Traffickers Hunt Children Along America's Highways—And the Data Shows Exactly Where

Cross-reference analysis reveals 649 missing children in trafficking corridor states, with 90%+ matching prime victim age range

Los Angeles has 136 missing children and 202 documented trafficking crimes. Houston: 23 missing kids, 184 trafficking cases, and a prostitution track where cops just arrested 10 traffickers in September. Memphis: 18 vanished children, 483 trafficking crimes—the highest in the FBI database.

This isn't coincidence. It's a pattern.

A new cross-reference analysis by Project Milk Carton examined 1,905 missing children against 49,429 child trafficking and kidnapping crimes in the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System. The results expose a brutal reality: America's interstate highway system has become a hunting ground, and the children disappearing from corridor cities match trafficking victim profiles with deadly precision.

The Corridors of Exploitation

Three interstate highways dominate the trafficking landscape. Interstate 10, running from California to Florida along the southern border, accounts for 100 missing children in corridor states. Interstate 35—the NAFTA Superhighway connecting Mexico to Canada through Texas—has 60 missing children and generates 51,503 online sex ads per month. That's 300 new ads daily posted from locations along a single road.

Interstate 95, stretching up the East Coast from Miami to Maine, shows 88 missing children in its primary corridor counties.

The data gets worse when you zoom in. Harris County, Texas—home to Houston and a major I-10 hub—has 23 missing children and 184 documented trafficking crimes. In September 2025, Houston police arrested 10 traffickers operating on the Bissonnet Track, a known prostitution corridor. They recovered nine minor victims.

Shelby County, Tennessee, which contains Memphis and sits at the junction of I-40 and I-55, leads the nation with 483 trafficking crimes. Eighteen children are missing from that county.

Clark County, Nevada—Las Vegas, where I-15 and I-40 converge—has 28 missing children and 224 trafficking crimes. Cuyahoga County, Ohio, covering Cleveland and the I-77/I-90 junction, shows 20 missing children and 233 trafficking crimes.

The Victim Profile Match

Of the 1,905 missing children in PMC's database, 856 are ages 16-17. The source data shows the 13-17 age bracket comprises over 90% of recently missing children.

FBI trafficking data shows 1,107 victims ages 16-17. Traffickers target teenagers because they're old enough to be sexually exploited but young enough to be controlled through manipulation, threats, and violence.

The age overlap is damning. Ninety percent of recently missing children fall into the primary trafficking victim demographic.

Names and faces emerge from the data. Martha Quintero, 16, vanished from Houston on January 9, 2025. Sara Martinez, 17, disappeared from Fort Worth on December 28, 2024. Autumn Ledlow, 15, went missing from Houston on October 14, 2024. Danielle Frazier, 15, also Houston, August 9, 2024.

In Los Angeles: Sophia Gomez, 16, missing May 20, 2025. Christina McNally, 16, missing June 6, 2025. Alexia Gonzalez Perez, 16, missing October 18, 2024.

Florida: Jose Perez Guzman, 16, missing from Miami on December 15, 2024. Tyra Aguilar Juarez, 16, Fort Lauderdale, November 1, 2024.

Ohio: Leevonne Overton, 16, missing from Cleveland on September 21, 2024. De'yon Sharpley, 17, Cleveland, December 25, 2024—vanished on Christmas Day.

Every one of these children disappeared from a high-trafficking corridor city. Every one matches the victim age profile. Every one remains missing.

The Infrastructure of Exploitation

Interstate 35 doesn't just move freight. It moves human beings. Forty percent of Texas strip clubs sit along the I-35 corridor. In fiscal year 2024, Texas authorities made 2,087 human trafficking arrests—many tied to this single highway.

The Department of Homeland Security's FY2024 report on human trafficking confirms what the data shows: traffickers use interstate highways as distribution networks. They move victims between cities to avoid detection, breaking down resistance by isolating them from anyone who might recognize them.

In January 2024, Texas DPS conducted an operation in the Permian Basin that resulted in over 20 arrests and recovered four victims: a 16-month-old infant, a 7-year-old child, and two young adults ages 18 and 23. The youngest couldn't even walk yet.

Operation Restore Justice, a nationwide effort in April 2025, arrested more than 205 child sex offenders. In May 2025, the Texas Attorney General's human trafficking unit arrested Deveon Byrd for trafficking a minor victim who was later recovered.

These aren't isolated busts. They're snapshots of a continuous operation running along America's highway infrastructure.

What Happens Now

Law enforcement agencies must immediately cross-reference missing children from I-10, I-35, and I-95 corridor cities with active trafficking investigations. Every 13-17 year old female who vanished from Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, or Memphis should trigger trafficking protocols.

Investigators need to monitor social media for "Romeo" or "Loverboy" recruitment tactics, where traffickers pose as boyfriends to lure teenage girls. They need to increase surveillance at known prostitution tracks like Bissonnet in Houston and Figueroa Street in Los Angeles.

Child welfare agencies must flag disappearances from corridor cities for immediate trafficking assessment. They should cross-reference cases with online sex advertising platforms and pre-position victim services in the highest-risk counties: Harris (TX), Los Angeles (CA), Shelby (TN), Clark (NV), and Cuyahoga (OH).

The pattern is clear. The overlap is undeniable. Hundreds of missing children match trafficking victim profiles, and they're vanishing from cities where trafficking operations are documented, active, and ongoing.

This isn't a cold case problem. It's a hot pursuit that isn't happening.

This investigation drew on 1,905 missing children records from NCMEC's database, 49,429 child crime records from FBI NIBRS, and PMC's master CivicOps database containing $148 billion in federal grant tracking data. Additional intelligence was gathered from Department of Homeland Security trafficking reports, Texas Department of Public Safety arrest records, ICE enforcement operations, and regional trafficking corridor investigations documented by KFDM, KXXV, and WFAA. Full source documentation is available in the original OPUS investigation report.