Unseen - The Collar, the Chains, and the Bunker: The Girls Who Escaped Hell | The Cases of Jeannette Tamayo & Elizabeth Shoaf | UNSEEN

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

“Jeannette, if you can hear us, know that we’re looking for you” June 8th 2003, in the city of San Jose, a ‘Little Caesars’ staff member receives a pizza order from a young girl, unaware that the caller is actually 9 year old Jeannette Tamayo, who has been missing for 3 days. Held captive in a small room in his house, her kidnapper brings back the food with a nasty smile: she knows that this could be her last dinner before he “gets rid of her tonight.” The memory of watching CSI with her brother flashes back to her mind — she is determined to fight until the last moment, so she grabs the pizza box, and becomes her own detective. - “It was like a vacation for her” On September 6, 2006, 14 year old Elizabeth Shoaf was kidnapped by a man who claimed to be a police officer. Handcuffed, and “arrested”, she is taken deep into the woods where she discovers a secret underground bunker. For ten days, investigators look everywhere for the missing teen, without any clues, until Elizabeth is able to outsmart her captor, and her mom receives a shocking text message from Elizabeth herself. Credits: MA: A World Of Plucking - Frank Schlimbach - PRO: BMI Born In Blood - Frequently Asked Music - ASSET ID: # 1163463 ANW: Catacombs - Dan Skinner & Adam Skinner Pathogen - Dan Skinner & Adam Skinner Track And Trace - James Copperthwaite & Jonathan Buchanan Damaged - David Tobbin, Jeff Meegan, Jason Pedder & Ashley Barnes Case Remains Open - Pete Masitti & John Andrew Barrow Hidden Case - Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd Vital Signs - Dave James, Dan Skinner & Adam Skinner Hostage Situation - Luke RichardsIn Case Of Emergency - Mark Petrie & Brandon Yingho Lau Shadow Of A Memory - Mark Petrie Final Conclusion - Mark Petrie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Little Caesar's Pizza. How can I help you? On July 8, 2003, a Little Caesar's cashier in San Jose, California, received the most unusual call. A little girl with a whimpering voice, holding back her tears as she spelled every letter of her address, one by one. I'm sorry? Who is this? Little did they know she had been kidnapped and her abductor was forcing her to call them. After multiple days of captivity, this had been her only contact with the outside world. He went downstairs, came back upstairs with the pizza and was standing with the pizza box and was staring at me. And he handed me a flyer.

And on the flyer was a picture of me and it said missing. Turned to me, he was like, I have to get rid of you tonight. Kidnapped, assaulted, and held in bounds. Nine-year-old Jeanette Tamayo was long gone when the police finally arrived at the scene. A young girl was abducted from her home after school. The police later got their hands on some footage from a nearby security camera. but it was quickly deemed useless due to the low quality of the recording. Police have no leads in the disappearance of nine-year-old Jeanette Tamayo.

After days without any development in her case, and no statewide Amber Alert issued, Jeanette knew she had to take matters into her own hands. My fear turned into courage, and I told myself, I'm a fighter. I'm gonna make it. In the thriving city of San Jose, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley,

Nine-year-old Jeanette Tamayo just got off her school bus and was heading home. Once there, she noticed that the screen door was slightly ajar. She thought that maybe her mother came back from work early and didn't think much of it. Once inside, she went to her room and realized that something was wrong. Her bedroom window had been smashed and there was broken glass everywhere. She immediately took a step back and ran toward the phone to call her mom. But to her dismay, the cable had been cut off. Before she had time to understand what was happening, she heard someone knocking out the door,

Jeanette turned around and saw a stranger behind the screen. Scared and confused, she reluctantly opened it. And when he was asking me questions, she was kind of peeking inside, trying to see who was in there. And that started making me feel really uncomfortable, and I started slowly closing the sliding door. I got scared because I felt a really bad vibe from him. He put his hand in the way, slid it open, grabbed me,

and took me to my brother's room. He threw me on the bed and took off my purse. pants. Out of respect for Jeanette, we won't cover the assault, as it is extremely graphic. After he was done, her attacker handcuffed her and tied her legs together. He then carried her to his car parked in the garage. There, the man tried to open the door but couldn't lift it more than a few inches before he saw another vehicle stopping right in front of the garage.

