10 February 2024
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — While thousands are in Las Vegas ready to watch the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, a Wichita-area man is there on a different mission.
Dayton Poe is working with the Nevada Highway Patrol as well as Free International, a nonprofit that helps victims of human trafficking.
Volunteers take posters of missing children and reach out to family, friends, and last contacts in the hope of finding survivors and helping them start a new life. Poe said they’ve found 10 missing children since arriving in Las Vegas last weekend.
“It’s exciting to find a missing child, and then you hear their backstory,” Poe said. “And you hear the trauma that they’ve been through. So you go from a ‘yes, we located,’ to ‘man, I hate the life that they’re living,’ and so, that drives us … we want to give a life, give them a normal life, and they haven’t experienced that many times.”
Poe said it’s an ongoing problem, though, and just because someone is rescued once doesn’t mean they won’t go back to the same lifestyle.
“As we come back here year-to-year, we’ll see those same kids on our list,” Poe said. “Because you see them in and out of the system. We find them, we get them some help, and sometimes they just return to that lifestyle, and then they’ll come back out again when they want help.
“Many times, you’ll see six to seven times before we really do get that type of relationship and can get them help. You got to stay with it. It’s patience, but it’s going back again and again to help them, especially when they’re ready. When they’re ready for help, we’re here. Open arms.”
Human trafficking is not just in Las Vegas, though. Anthony Munoz, a captain for the Nevada Highway Patrol who oversees the human trafficking task force, said human trafficking happens everywhere.
“It’s one of those things where we get a lot of spotlight in Las Vegas because we’re a big city,” Munoz said. “But it’s a problem that’s everywhere. From big cities to rural cities throughout the nation. And I feel bad for the kids because the spotlight gets put on Las Vegas, but we can’t forget about the kids that are in rural America.”
Free International organizes searches around big events but also works in communities across the country.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children shows on its website in 2023, the organization received more than 18,400 reports for possible child sex trafficking.
For more information or to get help for you or a loved one, you can visit NCMEC’s website by clicking here.