Elizabeth Shoaf

About

Kidnapping victim who endured ten days of captivity and abuse at the hands of Vinson Filyaw in an underground bunker he'd built on his property. He pretended to be a police officer and "arrested" her on her way home from school. She was freed after Filyaw's girlfriend at the time tipped off the police regarding his activities. 

Before Fame

Despite her youth, Schoaf managed to make very shrewd decisions that helped her survive. She earned her captor's trust and was able to gain access to his phone which she used to send text messages to her family, and she was allowed outside where she left strands of hair on branches so that search dogs might pick up her scent.

Trivia

Vinson Filyaw pled guilty at his trial and received the maximum sentence of 421 years in prison.

Family Life

She was initially considered a runway by the police until they listened to her parents' insistence that she would never do such a thing. 

Associated With

In 2018, Lifetime produced a movie chronicling her ordeal called Girl in the Bunker. It starred Moira Kelly, Henry Thomas and Julia Lalonde.