- 6 weeks ago
From kidnapped children to those who vanished for decades, these remarkable stories of missing people offer hope and closure. Join us as we uncover cases like Steven Stayner, Jaycee Dugard, and Elizabeth Smart who were discovered alive after their disappearances shocked the world. Some escaped captivity, others were hiding in plain sight, and a few simply walked back into frame.
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00:00Four young children now in a Colombian hospital after somehow surviving on their own in the Amazon jungle for a staggering 40 days.
00:10Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most famous cases of people around the world who vanished,
00:17sometimes for decades, and were eventually located to answer the mysteries surrounding their disappearances.
00:22I got a text of his granddad saying that Melanie had said that all electronic equipment was being switched off.
00:32And at that point, I knew. I knew they weren't coming back.
00:39Number 50, Lula Gillespie Miller.
00:42The disappearance of Lula Gillespie Miller.
00:44They've been wondering for years what happened to her.
00:47Lula was 28 years old when she mysteriously disappeared in 1974.
00:52In 1974, after having her third child at 28,
00:56Gillespie Miller signed over parental responsibility of them to her parents in Indiana before leaving.
01:01Beyond a letter the following year, the family had no contact with her.
01:06In 2014, the police investigated the body of an unidentified woman who had passed away in 1975,
01:12possibly answering the mystery of Gillespie Miller.
01:16However, the DNA results didn't match hers.
01:18Yet the officers followed a thread of evidence that led them to discover she was living under an assumed name in Texas in 2016.
01:26He located her living under an assumed name in a small town in Texas.
01:30She told the officers she felt too young to have kids, causing her to leave decades before.
01:35Despite finding Gillespie Miller, her daughter stated she didn't want a reunion due to her abandoning them.
01:41Number 49, Paisley Schultes.
01:44Paisley Schultes was found yesterday by police in Saugerties about 130 miles from where she was reported missing back in 2019.
01:51The girl was hidden under a staircase at her non-custodial parents' home.
01:56In 2019, Paisley's parents, Kirk Schultes Jr. and Kimberly Cooper, lost custody of her,
02:02resulting in the child being put with relatives in Cayuga Heights, New York.
02:05However, Paisley was reported missing not too long after.
02:10The police visited Schultes and Cooper's home, which was owned by Paisley's grandfather, Kirk Schultes Sr.
02:15Without a search warrant and the family's denial that Paisley was there, nothing happened.
02:20Yet that changed in 2022.
02:23Following an additional anonymous tip, which led to a search warrant being issued,
02:27the police realized the staircase was unusual and spotted a blanket beneath it.
02:31After tearing it apart, they found Paisley, in good health, under the fabric alongside her mother.
02:37Now an update on the case of the girl found safe after being missing for more than two years.
02:42Paisley Schultes was four years old when she disappeared from Cayuga Heights in 2019 after her parents lost custody.
02:49While the family was charged, the case was reportedly dropped.
02:53Number 48, Abdul Aziz Khan.
02:56Abdul Aziz Khan went missing in Atlanta.
02:58And his mother, who did not have custody of the boy when he disappeared, is now one of two people in custody.
03:04In 2025, police in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, were alerted to a possible robbery at a vacant home.
03:11When they arrived, they spotted two children in a nearby car, soon followed by a man and a woman leaving the property.
03:18After providing false stories and names, it was discovered that the woman was Rubia Khalid,
03:23who was wanted for kidnapping her son Aziz, who was sitting in the car.
03:26After she broke up with his father, Abdul Khan, the duo shared custody.
03:31However, in 2017, Khalid and the man she was arrested with, her new husband, Elliot Blake Bourgeois,
03:38left Atlanta, Georgia and vanished with Aziz, as his father searched for him for years.
03:42This father has not had contact, he told me, for like a total of nine years.
03:47He has not seen Aziz.
03:49So this is the only life that Aziz has known.
03:52And so it is going to take some time.
03:55So it's baby steps to get up to that point.
03:57Unsurprisingly, Khalid and Elliot Blake Bourgeois were charged with several counts.
04:02Number 47.
04:04Blanche Monnier
04:04In 1876, after a line of suitors, socialite Blanche had decided who she wanted to marry.
04:11However, her mother Louise and brother Marcel were not happy with Blanche's choice.
04:16After an argument, Blanche vanished, and Louise and Marcel showed their dismay in public.
04:20However, following a tip in 1901, the police arrived at the family's residence in Poitiers, France.
04:27After breaking down the locked attic door, the officers discovered an emaciated Blanche.
04:32For 25 years, she had been held captive by her family in filthy conditions.
04:37Louise was quickly arrested, but passed away two weeks later.
04:41Marcel was sentenced for his involvement, yet was controversially acquitted on appeal.
04:45Blanche resided at a psychiatric hospital until her passing in 1913.
04:51Number 46.
04:52Arthur Gerald Jones
04:53In 1979, commodities broker Jones departed Chicago, Illinois, never to be seen again,
04:59leaving behind his three children and wife.
05:02It was speculated that he'd fallen into organized crime due to a gambling debt.
05:06In 1986, the authorities officially declared Jones deceased.
05:11However, he was fine.
05:12Following reported marriage issues, he relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, and was using the identity
05:18of Joseph Sandeli.
05:20In 2008, the bookie grabbed the authorities' attention when he applied for a driver's license
05:25with a fake social security number.
05:27This led to Jones' arrest.
05:30After pleading guilty to fraud, Jones was ordered to pay restitution, including to the
05:34real Joseph Sandeli.
05:36He also received a suspended sentence of up to 48 months with three years of probation.
05:42Number 45.
05:43Philip Cesarego
05:44An enigma who used the pen name Tom Carew, but was also known as Philip Stevenson,
05:49Cesarego's life came crashing down in 2001.
05:53Shortly after becoming a best-selling author with his memoir about being in the UK's Special
05:57Air Service, better known as the SAS, during the Soviet-Afghan War, it was discovered the
06:02work was fabricated.
06:04While Cesarego was in the army, he was rejected from the Special Forces.
06:08With his newfound infamy, friends of Cesarego's then came forward with allegations that he'd
06:13faked his death in Bosnia in the early 90s, with additional rumors of doing the same in
06:17South Africa, too.