From the back seat, Jeanette recognized her mother's car. My brother crawled under the garage when it opened a few inches. The first thing I told him was to run. her attacker was already at it. He got out of the car and started walking toward him. At only 15, Paul knew he wouldn't stand a chance, but he chose to fight him anyway. He grabbed a screwdriver from the counter and ran at him. The man then immediately disarmed him and started punching him in the face, over and over. Restrained by the handcuffs and the rope around her leg, Jeanette couldn't do anything, except watch in horror as the man dragged

her brother inside the house. As soon as they entered, they came face to face with Rosalia, Jeanette's mother. She attempted to fight the man and successfully. successfully separated him from her son. Then, Paul rushed toward the kitchen cabinet and pulled out a frying pan from it. He tried to help his mom. But once again, the man disarmed him before he could do anything and turned the improvised weapon against Rosalia, striking her repeatedly until she fell to the ground. I remember hearing my mom screaming and it went quiet.

I couldn't hear much after that. I see the man rush back into the garage and into the car. And when I seen blood on his face, I was like, did you kill him? And he just started laughing and I just started laughing. and I just started to cry. I was like, I didn't know if he had killed them. I didn't know, like, if they were there anymore, if he had killed them. And I was just thinking with the blood on his face that they were gone.

My family was gone. Driving like a madman, Jeanette's kidnapper cut through some of her neighbor's bushes. Fighting through her restraints, she managed to turn around and take one last look at her house before they turned the corner. She felt an overwhelming feeling of relief when she made eye contact with Rosalia, running amok behind the car. Her face was heavily wounded and covered in blood, but at least she was alive. Not far behind, her brother Paul was painfully limping towards some bystanders,

waving his arm in the air and screaming for help. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamava Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. As soon as the car passed the corner, Jeanette started to scream at the other drivers passing by,

slamming her shoulder against the window in an attempt to catch their attention, but her undertaking didn't go unnoticed, as her attacker immediately grabbed the screwdriver from earlier and violently attacked her. After being hit twice, she moved out of his reach. I just remember sliding down and laying there and looking up at the ceiling of the car and just thinking to myself, I'm not going to make it. I'm going to die. Back at the house, after the police arrived, Rosalia was refusing to get into the ambulance. She was trying to explain everything that happened to the detective and the other officers. But her condition kept getting worse by the minute and her panic state didn't do much to help.

So after they secured Paul, they had to force her onto a stretcher against her will. They were both sent to the nearest hospital. Your mother, I don't care what happened to you, you're thinking and you kids. But I don't can do anything. I don't can do anything. I don't talk to my kids. Only witnesses gone, the police had barely any information to work with. From the get-go, they knew that Jeanette had been kidnapped, and that someone broke into the house, cut the phone courts, and attacked them before leaving with her.

But other than that, all they had was the crime scene. One of the first things that I did notice in the garage was a lot of blood. I knew at that point this was a very violent crime. You start thinking, are we going to bring her home alive? Heather Randall, the detective assigned to the case, initially thought that maybe some of the blood around the kitchen and the garage belonged to Jeanette. As her forensic team were grabbing samples and examining the scene, she also called in handlers and bloodhounds to get the search started as soon as possible.

But sadly, this didn't lead them very far, since neither Jeanette nor her attacker were injured during the initial attack. As this was happening, She also noticed a security camera in the driveway of one of the neighbors, by reviewing the footage it captured in the last hour. They were able to establish a rough timeline of the events. 30 minutes before Jeanette arrived, her attacker smashed her bedroom window and burglarized the house. He then went back to his car and waited for Jeanette to arrive. Afterward, he followed her and knocked at the door.

