Dear Savanna

Summary

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48 Hours – "Dear Savanna"

Host: CBS News
Date: March 25, 2026

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Episode Overview

“Dear Savanna” investigates the gripping, stranger-than-fiction true story of Dorothy Lee Barnett, who kidnapped her infant daughter Savannah (renamed Samantha) after losing a bitter custody battle in Charleston, South Carolina. The episode follows Barnett’s two-decade life on the run overseas, the global manhunt by the FBI, the secrets she kept, and the emotional fallout—culminating in her arrest, extradition, and the ultimate reckoning for all involved. With firsthand accounts from Barnett (also known as Alex Geldenhuis), her daughter Samantha, friends, family, and law enforcement, the story explores themes of motherhood, justice, trauma, and identity.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Life and Personality of Lee Barnett

• Lee Barnett grew up adventurous and adaptable, shaped by a free-spirited, financially strapped upbringing (07:02–07:49).
  • Quote (07:02, Friend Susie Pogue): “When I first met Lee, she had a big black snake around her neck … I said, that looks like an interesting family. I want to be friends with her.”
• Her adventurous spirit prepared her for the "ultimate adventure": fleeing the law.

2. Relationship & Custody Battle with Harris Todd

• Lee met Harris Todd, a stockbroker & poet, in Charleston; their personalities clashed (08:26–09:12).
• Despite his clear aversion to having children, Lee believed she could change him (09:17–09:40).
  • Quote (09:17, Lee Barnett): “I thought I was a person that was going to help him … I just had this crazy dream…”
• When Lee became pregnant, Harris was emotionally distant and denied the baby (09:59–10:15).

Mental Health Allegations and Legal Battles

• Marriage counseling led to Barnett being diagnosed with “hyperthymic temperament,” a disputed diagnosis (15:23–16:11).
  • Lee claims Harris and her mother colluded with the psychiatrist to paint her as “unstable,” setting her up for custody loss (16:38–17:12).
  • Harris told 48 Hours that Lee was a “ticking time bomb” (17:20–17:38).
• The custody battle turned bitter, rife with mutual accusations and character attacks (19:44–19:58).

The Court’s Ruling

• In 1994, Judge Mallard awarded full custody to Harris, citing Lee’s supposed instability, and the perception that he could provide a better environment (22:07–23:08).

3. The Kidnapping and Life on the Run

• Feeling desperate and betrayed by the legal system, Lee secured fake documents and fled the US with Savannah (renamed Samantha), transforming her identity (25:09–25:38).
  • Quote (25:09, Lee Barnett): “I had started to make my plan to leave.”
• Lee and Samantha’s odyssey spanned continents: France, Malaysia, South Africa (where Lee married and had another child, Reese), Botswana, New Zealand, and ultimately Australia’s Sunshine Coast (28:30–34:20).

Leaving It All Behind

• Lee never contacted her relatives or friends to avoid detection, leaving deep scars for those left behind (28:11–28:24).
  • Quote (28:22, Lee Barnett): “Broke my heart. It killed me.”

For Harris Todd

• Harris, devastated, launched his own international search (31:52–32:31), appearing on national TV and hiring private investigators, while also pursuing lawsuits against Lee’s family and friends whom he believed helped her (33:15–33:52).

4. Life in Australia & The Truth Revealed

• In Australia, “Alex” (Lee’s alias) built a happy, tight-knit family, maintaining the secret of her past from her children (34:08–35:23).
  • Samantha reflects on how her mother would light up talking about America, but always carried a deep sadness (35:03–35:23).
• The secret unraveled after a tip-off to US authorities from a betrayed friend.
  • Quote (35:28, Lee Barnett): “There was a big pounding on my door … I opened the door and this man was standing there with guns and he said, ‘I’m here with a warrant for your arrest.’” (35:38)

Emotional Fallout

• The arrest came one week after the death of Joahn Geldenhuis (Samantha’s stepfather), compounding the trauma for the family (36:37–36:45).
  • Quote (36:45, Samantha): “I’m very lucky to be able to say the last thing I said was ‘I love you.’ Because people don’t get that.”
• Samantha, now an adult, learned not only of her mother’s true identity and the kidnapping, but also the accusations of mental illness and abuse. She flatly denied any abuse and laughed off suggestions of bipolar disorder (38:06–38:24).

5. Reckoning: Extradition, Trial, and Reunion

• Lee fought extradition for 10 months, supported by friends across continents (41:23).
• Back in Charleston, she was charged with international parental kidnapping and passport fraud, facing up to 23 years.
  • Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams (42:18): “It’s not complicated. You can’t take the law into your own hands and flee the country … because you don’t like the result from a divorce hearing.”
• Lee ultimately pled guilty, was sentenced to 21 months (43:08).
  • Quote (42:46, Lee Barnett): “She’s my daughter.”
  • Quote (43:38, Lee Barnett): “None [no remorse].”
• Samantha sought to engage Harris Todd, writing an eight-page letter—Harris’s only reply was a polite note about her exams (44:19–44:27).

Reunion and Moving Forward

• After her release, Lee’s friends and family welcomed her back (45:59–46:37).
  • Reese (her son, 46:37): “The first time I got to hug her after she got out of prison, she never let go of me. I think she cried.”
• Samantha remained fiercely loyal to her mother and open to a relationship with Harris, on her own terms (45:37).

6. Reflections and Legacy

• Both Samantha and Lee reflect on the pain, endurance, and bonds of family.
  • Quote (47:26, Samantha, reading a diary entry): “Dear Savannah, I just want to let you know how loved you are … having you is the most important thing in my entire life. You’ll always be my little girl. We’ve made it. Sweet dreams. Love, mummy.”
• In 2019, Lee released a memoir about her years as a fugitive (47:52).

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:42 – Samantha introduces her mother’s diary, her original name, and the story’s beginning.
• 07:02 – Childhood stories depicting Lee’s adventurous upbringing.
• 22:07 – Judge’s custody ruling taking Savannah from Lee.
• 25:09–26:32 – The plan to flee and the logistics of obtaining false identities.
• 28:11–28:40 – Lee/Samantha’s new life abroad and the pain of severed ties.
• 31:52–33:52 – Harris Todd’s search efforts and lawsuits against Lee’s support network.
• 34:08–35:23 – Samantha’s childhood in Australia and her mother’s concealed past.
• 35:28–36:08 – Lee’s arrest in Australia following a tip-off.
• 37:54–38:24 – Samantha learns about her true origins and rebuffs the abuse allegations.
• 42:18–43:08 – Prosecution, Lee’s guilty plea, and sentencing.
• 44:03–44:29 – Samantha’s effort to connect with Harris; lack of substantive response.
• 45:37–46:50 – Post-prison family reunion moments.
• 47:26 – Emotional diary excerpt from Lee to Savannah/Samantha.
• 47:52 – Publication of Lee Barnett’s memoir.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Lee Barnett (16:11): “I took three tablets by then [antipsychotic medicine],” showing her desperation and confusion during the custody fight.
• Samantha (38:13): “I had to laugh. And I said, whoa, you’re wrong [about the bipolar accusation].”
• Harris Todd (32:00): “Nothing else has worked. I’m going to go look for myself.”
• Lee Barnett (42:50): “No legal right be damned.”
• Samantha (45:37): “There is no way I’m letting go of my mom.”

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Tone & Atmosphere

• The episode is empathetic, personal, and emotional, with a narrative style that gives voice to both Lee and Samantha—balancing the gravity of crime and justice with the nuance and humanity behind the headlines.
• Interwoven are the raw voices of heartbreak, stubbornness, and ultimately, forgiveness and resilience.

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Summary

“Dear Savanna” intimately explores not just a headline-grabbing kidnapping case, but the cost of the decisions made by everyone involved—parents, friends, the legal system, and a child caught in the crossfire. The episode demonstrates how justice systems can fail, how trauma shapes lives, and how the strongest bonds of all—those between mother and child—can endure across decades and continents.

Transcript

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[Samantha (Daughter)]

Whee.

Here she goes. Samantha.

Put it on.

Good girl.

Show mommy how pretty Mommy.

A few months before my mom gave birth to me, she started writing a diary and it starts off on the first page saying to my dear Savannah, so someday I'll give this journal to you so that you can hopefully understand your mother. My name is Samantha Geldenheist. I was born Savannah, but I didn't know that. Savannah Lee Barnett I grew up on the Sunshine coast in Australia. It is the Most magnificent. I knew my mom as Alex my entire life.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Stop it. I love someone else.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

But in reality, she wasn't Alex at all. She was Lee. Come on. Leigh Barnett.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

In April of 1994, I got a phone call that my dearest friend Lee had disappeared. I thought, oh, no, don't let this be true. I never imagined that my good friend Lee would be the subject of an international manhunt.

[FBI Agent/Investigator]

Our investigations spanned the United States and the globe. We searched Belize, Central America and South Africa. Dorothy Lee was very equipped. Running from the law. She thought about this. She was planned. She was determined.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I feel the FBI and every other law enforcement agency underestimated me.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The FBI more than met their match when they tangled with Dorothy Lee Barnett.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

Welcome to Malaysia. This is our home.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Did you at all think, I'm gonna get caught. They're gonna get me every day. Every day.

[FBI Agent/Investigator]

I thought this was gonna be one of those unsolved mysteries that would never be solved.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Samantha.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

I wanted to Singapore in a couple

[FBI Agent/Investigator]

days until 2011, when we had the tip that she was living in Australia.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

I remember getting a call when I was up at school and my mom needed me to jump on a plane and come down because she was getting arrested.

