It was an ordinary Tuesday morning in November 2013 when twenty-year-old Samantha Geldenhuys answered the door at her home on Australia's Sunshine Coast. Standing before her were officers from the Australian Federal Police, but they weren't looking for Samantha. They were looking for her mother, Lee, and they had some disturbing questions.
"Are you Savanna Todd?" one officer asked.
Samantha stared at them, confused. "I'm sorry, who?"
What happened next would shatter everything Samantha thought she knew about her life, her identity, and the woman who had raised her with unwavering love for twenty years. The officers explained that her mother was wanted by the FBI for international parental kidnapping. That the woman she called mum had been on the run for nearly two decades. That her real name wasn't Samantha Geldenhuys at all – it was Savanna Catherine Todd, and somewhere in America, a father had been searching for her since she was just ten months old.
The story that began on that sunny Australian morning would unravel one of the longest-running parental abduction cases in FBI history. It would reveal a tale of desperate love, elaborate deception, and a mother who would cross continents and forge new identities to keep her daughter close. But was Lee Barnett a criminal who stole a child from her father, or a protective mother fleeing from something she couldn't bear?
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The case:
Charleston, South Carolina is a city where Southern charm meets coastal elegance. Historic mansions line cobblestone streets, while the harbor welcomes visitors from around the world. It was here that Dorothy Lee Barnett (known as Lee), a woman in her mid-twenties, first encountered Benjamin Harris Todd.
Lee was petite and striking, with an infectious laugh and a vivacious personality that drew people to her. Harris, as his friends called him, was a successful businessman from a prominent Charleston family. When they met, Lee seemed like everything he had been looking for – intelligent, funny, and full of life.
Their courtship followed a familiar pattern. They began dating in the fall of 1990, and within a year, Lee had moved into Harris's comfortable home. To the outside world, they appeared to be the perfect couple. Harris later described Lee’s "public side" as bright and engaging. She could charm anyone at a dinner party and seemed genuinely happy in their relationship.
But behind closed doors, Harris claimed, there was another side to Lee that few people saw. He would later tell investigators that she had what he called "explosive" temper tantrums, sudden mood swings that seemed to come from nowhere. These episodes, according to Harris, became more frequent as their relationship progressed.
By 1992, the relationship between Lee and Harris had deteriorated beyond repair. The couple separated while Lee was pregnant, and their breakup became increasingly bitter as they prepared for the birth of their child.
On May 6, 1993, Savanna Catherine Todd was born into an already fractured family. Harris and Lee were no longer together, but both wanted to be an integral part of their daughter's life. What should have been a joyful time became the beginning of an increasingly contentious custody dispute.
As separated parents, Lee and Harris struggled to co-parent effectively. Each had different versions of events during this period, with Harris later claiming that Lee’s behavior was erratic and unpredictable, while Lee would maintain that Harris was controlling and manipulative. What happened next would be disputed for decades, with each side telling a vastly different version of events.
Harris claimed that Lee had become unstable and potentially dangerous. He worried about Savanna's safety and made the difficult decision to seek custody of his daughter through the South Carolina court system. In April 1994, he was granted temporary custody of ten-month-old Savanna, with visitation rights for Lee.
Lee, however, alleged that he had used his family's influence and financial resources to manipulate the court system. From her perspective, she was a loving mother being torn away from her child by a man who couldn't accept that their relationship was over.
The truth, as is often the case in bitter custody disputes, likely lay somewhere between these two versions. What is certain is that by April 1994, tensions between Lee and Harris had reached a breaking point.
The custody arrangement was supposed to be temporary while the court sorted out the details of their separation. Lee was allowed to see Savanna every other weekend – with supervision – and she was required to return the baby to Harris's mother's house in West Ashley by a specific time.
On April 24, 1994, Lee picked up Savanna for what was supposed to be a routine visit. It was a mild spring day in Charleston, the kind of weather that made the city's gardens bloom with azaleas and jasmine. Lee had seemed calm when she picked up her daughter, giving no indication that anything was wrong. She had been granted permission to take Savanna to a friend’s birthday party.
Hours passed. Then more hours. When Lee failed to return Savanna to her grandmother's house at the appointed time, Harris's family began to worry. They tried calling Lee’s home, but there was no answer.
As the evening wore on, concern turned to panic. Harris drove to Lee’s house on Isle of Palms, hoping to find some explanation for the delay. There was no sign of Lee or Savanna, no indication of where they might have gone. It was as if they had simply vanished into thin air. Harris immediately called the police. Officers arrived at the Isle of Palms home that same evening, beginning what would become one of the longest-running missing persons investigations in South Carolina history.
The initial police report painted a troubling picture. Lee’s personal belongings were still in the house. Her purse, containing credit cards and identification, sat on the kitchen counter. There was no evidence of a struggle, no broken windows or forced entry.
