Hundreds of thousands of young children are victims of kidnapping.
According to the Center for Child Crime Prevention and Safety, a child goes missing or is abducted every 40 seconds in the United States alone.
According to the FBI, approximately 840,000 people go missing each year, and it is estimated that 85% to 90% of them are children.
These U.S. kidnappings are stories of people who were captured as young children but were eventually returned to their families days, weeks, months, or years later.
Many people who were abducted as children now share their stories with others and participate in missing children’s advocacy efforts as adults. (Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan, via Getty Images)
From ‘The Zodiac Killer’ to ‘The Black Dahlia’, 4 Shocking True Crime Mysteries Throughout History
- melissa highsmith
- elizabeth smart
- Jaycee Dugard
- carlina white
- carla robinson chamberlain
- Alicia Kozakiewicz
- Ben Ownby and Sean Hornbeck
1. Melissa Highsmith
Melissa Highsmith was reunited with her family in November 2022 after more than 50 years of separation.
The family had moved to the Fort Worth area and needed a babysitter, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Highsmith’s mother placed an ad in the local paper looking for him.
A woman responded to the ad, and on August 23, 1971, a babysitter picked up Ms. Highsmith from her mother’s apartment, where her roommate was watching over her. Ms. Highsmith remained with her family until November 2022. I never met his eyes again.
In November 2022, after the family went to great lengths to find Ms. Highsmith, they submitted their DNA to 23andMe, where results were matched to the couple’s three children named John and Melanie Brown. Obtained.
Melanie, who turned out to be Melissa, was still living in Fort Worth, Texas.
Melissa’s brother, Jeff Highsmith, told Fox News Digital in November 2022, “One of the sisters called her youngest daughter and she took us to her mother. ” he said.
Melissa was reunited with her family for the first time in 51 years on November 22, 2022.
Discovery: Melissa Highsmith’s family ‘overjoyed’ after being reunited with sister abducted in 1971
2. Elizabeth Smart
Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her family’s home in Salt Lake City on June 5, 2002, at the age of 14, by Brian Mitchell.
His sister Mary Katherine Smart, who was in the room and was the only witness to the kidnapping, woke up her parents hours later when she felt safe, according to History.com. .
When questioned by police while out and about, Smart eventually revealed his identity and was reunited with his family in March 2003.
Kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart talks about empowering children from predators: ‘Don’t be afraid to practice screaming’
In 2009, Smart testified that while in captivity, she was drugged, starved, tied to a tree and raped up to four times a day.
Smart’s captor was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison. His wife, Wanda Brees, also went to prison and was released after 15 years.
Elizabeth Smart is now an inspirational speaker and author. (Bennett Raglin/Getty Images, Lifetime)
Smart is currently married to Matthew Gilmore and is the mother of three children. She is an inspirational speaker and an author who has published two of her books: “My Story” and “Where There’s Hope.”
“Your safety should always come first,” Smart said in a December 2022 interview with FOX News Digital. “And trust your instincts, no matter what it is. If it’s a party, there’s going to be another party. If it’s a date,” and you don’t feel safe, Don’t worry about offending your date and don’t take any risks when it comes to your safety.
“Be sure to have a plan before going to meet someone you’ve never met before,” she continued. “Or maybe you meet someone and something happens. Think about what you would do in different scenarios. Talk about it with your family, talk to your friends, build a support network, and think about what you would do in different scenarios.” Involve people in your life.”
she also Mobile app “Guardian” We’ve partnered with Portland-based technology company Q5id to help quickly find missing children and adults across the country.
3. Jaycee Dugard
Jaycee Dugard was locked up for 18 years.
In 1991, when she was 11 years old, she was beaten with a stun gun at a bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe, California.
Follow the FOX True Crime Team at X
She was adopted by Philip Garrido and his wife Nancy.
According to CBS News, she was held hostage for 18 years, where she was repeatedly raped. During her captivity, she gave birth to two of Garrido’s children, one when she was 14 and the other when she was 17, the newspaper said.
Jaycee Dugard wrote a memoir called “A Stolen Life” in 2011. (Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
According to the Crime Museum, Philip and Nancy entered guilty pleas in Dugard’s kidnapping on April 28, 2011. Philip, who was a registered sex offender before the kidnapping, was sentenced to 431 to life in prison, while Nancy was sentenced to 36 years in prison.
