Arrested, Trafficked & Addicted — Madyson's Road Back from the Unthinkable

At 12 years old, her family broke apart. By her teens, she was deep in addiction, abuse, and exploitation. By her mid-twenties, she was in handcuffs — staring at the same officer who would later help save her life. This is Madyson's story .In this raw, unfiltered episode of Injustice Unspoken, Madyson sits down with Betty Frizzell and Kristine Moreland to share her journey through domestic violence, human trafficking, addiction, and — against every odd — recovery. She doesn't hold back. And she has a message for anyone who's been told they're not worth saving: "When do we ever look in the mirror and say, 'I'm worth it'?"Today, Madyson works as a Residential Specialist, helping others in crisis find the same lifeline that was extended to her. #HumanTrafficking #SurvivorStory #RecoveryFromAddiction #DomesticViolence #InjusticeUnspoken #TrueCrime #TraffickingAwareness #Redemption #SurvivorToAdvocate

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Didn't know this man from nothing. Uh took me out to his house and uh yum. Tied me up to his basement floor, butt naked, and I'm getting woken up, bruises all over me, my hair's all cut differently. Don't even know where I am, don't know who to talk to to get out of this situation. And I somehow I escaped. Like somebody had forgot that the door was open and they left, and I I just ran. Thank god. So now here I am running butt naked down the mountain highway out in Yum, trying to ask for help. Um, and it just continued on.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

And welcome our first guests.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

Yay, yes. I'm very excited to introduce this guest. This is Miss Madison. Thank you for being with us today. Um, Madison and I have had a history. We have known each other for a couple years now. Um, and I have always sat in a space with Madison just in awe of how happy you always are. Even when I met you under some really extreme circumstances, the first time we met, she came speeding in on a motorcycle, uh, needing uh needing some support. But welcome, Madison. I'm glad you're here. Uh glad to be here. We're diving into a pretty intense conversation. Uh, but I want to make sure this is a conversation that highlights you and the way that you have um leaned into the the life that you're living now. But prior to that, um tell us everything to know about Madison. Oh, everything we need to know.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yeah, it's I'm so honored to be here. This is what a privilege. What a what a privilege. Um first things first, I am a mom of two children. My story kind of goes back a little further. Um, I was a my parents divorced when I was 12 years old. Started getting into the fast life at a pretty young age, um, trying to grow up so fast, being the older sibling. Oldest of six. Well, oldest of two. Well, there's six of us, but I am the oldest of two sisters with the same parents, right? So um, you know, didn't want to listen to mom's rules, dad's not there, thought I could get away with stuff. Started started at a pretty young age. Um, fast forward a little bit. I thought I, you know, knew that I knew best. Ended up going and living with my dad um out in Tacoma, and that's kind of where it all began. Um, in a sense of finding where I fit like would fit in. Um became a mom at 17 years old um after thinking I was in love after two years of a relationship and pregnant. That happened. Yep. Um, you know, was smoking weed, hanging out with the wrong crowd, getting into criminal stuff. Um got my own place at, you know, 17 and a half and now pregnant with a second baby. Um, and then um just became uh, you know, I became a single mom. Like their dads didn't want to be with me, found somebody better, made me feel like I was were unworthy of love or unworthy of being with somebody, but I still had two babies to take care of, right? Um and being a baby, yeah, and still being a baby at that. Yeah, absolutely. Um then fast forward a little bit further. I'm now 20 years old and living with friends who uh were so kind to take me in because I, you know, was losing my place due to spending it on drugs, hanging out with the wrong crowd, having the wrong kind of people in my house. Um and needed somebody to fall back on because uh the lack of a relationship with my mother um due to the choices I made as an adolescent, right? So um leaning in on a friend and her mom to take care of my kids uh and myself, you know, um was quite a mission in all in itself. Um started falling back into old things, was working at a gas station, the only way I could stay up at night working late night shifts at a gas station, further into the drug use. Yeah. Um noticed that I was slipping backwards and was like, hey, if you don't step forward and start handling, you know, your business and taking care of these kids that aren't ours, like we have to ask you to leave our home. We don't want you to disrupt our home, the peace of our home. This is the family we were living with. And unfortunately, uh thought I had a grip of it, was still trying to, you know, uh pretend like I didn't have a drug habit and I wasn't accepting of the fact that I was a drug addict at that time. Um this is all before you were able to buy a drink. Yeah. Yeah, think about that. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and that's when uh it kind of hit like stuff kind of hit the fan. Uh they asked me to leave the house. Instead of taking the kids to live with me and live in a car, I asked if the kids could just stay there and I would come see them when I needed to, or felt, you know, strong enough to come see them or whatever. But um, that wasn't the case. My responsibilities kind of just like left my brain. Um started dating somebody who was very abusive, was also a drug addict as well. Um had no problem leaving me in the casino to figure my life out or figure out how to eat. Um that's that's definitely where the darkness kind of overtook took over my life. Um didn't know how I was gonna get money.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Like the fight or flight kick thing, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Didn't know how I was gonna get money, didn't know how I was gonna eat, and here I am stuck in a casino full of money, full of drugs, full of whatever I thought I needed at that time, you know, and so I would spend day in and day out, and I mean even weeks, just sleeping on a machine, waiting for somebody to come by and ask me, Hey, are you trying to play? But the only way I would play is if I, you know, turned around and did ungodly things to get a dollar. Or now here I am feeling like I need a fix, have no money to go get a fix, but this guy looks, you know, twacked out of his mind. How am I gonna go get in his pocket to feed my, you know, to feed my addiction? Um the cycle's real. Yeah, and it it's it started really, really fast. And uh I forgot all about my kids because I was more concerned about me. Um and then I figured out a way to just keep feeding my addiction and keep feeding just feeding a way to cover the pain of leaving them behind. Um and now here I am, 22 years old, turning tricks, getting put into cars, don't even know where I'm going. Uh, all because I I'm just chasing that high and chasing my fix. Um got into some pretty scary situations. Uh, was drugged at one point. Uh didn't know this man from nothing. Uh took me out to his house and uh yum, tied me up to his basement floor butt naked, and I'm getting woken up, bruises all over me, my hair's all cut differently. Don't even know where I am, don't know who to talk to to get out of this situation. And I somehow I escaped. Like somebody had forgot that the door was open and they left, and I I just ran. Thank God. So now here I am running butt naked down the mountain highway out in Yum, trying to ask for help. Um and it just continued on. Like I like I just brushed it off my shoulders and was like, oh, that's nothing. Like, there's nothing I can't conquer, you know, kind of thing. And it got it got worse. It works.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

