Abductions
Kidnappings, including cases where the victim was recovered alive. ColdCaseIndex documents 19 cases of this type, of which 7 are recorded as unsolved.
- Unsolved 7 (37%)
- Solved or convicted 12 (63%)
By state or country
All 19 cases
Cleo Smith
Four-year-old Cleo Smith was taken from her family's tent at the Blowholes campsite north of Carnarvon, Western Australia, on October 16, 2021. Police found her alive 18 days later, on November 3, in a locked house in Carnarvon.
Jayme Closs
Thirteen-year-old Jayme Closs was kidnapped after her parents were murdered in Barron, Wisconsin. She escaped 88 days later. Jake Patterson was sentenced to life in prison.
Alex Batty (found)
Alex Batty of Oldham, England, was 11 when he failed to return from a holiday in Spain with his mother and grandfather in October 2017.
Josef Fritzl Case
Josef Fritzl imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in a cellar for 24 years, fathering seven children with her. The case was discovered in 2008 when one of the children needed hospital care.
Cecilia Zhang
Nine-year-old Cecilia Zhang was kidnapped from her bedroom in Toronto. Her body was found five months later. Min Chen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Daniel Morcombe
Thirteen-year-old Daniel Morcombe disappeared while waiting for a bus at Woombye on Queensland's Sunshine Coast on December 7, 2003.
Sofia Lucerno Juarez
Four-year-old Sofia Juarez disappeared near her Kennewick, Washington, home the night before her fifth birthday in February 2003, prompting the state's first Amber Alert.
Teekah Lewis
Two-year-old Teekah Lewis vanished from the arcade of a Tacoma, Washington, bowling alley while her family bowled nearby in January 1999.
Natascha Kampusch
Ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped on her way to school in Vienna and held captive by Wolfgang Priklopil for over eight years in a basement dungeon. She escaped in 2006.
Anthony Martinez
Ten-year-old Anthony Martinez was abducted while playing outside his Beaumont, California, home in 1997 and found murdered in the desert about two weeks later.
Marc Dutroux Victims
Six girls aged 8 to 19 were abducted in Belgium in 1995 and 1996; four died and two were rescued alive from a hidden cellar on August 15, 1996, two days after Marc Dutroux was arrested.
Heather Danyelle Teague
Heather Danyelle Teague, 23, was abducted at gunpoint from Newburgh Beach on the Ohio River in Henderson County, Kentucky, on August 26, 1995, an act witnessed through a telescope from across the river.
Morgan Nick
Six-year-old Morgan Nick was abducted on June 9, 1995, from the parking lot of a Little League baseball game in Alma, Arkansas, while catching fireflies with other children.
Shannon Melendi
Shannon Melendi, a 19-year-old Emory University student, was abducted from a DeKalb County softball complex in 1994 and never seen again.
Jaycee Dugard
Jaycee Dugard, 11, was abducted on June 10, 1991, while walking to a school bus stop near South Lake Tahoe, California. She was held for 18 years at the Antioch home of Phillip and Nancy Garrido and was found alive in August 2009.
Melissa Brannen
Five-year-old Melissa Brannen vanished from a community Christmas party at her Lorton, Virginia apartment complex in December 1989. Handyman Caleb Hughes was convicted of abducting her, but her body has never been found.
Mr. Cruel Victims
An unidentified offender known as 'Mr Cruel' attacked three girls in Melbourne between 1987 and 1990, abducting two of them from their homes and later releasing them.
Christopher Enoch Abeyta
Seven-month-old Christopher Abeyta was taken from his crib in his family's Colorado Springs home overnight in July 1986. Investigators found the family's garage-door opener missing and a basement window open.
Mary Agnes Moroney
Two-year-old Mary Agnes Moroney was taken from her family's South Side Chicago apartment on May 15, 1930 by a woman using the name Julia Otis and was never returned.