A human trafficking ring that involved a Marion County teenager has been busted in St. Petersburg.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody joined St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway on Monday to announce the arrests of five men and one woman after an eight-month long human trafficking investigation involving teenaged victims. The final suspect turned himself in Tuesday.
The case started this past May when a Louisiana law enforcement agency contacted the St. Petersburg Police Department with information that a missing 17-year-old boy from Louisiana was at a mobile home in the city at 4000 24th Street North.
Investigators believe the Louisiana victim was lured through Discord, an online gaming app that allows users to communicate directly with each other. They used it to coordinate picking the teen up and driving him to St. Petersburg.
When officers arrived at the mobile home, they found the missing teen and discovered another 16-year-old boy living in the same trailer along with four adults – Mark Earl Dennis, Andrew Barry Dennis, Curtis Lee Gruwell and Michael Wayne Schwartz. Mark Dennis claimed to be the 16-year-old boy’s biological father but he had no documentation and both teens were removed from the home.
Further investigation revealed that the 16-year-old was missing from Marion County and Mark Dennis was not his father. Eleven months earlier, a family acquaintance, Eleanor Faye McGlamory, befriended the boy and introduced him to Mark Dennis and Andrew Dennis, who lived in St. Petersburg. In May 2017, the teen’s mother found a note from her son saying not to look for him.
While the teen was lured with the promise of a better life, instead he was moved into a filthy trailer and lived with four men. For the next year, law enforcement officials say, he was introduced to sadomasochism and used as a sex slave by Mark and Andrew Dennis, Gruwell, Schwartz and their associates, Michael Ray Blasdel and J.R. Gauthier. He did not attend school or receive medical care.
Today, the victim is receiving specialized trauma-informed care designed for victims of human trafficking and is thriving, officials say.
After police made contact in May 2018, Mark and Andrew Dennis, Curtis Gruwell and Michael Schwartz moved from St. Petersburg to Lehigh Acres in Lee County. With the assistance of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, St. Petersburg Police detectives took six of seven suspects into custody on Monday. Gruwell turned himself into the Pinellas County Jail on Tuesday.
The charges against the seven suspects are:
- Mark Earl Dennis, 52 (1617 Moore Ave., Lehigh Acres): Conspiracy to commit human trafficking, interference with custody and sexual battery (with a child under age 16).
- Andrew Barry Dennis, 45 (1617 Moore Ave., Lehigh Acres): Conspiracy to commit human trafficking, interference with custody and sexual battery (with a child under age 16).
- Curtis Lee Gruwell, 34 (1617 Moore Ave., Lehigh Acres): Conspiracy to commit human trafficking and interference with custody.
- Michael Wayne Schwartz, 51 (1617 Moore Ave., Lehigh Acres): Conspiracy to commit human trafficking and interference with custody.
- Michael Ray Blasdel, 36 (4428 4th Ave. South, St. Petersburg): Conspiracy to commit human trafficking, interference with custody, transmission of material harmful to minors to a minor and two counts of sexual battery (with a child under age 16).
- J.R. Gauthier, 29 (4428 4th Ave. South, St. Petersburg): Conspiracy to commit human trafficking, interference with custody and sexual battery (with a child under age 16).
- Eleanor Faye McGlamory, 56 (NE 170th Ct., Silver Springs): Conspiracy to commit human trafficking and interference with custody.