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Amber Alert: Teacher flees Tennessee with teen student · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:07
Speaker 1: The case to find Elizabeth Thomas has gone cold, and
0:11
Speaker 1: now law enforcement is hoping to widen the net to
0:14
Speaker 1: bring Elizabeth vote. We really need the public to realize
0:17
Speaker 1: that this young girl is in danger. This is Crime
0:21
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. Elizabeth was last seen in Columbia.
0:25
Speaker 1: Investigators say that she is with Tad Cummins. T v
0:28
Speaker 1: I says the Cummins was a teacher. She's fifteen, he's fifty.
0:33
Speaker 1: He's now facing a charge in which the district attorney
0:37
Speaker 1: has confirmed her to be the victim. Investigators are now
0:40
Speaker 1: going on the theory that Cummins has taken Elizabeth, either
0:44
Speaker 1: to an area outside the public or outside the Southeast.
0:48
Speaker 1: They're missing. They could be anywhere. We want her home.
0:51
Speaker 1: We want him and custody. If you see them, don't
0:54
Speaker 1: approach them. Commons maybe arms. Amber alert Amber Alert Tennessee
1:00
Speaker 1: Amber alert is an effect a missing girl is with
1:04
Speaker 1: a school teacher and he has wanted for sex with
1:08
Speaker 1: the student. This Tennessee girl goes missing. Authorities believe she
1:14
Speaker 1: is with a fifty year old school teacher. The FBI
1:19
Speaker 1: is so concerned they have joined in the search for
1:22
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Thomas. Now many believe that because she knew the teacher,
1:27
Speaker 1: she got into his vehicle willingly. That makes no difference.
1:32
Speaker 1: A child does not have the ability to consent. The teacher,
1:37
Speaker 1: fifty year old Tad Cummings. We believe that he picked
1:42
Speaker 1: her up at a Morie County, Tennessee restaurant and took off.
1:46
Speaker 1: And there's more bad news. The Amber alerts issued in
1:50
Speaker 1: both Tennessee and Alabama. But I have reason to believe
1:53
Speaker 1: this guy could be headed to Florida for this little girl.
1:56
Speaker 1: A warrant for the arrest of Tad Cummings for sex
2:00
Speaker 1: contact with a minor. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has
2:04
Speaker 1: received dozens of tips so far, and they've gotten their
2:07
Speaker 1: hands on surveillance footage from a gas station where Tad
2:11
Speaker 1: Cummings refueled his vehicle before fleeing with the girl. Here's
2:17
Speaker 1: a problem. Another problem, Cummings has the cash to continue
2:23
Speaker 1: refueling without stopping to use his a t M. He
2:28
Speaker 1: doesn't have to use a credit card. How do we
2:30
Speaker 1: know this because we have learned from police sources he
2:35
Speaker 1: actually went and took a title loan for his car
2:38
Speaker 1: days before he disappeared, getting nearly five thousand dollars in
2:43
Speaker 1: cash alone against his car. He is driving a silver
2:48
Speaker 1: Nissan Rogue Tennessee tag nine seven six Z zebra pte
2:56
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania T toy nine having six z p t For
3:03
Speaker 1: all you truckers listening to this podcast now, please help
3:07
Speaker 1: us bring this girl home. T B I says, silver
3:12
Speaker 1: Nissan Rogue Tennessee tag nine seven six z zebra pe
3:18
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania T toy. He is armed with two handguns. Do
3:26
Speaker 1: not approach Tad Cummings. Please help us bring this girl home.
3:32
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories and with me
3:36
Speaker 1: Alan Duke, investigative reporter. Alan, have you looked at his Twitter?
3:44
Speaker 1: I am oh, what do you see? But Alan, wait, wait,
3:48
Speaker 1: wait before we divulge what we've learned on this freak's
3:52
Speaker 1: Twitter account. And he is a teacher. He is a teacher.
3:56
Speaker 1: For Pete's sake. I want to thank Simply Safe as
4:00
Speaker 1: always for being our sponsor today and helping us get
4:04
Speaker 1: the word out about the Amber alert of this beautiful
4:08
Speaker 1: young girl. This little girl goes missing and now we
4:11
Speaker 1: have reason to believe she has been groomed by this
4:16
Speaker 1: high school teacher to get in his car. And we
4:19
Speaker 1: know now he is one of her sex contact with
4:22
Speaker 1: the minor. Now, how did they figure that out? Maybe
4:25
Speaker 1: through her devices, maybe through her computer. He's been charged
4:30
Speaker 1: with that and he's on the run, and I have
4:33
Speaker 1: reason to believe he's not headed to Alabama, but to Florida.
4:36
Speaker 1: Back to simply Safe. Who's making our Amber Alert alert possible.
4:42
Speaker 1: Simply Safe is our sponsor, because I believe in simply Safe.
