North Texas trafficking survivor reunites with heroes, finds strength in closure: "I'm stronger than ever"
NORTH TEXAS — A North Texas human trafficking victim said she is stronger than ever after coming face to face with her heroes.
"I'm a mixture of excited and nervous," said 18-year-old Natalee Cramer.
Cramer admitted being overwhelmed as she stood inside the lobby of the Oklahoma Police headquarters.
"It brings closure," she said.
In a nearby meeting room, five undercover officers, who she said saved her life, were waiting for her to walk through the door. These reuniting moments are not very common. As the door opened, Cramer and her parents, Kyle and Brooke Morris, walked in by her side.
"Hello," said Cramer to the officers. "I don't know who to talk to first."
They looked back at her smiling also. Staring directly at one of them, Cramer said, "I remember you."
This reunion has been nearly three years in the making.
Kyle Morris, Natalee Cramer's father, put his arm on her shoulder as he told the detectives how much he appreciated them.
"Thank you," Morris said. "Thank you so much! From the bottom of my heart, without y'all's work, we may never have gotten her back."
"We got her"
As part of her healing, Cramer wanted to hear what role each detective played in her rescue on Easter Sunday in 2022.
The undercover officers could not be identified but each talked about remembering her rescue vividly.
"When the call came out that someone named Natalee [was found], I started going as fast as I could."
Brooke Morris, Cramer's mother, remembered the moment Captain Ben Weir gave her the news that they had safely found Cramer.
"You pulled up and you said, 'We got her!'" Brooke Morris said.
The phrase "We got her" has become the title of presentations Brooke Morris now shares with area schools that are raising awareness about trafficking.
Weir explained the 911 call from the anonymous person who led them to Cramer.
"We left church on Easter Sunday to come back to work and that's where I think we got a little divine intervention because we never found the young lady that called 911," Weir said.
The last time the investigators saw Cramer they took a photo of the then 15-year-old. It was the day they rescued her. Ten days earlier, she had disappeared from the American Airlines Center during a Mavericks game.
Drugged, abused, and trafficked, she doesn't remember how she got to Oklahoma, but she vividly remembers the moments the officers recognized her walking down a street near a local hotel.
Last September, she told the I-Team, "I was just walking at those apartments, just like praying. I was just like, 'God, please send someone, something, whether it's a cop, an ambulance, something, a random person on the side of the road."
She said, "Not five minutes [later] a cop pulled up next to me and he goes, 'Are you Natalee Cramer?" And I said, 'Yes, I am!'"
It's a moment the detectives said they also remember well.
They also said Cramer looked drastically different than she did the day the photo was taken.
"Night and day difference, night, and day," said Weird. "She's obviously a lot better than she was."
Their fight continues
Cramer and her parents have spent the last year raising trafficking awareness, forming an advocacy foundation, speaking at events, and testifying in Austin at Senate hearings.
But this day was all for Cramer. It was a full-circle moment and her first time back in Oklahoma City.
"I feel really amazing. It brings so much closure to me… It just means so much to see the people that were there for me when I couldn't be there for myself," said Cramer.
The reunion ended with Cramer and her parents gifting each officer with a bracelet engraved with Psalm 91:1, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."
"I'll wear this day and night. It's awesome," said Weir.
As they said goodbye, they all hugged as Cramer's parents said they hoped the tokens of their appreciation they gave to each investigator would continue to bless them with the same safety they gave Cramer as they all returned to the streets of Oklahoma City to continue fighting sex trafficking.
