202: The Fugitive Lee Barnett

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Southern Fried true crime covers cases that
are not suitable for young listeners, and

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there may also be some explicit language
used. Listener discretion is advised. Everyone

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knows that saying there are two sides
to every story, and today's case is

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the perfect example of that. In
fact, everything about this case could be

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completely turned on its head, just
depending on who you believe. On the

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one hand, this could be a
case of a mentally unstable, abusive woman,

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a woman who tormented her husband behind
closed doors, who berated, threatened,

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and became violent with him. But
on the other hand, this case

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could be the exact opposite. It
could be a case of an uncaring man

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who married an unsuspecting woman, a
man who, after their divorce, put

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their newborn little girl in danger,
a man who wanted to take his daughter

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away from her mother forever for the
simple sake that he could. But it

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was the woman Lee Barnett, who
abducted her own newborn daughter and successfully fled

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her ex husband, international authorities,
and FBI for nearly twenty years. Welcome

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to Episode two O two, The
Fugitive Lee Barnett. Dorothy Lee Barnett was

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born on May twenty seventh, nineteen
sixty. Her mother's name was Dottie.

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Of course, Dottie was probably a
nickname for Dorothy, and Dorothy Lee went

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by her middle name Lee. Lee's
father had died during her early childhood,

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so Dottie became a single parent.
Despite the tragedy of her husband's death,

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she maintained a passion for life.
She was known to be free spirited,

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fun and it showed. Dottie and
her children moved to all sorts of different

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places during their childhood. South Carolina, Florida Belize. When Lee's friend Susan

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first laid eyes on the Barnett family, she saw evidence of that. Susan

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told journalist Marine mayher when I first
met Lee, she was five and I

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was seven, and she had a
big black snake around her neck, and

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so I took one look at her, and I said, Oh, that

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looks like an interesting family. I
want to be friends with her. Susan

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recalled that Lee appeared to have this
fantastical life, like something straight out of

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in Indiana Jones movie, but appearances
can be deceiving. Dottie Lee and the

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rest of the Barnett family had to
navigate their own challenges as a single mother

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Dottie had a difficult time providing for
her children. They lived mostly off of

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the father's Social Security payments. Lee's
brother, Cliff Barnett said, we had

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to learn how to do things with
no money and no resources, and they

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did, but that didn't mean it
was fun were comfortable. In fact,

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Lee would later be described as an
FBI profiller, as someone who liked the

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finer things in life. Maybe her
desire for an expensive lifestyle was a reaction

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to her childhood. As Lee became
an adult, she also became a beautiful

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woman. She had blonde hair,
blue eyes, and she was a tiny

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thing, only five foot two inches
tall and about one hundred pounds. She

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was known for her outgoing personality and
her ability to make friends easily. Everyone

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wanted to be friends with Lee.
She was vivacious, charming, a talker,

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all great qualities for her job in
her early thirties, a flight attendant.

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That's where thirty one year old Lee
Barnett met thirty eight year old Benjamin

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Harris Todd the Third. He was
a well to do Southern gentleman who opened

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doors and wrote poetry, and he, just like Lee, went by his

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middle name Harris. Harris was born
in nineteen fifty three to parents, Margie

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and Benjamin Harris Todd, the second
benjam Men and Margie married in September of

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nineteen fifty They had four children,
three boys and one girl. Harris's family

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moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky in
nineteen fifty five when he was two years

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old. His mother and father both
worked in the health care industry. His

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father was an internist and his mother
a registered nurse. The Todd family probably

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looked like they were living the dream
until nineteen sixty one, when tragedy struck.

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Doctor Benjamin Todd died unexpectedly at the
age of thirty seven from a penicillin

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allergy. He was buried in the
Fairview Cemetery in Bowling Green, and that's

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where Harris's mother would also be buried
later in twenty eleven. At the time

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of his father's death, Harris would
have been about eight years old, but

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his dad had still left quite an
impression. For years, Harris would aspire

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to be a medical doctor. He
wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps.

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During his high school years, Harris
won a Fuloride scholarship to an exclusive prep

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school called the Phillips Academy, located
in Andover, Massachusetts. Phillips Academy is

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one of the oldest prep schools in
the East. While there, Harris excelled.

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He was the president of the pre
Med Society. He was on the

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varsity track team. Even at age
thirty four, Harris could still finish a

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mile in less than six minutes on
race day. After Harris graduated from Phillips

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Academy at the age of eighteen,
he received a scholarship to study at the

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University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
The scholarship was called the Moorhead Award and

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it was for eleven nine hundred dollars, which is more than ninety thousand today.

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But Harris did not become a doctor. Instead, he went into finance.

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As an adult. He would make
his name as a financial advisor for

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Merrill Lynch. This is who thirty
eight year old Harris was when he met

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Lee, the beautiful thirty one year
old flight attendant. An established man with

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a good paying job, he already
owned his own home on John's Island in

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Charles County, South Carolina. Harris
was also notoriously well spoken. He could

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discuss Beethoven and American novelists and everything
in between. Plus Harris seemed like a

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nice guy put together, it's no
wonder why he and Lee fell for each

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other. But not long after they
did, everything started to fall apart.

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I'm going to pause now for a
short commercial break. According to Lee,

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she and Harris's relationship began as a
friendship, not as a courtship. But

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after about five years of knowing one
another, Harris confessed his love for her,

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and it changed everything. Lee told
CBS's Forty eight Hours. He just

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professed to me that I made him
feel different than anybody else ever made him

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feel. And then one thing led
to another right away. Some of Lee's

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friends were not fans of this new
pairing. Lee's friend Patty told Maureen maher

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they onted different things out of life. She was very outgoing and he kind

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of kept to himself, not to
mention. Lee wanted children, and as

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Lee tells it, Harris did not. But Lee wasn't phased by Harris's lack

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of desire to have kids. She
thought she could change his mind. She

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was already pushing Harris, who she
thought was a rather serious man, out

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of his shell. Lee encouraged him
to live as she herself put it a

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more normal, fun loving life,
But according to Harris's interviews with the Pittsburgh

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Post Gazette, Harris wasn't sure that
Lee made his life normal or fun loving.

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In fact, Harris said that when
Lee was ready for marriage, he

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wasn't, and that's because, according
to Harris, Lee was prone to angry

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outbursts. Harris said that she was
extremely volatile and prone to dramatic mood swings,

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and these mood swings were bad,
so bad that Harris wasn't sure he

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could commit to Lee. But just
as Lee had thought she could fix Harris's

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view on children, Harris told Dateline
that he he felt the same way.

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He thought he could fix Lee's temper. Then, despite Harris's misgivings, the

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couple did marry. As reported by
the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Lee surprised Harris

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with a marriage license. She suggested
to Harris that they used their already planned

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vacation to the Bahamas as a honeymoon, and bam, that was it.

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They would be married. Thirty nine
year old Harris accepted thirty two year old

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Lee's proposal, and in nineteen ninety
two, they were officially man and wife.

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Reports of Lee and Harris's marriage differ
greatly depending on whether you're talking to

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Lee or Harris. Harris recalled that
Lee's mental health issues began right after their

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nuptials. She wouldn't sleep for days
at a time, and he said Lee

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would beat her head against the walls
for hours. One time, Harris remembered

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waking in the middle of the night
when he looked across the bed, he

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saw his wife, Lee staring at
nothing and rocking back and forth. On

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a different occasion, Harris said he
woke up in the night to find Lee

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on time of his chest. By
his account, Lee was preparing to strangle

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him, and during a TV interview, Harris alleged that Lee nearly killed their

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family dog, apparently the young Great
Dane hadn't followed one of her commands.

