Twenty years ago (in 2006): Toby Dorr, then a married mother of two living in Kansas (USA), had overcome cancer. She volunteered at the Lansing Correctional Facility and founded the Safe Harbor Prison Dogs program (training dogs for prisoners to care for and then adopt).
She met and fell in love with inmate John Manard (then 27 years old, serving a life sentence for murder in a carjacking he committed as a teenager).
On February 12, 2006, Toby helped John escape by hiding him in a large dog cage (placed in her van). They drove out of the prison gates undetected (surveillance technology was limited at the time).
They escaped for 12 days (living in a cabin in Tennessee, withdrawing over $10,000 in cash), before being apprehended after a high-speed chase with police and helicopters.
Toby pleaded guilty to aiding a prisoner’s escape and smuggling contraband into prison → sentenced to 27 months in prison. John was sent back to prison (plus additional sentence).
Toby Dorr’s current life (as updated in the video):
After release from prison: Divorced her ex-husband, temporarily lost contact with her children (one son later died of Hodgkin’s cancer). Her father also died of cancer while she was in prison.
Remarried her current husband, Chris Dorr (they met while Toby was working in Boston). They now live in Virginia (near Washington DC) with her husband’s family, and Toby has become a stepmother and grandmother.
Toby’s life has completely changed:
Wrote her memoir “Living With Conviction” (and the book series “Unleashed” + “A Voice Unleashed”).
Founded the Fierce Grace Movement – a safe space to help women heal from trauma and overcome emotional prisons.
She worked as a speaker, podcaster (there were plans to interview John, but he pᴀssed away first), and advocated for criminal justice reform.
She still considered John a friend (visiting him with her husband Chris), but ᴀsserted: “The woman of today would never do that again.” She emphasized: “Freedom is a state of mind, not a circumstance.”
Latest update: John Manard died in August 2024 in prison (age 45, due to a fentanyl overdose – Toby suspects suicide). She received a portion of his ashes and is grieving but continues to live positively.
Link video:
