Dear Savanna

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1:26Wee! There she goes. Samantha? Put it on. Good girl. Say mommy. How pretty. Mommy. A few months before my mom gave birth to me, she started writing a diary. And it starts off on the first page saying, to my dear Savannah, someday I'll give this journal to you so that you can hopefully understand your mother.

1:55My name is Samantha Geldenhuis. I was born in Savannah, but I didn't know that. Savannah Lee Barnett. I grew up on the Sunshine Coast in Australia. It is the most magnificent place.

2:16I knew my mum as Alex my entire life. Stop it! I'm not someone else. But in reality, she wasn't Alex at all. She was Lee. Come on. Leave on it. In April of 1994, I got a phone call that my dearest friend, Lee, had disappeared.

2:39I thought, oh no, don't let this be true. I never imagined that my good friend Lee would be the subject of an international manhunt. Our investigation spanned the United States and the globe. We searched Belize, Central America, and South Africa. Dorothy Lee was very equipped running from the law. She thought about this. She was planned. She was determined. I feel the FBI and every other law enforcement agency underestimated me. The FBI more than met their match when they tangled with Dorothy Lieber in it. Welcome to Malaysia. This is our home. Did you at all think, I'm going to get caught? They're going to get me.

3:30Every day. Every day. My lady! I thought this was going to be one of those unsolved mysteries that would never be solved. Samantha, I went to Singapore in a couple of days. until 2011 when we had the tip that she was living in Australia. I remember getting a call when I was up at school and my mom needed me to jump on a plane and come down because she was getting arrested. Two decades later, authorities have arrested her in Australia. When I heard that Alex wasn't Alex, I was absolutely gobsmacked and amazed. I thought, wow, what a girl. Happy New Year! I realized it was all up. Merry Christmas.

4:17That they'd found me. I love you more than life itself, your special mummy. And I knew that I'd have to face the consequences, what I did 20 years before.

4:35She's written, I've always loved the name Savannah. It reminds me of great beauty. It also reminds me of my home, and someday it'll hopefully be yours too. The endless reeds, the shrimp, the blue herons. That pretty picture is how Leigh Barnett remembered Charleston in the secret diary she kept for her daughter during their years on the run. A very different Charleston, South Carolina than what she returned home to. BARNETT WAS ARRESTED IN AUSTRALIA. LEE WAS CHARGED WITH KIDNAPPING HER DAUGHTER AFTER LOSING A BITTER CUSTODY BATTLE. FOR 20 YEARS, LEE BARNETT HAD BEEN HUNTED BY THE FBI, VILIFIED IN THE PRESS, CULLED, ANGRY AND VIOLENT AND LABELED MENTALLY ILL.

5:25NOW SHE TELLS HER SIDE OF THE STORY TO 48 HOURS. AND IT IS A VERY DIFFERENT STORY THAN YOU 'VE HEARD BEFORE. I need to tell the truth about what's happened. Something needs to be changed. From the start, there was always something different about Leigh Barnett, the little barefoot girl with the blue, blue eyes and a big smile, says her oldest friend, Susie Pogue. When I first met Leigh, when she was five and I was seven, she had a big black snake around her neck. And so I took one look at her and I said, oh, that looks like an interesting family. I want to be friends with her. Lee and her two brothers were raised by a free-spirited single mother named Dottie after their father died.

6:14They didn't have much money. Dottie lived on her husband's Social Security. But they had plenty of adventures, says Lee's brother Cliff. We had to learn how to do things with no money and no resources and get by and do things on the fly. A kind of Swiss family Robinson traveling between South Carolina, Florida, and the jungles of Belize. They were really living an Indiana Jones lifestyle before there was an Indiana Jones. In Belize, they were in the jungle living with local families. Lee inherited her mother's love of adventure.

7:01at one point traveling deep into Africa with Susie. I just knew that all of the traveling that we had done and that she had done with her family prepared her for really what was the ultimate adventure of her life. That adventure began in Charleston when Lee, by then a flight attendant, met Harris Todd, a stockbroker with a love of poetry. and to many, the picture of a perfect Southern gentleman. And was it love at first sight? No, not at all. It wasn't love at first sight, it was friendship. All that changed five years later. He just professed to me that I'd made him feel different than anybody else has ever made him feel, and the one thing led to another.

