The young Kayla Unbehaun, who was nine years old when she was last seen in July 2017, was found alive in the state of North Carolina thanks to a Netflix series.
The teenager, now 15 years old, disappeared years ago in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, when her own mother kidnapped her after a jury removed her custody.
Ubenhaun was found in Asheville, North Carolina, thanks to the fact that her kidnapping was broadcast through the popular Netflix series ‘Unsolved Mysteries’, which deals with various topics such as crimes and disappearances.
According to the medium CNNa person who was in the same store that Ubenhaun saw the series and recognized the young woman, alerting the store staff and contacting the authorities.
“That person tipped off a store clerk, who then called the police,” Asheville Police Department spokeswoman Samantha Booth said.
After this, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) confirmed the discovery of the minor, this after the father notified them that it was his daughter who had disappeared since 2017.
The young woman and her father, Ryan Iserka, are already reunited in Illinois, something for which the man is very grateful to the authorities.
In the same way, he thanked those followers of the Facebook page “Bring Kayla home”, where the NCMEC has requested help and published a photograph of what the minor could look like after years of disappearance.
“They helped keep her story alive and were instrumental in spreading awareness. We ask for privacy as we get to know each other again and navigate this new beginning,” Kayla’s father told NCMEC.
For her part, the young woman’s mother, Heather Unbehaun, was arrested on charges of kidnapping her daughter. After appearing in court, a judge set her on $250,000 bond before she was taken back to Illinois, where she was released on bail Tuesday.
The authorities indicated that Heather, 40, must appear again in court on July 11,
Kayla’s Kidnapping
Kayla’s father came to pick her up at her mother’s house after a camping trip, but no one was home. After that, he tried to call the woman, who had her cell phone turned off and had deleted all her social networks from her.
Initially, it was considered a missing person case, but a few weeks later, police issued an arrest warrant for Heather, who was suspected of kidnapping the child and fleeing the state.
The woman did this after having a legal battle with Iserka and losing custody of Kayla.
