There are nearly 90,000 missing persons in the U.S. alone, at any given time. And most cases will remain cold, as people disappear into different lives, some filled with unimaginable terrors. But what happens to the small percentage of missing people who one day show back up? Where did they go and what happened to them? Missing people found alive are stories that capture the nation’s attention whenever they break. Often inspiring and devastating at the same time, and sometimes downright eerie and bizarre, these narratives of men and women who return after years of absence are all-around fascinating.
Some tales are so fantastic, you would think there’s no way they could be true, like the story of Gabriel Nagy, the missing man found alive several years after disappearing and suffering severe amnesia, or the incredible events leading to Elizabeth Smart’s rescue and return to her family. Kidnapped people who escaped, missing people found off the grid, others living double lives, each story manages to shock one after the other. For the devotedly curious creep-seekers, here are several stories about real life missing people who were found alive, despite all reasonable doubt.
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Amanda Eller Was Found Two Weeks After Disappearing In A Forest On Maui
Amanda Eller is a 35-year-old yoga instructor and physical therapist who became lost while on a hike in the Makawao Forest Reserve on Maui, HI, May 8, 2019. On May 25, 2019, a rescue helicopter found Eller walking barefoot between two waterfalls and waiving her arms. Javier Cantellop, one of the rescuers in the helicopter, described the encounter as “unbelievable.”
Eller wandered deep in the Makawao Forest Reserve after she fractured her leg while hiking. She was reported missing the following day and search parties were sent after her. As time went on, family and friends began to suspect foul play and offered a $50,000 reward for her discovery.
Two weeks later, rescuers found her with minor injuries, 15 pounds lighter, and otherwise in stable condition. Cantellop attributed Eller’s ability to survive to her experience with nature. He said her career as a physical therapist as well as knowledge of yoga techniques and of the local vegetation are what saved her life.
Both Eller’s parents have expressed relief to being reunited with their daughter.
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Jayme Closs Asked A Woman Walking Her Dog For Help
Nearly three months after her parents were shot and killed in their Wisconsin home on October 15, 2018, investigators found their missing daughter, 13-year-old Jayme Closs, more than 60 miles away from where she disappeared the night of their murder. According to CNN, Closs approached a woman who was walking her dog around 5pm on January 10, 2019, in Gordon, Wisconsin. The woman says she recognized Closs immediately, and took her to a nearby neighbor’s house to call 911. The authorities arrived on the scene and reported having a 21-year-old male suspect in custody 10 minutes later.
According to prosecutors, the accused kidnapper and murder, Jake Patterson, confessed to scoping out Closs’s home after he randomly saw her boarding a bus. He then reportedly spent two weeks planning her kidnapping, and he allegedly even shaved his head to prevent any DNA connection to the crime scene.
Closs underwent care at a local hospital. Her aunt, Sue Allard, told reporters she had expected any news about her niece to be the worst: “I just cannot believe this.” The accused kidnapper’s mother, according to a neighbor, is “totally distraught” over her son’s supposed actions.
On January 28, 2019, Hormel Foods – a company that employed Jayme’s parents – announced they were giving the $25,000 reward they put out for finding the missing teen to Jayme herself.
“Our hope is that a trust fund can be used for Jayme’s needs today and in the future,” the company said in an official statement.
On March 27, 2019, Patterson pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping and he faces a possible life sentence. His hearing is scheduled for May 24. Patterson’s guilty plea spares Jayme from having to testify. As he left the courtroom, he remarked to no on in particular, “Bye Jayme.”
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Jan Broberg Was Abducted Twice By The Same Man
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Photo: Abducted in Plain Sight/Netflix
The 1974 and 1976 kidnapping cases of Jan Broberg have reentered the zeitgeist, thanks to the Netflix true crime documentary Abducted in Plain Sight. When Jan was just 12 years old, neighbor and family friend Robert “B” Berchtold took Jan from her home, claiming he was taking her horseback-riding. In reality, he dosed her and took her to Mexico, where he then married her.
Initially, her parents were so swayed by their friend Berchtold that they truly believed he took her on a horseback-riding trip. It wasn’t until the FBI stepped in and officially declared it a kidnapping case that a nationwide search started. As the FBI investigated, they discovered that Berchtold had intimate relationships with Jan’s parents just to get close to her.
