Probation for woman who abducted daughter, stayed away almost six years

A St. Charles-area woman who abducted her 9-year-old daughter and kept her for almost six years has been sentenced to probation.

Heather Unbehaun, 43, who pleaded guilty to child abduction in August, was sentenced Wednesday by Kane County Judge David Kliment to two years of probation and to wear a GPS monitor six months beyond that. He also ordered that she is to have no contact with the girl.

“From day one (Kayla’s birth), this defendant basically alienated Ryan (the father) from his daughter,” Kane County prosecutor David Belshan said. He asked for 180 days in jail and 30 months of probation.

Unbehaun, who lives in an unincorporated area near St. Charles, could have been sentenced to up to three years in prison.

However, Belshan said he did not ask for that because he did not want Kayla, now 17, to somehow blame herself for her mother being in prison.

Kliment said a jail sentence would be pointless given she has been on a monitor for 875 days. Under state law, time spent on a GPS monitor is considered detention.

When she took Kayla, Unbehaun was in a five-year custody case with the father, Ryan Iskerka, to whom she was not married. He had obtained temporary primary custody of the girl and was seeking a permanent order.

Unbehaun did not return the girl to the father’s home in South Elgin after a weekend visit in July 2017. Police said Unbehaun’s relatives told them they did not know where she was.

A South Elgin police officer testified Wednesday that they lived in Georgia, then on a commune in Oregon with Unbehaun’s brother. The Unbehauns were kicked out of the commune after a disagreement about politics, the officer said.

Unbehaun was arrested in March 2023 in North Carolina after a person recognized them from the television show “In Pursuit With John Walsh.”

“For over six years, I was denied the most basic rights a parent should have: To see her (Kayla) and protect her,” Iskerka told the judge.

He said she is doing well. “Kayla is living her best life as a teenager,” including having a job and participating in school activities.

“Watching her grow into the young woman she is today is the greatest gift after all these years,” Iskerka said.

Unbehaun told Kliment that she took Kayla because she believed the girl was not safe with her father.

“I left with Kayla to protect her and remove her from that situation,” Unbehaun said. “My actions were never out of defiance or malice, but out of concern for my child.”

She asked Kliment to consider her health, saying she is underweight, has a compromised immune system, and suffers from digestive problems. Her lawyer submitted a doctor’s letter saying putting her in group living in a jail or prison would harm her health. A therapist and a psychiatrist also submitted letters on her behalf.

Kliment said the only reason he didn’t order imprisonment was because of Unbehaun’s health.