He then assaulted her in the bedroom for almost 30 minutes, at which point they headed to the garage. Meanwhile, Paul and Rosalia made it to the house. In the last bit of the recording, we can clearly hear Rosalia and Paul screaming for help. But Randall was mainly interested in one particular moment, here, when the attacker's car was right in front of the camera. In California, it is mandatory to have either a name, a license plate number, or a phone number tied to the perpetrator to issue a statewide Amber alert. It's heartbreaking. You have the evidence right there. It's so close, and yet you need just a little bit clearer video. video. So before she was able to fall back on Paul and Rosalia, she alerted the media hoping that even without an Amber alert, maybe the population would mobilize himself anyway and spread the

word about her disappearance. Together with her department, they got service helicopters in the air with loudspeakers, calling out her name and gave press conference after press conference, just to make sure Jeanette's name was on everyone's mind in San Jose. It puts a thousand more sets of eyes out on the street, and we knew it was extremely important to push the information out to the public, give them a picture of Jeanette, make sure that flyers were flooded throughout the city. Along the way, Jeanette kept mental notes of every turn they made, hoping she would be able to find her way home if she ever escaped.

After a short ride, the car suddenly stopped. The man drove into the garage of a large White House. He opened the door, picked her up, and carried her inside. There, he went up the stairs to the second floor and opened a locked door. Behind it was a very small room with a TV, a little window, a bed, and a bathroom. He threw her on the ground and approached her with a menacing look. After each assault, he would clinch her wrist to the showerhead, using a pair of handcuffs, run the water, and leave her there for a while.

Like, I started to break down and cry, and that was my only safe place was the shower, because every time he left me in the shower was when he didn't touch me. He wouldn't hurt me or he wouldn't rape me. The next morning, the aftermath of the kidnapping took its toll. While the rest of the Tamayo family gathered around Rosalia in San Jose, the police asked some of the family members to take part in the public address. In the morning, he was watching the news again. My cousin was talking to me through the news.

She was saying, Jeanette, if you can hear us, just know that. Be strong, girl. We're looking for you. She was like, just don't give up. I give me hope. That gave me the strength. Either I'm going to fight to get out of here or die trying. During her second day of captivity, Jeanette started to plan out what would be her best course of action against her abductor.

Because my life was at risk. I said to myself, I have to have a conversation with him, so he gains my trust. So she tried to ask him the most casual question she could think of. I remember asking him, where are you from? Her attacker turned around, with a dubious look on his face. He stood up, looked at her straight, straight in the eyes, and for the first time since he kidnapped her, smiled. An intense feeling of disgust filled her chest. At that moment, she wished she could have spit at his face, stab him in the back with his screwdriver, or any other acts of retaliation one could think of.

But instead, she listened to her instinct. She smiled back, trying to look as innocent as possible. She then asked him if she could get a glass of water. He handcuffed her, and for the first time, left her alone in the room while he went down the stairs to go and get it. Now by herself, she started to nervously tinker with the handcuffs since she had noticed that the lock didn't require any key. It was mechanical. I remember feeling with my fingers a little button and like a latch.

I realized that if I moved the latch one way and pressed that button, the handcuffs would release. Now freed, she knew she only had a minute to think of something useful, something that could either save her, or maybe help the police find the culprit if she ended up getting murdered. My brother and I would always watch CSI Law & Order, and the detectives on the shows would always look for clues. Swiftly, she grabbed the watch the man left on the nightstand. Then, she rushed to the other side of the room, where the man had placed a few toys for her to play with. She grabbed a little clay turtle out of them, and finally, she ran by the bathroom and grabbed her underwear. She remembered that the CSI cast often used the victim's underwear in sexual assault cases,

and she wanted him to be punished for what he did to her. But soon enough, her investigation was cut short as she began to hear the heavy footsteps of her kidnapper walking up the stairs. I jumped back on the bed, put the handcuffs on, and once he walked through the door, he just looked at me. And in my mind, I was hoping, please don't touch me because I had things on me that I was afraid that he might find.

