Elizabeth Shoaf

Vinson Filyaw is a 37-year-old, former construction worker convicted of kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old Lugoff, South Carolina girl, holding her captive in an underground bunker. This bunker had been constructed in order to elude police who were seeking to arrest Filyaw on an unrelated rape charge. Filyaw's girlfriend was also arrested on charges of aiding and abetting the abduction.

The victim, whose name is Elizabeth Shoaf, was kidnapped after she alighted her school bus on September 6, 2006. Filyaw gained her trust by posing as a police officer. He walked his victim around in the woods until she became disoriented and then marched her to a hand-dug 15-foot bunker near his trailer home, located within a mile of her own home. After more than a week, the victim convinced Filyaw to let her borrow his cellular phone to play games, but she had an entirely different use in mind. Her text message to her mother led police to the bunker where she had been held for ten days. Police used cell towers to locate the bunker.

Filyaw had equipped the entrance of the bunker with a booby-trap, according to police.