List of kidnappings
The following is a list of kidnappings summarizing the events of each individual case, including instances of celebrity abductions, claimed hoaxes, suspected kidnappings, extradition abductions, and mass kidnappings.
Before 1900
Date | Victim(s) | Abductor(s) | Location | Age of victim(s) | Outcome | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
99 B.C. | Antonia | Cilician pirates | Misenum, Italy | Unknown | Released | A daughter of orator Marcus Antonius. Antonia was kidnapped by Cilician pirates; she was released following the payment of a ransom.[1] |
75 B.C. | Julius Caesar | Cilician pirates | Aegean Sea | 25 | Released | Caesar was kidnapped while traveling across the Aegean Sea to study in Rhodes in 75 B.C. His captors demanded a ransom of 20 talents of silver for his release; a sum Caesar reportedly persuaded his captors to raise to 50. He was released upon payment of this ransom, and later ensured his abductors were apprehended and crucified.[2] |
880 | Solange | The son of a nobleman | France | Unknown | Murdered | Frankish shepherdess who, according to legend, was abducted by the son of the count of Poitiers due to her beauty and popularity. Resisting his forceful abduction, her kidnapper grew enraged and then decapitated her. Myths claim that her severed head invoked the Holy Name of Jesus three times, before the body picked it up and walked towards a church in present-day Sainte-Solange, where it dropped dead. Solange has been locally canonized as a Saint to whom numerous miracles have been attributed.[3][4] |
1357 | Prince Halil, the son of Orhan Bey and Theodora Kantakouzene | Marmara Sea pirates | Izmit | 11 | Ransomed | The pirates holed up in the fortress at Phocaea and were besieged for months by one ship from Orhan, two ships from Emperor Andronicos (paid for by Orhan). Finally, Orhan himself arrived and paid the ransom of 30,000 ducats ($5.3M in today's money). When Orhan died, Halil was killed by his brother Murad. |
1509 | Catharina de Grebber | Gerrit van Raaphorst | Wassenaar, the Netherlands | 13 | Stayed with abductor for four months, then returned home | Parents sued. Court case and sentence are well documented. Abductor was found guilty and sentenced to a walk of repentance. |
1605 | Vincent de Paul | Barbary pirates | Tunis, Tunisia | 24 | Released | An Occitan French Catholic priest taken captive by Barbary pirates and sold as a slave. De Paul spent approximately two years in slavery—being resold on several occasions—before he was released by one of his masters in June 1607.[5] |
1628 | Olivier Le Jeune | David Kirke | New France | 7 | Released | Malagasy boy who was the first slave to New France, where he was sold to a French clerk in Quebec. After the settlement was returned to the French in 1632, Le Jeune was handed to a Jesuit priest who baptisized him and later declared him a free 'domestic servant'.[6] |
1644 | Jeffrey Hudson | Barbary pirates | North Africa | 25 | Released | One of several court dwarves of Henrietta Maria. Hudson was captured by Barbary pirates in late 1644 at the age of 25 and spent the following 25 years as a slave in North Africa before a ransom was paid. He returned to England in the 1660s.[7] |
26 May 1665 | Elizabeth Wilmot, Countess of Rochester | John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester | England | 14 | Stayed with captor | English heiress who refused to marry Wilmot, who then attempted to abduct her. She escaped, but later forgave and married him.[8] |
1698 | Thomas White | French pirates | Guinea | Unknown | Escaped from captors | A former Royal Navy sailor. White subsequently became a pirate largely active in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. His vessel, the Marigold was captured by French pirates in 1698 off the coast of Guinea. He was later enslaved by George Booth and John Bowen before escaping in 1701. He later served as a quartermaster for notorious pirate Thomas Howard.[9] |
Early 1700s | Graman Quassi | Dutch protectorate | Suriname | Unknown | Stayed with captor | Ghanaian child who was kidnapped and sold into slavery.[10] |
14 February 1779 | Kalaniʻōpuʻu, ruling chief of Hawaii | Captain James Cook | Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii | 50 | Captain James Cook was killed by captive Kalaniʻōpuʻu | Explorer Captain James Cook attempted to kidnap the ruling chief of Hawaii, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, with the intention of holding him in exchange for a longboat stolen by natives. He was stabbed to death by Kalaniʻōpuʻu during a brief, violent melee between islanders and Cook's men, which also saw four of Cook's crew and numerous islanders killed.[11] |
1803 | Rachel Fanny Antonina Lee | The Gordon brothers | London, England | 30s–40s | Circumstances disputed | Lee, the illegitimate child of Sir Francis Dashwood, claimed to have been kidnapped by the two brothers, but it's unclear whether this was truthful or not. Both were acquitted, but Lee continued to write about her beliefs until her death.[12] |
21 June 1853 | Martin Koszta | Austrian officers | Smyrna (present day İzmir), Turkey | Unknown | Released | Koszta—a Hungarian national—had participated in the political movement of 1848-49 to separate Hungary from the Austro-Hungarian Empire before emigrating to the United States in the early 1850s. In July 1852, he made a declaration under oath of his intention to become a citizen of the United States and renounce all previous national allegiances. While later returning to the United States, Koszta was captured by Austrian officers and confined in custody. Following diplomatic arguments between Austrian and American authorities—each of whom argued the other's conduct in the affair violated international law—Koszta was released and allowed to return to the United States.[13] |
23 June 1858 | Edgardo Mortara | Police, ordered by Pope Pius IX | Bologna, Papal States | 6 | Stayed with abductors | Mortara, a Jewish child, was taken from his family[14] by Pope Pius IX because a Catholic housekeeper had secretly baptized him. The child was never returned to his parents, notwithstanding the humanitarian pleas of President Ulysses S. Grant, Emperor Franz Josef, and Napoleon III. At age 18 he was ordained as an Augustinian priest, taking the name Pius. |
16 October 1859 | Lewis Washington | John Cook and his men | Harpers Ferry, West Virginia | 47 | Rescued | American planter and slaveholder who was held hostage by John Cook, a leader during the Raid on Harpers Ferry, in an attempt to initiate a slave revolt and who was interested in several relics Washington had inherited. He was later rescued, and testified at the latter trial.[15] |
24 August 1867 | Fanny Adams | Frederick Baker | Alton, England | 8 | Murdered | Abducted, murdered and then dismembered in a hop garden near her home. Her remains were found later that same day, and the killing caused a great outcry in the United Kingdom. The phrase "Sweet Fanny Adams" originated from this case.[16] |
1 July 1874 | Charley Ross | Possibly Bill Mosher and Joe Douglas | Germantown, Philadelphia, US | 4 | Unknown | Charley Ross was the first American known to be kidnapped for private ransom who received wide public attention. He and his brother, Walter, were taken by two men from their house under the pretense of buying fireworks. Walter was sent to a fireworks shop, during which time the men left with his brother. Walter was quickly found but did not know where Charley was. The primary suspects, Mosher and Douglas, were killed before they could be proved to be the kidnappers, and Charley was never found.[17] |
Around the 1870s/1880s | Petrus Kafiar | Unknown | Supiori Island | 7 | Released | Petrus Kafiar whose father was a headmam and was a Supiori Island native[18] was kidnapped at age 7[19] around the 1870s and 1880s, and was eventually released. Some time later he became an evangelist. |
1900–1949
Date | Victim(s) | Abductor(s) | Location | Age of victim(s) | Outcome | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
18 December 1900 | Edward Cudahy Jr. | Pat Crowe (accused) | Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. | 15 | Released | Son of a business magnate who was kidnapped and held for $25,000 ransom, with his abductor, Pat Crowe, releasing him after the ransom was paid. After being found not guilty at trial, he made a living as a lecturer and author.[20] |
18 May 1904 | Ion Perdicaris | Bandits sent by Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli | Tangier, Morocco | 64 | Released | Perdicaris and his stepson, Cromwell Varley, were kidnapped by Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli in Tangier. US Secretary of State John Hay declared, "This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead." The two men were released alive upon payment of a ransom.[21] |
Cromwell Varley | Unknown | |||||
1909 | George Cove | Unknown | The Bronx, New York, U.S. | unknown | Released | Canadian inventor who was kidnapped by unknown assailants, who offered him $25,000 in exchange for him to stop promoting his devices. He refused and was later released without harm. Cove accused a former investor of orchestrating the kidnapping, but nothing came out of it and his business soon flunked.[22] |
28 June 1910 | Bernardo Parra | Francisco Leona | Gádor, Almería, Spain | 7 | Murdered | Parra was abducted by local healer Francisco Leona at the request of Francisco "the Moor" Ortega. At the time, it was believed that drinking the blood of a child could cure tuberculosis, prompting Ortega to pay Leona 3000 reales to find him a child. Leona and another man abducted Parra and carried him away in a gunny sack, giving rise to the term El Sacamantecas, and murdered him.[23] |
8 April 1911 | Elsie Paroubek | Unknown | Chicago, Illinois, US | 5 | Murdered | Paroubek was a Czech-American girl who disappeared while walking alone to her aunt's house nearby in Chicago. Her body was found a month later in a drainage ditch.[24] Several people, including Paroubek's father and the police in charge of the investigation, suspected Roma (who had several camps in the area at the time) were involved. |
23 August 1912 | Bobby Dunbar | Unknown | St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, US | 4 | Unknown | Bobby Dunbar disappeared at age 4 near Swayze Lake.[25] After an eight-month nationwide search, investigators found a child, claimed by Dunbar's parents as their son, in the household of William Cantwell Walters of Mississippi. He was convicted of kidnapping. Walters told the police the boy was given to him by his mother, and that his name was Charles Bruce Anderson, known as Bruce. The boy's mother, Julia Anderson, affirmed Walters' account. In 2004, further investigation by "Dunbar's" granddaughter led to conclusive DNA proof that the child in Walters' custody was not the Dunbars' son. Walters had been wrongfully convicted for taking care of Charles Bruce Anderson. Dunbar was never found and his disappearance has never been conclusively solved. |
1923 | Mei Zhanchun | Unknown | Hankou, China | 58–59 | Murdered | Zhanchun (born Father Pascal Angelicus Melotto) was a Roman Catholic priest of the Franciscan Order. He was kidnapped for ransom in 1923 and murdered three months later. Zhanchun is one of the earliest Martyrs in China.[26] |
21 May 1924 | Bobby Franks | Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb | Chicago, Illinois, US | 14 | Murdered | Franks was abducted and beaten to death by Leopold and Loeb,[27] two wealthy students who wished to commit the perfect crime. The two killers were sentenced to life imprisonment after a sensational trial at which they were defended by Clarence Darrow. Loeb was killed in prison, but Leopold was released after serving 33 years. |
15 March 1925 | Madge Oberholtzer | D. C. Stephenson | Indianapolis, Indiana, US | 29 | Released, but died from assault-related injuries | White woman who was abducted and forcefully raped by a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, which later led to her dying from injuries received during the assault. The case led to a steep decline in KKK memberships in the state of Indiana.[28] |
1927 | Lea Niako | Unknown | Portugal | 19 | Escaped | German dancer and actress who was abducted by a stalker while filming the film Fátima Milagrosa (1928). She was taken to the Boca do Inferno chasm in Cascais, but escaped upon arrival.[29][30] |
15 December 1927 | Marion Parker | William Hickman | Los Angeles, California, US | 12 | Murdered | Parker, the daughter of a Los Angeles banker, was kidnapped and killed by William Hickman.[31] A few days after receiving a small ransom, Hickman was arrested and tried. He was convicted and sentenced to death. On 19 October 1928, he was executed for his crime. |
26 January 1930 | Alexander Kutepov | Joint State Political Directorate agents | Paris, France | 47 | Died during apprehension | Russian anti-communist and leader of the Russian All-Military Union during the Russian Civil War, who suffered from a heart attack when he was abducted by OGPU agents, dying on the spot.[32] |
15 May 1930 | Mary Agnes Moroney | Unknown | Chicago, Illinois, US | 2 | Raised by person with unknown connection to abductor | Moroney was taken from her home by a woman who identified herself as "Julia Otis" and claimed to have been sent by a social worker. In 2023, it was determined through DNA testing that Jeanette Burchard, who died in 2003, was Moroney. Her kidnapping was the oldest unsolved case of this nature in the files of the Chicago Missing Persons Bureau.[33] |
4 June 1930 | Asser Salo | Anti-communist Lapua Movement activists | Vaasa, Finland | 28 | Released | Asser Salo, a Finnish lawyer and politician, was kidnapped in Vassa by activists of the anti-communist Lapua Movement on 4 June 1930. Salo was forced under threat for his life to make a public promise to never again engage in communist activities on the territory of Vaasa Province. Soon thereafter, Salo went into exile, first to Sweden, then to the Soviet Union.[34] |
July 1930 | Väinö Hakkila | Lapua Movement members | Finland | 48 | Released | Finnish SDP politician and speaker for Parliament who was kidnapped and beaten by Lapua Movement members. He survived the assault, and later resumed his career.[35] |
5 July 1930 | Eino Pekkala | Lapua Movement members | Ostrobothnia, Finland | 43 | Released | Finnish socialist politician who, together with Jalmari Rötkö, was kidnapped by fascist Lapua Movement members while they were attending the Constitutional Law Committee. Both were handed over to authorities the next day, and Pekkala was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for treason.[36] |
14 December 1931 | Vera Page | Unknown | Kensington, London, UK | 10 | Murdered | Page was abducted, raped and strangled by an unidentified man in December 1931. The only suspect, Percy Rush, was never charged due to lack of evidence. |
1 March 1932 | Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr. | Richard Hauptmann | East Amwell Township, New Jersey, US | 1 | Murdered | Charles was the son of American aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. On 1 March, the 20-month-old child was taken from his crib at home[37] in what was called "the crime of the century". Ransom negotiations were unsuccessful, and his remains were found on 12 May. Hauptmann was found and arrested in September 1934, and was convicted of the crime on 13 February 1935, sentenced to death, and electrocuted on 3 April 1936. Congress passed the "Lindbergh Law", formally known as "The Federal Kidnapping Act of 1932", on 13 June 1932. The law made kidnapping a federal crime if the victim was taken across state lines, enabling investigation and other actions by federal law enforcement. |
27 May 1933 | Mary McElroy | George McGee, Walter McGee, Clarence Click, and Clarence Stevens | Kansas City, Missouri, US | 25 | Released | McElroy, the daughter of City Manager Henry F. McElroy of Kansas City, was kidnapped and held for ransom.[38][39] She was released unharmed after the ransom was paid. The four kidnappers were later apprehended, convicted at trial, and given life sentences. |
9 November 1933 | Brooke Hart | Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes | San Jose, California, US | 22 | Murdered | Hart, the son of a San Jose, California businessman, was kidnapped. His body was later found.[40][41] His two alleged kidnappers were arrested and, before trial, lynched by a mob. |
25 April 1934 | June Robles | Unknown | Tucson, Arizona, US | 6 | Released | Robles was abducted and held for ransom. After negotiations between her parents and her captors, she was found unharmed on a highway after nineteen days in captivity.[42] Only one arrest was made in connection with her abduction. |
19 September 1934 | Dorothy Ann Distelhurst | Unknown | East Nashville, Tennessee, US | 5 | Murdered | Distelhurst disappeared while walking home from school. After media coverage, her parents received multiple ransom notes, but the police were unable to determine their veracity. The child's remains were found on 13 November 1934, buried under a flower bed at the corner of the Davidson County Tuberculosis Hospital. Her killer is unknown.[43][44][45][46][47] |
26 December 1935 | Tito Minniti | Ethiopians | Degehabur, Somali Region, Ethiopia | 25–26 | Murdered | Italian pilot Tito Minniti was captured, killed, and allegedly tortured by Ethiopians during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War on 26 December 1935.[48] What happened to Minniti after he was captured varies depending on the source; in one version, Minniti was forced to surrender after running out of ammunition, after which he was tortured, mutilated, and killed by Ethiopian forces. In another version, Minniti was killed by Ethiopian civilians angered by the bombing of their villages. |
12 December 1936 | Chiang Kai-shek | Zhang Xueliang | Xi'an, China | 49 | Released | Chiang Kai-shek, leader of China, was kidnapped by a warlord in an affair known as the Xi'an Incident.[49] He was released. |
27 December 1936 | Charles Mattson | Unknown | Tacoma, Washington, US | 10 | Murdered | Mattson was abducted from his home and held for $28,000. He was found dead in January 1937.[50] |
27 December 1936 | Lojze Bratuž | Italian fascists | Gorizia, Italy | 35 | Murdered | Slovene choirmaster and composer who was kidnapped by Italian Fascists and forced to drink a fatal mixture of castor oil, gasoline and motor oil. He was unable to recover, and died in a hospital half a month later.[51] |
22 September 1937 | Yevgeny Miller | Nikolai Skoblin and NKVD officers | Paris, France | 69 | Murdered | Miller, an anti-bolshevik Russian general, was kidnapped by NKVD agents. The NKVD successfully smuggled him back to Moscow, Russia.[52] He was tortured during interrogation and executed by gunshot nineteen months later, in 1939. |
27 September 1943 | Norma Cossetto | Yugoslav communists | Vižinada, Croatia | 23 | Murdered | Istrian Italian student and alleged Fascist sympathizer who was detained by Yugoslav communists, after allegedly refusing to join the resistance. Over the next few days, while the German forces were invading the area, Cossetto was repeatedly raped and tortured by her captors, before they finally threw her and two other women in a foiba on 4 to 5 October.[53] |
April 1945 | Boris Popper | Soviet officers | Svir, Russia | 41 | Released | Russian-born Finnish white émigré who protested the Soviet government. He was extradited to the USSR in April 1945, receiving a 10-year sentence for his anti-government activities. He was later released and allowed to return to Finland.[54][55] |
19 December 1945 | Oto Iskandar di Nata | "The Black Troop" | Tangerang, Indonesia | 48 | Murdered | Indonesian politician who was supposedly killed on a beach by a group identifying themselves as 'The Black Troop'. As his body was then dumped into the sea, it was never located.[56] |
30 July 1947 | Sergeants Clifford Martin and Mervyn Paice | Irgun guerrillas | Mandatory Palestine | 19 (Martin) | Murdered | Martin and Paice were both British Army Intelligence Corps non-commissioned officers. Both were murdered by Irgun militants in reprisal for the execution of three of their members by the British Army.[57] |
20 (Paice) | ||||||
22 January 1948 | Alice Meza | Caryl Chessman | Greater Los Angeles Area, California | 17 | Released | Forced out of a car her boyfriend was driving when they stopped at a red light. The boyfriend drove off, before the kidnapper drove Alice to a secondary location and orally and anally raped her under the threat of killing her boyfriend. Despite reported beatings and torture in interrogation, Caryl Chessman was identified by the Ford Coupe at the scene and by Alice in a lineup. Chessman was executed under the statute of the Federal Kidnapping Act making kidnapping with bodily harm a capital crime.[58] |
15 May 1948 | June Anne Devaney | Peter Griffiths | Blackburn, England | 3 | Murdered | Inpatient at Queen's Park Hospital who was abducted, raped and killed by a man who had been to the hospital. The case is considered a milestone in British forensics, being the first case to be solved by mass fingerprinting.[59] |
1950–1979
Date | Victim(s) | Abductor(s) | Location | Age of victim(s) | Outcome | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1950– | South Koreans abducted by North Koreans | Agents and soldiers | South Korea | Approximately 84,532 South Koreans were taken to North Korea during the Korean War.[60] Since the war's armistice in 1953, about 3,800 people have been abducted. | ||
28 September 1953 | Robert "Bobby" Cosgrove Greenlease, Jr. | Bonnie Heady and Carl A. Hall | Kansas City, Missouri, US | 6 | Murdered | Greenlease was kidnapped and immediately murdered. The murderers demanded and were paid a $600,000 ransom by the boy's father, a wealthy automobile dealer.[61] Notable in the case was the fact that more than half of the ransom money was stolen by a corrupt police officer and never recovered. |
4 July 1956 | Peter Weinberger | Angelo LaMarca | Westbury, New York, US | 1 month | Murdered | LaMarca took the baby from his home for a $2,000 ransom. He told investigators he went to the first drop site the day after the kidnapping with the baby in the car, but was scared away by all of the press and police in the area. He drove away, abandoned the baby alive in some heavy brush just off a highway exit, and went home. A search of the area by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and Nassau County Police Department ensued.[62] An FBI agent spotted a diaper pin, then the decomposed remains of Peter Weinberger. The Weinberger case also resulted in new legislation, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, which reduced the FBI's waiting period in kidnapping cases from 7 days to 24 hours.[62] LaMarca was executed via electric chair on 7 August 1958. |
2 September 1957 | Judge Edward Aaron | Ku Klux Klan members | Birmingham, Alabama, US | 34 | Rescued | African-American handyman who was abducted, beaten and tortured by seven KKK members who left him for dead. Aaron was rescued the same day, and several of his attackers convicted later on. His case inspired the 1988 film Mississippi Burning.[63] |
23 February 1958 | Juan Manuel Fangio | Rebels involved in the Cuban Revolution | Havana, Cuba | 46 | Released | Five-time Argentine Formula One champion Fangio was kidnapped by rebels involved in the Cuban Revolution, which had been planned by one of Fidel Castro's right-hand men Faustino Perez, from a hotel in Havana, the night before the non-championship Cuban Grand Prix. The abductors had also planned to kidnap fellow driver Stirling Moss but was convinced by Fangio not to kidnap him. Fangio was taken to three separate houses and was offered various amnesties and even a radio for him to listen to the race going on. On midnight after the race, Fangio was dropped off at the Argentinian ambassador's home.[64][65] |
9 February 1960 | Adolph Coors III | Joseph Corbett Jr. | Morrison, Colorado, US | 44 | Murdered | Corbett attempted to kidnap Coors on a single-lane bridge outside of Morrison, Colorado, but a struggle ensued and Corbett shot Coors twice in the back, killing him. Corbett then dumped Coors' dead body near Pikes Peak and mailed a ransom note demanding $500,000. That night, Corbett mistakenly believed he was being watched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and left Denver the following morning. He was captured nine months later in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and convicted of first degree murder.[66] |
7 July 1960 | Graeme Thorne | Stephen Leslie Bradley | New South Wales, Australia | 8 | Murdered | Graeme's parents, Bazil and Freda Thorne, won the £100,000 Opera House Lottery (at that time, the names of winners were published). Five weeks later Stephen Leslie Bradley abducted Graeme and demanded a ransom. He was killed and dumped, the partially decomposed body being discovered on 16 August. The case led to tighter rules about the publication of the names of lottery winners.[67] |
11 July 1960 | Edward Bartels | Victor Feguer | Dubuque, Iowa, US | 34 | Murdered | Edward Bartels was a doctor working in Dubuque, Iowa, who was abducted by drifter Victor Feguer, who intended to steal drugs from him. Feguer lured Bartels to his boarding house by claiming that a woman was suffering from a medical emergency before abducting him and taking him to Illinois, where he shot Bartels in the head and dumped his body in a cornfield.[68] |
22 August 1961 | Michael Gregsten and Valerie Storie | James Hanratty | Dorney Reach, Buckinghamshire, UK | 36 (Gregsten), 23 (Storie) | Murdered (Gregsten), Found (Storie) | On 22 August 1961, Michael Gregsten and his mistress Valerie Storie were sitting in Gregsten's car in Dorney Reach, Buckinghamshire, when a masked man holding a gun approached them and hijacked the car, forcing Gregsten to drive away up the A6 and keep driving until 1.30am the next day, when he tied Storie's hands behind her back, shot Gregsten in the head and raped Storie.[69] The man then forced Storie to drag Gregsten's body out of the car, shot her five times and drove off. Storie survived after being taken to hospital. James Hanratty, the alleged kidnapper, was executed by hanging on 4 April 1962. |
22 October 1962 | Carol Ann Dougherty | Unknown | Bristol, Pennsylvania, US | 9 | Murdered | Carol Dougherty was abducted by an unknown assailant on her way to the library from home. She was later found inside St. Mark's Roman Catholic Church, which she herself had frequented before, having been raped and strangled. Although there have been several suspects and leads on the perpetrator in the intervening years, the crime remains unsolved.[70] |
3 March 1963 | Lois Ann Jameson | Ernesto Miranda | Phoenix, Arizona, US | 18 | Released | Jameson was abducted near a bus stop while returning from work. Miranda drove her twenty minutes out of town before raping her and driving her back, whereupon she was released. Miranda was arrested ten days later and convicted of kidnapping and rape, but had his conviction overturned in Miranda v. Arizona due to a violation of his Fifth Amendment rights.[71] A second jury later convicted Miranda and he was sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years.[72] |
9 March 1963 | Karl Francis Hettinger and Ian James Campbell | Gregory Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith | Bakersfield, California | 28 (Hettinger); 31 (Campbell) | Escaped (Hettinger); murdered (Campbell) | Los Angeles Police Department officers. Both men were kidnapped by criminals Gregory Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith on 9 March 1973 and driven to an onion field near Bakersfield, California. Campbell was shot, while Hettinger managed to escape to a farmhouse where he called for help.[73] |
August 1963 | Kenneth Abrahams | South African Police | Botswana | c.27 | Released | Abrahams, Beukes, Shipanga and a fourth individual, Paul Smit, were arrested in Ghanzi because of their actions in recruiting soldiers for SWAPO's military wing, the People's Liberation Army of Namibia. All four were released by the South African Police after twenty days of captivity.[74] |
Hermanus Beukes | 50 | |||||
Andreas Shipanga | 31 | |||||
18 March 1964 | Marise Chiverella | James Paul Forte | Hazleton, Pennsylvania, US | 9 | Murdered | Chiverella was abducted while carrying canned goods for her teacher, with Forte raping and strangling her before dumping her body in a coal-mining pit. The murder remained unsolved until 2022, when Parabon NanoLabs used DNA left by Forte to identify him as the killer. He could not be arrested, as he had died in 1980.[75] |
