They Took Our Child: We Got Her Back (2015–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Leah - full transcript

A little girl was kidnapped

on her way home
from school on Thursday.

- Each arm was tied
above my head.

I couldn't move at all.

- I felt like
I was gonna be hurt.

- We're talking
about an 11-year-old girl.

She was a good student,
hardworking, very conscientious.

Nothing suggested this girl
ran off.

- Police have no leads
in the disappearance

of 11-year-old Leah Henry.

- Until Leah was in my arms,



I was not gonna wait passively.

We spent all night searching.
We didn't ever go to bed.

- This is a sad,
troubling case,

but as always,
there is still hope.

- I held on to the fact
that they were looking for me.

- Where are you
going now, Tim?

- I was so set on getting home
back to my family.

It was gonna happen,
no matter what.

- We got Leah back.

- We lived
in an area of Houston

that was built in the 1950s.

It was one
of the original suburbs.

It's a very family-oriented
neighborhood.

- It was very warm and inviting,
safe neighborhood,



and everybody
did look out for each other.

- 2001, both of the girls

were living with Linda,
their mother.

- My parents only lived a mile
from each other,

so we were very close still,

even after my parents
had separated.

- My dad-- we had weekends
and Wednesdays with him,

and it was pretty easy
to adjust after the divorce.

- Leah went to a magnet school,

which was in a different part
of town,

and she had to get there early,

so she rode the bus.

- I was in high school,
sophomore at the time,

and Leah had just turned 11.

- I think we had, like,
a little get-together at school

that was like a little party
for the end of the year.

So we all brought cameras.

Everyone was just excited for
the next level of middle school.

Everything seemed perfect
that day.

When my bus driver
pulled up to my stop,

I started to walk.

A white car
started to approach,

and a man asked me
if I babysit,

and I said no.

And, you know, I knew not
to talk to strangers,

but I still was just making
him aware that I don't babysit

and that I wasn't interested.

Kept walking,
and the next thing I know,

he pulls up into the driveway
in front of me,

blocks me off
from being able to get

to the other side
of the sidewalk.

He asked me if I would like
to go meet his children.

He was in normal clothes.
He had glasses on.

He was very friendly...

nice to me,
starting conversations.

I felt like I was just
with a normal dad,

that dads were okay.

And I finally got in the car.

He reached across me
after I closed the door

and broke off the door handle.

I thought it was weird,
but as he drove,

I still believed

that I was gonna go see
his family.

As soon as he pulls
into the back alleyway

of the local restaurant,

I knew something bad
was happening.

I knew that he wasn't
trustworthy,

that he wasn't
that nice, friendly man

that I thought he was.

I felt like
I was gonna be hurt.

He pulls out a gun, duct tape,

and he started to tape me up.

He taped my arms and legs,

my hands behind my back.

He taped my mouth...

and he had me duck down.

Then he drove off,

and I felt like I had made
the biggest mistake.

I was scared, and I had nobody
around to be there for me.

- I remember I picked Kira up
and took her

to a dental appointment
after I got home from work.

- I hadn't even gotten
out of the car.

I just remember seeing my mom
running out of our house,

screaming, "Do you know
where Leah is?"

- I said, "She's not with me.

She's got to be
with somebody else."

At the time,
I was more irritated with Leah--

"Where the heck
did the squirt go?

"She knows better
than to go somewhere

and not tell anybody
where she is."

- We looked everywhere,
all of her usual hiding spots.

We called all
of her neighborhood friends.

- I remember driving
over to River Oaks Elementary

and looking through the school.

And we checked the bus

to make sure she hadn't gone
to sleep on the bus.

At that point,
we're starting to get concerned,

'cause she's not there.

- That first night
as the sun set,

my mom was so distraught.

I mean, she was...

literally,
like, walking around the house,

back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth.

And I heard my mom say,
"We need to call the police.

Something's just not right.
This isn't like Leah."

- A patrolman did show up.

I remember he was concerned

that he wasn't gonna
get his overtime,

that he was gonna
have to work late.

But he did do one thing

that created
the biggest shock to me,

is he talked to one
of the neighbors,

and the neighbor said,
"I saw Leah get into a car."

At that point,
I knew there was an abduction.

There was just no doubt
in my mind at that time.

