# List of kidnappings: 2010–2019

The following is a list of kidnappings that occurred in the 2010s, summarizing the events of each case, including instances of celebrity abductions, claimed hoaxes, suspected kidnappings, extradition abductions, and mass kidnappings.
| Date | Victim | Abductor | Location | Age of victim | Outcome | Notes |
| 30 January 2010 | Naga Vaishnavi | Morla Srinivas Rao, Jagadeesh, and Venkata Rao | Andhra Pradesh, India | 10 | Murdered | Vaishnavi was kidnapped and was murdered three days after her abduction. |
| 15 May 2010 | Hostages of the 2010 Kurram agency mass kidnapping | Taliban militants (suspected) | Kurram District, Pakistan | Various | Rescued | 61 people, predominantly civilians, were held hostages by militants who posed as policemen from a convoy en route to Parachinar, most of whom were later released. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident, but the Pakistani government has accused the Taliban for orchestrating it. |
| 4 June 2010 | Kyron Horman | Unknown | Portland, Oregon, US | 7 | Unknown | Horman disappeared when he did not return home from Skyline Elementary School. Local and state police along with the FBI conducted an exhaustive search for the boy and launched a criminal investigation, but have not uncovered any significant information regarding his whereabouts. |
| 8 June 2010 | Khan Kakama | Gordon Tumusiime | Bugolobi, Kampala, Uganda | 1 | Murdered | Kakama was handed to the kidnappers by Molly Nabasa, his nanny. His parents, Sven and Naome Karekaho, work(ed) for the Uganda Revenue Authority and National Environmental Management Authority, respectively. |
| 9 June 2010 | Eliza Samudio | Bruno Fernandes, Luiz Romão, Marcos dos Santos, Elenilson da Silva, Wemerson de Souza, Fernanda de Castro | Esmeraldas, Minas Gerais, Brazil | 25 | Murdered | Samudio, the mother of footballer Bruno Fernandes's illegitimate child, disappeared while in the process of suing Fernandes for child support. One of the perpetrators later testified that Samudio had been abducted, strangled and fed to dogs on orders from Fernandes. Fernandes and several others were ultimately convicted of conspiring in her kidnap and murder. |
| 4 September 2010 | Umar Cheema | ISI operatives (alleged) | Pakistan | unknown | Released | Investigative reporter for The News International who was abducted, beaten, flogged and sexually assaulted by an unidentified group of men, who he claimed to be ISI operatives who had targeted him due to his journalistic work. |
| 8 November 2010 | Gregorio Barradas Miravete | Unknown | Isla, Veracruz | 28 | Murdered | Gregorio Barradas Miravete was a politician from Mexico who was a member of the National Action Party who was kidnapped in Isla, Veracruz. on 8 November 2010 as was then killed. |
| 10 November 2010 | Sarah Maynard | Matthew Hoffman | Mount Vernon, Ohio, US | 13 | Rescued | Hoffman killed Sarah's mother, brother, and mother's friend before kidnapping her and holding her captive in his basement in a bed of leaves. Hoffman admitted to raping her and was arrested in November by two arriving officers, thus rescuing Sarah. |
| 12 November 2010 | Anni Dewani, Shrien Dewani | Zola Robert Tongo, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, Xolile Mngeni | Gugulethu, Cape Town, South Africa | 28, 31 | Murdered, released | During a night trip through the Township of Gugulethu, the taxi was hijacked. Husband Shrien was dropped off in the neighboring township of Khayelitsha while Anni was kept. The vehicle was found the next day with Anni's beaten and bruised body in the back seat. Shrien was suspected of masterminded the kidnapping and murder of his wife. |
| 25 November 2010 (Thanksgiving Day) | Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton | John Skelton | Morenci, Michigan | 5–9 | Unknown | The three boys' mother had custody of them, but they were at their father's house for Thanksgiving the last time they were seen. Their father was convicted of kidnapping them, and still claims that they are alive, though police believe them to be dead. |
| 19 March 2011 | Sian O'Callaghan | Christopher Halliwell | Swindon, Wiltshire, U.K. | 22 | Murdered | O'Callaghan was abducted by taxi driver Christopher Halliwell after leaving a nightclub in Swindon and driven to the Savernake Forest, where she was stabbed to death. Her body was buried near Uffington, Oxfordshire. |
| 13 April 2011 | Holly Bobo | Zach Adams, John Dylan Adams, Jason Autry (alleged) | Darden, Tennessee, US | 20 | Murdered | Bobo was witnessed by her brother walking into the woods outside their family home with a man wearing camouflage. Three years later, in 2014, four men were arrested for varying degrees of involvement in the kidnapping. A woman has alleged that she saw a video of Holly Bobo tied up and crying, although the video has not been located. Bobo's body was found in September 2014. Ultimately, Zach Adams, John Dylan Adams, and Jason Autry were all convicted or pleaded guilty to involvement in Bobo's kidnap and murder, but their guilt remains a matter of dispute. |
| 29 April 2011 | Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb | Syrian government | Daraa, Syria | 13 | Murdered | Syrian boy detained by government officials while attempting to break the Siege of Daraa. After his detention, Al-Khateeb was viciously tortured and eventually killed, before his mutilated body was returned to his family. |
