List of kidnappings

This is a list of kidnappings.

Famous kidnappings

• Mary Jemison (1758), a 12-year-old caucasian child taken in 1758 from her family by Seneca warriors. The only one not massacred in her family, Mary was adopted into the Seneca tribe and lived the remainder of her life with the natives.

• Cynthia Ann Parker (1836), a nine-year old caucasian child taken in 1836 from her family by Comanches raiding their home at Fort Parker, Texas, in which she would live 24 years among the Comanche and marry war chief Peta Nocona and give birth to three children, including the last war chief of the Comanche, Quanah Parker.

• Edgardo Mortara (1858), a six-year-old Jewish child taken from his family by Pope Pius IX in 1858 because a housekeeper had secretly baptized him. The child was never returned to his parents notwithstanding the humanitarian pleas of President Ulysses S. Grant, Emperor Franz Josef, and Napoleon III. At age 18 he decided to remain Catholic, becoming an Augustinian priest and taking the name Pius.

• Larcena Pennington and 21-year-old Mercedes Sais Quiroz (1860), abducted by Apaches

• Charley Ross (1874), the first American to be kidnapped for ransom that received wide public attention.

• Ion Perdicaris and his stepson Cromwell Varley (1904) were kidnapped by Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli in Morocco, causing US Secretary of State John Hay to declare "This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead."

• Bobby Dunbar (1912) was a child who disappeared near Swayze Lake in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, on 23 August 1912. After an eight-month nationwide search, investigators found a child, claimed by Lessie and Percy Dunbar as their son, in the hands of William Cantwell Walters of Mississippi, who was convicted of kidnapping. In 2004, further investigation by Dunbar's granddaughter led to conclusive DNA proof that the child in Walters' custody was not the Dunbar's son and that Walters had been wrongfully convicted.

• Marion Parker (1927). On 14 December 1927, William Hickman kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Marion Parker, the daughter of a Los Angeles banker. A few days after being paid a small ransom, Hickman was arrested and tried. On 19 October 1928, Hickman became the first American kidnapper to be executed for his crime.

• Mary McElroy (1933), the daughter of City Manager Henry McElroy of Kansas City, was kidnapped on May 27, 1933 and held for ransom. She was released unharmed after the ransom was paid and the four kidnappers were later apprehended and given life sentences.

• Brooke Hart (1933), the son of a San Jose, California businessman, was kidnapped on November 9, 1933, and murdered thereafter. His kidnappers were lynched by a mob (last public lynching in California).

• June Robles (1934), a six-year-old resident of Tucson, Arizona, abducted on April 25, 1934. After ransom negotiations between her parents and her captors, Robles was found unharmed on a highway after nineteen days in captivity. Only one arrest was made in connection with her abduction.

• Chiang Kai Shek (1936), Leader of China, was kidnapped by a warlord on December 12, 1936, in an affair known as the Xi'an Incident.

• Evgeny Miller (1937), an anti-bolshevik Russian general was kidnapped from Paris by NKVD agents. The NKVD successfully smuggled General Miller back to Moscow, where he was tortured and subsequently shot nineteen months later, in 1939.

• North Korean abductions of South Koreans (began in 1950)

• Robert (Bobby) Cosgrove Greenlease Jr. (1953). The six-year-old boy was kidnapped and immediately murdered 28 September 1953 in Kansas City, Missouri by Bonnie Heady and Carl A. Hall. They then demanded and were paid a $600,000 ransom by the boy's father, a wealthy automobile dealer. Notable in the case was that more than half of the ransom money was stolen by a corrupt police officer and never recovered.

• Peter Weinberger (1956), one month old, taken from his home in Westbury, New York on Long Island on July 4, 1956. Angelo LaMarca took the baby for a $2,000 ransom. LaMarca told investigators he went to the first drop site the day after the kidnapping—with the baby in the car—but he was scared away by all of the press and police in the area. He drove away, abandoned the baby alive in some heavy brush just off a highway exit, and went home. A search of the area by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and Nassau County Police Department ensued. An FBI agent spotted a diaper pin—then the decomposed remains of Peter Weinberger. The Weinberger case also resulted in new legislation — signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower — that reduced the FBI's waiting period in kidnapping cases from 7 days to 24 hours.