27 April 1964 | Paul Joseph Fronczak | Unknown | Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, US | 1 day | Found | Paul was one day old when he was abducted from the Michael Reese hospital by a woman posing as a nurse.[76] A year later a baby was found outside a variety store in Newark, New Jersey and was believed to be the stolen baby, who was reunited with his family. In August 2013 it was determined with DNA testing that Paul is not the biological child of the Fronczaks. The case has since been re-opened.[77][78] On 18 December 2019 it was announced that the real Paul Joseph Fronczak has been identified as a 55-year-old man who wishes to not be publicly identified.[79] |
26 December 1965 | Franca Viola | Filippo Melodia and associates | Sicily, Italy | 17 | Released | Italian woman who was kidnapped by mafioso Filippo Melodia, to whom she was previously engaged by force. She was held captive by him and his associates, with him raping her on multiple occasions. Even after her release, Viola was ostracized as she had refused to marry him in a "rehabilitating marriage", with the case serving as a stepping point for changes in law regarding bridal kidnappings.[80] |
26 January 1966 | The Beaumont Children | Unknown | Glenelg, South Australia | 9, 7, 4 | Unknown | The Beaumont children were three siblings who disappeared from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia on Australia Day 1966 in a suspected abduction and murder.[81] The regular and widespread attention given to the case, its significance in Australian criminal history, and the fact that the mystery of their disappearance has never been explained, has led to the story being continually revisited by the media.[82] |
28 March 1966 | Danny Goldman | Unknown | Surfside, Florida, US | 17 | Unknown | An intruder broke into the home of the Goldman family and demanded $10,000. When he did not get the money, he abducted Danny Goldman and said that he wanted $25,000 by the end of the day. The kidnapper never contacted the family and Goldman was never found. Speculation surfaced that organized crime was behind the kidnapping because Goldman's father was involved in several banks that were controlled by organized crime figures.[83][84] |
27 September 1966 | Allen Redston | Unknown | Curtin, Australia | 6 | Murdered | Schoolboy who disappeared while going toward a friend's house, where they planned to spend a day at Curtin Tip. Redston's body was found on the next day, wrapped in a blanket, near the location. He had been bound and strangled, but nobody was ever arrested in his murder.[85] |
March 1967 | Unnamed 13-year-old girl | Stanley Bernson | Chattaroy, Washington, U.S. | 13 | Released | In March 1967, Stanley Marvin Bernson, an American murderer and self-confessed serial killer, abducted a 13-year-old girl and drove her around Chattaroy, an unincorporated area northeast of Spokane. The girl was returned to her home after suffering a head injury, which Bernson claimed was caused by a wrench hitting her when he crashed his car into a ditch. Bernson was given a six-month suspended sentence later that month.[86] |
23 August 1968 | Ong Beang Leck | Lee Chor Pet, Lim Kim Kwee, Ho Kee Fatt, Richard Lai Choon Seng and Chow Sien Cheong | Singapore | 19 | Murdered | 19-year-old Ong Beang Leck, the fourth child of a local millionaire, was abducted by four kidnappers into a car, with three of them using weapons, including a screwdriver and hammer, to brutally assault Ong before killing him. The four, together with a fifth person, also extorted a S$20,000 ransom from the victim's family after the murder. Following police investigations, the suspects were arrested in both Malaysia and Singapore, and the body of Ong was recovered from a manhole at Jurong. Lee, Lim and Ho, the trio who were identified as the ones who directly killed Ong, were hanged on 27 January 1973 for murder while Lai (who acted as the driver) and Chow (the fifth man) were each jailed for four years for negotiating and possessing the ransom money.[87][88][89][90] |
23 August 1968 | Roy Tutill | Brian Field | Surrey, United Kingdom | 14 | Murdered | 14-year-old Roy Tutill was abducted while hitchhiking in Surrey in 1968 and found raped and strangled three days later. The case was unsolved until 2001 (making it the oldest solved cold case in British history), when convicted sex offender Brian Field pleaded guilty based on DNA evidence. According to Field, he had drunkenly started touching Tutill's leg, at which point Tutill resisted and he proceeded to rape him before panicking and strangling him to death.[91] |
17 December 1968 | Barbara Jane Mackle | Gary Steven Krist and Ruth Eisemann-Schier | Decatur, Georgia, US | 20 | Rescued | Mackle was kidnapped and buried in a reinforced box with food, water, and air. She was rescued a few days later. She wrote a book about her experience that was later made into two TV movies.[92][93] |
25 August 1969 | Rosemary Calandriello | Robert Zarinsky | Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, US | 17 | Murdered | Calandriello is believed to have been kidnapped and murdered by Zarinsky, who was later convicted of her murder, even though her body has never been located.[94] |
4 September 1969 | Charles Burke Elbrick | Revolutionary Movement 8th October Marxist political organization | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 61 | Released | An American diplomat kidnapped by the Revolutionary Movement 8th October; he was held hostage for 78 hours before he was released in exchange for 15 unnamed political prisoners and the publication of the group's manifesto.[95] |
31 October 1969 | Pamela Hobley and Patricia Spencer | Unknown | Oscoda, Michigan, US | 15, 16 | Unknown | Two teenage girls were believed to have been kidnapped prior to a scheduled party after a football game. Both are presumed dead.[96] |
29 December 1969 | Muriel McKay | Arthur Hosein and Nizamodeen Hosein | Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom | 55 | Murdered | Trinidadian brothers Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein attempted to kidnap Anna Murdoch, the then-wife of tycoon Rupert Murdoch, for a £1 million ransom, but abducted the wife of Murdoch's deputy chairman, Alick McKay, instead. During the investigation, many attempts were made to find the victim – family friends even consulted the psychic Gerard Croiset to help – but the body of Mrs. McKay was never found as was presumed murdered.[97][98] In early 1970 the Hosein brothers were caught and convicted of kidnap and murder, the first case in British history of a murder conviction without a body. |
1970s–1980s | Japanese abducted by North Koreans | Government agents | Japan | 17 Japanese people are officially recognized as having been abducted, but there are up to hundreds of possible cases.[99] | ||
7 April 1970 | César Montenegro Paniagua | La Mann rebels | Guatemala | 50 | Murdered | Guatemalan politician and ardent communist. He was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in reprisal for the murder of West German politician Karl von Spreti.[100] |
13 September 1970 | Monica Schiller | Terrance Haley, Raymond Gunning and Andrew Brooks | Murbko, South Australia | 21 | Rescued | Three "trustees" at the Cadell Training Centre absconded from a work release detail, entered the Schiller farm, and tied up Monica's family and boyfriend. After taking food, water, guns and ammunition, they left with the 21-year-old. The escapees first drove to the Adelaide suburb of Semaphore, then took another stolen vehicle with the intention to going to Darwin via the Birdsville Track. Police chartered a light plane and arrived at Birdsville before the kidnappers. Setting up a roadblock south of the town, police were able to stop the vehicle. After firing a number of shots at the abductors, they were captured and arrested. Monica was found alive in the vehicle but traumatised by the events of the 26 hour ordeal.[101] |
17 September 1970 | Kelly Lynn Albright | Unknown | Hutchinson, Kansas, US | 12 | Murdered | Kelly Albright had been sleeping in her bed with her two siblings in the home of her mother and stepfather, Roberta and Richard LeShure, when she woke her brother upon leaving the bedroom, after which she vanished from the home. She was found in a field three days later, having been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times. Little additional evidence was recovered outside of a pillow slip and her pajamas. The prime suspect in the case died before he could be questioned thoroughly, and the case remains unsolved. The crime served as the basis for a mystery novel, Facing September, by Sara Jenlink.[102] |
5 October 1970 | James Cross and Pierre Laporte | Front de libération du Québec militants | Quebec, Canada | 49 | Released (Cross) Murdered (Laporte) |
Cross was a British diplomat and Laporte was a Quebec provincial politician who were kidnapped.[103] Their kidnappings set off the 1970 October Crisis. Cross was released in exchange for passage of his abductors to Cuba. |
1971 | Two unnamed girls | Robert Hohenberger | Laguna Beach | Released | Two unnamed girls were kidnapped and held at gunpoint by Robert Hohenberger in Laguna Beach. Hohenberger was later charged and convicted for this and sent to jail for a short time.[104] | |
1971 | Anton Foek | Chilean government agents | Chile | 30 | Released | Surinamese-born Dutch freelance journalist who was kidnapped and tortured by agents of the Chilean government, but was later released and kicked out of the country when Augusto Pinochet came to power. |
27 July 1971 | Brenda Crockett | Unknown | Northwest, Washington, D.C. | 10 | Murdered | Brenda Crockett, American child from Northwest did not arrive home on 27 July 1971, but she had called to say she would be arriving home as some man had her in his possession.[105] She was found dead the next day after being murdered on U.S. Route 50, close to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Prince George's County, Maryland[106] by a hitchhiker early in the morning. |
10 September 1971 | Lynn Eusan | Unknown | Houston, Texas, U.S. | 22 | Murdered | African-American University of Houston student and activist who became the first black Homecoming queen in the Southern United States. She was last seen alive waiting for a bus stop, and was later found deceased in a stranger's car. The man, Leo Jackson, Jr., claimed that she had stabbed herself. He was charged, but later acquitted of her murder, and Eusan's case remains unsolved.[107] |
1 October 1971 | Nenomoshia Yates | Unknown | Pennsylvania | 12 | Murdered | American girl from Pennsylvania who on 1 October 1971 was kidnapped, strangled, and raped, and after leaving a Safeway store in the evening time.[108] Yates was found dead just three hours later in Prince George's County, Maryland.[109] |
15 November 1971 | Brenda Denise Woodard | Unknown | Baltimore | 18 | Murdered | Brenda Denise Woodard was an American girl from Baltimore who left her classmate's house after having dinner with her on 15 November 1971,[110] while she was heading home. She was discovered dead just 6 hours later by the police and being kidnapped and murdered. Her unknown killer had left a note in her coat pocket that said to catch him if you can.[111] |
15 November 1971 | Debbie Catherine Ackerman, Maria Talbot Johnson | Unknown | Galveston, Texas, U.S. | 15 | Murdered | Debbie Catherine Ackerman and Maria Talbot Johnson, both aged 15, were last seen attempting to hitchhike to Houston, Texas near an island ice cream shop in Galveston, Texas on 15 November 1971. Witnesses reported seeing a man in a white van stopping by the curbside and picking up the girls after agreeing to drive them to Houston. Two days later, the bodies of Ackerman and Johnson were found bound and partially nude in Turner's Bayou near Texas City.[112] |
18 November 1971 | Edeltraud van Boxel | Münsterland Killer | Münster, Germany | 23 | Murdered | Edeltraud van Boxel was a female German street sexworker from Münster who when getting into a car on 21 November 1971 at 8:30pm was kidnapped and found dead by a farmer on a dirt road at 11:40pm.[113] |
1972–1985 | "The Disappeared" | IRA and INLA | Northern Ireland | Murdered | Seamus Wright, Kevin McKee, Jean McConville, Joseph Lynskey, Peter Wilson, Eamon Molloy, Columba McVeigh, Brendan McGraw, John McClory, Brian McKinney, Danny McIlhone, Gerard Evans, Charlie Armstrong and Seamus Ruddy were a group of both civilians and Irish republican volunteers who were kidnapped, possibly tortured, and murdered by the IRA and INLA during Northern Ireland's "Troubles" for being alleged spies, informants, thieves, etc. Their bodies were not recovered until eight of the corpses or remains were eventually located and returned to their families for burial.[114] Another man who disappeared during this time was Robert Nairac, a British SAS officer whose identity was uncovered. | |
5 September 1972 | Diane Denise Williams | Unknown | Washington, D.C. | 17 | Murdered | Diane Denise Williams was a Ballou High School student who after seeing boarding a bus on 5 September 1972 was found dead just a few hours later after being disposed of alongside I-295, which is south of the District line.[115] |
4 December 1972 | Steven Stayner | Kenneth Parnell and Ervin Edward Murphy | Merced, California, US | 7 | Escaped | Stayner was kidnapped on his way home from school. He was raised as Parnell's son for seven years until Parnell abducted another child, Timmy White, in 1980. The two boys escaped on 1 March 1980.[116][117] At the time of Steven's return, it was the longest known kidnapping in America that ended in a safe return. |
28 December 1972 | Pinhas Lavie | Black September Organization militants | Bangkok, Thailand | 37 | Released | Israeli diplomat who served as the ambassador to Eswatini and the Dominican Republic who was abducted by Palestinian militants during the Israeli Bangkok Embassy hostage crisis. After 19 hours, Lavie and the other hostages were released from captivity in Egypt.[118] |
27 January 1973 | Dawn Lee Swan Magyar | Jerald Wingeart | Owosso, Michigan, US | 20 | Murdered | Magyar was abducted while grocery shopping. Her body was later found. She was raped and shot multiple times[119] and her murder remained unsolved until 2001. |
9 March 1973 | Franca Rame | Unknown | Milan, Italy | 43 | Released | An Italian theatre actress, playwright and political activist. Rame was abducted at gunpoint and raped by five individuals allegedly commissioned by high-ranking officials in Milan's Carabinieri. She was released after several hours of abuse and captivity.[120] |
26 July 1973 | Janice Pockett | Unknown | Tolland, Connecticut, US | 7 | Unknown | Janice asked her mother if she could ride off by herself. It was the first time she had been allowed to go anywhere by herself. She never returned. Her bike was found less than a mile away from her home, abandoned on a dirt road close to the woods. There were hundreds of names of possible suspects, but no corroborating evidence to substantiate them as suspects. The case has been re-opened many times and is still an open case as of 2018. The Discovery Network featured her story in Dark Minds and a Facebook page is dedicated to her being missing.[121][122][123] |
8 August 1973 | Kim Dae-jung | Members of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) | Tokyo, Japan | 49 | Released | After attending a meeting with the leader of the Democratic Unification Party in the Grand Hotel Palace in Tokyo, the future president was abducted by a group of unidentified men as he walked out of the room. He was taken into another room where he was drugged unconscious. The kidnappers intended to throw Kim into the sea and drown him while boarding a boat from Osaka to Seoul, but this was abandoned when the Japanese Navy made pursuit of the kidnappers' boat. Kim was released back in Seoul five days after the kidnapping.[124] |
October 1973 | Bobi Sourander | Chilean Armed Forces | Santiago, Chile | 45 | Released | Finnish-Swedish journalist for Dagens Nyheter who was imprisoned for two weeks after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. He was later released without incident, but subsequently expelled from the country.[125] |
27 December 1973 | Thomas Niedermayer | Provisional IRA | Belfast, Northern Ireland | 45 | Murdered | Niedermayer was a German national and the manager of a Grundig factory in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He died shortly after being abducted by the IRA from his home in Belfast.[126] His remains were eventually found, buried in an embankment near Belfast, on 11 March 1980. |
1974 | Suzanne Marie Sevakis | Franklin Delano Floyd | North Carolina, US | 5 | Raised by abductor, later killed | Suzanne Sevakis, going by the name of Tonya Hughes, was killed in an apparent hit-and-run in 1990. It was discovered following her death that her husband, who was much older, actually raised Hughes from an early age. DNA testing determined they were not biological relatives. Floyd gave inconsistent stories regarding how she came to be in his custody. Floyd is the prime suspect in Hughes's death. Sevakis' true identity remained a mystery until 2014, when DNA testing confirmed that Sharon Marshall was Suzanne Marie Sevakis. Floyd was married to Sevakis' mother when she was sentenced to 30 days in jail for a minor crime. He was left to care for her four children while she was incarcerated. After she was released, she found that the children and Floyd had disappeared. She found two children in the care of the local social services where he left them, but Suzanne and her younger brother were never found and the boy's fate remained unknown until 2019, when a man came forward believing he was the boy, which was confirmed by DNA testing in 2020. The mother attempted to file kidnapping charges but the local police declined, telling her that the child's stepfather had parental rights over the children.[127] |
1974 | Argentino del Valle Larrabure | People's Revolutionary Army | Villa María, Argentina | 43 | Murdered | Argentine military officer who was captured by People's Revolutionary Army members during an assault. He was held in detention for 372 days, until he died in unclear circumstances.[128] |
4 February 1974 | Patty Hearst | Symbionese Liberation Army | Berkeley, California, US | 19 | Stayed with abductors until arrested | Hearst, an heiress to the Hearst Corporation mass media fortune, was kidnapped from her apartment by a left-wing guerilla group. She announced her allegiance to the group in April 1974, and on 15 April 1974 took part in a bank robbery. She is thought to have been a victim of Stockholm syndrome.[129] Captured by the FBI in September 1975, Hearst was sentenced to 35 years in prison for bank robbery. She served 22 months and was released from prison on 1 February 1979. President Bill Clinton granted her a full pardon on 20 January 2001. |
20 February 1974 | J. Reginald Murphy | William A. H. Williams | Atlanta, Georgia, US | 41 | Freed | American publisher and business executive who was kidnapped and held for $700,000 ransom. After it was paid two days later, Murphy was released and his kidnapper was arrested, but a motive for the crime was never established.[130] |
12 April 1974 | Richard and Victoria Debois | Robert Hohenberger | Los Banos, California, US | 20 (Richard), 19 (Victoria) | Escaped | A young married couple kidnapped and forced by prison escapee Robert Hohenberger to drive to Modesto, then Los Banos, California. While refueling their car at a gas station alongside the I-5, Debois and his wife managed to flee and report their kidnapping to authorities.[131] |
6 June 1974 | Annette Friedland | Frank Wyatt | Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, US | 44 | Released | Wife of American super market executive who was kidnapped and held for $60,000 ransom. The ransom was paid the day of and Friedland was released.[132] |
1 October 1974 | Daria Wightman | Warren Forrest | Portland, Oregon, US | 20 | Survived | Abducted, assaulted and shot multiple times with a dart gun by accused serial killer Warren Forrest. Wightman survived her injuries, and was driven to a nearby hospital by members of the public, where she was treated for her injuries.[133] |
17 October 1974 | Jan Broberg | Robert Berchtold | Pocatello, Idaho, US | 12 | Rescued | Raped, brainwashed. Later kidnapped again. |
8 November 1974 | Carol DaRonch | Ted Bundy | Murray, Utah, U.S. | 18 | Survived attempted kidnapping | DaRonch escaped from Bundy's car and survived after he attempted to kidnap her.[134] |
12 November 1974 | Jack Teich | Richard Warren Williams | Kings Point, New York, US | 34 | Released | Teich was kidnapped in his driveway in the evening after work. His abductors demanded and received a $750,000 ransom before the police lost sight of the retrieval.[135] Years later, two men were tried for the crime; however, only one was convicted and served time. |
18 November 1974 | Eduardo Romualdez | Napoleon Lechoco | Washington, D.C., U.S. | 65 | Released | Filipino Ambassador to the United States who was held hostage at the Philippine Embassy by a gunman who demanded that his son be issued an exit visa and allowed to leave the country. After a 10-hour standoff, Romualdez was released without harm following negotiations with his abductor.[136] |
14 January 1975 | Lesley Whittle | Donald Neilson | Highley, England | 17 | Murdered | Whittle was an heiress kidnapped from her home by Neilson, also known as the "Black Panther". Her body was found on 7 March 1975, hanging from a wire in a drain shaft in Bathpool Park, Staffordshire. Neilson was captured and convicted, and died in December 2011 while serving life in prison.[137] |
27 February 1975 | Peter Lorenz | Movement 2 June | West Berlin, West Germany | 52 | Released | Lorenz, German conservative politician and candidate for the mayor of West Berlin, was kidnapped only days before the elections.[138] He was released unharmed after a week in exchange for five imprisoned leftist extremists, who were flown out to South Yemen. He won the majority of the votes while in captivity. |
25 March 1975 | Sheila and Katherine Lyon | Lloyd Lee Welch, Jr. | Wheaton, Maryland, US | 12 (Sheila) and 10 (Katherine) | Murdered | The Lyon sisters were at Wheaton Plaza mall, not far from their home, when they disappeared without a trace. Their brother and other people they knew had seen them eating at a restaurant in the mall, and one boy said he saw them speaking to an unknown man and talking into a recorder. Another man who would later be convicted of rape was seen paying attention to the sisters. They were never found. In 2013, a cold case team noticed a striking resemblance between a sketch in the case file and a mug shot of Welch from the late 1970s. In 2015 Welsh was charged, and in September 2017 he was sentenced to 48 years in prison.[139] |
5 October 1975 | Lesley Molseed | Ronald Castree | Rochdale, Manchester, United Kingdom | 11 | Murdered | Lesley Molseed was abducted, raped and stabbed to death on 5 October 1975 by Ronald Castree. An intellectually disabled man named Stefan Kiszko was convicted after being coerced into confessing by the police, but his conviction was eventually overturned. Castree was identified through DNA evidence in 2006, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.[140][141] |
13 February 1976 | Victoria Montenegro | Argentine Armed Forces | Buenos Aires, Argentina | 13 days | Rescued | Daughter of People's Revolutionary Army dissidents who was kidnapped and raised by an army colonel, while her parents were killed. A DNA test established her true identity in 2000, and the colonel was imprisoned. Since then, Montenegro has entered politics and become vice-president of the Kolina party.[142] |
15 July 1976 | Frank Edward "Ed" Ray and 26 schoolchildren | Frederick Newhall Woods IV, James and Richard Schoenfeld | Chowchilla, California | 55 (Ray), 5-14 (all children) | Escaped | Ray was driving the schoolchildren home from a summer class trip to the Chowchilla fairgrounds swimming pool in a schoolbus when a van blocked the road ahead of the bus. The three occupants of the van proceeded to abduct the entire bus and abandoning it in the Berenda Slough, a shallow branch of the Chowchilla River, where a second van was waiting. Ray and the children were forced into the vans and were taken to a quarry in Livermore, California, where they were led into a buried truck. Ray and all of the children managed to force their way out sixteen hours after being trapped in the truck. All kidnappers were arrested within two weeks after the kidnapping.[143] |
10 August 1976 | Jan Broberg | Robert Berchtold | Pocatello, Idaho, US | 14 | Rescued | |
4 November 1976 | Alejandro Iaccarino | Jorge Rómulo Ferranti, Bruno Trevisán | Buenos Aires Province, Argentina | 30 | Released | Argentine businessman Alejandro Iaccarino was abducted along with his older brother and parents in the Buenos Aires Province and Santiago del Estero regions of Argentina on 4 November 1976. Iaccarino and his family were kidnapped by the military dictatorship of Argentina so their assets could be seized. While their parents were released after 17 days, Iaccarino and his brother remained imprisoned until 4 September 1978. Jorge Rómulo Ferranti and Bruno Trevisán were both charged in connection with the abductions.[144] |
14 December 1976 | Richard Oetker | Dieter Zlof | Germany | 28 | Released | Businessman and billionaire heir who was kidnapped by a Slovene-born mechanic, who kept him shackled inside a crate and gave him electrical shocks when he resisted. While Oetker was rescued 47 hours later and Zlof sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, the incident has left him with permanent injuries to his lung.[145] |
19 May 1977 | Colleen Stan | Cameron Hooker | Red Bluff, California, US | 20 | Escaped | Stan was kidnapped by Hooker while hitchhiking.[146] She was tortured and sexually abused over seven years until Hooker's wife, Janice, helped her escape in 1984. |
12 June 1977 | Oklahoma Girl Scout murders | Unknown | Mayes County, Oklahoma, US | 8–10 | Murdered | The Oklahoma Girl Scout murders is an unresolved crime that occurred at Camp Scott. The victims were three Girl Scouts, who were raped and murdered and their bodies left in the woods near their tent at summer camp.[147] The case was classified as "solved" when Gene Leroy Hart, a local jail escapee with a history of violence, was arrested, and stood trial for the crime; he was acquitted. Thirty years later authorities conducted new DNA testing, but the results proved inconclusive, as the samples were too old. |
5 September 1977 | Hanns Martin Schleyer | Brigitte Mohnhaupt and the Red Army Faction | Cologne, Germany | 62 | Murdered | Schleyer, a German manager, was kidnapped by the extreme-left militant organisation Red Army Faction, carried out by Mohnhaupt.[148] He was hidden in a high-rise in Erftstadt. After the imprisoned RAF members were found dead in their prison cells in Stammheim Prison, he was killed on 18 October 1977. His body was found in a car in Mulhouse. |
13 October 1977 | Gabriele von Lutzau, Horst-Gregorio Canellas | PFLP militants | Mogadishu, Somalia | 23 (Lutzau), 56 (Canellas) | Rescued | Both were aboard the Lufthansa Flight 181 when it was hijacked by four PFLP extremists, who travelled across several countries before landing in Mogadishu, Somalia. They were all rescued in a joint German-Somali rescue operation.[149] |
15 November 1977 | Megumi Yokota | North Korea government | Niigata Prefecture, North Korea | 13 | Unknown | Megumi Yokota is a Japanese woman who was abducted by a North Korean agent in 1977, when she was a thirteen-year-old junior high school student. She was one of at least 17 Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The North Korean government has admitted to kidnapping Yokota, but has said that she died in captivity. Yokota's parents and others in Japan have publicly expressed the belief that Yokota is still alive in North Korea and have waged a public campaign seeking her return to Japan.[150] |
1978 | Doina Bumbea | North Korean government | Pyongyang, North Korea (tricked into going to the city) | 28 | Retained until death | Possibly kidnapped to provide wives to American defectors in North Korea to avoid them from marrying Korean women and having ethnically mixed Korean children. Bumbea was forcibly married to James Joseph Dresnok and died in Pyongyang in January 1997 from lung cancer.[151] |
