this is "nightline." >> tonight. >> i wanted him to know i'm stronger than what he thinks i am. >> a teen comes face-to-face with the teacher who took her from the classroom to captivity. >> he called me his wife sometimes and said we were going to get married. i was going to live with him until i died. >> dragging her across country for sex. the 38 day search for the teen and now the emotional message for him on his day of reckoning. plus, life in the slow-mo lane. the smashing success, antics in a frame by frame speed. how this super slow show became a quick money maker. and the big birthday plan for

the nation's golden girl. but first the "nightline" five. nightline" five. and number one i

good evening. elizabeth thomas, the tennessee teenager who was lured out of her classroom by a teacher, sparking a facinationwide man h now getting to go face-to-face

in court with the man who held her captive. as he faces prison time, she's trying to piece her life back together. and here's abc's eva pilgrim. >> he can say all day long the devil made him do it, but he is the devil. >> reporter: it has been a long journey for elizabeth tamas to come to grips with what a teacher did to her. but yesterday in a courtroom, the latest chapter closed as he pled guilty to taking a minor across state lines for sex in a case that gripped the country. >> new tonight, 15-year-old elizabeth thomas. >> reporter: it all started in the spring of 2017 in the small town of kulleoka, tennessee. tee tad cummins is a popular teacher at the high school. >> everyone liked him. he was everyone's friend, mentor, helped so many people

through some things. >> reporter: then 15-year-old elizabeth thomas is just making the transition from home school to public school. she says cummins at the time 50 and married with two daughters, takes her under his wing. >> he gave me a bible. it was just something from him. >> reporter: that kindness, even extending outside the classroom. taking elizabeth to church on sundays with his wife. did you ever think anything of their interactions together? >> it was like a father-daughter relationship, the way i saw it, too. is the way he would explain it. i caught her with our daughter sometimes. >> reporter: elizabeth's family attorney thinks he recognized she was a vulnerable target. >> he was specifically grooming this child for a very specific purpose, and that was a relationship. he chose a girl who was having issues because she came to him

for counseling. >> reporter: cummins posting you're all my heart talks about. it was love at first sight, at last sight. then there's el response. i look forward to going to school just to see you, i love you. >> moist >> most of them from him would be sexual texts. >> reporter: then alone with elizabeth in his classroom she says cummins goes a step further. >> he said you'd look nice naked. >> a student reported seeing elizabeth thomas kissing cummins inside his classroom. the student was disturbed by what she saw and immediately reported it to school officials. >> reporter: the school investigates but elizabeth denies everything. >> children spend the majority of their day with their teachers in school. and so that power dynamic almost takes the place of the

parent-child relationship. what child is going to speak out against the person that is in control of the majority of their lives? >> reporter: the school suspends cummins for inappropriate conduct with elizabeth. over the following weeks, cummins continues reaching out to her over social media and hatches a plan to run off with her, telling her he'll hurt himself or someone else if she doesn't go along. so on the morning of march 13th, she leaves her home, seen here in this surveillance video obtained by abc news. at 8:32 a.m., cummins stops at a local gas station and fills up his tank and then picks elizabeth up at a shoney's restaurant. >> he had a gun in the middle console, and i knew i wasn't getting out of the car. >> reporter: and you knew then? >> i wasn't getting out of this. >> reporter: by that evening, elizabeth's father reports her missing. a man hunt for cummins is immediately under way. >> the tbi

alert. >> i miss you, please, please come home. >> reporter: cummins' wife jill, making an emotional plea for his return. >> tad, this is not you. this is not who you are. we can help you get through this. >> reporter: for 38 days, he drags elizabeth on a cross-country trek through nine states, evading authorities. >> he made me throw my phone off a bridge and his phone as well, that way the police couldn't track us. then he disconnected the gps by a screwdriver in the glove compartment and broke off the front and unhooked the radio. it was like a kidnapping. i had to stay in the car with him at all times. >> reporter: she says cummins made her sleep without clothes on, hiding them from her and watching her every move.

