The case of Savanna Todd , a woman who was abducted more than two decades ago, will be covered tonight’s in the episode entitled “Finding Savanna” on Dateline NBC Friday.
Savanna Todd, who now goes by the name Samantha Geldenhuys, was abducted by her own mother, Dorothy Lee Barnett, from Isle of Palms, South Carolina, in 1994. The woman’s biological father, Harris Todd, aka Benjamin Harris Todd III, has been looking for his daughter since she vanished.
The story made headlines in 1994 after Savannah Todd, then a 10-month-old baby, vanished while on a visit with her mother. Harris Todd and Lee Barnett had been going through a bitter divorce and child custody battle at the time of the baby’s disappearance. Lee Barnett had lost custody of the child due to an alleged bipolar disorder. After the mother and the child disappeared, a manhunt ensued.
The abduction was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries and John Walsh’s America’s Most Wanted . Law-enforcement officials received many tips, but nothing that led to the child’s whereabouts. Someone had reported seeing a 5-year old girl in Mexico several years later, but that tip didn’t pan out.
What the general public didn’t know was that Lee Barnett and her daughter, Savanna, had left the United States for Europe, making their way to Germany, France, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Africa. Back in Charleston, South Carolina, only a few close friends knew the actual reason that Lee Barnett decided to leave the country.
In order to tell her side of the story, Dorothy Lee Barnett decided to make a video tape stating the reasons why she was taking her daughter and why she needed to protect her. The FBI ended up confiscating all of those videotapes, except for one that remained in the custody of one of her best friends.
On the tape, Barnett explained that she believed Savanna had been abused by her natural father, stating that she had found bruises on her daughter’s forehead and a bloody nose after a visit with him. A neighbor who had gone with her to pick up the child also witnessed the bleeding nose and the bruises. Harris Todd denied causing the child’s injuries. According to Lee, the judge chose to believe one psychiatrist over two other psychologists who stated that Lee had no mental health issues. Lee’s close friends couldn’t understand why the judge would give custody to a father who worked 70 hours a week, instead of her mother, who was still breastfeeding the baby at the time, according to a report by Today Tonight .
Two months after making the video, Lee Barnett and her baby, Savanna, left the United States, finally settling down with a man in South Africa named Juan Geldenhuys. In an interview, baby Savanna, aka Samantha Geldenhuys, stated that she still considers that man to be her father. Juan Geldenhuys never told anyone their secret, even after he separated from Lee.
From South Africa, the family relocated to New Zealand, and then Australia. But years later, Dorothy Lee Barnett’s world came crashing down after a friend became suspicious of her when she accidentally called her daughter Savanna, instead of Samantha. The friend contacted Harris Todd and reported her to authorities after an internet search connected her to the 1994 disappearance. In 2013, Lee was arrested for international parental kidnapping and jailed in Queensland, Australia. After the extradition back to Charleston, South Carolina, Lee Barnett pleaded guilty and received a 21-month sentence in jail in 2015.
As for baby Savanna, she is all grown up and says that she doesn’t blame her mother for trying to protect her. She also states that her mother gave her a good life and never showed signs of mental problems. Members of the public think that the mother’s voice wasn’t truly heard back in 1994, and that she should never have lost custody of her child. Many males believe that the father was robbed of the chance to know his daughter, and that 21 months in prison is not enough time.
Tune in tonight to Dateline NBC to see more updates in the case.
[Photo Credit: YouTube]