from www.orlandosentinel.com – The online friendship seemed real, as did the offer of help getting a job at an Orlando Wal-Mart.

But when an Ohio woman met the woman she knew from MySpace, she was forced into prostitution and beaten when she tried to escape, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said today.

The nightmare began for the woman about eight months ago, when Melissa Ann Scivoletti [pictured], 24, sent her a bus ticket from Ohio to Pittsburgh, a sheriff’s report shows. When the woman arrived in Pittsburgh, Scivoletti was waiting for her with a man known as “Stay Ready,” the report states.
Advertisement

The plan was purportedly to go to Orlando for the job, but the woman soon realized that there was no job, she told investigators. Instead, she was forced into prostitution and beaten by “Stay Ready” when she resisted, the report says.

The woman had given gave Scivoletti her MySpace password so she could improve the look of the page, she told deputies. “Stay Ready” told the woman that partly nude photos from the page, which she had flagged as private for her boyfriend, had been used in Internet ads for sex, along with her phone number.

At some point, the woman came to Florida with Scivoletti and “Stay Ready.” She told deputies she could not escape because she was locked in the car and the alarm was turned on when they stopped.

The women dropped “Stay Ready” off at the airport in Jacksonville, and they drove to Orange County, where they stayed in separate rooms at a motel on South Orange Blossom Trail, the woman told investigators. The woman was afraid to escape, partly because Scivoletti kept her identification card and partly because she was afraid “Stay Ready” would hurt or kill her family, the report states.

A deputy on patrol this morning about 1 saw the woman try to make a deal for sex for $80 with two men in a car on Orange Blossom Trail, according to the report. She told the deputy that Scivoletti and “Stay Ready” kept the money the woman earned as a prostitute and that she hadn’t had anything to eat that day. She also showed the deputy bruises on her legs, the report states.

In the motel rooms, investigators found books noting transactions and phone numbers of clients the woman was forced to have sex with as well as new and used condoms, the report says.

Deputies arrested Scivoletti, who gave an Atlanta address, on charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment and forcing another person into prostitution. She is being held at the Orange County Jail without bail.

Scivoletti told deputies she didn’t know “Stay Ready,” they said. However, she has tattoos on her wrists that say “Stay” and “Ready,” according to the report. He called the woman while deputies were with her at the motel and told her she couldn’t leave until Scivoletti got out of jail, they said. Investigators are trying to identify him.

Scivoletti’s family reported her missing from New Jersey July 1, 2006, according to the National Center for Missing Adults, which also lists her as “recovered,” though no date is given. She was arrested in California on a prostitution charge in November 2008. The disposition of the case was not available late today.

According to information posted on another website that helps families of missing people, Scivoletti, known as Missy, had her first baby at 14, got married at 16 after dropping out of high school, had another child, then left her husband and embarked on a transient lifestyle.