10 Missing Children Cases Who Turned Up ALIVE Years Later

Carlina White Carlina Renae White was born on July 15th, 1987 in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Her mother, Joy White, was 16 years old. Her father, Carl Tyson, was 22. The young couple lived in the Harlem housing projects. At 19 days old, Carlina developed a high fever after swallowing fluid during delivery.

Joy and Carl rushed her to Harlem Hospital Center on the evening of August 4th, 1987, where she was admitted to the pediatric unit. [music] A woman later identified as Ann Pettway had been loitering at Harlem Hospital for approximately 3 weeks before the abduction, posing as a nurse. Witnesses described her as a tall, heavy-set woman wearing white medical clothing and a green smock.

She blended in perfectly. Nobody questioned [music] her presence. She even comforted Joy White at the hospital, sitting with her, encouraging her to go home and rest. Between 2:30 a.m. >> [music] >> and 3:55 a.m. on August 5th, during a nursing shift change when the floor was least supervised, [music] someone removed the baby’s IV line and carried her out.

The hospital’s video surveillance system was not operational at the time. A security guard reported seeing a woman matching Pettway’s description leave around 3:30 a.m. This became the first known infant abduction from a New York City hospital. How does a baby disappear from a hospital in the middle of the night and nobody sees a thing? The city of New York offered a $10,000 reward.

The case aired on Unsolved Mysteries in January 1989. [music] In 1992, Joy and Carl settled a lawsuit against the hospital for $750,000, including a trust fund for Carlina. But no leads on the baby ever materialized. Petway, born circa 1962 in Connecticut, had suffered multiple miscarriages and was desperate to become a mother.

She traveled by train from Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Harlem Hospital, spent [music] weeks watching the facility, learning the routines, studying the shift changes, and then took the baby back to Bridgeport. Just 45 miles from Carlina’s birth parents. [music] For 23 years, Carlina was raised less than an hour from the family searching for her.

Petway renamed the child Nedra Nance and raised her in Bridgeport before later moving to Atlanta. Carlina attended Thomas Hooker School and graduated from Warren Harding High School in 2005. Around that time, she noticed she bore no resemblance to Petway’s family. When she needed a birth certificate, Petway produced a forged document.

A Connecticut Bureau of Vital Statistics clerk found no matching records and flagged the case. Confronted, Petway confessed she was not Carlina’s biological mother, but lied about the circumstances, claiming Carlina had been abandoned. In December 2010, at age 23, Carlina browsed the National [music] Center for Missing and Exploited Children website searching by birth year.

She scrolled through photos of missing babies. Then she found one. A baby photo alongside an age progression sketch that closely matched her own appearance and [music] shared the same birthmark on her arm. The resemblance was undeniable. She called the hotline. By January 2011, DNA testing confirmed her identity.

Joy White was contacted [music] and recognized Carlina instantly. The reunion at LaGuardia Airport made national headlines. NCMEC [music] called it the longest abduction case ever solved by the center. 23 years. And the first in which the person taken led the reunification. She solved her own case. Because state charges had expired, federal charges were filed by US Attorney Preet Bharara.

Pettway surrendered to the FBI on January 23rd, 2011. On July 30th, 2012, she was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison [music] plus 3 years of supervised release. Pettway was released on April 14th, 2021. [music] After serving approximately 9 years and 8 months. Carlina lives privately in Georgia >> [music] >> and has largely retreated from public life.

Her case inspired the 2012 Lifetime movie [music] Abducted: The Carlina White Story, starring Kiki [music] Palmer, and was featured in Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries, Volume 2 in October 2020. But the next case [music] did not end with a reunion and headlines. It involved a hidden underground room and over 3,000 days of captivity.

Natasha Kampusch Natasha Maria Kampusch was born on February 17th, 1988 in Vienna, Austria. She had two older sisters. Her parents had a difficult relationship and separated during her childhood. On the morning she was taken, her mother had been arguing with her. Natasha left for school without saying goodbye.

On a Monday morning at approximately 7:00 a.m., Natasha was walking to Brusqueweg Primary School in Vienna’s Donaustadt district when Wolfgang Priklopil, then 35, seized her from behind, forced her into a white Mercedes-Benz delivery van, and drove approximately 35 km northeast to his house in Strasshof an der Nordbahn, a small lower Austrian town.

A 12-year-old witness reported seeing the incident, but described two men, a discrepancy that became a lasting controversy. The ensuing search was the largest in Austrian history. 776 minivans were checked, including Priklopil’s. Police accepted his explanation that he had been home alone. As early as April 1998, a former police dog squad leader had flagged Priklopil by name and address.

