‘Everything Went Downhill So Quickly,’ Says Mom Of Alleged Sex Trafficking Victim Who’s Been Missing For A Year

A mother of a suspected sex trafficking victim is still holding out hope her daughter is alive, but said the last year of uncertainty about her whereabouts has been "unbearable."

Corinna Slusser was last seen leaving a New York City motel in September of 2017, shortly after moving to the area from her hometown of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Her family said she moved to New York in March 2017 after meeting her alleged pimp.

“Everything went downhill so quickly," her mother Sabina Tuorto told the Daily Mail. "Corinna made enemies. She stopped speaking to her friends. They would see pictures of her on Snapchat smoking and with guns. … She didn’t like living in a small town. I guess she was running away from that life. I never would have suspected prostitution though, it just didn’t cross my mind back then.”

Just last month, the FBI arrested Ishi Woney, 23, on federal sex trafficking charges for allegedly trafficking Slusser and another woman, but there is still no sign of Slusser.  

Tuorto believes her daughter is being held against her will and would've contacted her if she could. While she described Slusser as "clever," Tuorto said she doesn't believe her daughter has the "street knowledge to survive out there."

"She's being controlled," she said. "I don't know what they've done to her, whether she's on drugs or mentally unstable or whatever. But I know she's not herself."

Tuorto said the uncertainty about her daughter has prevented her from enjoying the holidays and she chose not to celebrate this year.

"Corinna is all I think about," she said. "I can never feel happy. It takes every bit of my energy just to get up every day."

Despite her alleged involvement in a world of prostitution and drugs, Tuorto said Slusser had still kept in contact with her family up until her disappearance.

Before she went missing, Slusser reportedly posted on social meeting about getting a new apartment and filed a claim against a 32-year-old man claiming he'd grabbed her neck and pushed her against a wall after she tried to get $300 she claimed had been stolen from her. According to the police report, the man may have been her pimp.

But with few other leads, Tuorto just hopes she is able to find answers soon.

"I can’t go on for 10 years like this," she said. "The not knowing is just unbearable. I don't know if she is alive, but I can only hope that she is."

[Photo: New York Police Department]