Dallas, TX
North Texas girl sex trafficked from a Dallas Mavericks game shares her story of survival:
NORTH TEXAS — Her local Dallas story made national headlines. Now, the 18-year-old North Richland Hills sex trafficking survivor is ready to discuss every terrifying detail.
“It’s my first birthday home since, like, two years…,” said smiling Natalee Cramer.
She is speaking out for the first time ever, explaining what happened to her in April 2022.
At just 15 years old, she disappeared from a Dallas Mavericks game at the American Airlines Center. She was found 10 days later with traffickers in Oklahoma.
“I can change people’s perspective and make them feel like they have a voice,” Cramer said.
Once afraid and too weak to tell her story, Cramer now wants her voice heard.
“I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. There’s nothing to be afraid of. And it’s so strong, feels so strong saying that,” Cramer said. “I feel so strong saying that. I never would have thought it a year ago. I would have never been here. I would have never thought I could do it. I’m so proud of myself.”
On April 8, 2022, the Mavericks played the Trailblazers at American Airlines Center.
Cramer and her dad sat in section 221 until the then 15-year-old left to go to the bathroom and never returned.
For the next 10 days, her story made headlines all over the country. AAC cameras captured the only clues. She was last seen with two men on surveillance video at the arena.
“I was planning on going to the game but then got anxious… I needed something,” said Cramer.
Cramer says she was struggling with anxiety and addiction to vaping and marijuana.
“So, I just went and I found a male. I was like, ‘Hey, do you smoke?’ And he was like, ‘yeah.’ He asked me who I was with. And I was like, ‘I was with my dad. I don’t know where he’s at, but we can just chill.’”
Cramer says the encounter took a turn in the parking garage.
“I thought he was the only one… and he wasn’t. They had a bag of weed and rolling papers,” said Cramer. “Pretty much once they kind of showed me, I was just shoved in, not thrown in. But I didn’t I didn’t have a choice.”
Cramer says it didn’t take long to know she was in danger. She said she “…wasn’t sober enough to do anything about it. I didn’t know.”
She said the details of that night and the next 10 days are slowly coming back to her. They are very difficult to hear.
Cramer said she was raped three times in the AAC parking garage and then she was driven somewhere else.
“I would say … 20 to 25 minutes away from the American Airlines Center … and they continued to have me smoke marijuana and they raped me again,” said Cramer. “And when I knew I was getting sex trafficked was when the guy, he had a gray hoodie on… I remember he asked me, he said, ‘Can you go take a shower and then put these clothes on so we can go down to the street?’ … I didn’t think of selling my body. None of that.”
Cramer’s parents, desperate for answers, hired a private investigator who, within 24 hours, made a terrifying find. He discovered adult ads online for their daughter. She was being sold in Oklahoma.
Cramer said she does not remember being driven to Oklahoma, but she remembers being there.
When asked why she didn’t find a phone to call for help, she said that part of the story is hard to understand.
“…that’s something that a lot of people will probably be very questionable about,” Cramer said. “There were times that there was a phone, and I could call … I didn’t, it didn’t run through my mind. I was, I was running. I was running for drugs. I was running for all these other reasons.”
Cramer says her family was not number one at that time.
“I was self-sabotaging,” said Cramer. “I was putting myself in positions that I shouldn’t have, but… I just didn’t call. I don’t know why I didn’t call.”
The private investigator alerted Oklahoma City police about the adult ads for Cramer. Ten days after Cramer disappeared from the AAC, an Oklahoma officer found Cramer wandering outside a complex where one of her traffickers would later be arrested.
“I was tired. I didn’t know. I didn’t know what to do,” Cramer said. “I was messed up to the point where I would see things that weren’t there … and so, I was just walking at those apartments, just like praying. I was just like, ‘God, please have someone, something, whether it’s a cop, an ambulance, something, a random person on the side of the road.’ I was like, ‘God, I can’t do this … please.’ And, ‘Somebody, please, please save me.’ And not five minutes [later], a cop pulled up next to me and he goes, ‘Are you Natalee Cramer?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am.’”
Cramer became very emotional, saying her prayers were answered.
“He felt it. God told him, ‘That’s her. Go get her.’ Like, God was there. He was there.”
It’s been two and half years since that night at the AAC, Cramer attributes her escape and recovery to faith, family, therapy, and Gunnar. Gunnar is her dog, who came along not long after she came home and began therapy.
“When I got Gunnar, I was in a manic … every morning he forced me to get out, I had to take him out. I had to feed him,” said Cramer. “He brought that motivation back … he’s a dog. He doesn’t know, but he saved my life completely.”
Cramer said she is lucky to be alive.
“I knew I was going to die. I knew,” said Cramer. “It’s scary to think that it happens every day. But I hope what people take from this is that it’s real. It’s real and it’s hard. And you may not think it will happen to you until it does.”
She has a message for other victims and survivors.
“Don’t give up on yourself. Even if this happens to you, don’t give up on yourself. It will get better. It’s not something to be ashamed of anything. You just have to embrace it and realize it’s not your fault. It’s not!”
Cramer is still recovering, but she’s ready to help others who may be in the same situation she once was.
“I’m not giving up,” said Cramer. “I am going I’m going to continue to speak about it even if that means telling my story 100 times over and over and over and over. It’s not just my story being told. It’s other people’s who aren’t able to tell their story.”
Cramer says she is a 9.5 on a scale of one to 10. She is working on her GED and wants to start veterinarian school She says she’ll be a “10” when that happens.
Cramer and her family started a non-profit foundation. Aisling for Life helps raise support and resources for sexual assault and sex trafficking victims. The Irish word “Aisling” means “dream.”
While several people were convicted in Oklahoma in connection to Cramer’s case, Dallas investigators made an arrest but later dropped the charges against the suspect.
DALLAS – History will be made this week when the University of North Texas at Dallas holds its commencement. Among the graduates is an 81-year-old woman with an incredible story.
Cheryl Hurdle Wyatt’s Story
The backstory:
Cheryl Hurdle Wyatt first made history back in 1955 when, as a 10-year-old girl, she and her sister were part of a historic Dallas NAACP lawsuit to desegregate Dallas public schools.
“When my parents moved us to South Dallas from Oak Cliff, and we were five doors from the school at the end of the corner that was all white, and we were not allowed to attend,” she said. “I do remember the principal saying you can’t come to this school.”
While Wyatt never got to attend Brown Elementary School, the lawsuit opened the doors for others. Her younger brother did go to the school.
“The year we went to high school is the year they opened up John Henry Brown for Blacks,” she said.
After graduating from high school, Wyatt went to Texas Southern University. But instead of graduating, she came home to help her older sister open a beauty school.
“Velma B’s Beauty Academy in Dallas. Everybody who was in Dallas during that time knew of Velma Brooks,” she said.
Along life’s journey, Wyatt blazed her own professional path.
“At the Lancaster-Kiest shopping center, I was there for maybe 10 years then moved up to Camp Wisdom. Had a salon there and then I’ve had about maybe two or three other locations,” she said.
81-year-old College Graduate
What’s next:
On Tuesday, Wyatt will finally complete her 60-year journey to her college degree.
She credits her father as her inspiration. Although he had seven children at home, he went to night school to earn his high school diploma.
“So, that taught us that it’s never too late. You can always go back and make something that you wanted to happen, happen,” she said.
Her father’s perseverance during the desegregation lawsuit also taught her not to give up.
“Well, it taught me that we should always preserve, don’t give up. If it doesn’t happen this way, just keep on. It will happen. The only way you cannot win is if you stop,” she said.
All of Wyatt’s children and grandchildren are expected to be in the crowd cheering for her as she walks across the stage.
The Source: FOX 4’s Shaun Rabb gathered information for this story by interviewing Cheryl Hurdle Wyatt.
