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Lots of of 1000’s of younger kids have turn out to be victims of kidnapping.
In response to the Youngster Crime Prevention & Security Middle, a baby is lacking or kidnapped each 40 seconds in the USA alone.
In response to the FBI, roughly 840,000 folks go lacking every year, of which an estimated 85% to 90% are kids.
These kidnapping instances in the USA are tales of people who had been captured as younger kids, however finally discovered their method again to their households days, weeks, months and years after being kidnapped.
Lots of those that had been now kidnapped as kids share their tales with others and are concerned in advocacy round lacking kids. (Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan through Getty Pictures)
4 SHOCKING MYSTERIES OF TRUE CRIMES THROUGHOUT HISTORY, FROM THE ‘ZODIAC KILLER’ TO THE ‘BLACK DAHLIA’
Melissa HighsmithElizabeth SlimJaycee DugardCarlina WhiteKara Robinson ChamberlainAlicia KozakiewiczBen Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck
1.Melissa Highsmith
Melissa Highsmith reunited along with her household in November 2022 after greater than 50 years aside.
In response to the Nationwide Middle for Lacking & Exploited Youngsters, the household had moved to the Fort Value space and wanted a babysitter. Highsmith’s mom positioned an advert within the native newspaper in search of one.
A lady 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 he or she was by no means seen by the household once more till November 2022.
In November 2022, after many makes an attempt by the household to search out Highsmith, they submitted DNA to 23andMe, the place matches got here again from three kids of a pair named John and Melanie Brown.
Melanie, who turned out to be Melissa, was nonetheless dwelling in Fort Value, Texas.
“One in every of our sisters known as her daughter – the youngest – and her daughter led us to her mom,” Jeff Highsmith, Melissa’s youthful brother, instructed Fox Information Digital in November 2022.
Melissa reconnected along with her household on November 22, 2022 after 51 years.
FOUND: MELISSA HIGHSMITH’S FAMILY ‘DOLJOY’ AFTER REUNITED WITH SISTER WHO WAS RECEIVED IN 1971
2. Elizabeth Sensible
Elizabeth Sensible was kidnapped from her household’s house in Salt Lake Metropolis by Brian Mitchell on June 5, 2002, on the age of 14.
Her sister, Mary Katherine Sensible, who shared a room along with her, was the one witness to the kidnapping and woke her mother and father a couple of hours after the crime was dedicated when she felt it was protected to take action, in line with Historical past.com .
When Sensible was questioned by an officer in her absence, she finally revealed her id and was reunited along with her household in March 2003.
KIDDING SURVIVOR ELIZABETH Sensible on Empowering Youngsters Towards Predators: ‘Do not Be Afraid to Scream’
In 2009, Sensible testified that in her captivity she was drugged, starved, tied to a tree and raped as many as 4 occasions a day.
Sensible’s kidnapper was sentenced to life in jail after being convicted on kidnapping costs. His spouse Wanda Breeze additionally went to jail and was launched after fifteen years.
Elizabeth Sensible is now an inspirational speaker and creator. (Bennett Raglin/Getty Pictures for Life)
Right now, Sensible is married to Matthew Gilmour and the mom of three kids. She is an inspirational speaker and is a printed creator of two books, ‘My Story’ and ‘The place There’s Hope’.
“Your security ought to at all times be a precedence,” Sensible mentioned in an interview with Fox Information Digital in December 2022. “And belief your intestine. No matter it’s. If it is a celebration, there can be one other celebration. If it a date is , and you do not really feel protected, don’t fret about offending your date. Your security ought to be a precedence. Do not take any probabilities in relation to your security.
“Be sure to have a plan earlier than assembly somebody you have by no means met earlier than,” she continued. “Or possibly you met somebody and one thing occurs. Take into consideration what you’ll do in several eventualities. Discuss it with your loved ones. Discuss it with your mates. Construct your assist community. Discuss to them about what you do. Let folks be concerned in your life.”
She additionally launched the cell app “Guardian” with Portland-based know-how firm Q5id serving to to rapidly find lacking kids and adults throughout the nation.
3. Jaycee Dugard
Jaycee Dugard was held captive for eighteen years.
When she was 11 years previous, she was shot by a stun gun at a bus cease close to her house in South Lake Tahoe, California, in 1991.
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She was taken by Philip Garrido and his spouse Nancy.
In response to CBS Information, she was held hostage and repeatedly raped for eighteen years. Throughout her captivity, she gave delivery to 2 of Garrido’s kids, one when she was 14 and one other when she was 17, the newspaper mentioned.
