True Crime Vault: A Captive Student

Summary

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20/20 True Crime Vault: “A Captive Student”

Original Air Date: July 14, 2026
Podcast Host: ABC News

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Episode Overview

This episode of 20/20’s True Crime Vault dives into the disturbing case of Tad Cummins, a beloved small-town health science teacher, who kidnapped his 15-year-old student, Elizabeth Thomas, in 2017. The case, which unfolded in rural Tennessee and led to a nationwide manhunt, is explored through interviews with Elizabeth and her family, law enforcement, prosecutors, survivors of similar crimes, and others connected to the case. Through first-person accounts and detailed reporting, “A Captive Student” reveals how predatory grooming can masquerade as care, why child victims often blame themselves, and how a community reckoned with betrayal by one of its own.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Community & Family Background

• Elizabeth Thomas was raised in a conservative, rural community in Culioka, Tennessee, homeschooled until abuse allegations against her mother forced all Thomas children into public school.
• Elizabeth’s home life was chaotic and abusive. Her mother was later charged (and eventually had charges expunged) for physical abuse ([04:31]), leading Elizabeth to become withdrawn and vulnerable at school.
• The move to public school was overwhelming for Elizabeth, marked by bullying and isolation ([07:06]).

Tad Cummins—Teacher, Groomer, Predator

• Tad Cummins was a popular, charismatic teacher, well-liked by staff and students ([07:50], [10:34]), presenting himself as a mentor and protector.
• He helped Elizabeth adjust to public school and cultivated an exclusive relationship with her, using trust-building gestures—money, food, emotional support, and religious authority ([13:55]).
• Former students and coworkers describe Cummins as ego-driven, manipulative, and unable to take “no” for an answer ([11:26]).

Escalation & Secrets

• Grooming escalated rapidly: Cummins isolated Elizabeth, discouraged her from seeking therapy, initiated inappropriate contact, and manipulated her emotionally ([09:53], [13:13], [14:40]).
• Communication moved to “Finstas”—fake Instagram accounts—for secretive, increasingly sexual correspondence ([16:48]-[18:05]).
• Elizabeth describes feeling both loved and trapped, calling Cummins her “guardian or mentor” ([15:37]), while family and experts label his actions as classic predatory grooming ([14:57], [17:28]).

Discovery, Failure, and Scandal

• A younger student accidentally witnessed Cummins kissing Elizabeth in the classroom, triggering an internal investigation ([20:24]).
• The initial school probe failed to find evidence, and both Cummins and Elizabeth denied inappropriate contact, with Cummins manipulating the narrative ([25:05]).
• Elizabeth’s father learned of the investigation late; the school suspended Cummins only after legal pressure ([29:36]).

The Kidnapping and Nationwide Manhunt

• Facing consequences, Cummins planned and executed Elizabeth’s abduction, taking money, weapons, and supplies ([34:00]-[36:07]).
• National Amber Alert was issued ([41:23]), as law enforcement tracked their attempts to stay off-grid: burning cell phones, changing license plates, and traversing multiple states ([44:49], [45:11]).
• Notable Quote:
  “He threatened to kill everyone in the commune if they didn’t start bending to his will.”
  – Elizabeth Thomas ([39:51])

Life on the Run: Escape Attempts & False Leads

• Cummins and Elizabeth tried to flee to Mexico by kayak—an ill-prepared and quickly abandoned plan ([54:14]-[54:48]).
  “They tried to kayak out... The Pacific Ocean was too much for them.”
  – Expert/Commentator ([54:36])
• The pair sought anonymity at the Black Bear Ranch commune in remote Northern California but were quickly unwelcome ([57:07]-[59:33]).

The Rescue & Aftermath

• A local recognized the pair and tipped off police ([61:01]). SWAT arrested Cummins at a cabin ([62:49]–[63:01]).
• Elizabeth was rescued after 37 days.
  “[She] was just so tiny. And just so frail.”
  – Christy ([63:59])
• Elizabeth returned home traumatized. She initially remained under Cummins’ thrall, angry at family and still blaming herself ([64:37], [67:12]).

Legal Resolution & Healing

• Under investigation and during trial, Cummins minimized and justified his abuse, while ultimately confessing sexual relations with Elizabeth after prolonged denial ([72:02]-[72:24]).
  • “She’s a very sexual kid.” (Tad Cummins, [72:32])
  • “All you were was a man who wanted sex. And you manipulated me and used me just for that.” (Elizabeth’s Victim Impact Statement, [75:09])
• Cummins received a 20-year sentence ([75:29]); Elizabeth’s family won a civil settlement from the school district ([77:11]).
• Elizabeth underwent extensive therapy and, with support from Donna Simlar and family, found healing, independence, and later started her own family ([76:25]-[79:08]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "He starts out with making her feel special and smart and loved. That's what really allowed him to take over her brain and her heart. That was all part of his calculated, sick, twisted plan."
  – Christy ([08:53])

• “You cannot consent to sex with an adult unless you are an adult. Anytime a kid is saying okay to an adult about something sexual, they're not actually consenting. They're just saying okay.”
  – Cheryl Nichols, survivor & filmmaker ([19:31])

• “I felt guilty. Like, I'm not saying he started it, but, I mean, I was 15, you know, he's a grown man.”
  – Elizabeth Thomas ([18:47])

• “If I made my choice and I tried to leave, he would hurt me.”
  – Elizabeth Thomas ([69:44])

• “Mr. Cummins, what you did to me is unspeakable...you saw a broken girl who was lonely, scared, and traumatized. You made her feel safe and loved because you saw what she needed and made her believe you would be her protector.”
  – Elizabeth Thomas Victim Impact Statement ([75:09],[75:24])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |----------- |-----------------------------------------------------------| | 00:50 | Sarah Beth Myers introduces the federal investigation | | 04:27-06:24| Elizabeth’s home life and abuse allegations | | 07:31-13:39| Cummins’ role and relationship with Elizabeth | | 14:57-18:47| Grooming escalates; shift to inappropriate, sexual contact | | 20:24-25:05| Discovery and school investigation | | 34:00-36:07| Cummins’ abduction plan and execution | | 41:23 | Amber Alert issued; nationwide search begins | | 54:14-54:48| Attempted and failed kayak escape to Mexico | | 61:01-63:01| Cabin tip leads to rescue and arrest | | 64:08-65:40| Elizabeth’s initial struggles post-rescue | | 72:24-73:00| Cummins’ confession and consequences | | 75:09-75:24| Elizabeth’s statement at sentencing | | 77:11-78:32| Civil lawsuit outcome and Elizabeth’s new support system | | 79:08 | Elizabeth’s life five years on; reflection and advice |

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Key Takeaways and Thematic Insights

• Grooming is insidious, targeting and preying on vulnerable youth—victims are often manipulated to believe the abuse is care or love ([14:48], [17:19]).
• Systemic failures and community denial allowed Cummins’ abuse to progress ([25:05], [77:11]).
• The trauma of abuse and abduction takes years to unravel, but recovery is possible with therapy and support ([65:26], [79:08]).
• Victim-blaming remains prevalent, worsened by community gossip, media framing, and misunderstanding of manipulation ([67:23], [67:33]).

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Closing Reflections

The Elizabeth Thomas case, as retold through in-depth reporting and survivor testimony, exposes the long-term, multilayered trauma inflicted by predatory grooming—and the importance of vigilant communities, proactive intervention, and survivor support. The episode combines rigorous journalistic investigation with emotional first-person accounts to paint a complete and deeply affecting portrait of resilience and the road to recovery.

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Advice from Elizabeth Thomas (78:50):
“Put down boundaries. Don't let someone push you around and make you do something you don't want to do. And say something to someone if you feel like something's wrong.”

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Tad Cummins remains in federal prison, not scheduled for release until 2034. ([80:02])

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Transcript

[Christy]

Hey, it's Christy from Lululemon and I'm here at the office checking out the Shake it out shorts. These have been my go tos and I kind of think of them as a middle ground between a true run short and a more playful, athletic, sporty short. They have all the performance you want for running, so a comfy liner, our lightweight swift fabric, even a pocket for your keys. But what I really like is the flowy fit and layered hem. It gives it a little bit of volume, a little bit of fun. So they feel as good on a run as they do just at coffee afterwards. You can find the Shake it out shorts in store now or [e-mail] welcome

[Narrator]

to the 2020 True Crime Vault where

heart stopping headlines come to life.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

My name is Sarah Beth Myers and I'm a former assistant United States attorney. I became a prosecutor to help particularly vulnerable victims.

[Narrator]

An Amber alert was issued for a

[Interviewer / Reporter]

missing teenager to be in danger. Thomas was last seen at 7:30am March 13.

