OGDEN, Utah — After years of silence, a human trafficking survivor is sharing her story about how her own father exploited her and a child.
“I’m his child. The one that he told everyone that he was happy to have. Why did he do what he did?” said Elizabeth Moore.
It’s been almost 10 years since Elizabeth Moore said her father, Joseph Moore, first started selling her for sex.
“I’m ready for it to be over, but for some reason it just comes back,” said Elizabeth.
The Ogden woman, now 27, said she was 18 when she was first trafficked.
Years later, she befriended a 16-year-old through a program at the Ogden-Weber Technical College and said her father started trafficking her, too.
“He let the dude do anything he wanted to us. Because he was getting paid for it,” she said.
READ: Utah group works to provide support for sex trafficking victims
She said he would threaten them to stay silent.
“That if I said anything, he was going to make sure that I would either go to prison or I would never see my daughter again,” said Elizabeth.
Elizabeth said the trafficking lasted for years before Joseph Moore moved to Wyoming. That’s where he was arrested in February 2018 on charges of human trafficking and exploitation of prostitution involving a child.
Elizabeth said she hasn’t been ready to speak about what happened until now. His parole hearing is just a few months away.
“He did this to his child. He could do it again. He did it to a kid he didn’t even know,” she said.
She hopes to share her story with the parole board to keep him behind bars. But right now, her main focus is leaning on therapy and moving on.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to just let it go,” she said.
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The National Human Trafficking Resource Center has a toll-free hotline for victims and survivors available every day, 24/7. You can call 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733.
