Heather Unbehaun Wiki – Heather Unbehaun Biography
An anonymous Good Samaritan spotted the teen, who was last seen on July 4, 2017, at a local business after seeing her story on Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries. A girl who was allegedly abducted by her mother in suburban Chicago nearly six years ago was found safe hundreds of miles away in North Carolina on May 14.
Officers were notified on May 14, 2023, and found a woman and a minor child at the business in Asheville, North Carolina, and were able to confirm their identities. They said the woman, Heather Unbehaun, was wanted on an extradition warrant out of Illinois for child abduction. She was arrested and her daughter returned to her father, who is the rightful custodian.
Who is Heather Unbehaun?
Heather Unbehaun is a 40-year-old mother accused of kidnapping her then-nine-year-old daughter Kayla, who was found in May 2023 after nearly six years. Kayla was last seen in the care of her mother after a Fourth of July parade in Wheaton, Illinois, in 2017, and Unbehaun is believed to have kidnapped her.
According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Unbehaun was Kayla’s non-custodial parent. She did not have custody of the girl after a court order awarded permanent custody to the girl’s father, Ryan Iskerka, the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office said.
Police interviews say Unbehaun was last seen packing her belongings on the roof of her car, while her family members have indicated they believe she went camping at an unknown location in Wisconsin. It was expected that she would return after meeting with Iskerka, but she never did.
How and why was she arrested?
Officials have been searching for Unbehaun and her daughter for the better part of the past six years, and the Kane County State’s Attorney’s office issued a warrant for her abduction. However, she was able to stay under the radar the whole time.
But on May 16, 2023, South Elgin, Illinois police said they were notified on May 14 by Asheville police that they had received a tip from a store clerk who recognized Unbehaun and recalled that the boy was missing. .
An anonymous Good Samaritan reportedly spotted the teen after watching her story on Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries. After being notified, Asheville police detained Unbehaun, and she has since been accused of kidnapping her daughter from her father’s care.
Police described the case as “unusual”, telling WLOS there would normally be a technological breadcrumb, but there wasn’t in this case. Asheville Police Lt. Jonathan Brown said: “What is most unusual is the ability to stay off the grid, so to speak, for that length of time.
“Usually we leave a technological breadcrumb and they are usually very easy and quick to track. This was not so. A witness believed she had recognized a woman who abducted a child in 2017. When officers arrived, they were able to locate and contact the woman and child, Brown said.
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“After further investigation by officers along with confirmation from the South Elgin Police Department, officers were able to confirm the identification of Heather Unbehaun and a minor child in her custody.”
What were the circumstances of the disappearance of her daughter Kayla Unbehaun?
Writing on a GoFundMe page at the time, Kayla’s father, Iskerka, said that he was supposed to meet Unbehaun on July 5, 2017, to pick up her daughter. The exchange was ordered by a court, he wrote. However, the couple never arrived for the swap, and the mother and daughter fell out. Despite pleas from Iskerka, the police, and other authorities, they were not found for nearly six years.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NEMEC) said a felony arrest warrant had been issued for Heather Unbehaun in July 2017. NEMEC has even posted alerts online in the years since its kidnapping showing the missing 9-year-old girl and progression photos of what she looks like now, but these returned no results.
The girl’s 2017 disappearance was one of the family abductions featured in Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries reboot, which aired in November 2022. Kayla appears at the end of the episode ‘Abducted by a Parent’ as part of the Missing Children Roll alongside CJ and Billy Vosseler, Luis Alderete-Martinez, Huaiyu and Binyu Chin, Reuben Blackwell Jr., Tammy, and Diego Flores, Christopher and Lisa Zaharias.
What has happened to Kayla Unbehaun now?
Unbehaun posted $250,000 bail on May 16 and was released, the Illinois state attorney’s office said. Unbehaun refused to waive extradition, she said, which means she will likely be sent to Illinois to face charges. It was not clear if she had an attorney who could comment on the allegations against her.
The 40-year-old mother will next appear in North Carolina Buncombe County Court on July 11 for her first court appearance. Meanwhile, Kayla has since joined her father in South Elgin, Illinois, which is nearly 700 miles away.
“We are delighted to report that the girl is in good condition and in good spirits since she was reunited with her father,” South Elgin Police Chief Jerry Krawczyk said in a statement. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said the girl was 9 years old when Unehaun allegedly abducted her in South Elgin on July 5, 2017.
In its press release, the center included a statement from the girl’s father, identified only as ‘Ryan’, in which he said he is ‘overjoyed’ that his daughter ‘is safe at home’. He thanked the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the South Elgin police, and other law enforcement agencies for her efforts. “We ask for privacy as we get to know each other again and navigate this new beginning,” she added.
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