Text to hotline helps save kidnapped woman being sex trafficked, Oregon cops say

A woman’s text to a hotline helped rescue her from a hotel where she was being sex trafficked, Oregon officials said.

A 31-year-old Salem woman told the National Human Trafficking Hotline that she had been kidnapped and was forced to perform commercial sex acts at a hotel in Bend, according to a March 25 incident report by police.

The woman opened the door when officers knocked, and they took the suspect, later identified as Orlando Smith, 33, of Vancouver, Washington, into custody, police said.

During her interview, the woman told police Smith “had punched her in the face multiple times” and had her “engage in sex acts with multiple men over the course of two days,” officers said.

Officers found an advertisement online for the woman and discovered over $1,000 with Smith, police said.

They didn’t specify if the woman knew Smith.

Smith was arrested and booked into the Deschutes County Jail on suspicion of assault and promoting prostitution, police said.

Bend is about a 165-mile drive southeast of Portland.

This story was originally published March 28, 2024 at 9:12 AM with the headline "Text to hotline helps save kidnapped woman being sex trafficked, Oregon cops say."