Alicia Kozakiewicz

In 2018, it was reported that Alicia's Law has assisted in the arrest of over 1,000 online predators in Wisconsin alone. Additionally, Alicia's Law funding has enabled Wisconsin law enforcement to add a K-9 officer trained to locate hidden electronic devices. He was named "Kozak" in honor of Kozakiewicz. Kozak was involved in the search for Jayme Closs.

At the time of her abduction Alicia was a student at Carlynton Junior/Senior High School. In 2016, Kozakiewicz graduated from Chicago School of Professional Psychology with a master's degree in forensic psychology. She earned a BA in Psychology at Point Park University.

Kozakiewicz had corresponded online with someone she thought to be a boy of her own age—actually Scott Tyree a 38-year-old man who lived in Herndon, Virginia—who approached her in a Yahoo chat room. Over the course of nearly a year, Tyree groomed the 13-year-old Kozakiewicz. The Kozakiewicz family computer was located in the family room where internet activity could be monitored, but Tyree often contacted her at night while the rest of the family was asleep.

In 2007, she testified before the House Judiciary Committee in an effort to raise awareness of the importance of internet laws to protect children. She successfully lobbied for the passage of the Protect Our Children Act of 2008 and has been lobbying alongside PROTECT for the passage of Alicia's Law in state legislatures. Alicia's Law provides a stream of state-specific funding to the Internet Crimes Against Children task forces (ICAC). In some cases, state and local agencies are able to pull finances accumulated from misdemeanor and felony convictions, while others employ mechanisms such as unclaimed lottery funding. This money is used for training, task forces, research, and rescue efforts for law enforcement agencies seeking child sexual exploitation victims. Alicia's Law has been passed in 11 states, including Virginia, Texas, California, Hawaii, and Idaho. Kozakiewicz will advocate for its passage in all 50 states.

Kozakiewicz's work has been acknowledged by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children who honored her with the Courage Award in 2007. She was also honored with a Jefferson Award for Public Service in 2009. Kozakiewicz has trained the FBI National Academy, offering insight as part of the "Youth Violence: Victims and Perpetrators" program. In 2013, Kozakiewicz joined the Distinguished Speaker Series at the Clinton School of Public Service. Her 2008 book, an OJJDP publication, You're Not Alone: The Journey From Abduction to Empowerment, is a survival guide for recovered abduction victims.

In September 2003, Tyree was sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in federal prison. He was released in February 2019 from the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner. and was assigned to a halfway house in Pittsburgh; protests against the location of his placement eventually involved members of Congress in an unsuccessful effort to pressure the Federal Bureau of Prisons to move him farther away from Kozakiewicz's family. The controversy became moot in October 2019, when Tyree was returned to prison for an additional two years for violating the terms of his parole. Tyree is currently incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton, Ohio.

On New Year's Day in 2002, Tyree lured Kozakiewicz into meeting him near her Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, address. He coerced her into his vehicle and then drove her back to his home in Virginia. Over the course of four days, she was held captive, shackled, raped, and tortured in Tyree's basement dungeon. Tyree filmed the abuse and broadcast it online, live via streaming video for others to witness.

The FBI, using the Yahoo username they had learned from the anonymous tip, found Tyree's IP address and hence his street address, at a townhouse in Herndon. When FBI agents stormed the house on January 4, 2002, Kozakiewicz feared that they were men Tyree had sent to kill her. At 4:10 PM on January 4, 2002, agents freed Kozakiewicz. Tyree was arrested half an hour later at his workplace in Herndon.

In the aftermath, Kozakiewicz has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and significant memory loss. Much of her life leading up to the abduction is difficult or impossible to recall. She has used counseling as a treatment method. As an adult she said that in 2002 people found it impossible to understand how this had happened and how she had been groomed; they mostly blamed the victim, although some people were supportive.

Alicia Kozakiewicz (/ə ˈ l iː ʃ ə ˌ k oʊ z ə ˈ k ɛ v ɪ tʃ / ə-LEE -shə KOH -zə-KEV -ich; born March 23, 1988) is an American television personality, motivational speaker, and Internet safety and missing persons advocate. Kozakiewicz is the founder of the Alicia Project, an advocacy group designed to raise awareness about online predators, abduction, and child sexual exploitation. She is also the namesake of "Alicia's Law," which provides a dedicated revenue source for child rescue efforts. Kozakiewicz has worked with the television network, Investigation Discovery (ID), to educate the public on, and effect change for, issues such as Internet safety, missing people, human trafficking, and child safety awareness education.

Alicia's kidnapper Scott William Tyree was born in 1963 to Erma Tyree. He graduated from Westmoor High School in 1981, married twice, had a 12-year old daughter (who was staying with him during winter break and was sent back to her mother on the day Tyree kidnapped Alicia), and was divorced at the time of the kidnapping. His first wife, Sarah Tyree, said her husband was "a classic, long-haired computer guy" with an interest in science fiction and computer games. She said he had no prior brushes with the law.