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Harris also alleged that Lee became violent
toward him. She would throw flower pots

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at him as he entered their home. During an argument, Lee hit Harris

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in the head while he was driving. Harris told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette,

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I've never hit a woman in my
life, and I can't explain why I

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let myself be hit. It's important
to note here Lee denied most of Harris's

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claims. She told journalists that she
didn't beat her head against the walls and

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she never hit Harris, though she
did admit to slapping him once, and

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she also admitted to throwing the flower
pots, but she claimed that it was

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because Harris gas lit her. He
called her crazy and insane, Lee explained

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to Forty eight Hours. He would
say to me all the time, you're

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sick, you're insane. Lee's friend
pat said she heard Harris say things like

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this to Lee over the phone.
Patty was shocked by Harris's hateful demeanor toward

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Lee. Patty felt Harris had changed
drastically from the southern gentleman she had thought

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he was before. About seven months
into the marriage, two things happened at

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Damn Neare the same time. First, Harris was pretty sure he wanted a

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divorce too, Lee was pretty sure
she was pregnant. Still, their accounts

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of these events continued to differ greatly. When Lee told Harris about the potential

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pregnancy, she said he was opposed
and that he suggested she'd get an abortion,

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And then two days later Lee confirmed
her suspicions she was pregnant. Lee

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told forty eight hours that Harris became
cold and indifferent and remained that way.

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She also claimed that Harris frequently denied
the existence of the baby, even when

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she was in her final trimester.
Lee alleged that Harris would repeat, there

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is no baby. However, Harris
disagreed with this version of events. He

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claimed that he never ever asked Lee
to get an abortion, and if he

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had any trepidations about a child,
it was because Lee's hot temper loomed over

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their relationship. How could they happily
bring a child into such a volatile environment.

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Soon, Harris asked Lee for a
divorce, but they were still living

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together. After all, the house
belonged to Harris before their marriage, so

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he wasn't going anywhere, and Lee
wanted their marriage to work, so she

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wasn't going anywhere either. But one
day, about two and a half months

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into Lee's pregnancy, she became incredibly
angry. According to both Lee and Harris,

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she flipped over a coffee table for
Harris, this was the last straw.

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He was upset, and he feared
for his own safety, so he

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left. Lee was shocked to find
that her soon to be ex husband wasn't

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there. The next morning, she
told reporter Maureen Mayhear that she felt abandoned.

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Lee said, I couldn't figure out
how somebody I'd loved and known for

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so long could be this cruel.
Following this, Harris asked Lee to move

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out of his home, but she
wouldn't leave. Lee told CBS, I

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thought if I left his house,
I would never ever come back. Lee's

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friend Patty, said she really wanted
the marriage to work. She did everything

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within her power to get Harris to
come back. Meanwhile, Harris went into

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hiding. Lee continuously contacted him.
According to Harris, she would rage and

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threaten him. He told one TV
host quote, I was on the run

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from her, hiding out at friends
houses. She'd drive around all night looking

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for me, and sometimes she'd find
me. She'd stand outside the house and

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scream that she was going to kill
herself. Sometimes Harris was forced to sleep

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in his own car just to avoid
Lee's wrath. These wildly different interpretations of

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the exact same events really matter.
In this case. You could be picturing

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this expecting mother and dedicated wife,
a woman who is desperate to make her

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family work despite a reluctant partner's hesitancies, but you could also picture a woman

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who was stalking her estranged husband,
a woman who won't leave his house,

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who won't respect his request for space, and who allegedly abused him. Actually

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it's not really allegedly. Later Lee
would admit she did slap him, throw

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flower pots at him, and flip
over a coffee table, but she didn't

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see that as abuse. Around this
time, Harris became concerned for the fate

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of his unborn child. He wanted
Lee to receive treatment for her mental health

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before she gave birth, and of
course Lee wanted to fix things too,

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so she and Harris went to a
marriage counselor. She made the appointment.

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They saw a psychiatrist name doctor Oliver
Byorgston, and Doctor Borgston Diagnosedly as being

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on the bipolar spectrum. Her specific
condition was called hyperthiamic temperament. It was

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characterized by dwelling, blaming, and
temper outbursts. Doctor Borgston was prepared to

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help treat Lee with medication, and
Harris was in agreement with that. He

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wanted to see Lee get better.
He wanted her to be treated, so

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Lee began taking a new prescription,
but she was wary. She had never

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had a mental illness diagnosis before,
and mental illness did not run in her

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family. Actually, she felt that
her outbursts were reasonable, not the result

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of bipolar disorder. Lee was going
through, as she described it, a

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difficult pregnancy, and for unknown reasons, she feared that her baby might have

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Down syndrome. But Lee was playing
ball. She picked up her prescription for

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a drug called navane from the pharmacy
and she took three doses as prescribed,

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but then her friend with the medical
background advised Lee to stop taking the medication,

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presumably because navane is a strong antipsychotic
and this friend didn't understand why Lee

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would need it, so she stopped. Then Lee also found out that her

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mother and Harris had spoken to doctor
Bjorgston before their first appointment for counseling.

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Lee felt this was a betrayal and
by doing that, Harris had tainted doctor

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Borgston's perception of her, and Lee
was certain that Harris had done the same

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thing with her mother too. Harris
refuted these claims, saying that he was

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simply trying to get Lee help,
but Lee thought his intentions were more nefarious,

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that he was trying to establish that
she was mentally ill and done stable

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to her family and medical professionals.
She thought that he was trying to save

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face for walking out on his pregnant
wife. After Lee stopped taking her meds,

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Harris knew he wanted custody of their
unborn child. According to Harris,

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he felt a responsibility towards this child. He couldn't let them face the world

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with only Lee at their side.
Harris told CBS, the physical violence is

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one thing, the mental instability is
another. In February of nineteen ninety three,

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barely a year after they were married, a pregnant Lee filed for divorce.

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In response, Harris countersued. He
alleged that due to Lee's abuse,

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he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, and then their daughter was born.

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After that came the custody battle of
a lifetime. Honestly, it was more

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a war than a battle, and
only one parent will come out victorious.

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Savannah Catherine Todd was born on May
sixth, nineteen ninety three, in Charleston,

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00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:40.960
South Carolina. On future documents,
Savannah's name would be listed as Savannah

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00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:45.279
Lee Barnett. Later, Lee would
write in a diary about why she chose

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the name Savannah. She explained,
I've always loved the name Savannah. It

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00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:52.000
reminds me of great beauty. It
also reminds me of my home, The

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00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:56.839
Endless reads, the Shrimp, the
Blue Herons. On the day of Savannah's

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00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:02.279
birth, Lee was overjoyed her baby
was a healthy, beautiful girl. But

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00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:06.559
that joy didn't last because when Savannah
was two and a half months old,

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00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:11.519
Harris sued for custody and it was
a terrible process, hateful, vitriolic,

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00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:15.640
with mud slinging on both sides.
Over the course of the twelve day custody

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00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:21.200
trial, here's what happened. Lee
claimed that Harris was gay and that the

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00:19:21.240 --> 00:19:25.000
only reason he wanted their daughter was
to punish her. She said he was

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00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:27.839
an evil man, and she even
pointed to some artwork Harris owned that she

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00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:33.839
felt was particularly satanic. The Peace
depicted a bearded pianist surrounded by cherubs.

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Sure it's kind of weird, but
I don't know about satanic. Harris,

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00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:41.640
of course, disagreed with all of
this. He said he loved his newborn

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daughter and didn't want custody out of
revenge. He also denied being gay.

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00:19:47.559 --> 00:19:51.000
I'm sure he denied that he was
evil too, after all, the artwork

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00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:55.640
had been created by a friend.
During the custody proceedings, Harris got his

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00:19:55.640 --> 00:19:59.039
shots in too. He claimed that
Lee was too promiscuous to be a good

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00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:03.799
mother. He had hired private detectives. They had evidence that revealed that Lee

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00:20:03.880 --> 00:20:07.920
had six lovers since their divorce.
Harris thought this showed Lee's lack of parental

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00:20:07.960 --> 00:20:12.519
responsibility. He also had evidence that
Lee was drinking alcohol during a period when

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00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:17.920
she was also breastfeeding. But some
of Harris's claims during the custody suit were

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00:20:17.960 --> 00:20:22.119
more serious than mudslingy. He told
the court about how Lee had stalked him,

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00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:26.079
and Harris brought in doctor Byorkston,
the marriage counselor, for his expert

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00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:30.640
testimony. Doctor Bjorkston told the family
court about Lee's mental health diagnosis. The

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00:20:30.680 --> 00:20:37.119
psychiatrist said her condition was associated with
violence to Lee. Doctor Byorgston's testimony felt

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00:20:37.160 --> 00:20:42.359
life destroying because despite the fact that
Lee provided two other psychiatrists who denied any

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00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:48.160
mental health issues, Doctor Borgston's testimony
appeared compelling to the court. It made

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it nearly impossible for Lee to win, or at least that's how she saw

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it. She said, the more
you claim you're not mentally ill, the

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crazier you sound. To gain more
clarity, a final psychiatrist was brought in

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00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:07.000
and this one confirmed Doctor Brewergston's diagnosis. Lee had a hyperthymic temperament. They

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said that Harris was the more predictable
parent and they recommended that Harris have custody

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00:21:12.079 --> 00:21:18.960
and also baby Savannah's child advocate testified
and agreed, which isn't shocking. Lee

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00:21:18.039 --> 00:21:22.039
kept claiming the child advocate was biased
toward Harris, which is a big deal.

