This story initially aired on Feb. 11, 2023. It was up to date on Could 24, 2025.
The one monsters that had ever scared Michelle Renee’s 7-year-old daughter Breea have been make-believe. However on Nov. 20, 2000, only a day earlier than three masked males broke in …
Michelle Renee: She calls me. ‘Mom, there’s any individual outdoors the window’ … I seemed on the market. I didn’t see something. I didn’t see anyone. … So, I simply brushed it off.
Michelle and Breea Renee
Michelle Renee
Michelle had chalked it as much as her little one’s creativeness. However this time was totally different.
Michelle Renee: She noticed them wanting via the window. They have been there the evening earlier than.
The identical males now held Michelle and Breea at gunpoint in the lounge. The gunmen stated they’d been following the 35-year-old financial institution supervisor for months.
Michelle Renee: It was very a lot that thoughts management factor that they have been doing, that “we know everything about you.”
Michelle would recount the occasions inside the home for investigators:
FBI VIDEO OF MICHELLE RENEE AT CRIME SCENE: “We’re going to be here all night with you to make sure you know exactly what you’re going to do or you will die.”
All through the evening, the ringleader gave particular directions about how he needed Michelle to rob her personal financial institution the subsequent morning:
FBI VIDEO OF MICHELLE RENEE AT CRIME SCENE: “We’re going to go over this again. This is what you’re going to do … When Brinks gets there, you’re going to get Brinks’ money.”
As she huddled with Breea on the sofa, now duct taped, Michelle may hear him speaking to a lady on a two-way radio.
Michelle Renee: Cash One to Cash Two have been their –
Tracy Smith: That’s what they known as one another.
Michelle Renee: Yeah, they known as one another Cash One to Cash Two.
Cash One was the ringleader. Round 11, the voice on the walkie-talkie acquired his consideration: “Car coming up the driveway. The roommate’s there.”
It was their roommate Kimbra.
Michelle Renee doing a videotaped walkthrough for investigators of what occurred when she was held hostage at her former home.
North County Superior Courtroom
FBI VIDEO OF MICHELLE RENEE AT CRIME SCENE: And so they put the gun proper right here in her face, proper up her nostril, and stated, “don’t make us f***ing use this.” … I pushed the man’s hand out of her face and stated, “don’t do this, don’t hurt her.” And he simply pointed it proper at me and stated, “don’t ever f***ing touch me again …”
Michelle realized this may be the final evening she ever spent together with her daughter.
MICHELLE RENEE VIDEO WALKTHROUGH: It was nearly morning. … I simply rubbed her hair so she may attempt to get some sleep.
Michelle Renee: Questioning if that was gonna be the final time I used to be gonna get to the touch her hair and see her sleep … was fairly robust.
Within the morning the nightmare would proceed.
Michelle Renee: It was like 6 a.m. … he stated “Get up. It’s time to get ready for work.”
FBI VIDEO OF MICHELLE RENEE AT CRIME SCENE: I acquired dressed and began doing my hair when he got here in and stopped me and stated, “we need to put the dynamite on you now.”
In a reenactment for investigators, Michelle and Breea Renee are seen sporting the faux dynamite that the abductors strapped to their backs.
North County Superior Courtroom
Michelle, her roommate Kimbra, and Breea would all be strapped with dynamite. Then Cash One confirmed Michelle what seemed like a doorbell.
Michelle Renee: “This is a detonation device. … you will disintegrate. Your daughter will go first.”
FBI VIDEO OF MICHELLE RENEE AT CRIME SCENE:: “One false move, I push this button.” …
And so they sat me proper right here and stated, “now we’re going to take your daughter.”
The gunmen put Breea in her bed room closet.
FBI VIDEO OF MICHELLE RENEE AT CRIME SCENE: I used to be simply telling her I’d be proper again, that all the pieces goes to be advantageous.
Michelle Renee: “Be brave, Mommy” … that was the very last thing she stated … earlier than I walked out to go to the financial institution.
Tracy Smith: Did you’re feeling courageous?
Michelle Renee: No.
As two of the gunmen stayed in the home, Cash One handed Michelle a briefcase full of a duffle bag earlier than he crouched at the back of her Jeep. With dynamite on her again and a gun to her facet, she drove to work.
Tracy Smith (outdoors of the financial institution): So, you pull up into your spot … What does he inform you earlier than you get out of the automotive?
Michelle Renee: “Don’t … don’t f*** this up.”
Tracy Smith: The Brinks truck got here at — 8:50?
Michelle Renee: I imagine proper round 8:50 was the drop, proper over right here (poins to the left facet of the constructing from the doorway).
That’s when Michelle grabbed her briefcase and headed to the vault.