4:48
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4:51
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4:57
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5:23
Speaker 1: slash Nancy for another ten percent off. Simply say thank
5:27
Speaker 1: you for letting our Amber Alert podcast be created. Now, Alan,
5:33
Speaker 1: I want to go back to this freak Tad Cummings
5:36
Speaker 1: Twitter account. What did you learn? I'm looking at it
5:39
Speaker 1: right now. I'm gonna let you describe it. Well, first
5:42
Speaker 1: of all, how does it don't drag Jesus into yet
5:45
Speaker 1: another felony. Okay, keep him out of this. I just
5:48
Speaker 1: just let me mention the very first self description he
5:51
Speaker 1: has is Jesus freak child of the King. I won't
5:54
Speaker 1: mention Jesus again. Won't drag Jesus into this. Husband and
5:59
Speaker 1: wait a minute, wait, husband, husband's married is worse? Father, grandfather,
6:08
Speaker 1: high school teacher, clinician, drummer, audio tech, a jeep owner, singer, songwriter,
6:15
Speaker 1: and a warrior poet? What warrior poet? Apparently he likes
6:21
Speaker 1: to write poetry. A warrior poet, a poet who he's
6:26
Speaker 1: quite the renaissance man really is? This is the other
6:30
Speaker 1: thing that I find by looking at his tweets. That's
6:34
Speaker 1: what he is. A Apparently he was the sponsor of
6:39
Speaker 1: the organization that is the Future Health Professionals in the
6:44
Speaker 1: high school in Marie County, Tennessee, where he was up
6:47
Speaker 1: until very recently and when he was fired a teacher.
6:51
Speaker 1: Cummins wife, Jill Cummins, made a public plea at a
6:56
Speaker 1: news conference Friday afternoon, asking her husband to give up
7:00
Speaker 1: and bring the girl home. This is not who you are.
7:06
Speaker 1: We can help you get through this, no matter how
7:10
Speaker 1: far you've gone or what's happening right now. God's grace
7:15
Speaker 1: is sufficient for you, and he wants you to come home.
7:21
Speaker 1: Your family wants their Poppy back. Please do the right
7:26
Speaker 1: thing and turn yourself into the police and bring Beth home.
7:32
Speaker 1: To those of you in the media, thank you for
7:35
Speaker 1: helping to spread the word. Help us get to get
7:39
Speaker 1: this message out as far as we can, because we
7:42
Speaker 1: need help to find Pad and Beth and to bring
7:45
Speaker 1: them home safely. Thank you and God bless you. Know
7:50
Speaker 1: what's really I'm really looking in this old drummer, singer, songwriter,
7:55
Speaker 1: warrior poet thing. Have you ever noticed how many oldster
8:00
Speaker 1: as adults I like to talk about when they were
8:03
Speaker 1: a quote hippie. I used to be a hippie, and
8:06
Speaker 1: now I show a photo of themselves to say, like
8:09
Speaker 1: at a concert or at Woodstock, that's their claim to fame,
8:13
Speaker 1: they used to be a hippie. Okay, so that's kind
8:18
Speaker 1: of this guy's mindset, but it's it's inconsistent. Husband, father, grandfather,
8:23
Speaker 1: school teacher, drummer, warrior, poet, singer, songwriter. Okay, there are
8:31
Speaker 1: a lot of clues in here as to what he
8:33
Speaker 1: might be up to where he might be going. I'm
8:36
Speaker 1: looking at who he follows on Twitter. He follows one
8:40
Speaker 1: of the most beautiful coming guests, a bunch of little girls. Well,
8:43
Speaker 1: i'm looking. I haven't found that he's following the Twitter
8:47
Speaker 1: account for the Gulf Shores, Alabama. You've been down there.
8:50
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've. You've taken the twins down to those
8:53
Speaker 1: beautiful beach Well, wait a minute. You know, my dad
8:58
Speaker 1: was from Hayti, Alabama, which is near Sampson, which is
9:03
Speaker 1: near Mobile, which is near the Florida Panhandle. Is like
9:07
Speaker 1: the whitest beaches you have ever seen. There's so white
9:11
Speaker 1: sand beaches. They're just beautiful. So tell me your extrapolation
9:17
Speaker 1: from seeing him following the Panhandle. He also tweets about
9:21
Speaker 1: Panama City Beach. Oh wait a minute, Wait a minute.
9:24
Speaker 1: I said he may not be headed towards Alabama. He
9:26
Speaker 1: could be headed toward Alabama to get to the Panhandle.
9:30
Speaker 1: The Alabama coast and the Florida Coast. The Redneck Riviera,
9:33
Speaker 1: which I practically grew up on, is filled right now
9:38
Speaker 1: with fifteen year olds and teachers because it's spring break.
