Kidnapping is a terrible crime that affects absolutely everyone, from children to adults, men and women, boys and girls. Fortunately, not all kidnapping stories end tragically. Let's hope that the stories of these saved people and kind people who helped them find freedom will inspire us the next time the unthinkable happens.

10. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight (rescued May 6, 2013)

The nightmare for these three girls began in 2002 when Michelle Knight disappeared in Cleveland at the age of 21. A year later, 16-year-old Amanda Berry disappeared, followed by 14-year-old Gina Dehesus in 2004. Over the course of nearly ten years, the captives have become pregnant many times, resulting in at least one surviving child and multiple miscarriages. The women were sought after through programs such as America's Most Wanted, but remained prisoners of the mentally ill man.

Despite being chained and tied with ropes at various times in their imprisonment, the possibility of escape eventually came about only some time ago. After their kidnapper, Ariel Castro, left the house that day, Berry called for help, and she managed to attract the attention of heroic neighbors Angel Cordero and Charles Ramsey, who entered into the house through the front door. Berry then told Ramsey that she and her child were being held in the house by force. After that, the two heroes kicked a hole in the bottom of the outer door, allowing Berry to climb outside with his daughter. The freed woman immediately went to the house of another neighbor and called the emergency services. Then the police arrived, entered the house, and released two other captured women. Legal proceedings against Castro are still ongoing.

9.Jaycee Lee Dugard (rescued August 26, 2009)


On June 10, 1991, 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, California, while walking from home to a school bus stop. Despite extensive searches for the missing girl, she managed to get her freedom only eighteen years later.

Progress in this kidnapping case only came about when, in August 2009, a convicted sex maniac named Phillip Craig Garrido visited the UC Berkeley campus accompanied by two girls, one of whom was later recognized as Dugard. Their strange behavior attracted unwanted attention, which led to Garrido and his wife Nancy being arrested for kidnapping and other charges. Ultimately, the pair of criminals pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting Dugard, Philip received 431 years in prison, and his wife received a relatively lenient sentence of 36 years in prison. Dugard later wrote a book, A Stolen Life: A Memoir, about what she had to move, which you can buy to help the victim and her family.

8. Natascha Maria Kampusch (released from captivity on August 23, 2006)


Natasha Maria Kampush was abducted on March 2, 1998, at the age of 10. Her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, kept Kampusch in a secret cellar for over eight years. The basement entrance was hidden behind a wardrobe. The small cellar had a concrete door lined with steel. In addition, the soundproofed room had no windows, making it even more difficult to escape.

However, she finally escaped on August 23, 2006, when her abductor temporarily "freed" her from the basement to clean and vacuum his BMW 850i in the garden. She took the opportunity to run to a neighbor who called the police. The attention of the media later led to her signing with the Austrian channel Puls 4, and in 2008 she became the host of her own talk show. In 2009, she also became the new face of PETA Austria, and wrote an autobiography entitled 3,096 Days, which was published in September 2010.

As for her captor, the police chased him, which ended with him committing suicide by jumping in front of a moving train near Vienna Northern Station.

7. Elizabeth Smart (found alive on March 12, 2003)


On June 5, 2002, Brian David Mitchell, armed with a knife, broke into Elizabeth Smart's home and kidnapped her from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah. At that time she was only 14 years old. An extensive search and investigation of the kidnapping was carried out, and it also received television coverage on America's Most Wanted, which showed a composite of the abductor. The drawing was recognized by the Mitchell family, who provided the police with modern photographs of Mitchell. Then on March 12, 2003, he was seen traveling with Elizabeth Smart, dressed in a gray wig, dark glasses, and veil, and Wanda Ileen Barzee in Sandy, Utah. They were spotted by a biker who had heard of the kidnapping on America's Most Wanted the night before. The biker reported to the police, who identified Smart during interrogation. She was quickly reunited with her family.

Mitchell and Barzi were taken into custody as kidnapping suspects and were ultimately convicted. On August 31, Mitchell was transferred to federal prison to serve a life sentence for his crimes. The kidnapping of Elizabeth and her return to normal life became the topic television film and a published book.

6. Katie Beers (found alive on January 13, 1993)

Katie Bierce was abducted in New York on December 28, 1992, two days before her tenth birthday. John Esposito, a family friend, lured a young girl to his home by promising to give her birthday presents. There he kept her for seventeen days in a concrete basement under his garage.

On January 13, 1993, the police found the bunker, where they found the girl, still alive but traumatized (she later said that Esposito had raped her). He was sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison, which he is still serving. In 2013, she, like many other victims, wrote an emotionally engaging book about her abduction.

