Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Mom Questioned About Trafficking Her Own Son After Complaint on Southwest Flight

Episode Date: March 8, 2024

Publicist Bridgetta Tomarchio posted a video on instagram saying police officers at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport questioned her about whether the boy she had with her was her son and whether he was being trafficked. Body camera footage backs up Tomarchio's story. The officers said they were investigating a complaint by a pilot from Southwest Airlines. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy breaks down Tomarchio's video and the body camera footage in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show that delves into the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law & Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. So, we've just gotten a couple calls. Is this your child? Yeah. Okay. I don't know what exactly is going on, but I guess a pilot was concerned about potential trafficking. Yes, you heard that right. A mom from Florida traveling with her child at an airport outside of Cincinnati says she was stopped, accused of trafficking her own son. I'm like, no, he's my child. All 36 hours of delivering him. He's my child. Thanks for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy.

We all know that human trafficking is a huge, huge problem. It's disturbing that anybody would do that to a child. But what if you're just minding your own business and going through an airport and you're stopped and accused of possibly trafficking your own child? Well, last month, a woman named Mary Brigetta Tormachio says she was stopped at the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport after police there received a complaint that they believed the boy with Tormachio was a victim of human trafficking. Here's footage from airport police body cameras. We've just gotten a couple calls. Is this your child? Yeah. Okay. I don't know what exactly is going on, but I guess a pilot was concerned about potential trafficking. I don't know if something was said or what he heard.

I'm just going based on what I was told. He's my child. Okay. I know it's birth certificates. I have anything you want to know. Okay. I'm sorry. If I could just see that, if you have that, just to verify. There were three people that were helping me, because that's all mine right there.

Okay. And Southwest, and people were being so nice, they were carrying all my stuff, because he's passed out. Okay. That's crazy, okay. Yeah, like I said, we're supposed to always give a call, so. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure what somebody might have heard, but just with traveling and whatnot, concerned with that. I mean, maybe because people were helping.

Like, you know what? At least you're doing it because there are so many kids that that happens to. The boy was indeed Tormachio's son. She said she travels with him all of the time. She discussed the incident on her Instagram page where she has 50,000 followers. This is a message for all parents that are single parents traveling where your child might have a different last name than you or your child might not look like you. For example, I'm darker complected and my child is blonde haired and light skinned. This is what happened to me in Southwest Airlines. I travel all the time. I've been flying for

Southwest for years. My son has been flying since he was four months old. I'm all the time. I've been flying for Southwest for years. My son has been flying since he was four months old. I'm a Rapid Rewards member. In fact, I fly so much, I have a companion pass for my child. At the airport, my son passed out, you know, on the flight. It's a late night flight. We get in, I go and get the baggage claim, they break my bag. Now, Tor Michio says the officers approached her when she went to pick up her rental car. I'm like, no, he's my child. All 36 hours of delivering him. He's my child. I had him right here at the hospital, local hospital here. And they're like, well, what do you have to prove? After two years old, you don't carry a birth certificate anymore.

They don't need that. So I don't have that on on me I do have a copy of it inside my Google Drive but I didn't have any phone service so I'm like okay let me see what I have here's my ticket here's my son's ticket and the officer said oh he had a ticket yeah he had a ticket and they looked at each other quite strangely which I thought was weird and then they said well what else do you have so I'm going through my wallet I'm ruffling through my purse and I'm like okay, I've got two insurance cards and I have a museum pass because my son has a different last name than me. So this is a really strange thing, right? You're a mom. You're at an airport traveling alone with

your son. What do you do? Kids don't really carry ID. I have a son and I don't have ID for him beyond maybe an amusement park pass. Kids don't have driver's licenses or things like that when they're little. Here's more of Tormachio and that body camera footage. No, you're all good. I'm not sure what the, it came from the pilot. I don't know if he heard something or what he had thought. Maybe so people were like randomly helping me because he was passed out and i'm like um which makes sense but i don't know what he might have saw but i get he just wanted to double check on it yeah and look here's his dad's name okay yeah all good yeah

everything is covered there i'm just glad everything's all right and just had to double check on it totally fine if you need me to I can wake him up and he can tell you. Oh no, you're all good. I can show you the millions of photos that are in my phone. Insurance cards and boarding passes and whatnot. And if you go on Instagram and look me up, I'm actually well known and he's all over my Instagram. It was like this whole complete ordeal. And so why am I so upset? Obviously because this happened and it's traumatic and I'm flying again on Tuesday night. And I'm also like, okay, well, the flight that I'm flying back on, it's the same a minute, but I want to tell you about our sponsor, Morgan & Morgan. Morgan & Morgan is the largest personal injury law firm in the United States.