Michelle Renee: I introduced my teller within the vault with me, stated … “I’m getting ready to clear out this vault, or my daughter and I are gonna die. This is what’s happened all night.”
Tracy Smith: And also you whispered to her “I have dynamite on my back”?
Michelle Renee: Sure. …Yeah, I whisp — I pulled my shirt up.
Tracy Smith: And you then simply opened up the duffel bag and began shoveling in cash?
Michelle Renee: I did. … My coronary heart was racing. My –”am I quick sufficient?”
Michelle’s colleagues would alert the authorities, however not earlier than she walked out with $360,000.
Michelle Renee: … Simply get to the Jeep. Hurl it within the Jeep —
Tracy Smith: And go.
Michelle Renee: — and simply do what’s subsequent.
Cash One directed Michelle to get out just a few blocks later.
Michelle Renee: And that I might discover my Jeep down the road.
She discovered her automotive and raced dwelling.
Michelle Renee: I don’t know if Breea’s gonna be there. I don’t know if she’s gonna be alive after I get there … And I went to open the door, and I used to be simply screaming … “Hello? Hello?” … It was eerily silent.
Breea Renee: And I simply heard “Breea,” and I bear in mind screaming, “We’re back here, we’re back here.”
Breea was nonetheless within the closet proper the place Michelle had left her.
Tracy Smith: What was that like to listen to and see her?
Michelle Renee: Oh my gosh … She was alive. … “I did it. We did it. … we didn’t die.”
Breea Renee: In all probability the happiest second of my life. … However then I may nonetheless see the panic on her face.
Michelle Renee: The dynamite’s nonetheless on me.
Earlier than leaving, the gunmen had ripped the dynamite off of Kimbra and Breea. So, they lower it off of Michelle’s again earlier than working to the closest neighbor.
Rick Brown lived up a steep hill.
Rick Brown | Neighbor: I opened the gate, went down the hill actual quick, helped them as much as the home. I known as 911 immediately.
911 DISPATCHER: Sheriff’s Division, can I make it easier to?
RICK BROWN: Sure, some neighbors of ours have been held hostage … I would like any individual out right here immediately.
Quickly, the place was crawling with investigators from the FBI, San Diego Sheriff’s Division, and the bomb squad.
Tom Manning: That is the dynamite that was taken off of Michelle.
Kidnapped and threatened with dynamite, financial institution supervisor pressured to commit $360,000 theft to avoid wasting her daughter’s life
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San Diego County Prosecutor Tom Manning would lead the duty drive investigating the case. They rapidly found out the dynamite was faux.
Tom Manning: They notice that it truly is 2 painted dowels or broomstick handles … However as you possibly can see from a distance and the lighting, plus it’s in your again with the stress of the scenario, you’re not gonna take an opportunity that it isn’t actual.
However throughout the very actual 14 hours they have been held hostage, Michelle had held onto any element which may assist determine the attackers.
Michelle Renee: Remembering particulars is simply form of this a part of my DNA about folks. That was kinda my superpower.
Particulars like Cash One’s eyes.
A sketch of Cash One by Michelle Renee. Through the 14-hour hostage scenario, Renee had acknowledged the ringleader’s eyes as a result of he had posed as a buyer on the financial institution earlier that day.
FBI VIDEO OF MICHELLE RENEE AT CRIME SCENE: After I turned the sunshine on to go to the lavatory … and I noticed his eyes in there… I stated “those eyes were at my desk; those eyes were at my desk today. Oh my God.”
Michelle says it was a person with whom she’d had an odd encounter on the financial institution hours earlier than being taken hostage.
Michelle Renee: And he sat at my desk for a very very long time asking sorta the identical questions time and again. … after which a lady walked in and stated, “Chris, we need to get going.” And so they acquired up and left.
The person had handed Michelle his enterprise card.
Tracy Smith: And the title on the enterprise card was?
Michelle Renee: Christopher Butler.
THE EVIDENCE LEFT BEHIND
After hours of police questioning, Michelle and Breea have been despatched to a resort. Michelle known as her brother Dave.
Dave Estey: It didn’t sound like her … it was — somebody, you already know, closely traumatized.
Dave, who lived three hours away, rushed to his sister’s help.
Dave Estey: What I noticed after I opened that door … it scared the daylights out of me. … “Are you OK?” And he or she would shake.
Tracy Smith: How about Breea?
Dave Estey: Identical factor.
Within the days forward, Michelle struggled to carry it collectively for her daughter – “She was the strongest person for me,” says Breea — whereas investigators needed solutions.
They grilled her about that odd encounter with Christopher Butler.
Tracy Smith: Why was he within the financial institution? What was he saying he was there for?
