10 Americans Who VANISHED Then REAPPEARED With Creepy Stories What Happened Out There

Most people who vanish are never seen again. These ten Americans came back, and the stories they brought home were stranger than the disappearance itself. A logger who said a light in the sky took him. A woman found on a dark road on Thanksgiving morning. And a girl who walked into a parole office eighteen years later under a different name. The ten cases, in order: Sherri Papini, who vanished while jogging in Redding, California, in 2016 and was found three weeks later, until the truth came out in federal court; Travis Walton, the Arizona logger missing for five days in 1975; Denise Huskins, kidnapped from Vallejo in 2015 and then called a hoax by police; Kamiyah Mobley, taken from a Jacksonville hospital as a newborn in 1998 and found alive 18 years later; Shawn Hornbeck, who rode away on his bike in Richwoods, Missouri, in 2002; Colleen Stan, held for seven years after hitchhiking in 1977; Abby Hernandez, who walked home nine months after she vanished in North Conway, New Hampshire; Elizabeth Smart, taken from her bedroom in Salt Lake City in 2002; Amanda Berry, who escaped a Cleveland house in 2013 after ten years; and Jaycee Dugard, found in 2009, eighteen years after she was taken near Lake Tahoe. This is a sourced true-crime documentary. Facts come from court records, official statements and the sources below. Claims are presented as claims, and theories as theories. People are described only through what is on the public record. Some scenes are illustrations; real photos are public domain, Creative Commons, or photos released by families and police for the search. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:49 Case 1: Sherri Papini (2016) 9:29 Case 2: Travis Walton (1975) 17:13 Case 3: Denise Huskins (2015) 22:51 Case 4: Kamiyah Mobley (1998) 28:04 Case 5: Shawn Hornbeck (2002) 33:21 Case 6: Colleen Stan (1977) 38:59 Case 7: Abby Hernandez (2013) 43:13 Case 8: Elizabeth Smart (2002) 48:39 Case 9: Amanda Berry (2003) 53:50 Case 10: Jaycee Dugard (1991) 59:43 What these ten stories leave us Sources: Sherri Papini: U.S. Department of Justice, Eastern District of California press releases (April 12 and September 19, 2022) and FBI affidavit; Shasta County Sheriff's Office statements; Sacramento Bee and Redding Record Searchlight reporting Travis Walton: Navajo County Sheriff's Office statements and Arizona DPS polygraph report (1975, as reported); Arizona Republic and Arizona Daily Sun (November 1975); Philip J. Klass, UFOs: The Public Deceived (1983); Travis Walton, The Walton Experience (1978) Denise Huskins: U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California (U.S. v. Muller); Solano County Superior Court; City of Vallejo settlement (2018); San Francisco Chronicle, ABC7 and CBS News reporting Kamiyah Mobley: Jacksonville Sheriff's Office statements (January 2017); Duval County court records (plea 2018, sentence June 2018); The New York Times and Florida Times-Union reporting Shawn Hornbeck: St. Louis County, Franklin County and Washington County court records (U.S. and Missouri v. Michael Devlin, 2007); CNN and St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporting Colleen Stan: Tehama County Superior Court trial of Cameron Hooker (1985); Los Angeles Times (November 1985); California parole board decisions Abby Hernandez: New Hampshire Attorney General's Office statements; Coos County Superior Court plea of Nathaniel Kibby (2016); NHPR and NECN reporting Elizabeth Smart: U.S. District Court for the District of Utah (U.S. v. Mitchell, 2010–2011); Salt Lake City Police statements; Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune reporting; Elizabeth Smart, My Story (2013) Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight: Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas (State of Ohio v. Castro, 2013); FBI and Cleveland Police statements; Cleveland 911 call (May 6, 2013); The Plain Dealer reporting Jaycee Dugard: El Dorado County Superior Court (People v. Garrido, 2011); California Office of the Inspector General report (November 2009); State of California settlement (2010); Jaycee Dugard, A Stolen Life (2011) Photo credits: public domain photos from the FBI, Shasta County Sheriff's Office, El Dorado County Sheriff's Office and the White House. Creative Commons photos via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY / CC BY-SA, authors listed in the photo log), including Travis Walton 2019 and Elizabeth Smart by KOMUnews. Missing-person photos of Shawn Hornbeck, Elizabeth Smart, Jaycee Dugard, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are the photos released by their families and police during the searches. Photos were toned and cropped. Music and sound effects: CC0 (public domain) from Freesound. If you have information about a missing person, contact your local police, the FBI tip line (tips.fbi.gov), the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (1-800-THE-LOST) or NamUs (namus.nij.ojp.gov). Subscribe for more real cases: every family that left the light on deserves the full story. #truecrime #missingpersons #foundalive