Incredible drama unfolded recently in an Alabama town when a 5-year-old boy known only as Ethan was held hostage for nearly one week in an underground bunker in Midland City. Jimmy Lee Dykes' diabolical plan to kidnap a child from a school bus resulted in the murder of the bus driver and a six-day standoff with Federal authorities.
For the very first time, ABC's "20/20" will air the exclusive audio tapes of the confrontation with the bus driver seconds before he is shot; audio of the 9-1-1 call from a student in the back of the bus; and audio of the final ranting phone call from an increasingly belligerent Dykes as the standoff was coming to its dramatic conclusion. It was a dangerous game of "cat and mouse," with a little boy caught in the crossfire. Pierre Thomas' report airs on "20/20" on FRIDAY, MAY 31 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the
ABC Television Network.
Plus: An alleged Eastern European crime ring used sexy women to lure vacationing men into their questionable Miami nightclubs. Once inside, they got the men drunk and, investigators say, racked up huge and often fraudulent tabs on their credit cards. But one man who was victimized, TV weatherman John Bolaris, fought back and spurred an FBI investigation and bust. Matt Gutman updates viewers on a story that originally aired June 2012.
And: They were a beautiful but tragic family: J.S. Dirr, the Canadian Mountie dad, the fetching wife and mother who died suddenly in a car crash, and 3-year-old "Warrior Eli," named for his valiant fight against cancer. For years people had followed the family's ups and downs on the internet, forming relationships with the father, wearing wristbands in Eli's honor, and donating money for cancer research in Eli's name. But when one online "friend" became suspicious and started sleuthing, the whole family was revealed to be a figment of one woman's imagination. Elizabeth Vargas reports. (OAD: 1/11/13)
David Sloan is senior executive producer of "20/20" and John Green is the executive producer.
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