[Tad Cummins]

A 15 year old girl taken by

[Interviewer / Reporter]

a 50 year old man.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

I was the lead federal prosecutor in the Tad Cummins case. A small town story that became a national phenomenon.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Authorities now sending out a nationwide alert. Tips coming in from dozens of states. I've been covering the story since it first broke five years ago. I've traveled thousands of miles, talked to dozens of people in this race against time and and Tad Cummins.

[Christy]

He starts out with making her feel special and smart and loved. That's what really allowed him to take over her brain and her heart.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Never before seen video of Tad Cummins interrogation.

[Tad Cummins]

I absolutely did not do that. I did not do that. I'm the nicest guy you're ever gonna encounter in every situation. I ain't done nothing wrong but I came in here not knowing if I

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

was going to check him right.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

I'm the bravest I've ever been in my life.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

We have no idea where these individuals

[Expert / Commentator]

could be right now.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

They threw both of their phones in the Tennessee river. Then it was just completely off the grid.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

Your head does go to the worst possible place and that is that they're not going to be found alive.

[Narrator]

I don't think anyone had really heard of Culioca, Tennessee until this happened.

[Community Member / Witness]

Culioca is a small community. There's not a lot there.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

It's a little bitty place with a school and a store and a lot of farms and well, country people.

[Community Member / Witness]

The railroad track runs through there.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

We do have the best soil in the south. They used to say that for the same seed of corn in North Carolina grows one ear to our three.

[Community Member / Witness]

Everybody in Culioca knows everybody. All the kids there go to school together. You know who plays sports, you know who's in the band.

[Narrator]

15 year old Elizabeth Thomas is, for the most part on the outside, a very typical teenager. She was somewhat of a tomboy. She played really rough. She could switch to being really nice and sweet.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

She'd come over my house and we would talk and watch TV and eat junk food.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Paige Griffith and her daughter Erin say they knew Elizabeth Thomas well. That's Elizabeth on the left play fighting with Aaron in the back of the car.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

She was just really high energy and when I come through the door, she would be the first one that would run up to me and shove my arms and she yay for daddy.

[Narrator]

Elizabeth was homeschooled for her entire life and her mom was the one who was in charge of that.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

When I first met her sister Sarah back in 2017, she showed me around Elizabeth's room and there were tokens of childhood innocence all around.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

This is my baby blanket.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And she still has it?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Yes, she has it in my backpack

[Interviewer / Reporter]

and she comes with it. There was an Xbox that she had used her money that she'd saved up from her part time job to buy. But the toys and the blankets, all of it overshadowed by a childhood that had clearly been difficult.

[Christy]

Her mother allegedly abused her physically.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

We had a lot of stuff going behind closed doors that shouldn't have.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Abusive, very violent, very physically violent. And no escape because you were homeschooled.

[Narrator]

Elizabeth's siblings say they suffered for years, all that coming to a head when their mother hit one of them with a two by four.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

My mom hurt my sister and we were just fed up with it. We were just done. After watching all this abuse, we couldn't stand it anymore.

[Narrator]

Can you imagine the level of alleged abuse that the children reached out to the Department of Family Services to get help?

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The children themselves secretly got together and wrote a letter to the agency. Did your mom know that was happening?

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

No.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Were you scared?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Really? Like we were all having panic attacks in the middle of the night. Like I woke up shaking sometimes. It's just fearing what she would do if she found out.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Her father, Anthony Thomas, worked long hours in pest control to support the family and says he had no idea how bad things were at home.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

I'd just been basically working, basically providing.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

How did you find out what was going on at home?

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

There's two sheriff's deputies in my yard and two caseworkers and it's hard for

[Interviewer / Reporter]

you to talk about, isn't it?

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

Yeah.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

You don't like to think about what was happening.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

So I'm going to have to take a break.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

I'm going to go outside and get some air.

[Narrator]

Their mother was charged with abuse and then removed from the home.

[Community Member / Witness]

A judge has ordered her to stay

[Expert / Commentator]

away from her family. She's charged with five counts of abuse and neglect. With her case pending, Thomas would only

[Interviewer / Reporter]

say, I am not guilty of those.

[Community Member / Witness]

There was a plea bargain made, and as of now, those charges have been expunged.

[Narrator]

There's no one to do the homeschooling because the dad is out working all the time. That forces all of the children to now enter public schools.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

What was it like when you first got to school?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Kind of crowded. I didn't really like it. It was confusing. There are so many halls and so many classes. Whenever you get out, it's like walking through New York City.

[Narrator]

It's all completely new to. She doesn't know anything about lockers, time periods, bells to change in a classroom.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Public school makes anybody that's an outsider

[Narrator]

the target, an easy target. She went from the frying pan to the fire.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

First thing they did was call me ugly once I came to school, but I just stayed to myself. I was real quiet. I just did my work.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Was it easy making friends?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I mean, they all had their little cliques. They've been together in the school since elementary school. You can't really disrupt that.

[Narrator]

A teacher steps up to help Elizabeth with this difficult transition. He can see that she's struggling.

Tad Cummins taught health science. You can see him in this YouTube video demonstrating CPR to students.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

See the difference?

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

She was in his class, and he began to help her make this transition from home school to public school. And when somebody would pick on her, he would take care of it.

[Narrator]

He's popular with the other teachers, but most of all, he's really popular with the other kids.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

What's his class like?

[Former Student / Witness]

He didn't ever really care too much for as far as, like, rules went. We weren't supposed to have cell phones in there, but he never really cared. He was always one to just kind of let you do your own thing. Tells you to call him Tad. He doesn't really care. You know, for the last name basis

[Interviewer / Reporter]

thing, he was kind of like the cool teacher. Everybody wanted to take that class, I guess.

[Former Student / Witness]

Absolutely.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

At what point did meet Tad Cummins?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I was about to enter the lunchroom. I was sitting there with a few friends, and then they said, are you hungry? And I went, I don't have a soul. Or if I did, like, I'd be hungry or something like that. And then he came to me and he pointed at me and said, my soul sees your soul. Kind of scary.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And how long had you been at school at this point?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I think that was not even a month. She was miserable.

[Narrator]

She had no one in that school

[Elizabeth Thomas]

to talk to except for this teacher.

[Narrator]

She was so vulnerable, and she was looking for somebody.

[Christy]

He starts out with making her feel special and smart and loved. And that's what really allowed him to take over her brain and her heart. That was all part of his calculated, sick, twisted plan.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

He had a dark side, and she was the focus of that dark side.

[Narrator]

For most of her life. Elizabeth Thomas was home schooled. So it wasn't until she was 15 that she went to a public school for the first time. And she meets a very popular teacher, a health sciences teacher, Tad Cummins.

[Community Member / Witness]

I first met Tad when I was in junior high. He seemed like a popular guy. He was always kind of cutting up and clowning around a lot.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Tad is my baby brother. He's been my best friend since the

[Narrator]

day he was born. My mother was the troop leader of my Brownie troop, and we had to

[Interviewer / Reporter]

do something with Tad.

[Christy]

We didn't know what to do.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

So we dressed him up like Santa

[Christy]

Claus and put him up on the

[Narrator]

float with us as an adult. She says Tag went on a church mission to Panama.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

I remember him talking about how awesome the pineapples were. Cut them right out of the ground and ate them.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

I was 17 years old and he was 18, and we met in his high school parking lot. When you meet that right person, you just know. Everything clicked. Everything was perfect. All I ever wanted was to get married and find that Mr. Right and have a family.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

The best word to describe Tad Cummins would be charismatic.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

He had all the trimmings of a good citizen. He was part of a church.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

He's never had so much as a parking ticket.

[Narrator]

I mean, he's never been in trouble.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

We had everything we ever wanted. Two beautiful kids and beautiful grandkids.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

What was it like growing up with him?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

We had a very close family, very happy upbringing. Everything was always. He taught me everything I know about God. He's a wonderful Christian man.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

God is the center of our marriage, and our faith is the most important thing to us.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Teaching is actually Tadkoman's second career. Before that, he was a respiratory therapist at a local hospital. And it's there that he worked with a Man named Chandler Anderson.

[Community Member / Witness]

Tad was kind of a bully about things. He would say things like, you're stupid, you know, you shouldn't be in the

[Interviewer / Reporter]

ER in front of other people.

[Community Member / Witness]

Oh, yeah, in front of other people. I have seen Tad be told no, and I've seen the rage and anger he gets.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

He doesn't take no.

[Community Member / Witness]

Well, no, absolutely.

[Narrator]

Chandler is not surprised that Tad would leave a more lucrative job working at a hospital to be a teacher.

[Community Member / Witness]

If money's not the central issue and feeding your ego is, that's what he chose. Who tells a teacher no? Certainly not students.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

That's the first time I've seen him,

[Interviewer / Reporter]

you know, love a job so much.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

He loved helping people. Students would go to him with their problems. Teachers would bring him students who were having problems so he could talk to them because he just had that type of a personality that always knew how to help people, the right things to say.

