Family searches for 19-year-old mother missing since March; believed to be victim of human trafficking • Long Beach Post News

It’s been nine months since 19-year-old Ruthey Smith went missing in Los Angeles, leaving her family in Long Beach searching each day for any little bit of information that may bring her back home.

Smith, a North Long Beach resident, had been working in prostitution for some time as a way to make it out on her own and provide for her daughter, her family says, when she went missing on March 2. She was last seen in the area of Figueroa and 70th streets, an area in South Los Angeles commonly targeted by authorities for its human trafficking and prostitution operations.

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