Incubator escapee wiki

List of kidnappings

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:Pp-pc Template:Use dmy dates {{#invoke:Hatnote|hatnote}}{{#ifeq:||}} The following is a list of kidnappings summarizing the events of each case, including instances of celebrity abductions, claimed hoaxes, suspected kidnappings, extradition abductions, and mass kidnappings.

By dateEdit

Modern kidnappings of celebrities or their relativesEdit

Kidnappers interested in getting a large ransom or a political effect often target celebrities or their relatives. Here are some of the people affected by these crimes:

  • Mordechai Oren was a Jewish politician who was taken hostage in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War in 1951 and sentenced to 15 years in prison,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> before being released.
  • Leon Ames: Film and television actor who, together with his wife, was held hostage at their home on 12 February 1964. They were rescued by police, who had been alerted to the case by his business partner.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref>
  • Leonard Firestone (57–58), American businessman, philanthropist, diplomat was the target of an aborted kidnapped plan that was to take place in 1966.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Cindy Birdsong: A member of the Motown supergroup The Supremes. Birdsong was kidnapped in December 1969, aged 30, at knife-point from her Hollywood apartment and escaped two hours later by jumping from the car at a freeway exit.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Charles Collier, the handyman at Birdsong's apartment, was later convicted of the kidnapping.

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ono and her daughter were finally reunited in 1997.

  • Escort Ian Ball had attempted to kidnap Anne, Princess Royal on 20 March 1974<ref name="bbc1974">Template:Cite news</ref> while she and Mark Phillips had left a charity event and were returning home to Buckingham Palace. His plan to do so proved unsuccessful.
  • Choi Eun-hee and Shin Sang-ok were kidnapped in Hong Kong by North Korean spies in 1978 and taken to North Korea under the orders of Kim Jong Il, who wanted to use the then-divorced couple to improve North Korean cinema. After Shin directed Pulgasari and six other films for Kim, he and Choi escaped North Korean surveillance in 1986.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Cramer was released on 1 May 1980, after falsely complaining that he felt ill, and later provided information on the situation.

  • Jorge and Juan Born (1974), scions of the Bunge y Born business, were kidnapped in September by the Montoneros and only released after the payment of a $60 million ransom.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Cory Quirino (42), Filipino TV host and broadcaster who was abducted on 24 September 1995 in Laguna, Philippines by five armed gunmen who killed her driver. She was eventually rescued when the getaway car ran into a police roadblock, and her kidnappers fled the scene.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Jessica Alba, actress and businesswoman who was kidnapped and held captive for 14 hours in 1996.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> She was later discovered bound, blindfolded and gagged, but her kidnapper was never brought to trial and the case was dropped.

  • Jorge Campos (footballer): In 1999, his father was kidnapped and later found alive in Acapulco, Mexico.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Rajkumar (born Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Muthuraju), an actor and singer in Kannada film industry, was kidnapped from the actor's house at Gajanur in Tamil Nadu on 30 July 2000, along with his son-in-law Govindaraju and two others. He was released unharmed on 15 November 2000, after 108 days of captivity.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Françoise Claustre: French archaeologist who was kidnapped in Chad by guerillas led by Hissène Habré.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Her husband, Pierre, was the head of the French foreign aid mission in Chad and was also taken hostage when he tried to secure her release.
  • Baron Édouard-Jean Empain: Industrialist who was kidnapped for ransom.<ref name="empain">According to Édouard-Jean Empain in the documentary L'Enlèvement du baron Empain – "Template:Ill" (2005).</ref> His captors cut off one of his fingers in order to bring proof that they held him. He was later released.
  • John Paul Getty III, kidnapped in Italy in 1973.<ref name="Gucci2016">Template:Cite book</ref> His grandfather, the then world's richest man, American multi-billionaire oil tycoon, J. Paul Getty, refused to pay his $3 million ransom until one of the boy's ears was cut off and sent to a newspaper.
  • Freddy Heineken (1983): Chairman of the board of directors and CEO of the brewing company Heineken International and his driver Ab Doderer, were kidnapped between 9 and 30 November 1983 in Amsterdam.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> was kidnapped during a coup against her father. Her kidnappers had threatened to kill her, but she was returned alive.

