The Fugitive Mother (Part 2 of 2)

Summary

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The Knife: A True Crime Podcast

Episode: The Fugitive Mother (Part 2 of 2)

Hosts: Hannah Smith & Patia Eaton
Guest: Lee Barnett
Date: March 5, 2026

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Episode Overview

Theme:
This riveting episode concludes the two-part story of Lee Barnett (aka Alexandria Maria Canton/Geldenhughs), a mother who, following a contentious custody battle in Charleston, South Carolina in 1994, went on the run with her infant daughter. Through in-depth first-person storytelling, Lee narrates how she forged documents, assumed new identities, and eluded law enforcement across several continents for two decades. The episode examines the emotional toll of her choices, the complicated roles of the justice and family court systems, and ultimately, the human impact on everyone touched by the case.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Descent into Flight: From Courtroom Drama to Thriller

• Recap from Part 1: Lee’s marriage deteriorates, she loses custody of her daughter, Savannah, and is labeled “crazy and dangerous” in court despite having been Savannah’s primary caretaker (03:19).
• Turning Point: When she no longer saw a way to keep her daughter safe within the legal system, Lee began planning to disappear: “This is no longer a courtroom drama. It’s now an action thriller.” — Hannah Smith (03:22)

2. Creating New Identities: The Mechanics of Disappearance

• MacArthur Park, Los Angeles: Lee describes seeking counterfeit birth certificates: “I put my finger down the phone book, picked out our new names… I decided I was going to make Samantha a boy because she was still bald.” — Lee Barnett (04:54)
• Navigating Danger: She describes a harrowing exchange in a crime-ridden park to get the documents, including being told to walk through a tunnel as a test of trust or desperation (05:57).
• Forging IDs: Lee meticulously creates photo IDs and forges supporting documents, overcoming obstacles at every turn and even bluffing her way through passport applications by pretending to be sick (12:02).

3. The Escape: Execution of Her Plan

• Meticulous Planning: Lee uses multiple vehicles, disguises herself and her daughter, and relies on trusted family members but keeps them in the dark for their own protection (13:52, 16:22).
• Timeline: She leaves Charleston on "day 65" after the trial loss, only fleeing after waiting in vain for a written court order for appeal (18:09).
• Emotional Farewell: Before disappearing, Lee records a lengthy video and letter explaining her reasons for abduction, highlighting feelings of being gaslit and disbelieved by the system (22:49).

4. Life on the Run: Survival, Secrecy, and Reinvention

• Global Journey: Moves from Germany and Paris to Malaysia, then South Africa, Botswana, New Zealand, and ultimately Australia, always under new identities (29:50, 35:02).
• Building a New Family: Marries, forges new birth certificates and identities for her daughter (now Samantha), and gives birth to a son, Rhys. Raises her children as a “normal family,” but only Lee and her husband know the full truth (35:55).
• Constant Paranoia: Despite external normalcy, Lee describes chronic vigilance and the emotional burden of always being on guard (39:04).
• Support Systems: Confided only in a select few, strategically never putting American friends in legal jeopardy (41:35).

5. Capture and Consequences

• Discovery & Arrest: After nearly 20 years, Lee is arrested in Australia in front of her son, mere days after her second (now ex-) husband’s death. The scene is described with dark humor and honesty (49:33).
• Revelations: She must reveal her true identity to her children, especially to Samantha, in a painful and emotional phone call. Samantha responds with immediate trust but is devastated to learn her father is not her biological parent (51:17).
• Extradition & Sentencing: Lee fights extradition for ten months, then pleads guilty and is ultimately sentenced to 21 months in federal prison (including for passport fraud). She narrowly avoids the maximum potential sentence of 23 years (54:13, 56:46).
• Reflection: Lee expresses no regret, emphasizing survival and protection over remorse. She insists, “A crazy person couldn’t have done all the things I did and maintained such a normal life.” (59:12)

6. Complicated Legacies

• Impact on Children: Both her children, especially Samantha, speak positively about their upbringing and their relationship with Lee, crediting her with a loving, normal childhood (62:22).
• Reconnection: Samantha eventually establishes a distant but cordial relationship with her biological father (61:46).
• Cautionary Perspective: Despite the outcome, Lee emphatically warns others not to try what she did: “You’ll get caught and you’ll never be able to protect your child. … There’s not a single person that I would ever say, yes, go on the run.” (63:15).

7. Larger Themes & Reflections

• Systemic Failings: The hosts and Lee discuss the family court system’s biases, especially against mothers in the ’90s and how “mental illness” was wielded as a legal weapon.
• Complex Victimhood: The hosts acknowledge that while Lee’s story is compelling, her former husband’s loss of his daughter and the court’s perspective must be considered (67:22).
• Ordinary People, Extraordinary Actions: The case demonstrates how, under pressure, “a regular person who doesn’t have any kind of FBI…training can figure out how to go on the run, how to forge documents” — and how desperation can push ordinary people to extraordinary acts (70:02, 70:28).

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Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On entering a life of crime:
  “There was no reason, but I think he wanted to see the shock factor and also to see if I was being followed or to see how serious I was. So I start down that tunnel, and people were laying with needles sticking out of their arms. There was defecation.” — Lee Barnett (05:24)

• On acquiring the forged passports:
  “I whited out the names. I photocopied it, typed the new names in, and then I laminated it… and voila. I was now Alexandra Maria Canton, US Air flight attendant.” — Lee Barnett (12:02)

• The fateful escape:
  “We threw my hair into this little river… I changed dress, Samantha as a little boy… Then he cut my hair off. Yeah, I dyed my hair and put my contacts in. And we almost missed the plane…” — Lee Barnett (16:22)

• On the ever-present risk of being discovered:
  “I never had that [feeling of being safe].” — Lee Barnett (29:28)

• On fabricating her daughter’s identity (and family):
  “…He fell in love with. Everybody fell in love with Savannah the second they met her. Now she's Samantha. … We literally got married right away and then had Reese, my son, 10, 11 months later.” — Lee Barnett (34:10)

• Lee’s vulnerability at her arrest:
  “You envisioned this arrest your whole 20 years. You don’t envision being in Tasmanian boxer shorts and a scrub shirt.” — Lee Barnett (49:33)

• On telling her daughter the truth, after 20 years:
  “I said, honey, I was married 20 years ago, and I had to take you when you were 11 months old to keep you safe. … Mom, I trust you. Of course I do… 30 seconds goes by, and the phone rings, and it’s Sammy. …She just said, mom. And I said, what? And she said, does that mean my daddy wasn’t my daddy? And I just said, sweetheart, your daddy will always be your daddy.” — Lee Barnett (51:41)

• On having no regrets:
  “No, I wish I did. I cannot tell you how scary it is to be deemed mentally ill when you’ve had nothing wrong with you… you have no control over that.” — Lee Barnett (59:12)

• On survivor’s guilt and her message to others:
  “If anything, I have the worst survivor's guilt because Samantha and I had an aunt, Reese, we had… a normal Leave It to Beaver life. It didn't seem like it inside, I was being eaten alive, but on the outside, we did. There's not a single person that I would ever say, yes, go on the run because you'll get caught and you'll never be able to protect your child.” — Lee Barnett (63:15)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:19] Introduction/Recap of Lee Barnett's legal battle
• [04:54] Lee describes getting birth certificates at MacArthur Park
• [10:29] Disguises and forging identity documents
• [15:03] The detailed escape plan involving her brother
• [22:49] Lee’s recorded video and justifications
• [29:50] Life in Malaysia and work permit schemes
• [35:02] Remaking life and new family in South Africa
• [39:04] Settling in Australia, the sense of normalcy
• [49:33] The day of Lee's arrest
• [51:17] Telling her children the truth post-arrest
• [54:13] Trial, plea, and sentencing details
• [62:22] Lee and her children’s relationship after prison
• [67:22] Hosts' reflection on victimhood and grey areas
• [70:02] Theme: Ordinary person doing something extraordinary out of desperation

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Reflections & Final Thoughts

• Empathetic but Nuanced: The podcast and interview foreground Lee’s emotional reality and the perceived systemic failings that led to her actions, while not shying away from hard questions about the ethics and victims of her crime.
• A Story of Gray Areas: Victim/perpetrator lines blur—Lee is both a lawbreaker and, to many listeners, a relatable mother desperate to protect her child.
• Broader Commentary: Raises questions about the family court system, gendered accusations of “mental illness,” the trauma of custody battles, and the complexities of justice when emotional truth and legal truth diverge.

