KIDNAPPING: Katie Beers

A kidnapping planned by a family “friend” for several years, designed to capture one nine-year-old girl.

Katherine ‘Katie’ Beers was born in New York on December 30th 1982 to an unnamed father and her mother Marilyn Beers. She lived in Long Island with her mother and older brother John, they were also living with Katie’s godmother Linda Inghilleri and her husband Sal.

Marilyn often left her two children in Linda and Sal’s care, described as being neglectful of the children. Katie later said that she was sexually, and physically. emotionally and verbally abused all through her childhood, Sal being the main abuser in her life.

With an atmosphere that seemingly welcomed the abuse, a family friend John Esposito was allowed into the children’s lives. He showered them both with gifts and attention, gaining their trust and being allowed to take either child out on trips alone. It’s reported Esposito began sexually abusing John until Esposito thought he was “too old”.

In the past, in 1978, Esposito pleaded guilty to attempting to abduct a young boy from a shopping mall. He managed to escape serving prison time and the Beers family claimed to be unaware of the prior crime.
Katie described how the abusive childhood she endured was “swept under the rug and not reported. Abuse wasn’t reported because the community didn’t know it was happening, abuse wasn’t reported because the community turned a blind eye, ignored it, didn’t report it, or didn’t know where to report it.”.
It was being forced to survive this abuse that helped Katie survive her time in captivity.

On December 28th 1992, Esposito offered to take Katie to get her birthday presents from his home. Esposito was 33 years her senior at this point.
He lived in his family home, a decent-sized building in Bay Shore, his family didn’t bother going to his garage apartment. Esposito’s fraternal twin claimed that none of the family “ever had a reason to go back there” and that they were unaware that Esposito had built a 6ft long subterranean tunnel leading to a concrete dungeon underneath the garage. The entrance itself was hidden behind a 200-pound trap door with a removable bookcase hiding that, all of which was in Esposito’s office.

Katie entered the apartment, playing a video game in Esposito’s bedroom when he made sexual advances on her before forcing her down into the concrete bunker. He put her in a six-by-seven foot space that had an even smaller coffin-sized soundproof room inside of it. In the larger portion of the bunker, there was a toilet and CCTV system and in the coffin space, there was a bed and TV.
The entire bunker had been prepared for years specifically for Katie.

Katie later recalled she played in the dirt that came from the bunker a few years early.

To explain where Katie had gone, Esposito forced her to record a message claiming a man with a knife had taken her. “Aunt Linda, a man kidnapped me and has a knife — and oh no, here he comes right now.” Was part of the message.
Esposito then headed to a Spaceplex arcade in Neconset, playing the message to 9–1–1 at a pay phone outside. He entered the arcade, feigning panic and asking for help after losing Katie outside.

For the next couple of weeks, Esposito would often enter the bunker to abuse Katie, allowing her to enter the larger part of the bunker before she was forced back into the coffin-sized cell. He would give her blankets, toys, junk food and soda during his “visits”. The TV in the room was one of the few things that kept Katie going. News reports of her continued search provided her with desperately-needed hope.

Katie had managed to steal a key to her lock and chain, getting into the larger part of the bunker while in Esposito’s absence.
After being told by Esposito that he would take a picture of her sleeping and send it to the police to make them think she was dead, Katie tried to not sleep.
Esposito also told Katie he planned on keeping her for the rest of her life. Katie refused to stay and began playing mind games with her captor, planting seeds of doubt in his mind about how it would all work out. The freshly ten-year-old girl outwitted her captor.

Almost immediately into the search for Katie, police began suspecting Esposito after his history, proximity to the family and an eye witness stating he arrived at the arcade alone the day that Katie disappeared.
He was under constant surveillance, the additional pressure that would crack Esposito and cause him to confess to his attorney, leading officers to the cell he was keeping Katie in.

Katie Beers was freed on January 13th 1993.

Esposito pleaded guilty to kidnapping in June of the following year and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Ten charges were dropped in exchange for a plea.
Sal Inghilleri was also arrested and sentenced to 12 years in prison for his abuse of Katie before her kidnapping.
Katie was immediately placed into a loving foster family in East Hampton, finally escaping her abuse and being allowed to live a childhood.

Katie is now an inspirational speaker and author meanwhile Esposito was found dead in his prison cell on September 4th 2013.