- 2 months ago
These disturbing cases will haunt your nightmares... Join us as we examine history's most chilling abductions that shocked the world. From politically motivated kidnappings to children taken from their homes, these horrifying crimes changed laws, sparked nationwide searches, and in some cases, remain unsolved decades later. Which case do you find most disturbing? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:00But right now, it's crunch time for the most high-profile child abduction case in history.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at 20 of the most disturbing kidnappings throughout history.
00:11For this woman, stepping onto this school bus is an act of courage.
00:15Laura Yazzie Fanning was just five years old in kindergarten
00:18when 26 of her fellow classmates and their bus driver were kidnapped and buried alive.
00:25Aldo Moro.
00:2630 years ago this month, the extreme-left terrorist group, the Red Brigades,
00:31murdered former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, who they'd kidnapped and held for nearly two months.
00:36Regarded as one of Italy's most important post-war leaders,
00:40Aldo Moro served as the country's prime minister between 1963 and 68, and 1974 to 76.
00:46Just two years later, on March 16, 1978,
00:50Moro was kidnapped by a far-left terrorist group called the Red Brigades.
00:53The group ambushed Moro's convoy and killed five of his bodyguards before taking him hostage.
00:59Moro was held in a secret location for 55 days,
01:02while the terrorists demanded the release of various imprisoned members.
01:05The Italian government, led at the time by Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti,
01:09adopted a strict line of firmness and refused to negotiate.
01:13So, on May 9, 1978, Moro was murdered, and his body was later found in the trunk of a car.
01:19You've been accused of refusing to negotiate with the Red Brigades because you actually wanted Moro to be killed.
01:26Why would I have wanted Moro's death?
01:29If I hadn't refused to negotiate, the state would have collapsed,
01:33and we would have found ourselves in a crisis.
01:36Polly Klass.
01:37It's Friday night, in October of 1993.
01:42And in Northern California, three junior high school girls are having a slumber party.
01:47Slumber parties should be a time of fun,
01:49but it was anything but for 12-year-old Polly Klass of Petaluma, California.
01:53On October 1, 1993, an intruder, later identified as Richard Allen Davis,
01:58entered Polly's bedroom armed with a knife, tied up her friends, and abducted her.
02:03The case drew national attention, with widespread media coverage and massive volunteer searches.
02:08Actress Winona Ryder also personally offered a $200,000 reward for her return,
02:13having grown up in Petaluma.
02:14But despite the many prayers and massive search effort, the story ended in tragedy.
02:19Davis was arrested for her kidnapping, and he led authorities to her remains in rural Sonoma County.
02:25He was subsequently sentenced to death, showing zero remorse during his dramatic sentencing.
02:30He led them to a field near an abandoned lumber mill.
02:36Out in the field, under some boards, investigators found the body of Polly Klass.
02:41Christopher Abeyta.
02:42In tonight's special report, a local family is still holding on to hope that their missing son
02:47will be found after more than two decades.
02:50One of the most horrifying kidnappings imaginable is when a baby is swiped from their own crib.
02:55That's what happened on July 15, 1986, when seven-month-old Christopher Abeyta was abducted
03:00from his family's home in Colorado Springs.
03:03When his mother awoke, Christopher was already gone, and the front door was partially open.
03:07Abeyta's father, Gil, believed that a woman named Emma Bradshaw was responsible,
03:11as Gil had just ended an affair with her, and she had a history of break-ins.
03:16However, no charges were ever laid against her.
03:19Despite nationwide searches and the family's decades-long efforts to find him,
03:23Christopher has never been located, and both of his parents have since passed away without
03:27receiving any answers.
03:29Gil says he thinks Bradshaw wanted a lasting relationship with him,
03:33And Christopher got in the way.
03:35I wasn't going to abandon him or anything.
03:37I had no other plans.
03:39And so she knew that.
03:41She knew how I felt.
03:43And he became in the way.
03:45Emmett Till
03:46Mr. Brian, you ain't got to do this.
03:50You're just a young boy.
03:51Better shut them eyes.
03:52America saw one of its most infamous lynchings on August 28, 1955.
03:57Black teenager Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi when he was accused of
04:02whistling at local white woman Carolyn Bryant.
04:04Days later, her husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Milam kidnapped Till from his
04:09uncle's home.
04:10They brutally beat the teen before executing him and throwing his body into the Tallahatchie River,
04:16weighing it down with a cotton gin fan.
