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Alicia Kozakiewicz Turns 2002 Abduction Into Momentum for Child-Safety Reforms

Her survival spurred Alicia’s Law, which directs funding to ICAC task forces.

Overview

  • At 13, she was groomed online by a man posing as a peer who was actually 31, left home on New Year’s Day 2002 to meet him, and was abducted.
  • Held in a Virginia basement for four days, she was chained, assaulted, and forced to wear a dog collar, according to her first-person account.
  • The abuse was allegedly live-streamed, and a viewer who recognized her from missing-person posters alerted authorities, allowing investigators to trace her location.
  • FBI agents rescued her; Scott Tyree was arrested, convicted on federal charges including abduction and sexual exploitation, and sentenced to nearly 20 years.
  • Tyree has completed his sentence and was released, later facing legal action over parole violations, as Kozakiewicz founded the Alicia Project and continues her advocacy for online safety.