Michelle Renee, California mom who was kidnapped and compelled to rob a financial institution, falsely painted as a prison in court docket

This story initially aired on Feb. 11, 2023. It was up to date on Might 24, 2025.

The one monsters that had ever scared Michelle Renee’s 7-year-old daughter Breea had 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 someone outdoors the window’ … I appeared on the market. I didn’t see something. I didn’t see anyone. … So, I simply brushed it off.

Michelle had chalked it as much as her little one’s creativeness. However this time was completely different.

Michelle Renee: She noticed them wanting by the window. They had been there the night time earlier than.

The identical males now held Michelle and Breea at gunpoint in the lounge. The gunmen mentioned 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 had 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 night time, 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 girl on a two-way radio.

Michelle Renee: Cash One to Cash Two had been their –

Tracy Smith: That’s what they referred to as one another.

Michelle Renee: Yeah, they referred to as one another Cash One to Cash Two.

Cash One was the ringleader. Round 11, the voice on the walkie-talkie bought his consideration: “Car coming up the driveway. The roommate’s there.”

It was their roommate Kimbra.

FBI VIDEO OF MICHELLE RENEE AT CRIME SCENE: They usually put the gun proper right here in her face, proper up her nostril, and mentioned, “don’t make us f***ing use this.” … I pushed the man’s hand out of her face and mentioned, “don’t do this, don’t hurt her.” And he simply pointed it proper at me and mentioned, “don’t ever f***ing touch me again …”

Michelle realized this may be the final night time she ever spent along 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 mentioned “Get up. It’s time to get ready for work.”

FBI VIDEO OF MICHELLE RENEE AT CRIME SCENE: I bought dressed and began doing my hair when he got here in and stopped me and mentioned, “we need to put the dynamite on you now.”

Michelle, her roommate Kimbra, and Breea would all be strapped with dynamite.  Then Cash One confirmed Michelle what appeared 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.” …

They usually sat me proper right here and mentioned, “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 every little thing goes to be tremendous.

Michelle Renee: “Be brave, Mommy” … that was the very last thing she mentioned … 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 filled with a duffle bag earlier than he crouched behind 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 let you know 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, mentioned … “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 then you definitely 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 a number of blocks later.

Michelle Renee: And that I might discover my Jeep down the road.

She discovered her automotive and raced house.

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: Most likely 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 referred to as 911 straight away.

911 DISPATCHER: Sheriff’s Division, can I assist you? 

RICK BROWN: Sure, some neighbors of ours had been held hostage … I want someone out right here straight away.

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.

San Diego County Prosecutor Tom Manning would lead the duty drive investigating the case. They shortly discovered the dynamite was pretend.

Tom Manning: They understand 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 state of affairs, you’re not gonna take an opportunity that it isn’t actual.

However through the very actual 14 hours they had 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.

FBI VIDEO OF MICHELLE RENEE AT CRIME SCENE: After I turned the sunshine on to go to the toilet … and I noticed his eyes in there… I mentioned “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 extremely very long time asking sorta the identical questions again and again. … after which a girl walked in and mentioned, “Chris, we need to get going.” They usually bought up and left.

The person had handed Michelle his enterprise card.

Tracy Smith: And the identify on the enterprise card was?

Michelle Renee: Christopher Butler.

THE EVIDENCE LEFT BEHIND

After hours of police questioning, Michelle and Breea had been despatched to a resort. Michelle referred to as her brother Dave.

Dave Estey: It didn’t sound like her … it was — somebody, you recognize, closely traumatized.

Dave, who lived three hours away, rushed to his sister’s assist.

Dave Estey: What I noticed after I opened that door … it scared the daylights out of me. … “Are you OK?” And she or he 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 girl 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 night time on the walkie-talkie.

Michelle Renee:  I stored saying it again 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 that card, they began the investigation.

The FBI quickly found Butler was a convicted felon with a historical past of robbing banks. 

Tom Manning: They discovered the place he was staying … then the staff that I work with arrange surveillance.

Butler and his fiancée, Lisa Ramirez, lived in a home just some miles from the financial institution.

Tom Manning: A number of the folks in the home had 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, perhaps — perhaps 6’4″ he’s … gang ties.

And the person who’d held a gun to little Breea — a gang member referred to as “Bones” — actual identify Robert Ortiz.

Tom Manning: Ortiz was the connection … who bought the weapons.

On Dec. 1, they determined to arrest Butler and Ramirez throughout a visitors cease.

Tom Manning (in proof room): Within the glove compartment was a weapon … it’s truly a BB gun … should you have a look at that in a annoying state of affairs, that appears as actual as it may 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 had been all discovered within the trunk of the automobile … after which after all 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 elements to make the pretend bomb. … There have been broom handles, which had been lower up into small dowels which truly had been utilized in making the pretend dynamite. … In addition they recovered the precise spray cans … Ramirez’s fingerprint was on a type 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 mentioned 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.

Butler denied every little thing, even when confronted with direct proof: his thumbprint on the pretend dynamite sticks.  

DETECTIVE: We’ve bought fingerprints which might 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 begin 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.

She even took credit score for the thought to make use of pretend dynamite and kidnap the financial institution supervisor.

