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Is Tad Cummins the Pervy Teacher of the Year? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Serious ex M Triumph
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Speaker 1: Channel one. Thirty two thirty nine days. That's how long
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Speaker 1: law enforcement, family and friends have been looking for Tad
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Speaker 1: Cummins and his kidnap victim. It all started when Cummins,
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Speaker 1: a fifty year old teacher in Tennessee, was seen by
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Speaker 1: another student kissing the fifteen year old girl. The student
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Speaker 1: reported that, and Cummins was later suspended and soon disappeared
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Speaker 1: with his victim. Jil Cummings tells Inside Edition that when
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Speaker 1: her husband Tad called her from a California jail, he
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Speaker 1: confirmed her worst fear, admitting that he slept with the
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Speaker 1: team as they evaded police for more than a month.
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Speaker 1: Tad called me from jail. But what was the first
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Speaker 1: thing you said to your husband? How could this happen?
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Speaker 1: When you know, why would you do this to us?
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Speaker 1: Why wouldn't you abandon me? Why would you leave with her?
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Speaker 1: And he kept saying all of you, and I said,
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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but I'm not going to say that back.
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Speaker 1: Just imagine if you take your daughter to school or
0:59
Speaker 1: you're a little boy boy, but in this case, your
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Speaker 1: daughter and drop her off, everything is fine, no problem.
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Speaker 1: Then at three o'clock. You're busy working, and you assume
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Speaker 1: everything is on track. That evening you realize she never
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Speaker 1: came home. I Nancy Grace, this is crime stories, and
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Speaker 1: that is exactly what happened in the case of a
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Speaker 1: young girl who goes missing, only to discover her own teacher,
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Speaker 1: Tad Cummins out of Columbia, Tennessee, has fled the jurisdiction
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Speaker 1: with your little girl. Not only that, you find out
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Speaker 1: there have been red flags for some times that a
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Speaker 1: storm has been brewing right there in the local public
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Speaker 1: school that apparently everybody knew about, including teachers and principles,
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Speaker 1: except you. This teacher, who is married with children and grandchildren,
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Speaker 1: is on the run with your little girl. And lo
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Speaker 1: and behold where do they turn up? On the other
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Speaker 1: side of the country, the other side of the country,
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Speaker 1: at the very end of the northwest, in a commune,
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Speaker 1: living on a filthy mattress where the people living in
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Speaker 1: the commune downstairs can barely stand the loud sounds of
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Speaker 1: let me just say, um, statutory sex assault going on upstairs.
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Speaker 1: Your daughter, your child will Thank God, she's alive. She's
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Speaker 1: brought home. Finally, just on the cusp of Tad Cummins
2:56
Speaker 1: actually renting a boat and crossing the water with the
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Speaker 1: little girl to get to a safe place out of
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Speaker 1: the U. S. Jurisdiction. That was the plan. They had
3:07
Speaker 1: even tested a water craft. With very little time to spare,
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth is brought home. Tad Commings arrested, his wife files
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Speaker 1: for a divorce finally, but now he wants out of jail.
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Speaker 1: He hasn't even been tried yet and he is trying
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Speaker 1: to beg his way out of jail on bond. Joining
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Speaker 1: me right now is Memphis reporter Shane Dieter. Shane, thank
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Speaker 1: you so much for being with us. What's the very
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Speaker 1: latest on Tad Cummings. I had to spit his name out.
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Speaker 1: Tad Cummings. His trial is scheduled for January second. However,
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Speaker 1: his attorney has asked for a continuance. He is going
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Speaker 1: through discovery and says, you hadn't enough time. He hasn't
4:02
Speaker 1: had enough time. Hold on just a moment to Alan
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Speaker 1: Duke joining me from l A not enough time? Hold on?
4:09
Speaker 1: When When was when was Elizabeth? This little girl? When
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Speaker 1: was she kidnapped? To start with? When did that happen?
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Speaker 1: This was in March of seventeen, but let me count, okay.
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Speaker 1: March April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November. Nine months.
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Speaker 1: He should have known the moment he left with Elizabeth
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Speaker 1: that he was going to get caught. So in my mind,
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Speaker 1: he's had nine months to figure out what he's gonna
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Speaker 1: say back back to you, Shane Memphis reporter joining us
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Speaker 1: Shane hold On. So he wants to get out of jail.
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Speaker 1: Oh h E double L no. Okay, And Shane, as
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Speaker 1: you know, you've known me for a long time. I've
4:51
Speaker 1: given up cursing because of the twins, and it hurts
4:55
Speaker 1: now I have to spell things. It takes a really
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Speaker 1: long time. I've said one curse word one since I
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Speaker 1: gave up cursing. And Lucy heard me. She was three
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Speaker 1: rooms away. She heard me. She's just looking at me
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Speaker 1: when I came in and wait, what my love his mommy,
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Speaker 1: I heard what you said. I'd let what so busted? Okay,
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Speaker 1: So anyway, I can't get away with anything back to you, Shane,
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Speaker 1: he wants out on bond. That'll be a cold day
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Speaker 1: in double H. Let me, I'm getting reversed. A cold
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Speaker 1: day in h E L L Okay, I got it.
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Speaker 1: I'm not used to spelling my curse words yet. So
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Speaker 1: what else does he want and why does he think
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Speaker 1: he should be out on bond? Nancy? He says he's
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Speaker 1: not a flight risk? Or well, stop, I'm sorry to
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Speaker 1: keep interrupting you. Shane. Wait wait, wait, wait was funny?
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Speaker 1: Wait a minute? Hold on, Alan? Where did we find him?
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Speaker 1: Hold up in a commune of free love or people
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Speaker 1: walk around naked? Where was he? It was in a
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Speaker 1: commune in a very remote area of northern California. This
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Speaker 1: guy allegedly bought a canoe at Walmart it or somewhere
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Speaker 1: to row across from San Diego into Mexico. So he's
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Speaker 1: not a flight risk. Okay, Shane Deeter, you were saying,
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Speaker 1: what about being a flight risk? And this is after
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Speaker 1: he outsmarted the cops and the FBI. The FBI was
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Speaker 1: on it because it was across state line, so no
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Speaker 1: one state had jurisdiction. So he tricks everybody, but Shane Deeter.