[Advertiser]

Two decades later, authorities have arrested her in Australia.

[Narrator/Reporter]

When I heard that Alex wasn't. Alex.

I see Alex.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Where's Alex?

[Narrator/Reporter]

I was absolutely gobsmacked and amazed. I thought, wow, what a girl.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Happy New Year. I realised it was all a Merry Christmas that they'd found me.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

I love you more than life itself. Your special mummy.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

And I knew that I'd have to face the consequences. What I did 20 years before.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

She's written. I've always loved the name Savannah. It reminds me of great beauty. It also reminds me of my home. And someday it'll hopefully be yours too. The endless reeds, the shrimp, the blue herons.

[Narrator/Reporter]

That pretty picture is how Leigh Barnett remembered Charleston in the secret diary she kept for her daughter during their years on the run. A very different Charleston, South Carolina than what she returned home to.

Barnett was arrested in Australia.

Lee was charged with kidnapping her daughter after losing a bitter custody battle.

For 20 years, Lee Barnett had been hunted by the FBI, vilified in the press, cold, angry and violent and labeled

mentally ill. Now she tells her side

of the story to 48 hours. And it is a very different story

than you've heard before.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I need to tell the truth about what's happened. Something needs to be changed.

[Narrator/Reporter]

From the start, there was always something different about Leigh Barnett. The little barefoot girl with the Blue, blue eyes and a big smile, says her oldest friend, Susie Pogue.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

When I first met Lee, when she was 5 and I was 7, she had a big black snake around her neck. And so I took one look at her and I said, oh, that looks like an interesting family. I want to be friends with her.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee and her two brothers were raised by a free spirited single mother named Dottie. After their father died, they didn't have much money. Dottie lived on her husband's Social Security. But they had plenty of adventures, says Lee's brother Cliff.

[Family Member (Brother Cliff Barnett)]

We had to learn how to do things with no money and no resources and get by and do things on the fly.

[Narrator/Reporter]

A kind of Swiss Family Robinson traveling between South Carolina, Florida and the jungles of Belize.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

They were really living an Indiana Jones lifestyle. Before there was an Indiana Jones in Belize, they were in the jungle living with local families.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee inherited her mother's love of adventure. At one point, traveling deep into Africa with Susie.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

I just knew that all of the traveling that we had done and that she had done with her family prepared her for really what was the ultimate adventure of her life.

[Narrator/Reporter]

That adventure began in Charleston when Lee, by then a flight attendant, met Harris Todd, a stockbroker with a love of poetry and to many, the picture of a perfect southern gentleman.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

And was it love at first sight?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

No, not at all. It wasn't love at first sight. It was friendship.

[Narrator/Reporter]

All that changed five years later.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

He just professed to me that I'd made him feel different than anybody else has ever made him feel. And one thing led to another.

[Narrator/Reporter]

But Lee's dear friend, Patty Roth, did not think it was a good match.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

They wanted very different things out of life. She was very outgoing, and he kind of kept her to himself.

[Narrator/Reporter]

To Lee, that was part of the attraction, part of the challenge.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I thought I was a person that was going to help him have a more normal, fun, loving life because he was so serious.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

When Lee came to me and told me that they decided to get married, I did not agree with that choice. Lee wanted children. Harris was very clear to everyone that he never wanted children.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Why would you marry a man who didn't want to have kids?

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

I don't know.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I just thought that I was going to do something and he would change and we'd have this wonderful family. And I just had this crazy dream that I'd make everything right.

[Narrator/Reporter]

She could not have been more wrong.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

When she told him that she was pregnant is when all the problems started

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

between the two of them. He kept saying over and over throughout my whole pregnancy. There is no baby. Even when I was eight months pregnant, there is no baby. There is no baby.

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[Samantha (Daughter)]

I'll try and start from the beginning.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Before Leigh Barnett fled the country, she made a tape and sent it to friends and enemies alike.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

I can't tell you how painful this is.

[Narrator/Reporter]

In it, she condemns her husband, Harris

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Todd, a very, very evil, evil man,

[Narrator/Reporter]

for casting her is the very villain in a sinister drama she claims he fabricated out of vengeance, a characterization she stands by to this day.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

He wanted to hurt me so badly he didn't care who he took down, and that includes a little baby, Lee

[Narrator/Reporter]

says it all began seven months into the marriage.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I said to him, I said, I have a feeling I might be pregnant. And he said, it's okay, just have an abortion. I was heartbroken, heartbroken, but I still thought, ah, he'll come right? Anyway, two days later I found out I was pregnant. He was very cold and indifferent, and he remained that way.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Harris claimed the problem wasn't the pregnancy, it was Lee's uncontrollable temper. One argument two and a half months later got so heated she flipped over the coffee table. Lee woke up the next morning and Harris was gone.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I just felt so abandoned, and I couldn't figure out how somebody I'd loved and known for so long could be this cruel.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Harris Todd, who consistently has said he never asked Lee to get an abortion, says he left because he couldn't take her anger anymore, that he even feared for his safety. He repeatedly asked Lee to move out of his house, but she I thought

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

if I left his house, I would never, ever come back.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

She really wanted the marriage to work. She did everything within her power to

[Narrator/Reporter]

get Harris to come back, including going to marriage counseling. Lee's mother suggested a psychiatrist named Dr. Oliver Bjorkston. Lee says to her surprise, Harris agreed to go.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I made the appointment for both of us.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee says what happened in those appointments

would change her life.

