Nine-year-old girl kidnapped by her own mother

Six years later, her father found her thanks to Netflix

On July 4, 2017, nine-year-old Kayla Unbehaun was visiting her mother, Heather. Ryan Iskerka, the girl's father, was waiting for her return the next day, but her mother took her daughter away in an unknown direction. The girl was found only six years later thanks to the series on Netflix.

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Kayla Unbehaun, a blue-eyed girl with dark blond hair, was born on January 5, 2008 in a suburb of Chicago. Her parents, Ryan Iskerka and Heather Unbehaun, dated for five years and planned to get married, but after the birth of their daughter, Heather abruptly broke off relations with Ryan. Ryan had a hard time breaking up: he always dreamed of being a father and wanted to be close to his daughter, but Heather refused to date him.

“As a young father, I didn’t know exactly what my rights were,” later said Ryan . “I just wanted to see my daughter more often. It took a few years before I started taking the first steps to get parental rights.” Ryan's new girlfriend, Liz, helped him get the opportunity to see the child. She was already going through a divorce and was raising two daughters from a previous marriage. With her help, Ryan agreed with Heather that he would see his daughter once every two weeks, and in 2012 the court confirmed the right of the father to visit his daughter.

In 2014, Ryan and Liz got married, Kayla was next to her father at the ceremony. But after the wedding, the relationship between Ryan and Heather deteriorated even more. Without warning Ryan, Heather took her daughter and moved to Georgia. Ryan himself found out about this a few days after a telephone conversation with Kayla.

War for daughter

At first, Ryan was not very worried: he was able to negotiate with Heather so that she would allow him to see his daughter during the summer and winter holidays. But Heather began to forbid Kayla to visit her father. All this time, the former partners tried to sue each other.

Heather made many accusations against Ryan's new family and stated that she could not trust him with her daughter. However, she did not provide evidence. Ryan demanded the opportunity to see the child, and also assured that Kayla had health problems that Heather did not pay attention to. According to him, the mother did not take the girl to the dentist and she urgently needed to remove several rotten teeth.

Ryan managed to convince the court to give him the authority to medically care for Kayla. Heather and her daughter were ordered to return to Illinois. After their return, Ryan was again granted the right to see his daughter once every two weeks. Heather tried to obstruct the decision of the court: she brought Kayla later than the appointed time and picked up as early as possible. In addition, she turned the girl against her father.

One day, Ryan found 300 messages on his daughter's phone in which Heather insulted him in every possible way. Ryan decided to show this correspondence in court. After seeing the messages, the judge agreed to grant Ryan full custody of the child. Now Heather could only see her daughter during dates and tried to dispute this.

Kayla's kidnapping

Kayla's custody trial dragged on for five years but never ended.

On Tuesday, July 4, 2017, Heather once again picked up Kayla and they went to the city's Independence Day party. The next evening, Ryan came to pick up Kayla at Heather's parents' house. On the threshold he was met by her grandfather. With a forced smile, he said that Kayla and Heather had gone camping in Wisconsin and slammed the door in Ryan's face. Ryan became suspicious and called the police, but that didn't help. Heather's parents repeated the same thing.

Kayla's next custody hearing was scheduled for July 7, but Heather never showed up. Ryan filed a missing persons report and an investigation began. After some time , it turned out that Heather stopped communicating: her phone was unavailable, and her social media accounts remained offline. According to police interviews, she was last seen stacking things on top of her car. a warrant for the arrest of Heather The police issued only on July 28, and during this time she managed to cover her tracks. The police's only lead, a 2000 Toyota Camry, was missed: Heather managed to sell the car in Georgia.

While the police were looking for new leads, Ryan began his campaign to find Kayla. He created page a Facebook in which he encouraged everyone who cares to share his story, and led a crowdfunding fundraiser on the GoFundMe resource .

“My family and I are asking for financial support from our friends to help Kayla and her mother return home. These funds will be used to hire a private detective and any additional costs associated with finding them and their health and safety once they are found,” he wrote .

However, Kayla was found only six years later thanks to the series on Netflix.

"Unsolved Mysteries"

In November 2022, a new episode of the popular US crime show Unsolved Mysteries was released on Netflix. The issue was dedicated to children who were abducted by their parents. At the end of the series, posters created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) were shown asking for any information about them. A photo of Kayla at the age of nine came along with an image of what she might have looked like as a teenager.

Six months later, the police department in the small town of Asheville, North Carolina, received a call. One of the employees of the Plato's Closet thrift store recognized Heather and informed the administrator about this, who contacted the police. And there they were able to confirm that Heather and the missing Kayla were indeed in the store.

On May 13, the police detained Heather. She was charged with kidnapping. The judge ruled that Heather cannot come closer than 300 meters to Ryan's house. She posted a $25,000 bail and is now at large without the right to leave the state. Under Illinois law, Heather can face one to three years in prison.

Asheville Police Lieutenant Jonathan Brown called the case "unique". He was amazed that Kayla's mother was able to hide for so many years. But that wasn't the case in Heather's case.” Fifteen-year-old Kayla returned to live with her father. What happened in her life all these years is unknown. The girl herself did not comment, and her father wrote only that he was very happy to see Kayla again and now she is safe.