02x04 - Kamyrn Johnson

[bunniefuu]

[dramatic music]

- Things happen
even in small towns.

- They've got my daughter.

- I just got this weird call
from Sheratan

that something's happened
to Kamryn.

♪

- A kidnapper is about
to k*ll her.

- She said,
"Kamryn's been kidnapped."

- I'm caught in
every mother's nightmare,

and I have no idea
how to get out of it.

- The texts were probably
the scariest part of it,

because you can't
hear her voice.

- They knew my every step.

- If you hang up on this call,
your daughter dies.

- They got her at gunpoint.
- He was pure evil.

♪ ♪

I knew I was never
going to see her again.

♪

- A young woman
is missing tonight

after leaving a bar
with a stranger,

then texting help to a friend.

♪ ♪

- You are watching
her terrifying abduction.

♪ ♪

- A missing woman's nude body
was discovered in this ravine.

- Miraculously,
the young woman survived.

♪ ♪

[camera shutter clicking]

- There is an alarming crisis
of violence,

kidnapping, and m*rder
against innocent women.

- The senseless m*rder
has struck a chord

with thousands of women.

♪ ♪

- This has sparked
a global movement online

of women sharing
their own fears.

They're united under the
hashtag #textmewhenyougethome,

a phrase that women
are all too familiar with.

♪ ♪

- I don't know where
evil comes from,

but it's out there.

And that day,
for whatever reason,

evil came for me and my family.

♪ ♪

- In July of 2016,

Sheratan Johnson
is a 42-year-old

corporate recruiter living
in Lancaster, Texas,

a quiet, historic community
20 minutes south of Dallas.

♪ ♪

Sheratan has three
young daughters

and has only recently divorced
from their father,

Brian Johnson.

Sheratan and Brian's divorce
has been amicable.

- 2015, we got divorced,

um, you know,

relatively uneventful
for the family.

So it wasn't a big deal.

We always maintained a good
relationship throughout,

and even after.

- Kamryn was living with me

and my other two daughters
were with their dad.

So that was the dynamic
at the time.

Lancaster is
a very small town,

very quaint.

The people are pretty friendly.

- Calling itself
the shining star of Texas,

Lancaster boasts
a number of athletic

opportunities for youth.

♪ ♪

Sheratan and Brian's
youngest daughter,

ten-year-old Kamryn,
excels in gymnastics.

- Kamryn went to gymnastics
in Midlothian, Texas.

At the time it was maybe about

25 minutes away
from where we lived.

The facility at Liberty
Gymnastics was awesome.

She had a really great coach

that really motivated her

and coached her to success.

- You see the birth
of somebody

who's really interested
in gymnastics,

and she was kind of the tomboy,

but not really, but just always
was my right hand man

to help me paint stuff
and do stuff

where the other kids were just
really kind of more reserved.

She was really
the energy child.

- Highly competitive girl.

She flourished
at everything that she did.

She was just really
super sweet,

friendly to everyone
that she met.

♪ ♪

- In late July 2016,
a post appears

on the Liberty Gymnastics'
Facebook page

that Sheratan and Brian
take note of.

- We had received on Facebook

a communication

that stated that there was

a van sitting
in the parking lot

at the gym.

They weren't able
to identify it.

They didn't know
whose van it was.

So they said, "If you know
anything, please let us know."

And it was a little creepy.

- When I went
and picked up Kamryn,

uh, the coach mentioned,
you know,

the same concern that was
put out on social media.

- Despite,
and perhaps because of

the gym's Facebook post
about the mysterious van,

Brian has little concern
about safety protocols.

- Security was never a concern
at that gym.

They always, you know,
kept the doors locked, um,

during regular season.

You know, you can obviously
come in and go,

but there's always somebody
sitting at the front desk.

They know every parent.

- A lot of the parents
would hang around.

Sometimes it would be
closed gym,

so we couldn't even watch,

especially if they were
practicing for a competition.

But it was constant movement
at the gym.

