Julian Hernandez didn’t know he was a victim of a kidnapping . His name did not match his social security number as he was filing for his university papers so when a counselor tried to help him, they discovered his listing on a national missing person’s database. Hernandez was kidnapped by his own father when he was just 5. His father, Bobby Hernandez, was indicted on Nov. 24, 2015 on six counts of kidnapping, four counts of interference with custody, one count of forgery, and other charges. Julian has since said that he forgives his father.

Philadelphia police busted a child trafficking ring in a dilapidated home. 12 children were found and these were kids reported missing or assumed dead. The home was filthy and conditions were abusive. Police went on to find 50 other victims. Four of the twelve children had disabilities leading police to believe they were held so that suspects could cash in their assistance checks. Four suspects were held for the crime.

A woman left her Icelandic volcano tour to freshen up and change. For some reason, she was reported missing. No one really knew what she looked like so she ended up joining the search. The woman was described as, “Asian, but fluent in English, about 5’3, and wearing dark clothes.” It took awhile before she realized that she was Asian, of the same height, and had just changed out of her dark clothes. She went ahead and reported herself as the “missing person.”

David Leggat had to go use the men’s room but when he found the hinges jammed, he couldn’t open the door from the inside. Leggat spent an agonizing 4 days in the bathroom. A cleaner heard David’s cries for help and only then was he saved. Leggat survived on tap water. Leggat commented on his situation with optimisim: “At least there was a toilet to use. The only thing I regret is not getting trapped behind the bar.”

Robert McDonough had dementia so when he didn’t return home one night, a massive search party with police searched the Maine neighborhood. Reporter Norm Karkos was getting ready to shoot the next day when McDonough appeared in the shot. The men exchanged pleasantries but Norm suddenly realized that it was McDonough. The elderly man was reunited with his family, safe and sound.

Timothy Carney called his office to say he’d be late. He never showed up, with his car found abandoned. His family did everything they could, working tirelessly to find him, to no avail. Carney was found in 2011, but wouldn’t say where he went or what he did. Friends and family think Carney was under the influence of a religious group he went to.

Dugard was kidnapped in broad daylight, which was witnessed by other students and even her step-father. She was kept handcuffed to a bed by her abductors, Philip Garrido and his wife Nancy. Philip repeatedly raped her, resulting in 2 pregnancies. Garrido broke his sex offender regulations almost 20 years later leading to the discovery of Dugard. She displayed symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome as Garrido had convinced Dugard that she fulfilled his “needs”. Dugard spent years rehabilitating herself though family reunions proved difficult. She wrote a memoir of her experiences called A Stolen Life.

15-year-old Danielle Cramer was found by police living in a cabinet in the home of Adam Gault and Ann Murphy. The pair had kidnapped Cramer and it was nearly a year before police found Cramer cramped in a closet-like space. Cramer eventually confessed that she was made to perform in sex shows online. Gault and Murphy were arrested and tried for their crimes.

Pazsitka was expected to come home from university for a weekend visit, but she never showed. Police theorized that convicted murderer Gunter K was responsible. He did admit to killing a teenager, and he eventually confessed to killing Petra. But Pazsitka wasn’t dead. She was secretly renting an apartment while taking on different identities. Police found her when she called for assistance in Dusseldorf after her home was burgled.

Carlos Sanchez Ortiz De Salazar was described as severely depressed. When he went missing, friends and family assumed he committed suicide. He vanished in 1995 and was officially declared dead in 2010. It was not until 20 years later when two mushroom pickers in Tuscany stumbled upon De Salazar’s camp inside a nature reserve. When De Salazar appeared, the two men ran to call authorities. Carlos said he’d been there since 1997. De Salazar wanted to be left alone. When his family arrived, he was nowhere to be found.

Brenda Heist was feeling like a total failure and as she was crying, two strangers approached her. She decided to change her life, joining the two strangers in the next 11 years doing drugs, working odd jobs in hotels, and living out of an RV. Police and family could not explain why she had gone missing. In 2010, Heist reunited with her family in Florida. Her explanation was that she “snapped.” The family found it difficult to forgive her as a result.

Nicholas Barclay’s disappearance and reemergence was documented in The Imposter. Frédéric Bourdin was a French trickster and imposter who convinced Barclay’s family that he was Nicholas. Barclay supposedly escaped a child prostitution ring, resulting in the family accepting Bourdin into their home. He looked nothing like Nicholas and it wasn’t until an investigator became suspicious that Bourdin confessed. Sadly, the real Barclay was never found.

Steve Carter was 35 years old when he found out about his situation. He had a lot of questions so he searched his records. Carter found a picture on a website of missing child Marx Panama Barnes which was digitally aged. It was him. Carter’s mom ran away with him when he was a baby. She changed their names to avoid his father. His mother eventually left him and Carter was adopted at age 4. When he discovered his story, Carter reached out to his biological family.

Bowe Bergdahl’s disappearance and capture by the Taliban got the nation’s attention. In 2009, Bergdahl left his platoon. He was frustrated with American nationalistic attitudes in the army. Bowe was captured as a prisoner of war by the Taliban, but he claims he fell behind on a patrol. The Taliban said he was drunk, while U.S. forces claimed he deserted. Bergdahl was missing for 5 years before being brought home and tried.

Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Van came home past curfew and as a result, was locked out of the house. Van didn’t know what to do so she met some friends at a karaoke bar. An older woman offered them a ride after. Van and friends woke up to find themselves in China. They were to be sold into marriages or killed. Van married a Chinese farmer in Guangdo, spending decades with the man before she escaped on a truck. Van came home after 21 years much to her family’s shock.

Gabriel Nagy was in a car accident. He was confused and disoriented, losing his memory in the process. He didn’t come home while police found his car in flames. Two weeks later, Nagy’s credit card was charged for some camping supplies but he wasn’t found. Nagy suffered severe amnesia wherein he had to start over from scratch all the time. Reuniting with his family helped bring back memories with medical examiners saying it’s a state of Dissociative Fugue.

Seven-year-old Steven Stayner was kidnapped and taken to a remote cabin by Kenneth Parnell and Ervin Murphy. Parnell and Murphy posed as church members. Parnell molested Stayner, convincing him that his parents gave him up. Parnell renamed Stayner Dennis Parnell, and even made him go to school like any ordinary kid. When Parnell kidnapped another boy named Timothy White, Stayner knew he had to get out with White and they did. They were eventually reunited with their families.

Philip Sessarego could never make the cut for the British SAS, so in 1993, he faked his own death in Croatia via a car bomb attack. He took on the name Tom Carew, a “Special Forces” member with heroic experiences detailed in his book called “Jihad! The Secret War in Afghanistan”. The BBC exposed Sessarego in 2001, and seven years after, he was found dead in his garage. Examiners say it was carbon monoxide poisoning but his daughter says Philip made a lot of enemies. It could have very well been murder.

For nearly eleven years, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina DeJesus were imprisoned by Ariel Castro. The Cleveland Abductions made headlines in 2013 as Castro repeatedly beat and raped the three women, with Berry even having Castro’s child. Police never bothered investigating as the women were considered runaways. Charles Ramsey, Castro’s neighbor, heard Knight, Berry and DeJesus crying for help so with the help of other neighbors, Ramsey freed the women inside. Castro was arrested and jailed. He committed suicide in his cell.

A former handyman named Brian David Mitchell, broke into the Smart’s home and abducted Smart while she was sleeping next to her younger sister, Mary Katherine. Elizabteh was just 14 when she was taken from her home for 9 months. Mary Katherine pretended to sleep as her sister was taken. She realized that it was Mitchell and when police released a sketch of the handyman, the family recognized him, even giving police additional photos. Mitchell and his accomplice, Wanda Ileen Barzee were recognized in the streets leading to their arrest.

The Tham Luang Nang Non caves in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province held a boys’ soccer team and their coach for 9 days. 12 boys took shelter in a cave when the skies opened up and poured heavy rain. Flood water forced them to move getting them lost in the caves. The Thai Navy SEALS, technical experts from around the globe, and other volunteers helped find all 12 boys and the coach on July 2, 2018. They were all reunited with their families.

Angela Hernandez went missing during a trip to visit family. On July 5, 2018, she messaged her family to tell them she was sleeping in a parking lot. The next morning, her family could not reach her phone after a quick exchange. It was two hikers who noticed Hernandez’s SUV at the bottom of a cliff. She was found alive after being missing seven days. Angela used her car’s radiator hose to siphon water from a creek helping her to survive.

Jan was just 12 when neighbor and family friend, Robert “B” Berchtold, drugged her, took her to Mexico, then married her. Berchtold told the parents it was just a horseback-riding trip. It was the FBI that declared it a kidnapping. In the first abduction, Berchtold tried to convince Jan that she was part alien who needed to conceive a child with him. The parents wanted the search stopped but the FBI continued the investigation eventually sending Berchtold to prison for 45 days. In 1976, Berchtold took Jan once more and enrolled her in an all-girls Catholic school. Berchtold calimed he had no idea where she was but the FBI bugged the Broberg’s phones. They tracked down Berchtold and took him.

Jayme’s parents were shot and killed in their Wisconsin home on October 15, 2018. Investigators found her more than 60 miles away from the murder scene. Closs approached a woman walking her dog on January 10, 2019. The woman recognized her, taking Closs to a neighbor’s house to call 911. 21-year-old Jake Patterson confessed to spending two weeks planning the crime. On January 28, 2019, Hormel Foods, her parents’ employers, gave Jayme the $25,000 reward they put out for finding her.

On May 8, 2019, Amanda Eller got lost while on a hike in the Makawao Forest Reserve. A rescue helicopter found the yoga instructor and physical therapist on May 25, 2019, walking barefoot between two waterfalls while waiving her arms. Amanda fractured her leg while hiking as she delved deeper into the forest. She was reported missing with family and friends suspecting foul play. Rescuers found her 2 weeks later in stable condition. Eller survived as she had the knowledge and physical fitness to do so.