04:17When Till's body was finally recovered, Emmett's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, held an open casket
04:23funeral in Chicago, showcasing Till's grotesque body to the public and exposing the nation to
04:28the horrors of racial violence. His killers were acquitted by an all-white jury in 1955.
04:34Bo's body was found in a river. Preacher just identified him to the sheriff.
04:40He recognized the ring Bo was wearing.
04:47I'm so sorry, Mamie.
04:50The princes in the tower.
04:51Those uncles which you want were dangerous. Your grace attended to their sugared words,
04:57but looked not on the poison of their hearts. God keep you from them and from such false friends.
05:03We're going back to the 15th century for this one. In 1483, Edward V of England and his younger
05:09brother Richard were lodged in the Tower of London by their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
05:13This was supposedly to prepare for Edward's upcoming coronation, but in reality, it was
05:18mostly a power play by Richard to have himself crowned king, and he claimed the throne as Richard
05:23III. Meanwhile, the princes were never seen again. Many contemporaries believed they were
05:29murdered, with virtually all of the blame going towards Richard III. In 1674, two small human
05:35skeletons were discovered inside the tower, and while it has never been proven, they have long
05:40been thought to be those of the missing children. Dream on thy cousins, smothered in the tower.
05:46Thy nephew's souls bid thee despair and die.
05:51The Ariel Castro Kidnappings.
05:53Help me, I'm Amanda Berry. I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm here,
05:59I'm free now.
05:59Between 2002 and 2004, Cleveland man Ariel Castro kidnapped three young women off the street,
06:05Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus. He held them captive in his nondescript home for
06:11roughly a decade, subjecting them to repeated physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.
06:16The women were chained up, forced to live in the dark under deplorable conditions, and even
06:21impregnated on multiple occasions. But in May 2013, Amanda Berry managed to escape and alerted a neighbor,
06:28leading to the rescue of all three victims. Their captor was arrested that same day.
06:33Castro eventually took his own life while serving his sentence, and his house was demolished and
06:38turned into a small green space.
06:40I was finally face-to-face with the man I remember seeing through that broken door,
06:44my personal hero.
06:46So when they say, dude, you're a hero, man, good looking, I say, man, you need to shut up.
06:52Really?
06:52And realize who the hero is.
06:54Graham Thorne.
06:55Went into the place, and Mrs. Thorne was there, and the phone rang.
06:58She answered, and then she handed it to me. I took the receiver and spoke into the phone,
07:04and this bloke said, I've got your son, and he's only 25,000 pounds, and if I don't get
07:11it by five o'clock, I'll feed him to the sharks.
07:13It's not inconceivable to say that the murder of Graham Thorne changed Australia forever.
07:18His parents had recently won 100,000 pounds in a lottery, and details of the win were published
07:23in the press, including, bizarrely, their names and even their home address.
07:28Naturally, this made them huge targets.
07:30On July 7th, 1960, 8-year-old Graham Thorne was abducted while on his way to school by
07:35Stephen Bradley, a Hungarian immigrant who sought 25,000 pounds and used Thorne as ransom.
07:41Unfortunately, the boy's body was found in some bushes about six weeks later,
07:45and Bradley was found to have murdered him.
07:48The case shocked the nation, leading to Bradley's conviction for murder and sparking changes in
07:53laws around the publicity of lottery winnings.
07:55When those fathers, or most of the fathers, came home from work, they got together and
07:59walked across and made an inspection then, and the result of that was that they found
08:05the body of Graham Thorne.
08:07Patty Hurst.
08:08This story had it all.
08:10A pretty young rich girl snatched from her home by terrorists, and then there were plot
08:15twists that no one could predict.
08:17It was a made-for-television kidnapping.
08:19In February of 1974, 19-year-old Patricia Hurst, the granddaughter of newspaper tycoon
08:25William Randolph Hurst, was kidnapped from her California apartment by a left-wing revolutionary
08:30group called the Symbionese Liberation Army.
08:32The SLA demanded that her wealthy family fund a massive food distribution operation to the
08:37poor.
08:37Weeks later, Hurst began appearing in SLA propaganda tapes, declaring support for the group, and adopting
08:44the nickname Tanya.
08:45In April, she was even photographed wielding a rifle during a bank robbery conducted by
08:50the SLA, fueling debate over whether she had been coerced or had willingly joined the
08:54group.
08:55Hurst was eventually found in 1975 and convicted of bank robbery, but her seven-year sentence
09:00was later commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
09:02Social media can still be brutal to Patty Hurst, even to this day, with many people saying that
09:08a rich girl got away with something that a poor girl wouldn't have.