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For further details on Lee's pre-fugitive life and the trial, listen to Part 1 of this series.

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Transcript

[Lee Barnett]

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[Hannah Smith]

contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.

[Patia Eaton]

The claims and opinions in this podcast are those of the speaker and do not necessarily represent the Knife or exactly right media.

[Lee Barnett]

And I said, are there any of you guys FBI? Because there was like 12 of them raiding the house because there's two of them waiting outside. I said, bring them on in. So I knew then that was it.

[Hannah Smith]

Welcome to the Knife. I'm Hannah Smith.

[Patia Eaton]

I'm Patia Eaton. This is part two of a two episode series. If you have not heard part one, we recommend you go back and listen to that now. We will be back at the end of the episode to discuss the series. Let's get into part two.

[Hannah Smith]

Last episode. We heard about Leigh Barnett's crumbling marriage and the vicious divorce trial and custody battle. Lee was devastated to lose custody of her daughter, Savannah. Now if this were a movie, the screen would go dark here and then reopen in an entirely different genre. So far we've been watching a legal drama set in Charleston, South Carolina in 1994. A young mother sits at the defense table while her sanity is dissected. She is painted as crazy and dangerous, an unfit mother. Her powerful and respected stockbroker ex husband comes out on top and her child is carried out of the courtroom in someone else's arms. But then, without warning, the film changes. The camera follows a 33 year old flight attendant, determined and plotting, studying airport monitors and a map of Los Angeles. This is no longer a courtroom drama. It's now an action thriller. It is the story of a woman who never imagined breaking the law until the law became the thing standing between her and her child. With nowhere left to turn, she does the only thing she believes will keep her daughter safe. She decides to kidnap her and disappear. And Lee was not an expert by any means. She had not been trained for this. She had just heard about a park in Los Angeles where illegal goods could be bought. And so she got on a plane to California and decided to figure it out as she went.

[Lee Barnett]

So I heard about MacArthur Park. I got a really seedy motel, very easy to do around the corner. Rented a car and opened a phone book in the room. I put my finger down the phone book, picked out our new names. I decided I was going to make Samantha Boy because she was still bald. Mine was Alexandria Maria and Samantha came out as Nick Mara. I wrote down that, did the same thing with birth dates. When I got down to McArthur park, everybody was going around. They could drive constantly around the park, you know, selling stuff. And they kept asking me like, did I want all these drugs and stuff? I'm like, no, no. I just want birth certificates. And finally this guy goes, birth certificates? And I go, yeah. And he goes, okay, go under that tunnel. Meet me on the other side of the park. And there was no reason, but I think he wanted to see the shock factor and also to see if I was being followed or to see how serious I was. So I started down that tunnel, and people were laying with needles sticking out of their arms. There was defecation.

[Hannah Smith]

I know the tunnel Lee's talking about. I used to work near MacArthur Park. It's in a high density area of Los Angeles called Westlake. And there have been major efforts to clean up the park since 2002. And as recently as 2024, crime has significantly reduced in the area. But in the 1980s and 90s, it was riddled with crime and gang violence. In the year 1990 alone, 30 people were reportedly murdered in the park. And then There's Lee in 1994, showing up at this park to obtain counterfeit birth certificates. One for herself under the name Alexandria, and one for her daughter Savannah, who now goes by Samantha. Savannah was less than a year old at the time. And so Lee's plan was to dress her up like a little boy and use the name Nick. And that is how she found herself walking through this tunnel.

[Lee Barnett]

I get out of there and he's over there. And I'm like, I get to the car and guess I passed the test. And he goes, get in the back of the car. I get in the back of his car and he keeps driving.

[Hannah Smith]

Wow.

[Lee Barnett]

And he goes, what do you want? I go, I need two birth certificates. And I said, here are the names and the birth dates. You know, make them California birth certificates. So he says, okay. And he goes, meet me back here at 3 or 4. And I said, okay. And he told me where. All right, so I have all day. This is early in the morning. Time to do something. I thought, well, I've never seen a California birth certificate. Maybe I should go see what it looks like. So I stood in the passport line, because every state's got three types of birth certificates. The one with the little feet, you know, and then there's a small version along. And I invariably always took the wrong one in. And I didn't know what a California one looked like. So I tapped the lady in front of me, I said, can you just make sure I brought the right person? I looked at it, and it has blue trim around and yellow speckles all the way. Through. So I go back down to Mark Arthur Park. He pulls up. I get in the back of the car. He told me it was $100 each. I opened the envelope and there was two really crappy black and white copies.

[Hannah Smith]

Oh, no.

[Lee Barnett]

And I have to get back for visitation. And I'm on this time frame, like, panicking, so I go, don't mess with me. And I grab him by the back of the shirt and I go, I've got to have them. They've got blue, blue around the outside, yellow speckles. And like he was just shocked. I was shocked. And he goes, well, meet me here tomorrow morning on that bench at nine. Okay. Went back the next day, he wasn't there. I saw him across the street and I saw him put something in a newspaper he picked up at the store. And I was like, God, is that a gun or a knife? I mean, what the hell did he slide in that newspaper? And then he motioned to me 20 more minutes, and about 25 minutes later, he was behind me. And he goes, don't turn around. Too many cops. And he said, just keep looking straight. And he sat on the other end of the bench and he slid the newspaper over to me. And I opened the newspaper and there are two really good looking birth certificates. So I put my $200 in and I slid it back to him. Before I could even say thank you, he was gone. It was like crazy. And I was like, oh, my God. Step one down.

[Matt Rogers]

Wow.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah, that was good.

[Patia Eaton]

So you have these two birth certificates. You've given yourself the alias of Alexandria Maria Canton.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

And Savannah is now Nick Mora Canton. Nick Mora Canton. Okay. So currently you've labeled her birth certificate as a boy. Because you're like, no one's gonna check. Yeah. Okay. And then you get on a plane to return for your visitation.

[Lee Barnett]

Just in time.

[Patia Eaton]

Okay, so I see. So now you're headed back to Charleston.

[Lee Barnett]

So I got back on the red eye. I guess I got there just in time. And I had Samantha. It was getting really bad. Then by the time she would come home and I've got all my friends as witnesses, she was pulling her hair out. She would stick, just really not her. So everything just kept propelling me to move forward. So when she left on Sunday night, I called my best childhood friend and she lived in Houston. And I said, susie, can I come out and see you in Houston? And she said, you can always come. And I said, I just got to get away from Charleston. They've taken Savannah, you know, and so

[Hannah Smith]

I go out there Lee had visitation rights to Savannah every other weekend from Friday evening to Sunday evening. She had hurried back to Charleston just in time for her weekend with Savannah. But after the weekend was over, Lee got back to planning. With her new fake birth certificates in tow, she flew to Houston and set in motion phase two of her plan to start a brand new life as Alexandria Maria Canton.

[Lee Barnett]

I borrowed her car, so I drove like an hour away, and I got a black wig, brown contacts, and brown. The horn rim glasses. Then I went down to the motor vehicle and I did the whole driver's license thing. They said, okay, let's get your id. But back then, they didn't do a picture id. They gave you a temporary one for two weeks. And I'm like, oh, my God. I didn't think of that. And I had to make up a fake address real quick for them to send the real ID to because I didn't want to be hooked to anybody else. So I was like, crap. So then I go to the passport office, and I got my temporary driver's license and my birth certificate, our birth certificates. And they said, oh, I'm so sorry. You need a picture id And I went, oh, my God. So I emptied up my purse in the car. I knew I couldn't use my driver's license. And, you know, so then I see my US Air flight attendant id.

[Hannah Smith]

Lee needed two things in order to get a passport for Alexandria Maria Canton and her son Nick. She needed a birth certificate, which she had, and a picture id, which she did not have. And even though she'd gone through the trouble of getting a driver's license in Alexandria's name, the official license with the photo would be mailed to a random address in California in two to three weeks. So that wouldn't work. Instead, that evening, as her friend in Houston went on a date, Lee headed to Kinko's to make Alexandria a photo id.

