Surviving against the odds

Following is a list of recent abductions in which victims survived.

Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped in June 1991 in California at age 11 and remained missing for more than 18 years. She was discovered in 2009 after her abductor, Phillip Craig Garrido brought her to a parole office in Concord, California, with two daughters, aged 11 and 15, fathered by him.

Garrido and his wife Nancy pleaded guilty to kidnapping and other charges. In 2011, he was sentenced to 431 years imprisonment. Nancy Garrido received a sentence of 36 years to life.

Elizabeth Smart was 14 when she was abducted in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2003. She was found nine months later only a few miles from her home. Brian Mitchell, who was initially found unfit to stand trial was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2011.

Shawn Hornbeck was 11 when he was abducted in Missouri, while riding his bicycle and remained missing for more than four years. He was found, along with Ben Ownby, 13, who had been abducted more recently, in the Kirkwood, Missouri, apartment of Michael J. Devlin, in January 2007. Devlin pleaded guilty to abduction and child sex abuse and was sentenced to life in prison.

Reuters

(China Daily 05/08/2013 page10)