Kidnapped teen rescued from hand-dug bunker

A KIDNAPPED 14-year-old American girl was rescued from a hand-dug, booby-trapped pit after she managed to send a text message to her mother.

Elizabeth Shoaf’s message also helped US police toarrest a man suspected of the kidnapping.

Investigators arrested 37-year-old Vinson Filyaw in Richland County, South Carolina, about 24 hours after rescuing Elizabeth, said Sheriff Steve McCaskill in neighbouring Kershaw County.

Filyaw will be charged with kidnapping, possession of an incendiary device and also of impersonating an officer, he said.

He said more charges are likely to follow after investigators interview the girl. Police are letting her rest but probably will talk to her tomorrow about the September 6 abduction and ordeal that followed.

“The big relief was when we found Elizabeth Shoaf alive and well,” Mr McCaskill said. “But it is a great relief when you get a criminal of this type out of society and behind bars.”

Deputies found the girl about a mile from her home in a 15ft-deep hole in the side of a hill that was covered with plywood. The bunker had a hand-dug toilet, a camp stove and shelves.

Mr McCaskill said the girl appeared to be unharmed but was taken to Kershaw County Medical Centre for examination. Police have not interviewed her, saying they would leave her alone until she is ready to talk.

The sheriff said the text message the girl sent to her mother came from Filyaw’s cell phone and deputies began looking for him on Friday night.

Investigators used cell towers to determine a general location of the phone used to send the message.

Elizabeth cried out as searchers approached the bunker where she was found.

“She was standing at the mouth of the bunker with the door open,” said sheriff’s Capt David Thomley. She was not tied up and was coherent.

“We’re just glad that she’s alive and she’s safe and that she will be home with us,” her aunt, Geraldine Williams, told WLTX-TV in Columbia. “She’s a good girl. ... We never believed that she ran away.”

Elizabeth was last seen getting off a school bus. Police were tipped off to Filyaw’s location today after getting a call from a woman who said he tried to car-jack her about 2am outside a pizza restaurant.

Filyaw was on foot, about five miles from his house, carrying a pellet gun, a taser and a long hunting knife when police captured him.

Investigators said Filyaw posed as a police officer when he met Elizabeth and she was walked around in the woods by her captor until she became disoriented. He used handmade grenades and a flare gun to threaten her while she was in the bunker, Mr McCaskill said.

Mr McCaskill told CNN that the bunker, which was protected by a booby-trap, was about 20ft long with front and back doors.

“I’m 6’4” and I can stand up in it without any problem. He was able to cook in there. He had a little system set up to let the smoke out as he cooked and it was quite a bit of work he put into it,” Mr McCaskill said.

Deputies had been searching for Filyaw, an unemployed construction worker, for months on an unrelated charge of criminal sexual conduct against a 12-year-old girl, Mr McCaskill said.

Officers tried to arrest him at his home earlier this week, but he had an elaborate escape plan involving an underground tunnel, going from under his mattress and under the trailer the sheriff said.