Through weeks of investigation, KOMU has learned this crime is not as far fetched as many people believe.

We may think of bondage as a thing of the past, but human trafficking is very much alive and well.

'Stop Traffic,' a student organization at the University of Missouri, formed to educate the public on an issue it feels is being overlooked: human trafficking.

Of course, these MU students aren't actual victims of the crime, but use case scenarios to learn what a trafficking victim may go through.

"It felt really drawn out, I tried to feel for it, it was a miniscule amount of time compared to what someone would really go through," said Allie Baber of 'Stop Traffic.'

It's an issue that's been swept under the rug. Many people believe human trafficking only happens overseas and if it does happen in America, it's only the bigger cities. But what groups like stop traffic and the shelter are trying to prove is that it happens everywhere, even in Columbia.

"We've probably worked with maybe four who would fall into that category of human trafficking. There's probably more that we didn't have access to or that don't know about us." said Kelly Lucero, outreach coordinator for The Shelter.

The Shelter, for Victims of Domestic Violence or Sexual Assault, says Columbia's had at least one case in each of the past 5 years. One possible case came up during a prostitution bust three months ago.

Calling from Boone County Jail, and speaking through a translator, the alleged victim says her boss used fear to keep her captive.

The alleged woman said, "She wouldn't let me go, I have no car, I couldn't speak English, I don't even know how to buy a ticket for anywhere I could go."

The woman says her boss transferred her to a massage parlor in town and made her work for long hours, while only keeping about half of the pay.

"I plan to go to L.A. where I won't do this job, but she wouldn't let me leave, and I was put in prison now," the woman said.

She was arrested for prostitution and is also being held on an immigration detainer. Her case is typical of how human trafficking begins. Immigrants come to this country lacking English skills. They need work and living arrangements and end up trapped. Some of the immigrants become sex slaves.

"When they came here, they were very much forced into servitude, very much domestic sexual servitude; and there was no freedom at all." said Lucero.

Others end up in the labor traffic market.

"Even if sex wasn't involved, they were forced to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, again very little contact with the outside world," said Lucero.

Some become the mail order bride. All of which, she says are a form of slavery.

"I'm thinking of one woman in particular a few years back who literally ran out of the house screaming in Chinese until somebody found her and helped her; and I wouldn't be able to tell you on television on the 6:00 or 10:00 news. You'd have to bleep out all of the things that happened to her," said Lucero.

Now it's not a common crime, but for these groups, even one victim is too many.

"There is a problem of human trafficking in the Midwest, but nobody's there to fill in that vacancy. So that's where we wanted to come in and start talking about what is human trafficking and to say it is actually happening, people just don't recognize it as that yet," said Paige Hendrix, Vice President of 'Stop Traffic.'

The main reason it goes unrecognized is the blurry line between trafficking and prostitution.

"Prostitution, you have your own power and make your own decisions on your life and body, and trafficking, it's like you don't have any choices," said Elvana Lula, the project coordinator for Gender Alliance for Development Center in Albania.

Local law enforcers admit that many prostitution busts, including the current case, show signs of trafficking.

"Some of these massage parlors that use immigrants in here rotate them into a massage parlor here in Columbia, they may rotate them out to one that's owned by the same person in Springfield or another state so that they don't stay too long in any one place," said Boone County Sheriff Mike Stubbs. "That measure being taken by the proprietor is somewhat indicative that it may be human trafficking."

Still, authorities have not filed any trafficking charges.

"We haven't made a case for human trafficking, but through out the years of looking at the signs that they say human trafficking consists of, I certainly see the signs that as potential crimes that are occurring here," said Tim Thomason of the Columbia Police.

The alleged victim may be a suspect of promoting prostitution or a victim of human trafficking.

"Now I'm in my 50's; how can i do that kind of thing," proclaimed the woman.

As she sits in jail waiting for this case to close, 'Stop Traffic and The Shelter hope the verdict will be the first of its kind in Columbia. If so, they feel this will open the door for other cases in the area.

"As a woman, as a sister, as a wife, I was just thinking, I'm so lucky I didn't go through this process," said Lula.

"In the U.S. we're taught everyday that it's so important that everybody gets equal rights, I, as a female have the right to choose who I want to marry, what kind of relationship I want to be in and these people who are trafficked don't get that choice," says Hendrix.

It's a choice that's often taken for granted.

Stay tuned to KOMU news Friday at ten for the second part to this series where you will learn what steps are in place to prevent this problem in the Midwest.