The Kidnapping of Michelle and Breea Renee | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] [Music] It's like ghosts. You just see the ghosts of them [Music] everywhere. If you close your eyes, can
you still see it? All of [Music] it. The focus of the case is Michelle Renee. She was living with her uh her
daughter Bria. They were living um in a kind of a secluded house. Does it feel like 22 years?
Sometimes it does. Sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago. Sometimes it feels like it was last week. I asked the FBI
to take Michelle back to the house to help reconstruct probably the most traumatic night of her life.
We came in the door. I put the groceries away. Went in the kitchen. Michelle was a single mom. She was a
bank manager, somebody who worked hard to gain a job of position of trust and respect. It had been such a long day and
I was just excited to be home with Bria. We were on the couch. It was just the two of us. I was sitting here. She was
right beside me and we were playing Game Boy. A group of individuals put Michelle
under surveillance knowing she was a bank manager and they devised a plan and we just heard this huge the the
sound just the biggest noise from behind us and we I turned to look and just saw
three people. They were all lined up one right after the other just rushing in, running in the door that like squat
style and they had their guns and they were all in black and I just screamed super loud. My daughter screamed super
loud at that point. My daughter took off this way, but two of them came to me, put guns in my face. One guy grabbed me
back of my head, forced me down in front of the couch that was right here. They bind her up with duct tape. They put her
seven-year-old on the ground and bind her up with duct tape. And uh they tell them that uh if they don't cooperate,
they're going to be killed. They're going to be shot. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. They let me turn around and see my
daughter laying face down on the floor right here by the door. Um face down with her hands tied and her feet tied.
Um, right there on the ground, I heard my daughter say, "Are you gonna kill my mommy?" And are you going to kill me?
And they said, "No, not if your mommy does everything that we tell her to do." They said, "You're going to rob the bank
for us or we will kill you and your daughter will be first. [Music] [Music] The only monsters that had ever scared
Michelle Rene's 7-year-old daughter, Bria, were Makebelie. But on November 20th, 2000, just a day before three
masked men broke in, she calls me, "Mom, there's somebody outside the window." I
looked out there. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anybody. I just brushed it
off. Michelle had chocked it up to her child's imagination, but this time was different. She saw them looking through
the window. They were there the night before. The same men now held Michelle and Bria
at gunpoint in the living room. The gunman said they'd been following the 35-year-old bank manager for
months. It was very much that mind control thing that they were doing that we know everything about you. Michelle
would recount the events inside the house for investigators. and we're going to be here all night with you to make
sure you know exactly what you're going to do or you will die. Throughout the night, the ring leader gave specific
instructions about how he wanted Michelle to rob her own bank the next morning. We're going to go over this
again. This is what you're going to do. When Brinks gets there, you're going to get Brinks's money. As she huddled with
Bria on the couch, now duct taped, Michelle could hear him talking to a woman on a two-way radio. Money one to
money two were that's what they called each other. Yeah. They called each other money one to money two. Money one was
the ring leader. Around 11. The voice on the walkie-talkie got his attention. Car
coming up the driveway. The roommates there. It was their roommate Kimbra. And they put the gun right here in her face
right up her nose and said, "Don't make using use this." I pushed the guy's hand
out of her face and said, "Don't do this. don't hurt her. And he just pointed it right at me and said, "Don't
ever touch me again." Michelle realized this might be the last night she ever spent with her daughter. It was almost
morning. I just rubbed her hair so she could try to get some sleep. Wondering if that was going to be the
last time I was going to get to touch her hair and see her sleep was pretty tough.
In the morning, the nightmare would continue. It was like 6:00 a.m. He said, "Get up.
It's time to get ready for work." I got dressed and started doing my hair when he came in and stopped
me and said, "We need to put the dynamite on you now." Michelle, her roommate Kimbra, and Bria would all be
strapped with dynamite. Then, Money One showed Michelle what looked like a doorbell. This is a detonation device.
One false move, I push this button. You will disintegrate. Your daughter will go
first. and they sat me right here and said, "Now we're going to take your daughter."
