really loves the boy. he loved himself more, it seems to me. dennis murphy (voiceover): markers. out west, there's the great open sky. in south florida, the ocean, always the ocean, the vast churning tropical waters. for the aging friends still remembering, it is lynne's marker, too-- after a violent death, the place where they prayed she might finally rest in peace. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. this is "dateline." i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." andrea canning: that must be a pit in your stomach when you hear that your inmate is gone. david mccune: yeah, he's a very, very dangerous person. tom phelan: he said a prisoner had escaped

and toby was missing. we assume that he took her prisoner to be used as a hostage. lauren fox: they were concerned for toby's safety. ray stewart: we found out that she had taken a large sum of cash, and two firearms were missing from the house. do you think, could she be involved in something like this? lauren fox: she had children, a husband. it seemed like it was a white picket fence-type life. tom phelan: there is absolutely no way toby could be involved in this. andrea canning: you see this truck. my gut feeling was telling me it was them. i said, this is our guy. andrea canning: this sounds like one of those "fast and furious" car chases. i was terrified that they were going to get killed. david mccune: very wild story. so many twists and turns. nerve wracking. shocking. it is unbelievable. [music playing]

hello, and welcome to "dateline." when convicted killer john manard escaped from prison, authorities feared he would go to any lengths to evade capture. then, a horrifying discovery. prison volunteer toby young was missing, a wife and mother now at the mercy of this desperate man. but was toby in danger or was she in on the plan? here's andrea canning with "breakout." andrea canning (voiceover): it was a cold february night along this isolated stretch of a tennessee highway when us marshal tony crawford and dozens of state troopers finally spotted the woman they'd been searching for. tony crawford: i just really was trying to see inside the truck. i could see the top of her head. that's about all i could see her. andrea canning (voiceover): she was sitting in the passenger seat, terrified, a 48-year-old beloved mother of two, a cancer survivor and community volunteer.

back home in kansas, her tight-knit family desperately wanted her home safe. we were all fearful for her life. andrea canning (voiceover): and justifiably so. as crawford drove alongside the truck, he knew that if he wanted to get to her, he had to stop him, the man at the wheel, a convicted killer, armed and dangerous, who wasn't going down without a fight. he's taking you on a wild ride. yes, it was. that part was the wildest chase i've ever been in. andrea canning (voiceover): and a fitting climax to a wild, improbable story that blurred the lines between duty and desire, a story about breaking out of prisons, both real and imagined. this wasn't just the talk of the town. this was the talk of the nation. yes, it was. it was just unreal. [music playing] andrea canning: the saga started almost two weeks earlier when the alarm sounded and warden david mccune

learned that an inmate had escaped from the lansing correctional facility. very scary time. and right away, it's like, who's gone? who are they? how did they get out? where are they going? andrea canning: soon, the warden had a name, john manard, 27 years old, sentenced to life for a carjacking gone bad. at the time that he committed his crime, he was only 17. andrea canning: reporter lauren fox wrote about manard for the "kansas city star" newspaper. the carjacking turned fatal. someone shot the driver, who was in his car. and so john manard was a convicted murderer for his involvement in that crime. david mccune: i mean, if he's capable of participating in this robbery that ends up in murder, then yeah, he's very capable of murder again, or assault, batteries, whatever. he's a very dangerous person. is your first thought, he could kill somebody out there? oh, yeah, very possible. andrea canning (voiceover): mccune put police in the area on high alert and warned the locals in the tiny prison town along the kansas-missouri border

that a criminal was on the loose. we have a huge steam whistle, and we'll blow that several times. and all the local community all know, you hear that, somebody is on the run. just an alert, be aware. lock your doors, take all the precautions. andrea canning (voiceover): as police increase patrols in the surrounding towns, prison investigators got to work trying to figure out how manard had escaped. david mccune: right away, you start the whole search of all the interior, all the perimeter, all that. you look for breaches in the fence. you look for breaches in the gates or anything like that. andrea canning (voiceover): they also traced every vehicle that left the prison that day and discovered that one vehicle hadn't been searched, a van. david mccune: we have to search inside the van, underneath the van, on top of the van. and you put seismic sensors on its axles, it'll detect the heartbeat of a mouse, if there's a mouse inside that vehicle. but this time, they didn't. they didn't do it. they didn't follow procedures. andrea canning (voiceover): the van