16 March 1978 | Aldo Moro | Red Brigades | Rome, Italy | 61 | Murdered | Moro, former Italian Prime Minister, was captured by a Marxist-Leninist urban guerilla organization and killed almost two months later.[152] |
25 April 1978 | Lee Kim Lai | Ong Chin Hock, Yeo Ching Boon and Ong Hwee Kuan | Mount Vernon, Singapore | 18 | Murdered | Kim Lai was a police officer who was kidnapped from a sentry post and killed for his gun.[153] |
29 September 1978 | Mary Vincent | Lawrence Singleton | Berkeley, California | 15 | Survived | Hitchhiker Mary Vincent was picked up by Lawrence Singleton, who drove her into the woods, raped her, cut her arms off and left her for dead. She survived and later identified Singleton as her abductor. |
14 February 1979 | Kenneth Kraus | Iranian militants | Tehran, Iran | 22 | Released | A United States Marine wounded and taken hostange by Iranian militants during the February 14, 1979 attack upon the United States Embassy in Tehran. Kraus was tortured for sensitive information before being sentenced to death. After one week of captivity, President Jimmy Carter and Ambassador William Sullivan secured his release.[154] |
1979–1980 (exact date unknown) | Eklutna Annie | Robert Hansen | Anchorage, Alaska, US | Between 16 and 25 | Murdered | An unidentified female was kidnapped by a serial killer. She was described by her murderer as either a prostitute or a topless dancer who attempted to escape from a vehicle after she was abducted. The victim was then stabbed in the back and buried in Eklutna, Alaska. Her body was discovered on 21 July 1980, between a month and a year after her death.[155] |
25 May 1979 | Etan Patz | Pedro Hernandez | New York City, US | 6 | Murdered | Etan walked to the school bus stop by himself, but did not arrive at school. The search for him brought attention to child abduction in the United States, and he was the first missing person to be pictured on a milk carton. The anniversary of his disappearance is International Missing Children's Day. Pedro Hernandez was charged with Etan's murder, but his 2015 trial ended in a hung jury.[156] His retrial ended in guilty convictions for murder and kidnapping, with a life sentence and possibility of parole after 25 years. |
25 August 1979 | Betty McConnell | Terry Hyatt | Asheville, North Carolina | 21 | Murdered | A victim of serial killer Terry Hyatt. McConnell disappeared en route to meet a friend at an Asheville bowling alley. She was discovered mortally wounded close to the unincorporated community of Alexander hours after her sister reported her disappearance; McConnell died shortly thereafter.[157] |
4 November 1979 | Bruce Laingen | Iranian militants | Tehran, Iran | 57 | Released | Laingen, Morefeld, Tomseth, and Limbert were among 52 American diplomats and citizens held captive during the Iran hostage crisis. They were released after 444 days of captivity on 20 January 1981.[158] |
Richard Morefield | 49 | |||||
Victor L. Tomseth | 38 | |||||
John W. Limbert | c. 36 | |||||
5 November 1979 | Martin Allen | Unknown | London Underground | 15 | Unknown, believed murdered | 15-year-old schoolboy Martin Allen vanished after getting on a London Underground (tube) train on the southbound Picadilly line platform at King's Cross station while on his way home from school. Witnesses came forward to say that they had seen a boy matching Allen's description being held by an unknown man with his arm round him at Gloucester Road tube station (on the Piccadilly line), with both the boy and man looking scared. They both got off at the next stop at Earls Court station, when the man said to the boy: "Don't try to run".[159] |
27 December 1979 | Deanna Jackman and Rachel Isser | Manuel Cortez | Ashland, Oregon, US | 11 | Murdered | Deanna Jackman and her friend, Rachel Isser, also 11, were both sixth-graders in separate elementary schools who had become acquainted through attending the same Jewish Sabbath school. On the afternoon of 27 December 1979, they left together to play tennis at Hunter Park, where they were met by Cortez, who struck up a conversation and then went with them to the press box of the tennis court. Once there, he used their clothes to tie them up, separating them before raping and murdering Rachel Isser. Cortez then kidnapped Deanna Jackman, bringing her to his home, where he raped and murdered her. Both girls had signs of torture and strangulation through a ligature. Prosecutors described Cortez as a dangerous sexual sadist and predator, and his trials for the sexual assault and murder of the two girls were eventually consolidated; he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.[160] |
1980–1989
Date | Victim(s) | Abductor(s) | Location | Age of victim(s) | Outcome | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
14 February 1980 | Timothy White | Kenneth Parnell | Ukiah, California, US | 5 | Rescued/escaped | White was abducted by Parnell, who had abducted Steven Stayner seven years earlier.[161] Stayner helped White escape on 1 March 1980. |
28 May 1980 | Dorothy Jane Scott | Unknown | Anaheim, California, US | 32 | Murdered | She was abducted in her own car from the hospital parking lot where her friend was getting a spider bite checked out. Her bones were found on 6 August 1984,[162] next to the bones of a dog not far from Santa Ana Canyon Road, being identified by her jewelry and dental records. She had previously received numerous phone calls alternating from infatuated to threatening from an unidentified stalker. The stalker later started calling her mother and claiming responsibility for her murder. Her case remains unsolved. |
13 June 1980 | Tiffany Papesh | Brandon Flagner | Maple Heights, Ohio, US | 8 | Murdered | A girl was kidnapped while shopping alone for a family member. Flagner was convicted of her murder, despite the fact that her body was never found. He eventually recanted his confession. His conviction has yet to be overturned.[163][164] |
3 December 1980 | Patsy Gaisior | Robert Ruff, Frank Johnson | Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, US | 31 | Murdered | The body of the victim was never recovered, but two suspects were convicted.[165] |
1981 | Bryon Anthony "Bizzy Bone" McCane II | Byron McCane | Columbus, Ohio, US | 5 | Rescued | McCane was kidnapped by his stepfather and was led to believe that his grandmother and mother were dead. He didn't reunite with his mother until a neighbor from the reservation in Oklahoma where he was living recognized his picture from a photo shown at the end of the 1983 movie, Adam.[166] McCane grew up to become a rap artist. |
6 January 1981 | Marion Crofts | Tony Jasinskyj | Aldershot, England | 14 | Murdered | Abducted, raped and beaten to death while cycling to a clarinet lesson. Her case remained unsolved until 1999, when the perpetrator's DNA was matched to former lance corporal Tony Jasinskyj, who was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.[167] |
24 January 1981 and 6 February 1981 | Agnes Ng Siew Heok, Ghazali bin Marzuki | Adrian Lim, Catherine Tan Mui Choo, Hoe Kah Hong | Toa Payoh, Singapore | 9 (Agnes), 10 (Ghazali) | Murdered | In what became notoriously known as the Toa Payoh ritual murders, Lim and his accomplices Tan and Hoe first lured Agnes to their flat on 24 January, drugged her, then drew blood from her before suffocating her. Two weeks later, on 6 February, Ghazali was also lured in and murdered. This was an act done to distract the police from investigating an existing rape charge upon Lim. All three were found guilty after a 41-day trial and were given the death sentence on 23 May 1983, and were hanged on 25 November 1988.[168] |
27 July 1981 | Adam Walsh | Ottis Toole | Hollywood, Florida, US | 6 | Murdered | Walsh was abducted from a Sears department store at the Hollywood Mall and was later found murdered. His father, John Walsh, later became the host of America's Most Wanted.[169] |
September 1981 | Sidney Jaffe | Timm Johnsen and Daniel Kear | Toronto, Canada | 56 | Released | American-Canadian businessman who was kidnapped by two bounty hunters and returned to Florida, where he was tried in absentia for failing to appear for land sales fraud.[170] |
15 September 1981 | Ursula Herrmann | Werner Mazurek (but see below) | Schondorf, West Germany | 10 | Died | Ursula Herrmann, a 10-year-old schoolgirl, was abducted on her way home from a gym class. Her family received a ransom demand for 2 million Deutsche Marks, but the kidnapper or kidnappers cut off all communications before arrangements were made for delivering the money. Several days later, Ursula was found dead in a box buried in a nearby forest. The box had been stocked with enough food and drink to last a number of days but it had inadequate ventilation, and the child is believed to have died in a matter of hours; some evidence suggests she may have been dead before being locked in. Despite an extensive investigation, no culprit was apprehended at the time. In 2007, police and prosecutors renewed their investigation into Werner Mazurek, who had been a suspect at the time and had been directly implicated by an alleged accomplice, who had, however, quickly retracted his confession and witness statement and had since died. Based on this statement and circumstantial evidence, Mazurek was convicted in 2010 of kidnapping resulting in death and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mazurek continues to protest his innocence, and the victim's family have not accepted Mazurek's guilt. The family have attempted to force a new inquiry, but the case is officially closed. Since the crime was not deemed to have been a murder, it would by now have been prescribed.[171] |
29 October 1981 | Tina Harmon | Robert Anthony Buell | Lodi, Ohio, US | 12 | Murdered | Harmon was abducted while away from her home in Creston, Ohio. She was found raped and strangled five days later. Her murder remained unsolved until 2011, when DNA from the scene was matched to Robert Buell. It is unknown if Buell was the only person involved in her murder.[172] |
3 November 1981 | Marcy Renee Conrad | Anthony Jacques Broussard | Milpitas, California, U.S. | 14 | Murdered | High school student who was abducted, raped and killed by another student, who then dumped her body in a ravine, but brought several students to view the body. Two days later, he was denounced and arrested.[173] |
17 December 1981 | James Lee Dozier | Red Brigades | Verona, Italy | 50 | Rescued | Dozier was a US general working for NATO in Italy. He and his wife were kidnapped by a Marxist terrorist group[174] and freed by a NOCS commando on 28 January 1982. |
18 December 1981 | Nina von Gallwitz | Unknown | Cologne, Germany | 8 | Released | Von Gallwitz was kidnapped on her way to school. Her parents paid a ransom of 1.5 million German marks and she was freed on 15 May 1982 at a rest area called Ohligser Heide, after 149 days.[175] |
1982 | Chila Silvernails | Joseph Kondro | Longview | 8 | Murdered | Chila Silvernails disappeared in 1982 from Kalama and was found dead the next day after being killed.[176] |
20 April 1982 | Peter Pocklington | Mirko Petrović | Edmonton, Canada | 40 | Rescued | Canadian entrepreneur who was taken hostage, along with his wife, maid and babysitter, by a Yugoslav immigrant who had planned to kidnap Pocklington's wife. After she escaped the others released, Petrović attempted to extort Pocklington's associates for a ransom, but was prevented from doing so after police went into the house and opened fire, wounding both him and Pocklington. Both men recovered, and Petrović was later deported.[177] |
2 May 1982 | John E. Irving | Unknown | New Brunswick | 50–51 | Released | Canadian businessman who was kidnapped by an armed gunman and held hostage for ten hours before being rescued unharmed.[178] |
17 July 1982 | Krista Harrison | Robert Anthony Buell | Marshallville, Ohio, U.S. | 11 | Murdered | The victim was abducted by van at a park near her home. She was found six days later. Buell was convicted in 1984.[179] |
22 August 1982 | Richard "Ricky" Stetson | John Joubert | Portland, Maine, USA | 11 | Murdered | Stetson had gone jogging on the 3.5 mile long Back Cove Trail in Portland, Maine.[180][181] When he had not returned by dark, his parents called the police. The next day, a motorist discovered the boy's body on the side of US I-295. |
1983 | Enrique Mansilla | Unknown | Liberia | 25 | Released | Argentine former racing driver and later diamond hunter who was kidnapped and held captive in Liberia, but later released without incident.[182] |
c. 23 February 1983 | St. Louis Jane Doe | Unknown | St. Louis, Missouri, US | Between 8 and 11 | Murdered | The decapitated body of a girl was found on 28 February 1983.[183] She had been bound, raped and strangled. Her murder remains unsolved and her body has never been identified. |
25 February 1983 | Jeanine Nicario | Unknown | Naperville, Illinois, U.S. | 10 | Murdered | Nicarico was abducted from her home by an unknown intruder or intruders. Her body was found two days later. Three individuals—Rolando Cruz, Alejandro Hernandez and Stephen Buckley—were later arrested for her murder. Two of these individuals were later convicted of Nicarico's murder, although their convictions were overturned in 1995. Cruz, Hernandez and Buckley filed a civil suit for wrongful prosecution against DuPage County; they were awarded a $3.5 million civil settlement on 26 September 2000.[184] |
May–July 1983 | Newton County John Does | Larry Eyler | Lake Village, Indiana, US | Between 15 and 23 | Murdered | Two teenagers/young men murdered by a serial killer in the early 1980s. One of these individuals has been identified as 19-year-old John Brandenburg. The second individual was described by Eyler as being in "his late teens or early twenties". He specifically stated this decedent had been murdered in July 1983.[185] |
16 June 1983 | Adella Marie Simmons | John Marek and Raymond Dewayne Wigley | Broward County, Florida, U.S. | 45 | Murdered | A 45-year-old mother of two daughters abducted, sexually assaulted and strangled. Both perpetrators were sentenced to death for her murder. Marek was executed via lethal injection for her murder on 19 August 2009; Wigley was killed in prison in 2000.[186] |
6 July 1983 | Tammy Lynn Leppert | Unknown | Rockledge, Florida, US | 18 | Unknown | Leppert was a former child actress and model who disappeared in unknown circumstances.[187] |
24 August 1983 | Guillermo Patricio Kelly | Aníbal Gordon | Argentina | 62 | Released | Leader of the Nationalist Liberation Alliance from 1953 and 1955, noted for guiding the group into dropping its antisemitic practises. After being exiled from the country by the Perón government, he returned in 1983, only to be kidnapped and released a few hours later. Aníbal Gordon, a suspected member of a right-wing death squad, would later be convicted of this crime, among several others.[188] |
18 September 1983 | Danny Joe Eberle | John Joubert | Bellevue, Nebraska, USA | 13 | Murdered | Eberle disappeared while delivering the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.[189] He had delivered only three of the 70 newspapers on his route. His bicycle was discovered along with the rest of the newspapers at the fourth address of his route. There appeared to be no sign of a struggle. After a three-day search, Eberle's body was discovered in a patch of high grass alongside a gravel road. |
20 October 1983 | Colette Aram | Paul Hutchinson | Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom | 16 | Murdered | A trainee hairdresser abducted, raped and strangled as she walked to her boyfriend's house in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, on 30 October 1983. Her murder was the first case to be featured on the BBC television series Crimewatch. Aram's murderer, Paul Hutchinson, was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to life imprisonment on 25 January 2010.[190] |
13 December 1983 | Christopher Walden | John Joubert | Papillion, Nebraska, USA | 12 | Murdered | Walden disappeared while walking to school. Walden's snow covered body was found two days later 5 miles (8 km) from town by 2 hunters. He had his throat cut so deeply he was nearly decapitated.[191] |
16 March 1984 | Tracy Marie Neef | Unknown | Thornton, Colorado, US | 7 | Murdered | After being dropped off to Bertha Heid Elementary School by her mother, Tracy Neef was kidnapped by an unknown abductor between the school gate and front door. She was molested and then strangled or suffocated, and was found at the Barker Reservoir later the same day with her backpack and school supplies nearby; her case remains unsolved.[192] James Benish, a retired police officer, affirmed that Neef's case may have been linked to two other unsolved murders, those of JonBenet Ramsey, also in Colorado, and of Aleisea "Lacey" Woolsey Ruff in Hawaii. He took note of common threads, that all 3 victims were young preteen girls, all had been sexually assaulted and murdered in similar fashion, and that there were similarities in the manner and circumstances of the documented or apparent abduction. Neef's unsolved murder and Benish's suggestions of a possible serial killer, and potential connection with the other cases, were detailed in the A&E Networks true crime program "Hunting JonBenét's Killer: The Untold Story".[193] |
1 June 1984 | Mark Tildesley | Sidney Cooke | Wokingham, Berkshire, England | 7 | Murdered | Tildesley disappeared while visiting a funfair in Wokingham, Berkshire, during the evening. He was lured away from the fair and his bicycle was found chained to railings nearby.[194] In 1990 it emerged that he had been abducted, drugged, tortured, raped and murdered by a London-based paedophile gang.[194][195] |
19 July 1984 | Edith Rosenkranz | Glenn I. Wright and Dennis Moss | Washington, D.C., US | Released | Edith, wife of Dr. George Rosenkranz, a wealthy Mexico City businessman, was kidnapped at gunpoint from the Washington-Sheraton Hotel during an American Contract Bridge League national tournament. She was returned unharmed two days later after her husband paid a ransom of US$1,000,000. The ransom money was later recovered and the two kidnappers were later convicted and sentenced, as was a third defendant, Orland D. Tolden.[196] | |
29 August 1984 | Elisabeth Fritzl | Josef Fritzl | Amstetten, Austria | 18 | Released | Elisabeth was held captive in a concealed corridor part of the basement area of the large family house by her father, Josef Fritzl, who physically assaulted, sexually abused, and raped her numerous times during her imprisonment.[197] The abuse resulted in the birth of seven children and one miscarriage. One child died shortly after birth, three children joined their mother in captivity, and three were raised by Josef and his wife Rosemarie and reported to authorities as foundlings. Elisabeth and her three captive children were released by Josef in 2008 when one child became seriously ill. Fritzl was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009 for charges of murder by negligence of his infant son/grandson, as well as the enslavement, incest, rape, coercion and false imprisonment of Elisabeth. |
17 September 1984 | Vicki Lynne Hoskinson | Frank Atwood | Tucson, Arizona, US | 8 | Murdered | On 17 September, Vicki Hoskinson disappeared while out delivering a birthday card to her aunt. Frank Atwood, a sex offender on parole for abducting and sexually assaulting a young boy, had been seen driving in the area and accident reconstruction experts linked Hoskinson's bike to Atwood's car. Atwood was charged with kidnapping and Hoskinson's body was later found in the Sonoran Desert. Atwood was executed in 2022. |
9 October 1984 | Kim Sue Leggett | Unknown | Mercedes, Texas, US | 21 | Unknown | On 9 October, Kim Sue Leggett disappeared around 5 pm from her place of employment. She left behind a 1-year-old son and a husband. Kim's parents got two phone calls on the day she went missing. The caller said they had abducted Kim and wanted ransom. Later her parents also got a ransom note demanding $250,000. They never heard from the alleged kidnappers again.[198][199][200] |
3 November 1984 | Lisa McVey | Bobby Joe Long | Tampa, Florida, US | 17 | Released | Abducted and sexually assaulted by serial killer Bobby Joe Long. McVey was released after 26 hours of captivity. Information McVey provided to authorities led to Long's arrest on 16 November 1984.[201] |
6 November 1984 | Kylie Maybury | Gregory Keith Davies | Preston, Victoria, Australia | 6 | Murdered | Schoolgirl abducted on the night of the Melbourne Cup Day in 1984. Her body, showing signs of rape and strangulation, was found the next day. Her case remained unsolved until 2017, when convicted sex offender Gregory Keith Davies was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder.[202] |
12 November 1984 | Margaret "Peggy Sue" Altes | Unknown | Indianapolis, Indiana, US | 11 | Murdered | Peggy Sue Altes vanished from a park near her home in Indianapolis, and was found by hunters in woods in Hancock County, Indiana, just under a week later. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed. Her brother-in-law Jerry Watkins was arrested and convicted, but was absolved of the crime and freed from prison in 2000 when he was ruled out by DNA evidence. Joseph McCormick was then charged with her murder in 2001 and admitted to molesting her after her kidnapping, but denied killing her and had charges reduced after cooperating with investigators. The following year, Kenneth Munson, brother Hugh Munson and William L. Beever were charged with Altes' murder, but charges were subsequently dropped against the last two. Kenneth Munson pled guilty to battery charges against Altes and was sentenced, but the murder remains officially unsolved.[203] |
20 December 1984 | Jonelle Matthews | Steven Pankey | Greeley, Colorado | 12 | Murdered | After arriving home from performing in a holiday concert at IntraWest Bank of Denver as a member of Greeley's Franklin Middle School Choir, Jonelle arrived at her Greeley home after getting a ride from her friend DeeAnn Ross and DeeAnn's father. Shortly after receiving a phone call after 8.30 pm, she was discovered missing by her father an hour later. Her body was not found until 24 July 2019, nearly 35 years after the disappearance, with a gunshot wound to her head. Police later identified the kidnapper as Steven Dana Pankey, a former Greeley resident who ran for governor in Idaho in 2014 and 2018, and for lieutenant governor in 2010. On 13 October 2020, Pankey was indicted on charges of murdering and kidnapping Matthews, and is currently awaiting extradition from Idaho.[204][205][206] |
19 January 1985 | Toni Jean Gibbs | Faryion Wardrip | Wichita, Texas, US | 23 | Murdered | Gibbs, a nurse, was abducted after completing her shift at a hospital. She was kidnapped and her abandoned car was found soon after. Her body was found a month later.[207] Faryion Wardrip was convicted of her murder in 1999. |
7 February 1985 | Enrique Camarena | Unknown | La Angostura, Mexico | 37 | Murdered | Camarena, a Mexican American DEA official, was abducted by drug lords and tortured. He was found dead on 5 March 1985.[208] |
11 July 1985 | Suzanne Marie Collins | Sedley Alley | Millington, Tennessee, U.S. | 19 | Murdered | USMC lance corporal-in-training who was kidnapped while jogging near Naval Support Activity Mid-South. Her body, showing signs of rape and blunt force trauma, was found the next day. Sedley Alley, was subsequently arrested, convicted and executed in 2006.[209] |
20 September 1985 | Ellen Blau | Faryion Wardrip | Wichita Falls, Texas, US | 21 | Murdered | Blau was abducted after working as a waitress.[210] Faryion Wardrip was convicted of her murder in 1999. |
9 October 1985 | Sarah Pryor | Unknown | Wayland, Massachusetts, US | 9 | Murdered | Pryor disappeared while walking through her neighborhood. Her fate was unknown until 1998 when DNA tests proved that skull fragments discovered in the woods belonged to her. Her killer was never identified.[211][212] |
9 November 1985 | Alexander Olive | Ulysses Roberson | South Lake Tahoe, California, US | 4 | Murdered | The subject's body was never found, but his father was convicted of his abduction and murder.[213] |
23 March 1986 | Richard Chadek III | Unknown | Omaha, Nebraska, USA | 13 | Murdered | Chadek disappeared while riding his bike near his home. His bike was found in a bank parking lot. His body was discovered on Easter Sunday 31 March. He was found in a field northwest of Omaha strangled. It was determined he was kept alive for several days after his kidnapping.[214][215] |
6 April 1986 | Anthonette Cayedito | Unknown | Gallup, New Mexico, US | 9 | Unknown | Cayedito was kidnapped from her home. She was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries a few years after her disappearance. It is believed that she phoned 911 a year after her kidnapping in a desperate attempt to be rescued. She may have also been seen by a waitress in Carson City a few years later. The girl has never been located.[216] |
3 May 1986 | Sandra Court | Unknown | Bournemouth, UK | 29 | Unknown | Court came home after a night out in the early hours of 3 May 1986, but no one was at home to let her in. She was last seen walking barefoot, appearing slightly drunk, at around 2:45 am. Only a few hours later her dead body was found in a water-filled ditch in a field several miles away, indicating she had been abducted by someone and taken there by car. Her murder remains unsolved, although police believe the case is linked to the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh only a few weeks later (see separate entry below) and that both were abducted and killed by John Cannan. A pay-and-display parking ticket proves he had travelled to Bournemouth that day, and two hairs discovered in one of his cars in the early 2000s were found which matched Court's DNA. The chance of the hairs belonging to anyone other than Court were 40,000 to 1.[217][218][219] |
14 May 1986 | Toh Hong Huat, Keh Chin Ann | Unknown | Singapore | 12 (both) | Unknown | Toh and Keh both disappeared while on their way to Owen Primary School. Despite an extensive search and sightings, the boys have never been found and the case remains unsolved. The boys have also been dubbed as the "McDonald's Boys", due to McDonald's in Singapore offering a S$100,000 reward for any information on the boys.[220] |
24 May 1986 | Michelle Dorr | Hadden Clark | Silver Spring, Maryland, US | 6 | Murdered | A girl was kidnapped while playing outside her home.[221] |
28 July 1986 | Suzy Lamplugh | Unknown (the police named John Cannan as the man who they believed abducted and murdered her in 2002) | Fulham, London | 25 | Unknown, but declared dead in 1993 and presumed murdered | Estate agent Lamplugh disappeared after going to an appointment with a supposed client named only "Mr Kipper". Later that night her abandoned car was found several streets away. Witnesses came forward to say that they had seen her with a smartly dressed man holding champagne outside the house for sale, and there were also sightings of her arguing with a man and fighting with him in a BMW car speeding away from near the scene. Declared dead in 1993, police are adamant that her abductor was John Cannan, who had been released from a nearby prison nearby three days earlier, owned a BMW like the one seen and had abducted and murdered Shirley Banks in Bristol in 1987. He is also suspected of being the House for sale rapist, who raped around 20 women in houses for sale in the west Midlands in 1979 and 1980.[222][218] |
30 September 1986 | Mordechai Vanunu | Mossad | Rome, Italy | 31 | Released | Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear whistleblower, was lured to Italy from London,[223] where he was abducted by Mossad and brought back to Israel, where he was convicted of treason and espionage. He served 18 years in prison, eleven of which were in solitary confinement. |
12 January 1987 | Terry Waite | Islamic Jihad Organization | Beirut, Lebanon | 1763 days (almost 5 years) | Released | Waite was the envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury to Lebanon in 1987; he was sent to negotiate the release of four British citizens but was kidnapped himself. |
4 August 1987 | Carlina White | Annugetta "Ann" Pettway | New York City, US | 19 days | Raised by abductor | White was taken from Harlem Hospital Center as an infant and raised by Pettway. She was reunited with her family[224] in January 2011, 23 years later, in the longest known non-parental abduction. |
