Teen kidnapped from Dallas Mavericks game tells harrowing story of sex trafficking and rape – and how God saved her

The Texas teen who was kidnapped at a Dallas Mavericks game two years ago is sharing her harrowing story of how she was kidnapped, sex-trafficked and raped as a warning to other teens.

Natalee Cramer and her father, Kyle Morris, attended a Mavericks basketball game at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on April 8, 2022.

“…I will never forgive you, and I 100% wish you the worst.”

Natalee – who was 15 years old at the time – said she started to feel “anxious” and “had a desire to get high or drunk.”

She told her father she was going to the bathroom and left her cell phone in her seat.

“I’m just walking around, and then this guy caught my eye,” Natalee told WFAA-TV. “I said to him, ‘I just want to smoke. Do you smoke?'”

The man told her he smoked and had some marijuana in his car. The man walked her to his car, parked in the arena garage. A second man appeared and they put Natalee in the car. She said the men provided her with marijuana and took her to a home in North Texas, about 20 minutes from the arena.

“It clicked for me that I was in danger when I was raped by them,” Natalee explained. “I knew then that I was in danger, but I didn’t know how to leave because I was scared. I could have asked for the phone, but they would have been there. What should I do? Even if I had run , where would I go? I didn’t know where I was.”

The night Natalee disappeared, her father notified a Dallas Police Department officer working on the game that his daughter was missing.

The officer allegedly told Morris to report her as a runaway to North Richland Hills police — more than 30 miles from the American Airlines Center — because they lived there.

When Morris contacted North Richland Hills police, he said they could not help because the incident occurred in Dallas.

Three days after her disappearance, a bulletin for the missing teen was sent out by the Dallas Police Department with assistance from the North Richland Hills Police Department.

Natalee had previously been reported as a runaway several times.

“I was running for attention,” she said. “I ran for love. I was running from drugs. I was running from things I had no control over…that I couldn’t talk about.”

She continued: “For me, a lot of it was my mental health. I wasn’t in therapy. I struggled with self-harm. I struggled with friends. I struggled with school. There were a lot of factors that led me to run. to be family problems. It could be anything.”

Natalee said she was held in North Texas for three days before being transported to Oklahoma and turned over to another group of people.

‘I had braces at the time and was punched in the mouth by one of the boys. My whole cheek was just scratched. My braces felt like they were in my cheek.’

She “was supplied with alcohol and numerous narcotics, including methamphetamines,” and the Texas suspect allegedly sold Natalee to an “unknown adult male who transported her” from Dallas to Oklahoma City, the complaint said.

The teen was held captive at the Extended Stay America hotel at the Oklahoma City airport.

Natalee recalled seeing a family in a hotel hallway while under the influence of substances and grown men with guns accompanying her.

“I was more surprised to see a family there with little kids, and they looked me in the eyes and could see that all these people were older than me and still didn’t say anything,” Natalee said. “The father of these little children looked at me, and he couldn’t see it in the hotel. (The man who trafficked her) had a whole gun at his side, and the family just walked on as if nothing had happened.”

As Blaze News previously reported, Natalee’s family sued the companies that own and manage the hotel where she was trafficked. The lawsuit filed in February showed surveillance footage of Natalee in the hotel hallways with the men. The lawsuit alleged that employees failed to recognize or turned a blind eye to and ignored the signs of human trafficking.

“The Extended Stay America hotel in Oklahoma City put profits before people by turning a blind eye to the sexual exploitation that was happening right before their eyes,” said Zeke Fortenberry – the attorney representing the family. “This victim’s life will be changed forever. We hope to hold those responsible to account and create change within these organizations so that this never happens to any other child.”

After police were unable to locate their daughter for days, Natalee’s parents sought help from a private investigator in Houston. The Texas Counter-Trafficking Initiative agency found online sex ads featuring photos of Natalee and traced them to Oklahoma City — about 200 miles from where she was kidnapped.

Natalee began to lose hope and asked for help from above. “I was just praying to God,” Natalee said.

She said she told God, “I’m tired. I can’t do this anymore. I need someone. Please send someone. ”

Natalee also has a message for the people who abused her: “I would say, ‘Thank you, because you made me who I am today. You made those things happen in my life that made me stronger and made me more resilient.” ‘

The same day she prayed to God, an Oklahoma City police officer saw the teen walking outside an apartment complex. The officer asked her if she was Natalee Cramer.

Natalee was rescued 11 horrific days after her kidnapping at the Dallas Mavericks game.

“Being found was absolutely God saying, ‘I’m not going to give you up; I won’t let you die,'” Natalee said.

Eight people were arrested and later convicted for their roles in Natalee’s sex trafficking ring. In January 2023, US Marshals arrested 33-year-old Emanuel Cartagena – the man who met Natalee at the arena and kidnapped her. Cartagena was charged with sexual assault of a child.

Natalee and her family also believe that Dallas police could have prevented her from becoming a victim of sex trafficking.

“I think Dallas (police) did a terrible job,” Natalee told KTVT-TV, adding that “my case is a perfect example of police not doing their job. I was walking around outside when the game ended. ended, everyone rushed out. They would have found me. They just weren’t looking at all.

Cramer said three men in Dallas were involved in sex trafficking with her. Dallas police arrested a suspect in Natalee’s case, but a Dallas County grand jury declined to issue an indictment or charge in the case.

“My first sex trafficking incident happened with the people at the American Airlines Center. That’s the Dallas deal,” Natalee said. “That’s their responsibility; that happened in their area. That’s not Oklahoma’s job. I was (trafficked) by guys from Dallas. The Dallas police have to deal with it, not the Oklahoma police.”

Natalee also has a message for the people who abused her: “I would say, ‘Thank you, because you made me who I am today. You made sure that those things happened in my life that made me stronger, made me more resilient. But…I will never forgive you, and I 100% wish you the worst. But I thank you.’

Natalee also warned others about sex trafficking.

“It’s not like a guy with candy in the back of his van and you just get thrown in the back of the van,” she said. “It seems like a normal conversation until it isn’t. You don’t know you’re in danger until you’re in the middle of it, and you don’t know what to do, and you can’t get out.”

Natalee — who is now 18 — said she is sober and pursuing her GED.

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