[Lee Barnett]

They had, like, all night services, and they just started photocopying at that time. Like, color copy, not photo. But it just did it, like, not too long before I got a color copy. I remember it's a big deal. And I used a number two pencil on my eyes. I whited out the names. I photocopied it, typed the new names in, and then I laminated it and cut it all up and everything, and voila. I was now Alexandra Maria Canton, US Air flight attendant. So I go back to the passport office the next day, and it was a lady who was helping me, and she's looking at the picture because I couldn't change my hair, you know, And I've got this black wig on. She's looking at the picture, she's looking at me. She's looking the picture, looking at me. And then finally I just lean forward and I go, I've been really sick. And she goes, oh, I understand. Like, you know, it was a week cancer. And she put it through the next day. I went and he said, here. And I just waited every minute to be swarmed in on by cops. You know, I just knew I was going to get nailed. And there were cameras back in those days in there. And I opened up the envelope and there were two brand new, beautiful, real US Passports.

[Hannah Smith]

Lee says she still feels guilty about claiming to have cancer to that woman at the passport office. But this is what happens, what would continue to happen. Because once she started the lies, she felt like she had no choice but to continue them, to build upon them. She was able to pay for next day pickup in person of the passports. Now she had everything that she would need to flee the country. Now you have a passport for you

[Lee Barnett]

and for Nick Marakatten, my son, who

[Patia Eaton]

is actually Savannah Barnett.

[Lee Barnett]

Yes.

[Hannah Smith]

So now you have birth certificates and passports.

[Lee Barnett]

So then I've got. Visitations are coming up again. And. But Thursday I packed and I was stuffing cash in a shoe for all this year and a half of 15, 18 months of hell. And so I had about $8,000, I think. But I packed everything I could think of, mainly everything for Samantha to make her feel comfortable, like baby stuff and all that and pictures because I wanted photographs I could show her, you know, as she got older. And I loaded everything except for the car seat and the stroller in the car. I drove it down to Jacksonville, Florida airport. I rented a car at the airport. I loaded everything in it. I parked it in Lot 23 at the airport. And then I headed down to the beach to my hippie brothers house. And he was out wind surfing. And he sees me and he comes running up and he's like, hey, what are you doing here? I go, I got a favor to ask you. And I said, we have to leave. Because of course you have to leave. You've done everything you could possibly do. And I said, Here's $300. I said, I need you to pick me up Saturday. I said, when you return the car, you need to tear up my credit card receipt.

[Hannah Smith]

Okay, this part gets a little bit complicated, but it also goes to show just how meticulous Lee was. A few days before her next visitation with Savannah, she drove nearly Four hours to Jacksonville, Florida, where her brother lived. But she had no intention of flying out of Jacksonville. She handed a set of car keys to her brother and gave him precise instructions. On Saturday, he was to retrieve a rental car that she'd parked at the airport, take that car, drive about four hours to Charleston, and pick up Lee and Savannah. Not from Lee's home, notably, but from a nearby hotel where they'd be waiting. From Charleston, he would then drive them another five hours to Atlanta, Georgia, and drop them at the airport. Then he would return to Jacksonville alone and return the rental car. Lee paid for everything in cash. Every detail seems intentional. She didn't use her own vehicle in case it was recognized. She didn't leave the rental car parked at her brother's house where neighbors might notice it or notice her if anyone came around asking questions. By keeping the car at the airport, it blended in and she chose to fly out of an airport that wouldn't tie her to family. Lee laid out the plan to her brother.

[Lee Barnett]

I said, will you do it? And he goes, of course I'll do it. And I said, number one, whatever you do, do not drink. I said, promise me you won't drink. Because he was an alcoholic. And I'm thinking I'm putting our lives in the hands of an alcoholic. But I also knew he had so much less to lose than anybody else. And I didn't want to, you know, tell anybody that would be destroyed. So I got Savannah visitation. I pretended like my car was broken, asked a friend for a ride to downtown Charleston, went up to the third floor, and he showed up a little after 11. And we headed to Atlanta airport. And on the way to Atlanta, I plan on stopping at this motel and getting him to cut my hair and dye my hair. But it was full, so we ended up having to do it down in a park. And we threw my hair into this little river. And then I had to go to a public bathroom. And I changed dress. Samantha as a little boy. Sorry for the Samantha. Savannah. I know. Then he cut my hair off. Yeah, I dyed my hair and put my contacts in. And we almost missed the plane because when I came out, he drank two beers.

[Hannah Smith]

Oh, wow.

[Lee Barnett]

And he missed the airport exit. But all because of that, they threw everything on the plane. They rushed us to the tarmac. And I think that saved us from having anything stamped because we had nothing stamped when we got on the plane.

[Hannah Smith]

Wow. And how long was your visitation supposed to be?

[Lee Barnett]

I got her Friday night at 6 and had to give her up Sunday night at 6.

[Hannah Smith]

So you're on a timeline of like, I need to get on a plane before Sunday night.

[Lee Barnett]

Oh, yeah. And as they said, I think it was in the 48 hours. They're like, where were you? I said, I was probably in Paris. By the time they realized I was gone, then I wouldn't have her for two weeks. I left on day 65, so I went to MacArthur Park. Day 46.

[Hannah Smith]

When Lee says day 46, she means 46 days after the trial ended and she lost custody of her daughter. Lee and her legal team were waiting for the written court order, the official divorce decree to be completed, because she couldn't file an appeal until that was done. Lee says she was told by her attorneys that it would only take 30 days. As soon as that 30 day marker passed, Lee started making plans. She says she made her trip to Los Angeles looking for falsified birth certificates on day 46 and the day that she stepped onto a plane with Savannah to flee the country, it was day 65. Lee says part of why she fled is that she did not trust the court system to give her a fair chance to appeal the case and fight for custody of her daughter. She claims that the entire time she planned her exit, she still waited for that divorce decree to come through, hoping that there would be some legal channel forward. Even on the night before she fled the U.S. she says she checked to see if that court order had come through.

[Lee Barnett]

My lawyer called Friday night, and I just said, any court order? And he said, no. We were out having a beer the other night and said he's going to get around to it.

[Patia Eaton]

So before you left, did you make anyone aware of what you were doing?

[Lee Barnett]

No, only my brother. When I told. And I still. He begged me to tell me my name, where I was going, and I said, I can't do it. I cannot do it. He begged me all the way to the lane. He's like, what if something happens? I go, then it happens. I can't tell you. And I'm so glad because I knew, you know, it's. You don't have a tyrant. You don't have a narcissist dictator that does anything on their own. It's the people that support him below. So I knew this whole group was so powerful. They had me accused of being mentally ill with no evidence, and they just took a nursing baby from a good mom back in the early 90s. That's unthinkable. So I knew that they really had a lot of power and they were not going to stop at anything now

[Patia Eaton]

you recorded a video though. When did that happen?

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah, that was a dumb thing to do too. So in the meantime, this is before Internet, before anything, before cell phones, really.

[Hannah Smith]

Lee left a letter and a recorded video behind. In the video, she goes through her story. She talks about how things went wrong with Harris and how he never wanted the baby. She says that he repeatedly suggested that he wasn't the father because she was, quote, promiscuous. And he showed no interest in visiting or seeing Savannah at all until Lee pressed him for child support. Lee claims it was only then that he went for custody. She says Harris made significantly more money than she did, which is true. Their incomes are laid out in the court documents. Harris made almost three times what Lee made when Lee was able to work. I should note that she had taken a lot of time off after she had Savannah, and she was Savannah's primary caretaker and covering the costs herself. But the moment that Harris won full custody, Lee had to pay him child support. Lee paints a picture of a system that unfairly worked against her. Of a guardian ad litem who sided with Harris, a psychiatrist who tricked her into taking an antipsychotic drug, and multiple people she claimed lied. On the stand, she explains that her daughter was taken from her because she supposedly had a mental illness, hyperthymic temperament, which Lee points out is not even a psychiatric disorder listed in the DSM 3. Lee says that Harris had told her that if she went on medication, she could see Savannah more often. But Lee refused to take medication that she did not need. Lee claims in the video that Harris is not just an aloof or absent father, but a dangerous one. Remember how at Lee's first visitation rights with Savannah, she found her daughter to have bruising on her body. Harris later claimed that that happened while his mother was watching Savannah and that it was an accident. But Lee claims that it's more sinister than that, that her daughter is not safe. And she says that it all comes back to revenge toward her. She says about Harris, quote, he will stop at nothing to destroy me. For someone who did not feel listened to in court, it makes sense that Lee would lay everything out from her perspective. In this video, she wanted to explain why she was about to extreme, why she was about to commit the crime of parental kidnapping.

