BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Every 40 seconds, a child goes missing or is kidnapped in the United States, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For retired sheriff’s deputy Dr. Willie Brooks, that statistic is more than a number. It’s personal.

Brooks lives not far from where a teenage girl in Baker was kidnapped last month. The teen was later found thousands of miles away in a basement in Pennsylvania, a case that he says still weighs heavily on him.

“It brings tears to my eyes even now,” Brooks said. “When I saw that, I could hear my daughters calling my name, saying, ‘My daddy’s coming. Daddy, where you at?’”

Brooks is a certified anti-human trafficking instructor who travels across the region teaching parents how to recognize signs of trafficking and the tools they can use

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