Kayla Unbehaun didn't disappear under the most mysterious of circumstances: The 9-year-old's father, Ryan Iskerka, told police that Kayla had been taken by her mother, Heather Unbehaun.
Ryan said Kayla had spent the night with her mom on July 4, 2017, but neither of them were at Heather's home in Wheaton, Ill., when he arrived to pick his daughter up the next day per the terms of their court-issued custody schedule.
"[Heather's] family was having dinner at her house," Ryan told WXIA's 11 Alive a year later, "and they told me she hadn't come back from a camping trip and they didn't know where she was."
A warrant was issued for Heather's arrest on suspicion of felony child abduction on July 28, 2017, according to the South Elgin, Ill., Police Department, and Kayla's name was added to the national database of missing persons.
Five years later, Kayla was still missing, and Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries took note: An age-progression image of Kayla, juxtaposed with her 9-year-old self, was one of several pictures of missing children shown toward the end of the season two episode "Abducted by a Parent," which premiered Nov. 1, 2022. Also onscreen: a photo of Heather, stamped "WANTED."
What were the circumstances of Kayla Unbehaun's disappearance?
Kayla had been living with dad Ryan, stepmom Lisa and two stepsisters when she was allegedly abducted by Heather.
"My relationship with Heather was...I'd kind of describe it as extreme," Ryan said on a 2020 episode of Vanished: The Missing Persons Project. "I feel like we had somewhat of an infatuous love for one another, and it kind of led to some problems."
They were together for five years before Kayla was born, Ryan said, but Heather told him she wanted to break up shortly after they became parents.
According to Ryan, he and Heather originally had an informal visitation arrangement, but it became increasingly more difficult for him to see Kayla and they ultimately ended up in court.
"Heather decided she wanted to move to Athens, Georgia, with Kayla when she was just four," the 43-year-old told MEAWW earlier this year, before Kayla was found. "I was fine with the move as long as we could agree and establish a visitation schedule and child support, and Heather agreed. But they suddenly moved a few weeks later without telling me. I found out about it when Kayla opened up to me on the phone. The day after I found out I filed to establish visitation rights and child support."
It took years to get a court-approved visitation agreement, Ryan said, "with my relationship with Kayla being through Skype for a few hours twice a week and seeing her for a few hours around holidays if Heather was back in town."
In early 2017, Heather told the court that Ryan couldn't see Kayla because the child had "rare health problems," Ryan said on Vanished, so an investigator was appointed to look into Heather's claims "and he found out they weren't true."
Ryan was subsequently granted primary custody of Kayla, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Heather had weekly visitation rights.
"It was never my goal to cause any of that to happen," Ryan told MEAWW, "but what was happening had negative effects on Kayla, and my relationship with her."
Kayla went to live with him and Lisa and her two kids, he said, and "things were going great for a few months."
But when Ryan showed up at Heather's house to get Kayla on his way home from work on July 5, 2017, following an extended weekend visit with her mom, neither of them were there.
"There's a lot of people who love her," he told the NCMEC a year later. "Everyone loves her in our family, everyone wants to see her and spend time with her. I don't want to take her mother away from her. I want her to grow up happy and have a life with everyone who loves her."
Family abductions are the second-most common type of missing-child case reported to the NCMEC, according to the center, with more than 1,200 in 2022. In 2020, 63 percent of AMBER alerts issued were family abduction cases.
Where did Heather and Kayla Unbehaun go after 2017?
In July 2018, police in Athens, Ga., said they had reason to believe Heather was in the area.
"We do have a detective who is assigned to this case and he has followed up on some leads," Athens-Clarke County PD Public Information officer Epifanio Rodriguez told 11 Alive at the time. "We have posted on our social media account asking for the public's help on several occasions about this case."
Police said that the car Heather had been driving had been sold and there had been no activity on her social media accounts since she disappeared with Kayla.
Ryan posted a letter to Kayla for her 12th birthday on Jan. 5, 2020, writing, "I hope you are safe and that you have seen many happy times since you've been away. I hope you enjoyed your birthday and I want you to know that I love you so much and so does the rest of your family. We all miss you so much and think about you every day."
How was Kayla Unbehaun found?
An employee at the Plato's Closet in Asheville, N.C., called local police on May 13 after seeing Heather and now-15-year-old Kayla and remembering that the girl had been reported missing, according to the South Elgin and Asheville police departments.
Officers arrived at the scene at 7:26 p.m., per Asheville PD, and after they confirmed Heather and Kayla's identities with South Elgin authorities, Heather was arrested. Kayla was placed in the custody of social services until her father could pick her up the next day.
"I'm overjoyed that Kayla is home safe," Ryan said in a May 16 statement, thanking law enforcement, the NCMEC and everyone who "helped keep her story alive and were instrumental in spreading awareness. We ask for privacy as we get to know each other again and navigate this new beginning."
Asheville Police Lt. Diana Loveland told WLOS it was "unusual, but it's good that when someone does suspect that they recognize someone, no matter how old the story might be, that they are not afraid to give us a call so we can come to investigate."
The thrift store employee recognized Kayla thanks to "well-publicized media," Asheville Police Lt. Jonathan Brown told WLOS. "It really was a sequence of events where the caller felt like they had made an identification, and called the police, and the police responded and were persistent with their investigation."
Calling it a "unique case," Brown explained, "What's most unusual is the ability to stay off the grid, if you will, for that period of time. Typically we leave a technological bread crumb and those are usually very easy and quick to be tracked down. This was not."
Where is Heather Unbehaun now?
Heather was arrested on a fugitive warrant and booked into Asheville's Buncombe County Detention Facility on a $250,000 bond, according to Asheville PD. She was released May 16 after posting bond, E! News confirmed. The next day, she turned herself into authorities in Illinois and was booked into the Kane County Adult Justice Center.
At a May 18 hearing, a judge set the 41-year-old's bond at $10,000 and she was ordered to wear a GPS monitoring device and stay more than 1,000 feet from Ryan's house, according to NBC Chicago. She was released that afternoon after posting the required 10 percent of her bond amount.
Heather, who's also prohibited from leaving Illinois without the court's permission, appeared at a June 14 status hearing over Zoom. She has not yet been arraigned but authorities say she's facing a charge of child abduction for intentionally violating the terms of a court order. Her next court date is set for June 29.
E! News reached out to Heather's attorney for comment and has not yet heard back.
Where is Kayla Unbehaun now?
In his 2020 birthday message to Kayla, dad Ryan wrote that he was leaning heavily on faith and family for support but "there is nothing I want more than to have you back in my life. We all want you back in our lives. I think about you all day, every day. I pray for you and your mother every day hoping that you are safe and that you will return into my life soon."
After his daughter's safe return in May, Ryan said, per NBC News, that he wasn't ready to talk about what happened, calling the situation "really devastating" to Kayla and the rest of his family.
But now, when you pull up the Unsolved Mysteries episode that featured Kayla's photo, a graphic has been added: "SOLVED."