Random Lost Children Who Were Eventually Found (18 items)

(#13) Charlie Bothuell Was Found In His Own Home After 11 Days

On June 14, 2014, 12-year-old Charlie Bothuell's father reported him missing. 11 days later, Bothuell was found in the basement of his home, and his father was confronted by Nancy Grace on live television.

Charlie Bothuell was underweight when found, and he showed signs of abuse. His father and stepmother were both charged with torture and child abuse. The young boy reportedly had to perform rigorous daily exercises or face punishment by being held in the basement.
(#18) Carlina White Was Stolen As A Baby And Located 23 Years Later

Carlina White was just 19 days old when she was kidnapped from Harlem Hospital on August 4, 1987. Twenty-three years later, White found her biological mother, who had never stopped looking for her missing daughter. White said she had always felt that the family who raised her was not her true family.

Carlina White's case is the longest known non-parental abduction in the US in which the victim was reunited with the family. Anne Pettaway, the woman who abducted White and raised her as her own, was sentenced to 12 years in jail on federal kidnapping charges.
(#8) Elizabeth Smart Was Near Her Home For The Nine Months She Was Missing

In 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom by a man named Brian David Mitchell. She was held captive by Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Ileen Barzee, for nine months until someone noticed their strange behavior and police raided Mitchell and Barzee's home. Smart had been only miles away from her family's home for most of the time she was abducted.

Mitchell was sentenced to two life terms for kidnapping and sexual assault, while Barzee received a 15-year sentence for aiding in the crime. Smart wrote a memoir about her experience and has been a contributor for ABC News.
(#5) Jaycee Lee Dugard Lived In A Shed For 18 Years

Eleven-year-old Jaycee Dugard was abducted while walking to the school bus in Lake Tahoe, CA, in 1991. Phillip and Nancy Garrido had been in Dugard's neighborhood when they saw the child, shot her with a stun gun, and dragged her into their car. They transported her to their home, where they kept her in a shed in their backyard for 18 years. During her captivity, Dugard was forced to have two daughters by Phillip Garrido while she was still a child.

UC Berkeley security officers conducted a background check on Garrido in August 2009 when he was seen acting strangely with two young girls who he claimed were his daughters. When the review showed Garrido had no children, investigators were called to search his home where Dugard was discovered. Garrido was sentenced to 431 years in prison, and his wife received 36 years to life.
(#7) Steve Carter Solved His Own Kidnapping

In 2012, 35-year-old Steve Carter clicked on a website that featured cases of missing children. Carter had always known that he was adopted, but he soon found a photo of himself under the name Marx Panama Barnes in the missing children database.

Carter's father had been looking for him for 30 years after he was kidnapped by his biological mother as an infant. When he was 4 years old, she put him up for adoption in an orphanage, then disappeared without a trace. DNA confirmed that Steve Carter and Marx Panama Barnes were the same person.
(#11) Danielle Cramer Was Hidden In A Cupboard For A Year

Danielle Cramer went missing at age 15 in June 2006 and was found a year later - nearly to the day - in June 2007. Police had arrived at the West Hartford, CT, home of 41-year-old Adam Gault, whom they suspected of murder, only to find Cramer being held captive in a cupboard under the home's staircase.

Gault, his wife, and his girlfriend were all arrested and sentenced to prison for the crime.