According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, nearly 800,000 children are reported missing each year in the United States—that's more than 2,000 a day. About 200,000 of them are kidnapped by a family member. Time Warner Cable News reporter Mike Hedeen has the story of a Rochester native, who went through a family kidnapping 25 years ago.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- At the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's regional office on Lake Avenue, photos of missing children fill a wall. Some are runaways, some abducted by strangers, while others have been taken by a family member.

Twenty-five years ago, David Rodriguez was a victim of a family abduction. David's mother was married to a man named Wes. They were going through a divorce and Wes wanted to continue a relationship with David.

"One weekend he said that he was going to take me to help him unpack his house. My mom agreed, being a loving mother and probably feeling bad for him. So, he took me into his truck and we started driving to his place and the drive took something like 24 hours and it wasn't to his place it was down to Florida," said Rodriguez.

David and Wes stayed in Del Ray Beach, Florida for the next three years. Wes changed David's last name, but David can't remember what it was. David said when he asked about his mother, Wes told him she'd been eaten by sharks.

"It was quite traumatic. I had quite a few dreams that woke me up at night about floating in the ocean and I could see my mother out there. A shark jumps up and eats her then there's that pause then a shark jumps and comes and gets you right as you wake up. Hardly ever in my life have I ever woken up from bed and sprung forward. Those were times when I had done that," said Rodriguez.

David says Wes took good enough care of him to keep him healthy. Then, David said, Wes was preparing to move them to Alaska. Before they could hit the road, rescue was on the way.

David's step-grandmother worked for Lou Bivona, the founder of the National Center, while Lou managed an insurance firm. The grandmother told Bivona about her missing grandson. Bivona contacted a former homicide investigator and they were able to track down Wes and David though the Florida address where Wes' veteran's administration check was being sent.

"Tom Rodriquez, with Rochester law enforcement was his stepfather, quickly went with his mother, Dee, down to Florida and they were able to bring him back," said Lou Bivona. "The problem was that the Florida system at the time wouldn't allow you to extradite the child from Florida to New York in a family situation even though Wes didn't have custody rights. The court was so stupid it still gave Wes custody rights even after everything that was going on. If he hadn't gone down that day, Wes was going to move to Alaska where he eventually died in the wilderness, he would have taken David with him and there would be no David."

Bivona says success stories like David's are not unusual and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children plays a major role in reuniting kidnap victims with their families.

"We have a 98 percent recovery rate, we're getting very good at it. We're using technology like Facebook and over a three-month period we have like 83 recoveries through Facebook, texting and other methods that we use. But pictures have always been the key source of recoveries," said Bivona.

As for David, he returned to Rochester, graduated from Greece Odyssey High School then went on to the United States Air Force Academy. He's now an F-22 fighter pilot and married with two children.

"There's a path for all of us and I think I'm getting towards understanding what that path is for me. I think it started with that story all those years ago," said Rodriguez.

The National Center's annual Gala is Oct. 29 at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. It helps fund searches for people like David Rodriguez. John Walsh of America's Most Wanted, is the featured guest.