That tip was never followed up, a failure that prompted government investigations years later. Priklopil had spent 4 years constructing a hidden cellar beneath his garage. 4 years of planning before he ever took anyone. The room measured approximately 5 square meters, barely larger than a bathroom, sat 3 meters underground, and was accessed through a 150 kg steel hatch concealed behind a heavy iron cabinet.

It was soundproof and windowless. It had evolved from a Cold War era bomb shelter built by Priklopil’s grandfather. A space designed to protect people had been turned into a prison. For the first 6 months, Natasha never left the underground cell. She lived in total darkness whenever Priklopil turned off the electricity at 8:00 p.m.

He beat her, starved her to keep her weak, shaved her head, and demanded to be called “My Lord.” She grew only 15 cm during more than 8 years and weighed just 48 kg at escape. He told her the house was rigged with explosives and that he would harm her and the neighbors if she tried to leave. After several years, she was allowed upstairs for housework and was occasionally taken out in public, always under threat.

Every moment of her life was controlled by this man. Can you imagine being held underground for months at a time with no natural light, no contact with the outside world, and being told the building would explode if you tried to leave? On August 23rd, 2006 at 12:53 p.m., while cleaning Priklopil’s van in the driveway, Natasha saw him step away to take a phone call.

This was her chance. She left the vacuum running so he would think she was still working and sprinted approximately 200 m through neighboring gardens. After bystanders on the street ignored her desperate pleas for help, she knocked on a 71-year-old neighbor’s window and identified herself. Police arrived at 1:04 p.m.

She had been held for 3,096 days. That same evening, Priklopil threw himself in front of a commuter train and was [clears throat] killed instantly. A 2013 international investigation involving the FBI and German BKA concluded Priklopil highly likely acted alone. The investigation highlighted several mistakes by Austrian police.

Colonel Franz Kröll, the lead investigator, was found dead of a gunshot wound in June 2010, officially ruled a suicide. Natasha lives in Vienna, completed her education in 2010, and owns the house in Strasshof where she was held. She purchased it from Priklopil’s estate to prevent it from becoming a macabre attraction.

The cellar was filled with concrete in 2011. She has published four books, including her 2010 autobiography, 3,096 days, and a 2022 self-help book, Stark sein. A 2013 feature film depicted her ordeal. In 2024, a planned documentary was postponed after her family revealed serious concerns about her well-being.

Her sister, Claudia Nestlberger, stated publicly that Natasha is mostly in her own world, that she is once again in a kind of captivity. But what if you did not even know you had been taken? What if you lived an entire life, served in the military, raised a family, and never knew your real name? Luis Armando Albino >> [music] >> Luis Armando Albino was born circa 1944 in Puerto Rico.

His mother, >> [music] >> Antonia Albino, moved the family of six from Puerto Rico to West Oakland, California in the summer of 1950. They lived on Brush [music] Street. Luis’s older brother, Roger, was [music] the last person to see him before the disappearance. On February 21st, 1951, Luis was playing with Roger at Jefferson [music] Square Park in West Oakland when a woman described as being in her 30s, wearing a bandana, approached him.

She spoke [music] to Luis in Spanish as he could not yet speak English and promised to buy him candy. Luis went with her. Roger followed briefly, then ran home to get help. Oakland police initially doubted Roger’s account, theorizing Luis had wandered into San Francisco Bay. The Coast Guard, >> [music] >> FBI, and soldiers from the Oakland Army Base joined the search.

Hundreds of people combed the area. No trace was found. Antonia Albino [music] visited the police missing persons bureau for a son years, almost daily [music] at first, then weekly, then monthly, and eventually annually. She carried the original newspaper clipping in her wallet until her death in 2005 at age [music] 92.

She never learned what happened to her son. For 54 [music] years, that woman walked around with a faded piece of newspaper in her purse, waiting for a phone call that never came. A mother who never stopped looking for over 50 years, carrying a newspaper clipping everywhere [music] she went. And she died without ever knowing.

The unidentified woman flew Luis to the East Coast where he was raised by a couple under a completely different name. He grew up believing they were his biological parents. He never questioned it. He had no reason to. >> [music] >> He served two tours in Vietnam as a US Marine, became a firefighter, married, and had children and grandchildren of his own.

He built [music] an entire life on a foundation that was a lie, and he never knew. The couple who raised him have [music] since died, and with them any chance of understanding how they came to have him. In 2020, Luis’s niece, [music] Alida Alaquín, took an online DNA ancestry test [music] and found a 22% match with an unknown man.

She reached out, but received no response. The trail went [music] cold again. In early 2024, inspired by a documentary about DNA reunifications, she renewed her search with fresh determination. She and her daughters spent hours comparing photos of the unknown man to old family pictures and found striking resemblances.

The jaw, the eyes, features that could not be coincidental. [music] At the Oakland Public Library, she sat at a microfilm machine and scrolled [music] through decades-old Oakland Tribune articles until she found a photo of her missing uncle. She was certain. She contacted the Oakland Police Missing Persons Unit in March 2024.

 [music] With assistance from the California Department of Justice and FBI, [music] agents located Albino on the East Coast, interviewed him, and collected a DNA sample on June 20th, >> [music] >> 2024. Investigators confirmed the match. On June 24th, 2024, Luis flew to Oakland [music] and embraced his niece, saying, “Thank you for finding me.

” 73 years, an entire lifetime lived under a different name, in a different state, with no idea who he really was. The next day, he reunited with Roger after 73 years. They grabbed each other [music] and had a really tight, long hug. Two brothers, both elderly now, holding each other after a lifetime [music] apart.

Luis returned for a 3-week visit in July 2024. Roger died in August 2024, at peace knowing his brother had been found. He had waited his entire life for that moment. No charges [music] have been filed. The woman who took Luis has died. Oakland police closed the missing person’s case, but consider the investigation still open jointly with the FBI.

 [music] Luis, now approximately 80, lives privately [music] on the East Coast. But the next case lasted even longer in terms of [music] captivity and involved something far more difficult to comprehend. Jaycee Dugard. Jaycee Lee Dugard was born on May the 3rd, 1980, in South Lake Tahoe, California. Her mother, Terry Dugard, married stepfather Carl Probyn when Jaycee was 7.

In 1990, the family moved to Meyers, near South Lake Tahoe, believing it was safer than the Los Angeles area. Jaycee was in fifth grade at the time she was taken. On June 10th, 1991, Jaycee was walking uphill to her school bus stop when a gray sedan pulled alongside her. Phillip Garrido, [music] 40, rolled down the window.

And when Jaycee approached, he used a stun device on her. His wife, Nancy Garrido, dragged the unconscious girl into the car. Carl Probyn witnessed the event [music] from near their home and chased the car on a bicycle, but could not keep up. The couple drove approximately 120 miles to their home in Antioch, California.

The district attorney later stated the Garridos had been going shopping for a victim [music] that day. Phillip Craig Garrido had an extensive criminal history. In 1976, he kidnapped a 25-year-old woman named [music] Katherine Callaway in Reno and held her in a warehouse for 5 and 1/2 hours. Convicted in 1977, he received a 50-year federal sentence, but was paroled from Leavenworth in January 1988 after serving only 11 years.

11 years out of 50. He married Nancy Bocanegra at Leavenworth in 1981 while she was visiting her imprisoned uncle. After parole, the couple moved to Antioch and lived with Phillip’s elderly mother. Within 3 years of his release, he had taken Jaycee. Jaycee was imprisoned in soundproofed sheds and tents behind the Garridos’ house enclosed by an 8-ft fence.

She was renamed Alissa and forbidden from using her real name. She had two daughters [music] by Garrido. The first born in 1994 and the second in 1997. Both births occurred without any medical assistance whatsoever. The Garridos [music] forced the girls to call Nancy mom and Jaycee their older sister. The daughters did not know Jaycee was their biological mother [music] until after their rescue.

Over the years, multiple neighbors filed complaints with authorities about activity [music] in the backyard. But parole searches never penetrated the compound. Officers visited the front of the house and left. [music] Nobody looked behind the fence. Nobody checked the sheds. How does a registered offender keep someone hidden in his own backyard for 18 years while parole officers visit his home and never find anything? On August 24th, 2009, Garrido brought his daughters to the UC Berkeley campus seeking permission to

hold a religious event. He handed out religious pamphlets and his behavior was immediately concerning. Special events manager Lisa Campbell found him erratic and the girls sullen and submissive. Something was not right. Campus police officer Ali Jacobs ran a background check [music] and discovered Garrido was a registered offender on parole.

She called his parole officer, Edward Santos Jr., who was shocked because he believed Garrido had no children. That single phone [music] call changed everything. On August 26th, Santos ordered Garrido to the parole office with the girls. He arrived with Nancy, the daughters, [music] and Jaycee introduced as Alyssa.

When a sergeant confronted him, Garrido confessed. [music] Only then did Dugard identify herself. She was reunited with her mother Terry [music] after 18 years, 4 months, and 16 days. On June 2nd, 2011, Phillip was sentenced to 431 years to life, and Nancy to 36 years to life. In her victim impact statement, read by her mother, Jaycee wrote that she chose not to be there because she refused to waste another second of her life in his presence.

