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me and ran. so, the first thin that popped into my head, said, "does that mean dad isn' my dad? >> reporter: as far back a savanna could remember, juan geldenhuys had always been b her side. she believed he wa her biological dad, somethin lee kept reinforcing >> mom would relay things, you know? like, you sleep like you dad. or you know, you look lik your dad. so, i've always grow up with that >> reporter: but tragedy struc in 2011, when juan, by the divorced from lee, fell sick with cancer. the man savanna thought was her dad died just week before lee was arrested >> he fought very long and ver hard, but it was inevitable. but i'm happy because the last words i said to him was, " love you", and the same with him. >> reporter: savanna said sh had barely begun to mourn he father's death when the news came that she was someon else's daughter. >> i've never heard harris todd. i've never heard savanna i found out that i was
harris told lee he wanted divorce. he said, lee told him she was pregnant >> everything fell apart whe she told him that she wa pregnant >> reporter: patty said what actually made the marriage g sour was harris'refusal to hav children >> he wanted her to terminat the pregnancy, and that wa just not an option for lee. it broke her heart. >> reporter: lee says that you didn't want her to have th child? >> not at all true. i neve said that. not once. >> reporter: either way, the marriage was over. harris left lee when she was still in he first trimester and le initiated divorce proceedings. when baby savanna was born i may 1993, she asked for full custody. >> i felt at the end of the day, lee would have her child harris would have visitations. >> reporter: but to everyone's surprise, harris counter-sued. you decided you wanted ful custody? >> from my point of view, decided that before the baby
they searched the internet and discovered lee's secret. they're real detectives. >> i think so. >> reporter: they figured it out. they tracked you down >> and then, essentially knowing the wrath that the would face if my ex-wife eve found out that they did it they went ahead anyway. they told me, we feel like you have a right to know your daughter. >> reporter: harris gave the couple's information to fb agent ed klimas. and now tha they knew lee's alias, the fbi was finally able to figure out how she had left the u. s. without being detected. she ha set her abduction plan i motion by getting a fake birth certificate about two months before taking savanna. >> dorothy lee barnett goes to become a fictitious person named alexandria maria canton. she went to texas to obtain texas driver's license, then used the information from that to obtain a united state passport. what we learned wa
judge required that a bailif stand behind her chair with hi hands on her shoulder to kee her seated >> reporter: some people might say that she felt maybe that her baby was slipping away fro her. and that any mother might start to lose their mind a little bit in court. >> i think there's truth i that, but it's also indicative of her inability to control he behavior >> reporter: but on lee' behalf, two other psychiatrist testified she had no mental or emotional disorders, and was a perfectly fit parent. and as for her allegedly mani behavior? patty and othe friends testified they had never seen it. >> i saw lee almost every da for a couple years, and i di not see any episodes like that she was full of life. she had lot of energy. absolutely sa no depression. >> reporter: after 2 1/2 weeks of acrimonious testimony, it was up to the judge. harris wa with the toddler when the phon rang
After losing a hotly contested custody battle, a woman disappears with her 11-month-old daughter; the child's father searches four continents for almost two...
looking forward to meeting me. >> reporter: but savanna's priority was to get her mom ou of jail, not meet the man wh helped put her behind bars >> so, i slept on it for a couple of nights and i created an e-mail. and i just said, appreciate everything, but right now, i can't even si down to eat. you know? so, i appreciate him coming over, bu i'm sorry, you know. that' pretty much what it was. >> reporter: there would be no emotional meeting betwee father and daughter. at leas not in australia. if harris wa disappointed, he didn't show it. he'd learned long ago to keep his emotions at bay. wa it heartbreaking for you tha you went all the way over ther and she wasn't ready to see you? >> no. >> reporter: but we're talking about your daughter and seeing your daughter. and hugging her and telling her, i'm your dad. >> yeah. well, i didn't give u on that. i was there for about
different worlds comin together >> right. you know, life is no like a hallmark movie. >> it was natural. no, there was no uncomfortable. there wa no awkwardness. there wa nothing. i think that i'm natural-born speaker, and it seemed to be that he is, too. learned very much a lot abou him and my family on his side. and yeah, it was very pleasant >> reporter: lee was release from prison in may of 2015 and was ordered to spend two years of probation in the charleston area. she'll have to build a new life in the u. s. as a convicted felon, she may never be allowed back into australia but savanna returned there, to the place she calls home, to continue her college studies since her visit, she has not been in touch with her father. but if there's anything that harris has learned in the last 20 years, it is that there i always hope. >> you know, my daughter's her own person now. she can make her own decisions. and whether
spending enough money or there wouldn't be anything for her t come back to >> reporter: fbi agent chris quick knew the chance savann would come back was gettin smaller and smaller. you wer kind of grasping for straws. >> to some extent, you'r right. >> reporter: must've felt cold >> oh yeah, definitely definitely. after the three or four years, it's considered cold case. >> reporter: harris tried to move on. tried to fill tha gaping hole in his life. one thing that helped, he said, wa his niece, who was just thre years younger than savanna >> i spent an awful lot of tim with her. i mean, from a ver early age. i did homework with her every day. would walk he to school, pick her up fro school >> reporter: did you think t yourself, i should have been doing this with my daughter? >> yeah, i thought about it. you know, when you go see your child in a thanksgiving play you see them sing in the christmas pageant. well, i was watching my niece instead of m daughter. but i was thinking about my daughter at that time