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From 8,000 Miles: A True Story of Internet Danger and How Our Daughter Was Saved
FROM 8,000 MILES
is the true story of internet danger and the lengths one family had to go to save their daughter. Victoria left her home in the middle of the night, without telling anyone, to get on a plane for India to meet a man she had been talking to online.
Destiny Harris recounts in vibrant and gut-wrenching detail the journey to rescue her twenty-one-year-old daughter who had never lived away from home before. It was a rescue that involved Homeland Security, Human Trafficking agencies, their congressman, family, friends, and an arena of social media followers who became aware of the story…some rooting for them and others siding with the love-struck couple who was “being oppressed.”
The betrayal and intrigue went deeper as the Harrises flew to and from India, expecting to bring their daughter home. They saved her life, but six years later, they have not received a single text or call from Victoria.
Destiny felt strongly that she needed to write her story, knowing how it could educate and serve to save other loved ones from falling into such an easy and sinister trap. Predators no longer need to come through the door, the window, or even our country, they slip in through the screens of our children and into their hearts and minds.
From 8,000 Miles is a story of loss and tragedy, but also a testament to the many miracles God provided. Destiny felt God’s closeness amid her pain as He gave her the strength and love it takes to save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.
From all that she has learned, Destiny started a YouTube channel, Destiny Dawn, where mothers come together to support each other and ease the pain and suffering in the world. It is a space where stories can be shared and wisdom gained because motherhood can be so joyful and, at the same time, break our hearts. Brokenheartedness is a journey and does not have to be a permanent stay. Destiny says, “We will get through it together, and you CAN come out on the other side… better.” Learn more at www.DestinyDawnOfficial.com.
Destiny Harris recounts in vibrant and gut-wrenching detail the journey to rescue her twenty-one-year-old daughter who had never lived away from home before. It was a rescue that involved Homeland Security, Human Trafficking agencies, their congressman, family, friends, and an arena of social media followers who became aware of the story…some rooting for them and others siding with the love-struck couple who was “being oppressed.”
The betrayal and intrigue went deeper as the Harrises flew to and from India, expecting to bring their daughter home. They saved her life, but six years later, they have not received a single text or call from Victoria.
Destiny felt strongly that she needed to write her story, knowing how it could educate and serve to save other loved ones from falling into such an easy and sinister trap. Predators no longer need to come through the door, the window, or even our country, they slip in through the screens of our children and into their hearts and minds.
From 8,000 Miles is a story of loss and tragedy, but also a testament to the many miracles God provided. Destiny felt God’s closeness amid her pain as He gave her the strength and love it takes to save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.
From all that she has learned, Destiny started a YouTube channel, Destiny Dawn, where mothers come together to support each other and ease the pain and suffering in the world. It is a space where stories can be shared and wisdom gained because motherhood can be so joyful and, at the same time, break our hearts. Brokenheartedness is a journey and does not have to be a permanent stay. Destiny says, “We will get through it together, and you CAN come out on the other side… better.” Learn more at www.DestinyDawnOfficial.com.
420 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 28, 2024
74 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 13, 2025
This is a powerful story of the pursuit of a daughter who goes to India to pursue her boyfriend without telling her parents. I could hardly put the book down. Destiny does a great job drawing us into the story and her emotions from it all. Her faith in God holds strong though she does have a few times of doubting. I'd love to hear where the family is now.
February 2, 2025
From 8,000 Miles by Destiny Harris ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I hope that every mother who has a daughter would read this. Watch for the signs, monitor her devices know who she is talking to. Be involved in her life but give her space as well.
This is real life , it's happening all around us.
How far would you go to save your daughter? Would you help someone's else's daughter to keep her safe? How far is to far getting involved.
I would do everything in my power to protect and keep her safe. If it means losing her but knowing she is safe and in the same country a 100% I would.
Emotional heartbreaking true story, again I highly recommend.
I hope that every mother who has a daughter would read this. Watch for the signs, monitor her devices know who she is talking to. Be involved in her life but give her space as well.
This is real life , it's happening all around us.
How far would you go to save your daughter? Would you help someone's else's daughter to keep her safe? How far is to far getting involved.
I would do everything in my power to protect and keep her safe. If it means losing her but knowing she is safe and in the same country a 100% I would.
Emotional heartbreaking true story, again I highly recommend.
December 1, 2024
Excellent read. Destiny's ability to let go of her daughter encouraged me to do the same with a family member. She did all she could and then gave her daughter over to God. I wasn't pleased with the ending but there will be alot more to this story someday. God's not done.
