Kidnapping of Katie Beers

Katie Beers (born December 30, 1982) lived on Long Island, New York, with her mother, Marilyn Beers, and older half-brother, John Beers. Her biological father was never identified. From a young age, Katie also spent time in the care of her godmother, Linda Inghilleri, and Inghilleri's husband, Salvatore, due to frequent neglect by her mother. While in the Inghilleris' care, Katie endured abuse, including repeated sexual assaults by Salvatore Inghilleri. John Esposito, a family friend who often gave Katie and her brother attention and gifts, had also sexually abused John Beers and had a prior 1977 arrest for the attempted abduction of a twelve-year-old boy.

On December 28, 1992, two days before Katie's tenth birthday, Esposito lured her into his home at 1416 Saxon Avenue in Bay Shore with a promise of birthday presents. After she played a video game in his bedroom, he forced her into a concrete bunker he had built beneath his garden, accessible only through a concealed tunnel and a 200-pound trap door. The bunker included a coffin-sized soundproofed room where Beers was chained, as well as a commode and closed-circuit television. Esposito later told police he had built the bunker specifically for her, and Beers recalled having played in the displaced dirt years earlier as it was being dug.

Immediately after abducting her, Esposito forced Beers to record a message falsely claiming a knife-wielding man had taken her, which he played at a pay phone near an arcade in Nesconset, New York, after telling staff there that he had lost track of her. During her captivity, Esposito visited her frequently, providing food, blankets, and toys while also sexually abusing her. He told her he intended to keep her in the bunker permanently and considered faking her death with a photograph, though he never carried this out.

Esposito became a suspect early in the investigation due to prior abuse allegations involving John Beers and witness accounts that he had entered the arcade alone. Investigators also determined that the recorded message had been made in advance based on the absence of background noise. On January 13, 1993, 17 days after the abduction, Esposito confessed and led police to the bunker, where Beers was rescued.

Esposito pleaded guilty to kidnapping on June 16, 1994, and was sentenced on July 27, 1994, to 15 years to life; he served his sentence at Sing Sing prison. During proceedings, Beers stated Esposito had raped her during captivity, a claim the sentencing judge acknowledged though it was not a formal charge. Esposito died in prison on September 4, 2013, of apparent natural causes. Salvatore Inghilleri was separately convicted of two counts of sexual abuse for molesting Beers and served 12 years before dying in prison in 2009.

Following her rescue, Beers was placed with foster parents in East Hampton, New York, and was raised there with anonymity. In January 2013, she spoke publicly for the first time, revealing she was married with two children and working in insurance, and published a memoir about her experience.