Oklahoma Man Appears On Dr. Phil To Shed Light on Child Trafficking

With the help of an Oklahoma man, Dr. Phil McGraw is bringing to light the horrific truth about child sex trafficking.

Mark Elam, the director of Oklahomans Against Trafficking of Humans (OATH), was asked to speak on the Dr. Phil show as a national expert. The episode aired Wednesday.

"As a father and now a grandfather, this story shakes me to the very core," Dr. Phil said.

Child Sex Trafficking is an unspoken crime that's happening right at our doorstep.

"It wasn't just rape, it was torture," a victim said.

Logan is a victim of the latest category of human trafficking, known as "Intimate Partner Trafficking." It's where a child is traded or sold by a family member.

In Logan's case, she was not only sexually abused by her father, but she was sold to his friends in exchange for drugs.

The abuse started when she was three, and it lasted eight years.

"My dad would tell me that this is how princesses become queens," Logan said.

Elam said sex trafficking by a family member is becoming more and more common and is almost always drug-related.

There are six other categories of human trafficking, and Oklahoma tends to be a hub for that type of activity.

"We're at the crossroads of the nation with I-35, 40 and 44 running through the heart of our state," Elam said.

Elam's job is to help find and identify victims, but the majority stay silent out of fear and shame.

"I realized it wasn't normal when I was about 5," Logan said. "After that it was my dark secret."

Elam hopes that the Dr. Phil episode will show trafficking victims they're not alone and help exists.

"Take the ‘Whose fault is this' and point it to the buyers and sellers that created the problem so the victim can be released from the shame that was done to them," Elam said.

You can learn more about the OATH coalition, go to oathcoalition.com.