- Graeme Thorne Kidnapping
The Graeme Thorne kidnapping is the name given to the 1960 kidnapping and murder of Graeme Thorne for the money that his father, Basil Thorne, had won in a lottery. A crime which caused massive shock at the time and gathered huge publicity, it was the first known kidnapping for ransom in Australian history. The police investigation that led to the capture and conviction of his murderer, Stephen Bradley, is justly regarded as a textbook example of forensic investigation. - John Walsh
John E. Walsh (born December 26, 1945 in Auburn, New York) is the host of the TV show "America's Most Wanted". Walsh is known for his anti-crime activism, which includes ride-alongs with law enforcement and, at times, taunting and harrasing criminals who were arrested as he watched, particularly those who target children, following the murder of his son, Adam, in 1981. He usually appears wearing a black leather coat, which has become part of his visual signature. - Lisa Nowak
Lisa Marie Nowak (née Caputo, is a United States Naval officer and a former NASA astronaut. She was selected by NASA in 1996 and qualified as a mission specialist in robotics. Nowak flew aboard the Space Shuttle during mission STS-121 in July 2006. She was responsible for operating the robotic arms of the shuttle and the International Space Station. On February 5, 2007, Nowak was arrested in Orlando, Florida, … - Elizabeth Smart
Elizabeth Ann Smart (born 1987), is a woman from Salt Lake City, Utah who was kidnapped at the age of 14 from her bedroom on June 5, 2002. She was found alive nine months later on March 12, 2003, a few miles from her home in Sandy, Utah in the company of two homeless practitioners of Mormon fundamentalism (not to be confused with mainstream Mormonism, the predominant religion in the Salt Lake area), Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ileen Barzee. - Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Former President of Haiti (1991),(1994-1996) and (2001-2004), ousted in two coups d'état (1991,2004). The American government ruled that the years of military government between 1991 and 1994 would count as part of his term, forcing him to step down after only two years as he was not permitted to run for a second consecutive term. His second term was also interrupted by a putsch and he was forced into exile by the American military. When he could not run, René Préval was elected... - Shawn Hornbeck
Shawn Damian Hornbeck (born 1991) is an alleged kidnapping and sexual assault victim from the U.S. state of Missouri who was found in January 2007. He was reported missing by his family on October 6, 2002, after not returning to his rural Missouri home in Richwoods, Missouri, from a bicycle ride. Following his abduction, his parents also appeared on several high profile television shows to help gain national attention for the search, … - Jessica Lunsford
Jessica Marie Lunsford (October 6, 1995 - February 27, 2005) was a nine-year-old girl who was abducted from her home in Homosassa, Florida on February 23, 2005, then raped and murdered by 47-year-old John Couey. The media covered the investigation and trial of her killer extensively. - Mariane Pearl
Mariane van Neyenhoff Pearl (b. July 23, 1967 in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France) is a French freelance journalist, reporter and Global Diary columnist for "Glamour" magazine. She is the widow of Daniel Pearl, the "Wall Street Journal" reporter who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in early 2002. Of Dutch-Jewish, Afro-Latino-Cuban and Chinese Cuban ancestry and raised in Paris, … - Hashim Ibrahim Awad
Hashim Ibrahim Awad (1952 - April 26, 2006) was a disabled Iraqi veteran killed by US Marines on the night of April 26, 2006, in an episode known as the Hamdania incident. Seven Marines and a Navy corpsman face charges of war crimes in relation to his death, including murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, larceny, assault and unlawfully entering a dwelling.. - Dru Sjodin
Dru Kathrina Sjodin (September 26, 1981 - November 22, 2003), a student of the University of North Dakota (UND), was a victim of kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder. Her disappearance garnered great media coverage throughout the United States and prompted the creation of the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry. - John Couey
John Evander Couey (born September 19, 1958) was convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering nine-year old Jessica Lunsford in February 2005, in Florida. Lunsford's disappearance and Couey's subsequent confession and trial received extensive media coverage. A jury recommended that Couey recieve the death penalty. Couey maintains that he is innocent. - Angelo Reyes