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Speaker 1: Uh Memphis reporter joining me, Shane, didn't some video surveillance
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Speaker 1: turn up of him. They were like a burger king
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Speaker 1: or something. It may have been a Walmart in Oklahoma
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Speaker 1: City and that was the first time that they'd been seen.
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Speaker 1: And yeah, you're right, you're right. I think the Burger
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Speaker 1: King turned out not to be them, or the whatever
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Speaker 1: fast food place. Oh yeah, that the Walmart was where
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Speaker 1: he was dying, buying here a die to change their appearance.
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Speaker 1: So he goes all the way from where to where Shane.
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Speaker 1: He goes from south to Nashville, all the way to
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Speaker 1: Oklahoma's city, which is gosh Nanto. That's probably about seven
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Speaker 1: hours right down the interstate I forty in the middle
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Speaker 1: of the country. And of course I don't know if
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Speaker 1: they stopped at any flop houses or live in motels.
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Speaker 1: I hate to even think what happened there. But they
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Speaker 1: end up at a free love commune. And I'm referring
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Speaker 1: to that ephemistically where you can walk around without your
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Speaker 1: clothes on. Even the people in the commune, we're uncomfortable
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Speaker 1: with Tad Commins. They kicked him out, isn't that what happened? Now?
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Speaker 1: And they the people who want quote free love. There's
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Speaker 1: a lot of different words for that, but free love,
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Speaker 1: I'll go with their term. Even they were disgusted with
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Speaker 1: Tad Cummings and this young girl, and they kicked him
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Speaker 1: out of their commune. That okay, that's bad, Alan, when
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Speaker 1: you get kicked out of a free love commune for
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Speaker 1: being with a young girl. There was a young man
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Speaker 1: who ironically was from Tennessee who was there, and he
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Speaker 1: dealt with them and befriended them and was nice to
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Speaker 1: them and gave them things. But he finally realized it
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Speaker 1: was so creepy and realized who they were that he
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Speaker 1: called the cops and that's how they got caught. Creepy,
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Speaker 1: you know what, no offense, Alan, But you're saying a
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Speaker 1: little bit like Harvey Weinstein's camp creepy. It's a crime.
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Speaker 1: It's not just creepy, it's a crime. Girls at that
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Speaker 1: age cannot consent to. Let me just say, since since
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Speaker 1: anybody could be listening, this is our Christmas Bright a
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Speaker 1: cardinal relationship period Bam. End of story, Nancy, As we
8:32
Speaker 1: review the story of Tad Cummins and Elizabeth Thomas, let's
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Speaker 1: start with what the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation told us
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Speaker 1: in that first week after the teenager disappeared with our teacher. Thomas,
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Speaker 1: fifteen years old, disappeared on Monday, March thirteenth, and is
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Speaker 1: believed to have been kidnapped by fifty year old Tad Cummings,
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Speaker 1: a former teacher at her school in Murray County, Tennessee.
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Speaker 1: On Tuesday, the school district in Murray County terminated Cummins
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Speaker 1: in the wake of an ongoing criminal investigation into alleged
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Speaker 1: inappropriate contact he had with Thomas at the school earlier
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Speaker 1: this year. Cummins as a white male, six foot tall,
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Speaker 1: weighing approximately two d pounds in his brown hair and eyes.
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Speaker 1: He is believed to be armed with two handguns, as
9:13
Speaker 1: you know, and believed to be driving a silver Nissan
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Speaker 1: Rogue with Tennessee tag nine seven six z p T
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Speaker 1: Warrants have been issued for Cummins, charging him with sexual
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Speaker 1: contact with a minor as well as aggravated kidnapping. On Friday,
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Speaker 1: as you know, the tb I added Cummins to its
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Speaker 1: top ten most wanted list here in the state of Tennessee.
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Speaker 1: There's currently a one thousand dollar reward for information leading
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Speaker 1: to his capture. You know, part of our investigation right
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Speaker 1: now is trying to determine how we got to this point,
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Speaker 1: and we've previously disclosed that Cummins had a troubling pattern
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Speaker 1: of behavior and increasingly everything that we're learning about him
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Speaker 1: does nothing to calm our fears and our concerns for her.
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Speaker 1: She is definitely a victim. She may not realize that
10:00
Speaker 1: she's a victim, but she is certainly a victim. She
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Speaker 1: needs help, She needs our best efforts, and she needs
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Speaker 1: the attention of this country to be on the lookout
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Speaker 1: for her. Her home situation, as you've heard from other folks,
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Speaker 1: may not be the best, but her family loves her.
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Speaker 1: Her brothers and sisters love her, her dad loves her,
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Speaker 1: her mom loves her. I'm sure her community loves her.
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Speaker 1: They want her home, and we want her home as well.
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Speaker 1: Our message to Elizabeth is we're still coming for you.