9:43
Speaker 1: Spring break in a lot of the Southeast right now,
9:47
Speaker 1: and it is the time where they all take the
9:50
Speaker 1: road trip and they fill up on the sand of
9:53
Speaker 1: those beaches. Well wait, wait, wait, wait, I'm looking at
9:56
Speaker 1: something June eighteen, two thousand sixteen. I think the best
10:01
Speaker 1: photo I took on our PCB Panama City beach trip
10:04
Speaker 1: this week. You know what, You're right? So he goes
10:08
Speaker 1: he has taken this girl to the beach road trip.
10:11
Speaker 1: That's where they are. He has taken this little girl
10:15
Speaker 1: to the beach. He's already had charges filed against him
10:20
Speaker 1: for sex with miners. Catch this post. A teacher is
10:25
Speaker 1: never a giver of truth. He is a guide, a
10:28
Speaker 1: pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself.
10:32
Speaker 1: Now true, he stole that from Bruce Lee, but that's
10:35
Speaker 1: his mantra. What else do we next? Well, he follows
10:39
Speaker 1: you know, we're talking about Jesus. He also follows the
10:41
Speaker 1: Dali Lama. So there is that I'm looking at who's
10:45
Speaker 1: following him? And he does have some apparently high school
10:48
Speaker 1: girls following him on Twitter. I'm not going to name
10:51
Speaker 1: any names, but thank you. He travels around to these
10:55
Speaker 1: future health professional events. Were you in the four H
10:58
Speaker 1: club when you're in high school? I bet you were.
11:01
Speaker 1: I'm sure I was. You know, I was in forage.
11:05
Speaker 1: My mother was a master forager, my sister was a
11:09
Speaker 1: master forager in forestry. And I was a camp councilor
11:13
Speaker 1: at the National Forage Center Rock Eagle in Eatonton, Georgia,
11:16
Speaker 1: where I was a hiker hight master. I've been up
11:19
Speaker 1: to Rock Eagle myself, probably saw you. So what are
11:22
Speaker 1: you trying to tell I'm telling you he would take
11:23
Speaker 1: these trips, these weekend trips to various events and competitions,
11:27
Speaker 1: and he posted some of the pictures on Twitter. Now
11:30
Speaker 1: you know, it's freaking me out just what you're saying.
11:33
Speaker 1: I'm looking at all these little girls smiling in these
11:37
Speaker 1: pictures where he's taken them on trips. I don't like it. Well,
11:40
Speaker 1: is he currently married, married, he's a husband, a father,
11:45
Speaker 1: a grandfather. Yes, and he's fifty years old. And look
11:50
Speaker 1: at this guy. He just looks like the high school teacher.
11:53
Speaker 1: But he is a He looks a lot older than fifty.
11:55
Speaker 1: I can tell you know. Okay, let's talk about what
11:59
Speaker 1: we know. Let's get back on track to what we know.
12:02
Speaker 1: Tell me about the disappearance. Tell me what we know.
12:05
Speaker 1: The mechanics of the disappearance. This young lady, and we're
12:08
Speaker 1: using her name. She's on the poster. It's Elizabeth Thomas.
12:10
Speaker 1: She's fifteen years old, a high school student. A friend
12:12
Speaker 1: of hers dropped her off at the Show Knees. The
12:15
Speaker 1: Shownees is a popular restaurant in Columbia with the big boy.
12:19
Speaker 1: We used to be the big boy left shown. Yeah,
12:21
Speaker 1: I hate that, but that happened thirty years ago. Nancy
12:26
Speaker 1: good Grief, Well, I still hate it. Hate lives. I
12:29
Speaker 1: hated it. And plus it's a tribute to my longtime
12:32
Speaker 1: friend from Court TV, Helen Luketis. She collected good boys
12:37
Speaker 1: and we you know, the little statuettes, and we would
12:41
Speaker 1: travel all over covering cases for Court TV and she
12:44
Speaker 1: would go to show Knees and get a big boy
12:46
Speaker 1: at every place she traveled. Okay, so just put the
12:49
Speaker 1: kai bosh on bashing big boys. You never collected big
12:53
Speaker 1: boys on your travels though, now I didn't. I didn't
12:55
Speaker 1: have time to slow down and stop at Shownees. But
12:58
Speaker 1: go ahead. So she's opped off by friend at seven
13:01
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning. We know that he shows up
13:03
Speaker 1: next door. Now I've looked at the map on this
13:06
Speaker 1: you see surveillance video, the security camera video of the
13:09
Speaker 1: gas station, the shell station right next door to the
13:13
Speaker 1: shown Yeah, he pulls in and he gets gas for
13:18
Speaker 1: this car that we've got the lookout for. He doesn't
13:22
Speaker 1: go inside. He uses a card. He goes up, uses
13:25
Speaker 1: a card. It looks like he filled it up because
13:27
Speaker 1: he's there for about two minutes pumping, so I calculated
13:31
Speaker 1: that he filled that thing up. Then you see him
13:34
Speaker 1: turn walk behind his vehicle and look over towards the
13:37
Speaker 1: shownies like he's looking for someone. Then he gets into
13:41
Speaker 1: his car and drives to the left around the pumps
13:46
Speaker 1: and over to the little access street that would take
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Speaker 1: him right into the shownies. I'm looking at it right now,
13:52
Speaker 1: you guys. You can see the Amber alert video at
13:57
Speaker 1: the gas station. You can find it if you go
13:59
Speaker 1: to tennessee Amber Alert. Now he is driving his Nissan
14:05
Speaker 1: Rogue Silver. Correct, Yes, I see am. I see him
14:09
Speaker 1: gassing up right now. I'm trying to find the shownies.
