"He called me his wife sometimes and said that we were going to get married and I was going to live with him until I died."Ĭummins was caught on April 20 that year after authorities were alerted to their location by a concerned neighbor who saw the teacher driving a car without a license plate and noticed a very young-looking girl in the seat next to him. "He was really mean and said hurtful things a lot of the time," she said. She also said he would keep her at his side at all times and force her to sleep naked next to him by taking away her clothes so she couldn't escape during the night. She said he destroyed both of their phones so authorities could not track them and that he kept two guns in his car to ensure she couldn't escape. Thomas read out a powerful victim impact statement for the court before Cummins' sentencing (Source: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation) On the same day, Cummins had left a note for his wife telling her not to call the police and that he needed to leave town to clear his head, making him the primary suspect. ![]() Scared for her life, the teen agreed, and on March 13, 2017, she was reported missing. One month later, in March, Cummins reportedly told Thomas she would have to run away with him, threatening to kill himself or her family if she refused to comply. "And any time that I wouldn't post for a few hours, he would go crazy and say that I was cheating on him and saying if he found out that I was with another boy, he'd kill them," Thomas said during her interview. It is believed he also had sex with her inside the closet in the school, with Thomas stating she didn't go to anyone with the information because she was scared of the backlash she thought she would receive due to their relationship's taboo nature.Ĭummins was suspended by the school in early February 2017 after a 12-year-old student reported seeing the teacher kiss Thomas on January 23 of that year, though he would continue to court the teenager, forcing her to call and text him at regular intervals. ![]() The pair eventually started exchanging sexually-explicit messages on Instagram before Cummins then got her alone in a classroom and forcibly kissed her. ![]() "And he told me no and not to do it 'cause it’d change who I was,' she recalled. "I was feeling real low, and I was wanting to get on anti-depressants and try to go to a therapist," she revealed to ABC. She said she even avoided therapy over his advice. However, things quickly took a turn for the worse, and Thomas said she fell for Cummins' charade because he made her feel like no one else could care for her as he did. ![]() Jill had even come out to say they thought of Thomas as their third child and that she believed the relationship between the teen and her husband was that of a parent and child. Cummins went on the run with Thomas in March 2017 (Source: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation)Īccording to the Daily Mail, Thomas previously revealed in an interview with ABC's 20/20 that she became close with the teacher and his wife of 30 years, Jill Cummins, because the couple took her in after her mother was charged with child abuse and neglect over her and her sister. His defense team's argument that he should be given the minimum 10-year sentence because of his lack of a previous criminal record failed, though he did avoid the maximum possible sentence of 30 years. Predatory school teacher Tad Cummins, 52, has been sentenced in the abduction case that saw him coerce then-15-year-old student Elizabeth Thomas to run away from home with him and force her to have sex with him every day.Ĭummins, who had previously pleaded guilty to obstructing justice and taking a minor across state lines for sex, was sentenced to 20 years in prison this past Wednesday, January 17, by US District Judge Aleta Trauga in Nashville.
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