Sobriety, Survival, and Finding Purpose
Candice Spangler was recruited at the age of 14 and sex trafficked for 25 years of her life. While her life took a devastating turn at a very young age, she has gone through a journey of reclaiming her identity, growing as a leader, and now aids in efforts to rescue other victims and bring predators and traffickers to justice.
Candice: “It took me a whole other year to get sober after exiting ‘the life.’ My traffickers today are currently incarcerated. Not that I had anything to do with that. They went to prison for other crimes… Two years after I exited, I was at a point in my life where the only thing I was doing was taking care of my son, who I got back custody of, taking care of my house, and going to AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] meetings working with other alcoholics. I just didn’t feel like I had a purpose, you know? The thought had been so daunting; there’s got to be more to life than this.”
I had the privilege of spending three days alongside Candice at an event hosted by the anti-human trafficking organization Skull Games, as Candice bravely used her insights as a survivor to help identify victims and hunt traffickers through open-source intelligence. Skull Games is a veteran-founded 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. As many police departments do not have the resources to conduct anti-trafficking operations as often as needed, Skull Games fills that gap, acting as a force multiplier. With a task force of military veterans, local and federal law enforcement, civilian intelligence officers, and survivors of sexual exploitation and trafficking, they are seriously dedicated to this work.
The Skull Games task force scans online ads soliciting sex and does deep research on each individual listed to uncover if there are signs of this person being a victim of trafficking using open-source intelligence (OSINT). OSINT refers to gathering intelligence through publicly available information—for example, a public social media page or public court records. Within the two days I was with the task force, they had 115 task force members “hunting” sexual predators and traffickers, and they collectively identified 13 persons of interest and 29 potential victims across three states within the United States of America.
Candice: “I fell in love with Skull Games because for so many years I was on the streets, and I went unidentified. People didn’t know what my real name was, and people didn’t care to know what my real name was. I went by an alias for so long that Candice was buried so far down deep. People were driving by just not even looking at you. But Skull Games was identifying females. They were putting real names to these human beings and finding out what got them there. What in life has made it to where this is what they [the victims] are doing? Man, that’s just like sticking it back to them, all of my traffickers.”
While most of the Skull Games staff and volunteers pass off the information that they have gathered to law enforcement and move on to the next case, Candice has the unique privilege of seeing some of these cases through from start to finish.
Candice: “I oftentimes get to follow it all the way through, from hunting to doing advocacy work because [some of the cases that we’ve worked in Kansas City] when HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] or law enforcement do sting operations here, I’m often called in to advocate for the women that get called in. [I] supply them with services, just listen to them, talk to them, and let them know that ‘Hey, somebody’s here. If you ever want to start taking the steps to get out, or even while you’re still in [the life], and there’s something that you need—like you need help paying rent or a utility bill—I have resources that I can help you do that with so that you don’t have to go turn that other trick.’”
Rebuilding Trust Between Survivors and Law Enforcement
It is known that sex-trafficked individuals and police forces do not have good relationships or trust in most cases. On one side of the problem, traffickers consistently tell their victims that the police would arrest them if they tried to ask for help because they are soliciting sex. This is said to drill fear into their victims and cripple their courage to seek help, but unfortunately, their fear is usually confirmed by the way police interact with them. In her book In Pursuit of Love: One Woman’s Journey from Trafficked to Triumphant, Rebecca Bender recalls an incident when she was arrested by police along with many other women, and the officers spit all sorts of demeaning insults at them. These women were victims, trapped in an impossible situation, and they were treated like they were scum.
Candice: “They’ve made great leaps and bounds in the human trafficking realm as of late—just these last few years. It’s really amazing. Not treating the victims as criminals is a huge part. I can remember a number of times that when the police had kicked in a room doing a sting, the way that I was treated. It’s like, ‘No wonder nobody ever wanted to talk to you! Even if I was to tell you something and it was the truth, you would still think I was lying.’”