09:12Jacob Wetterling.
09:13There was a boy who loved all the things young boys do, football and hockey, growing up in
09:20the seemingly innocent oasis of a small town.
09:24One day, nearly ten years ago, that innocence was taken away.
09:28Stories like this are what fueled the stranger danger craze of the 1980s and effectively ended
09:33the era of free-roaming children.
09:35Around 9 p.m. on October 22, 1989, Jacob Wetterling was riding bikes with his brother and a friend
09:41when they were approached by a masked man.
09:44The man was armed with a gun and forced the boys into a ditch.
09:47He then selected Wetterling and drove away with him, leaving the others unharmed.
09:51The boy remained missing for nearly three decades.
09:55Fast forward to 2016, when a man named Danny Heinrich confessed to abducting, assaulting,
10:00and murdering Wetterling.
10:02He then took authorities to the boy's remains, which were found in a pasture outside Painesville,
10:06Minnesota, and identified by dental records.
10:09Good evening.
10:09A stunning cold case confession today in Minnesota appears to bring a 27-year-old murder mystery
10:15that gripped the nation to an end.
10:17As a family that has lived with decades of anguish and uncertainty,
10:21finally learned what happened to their little boy.
10:24Ursula Herrmann
10:25Pretty neat, huh?
10:32This 10-year-old German girl is perhaps better known as the girl in the box, and for rather
10:37unfortunate reasons.
10:38Herrmann was abducted while riding home on her bicycle on September 15, 1981.
10:43Soon after, her family received a ransom demand for 2 million Deutschmarks.
10:47The family agreed on paying the ransom, but unfortunately, it was already too late.
10:52About three weeks after Herrmann's disappearance, her dead body was found inside a box in the
10:57Weingarten Forest.
10:58Her abductor had placed her in there with blankets, food, books, and even a radio,
11:03intending on keeping her alive.
11:05However, she did not receive sufficient oxygen inside the box and quickly suffocated,
11:10likely within hours of being placed inside.
11:12I built it for the kids in the neighborhood.
11:14I thought they could use it as a kind of a clubhouse or, I don't know.
11:20You want to be the first one to try it out?
11:25Really?
11:25Yeah, sure, yeah.
11:27Go ahead.
11:28Be fun.
11:29Julie Dart and Stephanie Slater.
11:31We didn't hear from him for quite a while, but we were always sure he would come back.
11:35And sure enough, in October, as you are nowhere near on my tail, the time has come to collect
11:42my 140,000 pounds from you.
11:44On July 9, 1991, Michael Sams kidnapped Julie Dart and took her to his warehouse in Nottinghamshire,
11:50where he chained her up and had her write her own ransom note, demanding 140,000 pounds
11:55from her boyfriend.
11:56However, he had no intention of freeing Dart and murdered her shortly after.
12:01The following January, Sams kidnapped a second victim, Stephanie Slater, and took her to his
12:06workshop.
12:07He held her captive in a makeshift coffin-like box for eight days, threatening her life and
12:12again demanding a ransom.
12:13This time, he made good on his promise, and Slater was released unharmed after her employer
12:18paid 175,000 pounds.
12:21Luckily, Sams was arrested after his story appeared on Crimewatch, and he was sentenced
12:25to life in prison.
12:27And then he said, never mind.
12:30Even now, I think about it.
12:32I go cold.
12:33Have you got the money?
12:34Who's this place?
12:35Never mind.
12:36Have you got the money?
12:37I just went hysterical.
12:38I knew immediately it was his voice.
12:41John Paul Getty III.
12:42We would like to publish it, Ms. Getty, the photograph of the ear.
12:50It's news, and we are a newspaper.
12:55In July 1973, John Paul Getty III, the 16-year-old grandson of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, was kidnapped
13:02by a Calabrian crime syndicate.
13:04His wealthy grandfather refused to pay the $17 million ransom.
13:07But after months of negotiations, Getty's severed ear was mailed to a local newspaper.
13:13It was then that Getty agreed to pay, but only what was tax-deductible, while the boy's
13:17father borrowed the remainder at 4% interest.
13:20Getty was freed after five months in captivity, but he never fully recovered.
13:25He quickly developed issues with substance use, which in turn led to a stroke that left
13:29him with paralysis, unable to speak, and with nearly zero sight at just 25.
