The horrors endured by a Texas teenager who was kidnapped and sex trafficked during an NBA game, transported 200 miles from her home, raped and placed in an online sex ad. He revealed about a week of abuse.
Natalie Kramer was just 15 years old when she and her father, Kyle Morris, attended a Mavericks game at American Airlines Center in Dallas on April 8, 2022.
The now 18-year-old admitted that she used marijuana and alcohol to deal with her anxiety, and recalled that she started feeling anxious when basketball games started.
“I was feeling good and ready to spend time with him.” she told WFAA. “We arrived there, took our seats…the first quarter happened and I started to feel anxious. This craving is like getting high or drunk .”
Kramer told her father she was going to the bathroom, but she did not return to her seat.
The girl, who had left her cell phone behind, made eye contact with her future kidnapper, Emmanuel Cartagena, 33, in the arena concourse.
“I was just walking around and this guy caught my eye,” she said. “I told him, 'I just want to smoke. Do you smoke? '”
Cartagena allegedly told police he smoked weed in his car, where he met a second person.
“He never told me he had anyone else with him,” she said. “It was just him. He said he was walking back to his car, which was parked in the parking lot… the garage… and then a second man came in. They said the marijuana had just been in the car. He said it was inside.”
The two drove Mr. Kramer to his home in north Texas, where they gave him 15-year-old marijuana. “But they had more in mind than that,” she admitted.
She was held captive in her home for several days before being handed over by her kidnappers to another group in Oklahoma.
Morris had filed a missing person's report for her daughter with Dallas police at the arena, but was told she had to report Cramer as a fugitive to police in her hometown, 30 miles away from where the game was being held.
Kramer had previously run away from home for various reasons and was reported as a runaway.
“I was running for attention,” she said. “I was running for love. I was running for drugs. I was running from something I couldn't control, something I couldn't voice.”
During the terrifying 11 days she was missing, Kramer's parents enlisted the help of a Houston private investigator who discovered that a sex trafficker had been posting photos of their daughter in online sex ads. did.
Investigators tracked Kramer to Oklahoma City.
She recalled seeing a drunken family being led by men with assault rifles in a hotel hallway.
“I was even more surprised to see that there were families there with young children. I understand,” Kramer said. “The fathers of these little children saw me, but I didn't recognize them at the hotel. [The man who trafficked her] There was an entire rifle by their side, but the family just continued walking as if nothing had happened.
The girl's family accused employees of the Extended Stay America Hotel at the Oklahoma City Airport, where she was being held, of failing to recognize or turning a blind eye to signs of human trafficking. filed a lawsuit. The outlet reported in February.
Kramer described the day his prayers were answered and he was rescued.
“I was just praying to God,” she said. “I'm tired. I can't do this anymore. I need someone. Please send someone.”
On April 18, Oklahoma City police noticed a boy walking outside an apartment complex and asked if he was Natalie Kramer.
Kramer told officers she had been raped.
The teenager said that within minutes, eight people were arrested and later convicted of involvement in human trafficking.
U.S. Marshals arrested Cartagena in January 2023 and charged him with child sexual assault after allegedly luring Kramer from a Mavericks game and assaulting him before taking him to Oklahoma. WFAA reported.
A Dallas County grand jury decided not to indict him based on the evidence.
“I felt a little bit guilty,” Kramer admitted. “I know there were things I could have done to prevent this, but I also know that not all of the choices that were made were my choices. Part of me feels guilty. But I couldn't help but realize the fact that this is my life and they ruined my life. I can't feel sorry for them because they didn't feel sorry for me. ”
Kramer is now using her experience to warn others, saying her abduction was not your typical “guy with candy in the back of a van” type of kidnapping.
“It looks like a normal conversation, but it's not. You don't know you're in danger until you're in the middle of it, you don't know what to do, you don't know how to get out of it. You won't be able to do it,” Kramer explained. “There is no judgment for people who can't leave. If they can leave, they will.”
Kramer didn't realize she was in danger until she was raped.
“By then I knew I was in danger, but I was scared and didn't know how to get out. I could have called, but they would have been there right away. What was I supposed to do? Even if I ran away, where would I go? I didn't know where I was,” she said.
The teen, who is sober and pursuing a GED, said much of her escape could be due to mental health issues, saying she has not been to therapy and has not committed self-harm. He added that he was doing so.
“When I found out, it was definitely God's attitude of, 'I'm not going to give up on you, I'm not going to give up on you.' I'm not going to let you die.” she said. “It's all thanks to my family, my boyfriend and my dog…he saved my life too.”