14:13
Speaker 1: Where is the shownies in this It is over to
14:16
Speaker 1: the left. There's just a little side street that separates them,
14:20
Speaker 1: but they're pretty much the same. There he goes, and
14:22
Speaker 1: he goes that way. Yes, there he goes This is
14:25
Speaker 1: just before he picks her up. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
14:29
Speaker 1: now stating they are extremely concerned about the well being
14:34
Speaker 1: of little Elizabeth Thomas. It's an ongoing amber lord out
14:38
Speaker 1: of Tennessee and it has been extended. This Moray County,
14:41
Speaker 1: Tennessee girl has been missing for a couple of days now,
14:46
Speaker 1: and the t b I say they believe she is
14:49
Speaker 1: with an armed teacher, Tag Cummings, and a nisan with
14:54
Speaker 1: himself and the little girl in the car. He was
14:57
Speaker 1: a teacher at a Moray County school where she was
15:01
Speaker 1: a student in Columbia, Tennessee. Now, as Alan do was
15:05
Speaker 1: just telling you, she was dropped off at the shownees
15:09
Speaker 1: that morning by a friend, her parents reporting her missing
15:13
Speaker 1: later the same day, let me understand they can place
15:17
Speaker 1: the girl in Decatur, Alabama at three oh six pm
15:21
Speaker 1: Central time. That's two oh six pm Eastern standard. Neither
15:27
Speaker 1: has a connection there Decatur, Alabama. Hey, Alan, while you're
15:33
Speaker 1: sitting there, can you go on and see map quest this.
15:40
Speaker 1: It's eighty miles south of where they left at the shownies.
15:44
Speaker 1: Eighty miles on I Okay, My question is where does
15:48
Speaker 1: it fit into a trip to PCB Panama City Beach
15:52
Speaker 1: directly towards it. It is the route you would take,
15:55
Speaker 1: and I think you're right. I think that's where they're going.
15:58
Speaker 1: So they were Indicator Alabama. Her name everybody, the little
16:02
Speaker 1: girl's name is Elizabeth Thomas, and they're saying they can
16:08
Speaker 1: place her Indicator Alabama. How many states away is that?
16:12
Speaker 1: He's almost immediately in Alabama after about forty five minutes.
16:17
Speaker 1: He's in northern Alabama. Decatur, Alabama is about halfway between
16:21
Speaker 1: there in Birmingham. It would have only taken him about
16:24
Speaker 1: two hours to get from that Showne's down to Decatur, Alabama.
16:27
Speaker 1: They would have left at seven thirty eight o'clock that morning.
16:30
Speaker 1: I don't even want well, they would have left at
16:31
Speaker 1: about eight thirty five or eight forty if they immediately went,
16:35
Speaker 1: and that would have put him there at about ten thirty,
16:38
Speaker 1: which means maybe they stopped someplace along the way. No
16:42
Speaker 1: one has any credible signings about the whereabouts of either
16:45
Speaker 1: of them. There is a disturbingly low number of the
16:50
Speaker 1: tip of tips, and the tb I is concerned about that.
16:53
Speaker 1: This means the two are staying out of view of
16:57
Speaker 1: the public or outside the original net the tb I
17:01
Speaker 1: has cast across the southeast, so right now they could
17:05
Speaker 1: be anywhere. I'm still betting on Florida. The t b
17:09
Speaker 1: I is also trying to track Cummings action in the
17:11
Speaker 1: weeks prior to the Amber alert, for instance, securing that
17:16
Speaker 1: title loan for his vehicle, getting about five thousand dollars
17:20
Speaker 1: for that before they leave. So let's take a look
17:23
Speaker 1: at the timeline. Alan a friend drops her off at
17:27
Speaker 1: a Shawnees, Columbia, Tennessee. Surveillance video eight thirty two shows
17:33
Speaker 1: Cummings at a shell station filling up his Nissan Rogue.
17:39
Speaker 1: That's eight thirty two, eight M Central twelve forty one.