Michelle Renee: He got here in to say that he was a possible shopper. And that he needed to speak about investments.
Earlier than Butler handed Michelle his enterprise card, a lady he launched as Lisa got here in and whisked him away.
Michelle Renee: “Hey, Chris, we need to go.”
It was the identical voice Michelle says she heard later that evening on the walkie-talkie.
Michelle Renee: I stored saying it time and again.
Tracy Smith: “Check my desk. Get that card.”
Michelle Renee: “Check my desk. Get that card. …I know that it’s them.”
Tom Manning: By way of that card, they began the investigation.
The ringleader had been on the financial institution hours earlier than the break-in posing as a buyer. He had talked to Michelle Renee, the financial institution supervisor, about opening a brand new account and had even left behind a enterprise card earlier than a feminine companion had whisked him away.
North County Superior Courtroom
The FBI quickly found Butler was a convicted felon with a historical past of robbing banks.
Tom Manning: They found out the place he was staying … then the crew that I work with arrange surveillance.
Butler and his fiancée, Lisa Ramirez, lived in a home only a few miles from the financial institution.
Tom Manning: Among the folks in the home have been tellin’ the police who was there, after they deliberate it
Inside days, detectives recognized the 2 different males. Christopher Huggins –
Tom Manning: He was a giant man, possibly — possibly 6’4″ he’s … gang ties.
And the person who’d held a gun to little Breea — a gang member known as “Bones” — actual title Robert Ortiz.
Tom Manning: Ortiz was the connection … who acquired the weapons.
On Dec. 1, they determined to arrest Butler and Ramirez throughout a visitors cease.
When Christopher Butler and Lisa Ramirez have been arrested 10 days later at a visitors cease, investigators discovered bodily proof tying them to the crime, together with a BB gun that matched one of many weapons Renee had described.
North County Superior Courtroom
Tom Manning (in proof room): Within the glove compartment was a weapon … it’s truly a BB gun … in case you take a look at that in a annoying scenario, that appears as actual as it could get.
Tracy Smith: What’d they discover after they popped the trunk?
Tom Manning: A plethora of proof.
Tracy Smith: All this.
Tom Manning: All this. … They discovered the black bag that Michelle described the cash being carried in, a number of pairs of black gloves … and a selfmade ski masks.
Tracy Smith: Oh, yeah. Take a look at the eyeholes there that they clearly lower themselves.
Tom Manning: Michelle’s bank cards have been all discovered within the trunk of the automobile … after which in fact the cash straps from the financial institution.
Additionally within the trunk, that doorbell “detonator”. And there was much more on the home.
Tom Manning: They discovered all of the substances to make the faux bomb. … There have been broom handles, which have been lower up into small dowels which truly have been utilized in making the faux dynamite. … In addition they recovered the precise spray cans … Ramirez’s fingerprint was on a kind of cans.
Tom Manning: It was loopy. I’ve by no means seen that a lot bodily proof left at a criminal offense scene.
Tracy Smith: They thought they’d gotten away with it.
Tom Manning: Yeah.
One factor investigators didn’t discover on Butler and Ramirez – any of the financial institution’s $360,000. However after arresting Huggins that very same day, they did get better $93,000 of the money that he’d stashed away. Huggins confessed and stated he’d already spent a number of grand on a visit to Vegas. The fourth suspect, Robert Ortiz, was on the lam.
When authorities arrested him three months later in Wisconsin, Ortiz nonetheless had $32,000 of the financial institution’s cash and gave a full confession.
Tracy Smith: Did Huggins and Ortiz’s confessions corroborate one another?
Tom Manning: Sure, very a lot so.
Tracy Smith: So, did Huggins and Ortiz’s confessions corroborate what Michelle had informed investigators?
Tom Manning: Sure, nearly an identical.
In his interview with investigators, Christopher Butler denied all the pieces to police and tried to guard Lisa Ramirez.
North County Superior Courtroom
Butler denied all the pieces, even when confronted with direct proof: his thumbprint on the faux dynamite sticks.
DETECTIVE: We’ve acquired fingerprints which can be yours that hyperlink you to the financial institution theft.
CHRISTOPHER BUTLER: I doubt that as a result of I wasn’t concerned within the financial institution theft.
He tried to guard Ramirez.
CHRISTOPHER BUTLER: Lisa wouldn’t have been concerned with that.
However Ramirez was about to start out speaking. She admitted she was the feminine voice on the walkie-talkie.
LISA RAMIREZ: That was me.
DETECTIVE: That was you?
LISA RAMIREZ: Mm-hmm.