• Graeme Thorne (1960), Australia's first kidnap victim, aged eight. His parents Basil and Freda Thorne won the £100,000 Opera House Lottery (at that time, the names of winners were published). Five weeks later, on 7 July 1960, Stephen Leslie Bradley abducted Graeme and demanded a ransom. Thorne was killed and dumped, the partially decomposed body being discovered on 16 August. The case led to tighter rules about the publication of the names of lottery winners.

• Joseph Bonanno (1964). The crime family leader and his lawyer were kidnapped by Bonanno's own enforcer. Forced to make economic and retirement agreements with other mafia bosses, he and his lawyer were let go alive.

• North Korean abductions of Japanese (1970s – 1980s)

• James Cross, British diplomat, and Pierre Laporte, Quebec provincial politician (1970). Their kidnappings by the Front de libération du Québec set off the 1970 October Crisis. Cross was released; Laporte was murdered.

• Steven Stayner (1972) was kidnapped on his way home from school in 1972 in Merced, California and found alive in 1980. He died in 1989 in a motorcycle accident.

• Lesley Whittle (1974), 17-year-old woman kidnapped by the so-called Black Panther Donald Neilson in January 1974.

• Peter Lorenz (1975), German conservative politician and candidate for the mayor of West-Berlin, kidnapped in February 1975, only days before the elections. Possibly the first abduction of a politician ever in modern times. Was released unharmed after a week in exchange for five imprisoned leftist extremists, who were flown out to South Yemen. He won the majority of the votes while being abducted.

• Colleen Stan (1977) was kidnapped by Cameron Hooker on May 19, 1977 and held for seven years as a sex slave.

• Hanns-Martin Schleyer (1977), a German manager, was kidnapped by the extreme-left militant organisation Red Army Faction on 5 September 1977. He was taken from Brussels and hidden in a high-rise in Erftstadt. After the imprisoned RAF members were found dead in their prison cells in Stammheim Prison, he was killed on 18 October 1977. His body was found in a car in Mulhouse.

• Aldo Moro (1978), former Italian Prime Minister, captured on March 16, 1978, and killed almost two months later.

• Lee Kim Lai (1978), 18-year-old Singapore police officer who was kidnapped from a sentry post and killed for his gun on April 25, 1978.

• Marcuse and Jeremiah Treanor (1980) were kidnapped from their mother's home 3 March 1980 at the age of 7½ years old. Jeremiah was discovered three years later in a Child Prostitution sting by Scotland Yard. His brother had been murdered only a week before rescue. Twelve young boys in all were recovered, though unfortunately 38 kidnappings were linked to the group. This case was credited with being the impetus for the first child crimes unit in Scotland Yard. In trial, it was discovered that the Russian Mafia was linked to the ring. The three children who testified in the trial were put into witness protection.

• Adam Walsh (1981) was the 6-year-old son of John Walsh (who later became the host of America's Most Wanted) and his wife, Revé. He was abducted on 27 July 1981, from a Sears department store at the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, Florida, and later found murdered.

• James Lee Dozier (1981), a US general working for NATO in Italy. He and his wife were kidnapped by the Red Brigades on 17 December 1981, and freed by a NOCS commando on 28 January 1982.

• Nina von Gallwitz (1981), an eight-year-old German girl, was kidnapped on her way to school in Cologne on 18 December 1981, her parents paid a ransom of 1.5 million German mark. Nina was freed on 15 May 1982, at the rest area ‘Ohligser Heide’ after 149 days.

• Edith Rosenkranz (1984), wife of Dr. George Rosenkranz, a wealthy Mexico City businessman (founder of the Syntex Corporation, a developer of the birth control pill), was kidnapped at gunpoint on July 19, 1984 from the Washington-Sheraton Hotel in Washington, D.C. during an American Contract Bridge League national tournament. She was returned unharmed two days later, after her husband paid a $1 million ransom. The ransom money was recovered and the two kidnappers, Glenn I Wright and Dennis Moss, were later convicted and sentenced, as was a third defendant, Orland D. Tolden.

• Enrique Camarena (1985), Mexican American DEA official, found dead.

