Children of the Underground (2022): Season 1, Episode 5 - The Bounty - full transcript

- Faye Yager has never
shrunk from a fight.

And her efforts
to protect abused children

have provoked a few.

Yager's many supporters
say her unorthodox methods

have saved
hundreds of children.

But others are skeptical,

charging her tactics
and motives are misguided.

- Faye Yager is depriving me
of my children.

- What is this system
coming to?

You can't be vigilantes.

- You get out of it
a justification



for your own
emotional disorders,

that you're fulfilling
your nightmares

by putting them
on other people.

- For more than a decade,

nothing has been able
to stop Faye Yager.

In recent weeks, Yager
has been thrust unwillingly

back into
the national spotlight.

A lot of people say
that you kind of enjoy

this tangle you're in
with the court system.

Do you?

I don't know.

- Bipin Shah was clearly

a very smart,
very ruthless man

when he discovered
that Faye Yager



had helped his ex-wife
take his children into hiding.

He used all of his wealth
and all of his ruthlessness

to get them back.

- It's the confidence
of a successful, rich man

and an adversary unlike any

Faye Yager
has ever encountered.

He's attacking her in public,

including this recent cover
story in "TIME" magazine.

- With Bipin Shah,
that's a perfect scenario

of what money and power

can do to a person
who's on the other side of it.

He didn't care who he
took out in the process

until he got back
what he wanted.

- I suspect that Faye thought--

at that point in her life, Faye
thought she was invincible.

- Mrs. Yager, Ellen Dever
came to you for advice.

Why do you believe she took
the children and disappeared?

- Mr. Shah totally humiliated,

sexually assaulted,
and beat Ellen Shah.

She left because she was
in fear of her life.

- Mr. Shah--
- She wasn't after his money.

- Mr. Shah--
- This is not about money.

- Mrs. Yager, Mrs. Yager,
let me get--

let Mr. Shah
have a chance to respond.

How do you respond
to what she's saying?

- Ellen, Ellen is never
afraid of anybody.

So that's a bunch of lies.

- Mom was up against
Mount Everest.

- Mrs. Yager, do you know
where that woman

and those children are?

- No.
- You don't even know.

- No.

- You don't even know
if they're in the country.

- No
- And you don't feel

any remorse at all
for this man's heartbreak.

- Okay, do you feel any
sympathy for this woman

who thinks she's doing
the right thing?

- Do you ever tell the truth?

- I always tell the truth, sir.
- Okay.

- I don't have any reputation
for lying, sir.

- He felt that this woman
needed to be punished,

she needed to be put
out of business.

He was on the warpath.

- Shah is about
to get to Yager

in a way no one
ever has before.

- You're like a messiah
for me right now.

- His newest weapon:
Lydia Rayner,

the woman who runs
another underground network

and still considers Yager
a friend.

- I got a call
from Bipin Shah.

He said,
"I know you know Faye.

Can you help me out?"

It was the first time
that we had a father contact us

saying, "Help me get
my children back.

Please help me get
my children back."

And I went to Philadelphia
and spent a week at his house.

Went through all the court
cases and reports.

But he kept all the letters
that his wife had sent him

saying, you know,
"I want this, I want that,

"and if you don't
give me this,

you're never gonna see
your children."

This was different than
the cases that Faye took in.

We've really only helped out
children that are abused.

And Bipin Shah, he'd been
accused of abusing his wife,

but there was no allegations

that he had abused
the children.

There was no
allegations at all.

I don't even know why she
would do something like that.

- And I urge you
to talk to Faye

if you have any influence
over her.

She made a mistake.

- And so I called Faye.

I talked to her on the phone
and said, "It's not right."

And I said, "You shouldn't have
these children in hiding."

I'm just gonna tell her
how I feel.

And I hope that she
listens to my opinion

that I feel like the best thing
for these children

is to come out of hiding.

Said, "You know, Faye,
this is dangerous.

"You can't do this.

"We know your heart's there.
We know that.

