Amidst all the discourse around true crime as a genre and how exploitative it can be, there’s one silver lining: sometimes, our obsession with true crime cases actually leads to solving them. That’s how missing teen Kayla Unbehaun was found after she vanished six years ago — all because a shopper recognised her from Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries.
Kayla was only nine years old when she went missing after a camping trip with her mother, Heather Unbehaun.
At the time, she was in custody of her father Ryan Iserka and her mother only had supervised visitation rights.
When Iserka went to pick up Kayla on June 5, 2017, he found that neither she or her mother had returned from their camping trip. Weeks later, police issued an arrest warrant for kidnapping on Unbehaun.
But last Saturday, *six years* after she was allegedly a victim of parental abduction, Kayla was spotted more than 1,000km away at a North Carolina store by a shopper who recognised her from her Unsolved Mysteries episode.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) had shared an image of what Kayla would look like at 15 using age progression technology, and it was enough for the shopper to recognise her.
The shopper then alerted employees of the store, who called police. Once they arrived, her identity was confirmed, and her was mother arrested.
Kayla, now 15, has been reunited with her dad.
“I’m overjoyed that Kayla is home safe,” Ryan Iskerka said in a statement through the NCMEC.
“I want to thank the South Elgin Police Department, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and all of the law enforcement agencies who assisted with her case.
“I also want to thank all of the followers on the ‘Bring Kayla Home’ Facebook page, who helped keep her story alive and were instrumental in spreading awareness. We ask for privacy as we get to know each other again and navigate this new beginning.”
