When 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes's  body was discovered  four months after she disappeared  in the Susquehanna River near the Conowingo Dam in Maryland, questions began swirling. Who would want to kill the honor student?

Then police in Baltimore released a snippet of information that should've set the world on fire:

The FBI believes a child pornography ring could be linked to the murder of a North Carolina teen who disappeared while visiting family in Baltimore.

But Barnes's case was lost in all the Casey Anthony hype, despite the fact that the FBI said this:

FBI agent Jacqueline Dougher told WSOC-TV that investigators have “reason to believe” the accounts contain evidence of child sex crimes or child pornographers who may have targeted Barnes before her murder.

Barnes’s body was found along with that of 53-year-old Darryl Harper, but police said there is no connection between the two. Police still have not released the cause of Barnes’s death, saying that information could “jeopardize the investigation.”

But, we're still talking about Casey Anthony. Sex trafficking is one of the most under-reported and least talked about crimes in our country, it seems. Could it be because many of the victims are minorities — Hispanic, Asian, African or runaway girls with bad reputations? According to ABC News, Americans have their heads in the sand when it comes to sex trafficking.

It is a problem many associate with developing countries, but is one that is increasingly plaguing the United States.

"I think many Americans are more willing to accept that there are girls enslaved in Cambodia or Delhi, and really can't imagine that it's happening right here," actress Demi Moore said at a briefing on Capitol Hill Tuesday. "As a society, we owe it to them to ensure this doesn't happen to anyone else."

Moore and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, recently created The Demi and Ashton Foundation to raise awareness about the issue of sex slavery worldwide.

According to the Justice Department, more than 250,000 American youth are at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation. But we want to know where Casey Anthony is?

You've seen the headlines: male teacher accused of having sex with a student. You've seen the public response: very passionate about throwing this man in jail.

In April, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg teacher, Raphael Yeary, was — according to the Observer — arrested and charged with three counts of felony sex offense involving a student and two counts of disseminating material harmful to minors.

No one has come out in the public to defend Yeary or other male teachers facing charges similar to this — not that anyone should if the allegations are true. But let's look at what happens when a female teacher faces the same type of charges.

In Ohio, a 33-year-old female teacher has been charged with 16 felony counts of sexual battery and three counts of offenses involving underage persons, a first-degree misdemeanor, for allegedly buying or providing beer.

But this is how her story is playing out:

Rittgers issued a statement saying that Schuler was a victim.

“Stacy Schuler is a 33-year-old teacher who devoted her life to helping and caring for others. It has come to light that during the period of the alleged misconduct, Stacy Schuler had become impaired and thereby unable to prevent the young men from taking advantage of her. In the fall of 2010, the young men involved in this case traveled across the county in order to take advantage of her impairment,” the release said.

“Stacy Schuler’s defense from a legal standpoint is based upon her inability to protect herself from the young men involved in this case,” the release said.

Fornshell said he’s “wondering” if this was a tactic to see if people would not be able to return to testify if the trial is delayed should the motion be granted by Judge Robert Peeler.

Fornshell said some of the male students will be going to college this fall and may have difficulty returning to testify at Schuler’s trial.

Why are the rules different? Women who commit these crimes are treated differently, their mental state often comes into play. Remember Mary Kay Letourneau? She's married to her "victim." Just imagine if she was Marvin Letourneau and had gotten a middle-schooler pregnant. I imagine Marvin would still be in jail.

Conventional wisdom says when a pregnant woman is killed, it's usually the father of the child, boyfriend or intimate partner who did the killing. So, most of the people following the Michael Mead murder trial thought it would end with a guilty verdict. After all, Lucy Johnson was pregnant and engaged to Mead, who according to news reports, didn't want the baby.

During the six-week trial, prosecutors said Mead was upset with Johnson because she was pregnant and refused to have an abortion. He killed her, they said, and then set fire to her home to cover up the crime.

Does this mean that police allowed statistics to cloud their investigation? Johnson was shot in the head and then her house was set on fire, according to Gaston County DA, in an attempt to hide the crime. But who committed the crime? Will Johnson's killer ever face justice?