Authorities are looking for possible human trafficking victims after two people were charged with prostitution after allegedly forcing a teenage girl to have sex with an estimated 288 people at a Silver Spring, Md., hotel, the Washington Post reports.
Detectives say they are concerned that Atuan Saran Rogers, 34, and Dierra Victoria Lee Thomas, 19, may have had other victims. The teenage girl in question who revealed her situation to authorities said that she had worked for Rogers and Thomas for about two-and-a-half months.
According to the Post, investigators listed a birth date for the victim that would make her 14, but other police records have her listed as age 15.
Detectives learned about the young girl in late March from child-protective services. Rogers and Thomas allegedly approached the girl while she was at a hotel with friends. The girl met the pair at a Silver Spring hotel shortly after the initial encounter and began working as a prostitute for the next two-and-a-half months.
Charging documents indicate that the teen told police that after the two approached her, she followed up with them by phone and through Thomas' Instagram account. Rogers and Thomas encouraged her to leave home in October 2015. The teen said that Rogers had worked as a pimp for 15 years and used a website to post prostitution advertisements with fake photos, charging $100 to $200 for sex acts, the Post reports.
According to the teen, she was made to work three or four days a week and was forced to have sex with up to 10 people a day.
While working for Rogers, she said she had to give Rogers the passcode to her phone and had no access to money. The teen said that when she said she did not "want to have sex anymore," she was hit in the face.
Along with the prostitution charge, Rogers is facing charges of human trafficking. He is currently being held in the Montgomery County Detention Center on $80,000 bond. Thomas was also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit human trafficking but was released on a $5,000 bond.
Read more at the Washington Post.