instant horror of where is she what had happened to baby savanna? the answer would come decades later and astonish the world. it happened so fast, couldn t fathom what was going on imagine, your mother fugitive. your father stranger. your home, your name your past was any of it real? the first thing i felt, jus a pit in my stomach. i jus felt like it was my fault. a mother s crime. a father pain what kinds of emotions di it stir up when you would se that crib? it would just make me cry a daughter forced to face the shattering truth i was shocked and i was jus terrified. hello and welcome t dateline a father left childless and daughter left questioning he very identity. it was a case that started as custody battle, but turned int an international mystery tha spanned two decades and took investigators nearly 10,00 miles around the world all driven by a determined dad searching for answers and hi daughter here s andrea canning with finding savanna. in
haunting crime but only one caller was tellin the truth. father versus son. i grabbed him, i said stop. he throws me to the ground he s very good at making up stories, but that is not true. each is accusing each other of the crime yes and you have to figure ou who the killer is? that is the problem broken glasses, a pair of sandals, specks of blood what investigators get it right? no one on our side of the family had any doubt we may have the wrong guy i jail here. what a jury it was such a battle, bot sides coming, both sides blazing. hello, and welcome to dateline a woman was brutally murdere in her own bed but, it was what came next tha shocked investigators. her husband and son both pointing fingers at each other police knew that one of them had to be spending a incredible tale. but, what story would th evidence tell? here is dennis murphy with tru lies bill kyne now he was a luck man. the single data five kids wa getting a second cha
was born. it was like responsibility that i suddenly realized had, if you will, bee thrust upon me reporter: the fight for savanna turned into an epi battle. a family court showdow that became one of the longest and most contentious tha charleston had ever seen. ther will be mothers everywhere saying shame on him. how can he, you know, try to rip that baby from her arms when she s still nursing. she s built this bond i wasn t trying to take her away from her mother. i just felt that i was the more stabl parent reporter: at the hearing, harris and others testifie that lee s behavior was erratic, sometimes violent. one psychiatrist testified that le had a mood disorder. according to harris lawyer, graham sturgis, lee s emotional outbursts were on full display in the courtroom. so much so that the judge had to take action as the case wore on, it was clear that her level of anxiet and frustration rose until the
me and ran. so, the first thin that popped into my head, said, does that mean dad isn my dad? reporter: as far back a savanna could remember, juan geldenhuys had always been b her side. she believed he wa her biological dad, somethin lee kept reinforcing mom would relay things, you know? like, you sleep like you dad. or you know, you look lik your dad. so, i ve always grow up with that reporter: but tragedy struc in 2011, when juan, by the divorced from lee, fell sick with cancer. the man savanna thought was her dad died just week before lee was arrested he fought very long and ver hard, but it was inevitable. but i m happy because the last words i said to him was, love you , and the same with him. reporter: savanna said sh had barely begun to mourn he father s death when the news came that she was someon else s daughter. i ve never heard harris todd. i ve never heard savanna i found out that i was
harris told lee he wanted divorce. he said, lee told him she was pregnant everything fell apart whe she told him that she wa pregnant reporter: patty said what actually made the marriage g sour was harris refusal to hav children he wanted her to terminat the pregnancy, and that wa just not an option for lee. it broke her heart. reporter: lee says that you didn t want her to have th child? not at all true. i neve said that. not once. reporter: either way, the marriage was over. harris left lee when she was still in he first trimester and le initiated divorce proceedings. when baby savanna was born i may 1993, she asked for full custody. i felt at the end of the day, lee would have her child harris would have visitations. reporter: but to everyone s surprise, harris counter-sued. you decided you wanted ful custody? from my point of view, decided that before the baby