Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Clues teen didn’t want to go with teacher Tad Cummins?

Episode Date: March 23, 2017

A prosecutor offers new clues suggesting Elizabeth Thomas did not leave voluntarily with former teacher Tad Cummins. The 15-year-old told her sister “if I’m not back by six o’clock tonight, call the police or come looking for me,” District Attorney Brent Cooper tells Nancy Grace. “My biggest fear is that she had changed her mind about going with Mr. Cummins and that she expressed that to him and he took her then forcefully,” he tells Nancy in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Elizabeth Thomas was brand new to the Cullioca School in Murray County. She started as a freshman this year, entering the public school system for the very first time. Investigators say that she is with Tad Cummins. TBI says that Cummins was a teacher. A student reported seeing Cummins kissing Elizabeth in his classroom in late January. Cummins told two students

he's a father figure to Elizabeth. He saw her as a close and best friend. She's 15, he's 50. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Police arrested Elizabeth's mom, Kimberly Thomas, last year. They charged her with five counts of child abuse and neglect. If a person was looking for a teenager that could be easily influenced,

I would say she would be one that would definitely attract that kind of person. There are constant changes and updates, twists and turns. In the case of the missing schoolgirl, Elizabeth Thomas, kidnapped by her 50-year-old health science teacher, Tad Cummins, married. Welcome to Crime Stories. I'm Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Today, we are joined by a very special guest, the elected district attorney in Columbia, Tennessee, who is overseeing this investigation. Brent Cooper is joining us. Before we get started on the very latest, I want to thank our sponsor, CrimeCon.

CrimeCon is going down in Indianapolis June 9 through June 11 at the JW Marriott. Crime Busters and Crime Sleuths, professionals and amateurs are converging for the latest in crime fighting. Crime Sleuths, professional and amateurs all converging in Indianapolis for Crime Con. You can find out all about it at CrimeOnline.com. And for another 20% off, plug in the code NANCY. In fact, I'm re-registering to get my 20% off. Joining us right now from Columbia, Tennessee, is the elected district attorney who is in charge of all the prosecutions in that jurisdiction, Brent Cooper. Mr. Cooper, thank you for being with us.

Sure, it's my pleasure. You know, you are in the eye of the storm right now. In the last hours, as a matter of fact, there's been an alleged sighting of Elizabeth in Corpus Christi, Texas. What can you tell us about that? All I know at this point is that law enforcement responded to a location where someone had reported a possible sighting of them or the vehicle. By the time the officers arrived, the vehicle and the people were gone. Oh, great. We just had an AMBER alert.

You just got an AMBER alert right now? We're having an AMBER. That's the noise you hear on my phone. So the sighting in Corpus Christi hasn't been ruled out yet. The people left before it could be investigated. What was the sighting? Was it a man and a girl or one of them? Were they still in the silver Nissan? What I was told was they had seen, possibly seen him and the vehicle.

I don't think it was a sighting of her, but like I said, by the time the officers arrived, the person and the vehicle were gone. It's my understanding now that the local law enforcement there is in the process of collecting any video evidence that may have been obtained at the store or in any of the locations around where they were seen. I believe it was some type of gas station or convenience store. Do you believe, Mr. Cooper, that they are still in his Nissan Rogue? I would be shocked if they are. Me too.

I don't think, yeah, I mean, it would be a pretty amateur move if they're still in it. And, you know, the fact that we've had no credible sightings leads me to believe that the vehicle and them are pretty much out of sight somewhere. That's what I think because he went through such meticulous planning. You know, he picked a day when students were not supposed to be in school that day, right? Wasn't it like a teacher development day or something? I believe so. I hadn't heard that, but that could be accurate.

And if that's true, that means her father would not have really known that she was gone until 3 o'clock in the afternoon when she didn't get back. So he did all this research, according to sources, about could his Nissan be tracked, you know,

like tracking the car via Sirius. Yeah, it was definitely planned out to where they had a several-hour head start before anyone realized they were missing. Why do you say that? Because he was supposed to be going to a job interview that morning, and, of course, she had a friend drop her off around 8.30 a.m. Monday. I think the last time his wife saw him was before 8 o'clock that morning, and she believed he would be going to a job

interview that day. And, you know, it wasn't until, well, I don't think Elizabeth's mother or parents, or father, I'm sorry, reported her missing until either late that night or early the next morning. And then it wasn't until 8 o'clock or so the next day, so almost 24 hours after they met up before we knew that Mr. Cummins was also missing. Did you believe he really had a job interview, or did he just tell his wife that? Oh, no, he didn't. It was completely made up.