But you're just not thinking
what you're doing."

- Do you think she does
thorough background checks

of those that she's going
to put in hiding?

- Personally, no.
I don't think so.

She just thought, you know,

"I can't believe
you did this to me."

I said, "I can't believe
you did this to him either.

It's not right,
what you're doing."

I believe she believes
in what she's doing.

She takes more risks
than I'm willing to take.

Maybe that's what it is.

- Lydia Rayner
predicted trouble

exactly like this
years ago.

- I never talked to her
after Bipin Shah.

She thought
we had betrayed her.

I felt she'd gone off
the deep end a little bit.

And sort of I felt
I was part of that,

you know,
unleashing this monster,

whatever you want to call it.

I just--she did
what she wanted to do.

- Look, I found one
of your "missing" posters.

These are the ones
that I would go through.

Like, we would go
into Walmarts,

and I would take them down.

Missing since 1/28/97.

So that's the day you went back
into--in the underground.

- Remember, Mom,
I told you about those letters?

Look, this was one of them
that I got.

- Why are all--

- 'Cause they were trying
to protect

identities of where I'd been.

I miss her so much.

- When Mandy was on the run
in Europe,

you know,
it was really hard.

I mean,
how could it not be hard?

She's in a different country.

And her support system
is gone.

Mandy was writing a journal

the whole time
that she was gone.

She was really believing that

she was gonna be coming home
anytime soon.

She was able to keep
that hope up for a while

and then started to realize
that that wasn't gonna happen.

- Amanda has been
on the run since January.

She's been gone months now.

- My mom had arranged a call
on a runaway hotline.

And what happens is, is you
call, you know, these people,

and they'll mediate between
a runaway and their parent.

They got ahold
of Mandy's father,

and Mandy's on the line.

And Mandy's like,
"Just let me come home

and live with my mom."

And he said,
"Absolutely not"...

with the mediator, like,
on the line going,

"Uh, wait a minute.

"You're willing to just
let your child

"be a runaway,
out on the lam,

"and not know anything
about her

"when all she's saying is,

she just wants
to live with her mom?"

"Yep."

She just became
more distraught

because it was like,
"How am I gonna get home?"

Is she gonna be doing this
until she's 18?

- It's very hard.

But it's a lot better
than living with him.

- I really wish that there was
a lot of things

that I wasn't a part of,
and this is one of them.

It's just really hard to look
back on some of these things.

It's so hard when you're young
and you...

don't really have
your own reality.

And everything that you...

say and do is, like, you know,

through a lens
of what you think

everybody else should be--
wants you to say and do.

And it's--I don't know.

But this is not me.

You know, I was a kid, and I
was saying what I had to say--

that my dad was not only
sexually abusing us

but also satanically abusing us
in these rituals.

How do you--after living
this lie and saying this lie,

you come to terms
with what I already knew,

this kind of belief
or feeling I always had

in the back of my head
that I kind of always knew,

like, my dad didn't
sexually abuse me.

It wasn't my dad
that had abused me.

I've blocked
so many things out,

and my memories
are all still very fuzzy.

But I believe
I was being abused

by somebody else in my life.

So my mom's instincts
weren't completely off.

I think, you know, at the time,
my mom and dad were in court,

and my mom just
blamed it on my dad.

I think about everything
that he went through--

not only losing your children.

Being accused of sexually
abusing your own kids

and being called this monster
who is killing people,

murdering people
in satanic rituals,

it was devastating,

a devastating attack
of character.

- That's my daughter.

- His two kids
were taken underground

even though he's been cleared
of all charges.

- That's my son.
They just wipe you out.

They just go over the top
of you like a bulldozer.

- Coming to terms
with the fact

that I've been lying
about somebody,

that's really important to me.

The burden of dealing
with that guilt

was, like,
overwhelming for me.

And then at the same time,
like, "Okay, well, holy crap,

"if this isn't the--
you know, the story

and everything that I've been
saying all this time

isn't real, then who am I?