In July 2010, California approved a $20 million settlement for failures by the Department of Corrections in supervising Garrido’s parole. Nancy Garrido becomes eligible for parole in August 2029. Jaycee now lives at an undisclosed location in California. She published two books, A Stolen Life and Freedom, My Book of Firsts, and founded the JAYC Foundation, providing [music] animal assisted therapy for families in crisis.

Her daughters attended college and live privately. But the next case involved not one [music] person held captive, but three. All imprisoned in the same house on the same street in Cleveland for a decade. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight. Amanda Marie Berry, born April 22nd, 1986, disappeared on April 21st, 2003, [music] the day before her 17th birthday, after leaving her job at a Burger King on Lorraine Avenue in Cleveland.

Ariel Castro offered her a ride home. She knew his children and trusted him. Michelle Knight, born April 23rd, [music] 1981, vanished on August 23rd, 2002 at age 21. Castro lured her with an offer of a puppy. Georgina DeJesus, born February 13th, 1990, [music] disappeared on April 2nd, 2004. She was a friend of Castro’s daughter, Arlene.

Castro offered her a ride while she was walking home from school. Ariel Castro, born [music] July 10th, 1960 in Yauco, Puerto Rico, worked as a Cleveland School District bus driver. He drove a school bus every day, trusted with other [music] people’s children. While three women were chained inside his home, he had a documented history of severe harm toward his former partner, Grimilda Figueroa.

He broke her nose, [music] her ribs, her arms, and caused a brain tumor. Despite six police visits to the home, he was never indicted. He kept the three women imprisoned at his home at 2207 Seymour Avenue in Cleveland’s [music] Tremont neighborhood. The women were chained in locked bedrooms with boarded up windows.

Over 90 lb of chains, nearly 100 ft worth, were later recovered from the house. They were fed one meal a day and allowed to shower [music] at most twice weekly. Michelle Knight suffered permanent injuries during captivity, including facial damage, hearing loss, >> [music] >> and nerve damage. Amanda Berry had a daughter, Jocelyn, on Christmas Day, 2006.

Knight helped deliver the baby under impossible conditions. Castro audaciously attended at least two vigils for the missing women and even participated in a search party, >> [music] >> pretending to care. His son Anthony, a journalism student, unknowingly interviewed Gina DeJesus’ mother >> [music] >> for an article about her missing daughter.

He had no idea his own father was the one [music] responsible. How does a man show up to a vigil looking for the very people he is holding prisoner in his own home? On May 6th, 2013, [music] Castro left the house. For the first time in years, Berry found the inner door unlocked. She screamed for help through [music] the bolted storm door.

Neighbor Charles Ramsey heard her and helped kick out the bottom panel. Berry crawled through with 6-year-old Jocelyn in her arms. Berry’s 911 call became one of the most famous in American history. She said she was Amanda Berry, that she had been missing for 10 years, and that she was free. Officers rushed to the house and found Knight inside.

 [music] She leaped into an officer’s arms, repeating over and over that they had saved her. Castro [music] was indicted on 977 counts. He pleaded guilty to 937. On August 1st, 2013, he was sentenced to life without parole plus 1,000 years. Castro told the court he was not a monster, that he was sick. Knight responded [music] directly to him.

She told him she had spent 11 years in a terrible situation, and that his was just beginning. On September 3rd, [music] 2013, just 1 month into his sentence, Castro [music] was found dead in his cell at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio. His death was ruled a suicide. The house at 2207 Seymour Avenue was demolished on August 7th, [music] 2013.

The community wanted it gone. Amanda Berry now hosts the missing segment [music] on Fox 8 News in Cleveland, partnering with the US Marshals to help locate missing persons. Her daughter Jocelyn is described as [music] thriving. Gina DeJesus co-founded the Cleveland Family Center for missing children and adults in [music] 2018.

Located deliberately near Seymour Avenue. Michelle Knight, who legally changed her name to >> [music] >> Lily Rose Lee, married Miguel Rodriguez on May 6th, 2016, the third anniversary of her escape. She founded Lily’s Ray of Hope and Unleashed [music] Animal Rescue. In April 2025, she spoke at the Riverview Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, about awareness [music] for survivors.

Berry and DeJesus co-authored Hope, a memoir [music] of survival. Knight published Finding Me in Life After Darkness. If you have made it this far >> [music] >> and enjoy content like this, consider subscribing to the channel. We cover cases just like these every single week. And the next five [music] are just as unbelievable.

