Kayla Unbehaun found six years after disappearing thanks to Netflix show

The girl's mother kidnapped her when she was nine years old. A store owner stumbled upon her in North Carolina after watching “Unsolved Mysteries.”

A la izquierda, imagen de Kayla Unbehaun en el momento de su desaparición en 2017; a la derecha, recreación digital de cómo se vería Kayla con 14 años.

Published by

Rosana Rábago Sainz

16 de mayo, 2023

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A store owner in North Carolina has found little Kayla Unbehaun. Six years after her mother Heather abducted the nine-year-old girl, the owner of a mall store found her.

Last minute! NCMEC is pleased to share that Kayla Unbehaun has been found safe in North Carolina! Kayla was only 9 years old when she was abducted by her non-custodial mother, Heather Unbehaun of South Elgin, Illinois on July 5, 2017. Ryan, Kayla's father, asked NCMEC to share this statement on his behalf: "I'm so glad Kayla is home safe. I want to thank @ElginPDFD, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and all the law enforcement agencies that assisted in her case. We ask for privacy as we get to know each other again and navigate this new beginning."

The surprising part of the story is how the clerk located Kayla. It did so thanks to

Unsolved mysteries

the Netflix show dedicated to investigating unsolved cases. The saleswoman assured that she had seen the chapter dedicated to the nine-year-old girl. Days later, she saw a young woman who looked like her at a mall in Asheville, North Carolina, 684 miles from where the girl disappeared six years ago.

She couldn't get the resemblance out of her head and decided to alert the authorities who intervened and discovered that indeed the girl, now 15, was Kayla. She is now with her father, who has been searching for her for six years while her mother, Heather, is in custody.