Sex-Trafficking Survivor Overcomes Trauma, Prepares To Graduate College

<p>Rebecka Snyder was forced into sex-trafficking when she was just 15 years old. Now, nearly 15 years later, she is free and about to graduate college. &nbsp;</p>

Thursday, May 4th 2017, 10:20 pm

By: News On 6


Rebecka Snyder was forced into sex-trafficking when she was just 15 years old. Now, nearly 15 years later, she is free and about to graduate college. 

She's using her experience to help others caught in a dangerous world.

She had a 4.0 at 15-year-old and already in college.

"I went from being an honor student to a nobody in less than 24 hours,” said Snyder.

Her boyfriend, a Buffalo, New York gang member, had a $100,000 debt.

“He was actually killed, and they took me at gunpoint to repay a debt,” Snyder recalled.

Her captives forced her to do sex acts, threatening her and her family.

"I was terrified and I didn't know what to do, so I just went,” she stated.

She was first sold in Phoenix.

"We just moved from city to city to city,” she added. “Like every week, we were in a different place and we never knew when we were going to move. We were just told to pack our stuff and leave."

She was constantly beaten.

"I have 167 healed fractures in my ribs alone,” said Snyder.

Her life was always under threat, sometimes watching her friends get killed.

"It's vivid,” she stated. “It's not something you forget."

She ended up in Las Vegas where a man offered her a bus ticket to Tulsa to a transitional housing program, a way out, some hope.

"I asked for help so many times and just got ignored,” she said. “You like literally become inhuman."

But once in Tulsa, with $26 and two pairs of clothes, she began the process of recovery. 

Friday, she walks across TCC's graduation stage getting three associates degrees, bound for the University of Arkansas this fall, a new person.

"With a 4.0,” she laughed.

She’s determined to use her past to help others, knowing the women who never made it out would be proud.

"these girls that are on the streets are now my mission,” she stated. “I want to be their voice, and I feel like they deserve it."

If you would like to help Snyder with her efforts to help victims of sex-trafficking, visit the following link: The Demand Project

logo

Get The Daily Update!

Be among the first to get breaking news, weather, and general news updates from News 9 delivered right to your inbox!

More Like This

May 4th, 2017

March 22nd, 2024

March 14th, 2024

February 9th, 2024

Top Headlines

March 29th, 2024

March 29th, 2024

March 29th, 2024

March 29th, 2024