Jaycee Dugard wrote a memoir in 2011 known as “A Stolen Life.” (Andrew H. Walker/Getty Pictures)
In response to the Crime Museum, Phillip and Nancy entered responsible pleas for Dugard’s kidnapping on April 28, 2011. Phillip, who was a registered intercourse offender earlier than the kidnapping, obtained 431 years to life in jail, whereas Nancy obtained a 36-year sentence.
Dugard printed a memoir in 2011, “A Stolen Life,” during which she instructed her story.
4. Carlina White
In August 1987, when Carlina White was 19 days previous, she started to develop 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 lady named Ann Pettway, who was disguised as a nurse, kidnapped the infant and raised her below the alias Nejdra Nance.
Because the lady grew older, she started to mistrust her alleged mom. This led her to go looking the Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters’s web site in 2010, the place she noticed a child picture much like hers.
She was put in contact along with her actual mom, Pleasure White. DNA checks confirmed a match and the 2 had been reunited in January 2011 after 23 years.
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 pal’s home when she was approached by Evonitz, who put a gun to her neck and instructed her to come back with him, in line with Chamberlain’s web site.
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She was held captive and abused for 18 hours. She escaped whereas he was sleeping and went to police to present particulars of the person who took her, the positioning mentioned.
After a high-speed chase in Sarasota, Florida, Evonitz shot himself, in line with Individuals.
Kara Robinson Chamberlain was kidnapped from her boyfriend’s backyard in 2002 by serial killer Richard Evonitz. (Kara Robinson Chamberlain)
Right now, Chamberlain is married and has two boys.
She has accomplished in depth advocacy work through the years, co-hosts the podcast “Survivor’s Information to True Crime” and was central to the 2023 movie “The Lady Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story” and the 2021 documentary. “Escaping Captivity: The Kara Robinson Story.”
6. Alicia “Kozak” Kozakiewicz
The case of Alicia “Kozak” Kozackiewicz was one of many first extremely publicized instances involving on-line predators.
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“I met somebody on-line who I assumed was my pal, 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 search for vulnerabilities in a baby. And earlier than I knew it, I used to be in a automobile and this man was squeezing my hand so exhausting I assumed he had damaged it.”
Kozak’s kidnapper, whose identify she declined to pronounce, in line with Fox Information Digital, took her from Pittsburgh to his house in Virginia. She was held captive for 4 days.
“He chained me to the ground subsequent to the mattress with this canine collar. I used to be raped, overwhelmed and tortured in that home for 4 days,” Kozak instructed Fox Information Digital in April 2023.
Alicia was rescued by the FBI on the age of 13 after 4 days along with her kidnapper. (Courtesy of Alicia “Kozak” Kozakiewicz)
On the fourth day she was held hostage, her attacker instructed her they had been “going for a experience.”
“I knew at that second there was nothing I might do,” Kozak instructed Fox Information Digital. “I knew he was going to kill me.”
That very same day she heard a knock on the door, which turned out to be the FBI. The FBI was delivered to the placement after somebody noticed a video of Kozak, broadcast reside by her captor, and acknowledged her from a lacking individual poster from the Nationwide Middle for Lacking & Exploited Youngsters. He known as the police.
“I bear in mind dragging that chilly, heavy chain outdoors and attempting to place my arms up, however on the identical time attempting to cowl myself. I had no garments on. I used to be staring on the finish of a gun,” Kozak instructed Fox Information . Digital.
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She was returned to her mother and father and spent the subsequent few years as a motivational speaker and advocate for web security.
7. Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck
Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck had been each kidnapped by the identical man, Michael Devlin, who’s now serving 72 life sentences, in line with the Crime Museum.
Hornbeck was 11 when he was kidnapped in Missouri whereas using his bicycle to a pal’s home. He was held captive for 4 years. Whereas he was lacking, his mother and father began a basis to assist seek for lacking kids, the Shawn Hornback Basis, in line with the supply.
Devlin kidnapped a second youngster, Ben Ownby, on January 8, 2007, and a neighbor gave police an outline of the suspicious white truck, which took them to the placement of each boys, in line with the Crime Museum.
Each kids had been reunited with their households. The invention of the 2 boys has been dubbed the ‘Missouri Miracle’.
Ashlyn Messier is a author for Fox Information Digital.
Youngsters who had been kidnapped survived and had been reunited with their households: Elizabeth Sensible, Jaycee Dugard and extra
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