Authorities assumed the notorious serial killer had claimed Lovell as one of his victims. Using their database of missing children, they discovered that her real name was Carlina White and she had been abducted as a newborn baby, nineteen days after her birth, from Harlem Hospital in New York. ", "We really thought she was dead all those years. While in captivity, she was repeatedly raped and assaulted. None of that happened, and he was captured, instead. Patterson's guilty plea spares Jayme from having to testify. According to CNN, Closs approached a woman who was walking her dog around 5pmon January 10, 2019, in Gordon, Wisconsin. He even said to him that his parents dont want him, and he was an adopted kid. Then 31 years later, the girl was found at a new place when questioned she didnt give any reason why she left and never spoke to her family. The unhinged part was most likely schizophrenia. It was total shock, said Gloria Smith, Patricia Koptas sister. Where did they go and what happened to them? When the police get a new missing person case, it is simply another one to add to the list of all the other ongoing cases, all of which must be investigated, with only the same . He went to prison for 45 days. The ship was searched from top to bottom. Patty, as her family called her, street preached around the city under the name "The Sparrow." Here's 10 cases where missing people were found alive. Her Charley Project link mentions that she has paranoid schizophrenia, so I would agree that this likely had something to do with her mental health. Julia Wandelt, 21, from Poland, went viral after suggesting Shawn Hornbeck, an 11 year old was kidnapped while he was riding his bike near his home in Missouri. They were forced to marry older people in China. She said: I was in total disbelief because even before all of the brickyard stuff she had been gone so long, we already figured she passed.. In the United States alone, there are over 200,000 unsolved cold cases, some of which are decades old, and others occurred more recently. Police considered it a murder case but it went cold. Bob Kopta is not the only family member shocked by the news. The 1974and 1976 kidnapping cases of Jan Broberg have reentered the zeitgeist, thanks to the Netflix true crime documentaryAbducted in Plain Sight. https://www.wtae.com/article/ross-township-missing-person-case/43164930#. Years later in 2011, her mother confessed over drinks she had kidnapped her daughter, and her friends looked it up and contacted her real father and the authorities in the United States. Steven didn't want to see the boy suffering like him and decided to escape with the boy. Parnel abused him and gave him drugs and alcohol. Police have "solved" a decades-old missing person case but the woman who vanished so long ago now has dementia and can't explain her own disappearance. Patricia Kopta's husband reported her missing from the North Hills in 1992. Parnell abused him, beating him and giving him drugs and alcohol. Shortly after, she was arrested and Savanna learned the truth. Needless to say, not many people bought the amnesia story. Her father last saw her asleep on the stateroom's balcony around 5am. With that other lady, I would always be searching for stuff we had in common, but I had nothing in common with her.. When there was a baseball game going on, when a concert was going on, she would be talking to people," Robert Kopta said about his wife. Eller wandered deep in theMakawao Forest Reserve after she fractured her leg while hiking. He was kidnapped by Kenneth Parnell, a convicted pedophile, who told Steven Stayner to call him Dad. Missing persons found dead years later are often labeled as Jane or John Does due to their remains being unidentifiable. Until now, there has been no national approach to compare missing persons cases against unidentified remains held in storage. These Jane/John Does are sometimes identified quickly due to DNA technology, however many become cold over time, and may never be solved. Its sad, but short of holding him against his will I dont know what else they could do. During the Russian-Afghan war in the 1980s,Bakhretdin Khakimov fought for the Russians when he was wounded in battle. The family of Philip Sessarego thought he had been dead for ten years - until he popped up on TV. A year earlier, she suffered from a stroke that gave her almost total amnesia. While in captivity, she also gave birth to 2 daughters while in captivity and developed a case of Stockholm Syndrome. Eventually, they were able to get an investigator to go digging. At least once she was beaten and robbed of her jewelry, and she had a vision that she would eventually be beaten to death. In 2014, 12-year-old Charles Bothuell V was reported missing by his parents. Later, a veteran organization hunted him down, but when they found him, he was 53 and practicing herbal medicine in Herat. In 2002, Elizabeth Smart, age 14, was kidnapped at knife-point byBrian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. Subsequently, Bobby Hernandez was arrested and tried in court for kidnapping. Chris is an award-winning reporter who