On the third day, Jeanette's family was devastated by the lack of progress the case had made. Despite the incredible amount of effort pulled by Randall, the police still had nothing on hand that could lead to her location. When the police tried to tell Rosalia that past the 48 hours mark, most kidnapped children are never found. She refused to listen. And few very, very, very sad because you're scared.

My daughter, she's a little kid. She had only 10 years. I asked the police what happened with my daughter. When my daughter can by and say, maybe never. And screamy and scream at last. My dad, I don't see for three days. I don't feel comfortable because I don't protect her. I don't protect her.

I don't feel good. It is at this point that Jeanette became completely numbed to her kidnappers' assault. Her only impulse was to stay strong and stick to her strategy. She needed to continue to manipulate him. This was her only chance at survival. My befriending was working. He asked me, are you hungry? And I looked at him and I said, yeah.

He gave me his cell phone. He had a cell phone with him, and he made me call for pizza. He gave me the phone number of the cell phone that he had, and I gave it to the man. The man on the other side of the phone said, can I get your address? He told me the address. And just like she did with the movement of the car two days ago, she memorized all of it. If she ever got away, she wanted to be sure she would be able to take him down afterward. Eventually, someone rang the doorbell and her kidnapper left the room for a minute.

When he came back, he had a smile on his face. He put the pizza on the floor, and on top of the box, there was a missing person flyer with her face on it. He then told her that he would get rid of her tonight, before leaving the room. Once he closed the door behind him, she threw away the pizza and started to grab all the evidence she could. She then stuffed all of it inside the pizza box and hid it under the bed. When he came back, he grabbed a pillow and started smothering her with it.

Asking for air, she tried to push her face against the side, but the man was too strong. As the lack of oxygen started to take its toll, she felt an immense rush of adrenaline running through her body, and in one final push, successfully slid her face to the side, enough so that she was able to take one last breath. As soon as five seconds later after I got some air, he pulled the pillow off and he asked do you want to take a shower? When she came out of the shower, she quickly dressed up and made sure the pieces of evidence she gathered earlier were still in her pockets.

He then heard someone knocking loudly at the door downstairs. She wanted to scream, but her kidnapper immediately jumped on her and put his hands over her mouth. Afraid that he would try to kill her again, she calmed down and waited for the person at the door to leave. We were sitting in the room for a while, and afterwards when he heard that it was all quiet, that's when he took me downstairs into the garage. It was all dark.

He then forced her into his car, put her back in handcuffs, and started driving. The ride was long, and Jeanette couldn't stop crying and screaming. Straightway through it, she took a second to calm herself down in an attempt to make some sense of what had happened to her so far. I remember just crying to myself and just saying, I did the best I could. I was just preparing myself for my own death. But even then, she hadn't fully given up yet. Along the way, she once again did her best to remember every turn they took, but they rode for over 30 minutes, making it far more difficult than the first time. After a while, the car approached the neon-lit parking lot of a liquor store, not far from the highway.

The car has stopped, and as soon as he stopped the car, he grabbed me by my hair. When I looked around, I was like, where are we? And he was like, I'm letting you go. And when he grabbed me by the back of my head, by my hair, he pulled me towards him. He was like, if you ever tell anybody what I did or who I am or anything about me, I will come back for you, and I will kill your family, and I will kill you too. As her kidnapper left, she ran toward the liquor store. She couldn't believe she succeeded.

She somehow gained his trust. These thoughts and emotions flooded her mind, and before she knew it, she was face to face with the cashier. I was just all kinds of emotions and won, and I remember the gentleman that was behind the counter looking at me and asking me, are you okay? And then he said, you're the little girl from TV. The man behind the counter didn't hesitate. He handed her the phone. and when he realized she was distraught, picked it back up, and called 911 himself. She said, let me use the phone, actually. Okay, here's the phone.

