KATIE BEERS KIDNAPPING LONG ISLAND, NY (1992)

Katherine Beers (born December 30, 1982) is an American woman who was kidnapped when she was 9 years old in New York by a friend of the family, and held in an underground bunker from December 28, 1992, to January 13, 1993.

Kidnapping
Long Island child Katie Beers, the daughter of Marilyn Beers, disappeared on December 28, 1992, two days before the girl's 10th birthday. She was lured to the home of family friend John Esposito by the promise of birthday presents.

She left a message on her godmother's answering machine saying, "I've been kidnapped by a man with a knife," traced by police to a pay phone near the Spaceplex indoor amusement park and video arcade in Nesconset, New York. Police later determined the message had been tape-recorded. Esposito told police Beers was kidnapped by a third party while at Spaceplex.

Beers was held in a 6-foot-by-7-foot concrete bunker under Esposito's garage at his home at 1416 Saxon Avenue in Bay Shore, New York, concealed by a 200-pound concrete trap door. The bunker contained a commode toilet, television set, mattress and chains used to restrain Beers. Beers, along with other children, had played in the dirt displaced by the bunker as Esposito dug it a few years earlier. He told police he had built the bunker for Beers.

In January 2013, Beers published a memoir, Buried Memories (known as Help Me in the United Kingdom) about her ordeal. The book was co-written by reporter Carolyn Gusoff, who had covered Beers' case as it was happening.

ABC's 20/20 episode "Saved" covered the Katie Beers story in February 2013.

Investigation Discovery recounted the case on an episode of its 2020 documentary miniseries Killer Carnies. It included accounts from Beers, the lead police detective, and others.