The gunman put Bria in her bedroom closet. I'm just telling her I'd be right back. That everything's going to be
fine. Be brave, Mommy. That was the last thing she said when before I walked out to go
to the bank. Did you feel brave? No. As two of the gunmen stayed in the house, Money One handed Michelle a briefcase
stuffed with a duffel bag before he crouched in the back of her Jeep. With dynamite on her back and a gun to her
side, she drove to work. So, you pull up into your spot. What does he tell you before you get out of the car? Don't
Don't this up. And the Brinks truck came at 8:50. I believe right around 8:50 was
the drop right over here. That's when Michelle grabbed her briefcase and headed to the vault. I brought my teller
in the vault with me and said, "I'm getting ready to clear out this vault or my daughter and I are going to die. This
is what's happened all night." And you whispered to her, "I have dynamite on my back." Yeah. I whispered I pulled my
shirt up. And then you just opened up the duffel bag and started shoveling in money. I did. My heart was racing. My Am
I fast enough? Michelle's colleagues would alert the authorities, but not before she walked out with $360,000.
Just get to the Jeep, hurl it in the Jeep, and go and just do what's next. Money one directed Michelle to get out a
few blocks later and that I would find my Jeep down the street. She found her car and raced home. I don't know if
Bria's going to be there. I don't know if she's going to be alive when I get there. And I went to open the door and I
was just screaming and hello, hello. It was eerily silent [Music] and I just heard Bria and I remember
screaming, "We're back here. We're back here." Bria was still in the closet right where Michelle left her. What was
that like to hear and see her? Oh my gosh. She was alive. I did it. We did it. We didn't die.
probably the happiest moment of my life. But then I could still see the panic on
her face. The dynamite's still on me. Before leaving, the gunman had ripped the dynamite off of Kimbra and Bria, so
they cut it off of Michelle's back before running to the nearest neighbor. I opened the gates, went down the hill
real fast, helped them up to the house. Rick Brown lived up a steep hill. I called 911 right away.
Sheriff, can I help you? Yes. Uh, some neighbors of ours were held hostage. I need somebody out here right away. Soon
the place was crawling with investigators from the FBI, San Diego Sheriff's Department, and the bomb
squad. This is the dynamite that was taken off of um Michelle. San Diego prosecutor Tom
Manning would lead the task force investigating the case. They quickly figured out the dynamite was fake.
They realize that it actually is two painted dowels or broomstick handles. But as you can see from a distance in
the lighting, plus it's on your back with the stress of the situation, you're not going to take a chance that it isn't
real. But during the very real 14 hours they were held hostage. Michelle had held on to any detail that might help
identify the attackers. Remembering details is just sort of this part of my DNA about people. That was
kind of my superpower. Details like money one's eyes. And when I turned the light on to go to the bathroom and I saw
his eyes in there, I I said that those eyes were at my desk. Those eyes were at my desk today. Oh my god. Michelle says
it was a man with whom she'd had an odd encounter at the bank hours before being
taken hostage. and he sat at my desk for a really long time asking sort of the same questions
over and over. And then a woman walked in and said, "Chris, we need to get going." And they got up and left. The
man had handed Michelle his business card. And the name on the business card was Christopher Butler.
[Music] After hours of police questioning, Michelle and Bria were sent to a hotel. Michelle called her brother Dave.
It didn't sound like her. It was someone, you know, heavily traumatized. Dave, who lived 3 hours away, rushed to
his sister's aid. What I saw when I opened that door, it scared the daylights out of me. Are you
okay? And she would shake. How about Bria? Same thing. In the days ahead, Michelle struggled to
hold it together for her daughter. She was the strongest person for me. While investigators wanted
answers, they grilled her about that odd encounter with Christopher Butler. Why was he in the bank? What was he
saying he was there for? He came in to say that he was a potential client and that he wanted to talk about
investments. Before Butler handed Michelle his business card, a woman he introduced as Lisa came in and whisked
him away. Hey Chris, we need to go. It was the same voice Michelle says she heard later that night on the
walkie-talkie. I kept saying it over and over. Check my desk. Check my desk. Get that card. I
know that it's them. Through that card, they started the investigation. The FBI soon discovered Butler was a
convicted felon with a history of robbing banks. They figured out where he was staying and then uh the team that I
work with set up surveillance. Butler and his fianceé, Lisa Ramirez, lived in a house just a few miles from
the bank. Some of the people in the house were telling the police who was there when they planned it. Within days,
detectives identified the two other men. Christopher Huggin. There was a big guy maybe maybe 6'4.