Angelo Tomas Reyes was the Secretary of National Defense of the Philippines under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from 2001 to 2003. He is currently the Secretary of the Department of Energy. - Adam Walsh
Adam John Walsh was an American boy abducted from a Sears department store at the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, Florida, on July 27, 1981, and later found murdered. No one was ever arrested or tried for the crime. Adam's death earned national publicity, and Adam's father, John Walsh, later became an advocate for victims of violent crime and the host of the television program "America's Most Wanted". - Carlie Brucia
Carlie Jane Brucia (March 16, 1992 - February 1, 2004) was a girl from Florida who was raped and murdered by Joseph P. Smith after being kidnapped from a car wash near her home in Sarasota on February 1, 2004, while returning from a sleepover at a friend's house. She was reported missing by her mother, Susan Schorpen and her stepfather, Steven Kansler within a half hour of her abduction. - Marc Dutroux
Marc Dutroux (born 6 November 1956 in Brussels) is a Belgian criminal, convicted of having, in 1995 and 1996, kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused six girls, ranging in age from 8 to 19, four of whom he murdered. He was also convicted of having killed a suspected former accomplice, Bernard Weinstein. He was arrested in 1996 and has been in prison since then. His widely publicised trial took place in 2004. - Michel Fourniret
Michel Fourniret (born Sedan, France, 4 April 1942) is a French serial killer who confessed, in June and July 2004, to kidnapping, raping and murdering nine girls in a span of fourteen years during the 1980s and the 1990s. He is also suspected of ten additional murders, nine in France and one in Belgium. He is currently detained in Belgium awaiting trial. He is sometimes referred to as the "Ogre of the Ardennes". - Jodi Huisentruit
Jodi Sue Huisentruit (born June 5, 1968) was a television news anchor for KIMT, based in Mason City, Iowa in the United States. It is believed that she was abducted while on her way to work in the early morning hours of June 27, 1995. She was 27 years old at the time. Huisentruit grew up in Long Prairie, Minnesota. In high school, she was considered to be very good at golf. Her team won the state Class A tournament in 1985 and 1986. After high school, she went on to St. - Robert Seldon Lady
Robert Seldon Lady (b. February 2, 1954 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; nicknamed "Mister Bob") is a noted member of the U.S. intelligence community. The former CIA station chief in Milan, Italy, Lady is now is a fugitive from Italian police, following his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in February 2003, in what the Italian press are referring to as the "Imam Rapito" (or "kidnapped imam") affair. - Jacob Wetterling
Jacob Erwin Wetterling (born 1978) was an American boy from St. Joseph, Minnesota who was kidnapped from his hometown at the age of 11 on October 22, 1989. He, his brother, and a friend were bicycling home from a convenience store, when a masked gunman came out of a driveway and ordered the boys to throw their bikes into a ditch and lie down on the ground. He asked each boy their age. - Joseph E. Duncan III
Joseph Edward Duncan III (born February 25, 1963) is an alleged American serial killer, and convicted sex offender and murderer who received national attention after being arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Shasta Groene, age eight, and her brother Dylan, age nine. - Vinson Filyaw
Vinson Filyaw is a 37-year-old, unemployed construction worker accused of kidnapping a 14-year-old of Lugoff, South Carolina, on September 6th 2006 and holding her captive in an underground bunker that he had constructed in order to elude police who were seeking to arrest him on a charge of raping his girlfriend's daughter. He was also accused of raping the girl while he held her captive only one mile from her home. - David Parker Ray
David Parker Ray (6 November 1939 - 28 May 2002) was an American serial rapist and murderer. He was sentenced to 224 years in prison at a hearing in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico - having been convicted of numerous offenses involving the abduction and sexual torture of three young women at his Elephant Butte Lake home. Ray was earlier convicted for his crimes against Kelly Van Cleave, formerly of Truth or Consequences, in July 1996. - Machine Gun Kelly
George R. Kelley aka George "Machine Gun" Kelley Barnes (July 18, 1895 - July 18, 1954) was a notorious American gangster during the prohibition era. His crimes included bootlegging, armed robbery and kidnapping. Born to a wealthy family living in Memphis, Tennessee, he flunked out of Mississippi State University, while pursuing a degree in agriculture, to pursue Geneva Ramsey, and then a life of crime. - Frank Sinatra Jr.
Frank Sinatra, Jr. (born January 10, 1944) is an American singer and conductor. He is the son of famed musician Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy Barbato. Frank Jr. has always existed in the shadow of his far more famous father. His supporters feel that if he had been born with another name he could have achieved quite a following of his own, while his detractors have claimed that he has made his entire career off his name. - Richard Ramirez
Ricardo "Richard" Muñoz Ramirez aka The Nightstalker (born February 29, 1960 in El Paso, Texas) is a convicted serial killer awaiting execution on California's death row at San Quentin State Prison. Prior to his capture, Ramirez was dubbed the "Night Stalker" by the news media as he terrorized California with a series of car and home abductions, rapes, and murders during the first half of 1985. - Shin Sang-Ok
Shin Sang-ok (October 18, 1926 - April 11, 2006) was a prolific South Korean film producer and director, with more than 100 producer and 70 director credits. He is most famous for his being kidnapped by the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, for the purpose of producing critically-acclaimed films. - Steven Stayner
Steven Gregory Stayner (April 18, 1965 - September 16, 1989) was an American child who became famous after he was kidnapped as a seven-year-old and held captive by his abductor, to be reunited with his family seven years later. He was also the brother of convicted serial killer Cary Stayner. - Richard Ricci
Richard Albert Ricci (December 20, 1953 - August 27, 2002) was an American handyman who was initially the main suspect in the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl, Elizabeth Smart of Utah, who was kidnapped from her house in the early morning of June 5, 2002. Smart was found alive by police nine months later in March 2003 in the company of a homeless man named Brian David Mitchell and his wife, who authorities have charged with her abduction. - Michael J. Devlin
Michael John Devlin (born in November 29, 1965) is an American from Kirkwood, Missouri. He is best known as a suspect in the kidnapping of two boys, Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby. - Kenneth Glenn Hinson
Kenneth Glenn Hinson (born 1959) is an American sex offender who was charged with the rape of two teenage girls. He was acquitted of these charges on April 23, 2007. Hinson was accused of abducting two teenage girls and raping them in a hidden room beneath an outbuilding adjacent to his home. He was convicted in 1991 of raping a 12-year-old girl, and sentenced to 18 years in prison; he was released after serving nine years. - Sabine Dardenne
Sabine Dardenne (born 1983) is a Belgian woman who, at the age of twelve, on May 28, 1996, was kidnapped by serial killer Marc Dutroux while on her way to school. Dardenne was one of Dutroux's last two victims. She survived, but four other girls and an alleged accomplice named Bernard Weinstein were found dead on Dutroux's properties. Dardenne and 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez, who had been abducted a couple of days earlier, were rescued on August 15, … - James Bulger
James "Jamie" Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990 - 12 February 1993) was a two-year old toddler who was abducted and murdered by two 10 year-old boys, Jon Venables (born 8 August 1982) and Robert Thompson (born August 23, 1982), in Merseyside, England. The murder of a child by two other children caused an immense public outpouring of shock, outrage and grief, particularly in Liverpool and surrounding towns. - Kristen French
Kristen Dawn French (May 10, 1976 - April 19, 1992) was a Canadian schoolgirl who resided in St. Catharines, Ontario until she was abducted, tortured, and murdered by Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo. She was held captive and tortured for three days, until they killed her on April 19, 1992. French was on her way home from Holy Cross Secondary School, a Catholic school in St. Catharines, … - Audrey Seiler
Audrey Seiler is a native of Rockford, Minnesota and a former University of Wisconsin student, who faked her own abduction in Madison, Wisconsin. At 2:30 a.m. on March 27, 2004 Seiler was seen on a surveillance camera leaving her apartment without her coat and purse, leaving her apartment door open. Police initially investigated her disappearance as an abduction. - Kenneth Parnell
Kenneth Eugene Parnell (born September 26, 1932) is a convicted sex offender, known infamously for his kidnapping of seven-year-old Steven Stayner in Merced, California. - Patty Wetterling
Patty Wetterling (born November 2, 1949) is a U.S. advocate of children's safety, particularly focused on protecting children from abduction and abuse. Her advocacy began after her son was abducted in 1989. She was a candidate for the Minnesota Sixth District seat in the United States House of Representatives as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate in 2004 and 2006, losing to Republicans Mark Kennedy and Michele Bachmann respectively. - Nathaniel Bar-Jonah
Nathaniel Benjamin Levi Bar-Jonah (born David P. Brown on February 15, 1957, in Worcester, Massachusetts) is a convicted felon currently serving a 130-year prison sentence without the possibility of parole in Montana after being convicted of kidnapping, aggravated assault, and sexual assault of multiple children. Though he was never convicted of the charges, he was also suspected of murder and cannibalism. - Miguel Etchecolatz
Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz (b. 1929) was a senior Argentine police officer, who worked in the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the first years of the military dictatorship known as the National Reorganization Process. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006, on charges of homicide, illegal deprivation of freedom (kidnapping), and torture. - Chopper Read
Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read (born November 17, 1954), is an Australian former-criminal, author and celebrity. Convicted of many crimes including armed robbery, firearm offenses, assault and kidnapping, Read spent a mere 13 months outside prison between the ages of 20 and 38, then went on to become a successful author of crime novels, selling in excess of 500,000 copies of his works. More recently, he has also found success as a recording artist. - Omar Hayssam
Omar Hayssam (b. January 3, 1963) is a Syrian-born Romanian financier who was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison after a Romanian court found him guilty of masterminding the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in 2005.
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