No matter what people would say about him later, there was no dispute about one thing: Vinson Filyaw had a finely honed talent for disappearing.

In a 48-square-foot, 6-foot-deep hideout, Vinson tormented 14-year-old Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Shoaf: I guess I pretty much just shut my brain down. And I-- it was painful, but I would just think about other things.

Keith Morrison: Like what things?

Elizabeth Shoaf: My family. My friends. And how to get out.

But if she did escape, Vinson warned her, her life would not be worth living anyway.

Elizabeth Shoaf: He told me that I needed to calm down, and if I ever tried to escape and I got away, that he didn't have to get me to hurt me. And he knew how much I loved my brother.

Keith Morrison: That's the way he put it?

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yes. That's exactly how he said it.

He fed them with instant noodles cooked on his propane stove.

They watched TV news coverage on his battery-powered TV.

They took turns sleeping, she at night and Vinson during the day, while she sat, chained to the rafters, watching him.

Elizabeth Shoaf: And then I had the thought of trying to kill him.

Keith Morrison: While he slept?

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yes.

Keith Morrison: Tell me about that.

Elizabeth Shoaf: He had a pellet pistol. And while he was sleeping, I grabbed it. And I pulled the trigger to his head but it got jammed. And I couldn't-- I didn't want to un-jam it, because then he'd hear it. So I just put it away and cried.

And then, in her desperation, she began to play with an insane idea. A sort of reverse psychology.

What if she pretended she was falling for him?

Keith Morrison: How did you go about doing that?

Elizabeth Shoaf: I always would do what he told me to do. And like he'd always call me baby. So I’d call him that back. And he'd tell me he loved me, and I told him I love him. Which is-- I’d act like I really liked him and I wanted to be with him.

Keith Morrison: That takes some doing.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yeah. I didn't like it. But I did it anyways.

And before long, he began to act like he was sweet on her. A little. He un-chained her.  Once in a while, he'd take her out of the bunker for a minute or two. And she began to behave like a child in some dark fairy tale.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Whenever we would walk through the woods, like to the water hole or back to the bunker, I’d just pull out a few strands of my hair and leave, it like on the ground or on the tree branches, thinking that maybe a dog or some -- like a police dog would sniff it.

Keith Morrison: Boy that's desperate.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yes.

Back in the bunker, Elizabeth tried to get Vinson to talk.

Keith Morrison: Did he tell you about having been accused of sexually abusing his--

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yes.

Keith Morrison: --stepdaughter?

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yeah. He just said he didn't do it.

Keith Morrison: Kind of hard to believe him in the situation you're in.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yeah. I just agreed with him.

And then one night, as she followed Vinson outside the bunker to get water, Elizabeth saw an opportunity.

Elizabeth Shoaf: He'd sit there and text message his wife or girlfriend and that kind of gave me the idea of text messaging my mom.

Risky? Of course.

She waited for him to fall asleep and then grabbed his cell phone.

Elizabeth Shoaf: When he was like real, real deep in his snoring that I knew he was asleep, I would start text messaging.

Keith Morrison: So you sent a text message often?

Elizabeth Shoaf: For three days I did. I wrote so many that like some of them were long text messages and some of them were just short.

Keith Morrison: Did you have any idea whether they were getting out or not?

Elizabeth Shoaf: It always told me it didn't. Every time I’d send it it said it failed cause of the signal.

Keith Morrison: How does that feel?

Elizabeth Shoaf: Awful, because I just felt like I had nothing else to do.

Then what she feared might happen did. Vinson caught her with his phone.

Elizabeth Shoaf: He asked me what I was doing. And I just told him I was playing games, which sometimes I was because I was bored.

It worked -- but the phone inside the bunker did not.

Unless...

One night, careful not to wake him, she crawled silent up the ladder to that heavy trap door and pushed.

Keith Morrison: How did you open the door and get the--

Elizabeth Shoaf: I pretty much smashed my arm. I didn't exactly like lift it all the way. I just--

Keith Morrison: You just managed to get it out a little bit--

Elizabeth Shoaf: -- stick my arm --  yeah.

Keith Morrison: And then did it tell you whether that message was getting through?

Elizabeth Shoaf: It told me it didn't.

And that is when Elizabeth Shoaf gave up.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Because I knew that the text messages weren't going out. And I couldn't kill him, because it's just -- I can't hurt anything. I’d go insane if I hurt anything, even him.

And just about then -- it was day 9 in there -- she heard the whup whup whup of a helicopter.

Elizabeth Shoaf: All of a sudden helicopters just popped up and he was confused. I was like happy because I thought somebody knew where I was.

Keith Morrison: Finally they were looking for you.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Yeah and he was just scared and we just pretty much sat there.

Vinson turned on the TV -- and discovered they knew it was him.

They knew it was he who had taken Elizabeth.

And then he found out why they knew. Not only had her text message gone out. Now Vinson knew she had betrayed him.

Elizabeth Shoaf: Eleven o'clock news came on and then they said that I sent a text message out to my mom saying where I was.

Keith Morrison: That was a problem.

Elizabeth Shoaf: A big problem. Then I thought I was going to die cause he was angry, angry, and I just sat there and cried and told him it wasn't me.

But then through her terror she began to realize something.

Video   Missing girl has to save herself After being trapped in an underground bunker for several days with her kidnapper, Elizabeth Shoaf comes to a painful realization. Dateline NBC

He was afraid. He didn't know what to do.

Elizabeth Shoaf: He was just asking me like if he should pack stuff and he should start leaving or if he should stay and wait it off to see if they never find me.

He was now asking her advice? It was a last opportunity. She took it.

Fourteen years old, traumatized beyond comprehension, she offered instruction to the tormentor suddenly now in her power.

Elizabeth Shoaf: And I just told him that he needed to pack his stuff and leave while he could because the police were going to get him. And I didn't want him in jail. And I acted like I wanted him to be safe.

And up the ladder went Vinson, and out into the night.

As dawn arrived on day 10, Elizabeth pushed with all her might on the bunker's heavy door, forced herself up and into the morning sunlight and heard the sound of barking dogs.

Elizabeth Shoaf: I started yelling like "hello” and I yelled it like 10 times and then somebody finally yelled my name back. And then that's just like a big, big relief I just like fell down and started crying.

There was the captain, and she was finally safe.

Or was she? As she lay in her hospital bed later she told her parents she couldn't possibly go home, not while Vinson was free.

She warned her parents that Vinson had threatened her little brother.

She warned the police: he had a gun, possibly bombs, and he was out there somewhere, on the run.

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