06:19Unsurprisingly, Cesarego's book was removed from sale.
06:22After moving to Belgium, Cesarego passed away in 2008.
06:27Number 44.
06:28Chioma Gray
06:29They want everyone to believe that this is a love story.
06:33This is a crime.
06:34In 2007, Andrew Tafoya had been released from a seven-month jail sentence the night before
06:39due to having a relationship with Gray, a minor.
06:42He drove up to her school in Ventura, California to pick her up, which was seen by witnesses.
06:47For her family, this was the last time they saw Gray for years.
06:51However, they contacted a private investigator who tracked Tafoya and Gray living near Acapulco,
06:57Mexico.
06:57Shortly after, Tafoya called Gray's mother and claimed she was in trouble.
07:02The duo then handed themselves in to the U.S. Marshals.
07:05According to her family, Gray was experiencing Stockholm Syndrome, resulting in her and Tafoya
07:10getting married while in Mexico.
07:12Chioma is totally different.
07:14It's not my daughter.
07:15She's completely brainwashed.
07:17In 2012, Tafoya was sentenced to two years in jail.
07:21Number 43.
07:22Alicia Navarro
07:23A missing persons case from 2019 has been solved, but there are still a lot of questions
07:28about Alicia Navarro.
07:30In 2019, Navarro seemingly walked out of her home in Glendale, Arizona, leaving a note behind
07:36stating she was running away, but added that she would return.
07:40In 2023, the autistic teenager made good on her promise by walking into a Montana police
07:46station to close her missing persons case.
07:48Yet her family believes someone she met online caused her to leave the house years ago.
07:52We just want to make sure that you're safe.
07:55I don't, I don't, I don't, um, I understand that.
08:03The investigation found that Navarro had been living with Edmund Davis, who was nearly double
08:07her age.
08:09While searching his Montana residence, the cops found explicit material in his possession.
08:14In 2025, after Davis pleaded guilty to abuse, he was sentenced to 100 years in jail, half
08:20of which was suspended.
08:22Number 42.
08:23Lawrence Joseph Bader
08:25In 1957, Bader left his pregnant wife and three children to fish at Ohio's Lake Erie.
08:31When he didn't return, his damaged boat was found, yet there was no sign of Bader, who
08:36was discovered to be in around $20,000 of debt.
08:40In 1960, he was declared deceased, resulting in his wife receiving nearly $40,000 in life
08:45insurance.
08:46Days after Bader vanished, John Fritz Johnson arrived in Omaha, Nebraska.
08:51The eccentric newbie became popular with locals, resulting in Johnson becoming a TV personality
08:56for KETV, as well as getting married and having children.
09:00Yet in 1965, family members recognized Johnson as Bader.
09:05This led to him stating that he had amnesia, which was supported by psychologists.
09:09However, Bader passed away the following year.
09:13Number 41.
09:14Anna Saito
09:15In 2014, Saito was expected back home after school in Saitama, Japan.
09:20Instead, she never returned, with only a letter posted the day after asking the teenager's
09:25parents not to search for her.
09:26In reality, Saito had been abducted by Kabu Terauchi, who reportedly used her as an experiment
09:32to see what happens to people separated from society.
09:35After multiple failed escapes, Saito got her opportunity in 2016, when the apartment door
09:41was accidentally left unlocked.
09:43She managed to find a public payphone and call home.
09:46Terauchi was eventually found wandering a nearby forest with self-inflicted injuries.
09:50In 2018, despite him claiming mental health issues and declaring he was, quote,
09:55a fairy from the forest, Terauchi was sentenced to nine years in jail.
10:00Number 40.
10:01Andrea Michelle Reyes
10:03Helping a father reconnect with his abducted daughter more than a quarter of a century
10:08after her disappearance.
10:10Following the separation of her parents, Reyes' father was given custody of her.
10:14However, in 1999, the child was kidnapped by her mother, Rosa Tenorio, from her home in
10:20New Haven, Connecticut.
10:21With the belief that Reyes was taken to Mexico, her father went to the country to search for
10:25her, but he was unsuccessful in finding her.
10:28For nearly 25 years, he heard nothing from his daughter or Tenorio.
10:32Yet that changed in 2023.
10:35Following the police reinvestigating the case, a woman suspected to be Reyes was tracked down
10:40in Puebla, Mexico, and she contacted her possible father.
10:44The woman, then in her late 20s, was confirmed to be Reyes thanks to DNA testing in 2025.
10:50Police in New Haven, Connecticut say she was abducted by her mother, who did not have legal
10:55custody of her in 1999.
10:57They fled to Mexico.
10:59Law enforcement tried to bring her home.
11:01Number 39.
11:02Winston Bright
11:03Winston Bright, a California telephone company worker, was declared legally dead by a court
11:08after he disappeared, but now he's apparently back among the living.
11:13With a wife and children, in 1990, Bright vanished in New York City, leading to him being declared
11:19dead in 2000.
11:20As such, Bright's wife, Leslie, began collecting his pension.
11:24Over 2,700 miles away in San Diego, California, a man seemingly had amnesia.
11:30With aid from a magazine, he selected the name Kwame Seku.
11:34Seku would go on to be a teacher before retiring.
11:36Around 2008, he remembered he was Bright.
11:40He returned to New York and met Leslie.
11:42However, according to her, Bright wanted his pension.
11:45As such, some in his family didn't believe his amnesia claim.
11:49After going through the courts and using DNA tests to prove he was Bright, he was legally
11:54declared alive.
11:56However, he decided not to claim the pension.
11:58Found himself wandering the streets of San Diego sometime between 1990 and 1991, without any
12:04identification, money, or recollection of how he got there.
12:08He says after a while, his memory began to return and he was able to track down his old
12:12identity with the help of the internet.
12:15Number 38, Edgar Latulip.
12:17This is a missing persons poster circulated 30 years ago when 21-year-old Edgar Latulip
12:22disappeared.
12:23For decades, a man had been getting flashes of memories of a life he hadn't lived.
12:29In 2016, when he arrived to meet a social worker in Niagara Falls, Canada, he finally
12:34remembered that Latulip was his real name.