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00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:26.920
A huge part of the child advocate's
job is to be impartial and only

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00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:30.039
act in the interest of the child. Savannah's child advocate was forced to hire

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00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:37.160
their own lawyer for legal protection against
Lee's allegations. Lee also struggled to make

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00:21:37.160 --> 00:21:41.880
a good impression on the judge.
She frequently had angry outbursts during the court

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00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:45.880
proceedings. She had so many of
these outbursts that the judge ordered a bailiff

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00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:51.519
to stand behind her. The bailiff
kept his hands on Lee's shoulders that way,

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00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:56.200
Lee would remain seated in court.
Lee's friends claimed that she just couldn't

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00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:00.160
handle the stress of the trial.
They believed this was a sensible reaction to

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00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:03.319
a mother facing the loss of her
child. I disagree with her friends.

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00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:07.920
Most parents in a custody fight do
their best to remain calm and project reason

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00:22:07.960 --> 00:22:12.880
and responsibility to the judge. You
cannot have temper tantrums in court, unless,

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00:22:12.920 --> 00:22:17.160
of course, her mental health diagnosis
was true and she could not control

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00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:21.720
herself. Either way, she is
making the case for the experts who testified

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00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:26.200
against her. By the end of
it, the judge chose to grant custody

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00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:30.680
to Harris. To explain his decision, the judge cited Harris's better paying job,

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00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:33.960
Lee's inability to control her impulses,
and the fact that Harris was willing

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00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:40.000
to share custody while Lee was not. In fact, when Harris's joint custody

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00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.160
proposition was offered to Lee, she
rejected it. According to the Herald,

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00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:48.680
the court found that Lee steadfastly rejected
that the father had any role of value

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00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:51.599
to the child, and that she
and the child would be better off if

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00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:56.599
he were not in the picture at
all. See completely unreasonable. Savannah was

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00:22:56.640 --> 00:23:00.880
hers alone in her mind. Also, the judge did agree that Lee had

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00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:06.400
been abusive toward Harris. The judge
expressed concern that Lee's mental illness might lead

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00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:10.920
to actions like homicide or suicide.
And remember, Lee did not deny those

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00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:15.400
three incidents of violence. So on
February eighteenth of nineteen ninety four, the

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00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:19.400
judge awarded full custody of nine and
a half month old Savannah to forty one

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00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:23.359
year old Harris Todd. Thirty four
year old Lee Barnett would see her daughter

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00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:29.240
during supervised visits two weekends a month. On the same day this custody decision

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00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:33.400
was made, Harris took Savannah home
without Lee. Now that Harris had custody

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00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:37.440
of little Savannah, he was overjoyed. He told MBC's Date Line that he

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00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:41.480
felt an overwhelming sense to protect and
care for her. Savannah had her own

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00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:47.000
bedroom with a crib and pastel pink
walls. She had clothes and toys and

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00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:49.640
a loving family. Harris was the
happiest he had ever been while taking care

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00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:53.640
of his baby daughter, but at
the same time, Lee was the unhappiest

305
00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:57.160
she had ever been. She did
not like that a judge said she was

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00:23:57.200 --> 00:24:02.880
a danger to her own child,
especially since she felt that her child was

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00:24:02.920 --> 00:24:07.160
in significantly more danger with her father. During the custody proceedings, Harris had

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00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:11.279
indicated that should Savannah show signs of
mental illness as Lee had, he would

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00:24:11.319 --> 00:24:15.000
take Savannah to a mental health professional. He said that he would feel comfortable

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00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.000
doing that when Savannah was young,
as young as three years old. Lee

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00:24:19.079 --> 00:24:23.519
felt this was outrageous in proof that
Harris was going to discredit her daughter through

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00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:30.000
mental illness. I assume in Lee's
mind, she thought Harris would take Savannah

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00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:33.720
to a psychiatrist, claimed she was
crazy and not let her control her own

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00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:36.839
life. After all, that's what
Lee felt Harris had done to her.

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00:24:37.319 --> 00:24:42.039
But one could also rationally argue that
Harris was promising to watch Savannah closely for

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00:24:42.119 --> 00:24:47.319
any signs of mental health issues and
promising the judge he would get the child

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00:24:47.400 --> 00:24:52.559
help if she needed it. So
often these disorders are genetic. Two weeks

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00:24:52.599 --> 00:24:55.400
after the verdict, Lee went to
pick up her daughter, with her friend

319
00:24:55.400 --> 00:24:59.519
and babysitter accompanying her. Savannah had
a couple of bruises on her head and

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00:24:59.559 --> 00:25:04.440
a bloody knows. Lee believed that
Harris had hurt their daughter. Harris said

321
00:25:04.440 --> 00:25:08.000
that Savannah had fallen while spending time
with her grandmother. He took her to

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00:25:08.039 --> 00:25:11.240
the er and They found the injuries
to be the result of a minor fall,

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00:25:11.720 --> 00:25:15.119
and the doctors at the er found
no signs that Savannah was abused.

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00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:21.119
Not satisfied, Lee took Savannah to
her pediatrician, who agreed with the ER's

325
00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:25.000
staff that Savannah's injuries were from a
minor fall and there was no indication of

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00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:30.359
abuse. Lee was infuriated. Ultimately, she just couldn't stand to see her

327
00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:33.160
daughter with Harris, so she took
action, and her first action, as

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00:25:33.160 --> 00:25:37.319
she tells it, was to try
to appeal the custody decision. But Lee

329
00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:41.680
claimed she couldn't appeal the decision.
Supposedly, the judge hadn't finished the correct

330
00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:45.519
paperwork in time, so the thirty
day deadline for appeals came and went.

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00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:51.240
It's a little hard for me to
believe that this judge didn't follow the paperwork

332
00:25:51.279 --> 00:25:55.160
on time. Lee said this in
a Dateline interview. But it's not like

333
00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:59.279
the judge came on the show to
dispute it. Honestly, I don't know

334
00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:03.279
what happened. What I do know
is that Lee was desperate. She wholeheartedly

335
00:26:03.319 --> 00:26:07.680
believed she needed to keep her child
safe. So when she saw a sixty

336
00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:11.640
minute segment about where to get fake
birth certificates. In Los Angeles, she

337
00:26:11.720 --> 00:26:15.759
went. She made her way across
the country and purchased two birth certificates,

338
00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:22.279
one for herself using the pseudonym Alexandria
Maria Canton, and one for Savannah using

339
00:26:22.359 --> 00:26:26.319
the pseudonym Nick. Lee figured that
Savannah could pass for a boy, at

340
00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:30.039
least for a while. Later,
Lee would change Savannah's alias from Nick to

341
00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:37.079
Samantha, and Samantha would stick.
After getting the fake birth certificates, Lee

342
00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:40.920
went to Houston, Texas. There
she popped on a black wig and walked

343
00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:44.839
into a DMV and got a Texas
driver's license. After that, it was

344
00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:48.839
simple to obtain two passports. On
Saturday, April twenty third, nineteen ninety

345
00:26:48.880 --> 00:26:53.359
four, Lee arrived at Harris's Charleston
home. She picked up Savannah for her

346
00:26:53.400 --> 00:26:57.400
scheduled visit. The mother and daughter
were going to a birthday party together.

