In the chilling true story of Ted Cummins, the married teacher who KIDIFIED 15-year-old college student Elizabeth Thomas after she hunted for her innocence…as his vile crimes are revealed in a shocking new documentary.

A new crime drama sets out to unravel the disturbing true story of a 15-year-old girl who spent more than a month on the run with her mentor turned abuser.

Abducted By My Teacher, which airs today on Lifestyle, follows the harrowing details of the case that sparked a nationwide manhunt in 2017.

Tad Cummins (Michael Fishman) nursed college student Elizabeth Thomas (Summer Howell) before forcing her to go on the run for 38 days and sexually assaulting her daily.

Here, FEMAIL exposed the disturbing reality that saw the perpetrator sentenced to 20 years behind bars after pleading “guilty of obstructing justice and bringing a minor across state lines for sex.”

The chilling story began after Cummins met the teen when she was a student at Culleoka Unit School in Maury County, Tennessee.

Elizabeth, who was previously homeschooled, previously told ABC that Cummins and his wife of 30 years took her into their care after her own mother was charged with child abuse and neglect involving the teen and sister Sarah.

Jill Cummins has previously said that she came to think of Elizabeth as her third daughter and that she believed her relationship with her husband was akin to that of a parent and child.

But Elizabeth soon noticed that the relationship between her and her married mentor was developing.

She revealed that Cummins would make several suggestive comments and the pair eventually began exchanging sexually explicit messages on Instagram.

The teen also previously described the first time Cummins kissed her and, she said, when she “realized it was going too far.

“

He grabbed my face. I was right next to the double doors I had. I was 15. Because I was homeschooled, I didn’t really have a boyfriend,” she said. “When that happened, it was kind of like ‘wow.'”

Despite knowing their relationship was taboo, the teen said she never told anyone because she didn’t want the attention and was also afraid of angering Cummins.

But the teacher was eventually suspended from the school on February 6, 2017, after a fellow student reported seeing him kiss Elizabeth.

During his suspension, the teacher forced the teen to call and text him regularly, she said.

In the end, the student claimed that Cummins told her to elope with him.

Elizabeth previously revealed this in an interview with ABC is 20/20 that she felt she had to go with him or he would do something drastic, and that during their drive across the country he kept a gun in the console of the car and she knew she couldn’t escape.

Cummins also allegedly destroyed both of their phones so their whereabouts could not be traced as they made their way to a remote cabin near Cecilville, California.

Elizabeth told authorities she and Cummins “had sex every day while traveling from state to state” for 38 days between March 13 and April 20, 2017. Tennessee reported.

In the days after he fled with the teen, the duo were seen on surveillance cameras entering a Walmart where they bought hair dye to change Elizabeth’s appearance.

They also bought cheese cubes, KY jelly, women’s razors, and chocolate.

He later bought a two-person kayak, allegedly for a failed plan to escape to Panama, and an iPad to try and track media coverage of their case, prosecutors said at the time.

But authorities were soon made aware of the couple’s presence in the cabin by a neighbor who became suspicious when she saw the car being driven by Cummins with no license plate and saw the very young-looking Elizabeth inside the vehicle, the spokeswoman said. Tennessee.

As a result, Cummins was caught and arrested on April 20, 2017.

In a letter to wife Jill, written from behind bars on July 31, 2017, Cummins wrote, “I’m to blame for everything,” while adding that “the devil was deeply involved.”

The then 52-year-old finally pleaded guilty in April 2018 to obstructing justice and taking a minor across state lines for sex.

Cummins was sentenced by a federal judge to 20 years behind bars and the former teacher will also have to register as a sex offender upon release.

Elizabeth confronted him in court and said during her victim impact statement, according to Radar Online, “When I went to school, you chose me from the crowd. I was just a kid who wanted to make friends, but you were someone who had a plan.

“You saw a broken girl who was lonely, scared and traumatized. You made her feel safe and loved because you saw what she needed and made her believe you would be her “protector.”

“You act like you care now and that you’re full of regrets, but where was that before?” Thomas asked in court, according to the statement obtained through Burton Staggs of Tennessee River Valley News.

“Where was all that when you first had me alone in your classroom and raped me over and over for months? Where was all that when you spent untold amounts of time and effort manipulating, coercing and misleading me into thinking you were the only person who cared about me?’

Elizabeth continued, “You were just a man who wanted sex, and you manipulated and used me to do that.

“But the truth is, no matter how much time you have to serve, you will never be able to undo what you did to me. I’ll have to live forever with the scars you left on me.

‘

In the years since, Elizabeth has married Skylar Dirla after the couple fell in love while working together at a seafood restaurant in their hometown of Columbia, Tennessee.

Abducted by My Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story premieres August 12.