5. Colleen Stan (released from captivity in 1984)


Cameron and Janice Hooker kidnapped Colleen Stan and held her as a sex slave for over seven years, between 1977 and 1984. During the trial of the criminal, this kidnapping was described as unprecedented in the history of the FBI. The nightmare began on May 19, 1977, when Cameron Hooker kidnapped 20-year-old Stan while she was trying to hitchhike to a friend's birthday. Over the next seven years, Stan was tortured and sexually abused in various gruesome ways, which we will not even quote.

In addition, Cameron made her believe that she was being watched by a large, powerful organization called the Company, which would torture her painfully and harm her family if she tried to escape. However, she finally escaped in 1984 after Janice Hooker became worried that her husband wanted more slaves. Janice told Stan that Cameron was not part of the so-called "Company" and later reported her husband to the police.

The freed Stan began to live a full life. She went to school, got her degree, got married, gave birth to a daughter, and also became a member of an organization that helps abused women. As for Cameron Hooker, he received several consecutive sentences for sexual assault, kidnapping, and using a knife in the abduction process, in total he was sentenced to 104 years in prison.

4. Steven Stayner and Timothy White (freed from captivity on March 1, 1980)


Stephen Staner was abducted in Merced, California at the age of seven. On the afternoon of December 4, 1972, as Staner was walking home from school, he was approached by a man named Ervin Edward Murphy, an acquaintance of convicted child rapist Kenneth Parnell. Parnell passed himself off to the naive Murphy as an aspiring priest.

Staner was kidnapped and held in custody until he was fourteen years old. By the time Staner entered puberty, the pedophile Parnell began looking for a younger child to kidnap. This he did on February 14, 1980. He kidnapped five-year-old Timothy White in Ukiah, California, an event that deeply upset Staner. And on March 1, 1980, while Parnell left the house and went to his job as a night watchman, Staner and White escaped on a barge, and hitchhiked to Ukiah, where White went to the police station for help. The next day, March 2, 1980, Parnell was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping both boys. He was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison. Staner's kidnapping, and its aftermath, prompted California lawmakers to change state laws "so that consecutive prison sentences can be given in such cases of kidnapping."

Sadly, Staner died in 1989 in a motorcycle accident as he rode home from work. He left behind a wife and two children, a testament to his remarkable recovery from his abduction.

3. Patty Hearst (arrested in September 1975)


Patti Hearst, granddaughter of famed publisher William Randolph Hearst, has the dubious honor of being both a kidnapped victim and a bank robbery. Her abduction is perhaps one of the most famous cases of Stockholm Syndrome in history. In 1974, she joined a terrorist group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army after they kidnapped her. It was as if the gang members had brainwashed her and forced her to take part in the bank robbery, along with other members of the Symbionist Liberation Army. In the end, the FBI apprehended her, but after two years in prison, it became clear that she was as much a victim as anyone else in her place. Her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter, and she was pardoned by President Bill Clinton, who pardoned her as his last official act before leaving office.

2. Frank Sinatra, Jr. (released December 1963)


As you might have guessed, singer Frank Sinatra Jr. is the son of legendary musician Frank Sinatra. On December 8, 1963, 19-year-old Sinatra was abducted from Harrah’s Lake Tahoe. Just two days later, he was released after his father paid the $ 240,000 ransom demanded by the kidnappers. Barry Keenan, Johnny Irwin, and Joe Amsler were arrested and prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to long prison terms for kidnapping and demanding ransom for the son of one of the most famous celebrities in history. ...

1. Helen of Troy (????)

Finally we come to the most legendary and mysterious kidnapping to date. In fact, we do not know how historically true the stories about Elena the Beautiful are. According to legend, she was the subject of at least two major kidnappings in Greek mythology... The first kidnapping took place when Theseus of Athens kidnapped Helen, believing that she was the daughter of Zeus. Despite frequent portrayal of Theseus as a great hero in popular culture, according to myths, he raped Elena. Subsequently, her brothers invaded Athens and brought her sister back to Sparta.

In a more famous case, Elena, now the wife of the king of Sparta, was seduced by Prince Paris of Troy. Following her escape with Paris to Troy, a powerful alliance of the Greek city-states set out to return her to her rightful king and husband. Although some cinematic narratives present different endings for the story, in the original story, it appears to have returned to Sparta after the end of the Trojan War. The debate about when and if these events occurred at all is highly controversial. However, this is beside the point, as she is undoubtedly the most famous rescued kidnapping victim in history.

Every year about 80-100 people disappear in Russia, and about a quarter of them are minors. Many fall prey to kidnappers. In the high-risk zone there are children aged 10–12 years. Defenseless children fall into the tenacious clutches of sick maniacs or unscrupulous kidnappers who want a ransom. Unfortunately, history has quite a few such cases, and Russia is no exception.

Today Factrum talks about the three most high-profile cases of kidnapping in Russia.

