Photo: ABC News
Elizabeth Thomas — theTennessee teenagerwhose50-year-old teacher took her across the countrylast year, fleeing justice for 38 days — is revealing in her first sit-down interview how she feared what he might do if she did not comply with his demands.
“I did [feel trapped] because my little sister was there and all my family was there,” Elizabeth says in an interview with ABC’s20/20airing Friday night. (An exclusive clip is above.) “And if I didn’t go, something bad would happen to them.”
She continued: “He threatened to shoot himself or use the guns or — he had two of them.”
“He said if he couldn’t have me, he’d kill himself,” she recalled.
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Prior to her disappearance, authorities and Elizabeth’s family said Cummins “groomed” her for months and had pressured her into spending time with him.
Elizabeth “was scared of Cummins [and] she felt ‘in over her head,’ ” her family said in a court filing last year.
TBI
Cummins was fired from his teaching job after he was named as a suspect in Elizabeth’s case. Soon after, his wife filed for divorce and put their home up for sale.
In April, Cummins, who had been charged with kidnapping,pleaded guilty to federal countsof transporting a minor across state lines for the purpose of engaging in criminal sexual conduct and obstruction of justice.
He faces a mandatory minimum term of 10 years in prison with sentencing reportedly scheduled for December.
Last summer, as the Thomas family faced the specter of a trial for Cummins, Elizabeth’s fathertold PEOPLE she was recovering.
“It’s just a process you have to go through,” he said. “[We’re] being very supportive.”
In animpromptu interviewwith theDaily Heardlast September, Elizabeth told an editor who approached her at a fast food restaurant that she wasn’t regretful.
“Nor do I say it was the right thing to do,” she said. “It was an experience I’ll have to live with the rest of my life.”
Speaking with ABC, Elizabeth said: “[People] think they know what happened. They think that I’m a whore. They think that I like old men and that’s not the case.”
20/20airs Friday (10 p.m. ET) on ABC.
source: people.com
