Girl missing for six years found alive and well after featuring in true crime Netflix show
Police were tipped of about Kayla Unbehaun when a member of the public recognised her mother after seeing her profiled on TV.
A missing girl has finally been found after six years thanks to numerous true crime documentaries on platforms like Netflix and Peacock.
Kayla Unbehaun was reported missing from her Illinois hometown on July 4, 2017, when she was only nine-years-old.
In November last year, the disappearance was among several alleged family abduction cases discussed in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix.
Kayla was with her mother, Heather Unbehaun, when she disappeared, and was scheduled to be returned to her father, Ryan Iskerka, as part of her parents custody agreement on July 5, 2017.
A court had ordered that Iskerka be given full custody of the girl in the weeks prior to the pair going missing.
But Heather, 40, never gave her daughter back, sparking a huge investigation that remained unsolved for six years.
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The case gained significant coverage in the US, with Kayla being profiled in Vanished: The Missing Persons Project on Peacock, and the well-known Netflix series Unsolved Mysteries.
Kayla was last seen with her mother on July 4, at an Independence Day parade in Wheaton, Illinois.
Heather was caught by police when a member of the public identified her from “published media” about the case, years after the mother and daughter seemed to vanish into thin air.
The person reported Heather’s whereabouts, a clothing shop in Asheville, North Carolina, in May this year.
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The Netflix series Unsolved Mysteries recounted how shortly after the disappearance, Heather’s phone had been shut off and her social media profiles deactivated.
Family members believed she had taken her daughter camping in Wisconsin.
Iskerka hired a private investigator to conduct a search for Kayla, but the probe returned no significant leads.
Police also exhausted all lines of enquiry, finding that no one had been in contact with either Heather or Kayla from the day they vanished.
Details about where Heather took Kayla, or what happened in the years they flew under the radar, have not been made public.
Thankfully, Kayla was found safe and sound by investigators. Her mother was arrested and charged with kidnapping.
"I'm overjoyed that Kayla is home safe," Kayla's father said in a statement at the time, released by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children - a US charity that provides assistance for family members with a missing, exploited, or recovered child.
He continued: “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.
"We ask for privacy as we get to know each other again and navigate this new beginning.”
A spokesperson for the agency said the case proves it takes “just one set of eyes to be a hero.”