Teen Vanishes After Testifying Against Her Pimp

Kelsey Emily Collins had a turbulent childhood. Having been born with Hirschsprung’s disease, she required several surgeries and spent the first year of her life in and out of a hospital.

Her parents divorced when she was 3-years-old due to her father’s alcoholism. Kelsey’s mother, Sarah Collins, remarried shortly after. Sarah was a victim of domestic violence and would later find out that her husband had sexually abused her older daughters. Kelsey had witnessed these assaults.

Sarah ultimately took her children and fled from the Midwest. 7-year-old Kelsey spent a year living with her mother, two older sisters, and younger brother in shelters across the US while Sarah changed their names and social security numbers. Kelsey’s name had been Emily up until this point. The family eventually settled in Washington.

Sarah’s abusive husband would later be convicted of abusing her older daughters and served a 20-year prison sentence.

By the age of 12, Kelsey was getting into a lot of trouble. She often ran away from home and missed school. Kelsey drank alcohol, used and sold drugs, and was sexually active.

18-year-old Kelsey was a student at Mariner High School. She struggled with learning disabilities and was placed in special education classes — she read at a 5th-grade level and had 3rd-grade level math skills.

Kelsey was a wounded and troubled teenager, but her sister Dominique Hicks described her as “the sweetest child in the world.”

Kelsey was just a teenager when she began dating an older man. It wasn’t too long into the relationship when he brought up the idea of selling her body.

At first, Kelsey refused. But the 16-year-old would soon find herself in the world of human trafficking and prostitution, where pimps control vulnerable young girls through violence.

Sarah would later find a letter Kelsey wrote to a friend with her thoughts on the situation,

“I have a new way to make a lot of money for us.

I couldn’t believe he was asking me to be a whore.

The next thing I knew I was.”

Kelsey was known as “Lady Dollars” and worked for several pimps on the streets of Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. She would often return home with black eyes and cuts — she had a two-inch scar across her left hand and index finger from a box-cutter. Her injuries, she would tell her family, were from school fights or accidents.

Kelsey was arrested for prostitution several times. Sarah told The Seattle Times, “There were times when they arrested her that I was glad because I knew she was safe.”

A few months into working on the streets, in January of 2008, authorities caught Kelsey exiting a customer’s car. Although not her first time being arrested, she was now fed up and willing to tell authorities everything.

Kelsey spoke to Sergeant Doug Justus of the Portland Police Department, who was leading a human trafficking unit at the time.

She told him her current pimp, who she had known for less than a week, had brought her to Portland from Seattle. Kelsey also explained how the “business” worked. Everything she knew about prostituting herself, her pimps had taught her. They bought her everything she needed, from clothes to condoms. She made $1,500 on her first day in Portland, but pimps were the ones who kept the money.

Justus described the relationship these girls have with their pimps as “domestic violence on steroids.”

Although terrified, Kelsey agreed to speak to a grand jury. The testimony was scheduled for 16-months later. In the meantime, she was out on probation and was to attend-court ordered rehab.

Moments before testifying in April of 2009, Kelsey broke down in tears outside the courthouse. Her mother, who had traveled with her to Portland, assured her she was doing the right thing.

Kelsey bravely testified against 36-year-old Donnico Tyrel Johnson, who had been charged with interstate sex trafficking of a minor. His accomplice, 30-year-old Lisa Miles, had also been charged.

On May 9, 2009, Kelsey left her home in Everett at 5:30 PM. She was going to catch a bus to Seattle to visit her new boyfriend.

Kelsey left home with very little; nothing to indicate that she intended on spending time away. She had a small black purse, her phone, mp3 player, hairbrush, identification, and a few dollars in cash.

When Sarah woke up the next morning, her daughter had not returned home. She called Kelsey’s boyfriend, but he claimed that she had never arrived at his house.

Kelsey’s family has never seen her again. She vanished just three weeks after testifying against her pimp.

Donnico and Lisa were indicted and arrested in June of 2009. Both plead not guilty. Kelsey was the key witness in the case, but with her missing, the charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence in March of 2010.

Merely three months later, Donnico plead guilty to trafficking a 14-year-old girl. He was sentenced to over 15 years in prison and was ordered to repay the victim $21,600 — nine customers a day at $80 per customer for the 30 days he prostituted her on the streets of Portland. Lisa was sentenced to probation after taking a plea deal.

Kelsey’s family is certain that her sudden disappearance is related to her being the star witness in the case and that she should have been offered support. Detective Justus agrees,

“I truly believe she was killed for testifying in this case. The federal government didn’t do their job, they didn’t protect her.”

In response to their claims, Assistant US Attorney Kemp Strickland said his office wasn’t aware that Kelsey had been harmed by other pimps. According to Strickland, Kelsey would have been offered protection if they had been informed of such,

“There’s not one iota of information that a criminal defendant we had charged was a danger to her. If we had any indication of threats, we would move her and move her fast.”

Kelsey’s family has been very vocal about their dissatisfaction with the way authorities handled the case. According to Justus, when he called a detective in Everett and asked if there were any updates, he was told, “She’s 18. She’s a prostitute. So what?”

After realizing that authorities were not conducting a proper investigation, Sarah sent dozens of emails, pressing the FBI and the US Attorney to review the case.

Sarah repeatedly asked the police to track Kelsey’s phone, but they refused because Kelsey was an adult. In the weeks after she had gone missing, her phone would go directly to voicemail as if it had been turned off. Sarah would later learn that the phone had been emitting signals for two weeks in the Seattle area.

After five months of desperately searching for Kelsey, Sarah found out that her daughter had not been entered into the national missing person’s database.

In an interview with CNN, Sarah stated that the prosecutors used her daughter,

“They used her and they threw her away.”

Dominique spoke about the tragic situation to The Seattle Times,

“They had a moral and ethical responsibility to my sister when they asked her to come into court and testify against a pimp. That’s what hurts so much — that she was used, and used in a way that probably cost her her life.

How can you ask these girls to do what they do, and then send them on their way?”

Kelsey is multiracial (African-American, Caucasian, and Native American).

Kelsey Emily Collins has been missing for 12 years. If alive, she is now 30-years-old.