The first case of kidnapping in the USSR - Ruben Gasparyan

For the first time, the case of kidnapping a child for the purpose of profit thundered back in February 1984. The victim was Ruben Gasparyan, a schoolboy, a resident of the village of Kishinechny, Dzerzhinsky District. The boy himself got into the kidnapper's car. Later it turned out that the perpetrator was well acquainted with the victim's parents, and the child knew his uncle, who kindly offered to give him a ride to school. Father Armen Gasparyan was in charge of one of the wholesale bases in Volgograd, and the attackers were well aware that the family was not poor. Ruben was hidden in a small country house, where he spent two days. The kidnappers themselves contacted the parents and demanded 150 thousand rubles for the child's life - a fabulous sum for those times, for this money it was possible to buy then 20 Zhiguli cars.

Benefit to employees law enforcement managed to quickly find the child and detain the criminals. The group consisted of six people, three of whom had already been convicted before. All participants were given different terms of imprisonment, but no more than seven years - in Soviet time such crimes were not regarded as particularly serious. The main organizer and acquaintance of the family passed away just a couple of years after the incident.

High-profile Kaspersky case

Concerning modern Russia, then, perhaps, the most notorious case of kidnapping was the kidnapping of the son of businessman Eugene Kaspersky - Ivan. The young guy disappeared almost straight from his mother's office, where he worked part-time in his free time. The kidnappers were found and arrested, and the guy was safely released from captivity. As it turned out during the investigation, the reason for the crime was the Forbes list, in which Nikolai Savelyev, previously convicted of fraud, discovered information about Kaspersky's income. After discussing everything at a small family meeting, he, his wife and son decided to kidnap the son of a Russian businessman in order to obtain a ransom. Later, three more - friends of the son - joined the criminal gang.

After the kidnapping, the guy was imprisoned in the bathhouse of a rented private house. A little later, the criminals themselves contacted the victim's father and demanded three million dollars for the boy's life. The Savelyevs' family was detained in full at the moment of transferring the money to them. Ivan spent five days in captivity. Fortunately, the boy was not beaten, and in general they treated him very kindly. The perpetrators were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 7 to 11 years.

Katya and Lena - 4 years in captivity by a psycho

This story has nothing to do with kidnapping. This is the same terrible case of kidnapping girls by a sick maniac. In 2000, schoolgirls from Ryazan - 14-year-old Katya and 17-year-old Lena - were walking in the city on a holiday. The disco ended quite late, and the girls had to hitch a ride to get home. A couple in a car volunteered to give the children a lift. It was the woman who suggested that the captives drink alcohol, which contained sleeping pills.

The perpetrators were Viktor Mokhov (54) and his accomplice Elena Badukina (25). Mokhov took the hostages to his dacha, where he hid them in the garage, which he had previously turned into a real bunker. The captives spent 44 months there. The kidnapper constantly raped and beat his victims, sprayed tear gas in a closed room. Years passed, and the girls lost all hope of salvation. However, then Mokhov rented out one of the rooms in the house to a young student, whom he also planned to kidnap. Once Katya managed to cross with a tenant, and then she managed to put a note in her clothes. The student immediately rushed to the city and turned to the police for help.

The offender quickly confessed to everything, and the girls were released in May 2004. They spent 3 years, 7 months and 4 days in captivity. During this time, Lena gave birth to two sons from a maniac, and at the time of her release she was carrying a third child (later she had a miscarriage). Mokhov was sentenced to 17 years in prison, and his accomplice - to 5.5 years in prison.

Yes, yes, it's only in the movies that all talk of ransom ends brilliant special operation, the authorities insist on principle that "they will not negotiate with the kidnappers," but in reality, ransoms for the kidnapped people are paid quite often.

Wealthy heirs, wealthy businessmen, oil tankers - they all become targets of kidnappers from time to time. A large number of such stories took place in the early seventies, especially in Argentina.

Here is a list of hidden cases when the fact of the ransom was not made public. It also does not include cases that took place before the modern era - for example, the most real ransoms for kings, due to the lack of reliable information.

This is also suitable for our section, look ..

18. Bobby Greenlees Jr.

Purchased for 600 thousand dollars in 1953.

Equivalent to $ 5.1 million today.

The six-year-old son of one of richest people Kansas City, Greenlees was kidnapped from his school by a man whose girlfriend pretended to be Bobby's aunt. The boy was quickly killed and buried in the backyard of her house, but the couple still managed to escape with a ransom of six hundred thousand dollars in tens and twenty.

The kidnappers Karl Austin Hall and Bonnie Brown Hedy were caught some time later, as they attracted attention with unbridled spending. They confessed to their crime and were executed.

Most of the money was spent or disappeared.

17. Ronald Grove

Grove, one of the top executives at the meat-packing company Vesty, was one of many people kidnapped by the Argentine rebel organization ERP in the 1970s. He turned out to be the first person in the country's history to receive a seven-figure ransom.