9 September 1987 | Gerrit Jan Heijn | Ferdi Elsas | Bloemendaal, Netherlands | 56 | Murdered | Heijn was a Dutch businessman, the top executive of Ahold, Holland's largest retailer. He was killed shortly after his abduction. Elsas pretended the victim was still alive and received a ransom. He was caught after spending one of the banknotes of the ransom, whose numbers had been recorded. He was released in 2001 after serving a prison sentence but was killed in a road accident.[225] |
1 April 1988 | April Tinsley | John Miller | Fort Wayne, Indiana | 8 | Murdered | Eight-year-old girl who was abducted, raped and strangled to death. John Miller was convicted 30 years later after being implicated by DNA analysis.[226] |
18 June 1988 | Marie Wilks | Unknown | Tewkesbury, England | 22 | Murdered | Pregnant woman who was abducted by an unidentified assailant while using the emergency telephone on the side of the M50 motorway. Her body was found two days later, but her murder is unsolved. A man, Eddie Browning, was originally convicted of her abduction and murder but was released on appeal in 1994 after 5 years imprisonment.[227][228] |
20 September 1988 | Tara Calico | Unknown | Belen, New Mexico, US | 19 | Unknown | Calico disappeared near her home after taking her usual bike ride. A missing persons poster claimed she was being followed by a 1953–54 Ford Pickup and was never heard from again.[229] No sign of Calico was found until on 15 June 1989 when a woman found a Polaroid photo of an unidentified young girl and boy, both bound and gagged, in the parking lot of a convenience store in Port St. Joe, Florida with a white pickup truck parked next to it. The girl in the photo is believed by the family to be Calico, but this has not been confirmed. It is unclear whether Calico is still alive.[229] |
19 November 1988 | Michaela Garecht | Unknown | Hayward, California, US | 9 | Unknown | Garecht was abducted by a Caucasian male thought to be about 18–24 years old. She rode to a small neighborhood market on her scooter. When she tried to grab her scooter, a man forced her into his car.[230] She was never seen or heard from again, but on 21 December 2020, David Emery Misch was arrested and charged with her abduction and murder, based on fingerprint matches on the scooter. |
21 November 1988 | Gordon Church | Michael Anthony Archuleta, Lance Conway Wood | Millard County, Utah, U.S. | 28 | Murdered | On 21 November 1988, while on his way to meet friends for a meal prior to Thanksgiving holiday, 28-year-old Gordon Ray Church encountered Michael Anthony Archuleta and Lance Conway Wood at a 7-Eleven in Cedar City, Utah. After the group drove to a secluded area in Cedar Canyon, Church revealed that he was gay. Church was subsequently kidnapped, raped, tortured, and ultimately murdered in a secluded area in Millard County, Utah. Church died in the early morning hours of 22 November; his body was dumped in a shallow grave and found the following day. Archuleta and Wood were arrested after the latter confessed to his parole officer; both were charged and convicted of Church's murder. Archuleta and Wood were sentenced to death and life imprisonment respectively.[231] |
25 November 1988 | Junko Furuta | Hiroshi Miyano, Jō Ogura, Shinji Minato, Yasushi Watanabe | Tokyo, Japan | 17 | Murdered | The kidnapping began when the four perpetrators, already with a history of abduction and gang rape, attacked Furuta while riding home on her bike. She was held captive for 40 days in the house where Minato lived with his parents. Torture over the subsequent days included gang-rape, starvation, forced alcohol ingestion, beatings, and burnings. The four perpetrators brought in two more boys to participate in the rapes. The rapes diminished as Furuta's wounds became rancid. The final beating began with Miyano pouring lighter fluid on Furuta and setting her on fire. This attack reportedly lasted two hours, finally killing her. The perpetrators dumped her body in a drum and filled it with wet concrete. The perpetrators' sentences ranged from juvenile detention to 20 years in prison. The parents of Minato were ordered to pay ¥50 million to Furuta's parents for their role in not reporting the crimes. |
13 December 1988 | Joaquin Esteves | Orlando Cruz Vasquez | San Jose, California, US | 64 | Murdered | A suspect was convicted of the victim's murder, yet no body was ever recovered.[232] |
27 December 1988 | Sharon Wills | Mr Cruel | Melbourne, Victoria | 10 | Released | A ten-year-old child abducted from the suburb of Ringwood, Melbourne by serial child rapist and suspected child murderer Mr Cruel. Wills was released after approximately eighteen hours of captivity.[233] |
1989 | Unnamed 30-year-old woman | Unidentified serial killer | Järvenpää, Finland | 30 | Survived | In 1989, an intoxicated 30-year-old woman exited a restaurant in Järvenpää and was approached by a man who offered her a ride, during which the woman was offered alcohol and pills before being driven to a forest area. Although the woman survived the encounter, the victim's mother later revealed that she had died of natural causes years later. In 2017, it was published in the media that this case may have been connected to the Hausjärvi Gravel Pit Murders; the circumstances of this case highly resembled those of Helena Meriläinen's abduction in 1990.[234] |
14 January 1989 | Paul Vanden Boeynants | Patrick Haemers and his gang | Belgium | 69 | Released | Vanden Boeynants, a Belgian politician was kidnapped,[235][236][237] and was released one month after his abduction when a ransom was paid. |
11 April 1989 | Phang Tee Wah | Ibrahim Masod and Liow Han Heng | Singapore | 56- | Murdered | 56-year-old Phang Tee Wah was kidnapped by Liow Han Heng and Ibrahim Masod, who both held Phang captive at Liow's Yishun flat, before they strangled Phang to death and disposed of his body at Pasir Ris. Despite Phang's death, the kidnappers attempt to extort a S$1 million ransom from his son and wife, and also sold Phang's watch for S$6,200. The two kidnappers were later arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder, and they were both sentenced to death in July 1992. However, Liow died from a heart attack in August 1993 while on death row, and thus Ibrahim became the sole kidnapper of the case to be officially executed on 29 July 1994 after failing to appeal his capital sentence.[238][239][240][241][242] |
28 July 1989 | Abdel Karim Obeid | Israeli commandos | Jibchit, Lebanon | 32 | Released | Hezbollah member and Imam who was kidnapped from his home by Israeli soldiers on 28 July 1989. Two other Hezbollah members were abducted that same night, while Obeid's wife was left bound and gagged in the closet.[243] He was released in a prisoner exchange in January 2004. |
2 October 1989 | Jesús Emilio Jaramillo Monsalve | ELN guerillas | Arauquita, Colombia | 73 | Murdered | Roman Catholic priest and staunch opponent of the ELN who was abducted and killed on 2 October 1989. His remains were located the next day next to the Venezuelan border.[244] |
22 October 1989 | Jacob Wetterling | Danny Heinrich | St. Joseph, Minnesota, US | 11 | Murdered | Wetterling was kidnapped on his way home by a masked gunman.[245] |
27 October 1989 | Amy Mihaljevic | Unknown | Bay Village, Ohio, US | 10 | Murdered | The victim was lured by an unidentified assailant through telephone to run an errand for her mother. The girl had been seen meeting the subject at a plaza and was never seen alive again. Her body was found in 1990. The case remains unsolved.[246] |
30 October 1989 | Lee Iseli | Westley Allan Dodd | Portland, Oregon, US | 4 | Murdered | Lee Iseli was abducted, sexually abused and strangled by serial killer Westley Allan Dodd in Portland, Oregon. According to Dodd's own testimony, he resuscitated Iseli after killing him and then asphyxiated him again, but more slowly.[247] |
8 December 1989 | Rubaiya Sayeed | Kashmiri separatist militants | Srinagar, India | 23 | Released | Rubaiya Sayeed, the third daughter of Indian Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, was abducted by Kashmiri separatist militants at 3:45 p.m. on 8 December 1989. Sayeed, a 23-year-old medical intern, was on her way home from Lal Ded Memorial Women's Hospital via a local mini bus when she was forced out of the vehicle at gunpoint. The kidnapping was carried out in Srinagar by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, which demanded the release of five jailed members of the organization in exchange for Sayeed's release. Sayeed was set free at 7:00 p.m. on 13 December 1989 when these conditions were met. The JKLF admitted to having carried out the kidnapping in 2004, and one of the key leaders of the organization, Yasin Malik, was identified by Sayeed as one of her kidnappers in July 2022.[248] |
1990–1999
Date | Victim(s) | Abductor(s) | Location | Age of victim(s) | Outcome | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 April 1990 | Humberto Álvarez Machaín | Bounty hunters | Mexico | Released | Alvarez-Machain, a suspect in the murder of Enrique Camarena, was kidnapped, allegedly by Americans to bring him to trial in the United States.[249] | |
16 or 17 May 1990 | Joanna Parrish | Unknown | Auxerre, France | 20 | Murdered | To supplement her income during her stay in Auxerre, Parrish had advertised her services as a teacher in a local newspaper, offering private English lessons. According to a flatmate, she had been contacted by a man asking her to teach his son. She arranged to meet the caller outside the Banque Populaire in Auxerre at 7pm on 16 May 1990, but did not return home from the appointment.[250][251] Her naked body was found the following day in the River Yonne, three miles outside the town.[250] She had been raped, beaten and strangled.[252] |
20 May 1990 | Susan Poupart | Unknown | Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin, US | 29 | Murdered | The victim was abducted and murdered. Three are considered primary suspects, but the murder remains unsolved.[253] |
10 August 1990 | Jennifer Schuett | Dennis Earl Bradford | Dickinson, Texas, USA | 8 | Rescued | Schuett was abducted from her room by Bradford who told her he was a police officer. He left her in a field after sexually assaulting and attempting to kill her, but she was rescued after being found by a group of children. Bradford was arrested for the crime 19 years later on 13 October 2009, but was found hanged on 10 May 2010 before he went to trial.[254] |
30 August 1990 | Diana Turbay | Los Priscos | Medellín, Colombia | 40 | Murdered | Colombian journalist who was kidnapped by associates of the Medellín Cartel, who had duped her into believing that she was going to interview guerilla leader Manuel Pérez. She was held in Copacabana until 25 January 1991, when she was killed during a botched rescue attempt by police.[255] |
22 October 1990 | Jimmy Bernardo | Lewis Lent Jr. | Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S. | 12 | Murdered | 12-year-old Jimmy Bernardo disappeared in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on 22 October 1990. His body was found by hunters several weeks later. Lewis Lent Jr., a self-confessed serial killer convicted of the murder of Sara Anne Wood, confessed to Bernardo's murder. Lent claimed to have lured Bernardo inside the Pittsfield movie theater where he worked as a custodian. Lent then held Bernardo overnight before driving him to Newfane, New York and strangling him to death.[256] |
November 1990 | Helena Meriläinen | Unidentified serial killer | Järvenpää, Finland | 39 | Escaped | In November 1990, 39-year-old Helena Meriläinen left her friend's apartment around midnight and walked to a Järvenpää railway station, where she was approached by a man who offered her a ride home in his car. Meriläinen, under the influence of alcohol, accepted the man's offer. At the beginning of the trip, the man gave Meriläinen alcoholic beverages and capsules with an unknown substance in them, which both Meriläinen and the man consumed. Meriläinen fell asleep during the ride and awoke to find that the car was on a dark dirt road surrounded by forest. The man stopped the car on a dark gravel pit and tried to persuade Meriläinen to stay in the car for the night, though she refused. After Meriläinen exited the car to relieve herself, the man attacked her with a knife, though she managed to flee into the forest and alert help at a nearby house.[257] |
13 November 1990 | Sano Fusako | Nobuyuki Satō | Niigata, Japan | 10 | Rescued | Fusako was abducted after a baseball game and held captive for slightly over nine years. She was found alive on 28 January 2000.[258] |
20 November 1990 | John F. Grundhofer | Unknown | Minneapolis, US | 51 | Rescued | Grundhofer was the chairman of Minnesota's second-largest bank. He was kidnapped from a downtown Minneapolis parking lot by a neatly dressed man whom authorities never found. He was bound, stuffed in a sleeping bag and left in a remote wooded area in Wisconsin, but escaped after approximately two hours of captivity.[259] |
8 December 1990 | Crystal Leann Anzaldi | Unknown | San Diego, California, USA | 14 months | Raised by person with unknown connection to abductor | Anzaldi was abducted by an unknown person and ended up in the care of Nilza Gierbolini Guzman who brought her up as Sonia Guzmán in Luquillo, Puerto Rico. Anzaldi was found in November 1997 aged eight when Gierbolini was accused of child abuse, and her birth certificate was discovered to have been falsified. She was identified as the missing child when her image was compared to that of several missing children and DNA tests were performed. Gierbolini denied having any part in the abduction, claiming to have agreed to raise the child for a friend who said her mother had died, and was only found guilty of falsifying documents. After being recovered, Anzaldi was placed in the custody of her father.[260][261][262] |
16 March 1991 | Jessica Keen | Marvin Lee Smith, Jr. | West Jefferson, Ohio, U.S. | 15 | Murdered | Student who was abducted, raped and killed at a cemetery. Her body was discovered two days later, and her killer arrested in 2008.[263] |
4 April 1991 | Angela Hammond | Unknown | Clinton, Missouri, US | 20 | Unknown | Hammond was kidnapped from a parking lot at night whilst using a payphone to call her boyfriend.[264] Her boyfriend chased a pickup truck for a couple of miles until his transmission broke down. |
10 June 1991 | Jaycee Lee Dugard | Phillip Garrido and Nancy Garrido | Meyers, California, US | 11 | Rescued | Dugard was kidnapped while walking to her school bus stop, and held captive for 18 years. She was found alive on 26 August 2009 due to a tip from campus police officers at the University of California, Berkeley. During captivity she gave birth to two children who she homeschooled.[265] |
29 June 1991 | Sheree Beasley | Robert Selby Lowe | Rosebud, Australia | 6 | Murdered | The child was abducted while riding her bike unsupervised.[266] Lowe had apparently targeted Sheree because he had seen her alone on several previous occasions. She was raped and asphyxiated, and her body was found several months later. Lowe was convicted of her murder. |
11 September 1991 | Carrie Lawson | Jerry Bland | Jasper, Alabama, US | 25 | Murdered | Lawson was a young lawyer kidnapped in a case bungled by the FBI. A ransom demand of $300,000 was made, which was paid by the family. The FBI inserted tracking devices in the money bag and on the delivery person, but both were on the same frequency and the FBI tracked the delivery person, leaving the money drop by mistake. After later getting a break in the case, the FBI went to the home of suspect Jerry Bland, who refused entry. While officers were retrieving a search warrant left in the car, the suspect retreated inside and shot himself, taking any information on Lawson's whereabouts to his grave. Neither she nor her remains were ever found. The ransom money was mostly recovered from the suspect's attic and vehicle.[267] |
26 May 1992 | Prince Pedro Thiago of Orléans-Braganza | Petrópolis, Brazil | 13 | Rescued | Thiago was kidnapped on his way to school. He was rescued by police a week later from the house in a Rio de Janeiro suburb where he was being held.[268] | |
6 September 1992 | Corinne "Punky" Gustavson | Clifford Sleigh | Edmonton, Alberta | 6 | Murdered | Corinne was kidnapped from the front yard of her family home by an unknown male. Two days later her body was found 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) away in an industrial yard. On 14 March 2003, after using new DNA techniques, Clifford Sleigh was identified as the suspect, whom was already serving time in an Alberta prison for another crime. He was given a life sentence on 27 May 2005.[269][270] |
8 September 1992 | Pam Basu | Rodney Eugene Solomon and Bernard Eric Miller | Savage, Maryland, U.S. | 34 | Murdered | Basu, who was driving her 2-year-old daughter to preschool, had her car jacked by two assailants who tried to speed away. However, Basu's arm was stuck in the seatbelt, resulting in her being dragged and eventually killed. Solomon was later sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, while Miller, a minor, was sentenced to life imprisonment.[271] |
23 September 1992 | Džamba | Serb Volunteer Guard | Belgrade, Serbia | 38–39 | Unknown | Known as "The Don of Dorćol", Džamba was a Yugoslavian gangster based in Belgrade. On the day of his disappearance, he had attempted to enter a casino while in a drunken state, for which he was beaten up by casino guards and thrown out, but he was never found. It is suspected that he was killed, but the prime suspect in the case was himself killed in 1997.[272] |
13 December 1992 | Nissim Toledano | Four Hamas members | Lod, Israel | 29 | Murdered | Senior Sgt. Toledano, an Israeli border policeman, was kidnapped while walking from home to attend his job. He was held in captivity by four members of Hamas, who demanded that their leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin be released. The request was refused, and Toledano's body was found two days later. All four of his killers were eventually captured and sentenced to life imprisonment, and the case led the Israeli government to organize a crackdown on Palestinian fundamentalists.[273] |
28 December 1992 | Katie Beers | John Esposito | Long Island, New York, US | 9 | Released/rescued | Two days before her tenth birthday, Beers was lured into the home of John Esposito, a friend of her family. She was held captive inside a concrete bunker underneath Esposito's garage.[274][275] He falsely claimed that Beers was kidnapped by a third party in an amusement park, but 17 days after the abduction, he took police to where he was holding her. |
12 February 1993 | James Bulger | Robert Thompson and Jon Venables | Merseyside, England | 2 | Murdered | Bulger was abducted from a Merseyside shopping centre by a pair of ten-year-old boys. Later in the day, the boys tortured Bulger to death and left his body on a train line.[276] |
19 February 1993 | Jennifer Renee Odom | Unknown | Dade City, Florida, US | 12 | Murdered | Jennifer Odom had stepped off a school bus, a short walk from her home in Florida, when she was kidnapped by an unknown abductor.[277] Her body was found in an orange grove on 25 February 1993, nude and with signs of sexual assault and blunt force trauma. The case remains unsolved, however authorities have identified a person or persons of interest, and were able to lift fingerprints from her backpack, which was found two years after her kidnapping along with a clarinet case that she had in her possession. Police enlisted the help of psychic Nancy Myer, who was apparently able to anticipate discovery of the latter two items, a consultation featured in the true crime documentary series Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina (Season 6 Episode 1). Police continue to seek tips, and her abduction and murder remain a cold case under active investigation to firmly establish a culprit.[278][279] |
28 June 1993 | Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez | Police personnel | Calauan, Philippines | unknown | Murdered | Filipino students who were abducted, tortured and subsequently murdered by policemen on the orders of politician Antonio Sanchez. Sanchez was convicted and sentenced to two life terms. |
5 August 1993 | Yaron Chen | Hamas | Ramallah, West Bank | 20 | Murdered | Pvt. Chen, an Israeli soldier, was intercepted while hitchhiking back home from a military base by a group of men driving a white Fiat van. They attempted to kidnap him, but he was killed in the ensuing struggle. Hamas member Fahed Sabri Barhan al-Shaludi was later convincted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime, but was released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.[280] |
18 August 1993 | Sara Ann Wood | Lewis Lent | Frankfort, New York, US | 12 | Unknown | Wood disappeared on a quiet road near her home. A known murderer named Lewis S. Lent Jr. was charged with abducting Wood in 1996, three years after she was last seen,[281] the reason being that Lent originally had claimed that he had killed Sara and that he had buried her body in the Adirondacks. But when he drew a map of the burial location for the police, extensive searches were conducted, but did not produce any evidence as to Wood's whereabouts and nothing was found.[282] Lent had also pleaded guilty to the 1990 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Pittsfield, Massachusetts, native Jimmy Bernardo. Lent abducted Bernardo from the Pittsfield movie theater where Lent worked as a janitor. Lent later recanted to killing Wood, yet he was sentenced to 25-years-to-life for the Wood murder, and was sentenced to life without parole for the Bernardo murder, and is in prison in Massachusetts. He is suspected in a number of other child kidnapping cases. |
4 September 1993 | Ashley Estell | Unknown | Plano, Texas, US | 7 | Murdered | Estell was last seen with her parents at a soccer tournament at Carpenter Park heading towards a playground.[283] Michael Blair was convicted for the murder but later exonerated after a DNA test proved he was not the killer.[284] |
1 October 1993 | Polly Klaas | Richard Allen Davis | Petaluma, California, US | 12 | Murdered | Klaas was kidnapped from her home and later strangled. Her abductor's vehicle got stuck in the mud a few miles from Klaas' house. A local police officer pulled him out of the mud, but did not query his license number with the police computer system, nor did he hear the BOLO (be on the lookout) broadcast to all CHP radios reporting that Davis was wanted for a parole violation. Davis has been convicted of kidnapping and first-degree murder and sentenced to death. BOLOs are now broadcast to all police radios: state, county, and municipal.[285] |
1994 | Betty Lalam | Lord's Resistance Army militants | Amuru District, Uganda | 14 | Escaped | Schoolgirl who was abducted during a campaign of abductions of young children by members of the Lord's Resistance Army. After being held in captivity and forced to watch numerous tortures and killings, Lalam escaped in April 1995. Since then, she has become a teacher and a director at the Gulu War Affected Training Center.[286] |
20 February 1994 | Hostages of the 1994 Peshawar school bus hijacking | Three Afghani militants | Peshawar, Pakistan | Various | Rescued | A school bus occupied by seven teachers and approximately 70 children was kidnapped by three Afghani militants which held them for ransom, demanding that they be provided with supplies and an escort to Kabul. The day after the kidnapping, all three assailants were killed by the Special Service Group.[287] |
3 June 1994 | Hacı Karay, Savaş Buldan, Adnan Yıldırım | Turkish Security Forces | Istanbul, Turkey | 44 (Karay), 33 (Buldan), 37 (Yıldırım) | Murdered | Kurdish businessmen who were abducted by Turkish officers after allegations that they were affiliated with the PKK. Their bodies near a village road the day after their abduction.[288] |
30 June 1994 | Rosie Palmer | Shaun Armstrong | Hartlepool, England | 3 | Murdered | Palmer was abducted and murdered shortly after buying an ice pop close to her home. Her body was found three days later in Armstrong's flat, who was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment on 28 July 1995. |
30 June 1994 | Crystal Ann Tymich | Unknown | Los Angeles, California, US | 6 | Unknown | Tymich was last seen playing near her house, wearing a pink T-shirt, floral shorts, and white Little Mermaid sneakers.[289] She had been picking peaches with her three brothers, but they went inside and she was gone when they came back out to bring her home. None of the neighbors saw anything unusual. |
29 July 1994 | Megan Kanka | Jesse Timmendequas | Hamilton Township, New Jersey, US | 7 | Murdered | Kanka was lured into the home of a 33-year-old neighbor and convicted sex offender named Jesse Timmendequas, who proceeded to rape and murder her. Kanka's abduction and murder ultimately led to the passing of "Megan's Law"; a federal law which requires authorities to make all information relating to convicted sex offenders available to the public.[290] |
12 September 1994 | Michael Anthony Hughes | Franklin Delano Floyd | Choctaw, Oklahoma, US | 6 | Unknown | Hughes was abducted from his elementary school by his stepfather, Franklin Delano Floyd. Two months later, Floyd was arrested in Kentucky, but the boy was not with him. He has given inconsistent statements regarding the boy's whereabouts, but Hughes was never located. It was later discovered that Hughes' mother, Sharon Marshall, was not only Floyd's wife, but was actually raised by Floyd from an early age and was herself kidnapped by Floyd. She died when Hughes was two years old. Floyd is the prime suspect in her murder as well. |
14 August 1994 | Jameika Porch | Unknown | Chattanooga, Tennessee, US | 4 | Murdered | Porch was abducted from her bedroom at her grandmother's home. Her remains were discovered in 2000.[291] It was determined that she was strangled by ligature shortly after she vanished. |
17 August 1994 | Mindy Tran | Unknown | Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada | 8 | Murdered | Tran disappeared from her neighbourhood just after supper.[292] She rode her bike down her quiet street and vanished. Hundreds of people searched for the girl but her body wasn't found until six weeks later when a man with a divining rod led police to a shallow grave near her parents' home. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. |
7 November 1994 | Lindsay Rimer | Unknown | Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK | 13 | Murdered | Schoolgirl Rimer disappeared after going to her local SPAR shop one night to buy cornflakes. She was captured on CCTV paying for the cornflakes, but then was never seen alive again. 5 months later, her body was found about a mile away in the town's canal at an isolated spot. Police believed that she had been taken from the streets that night by an unknown offender while walking home, before being driven to the location she was found and dumped in the canal. This was supported by the fact that she was found wearing the same clothing she had been wearing that night. Her abduction and murder remains unsolved although a DNA profile was isolated in 2016.[293][294][295] |
6 January 1995 | Melanie Carpenter | Fernard Auger | Surrey, British Columbia, Canada | 23 | Murdered | Carpenter was abducted from a Fleetwood Town Centre tanning salon,[296] and was found dead three weeks later concealed by a white blanket, in a crevice near an isolated road, four kilometres north of Yale, B.C. |
3 March 1995 | Tarık Ümit | Special operations officers | Marmaris, Turkey | 47 | Murdered | A Turkish intelligence official in the National Intelligence Organization kidnapped and murdered in March 1995. He is believed to have been buried in Tekirdağ.[297] |
14 May 1995 | Chadrel Rinpoche | CCP agents | Chengdu, China | 55 | Unknown | Gelug lama of Tibet who was abducted and placed under arbitrary house arrest by police officials. He reportedly died from a suspicious poisoning in 2011, but his remains have never been recovered.[298] |
9 June 1995 | Morgan Nick | Unknown | Alma, Arkansas, US | 6 | Unknown | Nick was at a baseball game with her mother. She was last seen at her car after catching fireflies with her friends, and she was also seen talking to a man who police believe was her abductor. She has not been found; her mother started a foundation to help families with missing children.[299] |
30 July 1995 | Sophie Hook | Howard Hughes | Llandudno, Wales | 7 | Murdered | English girl who was abducted from a tent while camping in her uncle's garden, with her body found several hours later. Soon after, Howard Hughes, who would later be revealed as a prolific child rapist, was arrested, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder.[300] |
11 September 1995 | Jimmy Ryce | Juan Carlos Chavez | Redland, Florida, US | 9 | Murdered | Ryce was supposed to be coming home from school but never came back. Juan Carlos Chavez took responsibility and led police to the body he had sexually assaulted, decapitated, and dismembered.[301] |
16 September 1995 | Jessyca Mullenburg | Steven Oliver | Eau Claire, Wisconsin, US | 13 | Rescued | Oliver had first met Mullenberg when he was an aide at her school, and became obsessed with her. He followed her and her father as they moved to two locations in Wisconsin. He eventually moved across the street from the Mullenbergs in Eau Claire. Oliver told Mullenburg that a publisher was interested in a story that she wrote; she agreed to go with him in his car. Mullenberg dozed off in the car, and when she awoke, her feet and hands were bound.[302] After an eight-hour drive to Kansas City, Mullenberg and Oliver boarded a plane to Houston, where she spent the majority of her three-and-a-half-month captivity in a motel room. Mullenberg says that physical, sexual and mental abuse were common. Within weeks, Oliver had convinced Mullenberg that her parents didn't want to get her back and didn't love her. Mullenberg says she became so completely disconnected from reality that she remembered very little from her past. A chance viewing of America's Most Wanted on television confirmed the manager's suspicions that Oliver was up to something. Immediately after recognizing Oliver's photo on the show, calls were placed to law enforcement and the FBI. Authorities who raced to the hotel knew who Mullenberg was, but after months in captivity, she did not. Only after authorities showed Mullenberg pictures from her past did she come back to reality. |
24 September 1995 | Cory Quirino | Commander Joey and four accomplices | Laguna, Philippines | 42 | Rescued | Filipino TV host and broadcaster who was abducted by five armed gunmen who killed her driver. She was eventually rescued when the getaway car ran into a police roadblock, and her kidnappers fled the scene.[303] |
16 November 1995 | Elijah Evans | Jacqueline Williams, Fedell Caffey, Lavern Ward | Addison, Illinois, US | Fetus | Rescued | Deborah Evans was nine months pregnant when she was murdered and had her unborn son cut from her womb.[304] Evans had three other children: 10-year-old Samantha, 7-year-old Joshua, and 18-month-old Jordan. Evans' ex-boyfriend Laverne Ward was the father of both Jordan and the unborn baby. Evans had a restraining order against Ward but allowed the trio into her home. Williams faked a pregnancy to keep her boyfriend, Fedell Caffey. Caffey was aware that Williams was not pregnant, and participated in the abduction and murder. Williams, Ward and Caffey killed Evans and Samantha in their home and abducted Joshua, killing him the next day. His body was found in an alley in a nearby town. Williams convinced friends and family that she had given birth to the infant. Jordan was left unharmed in the house with the bodies of his mother and sister. Police were called to the house by Evans' current boyfriend and tracked down the killers and the stolen infant. When police took the baby from Williams she screamed, "That is my baby!" Williams received two life terms, and Ward 1 life term. Caffey was given the death penalty. |
7 December 1995 | Barbara Barnes | Unknown | Steubenville, Ohio, US | 13 | Murdered | Victim was abducted after walking to school. Her body was found months later.[305] The case remains unsolved. |
13 January 1996 | Amber Hagerman | Unknown | Arlington, Texas, US | 9 | Murdered | Hagerman was kidnapped while riding her bike near her grandparents' home. She was found four days later by a hiker and his dog, naked in a creek bed. An autopsy revealed she had been alive for two days, and then had been raped and had her throat slit. Although a $75,000 reward was offered for information leading to Hagerman's killer, he was never found.[306] The task force investigating Amber's murder was dissolved in June 1997.[307] Her murder inspired the creation of the AMBER Alert system. |
17 January 1996 | José Antonio Ortega Lara | ETA | Burgos, Spain | 38 | Rescued | On 17 January 1996 José Antonio Ortega Lara was kidnapped in the garage of his home in Burgos when he was returning from his work in the prison of Logroño. Days later, ETA said they were responsible for the kidnapping and demanded the transfer of ETA prisoners to Basque prisons in exchange for his release.[308]
The conditions of his kidnapping were painful: the dungeon in which he was kept was very wet (it was a few meters from the river Deva), there were no windows and it measured 3 meters long by 2.5 wide and 1.8 m high inside. Ortega Lara could only take three steps on it. He had a small light bulb and he was only fed with fruits and vegetables. He could not leave the cabin and made his physiological needs at a urinal, on which he also received the water to wash himself. At the time of his rescue by Spanish police, Ortega Lara had lost 23 kilos, muscle mass and bone density. He suffered from sleep disorders, post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression.[309][310] |
February 1996 | Tanya Nicole Kach | Thomas Hose | McKeesport, Pennsylvania, US | 15 | Rescued | She was manipulated at her high school by on staff security guard Thomas Hose and eventually convinced to run away with him.[311] Kach was imprisoned in his bedroom and left with a bucket as a toilet, being regularly sexually abused and being let out of the house under strict conditions and curfew, under the alias "Nikki Allen". On 21 March 2006, she finally came to grips with her kidnapping and reported to a local grocery store owner, who called the police and arrested Hose. Kach has tried numerous times to file endangerment lawsuits, all being thrown out in court, and she's been counter-sued by family and friends under grounds of plagiarism and defamation. |
17 May 1996 | Le-Zhan Williams | Latasha Ann Brown | Vallejo, California, US | 3 weeks | Rescued | Baby Le-Zhan's mother, Daphne Boyden, was shot and her house was burned down, with no sign of her son. He was found six years later living as the son of Latasha Brown.[312] His father, rapper Young Lay, was serving a prison sentence when his son was found. |
28 May 1996 | Sabine Dardenne | Marc Dutroux | Belgium | 12 | Rescued | Dardenne was kidnapped and raped by Dutroux, a serial killer, while on her way to school. She was rescued after 80 days, on 15 August 1996, with 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez, who had also been kidnapped.[313] |
9 June 1996 | Melanie Hall | Unknown white male described as approximately 27 (53 in 2022), 5 ft 10ins, of medium build, with dark brown hair and eyes and wearing a brown silk shirt and flashy gold watch | Cadillacs nightclub, Bath, United Kingdom | 25 | Murdered | Melanie Hall disappeared from Cadillacs nightclub in Bath after talking and dancing with an unknown man. Several witnesses reported seeing a woman matching Hall's description later arguing with a man outside the club and being coaxed reluctantly into a car park. In 2009, Hall's remains were found next to a slip road of the M5 motorway near Thornbury, South Gloucestershire. Her murder remains unsolved, although in 2013 police revealed that a white Volkswagen Golf GTi cabriolet may have been involved in her abduction.[314][315][316] |
4 July 1996 | Cynthia Allinger | Guy Matthew Rasmussen | Lakewood, Washington, US | 9 | Murdered | Cynthia "Cyndi" Allinger was a 9-year-old girl who had recently moved with her mother and sisters to Lakeview in the state of Washington. Her mother left for an errand while Cyndi played at a park nearby on 4 July 1996. She did not return home, and was found roughly two weeks later, rolled up in a carpet at a grassy region near her home; she had been raped and strangled. Police interviewed a number of suspects and persons of interest before linking crime scene and forensic evidence to Guy Rasmussen, a former rock band musician who resided near the area. Rasmussen was subsequently convicted of Cyndi's kidnapping, sexual assault and murder, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He has continued to maintain his innocence and filed a motion, supported by the Innocence Project, for a re-test of DNA evidence in 2014, but no reports have subsequently emerged from this, and he remains imprisoned for the crime as of summer 2020. The case has drawn significant and ongoing media attention due to the horror of the tragic murder and the concerns it raised surrounding "latchkey kids" and "stranger danger", as well as discussions surrounding the perpetrator of the crime and the sequence of events involved. The case has been covered in numerous TV documentaries including Nightmare Next Door ("Little Girl Lost"), The Face of Evil ("The Root of All Evil") and Forensic Files ("Seedy Intentions").[317] |
9 August 1996 | Laetitia Delhez | Marc Dutroux | Belgium | 14 | Rescued | Dutroux kidnapped Delhez after another victim, Sabine Dardenne, had requested a companion because she felt so alone. They were rescued on 15 August 1996.[318] Earlier victims included eight-year-olds Melissa Russo and Julie Lejeune, both of whom died of starvation while Dutroux was in prison for car theft, and seventeen-year-old An Marchal and nineteen-year-old Eefje Lambrechts, both of whom were buried alive |
1 October 1996 | Jakub Fiszman | Rainer Körppen and Sven Körppen | Eschborn, Germany | 40 | Murdered | Fiszman, a millionaire, was held for ransom.[319] He was killed by his kidnappers even though the ransom for him was paid. The perpetrators were arrested on 19 October and received long prison sentences. |
25 October 1996 | Randy Chan | Roman Mann | Vancouver, Canada | Released | Chan was kidnapped by Roman Mann an associate of Bindy Johal and was held for 50 to 56 hours.[320] | |
17 November 1996 | Kara Rudd | Joseph Kondro | Longview, Washington, US | 12 | Murdered | Kara Rudd was taken to a swimming hole in Germany Creek by Kondro, who knew both Rudd and her mother, and then to an abandoned house near the Columbia River. Once there he raped and strangled her, after which he placed her body in an abandoned Volkswagen vehicle in a ravine. Kondro aroused investigators' suspicions after sightings of his car near where Rudd had disappeared, and from indications of a struggle due to visible scratches on his person from a girl's long nails. The Volkswagen acted as a refrigerator, preserving enough forensic evidence to allow for Kondro's arrest and conviction. Kondro was also suspected in the prior kidnappings, sexual assaults and murders of two eight-year-old girls: Rima Traxler, also from Longview, and Chila Silvernails, from nearby Kalama. Although he did not admit to Silvernails' murder, he eventually confessed to Traxler's as part of a plea deal that avoided the death penalty, explaining that he had learned of the young girl's "safety password" provided by her mother, which he used to deceive her into coming with him. He was sentenced to a term of 55 years' incarceration, and died in prison. Kondro was dubbed "The Longview Serial Killer" by author Lori Carangelo, and Rudd's and Traxler's abductions and the detective work that apprehended Kondro featured in several true crime documentaries, including On the Case with Paula Zahn (episode "Broken Trust") and Cold Case Files ("Unicorns and Alligators").[321][322] |
31 January 1997 | Rosalynn McGinnis | Henri Piette | Poteau, Oklahoma, US | 12 | Escaped | Kidnapped by her stepfather and relocated to Mexico along with his three other children. McGinnis gave birth to nine children by her kidnapper. McGinnis and eight of her nine children escaped in June 2016, able to return to US; her eldest had already left home but reunited later. Eventually Piette was apprehended in Mexico City (while seeking a passport), and placed in U.S. custody.[323][324] |
14 April 1997 | Pai Hsiao-yen | Chen Chien-hsing | Taipei, Taiwan | 16 | Murdered | Hsiao-yen, the daughter of TV personality Pai Bing-bing was kidnapped on her way to school in Taipei. Following numerous unsuccessful ransom negotiations, due to heavy media coverage, Hsiao-yen was gang-raped and eventually murdered, with her body being discovered on 28 April. Following a year-long manhunt which resulted in accomplices committing suicide upon arrest, Chen, who masterminded the kidnapping, was arrested on 18 November after taking the Alexander family hostage. Chen was convicted and executed on 6 October 1999. The incident has since received criticism for its inappropriate media coverage ethics.[325][326][327][328] |
30 April 1997 | Zephany Nurse | Lavona Solomon | Cape Town, South Africa | 2 days | Raised by abductor | Zephany was taken shortly after birth and raised by the kidnapper's family as one of their own. She was found when her biological sister started at the same school, and friends commented that they looked like sisters.[329][330] |
6 May 1997 | Kerry Whelan | Bruce Burrell | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | 39 | Murdered | A woman was believed to have been murdered by her employer. Her body has never been found, but Burrell was convicted in 2006 during his second trial.[331] |
10 May 1997 | Yelena Masyuk | Chechen rebels | Grozny, Chechnya | 31 | Released | Masyuk was a Russian television journalist. She and two others were kidnapped by Chechen insurgents on 10 May 1997; all three were released after 101 days of captivity following the 18 payment of a $2 million ransom to secure their release.[332] |
3 June 1997 | Shannon Verhage | Marvin Gabrion | Cedar Springs, Michigan | 11 months | Unknown | Shannon and her mother, Rachel Timmerman, were last seen leaving on a date with an unknown co-worker of Timmerman. The co-worker was later linked to a man named Marvin Gabrion, whom Rachel was preparing to testify against for raping her the previous year. Rachel's body was later found floating in Oxford lake. Gabrion is on death row for the murder. Shannon has never been found.[333][334] Although Gabrion was not tried for killing Shannon, the jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that he was responsible for her death.[335] |
10 July 1997 | Miguel Ángel Blanco | ETA | Ermua, Basque Country, Spain | 29 | Murdered | On 10 July 1997, Spanish politician of Partido Popular Miguel Ángel Blanco was kidnapped by the terrorist group ETA which threatened to assassinate him unless the Spanish Government started to transfer all ETA prisoners to prisons in the Basque Country within 48 hours. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in demonstrations all throughout Spain, demanding the release of Miguel Ángel. But 50 minutes after the deadline expired, at 16:50 of 12 July, he was shot in the back of the head.[336] Shortly thereafter, he was found on the outskirts of San Sebastián, in the throes of death, with his hands tied.[337] He died in the hospital at 4:30 a.m. on 13 July. |
16 September 1997 | Brittney Ann Beers | Unknown | Sturgis, Michigan, US | 6 | Unknown | 6-year-old Brittney was last seen in the early evening after she went outside to ride her bicycle. Her mother left to do some errands. Her half-brother said he saw his sister sitting on a bench. Others had seen her speaking to an unidentified male driving a red or brown mid-size vehicle. Brittney walked over to the witness and told him that she 'made a new friend'. She was never seen again. In 2016 there was a significant lead after a killer confessed to the murder of Jodi Parrack. Similarities in both cases raised red flags. The murderer of Jodi Parrack, Daniel Furlong, after hours-long interrogation, said that he did not kill Brittney. The case remains open.[338][339][340] |
21 September 1997 | Guo Xinzhen | Hu Mou | Liaocheng | 2 | Rescued | Xinzhen was abducted from outside his home in 1997 by Hu Mou and his girlfriend, "Tang".[341] The two kidnappers then sold him to a couple in central China for money. He was only found twenty-four years later when police used databases to find out what he would look like as an adult, and his identity was confirmed by DNA testing.[342] |
30 September 1997 | Walter Kwok | Cheung Chi Keung | Hong Kong | 47 | Released | Kwok was kidnapped by the notorious gangster "Big Spender" Cheung Chi Keung[343] and was released seven days later without police intervention. Following his arrest in Guangzhou in 1998, Cheung confessed that he had put Kwok in a wooden container blindfolded for four days and fed him regular meals of roast pork with rice, until the ransom of some HK$600 million was paid.[344] |
24 November 1997 | Sabrina Aisenberg | Unknown | Hillsborough, Tampa, Florida, US | 5 months | Unknown | Sabrina vanished from her crib without a trace. Her parents, Steve and Marlene Aisenberg, were the last to see her alive, when they placed her in her crib Sunday night. In the morning Sabrina and her blanket were gone. She is still missing.[345][346][347][348][349][350][351] |
15 December 1997 | Delimar Vera Cuevas | Carolyn Correa | Frankford, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US | 10 days | Raised by abductor | Cuevas was a baby when she was thought to have been killed in a fire. Six years later, her mother discovered her at a birthday party. After DNA tests confirmed that the child was indeed her own, the kidnapper was arrested.[352] The story was later dramatized in the Lifetime Movie Network film Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story. |
1998 | Mary Quin | Islamic militants | Yemen | unknown | Escaped | American-New Zealand national and chief executive of Callaghan Innovation who was kidnapped with others from her tourist group by Islamic militants. She later escaped, and her kidnappers were later arrested.[353] |
2 March 1998 | Natascha Kampusch | Wolfgang Přiklopil | Vienna, Austria | 10 | Escaped | Kampusch was abducted on her way to school and held in a secret cellar by her kidnapper for more than eight years. She escaped aged 18 on 23 August 2006.[354] Přiklopil knew that the police were after him, so he killed himself by jumping in front of a train. |
10 July 1998 | Kamiyah Mobley | Gloria Williams | Jacksonville, Florida, US | Less than one day | Raised by abductor | Mobley was abducted from the hospital at eight hours old. She was reunited with her birth parents in January 2017 following DNA testing.[352][355] |
27 July 1998 | Allyson Dalton | Unknown | Strasburg, Virginia, US | 10 weeks | Unknown | Allyson Dalton is the daughter of Sylena Dalton, 20, who was found stabbed to death in the apartment she had shared with Allyson and her mother. When a friend was alerted to the scene, she found Sylena stabbed to death and Allyson missing. A witness said he saw a male putting a baby into the passenger side of a truck. The suspicion was on the father, Daniel Pompell. There had been previous disagreements over custody and support. The day Sylena was murdered, a paternity hearing was scheduled. Police have never named a suspect or a person of interest. In 2000 Sylena's mother filed a wrongful death suit against Pompell, but it was dropped for lack of evidence. Sylena's mother's search for Allyson has never stopped.[356] |
29 July 1998 | Julie Ann Holmquist | Curtiss Cedargren | Hallock, Minnesota, US | 16 | Murdered | Holmquist was kidnapped while inline skating. On 20 Aug, a hunter found Julie's badly decomposed body in a gravel pit near Lancaster. Four years later, suspect Curtiss Cedergren, 38, shot and killed himself as an investigator arrived at his Lancaster, Minn., home to arrange for a lie detector test. Authorities later detailed evidence they had collected and said with confidence that Cedergren was responsible for Holmquist's death.[357] |
30 July 1998 | Felicia Ann Elliott | Charles (Chad) Wayne Green and Billy Dale Green | Randolph County, Arkansas, US | 8 | Murdered | Felicia Elliott's family was slain by Chad Green and his father, Billy Dale Green, in a home invasion, after which Felicia was kidnapped, bound with duct tape and held in a barrel by her captors, and raped by Chad Green. Billy Green then slit her throat, and her remains were found in a creek bed over 2 years later. The Greens were arrested in July 2003 and charged with the murders and Felicia's abduction, and after the initial verdict had been overturned, the father and son were re-tried and again convicted, being sentenced to multiple life terms. The motive for the murders was unclear as the Greens were known methamphetamine and other drug dealers, but there was also a question of whether Chad, a known sex offender, had targeted Felicia well before the home invasion.[358] The case was detailed in true crime author George Jared's book, The Creek Side Bones. |
11 December 1998 | Sion Jenkins | Allan Grimson | Portsmouth, UK | 20 | Murdered | Jenkins was a Royal Navy sailor who went out to a nightclub one night in Portsmouth with fellow sailor Allan Grimson, not knowing he was in fact a serial killer. A straight man, Grimson took the drunk Jenkins back to his flat and raped him under threats. In the morning Jenkins expressed his desire to leave but Grimson tied him up and beat him to death. As of 2019, Grimson was due to be released from prison.[359] |
1999 | Bardhyl Çaushi | Yugoslav militants | Serbia | 62-63 | Murdered | A Kosovo Albanian human rights lawyer and activist. Çaushi was abducted by Yugoslav forces and held in prisons in Serbia. Çaushi's fate was unknown until 2005, when his remains were found and identified.[360] |
19 January 1999 | Lisa Hoodless and Charlene Lunnon | Alan Hopkinson | Hastings, England | 10 | Rescued | Hoodless and Lunnon were forced into Hopkinson's car on their way to school. He held them in his flat for three days where he sexually abused them. They were rescued when police visited Hopkinson's flat. Hopkinson was given a life sentence on 28 May 1999.[361][362][363] |
27 January 1999 | Shemeka Denise Ray | Unknown | Columbus, Georgia, US | 11 | Murdered | Shemeka Ray was kidnapped from her home in Cusseta, Georgia and found the following day in a ravine off Route 268, near the Interstate 85 freeway in Columbus. She had died of blunt force trauma to the head. Her case remains unsolved.[364][365] |
12 April 1999 | Leszli Kálli | Guerrillas | Colombia | 18 | Released | Kálli was abducted by virtue of the hijacking of the plane she was on. She was held for slightly more than a year by Colombian leftist guerrillas along with her father and almost 3 dozen other passengers. She published a novel about her experiences. While some passengers were released quickly, many of the hostages were released only whenever their specific ransom was paid. The last hostage, Gloria Amaya de Alfonso, was not released until 22 November 2000, 19 months after the hijacking.[366] |
3 May 1999 | Hans van de Kimmenade | Four unknown men | Helmond, Netherlands | 18 | Released | A group of at least four armed (allegedly Arabian) men kidnapped van de Kimmenade,[367] son of wealthy industrialists, from his estate. After the case received much media attention, Van de Kimmenade was dropped off at a waterschap within 48 hours. No reason was given for his release. After months of research, the case appeared unsolvable. |
17 May 1999 | Andria Nichole Brewer | Karl Roberts | Arkansas, US | 12 | Murdered | Roberts, 35, was convicted in May 2000 by a Polk County Circuit Court jury of capital murder in the rape and strangling of Brewer, his niece,[368] on 17 May 1999. |
7 July 1999 | Rolandito Salas Jusino | Unknown | Toa Alta, Puerto Rico | 4 | Unknown | Jusino was playing, allegedly unsupervised, in a community park next to his house's backyard.[369] He was never found. |
9 September 1999 | Sandi Yong Sze Hui | Vincent Lee Chuan Leong, Shi Song Jing and Zhou Jian Guang. | Singapore | 14 | Released | 14-year-old Sandi Yong (whose name was later not reported in subsequent media) was abducted by Lee, Zhou and Shi while she was walking back home on the night of 9 September 1999 at Bukit Timah. Yong, who was blindfolded, was held hostage for sixty hours at a rented flat and she was released after her father paid a ransom of S$330,000. All three kidnappers were arrested shortly after, and they were all sentenced to life imprisonment. As of 2020, one of the kidnappers, Lee, was confirmed to be released from Changi Prison on parole after serving 20 years and ten months out of his term with good behaviour.[370][371][372][373][374] |
12 October 1999 | Pamela Butler | Keith Nelson | Kansas City, US | 10 | Murdered | Butler was rollerblading in front of her house when she was kidnapped by Nelson. He took her across the state line from Kansas into Grain Valley, Missouri, to a church. There he took her into a wooded area, where he raped and strangled Butler with speaker wire. Nelson was arrested two days later near the Kansas River, and Butler's body was recovered the following day. Nelson was found guilty and sentenced to death by lethal injection in a federal facility. He was executed for the crime on August 28, 2020, at USP Terre Haute.[375] |
2000–2009
Date | Victim(s) | Abductor(s) | Location | Age of victim(s) | Outcome | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4 May 2000 | Jessica Russell | David Trott | British Columbia, Canada | 9 | Murdered | Russell disappeared from a Vancouver suburb on the morning of 4 May 2000. She was abducted and murdered by David Trott as he ostensibly took her to school. The child's strangled body was found in an incinerated trailer near Mission.[376] |
1 July 2000 | Sarah Payne | Roy Whiting | West Sussex, England | 8 | Murdered | Payne was kidnapped and murdered soon afterwards by Whiting. The subsequent investigation became a high-profile murder case in the United Kingdom. Following his conviction, Whiting was imprisoned for life and is currently being held in the maximum security Wakefield prison, West Yorkshire.[377] |
3 October 2000 | Elhanan Tannenbaum | Hezbollah militants | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | 54 | Released | Polish-born Israeli businessman and drug dealer who was kidnapped by Hezbollah militants while conducting a supposed drug deal in Dubai. He was then held for three years before being released in a hostage exchange and returned to Israel.[378] |
11 November 2000 | Rosemary Corcoran | Philip Smith | Digbeth, Birmingham, UK | 25 | Murdered | Corcoran was abducted by a man she had just met at the Rainbow Pub in the Digbeth area of Birmingham. They were seen leaving together but CCTV later showed her being dragged into his car. He then drove her against her will to Worcestershire near the M5 motorway and bludgeoned her to death. Smith had already killed a person three days prior and killed another woman later that day. He may also have killed a further victim the month before. It is unknown if Smith is still imprisoned.[379] |
26 November 2000 | Leanne Tiernan | John Taylor | Leeds, England | 16 | Murdered | Tiernan was abducted and murdered while returning from a shopping trip. Her body was found on 20 August 2001 in a nearby woodland, and evidence led to Taylor's arrest. He was found guilty on 8 July 2002 and received two life sentences. |
6 April 2001 | Anne Sluti | Anthony Steven "Tony Zappa" Wright | Kearney, Nebraska, US | 17 | Released/rescued | Sluti was kidnapped from a mall parking lot in April 2001, taken out of state, and raped for six days before Wright surrendered to police.[380] |
18 November 2001 | Alexandra Flores | David Santiago Renteria | El Paso, Texas, U.S. | 5 | Murdered | Abducted while wandering around a Walmart by a convicted sex offender, who proceeded to rape and murder her. Flores' body was found the next day. Renteria was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.[381] |
1 January 2002 | Alicia Kozakiewicz | Scott Tyree | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US | 13 | Rescued | Kozakiewicz was groomed over the Internet and eventually lured into meeting Tyree, who forced her into his vehicle and took her to his home in Virginia. She was held captive, shackled, raped, and tortured for four days in Tyree's basement, and he broadcast his actions via live streaming video. One viewer of Tyree's live streams reported his actions anonymously to the FBI, who tracked down Kozakiewicz and freed her. Kozakiewicz has become a motivational speaker and an advocate for missing persons.[382] |
18 January 2002 | Celso Daniel | Unknown | Jardins, Brazil | 50 | Murdered | Mayor of Santo André who was abducted by criminals and later killed, his body 8 days after his kidnapping. His murderers have never been identified, but the motive for the killing is suspected to be political in nature.[383] |
1 February 2002 | Danielle van Dam | David Westerfield | Sabre Springs, San Diego, California, US | 7 | Murdered | Van Dam was abducted from her bed the night of 1–2 February; her body was found three weeks later in a remote area. Westerfield, a neighbor, was convicted of kidnapping and first degree murder, and sentenced to death for the crime.[384] He is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. |
23 February 2002 | Íngrid Betancourt | Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia | Colombia | 40 | Rescued | Betancourt, a presidential candidate, was kidnapped and held captive until 2008.[385][386] |
21 March 2002 | Amanda "Milly" Dowler | Levi Bellfield | Surrey, England | 13 | Murdered | Dowler disappeared on her way home from school. Her body was found on 18 September 2002.[387] Bellfield was found guilty of her abduction and murder on 23 June 2011. |
21 April 2002 | Gilberto Echeverri Mejía | Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia | Colombia | 66 | Murdered | Mejía and Correa were both kidnapped by guerrilla fighters while participating in a march against violence on 21 April 2002; both were murdered, alongside eight other captives, on 5 May 2003, following a rescue operation.[388] |
Guillermo Gaviria Correa | 40 | |||||
3 May 2002 | Alexis Patterson | Unknown | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US | 7 | Unknown | Patterson was last seen by her stepfather, LaRon Bourgeois, as he dropped her off at her elementary school. Her parents reported her missing when she failed to return home, at which time they learned that Alexis had not been in her classes and was not even seen inside the school building. On 14 May 2002, investigators officially announced they were pursuing the case as a likely criminal act. No trace of her has ever been found, nor have investigators been able to ascertain any further information about her disappearance.[389] |
5 June 2002 | Elizabeth Smart | Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Eileen Barzee | Salt Lake City, Utah, US | 14 | Rescued | Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom, and was found alive nine months later in a suburb of Salt Lake City on 12 March 2003.[390] Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping, while Barzee was sentenced to 15 years. |
24 June 2002 | Kara Robinson Chamberlain | Richard Evonitz | Columbia, South Carolina, US | 15 | Escaped | Robinson was kidnapped from a friend's garden and taken to Evonitz's apartment. She escaped out the front door during the night and later led police to the apartment where she was held.[391] |
15 July 2002 | Samantha Runnion | Alejandro Avila | Stanton, California, US | 5 | Murdered | Runnion was kidnapped from the front yard of her home. Her body was found one day later in Cleveland National Forest.[392] Avila is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison in California. |
22 July 2002 | Erica Pratt | Edward Johnson and James Burns | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US | 7 | Escaped | Pratt was forced into a car from a street. She escaped by gnawing through duct tape used to keep her bound and by smashing a window.[393] |
26 July 2002 | Casey Williamson | Johnny Johnson | Valley Park, Missouri | 6 | Murdered | Williamson was staying in the same house as ex-convict Johnson, who lured her out of the house and took her to a sunken pit in the woods, where he beat her to death after trying to rape her. He then buried her beneath a pile of glass and rocks. Johnson was executed for the crime in 2023.[394] |
12 August 2002 | Arjan Erkel | Three gunmen | Makhachkala, Russia | 32 | Released | Erkel was a medical aid worker for Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) when he was kidnapped. Twenty months later he was released after the Dutch government paid a ransom of €1,000,000.[395] |
22 August 2002 | Michelle Knight | Ariel Castro | Cleveland, Ohio, US | 21 | Rescued | Knight was last seen when she left her cousin's house. Knight, along with Amanda Berry, Berry's child who was born in captivity, and Gina DeJesus, were found alive and in reasonable health within three miles of the site of their disappearances on 6 May 2013.[396] |
6 October 2002 | Shawn Hornbeck | Michael J. Devlin | Richwoods, Missouri, US | 11 | Rescued | Hornbeck was kidnapped while riding his bicycle near his home. He was sexually assaulted and tortured by his kidnapper, Michael Devlin, eventually promising the man to not run away in exchange for Devlin keeping him alive. Hornbeck was given a large amount of freedom, and told neighbors he was being home-schooled. After four years, Devlin was losing sexual interest in him, and so kidnapped another boy, William "Ben" Ownby, with Hornbeck in the car to keep him quiet. The police investigated Devlin and spoke to Hornbeck, but the teenager gave his name as Shawn Wilcox and claimed to be only staying with Devlin while his father was on a business trip. The next day, the police spoke to Devlin again, telling him they were going to check Devlin's pick-up's tires against tracks found at the scene of Ownby's kidnapping. Devlin then admitted that he had both Hornbeck and Ben in his apartment, alive. When Shawn was asked his name again without Devlin in the room, he told the police he was Shawn Hornbeck.[397] |
11 November 2002 | Samantha Nicole Burns | Unknown | Huntington, West Virginia, US | 19 | Unknown | Burns, a student of Marshall Community and Technical College's Physical Therapy Program, was abducted at the Marshall University Court Yard Apartments.[398] She was last heard from by her mother at 9:45pm, and her car was discovered burning around the Cabell/Wayne County lines at 3:30am on 12 November 2002. She has not been seen or heard from since, she is presumed dead, and no remains have been recovered. South Carolina Death Row inmates Chadwick E. Fulks and Branden L. Basham claim responsibility for the disappearance of Burns. At that time they were escapees of another correctional facility. They have yet to provide enough credible details that lead to Burns' whereabouts. |
3 December 2002 | Kacie Rene Woody | David Leslie Fuller | Holland, Arkansas, U.S. | 13 | Murdered | Woody had been groomed online by Fuller, who lived in California and posed as a 17-year-old when he was really 47. He traveled to her home in Arkansas and abducted her at approximately 9:41pm* on 3 December 2002. The next day, law enforcement found them both deceased inside a storage unit in Conway, where Fuller had bound and raped Woody inside his rented minivan before shooting her and himself.[399][400] |
7 December 2002 | Breann Voth | Derek Post | Port Coquitlam, Canada | 19 | Murdered | Voth was last seen alive in the early hours of 7 December 2002. Her naked body was discovered near the Coquitlam River. Her murderer, Derek Post, was arrested the following month. He was subsequently found guilty of Voth's first degree murder.[401] |
c. 2003 | Sheila White | Unknown | New York City, New York, U.S. | 15 | Escaped | Teenager who became a human trafficking victim after being sent to a group home, where she was repeatedly raped and abused by a pimp who forced her into prostitution. She eventually managed to escape and has since become an anti-sex trafficking activist.[402] |
21 April 2003 | Amanda Berry | Ariel Castro | Cleveland, Ohio, US | 16 | Escaped | Berry was abducted one day before her 17th birthday.[403] During captivity, she gave birth to a daughter. Just over 10 years later, on 6 May 2013, Berry escaped with her daughter, assisted by neighbors responding to her screams when Castro had absented himself after failing to secure all but an outer door of the house. This led to the rescue of two other captives (Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus) by authorities. The victims were all in reasonable health and within three miles of the site of their abductions. |
7 September 2003 | Gyanendra Khadka | Maoist rebels | Jyamire, Sindhupalchok District, Nepal | 35 | Murdered | A Nepalese journalist murdered by insurgents on 7 September 2003 during the Maoist insurgency in Nepal.[404] |
20 October 2003 | Cecilia Zhang | Min Chen | Toronto, Canada | 9 | Murdered | Chen abducted Zhang from her home in the middle of the night and killed her. Her body was found on 27 March 2004. Chen claimed her death was an accident, but was later sentenced to life in prison in 2006 for her murder.[405] |
7 December 2003 | Daniel Morcombe | Brett Peter Cowan | Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia | 13 | Murdered | Morcombe was abducted while waiting to catch a bus under an overpass. Previously convicted child sex offender Brett Peter Cowan was charged in August 2011 for Morcombe's abduction and murder before a search site was established in remote bushlands near the Glass House Mountains for his body. Skeletal remains were eventually found and DNA tests confirmed that the bones belonged to Morcombe.[406] Cowan was sentenced to life imprisonment on 14 March 2014.[407] |
25 December 2003 | Seven-year-old unnamed girl | Tan Ping Koon and Chua Ser Lien | Singapore | 7 | Released | On the morning of Christmas Day, 42-year-old Chua Ser Lien and his accomplice Tan Ping Koon (aged 35 in 2003), kidnapped a seven-year-old girl from her home at Yio Chu Kang. They were caught in the act by several witnesses, one of whom tailed the pair while another took down the registration number of the get-away vehicle. After discovering they were being followed, Tan and Chua released the girl. They later contacted the girl's father to extort ransom after threatening the safety of the girl and her family. Both kidnappers were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment and three strokes of the cane.[408][409][410] In July 2020, one of the kidnappers, Chua, died in prison while serving his sentence, as a result of suicide. He was 58 then.[411][412] |
4 February 2004 | Carlie Brucia | Joseph P. Smith | Sarasota, Florida, US | 11 | Murdered | Brucia was abducted and murdered after being taken from a car wash, which had been filmed by security cameras.[413] |
9 March 2004 | Brittany Hendrickson | Fred Mundt, Jr. | Lebanon, Ohio, US | 7 | Murdered | Brittany Hendrickson was kidnapped from her home by Frederick Mundt, her mother's boyfriend, who had been babysitting her and her siblings. She was raped and suffered blunt-force trauma, dying from drowning after Mundt threw her into a well. Mundt was later arrested and his DNA found to be a match for samples taken upon autopsy from Hendrickson. He was sentenced to the death penalty, upheld upon appeal.[414] |
15 March 2004 | Kriss Donald | Five Pakistani men | Glasgow, Scotland | 15 | Murdered | Schoolboy who was abducted and subsequently stabbed to death by a gang of British Pakistani men. The racially-motivated murder sparked controversy for the lack of coverage in such cases.[415] |
2 April 2004 | Gina DeJesus | Ariel Castro | Cleveland, Ohio, US | 14 | Rescued | Just over nine years after DeJesus' abduction, on 6 May 2013,[416] she was rescued along with Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, and Berry's child who had been born in captivity. They were in reasonable health and within three miles of the site of their disappearances. |
16 June 2004 | Sean Goldman | Bruna Bianchi Carneiro Ribeiro | Brazil | 4 | Solved | An international child abduction case. Goldman was abducted from the United States by his Brazilian mother when she took her son to her native country, ostensibly for a two-week vacation. She refused to return to the United States with her child and successfully filed for a divorce. Four years later, Goldman's mother died while giving birth to a child with her second husband. He was returned to his father in 2009.[417] |
9 July 2004 | Leigh Matthews | Donovan Moodley | Morningside, Johannesburg | 21 | Murdered | The day after Matthews' 21st birthday, Moodly kidnapped her from the Bond University campus. After collecting the negotiated ransom, Moodly shot and killed Matthews in fear that releasing her might lead to his capture.[418] |
19 August 2004 | Enzo Baldoni | Islamic Army in Iraq militants | Najaf, Iraq | 55 | Murdered | Italian freelance journalist who was kidnapped by Islamist militants while in Iraq. His captors later filmed his execution, but his body was never recovered.[419] |
October 2004 | Paul Taggart | Islamic militants | Sadr City, Iraq | 24 | Released | American photographer who was held hostage by an unidentified group of Islamic militants and held for three days, whereupon he was released without harm.[420] |
19 October 2004 | Margaret Hassan | Unknown | Baghdad, Iraq | 59 | Murdered | Hassan was kidnapped and later killed on 8 November by terrorists.[421] Her remains were never recovered. |
17 November 2004 | Kaede Ariyama | Kaoru Kobayashi | Nara, Japan | 7 | Murdered | Abducted while walking home from school by convicted pedophile Kaoru Kobayashi, who murdered her and then dumped her body in Heguri, which was found on the same day. The murder caused a moral panic against otaku culture.[422] |
2004 | Wu Ruofu | Unknown | Beijing, China | 42 | Rescued | Wu Ruofu was kidnapped by a gang targeting wealthy businessmen. He was rescued after 23 hours in captivity, just before he was to be executed. Three of the abductors were sentenced to death a year later. A movie was released in 2015 based on the case, titled Saving Mr. Wu.[423] |
24 February 2005 | Jessica Lunsford | John Couey | Homosassa, Florida, US | 9 | Murdered | Lunsford was abducted from her home in the early morning. Believed held captive over the weekend, she was raped and later murdered by 46-year-old Couey, who lived nearby. The media covered the investigation and trial of her killer extensively. On 24 August 2007, a judge in Inverness, Florida sentenced Couey, a convicted sex offender, to death for the kidnapping, sexual battering, and first-degree murder of Lunsford. However, Couey died of natural causes in 2009, before his sentence could be carried out.[424] |
6 May 2005 | Mary-Ann Leneghan | Six men | Reading, England | 16 | Murdered | Leneghan and a friend were kidnapped from Prospect Park by a group of six men who drugged, tortured and raped both of them. Leneghan was killed and her body found the next day, while her friend survived despite being shot in the head.[425] |
18 May 2005 | Rahul Raju | Unknown | Alappuzha, Kerala, India | 7 | Unknown | The local police and the CBI have not found any tangible evidence for Raju's whereabouts.[426] |
3 July 2005 | Ihab el-Sherif | AQI militants | Baghdad, Iraq | 51 | Murdered | Egyptian ambassador to Iraq who was abducted by Islamist militants on 3 July 2005, while he was buying a newspaper in Baghdad. Four days later, a video was posted on the internet in which el-Sherif's captors claimed that he had been killed for having ties with Israel, and his death was later confirmed by the Egyptian government.[427] |
12 September 2005 | Claudia Melchers | Unknown | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 36 | Released | A group of armed men broke into Melchers' house,[428] tying up her husband and children before taking her with them. The motive is unknown, although it is suspected that it was done to demand a large ransom, as her father Hans Melchers is one of the richest citizens of the Netherlands. |
5 September 2005 | Taylor Behl | Benjamin Fawley | Richmond, Virginia, US | 17 | Murdered | Behl, a Virginia Commonwealth University freshman, was found dead on 5 October 2005, in Mathews County, Virginia, after having gone missing a month earlier.[429] |
19 October 2005 | Cristina Rios Valladares | Florence Cassez | Mexico | Released | Valladares was kidnapped with her two children.[430] They were freed after 52 days. Cassez was convicted and given a 61-year sentence for the abduction. | |
19 October 2005 | Rory Carroll | unknown | Baghdad, Iraq | 33 | Released | Irish journalist and reporter who was abducted by an unknown group after doing an interview with a victim of Saddam Hussein's regime. Following lobbying from several organizations and both the Irish and Iraqi governments, he was released unharmed on the following day.[431] |
23 February 2006 | Faddoul Brothers | Twenty people arrested, including Lennon Gandica (material author) | Caracas, Venezuela | 12 (Jason)
13 (Kevin) 17 (John Bryan) |
Murdered | Young Venezuelans, children of a Canadian-Lebanese businessman, kidnapped along with their driver Miguel Rivas. Their murder caused nationwide outrage and mass protests occurred in Caracas against insecurity in the country.[432][433] |
20 June 2006 | Frauke Liebs | Unknown | Paderborn, Germany | 21 | Dead, cause of death could not be determined | Frauke Liebs disappeared on 20 June on her way home from a pub.[434] Until 27 June Frauke Liebs texted and phoned her housemate several times claiming to come home soon, but evading questions. During her last call on 27 June Frauke is said to have answered the question of whether she was being held captive with a faint "yes", immediately followed by a loud "no". Contact broke off after this phone call. Her skeletonized body was discovered by a hunter in a forest by Lichtenau on 4 October. Due to the advanced state of decomposition, the time and cause of Liebs' death could not be determined. |
1 July 2006 | Hannah and Cedar Hawach | Joseph Hawach | Lebanon | 5 and 2 | Returned to custody of mother | Siblings born to a Canadian mother and a Lebanese-Australian father. The siblings resided in Calgary, Alberta, with their mother, Melissa. On 1 July 2006, their father took them on a visit to Australia before informing their mother he had no intention of returning the girls to Canada—fleeing with the children to Lebanon. Following diplomatic disputes between Lebanese, Canadian and Australian authorities, Hawach smuggled her daughters out of Lebanon on 21 December. By February 2007, the Lebanese, Canadian and Australian courts had each recognised Melissa as the legal custodian of her daughters.[435] |
30 July 2006 | Zachary Miller | Peter Robert Whitmore | Whitewood, Saskatchewan, Canada | 10 | Rescued | Abducted, held captive and repeatedly sexually assaulted by convicted pedophile Peter Whitmore. Miller escaped after several days of captivity.[436] |
17 September 2006 | Coralrose Fullwood | Patrick Dewayne Murphy | North Port, Florida, US | 6 | Murdered | Coralrose Fullwood was kidnapped from her Florida home and taken to a house nearby, where she was sexually assaulted. Her body, naked and with signs of asphyxiation and blunt force trauma, was found wrapped in a comforter near a construction site not far from her family home. DNA was isolated from under the girl's fingernails, indicating a struggle with her attacker, which was then linked to Patrick Murphy, who lived about two miles away. Murphy pleaded guilty to Fullwood's murder and was given a sentence of life in prison. An informant subsequently notified police of a video recording from the house where Fullwood was killed, and authorities continue to investigate the possibility of other participants in her murder.[437] |
18 October 2006 | Altantuya Shaariibuu | Abdul Razak Baginda, Azilah Hadri, Sirul Azhar Umar | Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia | 28 | Murdered | Mongolian former model Altantuya was abducted by Razak Baginda over alleged involvement of persons close to then Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak. She was either murdered directly by explosives or being shot before blown up in a forested land near Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, by Azilah and Sirul, who were members of Malaysia's Special Actions Unit, the resulting trial and convictions attracting international attention. The exact mastermind of the murder remains unknown, but is widely speculated to be Najib, who has constantly denied relationship with Altantuya.[438] |
19 November 2006 | Ammar al-Saffar | Several men in police cars and pick-up trucks, some of whom were wearing uniforms | Baghdad, Iraq | 50 | Unknown but believed to have been murdered | Al-Saffar was the deputy health minister of Iraq. He had lived in exile in Britain for 16 years before returning to his country following the deposition of Saddam Hussein as a result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. On 19 November 2006 witnesses reported seeing several men, some of whom were wearing uniform, arriving in police cars and pick-up trucks to seize him, and he has not been seen again since. An attempt on his life had previously been made in 2004 and he is believed to have been murdered. He had been working on exposing corruption in the ministry of health and in 2007 another deputy health minister, Hakim al-Zamili, and the former head of security at the health ministry, Brig Gen Hamid al-Shammari, were charged with his murder. However, the trial collapsed.[439] |
6 January 2007 | Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom | Five carjackers | Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. | 21 (Christian) 23 (Newsom) |
Murdered | Couple who were kidnapped by five assailants while driving to a friend's house party, who then proceeded to rape, torture and finally murder them. Each of the participants was convicted and given either long prison terms, life imprisonment without parole or in the ringleader's case, a death sentence.[440] |
8 January 2007 | William "Ben" Benjamin Ownby | Michael J. Devlin | St. Louis, Missouri, US | 13 | Rescued | Ownby was getting off the school bus when he was forced into Michael Devlin's pickup truck. Also in the truck was 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, who had been kidnapped by Devlin four years earlier and had been living as his son ever since.[441] The boys lived in Devlin's apartment for a few days, playing computer games and watching TV. A friend of Ownby's gave the police a description of Devlin's vehicle, and his boss recognized it, remembering that Devlin was home sick that day. The man called the police, who went to Devlin's apartment and met Hornbeck, who gave his last name as Wilcox. The officers left, but came back the next day. That time, Devlin admitted to having Ownby. |
7 February 2007 | João Hélio | Five young males | Oswaldo Cruz, Brazil | 6 | Murdered | Young boy who was riding in the back of his parents' car, when a group of armed carjackers broke in and stole the vehicle. While attempting to flee, they dragged the body along the pavements, mutilating it horribly. Each of the carjackers was later convicted and given long prison sentences.[442] |
3 May 2007 | Madeleine McCann | Christian Brueckner[443] | Praia da Luz, Portugal | 3 | Unknown | McCann, a British girl, disappeared aged almost 4 from her family's holiday apartment. Her parents were out eating at a bar with friends, having left McCann and her two younger siblings alone in the apartment. Brueckner was linked to the crimes when investigators discovered swimsuits. Using information from a cell tower, investigators discovered that on the night Madeleine disappeared a call was made to Brueckner's phone approximately one hour before she went missing. The data linked him to the crime.[444] |
5 July 2007 | Margaret Hill | Seven gunmen | Port Harcourt, Nigeria | 3 | Released | Hill, a British girl, was abducted from a car taking her to school by a group of gunmen, who threatened to kill her if her father, who worked as an oil industry consultant, did not agree to switch places with her. She was released three days later on 8 July after rebel forces threatened the abductors.[445][446][447] |
18 August 2007 | Adnan Patrawala | Unknown | Mumbai, India | 16 | Murdered | The son of a businessman, Patrawala was kidnapped for ransom by an unknown abductor, who murdered him the following day after the case began to gain publicity. Five people were accused of the crime, but all were acquitted, with Patrawala's murder remaining unsolved.[448] |
20 August 2007 | Nurin Jazlin Jazimin | Unknown | Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | 7 | Murdered | Jazlin went missing on 20 August 2007, after she had gone to a wet market near her house to buy a hair clip. Her body was found 28 days later, on 17 September, in a gym bag was left in front of a shop lot in Petaling Jaya, with a cucumber and an eggplant stuffed inside her genitals. CCTV footage of her abduction and the abandoning of the bag were obtained but the perpetrators were never identified and apprehended.[449] |
3 November 2007 | Rowan Damia Ford | Chris Collings | Stella, Missouri, US | 9 | Murdered | Rowan Ford, a 9-year-old girl then under the care of David Spears, her stepfather, was kidnapped from her home by Collings, a friend of Spears, after a night of heavy drinking. Collings took her to a trailer on his property in Barry County, Missouri where he raped and strangled her; she was found a week later, naked and bloodied, at the bottom of a sinkhole that opened into a cave in nearby McDonald County.[450][451] Collings was apprehended and convicted of first-degree murder in 2012 and sentenced to the death penalty, while Spears pled guilty to child endangerment and hindering prosecution and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.[452][453][454] |
8 November 2007 | Jodi Christine Parrack | Daniel Furlong | Constantine, Michigan, US | 11 | Murdered | Jodi Parrack, a fifth-grader at Riverside Elementary School, was kidnapped off her bicycle while riding beside the home of Furlong, who took her into his garage. He then sexually assaulted her in a boat inside, bound her with zip-ties, and smothered her with a plastic bag. She was later found at a local cemetery.[455] Authorities initially apprehended Raymond McCann, a reserve police officer, after McCann had suggested to a search party to survey the cemetery, and he eventually pleaded no contest and was sentenced to a prison term for perjury. However Daniel Furlong, a local youth sports coach, was taken into custody after a subsequent attempted abduction and discovery of a "kidnap list" in his home, which aroused suspicion of a possible connection to the disappearance of another local little girl, Brittney Beers, and he eventually confessed in 2015 to Parrack's kidnapping and murder after his DNA was found to match samples from the crime scene.[456] Furlong received a sentence of 30-to-60 years in prison, while McCann was fully exonerated of the crime and his perjury conviction overturned. The case and its eventual resolution were depicted in the episode "Small Town Killer" on the true crime series Scene of the Crime with Tony Harris.[457] |
2 December 2007 | Sergio Gomez | Unknown | Michoacán, Mexico | 34 | Murdered | Gomez was a Mexican singer who was the founder and lead vocalist of the group K-Paz de la Sierra. He was kidnapped on 2 December 2007 and murdered the next day.[458] |
9 January 2008 | Sharlinie Mohd Nashar | Unknown | Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia | 4 | Unknown | Sharlinie went missing after visiting a playground 200 meters away from her home in Taman Datuk Harun, Petaling Jaya. Her whereabouts remain unknown.[459] |
13 January 2008 | Mari Luz Cortes | Santiago del Valle | Huelva, Spain | 5 | Murdered | Cortes left her home in the El Torrejón area of Huelva for a short trip to the local sweets kiosk, where she disappeared.[460] She was found dead. |
19 February 2008 | Shannon Matthews | Michael Donovan and Karen Matthews | Dewsbury, England | 9 | Rescued | Matthews was abducted and held captive for 24 days by Donovan, the uncle of her mother, Karen Matthews', boyfriend. After her rescue by police it was found that Karen had helped plot the kidnapping in an attempt to gain reward money.[461][462] |
4 March 2008 | Lauren Burk | Courtney Lockhart | Auburn, Alabama, U.S. | 18 | Murdered | Auburn University freshman who was kidnapped at gunpoint by a recently discharged veteran who was on a months-long violent crime spree. During the trip, her kidnapped robbed, stripped her naked and finally shot her in the lung, causing serious injuries from which Burk would succumb to in the hospital. Lockhart was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death for her murder.[463] |
25 June 2008 | Brooke Bennett | Michael Jacques | Randolph, Vermont, US | 12 | Murdered | Brooke Bennett was lured into the home of Michael Jacques, her uncle, by a teenage acquaintance who had been previously sexually assaulted by Jacques. Bennett was then kidnapped, drugged, raped, and murdered, and her body buried in a makeshift grave about a mile from Jacques' home. There were initial claims that Bennett had been the victim of a fictitious sex ring called "Breckinridge", but Jacques was arrested and subsequently pleaded guilty to the crime, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.[464][465][466] |
