Spokane Police: No evidence murder victim sex trafficked suspect’s daughter
SPOKANE, Wash. – Spokane Police have found no evidence a murdered man traded a woman for sex, despite what the woman’s father’s claimed upon his arrest.
John Eisenman is charged with killing Andrew Sorensen in October of 2020. Charging documents say Eisenman told police it started when he rescued his daughter from Seattle, where he claimed Sorensen was trafficking her.
Then a week later he found out where Sorensen was going to be, the documents said. He told detectives he tied Sorensen up, punched him and threw a cinder bock at his head. He then told detectives he stabbed Sorensen several times and locked him in the trunk.
It wasn’t until a year after that Soresen’s body was found. It was discovered in October of this year when someone saw a suspicious car and found his body inside.
Spokane Police announced Eisenman’s arrest in a press release. In that release, police said, “In October 2020 Eisenman learned his juvenile daughter was allegedly sold to a sex trafficking organization in the Seattle area.”
That story made national headlines and people even set up online fundraising accounts to pay for Eisenman’s legal fees.
According to new court documents filed this week, though, investigators said there’s no evidence of sex trafficking. It also said Eisenman was told by his daughter that she was traded for drugs in Seattle.
In the affidavit of facts filed on November 29, investigators said Sorensen and Eisenman’s daughter traveled to Renton together in October 2020. The document said they smoked meth several times on the way over.
According to police, Sorensen dropped Eisenman’s daughter and two others off at a 7-11 and never returned. Investigators later determined his car was stolen.
Eisenman’s daughter eventually called Renton Police to say she was stranded. Renton Police said when they arrived, the woman was uncooperative and walked away.
“I can find no information that indicates that Sorensen and [Eisenman’s daughter] ever met up again,” wrote Spokane Police Office Randy Lesser.
Police found evidence the two interacted on Facebook two days later.
“When [she] sends Facebook messages to Sorensen… she never mentions anything about Sorensen allegedly sex trafficking her,” Lesser wrote.
The woman showed up at the emergency department of Sacred Heart on October 23, 2020. According to court documents, she told a mental health specialist that she met a guy in Seattle who gave her drugs and sex trafficked her; she never mentioned Sorensen. She later told someone else at the hospital that her boyfriend took her to Seattle and sold her for drugs. She also said she had been homeless for three weeks and had been passed around for sex.
The officer notes, however, that she and Sorensen went to the Seattle area just three days before she ended up at the hospital in Spokane.
Court documents also said that Eisenman told police he was “probably under the influence of methamphetamine when he killed Sorensen.”
He said at the time of the murder, he was using meth on a daily basis, according to the court documents.
Eisenman has so far pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
He’s being held on a $1 million bond.
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If you or somebody you know is a human trafficking survivor, there is help. The National Human Trafficking Hotline operates a 24-hour hotline and can be called at 1-888-373-7888. You can also text HELP to BeFree (233733).
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