But I also, at that moment, got a chance to be saved. I walked into this little diner and I just stood there. I had nothing and God brought to me somebody that I would never have met. Our paths would never have crossed in my life, I’m sure of that. This old black lady pouring coffee to homeless men.

She saw me and she knew the signs of a kid in trouble, and she said something to me nobody had ever said, no coach, no teacher, no school nurse, no school counselor, no parents, no friend, no neighbor, no boss, nobody. She said, “Can I help you?” Wow, how simple is that? Can I help you? But I said, “No, I’m fine!” because I knew I had to say that to stay alive after what I had just gone through, but she did me another favor and she didn't believe me, and that morning she called the police and they came and they took me home, and I will tell you I don't remember anything about that police ride home, I was in shock. He must have said “Where do you live?” and I told him.

I do remember pulling up to my house and I remember thinking in my head, “This is my plan: I’m going to say, “Oh thank you so much, Mr. Nice Policeman,” and I’m going to get out of the car, go around the back of the house where the sliding glass door is still open, and I’m gonna sneak up inside and go to bed, and nobody'll know. It'll be okay. Nobody will die. It'll be okay.

And that was my plan, that I could still get away with this to protect my family. You see they threatened to kill my family, every day. They knew where my dad was at any given time. I thought I could do this to protect them, but he turned off the car, he gets out, and we start walking up to the front door, and there's my mom and dad, and they're not happy.

They thought I was out having a good time, partying, messing around, and I didn't say anything. I didn't tell them you're right; these guys were hurting me. When he said, “Who did this?” I didn't say anything, and I should have because I know they hurt others after that, but I didn't have the courage.

So, courage was needed, honesty and truth was needed, and now that we educate everybody around us I want more people to say, “Can I help you?” -- because the more people that say that, that gives me the courage to be able to say, “Yes, I need help.” My dad got transferred a thousand miles away and I didn't tell a single friend. I didn't tell anybody we were leaving, and I was able to escape.

Most don't escape from this. Most will die in this. This is something that has gone to the second… become the second leading crime in the United States. And it's not just from girls being kidnapped. It's girls that know somebody that tricked them, that groomed them, that tell them everything they want to hear and then they don't know how to get out.

So, if something like this is happening to you, there is a national hotline number. You find somebody, find somebody in your life that you can talk to. There's got to be one person that can help you. If you're somebody that sees the signs like this and you have that feeling that this might be going on, say, “Can I help you?” It's very simple but say it over and over again because the first time she's going to say no, but if she knows she can trust you, just say it over and over again, and maybe someday she'll say, “Yes, please help me.” Thank you very much.