December 30, 2024
Very good read….
Very enlightening…I pray Victoria reaches out to her mother soon.. before it’s too late… thank you for sharing this Destiny.
Very enlightening…I pray Victoria reaches out to her mother soon.. before it’s too late… thank you for sharing this Destiny.
October 3, 2024
Heart wrenching 💔 😢
As a mother I can't imagine the pain this family has suffered. That their faith in the Lord remains intact is a miracle in itself. I am believing for them that one day Victoria will understand that outside forces manipulated her and estranged her from her family and she will return to the fold as the prodigal Son did. This book was well written and will help more parents be diligent in watching their children on social media
As a mother I can't imagine the pain this family has suffered. That their faith in the Lord remains intact is a miracle in itself. I am believing for them that one day Victoria will understand that outside forces manipulated her and estranged her from her family and she will return to the fold as the prodigal Son did. This book was well written and will help more parents be diligent in watching their children on social media
June 18, 2025
Exhausting levels of drama
The author is telling her version of the story of her young adult daughter running off to India over an online fling. I do believe her premise that her daughter was likely targeted for sex trafficking, but for the most part she’s one of the most unreliable narrators I’ve ever encountered. She talks about raising a difficult child who she believes is autistic, but she never pursued a diagnosis or the help her daughter obviously needed even when her daughter was failing grades in elementary school. She complains about how hard this girl was to live with and then quickly tells stories about letting the daughter completely control and manipulate the entire family just because the girl wanted to spend half and hour staring in the mirror after doing her hair and makeup. Yikes, because this is arguably one of the most unhealthy family dynamics you can imagine and the extended family is completely bonkers too.
In the earlier chapters she keeps mentioning how she had a falling out with this family member years ago and doesn’t speak to this person and then she got offended at her church and has refused to go back for an extended period of time. The author acts shocked that her daughter eventually cuts her off, but she had watched her mother cut people off over and over again for years from the mother’s own description of multiple relationships. I saved this direct quote as things went further downhill in the narrative, “If she wasn’t concerned about us being in a foreign country, in my book that meant she wanted us to die.” This quote sums up the way she handled multiple relationships that she tells the reader about and it’s even more emotionally unstable than this quote demonstrates. She also went online to “diagnose” her daughter with mild autism and chalked it all up to her being vaccinated as a toddler, in spite of that conspiracy theorist claim having been debunked long ago.
The book is surprisingly readable, and after she gets some much needed mental health care the author might be a great fiction writer. She tosses in occasional religious references, which weren’t too unexpected as her church community provided help and even connections to individuals and groups who could help them. The entire last section of the book though is nothing but a preach-a-thon to the point of being completely exhausting. I’m quite religious myself, although a different denomination, but this felt like being beaten over the head continuously about why her beliefs were right and so many other people were wrong. I do agree with her that a 21 year old young adult who can’t even handle apartment shopping or household chores or driving on her own to somewhere an hour away that she has repeatedly visited sneaking out to go to a notoriously dangerous third world country is cause for grave concern. My perspective, as the mother of young adults myself, is that she and her husband were utterly negligent in the way they raised this girl too. They didn’t make her grow up and deal with the world and they left her way too naive about the dangers of the real world. They suspected frankly severe problems that kept this girl from having normal peer relationships and they did absolutely nothing to help her overcome the things she was dealing with in spite of suspecting autism and learning delays since she was six years old. The author points out that they even refused to celebrate Halloween, but they completely ignored the real dangers to their daughter from the real world and focused on protecting her from fun costumes and bags of candy on Halloween.
TLDR: Messed up people who neglected their child’s real needs try to create a sympathetic narrative about being cut off by their kid who watched them cut people off over and over again. I wouldn’t have finished it if I wasn’t reading it for a challenge.
The author is telling her version of the story of her young adult daughter running off to India over an online fling. I do believe her premise that her daughter was likely targeted for sex trafficking, but for the most part she’s one of the most unreliable narrators I’ve ever encountered. She talks about raising a difficult child who she believes is autistic, but she never pursued a diagnosis or the help her daughter obviously needed even when her daughter was failing grades in elementary school. She complains about how hard this girl was to live with and then quickly tells stories about letting the daughter completely control and manipulate the entire family just because the girl wanted to spend half and hour staring in the mirror after doing her hair and makeup. Yikes, because this is arguably one of the most unhealthy family dynamics you can imagine and the extended family is completely bonkers too.
