Kayla Unbehaun, whose mother, Heather Unbehaun, abducted her in 2017, has now been found because of an Unsolved Mysteries episode. Kayla was only nine years old when her mother kidnapped her from Chicago’s South Elgin suburb. Heather, who did not have custody of Kayla, took the girl out for a Fourth of July parade. The duo was last spotted after the event. The following day, Kayla’s custodial father, Ryan Iserka, learned from relatives that Heather took Kayla on a camping trip, but they never returned.
In 2023, Ryan Iserka reunited with Kayla Unbehaun after a true-crime buff recognized the girl from an Unsolved Mysteries episode. A woman spotted Kayla, then 15, in a store in Ashville, North Carolina, following which she called authorities. The events occurred only months after Kayla Unbehaun’s Unsolved Mysteries episode premiered on Netflix in November 2022. After the discovery, North Carolina authorities arrested Kayla’s mother, Heather Unbehaun, on a fugitive warrant. She was facing charges such as kidnapping and child abduction.
Unsolved Mysteries examines multiple such cases with every segment. Volume 4 of the acclaimed mystery series recently premiered on Netflix with new unsolved cases. Kayla Unbehaun’s case premiered in Unsolved Mysteries Volume 3 episode 9, titled “Abducted by a Parent.” The synopsis says, “When a noncustodial parent abducts their own child, the heartbreak is excruciating for the parent left behind and they refuse to stop searching. Can you help these parents find their children?”
Kayla Unbehaun’s Unsolved Mysteries episode helped solve the abduction
According to CNN, Heather and Kayla Unbehaun were together on July 4, 2017, when the abduction occurred. Kayla’s father, Ryan Iserka, won sole custody of the girl earlier that year, with Heather receiving unsupervised “parenting time.” Heather and Iserka shared Kayla’s custody, but the mother decided to move to Georgia with their daughter. That’s when Iserka filed for sole custody.
In 2016, a judge granted Ryan Iserka the “sole discretion, to make all decisions regarding medical treatment and care for the minor child.” The judge determined that Heather Unbehaun had been “messing with the medical and health issues” of Kayla Unbehaun. By early 2017, Iserka was the custodial father of Kayla. Then, on July 4 of that year, Kayla and Heather disappeared when the nine-year-old was under the latter’s supervision.
Kayla Unbehaun’s abduction case gained significant traction after it premiered on Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries Volume 3 episode 9. This would ultimately lead to her rescue. The Guardian reported that Heather Unbehaun took Kayla to a Fourth of July parade. The following day, Kayla’s custodial father, Ryan Iserka, went to pick her up when he learned from Heather’s relatives that “she went on a camping trip to an unknown location in Wisconsin.”
The Independent stated that Heather Unbehaun was scheduled “for a parenting time” exchange on July 5 at 7 p.m. However, Heather and Kayla not only failed to show up “for the court ordered exchange,” they never returned. Iserka “immediately contacted” the police, who began “an investigation.” While conducting interviews, authorities learned that Heather Unbehaun “was last seen packing her belongings up to the roof of her car.” Additionally, they found that Heather had canceled all social media and turned off her phone.
Kayla Unbehaun’s case made headlines after Ryan Iserka filed a missing persons report, and charges against Heather soon surfaced. In the following years, investigators followed multiple unsuccessful leads, and Iserka’s pleas for help continued to no avail. Then, Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries used a picture of Kay Unbehaun for the November 2022 episode. Kayla’s images from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) appeared at the episode’s end.
The case came to a fortunate conclusion in May 2023 when a woman spotted Kayla and Heather Unbehaun. The woman was at Plato’s Closet consignment store when she noticed 15-year-old Kayla and her mother at Westgate Regional Shopping Center on May 13. The encounter took place in Asheville, North Carolina. The woman recognized Kayla from the missing poster, and a store employee called the authorities.
Kayla Unbehaun’s Unsolved Mysteries Volume 3 episode 9 is streaming on Netflix.