belonged to safe harbor, a nationally heralded prison program that taught inmates how to train stray dogs for adoption. that day, several dogs had been picked up from the prison. john manard, it turned out, was one of safe harbor's dog handlers. investigators interrogated every inmate who had helped load the dogs into the van. they just kind of drill down and drill down and talk to all those folks until you finally get somebody that's willing to talk. where does that lead you? david mccune: where that led was that we were very sure that he had left inside of a dog crate. there were other inmates that knew that because, i mean, he had to get in the dog crate and he had to have somebody fasten it shut from the outside and then load it onto the van. andrea canning (voiceover): there were fewer guards at the prison on sundays and only two prisoner counts. the weather may have helped manard, too. lauren fox: the day of the escape was very cold. people didn't want to be outside. they were ready to get the dogs in the van and get them out of there. what they didn't know, of course, was that john was in one of the dog crates. andrea canning (voiceover): and that, investigators

believed, instantly put the driver of the van in harm's way. the founder of safe harbor, a woman named toby young. she was one of the most popular and trusted volunteers at the prison and perhaps the reason the guards let their guard down. are you thinking toby's life could be in danger? oh, absolutely, because we figure he's in for murder in the first place. and so i just had visions of, as they get away from here, driving away, he pops out of the box and takes her literally hostage. and then how long before he's done with the hostage? just gives you chills of fear of what could happen. toby young set out to help prison inmates. now, she may be the victim of one. coming up, her family, desperate. people were trying to call her cell phone and there was no answer. we were just fearing for the worse. andrea canning (voiceover): and police

on the highest alert. ray stewart: when you throw a firearm into the mix, that does up the game a considerable amount, knowing that he had two firearms. and of course, the question on everybody's mind is, is he willing to use them? craig melvin (voiceover): when dateline continues. [music playing] - bye, bye cough. - later chest congestion. hello 12 hours of relief. 12 hours!! not coughing? hashtag still not coughing?! mucinex dm gives you 12 hours of relief from chest congestion and any type of cough, day or night. mucinex dm. it's comeback season. why just give a gift, when you can give a gift with meaning? shutterfly, make something that means something. enjoy 40% off your order with code gifts40. order now for holiday delivery. when you sleep more deeply, you wake up more energized. introducing purple's new mattresses. our unique gel flex grid draws away heat, helping you fall asleep faster.

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know what tomorrow would hold. st. jude showed us that tomorrow, there's hope for our little girl to survive. narrator: let's cure childhood cancer together. please donate now. [music playing] andrea canning (voiceover): warden david mccune was horrified. not only had a dangerous criminal

escaped his maximum security prison, he was possibly holding a hostage, toby young, the leader of the prison's successful dog training program, a woman so beloved, the inmates even gave her an endearing nickname, the dog lady. she seemed like a model volunteer. absolutely. good background, great career, strategic planning. i mean, husband's on the fire department and good family. andrea canning (voiceover): now, mccune had to break the terrible news to toby's family. her brother, tom phelan, could barely comprehend it. tom phelan: you had to pinch yourself. say, all right, yeah, this is real. this is really happening. were you trying to reach out to her? was everyone in the family trying to call her? oh, yeah. people were trying to call her cell phone. and was no answer, and we were just fearing for the worse. andrea canning (voiceover): toby's siblings got together at their parents' place. there were lots of them. toby was the oldest of seven children. was toby someone that you all looked up to?

