Hell is for Children

An astonishing 20,000 child abductions a year is almost unbelievable. That some of these children survive years with their abductors is unfathomable.

Elizabeth Smart is probably one of the most recognizable names in the world of child abduction. On June 5, 2002, at the age of 14, Elizabeth was kidnapped at knife point from her own bedroom in the middle of the night.

Her abductor, Brian David Mitchell, was a religious zealot, who used scripture to justify the abduction. He walked around town dressed like Jesus, accompanied by two women in robes and veils. He was thought harmless by a community used to seeing religious extremists of all sorts, and never considered him a suspect in Elizabeth Smart's abduction. Had they known he was on a mission to find 7 virgin brides promised him by his god, they might have suspected him sooner.

Religious zealot or not, Mitchell was smart enough to know he was breaking the law.

The night of the abduction, Mitchell led Elizabeth to the woods outside of Salt Lake City, where he introduced her to his wife, Wanda Barzee. After a bizarre marriage ritual, he raped Elizabeth that very night, and nearly every night after. The only breaks she got were when Mitchell went into town to con or steal money and food. He also wasn't averse to drinking, doing drugs, and indulging in orgies. Sometimes he would spend days lost in a quagmire of drugs and alcohol, leaving his wife and Elizabeth at the campsite, alone, and often without food. Evidently, his piety didn't extend to extra-curricular activities.

During her 9 months of captivity, Elizabeth spent most days shackled to a tree. Mitchell told Elizabeth that she was the first of 7 virgin brides promised him by the lord. She was given a new name, Shearjashub, and was made to wear robes and cover her hair. At times, the threesome of Mitchell, Brazee, and Smart would travel around the Salt Lake City area, visiting food kitchens, dressed like cult members, while Mitchell preached his gospel. Mitchell insisted he was an angel, a prophet, and played the part of cult leader well. Residents recall seeing the strange cult leader but brushed him off as just another kook.

Mitchell used the typical techniques to hold Elizabeth captive. He made sure that her very life depended on him, and him alone. He often starved the girl or fed her rotten food. He threatened to kill her, and left her shackled to a tree, exposed to the elements.

Elizabeth held out hope that someone would recognize her and report them to the police. They were still frustratingly close to home, after all. Her hopes were dashed when Mitchell announced they were moving to San Diego, California, eventually ending up camped in a dry riverbed outside the city. Their stay there didn't last long, however. Mitchell and Barzee were constantly fighting, mostly over Mitchell's obvious preference for Smart, but also about his partying. They decided they needed a new start. Seizing the opportunity, Elizabeth Smart used Mitchell's own religious beliefs to manipulate him back to Salt Lake City.

It was Elizabeth's sister who was her real savior. During the abduction, Mary Katherine Smart had been lying in her bed, feigning sleep. She heard the kidnapper threaten to kill Elizabeth if she made a sound. She heard him telling Elizabeth to obey, and in October, Mary Katherine suddenly remembered who's voice she had heard. She had heard it before, you see. It belonged to a handyman who had done some work for the Smart family one day months prior to the abduction. Skeptical, but willing to try anything, police had a composite sketch of the handyman made and released it to the public. Mitchell's own family recognized him and gave police current pictures to circulate.

The sketch provided by Elizabeth's sister, combined with Elizabeth's maneuvering the trio back to Salt Lake City, instigated Smart's rescue. An alert passerby recognized Elizabeth, despite the gray wigs and glasses they had used as a disguise, and police were called.

Elizabeth Smart was one of the lucky ones. She made it home.

Brian Mitchell was sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping and rape.

His cohort, Wanda Barzee, was sentenced to 15 years for her part in the kidnapping. Evidently, she wasn't held accountable for her part in the multiple rapes of the then 14-year-old girl, despite Elizabeth Smart describing that Barzee was often right by her side in the small tent while she was being raped.

The "most evil woman" Elizabeth had ever met received credit for time served and was released in 2018 at the age of 72. Elizabeth feels Barzee is still a danger and urges families to be vigilant with their children.

This is good advice. At last account, Wanda Barzee was living a few blocks away from a Salt Lake City elementary school.

******

Steven Stayner led a relatively normal life in 1972 America. Born the middle child in a family of 5, he was one of two Stayner boys. His family was deeply religious and believed in strict rules for the children. Sometimes Steven forgot the rules. He was the one who would lose track of time and come home late or would scribble his name on the garage door in an idle doodle; but his actions were never malicious, and he was in no way a bad seed or troubled child. He was loved and would be sorely missed.