347
00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:03.039
Although there were supposed to be a
court ordered chaperone with Lee, there wasn't.

348
00:27:03.799 --> 00:27:07.359
Maybe Harris figured the other parents of
the birthday party would count a supervision,

349
00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:11.319
or maybe he was trying to extend
an olive branch by not pestering Lee

350
00:27:11.359 --> 00:27:15.720
about a chaperone. Lee was supposed
to bring Savannah back to Harris by six

351
00:27:15.759 --> 00:27:19.319
o'clock that evening, but she didn't. This wasn't the first time Lee hadn't

352
00:27:19.319 --> 00:27:22.720
brought Savannah back. He had to
get an emergency court order once to go

353
00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:26.960
get his daughter. So he drove
over to Lee's house, but the house

354
00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:32.319
was empty. He began calling people, but no one had any clue where

355
00:27:32.359 --> 00:27:36.039
Lee was, where Savannah was,
and honestly, no one could have even

356
00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:40.480
guessed. Later, Harris said,
I didn't even imagine anything that horrible.

357
00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:48.599
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and her daughter could become entirely new
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On that fateful Saturday in April of
nineteen ninety four, Lee, Savannah,

405
00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:41.279
and Lee's older brother got into a
rental car. They left Charleston and

406
00:31:41.319 --> 00:31:47.640
headed south. Lee had ten thousand
dollars with her that's more than twenty thousand

407
00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:51.960
today. On the way, they
stopped at a gas station. There,

408
00:31:52.519 --> 00:31:56.279
Lee cut her hair and died at
brown. Then they traveled to the Atlanta

409
00:31:56.319 --> 00:32:00.200
Airport. Lee showed her and Savannah's
fake documents and then they got on a

410
00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:05.519
plane. From here on out,
Lee would become Alex and Savannah would become

411
00:32:05.640 --> 00:32:10.880
Nick. Alex and Savannah traveled from
the US to Malaysia. Seven months later,

412
00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:15.440
they went to South Africa. That's
where Alex met an engineering geologist.

413
00:32:15.960 --> 00:32:22.799
His name was Juwan gelden Heis.
Alex told Juan everything, and Juan kept

414
00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:25.960
her secret. He adored baby Savannah, who was now going by the name

415
00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:31.119
Samantha, and would keep that name
permanently. Lee said she fell in love

416
00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:36.880
with a man who fell in love
with her daughter. Alex married Juan several

417
00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:42.920
months later in nineteen ninety five.
Now Lee became Alex gelden Heiss, Savannah

418
00:32:42.920 --> 00:32:46.279
became Samantha gelden Heiss, and Juwan
would raise her as his own biological daughter.

419
00:32:47.160 --> 00:32:52.440
Samantha did not find out the truth
for years. Shortly after, Juan

420
00:32:52.519 --> 00:32:57.759
and Alex had a son together named
Reyes. After some time in South Africa,

421
00:32:58.200 --> 00:33:01.680
the gelden Heist family moved to Botswais
for Juwan's career. In two thousand

422
00:33:01.720 --> 00:33:06.599
and three, they would again move
for Juwan's career, this time to New

423
00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:12.880
Zealand, and then their last move
was to Australia. They became Australian citizens

424
00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:16.160
in two thousand and seven. By
this point, Lee had successfully been on

425
00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:21.279
the run for thirteen years. She'd
remain on the run for nearly seven more

426
00:33:21.359 --> 00:33:27.039
years, even though numerous law enforcement
agencies were looking for her. Back in

427
00:33:27.119 --> 00:33:30.920
nineteen ninety four, on the day
Lee abducted Savannah, Harris called Lee's younger

428
00:33:30.960 --> 00:33:35.880
brother, Cliff. Harris wanted to
know where his ex wife and daughter were.

429
00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:40.279
Cliff told the story to journalist Maureen
Mayher. He goes, where's your

430
00:33:40.319 --> 00:33:44.400
sister? I said, I have
no idea, and he goes, your

431
00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:46.400
sister is not a fit mother.
She can't take care of a child by

432
00:33:46.440 --> 00:33:51.720
herself, she doesn't have the sense
for it. And I finally just eventually

433
00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:55.480
said, well, apparently she has
the sense to disappear from you. Soon,

434
00:33:55.559 --> 00:33:59.960
it became clear to Harris that Lee
and Savannah were not coming back.

435
00:34:00.559 --> 00:34:04.279
Harris was certain that Lee had taken
Savannah to hurt him, not to save

436
00:34:04.359 --> 00:34:08.119
Savannah. He told forty eight hours
I just can't believe it. How could

437
00:34:08.159 --> 00:34:13.159
something like this happen, How could
it possibly happen? How could she be

438
00:34:13.280 --> 00:34:19.639
here and then be gone right away? Harris notified the appropriate law enforcement agencies

439
00:34:19.920 --> 00:34:22.840
that his daughter had been kidnapped.
Lee's arrest horant was out by the end

440
00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:28.159
of that month, and the FBI
assigned Agent Chris Quick to the case.

441
00:34:29.199 --> 00:34:32.679
The FBI took this man hunt for
Lee and Savannah very seriously. They were

442
00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:38.239
concerned that Lee might hurt Savannah,
but honestly, Agent Quick thought this would

443
00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:43.239
be a two week situation tops,
And at first I can see why it

444
00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:46.559
felt like that. For example,
Lee had a large map of South America

445
00:34:46.599 --> 00:34:50.960
in her home, and she had
spent some time growing up in Belize,

446
00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:54.719
so maybe she had connections there.
Maybe that's where she went. It might

447
00:34:54.719 --> 00:34:58.480
have seemed like a strong lead,
but it turned out to be a red

448
00:34:58.480 --> 00:35:02.679
herring. Also, less than a
week before the kidnapping, Li sent out

449
00:35:02.679 --> 00:35:07.760
a letter and videotape to her friends
and family. Here's an excerpt from the

450
00:35:07.840 --> 00:35:12.960
letter. To whom it may concern, I recently lost custody to my beautiful

451
00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:15.760
nine and a half month old nursing
baby. This happened because of a truly

452
00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:22.639
evil person b Harris Todd, and
a totally corrupt family court system. The

453
00:35:22.719 --> 00:35:28.239
recorded video was similar in tone.
Lee spoke to the camera saying that her

454
00:35:28.239 --> 00:35:32.360
ex husband, Harris Todd, had
misrepresented her as a villain. Lee claimed

455
00:35:32.400 --> 00:35:37.880
that he made false allegations about her
out of a need for revenge. He

456
00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:40.599
apparently was only worried about hurting Lee, and he didn't care if you hurt

457
00:35:40.599 --> 00:35:45.880
little baby Savannah too. Here's a
direct quote from the video. Savannah and

458
00:35:45.920 --> 00:35:50.800
I belong together, and nobody besides
God has the right to destroy that.

459
00:35:51.519 --> 00:35:53.840
I promise and swear on my life
that I will continue to take care of

460
00:35:53.880 --> 00:35:58.559
my daughter. I will keep her
safe and I will never allow any one

461
00:35:58.639 --> 00:36:02.840
to harm her again. Lee called
these letters and video messages an attempt to

462
00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:08.159
embarrass and discredit him, but to
the FBI, they felt promising. Lee

463
00:36:08.280 --> 00:36:12.920
was emotional, hot headed, She
had a lot of feelings she wanted to

464
00:36:12.960 --> 00:36:15.960
say. Surely she would reach out
to people in the United States to say

465
00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:22.400
those feelings, and in doing so
they would catch her. Agent quick promptly

466
00:36:22.440 --> 00:36:25.920
put traces on all of Lee's friends
and family members phones, but Lee didn't

467
00:36:25.960 --> 00:36:30.679
call any of them. Agent quick
monitored the flights to South Africa and Belize,

468
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:36.880
where Lee had international contacts where her
family owned property. But Lee didn't

469
00:36:36.920 --> 00:36:40.920
reach out to those contacts either,
and she didn't visit those properties. He

470
00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:46.440
later told forty eight Hours. Most
fugitives mess up make mistakes because they can't

471
00:36:46.519 --> 00:36:51.719
leave the life they came from.
This didn't occur in this case. She

472
00:36:51.840 --> 00:36:57.119
totally cut ties from everyone. Lee
later said, I feel the FBI and

473
00:36:57.239 --> 00:37:02.599
every other law enforcement agency underestimated me. The FBI developed a profile for Lee.