- They were really key on
who was coming into the gym

because so many children
were there,

and with the times
that we live in...

- I always felt safe leaving
Kamryn at the gym

because that was her thing.

She was there.
It was like family.

You wouldn't think, you know,
anything would happen.

♪

July 28th, 2016.

It was actually
a really bad day for me

because I had
a shoulder situation

where my rotator cuff was torn.

I was in a sling.

I was in a lot of pain
that day.

And I was coming
from the doctor's office.

Trying to drive,
it was a nightmare.

But I finally had made it home

and was just about
to just kick back

because I was so tired
and I was in so much pain.

- Because of Sheratan's
early doctor appointment,

Brian's mother offers
to take Kamryn to gymnastics.

- She had to be there
early in the morning,

which is more convenient
for my mom to just go ahead

and take her out there
for that morning.

♪ ♪

- As a senior recruiter,
Sheratan receives

numerous calls daily.

So when her phone rang that
morning, it was no surprise.

- I had an app downloaded
on my phone.

It automatically
recorded my calls

that it didn't recognize
the number.

If you weren't saved
in my phone,

the call was
automatically recording.

- And that call is one
Sheratan will never forget.

- [sighs]

♪ ♪

- I looked at my cell phone.

"Oh, this is a candidate."

So I answer the phone.

♪

- I did hear a scream
in the background,

and then all I heard was...

- "M-Mommy!"

What? Hello?

- Initially, Sheratan
is stunned and confused.

Yet there is one thing
she is certain of.

- I have three daughters.

It was definitely Kamryn.

I knew it was her.

♪ ♪

And then all I heard was,
"Take her to the back!"

- There is a person
on the other end of the call

saying, "Sheratan Johnson."

- "This is about a kidnapping."

- I was really trying
to process what was going on.

- He kept telling me
to shut up and listen.

A kidnapping?

I was so afraid.

- The voice on the other
end of the line

is completely unfamiliar
to Sheratan,

but his threats are personal
and terrifying.

♪

- I almost froze
of sheer terror.

It's a very scary feeling

to hear something like that.

- Sheratan tries to keep
her voice calm

so she doesn't aggravate
the kidnapper.

She's in a van.

She's been abducted.

She's been taken to the back.

I don't know if they had a g*n
to her head or a knife.

Anything was possible.

As a mother, I'm terrified,

and I wanted to do anything

to save my daughter's life.

[dramatic music]

- On an average
Thursday morning,

Lancaster, Texas,
resident Sheratan Johnson

receives
a terrifying phone call.

- As a mother, I'm terrified.

- I'm on the call
with this strange person,

and he told me,
"Don't hang up the phone."

"If you hang up the phone,

you'll never see
your daughter again."

- 30 minutes.

It is now 11:30 a.m.,

and Sheratan
doesn't have $5,000.

- I'm thinking, "What do
I have in my bank account?

"What do I have in my savings
that I can go and take out?"

I wasn't sure and I didn't
want to really say anything,

but it just came out.

You know,
maybe I can get you $5,000.

I was just terrified.

I wasn't sure if that's
what he wanted.

I panicked and just told him
the first thing

that came to my mind.

But I was willing to do
what I needed to do

to make sure
that my daughter was safe.

- Knowing she can't hang up,
Sheratan gets a sudden idea.

- I had a landline,

and I picked up my landline
and I called my ex-husband.

- Brian is at work, and in
a meeting with his boss.

- Sheratan called,
and I'm like,

"Well, my boss
is still talking."

And so, I declined the call.

And so she called me
right back.

And, normally when she calls
right back, something is wrong.

You know, normally
she would just, you know,

either send me a text message
or something like that, but,

you know, so I stepped outside

and I answered the phone,
I said, "Hello."

- Sheratan holds
the landline receiver

to the speaker
of her cell phone

so Brian can hear
the conversation.

- And I just heard this man's
voice, this foreign voice.

I'm like, "Who is this?"
You know?

