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at the start of the fall semester in 1995 a 23 year old college co-ed tina bigger
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was reported missing she had been working on a research project studying the health risks of
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high-priced call girls in detroit but she soon discovered that prostitutes face more than health risks in their job
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they face the possibility of violence [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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tina bigger was a 23 year old psychology major about to enter her senior year at
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oakland university outside of detroit she was raised in a military family and friends knew her as vivacious and hard
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working tina bigger was the all-american girl she came from a coast guard family her
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father was a coast guard commander her mother was a registered nurse the people who knew tina and who were closest to
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her knew her as a very fun-loving dedicated student well-liked by all her peers and
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colleagues and very much be loved by her family a great big sister a great daughter
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tina worked her way through school as a waitress at the rochester chop house and lived with her boyfriend todd
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nurnberger in an upscale apartment complex not far from school todd nurenberger was a student at the
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university of michigan the two had an on-again off-again relationship and friends weren't sure
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whether it would work out tina also had another side to her she could be distrustful she could be
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vengeful she had a temper at times too this was a tina that not a lot of people who knew
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her saw tina was conducting a research project for school entitled a survey of sexual history and health
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practices among women employed as escorts she wanted to find out if high-priced coal girls and street prostitutes had
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the same knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases she decided that she wanted to do her
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own study she thought it would help her get into a good graduate school and she decided to study high class call girls
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and their awareness of aids and then she was going to compare the two on august 23rd 1995
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todd left for work he said tina was still asleep when he left when he returned home that night
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she was gone todd immediately phoned police usually missing persons the case is wrapped up within
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a couple days maybe even a couple of hours usually phone calls could be made to determine where the person is or where
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they've been even but from the start this case was different tina's car was gone
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none of her personal belongings were missing from the apartment none of tina's friends had seen or heard
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from her and police also discovered that tina was planning to move into her own apartment
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without todd the fact that tina was looking to move to another apartment was actually in the process of
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looking to get into another apartment led me to think that there was something wrong
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that maybe i need to talk to todd a little bit further about what was happening in their lives
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maybe that there was something i was missing [Music] police learned that tina found evidence
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that todd was seeing another woman [Music] and in an unexpected twist police discovered that tina was hiding
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some secrets of her own 23 year old psychology student tina bigger was a hard-working honor student who
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friends say had a promising career ahead of her she disappeared without a trace shortly
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before the fall semester at oakland university outside of detroit when her boyfriend todd nurnberger
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called police to report her missing police were naturally suspicious the two had an on-again off-again
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relationship [Music] a few months earlier tina found a suggestive greeting card to
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todd from another woman and realized that todd had been unfaithful people had seen them fight sometimes he
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was very devoted but sometimes they had a very combustible relationship he spent
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more time with her than anyone else he probably knew her better than anyone else he would seem like a natural
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suspect despite their differences todd nurenberger denied any involvement in tina's disappearance
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tina worked as a waitress at the rochester chop house did tina bigger show up for work last
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night when todd called to see if she had reported to work he was told that tina had quit her job
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four months earlier okay thank you tina said nothing about quitting her waitressing job and had continued to
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launder her waitressing outfits as if nothing had changed todd searched their apartment looking
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for some clue as to where tina might have gone [Music] todd found a duffel bag he had never
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seen before inside were condoms thigh high stockings lingerie sexual lubricants credit card slips and
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envelopes addressed to the la escort service with the name crystal in the upper left hand corner
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hello do you have a girl that works for your name tina bigger the owners of the la escort service said
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they didn't know anyone by the name of tina bigger but they said that crystal was the name
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of one of their more popular escorts escort services operate in most large cities and offer female companionship
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demand in return for fees ranging from 150 to 300 per hour among the services provided is usually
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sex todd now began to suspect that tina had been living a secret life as a high-priced call girl
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she decided she was going to do a study of high class call girls and their awareness of aids and she began
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contacting services asking if she could talk to girls she started doing that and
