Abduction films are commonly addressed by Lifetime for audience to learn about the person’s survival story with the abuser. The message of the movies allows victims to share their experience that could save someone’s life.
People who go missing reunite with loved ones between months or years of the abduction. Minors are likely to be kidnapped by a family member or stranger. The abusers tend to torture the victim with death threats, sexual assault, ropes or chains to keep the person from escaping.
Some victims are able to escape the abuser on their own while others are rescued by police or a parent who hires an expert to track the criminal’s location.
The abuser receives the life sentence, but it’s the victim who gets the final word.
8. Abducted: The Mary Stauffer Story
A former student plots revenge on a teacher just because they received a bad grade on an assignment. School teacher and missionary leader Mary Stauffer along with her eight-year-old were kidnapped by a former student of Stauffer, Ming Sen Sinue outside a small market. Sinue hid the mother-daughter duo for 53 days.
Stauffer and her daughter were locked with chains and stayed in an empty room while Sinue was at work or inside the home. Ming was a lonely person who did not have a normal life. He was stuck in the past trying to get payback when he should be focusing on the present and letting the incident go. Mary was forced to make video tapings about her updates, so family and friends did not question her safety.
She and her daughter escaped Sinue while he was away from the house and the police gave them a lift. The officers arrested Ming at his job and was sent to prison. The duo’s abduction taught them to be patient and pray for freedom.
7. Girl in the Shed: The Kidnapping of Abby Hernandez
Reasons why you never take a ride from a stranger even if they offer. Fourteen-year-old Abby Hernandez accepted a ride on the way home from a man named Kibby who set her up by threating to kill if she screams and covers her face, so she does not see his identity. Hernandez spent her abduction tied to the mattress wearing a dog zap collar, in the closet, shed and around the home.
Kibby sexually and emotionally abused her by forcing her to write letters to her mother that she was safe and zapping her collar when she didn’t listen. Abby’s kidnapping become less complicated once she took Kibby’s feelings serious allowing him to trust her more as a friend than a prisoner. Kibby needed a woman to love him again after his heart was broken and abducted Abby as a revenge towards females.
Hernandez was release from her kidnapper after he sent fake money to a woman who reported the incident to the police that was going to arrest him. Abby ran on the dark roads and returned home where she reunited with her mother after being gone for many months. Her manipulation and caring for Kibby showed that she saved herself from death.
6. Abducted by My Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story
The relationship between student and teacher becomes an elope. High school freshman Elizabeth Thomas has trouble making friends but gets the attention from a teacher. Mr. Cummins who teaches Living Environment has great relationships with his students and allows them to have lunch in the classroom. As Liz gets to know Cummins more, she sees him more as an abuser than a teacher.
Cummins forces Thomas to leave her job and home life to travel with him across the world where they can be together away from their peers. They change their identity, transportation, live in different shelters, and eliminate any evidence that could track them for 36 days. Liz is scared and confused that she thinks Cummins will kill her if she did not go with his plan.
The police go on a long investigation to find Liz and Cummins and trying to bring her back home. Thomas’ freedom comes with the special unit capturing Ted and arrest him for the kidnapping. Elizabeth staying confident and trusting the abuser made the situation easier to handle.
5. Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story
A vacation to Florida turns into an international kidnapping. Tiffany Rubin, played by Taraji P. Henson goes on the search to find her missing seven-year-old son Kobe who was taking a trip to Disney World with his father for the week. After not receiving messages from the ex-husband, Rubin takes her problems to the police and investigate the disappearance which does not get resolve leading her to solve the case personally.
She works with an international investigator to track down her ex and son who are located in Seoul, South Korea. The mother takes an adventurous journey to reunite with her child and bring him back to America. Jeff’s motivate was to have more time with his son by disobeying the custody agreement.
Rubin and Kobe finally come together at a school where her son was enrolled into by the father and return back to Queens. Jeff was arrested by police and lost custody rights to his son. Tiffany’s commitment to rescue her son overseas makes her a strong and brave mother.
4. Stolen by My Mother: The Kamiyah Mobley Story
Young adult discovers that they are a missing child on their birthday. Kamiyah Mobley was a newborn when Gloria Williams abducted her at a hospital in Jacksonville. Williams had a miscarriage which forced her to dress like a nurse and sneak into the emergency room where she lied to Mobley’s biological mother Angie about getting the baby’s blood work. Gloria knew if she could not have a baby then the other option was to steal one. Willams named the stolen baby Alexis and raised her as a person she gave birth to than a victim.