[Lee Barnett]

She says this Savannah and I belong

[Hannah Smith]

together

[Lee Barnett]

and nobody besides God has the right to destroy that. I wanted to leave proof and I left an 86 minute video and I named everything and everyone and if I didn't do that, they would have thought I was dead or something. But now, they knew I left on my own verition, and so probably big mistake, but I felt I was doing the right thing because I knew the hell that we had been through for 18 months, and I knew that other people were living that hell every day.

[Patia Eaton]

And so you are in Paris by the time they realize you're gone, you and your daughter.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

And you're living under aliases or you've traveled there under aliases.

[Lee Barnett]

No. We first flew to Germany. Okay. When we landed in Germany, the announcement came on, and it said, Can Ms. Canton and baby stay on board? And this is Delta flight. And I just thought, oh, dear God. I literally was shaking so bad that when everybody deplaned, they're all staring at us. And I'm trying to smile, looking normal, you know, and trying to make this after a whole long flight to Germany. And Sammy's ready to go, and I'm just. I'm ready to just die. I stand up, the baby bag falls open. My wipes roll out underneath the seats. And you think, that's not a big deal, but I hid the $8,000 in those wipes. So I'm crawling on the floor trying to get them, and I'm shaking so bad, and everybody's off the plane. I'm like, I can't go backwards. I can't get out of here. I'm in the prison. So I finally go out, go out. I'm at the cockpit, I turn left, and there's four agents standing there, Delta agents. And I looked at him, and I'm like, yeah. And they go, you Miss Canton? I go, yeah. They said that we've heard that you're traveling with a baby and a whole lot of luggage, and we came to help you. And I'm going, oh, oh, you just can't arrest me on the plane. And then we're in the Jetway. I'm like, they can't arrest me here. So when we get to the airport part, they're gonna arrest me. We get down, they load all the luggage on. There's two big giant carts, and they take us up to immigration. There's a super long line at immigration. And don't forget, I was a flight attendant even at that moment, they didn't know it. And they go, oh, look at the line. Well, let's just take them through the crew line. They waltz Savannah and I through the crew line with all of our luggage. Nobody checked our passports. Nobody stamped anything. Nobody did anything. Then they took us all the way to the train because I'd never taken a train and loaded everything on for us and off we went to Paris. So there was no record of us anywhere. There was a little guardian angel on my left shoulder.

[Matt Rogers]

This is Matt Rogers from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

[Bowen Yang]

This is Bowen Yang from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. What if your WI fi was more than just WI fi? What if your wi fi made everything in your whole house just work together better?

[Matt Rogers]

Well, Xfinity WI Fi pretty much does exactly that. It's powered by their best, most elite high performing tech.

[Bowen Yang]

Allow us to PA very realistic example. Everyone in your house, everyone is on their devices at the exact same time. Gaming, working, swiping, right? Because of course they are. And the finale of your favorite show of all time of the week is on at the exact same moment. Well, you can boost the WI Fi to your device with Xfinity.

[Matt Rogers]

And have you ever asked yourself, what if my Wi fi could keep watch over my kids for me? Well, probably not, because that's a weird thing to ask yourself. But Xfinity WI Fi has parenting skills, even if you sometimes forget yours. Xfinity's like don't worry, I'll monitor the WI fi.

[Bowen Yang]

It's completely proactive, fixing issues before they even happen. Bottom line, Xfinity is smart and reliable. You deserve the peace of mind of having WI fi that's got your back.

[Matt Rogers]

Xfinity Imagine that support for the show

[Public Sponsor Announcer]

comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comdisclosures Now I'd

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[Patia Eaton]

And when your money rolled under the seats in that wipes package, did someone just hand it back to you?

[Lee Barnett]

No, I was digging under, I was like. But I was shaking so bad. I mean, I, if anybody could look guilty, that would have been me. It's like they're gonna put me in a mental hospital. There's no one that's gonna be able to protect this child. You know, I didn't even make it one leg of my journey. I'm like, how useless am I?

[Patia Eaton]

But for all of these, you know, maybe coincidences that happen and you're whisked through security, you're getting at least sounds like more confident that you're going to be able to get away with this.

[Lee Barnett]

No, I never, I never had that.

[Patia Eaton]

Oh, you never felt like that? Okay.

[Lee Barnett]

Uh, never.

[Hannah Smith]

Lee says that she was always looking over her shoulder, always thinking that she was just about to be caught. But she wasn't. She made it out of the airport in Germany and then she was on a train to Paris. But she wouldn't stop there. She would keep moving.

[Lee Barnett]

I'd made my mind up that I would go to Malaysia because nobody would think of Malaysia. I've never been there. And they spoke English. I knew the weather was warm and I knew that the water was warm. And I was like, okay, so nobody knew anything. Like, I wouldn't tell my brother I was going. So I went to get a ticket One way ticket for and back then babies could sit on your lap for free. $2,000 one way ticket from Paris. Remember I only have 8,000 with me to survive. I almost died. I was like, went back to the hotel, spent another night, didn't get any cheaper. And I thought, you know, hotels are in Paris cost. So I thought, okay, I gotta bite the bullet. And then we left to Malaysia.

[Patia Eaton]

You get to Malaysia with Samantha, who is currently. She's Nick, a little boy that you're disguising her as. You're there with your fake passports. Where do you go from there?

[Lee Barnett]

I bought a. And I ripped the covers off of, but I bought a Rough Guide to Malaysia book and I was in Houston and I ripped the covers off in case anybody might have seen it. So I'm looking while I'm on the plane to Malaysia and I thought, oh, there's a hotel. So we went to this hotel. I don't think it was probably that. It probably might have been a little bit of a brothel. I found out later. But it was very nice people, they were all just very humble. And it was downtown kl, Kuala Lumpur. When we went through immigration, she was in the pram, they were stamping everything from there. I just looked up adverts for places to stay and an Indian man came and he goes, I'm a landlord for the place that's next door to me and my wife and I didn't want to live where there were expat people. I wanted to live with Malays and Indians and Chinese. So it was very nice. It was three stories, three bedroom place I rented. Not long after that, really soon I got a job with a Chinese media company where I represented International Herald, Debune and Newsweek. So it was all going really well until my boss came up and said, we're applying for your work permit, we need your university degree. And I went, oh my Lord. I was like, oh, I didn't think about that. So I called Auburn University, my brother is a vet and he, he finished vet school and I didn't. And I said I was a secretary, that Dr. Barnett was in Malaysia doing a symposium and could they please FedEx me his undergraduate degree. And she's like, well, why don't you want his doctorates? And I thought, well, I'm not going to go that far. So I was like, no, undergraduate's what they need for the symposium. And sure as Bob, a week or two later I got it and it just didn't look all that good. So third world countries love stamps of all Sorts. So I actually went into the US Embassy with this paper and asked them if they would please stamp it to make it. I told them it was for my work permit. And meantime, I'm in there, and there's most wanted, kidnapped posters, pictures all over the whole place. And I was so scared, and the guy was so nice, and he's stamping away, and he goes, hey, would you like a gold seal with that? I go, yeah, a gold seal sounds really good. So you put a gold seal on

[Hannah Smith]

it, but this has your brother's name on it.

[Lee Barnett]

Oh, I forged it all. I became really good at that.

[Hannah Smith]

Unfortunately, Lee and Savannah stayed in Malaysia for seven months. Savannah was a year and a half old when they picked up again and moved to South Africa.

[Lee Barnett]

This is getting problematic. She was still Nick Mar Canton. And I was like, what am I going to do? So I met my husband, my future husband. We got married very quickly, and we went through the whole adoption thing because he was South African. And then I went, why did we do that? Why don't I just make a new birth certificate, make her a girl. Make him the father on the birth certificate. So we. We did that, and it. It looks really good. And then sent that in. And, yeah, she got a. I guess South African citizenship, and then later a South African passport. So now she's a girl.

[Patia Eaton]

I want to ask about this, because, you know, that would require a conversation. Hey, I want to just put you on the birth certificate.

[Lee Barnett]

Oh, no. Everything was talked about.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah. So I want to. I want to know more about that decision and how he received this information.