• Anthonette Cayedito (1986) was a nine year old Navajo girl kidnapped from her home in April 1986 from Gallup, New Mexico. She was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries a few years after her disappearance. It is believed that she phoned 911 a year after her kidnapping in a desperate attempt to be rescued. She may have also been seen by a waitress in Las Vegas a few years later. The waitress stated that a girl that looked like Anthonette's age-progression image entered the restaurant with a rather unkempt male and female and kept dropping her silverware on the floor and squeezing the waitress' hand really hard when she placed it back on the table. The girl also left a note written on a napkin underneath the plate that read "Help me. Call the police." The girl was never located.

• Mordechai Vanunu (1986), Israeli nuclear whistleblower, was last seen in London on September 30, 1986, before being abducted by Mossad in Italy and brought back to Israel, where he was convicted of treason and espionage, and served 18 years in prison, 11 years in solitary confinement.

• Carlina White (1987) was 19 days old when taken from a hospital in Harlem on August 4, 1987 and was reunited with her family 23 years later, in the longest known abduction by someone other than a parent.

• Gerrit Jan Heijn (1987), Dutch captain of industry and top executive of Ahold, Holland's largest retailer, brother of Albert Heijn; was kidnapped on September 9, 1987 and killed in the same year by Ferry E. The kidnapper pretended that his victim was still alive and asked for and received ransom; he was caught after spending one of the banknotes of the ransom, of which the numbers had been recorded. He served a prison sentence and is now free. It was observed with scorn that after his release he received over €300,000 back-payment of disability benefits for the time he was in prison (rules have since been changed, such payments are no longer possible).

• Tara Calico (1988), disappeared near her home, Belen, New Mexico, after taking her usual bike ride. Several witnesses claimed she was being followed by a 1953-1954 Ford Pickup and was never heard from again. No sign of Tara was found until On June 15, 1989 when a woman found a Polaroid photo of an unidentified young girl and boy, both bound and gagged, in the parking lot of a convenience store in Port St. Joe, Florida. The girl in the Polaroid is believed to be Tara, but this has not been confirmed. Two other Polaroid photographs, possibly of Tara, have surfaced over the years, but they have yet to be released to the public. After twenty years, it's still debated whether or not Tara has been murdered or still remains alive.

• Paul Vanden Boeynants (1989), Belgian politician, kidnapped on 14 January 1989 and released one month later after a ransom was paid.

• Jacob Wetterling (1989) was an 11-year-old boy kidnapped on his way home by a masked gunman on October 22, 1989. His case has remained unsolved.

• Humberto Alvarez-Machain (1990), suspect in the murder of Enrique Camarena, kidnapped, allegedly by Americans, on April 2, 1990 to bring him to trial in the United States.

• Sano Fusako (1990), a girl kidnapped in Niigata, Japan, on 13 November 1990 at age ten and held captive for nine years, two months. She was found alive on 28 January 2000.

• Jaycee Lee Dugard (1991) was kidnapped on June 10, 1991, at the age of 11. She was found alive 18 years later, in August 2009. She gave birth to two children fathered by the man who kidnapped her, the first when she was just fourteen years old. Her children believed her to be their sister.

• Ben Needham (1991) was a 21-month-old British child who disappeared from the Greek island of Kos on 24 July 1991. It is presumed he may have been abducted and sold for illegal adoption.

• Carrie Lawson (1991), a young lawyer in Jasper, Alabama was kidnapped September 11, 1991 in possibly the most infamously bungled case in FBI history. A ransom demand of $300,000 was made, which was paid by the family. The FBI inserted tracking devices in the money bag and on the delivery person, but both were on the same frequency and the FBI tracked the delivery person leaving the money drop by mistake. After later getting a break in the case, the FBI went to the home of suspect Jerry Bland, who refused entry, and while retrieving a search warrant left in the car, the suspect retreated inside and shot himself and took the information on her whereabouts to his grave. Neither she nor her remains were ever found. The ransom money was mostly recovered from the suspect's attic & vehicle.

• Prince Pedro Thiago of Orléans-Braganza (1992) was kidnapped on 26 May 1992 while on his way to college. He was rescued by police a week later.

