Elizabeth Thomas Was Kidnapped By Her High School Teacher and Went Missing for 38 Days. Inside the Shocking Case — and How She Was Rescued

It’s been eight years since Elizabeth Thomas was abducted by her married high school teacher, Tad Cummins.

In 2016, Elizabeth was a freshman at Culleoka Unit School after being homeschooled for most of her life. Having faced bullying during her first year in a public school, Elizabeth was struggling and Cummins preyed on her vulnerability. When she joined his health sciences class that spring, he began grooming her.

With a troubled home life — having allegedly faced abuse at the hands of her mother for years, per court documents — Cummins, then 50, stepped in to provide stability. But his intentions quickly became apparent when he began to make sexual advances toward the 15-year-old student.

For nearly a year, the pair met secretly in the closet of Cummins’ classroom, where he would kiss and touch her “regularly.” A victim of his manipulation, Elizabeth was too scared to tell anyone — and feared that Cummins’ would hurt himself or her family if she didn’t comply.

Their relationship came to a breaking point when another student witnessed them kissing in January 2017. Cummins’ was eventually suspended from teaching but continued to contact Elizabeth, convincing her that they had to run away together.

On March 13, 2017, Elizabeth and Cummins vanished, leading authorities on a month-long, nationwide hunt for the teenager and her abductor. It would be 38 days before they were found in a remote cabin in Northern California.

So what happened to Elizabeth Thomas, and where is she now? Here’s everything to know about her kidnapping and how she’s doing today.

Who is Elizabeth Thomas’ kidnapper Tad Cummins?

Before his arrest, Cummins worked as a health sciences teacher at Culleoka Unit School in Maury County, Tenn. He had been employed by the district since 2011 after working in the medical field for several years.

In 1991, he studied respiratory therapy at Tennessee’s Columbia State Community College before obtaining a job at a hospital as a respiratory therapy supervisor. He later became a technician at a medical equipment center and eventually pivoted to his ideal “second career” — teaching.

“I have often thought that I would love to be a teacher, and just might excel at it, but it never seemed to be my destiny,” Cummins wrote in a 2011 employment application obtained by PEOPLE.

At the time of the kidnapping, he had been married to his wife Jill for over 30 years and was both a father and grandfather.

He was an avid member of his local church, where he worked with children at youth camps and Sunday schools. He also participated in a medical mission campaign to Panama and helped with disaster relief on a mission to Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina.

What happened leading up to Elizabeth Thomas’ kidnapping?

Cummins first met Elizabeth when she began attending Culleoka Unit School in the fall of 2015, her family previously told PEOPLE. It wasn’t until the spring semester of 2016 that she became a student in his class — around the time the alleged sexual abuse began.

According to a lawsuit later filed against Cummins, the former teacher knew about Elizabeth’s troubled home life and befriended her, offering to counsel her in his classroom. From there, he began “grooming” the 15-year-old student.

Her father, Anthony Thomas, told PEOPLE that Elizabeth eventually became “dependent” on Cummins. In addition to helping with schoolwork, Cummins “[gave] her money, bought a microwave so she would heat food up in his room [and] try and get her out of trouble.”

Months later, the situation escalated when he allegedly told Elizabeth that she’d “look pretty nice naked.” Soon after, Elizabeth began privately meeting Cummins in his classroom closet, where he would kiss and fondle her “regularly.” Looking back, she said she kept it secret from her friends because she was frightened and didn’t want to draw attention to herself.

“I was scared. I don’t wanna tell my parent that a grown man kissed me. And I don’t wanna tell my friends that a grown man kissed me,” she said on ABC’s 20/20. “I don’t like the spotlight being on me.”

According to the depositions of people who were privy to the relationship between Elizabeth and Cummins, there were times when the teacher secretly picked her up from her family’s home to go out, “threatening her that if she did not go with him she would face repercussions at school.”

Elizabeth eventually became fearful of Cummins, revealing to friends that she felt “in over her head.” She later admitted that Cummins had threatened to kill himself if he could not be with her and threatened harm against her family if she did not comply with his plans.

Despite her hesitations, they continued to meet for nearly a year until a student witnessed the pair kissing on Jan. 23, 2017. When the student confronted Cummins the following day, he told her that he was “a father figure” to Elizabeth and thought of her as “a close and best friend,” per ABC News.

