This law is about taking or holding a child under 14 without permission. If someone who is not a close family member (within three family levels, like a parent, grandparent, or uncle) takes a child away or keeps the child somewhere for a long time without the parents' or guardian's okay, that is child kidnapping. There is one exception — if the person truly believed the child was in danger and needed to be protected, that can be used as a defense in court. This is one of the most serious crimes in Missouri.
Classifications stated in the statute. Actual outcomes vary.
565.115. Child kidnapping — . — 1. A person commits the of child kidnapping if he or she is not a relative of the child within the and, knowing he or she has no right to do so, removes a child under the age of fourteen without of the child's parents or , or such child for a substantial period of time without such consent.
2. In determining whether the child was or confined , it is an that the person reasonably believed that the person's actions were necessary to preserve the child from danger to his or her welfare.
3. The offense of child kidnapping is a .
Tap any gold-underlined word to see what it means.
Source & history notes
(L. 2004 H.B. 1487, A.L. 2014 S.B. 491) Effective 1-01-17
Related Missouri laws
Kidnapping, first degree, penalty
RSMo 565.110
Kidnapping, second degree, penalty
RSMo 565.120
Kidnapping, third degree, penalty
RSMo 565.130
Harassment, second degree, penalty
RSMo 565.091
Harassment, first degree, penalty
RSMo 565.090
Defenses to kidnapping in the third degree
RSMo 565.140
Legal information, not legal advice. Always confirm with the official source at revisor.mo.gov.