Ryan and Heather Unbehaun are the parents of Kayla Unbehaun, a young girl abducted in Illinois six years ago.
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Kayla Unbehaun was abducted by her mother Heather Unbehaun on July 4, 2017. A search was launched to find the kidnapped child, but the trail went cold for years.
Over the years, Kayla’s father Ryan had continued to promote his daughter’s case on the Facebook page “Bring Kayla Home”.
On 6 January 2023, he posted a birthday message to his missing daughter and spoke of his hopes that they would be reunited soon.
“Happy 15th birthday, Kayla. I love you and miss you so much. I can’t wait for the day that I get to see you again, hoping each day I wake up will be the day,” he said.
(NCMEC)
Almost six years after she went missing, a chance sighting more than 600 miles away in North Carolina led to authorities finally finding the missing child.
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According to WSOC, an unidentified store owner in Asheville spotted Kayla, now 15, in a local shopping centre and recognised her from the Netflix show.
Heather Unbehaun was arrested on Saturday and is being held on a $250,000 bond pending extradition, according to Buncombe County, North Carolina, Deputy Clerk Cory Alexander, who spoke to CNN on Tuesday, May 16 2023.
Specific charges were not listed, but she was given a court date of July 11, 2023, according to Alexander.
The NCMEC – which had posted alerts to try to find Kayla over the past five-plus years – shared a message from Kayla’s father celebrating the news that his daughter had been found safe.
“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,” he said.
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