17:43
Speaker 1: Marie County Sheriff's Department enters the child as missing at
17:46
Speaker 1: the n c I S that's the nation's law enforcement
17:49
Speaker 1: Internal Communications database. Now, that would be around one o'clock Central,
17:56
Speaker 1: two o'clock Eastern. I wonder if that's when the parents
17:59
Speaker 1: were realized she's gone. What do you think? I am
18:02
Speaker 1: very impressed with the law enforcement reacting so quickly. We
18:05
Speaker 1: work with these missing person cases so many times, and
18:09
Speaker 1: they have to beg them for a week or so
18:11
Speaker 1: to realize this is not a voluntary missing. Well, you know,
18:14
Speaker 1: I got a little tip right before the Amber alert
18:18
Speaker 1: went out, or just as it went out, from an
18:20
Speaker 1: old buddy of mine that I used to work with
18:23
Speaker 1: at CNN who's now in Tennessee, asking for help to
18:26
Speaker 1: publicize it that she's missing. So I guarantee that's when
18:30
Speaker 1: the parents first find out she's not at school. Three
18:34
Speaker 1: oh six, Central Info places her indicator Alabama. Next day,
18:40
Speaker 1: a full on Amber alert is requested in danger child requested.
18:44
Speaker 1: That gets uh and here we go five o'clock about
18:48
Speaker 1: the next day, a warrant for his arrest, charging in
18:52
Speaker 1: with one count of sexual contact with a minor. Now
18:55
Speaker 1: that he has actually is a subject of an arrest warrant,
18:59
Speaker 1: it's now finally upgraded to an Amber alert. They must
19:03
Speaker 1: have gotten that information from a little friend or from
19:07
Speaker 1: one of her devices to confirm they believe that he
19:11
Speaker 1: is having sex contact with her. I'm looking at the
19:13
Speaker 1: school calendar to see what would have been going on
19:16
Speaker 1: this week, Alan hold On, I want to give the
19:18
Speaker 1: tip line number very quickly. Nine three, one, three, seven, five,
19:22
Speaker 1: eight six five four repeat nine three one three, seven,
19:26
Speaker 1: five eight six five four or one eight hundred t B.
19:32
Speaker 1: I find t Tennessee b Bureau I Investigations f I
19:38
Speaker 1: n D one eight hundred t b I find or
19:42
Speaker 1: nine three one three seven five eight six five four.
19:45
Speaker 1: So what are you seeing on the school calendar? They
19:48
Speaker 1: didn't have school Monday because it was a professional development day,
19:52
Speaker 1: you know, the teacher work day, and they did not
19:56
Speaker 1: have school there. He maybe didn't have to be there
19:59
Speaker 1: on that day, so he got a slip on him
20:01
Speaker 1: by being gone right on Monday. And their spring break
20:04
Speaker 1: starts on the twenty seven, which is just over a
20:08
Speaker 1: week away. That's when spring break is. She is a
20:11
Speaker 1: white female, blonde hair, hazel lines five five, weighs just
20:16
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty pounds, last sing wearing a flannel
20:19
Speaker 1: shirt and black leggings. Um He is a white male,
20:24
Speaker 1: six ft two hundred pounds, brown hair and eyes, armed
20:28
Speaker 1: with two handguns, driving a silver Nissan Rogue with Tennessee
20:32
Speaker 1: plates nine seven six Z zebra Pee Pennsylvania t toy.
20:37
Speaker 1: Last seen indicator Alabama. So what are they doing beside
20:42
Speaker 1: issuing the amber alert? Well, actually, they've put out several
20:46
Speaker 1: alerts over the last couple of days to make sure
20:48
Speaker 1: that this is nationwide. The big emphasis is on getting
20:52
Speaker 1: the word out in other states because they do not
20:54
Speaker 1: believe that they're hanging around Tennessee. They want everybody in
20:58
Speaker 1: the nation to know that this man with this child
21:02
Speaker 1: there apparently on the road. Nancy. On the phone with
21:05
Speaker 1: us now is Shane Dieter. He's with w A T
21:09
Speaker 1: on TV in Memphis, Tennessee. He's closely following this. Shane,
21:14
Speaker 1: what can you tell us the latest on the search
21:17
Speaker 1: for Elizabeth. We have learned that earlier in the week
21:21
Speaker 1: the car they were driving in was deemed on a
21:24
Speaker 1: cell tower in Alabama near the Cator, and since then
21:29
Speaker 1: there's been no sign. So that's one of the Tennessee
21:33
Speaker 1: Bureau investigations. They've had agets go over there, and of
21:36
Speaker 1: course Alabama authorities and the FBI are now helping in
21:40
Speaker 1: this search for Elizabeth Thomas. So the cell phone that
21:44
Speaker 1: belonged to either of the teacher or to the fifteen
21:46
Speaker 1: year old student, one of those two cell phones was
21:50
Speaker 1: picked up having been in the area of Decatur, Alabama,
21:53
Speaker 1: which is gosh, I guess, about halfway between Columbia and Birmingham, Columbia,
21:57
Speaker 1: Tennessee in Birmingham, Alabama. So along Ice sixty five nicle
22:01
Speaker 1: won't have ties to the area either. That Route I
22:05
Speaker 1: sixty five along that corridor is the way you would
22:09
Speaker 1: go southward, let's say, if you're going to Florida and
22:12
Speaker 1: the Redneck Riviera, the beaches of Pamama City or or
22:16
Speaker 1: around there. I noticed on I don't know if you've
22:18
Speaker 1: seen this, but I noticed on Tad Cummings Twitter account.