He's gang ties and the man who' held a gun to little Bria, a gang member called Bones. Real name Robert Ortiz. Ortiz was
a connection who got the guns. On December 1st, they decided to arrest Butler and Ramirez during a traffic
stop. In the glove compartment was a uh weapon. It's a It's actually a BB gun. If you look at that in a stressful
situation that looks as real as it can get. What' they find when they pump the trunk? Plethora of evidence. All this
all this. They found the uh the black bag that Michelle described the money being carried in. Uh several pairs of
black gloves. and um a homemade ski mask. Oh yeah, look at the eye holes there. Yeah, but they clearly cut
themselves. Michelle's credit cards were all found in the uh trunk of the vehicle. And then of course the money
straps from the bank. Also in the trunk, that doorbell detonator. And there was even more at
the house. They found all the ingredients uh to make the fake bomb. There were broom handles which were cut
up into small dowels which actually were used in making the the fake dynamite. They also recovered the the actual spray
cans. Ramirez's uh fingerprint was on one of those cans. It was crazy. I've never seen that much physical evidence
left at a crime scene. They thought they'd gotten away with it. One thing investigators didn't find on Butler and
Ramirez, any of the bank's $360,000. But after arresting Huggin that same day, they did recover 93,000
of the cash that he'd stashed away. Huggin confessed and said that he'd already spent several grand on a trip to
Vegas. The fourth suspect, Robert Ortiz, was on the lamb. When authorities arrested him three months later in
Wisconsin, Ortiz still had $32,000 of the bank's money and gave a full confession. Did Huggin and Ortiz's
confessions corroborate each other? Yes, very much so. So, did Huggin and Ortiz's
confessions corroborate what Michelle had told investigators? Yes. Almost identical. Butler denied everything,
even when confronted with direct evidence, his thumbrint on the fake dynamite sticks. And we got fingerprints
that are yours that went to the bank robber. find out because I wasn't involved in anybody. He tried to protect
Lisa. Lisa wouldn't have been involved with that. But Lisa was about to start talking. She admitted she was the female
voice on the walkie-talkie. She even took credit for the idea to use fake dynamite and kidnap the bank
manager. out of his idea. That was about eight months ago. Jokingly, mine. Lisa said they'd split the money three
ways, but that her and Butler's share, more than $100,000, had been stolen. And to
everyone's surprise, she said Michelle was in on the plot. for the reason that they had told me
that the show lady that's how they know walked out of that um thinking okay Lisa's Lisa is the mastermind behind all
this and um is it possible Michelle's involved Manning says ultimately he knew Michelle was innocent the first time I
interviewed her she had Bria with her and I I I saw that bond and relationship and when she left I went she's not
involved in this but that wouldn't be enough in court. San Diego County Sheriff's detectives Rudy Zamora, Dale
Martin, and Randy Demurs would have to rule Michelle out as a suspect. Every time we pushed a button, she would
react in a way a true victim should. They recreated the dynamite packs and strapped them on Kimbra, Michelle, and
Bria. She was very upset and Michelle was emotional when asked to revisit the horrific details of the kidnapping. And
then they I had to put her in there and they shut the shut the closet. She was shaken up.