One day, while walking home from school, 7-year-old Steven was approached by a man handing out religious tracts. The man asked Steven if he thought his mother would like to donate to his church. Steven, coming from a religious family, thought she might, and accepted a ride home from the man and the man's friend, who pulled up with a car as if on cue.

It didn't take long for Steven to realize he wasn't being taken home. Having just gotten into trouble the day before for getting home late, Steven was worried he'd get in trouble if he didn't return home, but the man, Kenneth Parnell, pretended to call Steven's parents and get permission for a stay-over. That first night Steven was molested, but not yet raped. That happened 13 days later.

Had Steven realized he was mere yards away from his grandfather's home, he might have tried to escape, but as it was, Parnell convinced Steven that his family had given him away. He told the young boy that there were too many kids in the family, and they just couldn't afford them all. The family had chosen Steven to give away, as he was the one always getting into trouble.

And Steven believed him.

Little Steven Stayner was told to call Parnell "father" and was told to forget his old life. His new life as Dennis Gregory Parnell was one of misery and abuse. The person he thought kindest to him, a simple man named Ervin Edward Murphy, was the man who was handing out the religious tracts and first approached the boy. Steven thought him kind because he didn't molest him. That was his measure of kindness; not being molested.

Stayner was repeatedly raped by Parnell for the entire time he was held captive, and for a time, was also molested by Parnell's girlfriend. Steven was given drugs and alcohol from a very young age as a way to control him, beginning with cough medicine to make him compliant at night.

As the years went by, Steven came to accept his new life. He was enrolled in numerous schools by his "father", Parnell. He was often alone and unsupervised, but by this time, despite the nightly molestation and rape by Parnell, Steven felt his fate had been sealed. He was Parnell's son now, and he didn't have a choice in the matter. Where would he go, anyway? He believed his family gave him away.

Years passed and Steven entered puberty. He was rapidly aging out of Parnell's preferred pedophillic age group, and on several occasions, Parnell tried to have Steven help kidnap another child. Steven pretended to help, but something always happened to ruin the plans. Steven later confessed to purposely making mistakes. Who knows how many children Steven saved from Parnell's fatherly love?

Having given up on Stayner as an accomplice, Parnell engaged the help of one of Steven's friends to kidnap another small boy.

In early 1980, Timothy White, a little 5-year-old boy from Ukiah, California, was snatched from his front yard by Parnell and his teenage accomplice.

In the weeks that followed, Timothy was given a new name, Tommy, and his hair was dyed to hide his identity.

During Timothy's 16 days of captivity, Steven grew to care for the child. He feared that Timothy would suffer the same abuse he had and was determined to get him home.

One night, after Parnell left for his job as a security guard, Steven gathered up Timothy White and set out to return him to his family. They lived outside of town, so the pair had to hitch rides to get into Ukiah. Once there, however, Timothy could not remember his address. At a loss for what to do next, Steven took Timothy to the police station. His intention was to drop the boy off then fade into the night, but police saw him and detained him. After some cajoling, Stayner told his story. He uttered the words that would later be the unofficial rallying cry for families of abducted kids everywhere: "I know my first name is Steven".

Steven Stayner was abducted as a naive, innocent child, and returned a hero. He not only escaped his captor, he also saved another child along the way. He would become famous.

His return home was difficult, however. It was a hard transition for everyone involved. The Stayner family had last seen Steven when he was 7 years old, and on some level that's what they were expecting to see on his return.

On Steven's part, he was raised by a man with no rules or morals. He was allowed to drink, smoke, and do drugs in his other world, and living a more regulated life was difficult for him. Eventually, he was kicked out of the home when his behavior was too much for the family to deal with.

Steven didn't talk to his family about his abuse, and in fact, Parnell was never charged with molesting Steven. It was felt that it would be too traumatic for Steven if the world knew the details of his captivity. In reality, it was too traumatic for his father to hear those details. After Steven's return, his real father refused to hug him. This mind set was not conducive for Steven to seek help by a professional, and he had to navigate through his integration back to the real world by himself. He never did quite learn to deal.

Nine years after his return, Steven was finally pulling his life together. He was married, had two children and a job, and was reintroducing himself to the church. He was also working with youth groups and teaching personal safety. He still exhibited dangerous behaviors but was starting to find some semblance of peace. One night, on his way home from work, his life was cut short when his motorcycle crashed into a car. Hundreds of people attended his funeral.