16. Vincenzo Russo

Argentina

Purchased for one million dollars in 1972.

Equivalent to $ 5.48 million today.

The Argentine terrorist group Montoneros kidnapped Russo, the chief executive of ITT, a few days after Ronald Grove's kidnapping, and demanded the same ransom for him.

15. Virginia Piper

Purchased for one million dollars in 1972.

Equivalent to $ 5.5 million today.

Virginia Piper, wife of retired investment banker Harry S. Piper, was kidnapped by masked men from her home in Orono County, Minnesota. After Piper paid the demanded ransom, she was found chained to a tree in Duluth.

The two men were later arrested and charged with this abduction, but the court verdict was overturned.

14. Oil tanker crewMaran Centaurus

Purchased for $ 7 million in 2010.

Equivalent to $ 7.3 million today.

The oil tanker Maran Centaurus, carrying some $ 150 million in crude oil, was hijacked by Somali pirates in November 2009. His twenty-eight-man crew was released two months later when a $ 7 million ransom was dropped on the tanker.

13. Anthony Da Cruz

Purchased for $ 1.5 million in 1973.

Equivalent to $ 7.7 million today.

Da Cruz, the forty-two-year-old CEO of Kodak in Buenos Aires, was captured by underground terrorists during a wave of kidnappings that swept the country in the 1970s. He was treated well and was released after the company paid the demanded ransom.

12. Francis Brimycombe

Purchased for $ 1.7 million in 1973.

Equivalent to $ 8.7 million today.

Brimicomb, a fifty-seven-year-old CEO of British American Tobacco, lived in Argentina for about thirty years before being kidnapped by a local terrorist group in front of his home while returning from a golf game. The group reportedly kidnapped him in order to "obtain funds for their underground activities."

11. TeamSamho Dream

Repurchased for $ 9 million in 2010.

Equivalent to $ 9.4 million today.

A year after the record-breaking ransom for the crew of the tanker Maran Centaurus, Somali pirates hijacked a Korean supertanker in the Indian Ocean. The pirates held the crew of twenty-four for two hundred and seventeen days before receiving their $ 9 million ransom.

10. Samuel Bronfman II

Sam Bronfman (left) with his father and his new wife

Purchased for $ 2.3 million in 1975.

Equivalent to $ 11.2 million today.

The 21-year-old heir to the Seagram distillery company was kidnapped and held for over a week before his father paid a $ 2.3 million ransom.

A day later, the FBI and New York police stormed an apartment in Brooklyn to free the young man. As a result, his kidnappers - a former limousine driver and a former firefighter - were arrested and the money returned to their owner.

9. John R. Thompson

Purchased for $ 3 million in 1974.

Equivalent to $ 13.9 million today.

Thompson, the 50-year-old president of Firestone, was kidnapped by the Argentine underground organization ERP. He was abducted on June 18 and released two and a half weeks later.

8. John Paul GettyIII

Purchased for $ 3 million in 1973.

Equivalent to $ 15.9 million today.

As the sixteen-year-old grandson of a major oil tycoon, Getty lived a luxurious life in Italy, where he was kidnapped by Italian gangsters. They demanded a ransom of seventeen million dollars for the boy. When price negotiations were deadlocked, Getty's kidnappers cut off one of his ears and sent it to the Italian press.

When the kidnappers lowered the price to $ 3 million, the Getty family agreed to pay the ransom. Family Patriarch John Paul Getty was rumored to have paid only $ 2.2 million, the maximum tax deductible, and his son paid the remainder.

7. Enrique Metz

Purchased for $ 5 million in 1975.

Equivalent to $ 21.2 million today.

Argentine terrorist group Montoneros received a much larger sum for the Bourne brothers (see below), but also the company's CEO Mercedes benz brought them a considerable fortune.

6. Patty Hirst

Purchased for $ 6 million in 1974.

Equivalent to $ 29.3 million today.

A sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley, nineteen-year-old heiress of the Hirst media conglomerate, and her boyfriend were kidnapped by radical left-wing militants known as the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).

The SLA required the Hearst family to distribute seventy dollars worth of food to every Californian in need, which would amount to approximately four hundred million dollars. Patty Hirst's father distributed $ 6 million worth of food, but the kidnappers were not satisfied, claiming that the food was of poor quality and refused to release his daughter.

Subsequently, Patty will join the SLA, becoming the canonical example of the manifestation of the Stockholm Syndrome (a protective psychological connection that arises between the abductor and his victim during the abduction; approx. Mixednews.ru) And then she will be arrested.

5. Charles Lockwood

Purchased for $ 2 million in 1973 and $ 10 million in 1975.

Equivalent to $ 52.9 million today.

Lockwood, the CEO of Roberts, was kidnapped by an Argentine ERP group TWICE in twenty-six months, bringing his kidnappers over fifty million dollars at the current rate. Can you imagine how his company felt when he was kidnapped a second time?

