12 Children Who Were Lost For Years, And Finally Found

When you see the headlines about missing children, all you want is a happy outcome. You can’t help feeling for the parents who don’t know where their kids are, even though you can’t imagine the waking nightmare they’re going through. It doesn’t happen nearly often enough, but sometimes those kids do come home. Although they might endure heartbreaking horrors, they come home. Here are 12 kids who defied the odds and, after years away from their families, were finally reunited.

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1. Gregory Jean Jr.

Gregory’s father and stepmother withdrew him from school on the pretense of homeschooling him when he was 9. However, for the next four years, he was kept captive in their home. His mother, a Haitian immigrant, notified Child Protective Services but not the police, so they didn’t know he was missing. Gregory managed to get himself rescued by rigging up a cell phone to allow him to send his mother a Facebook friend request. When police showed up, they came up empty. But a second visit, this time with directions via text from Gregory, found him hidden behind a false wall.

2. Amina Ali Darsha Nkeki

Captured and held for two years by Boko Haram in an incident that made headlines around the globe, Amina was rescued by a local vigilante group. “When we arrived at the house, the door was closed, I asked the mother to come and identify someone, the moment she saw her, she shouted her name,” the group’s leader told the BBC. “She gave her the biggest hug ever, as if they were going to roll on the ground, we had to stabilize them.”

3. Steven Stayner

Steven was abducted by a known pedophile when he was 7 years old and held captive for 8 years. When his captor abducted another young boy, Steven resolved to escape with him. The pair hitchhiked for 40 miles before finding the police and reuniting with their families. Sadly, Steven passed away in a motorcycle accident when he was 24.

4. Jaycee Dugard

Jaycee Dugard was 11 years old when Phillip and Nancy Garrido shocked her with a stun gun and bundled into their car. She endured 18 years of unspeakable horrors in a shed in their yard before being rescued.