Girl was missing for 6 years — until worker 600 miles away in NC spotted her, cops say
A kidnapped girl was missing for 6 years — until an eagle-eyed worker spotted her in North Carolina, over 600 miles away from her last known location, officials said.
Kayla Unbehaun was 9 years old when she went on a camping trip in 2017 and didn’t come back, family members told her dad, Ryan Iskerka, according to WBBM-TV.
Police in South Elgin, Illinois, believed the girl’s mom took her even though she didn’t have custody, WLS-TV reported.
Then six years later on May 13, a person working at a shopping plaza in the North Carolina mountains caught a glimpse of Kayla. The worker had recognized her from “well publicized media,” and officers later confirmed she was the missing girl, the Asheville Police Department told McClatchy News in an email.
Then came an emotional reunion.
“I’m overjoyed that Kayla is home safe,” her dad told the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, adding that he had gratitude for those who helped to find her.
“I also want to thank all of the followers on the ‘Bring Kayla Home’ Facebook page, who helped keep her story alive and were instrumental in spreading awareness,” he wrote. “We ask for privacy as we get to know each other again and navigate this new beginning.”
Kayla, who is now 15, went missing over the Fourth of July weekend in 2017. In the years after she was last seen in South Elgin, the case was featured on the Netflix show “Unsolved Mysteries,” and an age-progression photo was released to show how she would look as a teen.
The South Elgin Police Department in a news release said it also traveled across the United States to try to find Kayla.
Meanwhile, Kayla’s dad said he held out hope that his daughter would come home.
“Everyone loves her in our family,” he said in a video that the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children shared on Facebook in 2019. “Everyone wants to see her and spend time with her. I don’t want to take her mother away from her. I want her to grow up happy and have a life with everyone who loves her.”
Kayla’s mom, who faces a felony child abduction charge, was arrested and brought to jail on a fugitive warrant, according to police.
The girl, who was “taken into protective custody until her father could pick her up,” was found to be “in good condition and in good spirits” after seeing her family again, officers wrote.
An investigation continues, and anyone with information is asked to call South Elgin police at 847-741-2151.
South Elgin, Illinois, is roughly 40 miles west of Chicago.
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