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i think in the process became sort of enamored with what they were doing i think in part it was the money she was
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broke she had maxed out her credit cards she needed a new car she had to pay for
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school the money they make is a lot more than you make working at a steakhouse at
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one point she was making 250 dollars for an appointment maybe women have a little
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fantasy about themselves maybe all women do and maybe she lived it out i think she had a fantasy about herself
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i think she wanted more attention in kind of a distant way and being a call girl she was getting it because that's
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the kind of attention you get maybe it gave her power hi i'm crystal after initially denying it the escort
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service eventually admitted what todd already suspected that tina beggar worked as an escort
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with the professional name of crystal they also revealed that tina worked for two other escort services and had dozens
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of clients that also meant dozens of possible suspects [Music] the investigation into tina bigger's
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disappearance revealed a dark secret for the past year tina had been working as a high-priced
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call girl it was probably very important for tina to keep this information or what was
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going on her life away from her boyfriend because she was living with him he knew so much about her
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but at the same time if if he had determined that she was involved with an escort service actually working for one
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obviously that would have caused a great deal of havoc in his life and their lives together
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he naturally was despondent at one point he even uh considered killing himself with a gun that he had but he called
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some friends they talked him out of it and he decided basically that he was going to do whatever needed to be done
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that he owed it to tina to get to the bottom of what had happened to her records from the escort service revealed
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numerous requests for tina's services from a man named ken tranchita their first meeting took place at the
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bluebird motel just 12 days before tina's disappearance among tina's personal items found in her
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apartment was a love letter from ken dear tina my heart is yours for you to keep
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your love will lift me off my feet you came to me your love so willing i know it's worth all our waiting
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love can when police entered ken tranchita's apartment they noticed the name crystal on some
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artwork attached to his refrigerator a local car dealer said tina was with ken tranchita looking at new cars
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together [Music] you like it yeah [Applause] and that ken had offered to loan her
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money for the car i love it ken tranchita was a 42 year old ex-convict with a history of passing bad
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checks forgery fraud embezzlement and theft he was not the wealthy businessman he
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portrayed to tina sort of a drifter a loner he was a petty thief and a petty con man
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type of a person he held down some menial jobs but not for very long i thought he was just like kind of a
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little weasel really i don't know how else you would describe him he had kind
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of a little voice and he he was sort of pathetic really he just was a guy who probably
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thought tina was going to be his girlfriend or something tranchita admitted meeting tina bigger
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whom he first knew as crystal through the escort service he said they later met without the
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agency knowing and the tina stopped charging him for their sexual liaisons since the two had become friends
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he told police that he had driven tina to the airport just one week earlier for a flight to ohio where she was going to
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service a client a check of flight log showed no record of tina bigger on any flight
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to ohio ken said tina left her car with him for safekeeping while she was away when police asked to inspect the car
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tranchita willingly obliged inside police found names and addresses of more escort service clients along with
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directions to their homes we had learned through paperwork found in her car and through the escort service that she
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actually had contact with people that were living out of the country they were living out of state
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so it was possible that she could have just taken off gone someplace although the trunk was filled with
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debris a preliminary search found no evidence of foul play research shows that most first-time
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killers dispose of their victims bodies in locations the killer is familiar with
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so police used cadaver dogs to search areas near tranchita's home michigan state trooper richard hetu
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works with kai a veteran cadaver dog trained specifically to find human bodies to train the dogs the troopers hide a
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small sample of human tissue or fluid in their wooded training area the dog isn't
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rewarded for finding animal remains but they're rewarded for finding human remains
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so they're going to dig along a lot harder and look a lot harder because they're working for that reward
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trooper hitu and kai searched wooded areas around ken tranchita's rented home as well as the
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grounds of a nearby monastery where tranchita often walked although they searched hundreds of
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wooded acres they found nothing with no evidence to hold ken tranchita he was released from police custody
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it was a mistake police would soon regret after police questioned ken tranchita about the disappearance of tina bigger
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he was released because of a lack of evidence even though they suspected he knew more
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about her whereabouts than he had told them it was clear that ken's relationship with tina was
