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Missing 12-year-old girl found as sex trafficking victim

A missing 12-year-old San Antonio girl has been found alive, but the girl has lived through hell for the last month.

A missing 12-year-old San Antonio girl has been found alive, but the girl has lived through hell for the last month.

In a northeast-side neighborhood in Bexar County, a 12-year-old girl (whom we're not naming to protect her privacy) dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, said her grandfather.

“You know when the pigeons have their newborns, they push them out the nest so they can fly? We find a lot of them at the foot of the tree. She picks them up, puts them in a box with hay, and gives them water, food until they become strong and they could fly,” her grandfather recalled.

KENS 5 is also withholding her grandfather's name and face to protect the girl.

On June 20, she was outside her home listening to music when she disappeared. Although authorities were notified of her disappearance within an hour, no one knew her whereabouts until two weeks ago when she texted her family.

“She took a picture of herself,” the grandfather said. “She was beaten and texted my son saying, ‘I want to come home. They won't let me, but I want to come home.’”

Authorities tracked the girl down to a hotel near Nashville. She was with 36-year-old Tavarie Anthony Williams.

Williams has since been arrested, accused of pimping her out and holding her against her will.

Authorities said that Williams met the 12-year-old in San Antonio. He offered her a ride home, but drove her to Tennessee instead. In San Antonio, the investigation continues into how Williams found the girl. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said that there could be more arrests.

“Her mother may have had a role in all this, but it's still too soon to say,” BCSO spokesman James Keith said.

The 12-year-old was being prostituted, beaten and starved for the last month. Her grandfather said that she was a size 13 when she left, and now she’s a size 6. It could be many weeks before the girl returns to San Antonio.

She's with a foster family, in therapy, but in constant communication with the grandfather.

“I told her, ‘You have to learn now, like the birds, to pick yourself up. You have to fly again.’”

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