• Sara Ann Wood (1993) was a 12-year-old girl who disappeared on a quiet road near her Frankfort, New York, home on August 18, 1993. Lewis Lent, a janitor from Massachusetts, confessed to kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and killing Sara, but he refused to say where he buried her body. Lent had also pled guilty to the 1990 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Pittsfield, Massachusetts native Jimmy Bernardo. Lent abducted Jimmy from the Pittsfield movie theater where Lent worked as a janitor. He was sentenced to life without parole for the Bernardo murder and sentenced to 25 years-to-life for the Wood murder. He is currently in prison in Massachusetts. Lent is also suspected in a number of other child kidnapping cases. Lent recanted his confession and refuses to disclose the location of Sara's body. Lent has said that he can't say where her body is because she is not buried alone. It has been speculated that Lent did not act alone and that his accomplice(s) are still at large.

• Polly Klaas (1993) was kidnapped by Richard Allen Davis in Petaluma, California, on October 1, 1993, and later strangled by the criminal. Davis's car got stuck in the mud a few miles from Polly's house. A helpful local police officer pulled him out of the mud but did not query his license number with the police computer system, nor did he hear the BOLO (be on the lookout) broadcast to all CHP radios reporting that Davis was wanted for a parole violation. Davis has been convicted of kidnapping and first-degree murder and sentenced to death. BOLOs are now broadcast to all police radios: state, county, and municipal.

• Mindy Tran (1994) was eight years old when she disappeared from her neighbourhood in August 1994, just after supper. She rode her bike down her quiet Kelowna, B.C. street and vanished. Hundreds of people searched for the girl but her body wasn't found until six weeks later when a man with a divining rod led police to a shallow grave near her parents' home. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

• Morgan Nick (1995) was a six year old girl who disappeared on June 9, 1995, while she was at a baseball game with her mother in Alma, Arkansas. She was last seen at her car after catching fireflies with her friends, and she was also seen talking to a man who police believe was her abductor. She has not been found, but her mother started a foundation to help families with missing children.

• Amber Hagerman (1996) was kidnapped on January 13, 1996, in Texas while riding her bike near her grandparents' home in Arlington Texas. She was found four days later by a hiker and his dog, naked in a creek bed. An autopsy revealed she had been alive two days, was raped and then her throat was slit. Although a $75,000 reward was offered for information leading to Amber's killer, he was never found. The task force investigating Amber's murder was dissolved in June 1997. Her murder inspired the creation of the AMBER Alert system.

• Sabine Dardenne (1996) is a Belgian woman who was kidnapped and raped at age 12 by serial killer Marc Dutroux on 28 May 1996 while on her way to school. She was rescued after 80 days, on 15 August 1996 together with 14-year-old Laetitia Delhez, who had also been kidnapped.

• Laetitia Delhez (1996) is a Belgian woman who was kidnapped and raped at age fourteen by serial killer Marc Dutroux on 9 August 1996 in Bertrix. Another of his victims, Sabine Dardenne, had requested a companion because she felt so alone. They were rescued on 15 August 1996.

• Walter Kwok (1997) was kidnapped by the notorious gangster "Big Spender" Cheung Chi Keung on September 30, 1997 and was released seven days later without police intervention. Following his arrest in Guangzhou in 1998, Cheung confessed that he had put Kwok in a wooden container blindfolded for four days, and fed him regular meals of roast pork with rice, until the ransom of some HK$600 million was paid.

• Delimar Vera Cuevas (1997) was a ten-day-old baby when she disappeared around a fire outbreak on December 15, 1997. Six years later, her mother was very surprised to discover her at a birthday party. The accused kidnapper Carolyn Correa gave her the child.

• Natascha Kampusch (1998) is an Austrian television hostess mostly known for her abduction at the age of ten on 2 March 1998. Kampusch was held in a secret cellar by her kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil for more than eight years, until she escaped on 23 August 2006.

• Leszli Kálli (1999), a Colombian-born author who was kidnapped on 12 April 1999, by virtue of the hijacking of the plane she was on. She was held for slightly more than a year by Colombian leftist guerrillas together with her father and the other passengers. She eventually published a novel about her experiences.

• Hans van de Kimmenade (1999). A group of at least four armed (allegedly Arabian) men kidnapped the 18-year-old son of wealthy industrials from his estate in Helmond (the Netherlands) on May 3, 1999. After the case received much media attention, Van de Kimmenade was dropped off at a waterschap within 48 hours. No reason was given for his release. After months of research, the case appeared unsolvable.

• Rolandito Salas Jusino (1999), playing, allegedly unsupervised, in a community park next to his house's backyard in the city of Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, disappeared on July 7, 1999. He was never found.

