Cheerleader & Aspiring Makeup Artist Moves To New York City, Then Vanishes Into Thin Air After Being Pushed Into Trafficking

Bre Avery Zacharski |

Oct 31, 2021

New York, New York. Corinna Slusser is a beautiful, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, small-town girl from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. It’s a picturesque and safe town.

Corinna lived there along with her brother and her mom, Sabina Tuorto.

Sabina was a single mom who did her very best to give Corinna and her brother everything she could.

Instagram; Corinna smiles in the above photo

She fondly remembers Corinna as a happy and well-adjusted child. Corinna was a cheerleader at her local high school. She also ran track. She was a star student.

She had a ton of friends and was always interested in makeup and hair. Corinna dreamed of being a makeup artist after she graduated high school.

Strangely, Corinna’s behavior began to change the further along into high school she got. Once a great student, her grades began to sink.

Instagram; Corinna strikes a pose in the photo above

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She ended up being on track to have to complete summer school in her senior year in order to even graduate.

Things were not looking good for her, and they only continued to get worse…

In hindsight, Corinna’s mom realizes her behavior was problematic and telling, but she wasn’t able to recognize the signs for what they were at the time.

Corinna’s relationship with her mom continued to deteriorate. She started spending her summers in Massachusetts with her Aunt Julie, whom she had always been very close to.

Corinna eventually asked her mom if she could move in with her Aunt Julie.

Instagram; Corinna sips a beverage alongside a friend in the above photo

Sabrina agreed to Corinna’s plan, and the move was set to take place over Corinna’s high school winter break.

Julie had no idea, but over the summer, Corinna had gotten into some trouble. Eventually, her sons told her about what Corinna had done and been involved with.

Julie decided she wasn’t going to let Corinna move in with her over winter break since she was out of town and couldn’t keep an eye on her.

She rightfully felt she would need to watch her after learning about her summer antics. So, Corinna’s move-in date was set to occur in January, when Julie was home.

Instagram; Corinna stands in front of a floral mural in the photo above

After Julie told her this, Corinna was angry. Sabrina was upset with Julie as well. Corinna never did end up moving in with Julie, though.

Here’s where she ended up instead…

Corinna moved in with friends of hers in a town close by to where she grew up in Pennsylvania. It was now early spring of 2017.

Sometime in March that year, Corinna attempted to take her own life.

Instagram; Corinna is pictured above raising her hands to the sky in a field

Corinna is then placed in the hospital for trying to commit suicide, where she remains for a few months, and while she’s there she strangely meets a man.

This man is 32-year-old Yhovanny Peguero. And what he gets Corinna to do is completely shocking…

Yhovanny convinces Corinna to move to New York City while she’s in the hospital. She agrees to move to the Big Apple, and Yhovanny has the intention of getting her involved in some truly disturbing things.

This vulnerable young girl starts being sold by Yhovanny when she gets there.

Instagram; Corinna smiles and snaps a selfie with a friend in the above photo

Corinna moves to New York City in August of 2017. Bizarrely enough, she leaves home without bringing a single thing, except her license and identification, along with her cellphone.

Corinna doesn’t bring any of her personal things. She doesn’t take her makeup. Or her clothes.

Despite moving without any of her things, she kept in contact with her family and friends after her move.

At the end of August, Corinna starts appearing in online ads. She changes her name to Carissa. On August 25th, Corinna calls the police at around 1 in the afternoon.

Instagram; Corinna laughs and holds a baby up in her arms in the photo above

She tells police that while she’s showering at the Harlem Vista Hotel, Yhovanny stole $300 from her. She goes on to it quickly got physical when she confronts Yhovanny over the money he stole from her.

According to court documents, he “slammed her against the wall, making it difficult for (her) to breathe.”

In the complaint filed, the responding officer said that Corinna, “was crying, shaking, and speaking at a fast pace.”