- The first time he pulled over,

there was a big, open field
and a parking lot,

and I saw a huge highway.

He told me to crawl
in the back...

take my clothes off...

And he started touching me,

asking me if it felt good,

and it didn't.

I didn't know
what was happening to me.

I tried to scream.

I tried to grab things
that could at least--

If I pinched it hard enough,

every other bit
of pain would go away.

But when he was done...

all I did
was just lay there and...

bleed and hurt.

And I just felt
like every bit of me

was just ripped out.

After him raping me
a few times,

he got back on the road,
and we drove for a bit.

We weren't going that fast,

and it just seemed
like maybe it was a good time

to try to escape.

So I reach over,

and I grab what's left
of the door handle,

and it wouldn't open.

So, obviously,
he sees me try to escape

and tells me
that I'm gonna pay for that.

So he kept driving...

And finally pulled over
to a field.

And that's where,

for my punishment
for trying to escape,

he raped me
in a different type of way.

He had me facedown
on the car hood.

He made me
start saying things to him

that he wanted to hear.

Also, the louder I screamed,
the more it turned him on.

At that point,
after everything had happened,

I just felt like giving up.

I felt like,
"This is gonna kill me."

The pain was gonna kill me.

- That first night,
we spent all night searching.

We didn't ever go to bed.

- When my parents felt
things were not progressing,

my dad actually went downtown
to talk to the police chief.

- He said, "Well,
if you still have a child

missing in the morning,
call homicide."

And, God, that depressed
the **** out of me.

- It was pretty late at night.

We were getting to gravel roads.

We finally get to his place.

It was a pretty small cabin.

He placed his gun on the TV
and dead-bolts the door.

He made me lay down.

Each arm was tied
above my head.

Again, he started to rape me.

This time...

in every way possible
that he could think of.

He started to hit me
and beat me.

And I couldn't do anything.

At that time, I started thinking
about my family.

And I started
thinking about my friends

and what happened that day
at school,

everything that was supposed
to happen that evening,

you know, me and my sister
having our normal sister time.

And I knew that
that wasn't gonna happen.

I knew I wasn't gonna go home.

I was scared,

and I had nobody around
to be there for me.

- This ia time
where you reach out,

and you grab every person
that you can get to help you.

- Leah had
a very close friend.

His dad actually knew people
in the FBI.

So, very late
in the first night,

they got involved.

- And they took
this quite seriously.

- When there's
a child-abduction case,

we respond with a good amount
of manpower.

You want to get
on the investigation

as quickly as possible.

We've often said that if a child
is missing over 24 hours,

traditionally
they've been murdered.

And in this case, we're talking
about an 11-year-old girl

that went to a magnet school.

She was a good student,
very conscientious.

We didn't find anything
that suggested

that this girl ran off.

- The FBI told us that we
needed to publicize this.

Badges didn't look good on TV,

that it was our job
to take care of it.

So we started calling
the local news organizations,

and we were on TV at 6:00 a.m.

- The parents of Leah Henry

are pleading for the return
of their daughter.

The 11-year-old
disappeared on her way home

from school yesterday.

- This was before social media.

There was no tweeting.
There was no Facebooking.

The FBI realized at the time
that the only way

her story would be spread
to the public was through us.

- In kidnapping cases,

oftentimes we appeal
through the family--

you know, this little girl has
a family that cares about her.

We're hoping that that kind
of thing

will appeal to the offender,

that they will say, you know,
"I got to let this girl go."

- There is no one community
in Houston.

There are actually
different communities

that make up the Houston area,

and everybody, regardless
of where they came from,

was really galvanized
to help find Leah.

I would see people
passing out flyers,

walking different neighborhoods
where they think she would be,

whatever they could do
to help find her.

- A really good organization
in Houston,

the Laura Recovery Center,
called my parents personally

and said, "We're gonna get some
volunteers to help find Leah."

- One of the sad things
that you do to begin with

is you look for a body,

because if 90% of abductions

end in death within 24 hours,
you want to find the body.

And we looked for her
in that way.

And we had hundreds of people
involved in that search.

- The first morning,

he put a zip tie on my ankle

and tied me to a table,

told me
that if I tried to escape,

he'd go after my family
or that he'd come find me.

After my first punishment
of trying to escape,

I was scared to death of it.