  • Veruska Ramirez, former Miss Venezuela, kidnapped in 2003 and released three hours later after signing fifteen autographs for her captors.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • David Letterman: In 2005, FBI agents and Montana authorities foiled a kidnapping of Letterman's son from his Choteau, Montana home.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Gabriel Gómez was accused and sentenced for her kidnapping and murder.

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but was later released.

  • Daryush Shokof: The artist-filmmaker was kidnapped after he screened his films Iran Zendan and Hitler's Grave that portrayed the horrible situations of Iranian political prisoners in Iran and under the Islamic republic Regime of Iran in Berlin, Germany. He said he was held by Arabic speaking men for 12 days and was released after agreeing not to publicize the films. He was later thrown into the Rhine river in Cologne, Germany. The German Police debates the validity of the incident up to this date.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> by Barry Keenan and Joe Amsler and released after a ransom of $240,000 was paid a few days later. Most of the ransom money was recovered.

  • Johnny Tapia: The world boxing champion saw his mother raped and kidnapped when he was 8 years old.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was hiding when he witnessed the assault. His mother's body was found on a road days later.
  • Thalía: The Mexican diva's sisters, Ernestina Sodi and actress Laura Zapata, were kidnapped, but later both released alive.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Benedict Cumberbatch and two acquaintances were kidnapped by six armed men in South Africa in 2005 while filming the miniseries To the End of the Earth. The trio were released unharmed shortly thereafter.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Rubén Omar Romano, Argentine soccer coach, was kidnapped in Mexico on 19 July 2005<ref name=Orihuela>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and rescued two months later.

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and held and released after 30 days in an attempt to get him off drugs.

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> raped, and drugged, and managed to escape. She has not revealed the kidnappers' identities or the location of the alleged crimes.

  • Alex Band: Singer-songwriter best known as the guitarist for The Calling, Band was reportedly robbed, beaten and then abandoned near some train tracks by two unidentified assailants on 18 August 2013. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was treated and later released.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Daisy McCrackin (37), was kidnapped on 3 May 2017 while in Los Angeles and held hostage in her own car while be driven around. McCrackin later escaped and her kidnappers are now facing charges.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Einár: Swedish rapper who was kidnapped by gang members associated with rival rapper Yasin in April 2020. He was later released, but was killed the following year when he was scheduled to testify in the case.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Thirteen adult males were arrested on 8 October 2020 by the FBI as they were plotting to kidnap American politician Gretchen Whitmer<ref name="DFP">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="WSOCTV">Template:Cite news</ref> who is the current Governor of Michigan. Another man was later arrested after being accused of having a part in the planned kidnapping.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> All men were later charged in court.

  • A man from Harlow plotted to kidnap and murder English television presenter, author and model Holly Willoughby, but his plan was foiled after a tip-off from an undercover law enforcement officer in the United States, with whom he had been communicating regarding the plot. He was arrested on 4 October 2023.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>https://www.essex.police.uk/news/essex/news/news/2024/july/gavin-plumb-sentenced-for-life/</ref>

  • A man has threatened to kidnap a U.S. senator from Alaska on 3 November 2023 who is thought to be Lisa Murkowski (66),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> but his plans to do so have not happened.

Faked kidnappingsEdit

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  • Audrey Seiler, a college student from Wisconsin who disappeared on March 27, 2004. She was found four days later after an extensive search. It was later revealed she had fabricated her "abduction".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jennifer Wilbanks, American woman who alleged that she was kidnapped as an excuse for her running away from her own wedding in late April 2005, in the Runaway bride case.<ref>Michelle Fabio (December 2009). "Runaway Bride? Why Georgia Isn't Letting Her Off the Hook…" LegalZoom. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-07.</ref>
  • Quinn Gray, resident of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida who disappeared over Labor Day weekend in 2009 and left a ransom note behind demanding $50,000 for her return. Was found four days later and revealed to have used the hoax for extortion in collusion with her boyfriend, Jasmin Osmanovic. Osmanivoc pleaded guilty, Gray no contest; both sentenced to probation with fines to repay the cost of the investigation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Somália, Brazilian footballer who falsely claimed in 2011 that he had been kidnapped. It was proved that he was running late for a training session and tried to avoid a 40% wage cut for tardiness.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sherri Papini, California woman whose 2016 disappearance became a national news story, later arrested and convicted of faking her abduction.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Breana Harmon Talbott, 19-year-old white woman who falsely claimed to have been kidnapped and gang-raped by three black men. She confessed to faking her kidnapping two weeks later after inconsistencies in her story were highlighted and pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Carlee Russell, Alabama nursing student who disappeared for 49 hours in July 2023 and contacted police claiming she had been abducted. She later admitted to faking her abduction and was convicted of false reporting.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Suspected kidnappingsEdit

