A newly uncovered photo of sex trafficking victim Corinna Slusser shows the formerly blond, blue-eyed girl looking dramatically thinner with darker hair and eyes.
Corinna is pictured alongside the pimp accused of trafficking her in the Instagram photo posted last October, over a year after she disappeared from New York City.
Corinna’s mother Sabina Tuorto told DailyMail.com that she ‘nearly fell over’ when she saw how different her daughter looked from her former self.
A newly uncovered photo of sex trafficking victim Corinna Slusser (left) shows the formerly blond, blue-eyed girl looking dramatically thinner with darker hair and eyes
Corinna, who has been missing since September 2017, was active on social media until her disappearance, posting photos showing her with blue eyes, blond hair and flawless makeup
Speaking from her home in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, Sabina said she fears that Corinna may have been forced into changing her appearance, and that even family members did not recognize her when they saw the photo.
‘But I’m her mother, I know my daughter. I know that’s my Corinna,’ she said.
Sabina added: ‘It looks like they have dressed her down and made her look different. I don’t believe that she would have chosen to look like that. She was always so into her hair and makeup. This just doesn’t look like her.’
Former cheerleader Corinna was just 19 years old when she vanished from New York City in September 2017. Investigators believe that she is the victim of sex trafficking, and last month they arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with the offence.
The FBI have charged Ishi Woney, who appears to be the man in the photo with Corinna, with trafficking her and a second woman, referred to in court documents as Victim 1.
Corinna’s mother fears that her daughter looks so different from the girl in the missing posters and on social media (pictured) that people may fail to recognize her
Corinna with her mother in 2015. Sabina Tuorto told DailyMail.com that she ‘nearly fell over’ when she saw how different her daughter looked from her former self
Former cheerleader Corinna was just 19 years old when she vanished from New York City in September 2017. Investigators believe that she is the victim of sex trafficking
According to the complaint against Woney, he had been using both Corinna and the second female victim in online advertisements promoting prostitution.
Investigators say that Woney posted an online advertisement offering a ‘two girl special’ along with a photo of Corinna and the other female victim.
Sabina is now convinced that her daughter is being held against her will.
‘I know that if she was capable she would have called me,’ she said. ‘She’s being controlled. I don’t know what they’ve done to her, whether she’s on drugs or mentally unstable or whatever. But I know she’s not herself.’
Sabina added that she can’t help but feel disheartened at the sheer number of missing girls in New York and across the country.
‘She’s just one more drugged up lost soul,’ she said. ‘She’s a clever girl, but she’s from a small town. She doesn’t have the street knowledge to survive out there.’
Ishi Woney, 23, was arrested last month charged with trafficking Corinna and a second woman
According to the complaint against Woney, he had been using Corinna and the second victim in online advertisements promoting prostitution. If convicted he could face life in prison
Sabina said she fears that Corinna’s altered appearance could mean that it will be harder for people to identify her daughter, since the girl on the missing posters looks so different.
‘You could probably walk past her on the subway and not know it’s her,’ Sabina said. ‘That’s the scary thing.’
The teenager was active on social media right up until her disappearance, regularly posting photos showing off her bright blue eyes, long blond hair and flawless makeup.
Corinna was last seen in the early morning hours of September 20 at the Haven Motel on Woodhaven Boulevard in the Rego Park section of Queens.
She had moved to New York City just weeks earlier, and it is thought that she had been staying at a seedy motel in the Bronx that is known for prostitution.
Corinna’s mother is convinced that her daughter is being held against her will, as she is certain she would have made contact with her family if she were able
Her family believe that she had been groomed by pimps while living in her small hometown of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and had been lured to New York to become a prostitute.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Sabina described Corinna as a happy child growing up and said she had been close to her daughter until just shortly before her disappearance.
‘If it could happen to Corinna it could happen to anyone,’ she said. ‘We live in a small, safe town. You just don’t expect this sort of thing to happen here.
Mother-of-two Sabina described how she raised Corinna and her brother Justin, who is now a married father serving in the marines, by herself but she made sure they never wanted for anything.