The damage done by Kenneth Parnell wasn't reserved for the boys he molested. Of course, the families were also severely traumatized by the abduction of their loved ones. In the Stayner case, Steven's kidnapping and his parents' difficulty dealing with that loss, as well as his subsequent return and the media blitz that followed, pushed the older Stayner brother, Cary, over the edge. Cary Stayner would later be known as the Yosemite Park Killer after brutally killing 4 women in the national park.

However, while Steven's kidnapping is seen by many to be the catalyst that drove his brother to kidnap and kill, others believe otherwise. In a 6-hour confession to the only man Stayner would speak to, FBI agent Jeff Rinek, Cary Stayner confessed to having fantasies of kidnapping and killing women when he was a very small child, years before Steven was kidnapped. This makes one wonder how Steven's abduction played into Cary's subsequent fantasies. According to Rinek, however, Stayner was destined to offend.

There would be no happy ending for the Stayner family.

As for Kenneth Parnell, he was sentenced to 7 years for the kidnapping. Not surprising, after his release he attempted to re-offend. In 2003, suffering from many health issues, Parnell tried to coerce his care giver into obtaining a young boy for him. He specified that the boy had to have "a clean rectum". The care giver, aware of Parnell's criminal history, went to the police. With the help of the care giver, police were able to catch Parnell in his attempts to buy a boy. He had already obtained fake papers and had money ready to pay a kidnapper.

Steven's prior testimony, as well as the child pornography found in Parnell's home, were enough to finally put the abuser in jail for life. He was sentenced to 25 years under California's 3-strikes law. He was 71 years old. He died 4 years into his sentence of natural causes, never to harm another child.

******

Amanda Berry was let out early from her job at Burger King on April 21, 2003. It was the day before her 17th birthday, and she was excited to get home and get on with her plans. Unable to catch a ride with people she knew, she set off on her own. She made the bad mistake of accepting a ride from Ariel Castro.

Amanda was taken to Castro's home and placed upstairs where she was bound by her legs, hands, and neck. She was kept in the dark and was denied food.

Just on the other side of the wall, unbeknownst to Amanda, was another Ariel Castro victim. Michelle Knight had disappeared 8 months prior to Amanda. She was 21 years old at the time and had been taken as she was on her way to appear in court in an attempt to have her child returned to her. Michelle was in the middle of a custody battle involving her son, and as a result, her disappearance was not seen as suspicious. It was speculated that she had simply chosen to disappear after initially losing custody of her child.

Michelle and Amanda were kept apart from one another, and both thought they were alone until almost exactly a year after Amanda's abduction, when the youngest of what would become Castro's 3 "wives", was abducted. In the Spring of 2004, Gina DeJesus came up missing. She had been friends with Castro's daughter, and trusted him when he had offered her a ride home.

All three women were kept captive by Ariel Castro for the next 10 years.

The neighborhood where the women were held prisoner was a close one. Neighbors often held barbecues and get-togethers. Castro's children from a previous marriage were over to his house on visits, as were neighbors, and no one ever reported seeing or hearing anything unusual at the residence.

In the 10 years of captivity, the women formed a bond, though often Castro pitted them against one another. Michelle, for instance, is seldom seen in interviews with Amanda and Gina. Rivalries and feelings of jealousy added to the strain of being held prisoner by a rapist, which played a large part in the group's dynamics. Again, Castro was their lifeline, their link to the outside world. Gaining his favor would have been a smart move, but unfortunately, the girls felt themselves competing for Ariel Castro's attention.

And what were they fighting over? All three women were raped, sometimes in front of one another as added humiliation, and they were brutally beaten. It was reported by Michelle's mother that Michelle had been so badly beaten throughout the years, that after her escape she required reconstructive surgery to repair her face and suffered permanent hearing loss in one ear. The competition for attention from Castro was a simple survival technique seen often in long-term kidnappings.

Michelle reports having been impregnated at least 5 times by Castro, with each pregnancy being beaten out of her body. Castro said he couldn't have babies around, as that would raise suspicion, he explained as he beat Michelle with a barbell. It's a mystery, then, why he allowed Amanda to carry her pregnancy to term. Perhaps she was his favorite. What a dubious honor.