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Speaker 1: We're going to do everything in our possibility, everything in
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Speaker 1: our capabilities to bring you home your family. Once you
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Speaker 1: hear your friends want you here. To Tad, we would
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Speaker 1: say the same thing his wife said on Friday. You
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Speaker 1: have an opportunity here to do the right thing. This
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Speaker 1: is not who you are. This is not who your
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Speaker 1: church knows you to be, This is not who your
10:48
Speaker 1: family knows you to be, this is not who your
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Speaker 1: grandkids know you to be. Do the right thing. Give
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Speaker 1: her up, turn yourself in bring her home. I want
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Speaker 1: to get to all of his lies, Shane. I hope
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Speaker 1: you're sitting down. Can we start with him telling his class,
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Speaker 1: his children at school that he's a c I. A
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Speaker 1: Operative and that he has a safe house. And I
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Speaker 1: think it was Costa Rica when things got too quote
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Speaker 1: hot in the US for him. Hold, I'm gonna have
11:22
Speaker 1: to get a soda. I've sworn them off, but I
11:24
Speaker 1: feel sick to my stomach right now. A c I
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Speaker 1: A Operative help me, Shane. You know, Nancy, that's one
11:32
Speaker 1: of the things that seems people who live in a
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Speaker 1: fantasy land. They come up with that, and if you
11:38
Speaker 1: try to ask them something, they'll tell you it's classified,
11:42
Speaker 1: and it's you know, how are you going to figure
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Speaker 1: it out? District Attorney Brent Cooper was our guest on
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Speaker 1: several shows as the story unfolded last spring. He talked
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Speaker 1: about Tad's crazy lies, put other stories that he was
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Speaker 1: former FB owners, former CIA, and that he had millions
12:04
Speaker 1: of dollars stashed away. And I think he even told
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Speaker 1: some kids that he had properties in different countries and
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Speaker 1: and mansions and things like that. It's just to men
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Speaker 1: of the stories grows constantly, apparently, or did while he
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Speaker 1: was well, he was teaching. So what other lies did
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Speaker 1: he tell? Alan Duke? There's so many, poor wife. Ted
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Speaker 1: Cummins claimed to be a great songwriter and singer. I
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Speaker 1: remember the song that, that weird, strange song that he
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Speaker 1: sang to another teenage girl at the school Destiny Parish.
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Speaker 1: She recorded it, only later realizing just how pervy those
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Speaker 1: lyrics were coming from a fifty year old teacher to
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Speaker 1: a fifteen year old student. Well, Destiny joined us on
12:53
Speaker 1: a crime story episode to share her story. Oh yeah,
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Speaker 1: let's hear that right now. Let's hear that right now.
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Speaker 1: How did it come about that he sang a love
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Speaker 1: song to you? Um? I was, um a piano player
13:08
Speaker 1: back in the day. I don't play too much anymore.
13:10
Speaker 1: And I had learned a new song and I was
13:12
Speaker 1: going to show it to him because you know, like
13:14
Speaker 1: I said, he was a good friend and I was
13:16
Speaker 1: really impressed with myself for learning it. So I took him.
13:18
Speaker 1: We went to the music room, um, which is you know,
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Speaker 1: right next to his class Um, And it was after school,
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Speaker 1: and um, he had sat down first, and he you know,
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Speaker 1: started playing, and you know, I just kind of listened. Obviously,
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Speaker 1: I didn follow after he did. You know, we were
13:34
Speaker 1: kind of done after that. But he started singing that,
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Speaker 1: and like I had said, about halfway through the show,
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Speaker 1: I started recording because I thought he was doing good.
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Speaker 1: I didn't notice the lyrics at first, but I really,
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Speaker 1: you know, I can't sing and play the piano, you know.
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Speaker 1: I thought it was a pretty cool thing could be
13:49
Speaker 1: able to do because I was definitely, you know, quite
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Speaker 1: a bit behind and skill set back then the actions
14:00
Speaker 1: inside reach? Did he say he made up the song?
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Speaker 1: He wrote the song? He didn't, um, He never said
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Speaker 1: anything about it. Um. But I tried looking up lyrics
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Speaker 1: and could never find the same song online anywhere, and
14:19
Speaker 1: he similar lyrics anything like that, So I assumed that
14:23
Speaker 1: he did. I could swim for a thousand miles in
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Speaker 1: the oceans inside your eyes and never reached the side. Yeah, okay,
14:43
Speaker 1: you're the kind of woman a man can love for
14:45
Speaker 1: the rest of his life. And I don't know why
14:48
Speaker 1: I feel it's your eyes. Oh your eyes? Is that
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Speaker 1: ringing availed destiny? Yeah? Yeah, for sure. So you're in
14:59
Speaker 1: the music room, where are you sitting? And where is
15:01
Speaker 1: he sitting? Uh? He sat on the bench you know,
15:04
Speaker 1: on in front of the piano, and I just stood
15:06
Speaker 1: behind him. I didn't, you know, sit next to him, because,
15:10
Speaker 1: like I said, we were closed, but we did never
15:12
Speaker 1: like no physical contact really, so I wasn't super comfortable
15:17
Speaker 1: and I was really shy. After he sings the song
15:20
Speaker 1: with those lyrics, what did he say? Um, not too much.
15:24
Speaker 1: About halfway through, Um, some of the drama kids from
15:28
Speaker 1: the drama club at school work right across the hall
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Speaker 1: and they had heard the piano and you know, somebody singing,
15:33
Speaker 1: so they came in to check it out. And that
15:36
Speaker 1: was the end of the audio clip, was people coming
15:38
Speaker 1: in and you know, saying how surprised of or how
15:41
Speaker 1: good he was all that stuff. So he didn't we
15:43
Speaker 1: weren't alone at that point. Yeah, there's nothing like ruining,
15:47
Speaker 1: ruining a romantic moment with a underaged minor, then a
15:56
Speaker 1: bunch of students coming into the class to just burst
15:58
Speaker 1: that bubble. We you were listening to him sing, Do
16:02
Speaker 1: you recall what you were thinking or feeling? Like I said,
16:05
Speaker 1: I didn't think anything of it. I didn't really notice
16:08
Speaker 1: the lyrics too much. Um. I was just kind of
16:11
Speaker 1: they're observing at all? And it was after I you know,
16:15
Speaker 1: got home and listened to it again and played it
16:17
Speaker 1: for you know, a friend of mine that I realized
16:19
Speaker 1: what was actually being said. And even then, like I said,
16:22
Speaker 1: it didn't hit me because he wasn't ever inappropriate. He
16:25
Speaker 1: was always I mean, yeah, there were some things that
16:27
Speaker 1: sent up red flags now, but I didn't ever think
16:30
Speaker 1: that any of this would ever happen. For sure, when
16:33
Speaker 1: you say things send up red flags now, like what,
16:37
Speaker 1: well the song for sure. I want to pause and
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Speaker 1: for being her partner today. You know there was a
18:32
Speaker 1: method to his madness. Shane Dieter because I mean, here
18:36
Speaker 1: it is in your back porch, Shane, it's your neck
18:39
Speaker 1: of the woods. But that day they didn't even have school.