• Anne Sluti (2001), an American teenager from Nebraska, was kidnapped from a mall parking lot in April 2001, by Anthony Steven "Tony Zappa" Wright, taken out of state and raped for six days before being rescued.

• Ingrid Betancourt (2002), Colombian presidential candidate, was kidnapped on 23 February 2002 by the FARC movement. She was freed in 2008.

• Elizabeth Smart (2002) was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City bedroom on 5 June 2002 and was found alive nine months later in a suburb of Salt Lake City on 12 March 2003.

• Arjan Erkel (2002), a then-32-year-old medical aid worker for Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), was kidnapped in Chechnya on 12 August 2002. Twenty months later he was released after the Dutch government paid a ransom of €1,000,000.

• Shawn Hornbeck (2002) was abducted at age eleven on October 6, 2002 when he was kidnapped while riding his bicycle near his home in Richwoods, Missouri. He was missing for over four years before found alive at the age of 15 on 12 January 2007. 13-year-old Ben Ownby was found with him after having been missing for five days.

• James Brandon (2004) was kidnapped in Iraq in 2004, and released a few days later.

• Rahul (2005), a seven-year-old boy, disappeared on 18 May 2005 in Alappuzha, Kerala, India. The local police and the CBI have not found any tangible evidence.

• Claudia Melchers (2005), in the Netherlands. A group of armed men broke into her house on September 12, 2005, tying up her husband and children before taking Claudia 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.

• Taylor Behl (2005), a 17-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman found dead on 5 October 2005, in Mathews County, Virginia, after having gone missing on 5 September 2005

• Cristina Rios Valladares and her two children (2005) were kidnapped on October 19, 2005 and freed after 52 days. Florence Cassez is currently serving a 61-year sentence for this abduction, although some people in France believe she was innocent.

• Madeleine McCann (2007), a British girl that disappeared in May 2007 (aged three years and eleven months) from a holiday apartment in Praia de Luz, Portugal. Her parents were out eating at a bar with friends leaving Madeleine and her two younger siblings alone in the apartment. She has not been found yet.

• Sergio Gomez (2007) was kidnapped on December 2, 2007, by two businessmen and murdered the next day.

• Khan Kakama (2008) was kidnapped from Bugolobi, an affluent suburb in Uganda's capital Kampala, in 2008, and murdered in June 2010. He was handed to the kidnappers by Molly Nabasa, his Nanny. His parents, Sven and Naome Karekaho are middle class citizens working for Uganda Revenue Authority and National Environmental Management Authority Respectiively. Godwin Tumusiime, Brian Sajjabi and Molly Nabasa are currently facing trial for His murder and kidnap.

• Naga Vaishnavi (2010) was kidnapped as a nine-year-old on January 30, and murdered on February 2, 2010, by the criminals.

Modern kidnappings of celebrities or their relatives

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:

• Beatriz Adriana: Mexican singer/actress whose son was kidnapped and found dead in Tijuana. There were rumors that his death was the result of his failure to pay a drug debt, but no such evidence was ever found.

• Cindy Birdsong: A member of the Motown supergroup, The Supremes. Birdsong was kidnapped in December 1969 at knife-point from her Hollywood apartment and escaped two hours later by jumping from the car at a freeway exit. Charles Collier, the handyman at Birdsong's apartment, was later convicted of the kidnapping.

• Tony Blair: According to a British tabloid, Scotland Yard foiled an attempt to kidnap his four year old son in 2006 [1].

• 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.

• Riddick Bowe's wife, Julie and his five kids were kidnapped for five days by Bowe himself.

• Jorge Campos (soccer player): His father was kidnapped and later found alive in Acapulco, Mexico.

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

• Julio César Chávez received threatening calls, saying his sons would be kidnapped.

• Françoise Claustre: French archaeologist who was kidnapped in Chad by guerillas led by Hissène Habré. Her husband, Pierre, was the head of the French foreign aid mission in Chad and he was also taken hostage when he tried to secure her release.

• Adolph Coors III: Heir to the Coors beer fortune. He was found dead.

• Baron Édouard-Jean Empain: Industrialist who was kidnapped for ransom. His captors cut off one of his fingers in order to bring proof that they held him.