But the next case involves a baby whose parents were found dead, and nobody even knew the baby existed. Holly Cues. Harold Dean. Claus Jr. and Tina Gail Lynn married on June 25th, 1979 in Volusia County, Florida. Their daughter Holly Marie Cues was born on January 24th, 1980. In the summer of 1980, >> [music] >> the young family relocated from New Smyrna Beach, Florida to Lewisville, Tarrant County, Texas, where Dean pursued carpentry work.

They drove a 1978 burgundy AMC Concord belonging to Dean’s mother, Donna Casasantra. The couple fell out of contact with their families [music] around late October 1980. Nobody heard from them. No phone calls, no letters. Then on January 12th, 1981, a civilian’s dog found remains in a wooded area off Wallaceville Road in northern Harris County, Texas, roughly 250 miles from Lewisville.

Search parties found two bodies. [music] Dean had been beaten to death. Tina had been strangled. Baby Holly was nowhere to be found. There was no sign of her anywhere. The bodies remained unidentified for 41 [music] years. They were buried in anonymous graves at Harris County Cemetery number two with no names on the markers.

Two people gone without a trace. And somewhere out there, their baby daughter was alive. So, there is a baby out there somewhere. But nobody investigating even knows she exists. [music] In July 2011, the bodies were exhumed for DNA extraction. No match emerged for nearly a decade. Then in late 2020, the case was given to Identifinders International, [music] a California genetic genealogy organization.

Forensic genealogist Misty [music] Gillis traced the male’s DNA to a Kentucky family named Klaus, who had moved to Florida. When genealogist Allison Peacock informed Dean’s sister Debbie Brooks about the identification, [music] her immediate reaction was, “Did they find the baby?” Peacock was confused. She responded, “What baby?” Investigators had not known a child existed.

 [music] For 41 years, nobody working this case knew there was a missing baby. That single question changed the entire investigation. Suddenly, it was not just an unsolved homicide. It was a missing person case, too. Identification was confirmed by October 2021 and publicly announced on January 12th, 2022, the 41st anniversary [music] of the discovery.

Tina’s identification was NC. MEC’s 200th unidentified case solved. After the Klauses vanished, family members received a call from someone identifying herself as Sister Susan from Los Angeles, claiming Dean and Tina had joined a religious group and no longer wanted family contact. The family was devastated, but had no way to verify the claim.

The group was later identified as The Christ Family, a nomadic cult founded by Charles Franklin McHugh. Members wore white robes, went barefoot, practiced vegetarianism, and renounced worldly possessions. They drifted across the country with no fixed address. Investigators determined Dean and Tina joined the cult around October 1980.

Holly was surrendered to a church in Yuma, Arizona by barefoot, robed women who presented Holly’s birth certificate and a note purportedly from Dean waving parental rights. Holly believes her parents were trying to leave the cult when they were killed. Investigators traced Holly’s sealed birth certificate, obtained a court order to unseal it, >> [music] >> and located her.

On June 7th, 2022, which was also Dean’s 63rd birthday, two detectives found Holly working as a waitress at a diner in Cushing, Oklahoma. She was 42 years old, married to a man named Troy, with five children and two grandchildren. She had been adopted by Pastor Philip McGoldrick and raised in a loving home with no knowledge of her biological parents’ fate.

She had no idea they had been found dead in a Texas woods 41 years earlier. Holly met roughly 25 relatives via video call that same day, and traveled to Florida in November 2022 for an in-person reunion. No arrests have been come made in the parents’ deaths. [music] The Texas Attorney General’s Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit continues to investigate.

In 2023, investigators returned to the site where the bodies were found with search dogs and metal detectors looking for new evidence. Holly published a book, Finding Baby Holly, and the family established Genealogy for Justice, a nonprofit dedicated to solving cold cases through DNA. [music] The case was featured on ABC’s 20/20 in November 2023.

Someone still got away with what happened to Dean and Tina. Their daughter is alive, but their killer remains unknown. But what about a baby taken from a hospital just hours after being born and then raised by the woman who took her. Kamiyah Mobley Kamiyah Tarasai Tasha Mobley was born on July 10th, 1998 at University Medical Center in Jacksonville, Florida.

Her mother, Shanara Mobley, was 16 years old. Her father, Craig Aiken, was approximately 20 and incarcerated at the time. At approximately 3:00 p.m., just 8 hours after birth, a woman dressed in a floral blue smock and green scrub pants walked out of the hospital with Kamiyah tucked [music] into her purse. She had roamed the hospital since 1:00 a.m.