474
00:37:04.239 --> 00:37:07.519
It determined that she was used to
nice things and enjoyed traveling, so

475
00:37:07.639 --> 00:37:13.599
the experts indicated that Lee was probably
going to find a nice location she would

476
00:37:13.599 --> 00:37:17.199
make connections with rich people. In
the end, this profile turned out to

477
00:37:17.239 --> 00:37:22.280
be fairly accurate, but the FBI
wouldn't know that for decades because they didn't

478
00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:30.400
have one crucial piece of information,
Dorothy Lee Barnett's new name. Three years

479
00:37:30.440 --> 00:37:35.920
passed, then four now. According
to the FBI, the case was officially

480
00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:39.800
cold. It wasn't out of their
mind. They had age progressions of Savannah

481
00:37:39.840 --> 00:37:45.239
don often and followed up on hundreds
of leeds, but they also weren't having

482
00:37:45.280 --> 00:37:50.719
much luck without Lee's alias. Their
hands were tied. Harris became fed up

483
00:37:50.719 --> 00:37:53.239
with this lack of progress. He
probably felt like he was going mad.

484
00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:59.559
His daughter, his flesh and blood, was missing. Harris made videos for

485
00:37:59.599 --> 00:38:04.440
Savannah, and one of those videos, he said the following Losing you took

486
00:38:04.480 --> 00:38:07.159
most of the life out of me. Sometimes I feel like I'm already dead

487
00:38:07.199 --> 00:38:12.679
and just haven't fallen over yet.
He wrote poems about her. He couldn't

488
00:38:12.760 --> 00:38:16.320
just forget that his child was out
there somewhere without him, So a few

489
00:38:16.400 --> 00:38:22.079
years after the investigation began, Harris
took matters into his own hands. He

490
00:38:22.159 --> 00:38:25.800
began a national media campaign. He
wanted to raise awareness about his missing daughter

491
00:38:25.880 --> 00:38:30.960
anywhere and everywhere that he could,
because he knew that with every passing year

492
00:38:31.159 --> 00:38:36.480
he was missing out on her life. Throughout the mid to late nineties,

493
00:38:36.719 --> 00:38:39.800
Harris was featured or interviewed on almost
every show you can think of. He

494
00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:45.599
wrote to John Walsh's America's Most Wanted. He appeared on Unsolved Mysteries, He

495
00:38:45.639 --> 00:38:50.239
spoke to Forty eight Hours Dateline,
the Montell Williams Show, The Sally Jesse

496
00:38:50.360 --> 00:38:55.159
Raphael Show, and more. He
hired private detective after private detective. He

497
00:38:55.199 --> 00:39:00.719
sent out Savannah's picture on two different
eighty vo card mailings where they sent out

498
00:39:00.760 --> 00:39:04.559
missing children on cards via the mail. He even wrote to President Bill Clinton.

499
00:39:05.559 --> 00:39:08.679
Harris was determined. He knew it
would only take one person to recognize

500
00:39:08.760 --> 00:39:14.320
Lee or Savannah, then he could
be reunited with his daughter. But the

501
00:39:14.360 --> 00:39:19.320
process was grueling. Harris spent hundreds
of thousands of dollars trying to find Savannah.

502
00:39:20.760 --> 00:39:25.639
Besides expensive private detectives, he would
get calls from TV producers instructing him

503
00:39:25.639 --> 00:39:30.559
to travel across the country to do
a show than the day before. They

504
00:39:30.599 --> 00:39:35.239
would bump Harris for a better story. Still, Harris did get quite a

505
00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:38.480
few appearances, and the FBI received
hundreds of tips due to his efforts,

506
00:39:39.239 --> 00:39:43.599
and Harris himself would follow up on
some of them. He figured that he

507
00:39:43.639 --> 00:39:47.239
would recognize his ex wife faster than
anyone else, and he knew better than

508
00:39:47.239 --> 00:39:52.199
anyone that the FBI's bureaucracy could really
slow down their ability to follow up on

509
00:39:52.239 --> 00:39:58.199
a good lead. So Harris would
travel across the world. Took places like

510
00:39:58.280 --> 00:40:01.800
Mexico and Costa Rica just because one
person had seen a blond woman with a

511
00:40:01.880 --> 00:40:07.719
young daughter, and none of these
leads panned out, but Harris didn't give

512
00:40:07.800 --> 00:40:09.960
up. He said to reporters,
if I have to spend the rest of

513
00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:15.559
my life doing this, so be
it. Harris also filed lawsuits against members

514
00:40:15.559 --> 00:40:20.519
of Lee's family. He believed that
Lee's mother, her brother Cliff, and

515
00:40:20.599 --> 00:40:25.199
her friend Susan had helped her kidnap
Savannah. Susan told Forty eight Hours that

516
00:40:25.320 --> 00:40:30.960
none of Harris's allegations were true,
but the lawsuit was financially devastating to her.

517
00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:36.800
She also alleged that Harris's hired pe
Eyes would threaten to destroy her life

518
00:40:36.800 --> 00:40:42.119
and family, but despite all of
his efforts, nothing happened. Ten years

519
00:40:42.159 --> 00:40:45.239
passed and then fifteen, and Harris
began to feel like it was over.

520
00:40:45.880 --> 00:40:50.400
If his daughter was alive, she
was fully grown. Now she was a

521
00:40:50.440 --> 00:40:53.519
whole person who did not know him. Plus, the cycle of hope and

522
00:40:53.519 --> 00:40:59.079
despair was exhausting. He would chase
a lead, let himself think maybe this

523
00:40:59.280 --> 00:41:02.480
is it, and have nothing to
show for it. Harris began to ask,

524
00:41:02.840 --> 00:41:07.039
do I want to put myself through
this again? In two thousand and

525
00:41:07.079 --> 00:41:12.559
three, the FBI found evidence that
Lee had tried to obtain an American passport

526
00:41:12.880 --> 00:41:16.559
using an alias but they still couldn't
find her, not until the year twenty

527
00:41:16.639 --> 00:41:23.639
eleven, when one email turned Harris
Lee and Savannah's worlds upside down. I'm

528
00:41:23.679 --> 00:41:34.360
going to pause now for a final
commercial break. In the early morning hours

529
00:41:34.400 --> 00:41:38.480
of Sunday, November twenty seventh,
twenty eleven, Harris Todd received an email.

530
00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:43.199
It read I'd like to speak to
you in regards to your daughter.

531
00:41:44.159 --> 00:41:46.599
Now. This type of email wasn't
foreign to Harris. He had received a

532
00:41:46.599 --> 00:41:50.760
lot of them over the years,
so he knew better than to get excited.

533
00:41:51.880 --> 00:41:55.119
The email senders were a married couple. They said they had been friends

534
00:41:55.159 --> 00:42:00.559
with Lee and Savannah's family for more
than a decade. Thet I thought something

535
00:42:00.679 --> 00:42:05.119
was weird about Alex's backstory, and
after Alex and this couple had a falling

536
00:42:05.159 --> 00:42:09.039
out, the couple decided to do
a deeper investigation. That's when they realized

537
00:42:09.119 --> 00:42:15.000
Alex wasn't Alex at all, she
was Lee. Harris sent them trial documents

538
00:42:15.039 --> 00:42:19.360
to help them make their decision,
and then the couple provided photographic evidence to

539
00:42:19.480 --> 00:42:23.760
verify that they had the right people. The email senders told Harris that Lee

540
00:42:23.800 --> 00:42:29.119
and Savannah were known as Alex and
Samantha gelden Heis and lived in Queensland,

541
00:42:29.159 --> 00:42:36.079
Australia. Harris was blown away.
There in this photo of a Christmas celebration

542
00:42:36.639 --> 00:42:39.679
was his ex wife, fifty one
year old Lee Barnett, and there also

543
00:42:39.960 --> 00:42:45.800
was his grown daughter, eighteen year
old Savannah Catherine Todd. It had been

