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Cleveland girls' kidnapping and escape among a trickle of similar sensational cases worldwide
Decade of Captivity
View full sizeElizabeth Smart has grown up to a career as a spokeswoman for victims. She was abducted in 2002 and held for nine months. Daily Mail of London cites the cases of Jaycee Lee Dugard, 11, kidnapped in Lake Tahoe, Calif., in 1991 and held 18 years; Elizabeth Smart, 14, kidnapped from her Utah home in 2002 and held for nine months; Danielle Cramer, who disappeared at 15 in West Bloomfield, Conn., in 2007 and was found a year later; Shawn Hornbeck of Richwoods, Mo., abducted at 11 in 2002 and found after four years; Steven Stayner, a 7-year-old abducted in 1972 and held until 1980.
From ABC News comes the case of Jeannette Tamayo, abducted at 9 in 2003 and Midsi Sanchez, abducted in 2000. It says just 0.04 percent of such kidnapping cases end in the victim's release or escape.
Cellar victim Kampusch raped, starved in film of ordeal:A Reuters story retells the case of Natascha Kampusch in Vienna, Austria, where she was held in a cellar for 8-1/2 years starting when she was 10. She escaped in 2006.
Another Austrian girl, Elisabeth Fritzl, was made a captive by her father in 1984. He held her 24 years, according to the German paper Der Spiegel and "sired seven children with her."
And in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, an attempt that failed, the case of Sarah Maynard, 13, who was kidnapped from her home by a man who killed the rest of her family.
View full sizeJaycee Dugard lived in a suburban back yard in a complex of tents and tarpaulins that neighbors wondered about but which was invisible to official visitors at the house. Dugard wrote a memoir, "A Stolen Life," in 2011. She was taken from a bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe and kept in the back yard of a suburban house in in Antioch, about 170 miles away. Repeatedly raped, she had two children by her captor, Phillip Garrido. Neighbors wondered about the tents and tarps in the yard, but didn't probe, according to this AP story, but "a parole agent who visited 58-year-old Phillip Garrido's home didn't have an inkling about the hidden compound." Here, the New York Times follows the story.
A website called Knoji rounded up other cases worldwide: Jaycee Dugard is Not Alone: Other Kidnap Victims Held for Years of Abuse - We Must Stop It!: An additional case it reported: "Colleen Stan's story is probably the most bizarre case of long-term abduction to date. Kidnapped at age 20 while hitchhiking, by Cameron Hooker and his wife Janice, Colleen lived as a six slave to Cameron for 7 years."
It also asks the question on a lot of people's minds; "How do these kidnappers repeatedly keep victims in their own homes and backyards without someone noticing that something is amiss?"
ABC News covers Jeannette Tamayo:
Jeannette Tamayo: How Did She Escape Her Kidnapper? By keeping herself calm, winning her kidnapper's trust and persuading him she needed regular doses of medicine. Subsequently caught, he was sentenced to more than 100 years prison.
Elizabeth Smart
The girl kidnapped for nine months from her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002 reappears in the headlines from time to time. This MSNBC story is from Monday:
Elizabeth Smart: Abstinence-only education can make rape survivors feel 'dirty,' 'filthy'
Her story is succinctly told in this Wikipedia article.
Danielle Cramer
From the Hartford Courant's 2007 story about her recovery: During a June 6 search of Gault's West Hartford home, West Hartford and Bloomfield police found Danielle Cramer, 15, in a small, locked storage closet that was hidden behind a dresser in Gault's bedroom.
At the time, ABC News said the people arrested at the house where she was found claimed Danielle had fled abuse at her home. "Cell phone records showed she had frequent contact with 41-year-old Adam Gault, a dog trainer from West Hartford who had worked for the girl's family, before her disappearance."
Eventually, Gault pleaded guilty and was given a 25-year sentence, USA Today reported.
Shawn Hornbeck
His name is on a foundation for missing children. On his website, he sums up his story: "On Sunday, October 6, 2002, while out riding my bike my life changed forever. I vanished without a trace not far from my rural Richwoods, Missouri home. On Friday, January 12, 2007, my life changed forever once again. Our prayers were answered when I and another missing child were found by authorities in an apartment in Kirkwood, Missouri."
Newsweek explores questions that came up afterward, such as why he didn't flee his captor when he was eventually taken to public spaces.
Recovery can be a challenge for victims
The New York Times explores the psychological effects and recovery for victims:
For Longtime Captives, a Complex Road Home
The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine summarizes a longer report here.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized the ABC News report about the frequency similar kidnappings.Cleveland girls' kidnapping and escape among a trickle of similar sensational cases worldwide | cleveland.com
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