• Alejandro Fernández: His brother was kidnapped (see Vicente Fernandez).

• Vicente Fernandez: The famous Mexican singer's son, Vicente Fernandez Jr., was kidnapped and later released alive.

• John Paul Getty III, kidnapped in Italy in 1973. 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.

• Eric Peugeot, kidnapped in France in 1960,grandson of French car tycoon Armand Peugeot

• Susana Giménez: Argentine diva whose boyfriend's father was kidnapped on 8 January 2004. The father was rescued by police a month later.

• Georgiy Gongadze: Prominent Ukrainian journalist kidnapped and later found beheaded in 2000. His disappearance has triggered a major political and diplomatic scandal also involving United States and other Western countries. No details of the crime revealed yet.

• Cordelia Gonzalez: Well-known Puerto Rican actress who has made some Hollywood films; was kidnapped at gunpoint during July 2005. Released after paying ransom.

• Alejandra Guzmán: The Mexican singing diva has received several calls threatening to kidnap her ten year old daughter, because of which she has hired extra security. She always takes her daughter with her on the road.

• William Randolph Hearst: His granddaughter Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the SLA in 1974. Her father gave $6 million in food to the poor of the Bay Area as ransom, but she was not released. She became part of her captor's group and was later convicted on bank robbery charges.

• Jennifer Hudson: her nephew was kidnapped after her mother and brother were shot to death. He was later found dead.

• Julio Iglesias's father was kidnapped in 1985. Found well and alive.

• David Letterman In 2005, FBI agents and Montana authorities foiled a kidnapping of Letterman's son from his Choteau, Montana home.

• Charles Lindbergh: The aviator's two-year old son, Charles Jr., was kidnapped in 1932 and was killed. This was among the most famous of modern kidnappings of celebrities' relatives. See Lindbergh kidnapping.

• Adi Koila Mara Nailatikau: First daughter of Fiji and senator, during a coup against her father. Kidnappers threatened to kill her, but she survived.

• Yoko Ono: Her second husband Anthony Cox abducted their daughter Kyoko Chan Cox in 1971. Ono and her daughter were finally reunited in 1998, Cox remains in hiding.

• Carlos Pesquera: Former candidate for governor of Puerto Rico and president of the PNP party, held captive for a few hours on July 2004 in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico; released after paying captors 1,000 dollars.

• Eric Peugeot, son of Raymond Peugeot, an automobile industry millionaire, was kidnapped at the age of four in 1960 in Paris. He was returned after payment of a ransom, and his kidnappers arrested a few years later.

• Veruska Ramirez, former Miss Venezuela, kidnapped and released three hours later, after signing 15 autographs for her captors.

• Ruben Omar Romano, Argentine Soccer coach, in Mexico. He was rescued two months later.

• Cesar Rosas: Member of Los Lobos whose wife, Sandra, was kidnapped on 23 October 1999 and later found dead. Gabriel Gomez was accused and sentenced for her kidnapping and murder.

• Rubaiya Sayeed: The kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed was carried out by members of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, on 8 December 1989 in Jammu and Kashmir. Rubaiya was the daughter of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the then Home minister of India in the V. P. Singh government. The kidnappers demanded the release of five of their comrades, the government accepted their demands and freed the jailed terrorists. Rubaiya was kidnapped within five days of her father becoming the Minister for Home Affairs (India).

• Hanns-Martin Schleyer: German manager and employer representative. He was kidnapped in Köln in 1977. He was found dead in Mulhouse, France.

• Frank Sinatra, Jr., son of Frank Sinatra, was kidnapped and released after ransom was paid.

• Karl Maria von Spret: West-Germany's ambassador to Guatemala, was kidnapped in 1970 in Guatemala City. He was killed.

• Johnny Tapia: The world boxing champion saw his mother raped and kidnapped when he was 8 years old. 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, the also famous actress Laura Zapata and Ernestina Sodi, were kidnapped. They were both released alive.

• Nikoloz Tskitishvili: The basketball player, a star in his home country (Georgia), had strangers call to his house and threaten to kidnap his brother and mother after it became known he signed a million-dollar contract with the NBA's Denver Nuggets. As a consequence, he moved all his family to Denver.

• Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, son of the Hong Kong tycoon, Li Ka Shing: Kidnapped by Cheung Chi Keung, AKA "Big Spender". He was released after the world record payment of a HK$1Billion (US$134 million) ransom in cash. Cheung was later captured and executed in Guangzhou in 2000.

• Yuri: She was going to be kidnapped, but the plans folded when one of the would be kidnappers left the criminal band that would have committed the act, and told her cousin about the plans.

• Laura Zapata (See Thalía).

• Jose Antonio Valdez Cazares, Mexican labor attorney kidnapped on September 2009 near his family estate in Jilotepec Estado de Mexico, by alleged members of the La Familia Michoacana cartel, he was released a week after his abduction. An invenstigation by both the State and Federal Police is ongoing with regards of his captors.

Also of notice is that Dominican actor Andrés García announced he doubled his security guard numbers, afraid he and his family could get kidnapped too. On the same line, Manny Pacquiao, world boxing champion at the Flyweight, Jr. Featherweight and Featherweight divisions, has had to hire six security guards who constantly surround him and his family in his home country of the Philippines, after receiving kidnap threatening calls from several groups.

This crime is flourishing in poor countries.

Faked kidnappings

• Fairlie Arrow, (1991) a singer in Australia, went missing for two days and was found tied up in a road in Queensland. She claimed she had been abducted by a fan but, two weeks later, admitted making up the story to boost her flagging career.

• Tawana Brawley rape and kidnapping allegations

• Jules Croiset; Dutch actor faked being kidnapped by neo-nazis.

• Joanna Grenside, (1992) an aerobics teacher from Harpenden, England, who staged her disappearance to avoid Christmas.

• Dar Heatherington, Alberta city councillor who claimed to have been abducted in Montana.

• Shannon Matthews, is a British girl who disappeared on the afternoon of 19 February 2008 and was later found alive on the 14 March 2008. Karen Matthews, Shannon's mother,who was behind the kidnapping was charged with child neglect and perverting the course of justice, on 8 April 2008

• Aimee Semple McPherson, evangelist who maintained she was kidnapped while all evidence pointed to the contrary.

• Audrey Seiler, University of Wisconsin–Madison student who faked her own kidnapping in the spring of 2004

• Jennifer Wilbanks (a.k.a. the Runaway Bride): Georgia woman who alleged that she was kidnapped as an excuse for her running away from her own wedding in late April 2005.

• Michele Sindona Italy. Fake kidnapping organized by masonic logia P2.

Assumed kidnap conspiracies that turned out to be fake

• Victoria Beckham. A member of the Spice Girls and wife of footballer David Beckham was supposedly planned to be kidnapped on 1 November 2002.

• Jorge Ursino, the alleged illegal immigrant transporter from Arizona faked his own kidnapping to collect money by making headlines.

Suspected kidnappings

• 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 the 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.

• Lady Florence Dixie

• Jimmy Hoffa; many theorize that he was briefly kidnapped and then murdered.

• Helen Brach; one informer has claimed she was kidnapped after leaving the Mayo Clinic, then murdered

• Ben Charles Padilla

• Cédrika Provencher 10 year old girl from Trois-Rivières, Canada missing since 31 July 2007. She has not yet been found.

• Dru Sjodin. The American college student seems to have been abducted on November 22, 2003, and was found dead on 17 April 2004.

• Jiang Yanyong

• Cecilia Zhang

• Hassani Campbell; 5 year-old boy with cerebral palsy went missing in Oakland, California on August 10, 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.

Kidnapping in lieu of extradition

See main article: Extradition and abduction

• Jabez Balfour from Argentina to the United Kingdom in 1895

• Ronnie Biggs from Brazil by independent bounty hunters in 1981

• Adolf Eichmann, Nazi war criminal, abducted in 1960 by Mossad in Argentina and brought back to Israel to stand trial for crimes against humanity. He was convicted in 1961 and hanged in 1962.

• Mir Aimal Kansi from Pakistan by the CIA in 1997

• Andrew Luster from Mexico to United States by Duane Chapman ("Dog the Bounty Hunter") in 2003

• Alvarez-Machain from Mexico by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration

• Martin Mubanga from Zambia to Guantanamo Bay by the United States in 2002

• Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from Italy to Egypt by the CIA in 2005

• Morton Sobell from Mexico to the United States in 1950

• Mordechai Vanunu from Italy by Israel in 1986