  • Sodder children, five children reported missing after a suspicious fire at their family home. They were officially declared dead, but it is widely believed that they survived and were abducted by persons unknown.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Helen Brach, millionaire owner of a candy company; an informant claimed she was kidnapped after leaving the Mayo Clinic, then murdered; her remains have never been located.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Hassani Campbell, 5-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, went missing in Oakland, California on 10 August 2009. Hassani's foster father, Louis Ross, said he left Hassani waiting at the back of the shoe store where Hassani's aunt, Jennifer Campbell, worked while he went around to the front of the store with Hassani's younger sister.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Haleigh Cummings, the child, according to news reports from CNN and other major television news sources, was being watched by the girlfriend, later wife, of her father, Ronald Cummings, when she disappeared from her mobile home in Satsuma, Florida in February 2009. Two persons of interest in the still unsolved kidnapping were implicated in a drug sting in January 2010, renewing interest in the case.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jimmy Hoffa, disappeared and declared legally dead.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Several rumors and theories, including an alleged kidnapping, surfaced in later years.
  • Aimee Semple McPherson, evangelist who maintained she was kidnapped and held for ransom from 18 May through 23 June 1926 until she escaped. A grand jury inquiry instead charged her with fabricating it. Charges against McPherson were dropped for lack of evidence. No indictments against her described kidnappers were pursued.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>The People vs. Aimee Semple McPherson, et al., Case CR 29181, 10 January 1927, Superior Court of Los Angeles County, County records and Archives</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Cédrika Provencher, 10-year-old girl from Trois-Rivières, Canada went missing on 31 July 2007. Her remains were discovered on 11 December 2015.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Tabitha Tuders, 13-year-old girl from Nashville, Tennessee disappeared on her way to board the school bus on April 29, 2003. An neighbour claims to have seen her getting in a car with a man. She has not been seen nor heard from since then.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Kidnapping in lieu of extraditionEdit

See main article: Extradition and abduction

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  • J.B. McNamara and Ortie McManigal, from Michigan to Illinois in 1911.<ref>Taft, Philip. The A.F. of L. in the Time of Gompers. Hardback reprint. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957. p. 277</ref>
  • Martin Mubanga, from Zambia to Guantanamo Bay by the United States in 2002.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Morton Sobell, from Mexico to the United States in 1950.<ref>Saxon, Wolfgang (27 April 2002). "Helen L. Sobell, 84, Leader Of Effort to Spare Rosenbergs". New York Times. Retrieved 3 August 2008. "Helen Levitov Sobell, a voice in the struggle to spare Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and free their co-defendant, Morton Sobell, her husband, died on April 15 in Redwood City, Calif. She was 84. She had long been in declining health, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, said her daughter, Sydney Gurewitz Clemens."</ref>
  • Mordechai Vanunu, from Italy to Israel in 1986.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Mass kidnappingsEdit

  • Bisbee kidnappings: 1,300 striking miners were unlawfully detained by a deputized posse on orders from Sheriff Harry C. Wheeler before being loaded onto cattle cars and transported 200 miles to New Mexico. A Federal investigation found that the victims had been illegally kidnapped.<ref>Report on the Bisbee Deportations. Made by the President's Mediation Commission to the President of the United States. Bisbee, Arizona. November 6, 1917.</ref>
  • Heuaktion: 40, 000 to 50, 000 Polish and Ukrainian children aged 10 to 14 were kidnapped by Nazi German occupation forces and transported to Germany for slave labour at the command of Alfred Rosenberg and Henning von Tresckow.<ref>Men of 20 July and the War in the Soviet Union Christian Gerlach in War Of Extermination: The German Military In World War II page 139</ref>
  • 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping: 26 children on a school bus and the bus driver were held in a buried moving van, in a quarry.<ref name="chowchilla history">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2020 Kankara kidnapping: 334 schoolchildren from their school were kidnapped by a criminal gang.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2021 Kagara kidnapping: 27 schoolchildren from their school were kidnapped and one killed, three members of the school's staff and 12 of their relatives were also abducted.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

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