And she started dying the phone. She was panicking, scared. She don't know how to tell the number. Once the San Jose police got word that Jeanette had been located in East Palo Alto, they immediately reached her. Detective Randall was overjoyed to finally see the little girl with her own eyes. But in the back of her mind, she knew they needed to act quickly if they ever wanted to get their hands on the culprit.

I walked up to her and I said, hello, Jeanette, my name's Heather, and I'm here to help you. And before I really said anything else, she let me know that she had some evidence in her pocket. She proceeded to pull the toys, her underwear, the kidnappers' watch, and other items out of her pockets. Shocked to see how clever the little girl was, Randall asked her if she had anything else that could help them catch him. Jeanette asked for a sheet of paper and drew the house, bits of the address, his exact phone number, and every other piece of information she could remember from her time with the kidnapper. Noticing how knowledgeable she was, Randall asked her a decisive question. I asked her, do you think you can find his house? She said, I think I can.

And she said that she could direct us by saying right or left, right or left. While the police were heading back to San Jose to look for the man's house, another officer started to call every pizza place in the area to see if they could match the phone number to a complete address. But before they knew it, they were all already closing in on the place as Jeanette shuddered with excitement in the back of the patrol car. I felt brave. I think that's why I stood up in the back of the car and started yelling and saying, that's it. A few minutes later, Randall received a confirmation from the pizza place that this was, in fact, the right address.

So she ordered a tactical team and a K-9 squad to raid the home. Our SWAT team then put a plan in place to go and take him into custody. They had the layout of the home from Jeanette. and they went in and were able to determine that he was hiding up in the attic. The suspect, David Montiel Cruz, attempted to evade arrest and threatened the officers inside the house. So they unleashed the dogs at him. He suffered multiple injuries on his arms and was escorted outside of the house. Inside, Heather also found the evidence-filled pizza box under the bed.

Police say they know little about the background of the suspect. He was arrested at this house early yesterday morning. The district attorney's office filed nine felony charges against Alvarez, including sexual assault, burglary, forcible lewd acts, rape, battery, and a special circumstance. After the arrest, Rosalia was called, but emergency services needed to get Jeanette into the ER as soon as possible. After all, she'd been stabbed and the wounds had yet to be treated. So Rosalia and Paul followed them and finally got reunited with her once she was stabilized. I remember them taking to the hospital running tests on me. I remember opening the door and seeing my mom.

And her face was so bad. Like, she didn't even look like my mom's. I think she touched my mom's face. She said, you're hurt. You know, she was so brave. She didn't care about herself. She was worried about us. You're everything in me, you empower.

Yeah. Very happy because I remember my dad. For the symbol, I'm just. It's when she was born second time for me. The following years have not passed easily for Jeanette. For a time, she dealt with her personal pain on her own. She would never leave the house, stuck in the clutches of a paralyzing fear of men and the outside world. But when she was 15 years old, after six years of therapy, something clicked.

She finally decided to face her fear and do something about it. Twelve years later, TV producers reunited her with Heather Randall, the detective who, with a little help from one clever nine-year-old, put an end to the rampage of David Montiel Cruz and put him behind bars for life. Hi. It's so good to see you. I never really got the chance to come back

and tell you guys, thank you for everything that you did. Like, I really appreciate it. You were strong, you're smart. What happened was you were amazing. You were brave, and that's why you're here today. Even if her trauma hindered her childhood, she didn't let it take over her life as an adult. Today, she decided to follow in Heather's footsteps and study law enforcement. Her goal is to one day be a detective and help her community in the same way Heather helped her.

And on top of that, she also wants to become a voice for the missing and every victim of violence. Everybody has a story and no matter what life throws at us, no matter what obstacles, we're all fighters. and we all have the ability to keep going. I turned my fear into courage. I got my family back. Elizabeth, she's, I don't know how to say it. She's pretty much a wild person. This man is accused of holding a 14-year-old girl captive.