was she the kind of sister who set an example? she was. she did set an example. she set an example that was very hard for the other kids to reach. andrea canning (voiceover): she led a model life as an adult, too. while working full-time, toby graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in business administration and accounting and rose through the ranks to become a manager at sprint. but toby was most proud of her two sons, whom she raised with her firefighter husband, patrick. they'd built a life together in this beautiful home. tom phelan: she met pat in high school, and they dated freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year, and then they married a few years after that. this was really the definition of high school sweethearts. did they seem like a happy family? yes, they did. they seemed like the ideal, perfect family. andrea canning (voiceover): toby also had her fair share of hardships, tom said. she struggled to find a job after sprint unexpectedly downsized and laid her off. then she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

after she recovered and her kids went off to college, toby took stock. she decided to dedicate herself to serving others by establishing safe harbor. do you think that is sort of a testament to her personality, that kind of gentle soul? tom phelan: oh, exactly. she loved taking care of animals and she loved taking care of people. and this dog program gave her a release and gave her a reason to carry on. did it give her that extra kick in her step once she kind of found this calling? oh, yes, definitely. definitely, it gave her a purpose. it seemed to complete her. andrea canning (voiceover): but now, on that cold february day, it seemed like toby could lose it all, especially after her husband called law enforcement with some alarming news. ray stewart: during that conversation with her husband, we found out that she had taken a large sum of cash and two firearms were missing from the house. andrea canning (voiceover): ray stewart, a member of the fugitive task force hunting john manard, theorized the inmate had forced toby to drive to her house to get the weapons.

if so, he had just turned from dangerous to armed and dangerous. ray stewart: when you throw a firearm into the mix, that does up the game a considerable amount, knowing that he had two firearms. and of course, the question on everybody's mind is, is he willing to use them? andrea canning (voiceover): and now that john manard had money as well, was toby expendable? her husband feared the worst. ray stewart: of course, these types of situations, you can never guarantee what's going to happen in the end. i just remember telling them, hopefully everything will turn out all right and hopefully we'll bring her back safe. andrea canning (voiceover): they missed a chance to do just that a few hours after the escape. an off-duty prison employee who was unaware that manard had escaped saw him at a nearby walmart and wondered what a man sentenced to life was doing in a store. by the time he realized what was going on and called for backup, manard had disappeared. so close. are you just consumed by this 24/7?

david mccune: oh, yeah. just hanging out there in the office, listening for the phone and listening on the radio, just listening for everybody. the reports are coming in from the investigators, just praying, let this be one of the tips that gets us there. andrea canning (voiceover): while department of corrections officers and us marshals were searching for manard and toby, other investigators were trying to find out if anyone outside the prison was helping manard evade capture. so they interviewed his family and friends, but found no evidence any of them were involved. next, they turned their attention to the prison staff. could one of their own have helped manard? david mccune: we know it happens. i couldn't even hazard a guess in 30 years how many staff that we disciplined or let go because of overly familiar relationships. i mean, it's a number, quite a number. andrea canning (voiceover): but as far as they could tell, no staff member had helped him escape.

and that left one person whose actions they couldn't yet account for, toby. you trusted her? yeah, i sure did. andrea canning (voiceover): if he only knew. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up, investigators take a hard look at toby young. michael mooney: i think everything about toby's life up to that point had led people to believe that she was kind of safe and trustworthy. craig melvin (voiceover): then a critical discovery at a storage unit and the break that will change everything. andrea canning: all these pieces of the puzzle started to come together and were telling a story. absolutely. craig melvin (voiceover): when dateline continues. [music playing]

andrea canning (voiceover): a day into the hunt for john manard, investigators concluded no one close to him had helped him escape. but any investigator worth their salt had to check out toby. as unlikely as it seemed, was she somehow involved. michael mooney: toby is the kind of person who never broke any law, never broke any rules. she was an ultimate rule follower. andrea canning (voiceover): michael mooney is an author and journalist who wrote about the prison break for "the atlantic" magazine. michael mooney: i think everything about toby's life up to that point had led people to believe that she was kind of safe and trustworthy. andrea canning (voiceover): but the closer they looked,

the more investigators were forced to confront the most astonishing possibility, that this rule follower was a rule breaker. shortly after the escape, investigators made several rather curious discoveries. the prison administrative officer told them that staff had noticed toby and manard were spending a lot of time together. david mccune: some of the staff had talked to my xo that, hey, they just seem to be a little too close. and i know he talked to her about that. you've got to be very careful about those appearances. andrea canning (voiceover): but everything was under the microscope now, including this. in addition to the cash that her husband reported missing, toby had emptied her retirement account to the tune of $40,000. she also went on a shopping spree at walmart, target, and a cabela's sporting goods store. so there's this security footage of her at walmart buying men's clothing and a lot of snacks that, like,

