Reporting by Kansas City's The Pitch and Salt Lake City Weekly examines connections between anti-trafficking organizations, training, and enforcement activity in Missouri and Utah. The investigation centers on the Human Trafficking Training Center, founded by former Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant Dan Nash, and Operation Underground Railroad, the group founded by Tim Ballard that rebranded as OUR Rescue in 2024 amid lawsuits against its founder.
The investigation, titled Savior Complex, describes a network of anti-trafficking and anti-pornography activists, law enforcement officers, and far-right politicians connected to Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad. The investigation notes that Ballard's story was dramatized in the 2023 film Sound of Freedom, starring Jim Caviezel, which earned more than $250 million for Angel Studios, the publicly traded Christian film company based in Provo, Utah. Ballard remains subject to a federal lawsuit filed in Utah alleging abuse and trafficking, separate from a Utah state emotional distress lawsuit that a court dismissed in September 2024, as Hoodline reported at the time in its coverage of the lawsuit dismissal against Ballard. OUR Rescue did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Pitch and Salt Lake City Weekly, according to the investigation.
A Rebrand and a New Leadership Team
Since distancing itself from Ballard, OUR Rescue has changed its leadership, board, and operational emphasis, per the investigation. The organization's chief executive is now Derek Benner, a former official who led U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations division, according to the same report.
Meanwhile in Missouri, Dan Nash founded the Human Trafficking Training Center in 2021 alongside Alison Phillips after a 27-year career with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, from which he retired that year. Nash declined to speak with The Pitch and Salt Lake City Weekly for the investigation. The organization describes itself as a leader in skills-based human trafficking training for law enforcement, prosecutors, probation and parole officers, child protective services, and medical professionals.
A Conviction Overturned, and a Finding of No Conspiracy
Nash's record carries a complicated legal history. As a sergeant, he served as a key prosecution witness in Brad Jennings's 2009 murder trial, where Jennings was convicted of killing his wife and sentenced to more than 25 years in prison. Nash had requested a gunshot residue test on a bathrobe belonging to Jennings, but per court documents, the results were not disclosed to prosecutors or defense attorneys during the trial. A judge overturned Jennings's conviction in 2018 after finding a Brady violation, according to federal court filings cited in the investigation. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals later ruled that Nash did not conspire with another officer to withhold the test results.
Organizations in Anti-Trafficking Operations
The investigation names the Human Trafficking Training Center and OUR Rescue among organizations involved in anti-trafficking operations.
Under then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Missouri launched the Hope Initiative in 2020. The initiative included landlord outreach. Westside Family Church in Lenexa, Kansas, also profiled Phillips.
Ties to Exodus Cry and the Nordic Model
Phillips's activism predates the Human Trafficking Training Center. In 2019, she published a blog post for Exodus Cry — the group founded by Benjamin Nolot — opposing full decriminalization of sex work and advocating for the Nordic model, which penalizes sex buyers rather than sex sellers. In 2023, Phillips confirmed that Exodus Cry participated in a human trafficking prevention training hosted by the Lee's Summit Police Department in Missouri.
'Operation Coast to Coast' Expands Across States
The Human Trafficking Training Center coordinates a recurring multi-state sting known as Operation Coast to Coast. By summer 2025, the sting had grown to span 19 states, yielding 46 arrests, 25 search warrants, and the disruption of 26 illicit massage businesses, according to a report from the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking.
The operation's scale jumped again in April 2026. According to an official press release from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, the Human Trafficking Training Center organized and led the operation, which spanned 30 states and more than 250 law enforcement agencies, resulting in 154 adult victims identified and 11 missing children recovered in Georgia alone, as detailed by the Office of the Georgia Attorney General. The investigation also notes that Operation Coast to Coast includes partnerships with Delta Air Lines, Safe House Project, and Marinus Analytics, and that the operation remains active.
Corporate Partners Carry Their Own Controversies
The investigation also discusses Safe House Project, led by CEO Kristi Wells, which endorsed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his confirmation process for HHS Secretary; Wells said in a February 2025 press release that Kennedy would bring transparency to HHS, including on human trafficking mitigation, according to a statement published by Safe House Project.
Marinus Analytics is also named as a partner of Operation Coast to Coast. Flock Safety is named as a corporate ally of the operation.
Investigations of Illicit Massage Businesses
The Human Trafficking Training Center has participated in multi-state operations targeting illicit massage businesses.
A Growing State Bureaucracy in Missouri
The network of nonprofits, trainers, and corporate vendors described in the investigation coincides with a separate development in Missouri state government. In March, the Missouri Legislature passed legislation that would permanently place a statewide council on human trafficking within the Missouri Attorney General's Office, but the bill still awaited the governor's signature, Hoodline reported in its coverage of the Missouri trafficking crackdown bill. The Savior Complex investigation, developed in collaboration with Salt Lake City Weekly, presents Missouri and Utah as hubs of conservative Christian nationalist anti-trafficking activism, citing overlapping funding, personnel, and political alliances.
Missouri's Statewide Human Trafficking Council
The legislation would place the statewide council on human trafficking within the Missouri Attorney General's Office.