[Narrator]

And in the beginning, it looked like that was what he was doing for 15 year old Elizabeth, helping her adjust to a new school where she was having a tough time.

Elizabeth, like the other students, started dropping in on Tad Cummins free periods to have conversations with him and to seek him out for help.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Anything that upsetting me, anyone that would tease me, I'd go down there and talk to him.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Did you feel like you had anyone else that you could possibly.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He made me feel like I didn't have anyone else and no one really cared about me like he did.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

What did you think his reason was for being around Elizabeth?

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

Oh, I think initially he was wanting to help her because of her past abuse.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

You knew where she was coming from?

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

Yes.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

She wanted a therapist. He dissuaded her from getting a bona fide therapist.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I was feeling real low and I was wanting to get on antidepressants and try to go to a therapist. And he told me no and not to do it. Couldn't change who I was.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

So he convinced you not to get help?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Yes.

[Narrator]

And it's progressed a little bit more than just a relationship at school because Tad and his wife and the extended Cummings family has really welcomed Elizabeth into their family, into their home.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

It was like a father daughter relationship. It's the way I saw it too, is the way he would explain it. In fact, I called her our third daughter sometime.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He gave me money and he also bought food for me and put it in his classroom. He bought a microwave and put it in his room. That way I could heat up my coffee.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

He also gave her a Bible. And it really illustrated the lengths that he was going to to earn her trust and not only using his authority position as a teacher, but as a man of faith.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

Our preacher's wife was going to be talking at church one Sunday morning about abuse and how to get past it. And so we talked about it and decided to invite her.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Taking someone to church doesn't seem like something that would make most people think twice.

[Expert / Commentator]

You have to build that trust, and then once you do that, then you can just slowly and slowly get them under your wing.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Was there a point that you realized he was trying to be more than a teacher to you?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Whenever he'd like. Just be staring at me all during class. He was always eyeballing me, looking at me, sitting at our table.

[Narrator]

The relationship has gone from teacher student mentoring relationship to something completely inappropriate. She was just a perfect storm waiting to happen.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

They try to make a move on you.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

There was one time where he told me that I'd look nice naked. I realized, this is getting too far.

[Narrator]

Elizabeth is now spending more and more time with her teacher, Tad Cummins. There are some dark clouds gathering here, but few seem to notice.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

She needed some structure and stability in her life, and he provided that. That was a way for her to escape kind of the childhood she had had.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

He was sort of like the center of your whole world at that point.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He was.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

How did you view him?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Kind of like a guardian or a mentor.

[Cheryl Nichols (Documentary Filmmaker / Survivor)]

You have a person with, you know, ill intentions that takes advantage of that closeness that the student has with the teacher. And that's what happened to me. Like, I fell in love with my teacher when I was 16. I was groomed and I was abused.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Cheryl Nichols details her own traumatic experience in the docuseries Keep this Between Us, describing an illicit relationship she says she had with her teacher when she was just 16 years old.

[Cheryl Nichols (Documentary Filmmaker / Survivor)]

For years, I had convinced myself that I was making this choice to be with him. But now there's no doubt in my mind that he was in control of this. You can't tell somebody about this documentary without them saying, oh, that happened at my high school. I started getting, like, hundreds and hundreds of DMs on Instagram from women and girls who this had happened to. So I have over a thousand messages at this point.

[Narrator]

The relationship between Tad Cummins and Elizabeth starts to change. They start to communicate outside of school.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

We did via Instagram. He made a fake account, and he made me make one as well.

[Expert / Commentator]

Have a thing called a Finsta, which is a fake Instagram, where you have your Instagram that everybody knows about. And then you have your fake Instagram that you can do all your, you know, your crazy stuff in.

[Narrator]

So on these social media accounts, Cummins puts up posts like, you're all my heart ever talks about. It was love at first sight. Elizabeth responds, I look forward to going to school just to see you. I love you so, so much. And then Cummins starts to get graphic.

[Expert / Commentator]

Having that secret language between each other that only they know about, that makes her feel special. Right? And that's just grooming 101.

[Cheryl Nichols (Documentary Filmmaker / Survivor)]

Grooming is manipulative behaviors that groomers use to gain access to a student. Tiny little things that convince the person that they're essentially making the choice to be in this relationship. Once the boundary is crossed of I am your teacher, I am your authority figure, into I'm your friend, then anything can go.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

So you were direct messaging each other?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Yes. Most of them from him would be sexual text.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

He would sexually text you? Yes, implicitly.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Like sexting.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Some of the phrases consist of, saw you standing next to the locker this morning with your backpack on. Thought to myself, that's a nice ass right there.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

He said, she can come into the classroom anytime she feels like it. It was her haven. It was her safe space. But quite to the contrary, it was just the opposite. It was an opportunity to get her alone in the classroom.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Did you hang out in his classroom alone often?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

We just chilled out there, and then it turned into more than just hanging out there. Next thing I know, he said, you look pretty nice naked.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

When did he take it to something more?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Whenever he first kissed me.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

How did he make that move?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He grabbed my face.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Did you tell somebody?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

No. I was scared. Like, I don't want to tell my parent that a grown man kissed me, and I don't want to tell friends that a grown man kissed me. I felt guilty. Like, I'm not saying he started it, but, I mean, I was 15, you know, he's a grown man.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

It ended up progressing to more than just kissing.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Yeah.

[Expert / Commentator]

She worked at a local fast food restaurant, and he would come in and see her.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Why would he come to Chick Fil A?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He'd want me to sit in his car and talk. Not just talk.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

What was he wanting you to do in his car?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Things that were very inappropriate.

[Cheryl Nichols (Documentary Filmmaker / Survivor)]

You cannot consent to sex with an adult unless you are an adult. Anytime a kid is saying okay to an adult about something sexual, they're not actually consenting. They're just saying okay.

[Narrator]

This is no longer an innocent relationship. This relationship has taken on a whole new level. It is frightening and it is criminal.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

He would have sexual acts be performed on him. Oral sex in the closet, in the classroom.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And he would just pull you into his closet.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He'd open up the closet door and he'd look at me a certain way. And I knew if I didn't go that he'd be upset. And no matter how many times I try to stop it, I was fearful of what you do if I. If I did anything.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And Elizabeth was keeping all of this, everything that was happening with Cummins, hidden. But that explosive secret was about to be revealed.

[Narrator]

A 12 year old who's just looking to get her backpack walks in and she sees something she never expected. Tad Cummings is kissing Elizabeth Thomas and the student freaks out. She runs to the administrators and she tells them what she has. Just the school starts investigating and they

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

removed her from any classes and they put what they call a no contact order in place between the two of them.

[Christy]

Tad Cummins is going to figure out a way around that. And you know Elizabeth, she did whatever he told her to do out of both fear, manipulation and love.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

They wouldn't let me go down to his class anymore.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Did you want to go to his class still?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Not really, but a part of me did.

[Narrator]

This was a teacher who was loved by the students and the teachers, so a lot of people were shocked.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

They felt like I ruined his life.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

People were telling you that?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Yeah, because he was a good teacher. There was a lot of names and teasing that came around and a lot of bullying outside and inside of school.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Did you want to go to school?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Not anymore. I tried to say I was sick or something. I wanted to go home. I didn't want to be there.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

It paints a very different picture than what the community knew of him.

[Expert / Commentator]

We all have a facade, and behind that are some skeletons, and some things come out that the normal public don't see. Sometimes your family don't see.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Did you hesitate at all to think maybe this little girl wouldn't have come forward to say that she saw this if that didn't happen? You trusted your husband that much?

[Former Student / Witness]

I did.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

I trusted. It could have just been that she thought she saw something and she didn't, or that she was just flat out lying.

[Narrator]

And as for Tad Cummins, another student comes forward with an alarming story of her own.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Is there any moment that you look back on now and think, oh, my gosh, he was definitely trying to cross the line? And as the investigation into that classroom incident heats up, Tad Cummins finds himself in the hot seat?

[Tad Cummins]

I absolutely did not do that. I Did not do it.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

I just got the impression from both of them that they were lying.

[Tad Cummins]

I ain't done nothing wrong, but I came in here not knowing if I

[Interviewer / Reporter]

was going to jail.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

I'm as brave as I've ever been in my life.

[Narrator]

Tad Cummins, who's one of the most popular teachers at school, has just been caught kissing one of his students in his classroom.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

And of course, that was just a glimpse. That student just happened to walk by and saw the curtain open just a bit to see the wizard working the controls.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And it doesn't take long for rumors to start to spread about what happened in the classroom. One of Tad Cummins former students hears about it and starts to see her own experience with him in a different light.

[Former Student / Witness]

I was going through my parents divorce

[Interviewer / Reporter]

at the time and did he notice, you know, that you were having a hard time?