I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown. When Michelle did those reenactments, were her story,
Kimbra's story, and Bria's story consistent? Yes, completely consistent. In fact, investigators couldn't find any
evidence Michelle was involved. Still, they worried. She was not our normal victim. As they took a deep dive into
Michelle's life, what did they find out about Michelle's past? She didn't hide anything, including the fact that for
years she had worked as a stripper. I'm not embarrassed or ashamed by any of that. Michelle says it was one of the
choices she had to make for survival at a young age. I ran away at 15. I worked really, really hard to get to where I
was. With no high school diploma, she had climbed the corporate ladder all the way to regional vice president before
taking the bank manager job to be home more with Bria. And while you were working at the bank, you were still
dancing, still stripping for a while. I was for a while. The money was really great.
But more worrisome were things that went directly to Michelle's credibility. She
falsified resumes, claimed she had various experience, various education, which she didn't have. Bounced a check,
filed for bankruptcy. Right. That doesn't look good. It doesn't look good. And if you're a defense attorney, you're
licking your chops. Oh, the best verdict I ever got in my life. By spring of 2001, the suspects
were in custody awaiting trial for kidnapping and bank robbery charges. But Michelle and Bria were still reeling
from that night of terror. [Music] I could still hear them. I could still hear the the sounds. I couldn't get it
to turn off. I just wanted to hide. I thought they were going to find us. They were going to kill us still.
In June, Michelle decided to move Bria to Alaska to live with her grandmother. I was going to fly her up there and get
her to safety. I was going to figure out what to do from there. After a few days,
Michelle says she had an epiphany to go back to San Diego and get rid of everything I could possibly get rid of
and drive back to Alaska with a dog. Come here. Some cash. Can do this on a budget. And a
camcorder. Today is July the 6th. She embarked on a 9-day drive. On my way, baby doll. To the last frontier.
You had a deadline. I had a deadline. Bria's birthday was in 9 days, and I promised her I'd be back before her
birthday party. That's when Michelle and Bria say they began to heal. Did you feel safe in
Alaska? Safer. I could be a kid again. Happy birthday to you. By the time they returned to San Diego a year later for
the trial, Michelle says she was ready. There was so much evidence. There was no
way I thought that this trial was going to be anything but slam dunk. Butler and
Ramirez would be tried first. When her case came across your desk, what did you think at first?
She's guilty. You thought she's guilty? Well, yeah. Herb Weston, who represented
Lisa Ramirez, had a problem. His client had confessed on camera. There was a female voters that came all at once a
lot of times. If they play that tape, saying that she wasn't involved would have been
difficult. Weston proposed a plea deal, hoping to save Ramirez from a potential life sentence, but the prosecution
turned him down. We thought we would definitely get state the key statements in that she was involved. But since
Ramirez had also implicated Butler, the judge ruled her entire statement inadmissible.
We now can at least argue to the jury that she wasn't involved. without her confession. The case against Ramirez
relied almost entirely on Michelle. A fact Manning was keenly aware of during his opening statement to
the jury on June 3rd, 2002. You told the jury that this case was about credibility. Right. Michelle's uh
background was was going to be an issue. I knew there were issues, but I believed
her. And you thought the jury would believe her, right? but not if the defense had its way. What was your
strategy going into trial? My strategy was to beat the hell out of the victim and show all these inconsistencies that
the victim is saying. It got very confrontational. I was really really off. That played
right into Weston's hand. Angry witnesses don't come across as credible. I was treated like I was the criminal.
During his cross-examination, Weston implied Michelle was lying about recognizing Lisa Ramirez's voice on the
walkie-talkie. Wait a minute, ma'am. I've looked at all this stuff. Isn't this the first time
you've said that? In fact, he pointed out it wasn't in any of the FBI reports. But Michelle insists she told
them. I did. I 100% did. And Manning says she identified Lisa's voice to him before taking the stand. Does it bother
you that Lisa actually admitted that that was her voice on the walkie-talkie? The fact is it was Lisa. But that's not
the issue for me. It made a great opening to attack her credibility. Weston then grilled Michelle about bait
money. The traceable bills banks keep in their vaults to trap bank robbers. You didn't take the bait money. Did not take
the debate money. Why not? They said no funny money. You say that's suspicious that she must have been in on it.