The school created a report on the incident in the week that followed, although both Elizabeth and Cummins denied the kiss. Subsequently, she was removed from his class, but they continued to see each other secretly.

On Jan. 31, sheriff’s deputies questioned Elizabeth’s father, but he had never been informed about the situation. Several days later, Elizabeth was caught in Cummins’ classroom against orders. On Feb. 6, three weeks after the kissing incident, Cummins was suspended without pay after her father’s lawyer, Jason Whatley, sent a letter to the school board, Whatley told PEOPLE.

After his suspension, Elizabeth and Cummins continued to stay in touch, per phone records. During that time, Cummins allegedly told Elizabeth that because of the alleged kissing incident, “her future collegiate and work career was ruined, thus causing her to believe that her best option was to leave with him.”

Cummins then began planning their escape. In the days that followed, computer records showed that he researched teen marriage as well as whether his car “could be tracked by law enforcement.” He also borrowed money from an unspecified source and filled a prescription for Cialis, a medication used to treat male impotence.

What happened on the day of Elizabeth Thomas’ disappearance?

Early on March 13, 2017, Elizabeth woke up her sister Sarah and made her promise that she would call the police if she wasn’t home by that evening.

“She said, ‘I’m going to be gone,’ ” Sarah told PEOPLE. “She had a strange edge to her voice. She said, ‘I’m going to get back at 6 tonight. If I’m not back by 6, call the police and come find me.’ ”

One of Elizabeth’s female friends then drove her to a local restaurant. Elizabeth later shared that she felt if she didn’t comply with Cummins’ demand to run away, her family would be harmed. She was last seen around 7:45 a.m.

Meanwhile, Cummins allegedly emptied his lockbox, which included the borrowed $4,500 and two handguns. He also left a note for his wife saying he had gone to Virginia Beach to clear his head and urged her not to call the police.

He was spotted by security cameras filling up his car at a gas station near the restaurant at about 8:30 a.m. He proceeded to pick Elizabeth up and the pair headed toward Decaturville, Ala., together.

Hours before Elizabeth was supposed to return home, police were contacted. By 12:41 that afternoon, she was declared missing by the Maury County Sheriff’s Department — beginning what would become a month-long search for the teenager and her abductor.

What happened during Elizabeth Thomas’ kidnapping?

Shortly after disappearing together, Elizabeth and Cummins went off the grid. Before allegedly disposing of her phone in the Tennessee River, Elizabeth changed the bio of one of her social media profiles to include “wife” with a ring emoji. The pair then headed west, changing their license plates to ones stolen from an abandoned car and dismantling the GPS.

Over the next week, authorities received hundreds of tips about Elizabeth’s whereabouts, but many leads came up empty. Meanwhile, the pair had traveled from Alabama to Mississippi and then to Oklahoma, where they would later be seen on CCTV footage in a Walmart. They then headed to Colorado, where they adopted the aliases John and Joanne Castro.

Eventually, the pair arrived in California, and Cummins purchased a kayak for $1,500 in San Diego, hoping they could paddle to Mexico. When that plan didn’t work out, Elizabeth and Cummins pivoted to North California instead, where they came across a clothing-optional commune called Black Bear Ranch.

According to the commune’s website, Elizabeth and Cummins were “asked to leave” by residents shortly after their arrival — although they didn’t know about the abduction because of their lack of access to national media.

The two later rented a remote cabin near Cecilville, Calif., which family attorney Whatley described as a four-walled shelter without running water, electricity or heat piping. There, Elizabeth and Cummins ate wildflowers to survive.

According to Griffin Barry, the man who rented them the spot, Cummins claimed that they were from Colorado, telling him that Elizabeth was 24 and Cummins was in his 30s. Barry says he was told the couple had fallen on hard times, and he gave them food in exchange for manual labor around the property. But not long into their stay, Barry saw photos of the pair in a news report and realized who Cummins was.

In the late hours of April 19, Barry contacted authorities, who later confirmed the VIN of the Nissan Rogue they had traveled in. Around dawn on the morning of April 20, authorities took Cummins into custody and rescued Elizabeth.

