thank you. >> the judge issued his sentence. the woman who had once lived the jet setting high life would now spend the rest of her natural life in a prison cell. >> fair to say that if ron young had kept such careful records and he wasn't such a pack rat neither he nor pam would be behind bars right now? >> there's a good chance of that. >> if it sounds like a victory, the triano family will assure you it is not. >> my uncle is not coming back. no conviction or life sentence is going to change that. all it did was make a murderer out of my cousin's mother. nothing else has changed. hello, i am craig melvin >> it is like a bloody movie and it is. it is so deep, you go through a

range of emotions. i could have been a entirely different person. >> it was a mind-boggling mystery for almost 20 years and she was at the center. >> one-year-old savannah is missing from south carolina. >> a child that suddenly vanished. >> the most important thing in my life was taken from me. instant horror. >> what happened to baby savannah? the answer would come decades later. >> it happened so fast. >> imagine your mother a fugitive and your father a stranger. your name, your past, was any of it real? >> i felt like it was my fault. >> in mother's crime and a

father's pain. a daughter forced to face the shattering truth. >> i was shocked and terrified. >> hello and welcome to dateline, a father left childless and a daughter left questioning her very identity. it was a case that started as a custody battle but turned into a international mystery that spanned two decades and took investigators 10,000 miles around the world all driven by a determined dad searching for answers and his daughter. here is andrea with finding savannah. >> in 20 years, when i recall

how you curled against my neck and chest -- >> a father's love, harris todd tried to put it into words. >> listening to you brief. >> trying to express what it meant to cradle his baby daughter savannah. >> what will you remember these wondrous days as a baby girl alone with your father, whose entire life now a harbor. >> in 94 harris could not imagine these wondrous days would abruptly finish, that the next 20 years would turn a father's love into a father's nightmare. >> sometimes i feel like i am already dead and have not fallen over yet. >> it all began in charleston,

south carolina when a financial advisor met a beautiful flight attendant named dorothy barnett. everybody knew her as lee. >> when she is at her best she is a vivacious, attractive and alluring person. >> she was very outgoing. very friendly. she lived life to its fullest. >> patty was a fellow flight attendant and one of lee's best friends. they traveled the world but ultimately they wanted a conventional life. >> we wanted a family and the picket fence and children. >> harris that he could build that life with lee but noticed problems early, she was overly emotional and sometimes quick to anger. he thought love would conquer all. >> i suffered from the misconception that i could fix

things. >> they married in december 1991 but within months it became apparent his fixing skills were no match for lee's behavior. >> i never knew what was going to face me when i came through the door after work and it could be nothing and it could be nothing but screen screaming, yelling and throwing pots. >> harris told lee he wanted a divorce and lee told him she was pregnant. >> everything fell apart when she told him she was pregnant. >> patty said what made the merits go sour was his refusal to have children. >> he wanted her to terminate the pregnancy and that was not a option for her. >> that is not true, i never said that once.

>> i the way the marriage was over and harris left lee when she was in her first trimester. when savannah was born in may 1993 she asked for full custody. >> i felt at the end of the day lee would have the child and harris would have visitation. >> to everybody's surprise harris countersued. >> from my point of view i decided that before the baby was born. it was a responsibility that had been thrust upon me. >> the fight for savannah turned into a epic battle. a family court should on tap became one of the longest and most contentious that charleston had ever seen. >> there will be mother they were saying shame on him, how could he tried to rip that baby from her arms when she is still nursing and she dealt this

bond. >> i was not trying to take her away from her mother i just felt i was the more stable parent. >> at the hearing harris and others testified that lee's behavior was erratic and sometimes violent. one psychiatrist testified lee had a mood disorder. lee's emotional outbursts were on full display in the courtroom and the judge had to take action. >> it was clear that the level of anxiety and frustration rose and the judge required a bailiff stand behind her chair with his hands on her shoulders to keep her seated. >> some people may say she felt her baby was slipping away from her in any mother may start to lose their mind in court. >> there is truth in that but it it is indicative of her inability to control her behavior. >> on lee's behalf to psychiatrist testified she had