Police departments are now receiving more training and making improvements on how sex trafficking should be viewed and how to handle victims in a trauma-informed manner. Rather than seeing them as sex workers or prostitutes, they are being viewed for what they truly are: men, women, and children who have been forced, coerced, or tricked by fraud into a life of sexual exploitation.
Candice: “‘How come you drive yourself to the hotel room?’ That is one of the questions that often gets asked to the girls. The truth is, honestly, it was the safest choice. If I didn’t drive myself to that hotel room… I mean, you can’t tell your trafficker, ‘No, I don’t feel like making any money today.’ That’s not a choice. You can’t do that, or else you’ll get beaten and/or given no food. Traffickers usually have a stable of girls, more than one. If I’m not complying, they’ll hurt my sister. I can take a beating all day. I can take the mind games and getting talked to bad all day. But when you start doing that to somebody I love, that will affect me.”
Interviewer: “As a survivor advocate, how do you try to help bridge the gap between survivors and law enforcement to try and extend understanding and wisdom to both sides?”
Candice: “It’s all about the training, obviously. Law enforcement often don’t have the training that they need to identify the indicators of human trafficking because nine times out of ten, the female is addicted to some kind of substance. That in itself—now they’re seen as a drug addict and all of the stereotypes that go along with drug addiction. So, they’re not looking for the indicators [of trafficking] because they’ve not been trained on them. They need to get all the training. There are many organizations out there that are willing to do the training. We have a law enforcement officer that is with our group. When he goes and he’s doing sting operations, he’s training law enforcement on what to do.”
A Mother Fighting for the Next Generation
As a mother herself, Candice expressed the great need to bring justice to traffickers. According to the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, the average age that trafficked victims are recruited is 12 years old. Click HERE to read more about steps you can take to help protect your children from becoming victimized.
Conclusion: More Than a Survivor
Candice is a lively woman with a heart to see justice for our brothers and sisters trapped in an unimaginable life—a woman dedicated to advocating and helping in any way that she can to apprehend as many traffickers as possible. Her gorgeous dimples and precious laugh are just the tip of the iceberg of who this incredible woman is. Her story is one of triumph and restoration. She is thriving despite having been trafficked for 25 years of her life. She is a true inspiration to us all.
Glossary
The life – Commercial sexual exploitation or the sex industry
Trick – Buyers of commercial sex. Also may be called a “John” or a “date”
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) – the act of gathering and analyzing publicly available data for intelligence purposes.
Sources
Baker, Kurt. “Open Source Intelligence (OSINT).” Cybersecurity 101: The Fundamentals of Cybersecurity, CrowdStrike, 17 Jan. 2025, https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/cybersecurity-101/threat-intelligence/open-source-intelligence-osint/. Accessed 3 July 2025.
“About.” Skull Games, Skull Games Solutions, 2025, https://skullgames.org/about/. Accessed 3 July 2025.
“Human Trafficking Glossary of Terms.” Lodging Services Human Trafficking Recognition Training, Illinois Department of Human Services, https://www.dhs.state.il.us/OneNetLibrary/27897/documents/Initiatives/HumanTrafficking/Human-Trafficking-Glossary-of-Terms.pdf. Accessed 3 July 2025.
“From Survivor to Predator Hunter – Candice Spangler and Parys Hall.” Operation Break The Chain, uploaded by Operation Break The Chain, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saYjrmYWMMY. Accessed 3 July 2025.
“Domestic Violence Is More Common Than You Might Think.” Center for Women’s Health, Oregon Health & Science University, n.d., www.ohsu.edu/womens-health/domestic-violence-more-common-you-might-think. Accessed 4 July 2025.
ChatGPT, version 4. OpenAI, 3 July 2025, chat.openai.com/chat. Used to generate MLA-style citations and provide proofreading suggestions.
“Human Trafficking Fact Sheet.” Attorney General Brian Schwalb, Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, DC.gov, https://oag.dc.gov/public‑safety/human‑trafficking‑initiatives/human‑trafficking‑fact‑sheet. Accessed 15 July 2025.
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