In her interview with investigators, Lisa Ramirez admitted she was concerned within the plot, and that she was the feminine voice on the walkie-talkie. She even took credit score for the concept to make use of faux dynamite and kidnap the financial institution supervisor. However throughout that interview, Ramirez additionally falsely claimed that Renee had been in on it.
North County Superior Courtroom
She even took credit score for the concept to make use of faux dynamite and kidnap the financial institution supervisor.
LISA RAMIREZ: I truthfully know whose thought it was, about eight months in the past.
DETECTIVE: Who?
LISA RAMIREZ: Jokingly, mine.
Ramirez stated they’d cut up the cash 3 ways, however that her and Butler’s share – greater than $100,000 – had been stolen. And to everybody’s shock, she stated Michelle was in on the plot.
LISA RAMIREZ: Supposedly from what they’d informed me this Michelle girl was serving to them.
Tom Manning: We walked out of that considering, “OK, Lisa’s the mastermind behind all this. And, is it possible Michelle’s involved?”
Manning says, in the end, he knew Michelle was harmless.
Tom Manning: The primary time I interviewed her, she had Breea together with her. And … I noticed that bond and relationship. And when she left, I went, “She’s not involved in this.”
However that wouldn’t be sufficient in courtroom. San Diego County Sheriff’s detectives Rudy Zamora, Dale Martin and Randi Demers must rule Michelle out as a suspect.
Rudy Zamora: Each time we pushed a button, she would react in a manner … a real sufferer ought to.
They recreated the dynamite packs and strapped them on Kimbra, Michelle and Breea.
Dale Martin: She was very upset.
And Michelle was emotional when requested to revisit the horrific particulars of the kidnapping.
FBI VIDEO OF MICHELLE RENEE AT CRIME SCENE: After which they — I needed to put her in there they usually simply shut the — shut the closet.
Dale Martin: She was shaken up. I believed she was gonna have a nervous breakdown.
Tracy Smith: When Michelle did these reenactments, have been her story, Kimbra’s story, and Breea’s story constant?
Tom Manning: Sure. Fully constant.
In truth, investigators couldn’t discover any proof Michelle was concerned. Nonetheless, they anxious as they took a deep dive into Michelle’s life.
Rudy Zamora: She was not our regular sufferer.
Tracy Smith: What did they discover out about Michelle’s previous?
Tom Manning: She didn’t cover something.
Together with the truth that for years she had labored as a stripper.
Michelle Renee: I’m not embarrassed or ashamed by any of that.
Michelle says it was one of many selections she needed to make for survival at a younger age.
Michelle Renee: I ran away at 15. … I labored actually, actually laborious to get to the place I used to be.
In 2000, Michelle Renee was a single mother working as a financial institution department supervisor. “I was running a bank and I had a career. I was loving where I was living. I really loved my job,” she informed “48 Hours” contributor Tracy Smith.
Michelle Renee
With no highschool diploma, she had climbed the company ladder all the way in which to regional vice chairman earlier than taking the financial institution supervisor job to be dwelling extra with Breea.
Tracy Smith: And whilst you have been working on the financial institution, you have been nonetheless dancing, nonetheless stripping for some time?
Michelle Renee: I used to be for some time …The cash was actually nice.
However extra worrisome have been issues that went on to Michelle’s credibility.
Tom Manning: She falsified resumés … claimed she had numerous expertise, numerous schooling which she didn’t have.
Tracy Smith: Bounced a examine, filed for chapter.
Tom Manning: Proper.
Tracy Smith: That doesn’t look good.
Tom Manning: It doesn’t look good. …And in case you’re a protection lawyer, you’re lickin’ your chops.
ATTACKED AT TRIAL
By spring of 2001, the suspects have been in custody awaiting trial for kidnapping and financial institution theft prices, however Michelle and Breea have been nonetheless reeling from that evening of terror.
Michelle Renee: I may nonetheless hear them. I may nonetheless hear the sounds … I couldn’t get it to show off.
Breea Renee: I simply needed to cover. I believed they have been gonna discover us. They have been gonna kill us nonetheless.
In June, Michelle determined to maneuver Breea to Alaska to dwell together with her grandmother.
Michelle Renee: I used to be gonna fly her up there and get her to security … I used to be gonna determine what to do from there.
After just a few days, Michelle says she had an epiphany.
Michelle Renee: To return to San Diego and eliminate all the pieces I may probably eliminate and drive again to Alaska.
With a canine, some money, and a camcorder, in July she launched into a 9-day drive to the Final Frontier.
Tracy Smith: You had a deadline.
Michelle Renee: I had a deadline. Breea’s birthday was in 9 days. And I’d promised her I’d be again earlier than her birthday celebration.
Michelle and Breea Renee’s reunion in Alaska was captured by Michelle’s automotive dashboard digicam.
