Missing Girl Who Appeared on Netflix Series Found After 6 Years

A missing child kidnapped six years ago has been found safe and well after someone recognized her alleged abductor from a media appeal.

Kayla Unbehaun was just 9 when she was allegedly nabbed by her non-custodial mother Heather Unbehaun back in 2017 in Wheaton, Illinois, not far from her home in South Elgin. Now a 15-year-old, she was finally found in North Carolina after a bystander spotted her mom at a Plato’s Closet store in Asheville and called the police on Saturday, NBC 5 Chicago reported.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there were 359,094 reports of missing children in 2022—although some of those numbers are repeat entries for children who ran away multiple times.

The non-profit corporation says 98 percent of cases involved children who ran away, or who were abducted by a family member. Amber alerts often help to mobilize the public’s help to enable police to quickly find missing children, but in rare cases, as with Kayla Unbehaun, the children remain missing for much longer.

Heather Unbehaun was arrested and is expected to be extradited to Illinois to face charges, while Kayla Unbehaun was placed with the North Carolina Division of Social Services, according to NBC 5. She will reportedly be reunited with her family and returned to Illinois.

The alarm was first raised over her disappearance by the child’s father, Ryan Iskerka, who arrived to collect her from a home in Wheaton on July 5, 2017. But he reportedly discovered that his ex-partner had fled with their daughter the day before and he and the police have been looking for her ever since.

Just last month, an age-progression image of what Kayla Unbehaun might look like now was shared online.

The Kane County State’s Attorney’s office issued a kidnapping warrant for mom Heather Unbehaun, and over the years there have been various media appeals about the case.

Most recently, the Netflix series “Unsolved Mysteries” featured Kayla Unbehaun’s story in an episode that first aired on the streaming site in November 2022. It is unclear whether the witness who alerted police at the weekend had seen the show, but Asheville police spokeswoman Samantha Booth confirmed to NBC 5 that she had recognised the alleged kidnapper after seeing her before in “published media.”

Dad Ryan Iskerka said he was “overjoyed” to learn he would soon have his daughter back in his life. But he also acknowledged the pair would need to get to know one another again after missing out on so much of her childhood.

Releasing a statement through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), he said: “I’m overjoyed that Kayla is home safe. I want to thank the South Elgin Police Department, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and all of the law enforcement agencies who assisted with her case. I also want to thank all of the followers on the “Bring Kayla Home” Facebook page, who 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.”

Newsweek has reached out to NCMEC and Asheville Police Department by email for further information and comment.