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Speaker 1: And as daylight broke this morning, they were able to

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Speaker 1: take Tad Cummins into custody and safely recovered Elizabeth without incident.

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Thomas was grand new to the Colioka School in

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Speaker 1: Murray County. She started as a freshman this year, entering

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Speaker 1: the public school system for the very first time. She's fifteen.

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Speaker 1: He's fifty. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace tv ASA.

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Speaker 1: The Cummins was a teacher. A student reported seeing Cummins

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Speaker 1: kissing Elizabeth in his classroom in late January. Police arrested

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth's mom, Kimberly Thomas, last year. They charged her with

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Speaker 1: five counts of child abuse and neglect. Cummins told two

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Speaker 1: students he's a father figure to Elizabeth. He's told my

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Speaker 1: daughter from me this afternoon. We couldn't be happier to

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Speaker 1: tell you. She will soon be on her way back

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Speaker 1: Holliday to Timos. As you know by now, Pervy High

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Speaker 1: School teacher Tad Cummins, but us did nearly three thousand

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Speaker 1: miles from home with his student, Elizabeth Thomas. The news

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Speaker 1: is breaking quickly. We have just obtained a statement for

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Speaker 1: immediate release from the Thomas family lawyer. It says, Elizabeth

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Speaker 1: Thomas is in a safe location with family and friends.

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Speaker 1: She is comfortable and resting. She's being evaluated and treated

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Speaker 1: by mental health experts specializing in trauma. There is no

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Speaker 1: doubt she has suffered severe emotional trauma and that her

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Speaker 1: process of recovery is only just beginning. The family extremely

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Speaker 1: grateful for the thoughts and prayers of the nation and

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Speaker 1: asked sincerely for those continued prayers as Elizabeth becomes able

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Speaker 1: to process the last thirty days. The family asked for

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Speaker 1: privacy as this journey begins. On a personal note, I

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Speaker 1: met Elizabeth for the first time. I was taken aback

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Speaker 1: by who she is. Elizabeth is a little child. She

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Speaker 1: could easily pass for twelve. The primary photo used and

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Speaker 1: reprinted so many times by law enforcement media and even

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Speaker 1: our office is inaccurate. She is a little girl in

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Speaker 1: every sense of the word. This was the abduction of

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Speaker 1: an impressionable little child. S Jason Watley, attorney at law

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Speaker 1: Alan Duke. That breaks my heart. Yes, yes, we've gotten

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Speaker 1: to know Jason and all of the work he did

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Speaker 1: to bring Elizabeth Thomas home. It just makes me proud

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Speaker 1: of the podcast that we've done about this case. Because

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Speaker 1: this is another one of those cases where it ended

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Speaker 1: with a happy ending. Well, before you start patting yourself

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Speaker 1: on the back too much, Alan, do you okay? Did

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Speaker 1: you hear what he said? She's being treated by mental

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Speaker 1: health experts and that she looks like she's twelve years old?

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Speaker 1: I feel awful well, And he said she suffered severe

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Speaker 1: emotional trauma. And when I said, a happy ending, a

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Speaker 1: lot happier than than the one that some people might

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Speaker 1: have foreseen. Yeah, I was really worried this whole thing

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Speaker 1: would end in a shootout with police joining me. Now,

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Speaker 1: my colleague Mike Duffy in addition to Alan Duke, Mike

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Speaker 1: Duffy from k d r V News Channel twelve, you

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Speaker 1: know the case has cracked wide open about Tag cummins

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Speaker 1: arrest after Elizabeth Thomas has been recovered almost three thousand

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Speaker 1: miles away from home. Tell me, Mike Duffy. At first

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Speaker 1: of all, it's great to talk to you. I just

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Speaker 1: love you to bits and always have. I want to

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Speaker 1: hear your thoughts and your observations about the terrain, about

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Speaker 1: the capture of Tag commons, whatever inside you can't give

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Speaker 1: us because this is your neck of the woods. Yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, this is an area that did not see

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Speaker 1: this coming. It's a remote part of northern California. Very

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Speaker 1: few people live there. The entire county has about forty

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Speaker 1: five thousand people live in sisqu County, so it's easy

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Speaker 1: to see how someone could go there and escape for

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Speaker 1: a period of time. Now, this is also the meeting

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Speaker 1: area of multiple national forests. You have both the Shasta

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Speaker 1: Trinity National Forest. You also have this popular trail that

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Speaker 1: runs through the area, and people come from all over, backpackers, transients,

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Speaker 1: They go to this place to get away. And it

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Speaker 1: seems that in this case, Okay, wait a minute, Mike Duffy,

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Speaker 1: let me ask you say, bat packers, transience go here

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Speaker 1: to get away. I noticed a lot of mainstream media

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Speaker 1: was bending over backwards to say, this is not a commune,

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Speaker 1: but is it? What is that? It is a commune?