13:33He lived in poor health until his death in 2011 at the age of 54.
13:39My tax attorneys have discovered that while ransom payments are not deductible under the
13:44tax code, I could write off the interest if I loan the ransom money to my son.
13:51Jamie Kloss.
13:52Jake Patterson can never take away my courage.
13:57He thought he could control me, but he couldn't.
14:00I feel like what he did is what a coward would do.
14:05I was brave, and he was not.
14:07Shortly before 1 a.m. on October 15, 2018, 21-year-old Jake Patterson approached the house
14:14of 13-year-old Jamie Kloss in Barron, Wisconsin.
14:17Patterson had reportedly become fixated on Jamie after seeing her board a school bus and wanted
14:21her for himself.
14:22Patterson shot Kloss' father through the door, then barged into the house and found Jamie
14:27and her mother, Denise, huddled in the bathroom.
14:29He then bound Jamie with duct tape, murdered Denise, and then led Jamie from the house.
14:35He took the kidnapped girl to a remote cabin and kept her there for 88 days, often trapping
14:40her directly under his bed.
14:41Luckily, she managed to escape on January 10, 2019, and Patterson was sentenced to life
14:47in prison.
14:48Right under the deck, you've got these two small windows that lead to what looks like
14:52a basement.
14:53Could this be where Jamie was held captive?
14:56Amber Hagerman.
14:57Somebody kidnapped Amber.
15:00Thank God, Richard.
15:01Nine-year-old Amber Hagerman has been missing since Saturday.
15:05Don't hurt my baby.
15:06Please.
15:07She's an innocent child.
15:09Please.
15:10Surely you've heard of the Amber Alert?
15:12Well, that was created after the events of Amber Hagerman's dramatic disappearance.
15:16In January 1996, the nine-year-old child was abducted while riding her bike near her grandparents'
15:21home in Arlington, Texas.
15:23The police were quickly informed, resulting in a massive search of the surrounding area.
15:28Tragically, her body was found near a creek just four days later, and her murderer was
15:33never caught.
15:34Amber's case horrified the country and highlighted the need for rapid community alerts in the
15:38case of child abductions.
15:40In response, authorities created the country's first Amber Alert system, which was named in
15:45the late girl's memory.
15:46The condition that we found, Amber, it was difficult to collect some evidence.
15:54But detectives say with new DNA technology, there is hope.
15:58Madeline McCann.
15:59The world hasn't stopped looking for Madeline McCann.
16:02The sweet three-year-old snatched from a Portuguese seaside resort in Praia de Luzes in 2007.
16:12The story of Madeline McCann is widely regarded as one of the most infuriating child abductions.
16:18The three-year-old was vacationing with her family in Portugal and was put to bed with her
16:22siblings at 8.30 p.m.
16:24Meanwhile, her parents, Kate and Jerry, went out to a restaurant with some friends.
16:28Kate came to check on the kids around 10 and found Madeline missing.
16:32The story spread far and wide.
16:34It was extensively covered in the media, and both Kate and Jerry were widely scrutinized
16:38for their behavior.
16:39To this day, the child's disappearance remains unsolved, although it's believed that she was
16:44abducted by a man named Christian Bruckner.
16:46He is currently considered the prime suspect by German authorities, although no charges have
16:51been laid.
16:52It could all come down to this woman fighting to keep the monster behind bars.
16:57The same monster she's convinced attacked her.
17:00Elizabeth Smart.
17:0114-year-old Elizabeth Smart ripped from her bedroom in the middle of the night, missing
17:06for nine months, until a remarkable turn of events.
17:10Imagine watching an episode of America's Most Wanted, then strolling down the street and
17:14seeing the criminals you had just learned about.
17:16That is how Elizabeth Smart was freed after nine months of captivity.
17:20The 14-year-old from Salt Lake City was kidnapped from her bedroom on June 5, 2002.
17:24Her abductors, a self-proclaimed religious prophet named Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda
17:29Barzee, kept Smart imprisoned and subjected her to daily sexual abuse.
17:34She was forced to live under Mitchell's strict control and religious delusions.
17:38Smart remained missing until March 12, 2003, when a passerby who had just watched America's
17:43Most Wanted saw her walking with Mitchell and Barzee in Sandy, Utah.
17:47They alerted the police, and Smart was safely reunited with her family.
17:51What was that like when your father walked in that room?
17:53It really was the first time that I felt safe in nine months.
17:58And that I knew that no matter what lay ahead, it was going to be okay, because my dad was
18:05there, and he was not going to let anyone else hurt me.
