![]() Her family had always known that their home, near the Colombian border, was in a region that was often rife with crime at the time, but they never imagined it would hit their own family. RELATED: Was The Right Man Convicted Of The 1994 Disappearance Of A Teen Gas Station Clerk?Įlisa was led into the forest where her captors brought her to a make-shift tent and chained her to a nearby tree. This was a kidnapping by those who falsely believed that due to her father’s ties to the United States her family was wealthy and able to pay a handsome ransom for her release. ![]() Handcuffed, gagged, and hidden under a blanket, Elisa recalled driving for more than a hour along bumpy roads before the vehicle stopped and the man who had claimed to be starting a bird project approached the vehicle and helped her out.īy now, it was clear there was no bird project. “He said like, ‘Don’t move, don’t scream, if you help, nothing’s going to happen to you,'" she recalled. Nothing about the voyage seemed unusual until the driver stopped to pick two people up along the side of the road and one pressed a gun to her neck and forced her into the well of the car. In a moment of foresight, Elisa told her brother to write down the license plate of the vehicle and then got into the Trooper and took off with the friendly driver. A driver in a blue Isuzu Trooper was there waiting for her. How Was Elisa Levy Kidnapped?īy the age of 24, Elisa had returned to Ecuador and was working as a volunteer with Altropico when she got a “normal” call from a man claiming to be from the area who wanted to start a bird project in a nearby town.Įlisa agreed to help if the man sent a driver to pick her up and on Saturday October 17, 2009, one of her brothers drove her to the meeting spot. As a teenager, she lived with some family in Long Island, visited some of the nation’s biggest tourist destinations, and worked at American institutions like Applebees and Dunkin’ Donuts. RELATED: California Mom Found Dead With Her Throat Slashed After Failing To Show Up To Family DinnerĮlisa got a taste of life in the United States, too. After they got married, the couple’s four children enjoyed dual citizenship in both countries.Įlisa - a bold adventurer - grew up amidst the Ecuadorian jungle while her parents started the environmental group Altropico to try to preserve the endangered rainforest surrounding their home. ![]() Her father, James Levy, was raised in the United States on Long Island, but he fell in love with her mother during a trip to Ecuador with the Peace Corps in the 1980s. Who Is Elisa Levy?įor most of her life, the 24-year-old conservation activist spent her time among two very distinct worlds. “I was just hoping it wasn’t a dream,” Elisa said. RELATED: Did A Woman Really Confuse Her Husband For a Bear On A Canada Hunting Trip Or Was It Murder?Įach time, she’d re-lock the chain as she tried to muster the courage to strike out on her own in the vast rainforest, until a middle-of-the-night rescue by an elite group of Ecuadorian police finally put an end to the horrific ordeal after three weeks of sheer terror. “I didn’t want to die,” Elisa would later tell Oxygen True Crime’s Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, airing Wednesdays at 8/7c.Įlisa survived the harrowing ordeal, in part due to her fierce determination, creative thinking, and ability to stay positive even in the most dire circumstances as her captors threatened to kill her, cut off her finger, or sell her to South America’s most powerful guerilla forces.Īrmed with only a few old hairpins, Elisa managed to pick the lock to the chain that held her to a tree and free herself while her captors left her unattended - but the 24-year-old was too terrified to try to run after her kidnappers made chillingly threats that they’d kill her whole family. Watch Dateline: Secrets Uncovered Peacock and the Oxygen App.
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