When you think of victims of human trafficking, you might think of someone with a tough childhood, or in an unsafe environment, or a teenager who has run away from home. You might think of it happening in a big city. You probably wouldn’t think it could happen to your child right here in Collier County. You probably wouldn’t think it could happen to someone like Alina Donahue.
“I was just your regular girl next door,” Donahue began. “I never endured any childhood trauma. I had the perfect childhood.”
Donahue was raised in a loving, conservative Catholic home in Naples. She played soccer, had friends, and got good grades. After graduating from Palmetto Ridge High School, she went to Florida SouthWestern State College where she excelled as a straight-A student. One night she took a break from studying to meet some friends. Through those friends, she met a man and fell in love.
“We hit it off, and we started dating and within a month and a half we moved in together,” Donahue described. “That was my first time living away from home. I was totally naive and innocent.”
Her boyfriend was charismatic and kind to her, and she was happy with her first adult relationship.
“It was very exciting to me, so I didn’t see the red flags,” Donahue said. “It was so exciting that somebody wanted to move in with me.”
A few weeks after moving in together, her boyfriend showed her a website ad for a modeling agency.
“I brushed it off,” she recalled. “I had no intention of being a model. When I blew it off, that was the first time he became aggressive. Up until then [he] was the perfect guy.”
He convinced her to interview for the modeling job, and at first it seemed normal. The interviewer asked for her driver’s license to confirm her identity and then conducted the interview. Then her life changed. She was asked to take off her clothes. When she refused, she was forced to undress.
“This is something really important, something I want to highlight, because I feel like it could happen to anyone,” Donahue injected.
It could happen to anyone, confirms Sgt. Wade Williams of the special crimes bureau, exploitation section for the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. He investigates 15-30 possible cases a year, with 30-40% involving juveniles.
“Many are from normal homes, normal families, and didn’t have the issues that made them vulnerable,” Williams said.
Yet Donahue was vulnerable. In that room at the fake modeling agency, she was afraid the man would hurt her if she screamed, so she tried to avoid him with silence.
“He proceeded to rape me, and then he said ‘Now you are going to work,’” she related.
He threatened to hurt her family if she told anyone, and since he had information from her driver’s license, he knew where they lived.
“I did not want anything to happen to my family, so I did not go to the police,” she said.
Donahue immediately became a victim of human trafficking. Her boyfriend became her handler, setting her up with jobs in Southwest Florida and around the state.
“These traffickers take advantage of this vulnerability,” she stressed. “It could be anyone, someone naive. It could be someone coming from a good family. For me, it was. I had so much love for my family – I didn’t want to do anything to hurt my family.”
According to Williams, there steps parents can take to help their children avoid this scary situation.
“The best thing parents can do is have a conversation with their child, and they need to be educated on the topic to begin with,” he began. “Explain to them that most cases don’t happen with someone being bopped over the head and being abducted.”
He said many cases involve a boyfriend who manipulates the victim. They might buy the victim a phone the parent doesn’t know about, take nude photos, or help them break rules so they become afraid to tell their parents what is happening. They use lines like ‘If you love me, you will do this.’ They move gradually, so often the victim is unaware they are being manipulated.
“If they ask them to do something they don’t feel comfortable with, those are the red flags,” Williams explained.
He said parents need to make their children feel comfortable talking about things that make them uncomfortable.
“They need to have a conversation with a trusted person before they get in too deep,” Williams said. “Tell the kids they will not be in trouble; they just need to report it. It is a gradual path, so they need to stop it before they get too far down that path.”
For Donahue, by the time she went to the fake modeling agency, it was too late. Her handler became her shadow, controlling where she went and monitoring her phone calls to her parents.
“It was terrifying,” she said. “He controlled everything. It got to the point where I was emotionally dependent on him. Whenever I would not comply, he would give me ecstasy so I would be compliant.”
She tried to escape but was unsuccessful. “The entire time I was thinking, ‘How do I get out of here?’’’ she said.
Donahue was forced into credit card fraud and preferred that to the trafficking. “I was in survival mode and would do anything as long I would not have to see 8-10 johns,” she said.
After eight months of agony, she was rescued by being arrested. She spent a year in jail for credit card fraud but called her arrest “her saving day.” She finally was free of her handler and human trafficking.
“If they had not removed me from my trafficker, I never would have gotten away,” she explained.
After serving her jail time, Donahue tried to resume her life. She took some college courses, got a job, but kept her eight months of torture a secret.
“It was rough,” she described. “I never told anyone what I went through. In my mind I was away from him, but I now had to do everything to prove I was not a bad person. I didn’t want to be another statistic. If someone was working hard, I worked twice as hard. The entire time I was proving I was not this horrible person.”
It took five years before she told anyone what happened, and once she got the help she needed, she dedicated her life to helping others overcome similar obstacles. She first shared her story with Linda Oberhaus, CEO of the Shelter for Abused Women in Naples.
Oberhaus helped Donahue utilize a human trafficking law that expunges the criminal records of classified victims of human trafficking.
Donahue is now happily married with two young daughters and is using the memories of her dark days to help others. She co-created a human trafficking residential program at the shelter.
“We are a model program for the entire nation,” Donahue said proudly. “We help victims and survivors of human trafficking overcome and reintegrate back into society. We provide housing, school, work, therapy – all at no charge for 18 months.”
Donahue recently started speaking before large crowds, telling them her story. Now she is writing a book that she hopes to have published by the end of the year.
“I want to share my stories and hope it educates and creates awareness and prevention and possibly helps someone in that situation,” she said.
Donahue wants to put a face on human trafficking. She wants parents and grandparents to understand that it could happen to anyone.
“Human trafficking is a huge topic, but nobody knows what it entails,” she explained. “If you ask anyone, they will tell you it takes place in a scary white van or it is like the movie Taken.”
Awareness is just part of her quest. She also wants to help victims overcome the stigma and learn not to be embarrassed. She hopes her campaign will go nationwide someday.
“It took me 10 years to get to where I am today, and it feels so good to have my voice,” Donahue said. “I no longer feel embarrassed. I no longer feel ashamed. I feel so good that I have a voice.”
Click here for resources to help with human trafficking and domestic violence in SWFL.