18:42
Speaker 1: That's how he pulled it off. They got a whole
18:45
Speaker 1: I guess eight or nine hours head start because they
18:48
Speaker 1: didn't have school that day. It was like a teacher's
18:50
Speaker 1: conference or something like that. And the dad didn't know it.
18:55
Speaker 1: You know, she had spent the night with a friend
18:58
Speaker 1: and the friend took her two gas station and Tad
19:01
Speaker 1: Cummins had taking his wife, Jill's car, taking her car.
19:05
Speaker 1: He had a gas and ready to go, and you
19:08
Speaker 1: can see her walk and get into the car on
19:10
Speaker 1: security footage. In the whole time, the dad thought his
19:15
Speaker 1: daughter had gone to school. He did not realize it
19:18
Speaker 1: was a day off. That's why I'll know the twins
19:21
Speaker 1: can't drive. I check it every night to just make
19:23
Speaker 1: sure there's school tomorrow. Let's go back to another one
19:28
Speaker 1: of your interviews with the district Attorney Brent Cooper, talking
19:31
Speaker 1: about the morning that Elizabeth walked out of the Shawnees
19:34
Speaker 1: restaurant and stepped into Tad Cummins car for a ride
19:37
Speaker 1: that ended. More than a month later. In northern California,
19:41
Speaker 1: the most concerning thing is that apparently, uh, Elizabeth told
19:45
Speaker 1: one of her siblings that day, either the day before
19:50
Speaker 1: or that morning, told them, if I'm not back by
19:53
Speaker 1: six o'clock tonight. We've heard it. Either she either said
19:58
Speaker 1: call the police or come looking for me. I read
20:03
Speaker 1: that the seventeen year old sister Sarah that. Now, see,
20:08
Speaker 1: she makes me think that she did not plan to
20:10
Speaker 1: be away. I mean, we're any of her clothes missing
20:15
Speaker 1: from the home to so she had packed a bag. Now,
20:17
Speaker 1: she did take clothes with her, so that kind of
20:20
Speaker 1: contradicts that. But we do believe she told her sister that,
20:26
Speaker 1: so she may have. She may have been on the
20:29
Speaker 1: fence about about going with Mr Cummings and didn't she
20:32
Speaker 1: spending a little friend That could have explained why some
20:35
Speaker 1: of her clothes were gone. Well, that's true, but I think, uh,
20:39
Speaker 1: I think she had more than one bag of clothes,
20:41
Speaker 1: if I if I remember correctly. So that's interesting because
20:45
Speaker 1: in that picture that Surmillan's picture of her, she only
20:48
Speaker 1: has one on ful of stuff. Uh. Well, I think
20:52
Speaker 1: for some reason, I believe they said she left one
20:55
Speaker 1: bag at Shawney's where she met him. So uh, it's
21:00
Speaker 1: really uh you know, my fear, my biggest fear is
21:04
Speaker 1: that she had changed her mind about going with Mr
21:09
Speaker 1: Cummins and that she expressed that to him and he
21:14
Speaker 1: took her then forcefully. Yeah, it was definitely planned out
21:19
Speaker 1: to where, Um, they had a several hour head start
21:24
Speaker 1: before before anyone realized they were they were missing. Why
21:29
Speaker 1: did you say that? Because he had he was supposed
21:35
Speaker 1: to be going to a job interview that morning, and
21:38
Speaker 1: of course, uh, she Uh, she had a friend drop
21:41
Speaker 1: her off around eight thirty am Monday. Uh. I think
21:47
Speaker 1: the last time his wife saw him was before eight
21:51
Speaker 1: o'clock that morning, and uh, she believed he would be
21:54
Speaker 1: going to a job interview that day, and uh, you
21:58
Speaker 1: know it wasn't until um, well, I don't think the
22:03
Speaker 1: I don't think Uh Elizabeth's mother, our parents, our father,
22:07
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, reported her missing until either late that night
22:11
Speaker 1: or early the next morning. Uh. And then it wasn't
22:15
Speaker 1: until eight o'clock or so the next day, So almost
22:20
Speaker 1: twenty four hours after uh they met up, before we
22:24
Speaker 1: knew that Mr Cummins was also missing. What did he do?
22:28
Speaker 1: You believe he really had a job interview or does
22:31
Speaker 1: he just tell his wife that Oh no, he didn't.
22:34
Speaker 1: It was it was completely made up. Man, What do
22:38
Speaker 1: you think about all this story he reportedly told Elizabeth
22:43
Speaker 1: about being a c I, a operative and a millionaire
22:46
Speaker 1: and a white belt in karate for Pete's sake? Oh no,
22:50
Speaker 1: and apparently he had. Uh he tells all of his
22:55
Speaker 1: students those those stories. And uh. Uh is the impression
23:00
Speaker 1: and I've gotten is that he's really created a an
23:04
Speaker 1: alternate persona for the students he has, and of this
23:10
Speaker 1: life that he never led with the CIA and the
23:13
Speaker 1: FBI and and things like that, and and all that
23:17
Speaker 1: goes into, uh, the the mental coercion who was using
23:24
Speaker 1: on her. You know, this is a a fifty year
23:27
Speaker 1: old authority figure in this girl's life, a fifteen year
23:32
Speaker 1: old girl that's that's looks like she's had a pretty
23:35
Speaker 1: rough upbringing. And uh and he's telling her all these
23:39
Speaker 1: wild tales about himself and really building him so building
23:44
Speaker 1: himself up to be something he's not. And we believe
23:48
Speaker 1: that all of that went into the persuasion to convince
23:51
Speaker 1: her to to leave with him. You know that really
23:55
Speaker 1: is even scarier now that I'm hearing that, because this
23:58
Speaker 1: guy can flat out tell a lie. Look, you right
24:01
Speaker 1: in the face. It stone cold lie to you. So
24:05
Speaker 1: that's going to help him alluding police. You mentioned that
24:09
Speaker 1: Elizabeth had had a very difficult upbringing. I've read about
24:14
Speaker 1: the alleged charges against her mother and they sounded awful.