At the end of 2006, Amanda delivered her daughter, with Michelle acting as midwife. Castro sat nearby and watched. The child quickly became loved by all in the strange household, bonding everyone together.

As the child, Jocelyn, reached school age, Amanda made a school for the girl, pretend "walking" her to class and kissing her goodbye at the door, then playing the role of the schoolteacher. She wanted the girl to have as normal a life as possible and wanted to prepare her for the real parts in life, like school. Normal... How could anything be normalized in a family where the women are chained to the walls and never get to leave?

During this time, Castro relaxed the rules a bit, building an enclosure outside so the three women and the child could go out in the sunshine. He took is youngest daughter on errands around town. Jocelyn even referred to Castro as "daddy" in public and spent time with her grandmother. Ariel Castro was very much in love with his daughter, and was proud of her, though this did nothing to change his demeanor towards his captives.

In May 2013, Ariel Castro forgot to lock the main front door, securing only the screen door. By this time in her captivity, Amanda was allowed a little more freedom. She was permitted to go downstairs to do dishes and other housework while Castro was gone. When she noticed the main door was unlocked, she first thought it was a test. Castro had done similar things in the past, then beat them when they tried to escape. Amanda hesitated at first, but on noticing neighbors outside, Amanda took her chance and began to scream and wave her arm out the door until two men, Angel Cordero and Charles Ramsey, kicked a hole in the door, and Amanda was able to escape with her daughter.

Castro was arrested and eventually charged with almost 1000 counts of kidnapping, abduction, and rape, as well as charged with murder for the deaths of Michelle's fetuses.

In his statement to the judge in court before his sentencing, Castro swore the women had never been mistreated, never raped, and in fact sought out sexual relations with him, though he did admit that he had a sexual problem and viewed too much pornography.

After first pleading not guilty, Castro eventually changed his plea to guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 1000 years, all without the possibility of parole. One month into his life sentence, Castro took the easy way out. He was found in his cell, having hanged himself with his sheets.

******

Jaycee Dugard, 11 years old, never made it to school on the day she was taken. After being hit with a stun gun, she awakened to find herself in the back of a car, being held down by a strange woman. She never saw her stepfather chasing down the car in vain.

Her nightmare ride would last over 3 hours, as they drove her from her home near Tahoe, to Contra Costa County, outside of San Fransisco. By the time they had arrived at their destination, Jaycee's clothing had been removed. A blanket was draped over her head and she was led into a shower, where she saw her first nude man, her abductor, Phillip Garrido. She was then taken to a small, soundproofed shed in the backyard, and raped. She was still handcuffed.

Those first few days were a blur of rape, punctuated with the occasional fast-food treat and the company of a pedophile, who tried to amuse his captive by telling her funny stories. This is typical behavior in kidnappings. When the victim has no one to turn to, no one to rely on but the kidnapper, they start to form a bond. This is a survival mechanism.

Garrido told Jaycee that she had an important job to do. He explained that he had a problem, a sexual problem, and by cooperating she was helping to keep other little girls safe from his attention.

Let me repeat: He put the responsibility of keeping him from attacking little girls, on the little girl he had kidnapped and repeatedly raped. In Jaycee's mind, she must have been making a massive sacrifice to keep others safe.

Jaycee's new life was one of rape, fast-food, and the rantings of a mad man. On occasion, Garrido would go on binges of methamphetamine use, where he would instruct Jaycee to listen for the voices of angels in the walls or showed her pornography. These marathon runs, as he called them, of sex and madness almost always ended with Garrido crying and begging for forgiveness, at the same time as threatening the young girl.

Seven months into what would become an 18-year ordeal, Jaycee was introduced to Garrido's wife, the woman who had held her down in the car when she was kidnapped, Nancy Garrido.

Nancy, too, was apologetic at first, bringing Jaycee a stuffed animal and chocolate milk, and crying tears of regret. But as time wore on, Nancy's jealousy became more evident. Nancy was as manipulative as her husband, and even blamed Jaycee for her own predicament. Nancy would also take her turn at playing jailer. At one point, Garrido spent a month in jail, and Nancy was in charge of keeping Jaycee captive. Had her tears of apology been sincere, she would have taken that opportunity to free them both.

Jaycee was kept in handcuffs for nearly 3 years. She was moved between two sheds and make-shift tents in the backyard. In her third year of captivity, Jaycee was fed her first home-cooked meal. It was Easter Sunday, and that was the day she found out she was pregnant.