In this interview filmed just hours before his trial, you're about to see him try to convince the host that the girl is an accomplice. I mean, it was like she was on TV every time. It was exciting. It was like a vacation for her. I mean, we were having a good time. I mean, no more school for her, you know, just hanging out.

The first question he asked her was whether or not she was a virgin. There are certain images, Your Honor. She told me she will never forget. She could have went home any time she wanted to. He took this chain, put it around her neck, wrapped it around her neck. Are you saying that she was a willing participant the whole time? Yeah. 14-year-old Elizabeth Shove, kidnapped, assaulted, trapped for 10 days.

But she escaped, outsmarting the man who took her. When she got out, she made sure Vincent Filial would never terrorize anyone else ever again. We didn't save her. She saved herself. In the small town of Lugov, South Carolina, 14-year-old Elizabeth Shove lives with her family. She's excited about starting high school, and a boy she began dating. It's September 6, 2006, 4.30 p.m. Madeline Shof is at work, worried because her daughter Elizabeth didn't call her after school. Donnie answered the phone, and I was like, where's your sister at? And he said, she's not home yet. And I was like, well, she should have been home by now.

Madeline leaves work right away and rushes home. She calls her daughter's friends to see if they know anything. Her husband, Dawn, gets home too, and they search around the house for clues as to where Elizabeth might have gone. All her favorite clothes were there. All her favorite clothes were there, her music, everything. Nothing missing out of the house. Nothing was missing. Night is falling. Madeline Cole's friends and family to come help search for Elizabeth, knocking on every door, fanning out across the neighborhood. But still, no trace of Elizabeth is found. I knew it's something had happened to. So at that point, I called my little one. At 7.30, the police show up at the house. They begin their investigation. You know, anytime a young person is missing, a lot of times,

they just run away. You know, they just get mad about something. We both know. We both know. that she's not going to run away. That's uncharacteristic of her. She was not that type of child. The police don't take any chances. They interrogate kids who were on the bus home from school. Everyone recalls seeing her get off, even walking with her up the road.

She was really happy because her aunt was coming down. We walked about halfway up the road, and a friend of mine's brother comes with his car and picks us up. She didn't want to ride. At that point, nobody knows anything. She's like she just disappeared. September 7th, a full-scale search is launched. Tracking dogs, air support, ATVs.

Local TV stations pick up the story, broadcasting Elizabeth's picture. Elizabeth Schof walked off her school bus and vanished into thin air. She went to Lugoth Elgin High School Wednesday wearing the clothes you see here. I just want to be able. Does anybody see her? Volunteers start pouring in to help. with ground search and handing out flyers. Days pass, and no new leads have been found.

You just get that policeman's feeling, that gut feeling, that, you know, this, gosh, this really looks like it's going to turn out by it. September 13th, it's been seven days since Elizabeth disappeared. The search is dying out. Less and less people show up to help out. Fewer helicopters in the sky. A friend of the family is holding a vigil for Elizabeth, and Madeline is getting ready to go there.

As she checks her phone for any new messages, she sees a text message from an unknown number. The message will change the course of the entire investigation. Hey, Mom, it's Lizzie. I'm going to hold in the ground near Charm Hill. It's near that dirt road where those big trucks go. Get the police. They'll be careful. He has bombs hidden. This message gives hope to the mother, but she still doesn't know what happened to Elizabeth,

or what she had to go through to send that message. September 6th, the day of the abduction, Elizabeth is walking home from the bus stop with her friends. Bus ride at home was typical as any other day. I continued walking home by myself and got up into the driveway. I could see the house. I could hear my dogs barking at me. While she's walking down the driveway, she hears rustling leaves close by. A man walks up to her, wearing camouflage pants, a green shirt.

and a hand-drawn badge that looked like the Herkshaw County Sheriffs. He says he's a policeman, that they found marijuana on the property, that her little brother is already in custody, and that she needs to come with him. Almost immediately when you mentioned my brother, I was concerned if my brother was okay. So I agreed to approach him. I had a gut feeling that I had made a bad decision. He puts handcuffs on her wrists and a collar around her neck with a box hanging from it. He says it's a bomb and that it's a bomb, and that he's a gun, And if she tries anything, it will detonate.