>> he said we were going to get married and i was going to live with him until i died. >> reporter: as days turn into weeks, cummins decided to take his victim south of the border by kayak. >> so he got a kayak and wanted to kayak all the way to panama. >> reporter: when did he decide we need to turn around? >> when one wave nearly killed us and took us over. once we got out of it i was so happy. >> reporter: cummins then sets his sights on a northern part of california. they were offered shelter from griffin barry. couple ps mak cummins makes up a story about why he came to california. >> yeah, he said i had a house fire, lost his job. they were just trying to start a new life. i was like, i'll help you out. i put them in the cabin. >> reporter: but bar senses something strange were the girl. >> i was like, that girl won't talk to me, really, or anything.

>> reporter: barry's neighbor shows him elizabeth's amber alert. >> i saw a photo of the guy, and i was like, that's definitely him. >> reporter: then what did you guys decide to do? >> we went and called the police. >> reporter: authorities rushed to the area and an s.w.a.t. team surrounds the cabin where they are staying. the day the police show up. >> that was the best day of my life. >> reporter: less than 24 hours later, elizabeth flies home to tennessee, start beiing a journf healing and understanding. >> i know he's a bad man, and i blame myself a lot, but now i know he's at fault. he himself made him do it. >> it is extremely common for victims, especially child victims of sexual assault, sexual predation, to blame themselves. i think it is one of the reasons why sexual assault is the most

under-reported crime in our country. because people, not only believe that they will not be believed, they blame themselves for it even occurring in the first place. >> reporter: elizabeth facing cummins in court yesterday with a powerful message for her captor, saying in part, you preyed upon a vulnerable girl and robbed her childhood. for the last two years, i've been picking myself up, piece by piece and proving to myself that i am much, much stronger than you convinced me i was. your choices destroyed not just my family but also yours. elizabeth asked the judge to sentence cummins to 38 years in prison, one for every day he kept her. ultimately, the judge decided on 20 years. >> he will have to spend the majority of the 20 years in prison. he will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, and he will never be able

to be alone with a child again. >> reporter: elizabeth is focussing on what she can, moving on. what are your dreams for your life? >> to have a family and protect them. make them have a better life and a stronger person than i was. and i'm not afraid. >> our thanks to eva pilgrim. next we're going to switch gears entirely. the low down on this slow down. slow down. you've tried moisturizer after moisturizer but there's one... that blows them all out of the water. hydro boost water gel from neutrogena®. with hyaluronic acid it goes beneath the surface to plump skin cells from within and lock in hydration leaving skin so supple, it actually bounces back. the results will blow you away! hydro boost and our gentle exfoliating cleanser from neutrogena®

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now to the internet

superstars operating at a glacial pace. the slow-mo guys are quickly gaining traction in their mesmerizing videos. >> i think i'm going to smash you in the face with this giant water balloon and see what happens. three, two, one. >> reporter: this isn't exactly what i signed up for. but smashing things? is owhat these guys do for a living. meet the slow-mo guys. gavin free and dan grushi. famous for making unbelievably slow motion videos of pretty much anything you can think of. what have you done that's gotten a lot of people to latch on? >> we do things every day that they've never seen this slow. >> reporter: from smashing jell-o with a tennis racket to jumping on a mousetrap-filled

trampoline, showing footage oth otherwise impossible to see with the naked eye. racking up 11 million subscribers on youtube. like jackass. nowadays they're full-blown celebrities making big bucks. >> oh! >> reporter: you guys ever think this was going to get this big? >> there's no chance i thought this would get this big. that was seven years ago-ish.ag- >> reporter: tucked away in a small garage in austin, texas, the slow-mo headquarters. >> this is my domain, the prop garage. >> reporter: endless props and odds and ends. stuff that would normally be collecting dust, absolute gold for the slow-mo guy i actually about 1,000 mousetraps. >> reporter: oh, my dpaugod, ths

the mousetraps you sat on. this is the 6-foot balloon that dan actually sat in and it exploded on him. >> that's my favorite prop, that one there. >> this guy was the original ball that got thrown at my head. one of the first videos we ever released. still has the original water. hang on. >> reporter: it all started back in london. two blokes doing ordinary teenager things. >> yeah. >> we became good friends when we worked at the same super market and bonded over video games. >> it was like, what's going on? >> nobody's ever beaten me at halo before. >> reporter: how did you start making videos? >> i would make videos with different friends, and i found that dan and i had the best background on screen. when it came time to start the slow-mo guys, he was the best choice. and i regret it. >> yeah. he has. >> reporter: with gavin's access to a rare phantom slow motion camera, and dan's undeniable