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Speaker 1: And you know, I think that what they were trying

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Speaker 1: to say was that they weren't intentionally going to this place.

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Speaker 1: What we found in our coverage at KTRV is that

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Speaker 1: they were looking for this commune. It seems that he

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Speaker 1: might have watched a documentary by the name of Commune

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Speaker 1: that came out in two thousand five, which highlights this

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Speaker 1: commune that people did go to. It's called black Bear Ranch.

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Speaker 1: It's in a very remote part of the state UM.

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Speaker 1: He was ultimately found in a town called Cecilville. The

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Speaker 1: entire town of Cecilville probably has about thirty or forty

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Speaker 1: people in it, so it's not a big place of

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Speaker 1: its own. About twenty miles north of it, in a

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Speaker 1: mountainous area is black Bear Ranch, and black Bear Ranch

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Speaker 1: is only about eighty square miles in total, um And

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Speaker 1: this area has about six or seven people living in it.

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Speaker 1: But it is a commune. It did start back in

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Speaker 1: the sixties, and it's a place where people still can

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Speaker 1: go to get away. The more people said, it's not

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Speaker 1: a commune, it's not a count commune. I need it

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Speaker 1: has a commune. Okay, so you're you're telling me that

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Speaker 1: it is at a commune, but you don't think they

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Speaker 1: necessarily were trying to go to the commune. Whatever. You're saying,

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Speaker 1: very rugged terrain, a place where people want to get lost.

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Speaker 1: Would he have had to have researched this area, Mike Duffie,

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Speaker 1: in order to know it was there, you have to

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Speaker 1: intentionally go there. We sent our own reporters to this place.

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Speaker 1: It took them multiple hours to even find the commune,

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Speaker 1: to find Cecilville these roads. Even at this point in

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Speaker 1: the year, you know, we're in the springtime. It is April,

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Speaker 1: they still had a hard time getting there because roads

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Speaker 1: were still filled with snow. Active logging is going on

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Speaker 1: in this area. You have to know where you want

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Speaker 1: to go. Um. And also, let me clarify, he wanted

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Speaker 1: to go to black Bear Ranch. He wanted to be

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Speaker 1: a part of the community. But the black Bear Ranch

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Speaker 1: people said, we're not quite sure you fit in here

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Speaker 1: and told him that they had to leave. How do

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Speaker 1: you know that, Mike. We spoke with multiple people who

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Speaker 1: were there. In fact, we interviewed one man who lives

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Speaker 1: on the commune. His name is Peter Laughing Wolf, and

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Speaker 1: he interacted with him one on one. He said that

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Speaker 1: Ted Cummings Um was kind of a aggressive personality. He

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Speaker 1: said that he saw Tad and Elizabeth Um. He spoke

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Speaker 1: with Tad, but he thought it was interesting because while

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Speaker 1: Tad was aggressive, Elizabeth kind of took a more submissive role.

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Speaker 1: He said, Tad spoke for Elizabeth most of the time

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Speaker 1: when they interacted. That's very odd. Well, what I'm understanding

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Speaker 1: from Mike Duffy joining us is that he wanted to

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Speaker 1: be part of the commune, but they didn't know that

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Speaker 1: they wanted him. So how did that happen? And why

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Speaker 1: if they did one of their how did he get

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Speaker 1: end up in that cabin overnight? Well, so the cabin

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Speaker 1: is not actually on black Bear Ranch. Um, it's down

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Speaker 1: the hill in Cecilville. So it's it's about twenty miles

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Speaker 1: south between black Bear and Cecilville. And what he did

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Speaker 1: was he arrived in Cecilville, he met up with a

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Speaker 1: young man year old by the name of Griffin Berry,

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Speaker 1: and he said, you know, we're trying to get to

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Speaker 1: black Bear Ranch, but we have no more money left.

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Speaker 1: We're out of gas. Griffin Berry politely filled up this

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Speaker 1: guy's tank, gave him forty bucks, said you know, best

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Speaker 1: of luck going to black Bear Ranch. So then Tad

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Speaker 1: and Elizabeth went to black Bear Ranch. They spent a

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Speaker 1: couple of days there. It sounds like the black Bear

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Speaker 1: Ranch people said that they wouldn't be a good fit there,

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Speaker 1: So he felt rejected and came back down the mountain,

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Speaker 1: still had no money, still hard on his luck, and

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Speaker 1: met back up with Griffin Berry. Griffin Berry said, you

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Speaker 1: know what, if you want to work for us, we'll

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Speaker 1: let you live in this little cabin in the back

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Speaker 1: yard and you can do things for us. So first

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Speaker 1: day they did hard physical labor. Apparently they were moving

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Speaker 1: stones from the river um into the yard. Sound that

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Speaker 1: they were trying to build something of a fence, and

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Speaker 1: it was your Lord in Heaven. It was within that

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Speaker 1: time that Griffin Barry was tipped off that hey, this

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Speaker 1: could this guy could be someone really bad. So he

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Speaker 1: goes to the commune. They reject him. Do you know

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Speaker 1: why they rejected him? Did they realize who it was?