4. Victor Samuelsen

Photo shared by Samuelson's kidnappers

Purchased for $ 14.2 million in 1974.

Equivalent to $ 69.4 million today.

Esso Argentina (a subsidiary of Exxon) paid $ 14.2 million to rescue refinery manager Victor Samuelson from the hands of Marxist rebels 98 days after his kidnapping. If he refused, rebels calling themselves the People's Revolutionary Army threatened to execute him for the "crimes" of multinational corporations.

3. Walter Kwok

Purchased for seventy-seven million dollars in 1997.

Equivalent to one hundred and ten million dollars today.

The son of one of China's richest businessmen, Kwok was kidnapped by a famous gangster known as the Big Spender. After the ransom was paid, Kwok was found alive in a wooden box in a village house.

It was rumored that younger brothers The Kwok didn't want to pay the ransom. Years later, the family split in battles for control of Sun Hung Kai Properties.

2. Victor Lee

Purchased for one hundred thirty-four million dollars in 1996.

Equivalent to one hundred and ninety-seven million dollars today.

Victor Lee, the son of Hong Kong tycoon Lee Ka Shin, has been kidnapped by - try to guess - by the Big Spender Cheng Chi Kong. He was released after receiving a record $ 140 million in ransom.

The gangster who kidnapped him was arrested and executed in 2000.

1. Georges and Juan Born

Purchased for sixty million dollars in 1974.

Equivalent to two hundred ninety-three million dollars today.

The wealthy Argentine grain merchants, the brothers Georges and Juan Born, were kidnapped by the radical left-wing terrorist group Montoneros. Nine months later, they were released after receiving a fantastic sixty million dollar ransom.

Their Bunge y Born company was relocated to Sao Paulo, Brazil shortly thereafter to avoid internal unrest.

Seva Bardin

No human deserves to go through this.

Elizabeth Shoaf, North Carolina - 10 days

In 2006, 14-year-old Elizabeth Shoaf was held captive by Vinson Filyav for 10 days. Filyav arrested Elizabeth, posing as a police officer. Then he brought her to the forest, where he previously dug a bunker in the ground. He kept her in the bunker completely naked and chained by the neck. As he drove her, Elizabeth threw away her shoes on the road somewhere in the woods in the hope that they could find her on them. Later, when she won the trust of her captor and received permission to leave the underground bunker, she pulled out strands of hair and threw them on the ground, for the same purpose. Elizabeth eventually managed to escape by texting her mother from her captor's phone after he fell asleep. Seeing on TV that the police were looking for him, Filyav tried to escape, and Elizabeth got out of the bunker. She was found in the forest and taken to the hospital. Her kidnapper was found and sentenced to 421 years in prison.

The underground bunker where Elizabeth was for ten days

Shasta Greene, Idaho - 7 weeks

In May 2005, police found the bodies of Brenda Greene, her 13-year-old son Slade, and her boyfriend Mark Mackenzie at their home in Coeur d'Alen, Idaho. Brenda's 9-year-old son Dylan and her 8-year-old daughter Shasta are missing. Seven weeks later, a waitress at Denny’s diner saw and recognized Shasta, who had been reported missing, in the company of an unidentified man. When Shasta was returned to her natural father, the authorities told him that there was very little hope of finding Dylan's son alive. Two days later, human remains were found in one of the distant campsites. These were the remains of Dylan Greene. All the while Shasta and Dylan were held captive by their captor Joseph Duncan, he mocked them and told how he beat their family to death with a hammer.

A security camera shot of the pedophile and murderer Joseph Duncan, accompanied by Shasta Grené.

Sabine Dardenne, Belgium - 80 days

In 1996, 12-year-old Sabine Dardenne was kidnapped by a pedophile and serial killer Dutroux known as the "Belgian Monster" when she rode her bike to school. He kept her chained in a small basement and raped her regularly. He told Sabina that her parents were not looking for her and that they had refused to pay the ransom. He also referred to himself as her "savior", constantly reminding her that the "boss" wanted to kill her. This later raised suspicions of the existence of a certain pedophile group, but the investigation was suspended when Dutroux admitted that he acted alone. When Sabina was in captivity for 74 days, she asked her kidnapper to bring her friend. He kidnapped 14-year-old Laetitia Delfez, but local residents recognized his car. Letizia spent 6 days in captivity, after which both girls were found. They were found only two days after Dutroux was arrested. Dutroux is also responsible for the deaths of four girls. 8-year-old Melissa Russo and Julie Lejeune, also abducted and abused by him, died of starvation in the same basement while Dutroux was serving time for carjacking. There were other murders - Dutroux buried 17-year-old An Marshal and Efi Lambrex alive. Dutroux never confessed to any of these murders, but he was sentenced to life in prison. His wife and accomplice Michelle Martin, who knew that there were children in the basement, but did not free them and let them starve to death while her husband was in prison for theft, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but got out 16 years later. to freedom.

When the authorities searched Dutroux's house (he was then serving time for stealing a car), they heard the screams of 8-year-old Julie and Melissa, but did not find the entrance to the basement and assumed that the screams were coming from the street.

Elizabeth Smart, Utah - 9 months

In 2002, Elizabeth Smart was abducted from the bedroom of her home in Salt Lake City, Utah and threatened with a knife. Her younger sister Mary Catherine pretended to be asleep, but she heard what was happening, and the kidnapper's voice seemed vaguely familiar to her, but she could not remember how she knew him. Elizabeth was abducted by a man who was later identified as Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Banzi. Elizabeth was shackled, "given in marriage" to Mitchell, performing some kind of religious ceremony, after which Mitchell regularly came and raped her. She was held captive for 9 months, forced to drink strong alcohol and watch pornography. Eventually, four months after the kidnapping, Elizabeth's younger sister realized that the kidnapper's voice reminded her of a man who had previously worked briefly for her parents. A composite sketch was immediately drawn up and shown on television. The kidnapper was identified by the biker who saw the composite of the criminal. Mitchell received two life sentences and his wife was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Sean Hornbeck, Missouri - 4 years and 3 months

In 2002, Sean was 11 years old, and when he was kidnapped by Michael Devlin Jr., Sean was cycling. He spent over four years in captivity. During the first month, he was tied to the sofa, and his mouth was sealed with duct tape. His captor threatened that if he tried to escape, he would kill him. For four years he was humiliated and raped. But this was not enough for the kidnapper: he made Sean take the name Sean Devlin, pose for porn photos and videos. Four years later, Devlin kidnapped another boy, 13-year-old Ben Ounbee, and Ben's neighbor Mitchell Hults remembered Devlin's truck. After 4 days, the police raided and searched and found Ben, but the most surprising thing for them was that they also found Sean Hornbeck there. Michael Devlin was convicted of kidnapping, pedophilia and child pornography. The total term of his imprisonment under the sentence was 1,850 years. He has been serving a sentence since 2008.

Stephen Steiner, California - 7 years, 3 months and 10 days

In 1972, Steven Steiner was only seven years old when he was kidnapped by committed child molester Kenneth Parnell and persuaded to sit in his car. The next morning he raped him. The kidnapper told the boy that his parents did not need him because they had too many children, and that he was now his legal guardian. He gave him another name - Dennis Gregory Parnell and sent him to study at various schools over the following years. When Stephen grew up and ceased to be of interest to his kidnapper, he began to look for a younger victim. He eventually kidnapped 5-year-old Timothy White. In 1980, while Parnella was at work (he worked as a security guard), Stephen took Timmy with him and fled. They made their way to Yukaya, where Timmy was from, but could not find his home address and Stephen took him to the police. The boys were identified and returned to their families. Parnell was arrested and convicted of kidnapping, but he was not tried for sexual assault. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, but he only served five. Steven Steiner died in a road accident in 1989 at the age of 24. Timmy, who was 14 years old in 1989, helped carry Stephen's coffin at his funeral.

Natasha Kampusch, Austria - 8 years, 5 months

In 1998, 10-year-old Natasha Kampusch was dragged into a white van on her way to school. Her trail was cut off for 8 years. The technician Wolfgang Priklopil was her abductor. He locked her in a tiny (5 x 5 feet) soundproof basement without windows, the basement was set up under his house. The door was very solid and carefully hidden from prying eyes. For the first six months Natasha was not allowed to leave the basement. She lost track of time and did not see daylight. Later she was allowed to go upstairs and put things in order in the upper rooms. He had a terrible obsessive-compulsive disorder and he forced Natasha to completely lick his house. He beat her every time he found at least a fingerprint somewhere, and in general for any reason. He forced her to cover her hair with a plastic bag, and in the end he simply began to shave her bald. For eight years Natasha was beaten, starved and forced to walk half-naked. Once Priklopil made a mistake, instructing Natasha to vacuum his car. At that moment, the phone rang in the house and he went to answer the call. Natasha ran as fast as she could, having no idea where she was. She ran to the nearest house, knocked on the door and shouted: "I am Natasha Kampush!" When Natasha escaped, she was 18 years old, she weighed barely 45 kg, and has grown only 15 cm since the abduction. Soon after Natasha's escape, Priklopil committed suicide by jumping under the train. Natasha grieved over his death, which gave experts reason to believe that she suffered from Stockholm syndrome. In 2010, she published a book called "3096 Days", which was also filmed. Only in 2013, Natasha admitted that Priklopil regularly raped her, previously she refused to admit it.

Fusako Sano, Japan - 9 years, 2 months

Fusako Sano, 9, was kidnapped in 1990. She was kidnapped by 28-year-old mentally ill Nobuyuki Sato, who lived with his elderly mother. He kept Fusako in a room on the top floor. His house was just 200 meters from the local police station. Authorities searched his home but did not find Fusako. For the first few months, Fusako was kept tied up. The abductor repeatedly beat her and threatened her with a knife, and also punished her with an electric shock. Sato gave her his clothes and cut her hair. Although the doors were never locked, Fusako never tried to escape. At first she was too scared, then she lost her strength and energy and gave up. Nine years later, it was Sato's mother who informed the authorities that her son was behaving strangely and aggressively. Fusako was found, and Sato was arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Fusako never fully recovered. She has the mind of a child and severe PTSD.

Amanda Berry, Gina Dehesus and Michelle Knight, Cleveland - 10 years and 9 months

Michelle was the first of three kidnapped by Ariel Castro. It happened in 2002 and she was 21 years old. Eight months later, Castro kidnapped 17-year-old Amanda Berry, and a year later - Gina Dehesus, who was only 14. Castro tricked Michelle into his house. The police did not search very hard for her because of her age. At Castro's house, Michelle was chained by her arms, legs and neck, and was fed only on the third day after her abduction. Castro repeatedly beat and brutally raped Michelle. Over the course of 10 years, she became pregnant from him at least 5 times, and all pregnancies ended in miscarriages due to constant beatings and hunger. After being joined by Amanda Berry, Castro chained them together. Berry also became pregnant with him and gave birth to a child. Michelle helped deliver the baby. A year later, a third captive was added to them, a 14-year-old girl Gina. Her abduction was not documented, so AMBER Alert's missing child alert system was not activated. On the day of the escape, in April 2013, it was Berry, who managed to make contact with neighbors after Castro forgot to lock the massive interior door in the house. The outer door was securely locked, but Berry screamed when she saw her neighbor through the screen in the door. Berry and her 6-year-old daughter managed to get out. Berry called 911 from the neighbors and said, “Help me. I'm Amanda Berry. I was kidnapped and presumed missing for 10 years. And here I am. Now i am free". Castro was arrested the same day and convicted of kidnapping, rape, murder with extreme cruelty, attempted murder and assault. He was sentenced to 1,000 years in prison, but a month later he hanged himself in a cell.

Ariel Castro (left) and the house where he held Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina Dehesus for over ten years

Jaycee Dugard, California - 18 years and 2 months

Jaycee Dugard was only 11 when she was kidnapped on her way home from school in 1991. Her captor, Philip Garrido, struck her with an electric shock and she lost consciousness. He was assisted by his wife Nancy, who found and tracked down Jaycee as a "prize" for her husband. When the Garridos got home, they had already stripped Jaycee. Philip then wrapped her in a blanket and locked her in a small soundproof room. For the first week, Jaycee remained in handcuffs while food and milkshakes were brought to her. A week later, Garrido forced Jaycee to go to the shower with him and raped her for the first time. She was still handcuffed. A few months later, Jaycee was moved to a larger room and handcuffed to a bed. Her captor was a methamphetamine addict. When he failed a drug test and went to jail, his wife Nancy replaced him as Jaycee's supervisor. At the age of 13, Jaycee became pregnant for the first time. Then, for the first time, her captors began to give her heated food. Three years later, Jaycee gave birth to her second child, another girl. Jaycee was forced to tell her daughters that she was their older sister and Nancy Garrido was their mother. When Jaycee was finally found, she refused to admit what happened to her and came up with a legend. And only when Garrido confessed to the crime, Jaycee admitted that it was her. Later it became clear that after 18 years of captivity, Jaycee was suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Surprisingly, Jaycee grew up to be an educated, intelligent woman, and her daughters are fine too. They did not have developmental disabilities. Jaycee was found in 2009. In 2011, Garrido was found guilty of kidnapping and rape. Philip was sentenced to 431 years in prison, and his wife Nancy was sentenced to 34 years. Jaycee chose not to attend the trial.

This type of crime is one of the most terrible crimes against the person.

The leader in the number of kidnappings is Colombia, where an average of 3,000 - 3,500 such crimes are registered annually, which is about 60% of the total number of people kidnapped in the world. Mass abductions of people were noted in Russia at the end of the 20th century, the largest number of them accounted for in the North Caucasus. In the period from 2000 to 2003, according to official data, about 2 thousand people were abducted in the Chechen Republic. More often men are abducted - 84.7%, women - 12.3, minor children - 3%.

Reasons and motives for kidnapping:

• receiving a ransom;
• settling scores, revenge;
• ritual actions, including totalitarian sects;
• solving personal or political issues;
• kidnapping of children for sale to childless families;
• using people as blood donors, or internal organs;
• porn business, prostitution;
• slavery;
• criminal actions of maniacs.

