NORTHAMPTON — Alarm. Shock. Concern for the victims.
Those were the most commonly expressed sentiments on Wednesday as business owners and residents near massage shops in Hadley and Northampton learned their neighbors were allegedly trafficking in human beings and sex-for-hire.
For Laurel Boyd, though, the feeling was relief.
Boyd said she’s known for months what was happening on the other side of her office wall, but was asked by law enforcement to keep it secret as officials investigated.
“We felt very uncomfortable about what was happening next door,” said the owner of Ascendance Inner World Arts, a yoga and dance studio. But “we were really encouraged to stay quiet so (police) could do work on their end.”
Boyd said it’s a relief to know the Asian women who were allegedly transported from New York to provide sex services next door are receiving needed services. According to citations from the Northampton Health Department, they were housed in unsanitary, showerless conditions.
And she said it’s a relief to know children taking dance and wellness classes at her studio no longer have to do so alongside such unpleasant happenings.
After months of tight-lipped observation, Boyd’s relief arrives after a task force led by Attorney General Maura Healey cracked down on the alleged interstate sex trafficking ring. On Tuesday police arrested four in connection with the network, implicating Pine Spa at 176 Pine St. in Northampton and Hadley Body Works at 215 Russell St. in Hadley among others across the state.
As Boyd and her husband renovated their new shop last spring, they didn’t hear much from their neighbors at Pine Spa. But after all the hammering stopped, she said, she began to hear murmurings from the other side of her office wall.
“‘You’re my honey, right?’” she recalled hearing a male voice ask, flirtatiously.
“‘Oh, I’m your honey,’” responded a much-softer female voice.
And then, she said, she noticed the clientele was 100 percent male.
“I go to spas all the time and it’s not like that,” she said.
Boyd said she and her husband kept their suspicions to themselves, until one day the situation became abundantly clear. She said they heard scuffling next door and a customer emerged and angrily told Boyd’s husband the place was “a cat house.”
At that point in late May, Boyd said, they called the police.
And she began carefully watching the traffic in and out of the neighboring establishment. Boyd said the clientele — white men aged 30 to 50 — would arrive in vehicles with mostly out-of-state plates. Some, she said, arrived regularly.
Down to the loud alarm that rang every time someone entered or exited the shop, it was unlike any spa she knew.
“It all kind of adds up,” she said. “It always struck us as being very odd.”
Boyd said she joined her husband and one of their employees in sharing the observations before a grand jury.
“We’re happy it’s getting addressed,” she said.
Clara Li, owner of neighboring Great Wall Chinese Restaurant, said it was “a big shock” to learn sex trafficking was reportedly happening next door. Still, she said, there were signs. She said she went recently inside the now-condemned shop to buy gift certificates for a friend and instantly felt uncomfortable.
“I feel bad,” she said, adding that she never expected this from the small-town plaza where her family runs a popular restaurant.
Plaza landlord Mary Pun was clearing snow from the property with her husband Wednesday but declined to comment, saying she doesn’t speak English.
Awan Wajid, owner of nearby Sam’s Stores, said female employees of the spa would sometimes come to the convenience store for cigarettes. He said they didn’t seem to speak English.
“I’m not really surprised it was happening,” he said. “But I was surprised it was that intricate.”
Across the Coolidge Bridge, neighbors said they weren’t shocked to find the “sketchy” massage business on Route 9 wasn’t exactly what it purported to be. Especially since it wasn’t the first time they saw police descend on the property.
Kevin Michelson, owner of Budget Auto Repair and Rental on Russell Street, said Hadley is a “tight-knit” community and all the shop owners know each other. But the business whose sign says “Body Works” was always oddly out of that mix, he said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen the people,” he said. “If that’s their business it must be going on at night.”
His tenant Louisa Jones, whose window faces the now-shuttered business, said “it really bothers me” that she sometimes saw people going in the building early in the morning but didn’t think to question it.
“It shows you how out of touch you can be about everything,” she said. “It’s crazy how much you really don’t see.”
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.