GRANT COUNTY, Ind. – A Grant County man was arrested Friday after deputies “recognized signs of human trafficking” from a mother and daughter who came to Indiana from Venezuela, police say.
According to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, 59-year-old Gregory Michael Marsh was arrested after the sheriff’s office was alerted of a disturbance just after 3:30 a.m. Friday in the 400 block of West Main Street in the town of Van Buren.
Police say they found the mother and daughter inside of a residence in which they had barricaded themselves in a room. Deputies were able to rescue the two women after being found shaking in fear from the event.
Detectives proceeded to interview the mother and daughter. They told detectives they were in fear of being injured and deported “as a tactic to control them which has been an ongoing situation,” police say.
Police say the victims were residing in the residence where they were found after coming to Indiana from Venezuela in April 2023 on a work VISA sponsored by the arrested, that they met online.
Marsh was arrested and later booked into the Grant County Jail on charges of:
- Promotional Of Human Sexual Trafficking
- Voyeurism
- Criminal Confinement
- Domestic Battery
The Grant County Sheriff congratulated his deputies for their “attention to detail in the earlier stages of the call and the investigation” and the dispatchers’ center for using one of its employees as a translator.
The incident remains under investigation.