Often kidnappers torture, rape, subject to moral, psychological, drug abuse or kill their victims.

Kidnapping is always a carefully planned, well-prepared, multi-stage operation. Criminals try not to kidnap casual victims. Abduction can occur at any time and place, most often where the personthe century is least protected. Most of the abductions take place in the morning, when people leave the house. Criminals can trick or forcefully (force) the victim into the car. To facilitate the solution of the problem, criminals use uniforms: military, police, medical, forged documents. Many kidnappers behave friendly, they do not seem dangerous, people often like them, they can lull the victim's vigilance, taking advantage of her kindness, trustfulness, and naivety.

Rules of behavior
How to prevent kidnapping:

• in case of suspicion of possible abduction, it is necessary to inform the police about it, to increase vigilance;
• do not share your wealth level with everyone. Do not pass information about yourself and your family to strangers;
• do not carry large amounts of cash with you, do not wear expensive things and jewelry;
• do not leave children in the evening and at night without adult supervision;
• do not visit potentially dangerous places: landfills, basements, attics, construction sites, forest belts;
• do not approach an unfamiliar standing or slowly moving car at a close distance, walk on the sidewalk;
• never agree to the offer of a stranger to get into his car, go into an apartment, go to a place unfamiliar to you, to a cinema, to a theater, to a concert, to a restaurant;
• learn how to use a telephone, personal communication system, alarm;
• do not accept gifts from bystanders;
• do not eat foods, sweets, water, alcoholic beverages offered by strangers;
• avoid meeting with noisy, drunken companies, with people adorned with tattoos;
• do not enter into conversations on the street with strangers, behave confidently and calmly;
• before entering the apartment, look for strangers near the house or in the stairwell; when darkness falls, turn on the light in one of the rooms, curtain all the windows on the first floor;
• never open the front door until you are sure that there are familiar people behind it;
• never, under any pretext, do not let strangers into the apartment;
• before leaving the apartment, look through the peephole to see if there are any strangers on the staircase;
• when leaving the apartment, even for a few minutes, be sure to lock the front door. Leaving the house, close all windows, vents, balcony doors, turn on the alarm, hand over the apartment under protection;
• walk one route, it must be safe. Do not stop or linger on the road;
• in a conspicuous place in the apartment, write the phone numbers of your friends, neighbors, colleagues, special services in case of an emergency call.

If, nevertheless, the criminals managed to kidnap you:

• do not panic, pull yourself together, show will and patience, despite the psychological shock and everyday inconveniences: limited room space, irregular meals, threats;
• immediately at the time of the abduction, your actions can be active or passive. Active characterter involves resisting the kidnappers. Passive character such resistance does not imply, the abducted is entirely subject to the kidnappers. During the abduction, it is necessary to take advantage of the slightest opportunity to escape from the criminals;
• try to remember how many kidnappers there were, their approximate age, nationality, accent in conversation, gender, typical external signs, topics of conversation, make and number of the car, its color;
• after the abduction, you will be taken to a pre-prepared place of confinement, for this a closed car can be used. You may be blindfolded to prevent you from seeing the road. Remember the number of stops of the car, its speed, the nature of the road: descents, ascents, bumps, turns. An important indicator is the speed of movement and travel time. If possible, determine the direction and route of movement;
• after the abduction, the criminals will keep you imprisoned in an isolated apartment, house, basement, dugout. The first time is the most difficult: fear, mental agitation, uncertainty, a sharp change in the usual way of life, temporary inconveniences. Try to remain calm and sane, do not lose heart, do not be discouraged. Try to be courageous, with human dignity. Don't give up food and water. Criminals may forget to feed you or give you water, ask for food and water yourself. During imprisonment, you can get sick, inform the kidnappers about it, ask for medicine;
• the kidnappers can record your voice on tape, take photographs or make a movie or video, take something from your personal belongings, force you to write a letter to friends and relatives. Do not resist, do whatever they ask - the attackers need this information to contact your loved ones or intermediaries;
• the length of stay in confinement may vary. This time should be used rationally: ask to bring literature for reading, paper and pen, if possible - listen to the radio or watch TV. Don't forget about physical exercise- even basic squats, swing arms and legs, rotation
  head, push-ups from the floor will help you. Personal hygiene
  even in confinement conditions is required.

Basic exemption options:

• fulfillment of all the requirements of criminals or finding a compromise;
• a sharp change in the situation among criminals;
• capitulation of the kidnappers due to the impossibility of obtaining a ransom or the emergence of a real threat to their own safety;
• release of hostages by law enforcement agencies.

In the process of imprisonment, unforeseen circumstances may arise that must be used to your advantage: attracting one of the intruders to your side, using means of communication (telephone, radiotelephone, mobile phone) for reporting to relatives, to the police. If a favorable situation arises for the implementation of the escape, use it.