Who am I?

- Did Faye make mistakes?

Look, you know...

What's the saying?

You know, people
who live in glass houses.

Who am I to judge someone else?

I don't know anyone
who hasn't made mistakes.

- She has no right to deal with
the children as if she's God.

What gives you, Mrs. Yager,
the right to take

those children from my client
for the rest of their lives?

You don't have that right.

- And, Mrs. Yager,
I've offered you

the opportunity to answer
the question.

Who made you God?
How do you decide that,

"This is a couple who I'll help

"get into
the underground network,

and this is a couple I won't"?

Why you?

- First of all,
when Ellen came to me,

she had custody
of the children.

I did not break the law.

And I'm sure...

- The complaint that a lot
of people lodge against her

is that she picks
the wrong cases,

that she ignores evidence.

I kind of felt that way myself

in a couple of cases.

But how do I know?

With Bipin Shah--

which is confusing to me.

I just don't know
how she thought

she could hide from him,

that he wouldn't pool
all his resources together

to try
to find his children.

And that's where Faye,
I think, miscalculated.

He announced that he was
offering a reward of $2 million

if these children
could be found.

- We are hoping
that this award will say,

"Those are the two girls
across the street

or next door,"

and we would get a call,
hopefully.

- By placing a bounty
of that magnitude--

a $2 million bounty?

What's gonna happen?

You're gonna bring out
every unsavory creature

under every rock known to man,

and they're gonna do
whatever it takes

to try to get that money.

- Let's talk about
this reward that you have,

a $2 million reward.

There are people saying there
are about 100 bounty hunters

out there looking for your
ex-wife and your two daughters.

Does that put
your daughters at risk?

- Well, it does,
but we have said

in the press release that if
the children or my ex-wife

are harmed,
there is no reward.

But I'm delighted

that hundreds and hundreds
of people are working at it.

- Faye became a hunted person.

He just put out the bounty
and released the dogs.

- And it was ugly.

We had pets, and they would
have their hearts cut out

and hung on the door.

- People were calling Faye,

threatening
to rape her daughter.

- If you call again, police
has got this phone tapped.

- Yager says she and her
family have been overwhelmed

by harassing phone calls
and even death threats

from those hoping
to collect the bounty.

- He knew exactly
what he was doing,

that he would cause
unsurmountable chaos and pain.

- This was the first
I really got a sense

of her really fretting.

And she sounded afraid.

- Faye,
do you worry about being...

- Yes, I worry--
- Taken out?

Yes, all the time now.

I've never worried
about it like I do now.

I'd have to be stupid
to sit here and tell you--

and I'd be lying if I sat here
and told you

that this is not scary.

It is scary.

- He then filed
the $100 million lawsuit.

- Shah's $100 million lawsuit

is among the most expensive
Yager has ever faced.

- It got out of hand.

Really got out of hand.

- Nothing grabs our attention
like the shocking headline

of child abduction.

For 13 years, the law
chased Irene and Raul

cross-country after they
snatched their granddaughter

from her parents.

Now you're 18, correct?

- Yes.
- All right.

Do you have any doubts
about the motives

of these people in--

- Absolutely no doubts at all.
- In taking you away?

- No.
- So it's very clear to you

that it was an act
of love and protection...

- Yes.
- On their part.

- Yeah.

Going on Dr. Phil
was kind of like

the beginning
of a new chapter.

When I turned 18, I was able
to regain my identity.

I did not exist between
the ages of 4 and 19.

To get my identity back,
I had to go talk to the FBI.

I had to go declare myself.

Then I had to request
having my name removed

from all of the
missing children databanks

and all that stuff.

And then you get
to the point where--

because I was not allowed
to use any of my information

from the life
that I had come from,

I had no medical history.

I had no school history.

At some point, I had
to reach out to my mom

and ask her
about my Social Security

and all kinds of stuff
as well.

I went to Miami,

and I met my parents
and I met my siblings.

I definitely did not feel
like anyone missed me.

I definitely didn't feel
like anyone wanted me.

I definitely didn't feel
like anyone cared about me.

It was pretty anticlimactic...

And very, very,
very depressing.

I honestly don't know
if I was abused.

I know that I have

the psychological problems

of a person
who went through abuse.

I don't remember large chunks
of my childhood.

The fact that I can't
remember anything

is really frustrating
because I know

that there are things
I need to deal with

trapped in there.

- You don't think
for a second that you

would question what you did
if you had to do it again,

would you?

- In a minute,
I would do it again.

- You would absolutely
do it again?

- Oh yes.
- All right. And--

- Well, when my grandfather
was dying, he was telling me,

"Oh, I hope that we did
the right thing for you.

"And if we didn't,
I'm so sorry.

"You know, I love you.

And we tried our best."

I don't--hmm.

It's just
a bizarre relationship.

You don't get to understand
what it's like

to choose your captors
and love them

but, at the same time,
not mind it so much.

Like, I was happy.

And now I have
to deal with the results

of their choices.

- I did have fantasies
a little bit about...

what if I had said to Faye,
"Don't do this"...

And,

"This guy is gonna
come after you"?

But that would have not
changed her mind one bit.

- She was so zealous,
as if she had blinders on.

That evangelical persona

is what helped motivate her

to make decisions.

And I don't think
that all the decisions

were the right decisions,

because a high percentage
of women got caught.

- After two years in hiding,

Bipin Shah's ex-wife, Ellen,

and her two children,

they were walking
down the street in Switzerland

when a car pulled up.

Two men got out and said,

"We're taking these kids
back to their father"...

Ushered shared the two
little girls into a car,

and sped off.

- Shah's 22-month worldwide
search for his daughters

finally ended last month
in Switzerland.

Dever was arraigned
in Chester County

on felony charges
and released on $255,000 bail.

- I heard from people
in Faye's circle

that the pressure on her

was really intense.

- This father
is now suing Faye Yager.

- They ought to all be sued
until they stop doing this.

- Have you lost money?

- Tons. Tons.

It costs money to pay lawyers
to defend yourself.

It costs money to accept
collect telephone calls

from Timbuktu.

- I mean, you had
bounty hunters.

You had law enforcement people.

- Death threats
on a daily basis.

- They watch me.

I'm followed.

The consequences of this
is very heavy.

- Threats of bankruptcy.

- They were gonna
lock her up.

They were gonna
lock her husband up.

They were gonna
seize her property.

They were gonna come in
and search her house.

- It was just a circus.

- The FBI is working
very hard to stop them.

Who does she think she is?

- Could our desire
to protect the children

cause even more harm?

- It really hurt her
in her movement.

- I'm having to defend myself
from Canada

to California to New York.

How many average citizens
has to do that?

- I don't know anybody
that can handle

that level of onslaught.

I think, on some level, it did
too much to the family.

- Ms. Yager, why do you
feel you can take

the law into your own hands?

Ms. Yager, do you think
you made a mistake?

- Tonight,
in what she says will be

her last interview ever,

Faye Yager tells us
she's had enough.

Yager says the price
has gotten too high to pay.

But do you really think
you can disengage?

I mean, as much
emotional commitment

as you put into this?

- Mm-hmm.
I do.

I think I can.

Seriously.

- The Bipin Shah scenario,
you know,

I've never really seen Mom
stressed until...

that period.

And it really did
a number on her.

From that point, it just--

I don't think
it was ever the same.

- There's only one Faye Yager.

- Yeah, yeah.

Well, she's not
very effective, though,

when she's getting
smacked around

like she has been lately.

- As for Faye Yager, she says
that after more than a decade,

she's getting out
of the underground business.

Those involved in the network,
however,

say it will continue
without her.

- What happened to me,

you know,
you still have anger,

until I finally kind of
let go of it.

- I think when he
finally admitted it.

You know, I didn't have
to hold on to that anger

towards him.

My father, he had denied
what he ever did to me.

