How Jayme Closs, Elizabeth Smart, Jaycee Dugard and Others Survived Headline-Making Abductions

Mar. 15, 2025

Elizabeth Smart discuses “Elizabeth Smart: Autobiography” with the Build Series at Build Studio on November 10, 2017 in New York City.Photo:Roy Rochlin/Getty

Roy Rochlin/Getty

A child isabducted or goes missingin the U.S. every 40 seconds.

01of 11Jayme ClossCourtesy Barron County SheriffOn Oct. 15, 2018, then-13-year-old Closs' parents were fatally shot in her Barron, Wisc., home before the killer bound her with duct tape, placed her in the trunk of his vehicle and drove off.She was held captive for nearly three months in a remote cabin about 70 miles north of her home with her abductor, 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson.On Jan. 10, 2019, after her captor told her he was leaving the cabin for five or six hours, Closs escaped and summoned the help of a woman who was walking her dog. The woman then took her to a neighbor’s house, and the neighbor dialed 911.“Hi, I have a young lady at my house right now and she says her name is Jayme Closs,” the neighbor told the dispatcher. Soon after, Closs was rescued.Patterson was arrestedand received two consecutive life sentences without the chance of parole in May 2019.

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Jayme Closs

Courtesy Barron County Sheriff

On Oct. 15, 2018, then-13-year-old Closs' parents were fatally shot in her Barron, Wisc., home before the killer bound her with duct tape, placed her in the trunk of his vehicle and drove off.

She was held captive for nearly three months in a remote cabin about 70 miles north of her home with her abductor, 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson.

On Jan. 10, 2019, after her captor told her he was leaving the cabin for five or six hours, Closs escaped and summoned the help of a woman who was walking her dog. The woman then took her to a neighbor’s house, and the neighbor dialed 911.

“Hi, I have a young lady at my house right now and she says her name is Jayme Closs,” the neighbor told the dispatcher. Soon after, Closs was rescued.

Patterson was arrestedand received two consecutive life sentences without the chance of parole in May 2019.

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Cleveland Kidnapping Survivors

Tony Dejak/AP

Between August 2002 and April 2004, three young women —Amanda Berry, then 17;Michelle Knight(who has since changed her name to Lily Rose Lee), then 21; andGina DeJesus, then 14 —went missing in Cleveland.

All three survivors were reunited with their families. Lee has written two books since the experience. Berry advocates for finding missing people and hosts a daily news segment on Cleveland’s Fox 8. “I hope we get [the faces of] missing people out there and get people looking at them a second time, a third time, and looking at their name,” Berry told PEOPLE in 2019. “It’s kind of the small things that makes a big difference.”

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Colleen Stan, “The Girl in the Box”

Greg Barnette/The Record Searchlight/AP

Within hours, Hooker put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. He bound and gagged her before placing a homemade wooden box over her head.

Stan was locked in a coffinlike box for 23 hours a day underneath the couple’s bed for seven years. She was removed from the box only to be repeatedly raped and tortured.

Stan was told that a group called “The Company” would kill her if she escaped, and she was made to sign a slave contract. It was her fear of “The Company” that kept Stan from seeking help, even when Hooker allowed her to visit her family at one point during her captivity.

In 1983, Stan was allowed to leave the house and get a job as a motel maid; she eventually called Hooker to tell him she was leaving and going home.

He was sentenced to 104 years in prison, where he remains today. In September 2016, Stan opened up about her experience, saying she has lived a happy life since. “Your life is just kinda in limbo when you’re in captivity, and once you get that freedom back and you have that choice again, it’s just like the gates open,” she told PEOPLE. “And you just run for it.”

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Katie Beers

Frank Eltman/AP

Esposito held Beers in a tiny underground bunker for 16 days. After Esposito — who had a friendly relationship with Beers prior to the kidnapping — was questioned, he eventually confessed and led police to the bunker.

After she was found, she was placed with a foster family; Beers has said she “[owes] them my life.”

Of her ordeal, she said: “You never fully recover. It’s with me every day, but it’s something I’ve learned to cope with.”

On Sept. 4, 2013, Espositodied inside his cellat Sing Sing prison in Ossining, N.Y., at age 64.

05of 11Kala BrownDr. Phil/CBSOn Nov. 3, 2016, 30-year-old Kala Brown, a South Carolina woman, wasfound chained in a metal storage containerafter she had been missing for nearly three months. She had been located on the property of Todd Kohlhepp, a registered sex offender who was then charged with her kidnapping.The connection between Brown and Kohlhepp wasn’t random: She and her boyfriend, Charlie Carver, who disappeared around the same time as her, had been hired to do odd jobs for him.In a 2017Dr. Philinterviewfollowing her rescue, Brown said Kohlhepp shot Carver in front of her, killing him, before he forced her into the storage locker. “I always feel like I should have known better,“she said of her captivity, “but there was really no way I could’ve.“The discovery of Brown led authorities toidentify Kohlhepp as a serial killer. He subsequentlypleaded guiltyto seven murders over a 13-year period and is serving life in prison.