She walked in hoping to save her marriage. Instead, she walked out with a diagnosis on the bipolar spectrum. Dr. Bjorkstin said Lee had something called

hyperthymic temperament, a condition characterized by dwelling, blaming, and temper outbursts. A condition he wanted to treat with medication.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Did you ever have any history of mental illness?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I never had any mental illness.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee admits she was emotional.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I cried quite a lot.

[Narrator/Reporter]

She was alone, having a difficult pregnancy, and just had a scare that her baby might have down syndrome.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I said, I think I've got a good reason to be upset. And he said, give you something to make you feel better.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Dr. Bjorkstone prescribed Navae. Lee talked to a doctor friend who said it's an antipsychotic drug and advised her not to take it.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I took three tablets by then.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Then Lee discovered something else, something that terrified her. Harris Todd and her own mother had contacted Dr. Bjorkston before she had ever even heard his name.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

So you're saying that Harris went to Bjorkson first, telling Bjorkson what he said was going on?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

And you were under the impression that Harris had never met him before?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Never met him. We both walked in and they both introduced themselves and said, it's nice to meet you.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Harris has said he was only trying to get help for his wife. But Lee believes Harris was setting her up, spinning an elaborate tale of an unstable wife with a violent temper, even convincing her mother of it.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

For what purpose?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

To save his face for walking out on his pregnant wife.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

I mean, the physical violence is one thing. The mental instability is another.

[Narrator/Reporter]

48 Hours has been covering this story since 1999. Harris Todd denied our recent requests for an interview, but back then, he told us Lee was a ticking time bomb.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

You never know whether you're going to come through the door and have a flower pot.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Launched a danger, not only to him, but to herself.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

Came down the hallway, and there she is, sitting there, banging her head against the wall.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Did you bash your head against the wall one night to the point that the lights were flickering on and off?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I've never, ever bashed my head against the wall.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Harris said he was so afraid of you that he feared for his life.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Did you threaten him?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Never once slap him? I slapped him.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Once hit him?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Never.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee admits she did get angry, angry enough to throw planters off the porch and push over that coffee table. But she says Harris was the threatening one. Making menacing phone calls throughout the entire pregnancy.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

He would say to me all the time, you're sick. Look in the mirror. See your face, it's contorted. You're insane. You're insane.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

And he just kept saying, you're sick. You're crazy, over and over again.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Patty says she was Listening in. When Lee got one of those calls, he totally changed.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

And his Southern charm turned into just sheer hatred towards Lee.

[Narrator/Reporter]

When she was seven months pregnant, Lee filed for divorce. Harris countersued, claiming that Lee was so abusive he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

I've never seen her violent. She's not a moody person.

We never had an argument and we were together constantly.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Patty was by her side when she gave birth to Savannah.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

Savannah was born a beautiful, beautiful baby girl, just healthy as can be.

Leigh was thrilled beyond words.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

She was amazing.

[Narrator/Reporter]

But that happiness wouldn't last for long. When Savannah was two and a half

months old, her parents divorce would take another turn. Harris sued for custody. Now the bitter battle would get even uglier with plenty of mudslinging from both sides.

Lee says Harris wanted to take her baby to punish her. Harris said he loved Savannah with all his heart. He said she was promiscuous. She said he was gay. She stalked him.

He lied.

The list went on and on. But in the end it came down to one not so simple question. Was it in Savannah's best interest to be with her mother or her father? Dr. Oliver Bjorkston was called as a witness for Harris.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Todd, how damaging was his testimony to your case?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Damaging is probably not the right word. He was life destroying.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Dr. Bjorkston, who also declined to be interviewed, testified that the condition he diagnosed Lee with is associated with violence. That he had seen people with Lee's degree of dwelling do things which are quite serious.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

I absolutely never saw any signs of mental illness.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee's friends took the stand painting a very different picture.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

I saw distress from having somebody try and fight you and take your baby away.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

And so how hard is it to prove that you are not crazy?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

It's impossible. The more you claim you're not mentally ill, the crazier you sound because people look at you you as a mental ill person.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Then Enlay says there was plenty of evidence that she was not crazy. Two respected psychiatrists testified that there was nothing wrong with her and that she certainly did not need antipsychotic drugs.

But then another expert was brought in as a so called tiebreaker to see if Lee really did have hyperthymic temperament.