[Former Student / Witness]

He and I just kind of connected. You know, I'd stay late and talk to him for a minute or, you know, go to his class before school, after school, during lunch, stuff like that, and just kind of hang out and talk. Some of the students would make jokes about us being in love or whatever, and, you know, I kind of blew it off.

[Narrator]

Looking back now, she says there was one day where she was alone with him at a piano in the school music room where she now realizes he crossed the line.

[Former Student / Witness]

He sat down and started playing. And I'm standing behind him and I start recording because, you know, he's doing really good.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

Oh, wow.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And what were the lyrics to the song?

[Former Student / Witness]

Stuff like I could swim a thousand miles in the oceans inside your eyes. You're the kind of woman a man could love for the rest of his life.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

How old were you at that point?

[Former Student / Witness]

I was 15. I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I really didn't.

[Former Student / Witness]

You know, I finally had come around and been like, wow, you know, this is really who he was. You know, I didn't know him at all.

[Cheryl Nichols (Documentary Filmmaker / Survivor)]

Nobody wants to believe that that person, that teacher that they really like and they've grown to love is doing something so awful.

[Narrator]

Destine says Tad never touched her inappropriately, but her family moved away before she graduated. And so the question remains, could the same thing that happened to Elizabeth have happened to Destinee?

Now, in Elizabeth's case, the school district does talk to all involved. They're trying to confirm the report of that kiss.

They conclude that there is no evidence that there was a kiss. Boy, did they get that wrong.

But then the sheriff's department decides to look into the case, too. Detective Marcus Albright interviews Elizabeth.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

She says she was upset after school and Tad was probably consoling her a little bit, and that's probably why Tad was in close proximity to her. Denies a kiss. Denied, denied, denied. There wasn't any. Any physical contact between the two other than he grabbed her hands and told her she needed to calm down. That was her version of it.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

That is very typical, wanting to protect the person who is allegedly protecting you, who has been grooming you for months on end.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

2020 obtained this never before seen video of Tad Cummins interrogation.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Tad just says that he's got a good relationship with her.

[Tad Cummins]

I'm the nicest guy you're ever gonna encounter in every situation.

[Narrator]

Tad tells investigators that Elizabeth had had an anxiety attack, a panic attack, and that she came down to see him because he's really good at calming her down.

[Tad Cummins]

I honestly don't remember whether I got up in trying to calm her down and put my hand on her arm or on her shoulder or something like that. It would have been my left hand doing that. And that is the closest that we got, period.

[Narrator]

The closest. Well, detectives then confront him with Elizabeth's version and his story suddenly evolves.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

She claims that you grabbed her, both of her wrists and were kind of close to her face, and you were saying, it's going to be all right. You need to calm down. Would that be accurate to say that you possibly could have done that?

[Tad Cummins]

That's very possible, but my intention is always not to do that.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

But if she's saying that that was

[Tad Cummins]

how she remembered it, then I would. It is absolutely possible.

[Narrator]

Tad can't seem to be able to describe clearly what happened a week ago in his classroom. He's evasive and he keeps changing the story.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

This is in the heat of the moment and trying to console her.

[Tad Cummins]

She could have seen.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Is it possible that you could have grabbed her and kissed her?

[Tad Cummins]

It is not possible that I could have kissed her. It's possible that I could have hugged her.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Did you hug her?

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

I don't.

[Tad Cummins]

I wish I could tell you.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Have you hugged her? You have hugged her in the past, though, right?

[Tad Cummins]

In that kind of.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Yeah. Consoling her or whatever?

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

I probably.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And then Tad Cummins says Elizabeth continued to text him despite the no contact order, but claims he ignored them.

[Tad Cummins]

Would there be an issue with you

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

showing us texts that you got from Beth? Do you have your phone?

[Tad Cummins]

I've got my phone. I don't have those texts still on my phone from yesterday.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

Why not?

[Tad Cummins]

Because I got rid of. Because it May be uncomfortable.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Here's the thing. It looks like that, you know, you're covering something up or hiding something.

[Narrator]

All of a sudden, Tad starts shivering. He starts shaking. I mean, he looks like he's about to cry. That's the COVID up. He is covering something up.

[Tad Cummins]

There has not been any kind of a physical relationship kind of thing at all.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

And my scene was I've been married

[Tad Cummins]

for 31 years and I've never touched another one, right? And I'm not joking with you guys when I say that I've never touched another woman.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

And then as we got ready to close, he gets emotional to a point that he's almost crying and says that he really didn't know what to expect coming into the interview and that he thought that he might be arrested.

[Tad Cummins]

Honestly. And I done anything, right? I ain't done nothing wrong. But I came in here not knowing if I was going to jail.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

I'm more afraid than I've ever been in my life.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

I just got the impression from both of them that, you know, they were lying. So why were they lying? Why were they being so evasive with their answers if there wasn't something going on between the two of them?

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Meanwhile, Elizabeth's dad hadn't been told by the of this apparent kiss between a teacher and his daughter. And he has no idea there's an investigation underway. How did you find out?

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

I get this phone call, said, anthony, I'm calling to talk to you about your daughter.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

I said, you're aware the school was investigating your daughter into allegations of some inappropriate behavior with a teacher. And he says, which daughter?

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

He said, sir, are you trying to tell me that you don't know anything about this? I said, sir, I don't even know what you're talking about.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

So he does what any dad would do. He calls his daughter.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

I said, is there something you want to tell me? She said, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Some girl lied. It's nothing. Nothing happened. And I said, this doesn't sound like nothing happened.

[Narrator]

He is furious. Elizabeth's father hires an attorney, Jason Whatley, to write a letter to the school to put them on notice.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

It was not a nice letter that said, get this man away from this child or else.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The school suspends Cummins and sends him home the next day. They say it's because he broke the no contact order. You say you thought he was falsely accused.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

Yes, 100%. We cry about it, pray about it. Then I would always tell them, it's okay, though, because you haven't done anything wrong. If you haven't done anything wrong. You have nothing to be afraid of.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The question that a lot of people have, how did she not know something was up?

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

I think a lot of people didn't know.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

So you never suspected anything?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

No.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Did he talk about his wife ever?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He told me how perfect she was and how much he loved her and how terrible I was and if it weren't for me, he wouldn't be in this.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Basically just you existing was the problem.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Yeah, because he couldn't help himself.

[Narrator]

How is Tad going to get out of this? He makes a really surprising decision on how to handle this problem.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And that's when the bottom fell out of our world.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

People wonder why the heck would he chunk it all away this way?

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

I called the detective, I said, have you found Tad Cummins yet? He said, Mr. Cummins can't be found anywhere.

[Narrator]

Thomas was last seen around 8am Monday.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The 15 year old is now believed

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

to be in the custody of 50 year old Tad Cummins and they say

[Narrator]

they believe she's in danger. There is a lot of pressure on Tad at this point. There are rumors about his behavior. His wife obviously is asking a lot more questions now because he was suspended without paying.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And suddenly Jill is starting to suspect that something is very wrong here.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

He always made the coffee the night before we would go to bed and he started telling me how to make the coffee and I was like, why are you telling me this? And I was in tears because I thought that he was afraid he was going to go to jail. And I said, you didn't do anything wrong, but promise me you won't hurt yourself. He said, I promise I won't.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

He wasn't in under a criminal sense. Big, big trouble at that point.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

No, you're talking about a misdemeanor. I mean he probably wouldn't have been able to teach anyone outside of that, but he would never really set foot in a jail cell.

[Narrator]

Tad has now been stuck at home for five weeks. He's waiting to hear his fate from the police.

[Christy]

I questioned the sheriff about that and

[Interviewer / Reporter]

he said that they had to be

[Narrator]

sure about all of it before they ruined a man's career and life. You know, because he'd never been in

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

any trouble, he wasn't getting paid. We were embarrassed. We wanted just to get it all over with and him to be given his job back and things to be normal again.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

His opportunities to very easily groom this child were coming to an end. For Tad, it was either move on or make a plan. And he made a plan.

[Narrator]

It's Monday, March 13th of 2017. Tad posts on his Instagram. Beautiful day to start sending a message there maybe.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Tad tells his wife that morning, I've got a job interview with one of my old bosses because he needs a job. He needs a job. He wants to take her car. She's okay with that. He goes to the Shell station where we have him on video to fill her car up with gas.

[Narrator]

Around the same time, Elizabeth packs her bags. Then she wakes her sister Sarah with a very ominous message.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

And she said, if I'm not back by six, you need to come find me and call the cops. So I'm like, okay. And I went back to sleep.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The Thomas house has a security camera outside, so you can actually see Elizabeth that morning walking out of her house, carrying her bags, getting into her friend's car.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

She says she took her to Shoney's and dropped her off around 8ish.

