▲In 1991, 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped in view of her stepfather while she was getting on the school bus. She was held in captivity for 18 years.

▲Phillip and Nancy Garrido kept her in the backyard of their house. Jaycee Lee Dugard was abused and raped during this time and gave birth to two daughters conceived with Garrido.

▲Phillip Garrido was a registered sex offender for a crime committed in 1976. He had to regularly report to parole officers. On 26 August, 2009, Garrido reported to the police station and took his wife, Dugard, and Dugard's two daughters with him. Police were suspicious of the pale and frightened girls, who were then 13 and 16 years old. Garrido and his wife were detained at the scene.

▲Jaycee Lee Dugard was 29 when she escaped the hands of the Garridos. Nowadays, she tries to live a normal life and has written about her experience. Dugard told ABC news that she would not stop her daughters from seeing their father if they wanted to, but that it has never happened.

▲In 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was taken from her bedroom in Salt Lake City. She was dragged through the forest and held captive in a camp in the woods for nine months.

▲This happened at the hands of a religious fanatic named Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. They kept Smart chained to a tree and raped and abused her.

▲After nine months, Smart's sister recognized the abductor's voice as that of a man the family knew as Emmanuel. A sketch was released to media and was recognized by the family of Brian David Mitchell, who reported him. Mitchell and Barzee were arrested after being spotted walking with Elizabeth Smart.

▲Elizabeth Smart has spoken about her abduction to various media outlets and is now an activist and author of several books about her experience. She told usnews.com that she has chosen to punish her kidnapper by being happy.

▲Patty Hearst became a famous name in 1974. The granddaughter of tycoon William Randolph Hearst, Patty was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

▲Patty Hearst's kidnappers were a revolutionary organization of Marxist ideals that were responsible for several murders, bank robberies, and other crimes.

▲Patty's kidnapping came to an end when she was arrested for robbing a bank. The crime was later forgiven by President Jimmy Carter and seen as an effect of Stockholm syndrome, which manifests itself as feelings of sympathy from the victim towards their abductor.

▲Patty Hearst married her former bodyguard, Bernard Shaw, in 1979. They have two daughters. She pursued an acting career and has starred in several movies and series. Hearst is the heiress of the media empire left by her grandfather.

▲On May 28, 1996, 12-year-old Sabine Dardenne was cycling to school in Tournai, Belgium, when she was kidnapped and taken to a house in Marcinelle. She was held in captivity for 80 days.

▲Marc Dutroux and an accomplice kidnapped her and tied her to a bed with a chain around her neck. Sabine Dardenne spent most of the time concealed in the basement of Dutroux's house. He managed to convince Dardenne that her parents did not want to see her again and that they would not pay a ransom.

▲When Dardenne was kidnapped, a witness was able to write down the license plate of Dutroux's car. Police arrested the kidnapper after 80 days. Marc Dutroux admitted to kidnapping and raping two girls, Dardenne and 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez. The remains of the bodies of four other kidnap victims and Dutroux's accomplice were found in properties belonging to the convicted rapist, who had served jail time for earlier sex crimes. His wife, Michelle Martin, was aware of his activities.

▲Sabine Dardenne testified at Dutroux's trial in 2004, where she asked her abuser why he did it. A year later, she released a book about her experience, which has been translated into 14 languages and published in 30 countries. Little is known about her life today.

▲Fritzl was kidnapped by her own father when she was 18. He asked her to help him to fix a door in an underground bunker, and then dragged her inside and chained her. After that, she was forced to write a letter supposedly addressed to her mother and father explaining that she had run away from home and asking not to be followed.

▲Josef Fritzl kept her in the bunker for 24 years. He sexually abused his daughter throughout that time and she gave birth to seven children. One of them died while still a baby and Josef burned the boy's body. He openly adopted three of the six children by forcing his daughter to write letters describing how she wanted her parents to look after the boys. The others remained with Elisabeth in the basement.

▲One of the children in the basement fell ill and needed medical assistance. Josef Fritzl took the girl to the hospital with the excuse that he had found her unconscious on the street. Doctors and police began looking for the child's mother and made an appeal on television. Elisabeth was able to see the appeal on a TV in the basement and convinced Fritzl to take her to the hospital. When she was sure of her safety, she told the doctors everything and Josef was arrested.

▲Elisabeth now lives with her six children and boyfriend in a small village in Austria. The whole family has adopted new names and lives a seemingly normal life.

▲Ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped on March 2, 1998 while on her way to school in Vienna. She was kept in a basement for eight years.

▲Wolfgang Priklopil kept the girl in a basement, where he tortured, starved, and sexually abused her. The space had no windows, was soundproof, and had a reinforced steel door.

▲During the years she spent with her abductor, the young woman was allowed to walk around the house, despite being constantly watched. On 23 August, 2006, she was vacuuming Wolfgang's car when he received a call about the noise of the vacuum cleaner. While he was distracted, Kampusch managed to escape and asked a woman to call the police. After realizing that Kampusch had fled, Wolfgang Priklopil committed suicide on a railroad while fleeing Austrian police.

▲Her story became famous worldwide, and Kampusch wrote a book about her experience. A film version was released in 2013. She is now a spokesperson for the animal rights group PETA, likening animal cruelty to her own experience.

▲In 2002, 11-year-old Shawn was kidnapped while riding a bicycle. He spent over four years in captivity, only 80 km away from the house where his family lived.

▲Michael J. Devlin held him in captivity and threatened to kill him if he tried to escape. The abductor sexually abused the boy and recorded the experiences. He also took Hornbeck to several other states to be sexually abused by others.

▲In 2007, Devlin kidnapped another boy named Ben Ownby, but another boy was able to describe his truck to police. Four days later, they found Ownby, and consequently Shawn Hornbeck, in Devlin's apartment.

▲Little is known about Hornbeck's life after his family gave several interviews in 2007. His parents operated a non-profit charitable organization named the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation until 2013. It was dedicated to finding missing children.

▲Amanda Berry, Georgina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight were abducted in the early 2000s in Cleveland, Ohio.

▲Ariel Castro abducted 21-year-old Michelle Knight in 2002, 16-year-old Amanda Berry in 2003, and 14-year-old Georgina DeJesus in 2004. The women were subjected to constant sexual abuse, endured forced abortions, and were tied up with ropes and chains. Inside Castro's house for between nine and eleven years, they went without seeing daylight much of the time. Amanda Berry had a child born of Castro's abuse, who was also kept captive.

▲The three women managed to escape on May 6, 2013 when Amanda Berry screamed and punched the door for help while Castro was out. Neighbors helped her escape and called the police. Ariel Castro was sentenced to the death penalty but committed suicide in prison.

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Two months after they were free, the three women recorded a video to acknowledge all the concern and thank those who donated money. Amanda and Gina released a book detailing the story of their lives in captivity in 2015.

▲These people were abducted and survived long periods of terror and captivity. In this gallery we unveil what happened and where the victims are now. Take a look at these terrifying stories.

History's most famous kidnappings: where are they now?

Take a look at how these survivors of kidnapping are today

08/11/24 por StarsInsider

LIFESTYLE Kidnappings

These people were abducted and survived long periods of terror and captivity. In this gallery we unveil what happened and where the victims are now. Take a look at these terrifying stories.