And because we were divorced
and, you know,

I thought maybe she--
the other guy she was seeing

or something like that
was there.

I didn't know what it was.
"What is this?"

I didn't realize at the time
that, you know,

she was taking her landline
and putting it up to the phone

so I could hear this
other person.

And I could hear her trying
to say something.

She was talking.

- I was trying to tell him that
our daughter had been kidnapped

without letting this other man

know that I was speaking on
the phone with someone else.

"Brian, somebody,

somebody's got Kamryn."

- Can you speak up?

I can't--I can't understand
what you're saying.

- Can you help me?

- She said that, "They had
Kamryn, they got Kamryn."

- It was like gibberish to him.

He didn't understand
what I was saying.

- Meanwhile, the caller
gives Sheratan instructions

on what to do next.

- He told me to get in my car,

and he said,

"Don't lie to me
because I know where you are."

- She said, "I got to go."
And so she hung up.

She was on one of her
other phones.

She had her landline phone.

And so she hung up.

I called my mom.

I said, "Did you take Kamryn to
gymnastics?" She said, "Yeah."

♪ ♪

- Through a blur of confusion
about who

would want to hurt
her daughter,

only one possibility
entered Sheratan's mind.

- I've never crossed paths
with anyone in a bad

or negative way
that could have done something

like this to my family.

The only thing that
I could think of is that van

that was parked
in the parking lot

at Liberty Gymnastics.

- The caller
instructs Sheratan

to close her garage door.

His reasons seem strange
to her.

- During this call
of just agony,

I was following every word
that he told me to do.

- I want you to drive
to the nearest location

where you can pull money out,

and you need to get it.

♪

You have to be very respondent

to whatever it is
that the aggressor is saying.

And he was super aggressive.

♪ ♪

I definitely was not rich.

I did have a savings.

But at the time,
I couldn't really think of how

I could get anything.

♪ ♪

We're pulling up to the bank
that I actually came

to withdraw money
from one of my accounts.

It brings back a lot of

weird energy and memories.

I remember just going here

and being super nervous.

I think I dropped the ATM card.

♪ ♪

[loud thud]

- Sheratan is able to withdraw

only $140 in cash.

- I was thinking that
I would truly

never see her again.

I had tried to tell him,
you know,

"Hey, my daughter
is very kind.

"She's very sweet.

Just don't hurt her."

- Children are
most often abducted

by people that they know,

whether it be parents
or relatives that they know.

Stranger abduction is actually
more rare than we think.

But they do happen throughout
the country and we do see them.

♪ ♪

- With only 10 minutes left
until the threatened deadline,

the caller's instructions

begin to get specific
to Sheratan's surroundings,

prompting her to wonder
if she is being followed.

- They knew where I was.

They told me where to go.

These were places that
I wasn't even familiar with.

Could he possibly
been following me?

And they knew my every step?

He says, "You need to go to

this particular
check cashing store."

I had no idea
what he was talking about.

- He was giving me instructions

to drive to another town

to a specific
check cashing store.

- As Sheratan
pulls up to the store,

there is a brief moment
when she is filled with hope.

- Immediately,
I wanted to tell somebody,

"Hey, can you help me?

This person on the phone
has my daughter."

- Until a frightening
realization hits her

like a bolt of lightning.

- They were all in on it.

- July 28th, 2016.

A caller claiming
to have kidnapped

Sheratan Johnson's
ten-year-old daughter Kamryn

is threatening
to k*ll the child

unless Sheratan
pays an unspecified ransom.

The caller directs her
to a check cashing store

in DeSoto, Texas,
and warns her

not to hang up
or call the police.

- I get to the check
cashing place.

I walk in.

Everybody was staring at me

and looking.

So they're in on it.

Those were my thoughts.

I gave them all the specifics
where the money

was supposed to go.

And once I did that, of course
I didn't say anything

because they're all in on it.

♪ ♪

It's been six years now

since I actually
took this drive.

Going to the check
cashing place

and it's, um,

it's almost haunting.

