Vinson Flaw’s dreadful ambitions had finally exploded.

Out in the woods, his carefully constructed bunker was blown to bits, erased from the wooded landscape forever like a bad memory.

And here in court, Vinson faced the judge to take his punishment.

Judge Cooper: I can think of no crimes short of murder more repulsive than these 17 different indictments and charges that have been brought against you...

One by one, the judge prescribed the maximum.

Judge Cooper: All sentences to run consecutive.  Good luck to you, sir.

Vinson received 421 years without no parole. Elizabeth will certainly live the rest of her life without fear of seeing Vinson Filyaw ever again, and she watched as they led him off to prison.

Madeline Shoaf: She is a hero. That's all she is. I mean, she is a hero. She's a hero to me.

Don Shoaf: Remarkable.

Madeline Shoaf: Isn't anybody, you know, nobody can take any credit for her being rescued but her. Took a 14-year-old girl to outwit a 36-year-old man who was outwitting the cops.

Some time has gone by now since those awful days underground, and Elizabeth is the first to admit she still has some recovering to do.

The images still haunt her sleep.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Horrible. Just horrible, because it's like, when I first came back I felt fine. And I felt like I didn't need to go to a counselor or anything. I just wanted to be myself.

Keith Morrison: Go back to your life.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yeah. And eventually, like a few months later, I started to just, like, get dreams about it and--

Keith Morrison: What kind of dreams?

Elizabeth Shoaf: Not necessarily dreams of exactly what happened, but I would have dreams that he was, like, going to kidnap me again, or something of that nature. And I just started getting depressed. And I’d be, like, all the time, sad. Or I’d get angry at everybody and just wasn't happy.

It was certainly no surprise when counselors diagnosed post-traumatic stress and Elizabeth agreed to therapy.

Keith Morrison: Those who have gone through depression will understand totally what you're saying about that feeling of sadness.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Loneliness. I felt lonely.

Keith Morrison: Lonely.

Elizabeth Shoaf: I mean, it was like I knew I wasn't, but it's just like that lost feeling inside you … he took my childhood away.

Keith Morrison: He certainly took your innocence away, didn't he?

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yes.

Keith Morrison: Could you ever forgive a person -- could anybody ever forgive a person for doing a thing like that to you?

Elizabeth Shoaf: I couldn't forgive, because he told me that he had used me to get back to Kershaw County for looking for him for supposedly raping his daughter or whatever. And he pretty much changed my life for something' stupid.

Still, there are signs that the old Elizabeth is coming back.

Her favorite music is cranked up again in bedroom she's decorated herself.

She is back in school, too, now a sophomore in high school with plans to become a teacher or a counselor perhaps -- like the ones who are still helping her rediscover whatever normal is.

As is, by the way, Nathan -- that boy she'd just started to date before it all happened. They are now almost inseparable, sharing a little extra freedom since Elizabeth became a newly minted driver.

Elizabeth Shoaf: It was my grandparent's old Mercedes and they gave it to me for a dollar.

Keith Morrison: For a dollar? You bought it?

Elizabeth Shoaf: My grandma's dollar … The gas is expensive, but I have to get premium.

Keith Morrison: You're not even 16 yet, are you?

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yeah, my birthday was yesterday. I'm 16 now.

Keith Morrison: You're 16 years old. Well, happy birthday.

She surprises, sometimes, with her frankness. And why not?

Video   A portrait in courage ‘It makes me feel good to know that I got to get through something like this,’ says Elizabeth Shoaf. Dateline NBC

When Elizabeth lived through that tale as grim as any ancient myth, no woodsman snatched her from the jaws of the big bad wolf.

Elizabeth Shoaf looked terror in the face and saved herself.

Keith Morrison: And as you come out of this, how do you feel as a person?

Elizabeth Shoaf: I guess I feel normal.

Elizabeth Shoaf: It's like, for some reason I like to think about it and people think I’m weird for wanting to think about it. But I just think of it because I don't want to forget it, because that's something I accomplished that a lot of people might not have. And--

Keith Morrison: Very few, probably.

Elizabeth Shoaf: --it makes me feel good to know that I got to get through something like that.

Keith Morrison: You found out how strong you were.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yes.

Keith Morrison: It's amazing what you could survive.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yes.

Keith Morrison: There's that smile again.

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