Influencer and former model jailed for human trafficking and slavery after two missing women found with her

Brazilian Kat Torres, who is based in the United States, was imprisoned after an FBI investigation found two women living with her who had gone missing in 2022.

Women who claim that they were also trafficked and enslaved by 31-year-old Torres have spoken out about their experiences, saying that she “resembled hope” for them as she had a rags to riches story.

Torres was born in an impoverished area in Brazil, but found her way to not only the US but specifically Hollywood where she was said to rub shoulders with celebrities. She was even once rumoured to be dating actor Leonardo DiCaprio. She came to public prominence when she claimed to have spiritual powers that enabled her to make predications, and she was frequently invited to be a guest on TV shows in her native country.

Ana, who was not one of the missing women found in the FBI search but was key to their rescue, and also says she was a victim of Torres’ coercion, told BBC Eye Investigations and BBC News Brazil: “She seemed like she had overcome violence in her childhood, abuse, all these traumatic experiences. She was on the cover of magazines. She was seen with famous people such as Leonardo DiCaprio. Everything I saw seemed credible.”

Torres’ ex-flatmate in New York, Luzer Twersky, told the publications that things started to go downhill for her once she started becoming involved with Hollywood circles. He claimed that friends she gained there - who were not named - introduced her to the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca, and she was never the same again. He said “that’s when she kind of… started going off the deep end.”

Twersky also claimed that Torres was working as a sugar baby, where wealthy older men known as sugar daddies paid for her time and goods in exchange for romantic involvement. He alleged that these sugar daddies paid for the flat the pair shared.

Torres created her own wellness website and subscription service, and on the site she promised customers “love, money and self-esteem that you always dreamed of.” She published self-help videos which offered advice on relationships, wellness, business success and spirituality, including hypnosis, meditation and exercise programmes.

For an extra $150 (£120) clients could buy exclusive one-to-one video consultations with Torres, and in these personalised sessions she claimed to be able to solve any of their problems. This website appears to have been taken down amid Torres’ prison sentence.

But, Ana now says that she can now see that this had a dark side - as she became increasingly willing to do anything that Torres suggested. She even convinced her to move to New York to work for her as her live-in assistant in 2019.

Ana had been studying nutrition at university in Boston, but arranged to study online instead so that she could make the move, and says she was paid around about $2000 (£1,564) a month to look after Torres’ animals and do her cooking, laundry and cleaning.

When she arrived, however, she was shocked that what she found as far from the Instagram idea of perfection that Torres had sold online. She claimed: “The house was really messy, really dirty, didn’t smell good.”

She also claimed she had to be available to Torres almost 24/7 as she seemed incapable to even perform basic tasks alone, such as taking a shower. When she did sleep, she alleged that this was on a sofa soaked with cat urine. She also never received payment for the work she did.

She says: “I see that she was using me as a slave… she had satisfaction in it. I felt like, ‘I’m stuck here, I don’t have a way out. I was probably one of her first victims of human trafficking.”

When she tried to speak to Torres about the way she was being treated, Ana claims she became angry and aggresive. She was able to leave by moving in with her new boyfriend - but then in September 2022 the two women who have since been identified by the FBI investigation, Desirrê Freitas and Letícia Maia, went missing.

It’s claimed that Torres mananged to convince the women to go and work for her by using personal details they had shared during their one-to-one consultations with her, and also capitalising on the fact that she knew they were her fans. Online, Torres introduced her followers to her “witch clan” which included Freitas and Maia and another woman who did not want to be named. The BBC also found that at least four more women were almost persuaded to live with Torres in the house, but changed their mind at the last minute.

Freitas alleges that Torres had bought her a plane ticket from her home country of Germany, insisting that she needed her support because she was feeling suicidal. Maia, who was only 14 when she first sought life-coaching sessions from Torres, moved to the US for an au pair programme but then the disgraced influencer persuaded her to drop out to live and work with her.

The women say they were soon subjected to the same conditions as Ana. Freitas also claims she was forced to work as a stripper and then a prostitute, and give all of her earnings to Torres - and also that she threatened to put a curse on her if she didn’t. She also adds that the women were subject to super strict rules in the house where they lived with Torres, including not being able to speak to each other and having to ask permission to leave their rooms.

The unnamed woman told the BBC: “It was terrifying. I thought something could happen to me because she had all my information, my passport, my driving licence.”

Bank statements, seen by the BBC, show Freitas transferred more than $21,000 (£16,417) into Torres’ account in June and July 2022 alone. She says that she was forced to hand over a substantially higher figure in cash.

The women were also unable to contact their loved ones, leading to loved ones filing missing person reports for them with the police as they hadn’t heard from them in months. The appeals were shared across social media, and that is when Ana heard of their disappearances and feared that she knew where they were. Then, the missing women’s profiles on escort and prostitution websites were discovered.

Panicked by the media attention, Torres and the women - who at that time claimed they weren’t being held captive by the influencer - travelled more than 2,000 miles from Texas to Maine. In November 2022, however, the police finally convinced Torres and two other women to attend a welfare check in person at Franklin County Sheriff's Office in Maine.

The detective who questioned Torres, Freitas and Maia, Detective David Davol, told the BBC he and his colleagues were immediately concerned for Freitas and Maia’s welfare; noticing a number of red flags, including a distrust of law enforcement, isolation and their reluctance to speak without Torres’ permission. In December, the pair were safely returned to Brazil. Torres was then arrested.

In another interview with BBC Eye Investigations and BBC News Brazil in April, while she was awaiting the outcome of her trial, Torres insisted she was innocent. She said: “When I was seeing the people testifying, they were saying so many lies. So many lies that at one point, I couldn't stop laughing . . . People are saying I am a fake guru, but at the same time, they are also saying that… ‘She is a danger to society because she can change people’s mind with her words’.”

Earlier this month Torres was sentenced by a Brazilian judge to eight years in prison for subjecting Freitas to human trafficking and slavery. It was found that she had lured the young woman to the US for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Torres’ lawyer told the BBC she has appealed her conviction and maintains her innocence. An investigation into the allegations from other women is ongoing in Brazil.