zFind out why Karla decided to go back to him after she had made a run for it

Kate Kulniece


 

HE was supposed to be her knight in shining armour – saving Karla Solomon from her challenging upbringing.

And for a while he really was. But every fairy tale comes to an end, sooner or later.

Karla Solomon, appearing on Soft White Underbelly, wearing a shirt that says "Not For Sale."
Born in California and then moving to Texas, Karla’s childhood was very heavy – but then it turned into a nightmare after a ‘Prince Charming’ appeared in her life
Credit: youtube/@SoftWhiteUnderbelly

Woman in a bar with a drink.
When she was 14 – and already arrested by the police more than a dozen times – Karla fell pregnant
Credit: youtube/@UnfilteredStoriesYT
Born in California and then moving to Texas, Karla’s childhood was very heavy – blighted by drug abuse, ‘friendships’ with adults twice her age and eventually running away from home.

By 12, Karla had become severely addicted to drugs – and felt forced to sell her tiny body in exchange for cash.

”I remember giving a man a b***job at the back of his car just so I could get a chicken nugget Happy Meal,” she bravely shared in an interview with Soft White Underbelly.

When she was 14 – and already arrested by the police more than a dozen times – Karla fell pregnant.

She kept the baby and made a go of it with her then-partner, but eventually they split and Karla met her now-husband.

The couple moved back to Texas to be closer to Karla’s mum – but then she became addicted to pain killers and ran away again, this time to Louisiana.

Now a mum-of-three, Karla was determined not to return to her former live and tried to make her money doing music videos.

But a rapper she performed for soon turned nasty, demanding sex instead of the cash she was promised.

Karla, then 29, escaped but was too scared to return to the home her children lived in, so turned to a high profile local man she knew only as ‘Fat’, but whose real name is Herman Fox.

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”Within days he was taking me to the mall, buying be beautiful things,” she told KSAT News.

”He was completely doting on me, taking me to the most expensive hotels. Spending the whole night pampering me, talking to me, finding out my hopes and dreams and aspirations.”

She truly believed she was in a loving relationship and her life would now change.

My Prince Charming turned into a monster like that

Karla Solomon sex trafficking survivor

One day, Fat took her on a drive. Throughout the course of the day, Karla noticed he sent women into motels to have sex with men, and took the money they brought back.

“My Prince Charming turned into a monster like that,” she said.

Eventually Karla was driven to a cheap hotel herself.

“I run for the door and he holds me and kisses me and tells me sweet things about how I just need to do it one time until he finds another girl. And I do it,” she explained sadly.

”But then I have to do it again and again and again and before I know it I have a $1500 (£1,110) a day quota that I have to meet every day.”

If she could not give him the money, Fox threatened she would be ”severely sexually abused, sodomised and beaten”.

Mugshot of Herman Fox, charged with people trafficking.
Herman Fox was eventually arrested and placed in jail for 30 years without parole
Credit: KBTX
Over the course of 54 days, she was trafficked from Louisiana to Texas, then Colorado and back.

She recalls: “A lot of people don’t understand (and say) ‘Well, Karla you were in your car, couldn’t you have left?’ I tried.”

One day Fox left his car keys on a chest of drawers, while he went to another hotel room to check on one of his girls and Karla made a run for it.

”I drove as far away as possible,” said Karla, who by then was addicted to methamphetamine and weighed less than 7 stone.

”I had been beaten so badly that my ribcage was completely crushed, I had bruises all over my body from trying to protect myself from all of his blows.”

‘I’m gonna do the same thing to her’

But as Karla was calling her now-husband for help, she started receiving messages from Fox, ordering her to return – immediately.

“He sent me a video. It was where my daughter gets on and off the bus. He said ‘I’m gonna take her, and I’m gonna do the same thing to her.’”

Desperate to save her daughter, she went back to him.

“It was move-in week at A&M [Texas A&M University) and that’s a big attraction for traffickers,” she said.

”Because there’s a lot of men in town that have a lot of money because they’re putting their boys off to college, or girls.

”And there’s a lot of new college boys who want to have parties. My quota goes up to $2500 (£1,900). This goes on for about seven days.”

What Is Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labour or commercial sex act.

Every year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide – including right here in the UK.

It can happen in any community and victims can be any age, race, gender, or nationality.

Thankfully for Karla, behind the scenes a huge criminal investigation was going on, and Fox was arrested shortly afterwards.

”I collapsed on the floor and I told DPS [state police], ‘You guys just saved my life’.”

At the hospital, Karla was diagnosed with STDs, a severe addiction to crystal meth and complex PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

”They determined I had multiple broken ribs – they don’t see how I was still alive because the bones were so close to puncturing all of my major organs.

”I couldn’t look anyone in the face – all I could do was cry and shake like a leaf.”

At that point police were able to arrest Fox on a marijuana charge but still had to build a case against him for any trafficking charges.

He eventually took a plea deal and was sentenced to 30 years in prison without parole.

Portrait of Karla Solomon wearing a camouflage baseball cap.
Now, Karla works daily to save others from the same position she was once in
Credit: youtube/@UnfilteredStoriesYT

Trying to end her suffering

Back in Texas, where she was living with her mum and stepdad again, Karla struggled with severe PTSD and even tried to take her own life.

A close friend stepped in, helping her realise she had a bigger purpose – and her gut-wrenching trauma suddenly became her therapy.

“We started a ministry together. We just opened our first safe house for girls just like me. We’re looking to expand,” Karla told KSAT News in 2019.

Now, approaching her 40th birthday, Karla lives with her husband and their three kids.

She presents to police and airport staff, explaining how they can increase efforts to combat trafficking – a crime that a shocking 27.6 million people worldwide are subjected to, according to data by Homeland Security.

“The one thing I still get emotional about is helping other girls and boys.

”There’s this one girl I’ve been working with and she’s left and came back, and left and came back and I get it.

”And she’s finally made the decision she’s not going back. And that’s just the most beautiful – because I did that.”