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Tucson mother and daughter moving forward after a turbulent few years

Posted at 3:58 PM, Mar 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-23 18:58:26-04

LaVae Goodin of Tucson said when her daughter Diane was in high school she began to have issues with drug addiction.

LaVae's older daughters told her to look at Diane's social media accounts.

"And at that point, I looked on the Twitter page, and I saw my daughter naked on a tile floor, and I'm like 'Oh my gosh,'" LaVae said. 

KGUN9 first met LaVae months ago. She attends regular meetings with Parents of Addicted Loved Ones. It's a support group with a chapter in Tucson. 

LaVae's daughter Diane, 18, is now sober and living in a shelter. 

"A year ago when my mom was saying you're being sex trafficked I wouldn't have, I was like 'No, it's my choice'," Diane said. "But I can really see now that I'm sober and clean that I was being taken advantage of." 

When LaVae looked at her daughters Twitter page, she found the photo and also found out the teen was invited to be part of a pornography. LaVae sought help from Sold No More, who's mission is to end sex trafficking in Tucson.

WATCH: What LaVae told the group about her journey

Along with her daughter, LaVae has managed to cope. Diane is now living in a shelter, and both are open-minded about the future.

LaVae says her advice to parents is to not avoid the warning signs. There can be a lot of denials, she said.  

"Parents, we love our children, we'll do anything for them," LaVae said. "We'd die for them, and so we want to help them. But then as we go through this journey, we realize the only ones we can help is ourselves, and we can cope. And they, the children, are the ones they have to help themselves. We can try to help them, but we can't expect them to benefit they have their own lives."

LaVae says it can be a hard thing to go through and urges people to seek help, so it's not secret issue. 

For Diane, religion has helped her, and she surrounds herself with good people. She agrees with her mother that for her to get help, it had to be her choice. 


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How a Tucson mother and daughter are moving forward after a turbulent few years