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Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?
What happened
Prontiss Houseworth, 18, of Conyers, Georgia was arrrested Friday August 26, 2011 at the Knights Inn on Spring Street in Nashville, TN and charged with four counts of trafficking for sexual servitude, one count of promoting prostitution and a weapon charge for allegedly carrying brass knuckles. Police found four young women — two 18-year-olds, a 23-year-old and a 24-year-old — with Houseworth but consider them victims in Houseworth’s alleged crimes. According to police, the man forced the women to travel with him from Atlanta to Nashville where an undercover officer, responding to the online ad, met two of the women at the motel and made a deal to have sex with them for $180 plus a $20 tip. One of the alleged victims told police Houseworth threatened to kill the women and their families if the women didn’t cooperate with him, calling them “slaves” and saying “the only way that they could leave was in a body bag,” according to a police affidavit. One of the women also allegedly told police Houseworth punched her in the head and duct-taped her hands together and her mouth shut.
Response and intervention
Houseworth is being held in lieu of $150,000 bond. The FBI is assisting in the case According to Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper, Backpage.com is a website linked to prostitution, sex trafficking and murder. and he says he's going after the people behind it. AG Cooper joined with 45 other states demanding Back-Page remove its "adult services" section. Authorities say especially heinous crimes originated there, including the October 2009 murder of Jiro Kanazawa, who was killed when answering a bogus ad. In September 2010, prior to the arrest of Houseworth, Nashville police arrested Tyree Walker for advertising sexual services on Backpage with two 17-year old girls. The detective’s response to an ad on Backpage.com led to the arrest at a Nashville motel on sex trafficking charges. No aftercare reported for the trafficked women. The four women were not charged in connection with the investigation.