| 11 May 2011 | Timmothy James Pitzen | Amy Fry-Pitzen | Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, US | 6 | Unknown | Timmothy was taken out of school by his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, but she did not bring him home. His father, James Pitzen, reported both of them missing that same day. Amy called some family members to tell them she was all right, with Timmothy saying he was hungry in the background. Her body was found, having killed herself, on 14 May. She left a note behind stating that Timmothy was safe and would never be found. Timmothy was not with her the last time she was seen alive, and his whereabouts are still unknown. |
| 27 May 2011 | Saleem Shahzad | ISI operatives (alleged) | Islamabad, Pakistan | 40 | Murdered | Investigative journalist who was abducted, tortured and killed, presumably by ISI agents, for his writings criticizing the government and raising questions about kidnappings of fellow journalists. |
| June 2011 | Nesreen Irsan | Ali, Alrawabdeh, and Nadia Irsan | Montgomery County, Texas, U.S. | c. 23 | Escaped | Nesreen Irsan was held captive by members of her Muslim family after they found out she was dating a Christian named Coty Beavers. She escaped through a window and fled with Beavers to Spring, where they were married; her family later tracked down and murdered Beavers in retaliation. |
| 11 July 2011 | Leiby Kletzky | Levi Aron | New York City, US | 8 | Murdered | Kletzky was kidnapped on his way home from day camp in his Hasidic Jewish neighborhood. The alleged killer was apprehended 32 hours later; he confessed to killing the boy and dismembering his body, but entered a plea of not guilty in court. |
| September 2011 | Disappearance of Sarah Dominique Broady and Jaiyana Hodges-Broady | Unknown | Killeen, Texas, US | 3 months | Rescued | The mother and daughter were allegedly kidnapped by the child's father during an unscheduled visitation. Details of the case have been withheld by the court. |
| 3 October 2011 | Lisa Irwin | Unknown | Kansas City, Missouri, US | 10 months | Unknown | Irwin disappeared from her home in the early hours of the morning. Investigators to this day have not given any indication that she was kidnapped by an outside intruder. |
| 25 October 2011 | Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted | Somalian Pirates | Galkayo, Somalia | 32 (Buchanan), 60 (Thisted) | Rescued | Two individuals who had been working on a demining project with the Danish Refugee Council; both were kidnapped by Somali pirates in Galkayo. The two were held for ransom, but were rescued by United States Navy SEALs on on January 25, 2012. |
| 9 November 2011 | Wilson Ramos | Unknown | Valencia, Venezuela | 24 | Rescued | A Venezuelan professional baseball catcher, Ramos was kidnapped at gunpoint from outside his mother's home and held by his captors inside a mountain hideout. He was freed by police after 51 hours of captivity. |
| 1 February 2012 | Samantha Koenig | Israel Keyes | Anchorage, Alaska, U.S. | 18 | Murdered | Serial killer Israel Keyes kidnapped Koenig from her workplace, sexually assaulted her, and killed her before going on a two-week cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. After returning he took a photo of her body, set up to look as though she was still alive, in order to demand a large ransom payment before dismembering her body and disposing of her in Matanuska Lake. |
| 21 April 2012 | Isabel Celis | Christopher Clements | Tucson, Arizona, US | 6 | Murdered | Celis was reported missing by her father around 8 am when she was not in her room. A bedroom window had been opened with the screen removed. On 31 March 2017, her remains were found. On April 10, 2024, Clements was sentenced to life in prison for her murder and kidnapping. |
| 26 June 2012 | Sierra Newbold | Terry Lee Black | West Jordan, Utah, US | 6 | Murdered | Sierra Newbold was kidnapped from her home and subsequently raped and strangled by Black, who left her in a nearby canal to drown. She was found by a search party later the same day. Black, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychiatric issues, was found competent to stand trial. He accepted an Alford plea and was given a sentence of 65 years-to-life in prison. |
| 12 August 2012 | Hüseyin Aygün | PKK militants | Ovacık, Turkey | 42 | Released | CHP politician and lawyer who was kidnapped by PKK militants while travelling along a highway. While his aides were immediately released, he was held in detention for two days before being released without harm. |
| 1 October 2012 | April Jones | Mark Bridger | Machynlleth, Wales | 5 | Murdered | Jones was lured into a van by Bridger, and a massive search was conducted to find her. Bridger killed her soon afterward, but only small fragments of her body have been found. |
| 5 October 2012 | Jessica Ridgeway | Austin Sigg | Westminster, Colorado, US | 10 | Murdered | Jessica Ridgeway was a 10-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered on 5 October 2012 while walking to school. She failed to return home from school and an AMBER Alert was issued. On 10 October, her dismembered remains were found in a ditch in a park in Arvada. Her abductor was 17-year-old Austin Sigg, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment on 19 November 2013. |
