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“I think it’s really important to tell my story because I want to be the voice for the people who don’t feel that they can speak for themselves, including people who know people who are going through this,” Natalee told reporter Morgan Young from WFAA. “I want to make a pathway for people to feel comfortable and emotionally safe to talk to people and come forward.”
That Fateful Day
“They did give me weed…but there was more that they had in mind,” said Natalee. She was then sexually assaulted and held in North Texas for many days before the men took her to Oklahoma and trafficked her to another group of people.
As a previously runaway teen, Natalee’s disappearance initially did not get enough attention from the police right away, and there was online prejudice against her for following strange men to the garage.
Natalee said in the interview, “I was running for attention, I was running for love. I was running for drugs. I was running from things that I couldn’t control…that I wasn’t able to speak up about.”
Her story is raising awareness for minors who are struggling with mental health and addiction. Despite their backgrounds, she said these children and teens deserve as much attention and concern for their safety.
“You don’t know you’re in danger until you’re in the middle of it and you don’t know what to do and you can’t get out. There’s no room to judge people because they can’t get out. If they could leave, they would,” Natalee said.
Natalee was afraid for her life, but did not know how to escape from her captors. “I could have asked for the phone, but they would have been right there. What was I supposed to do? Even if I had run, where would I go? I didn’t know where I was,” said the teen.
In an interview with the media, Natalee’s father Kyle Morris recounted his experience trying to get Dallas Police Department to find his daughter. When the police officers at the game reportedly weren’t able to extensively look for Natalee, the frantic parents were told to report her as a runaway to their home’s North Richland Hills Police Department. It was 30 miles away from the game.
Desperate, Natalee’s family resorted to asking a private investigator from an anti-trafficking nonprofit in Houston, who was quickly able to find online sex ads with the teen’s face in Oklahoma City. They immediately informed the Oklahoma City Police Department.
An Answered Prayer
According to a lawsuit filed by the family against the Extended Stay America hotel where Natalee was being trafficked, hotel employees ignored the teen’s cries in the hallways. She was reportedly under the influence and men around her were holding assault rifles.
Natalee said, “They told me they couldn’t help me. They didn’t know how to help me.”
While walking outside an apartment complex one day, Natalee – for the first time since she was kidnapped – prayed to God.
She kept praying and praying, “I’m tired. I can’t do this anymore. I need someone. Please send someone.”
In a matter of minutes, a police officer of the Oklahoma City PD initially drove by the teen, but turned around and asked her, ‘Are you Natalee Cramer?’ She said yes.
Cramer became very emotional, saying her prayers were answered.
“He felt it. God told him, ‘That’s her. Go get her.’ Like, God was there. He was there.”
Soon after, many people involved in the sex trafficking ring were arrested, charged and sentenced in Oklahoma.
But back in Dallas, the men who initially lured Natalee to the car and took her away were not held responsible. In 2023, the Dallas police arrested one of them and charged him with sexual assault with underaged Natalee before trafficking her.
Despite the man’s previous arrest in Harris County for promoting prostitution of a minor, the Dallas County grand jury did not prosecute him, resulting in his early release.
“They didn’t let me say anything,” Natalee said she remembered every detail of what happened to her. “All of the things they were wearing and all of the things they said and did to me. All three of them are guilty, and if I could see all three, I would be able to point them out.”
A Life Renewed
Natalee reunited with her parents and has been receiving therapy sessions for her traumatic experience.
Her mother said, “Had we not had our relationship with God and had we not had a strong relationship with each other and an incredible therapist, we may not have made it and that would have done more damage to her.”
Now, the Cramer family began an organization called Aisling to help survivors and victims of sex trafficking and sexual assault. They are already training child welfare groups to further support children and minors who are going through hard times.
“I was struggling with self-harm. I was struggling with friends. I was struggling with school. There were a lot of factors for why I ran. It doesn’t have to be family issues. It can be anything,” she said.
Natalee is setting on a new path by living on her own and getting her GED. She credited her restart in life to faith and her loved ones.
“Being found, that was definitely God being like ‘I’m not going to give up on you; I’m not going to let you die,” she said. “It’s also all because of my family, my boyfriend, and my dog…he saved my life too.”
