NEW ORLEANS — Fourteen years ago, Myisha Growe was trapped in a dangerous and controlling situation in Washington, D.C. She says she was being held against her will by a trafficker, watched constantly, with little hope of escape.

That changed one day in 2010, when a stranger approached her on the street and asked a simple question: “Are you okay?”

Growe says she’d asked strangers for help before and been ignored, but this time was different.

“When he asked, it gave me a real chance to say something — and he actually listened to me,” she said.

She told him everything: that she was far from home, scared, and desperate to get back to her family in New Orleans. The man promised to help, but Growe admits she didn’t believe him until the next morning, when he pulled up in a car.

“He reached

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