Man, 34, indicted after feds say he sold 13-year-old Fort Worth girl for sex
Fort Worth detectives who were investigating the disappearance of a 13-year-old found advertisements online selling the girl for sex two months after she was reported missing, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.
The girl was reported missing by her parents in September after her middle school notified the parents that she never arrived to class.
Detectives found the advertisement that they believed to be the girl on Nov. 4, according to the court document. The detectives began texting the number that was on the ad in an effort to arrange a meeting with the girl.
The next day, an undercover officer who posed as a customer found the girl inside an Irving hotel room.
Police found that the room was registered to 34-year-old Curtis Vance Mathis. Agents matched surveillance footage that showed a man walking the girl through the hotel to the driver’s license photo of Mathis, according to the complaint.
Surveillance footage reviewed by the detectives showed a second man go into the hotel room after Mathis left. That man was there for about four minutes. When he left, Mathis returned to the hotel room and left 30 minutes later with what appeared to be money, according to the complaint.
After being found by police, the girl told them she feared for her safety because her traffickers said they would kill her if she didn’t cooperate.
Mathis was charged with child sex trafficking on Nov. 7 and indicted last week. He has pleaded not guilty and will be held in jail until a jury trial in 2020, according to court documents.