Moving through the hallways like she belonged there. She spent 2 hours watching the nursery through the glass, studying which babies were with their mothers and which were alone. Then she introduced [music] herself to the teenage mother as an assigned nurse. She sat with Shanara for 5 hours. She held the baby.

She helped with feedings. She built trust. And then she told Shanara she needed to take the baby for [music] routine tests. Shanara handed her daughter over and the woman walked out the front door and disappeared into the parking lot. 8 hours old. That is all the time this baby had with her real mother before someone carried her out of a hospital in a purse.

Gloria Denise Williams, approximately 33 years old, lived in Walterboro, South Carolina. She had suffered a miscarriage shortly before and had lost custody of her two young sons. She was in an abusive relationship and told everyone around her she was pregnant. She drove to Jacksonville, she later testified, on autopilot.

She did not plan it. She just went. Williams forged documents, obtained a social security number using a deceased person’s identity, [music] and raised Kamiyah as Alexis Kelly Manigo in Walterboro. She enrolled her in school, took her to the doctor, >> [music] >> celebrated her birthdays. She was regarded in the community as a good mother.

For 18 years, nobody suspected a thing. Around age 16, Kamiyah [music] tried to get a job and needed documents Williams could not produce. No birth certificate, no valid social security card, nothing that checked out. [music] Williams eventually confessed that she had taken Kamiyah from a hospital in Florida 18 years earlier.

 [music] Kamiyah was devastated, but chose to keep the secret. She protected the woman who had taken her. In August [music] 2016, NCMEC received tips and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office investigated. DNA testing in January 2017 confirmed the match. On January 13th, 2017, Gloria Williams was arrested. The next day, Kamiyah met her biological parents for the first time at the Walterboro Police Department.

She was 18 years old. She had never seen their faces before. At the detention center, separated by a mesh screen, the sobbing [music] 18-year-old told Williams she loved her and called her mama. Williams pleaded guilty in February 2018 to kidnapping and interference with custody. On June 8th, 2018, she was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The judge noted that no physical harm was associated with the crime. Williams has filed multiple appeals, including a 2024 motion to withdraw her guilty plea. An evidentiary hearing remains pending >> [music] >> as of September 2025. Her scheduled release date is approximately July 2032. She remains incarcerated at Lowell Correctional Institution [music] in Ocala, Florida.

Kamiyah’s relationship with her biological mother, Shanara, has been extremely strained. Shanara once told a reporter that she truly felt in her heart she wished Kamiyah had not come back. That is a devastating thing for a mother to say about the daughter who was taken from her. Kamiyah’s bond with biological father, Craig Aiken, is stronger.

And she moved to Jacksonville to live with him in December 2019. She continues to refer to Williams as [music] mother and wrote a handwritten letter to the court in 2022 supporting a sentence reduction, writing that she needed her mother home. Now 27, Kamiyah is described as college educated and splits time between Florida and South Carolina.

The case inspired the 2020 Lifetime movie Stolen by My Mother, The Kamiyah Mobley Story, starring Niecy Nash. But what happens when the person who takes you is your own parent and they hide you in another country for over a decade? Sabrina Allen Sabrina Fair Laurenz Allen was born on May 30th, 1997 in Austin, Texas.

Her father, Greg Allen, was an engineering scientist at the University of Texas. Her mother, Dara Marie Lauren, was later diagnosed with a personality disorder. After divorcing around 2000, Greg was granted primary custody. A court-ordered psychological evaluation determined Dara was likely to act in her own interest instead of her daughter’s.

On April 19th, 2002, Greg dropped Sabrina at a family charity center for a court-ordered weekend visit with Dara. Sabrina said, “Daddy, don’t ever forget me.” Those were the last words Greg heard from his daughter for 12 years. Dara was to return her on April 21st, but never appeared. She enlisted a co-worker to drive them to Laredo, Texas, where, at a time when no documents were needed to cross the border, she purchased a bus ticket into Mexico.

She changed both their names multiple times, dyed Sabrina’s blonde hair dark, reportedly underwent plastic surgery to alter her own appearance, and told Sabrina her father had committed suicide and her grandparents were dead. Sabrina grew up believing she had no family left. She believed every word.

 She had no reason not to. What kind of person tells their own daughter that her father is dead just to keep her hidden? The FBI issued a federal warrant on May 10th, 2002. The case was profiled twice on America’s Most Wanted. Greg Allen spent his life savings, hired private investigators, moved to Mexico City, and learned Spanish.

He uprooted his entire existence to find her. In June 2003, authorities located Dara and Sabrina in Mexico City, but the response was too slow. By the time police arrived, they were gone. They vanished again into the country, moving from place to place. In 2008, Greg hired private investigator Philip Klein of KYC Texas.

