Andrea grew up on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, where she was sexually abused by her mother's friends beginning at the age of 7. After her mother was brutally murdered, Andrea lived as a teen with her aunt who introduced her to IV drug use and sex trafficked her in exchange for methamphetamine and money.
Andrea later left the reservation and moved out-of-state with her children's father, who began pimping her to older couples through Craigslist. When her relationship ended, and having returned to North Dakota, she became homeless and moved into Bismarck Motor Motel. Using drugs as a coping mechanism for trauma, it was here that she met M.D., a man she thought was her friend, but who she came to realize was a predator who used the vulnerable state of drug addicted Native American girls to manipulate them into prostitution and other illicit activities.