Michelle Renee
That’s when Michelle and Breea say they started to heal.
Tracy Smith: Did you’re feeling protected in Alaska?
Breea Renee: Safer … I might be a child once more.
By the point they returned to San Diego a yr later for the trial, Michelle says she was prepared.
Michelle Renee: There was a lot proof. There was no manner I believed that this trial was gonna be something however … slam dunk.
Butler and Ramirez can be tried first.
Tracy Smith: When her case got here throughout your desk what did you suppose at first?
Herb Weston: She’s responsible.
Tracy Smith: You thought she’s responsible?
Herb Weston: Effectively, yeah.
Herb Weston, who represented Lisa Ramirez, had an issue. His shopper had confessed on digicam.
DETECTIVE: There was a feminine voice that got here out on a kind of walkie-talkies.
LISA RAMIREZ: That was me.
Herb Weston: In the event that they play that tape, saying that she wasn’t concerned woulda been tough.
Weston proposed a plea deal, hoping to avoid wasting Ramirez from a possible life sentence. However the prosecution turned him down.
Tom Manning: We thought we’d positively get the important thing statements in that she was concerned.
However, since Ramirez had additionally implicated Butler, the choose dominated her whole assertion inadmissible.
Herb Weston: We now can a minimum of argue to the jury that she wasn’t concerned.
With out her confession, the case towards Ramirez relied nearly totally on Michelle — a reality Manning was keenly conscious of throughout his opening assertion to the jury on June 3, 2002.
Tracy Smith: You informed the jury that this case was about credibility.
Tom Manning: Proper … Michelle’s background was gonna be a problem … I knew there have been points … however I believed her.
Tracy Smith: And also you thought … the jury would imagine her.
Tom Manning: Proper.
However not if the protection had its manner.
Tracy Smith: What was your technique going into trial?
Herb Weston: My technique was to beat the hell out of the sufferer and present all these inconsistencies that the sufferer is saying.
Tom Manning: It acquired very confrontational.
Michelle Renee: I used to be actually, actually pissed off.
That performed proper into Weston’s hand.
Herb Weston: Offended witnesses don’t come throughout as credible.
Michelle Renee: I used to be handled like I used to be the prison.
Throughout his cross-examination, Weston implied Michelle was mendacity about recognizing Lisa Ramirez’ voice on the walkie-talkie.
Herb Weston: Effectively, wait a minute, ma’am. I’ve checked out all these things. … isn’t this the primary time you’ve stated that?
In truth, he identified it wasn’t in any of the FBI studies. However Michelle insists she informed them.
Michelle Renee: I did … I 100% did.
And Manning says she recognized Ramirez’s voice to him earlier than taking the stand.
Tracy Smith: Does it hassle you that Lisa truly admitted that that was her voice on the walkie-talkie? … the actual fact is it was Lisa.
Herb Weston: However that’s not the difficulty. … for me it made an incredible opening to assault her credibility.
Weston then grilled Michelle about bait cash — the traceable payments banks preserve of their vaults to lure financial institution robbers.
Tracy Smith: You didn’t take the bait cash.
Michelle Renee: Didn’t take the bait cash.
Tracy Smith: Why not?
Michelle Renee: They stated … “no funny money.”
Tracy Smith: You say that’s suspicious, that she will need to have been in on it.
Herb Weston: Appropriate.
“They were trying to paint me as somebody that was irresponsible,” Michelle Renee stated of the three grueling days of direct testimony and cross-examination. “A selfish, terrible mother … that … would do anything for money.”
ZUMA
Possibly worst of all for Michelle, Weston questioned her maternal instincts.
Herb Weston: Would a mom run … to a spot the place her daughter was … if she believes that “I have a bomb on my back?”
Tracy Smith: She wasn’t certain whether or not her daughter was useless or alive. Don’t you suppose it’s doable she wasn’t considering straight?
Herb Weston: Certain … But additionally what might be true is she knew there wasn’t a bomb, and so she didn’t have to fret about it.
Tracy Smith: Did you’re feeling such as you have been on trial?
Michelle Renee: 100% felt like I used to be on trial.
Dave Estey: I might be sitting within the entrance row. And all I may take into consideration was … it’s gonna take me … possibly six seconds to get from this level to the offender. … that’s how irate I used to be.
Tracy Smith: Day after day, listening to this.
Dave Estey: Listening to this.
Tracy Smith: Is it truthful to beat up the sufferer.
Herb Weston: Oh completely, completely.
Whereas Weston hammered on each choice Michelle made that day, the lawyer representing Butler went after all the pieces else.
Tracy Smith: What was the worst factor they requested you?
