She was a young woman with a seriously ill father and a mother who was an addict. She thought she'd found safety with an older boyfriend.
But it led to her being trafficked as a sex worker.
"I was 19, fresh out of high school, and I met this 30-year-old man. We had a mutual friend, so I thought he was okay," said Sarah Taylor. "We started hanging out, and he became my boyfriend. My home life situation was really bad, so I didn't have a place to live. But, he was manipulating me to stay with him."
She thought her boyfriend had all the answers. He had the wrong ones.
"He started grooming me by taking me to sex parties," Taylor explained. "He eventually said, 'Why don't we start posting you on the internet, and you can make money that way, and we can stay together.' At that point, he was all I had. I couldn't fathom the thought of losing him, so I said okay, and he framed it like it was not that much different than what he had been doing already."
It went on for two years. She finally realized she needed to leave, but was afraid to, because she had nowhere to go.
"After he was berating me for not making that much money one week, I yelled, 'I don't want to do this anymore!' I had tried to leave a couple of times before, but he always coerced me to stay. This was the third time, and I was firm. I knew something was different. He had me so brainwashed. He was very good with mind games."
She still attended church occasionally. She confided in someone she knew there. They connected her with Shannon Sergey, the founder of a Simi Valley-based nonprofit group called Forever Found. It took time, but Taylor finally left and began her life anew.
"The mentorship was a huge thing. It's important for survivors to have that support," said Taylor.
Sergey said she heard about the trafficking problem during a church service more than 15 years ago. She felt she needed to do something, and started volunteering.
"One night, probably it was 2009, a girl opened up to me. I think she was 12 or 13," said Sergey. "Her dad had been trafficking her up and down the West Coast for a couple of years to support his drug habit. I remember driving home that night just feeling completely broken. That's how Forever Found started. A band of musicians and producers came together, and I'm a singer, and we created an album to raise funds to stop child trafficking."
Sergey created Forever Found. It's become one of the primary resources to help trafficking survivors in Ventura County, with a current caseload of around 75 children and young adults.
"We're the primary resource for all of what's called CSEC, Commercially Sexually Exploited Children in Ventura County," Sergey explained.
They have contracts with multiple agencies to provide key services to survivors, and they run a 24-hour hotline.
Numbers for the National Human Trafficking Hotline show that California has the highest number of cases in the nation. Sergey said the tricky thing is that, despite increased awareness, it remains widespread, including in our backyard.
"There (are) still consistently people who are surprised that human trafficking is happening right here, in our community, and it absolutely is," said Sergey.
While Forever Found has a significant focus on helping child trafficking victims here in Ventura County, it also operates a shelter for nearly 100 children who have been rescued in India.
As for Taylor, she’s been able to move on with her life. The man who abused her is now serving a 15-year sentence in state prison. She received help coping with the aftermath of the nightmare situation she lived in for years, and has a job and a safe home.
Forever Found is hosting a 15th anniversary celebration on October 19 in Westlake Village, where it will honor some of the key people in the organization's history.