And ten or so years ago,

I got a stack of letters that
my father wrote in prison.

These letters--

just him moaning
about being in prison.

And I'm reading them,
and I'm reading them,

and I'm, like--
I'm getting irritated.

And I'm like,
"Seriously, I don't want

to read these anymore."

Very last one, he goes,
"I deserve

"to have a millstone
wrapped around my neck

and thrown to the bottom of
the sea for what I did to her."

He finally admitted
what he did to me.

And I finally
was given the proof.

Like, this really did happen.

I needed that.

And that's when I could
truly forgive,

move on, and heal, 'cause
I was given that moment.

I guess it was exactly
like what Mom went through,

you know what I mean?

Like, she was finally
given the proof.

She was finally given,
"You were right."

Mom, I know
that she felt guilty.

But what my father did to her
initially

and then for years to her,

I have nothing
but forgiveness for her.

And if this didn't happen
to me,

then Mom wouldn't have
saved all those kids.

I mean, that alone,
if nothing ever happens good

past this point in my life,
that was worth it.

She saved hundreds of kids.

She changed their direction

from a no-hope,
no-win situation,

and she made it a win.

What can you argue with that?

ers and applause]

- "Mandy's 18
and free to be herself.

"Mandy Monet's calm
was seamless.

"The blond, blue-eyed
girl-woman pulled fresh loaves

"of French bread from the oven
in her mother's kitchen,

"loaves that would be served
at her 18th birthday party,

the biggest celebration
of her young life."

- For the first time in years,

Amanda emerges
from the underground

to live life in the open.

- Mandy is now
legally an adult,

and the courts in California
have no control over her life.

Coming out,
turning 18,

we ended up having
a big, huge bash.

It was a big to-do.

She's 18.

She was free.

- Now it seems
that all the stuff

that I've been waiting
and yearning for

is now going to be able
to happen.

And to my mommy,
you are the best.

You saved me so many times,
it is hard to count.

I wish that I could give you
everything that you need

and take care of you
like you took care of me.

Mom, you can't lose me.

- It was like it was all over.

It was completely all over.

So many years
of being underground.

I had tried
the justice system.

I did not know what to do.

It was by chance I was given
Faye's phone number.

Well, she kept me going.

Without Faye, I don't think
that I would have

been able to keep Mandy safe.

- When you have court systems,

just like
this mother's described,

that don't listen
to the evidence

when the evidence
is brought in there,

when you have psychologists,
doctors, medical reports,

and the judge,
on his own discretion, says,

"I don't care,

"I don't want to hear it,

I'm not gonna listen to it,
and I don't believe it"--

when you don't believe
these children,

this is what you get.

You get an underground.

- You go the legal route, yes.

But if the legal route
is not protecting your child,

then as a parent, you better
do the next best thing,

and that is to get
that child to safety.

- First, I'd like to say
that this is, you know,

a vigilante movement.

Nothing in our country has
ever changed without protest.

And unless you say,
"No, I'm not gonna

put up with it anymore,"
nobody's gonna listen.

- As someone
who's part of the system,

I can understand
how someone would choose

to uproot their child
and believe in their hearts

that it's in their
best interest

to not subject their child
to that pain and torture.

When I was in my first year
on the bench,

relying on family court
procedure and process

caused me to place
a child with her father,

who was actually a molester.

The mother, I couldn't really
hear her through the tears

or the agony of her voice.

And then I had Father,
speaking through his attorney,

more calm and presented.

And I had what I thought
at that time

was a thoroughly vetted,
fully investigated report.

And so I relied
on those results.

So the mother,
she was basically forced

to flee with her child

to protect the child
from my court order.

My faith in the court system
was shaken after all that.

Joyce, I believe you.

I'm sorry I didn't believe you.

I'm sorry for your family.

I know "I'm sorry" doesn't--

going to cry.

Doesn't make up
for the hurt and the trauma.

- That's why you're here.

- That's why I am here.

They have tried to silence me.