24:20
Speaker 1: And uh, those charges are you know, my office is
24:23
Speaker 1: is prosecuting those charges and and um, you know they're
24:27
Speaker 1: still pending at this time, so I can't talk a
24:30
Speaker 1: lot about them. But you know, the allegations are they
24:34
Speaker 1: sound terrible. The allegations do. And and you know as
24:39
Speaker 1: well as I do, that before abuse has ever reported,
24:43
Speaker 1: it usually it's been going on for for quite a while.
24:49
Speaker 1: According to statistics, every time an incident in child abuse
24:54
Speaker 1: is reported, it has happened statistically dozens and dozens of
24:58
Speaker 1: times before. So I can't think that because there are
25:02
Speaker 1: no other claims against her that we know of other
25:05
Speaker 1: than these, and they haven't been proven yet. But according
25:09
Speaker 1: to the numbers child that he has happened in anyhow
25:12
Speaker 1: before it's reported. I mean children, Is that correct? This
25:17
Speaker 1: lady and ten children, Yes, that's my understanding. Now at
25:22
Speaker 1: least one of them has grown, has left the home
25:25
Speaker 1: as an adult now and has moved out. But but yeah,
25:29
Speaker 1: it's my understanding they're ten children, Nancy. We did at
25:33
Speaker 1: least fifteen shows focusing on Tad Cummins, including several interviews
25:37
Speaker 1: with the lawyers helping Elizabeth Thomas's father and his search
25:40
Speaker 1: for answers and for the return of his daughter. Let's
25:43
Speaker 1: listen to what attorney Jason Whiteley told us back in
25:46
Speaker 1: April that he was learning about how the high school
25:49
Speaker 1: teacher targeted this child grooming her before the kidnapping. Nancy.
25:55
Speaker 1: The grooming process that this I think you described as
25:59
Speaker 1: a pervert, and that's a a word, but the grooming
26:01
Speaker 1: process was actually said perv. There you go. That had
26:06
Speaker 1: been going on in earnest for a long time. We're
26:10
Speaker 1: hearing stories about backrubs, shoulder rubs, holding hands, being alone
26:16
Speaker 1: in the room consistently with him back rub whoa BackRub?
26:22
Speaker 1: He's giving this little girl backrubs in the classroom. We're
26:26
Speaker 1: getting reports of those kinds of things, and actually that
26:30
Speaker 1: that particular allegation was in the cafeteria and more than once,
26:33
Speaker 1: that's making me even matter at the Morin County School
26:37
Speaker 1: System than I already was. It will be a cold
26:39
Speaker 1: day in h e double l that some male teacher
26:42
Speaker 1: gave my daughter a BackRub. He'd got a knuckle sandwich,
26:47
Speaker 1: no mayo, and a heartbeat from me, all right, backrubs
26:51
Speaker 1: in the cafeteria alone in the classroom. That's even caught
26:55
Speaker 1: in a in a picture. By the way, what we're learning,
26:58
Speaker 1: and I hope pray that as we dig into this,
27:02
Speaker 1: that this that some of this is not true. But
27:05
Speaker 1: this is what the consistent theme that we're hearing is
27:08
Speaker 1: that he was in the nature of a of a
27:10
Speaker 1: counselor to her. And this is a guy with an
27:12
Speaker 1: associates degree who's a respiratory therapist, who really he's not
27:16
Speaker 1: even a teacher. You called him a teacher in your opening.
27:18
Speaker 1: He's not a teacher. He was teaching, but he's not
27:21
Speaker 1: a teacher, at least not a teacher in the traditional sense.
27:23
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, Wait a minute. I didn't think you
27:25
Speaker 1: could teach in the public I mean I taught while
27:28
Speaker 1: I was waiting a student talk, while I was waiting
27:30
Speaker 1: to get into law school English. And I didn't think
27:35
Speaker 1: you could actually teach in the public school system unless
27:37
Speaker 1: you had your four year degree? Am I wrong about that? Well?
27:41
Speaker 1: As my understanding of what Tennessee law has done, they've allowed,
27:44
Speaker 1: they've they've they've softened the rules to allow for people
27:48
Speaker 1: that have legitimate skills to go in and teach. For example,
27:51
Speaker 1: a medical doctor could teach science, right, you or I,
27:55
Speaker 1: as people with law degrees could teach, um, you know,
27:58
Speaker 1: a government class or something like that. Now that's my
28:01
Speaker 1: understanding of what the law is designed to do. In
28:03
Speaker 1: this case. Um, he was able to teach. And and
28:06
Speaker 1: and while I don't know his his complete background yet,
28:10
Speaker 1: because I don't trust his resume and we're having to
28:13
Speaker 1: vet that did he put c I a operative on
28:16
Speaker 1: the resume? He did not mean he was Apparently he
28:21
Speaker 1: readily spoke to his students about those kinds of insane things.
28:24
Speaker 1: And he obviously had this young girl believing these things,
28:28
Speaker 1: believing that he was a millionaire, believing that that he
28:32
Speaker 1: was this special forces guy. It's just insane. But that
28:35
Speaker 1: shows you the level of control that he had of her.
28:38
Speaker 1: She had a special seat, allegedly, according to sources we
28:41
Speaker 1: have next to his desk. And this wasn't because she
28:44
Speaker 1: needed discipline, this was because she was a special student,
28:47
Speaker 1: which he described in the report from the school as
28:50
Speaker 1: his best friend. He also told other students that he
28:52
Speaker 1: was a father figure to her. He used this abusive
28:55
Speaker 1: home angle to further persuade her to rely on him
29:00
Speaker 1: as a therapist. She was allowed to leave class and
29:03
Speaker 1: go to him, is what we understood, and we're trying
29:05
Speaker 1: to confirm that. But these are you know, that's the
29:08
Speaker 1: level think about this mother abused these children. She's out
29:12
Speaker 1: of the picture and has been out of the picture.
