Aiken County, while Richmond County remains a high-risk area in Georgia. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson released the 2025 Annual Human Trafficking Report, showing the State Law Enforcement Division investigated more than 300 tips, with seven of them in Aiken County. Child Enrichment says Richmond County has continuously been on the map over the last couple of years as one of the highest counties for human trafficking in Georgia. The organization says the kinds of cases they see most in the state are gang-related trafficking or family-related trafficking, where a parent sells their child in exchange for money or drugs. Joy Anderson, a human trafficking survivor, was trafficked from Aiken to Augusta to Atlanta and across the country. “I was really raised in a really godly, great home. Five of us kids and we were all adopted,” Anderson said. “I was really, myself personally, rebelling against my parents and the principles that I was raised with.” Anderson said her trafficker told her he owned her and she worked for him. A developer wants to build some new housing for Augusta University students on Weed Street in the Sandhills neighborhood of Augusta. “I just had this thou
