On this episode, retired agent Carrie Landau reviews her sex trafficking investigation of the man who had held sixteen-year-old Desiree Robinson, against her will and trafficked her for sex on the website Backpage.com. Desiree was murdered by a man who answered the online advertisement.
The trafficker, Joseph Hazley, was convicted of sex-trafficking and sentenced to 32 years in prison. For her death, Antonio Rosales was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse. He was sentenced to 39 years in prison. Charles McFee, the man who introduced and sold Desiree to Hazley before she was murdered by Rosales, was sentenced to seven years in prison.
”I find the exact words in the Facebook post, and it said, ‘I’m in a bad situation where I’m being pimped at his house. He won’t let me leave.’ I jump up from my couch and I scream, ‘You are done, Joseph Hasley, you are done.’ This is it. This is everything we needed. And then some.”—Retired Agent Carrie Landau
Desiree’s mother, Yvonne Ambrose, has dedicated her life to preventing and ending sex trafficking by bringing awareness to the dangers of modern-day slavery. Learn more at Desiree Foundation Against Sex Trafficking.
Special Agent (Retired)
Carrie Landau
8/2003 – 9/2024
Carrie Landau served in the FBI for 21 years. During her Bureau career, she specialized in Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Investigations. Carrie was stationed in Cleveland, Ohio, and Chicago, and was assigned to multiple safe street task forces that included investigating violent crime, gangs, drugs, and violent crimes against children.
As the Crimes Against Children Coordinator for the entire Chicago Division FBI for six years and for 19 years in the South Suburbs of Chicago, Carrie coordinated with 120 police departments in the Chicagoland area to develop and implement a systematic response to combat sex trafficking and crimes against children.
Carrie was also a team leader on the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team, North Central Team, which is a national team of experts who investigate and advise on child abduction cases. She was instrumental in the creation and implementation of the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force and partnered with multiple agencies, both local, federal, and non-governmental organizations.
Carrie has presented case studies, taught basic and advanced human trafficking classes, and been a keynote speaker for multiple national conferences. She is qualified as an expert witness with respect to sex trafficking in United States Federal Court and, to date, has testified in that capacity 14 times.
Her work as the case agent for the first domestic minor sex trafficking prosecution in the Northern District of Ohio and on two landmark cases regarding human trafficking has changed case law and contributed to the evolution of FOSTA/SESTA being signed into law.
Carrie has received numerous awards from the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois, and is the recipient of the FBI’s Medal of Excellence for her work combatting domestic minor sex trafficking and her work in investigating Crimes Against Children.
For her dedicated work on the AJ Freund case out of Crystal Lake, Illinois, Carrie received the Hero’s Award from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The FBI’s Chicago Division named her Agent of the Year.
Carrie is a contributor to the Standards Project for the American Bar Association in furtherance of positive response and change to victim’s rights and is a Police Commissioner for the city of Frankfort, Illinois and a member of the Advisory Board for Reclaim 13 in the Chicagoland area. She helps create training and implement best practices for nearly all the south suburban police departments across the Chicagoland area. She is also a member of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules and the Joint Human Trafficking Working Group.
Currently, Carrie is employed as a regional security manager for Ford Motor Company.
She is the founder of Landau and Associates LLC, a professional investigative service agency partnering with local law firms, corporations, and select private clients.
Carrie asked that I help her disseminate an Email for Human Trafficking Contacts about the Backpage.com and CityXGuide victims’ fund, established to provide financial compensation for some former victims and survivors who may have been impacted.Here’s the message in Spanish.
The following are links to articles about the sexual trafficking, exploitation, and murder of Desiree Robinson:
FOX43 – 12/30/2016: Man accused of slitting 16-year-old’s throat, leaving her in Illinois garage
FOX32 Chicago – 6/21/2017: Feds charge man for prostituting 16-year-old girl before her murder
ABC 13 Eyewitness News (VIDEO) – 4/13/2018: Chicago teen sold to sex trafficker for $250 before her murder, prosecutors say
Press Release USAO, Northern District of Illinois – June 5, 2019: Chicago Man Sentenced to 32 Years in Prison for Sex Trafficking a Minor
CBS News Chicago – 5/22/2019: 40-Year Sentence Sought For Man Convicted Of Sex Trafficking
Chicago Sun Times (VIDEO) – 6/4/2019: 32 years for pimp who snoozed in his car as Desiree Robinson was murdered
WGNTV – 6/4/2019: Convicted sex trafficker Joseph Hazley sentenced to 32 years in prison
Chicago Tribune – 4/12/2022: Chicago man sentenced to 39 years for murder of sex-trafficked teen in Markham
To learn more about how the FBI investigates sex trafficking, listen to FBI Case File Review episode 249: Masayo Halpin – Human Trafficking, Commercial Sexual Exploitation.
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