Paige Bueckers, Dallas Wings point guard and WNBA Rookie of the Year, took the spotlight in women’s basketball this year. The 24-year-old arrived in Dallas after being the No. 1 selection in the WNBA draft in April, capping off an impressive collegiate run where she helped the University of Connecticut win a national championship title.
Bueckers represents the best of our star athletes. The energy and determination she brings to the game and her dedication to her teammates and community make her a finalist for 2025 Texan of the Year.
Born in Edina, Minn., Bueckers started playing basketball when she was around five years old. Her father coached her until middle school, and by the time she reached Hopkins High School, she was the No. 1 recruit in the country for the 2020 class. At the University of Connecticut, she became the face of a storied program, returning from injury to help deliver the Huskies their 12th NCAA title.
When she arrived in Dallas, the question wasn’t whether she’d make an impact — it was how quickly. The answer came fast. She was a starter in all 36 appearances for the Wings and averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals this season. Her 44 points against the Los Angeles Sparks set a WNBA record for the highest single-game scoring performance by a rookie.
She’s making Wings games must-watch basketball. At home games, the stands are filled with fans wearing Bueckers’ No. 5 jersey and young girls sporting face-framing braids and a ponytail to match her signature game-day hairstyle.
Ahead of their August showdown with the Indiana Fever, the Wings moved the game from their usual home court in Arlington to the American Airlines Center due to high demand for tickets to see the matchup between Bueckers and Caitlin Clark. The Wings didn’t make it to the playoffs this year, but Bueckers gave the city something to cheer for.
But more than her athletic ability and impressive jump shots, Bueckers has shown a humility we wish was more common among stars like her. In interviews, she’s quick to give credit to her teammates, coaches and God. In 2021, at the ESPN ESPYS, after being recognized as the best college athlete in women’s sports, she used her acceptance speech to celebrate and honor Black women and their contributions to the sport.
In Dallas, Bueckers has teamed up with Verizon and Dick’s Sporting Goods to coach a youth clinic and exhibition game, eager to give back to the community and make the city feel like home while she’s here. And when she’s not training, she’s probably at another Dallas game — popping up at Stars and Cowboys games, a Trinity FC match and the Mavericks.
From her stylish game day tunnel outfits to TikTok videos dancing with her teammates to her smooth, disciplined basketball, it’s a pleasure to watch her — and we can’t wait to see what she does next.
Beginning today, we are running our Texan of the Year finalists in a countdown to naming the 2025 honorees on Sunday, Dec. 28. You can follow all of the finalists as they are published at dallasnews.com/opinion/texanoftheyear.
DALLAS – A Dallas Police investigation into a double homicide continues after the suspected gunman was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Mesquite, authorities announced.
Double murder-suicide investigation
What we know:
Dallas officers responded to a shooting call in the 15800 block of El Estado Drive in Far North Dallas at 2:40 p.m. on December 11, 2025. The preliminary investigation determined that two people had been shot.
The victims were identified as 24-year-old Arlina Sander, who died at the scene, and 27-year-old Darvilease Washington, who was taken to a local hospital where he later died.
Detectives quickly identified a possible suspect and a suspect vehicle registered in Mesquite. As Dallas detectives prepared an arrest warrant, they were notified by the Mesquite Police Department about a shooting in that city.
Suspect found dead in Mesquite
The suspect in the El Estado homicides was found dead in the 1000 block of Craig Drive in Mesquite, having suffered an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The suspect’s vehicle was found in the driveway.
The Dallas County Medical Examiner has identified the man as 44-year-old Jonathan Lakill Mantoy Jones. His time of death was just after 5 p.m., according to the M.E. report.
What we don’t know:
The motives and circumstances surrounding the offense are still under investigation.
Dallas Police ask anyone with information to contact Detective Paul Johnson at 469-271-6328 or via email at paul.johnson@dallaspolice.gov.
The Source: Information in this article is from the Dallas Police Department.
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