Bad Teachers: Tad Cummins

0:20 Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed scandalss Files of the Elite. I am your host, Jim Chapman, and today I am bringing you another case of a bad teacher. Now, before I get into it, make sure wherever you are listening that you hit the follow button and subscribe to the show. Also, if you would like to become a celebrity supporter of Exposed and get the commercial, free early releases, bonus episodes, files, and even quarterly gifts, make sure you check us out on Patreon, Patreon dot com, slash Exposed podcast Files. So let's get into today's episode. And look, it's not common that I cover male student teacher relationships that are inappropriate, but as I was researching a completely different case, I stumbled across the case that I'm going to cover today and I was sickened. I was shocked in about a hundred other adjectives you can think of, and you have got to hear this one. In this case revolves around a former teacher by the name of Tad Cummins, who in twenty seventeen kidnapped his student, a fifteen year old high school freshman named Elizabeth Thomas, and went on the run with her for three months before eventually getting caught. So today we will break down that case from the early red flags to the nationwide manhunt

1:52 and beyond. So settle in, grab some coffee, whatever, and let's get started. Now. To understand how this could all occur, we need to go back to the beginning and I'm going to tell you a little bit about the victim in this case, Elizabeth Thomas. So, Elizabeth was born in two thousand and one in Tennessee, and she grew up in what you know, many would consider a turbulent household. By twenty sixteen, at just fifteen years old, she had endured alleged severe abuse from her mother, Kimberly and Thomas. Now that abuse included being thrown downstairs and locked in a basement. Her mom allegedly banged her head up against a washing machine, and there were just many more instances of abuse. Now, Elizabeth was homeschold and her parents were divorced.

2:52 So when Elizabeth reported this, charges were placed against her mother and Elizabeth fi gained sole custody. And at that point she transitioned from homeschooling to public school for the first time in her life, enrolling as a freshman at Koleioka Unit School in rural Koleoka, Tennessee. In Koleoka, I believe I'm pronouncing that correctly, is a very small, unincorporated community kind of near the center of Tennessee. Only about five thousand people in this community and certainly not the type of place you would expect what I'm about to tell you about occurring. So school should have been a fresh start, but it wasn't easy. Elizabeth faced bullying, pretty heavy bullying from classmates, being not only new to the school, but new to school in general. And that is where Tad Cummings really comes into play. So Tad Cummings was a fifty year old old married health science teacher at that school, and he was known for his charismatic personality.

4:07 He had a wife, Jill, and two other daughters, and on the surface, he seemed like a pillar of the community. He would invite students to church, he was very active in his church and really position himself as a mentor. And Elizabeth, seeking support amid her family troubles in her school struggles, she would confide in him at school and what started as innocent conversations quickly crossed lines. And this is what these predators look for. They don't try to groom these students that have like the perfect life, and no one has the perfect life, but they have a good stable home life because those people are gonna tell pretty quick. They look for these people that are struggling and they play off their emotion. That's what was happening here.

5:02 And to sum this up, the teacher he saw what was going on with this fifteen year old girl. He sensed those vulnerabilities and he knew she was having a tough time. He capitalized on that. That's what sick motherfuckers do. The grooming process had begun, and Cummings begins to invite Elizabeth to church with his family and build what appeared to be kind of a paternal bond with her. But behind closed doors things turned quite sinister. He discouraged her from seeking therapy, He would discourage her from anti depressants, saying they would change her. He would isolate her, and this isolation tactic, of course, another classic grooming type behavior.

5:52 Now imagine being fifteen, You're dealing with all this trauma at home. Your mom has gotten into all this trouble because you reported her because she was beating you and all these sorts of things. You're getting all this bullying at school, and you're having this adult authority figure tell you they are your only ally. This I'm the only one you can trust. Right. It's manipulating and it's setting the stage for what would come. Tag Cummings would continue the grooming, and one aspect in way that he would do that is he would tell her lies, just flat out lies to impress her. At one point he told her he was a CIA operative, and at one point he told her he was a millionaire. And when you're a fifteen year old girl and this is a fifty year old guy telling you this, you're gonna eat that up, hook line and sinker. And that's what she did. So by late twenty sixteen. In early twenty seventeen, the relationship between Tag Cummings and Elizabeth had veered into some pretty danger territory. Elizabeth later revealed in interviews that Coming started making very inappropriate sexual comments. He would say things to her like I bet you'd look pretty nice naked. He would engage in sexting with her via Instagram, and he would have sexually explicit conversations with her inside of his classroom.

