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Tons of of 1000’s of younger kids have fallen sufferer to a kidnapping.
In the US alone, a toddler goes lacking or is kidnapped each 40 seconds, in line with the Baby Crime Prevention & Security Middle.
About 840,000 individuals go lacking yearly, of which 85% to 90% are estimated to be kids, in line with the FBI.
These United States kidnapping circumstances are tales of people who have been captured as younger kids, however finally discovered their method again to their households days, weeks, months and years after they have been taken.
Lots of those that have been kidnapped as kids now, of their grownup lives, share their tales with others and are concerned in advocacy work round lacking kids. (Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan through Getty Photos)
4 SHOCKING TRUE CRIME MYSTERIES THROUGHOUT HISTORY, FROM THE ‘ZODIAC KILLER’ TO THE ‘BLACK DAHLIA’
Melissa HighsmithElizabeth SensibleJaycee DugardCarlina WhiteKara Robinson ChamberlainAlicia KozakiewiczBen Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck
1. Melissa Highsmith
Melissa Highsmith was reunited together with her household in November 2022 after being separated for over 50 years.
In response to the Nationwide Middle for Lacking & Exploited Kids, the household had moved to the Fort Price space and have been in want of a babysitter. Highsmith’s mom positioned an advert within the native paper searching for one.
A girl responded to the advert and on August 23, 1971, the babysitter picked up Highsmith from her mom’s house, the place a roommate had been watching her, and she or he was by no means seen by the household once more, till November 2022.
In November 2022, after many efforts by the household to search out Highsmith, they submitted DNA to 23andMe, the place matches got here again of three kids of a pair named John and Melanie Brown.
Melanie, who turned out to be Melissa, was nonetheless residing in Fort Price, Texas.
“Certainly one of our sisters referred to as her daughter – the youngest one – and her daughter led us to her mother,” Jeff Highsmith, Melissa’s youthful brother, advised Fox Information Digital in November 2022.
Melissa reconnected together with her household after 51 years on Nov. 22, 2022.
FOUND: MELISSA HIGHSMITH’S FAMILY ‘OVERJOYED’ AFTER BEING REUNITED WITH SISTER ABDUCTED IN 1971
2. Elizabeth Sensible
Elizabeth Sensible was kidnapped from her household’s Salt Lake Metropolis residence when she was 14 years previous on June 5, 2002, by Brian Mitchell.
Her sister, Mary Katherine Sensible, who shared a room together with her, was the one witness to the kidnapping, and woke her mother and father a few hours after the crime was dedicated when she felt it was secure to take action, in line with Historical past.com.
When questioned by an officer whereas out, Sensible finally revealed her id and was reunited together with her household in March 2003.
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In 2009, Sensible testified that she was drugged, starved, tied to a tree and raped as typically as 4 occasions a day whereas she was in captivity.
Sensible’s captor was sentenced to life in jail after being convicted on kidnapping costs. His spouse, Wanda Breeze, additionally went to jail and was launched after 15 years.
Elizabeth Sensible is now an inspirational speaker and an creator. (Bennett Raglin/Getty Photos for Lifetime)
Right this moment, Sensible is married to Matthew Gilmour and she or he is a mom of three. She is an inspirational speaker and is a printed creator with two books, “My Story” and “The place There’s Hope.”
“Your security ought to all the time be a precedence,” Sensible mentioned in an interview with Fox Information Digital in December 2022. “And belief your intestine. It doesn’t matter what it’s. If it is a occasion, there shall be one other occasion. If it is a date, and you do not really feel secure, don’t fret about offending your date. Your security must be a precedence. Do not take probabilities on the subject of your security.”
“Be sure you have a plan earlier than you go meet up with somebody that you’ve got by no means met,” she continued. “Or possibly you have got met somebody and one thing occurs. Take into consideration what you’d do in numerous eventualities. Speak about it with your loved ones. Speak about it with your mates. Construct your help community. Discuss to them about what you are doing. Let individuals be concerned in your life.”
She additionally launched the cellular app “Guardian” with the Portland-based tech firm Q5id that helps shortly find lacking kids and adults nationwide.
3. Jaycee Dugard
Jaycee Dugard was held captive for 18 years.
When she was 11 years previous, she was zapped by a stun gun at a bus cease close to her residence in South Lake Tahoe, California, in 1991.
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She was taken by Philip Garrido and his spouse Nancy.
She was held hostage for 18 years, the place she was repeatedly raped, in line with CBS Information. Throughout her time in captivity, she gave start to 2 of Garrido’s kids, one when she was 14 and one other when she was 17, in line with the outlet.