29:14
Speaker 1: He's still using that for his quote therapeutic reasons to
29:19
Speaker 1: help this child, all the while he says, praying on her.
29:23
Speaker 1: It's a sick picture. Yeah, I'm just amazed that. And again,
29:28
Speaker 1: the fact that he kidnapped her is not the school
29:31
Speaker 1: system's fault. But all the warning signs were there, the kissing,
29:37
Speaker 1: the back massages, the special sea, the mentoring, all of that,
29:42
Speaker 1: and I imagine that there's more. Those were red flags
29:46
Speaker 1: that they should have caught. Another issue is you said,
29:50
Speaker 1: and I'm coming back to this question because I got
29:54
Speaker 1: crazy for a minute when you were describing it, But
29:57
Speaker 1: you said there had been a long pattern of greeming
30:00
Speaker 1: her and you refer to back massages, and if what
30:04
Speaker 1: what else were you saying that you've learned about. We've
30:08
Speaker 1: talked to students who said that that that they've been
30:10
Speaker 1: seen holding hands, that he would insist to sit beside
30:13
Speaker 1: her if it was in a group setting, that he
30:16
Speaker 1: that this was open and obvious. Of course, the back
30:19
Speaker 1: or shoulder rubs were seen on more than one occasion
30:22
Speaker 1: she was in his classroom alone on a routine basis.
30:26
Speaker 1: We've even had one student tell us that there's a
30:28
Speaker 1: hospital bed there for demonstrative purposes where the child was
30:31
Speaker 1: found by that child asleep on that bed one morning,
30:35
Speaker 1: walked in. There's the child and him alone and she's
30:38
Speaker 1: asleep on that bed. I mean, that's the kind of
30:40
Speaker 1: stuff that we're hearing. Of Course, the children are getting
30:44
Speaker 1: more and more afraid to speak the teachers and are
30:48
Speaker 1: afraid and listen. I'm I'm a fan of our teachers.
30:50
Speaker 1: That they're they've got a very tough job and they're
30:53
Speaker 1: in a tough position. So I don't want to I
30:55
Speaker 1: don't want the impression that I'm throwing our teachers under
30:57
Speaker 1: the bus. What we're investigating here and extremely concerned about.
31:01
Speaker 1: It's just an atmosphere that was created that allowed the
31:05
Speaker 1: grooming to take place, and how why he was ever
31:08
Speaker 1: in this place to begin with. Look, I have to
31:11
Speaker 1: check myself, Nancy, because you know, I view this as
31:14
Speaker 1: a lawyer. You know, we we're to be objective and
31:16
Speaker 1: trying to help our clients be as objective as possible.
31:19
Speaker 1: But then I find myself at times almost getting conflicted
31:24
Speaker 1: because as a father, I'm a father of five with
31:27
Speaker 1: three daughters. I put myself in the shoes of my client,
31:30
Speaker 1: and when I then review the facts, I've become outraged.
31:34
Speaker 1: And so you know, while I love our school system
31:37
Speaker 1: and I support our teachers. I have teachers in my family.
31:40
Speaker 1: They're wonderful people, and they're dedicated people, and nothing I'm
31:43
Speaker 1: saying is meant to besmirche their uh them. In fact,
31:46
Speaker 1: I went to that school, Nancy. That that's where I graduated.
31:48
Speaker 1: I love that school. You know what, Jason Whiteley, this
31:51
Speaker 1: is not about them, This is about him, Ted, How
31:57
Speaker 1: did how did Commins do it? Now? That day that
32:01
Speaker 1: she was taken, I understand in retrospect the children were
32:06
Speaker 1: not going to school. It was a teacher development day
32:09
Speaker 1: or something. That's correct. Yeah, the school was out that day,
32:13
Speaker 1: and so she was going to spend a day with
32:16
Speaker 1: a friend and and so uh so and and the
32:20
Speaker 1: father for his part, after the kissing intervent came to light,
32:23
Speaker 1: which by the way, he learned a week late. But
32:26
Speaker 1: but after after that came to light. Um, he was
32:29
Speaker 1: especially vigilant and betting where she would go, who she
32:34
Speaker 1: would be with, talking to the parents, monitoring her phone. UM.
32:39
Speaker 1: You know, he was doing what a good parent would do. Um.
32:42
Speaker 1: And and of course, UM, you know, the rest is history.
32:45
Speaker 1: I mean, he obviously didn't know that this was going
32:47
Speaker 1: to take place, and so we have lots of questions about, uh,
32:52
Speaker 1: about what was going on. And of course there's a
32:54
Speaker 1: young lady that we had no reasonably was in on this.
32:57
Speaker 1: She was just the young lady that dropped her all often.
33:00
Speaker 1: I've talked to her. Law enforcements talked to her, and
33:03
Speaker 1: clearly Elizabeth had a plan. We think that it was
33:07
Speaker 1: clear as she had a plan to meet him. What's unclear, frankly,
33:11
Speaker 1: is what her plan was that evening, because as you know,
33:15
Speaker 1: we've heard conflicting news about what she intended in terms
33:20
Speaker 1: of coming home that evening. She told her sister called
33:23
Speaker 1: the police if I'm not home, and she did that emphatically,
33:26
Speaker 1: and I don't have any doubt that she said those words.
33:29
Speaker 1: But obviously she was with Tad Cummins secretly. So the
33:33
Speaker 1: question is how what did she actually intend? Did she
33:37
Speaker 1: intend to leave and stay away? Did she intend to
33:40
Speaker 1: come back? What she herself conflicted, didn't know what she
33:42
Speaker 1: wanted to do. Was it Tad that convinced her to
33:45
Speaker 1: do that? Was she sort of on the fence. We
33:48
Speaker 1: don't know the answers to those questions. We pray to
33:50
Speaker 1: God that we get her back so we can find
33:51
Speaker 1: the answers of the answers to those questions. I want
33:54
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Speaker 1: I need to drink about a gallon right now because
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Speaker 1: I need energy. I'd like to ask you about his wife.
