On June 23, 2014, a 17 year old girl named Anji Dean went missing in Camas, Washington. On July 10, 2014, Anji was returned home safely. Anji's disappearance was heard around the world. It made headlines, because many had speculated her disappearance was due to some form of human trafficking. My original thought was shock because the reports immediately jumped to the conclusion that this young girl from Washington got caught in a trafficking situation.

Since she has been found, it is still unknown whether or not she was trafficked. I truly hope that for Anji's sake, the case is labeled as a runaway case or disappearance, and that she was not trafficked. The emotional, mental, and physical scars make recovery very difficult for trafficking victims.

As horrible as it sounds, I have always said it will take a middle class or upper class, young white female to be trafficked before America truly understands that human trafficking is occurring in the United States. As seen with this case, human trafficking was stated multiple times by many news sources and it caught the attention of the American public. As said before, I hope that Anji was not trafficked, but also hope that America does not close the door on this issue. I hope that people continue to find out more about human trafficking and how they can get involved in combating this epidemic.