Susan Ingram Featured on Justice for All

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt
September 6, 2019

Amid the growing push across the nation to reform the criminal justice system, victims’ rights advocates fear victims are being left out of the conversation. Watch episode.

These High School Students Mobilized to Fight Sex Trafficking

National Center on Sexual Exploitation 
July 8, 2019

What do you get when you combine a dedicated community, a collection of resources and an energized student body?

Read full article

Rustin grads spotlight human trafficking in Chester County

Daily Local News
June 22, 2019

Human trafficking is not the type of crime that the residents of Chester County tend to focus on. For most people, their knowledge of it is limited to Hollywood creations like Taken, starring Liam Neeson. Or, they believe it only happens outside of the United States and that victims are poor, foreign-born individuals. Delve a little deeper, however, into this often hidden crime, and you will find that it exists in every state – and, not just in urban areas, but right here in idyllic Chester County.

Read full article: Rustin grads spotlight human trafficking in Chester County, June 22, 2019

Walk Her Home Club Highlights Human Trafficking

West Chester Area School District
June 11, 2019

Rustin Graduates Spotlight Human Trafficking in Chester County

West Chester, PA  – Human trafficking is not the type of crime that the residents of Chester County tend to focus their attention on. For most people, their knowledge of it is limited to Hollywood creations like the Liam Neeson film Taken.

Read full article: Click here

Walk Her Home: Human Trafficking Class

Keynoter
The Magazine of the Delaware County Christian School
Fall/Winter 2017 – 2018

When I first announced I was going to teach a SAIL class on Human Trafficking, I was pleasantly surprised to see how eager students were to register for the class. This is certainly a mature subject matter for our students and we have never offered anything like it before. However, response to this course demonstrates DC students and families have a deep passion for issues of justice in our world.

Read full article: Keynoter, Fall/Winter 2017 – 2018

Good Day Roundtable: Massage Envy sexual assault report

FOX 29
November 28th, 2017

Multiple women report sexual assaults at Massage Envy spas

TODAY
November 27th, 2017

Massage Envy therapists accused of sexual assault by more than 180 women

CBS News
November 27th, 2017

Popular chain Massage Envy faces allegations of sexual assault – and that it mishandled those claims.

An investigation by BuzzFeed News found more than 180 women have accused therapists at Massage Envy of groping and other sexual acts. Massage Envy told CBS News their therapists have done 125 million massages over the past 15 years. Still, it said even one incident is too many, reports CBS News’ Meg Oliver.

Watch and read full interview here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/massage-envy-sexual-assault-allegations/

Women speak out about sexual assault at Massage Envy spas: ‘The day changed my life forever’

ABC News
November 27th, 2017

Massage Envy, the largest chain of massage franchises in the country with nearly 1,200 spas, more than 20,000 massage therapists, $1.3 billion dollars in annual sales and more than 1.6 million members nationwide, is facing allegations that more than 180 women were sexually assaulted at its locations, according to a Buzzfeed News investigation.

Susan Ingram told ABC News she was assaulted in 2015 at a Massage Envy location in West Chester, Pennsylvania, during her seventh massage with therapist James Deiter. She is now suing.

“The day changed my life forever,” Ingram told ABC News while fighting back tears. “I was just totally traumatized with sadness, pain, sobbing.”

Watch and read full interview here: http://abcnews.go.com/US/women-speak-sexual-assault-massage-envy-spas-day/story?id=51398400

Hands Off

More Than 180 Women Have Reported Sexual Assaults at Massage Envy

Buzzfeed News
November 27th, 2017

On May 2, 2015, Susan Ingram lay facedown in the dark at her local Massage Envy in West Chester, Pennsylvania, one of the franchise’s nearly 1,200 spas nationwide. It was her seventh session with James Deiter, a massage therapist whom the spa had enthusiastically recommended. By now, Ingram trusted Deiter, and she closed her eyes and relaxed as he worked her muscles. Then, without warning, Deiter ground his erect penis against Ingram’s body. He groped her breasts. He put his fingers in and out of her vagina.

