MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A woman is in jail after allegedly sex trafficking a child, and investigators believe it started years ago.
Sandra Shaw was booked into a Memphis jail Tuesday and is being held on $200,000 bond. She is charged with several counts of trafficking for commercial sex act, aggravated sexual abuse and soliciting sexual exploitation of a minor.
According to her indictment, the victim was under the age of 13 when this started back in 2016, and continued into 2021.
Court records show Shaw was indicted on May 12 of this year and an arrest warrant was issued a few days later.
FBI and other agencies say it’s been harder to keep track of kids during the pandemic because people who normally report crimes like sex trafficking weren’t seeing the victims.
“We saw a decrease in the reporting [of] those types of crimes cause the children were not necessarily going to church or going to school during that time,” said Jennifer Ragan, a staff operation specialist for the FBI Memphis.
Ragan tells WREG victims can be affected for the rest of their life.
“Ten to 17 is a tough age, and to put something like this in the mix, we have depression, we have mental breakdowns, we have seen an increase in suicides,” said Ragan.