They've tried
to put me out to pasture.

But I don't go away.

I just keep speaking the truth.

- What was going wrong
with the system in the '80s

was never stopped.

The system got away with it,
doing this.

So they became more brazen and
more brazen and more brazen.

So now we see, 35 years later,

we're in the same predicament.

And it's much worse today
than it was years ago.

- The underground
didn't have to exist.

I mean, there's still a lot
of work that has to be done.

We need to have legislation
that actually works.

- We need to guarantee
all of the protections

that exist
in the regular court system.

You need juries,
and you need good lawyers,

and you need a system
that is focused

on protecting children
from abuse.

- The reason
the underground exists

is because there are systems
in place that subjugate people

and make them less than
and make it so that they have

obstacle after obstacle

to enjoying
their constitutional rights.

- All right.
- Move down there.

- So I want you
to underline

the thousandths place
in this number.

Where's the thousandths place?

So--no, you don't
put the 1 there.

Where do you put that 1?

Because there's--
- Oh, yeah, this one here.

- Yep.

See?
You know how to do this, buddy.

You're smart.

So what would it be--
- 12,000.

- Yes.
See?

As an adult,

I went back through
the family court system

in dealing with it with my ex,

and it was very
re-traumatizing for me.

And finding out that
nothing's changed

is really sad and scary.

- I'm gonna take one.

- I had a very biased judge

that already had his mind
made up about me

before I even went into court.

And there was nothing
that I could do to stop it.

Being an adult going through
that family court system,

I see how that's very easy to
get out of hand very quickly.

I can see why that
makes people run

and have to go
into the underground,

because there is
no other option.

Going through it myself
gave me so much perspective

and has allowed me
to be where I am today

as far as the grace
I'm able to give my parents

and my mom in particular.

She gave up a lot
to protect her children.

And nobody does that

that doesn't truly think
their child is being harmed.

If you're a mother who thinks
your baby's being hurt,

there's nothing that you
won't do to protect them.

- Everybody's doing
their best.

So as much as I have
lingering, like, anger

and resentment with Faye,

I still think that...

she came from a good place.

Her heart
was in the right place.

And there's a lot of kids
that are safer because of her.

- Hey, look.
So this is how it starts.

Then see, the flower starts
to grow the fruit.

The biggest thing for me
that allows me to move on

is my kids.

Kick.

You're getting it.

Watching them and having
that joy through them,

I think,
is so healing.

It's, like, full circle for me.

- If the situation is...

so dire that the child needs

to be forcibly removed
from it...

That's a failing on our system,

and the system
needs to be...addressed.

But if you make a mistake

and you put that child
in a worse situation

because you think
you know better,

what does that make you?

I've done the best that I can.

And I know that I owe it
to myself to be happy.

- Come inside.

Oh, my God.

- You look so good.

- I do?

- Mandy is well-adapted,

you know, put herself
through school,

got herself a degree,

has a great job,

has a family,

is doing the best,
I think, that she can.

- Do you remember
those days, kiddo?

- Yeah.
- Weren't they fun?

- Those were so perfect.

- I live a beyond
somewhat normal, you know?

Like, I remember the first
time that I truly felt

like I was safe.

Like, I was laying there
with my husband.

And it was like,
all of a sudden,

it was, like,
just this feeling

of, like, I'm finally here.

Like, I'm finally here.

- I heard Faye Yager retired

from the hiding-children
business.

And, you know, truthfully,

I never had any reason
to believe otherwise

or to know, you know,
that she was

or wasn't still in business.

If she was, she was a lot
more careful about it.

- She had to have some type
of thing to do.

And she loved decorating.
She was good at it.

And that was her next step,

to decorate this old house,
fix it up.

Beautifully done,
the way she decorated it.

I think she enjoyed being able
to show herself there,

you know.

I'm sure there was probably...

colorful stories
at the dinner table.

I don't know.

- Oh, yeah.

Trust me.

She has a full life.

There's always
gonna be something.

She's brilliant.