Dear Savanna - Encore
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(upbeat music) - Whee, there she goes. Samantha, but it has a good girl. Come on me, happy routine. - Happy. - A few months before my mom gave birth to me, she started writing a diary and it starts off on the first page saying, "To my dear Savannah, someday I'll give this journal to you so that you can hopefully understand your mother." (laughing) (upbeat music) - My name is Samantha Galdin-Heis. - I was born to Savannah, but I didn't know that. Savannah Lee Barnett. - I grew up on the Sunshine Coast in Australia. It is the most magnificent place. (upbeat music) - I knew my mom as Alex my entire life. But in reality, she wasn't Alex at all. She was Lee. - Come on. - Lee Barnett. - In April of 1994, I got a phone call that my dear friend Lee had disappeared. I thought, oh no, don't let this be true. - I never imagined that my good friend Lee would be the subject of an international manhunt. - Our investigation spanned the United States and the globe researched, Belize, Central America and South Africa. Dorothy Lee was very equipped and running from the law. As she thought about this, she was planned, she was determined. (laughing) - I feel the FBI and every other law enforcement agency underestimated me. - The FBI more than met their match when they tangled with Dorothy Lee Barnett. - Welcome to Malaysia. This is our home. - Did you at all think I'm gonna get caught? They're gonna get me. - Every day. - Every day. - My baby! - I thought this was gonna be one of those unsolved mysteries that would never be solved. - Samantha, I went to Singapore in a couple of days. - Until 2011, when we had the tip
Transcription truncated.
For two decades, the FBI couldn’t catch a mother on the run abroad with her daughter -- but she couldn't outrun her past. She tells her side of the story to "48 Hours" correspondent Maureen Maher.