36:13
Speaker 1: What's happening with his wife, Shane. They're divorced now. Julius
36:17
Speaker 1: trying to put her life back together. And you gotta
36:21
Speaker 1: remember she was a secretary at the school and she
36:24
Speaker 1: has children that her kids are adults now, but she's
36:30
Speaker 1: trying to put it all back together with them and
36:33
Speaker 1: her grandkids. And Tad is now coming after her because
36:38
Speaker 1: he said that the police used him to corrores confession
36:43
Speaker 1: out of him, that she manipulated him, and to tell
36:46
Speaker 1: him that she had sex, that he had sex with Elizabeth,
36:51
Speaker 1: otherwise he said he wouldn't have Well. Also, I can
36:54
Speaker 1: tell you what's going to happen. Part of this may
36:57
Speaker 1: be suppressed because when you talk to your spouse and
37:02
Speaker 1: you divulge your crime, the spouse isn't the one claiming
37:07
Speaker 1: the privilege. You are the accused. So when your spouse
37:11
Speaker 1: tries to take the stand, you your lawyer stands up
37:15
Speaker 1: and says objection, privilege, And you're the one that keeps
37:19
Speaker 1: a spouse from testifying. The wife of a Tennessee teacher
37:25
Speaker 1: accused of kidnapping a girls student says she knew the answer,
37:30
Speaker 1: but she asked anyway. Quote. I said, well, did you
37:33
Speaker 1: sleep with her? Said Jill Cummins in an interview, a
37:38
Speaker 1: TV interview. And this was describing a jail house conversation
37:43
Speaker 1: she had with her husband on the phone. It should
37:46
Speaker 1: be recorded, So actually she doesn't even have to He can't.
37:51
Speaker 1: He cannot stop a recorded jail house conversation, even if
37:55
Speaker 1: it's with his wife, because everybody knows that that's recorded.
37:59
Speaker 1: You do it over the phone. You're at the creek
38:01
Speaker 1: without a paddle. Unless they surprised me in Tennessee. Yes, idea,
38:05
Speaker 1: Tad Cummins replied, Now, she has filed for divorce, and
38:10
Speaker 1: you're telling me that it's gone through when it's final. Yes,
38:14
Speaker 1: And she filed early on in the ordeal. Within a
38:19
Speaker 1: week of Tad leaving, she had filed for a divorce.
38:23
Speaker 1: Joe Cummins recorded a public plead to her husband soon
38:26
Speaker 1: after it was obvious he had disappeared with the young
38:29
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Thomas. Listen to what she said. This is not
38:34
Speaker 1: who you are. We can help you get through this
38:39
Speaker 1: no matter how far you've gone or what's happening right now.
38:44
Speaker 1: God's grace is sufficient for you, and he wants you
38:48
Speaker 1: to come home. Your family wants their poppy back. Please
38:55
Speaker 1: do the right thing and turn yourself into the police
38:59
Speaker 1: and bring Beth home. To those of you in the media,
39:04
Speaker 1: thank you for helping to spread the word. Help us
39:08
Speaker 1: get to get this message out as far as we can,
39:11
Speaker 1: because we need help to find Tad and Beth and
39:15
Speaker 1: to bring them home safely. Thank you and God bless well.
39:21
Speaker 1: For five weeks, he leads a nationwide man hunt down
39:27
Speaker 1: a garden path, nobody can find him, and he turns
39:31
Speaker 1: up all the way on the other side of the country.
39:35
Speaker 1: The mystery of where Tad Cummins was hiding and if
39:38
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Thomas was safe, was finally resolved April. After more
39:43
Speaker 1: than a month on the run, the Tennessee teacher was
39:46
Speaker 1: taken into custody arrested. The team recovered. They were in
39:50
Speaker 1: a cabin and a remote section of northern California. K
39:54
Speaker 1: d r V TV reporter Mike Duffy tells us about
39:57
Speaker 1: how that all came about, where they were found and
40:00
Speaker 1: taken into custody. It's a remote part of northern California.
40:05
Speaker 1: Very few people live there. The entire county has about
40:08
Speaker 1: forty five thousand people live in sisqu County, so it's
40:12
Speaker 1: easy to see how someone could go there and escape
40:15
Speaker 1: for a period of time. Now, this is also the
40:18
Speaker 1: meeting area of multiple national forests. You have both the
40:22
Speaker 1: Shasta Trinity National Forest. You also have this popular trail
40:26
Speaker 1: that runs through the area, and people come from all over, backpackers, transients.
40:31
Speaker 1: They go to this place to get away. And it
40:34
Speaker 1: seems that in this case, what we found in our
40:38
Speaker 1: coverage at KTRV is that they were looking for this commune.
40:43
Speaker 1: It seems that he might have watched a documentary by
40:47
Speaker 1: the name of Commune that came out in two thousand five,
40:50
Speaker 1: which highlights this commune that people did go to. It's
40:54
Speaker 1: called black Bear Ranch. It's in a very remote part
40:57
Speaker 1: of the state. He was ultimately found in a town
41:00
Speaker 1: called Cecilville. The entire town of Cecilville probably has about
41:04
Speaker 1: thirty or forty people in it, so it's not a
41:06
Speaker 1: big place of its own. About twenty miles north of it,
41:10
Speaker 1: in a mountainous area is black Bear Ranch, and black
41:13
Speaker 1: Bear Ranch is only about eighty square miles in total,
41:17
Speaker 1: and this area has about six or seven people living
41:22
Speaker 1: in it. But it is a commune. It did start
41:23
Speaker 1: back in the sixties and it's a place where people
41:27
Speaker 1: still can go to get away. You have to intentionally
41:29
Speaker 1: go there. We sent our own reporters to this place.
41:32
Speaker 1: It took them multiple hours to even find the commune,
41:36
Speaker 1: to find Cecilville. These roads, even at this point in
41:40
Speaker 1: the year, you know where in the springtime. It is April,
41:43
Speaker 1: they still had a hard time getting there because roads
41:45
Speaker 1: were still filled with snow. Active logging is going on
41:49
Speaker 1: in this area. You have to know where you want
41:52
Speaker 1: to go. He wanted to go to black Bear Ranch.
