Victim Polly Klaas

Twelve-year-old Polly Hannah Klaas of Petaluma, CA, was taken from her home by a man wielding a knife in October 1993.

At the time of the kidnapping, Klaas was hosting a slumber party. The kidnapper tied the other girls up, then took Klaas with him.

An enormous search ensued, and all of America waited for news. Actress Winona Ryder, also from Petaluma, put up a $200,000 reward.

Clueless police officers helped Richard Allen Davis pull his car from the mud near the site of the kidnapping but did not think to call in his license plate. It is believed that Davis then panicked and killed the girl. He buried her in a shallow grave, to which he later led police after he had been arrested.

Klaas' father set up the Polly Klaas Foundation in his daughter's memory. Its purposes are to prevent child kidnapping, help locate missing children and lobby for improved legislation to protect children. The political activities became the job of a second foundation, the KlaasKids Foundation.