Jaycee had learned of the connection between sex and pregnancy on TV, and that was where she turned to learn about giving birth. This was her only preparation for childbirth. On August 18, 1994, Jaycee gave birth to her first child by her kidnapper, followed 3 years later by the birth of a second daughter.

She labored alone for hours before the Garrido's came home and found her about to deliver. Jaycee gave birth in a tent in the backyard both times.

During this entire ordeal, Phillip Garrido's parole officer made an estimated 60 visits to the home, and not once was the outside of the Garrido property searched, despite neighbors saying they heard people living out in the backyard.

As the years went by, Jaycee, too, created a "school" for her children, but having never made it out of grade school, she was limited in what she could teach to her girls.

In time, Jaycee and her daughters were told to call Nancy "mother" and Phillip "father". This was the story others were told, and there were plenty of others to tell.

Phillip Garrido had a printing company, and Jaycee became a vital part of that business. She interacted with customers on the phone and in person on a regular basis. Everyone believed her to be Garrido's daughter.

In August of 2009, Phillip Garrido went to the San Francisco FBI field office and presented them with a 4-page essay on how he had cured his criminal sexual behavior. He felt it was important that others be given the same opportunity for healing. He also went to the UC Berkley offices and sought out a permit to hold a special event on campus. He had his two youngest "daughters" with him.

A clerk at the university felt that there was something wrong. The two girls appeared sullen and pale, and she alerted police. She had the foresight to schedule an appointment with Garrido for the following day, to further discuss the permit he was seeking, she said, and he agreed. After he left, police were contacted and very quickly discovered Garrido was a known pedophile.

Garrido was in violation of his parole. Just the month before, he had been forbidden to have access to minors and was told he could not travel more than 25 miles from his home. His appearance at Berkley violated both those edicts.

Garrido was allowed to keep his appointment at the university the next day. His parole officer and investigators were waiting. Jaycee and Nancy were separated from Garrido, but police couldn't get them to cooperate. Jaycee became aggressive and combative with investigators. A police sergeant was called to the scene, and it was after his arrival that Garrido broke down and admitted the truth. He had kidnapped and raped the young woman he had been calling Allissa. It was only after his confession that Jaycee admitted the truth and gave her real name. Jaycee stated that her cooperation with her abductor was her only means of coping. She had chosen survival, even if it meant protecting her kidnapper. After 18 years of captivity, no one was surprised that Jaycee had developed Stockholm Syndrome.

Phillip and Nancy Garrido both pleaded not guilty. Bail for Nancy was set for 30 million dollars. Phillip didn't get bail at all. In the end, both Garridos pleaded guilty. Phillip was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison, while Nancy received 36 years.

The state of California settled a civil suit with Jaycee Dugard for 20 million dollars, admitting that they had failed to keep her safe by various lapses by the Department of Corrections, that could have ended her captivity years earlier.

Nine months, 7 years, 10 years, 18 years. Can it get any worse? Of course it can.

******

Elisabeth Fritzl unwittingly helped in her own captivity. Unknown to her, her father, Josef Fritzl had been building a secret chamber in the basement of the family home. He had one more door to install before it was finished. On August 28, 1984, Fritzl asked Elisabeth if she would help him install a door in the basement. She did. After the door was in place, Fritzl held a towel soaked in ether over his daughter's face, then put her in the secret chamber she had just helped to finish.

Elisabeth's mother, Rosemarie, soon became worried about her daughter's absence and filed a missing person's report with local police in Amstetten, Austria.

Fritzl, knowing the police would investigate, forced Elisabeth to write a note saying she had run away and warned the family not to come looking for her. Since she had run away in the past, this was a believable tale.

For 24 years, Josef Fritzl would visit his captive daughter in her cell, bringing her food and other supplies, and raping her. The rape didn't begin with her captivity, however; Fritzl had been raping Elisabeth since she was 11 years old.

Over the course of those 24 years, Elisabeth gave birth to 7 children fathered by her, well, father. One child died shortly after birth, and three were taken upstairs to be cared for by the Fritzl's. Josef's explanation was that his grandchildren simply showed up on his doorstep one day. The Fritzl's were given custody as foster parents for these orphaned kids.