After evaluating Lee, he said she did have the condition. The experts said Harris was the more predictable parent, recommending that he should have custody. The child advocate for Savannah also agreed. Still, Lee and her friends were hopeful.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

We thought there is no way that a judge is going to look at this and take this loving, healthy, happy, vibrant baby away from her. Mother.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Now, the decision was up to Judge Robert Mallard, and it was clear who he believed. He cited Harris as willing to share custody when Lee was not. He said that while Lee was a flight attendant, Harris was a successful stockbroker, so he believed Harris would be better able to provide a stable environment. The judge also noted what he called Lee's inability to control her impulses in court.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I think I got hyper. I think I got stressed. I think I got scared. I was very scared because I knew something was really, really going wrong. This is the court order that Lee

[Narrator/Reporter]

says what was most damaging and untrue was the judge's finding that she had been violent toward Harris and his conclusion that her condition was might lead to homicide or suicide.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

It left me so scared and so cold because when you label somebody as that, that means I'm such a danger to my child.

[Narrator/Reporter]

On February 18, 1994, we didn't think it could happen. Judge Mallard awarded full custody of nine and a half month old Savannah to her father, Harris Todd.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

I promise and swear on my life that I will continue to take care of my daughter.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

The little girl was her life and everything I witnessed. She was a fabulous mother. She really, really was.

It was hard to believe that it could even happen.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee's friends were still reeling from the judge's decision.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

The decision, in my view, was totally unjust.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Gordon King.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

It was beyond my comprehension to know that they were going to remove the child from her.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Harris came to get Savannah the very same day he was awarded custody.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

When they came and took her is when I lost it. And I just went to the bathroom and sat in the bathtub and cried.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee says what worried her the most was something Harrison said in court. That he would take his daughter to a psychiatrist as young as 3 years old if he saw any signs of her mother's illness.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

It sounds like what you're saying, Lee, is you were afraid Harris Todd was going to do to this baby girl what he had done to you.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Yeah, I knew as a grown woman if I couldn't prove that I wasn't mentally ill, how can a 2 or 3 year old?

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee says her only option was an appeal. But the judge didn't file the necessary paperwork in the usual 30 days. By day 45, she was desperate.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

At this point, had you lost all faith in the judicial system, the court system and the family court system?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

All faith, all faith. I knew nobody was there to help me. I had started to make my plan to leave.

[Narrator/Reporter]

She saw a 60 Minutes piece on a street in Los Angeles, where you can easily get fake documents.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Social Security, pink card.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And off she went.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

The guy goes, what do you want? And I said, I need two birth certificates. Here are two names. And he said, Be back here at 1:00 o' clock tomorrow.

[Narrator/Reporter]

By the next afternoon, Leigh Barnett had been reborn as Alexandria Maria Canton. And Savannah was now her son, Nick. A boy.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Boy. She had no hair yet. So I thought, eh, it's his boy.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Next stop, Houston, Texas. She put on a black wig, walked into the DMV and got a Texas driver's license. After that, the passports were easy.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

It was something that was just propelling me forward, knowing that I had to get her safe.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

I can't tell you how painful this is. Savannah and I belong together. And nobody besides God has the right to destroy that.

[Narrator/Reporter]

64 days after losing custody, and during one of her regularly scheduled visitations, Lee says she takes her last $10,000 and the baby. The two then get into a rental car here in Charleston with her oldest brother. They stop at a gas station.

She cuts her hair, dyes it brown,

and drives to the Atlanta airport.

And then she disappears.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

What time on Sunday were you supposed to return, Savannah?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

It was 6 o' clock at night.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

And where were you at 6 o' clock that night?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Oh, I would probably be in France by then, in Paris.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

And did that make you nervous or did you get a little smile?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Oh, I don't think I ever smiled. I never wanted to take it for granted. Every second I had a freedom was never taken for granted.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

But did you feel free?

[Narrator/Reporter]

I mean, you were on the run.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Were you free?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I was free from them. She was free from them.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Soon after, Lee's younger brother, Cliff Barnett, got a call from Harris.

[Family Member (Brother Cliff Barnett)]

He goes, where's your sister? I said, I have no idea. And he goes, your sister's not a fit mother. She can't take care of a child by herself. She doesn't have the sense for it. And I finally, eventually said, well, apparently she has the sense to disappear from you.

[Narrator/Reporter]

I'm John Walsh.

[Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams]

One year old.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Savannah Lee Barnett is missing from Isle of Palm, South Carolina. The FBI launched a massive manhunt.

[FBI Agent/Investigator]

I believe Lee Barnett could possibly harm her child.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Initially, Agent Chris Quick thought they'd find her in some motel within a week.

