# Longest time for a missing kid to return? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 27, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-for-a-missing-kid-to-return/164526 "2003-03-27T14:53:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-for-a-missing-kid-to-return/164526/1 "2003-03-27T14:53:22Z")
This morning’s news contained a [story](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=533&e=6&cid=533&u=/ap/20030327/ap_on_re_us/girl_found) of a girl who disappeared from North Carolina in 1999 and last week was returned. This, of course, is almost four years. From my understanding, this is quite rare, in that in most cases, children who are gone this long rarely turn up alive and well. Are there other well-known cases of missing children being returned after four years or longer? And if so, what’s the longest amount of time that a kid has been kidnapped and yet returned safely? Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-for-a-missing-kid-to-return/164526/2 "2003-03-27T15:16:49Z")
[http://www.jwf.org/jwf\_thehope.html](http://www.jwf.org/jwf_thehope.html) > [@](#): > > In March 1994, a 29-year-old man was reunited with his family after having been separated from them since he was 2 ½ years old! When he was a toddler, his mother had abandoned the family, leaving his father to raise him and two other siblings. Though unable to afford childcare for all three of the children, his father was able to pay for a baby-sitter for the youngest child; the two older children stayed with relatives during the days. One day in 1974, the baby-sitter fled with the child, but a month or so later, without a word of explanation, she turned the baby over to authorities. Sadly, authorities were unable to locate the child’s family, and in 1975 he was adopted by a Minnesota family. Years later, in February 1994, he was able to track down information about his original family from a Chicago orphanage. He eventually connected with his biological family. And of course the more classically “abducted” Steven Stayner, of “I Know My Name Is Steven” TV-movie fame, who was missing for 7 years. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-for-a-missing-kid-to-return/164526/3 "2003-03-27T15:31:19Z")
In the Chicago area, there was a case in the news, maybe 3 years ago, of a father who found his daughter in New Zealand (with the mom, who had kidnapped her) - she had been missing for about 8 or 9 years. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-for-a-missing-kid-to-return/164526/4 "2003-03-27T15:37:49Z")
About two years ago, there was a truly abominable story that got a lot of attention around here about a girl who had been abducted and kept prisonner, confined to a 2m X 1m space for **nine years**. Read more about it: [http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/archive/200002/12/news01.html](http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/archive/200002/12/news01.html) ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-for-a-missing-kid-to-return/164526/5 "2003-03-27T15:50:57Z")
Oh, and I shouldn’t forget about Takeshi Terakoe who was kidnapped by North Korea in 1963 at the age of 13, he returned to Japan briefly last year only - **39 years** missing. (He’s now a member of the NK Communist Party…) ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-time-for-a-missing-kid-to-return/164526/6 "2003-03-27T17:36:33Z")
The girl mentioned in the OP was 11 when kidnapped and when found was 15 and had two kids of her own. Her kidnapper raped her (alledgedly…of course). She wound up in Mexico and has since returned home. I can’t quite comprehend how a family can adjust to all that.