22:22
Speaker 1: Nancy and I both were scanning it and looking at
22:24
Speaker 1: it closely. Actually, we saw a lot of pictures from
22:27
Speaker 1: down there around the Florida coast, the Northwest Panhandle coast.
22:32
Speaker 1: Is that one theory you think that maybe they're headed
22:35
Speaker 1: down there PB I hadn't brought that up, And they
22:38
Speaker 1: seem to think that they're headed north. But you know,
22:43
Speaker 1: it's not like they tell us everything. But if he's
22:45
Speaker 1: familiar with the area and it is spring break, that
22:48
Speaker 1: would be a great hiding place for a little while
22:51
Speaker 1: for them to blend in, because it looked like a
22:53
Speaker 1: father and a daughter exactly. He could color his hair
22:56
Speaker 1: a little bit or shave his goatee which is kind
22:59
Speaker 1: of scraggly anyway, and easily easily blend in down there.
23:03
Speaker 1: Because there are tens of or hundreds of thousands of
23:06
Speaker 1: high school students and teachers and parents down there on
23:09
Speaker 1: the beaches right now. But why would they think they're
23:11
Speaker 1: headed north if the telephone, the signal, the cell signal
23:15
Speaker 1: was peeinged eighty or ninety miles south of where they
23:19
Speaker 1: left from, and they have not told us that, why
23:22
Speaker 1: they know that they're not letting out or why they're
23:26
Speaker 1: thinking that. The point is that if that's the only
23:29
Speaker 1: place the cell phones have been peeinged, you could also
23:32
Speaker 1: surmise that maybe the cell phones have been cut off
23:34
Speaker 1: because they figure they have to do that in order
23:37
Speaker 1: not to be found. Right, And you can tell by
23:40
Speaker 1: the way this was put together by Tad Cummings, this
23:43
Speaker 1: wasn't a spur of the moment. He planned this. You know,
23:47
Speaker 1: he'd been grooming this girl and then you know he
23:49
Speaker 1: got a loan for four or five dollars, you know,
23:52
Speaker 1: for them to have on the road and to live on.
23:55
Speaker 1: You know, he left behind a wife and two kids,
23:57
Speaker 1: so I'm sure she's cut off his access the money.
24:01
Speaker 1: I bet you they threw away the phones and they
24:03
Speaker 1: probably have burner phones or they really don't need to
24:06
Speaker 1: contact one either. So well, good point there. I mean,
24:10
Speaker 1: you're not going to exactly exactly call people generally and
24:15
Speaker 1: let them know where you are, so cut the phones
24:18
Speaker 1: off now. The social media accounts for Tad Cummings suggests
24:24
Speaker 1: that he was the sponsor of the organization on campus
24:28
Speaker 1: for Future Health Professionals. Do you know what he taught?
24:33
Speaker 1: What kind of classes he had? PBI has just told
24:35
Speaker 1: us that he was one of her teachers, So he
24:39
Speaker 1: was her teacher. I looked at some of the photographs.
24:43
Speaker 1: It seems that I'm seeing her on his Twitter account
24:45
Speaker 1: and some of these organization photos that he's sending out.
24:49
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just another student who looks a lot like her,
24:51
Speaker 1: but it seems that she is in some of his
24:54
Speaker 1: tweets from a few months ago, and it looked at
24:57
Speaker 1: me that have you seen this? That they traveled a round,
25:00
Speaker 1: that he would take groups of young female students on
25:04
Speaker 1: field trips, school field trips like perhaps even over the weekend. Yes,
25:08
Speaker 1: And from what we understand, and that is part of
25:11
Speaker 1: what he was doing when he was grooming her. I
25:13
Speaker 1: don't know anything about our home life that if you
25:16
Speaker 1: you know, even if kids have the best home life,
25:18
Speaker 1: if they're battling, you know, their own demons, you know,
25:21
Speaker 1: they're so vulnerable to a manipulator such as tag Comings
25:26
Speaker 1: coming in their lives. Teachers have tremendous influence on a
25:29
Speaker 1: fifteen year old student, and if they're traveling with them
25:34
Speaker 1: on field trips and that sort of thing and have
25:36
Speaker 1: a lot of contact with them. I guess that's something
25:39
Speaker 1: that parents need to always be aware of, right. You know,
25:42
Speaker 1: we all know about the monster on the internet and
25:46
Speaker 1: how parents need to be checking their kids social media
25:50
Speaker 1: and what they're doing and everything, you know, and then
25:53
Speaker 1: we go back and look at their social media that
25:55
Speaker 1: you know, Liza's Thomas Thomas and Ted comings in. It
25:58
Speaker 1: appears that you know, she with his club at school
26:02
Speaker 1: and you know she's learning something and she's growing. You
26:06
Speaker 1: wouldn't expect it. A couple other things with the cases.