[Lee Barnett]

Oh, he was. We been dating not long because we got married really quickly, but we were dating. And I gave him my diary because I'd been keeping a diary for Savannah. He said, let's get married. So I said, first of all, he'd known, but he didn't know the whole detail. So I said, first of all, take the diary out by the pool and sit there and read it. And you come back and tell me if you really want to do this. This is a lifetime of looking over your shoulder. And he came back, and he was. You know, tears have flowing down his face. He goes, I love you even more. I'm so proud of you. And he fell in love with. Everybody fell in love with Savannah the second they met her. Now she's Samantha. And he desperately, you know, wanted to do that. So we literally got married right away and then had Reese, my son, 10, 11 months later.

[Patia Eaton]

It sounds like Savannah was then raised believing that your second husband was her biological dad.

[Lee Barnett]

That was her daddy? Yep. And she was Daddy's girl. Yes, that was her. She. She thought that was her biological dad.

[Hannah Smith]

Lee married Jowan Geldenhughes, and now she was Alexandria or Alex Geldenhughes. And her daughter became Samantha Geldenhughese, which is still her name. Lee had fabricated entirely new identities for herself and her daughter, and now she'd created a brand new family for them. While Lee still worried that she'd be caught and that her daughter would be taken away from her for years, it just didn't happen. Instead, they lived their lives. Samantha grew up with her mother, who she thought was named Alex, with Juwan, who she believed was her biological father. And pretty soon she had a younger brother, Rhys. On the outside, they were just a normal family. Only Lee and her husband knew the truth.

[Lee Barnett]

I tried to minimize every lie as much as I could because I knew I'd get caught one day, and I needed my children to believe in me as the person that they've known. So things like, John, this is my second husband, he'd say, oh, the day you were born, I'd look at him and I'd go, don't make that up. I told her, because Mandela was getting out of prison, you know what was going to happen? I said, she and I went back to LA and I gave birth there in case it was some kind of, you know, uproar or whatever from that. So that's why I claim we were there. That's where she was born. And I tried to make it not as fictitious as it was. And he just kept jumping in because he won. I think he honestly believes Sammy was his because he just loved her so much.

[Patia Eaton]

So, I mean, telling someone is a huge risk if you're a fugitive. At any point, were you concerned that he might tell someone?

[Lee Barnett]

You know, it was funny. I took such a risk, especially as quickly as we got married. I think I landed with the perfect person that kind of wanted us and needed us as much as we needed him. And I could tell right away that his love for Savannah would. Samantha would be. Would override anything. And it's weird because you can kind of tell when you're on the run. And now I've got a lot of experience of not trusting people behind me. And I'm a super trusting person. I'll talk to anybody and everything. So I have learned kind of to filter out who I can and who I can't trust. He was wonderful. You couldn't pry it out of him to anybody.

[Hannah Smith]

Ever since Leaving Charleston, South Carolina, Lee had been on the move, never settling in one place for too long. She had spent time in Germany, in France and Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa. And as her children grew up, they only knew her by the name Alex. It was Juwan and Alex and their kids, Samantha and Rhys. Jiwon's job required the family to relocate occasionally, which was fine by Lee. She never wanted to stay in the same place for too long. She was a fugitive, after all, from South Africa.

[Lee Barnett]

We moved to Botswana. Colonial lifestyle there. When Jean's contract finished in Botswana, we moved to New Zealand because we couldn't get into Australia, age wise. But you can go from New Zealand to Australia to live without a problem and work. So we lived in New Zealand for five years, got our citizenships there, and then immigrated to Australia. Yeah, And John and I got divorced not long after we moved to Australia. He'd gone over earlier and met somebody and, you know, but was very amicable. It was actually really amicable. Jean moved back to South Africa. I was working in publishing for a long time. I worked in publishing in New Zealand and in Australia. Samantha's up at university.

[Hannah Smith]

You know, you say Samantha's at university. So at this point, you know, you're living in Australia. How many years has it been that you've been, you know, on the run?

[Lee Barnett]

Nearly 20.

[Hannah Smith]

Nearly 20. At that point, did you start to feel comfortable with this new life?

[Lee Barnett]

No.

[Hannah Smith]

Did you expect that you would just live the rest of your life with this alias and that's what it would be?

[Lee Barnett]

I remember running a few days. Well, maybe it was a month or so before. And I was out running with my dog, and I was like, this is the happiest I've ever been. The only bad thing was my husband, ex husband at the time, he's back in South Africa and he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And I kept thinking, this could all be gone. You know, I had this beautiful home, a brilliant job, my children were just insanely excelling. And I go, this could all be gone. And it's the first time I thought about it in a long time because I was Alex. I wasn't. You know, it's not like I was living a Persona. I am that person. After that many years, I have to

[Hannah Smith]

wonder if Lee had kept moving countries or continents, if she'd ever been caught. But she settled in Queensland, Australia, and raised her children there. Samantha was now a legal adult, and Rhys was in high school. And in interviews, both Samantha and Reese have spoken positively about their upbringing and their mother painting the picture Of a happy life. It makes me think back to the divorce trial in Charleston in 1994, in which the case was built, that Lee was mentally unwell and should be put on antipsychotic medication. There was that ominous prediction, A warning, really, included in the divorce decree, that Lee remained unmedicated. She could become homicidal or suicidal. Instead, what she'd done was create a good life for herself and her children. But the FBI never stopped looking for her. What we now know is that they had conducted multiple international searches for her. They had looked in Belize, different parts of South America, and South Africa. And Lee's first husband, Harris, had also been looking for her. Back in 1999, he went to Costa Rica looking for Lee and his daughter Savannah. A producer from the show 48 Hours accompanied him, and they aired a segment on the search. In the segment, Harris says that he is unhappy that he does not know his daughter and that he will continue to search for her. Lee had provided her daughter with a good life, but it was still a life without the ability to know her biological father. And even through all the good times, in the back of Lee's mind, she always knew she could be caught.

[Patia Eaton]

You told your now ex husband you know the truth about your identity, and Savannah, who else did you tell?

[Lee Barnett]

Every country we went to, we would have our closest couple friends, you know, like husband and wife, that we trusted because we thought, what if we got killed in an accident or something, you know, and the children were left orphans, you know, because you just don't know. So we always had somebody that we trusted, and we had a key to the safe where we had all the documents. We always made sure somebody knew. And we had friends that we all. They were just so supportive, so wonderful. I found out, though, if they were not American citizens, they couldn't get in trouble if they're American citizens. And I told them they could face five years in prison. So I had a couple in New Zealand that were very good friends of mine, But I never told them, Explain to them afterwards why I didn't tell them because they could have, you know, taken the brunt of it.

[Hannah Smith]

Lee had only told very close, very trusted friends about her true identity. And that worked for many years. But eventually, word leaked to some people who she didn't trust. She said it was a husband and wife that she'd met in Botswana, and then years later, they'd gotten in contact with her because they planned to move to Australia. She says she helped them arrange their move, find a house, get them all set up. But after they arrived, she wished they'd never come.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah, so I moved them over, and they're the ones where I was painting my house. And they were all having wine while I'm doing that. And they said, what name are you using now? And I literally didn't know what they were talking about. And then they start giggling. So I was. I knew I was up the creek. And with the Internet now, you know, back then, we didn't have all those things. So the Internet now, they could have kept looking and looking. So I took the husband out in the boat, and I told him the truth because he was the better of the two. And I said, please don't tell. And I told him Samantha's original name was Savannah. He was the only other person besides my husband that knew that. So when they used that name later on, I knew it was them.

[Patia Eaton]

While you were missing, before the arrest, had you ever Googled?

[Lee Barnett]

You never Googled me. The only time I did was we go back to South Africa. We'd go through Dubai and stuff. I did Google one time there. All the children were running around someplace, and I put my name, and it came up with a death certificate. It said, thomas Edwin Barnett, which was my dad and my brother. And then the children came running back, and I closed it down so I didn't ever see me. I didn't know I was most wanted and all that stuff. But I put it in the back of my mind that it would have been my dad's death certificate, which would never have been because he died, you know, 1960. I knew my brother was dead, but I didn't look at it long enough. And I saw that. So that's the only thing I ever saw.

[Hannah Smith]

And Samantha, did she know the truth? At this point?

[Lee Barnett]

She never knew anything until I got arrested.

[Hannah Smith]

Okay.