7:49But Lee's dear friend, Patty Roth, did not think it was a good match. They wanted very different things out of life. She was very outgoing, and he kind of kept her to himself. To Lee, that was part of the attraction, part of the challenge. I thought I was a person that was going to help him have a more normal, fun, loving life because he was so serious. When Lee came to me and told me that they decided to get married, I did not agree with that choice. Lee wanted children. Harris was very clear to everyone that he never wanted children. Why would you marry a man who didn't want to have kids? I don't know.

8:31I just thought that I was going to do something, and he would change, and we'd have this wonderful family. And I just had this crazy dream that I'd make everything right. She could not have been more wrong. When she told him that she was pregnant is when all the problems started between the two of them. He kept saying over and over throughout my whole pregnancy, there is no baby. Even when I was eight months pregnant, there is no baby. There is no baby.

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10:01I'll try and start from the beginning. Before Leigh Barnett fled the country, she made a tape and sent it to friends and enemies alike. I can't tell you how painful this is. In it, she condemns her husband, Harris Todd. A very, very evil, evil man. For casting her as the villain in a sinister drama she claims he fabricated out of vengeance, a characterization she stands by to this day. He wanted to hurt me so badly. He didn't care who he took down, and that includes a little baby. Lee says it all began seven months into the marriage. I said to him, I said, I have a feeling I might be pregnant.

10:43And he said, it's OK. Just have an abortion. I was heartbroken, heartbroken. But I still thought, ah, he'll come right. Anyway, two days later, I found out I was pregnant. He was very cold and indifferent. And he remained that way. Harris claimed the problem wasn't the pregnancy. It was Lee's uncontrollable temper. One argument two and a half months later got so heated, she flipped over the coffee table. Lee woke up the next morning, and Harris was gone. I just felt so abandoned, and I couldn't figure out how somebody I'd loved and known for so long could be this cruel. Harris Todd, who consistently has said he never asked Lee to get an abortion, says he left because he couldn't take her anger anymore, that he even feared for his safety.

11:33He repeatedly asked Lee to move out of his house, but she refused. I thought if I left his house, I would never, ever come back. She really wanted the marriage to work. She did everything within her power to get Harris to come back. Including going to marriage counseling. Lee's mother suggested a psychiatrist named Dr. Oliver Bjorksten. Lee says, to her surprise, Harris agreed to go. I made the appointment for both of us. Lee says what happened in those appointments would change her life. She walked in hoping to save her marriage. Instead, she walked out with a diagnosis on the bipolar spectrum.

12:15Dr. Bjorksten said Lee had something called hyperthymic temperament. A condition characterized by dwelling, blaming and temper outbursts. A condition he wanted to treat with medication. Did you ever have any history of mental illness? I've never had any mental illness. Lee admits she was emotional. I cried quite a lot. She was alone, having a difficult pregnancy, and just had a scare that her baby might have Down syndrome. I said, I think I've got a good reason to be upset. And he said, give you something to make you feel better. Dr. Bjorksten prescribed Navein. Lee talked to a doctor friend who said it's an antipsychotic drug and advised her not to take it.

13:00And I took three tablets by then. Then Lee discovered something else, something that terrified her. Harris Todd and her own mother had contacted Dr. Bjorksten before she had ever even heard his name. So you're saying that Harris went to Bjorksten first? Yeah. telling Bjorkson what he said was going on. Yeah. And you were under the impression that Harris had never met him before. Never met him. We both walked in and they both introduced themselves and said, it's nice to meet you. Harris has said he was only trying to get help for his wife. But Lee believes Harris was setting her up, spinning an elaborate tale of an unstable wife with a violent temper, even convincing her mother of it.

13:49For what purpose? to save his face for walking out on his pregnant wife. I mean, the physical violence is one thing. The mental instability is another. 48 Hours has been covering this story since 1999. Harris Todd denied our recent requests for an interview, but back then, he told us Lee was a ticking time bomb. You never know whether you're going to come through the door and have a flower pot launched. A danger not only to him, but to herself. Came down the hallway, and there she is, sitting there banging her head against the wall. Did you bash your head against the wall one night to the point that the lights were flickering on and off?

