GONE GIRL
Missing teen got order of protection against pimp
WEEKS BEFORE Corinna Slusser vanished, her family got a chilling piece of mail that left no doubt she was in deep trouble.
A copy of an order of protection that 19-year-old Slusser sought in Manhattan against a friend who became her pimp was mailed to her mother’s Pennsylvania home, horrified friends and family members said Wednesday.
“This letter of protection was granted against somebody she was living with. It went to her mom’s house,” said one relative, who asked not to be named. “We didn’t know what to think.”
The letter directed the man to stay away from Slusser after he was arrested for beating and choking her at a hotel in Harlem’s Sugar Hill neighborhood on Aug. 25, police said.
A month later, Slusser was simply gone.
When her mother, Sabrina Tuorto, opened the letter in the weeks before her daughter disappeared, she immediately reached out to Slusser. But the teen — who police believe is now a victim of sex trafficking — shrugged it off.
“The letter said she was beaten and strangled, but (Corinna) told her mom that she was making a big deal out of nothing,” the relative said.
Slusser was last seen in the early hours of Sept. 20 in Queens, at the Haven Motel, on Woodhaven Blvd. by 68th Ave. in Rego Park.
Members of the NYPD’s Vice Human Trafficking Team are searching for her, but they believe she has been handed off to several different pimps since her disappearance, police sources said. Her name has come up in several vice investigations over the past few weeks, the sources said.
Slusser’s first pimp — the 32-year-old friend she came to New York with, was arrested in the Bronx on Aug. 28 after police were called to Boston Road. in West Farms at 1:15 a.m.
Cops found Slusser crying and shaking. She said the hustler stole $300 from her at the Harlem Vista Hotel, grabbed her by the neck and “slammed her against the wall, making it difficult for (her) to breathe,” court papers said.
The pimp was arrested and ordered held on $1,000 bail, officials said. A temporary order of protection was issued, with a copy sent to the address Slusser gave police — her mom’s Pennsylvania home.
The News is not identifying the alleged attacker, who may be an integral part in solving Slusser’s disappearance. The pimp’s 62-year-old father said he didn’t live in the apartment where cops busted him. As for Slusser, the dad said, “I’ve never seen this girl before. The girl was never here.”
Slusser’s relatives reported her missing on Sept. 12, after she missed her grandfather’s funeral in Florida. The troubled teen was a cheerleader at Bloomsburg Area High School in Pennsylvania, with dreams of becoming a makeup artist. Instead, she dropped out of school and left home at 17. Slusser stayed with friends near her mother’s home for about a year until she attempted suicide. While recovering in a hospital, she met the man who would become her pimp, and he lured her to New York in March.
The avid social media user last posted on Instagram on Sept. 10.
“I can’t bear any more days like this,” Tuorto said on Facebook. “I fear the worst, but I pray for the best and her to return home. (I’m) waiting for an angel to hear my prayer.”