It's really a bad feeling,
actually.

People can be so cruel

and do these really devious
things to each other.

It makes it seem like there's

no hope in the world.

♪ ♪

So I get back to my car
and he says,

"You got to get more money."

- Is there a relative?

Is there someone that you can
call to help your daughter out?

Because you need
to get more money.

The only person I could think
of was my ex-mother in law.

So as I'm driving to my
ex-mother-in-law's house,

I'm actually driving crazy.

I'm swerving in the road.

If I can get a police officer
to pull me over.

I just really needed help.

That was my goal.

As crazy as I was driving,

I was never pulled over.

I even rolled down the window

to try to flag someone.

- All attempts
at safely attracting attention

from strangers
are unsuccessful.

♪ ♪

- By this time, Sheratan's
30 minutes to comply

with the caller's demands
has expired.

But since he makes no mention
of it, neither does she.

Meanwhile, Brian's concerned
calls to Sheratan

go to voicemail,
as she can't hang up

or switch over
to take his call.

So he tries texting.

- My phone was receiving
text messages.

♪ ♪

- Sheratan's shoulder injury

and the fact that her arm
is in a sling

make it difficult to drive.

Compound this with an attempt
to surreptitiously correspond

with Brian via text
while driving,

and the task
becomes nearly impossible.

- She said, "Kamryn's
been kidnapped."

The texts were probably the
scariest part of it

because you can't
hear her voice.

You're thinking,
"Is this person talking?"

I think that was the scariest
because you don't know

what you're about
to walk into.

How was I going to handle this?

- Brian, for the moment,
elects not to call 911.

- I didn't jump to the 911.

I wanted to verify
everything before

I just jump to the conclusion
that, you know,

before we call SWAT
and all that kind of stuff,

let me, let me see
what's really going on

because nothing's making sense.

- Instead, he races
to the gymnasium to see

what's going on for himself.

- You know, I just kinda
dropped what I was doing

and I'm driving pretty fast,
probably doing over 100.

At this point,
I do remember that.

♪ ♪

- I get to my
ex-mother-in-law's house

and he wanted to, of course,
listen and make sure that

I didn't do or say anything,

because he knew exactly
where I was.

I asked my ex-mother-in-law,
I was like,

"Hey, do you have any money
that I can borrow?

"I really need it,
something's going on.

"This is a really crazy time
right now.

Can you give me
whatever you have on you?"

And she says, "No,

"no, I can't.

What's wrong?"
And she says, "Sheratan,

you just probably
need to calm down."

I felt like
she knew something,

and I gestured to her.

"Someone's got Kamryn."

But I didn't want

this person
on the line to hear me.

I didn't want to make
the wrong move

or a mistake or anything

because they could have
pulled the trigger,

and my daughter is gone.

- Sheratan's mother-in-law
can tell something is wrong,

but she is unable
to understand

Sheratan's frantic gestures.

- I just couldn't reach her.

For some reason,
she was right there.

Maybe she didn't get it.

Maybe she didn't understand
the severity of it.

So I got back in the car,

and I drove off.

When you're put on the spot,
again,

logical thinking
goes out the window.

♪ ♪

I actually blame myself

for all of this happening
because it's something that

I thought that
I should have known

or I could have
protected her better,

or maybe I should have
taken her to gymnastics.

As far as anger, yeah.

I was angry at the situation,
and I was also angry at myself.

♪ ♪

As the conversation went on,

I really wanted to call 911.

Call someone.

Even let someone listen in

on the conversation,
but I couldn't.

He was hanging on
every single word that I said,

and he even wanted
to hear everything

that was in the background.

So I made sure that I did not
hang up that phone,

that I didn't put it on mute
by accident.

I wanted him to know that

he had my full attention.

♪ ♪

- Ten-year-old Kamryn
has presumably

been held c*ptive
for more than an hour now,

and Sheratan can't help

but let her mind
imagine the worst.

- There were all types
of thoughts

that were going
through my head.