14:29I've never, ever bashed my head against the wall. Harris said he was so afraid of you that he feared for his life. Yeah. Did you threaten him? Never once. Slap him? I slapped him once. Hit him? Never. Lee admits she did get angry. Angry enough to throw planters off the porch and push over that coffee table. But, she says, Harris was the threatening one, making menacing phone calls throughout the entire pregnancy. He would say to me all the time, you're sick. Look in the mirror, see your face, it's contorted. You're insane. You're insane. And he just kept saying, you're sick, you're crazy, over and over again.

15:09Patty says she was listening in when Lee got one of those calls. He totally changed, and his Southern charm turned into just sheer hatred towards Lee. When she was seven months pregnant, Lee filed for divorce. Harris countersued, claiming that Lee was so abusive, he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. I've never seen her violent. She's not a moody person. We never had an argument, and we were together constantly. Patty was by her side when she gave birth to Savannah. Savannah was born a beautiful, beautiful baby girl, just healthy as can be. Lee was thrilled beyond words. She was amazing.

16:02But that happiness wouldn't last for long. When Savannah was two and a half months old, her parents' divorce would take another turn. Harris sued for custody. Now the bitter battle would get even uglier, with plenty of mudslinging from both sides. Lee says Harris wanted to take her baby to punish her. Harris said he loved Savannah with all his heart. He said she was promiscuous. She said he was gay. She stalked him. He lied. The list went on and on. But in the end, it came down to one not-so-simple question. Was it in Savannah's best interest to be with her mother or her father? Dr. Oliver Bjorksten was called as a witness for Harris Todd.

16:54How damaging was his testimony to your case? Damaging is probably not the right word. He was life-destroying. Dr. Bjorksten, who also declined to be interviewed, testified that the condition he diagnosed Lee with is associated with violence. They had seen people with Lee's degree of dwelling do things which are quite serious. I absolutely never saw any signs of mental illness. Lee's friends took the stand, painting a very different picture. I saw distress from having somebody try and fight you and take your baby away. And so how hard is it to prove that you are not crazy? It's impossible. The more you claim you're not mentally ill, the crazier you sound, because people look at you as a mental ill person then.

17:46And Lee says there was plenty of evidence that she was not crazy. Two respected psychiatrists testified that there was nothing wrong with her and that she certainly did not need antipsychotic drugs. But then another expert was brought in as a so-called tiebreaker to see if Lee really did have hyperthymic temperament. After evaluating Lee, he said she did have the condition. The expert said Harris was the more predictable parent, recommending that he should have custody. The child advocate for Savannah also agreed.

18:30Still, Lee and her friends were hopeful. We thought, there is no way that a judge is going to look at this and take this loving, healthy, happy, vibrant baby away from her mother. Now the decision was up to Judge Robert Mallard, and it was clear who he believed. He cited Harris as willing to share custody when Lee was not. He said that while Lee was a flight attendant, Harris was a successful stockbroker. So he believed Harris would be better able to provide a stable environment. The judge also noted what he called Lee's inability to control her impulses in court. I think I got hyper. I think I got stressed.

19:17I think I got scared. I was very scared because I knew something was really, really going wrong. This is the court order that took me. Lisa's what was most damaging and untrue was the judge's finding that she had been violent toward Harris and his conclusion that her condition might lead to homicide or suicide. It left me so scared and so cold because when you label somebody as that, that means I'm such a danger to my child. On February 18, 1994, Judge Mallard awarded full custody of nine-and-a-half-month-old Savannah to her father, Harris Todd. I promise and swear on my life that I will continue to take care of my daughter.

20:15The little girl was her life, and everything I witnessed, she was a fabulous mother. She really, really was. It was hard to believe that it could even happen. Lee's friends were still reeling from the judge's decision. The decision, in my view, was totally unjust. Gordon King. It was beyond my comprehension to know that they were going to remove the child from her. Harris came to get Savannah the very same day he was awarded custody. When they came and took her is when I lost it. And I just went to the bathroom and sat in the bathtub and cried. Lee says what worried her the most was something Harris had said in court, that he would take his daughter to a psychiatrist as young as three years old if he saw any signs of her mother's illness.