no disorders and was a fit parent and as for her manic behavior, patty and other friends testified they had never seen it. >> i saw lee almost every day for a couple of years. i did not see any episodes like that. she was full of life and had a lot of energy, i saw no depression. >> after two and half weeks of testimony it was up to the judge. harris was with the toddler when the phone rang. >> savannah and i were in the yard and she was barefoot on the grass. the judge awarded me full custody. >> harris was to depleted from the custody battle to jump for joy that he was surprised by what he suddenly felt. >> the overwhelming sense to protect and care for a child. i did not anticipate the depth. >> were you feeling a intense

bond with savannah? >> yes i have never felt happier in my life. >> lee was reeling from the verdict that allowed her to see savannah every other weekend. the judge ruled that if left untreated it would create conflict in the child's life. >> she was angry. >> cambridge with savannah's babysitter and lee's friend. she went with lee for a visitation weekend and was horrified when harris handed over baby savannah. >> she had black and blue marks on her for head, blood on her nose. lisa and the taxi with the baby and she was crying. we went to the emergency room. >> did you ever harm savannah? did you ever abuse her? >> no, she felt when she was

with my mother at the house. that is all it was. >> the report supported what harris told lee, savannah's injuries were consistent with a minor fall. the er doctor wrote we found no signs of abuse. >> i would never let a hair on her head be harmed. >> lee was convinced harris was a unfit parent and refused to return savannah until harris forced it by emergency order. the situation stabilized for a time but then came april 24, 94. a day harris will remember forever. savannah was with lee for a weekend visitation and once again lee failed to bring the baby back. when harris went to lee's home -- >> nobody was there, all calls were fruitless.

>> was there a moment where you thought i am getting scared maybe my daughter is not coming back? >> no i did not even imagine anything that horrible. >> coming up, where had they gone? >> did you worry savannah may be in danger? >> yes. >> when dateline continues. tel rsv can severely affect the lungs and lower airways. but i'm protected with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd, and certain other conditions. but i'm protected. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions.

arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. i chose arexvy. rsv? make it arexvy. [♪♪] looking for a moisturizer that does more than just moisturize? try olay regenerist for 10 benefits in every jar. olay visibly firms, lifts, and smooths wrinkles, by penetrating the skin, to boost regeneration at the surface cellular level. try olay. everybody wants super straight, super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile.

new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients. diabetes can serve up a lot of questions, like... what is your glucose, and can you have more carbs? before you decide... with the freestyle libre 3 system... know your glucose and where it's headed. no fingersticks needed. now the world's smallest and thinnest sensor... sends your glucose levels directly to your smartphone. manage your diabetes with more confidence, and lower your a1c. the number one cgm prescribed in the us. try it for free at freestylelibre.us. ♪♪ ugh, when is my allergy spray going to kick in? -you need astepro. -astepro? it's faster, bro. 8x faster than flonase.

it's faster, bro! it's faster, bro! it's faster, bro! it's mom to you. astepro starts working in 30 minutes. astepro and go! “look at all those snacks, you must be a king!” “i did just pay 60% less for my ticket with the gametime app.” “it's the best place to get last-minute deals on tickets.” “i guess i'm just a better fan than you.“ "(crowd cheering) i've got to get the gametime app.” “download the gametime app to get great deals on last-minute tickets.”

harris ex-wife lee failed to return the baby daughter savannah after a weekend visitation so he went to the house to get the baby back but the house was not only empty, it was cleaned out. >> i had that instant horror. >> harris notified all missing children's agencies and sense parental abduction of a child is a federal crime fbi agent chris quick was assigned to the case. >> i was thinking this was not thought out initially and we would have the case resolved in a couple of weeks. >> that you worry savannah could be in danger? >> yes, was is a woman that will take care of the child or do harm to the child? >> if we had family or friends that had information on the whereabouts they did not volunteer it. ancient quick put a trace on the phones. >> the things that trips up