panash on-screen, they could film videos. >> the guy i worked with had the only two phantom cameras in the country. and i realized i was 17 or 18 years old with access to this super rare camera. >> reporter: the phantom can cost around $150,000. it shoots so powerfully slow that filming for just five seconds can result in 19 hours of footage. >> the most youtubers will say i didn't expect it to, i had no idea this would happen. but this was always the intent to become well-known for doing slow-mo. >> reporter: it's boomed into a major money maker. now almost a decade later they have their own youtube original series and get sponsored to produce content. >> there are about 20 different companies we work with. and they basically pay us to make a video. >> so coming out to the slow-mo guys' back yard. i've got a bass drum, water

balloons, paint canons. >> reporter: first, a quick wardrobe change. >> those are the jackets, the lab coats. >> these are the jackets. >> there's blood on it somewhere? >> they are has been. wrist blood. >> reporter: today's warmup, a lousy mousetrap or so i thought. >> what are you going to do when you're ready. >> reporter: yeah. >> is hit that metal part with your finger like that. >> reporter: in true slow-mo guys fashion we had to add a little glitter. >> look at his face. >> are you nervous? >> reporter: i'm a little shook. >> you absolutely should be. >> i'll try not to make you do this twice. >> also don't move your finger out the way. don't be a chicken. >> okay, three, two, one. >> reporter: ow! >> first, you want to see what that looked like? >> reporter: yeah, let's take a look, let's take a look. >> oh! >> finger right now. there it is. you see it's still, the mousetrap is very fast even in slow motion. >> reporter: my finger's crushed but not my spirit. now it's time to really dive in.

so right now i'm getting suited. they haven't told me exactly what's happening to me yet. probably some paint. i'm ready. >> you're ready. here we go. >> oh! >> that was actually a lot more than i was expecting. >> really? >> reporter: it definitely worked. oh, it tastes terrible. >> really bad. >> reporter: i cannot wait to see what this one looks like in slow-mo. >> really gone. >> really blew me away there. >> so, dan is always this guy. >> you are sick. >> it's usually me taking the hits. for once i get to do it. >> reporter: now that i'm full grinch, they're going to help me take a quick bath. >> i think i'm going to smash you in the face with this giant water balloon and see what happens now. >> need to wash off that paint, ready? three, two, one. it was a bouncer. it was completely a bouncer. >> i called it.

next one will be a splasher. got to get my aim right here. three, two, one. oh! >> oh, my god. >> reporter: kind of surprised i don't have a black eye, but right now the goal is to get one of the balloons to splash. dan's inside and about to get a needle for me to hold up. >> nice and secure. >> three, two, one. >> woo! >> reporter: i'm cold now. >> i felt spray on the face. >> that's amazing, and you got the green paint literally coming off. >> like washing away. >> reporter: does it get old? >> it's always fun hitting people in the face with paint and balloons. >> hitting people in the face, i don't think it gets old. it's cool to think that you can make a living doing the most bizarre stuff. this wasn't a job several years ago. >> three, two, one. >> reporter: and we're done. >> if you hadn't volunteered fo,

i think. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm in austin, texas. >> we should say gavin and dan launched their new series planet slow-mo on their youtube channel next wednesday. next, somebody who never slows down at nearly 100 years of age. abc news "nightline," sponsored by febreze. sponsored by febreze. jimmy's gotten used to his whole room smelling like sweaty odors. yup, he's gone noseblind. he thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this... luckily for all your hard-to-wash fabrics... ...there's febreze fabric refresher. febreze doesn't just mask, it eliminates odors you've... ...gone noseblind to. and try febreze unstopables for fabric. with up to twice the fresh scent power, you'll want to try it... ...again and again and maybe just one more time. indulge in irresistible freshness. febreze unstopables. breathe happy. (cat 1(cat 2) smell that? (cat 1) gravy!

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and finally here tonight, we celebrate a living legend. america's golden girl tackles another birthday. >> mike, what is your deal, man. >> oh, come on, man, you've been riding me all day. >> betty white, 97 years young. tonight we're told she's playing poker with the same friends she's been dealing with for decades. and she is somebody who's been making the best of a very good hand. we want to thank you for watching "nightline." we've got a full deck, so to speak, of episodes streaming over on hulu. thanks again for watching and goodnight.