26:09
Speaker 1: Everything in the school district found out about the twenty
26:12
Speaker 1: second of January. He I believe the parents were notified
26:17
Speaker 1: the twenty seven, so they waited a week of January
26:21
Speaker 1: and then February six there was finally a meeting to
26:24
Speaker 1: fire comings. To me, it seems like if a school
26:27
Speaker 1: district found out about it, you would take care of
26:29
Speaker 1: it right then. And the parents are upset that they
26:32
Speaker 1: weren't notified. So the timeline is that it was their relationship.
26:37
Speaker 1: Their inappropriate relationship was actually discovered by school officials almost
26:43
Speaker 1: two months ago, is what you're telling me. Exactly when
26:47
Speaker 1: was he fired? February six, He's been away from the
26:52
Speaker 1: school for a month, and then on Monday of this week,
26:57
Speaker 1: that's when they both just appeared. Right, she had she
27:02
Speaker 1: was with a friend who dropped her off at the showing.
27:05
Speaker 1: He's there in Columbia, Tennessee, and across the street, Cummins
27:09
Speaker 1: was filling up his gas. If you've seen that video
27:12
Speaker 1: from that shell station that she walked over and they leave.
27:15
Speaker 1: The school calendar suggests to me that Monday was a
27:20
Speaker 1: day off for students because it was a professional development
27:24
Speaker 1: day for the teachers, a teacher work day. Have you
27:26
Speaker 1: seen that? Is that right? Yes? Yes, you know that's what.
27:30
Speaker 1: You know. She's spend the night with a friend, she
27:32
Speaker 1: had no school, and you know, then the friend dropped
27:34
Speaker 1: her off at shown. So far, police haven't said that
27:37
Speaker 1: the friend knew anything. Uh, you know, she just thought
27:41
Speaker 1: she was dropping her off at shown and she was
27:42
Speaker 1: gonna meet someone and go home. And then the police
27:46
Speaker 1: didn't you know, the parents that we're listing to lafter
27:49
Speaker 1: three o'clock because they really had no idea. Maybe they
27:52
Speaker 1: even didn't realize it was a teacher work day, So
27:56
Speaker 1: there would be an indication that she was planning or
27:59
Speaker 1: is there an indication that she was planning to leave
28:02
Speaker 1: that day, that she knew what was up that morning,
28:05
Speaker 1: that she had anything packed, or we know anything about
28:08
Speaker 1: did she prepare? By looking at the video, I don't
28:12
Speaker 1: see her carrying anything. I would like more, you know,
28:16
Speaker 1: more proof before I would say she also planned the
28:19
Speaker 1: law enforcement or treating her as a victim. Arley, she
28:22
Speaker 1: is she fifteen, you know, so I see more. You know,
28:25
Speaker 1: I just don't know about that part that she did
28:28
Speaker 1: go willingly. He describes himself on social media. On Twitter,
28:33
Speaker 1: his platform says he's a father and a grandfather, so
28:36
Speaker 1: he's leaving behind the family he is, he is, isn't
28:41
Speaker 1: going to take you a long way when you have
28:44
Speaker 1: you know, you're gonna have to come up with a
28:45
Speaker 1: fi identything documents to get a job, and you're hiding
28:48
Speaker 1: a fifteen year old. I have a twitch of your daughter,
28:50
Speaker 1: and when she's fifteen, she changed her mind every other
28:53
Speaker 1: day about what she liked. Maybe he has other money
28:56
Speaker 1: as well, that something saved or something borrowed, and that
29:00
Speaker 1: that's not his only resources. That car Loan that he
29:04
Speaker 1: took out. But you're right, it wouldn't take you very far.