12:37In 1986, Latulip, who had an intellectual disability, was living in a group home with similar people
12:43in Kitchener.
12:44He got on a bus to Niagara Falls, yet fell and sustained a head injury shortly after arriving,
12:50robbing him of his memory.
12:51During this time, Latulip's mother, Sylvia Wilson, believed her son was no longer alive.
12:57Yet once a DNA test confirmed his identity, she was desperate to see him again.
13:01What had occurred was a head injury, certainly after arriving in St. Catharines a number of
13:07years ago.
13:08And so effectively, he forgot who he was.
13:12Number 37, Savannah Todd.
13:14An infant who disappeared with her mother from South Carolina now found the girl's father
13:19never giving up hope of finding her.
13:21It's a search that ended on the other side of the world, literally.
13:24In 1994, Savannah's parents, Harris Todd and Dorothy Lee Barnett, were going through a
13:30divorce.
13:31Harris claimed Bennett had bipolar disorder, which she denied.
13:34Both sides were supported by medical professionals.
13:37After Barnett lost custody, she took Savannah from their home in Charleston, South Carolina, and
13:42with the aid of forged documents, traveled across several countries, eventually arriving in Australia.
13:48She even changed Savannah's name to Samantha.
13:51Harris stated he kept Savannah's bedroom untouched for all this time, as he had missing posters
13:56of her placed internationally.
13:58In 2013, with aid from the FBI and Australian authorities, Barnett and Savannah were found.
14:04This was not Barnett's first attempt to kidnap baby Savannah.
14:08Barnett has been arrested by Australian federal police and now faces extradition back to the
14:12United States.
14:14If convicted, she will serve up to 23 years in prison for international parental kidnapping
14:19and two counts of falsified passport application.
14:22After pleading guilty to multiple charges, Barnett was sentenced to 21 months in jail.
14:28Number 36, Sabrina Allen.
14:30In 2002, after splitting with her mother, Dara Lawrence, Greg Allen had primary custody of Sabrina.
14:36Yet, their child was set to spend the weekend with Lawrence in Austin, Texas.
14:40However, she vanished with Sabrina.
14:43Greg put out a reward and hired a private investigator.
14:46After receiving word that Lawrence might be in Mexico, he went to the country to search,
14:51learning Spanish, and later getting married to his teacher.
14:54Eventually, in 2013, Sabrina and Lawrence were tracked down near Mexico City.
14:59Twelve years of his daughter's life was robbed from Greg Allen.
15:02But even when she was gone, she was always right up the stairs.
15:06This is Sabrina's room?
15:07This is Sabrina's room.
15:09However, as Greg said to the press afterwards, his daughter wasn't in great shape.
15:13Sabrina underwent extensive mental health treatment.
15:16She had also changed her name to Fair, which was once her middle name.
15:21In 2016, Lawrence was sentenced to six years in jail.
15:24Dara Lawrence received a six-year sentence for aggravated kidnapping and two years for interfering with child custody after taking her four-year-old daughter to Mexico.
15:34She was on the run for 12 years before being caught.
15:37Number 35, Alex Batty.
15:39The British boy who was missing for six years spoke out about what his life has been like.
15:45While Alex had his grandmother, Susan Caruana, as his legal guardian, it wasn't uncommon for him to go on vacation with his mother, Melanie Batty, and grandfather, David Batty.
15:55Yet, in 2017, the trio didn't return to England from Spain as planned.
16:00Instead, they sent Caruana a video on Facebook about leaving.
16:03The trio traveled around, living in several countries, often in communes.
16:08In 2023, after becoming disillusioned with this life and wanting to return to the UK, Alex decided to leave their community in France.
16:17He was spotted by a delivery driver as he walked along a road near Shalab, later reuniting with Caruana.
16:22In 2025, at the request of Alex and his family, the police investigation into his mother and grandfather was dropped.
16:29I was safe and I was always healthy, but no social life, no meeting people my own age, kind of always being isolated comes boring, to say the least, really.
16:44Number 34, Colleen Stan.
16:46For me, this house is kind of a house of horror.
16:50She's the kidnap victim once known as the girl in the box, imprisoned for seven years in a wooden crate.
16:57In 1977, Stan was hitchhiking to Westwood, California.
17:02After rejecting multiple rides, husband and wife Cameron and Janice Hooker pulled over with their child.
17:07Seeing no threat, Stan got in.
17:10Not long into the journey, she was kidnapped by them.
17:13Stan was kept at their home, locked in a box, forced to sign a slavery contract, and subjected to abuse.
17:19Colleen's abductor was a lumber mill worker, Cameron Hooker.
17:23Occasionally, she was allowed to see her family, but she had to bring Cameron.
17:28Later, Janice admitted to Stan that she was also kidnapped, as was Marie Elizabeth Sponicky, whom she claimed Cameron killed.
17:35In 1984, Janice, with advice from a pastor whom she confessed to, got herself, her children, and Stan to the authorities.
17:43In 1985, Cameron was sentenced to 104 years in jail.
17:48Number 33. Thad Phillips
17:50July 29th, 1995.
17:54Thaddeus Phillips was just 13 and sound asleep.
17:59I was outside. I was being carried.
18:00He had been kidnapped.
18:02In 1995, Phillips was dozing at his family home in Baraboo, Wisconsin, when his father picked him up.
18:08However, it wasn't his dad.
18:10Instead, it was Joe Clark.
18:12The teenager, who was only a few years older than Phillips, took him to a nearby house.
18:17Once there, Clark, later known as the Bone Breaker due to his obsession, attacked Phillips' lower limbs.
18:23He pushed me back on my back, onto a bed, and he grabbed my ankle and he twisted it and broke it.
18:31Clark would later treat the damage, only to do it again.
18:34Two days later, Phillips was able to crawl to a phone downstairs to call the authorities.
18:39The police also found evidence that linked Clark to taking Christian Steiner's life the year before.
18:44In 1997, Clark was sentenced to 100 years and had to pay Phillips $21 million for medical costs.