The part that you feel that, like, you know, we said it in this last conversation that we were having under this comment, but it's just like to have this such an extreme thing happen, so terrifying, so terrorizing, and it's like, okay, well, that happened, and now it's this on to the next kind of thing. And we just those traumas are so real.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Yeah, so it's a Tuesday for us. Yeah, you know, when you're when you're in it, it's it's a Tuesday. Like other people who aren't have uh who haven't experienced that are like, oh, I I would have, but when you're in it and it's happening, it's Tuesday. Yeah, man. Yeah. Or it's Wednesday. You know, it's it's just part of the process. And then it and if life has done all these things before you could even drink, before you could even vote, you were, you know, you had two babies. So I mean, you know, the Supreme Court has said that the mind is not developed until you're 25. Correct. So to experience all that.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

So And it just became my superpower. Like I felt undefeated, and I felt like I could accomplish a lot by myself. And the more I felt like that, I didn't need anybody to drag me along with them. You know, I was already doing the damage myself. Yeah. Um was robbing people out of hotel rooms, would pretend like I was about to go sleep with somebody, but then have somebody else come in and rob them, and then here I am running with their money, their car, their phone, everything, just so I could go get that next fix, right? Um, that also put me into some pretty scary situations, you know. I was being hunted at one point, um, would have to hide within the homeless camp out in Fife. Like I just, it was just my way of trying to keep my addiction fed and keep me alive. Um relationship after relationship, you know, uh being told and being told that I was worth nothing more than just being a hooker or being that piece of ass for somebody else to feed on, you know, uh kind of sat in like, all right, well, I'm still cute. I'm 23, 24, still got it going on, but I, you know, uh, you know, I got that superpower. I don't need nobody, you know. But then I fell into the love triangle and being told that I was being cared for and loved on, but at the same time being choked out to near death or dragged behind a car or beat up by a gang of people thinking that they were there to hang out with me and be my friend, but really they're just trying to take what I had. Love was painful, it was absolutely painful, and to be a victim of domestic violence is no joke. And to be told all the time that that's what you're worth and that's all you're ever gonna be worth, like you're you're cute now, but what's gonna happen when you get older? Like, you know, nobody nobody thinks of that. Um and falling into those repetitive patterns of being in a scary, unloved space is is crazy. Um is unimaginable, actually, but it really happens. And when you're in a space of fight or flight, like all you know is to do what's next or what's next best for me. Yeah, not what's next best for those babies that I have, or you know, what's next best for the future. It was just then and there now, you know.