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Speaker 1: I don't think they realized who it was, And in fact,

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Speaker 1: they said that they were surprised, but they did realize

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Speaker 1: that something wasn't right. They realized that this person didn't

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Speaker 1: quite fit into what they wanted. And it's also interesting, Nancy,

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Speaker 1: this black Bear ranch is actively looking for people to

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Speaker 1: join their commune, but they still rejected that that couple

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Speaker 1: that showed up. For those of you that are not

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Speaker 1: in my Duffy's viewing audience there in the Oregon area,

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Speaker 1: Mike was with me for many many years as a

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Speaker 1: producer on air to talent and reporter at hl N,

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Speaker 1: and he can really sink into a story. So, Mike,

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Speaker 1: I've been studying the map, and you really had to

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Speaker 1: know where you were going. You really had to plan

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Speaker 1: this out. You don't just see a sign on the

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Speaker 1: side of the interstate and hey, go, hey, let's go

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Speaker 1: to Black Bear or Black par whatever it is commune. No,

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Speaker 1: you gotta know about this and know how to get there.

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Speaker 1: Exactly where is at, Mike Duffy, So, Nancy, black Bear

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Speaker 1: Wrench is about sixty miles south of the Oregon border.

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Speaker 1: It is, as some people say, one of the most

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Speaker 1: remote places in the United States. You have to know

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Speaker 1: where you're going. You have to want to get to

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Speaker 1: that location. It's very difficult to wander. In fact, our

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Speaker 1: reporters who work not far away from there, had a

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Speaker 1: very difficult time tracking down Cecilville as it was. That

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Speaker 1: took them hours. They couldn't get past roads that were

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Speaker 1: filled with snow, and there were other problems in their way.

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Speaker 1: And you know where I'm going with this, Mike Duffie.

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Speaker 1: You know me well enough to know how I'm thinking

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Speaker 1: this is gonna be more evidence of premeditation. He didn't

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Speaker 1: just pick her up that morning at Shawnee's where she said,

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Speaker 1: you know, I need help save me. This is something

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Speaker 1: he had thought out very carefully, and that's going to

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Speaker 1: go against him in a court of law. Now you're saying,

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Speaker 1: it's very rugged terrain. You have to know where you're going.

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Speaker 1: He was basically rejected from the people of the commune.

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Speaker 1: So how did it all unfold? How is he napped mine?

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Speaker 1: So he was living in this cabin. He agreed for

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Speaker 1: room and board essentially, and a little bit of extra

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Speaker 1: money that he would stay and do manual labor um

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Speaker 1: just south of the Black Bear Ranch. This was a

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Speaker 1: good samaritan who took him in um. This guy said

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Speaker 1: that he you know, felt bad for him. His heart

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Speaker 1: went out to him. He thought that this guy was

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Speaker 1: down on his luck. An interesting piece of information that

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Speaker 1: we received is that the two had said that they

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Speaker 1: had a house fire and that they were from Colorado.

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Speaker 1: So they project this story. Well, Nancy, it seems that

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Speaker 1: Tad Cummins did all the talking. Sure, I can't tell

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Speaker 1: a lie. I mean, at the get go, Mike Duffy

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Speaker 1: was telling his students he's a multi millionaire. He's just

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Speaker 1: c I a operative. He had a safe house in

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Speaker 1: Costa Rica when things got to quote hot for him.

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Speaker 1: I mean, really, it's enough to frankly gag me. Okay,

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Speaker 1: all these tattels, he told students, Now they just continue

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Speaker 1: on and these people fell for it, all right. So

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Speaker 1: then what happened the young man who ultimately did turn

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Speaker 1: him into authorities, Griffin Barry, so that he was alerted

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Speaker 1: by someone in the town. They showed him a picture

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Speaker 1: of this news report about this man hunt for a

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Speaker 1: man and a young girl from Tennessee, and he, Griffin

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Speaker 1: Berry says, oh my gosh, that guy is in my backyard.

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Speaker 1: So he ultimately called authorities in Tennessee, who alerted the

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Speaker 1: Siskuo County Sheriff's Department and they were the ones who

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Speaker 1: ultimately made the rest. So is he going to get

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Speaker 1: the reward? I have I certainly hope so myself. Um.

