Where Is The Kidnapping Survivor Michelle Renee Now?
As a result of the fact that CBS’s “48 Hours: The Kidnapping of Michelle and Breea Renee” lives up to its title in every conceivable way, we are given a profound understanding of an event that took place in the year 2000 and can only be defined as horrifying.
After all, this was the time when the mother and daughter team were held captive with the use of explosives until the mother agreed to rob a bank, and then the mother was accused of making the whole thing up.
Now, if you just want to find out more about her — with a particular emphasis on her experiences, her purported role in the situation, as well as her current standing — we have the crucial data for you, and we will share them with you.
Also Read: Where Is kidnapping survivor “Breea Renee” Now?
Table of Contents
Michelle Renee: What Happened To Her?
When Michelle first started working as an executive at a Bank of America branch close to her home in San Diego County, California, in the year 1988, she had no idea that this decision would soon cause her entire world to turn upside down.1
By the year 2000, she had worked her way up to the position of Assistant Vice President at that company, an accomplishment of which she could justifiably be very proud given the effort she had put in and the qualifications she possessed.
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However, she considered the fact that she was able to create a pleasant life for her daughter Breea despite being a single parent and that it allowed her to maintain a healthy balance in her own life to be the most beneficial aspect of the situation.
On the other hand, everything changed on the evening of November 21, 2000, when three individuals wearing masks broke into the home of Michelle and Breea Renee and overpowered them to the point that they were both lying on the ground.
They were restrained with duct tape, rifles were pointed squarely at their heads while they were lying face down, and explosives was practically strapped onto them, so it was clear that the men understood exactly what they were doing.
When Michelle finally found out why they had been following her for so many months, it was then that she learned they wanted her to rob the bank at their behest in exchange for releasing both her and her daughter from their captors’ custody.2
Michelle stated in the original episode that aired on CBS that “it was very much [a] mind control thing that they were doing,” which was “that, ‘we know everything about you.'” However, she quickly learned that there was something about them as well.
She was able to identify them after she overheard the ringleader communicating with another female participant in the heist using codenames or nicknames such as “Money One” and “Money Two,” respectively, while doing so over a walkie-talkie throughout the night.
The male had not only pretended to be her customer on the exact same day, but he had also given the female a business card before she hurried him away, though she did not let this information show. The female had pretended to be her customer on the very same day.
Instead, Michelle did exactly what she was told by them in order to steal $360,000 from the business before it opened the following morning at approximately 9 am. She did this because she was worried about the safety of her daughter.
The men actually bolted as soon as they had the cash duffel bag in their possession, which caused the single mother to discover Breea inside the same closet they had locked her in before going for the heist.
The men had locked Breea in the closet before they left for the heist. After that, she got in touch with the authorities, only to find out that the “dynamite” was actually simply the handle of a broomstick that had been cut, painted, and taped together to make it look like those devastating and potentially lethal bombs.
Ten days after the event, the principal suspects, Christopher Butler and his fiancée Lisa Ramirez, were apprehended with the assistance of Michelle’s keen powers of observation as well as descriptions of the others involved in the crime.
The latter did confess to the 14-hour hostage scenario after a search of their vehicle, house, and devices uncovered an unprecedented quantity of evidence, while the former remained unmoved throughout the ordeal.
Christopher did not come out to testify that Michelle was his ex-girlfriend who had recruited him to carry out Michelle’s master theft until the court ruled that the confession was inadmissible and only then did Christopher come forward to testify that Michelle was his ex-girlfriend.
Also Read: Christopher Butler and Lisa Ramirez: Where Are Michelle Renee’s Kidnappers Now?
Christopher Butler: Who Is He?
In light of the fact that Christopher was ultimately found guilty on a few counts, Michelle was forced to endure a lot of speculation, being battered, and harsh cross-questioning throughout the protracted court procedures. However, it wasn’t until the latter recanted every piece of his assertion in 2020 that the burden of the public opinion’s “what if” was finally removed off the shoulders of the single mother for good.
Michelle Renee: Where Is She Now?
- As for Michelle’s current situation, to the best of our knowledge, she left her job at Bank of America in 2001, after a successful career there spanning the better part of 13 years, as a direct consequence of the violent home invasion that she experienced.
- After that, she participated in trauma therapy for two and a half years until she had a purely spiritual and emotional awakening during an endeavor that lasted for an entire year in the vast spaces of chilly Alaska.
- As a result, Michelle began building a career as a public speaker as well as a humanitarian entrepreneur through which she intended to motivate and educate the people in her audience about various topics related to resiliency.
- This included her creating the organization Rock To Stop Violence in 2007, with the primary purpose of hosting awareness events and internet campaigns with the intention of uniting entire communities all over the world against violence.
- Nevertheless, in the time since then, Michelle has undergone a genuine transformation into an author, producer, and businesswoman, while at the same time continuing to prioritize her role as a dedicated mother to Breea Renee, who is now an adult.
- In other words, the person who was born and raised in San Diego is the Chief Executive Officer of VERB Media Group, the co-host of the podcast titled “Dolly & Dalai,” a developer of online content, and the author of the memoirs “Held Hostage” (published on December 5, 2006) and “Nine Days” (February 22, 2023).
Also Read: Where Are Kidnapper Christopher Huggins and Robert Ortiz Now?
Michelle Renee: Family
- Watching her daughter become paralyzed and blind on her left side was the most difficult thing Michelle, a mother who raised her daughter alone, has ever had to go through. The patient was diagnosed with a severe form of multiple sclerosis.
- As her daughter was relearning how to walk, talk, and eat, she decided to resign her work and become her daughter’s full-time caretaker.3
- During this time, she helped her daughter with all of these tasks. Michelle was well aware that it was time to pick herself up, dust herself off, and face the world with an extraordinary amount of resiliency.
- In this moving and, at times, amusing presentation, Michelle and her daughter Breea teach the audience what it takes to be a successful role model while traveling the path to mental and physical healing.
- This presentation and topic, which is sensitive while still being dynamic, focuses on overcoming the pain of traumatic events that occurred during childhood, such as school violence and child abuse, as well as coping with parental depression and suicide, surviving natural disasters and war, domestic violence, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- This really honest subject matter, which Michelle opens up about using her trademark “no regrets, take responsibility, and love yourself from this moment on” approach, is energizing because it is conveyed through great narrative telling.
- This presentation also includes a music video that focuses on healing and recovery, and it is an excellent choice for use at any event relating to mental health or recovery.
