Sounak Sengupta
On NBC’s ‘Dateline: Finding Savanna,’ Savanna Todd recounts how her world came shattering down in 2013 when the FBI arrested her mother on the grounds of kidnapping and possessing false documents. The 20-year-old was shocked to learn all she knew about her life, including her name or her father’s identity, was all false. So, who is Savanna, and what is her story? If you want to know more about the case, including her current whereabouts, here’s what we know. Let’s begin then, shall we?
Who is Savanna Todd?
Savanna Todd was 2-and-a-half months old when her mother, Dorothy Lee Barnett, and her biological father, Harris Todd, aka Benjamin Harris Todd III, got into a bitter custody battle after they filed for divorce. According to court documents, the judge found Dorothy incompetent of being a full-time parent and awarded the rights to Harris on February 18, 1994. However, within two months, Dorothy grabbed her then-11-month-old daughter during one of her scheduled visitations and fled.
From Charleston, South Carolina, the mother-daughter duo boarded a plane to France using fake documents the former had made for the two. They then spent time in Germany, France, Malaysia, Singapore, and more while evading the massive manhunt mounded by the FBI. According to reports, she changed her name to Alexandra Maria Canton, and Savanna was renamed Samantha. Seven months after fleeing the US, Dorothy met an engineering geologist named Juan Geldenhuys in South Africa, and they were married.
Dorothy said, “I got married to him because he was madly in love with my daughter.” Samantha had a baby brother, Reece, and the family moved to Botswana. After 13 years on the run and four continents, they landed along the shores of Australia’s Sunshine Coast. But her parents split, with Juan, whom she had always believed to be her father, falling in love with another woman. Recalling how the divorce impacted her mother, Samantha stated, “She (Dorothy) stayed strong. She stayed resilient. And she was a great single mother.”
However, it all came crashing down one day in 2013 when the FBI showed up at Dorothy’s door and arrested her. According to reports, Harris had spent all the years looking for his “abducted daughter,” even going as far as to periodically appear on television news and suing his former wife’s friends and family. Eventually, he gave up until he received an email in 2011, almost two decades after the incident. He had been working as a financial advisor and spending time with his young niece, trying to move on from his loss.
An Australian couple had sent it stating they had information about Harris’ daughter, Savanna. They claimed they lived in the Australian beach town of Mooloolaba and had known Dorothy and Savanna as Alex and Samantha for a majority of these years. They even sent a photo of the mother-daughter duo, and Harris immediately recognized his fugitive former wife. Armed with this information, the authorities arrested her on charges of international parental kidnapping and two counts of passport fraud.
Savanna Todd is Thriving in Her Life
Dorothy recounted how she called her daughter, who was studying to be a nurse at James Cook University, following her arrest. She recalled, “I said, ‘Sammy. You know how we’ve never had communication with family and friends in the U.S.?’ She said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Well, I was married before … I’m going to jail now … ’cause I’ve been accused of kidnapping you, and I said I had to keep you safe.” Savanna, too, remembers this phone call to this day because it came out of the blue and changed her whole world.
She said, “I had to call her back and say, ‘Wait does that mean that dad wasn’t my dad?’ And then she started crying, and I started crying.” While Dorothy was transported to a Brisbane jail, FBI agents sat Savanna down and explained everything. She said the arrest could not be more mistimed, especially as Juan had died of bone cancer a week ago. The matriarch was then extradited to Charleston, South Carolina, in the fall of 2014, where she pleaded guilty to all three federal counts, and was sentenced to 21 months behind bars.
However, Savanna, or Samantha Geldenhuys, was surprised to learn all the accusations that had been leveled against her mother over the years. She actually said, “Every characteristic they said that my mother had was wrong and incorrect. Every single thing.” She even pored over all the court transcripts and the secret diary her mother had maintained. She said, “It starts on the first page saying, ‘To my dear Savanna. Someday I’ll give this journal to you so that you can hopefully understand your mother.'”
She stated how none of the information changed her feeling toward her mother. Savanna said, “She is the most important thing, was, has been, and still is.” She also claimed she wrote an eight-page letter to Harris and asked why he asserted Dorothy was violent or mentally ill in court. She did not meet Harris the first time he traveled to Australia but met him a few years later at his home.
She stated, “I can have the most amazing relationship with him as long as I am 100 percent sure there’s no revenge, no spite, no nothing.” Samantha still finished her studies and started working as a nurse around her base in Australia. She eventually married Bradley Stevens in Fiji so that her mother could attend the wedding since Australia denied Dorothy entry. As for her current standing, she, in her early 30s, continues to live near the Sunshine Coast.
Read More: Where is Dorothy Lee Barnett Now?