Correct. Maybe worst of all for Michelle Weston question her maternal instincts.
Would a mother run to a place where her daughter was? If she believes that I have a bomb on my back? She wasn't sure
whether her daughter was dead or alive. Don't you think it's possible that she wasn't thinking straight? Sure. But also
what could be true is she knew there wasn't a bomb and so she didn't have to worry about it.
Did you feel like you were on trial? I 100% felt like I was on trial. I would be sitting in the front row and all I
could think about was it's going to take me maybe 6 seconds to get from this point to the offender. That is how I
rate I was day after day listening to this listening to this. Is it fair to beat up the victim? Absolutely. While
Weston hammered on every decision Michelle made that day, the attorney representing Butler went after
everything else. What was the worst thing they asked you about my sex life? They were trying to paint me as somebody
that was irresponsible, a selfish, terrible mother that would do anything for money.
And they picked apart Michelle's finances. She's in uh financial uh distress and that could be the motive.
Isn't it kind of odd that we're talking about motive when we're talking about a victim? It is. The defense in the case
was to uh make Michelle a uh uh a culprit here. After Michelle's grueling three-day testimony, it was Christopher
Butler's turn. He protected Lisa on the stand, claiming Michelle was the mastermind and
that they'd had an affair. I was shocked. It's almost laughable. What was his story about how the two of you met?
From what I understand, we met in a grocery store and that I recruited him. Butler claimed that he'd gone to
Michelle's house that night with Huggin and Ortiz. He said that in the early morning hours while smoking pot,
Michelle brought up the bank robbery idea again and decided they should do it that morning. His evidence of this, his
proof of this, zero. If any of this were true, he would have thrown Michelle down
in a heartbeat in his interview. The jury deliberated for 5 days before finding Butler guilty of the bank
robbery and Bria and Kimbra's kidnapping, but they hung 9 to3 on the charges of kidnapping Michelle. When we
talked to the jurors, you know, we discovered it was one juror who completely believed Butler and the other
two jurors were unsure. And they found Lisa Ramirez not guilty on all counts. Oh, the best verdict I ever got in my
life. Mind-boggling. The fact that it was her idea to do this to a mother and a child and laughing and proud of it.
How involved do you think she was in this? Very involved. The investigators kept saying she she was the brains of
the outfit. So the brains of the outfit walked, right? The second trial would go very
differently with Huggin and Ortiz easily convicted. In so many of uh the stories
that we tell, the ending is the conviction. But in your case, in a lot of ways, that's just the beginning.
All righty. Is it working? Yes. If you close your eyes, can you still see it? Okay.
All of it. I can still see all of it. Even though the men who had terrorized them were now serving multiple life
sentences, Michelle and Bria would never be the same. There's aspects of that night that are
going to be with me for the rest of my life. They were treated for post-traumatic
stress disorder for over two years. They had their guns. Michelle says dealing with the breakin led to a
breakthrough. It was two choices. Call them monsters and stay angry and blame everything of my life on them. Or I can
take this other road. The best thing I could do for Bria is to be an example. Enjoy the book. Michelle wrote a book
action which was made into a TV movie and she and Bria went on speaking tours to discuss their experience with trauma.
A lot of people coming out of this would want to just forget about it, put it behind them. But you and your mom talked
openly about it. Yes. And I think it was the best decision for us. We're speaking
out about our experience. I was showing people that it's not always the end all be all when something bad happens to
you. You can come out of it stronger. 2. And by 2011, she really turned the corner and started enjoying her life
again. The girl who had hidden from everything was a high school senior and competitive cheerleader. She loved it.
