After Elizabeth Shoaf was abducted by 36-year-old Vinson Filyaw, she did everything she could to escape — and eventually succeeded when she stole his phone to send a text to her mom.
FacebookElizabeth Shoaf was 14 when she was nobble by Vinson Filyaw , but she outwitted her captor and rescued herself .
For 10 torturing twenty-four hour period in September 2006 , 14 - year - old Elizabeth Shoaf was held in an clandestine bunker by a raper name Vinson Filyaw .
Filyaw had posed as a police officer and “ arrested ” Shoaf just after she had gotten off the school bus . Then , he led her through the woods to a dank bunker , where he sexually assault her repeatedly for days .
FacebookElizabeth Shoaf was 14 when she was kidnapped by Vinson Filyaw, but she outwitted her captor and rescued herself.
Despite the perilous situation she find herself in , however , Shoaf managed to turn the table on her capturer . She won his cartel by affect to be in erotic love with him , and when he let his guard down , she used it to her advantage .
One night , while he was sleeping , Shoaf used Filyaw ’s phone to text her female parent , writing , “ Hi mom . I ’m in a pickle across from Charm Hill where the enceinte trucks go in and out . There ’s a bomb . Call constabulary . ”
She chair police forthwith to the dugout — and saved herself .
AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain, Pool/Alamy Stock PhotoVinson Filyaw saw his abduction of Elizabeth Shoaf as a game he was playing with police.
Vinson Filyaw Was “A Person That Holds A Grudge”
Vinson Filyaw was a troubled man . His father died when he was an infant , and his female parent remarried , but as he explain toNBC’sDateline , he had “ fairly much a normal family ” after his mother remarried .
“ I intend , nothing traumatic . Nothing you would think would make a person go out and do something crazy or psychotic or anything like that , ” he said .
As a teen , Filyaw was a Boy Scout who enjoyed the open air and camping . He had fall in love with theRambomovies and enjoyed soldierlike arts , but he fell in making love with something else too , something that doctors afterwards claimed damaged his brain : alcohol .
WIS News 10A screenshot of a local news broadcast visiting the bunker where Vinson Filyaw kept Elizabeth Shoaf.
Filyaw was in effect in the throes of alcoholism before he reached full adulthood , so when he later began visualize a woman make Cindy Hall , he see their human relationship as his redemption from alcoholism . Hall was a single mother of three , and Filyaw start working construction to furnish for her and the children , with whom he says he had become close — specially with the tyke he called Peanut .
“ Me and her grew real closely , ” he said . “ I mean , we were inseparable you know ? She moderately much felt like she was my little , 2nd woman of the house if you know what I mean . ”
Then , towards the end of 2005 , Peanut told her teacher that Filyaw had been sexually dishonour her . In November of that class , a justice issued a search countenance for Filyaw . constabulary gather information , talked to people who worked with Filyaw , and corroborated Peanut ’s story . All mansion pointed to Filyaw going to jail .
Kershaw County Sheriff’s OfficeVinson Filyaw after his arrest.
From hisDatelineinterview , it was clear that Filyaw resent both Peanut and the police .
“ Kershaw County [ Police ] never make out and question me , ” he said . “ Instead they questioned everyone I worked with . You know , they never came in the house . Why not inquire me whether I did something or not ? ”
AP Photo / Mary Ann Chastain , Pool / Alamy Stock PhotoVinson Filyaw saw his abduction of Elizabeth Shoaf as a game he was playing with police force .
Filyaw really did n’t require to go to prison — so he decided to start living in the forest . At first , he encamp out in a collapsible shelter , but then he started making plans for a dugout , and he started hollow .
harmonise to Filyaw , this bunker had “ all the furnishings of home , ” including a solar shower bath , a propane gasoline stove , a fireplace , and a collapsible top . He kept a cell earphone in the bunker and powered everything via a 12 - volt system .
Despite all of his trouble keeping this localization a closed book , it was shockingly close to his backyard , and at Nox he would often sneak out to see Hall .
But Peanut was gone . She had been placed into foster tutelage . And Filyaw could n’t let the perceived sleight against him go unpunished .
“ I guess you could say I ’m a person that throw a grudge , ” he accept .
He pass away to a nearby Wal - Mart and picked up manacle , night vision goggles , a taser , and a gun . He had mean to nobble and abuse Peanut , but with her safely with another folk , Filyaw had to make a Modern plan .