most people running from the law is not having the discipline to talk to old friends were going back to places they are familiar with. as the case went on we realized dorothy had that disciplined. >> quick discovered lee acquired about a job in australia or south africa and her mom owned a home in belize so he put tabs on flights to those countries. >> they turned up nothing. >> did you assume she changed her identity? >> yes, new license and passports maybe. >> leave vanished without a trace but out of the blue a message appeared. >> savannah and i belong together. nobody besides god has the right to destroy that. >> we found out five days with so after the kidnapping, relatives and associates received a letter and a videotape from dorothy lee and it states to whom it may concern, i recently lost

custody to my beautiful 9 1/2 month old nursing baby. this happened because of a evil person. harris todd and a corrupt family court system. >> agent quick knew this was not a spur of the moment decision. lee had a well thought out plan. >> i swear on my life that i will continue to take care of my daughter. i will keep her safe. i will never allow anybody to harm her again. >> that was a attempt to embarrass and destroy me but it is not surprising. she is building a case to justify what she did. >> i hope you know i love you. >> though he had no where to send it harris made his own home video a message to savannah. >> i just hope you are safe. clean and healthy out there.

wherever you are. >> it took a lot out of harris to shoot that video in savannah's room. >> every morning i would come and wake her up, feed her, dresser and we would head off and i could not bear to see the crib empty. >> harris also began to take action, he wrote to john walsh of america's most wanted who recorded a public service announcement for him. >> one-year-old savannah barnett is missing from south carolina. >> he appeared on unsolved mysteries which dedicated a entire segment to his case. >> i wake up every morning with a broken heart. >> his tv appearances generated hundreds of leads. >> the came from everywhere, california, georgia and alabama. we would follow them up and determine if it is dorothy lee or the child, nothing panned out.

>> april 24, 1996. gone two years now. it is unimaginable. i do not know how old you will be when you see this if you ever see this. i will be here for you when you do come back. >> then finally four years into his search harris thought that moment had arrived, someone saw a little blonde haired girl at five years old walk into a grocery store in mexico. >> the woman who called in was there when the little girl's mother came to the door and said savannah, come on. you need to come home. >> private detectives are on the case and a father's hope source. >> coming up. >> the lady says the little girl comes in by herself and the mother has bad headaches and does not come out for days

sometimes. >> had mother and daughter been found? when dateline continues. en dat.

this is where i keep all of the files and notebooks i amassed over the years. i have everything in here from maps and letters, two copies of

everything. >> are there a lot of dead ends here as well? >> plenty of dead ends. >> after four years of searching, harris thought he found his daughter in a small town in mexico especially after a source gave the description of the mother. >> the little girl comes in here by herself all the time because her mother has bad headaches and does not come out sometimes for days. >> did that sound likely to you? >> it did. >> harris hired private detectives to check out the lead. >> they found absolutely nothing. they checked everything out and they never found the little girl. >> perhaps lee and savannah had been there and left or maybe it was not them at all. either way it was another dead end. >> you run through this cycle of

excitement and disappointment enough times you say do you want to put yourself through that again? there is a wealth of pain associated with this. i can only dip into it so often. and survive. >> how much do you think you have spent on your search? >> everything i had and everything i could borrow. my attorney told me i better quit spending money or there would not be anything for her to come back to. >> fbi agent chris quick the chance savannah would come back it's getting smaller. >> you word grasping for straws. >> to some extent. after 3-4 years it is considered a cold case. >> harris tried to move on, tried to fill the gaping whole in his life. one thing that helped with his niece who was three years younger than savannah.

>> i spent a lot of time with her from a very early age. i did homework with her everyday and walked her to school. >> did you think to yourself i should have been doing this with my daughter? >> i thought about it, you see your child in a play or a christmas pageant, i was watching my niece instead of my daughter but i was thinking about my daughter at that time. >> time marched on, harris continued working as a financial advisor at merrill lynch, he had relationships but never remarried. after 10 years the fbi assigned a new agent to the case but nothing new turned up. >> i believed the chances for success were slim at that point, they disappeared to a foreign country and we would never be able to locate them.

