Luverne is a city of just under 5,000 residents in southwestern Minnesota, located in Rock County along the Rock River. Not many cases of prostitution and sex trafficking have been documented in the city, but sex trafficking has occurred within Rock County, and multiple local victims have been referred to services. The demand side of the local commercial sex market has been addressed with at least one opportunistic sex buyer arrest has occurred locally. In May 2022, a man was arrested in Luverne on charges of kidnapping and prostitution after a report from a local gas station that a victim had escaped who was being held against her will for the purpose of prostitution. Local law enforcement spoke with the victim and employees who had seen the suspect and his vehicle, and then located him at a nearby store. The suspect confirmed the vehicle was his and said the victim’s boyfriend had “rented” her to him for sex in exchange for drugs in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The victim said she met the man in Sioux Falls and went with him to go to an ATM, but then he missed his exit and would not drop her off. She asked him repeatedly to take her back to Sioux Falls and said the man made her stay in his hotel room longer than she was supposed to. If convicted, the man would face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $35,000 fine, or both for the kidnapping charge and one year in jail and/or a $3,000 fine for the prostitution charge. The man’s name, age, hometown, and mugshot were released to the press.