Was Tad Cummins charged with kidnapping?

After being discovered in the remote cabin, Cummins was arrested by authorities and taken to Sacramento County Jail on April 20, 2017.

While Tennessee authorities had already issued a warrant for Cummins’ arrest on charges of aggravated kidnapping and sexual contact with a minor, he faced additional charges in the state of California, including alleged possession of stolen property and kidnapping.

Shortly after, during Cummins’ first court appearance in California on May 9, his public defender, Benjamin Galloway, issued a statement in support of his client, claiming that he had “no history of violence and no criminal history whatsoever” and that he didn’t coerce, force or threaten Elizabeth. Meanwhile, Cummins told his sister, Daphne Quinn, that it was Elizabeth’s idea to run away.

Ahead of the case going to trial, Elizabeth and her father filed suit in federal court against Cummins and Culleoka Unit School, seeking a “reasonable amount” of damages. The suit alleged Cummins violated Elizabeth’s right to “bodily integrity” while sexually abusing her as her teacher and claimed the district failed to protect her from a “predator.”

The following year, in May 2018, Cummins pled guilty to federal charges of transporting a minor across state lines for the purpose of engaging in criminal sexual conduct and obstruction of justice, per The Tennessean. While he had previously claimed to be not guilty, he shared that upon “personal reflection,” he had changed his mind.

Cummins was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Jan. 16, 2019. In the courtroom, a prosecutor read a statement from Elizabeth, sharing what she went through on a daily basis as a result of his “unspeakable” crimes.

“The effects have been devastating and permanent, and they are not over. Mr. Cummins, what you did to me is unspeakable. I don’t know that any words could ever accurately express how much pain I have suffered and continue to suffer because of you,” she said in an excerpt from the lengthy statement.

Elizabeth continued, “I will have to live with the scars you left on me forever. You preyed upon a vulnerable girl and robbed her childhood. For the last two years, I’ve been picking myself up, piece by piece, and proving to myself that I am much, much stronger than you convinced me I was.”

In addition to being put behind bars, Cummins was also fired from his teaching job, and his wife filed for divorce.

What happened to Elizabeth Thomas after her abduction? 

Several days after being discovered, Elizabeth was reunited with her family at a private location as she began to recover from the “severe emotional trauma” that she suffered.

While her older brother James said it was a “tearful” and “exciting” reunion, he noted that he was worried about how the experience had affected her. Elizabeth’s father, Anthony, said those first few days together were a “roller coaster” of emotions.

“Sometimes she’ll be happy and laughing and back to the same old girl. And then she’ll be sometimes just in a fetal position crying,” he told ABC News.

In order to help Elizabeth process the traumatic events, the family recruited “some of the best [professionals] in the country” and made sure she felt supported. As a family, they decided to refrain from discussing the kidnapping, opting to leave it to her counselors while she underwent therapy in an undisclosed location away from her hometown.

“I have to let the counselors work with her,” Anthony told PEOPLE. “I’ve got to let them do their job, because I want this to turn out the right way. She’s been through a difficult experience … She’s got a lot of people to help her, a lot of people who love her with all their hearts.”

Six months after being rescued, Elizabeth spoke out for the first time in an impromptu interview with the Columbia Daily Herald in September 2017. She shared that she was living with her older brother while being homeschooled and working as a babysitter. Elizabeth added that she hoped to attend Middle Tennessee State University to become a medical examiner.

“I don’t regret it, nor do I say it was the right thing to do,” Elizabeth shared. “It was an experience I’ll have to live with the rest of my life.”

Where is Elizabeth Thomas now?

Since returning home, Elizabeth has chosen to live a private life while recovering from the experience.

In late 2018, at age 17, she became engaged to her longtime friend Skylar Dirla, whom she met while working at a seafood restaurant, Entertainment Tonight. The following year, the couple tied the knot in a secret ceremony and have since welcomed their first child.

“We just are homebodies. We like watching movies and just being with each other,” Elizabeth told the outlet in August 2023. “He’s a goofy guy … I love him so much.”

While Elizabeth previously admitted that the backlash in her community used to make her “scared to go into stores,” she told E! News that she has since found her inner confidence and now walks “as if nothing bothers me.”