Michelle Renee: About my intercourse life. … They have been making an attempt to color me as any individual that was irresponsible … A egocentric, horrible mom … that … would do something for cash.
And so they picked aside Michelle’s funds.
Tom Manning: She’s in … monetary misery, and that might be the motive.
Tracy Smith: Isn’t it kinda odd that we’re speaking about motive after we’re speaking a couple of sufferer?
Tom Manning: It’s. … The protection within the case was to make Michelle a perpetrator right here.
After Michelle’s grueling three-day testimony, it was Christopher Butler’s flip. He protected Lisa Ramirez on the stand, claiming Michelle was the mastermind, and that they’d had an affair.
Tom Manning: I used to be shocked.
Michelle Renee: It’s nearly laughable.
Tracy Smith: What was his story about how the 2 of you met?
Michelle Renee: From what I perceive … we met in a grocery retailer and that I recruited him.
Christopher Butler and Lisa Ramirez aka “Money One” and “Money Two” in courtroom throughout their June 2002 trial.
Zuma
Butler claimed that he’d gone to Michelle’s home that evening with Huggins and Ortiz. He stated that within the early morning hours whereas smoking pot, Michelle introduced up the financial institution theft thought once more and determined they need to do it that morning.
Tracy Smith: His proof of this, his proof of this?
Tom Manning: Zero … If any of this have been true, he woulda thrown Michelle down in a heartbeat in his (police) interview.
The jury deliberated for 5 days earlier than discovering Butler responsible of the financial institution theft and Breea and Kimbra’s kidnapping. However they hung 9-3 on the fees of kidnapping Michelle.
Tom Manning: After we talked to the jurors, you already know, we found … it was one juror who utterly believed Butler and the opposite two jurors … have been not sure.
And so they discovered Lisa Ramirez not responsible on all counts.
Herb Weston: Oh, it was the most effective verdict I ever acquired in my life.
Michelle Renee: Thoughts-boggling. The actual fact it was her thought to do that to a mom and a toddler and laughing and pleased with it.
Tracy Smith: How concerned do you suppose she was on this?
Tom Manning: Very concerned … the investigators stored saying … she was the brains of the outfit.
Tracy Smith: So, the brains of the outfit walked.
Tom Manning: Proper.
The second trial would go very in a different way, with Huggins and Ortiz simply convicted.
Tracy Smith: In so lots of the tales that we inform, the ending is the conviction. However in your case, in numerous methods, that’s only the start.
FACING NEW CHALLENGES
Regardless that the boys who had terrorized them have been now serving a number of life sentences, Michelle and Breea would by no means be the identical.
Breea Renee: There’s elements of that evening which can be gonna be with me for the remainder of my life.
They have been handled for post-traumatic stress dysfunction for over two years. Michelle says coping with the break-in led to a breakthrough.
Michelle Renee: It was two selections. … name them monsters and keep offended … and blame all the pieces in my life on them … Or … I can take this different street.
Michelle Renee: The most effective factor I may do for Breea is to be an instance.
Michelle wrote a e-book, “Held Hostage,” which was made right into a TV film. And he or she and Breea went on talking excursions to debate their expertise with trauma.
Tracy Smith: Lots of people popping out of this might need to simply overlook about it, put it behind them. However you and your mother … talked overtly about it.
Breea Renee: Sure. And I believe it was the most effective choice for us.
Breea Renee stated by speaking about her expertise with trauma, “I was showing people that it’s not always the end-all, be-all when something bad happens to you. You can come out of it stronger.”
Breea Renee: I used to be exhibiting those that it’s not all the time the end-all, be-all when one thing dangerous occurs to you. You may come out of it stronger.
And by 2011, the woman who had hidden from all the pieces was a highschool senior and aggressive cheerleader.
Michelle Renee: She actually turned the nook and began having fun with her life once more.
Michelle Renee: She beloved it. It was her absolute ardour.
Tracy Smith: You’re thriving. You’re residing the dream. You stated you dreamed of this. You have been residing the dream.
Breea Renee: Sure, I used to be.
Then all of a sudden …
Breea Renee: Senior yr in December, I began feeling a bit off. … I used to be dropping issues.
Michelle Renee: Confirmed up at my work at 6 o’clock, dragging her leg … going “Mommy, something’s really wrong. Something’s wrong. I don’t know what’s happening.”
Breea Renee: I stated … “Mom, I’m really scared.”
They’d no thought Breea was in for the struggle of her life.
Michelle Renee: We rushed her to the hospital. And so they began pricking her leg and she or he couldn’t really feel it. And her coronary heart charge began going loopy.
Tracy Smith: Oh my gosh.