It was her absolute passion. Yeah. You're thriving. You're living the dream. You said you dreamed of this. You
were living the dream. I was. Then suddenly senior year in December, I started feeling a little
off. I was dropping things. Showed up at my work at 6:00 dragging her leg going,
"Mommy, something's really wrong. Something's wrong. I don't know what's happening." I said, "Mom, I'm really
scared." They had no idea Bria was in for the fight of her life. And we rushed her to
the hospital and they started pricking her leg and she couldn't feel it and her heart rate started going crazy. Oh my
gosh. By 8:00 p.m. that night, I was paralyzed on my left side. Couldn't talk, couldn't
swallow, blind in my left eye. We found abnormalities in the brain is all they could tell me that night. It almost
sounds like there's that same feeling of helplessness that you had the night that
you were held hostage completely. The next morning, Bria was diagnosed with an acute onset of multiple
scerosis, an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks its own
tissues. Based on the scans, she has tumactive MS, which is not only rare in and of itself, but people Bria's age at
18 rarely get MS. Bria says she was told she might never walk or talk again. Just like that. Just
like that. One, two, three, go. My life just ended again. There you go. I was 18 trying to go off to college, do
cheer in college, and that was never going to happen for me. So much of your healing had been talking, and now you
couldn't talk. No, I couldn't talk. What is it? and push. I couldn't feed myself
anymore. She had to relearn all of that. Up good. But it was as if they'd been training for this for years.
Do you think in some way what happened to you when you were seven prepared you for battling MS? Yes. I think it made me
strong enough to go through what I went through with MS. It was here we go again. Here we go again.
Bria would spend six weeks in the hospital, two to three times a day of physical therapy, occupational
therapies, speech therapy. After she could talk again, she turned to me and said, "Kidnapping was a piece
of cake compared to this. Do it again." And just as with the kidnapping, Bria wanted to inspire
others. She wrote her college essay from her hospital room, from her wheelchair.
It is my hope that my college experience and said, "I'm going to college. I'm going to be the first person in my
family to graduate college no matter what. I now know that there is no time to waste. Life can change so suddenly."
She chronicled her journey on her Facebook page. Bria, what? I love you. She fought tooth and nail every single
day for every single step she took. She walked out of the hospital. This time it
was Michelle doing the cheerleading. Pray for us. The rehab started in the hospital, but the real rehab was
Michelle, constantly on her. We're going to do this. It's okay. Good job. We were
a total team. We just ended up going into full gear. We lived in a house with stairs. Good. That was really good. She
couldn't do stairs anymore. So, once again, you're out of a home that you've been living in. Yeah. And I
had to become her full-time caregiver for about a year and a half, two years and rebuilding our life again despite
the odds. Three, four, five. Oh, she made it to college. She relapsed three times her first year in college and had
to come home, but she did it. She follows in her mom's footsteps, teaching her how to get her foot to stay on the
line. I with the tenacity and the never give up philosophy that they have. Lift your knee up. Ready? Go. Bria is walking
talking proof. So they told you you would never walk again? Yeah. I would never walk again, never see again, never
anything like that. And I would say I beat the odds yet again. Yes. Exactly. But 20 years
after their world first came crashing down, they'd be faced with the unimaginable once
again. Christopher Butler could be released. [Music] It's been over 20 years. What stands out about this case
in hindsight? The victims. From the very beginning, the case hit close to home for prosecutor Tom
Manning. the fact that there was a a little girl. My daughter was the same age as Bria when this happened. Nearly
20 years later, in June 2020, Christopher Butler was up for parole. He's the one who lied about me.
Manning made sure he was at the hearing. And you had a plan going in. I did. He saw a chance to set the record straight
by asking Butler about the story he'd told on the stand. I told Michelle if I felt it was right, I was going to go for
it. What'd you think about that? Go for it. Ask away. Even though that's risky. It's a little risky. This guy could go
to the grave with these lies. The risk paid off. Butler recanted his whole story, admitting he and Michelle never
had a relationship. How did that feel to hear that? It's about time. I wanted everybody who
ever doubted me to read this parole transcript. I want to blast it all over the internet that there was never ever a
chance that I would ever ever have been involved in anything like this ever. Bria says it's a bittersweet victory for
her mom. Feels good, but it's a little too late. You can search my mom's name and it can come up on the internet. You
can't take that back. Why is it taken so long to come clean? And it's probably because he had an opportunity to be
free. Even though Butler was unequivocal that Michelle was not involved, he still
hasn't really taken responsibility. He blamed his old flame, Lisa Ramirez. But Butler said he was sorry
for what he put his victims through and even said he'd read Michelle's book more
than once. He said, "Some of the passages in your book really got to him." Yeah. On the road trip to Alaska,
I really started to think about what it would be like to try to just understand.