Ingram lay there, frozen in fear and disbelief, until the session was over. After driving home sobbing, she called the spa to report the sexual assault. She was shocked when the manager refused to interrupt the session Deiter was having with a female client, Ingram said, or to connect Ingram with the spa’s owner.

Read full article: https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/more-than-180-women-have-reported-sexual-assaults-at

From Victim to Advocate: Tackling Sex Trafficking

Ship Magazine
Fall 2017

The moment Susan Ingram ’81 became a sexual assault victim, her purpose changed. “You have a different perspective getting involved in a cause when you experience it.”

In January, Ingram received nonprofit status for Walk Her Home, an organization that raises funds and provides support for victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, in the United States. But she earnestly said it wasn’t her idea—the concept took some divine intervention.

Read full article: Ship Magazine, Fall 2017

Giving Back: Sue Ingram

Fig Magazine
October 2017

SUSAN INGRAM IS taking on a problem that’s stymied law enforcement for decades. It’s a national and international problem, and it’s created more slaves in the world today than during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Child sex trafficking: Susan wants to fight it. Don’t bet against her.

Confident, strong, and straightforward, Susan’s a survivor of sexual assault herself. She says she was called by God to create Walk Her Home, a nonprofit dedicated to raising money for organizations that give support, provide housing, and offer job training for victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation in Pennsylvania. ‘It’s modern-day slavery,” Susan explains.

Read full article: http://digital.figwestchester.com/Fall_2017/index.php#/68

WFIL AM560
October 1, 2017

Mark Daniels radio show on WFIL with Walk Her Home founder, Susan Ingram, and Do What’s Wright Production Company, LLC. President, Debbie Wright, also Producer, From Liberty to Captivity.

https://soundcloud.com/mark-daniels-show/20171001a

Save a girl from sex trafficking: Walk Her Home

SAVVY Mainline Magazine
September 21, 2017

Here at SAVVY, we’re always fascinated by the human stories behind nonprofits, the reason someone drops everything to champion a certain cause.

Among the most remarkable backstories we’ve heard is the one behind Walk Her Home, a new nonprofit that helps victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation

Read full article: http://savvymainline.com/2017/09/21/devon-yard-beckons-brides-saving-sex-trafficked-girls-flamingos-trending-shopping-scoops-savvy-save-date/

‘Massage’ victim honored, starts group to aid victims of human trafficking

April 30, 2017 by Michael Rellahan, Daily Local News

The proverbial phrase, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade,” could not apply more aptly to someone than it does to Susan Ingram-Weideman.

The 57-year-old Thornbury woman has taken the journey from being the traumatized victim of a sexual assault at the hands of a professional masseuse to being honored by Congress for her work on behalf of other victims. And she is continuing her efforts with the formation of an organization designed to assist other groups that are reaching out to the victims of human trafficking.

Ingram-Weideman said in an interview last week that her goal is to “take any bad situation and find a way to promote healing though some type of positive action.” She has started the organization, Walk Her Home, that will help nonprofit groups raise money and organize their efforts to bring public awareness to social issues facing crime victims.

Read full article: http://www.dailylocal.com/general-news/20170430/massage-victim-honored-starts-group-to-aid-victims-of-human-trafficking

Woman Receives Congressional Award For Work Helping Victims Of Sex Trafficking

April 27, 2017 7:53 AM by Trang Do

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Delaware County woman was motivated to help victims of sex trafficking after going through a traumatic experience of her own. For her efforts, she was recently honored in Washington, D.C. with a special Congressional award.

In May 2015, Susan Ingram-Weidemann was sexually assaulted while getting a massage at a spa. Encouraged by her daughter, she reported the crime to police. After the story aired on the news, 11 other women came forward to report that they too were assaulted by James Deiter, the same massage therapist. A year later, Deiter was sentenced to six to 13 years in prison, where he remains.

“It really motivated me to take something that was difficult in my life and try to make it easier for others,” Ingram-Weidemann said.

She decided she wanted to help victims of sex trafficking, an issue she’d always felt drawn to. She came up with “Walk Her Home,” a non-profit to raise funds and eventually form a national alliance of accredited safehouses to help women break the cycle.

Visit CBS News for full story: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2017/04/27/woman-helps-victims-sex-trafficking/