Mobley’s biological mother spent years trying to track down her baby, but the investigators could not find her. Angie made a birthday cake on Kamiyah’s birthday every year and stored pieces of cake until she was found. As Kamiyah matured, she realized that Gloria and she did not have similar genetics. Mobley was excited to get a job, but Williams denied by stating that she stole Mobley and was not her mother.
After an 18-year investigation, the police found Kamiyah in South Carolina and brought her back to Jacksonville where she finally met her biological parents for the first time. Williams was arrested by a group of officers outside her home and was sent to trial for her court case. Kamiyah balancing between two worlds makes it challenging for her to have an identity and finding trust from Gloria and her biological parents.
3. Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey
Teenage girl was kidnapped, and no one believes her. 17-year-old Lisa McVey was abducted by serial killer Bobby Joe Long from her bike heading home. Long physically stuffed McVey into his car and took her to his small apartment where her eyes and hands were tied separately. He sexually assaulted her and manipulated to killing if she did something wrong. McVey went along with the kidnapping and stayed calm through the situations.
Bobby eventually dragged Lisa out of his apartment and dropped off at a tree where he continues to threaten death while she was still blindfolded. Long drives away from the scene and McVey speeds down the streets where she ends up at her grandma’s house who she was living with. Her grandma did not care about Lisa because she was a troubled teen and thought her kidnapping was a lie to avoid punishment.
McVey explains her case to Sgt. Pinkerton who helps work on tracking the serial killer and is the only person that believes Lisa’s story that she provided. Lisa struggled to sleep which led her to have nightmares about the kidnapping and the serial killer returning to get revenge for reporting him. The detective found Long at an abandoned area and arrested him for sexual assault and abduction of a minor that sent to life in prison. Lisa’s story encouraged her to become an officer and protecting the community from young women being abducted by sexual abusers.
2. Cleveland Abduction
Castro must be a lucky man. School bus driver Ariel Castro abducted Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina De Jesus during his 11-year span. Knight, a single mother facing custody battle with her son, was the first victim to be kidnapped by Castro and was with him the longest besides the other two girls. Castro planned his kidnappings by offering rides and taking them upstairs to his house where he tied the women and played loud music to cover the screams.
Ariel sexually assaulted his victims through sex and was physically violent by punching and slapping them. He psychological manipulated his victims to believe that no one would save them, and they are not wanted. Castro earlier in the abduction was in a band and his family visited but were always downstairs. Once Berry and De Jesus joined the mix, he stopped bringing anyone over to the house.
After a few years, all three women served Castro as sister wives where they were allowed to be downstairs but continued to be locked around the body. Berry was the only victim to be pregnant by Castro and had a daughter that lived in the home for the last five years of the kidnapping. A day that Castro was at work, Amanda and her daughter took the opportunity to scream for help where a few neighbors rescued them from the home.
The police were called and rescued De Jesus and Knight who were upstairs chained the mattress and Castro was arrested to life sentence in prison. The trio’s abduction story has inspired other women who are victims to domestic violence and showing that they are special people who matter.
1. I Am Elizabeth Smart
Utah native’s abduction makes headlines. 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted by Brian Mitchell from her bed and forced to leave with a knife to her neck. Mitchell took Smart to the forest where she stayed in a tent with him and Mitchell’s accomplice Wanda for some months of the kidnapping. Elizabeth endured with sexual abuse, psychological thoughts, chained to a rope and chores provided by Mitchell.
Smart had many attempts to escape her abuser but feared that he would kill her and the family if she tried to leave. Elizabeth along with Brian and his accomplice ditch the tents due to the community searching for Smart in the area near them and moved around while wearing disguises. Mitchell took the ladies to the library, a party, and to the desert in California where people saw them but never reported to the police.
On the return back to Salt Lake City, a lady spots Smart missing photo and notice she was dressed as an old lady in the market. The lady calls the police to report that she is alive. The officers arrive where they find Mitchell and accomplice with Elizabeth outside. They rescue her from the abuser and take her to get the doctors for treatment.
Elizabeth parents find her at the police station and took Smart home. Brian was sentenced to life in prison while Wanda was given a long sentence with probation. Elizabeth Smart story makes her an advocate of abduction and she currently works on films about women like her who have experience kidnapping.
Lifetime’s abduction films have good story lines and continues to produce more stories for audience to react on the plot each film is addressing. Each movie from this list showed different point of views for what the victims had to do in order to become survivors.
If you like with my selection, write me another Lifetime movie about abduction which was inspiring that I did not mention from this list in the comments below.
