A new season of the true-crime podcast Felonious Florida tells the story of a 15-year-old Florida girl who goes missing after a mysterious, two-hour walk in the early morning hours of May 20, 2017.
The clues draw Sophie Reeder’s family and detectives to a horrifying conclusion.
When investigative reporters dive into Sophie’s case, 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. Traffickers who see these girls as 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.
Listen to the trailer for Season 3: Innocence Sold:
Episodes 1 and 2 are available now, with new episodes coming every Monday through March.
Listen at FeloniousFlorida.com or on these platforms: Apple Podcasts | Wondery | Amazon Music | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Google Podcasts.
1 | The disappearance of Sophie Reeder
When 15-year-old Sophie Reeder disappears from her Florida home, it appears at first that she has run away. But clues begin to emerge that something terrible has happened to Sophie. Then more cases surface that expose a violent world that lures in girls like Sophie and tears their lives apart — or leaves them dead and often forgotten. The mystery of Sophie Reeder’s fate hinges on one thing: If somebody out there knows what happened to her, why haven’t they come forward? Listen now.
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. Listen now.
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. Listen March 6.
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. Listen March 13.
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. Listen March 20.
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. Listen March 27.
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. Listen now.
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Felonious Florida is produced by the South Florida Sun Sentinel in association with Wondery. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Reach us by email at feedback@feloniousflorida.com.
The Sun Sentinel’s full investigation into child sex trafficking can found online at SunSentinel.com/trafficking.
Source: Orange County Register
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