A 9-year-old girl who was kidnapped in Illinois in 2017 has been found safe in North Carolina.
According to the Asheville Police Department and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Kayla Unbehaun, 15, was found by police in Asheville, North Carolina, after a store employee called the police after recognizing the teen’s mother, who is accused of kidnapping her daughter in 2017.
The employee who reported calling the police told ABC News, “It was the right thing to do,” and asked that her name and employer’s name not be made public.
According to the Asheville Police Department, officers worked with the South Elgin Police Department to identify Heather Unbehaun, who abducted her daughter Kayla Unbehaun almost six years ago.
“It is unusual, but it’s good that when someone does suspect that they recognize someone, no matter how old the story might be, that they are not afraid to give us a call so we can come to investigate,” Asheville Police Lt. Diana Loveland said to ABC Asheville affiliate WLOS.
According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, her mother, who did not have custody of the child, abducted Kayla Unbehaun on July 5, 2017, and Ryan Iskerka, Kayla’s father, last saw the then-9-year-old in 2017.
Iskerka stated, “I’m overjoyed that Kayla is home safe,” in a statement made public by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. I’d like to express my gratitude to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, @ElginPDFD, and all the law enforcement agencies that helped with her case. As we navigate this new beginning and get to know each other again, we ask for privacy.
In the six years since the kidnapping, the case received coverage in news articles and on social media. During a segment on parental kidnappings on an episode of Netflix’s “Unsolved Mysteries,” a picture of both Kayla and Heather Unbehaun was shown.
“When I learned that you had died, my heart broke into a million pieces.But nothing would make me happier than for you to come back into my life, Iskerka declared in a letter made public on his daughter’s 12th birthday in 2020.
There was an active extradition warrant for the arrest of Heather Unbehaun, who was wanted in Illinois for kidnapping children. According to the Asheville Police Department, she is being held in the Buncombe County Detention Facility in North Carolina on a $250,000 bond.