started with KDKA in May 2019. As of January 31, 2018, there were 86,664 active missing persons . Some of the most famous cold cases solved by DNA technology include the Golden State Killer and the Boston Strangler. She always said she wanted to go to a warm climate," he said. Sometimes people are found alive, like Mary-Anne Goossens who was found after sitting at a stream in the Spanish mountains for 18 days she was lost and decided to stay put, unaware how close to civilisation she was or where to go, worried to explore and lose track of the water source; the trail would have been in shouting distance if it wasn't 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. She was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido. Although this number is startling, and seems to be rising every year, cold cases are continuing to be solved every year due in part to advancements in forensics and DNA technology. Michele Whitaker Name: Michele Whitaker Reported missing:August 16, 2002 Status:Found alive in August 2008 Michele Whitakerwas last seen in Spartanburg, South Carolina on August 16, 2002. 9 Weird Mormon Rules & Beliefs That Make Them Different from Other Communities, 8 Most Notable Cases Of Harlequin Baby That Will Give You Goosebumps, 10 Facts About Tree Octopus That Will Soon Disappear, 20 Bizarre Publicity Stunts by Brands to Attract Potential Customers, 10 Strangest Stars in the Universe That Have Bizarre Properties, 10 Strange Jobs That Might Pay You More Than Your Current Earnings. A vehicle that was tied to a missing person's case from 1998 was found in Arkansas with human remains inside, according to local officials. Her sister stated Kopta was often mistreated by the strangers she approached. A much older Evans put an ad in the paper for her missing mother and someone replied, saying it was her mother. Now more than 30 years later, they got the news they never thought they would hear. At age 19,Harold Wayne Lovell cleaned John Wayne Gacys pool and then totally disappeared soon after. Carneys parents spent years searching for him. All of the tips and suggestions provided for locating a missing person can apply to a person of any age so we recommend using those strategies as well. In 1990, Winston Bright vanished without a trace, leaving behind his wife Leslie. Angela Hernandez was travelingfrom Oregon to California to visit family when she suddenly went missing. On June 30th, 2009, U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl vanished while serving in Afghanistan. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. @KDKA pic.twitter.com/05VSLKui3x. Marco's body was found a week later in the Elbe river, and he had a concrete block attached to his legs with rope. The two other girls were abducted over the next two years, locked in separate rooms, often chained to a wall and frequently raped by Castro. Lucky are those who went missing and then came back alive. Although real unsolved case files are not always available to the general public and are usually hard to find, there are plenty of resources online which can lead you to finding all released information regarding the specific cold case you are interested in. Missing Pennsylvania woman found alive after 31 years. I live in this part of Pittsburgh. Girl, 12, Found Slain 2 Miles from Where Dad Was Found with Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound Police Fatally Shoot Person of Interest After Mass. 42 years later, they found her living in Texas under an alias. When he sat in a bus running to Niagara falls, he hurt his head and suffered from amnesia. Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were thought to be dead after being kidnapped by sex fiend Ariel Castro and held at his Ohio home for up to 11 years. . Officers were able to track down a sister and nephew of Kopta's who provided DNA samples that could be tested alongside hers. Following his appearance on TV in 2001, Newsnight exposed his false claims and seven years later, Sessarego was found dead in his garage in Belgium. But here are some stories of missing people that were later (after years) found alive. They were finally reunited with their families in 2013 after Berry managed to scream for help through the front door and alert a neighbour. She was a . This continued for nine months until she was recognized and rescued while out with the couple in Sandy, Utah. After seven years of searching, he was found byThe Kristen Foundation, an organization that looks for missing people. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons (NamUS) database shows in its data that there are an estimated 600,000 individuals go missing in the United States every year, as well as over 4,400 sets of remains that have yet to be identified. Companies such as Othram Inc. and Parabon Labs are working diligently with DNA evidence on some of the most famous unsolved murders as well as some of the most gruesome unsolved murders to attempt to solve the case. He soon discovered that his mother had kidnapped him as a child and changed his name before she disappeared. Police considered it a murder case but it went cold. He was handicapped and tried committing suicide many times. Berchtold pretended to be her father and enrolled her in an all-girls Catholic school. THE woman who claims she may be Madeleine McCann has taken a DNA test and is trying to check whether she could be another missing child. The search for missing 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart who had been kidnapped from her bed in 2002 ended nine months later when she was finally found and reunited with her family. Medical Conditions According to her husband, Kopta has paranoid schizophrenia. Nagy, it was found out, had suffered amnesia and didnt remember anything about his former life. Here are 15 people who everyone thought were dead, but were found alive after decades. Copyright 2023 KABC Television, LLC. We were aware he was hospitalized but after time and transfers he was lost in the system and we were unaware where he was. In 1984, a computer science student namedPetra Pazsitka was reported missing after not showing up to her brothers birthday party. When he turned 14 years old, Parnell kidnapped another child Timothy White. . It's not clear how many go missing in the wild. A woman first reported missing from Ross Township decades ago has been found alive and well in Puerto Rico. Dugard was held captive in a shack in Garrido and his wifes backyard for 18 years . Missing Persons (updated Mar. 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. It was a very big shock to know that she was still alive," Gloria Smith said. Unsolved Mysteries has been credited over the years for leading to major increases in tips sent to law enforcement in cases that have gone completely cold for years or even decades, as well as even having a handful of the cases being solved, some leading to convictions. 3. As punishment, her mother locked her out of the house. His shocked family had been told he died in a car bomb in 1991, at the age of 39, while serving in Croatia. She's now 83 years old. Jayme Closs. It is mind boggling, once you get into it, and the whole Missing 411 experience has happened in my life. It's a missing persons case that's sat unsolved inside Ross Township . 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. They will sometimes give you little glimmers or hints of the past, but they seem unknown. Its true that people can disappear within institutions, especially nursing homes. He later revealed that he didn't want to be found and was under the strict control of a religious organization called Gospel outreach. The FBI eventually took notice and bugged the Broberg's phones so they could record the conversations. After Harris Todd won the custody of his daughter, claiming that his wife is abusive, Savanna Todd went missing. After a nationwide search located the pair just 18 miles from Elizabeth's home, Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison. Why is it endangered? In June of 1959, nearly 1 year after going missing, some torn clothing, a broken hearing aide, and a few bone fragments were found in a remote area 2,500 feet up Mount Meeker in the middle of nowhere and about 3 miles from where Bizup had gone missing. Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian female. Her mother, Dorothy Barnett, kidnapped her and settled in Queensland. Years later, with dementia, she started to divulge some details that connected the dots back to Ross Township. The schoolgirl was abducted as she walked to school on June 10, 1991, by convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy in California. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Berchtold kept in touch with Jan's parents, claiming that he had no idea where she was. 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. Have you ever read about missing people that were surprisingly found alive? They accepted the ride with her and found themselves in China. ROBERT McDonough, 75, who had been missing for 14 hours was found after approached news team reporting from the scene A news crew in Maine, US, reporting on a missing 73-year-old man were shocked when the man in question emerged from the bushes behind them. ROSS TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) - A Pittsburgh street preacher known as "The Sparrow" was found living in Puerto Rico more than three decades after she went missing, Ross Township police announced on Thursday. While alive and well, Kubacki had no explanation for the missing months, saying he woke up on a grassy hill in Pittsfield, 20 miles from his aunts home and 700 miles from where he had vanished. Gui . Whenever someone goes missing, its a tragic and terrifying event. Confused, she confronted her mother, Ann Pettway, who told her she had been abandoned by her mum at birth. Kopta is known as The Sparrow. Natasha Yi, the wife of Wild 94.9 host Jeffrey Vandergrift who has been reported missing for six days, said recently discovered information "leads us to believe JV will not be coming back." More recently solved cold cases in 2020 due to DNA technology includes the 1973 murder of Naomi Sanders, the 1996 murder of Jessica Baggen, and the 1986 murder of Lisa Holstead, among many others.