And then he left.

After I while, I figured out

that I could wiggle
out of the zip tie, so I did.

I think that's the first time

I decided that I needed
to make note of everything

that was happening to me,

because if someone
was gonna find me,

they needed evidence.

I pulled a camera
out of my backpack,

and I started to take pictures
of everything.

I took pictures
of all the "bruisings" on me,

of the area I was tied up at,

my surroundings, of what I could see outside the window,

and then I decided
to pull out my agenda,

and I just wrote everything
that I could remember.

I just had a lot that
I couldn't even make sense of,

so it was easier
to write it down,

wrap my mind around it
in some type of way

that would comfort me, like...

that I wasn't the bad person
in all this.

- Leah went missing Tuesday.

Wednesday, the task force
at the FBI office was in place,

and information
was flooding in.

- There were girls
approximately Leah's age--

were coming forward, saying,

"Somebody tried to get me to go
in a car with them."

- The Houston Police Department

had some reports
of an attempted abduction

in the Clear Lake area.

At the same time that that piece of information came in,

Austin Police Department reported an attempted abduction

of young girls
by probably the same offender.

In that case, the victims
got a license tag number.

Tracking that tag number,

we found that that car
was purchased

up in the Amarillo, Texas, area.

At the same time
that that was going on,

we had been working

with the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice,

the prison system,
with their analysts,

and we gave
the physical descriptions

and probable age
based on what we were told,

to where we start putting
together potential suspects.

And collectively, that's huge.

- After 24 hours,

all I could think
about was, "My God.

I may not ever see
my sister again."

She was 11 years old.

I didn't know how to react
around my parents,

especially my mom.

She was not the same person.

She was terrified and just
wanted to have some bit of hope

that we're gonna get Leah back.

- We were all on pins
and needles,

and I can remember one time
driving with Kira,

and she said, "We're holding up
really good, aren't we?"

And then we just
burst into tears.

But Leah
was always very resilient,

and Leah
was always very creative.

And I always felt that Leah
would find a way to escape

or to persevere.

- The second night
when he arrived home,

I was already
back in the zip tie.

I remember him
bringing home a newspaper

that had my sister on it.

And she was staring
with this empty look,

and all I wanted to do
was comfort her.

I didn't have anything
that I could do to tell them,

"I'm okay.
Don't worry about me."

You know?

"Take care of yourselves,

but don't take on
this pain for me."

You know?

And he kept showing me TV.

He kept showing me, you know,
different newspaper articles

that they were trying
to find me.

And he kept telling me
they were gonna give up,

but I held on to the fact
that they were looking for me.

If they can fight, I can fight.

I also knew
that I was strong enough,

especially after the first night
being so horrible...

that I could get through it.

- When you create a task force

where everybody's sharing
information,

everybody is working
towards a common goal,

it's incredible
what you can get done.

In this case, we found
that there had been a kidnapping

under similar circumstances

by a person with generally
the same description

in San Antonio, Texas, in March

and in Slidell, Louisiana,
in April.

And for that reason,

we started calling in the rest
of our FBI agents in San Antonio

and in New Orleans

so that we could have
any piece of information

that might help us find Leah.

Both of the other victims
that we knew of

had been returned.

The victim from San Antonio
was kept for several days.

The victim
from Slidell, Louisiana,

was kept for almost two weeks.

We knew,
from the other victims,

they had been taken somewhere
in the rural area of Texas,

an area not too far
from San Antonio.

- The FBI told us they were
held in a hunting cabin

somewhere out in the hill country of Texas.

So the investigation
quickly shifted

from Houston
to the hill country.

The fact the two other girls
had been returned alive

gave us tremendous hope.

I remember they came in
and said,

"We are going to find that girl,
and she's going to be alive."

And I-- and I remember

how powerful that was,

because, you know,
you had to have hope.

And the fact that things were
happening and there were leads--

it wasn't like it was just
no one knew.

- On the third day,
he was taking his nap.

I decided that I'd tiptoe
over to my backpack

and get my agenda out.

He wakes up
and sees me writing,

gets up pretty angry,
rips up everything that I wrote,

and throws it
in the trash can.

I get punished for that.

He filled up a Mason jar,
put fire ants in it,

held it over my left breast,

and let them stay on there
for five minutes

until they bit me
and I was bleeding.