To investigators, it looked like Lee had intended to return home quickly. Perhaps she had stepped out briefly and planned to come right back. But if that was the case, where had she gone? And more importantly, where was baby Savanna?
The Charleston Police Department launched an immediate search of the area around Lee’s home. They combed through the nearby beaches and marshlands, hoping to find some clue that might explain the disappearance. Local media picked up the story, broadcasting photos of both Lee and Savanna across the Southeast.
Tips began pouring in almost immediately. People reported seeing a woman matching Lee’s description at the airport, at bus stations, in grocery stores across three states. Each lead was investigated thoroughly, but none yielded any concrete evidence of where Lee and Savanna might have gone.
As days turned into weeks, the investigation expanded. The FBI joined the search, treating the case as a potential kidnapping. Agents interviewed everyone who knew Lee, looking for clues about her state of mind, her relationships, her potential destinations.
What they discovered was a woman who had been deeply troubled by the custody proceedings. Friends told investigators that Lee had been devastated by the court's decision to grant temporary custody to Harris. She had spoken repeatedly about how unfair the system was, how she was being treated as though she were an unfit mother when all she wanted was to be with her daughter.
A friend recalled collecting Savanna from Harris’ mother for visitation on one occasion, and Lee noticed bruises and some blood on the baby’s nose. They immediately took her to the hospital. Lee also obtained a second opinion from a pediatrician, and everyone agreed that the minor injuries were consistent with a fall (as Harris has claimed) rather than abuse. Still, Lee was fuming.
Be that as it may – by mid-1994, no one had heard from or seen Lee and baby Savanna since that April. Despite extensive searches, FBI investigations, and international alerts, there was no trace of them anywhere.
For Harris Todd, the disappearance of his daughter marked the beginning of what he would later describe as a twenty-year nightmare. He hired private investigators and followed up on every possible lead. He appeared on high-profile television shows like Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted, distributed flyers, and never stopped believing that someday, somehow, he would find Savanna.
The FBI classified Lee as a federal fugitive and placed her on their wanted list. The charges against her were serious: international parental kidnapping and passport fraud. If caught, she faced significant prison time. But she had vanished as completely as if she had been swallowed by the earth itself.
What Harris Todd didn't know was that his daughter was very much alive, living under a completely different identity on the other side of the world. For twenty years, while he searched desperately for any trace of Savanna, she was growing up as Samantha Geldenhuys, speaking with an Australian accent, calling another country home.
Lee had indeed planned her escape meticulously. Using forged documents and false identities (calling herself Alexandra Maria Canton – and introducing Savanna as Samantha), she had taken her baby first to Europe, then to South Africa where Lee met and married Juan Geldenhuys, who agreed to raise her daughter as his own. The family also had a son, Reese and relocated to Botswana, then New Zealand, and finally to Australia's Sunshine Coast.
To Samantha, Lee wasn't a fugitive on the run – she was simply mum. And Juan was dad – she was oblivious to the fact that he was not her biological father. Lee often said things like “you have your dad’s smile” or “you sleep just like your dad” – meaning Juan – so Samatha never had any reason to think he was not her dad. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, Harris Todd never gave up hope that he would someday find his daughter.
To neighbors and friends in the coastal town of Moololaba, Lee and Samantha seemed like a perfectly normal mother and daughter. Samantha thrived academically and socially, making friends easily and excelling in school.
However, there were small signs, that might have raised questions if anyone had looked closely enough. Lee was always vague about her past. She had no family photos from before Samantha's birth. She discouraged Samantha from asking too many questions about their family history, always changing the subject when Samantha expressed curiosity about her grandparents or extended family.
For Samantha, these quirks were simply part of who her mother was. She accepted Lee’s explanations without question, trusting completely in the woman who had raised her with such obvious love and care.
Back in the US, Harris maintained a website with Savanna's information and age-progression photos. Every year on her birthday, he would hold a small memorial, hoping that someday she might see the coverage and realize who she really was.
The case remained active with the FBI, though leads became fewer as the years passed. Agents continued to investigate reported sightings of Lee around the world. They followed paper trails and financial records, looking for any evidence of where she might have taken Savanna, but could not find anything.
In 2011, nearly twenty years after the disappearance, Harris finally caught a break. He received an email from a stranger – someone who felt that he had the right to know where his daughter was. It was an Australian couple, who had known a woman called Alex and her daughter Sam for many years. But they were curious about ‘Alex’s’ mysterious past. And when she accidentally called her daughter Samatha, Savanna, they decided to do a bit of online sleuthing. Because Harris had kept the case alive for so many years, they quickly learned the truth.
Harris alerted the FBI, who urged him NOT to go to Australia before they had all legalities and extradition orders in place. Harris was frustrated but desperately wanted to keep his side of things in the clear. The process took an agonising two years.
