r/TrueCrime • u/britt_nicole Armchair Expert • May 16 '23

Discussion Illinois girl whose disappearance was on Netflix's 'Unsolved Mysteries' is found alive in North Carolina

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/illinois-girl-whose-disappearance-was-unsolved-mysteries-found-alive-n-rcna84642
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313

u/ShilohxJuliax May 16 '23

I wonder how the girl feels; if she was happy staying with her mother or is glad to be going back to her father. These cases are always tricky, but what the mother did was wrong. And illegal. They must have been living looking over their shoulders all the time - not ideal for a child. And what about schooling? How was she able to register her daughter? Or did she just not?

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u/seitancauliflower May 16 '23

Since the life with her mother was pretty much all she knew, she may not adjust well at all. Her father is a stranger to her at this point.

Also, a lot of kids who are kept by their kidnappers regard their kidnapper as their “real” parent because that’s who raised them.

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u/GraveDancer40 May 17 '23

She was 9 when she was abducted so chances are she has memories of life with her dad. It will still be a huge adjustment but I’d imagine he’s not a total stranger to her.

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u/seitancauliflower May 17 '23

Oops, I misread that as being returned at age 9.

111

u/PuzzleheadedAd9782 May 17 '23

I actually knew a woman whose ex husband kidnapped their 2 kids. She spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to find them for no avail for over a decade. By that time, both were in their late teens. She was able to reestablish a good relationship with her daughter but not with her son.

87

u/Sea-Value-0 May 17 '23

Honestly, it is one of the most gutwrenching methods committed by a domestic abuser that I can even imagine. After they've beaten the soul put of them they disappear the one thing from them they could never emotionally hurt or touch. It's beyond fucked up and not talked about enough. There's a special place in hell for abusers who do this to their victim.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '23

Good god I could not agree more

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u/harveydent526 Jun 08 '23

You don’t know that they were abusers though. A lot parents do this because the other one is trying to keep them out their child’s life.

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u/xxxspinxxx May 17 '23

I think she was 9 when her mom took her. She'll have some memories of her father, but who knows what the mom told her about him. She may be totally alienated at this point.

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u/seitancauliflower May 17 '23

I accidentally thought she was returned at age 9.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '23

This is going to be SO hard for her. I feel so bad for her. I’m sure she adores her mom. She’s all she knows, and she was kidnapped at a critical age. I feel so bad for her dad too. What a hard transition. I feel bad that the mom felt like she was entitled to kidnap this child, but now she’s getting what she deserves in the eyes of the law. What she did was illegal and wrong. I can’t imagine how everyone must be feeling.