41:56
Speaker 1: He wanted to be a part of the community, but
41:59
Speaker 1: the black Bear Ranch people said, we're not quite sure
42:04
Speaker 1: you'd fit in here and told him that they had
42:06
Speaker 1: to leave. We spoke with multiple people who were there.
42:10
Speaker 1: In fact, we interviewed one man who lives on the commune.
42:13
Speaker 1: His name is Peter Laughing Wolf, and he interacted with
42:17
Speaker 1: him one on one. He said that Ted Cummings was
42:21
Speaker 1: kind of a aggressive personality. He said that he saw
42:25
Speaker 1: Tad and Elizabeth. He spoke with Tad, but he thought
42:29
Speaker 1: it was interesting because while Tad was aggressive, Elizabeth kind
42:34
Speaker 1: of took a more submissive role. He said, Tad spoke
42:37
Speaker 1: for Elizabeth most of the time when they interacted. He
42:40
Speaker 1: arrived in Cecilville. He met up with a young man
42:44
Speaker 1: year old by the name of Griffin Barry, and he said,
42:47
Speaker 1: you know, we're trying to get to black Bear Ranch,
42:49
Speaker 1: but we have no more money left. We're out of gas.
42:53
Speaker 1: Griffin Barry politely filled up this guy's tank, gave him
42:57
Speaker 1: forty bucks, said you know, best luck going to black
43:01
Speaker 1: Bear Ranch. So then Tad and Elizabeth went to black
43:05
Speaker 1: Bear Ranch. They spent a couple of days there. It
43:08
Speaker 1: sounds like the Black Bear Ranch people said that they
43:11
Speaker 1: wouldn't be a good fit there. So he felt rejected
43:14
Speaker 1: and came back down the mountain, still had no money,
43:16
Speaker 1: still hard on his luck, and met back up with
43:19
Speaker 1: Griffin Barry. Griffin Berry said, you know what, if you
43:23
Speaker 1: want to work for us, we'll let you live in
43:27
Speaker 1: this little cabin in the back yard and you can
43:30
Speaker 1: do things for us. So the first day they did
43:32
Speaker 1: hard physical labor. Apparently they were moving stones from the
43:35
Speaker 1: river um into the yard sound that they were trying
43:38
Speaker 1: to build something of a fence, and it was within
43:41
Speaker 1: that time that Griffin Barry was tipped off that hey,
43:44
Speaker 1: this could this guy could be someone really bad. I
43:47
Speaker 1: don't think they realized who it was, and in fact,
43:49
Speaker 1: they said that they were surprised, but they did realize
43:52
Speaker 1: that something wasn't right. They realized that this person didn't
43:57
Speaker 1: quite fit into what they wanted. And it's also interesting, Nancy,
44:02
Speaker 1: this black Bear ranch is actively looking for people to
44:05
Speaker 1: join their commune. But they still rejected that that couple
44:09
Speaker 1: that showed up the young man who ultimately did turn
44:13
Speaker 1: him into authorities. Griffin Barry, so that he was alerted
44:16
Speaker 1: by someone in the town. They showed him a picture
44:19
Speaker 1: of this news report about this man hunt for a
44:24
Speaker 1: man and a young girl from Tennessee, and he, Griffin
44:27
Speaker 1: Berry says, oh my gosh, that guy is in my backyard.
44:32
Speaker 1: So he ultimately called authorities in Tennessee, who alerted the
44:36
Speaker 1: Sisko County Sheriff's Department, and they were the ones who
44:39
Speaker 1: ultimately made the rest. They went to this farm. They
44:42
Speaker 1: didn't want to compromise Elizabeth Thomas's safety, and so they
44:48
Speaker 1: were there at about two am in the morning, and
44:50
Speaker 1: of course to get them separated it would have been difficult.
44:53
Speaker 1: So what they did was they sent Griffin Berry to
44:55
Speaker 1: try to get him to come out, and Griffin Berry
44:58
Speaker 1: said he first honked his horn on his car to
45:00
Speaker 1: see if he could kind of lure him out of
45:01
Speaker 1: the house. Didn't work, so then he called so then
45:05
Speaker 1: he called Tad Cummins to come out of the house
45:09
Speaker 1: and said he had some more work for him. That's
45:10
Speaker 1: when Tad Cummins came out of the house and authorities
45:13
Speaker 1: ultimately made the arrest. I have no doubt that the
45:16
Speaker 1: trial is not going to go forward as it was
45:19
Speaker 1: scheduled anytime soon. I'll tell you why, Shane. You and
45:22
Speaker 1: I have covered enough court cases to know this. If
45:25
Speaker 1: the defense screams enough that they're not ready, the judge
45:28
Speaker 1: won't make them go forward, because if they're made to
45:31
Speaker 1: go forward, then they can later claim on appeal I
45:34
Speaker 1: wasn't ready and therefore I didn't get a fair trial exactly.
45:39
Speaker 1: And Nancy, he you said legal team. He's been appointed
45:44
Speaker 1: a public defender, So I mean I think that that
45:48
Speaker 1: might uh the judge to give him some leeway there.
45:52
Speaker 1: And there's a reason for that as well. That public defender,
45:55
Speaker 1: just like the prosecutor, is probably assigned to that courtroom.
45:58
Speaker 1: So the judge no very well, the public defender and
46:02
Speaker 1: the prosecutor assigned to the courtroom, and um, they probably
46:06
Speaker 1: worked together a long time. So when the p D
46:09
Speaker 1: public defender asked for more time, they're gonna get it.
46:13
Speaker 1: So the latest on Tag Cummings, to my understanding is
46:16
Speaker 1: A he wants out to jail. B he's going to
46:19
Speaker 1: appeal everything that's appealable so far, whether it be uh
46:25
Speaker 1: not suppressing search warrants or statements, everything there is to appeal,
46:29
Speaker 1: he's going to appeal it. In addition to Memphis reporters
46:32
Speaker 1: Shane Deeter joining me right now, I want to thank
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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off, Goodbye friend,