Jaycee Dugard wrote a memoir in 2011 referred to as “A Stolen Life.” (Andrew H. Walker/Getty Photos)
Phillip and Nancy entered responsible pleas to the kidnapping of Dugard on April 28, 2011, in line with the Crime Museum. Phillip, who was a registered intercourse offender earlier than the kidnapping, acquired 431 years to life in jail, whereas Nancy acquired a sentence of 36 years behind bars.
Dugard revealed a memoir, “A Stolen Life,” in 2011 telling her story.
4. Carlina White
In August 1987, when Carlina White was 19 days previous, she began to run a fever, so her mother and father Pleasure White and Carl Tyson, took her to Harlem Hospital in New York, in line with ABC Information.
A girls named Ann Pettway, who was disguised as a nurse, kidnapped the child and raised her underneath the alias Nejdra Nance.
Because the woman aged, she started to turn into suspicious of her alleged mom. This led her to look the Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Kids’s web site in 2010, the place she noticed a child photograph much like her personal.
She was put in contact together with her actual mom, Pleasure White. DNA exams confirmed a match and the 2 have been reunited after 23 years in January 2011.
Pettway was sentenced to 12 years behind bars.
5. Kara Robinson Chamberlain
In 2002, Kara Robinson Chamberlain was kidnapped by a serial killer named Richard Evonitz. She was enjoying at a good friend’s home when she was approached by Evonitz, who put a gun to her neck, telling her to return with him, in line with Chamberlain’s web site.
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She was held captive and assaulted for 18 hours. She escaped when he was asleep, and went to regulation enforcement to present the small print of the person who took her, in line with the location.
After a high-speed chase in Sarasota, Florida, Evonitz shot himself, in line with Folks.
Kara Robinson Chamberlain was kidnapped by serial killer Richard Evonitz from her good friend’s yard in 2002. (Kara Robinson Chamberlain)
Right this moment, Chamberlain is married and has two boys.
She has completed numerous advocacy work over time, is co-host of the podcast “Survivor’s Information to True Crime,” and was the main target of the 2023 film “The Woman Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story” and the 2021 documentary, “Escaping Captivity: The Kara Robinson Story.”
6. Alicia ‘Kozak’ Kozakiewicz
Alicia ‘Kozak’ Kozackiewicz’s case was one of many first extensively lined circumstances involving on-line predators.
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“I met anyone on-line who I assumed was my good friend, who might perceive me,” Kozak recalled throughout a 2021 interview with Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren throughout an episode of “No Interruption.” “That is what predators do. They appear to search out vulnerabilities in a toddler. And the subsequent factor I knew, I used to be in a automotive, and this man was squeezing my hand so tightly that I assumed he had damaged it.”
Kozak’s abductor, whose title she will not communicate, in line with Fox Information Digital, took her from Pittsburgh to his residence in Virginia. She was held captive for 4 days.
“He chained me to the ground with this canine collar subsequent to the mattress. I used to be raped and overwhelmed and tortured in that home for 4 days,” Kozak advised Fox Information Digital in April 2023.
Alicia, at 13 years previous, was rescued by FBI after 4 days together with her captor. (Courtesy of Alicia “Kozak” Kozakiewicz)
On the fourth day of being held hostage, her attacker advised her they have been going to “go for a trip.”
“I knew in that second there was nothing I might do,” Kozak advised Fox Information Digital. “I knew he was going to kill me.”
That very same day, she heard banging on the door, which turned out to be the FBI. The FBI was dropped at the placement after somebody noticed a video of Kozak, which was livestreamed by her abductor, and acknowledged her from a lacking particular person poster from the Nationwide Middle for Lacking & Exploited Kids. He referred to as the police.
“I bear in mind dragging that chilly, heavy chain out, and making an attempt to place my palms up but additionally making an attempt to cowl myself on the identical time. I had no clothes on. I used to be staring on the finish of a gun,” Kozak advised Fox Information Digital.
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She was returned to her mother and father and spent the next years as a motivational speaker and has been an advocate for web security.
7. Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck
Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck have been each kidnapped by the identical man, Michael Devlin, who’s now serving 72 life phrases, in line with the Crime Museum.
Hornbeck was 11 when he was kidnapped in Missouri whereas he was using his bike to a good friend’s home. He was held captive for 4 years. Whereas he was lacking, his mother and father arrange a basis to assist search for lacking kids, referred to as the Shawn Hornback Basis, in line with the supply.
Devlin kidnaped a second youngster, Ben Ownby, on Jan. 8, 2007, and a neighbor gave the police an outline of the suspicious white truck, which took them to the placement of each boys, in line with the Crime Museum.
Each of the youngsters have been reunited with their households. The discovering of the 2 boys is known as the “Missouri Miracle.”
Ashlyn Messier is a author for Fox Information Digital.
Kids who have been kidnapped, survived and have been reunited with their households: Elizabeth Sensible, Jaycee Dugard and extra
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