[Narrator]

That morning, Tad drives to the Shoney's. Elizabeth gets in the car, and by 9am, those two are on the road.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Jill starts calling him around noon. She can't reach him. Calls going straight to voicemail. Text messages obviously not being answered. And she starts to get a little concerned.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And that night, Elizabeth's father realizes he hasn't heard from her. So he spends hours searching and calling her.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

It rang and rang and rang and it went straight to voicemail. That was a little bit odd. So I texted her, you know you're in big trouble. Well, usually when I did that, I would have a call back within about 45 seconds at the most. Nothing.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

So Anthony Thomas checks in with police.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Anthony mentions to the reporting deputies that we need to check to find out where Tag coming is. The on call detective. He doesn't put the two together or anything, any significance.

[Narrator]

Tad never came home. So when his wife Jill gets home from work that night, she finds a letter from Tad. Jill does not call the police that night, but by the next morning, she does.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He's ran away.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Who's ran away?

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Tad.

[Narrator]

She tells police about that note he left behind.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Said, Jill, I'm so sorry.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

I'm on my way to Virginia BEACH or maybe D.C. just to think and

[Elizabeth Thomas]

clear my mind of all this crap.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

I'm not running away.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

I'll be back.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Don't call the police.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Don't think I've read because I'm guilty and I'm not. I love you and I'll call you soon.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

Please forgive me. I was just in total shock when I read it. I didn't know what to think.

[Tad Cummins]

I'm sorry.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

You're going through this, but, you know, sometime life throws us some curve balls.

[Former Student / Witness]

Yep.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

And this is another thing we've been worried about.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

Money.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

And he told me he had taken out a loan and he said $4,000.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

I went and looked in the lockbox

[Elizabeth Thomas]

and where he keeps his guns and both of his guns are gone.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And the $4,000 in the note, he said he was going to Virginia or dc.

[Expert / Commentator]

If you do this long enough, you know that people try to divert attention away from something. More than likely he's gone the opposite direction.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Meanwhile, Anthony Thomas is now worried. He still hasn't heard from his daughter Elizabeth.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

The next day I was still frantically looking for. I called the detective back, I said, have you found Tad Cummings yet to see if he knows anything? He said, Mr. Cummins can't be found anywhere. He's nowhere to be found.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

There was no doubt in my mind that they were together.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

That was the moment that I knew. I knew that it was all a lie. You're not married to someone for 31 years and then this happened and your whole life is turned upside down. Everything that you thought was gonna be for your future is no more.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

First thing I did was hit my knees and pray. The 15 year old is now believed

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

to to be in the custody of

[Tad Cummins]

50 year old Tad Cummins.

[Narrator]

Now the TBI and FBI are on the lookout. This now becomes a massive investigation because you've got a 50 year old teacher who has just taken off with this 15 year old student and nobody knows where they are.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

I was incredibly concerned.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

If he's armed, there could only be one purpose and that would be sort of the last stand.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

He absolutely knew that law enforcement would be on his tail quickly.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Investigators say they have no clue where the two could be.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

TBI officials fear they could be anywhere in the country.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

He went to extraordinary measures to make sure he wouldn't be tracked.

[Narrator]

There have been no credible sightings.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

The TBI says it's received over 80 tips. But I still don't know where Thomas could be.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

You talk about an absolute bomb going off.

[Narrator]

Dad Cummings, he's the one. No one could believe it.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Did you know this whole time that everyone, I mean like all of America was looking for you?

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

This story could have ended with they found her body.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

We wanted to take a new look at this month long crime spree that dominated headlines and put everything we've learned together in one place.

[Tad Cummins]

I've been married for 31 years and I've never touched another one.

[Expert / Commentator]

Right.

[Tad Cummins]

And I'm not joking with you. Guys, when I say that right, I have never touched another woman.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

We learned that he had taken two handguns with him.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He threatened to kill everyone in the commune if they didn't start bending to his will. And he said, I have enough bullets to kill them all.

[Christy]

She looked at him as a protector. She was in love with him and she believed that he loved her back.

[Expert / Commentator]

You're thinking about all the bad things that could happen because you were worried

[Interviewer / Reporter]

he would kill her.

[Narrator]

Correct.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

He was plotting to get her out of the country.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

I see. He's planning to do this by kayak.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

Like you're kidding me, right?

[Tad Cummins]

I ain't done anything.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Right.

[Tad Cummins]

I ain't done nothing wrong.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

He said, am I in trouble? And I said, tad, you've just been arrested by the FBI.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

We're gonna get the latest now on

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

that manhunt in Tennessee.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Ted Cummins, he was a teacher at this school. It's here.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

A student walked in on Cummins and

[Narrator]

Elizabeth kissing in his classroom.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Cummins facing charges of sexual contact with a minor.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Accused of kidnapping his 15 year old student.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The two of them hit the road

[Expert / Commentator]

and then they vanished.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

There have been no credible sightings of these individuals.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

The FBI is now involved in the search.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

I had never worked a kidnapping case that was so immediate and that had so much media attention as this one did.

[Narrator]

Call 911 if you see them.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The TBI issued an Amber Alert for Elizabeth Thomas.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

I remember everybody's phone, everybody's lit up. I had never seen an Amber Alert that I know of. And we looked down and saw Elizabeth Thomas.

[Expert / Commentator]

It's not every day. Do you have a teacher, student, Amber Alert? You know, an older gentleman and a younger girl.

[Christy]

Once I learned that she had been taken, I just went from 0 to 100. Like, what's he gonna do to her? What's he gonna do with her?

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

The Tad that I know is not the Tad that the world is seeing now. He was a wonderful person. He was the protector of our family.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He was the rock, the epitome of hero dad. No matter what we were going through,

[Christy]

he was the one you could call

[Elizabeth Thomas]

and fix it, no matter what.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

He was my best friend for 31 years.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

Now.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

I spoke with Tad Cummings wife, Jill, back in 2017 while he was still on the run and was just struck by how blindsided she was by what she was living through.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

We've never even been apart for vacation or for any amount of time, a work trip or anything. And so when he left, I was just in total shock. He packed every coat he had he

[Elizabeth Thomas]

packed all his underwear, which is like

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

1012 pairs, which is ridiculous.

[Narrator]

The day after Tad Cummins and Elizabeth Thomas vanished, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI pay his wife Jill a visit at their home.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

She was helpful the entire time and just an amazingly strong person.

[Expert / Commentator]

She let us go through every part of the house. You know, we were looking for clues, right? Is there anything he left behind that would point us to the right direction?

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

We learned that he had taken two handguns with him. That ramped up our concern.

[Narrator]

Jill tells the police that her husband filled a prescription right before he left and that he took the medicine with him.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

The only erectile dysfunction tablet clinically proven

[Tad Cummins]

to work up to 36 hours.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

He had re up to Cialis early. He almost had like a double dose with him at the time.

[Expert / Commentator]

There's only one reason that you would, you know, take that medicine. So, you know, we, we knew we had to find her.

[Narrator]

Investigators looked into Cummins activities in the days before he vanished.

[Expert / Commentator]

Talking to his wife. We were able to locate him at the local Walmart here.

[Narrator]

The day before he left, Cummins strolls the aisles looking at women's hair dye.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

We learned that he had taken like a payday loan. He falsified the loan documents saying he had some assets that he didn't not have. They forwarded $4,500 in cash based on that.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Knowing that that was what he had in your mind, are you thinking he's not going to last that long out there?

[Expert / Commentator]

It tells us that he's trying to stay off the grid because he doesn't want to use any credit cards because then we can track it.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

Tad Cummins tried to elude authorities through a variety of methods.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Cummins engaged in a daring cat and

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

mouse style run to keep him getting caught.

[Expert / Commentator]

We got his cell phone number to try to ping it to see if we could figure out where it was. The last ping was at a bridge in Alabama. And then it goes dark.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

Both took their phones. He oversaw them throwing those phones into the river. He disabled the GPS on the vehicle that he was driving.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

He stopped in a Quik Mart and bought a map of the United States, like a physical map to travel. Took every opportunity to stay on back roads.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

He had some sleeping bags and basic camping gear.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

Sometimes they even slept in the car.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

He had stolen license plates off other cars and traded plates.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

So the trail goes cold in Alabama.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

It could be anywhere. You're a fugitive on the run with

[Narrator]

a 15 year old.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Where can you go?

[Tad Cummins]

How well have you planned this?

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

My feeling was that he had burned every bridge he had there. He was not coming back.

[Expert / Commentator]

You're thinking about all the bad things that could happen because you were worried

[Interviewer / Reporter]

he would kill her.

[Expert / Commentator]

Correct.

[Narrator]

On day five, with no confirmed sightings, investigators hold a press conference.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

At this time, we are going to open the floor to Jill Cummins.