| c. 8 October 2012 | Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman | Haqqani network | Maidan Wardak Province, Afghanistan | | Rescued | Married couple taken captive by Taliban-backed militants and held for five years. They were rescued by the Pakistani army in 2017. |
| 20 November 2012 | Jersey Bridgeman | Zachary Holly | Bentonville, Arkansas, US | 6 | Murdered | Jersey Bridgeman was kidnapped from her home after Holly, who had been babysitting her, had put her to bed. She was sexually assaulted and suffocated. Authorities later found her in a vacant home nearby. Holly was arrested and charged with capital murder, rape, kidnapping and residential burglary, subsequently convicted and sentenced to the death penalty. David and Jana Bridgeman, Jersey's father and stepmother, had previously pled guilty on child abuse charges. |
| 22 November 2012 | James Foley, John Cantlie | Islamic State | Syria | 40 (Foley), 42 (Cantlie) | Murdered (Foley), unknown (Cantlie) | Journalists who were kidnapped by Islamic State while working on a film about a previous incident in which Cantlie had been kidnapped. Two years later, the IS cell known as "The Beatles" released a video in which Foley was beheaded by Mohammed Emwazi. Cantlie's fate is unknown, but he is presumed dead. |
| 12 December 2012 | Miroslav Mišković | Criminal organization | Serbia | 67 | Released | A Serbian oligarch, business magnate, investor and owner of Delta Holding. Mišković and several others were kidnapped on 12 December 2012. He was released from custody on 22 July 2013, after posting a €12 million bail. |
| 29 January 2013 | Ethan Gilman | Jimmy Lee Dykes | Midland City, Alabama, US | 5 | Rescued | Dykes, a 65-year-old Vietnam War-era veteran, boarded a Dale County school bus, killed the driver, and took Gilman hostage. On the afternoon of 4 February, law enforcement agents entered the bunker where Dykes was keeping Gilman, killed Dykes, and rescued Gilman. |
| March 2013 | David Haines | Islamic State | Atmeh refugee camp, Idlib, Syria | 43 | Murdered | Aid worker who was kidnapped by Islamic State while working at a displaced person's camp in Syria. The following year, the IS cell known as "The Beatles" released a video in which Haines was beheaded by Mohammed Emwazi. |
| 26 April 2013 | Jessica Heeringa | Jeffrey Willis | Norton Shores, Michigan, U.S. | 25 | Murdered | Heeringa was abducted while working the night shift at an Exxon gas station in Norton Shores. Her body was never found, but Jeffrey Willis was convicted of her abduction and murder in 2018. His cousin Kevin Bluhm testified to having helped him dispose of Heeringa's body. |
| 21 June 2013 | Cherish Perrywinkle | Donald James Smith | Jacksonville, Florida, US | 8 | Murdered | Cherish Lily Perrywinkle had been with her mother, Rayne Perrywinkle, and two sisters at a Dollar General when they met Donald Smith, who took them to a local Walmart to shop with a gift card. Smith suggested that they get food at a nearby McDonald's and Cherish went with him, but surveillance cameras indicated that he left the store with her, after which she vanished. She was found the next day, having been sexually assaulted and strangled. Smith was apprehended and found guilty of the child's abduction, rape, and murder, and sentenced to capital punishment in the Florida courts. |
| 3 August 2013 | Hannah Anderson | James DiMaggio | National City, California, U.S. | 16 | Rescued | DiMaggio, a friend of the Anderson family, murdered Hannah Anderson's mother and brother, burned her house down and kidnapped her. A week after the abduction, FBI agents tracked down and killed DiMaggio and recovered Anderson unharmed. |
| 4 August 2013 | Steven Sotloff | Islamic State | Aleppo, Syria | 30 | Murdered | Journalist who was kidnapped by Islamic State while covering the Syrian Civil War. The following year, the IS cell known as "The Beatles" released a video in which Sotloff was beheaded by Mohammed Emwazi. |
| 4 August 2013 | Kayla Mueller | Islamic State | Aleppo, Syria | 24 | Died (circumstances unclear) | Aid worker who was kidnapped by Islamic State while being driven to the Turkish border. During her time in captivity she was reportedly raped and tortured by several high-ranking Islamic State members, including the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Islamic State later declared that Mueller had been killed in an airstrike, although some reports indicated that al-Baghdadi may have ordered her death. |
| 22 August 2013 | Unidentified young woman (name withheld) | Charles Atkins Lewis Jr. | Seagoville, Texas, US | 25 | Rescued | Atkins kidnapped his victim at knifepoint as she left a networking conference before forcing her into her own vehicle, which he commandeered. Both investigators and the young woman believe he intended to rape, and very likely kill his captive. The victim herself was rescued due to two teenagers, Aaron Arias and Jamal Harris, who observed her pleading for help through the window of her vehicle at a stoplight. The teenagers called 9-1-1 to report a kidnapping in process and followed the vehicle as they updated police with progress as to the pursuit. Atkins was arrested 40 miles from the site where the teenagers initially observed the woman's ordeal. |
| 1 October 2013 | Peter Kassig | Islamic State | Deir Ezzour, Syria | 25 | Murdered | Aid worker who was kidnapped by Islamic State while delivering food and medical supplies to refugees in Syria. The following year, the IS cell known as "The Beatles" released a video in which Kassig was beheaded by Mohammed Emwazi. |