In 2011, Dugard published a memoir about her experiences, “A Stolen Life.”
4. Carlina White
According to ABC News, in August 1987, when Carlina White was 19 days old, she started running a fever, so her parents Joy White and Carl Tyson took her to New York’s Harlem Hospital. Ta.
A woman named Ann Pettway, disguised as a nurse, kidnapped the baby and raised her under the false name Nejdra Nance.
As the girl grew older, she began to have doubts about the person she believed to be her mother. This prompted her to search the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s website in 2010, where she found a photo of a baby that looked very similar to her own.
She contacted her biological mother, Joy White. A DNA test confirmed a match, and the two reunited for the first time in 23 years in January 2011.
Pettway was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
5. Carla Robinson Chamberlain
In 2002, Carla Robinson Chamberlain was kidnapped by a serial killer named Richard Ebonitz. According to Chamberlain’s website, she was playing at her friend’s house when Ebonitz approached her, put a gun to her neck and told her to come with him.
Tips for escaping a kidnapping from South Carolina kidnapping survivor Kara Robinson
She was held captive and assaulted for 18 hours. According to the site, she ran away while the man was sleeping and went to police, giving details of the man who took her.
According to People magazine, Ebonitz shot himself after a high-speed chase in Sarasota, Florida.
Carla Robinson Chamberlain was kidnapped from a friend’s garden in 2002 by serial killer Richard Ebonitz. (Carla Robinson Chamberlain)
Chamberlain is now married and has two boys.
She has done a lot of advocacy work over the years, is the co-host of the podcast “Survivor’s Guide to True Crime,” and is the co-host of the 2023 film “The Girl Who Escaped: Kara Robinson.”・Story” and was also the central character in the 2021 documentary. , “Escape from Confinement: The Story of Kara Robinson.”
6. Alicia “Kozak” Kozakiewicz
The case of Alicia ‘Kozak’ Kozakiewicz was one of the first widely publicized cases involving online criminals.
Sign up to get our true crime newsletter
“I met someone online who I consider a friend, someone who understood me,” Kozak said in an interview with Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren on a 2021 episode of “No Interruption.” ” he recalled. “That’s what predators do. They try to find weaknesses in children. And the next thing I know, I’m in the car and this guy is squeezing my hand. , I thought I might have broken a bone.”
According to FOX News Digital, Kozak’s kidnapper, who did not name her, took her from Pittsburgh to her home in Virginia. She was held captive for four days.
“He chained me to the floor with a dog collar next to my bed,” Kozak told Fox News Digital in April 2023. “It was,” he said.
Alicia, 13, was rescued by the FBI four days later along with her captors. (Courtesy of Alicia “Kozak” Kozakiewicz)
On the fourth day after being held hostage, the attacker told her to go out and play.
“At that moment, I knew there was nothing I could do,” Kozak told FOX News Digital. “I knew he was going to kill me.”
That same day, she heard a knock on the door, which turned out to be the FBI. The FBI was brought to the scene after someone saw a video of Kozak livestreamed by the kidnappers and recognized him from a missing person poster at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. he called the police.
“I remember pulling out the cold, heavy chains and trying to raise my hands and at the same time trying to hide myself. I didn’t have any clothes on. I was staring at the end of the gun,” Kozak said. told FOX News. Digital.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
She was returned to her parents and has spent the next few years working as a motivational speaker and internet safety advocate.
7. Ben Ownby and Sean Hornbeck
Ben Ownby and Sean Hornbeck were both kidnapped by the same man, Michael Devlin, and are currently serving 72 terms of life in prison, according to the Crime Museum.
Hornbeck was abducted when she was 11 years old while riding her bicycle to a friend’s house in Missouri. He was imprisoned for four years. While he was missing, his parents established a foundation to help find missing children called the Sean Hornback Foundation, officials said.
According to the crime museum, Devlin kidnapped her second child, Ben Ownby, on January 8, 2007, after a neighbor provided police with a description of a suspicious white truck. He was reportedly taken to the location of the two boys.
Both children were reunited with their families. The discovery of the two boys has been called the “Missouri Miracle.”