Hey, and what do you think about all this story he reportedly told Elizabeth about being a CIA operative and a millionaire and a black belt in karate, for Pete's sake? Oh, no. And apparently he tells all of his students those stories. karate for Pete's sake? No, no. Apparently he tells all of his students those stories. The impression I've gotten is that he's really created

an alternate persona for the students he has of this life that he never led with the CIA and the FBI and things like that. And all that goes into the mental coercion he was using on her. You know, this is a 50-year-old authority figure in this girl's life, a 15-year-old girl that looks like she's had a pretty rough upbringing,

and he's telling her all these wild tales about himself and really building himself up to be something he's not. And we believe that all of that went into the persuasion to convince her to leave with him. You know, that really is even scarier now that I'm hearing that, because this guy can flat out tell a lie, look you right in the face, and stone cold lie to you. So that's going to help him. Eluding police, you mentioned that Elizabeth had had a very difficult upbringing.

I read about the alleged charges against her mother, and they sounded awful. Right. And those charges are, you know, my office is prosecuting those charges, and, you know, they're still pending at this time, so I can't talk a lot about them. But, you know, the allegations are, they sound terrible, the allegations do. And you know as well as I do that before abuse is ever reported, it usually has been going on for quite a while. Well, I was just going to say, according to statistics, every time an incident of child abuse is reported,

it has happened statistically dozens and dozens of times before. So I can't speak for that because there are no other claims against her that we know of other than these, and they haven't been proven yet. But according to the numbers, child abuse happens many times before it's reported. I mean, 10 children? Is that correct, this lady, 10 children? Yes, that's my understanding.

Now, at least one of them has left the home as an adult now and has moved out, but yeah, it's my understanding there are 10 children in the home. So what do you really think, Brent? Where do you think he's headed? At first I thought he might be headed toward the panhandle, because if you look at his social media, you see pictures that look very much like, say, Gulf Shores type area. But now I'm thinking he's trying to put as much distance between himself and Columbia

as possible. That's what I would believe, that he's gotten as far away as he can with her. And the biggest concern and the most concerning thing is that apparently Elizabeth told one of her siblings that day, either the day before or that morning, told them, if I'm not back by 6 o'clock tonight, we've heard it either, she either said, call the police or come looking for me. I read that. She told a 17-year-old sister Sarah that. Right. I read that she told the 17 year old sister Sarah that now see it makes me think that she did not plan to be away

were any of her clothes missing from the home to show she had packed a bag now she did take clothes with her so that kind of contradicts that but we do believe she told her sister that. So she may have been on the fence about going with Mr. Cummings.

But didn't she spend the night with a little friend? That could have explained why some of her clothes were gone. Well, that's true. But I think she had more than one bag of clothes, if I remember correctly. That's interesting because in that picture, that surveillance picture of her, she only has one armful of stuff. Yeah. Well, I think for some reason, I believe they said she left one bag at Shoney's where she met him. So it's really, you know, my fear, my biggest fear,

is that she had changed her mind about going with Mr. Cummins and that she expressed that to him, and he took her then forcefully. You know, we don't know that, and we certainly hope that's not the case. Well, I mean, at this point, he's already done. I always say, Mr. Cooper, when you don't know a horse, look at his track record. He's already acting irrationally. He's already broken the law. So why would we expect him to do anything different now than what he's already done?

You know, that bag you mentioned at Shoney's, you mean she had a bag there and she took it with her or she left a bag there? Well, what I understand was when she was dropped off, she had two bags. And when the authorities went to Shoney's after she was reported missing, I think Shoney's had recovered one bag, or they had found one bag on their property that she had left there for some reason. That's really interesting. If she had packed this bag to take with her, why did she leave it at Shoney's? Yeah, I know. I mean, I don't know.

I haven't inquired into what the contents of it are. For all I know, they could be the dirty clothes she wore the night before at her friend's house. I don't know. What charges is he looking at right now? He's charged with a misdemeanor, which is called sexual contact with a minor by an authority figure. And that covers contact such as kissing, someone kissing a minor that's an authority figure, and the kiss is obviously not just a peck on the cheek. The other charge is aggravated kidnapping, and that's for unlawfully removing her

and having firearms in his possession when that occurs. How do you know he's got firearms? I've read that he had two. His wife initially reported that he took two handguns with him, that they were missing. Do you think that this has the potential of ending like in a Romeo-Juliet scenario where he's like, if we can't live together, we're both going to die? I mean, now that I know he's got the guns and he's making up these crazy stories, do you think he would do something like that rather than get caught? I mean, he's got nothing to lose.

