A decade of news: The time a prostitute brought a sandwich to our newsroom

‘Melissa’ spent 18 months working as a prostitute in eastern Idaho. She sat down with EastIdahoNews.com to talk about how prominent it is in eastern Idaho. Watch an edited version of the interview above. Melissa’s voice has been changed in the video to protect her identity.

EDITOR’S NOTE: EastIdahoNews.com turns 10 this year, and throughout 2025, we’ll be looking back at some of our most memorable stories from the past decade.

One of the strangest and most memorable encounters I’ve had with a source was the time a prostitute came to our newsroom for an on-camera interview and wanted to make sure I was in good health and eating.

For six months, I had been working on an in-depth and somewhat risqué project about the sex trade in Idaho Falls, Rexburg and Pocatello. We knew the trade existed here, but eastern Idaho isn’t the kind of place you find scantily dressed men or women working a corner.

READ | A look at the sex trade in east Idaho from women who work it

It took digging to find “Melissa,” and significant effort to convince her to talk to me on camera.

We spoke several times before the sit-down interview, but I was still a little taken aback when she arrived at our newsroom without makeup, in a baseball cap and plain hoodie. Melissa looked like an everyday middle-aged mom you might find at a PTO meeting or a church activity.

This nervous and motherly woman was a far cry from the provocative and sultry Backpage ads that had attracted so many of her clientele.

The strangeness of the situation was compounded when she handed me a plastic bag with a homemade sandwich in it. She smiled and said she just wanted to make sure I had eaten something that day. She then apologized for not having more for others on our staff. She made small talk before expressing profound thanks for keeping her identity secret.

The interview — which you can watch parts of in the player above — was fascinating. Melissa explained how a brutal divorce had led her from being an everyday middle-class soccer mom to the doorstep of a man who convinced her to sell her body to strangers for cash. Her exclusively male clients came from all walks of life, from local businessmen and doctors to religious leaders.

It was far from a good experience for her. Her 18-month descent into prostitution further destroyed her life. Melissa eventually went to the police, testified against her pimp, and helped bring down a prostitution ring in Pocatello. The last time I spoke to her, things were looking up in her life.

This investigative project took the better part of a year to complete, and I interviewed a half-dozen escorts, several of whom made it into our final report. Not all the stories were negative. One woman, who had spent a decade seeing regular clients in Pocatello, was very proud of the money and freedom she had acquired. She was equally proud of her ability to evade law enforcement and the IRS while maintaining a long-term clientele.

The biggest takeaway from the project was the realization of just how common prostitution is even in a very conservative and highly religious area like eastern Idaho. It was clear from our interviews with local prostitutes and law enforcement that only a fraction of the people engaged in the sex trade are ever discovered, and fewer still are arrested or prosecuted.

What’s more, the series allowed us to look at some of the bigger issues related to prostitution, such as how it contributes to sex trafficking. We even delved into the question of whether prostitution should be legalized.

I don’t believe the final story won any awards or was even particularly well-read in 2018. But after all the months of research and some of the most unique and eye-opening interviews of my career, this is a story that I’ll never forget.

Read the entire report here.

A decade of news series:

Our attempt at ‘Finding Faith’ through the eyes of a local Muslim congregation

The time Segway training went hilariously wrong at the Rexburg Police Department