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Kala Brown

Dr. Phil/CBS

On Nov. 3, 2016, 30-year-old Kala Brown, a South Carolina woman, wasfound chained in a metal storage containerafter she had been missing for nearly three months. She had been located on the property of Todd Kohlhepp, a registered sex offender who was then charged with her kidnapping.

The connection between Brown and Kohlhepp wasn’t random: She and her boyfriend, Charlie Carver, who disappeared around the same time as her, had been hired to do odd jobs for him.In a 2017Dr. Philinterviewfollowing her rescue, Brown said Kohlhepp shot Carver in front of her, killing him, before he forced her into the storage locker. “I always feel like I should have known better,“she said of her captivity, “but there was really no way I could’ve.”

The discovery of Brown led authorities toidentify Kohlhepp as a serial killer. He subsequentlypleaded guiltyto seven murders over a 13-year period and is serving life in prison.

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Elizabeth Smart

Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images

While 14-year-oldElizabeth Smartwas in bed at her Salt Lake City home, Brian David Mitchell broke in and abducted her during the early hours of June 5, 2002. She would be held captive and raped repeatedly for the next nine months.

Smart shared the bedroom with her sister, Mary Katherine Smart: She witnessed the abduction and pretended to be asleep but woke her parents up later when she felt it was safe to do so.

Mitchell and Smart were eventually found in Sandy, Utah. Mitchell was convicted on kidnapping charges and sentenced to life in prison in 2010. His wife, Wanda Barzee, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for her role in the kidnapping.

In the years since the ordeal, Smart hasreclaimed her lifeas an inspirational speaker, author and advocate. She is themother of three children.

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Elizabeth Thomas

TBI

Cumminsallegedly “groomed” Thomasand earned her trust before the alleged abduction.

Her father, Anthony Thomas, told PEOPLE in March 2017 thatElizabeth grew “dependant"on Cummins. In addition to homework help, Anthony said Cummins “[gave] her money, bought a microwave so she would heat food up in his room [and] try and get her out of trouble.”

In late April 2017, the pair was discovered in a remote California cabinafter a tipster became suspiciousand alerted authorities.

In 2019, Cummins pleaded guilty to multiple offenses and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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Alicia Kozakiewicz

The Arizona Republic/John Samora/AP

In 2001, 13-year-oldAlicia Kozakiewiczwas a frequent user of internet chatrooms. In one, she met someone she assumed was a boy her age who shared her interests.

Today, she works to educate people on the dangers of the internet.

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Jaycee Dugard

Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic

During that time, she was handcuffed, locked in rooms and forced to “dress up” for Garrido, a self-styled evangelist to whom she bore two daughters.

In 2009, Garrido took Dugard’s two daughters to a police office at the University of California, Berkeley, asking permission to distribute religious flyers. After observing odd behavior from both Garrido and the girls, campus police ran a background check and learned he was a registered sex offender.

His parole officer also discovered the two girls and young woman with Garrido were Dugard and her two children.

Soon after, Garrido was arrested, and Dugard and her daughters were reunited with her family. She’s written two books about her past.

“When I look in the mirror now,I don’t see the ugly broken child I wasand who Phillip tried his best to create because he thought that was beautiful,” she told PEOPLE in July 2016. “No, I don’t see her. I just simply see the beauty in me.”

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AP

Devlin was sentenced to life in prison.

11of 11Jordan DinsmoreCourtesy Jordan DinsmoreIt was late at night in July 2017, and then-20-year-oldJordan Dinsmorehad just pulled into the parking lot at her South Carolina apartment complex after her shift at a local restaurant. Three men allegedly approached the college student with guns and threatened to shoot her if she didn’t drive them to an ATM; her alleged captors couldn’t drive a stick shift vehicle.She knew she had to do something when they allegedly told her they were going to sexually assault her. With her seatbelt already unfastened, she opened her door, and threw herself out of the car, which was traveling at around 35 miles an hour. Dinsmore said she was inspired to fight for her life because of her mother, who was attacked as a college student.

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Jordan Dinsmore

Courtesy Jordan Dinsmore

It was late at night in July 2017, and then-20-year-oldJordan Dinsmorehad just pulled into the parking lot at her South Carolina apartment complex after her shift at a local restaurant. Three men allegedly approached the college student with guns and threatened to shoot her if she didn’t drive them to an ATM; her alleged captors couldn’t drive a stick shift vehicle.

She knew she had to do something when they allegedly told her they were going to sexually assault her. With her seatbelt already unfastened, she opened her door, and threw herself out of the car, which was traveling at around 35 miles an hour. Dinsmore said she was inspired to fight for her life because of her mother, who was attacked as a college student.

source: people.com