[FBI Agent/Investigator]

Most fugitives mess up, make mistakes because they can't leave the life that they came from. This didn't occur in this case. She totally cut all ties from everyone.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

I had no idea where she went, who she was with, what she was doing.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee and Savannah ceased to exist from Then on it was Alex and the baby she renamed Samantha.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

How do you leave your family, your friends, your country? Never pick up the phone, never be in touch, just walk away from.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Broke my heart. It killed me.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

We thought about her all the time. She was never, never far from our thoughts.

We always tried to keep pictures of Savannah around the house, and this was one of our favorites.

[Family Member (Brother Cliff Barnett)]

In my mind, I knew she was fine. I'm talking about somebody that can adapt and survive.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Alex's first stop, Malaysia. She wrote to Sam in her diary that the hardest part was the loneliness.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I wrote, I hope one day that I meet a man that loves you like I love you. And that's all I ever asked.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Seven months later, she did in South Africa, her next stop on the run. There she met an engineering geologist named Joanne Geldenhuis. She told him everything, and they married a few months later.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I got married to him because he was madly in love with my daughter.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Soon, Samantha had a baby brother named Reese, and the family moved to Botswana.

[Child (Reese)]

We had giraffes walking outside our house and on the streets and buffalo and all that sort of stuff around everywhere. It was just really. It was fun all the time.

[Narrator/Reporter]

While Alex Geldenhuis was growing her family in Africa, back in Charleston, Harris Todd was grieving the daughter taken from him by Leigh Barnett.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

It was done to hurt me. It was not done to save Savannah. It was done to hurt me.

[Narrator/Reporter]

He says he had wanted a family and he wanted his daughter.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

I can't believe it. How could something like this possibly happen? How could it possibly happen? How could she be here and then be gone?

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[Narrator/Reporter]

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[Family Member (Brother Cliff Barnett)]

get assassinated right in front of me.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Every week is a new episode and a new story. It was so chaotic. It's almost like a university under siege.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

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[Harris Todd (Father)]

What bothers me the most is, is the not knowing and the fact that this is like constantly grieving for someone who's died.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Five years after Leigh Barnett vanished with his daughter, Harris Todd decided to take matters into his own hands.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

Nothing else has worked. I'm going to go look for myself.

[Narrator/Reporter]

48 hours followed him to Costa Rica.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

I don't have any specifics knowledge of her whereabouts, but there's a high probability that she could be here. I've been to the stores. Blinds stand out in Costa Rica. Been to the farmers markets. Want to go up and look at a school? I think it's worthwhile going up there to have a look. If I have to spend the rest of my life doing this, so be it.

[Narrator/Reporter]

That would put the child in a

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

great deal of danger.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Paris also went on national TV shows determined to keep his daughter in the news, as well as her mother, who according to him was a very ill.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

A bipolar affective disorder, also known as manic depressive illness.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Very violent.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

She would hit me in the side of the head with her fist.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And in this recreation, a very dangerous woman.

[Family Member (Brother Cliff Barnett)]

I've got the pleadings ready for filing

[Harris Todd (Father)]

in your tort action.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Harris and his lawyer, Graham Sturgis also went after Lee's family and friends.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

We'll be ready to get the papers served starting tomorrow.

[Narrator/Reporter]

On the various defendants filing suit against those Harris believed had helped her.

How are you doing today?

Including Lee's mother, her brother Cliff, and Susie Pogue. Bye bye.

[Family Member (Brother Cliff Barnett)]

Thank you.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

He accused me of conspiracy to kidnap Samantha. Of course, none of that was ever proven, but it was financially devastating for me.

[Narrator/Reporter]

But she says the worst part was the private investigators who tracked her every move.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

They threatened me by saying that they were going to destroy my life, my family. They were going to take me down.

[Narrator/Reporter]

All the while, Lee and Samantha stayed under the radar, traveling from the US To Germany, France, Malaysia, South Africa, Botswana and New Zealand.

After 13 years on the run and four continents, Lee finally landed Here along the shores of Australia's Sunshine Coast, a safe harbor about as far away from

Charleston as she could get, the Sunshine

[Samantha (Daughter)]

coast is known for its beaches.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Be ready.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

And it's a very wonderful and family like environment to grow up in.

[Narrator/Reporter]

But Sam's own family was having a tough time. The man she adored and believed was her father had fallen in love with another woman, ending her parents marriage.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

How did it impact your mother?

[Samantha (Daughter)]

She stayed strong, she stayed resilient and she was a great single mother. The doors were always open. Everyone was always welcome.

[Narrator/Reporter]

There was one door that remained closed. The door to her mother's past.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

When she talk about America, she loved it. But at the end of the day, you can see in her eyes and if you know and you love someone well enough, you can see when they're hurting. And it's, it's not for me to sit there and go, well, get sadder and tell me more and tell me why. And I deserve to know because I didn't, you know, I trusted that. When she wanted to tell me, she let me know.

[Narrator/Reporter]

That day finally came.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

Samantha, how old are you?