She said: ‘I was a single mother but my kids were happy. Corinna was a cheerleader, she ran track. She had lots of friends and was always doing their hair and makeup. Even if she wasn’t going out herself, she’d help them get ready.’
Sabina said that Corinna, who would now be 20, had hoped to make a career in makeup, but that she started to grow distant from her family in the year before her disappearance.
She says she now realizes that Corinna, was speaking to ‘bad people’ on social media, who she believes later lured her to New York.
Corinna had hoped to make a career in makeup, but she started to grow distant from family in the year before her disappearance, and in August 2017 she left her home to move to New York
Corinna’s family believe she had been groomed by pimps while living in her small hometown of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and had been lured to New York to become a prostitute
‘Everything went downhill so quickly,’ she said. ‘Corinna made enemies. She stopped speaking to her friends. They would see pictures of her on Snapchat smoking and with guns.
‘She got in trouble for underage drinking, and we started fighting. Next thing, she’s moving to New York. I couldn’t stop her, she was an adult.
‘She didn’t like living in a small town. I guess she was running away from that life. I never would have suspected prostitution though, it just didn’t cross my mind back then.’
Sabina now believes that Corinna had initially been working as an escort, as she had been posting on social media about going on dates with men for money.
On September 8 2017, just days before she vanished, Corinna posted photos on Twitter of a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment on Grand Concourse in the Jerome Park section of The Bronx with a monthly rent of $750.
She tweeted: ‘My first apartment all to myself in NYC!!! Never been more happier in my life. Forver [sic] dream accomplished.’
‘I don’t know where she would have got the money to pay for that,’ Sabina said. ‘She didn’t have a job. But she must have been earning it somehow.’
Investigators now believe that during this time she had been staying at a seedy motel in the Bronx that is known for sex trafficking.
Just days later, Sabina spoke to her daughter about returning home for her grandfather’s funeral in Florida.
‘She told me it was “ghetto” where she was and that she wanted to come home,’ said Sabina.
But Corinna said she had no license and no social security card so she would be unable to board a plane without an ID, and she agreed with Sabina that she would come home after the funeral.
But when Sabina arrived back in Pennsylvania she was unable to contact her daughter, and on September 17 Corinna was reported missing.
Corinna’s last Instagram post, dated September 10, was a photo tagged in the Bronx. It shows a woman smoking what appears to be marijuana with the caption: ‘cyphin mid day mid road is always good for the soul.’
‘Cyphin’ is New York City slang for passing a marijuana blunt around a circle.
Sabina is now convinced that her daughter is being held against her will. ‘I know if she was capable she would have called me, she said.
‘She’s being controlled. I don’t know what they’ve done to her, whether she’s on drugs or mentally unstable or whatever. But I know she’s not herself.’
She added that she can’t help but feel disheartened at the sheers numbers of missing girls in a city as large as New York, and across the country. ‘She’s just one more drugged up lost soul.
‘She’s a clever girl, but she’s from a small town. She doesn’t have the street knowledge to survive out there.’
Corinna’s last Instagram post, dated September 10, was a photo tagged in the Bronx. It shows a woman smoking what appears to be marijuana with the caption: ‘cyphin mid day mid road is always good for the soul’
Corinna, who would now be 20 years old, is pictured with her brother Justin, who is now a married father-of-one serving in the marines, in February 2015
Sabina now wants other parents to be aware of the signs that their children may be falling victim to sex trafficking.
‘No one should have to go through what I have,’ she said. ‘Now I look back at it I can see that she was displaying all the signs, but at the time I had no idea what was happening.’
She refuses to give up hope that Corinna will be found, but she said that she doesn’t know how much longer she can cope with no knowing what has happened to her daughter.
‘I can’t go on for ten years like this,’ she said. ‘The not knowing is just unbearable. I don’t know if she is alive, but I can only hope that she is.
‘Somebody out there must know something.’
Corinna is described as 5-foot-6, weighing 140lbs, with long blonde hair and blue eyes, although her appearance may have been altered. She has a large black tattoo of a flower in the middle of her chest.
Anyone with information related to Corinna Slusser’s whereabouts is urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or online at tips.fbi.gov, or the NYPD at 800-577-TIPS.