544
00:42:45.880 --> 00:42:50.239
seventeen years since Harris had last seen
Savannah, and he didn't recognize his own

545
00:42:50.320 --> 00:42:55.480
daughter, but he recognized Lee immediately. Harris notified the FBI, and equipped

546
00:42:55.480 --> 00:43:00.480
with the correct alias, they found
Alex and Samantha gelden Heis EA, but

547
00:43:00.559 --> 00:43:05.920
it took them two years to negotiate
a deal for Lee's arrest with Australian law

548
00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:09.480
enforcement. They had to get other
government agencies involved, and you know how

549
00:43:09.519 --> 00:43:15.119
paperwork goes, It just takes time. Plus, as US Attorney Bill Nettles

550
00:43:15.159 --> 00:43:19.639
said, Savannah was living a safe, healthy and otherwise normal life, so

551
00:43:19.719 --> 00:43:24.199
the FBI wasn't in a rush,
but Harris felt like he was out of

552
00:43:24.199 --> 00:43:30.079
time. In twenty thirteen, he
suggested that he would go to Australia himself,

553
00:43:30.599 --> 00:43:34.800
just approached Lee and introduce himself to
his daughter, but the FBI asked

554
00:43:34.840 --> 00:43:37.039
him not to. They thought there
was a high chance that Lee would flee

555
00:43:37.079 --> 00:43:44.719
again, and suddenly the two decades
long case of missing baby Savannah went to

556
00:43:44.760 --> 00:43:47.679
the top of the stack. On
the morning of Monday, November fourth,

557
00:43:47.719 --> 00:43:52.920
twenty thirteen, after nearly twenty years
of being on the run, fifty three

558
00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:57.760
year old Dorothy Lee Barnett was arrested
in Malubla, Queensland, Australia. She

559
00:43:57.920 --> 00:44:02.280
was charged with the international parental kidnaps
and two counts of passport fraud. Lee

560
00:44:02.360 --> 00:44:07.760
faced twenty three years in prison,
three years for the kidnapping and ten each

561
00:44:07.800 --> 00:44:12.159
for the fraud. She sat on
her living room couch flanked by FBI agents

562
00:44:12.559 --> 00:44:16.719
and that's where she explained what was
going on to her son Reese. On

563
00:44:16.840 --> 00:44:22.639
the whole, Lee seemed rather unsurprised
by the whole ordeal, calm, even

564
00:44:22.280 --> 00:44:25.679
perhaps she had always known that this
was coming. She was taken to a

565
00:44:25.719 --> 00:44:30.039
Brisbane jail and denied bell and then
she was given an opportunity to call her

566
00:44:30.119 --> 00:44:36.400
daughter, twenty year old Samantha.
That's when Lee started to cry. At

567
00:44:36.400 --> 00:44:39.920
the time, Samantha was away at
university studying to become a nurse. When

568
00:44:39.920 --> 00:44:45.840
her mom phoned at about seven thirty
am, Samantha's boyfriend picked up he heard

569
00:44:45.840 --> 00:44:49.960
that Lee was upset and immediately handed
the phone to Samantha. That's when Lee

570
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:53.719
explained everything to her. Well,
Lee told Samantha her own version of everything.

571
00:44:55.480 --> 00:44:59.599
According to Lee's interviews with Forty eight
Hours, she said, Sammy,

572
00:45:00.079 --> 00:45:02.440
you know how we've never had communication
with the family and friends in the US,

573
00:45:02.960 --> 00:45:07.360
And Samantha said yeah, and then
Lee told her, well, I

574
00:45:07.480 --> 00:45:09.920
was married before, and I'm going
to jail now because I've been accused of

575
00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:15.880
kidnapping you, and I said I
had to keep you safe. Upon learning

576
00:45:15.880 --> 00:45:19.880
about her mother's dual life, Samantha
had a ton of questions, and the

577
00:45:19.920 --> 00:45:23.639
first one was this, wait,
does that mean that dad wasn't my dad?

578
00:45:24.360 --> 00:45:30.719
Because Samantha had always believed that Juwan
Geldenheis was her real father, and

579
00:45:30.800 --> 00:45:34.519
even though Juwan and Lee had divorced
in two thousand and eight after Juwan had

580
00:45:34.559 --> 00:45:39.639
an affair, Juwan and Samantha remained
close. As it turns out, Juan

581
00:45:39.760 --> 00:45:45.400
had died just a week before Lee's
arrest, a week before this incredibly life

582
00:45:45.400 --> 00:45:50.239
altering arrest of her mom. It
was bone cancer, and Samantha said her

583
00:45:50.320 --> 00:45:54.159
last words to him where I Love
you. The day after Lee was arrested,

584
00:45:54.360 --> 00:45:59.840
the FBI sat down with Samantha.
They explained to her exactly what it

585
00:46:00.159 --> 00:46:04.840
happened over the past nineteen years.
Samantha was shocked. She couldn't believe that

586
00:46:04.880 --> 00:46:08.119
her mother was ever accused of abuse
or violence, and Samantha laughed in the

587
00:46:08.199 --> 00:46:14.239
FBI agent's faces when they indicated that
Lee might be mentally ill. Samantha told

588
00:46:14.360 --> 00:46:19.960
NBC that's not who she is.
She supported her mother. She described her

589
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.119
to news outlets as resilient, compassionate, selfless, and encouraging. She told

590
00:46:24.159 --> 00:46:29.000
forty eight Hours she did everything she
could and more just to keep me safe.

591
00:46:29.400 --> 00:46:31.559
And she said, if you think
about every single little thing that she

592
00:46:31.599 --> 00:46:37.599
has gone through, I've lived this
wonderful life. And according to Samantha and

593
00:46:37.639 --> 00:46:42.480
her half brother, Reese, they
did have a wonderful life. Their childhood,

594
00:46:42.800 --> 00:46:46.039
which was largely spent in South Africa, was especially amazing, full of

595
00:46:46.079 --> 00:46:52.400
adventure. Reese told CBS, we
had drives walking outside our house and on

596
00:46:52.480 --> 00:46:55.039
the streets, and buffalo and all
sorts of stuff around the river. It

597
00:46:55.199 --> 00:47:00.840
was fun all the time. Then
the family moved to the Sunshine Coast of

598
00:47:00.840 --> 00:47:05.480
Australia, where Samantha recalled that her
family visited the beach often. They went

599
00:47:05.519 --> 00:47:08.679
to wildlife reserves. She competed in
swim races. She learned how to dance

600
00:47:08.719 --> 00:47:14.719
and play piano. Samantha wasn't the
only one who supported Lee. Most of

601
00:47:14.719 --> 00:47:17.960
their Australian friends came to Lee's aid
as well, and the days following her

602
00:47:19.039 --> 00:47:22.599
arrest, nearly twenty people flooded the
Galden Highs home. They were all working

603
00:47:22.639 --> 00:47:27.320
with Samantha and Reese to get her
out of jail. At the same time,

604
00:47:27.679 --> 00:47:30.519
Harris traveled across the world to Australia. He wanted to meet his daughter,

605
00:47:31.559 --> 00:47:36.880
but the timing wasn't right. Samantha
was taking a lot in and after

606
00:47:36.920 --> 00:47:40.159
about a month there, Harris returned
home to South Carolina without having met his

607
00:47:40.280 --> 00:47:45.599
daughter. He took it well.
He understood that Samantha was coping with a

608
00:47:45.639 --> 00:47:49.280
lot, grieving for the man she
knew his dad, and worrying for her

609
00:47:49.280 --> 00:47:53.679
mother. Based on her conversations with
her mother, Samantha had always suspected that

610
00:47:53.760 --> 00:47:59.719
Lee's years in the US were associated
with sadness, but Samantha had no idea

611
00:48:00.039 --> 00:48:02.639
that any of this had ever happened. Her brother Reese, was also kept

612
00:48:02.679 --> 00:48:07.000
in the dark. The only person
to have ever known the truth was her

613
00:48:07.000 --> 00:48:10.559
father, Juan, and since he
died a week before Lee was arrested,

614
00:48:12.039 --> 00:48:15.559
all of his memories were gone.
For almost a year, Lee and her

615
00:48:15.559 --> 00:48:21.280
supporters tried to stop the US officials
from extraditing her out of Australia. They

616
00:48:21.320 --> 00:48:24.159
even started to go fundme campaign.
It raised about thirty one hundred dollars.