7:24 Not only that, but later it was discovered that during this time, they would go into the teacher's closet, into his closet, and he would make out with her and grope her, fond on her, and look, Elizabeth was scared. She didn't know what to do. I mean, she was fifteen years old, and when she tried to distance herself, he would threaten to kill himself or he'd threatened to hurt her dad. Typical things, unfortunately, that these child rapists tell their victims if you ever tell anybody, I'll kill you, I'll kill your parents, I'll kill myself. Now, when things like this occur to this level, it's only a matter of time before something happened. Somebody would notice something, and this case is no different. And on January twenty third of twenty seventeen, a twelve year old student witnesses Comings giving Elizabeth what the student would describe as a romantic peck on the lips in his classroom, and he tells a friend what he saw, and it bothered this student so much. The next day the student even asked Cummings about it. Later, the student reported it to school officials, and that report, of course, triggers an investigation. By school officials and detectives. So, of course, shortly thereafter, both Cummings and Elizabeth are asked about this. Both denied any impropriety.

8:58 As a matter of fact, Cummings would close it was a paternal relationship, you know, I'm just I treat her. I look at her and let my daughter, and I'm trying to take care of her. I feel sorry for her, that sort of thing. And Elizabeth, under pressure, she goes along with it, and authorities they seize her phone and they would uncover some out of school calls to Cummings, and at that point, the school and detectives they order both of them to stop all contact with each other while this is investigating. Now. Oddly, at this point, to my knowledge, he was not asked to leave the school at that time, and as you can imagine, it was not long before the kids in the school they find out what's going on, I'm sure in lightening speed, and the bullying to Elizabeth intensifies. She would say later that it was just brutal what the students were saying, and Cummings is finally suspended. This is on February sixth of twenty seventeen, but not until Elizabeth was spotted in his classroom for around fifteen minutes after they had told he and Elizabeth y'all don't need to be with each other or around each other while this investigation is going on.

10:21 So he gets suspended, but Cummings continues to contact Elizabeth. He coerced her to maintain this secret communication. He would communicate with her through social media on Instagram, and it was there that he starts pressuring her to run away with him. So let's get into March of twenty seventeen and Cummings he actually starts planning for an escape. Now, the later investigation would show he borred forty five hundred dollars in cash from a bank, and his computer records showed that he was re he's searching teen marriage laws by state. You can't make that shit up. He even fills a Sialis prescription on this day, and he would even purchase hair dye from a local store. On March thirteenth of twenty seventeen, he would pack clothes, toiletries, two guns, and leave a note for his wife saying that he was going to Virginia Beach to quote clear his head. Now, at the same time, at Elizabeth's home. She would wake her sister up very early that morning and tell her, quote, if I'm not home by six pm, to call the police.

11:39 So at that point, someone picks Elizabeth up from her home and drives her off at a Shonnees in Columbia, Tennessee. This is around seven point thirty that morning, and from there Tad Cummings would pick her up and off they went. And they head south through Alabama where they discard their phones in the Tennessee River. And they did that to avoid being tracked. And Cummings dismantles the car's GPS with a screwdriver. He unhooks the radio. They even swapped the license plate with one from an abandoned vehicle, and a zigzag across states in kind of a weird pattern. I guess he was trying to avoid being tracked. Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and finally California. Now, as you can imagine, life on the run for this fifteen year old girl is a freaking nightmare. Cummings kept a gun in the car console, He wouldn't let her out of his sight, and he controlled every single aspect of her existence in hotels. He would make her shower with the door open. He would sleep naked next to her in bed. He would restrict her food, and he would even make comments saying I like quote skinny girls. They dyed their hair. In Oklahoma,

13:10 Elizabeth dyed her hair red, Cummins dyed his hair black, and in Utah he would buy her alcohol get her drunk. He would call her his wife and talk about marrying her. He even updated her Instagram bio to reflect that now. They attempted to kayak to Mexico from San Diego. He actually bought a fifteen hundred dollars two person kayak, but he sold it to somebody else when he figured out this is way too dangerous and I'm going to die trying to kayak from San Diego to Mexico. So plans shifted for him and he decided he wanted to get to Panama or to what he called Freeland in Mexico.