>> the only thing that changed were the images on the missing persons posters. from the baby harris loved to a computer simulated image of a teenager he barely recognized. >> if i die before i wake from this nightmare -- >> he stopped filming messages to savannah long ago but wrote one last poem. >> please keep an eye out across the fields, watch the end of a long driveway, someday my daughter will be there asking for me. >> had you given up? >> no but one has to face reality. here it is, she is 16, 17, 18 and you do not know where she is. >> perhaps the only sign that harris had not abandoned all hope was savannah's room, it's to adjust as she left it 18 years before. >> and you get a email out of the blue. what did it say?

>> it said i have information about your daughter but again i have learned to temper my expectations over the years because the well had long since gone dry so all of a sudden the bucket goes down again and this time it comes up and there is water in it. >> coming up. >> that mysterious email, turns out somebody else had been doing detective work as well. >> date told me we feel like you have a right to know your daughter. >> when dateline continues. tel [♪♪] if you're only using facial moisturizer in the morning, did you know, the best time for skin renewal is at night? olay retinol24 renews millions of surface skin cells while you sleep.

wake up to smoother, younger-looking skin with olay retinol24. what is cirkul? cirkul is the fuel you need to take flight. cirkul is the energy that gets you to the next level. cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. cirkul, available at walmart and drinkcirkul.com. ♪oh what a good time we will have♪ ♪you... can make it happen...♪ ♪♪ try dietary supplements from voltaren for healthy joints.

hi, i'm janice, try dietary supplements and i lost 172 pounds on golo. when i was a teenager i had some severe trauma in my life and i turned to food for comfort. a friend told me that i was the only one holding me back from being as beautiful on the outside as i am the inside. once i saw golo was working, i felt this rush, i just had to keep going. a lot of people think no pain no gain, but with golo it is so easy. when i look in the mirror, i don't even recognize myself. golo really works.

here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. baltimore cranes are removing the wreckage of the francis scott bridge after being hit by a container ship. maryland's governor bowed to

move as fast as possible to reopen the shipping route currently stalled. at&t is investigating a leak that dumped customers data on the darkweb. the company says it has impacted users and reset passcodes. back to dateline. dateline. welcome back to dateline. a father longing for answers about his daughter received a surprise email from strangers halfway across the globe. could this be the news he had been waiting all these years for or was it another false lead? here is andrea. >> almost 18 years had gone by since harris had seen his daughter savannah so it was hard to comprehend a email that

arrived in the early morning hours of november 27, 2011. a line that said i would like to speak to you with regards to your daughter. >> was there a little bit of hope? >> sure, always. >> the email was from a couple living on the coast of australia, they claimed to know lee and savannah for 12 years. >> the you have any photos to send me to corroborate this? it is horrible to admit when my daughter would look like. >> the photo arrived a couple of days later and there was no doubt, that was his ex-wife dorothy lee barnett. there on the opposite side stood a tall girl, nearly a woman, would that be savannah on the left? >> the couple wrote, that beautiful girl on the left is

indeed your daughter savannah. >> were you floored? >> completely. how wonderful is it to have a photo of your grown daughter, to see how pretty she is. i can recognize my smile in her smile. i was at a loss for a while. i had to refrain from looking at it much because it was too much after all of these years. >> the couple told harris they met his ex-wife and daughter in 99. they knew them as alex and samantha. lee was married to a south african with whom she had a son. although we never spoke about the past the couple suspected savannah was not his biological daughter. >> it was a gradual process on

their part. >> the couple told harris lee and her husband divorced in 2008 and recently they had a falling out with her. they always wanted to know more about their friends past so they did some investigating of their own. lee mentioned she had a home in belize and armed with that and savannah's birthdate and other information they picked up they searched the internet and discovered lee's secret. >> they are real detectives. >> i think so. >> knowing the wrath they would face if my ex-wife ever found out, they went ahead anyway. they told me we feel like you have a right to know your daughter. >> harris gave the couples information to fbi agent and and now that they knew lee's ileus the fbi was finally able to figure out how she left the