Breea Renee: By 8 p.m. that evening, I used to be paralyzed on my left facet, couldn’t speak, couldn’t swallow, blind in my left eye.
Michelle Renee: “We found abnormalities in the brain” is all they may inform me that evening.
Tracy Smith: It nearly feels like there’s that very same feeling of helplessness that you just had the evening that you just have been held hostage.
Michelle Renee: Fully.
The subsequent morning, Breea was recognized with an acute onset of a number of sclerosis, an autoimmune illness by which the physique’s immune system assaults its personal tissues.
Michelle Renee: Primarily based on the scans, she has … tumefactive MS, which isn’t solely uncommon in and of itself, however folks Breea’s age at 18 …hardly ever get MS.
Breea says she was informed she may by no means stroll or speak once more.
Tracy Smith: Identical to that.
Breea Renee: Identical to that. … My life simply ended once more … I used to be 18 making an attempt to go off to school, do cheer in school, and that was by no means gonna occur for me.
Tracy Smith: A lot of your therapeutic had been speaking …. and now you couldn’t speak?
Breea Renee: Now I couldn’t speak … I couldn’t feed myself anymore.
Michelle Renee: She needed to relearn all of that.
Identified with a uncommon type of a number of sclerosis at age 18, Breea Renee was informed she may by no means stroll or speak once more.
Michelle Renee
Nevertheless it was as if they’d been coaching for this for years.
Tracy Smith: Do you suppose not directly what occurred to you while you have been seven ready you for battling MS?
Breea Renee: Sure … I believe it made me sturdy sufficient to undergo what I went via with MS.
Michelle Renee: It was right here we go once more, right here we go once more.
Breea would spend six weeks within the hospital.
Breea Renee: Two to a few instances a day of bodily remedy, occupational … remedy, speech remedy.
Michelle Renee: After she may speak once more … she turned to me and stated, “Kidnapping was a piece of cake compared to this.”
And simply as with the kidnapping, Breea needed to encourage others.
Michelle Renee: She wrote her school essay from her hospital room, from her wheelchair and stated, “I’m going to college. I am going to be the first person in my family to graduate college no matter what.”
BREEA RENEE (video of her studying school essay within the hospital): I now know that there isn’t any time to waste. Life can change so all of a sudden.
She chronicled her journey on her Fb web page.
Michelle Renee: She fought tooth and nail each single day for each single step she took. She walked outta the hospital.
This time it was Michelle doing the cheerleading.
Dave Estey: The rehab began … within the hospital. However the actual rehab was Michelle consistently on her, “we’re gonna do this.”
Michelle Renee: We have been a complete crew. We simply ended up going into full gear. We lived in a home with stairs. … She couldn’t do stairs anymore.
Tracy Smith: So as soon as once more, you’re out of a house that you just’ve been residing in?
Michelle Renee: Proper, and I needed to … grow to be her full-time caregiver for a couple of year-and-a half, two years. … and rebuilding our life, once more.
Regardless of the chances, she made it to school.
Michelle Renee: She relapsed 3 times her first yr in school and needed to come dwelling. However she did it.
Dave Estey: She follows in her mother’s footsteps … I imply with the tenacity, and the by no means hand over … philosophy that they’ve.
Breea is strolling, speaking proof.
“I would say I beat the odds,” stated Breea Renee.
Tracy Smith: So, they informed you’ll by no means stroll once more?
Breea Renee: Yeah. I’d by no means stroll once more, by no means see once more, by no means something like that…
Tracy Smith: And?
Breea Renee: I might say I beat the chances.
Tracy Smith: But once more.
Breea Renee: Sure, precisely.
However 20 years after their world first got here crashing down, they’d be confronted with the unimaginable as soon as once more. Christopher Butler might be launched.
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
From the very starting, the case hit near dwelling for prosecutor Tom Manning.
Tom Manning: The truth that there was a bit woman. My daughter was the identical age as Breea when this occurred.
Almost 20 years later, in June 2020, Christopher Butler was up for parole.
Michelle Renee: He’s the one who lied about me.
Manning made certain he was on the listening to.
Tracy Smith: And also you had a plan getting in.
Tom Manning: I did.
He noticed an opportunity to set the report straight by asking Butler in regards to the story he’d informed on the stand.
Tom Manning: I informed Michelle if I felt it was proper, I used to be gonna go for it.
Tracy Smith: What’d you suppose … about that?
Michelle Renee: Go for it … ask away.
Tracy Smith: Regardless that that’s dangerous?
Michelle Renee: It’s a bit dangerous … this man may go to the grave with these lies.
The chance paid off. Butler recanted his complete story, admitting he and Michelle by no means had a relationship.
Tracy Smith: How did that really feel to listen to that?
