Season 3
Innocence Sold
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A 15-year-old Florida girl goes missing after a mysterious, two-hour walk in the early morning hours of May 20, 2017. The clues draw her family and detectives to a horrifying conclusion.
Investigative reporters Brittany Wallman and Spencer Norris dig into Sophie Reeder’s case and it leads them to another just like it. Then another, and another. They surface in the world of child sex trafficking, where thousands of vulnerable girls across the country fall prey to dangerous, violent predators. Ones who see these girls as products — merchandise to turn into profit, and to kill if they don’t cooperate.
This six-episode investigation tells their terrifying stories and exposes failures by law enforcement, courts and support services that are supposed to keep children safe. Yet every day — all around us — girls like Sophie Reeder are stolen, and often never found.
Episode 1
The Disappearance of Sophie Reeder
When 15-year-old Sophie Reeder disappears from home, it appears at first that she has run away. But clues emerge that something terrible has happened to her. Then more cases surface that expose a violent world that lures in girls like Sophie and tears their lives apart — or leaves them dead. The mystery of Sophie's fate hinges on one thing: If somebody knows what happened to her, why haven't they come forward?
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Episode 2
Horror in Hotel Rooms
Nobody knows when 16-year-old Marina Ralph entered room 334 of an Extended Stay hotel in Florida, or what happened to her while there. What we do know is that Marina was terrified of something. The only person who might have known what happened to her was a friend she met at school — but now, both girls are dead.
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Episode 3
‘The Perfect Victim’
Shanika Ampah was a straight-A girl from a home with two loving parents. But a horrifying tragedy struck and by the age of just 11, she was lured by predators and taken on the road to be sold as a product out of a tractor trailer. For seven years she endured horror no girl ever should — until one day when she catches a break.
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Episode 4
The Crime of Surviving
A 13-year-old girl disappears from her mother’s apartment, only to return a week later beaten, raped, and with a rose tattoo on her neck. She barely escaped her terrifying ordeal. But within hours, police have her in handcuffs — she's under arrest for crimes her captors forced her to commit.
Episode 5
‘A Human Trafficking Pipeline’
A staff mentor at a group foster home lures away two teenage residents to be sold for sex in hotel rooms from the Florida Keys to Tampa. A car crash in the middle of the night offers what may be their only chance to escape — but their captor isn't finished with them yet.
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Episode 6
'Where All the Sad Girls Go’
William Foster goes from pimping his high school sweetheart to building one of Florida’s largest trafficking empires. His fortune is made off dozens of girls — some of them underage — stripping and selling themselves for sex. But a monster hurricane off the coast of Florida would threaten to bring it all down. Plus, the search for Sophie Reeder intensifies.
Special Episode
Case updates and more
There have been some updates to cases featured in Season 3 of Felonious Florida: Innocence Sold. In a special episode, host David Schutz is joined by the reporters who brought you Season 3 as well as two special guests to hear what's happened in the past two months. The team also talk the challenges of reporting on these difficult cases and the issues of child sex trafficking raised in our investigation.
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About the Journalists
David Schutz is the host and producer of Felonious Florida. As the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s assistant managing editor, he oversees the newsroom’s multimedia, visuals and audience teams. Previously, David was a visual journalist for the Boston Globe. He is a graduate of the School of Journalism at Northeastern University in Boston. Follow him on Twitter @GraphicsSchutz.
Brittany Wallman is a reporter for Felonious Florida and the investigations editor at the South Florida Sun Sentinel. She shared in the newspaper's 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the Parkland school shooting. Brittany has been a journalist covering local government and focused on accountability reporting for more than 30 years. She previously worked at the Fort Myers News-Press. She is a graduate of the University of Florida. Follow her on Twitter @brittanywallman.
Spencer Norris is a reporter for Felonious Florida and an investigative journalist for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He recently earned his master's in journalism from the University of Missouri and focuses on computer-based reporting and data analysis. Follow him on Twitter @norris_report.
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Child Trafficking Resources
If you are a human trafficking victim or have information about a potential trafficking situation, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733. NHTRC is a national, toll-free hotline, with specialists available to answer calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also get more information and submit a tip on the NHTRC website.
If you believe a child is involved in a trafficking situation, submit a tip through the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline or call 1-800-THE-LOST. FBI personnel assigned to NCMEC review information that is provided to the CyberTipline.
Parents and caregivers of children who have been victims of sex or labor trafficking can find help and resources through the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crimes.
If you have information on the disappearance of Sophie Reeder or any other case you’ve heard in this podcast, contact Crime Stoppers USA at 1-800-222-TIPS. Tips can be made anonymously.
Credits
Felonious Florida is produced by the South Florida Sun Sentinel in association with Wondery. Reporting and writing by Brittany Wallman, Spencer Norris, and David Fleshler. Editing by David Schutz with additional editing by Robin Webb and Gretchen Day-Bryant. Sound design and production by Sean Pitts. Audio recordings and photography by Mike Stocker and Carline Jean. Soundtrack by DeWolfe Music. Website design and development by KarBel Multimedia. David Schutz is our producer.
