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A WOMAN abducted as a baby has slammed authorities for failing to punish the people who made her life a living hell.
Monique Smith was stolen from her mother’s New York City home at two years old and taken to Baltimore, Maryland, where she was subjected to years of sickening sexual, physical, and mental abuse.
Brave Monique, who only found out about the abduction from the Bronx when she was a grown woman and became the longest-living Jane Doe in the process, was desperate for cops to take action.
She wanted the woman who pretended to be her mom, and the men who abused her, to be charged for their disgraceful crimes.
But in an emotional interview with The U.S. Sun, Monique, who now goes by the name of Simboli Ruffin, laid bare the pain of seeing cops continually pass the buck until it was too late.
JUSTICE DENIED
Monique was sexually abused beginning at four years old and it went on for another 14 years.
She said she was led to believe that two of her abusers were her uncles.
Her earliest memories include viscous mental and physical abuse, being smacked and hit, and constantly sworn at and talked to in a nasty, aggressive tone.
All the people Monique wanted to see prosecuted have died – yet the pain remains.
She said that it took her “20 years to find out I was missing for 50” and that it was so difficult because she was “under the radar.”
The complexities of the case made it very challenging for the appropriate authorities to deal with, which sadly compounded the confusion for everyone involved.
“They weren’t able to make any arrests but it was still an investigation,” she told The U.S. Sun recently at Crimecon.
“The problem, at one point, was the authorities in New York had just gotten a case, so they would have to go through an extensive investigation. And then, they would say: ‘Well, that’s Maryland’s jurisdiction.’
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“I would tell the Maryland police, and the Maryland police would say: ‘If you’re telling me that’s your birth date, you were stolen, and you were trafficked from New York here … that’s New York’s case.”
Monique was graceful enough to understand the situation authorities found themselves in but remained desperate for action to be taken.
“Do I want them prosecuted?” she said. “Of course.”
But the woman who took Monique died the same year that she discovered her true identity.
‘TO THE GRAVE’
The woman had vowed to continue her reign of nastiness and take all her secrets “to the grave,” so Monique gained some solace from learning most of her backstory before the person who claimed to be her mother died.
“God helped me find out who I was,” she said. “It’s crazy that she passed away the year I discovered my name. It’s weird.”
Monique’s initial journey as an adult wasn’t much easier than her childhood.
She had to leave Baltimore and so, at the age of 18, she jumped aboard a Greyhound bus headed for the Florida sun in St. Augustine.
There, she endured homelessness and was groomed into sexual trafficking but eventually broke out of the cycle at 28 years old.
Monique has turned her life around – she is a successful businesswoman and an influential advocate for women who become embroiled in sex trafficking.
She has worked tirelessly with authorities to help protect the rights of victims, including pushing for legislation changes that now scrub out any charges on victims’ records that occurred while they were being trafficked.
“I am using my voice now to help elevate humanity,” she said.
“My message to anyone struggling with any of these issues is never give up hope. You’re meant for more.”