[Lee Barnett]

Every time I was gonna tell her, she went through some, you know, went through a wobbly stage when we got divorced and her dad moved back to South Africa, and that wasn't the right time. And then John, when he was dying, he said, please don't tell her until I die. I said, john, she'll love you even more. So I waited. And he died a week before, eight days before I got arrested. So she was coming down for Christmas, and I was going to tell her and actually her boyfriend, too.

[Hannah Smith]

And this might seem like a crazy question to ask, but I'm just curious if there was ever a moment during those almost 20 years that you questioned your choice to leave and you wondered if maybe Harris would have ended up being a good dad. Or was there ever a question of that or.

[Lee Barnett]

No, no, there was never a question of it. If he hadn't done what he did to me and in turn do to her, you know, because all of the trauma that baby went through, the whole pregnancy, when he was telling me I'm sick and I'm insane. When they finally did the court order, after I was gone for three weeks, they finally wrote the court order and it said I was so mentally ill, it was escalating so fast that I was going to go into homicidal suicidal rage. And there I have been. Never had a problem, never been on. I don't even take aspirin. I worked corporate forever, you know, there was like. So they looked. They went too far to the extreme. So I knew how diabolically was. Yeah.

[Hannah Smith]

And did you ever have any other issues with, you know, mental health or people accusing you of having mental health issues after you left?

[Lee Barnett]

Oh, no. Never.

[Matt Rogers]

This is Matt Rogers from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

[Bowen Yang]

This is Bowen Yang from Lost Culture Research with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. What if your WI fi was more than just WI fi? What if your WI fi made everything in your whole house just work together better?

[Matt Rogers]

Well, Xfinity WI fi pretty much does exactly that. It's powered by their best, most elite high performing tech.

[Bowen Yang]

Allow us to paint a very realistic example. Everyone in your house, everyone is on their devices at the exact same time. Gaming, working, swiping. Right. Because of course they are. And the finale of your favorite show of all time of the week, week is on at the exact same moment. Well, you can boost the WI fi to your device with Xfinity.

[Matt Rogers]

And have you ever asked yourself, what if my WI fi could keep watch over my kids for me? Well, probably not, because that's a weird thing to ask yourself. But Xfinity WI Fi has parenting skills, even if you sometimes forget yours. Xfinity's like, don't worry, I'll monitor the WI Fi.

[Bowen Yang]

It's completely proactive, fixing issues before they even happen. Bottom line, Xfinity is smart and reliable. You deserve the peace of mind of having WI fi that's got your back.

[Matt Rogers]

Xfinity.

[Public Sponsor Announcer]

Imagine that support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com paid for by public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comdisclosures Now I'd

[Meaningful Beauty Sponsor Announcer]

like to introduce you to Meaningful Beauty, the famed skincare brand created by iconic supermodel Cindy Crawford. It's her secret to absolutely gorgeous skin. Meaningful Beauty makes powerful and effective skin care simple and it's loved by millions of women. It's formulated for all ages and all skin tones and types and it's designed to work as a complete skin care system, leaving your skin feeling soft, smooth and nourished. I recommend starting with Cindy's full regimen which contains all five of her best selling products including the Amazing Youth Activating Melon Serum. This next generation serum has the power of Melon leaf stem cell technology. Its melonleaf step stem cells encapsulated for freshness and released onto the skin to support a visible reduction in the appearance of wrinkles. With thousands of glowing five star reviews, why not give it a try? Subscribe today and you can get the Amazing Meaningful Beauty system for just $49.95. That includes our introductory five piece system, free gifts, free shipping and a 60 day money back guarantee. All that [e-mail].

[Hannah Smith]

Lee recalls the day that her life on the run finally came to an end.

[Lee Barnett]

So Jeanne had just died, Sammy had written the eulogy and she was up at school 15 hours away. Reese was doing his final exam at the high school across the street and it was 7:30 in the morning and I was getting ready to go to work and I was in my Tasmanian boxer shorts. I always say you envisioned this arrest your whole 20 years. You don't envision being in Tasmanian boxer shorts and a scrub shirt. So they pounding on my office door and I was like yeah. And they said we've got a warrant to search your house. And I always knew don't jump up and give them too much, because I talk too much anyway. So I was like, okay. I said, all right. I said, you want to come in the front door or this door? Before I could even say that, there was a man behind me in my house. He must have hopped the hedge, went around the pool, around the back of the house. And he's standing there. He goes, I don't see knives. I don't see guns. And I'm like, what? I said, I don't own any guns. And I said, I got knives in the kitchen. You're welcome to go in there if you put a knife. So I invited him in and I said, y' all want coffee? You want tea? And I sat him down and I told him where the passports were, where the birth certificates were. And then Pedro, the resting Australian officer, he said, okay, what's your name? I said, it's Alex Geldenhughese. He said, what other names are you known by? And I said, well, Alexandria Maria Canton was my maiden name. I said, but my married name, this Alexander Maria Gildenhughes. He goes, what other names? I go, I don't know what you're talking about. And I go, alex. And then I looked at him and he looked at me, and I said, are there any of you guys FBI? Because there was like 12 of them raiding the house because there's two of them waiting outside. I said, bring them on in. So I knew then that was it.

[Hannah Smith]

After almost 20 years, the FBI had located Lee, and now she had to tell her children the truth.

[Lee Barnett]

So I called one of my girlfriends and she comes in and they're raiding the house. And then my son walks over from his final exam and he's like, mom, what's going on? And they let me go into the bedroom with him and try and fast forward 20 years, and you could see how convoluted the story is. Then we had to call Samantha, which was terrible.

[Hannah Smith]

And how was that telling Samantha the truth?

[Lee Barnett]

I'm sitting on the couch. Reece has got his arm around me. My girlfriend Carrie's got her arm around Reese. And we put the phone in the middle and the coffee table. And I said, well, we've got to call her boyfriend, her long term boyfriend, make sure he's there for her. So we call his number and he's like, alex, are you okay? And I go, no, Brad. I said, you know, you told me at one time you had big shoulders when you started dating my daughter. I said, I need those big shoulders pulled back straight. And you Just stay by her side. And he goes, I will. And she gets on the phone. She's like, mom, what is it? And I said, honey, I was married 20 years ago, and I had to take you when you were 11 months old to keep you safe. And I said, you just got to trust me. And she said, mom, I trust you. Of course I do. And I said, I'm going to take me to jail now, and I need you to hop on a plane, bring your passport, and your brother and an FBI agent named Tom will meet you down at the Brisbane Airport. She's like, mom, they're taking you to jail. I said, I'll be fine. Everybody's being really nice. I said, don't worry. Just come on down. Take care of your brother. And then we said how much we loved each other and all that. And we hung up the phone. And literally 30 seconds goes by, and the phone rings, and it's Sammy. And she remembers she just buried her dad. And she just said, mom. And I said, what? And she said, does that mean my daddy wasn't my daddy? And I just said, sweetheart, your daddy will always be your daddy. And she said, okay, Mom, I'm coming. And I said, all right. Yeah, that was it. Poor kid. Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

That is hard to imagine, that phone call and being on either end of it, really. So you're arrested and extradited to the United States.

[Lee Barnett]

Well, I fought extradition.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah.

[Lee Barnett]

I stayed in Australia as long as I could, knowing that the conditions, even though it was maximum security, would be a lot better. Also, every one of my friends saved every piece of evidence for 20 years. So they made all copies of them, shipped them up to Australia. Samantha and my friend Bruce and another friend and his wife all jumped in. They photocopied everything, got it to me in prison so I could actually remember what had happened, you know, get myself ready. We had to get me an attorney because we didn't have anything. One of my closest friends here, he found an attorney. And then I finally succeeded extradition after I'd studied all the evidence for 10 months and.

[Patia Eaton]

Tell us about your trial or plea deal and sentencing.