The police arrest Yhovanny on the spot and charge him with several assault charges, in addition to criminal obstruction of breathing.

Corinna obtained a temporary order of protection against him, and a copy of that was mailed back to her mom’s house.

Instagram; Corinna is pictured in the above photo on the far right with some of her friends

Sabrina opened it up and saw what it was. She called Corinna to confront her about it, especially since it detailed everything that had happened to her that afternoon.

Corinna told her mom that it was really just no big deal and refused to talk about it further. Obviously, Corinna’s family is now very concerned about what’s really going on with her.

They start digging around on all her active social media accounts to see if they can get any details on what she’s doing.

Julie quickly connected the dots and realized Corinna was posting on her social media that she was going on dates with men in exchange for money.

Instagram; Corinna is pictured in the above photo with a friend while wearing her cheerleading outfit

She told Dateline in an interview, “One and one was making two. Everything was coming together. If you were to scroll through her Facebook, it was like an advertisement.”

Julie immediately texted Corinna saying she knew someone tried to do her harm. She never heard back from Corinna.

As September rolls around, Corinna meets a man named Ishi Woney, an aspiring rapper, at a motel in the Bronx.

Ishi starts handling all of Corinna’s online advertisements for her, along with another girl named Jessica.

On September 7th, Corinna posts the following on Twitter, saying she has achieved her dreams and got her own luxury apartment.

Twitter; pictured above is Corinna’s post about her new luxury 1 bedroom apartment

On September 8th, Corinna’s grandfather dies and Sabrina phones her up to tell her she has to fly to Florida to attend the funeral.

A day after Corinna says she will fly to Florida, she calls her mom, and Sabrina recounts that she was freaking out on the phone.

Corinna told her mom that her social security card and license had been stolen from her.

Sabrina insists that Corinna come back home immediately. Corinna was completely panic-stricken on the phone but agreed she would return to Pennsylvania the next day.

That was the last time Sabrina or any of Corinna’s other family members heard from her again.

Instagram; Corinna smiles in the above photo next to a friend as she holds a beautiful bouquet of roses

Sabrina officially reported Corinna as missing as soon as she gets home from Florida, as she had been unable to reach her since September 9th and Corinna obviously never showed up to the funeral.

The NYPD issues a press release in an attempt to find Corinna, and they report that she was last seen on September 20th in Queens, New York, at Haven Motel.

Corinna had been with a man who had rented a room at the motel to spend that night with her.

A whole year goes by after Corinna is reported missing, with no leads on where she is.

Authorities then arrest Ishi Woney in November of 2018, shortly after he posted the photo below to his Facebook, showing him with Corinna almost as if he’s taunting police and her family.

Ishi was officially charged with exploiting women and trafficking, and authorities have the online ads he purchased promoting Corinna to prove he was connected to her.

Pictured above is Corinna’s Missing Person poster with more information on her

William F. Sweeney Jr., the FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge, said in a statement, “As alleged, Woney compelled his victim to engage…through force and coercion, and he used both this victim and Corinna Slusser, who has been missing since September 2017, in online advertisements…”

“Human trafficking is a top priority for the FBI, and, as today’s charges demonstrate, we will continue to aggressively pursue justice for the victims of these heinous crimes.”

“Ms. Slusser was last seen in Queens, New York, and we ask anyone with information concerning her whereabouts to contact us as 1-800-CALL-FBI or online at tips.fbi.gov.”

In November of 2019, Ishi was sentenced to 15 years behind bars, and at his sentencing, he told Corinna’s mom Sabina that he had absolutely no idea where Corinna was, and he wasn’t sure whether she was alive or not.

Corinna’s aunt Julie said to Dateline, “People may be envisioning runaways and drug addicts, and that is not Corinna. She was a cheerleader for a team called the Corn Huskers.”

“She came from a rural Pennsylvania town. She was looking for a more exciting life. And I think that’s why she went to New York City. I know Corinna had no idea what she was getting herself into.”