Klein worked the case for years. A confidential informant eventually led investigators to a small apartment in Papalotla de Xicohténcatl, Tlaxcala, Mexico, a town of roughly 3,800 people in the middle of nowhere. This was the kind of place you go when you do not want to be found. After 2 weeks of careful surveillance to confirm identities, a joint task force of FBI, US Marshals, and Mexican Federal Police moved in.

They arrested Dara on September 30th, 2014, at 11:32 a.m. Sabrina, now 17, was recovered minutes later. She had been missing for 12 years, 5 months, and 11 days. She had spent nearly her entire childhood believing her father was dead and that she had no family waiting for her. Dara pleaded guilty on December 21st, 2015, to aggravated kidnapping and interference with custody.

She was sentenced to 6 years with approximately 1 and 1/2 years credit for time served. Her appeal on double jeopardy grounds was denied in 2017. Sabrina, who now goes by Fair, suffered severe PTSD. She had not attended school in years. She did not know her father was alive. She initially refused to see him. With therapy from Dr.

 Rebecca Bailey, a specialist in reunification cases, she gradually recovered. By late 2015, she had graduated high school and enrolled in college with aspirations to become a doctor. She and her father rebuilt their relationship slowly, one conversation at a time. The family has maintained strict privacy since. No public updates exist from 2024 through 2026.

But the next case involves a young person who did something most people in his situation never could. He escaped not just for himself, but to save someone else. Steven Stayner. Steven Gregory Stayner was born on April 18th, 1965 in Merced, California to Delbert and Kay Stayner. He was the third of five children, including older brother Cary Anthony Stayner.

On December 4th, 1972, Steven was walking home from school when Ervin Edward Murphy, posing as a church representative, >> [music] >> lured him to a car driven by Kenneth Eugene Parnell. Parnell, a convicted predator who worked as a night auditor at the Yosemite Lodge, drove Steven to a cabin in Cathy’s Valley, Mariposa County.

Remarkably, the cabin was just several hundred feet from Steven’s maternal grandfather’s home. Parnell told Steven his parents could not afford so many children and did not want him anymore. He pretended to call Steven’s mother, then claimed she did not want him back. A 7-year-old told by an adult that his own mother does not want him.

Steven believed it. He had no reason not to. He was renamed Dennis Gregory Parnell and enrolled at a local school under the false name. He was harmed beginning the first night. A woman named Barbara Mathias lived with them for 18 months and also mistreated Steven. Parnell gave the boy drugs and alcohol and alternated between control and permissiveness, making sure Steven felt dependent on him.

They moved through multiple locations across rural California from Kathy’s Valley to Santa Rosa to Campeche, always staying in isolated areas. As Steven got older, Parnell’s interest shifted to seeking younger victims. Steven recognized what was happening and he intentionally sabotaged multiple attempts by Parnell to take other children, putting himself at risk to protect them.

On February 14th, 1980, Parnell paid teenager accomplice Randall Sean Porman $50 to take [music] 5-year-old Timothy White from Ukiah, California. Parnell dyed the boy’s hair and tried to pass him off as Steven’s younger brother. Steven watched this happen and made a decision. He was determined not to let another person [music] suffer what he had endured.

On March 1st, 1980, while Parnell was at his night job, Steven took Timmy by the hand and walked to the road. They hitchhiked approximately 40 miles to Ukiah in the dark. At the police station, Steven struggled to remember his own full identity. It had been 7 years since anyone had called him by his real name.

His written statement became the defining line of the case. I know my first name is Steven. By daybreak on March 2nd, Parnell was arrested [music] and both were reunited with their families. Parnell was convicted [music] in two separate 1981 trials. He received 7 years, the maximum under California law at the time, and was paroled in 1985 after only 5 years.

5 years. He held Steven for 7 and served less time than the years he stole. He was never charged with the mistreatment due to jurisdictional issues and statutes of limitations. The system let him walk. In January 2003, at 71, Parnell was arrested again. This time for trying to buy a 4-year-old for $500. He had not changed.

Convicted in 2004, he was sentenced to 25 years to life under California’s three strikes law. He died in prison on January 21st, 2008 at 76. Murphy, the man who helped lure Steven in the first place, received 5 years and was paroled after just two. The Stainer case prompted California to change its sentencing laws for cases involving children.

Steven struggled profoundly to readjust to normal life. His father refused counseling, believing the family should just move on. Steven was bullied at school for what had happened to him and eventually dropped [music] out. He married Jodi Edmondson in 1985 and had two children, Ashley and Steven Jr. He tried to build a normal life.