617
00:48:25.360 --> 00:48:30.599
During court proceedings, Samantha and her
family held signs that read we love you

618
00:48:30.679 --> 00:48:35.239
Mom. But ultimately all these efforts
failed. They just didn't have a legal

619
00:48:35.320 --> 00:48:38.639
leg to stand on, and in
September of twenty fourteen, Lee returned to

620
00:48:38.679 --> 00:48:44.280
Charleston, South Carolina. Twenty years
had passed since she had last stepped foot

621
00:48:44.280 --> 00:48:49.960
in the city. At first,
Lee considered going to trial. She entered

622
00:48:49.960 --> 00:48:52.880
a plea of not guilty on Monday, September twenty ninth, twenty fourteen.

623
00:48:53.639 --> 00:48:58.880
She claimed that she had been in
an impossible situation, a young mother fighting

624
00:48:58.920 --> 00:49:04.119
a corrupt court system that tried to
take her child away. In Lee's mind,

625
00:49:04.280 --> 00:49:07.599
she did not kidnap her daughter.
She saved her, but legal experts

626
00:49:07.679 --> 00:49:13.360
like prosecutor Nathan Williams contended that you
can't take the law into your hands and

627
00:49:13.400 --> 00:49:15.760
flee the country with a child because
you don't like the result from a divorce.

628
00:49:15.800 --> 00:49:21.599
Hearing, on Monday, November twenty
fourth, twenty fourteen, a judge

629
00:49:21.599 --> 00:49:25.280
denied Lee's bond. They said that
Lee's connections to people overseas was concerning,

630
00:49:25.639 --> 00:49:30.840
and her track record of fleeing the
country also proved she couldn't be trusted.

631
00:49:30.719 --> 00:49:35.639
After months and months in jail,
Lee realized that she couldn't take on the

632
00:49:35.719 --> 00:49:38.800
US government, not in a legal
battle like this one, so she pled

633
00:49:38.840 --> 00:49:45.280
guilty to all three charges. On
Tuesday, September tenth, twenty fifteen,

634
00:49:45.719 --> 00:49:49.920
fifty four year old Dorothy Lee Barnett
had her sentencing hearing. Her daughter,

635
00:49:50.079 --> 00:49:53.440
twenty one year old Samantha, spoke
on her behalf. According to The Herald,

636
00:49:53.800 --> 00:49:59.599
Samantha said, I was raised very
fortunately. I was loved beyond belief.

637
00:50:00.159 --> 00:50:04.320
In the end, Lee was sentenced
to twenty one months in jail.

638
00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:07.960
She received credit for a time served
in Australia and the US, and was

639
00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:13.960
released in May of twenty fifteen.
She then was on probation in South Carolina

640
00:50:14.039 --> 00:50:20.039
for two years. She has been
a free woman ever since. Harris,

641
00:50:20.159 --> 00:50:24.199
who was now around sixty two,
was obviously disappointed by this sentencing. He

642
00:50:24.239 --> 00:50:28.840
felt that over a third of his
life was dedicated to finding his missing daughter,

643
00:50:29.400 --> 00:50:34.199
and now his daughter's kidnapper would be
released immediately. It didn't seem fair,

644
00:50:34.760 --> 00:50:37.159
but he conceded that no sentencing would
make up for the pain of those

645
00:50:37.199 --> 00:50:42.960
lost years. Harris did get to
meet his adult daughter. It happened in

646
00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:47.000
the winter of twenty fourteen. Samantha
had written Harris an eight page letter where

647
00:50:47.039 --> 00:50:51.400
she said she was open to having
a relationship with him as long as he

648
00:50:51.400 --> 00:50:55.559
didn't speak poorly of her mother.
So Harris and Samantha met. They explored

649
00:50:55.559 --> 00:51:01.719
his Charleston home together. They spoke
about their family history and in NATS Samantha

650
00:51:01.800 --> 00:51:07.039
described this meeting as pleasant and normal, and Harris described it similarly. He

651
00:51:07.119 --> 00:51:12.400
acknowledged to NBC that it was hard. There was a huge gap between this

652
00:51:12.519 --> 00:51:16.840
father and daughter, one that would
probably never be fully bridged. A friend

653
00:51:16.840 --> 00:51:22.280
of Lee's, who was a judge, accompanied Samantha to her dad's house and

654
00:51:22.320 --> 00:51:24.559
said in the two and a half
hours there, Harris just showed her around

655
00:51:24.559 --> 00:51:30.599
the house and showed off his prized
possessions, but sam defended Harris, saying

656
00:51:30.639 --> 00:51:35.440
that it was awkward for both of
them. Harris continues to reside in Charleston,

657
00:51:35.480 --> 00:51:39.480
South Carolina. As of twenty sixteen, Harris and Samantha don't stay in

658
00:51:39.559 --> 00:51:44.840
touch, but Harris has made peace
with this, he told Dateline. She

659
00:51:44.960 --> 00:51:47.519
is her own person now, she
can make her own decisions. She knows

660
00:51:47.559 --> 00:51:52.280
where I am, and she knows
that I'll want to hear from her whatever

661
00:51:52.360 --> 00:51:58.400
happens. Samantha graduated and became a
nurse. That same year, her half

662
00:51:58.440 --> 00:52:02.119
brother, Reese graduated from Auburn University
in Alabama. He had stayed in the

663
00:52:02.239 --> 00:52:07.360
US to stay close to his mom, while Samantha returned to Australia to her

664
00:52:07.400 --> 00:52:13.800
fiance and her schooling. Samantha married
her fiance, Bradley Stevens, in Fiji

665
00:52:14.159 --> 00:52:17.960
so her mother could attend her wedding
since Australia denied Lee entry. Today,

666
00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:22.079
Samantha is in her early thirties and
continues to live near the Sunshine Coast.

667
00:52:23.119 --> 00:52:28.280
In June of twenty nineteen, Lee
Barnett released a memoir. It's called A

668
00:52:28.280 --> 00:52:31.480
Mother's Promise. The subtitle is how
Far Would You Go? To protect your

669
00:52:31.559 --> 00:52:36.599
child. I haven't read it.
I don't plan to. I'm sure.

670
00:52:36.679 --> 00:52:42.320
Lie spends her memoir continuing to argue
that her actions were justified. She has

671
00:52:42.400 --> 00:52:45.039
no remorse for what she did to
Harris. When asked if she didn't think

672
00:52:45.079 --> 00:52:49.760
he had a legal right to see
Samantha, she smiled and said legal right

673
00:52:49.840 --> 00:52:53.159
be damned. Lee is even quoted
as saying, there's nothing wrong with me.

674
00:52:53.639 --> 00:52:59.239
I've never done anything violent. I've
raised two amazingly healthy, intelligent children

675
00:52:59.280 --> 00:53:04.440
who are happy. So who's telling
the truth and who's lying? The case

676
00:53:04.480 --> 00:53:07.320
is often described as he said,
she said, And on the surface that's

677
00:53:07.400 --> 00:53:13.599
true. The vitriolic, hateful divorce
proceedings show that, But if you look

678
00:53:13.639 --> 00:53:17.480
between the lines, you can see
that one person is more manipulative. If

679
00:53:17.519 --> 00:53:22.360
you watch interviews, Lee comes off
as this energetic, charismatic, youthful,

680
00:53:22.440 --> 00:53:28.480
and attractive woman. She also sounds
mostly reasonable. She did, in fact,

681
00:53:28.559 --> 00:53:31.079
raise two normal, healthy and happy
children who are devoted to her.

682
00:53:32.119 --> 00:53:37.920
In one interview, Samantha, when
addressing her mother's mental health diagnosis, was

683
00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:42.440
disbelieving of it. Quote unless she
had done a whole one eighty, then

684
00:53:42.480 --> 00:53:45.679
that's not who she is. Well, what if she had done on one

685
00:53:45.719 --> 00:53:52.360
eighty. The hyperthymic temperament also has
positive aspects that weren't mentioned in court.

