Hindsight, as everybody knows, can torture a person. Even veteran investigator Kirk Corley, who used every resource he had to find Elizabeth has second thoughts.

Kirk Corley: If you could go back and play it all over again, that pit area, which is within a mile of the house, back deep in the woods -- if we could have put somebody directly on top of it.

All those officers who'd been chasing leads all over the state, over the whole country, some of them, remember, pegging her as a runaway.

And there she had been, 10 days of hell, barely a mile from home.

A 10 minute walk from her own front door.

Sheriff McCaskill: I know she was scared to death. But she stuck in there. She thought. She used her head. You know, I can't say enough good things about her. You know, let's face it, in my eyes she rescued herself.

But Sheriff McCaskill knew it was too soon for celebrating or Monday morning quarterbacking because the abductor, Vinson, was still out there somewhere. He was armed, and on the run and he had a six hour head start.

And remember: the first thing Elizabeth told those officers who found her was watch out for Vinson, he has a gun, and a Taser, and night goggles, and God knows what else.

Sheriff McCaskill: I was some kind of mad. Oh, I just wanted this guy. I mean, for what she had been through, and I know she had been through for all those days, now wh-- the anger really set in.

Keith Morrison: So you had to get him.

Sheriff McCaskill: Had to. We really got in a manhunt mode.

Maybe Vinson left clues that would give them a hint about where he'd gone, or what he might do, or where those bombs of his were.

The state's explosives expert Jeff Fuller scoured the bunker.

And sure enough...

Jeff Fuller: We noticed a couple of items secreted behind this wall in the dirt. They had electrical wires hooked to them. That's the kind of device that's used for booby traps or attaching to a victim where you just flick a switch or attach a battery and it blows up.

The explosives were not sophisticated, but they could have killed or maimed in the right circumstance.

But it wasn't the homemade bombs that bothered the man who found Elizabeth, Captain David Thomley.

It was the bunker itself. It was imagining what had gone on in there.

David Thomley: It's an eerie feeling to be there, and look at this thing-- something you've never seen before, when you think you've seen it all. When you're standing over it, looking in it, it looks like a black hole. It had a stench about it I’ll never forget.

Keith Morrison: She must have thought she was walking into her grave.

David Thomley: I mean, absolutely. I cannot imagine.

The investigators who went to the bunker looking for clues found none that would tell them where Vinson had gone.

They had no idea that though he was on foot he was already in the next county.

He'd been on the run seven hours.

He was desperate now. He knew the bloodhounds would be after him.

He knew his only chance was to get a car, and just outside a pizza place he found one.

He approached the driver, a woman named Jennifer Lynn, and her daughter.

Big mistake.

(Local news interview with Jennifer Lynn)

"He had a long knife hanging off his belt and a gun. That's pretty much all I saw is his face. I recognized him from the internet. So I knew right away who he was.”

Ms. Lynn apparently failed to appreciate the predicament she was in.

Vinson, remember, was armed, and dangerous.

And what did she do?

(Local news interview with Jennifer Lynn)

"I was kind of cursing him out for doing this in front of my child for putting my child through this, he’s already hurt one little girl.”

And?

(Local news interview with Jennifer Lynn)

"He knew he wasn't getting my keys and he said, OK never mind and started running down the sidewalk."

Jennifer Lynn called the cops, who were on his trail within minutes. They tracked him down a few hours later.

He was face down in a ditch when they slipped on the handcuffs.

Sheriff McCaskill reported the arrest to local media.

(Local news report with Sheriff McCaskill)

"He has no remorse for what he has done and he's really kind of got a kind of cocky attitude about what he has done."

Elizabeth was asleep at her grandmother's house when all that happened. As long as Vinson was free, she had told her parents, she was too frightened to go home.

Madeline Shoaf: About 4:30 that morning when they called and told us that they caught him she had woken up with the phone. And I answered and he said we caught him he's in custody and I told her about it and she was like "thank God” and her head just went right back down on the pillow and just went back to bed.

Video   Kidnapper targets another victim After fleeing his bunker, kidnapper Vinson Filyaw takes his gun and searches for a way to escape. Dateline NBC

Finally, she was safe. And finished forever with Vinson Filyaw?

Well, actually, no.

Shy as she was, traumatized as she was, Elizabeth insisted that if it was just the same to all the grownups around her, she intended to watch her tormentor brought before a court of law.

Keith Morrison: A few days after you've won your freedom, you went to court.

Elizabeth Shoaf: For a bond hearing.

Keith Morrison: For a bond hearing. How did you manage that?

Elizabeth Shoaf: I wanted to go.

And what she saw was a gaunt and shackled prisoner who, by order of the sheriff, had been fitted with a bullet proof vest.

Elizabeth sat right there in the front row and stared him down.

Keith Morrison: What was it like in that courtroom?

Elizabeth Shoaf: It was weird to look at Vinson, because he was pretty much captured. And I don't know, it's hard to explain.

Keith Morrison: How did it feel to see him held captive like that, unable to go anywhere?

Elizabeth Shoaf: I kind of felt happy, just because I knew that he was locked up and I’m sitting there in the courtroom while he's in jail.

True. No way he could get her from behind bars.

But Vinson was not finished with Elizabeth Shoaf. Not yet.

He was in jail, yes, and facing very serious charges -- kidnapping, rape, bomb making -- but he was not an idle man in his little room in lockup.

A surprise was in store. Vinson Flaw’s schemes were still in play.

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