29:08
Speaker 1: But we don't know if they're going very far. So
29:11
Speaker 1: we have a huge amber alert out. We're getting a
29:14
Speaker 1: lot of attention the national media. Nancy Grace and others
29:18
Speaker 1: are paying attention to this. So I suppose there's hope
29:22
Speaker 1: that people will be alert and watch out for his car. Yes,
29:25
Speaker 1: I mean it's there are signs describing his Niecean silver
29:30
Speaker 1: road with the license plate all up all over the
29:33
Speaker 1: country on the you know, the electronic billboards. Police are
29:37
Speaker 1: getting leased. They've had eighty so far. None have led
29:40
Speaker 1: to anything, but you know they're not leaving, you know,
29:43
Speaker 1: stone unturned. They are looking hard, and I just encourage
29:46
Speaker 1: anybody if you see a silver Nisan roade, please let
29:51
Speaker 1: police know if it has a Tennessee tag, because that
29:56
Speaker 1: that's how we're going to find her. And of course,
29:58
Speaker 1: if he really planned this thing out, he could have
30:00
Speaker 1: had another car someplace else that he was going to
30:04
Speaker 1: write a lot of ways to do that, I suppose,
30:07
Speaker 1: So if you see a fifty year old man. He
30:10
Speaker 1: actually looks like he might even be a little older
30:12
Speaker 1: than fifty, didn't seem to take very good care of himself.
30:15
Speaker 1: And this fifteen year old girl out and about together
30:20
Speaker 1: with the Tennessee tag especially and they're not in Tennessee.
30:23
Speaker 1: Be suspicious, be very suspicious. What should people do if
30:27
Speaker 1: they think they see Elizabeth Thomas and Tad Cummins the
30:32
Speaker 1: Tie Bureau of Investigation, they're asking people to call one
30:38
Speaker 1: and report it. Do not confront them. If you can't
30:41
Speaker 1: keep the eye on him, do it, but do it
30:43
Speaker 1: where you do not put yourself in danger. It is
30:46
Speaker 1: believed that he's got a couple of guns with him, right,
30:48
Speaker 1: a couple of firearms, yes, yes, yes, which you know
30:52
Speaker 1: down in this further country that's very common that when
30:55
Speaker 1: you didnapped the fifteen year old and you're going to
30:57
Speaker 1: face the kind of charges he's gonna face, you know,
31:01
Speaker 1: he may not want to go to prison, So just
31:03
Speaker 1: be very careful. Calne one one and then the Tense
31:07
Speaker 1: Bureau of Investigation. Allen has also a numbers tv I
31:13
Speaker 1: fine and you can call and report it there, and
31:17
Speaker 1: of course law enforcement will keep you anonymous if you
31:20
Speaker 1: still wish to be anonymous. All right, thanks for thanks
31:23
Speaker 1: for checking in. We'll keep tabs with this case. Shane
31:26
Speaker 1: Dietrich of w a T on TV in Memphis, Tennessee.
31:29
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you so much, Allen. Now, the local
31:33
Speaker 1: district attorney, Brent Cooper, insists that he believes Cummings is
31:38
Speaker 1: staying off public roads and may even have switched out
31:42
Speaker 1: of his niece on Roague to another vehicle. The family
31:47
Speaker 1: has issued a statement thanking everyone for tips and for
31:52
Speaker 1: their continued support to bring their daughter home. They are brokenhearted.
31:59
Speaker 1: They ask everyone to continue to share elizabeth story and
32:03
Speaker 1: help them bring the girl home. It's just amazing that
32:08
Speaker 1: this guy had the trust of all the teachers and
32:11
Speaker 1: all the students. Is twitter account is very disturbing on
32:16
Speaker 1: many many levels. Alan, I'm looking at all of these
32:18
Speaker 1: pictures of these groups of fifteen year old girls approximately
32:23
Speaker 1: who he was taking weekend road trips, school trips with you.
32:29
Speaker 1: We are on the case, doing all we can. Please
32:32
Speaker 1: share the story with your friends, Facebook, it tweeted, Instagram,
32:36
Speaker 1: and help us bring this girl home before someone. I
32:41
Speaker 1: don't even want to finish the sentence, Alan, because when
32:44
Speaker 1: police show up to get this guy, or he realizes
32:48
Speaker 1: that they're both going to be caught. I don't know
32:51
Speaker 1: what's going to be happen. What's going to happen because
32:53
Speaker 1: he's got those two hands. Do you see that posting
32:56
Speaker 1: he's somebody? He actually retweeted on Twitter account, his Twitter account,
33:02
Speaker 1: I'll read it to you, Yeah, I saw it. The
33:04
Speaker 1: fastest way to change the behavior of a lethal threat
33:08
Speaker 1: is to shoot them again. To Simply Safe, thank you
33:13
Speaker 1: for making this podcast possible. As we continue to be
33:17
Speaker 1: vigilant to find Elizabeth and to pray for her family,
33:23
Speaker 1: simply say thank you for keeping our homes safe. Go
33:27
Speaker 1: to simply safe dot com. Eyes and ears open in
33:32
Speaker 1: the search for Elizabeth, Nancy Gray's crime story, signing off
33:36
Speaker 1: goodbye friend,