18:52Number 32. Kamiya Mobley
18:54The name Kamiya Mobley, the case widely known across the country after Mobley was kidnapped from a Jacksonville hospital as a baby in 1998
19:04and found safe, alive and well, 18 years later.
19:08In 1998, Shannara Mobley had given birth to Kamiya eight hours ago in Jacksonville, Florida,
19:14when what appeared to be a nurse came in to take the baby.
19:17She then walked out of the hospital with Kamiya.
19:20The child was taken by Gloria Williams, who reportedly had a miscarriage the week before,
19:25was in an abusive relationship, and was struggling with her mental health.
19:29While Shannara successfully sued the hospital for $1.5 million,
19:33Williams changed Kamiya's name to Alexis Manigo and raised her in South Carolina.
19:38In 2017, a series of tips caused the authorities to DNA test Kamiya, confirming her identity.
19:44While Williams was sentenced to 18 years in jail in 2018,
19:48Kamiya asked for leniency as she sees Williams as her mother.
19:52I never meant to hurt you.
19:55I just love that child so.
19:58And I hope you can find it in your heart and forgive me.
20:01Number 31, the Children of the Jungle.
20:03Four young children found alive in a Colombian jungle 40 days after a small plane crash.
20:10In 2023, the Mucutui family, featuring the mother Magdalena and her four children,
20:15was traveling to meet Manuel Raunoque, the father of the two youngest in Colombia.
20:19However, their small airplane crashed in the Amazon rainforest.
20:24The pilot and an indigenous leader sadly perished immediately.
20:27Magdalena was severely injured, succumbing to her injuries days later.
20:31For 40 days, the children, led by the oldest and injured teenager,
20:35survived by themselves by consuming edible plants, fruit, and seeds,
20:39which they learned from their indigenous upbringing as part of the Huitoto community.
20:43While the children were emaciated when found by rescuers,
20:46the eldest child kept her siblings alive long enough.
20:50Rather than being reunited with Raunoque,
20:52he was sentenced to 32 years for abuse in 2025.
20:57Number 30, Paul Fronzak.
20:59In 1964, Dora Fronzak handed over her newborn son Paul Fronzak to a nurse
21:04at the Michael Rees Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.
21:07Unfortunately, this nurse was an imposter who disappeared with the baby.
21:11It was very traumatic for them.
21:13It's, I mean, I can't even imagine what they went through.
21:16A massive investigation was launched, and about one year later,
21:19authorities discovered an abandoned toddler, whom the Fronzaks believed was their missing son.
21:25In 2012, a suspicious Fronzak decided to take a DNA test and found that he wasn't related to the people he called his parents.
21:33In fact, his true identity was Jack Rosenthal, a twin who had disappeared in 1965.
21:38It was later discovered that the real Paul Fronzak was a man named Kevin Ray Beatty,
21:43although his identity wasn't publicly revealed until after his demise in 2020.
21:48But does, is there a family resemblance?
21:51Definitely.
21:52Definitely a resemblance.
21:54Number 29, Tanya Ryder.
21:56In 2007, Tom Ryder was distraught at his home in Maple Valley, Washington.
22:01His wife Tanya had disappeared for about a week after completing her shift at a nearby supermarket.
22:06Well, as far as I knew, Tanya was just going about her normal day.
22:10I mean, she would have been getting off work at 9 o'clock, having breakfast, and then heading home.
22:15Little does Tom know, Tanya never makes it home that day.
22:21When Tom called the police, they offered little help as Tanya was captured on CCTV leaving the store.
22:27Eventually, they tracked her cell phone, which led them down her usual route home.
22:32The detectives were able to look at the records and determine which tower was accessed.
22:36They were able to narrow that down into essentially a pie-shaped area,
22:41three to five miles out in a particular direction.
22:44There, they discover Tanya's crashed car, overturned in a ravine and hidden by vegetation.
22:50She had somehow survived eight days without food or water,
22:53enduring severe injuries including a broken collarbone,
22:57as well as fractured ribs and vertebra.
22:59Her left leg was also crushed and was very nearly amputated.
23:03Remarkably, Tanya has no recollection of what caused the crash.
23:07Number 28, Lucy Ann Johnson.
23:10In 1961, Lucy Ann Johnson disappeared from her home in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
23:16Bizarrely, it wasn't until 1965 that her husband Marvin reported her missing.
23:22This made him a prime suspect in her disappearance, but no evidence of wrongdoing was found.
23:27In 2013, Johnson's daughter Linda initiated her own investigation,
23:32which led her to a small territory called the Yukon where her mother previously lived.
23:36With aid from the local media, Linda met a woman named Rhonda who claimed that Johnson was also her mother.
23:42Turns out Johnson had left Marvin due to domestic violence,
23:46but he prevented her from taking her two children along.
23:49She then relocated back to the Yukon, where she remarried and had four other kids.
23:54Number 27, Jamie Kloss.
23:56In 2018, Jake Patterson invaded the Kloss home in Barron, Wisconsin, armed with a shotgun.
24:03He fatally shot James and Denise Kloss before abducting their daughter Jamie and taking her to his cabin in Gordon, Wisconsin.
24:10Patterson had become fixated on Kloss after seeing her get off a school bus.
24:1488 days later, Patterson put Kloss under his bed before leaving home, assuming that she was too scared to escape.
24:20She seized the opportunity and fled, subsequently encountering a woman who recognized her from the news.
24:27Obviously, Jamie is under this tremendous fear and is using that fear in the beginning to keep her captive.
24:33I think for her, she just kept it together every day.
24:39She didn't know when she was going to get out or if she ever was going to.
24:43It must have taken everything inside her to just take that moment and run.
24:49It didn't take long for the cops to locate Patterson and extract a confession from him.
24:54He was sentenced to two life sentences without parole for the murders, plus 40 years for the kidnapping.
25:01Number 26, Brian Anthony McCain II, aka Busy Bone.
25:05Today, Brian Anthony McCain II, also known as Busy Bone, is a Grammy-winning musician best known as a member of the rap group Bone Thugs in Harmony.
25:14However, his life took a dramatic turn in 1981, when he and his sisters were taken by their mother's boyfriend.
25:20Deceived into believing that their mother and grandmother had died, the siblings were transported all over northern Oklahoma.