u.s. without being detective. she set the plan in motion by getting a fake birth certificate two months before taking savannah. >> dorothy lee becomes a fictitious person named alexandria canton. she went to texas to obtain a texas drivers license and used the info from that to obtain the u.s. passport. what we learned was, she left the u.s., went to malaysia and then from malaysia she went to south africa where she met her husband and then moved to botswana and in 2003 she moved to new zealand and then after a couple of years she moved to australia. >> the 18-year-old mystery solved. >> in the movies and on tv, they find the person and they rush out to make the arrest, the story is over, did that happen? >> no. we had to get the state

department involved in the department of justice involved and we needed to get a provisional arrest warrant the australians would accept because we have to abide by their loss. >> harris wanted to fly to australia right away but the fbi asked him to let you rocker seat take its course, harris already waited 18 years and he figured he could wait more. >> some people would say a real father would get on the plane the moment he found out. >> if i showed up in australia without backup and run into my ex-wife and daughter i would have had no legal backing. >> they could have caused a altercation and you could get in trouble with authorities. they would flee and we are back to square one. >> a year past and then almost

2, that was too much even for a patient man like harris. he bought plane tickets and told the fbi he was going. >> you are not waiting anymore. >> it just so happened that suddenly the paperwork went from the bottom of the stack to the top. >> his determination forest law enforcement's hand. on november 4 2013, today's before he landed in australia, lee was finally arrested. >> she did not appear surprised, she was cordial and seemed to be very calm so she expressed a willingness to talk to us. >> lee asked if she could make a phone call to savannah. >> coming up. a astonishing moment of truth for savannah. >> does that mean dad is not my dad? >> i kept thinking i will get to see her. >> when dateline continues. lin about botox®.

botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine before they even start. it's the #1 prescribed branded chronic migraine treatment. so far, more than 5 million botox® treatments have been given to over eight hundred and fifty thousand chronic migraine patients. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there's a skin infection. tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. in a survey, 92% of current users said they wish they'd talked to their doctor and started botox® sooner. so, ask your doctor if botox® is right for you. learn how abbvie could help you save on botox®. how long have you been tracking the value of our car? should we sell it? we hold... our low mileage is paying off.

you think we should... hold... hoooold!!! hooold! now!!!! i'm on it. i'm, on it. already sold to carvana. go to carvana and track your car's value today. [♪♪] your skin is ever-changing, take care of it with gold bond's age renew formulations of 7 moisturizers and 3 vitamins. for all your skins, gold bond. if you have wet amd, you never want to lose sight of the things you love. some things should stand the test of time. long lasting eylea hd could significantly improve your vision and can help you go up to 4 months between treatments. if you have an eye infection, eye pain or redness, or allergies to eylea hd, don't use. eye injections like eyla hd may cause eye infection, separation of the retina, or rare but severe swelling of blood vessels in the eye.

an increase in eye pressure has been seen. there's an uncommon risk of heart attack or stroke associated with blood clots. the most common side effects were blurred vision, cataract, corneal injury, and eye floaters. and there's still so much to see. if you are on eylea or a similar type of treatment, ask your retina specialist about eylea hd today, for the potential for fewer injections. everybody wants super straight, super white teeth. they want that hollywood white smile. new sensodyne clinical white provides 2 shades whiter teeth and 24/7 sensitivity protection. i think it's a great product. it's going to help a lot of patients.

when australian police and the fbi showed up at lee's doorstep she was not surprised but her 20-year-old daughter was about to receive a shock of her life. >> i could not fathom what was going on, it happened so fast. >> savannah or samantha as she knew herself was away at college when her boyfriend handed her the phone and said

her mom was on the line. she talked about that moment of truth with australia's seven network. >> it is not like mom to cry, she is a strong woman and she said i am being arrested and of course i never expected that my mom did anything and there was a brief conversation about how she was married previously in america and conceived me with him and something became unsafe and took me and ran. i said does that mean dad is not my dad? >> as far back as savannah could remember he had always been by her side and she believed he was her biological dad. >> she would relate things like you look like your dad and i always grew up with that. >> tragedy struck in 2011 when he felt sick with cancer. the man's savannah thought was heard that died a week before

