Illinois Man Accused of Sex Trafficking of Woman Who Later Fatally Overdosed

ST. LOUIS – A man from Sparta, Illinois has been accused of promoting and facilitating the prostitution of a woman found dead of an overdose in 2025. Jared Anders, 30, was indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on July 22 on three felonies: sex trafficking, use of interstate commerce with intent to distribute prostitution and use of interstate facilities to promote prostitution. He appeared in court Friday and pleaded not guilty. The indictment alleges that Anders benefited financially from the prostitution of the victim between Feb. 1, 2025, and May 22, 2025. A motion seeking to have Anders held in jail until trial says that the investigation began on May 22, 2025, when the victim was found dead of an overdose in a hotel in Edmundson, Missouri, near St. Louis Lambert International Airport. The victim’s picture had been posted on multiple online prostitution sites, the motion says, and she and Anders had been communicating about her prostitution activities and the drugs that she said she needed to keep working as a prostitute. Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty. The Edmundson Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting the case. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. For more information, please visit www.justice.gov/psc .