Signs Of Sex Trafficking Are Easy To Miss

SACRAMENTO — A high school coach in Sacramento has been arrested and accused of sex-trafficking minors.

Elan Daniel Seagraves, a 34-year-old soccer coach at Kennedy High School, was arrested on Christmas after one of his victims called 911 claiming she was being forced into human trafficking.

“It’s not surprising; I hear from my clients that it’s somebody who is in a place of power or someone who is important to them,” said Kristina Darte, who is a human trafficking coordinator for Stand Up Placer.

Darte works with victims of human trafficking. Since 2016, she’s helped about 200 girls between the ages of 11 and 24 escape from their pimps.

“They find their victims pretty much anywhere, anywhere people can be,” Darte said.

Darte says these pimps are sophisticated and usually in a position very few will ever think to question.

“It’s not the stranger that’s just gonna approach you and kidnap you or throw you into the van, it’s someone befriending them on social media, starting to build a relationship with them,” Darte added.

Darte says often times traffickers stay under the radar. But not in the case of Seagraves, a local soccer coach and Uber/Lyft driver, now accused of trafficking minors.

“The sheriff’s department received a call from a female who was in a backyard indicating she was hiding,” said Sgt. Shaun Hampton of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.

The victim was hiding somewhere on the 5900 block of Clover Manor Way in South Sacramento. Deputies say the victim told them Seagraves had forced her into human trafficking.

While deputies aren’t releasing details about how Seagraves met his victims, they say it’s crucial parents monitor who their kids are talking to.

Perhaps one of the biggest tell-tale signs of a potential trafficker, according to Darte:

“If there is someone that you don’t know and they have a lot of interest in you, that’s one red flag. Doesn’t mean you can’t make new friends, but at first, have that boundary up,” she warned.

Deputies say there may be other victims.

Seagraves has been fired from the Sacramento City Unified School District, where he has most recently been working.

He’s being held on $2 million bail and expected to be back in court next week.