Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Berger.
Hi Megan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I didn’t think I would live to see 25. My parents used drugs and alcohol, my birth father went to prison and my birth mother lost me and my siblings to the state when I was 8 years old.
I was adopted by a family who was able to provide everything I could want or needed. I grew up in the suburbs of Sacramento. I went to all the summer camps you could imagine, had good grades in school, a family that I call my own, and wasn’t much into boys or dating. My mother was a teacher and my father was an environmental scientist. I had one of the best educations in the State of California.
It wasn’t enough to heal the trauma.
At 19 years old, I met my trafficker, who had come into my job, tipped a lot of money, and opened up. He seemed to understand. I was really just showing him how weak I was. I was too trusting. This is called grooming.
He lured me up to a rural area, where I was held by coercion, force, and fear. I was assaulted, threatened, and forced to do manual labor. I was a servant to his family, friends, and business partners.
He started to become violent and abusive. 5 years of being called by my last name and living in a shed. At one point I was in a home owned by the cartel working to reconcile his debt.
I was being woken every morning by what I would do that day. Someone sitting in on my calls, sitting in my family’s home with me to make sure I never said anything.
I was allowed to eat once a day and I was 110 pounds standing at 5’6″ and the abuse got worse and worse. He was starting to leave bruises and permanent damage to my body. There are times we were pulled over and I sat there praying the police took him to jail for something so I could run away while he was in, but he never got caught.
On one occasion he was carrying drugs under the hood of the car, the K9 unit searched the entire vehicle and did not alert officers. I felt like my life at that point was just a sick joke and this is what my life would be.
This continued until the day he almost killed me by giving me pills I thought I was going to overdose and I knew he’d ask me to take them again, and I knew I had to get out if I wanted to live.
This whole time I never called the police because he told me if I called them, I would go to jail too for being involved with his crimes.
July 25th, 2015 was the scariest day of my life. I had spent one-year planning. I left with whatever fit in the bed of a stranger’s truck. I call her my friend now but that day was the first day we met. He had threatened to kill my family and my friends if they tried to help me.
But I did it and got away. The time after is the most dangerous. Stalking, harassing texts, manipulation, and scare tactics to win me back, so I stood firm and got an advocate to help me get a restraining order and counseling.
In 2017 I was able to move away to Sonoma County.
I could never have done this on my own. It took a village of people willing to help me, along with my wanting to help myself. It took that one person that believed me when I said I wanted help. That one person who said, “I know you don’t have an income or a deposit but you can stay here.” That one person who said, “I will help you get to work until you can get a car.” The people who said, “We will keep you safe.” The judge said, “He can not come near you.”
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been an easy road. When I moved to Sonoma County I made an agreement with myself that no one would ever know what happened. I would have a fresh start. As I started to work as a first responder and recognize victims, I realized I was doing a disservice to my community by not speaking up. I also didn’t realize that what happened to me was considered human trafficking. I thought I made a series of bad decisions.
I had to come to terms with my truth.
The day I left I remember so clearly my trafficker saying, you can’t survive without me, “you will end up in the system, and you’re a whore that no one wants.”
I went to age 24 with no real-life experience. I thought I was going to die or be in prison before 25. So I had to figure everything out from scratch.
My shame and low self-esteem led me to become reckless. I felt a constant, nearly unbearable background anxiety. I had to make myself feel different. I had to escape. So I covered up my feelings with nonstop partying, spending money I didn’t have, and of course, everyone wanted to be my friend because I was paying. My worst nightmare was being alone, in a quiet room. I couldn’t stand my own company. The mistakes I made led to more shame and guilt.
And then more mistakes are made running away from those feelings. The hole can get so deep. The spiral of pain seems unstoppable. I was always seeking attention and validation. I rushed into a marriage thinking that I would never get that opportunity again which ended in a divorce.
I found Redemption House of the Bay Area, an organization that showed me, support peers, to give me the support I needed and I filed a police report against my trafficker in 2019.
To this day he has not been arrested or charged with his crimes but I am coming to terms with that.
My hope is that one day my trafficker will have to answer for what he’s done. No matter what happens, the biggest victory has been my success and the fact that I did not let this ruin my life, and I am doing positive, good things, and helping others.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I became a non-emergency dispatcher, went back to school, and graduated from the EMT program at the College of Marin. I worked for an EMT for a year, and now I work as an Investigator and a Fugitive Recovery Agent. I own a business that provides information to the community about crime, safety, and social issues like addiction and homelessness in Sonoma County and we do fundraisers for people in need. I am now studying administrative justice at Santa Rosa Junior College, studying evidence law, case law, and community relations.
I am also on the board of directors as the public relations manager for “Redemption House of the Bay Area” a nonprofit that helps victims on the street and helps survivors to assimilate back into society.
In April 2020, I proposed “Armer Law”, to protect first responders and give them proper health care after Domestic Violence and Sex Assault Detective Marylou Armer of Santa Rosa Police died of COVID-19. I got the support of her family, and over 100,000 signatures. I am working currently to have it passed as a law in the state of California.
I also have a five-hour class I teach law enforcement.
My long-term goal is a career in law enforcement. This is considered unusual because law enforcement did not help me and very well may have arrested me for being part of my trafficker’s crimes but I believe that working in law enforcement will allow me to implement the changes I want to see in society and law enforcement reform.
What were you like growing up?
I was very school oriented. I didn’t go to parties or get in trouble and my one determination was to not be like my parents.
Growing up I was very into volleyball. outdoors, fishing and reading.
I left high school with honors and spoke two languages.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Miss_megan_b
- Other: https://linktr.ee/EMTFRA
Image Credits
Gwen Deeds
