There are a lot of reasons to dislike Netflix — for what it's done to the pop culture, to cinema, to television, to home life — but here's a well-deserved win for the streaming giant:
An Illinois girl who was 9 years old when she allegedly was abducted by her non-custodial mother nearly six years ago has been found safe in North Carolina. ...
A store owner in North Carolina apparently recognized Kayla [Unbehaun] after seeing her featured on an episode of the Netflix show "Unsolved Mysteries" and called police, according to WSOC.
"Unsolved Mysteries" has been around for a long time (1987), but it was canceled by NBC in 1997, shuffled over to CBS for a mere few years, then popped up in the 2000s on Lifetime and Spike TV before getting canned again. Interest in rebooting the show began to pick up a few years ago, however, and Netflix decided to take the gamble – a decision that led that store owner in North Carolina to figure out this mystery.
Even those of us who heap criticism on Netflix all the time gotta be like:
You've got to credit the age-progression photos as well – they really work!
Kayla had gone missing from Elgin, Illinois in 2015; her father had gone to pick her up from her mother, Heather, but found that the mother had fled with the daughter prior to his arrival.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NEMEC) says Kayla Unbehaun was located after a felony warrant for kidnapping was issued for her mother, Heather, in July 2017.
Heather managed to assume a new life down in North Carolina. It is unknown if the mother had changed their identities or if law enforcement had simply been unable to connect the dots after she fled across state lines. Police were reportedly looking for her near Atlanta, Georgia.
Prior to the abduction, Heather had lost custody of Kayla, seemingly due to violation of visitation rules. Kayla's father, Ryan, had been awarded full custody and Kayla lived with him, his wife, and their two daughters. Heather reportedly sold her car, stopped posting on social media, and gained an interest in living off the grid before she disappeared with their daughter.
Heather is "facing a child abduction charge and is being held on a $250,000 bond after her arrest in Asheville over the weekend."
Ryan Unbehaun had never given up hope of being reunited, maintaining a Facebook page dedicated to finding his daughter.
The family has asked for privacy at this time.
