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Kidnapping survivors Elizabeth Smart, Katie Beers say Jayme Closs needs space, time to heal

Chicago • Katie Beers' joy quickly turned to deep concern when she learned 13-year-old Jayme Closs had been found alive in rural Wisconsin nearly three months after police say a man shot and killed her parents then abducted the girl from their home.

“She is going to have to grieve the loss of her parents and also come to terms with the fact she was abducted, escaped and whatever [other] hell she went through,” said Beers. “And it’s not going to be easy.”

Sunday will mark 26 years since a then-10-year-old Beers was rescued from an underground concrete bunker in Bay Shore, New York, where she had been held captive for more than two weeks by a family friend who had lured her to his home with the promise of birthday presents.