Text Message Leads To Girl's Rescue

The text message from the missing 14-year-old South Carolina girl to her mother was a ray of hope.

"I was given some hope back that she was OK and we could get to her," said her mother, Madeline, on CBS News' The Early Show Monday.

It was the tech-savvy skills of the 21st century teen that kept the girl alive, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Acosta. Kidnapped from her school bus stop in remote South Carolina, police say she was in a 15-foot-deep bunker that Vinson Filyaw dug out of the ground and stocked with food. It had a hand-dug privy with toilet paper, a camp stove and shelves made with cut branches and canvas.

"You know, you think you have seen it all and when you see something like this, it's hard to describe, it's hard to imagine," Capt. David Thomley of the Kershaw Co. Sheriff's Office said on The Early Show. "And I have tried many times to describe it but it's difficult. It's nothing I have ever seen before."

Later Monday, Kershaw County Magistrate Roderick Todd denied bond for Filyaw, saying the suspect was a flight risk and "significant threat" to the community.

The hideout was booby-trapped. But police say when Filyaw fell asleep the girl was able to grab his cell phone. She text-messaged her mother, "Hey, Mom, I'm being held in a hole."

"I was scared. I knew it was her. I was thankful," Madeline told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

Filyaw surrendered Sunday morning to police as he walked along Interstate 20 near Columbia, about five miles from where investigators found the teenager a day earlier.

He was armed with a hunting knife, an air pistol and a taser gun, reports Acosta. Investigators say he had just tried to carjack a woman.

He was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, possession of an incendiary device and impersonating an officer, and was being held at the Kershaw County jail.

The text message was the break in the case, Thomley said.

"We asked for assistance from the United States Marshals Services that provided us services that tracked the tower, where the text message was sent from, and through triangulation, they were able to put us in a spot consistent with where the text message said she would be located," Thomley said.

The searchers heard her calling for help, and it then took them only a few minutes to find her.

CBS News and other news media are not using the girl's last name because police have identified her as a victim of sexual assault.

Filyaw had eluded police since November with an elaborate system of bunkers hidden in the woods around his home, Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill said. Filyaw not only hid from authorities there, they allege, he also raped and held captive the 14-year-old girl since Sept. 6.

"These are the kind of people who need to be behind bars and stay behind bars," said Sheriff Steve McCaskill.

McCaskill said it looked like Filyaw was trying to dig another bunker under that one as a possible backup, but had to abandon it when it filled with water.

Filyaw had dug two bunkers in his own yard and two in the woods and had used them to hide out since he was charged in the earlier case.

His girlfriend, Cynthia Hall, has been charged as an accessory and with neglect in that case, McCaskill said. Investigators say she allowed the assault to take place in her home and provided Filyaw with supplies to live in the bunker.

Police were tipped off to Filyaw's location Sunday after getting a call from a woman who said he tried to carjack her outside a restaurant, authorities said.

Filyaw gave up easily, McCaskill said, adding that he didn't think the suspect had help escaping.

Authorities said Filyaw was wearing a shirt that had the image of a sheriff's badge on it when he met the 14-year-old girl and the teen was walked around in the woods by her captor until she became disoriented. He used handmade grenades and a flare gun to threaten her while she was in the bunker, McCaskill said.

The sheriff said police found off-brand cigarette butts and pornography left behind in all Filyaw's hiding places.

Deputies had been searching for months for the unemployed construction worker. Officers tried to arrest him at his home earlier this week, but he escaped using a hole in the floor of his bedroom that allowed him to hide under his mobile home, McCaskill said.

The sheriff said Filyaw had a prior conviction for burglary and has been charged several times with public drunkenness and driving under the influence.

Filyaw's yard was overgrown with weeds Sunday, and no one answered the door.

A handwritten sign was attached to a gate leading into the back yard. "Anyone who tries to get past this gate will be shot. No questions asked. This includes cops," it read, with the word "cops" underlined three times.

Meanwhile, the driveway in front of the teenager's home was decorated with "Welcome Home" balloons.

"It's just amazing. I am just happy to have her home and safe," Madeline said.