ATLANTA, Ga. — A mother traveled nearly 1,800 miles to Georgia from Arizona searching for her missing 15-year-old daughter, who is now classified by the state as a high-risk victim of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.
Jessica Phillips said the last time anyone saw her daughter, Serenity Williams, was September. 21 at the Target off Camp Creek Parkway in East Point.
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“It’s hard not knowing where she’s at, or what she’s doing, or who she’s with,’ Phillips said.
Williams is listed with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. East Point police are investigating.
Phillips said the family’s concerns about trafficking began months ago, when Williams disappeared for more than two weeks in the Phoenix, Ariz. Area.
“That is where we confirmed and opened a trafficking investigation because of the area she was found in and where she was found,” Phillips said.
Phillips said her daughter was also found to have drugs in her system.
“She was also drugged with methamphetamine, fentanyl, and THC,” Phillips said.
Phillips said she worked with law enforcement and researched to have Williams placed at Wellspring Living, a nonprofit in Paulding County that works with survivors of sex trafficking.
Phillips said she was concerned about her daughter’s vulnerability.
“The danger that she’s putting herself into, she doesn’t realize what can come with it,” Phillips said.
Phillips said Williams arrived in Georgia on September 11th. But two days later, Wellspring told her that Williams and four others ran away.
Wellspring shared the following statement:
Due to privacy and confidentiality laws, we are not able to confirm or discuss whether any individual has been apart of our program. But in all cases involving vulnerable children who may be in danger, we cooperate fully with law enforcement in any way that helps bring a child into safety, and we urge anyone with information about this child’s whereabouts to contact local authorities.
“We tried to get her help. She just keeps running off,” Phillips said.
Between September 13 and September 20, Phillips said officers found Williams twice at an Econo Lodge on Virginia Avenue.
“Whatever these trafficking people do to these girls to lure these girls in, it’s very heartbreaking because it makes our daughter think she’s living a VIP lifestyle.”
Documents provided to Channel 2’s Eryn Rogers show the Georgia Department of Human Services has classified Williams as a high-risk victim of child sexual exploitation.
“It started out with boys her age, and now it’s turned into, you don’t call them a boy, you call them a man, and in my own words, I call them a pedophile,” Phillips said.
Phillips said she believes the grooming began when Williams was 12 years old and still in school.
“The key points that I really look at as a mother now, looking back are the social media activity, who your children are talking to, even at school,” Phillips said. “Coming home with money, coming home with cell phones, coming home with valuable items, those are key points to trafficking.”
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Phillips said those were signs she did not know to look for at the time.
Now, she is asking the public to keep an eye out for her daughter and call police if they see her.
Phillips said she remains hopeful Williams will see her message.
“That she sees this and knows I love her, and all I want is the best for her, that she’s not in trouble,” Phillips said. “I just want to know you’re safe. I want to know you’re alive. I want to get you the help you need.”
Wellspring told Channel 2 that the target population for trafficking is 12- to 14-year-olds. The organization also said that 90% of people who are trafficked were enrolled in school at the time, and 91% knew their exploiters.
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