48 Hours - 48 Hours Interview: F.B.I. Investigators talk about Lee Barnett

Episode Date: November 12, 2015

F.B.I. Investigators talk about Lee BarnettSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. In this week's 48 Hours interview podcast, we speak to investigators about the search for a fugitive mother, a woman on the run for 20 years, chased by the FBI across five continents, a woman finally caught in Australia and brought back to Charleston, South Carolina to pay for what she did. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Maureen Maher. In February 1994, Leigh Barnett lost custody of

her nine-and-a-half-month-old daughter Savannah after a bitter court battle with husband Harris Todd, a battle fueled by allegations of mental illness, violence, and deceit. Over the next two months, Leigh Barnett obtained fake birth certificates and passports, and in April of 1994, she and her baby assumed their new identities, boarded a plane to Germany, and disappeared. So began a mystery that would haunt FBI agents for the better part of two decades. 48 Hours producer Liza Finley sat down with agents Chris Quick and Ed Klimas, two leading FBI agents who searched for Lee and Savannah across the globe.

My name is Chris Quick, and I'm a special agent with the FBI and have been employed with the FBI for 26 years. I was assigned this case in late April 1994 and basically Harris Todd and his attorney came to the FBI office and said my daughter has been kidnapped or taken by my ex-wife and found out from Harris and his attorney that he had full custody of his daughter and that his ex-wife, Dorothy Lee Barnett, had visitation rights. And I guess the weekend prior to that, on a weekend visit, she disappeared with the child. On a weekend visit, she disappeared with the child.

Did you know at that point what you were about to, the kind of length and scope of an investigation you were about to embark on? I didn't know what to expect, that it would take 20-plus years to solve or investigate. In most parental kidnappings, they're emotionally based. And, you know, one parent gets upset, gets emotional, takes the kid, puts him in a car, and they travel somewhere and really don't think it out. And so I thought it would be one of those typical cases that Dorothy Lee emotionally left, took her kid, was upset.

And I thought eventually in a week or two, we'd find her in some hotel, motel in some other part of the country. But? That didn't occur. And then as we started investigating and talking to Harris and family members, associates, we found out that this was a little bit more than your average custody kidnapping. She did some planning and took some steps to think this out and not get caught. So Leigh Barnett turned out to be what? That she had planned this, calculated it, and did a good job. I mean, as time went on, leads came up empty.

And, you know, from working fugitive cases, most fugitives mess up, make mistakes, because they can't leave the life that they came from. And in this case, she's totally cut all ties from everyone, family, associates. And because of that, she was tough to find. You know, most people stay in touch with a relative or make that telephone call or make that visit to someone, and that's what trips them up.

This didn't occur in this case. So what does that say about Leigh Barnett? She thought about this, she was planned, she was disciplined. She was able to elude us for 20 years. So she accomplished her goal at least for 20 years. She had an advantage because she was a flight attendant. So she had traveled the world, unlike most average people.

So she knew how to travel, foreign countries. So she had that advantage, unlike most people. And how resourceful a person do you think Leigh Burnett was? Well, in hindsight, she was very resourceful. I mean, was able to go to California, get a driver's license and an assumed name, disguise herself in the pictures, used her U.S. Airlines ID, altered that to get the driver's license. And with those IDs, was able to go to Houston and get a passport and an assumed name. She also got a bogus birth certificate in her daughter's name.

20 years ago, obtaining false identification was relatively easy, because there were no checks and balances in place like there are, you know, 20, 22 years forward. So it was a lot easier 20 years ago, if you just know how to do it and come up with the right ideas. Do you think she could do it today?

No. I don't think Lee Barnett would be able to pull it off today because of the checks and balances that are in place, the security concerns that the government has put in place because of terrorism and international travel requirements. After several years, FBI agent Ed Clemas took over the case. And what was your role in the case of Lee Barnett? I received the case after a number of years had gone by. It was pretty much a cold case at that point.

And I just had to pick it up after another agent had retired and take it from there. And what did you make of this, this woman who just disappeared into thin air? I mean, what did you, did you scratch your head? Well, I had to go back and review all the original case documents and the stuff that had been done previously by Chris Quick and some other agents and then see if I could develop some new leads, see if we could develop any new interest in the case, and then see if anything developed from that that we could follow up with.

And what kind of luck did you have? Very minimal. We sent out some leads to have some people interviewed, talked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and tried to explore whatever leads we thought were possible at that point, but nothing seemed to turn out positive. What did you do to get the word out that this woman is missing and we want to find her? We thought from the beginning to help solve

this case we needed the public's help so we any media exposure we can get on television by doing interviews in the local media, national media, you know if any we get the pictures out of Dorothy Lee of Savannah hopefully someone might recognize them and then call the FBI or local authorities and we could follow up on those tips and did you what kind of tips came in you would get you would get tips that I saw a mother with a baby fitting description in Arizona I mean we got tips from Arizona California Texas Alabama you name it all over and so of course these

would come into to myself and other agents and we would send agents from those respective areas to follow up on them and after interviewing the witnesses or individuals that had these spottings, determined it wasn't Dorothy Lee or Savannah. How frustrating was that time after time? It was frustrating because, I mean, you know, our goal was to find the child, Savannah, and as time went on, none of these leads panned out, and so you wonder, is the child okay? Are they still living here? Are they alive? Can harm have happened to the child? I mean,

so it was frustrating. But then one tip would break the case, a tip that came from a mistake that Leigh Barnett had finally made. For the first time ever, Leigh Barnett tells her side of the story to 48 Hours. Tune in this coming Saturday. We'll be on at 8 o'clock Eastern, 7 p.m. Central before the debate and at 10 o'clock p.m. on the West Coast. by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn,

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