Tad Cummins, the former teacher accused of kidnapping his 15-year-old student, Elizabeth Thomas, reportedly bought a small watercraft and had plans to sneak into Mexico with the teen.

A new motion filed on Monday against Cummins states that the 50-year-old planned to go to San Diego and use the watercraft to transport himself and Elizabeth into Mexico without having to pass through a border patrol check point.

The motion requests that Cummins be extradited back to Tennessee. He is currently behind bars in a California jail after authorities captured him in Siskiyou County, California, in a remote cabin. Elizabeth was found physically unharmed and has since been reunited with her family in Maury County, Tennessee.

The motion, which hopes to prevent him from being released from federal custody, indicated that Cummins “was a flight risk before he was caught [and] he remains a flight risk if he is released.” The document read, in part,

“[Cummins] planned and executed an audacious scheme to take a juvenile victim across the United States while evading law enforcement for the purposes of engaging in criminal sexual conduct, and, ultimately, he wanted to take the victim south of the border to Mexico and beyond for his own purposes. In furtherance of this plan, the defendant procured a small watercraft and conducted a test run to cross into Mexico across the water from San Diego. The defendant also considered the feasibility of a land crossing into Mexico.”

Cummins is scheduled to appear in federal court in Sacramento, California, at 2 p.m. PST on Monday, to face his charges formally. It’s unclear if he has an attorney.

The story is still developing. Check back with Crime Online as more information becomes available.

[Feature Photo: TBI]