I was screaming
and asking him to stop.

He thought it was funny,

and he thought it was,
you know, entertaining.

I was with someone
who was twisted in their head,

that was...

for some reason, not
like anybody I have ever met,

but for safety
and to keep myself okay

and out of harm's way,

I was gonna have to obey
everything that he said.

- On day three,

we began to get
a pretty good picture

of this potential offender.

We, as a matter of fact,
had several names

from the prison system

from the analysis
that they had done.

One of those names
was Gary Dale Cox.

The vehicle that
had been purchased in Amarillo

was by his deceased brother.

So, obviously,
somebody was using his ID.

- Gary Dale Cox had been
in and out of prison

for sex crimes,
you know, aimed at children.

- He fit the profile.

He was the man,

and they identified him
pretty quickly.

- There was a high level
of excitement

in the command post,

because we knew who he was.

Now we just had to start
going out to publicize this.

- Leah was with
a convicted child molester.

It was the worst thing
that could happen,

and there's nothing
you can do about it.

and there's nothing
you can do about it.

- Third night,
he wrapped a blanket around meI just

and led me out
to a little fire

out in the front of his cabin.

And I could look out,
could see the city going on.

I was worried about my family.

I was thinking
that they were scared to death,

that I wasn't there
to tell them

that everything's okay.

"Don't worry about me.
Just be okay."

That's all I wanted
to tell them.

If I could've taken
all that pain that they had,

if I could put that on me,
I would've,

'cause I didn't want them
to feel any of it.

- I was informed
about Leah's disappearance

through our teletype
at the Sheriff's Department.

Every law enforcement officer
takes that very seriously.

Most all of us
have or had children,

so it becomes very personal.

I started running everything
that I could

off the computer.

I printed a composite drawing of the suspect.

I pulled up all of the information we had

at that time--

possible color of the car,

license plate
that should be displayed.

Some of the information
that we had received

was that these girls
that he had taken captive,

he had taken
to a hunting cabin.

There are multitudes
of hunting cabins

scattered
throughout the county,

but there was nobody looking
for her in that area,

because they didn't think

he was anywhere near
Kerrville, Texas.

But t at the time,

I got an overwhelming
supernatural knowing,

and I just cannot explain it,
that the suspect

was somewhere in our county.

That morning
when I left for work,

I was so sure of myself
that I told my wife.

I said, "I'm gonna get
this guy today."

- So fourth day comes around.

He told me to get my backpack
and to put my clothes on

and that we were leaving.

I didn't know
what was going on,

but I knew
he was feeling closed in on.

The newspapers kept telling us

that they kind of knew
who this guy was.

- Gary Dale Cox
knew that law enforcement knew

what kind of car
he was driving,

what the license plate number on the car was,

and something
of what he looked like.

And, of course, that's probably

the most dangerous kind of man
that you can have.

The most dangerous kind
of predator is someone

who knows that they're
just about to get caught.

I was north of Kerrville
on patrol

when I received a call
from dispatch

that somebody thought they might
have seen the suspect vehicle.

- There was a woman
in the area

who had seen
some of the news reports.

She'd called the police
and told them she saw a car

by this sort of isolated cabin

in the woods
that looked out of place.

- Went down to check it out.

I had decided that I would drive
down this dirt road,

if I saw the suspect vehicle
that I would call for backup,

but I wanted to make sure

that this was the vehicle
we were looking for.

- He puts what felt
like a pillowcase over my head.

I had my backpack on,
and he leads me outside.

All I can really see is just kind of light shining through

and what appeared
like a big, red blur.

- When I got down the road,
I saw a vehicle,

but it wasn't the right color,

and it had
the wrong license plate on it,

which confused me.

- I jumped into the backseat,

laid down,
as he had told me to do.

He gets in, turns the car on,

and I'm sitting there wondering
what's about to happen to me.

Is he gonna take me somewhere,

or is this about to get
a whole lot worse?

- I could see somebody in the vehicle, so I thought,

"I'll tell these people what
I'm doing on their property."

- All of a sudden, I hear tires rolling up on the gravel,

and he gets out of the car
pretty fast.

- The suspect was already
exiting his vehicle.

I didn't know that it was
the suspect at that time,

but one thing
I did notice very quickly

was that he had a gun.

- The suspect was already
exiting his vehicle.

One thing
I did notice very quickly

was that he had a gun.

- And he tells me to get out
and run to the cop car.

I had no idea
what he was talking about,

but as soon as I hear that,

I rip whatever is
on my head off,

jump out of the car, and see...

a police car just...

in front of his cabin.

The policeman
had pulled out his gun.

My abductor
also had his gun out

and started to move
to the back of his car.

- And I was issuing him orders.

I was telling him,
"Drop the gun.

Put the gun down.
Put the gun down."

Well, he wouldn't put
the gun down,

so I knew that the situation
was deteriorating.

I had made up my mind
that when he gets

to the back quarter panel
of that vehicle,

I'm gonna start shooting.

I could already feel myself
putting pressure on the trigger.

- It all happened so fast
that I really had no time

to think or feel,

and I just did it.

I ran to the police car.

- Leah was very brave.

I put her in the backseat
of my car,

and I said "Lay down."

My mind is going
90 miles an hour,

still trying to comprehend
all that's going on.

I felt like my best course
of action then

was try to get out of there.

As I was driving out,
I heard two shots.

- We heard a big bang.

- I was waiting for impact.

- I thought
I was gonna be murdered.

- I told Leah--
I said, "You keep down."

And I called into the dispatch,
and I said,

"Shots fired."

I got on the radio,
and I told the dispatcher--

I said, "This is the man."

I said, "I've got the girl,
and I'm leaving."

He started dispatching units
to my location.

- My heart was pounding.

I kind of had
this heavy-heart feeling.

- I blocked the road

because I knew that it was the
only way in, the only way out.

At that time, I got my rifle.

I don't know if I felt safe yet,

and I don't know
if I even really felt okay.

But I knew that I was
with a police officer,

and as far as I knew,
police officers, I could trust.

- One of our female deputies
drove up.

She immediately took Leah

and transported her
to the hospital.

- I think the fact
that she was a woman

and I finally had someone
that I felt safe with--

I, you know, understood that,

"Hey, I just got rescued,
and I am okay."

But it just didn't sink in.

And I think what I needed was
to be held by my family

'cause that was the only thing
that was gonna make me

understand
that it was truly over.

- Where are you going now, Tim?
Are you driving up there?

- Kerrville.
She's in Kerrville.

- I got a call on my cell phone
from the FBI,

and they said,
"We have Leah. She is alive.

We don't know much more.
She is alive."

I just dropped the phone.

It was just
a bewildering experience.

I mean, you go
from agony to ecstasy...

In an instant.

- She was alive,
and she was in safe hands,

getting appropriate care
to make sure she was okay,

and our plan was to go
and get her.

- Some local pilot

volunteered
to fly us to Kerrville.

- Kerrville County Police
picked us up

and took us to the station.

- And finally,
we walked into this building,

and there was Leah.

I don't think
I've ever been that happy.

I just beamed, I was so happy.

- She's here.
I still have my sister here.

I remember my mom
giving her the longest hug.

- Being in
my family's arms again

was the best feeling
I had ever felt.

Still to this day,
it is one of the best feelings

that...

will, honestly, forever
give me comfort

and make me feel
like I can get through anything.

- To get her back to her family,

it's almost like you
helped bring about,

you know, the successful rescue
of your own child.

So it was
a huge emotional feeling.

- For so many people
in Houston,

this is finally
a terrible situation

that turned out well,

and it made everybody
feel a little better.

But her rescue did not mean
the end of our job.

It meant our job continued on
as we were following up

what had happened
to her abductor.

- When I heard
that there was a shooting,

we started calling in the rest
of our FBI agents

on the Violent Crimes Squad.

Everybody was looking
for Gary Dale Cox.

- It was nearly miraculous

how many cops arrived
on my scene.

The Sheriff comes up
with his pickup.

I get in the front seat.

I had my rifle out the window,

and we drive down the road

till we get
to where we can see the cabin.

Then we get out of the truck, and we're proceeding on foot.

It was nerve-racking.

It's like you're just waiting
for somebody to shoot at you.

- My biggest fear was
this guy was out of control,

as far as his behavior
in the last little bit.

You kind of worry that he gets
to the point where,

"This is it. I'm going out
in a blaze of glory."

