Symmes Township is one of the twelve townships of Hamilton County, Ohio. It is located in the southwestern corner of the state, and its population is roughly 15,000. Sex traffficking and prostitution have been well documented problems throughout Hamilton County for decades, including in Symmes Township. For example, in June 2018, several agencies including the FBI raided two massage parlors in connection to a prostitution investigation. Both were on Montgomery Road, with one in Sycamore Township and the other in Symmes Township. Hamilton County deputies, FBI, Homeland Security, and Cincinnati Police were all involved.

In April 2022, a 55-year-old man was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl exploited in prostitution numerous times and video-recording the crimes. The man had at least 18 videos documenting sexual abuse of the child. The videos ranged from less than 30 seconds, to a few minutes, to more than 6 minutes. The man had pleaded guilty in 2021 to sex trafficking of children. The case was in federal court in Cincinnati. Documents said his former wife divorced him because of the charges. He was initially arrested in August 2020 as part of a prostitution and solicitation investigation. According to court documents, after the arrest, an officer with the Cincinnati Police Department’s vice unit contacted another officer who was part of a task force that investigates crimes against children and child sexual abuse materials (i.e., child pornography). The man’s iPhone was seized and searched by investigators, which led to the discovery of the multiple videos. All were recorded at a hotel on Governor’s Hill Drive off Interstate 71. Investigators were able to identify and recover the 15-year-old victim.