[Lee Barnett]

So the first hearing we went to was just whether you plead guilty or not guilty. And I'm like 95 pounds these chains all around my ankles and my waist and everything. And I'm walking in and I start singing. All people I hadn't seen, you know, family and everybody. And they're all, like, crying and waving, and I'm waving with my shackles and my lawyers like, stop that. And I'm like, but I haven't seen these people for so long. The plea hearing, Samantha was there, and the whole courtroom's filled again with all my friends and everybody. And then that's the first time I look to my left, right where I walked in purposely. And there's my ex husband. And I was close to him as like a foot. So he wouldn't come to any other hearings. So the prosecutor, who was actually a really good guy, he got up and he laid out his case about me. Because that's what they do. That's the order it goes in. Then the judge asked me, because it's all going to go on record. He goes, is there anything that you disagree with? And I wasn't supposed to say anything. And I go, yes, your honor. And Russell stomps on my foot. And he said, what is it? And I said, the prosecutor just said that shortly after the birth of my daughter, Harris left me. I said, harris left me at two and a half months when I wouldn't, I don't think I said when I wouldn't have an abortion. And he said, okay. And he said, is that all? I said, yes, sir, that's all. There's a lot of inaccuracies in there because it's such a convoluted story, but it wasn't as severe as that. I would be damned if it looked like he stayed there for the pregnancy and all of that. And then my daughter stood up and gave the most beautiful diplomatic talk. And then Harris's attorney got up and started reading some of. When the judge wouldn't let him talk about the family court case, he said, that was 20 years ago. We're not litigating this in a federal courtroom. Then he promptly got some of Harris's poems out and started reading poetry to the judge. And then he sentenced me to the maximum of my sentencing guidelines, which gave me another three and a half months. But he said, I'm sure you'll be put at a camp someplace that family can come visit you. Which was not the case.

[Hannah Smith]

In February of 2015, Lee was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for international parental kidnapping and two counts of falsifying U.S. passport applications. Because of all of the documents that Lee forged over the years, she could have been facing a much longer sentence.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah, but relative to a 10 year

[Lee Barnett]

sentence, 23 years is what I was looking at.

[Patia Eaton]

Okay, a 23 year sentence, pretty good. And at least one FBI agent has commented publicly that he didn't agree with your sentencing. And you know, Hannah and I are Speaking to you today, hearing your side of this story and not Harris's side, and this certainly isn't meant to be a celebration of parental abduction or non custodial abduction. I want to hear from you, I guess, about any conflicting feelings that you have about your decision to do this.

[Lee Barnett]

Well, first of all, I want to say this is how the breakdown of the 23 years is. It's 10 years for each falsification statement on a passport. And it wasn't the two passports. It's when I got more pages and I changed my name when I got married. So those are the two passport cases. That actually is a misdemeanor. There's actually no court time for that.

[Hannah Smith]

Well, and I'm sorry to cut you off, but like, we do a lot of cases and we understand that there are a lot of charges when someone's charged, there's a lot of different things. There's mail fraud, there's every time you forge a document. I'm sure there was a potential charge

[Lee Barnett]

and a potential sentence with that could have been easily.

[Hannah Smith]

You ended up getting 21 months. But I think what's more interesting is to hear a reflection about, you know, because I, in some sense, like, I very much get why you did what you did. Like, I think that it was very clear that you felt an incredible threat against not just yourself, but your daughter. And, you know, it's my understanding that you did what you did because you were out of options and because you wanted to protect her.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah, that's exactly the only reason why I was saying that is that three years is for parental kidnapping. And that's what I got it for. So that turned into a status. That's what the 21 months came out to, which is that. So that's why, especially federal, as you know, they hype up the numbers so much that it looks kind of crazy.

[Hannah Smith]

Right. But at the same time, you know, you did abduct my child.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah.

[Hannah Smith]

This child. And even though one could argue that her biological father would not have been a good father, you know, I think he probably still has an argument that he never had the chance to have, that if that were something he wanted. And, you know, do you have any kind of conflicting feelings about any of that?

[Lee Barnett]

No, I wish I did. I cannot tell you how scary it is to be deemed mentally ill when you've had nothing wrong with you. I can't tell you how scary it is to either be forced on lithium or lose your baby. And you have no control over that. So when he said in the court that he would do the same thing with his baby girl because she's the fourth generation and he put her on medication as young as three years old. I could never take that out of my mind. Now when I got caught, I was hoping there might be some epiphany from him or anybody to say, hey, we were wrong. Look at how she's lived her life. She's raised basically, you know, my husband was there for part of it, my second husband. And they would said, oh, you know, let's just say there was a big mistake done, blah, blah. But instead of that, they demanded I get like 30 years in prison. They demanded this and that and the other. And as both of my children said, if he just walked up and knocked on the door, I'd have been like, hi, come on in. But it wasn't about finding my daughter. It was to punish me. The whole thing was to prove that I was this crazy person. But they couldn't do that because a crazy person couldn't have done all the things they did, you know, and maintain such a normal life with normal, well rounded children.

[Hannah Smith]

At Lee's sentencing hearing, her daughter Samantha spoke out, advocating for her mother. She asked the judge to give her mother a sentence that did not include prison time.

[Lee Barnett]

Because now I'm in a situation going, oh my God, I've got two children, my husband's dead, no money, I'm going to prison. How do I put him to university? So I thought maybe he'd step up and, you know, say, okay. And it also proves I didn't know any of this, but this is how vengeful. He sued my mother, my brother, he sued my best friend Susan. And I didn't know all that when I left, of course, because I didn't have any connection. So every single thing that I knew was corroborated after I found out, if that makes any sense.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah, that totally makes sense.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah. I mean, if there was have been something that was kind, understanding, loving towards Samantha or, you know, anything. But it wasn't that way. And I didn't want to be right, you know, I didn't want to be right. I really didn't. I was hoping there'd be some warmth and something there. Not for me, but for the fallout of everything else.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah.

[Hannah Smith]

And does Samantha, you know, has she reconnected with Harris? Do they have any kind of relationship?

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah, they do talk now. They didn't, you know, she went, you know, publicity meets everywhere. But she did meet him when I was looking at 23 years and he tried to shake her hand. And she's the most diplomatic grown up kid in the whole world. And she said, now, let's give it a hug. And they have communication. Yeah, somewhat. It's not my business. She's an adult.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. And that's her story.

[Lee Barnett]

As she says, you know, I'm her priority. And. Yeah. Just thank God I've got such great kids. Really amazing.

[Hannah Smith]

How is your relationship with your kids now that you're out and, you know, living your life?

[Lee Barnett]

It's brilliant. I mean, Sammy and I just spent almost six weeks together. We went to Belize and we just did all the jungle stuff. Stuff I did when I was a child that she'd heard about. And I mean, we'd been before, but this time we really just stayed in cool places.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah. Does she still go by Sammy? So to recap, she was born Savannah.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

Then became Nick, and now she's Samantha.

[Lee Barnett]

That was a very short period of time that Nick. Okay.

[Patia Eaton]

But she goes by Samantha. Got it.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah. Well, I appreciate you fielding all of our questions. You know, it's our responsibility, I think, to our audience when we do stories that, you know, have elements of being problematic that we, you know, ask those questions. And I really appreciate it.

[Lee Barnett]

You can't imagine how many hundreds and hundreds of people, men and women, that have reached out to me and said, please help me. We've got to do the same thing. I can't live through this. If anything, I have the worst survivor's guilt because Samantha and I had an aunt, Reese, we had. And my husband, we had a normal Leave it to Beaver life. It didn't seem like it inside, I was being eaten alive, but on the outside, we did. There's not a single person that I would ever say, yes, go on the run because you'll get caught and you'll never be able to protect your child. So even if you only have visitations, as little as I had, if I had any outlet, like legally, which I covered every base, I would have never gone. There's a lot that was very illegally done to me and to her.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

I mean, there's definitely a lot of conversations around abuse of the family court system. And when there's a wealth disparity between the parents who are fighting it out for custody especially. And it's imperfect, to say the least. I mean, that's one of the reasons it's actually hard to report on is it's hard to prove when the stories are so different.

[Lee Barnett]

It is. And you've also got to remember, even more so back then, women Weren't allowed to cry. We weren't allowed to be emotional. We could watch our children being taken, but that meant we were mentally ill. Women were so easily told that they were mentally ill because it was easier just to accept it. I didn't. Or I probably would have caved in if it wasn't for protecting her. You know, if it hadn't been, I probably would have never done anything. For me, it was that I knew what was going to happen to her down the road.

[Hannah Smith]

Okay, Peisha, you connected with Lee, which, I mean, what a wild story. How did you make that connection happen?

