(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)
SPOKANE, Wash. -Social media is a dangerous world. Anyone who has an account can message people they don't know, and in this case, 30-year-old Pierre Jamal Davis allegedly used Facebook's messaging service to target a 17-year-old girl asking her "If she wanted to make some money."
Bindi Tilbury with the Jonah Project in Spokane says that it's doubtful that the victim was targeted at random "Sadly all ranges of people. So young people all the way to older adults whether they're vulnerable or not use Facebook every day all day all the time to report their feelings. So predators and traffickers use this information to basically investigate on a person and get to know what their weaknesses are," said Tilbury.
Once Davis allegedly got his hooks into his victims, the documents say he moved to control all aspects of the girls lives. Brainwashing them, according to the victim, into a dangerous dependency that played on their emotions and their everyday needs "So simply by presenting themselves in manipulative manners and sometimes just outright saying 'Hey I can get you this if you get me this." Those are absolutely ways they lure people in," added Tilbury.
One thing that was traded was sex for a living space. The court documents describe how the girls were being kept in an apartment right on Spokane's South Hill when they weren't being sold to customers around the Inland Northwest.
The documents describe some of the terrifying situations the girls were put in. In June Pierre allegedly pimped out one girl to a truck driver for $600. But after, he threw her out of the truck without paying her then tossed a $5 bill at her. When she called Davis saying she didn't have the money he told her quote he would kill her.
Luckily - the same social media use that sucked the girls into the sex trade ended up being their salvation. Detectives were able to track down Davis using the websites where he was advertising the girls for sale.
Davis is currently sitting in the Spokane County jail on a $500,000 bond on multiple charges.