During the first abduction, Berchtold said to Jan that she had been taken by a UFO, and she herself was part alien. He said she needed to complete a mission: conceive a child with a human male. Berchtold said he was to be the father. Even though her parents signed affidavits to effectively stop the nationwide search and persecution of Berchtold, the FBI continued their investigation, and the kidnapper entered a plea deal. He went to prison for 45 days.
In 1976, he took her again – this time making it look like she ran away from home. Berchtold pretended to be her father and enrolled her in an all-girls Catholic school. Berchtold kept in touch with Jan’s parents, claiming that he had no idea where she was. The FBI eventually took notice and bugged the Broberg’s phones so they could record the conversations. A little over three months later, authorities tracked down Berchtold.
While she was with Berchtold, Jan says that he violated her “more than 200 times.”
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Authorities Found A Missing Woman Alive Seven Days After Her Car Plunged Off A Cliff
Video: YouTube
Angela Hernandez was traveling from Oregon to California to visit family when she suddenly went missing. On July 5, 2018, she sent her family a text saying she was pulling over in a grocery store parking lot to sleep in her car. After texting the following morning that she was getting back on the road, communication suddenly stopped. Her family could not reach Hernandez via phone, prompting them to contact the authorities on July 6.
While heavy fog initially hampered search efforts, eventually two hikers in Big Sur, California noticed the wrecked remains of Hernandez’s SUV at the bottom of a cliff. After calling the police, Hernandez was found alive in a rocky spot on the mountains after being missing seven days. She reportedly used the radiator hose from her car to siphon water from a nearby creek while awaiting rescue.
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Rescuers Found A Boys’ Soccer Team Nine Days After They Were Trapped In A Cave
Photo: Lillian Sunwanrumpha/Contributor/AFP/Getty Images
A boys’ soccer team and a coach were found nine days after going missing in the Tham Luang Nang Non caves in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. After a soccer practice on June 25, 2018, the mother of one of the players became worried when her son did not return from practice.
The team, 12 boys ranging from 11-16 years old, took shelter in a cave during a downpour. The boys and their coach became trapped by the flood and got lost in the meandering cave system. A rescue unt comprised of Thai Navy SEALS, technical experts from around the globe, and praying citizens all contributed to the effort. All 12 boys and the coach were found alive on July 2, 2018.
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Elizabeth Smart Was Saved From Her Kidnapper By Her Little Sister
Photo: KOMUnews / flickr / CC-BY 2.0
One of the most high-profile child abductions cases in modern times, Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapping was talked-about all across America. In 2002, a former handyman, hired by Smart’s parents, broke into their home. Brian David Mitchell, who had gone by “Emmanuel” to the Smart family, abducted Smart while she slept in bed next to her younger sister, Mary Katherine, who pretended to sleep so that the intruder would not harm them. Only 14 years old, Smart was taken from her home for 9 months.
It wasn’t until then that Mary Katherine realized the man who had entered their bedroom was in fact “Emmanuel.” When police released a sketch of the handyman, which aired on Larry King Live and America’s Most Wanted, Mitchell’s family recognized his likeness and provided the police with additional photos. While walking on the street, disguised in a wig and veil, someone recognized Mitchell and his accomplice, Wanda Ileen Barzee. The police were notified and Smart finally reunited with her family. Today, Smart is involved with activism and journalism geared towards ending human trafficking.
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Missing Cleveland Women Were Saved From Their Kidnapper By A Neighbor
Photo: THD3 / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Commonly referred to as the Cleveland Abductions, the story of serial kidnapper Ariel Castro broke headlines in 2013. For nearly eleven years, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina DeJesus were imprisoned by Castro, who repeatedly beat and raped them. Berry even bore Castro’s child. Because the women were considered runaways by police, their cases were never thoroughly investigated.
It wasn’t until 2013, when Castro’s neighbor Charles Ramsey heard Knight, Berry and DeJesus crying for help inside the house, that officials realized they were in fact NOT runaways. With the help of other neighbors, Ramsey broke down the cellar door and freed the women inside. Castro was sentenced to life in prison, but shortly thereafter committed suicide by hanging himself with his bedsheets.
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Philip Sessarego Faked His Own Death To Rebuild His Military Career
Philip Sessarego always aspired to join the SAS of the British military. He applied multiple times, but failed to make the cut. In 1993 ,while in Croatia, Sessarego faked his own death, allowing many to believe he perished in a car bomb attack. He adopted the name Tom Carew, and rebuilt his reputation as a “Special Forces” member. He even wrote a book about his experiences in the service called “Jihad! The Secret War in Afghanistan,” which received critical praise.
But in 2001, a BBC program revealed “Carew’s” identity. Seven years after this exposure, Sessarego was found dead in his garage. Although examiners determined the cause of the death to be suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning, his daughter believed he could have been murdered, as he “made enemies easily.”
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Steven Stayner Escaped A Child Molester
After being approached by Kenneth Parnell and Ervin Murphy, seven-year-old Steven Stayner was kidnapped and taken to a remote cabin. Parnell had convinced the “simple-minded” Murphy to orchestrate the abduction, posing as church members seeking help. Parnell molested Stayner and convinced him that his parents had given him up because they had too many children to take care of.
Parnell renamed Stayner Dennis Parnell, and proceeded to enroll him in various schools. Stayner had the opportunity to come and go as he pleased, and many acquaintances had no clue that he was ever abducted by Parnell. When Stayner reached puberty, Parnell organized another kidnapping of a boy named Timothy White. Fearing White would fall to the same pattern of abuse he experienced, Stayner orchestrated their escape. After being taken into police custody, Stayner and White were reunited with their families. Stayner had been in captivity for eight years.
Stayner’s story was developed into a TV movie, I Know My First Name Is Steven.
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Gabriel Nagy Lost His Memory And Disappeared
After losing his memory in a car accident, Gabriel Nagy, confused and disoriented, wandered off without saying a word to anyone. When Nagy didn’t return home that evening, his family began to panic. Police found his vehicle in flames on the side of the road. Two weeks after his disappearance, Nagy’s credit card showed a charge for some camping supplies, but this transaction did not lead to his discovery.
When a police officer located Nagy’s name registered under Medicare, he sought him out. For the past twenty years, Nagy had been suffering severe amnesia working odd jobs. He had effectively started over from scratch. But after reuniting with his family, many of his memories came flooding back. Scarring on the back of his head correlated to the condition of his car accident, and medical examiners believe it caused a state of Dissociative Fugue, which can cause people to wander off.
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Bowe Bergdahl Went AWOL
Photo: United States Army / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
A subject of the hit podcast Serial, Bowe Bergdahl’s disappearance and subsequent capture by the Taliban garnered national attention and debate. In 2009, Bergdahl, having expressed frustrations with American nationalistic attitudes within the army, and disappointment in the U.S. intervention in the Middle East, walked away from his platoon.
He was eventually held as a prisoner of war by the Taliban, though his capture has become a point of contention, since Bergdahl initially claimed he fell behind on a patrol. The Taliban stated that they found him stumbling drunk, and U.S. forces reiterated that Bergdahl willingly left post. Missing and hidden for five years, Bergdahl was brought back to the U.S. in a trade deal made by the Obama administration. He is currently being tried on desertion charges.
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Steve Carter didn’t realize he had been kidnapped until he was 35 years old. After reading a story about a similar case, Carter researched his own records out of questions that had nagged at him his whole life. When Carter found a picture on a website depicting a digitally-aged conceptualization of missing child Marx Panama Barnes, his jaw dropped: the doctored photo was his spitting image.
After contacting investigators and law enforcement, Carter learned that his mother had run away with him when he was a baby. His father never located them because his mother changed their names. From there, his mother was checked into psychiatric care and Carter became a ward of the state. His mother eventually disappeared, yet again, but this time did not come back. Carter was adopted by new parents at age 4. After his discovery, Carter reached out to his biological family, ending a lifetime of mystery.
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Overcome with the failures of her life, Brenda Heist was bawling her eyes out when two strangers approached her and asked if she was alright. In that moment, Heist decided she had had enough and accepted the strangers’ offer to tag along on their adventures. Heist spent the next 11 years struggling with drugs, working odd jobs in hotels, and living out of an RV. Initially, police and family could not fathom an explanation for Heist’s disappearance. Her husband was even a suspect at the time of investigation.
However, when Heist showed up in 2010 to reunite with her family in Florida, she explained that she had simply “snapped.” Heist’s family were more than reluctant to forgive and forget Heist’s abandonment. The reunion was and remains messy.
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Declared Dead, Carlos De Salazar Was Discovered On A Remote Beach
When Carlos Sanchez Ortiz De Salazar went missing one day, many expected the worst. Described as severely depressed, many friends and family assumed he had committed suicide. After vanishing in 1995, De Salazar was officially declared dead in 2010. Nearly 20 years later, two mushroom pickers wandering a remote Tuscany coastal line stumbled upon De Salazar’s secret encampment inside a nature reserve. Startled by De Salazar’s appearance, the two men ran for help. When they arrived with a ranger hours later, Salazar explained that he had been on this coast since 1997.
Despite De Salazar’s requests that he be left alone, Spanish officials contacted his family. But when they arrived in Italy to reunite with De Salazar, he had already packed up his things and disappeared again.
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After A Man Admitted To Murder, Petra Pazsitka Was Discovered Alive And Well
Petra Pazsitka disappeared at age 24. Expected to be home from university for a weekend visit, Pazsitka never showed up. When police started investigating, they began to think that convicted murdererer Gunter K was responsible. Gunter K, a court-assigned pseudonym, had previously admitted to killing a teenager in the same area. When probed by police, Gunter K confessed to killing Pazsitka as well.
But it turns out, Pazsitka wasn’t deadt. Secretly renting an apartment with money she had saved and taking on different identities, Pazsitka spent a long time planning her escape. Pazsitka was discovered when she called police to her apartment in Dusseldorf after her home was burgled. Since this revelation, Pazsitka has refused to share her reasons for wanting to disappear.
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Danielle Cramer Was Found In A Cabinet After Police Raided The Home Of A Murder Suspect
Having been missing for almost a year, police were shocked to discover 15-year-old Danielle Cramer living in a cabinet in the home of Adam Gault and Ann Murphy. The pair had kidnapped Cramer. Police found Cramer behind a dresser in a cramped, closet-like space. There was no bedding or indication that she lived in there.
At first unsure whether or not Cramer had joined the couple willingly or not, Cramer eventually clarified that she had been forced into performing for Internet sex shows. Gault and Murphy were later tried for the crimes.
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Before there was Elizabeth Smart, there was Jaycee Dugard, one of the most high-profile kidnapping cases covered by the media. Dugard was kidnapped in broad daylight, witnessed by several other students and her step-father. Her abductors, Philip Garrido and his wife Nancy, kept Dugard handcuffed to a bed. Garrido repeatedly raped Dugard, resulting in two pregnancies while held in captivity.
Almost 20 years later, Dugard was discovered after Garrido broke his sex offender regulations. According to police, Dugard had displayed intense symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome. Garrido had spent the last 20 years convincing Dugard that she was his source of salvation from sexual deviancy. Although her reunion with her family proved difficult, Dugard spent years rehabilitating herself and defusing Garrido’s sick brainwashing.
Duggard wrote a memoir of her experiences titled A Stolen Life.
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Timothy Carney Cut Ties With His Family
After calling into work reporting he’d be late, Timothy Carney was never heard from again. He never made it to work, and his car was found abandoned on the side of the road. His family worked tirelessly with a missing person’s organization to track down Carney, but to no avail. They even posted billboards throughout the area with Carney’s face plastered on them.
In 2011, Carney was finally located, but he refused to disclose his whereabouts to his family. Why Carney decided to vanish and cut ties with everyone he knew remains a mystery. However, Carney’s friends and family have expressed theories that Carney is being heavily influenced by a religious organization called the Gospel Outreach. Carney was ultimately taken off the missing persons record, but some have asked the question whether he was ever really missing at all?
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Robert McDonough was suffering from dementia when he went missing. The elderly man didn’t return home one night, alarming his family. A massive search party was organized, and police scouted his hometown in Maine.
The next day, reporters from ABC showed up to run a story on McDonough’s sudden and dangerous disappearance. But as the crew filmed reporter Norm Karkos, McDonough appeared in the shot. When Karkos noticed McDonough walking by, he was both shocked and humored by the coincidence. McDonough was reunited with his family, although he is still unsure of where he went or what he did.
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David Leggat Got Locked In The Bathroom
When David Leggat snuck away to use the men’s room., he was surprised to find the hinges jammed, preventing him from opening the door from the inside. With no cell phone to call for help or any family members to realize he was missing at all, Leggat spent the next four days in the bathroom. Everyone having retired from the bowling club for the evening, Leggat was left to his own devices. Spending nearly 16 hours a day in darkness, Leggat struggled to keep his spirits up.
It wasn’t until a cleaner heard his cries for help that he was saved. Surviving only on tap water from the sink, Leggat was eager for a drink. Ever an optimist, Leggat’s main take away from the predicament: “At least there was a toilet to use. The only thing I regret is not getting trapped behind the bar.”
A Woman Accidentally Joined A Search Party Looking For Her
When an unidentified woman left her tour of an Icelandic volcano to freshen up and change her clothes, she was reported missing. It appeared no one had a clear look at the woman, however, because when she returned, she actually joined the search party. The woman, described only as “Asian, but fluent in English, about 5’3, and wearing dark clothes,” helped her tour group feverishly scour the area.
It wasn’t until it clicked in the woman’s mind that she was also Asian, but fluent in English, about 5’3, and was previously wearing dark clothes that she made the connection. Following her groundbreaking revelation, the woman reported herself as the “missing person.”
12 Missing Children Were Found In A House Of Horrors
In 2011, Philadelphia police discovered a child trafficking ring hidden in a dilapidated home. Twelve of the children found in captivity had previously been reported missing, and assumed dead. Conditions in the home were incredibly dire, dirty, and abusive. After uncovering the ring, police located up to fifty more victims elsewhere.
Four of the twelve inside were described as having disabilities. Police believe they were imprisoned so that the perpetrators could cash in their assistance checks. Four suspects were held responsible for the children’s capture and restraint.
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Missing for 13 years of his life, Julian Hernandez had no idea he was a victim of kidnapping until he tried filing his university paperwork. Wile applying for a scholarship, Hernandez’s name did not match his social security number. When a counselor tried to help him figure out the issue, they discovered his listing on a national missing person’s database. Hernandez was kidnapped by his own father when he was five years old.
Against court orders, Hernandez packed up his things, changed both his and his son’s social security numbers and names, and started over. Bobby Hernandez, the father, was taken into custody and is facing abduction charges. Meanwhile, Hernandez’s mother was overcome with joy and relief. Devastated by the revelation, Hernandez took to a Reddit subthread to express his frustrations. In the now-deleted post, Hernandez discusses his shock, but assures readers that he forgives his father.
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More Than 31 Years After Disappearing, A Pittsburgh Woman Was Found In A Puerto Rican Nursing Home
Photo: NamUs / Fair Use
In 1992, Patricia Kopta of Ross Township near Pittsburgh, PA, disappeared. At the time 52 years old, she was known as a “street preacher” nicknamed “The Sparrow,” because of her small build, and had a history of mental illness, according to officials and her family. Her family believed she had died, but in 2023, she was found alive, at age 83, at a nursing home in Puerto Rico.
At a news conference, Ross Township Police Chief Brian Kohlhepp said Kopta had been found wandering around northern Puerto Rico before she was taken to an adult day care home in 1999, hinting that she had arrived via cruise ship. Eventually, Kopta, who has dementia, shared information with employees of the nursing home that led to details about her past. In 2022, the employees contacted police in Ross Township, and sent officials a DNA sample from Kopta. It was a match to two of her relatives.
Patricia and her husband, Bob Kopta, 86, had been married for 20 years when she went missing. He and her family said she was worried at the time that she might be put in a home because of her mental struggles. They don’t know how she ended up in Puerto Rico, but said she liked to vacation there.
She had been a model, dance instructor, and worked in finance and as an elevator operator before she began showing signs of what was possibly schizophrenia, and walked through the streets talking about the end of the world. Then, “I come home one night, and she’s just gone,” Bob Kopta told The Associated Press.
Bob, who never remarried, said he doesn’t plan to visit his wife, but is happy that she is in a safe, caring place.
“She could have come home at any time,” he said. “She always said she wanted to go to a warm climate.”
Patricia’s twin sister died before knowing that her sister had been found.
