A look inside the SA Insider Investigation of massage parlors in Conn.

In late February 2019, I was working in the byzantine press gallery of the Connecticut Capitol building when an email from a reader dinged in my inbox.

A local woman wanted me to know about a website called Rub Maps, an online review board for people who claimed they bought sex at massage parlors. She had heard of the website through news coverage of one of the biggest national stories of the month: Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, was arrested for allegedly soliciting sex at a Florida massage parlor called Orchids of Asia.

The subject of a multi-state human trafficking and prostitution investigation, Orchids of Asia had 19 reviews on Rub Maps. The website also had reviews for more than 75 Connecticut businesses. Some of these businesses I had written about earlier that month, as part of an in-depth investigation into wage abuses in Connecticut nail salons, my dutiful reader informed me. She said she was shocked to learn about the prevalence of alleged illicit activity at these massage parlors. She said she thought I should know.

Rub Maps operators did not return emails requesting comment.

I used Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act to get 10 years of police records on 30 of the Connecticut massage parlors listed on this website. These records showed that police had made many visits to some of these businesses, in some cases made prostitution arrests and in some cases did not have enough evidence. More problematically, the records showed that police sometimes suspected that human trafficking was taking place at these massage parlors.

I spent months interviewing cops, nonprofit advocates working with survivors of trafficking and other experts about the business of massage parlors in the state. I knocked on doors, made numerous calls and sent letters to the massage parlors for which I obtained records.

Unsurprisingly, nobody wanted to talk.

I learned that police faced major hurdles to investigating alleged crimes at these businesses, but a confluence of state and local laws and ordinances was attempting to crack down on the illicit trade. I also learned about gaps where it seemed more might be done.

The result is Uncovered: Connecticut’s illicit massage trade, a detailed look at an ugly business of pleasure. Share your thoughts, questions and tips with the reporter by emailing Emilie Munson at emilie.munson@hearstdc.com.