| 6 November 2013 | Bethany Arceneaux | Scott Thomas | Lafayette, Louisiana, US | 29 | Rescued | Arceneaux, a twenty-nine-year-old mother, was abducted by her ex-boyfriend Scott Thomas while picking her young son up from daycare. Two days later, Arceneaux's family located the house Thomas was holding her in and kicked down the door, where they found Thomas stabbing Arceneaux repeatedly. One of them shot Thomas dead and Arceneaux made a full recovery. Nobody was charged in Thomas's death. |
| 26 December 2013 | Alan Henning | Islamic State | Al-Dana, Syria | 46 | Murdered | Aid worker who was kidnapped by Islamic State while delivering aid to refugees in Syria. The following year, the IS cell known as "The Beatles" released a video in which Henning was beheaded by Mohammed Emwazi. |
| 8 January 2014 | Ng Lye Poh | Heng Chen Boon and Lee Sze Yong | Hougang, Singapore | 79 | Released | Known as the Sheng Siong kidnapping case, 79-year-old Ng Lye Poh, the mother of the founder CEO of popular supermarket chain Sheng Siong, was kidnapped by two men Lee Sze Yong and Heng Chen Boon, who demanded a ransom of S$20 million from her son, and the ransom amount was later brought down to S$2 million after negotiations. After the ransom was paid, Ng was released and less than an hour later, her abductors were both arrested and charged with kidnapping for ransom. Eventually, one of the kidnappers, Heng, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of wrongful abduction and confinement, and jailed for three years. Lee, who was identified as the mastermind, was found guilty of kidnapping for ransom, and sentenced to life imprisonment and three strokes of the cane on 1 December 2016. |
| 18 February 2014 | Hailey Owens | Craig Michael Wood | Springfield, Missouri, US | 10 | Murdered | Hailey Owens had been walking home from a friend's house when a man in a truck pulled over, called her, and asked for directions. As she approached him, he grabbed her, threw her into his truck, and sped away. Her body was found in the home of 45-year-old Craig Michael Wood, in Springfield. She was raped and shot in the back of the head. Wood was found guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death by lethal injection. |
| 24 February 2014 | Antonio Cermeño | Unknown | Miranda, Venezuela | 44 | Murdered | Venezuelan boxer and two-time world title champion who was kidnapped together his wife by unidentified assailants in east Caracas. While his wife escaped, Cermeño was unable to, and his body was found just a day later along a highway. |
| 27 February 2014 | Benjamín Galván Gómez | Los Zetas gang members | Tamaulipas, Mexico | 41 | Murdered | Businessman, PRI politician and mayor of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas between 2011 and 2013. Frequently threatened due to his anti-organized crime sentiment, Galván was abducted from a drugstore on 27 February 2014. His mutilated corpse was found the next day, and positively identified a month later. Several suspected Los Zetas members were arrested for his murder, but all were killed before they could go to trial. |
| 19 March 2014 | Serhiy Hayduk | Pro-Russian security services | Sevastopol, Ukraine | 51 | Released | Ukrainian Navy commander who was tortured by pro-Russian security forces who had taken over the Navy's headquarters in Sevastopol. He and several others were released on the following day on orders from the Russian Defense Minister. |
| 1 May 2014 | Shelly Dadon | Hussein Khalifa | Migdal HaEmek, Israel | 19 | Murdered | Shelly Dadon was a 19-year-old Israeli woman who was driven to a parking lot in an industrial area by Hussein Khalifa, a taxi driver who later confessed to having stabbed her to death. |
| 12 June 2014 | Naphtali Frankel, Gilad Shar, Ayal Yiphrach | Marwan Kawasme, Amar Abu Aysha, Hussam Qawasmeh | Gush Etzion, West Bank | Naphtali-16, Gilad-16, Ayal-19 | Murdered | Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped and later murdered by militants from a bus stop. The two main suspects were later killed in a shootout with police, while a third was sentenced to three life terms. |
| 29 June 2014 | Nathan O'Brien, Kathryn Liknes, Alvin Liknes | Douglas Garland | Calgary, Alberta, Canada | 5 (O'Brien), 53 (Kathryn), 66 (Alvin) | Murdered | Douglas Garland, in the culmination of a long-running dispute with Alvin Liknes, broke into his house and assaulted him, his wife Kathryn, and their grandson Nathan O'Brien before forcibly transporting them to his rural property, where he tortured them to death and cremated their bodies. |
| 2 July 2014 | Mohammed Abu Khdeir | Yosef Ben-David | Jerusalem Forest, Israel | 16 | Murdered | Khdeir, a Palestinian teenager, was forced into a car by a group of three Israeli citizens enraged over the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers. Israeli police found his beaten and charred body within the hour. Yosef Ben-David was found guilty of the murder, and two minors were found guilty of assisting him. |
| 20 July 2014 | Oron Shaul | Hamas | near Shuja'iyya, Gaza Strip | 21 | Murdered, body taken hostage | Oron Shaul, a 21-year-old IDF sergeant, was kidnapped by members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade after an anti-tank missile was fired at an Israeli army tank during the Battle of Shuja'iyya. As of 2020, the bodies of Shaul and fellow IDF soldier Hadar Goldin are still being ransomed by Hamas, which is demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners in return. |