Well, I mean, I wouldn't think so. And, of course, we absolutely hope that's not the case. But that's always a fear in these situations. Brent, how could he be living this long off $4,500? Well, you know, $4,500 will go a lot further in some areas than it will, say, for instance, in Los Angeles. But, you know, we definitely don't expect that money to last very long. You know, if they're having to, obviously having to pay for food and shelter some way, and it'll run out at some point. Oh, yeah, it will. And then what are they going to do?

Do you think she's got a cell phone with her? Could it be pinged? We've tried that. We have, if either of their phones are turned on, we should know about that immediately. So I doubt their phones are with them because we haven't had any activity on either one of them. And that's been a complete dead end as far as tracking their phones. Is that how you got the Decatur, Alabama? There was a ping the very first day.

There was a ping in Decatur, but it could have been where the tower was located was close enough to the interstate. It could have been while they were driving through. Right, right. Or if you're really clever he could have thrown her phone on the on the back of a tractor trailer you know so i hadn't thought about that do you think she's close enough to any of her siblings or friends that she's going to want to contact them? I think so.

And, you know, 15-year-old girls typically, when they're close to someone, they're going to want to talk to that person. And we believe that she is close to her siblings. She wasn't really in, she hadn't been in public school before this year, so she probably didn't have any close friendships in school but we think she she is close to her siblings and and we hope that she'll reach out to them what is your message for tad cummins just uh you know as I've said from the beginning, that the only way this can get better and for him to reclaim any of his life is for him to right now pick up the phone and call someone. You don't even have to call law enforcement.

Call your wife. You know, she's worried about you. And let us know where you are. And if nothing else, if you're not going to agree to anything else, don't hurt Elizabeth and let her go. Just let us know where she is. You know, you brought up Jill Cummins, and she, I don't think, had any idea any of this was going on. No, she didn't.

And, you know, I'm like, you're a former prosecutor, right? Yep, yep. You've talked to family members who've lost loved ones to violent crimes, you know, unexpectedly. That's the way she comes across to me. I feel so bad for that lady. I know. It's terrible.

I was looking at Elizabeth's post on social media, and she changed her status to wife. That's scary. Yeah, it is. He's got this girl so brainwashed. And we know he had done research about teen marriage, too. So there were Google searches he had done researching the age of consent in different states. Well, I believe Georgia and Delaware, you can get married under the age of consent without parental approval if you're pregnant. And I pray that's not the case.

Really? Yeah. Well, hey, but still, that's new because he's married. He can't get married anywhere to anybody, pregnant or not, because he's already married. I know. That's another crime if he did that. Right. That's another crime. I know. That's another crime if he did that. Right. That's another

crime. Yeah. Do you think there were any warnings that he would do something like this? No.

You know, there wasn't any warnings and that's why it was, it really just caught everyone so off guard. I actually went

to high school with Mr. Cummins. Really? He was a, yeah, we grew up to high school with Mr. Cummins. Really? Yeah. I mean, we grew up in the same small town, and I know him, and I know his sister. And, you know, no, this is not something I would have ever seen coming. And, in fact, the day we realized they were both missing i was i was a little bit hesitant to

to request an amber alert because i thought there was a possibility that we would issue an amber alert and you know the the alarm would sound and and his picture would be plastered everywhere and then we would find out that he was at the mall, you know, or that he was just somewhere, you know, doing something harmless, and here we had embarrassed his family and him. But, of course, now we know that's not the case, and in hindsight, I'm glad we asked for the Amber Alert when we did. Yeah, because from what everyone says, everyone that knew him thought he was a great guy, would never

have done that. You know, that really speaks a lot about your character, to tell you the truth, that you really waited before you issued the Amber Alert, but then in the end realized you had to do it, because you did not want to sully his reputation if it

were wrong. And just like the wife said, this is not who you are. What's happening? Right, right. Well, I know you are swamped, Brent and Mr. Cooper. I can't thank you enough for speaking to us. It means a lot to me to hear it from you, to hear your voice and know that you're on it and that you care about it and it means a lot

to you as well. We're all hoping and praying for the best. Thank you for that and we appreciate the attention you're paying this because we need as many people to know about it as possible. Yes, sir. I'll stay on it. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Again, I want to thank CrimeCon for sponsoring our podcast today and

helping us spread the word about missing schoolgirl Elizabeth Thomas. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. The search goes on. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart podcast.