Gothamist

A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.

Gothamist

WNYC Listen Live

Donate

 

 

News

11-Year-Old Details Kidnapping Into Sex Slavery


By

Jaya Saxena

Published May 1, 2011

Modified May 1, 2011


Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail


Never miss a story

 Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .


By

Jaya Saxena

Published May 1, 2011

Modified May 1, 2011


Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail


We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

After being lured from her Bronx home by a sexual predator seven months ago, an 11-year-old has returned home, and told the Daily News about how her kidnappers pimped her out to men in their Lower East Side apartment. The girl managed to call her grandmother, who told her to run from the Delancey Street apartment while her captors slept. She was eventually found by cops, and is undergoing treatment at a Westchester clinic. She said of her captors, "I want them to go through pain 24 hours a day. I want someone to make them do stuff the way they made me do stuff...I want them to go through what I went through. I think about nothing but anger."

The victim had been living with a foster family after both her mother and her grandmother were busted on drug charges. She met Dawud McKelvin, 30, while sitting on her foster parents' porch when she was ten, and continued seeing him after she returned to her grandmother's care. A few months later, she didn't some home from school. "He called me the day before and asked me if I wanted to come live with him," she said. Court papers say she was taken to an apartment on West 110th Street, where she was raped by McKelvin's cousin, and then brought to the Lower East Side apartment. She said "One man gave me $700, another gave me $1,000 and another gave me $500. Maybe there were five or six men, in all."

Unfortunately, this fate is all too common for young girls who are kidnapped. Private Investigator Joe Mazzilli says about 40 percent of the missing kid and runaway cases he works on involve pornography or prostitution. "There are very few cases that involve someone as young as 10 or 11 years old," he said. "But on the flip side, once they hit 13, there are thousands of cases like that. It's so sad." For example, Billionaire investor Jeffrey Epstein served 13 months in jail for soliciting minors for prostitution, some allegedly as young as 12.

McKelvin has been indicted on charges of rape and predatory sexual assault against a child, and his cousin, Lee McKelvin, was indicted on charges of rape, criminal sexual assault and predatory sexual assault.

Tagged

bronx

kidnapping

minor

prostitution

sex slavery

sexual predator


Jaya Saxena

Read more

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


MORE news

Queens man found dead, police say, and injured woman is his mother, neighbors say

Police are investigating a related incident in which a 62-year-old woman was found injured beneath the Van Wyck Expressway.

By

Charles Lane

Published Oct 14, 2026 at 7:39 p.m. ET


Man shot by ICE in NYC's Marble Hill said federal officers never identified themselves

The wounded man said he didn't learn ICE agents were involved until he woke up in the hospital.

By

Arya Sundaram

and

Samantha Max

News

Man shot by ICE in NYC's Marble Hill said federal officers never identified themselves

The wounded man said he didn't learn ICE agents were involved until he woke up in the hospital.

By

Arya Sundaram

and

Samantha Max


Brooklyn school dean says MTA officers assaulted him over a $3 bus fare he says he paid

By

Carol Chen

National Grid customers in NYC will see higher gas bills this winter

By

Rosemary Misdary

Bruce Blakeman joins Gov. Hochul in support for expanding NY rape law

By

Jon Campbell


Never miss a story

Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.

Sign upEmail address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .