He was featured in a Netflix show called ‘Unsolved Mysteries’, featuring cases related to family abductions. However, less than a year after his appearance on the show, the 15-year-old from Illinois was found alive in North Carolina on May 18.
Kayla, who was allegedly abducted by her mother six years ago, was seen by a man who called police, recognizing the girl from ‘published media’, according to a report Guardian, The child’s father, Ryan Iskerka, said in a statement released by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, “I am overjoyed that Kayla is home safe.” “We ask for privacy as we get to know each other again and navigate this new beginning.”
what was the matter
The 9-year-old was last seen after the Fourth of July parade in 2017, when her mother was packing her belongings on top of a car, according to a report Washington Post,
According to family members, Heather Unbehoun and her daughter, Kayla Unbehoun, then left the parade site in a Chicago suburb for a camping trip in Wisconsin. The next day, he has a court-ordered parenting handoff with Kayla’s father.
But the couple never showed up, starting a six-year search for Kayla that ended Saturday when an employee of a thrift store in Asheville, NC, spotted her with her mother and alerted authorities.
“It turned out that all of Heather’s social media had been canceled and her phone was turned off,” Ischerka explained on a GoFundMe page after a missing persons report was filed.
Anbehoun missed a court date a few weeks ago. “His lawyer had not spoken to him for several days, he was unaware of what had happened and was very worried,” Iskerka explained.
According to NBC ChicagoKane County, Illinois prosecutors obtained an arrest warrant for Anbehoun shortly after he and Kayla went missing.
The disappearance was one of several alleged family abduction cases covered in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries in November of last year.
What will happen to Kayla and her mother now?
After the mother, who had only visitation rights at the time, fled with her daughter, the grieving father missed key moments in Kayla’s life and was never able to give his daughter a birthday present.
Ryan decides to write letters to Kayla to tell her how much he misses her every day.
According to a report, she had uploaded the letter to the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, along with digital photographs of what her daughter would look like now. mirror Report.
,I hope you enjoyed your birthday and I want you to know that I love you very much and so does the rest of your family. We all miss you so much and think about you every day. I want you to know that your absence has been the most difficult test of my life so far.
(Image: Twitter @Findourmissing_)
My heart shattered into a million pieces when I found out you were gone. Luckily I have the love and support of God and our family so I managed to make it through. But I want nothing more than to have you back in my life. We all want you back in our lives. I think about you all day, every day. I pray every day for you and your mother that you are safe and that you will be back in my life soon. There are many other people who are praying for you.”
Anbehoun was apprehended by Asheville police on Saturday and was to be extradited to Illinois. According to NBC, it was unknown whether he had an attorney.
NBC said Kayla was in the custody of North Carolina social services and was about to be reunited with her family in Illinois.
family abduction
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, family abduction occurs when a child is “wrongfully kept, or denied custody or visitation rights, by a parent or other family member to another person.” goes”. Guardian,
In 2020 in the US, about 5% of the nearly 30,000 cases reported to the center were family abductions. In the same year, family abductions were claimed to account for more than 60% of Amber Alerts, which are emergency communications sent to assist in locating missing people, usually children.