Online Gamer Independently Solves Case Of Missing Child From Across Continent

Nov 11, 2020 by apost team

Back in 2017, Harry Brown from Surrey, England, helped to locate a then-missing four-year-old girl who was held captive by her father in Arizona by tricking him with a pizza delivery.

The statistics on missing children are pretty grim. Unfortunately, there doesn't tend to be too many happy endings when a child is kidnapped. In most procedural crime dramas on television, the heroes get a clue to the whereabouts of the missing child just in time and swoop in to save the day.

Real-life tends to be much different. Luckily, a man from England recently proved that not all hope is lost, even in the case of a kidnapping. This modern-day amateur detective solved a case from the comfort of his own home by using Facebook. Who says social media doesn't have any good uses?

This story begins with a man named Virgil Henley. He was locked in a bitter custody dispute with his daughter's grandparents. The young girl, Yvette, was only four years old, The Guardian reported. Her grandparents, Gary and Kim Forester, didn't believe that their granddaughter was safe in the custody of her father. The court agreed with the Foresters and granted them custody of Yvette. Normally, this is a happy ending but, in truth, it was only the beginning of a harrowing journey.

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Most people in Henley's situation would have turned over their daughter and appealed to the court's decision. This was not the way that the father would choose to deal with the matter. Instead, he decided to kidnap his young daughter. He ran off with Yvette and left her grandparents frantic with worry. If Henley was trying to prove the court wrong in regard to being a danger, he was clearly not going about it the right way.

Gary and Kim Forester probably knew the statistics on missing children. They knew the longer Yvette stayed missing, the less likely they were to get her back. FOX 11 Los Angeles reported that the couple exhausted many avenues in trying to get their granddaughter back. Unfortunately, the police had been unable to locate where Virgil Henley had taken Yvette. They were desperate with worry.

Eventually, they came up with a plan to reach out to Henley's friends on Facebook. Their hope was that one of them would know where he was located. Henley went by "Mark Johnson" on Facebook. The Foresters wrote his friends and offered a $2,000 reward for anyone who could help them get Henley's location. In this message, they informed all of the friends about the kidnapping situation.

Harry Brown was one of the friends who got the message. At first glance, no one could have blamed Brown for assuming that there was nothing he could do to help. After all, Brown is from England, and the Henley kidnapping had occurred in California.

There were thousands of miles of distance between him and the situation. Instead of choosing to go with this route, Brown decided to see if he could use his Facebook friendship with Henley to find his location.

Brown had become acquainted with Henley about a year earlier when Henley was tagged in a meme that he had liked on Facebook. The two struck up a conversation and became friends on Facebook. They had talked a few times over the past year.

The Englishman decided he would reach out to Henley again and try to get him to give up his location. He felt like he had become good friends with him and might be able to get that information from him. As the two men became reacquainted, Brown came up with ways to try to get Henley's location inconspicuously.

Brown tried to get Henley to take a screenshot of his weather app so he could get a fix on his location that way. That attempt failed. Before long, it looked like Brown was not going to be able to fool Henley into revealing his location.

During a conversation, Henley revealed to Brown that he had been struggling with kidney stones, but needed to get food for his wife. An idea formulated in the young Englishman's mind. He offered to send Henley a pizza to help him feel better, he told the BBC. Eventually, Henley relented and sent Brown his address so he could get him a pizza. Not wanting to panic, Brown asked if it was okay if he sent Papa John's.

Brown reported that he was trying not to panic, but shaking as he got the information. Immediately, he gave the information to Gary and Kim Forester. When the doorbell rang, Henley went to answer it and was met by police officers. They were able to retrieve Yvette. The young girl was found unharmed and taken back to her grandparents.

Unlike many of these cases, a happy ending was achieved. Gary and Kim Forester were so thankful to Harry Brown that they, not only gave him the reward money but flew him over to California to meet Yvette. They also flew him back to England after his joyous visit.

This story is proof that there are good people out there who want to do the right thing. If not for the assistance of Brown, a total stranger, Yvette may have never been reunited with her grandparents. It proves that we can never underestimate the kindness of strangers.

What would you have done in Harry's shoes? Were you impressed by his actions? Show this story to everyone you know who is in need of a tale with a happy ending, and let us know what you thought about this heroic deed.