The firm makes it really easy to submit a claim. You can do it in just a matter of clicks on your cell phone. If you ever get hurt, your injury could be worth millions. And taking on a big insurance company is a lot easier when you have a firm like Morgan & Morgan fighting for you. Morgan & Morgan does not settle for lowball offers. Here are a few of the company's recent big verdicts. In Philly, Morgan & Morgan won a $26 million verdict. That was 40 times the highest insurance offer. In Florida, Morgan & Morgan won a $12 million verdict. And in New York, there was a $6.8 million verdict. There are no upfront fees. Submitting a claim is free and easy, and you only pay if you win. So if you'd like to submit a claim, log on to www.forthepeople.com slash crime fix, or click the link in the description.

Now we reached out to the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport, and I have to tell you, I've traveled there many, many times, never had an issue. An airport spokesperson issued the following statement. When police officers made contact with the individual in question, Ms. Mary Brigetta Tormachio, she quickly provided documentation for her child that was traveling with her. The encounter was brief and professional and all parties went amicably on their way. CVG takes reports of human trafficking seriously and works to quickly investigate and resolve any suspected instances of trafficking

reported at the airport. So this is really something where you can understand police get a complaint that a child may be being trafficked, so they spring into action because it's an incredibly serious complaint. But you can also understand Brigetta Tormachio's frustration. What would you do to actually prove that your child is your child? This is what she is suggesting, and she has started a Change.org petition that will require IDs for children who have different last names from their parents. So what can we do for future? What are the steps that you could take? I don't know, maybe step one, ask for my ticket, ask for my son's ticket, ask for my ID. I don't know, do we do we need to carry our

birth certificates now? Is that a new thing that we need to do up until they're 16 years old or something? I mean, what is it that you can do instead of just, let me just call the TSA cops. Cause by the way, I'm also TSA pre-check. Okay. So I'm just so blown away right now. I'm scared. I have to, we fly every month, sometimes two, three times a month. And here I have to fly again in two days time so Southwest FAA y'all need to create some kind of protocol figure out what those questions are before you call the cops and and TSA cops and put out a press release to the entire public and then also especially your frequent flyers and let us know that protocol because I would absolutely comply if you had asked for my ticket if you had asked for my ID if you had asked me a series

of questions I would have answered all of them and give them to you versus having to be embarrassed and traumatized at the airport of being surrounded by police with their hands on their guns and like basically I feel like a criminal like literally you assumed I was a criminal trafficking my own son. Not okay. Not okay. So I demand for Southwest to step up and fix this. Now Tormachio also seemed like she might have been insulted because she noted that she's a brunette. Her son has blonde hair and she even got some highlights recently so they wouldn't look so different. She says she travels to Ohio a couple of times each month with her son so he can visit his father. Am I profiled now in the airport?

Am I profiled with Southwest? Is it because my son doesn't look like me? Is it because we have different last names? What is it? Why? And so this is just, I can't even believe this. This is happening. For its part, Southwest is denying that its employees even contacted police about Tormachio. They issued a statement saying calls made to local authorities appear to have been placed by an individual or individuals who are not affiliated with Southwest Airlines.

These are serious allegations, and we appreciate the patience from the customer to allow us to look into these claims. As I was posting on my Facebook, because I did post on my Facebook, I have found there have been several other friends of mine or people that I knew that went through the same thing because they had dark hair and their niece or nephew or child had a different color hair or was a different last name or whatever what it is. So anyone else that has been through this, regardless of the airline, please message me. I really want to be an advocate for those to help create a change, create a protocol. Like this is what it's about, you know, and, and to protect our children because 100% I want to protect kids and I want to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else. But I also want to protect single parents and parents in general flying. It's already a lot to go through traveling for an entire day of travel with a toddler.

It's a lot. And then to throw this on top of it, it's just not okay. So this is my statement. And that's it for this edition of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you back here next time. Until then, have a great night.