[Narrator/Reporter]

I'm 24488. 19 years after they boarded that plane into the unknown.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I was on the telephone at 7:30 in the morning. There was a big pounding on my door and I was still in my pajamas. And I opened the door and this man was standing there with guns and he said, I'm here with a warrant for your arrest.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Alex Gildenhuis had finally made a mistake. She confided in the wrong friend. That friend contacted Harris Todd with the one missing piece of the puzzle, says Assistant U.S. attorney Nathan Williams, her name.

[Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams]

All we really needed was a way to identify Ms. Barnett under her alias. And once we had that information, it was very easy for us to then find the paper trail.

[Narrator/Reporter]

But it took two years to work a deal between the two countries. A deal that eventually led federal agents to this little house in Mooloolaba.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

One of the agents said to me, you must be really relieved. But I wasn't relieved. I knew that my life would change, my children's lives would change.

[Narrator/Reporter]

It could not have been a worse time. One week earlier, their dad had died from bone cancer.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

I'm very lucky to be able to say the last thing I said was, I love you. Because people don't get that

[Narrator/Reporter]

Now. She and Reese faced losing their mother to prison.

[Child (Reese)]

My mum was sitting on the couch with two FBI agents next to her. I said, mum, what's going on? And she took me to another room and Just told me everything that happened and told me, I gotta trust her. And of course, I did.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Next, she called Sam away at university, studying to be a nurse.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

I said, sam, you know how we never had communication with the family and friends in the U.S. we said, yeah. I said, well, I was married before and I'm going to jail now because I've been accused of kidnapping. I said, I had to keep you safe all those years ago.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

I had to call her back and say, wait, does that mean that dad wasn't my dad? And then she started crying, and I started crying.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Alex Geldenhuis, AKA Leigh Barnett, was taken to a jail in Brisbane. The next day, FBI agents sat Samantha down and began to tell her the story of the beginning of her life.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

And that's when I learned where I was born. I learned Savannah. I didn't, you know, didn't know anything.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Before that, she learned about Harris Todd and her mother's bitter backstory.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

Every characteristic they said that my mother had was wrong and incorrect. Every single thing. I mean, they told.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Like what. What kind of things?

[Samantha (Daughter)]

Like she had bipolar. I mean. I mean, that was the most incredibly confronting thing. And I felt very rude because I just laughed in their faces.

[Narrator/Reporter]

That was the first time you ever heard that accusation.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

Yeah, I just. I had to laugh. And I said, whoa, you're wrong.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Perhaps most disturbing, agents told her they had feared her mother would hurt her.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Did your mother ever hurt you?

[Narrator/Advertiser]

No.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Did she ever hit you?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

No.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Was she abusive to you?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

No.

[Narrator/Reporter]

A friend in Mooloolaba, Bruce Michel, was equally perplexed by the version of his friend he read about in the court order.

And I thought, wow, this is not the person we knew.

Bruce and Sam set out to read every document, every transcript relating to the case.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

It's like a novel that is so sickening that you can't put down, it's

[Narrator/Reporter]

been a terrible, terrible injustice and somebody should go to jail.

And he says it shouldn't be Lee.

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[Narrator/Reporter]

The time had come for Lee to tell Samantha about the diary she'd kept hidden all these years. Sam opened the Book of Secrets and began to read.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

I'm having difficulty writing because I'm very scared. I can only wait, though, and pray it's not our time to be found.

[Narrator/Reporter]

With each page, a new understanding of her mother.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

If you think about every single little thing that she has gone through, I've lived this wonderful life and she did everything she could and more to just keep me safe.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Now it was Sam's turn to protect her mother.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

She is the most important thing, and she was, and she has been, and she still is.

[Narrator/Reporter]

You could just run through Sam and

Bruce collected affidavits from supporters across four continents. Friend Kerry Gazzard.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Everybody's heart went out to her. Everybody was behind her 100%. There was not a doubt at all anywhere.

[Narrator/Reporter]

For 10 months, Alex and her supporters desperately fought extradition. But in fall of 2014, she was forced to leave her Australian paradise behind and return to the place where it all began, here in Charleston. But this time, she would be at the federal courthouse, charged with international parental kidnapping and two counts of passport fraud, crimes that could put Lee behind bars for 23 years.

Lee was denied bail while awaiting trial. Prosecutor Nathan Williams.

[Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams]

It's not complicated. You can't take the law into your own hands and flee the country with a child because you don't like the result from a divorce hearing.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee acknowledges she broke the law by getting those fake passports, but says she is not guilty of kidnapping.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

You do not think that you broke the law by taking her out of the country.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

The law was broken when a corrupt court system took that baby from me and took her mother away from her.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

In your mind, you did not kidnap her.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

She's my daughter.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

You did not have the legal right to take her out of the country.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

No legal right be damned.

