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Utah mother sends message to missing daughter: ‘I want you to fight’

Posted at 9:01 PM, Feb 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-16 21:01:27-05

LOGAN, Utah -- A Utah mother is offering up a heart-wrenching plea to the world as she seeks help in finding her 17-year-old daughter.

“This is my absolute worst nightmare. We need Sarah home.”

Sarah Dunsey's family says the teen, who lives in Logan, is a victim of sex trafficking. She was last seen January 15 at the MGM Grand Las Vegas Hotel. That's where the family believes she was abducted.

“She's being held against her will, and Sarah is a victim of sex trafficking," Dunsey's mother says in a video posted to YouTube. "“We need her home. I cannot wonder if she's home and if she is safe."

In a matter of hours, this campaign reached more than 100,000 people.

“We've just been doing everything that we can,” said Leah Hullinger, Sarah's Aunt.

The family says as they learn more and more about what happened to Sarah, they are becoming increasingly alarmed.

“All of this information is pointing to Sarah being held against her will and being trafficked and exploited,” Hullinger said.

Sarah's loved ones are working relentlessly to find any hint of where she might be and who took her. “Some days we feel like we're close to finding her, and other days it just feels so overwhelming and so vast,” Hullinger said.

The family says the questions surrounding what could be happening to Sarah are too much to bear, "to know she's being beaten, is being hurt and held against her will,” Hullinger said.

The family prays the video brings in tips to where Sarah might be, but most of all, they hope it reaches Sarah and serves as a "lifeline to her family so she knows, don't let them strip you of your identity and how you are, and everything that you are. Don't let them do that to you,” Hullinger said.

Speaking to the camera, Sarah's mother said, “Sarah Bearah, this message is for you. I want you to fight, because I need you. All of us need you. So fight, okay? We're coming to get you.”

At this point the family is  not giving out a lot of details about what happened because they don't want it to jeopardize their leads as they piece things together with detectives.

Sarah stands 5-feet-2-inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. The 17-year-old girl has brown hair and brown eyes, and she has a tattoo of a lotus flower on her ribcage.

This is the video: