Elizabeth Ann Gilmour is an American child safety activist and commentator for ABC News. She gained national attention at age 14 when she was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City by Brian David Mitchell. Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, held Smart captive for nine months until she was rescued by police officers on a street in Sandy, Utah.
Captivity narratives are usually stories of people captured by enemies whom they consider uncivilized, or whose beliefs and customs they oppose. The best-known captivity narratives in North America are those concerning Europeans and Americans taken as captives and held by the indigenous peoples of North America. These narratives have had an enduring place in literature, history, ethnography, and the study of Native peoples.
Twelve Years a Slave is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by Solomon Northup as told to and written by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York state, details himself being tricked to go to Washington, D.C., where he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Deep South. He was in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana before he was able to secretly get information to friends and family in New York, who in turn secured his release with the aid of the state. Northup's account provides extensive details on the slave markets in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, and describes at length cotton and sugar cultivation and slave treatment on major plantations in Louisiana.
Mellissa Veronica Fung is a Canadian journalist with CBC News, appearing regularly as a field correspondent on The National.
Amanda Lindhout is a Canadian humanitarian, public speaker and journalist. On August 23, 2008, she and members of her entourage were kidnapped by Islamist insurgents in southern Somalia. She was released 15 months later on November 25, 2009, and has since embarked on a philanthropic career. In 2013, she released the book, A House in the Sky: A Memoir, in which she recounts her early life, travels as a young adult, and hostage experience. In 2014, the book was optioned to become a major motion picture by Megan Ellison, with Rooney Mara playing the role of Lindhout.
On June 10, 1991, Jaycee Lee Dugard, an eleven-year-old girl, was abducted from a street while walking to a school bus stop in Meyers, California, United States. Searches began immediately after Dugard's disappearance, but no reliable leads were generated, even though several people witnessed the kidnapping. Dugard remained missing for over 18 years until 2009, when a convicted sex offender, Phillip Garrido, visited the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, accompanied by two adolescent girls, who were discovered to be the biological daughters of Garrido and Dugard, on August 24 and 25 of that year. The unusual behavior of the trio sparked an investigation that led Garrido's parole officer, Edward Santos Jr, to order Garrido to take the two girls to a parole office in Concord, California, on August 26. Garrido was accompanied by a woman who was eventually identified as Dugard.
Kevin Sullivan is an American journalist and author who is an associate editor at The Washington Post. Sullivan was a Post foreign correspondent for 14 years, working with his wife, Mary Jordan, as the newspaper's co-bureau chiefs in Tokyo, Mexico City and London. Sullivan is known for parachuting into faraway places, from Congo to Burma to Baghdad. He went to Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and to Saudi Arabia when King Abdullah died, and again after Jamal Khashoggi was murdered. He has also worked as the Post's chief foreign correspondent, deputy foreign editor, and Sunday and Features Editor.
Mary Catherine Jordan is an American journalist and author who is Associate Editor at the Washington Post. She was a foreign correspondent for 14 years. With her husband, Kevin Sullivan, Jordan ran the newspaper's bureaus in Tokyo, Mexico City and London. Jordan also was the founding editor and head of content for Washington Post Live.
Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story is a 2011 original LMN film, starring Taraji P. Henson and Terry O'Quinn. The film follows the events surrounding the kidnapping, captivity and rescue of the son of Tiffany Rubin, who was kidnapped by his father and taken to South Korea. The film shed light to the long-standing issue of International child abduction in South Korea and the danger that the abducted children face in the country.
Between 2002 and 2004, Ariel Castro abducted Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus from the roads of Cleveland, Ohio and later held them captive in his home at 2207 Seymour Avenue in the city's Tremont neighborhood. All three women were imprisoned at Castro's home until 2013, when Berry successfully escaped with her six-year-old daughter, to whom she had given birth while captive, and contacted the police. Police rescued Knight and DeJesus, and arrested Castro hours later.
Kidnapping is a crime in the United States. Throughout its history, a number of incidents have taken place.
On the night of 14–15 April 2014, 276 mostly Christian female students and also Muslim students aged from 16 to 18 were kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group called Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School at the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. Prior to the raid, the school had been closed for four weeks due to deteriorating security conditions, but the girls were in attendance in order to take final exams in physics.
Cleveland Abduction is a 2015 American crime drama television film directed by Alex Kalymnios from a teleplay written by Stephen Tolkin. Based on the kidnapping of three Cleveland women by Ariel Castro in the early 2000s, the film stars Taryn Manning, Raymond Cruz and Joe Morton. It debuted May 2, 2015 on Lifetime.
A Stolen Life: A Memoir is a true crime book by American kidnapping victim Jaycee Lee Dugard about the 18 years she spent while sequestered and enslaved with her captors in Antioch, California. The memoir dissects what she did to survive and cope mentally with extreme abuse. The book reached No. 1 on Amazon's sales rankings a day before release and topped The New York Times Best Seller list hardcover nonfiction for six weeks after release.
Stephen Tolkin is an American television writer, director and composer. He worked on a number of American television series including Brothers & Sisters, Perception, Legend of the Seeker and Switched at Birth. He has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture (Television) for A Day Late and a Dollar Short.
Ashley Nicole Summers was 14 years of age when she disappeared near her home in Cleveland, Ohio in early July 2007. Her whereabouts remain unknown, as there have not been any verified sightings of Summers since her disappearance.
Abbie Gardner-Sharp was born in 1843 in New York State to Rowland Gardner and Frances M. Smith. She was the third of four children – Mary M., Eliza M., Abigail and Rowland, youngest child and only son. Her family moved west to pioneer in Iowa in 1856.
Lisa McVey Noland is an American police officer, school resource officer, and motivational speaker from Tampa, Florida. At age 17, she was abducted by Bobby Joe Long, a serial killer and rapist who sexually assaulted and murdered ten women in the Tampa Bay area in 1984. McVey was one of Long's last victims and the information she provided to police led to his capture. A few years after her ordeal, McVey began to pursue a career in law enforcement.