| 5 September 2014 | Eston Kohver | | Estonia | 43 | Released | Officer of the Estonian Internal Security Service who was accused by Russian forces of espionage, of which he was convicted and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. His conviction was considered unlawful by other countries, and Kohver was eventually released in a prisoner exchange on 26 September 2015. |
| 18 October 2014 | Donna Eastwood | Joshua Caird | Dartford, England | 26 | Murdered | Englishwoman who was kidnapped by her neighbor after attending a friend's birthday party. Her burned out remains were found on the same day. Caird was subsequently arrested, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. |
| 25 October 2014 | Kenji Goto | Islamic State | Syria | 47 | Murdered | Journalist who was kidnapped by Islamic State while attempting to rescue another hostage. The following year, the IS cell known as "The Beatles" released a video in which Goto was beheaded by Mohammed Emwazi. |
| 21 January 2015 | Noela Rukundo | Unidentified kidnappers | Bujumbura, Burundi | unknown | Released | Burundian-Australian woman who was kidnapped on the orders of her husband, Balenga Kalala, who ordered that she be killed. However, her kidnappers refused to do so and instead released her, allowing Rukundo to return to Australia and confront her husband while he conducted her supposed funeral. He was later convicted for the crime and sentenced to 9 years imprisonment. |
| 23 March 2015 | Denise Huskins | Matthew Muller | Vallejo, California | 30 | Released | Known as "The Gone Girl Kidnapping", in reference to the popular suspense/thriller novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn. Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins were stalked by disbarred Harvard University attorney Matthew Muller with a camera on a drone. Muller broke in wearing a wetsuit and wielding a water pistol, tied up the couple and blindfolded them with goggles. Denise was abducted and raped twice by Muller, which was recorded on camera, and a ransom of $8,500 was demanded for her release. She was found days later in her home town of Huntington Beach, California, withholding she had been raped out of the threat Muller would kill her and Aaron. Muller sent evidence of the crimes to a newspaper, but alleged organized criminals were responsible to misdirect the investigation. Police believed the crimes to be a hoax by the couple, even suspecting Aaron killed Denise until she turned up alive, until Muller was arrested for a home invasion with similar burglary patterns and home surveillance equipment. Muller pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping charges, then was institutionalized and prescribed antipsychotics while waiting to be found competent to stand trial for further charges. Muller was later tried for rape in 2019. The case was the subject of a documentary American Nightmare. |
| 15 April 2015 | Chloé Ansel | Zbigniew Huminski | Calais, France | 9 | Murdered | Ansel was kidnapped near her home in Calais, and her body found only hours later, showing obvious signs of sexual assault and strangulation. That same day, Polish national Zbigniew Huminski was arrested and confessed to the crime while intoxicated, but would never be brought to trial for the case, as he hanged himself in his jail cell a month later. |
| 26 July 2015 | Madyson Middleton | Adrian Gonzalez | Santa Cruz, California, US | 8 | Murdered | Madyson "Maddy" Middleton, an 8-year-old girl then about to enter the fourth grade at a local Santa Cruz elementary school, was kidnapped in the Tannery Arts Center apartment complex by Gonzalez, a 15-year-old high schooler with whom she was acquainted. She had apparently been lured to the apartment by the teen, at which point he abducted, sexually assaulted and attempted to strangle her. He then placed her in a garbage can and stabbed her after it became apparent that she had survived, and the coroner's report indicated that she died of asphyxiation. Gonzalez was close by when Maddy's body was found in a recycling bin and cameras recorded him placing her there. He was quickly arrested and charged with the crimes upon investigation, and he soon confessed to Maddy's abduction, rape, and murder. As of the summer of 2020, the case continues to face a number of legal proceedings due to Gonzalez's age. California's Proposition 57 gives a presiding judge discretion over whether to try a juvenile as an adult, but other laws in the state impose statutory restrictions on such actions, and the legal course of the trial remains unclear. |
| 12 September 2015 | Seya Sadewmi | Saman Jayalath | Kotadeniyawa, Sri Lanka | 4 | Murdered | Sri Lankan child who was abducted, raped and murdered near her home. Her naked body was found in a canal the next day. Several men were erroneously arrested, before the actual killer was connected to the crime via DNA evidence. Saman Jayalath was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death. |
| 21 September 2015 | Olu Falae | unknown | Akure, Nigeria | 77 | Released | Nigerian banker, administrator and politician who was kidnapped by unknown men on his 77th birthday, who held him for 100 million Naira ransom. After the payment of said ransom, he was released and returned home. |