[Community Member / Witness]

The decision was made to get Jill, see if she'll be willing to go on camera and reach out to Tad.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

To that end, let me speak directly to my husband. Tad, this is not you.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Was that hard? All those scrutinizing eyes?

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

Yeah. Live? Yeah, it was really hard. Your family wants their Poppy back. Please do the right thing and turn yourself into the police. I felt like if there was a chance that he would see it and it would make a difference, then even if it was outside my comfort zone, I had to do it anyway, so I did.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And then Elizabeth's father makes a public plea to the daughter he calls Izzy.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

Izzy, please. Get away from him. Get away from him. Run somewhere. Tell somebody.

[Narrator]

Take another look at their pictures, the

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

photographs that were used. And it wasn't intentional. They made her look like a mature young lady when she wasn't.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And there were questions. Some people in the community wondering if the decision to leave was mutual.

[Christy]

I think that she.

[Narrator]

She did go willingly.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

I don't think he forcefully took her. I think it was her decision, but she wasn't old enough to make that decision.

[Narrator]

A person's search history can reveal a lot of information. Tad searches reveal a very clear intention.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

I remember one that was what states allow teenage marriage. It was fairly obvious to us that. That he was trying to legitimize his crime.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And not long after, they disappear. The word wife is added to Elizabeth's Instagram profile.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

I was a little bit sick when I saw that.

[Tad Cummins]

We're receiving tips from all across the

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

country, which is great, because frankly, we

[Tad Cummins]

have no idea where Tad Cummins has

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Elizabeth Thomas at this hour.

[Expert / Commentator]

Well, we had over 1,000 tips coming in. Every single tip that comes into our tip line, someone will call that person back and we will run it down. We never went home, only to just get a few hours of sleep each night. And then we were back in the command post the next day working on this thing.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Finally, after 16 days, there is a solid lead.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

A person working a midnight shift at a Super 8 motel decided to type in Tad Cummins his system, and boom, it popped up.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

That slip up gave authorities the lead they needed.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

We were very excited. This was proof of life.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

Breaking news.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

A confirmed sighting of Amber Alert suspect Tad Cummins and missing child Elizabeth Thomas in Oklahoma City.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

An employee at Super 8 checked the natural database and soon discovered that the pair two weeks earlier checked into a room with a single bed in Oklahoma City. Staff here telling investigators Cummins asked for directions to the local Walmart.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

We pull a video from Walmart.

[Tad Cummins]

Well, this new surveillance video out of

[Interviewer / Reporter]

a Walmart two days after Cummins left with Elizabeth.

[Narrator]

TBI investigators say Thomas appears to have dyed her hair red while Cummins darkened his hair.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

But this, this sighting you see right here is from two weeks ago, meaning they could be anywhere in the country tonight.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

We were consistently a week behind them. She was fine a week ago, but how is she now? Which kind of ramped up the pressure as well.

[Narrator]

Police are wondering whether Tad likes to stay at Super 8 motels and if perhaps there's a pattern here that might reveal where they've been and maybe where they're going.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

We basically started doing some really like old school gumshoe detective work.

[Expert / Commentator]

We contacted Super Eights corporate. Then we asked I want every hotel That's a Super 8. They sent us back a list and it's over five or six hundred hotels.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

And we just cold called every one of them.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

We called hundreds of hotels across the country and we got a hit.

[Narrator]

That hit came from a Super 8 in Guymon, Oklahoma. Guymon is west of Oklahoma City. Now, once again, Cummins didn't try to hide his identity when checking in.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

So he used his own ID twice?

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

That's correct, yeah.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Were they staying like one night? Two night? Kind of. What was the pattern that you were seeing?

[Expert / Commentator]

Mostly one night, but then they went to the Walmart there as well.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

Of course we pull a receipt to see what they're buying. Food and snacks and stuff like that,

[Expert / Commentator]

some lubrication, some KY jelly. And so that furthered our okay, we've got to find her. We.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

That made you worried even more.

[Tad Cummins]

Correct.

[Narrator]

Friends and family members, the missing Murray county team say they hope we don't forget about a little Elizabeth Thomas.

[Christy]

We'd have all the media coverage that we could ask for. And then it did start to die off. Once her face was out of the media, there was very little chance we'd get her back. That's when I did the green ribbon campaign.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Donna Simler has been hanging those ribbons around the square.

[Tad Cummins]

Green is Elizabeth's favorite color.

[Christy]

So Elizabeth could see that your town wants you to come home.

[Narrator]

Chandler Anderson, a former co worker of Cummins, also wanted to help bring Elizabeth home by offering a reward.

[Community Member / Witness]

And so we're hoping that $10,000 will get someone to talk or tell us where Elizabeth is. Someone knows where she is, but at

[Narrator]

this point, investigators don't know where Elizabeth is, but at least they have a better idea of the direction they're heading.

[Expert / Commentator]

They went up here in the panhandle here of Oklahoma. The trajectory that we kind of focused on was, well, they're probably going west even more.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

But the problem we ran into with Tad is that he kind of looks like every man traveling with her. It almost looks like a dad traveling with his daughter.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

In Nebraska, Another possible sighting.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

This picture is from Kearney Police Department in Nebraska. We're looking at it. I don't know about this one.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The local police quickly discover it was one of many false leads. And those false leads lead to false hopes for Jill. Despite what he's done, she wants her husband home.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

Everyone makes mistakes. This was a pretty big one, and it's unexplainable, but, you know, everyone sins.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

It sounds like in some ways you still sort of defend him. You still.

[Former Student / Witness]

I do.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

I do. I find myself defending him.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Why, after what he did to you, Do you still love him?

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

Of course I love him. And I forgive him. Honestly, it took me several weeks, but I do. But it doesn't mean I could ever trust them again.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

They've been gone for several weeks. When's the next time you find out some sort of clue as to where they are?

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

It was Cortez, Colorado. We got a hit there from Walmart, so now we're even further out. You know, it's almost this straight line across the U.S. which was, you know, helping us immensely.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

But authorities are still days behind them, and they don't know that Tad Cummins has already made it to San Diego and is planning to take Elizabeth out of the country by sea. I'm Eva.

[Expert / Commentator]

Hey.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

I'm Brian. Welcome aboard.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

As an experienced fisherman, is it easy to take a boat from here into Mexico? No, it's not.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

You have to have the experience to take a boat out. You have to have the right boat, you have to have the right weather, you have to have the right skills in navigation. Otherwise, you're not going to make it.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And Cummins plan only gets more absurd. He doesn't have an actual boat to navigate these waters. He's planning to do this by kayak.

[Expert / Commentator]

They had used $1,000 or so of their money to buy a kayak.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

I hate to use the word comical in a case like this. Like, you're kidding me, right?

[Expert / Commentator]

They tried to kayak out and around the border to elude Law enforcement. They got out into several feet of water and white caps. The Pacific Ocean was too much for them.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

He gets to a point like, look, if we don't turn around and go back, we're gonna die.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

They also dodged another bullet. They ran into a local police officer who had no idea who they were.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

The guy says, you know, I sure am glad you guys made it back okay. He says, right after you left, they issued a small craft warning. I just wanted to make sure you guys got back okay. Hope you guys have a good day and just walk some.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

After such a close call, it's time for plan B. Going completely off the grid to the peace and love of a commune.

[Narrator]

Put.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

But when the whole country is looking for you, disappearing is harder than you'd think. Tad Cummins and Elizabeth Thomas have been gone for three weeks. They've traveled 3,000 miles through nine states virtually undetected.

[Narrator]

So he decides if they hide in the wilderness and they can totally be off the grid, that's where they should go next.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

One of the things they did early on is they bought a tablet

[Narrator]

and

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

they would connect to free WI fi and they would do searches for places to go out west. In California,

[Expert / Commentator]

they Googled the Black Bear Commune.

[Narrator]

A documentary called Commune was made about, about the Black Bear Ranch.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

My slogan at the time was free

[Elizabeth Thomas]

land for free people.

[Tad Cummins]

Everyone needed to come together, live together, sleep together, eat together, whatever.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Everything had to be done together to unite people.

[Narrator]

They start the long drive to Black Bear Ranch, but they get lost. They're running out of gas and money when they come to Cecilville. A tiny town of just 50 people.

[Expert / Commentator]

Cecilville is a.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

A really remote rural community, basically in

[Expert / Commentator]

the center of the wilderness, Northern California.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

It's not a good place to blend in.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Everybody knows everybody and every car here. So to think you're going to come out in the wilderness and escape is just not going to happen.

[Expert / Commentator]

At that point in time. Since they were going to be around people, they had to come up with a cover story.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

His cover story was, yeah, they were married.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

John and Joanna Castro were the names that he chose for them to go by.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

He said she was 23 and he was 40. They were married. Lost their house in the Denver area from a fire they didn't have insurance on, and they were just traveling around trying to.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

To.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Trying to make ends meet.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

It's a pretty elaborate story.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Yeah. When they make contact with anybody, that's. That's what they told them.

