For the past four and a half years, a 66-year-old man has become a regular at Oriental Bodywork Spa in Concord, visiting almost every two weeks – not for massages, but for the spa’s discreet sexual services.
Over time, he has perfected his routine: He hands over $70 in cash upfront and is led, sometimes by a woman holding his hand, into one of the massage rooms, where he strips naked.
He even calls ahead to see if a particular worker will be on shift.
In the room, he follows a series of steps and instructs the worker to follow orders until he is ready to leave.
He’s just one of many customers who visit the spa for sexual services, according to the Concord Police Department. Authorities say roughly 94% of its clientele are men — a statistic they say strongly points to illicit activity, such as sex work.
When officers met the man on July 30, the day they raided the spa, he didn’t try to hide anything. He admitted to detectives that he was at the spa for the same services he had received all these years.
Initially, he said he tipped $80, but those gratuities have now climbed to $140.
After being interviewed in the parking lot, a detective watched him “blow a kiss” to the female employees as he drove away.
Meanwhile, two female employees were arrested on sexual misdemeanor charges during the raid, part of a statewide crackdown on illicit massage businesses. An arrest affidavit for one of the women reveals the details of the officers’ encounter with the 66-year-old man and their knowledge of the services he received.
Police say they aren’t done with their investigation yet.
“We anticipate some additional arrests coming from that,” said Barrett Moulton, deputy chief of the Concord Police.
Who pays the price?
Advocates for survivors of sex and human trafficking argue that the men seeking sexual services, known as Johns — not the workers who are often there involuntarily— should face legal consequences.
Audra Doody, co-executive director of the Safe Exit Initiative and a survivor of sex trafficking, called the Concord Police’s handling of the Oriental Bodywork Spa case “messed up and unfair.”
“It’s crazy to me that the cops would just let that buyer go, especially after admitting to doing it for four years – you just incriminated yourself,” Doody said.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed Senate Bill 267 into law just a day before the Concord spa raid that enacts stricter penalties for those seeking prostitution. The law will make buying sex in New Hampshire a more serious misdemeanor with a $500 fine, but it doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1.
During the raid, Concord Police said they found four women working at the spa. One was charged with sexual assault and simple assault, while another faces a prostitution charge.
Moulton said he could not confirm whether the other two women were referred to support services, but noted that police spoke with them through interpreters.
“It’s important to recognize that trafficking victims are often forced or coerced into criminal activity during the course of their trafficking,” said Amanda Grady Sexton, with the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. “Many victims are initially identified as offenders in these complex cases and that’s a common occurrence.”
In its initial press release, the Attorney General’s office said it is working with federal and local law enforcement partners, and said that “the enforcement strategy targets traffickers and sex buyers, not the women being exploited.”
Yet in the case of the Oriental Bodywork Spa, neither the spa’s owner nor male clients were arrested.
Moulton said police would publicly name the clients who received sexual services if they faced formal charges.
The coalition said it supports greater transparency regarding anyone who is charged with or has committed a crime in these cases.
“These are not victimless crimes, and if people are paying for sexual activity with potentially coerced victims, they should absolutely be charged,” Sexton said.
Action took years
The Concord Police received multiple tips and reports over the years regarding suspicious activity at the Oriental Bodywork Spa, located directly across from the New Hampshire State Prison. Even a federal investigation was suspended without any charges filed.
It took more than seven years for police to shut down the business.
Moulton said these investigations can be challenging, requiring significant manpower and resources. Even when tips and reports come in, charges can’t be filed immediately until a solid case is established.
“We don’t want to go in and just arrest, just to arrest,” Moulton said. “It happened now, because we had intel and it panned out. The pieces fell into the spot.”
Arrest affidavits show that, in addition to surveillance and tips, law enforcement also checked websites that illicit massage businesses use to advertise sex services to corroborate their evidence.
Moulton said these websites are just one piece of the puzzle and not something the police department relies on.
Police observed a woman listed as the spa’s owner removing trash from the Oriental Bodywork Spa and disposing of it elsewhere to hide evidence, yet she has not been arrested, court documents show.
In her experience, Doody said many sex trafficking business owners don’t register the business under their own name, opting instead to use a woman’s name.
Since November, the New Hampshire Department of Justice, with local law enforcement and federal agencies, has shut down more than 15 illicit massage businesses in a targeted campaign against operations that serve as fronts for human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.
Almost all of these establishments were Asian massage centers.
Jasmine Grace Marino, a survivor and advocate against sex trafficking in New Hampshire, said that foreign nationals who come to the country seeking a better life — and don’t speak the language — often become easy targets for traffickers.
Even as a native English speaker, Marino said it took multiple attempts to break free and navigate the system to access the resources she desperately needed.
“Their documents are taken away and they’re promised a better life here, but in turn, are tricked and sold into the commercial sex trade,” Marino said. “You’re trapped in this cycle of guilt, shame, confusion, manipulation, and trauma. A lot of those women just don’t have that upper hand.”
Doody hopes the Concord Police will take a closer look at the business, saying there’s more than meets the eye and that victims deserve the support and care they need.
“It’s the most profitable industry in the world. You can sell a woman over and over and over again,” Doody said. “It’s so easy to just say that it was like a house of prostitution when it’s really something so much bigger.”
Several unanswered questions linger in her mind: Where did these women come from? Who was truly running this operation?
And finally, she wants to know who the buyers were frequenting the Oriental Bodywork Spa.