The remaining three children were allowed to stay with Elisabeth because Josef felt his wife couldn't handle any more children. At one point, Josef was even kind enough to enlarge the space they had to live in. Of course, Elisabeth and her children had to dig out the space themselves, with their bare hands no less, but eventually their living space doubled in size. It didn't matter that it took years to dig out. Time was the one thing they had in abundance.

The four were kept captive with threats of death. Fritzl claimed that he would gas them if they attempted to escape and told them the cellar door was electrified. In the end, there were 8 locked doors between freedom and the space where Elisabeth had been kept. Eight doors just to get out of the cellar.

Rape wasn't the only indignity Fritzl visited upon his daughter. It wasn't enough to rape her. He would rape her in front of their children to humiliate her. Two of the three children allowed to remain with Elisabeth in the basement were males, one 18 years old. How did witnessing his mother being raped by his father affect his mind?

In April of 2008, Elisabeth's eldest child fell ill. Josef agreed to take the child to the hospital. Elisabeth helped carry her child out of the basement dungeon and stepped out into the world - if only briefly - for the first time in 24 years.

The daughter, Kerstin, age 19, was diagnosed with acute renal failure. The doctors had many questions for Fritzl regarding the girl's health, questions he couldn't answer, and reached out to the public to find the girl's mother. Fearing capture, Fritzl returned to the hospital with a note from Elisabeth he claimed to have found, hoping this would satisfy the doctors.

Fritzl's story simply didn't add up. Doctors became suspicious and notified police, who promptly reopened the missing person's case from 24 years prior.

In the meantime, Elisabeth saw the news reports asking for her to step forward, and begged Fritzl to be allowed to see her daughter in the hospital. Josef relented and allowed her and the remaining two children to come upstairs. Maybe realizing his charade was up, guessing his claims that Elisabeth had run off with a religious cult weren't being believed, Josef Fritzl took Elisabeth to the hospital to see their child. Police were tipped off, and Fritzl was apprehended. Elisabeth refused to cooperate with police until they had promised her that she would never have to see her father again.

Josef Fritzl pled guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to life in prison. He shows no remorse at all. Ten years after he began serving his sentence, he granted an interview where he was quoted as saying, "It's normal to have a family in the cellar."

******

Take a look at Elizabeth Smart, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Jaycee Dugard. They appear to have overcome the horrors of their kidnappings. These women have gone on to help others with abducted children, to build lives for themselves and thrive. Others, however, aren't so fortunate.

Steven Stayner endured bullying after his return and ended up leading a very destructive life. It was only at the end that he started to come to terms with his abduction and tried to turn his life around.

Michelle Knight found her reintegration more difficult than her cell mates. Upon her release, she found that her son had been adopted by his foster family. She didn't want to drag him into the media spotlight, so refused to seek him out. She is waiting to reunite with him when he's an adult.

Amanda Berry, while having made something out of her life, lost her mother during her captivity. Amanda's mother died never knowing her daughter was rescued or that she had a granddaughter. In fact, thanks to a charlatan "psychic", she died believing her daughter was dead. She died 3 years into Amanda's captivity.

The Fritzl family underwent extensive efforts by experts to reintegrate them to society. Elisabeth, the kids kept in the cellar with her, her mother, and the children allowed to live upstairs were all secreted in a unit of the hospital and received help from many professionals. It was felt that only one child would come out of the ordeal relatively unscathed, as he was 5 years old at the time of rescue. Elisabeth Fritzl is now in her 50s, living under a very strictly guarded alias, for her own protection.

The damage done to these victims is more than the sum of physical and psychological abuse. There's a biophysical change, as well. From a June 2018 article in the Washington Post on the effects of children taken from their parents: "Their heart rate goes up. Their body releases a flood of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Those stress hormones can start killing off dendrites - the little branches in brain cells that transmit message. In time, the stress can start killing off neurons, wreaking dramatic and long-term damage, both psychologically and to the physical structure of the brain. The effect is catastrophic."

And yet it's these types of cases that hold hope for many families of missing children.

Every family that loses a child to stranger abduction hopes for the eventual return of their loved ones. They keep the investigation alive. They keep their faces fresh in the minds of the community. They tell their stories every chance they get and beg for a safe return of their children.

Almost all hold out the hope that somehow, by some miracle, their child was stolen or sold to a nice family, perhaps a couple who couldn't have children of their own, people who would take good care of their children and lavish them with love.

To imagine, even for a moment, what surviving a long-term kidnapping actually means, is much too devastating to contemplate.