13:55 He and Elizabeth briefly stayed at the Black Bear Ranch commune in northern California, but they were asked to leave that commune after comings bramished to knife and screamed during an argument with Elizabeth, but Elizabeth was not as dumb as this piece of shit thought she was. She was secretly collecting rocks from each state and in her mind this was potential evidence. And she even spotted an Amber alert about herself on a hotel TV. She described feeling dirty, disgusting, hungry, and terrified of this guy. And for thirty eight days she endured isolation, abuse, uncertainty, now running water, no electricity surviving on plants. At some times during this truck, however, the net was closing in for Tag Cummings. So let me tell you a little about the other side of this investment mistigation. As soon as Elizabeth was reported missing, which incidentally was twelve forty five PM on the same day she went missing, March thirteenth of twenty seventeen, authorities issue a nationwide Amber alert. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations starts digging into cummings activity online and that's where they uncover his teen marriage searches and tips would pour in

15:26 from all over the country. Cummings gets added to the US Most Wanted Less just a week after the abduction, and the heat was on. As a matter of fact, his wife Jill would even hold a short press conference begging for him to turn himself in. And here's what that sounded like. Like so many of you, I'm deeply troubled about what has happened in the past few days. I certainly can't begin to explain why I think. This occurred, but I do know one thing. I had no idea my husband was involved with anything that could have led to all of this. My heart breaks for the family of Beth Thomas. I want her home just as much as the rest of you. But I'm also very worried about Tad. To that end, let me speak directly to my husband, Tad, this is not you, this is not who you are. We can help you get through this, no matter how far you've gone or what's happening right now. God's grace is sufficient for you, and he wants you to come home. Your family wants their Poppy back. Please do the right thing and turn yourself into the police and bring Beth home. To those

16:57 of you in the media, thank you for helping to spread the word. Help us get to get this message out as far as we can, because we need help to find Pad and Beth and to bring them home safely. Thank you and God bless. Now not only did this sound like a very nice lady, And I'll definitely be posting a few pictures on the Patreon regarding this case. But I'm telling you, y'all, this lady looks like just a good godfaar and woman who is completely mind blown by what her husband has done. And a lot of these predators out there, they're like chameleons. Man, they can change their spots quick and you can see in this lady's face she had no freaking clue this guy was like this. Now March twentieth of that year, more pressure mounts as the police release surveillance footage of Comings buying hair dye, and they also released the last known picture of Elizabeth. Over six hundred tips are received that day, but sadly no confirmed sightings. So time passes lots of time, and in cases like this, it usually takes a breakthrough tip, and that's what comes in out of California, about sixty miles south of the Oregon border, a twenty nine year old gas station attendant. His name

18:28 is Griffin Barry. He offered the pair work and a remote cabin and that was just going to be in exchange for labor. Now he would grow suspicious because it was pretty clear that this girl was very young, and I guess maybe their mannerisms wasn't like a father daughter thing. Maybe was clear to him, or he was certainly suspicious that they may have more going on there. So he has a friend online and see if there's any news stories, you know, that would look like these people being posted online, And sure enough, they see that Amber alert posting. So he calls authorities and he says, I think these people are here, and police actually had the vennumber of the vehicle they were in, and they asked him to confirm that then and he was able to do that, and police went set up surveillance, and on April twentieth of twenty seventeen, which was thirty eight days after the abduction, they raid that cabin and coming surrenders. He doesn't resist, but he does whisper to Elizabeth to claim that the relationship was consensual, but she told the truth. It was kidnapping. Officers.