[Narrator]

In Cecilville, they meet a young man, Griffin Barry. He worked at the local saloon and gas station,

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

said they were from Colorado. He's like, yeah, we had a house fire. I think lost his job. They were just trying to start a new life.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

You helped him out?

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Yeah, Yeah, I put $15 in his tank.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Griffin also suggested they go visit his neighbor Pete, who might have work for them so they could earn money.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Griffin showed up with this gentleman. I did not ever meet his wife. She was sitting in the car doing her makeup, but I didn't have any work at the moment.

[Narrator]

Cummins and Elizabeth then continue on their way to Black Bear Ranch, which is another two hours north.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

When I was covering the story in 2017, we went to Black Bear Ranch. It was very difficult to find. And when we got there, the residents didn't want us to film with our cameras. They eventually agreed to allow us to film with their older phone and. And one of the residents named April Showers gave us a tour.

[Expert / Commentator]

We're an off the grid homesteading community. We don't have any television, radio, cell phone, Internet. There's no contact with the outside world besides what comes in and out of the driveway.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The commune took the pair in, but over the next 10 days, there were problems. The two didn't follow the work rules of the commune. They stayed in bed all day and Tad insisted on carrying around a pocket knife for protection. So they didn't fit in here very well?

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

No, they didn't fit in here very well.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

How did they leave?

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

It was a unanimous decision.

[Expert / Commentator]

We didn't want them here at all and that we had to ask them to leave. He was very own uncomfortable Tad Cummins, and he got very angry.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

They then go back down to Cecilville and once again see Griffin Berry, the guy who helped them out.

[Expert / Commentator]

They needed to make some money. So he said, hey, I need some help moving some rock. If you want to help, I'll pay you to do that.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

I was like, I'll help you out. I put them in the cabin.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Can you show us the cabin? Yeah, for sure. So this is where they stayed. So they were hungry.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

The girl got excited when I give

[Interviewer / Reporter]

them some food and her. You didn't really get to talk to her a whole lot.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

When I was trying to strike up a conversation. I picked them up in the morning. I was like, what's your name? And she was like, joanna. It was almost with like an accent. Griffin just came back and said that this gentleman was back with his wife and that he put him up in the cabin down here.

[Narrator]

When Pete, the neighbor, finds out that they're back, he has a feeling, you know, What? Something's not right about this.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

I had remembered this news story about younger girl running off with an older man.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

Tomorrow marks three weeks since Thomas was last seen in Columbia.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

I googled it and it certainly looked like the guy ran into Griffin and said, hey, these are people staying up in the cabin here. I saw a photo of the guy and I was like, that's definitely him.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

So then what did you guys decide to do?

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

We went and called the police.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

You get a tip that they've been spotted in California.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

California.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

It came in late one night on like day 37.

[Community Member / Witness]

The original call started coming in about

[Expert / Commentator]

9 o' clock at night.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

So immediately we're like, okay, this could definitely be the real deal. So we sent a SWAT team from Siskiyou County.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The SWAT team arrived in this campground

[Expert / Commentator]

at about 3 o' clock in the morning.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

I remember radioing the year that the car was here. It had Colorado plates.

[Narrator]

The plates came back stolen, but to

[Community Member / Witness]

the same make and model vehicle that Tad Cummins was driving.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

The team parked their vehicles a ways away so you wouldn't hear doors close. It was hard to see because it was so dark. We had a sniper to provide oversight up on the hillside. We just kind of hunkered down and waited for daylight.

[Narrator]

The challenge for the swap team is police know that he's armed and they don't want a shootout. The plan is to have Griffin lure them out of the cabin as safely as possible.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Already had people everywhere, you know, but they were hidden. I yelled a little bit like, hey, hey. I guess, you know, that's what ended up up waking them up. And they both came out together. We sprung up from our cover positions, immediately, ran down the hill, real loud.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

Sheriff's Department.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Get on the ground.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The nationwide manhunt for the teacher accused of kidnapping a 15 year old student is over.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

That teacher is now under arrest. Tonight, the student has been found. Okay.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

A 15 year old Tennessee girl will be reunited with her grateful family today.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

We are beyond elated. Words really can't express the feelings that we have.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

How do you feel about Tad now? After being gone for more than a month, Tad Cummins is finally apprehended with Elizabeth Thomas in Northern California.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

Thursday, April 20th. Shortly after 9:30am, Mr. Cummings was taken into custody.

[Expert / Commentator]

It was just such a relief.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

Thank God she's all right.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

Frankly, the fact that she was found alive is a miracle. This story could have ended with they found her body.

[Narrator]

Elizabeth is flown back to Tennessee and taken to a safe house.

[Christy]

When she walked out, she was just so tiny. And just so frail.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

We were both utterly shocked when we saw her.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Anthony Thomas relieved to have his daughter back.

[Anthony Thomas (Elizabeth's Father)]

Sometimes she'll be happy and laughing and back to the same old girl. And then she'll be sometimes just in a field position, crying. It's been a roller coaster for her.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Donna says when Elizabeth first got home, she was still under Cummins spell and upset about being separated from him.

[Christy]

She loved him. She was in love with him, and she believed that he loved her back. She is in love with a man who is threatening her.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

Elizabeth was angry at us for a good while. Meanwhile, I was the guy in her mind that was going to put Tad away. She was still emotionally very much tied to this predator and had to be disconnected.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

When you guys were talking to Elizabeth, she didn't seem cooperative at first.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

No, she was not. You know, and that's understandably so. From her vantage point, Tad was something she could count on.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

And that she lost, that she just was adrift. She had to be taken apart emotionally, piece by piece and put back together. Right.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

It was tough for her to conclude that she was a victim of Tad Cummins. Just as it took time for him to groom her for exploitation, it took time for her to realize exactly what he had done to her.

[Narrator]

In her documentary, filmmaker Cheryl Nichols talks about her experience with her teacher.

[Cheryl Nichols (Documentary Filmmaker / Survivor)]

Like, I fell in love with my teacher when I was 16. None of us were so stupid to get into a relationship with our teacher. We were convinced that we were in love.

[Narrator]

It was hard for Cheryl to process that the relationship she says she had with her teacher was actually not consensual.

[Cheryl Nichols (Documentary Filmmaker / Survivor)]

When I found all this out, I felt like this person who I really trusted in my life had completed, completely bamboozled me. I struggled with really deeply low self esteem for a really long time in a way that it was difficult for me to function. Feeling like the entire world is looking at you in a negative light, like a home wrecker or a slut. I don't know how I would have survived if I didn't have therapy.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

There's a local therapist here that deserves immense praise for the work she did with Elizabeth.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

When Elizabeth sat down with me for her first television interview, she'd already undergone months of therapy just trying to process all that she had been through. How do you feel about Tad now?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I know he's a bad man. He only used me for one thing.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Do you think he preyed on you?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He did. And he manipulated me.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Why talk about what happened?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I just think it's time to start speaking up and letting people know what to look for and letting them put down boundaries.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Do you feel like people judge you?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

They do. A lot of them do. And they think that I'm a whore. They think that I like old men. And that's not the case.

[Christy]

A lot of people said, which infuriates me to this day. She knew what she was doing. Well, she's 15 and her 15 year old heart is manipulated.

[Cheryl Nichols (Documentary Filmmaker / Survivor)]

That is an easy way for people to put the blame back on the victim. I don't think it's the student's responsibility to be fending off sexual advances from adults.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The car ride and where you ended up. Is it a trip?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

It was not a trip. It was like a kidnapping kind of.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

He told you you had to go.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He said if he couldn't have me, he'd kill himself. Anytime he threatened himself, he'd threaten my family. I couldn't leave the car. I had to stay in the car with him at all times. And I wasn't ought to be in a store without him. He made me sleep naked and my clothes would be put somewhere else. And he was a light sleeper, so if I moved he'd be awake. And I couldn't even use the bathroom at night without him having to stand right there.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

He would follow you to the bathroom.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

At the hotels I would shower every morning because I felt dirty and disgusting.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

The reality of Elizabeth's life on the run was that she was a victim of sexual assault every single day.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I know. We went to Ask and then Grand Junction and then Utah.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

You guys got to San Diego and he took a kayak out.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Yeah, my hands got tired not even halfway out.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

So he was making you paddle as well?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Yeah, we were both paddling and he kept going and I just couldn't.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Were you scared?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I was terrified. The boat kept going down.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Did you know this whole time all this was going on that everyone, I mean like all of America was looking for you?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I saw it on Fox News one time in the hotel.

