'I never stopped searching', says American father of girl kidnapped by her mother - and who is waiting to meet her for first time in TWENTY YEARS

US father never gave up on daughter,Savanna Todd, kidnapped as a baby



Benjamin Harris Todd III hopes to reunite with Savanna in Australia



For 20 years Todd updated Savanna's room and made video each birthday



Dorothy Barnett faces deportation to US and 20 year jail sentence

Amazing story about how fugitive Barnett's big lie unravelled



Savanna so far reluctant to meet real father out of 'loyalty' to Barnett



Benjamin Harris Todd III never gave up hope of finding his kidnapped daughter.

Now his ex-wife faces deportation this month from Australia to a US prison, he nervously hopes Savanna Todd can love him as a father.

The intensely private stockbroker from America's Deep South understands why the daughter snatched from him in 1994 by her mother Dorothy Lee Barnett and who never knew him as father has so far held off from speaking with him.

Charleston stockbroker, Benjamin Harris Todd III, (pictured with baby Savanna in 1994) never gave up hope of finding his kidnapped daughter who became the subject of an FBI international manhunt

The only father she knew: Savanna Todd (left) thought her name was Samantha Geldenhuys and that Juan Geldenhuys was her natural father. She is pictured here with Geldenhuys, her half brother, Rhys, and mother, whose real name is Dorothy Barnett

'His daughter thus far has been reluctant to meet,' Todd's lawyer, J Graham Sturgis, told the MailOnline.

'She only knows her mother and the misinformation that has been provided her. She likely would be considered by her mother to be disloyal if she were to meet [Todd] at this time.'

As Barnett faces an extradition hearing in a Queensland court and possible immediate immigration detention as early as next week ahead of deportation to the US, Benjamin Todd fears jeopardising his hoped for reunion with his daughter.

But Mr Sturgis said Todd yearned for the 'long awaited opportunity' of meeting Savanna.

He had literally counted the days - 19 years, six months and 12 days - from the access visit on which Savanna disappeared with her mother, to when Australian police knocked on a door in a beachside suburb and arrested Barnett for abduction.



The Yale-educated, softly spoken Southern gentleman has refused to speak with the media about the daughter he spent endless hours and a considerable amount of his fortune on a worldwide search for her.

The extraordinary story of how Barnett eluded the FBI for two decades, and how her life as a lie unravelled, is said to have 'deeply confused' 20-year-old Savanna Todd.

Until the day federal US charges of child abduction and passport fraud were laid against her mother last November, the young nursing student believed her name was Samantha Geldenhuys and the recently deceased Juan Geldenhuys - really her stepfather - was her biological parent.

Dorothy Barnett's friends have launched a campaign against Benjamin Todd, telling the Seven Network's Today Tonight he had wanted Barnett to terminate her pregnancy with Savanna in 1993.

Savanna Todd (left), who only learnt her real name three months ago is said to be 'deeply confused' about the fact her mother kidnapped her and is 'reluctant' to meet Benjamin Todd, the father (right) she never knew

Friends of Dorothy Barnette (left, with daughter Savanna) have llaunched a campaign against Savanna's real father, Benjamin Todd, calling him 'evil'

One friend described Todd as an 'evil, evil man' while Barnett herself described his pursuit of her as 'corrupt' and 'criminal'.

Details have emerged about the doomed relationship between the quite classical music lover, Todd, the son of a nurse and a doctor from Kentucky, and Barnett, who was raised by a single mother and stepfather on welfare.

Todd spent his career working at financial management company Merrill Lynch in Charleston, South Carolina.

Barnett ran a piggery in Belize, a jewellery business in Africa, finally settling for a job as a flight attendant before meeting Todd and marrying him in a whirlwind romance.

When the marriage failed, and Todd gained custody of Savanna after a court case which alleged Barnett was bipolar, she was awarded only supervised access to her daughter.

It was on one of these visits Barnett and 11-month-old Savanna disappeared and embarked on their lives as fugitives, travelling to Malaysia, Singapore, and South Africa where Barnett married Juan Geldenhuys and had a son.

The couple emigrated to New Zealand, where they gained citizenship, and then Barnett and her children moved to Australia's Sunshine Coast, where they were known as Alexandria, Samantha and Rhys Geldenhuys.

It was over evening drinks after a day's sailing in 2011 that Barnett slipped up.

She referred to Samantha as 'Savanna' and said she had fled an 'abusive' relationship in America.

Barnett's South African friends went online and found a page on the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children's website.

Savanna Todd (pictured as a toddler) has only known Juan Geldenhuys (right) as her father, causing 'deep confusion' about her real identity



They saw pictures of a woman who looked like a younger 'Alex' and an age-advanced photo of a girl who resembled Samantha.

They contacted Benjamin Todd in America. His long hunt for Savanna was over.



J Graham Sturgis said Benjamin Todd 'never quit' looking for his daughter.

'For years he updated her room to be age appropriate and would record a video message to her there on her birthdays,' Sturgis said.

'It is a parent's worst nightmare not to know what happened to a child [but] he never lost hope and pursued every possibility that might lead to her recovery.'

It is believed Dorothy Barnett does not hold Australian citizenship and risks detention should she be granted bail from Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre.

A hearing in Maroochydore Magistrate's Court will determine whether she is 'eligible for surrender' to the US, after which the Federal Attorney General will decide whether to give Barnett over to US authorities.