INQUIRER: Police are trying to identify a woman who was found dead on a bed inside an illegal massage parlor in Center City. Officers went to 813 Sansom St. about 9:30 p.m. Sunday after Delaware County’s 911 center received a call from a phone booth in the county reporting a problem at the Philadelphia address, police said. MORE
PHILLY CONFIDENTIAL: The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to release the cause and manner of death of a woman found inside a Center City message parlor Sunday night, according to police. An anonymous caller dialed 911 from a Delaware County phone booth to alert authorities to the woman’s death, police said. MORE
ACTION NEWS: A woman found dead in an alleged illegal massage parlor died of natural causes, an autopsy showed. Authorities said Monday afternoon that the unidentified Asian woman, who is in her 30’s, died of heart disease and a compromised immune system. MORE
RELATED: An ad in the Jan. 6 edition of Philadelphia Weekly showing a buxom, young Asian woman with the word “Ace” scrolled above her head, lists the exact address – 813 Sansom Street, 2nd fl. – as a place to “Enjoy Relaxation with our Beautiful, Young, Asian Staff.” A number listed on the advertisement went unanswered Monday morning. MORE
RELATED: From across the room we each pick a girl, prompting them to look up from their screens and rise, awaiting us at the steps. They lead us upstairs into adjacent shower stalls, strip us down, and begin bathing us. My girl seems to be on a mission to finish this last little bit of work for the night. Finally, Victor and I are led into separate rooms. Mine is the size of a walk-in closet and contains something between a massage table and a bed, a nightstand stacked with oils, and strategically placed mirrors on the walls. She directs me to lay back and begins the massage, a pretty standard one, albeit sans even a stitch of clothing. It isn’t long before I have to explain that I’m not willing to receive more than a tug from this fine lady. There’s surprise on her face, but she doesn’t seem disappointed. She got to work and pulled off the finale with 10 minutes to spare on the clock. The experience redefined the handjob for me. This was the work of a professional. MORE
PREVIOUSLY: The United Nations defines human trafficking as, “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” […] Last week the United Nations issued a report, “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons,” that estimated 79 percent of human trafficking takes place within the commercial sex industry. But as awareness builds and legislation tries to catch up with the problem, girls like Mimi still have few places to go. And stories like hers are becoming all too common. Often, young girls are kidnapped, gagged or drugged and then kept in brothels to “work” as sex slaves. It’s estimated that 60 percent of workers in the commercial sex industry are slaves. Only 2 percent of commercial sex workers do such work voluntarily. MORE
Poconos Pastor Charged With Beating Wife To Death And Making It Look Like A Car Accident; First Wife’s Death Being Probed
POCONO RECORD: A former [Poconos] pastor, whose first wife’s death is being investigated and who’s suspected of having an affair with the wife of a man who committed suicide in his church, is now accused of killing his second wife and making it look like she died from car crash injuries. Arthur Burton Schirmer, 62, of Reeders, was arraigned this morning on charges of murder and fabricating or tampering with physical evidence before Tannersville Magisterial District Judge Thomas Olsen. Schirmer is in Monroe County Correctional Facility without bail, awaiting a district court preliminary hearing at a future date. Schirmer was pastor at Reeders United Methodist Church on Route 715 in Jackson Township in July 2008. That’s when he and his wife were driving and crashed on Route 715, about 300 feet north of Railroad Avenue, in Pocono Township. Paramedics said the crash was too minor to have caused the extent of injuries suffered by Betty Jean Schirmer, whom they found bleeding from the head. MORE