25:27Eventually, they settled on a reservation in Caw, Oklahoma.
25:31In 1983, the TV film Adam was broadcast, which featured photos of missing children before the end credits.
25:37One of these was McCain.
25:39His babysitter recognized the picture and promptly contacted the authorities.
25:43This led to McCain and his sisters being reunited with their mother.
25:47I went through a lot of things as a kid, and I think that, you know, it helped me become who I am.
25:52Number 25, Natasha Kampusch.
25:55On March 2, 1998, Natasha Kampusch left her home in Vienna, Austria for school and disappeared without a trace.
26:03Police launched a massive investigation searching many vehicles, but they couldn't find her.
26:07Kampusch had been abducted by communications technician Wolfgang Pricklepil, who confined her to a cellar in his home.
26:14I didn't know what was going to happen.
26:17In that moment, I thought it was the end.
26:21She remained under captivity for eight years, during which she was assaulted by Pricklepil, both physically and sexually.
26:27In 2006, while cleaning Pricklepil's van, she ran outside and alerted neighbors, who called the police.
26:34It was an enormous feeling of joy that cannot be compared to anything else.
26:38You see all the possibilities laid out in front of you.
26:41That night, Pricklepil decided to end his own life rather than face justice.
26:46Kampusch later released books on her experience and was briefly a talk show host.
26:50Her story was immortalized in the 2013 film 3096 Days.
26:56Number 24, Natasha Ryan.
26:58In 1998, Natasha Ryan was reported missing from her hometown of Rockhampton, Queensland in Australia.
27:05The subsequent investigation eventually led the police to serial killer Leonard Fraser, who seemingly confessed to her murder.
27:11However, during Fraser's trial in 2003, police received an anonymous tip claiming that Ryan was in fact alive and hiding in the house of her boyfriend, Scott Black.
27:20It's emerged Natasha Ryan's bizarre vanishing act in 1998 stemmed from the hatred of her mother, Jennifer.
27:27By the time she wanted to return home, it was too late.
27:31The lie she was living had become too big.
27:33The police raided Black's house in North Rockhampton and found her there.
27:37She had willingly left home to live with him secretly, hiding in a cupboard when guests came over.
27:43Scott was sentenced to three years in jail for perjury, two of which were suspended, while Ryan was fined $1,000 for the false investigation.
27:51How could you do this to them?
27:55I honestly don't know.
27:56In 2008, the two got married.
27:59Number 23, Sean Hornbeck and Ben Ownby.
28:03In 2002, Sean Hornbeck disappeared while riding his bicycle to a friend's house in Richwoods, Missouri.
28:09The police initially faced challenges in their investigation, and the case ultimately went cold.
28:14In 2007, officers were at an apartment complex in Kirkwood, Missouri when they spotted a suspicious truck.
28:20A few days earlier, a similar vehicle had been involved in the kidnapping of teenager Ben Ownby.
28:26The cops traced the truck to Michael Devlin, and they raided his apartment.
28:30Inside, they not only found Ownby, but also Hornbeck, who had been presented as Devlin's son for several years.
28:37Devlin later pleaded guilty to a host of charges, and was sentenced to a staggering total of 4,240 years in prison.
28:45Sean's story remains a symbol of hope.
28:48Number 22, Carlina White.
28:51In 1987, Carlina White, then an infant, was taken by her parents to New York City's Harlem Hospital Center.
28:58There, a woman named Ann Pettway posed as a nurse and abducted her.
29:02White was subsequently brought up as Nedra Nance in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
29:06In 2005, after discovering her birth certificate was fake, White confronted Pettway about her true identity, and was told she had been abandoned as a baby.
29:15This explanation didn't satisfy her.
29:17White initiated her own investigation, and found a baby picture of herself on a missing children's website.
29:23Carlina called the center's hotline and said,
29:25I don't know who I am.
29:27She contacted the authorities, and DNA analysis confirmed her real identity.
29:31In 2012, Pettway entered a plea deal and received a 12-year prison sentence.
29:36She was ultimately released in 2021.
29:40She needed help for her to take someone's child and make that person suffer like that.
29:45Number 21, Elisabeth Fritzl.
29:48In 2008, Josef Fritzl took his seriously ill daughter Kirsten to a hospital in Amstetten, Austria.
29:54However, his odd behavior and strange explanation on her mother's whereabouts raised concerns among the staff,
30:00prompting them to alert the police.
30:02Only when they threaten to take away her children, that Elisabeth reveals for the first time what Josef Fritzl has been doing to her,
30:13and the police arrest Josef Fritzl, and the game is in effect up.
30:19Fritzl eventually brought Kirsten's mother Elisabeth to the hospital, only to be arrested by the police.
30:24Elizabeth was actually Fritzl's daughter, whom he claimed had run away to join a cult back in 1984.
30:31In reality, for 24 years, he secretly confined her to the basement of the family house and forced her to bear seven children for him.
30:39After Elizabeth's video testimony was played at his trial, in 2009, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
30:46Either way, it's now this monster who's facing the rest of his days locked away.
30:53Number 20. Robert McDonough
30:55Well, sometimes timing is everything, Aaron and Shannon, and good news and a happy ending right now.
30:59The gentleman behind us, you're looking at that, is Robert McDonough.
31:01If you saw this in a movie, you'd think, nah, there's no way.
31:04In May of 2013, an elderly man named Robert McDonough went missing from his Limington, Maine home.
31:11The danger was compounded by the fact that McDonough has dementia.
31:14The authorities were called and searched the nearby woods throughout the night, but found nothing.
31:19The next morning, a local news crew stationed themselves outside McDonough's house to report on his disappearance.
31:25And that is when McDonough quite literally strolled into the shot and asked the news crew what was happening.
31:30McDonough was safe and healthy, and it was reported that he had wandered out of his house and likely into the neighboring forest.
31:36This is you, I can't find this, Bob McDonough?
31:38I think so. It's Bob McDonough.
31:40Yeah.
31:40He looks a lot like a guy.
31:41Watch yourself.
31:41Watch yourself.
31:42Yeah.
31:42The rescue team may have just missed him during their search.