[Narrator/Reporter]

But after five months in jail, Lee

realized she didn't have the money or the firepower to fight the US government. She pled guilty to all three charges, including kidnapping.

Lee was sentenced to 21 months in prison with credit for time served for the man who had searched for her. It was a disappointing sentence.

[FBI Agent/Investigator]

What about Harris side? The father's side? She took the law in her own hands and denied the father of 20 years of ever seeing his daughter.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Have you ever for one moment thought, maybe I should have let her know? Harris Todd.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

No.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

No remorse about cheating him out of 20 years with his daughter?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

None.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Lee says time has proven she was not who Harris said she was.

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

There's nothing wrong with me. I've never done anything violent. I've raised two amazingly healthy, intelligent children who are happy. So who's telling the truth and who's lying?

[Narrator/Reporter]

Sam had some questions of her own. She wrote an eight page letter to Harris.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

Just telling him that I can have the most amazing relationship with him as long as I am 100% sure. There's no revenge, there's no spite, there's no nothing.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Sam says all she wanted was the truth. Why Harris said her mother was violent.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

There was no response to that.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Instead, Harris wrote that he was pleased to hear she had done well on her exams.

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Has there ever been any response?

[Narrator/Reporter]

A year would pass. Sam was finally ready to meet Harris. A meeting Harris had imagined when we spoke with him back in 1999.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

I'd tell her who I am and hug her.

[Narrator/Reporter]

It didn't quite turn out like that. They met at Harris home.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

He held out his hand to shake my hand and I thought, well, I'm not quite comfortable with that. I'd rather give a hug. And it was just a surreal experience almost.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Sam says Harris took her on a two and a half hour tour of his house, showing off his prized possessions. Lee's friend, retired judge Myron Johnson, accompanied Sam.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

I really was very shocked that the conversation was not about he and Samantha and the years that they have missed and how they could go from here.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

I think we're both a little awkward.

[Narrator/Reporter]

They have not seen each other since. But Sam says she remains open to a relationship as long as Harris understands one thing.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

There is no way I'm letting go of my mom. I've been very lenient with him and all the stuff that he said. I want to know if he'll be the same with me when this comes out.

[Narrator/Reporter]

In May 2015, Leigh Barnett was released from jail on two years probation. Back into the lives of family and friends she had left all those years ago.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

And then this is where we did that. It's an amazing experience to have your best friend disappear for 20 years and come back.

She is just overwhelmed with friendship.

[Family Member (Brother Cliff Barnett)]

All of our childhood memories are all coming back. You want to take them over to that table?

[Interviewer/Journalist]

Start lying.

[Family Member (Brother Cliff Barnett)]

She's not going to go anywhere. As far as I'm concerned at this

[Narrator/Reporter]

point, Lee wasn't allowed to leave the United States. So with the help of 48 hours, a lot of heat here, her kids came to her. Reese was a total surprise.

[Child (Reese)]

The first time I got to hug her after she got out of prison, she never let go of me. I think she cried.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And Sam had seen her mother in nine months.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

My mother and I have this incredible thing to know that we love each other. And a continent, you know, or an ocean isn't going to separate us.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Over two decades ago, Leigh Barnett married Harris Todd, hoping to have a happy life together. Instead, it became a marriage to measured in loss. A father lost 20 years with his daughter. A mother lost her home, her friends and her family. A story of hurt, anger, and despair, but also a story of love.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

Dear Savannah, I just want to let you know how loved you are. You and I will be fine. More than fine, really. We'll be great and we'll get through this. Please always know that having you is the most important thing in my entire life. You'll always be my little girl. We've made it. Sweet dreams. Love, mummy.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

In 2019, Leigh Barnett published a memoir

[Narrator/Reporter]

about her 20 years as an international fugitive.

[Tony Dicopol (CBS Evening News Host)]

I want to know what's going on in the world. I'm Tony. You can't do that if you're just sitting in a chair reading about what other people have found. What do you think of that?

[Leigh Barnett / Alex Geldenhuis (Mother)]

Why?

[Tony Dicopol (CBS Evening News Host)]

There are big questions that all of us are asking. I want to get you the answers.

[Harris Todd (Father)]

How are you?

[Tony Dicopol (CBS Evening News Host)]

I'm Tony Dicopol. Join me on the CBS Evening News. Me and my brother, we grew up off the grid.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

A new Paramount plus original documentary explores the wild true story of two brothers.

[Samantha (Daughter)]

They were dubbed the Wild Boys.

[Tony Dicopol (CBS Evening News Host)]

No driving records, nothing tangible.

[Narrator/Reporter]

What's their story?

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

Who shook a small town after they emerged mysteriously from the Canadian wilderness?

[Narrator/Reporter]

Are they criminals?

Maybe they're in a cult.

Who are these guys? Why are they here? It's not my job to tell you the truth.

[Friend of Lee Barnett]

Wild Boys Strangers in town. Now streaming on Paramount plus.