Investigators have been doing all they can to track Tad Cummins and Elizabeth Thomas, including looking a prior child abduction cases.
Did Cummins watch last year as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation searched for 9-year-old Carlie Trent who was eventually found safe?
It's something to consider as agents work to create a profile on Cummins. They want to get inside the former teacher's head and try to predict what he'll do next.
District Attorney General Brent Cooper is stunned. Seven days after 50-year-old Cummins and 15-year-old Thomas disappeared there's no trace of them. There hasn't been a single confirmed sighting.
"It's just started a very complicated and frustrating search," said General Cooper.
Somehow Cummins has found a way to avoid all detection. Cooper said investigators are working on a profile.
"It's my understanding they look at the overall psychological picture of a person and try to predict their behavior," said Cooper.
What does Cummins know? Did he learn from watching other kidnapping cases?
"I think it's definitely possible," said Cooper.
For instance, the high-profile case last spring of 9-year-old Carlie Trent who disappeared with her uncle Gary Simpson.
Yes. The ages of the victims are different, but the actions of suspects similar, taking advantage of the trust of a child.
Simpson and Trent were caught on security video after they vanished, but still managed to elude authorities for more than a week -- camping out in a rural area.
Might Cummins be doing the same? "That's an avenue we have to consider," said Cooper.
That and much more: Did Cummins switch cars? Have the two altered their appearance?
To this point, whatever they've done has worked.
The bottomline: Cummins and Thomas are still missing for a week and no new leads.
Investigators are even looking into whether Cummins watched shows like the Hunted or went online to learn specific ways to evade the authorities.