19:54 They basically shouted, hands up, it's over, and Elizabeth would later call that the best day of her life. In the police at that point, this is big news, man, national news, and they hold a fifteen minute press conference announcing the not only the capture of Cummings, but a lot of details that didn't come out until after and I will play that press conference for you. Now Here's that deputies found the Nissan Rogue that's been at the center of this nearly six week search early this morning, and we're able to confirm through the VEN number on the vehicle that this was in fact the vehicle that's been the. Subject of this ongoing amber alert.

20:36 Authorities in Sisko County kept this car under surveillance for several hours, and as daylight broke this morning, they were able to take Tad Cummins into custody and safely recover Elizabeth without incident. With more. Here's Director Mark Winn, Thank you, josh in. Good afternoon. As you've seen from the pictures we've shared with you over the past six weeks, Elizabeth Thomas is a beautiful fifteen year old girl. She's loved by her friends, her family, and the community of Columbia. This afternoon, we couldn't be happier to tell you she will soon be on her way back home to Tennessee. This morning, authorities in Siske County followed up on a tip called in the TBI headquarters late last night and found Elizabeth and arrested Tad Cummings.

21:31 She will soon be on her way back home. Tad is in custody of law enforcement, facing a set of charges that could keep him from behind bars for many years. To the public, I can't say how thankful we are for all your tips, your concern, and your support having made the difference in this six week search. As we have said from the start, it only takes one tip, and this is yet another example of the value of the public helping us to rescue a kidnapping victim. Because of the remote nature of the area where the pair were found, agents from the TBI. FBI, along with investigators from the Murray County Sheriff's Office, are currently flying from TBI aircraft to get there as quickly as possible to meet with local authorities and make the final arrangements to bring Elizabeth home. She will be flying back home on TBI aircraft. We are thankful to all our partner agencies in this search, including the FBI, Mary County Sheriff's Department, and the District Attorney General for the twenty second Judicial District.

22:52 Thank you, Director. I just want to say that as a prosecutor, one of the greatest parts of my is to is to assist law enforcement doing their job. And UH. Now, for well over a month, I've had the pleasure, in the honor of helping our local, state and federal UH investigators as they tried to find Elizabeth Thomas. And UH it's been a long time coming. But today they're hard work paid off. And UH again it's been a it's been an honor and a pleasure to help them as much as I could. But also as a prosecutor, it's difficult to stand on the sidelines.

23:34 UH. And once the officers do their work, because the prosecutors can't. We can't go to work. Until the officers and the investigators have found that person and and thankfully in this case, return to everyone safely. UH. So now it's time for the prosecution to get to work. UH. Law enforcement still has work to do, UH and I know they will. They will continue to work to build our cases uh for prosecution. And but it's now I'm grateful to say that now I can I can get busy as a crossecutor doing my job and hopefully bringing. Justice in this case. UH. The state, as you all know has an aggravated kidnapping charge UH and a misdemeanor sexual contact with a minor charge.

24:22 I've been in collaboration with the US Attorney's office about the possibility of federal charges being brought and how best to address that situation along with the state charges. I met recently with the interim US Attorney here and they have been more than cooperative, and I believe at this time I'll turn it over to him and let him share a little bit about the potential charges. Thank you, Good afternoon everyone. My name is Jack Smith on, the acting United States Attorney for the Middle Dish, Tennessee. I wanted to start by just complimenting our law enforcement partners here on the amazing job they did in this case. It was only yesterday that General Cooper and myself got together with FBI and TBI to go over the state of the investigation.

25:17 And I left that meeting thinking there was literally nothing that these folks could do that they hadn't already been being done. And I'm just so happy to see that this case has come to a good resolution. I can also tell you today that earlier today my office filed federal charges against the defendant In this case, he is charged with transportation of a minor across state lines for the purpose of having criminal sexual intercourse. He will face a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years on those charges and possibly quite longer, and as General Cooper said, he and I will work together on this investigation to make sure that justice is done.

