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| A predator free among us... |
Back in 2012 I covered the disappearance of a beautiful young aspiring actress named Satara Silver. She had vanished for several months and was believed to be in harm's way, in the company of a sex offender. During the early coverage of this case I got to know her mother, and was compelled to help her bring her daughter home to the best of my abilities --
which, admittedly, wasn't necessarily much. I pushed my blogs about her to as big of an audience as I could, and I searched the web for any idea of what might have happened to her -- which didn't last long at all. Once I had found her Facebook page and realized that certain apps she used were still active on her account, I knew that she was alive -- and with that hope, her mother was able to demand more be done to find her. This ended in her being released by the sex offender who had her in his grips. Anyone could have made the discovery I made. Anyone could have helped push for her to be found and brought to safety. So I realize that it was but a small stroke of luck. Nonetheless, that small stroke of luck led to the recovery of a victim, someone who would likely be dead today had it not been for the tenacity and love of her mother, the chance discovery of an active Facebook app and the pressure it put on her captor.
If you recall the details of her case, she had been injected with heroin by the man who kept her in his grasps, which caused her to become hooked on the notoriously addictive narcotic. Paul Constantinescu is no ordinary sex offender, but one that has even been featured on a popular prime-time show about busting pedophiles. If you've ever watched any of those "To Catch a Predator" segments, you may have seen him. This man allegedly preyed on Satara's trusting nature before he turned her into his captor. He broke her down and brainwashed her. He subjected her to various forms of abuse, leaving her broken and addicted to the drugs he had forced upon her.
It's been two years and Satara is still a victim in recovery. The first year of her healing came with frequent nightmares and what her mother called "implanted memories" (which were part of the abuse she had suffered at the hands of Constantinescu). She was hypersensitive and couldn't stand the sensation of being touched by another person, traumatized from the experiences she had endured in California. In an uphill battle she's evolved and made amazing progress in her healing. Year two has come with fewer nightmares and she is not as fearful of human touch as she once was. She has fewer blackouts, and is pursuing higher education majoring in Political Anthropology, but passionately studying Astrophysics for her own intellectual enrichment. This is one smart cookie, and it saddens me to think that this beautiful mind might have been forever lost had it not been for the tenacity of her mother and her own personal strength. She is a survivor, and that's something that won't change.
Currently Satara is interning with the mayor of her town in hopes of developing a justice center. She has hope that the center could provide the support victims need in situations similar to hers -- support that she never got from officials in Los Angeles. In the past two years of her recovery she's not had one single incident involving drugs and has passed every single random drug test that's come her way. She was a victim in every sense of the word, and now she's a survivor looking forward to the next chapter in her life.