In January 2020, when Christopher Butler grew to become eligible for parole underneath California sentencing legal guidelines, prosecutor Tom Manning noticed a chance to ask him in regards to the story he’d informed on the stand. Butler recanted his whole testimony, admitting he and Renee by no means had a relationship. Butler was denied parole, however Renee was free. “In a weird … way, I could breathe … I could exhale, finally, after all these years,” she stated.
Michelle Renee: Hmm … it’s about time … I needed all people who ever doubted me to learn this parole transcript. I wanna blast it all around the web … that there was by no means, ever an opportunity … that I might ever, ever have been concerned in something like this, ever.
Breea says it’s a bittersweet victory for her mother.
Breea Renee: It feels good, but it surely’s a bit too late. … You may search my mother’s title and it could come up on the web. You may’t take that again.
Dave Estey: Why is it take him so lengthy to return clear? And it’s most likely as a result of he had a chance to be free.
Regardless that Butler was unequivocal that Michelle was not concerned –
Michelle Renee: He nonetheless hasn’t actually taken duty.
He blamed his outdated flame Lisa Ramirez. However Butler stated he was sorry for what he’d put his victims via, and even stated he’d learn Michelle’s e-book greater than as soon as.
Tracy Smith: He … stated among the passages in your e-book actually acquired to him.
Michelle Renee: Yeah … on the street journey to Alaska … I actually began to consider what it could be prefer to attempt to simply perceive.
Michelle says that’s when she began to marvel in regards to the folks behind the masks.
Michelle Renee: That is somebody’s son. … That is somebody’s brother. That is somebody’s grandson. …What occurred to them of their life that acquired them to the purpose the place they thought … the one possibility was to assault a mom and her daughter?
Tracy Smith: Do you settle for Christopher Butler’s apology?
Michelle Renee: I do … Yeah, 1000%. … I respect him lastly being sincere in any case this time … I hope he retains digging deeper.
Breea Renee: Yeah. I forgave him a very long time in the past and I settle for his apology.
However neither Breea nor Michelle need Butler launched. He’s already been denied parole twice. The irony isn’t misplaced on Dave.
Dave Estey: All he actually did is free all people else … he’s held hostage together with his lie.
Michelle Renee: In a really bizarre … manner, I may breathe … I may exhale lastly in any case this time.
Robert Ortiz, left, and Christopher Huggins
ZUMA
Whereas they don’t imagine Butler has modified his methods, they really feel very in a different way in regards to the different two males who held them hostage.
Breea Renee: They confessed … they take accountability for what they did. And that’s a giant factor.
Tracy Smith: Are you truly rooting for these guys to succeed at this level?
Breea Renee: Sure, sure. … They have been youthful … than what I’m now … if they’re doing the work, I need nothing however the most effective for them.
Particularly Robert Ortiz.
Michelle Renee: On the sentencing Robert Ortiz is the one one which rotated and checked out me and stated, “I’m sorry” … he mouthed it.
They wrote to Ortiz again in 2011 and obtained a reply 9 years later.
Michelle Renee: Out of respect for him, I’m not going to say all the pieces that’s within the letter. … I can say that … it’s lovely. … It’s heartfelt. … And … I can’t wait to see the place that leads.
Tracy Smith: That is the younger man who held a gun to your daughter’s head.
Michelle Renee: Sure, and she or he spoke at his parole listening to in his favor.
Within the meantime, Michelle has written her follow-up e-book in regards to the street journey that modified her perspective.
Michelle Renee: It’s about therapeutic … it’s known as “Nine Days,” which is how lengthy I used to be on the street to Alaska.
Dave Estey: I do imagine that via this horrible … tragedy that one thing lovely was meant to return about. … It has constructed these folks into these unimaginable human beings.
And thru all of it, they are saying they wouldn’t change a factor — even the kidnapping.
Tracy Smith: So, in case you look again on the final 20 years, what has this journey been about?
Michelle Renee: Elevating a exceptional daughter … It’s the most effective factor I’ve ever performed in my life, is be her mother.
Tracy Smith: It looks as if each of you take a look at this a minimum of a tiny bit as a present.
Breea Renee: Uh-huh. Yeah … I wouldn’t change it. … it … gave us the prospect to construct the bond that we have now in the present day. And it’s simply gotten stronger … Yeah.
Robert Ortiz was granted parole in January 2021.
Christopher Butler was granted parole in December 2024.
Christopher Huggins was granted parole in March 2025.
Produced by Gayane Keshishyan Mendez. Michael McHugh is the producer/editor. Emma Steele, Lauren Turner Dunn, and Danielle Arman are the affiliate producers. Greg McLaughlin and Diana Modica are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
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