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more than just business since a love letter from ken was found in tina's belongings and ken had
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promised to loan tina the money for a new car was he going to help her get a car he
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made promises he was probably telling her things to maybe make her hang on to him maybe
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she was making him think that they were friends just to kind of get some of these things taken care of
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with no other leads police decided to take a second look inside tina's car to their embarrassment what they first
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thought were coffee stains on the side of a cup now appeared to be blood and when they peeled back the trunk
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carpet they found a pool of blood on the right hand side dna tests revealed the blood belonged
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to tina baker the investigation was already being looked at as a homicide more so than
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perhaps another case might have been but once they found that blood there was really no question
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the amount of blood in the trunk pointed to murder and since the car had been in ken
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tranchita's possession since tina's disappearance he was the prime suspect
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but by this time ken tranchita had vanished police finally got a break in the case
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one month after tina bigger disappeared ken tranchita's brother suggested that
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police search a deserted home once owned by his aunt the home was just 10 miles from
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tinabigger's apartment in the woods in the backyard police found the badly decomposed body
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of a young woman since there were no pools of blood near the body this told forensic scientists that the
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murder had taken place somewhere else an analysis of dental records later revealed the body was that
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of tina bigger since the decomposition started in the neck area the coroner suspected tina had
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been strangled since decomposition begins in the areas where there is bleeding at the time of
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death it was a unnatural cause of death there was no fracture anywhere even in the
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head area so neck has to be a place where the event happened and we call it a neck trauma i could not
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identify specific if neck was slashed she was strangled she was smothered i cannot say that but it has to be a neck
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injury and that was the conclusion a nationwide manhunt for ken tranchita was now underway
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tranchita was eventually spotted in a run-down neighborhood in downtown detroit police closed in
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ken made a weak attempt at slitting his wrists in the bathroom before giving himself up
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after several hours of police interrogation ken tranchita finally admitted that he and tina had an argument over
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money you don't have the money to loan me do you of course i have the money i
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don't believe you the money is coming they had struggled and tina fell hitting
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her head and died [Music] but x-rays of tina's skull contradicted that scenario
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she did not have any skull fracture anyway if she bleed inside of the skull i would
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have seen some blood staining inside of the skull which was not present although tina may have suffered a head
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wound as evidenced by the blood found in tina's trunk the wound was probably not fatal
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when tranchita was confronted with this information his statement shot police what he said was tina
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was just so miserable in those last days that i made a sudden decision to end it
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for her and put her out of her misery the minute the police heard that statement they thought
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holy jesus i thought guilty of your honor ken tranchita accepted a plea bargain and pled guilty to second degree murder
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tina's family reluctant to have tina's double life made public agreed to the deal
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prosecutors believe when tina discovered ken had lied to her about having the money to buy the new car
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the two fought tina struck her head and was later strangled or smothered to death
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ken placed tina's body in the trunk of her car then dumped the body in the woods near his aunt's home
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[Music] it was a tragic end to an unfortunate story ken tranchita was sentenced to life in
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prison ironically while tina was living a life of deception she too was deceived by ken tranchita
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a con man offering the promise of a big loan if tina was brought into this double
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life under some kind of illusion that it was going to be like a scene from pretty
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woman and richard gere was going to come rescue her and you know bring her wonderful gifts and she was going to
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fall into this opulent lifestyle that that's not the reality of the call girl world
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you can meet up with some very desperate characters and some very bizarre characters
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in this case unfortunately the person that she met up with was not richard gere it was ken
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and [Music] where tina ended up lying in that field is more the reality than the movie i
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think she [Music] chose to cross the line and she paid the ultimate price which is
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what all of us as parents guard against and fear the most i think for our children
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and i believe by telling tina baker's story that we sent a message to other girls who might be in the
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business to other young women who might be thinking of going into the business to young women who might think they can
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tease or play a little bit with a world that they don't belong in i think that sends a message that you're
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asking for trouble that you could end up in a situation that you can't handle that you can end
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up dead [Music] [Music] you