31:45Number 19. Timothy Carney.
31:48A young New Jersey man named Timothy Carney went missing in September of 2004 after calling his employer and telling him that he would be late for work.
31:56That night, Carney's empty vehicle was discovered near Newark.
31:59His parents searched years for their son, and he was finally found safe on September 23, 2011, nearly seven full years from the day he disappeared.
32:10Unfortunately, not much information was given regarding his situation.
32:14Carney's parents believe that he was influenced by a religious organization known as the Gospel Outreach to abandon all contact with his family.
32:21Number 18. Carlos de Salazar A Spanish doctor by the name of Carlos Sánchez Ortiz de Salazar disappeared from the city of Seville in 1996.
32:37The story goes that de Salazar was severely depressed and fled his home country to begin a new life elsewhere.
32:44There was no further news, and de Salazar was even declared legally dead in 2010.
32:49Five years after that, mushroom pickers found de Salazar living in the woods of Tuscany, Italy.
32:54Damn, damn. I'm sorry.
32:56Oh, damn, damn, and blasted.
32:59I'm sorry.
33:00Shh.
33:00And you shh me.
33:01Eighteen years of total silence, and you shh me.
33:05De Salazar told them who he was and proved it by showing them some documents.
33:09Photos of these documents were later shared with a missing persons organization.
33:13Unfortunately, this story has a frustratingly ambiguous ending.
33:17After being found, de Salazar had taken down his makeshift home and once again fled into the wilderness to be on his own.
33:25Number 17. Petra Pashitka
33:27Back in 1984, Petra Pashitka was due to arrive at her brother's birthday party, but she never made it.
33:34A suspected criminal then confessed to killing Pashitka.
33:37The case was closed in 1989, with many believing that Pashitka had been killed.
33:41There was no further news until 2015, when police were called to a home burglary in Dusseldorf.
33:48The victim said her name was Mrs. Schneider, but eventually came clean.
33:52She was actually the presumed dead Petra Pashitka.
33:56She had been living under a false identity for over 30 years.
34:00When found, Pashitka refused to give a reason for her disappearance and explicitly asked not to be reunited with her family.
34:07However, she also claimed that family troubles were not the reason for her sudden departure.
34:13Number 16. Harold Wayne Lovell
34:15This is another person who was presumably killed.
34:18But this wasn't at the hands of some random criminal.
34:21It was at the hands of John Wayne Gacy.
34:24I've always told people, when I got into clown makeup, I regressed into childhood.
34:28Many believed that Harold Wayne Lovell was killed by Gacy back in the late 70s, but his body was never identified.
34:34In the early 2010s, police were attempting to identify some unknown Gacy victims when they started looking into Lovell.
34:41We have a shot of all of the victims together here.
34:45And when you look over at the photos, I have no recollection of any of them. Never met them.
34:50Their search took them across the country to South Florida, which is where they made a shocking discovery.
34:56Lovell was alive and well.
34:57And he didn't even know that he was presumed dead, let alone a victim of Gacy's,
35:02whom he had actually met and worked for before his disappearance.
35:05According to Lovell, he had fled Chicago following some family troubles
35:09and stayed out of contact for the following 30-odd years.
35:13Number 15. Julian Hernandez
35:15In this case, a simple college application uncovered a 13-year-long ruse.
35:20In August of 2002, young Julian Hernandez was taken by his father Bobby.
35:26Bobby had left behind a note for Julian's mother, saying only that he had taken their son.
35:30No other details were given, and father and son seemingly disappeared into thin air.
35:35They had actually gone to Cleveland and developed new identities,
35:39with Bobby obtaining a social security guard under the name Jonathan Mangina.
35:43This is the house where young Julian Hernandez was living with his dad, a stepmom, and a little stepsister.
35:49He was an honor student, headed to college in the fall,
35:52and then his world came crashing down with the discovery that he was missing, and he didn't even know it.
35:57The ruse finally ended when Julian applied for college in 2015.
36:01A school counselor discovered that Julian was legally missing, and notified authorities.
36:0619-year-old Julian, who has forgiven his father, was then reunited with his mother,
36:11and Bobby was sentenced to four years in prison.
36:14He wants to talk about all the bad things he's done, and I think that he's done a lot of good.
36:20Number 14. Denise Bolser
36:22It's amazing how much trouble money can cause.
36:25Back in 1985, 24-year-old Denise Bolser went missing while working as a bookkeeper.
36:31The only clue was a note left to her husband which read,
36:34quote,
36:35We have your wife.
36:36While the police received many tips over the years,
36:39Bolser was eventually tracked by a private investigator and found in 2002.
36:43There didn't seem to be any answers to this riddle.
36:46With the most shocking twist coming at the very end.
36:49She was living in Florida under the name Denise James.
36:52According to Bolser, she had fled to hide from her old boss.
36:56Bolser had skimmed more than $10,000 from the company of her boss's wife,
37:01allegedly on the orders of her employer.
37:03When Bolser began discussing the ruse, her co-conspirator reportedly threatened to kill her.
37:08She fled to live a new life and has since been reunited with her parents.
37:13She wrote the ransom note, drove to the airport, paid cash for a plane ticket, and disappeared.
37:20Number 13. Steve Carter
37:22Imagine this. You're browsing online when you come across your own picture on a website of missing children.
37:28That's exactly what happened to Steve Carter.
37:31So I had a couple free minutes of lunch and went on missingkids.com,
37:35pulled up Hawaii, 34 years male, and lo and behold, that was the picture that came up.
37:39After reading about a kidnapping, Carter found himself on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's page,
37:45after which he saw an age progression photo of a missing child.
37:48He thought that the grown man's face bore a startling resemblance to his own,
37:52so he contacted the police and they got to work.
37:55To see yourself and to realize that, you know what, people have been looking for you for that long,
38:01I was shell-shocked.
38:02Turns out that Steve Carter was actually Marks Barnes,
38:05and he had gone missing over 30 years earlier after going for a walk with his mother.
38:10It's believed that Carter's mother took him to an orphanage and put him up for adoption under a false name.
38:15She then disappeared herself, leaving behind many frustrating questions.