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Speaker 1: But one more piece of information, UM, is that they

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Speaker 1: went to this farm. They didn't want to compromise Elizabeth

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Speaker 1: Thomas's safety, and so they were there at about two

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Speaker 1: am in the morning, and of course to get them

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Speaker 1: separated it would have been difficult. So what they did

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Speaker 1: was they sent Griffin Barry to try to get him

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Speaker 1: to come out, and Griffin Berry said he first honked

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Speaker 1: his horn on his car to see if he could

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Speaker 1: kind of lure him out of the house. Didn't work,

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Speaker 1: so then he called So then he called Tad Cummins

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Speaker 1: to come out of the house and said he had

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Speaker 1: some more work for him. That's when Tad Cummins came

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Speaker 1: out of the house and authorities ultimately made the arrest.

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Speaker 1: At the time of the arrest, have you heard how

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth was doing? I mean, do you think she wanted

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Speaker 1: to be found or is this not what she wanted?

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Speaker 1: Mike Duffy. According to authorities, they both went willingly with

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Speaker 1: out any sort of confrontation. Um, so they didn't try

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Speaker 1: to get away. Um. The authorities did say that Elizabeth

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Speaker 1: Thomas went willingly as well, Mike. Now, this is a

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Speaker 1: very rural area, lightly populated and a large large region.

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Speaker 1: This county is a very big county in northern California.

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Speaker 1: How big is it. It's about the fifth largest county

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Speaker 1: in the state of California. It's square acres with about

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Speaker 1: forty five thousand people. About of that land is owned

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Speaker 1: and managed by federal and state authorities. It contains the

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Speaker 1: Shasta Trinity National Forest, the Six Nations National Forest, the

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Speaker 1: Marble Mountains, and the Pacific Crest Trail, which is a

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Speaker 1: very popular backpack or trail, also runs through that area.

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Speaker 1: So people go there to get away, but you can

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Speaker 1: easily see how people could also go there to disappear.

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Speaker 1: I would think that Tad Cummins probably had some kind

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Speaker 1: of an idea that he was secure there, that how

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Speaker 1: could any addie, how could the world find him there?

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's just the feeling I think he probably

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Speaker 1: had at some point. Well, it seems people who live

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Speaker 1: at the Black Bear Ranch also kind of agreed with

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Speaker 1: your sentiment there. They said that when he arrived, he

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Speaker 1: thought it was going to be a kind of place

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Speaker 1: where anything goes. He thought it would be some kind

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Speaker 1: of fantasy, and they said that it was clear that

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Speaker 1: his vision didn't align with their vision of what their

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Speaker 1: commune was. CNN is reporting, quoting sources, is saying that

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Speaker 1: Tad's words when he realized that he was under arrest

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Speaker 1: and the jig was up, he said, I'm glad this

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Speaker 1: is over, indicating that it had been kind of an

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Speaker 1: ordeal for him. And I can only imagine what Elizabeth

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Speaker 1: Thomas was thinking when he was arrested by authorities. You

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Speaker 1: could understand why he might have that sense of relief because,

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Speaker 1: according to people who were helping him out, he was

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Speaker 1: completely down on his luck. He was completely broke, and

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Speaker 1: he didn't even have enough money to put gas in

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Speaker 1: his car, So it was clear that he was pretty

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Speaker 1: much at the end of his rope. Well, we know

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Speaker 1: that he left with maybe forty or five thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: in cash, but that was five six weeks of being

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Speaker 1: on the road, and that money goes by very quickly,

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Speaker 1: I would think. So I could understand that he had

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Speaker 1: a number of license plates in his car, so you

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Speaker 1: were talking about that that he had. I mean, he

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Speaker 1: was trying to stay below the radar the entire time,

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Speaker 1: including going from state to state changing those license plates.

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Speaker 1: So it was pretty clear that he had a plan

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Speaker 1: from the beginning. So, Mike Duffie, what more can you

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Speaker 1: tell us? What do you make of all this? Nancy,

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Speaker 1: what it sounds like is a good samaritan here in

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Speaker 1: Sisko County saw something and said something and that made

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Speaker 1: all the difference in this case, which had been going

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Speaker 1: on for over a month. And it does say something

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Speaker 1: about these people who while they may be isolated in

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Speaker 1: the remote part of the country still care about their

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Speaker 1: fellow human beings. I still think it's a miracle because

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Speaker 1: you know, Mike Duffie, you and I have covered how

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Speaker 1: many cases where everything goes sideways when the police move

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Speaker 1: in and somebody ends up dead. You know, Mike Duffy,

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Speaker 1: it's a joy talking to you, even under these circumstances.

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Speaker 1: But I guess they're good circumstances, right, because you and

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Speaker 1: I have covered so many cases where the missing person

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Speaker 1: is found dead, the child is found dead, and in

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Speaker 1: this case, she is alive and she has a chance

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Speaker 1: for a life. Now, Mike Duffy, you're awesome for all

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Speaker 1: of you joining us. I Nancy Grace Crime Stories, signing off,

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Speaker 1: goodbye friend,