LISA RAMIREZ: I actually know whose thought it was, about eight months in the past.

DETECTIVE: Who?

LISA RAMIREZ: Jokingly, mine.

Ramirez mentioned 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 mentioned Michelle was in on the plot. 

LISA RAMIREZ: Supposedly from what that they had 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 along 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 court docket. 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 approach … 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 and so they simply shut the — shut the closet.

Dale Martin: She was shaken up. I assumed she was gonna have a nervous breakdown.

Tracy Smith: When Michelle did these reenactments, had been her story, Kimbra’s story, and Breea’s story constant?

Tom Manning: Sure. Utterly constant.

In reality, investigators couldn’t discover any proof Michelle was concerned. Nonetheless, they fearful 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 disguise 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 arduous to get to the place I used to be.

With no highschool diploma, she had climbed the company ladder all the best way to regional vp earlier than taking the financial institution supervisor job to be house extra with Breea.

Tracy Smith: And whilst you had been working on the financial institution, you had 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 had been issues that went on to Michelle’s credibility.

Tom Manning: She falsified resumés … claimed she had varied expertise, varied 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 should you’re a protection legal professional, you’re lickin’ your chops.

ATTACKED AT TRIAL

By spring of 2001, the suspects had been in custody awaiting trial for kidnapping and financial institution theft prices, however Michelle and Breea had been nonetheless reeling from that night time 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 assumed they had been gonna discover us. They had been gonna kill us nonetheless.

In June, Michelle determined to maneuver Breea to Alaska to stay along 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 a number of days, Michelle says she had an epiphany.

Michelle Renee: To return to San Diego and do away with every little thing I may probably do away with 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 party.

That’s when Michelle and Breea say they started to heal.

Tracy Smith: Did you’re feeling protected in Alaska?

Breea Renee: Safer … I could possibly be a child once more.

By the point they returned to San Diego a 12 months later for the trial, Michelle says she was prepared.

Michelle Renee: There was a lot proof. There was no approach I assumed 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 assume 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 digital camera.

DETECTIVE: There was a feminine voice that got here out on a type 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 save lots of Ramirez from a possible life sentence. However the prosecution turned him down.

Tom Manning: We thought we might positively get the important thing statements in that she was concerned.

However, since Ramirez had additionally implicated Butler, the decide dominated her complete assertion inadmissible.

Herb Weston: We now can at the very least argue to the jury that she wasn’t concerned.

With out her confession, the case in opposition to Ramirez relied nearly solely on Michelle — a truth 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 difficulty … 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 approach.

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 bought 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 mentioned that?

In reality, he identified it wasn’t in any of the FBI reviews. 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 ideal opening to assault her credibility.

Weston then grilled Michelle about bait cash — the traceable payments banks hold 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 mentioned … “no funny money.”

Tracy Smith:  You say that’s suspicious, that she should have been in on it.

Herb Weston: Right.

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 lifeless or alive. Don’t you assume it’s attainable she wasn’t considering straight?

Herb Weston: Certain … But in addition what could possibly 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 had 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 … perhaps 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 honest to beat up the sufferer.

Herb Weston: Oh completely, completely.

Whereas Weston hammered on each determination Michelle made that day, the legal professional representing Butler went after every little thing else.

Tracy Smith: What was the worst factor they requested you?

Michelle Renee: About my intercourse life. … They had been attempting to color me as someone that was irresponsible … A egocentric, horrible mom … that … would do something for cash.

They usually picked aside Michelle’s funds.

Tom Manning: She’s in … monetary misery, and that could possibly 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 offender 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.

Butler claimed that he’d gone to Michelle’s home that night time with Huggins and Ortiz. He mentioned 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 had 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 costs of kidnapping Michelle.

Tom Manning: After we talked to the jurors, you recognize, we found … it was one juror who fully believed Butler and the opposite two jurors … had been not sure.

They usually discovered Lisa Ramirez not responsible on all counts.

Herb Weston: Oh, it was the very best verdict I ever bought in my life.

Michelle Renee: Thoughts-boggling. The very fact it was her thought to do that to a mom and a baby and laughing and pleased with it.

Tracy Smith: How concerned do you assume 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 otherwise, 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 quite a lot of methods, that’s just the start.

FACING NEW CHALLENGES

Though the lads who had terrorized them had been now serving a number of life sentences, Michelle and Breea would by no means be the identical.

Breea Renee: There’s features of that night time which might be gonna be with me for the remainder of my life.

They had 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 every little thing in my life on them … Or … I can take this different street.

Michelle Renee: One of the best 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 she or he and Breea went on talking excursions to debate their expertise with trauma.

Tracy Smith: Lots of people popping out of this is able to 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 very best determination for us.

Breea Renee: I used to be exhibiting folks that it’s not all the time the end-all, be-all when one thing unhealthy occurs to you. You possibly can come out of it stronger.

And by 2011, the woman who had hidden from every little thing 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 liked it.  It was her absolute ardour.

Tracy Smith: You’re thriving. You’re residing the dream. You mentioned you dreamed of this. You had been residing the dream.

Breea Renee: Sure, I used to be.