Even if he didn't k*ll her,

that she was sexually assaulted
or something like that.

- It is here where she begins
to employ a tactic designed

to elicit empathy
from her tormentor.

- He is a heartless criminal.

But I wanted to pull
at his heartstrings.

- Having surprisingly
revealed a name,

the caller also offers
what sounds like remorse.

- However, the caller also
reveals the terror

of what he seems
to be remorseful for.

- Oh, my God.

- Sheratan Johnson is
communicating with a kidnapper

who is holding
her ten-year-old

daughter Kamryn for ransom.

She's been held hostage
on this call

for more than an hour.

The caller wants more money,

and Sheratan is running out
of options.

- Any time a child
is a victim of a crime,

the FBI is going to pour every
resource we have into that,

whether it be a child
who's been abducted,

a child who's the victim
of some sort of sexual abuse.

We spend, I would say, an
exorbitant amount of resources

ensuring that no crime that
a child has been a victim of

goes unanswered.

- But in this case,
no law enforcement authorities

have yet been advised
of Kamryn Johnson's abduction.

Sheratan has been
desperately trying

to explain the situation
to Kamryn's father, Brian,

and the message
has finally gotten through.

Or so she thinks.

- I received a text message,
and I saw that it was Brian.

I'm still on the line
with this guy.

I'm not hanging up
for anything.

But I checked the text message,

and it said,

"Do you remember the place
where we used to live?

Our first home?"

And I'm thinking in my head,
"Why is Brian asking me this?

This is so dumb
and it's so random."

I'm in a situation here.

Why are you asking me this?

And I replied to him,
"Yes. Why?"

I want you to go there
right now.

And I text back, "Why?"

He said, "Just do it. Go now."

So not having
another place to go,

I followed his instructions.

- Compounding Sheratan's
problems is the fact

that her cell phone battery
is dying.

Her one lifeline
to her daughter

is in danger of being severed.

- I usually keep a car charger
in the car,

but for some reason,
it wasn't there.

I went to our first home.

I get there...

♪ ♪

And the place has, like,
a foreclosed sign on it.

I guess whoever
had lived there before,

they foreclosed on the home
and it had, you know,

no trespassing,
that kind of thing.

And I'm thinking, "Oh, my God,
they got Brian too.

"They got him,
and he's in there."

♪ ♪

And I'm still on the phone
with the guy.

- At the very height
of Sheratan's

confusion and panic,
the one thing

she's been trying
to avoid all along happens.

- Suddenly the call drops.

♪ ♪

- My heart sank,

and I knew I was never
going to see her again.

because he told me,
"Do not hang up this phone."

♪ ♪

My phone rang again,
and it's him.

"Why did you hang up?"

I said, "I didn't hang up.

"My call dropped.

"Service is bad.

I'm sorry."

- Sheratan instantly suspects

the caller is telling
the truth.

- In my rearview mirror,

I see a car
racing down the street.

He pulls up and...

♪ ♪

It was Brian.

♪ ♪

- Having been unable
to reach Sheratan

via phone call and not knowing
if she herself is in danger,

Brian had a very specific
reason for leading her

to the location
of their first home.

- I can't call her.
I tried to call her.

I think it just rings
and rings, but I know

she's on the phone
and with this person.

And, then again, I don't know
if the person's in the car.

I don't know who--what the
dynamics of her situation is,

and so I texted her.

I said, "Meet me at the
first house we purchased."

And I knew I can say that
without a lot of instructions.

You know, if I said,
"Meet at the shopping center,

it would be like "Where?"

You know, where?
Parking lot, you know?

It was just--
it was point blank.

Meet me here.

So I'm thinking to myself,
"What am I going to do?

I mean, I don't know what
I'm going to do."

So I'm going to check and see

if there's somebody
in the car.

If somebody's in the car,
how am I going to handle this?

What am I going to do?
I'm like, "Okay, you know what?

"I may have to switch
spots with her."

They got her at gunpoint.