25:58 Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm Chief Deputy Ray Jeter, Murray County Sheriff Department. It's a good day and I'd like to lead with that, but I'm gonna be very brief. First of all, I would just like to thank everyone for their. Help in this peaceful resolution to this case. The sheriff Sheriff Buckeye Rowland, the Murray County Sheriff Department partnered with TBI, with the FBI very early in this case and it has been a group effort ever since. To that end. Sheriff Over and I would like to thank the TBI. We would like to thank the FBI. We'd also would like to thank all the local agencies.

26:39 Across his country for their help. We fielded nearly fifteen hundred tips in this process, and in that process we partnered with every agency. Along the way, and we thank you for that. We'd also would like to thank our own people. Our own people put in the dedication and the countless hours they put in to see this resolution, and we thank you at the sheriff Department. We also would like to thank the media. We'd like to thank you you for putting this and putting our message out and kept this going. We appreciate that. We also would like to thank the public. Ultimately, it took a tip from the public to see this resolution, and to the public, I say I thank you for your help. We will continue to work with TBI, we'll continue to work with the FBI, and we'll continue to work with these agencies as we continue our investigation.

27:28 Thank you. Afternoon everyone. I'm not Espenschaed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation here in Nashville. I just like to echo those thanks to countless numbers of officers across the country who helped us to run down over nearly fifteen hundred leads. To the officers here from the agencies they are standing in front of you, who put in countless hours and they ask nothing of that, just that the justice is done. And in this case, I feel we're on and that a tip of that we are now out of the search stage. We are going to pursue justice in this case, and along that time, I hope that we can heal as a community, as the victims. And I just like to thank everyone in this room because you kept this at the forefront of the news. A great job by TBI for leading up this cause. Murray County Sheriff's Office.

28:24 We're glad to play a part of it as the FBI, and now we're onto the prosecution stage. So thank you very much to everyone. Just want to also let you know that representing TBI is our deputy director, Jason Locke. At this point, we will open it up for any questions. As I've indicated, this is still an active and ongoing investigation and a fluid situation in terms of the recovery of Elizabeth Thomas and the arrest of Tag Commings, so we might be limited in terms of what we can offer, but we'll certainly try to do our very best. This is a question for this book a general. Cooper, You've been very close to this all the way through. You see anything about list of Thomas's condition.

29:04 At this time, all we know is that she's apparently healthy and unharmed. It will be of course, our knowing that our main concern is how is she emotionally and mentally, and we're going to see to it that not only do we look at her as a potential witness and a victim in this case, but also as someone that if she needs help, whatever help we can offer, we will make sure that's provided for. It is the help. That what might be provided after something like this. Well, there are agencies right in our district that their sole purpose is to treat child victims of abuse, whether it's emotional abuse, physical abuse, or sexual abuse, and they can refer that child to the appropriate entities, whether it be counselors or therapists and things like that, to get the help they need so that they can move on past this stage in their life immediately now and immediately as soon as we can, as soon as we get her back, and of course we want to. We we don't want to disrupt her life anymore than we have to.

30:20 And uh, we want her. To reacquaint herself with her with her family and her friends and lead is a normal. Life as possible. But uh, as as soon as she's ready for any help we can offer, it'll be there for when do. You think that she will land here in Nashville at where would like to come in BNA or is it going to be a different runway. I left the director as I said, we've got agents in the route on TBI aircraft right now. We're not going to disclose exactly where we will be bringing her back. You know, I think she's been through enough. And as quickly as we can get her back here to a safe environment, she will be better. So we won't disclose where we'll be bringing her back. But we were we are in route right now to go get her.

31:11 What can you say about the commune? We'd heard initially that they were found at or near a commune. What can you say about her? We really can't say anything right now. Like I said, agents are in route. We will be going to the location, uh obviously to collect any type of evidence that we need to collect and to scour that that crime scene. And but they're not there yet, they're just in route. So yes, is there any evidence that she was assisting in sensing, t assisting tad or assisting. In this. We don't wanna get into the specifics of the investigation, but at the end of the day. She's fifteen years old. She's fifteen years old, she's a she's a young girl that's with a grown man that's fifty years old. So he needs to be held accountable for kidnapping this girl.

