Man arrested for allegedly forcing missing teen into prostitution

A New York City man was busted for allegedly forcing a Pennsylvania woman who vanished over a year ago into prostitution, authorities said Thursday.

Ishi Woney, 23, was charged in Manhattan federal court Thursday with sex trafficking and sexually exploiting young women, including 19-year-old Corinna Slusser, who went missing Sept. 2017, officials said.

“Woney engaged in a vile form of exploitation, using force and other coercion to compel young women to engage in paid sex for his enrichment,” US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a release announcing the charges.

Woney, allegedly forced at least one woman to engage in sex for money out of The Bronx and other places, and he brought online ads promoting prostitution which featured that victim and Slusser, authorities said.

Slusser, an Indiana University of Pennsylvania student came to the city in the summer of 2017 and was last seen Sept. 20, 2017 in a Rego Park motel. At the time, cops said she’d filed a police report against an unidentified “pimp” when he roughed her up in Harlem on Aug. 25.

Starting in September, Slusser fell in with Woney and the other victim, renting a room in The Bronx, known to be a haven for illicit activity, and exchanging over 800 text messages with Woney between Sept. 10 and 20th.

On Sept. 20 the other victim fought with Slusser because she was jealous of the teen’s relationship with Woney. That’s when Slusser moved to the Queens motel where she was last seen.

The FBI is still looking for Slusser, who turned 20 on Oct. 6, and asks anyone with information to contact them 1-800-CALL-FBI or online at tips.fbi.gov.

“I hope this [arrest] leads to other things,” Slusser’s mother Sabina Tuorto told The Post Thursday. “I want my daughter found.”

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