SPEAKER_03 11:15

What was the switch though, Matt? It's then there was a there was a switch that took place in your life, and I know we've had, you know, you've been uh in the program at The More We Love and now out of the program, and we've had several encounters, but there was this this last moment, this one encounter that took place. And and I think about that encounter every day, and it was a moment that we had at a park in South King County. Absolutely. And it was a moment where I received a phone call for context from a police officer who I believe knew it from the beginning that he was Madison's constant from the day he met her, right? And he called me and he said, Meet me at the park. I asked Madison to meet me at the park, and we're gonna get her into treatment today. And I said, I'll I'll be there in whatever time that was. And when I got there, Madison was standing in the park, and I would love for you to talk about that day. Yeah, trying uh to look at you without it through tears because that day not only changed your life, Madison, but it changed mine. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Um, a little backstory. So that officer involved was a arresting officer for a relationship that I was in that was very scary again and very life-threatening.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Very violent.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Um, very, very, very violent. And um, so the officer involved is the arresting officer and was constantly checking on me and being like, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do to change? Like, what about treatment? And here I am in a trap house in a tent in their backyard, thinking that this was just being so comfortable in that in that space, you know, like you didn't deserve like anything else. Right. And so for him and uh for him and Christine to come to me and be like, let's first off, I didn't know Christine was gonna be there. So you just do the pop-up, you do do the pop-up. Uh I just thought I was meeting up with the officer, and uh, which is cool, you know, like we're we're really good friends. Um, and to have an officer in return call me their friend is quite the honor. Um oh, and he means it yeah immensely. Um, here I am at uh the park with my dog on a hot April day, and uh here comes Christine and Jordan and coming out of the car, and they're like, Hey, how are you? And I'm like, good, and they're like, Well, let's uh let's talk about getting you into treatment. But before that happened, Christine was just like, just let me let me love on you. I can tell nobody's given you that opportunity to feel loved and cared for. Will you please just let me do that? Will you please let me just step into a space in your life and just love on you and support you and guide you? You are worth so much more than you're doing out here. And it was like it was like she was practically on bended knee telling me. And I was just like, you know, what have I got to lose? Right. She's like, let's get those babies back. Let's let's let's flip this whole thing around. Like, let's let's turn your whole life into something that means something.

unknown 14:26

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

And uh I looked at them and I was, you know, for a second I was like, all right, maybe she's gonna run. Yeah, we thought about it, I'm sure. Uh yeah, you know, maybe maybe it's not too late to back out, right? And uh at this point I had been sober for you know two days, just two days, because one, I didn't want to walk up to an officer, you know, gagged out of my mind. Mind you, this is seven and a half years long of tremendous, horrific things, um, ungodly things. Um it was a long journey to get to that point to be like, maybe maybe I do need to just take a chance on me. I mean, this lady and this officer are don't know me from don't know me from Eve, but they're trying to change my life. Which is something that I have never experienced. But they're trying to change my life in a positive way. They're trying to show me what I'm worth when I didn't know how to love myself or know my own worth, you know. So uh they go, Well, where your treatment's paid for, you're going to Lakeside Milo. Uh, we just gotta give them a call. So we gave them a call and did the little intake thing, and then they were like, all right, well, we'll we'll have her there in 45 minutes. I said, excuse me. What? What? 45 minutes? No way. Well, it's now or never, right? Took the dog, went back to the house, packed my things, scrounced around looking for a pipe to hit because I didn't want to go to treatment sober, you know. But uh I did it. I, you know, it took me a minute to walk out of that house. And when I walked out of the house and still saw that they were out there, I knew that they weren't joking. Went to Lakeside Mylam.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

At the moment that she stepped into my car, my phone rang, yeah, and it was a young mother who had asked if I knew her son, and I said, Yes, I know. And she said, Well, unfortunately, he just passed of a fentanyl overdose. The moment that Madison was stepping in my car. I knew that there was so much deeper of a purpose of forgetting in that car from receiving that call. But she had to hear that mother say that. I think that was also part of that journey.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Uh, because all I could think about was watching my friends and um friends or you know, people that I hung around around with dying of overdose. I mean, I practically died of an overdose, but I was lucky enough to get brought back to life within a matter of seconds. And I don't use fentanyl, so it was really weird, you know, to have that whole situation happen. And then to hear that mom say that that happened, I was like, okay, maybe, maybe that doesn't have to be my mom calling Christine one day.

unknown 17:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

And you know, Madison, you bring up something that, like I said earlier, um, law enforcement is the greatest profession ever. It it saved my life. Uh, and that officer that just took that time to see that little girl living behind a trap house with a puppy, you know, that for officers who's thinking about getting out of it or not getting into it or whatever, there's no greater feeling, no matter if you won the water or what, than helping that one person. Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Absolutely. I mean, he was good, he he went as far as willing to take care of my dog for me while I was in treatment. He came and visited. Oh, he's a hero. He would come and visit me at treatment, you know. And um, there was a point I was there for about three days, and I I felt like my journey, you know, like maybe I'm I'm not ready to give it up yet, right? So I walked out of Lakeside Mylam. I left on my third day. I left and sat at two different bus stops. In an hour and a half, two different buses didn't show up.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

So I looked to the sky.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Right, right. I looked to the sky and I said, All right, God, like I see you. I hear you. I'm going back. But I went back and but I went back, you know, putting a fight. Give me my fucking shin. I want to be here, like blah, blah, blah. And then the director of Lake Side Bylan was like, Will you just shut up and let us help you? And I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:31

Talk about where you are now, Madison. And I think there's some incredible work that has been done over almost a year now. And, you know, I had the privilege of offering you a job through some of this work, but um, you've you've taken these steps, and I would love to hear where where's Madison now?

