My story is one that no parent should have to experience. I want all parents out there to know that you are not alone. The struggle is real. Very real! I pray for all these lost children morning, noon and night. My child was found alive but these abusers killed her spirit. It will be a long uphill battle to her recovery. I will keep fighting for our children. Promise. My heart breaks. 💔
I am the mother and grandmother of a 15 year old girl who was led astray by social media. She became a missing child. I was frantic! Chat rooms are death traps for our vulnerable children. The sex traffickers are out there making billions of dollars at the expense of our children’s mental health and lives. It is sick! Makes me want to fight even harder for our children. I have been up close and personal with the enemy. I am fighting the good fight. And I will never ever ever give up!
The Saga of Sage
I am the grandmother of a 15 year old girl, Sage Lily.
I adopted Sage when she was just shy of 2 years old. Sage and I live in Virginia with my husband. Sage was a straight A student, played piano and wrote poetry. A beautiful child that we loved very much.
Sage started going thru gender confusion in 8th grade due to the influence of fellow students. She was attending a small school and Sage informed me that all the girls were either bi, trans, or lesbian. So she decided to advise her friends and teachers she wanted to be trans and Sage would no longer be her name. She requested to be called Draco and be a boy. To which the school obliged as it’s a law. Unfortunately, they legally did not have to inform me, her legal mother. I wish I had known. This would have been a much different story.
Last August of 2021, Sage started 9th grade at the local high school. She was bullied and became extremely vulnerable and soon exploited online. She decided to run away from home on Aug. 25th. I immediately notified the local sheriff. Her case quickly escalated and the FBI and US Marshall became involved. Sage had been sex trafficked from Virginia into Washington DC and then transported to Maryland. The FBI and Marshals found her at the home of the abuser being kept in a locked room on Sept 2, 2021.
Sage started going thru gender confusion in 8th grade due to the influence of fellow students. She was attending a small school and Sage informed me that all the girls were either bi, trans, or lesbian. So she decided to advise her friends and teachers she wanted to be trans and Sage would no longer be her name. She requested to be called Draco and be a boy. To which the school obliged as it’s a law. Unfortunately, they legally did not have to inform me, her legal mother. I wish I had known. This would have been a much different story.
Last August of 2021, Sage started 9th grade at the local high school. She was bullied and became extremely vulnerable and soon exploited online. She decided to run away from home on Aug. 25th. I immediately notified the local sheriff. Her case quickly escalated and the FBI and US Marshall became involved. Sage had been sex trafficked from Virginia into Washington DC and then transported to Maryland. The FBI and Marshals found her at the home of the abuser being kept in a locked room on Sept 2, 2021.
Sage was taken to the ER for treatment and sent to a detention center. Why? She had no criminal charges. I was called by the FBI to come and get Sage and take her back to Virginia. However, upon my arrival I was told my granddaughter would not be allowed to return to Virginia. Sage was now being represented by a juvenile attorney and my husband and I were going to be investigated for "abuse" because my husband and I called her Sage and not Draco. Sage now identified as a boy and the judge demanded we use the “he/him” pronoun and call her Draco. Sage was being represented by an attorney whose actions from the beginning were unethical and unprofessional.
Abuse charges were filed against my husband and myself and Draco was put in the Children’s Home in the boy’s unit where she was again abused and placed in a private room. Again, I was not advised that Sage (with a female body), was placed in a boys unit. What in the world did they think would happen!?
After an investigation by both Maryland and Virginia DSS, the abuse charges were determined to be unfounded. Yet Sage still could not come home.
Instead of the trauma care that Sage desperately needed when she was rescued, she was manipulated and our family was treated unfairly. Had this situation been treated correctly, my Sage would have gotten the help she desperately needed instead of becoming a missing child.
I know there are interstate laws and agreements regarding "custody" and since Sage is a legal resident of Virginia it seems she should have been returned immediately to Virginia under therapeutic supervision. Instead she was put on center stage to push a political and gender agenda for a Maryland public defender with clearly no knowledge of trauma caused by sexual exploitation on a child.
A typical 14 year old is emotionally immature and struggles with many issues. Especially Sage who experienced severe trauma before the age of two. Now with this new trauma of being sex trafficked, her vulnerability greatly increased. There are therapeutic residential programs in Virginia that accepted Sage but the MD public defender attorney said Sage could not go because of the gender affiliation. The judge agreed!
Sage’s gender identity should not even have been addressed It certainly was not in her best interest at all.
This Maryland juvenile judge finally ruled on November 9th to release Sage/Draco to a facility in VA. This was immediately appealed the next day (going against the interstate law for custody) and MD continued to retain custody of my child hoping to place Sage in a foster home in MD. Why? Because I called her Sage, her legal name, and not Draco. Simply because my husband and I could not remember to.
To make matters worse, on Nov. 12th, Sage did not return to The Children’s Home she was residing after school. Sage became a missing endangered teen again!
Law enforcement was notified, NCMEC notified and the FBI notified as well.
Yet the appeal the Maryland attorney had filed was still active and under review. Maryland attorneys in this case and now the Court of Appeals have failed by not allowing this troubled and traumatized young teenager to return to Virginia (her legal resident state) for care as soon as she was found. It seems a trauma informed counselor would have been working alongside the attorneys as well. Why was there not?
At that point I could only hope and pray that Sage was not back in the hands of the predators. I prayed she was still alive. Everyone should have been looking for her instead of using her to establish case law for transgenders which was this MD attorney’s main intention at the risk of my child’s mental health and now her life. This attorney went so far as to advise my child she intended to file an appeal and if that failed, would go to the Supreme Court! I was appalled. And broken hearted.
Sadly, the MD Marshal found that Sage had been sent by another predator from Maryland to Dallas Texas. This man held her there in a locked room and used her for pornography, sold her body for money, starved her, beat her, and drugged her. Thru the grace of God the Texas Marshall found her on January 24, 2022. A true miracle. So many children are never found.
Sage is currently in a residential therapeutic facility for the next 1-2 years depending on how well she responds to the program. She will struggle with these consequences the rest of her life.
I want to share her story with anyone and everyone who will listen. I am just one small voice for 1000’s of these children that our society is endangering by passing laws that give them more rights than the parent. These new laws are putting these kids in danger. Their brains aren’t even fully developed until the age of 25! We’re allowing these children, schools and medical facilities to legally keep secrets from the parents. This is very real and very scary.
We need to become one loud voice and warn people that their children’s lives are at stake. There are a lot more sick predators out there watching and waiting for these confused kids. Our society is leading them astray by allowing these laws to be passed. It’s a very real issue that deserves much more attention. Please help by sharing Sage’s story.
Most sincerely,
Michele, Sage’s Nana