38:19Number 12. Jan Broberg
38:22Today, Jan Broberg felt is a professional actress,
38:26having found success on stage and fame on the WB's Everwood,
38:30in which she portrayed Nurse Louise.
38:32Unfortunately, Broberg suffered a harrowing childhood that involved multiple kidnappings.
38:37Back in 1972, Broberg's parents met the Birchtold family through church.
38:42Broberg quickly developed a father-daughter relationship with Robert Birchtold.
38:46Birchtold and Broberg became friends, and they trusted each other,
38:52and that's just the way Bob Birchtold wanted it.
38:55Unfortunately, Birchtold kidnapped Broberg and took her to his trailer home in Mexico.
39:00I don't think he's kidnapped her, he's just gone someplace with her.
39:03And he had to drill that into our minds. He kidnapped her.
39:07She was eventually rescued, but then kidnapped again two years later,
39:11and the now teen proceeded to live with Birchtold in California for four months.
39:16She was eventually rescued by the FBI,
39:19and her story was later turned into the Netflix documentary,
39:22Abducted in Plain Sight.
39:24Number 11. Brenda Heist
39:26On the morning of February 8th, 2002,
39:29Brenda Heist dropped her children off at school and disappeared without a trace.
39:33At the age of 54, her daughter was 8,
39:37her son was 12, and Heist chose to walk away.
39:41The family was understandably devastated,
39:44and Heist's husband petitioned to have her declared legally dead.
39:47The case was solved in 2013 to mixed results.
39:51Heist intentionally left her family in Pennsylvania behind
39:54to live as a homeless person in Florida.
39:57She had hitchhiked there with a group of people without homes
39:59and spent the next decade working odd jobs in the state.
40:03According to Heist,
40:04she had abandoned her family for stress-related reasons.
40:07But this story does not have a happy ending.
40:09Heist's husband claimed that he had no desire to see her,
40:13and her now-grown daughter doesn't think her mother, quote,
40:16deserves to see her.
40:17I don't know that I've ever stopped crying and started living,
40:20to be honest with you.
40:21Number 10. Michelle Whitaker
40:23South Carolina woman Michelle Whitaker went missing in August of 2002
40:27after a friend gave her a lift to a truck stop.
40:30Is she walking around somewhere?
40:31Is she okay?
40:32Or is she laying in a ditch somewhere?
40:34I don't want to go to my grave not knowing what's happened to my daughter.
40:39Her case later turned into a homicide investigation,
40:42and police suspected a man named Jonathan Vick.
40:45Vick was the boyfriend of Whitaker's co-worker,
40:47and she had also gone missing.
40:49However, police were unable to prove that Vick killed Whitaker.
40:53The case went cold until 2008.
40:55An Oregon woman was watching a Forensic Files episode about Vick
40:59when a picture of Whitaker flashed on screen.
41:02The woman recognized Whitaker as her neighbor,
41:04and contacted the authorities.
41:06Her neighbor was indeed the missing Michelle Whitaker,
41:08and she later told her family that she had fled South Carolina
41:11to start a new life in Oregon.
41:13Still asleep, and the phone rang, and I answered it.
41:16And it was Ellen Wood from the police department.
41:19He said, we found Shelly, and she's alive.
41:23Number 9. Gabriel Nagy
41:25When one hears Fugue state,
41:28they probably think of that Breaking Bad episode
41:30where Walt walks around a supermarket in his birthday suit.
41:37Well, that was reality for Gabriel Nagy.
41:40Back in January of 1987,
41:43the husband and father disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
41:46He was reported missing after he failed to return home for lunch,
41:49and his burned-out vehicle was later discovered.
41:52Nagy remained missing until 2012,
41:54when a police officer tracked him down and found him alive and well.
41:58Nagy had seemingly suffered a dissociative fugue state,
42:02a rare psychiatric disorder characterized by a loss of memory
42:05of one's identity and personality.
42:08Put simply, Nagy forgot who he was,
42:10and wandered away to start a new life.
42:13I was walking down some road or highway
42:20with a lot of headlights.
42:24And I remember feeling fear.
42:28Number 8. Lula Hood
42:29There's just something about Florida that apparently attracts people.
42:33A woman named Lula Hood went missing all the way back in 1970.
42:37According to Hood's relatives,
42:39she simply disappeared from Illinois without a trace.
42:42No word was heard until 1996,
42:45when Hood's family was told that her remains were found in a Florida brickyard.
42:49That it was her,
42:51but at that time they couldn't do DNA because it wasn't that advanced yet.
42:54We had a memorial service.
42:55That remained the official story until 2009,
42:58when the remains were tested for DNA.
43:01Surprise, they didn't belong to Hood.
43:03The case was reopened,
43:05and investigators eventually tracked Hood to another place in Florida,
43:09where she'd been living for the last 40 years.
43:11According to Hood's daughter,
43:13Hood got into a squabble with a family member and was told to leave.
43:16She did,
43:17going all the way to Florida and living her life in complete anonymity.
43:22Number 7. Amanda Eller
43:23Yoga teacher and physical therapist Amanda Eller
43:27decided to go for a hike through the Hawaiian wilderness.
43:29She never returned home,
43:31and her boyfriend quickly reported her missing.
43:34Her vehicle was found abandoned near Maui's Kahakapau Trail,
43:38but there were no signs of Eller.
43:40She had accidentally wandered off the trail
43:42and found herself in the middle of the remote wilderness.
43:45When it was obvious that help wasn't coming,
43:47she was forced to live off wild plants, berries, and rainwater.
43:51After over two long and grueling weeks,
43:54Eller was finally located by a search party and rescued via helicopter.
43:58The last 17 days of my life have been the toughest days of my life,
44:02and it's been a really significant spiritual journey.
44:10She was in surprisingly good condition,
44:12and was treated at a local hospital for a fractured leg.
44:15I'm just the girl that got lost in the woods,
44:18and you guys like showed up hard.
44:20Like, this is like true aloha.
44:22Number 6. Beau Bergdahl
44:24In May of 2009,
44:26soldier Beau Bergdahl was working counterinsurgency in Afghanistan
44:30when his friend and fellow officer Brian Bradshaw
44:32was fatally hit by a roadside bomb.
44:35This likely tarnished Bergdahl's outlook on the war effort.
44:38He wrote to his family a few days later,
44:40and his email was full of critical language against the U.S. Army.
44:44Bergdahl subsequently disappeared under mysterious circumstances on June 30th.
44:48Of all the questions swirling around this young man,
44:51perhaps the most intriguing is,
44:52why did he leave his base in the first place?
44:55No one knew where he was,
44:57and it would be almost a month before an insurgent group revealed
45:00that they were holding Bergdahl prisoner.
45:01He served as a POW until May 31st, 2014,
45:06when he was freed in exchange for Taliban prisoners.
45:08We learned today that doctors are so worried about his mental health
45:11after five years in Taliban custody
45:13that they've told his family not to reach out
45:17even just to say welcome back.
45:19Later investigations showed that Bergdahl was likely snatched
45:21after abandoning his post.
45:24He was subsequently court-martialed and demoted.
45:26Talk about a not-so-welcome home.
45:28Number 5. Nguyen Thi Phan
45:30Vietnamese high school student Nguyen Thi Phan vanished in 1992.
45:35Phan returned home,
45:36but found herself locked out because of the late time,
45:39so she relocated to a nearby karaoke bar.
45:42The next morning,
45:43a disoriented Phan woke up in China.
45:45She had been taken to the country by a woman named Tain,
45:48who tortured her and her friends
45:50and forced them to marry older local Chinese men.
45:53She eventually fled with the help of a local driver
45:56and returned to Hanoi.
45:57In a moment that would be too unbelievable for fiction,
46:00Phan approached a man on the street and asked for directions.
46:04That man happened to be her uncle.
46:05He took her to the family home,
46:08and Phan was reunited with her family after 21 years.
46:12Number 4. Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus
46:15This is easily one of the most famous kidnapping stories of our time,
46:20having attained fame through its dramatic conclusion.
46:23Between 2002 and 2004,
46:25a man named Ariel Castro kidnapped the three women off the streets of Cleveland
46:30by offering them lifts.
46:31They remained in his house for roughly a decade
46:33and were subjected to various forms of horrible torture.
46:37It wasn't until May 6th, 2013,
46:40that Berry saw her chance of escape.
46:42Castro had accidentally left a door unlocked,
46:45and Berry was able to contact passing neighbors.
46:48So we could kick the bottom,
46:50and she comes out with the little girl,
46:52and she says,
46:53call 911.
46:54My name is Amanda Berry.
46:56They helped Berry and her daughter escape the house,
46:58and she telephoned the police to report the kidnappings.
47:01After which, the other two were rescued.
47:03Castro was arrested that same day,
47:05and he would later take his own life in his detention cell.
47:09I spent 11 years in hell.
47:13Now your hell is just beginning.
47:15Number 3. Elizabeth Smart,
47:18violently ripped from her own home and her own bed
47:21in the middle of the night.
47:22Back in June of 2002,
47:24a man named Brian David Mitchell broke into the Smart household
47:27and abducted teenager Elizabeth Smart from her bedroom.
47:31Her sister, Mary Catherine,
47:33was also in the room at the time of the abduction,
47:35but faked being still sleeping.
47:37Elizabeth remained with Mitchell and his wife for the next 9 months.
47:41Mary Catherine suddenly realized
47:43that the man who took her sister
47:44was the same man who had worked on their house
47:47as a general laborer one day.
47:49A sketch of the man was drawn up and released to news outlets.
47:51One day, while walking in Sandy, Utah,
47:54several eyewitnesses recognized Mitchell's face
47:57and notified police of his location.
47:59He and his wife were successfully captured,
48:01and Smart was finally rescued.
48:04The scariest night of my life happened 11 years ago.
48:08She's sharing her story to help other victims of abuse.
48:12Number 2. J.C. Dugard.
48:14J.C. Dugard was tased and snatched off the street
48:24while approaching her school bus on June 10, 1991.
48:27The perpetrators were husband and wife duo
48:29Philip and Nancy Garrido.
48:31Despite numerous people witnessing the kidnapping,
48:34the trail went cold,
48:36and no one heard anything of Dugard for the next 18 years.
48:40In that time, Dugard was consistently assaulted
48:43by Philip Garrido and bore him two daughters.
48:45The case was finally broken
48:47by a special events manager named Lisa Campbell.
48:50Garrido was visiting UC Berkeley with his two daughters,
48:53and their, quote,
48:53erratic behavior caught Campbell's attention.
48:56After getting his name through the booking of an appointment,
48:59she notified the police,
49:00which eventually led to Garrido's arrest.
49:02Dugard was finally rescued
49:04and reunited with her mother on August 27, 2009,
49:08now almost 30 years old.
49:10Do you worry at some point they'll want to see him?
49:13I want them to make their own choices in life,
49:15and if that's something that they need to do, then, you know.
49:17Really? You'd be okay with that?
49:18I wouldn't be okay with it,
49:20but I wouldn't not let them do it.
49:22Before we continue,
49:24be sure to subscribe to our channel
49:25and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
49:28You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
49:32If you're on your phone,
49:33make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
49:38Number 1. Stephen Stainer
49:4025 years ago, the nation was shocked and overjoyed
49:44to hear that two missing children had been found alive.
49:47On December 4, 1972,
49:50Stephen Stainer was abducted by Irvin Murphy and Kenneth Parnell.
49:54Stainer proceeded to live as Parnell's son
49:56while being continuously subjected to his depraved whims.
49:59Parnell attempted to use Stainer in other kidnappings,
50:02but Stainer was uncooperative.
50:04In fact, on the night of March 1, 1980,
50:07he and a young boy named Timmy White escaped Parnell's house
50:10and made their way to a local police station.
50:13Stainer was finally reunited with his family the following day.
50:16He wasn't the boy they remembered, but a teenager now.
50:20He found it difficult to adjust
50:21and mostly kept his experiences to himself.
50:24After Stainer died in a motorcycle accident at age 24,
50:28Timmy White served as a pallbearer.
50:30Are there any other cases of missing people
50:32who were eventually found that we missed in this video?
50:35Let us know below.
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