A 17-year-old New Jersey girl who went missing for more than a week and was believed to have been a victim of human trafficking has been found safe and is being reunited with her family, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said.
“Aviana Weaver has been found safe in Philadelphia by Philly PD. She is in the process of being reunited with her family. Out of respect for Aviana and her family, no further details will be released. Thanks to all who provided assistance,” the prosecutor’s office wrote on Twitter on Sept. 23.
Aviana Weaver has been found safe in Philadelphia by Philly PD. She is in the process of being reunited with her family. Out of respect for Aviana and her family, no further details will be released. Thanks to all who provided assistance. @PhillyPolice
— Burlco Prosecutor (@BurlcoPros) September 23, 2019
Weaver had gone missing after she went over to her friend’s house to do homework on Sept. 12, reported CBS Philly. The outlet reported that while she went missing from Mount Holly in New Jersey, her phone was pinged some 23 miles away in West Philadelphia.
The teen’s mother, Angelica Scarlett, announced on Facebook on Sept. 18 she believed her daughter was “being held against her will into human trafficking.”
Scarlett also told local station NJ 101.5 that she saw her daughter’s photos being posted on sex trafficking websites and that her daughter “looked completely upset and unhappy in these photos. They believe she is in danger—being held against her will.”
“She’s never done this before,” Scarlett told the radio station. “This is her senior year. She went to school for the first few days and then disappeared.”
“She missed an eye doctor appointment,” Scarlett added. “This is not like her. She hasn’t been known to be on any drugs. We don’t have family or friends in Philadelphia. It’s completely out of character and scary.”
The teen attends Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly.
Early on Sept. 21, Scarlett wrote on Facebook: “The streets can’t have my daughter! I will be there everyday on the street until she is home!!! I won’t stop—Share let’s get her!!! Someone knows something!! Speak she is a minor and in danger!!”
One Facebook user, Cat Banks, commented on the post, suggesting that “someone techy … could dive into the darknet” to set up a date with the teen “so she could be rescued.”
“If they found her on those sites unfortunately they’re selling her,” Banks wrote. “The police sometimes sets up dates as well.”
Human Trafficking
Thousands of trafficking cases are believed to take place in the United States every year.
According to the Polaris Project, the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which Polaris operates, has received reports of 34,700 sex trafficking cases inside the United States since 2007.
And according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, one in seven runaways reported to the center were likely victims of sex trafficking. Of those, the average age was 15 years old. Reports came in from every single U.S. state.
Missing Children
There were 424,066 missing children reported in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center in 2018, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Under federal law, when a child is reported missing to law enforcement they must be entered into the database. In 2017, there were 464,324 entries.
“This number represents reports of missing children. That means if a child runs away multiple times in a year, each instance would be entered into NCIC separately and counted in the yearly total. Likewise, if an entry is withdrawn and amended or updated, that would also be reflected in the total,” the center noted.
The center said it assisted officers and families with the cases of more than 25,00 missing children. In those cases, 92 percent were endangered runaways, 4 percent were family abductions, 3 percent were critically missing young adults between the ages of 17 and 21, 1 percent were lost, injured, or otherwise missing children, and less than one percent were nonfamily abductions.