- When we were going in
to get this man,

there was some fear there.

I think all of us felt fear,

because we didn't know
where he was,

and we knew he had a gun.

One of the deputies made his way
closer to the cabin,

and he saw the suspect laying
on the ground beside his car.

Gary Dale Cox had ended
his own life right there.

- And once we went up
and approached the house,

we found the suspect
lying outside,

beside the passenger side
of the vehicle,

with one gunshot wound
to the head.

- Obviously he realized
this was it.

He was a previous sex offender.

This would've put him away
for the rest of his life.

- I did have a regret

that I was not the one

that was able to...

put the bullet
in Gary Dale Cox.

I know that doesn't sound
very Christian,

but how anyone could steal
a child from their parents

and molest 'em and rape 'em

is beyond my imagination.

I don't even want to live
on the same planet

as a man like that.

- It's good
that he's not around anymore,

that he can't do
that to anyone else.

But I really wish that I would've had a say in it

and that he would've hurt
as much as me

and the other girls hurt,
if not more,

because he did
completely change

every single one of our lives,

and there's no taking
that back.

I can't even explain
how it still makes me feel

that you guys never gave up
and that I was loved.

- We have gone through
some pretty horrific times,

but we're still here.

- We're a family. It happens.
- We're still hanging in there.

We're family,
and we're hanging in there.

- And a lot of times when things
do get really difficult,

I do think
about you, Leah, a lot,

just because I think
if it's, like, this or me,

I can't imagine
what you had to endure.

You really have been through
a horrible, horrible situation,

and look
at how far you've come.

I am extremely proud of Leah.

She's really pushed herself
to be successful and happy

after everything
she's gone through.

- I haven't seen David Billeiter in a long time.

He's really important to me,
and I can't wait to see him.

- Hi.
- Hi, darling. How are you?

This rescue was the highlight of my career.

I actually witnessed
a miracle.

I was actually a part
of a miracle,

and so it changed my life.

- Yeah, I'm going
to school now.

I graduate in a year.
- Wow.

- And finally deciding
to accomplish the things

that I've kind of set
out to do.

- And what is that?
- Marine biology.

- Well, I'm happy for you
that you're gonna be getting

to do what you wanted to do.
- Yes.

- You know, it was not
a chance meeting that we had.

That was
a divine appointment.

If I had been
a few minutes later,

y'all could've passed me
on the road,

and I would never have known,

'cause he changed
the color of the car.

- You drove up
at the perfect time,

and you saved my life.

I'm extremely happy
that I'm here with you today

and that I can thank you
and tell you

that you're
the reason I'm here.

- My life has never been
the same since that day either.

It made me aware
of the extreme danger

that our children are in,
in so many cases.

And so I try to educate parents
and children.

Don't ever, ever, ever get
in the car with a stranger,

and I'm sure you would hammer
that point home today.

- I think I still have
a hard time telling my story

because that's the part that
I don't like to tell.

- Well, it's probably the part
you don't understand, darling.

- It is.
- Yeah.

- And it's the part that I feel
like I made my mistake,

that I knew better.
- Yeah.

- But I was tricked,
and that's the one thing

that I have
to constantly remind myself,

that I wasn't
in the wrong, you know.

I'm not the reason
this happened.

- It wasn't your fault.

I mean, you're a survivor.

You can be an encouragement
to a lot of people.

You're an inspiration,
darling.

It's okay.

She's a remarkable woman,

and I thank God
for putting her in my life.

Just don't let it be
so long next time, okay?

- It won't be.

Seeing him today,
I could see in his eyes

that I'm not
that little victim anymore,

that I've grown
into a strong woman

and I'm very happy
that, you know,

he was a part of the story,

that he was the hero
in the story,

because as much
as he's my hero,

he makes me believe
that I'm his hero too.

It's so good to see you.

- Leah's story
is a story of hope,

and it's a story
of resilience.

She pulled herself up to do
what she needs to do in life

to have a positive influence,
to help others,

and I'm very proud
that Leah has been able

to achieve that.

- It's really important

that people realize
that life is scary sometimes,

but that, you know,
there are ways to recover.

There are ways
to get through things,

and there are ways
to help yourself understand

that you don't need to give up.

And I was so set
on getting home,

back to my family,

it was gonna happen
no matter what.