Twenty-seven-year-old Midsi Sanchez has spent the last decade advocating for missing and exploited children.
“Every time it’s like I’m retraumatizing myself, but I’m willing to do it to help those families,” said Sanchez.
At 8 years old, she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted for nearly three days by a convicted pedophile and murderer.
She was able to escape after her abductor dropped his keys.
“I jumped in front of a semi-truck, and I said ‘My name’s Midsi Sanchez, I’ve been kidnapped.’”
From trauma to depression
The harrowing kidnapping made headlines, but her recovery from the trauma was a personal nightmare.
Sanchez was back at her Vallejo, California, school two weeks after her escape, inundated with questions from inquisitive classmates. Despite active treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, she struggled to process what happened to her and get back to normal.
“I couldn’t relate to anybody,” she added.
Sanchez grew deeply depressed. By the time she entered her teen years, she’d quit therapy and turned to drugs and alcohol to cope. She was addicted and out of control.
“I went from depression to anger, and then anger turned to fight and fighting turned into gangs,” Sanchez recalled. “I just was a hot mess of a teenager.”
Things got worse. In 2009, while riding in a car with a drunk driver, Sanchez was in a wreck.
“I ended up flying through a windshield at 80 mph breaking up pretty much every bone from my waist to my neck.”
Rushed to the hospital, the 16-year-old found out she was pregnant.
“I had a life-changing experience, and I knew I wanted to be different.”
Sanchez resumed therapy. She had a new resolve and was about to find a new mission.
Staying alive, finding purpose
When Sanchez learned about another girl’s abduction from the nearby town of Tracy, California, it hit close to home.
“She was 8 years old, Latina and from a family of five just like mine,” Sanchez explained.
“I took that little girl’s flyer home and had 3,000 copies printed.”
She also connected with the girl’s family. Her presence provided comfort.
“That was when my lightbulb went off, and I realized why I’m still here,” Sanchez concluded. “I need to use my story.”
She began volunteering with the KlaasKids Foundation, speaking about many high-profile missing child cases. KlaasKids was created by Marc Klaas after the 1993 kidnapping and murder of his daughter, 12-year-old Polly Klaas.
That work led Sanchez to start her own child safety awareness program. It includes speaking tours with puppets that teach children to recognize and deal with dangerous situations.
“This is why I’m still alive,” she said. “I get to turn my traumatic situation into something powerful.”