Photo: Facebook
Her mother won't give up.
By Rebecca Jane Stokes — Written on Sep 24, 2019
When a teenager goes missing, it sometimes takes the authorities a little while to start looking for them. That's because the teen years are notoriously turbulent (something we all know having once been riotous teens ourselves) and sometimes kids run off for a day or so to blow off steam. But sadly, that's often not the case when a teen vanished, especially in the United States where Human Trafficking is a very real risk. Who is Aviana Weaver? She's a 17-year-old girl from New Jersey who went missing. Now, her mother is reporting that she's seen her on websites where women are bought and sold like animals.
1. Missing Aviana Weaver
September 12th was the last time anyone saw New Jersey teenager, Aviana Weaver. Her mother, Angelica Scarlett, reported her as missing as soon as it was possible to do so and has been desperate to find her missing daughter. Now, she says she's spotted the teen, but where she saw her is every mother's nightmare: on a website where her photos were featured alongside other women for sale due to human trafficking. “The streets can’t have my daughter!! I will be there everyday on the street until she is home!!!" She wrote on Facebook on September 21st.
2. The Text Messages
On the day when Aviana disappeared, her mother Scarlett reports that she received a text message that the sender claimed was coming from Aviana herself. The message said that she was headed home from school and that she loved her mom very much. Red flags went up for Scarlett instantly, however, because the number wasn't a phone number that she recognized at all. The next morning, when Scarlett received word from her daughter's school that Aviana hadn't shown up for class, Scarlett got even more worried. The following day Scarlett received a second text from another unknown number. The sender claimed to be Aviana and said that she was being held against her will.
3. A Desperate Mother
Scarlett spoke with a local radio station about her daughter's abduction, though none of the police involved in the case in either Phildelphia or in New Jersey have given any statements themselves. With the local news channel, Scarlett shared what the police had carefully let her know: there were pornographic photographs of her daughter featured on a human trafficking website. We have pornography pictures and my daughter looked completely upset and unhappy in these photos. They believe she is in danger being held against her will. She’s 17 and she looks upset,” said Scarlett.
4. How Technology Helps
While solving missing persons cases is never easy, modern day technology does give us some advances that can make things just a little bit easier. One of those things investigators count on now, is tracking the location of the missing person's cellphone when it's at all possible. Scarlett says that the police tried to do just that with her daughter's phone. Aviana's cell last pinged in West Philadelphia on September 15th, but has since been deactivated. "That failed. Her phone was there but they’re changing her number constantly. She doesn’t have her number anymore. They’re using flip phones or something,” Scarlett said.
5. Scarlett's Role In The Hunt
When Scarlett reported her daughter as missing, she didn't stop there. She's made it a point of being as involved as she can in the search for her daughter. When the police believed she was in Phildelphia, Scarlett joined them to hand out fliers in the area where Aviana was last seen. “It’s overwhelming I haven’t slept I have just enough energy to do what I’m doing in these “streets” as a mother all day and night here," she shared online. Scarlett also shared with people who follow her on social media that her daughter may have been in the company of someone named Genesis.
6. Human Trafficking Stats
You know what's terrifying? The United States ranks as ONE OF THE WORST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD when it comes to human trafficking. “The United States is the number one consumer of sex worldwide. So we are driving the demand as a society,” said Geoff Rogers, co-founder of the United States Institute Against Human Trafficking said in an interview with Fox News. “We’re also driving the demand with our own people, with our own kids,” Rogers said. “So there are tremendous numbers of kids, a multitude of kids that are being sold as sex slaves today in America."
Rebecca Jane Stokes is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York with her cats, Batman and Margot. She's an experienced generalist with a passion for lifestyle, geek news, pop culture, and true crime.