Abduction of Savanna Catherine Todd

Savanna Catherine Todd was an infant when she disappeared from Isle of Palms, South Carolina, during a visit with her non-custodial mother, Dorothy Lee Barnett, in April 1994. A Texas Department of Public Safety missing-person bulletin records Todd's last-seen date as April 23 and identifies Barnett as the accompanying adult. Later court reporting states that Todd's father had legal custody following the parents' divorce and that Barnett did not return the child after a permitted visit.

Barnett left the United States and used new identities while moving through several countries. ABC News reported from the later federal proceeding that she renamed Savanna as Samantha and told the child that Barnett's later husband was her father. Todd grew up outside the United States without knowing her original identity or the circumstances of her disappearance. In November 2013, authorities located Barnett and the now-adult Todd in Queensland, Australia. Live 5 News reported a statement from the U.S. attorney that Todd was safe and healthy. Barnett was arrested, contested extradition, and was returned to South Carolina in September 2014. The recovery ended the missing-person aspect of the case after roughly nineteen years.

On February 10, 2015, Barnett pleaded guilty in federal court in Charleston to parental kidnapping and two counts of falsifying passport applications. The Associated Press account published by KSL reports that U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel imposed 21 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release, with credit for time already served. Todd, then 21, addressed the court and described both a loving upbringing and the shock of learning her history.

The case is classified as solved because Todd was located and Barnett's guilty pleas established the legal outcome. The coordinates are Wikidata's general coordinates for Isle of Palms, the source-grounded place of disappearance, not a residence or exact pickup point. Public sources differ by one day on whether the abduction is dated April 23 or April 24, 1994; the timeline uses April 23 because that is the date in the government missing-person bulletin.