a teenager might want, like twizzlers and chocolate-covered donuts. they see her at cabela's buying men's clothing. andrea canning (voiceover): more than that, camping and survival gear and maps. when investigators asked her husband about those purchases, he told them the family didn't have any trips planned and toby hadn't bought him any new clothes recently. michael mooney: the clothing that she was buying at walmart and cabela's would not have fit her husband. andrea canning (voiceover): there were other items that clearly weren't for toby's husband, black hair dye and an electric razor she bought at target, and two burner phones she bought at walmart. the next day, police got their biggest break yet. they learned toby had rented a storage unit on the outskirts of town about a week before the escape. michael mooney: they discover her van inside the storage unit. they discover tire tracks leading away from the storage unit. andrea canning (voiceover): investigators believe those tracks were from the getaway vehicle, an suv or a truck. finding this really changed the investigation in a pretty significant way.

andrea canning (voiceover): investigators now wondered, instead of being manard's hostage, could toby be his accomplice? they found the answer in her cell phone bill. there were hundreds of calls to an unknown number. they traced it to a phone they believed toby smuggled into prison for manard. michael mooney: this was, like, the first major line that toby crossed. she brought him a phone, and then they talked for something like 12,000 minutes over the next couple of weeks, something like 200 hours. and they text messaged all the time. there was one morning where toby's husband found the phone that she had and it had received text messages that said something like, good morning, i love you. andrea canning (voiceover): investigators added the secret phone calls and texts to a long list of evidence against toby. the demure housewife was looking more like a desperate housewife. all these pieces of the puzzle started to come together and were telling a story. absolutely. a story of a forbidden romance. right.

toby's not really the kind of person you're thinking, oh yeah, she's the one that would have a relationship with an inmate. the married mom, who started the dog program. i mean, how much more of a loving, caring person i don't know. it's just almost unfathomable. are you feeling some anger that she did this to you? i'm betrayed and i'm just misled, a violation of trust. andrea canning (voiceover): but the warden still believed that toby's life could be in danger. david mccune: inmates will be manipulating you. and even if her view of it was, we have a very romantic relationship, we're having this great future together if we just get away with this, many, many times, it's not reciprocal. i mean, toby might have trusted this man, but i know that you sure didn't. nope. sure did not.

craig melvin (voiceover): coming up, three states away-- my gut feeling was telling me it was them. craig melvin (voiceover): --a chance sighting leads to a wild chase. units started falling into play, not only marked units on the ground, but helicopters. craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. go-friends, gather! keke! chris! jason! boop! friends. let's go, let's go, friends! hold onto your dice. woohoo!! -nice frosting, pratt. -thank you! how we doin', keke? tastes like money to me. i can't go back to jail! wait, did you rob my bank? -hehe. -are we winning!? -ha ha ha! -oh boy! yeah! money, power, friendship. let's go!

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western countries that formed in 2009. for now, back to dateline. prisn r r toby young helped him escape. as improbable as it seemed, text messages revealed they were having an affair. but investigators feared manard could be using toby, and she was in danger. now, the race was on and police were about to get a crucial tip. back to andrea canning with "breakout." [music playing] andrea canning (voiceover): toby young had turned from a woman who had never committed a crime to an apparent criminal on the run. investigators issued a warrant for her arrest. the warden called the family to deliver the news. tom phelan: we were shocked, thinking that they have to be wrong. they have to be wrong. this can't be right. this is not the toby i know. tom phelan: exactly. there's no way. i just was filled with questions on why she would do something like this.

i had no idea. but i knew that she was my sister and that i loved her. it's one thing for her brother to support her as this is unfolding. it's another thing for her husband, because this is a betrayal. it's looking more and more like a betrayal. pat was devastated, just like the rest of the young family. they were absolutely devastated. and i can't blame them. what does pat tell their sons about what mom has done? yeah, it was very hard on the sons. it was extremely hard on them. they couldn't understand it. i mean, that was their mom. andrea canning (voiceover): it didn't take long before this intriguing local story-- news anchor: the mother of two adult boys, a wife of 30 years. andrea canning (voiceover): --blew up into national news. news anchor: no one close to toby young says they know why toby would suddenly throw away her past and future. toby young's family-- david mccune: we had international attention

on this one. it was making the european newscasts all over the world, virtually, the killer and the dog lady. andrea canning (voiceover): despite the suspicion that toby had fallen in love with john manard, her family believed he had manipulated her, that she was the victim. michael mooney: she had always been a loving mom. i don't think that they thought that she would ave her two adult sons without telling them where she was going. and we just simply don't have any idea why or how this happened. andrea canning: the family decided to hold a press conference. yeah, we were just trying to plead with her to give herself up. we were still fearful for her life and we wanted her to turn herself in. andrea canning (voiceover): but the days ticked by and no one had heard from toby. the national manhunt involving dozens of agents had hit an impasse. at any point, did you start to think, we're not going to catch them? oh, it certainly crossed our mind. but you go over time, and there's very, very few

times across history that they don't eventually get caught. it's very rare. andrea canning (voiceover): sure enough, investigators got a promising lead. calls traced to manard's cell phone led them to a used car dealership on the outskirts of kansas city. the salesman remembered a woman who vaguely resembled toby buying a truck around the time of the escape, but her hair color was different and her name was molly rose. investigators believed that was toby incognito. ray stewart: so we learned that she had purchased a used chevy silverado pickup truck. we also received information that she actually had the registration and she wanted it sent to a specific address in tennessee. andrea canning (voiceover): the address was a lakeside cabin in rural tennessee, more than 600 miles away. ray stewart: it's a pretty remote location, so not a lot of activity. it was the offseason. and so we knew there wasn't going to be probably a lot of people there. so it was a great place to hide. andrea canning (voiceover): the fugitive task

force blanketed the area and a swat team headed to the cabin. meanwhile, us marshal jason ladd was cruising the parking a nearby mall, keeping an eye out for toby and manard. suddenly, he spotted a white silverado. jason ladd: it appeared to be driving like they wasn't from around there. they were putting their blinkers on in such a fashion, and they would hit their brake lights and it was obvious that they were lost. my gut feeling was telling me it was them. andrea canning (voiceover): marshal ladd followed the truck onto the interstate and called for backup. the farther we proceeded north, the more units started falling into play, not only marked units on the ground as far as vehicles, but the middle district of tennessee, these guys, they had helicopters. this operation just keeps picking up steam. quickly. andrea canning (voiceover): police dashcam video captured the unfolding high speed chase. ladd's colleague, tony crawford, assumed the lead position. and when everyone was in place, he drove alongside the truck to get a closer look. tony crawford: i was looking at his face, and the best i

can remember, he had a smirk on his face, a little funny grin on his face and looking down me a little bit from the truck. andrea canning (voiceover): he recognized john manard. but was toby with him? and there, riding shotgun, yes, she was. and this is toby. craig melvin (voiceover): coming up. he was walking straight at me, and he stuck out his hand and he said, i want to be your next dog handler. craig melvin (voiceover): an extraordinary conversation. toby young opens up about it all, from how things started with john manard-- this was something i'd been craving forever. craig melvin (voiceover): --to the moment she realized she might have made a horrifying mistake. were you scared? i thought, i don't know who this person is. craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. [music playing] billy: one second, grandma. this guy is going to buy my car. okay? grandma: you need carvana... entering plate number... grandma: no accidents, right? billy: no.

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andrea canning (voiceover): toby young had been found sitting alongside an escaped convicted murderer in a truck barreling down a tennessee highway. toby young: just then, this police car sped up from around behind us and cut over in front of us and slammed on their breaks. and john said, he's [bleep]. trying to kill us. he floored it and he took off. andrea canning (voiceover): as john manard drove even faster with dozens of state troopers in pursuit, toby wondered what had brought her to this moment. why had she made the fateful decision to help manard break out of prison? toby young: when i pulled up that day, i was kind of sick to my stomach.

and part of me was excited about what was going to happen and part of me was wishing that it had never gotten this far. it's hard to really even imagine the excited part. i mean, you're about to blow up your life. yes, but i felt like my life needed to be blown up in some way. it didn't make sense, but i don't think love very often makes sense. andrea canning (voiceover): you heard it right. toby says, this is a love story. she says she first noticed john manard about a year and a half earlier as she was walking across the prison yard. he was walking straight at me, and he stuck out his hand and he said, hi, i'm jon manard and i want to be your next dog handler. andrea canning (voiceover): manard soon joined toby's program. nothing happened between them until about a year later, when manard came to toby's rescue. she was being threatened by an inmate who had cornered her. toby young: i was terrified. and then i saw john manard kind of swaggering up,

from behind this inmate that was accosting me. and i felt this sense of relief because i thought, oh, now here comes somebody that'll help me. andrea canning (voiceover): toby started spending more time around manard, who was 20 years younger. toby young: we would have these really deep conversations about life and the world, and this was something i'd been craving forever and somebody to just have conversations with. andrea canning (voiceover): and then around six weeks before the escape, they crossed the line. toby young: we were just setting up for a dog event, and he just leaned over and kissed me. it was like i was on cloud nine. it just made it, like, unquenchable. andrea canning (voiceover): there would be no more kisses after that, but toby had fallen hard for manard. when people start falling in love, they change. there's a big smile on their face. was your husband thinking, what the heck is going on with toby? i do think he noticed a difference,

but he couldn't put his finger on it. and then at one point, he said to me, if i didn't know better, i would think you're having an affair. andrea canning (voiceover): toby said, by that point, what had seemed like the perfect marriage was really a dead end one, and that their relationship had been in a slow decline for 20 years, ever since they tragically lost their daughter shortly after birth. we never really dealt with losing emily, and we just kind of buried it and moved on. and i think when you have something buried that's so significant, it's just a wound that doesn't heal. andrea canning (voiceover): despite their growing divide, toby and her husband quietly went about living their white picket fence life. she focused on raising her sons, became an avid soccer mom, and, like so many women, was the glue that held her family together. but she never felt appreciated. toby young: i was just invisible because i was trying to be a good person. and i knew i was invisible to my husband.

and i just felt like everybody knew they could depend on me to do something, so they just quit even regarding me at all. andrea canning (voiceover): then she lost her job and battled the cancer. by the time her grown kids had moved out of the house, toby says, depression set in. toby young: i would be driving somewhere and i would think, i could just pull over and into the front of that semi truck and just be done. and i would find myself thinking, what-- where did that come from? what is it that you think you need to get away from? andrea canning (voiceover): the answer, she realized, was her marriage. so when manard suggested toby help him escape so they could be together, she couldn't help but think, what if? is a part of you wondering, there's a chance that i'm being manipulated right now and i am just a way for him to escape? i didn't think that at all. i just thought he was madly in love with me, and i knew i was crazy in love with him.

and i remember thinking, well, if this escape works or even if it doesn't work, i'm not going to have to stay in this marriage anymore. toby, toby, you can get divorced. i know. andrea canning: you don't need to break an inmate out and run away with this person to escape a bad marriage. i do know that. so many women, i'm sure, have had that feeling of, i just want to get away from it all. but you do realize, this is nuts. it is crazy. it's totally nuts. but that's the path i chose. andrea canning (voiceover): about a month before d-day, she and manard came up with a plan. manard would lose weight, 25 pounds, to be exact, so he could fit into a cardboard box that could fit into one of toby's dog crates. then toby rented the storage unit, emptied her bank accounts, disguised herself as molly rose to buy the getaway truck, then silently bid farewell to her old life and to each of her sons. i think as a mom, that's the hardest part for me,

is that i couldn't say goodbye to my children. it was definitely the hardest part. and i don't know how i thought that that would work. andrea canning (voiceover): on that sunday, toby nervously drove the safe harbor van to the prison. after the dogs and the dog crate were loaded into the van, she drove back out, past the guards, past the barbed wire, fearing what would happen next, and hoping a little that it wouldn't. toby young: and i did say, john, are you in there? and he didn't answer. and i thought, thank god. he's not in there, and i'll just go do a dog adoption and we don't have to do this thing. and then i heard this maniacal laugh and i thought, oh crap, he is in there. and i pulled over and i just stopped. and then he popped his arm out of the box that was in the crate and said, drive, toby, drive.

andrea canning (voiceover): they traveled at night, mostly on back country roads. but then, just 15 minutes from their hideaway, they got lost and toby saw a side of manard she'd never seen before. toby young: he said, i don't know why i brought you along if you can't even figure out directions. and he was all upset and mad, and he was driving the truck really fast and swerving. were you scared? i was scared at that moment. i was really scared because i thought, i don't know who this person is. andrea canning (voiceover): by the time they arrived at the cabin they'd rented, he was back to the charming, caring man she'd given up her life for. and here, for the first time, there were no guards or prison walls to keep them apart. so what's it like finally being able to be with the man you're in love with? it was beautiful and it was wonderful. and it was probably the best part of our relationship, was the intimate part of our relationship. that you were finally able to share a bed together. yes. i felt so loved and i felt so treasured

and i felt so worthy. and at that moment, i thought, well, it was all worth it. everything you'd done, saying goodbye to your family, your children, your mom and dad, possibly that you could go to prison. at that moment, it felt like this is why i did it. andrea canning (voiceover): they passed the days playing cards and board games. over romantic dinners by candlelight, they made plans to create new identities and start a new life, perhaps in boston. but it wasn't meant to be. they had made a mistake in their plan, a big one. remember, toby had given the car dealer her hideaway address in tennessee. this is the definition of almost a dumb criminal. toby young: that's right. i mean, no offense. it turns out i wasn't a very good criminal, i think. andrea canning (voiceover): and apparently not that good at hiding, either. in disguise, they snuck into town from time to time to eat at a steakhouse, buy a guitar for manard, and then finally to see a movie

and buy a gps at the mall, the same mall where us marshal jason ladd spotted their truck. toby young: the first thing i notice is there's a police car blocking the entrance ramp to the highway. and i said, wow, there must be some wreck up ahead or something. and john said, oh, baby, this is for us. this is all for us. john manard realizes his freedom is under attack. the question is, how far will he go to fight for it? coming up, a white knuckle ride could turn deadly. tony crawford: he cut left and shot across the median, and then we all turned and went across the median. craig melvin (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. [music playing]

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ch you can save. welcome back. toby young said she was crazy in love with convict john manard. together, they escaped to a lakeside cabin where she said they celebrated with romantic dinners by candlelight. but the honeymoon was over, and now they were hurtling down a dark highway with police in pursuit. here's andrea canning with the conclusion of "breakout." [sirens wailing] andrea canning (voiceover): the chase was on. reality, in the form of dozens of police cars and two helicopters, was in hot pursuit of toby

and about to bring her two-week odyssey with john manard to a sudden and possibly deadly conclusion. everything was like slow motion then, and i couldn't hear anything. it was this weird kind of vortex i was in. i couldn't hear anything and there were sirens everywhere. and i looked over at john and he was talking, but i couldn't hear him. tony crawford: he cut left and he shot across the median. and then we all turned and everybody went across the median. he passed a semi truck on the shoulder, but his wheels went off into the grass. and when he came back up on the pavement, he lost control of the truck. andrea canning (voiceover): that's the truck on dashcam video, swerving off the road. now, they were heading toward a tree at 100 miles per hour. toby young: i was praying the whole time, please, god, just let me die when we hit that tree because i can't deal with all this.

andrea canning (voiceover): but they didn't crash. saplings planted along the highway slowed their momentum and they glided to a halt. toby young: john said, i have to get out of the car, baby, or they're going to shoot. and he said, i love you. and then he got out of the car. and i could hear officers yelling, put up your hands. andrea canning: all your worst fears were being realized. toby young: yeah. i was a criminal and i was being treated like a criminal. andrea canning (voiceover): and like a celebrity. her two weeks on the run had made toby infamous. man: was it just love that brought you and john this far? i don't want to talk about that right now. i will at some point. man: ok. i don't want to right now. andrea canning (voiceover): john manard got 10 years tacked on to his life sentence. he insisted that he never forced toby to help him escape. lauren fox: john didn't like that the media portrayed him as this manipulating scumbag. andrea canning (voiceover): lauren fox received a letter from manard with his side of the story.

lauren fox: he said that he loved toby with all that he was, and if he had manipulated her, there would have been no reason for him to stay with her after the escape. andrea canning (voiceover): back at the prison in kansas, warden mccune breathed a sigh of relief. but he still felt betrayed. toby left a wake of just battered emotions. that's an excellent way to put it. it was-- do you even understand the depth of the harm and the trauma and the emotional hurt you put on people with this? so many people feel betrayed by you. yes, they do. i mean, i betrayed so many people's trust and love. i let the people down who cared about the dog program. i let the people down who worked at the prison. i let my family down. did you ever speak with your husband after the arrest? i talked to him once. he said i'd ruined his life and his life was over. andrea canning (voiceover): we reached out to toby's now ex-husband, who didn't respond, but he exchanged emails with journalist michael mooney

and told him he'd never taken toby for granted and always supported her. i don't think toby's husband thought there was anything wrong with the marriage. i don't think he thought of their relationship as neglect filled or bad in any way. andrea canning (voiceover): toby pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting an escape and smuggling a cell phone into prison. she and her husband divorced the day before she was to start her sentence. the 27 months she spent behind bars were tough. she said she was placed on suicide watch three times. i was so broken and so-- i didn't know how i was going to make it through all this. andrea canning (voiceover): every now and then, she got a love letter from manard. one of them was like, oh, i wish i could ride in on my white horse and rescue you from that prison they're keeping you in. but wasn't the fairy tale over at this point? yeah. and finally, i got to the point where i was like, i am done with this. andrea canning (voiceover): when she got out, toby wanted desperately to repair

the relationship with her two sons, but that proved impossible. her older son kept his distance. and just a year after her release, her youngest son died of cancer. when i went to visit him in the hospital, i told him that i always loved him and i never stopped loving him. and he said, i know, mom. i know you love me. and i asked him if i could give him a hug, and he said no. i mean, when you hear a story like that, just, it wasn't worth it. no. andrea canning (voiceover): toby says she's written letters to many of the people she hurt, asking them to forgive her. not many have responded, but one did, warden david mccune. hello, dave. hi, toby. how are you? - i'm good. - good. i didn't think i'd meet you here again. i know. andrea canning (voiceover): toby wanted to apologize in person, so we asked the now former warden if he'd meet with her, socially distanced due to the pandemic, at the place

where it all happened. he said yes. i want to tell you, that honor is something that's very respected and earned and not given lightly. and i know how much trust you put into me, and i betrayed that. and i'm so, so sorry about that. david mccune: i appreciate hearing it. and i mean, if this moment is kind of what brings a little additional ability to put it behind-- yes. --then it's worth it. i wonder about the other people, because forgiveness is also about contrition. yes. i hope that in some way it can be made up to them to some degree as well. yeah, i would like that. looking back, do you blame john manard for this? i don't blame john manard, because if i blamed john manard for this, then that would make me a victim. and i am not a victim.

andrea canning (voiceover): toby decided to see john manard one last time, hoping that would help her finally come to terms with her mistake. so 10 years after their whirlwind romance, she sat across from him in a prison visiting room. it was really, really good because it was truly closure. it was just good to be able to sit down and fill in the blanks and then walk away. andrea canning (voiceover): in august of 2024, john manard died in prison. he was 45 years old. following news of his death, toby posted online, john is finally free, but i am crushed. i pray you have at last found the peace you were searching for, john. toby goes by toby dorr now. she's remarried and has written a memoir, "living with conviction," that she hopes can inspire all women who are facing desperation and guide formerly incarcerated women to productive lives after prison. i want to share my story to help women unleash themselves.

we have these emotional prisons that we built ourselves, and we have the key to unlock them and be free of them. what is the lesson here for women who feel trapped, like you did? if you ignore the need to make a change until you become desperate, then you make the wrong kind of change. acknowledge you need to change something, and then move forward and do it in a healthy way. if i had had the insight and the strength to do that 15 years ago, i could have picked a much healthier way to change my life. [music playing] that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [music playing] . good morning, and welcome back to this special day after thanksgiving edition of smoe.