Michelle says that's when she started to wonder about the people behind the masks. This is someone's son. This is
someone's brother. This is someone's grandson. What happened to them in their life that got them to the point where
they thought the only option was to attack a mother and her daughter? Do you accept Christopher Butler's apology?
I do. Yeah. A thousand%. I appreciate him finally being honest after all this time. I hope he keeps digging deeper.
Yeah, I forgave him a long time ago and I accept his apology. But neither Bria nor Michelle want
Butler released. He's already been denied parole twice. The irony isn't lost on Dave. All
he really did is free everybody else. He's held hostage with his life in a very weird way.
I could breathe. I could exhale finally after all this time. While they don't believe Butler has changed his ways,
they feel very differently about the other two men who held them hostage. They confessed. They take accountability
for what they did. And that's a big thing. Are you actually rooting for these guys to succeed at this point?
Yes. They were younger than what I am now. If they are doing the work, I want nothing but the best for them.
Especially Robert Ortiz. Robert Ortiz. At the sentencing, Robert Ortiz is the only one that turned around and looked
at me and said, "I'm sorry." He mouthed it. They wrote to Ortiz back in 2011 and received a reply 9 years later.
Out of respect for him, I'm not going to say everything that's in the letter. I can say that it's beautiful. It's
heartfelt. And I can't wait to see where that leads. This is the young man who held a
gun to your daughter's head. Yes. And she spoke at his parole hearing in his favor.
There's my puppy. We're road tripping. In the meantime, Michelle has written a follow-up book. So, we're on our way
about the road trip that changed her point of view. Great morning. Really great morning. It is about healing. Just
called 9 days, which is how long I was on the road to Alaska. It is possible to forgive. I do believe that through this
terrible tragedy, it's possible to see beauty again. that something beautiful was meant to come about.
It has built these people into these incredible human beings. And through it all, they say they
wouldn't change a thing, even the kidnapping. So, if you look back at the last 20
years, what has this journey been about? raising a remarkable daughter. It's the
best thing I've ever done in my life is be her mom. It seems like both of you look at
this at least a tiny bit as a gift. Mhm. Yeah. I wouldn't change it. It gave us a chance to build the bond that we
have today and it's just gotten stronger. Yeah. [Music] [Music] I can only describe it as evil,
something horrible. From 48 hours, this is trained to kill the dog trainer, the ays, and the bodyguard. He couldn't
control his obsession. Who was the hunter and who was the hunted? Follow and listen on the free Odyssey app or
wherever you get your podcasts.

A mother is forced to rob a bank to save her daughter’s life, then her abductor falsely claims the mother was in on the crime. "48 Hours" correspondent Tracy Smith reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com

Brief Summary

Michelle Renee and her daughter Bria were kidnapped by armed robbers, forced to rob a bank, and faced long-term trauma and recovery.

Key points

The Night of Terror. Michelle and her daughter Bria are held hostage by armed men in their home.
The Fake Dynamite. Investigators discover that the dynamite used to threaten Michelle was fake.
Trial and Credibility. Michelle's past comes into question during the trial, affecting her credibility.
Bria's Battle with MS. After a traumatic past, Bria faces a new challenge with multiple sclerosis, changing her life again.
Christopher Butler's Parole Hearing. Butler recants his story at the parole hearing, admitting Michelle was innocent.
Michelle's Journey of Forgiveness. Michelle reflects on the healing journey and the possibility of forgiveness after trauma.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was probably the happiest moment of my life.

Michelle's relief upon finding her daughter alive after the ordeal.

9:21WatchMay 29, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from 48 Hours

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.