The Washington police department that handled a murder case involving a father accused of stabbing his daughter’s 19-year-old boyfriend to death for allegedly selling her into a sex trafficking ring in the Seattle area issued a new warning Wednesday on the "fastest growing criminal industry in the world today."
The Spokane Police Department posted to its Facebook page announcing that a recent anti-sex trafficking operation resulted in the successful removal of a trafficked juvenile from the streets.
On Dec. 14, FBI Spokane Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, in conjunction with Kalispel Tribal Police, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and members of the Spokane Regional Safe Streets Task Force, conducted an anti-sex trafficking operation at Northern Quest Resort & Casino in Airway Heights.
The operation resulted in contacts with six women involved in trafficking and/or commercial sex work, police said. In one contact, task force members were able to connect a trafficked juvenile with her family and begin an investigation into those responsible for trafficking her.
"Human/sex trafficking can happen anywhere and is reportedly the fastest growing criminal industry in the world today," Spokane police said Wednesday. "The FBI Spokane Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force is a dedicated anti-trafficking unit consisting of FBI, Spokane Police Department, and Spokane County Sheriff’s Office members. The unit works tirelessly to identify and apprehend those involved in the recruitment, transportation, harboring, and sale of people for labor or services. Task Force members also work to provide victims support and alternative lifestyle options."
The Spokane Police Department said the primary purpose of these operations is twofold – identifying traffickers and providing resources for sex-trafficked victims. Four of the contacts in the Dec. 14 operation, all of whom are adult women, resulted in connecting with advocates from the Kalispel Tribe and the FBI who are skilled in providing services to help move women out of the sex trade lifestyle, police said.
One contact resulted in a woman being arrested on a felony assault and theft warrant.
The warning comes more than a year after Spokane police announced the arrest of 61-year-old John Eisenman in November 2021 on a charge of first-degree murder in an unrelated case.
Eisenman was accused of smashing a cinder block over the head and repeatedly stabbing his juvenile daughter’s 19-year-old boyfriend for allegedly selling the girl into a sex trafficking ring in the Seattle-area – about a four to five-hour drive from Spokane – in November 2020. The father had rescued his missing daughter in October of that year.
The boyfriend's body wasn’t found until a year later in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle left in a remote area.
A Spokane police detective later said in court documents that he "has not been able to document any independent and verifiable facts" that the deceased man somehow trafficked Eisenman’s daughter.
Eisenman allegedly admitted to being high on methamphetamine when he killed the man.
According to court documents, the girl’s boyfriend did abandon her at a gas station in the Seattle area when police arrived because he was driving a stolen vehicle. She claimed her boyfriend was "selling me for drugs" and that she lived homeless in the area for about three weeks as "they just passed me around," Spokesman reported.
Eisenman remains held on a $1 million bond, according to Spokane County Jail online records.