lee was arrested. >> he fought long and hard but it was inevitable. i am happy because the last words i said to him was i love you and same with him. >> savannah said she barely began to mourn her father's death when the news came she was somebody else's daughter. >> i found out i was biologically related to him. >> imagine finding out your mom is a international fugitive wanted by the fbi and you were living a life you were not meant to live. savannah said it was a good life. >> i grew up mainly in cape town south africa and it was great. we used to go down to a beach in cape town. mom was into going to the beach.

>> she remembered going to game reserves and competing in swim races in new zealand. >> i had friends, animals, i was educated. i did piano. dancing. i had a mom, dad and a brother. i had a house and was given everything they could afford. it was normal. >> as savannah now discovered, so different from the chaos of her first year as a baby in charleston. she scoured the internet for articles written in the u.s., read about the custody battle and how harris and others described her mom as mentally ill and violent. >> i never saw anything like that. she is not violent. unless she did a 180 and changed her entire attitude, that is not who she is. >> who was the mother savannah

new? >> the most important thing is for compassion and the ability to encourage anyone and everyone. everything i am is because of the support and nurturing i had. >> she was afraid that with the revelation that her mother is a fugitive, lee's australian friends would abandon her but they did not. >> everybody stepped up and asked what they could do. so it shows that everything she is given to them they are giving back to her. >> word of lease capture reached charleston, savannah was flooded with phone calls from lee's friends and family. she often wondered about relatives from the u.s. like her grandmother and uncle. now she was suddenly meeting them for what seemed like the first time. >> my beautiful granddaughter. looks like her mother. >> now the biggest reunion

seemed like it was about to happen. lee was in a australian gel fighting extradition and the man she wanted to keep away from savannah was a few miles away, asking to meet his long-lost daughter. >> the fbi interviewed my daughter and they informed her of me. i was told that she was looking forward to meeting me. >> savannah's priority was to get her mom out of jail, not meet the man who helped put her behind bars. >> i slept on it and created a email and said i appreciate everything but right now i cannot even sit down to eat. i appreciate him coming over but i am sorry.

>> there would be no emotional meeting between father and daughter, at least not in australia. if harris was disappointed he did not show it. he learned long ago to keep his emotions at bay. >> was it heartbreaking for you to go all the way there and she was not ready to see you? >> no. >> we are talking about your daughter. hugging her and seeing your daughter. >> i did not give up on that, i was there for a month and it wasn't until the third week that i finally realized that was not going to happen. >> harris flew home, wondering if you would ever see his daughter. after nine months in a australian jail, lee was extradited and flown back to charleston to face three federal counts of international parental kidnapping and passport fraud and hot on her heels, savannah returning to the city of her birth, going home to defend the mother who raised

her and perhaps meet the father she never knew. >> emotionally i think it is a decision i will make when i am ready. >> coming up. >> i need to see what kind of person he is. >> a moment 20 years in the making when dateline continues. , and often out of the picture. but this is my story. ( ♪♪ ) and with once-daily trelegy, it can still be beautiful. because with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open for a full 24 hours and prevents future flare-ups. trelegy also improves lung function, so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis.

call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ [laughing] ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for copd because breathing should be beautiful, all day and night. ugh, when is my allergy spray going to kick in? -you need astepro. -astepro? it's faster, bro. 8x faster than flonase. it's faster, bro! it's faster, bro! it's faster, bro! it's mom to you. astepro starts working in 30 minutes. astepro and go!

