Katie Beers disappeared on December 28, 1992, two days before her tenth birthday. She was lured by the promise of birthday presents to the home of a family friend, John Esposito. She left a message on her godmother's answering machine saying, "I've been kidnapped by a man with a knife." Esposito, almost immediately a suspect due to his own personal history, falsely alleged that Beers was kidnapped by a third party while at the Spaceplex indoor amusement park, but security cameras disclosed that Esposito entered Spaceplex by himself.

Beers was held in a 6-foot-by-7-foot concrete bunker under Esposito's garage 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.On January 13, 1993, she was found alive in the bunker after Esposito led police to it.