This has been reposted here to Lemmy as part of the “Curated Reddit Project.”

I am NOT OP. Original post by u/throwawaygodimawful in r/legaladvice

trigger warnings: human trafficking, child abuse

mood spoilers: horrifying, but the ending is hopeful

i think something very bad happened to my sister (recovered with unddit as post was deleted) - 3 weeks ago

Throw away because this is seriously terrifying.

I scope reddit a lot and I really don’t know where to go, but I hope I can be helped here. I’m 14M, I’m American but live in Asia, being vauge because I don’t want this traced back to me if the situation is as bad as it seems.

I don’t know if I should give some sort of background or anything, but up until about 7 months ago, I lived with my Mom (39) and my dad (41) plus my little sister(9). I say was because my sister is no longer here, she’s in “boarding school”.

I want to preface this by saying we are not bad kids, we’re half white, half Asian, when my grandpa (in dads side) got sick 4 years ago we moved here so my dad can take care of him. Me and my sister worked hard to learn the language, despite her age, she actually caught on better than me and I was so impressed with her.

The issue began with grandma, she would really look down on my sister and I love my sister and didn’t like it one bit. My mom said its cultural and I shouldn’t make a fuss but it was hard when grandma really started making it obvious, she got me clothes, games, etc, but my sis got no attention. I should mention that 4 years ago, we lived with Grandpa and Grandma, in that time of me getting spoiled, my sister got repremandd for everything she did, I swear, it was super unfair you wouldn’t believe.

Just under a year ago grandpa passed and my parents decided we’d stay here since I already speak and read pretty fluently. Grandma spoke to everyone about how rude and unladylike my sister is and my parents went along with it when I completely think that’s wrong! Seven months ago her and Grandma went out and my parents said she’d be at boarding school for the summer- JUST the summer.

After 3 months I got anxious and asked when she’d be back and my ended up crying at the question, I was talked to by my dad and he said she loved boarding school so much she didn’t want to come back yet. Like…??? Is that how boarding school works? I don’t think so, maybe I’ve been watching to much TV or reading to much reddit, but we’re in another country and I swear what they were doing was emotional abuse.

Still, it gets worse, after 5 months, I still hadn’t gotten any contact, no message, no letters, nothing, and that’s when my dad started making her room into his office space. We actually got into a big fight over it and I ended up with more chores, but he never answered why he was doing it if she’d be back soon. Anyway, it’s now been 7 months since that car trip that took my sister away and the final nail in the coffin hit, I was looking through the attic for my mom and found a box with some of her old stuff, including her phone. Why wouldn’t she have her phone?

I really just want to know if there’s anything I can do, no one will tell me which boarding school she’s at, I’m told not to worry about it because I’m a child. I know I’m to young to do much but if there’s anything I can do, please help. When I think about it I can’t stop remembering the way my mom cried that day, it makes me shiver, I’ve been imagining the worst and I’d hate if it ended up being something along my mind.

Update: Haven’t seen my sister in a long while. - 8 days ago

Hi Reddit! Its been a crazy few weeks but I absolutely needed to update as soon as possible. Sorry my post got locked ans I appreciate everyone who spoke to me via DMs, sorry to those I couldn’t get to- it was a lot.

I should get on with the most important of the update, what I finally ended up doing. So thanks to the super community that is reddit, I was able to get in touch with a few different sources, the least favorite of which was a phone call towards those that help find trafficked children. I knew my family would be investigated and actually went to meet up with another family in that time, so basically, a redditor close to my age, who I’ll keep private, met with me and she had already showed my story to her family.

They ended up letting me stay with them for a bit and made the proper calls to make sure it wasn’t illegal, I actually even specified that I wasn’t running from home, and I’d come back after the investigation. It didn’t sit so well with authorities and I was actually forced to go back home, but it only got stranger from there.

I went back home to a completely empty house, even Grandma was gone, so I was allowed to stay with the other family for the time being. They were extremely kind, for a week I didn’t get any news and, bless her mother’s heart but I was told I had a home here no matter the results. So, a few days after a week had passed, I get a call and it turns out they found my sister!

My family had been taken in for questioning and were placed in holding for quite a while, I’m not sure why they didn’t tell me this immediately though. I don’t actually know the full story, but my sister was living close 700 Kilometers away, yeah, nearly a whole days drive, it wasn’t summer school, or boarding school, or anything like that- My Dad sold her to get married.

My mom was off the hook as 1, I still needed a parent, and 2, she wasn’t in on it until it was a decent way in. My dad and grandma have been arrested though and I’m back living with my mom and sister now. I’m still in contact with rhe redditor that let me stay with her and I’ll forever be greatful, I have no idea what would have happened if I was around when authorities came knocking. She’s my angel!

On a more depressing note, my sister doesn’t speak much, but she seemed to cheer up after I let her read my post. She said she felt abandoned and alone, among other things, but seeing how I and plenty of strangers gave their hearts for her made her very happy so thank you all.

Sorry for being ao vauge here but I’m trying to protect identities. This isn’t over by a long shot, there’s still things that are going to happen, but I have my sister, and that’s all thanks to reddit. Thank you.

Reminder - I am not the original poster.

OP note: I’m marking this concluded for now because they got her back