SPEAKER_01 18:50

So graduated 28 days, uh, got a job in August at um the coffee shop. Um, I worked for uh I worked out on Aurora. So from being somebody who walked out there um and then being able to step into a space for those girls out there who would come into the shop and needed some kind of saving, you know.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

Uh say, there's a girl, and and can we get her in you know into the program? And you think about this from my lens of standing in front of her and and wanting to offer her help and now seeing her offer other women help, I'm just that's why I'm in awe. I get I get to be part of that journey.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

And stepping into that space for women out there, I think kind of led Christine to see where where my future uh participation came in. And so one day we're at church and she looks at me and was like, How would you like to be the house manager of the house that you're at? Because you're already there.

SPEAKER_03 19:45

The houses are women in recovery.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Yeah, but you're you're doing so good and you're already on the path to doing so much better. Like, let like let's just just take a chance. And now I'm I'm a off-site live-in manager. I just live I live next door now in my own apartment, but in the in your own apartment. In my own apartment. I didn't want to move too far because I wanted to be I I've worked so hard to get not only the trust, but the love and uh giving those women support and making them not making them, but letting them feel heard in a space where they're falling short of feeling important. You know, I've worked really hard to make those relationships.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

You've earned every moment of that trust. That's a whole mistake. We always say this before Madison was in the transitional house supporting the women that were in there, our phones were blowing up. It was constant. This woman did this, this is a there's a fight here. I've never gotten one phone call since Madison has been in there running that transitional house. And that is a testament to the character of who you are, Madison, and the way that you step up in this space. I am privileged to walk alongside you. I've got to watch you battle some court cases, I've got to watch you battle some insecurities, I've got to watch you do it all with bravery and conviction. But I think the one thing that I am so proud of is that you walk alongside other women who are standing where you were just a year ago, right? And that you are laying down your life for that. Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

And um you can get strength from that, you know, get strength from the other people because it's so easy to stumble, but it's harder to get back up, you know? Yeah, you're unstoppable. Tell us a little bit about your your children. You're they're how's that going?

SPEAKER_01 21:31

So I opened a case in 2023 of getting uh the the guardianship terminated. My my mom, my mother, she's got temporary guardianship, but that's been a battle because once again we don't have that relationship. Right. And she doesn't really trust that I'm really doing what I'm supposed to be doing, you know. Um but now that I have been and have proven time and time again anything that is asked of me from the lawyer, from the guardian of lightum, from the Judge, even I've gone above and beyond to accomplish what needed to be accomplished and prove that one, I'm ready to be that mom my kids need to be or need me to be for them. And two, the immense change that I've made in my life because now I know my worth and I know now what I'm capable of accomplishing. Um so in June they will finish school off at their school and whatever activities they got going on, but they're coming home. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

And like leave um the the audience, maybe a woman who was sitting in your space a year ago. Talk to her, tell her something that she needs to know today.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Um we're so quick to ask people to give us second chances, right? Or we're so quick to give somebody else a second chance. But when do we ever look in the reflection of a mirror and look at ourselves and say, I'm worth it? A new life is possible. The journey is not an easy one, but it's well worth it in the end. Um somebody out there loves you, and you can't expect somebody to love you until you're ready to love yourself. Um, like I said, it's scary, but it's possible. And there is somebody out there who wants to see you doing better for yourself, above and beyond better for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Take a chance on yourself. Yeah, Madison.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

Ah Hurricane Madison coming in here. Thank you. Thank you for showing up for yourself, Madison, because I get to have you in my world, and to me, that deeply matters. That is everything to me.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Um, on top of doing all the good things in my life, I because I give back to the community I came from, I speak in uh treatment centers and institutions, and uh because I am so frequent and show up and never, you know, um leave them hanging, I have now been offered a job in a treatment facility.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

Madison Good no way.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

I told you what I say you were gonna do. As a residential specialist, so I will be there to walk hand in hand with people who are fearful of what's next and show them that there's there's nothing to fear.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

No, life is beautiful if it's not full circle. That's right. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you, Madison, for being vulnerable but being brave. That's the most important piece of all of this. And I'm so glad you're here with us. Me too.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Pleasure meeting you. If you like this, share, subscribe, and continue to follow us and Christine. And most importantly, be somebody's constant.