shipstation saves us so much time it makes it really easy and seamless pick an order print everything you need slap the label on ito the box and it's ready to go our cost for shipping, were cut in half just like that go to shipstation/tv and get 2 months free

in december 2014, savannah with her boyfriend for support, returned to charleston for the first time in 20 years. she came for her mother who is behind bars facing kidnapping charges in a prison sentence. >> for 20 years all of america thinks she is crazy and nobody knew if we were safe or not, first, me coming back happy, healthy and grounded would raise questions. >>'s savannah went on record saying she never saw anything with her-a loving childhood and great relationship. it flies in the face of everything we heard early on. >> there is a saying, we do not know who discovered water but we are certain it was not a fish, a lot of times you can be raised in a environment and not know what it was into you get outside of the environment and

look back in. >> savannah returned home to a big welcome as lee's friends gathered around to see her maybe daughter grown up now. to patty, lee's close friend who held savannah the minute she was born. patty's daughters who would have been her friends. to charleston, the beautiful city that could have been savannah's home. if life had not taken such a turn. that ultimately led here. the charleston jail where her mom was awaiting trial. >> i think we will give it all we got and that is all we can say. >> she said to me i did this

all for you and i succeeded. she does not care what happens to her. >> lee's defense for what she did did not change from the allegations she made 20 years before namely that harris abused savannah. lead prosecutor nathan said he re-investigated the incident like the original inquiry, found no evidence to support the charge. >> the first doctor said there was no problem and the defendant got a second opinion who said the same thing so there was a indication she was looking for a answer that was not there. >> not only that, williams investigation revealed lee started to plan her escape even before she accused harris of harming baby savannah. >> so we know, with this allegation of abuse unfounded. she was also getting false documents, drivers licenses and

passports and setting the table to flee the country with her child. to try to rationalize it and claim it is based on something not true is a admission of guilt. >> dateline asked lee for a interview but she declined. she pled guilty to all of the charges against her. savannah spoke at the sentencing. she began by giving her name. >> i gave all of them. samantha savannah, i spoke from the heart and i remember saying that she gave me every opportunity and she gave me a incredible life. >> the judge sentenced lead to 21 months in prison. >> what did you think should be the punishment? >> over a third of my life was

taken from me. the most important thing in my life, even if my daughter disagrees, i think her mother deserved to spend more time in jail than she did, if nothing else as a warning to any other abductive parent. >> there has been claims of revenge that you put on this for side of trying to find your daughter when it was about finding lee and making sure she paid. >> i am not seeking revenge i just wanted my daughter. i love my daughter and unfortunately my ex-wife took her. it is not revenge to want my daughter back. >> the daughter harris lost years ago had been in charleston for several weeks, meeting everyone that played a role in her past except him. then a little after christmas 2014, he got the email he had been longing for. savannah wanted to meet. one rule she said, no talk

about her mother or the case and no photos. >> i am not ditching my mom by any means but i need to have a mature adult relationship and see form myself will kind of person he is. >> harris happily agreed. a few days later, here they were, father and daughter, face to face on the doorstep of the house that was once savannah's home. >> when she came to the door i did not know if she wanted to shake my hand or not. so i held my hand out and she said no i want a hug. >> that must have felt good. >> it felt great. >> harris let savannah to what was once her bedroom with a crib and baby toys, a place where time stood still until now.

>> to be honest i was trying to make sure did not fall apart, i did not want to just stand there and cry or anything like that. here is a daughter that remembers nothing about her father. here is a father that remembers everything about his daughter. and has longed for her for years. it is hard to put those things together. >> it is like two different worlds. >> life is not like a hallmark movie. >> there was no awkwardness, i am a natural speaker and it seemed to me that he is as well. i learned a lot about him and my family on his side. it was very pleasant. >> lee was released in may 2015 and ordered to spend two years of probation in charleston. she will have to build a life

in the u.s., as a convicted felon she will never be allowed back into australia but savannah returned there to the place she calls home to continue college studies. after her visit, savannah and her father did not keep up communication but if there is anything harris has learned in 20 years, it is that there is always hope. >> my daughter is her own person now and she can make her own decisions. whether my daughter wants to contact me or not, she knows where i am and she knows i want to hear from her. whatever happens. >> that is all for this edition of dateline. i am craig melvin. thank you for watching. watchin hello, i am andrea canning. this is dateline. >> he did not look like a 15- year-old boy. >> they said they were friends