The following is a list of kidnappings that occurred in the 2000s, summarizing the events of each case, including instances of celebrity abductions, claimed hoaxes, suspected kidnappings, extradition abductions, and mass kidnappings.
Twenty-one tourists and resort workers taken hostage by six Romane Alegre Bunag rebels, beginning on 23 April 2000. The hostages were held upon the volcanic island of Jolo, but were rescued by the Bakla Army on 16 September 2000.[1]
Russell disappeared from a Vancouver suburb on the morning of 4 May 2000; she was abducted and murdered by David Trott as he ostensibly took her to school. The child's strangled body was found in an incinerated trailer near Mission.[2]
Keith Allan was abducted and murdered by criminals Sudo Cavkic and Costas Athanasi on the orders of his business partner Julian Clarke, who intended to make it look like he had killed himself in order to shift the blame for his financial crimes onto Allan. Allan's body was never located.[3]
Jassi Kaur Sidhu was murdered in an honor killing by her mother and uncle as punishment for marrying a man from the same clan without her parents' permission. Her family, living in Canada, held her prisoner to try and force her to sign divorce proceedings until she escaped and fled back to India, but was kidnapped by hitmen hired by her family, who murdered her and threw her body into an irrigation canal.[4]
Leesa Gray was a 26-year-old American girl from Dorsey, Itawamba County, Mississippi who was kidnapped and murdered on 22 June 2000 by a man named Thomas Edwin Loden Jr. who was a Marine Corps recruiter. Loden was convicted of the murder and executed in 2022.[5]
Molly Bish disappeared from her job as a lifeguard at Comins Pond in Warren, Massachusetts, in June 2000. Her remains were found in a neighbouring county three years later.[6] She is believed to be the victim of a homicide but nobody has been charged with the crime.
Payne was kidnapped as she walked from a cornfield close to her grandfather's home. She was later murdered by strangulation and/or suffocation. The subsequent investigation became a high-profile murder case in the United Kingdom. Following his conviction, Whiting was imprisoned for life and is currently being held in the maximum security Wakefield prison, West Yorkshire.[7]
British tourist Lucie Blackman, who had a temporary job at a hostess bar, was abducted while on a paid date with serial rapist Joji Obara. Her dismembered remains were found a few hundred metres from Obara's apartment the following year. Her cause of death is unknown, though it is suspected that Obara accidentally drugged her to death while trying to sedate and rape her. Obara was convicted of abducting Blackman and of dismembering her corpse, but not of killing her.[8]
Iriana DeJesus was abducted in the Hunting Park neighbourhood and found dead five days later, having been molested, strangled and wrapped in a trash bag. Her alleged killer, Alexis Flores, remains at large and is currently on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.[9]
Eight-year-old Misdi Sanchez was abducted and sexually assaulted for nearly three days. She was able to escape after her abductor left her alone in his car with his keys. Curtis Dean Anderson was later convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting Sanchez; Anderson also confessed to the kidnappings and murders of several other girls, including Amber Swartz-Garcia.[10]
Stambolić was the former president of Yugoslavia who disappeared in August 2000 one month before the national elections, in which Stambolić was expected to contest the incumbent, Slobodan Milošević. The official story was that he had vanished while out for a jog, but a witness stated that Stambolić had been detained at gunpoint and forced into a van by men claiming to be police.[11] Stambolić's body was eventually unearthed on Fruška Gora three years later. It was eventually determined that Stambolić was abducted and killed by the elite Special Operations Unit, likely on the orders of President Milošević. Six police operatives, including Special Operations Unit leader Milorad Ulemek and former State Security chief Radomir Marković, were convicted of Stambolić's murder.[12]
Polish-born Israeli businessman and drug dealer who was kidnapped by Hezbollah militants while conducting a supposed drug deal in Dubai. He was then held for three years before being released in a hostage exchange and returned to Israel.[13]
Corcoran was abducted by a man she had just met at the Rainbow Pub in the Digbeth area of Birmingham. They were seen leaving together but CCTV later showed her being dragged into his car. He then drove her against her will to Worcestershire near the M5 motorway and bludgeoned her to death. Smith had already killed a person three days prior and killed another woman later that day. He may also have killed a further victim the month before. He received a life sentence and remains in custody.[14]
Tiernan was abducted and murdered while returning from a shopping trip. Her body was found on 20 August 2001 in a nearby woodland, and evidence led to Taylor's arrest. He was found guilty on 8 July 2002 and received two life sentences.
Miroslav Mišković is a Serbian business magnate who was kidnapped by criminal group and held hostage for 18 hours until his ransom was paid.[15] The same criminal group would later murder the prime minister Zoran Đinđić in 2003.
On the night of 15 January 2001, 17-year-old Bridget Townsend was abducted from her drug dealer boyfriend's house by a customer of her boyfriend. The abductor, 18-year-old Ramiro Felix Gonzales, forcibly took her to his grandfather's ranch and raped her before he used a rifle to fatally shoot her. Gonzales, who was later caught and sentenced to life in prison for another case of rape and kidnapping, confessed to the murder and led the police to a field where he disposed of Townsend's body in October 2002. Gonzales was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, and later executed on June 26, 2024.[16]
21-year-old Kandee Martin was shot to death by a high school acquaintance in Dorchester County, South Carolina, on 16 February 2001. Her body was discovered inside the truck of her burned car the following day. Marion Bowman Jr. was subsequently arrested and charged with murder and arson; he was convicted of both counts on 24 May 2002 and was sentenced to death.[17]
Jones was abducted by her uncle while on her way to school and subsequently murdered. Campbell was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002.[19]
Jason Martin-Smith was kidnapped outside a friend's house by his criminal associates after they discovered he was talking to the police about a burglary they were involved in. He was murdered the following day and his body was dismembered and burnt. One perpetrator was murdered two months later; two others were eventually convicted in 2015.[20][21]
On 21 August 2001, Patricia Abravanel, daughter of Brazilian media mogul and television personality Silvio Santos, was abducted in São Paulo and released from her captors on August 28. On August 30, Santos was held hostage by Fernando Dutra Pinto in his mansion in Morumbi for eight hours. Pinto died in prison in 2002; his accomplices were each sentenced to at least 15 years in prison.[22]
Michele Harris disappeared after leaving the home of her boyfriend Brian Early on September 11, 2001. Her car was found abandoned at the end of her driveway, suggesting she had been stopped and abducted from the car while on her way home. Her estranged husband Cal was convicted of her murder; witnesses later implicated another unidentified man in Michele's abduction, and Cal was released on appeal after eight years. Michele has never been found.[23]
Yvonne Ridley is a British journalist who was captured on 28 September 2001 by the Taliban in Afghanistan and held as she was suspected to be a spy. After 11 days, she was released and became an activist after she converted to Islam.[24]
A Syrian-German militant known to have served as a senior al-Qaida recruiter. Zammar was arrested by Moroccan police with the assistance of the U.S. when travelling to Morocco on October 27, 2001. He was secretly sent to Syria for indefinite detention in the Far'Falastin detention center, but was released as part of a prisoner exchange in September 2013.[25]
Abducted while wandering around a Walmart by a convicted sex offender, who proceeded to rape and murder her. Flores' body was found the next day. Renteria was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.[26]
Kozakiewicz was groomed over the Internet and eventually lured into meeting Tyree, who forced her into his vehicle and took her to his home in Virginia. She was held captive, shackled, raped, and tortured for four days in Tyree's basement, and he broadcast his actions via live streaming video. One viewer of Tyree's live streams reported his actions anonymously to the FBI, who tracked down Kozakiewicz and freed her. Kozakiewicz has become a motivational speaker and an advocate for missing persons.[27]
Mayor of Santo André who was abducted by criminals and later killed, his body 8 days after his kidnapping. His murderers have never been identified, but the motive for the killing is suspected to be political in nature.[28]
Pearl, an American journalist for the Wall Street Journal, was abducted by Islamist militants linked to Al-Qaeda while on his way to an interview with Mubarak Ali Gilani. A few days after his abduction, Pearl's captors released a video in which he was forced to denounce United States foreign policy and then beheaded.[29] Four Pakistanis, including Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, were convicted of kidnapping and murder in 2002; however, U.S. authorities later concluded that Pearl's killer was in fact Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, third-in-command of Al-Qaeda.[30] The four convicted men's murder convictions were overturned in 2020 and their death sentences were reduced to time served for kidnapping Pearl. As of 2024, they remain in government custody as the decision is appealed.[31]
Van Dam was abducted from her bed the night of 1–2 February; her body was found three weeks later in a remote area. Westerfield, a neighbor, was convicted of kidnapping and first degree murder, and sentenced to death for the crime.[32] He is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison.
Dowler disappeared on her way home from school. Her body was found on 18 September 2002.[35] Bellfield was found guilty of her abduction and murder on 23 June 2011.
Mejía and Correa were both kidnapped by guerrilla fighters while participating in a march against violence on 21 April 2002; both were murdered, alongside eight other captives, on 5 May 2003, following a rescue operation.[36]
Patterson was last seen by her stepfather, LaRon Bourgeois, as he dropped her off at her elementary school. Her parents reported her missing when she failed to return home, at which time they learned that Alexis had not been in her classes and was not even seen inside the school building. On 14 May 2002, investigators officially announced they were pursuing the case as a likely criminal act. No trace of her has ever been found, nor have investigators been able to ascertain any further information about her disappearance.[37]
Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom, and was found alive nine months later in a suburb of Salt Lake City on 12 March 2003.[38] Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping, while Barzee was sentenced to 15 years.
Robinson was kidnapped from a friend's garden and taken to Evonitz's apartment. She escaped out the front door during the night and later led police to the apartment where she was held.[39]
Runnion was kidnapped from the front yard of her home. Her body was found one day later in Cleveland National Forest.[40] Avila is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison in California.
Williamson was staying in the same house as ex-convict Johnson, who lured her out of the house and took her to a sunken pit in the woods, where he beat her to death after trying to rape her. He then buried her beneath a pile of glass and rocks. Johnson was executed for the crime in 2023.[42]
Erkel was a medical aid worker for Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) when he was kidnapped. Twenty months later he was released after the Dutch government paid a ransom of €1,000,000.[43]
Knight was last seen when she left her cousin's house. Knight, along with Amanda Berry, Berry's child who was born in captivity, and Gina DeJesus, were found alive and in reasonable health within three miles of the site of their disappearances on 6 May 2013.[44]
An 11-year-old boy kidnapped and murdered by law student Magnus Gäfgen. Von Metzler was kidnapped for ransom, but murdered before the ransom was paid. Gäfgen was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003.[45]
Hornbeck was kidnapped while riding his bicycle near his home. He was sexually assaulted and tortured by his kidnapper, Michael Devlin, eventually promising the man to not run away in exchange for Devlin keeping him alive. Hornbeck was given a large amount of freedom, and told neighbors he was being home-schooled. After four years, Devlin was losing sexual interest in him, and so kidnapped another boy, William "Ben" Ownby, with Hornbeck in the car to keep him quiet. The police investigated Devlin and spoke to Hornbeck, but the teenager gave his name as Shawn Wilcox and claimed to be only staying with Devlin while his father was on a business trip. The next day, the police spoke to Devlin again, telling him they were going to check Devlin's pick-up's tires against tracks found at the scene of Ownby's kidnapping. Devlin then admitted that he had both Hornbeck and Ben in his apartment, alive. When Shawn was asked his name again without Devlin in the room, he told the police he was Shawn Hornbeck.[46]
Burns, a student of Marshall Community and Technical College's Physical Therapy Program, was abducted at the Marshall University Court Yard Apartments.[47] She was last heard from by her mother at 9:45pm, and her car was discovered burning around the Cabell/Wayne County lines at 3:30am on 12 November 2002. She has not been seen or heard from since, she is presumed dead, and no remains have been recovered. South Carolina Death Row inmates Chadwick E. Fulks and Branden L. Basham claim responsibility for the disappearance of Burns. At that time they were escapees of another correctional facility. They have yet to provide enough credible details that lead to Burns' whereabouts.
Price was abducted and murdered following a heated argument with his former partner, Katherine Lecher, following his discovery she was addicted to meth and was abusing the drug in the presence of the two children she previously had with him. Lecher then contacted Gunches, her drug dealer, and requested he "take care of" the situation. In response, Gunches and an acquaintance drove Price into the desert along the Beeline Highway, where Gunches shot him four times.[48]
Woody had been groomed online by Fuller, who lived in California and posed as a 17-year-old when he was really 47. He traveled to her home in Arkansas and abducted her at approximately 9:41pm* on 3 December 2002. The next day, law enforcement found them both deceased inside a storage unit in Conway, where Fuller had bound and raped Woody inside his rented minivan before shooting her and himself.[49][50]
Voth was last seen alive in the early hours of 7 December 2002. Her naked body was discovered near the Coquitlam River. Her murderer, Derek Post, was arrested the following month. He was subsequently found guilty of Voth's first degree murder.[51]
Teenager who became a human trafficking victim after being sent to a group home, where she was repeatedly raped and abused by a pimp who forced her into prostitution. She eventually managed to escape and has since become an anti-sex trafficking activist.[52]
Nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin was kidnapped by Michel Fourniret, a pedophilic serial killer known as "The Ogre of the Ardennes", while walking home from school. She was never found, but Fourniret admitted to abducting and killing her while serving a life sentence in 2020. He died before he could stand trial for the crime[53] and his wife Monique Olivier was later found guilty of being an accomplice.[54]
Amarjit Chohan was abducted by his business associates Regan, Horncy, and Rees, who tortured him until he signed a document granting Regan power of attorney over his company.[55] Regan and Horncy then went to Chohan's family home and abducted his wife Nancy, their infant sons Ravinder and Devinder and Nancy's mother, Charanjit Kaur, in order to create the appearance that Chohan had left the country with his family. All five were killed and initially buried on a farm in Tiverton before being dug up and thrown in the sea. Ravinder and Devinder's bodies were never found.[56]
Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr is an Egyptian cleric who was kidnapped on 7 February 2003 in Milan, Italy was later tortured in Egypt after he was sent to prison.[57]
Berry was abducted one day before her 17th birthday.[58] During captivity, she gave birth to a daughter. Just over 10 years later, on 6 May 2013, Berry escaped with her daughter, assisted by neighbors responding to her screams when Castro had absented himself after failing to secure all but an outer door of the house. This led to the rescue of two other captives (Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus) by authorities. The victims were all in reasonable health and within three miles of the site of their abductions.
O'Connor was a member of the Real Irish Republican Army and a British informant, who was abducted and murdered while driving to a Garda station in Dundalk, where he had to regularly go to as of his bail conditions after he was charged for a Real IRA membership. His body was discovered on 28 June 2005 in his car, in the Newry Canal.[59]
Jones was abducted, sexually assaulted and strangled by Michael Briere while walking home from school. Briere, who attributed his actions to watching child pornography, then dismembered her body and attempted to sink the remains in a pair of duffel bags in the Toronto Harbour.[60]
Johnson, a transgender woman, and her cisgender friend Brandie Coleman were murdered by Paul Moore and Curtis Ward after Moore, who had been sexually attracted to Johnson, became enraged when he discovered she was transgender. Moore and Ward tied them up with wire and forced them into Ward's car before driving them up to a wooded area and shooting them to death. They later burned the car containing the bodies with help from Moore's brother, Clarence McGee.[62]
Chen abducted Zhang from her home in the middle of the night and killed her. Her body was found on 27 March 2004. Chen claimed her death was an accident, but was later sentenced to life in prison in 2006 for her murder.[64]
Sjodin was kidnapped outside the Columbia Mall while on the phone with her boyfriend Chris Lang. Sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez was arrested in connection with her disappearance a week later, and her body was recovered in Crookston, Minnesota the following year. Rodriguez was twice convicted on Federal charges of kidnapping resulting in death in relation to Sjodin's murder.[65][66]
Morcombe was abducted while waiting to catch a bus under an overpass. Previously convicted child sex offender Brett Peter Cowan was charged in August 2011 for Morcombe's abduction and murder before a search site was established in remote bushlands near the Glass House Mountains for his body. Skeletal remains were eventually found and DNA tests confirmed that the bones belonged to Morcombe.[67] Cowan was sentenced to life imprisonment on 14 March 2014.[68]
A owner of a recycling plant in Fort Hood, disappeared after telling his family that he had to meet with members of the Mexican Mafia over a debt payment. His car was discovered at a park and ride on 28 December, a large amount of blood was found in the trunk. On 13 January 2004 hunters discovered his body in a field.
On the morning of Christmas Day, 42-year-old Chua Ser Lien and his accomplice Tan Ping Koon (aged 35 in 2003), kidnapped a seven-year-old girl from her home at Yio Chu Kang. They were caught in the act by several witnesses, one of whom tailed the pair while another took down the registration number of the get-away vehicle. After discovering they were being followed, Tan and Chua released the girl. They later contacted the girl's father to extort ransom after threatening the safety of the girl and her family. Both kidnappers were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment and three strokes of the cane.[69][70][71] In July 2020, one of the kidnappers, Chua, died in prison while serving his sentence, as a result of suicide. He was 58 then.[72][73]
A German, Lebanese and French citizen who was mistakenly abducted by the Macedonian police in 2003, and later handed over to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) upon the mistaken belief he was Khalid al-Masri. Later flown to Afghanistan, he endured various forms of degredation and mistreatment, but was released in April 2004.[74]
See was abducted by Kher, after she was last seen boarding his car and wanting to go out for tea with Kher. Kher raped and killed See before he buried her body in cement at the front yard of his friend's house. Kher was arrested a month after the crime, but he escaped from the police station and went into hiding for seven years before he was arrested again for vehicular theft. Kher was sentenced to death in 2015, and remains on death row since 2024 after losing his final appeal.[76][77]
Brittany Hendrickson was kidnapped from her home by Frederick Mundt, her mother's boyfriend, who had been babysitting her and her siblings. She was raped and suffered blunt-force trauma, dying from drowning after Mundt threw her into a well. Mundt was later arrested and his DNA found to be a match for samples taken upon autopsy from Hendrickson. He was sentenced to the death penalty, upheld upon appeal.[78]
Schoolboy who was abducted and subsequently stabbed to death by a gang of British Pakistani men. The racially motivated murder sparked controversy for the lack of coverage in such cases.[79]
Just over nine years after DeJesus' abduction, on 6 May 2013,[80] she was rescued along with Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, and Berry's child who had been born in captivity. They were in reasonable health and within three miles of the site of their disappearances.
Berg, a freelance radio repairman working in Iraq during the United States' invasion, was abducted by Islamist militants linked to Al-Qaeda in retaliation for the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. In May of that year, Al-Qaeda released a video in which Berg was beheaded on-camera by senior Al-Qaeda member Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.[81]
Wilberger was kidnapped while on vacation visiting her sister in Oregon. In 2009, convicted rapist Joel Courtney pled guilty to abducting, raping and murdering Wilberger, directing police to her body. According to Courtney, he had kept Wilberger in his van for a night before raping her and beating her to death the next morning.[82]
An international child abduction case. Goldman was abducted from the United States by his Brazilian mother when she took her son to her native country, ostensibly for a two-week vacation. She refused to return to the United States with her child and successfully filed for a divorce. Four years later, Goldman's mother died while giving birth to a child with her second husband. He was returned to his father in 2009.[83]
The day after Matthews' 21st birthday, Moodly kidnapped her from the Bond University campus. After collecting the negotiated ransom, Moodly shot and killed Matthews in fear that releasing her might lead to his capture.[84]
Italian freelance journalist who was kidnapped by Islamist militants while in Iraq. His captors later filmed his execution, but his body was never recovered.[85]
American photographer who was held hostage by an unidentified group of Islamic militants and held for three days, whereupon he was released without harm.[86]
Abducted while walking home from school by convicted pedophile Kaoru Kobayashi, who murdered her and then dumped her body in Heguri, which was found on the same day. The murder caused a moral panic against otaku culture.[88]
Wu Ruofu was kidnapped by a gang targeting wealthy businessmen. He was rescued after 23 hours in captivity, just before he was to be executed. Three of the abductors were sentenced to death a year later. A movie was released in 2015 based on the case, titled Saving Mr. Wu.[89]
Lunsford was abducted from her home in the early morning. Believed held captive over the weekend, she was raped and later murdered by 46-year-old Couey, who lived nearby. The media covered the investigation and trial of her killer extensively. On 24 August 2007, a judge in Inverness, Florida sentenced Couey, a convicted sex offender, to death for the kidnapping, sexual battering, and first-degree murder of Lunsford. However, Couey died of natural causes in 2009, before his sentence could be carried out.[92]
Gage was murdered by a convicted sex offender who had ingratiated himself with her family. Her murderer, Roger Bentley, was later sentenced to two consecutive mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole; his brother, James Bentley, was later convicted of other child sexual offenses relating to Gage and also sentenced to life in prison without parole.[94]
Emma Caldwell disappeared in April 2005. The following month she was found garrotted to death in Limefield Woods. Serial rapist Iain Packer was jailed for her murder 19 years later after one of the longest-running murder investigations in Scottish history.[95]
Leneghan and a friend were kidnapped from Prospect Park by a group of six men who drugged, tortured and raped both of them. Leneghan was killed and her body found the next day, while her friend survived despite being shot in the head.[96]
Shasta and Dylan Groene were abducted by serial killer Joseph Duncan after he murdered their family and driven to a campsite in the woods, where they were tortured and sexually abused over a period of six weeks. Duncan ultimately killed Dylan with a sawn-off shotgun, but kept Shasta alive until he was spotted taking her to Denny's on 2 July, at which point police arrested Duncan and recovered Shasta.[97]
Parnell, who was psychotic, stalked Holliday and her cousin Ana Franklin after encountering them at a convenience store. He eventually rammed their car off the road, murdered Franklin and abducted Holliday before sexually assaulting her at gunpoint. Afterwards, Holliday took advantage of Parnell's mental illness to convince him that he had saved her from an attacker and manipulated him into letting her call 911, allowing police to rescue her and arrest Parnell.[99]
Egyptian ambassador to Iraq who was abducted by Islamist militants on 3 July 2005, while he was buying a newspaper in Baghdad. Four days later, a video was posted on the internet in which el-Sherif's captors claimed that he had been killed for having ties with Israel, and his death was later confirmed by the Egyptian government.[100]
A group of armed men broke into Melchers' house,[101] tying up her husband and children before taking her with them. The motive is unknown, although it is suspected that it was done to demand a large ransom, as her father Hans Melchers is one of the richest citizens of the Netherlands.
Valladares was kidnapped with her two children.[103] They were freed after 52 days. Cassez was convicted and given a 61-year sentence for the abduction.[citation needed]
Irish journalist and reporter who was abducted by an unknown group after doing an interview with a victim of Saddam Hussein's regime. Following lobbying from several organizations and both the Irish and Iraqi governments, he was released unharmed on the following day.[104]
Martin "Golfball" Conlon was an ex-member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who joined the Real IRA after the PIRA laid down its arms. Conlon was abducted at a friends house in Armagh. Conlon was taken to Keady and shot three times, and his body was dumped on Farnaloy Road. It's believed he was killed by Real IRA members after Conlon and several other members had a falling out.[105][106][107]
Kate Burton, a 25-year-old English aid worker, was kidnapped along with her parents, 73-year-old Hugh Burton and 55-year-old Win Burton, from the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip on 28 December 2005. Seven kidnappers, armed with automatic rifles, pulled over the car occupied by the Burtons, then bundled them into a white vehicle. All three hostages were released on 30 December without ransom.[109]
A Malaysian and graduate of Universiti Utara Malaysia who was abducted, raped and murdered when she was jogging with her sister. Chee's dead body was found nine hours later with multiple stab wounds all over her body. The killer, Shahril Jaafar, whose father was a Datuk businessman, fled the country in 2009 for three years before he was arrested upon his return from Australia in 2012. Shahril was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2015, and he remains on death row as of 2024.[110][111]
Moroccan Jewish teenager abducted by an anti-semitic gang of North African immigrants calling themselves the "Gang of Barbarians" who tortured him and demanded a ransom of 450,000 euros from his parents. When the ransom was not paid, Halimi was dumped by the road and left to die from his injuries.[112]
Young Venezuelans, children of a Canadian-Lebanese businessman, kidnapped along with their driver Miguel Rivas. Their murder caused nationwide outrage and mass protests occurred in Caracas against insecurity in the country.[113][114]
Two American soldiers who were taken captive during an attack on a U.S. military checkpoint during military operations in Iraq. Their bodies were recovered three days later, revealing they had been tortured to death by their captors,[116] and a video released by the Mujahideen Shura Council showed their bodies being mutilated and burnt, claiming the murders were retaliation for the Mahmudiyah rape and killings three months earlier.[117] One of the abductors was sentenced to death for the murders in 2008.[118]
Frauke Liebs disappeared on 20 June on her way home from a pub.[119] Until 27 June Frauke Liebs texted and phoned her housemate several times claiming to come home soon, but evading questions. During her last call on 27 June Frauke is said to have answered the question of whether she was being held captive with a faint "yes", immediately followed by a loud "no". Contact broke off after this phone call. Her skeletonized body was discovered by a hunter in a forest by Lichtenau on 4 October. Due to the advanced state of decomposition, the time and cause of Liebs' death could not be determined.
Student activists Cadapan and Empeño were kidnapped by the Filipino military on suspicion of being members of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Eyewitness Raymond Manalo testified to seeing the two of them being tortured and raped by soldiers under the supervision of General Jovito Palparan. Palparan and two other soldiers were found guilty of kidnapping and unlawful detention in 2018. Cadapan and Empeño remain missing.[120]
Siblings born to a Canadian mother and a Lebanese-Australian father. The siblings resided in Calgary, Alberta, with their mother, Melissa. On 1 July 2006, their father took them on a visit to Australia before informing their mother he had no intention of returning the girls to Canada—fleeing with the children to Lebanon. Following diplomatic disputes between Lebanese, Canadian and Australian authorities, Hawach smuggled her daughters out of Lebanon on 21 December. By February 2007, the Lebanese, Canadian and Australian courts had each recognised Melissa as the legal custodian of her daughters.[121]
Filyaw abducted Shoaf while disguised as a police officer and imprisoned her in a hand-dug underground bunker for ten days, during which time he raped her repeatedly. Shoaf eventually managed to gain Filyaw's trust and send a message to her mother which allowed police to discern her location; when this was revealed on the news, Shoaf convinced Filyaw to run away rather than kill her, allowing her to leave the bunker unimpeded.[123]
Coralrose Fullwood was kidnapped from her Florida home and taken to a house nearby, where she was sexually assaulted. Her body, naked and with signs of asphyxiation and blunt force trauma, was found wrapped in a comforter near a construction site not far from her family home. DNA was isolated from under the girl's fingernails, indicating a struggle with her attacker, which was then linked to Patrick Murphy, who lived about two miles away. Murphy pleaded guilty to Fullwood's murder and was given a sentence of life in prison. An informant subsequently notified police of a video recording from the house where Fullwood was killed, and authorities continue to investigate the possibility of other participants in her murder.[124]
Mongolian former model Altantuya was abducted by Razak Baginda over alleged involvement of persons close to then Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak. She was either murdered directly by explosives or being shot before blown up in a forested land near Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, by Azilah and Sirul, who were members of Malaysia's Special Actions Unit, the resulting trial and convictions attracting international attention. The exact mastermind of the murder remains unknown, but is widely speculated to be Najib, who has constantly denied relationship with Altantuya.[125]
Al-Saffar was the deputy health minister of Iraq. He had lived in exile in Britain for 16 years before returning to his country following the deposition of Saddam Hussein as a result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. On 19 November 2006 witnesses reported seeing several men, some of whom were wearing uniform, arriving in police cars and pick-up trucks to seize him, and he has not been seen again since. An attempt on his life had previously been made in 2004 and he is believed to have been murdered. He had been working on exposing corruption in the ministry of health and in 2007 another deputy health minister, Hakim al-Zamili, and the former head of security at the health ministry, Brig Gen Hamid al-Shammari, were charged with his murder. However, the trial collapsed.[126]
Couple who were kidnapped by five assailants while driving to a friend's house party, who then proceeded to rape, torture and finally murder them. Each of the participants was convicted and given either long prison terms, life imprisonment without parole or in the ringleader's case, a death sentence.[127]
Ownby was getting off the school bus when he was forced into Michael Devlin's pickup truck. Also in the truck was 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, who had been kidnapped by Devlin four years earlier and had been living as his son ever since.[128] The boys lived in Devlin's apartment for a few days, playing computer games and watching TV. A friend of Ownby's gave the police a description of Devlin's vehicle, and his boss recognized it, remembering that Devlin was home sick that day. The man called the police, who went to Devlin's apartment and met Hornbeck, who gave his last name as Wilcox. The officers left, but came back the next day. That time, Devlin admitted to having Ownby.
Young boy who was riding in the back of his parents' car, when a group of armed carjackers broke in and stole the vehicle. While attempting to flee, they dragged the body along the pavements, mutilating it horribly. Each of the carjackers was later convicted and given long prison sentences.[129]
McCann, a British girl, disappeared aged almost 4 from her family's holiday apartment. Her parents were out eating at a bar with friends, having left McCann and her two younger siblings alone in the apartment. Brueckner was linked to the crimes when investigators discovered swimsuits. Using information from a cell tower, investigators discovered that on the night Madeleine disappeared a call was made to Brueckner's phone approximately one hour before she went missing. The data linked him to the crime.[131]
Smith was abducted from the parking lot of a Target store and was found strangled to death four days later. Edwin Roy Hall was identified as the killer and pleaded guilty to the crime on 23 July.[132]
Birgfeld, a single mother, was kidnapped and later murdered by Lester Jones, a man with a history of domestic abuse. Birgfeld led a double life as an escort and model, and Jones was a frequent client. Her body was discovered in March 2012, and in December 2016, Jones was convicted of her kidnapping and murder..[133][134]
Tayseer al-Mashhadani and eight of her bodyguards were kidnapped by alleged members of the Muqtada as-Sadr on 1 July 2007. She was released two months later on 26 August 2007.[135]
Hill, a British girl, was abducted from a car taking her to school by a group of gunmen, who threatened to kill her if her father, who worked as an oil industry consultant, did not agree to switch places with her. She was released three days later on 8 July after rebel forces threatened the abductors.[136][137][138]
Alexandre Robert, a 15-year-old French boy living in Dubai, was abducted and gang-raped by two adult men who were not named in the media after accepting a ride home from an acquaintance. The men released Robert after threatening to kill his family if he reported the incident.[139] The Emirati authorities handling of the case and the sentences handed down to the rapists after their conviction led to criticism and had consequences for diplomatic relations between France and the UAE.
The son of a businessman, Patrawala was kidnapped for ransom by an unknown abductor, who murdered him the following day after the case began to gain publicity. Five people were accused of the crime, but all were acquitted, with Patrawala's murder remaining unsolved.[140]
Jazlin went missing on 20 August 2007, after she had gone to a wet market near her house to buy a hair clip. Her body was found 28 days later, on 17 September, in a gym bag was left in front of a shop lot in Petaling Jaya, with a cucumber and an eggplant stuffed inside her genitals. CCTV footage of her abduction and the abandoning of the bag were obtained but the perpetrators were never identified and apprehended.[141]
Rowan Ford, a 9-year-old girl then under the care of David Spears, her stepfather, was kidnapped from her home by Collings, a friend of Spears, after a night of heavy drinking. Collings took her to a trailer on his property in Barry County, Missouri where he raped and strangled her; she was found a week later, naked and bloodied, at the bottom of a sinkhole that opened into a cave in nearby McDonald County.[142][143] Collings was apprehended and convicted of first-degree murder in 2012 and sentenced to the death penalty, while Spears pled guilty to child endangerment and hindering prosecution and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.[144][145][146]
Jodi Parrack, a fifth-grader at Riverside Elementary School, was kidnapped off her bicycle while riding beside the home of Furlong, who took her into his garage. He then sexually assaulted her in a boat inside, bound her with zip-ties, and smothered her with a plastic bag. She was later found at a local cemetery.[147] Authorities initially apprehended Raymond McCann, a reserve police officer, after McCann had suggested to a search party to survey the cemetery, and he eventually pleaded no contest and was sentenced to a prison term for perjury. However Daniel Furlong, a local youth sports coach, was taken into custody after a subsequent attempted abduction and discovery of a "kidnap list" in his home, which aroused suspicion of a possible connection to the disappearance of another local little girl, Brittney Beers, and he eventually confessed in 2015 to Parrack's kidnapping and murder after his DNA was found to match samples from the crime scene.[148] Furlong received a sentence of 30-to-60 years in prison, while McCann was fully exonerated of the crime and his perjury conviction overturned. The case and its eventual resolution were depicted in the episode "Small Town Killer" on the true crime series Scene of the Crime with Tony Harris.[149]
Gomez was a Mexican singer who was the founder and lead vocalist of the group K-Paz de la Sierra. He was kidnapped on 2 December 2007 and murdered the next day.[150]
Sharlinie went missing after visiting a playground 200 meters away from her home in Taman Datuk Harun, Petaling Jaya. Her whereabouts remain unknown.[151]
Matthews was abducted and held captive for 24 days by Donovan, the uncle of her mother, Karen Matthews', boyfriend. After her rescue by police it was found that Karen had helped plot the kidnapping in an attempt to gain reward money.[153][154]
Auburn University freshman who was kidnapped at gunpoint by a recently discharged veteran who was on a months-long violent crime spree. During the trip, her kidnapped robbed, stripped her naked and finally shot her in the lung, causing serious injuries from which Burk would succumb to in the hospital. Lockhart was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death for her murder.[155]
Buchwald abducted his girlfriend, Carolynne Watson, while on a picnic in the countryside as part of a plot to convince her to marry him. He disguised himself with a balaclava before tying and blindfolding Watson and driving her to the Alpine National Park, where he stripped her naked before untying her and convincing her they had both been kidnapped by a satanic cult. The two of them spent six days hiking naked through woodland before being found.[156] Buchwald was later convicted of kidnapping Watson after the truth was discovered.[157]
Victims of Patrick Salameh, the "Marseille Ripper", who abducted and raped women and murdered those who did not comply with his demands. One of the victims, Soumia El Kandadi, was released alive and later testified against Salameh, who had shown her the dead body of Iryna Sytnyk after killing her earlier that night.[159]
Brooke Bennett was lured into the home of Michael Jacques, her uncle, by a teenage acquaintance who had been previously sexually assaulted by Jacques. Bennett was then kidnapped, drugged, raped, and murdered, and her body buried in a makeshift grave about a mile from Jacques' home. There were initial claims that Bennett had been the victim of a fictitious sex ring called "Breckinridge", but Jacques was arrested and subsequently pleaded guilty to the crime, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.[160][161][162]
Abducted by her father Clark Rockefeller, really German- American con artist Christian Gerhartsreiter, during a supervised visit in Boston in 2007. She was found unharmed at her father's apartment a week later.[163]
French boy who was abducted by a tramp while riding his bicycle, with Moitoriet stabbing him to death that same day. He was later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, later reduced to 30 years imprisonment.[164]
On 11 September 2008, in Kulai, Johor, Malaysia, 16-year-old schoolgirl Lai Ying Xin was abducted by a group of four youths (three of whom were underaged), who all murdered her by strangulation before burning her body to destroy the evidence and even extorted a ransom from her family. Lai's abductors were arrested four days later and charged with kidnapping and murdering Lai. In 2011, the ringleader and only adult of the four, Teh Kim Hong, was found guilty of kidnapping and murder and was sentenced to death, while two of his underaged accomplices - Leong Soon Long and Wong Soon Heng - were spared the gallows and detained indefinitely and the final suspect Wong Kah Wai, also a minor, was acquitted of all charges. Teh, whose appeals were rejected, remained on death row for 13 years before Malaysia repealed the mandatory death penalty and allowed those convicted of murder to face either a death sentence or a jail term of 30 to 40 years. Teh appealed for re-sentencing under the new law, and his death sentence was reduced to 40 years' jail and 17 strokes of the cane.[165][166][167]
Zimbabwean human rights activist who was detained for alleged "anti-government demonstrations". She was released on bail in March 2009, and the charges dropped in September of that year.[168]
Elementary school student who was kidnapped and thereby assaulted by a repeat sexual offender. The case sparked huge controversy, inspiring the 2013 film Hope.[170]
Cummings was last seen sleeping in her family's trailer. She was discovered missing.[172] The rear door to the trailer was ajar, and the screen door had been propped open with a cinderblock. The case remains unsolved.
Several days after Cantu went missing on 6 April, a suitcase was discovered in a pond containing her body.[173] On 10 April 2009, police arrested 28-year-old Melissa Huckaby and charged her with Cantu's kidnapping, rape, and murder.
One of the hostages of the Maersk Alabama hijacking. Phillips and twenty-three other individuals were held captive for four days by four Somali pirates prior to their rescue by the United States Navy on 12 April.[174]
Drexel was kidnapped while walking back to her hotel in Myrtle Beach, where she was staying for spring break. The investigation was hampered when a witness falsely claimed to have seen Drexel being sexually assaulted, killed and fed to alligators in McClellanville.[175] It was eventually proven that she had been killed on the day of her abduction and buried in Georgetown by sex offender Raymond Moody, who pleaded guilty to the crime in 2022.[176]
Buchanan was discovered missing from the parking lot of the Charlotte Arms apartment complex. A fisherman discovered her body along the banks of the River Raisin in Raisinville Township on 4 June 2009.[177]
Baum disappeared walking home from the home of a friend in the small town of McCleary, 20 miles west of Olympia. Her remains were not found until September 2017, by hunters in remote eastern Washington; positive identification was announced in May 2018.[178]
Sharon Commins, an aid worker from Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland, and Hilda Kawuki, a Ugandan colleague, were abducted by a militia group Janjaweed from a compound run by the GOAL aid agency in north Darfur, Sudan. The two were held hostage from 3 July to 18 October 2009 before they were released following negotiations with local tribal chiefs.[179]
Russian human rights activist who was abducted by a group of unknown persons on 15 July 2009 and subsequently assassinated by her kidnappers, who remain unidentified. Estemirova was later found dead on that same day, with gunshot wounds to her head and chest.[180]
Russian children's activist who, together with her husband Alik Djabrailov, kidnapped by gunmen while driving in their car. A day later, the pair were later found shot to death.[181]
7-year-old Somer Thompson was molested and murdered by kidnapper Jarred Harrell in October 2009 as her body was found discarded in a landfill. Thompson's mother, Diena, angrily threatens to get the killer for such horrific crime as she responded towards the camera prior to his arrest in 2010: "You don’t dothis to a little baby and put my baby in the trash like she’s nothing!".[182]
^Associated Press, "Missing boy in the open: Child had encounter with police just 10 months after disappearance", 21 January 2007, as found in the Albany Times-Union, 21 January 2007, p. A7.