27 July 2008 | Reigh Rockefeller | Christian Gerhartsreiter | Boston, Massachusetts, US | 7 | Rescued | Abducted by her father Clark Rockefeller, really German- American con artist Christian Gerhartsreiter, during a supervised visit in Boston in 2007. She was found unharmed at her father's apartment a week later.[467] |
28–29 July 2008 | Valentin Crémault | Stéphane Moitoriet and Noëlla Hégo | Lagnieu, France | 11 | Murdered | French boy who was abducted by a tramp while riding his bicycle, with Moitoriet stabbing him to death that same day. He was later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, later reduced to 30 years imprisonment.[468] |
3 December 2008 | Jestina Mukoko | Zimbabwe state agents | Harare, Zimbabwe | unknown | Released | Zimbabwean human rights activist who was detained for alleged "anti-government demonstrations". She was released on bail in March 2009, and the charges dropped in September of that year.[469] |
11 December 2008 | Na-young | Cho Doo-soon | Ansan, South Korea | 8 | Rescued | Elementary school student who was kidnapped and thereby assaulted by a repeat sexual offender. The case sparked huge controversy, inspiring the 2013 film Hope.[470] |
9 February 2009 | Haleigh Cummings | Unknown | Satsuma, Florida, US | 5 | Unknown | Cummings was last seen sleeping in her family's trailer. She was discovered missing.[471] The rear door to the trailer was ajar, and the screen door had been propped open with a cinderblock. The case remains unsolved. |
27 March 2009 | Sandra Cantu | Melissa Huckaby | Tracy, California, US | 8 | Murdered | Several days after Cantu went missing on 6 April, a suitcase was discovered in a pond containing her body.[472] On 10 April 2009, police arrested 28-year-old Melissa Huckaby and charged her with Cantu's kidnapping, rape, and murder. |
24 May 2009 | Nevaeh Buchanan | Unknown | Monroe, Michigan, US | 5 | Murdered | Buchanan was discovered missing from the parking lot of the Charlotte Arms apartment complex. A fisherman discovered her body along the banks of the River Raisin in Raisinville Township on 4 June 2009.[473] |
26 June 2009 | Lindsey Baum | Unknown | McCleary, WA, US | 10 | Murdered | Baum disappeared walking home from the home of a friend in the small town of McCleary, 20 miles west of Olympia. Her remains were not found until September 2017, by hunters in remote eastern Washington; positive identification was announced in May 2018.[474] |
9 August 2009 | Zarema Sadulayeva | Unknown | Grozny, Russia | 35 | Murdered | Russian children's activist who, together with her husband Alik Djabrailov, kidnapped by gunmen while driving in their car. A day later, the pair were later found shot to death.[475] |
31 December 2009 | Masego Kgomo | Brian Mangwale | Soshanguve, South Africa | 10 | Murdered | Masego was kidnapped for a Muti killing by Brian Mangwale. It is believed that she may have been gang raped before being taken to the sangoma.[476] |
2010–2019
Date | Victim | Abductor | Location | Age of victim | Outcome | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
30 January 2010 | Naga Vaishnavi | Unknown | Andhra Pradesh, India | 10 | Murdered | Vaishnavi was kidnapped[477] and was murdered three days after her abduction. |
15 May 2010 | Hostages of the 2010 Kurram agency mass kidnapping | Taliban militants (suspected) | Kurram District, Pakistan | Various | Rescued | 61 people, predominantly civilians, were held hostages by militants who posed as policemen from a convoy en route to Parachinar, most of whom were later released. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident, but the Pakistani government has accused the Taliban for orchestrating it.[478] |
4 June 2010 | Kyron Horman | Unknown | Portland, Oregon, US | 7 | Unknown | Horman disappeared when he did not return home from Skyline Elementary School. Local and state police along with the FBI conducted an exhaustive search for the boy and launched a criminal investigation, but have not uncovered any significant information regarding his whereabouts.[479] |
8 June 2010 | Khan Kakama | Gordon Tumusiime | Bugolobi, Kampala, Uganda | 1 | Murdered | Kakama was handed to the kidnappers by Molly Nabasa, his nanny.[480] His parents, Sven and Naome Karekaho, work(ed) for the Uganda Revenue Authority and National Environmental Management Authority, respectively. |
4 September 2010 | Umar Cheema | ISI operatives (alleged) | Pakistan | unknown | Released | Investigative reporter for The News International who was abducted, beaten, flogged and sexually assaulted by an unidentified group of men, who he claimed to be ISI operatives who had targeted him due to his journalistic work.[481] |
8 November 2010 | Gregorio Barradas Miravete | Unknown | Isla, Veracruz | 28 | Murdered | Gregorio Barradas Miravete was a politician from Mexico who was a member of the National Action Party who was kidnapped in Isla, Veracruz.[482] on 8 November 2010 as was then killed. |
10 November 2010 | Sarah Maynard | Matthew Hoffman | Mount Vernon, Ohio, US | 13 | Rescued | Hoffman killed Sarah's mother, brother, and mother's friend before kidnapping her and holding her captive in his basement in a bed of leaves. Hoffman admitted to raping her and was arrested in November by two arriving officers, thus rescuing Sarah.[483] |
12 November 2010 | Anni Dewani, Shrien Dewani | Zola Robert Tongo, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, Xolile Mngeni | Gugulethu, Cape Town, South Africa | 28, 31 | Murdered, released | During a night trip through the Township of Gugulethu, the taxi was hijacked. Husband Shrien was dropped off in the neighboring township of Khayelitsha while Anni was kept. The vehicle was found the next day with Anni's beaten and bruised body in the back seat.[484] Shrien was suspected of masterminded the kidnapping and murder of his wife.[485] |
25 November 2010 (Thanksgiving Day) | Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton | John Skelton | Morenci, Michigan | 5–9 | Unknown | The three boys' mother had custody of them, but they were at their father's house for Thanksgiving the last time they were seen.[486] Their father was convicted of kidnapping them, and still claims that they are alive, though police believe them to be dead. |
13 April 2011 | Holly Bobo | Arrests have been made, no convictions | Darden, Tennessee, US | 20 | Murdered | Bobo was witnessed by her brother walking into the woods outside their family home with a man wearing camouflage. Three years later, in 2014, four men were arrested for varying degrees of involvement in the kidnapping, and are awaiting trial. A woman has alleged that she saw a video of Holly Bobo tied up and crying, although the video has not been located. Bobo's body was found in September 2014.[487] |
29 April 2011 | Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb | Syrian government | Daraa, Syria | 13 | Murdered | Syrian boy detained by government officials while attempting to break the Siege of Daraa. After his detention, Al-Khateeb was viciously tortured and eventually killed, before his mutilated body was returned to his family.[488] |
11 May 2011 | Timmothy James Pitzen[489] | Amy Fry-Pitzen | Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, US | 6 | Unknown | Timmothy was taken out of school by his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, but she did not bring him home. His father, James Pitzen, reported both of them missing that same day. Amy called some family members to tell them she was all right, with Timmothy saying he was hungry in the background. Her body was found, having killed herself, on 14 May. She left a note behind stating that Timmothy was safe and would never be found.[490] Timmothy was not with her the last time she was seen alive, and his whereabouts are still unknown. |
27 May 2011 | Saleem Shahzad | ISI operatives (alleged) | Islamabad, Pakistan | 40 | Murdered | Investigative journalist who was abducted, tortured and killed, presumably by ISI agents, for his writings criticizing the government and raising questions about kidnappings of fellow journalists.[491] |
11 July 2011 | Leiby Kletzky | Levi Aron | New York City, US | 8 | Murdered | Kletzky was kidnapped on his way home from day camp in his Hasidic Jewish neighborhood.[492] The alleged killer was apprehended 32 hours later; he confessed to killing the boy and dismembering his body, but entered a plea of not guilty in court. |
September 2011 | Disappearance of Sarah Dominique Broady and Jaiyana Hodges-Broady | Unknown | Killeen, Texas, US | 3 months | Rescued | The mother and daughter were allegedly kidnapped by the child's father during an unscheduled visitation. Details of the case have been withheld by the court. |
3 October 2011 | Lisa Irwin | Unknown | Kansas City, Missouri, US | 10 months | Unknown | Irwin disappeared from her home in the early hours of the morning.[493][494][495] Investigators to this day have not given any indication that she was kidnapped by an outside intruder. |
9 November 2011 | Wilson Ramos | Unknown | Valencia, Venezuela | 24 | Rescued | A Venezuelan professional baseball catcher, Ramos was kidnapped at gunpoint from outside his mother's home and held by his captors inside a mountain hideout. He was freed by police after 51 hours of captivity.[496] |
21 April 2012 | Isabel Celis | Unknown | Tucson, Arizona, US | 6 | Murdered | Celis was reported missing by her father around 8 am when she was not in her room. A bedroom window had been opened with the screen removed. On 31 March 2017, her remains were found.[497] |
26 June 2012 | Sierra Newbold | Terry Lee Black | West Jordan, Utah, US | 6 | Murdered | Sierra Newbold was kidnapped from her home and subsequently raped and strangled by Black, who left her in a nearby canal to drown. She was found by a search party later the same day. Black, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychiatric issues, was found competent to stand trial. He accepted an Alford plea and was given a sentence of 65 years-to-life in prison.[498][499] |
12 August 2012 | Hüseyin Aygün | PKK militants | Ovacık, Turkey | 42 | Released | CHP politician and lawyer who was kidnapped by PKK militants while travelling along a highway. While his aides were immediately released, he was held in detention for two days before being released without harm.[500] |
1 October 2012 | April Jones | Mark Bridger | Machynlleth, Wales | 5 | Murdered | Jones was lured into a van by Bridger, and a massive search was conducted to find her.[501] Bridger killed her soon afterward, but only small fragments of her body have been found. |
5 October 2012 | Jessica Ridgeway | Austin Sigg | Westminster, Colorado, US | 10 | Murdered | Jessica Ridgeway was a 10-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered on 5 October 2012 while walking to school.[502] She failed to return home from school and an AMBER Alert was issued. On 10 October, her dismembered remains were found in a ditch in a park in Arvada. Her abductor was 17-year-old Austin Sigg, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment on 19 November 2013. |
20 November 2012 | Jersey Bridgeman | Zachary Holly | Bentonville, Arkansas, US | 6 | Murdered | Jersey Bridgeman was kidnapped from her home after Holly, who had been babysitting her, had put her to bed. She was sexually assaulted and suffocated. Authorities later found her in a vacant home nearby. Holly was arrested and charged with capital murder, rape, kidnapping and residential burglary, subsequently convicted and sentenced to the death penalty. David and Jana Bridgeman, Jersey's father and stepmother, had previously pled guilty on child abuse charges.[503][504] |
29 January 2013 | Ethan Gilman | Jimmy Lee Dykes | Midland City, Alabama, US | 5 | Rescued | Dykes, a 65-year-old Vietnam War-era veteran, boarded a Dale County school bus, killed the driver, and took Gilman hostage. On the afternoon of 4 February, law enforcement agents entered the bunker where Dykes was keeping Gilman, killed Dykes, and rescued Gilman.[505] |
21 June 2013 | Cherish Perrywinkle | Donald James Smith | Jacksonville, Florida, US | 8 | Murdered | Cherish Lily Perrywinkle had been with her mother, Rayne Perrywinkle, and two sisters at a Dollar General when they met Donald Smith, who took them to a local Walmart to shop with a gift card. Smith suggested that they get food at a nearby McDonald's and Cherish went with him, but surveillance cameras indicated that he left the store with her, after which she vanished. She was found the next day, having been sexually assaulted and strangled.[506] Smith was apprehended and found guilty of the child's abduction, rape, and murder, and sentenced to capital punishment in the Florida courts.[507] |
22 August 2013 | Unidentified young woman (name withheld) | Charles Atkins Lewis Jr. | Seagoville, Texas, US | 25 | Rescued | Atkins kidnapped his victim at knifepoint as she left a networking conference before forcing her into her own vehicle, which he commandeered. Both investigators and the young woman believe he intended to rape, and very likely kill his captive. The victim herself was rescued due to two teenagers, Aaron Arias and Jamal Harris, who observed her pleading for help through the window of her vehicle at a stoplight. The teenagers called 9-1-1 to report a kidnapping in process and followed the vehicle as they updated police with progress as to the pursuit. Atkins was arrested 40 miles from the site where the teenagers initially observed the woman's ordeal.[508] |
6 November 2013 | Bethany Arceneaux | Scott Thomas | Lafayette, Louisiana, US | 29 | Rescued | Arceneaux, a twenty-nine-year-old mother, was abducted by her ex-boyfriend Scott Thomas while picking her young son up from daycare. Two days later, Arceneaux's family located the house Thomas was holding her in and kicked down the door, where they found Thomas stabbing Arceneaux repeatedly. One of them shot Thomas dead and Arceneaux made a full recovery. Nobody was charged in Thomas's death.[509] |
18 February 2014 | Hailey Owens | Craig Michael Wood | Springfield, Missouri, US | 10 | Murdered | Hailey Owens had been walking home from a friend's house when a man in a truck pulled over, called her, and asked for directions. As she approached him, he grabbed her, threw her into his truck, and sped away. Her body was found in the home of 45-year-old Craig Michael Wood, in Springfield. She was raped and shot in the back of the head. Wood was found guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death by lethal injection.[510] |
24 February 2014 | Antonio Cermeño | Unknown | Miranda, Venezuela | 44 | Murdered | Venezuelan boxer and two-time world title champion who was kidnapped together his wife by unidentified assailants in east Caracas. While his wife escaped, Cermeño was unable to, and his body was found just a day later along a highway.[511] |
27 February 2014 | Benjamín Galván Gómez | Los Zetas gang members | Tamaulipas, Mexico | 41 | Murdered | Businessman, PRI politician and mayor of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas between 2011 and 2013. Frequently threatened due to his anti-organized crime sentiment, Galván was abducted from a drugstore on 27 February 2014. His mutilated corpse was found the next day, and positively identified a month later. Several suspected Los Zetas members were arrested for his murder, but all were killed before they could go to trial.[512] |
19 March 2014 | Serhiy Hayduk | Pro-Russian security services | Sevastopol, Ukraine | 51 | Released | Ukrainian Navy commander who was tortured by pro-Russian security forces who had taken over the Navy's headquarters in Sevastopol. He and several others were released on the following day on orders from the Russian Defense Minister.[513] |
12 June 2014 | Naphtali Frankel, Gilad Shar, Ayal Yiphrach |
Hamas militants suspected | Gush Etzion, West Bank | Naphtali-16, Gilad-16, Ayal-19 | Murdered | Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped and later murdered by militants from a bus stop. The two main suspects were later killed in a shootout with police, while a third was sentenced to three life terms.[514] |
20 July 2014 | Oron Shaul | Hamas | near Shuja'iyya, Gaza Strip | 21 | Murdered, body taken hostage | Oron Shaul, a 21-year-old IDF sergeant, was kidnapped by members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade after an anti-tank missile was fired at an Israeli army tank during the Battle of Shuja'iyya.[515][516][517] As of 2020, the bodies of Shaul and fellow IDF soldier Hadar Goldin are still being ransomed by Hamas, which is demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners in return. |
5 September 2014 | Eston Kohver | Estonia | 43 | Released | Officer of the Estonian Internal Security Service who was accused by Russian forces of espionage, of which he was convicted and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. His conviction was considered unlawful by other countries, and Kohver was eventually released in a prisoner exchange on 26 September 2015.[518] | |
18 October 2014 | Donna Eastwood | Joshua Caird | Dartford, England | 26 | Murdered | Englishwoman who was kidnapped by her neighbor after attending a friend's birthday party. Her burned out remains were found on the same day. Caird was subsequently arrested, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.[519] |
21 January 2015 | Noela Rukundo | Unidentified kidnappers | Bujumbura, Burundi | unknown | Released | Burundian-Australian woman who was kidnapped on the orders of her husband, Balenga Kalala, who ordered that she be killed. However, her kidnappers refused to do so and instead released her, allowing Rukundo to return to Australia and confront her husband while he conducted her supposed funeral. He was later convicted for the crime and sentenced to 9 years imprisonment.[520] |
23 March 2015 | Denise Huskins | Matthew Muller | Vallejo, California | 30 | Released | Known as "The Gone Girl Kidnapping", in reference to the popular suspense/thriller novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn. Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins were stalked by disbarred Harvard University attorney Matthew Muller with a camera on a drone. Muller broke in wearing a wetsuit and wielding a water pistol, tied up the couple and blindfolded them with goggles, and played a recording to convey an illusion there was more than one kidnapper. Denise was abducted and raped twice by Muller, which was recorded on camera, and a ransom of $8,500 was demanded for her release. She was found days later in her home town of Huntington Beach, California, withholding she had been raped out of the threat Muller would kill her and Aaron. Muller sent evidence of the crimes to a newspaper, but alleged organized criminals were responsible to misdirect the investigation. Police believed the crimes to be a hoax by the couple, even suspecting Aaron killed Denise until she turned up alive, until Muller was arrested for a home invasion with similar burglary patterns and home surveillance equipment. Muller pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping charges, then was institutionalized and prescribed antipsychotics while waiting to be found competent to stand trial for further charges. Muller was later tried for rape in 2019.[521][522][523][524][525] |
15 April 2015 | Chloé Ansel | Zbigniew Huminski | Calais, France | 9 | Murdered | Ansel was kidnapped near her home in Calais, and her body found only hours later, showing obvious signs of sexual assault and strangulation. That same day, Polish national Zbigniew Huminski was arrested and confessed to the crime while intoxicated, but would never be brought to trial for the case, as he hanged himself in his jail cell a month later.[526] |
26 July 2015 | Madyson Middleton | Adrian Gonzalez | Santa Cruz, California, US | 8 | Murdered | Madyson "Maddy" Middleton, an 8-year-old girl then about to enter the fourth grade at a local Santa Cruz elementary school, was kidnapped in the Tannery Arts Center apartment complex by Gonzalez, a 15-year-old high schooler with whom she was acquainted. She had apparently been lured to the apartment by the teen, at which point he abducted, sexually assaulted and attempted to strangle her. He then placed her in a garbage can and stabbed her after it became apparent that she had survived, and the coroner's report indicated that she died of asphyxiation. Gonzalez was close by when Maddy's body was found in a recycling bin and cameras recorded him placing her there. He was quickly arrested and charged with the crimes upon investigation, and he soon confessed to Maddy's abduction, rape, and murder. As of the summer of 2020, the case continues to face a number of legal proceedings due to Gonzalez's age. California's Proposition 57 gives a presiding judge discretion over whether to try a juvenile as an adult, but other laws in the state impose statutory restrictions on such actions, and the legal course of the trial remains unclear.[527][528][529] |
12 September 2015 | Seya Sadewmi | Saman Jayalath | Kotadeniyawa, Sri Lanka | 4 | Murdered | Sri Lankan child who was abducted, raped and murdered near her home. Her naked body was found in a canal the next day. Several men were erroneously arrested, before the actual killer was connected to the crime via DNA evidence. Saman Jayalath was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death.[530] |
21 September 2015 | Olu Falae | unknown | Akure, Nigeria | 77 | Released | Nigerian banker, administrator and politician who was kidnapped by unknown men on his 77th birthday, who held him for 100 million Naira ransom. After the payment of said ransom, he was released and returned home.[531] |
October 2015 | Seven Hazara people including Shukria Tabassum | Unknown (Islamic State affiliated) | Ghazni, Afghanistan | 9+ | Killed | Seven people were killed on 9 November 2015 in the southern Afghan province of Zabul after about a month as hostages. Their remains were later discovered by the Taliban. |
20 March 2016 | Kasper, Mama and Troïtsa Sokol | 'Wasserstrasse' organization, self-proclaimed Swiss human rights activists | Basel, Switzerland, Wasserstrasse 21 | Kasper-6, Mama-4, Troïtsa-10 m.o. | Rescued | Natalia Sokol and her children Kasper, Mama, and Troïtsa were violently kidnapped by a group of 10-15 so-called Swiss human rights activists at Wasserstrasse, 21 in Basel, Switzerland on 20 March 2016. The kidnappers in motorcycle helmets, armed with wooden sticks and shields, broke down the door to the Voina family apartment and attacked the family with tear gas. After several minutes of pleading by the father, Oleg Vorotnikov, to not use violence, some five people overcame him, beat him up, and tied him up with duct tape, leaving him incapacitated, after which another group abducted Natalia and the three children. At the time, the children were taking a bath and the perpetrators kidnapped them naked.[532] |
3 April 2016 | Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe | Iranian government | Imam Khomeini International Airport, Iran | 38 | Released | Iranian-British journalist convicted on charges of "plotting against the government". Released on 16 March 2022 after six years of detention in Iran.[533] Her release was linked to the unfulfilled arms deal in the 1970s.[534] Zaghari-Ratcliffe returned to the UK the day after her release.[535] |
20 June 2016 | Alayna Ertl | Zachary Todd Anderson | Watkins, Minnesota, US | 5 | Murdered | Ertl was abducted and her body was located nine hours later in a wilderness park.[536] |
15 September 2016 | Kiana Sādāt-Hosseini | Aunt's husband | Nishapur, Iran | 7 | Murdered | Kiana Sādāt-Hosseini was a female child who was in Pre-school who was kidnapped and murdered[537][538][539] on 15 September 2016 by her aunt's husband who was later convicted for his crime. |
6 October 2016 | Kim Kardashian | Five unknown men | Paris, France | 36 | Released | While attending Paris Fashion Week, Kardashian was supposedly robbed by five unknown individuals, who held her at gunpoint in her Paris apartment. The men fled, and she later managed to free herself. The incident was met with skepticism by media outlets, who suggested that it could've been staged, prompting Kardashian to file a lawsuit which was ultimately dropped.[540] |
17 December 2016 | Carlos Andrés García | SEBIN agents | Guasdualito, Venezuela | 43–44 | Died in custody | Venezuelan politician who was detained on charges of theft, arson and inciting public unrest, but is widely believed to have been arrested for political motives. García suffered from a stroke and later passed away while still beind held in detention, with the circumstances surrounding the case being strongly condemned by other countries' governments.[541] |
8 February 2017 | Reagan Tokes | Brian Golsby | Grove City, Ohio | 21 | Murdered | Reagan Tokes was an American University student woman who kidnapped on 8 February 2017 and found dead the next day in the morning after being murdered.[542] |
21 May 2017 | Thabang Makwetla | Brandon Mashigo, Mojalefa Mathe, Motsepe Gidion and Ben Kutumela | Johannesburg, South Africa | 59 | Released | Politician and member of the African National Congress who was abducted by four armed men and threatened to hand over his personal belongings. After withdrawing money from his bank account, Makwetla was released unharmed. The incident caused a stir among the country's prominent politicians, and the four offenders were eventually apprehended and awaiting trial for the case.[543] |
23 May 2017 | Chito Soganub | Maute group militants | Marawi, Philippines | 57 | Rescued | Roman Catholic priest who was kidnapped along with 23 others by militants during the Battle of Marawi, during which he appeared in propaganda videos and was forced to convert to Islam. He and a teacher from Dansalan College successfully escaped captivity on 17 September, and were located and rescued by military officers shortly after.[544] |
2 June 2017 | Stanislav Aseyev | Donetsk People's Republic | Donetsk, Ukraine | 26 | Released | On 2 June 2017, the freelance journalist Stanislav Aseyev was abducted. Initially, the de facto DNR government denied knowing his whereabouts but on 16 July, an agent of the DNR's "Ministry of State Security" confirmed that Aseyev was in their custody and that he is suspected of "espionage". Independent media is not allowed to report from the "DNR"-controlled territory.[545] He was released as part of a prison exchange and handed over to Ukrainian authorities on 29 December 2019.[546] |
9 June 2017 | Yingying Zhang | Brendt Christensen | Urbana, Illinois, US | 26 | Murdered | On 9 June 2017, Zhang was running late for an appointment to sign a lease. While waiting at a bus stop, she was approached by Christensen in his car. Zhang got into the car and has not been heard from since. On 24 June 2019, Christensen was convicted of the murder of Yingying Zhang.[547] Her body has not been found. |
28 January 2018 | Rachael Anderson | Anthony Pardon | Columbus, Ohio, U.S. | 24 | Murdered | American aspiring funeral director who was held in her own house by repeat sexual offender Anthony Pardon, who tortured, raped and ultimately strangled her. Her body was found the next day, and Pardon was soon arrested, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.[548] |
February 2018 | Moataz Wadnan | Egyptian government | Egypt | unknown | Detained | Journalist for HuffPost Arabi who was arrested and is currently in state custody[549] for interviewing Hisham Genena, a politician who claimed to possess documents revealing that government officials were behind the Egyptian revolution of 2011. He is currently imprisoned in the Tora Prison. |
1 March 2018 | Ezzat Ghoniem | Egyptian government | Egypt | unknown | Detained | Lawyer and human rights activist arrested and kept in detention for an alleged "human rights terrorism" plot to overthrow the government. He is currently held in the Tora Prison.[550] |
2 July 2018 | Alesha MacPhail | Aaron Campbell | Isle of Bute, Scotland | 6 | Murdered | Abducted from her grandparents' house by an English-born teenager, who subsequently raped and murdered her. Her body was found two hours after her abduction, and the killer, Aaron Campbell, was arrested three days later. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.[551] |