Then he takes her far into the woods away from her house. He was asking me just like the oddest questions if I had a phone and if I was a virgin. When I would continue to ask him where the police were or where my brother was, he had said that I was a smart girl and I probably should have already figured it out. I'm just crying, you know, asking, you know, don't kill me, don't hurt me. I remember being terrified. Finally, they stop in the middle of the woods. Elizabeth fears the worst.

I thought that was where he was going to me and kill me. The man reaches down and pulls up a hatch door from the ground, hidden among the leaves. He told me to go down the ladder and get into the bunker. He had like a rifle and a belt that had guns and handcuffs and I saw a taser in it. So I knew he would be equipped to do anything.

do anything if I could stupid or whatever. He pretty much just rate me. Right away. Pretty much. I had looked off to the side to one of the shelves that were there. There was like a propane tank and dishes and stuff on it. Stared at it and cried. Elizabeth is shattered, alone on the bed.

Her attacker binds her, making sure she can't escape. September 7th, Elizabeth learned the man's name is Vincent Filia. He makes her watch TV while he feeds her. The local news channel shows Elizabeth's mother pleading for help. I just want my baby, do anybody see through? Please. This reminds her of the conversation she had with her mother that morning.

She regrets her last words to her. Because when I left that morning, I was mad. I was rude with her. And then now that you're missing, you wish you could say sorry. You love her and all that, but couldn't. Every day my story was on television. Watching my mom, my sister, my aunts begged for me. I just knew I couldn't give up.

September 9th, Elizabeth and her captor can hear helicopters flying overhead, and soon footsteps. This gives her hope, but Vincent panics. He threatens her that if she screams or tries anything, he will shoot her. I could actually see those shadows walking across the door above me. And I'm just sitting there while they're right above me. The footsteps disappear, and soon it dawns on her. The only way she'll ever get out alive is by saving herself. He would go to sleep, and I would just sit there and ponder as to what I could possibly do to get out of the situation.

As she's sleeping one night, she musters the courage to use Vincent's gun. She grabs the holster and puts it down. As she attempts to remove the Velcro, every noise she makes threatens to wake Vincent up. But she continues slowly until finally the gun is free. This is her chance. I placed it up to his head and pulled the trigger. And it got jammed. She puts the gun back and lays down in bed, crying.

The next morning, Elizabeth tries something different. She pretends that she's beginning to like him. He would start to call me nicknames like baby, and I would call him that back. He would tell me he loved me, I tell him I loved him. Vinson is beginning to trust her. He even agrees to unbind her. It's September 13th, one week since the abduction. Vince takes Elizabeth out for a walk, where he shows her a few booby traps he's made for intruders.

He also takes out his phone, which he uses to text his girlfriend. Elizabeth listens to his nonsense while he talks, but all she can think about is that phone. It's nighttime. Vincent falls asleep, and Elizabeth quietly gets out of bed. She opens Vincent's phone and begins writing a text to her mother. For each letter, she has to press multiple times. She hopes Vincent won't wake up before she can send the text. After pressing send, the message says it failed.

And I would go up to the door and I would try to get a signal right at the door. I pressed send. I was terrified that he might wake up and see me. If he did, I knew he would have killed me. And I would continually press send and it just failed. Elizabeth tries again and again, even the following night, but her messages never go through. It's September 15th. For the first time in days, they can hear helicopters in the air.

where, Vincent panics, wondering why the search has regained momentum. And so he turns on the news. They finally put out that my mom had got a text message for me. I felt my heart drop. He, like, asked me if it was me. I began crying, told him I loved him. I wouldn't do that to him. You could tell he was trying to gather his thoughts, figure out what he needed to do next

to save himself. And then, Vincent actually asks her what she thinks he should do. He was just asking me like if he should pack stuff up and go ahead and start leaving, or if he should stay and wait it off. And I just told him that he needed to pack his stuff and leave while he could because if so, the police were going to get him. And I didn't want him in jail. And I acted like I wanted him to be safe.