In the earlier chapters she keeps mentioning how she had a falling out with this family member years ago and doesn’t speak to this person and then she got offended at her church and has refused to go back for an extended period of time. The author acts shocked that her daughter eventually cuts her off, but she had watched her mother cut people off over and over again for years from the mother’s own description of multiple relationships. I saved this direct quote as things went further downhill in the narrative, “If she wasn’t concerned about us being in a foreign country, in my book that meant she wanted us to die.” This quote sums up the way she handled multiple relationships that she tells the reader about and it’s even more emotionally unstable than this quote demonstrates. She also went online to “diagnose” her daughter with mild autism and chalked it all up to her being vaccinated as a toddler, in spite of that conspiracy theorist claim having been debunked long ago.
The book is surprisingly readable, and after she gets some much needed mental health care the author might be a great fiction writer. She tosses in occasional religious references, which weren’t too unexpected as her church community provided help and even connections to individuals and groups who could help them. The entire last section of the book though is nothing but a preach-a-thon to the point of being completely exhausting. I’m quite religious myself, although a different denomination, but this felt like being beaten over the head continuously about why her beliefs were right and so many other people were wrong. I do agree with her that a 21 year old young adult who can’t even handle apartment shopping or household chores or driving on her own to somewhere an hour away that she has repeatedly visited sneaking out to go to a notoriously dangerous third world country is cause for grave concern. My perspective, as the mother of young adults myself, is that she and her husband were utterly negligent in the way they raised this girl too. They didn’t make her grow up and deal with the world and they left her way too naive about the dangers of the real world. They suspected frankly severe problems that kept this girl from having normal peer relationships and they did absolutely nothing to help her overcome the things she was dealing with in spite of suspecting autism and learning delays since she was six years old. The author points out that they even refused to celebrate Halloween, but they completely ignored the real dangers to their daughter from the real world and focused on protecting her from fun costumes and bags of candy on Halloween.
TLDR: Messed up people who neglected their child’s real needs try to create a sympathetic narrative about being cut off by their kid who watched them cut people off over and over again. I wouldn’t have finished it if I wasn’t reading it for a challenge.
February 11, 2025
good read
This was pretty addicting true story account. An overbearing mother constantly chases her grown daughter to and from India. The mother is afraid her daughter has been lured into sex trafficking but is not. Then as she pushes her daughter further away she now has to live life with her daughter refusing to have a relationship with her. This book told by the mother, gives her account and her perspective on what happen.
This was pretty addicting true story account. An overbearing mother constantly chases her grown daughter to and from India. The mother is afraid her daughter has been lured into sex trafficking but is not. Then as she pushes her daughter further away she now has to live life with her daughter refusing to have a relationship with her. This book told by the mother, gives her account and her perspective on what happen.
May 17, 2025
Full of nonsense
I couldn’t finish reading this book. This whole family has a bunch of psychological problems. Not only did the mother say some ignorant things about different religions. She then said that a vaccine gave her daughter autism. There is no evidence of vaccinations giving children autism. Please do better. Please do research before writing nonsense.
I couldn’t finish reading this book. This whole family has a bunch of psychological problems. Not only did the mother say some ignorant things about different religions. She then said that a vaccine gave her daughter autism. There is no evidence of vaccinations giving children autism. Please do better. Please do research before writing nonsense.
November 20, 2025
Troubling
This book is difficult to review. I agree with the parents concern and the strong effort made to bring her back. But family dynamics were crushing. Anger still flows and although honest, this book may not help future reconciliations.
This book is difficult to review. I agree with the parents concern and the strong effort made to bring her back. But family dynamics were crushing. Anger still flows and although honest, this book may not help future reconciliations.
January 6, 2025
The storyline was powerful, but it was a struggle reading with all the typos. I lost track of how many there were.
March 9, 2025
Depressing
Proof of the dangers of social media. Truly a sad and tragic situation. So many lives ruined for no benefit whatsoever.
Proof of the dangers of social media. Truly a sad and tragic situation. So many lives ruined for no benefit whatsoever.
June 4, 2025
Such a powerful book from a mothers point of view! I could not imagine how she felt and still feels about going through all that. It’s true, a mother’s love never ends for your own children.
December 17, 2025
no, just no
This is quite possibly the most awful book I’ve read. Dnf. The mother sounds awful, and the writing is not good.
This is quite possibly the most awful book I’ve read. Dnf. The mother sounds awful, and the writing is not good.
January 17, 2026
All about your god and savior
This book is way to Christian for me, more about God than trafficking. Don't waste your valuable time on it
This book is way to Christian for me, more about God than trafficking. Don't waste your valuable time on it
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews