By  Seamus McGraw

September 18, 2006

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LUGOFF, S.C. (Crime Library) —  Elizabeth Shoaf, an abducted teenager who had the presence of mind to secretly steal her captor's cell phone and send a text message for help is reportedly resting at home after being rescued from the dirt dungeon where she was kept for 10 days.

Elizabeth Shoaf

The 14-year-old girl, who was rescued Saturday from the booby trapped bunker where she had been held since her abduction, allegedly by a suspected sex offender with a penchant for pornography, cut-rate cigarettes and secret lairs, is "holding up strong" her parents told CNN in an interview aired this morning.

In the meantime, authorities are continuing to build their case against 26-year-old Vinson Filyaw, described as an unemployed construction worker who had already been under suspicion for an unrelated sex offense.

Authorities had been looking for Filyaw, who was suspected of a sexual assault against a 12-year-old relative for months. Last spring, they had raided his rural trailer in a bid to arrest him, but he vanished before they could nab him, disappearing into a secret warren of tunnels and underground bunkers that he had carved into the ground. At first, authorities failed to detect the system of underground hideouts and assumed that Filyaw was on the run and had possibly fled the state.

He hadn't.

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