Elizabeth Shoaf - A Survivor’s Story

BIO:

Elizabeth Shoaf was kidnapped after she got off her school bus on September 6, 2006. Filyaw gained her trust by posing as a police officer. He walked her around in the woods until she became disoriented and then marched her to an underground bunker, located within a mile of her own home.

Once inside, Elizabeth was restrained with chains, and raped multiple times a day over the duration of her 10-day captivity. Police initially interpreted her disappearance as a runaway, and did not launch an Amber alert, due to insufficient information about her disappearance.

While captive, despite the abuse and ongoing death threats, she would talk with him about things that interested him, gaining his trust. After continuing to gain his trust, she was eventually allowed out of the bunker to walk with him through the woods at night, and she even convinced her captor to allow her to use his tracfone to play games, but she had an entirely different use in mind. While he was sleeping, she texted her mother, whom eventually got a text and then contacted the police.

Before the police could triangulate the phone number, the sheriff thought that the text was a hoax. The former girlfriend who made the call to Kershaw County's Department of Social Services passed on Filyaw's cell phone number to the police. The authorities then began to triangulate the bunker's position through local cell phone towers. The Captain did not know that Elizabeth was underground in a bunker until Filyaw's former girlfriend showed them the first bunker he built. They initially thought that it was a trash pit. Elizabeth’s captor learned that he was being pursued when he watched the news on a battery-powered television in the bunker, stating Elizabeth’s mother received a text from her. He asked Elizabeth for advice and she suggested he should run away to avoid capture. He agreed and left that night. The next morning Elizabeth left the bunker and yelled for help, allowing the rescue team to find her.

Elizabeth has made multiple media appearances, from public speaking, to television documentaries and movies, all in effort to raise awareness to prevent this from happing to others, but also to give hope to others whom have been in similar situations.