[Narrator]

A manhunt is underway and I remember

[Elizabeth Thomas]

it was a nationwide ambler alert. I knew it was for me. He called me his wife sometimes and he said that we were going to get married. That I was going to live with him until I died.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Was that a choice?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Not really.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

It was made for me, for people who don't understand. Why was it you felt like you didn't have a choice?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

If I made my choice and I tried to leave, he would hurt me.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Were you afraid he would kill you?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

A lot of the time.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

The day that the police show up.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I came out of the cabin, and it was early morning, and then all you hear is, hands up. It's over.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Did Tad say something to you?

[Former Student / Witness]

Yeah.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

He said not to tell them that we have done anything. He said, whatever I say, you go

[Interviewer / Reporter]

with it until the very end. It seems Tad Cummins was still trying to manipulate Elizabeth, but now he was going to have to face those investigators who had tracked him clear across the country. And they had a lot of questions for him.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

At one point during the interview, he said, am I in trouble? And I said, tad, you've just been arrested by the FBI.

[Tad Cummins]

Tad Cummings is in federal custody in California.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

He was arrested there.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Following a nationwide search, Tad Cummins is

[Narrator]

transported to an FBI office. Now, this is going to be the first time that authorities have a chance to interrogate him.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

Tyler and myself and Marcus interviewed him.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

What was his demeanor?

[Expert / Commentator]

It was almost like a relief for him. That is over with now.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

Guys like him, they want to tell their story. They wanted to show you how smart they are and how awesome they are. Now, he didn't want to tell about the criminal acts he had committed along the way. And he walked us through the whole thing. It was like story storytelling session with Tad.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

He just kind of rambled on about being a father figure for a relationship.

[Expert / Commentator]

He was a savior to her and was helping her leave a bad situation.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

He tells us he just wants to go home. He wants to get this behind him. He's ready to move on.

[Expert / Commentator]

I don't think it registered in his mind until we were halfway through the interview that, hey, you know what you did was wrong.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Investigators already suspect that Elizabeth Thomas had been sexually assaulted by Cummins, but he refuses to say that. At the beginning of the interview, he

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

says that things would not be sexual between us. That wouldn't happen.

[Narrator]

The investigators questioning Tad Cummins were determined to get this admission out of him. They're telling him, look, we've got all sorts of information on you. We know exactly what you did.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

He got very defensive at that time. He started kind of backing up a little bit, and he finally gets to a point where he becomes emotional.

[Expert / Commentator]

And we asked him, did you have sex with her? And in a trembling voice, he said, of course we did.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

During that interview, he did say, she's a very sexual kid. Now, just that this sentence alone can tell you that he knew that she was a child, referred to her as a kid, completely recognizing that what he was doing was sexually exploiting her.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And Elizabeth shared with us that Cummins even plied her with Alcohol in order to have sex.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

Once he did ultimately confess, and he started crying, like, oh, man. Like, I'm caught. I'm busted.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

You don't think he was sorry for what he did?

[Expert / Commentator]

No, I think think that the tears that happened in the interview was because now my life is over.

[Law Enforcement / Investigator]

And then he automatically starts switching to, okay, how am I going to rebuild my life with Jill and the girls?

[Narrator]

Cummins called his wife from jail.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

In a television interview at the time, Jill described that jailhouse call.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

He told me he was sorry and that he told me he loved me and please forgive him. I, of course, went into a rage of, do you know what you've done to me?

[Narrator]

Jill confronted him about his criminal behavior.

[Jill Cummins (Tad's Wife)]

I said, well, did you sleep with her? And he said, yes, I did. And I didn't want any details, but I knew the truth. I just wanted to hear it from him. To me.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Not surprisingly, Jill ultimately divorced Tad Cummins.

[Narrator]

Another breaking news alert. A hearing just wrapped up for Tad Cummins.

[Community Member / Witness]

Tad Cummins, he was charged with crossing state lines with a minor for the purpose of having sex.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

An obstruction of justice, and that was for throwing the phones to elude law enforcement into the river. So knowingly doing that and destroying that evidence. There were numerous tries by Mr. Commons to go to trial.

[Narrator]

Ultimately, he decided to plead guilty at the sentencing hearing. Elizabeth Thomas finally has her day in court.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

You had to see him in court.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I did, and I made that choice. And I wanted him to know that I'm not his puppet anymore.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

She was physically shaking in court, physically shaking. We had to block her view of him. Just to look at him was more than she could take.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

Elizabeth Thomas wrote an amazing victim impact statement. Mr. Cummins, what you did to me is unspeakable. All you were was a man who wanted sex. And you manipulated me and used me just for that.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

Elizabeth went on to say, you saw a broken girl who was. Was lonely, scared, and traumatized. You made her feel safe and loved because you saw what she needed and made her believe you would be her protector.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

Good evening, everyone. It is a crime the judge called despicable. And now the man behind it will

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

spend the next 20 years in prison.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

I don't believe for a second that you could ever really do justice in this case, because Elizabeth can't go back and change her life. She'll always be known as the girl who left with her teacher.

[Narrator]

Though Cummins admitted his guilt, he said there was also someone else to blame.

[Sarah Beth Myers]

He did actually, at one point, blame the devil.

[Christy]

Elizabeth said to me, is he saying that I'm the devil. That really bothered her. I said, he's not calling you the devil, sweetheart. He is just a coward who is blaming anybody but himself.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

I blame myself a lot. But now I know that he's at fault. And he can say all day long the devil made him do it, but he is the devil.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

While the scars from her ordeal may never fully heal, Elizabeth is in a very different place today.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

It has been like watching a miracle take place.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

In 2017. When I first started covering the story, I tried to talk to Penny Love, the principal of the Coleoka Unit School, about what happened with Tad Cummins and Elizabeth Thomas. Can you just tell us why you didn't call authorities right away when you found out about the Tad Cummings incident? Do you have any comment? Even though it took a week for the school to call police after Tad Cummings was caught kissing Elizabeth, the principal spared no time calling police on us

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

off the property.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

All right, we're going. The Thomas family sued the Murray County Board of Education, and the case was settled for a reported 650,000. The Board of Education saying the settlement does not constitute an admission that it violated any duty or obligation owed to Thomas. And remember that $10,000 reward that Tad Cummins former colleague put up? Well, the man who called police was

[Sarah Beth Myers]

able to collect it, Griffin berry, accepted the $10,000 in reward money this afternoon on the steps of the courthouse.

[Narrator]

Jason Whatley and his paralegal Donna Simlar represented the Thomas family. But they had actually never met Elizabeth until after her ordeal.

It wasn't easy for Elizabeth to accept them.

[Christy]

She had no idea who I was. She later told me, though, that she didn't like either me or Jason.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

But Donna didn't let that stop her from trying to connect with Elizabeth. Jason Whatley credits Donna for stepping in and filling a void.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

The child needed stability. The child needed direction. And in large part, Donna provided that. Donna showed her unconditional love. It's a mother daughter relationship.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Donna is like a best friend.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

You guys are pretty tight.

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Everyone needs a Donna.

[Christy]

I love Elizabeth just like she were my own. She always says everybody needs a Donna in their life. But with me to Georgia this year, I don't think she realizes how much I needed her.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

And when I talked to Elizabeth, I asked her what she hoped her future would look like. What are your dreams for your life?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

To have a family and protect them and not let them lead down the road like I was and make them have a better life.

[Narrator]

Elizabeth is now 21. It's been five years since she was taken by Tad Cummins.

[Christy]

She is married to the love of her life and then she got pregnant with her son. Spencer is his name.

[Family Member / Emotional Commentator]

I thought she was lost. I thought she was gone. That turned out not to be true. It has been like watching a miracle take place.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Good girl.

[Expert / Commentator]

These are the outcomes that we as law enforcement left to see. I'm sure she has days where she struggles, but being able to flourish through those traumas and to have a family and to have some sort of normal life, it's great to see.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

For other young girls like yourself, what advice do you have for them?

[Elizabeth Thomas]

Put down boundaries. Don't let someone push you around and make you do something you don't want to do. And say something to someone if you feel like something's wrong.

[Interviewer / Reporter]

When you look back at everything that

[Elizabeth Thomas]

happened, it's a bad place. But now I'm in a better one.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

We should note tonight that Ted Cummins remains in a federal prison. He isn't scheduled to be released until 2034.

[Narrator]

And you can find all new broadcast episodes of 2020 Friday nights at 9 on ABC.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Athletic Brewing Company crafts award winning non

[Tad Cummins]

alcoholic beers for those who want to be part of every round. With over 185 flavor awards, there are exceptional NA beers that fit your lifestyle and any social occasion. Summer's full of good times and Athletic fits right in.

[Investigator / Law Enforcement]

Go to athleticbrewing.com to have brews delivered to your door or find them at

[Tad Cummins]

a bar, restaurant or store near you. Nirbeer Athletic Brewing Co. Fit for all times.