686
00:53:52.159 --> 00:53:58.320
In court, doctor said her illness
was associated with violence and quote dwelling,

687
00:53:58.480 --> 00:54:02.920
blaming, and temper outbursts. When
I looked up hyperthymia, the first description

688
00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:07.039
said it was a constant state of
mild mania, meaning you have a high

689
00:54:07.199 --> 00:54:13.840
energy, enthusiastic, and overactive personality, which is basically how her friend's family

690
00:54:13.880 --> 00:54:17.920
and children described Lee. Vivacious and
full of energy, always on the go,

691
00:54:19.599 --> 00:54:22.679
very friendly and talkative to me.
She seemed to show both sides of

692
00:54:22.719 --> 00:54:28.920
one coin, and her behavior in
court, as I've already pointed out,

693
00:54:29.320 --> 00:54:32.960
basically proved Harris's case. If you
need a Bayliff standing over you, you

694
00:54:34.079 --> 00:54:37.920
might not be able to control yourself. And then after she fled the country,

695
00:54:38.320 --> 00:54:43.159
she turned back into the positive side. She had gotten what she wanted,

696
00:54:43.480 --> 00:54:45.880
a daughter, and as she said, she felt only God had the

697
00:54:45.920 --> 00:54:52.000
right to separate her from her daughter. She was completely unreasonable toward Harris having

698
00:54:52.000 --> 00:54:55.360
any relationship with his daughter. She
acted as though she was protecting Samantha,

699
00:54:55.719 --> 00:55:00.760
but really she wanted to keep her
to herself, refusing to sh share custody,

700
00:55:00.079 --> 00:55:06.119
which was a factor in the judge's
decision. And later she claimed Harris's

701
00:55:06.199 --> 00:55:09.519
abuse made her run, meaning the
incident when she picked up her daughter and

702
00:55:09.559 --> 00:55:14.039
she had mild injuries from a fall. She said that was what made her

703
00:55:14.119 --> 00:55:17.599
run. Specifically, the DA who
would have tried her when she was caught,

704
00:55:17.760 --> 00:55:23.400
reinvestigated this argument. In preparation.
He got the records from the er

705
00:55:23.599 --> 00:55:30.239
and her pediatrician that both concluded Samantha
was not abused, and he found proof

706
00:55:30.519 --> 00:55:34.920
that Lee was already working on her
fake documents so that she could run before

707
00:55:34.960 --> 00:55:39.119
Samantha fell. It was a lie. Lee showed absolutely no remorse for what

708
00:55:39.159 --> 00:55:44.239
she did to Harris. She seemed
proud of it, bragging that law enforcement

709
00:55:44.280 --> 00:55:47.199
had underestimated her, saying legal rights
be damned, with a smile on her

710
00:55:47.239 --> 00:55:52.280
face. She clearly felt entitled and
above the law. And then, on

711
00:55:52.320 --> 00:55:57.280
the other hand, you have Harris
almost eight years older than his youthful ex

712
00:55:57.360 --> 00:56:00.719
wife, and he looked even older
than that. He didn't have Lee's natural

713
00:56:00.760 --> 00:56:05.960
charisma. He was a slow,
talking, reserved man. He was reasonable.

714
00:56:06.920 --> 00:56:09.559
As much as he wanted to find
his daughter, he understood and respected

715
00:56:09.599 --> 00:56:14.320
her feelings once she was found,
and backed off until Samantha was ready to

716
00:56:14.360 --> 00:56:17.960
come to him. None of the
things Lee accused Harris of were proved true.

717
00:56:19.679 --> 00:56:22.719
He was not abusive and unstable.
He fiercely denied telling Lee to get

718
00:56:22.719 --> 00:56:29.280
an abortion. He said he felt
an overwhelming sense of responsibility when he found

719
00:56:29.320 --> 00:56:32.960
out she was pregnant. He may
not have wanted children, but he wasn't

720
00:56:34.000 --> 00:56:37.559
walking away once it happened. He
even agreed to marriage counseling after he asked

721
00:56:37.599 --> 00:56:42.199
for a divorce. When that didn't
work, he begged Lee to move out

722
00:56:42.239 --> 00:56:45.960
of his house, and he wound
up walking away from his own home when

723
00:56:45.960 --> 00:56:51.079
she refused to leave and he felt
unsafe with her. Lee did say he

724
00:56:51.159 --> 00:56:54.320
was cold to her, but that's
not violence. She admitted slapping him and

725
00:56:54.400 --> 00:57:00.440
throwing things. She had a terrible
temper that she couldn't even control in court,

726
00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:05.360
she had manipulated him into marriage and
forced him into fatherhood, and yet

727
00:57:05.400 --> 00:57:08.800
Harris seemed to try over and over
to be fair with Lee. In the

728
00:57:08.960 --> 00:57:14.519
end, Harris seemed tired and resigned. He searched for years, spending thousands

729
00:57:14.519 --> 00:57:17.960
and thousands of dollars. He traveled
around the world, searching himself he lost

730
00:57:19.000 --> 00:57:22.320
almost twenty years with his daughter.
He continuously talked about how much he loved

731
00:57:22.360 --> 00:57:27.639
her. She was his world,
even though their time alone together had been

732
00:57:27.679 --> 00:57:31.559
brief, and now she is a
stranger to him. As the judge and

733
00:57:31.639 --> 00:57:37.119
their custody dispute said, there are
no winners here. Lee may have thought

734
00:57:37.159 --> 00:57:42.280
she won, but after she was
convicted and couldn't return to Australia, her

735
00:57:42.280 --> 00:57:45.760
beloved and devoted daughter still chose to
stay there and make a life for herself

736
00:57:45.760 --> 00:57:51.719
in Australia rather than picking up and
following her mother to the US. Her

737
00:57:51.760 --> 00:57:55.079
brother moved to the States, but
Samantha refused to give up her own personal

738
00:57:55.119 --> 00:58:00.000
life that she had been building.
Now it was Lee's turn to be devas

739
00:58:00.360 --> 00:58:05.880
and lives separately from her daughter.
Samantha seems to be the most well adjusted

740
00:58:05.920 --> 00:58:09.639
and sweet young woman that you could
imagine. After all this, don't forget

741
00:58:09.920 --> 00:58:14.280
she had also lost the man who
she believed to be her father just a

742
00:58:14.320 --> 00:58:19.519
week before her mother's arrest. Yet
she never seems to feel sorry for herself

743
00:58:19.559 --> 00:58:25.440
when you watch her interviews. She
just seems strong and positive and forgiving Samantha

744
00:58:25.440 --> 00:58:30.480
geldenhis Stevens is a remarkable young woman. She built her own life after two

745
00:58:30.480 --> 00:58:35.599
other kinds of lives were stolen from
her. She is the victim in this

746
00:58:35.760 --> 00:58:38.199
case, and yet she seems to
have come out the strongest and happiest,

747
00:58:39.280 --> 00:58:44.960
which I would imagine be the one
thing her parents could agree on that Samantha

748
00:58:45.119 --> 00:58:53.480
deserves to be happy. Southern Fried
True Crime is hosted and produced by me

749
00:58:53.800 --> 00:58:59.559
Erica Kelly. Today's episode was researched
and written by Erica Kelly and Andrea Marshbak.

750
00:59:00.679 --> 00:59:04.519
Southern Fred's original music is by Rob
Harrison of Gamma Radio, and the

751
00:59:04.519 --> 00:59:07.920
original graphic art is by Kully Horner. Today's episode was edited and mixed by

752
00:59:07.920 --> 00:59:13.239
Brandon Chuck Snyder of Southern Gothic and
Erica Kelly. If you have any case

753
00:59:13.239 --> 00:59:16.039
suggestions, please go to my website
and click on the listener's suggestion tab.

754
00:59:16.599 --> 00:59:21.000
This is the best way for me
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755
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756
00:59:25.440 --> 00:59:30.280
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757
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Group, where we swap recipes,
worship Dolly Parton, and share memes We

758
00:59:34.559 --> 00:59:37.960
do, of course discuss true crime, not just Southern fraud, but all

759
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760
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764
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765
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