Missing girl from Netflix series found, details revealed

I mean, we've worked pretty hard over the last seven years. Hundreds of hours of detective work, and to finally see it to an end was an incredible thing. A girl abducted by her mother years ago in the Western suburbs is back home with her father tonight. Police say she was spotted in North Carolina after her abduction story was briefly highlighted on a Netflix show. Dane Placco talked to the girl's South Elgin father, who says he is thrilled to have her home. To see something like this after seven years, and in such a positive way was remarkable. South Elgin police chief Jerry Crosick says they never gave up hope of finding Kayla Unbehawn.

Back in July 2017, Unbehawn, then nine years old, was abducted by her mother during a parental visit in Wheaton, and the two of them disappeared. The girl's father, Ryan Iskirche of South Elgin, had full custody of the girl at the time, and the mother, Heather Unbehawn, only had visitation rights. The case has been featured by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which has done age progressions on the girl. And the parental abduction was recently included in the Unsolved Mystery series on Netflix. On Saturday, an employee working at the Plato's Closet clothing store in Asheville, North Carolina, recognized the mother and now 15-year-old daughter from the TV show and called 911. Officers responded, and through their investigation, over a period of a few minutes and in the hours, revealed that it was in fact a case of a missing person or slash kidnapping. One of our missions is to help find missing children, and so we do that as long as we possibly can, and we really don't give up hope.

Heather Unbehawn was released from a North Carolina jail on bond earlier today, and is facing a Class IV felony charge of child abduction here in Kane County. As for Kayla, she's back with her dad. Here in South Elgin, who told me earlier today, he's overjoyed to have her back home, and she's doing surprisingly well. But an expert in these types of cases tells me it can be a difficult adjustment. It's a long-term process and journey. It also depends on what they underwent. She says NICMAC is providing counseling and therapy to help Kayla as she settles back into her former life.

In South Elgin, Dane Placo, Fox 32, Chicago.

missing persons, south elgin, north carolina, Heather Unbehaun