Every parent's worst nightmare is something happening to their child, but for some families, their nightmares became a reality.
Following the safe discovery of four-year-old Cleo Smith, who vanished from a campsite in Australia this month, we take a look back at some of the biggest missing children cases in the world.
The ending to the Cleo Smith story was not what anyone expected, and is not usually what happens, which brought it to huge international attention.
Here's some of the other tales that made international headlines.
Elisabeth Fritzl
Elisabeth Fritzl was lured by her father Josef into the basement of their family home in Amstetten, Austria, in August 1984.
Elisabeth's mother filed a missing person report, unaware that her child was being held captive by her father on the grounds of their home.
Josef Fritzl forced his daughter, who was just 18 at the time, to write letters pretending that she had run away.
Elisabeth was held captive for 24 years, during which she gave birth to seven children, one of which died soon after birth.
Three of the children Fritzl fathered were kept in the soundproof basement with Elisabeth, while the other three were brought upstairs to live with Fritzl.
He explained to his wife the children had been left on their doorstep.
Elisabeth was only discovered when one of her children became seriously ill in 2008, leading to doctors and the police finding her.
Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison in 2009.
Jaycee Dugard
Kidnapped outside of her home in California in 1991, Jaycee Dugard was just 11 years old.
Phillip Garrido imprisoned the little girl in a compound in his back garden and subjected her to repeated sexual abuse over 18 years.
Jaycee gave birth to two children while she was in captivity, one when she was just 14 years old.
Garrido would threaten Jaycee with a stun gun if she tried to escape.
She was discovered after Garrido, who had a previous conviction of rape, took Jaycee and their two children to a parole meeting.
He was sentenced to 431 years in jail, and his wife Nancy Garrido was given a life sentence after being convicted of kidnap, rape and false imprisonment.
Natascha Kampusch
Ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch was on her way to school when Wolfgang Priklopil abducted her in 1998.
Held captive for eight years in a cell underneath Priklopils garage near the Austrian city of Vienna, she was regularly beaten and sexually abused.
Priklopil killed himself shortly after Natascha managed to escape in 2006.
She has since written two books and now owns the house where she was held against her will throughout her adolescence.
Elizabeth Smart
Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom in June 2002.
She was taken by a local beggar and religious fanatic Brian Mitchell to a makeshift camp in the mountains of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Elizabeth was abused, given drugs and alcohol, and was chained to a tree.
One day a motorcyclist recognised her and alerted the police.
Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison.
Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus
The three women went missing separately in Cleveland, Ohio, between 2002 and 2004.
Ariel Castro, a former school bus driver, held them captive in the basement of his house for over eight years.
Castro had a child with Amanda Berry, while Michelle Knight suffered several miscarriages after being beaten and abused by her abductor.
After kicking a part of the door out, they called for help and finally escaped on 6 May 2013.
Castro was sentenced to life in prison, but one month later was found hanged in his cell.
Etan Patz
Six-year-old Etan Patz was walking to the school bus by himself when he was abducted in May 1979.
The incident took place in Manhattan in May 1976 when 18-year-old. Pedro Hernandez lured Ethan into the shop he was working in's basement after promising him a soda.
Hernandez choked Ethan and put his body out with the rubbish.
Ethan became the first missing child to be featured on milk cartons in the US after appeals for information continued to be unsuccessful.
Etan's body was never found, and he was declared legally dead in 2001.
Hernandez was sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.
Ben Needham
Ben Needham disappeared in July 1991 while he was playing outside his grandparents' home on the Greek island of Kos.
The 21-month-old has never been found despite repeated searches and investigations.
However, years later, detectives performed a three-week dig around the farmhouse where Ben was last seen.
A digger had been clearing land close to where Ben was playing, and officers believe the driver may have run Ben over by accident.
That driver, Konstantinos Barkas, died from stomach cancer in 2015.
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November 04, 2021 at 04:37PM
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Missing kid cases that shook the world - 18 years of captivity, gone without trace and mother of seven - Irish Mirror
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