"Take me. This is the kids.
This is her mom."

So I drove over there,
and I see her

and I kind of look and I see
no one was in the car.

So I fling the door open
and she's crying.

- Sheratan Johnson has
been on a terrifying

1 hour, 45-minute odyssey

to save the life
of her kidnapped

ten-year-old daughter, Kamryn.

The child's father, Brian,

has finally caught up with his
ex-wife with some information.

- Brian jumps out of his car.

He says,
"Sheratan, hang up the phone."

- I fling the door open
and she's crying.

She's,
"I don't know what to do."

I said, "Get off the phone."

- He says,
"Sheratan, it's not real.

Kamryn is safe."

I'm like,
"No, she's been kidnapped.

She's not safe."

And he goes, "She's safe.

She's at the gym."

[dramatic music]

[loud thud]

♪ ♪

- My name is Kamryn Johnson.

On July 28th, 2016,

I was never abducted.

It was a evil hoax
played on my mother.

♪ ♪

- Sheratan and Brian
have become victims

of a federal crime
known as virtual kidnapping.

♪ ♪

- I love my mom.

And the fact that she
had to go through that

is horrible
and I feel really sorry.

- Things are not always
what they seem.

In most cases,
a virtual kidnapping involves

just a simple phone call
to a victim.

It seems like somebody has been
taken against their will

and being held as a hostage

when in fact,
it's an extortion scheme.

It's an extremely
emotional event.

It's difficult
for people to deal with.

- The term virtual kidnapping,

this was a phenomenon that
I'd never heard of before.

- Prior to 2016, I had no idea
what a virtual kidnapping was.

- When you get a call,
and there's a child's voice

on the phone, and they're
calling you "Mommy,"

I believed in my heart
that this was my daughter.

- If my wife is being taken
and I hear a female,

my brain would
automatically believe

that I'm hearing my wife.

- For someone who has to deal
with that by themselves,

that's got to be really tragic

because you're trying
to figure out if they really

do have your kid,
and you don't have

a second party to go do
any verification.

So you're kind of
at the mercy of that person.

- During that time,

things can be very confusing.

You just don't know
what you would do.

You don't know
how you will respond.

That was them giving me
proof of life

that she was actually there
with the kidnapper.

Some would say, "Well,
why did she go to the ATM?

Why did she go get the money?"
Well, you don't know.

You don't know what's real.
You don't know if it's fake.

And that's not something
you want to play with.

- Earlier, Brian had raced
to the gymnasium

where Kamryn
had supposedly been abducted

as soon as he got
Sheratan's cryptic text.

- I'm driving and driving.

And so I exit the freeway
and I look over,

and the parking lot is empty.

And I'm like, "This is weird."

I'm expecting to see cops
and detectives and helicopters

and all that type of stuff
going on, and it's just empty.

So I pull in,
and I kind of look around,

and I get out the car,

and I knock on the door
of the gym

because they keep
the doors locked.

And so I knocked on the door.

The coach finally
came to the door,

and she says, "What's up?"

I say, "Is Kamryn here?"
She said, "Yeah.

"You want me to go get her?"

I say, "No, leave her here.
I was just checking."

You know, she says,
"Is everything okay?"

I said, "Uh,
I'll talk to you later."

You know, "Everything's fine.
Just let her keep going."

♪ ♪

We, um, we went back
to her place,

and that's when
we call the police.

- Lancaster Police
take a full report,

including the recorded
conversation between Sheratan

and the virtual kidnapper.

An officer tells them
he has seen this before.

He said, um, "Yeah,
we've had a couple of these

these past couple days,
you know."

He tells of a story
of another lady who had

almost the exact same--

it didn't go as far
as ours did.

I think because the kid
might have been around.

They didn't do their
homework there, but yeah.

- Who could have perpetrated

such an intricate
and well-researched hoax?

And will he or they
be brought to justice?

- You have to get this guy.

- What you did
to my family was wrong,

and I feel like you should be
in jail for life for this.

