BOISE, Idaho — In recent years, Idaho has seen an increase in cases of human trafficking.
From 2021 to 2022, Idaho saw a 271% increase in human trafficking, according to data from Idaho's Uniform Crime Report.
A 2021 National Human Trafficking Hotline report from Idaho shows sex trafficking is the most prevalent, accounting for 78% of trafficking cases.
It is an uncomfortable reality; human trafficking happens on a daily basis here in the Treasure Valley.
"It's not an international issue with us. 90% of the women that we house are native, native Idahoans. It's in our state. It's in our community. It's in our town. It's in our schools,” said Paula Barthelmess, Crisis Director and founder of Idaho Community Outreach Behavioral Services (COBS).
Idaho COBS works closely with survivors of sex trafficking in the Treasure Valley.
"To see them progress and to see them stumble and fall because they all stumble and fall. We all do, right, every single day. We all have our different challenges in life. And just for the team to wrap around and love them and teach them that they are worthy, and they are worth saving,” Barthelmess said.
In recent years, Barthelmess has helped women like Linsay, a survivor of trafficking that happened in Canyon County. Linsay tells us Paula and Idaho COBS helped make all the difference.
"She just put me under her wing and gave me shelter and food and a place to sleep, you know, and not be scared," Linsay said. "I was homeless and had nowhere to go, and I ended up in a trap house and I didn't know what was going on. I didn't realize that I was being trafficked until I met Paula, and she explained to me what happened to me."
Linsay, like many trafficking survivors, didn't realize the situation she was in. And the situation was right here in the Treasure Valley.
"I didn't even know it was a trap house. I went there because I had nowhere else to go. It was strange, like, right off the bat, like, just wasn't a comfortable feeling. Like I knew something was up, but I just wasn't sure until they started asking me to do things. I realized it, when they posted like a picture of me that they had me pose for and they had a guy come to the house, that's when I realized,” she said.
“I couldn't reach out for help. I didn't have a phone. They took the keys to my car so there was no way of reaching out for help," Linsay said.
Through a series of events, Linsay found help in a desperate situation.
"Detective Chad Benson saved me. And then he contacted Paula, who is the head of COBS, and she gave me shelter and food. It happened in Caldwell. So, yeah, right here,” Linsay said.
Linsay isn’t alone in her experience, there are dozens of survivors like her. Survivors like Amanda.
"I never tried drugs. I was 27 and then I did them. And very quickly, my whole life fell apart," Amanda, who was also trafficked in Canyon County, said.
Amanda said she is doing well these days, but she remembers the feelings she went through in recent years.
"There's just no truthfulness, no pureness, no love. I'II never forget that feeling, just the feeling of death, you know," Amanda said.
"I thought I was doing drugs and, you know, I was isolated for so long. And then I have this life. I'm popular. Right? I wasn't a very sexual person. So, I would be talked into things, or I would pass out. I have whole lapses of memory," Amanda said. “So that did happen. I just wasn't, I literally wasn't aware. It's weird how they can, you know, deceive you when you have those drugs."
Stories like Amanda's and Linsay’s are all too familiar for Paula, she has worked for almost a decade in the field. Over the past two and a half years she has created a program and a safehouse to help survivors.
"Sometimes they just need love. A love that isn't sexual, a love that isn't beating physical aggression, a love that's just unconditional, Barthelmess said. “When we talk about safe housing, it is off the grid. Law enforcement doesn't know where it's at. Probation and parole is not allowed to come over. Nobody comes over. And so for the first time in many, many of these women's lives, they are safe. No male is going to knock on the door to rape them, have unwanted sex with them, beat them, none of that stuff. And so Idaho is really getting that. Now, we're two and a half years in. We know it works,” Barthelmess said.
For the survivors working with COBS, healing and working through trauma, it’s an extreme difference from where they once were in life.
"I slept on a bloody mattress with rats and no running water. So, to go from that to a house where it was safe and I didn't have to sleep with one eye open was amazing," Linsay said.
Amanda is set to work with Idaho COBS, she said she wants to give back to survivors. Amanda has worked through a lot in recent years, something she hopes will help others.
“I would see people that were in my daily life out there and they're like, yeah, you were trafficked. And to be validated for the first time in my life is pretty amazing,” Amanda said. “I feel like I can start having confidence in myself and my God is telling me to do. Hearing other people's stories kind of make things click and helps you heal through memories. I have a sense of sisterhood and community that I've never had."
Idaho COBS is also ready for a major event at the Idaho Statehouse on Wednesday, September 6 at 6pm. The event, hosted in the Lincoln Auditorium, covers the realities of human trafficking in Idaho, what it looks like and how to stop it. Experts from law enforcement, the justice community and lawmakers are expected for the extended conversation and learning session.
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