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah, so I reached out to who I thought was Lee from what I could find online with, you know, contact information. Didn't hear back. And I just started thinking, okay, this is still such an incredible story and highlights so many things that I think resonate with a lot of people about the family court system and how volatile things can be and the imbalances there. And anyway, I really wanted to do the story, so I thought, well, this would be a great off record. I'll just research the story and then I'll tell you the story. And then it was a weekend, and I got a call from Lee. I just had a callback. A callback? Yeah, she called my cell phone, or maybe she texted. I don't remember. But I immediately got on the phone with her. We talked for, like, 25 minutes. And I was like, we have to do the interview with Lee, but. But, you know, we're on a production schedule. And so, yeah, I left you probably like, a really long voice note about how you needed to cancel whatever plans you had on this lovely holiday weekend and do this interview. And of course you were game. And it was worth it. It was so worth it. And Leigh was happy to do it. And, yeah, what a story.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah, Obviously her story has been told before. We mentioned the 48 Hours episode in our series. She's also written a. But, you know, I hadn't heard, like, a longer format podcast about her side of the story. And so we felt like, yeah, there's enough interesting stuff here for us to really take the time and let her walk us through what was going through her head when she made this wild, like, truly wild decision.

[Patia Eaton]

Totally. And I think that she's a perfect example of what we were envisioning when we started this show, which was stories from all perspectives. And, yeah, Lee was on the wrong side of the law, but her reasons, I think, are really relatable. You know, a lot of times life is not black and white and she was doing what she felt was best for her daughter. And that's not to say that there aren't problematic areas in her story. And I would never tell someone else how to feel about it, but I thought it was just such a unique. And that she was so open and vulnerable in sharing it with us.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. Because we talk with victims on the show. Right. And technically, Lee was convicted of a crime in this story. And so who is the victim in this story is debatable. Really. It was important to us not to downplay the fact that Savannah, Samantha's father really didn't have a choice on whether or not he was present in his daughter's life. No matter what kind of person he is, like, that's still something that was taken away from him illegally. But at the same time, once we started to dig into the court documents, this whole other story came to light about how she was portrayed. And I found the mental health aspect of this court case to be really intriguing. You know, and obviously it was in 1994, and we talk about this in the series, that the understanding of different diagnoses and mental health disorders changes and updates throughout time. Right. But the evidence that they used against her in this court case is now current. Like modern day understanding. Completely ridiculous. Like, absolutely unfounded. Not true at all. And she was portrayed as this mentally unfit woman, this unfit mother, which she clearly is not.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah. One thing that happens when we produce these episodes is we often have follow up questions after an interview. And because I was, you know, the first point of contact with Lee, you know, and we've both been in touch with her outside of the interview, you know, you end up talking to them about things that are going on in their life right now. And, you know, Lee's mentioning a trip that she's gonna be with both of her kids. And she had a marriage that was a long and happy marriage. It ended eventually. Like, it was a long and happy relationship that she spoke really highly of, a great relationship with her kids today. All of those things for me are what really informed my sort of perspective on Lee. I also think that she didn't shy away from really difficult questions.

[Hannah Smith]

Yes, she was very honest.

[Patia Eaton]

She was really honest and, you know, we pressed on the hard stuff and she accepted that. And yeah, I really was enthralled by this.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah, we didn't speak with her daughter, but her daughter has done interviews and has been very positive about her mother and says that she had a great childhood, a great upbringing, and, you know, has said things like, I understand why she did it. So I also think that says a lot.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah. Her son has said the same in his interviews. And so to me, that speaks volumes.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. Okay. One thing that I feel like we just have to revisit, even though we talked about it so much in the series, is the idea that just like a quote unquote, regular person who doesn't have any kind of FBI, CIA, even army training anything can figure out how to go on the run, how to forge documents. When she was telling us that, I was like, what are you talking about?

[Patia Eaton]

Oh, that was an amazing part of the interview. Let it be a lesson to us all. Do not let imposter syndrome dictate your decision making. You can do it.

[Hannah Smith]

You can do it.

[Patia Eaton]

And it reminded me of that movie American Animals a little bit. That scene with her in MacArthur park and, like, remembering the guy telling her to walk through the tunnel and then that being kind of a test.

[Hannah Smith]

American Animals. That was a movie. I watched it remind me of it.

[Patia Eaton]

Okay. Sneaky recommendation here. Came out in 2018, directed by Bart Layton, and it's based on a true story. And it's sort of this, like, hybrid scripted film with talking heads from the real people. So almost like a documentary mixed with film.

[Hannah Smith]

It's like there's part of it that's scripted. It's a movie where you're seeing actors act this out, but then it cuts to the real people. Yeah, I remember that. It's really, like, unique.

[Patia Eaton]

It's so unique. It is an amazing movie. Like, I have watched this movie so many times. I have, like, the movie poster art right outside my daughter's room.

[Hannah Smith]

Big fan.

[Patia Eaton]

I love it.

[Hannah Smith]

But anyway, so what reminds you of that?

[Patia Eaton]

So it reminded me of that movie because I believe that Lee was telling us the truth. But I know from just being a human and also speaking to so many people about stories that have happened many years before in their life, memories change. You know, they're kind of elastic, and they're different for different people.

[Hannah Smith]

And we're kind of constantly editing our own story in our minds.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah. And so that's not to say I don't think it happened like that. I totally believe her that it did, but it was just such a vivid memory that it really took me to, like, maybe I just think it should be a movie.

[Hannah Smith]

Probably should be.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah.

[Hannah Smith]

But I remember in that film, it's, like, similar. That it's these sort of regular guys, college students that decide to plan a heist or something. So you have that real person trying to do this thing that feels like someone in an action movie would do.

[Patia Eaton]

Exactly. You just brought this all together. Why? Made me think of that movie.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

But, yeah, it's this person who you would never think would be in that situation, then getting to that point and actually following through.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

And I think maybe, like, the kids in America that pulled off this heist, until they didn't, of course. The whole time you're wondering, is it really gonna happen? Am I really gonna do this for Lee?

[Hannah Smith]

How far am I gonna go?

[Patia Eaton]

How far am I gonna go? Like, Lee thought it was gonna end after the first flight.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

The agents helping her off of the flight and through customs, like, at every turn, she was sort of wondering, is this really happening? Am I really doing this?

[Hannah Smith]

And then you have to imagine, like, how far ahead was she really planning? She obviously had huge incentive to do this. Like, this is not something that you would do, just, you know, change your identity and flee the country and create a whole different life. Never speak to your family again.

[Patia Eaton]

That is huge.

[Hannah Smith]

Or anyone that you know. And unless you have, like, a real reason to do that. Right. But was part of her just like, okay, I have to flee and run, but, yeah, I'll probably get caught soon. And then she doesn't. And then it's like the years tick by and she just creates this totally different life.

[Lee Barnett]

Yeah.

[Patia Eaton]

And I imagine, like, seeing her daughter thriving, and, you know, she spoke to us so much about how proud she is of her children and how well they're doing, and that would be, I think, very reaffirming of, okay, this was the right decision. I should keep doing this.

[Hannah Smith]

Right.

[Patia Eaton]

And she had good friends in Charleston and in her life in the US that, you know, she never had problems with, and she left them behind, too. It was not. Not an easy situation.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. Wow. I'm so glad she called you back and that we were able to do this series.

[Patia Eaton]

Yeah, me too. Thanks so much to Leigh for taking the time.

[Hannah Smith]

Yeah. Well, that is our episode for today.

[Lee Barnett]

Thanks for listening.

[Hannah Smith]

We'll be back next week.

[Patia Eaton]

If you have a story for us, we would love to hear it. Our email is thenifexactlyrightmedia.com or you can follow us on Instagram. Henight Podcast or Blue Sky Heniff Podcast.

[Hannah Smith]

This has been an exactly right production. Hosted and produced by me, Hannah Smith

[Patia Eaton]

and me, Patia Eaton. Our producers are Tom Breyfogel and Alexis Amorosi.

[Hannah Smith]

This episode was mixed by Tom Breyfogle.

[Patia Eaton]

Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain.

[Hannah Smith]

Our theme music is by Birds in the Airport.

[Patia Eaton]

Artwork by Vanessa Lylak.

[Hannah Smith]

Executive produced by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark and Danielle Kramer Foreign.

[Matt Rogers]

This is Matt Rogers from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

[Bowen Yang]

This is Bowen Yang from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

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[Lee Barnett]

Janice Torres here, and I'm Austin Hankwitz.

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We host the podcast Mind the Business,

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[Lee Barnett]

We're back for season four to talk to some incredible small business owners.

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[Lee Barnett]

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So listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple

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[Lee Barnett]

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