His last steps out the ladder and out of the door, I remember telling him I loved him and shut it. and shut it and tied it up right there behind him. Elizabeth is finally alone. She's not sure if it's really happening. She doesn't risk leaving right away because he might be waiting outside. Instead, she waits until morning. September 16th, Elizabeth wakes up

to find she's still alone. She doesn't waste another second and goes up the ladder. Once outside, the thought of stepping onto one of his bombs stops her from running off. I just looked around like, it was the first time I saw the outside in daytime, so it was just beautiful to see the trees and feel the fresh air again. But I couldn't hear anybody around me. So I decided to yell.

Somebody finally yelled my name back. I instantly just fell to the ground and started crying. The captain ended up. giving me a hug. I was in tears. I didn't know what to do. But he told me I was okay and You know, I was safe now. I didn't have to worry about anything One of our guys actually carried her up the hill to the command post where we had an ambulance standing by When she got just about almost there, she's like she said I'm all right and she gets down and then and she's walking and she's basically saying I'm walking out of here about 7 30. That's see the way

truck come up the road. I was like, oh my God. Gapulton was very excited. He was just so ecstatic. You can tell he was crying. It was the fan felt her and you know I was just like oh my god, so happy, you know, just like I mean I just could I quit crying. The best feeling ever to hug my parents again to just feel my mom holding me just to know that I was with her again and she didn't have to worry about me. In South Carolina, a 14-year-old girl is back home this evening after a horrific ordeal. Authorities say she was kidnapped by a man who sexually assaulted her

and locked her inside an underground bunker. Elizabeth is safe, but Vincent Filia is still on the run. A few hours later, police get a tip from a woman saying she encountered Vincent as he tried to steal her car. I mean, a long knife hanging off his belt. Pretty much all saw his face. I recognized him from the internet. I was kind of cursing him out for doing it.

doing this in front of my child, putting my child through this, he's already hurt one little girl. He knew he wasn't getting my keys and he said, okay, never mind. And he started running down a sidewalk. Police act quickly and locate him a few hours later. I think it took Vincent about a minute to deny everything and that this was all made up, that the truth would come out in the end. Vincent agreed to an interview with Dateline's Keith Morrison hours before his trial. It's all going to come out in court anyway. Elizabeth, she's, I don't know how to say it.

She's pretty much a wild person. Are you saying that she was a willing participant the whole time? Yeah. Elizabeth has barely time to recover from the traumatic 10 days she spent in the bunker with Vincent Filia that she already has to face him in court. But like she said... I wanted to go. It was weird to look at Vincent because I kind of felt happy just because I kind of felt happy just because

I knew that he was locked up and I'm sitting there in the courtroom where he's in jail. All she asked, Your Honor, is sentence him so that this can never happen to anyone else. I can think of no crimes, short of murder, more repulsive than these 17 different indictments and charges that have been brought against you. All sentences to run consecutive. Good luck to you, sir. Vincent Filial was sentenced to 421 years in prison without the possibility of parole. I remember Elizabeth saying, I beat him. I'm like, yes, you did. You did beat him.

I think of it because I don't want to forget it because that's something I accomplished that a lot of people might not have. It makes me feel good to know that I got to get through something like that. How do you go through hell like that for 10 days and just come out on the other side? other side as strong as she did. There's no playbook to tell her what she should have done down there. There may be one now because she made all right moves. I don't think you could ever really move past something like that happening to you. It's always going to be there, but as the years go on, things do get easier. Today, she's a loving mother, grateful for a new, beautiful life. Really just trying to live life to the fullest. Now that I have a child, I'm

of course wanting to give him his best life possible as well. Elizabeth understands that the healing journey will take time, but she also sees the extent of her own strength. Elizabeth Schof looked terror in the face and saved herself.