| October 2015 | Seven Hazara people including Shukria Tabassum | Unknown (Islamic State affiliated) | Ghazni, Afghanistan | 9+ | Killed | Seven people were killed on 9 November 2015 in the southern Afghan province of Zabul after about a month as hostages. Their remains were later discovered by the Taliban. |
| 20 March 2016 | Kasper, Mama and Troïtsa Sokol | 'Wasserstrasse' organization, self-proclaimed Swiss human rights activists | Basel, Switzerland, Wasserstrasse 21 | Kasper-6, Mama-4, Troïtsa-10 m.o. | Rescued | Natalia Sokol and her children Kasper, Mama, and Troïtsa were violently kidnapped by a group of 10-15 so-called Swiss human rights activists at Wasserstrasse, 21 in Basel, Switzerland on 20 March 2016. The kidnappers in motorcycle helmets, armed with wooden sticks and shields, broke down the door to the Voina family apartment and attacked the family with tear gas. After several minutes of pleading by the father, Oleg Vorotnikov, to not use violence, some five people overcame him, beat him up, and tied him up with duct tape, leaving him incapacitated, after which another group abducted Natalia and the three children. At the time, the children were taking a bath and the perpetrators kidnapped them naked. |
| 3 April 2016 | Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe | Iranian government | Imam Khomeini International Airport, Iran | 38 | Released | Iranian-British journalist convicted on charges of "plotting against the government". Released on 16 March 2022 after six years of detention in Iran. Her release was linked to the unfulfilled arms deal in the 1970s. Zaghari-Ratcliffe returned to the UK the day after her release. |
| 20 June 2016 | Alayna Ertl | Zachary Todd Anderson | Watkins, Minnesota, US | 5 | Murdered | Ertl was abducted and her body was located nine hours later in a wilderness park. |
| 5 August 2016 | Denise Winchester | Brian Winchester | Leon County, Florida, U.S. | 46 | Released | Denise Winchester was abducted at gunpoint by her estranged husband Brian after filing for divorce. Brian hid in the back of Denise's car before holding her at gunpoint and holding her against her will for about an hour until she was able to persuade him to release her. While imprisoned for the crime, Brian confessed to murdering Denise's first husband Mike Williams at Denise's behest and agreed to testify against Denise in return for leniency in the kidnapping case. |
| 10 August 2016 | Philip Finnegan | Stephen Pentose | Dublin, Ireland | 24 | Murdered | Finnegan was an Irishman who was abducted from his home, and brought to Rahin Woods in County Kildare and subsequently murdered. |
| 31 August 2016 | Kala Brown | Todd Kohlhepp | Spartanburg, South Carolina, U.S. | 30 | Rescued | Brown and her boyfriend Charles Carver were visiting a property belonging to serial killer Todd Kohlhepp in order to remove brush from the property when they got into an argument with Kohlhepp, who murdered Carver and took Brown prisoner. Brown was kept chained up in a storage container on Kohlhepp's property, repeatedly raped and shown the bodies of Kohlhepp's previous victims to intimidate her until she was found by law enforcement on 3 November during a search of Kohlhepp's property. |
| 15 September 2016 | Kiana Sādāt-Hosseini | Aunt's husband | Nishapur, Iran | 7 | Murdered | Kiana Sādāt-Hosseini was a female child who was in Pre-school who was kidnapped and murdered on 15 September 2016 by her aunt's husband who was later convicted for his crime. |
| 6 October 2016 | Kim Kardashian | Five unknown men | Paris, France | 36 | Released | While attending Paris Fashion Week, Kardashian was supposedly robbed by five unknown individuals, who held her at gunpoint in her Paris apartment. The men fled, and she later managed to free herself. The incident was met with skepticism by media outlets, who suggested that it could've been staged, prompting Kardashian to file a lawsuit which was ultimately dropped. |
| 18 October 2016 | Jee Ick-Joo | Filipino police officers | Angeles City, Philippines | | Murdered | Jee Ick-Joo, a South Korean businessman, was abducted and held for ransom by officers of the Philippine National Police under the pretext of detaining him for his alleged involvement in the drugs trade. He was strangled to death within the boundaries of Camp Crame, and his body was later located in a mortuary in Caloocan. A court convicted three of the eight officers suspected, including the apparent ringleader. |
| 17 December 2016 | Carlos Andrés García | SEBIN agents | Guasdualito, Venezuela | 43–44 | Died in custody | Venezuelan politician who was detained on charges of theft, arson and inciting public unrest, but is widely believed to have been arrested for political motives. García suffered from a stroke and later passed away while still being held in detention, with the circumstances surrounding the case being strongly condemned by other countries' governments. |
| 31 December 2016 | Unnamed 18-year-old | Jordan Hill, Tesfaye Cooper, Brittany Covington, Tanisha Covington | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | 18 | Rescued | The victim, a mentally disabled white 18-year-old, was subjected to a racially-motivated attack by four African-Americans led by Jordan Hill, who picked him up on 31 December and kept him in his van for three days before driving him to the Covington's apartment, where he was tied up, beaten, humiliated and cut with knives for around an hour. The victim was rescued when police officer Michael Donnelly encountered him being led along the sidewalk by Hill. |
