Traffickers prey off of vulnerable people. They are very good at what they do," Flores said. "You can never completely heal from this."
It started when she accepted a ride home from a friend. The friend told her to come in his house because he had to pick something.
Flores said she was a young girl who had a crush and walked in, avoiding what she called "those red flags going up in my mind."
Once she got into the house, she was raped and pictures, which made her seem like she consented to it, were taken. The traffickers said she had to earn the photos or they would expose her to everyone.
"Being raped at 15 years old, Catholic and a virgin - it was devastating," Flores told students Thursday night in Bovee University Center's Lake Michigan room.
Flores, who was living in Birmingham when her ordeal began, now lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her family.
At night, her assailants would call her private bedroom phone at her family house and tell her to come outside. They would take her to an unknown location, lock her in a room and use her as payment to men.
Flores said she became a sex slave to these men, giving her body to no less than three men a night. She said she was forced to go every night for two years.
"I had become a possession. I was a material object," Flores said. "They would enhance their business with my pain."
She said whenever she refused, dead animals would be found in her mailbox, serving as a warning to her. At one point when the police were called - the next day - the family dog was found dead.
"I did what I had to do to keep myself and my family alive," Flores said.
The 42-year-old survivor attributes her healing process to her book, The Sacred Bath.
"Traffickers prey off of vulnerable people. They are very good at what they do," Flores said. "You can never completely heal from this."
