PHOENIX - Sixteen-year-old Anaiah Walker was known as a routine runaway, but police believe she was sex trafficked before being killed in a hit-and-run.
The connection isn't uncommon. Experts have studied the link between missing Department of Child Safety kids and trafficking in Arizona.
Anaiah Walker
‘The Blade’
A 4-mile stretch of road in Phoenix from Indian School Road to Northern Avenue is known as "The Blade" or "The Track." Through previous reporting and interviews with law enforcement, it has been a longtime hot spot for prostitution and sex trafficking.
In August alone, police say two girls, ages 17 and 15, were trafficked by multiple adults throughout The Blade. It's unknown where the victims came from, but a recent study from Mercy Care shows more than 60% of child sex trafficking victims from 2021 to May 2023 were in DCS custody. Mercy Care is a statewide health provider for youth in Arizona's custody.
"It is not surprising to me that so many kids in DCS care are at risk for exploitation or potentially are victims of exploitation or trafficking," said Stacey Sutherland with the Arizona Anti-Trafficking Network.
Sutherland, who has done street outreach, said many of the girls and women she's spoken with came through the system.
"When you are living in a group home, you're probably not going to get some of those safety checks and safety boundaries, and so that should be a priority," Sutherland said. She said young girls in state care are easy targets for predators.
"It's 'let me provide something for you. Oh, you haven't been to a nice sit-down restaurant before. I can provide that for you. Oh, you want some Air Jordans? I can provide that for you. You want a new iPhone? You want money? You want a Louis Vuitton bag? You want me to take you to Walmart and fill your refrigerator? I can do that for you, absolutely,'" Sutherland said, describing traffickers.
In Walker's case, law enforcement believes she was sex trafficked while in DCS custody.
Anaiah Walker
What they're saying:
On May 22, 2020, Anaiah was found dead on the median of Interstate 10. Buckeye Police say she was killed in a hit-and-run. The suspect vehicle is believed to be a 2016 to 2018 Honda Civic painted "midnight burgundy pearl."
Walker's father, Adrian Walker, couldn't believe it.
"Like a movie, where everything's just moving around, and you're just in one spot, unaware of what's really going on around you. Thinking about 'why, how, why us, why my baby girl?'" he said.
The "how" and "why" stem back to behavioral issues Anaiah experienced at age 13.
"It's hard to pinpoint where it started, but it really was noticeable, but seemed manageable, if you will," Adrian Walker said.
Court records show Anaiah became suicidal and violent toward her parents and was ultimately taken into DCS custody. In March 2018, a pattern of running away from her group home continued, which led to Anaiah being placed in a locked facility owned by Devereux Behavioral Health. By December 2019, she ran away again after going on a field trip to a skating rink.
‘Disregard for human life’
"The Department of Arizona Child Safety never notified me. I was notified by her probation officer that she was AWOL," Anaiah's mother, Sherika Rhymes, said during a Dec. 20, 2023, Arizona House Ad Hoc Committee meeting on missing children in foster group homes. "My daughter was never seen alive again, found dead on May 22, 2020."
Rhymes told state lawmakers that she didn't find out her daughter was dead until about two weeks after the hit-and-run.
"I cannot begin to express the disdain I have for the Arizona Department of Child Safety. The disdain is due to lack of communication, failure to follow protocols, and disregard for human life," she said.
Her attorney, Benjamin Taylor, said Devereux staff never asked Rhymes or Anaiah's DCS caseworker if she could leave for a field trip. Rhymes is suing Devereux in a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the facility of negligence.
The complaint says DCS briefed Devereux on an "exhaustive file" documenting Anaiah's mental health issues and history of being trafficked.
"When you're put on notice prior that you have a child who has a tendency to run away, who has been a victim of sex trafficking, Devereux should have done everything they could to make sure that Anaiah Walker was never let out of their sight," Taylor said.
FOX 10 reached out to Devereux for comment on the lawsuit but has not received a response from its attorney.
Dig deeper:
Sutherland continues her fight to prevent girls from ending up like Anaiah but says it is a community effort to recognize when kids in the care of our state are being trafficked.
"We need therapeutic resources. We need more survivor mentors to help kind of guide these victims, especially when they're a part of the collaborative. We need housing specialized homes like therapeutic homes," Sutherland said.
The "why" and "how" leading to Anaiah's death still haunt her father. When asked to describe the timeline of his daughter's death, Adrian Walker responded, "It was a nightmare. That's how I would describe it. A nightmare."