Inside the investigation for missing girl
Posted: Friday, March 07, 2008 3:57 PM by Dateline Editor
Filed Under:
Crime, Investigations
A brave high school girl was held hostage for ten days in an underground bunker and managed her own rescue (click here for more information). Below, one of the police officers writes about being inside the investigation while 14-year-old Elizabeth Shoaf was still missing.
By Lt. Eric Tisdale, Kershaw County Sheriff’s Department
Where do you start? Who do you talk to? What assets do you devote to the investigation? Where do I look? What happened? Where was she last seen? What was her state of mind? What are the facts?
Facts dictate much of what we do in law enforcement. Facts are not something you can make or generate. They are to be followed. Facts are something you look for, and that lead you to other facts, which in turn, we hope, lead to the truth. This is true with any investigation.
So, where do you start?
Fact number one: Elizabeth Shoaf was last seen just after she got off the bus walking toward her house. Fact number two: she did not make it home. Armed with only these two facts, the investigation begins.
Who do you talk to? We started by talking to the people that were closest to her including family and friends. Typically, teenage runaways have a problem with a family member, relative, or boyfriend. By talking to these people we were able to find out that Elizabeth had a good relationship with her parents. She had no problems at school that would cause her to run away.
The day Elizabeth disappeared, our bloodhound-tracking unit was called to the scene and began to search the area. While the tracking team was searching, additional patrol units were called in to ride the area roads looking for her or any sign of her. Family members and volunteers began to search the area as well.
The local media was contacted with her information and flyers were distributed. The bloodhounds were unable to pick up Elizabeth’s trail. Unfortunately, the scents the dogs found belonged to volunteers helping with the search.
We called in our volunteer helicopter pilot who flew a deputy above rural hunt club roads, four wheeler trails and wooded areas around the house.
We pulled video surveillance tape from local stores and conducted interviews with people who thought they had information about Elizabeth.
With no new facts to follow, our Mounted Patrol was called to the area. They train monthly in search and rescue as well as event security. The Mounted unit was broken up into teams and given blocks surrounding the last known place she was seen. No new clues were found.
Trying to find Elizabeth was just like looking for a needle in a haystack -- so many acres to cover and no facts or clues to guide us.
Finally, we got the big break.
Her mom contacted Sheriff McCaskill to say she had received a text by someone claiming to be Elizabeth. The message?
“Hey mom, its Lizy I’m in a hole in the ground near charm hill its near that dirt road where those big trucks—get the police though because he has bombs hidden.”
The text message described an area called "the pit" that was about a mile from Elizabeth’s house. It’s part of the Hanson Brick mine that produces clay and is closed to the public.
Rain was coming down in buckets. Three members from the tracking team and their dogs walked the perimeter of the pit looking for any sign of Elizabeth.
The clay was so thick that it built up 6 to 8 inches on the bottom of our boots. After covering the wood line surrounding the pit for six hours, the search was stopped at 11:00pm. At least now we had the text message and a location in the message to guide us. This gave us all hope that she was alive and energized us. Along with excitement came concern. We now knew she was being held against her will, plus the text message said there were explosives.
The state law enforcement division sent in a special helicopter equipped with a heat-sensing device. Any sign of movement or body heat could be detected in the 200-plus acre mine site. Next, phone records began to come in, which gave us more facts.
The text message came from a phone belonging to Vincent Filyaw.
Filyaw had an outstanding warrant for criminal sexual conduct. Phone records also led us to Cynthia Hall, Filyaw’s girlfriend, who lived in a mobile home near the Hanson mine area. We searched the mobile home and grounds around it.
In a shed out back, a piece of plywood was covering a hole dug into the floor. Was this the one mentioned in the message? Unsure how deep the hole was an officer checked and found no one to be in it.
Investigators interviewed Filyaw’s girlfriend throughout most of the night. She stated that she had hidden Filyaw for several months. She also stated that she had contact with him and that she had dropped food and supplies off in an abandon car across near the mine. Cindy said that she had no idea of where he was; she just knew he was living in a bunker in the woods.
The helicopter flew well into the night, searching the area around Filyaw’s house and the pit area. The helicopter detected no human movements in the woods near the mine. With the text message’s warning about explosives and a possible hostage situation, we decided a ground search in the daylight would be our best option.
The next morning, only 20 minutes into the search, a radio call came into the command post. An officer could hear a female voice calling for help. The deputies kept talking to her and approached the area with caution. She kept telling officers to be careful he had explosives planted all around the bunker. On the radio, Capt. Thomley said, “We have her.”
“He is not here, but we have her.”
The tracking unit was sent into the bunker area to being the search for the suspect. Vinson Filyaw was captured the day after in an attempted carjacking.
Filyaw was unwilling to give a statement as to the facts of the case. He only wanted to talk about the original CSC case against him.
Click to read Elizabeth describing how bunker was 'hell.'
For those interested in communicating with the Shoaf family, e-mail shoafs5@gmail.com.
Click here for complete coverage of this case.