2 August 2018 | Jinjing Ma | Parents | New York City | 12 | Located | Ma was a 12-year-old Chinese schoolgirl reported missing from Washington National Airport on 2 August 2018. She was located the following day in the company of her parents—U.S. citizens—in the borough of Queens.[552] |
15 August 2018 | Norma Azucena Rodríguez Zamora | Unknown masked gunmen | Hidalgo | Unknown | Escaped | Norma Azucena Rodríguez Zamora is a female politician from Mexico and belongs to a party called the Party of the Democratic Revolution who was kidnapped by gunmen while she was driving along a highway.[553] She managed to escape as the next day as it was reported the next day by a local newspaper. |
15 October 2018 | Jayme Closs | Jake Patterson | Barron, Wisconsin, US | 13 | Escaped | Police responding to a 911 call from Closs' home found her parents shot to death. Closs was missing,[554] and on 10 January 2019 she sought the help of neighbors near the house where she was allegedly held. A man has been charged with kidnapping her and the murders of her parents.[555] |
5 November 2018 | Hania Noelia Aguilar | Michael McLellan | Lumberton, North Carolina, US | 13 | Murdered | On 5 November 2018, 13-year-old Hania Aguilar was abducted from a mobile home park as she was waiting for a ride to the bus stop.[556] A witness saw a man in black and a yellow bandanna approach her and force her into the car that she had gone to start. The stolen vehicle was located three days later.[557] Her body was found on 27 November 2018. The Lumberton Police Department with the assistance of the FBI arrested Michael McLellan, who was charged with 10 felonies related to Hania's abduction. McLellan's DNA was found in the stolen vehicle and tied to the abduction.[558] |
29 March 2019 | Samantha Josephson | Nathaniel Rowland | Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. | 21 | Murdered | Josephson, a senior college student who had gone drinking with friends, had mistakenly entered Rowland's car after believing he was her Uber driver. Her body was found 14 hours later, with numerous stab wounds. Rowland was later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, and the case served as a pillar for the passing of Sami's Law in her home state of New Jersey.[559] |
27 April 2019 | John Fru Ndi | Ambazonian separatists | Bui, Cameroon | 77 | Released | The founder of Cameroon's the Social Democratic Front, Fru Ndi was abducted in Bui, Cameroon by Ambazonian separatists; he was released unharmed after seven hours of captivity.[560] |
18 May 2019 | Salem Sabatka | Michael Webb | Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. | 8 | Rescued | Sabatka was abducted as she walked with her mother in Fort Worth, Texas, on 18 May 2019. Her abductor was 51-year-old Michael Webb. The child was rescued the following day. Her abductor was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2019.[561] |
28 June 2019 | John Fru Ndi | Ambazonian separatists | Bamenda, Cameroon | 77 | Released | The second of two incidents involving Fru Ndi's kidnapping in 2019. On this occasion, Fru Ndi was beaten inside his home, then dragged out of his home, forced into a van and driven to an unknown location. On this occasion, Fru Ndi was held captive for over 24 hours before being released. |
13 July 2019 | Paislee Shultis | Kimberly Cooper, Kirk Shultis Jr. and Kirk Shultiss Sr. | New York, U.S. | 4 | Rescued | A four-year-old child kidnapped in 2019 by her biological parents, Kimberly Cooper and Kirk Shultis Jr. (who did not have custody of the child). Shultis was rescued, unharmed, on 14 February. Her parents, along with Kirk Shultiss Sr. face charges including custodial interference and endangering the welfare of a child.[562] |
16 September 2019 | Dulce Maria Alavez | Unknown | Bridgeton, New Jersey | 5 | Unknown | On 16 September 2019, 5-year-old Dulce Alavez went missing from Bridgeton City Park. Her mother, 19-year-old Noema Alavez Perez, reported that she was in her car at the park when she could not see Alavez and her 3-year-old brother playing at a nearby playground. She went to investigate, only to discover her daughter had vanished. An AMBER Alert was issued and a $52,000 reward remains unclaimed.[563] |
6 October 2019 | Daphne Westbrook | John Westbrook | Chattanooga, Tennessee | 16 | Found safe | A Chattanooga teenager abducted by her father at age 16 in Obtober 2019. The teen was discovered safe and well at age 18 in May 2021. Westbrook informed authorities she was safe and not being held against her will.[564] |
13 November 2019 | Idris Khattak | Four unknown individuals | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan | unknown | Detained | Human rights activist who was detained and is currently scheduled to stand before a military trial for alleged espionage. His arrest is considered political in nature.[565] |
30 November 2019 | Dua Mangi | Four to five unknown individuals | Karachi, Pakistan | 22 | Released | While walking back from getting food, she was abducted by gunpoint and drawn into a vehicle. The male friend with her was shot while trying to help her. Her abduction was publicized on social media and many alleged that it was her fault she was abducted.[566] |
2020s and later
Date | Victim | Abductor | Location | Age of victim | Outcome | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10 February 2020 | Faye Marie Swetlik | Coty Scott Taylor | Cayce, South Carolina, US | 6 | Murdered | 6-year-old Faye Swetlik disappeared on 10 February 2020 and was found murdered three days later. The same day her body was found, a man named Coty Scott Taylor committed suicide and Swetlik's DNA was found in his house. Police concluded that Taylor had killed Swetlik hours after abducting her.[567] |
May 2020 | Cecilia Chimbiri, Joana Mamombe and Netsai Marova | Zimbabwean government officers | Zimbabwe | Unknown | Released | MDC members who were abducted for two days after an anti-government protest, where they were allegedly tortured and sexually abused by government officers.[568] |
2 July 2020 | Patricia Alatorre | Armando Cruz | Bakersfield, California, US | 13 | Murdered | Alatorre disappeared on 1 July around 11:30 p.m. near Hosking Avenue and Wible Road, with Bakersfield Police Department believing that Alatorre was a runaway until surveillance footage showed a white older model pickup truck at the area.[569][570] The police connected the pickup truck to 24-year old Armando Cruz from Inglewood, California, arresting him on 5 July.[571][572][573] |
9 September 2020 | Óscar Denis | Paraguayan People's Army | Concepción, Paraguay | 73 | Unknown | A Paraguayan politician and former Vice President of the nation. He was kidnapped on 9 September by the Paraguayan People's Army, who formally claimed responsibility for the kidnapping two days later. His ultimate fate remains unknown.[574] |
15 November 2020 | Kum Avantika | Childless couple | Hyderabad, Telangana, India | 3 | Rescued | Avantika was abducted as she travelled with her family on a bus to Bellary. She was rescued approximately 20 hours after her abduction. The motive for her kidnapping was the fact her abductors had no children of their own.[575] |
3 March 2021 | Sarah Everard | Wayne Couzens | London, England, UK | 33 | Murdered | Everard disappeared in South London while walking home to Brixton Hill.[576] Six days later, police officer Wayne Couzens was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and later murdering Everard.[577] Everard's remains were found in Hoad's Wood in a large builder's bag and identified via dental records.[578] Couzens pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping Everard,[579] and eventually admitted killing her.[580] |
2 July 2021 | Unnamed 6-year-old girl (identity withheld) | Robby Wildt | Louisville, Kentucky | 6 | Rescued | The unnamed child was kidnapped by Wildt from outside her home. Neighbors who witnessed the crime called 911; one individual followed Wildt's vehicle and provided authorities with part of the abductor's license plate. As such, the child was rescued just minutes after her abduction. Wildt was later sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment for the child's abduction.[581] |
16 July 2021 | Selsela Alikhil | Unknown | Islamabad, Pakistan | Unknown | Released | Daughter of the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan who was forcefully abducted and tortured by an attacker who picked her up in his taxi. She was later released, and her case is currently under investigation.[582] |
13 August 2021 | Mariam Abdulrab | DeMarcus Brinkley | Atlanta, US | 27 | Murdered | Bartender kidnapped from outside her home in Southeast Atlanta. Her body was discovered several hours later. Abdulrab's kidnapper was later charged with her murder in addition to kidnapping, attempted rape, the possession of a firearm during commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.[583] |
20 August 2021 | Queen Bakomi | Unidentified kidnapping gang | Balma, Adamawa State, Nigeria | Unknown | Rescued | On 20 August a gang of kidnappers stormed the residence of Bakomi Andarawus and killed him before abducting his daughter Queen. Queen was held for six days while the gang demanded two million naira in ransom. The kidnappers eventually conceded that this was an unrealistic amount and agreed to accept 170,000 in return for Queen's release. According to a police source, the kidnappers directed representatives of the family to take the money to a particular place in the bush for collection. However, a group of vigilantes who were lying in wait opened fire on the gang member who came to collect the ransom and killed him, rescuing Queen in the process.[584] |
16 October 2021 | Cleo Smith | Terence Darrell Kelly | Gascoyne, Australia | 4 | Rescued | Smith disappeared from her family's tent at a campsite, and remained missing for 18 days until 3 November. She was found alive by police at Kelly's house after mobile phone evidence determined that he had visited the campsite.[585] |
November 2021 | Speedy Mashilo | Unknown hijackers | R568 road between Ekangala and KwaMhlanga | 55 | Released | Speedy Katisho Mashilo was kidnapped for a few hours in November 2021 by unknown hijackers[586] who attempted to extort information from him. Mashilo was later let go. |
February 2022 | "Yang" | Dong Zhimin | Feng County, Xuzhou, People's Republic of China | Unknown | Rescued | A mentally disturbed and unlawfully imprisoned young woman chained to a wall and who gave birth to eight children throughout the period of her captivity. Several conflicting statements have been issued by the Chinese Communist Party following her rescue, including the claim "Yang" was a beggar who had first encountered her abductor's father in 1998 and had subsequently married her abductor.[587] |
11 March 2022 | Ivan Fedorov | Russian military officers | Melitopol, Ukraine | 33 | Released | Mayor of the Ukrainian town of Melitopol who was arrested on 11 March 2022, for supposed crimes committed against civilians in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic. He was released five days later in exchange for nine Russian conscripts.[588] |
25 April 2022 | Brandon Cuellar | Jose Roman Portillo[589] | San Jose, California, US | 3 Months | Rescued | Cuellar was alone in his family apartment while his grandmother unloaded groceries. During that time, Jose Roman Portillo arrived at the apartment with a baby carrier, suggesting that it was planned kidnapping. Portillo snatched the baby, and walked out with a white blanket over Cuellar. Cuellar was found the next day safe after a 20-hour search.[590] |
3 October 2022 | Amandeep Singh, Jasdeep Singh, Jasleen Kaur, and Arrohi Dheri | Unknown | Merced, California, US | 39, 36, 27, 8 months | Murdered | A family of three and the uncle were kidnapped from a central California business. A suspect was arrested in connection with the kidnapping as their whereabouts were unknown,[591] but they were found dead.[592] |
25 October 2022 | Unnamed siblings | Mario Estrada | Las Vegas, Nevada, US | 9, 11 months | Released | Abducted from outside a convenience store in a carjacking; both children were released by the car thief several minutes later.[593] |
16 March 2023 | Unnamed infant | Unnamed couple | Canton, Ohio | 3 weeks | Rescued | The 3-week-old infant girl was abducted from her family home by a 31-year-old woman posing as a Child Protective Services worker. The child was rescued approximately 16 hours later, on 17 March. Her abductor and an alleged 21-year-old male accomplice were arrested.[594] |
July 2023 | Yanfei Bao | Unknown | Christchurch, New Zealand | 44 | Unknown | Real estate agent Bao was last seen on 19 July 2023 in the suburb of Hornby, Christchurch. A 52-year-old man was arrested and charged with her kidnapping on 22
July 2023 at Christchurch Airport, after he purchased a one-way international flight.[595][596] |
September 2023 | Unnamed 17 year old | Fidel Jesús Patino Jaimes, Jair Tomás Ramos Domíguez, Ezequiel Felix López | Santa Maria, California | 4 days | Rescued | The 3 perpetrators kidnapped the 17-year old after a traffic collision and forcing them into their vehicle. Over the course of several days, they would ask for ransom through phone calls and videos sent to the victim's parents.
Law enforcement was able to track the perpetrators through camera footage and vehicle identification and conducted a raid on September 22.[597] |
23 September 2023 | Unnamed 15 year old girl | Three males: one unnamed minor and two adults named "Sameer" and "Gulam" | Churu, Rajasthan, India | 15 | Murdered | Student from Churu who disappeared on 23 September; her body was found in a well two days later. The student had been gang raped and murdered. Three males—one a minor—were arrested shortly thereafter.[598] |
30 September 2023 | Charlotte Sena | Craig Nelson Ross Jr. | Moreau Lake State Park, New York | 9 | Rescued | Kidnapped while camping with her family. The suspect was identified with a fingerprint from a ransom note he left at the family home. The girl was found alive 2 days later in the suspect's camper, where she was being held in a cabinet.[599] |
7 October 2023 | Noa Argamani | Hamas militants | Gaza Strip, Israel | 25 | Missing | One of many non-combatant Israeli citizens abducted from a music festival in the Gaza strip by Hamas militants. Argamani is believed to be currently held at an unknown location in Palestine—either for a prisoner exchange or other propaganda purposes.[600] |
Modern kidnappings of celebrities or their relatives
Kidnappers interested in getting a large ransom or a political effect often target celebrities or their relatives. Here are some of the people affected by these crimes:
- Leon Ames: Film and television actor who, together with his wife, was held hostage at their home on 12 February 1964. They were rescued by police, who had been alerted to the case by his business partner.[601]
- Leonard Firestone (57–58), American businessman, philanthropist, diplomat was the target of an aborted kidnapped plan that was to take place in 1966.[602]
- Cindy Birdsong: A member of the Motown supergroup The Supremes. Birdsong was kidnapped in December 1969, aged 30, at knife-point from her Hollywood apartment and escaped two hours later by jumping from the car at a freeway exit.[603] Charles Collier, the handyman at Birdsong's apartment, was later convicted of the kidnapping.
- Karl von Spreti: West-Germany's ambassador to Guatemala, was kidnapped in 1970 in Guatemala City and later murdered.[604][605][606]
- Jorge and Juan Born (1974), scions of the Bunge y Born business, were kidnapped in September by the Montoneros and only released after the payment of a $60 million ransom.[607]
- Jorge Campos (soccer player): In 1999, his father was kidnapped and later found alive in Acapulco, Mexico.[608]
- Rajkumar (born Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Muthuraju) an actor and singer in Kannada film industry, was kidnapped from the actor's house at Gajanur in Tamil Nadu on 30 July 2000, along with his son-in-law Govindaraju and two others. He was released unharmed on 15 November 2000, after 108 days of captivity.[609]
- Françoise Claustre: French archaeologist who was kidnapped in Chad by guerillas led by Hissène Habré.[610] Her husband, Pierre, was the head of the French foreign aid mission in Chad and he was also taken hostage when he tried to secure her release.
- Chris Cramer: British news journalist and executive for BBC who was one of the 25 hostages held during the Iranian Embassy siege.[611] Cramer was released on 1 May 1980, after falsely complaining that he felt ill, and later provided information on the situation.
- Baron Édouard-Jean Empain: Industrialist who was kidnapped for ransom.[612] His captors cut off one of his fingers in order to bring proof that they held him. He was later released.
- John Paul Getty III, kidnapped in Italy in 1973.[613] His grandfather, the then world's richest man, American multi-billionaire oil tycoon, J. Paul Getty, refused to pay his $3 million ransom until one of the boy's ears was cut off and sent to a newspaper.
- Georgiy Gongadze: Prominent Ukrainian journalist kidnapped and later found beheaded in 2000.[614] His disappearance has triggered a major political and diplomatic scandal also involving United States and other Western countries. No details of the crime have been revealed yet.
- Freddy Heineken (1983): Chairman of the board of directors and CEO of the brewing company Heineken International and his driver Ab Doderer, were kidnapped between 9 and 30 November 1983 in Amsterdam.[615]
- Jennifer Hudson: Her nephew was kidnapped after her mother and brother were shot to death. He was later found dead.[616]
- Julio Iglesias: His father was kidnapped in 1985, but was found alive and healthy.[617]
- Charles Lindbergh: The aviator's two-year-old son, Charles Jr., was kidnapped in 1932[37] and was killed. Bruno Hauptmann was arrested and executed for the crime, but concerns remain regarding Hauptmann's guilt and the fairness of the trial (see Lindbergh kidnapping).
- Madonna: American singer-songwriter and actress who was supposedly tied to a chair and held captive by ex-husband Sean Penn at their house in Malibu, California home on 28 December 1989. She has categorically denied that this incident has occurred, and the couple later separated.[618]
- Adi Koila Mara Nailatikau: First daughter of Fiji and senator,[619] was kidnapped during a coup against her father. Kidnappers threatened to kill her, but she survived.
- Yoko Ono: Her second husband Anthony Cox abducted their daughter Kyoko Chan Cox in 1971.[620] Ono and her daughter were finally reunited in 1997.
- Jessica Alba: Actress and businesswoman who was kidnapped and held captive for 14 hours in 1996. She was later discovered bound, blindfolded and gagged, but her kidnapper was never brought to trial and the case was dropped.[621]
- Veruska Ramirez, former Miss Venezuela, kidnapped in 2003 and released three hours later after signing fifteen autographs for her captors.[622]
- David Letterman: In 2005, FBI agents and Montana authorities foiled a kidnapping of Letterman's son from his Choteau, Montana home.[623]
- Riddick Bowe (boxer): Former world heavyweight champion kidnapped his estranged wife, Judy, and their five children from North Carolina in February 1998,[624] hoping to reconcile his marriage. Police captured Bowe in South Hill, Virginia, freeing his family.
- Cesar Rosas: Member of Los Lobos whose wife, Sandra, was kidnapped on 23 October 1999 and later found dead.[625] Gabriel Gómez was accused and sentenced for her kidnapping and murder.
- Daryush Shokof: The artist-filmmaker was kidnapped after he screened his films Iran Zendan and Hitler's Grave that portrayed the horrible situations of Iranian Political Prisoners in Iran and under the Islamic republic Regime of Iran in Berlin, Germany. He said he was held by Arabic speaking men for 12 days and was released after agreeing not to publicize the films. He was later thrown into the Rhine river in Cologne, Germany. The German Police debates the validity of the incident up to this date.[626][627]
- Frank Sinatra Jr. (1963), son of Frank Sinatra, was kidnapped[628] by Barry Keenan and Joe Amsler and released after a ransom of $240,000 was paid a few days later. Most of the ransom money was recovered.
- Johnny Tapia: The world boxing champion saw his mother raped and kidnapped when he was 8 years old.[629] He was hiding when he witnessed the assault. His mother's body was found on a road days later.
- Thalía: The Mexican diva's sisters, Ernestina Sodi and actress Laura Zapata, were kidnapped, but later both released alive.[630]
- Benedict Cumberbatch and two acquaintances were kidnapped by six armed men in South Africa in 2005 while filming the miniseries To the End of the Earth. The trio were released unharmed shortly thereafter.[631]
- Rubén Omar Romano, Argentine soccer coach, was kidnapped in Mexico on 19 July 2005[632] and rescued two months later.
- Steven Adler (42), former Guns N' Roses drummer was kidnapped by his brother Jamie Adler on 22 March 2007 and taken to Los Angeles, California[633] and held and released after 30 days in an attempt to get him off drugs.
- Thiago da Silva (25), Brazilian footballer who was kidnapped in Rio de Janeiro on 24 September 2008 and while trying to escape was shot multiple times which caused him to die six days later.[634]
- Duffy (25), whose real name is "Aimee Anne Duffy" had claimed that in 2010 that she had been kidnapped,[635] raped, and drugged, and managed to escape. She has not revealed the kidnappers' identities or where this took place.
- Alex Band: Singer-songwriter best known as the guitarist for The Calling, Band was reportedly robbed, beaten and then abandoned near some train tracks by two unidentified assailants on 18 August 2013. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was treated and later released.[636]
- Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, son of the Hong Kong tycoon, Li Ka Shing: Kidnapped by Cheung Chi Keung, AKA "Big Spender".[637] He was released after the world record payment of a HK$1,000,000,000 (US$134,000,000) ransom. Cheung was later captured and executed in Guangzhou in 2000.
- Daisy McCrackin (37), was kidnapped on 3 May 2017 while in Los Angeles and held hostage in her own car while be driven around. McCrackin later escaped and her kidnappers are now facing charges.[638][639]
- Einár: Swedish rapper who was kidnapped by gang members associated with rival rapper Yasin in April 2020. He was later released, but was killed the following year when he was scheduled to testify in the case.[640]
- A man from Harlow was attempting to kidnap and murder English television presenter, author and model Holly Willoughby (42), but his plan was foiled as he was arrested on 4 October 2023.[641]
Faked kidnappings
- Tawana Brawley, African-American teenager who claimed in November 1987 that she had been abducted, held prisoner and gang-raped by a group of four white men over a four-day period. A grand jury ruled that Brawley had fabricated her story and one of the men accused successfully sued her for defamation.[642]
- Jules Croiset, Dutch actor who faked being kidnapped by neo-Nazis in 1987 in order to stir enough outrage to prevent a play he considered to be antisemitic from being performed.[643]
- Dar Heatherington, Alberta city councillor who claimed to have been abducted in Montana.[644]
- Jennifer Wilbanks, American woman who alleged that she was kidnapped as an excuse for her running away from her own wedding in late April 2005, in the Runaway bride case.[645]
- Quinn Gray, resident of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida who disappeared over Labor Day weekend in 2009 and left a ransom note behind demanding $50,000 for her return. Was found four days later and revealed to have used the hoax for extortion in collusion with her mister, Jasmin Osmanovic. Osmanivoc pleaded guilty, Gray no contest; both sentenced to probation with fines to repay the cost of the investigation.[646][647][648][649]
- Somália, Brazilian footballer who falsely claimed in 2011 that he had been kidnapped. It was proved that he was running late for a training session and tried to avoid a 40% wage cut for tardiness.[650]
- Sherri Papini, California woman whose 2016 disappearance became a national news story, later arrested and accused of faking her abduction.[651]
Suspected kidnappings
- Helen Brach, millionaire owner of a candy company; an informant claimed she was kidnapped after leaving the Mayo Clinic, then murdered; her remains have never been located.[652]
- Hassani Campbell, 5-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, went missing in Oakland, California on 10 August 2009. Hassani's foster father, Louis Ross, said he left Hassani waiting at the back of the shoe store where Hassani's aunt, Jennifer Campbell, worked while he went around to the front of the store with Hassani's younger sister.[653]
- Haleigh Cummings, the child, according to news reports from CNN and other major television news sources, was being watched by the girlfriend, later wife, of her father, Ronald Cummings, when she disappeared from her mobile home in Satsuma, Florida in February 2009. Two persons of interest in the still unsolved kidnapping were implicated in a drug sting in January 2010, renewing interest in the case.[654]
- Jimmy Hoffa, disappeared and declared legally dead.[655] Several rumors and theories, including an alleged kidnapping, surfaced in later years.
- Aimee Semple McPherson, evangelist who maintained she was kidnapped and held for ransom from 18 May through 23 June 1926 until she escaped. A grand jury inquiry instead charged her with fabricating it. Charges against McPherson were dropped for lack of evidence. No indictments against her described kidnappers were pursued.[656][657][658][659][660][661]
- Cédrika Provencher, 10-year-old girl from Trois-Rivières, Canada went missing on 31 July 2007. Her remains were discovered on 11 December 2015.[662]
- Dru Sjodin, American college student, seems to have been abducted on 22 November 2003, and was found dead on 17 April 2004.[663]
Kidnapping in lieu of extradition
- See main article: Extradition and abduction
- Humberto Álvarez Machaín, from Mexico to the United States by locals hired by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 1990.[664]
- Jabez Balfour, from Argentina to the United Kingdom in 1895.[665]
- Ronnie Biggs, from Brazil to the United Kingdom by independent bounty hunters in 1981.[666]
- Adolf Eichmann, from Argentina to Israel in 1960.[667]
- Mir Aimal Kansi, from Pakistan to the United States in 1997.[668]
- Andrew Luster, from Mexico to the United States by Duane Chapman ("Dog the Bounty Hunter") in 2003.[669]
- Martin Mubanga, from Zambia to Guantanamo Bay by the United States in 2002.[670]
- Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, from Italy to Egypt by the CIA in 2005.[671]
- Morton Sobell, from Mexico to the United States in 1950.[672]
- Mordechai Vanunu, from Italy to Israel in 1986.[673]
Mass kidnappings
- 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping: 26 children on a school bus and the bus driver were held in a buried moving van, in a quarry.[674]
- 2010 Kurram agency mass kidnapping: 60 people were taken from the Kurram Tribunial Agency in Pakistan by militants dressed as police officers.[675][676]
- 2014 Chibok kidnapping: More than 200 schoolgirls were taken from their school during an exam. The Boko Haram terrorist group is suspected to have perpetrated the attack.[677]
- 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping: 43 male students from a rural school in Mexico were planning to go to a protest in Mexico City when they were shot at by police and taken into custody.[678][679]
- 2015 Malari kidnapping: 40 boys and young men were kidnapped by Boko Haram.[680]
- 2018 Dapchi kidnapping: 110 schoolchildren from their school were kidnapped by Boko Haram.[681]
- 2020 Kankara kidnapping: 334 schoolchildren from their school were kidnapped by a criminal gang.[682]
- 2021 Kagara kidnapping: 27 schoolchildren from their school were kidnapped and one killed, three members of the school's staff and 12 of their relatives were also abducted.[683]
- 2021 Jangebe kidnapping: 279 schoolchildren from their school were kidnapped by armed bandits in Jangebe.[684]
- 2021 Afaka kidnapping: 39 students (23 females and 16 males) were kidnapped by armed bandits in Afaka.[685]
- 2021 Haitian missionary kidnappings: 17 Christian missionaries, most from America, one from Canada, were kidnapped for ransom by members of the 400 Mawozo gang.[686]
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