It would have been hard to imagine that a story of parents dying from drug overdoses and leaving a 5-month-old baby to perish from starvation and dehydration could get worse.
And then it did.
Last week, reporter David Hurst confirmed that the parents in that tragic December incident in Johnstown were the targets of an investigation into child sex-trafficking.
Miller said that once the parents died, the sex-trafficking case was closed because they could no longer be prosecuted.
Authorities said the allegations involved isolated incidents of trafficking.
We fail to see how a crime that involves a seller and a buyer could be considered isolated.
Chambers and his wife are gone, but their sex clients remain at large – either in New York or right here in our communities.
The Chambers case connects trafficking directly to the region’s other huge problem – opioid abuse. Jason Chambers had been treated for an overdose prior to the fatal incident in December.
Representatives of Children and Youth Services had visited the home in Johns-town’s Kernville neighborhood and determined that Summer Chambers should stay with her parents.
Michael Oliver, executive director of Cambria County Victims Services, noted: “We’re aware of the connection between the opioid epidemic and human trafficking and it’s clear that this is becoming more prevalent in our community.”
The sex-trafficking element of the Chambers situation was not discussed publicly until The Tribune-Democrat followed up on the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services report.
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argosciv ago
S'how you know they were a node to something much bigger, when the cell managers suddenly drop dead with clients(and presumably victims) in the wind... tying up loose ends, etc...