| 8 February 2017 | Reagan Tokes | Brian Golsby | Grove City, Ohio | 21 | Murdered | Reagan Tokes was an American university student who was kidnapped on 8 February 2017 and found dead the next day. |
| 21 May 2017 | Thabang Makwetla | Brandon Mashigo, Mojalefa Mathe, Motsepe Gidion and Ben Kutumela | Johannesburg, South Africa | 59 | Released | Politician and member of the African National Congress who was abducted by four armed men and threatened to hand over his personal belongings. After withdrawing money from his bank account, Makwetla was released unharmed. The incident caused a stir among the country's prominent politicians, and the four offenders were eventually apprehended and awaiting trial for the case. |
| 23 May 2017 | Chito Soganub | Maute group militants | Marawi, Philippines | 57 | Rescued | Roman Catholic priest who was kidnapped along with 23 others by militants during the Battle of Marawi, during which he appeared in propaganda videos and was forced to convert to Islam. He and a teacher from Dansalan College successfully escaped captivity on 17 September, and were located and rescued by military officers shortly after. |
| 2 June 2017 | Stanislav Aseyev | Donetsk People's Republic | Donetsk, Ukraine | 26 | Released | On 2 June 2017, the freelance journalist Stanislav Aseyev was abducted. Initially, the de facto DNR government denied knowing his whereabouts but on 16 July, an agent of the DNR's "Ministry of State Security" confirmed that Aseyev was in their custody and that he is suspected of "espionage". Independent media is not allowed to report from the "DNR"-controlled territory. He was released as part of a prison exchange and handed over to Ukrainian authorities on 29 December 2019. |
| 9 June 2017 | Yingying Zhang | Brendt Christensen | Urbana, Illinois, US | 26 | Murdered | On 9 June 2017, Zhang was running late for an appointment to sign a lease. While waiting at a bus stop, she was approached by Christensen in his car. Zhang got into the car and has not been heard from since. On 24 June 2019, Christensen was convicted of the murder of Yingying Zhang. Her body has not been found. |
| May 2017 | Muhammad Abdullah al-Ismail | Wagner Group | Palmyra, Syria | 30-31 | Murdered | Muhammad Abdullah al-Ismail, a Syrian soldier, who fled to Lebanon and returned to Syria in 2017, he was arrested shortly after his arrival and was forcibly conscripted into the Syrian Army. A few months later in either June or May he attempted to desert, but was recaptured by Wagner PMCs, who claimed he was a jihadist and a member of ISIL. They then filmed themselves detonating a grenade on his waist then shooting him in the stomach and bludgeoning him to death with sledge hammers, then severing his hands and head, and burning his body. They posted the first video in July 2017 and the second in 2019. The videos led to the identification of seven members of Wagner. |
| 28 January 2018 | Rachael Anderson | Anthony Pardon | Columbus, Ohio, U.S. | 24 | Murdered | American aspiring funeral director who was held in her own house by repeat sexual offender Anthony Pardon, who tortured, raped and ultimately strangled her. Her body was found the next day, and Pardon was soon arrested, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. |
| February 2018 | Moataz Wadnan | Egyptian government | Egypt | unknown | Detained | Journalist for HuffPost Arabi who was arrested and is currently in state custody for interviewing Hisham Genena, a politician who claimed to possess documents revealing that government officials were behind the Egyptian revolution of 2011. He is currently imprisoned in the Tora Prison. |
| 1 March 2018 | Ezzat Ghoniem | Egyptian government | Egypt | unknown | Detained | Lawyer and human rights activist arrested and kept in detention for an alleged "human rights terrorism" plot to overthrow the government. He is currently held in the Tora Prison. |
| 19 May 2018 | Jastine Valdez | Mark Hennessy | Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland | 24 | Murdered | Jastine Valdez was kidnapped while walking home by a man who forced her into his SUV. She was found dead two days later, having been strangled to death. Her killer, Mark Hennessy, was shot dead by a police officer after a 24-hour manhunt. |
| 2 July 2018 | Alesha MacPhail | Aaron Campbell | Isle of Bute, Scotland | 6 | Murdered | Abducted from her grandparents' house by an English-born teenager, who subsequently raped and murdered her. Her body was found two hours after her abduction, and the killer, Aaron Campbell, was arrested three days later. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. |
| 18 July 2018 | Mollie Tibbetts | Cristhian Bahena Rivera | Brooklyn, Iowa, U.S. | 20 | Murdered | Tibbetts was kidnapped by Rivera, an undocumented immigrant, while out jogging on the evening of 18 July and stabbed to death. Rivera later confessed to the crime and pointed police to a cornfield in Poweshiek County, where Tibbetts' body was found. |
| 2 August 2018 | Jinjing Ma | Parents | New York City | 12 | Located | Ma was a 12-year-old Chinese schoolgirl reported missing from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on 2 August 2018. She was located the following day in the company of her parents—U.S. citizens—in the borough of Queens. |