He worked with awareness groups and served as an advisor for the Emmy nominated 1989 NBC miniseries I Know My First Name Is Steven, in which he made a cameo appearance. On September 16th, 1989, at just 24 years old, Steven was killed in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident in [music] Merced. He survived 7 years of captivity only to die on a road in his hometown.

500 people attended his funeral. 14-year-old Timothy White, the boy Steven had saved, served as a pallbearer. White later became a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy before passing away from a pulmonary embolism on April 1st, 2010, at age 35. A statue of Steven holding Timmy’s hand during their escape now stands in Applegate Park in Merced.

Steven’s older brother, Cary Stayner, became the Yosemite Killer, taking four lives in 1999. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002. His defense cited Steven’s disappearance as a traumatizing factor in his life. He remains on death row at San Quentin. The 2022 [music] Hulu docuseries Captive Audience, A Real American Horror Story, explored the family’s devastating dual ordeal.

One brother taken, the other becoming a predator. One family, two unimaginable tragedies. But the final case on our list did not involve a predator or a stranger. It involved [music] parents who hid their own daughter behind a staircase for over two years. Paisley Shultis Paisley JoAnn Shultis was the daughter of Kirk D. Shultis Jr.

 and Kimberly Cooper who lived in Spencer, New York. In 2019, Paisley’s maternal grandmother was granted court-appointed custody of Paisley and her older sister after raising concerns about the parents’ behavior. Kirk Jr. had been arrested in North Carolina for possession of controlled substances. When authorities moved to place Paisley with the grandmother, the parents panicked and fled with her.

Paisley was reported missing on July the 13th, [music] 2019 from Cayuga Heights, New York near Ithaca. Kirk Jr. told authorities that Kimberly had moved to Pennsylvania and he did not know his daughter’s whereabouts. In reality, Paisley and her mother were hidden at the home of the paternal grandfather, Kirk Shultis Sr.

at 35 Fawn Road, Saugerties, New York, roughly 160 miles east. The basement contained a full apartment with a bedroom decorated with Paisley’s name on the top watts wall. The home was equipped with security cameras. Police visited the residence approximately a dozen times over two-plus years. But residents were adversarial and never permitted access to the basement.

They answered the door, denied everything, >> [music] >> and sent police away. Each time officers arrived, police believed Paisley and [music] her mother hid in a secret compartment built into the staircase, an enclosure containing blankets, a pillow, and clothing. It had been purpose-built to conceal them. During the hidden years, Paisley had not attended school, could not read or write, and had not seen a doctor.

She had been kept inside that house, away from the world, for over 2 years. Police visited a dozen times. A dozen. And every single time, the people they were looking for were hiding behind a staircase in the same house. The officers were standing feet away from them and had no idea. On Valentine’s Day, 2022, police received a fresh and factual tip that Paisley was at the Saugerties home.

This time, they were not leaving without answers. Uniformed officers stationed outside at 4:00 p.m. A search warrant was issued at 8:06 p.m. Kirk Jr. and Kirk Sr. again denied any knowledge, same as every other time. But this time, for the first time, [music] detectives searched every room, including the basement.

Detective Eric Teal noticed something odd about the staircase construction. The wood did not match. The angles were wrong. Shining his flashlight through a gap [music] between a stair and riser, he spotted a blanket. Using a Halligan tool, a firefighting pry bar, officers removed wooden steps and discovered a pair of tiny feet.

They found Paisley and her mother, Kimberly Cooper, crammed into the small, cold, and wet space, where they had apparently been hiding for approximately 5 hours while the adults upstairs lied to police. All three adults were arrested. Kirk Jr. and Kirk Sr. were charged with custodial interference in the first degree and endangering the welfare of its own child.

 [music] Kimberly Cooper was charged with custodial interference in the second degree and child endangerment. All pleaded not guilty. By July 2023, Cooper’s criminal charges were adjourned contemplating dismissal, and custody of Paisley was returned to her mother. Her attorney [music] stated that this was a story about a mother who loved her child fiercely, and that the system had gotten it wrong.

Kirk Shultis Jr. subsequently got into further legal trouble. He was arrested three times between December 2022 and March [music] 2023 for a string of burglaries in Saugerties, one involving $75,000 in cash. In April 2024, he pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary, >> [music] >> a class C violent felony. Paisley is now approximately 10 or 11 years old and living with her mother and older sister.

No public updates on the family have emerged in 2025 or 2026. This was all from our side today. Thanks for watching. Click here to check out another video.