Then out of the blue …

Breea Renee: Senior 12 months in December, I began feeling a little 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 mentioned … “Mom, I’m really scared.”

That they had no thought Breea was in for the struggle of her life.

Michelle Renee: We rushed her to the hospital. They usually began pricking her leg and she or he couldn’t really feel it. And her coronary heart price began going loopy.

Tracy Smith: Oh my gosh.

Breea Renee: By 8 p.m. that night time, I used to be paralyzed on my left facet, couldn’t discuss, couldn’t swallow, blind in my left eye.

Michelle Renee: “We found abnormalities in the brain” is all they may inform me that night time.

Tracy Smith: It nearly seems like there’s that very same feeling of helplessness that you just had the night time that you just had been held hostage.

Michelle Renee: Utterly.

The subsequent morning, Breea was identified with an acute onset of a number of sclerosis, an autoimmune illness wherein the physique’s immune system assaults its personal tissues.

Michelle Renee:  Based mostly on the scans, she has … tumefactive MS, which isn’t solely uncommon in and of itself, however folks Breea’s age at 18 …not often get MS.

Breea says she was informed she would possibly by no means stroll or discuss once more.

Tracy Smith: Identical to that.

Breea Renee: Identical to that. … My life simply ended once more … I used to be 18 attempting to go off to school, do cheer in faculty, 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 discuss?

Breea Renee:  Now I couldn’t discuss … I couldn’t feed myself anymore.

Michelle Renee:  She needed to relearn all of that.

But it surely was as if that they had been coaching for this for years.

Tracy Smith: Do you assume not directly what occurred to you whenever you had been seven ready you for battling MS?

Breea Renee: Sure … I believe it made me sturdy sufficient to undergo what I went by 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 discuss once more … she turned to me and mentioned, “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 faculty essay from her hospital room, from her wheelchair and mentioned, “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 faculty essay within the hospital): I now know that there isn’t any time to waste. Life can change so out of the blue.

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 had been a complete staff. 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 … develop into her full-time caregiver for a couple of year-and-a half, two years. … and rebuilding our life, once more.

Regardless of the percentages, she made it to school.

Michelle Renee:  She relapsed 3 times her first 12 months in faculty and needed to come house. However she did it.

Dave Estey: She follows in her mother’s footsteps … I imply with the tenacity, and the by no means quit … philosophy that they’ve.

Breea is strolling, speaking proof.

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 percentages.

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 could possibly be launched.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

From the very starting, the case hit near house for prosecutor Tom Manning.

Tom Manning: The truth that there was a little bit woman. My daughter was the identical age as Breea when this occurred.

Practically 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 entering into.

Tom Manning: I did.

He noticed an opportunity to set the file straight by asking Butler concerning 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 assume … about that?

Michelle Renee: Go for it … ask away.

Tracy Smith: Though that’s dangerous?

Michelle Renee: It’s a little 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?

Michelle Renee: Hmm … it’s about time … I needed all people who ever doubted me to learn this parole transcript. I wanna blast it everywhere in 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, however it’s a little bit too late. … You possibly can search my mother’s identify and it may come up on the web. You possibly can’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 possibility to be free.

Though Butler was unequivocal that Michelle was not concerned –

Michelle Renee: He nonetheless hasn’t actually taken accountability.

He blamed his previous flame Lisa Ramirez. However Butler mentioned he was sorry for what he’d put his victims by, and even mentioned he’d learn Michelle’s e book greater than as soon as.

Tracy Smith: He … mentioned among the passages in your e book actually bought 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 concerning 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 bought 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 spite of everything 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 along with his lie.

Michelle Renee: In a really bizarre … approach, I may breathe … I may exhale lastly in spite of everything this time.

Whereas they don’t imagine Butler has modified his methods, they really feel very otherwise concerning 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 had been youthful … than what I’m now …  if they’re doing the work, I would like nothing however the very best for them.

Particularly Robert Ortiz.

Michelle Renee:  On the sentencing Robert Ortiz is the one one which circled and checked out me and mentioned, “I’m sorry” … he mouthed it.

They wrote to Ortiz again in 2011 and acquired a reply 9 years later.

Michelle Renee: Out of respect for him, I’m not going to say every little thing that’s within the letter. … I can say that … it’s stunning. … 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 concerning the street journey that modified her viewpoint.

Michelle Renee: It’s about therapeutic … it’s referred to as “Nine Days,” which is how lengthy I used to be on the street to Alaska.

Dave Estey: I do imagine that by this horrible … tragedy that one thing stunning was meant to return about. … It has constructed these folks into these unbelievable human beings.

And thru all of it, they are saying they wouldn’t change a factor — even the kidnapping.

Tracy Smith: So, should you look again on the final 20 years, what has this journey been about?

Michelle Renee: Elevating a outstanding daughter … It’s the very best factor I’ve ever executed in my life, is be her mother.

Tracy Smith: It looks as if each of you have a look at this at the very least a tiny bit as a present.

Breea Renee: Uh-huh. Yeah … I wouldn’t change it. …  it … gave us the possibility to construct the bond that we’ve got right this moment. 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.

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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.