21:06It sounds like what you're saying, Lee, is you were afraid Harris Todd was going to do to this baby girl what he had done to you. I knew as a grown woman, if I couldn't prove that I wasn't mentally ill, how can a two - or three-year-old? Lee says her only option was an appeal, but the judge didn't file the necessary paperwork in the usual 30 days. By day 45, she was desperate. At this point, had you lost all faith in the judicial system, in the court system, in the family court system? All faith, all faith. I knew nobody was there to help me. I started to make my plan to leave. She saw a 60 Minutes piece on a street in Los Angeles where you can easily get fake documents.

21:55Pink card, Social Security, pink card. And off she went. The guy goes, what do you want? And I said, I need two birth certificates. Here are two names. And he said, be back here at 1 o 'clock tomorrow. By the next afternoon, Lee Barnett had been reborn as Alexandria Maria Canton And Savannah was now her son, Nick. A boy, a boy. She had no hair yet, so I thought, eh, it's a boy. Next stop, Houston, Texas. She put on a black wig, walked into the DMV, and got a Texas driver's license. After that, the passports were easy. It was something that was just propelling me forward, knowing that I had to get her safe.

22:38I can't tell you how painful this is. But that and I belong together. And nobody besides God has the right to destroy that.

22:5464 days after losing custody and during one of her regularly scheduled visitations, Lisa, she takes her last$10 ,000 and the baby. The two then get into a rental car here in Charleston with her oldest brother. I stop at a gas station, she cuts her hair, dyes it brown, and drives to the Atlanta airport. And then she disappears. What time on Sunday were you supposed to return Savannah? It was 6 o 'clock at night. And where were you at 6 o 'clock that night? Oh, I would probably be in France by then, in Paris. And did that make you nervous, or did you get a little smile? Oh, I don't think I ever smiled.

23:33I never wanted to take it for granted. Every second I had a freedom, I was never taken for granted. But did you feel free? I mean, you were on the run. Were you free? I was free from them. She was free from them. Soon after, Lee's younger brother, Cliff Barnett, got a call from Harris. He goes, where's your sister? I said, I have no idea. And he goes, your sister's not a fit mother. She can't take care of a child by herself. She doesn't have a sense for it. And I finally just eventually said, well, apparently she has the sense to disappear from you. I'm John Walsh. One-year-old Savannah Lee Barnett is missing from Isle of Palm, South Carolina.

24:12The FBI launched a massive manhunt. I believe Lee Barnett could possibly harm her child. Initially, Agent Chris Quick thought they'd find her in some motel within a week. Most fugitives mess up, make mistakes, because they can't leave a life that they came from. This didn't occur in this case. She's totally cut all ties from everyone. I had no idea where she went, who she was with, what she was doing. Lee and Savannah ceased to exist. From then on, it was Alex and the baby she renamed Samantha. How do you leave your family, your friends, your country, never pick up the phone, never be in touch, just walk away from it?

25:01It broke my heart. It killed me. We thought about her all the time. She was never, never far from our thoughts. We always tried to keep pictures of Savannah around the house, and this was one of our favorites. In my mind, I knew she was fine. I'm talking about somebody that can adapt and survive. Alex's first stop, Malaysia. She wrote to Sam in her diary that the hardest part was the loneliness. I wrote, I hope one day that I meet a man that loves you like I love you, and that's all I ever asked. Seven months later, she did, in South Africa, her next stop on the run. There she met an engineering geologist named Joanne Geldenhuis.

25:44She told him everything. And they married a few months later. I got married to him because he was madly in love with my daughter. Soon, Samantha had a baby brother named Reese, and the family moved to Botswana. We had giraffes walking outside our house and on the streets and buffalo and all that sort of stuff around everywhere. It was just really, it was fun all the time. While Alex Geldenhuis was growing her family in Africa, back in Charleston, Harris Todd was grieving the daughter taken from him by Lee Barnett. It was done to hurt me. It was not done to save Savannah. It was done to hurt me.

26:28He says he had wanted a family. And he wanted his daughter. I can't believe it. How could something like this possibly happen? How could it possibly happen? How could she be here and then be gone?

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