North Texas Girl Victim of Human Trafficking at Dallas Mavericks Game Shares Her Survival Story: ‘I Am Not Afraid’

NORTH TEXAS, (CBS News Texas) – Her story made local headlines. Now, an 18-year-old North Richland Hills sex trafficking victim is ready to discuss every horrifying detail.

“This is my first birthday at home in, let’s say, two years,” said a smiling Natalee Cramer.

She spoke out for the first time, recounting what happened to her in April 2022.

At just 15, she disappeared from a Dallas Mavericks game at the American Airlines Center. She was found 10 days later with traffickers in Oklahoma.

“I have the ability to change people’s perspectives and make them feel like they have a voice,” Cramer said.

Once scared and too weak to tell her story, Cramer now wants her voice to be heard.

“I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. There’s nothing to be afraid of. And it’s so powerful, I feel so powerful saying that,” Cramer said. “I feel so powerful saying that. I would have never thought that a year ago. I would have never been here. I would have never thought that I could do this. I’m so proud of myself.”

On April 8, 2022, the Mavericks played the Trailblazers at American Airlines Center. Cramer and her dad sat in section 221 until the 15-year-old went to the bathroom and didn’t come back.

For the next 10 days, her story was front-page news across the country. AAC cameras captured the only clues. She was last seen with two men on surveillance footage at the arena.

“I was planning on going to the game, but then I got this anxiety. … I needed something,” Cramer said.

Cramer says she struggled with anxiety and addiction to vaping and marijuana.

“So I just went and found a guy. I said, ‘Hey, do you smoke?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ He asked me who I was with. And I said, ‘I was with my dad. I don’t know where he is, but we can just chill.'”

Cramer says the incident occurred in a parking lot.

“I thought he was the only one … and he wasn’t. They had a bag of weed and rolling papers,” Cramer said. “When they showed me that, I was just pushed in, not thrown in. But I didn’t — I had no choice.”

Cramer says it didn’t take her long to figure out she was in danger. She said she “wasn’t sober enough to do anything about it. I didn’t know.”

She said the details of that night and the next 10 days are slowly coming back to her. They are very difficult to hear.

Cramer said she was raped three times in the AAC parking lot and then taken elsewhere.

“I would say … 20 to 25 minutes from the American Airlines Center … and they kept having me smoke marijuana and raped me again,” Cramer said. “And when I found out I was a victim of human trafficking, that’s when the guy was wearing a gray hoodie. … I remember him asking me, saying, ‘Can you take a shower and then put these clothes on so we can go out?’ … I wasn’t thinking about selling my body. None of that.”

Cramer’s parents, desperate for answers, hired a private investigator who within 24 hours made a horrifying discovery: He discovered adult ads for their daughter on the Internet. She was being sold in Oklahoma.

Cramer said she doesn’t remember driving to Oklahoma, but she remembers being there.

When asked why she didn’t find a phone to call for help, she replied that some of the story was difficult for her to understand.

“That’s something that a lot of people are probably going to be very skeptical about,” Cramer said. “There were times when there was a phone and I could have called. … I didn’t, it didn’t cross my mind. I was running. I was running for drugs. I was running for all these other reasons.”

Cramer says her family wasn’t her top priority at the time.

“I was sabotaging myself,” Cramer said. “I was putting myself in situations I shouldn’t have been in, but… I just didn’t call. I don’t know why I didn’t call.”

A private investigator tipped off Oklahoma City police about Cramer’s adult ads. Ten days after Cramer disappeared from AAC, an Oklahoma City police officer found Cramer wandering outside the complex, where one of her dealers was later arrested.

“I was tired. I didn’t know. I didn’t know what to do,” Cramer said. “I was so distraught that I was seeing things that weren’t there … and I was just walking around these apartments like I was praying. I was thinking, ‘Oh God, please, someone, something, whether it’s a cop, an ambulance, something, a random person on the side of the road.’ I was thinking, ‘Oh God, I can’t do this … please.’ And ‘Someone, please, please, save me.’ And not five minutes later (later), a cop pulled up next to me and said, ‘Are you Natalee Cramer?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am.'”

Cramer became very moved and said her prayers had been answered.

“He felt it. God told him, ‘It’s her. Go get her.’ It was like God was there. He was there.”

It’s been two and a half years since that night at AAC. Cramer credits her escape and recovery to faith, family, therapy and Gunnar. Gunnar is her dog, who arrived shortly after she returned home and began therapy.

“When I got Gunnar, I was in a manic state … every morning he would make me go out, I had to take him out. I had to feed him,” Cramer said. “He gave me that motivation back. … He’s a dog. He doesn’t know, but he totally saved my life.”

Cramer said she was lucky to be alive.

“I knew I was going to die. I knew it,” Cramer said. “It’s scary to think that this is happening every day. But I hope people take away from this that this is real. This is real and it’s hard. And you might not think it’s going to happen to you until it does.”

He has a message for other victims and survivors.

“Don’t give up. Even if this happens to you, don’t give up. It will get better. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. You just have to accept it and realize it’s not your fault. No!”

Cramer is still recovering, but she is ready to help others who may find themselves in a similar situation to hers.

“I’m not giving up,” Cramer said. “I’m going to keep talking about this, even if it means telling my story 100 times over and over and over and over. It’s not just my story that’s being told. It’s the stories of other people who aren’t able to tell theirs.”

Cramer says she’s a 9.5 on a scale of one to 10. She’s working on her GED and wants to start veterinary school. She says she’ll be a “10” when that happens.

Cramer and her family have established a nonprofit foundation. Aisling for Life helps raise funds to support and provide resources for victims of sexual assault and human trafficking. The Irish word “Aisling” means “dream.”

While several people were convicted in Oklahoma in connection with the Cramer case, Dallas investigators made an arrest but later dropped charges against the suspect.

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