18:08Adam Walsh.
18:09It is still so hard to hear that detail, as you recounted all these years later.
18:15I know that this launched you into your life's work, which became trying to keep other people's
18:21children safe.
18:22America's Most Wanted was hosted by John Walsh, whose son Adam famously went missing on July 27, 1981.
18:29Adam was shopping with his mother in Hollywood, Florida, when he disappeared from a Sears department
18:33store. His mom had gone to ask about a lamp, leaving Adam with some other kids who were
18:38playing Atari. A scuffle broke out between the children, and a security guard asked them to
18:42leave. Walsh, too shy to speak up, left the store and disappeared. Two weeks later, on August 10th,
18:48Walsh's remains were found in a drainage canal along the Florida Turnpike.
18:52Police have pegged the crime on famous serial killer Otis Toole, but many people doubt his involvement,
18:58citing a recanted confession and a lack of strong evidence.
19:01Serial killer Otis Toole confessed twice, but was never tried for the murder. At the time,
19:07the Walsh's told us Toole wasn't important. Saving kids was.
19:11J.C. Dugard. Even her face, in some ways, a constant reminder of the time stolen from her.
19:17All those years as a captive in a predator's backyard, a prisoner inside a shed.
19:23In June of 1991, 11-year-old J.C. Dugard was kidnapped while walking to her bus stop in Myers,
19:29California. She was taken by Philip and Nancy Garrido and kept hidden in their backyard compound
19:34in Antioch for a staggering 18 years. During this time, she was cut off from her family,
19:39forced to live under strict control, and impregnated by Garrido. In 2009, Garrido visited
19:45UC Berkeley with his and Dugard's two daughters, and the group's suspicious behavior caught the
19:49attention of campus police. This opened an official investigation. Dugard was later awarded $20 million
19:55by the state of California, as Garrido was on parole at the time of her kidnapping.
20:00Hidden from view behind this fence is a secret maze with two sheds, two tents, a primitive outhouse,
20:07and a shower. One of the sheds was even soundproofed. Police even found this silver-colored car used in
20:13the kidnapping back in 1991.
20:15Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr.
20:17In the early 1930s, aviator Charles Lindbergh was one of the most famous men in the world.
20:23So when Lindbergh's infant son was kidnapped and murdered, the press was quick to dub it
20:28the crime of the century.
20:31Called everything from the crime of the century to the biggest story since the resurrection,
20:35the Lindbergh kidnapping captivated the world throughout the spring of 1932.
20:39The 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow,
20:43was snatched from his crib on March 1st, and a ransom note was left on the nursery windowsill.
20:48So began a media frenzy the likes of which had never been seen before.
20:52But despite a massive search and various ransom negotiations, the child's body was discovered in
20:57May, less than five miles from the Lindbergh estate, confirming that he had been killed shortly
21:02after the abduction. Fame aside, it's also an incredibly creepy kidnapping, with the perpetrator
21:08having used a ladder to climb into the child's bedroom.
21:10But outside the safety of the Lindbergh home, in the darkness of their 600-acre estate,
21:16lurks a clandestine figure. He uses a makeshift ladder to enter the infant's second-floor nursery
21:22and snatches Charles Jr. from his crib.
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21:40The Chowchilla Kidnapping
21:44For this woman, stepping onto this school bus is an act of courage. Laura Yazzie Fanning was just
21:49five years old in kindergarten when 26 of her fellow classmates and their bus driver were kidnapped
21:55and buried alive.
21:57How's this for terrifying? Three armed men storming a school bus and abducting 26 children and one
22:03driver before storing them all inside an underground trailer. The Chowchilla Kidnapping occurred on July
22:0815, 1976, when the kids were coming back from a summer-class trip to the Chowchilla Fairgrounds.
22:14Three men hijacked the bus and took their captives to an underground bunker they had constructed in the
22:18California rock and gravel quarry. They had intended to ransom the children, but luckily,
22:23the captives escaped before they could do so. The three abductors were eventually caught and spent
22:28decades in prison, but all three have since been paroled. Luckily, all of the victims survived,
22:33but many continue to suffer from PTSD, depression, and substance use.
22:38I wasn't moving off the bus when they were telling everybody, you know, to get off. One of
22:44them got tired of it and came up and said, get up with the gun to my head.
22:50What do you make of these stories? Let us know in the comments below.
22:53Then he took poly class and disappeared into the night.
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