Detectives: Man promoted sexual human trafficking of mom, daughter
VAN BUREN, Ind. (WISH) — A 59-year-old man was arrested Friday after Grant County deputies “recognized the signs of human trafficking” from a mother and daughter who came to Indiana from Venezuela, police say.
Gregory Michael Marsh was booked into the Grant County jail.
Grant County Sheriff Del Garcia and Deputy Brent Ressett said in a news release issued Friday night that Marsh was arrested after the sheriff’s office was alerted to a disturbance at 3:40 a.m. Friday in the 400 block of West Main Street in the town of Van Buren. That’s in a residential area just south of the Weaver Popcorn food processing plant.
Detectives interviewed a mother and daughter. They were not identified in the release. Their ages were not immediately known.
The mother and daughter feared being injured and deported “as a tactic to control them which has been an ongoing situation,” the release said. “The victims resided in the residence and had come to Indiana from Venezuela in April 2023 on a work VISA sponsored by the arrestee, that she met online.”
Online court documents show a search warrant was issued for Marsh on Friday from Grant Superior Court 2. The court documents did not show any formal criminal charges.
The release says an arrest warrant for Marsh included felony charges of promotion of human sexual trafficking; criminal confinement; and voyeurism. The warrant also was said to include a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery.
The eastern Grant County town of about 780 residents is about halfway between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne.
In the release, the sheriff congratulated his deputies for “their attention to detail in the earlier stages of the call and the investigation” and the dispatchers’ center for using one of its employees as a translator.
Help is available for victims of domestic violence. Below is a list of suggested resources on the Domestic Violence Network website:
- Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence: 24-hour hotline available at 800-332-7385
- Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking
- The Julian Center
- Indiana Child Abuse Hotline: 800-800-5556
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788
- National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-4673
Stories from ‘Life.Style.Live’ and ‘All Indiana’
