Understanding the real barriers to productivity
Leggat had managed to survive in the freezing bathroom by drinking the tap water and filling the sink with warm water to warm his cold feet. There wasn't much direct light so he was in total darkness for 16 hours a day. Thankfully, a cleaner heard his cries for help and finally let him out.
Hernandez had been kidnapped for 13 years, and he didn't even know it. His mother was overjoyed and relieved to be reunited with him, and his father was sent to prison. Hernandez was understandably confounded by the situation and started a now famous Reddit thread to tell his story and ask advice.
Bowe Bergdahl's disappearance in Afghanistan in 2009 was an international news story. He had been dissatisfied with the US military's presence in the Middle East while stationed there, and reportedly deserted his platoon and walked off. According to Bergdahl, he simply fell behind and got separated unintentionally.
Two weeks before Nagy was to be declared dead, a police officer did a final search and found that Nagy had been using Medicare. The man had wandered off with amnesia after his car accident and started an entirely new life. He had no memories of his wife and family, and survived doing odd jobs. Thankfully, his memory started to return when he was reunited with them.
A British man named David Leggat found himself trapped after visiting the bathroom at his local lawn bowling club. The door had jammed shut behind him and he couldn't get out. Unlucky for him, no one found him for four full days.
Regardless, he was then captured by the Taliban and held captive in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the next five years. President Barack Obama negotiated his release, and Bergdahl was returned to the US to stand trial for desertion.
Two men posing as churchgoers looking for help captured Steven Stayer when he was seven years old. They took him to live in a cabin, changed his name, and sent him to school. They abused him and told him that his parents didn't want him, so Stayner remained with them and didn't try to escape.
A 46-year-old Australian man named Gabriel Nagy disappeared in 1987. Police found his burning car by the side of the road, but he was nowhere to be found. For more than 20 years, he didn't turn up.
In 2018, a boy's soccer team and their coach disappeared in Thailand's Chiang Rai province. The families got worried when none of the boys came home, and it was discovered that they were trapped inside the Tham Luang Nang Non caves.
Two years later, Berchtold kidnapped Jan Broberg again. He had successfully brainwashed her to believe his wild story about an alien mission. The FBI managed to locate Broberg a second time after a three-month search. The unbelievable tale was told in the hit Netflix documentary 'Abducted in Plain Sight.' Broberg grew up to be an actress and singer.
The kidnapping of Jan Broberg was a wild one. When she was 12 years old, a neighbor and family friend took her out alone to go horse riding. In reality, he drugged her, drove her to Mexico, and married her. Her unfortunate, gullible parents still believed that their daughter was in safe hands, although they were annoyed that he hadn't brought her back on time.
When Stayner hit puberty, the kidnappers decided to abduct another young boy: Timothy White. Stayner didn't want White to suffer the same abuse as him, so he orchestrated an escape and got himself and White safely home to their families. Stayner had been missing for eight years by that time.
Nearly three months later, a woman who lived 60 miles (96.5 km) away from where Closs disappeared was approached by a young dishevelled girl who asked her for help. She immediately recognized her as the missing girl from the news and called for help.
A yoga instructor named Amanda Eller went missing while on a hike in the forest on the island of Maui. Two weeks later, a rescue helicopter spotted Amanda standing on a rock between two waterfalls, waving her arms in the air. They described the discovery as "unbelievable."
It turns out Eller had injured her leg during her hike after wandering deep into the forest. She survived for all that time thanks to her knowledge of nature and the local forest. She had positioned herself in the best spot to be seen by rescuers!
In 2018, a couple were found murdered in their home, but their daughter had disappeared. A countrywide search for the 13-year-old Jayme Closs ensued, but to no avail.
A man with dementia named Robert McDonough went missing and his whole town helped to search for him. He hadn't turned up by the next day when ABC News arrived to cover the story. As the reporter was speaking to the camera, McDonough wandered into the shot in the background! They were both shocked and amused by the occurrence, but mostly relieved to have located him safely.
An unnamed woman was taking part in a guided tour of an Icelandic volcano, but decided to step aside to freshen up and change her clothes. Her tour guide noticed she was missing and started a rescue mission for her. Apparently they didn't recognize her when she turned up wearing new clothes, so she joined her own search party! It was a while before they figured it out...
Sources: (Reader's Digest) (Ranker) (Yahoo)
See also: The most famous kidnappings in history: where are they now?
A boy called Julian Hernandez solved the mystery of his own kidnapping. When he submitted his college application, he discovered that his name didn't match his social security number. This led to the discovery that he had been kidnapped by his father when he was five years old, who then changed both their names and social security numbers so they could go incognito.
A Spanish doctor living in Seville with his family suddenly disappeared in 1995. His family and friends believed he had killed himself when he never turned up. He was declared dead in 2010, but a few years later he was found living as a hermit in a nature reserve in Tuscany! Apparently he just wanted out...
Ten years later, Jannah's uncle spotted a teenage girl who looked exactly like her. It turns out she was alive and well! A local fisherman had found her and brought her to his mother, who raised her for 10 years assuming that her family had died in the flood.
Raudhatul Jannah was one of many, many people who disappeared during the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. She was four years old at the time and her parents lost hold of her while clinging to a floating plank. With no sign of her a month later, it was assumed she was dead.
Thompson quit his job and traveled all across Europe on his bike to search for his son and raise awareness for other missing children. Four months into his journey, Interpol located the boy when his mother tried to enrol him in a school in Amsterdam.
Andrew Thompson was three years old when his parents got into a messy custody battle over him in Australia. His mother took the extreme measure of abducting him and taking him to Europe, going completely off grid. His father, Ken Thompson, searched for him for two years with no luck. Eventually, he came up with a plan.
The kidnapper, Robert "B" Berchtold, told Broberg that she was part alien, and that they were on a mission. He had managed to get close to her by starting secret romantic affairs with both of her parents, separately. Eventually, the FBI stepped in and declared it a kidnapping situation. They finally located her, and Berchtold was arrested. He was sentenced to just 45 days in prison.
A 21-year-old man named Jake Patterson was quickly apprehended and confessed to killing Closs' parents as part of his plan to kidnap her. He was sentenced to life in prison. As he left the courtroom he said "bye Jayme," to no one in particular.
It's reported that the team had gone on an excursion to the caves after practice and were caught in a chamber after heavy monsoon rainfall blocked their exit. It took nine days of desperate work and an international effort to get into the cave. The whole world had watched and and prayed for their safe recovery as time ran out. Miraculously, all 12 boys and their coach were successfully rescued.
Tragically, on November 24, her father, Ryan Kobayashi, was found dead near LAX, where the search had focused. The LAPD confirmed he took his own life.
Her family last heard from her on November 10, when she mentioned returning to LAX to catch another flight. They described some of her later text messages as "strange" before losing contact. As concerns grew, the search intensified, with family members distributing flyers in hopes of finding answers.
Investigators then classified her as a “voluntary missing person.” It is suspected that Kobayashi became involved in a green card marriage scam. She eventually returned to the US safely on December 16.
Hannah Kobayashi traveled to Los Angeles on November 8 but missed her connecting flight to New York, where she planned to visit family. The LAPD later discovered she left LAX with her luggage, traveling to Union Station, where she used her passport to buy a bus ticket heading near the Mexico border.
Click through this gallery to read up on some of the craziest missing person stories that had a happy(ish) ending.
Hadi Nazari was last seen by friends on December 26, 2023, walking a trail to take photos. When he didn’t return to their campsite, his friends alerted the police, prompting a large-scale search involving 300 personnel from various rescue agencies, according to a statement from NSW Police.
Ultimately, Nazari wasn’t found by search teams but by a group of hikers who came across him near a trail about 10 km (6 miles) from the search command post on January 8.
Missing people who were found alive
The lucky ones who turned up safe and sound
LIFESTYLE Mystery
When someone goes missing, it's devastating for their loved ones, and authorities are under immense pressure to find them within a short period of time. If it goes on for too long, the chances of that person turning up alive, or at all, drop considerably. The statistics are not encouraging and many families wait months or even years without any closure or comfort. However, every now and again, there's an extraordinary case where a missing person turns up alive and well as much as 20 years after they disappeared.
Click through this gallery to read up on some of the craziest missing person stories that had a happy(ish) ending.