On November 12, 2013, Australian Federal Police, acting on a request from the FBI, arrested Dorothy Lee Barnett. The woman who had evaded capture for twenty years was finally in custody.
For Samantha, now twenty years old, the arrest was devastating. The mother she adored, the woman who had been the center of her world for as long as she could remember, was led away in handcuffs. Even worse were the accusations being leveled against her. By this time, her mother and the man she knew to be her father was separated, and he had passed away from cancer only two weeks before.
Police allowed Lee to make one phone call – she called her daughter and told her that she was once married in the US and had escaped a complicated situation when Samatha was still a baby. The young woman who had grown up as Samantha Geldenhuys learned that she was actually Savanna Catherine Todd. Everything she thought she knew about her life, her identity, even her name, was built on an elaborate deception.
The revelation shattered Samantha's world. In a single moment, she lost not only her mother to arrest, but her entire sense of self. The woman she trusted most had been lying to her every day for twenty years. Her father was not actually her father and another man – essentially a stranger to her – was desperately hoping to reunite with her.
Harris was in Australia when all of this took place, but respectfully kept his distance and left it up to his daughter to reach out when she was ready to meet him. A month passed and he realised that it was not going to happen, so he returned home. Samantha’s main goal at this point was to help her mother, all the while grieving the man who she thought was her dad.
Samantha was left to grapple with impossible questions. Was her mother a criminal who had stolen her from her father, or a protective parent who had made difficult choices to keep her safe? How could the woman who had loved and nurtured her for twenty years also be capable of such an elaborate deception?
Eventually, Lee was extradited to the United States to face charges. In February 2015, she appeared in a Charleston courtroom to face the consequences of her twenty-year flight from justice. She pleaded guilty to international parental kidnapping and passport fraud. Samantha pleaded for her mother’s immediate release, stating that she was a kind mother who only did what she thought was best for her child. She also stated that she never experienced volatile or aggressive behavior from her mother growing up.
Harris Todd spoke about the agony of losing his daughter, about twenty years of wondering if she was safe, if she was happy, if she was even alive. He described the devastating impact the kidnapping had on his life and his family.
But Lee’s supporters argued that she had been a devoted mother who had raised Samantha with love and care. They pointed out that Samantha was healthy, well-educated, and well-adjusted. Whatever Lee’s crimes, they argued, she had clearly loved her daughter and provided her with a good life.
The judge acknowledged the unusual circumstances of the case while upholding the seriousness of Lee’s crimes. International parental kidnapping, regardless of motive, undermines the legal system and causes immeasurable pain to the left-behind parent. The woman who had evaded capture for two decades was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison.
For Samantha, now faced with rebuilding relationships with both her biological father and her incarcerated mother, the challenges were enormous. She had to navigate not just the emotional complexity of the situation, but practical concerns about citizenship, identity documents, and where she would call home. She chose to return to Australia – to complete her nursing studies. She did meet Harris – and both claimed it was a pleasant experience – but they are not in regular contact. For Harris, the ball is in his daughter’s court, he does not want to force a relationship with her, but his door is always open.
The case raised profound questions about parental rights, international law, and the complexity of family relationships. Was Lee a criminal who had stolen a child, or a mother who had made desperate choices to protect her daughter from what she perceived as danger? The answer, perhaps, was both.
Lee’s actions had undeniably caused immense pain to Harris Todd. His right to be a father had been stolen from him, and he had endured twenty years of uncertainty and grief. The legal system had awarded him custody, and Lee’s decision to flee with Savanna was clearly illegal.
But it was also clear that Lee had genuinely loved Samantha and had provided her with stability, education, and care. Whatever her motivations, she had raised a remarkable young woman who was healthy, intelligent, and well-adjusted.
The FBI estimates that thousands of children are victims of international parental abduction each year. While some cases are resolved quickly, others, like Savanna Todd's, can drag on for decades, leaving families shattered and children caught between competing loyalties.
The Barnett case also highlights the challenges faced by law enforcement in pursuing international fugitives. Despite being wanted by the FBI, Lee managed to evade capture for twenty years by carefully constructing new identities and staying off the radar of authorities.
Lee Barnett's twenty-year deception created not just false identities, but false memories, false history, and false hope. When the truth finally emerged, it brought both liberation and loss – the joy of reunion tempered by the grief of all that had been stolen by two decades of lies.
What is certain is that three lives – Lee's, Harris's, and Savanna's – were forever changed by the events that began on that April day in 1994. The ripple effects of those choices continue to shape their relationships and their understanding of family, love, and justice.
Lee – as a convicted felon – will never be able to visit Australia again. Samantha married her long-time boyfriend in Fiji, so her mother could attend the wedding. For now, Samantha has decided to remain in Australia, with one clear resolution as she started her own family: to always be truthful.
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