[sentimental music]

- Sheratan, I think,
needed that--

the visual, and you can see
the emotion on Sheratan's face

when she saw Kamryn.

♪ ♪

- When I saw Kamryn,
I hugged her.

I told her that I love her.

And I said,
"You're here, you're here.

You're actually here."

♪ ♪

- A few tears were shed,
you know?

Yeah.

- While Sheratan is grateful
for a positive outcome,

finding the culprits
and bringing them to justice

is difficult
in virtual crimes.

Local news picks up the story
in prime time.

- Do you think it's necessary
for me to cut off

one of her body parts?

- That was so scary.

And I was like, "No, sir."

- The level of detail
the caller had

suggests both
geographical research

and a scouring of the
Johnsons' social media.

- The person who is
perpetrating a virtual

kidnapping is receiving
personal information online.

They're getting it
from social media posts.

They're receiving information
on location.

They have the ability
to obtain

a lot of personal information

that can be used to convince
an extortion victim

that they, in fact,
have their loved one.

- Evidently,
these people were, you know,

professional scammers
or something.

He found out everything
that he needed to know

on my social media.

I had things there that
were posted about my kids,

their accomplishments,

my accomplishments,

us as a family.

These were details
that strangers can take

and just run with it.

- But the question
still remains:

who are
the virtual kidnappers?

According to the FBI,
the scam has its origins

in an unexpected place.

Between 2013 and 2015,
FBI investigators

tracked a number of virtual
kidnapping calls

from within Mexican prisons.

- The largest majority
of virtual kidnappings

that we see
are traced from Mexico.

- As the FBI's website
describes the scam,

prisoners will bribe guards
to acquire cell phones

to research exact locations
and carry out the crimes.

The ransom money recovered
is used to buy favors

in prison or buy an inmate's
way out of captivity.

- It makes it
extremely difficult for us

to find and prosecute
individuals who are involved

in crimes
against Americans here

while they are outside
of the country.

- As far as this man
terrorizing people

and ruining lives,
playing hoax,

all of these things,

there was no justice served
at this point,

which is really sad.

- The persons who committed
this virtual kidnapping

have yet
to be brought to justice.

The FBI is educating
the public

about strategies
and safeguards

to get one step ahead of the
virtual kidnapping scammers.

- Virtual kidnapping
is such a significant problem

in the United States
that the FBI has a web page

specifically to keep
the public educated.

That way we can attempt
to avoid some of these

that are happening
in the United States.

There are a lot of tips
that we can share

on how to avoid becoming

the victim
of a virtual kidnapping.

One of the most important ways

is to watch
your social media posts.

If you do receive a phone call

that appears
to be a real kidnapping,

take your time to evaluate
whether or not

it sounds like it's real.

Call the loved one who's
been supposedly kidnapped.

If you cannot call
the loved one, it's important

that you contact
the authorities right away.

We can give you indicators
that tell you

that your loved one
may have not been kidnapped.

♪

- Even now, Sheratan
experiences PTSD symptoms

from her 1 hour and 45 minutes
of hell in 2016.

- This event was,
first of all, terrifying.

I wouldn't want anybody else
to go through this.

But to this day,
it's still traumatizing.

- The fact that that person
is still out there

and doing this
to other families is horrible.

You know, that just deep,
really deep, dark...

part of your mind
just thinks about, like,

what if you were actually
were kidnapped?

- The check cashing store
and the van spotted

at Liberty Gymnastics likely
played no role

in the virtual kidnapping.

It was simply
an odd coincidence.

To this day, Sheratan
and Brian maintain high praise

for Liberty,
its employees, and its safety.

♪ ♪

Today, Kamryn is an active
and well-balanced 16-year-old

with a bright future.

- Me and my mom,
I'm like a mini her

as people like to say.

Talk like her, look like her.

And sometimes even my dad said
I sound just like my mother.

- Kamryn is a wonderful child,

and she's alive and well.

♪ ♪