“ The second plan was to kidnap somebody else , ” Filyaw explained , “ and to basically , to draw all of Kershaw County into one general area and then just go down on them all up . ”
By utter chance , that somebody terminate up being Elizabeth Shoaf .
The Kidnapping Of Elizabeth Shoaf
Filyaw persist in to skulk around the woods looking for his next victim — and he retrieve her on Sept. 6 , 2006 , when he saw Elizabeth Shoaf step off her schoolhouse bus .
According to anA&Ereport , Filyaw had crafted himself a fake bull costume and badge . mask himself as a police officeholder , he approached Shoaf , made up a level about a ganja charge , and placed the 14 - class - sometime in handcuffs .
He did n’t keep the masque up for long , though , as he head Shoaf through the woods and back to his bunker . There , he ordered her to strip raw , chained her by the neck , and raped her .
He continue to sexually dishonour her over her 10 Day in the bunker . Still , this abduction was never really about Shoaf — or so Filyaw later claimed .
WIS News 10A screenshot of a local intelligence programme visiting the sand trap where Vinson Filyaw kept Elizabeth Shoaf .
“ I was in a biz mode , ” the abductor said . “ My one and only determination was to get back at Kershaw County , at all cost . It all fell together like clockwork . I intend , I did n’t have to do anything . ”
Shoaf shortly realise that if she ever hoped to break loose from this underground prison house , then her only Bob Hope was to make Filyaw like her .
“ I always would do what he told me to do , ” she later explained . “ And like he ’d always call me baby . So I ’d call him that back . And he ’d tell me he loved me , and I told him I enjoy him . Which is — I ’d do like I really liked him and I wanted to be with him . ”
Shoaf ’s gambit worked . An odd relationship developed between them , and Filyaw on the spur of the moment began to show his dupe some colour of pity . He unchain her , rent her go outside , and occasionally allowed her to play game on his phone .
Then , one dark while Filyaw was sleeping , Shoaf followed through on her plan — and sent a textbook that would hold open her life .
How Elizabeth Shoaf Saved Herself
“ Hi momma , ” the text read . “ I ’m in a hole across from Charm Hill where the big trucks go in and out . There ’s a dud . Call law . ”
Detectives were skeptical at first . This was either one of the most unbelievable breakthrough in a drop persons case they had ever seen or it was nothing more than a cruel harlequinade . gratefully , tec realize the text was , in fact , from Shoaf and locomote into natural action .
Vinson Filyaw , meanwhile , had been keeping a close eye on news reports about him . The U.S. Marshal ’s Office traced the phone ’s locating and police and helicopters quickly wall the bunker .
Filyaw saw the report on how constabulary learned of the trap ’s position via a textbook and flew into a cult — but he was frightened and panicked , too .
“ I tell him he needed to entrust because if they ’d catch him , he would go to clink , ” Shoaf recalled .
Filyaw ’s plan was amount to fruition ; he had the Kershaw County Police exactly where he want them — and then he take flight . He would later tell research worker that he did n’t really desire to die . He had planned to steal a elevator car and make his escape , but he was completely besiege .
Kershaw County Sheriff ’s OfficeVinson Filyaw after his arrest .
“ There was bull everywhere , ” he said . “ So I get down on my human knee and put my hand up in the air … I think , all three of [ the cops ] just jump on me and mystify the poop out of me . Honestly , I think they were going to kill me after they started beating me like that . ”
After his arrest , Filyaw tried to take vantage to the morbid notoriety he ’d earned with his ruthlessness toward Shoaf .
He wrote a 120 - Thomas Nelson Page manuscript about his offence , including several credit to the fact that people used to get splice at 12 , which he hear as justification for his natural action .
Shoaf , on the other hand , moved on with her biography . Detectives heard her scream and found her , but they pass up to take any cite for her deliverance .
“ I received mention many times for saving her and I did not , ” recalled former chief investigator David Thomley . “ That child saved herself . ”
Shoaf eventually graduated from college and began working as a dental supporter . In 2013 , shespoke about her experienceand how she move on from it , saying , “ you could be a subsister just like I am . It simply drive faith , it takes lecture to someone and encouragement that it ’s not the end of the world . ”
After read about Elizabeth Shoaf ’s unbelievable survival , read the story ofMary Vincent , the miss who survived being kidnapped and maim by killer Lawrence Singleton . Then , memorize aboutBrian David Mitchell , the deranged street preacher who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart .
