The Tennessee schoolgirl who went on the run with her married teacher for more than a month last year sparking a nationwide hunt has broken her silence.
Elizabeth Thomas was just 15 when she and Tad Cummins, her 51-year-old married teacher, vanished from Columbia, Tennessee.
They had embarked on a romantic relationship that was initiated by Cummins and they spent 40 days hiding from police until eventually being tracked down in a cabin in California.
Cummins, who has his own children and took Thomas under his wing after issues in her own family drove them apart, is in custody awaiting sentencing.
He pleaded guilty to traveling across state lines to have sex with a minor and obstruction of justice and now faces 30 years behind bars.
In an interview with ABC’s 20/20 which will air on Friday night, Elizabeth tells for the first time how their relationship began in Cummins’ classroom when she was sitting on top of a desk.
Elizabeth Thomas is shown left this week speaking for the first time since she was taken by her married teacher Tad Cumins, right, from Tennessee. They were missing for 40 days before police found them in a cabin in California
There were no other students in the room at the time.
The next thing I know, he said: “You’d look pretty nice naked”
‘I was sitting up on the table. I was sitting up on it because the chairs were uncomfortable and you kept bashing your knees. I sat upon the table.
‘He sat right across his desk. It was 4th period or 4th block. I can’t remember the conversation.
‘And the next thing I know, he said: “You’d look pretty nice naked.”
She also describes the first time Cummins kissed her which, she said, was when she ‘realized it was getting too far.’
‘He grabbed my face. I was right next to the double doors I had. I was 15. Being home schooled I haven’t really had a boyfriend.
‘When that happened, it was kind of like, “wow,”‘ she said.
Thomas had not been a student of Cummins for long. She was previously home schooled but when her mother was accused of abusing her and her siblings, she was enrolled in public school and came into contact with him.
Thomas and Cummins are shown above in a Walmart days after they vanished. He bought hair dye to change the color of her appearance and they both tossed their cell phones
Despite knowing their relationship was taboo, the teenager said she never told anyone because she doesn’t like attention.
‘I was scared, I don’t want to tell my parent that a grown man kissed me and I don’t want to tell friends that a grown man kissed me.
Elizabeth was 15 when they fled. She said she never told family members or adults about their relationship because she did not like the ‘spotlight’
‘I don’t like the spotlight being on me,’ she said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Elizabeth described going along with whatever Cummins wanted because he had a gun.
His wife, who has filed for divorce, and his daughters are also interviewed as is Elizabeth’s father.
In the days after he fled with the teenager, they were seen on surveillance cameras going into a Walmart where they bought hair dye to change Elizabeth’s appearance.
He later bought a two-seater kayak and an iPad to try to monitor the media coverage of their case, prosecutors said.
Initially, he pleaded not guilty but he changed his plea in May.
In a tearful court appearance then, he said: ‘I cannot be the man I need to be and not tell the truth.’
The full interview will air on ABC’s 20/20 on Friday night at 10pm EST.