4 Beaver County massage parlors raided in sex trafficking investigation, DA says

A major undercover operation led to a multi-county sex trafficking investigation, Beaver County District Attorney Nate Bible told KDKA-TV.

For some time, Baden Borough Manager Elaine Rakovan said they consistently received similar complaints from people living in their community.

"They said, 'Something just isn't right,'" Rakovan said.

There were complaints first about a business now known as Wens Bodyworks on State Street, and then about another down the road called Moonlit Spa.

"There's always been a little bit of people questioning, what's going on there, but nothing that would get law enforcement into the building," Rakovan said. 

She said people would report seeing men coming and going 24/7, but all they could do at that time was document them for police.

It wasn't until officers executed search warrants at the spots on Thursday that Rakovan would better understand the scope of what was happening.

"This is small-town Baden, you know, to have two of them — it's scary, it really is," Rakovan said.

Bible said those are two of four massage parlors in the county where illegal activity was taking place, some for years. He said the two in Baden are related and have connections to at least three others they learned about in Allegheny County.

The two others in Beaver are Merchant Street Bodyworks on Merchant in Ambridge, and Traditional Chinese Massage Therapy on Brodhead in Hopewell Township.

"We're still trying to sort out who is a victim here, and who is the one, you know, calling the shots," Bible said. 

So far, four Jane Does varying in ages from their 20s to 50s and 51-year-old Wenxian Stuart, who detectives said was a part-owner of one of the parlors, are facing prostitution and corrupt organization charges.

However, Bible said it's likely the Jane Does were victims and will be released, with many more suspects arrested and more serious trafficking charges filed. He said they have a good idea who the primary suspects are, though the numbers of perpetrators and victims are unclear.

"A lot of these women have been brought from China. It's still kind of being determined whether it was against their will, or whether they were kind of told they were doing one thing and then put into doing something else," Bible said. 

Bible said it appears these women were living at businesses in poor conditions, sometimes never leaving, and while there is evidence of children having been there from their undercover surveillance, they didn't see any on Thursday.

He also said Immigration and Customs Enforcement is helping them identify everyone, but they don't believe anyone is undocumented.

Bible said he expects the FBI will be getting involved.

KDKA-TV reached out to the Allegheny County DA's office regarding any potential charges there, but that's unknown at this time.