| 15 August 2018 | Norma Azucena Rodríguez Zamora | Unknown masked gunmen | Hidalgo | Unknown | Escaped | Norma Azucena Rodríguez Zamora is a female politician from Mexico and belongs to a party called the Party of the Democratic Revolution who was kidnapped by gunmen while she was driving along a highway. She managed to escape as the next day as it was reported the next day by a local newspaper. |
| 15 October 2018 | Jayme Closs | Jake Patterson | Barron, Wisconsin, US | 13 | Escaped | Police responding to a 911 call from Closs' home found her parents shot to death. Closs was missing, and on 10 January 2019 she sought the help of neighbors near the house where she was allegedly held. A man has been charged with kidnapping her and the murders of her parents. |
| 5 November 2018 | Hania Noelia Aguilar | Michael McLellan | Lumberton, North Carolina, US | 13 | Murdered | On 5 November 2018, 13-year-old Hania Aguilar was abducted from a mobile home park as she was waiting for a ride to the bus stop. A witness saw a man in black and a yellow bandanna approach her and force her into the car that she had gone to start. The stolen vehicle was located three days later. Her body was found on 27 November 2018. The Lumberton Police Department with the assistance of the FBI arrested Michael McLellan, who was charged with 10 felonies related to Hania's abduction. McLellan's DNA was found in the stolen vehicle and tied to the abduction. |
| 29 March 2019 | Samantha Josephson | Nathaniel Rowland | Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. | 21 | Murdered | Josephson, a senior college student who had gone drinking with friends, had mistakenly entered Rowland's car after believing he was her Uber driver. Her body was found 14 hours later, with numerous stab wounds. Rowland was later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, and the case served as a pillar for the passing of Sami's Law in her home state of New Jersey. |
| 27 April 2019 | John Fru Ndi | Ambazonian separatists | Bui, Cameroon | 77 | Released | The founder of Cameroon's the Social Democratic Front, Fru Ndi was abducted in Bui, Cameroon by Ambazonian separatists; he was released unharmed after seven hours of captivity. |
| 18 May 2019 | Salem Sabatka | Michael Webb | Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. | 8 | Rescued | Sabatka was abducted as she walked with her mother in Fort Worth, Texas, on 18 May 2019. Her abductor was 51-year-old Michael Webb. The child was rescued the following day. Her abductor was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2019. |
| 28 June 2019 | John Fru Ndi | Ambazonian separatists | Bamenda, Cameroon | 77 | Released | The second of two incidents involving Fru Ndi's kidnapping in 2019. On this occasion, Fru Ndi was beaten inside his home, then dragged out of his home, forced into a van and driven to an unknown location. On this occasion, Fru Ndi was held captive for over 24 hours before being released. |
| 13 July 2019 | Paislee Shultis | Kimberly Cooper, Kirk Shultis Jr. and Kirk Shultiss Sr. | New York, U.S. | 4 | Rescued | A four-year-old child kidnapped in 2019 by her biological parents, Kimberly Cooper and Kirk Shultis Jr. (who did not have custody of the child). Shultis was rescued, unharmed, on 14 February. Her parents, along with Kirk Shultiss Sr. face charges including custodial interference and endangering the welfare of a child. |
| 23 July 2019 | Nathalie Birli | Unidentified (the kidnapper was arrested, but his name has never been released) | Graz | 27 | Released | Austrian triathlete Nathalie Birli was abducted by a knife-wielding man who attacked her while she was out riding her bike. The abductor took her back to his home and tried to drown her, but she managed to talk him into releasing her. The man was arrested later that day. |
| 16 September 2019 | Dulce Maria Alavez | Unknown | Bridgeton, New Jersey | 5 | Unknown | On 16 September 2019, 5-year-old Dulce Alavez went missing from Bridgeton City Park. Her mother, 19-year-old Noema Alavez Perez, reported that she was in her car at the park when she could not see Alavez and her 3-year-old brother playing at a nearby playground. She went to investigate, only to discover her daughter had vanished. An AMBER Alert was issued and a $52,000 reward remains unclaimed. |
| 6 October 2019 | Daphne Westbrook | John Westbrook | Chattanooga, Tennessee | 16 | Found safe | A Chattanooga teenager abducted by her father at age 16 in Obtober 2019. The teen was discovered safe and well at age 18 in May 2021. Westbrook informed authorities she was safe and not being held against her will. |
| 13 November 2019 | Idris Khattak | Four unknown individuals | Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan | unknown | Detained | Human rights activist who was detained and is currently scheduled to stand before a military trial for alleged espionage. His arrest is considered political in nature. |
| 30 November 2019 | Dua Mangi | Four to five unknown individuals | Karachi, Pakistan | 22 | Released | While walking back from getting food, she was abducted by gunpoint and drawn into a vehicle. The male friend with her was shot while trying to help her. Her abduction was publicized on social media and many alleged that it was her fault she was abducted. |