32:02 And how did they survive. We we don't know yet. We'll try to find all of that out once we get out there. Director, it sounds like the officers who are on the scene they staped out that vehicle. Is that how they were caught, how he was caught? It came back to the vehicle. In the d RS. No, that that We're not going to go into the specifics of how they were caught, but that vehicle was under surveillance. We felt confident that they were there. Director, Can you say it's a commune? The place where they were found, this cabin was that area, the people around it were he co operating. You know, it's been depicted as a commune. But obviously some good citizen, whether a part of that area, that was a part of that area, saw the vehicle reported it to us here at TBI headquarters.

32:47 We in turn called local authorities. So whatever you want to call it, cabin, commune, some good honest citizen wanting to do the right thing, did the right thing. Well, that's what we've been counting on, you don't We saw them in the cabin there, well, saw the vehicle, you know, and reported it. We were able to local law enforcement was able to confirm it was the vehicle. But you got to understand, we mobilize the nation during this six weeks. We mobilize a nation, and when you do that, something good most likely is gonna happen because you can't hide from that many millions of people that are looking for you. So I'm most.

33:27 Proud of what you've done as the media, what the citizens have done in this country to help us and mobilize and have b I eyes and ears, and that's how we're here today. You said a TDI aircraft will be flying Elizabeth back that standard or is this something that's back. That's something that that General Cooper and I discussed earlier today and we feel like in this case, that is the best way to handle this situation and what's best for e Lizabeth. I'm sorry, where is Elbas standing? I'm not sure. Didn't you know, up to the best of my knowledge, there in Columbia at her name, their residence and they're just waiting eagerly for Elizabeth to come home.

34:13 Now. Of course, after they were found, Elizabeth was reunited with her family in a private location and she also entered impatient counseling. And it was during this counseling that Elizabeth revealed she had been raped by Tag Cummings nearly every single day since they went on the run. It's estimated between thirty and thirty five times in that thirty eight days, just horrific. By September of twenty seventeen, she was actually living with her older brother, who was a correstionional officer. Now, it's worth mentioning that in twenty twenty four her brother actually did some jail time after it was proven he did not report some inmate on inmate rape in the facility he was a congressional officer at and I've just kind of found that strange considering what his sister had been through. You would think that's something that he wouldn't let anybody get away with in his presence, but apparently he did. He was convicted of it. Now, in twenty eighteen, at seventeen years old, Elizabeth gets engaged to her friend Skyler Derla and She marries him the next year, in twenty nineteen, in a secret ceremony, so she was eighteen when she got married. Now Cummings he faced federal charges for transporting a minor across state lines

35:46 with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and also obstruction of justice. He pleaded guilty, avoiding a trial, cut a deal right, and in twenty nineteen January of twenty nineteen, he gets sentate to twenty years in prison. Now at the hearing, Elizabeth delivered a tearful victim impact statement, calling him a sick criminal who robbed her of her childhood. And she suggested a thirty eight year sentence. And she had a reason for that. It was one year for each day that he took from her. And I found that to be very freaking poetic. In August of twenty twenty three, incidentally, her husband and herself welcomed their first child.

36:44 Jim, did you see what happened in Texas today? Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you what happened in New York. It cannot be as crazy as the case I told you about yesterday in Louisiana. You know what, we should do a podcast. About it and with that we did. Crime War Weekly covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week. We cover trending crimes from all over the country and even sprinkle in a few globally. Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to your podcasts. Simply by searching Crime Wire Weekly or clicking the link in the description of this podcast, and there you have it.

37:26 That is the story of bad Teacher Tad Cummings. Thank you so much for listening. It is New Year's Eve. I believe I'm releasing this one on New Year's Eve, so if it is, look party tonight, but have a great time, be safe calling uber all those sorts of things. And I do want to take a second to thank all of you for making my year here at Exposed twenty twenty five a phenomenal year. I got some great things coming up headed your way in twenty twenty six. I appreciate all of you who listen so much. Please share these podcasts wherever you're listening on your social media.

38:11 It helps to grow the show. And until next time for Exposed Scandalous Files of the Elite, I'm your host, Jim Chapman. Much love, Happy New Year, y'all Stand him, stay