Body found near the Everglades was a sex trafficking victim featured in news investigation
.JPG "Barbara Lechler of Deerfield Beach with photos of her granddaughter, Ivy Marie Bedell on Thursday, January 5, 2023. Ivy, a victim of sex trafficking whose body was found along Interstate 75 in western Broward County on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023.")
The woman found dead along Alligator Alley on Wednesday was a sex trafficking victim once featured in a South Florida newspaper investigation.
Ivy Marie Bedell, 20, and her story as a trafficked teen was included in a South Florida Sun Sentinel project about child sex trafficking released in November. Bedell had been trafficked since she was 14.
On Wednesday morning, the body of a woman was found near mile marker 42, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. They spotted the body near a stretch of Interstate 75 that cuts through the Everglades and heads toward Fort Lauderdale.
READ MORE: A woman’s body was discovered on Alligator Alley. Deputies are now searching for answers
A Broward Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told the Miami Herald that the body found was Bedell’s and said the autopsy didn’t show signs of foul play. Bedell’s cause of death, the spokesperson said, will be determined after toxicology results.
Homicide detectives are investigating how and why Bedell’s body was left along Alligator Alley.
For years, Bedell’s grandmother Barbara Lechler fought to rescue Bedell, according to the Sun Sentinel. On Wednesday, however, Broward deputies made their way to Lechler’s Deerfield Beach condo to deliver the news Lechler had feared.
Last summer, Lechler told the Sun Sentinel she had hope for her granddaughter. She had been ordered to enroll in a drug treatment program after being arrested by Plantation police. When they last spoke on Dec. 23, Bedell promised to stay in the treatment facility, but she cut off her ankle bracelet and fled.
Lechler told the Sun Sentinel that Bedell’s life had recently been threatened by a trafficker — and she even witnessed an interaction between them.
“You’re never ever gonna take her from me,’” Lechler said the trafficker told her. She turned to her granddaughter.
“Ivy, get in the car now.”
“He’ll kill us,” Bedell told her grandmother. “Go ahead and go, Nanna.”
Anyone with information about Bedell’s death should contact Det. Bozena Gajda-Morales at 954-321-4325 or submit a tip through the SaferWatch App. You can also call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477).
This story was originally published January 5, 2023 at 4:39 PM.
