Locked Up Abroad, Faith Kept Her Alive in Thai Prison

By Alicia Cruz
The Black Urban Times

Listen to Lisa Taylor's journey to freedom despite her imprisonment in a Thai jail after she and her cousin's girlfriend, Kim Hood were caught trying to smuggle 14 kilos of Heroin out of Thailand.

Hood and Taylor's story was featured on the National Geographic show, "Locked up Abroad: Back-stabbed in Thailand."

Actress Noree Victoria plays Taylor. Keisha Tillis, actress, singer and Georgia native, plays Kim Hood.



After an abusive marriage ends in divorce, Taylor finds herself struggling to raise three children alone. Hoping to give her children a better life, Taylor jumps at a chance to make $15,000 by bringing "products" to the United States via Thailand.

During her first solo trip to Thailand, Taylor invites Kim, her cousin's new girlfriend. Kim, despondent and needing a break following an incident where she shot and killed the former husband of her girlfriend after he firebombed the women's cars and assaulted Kim with a brick, readily accepts Taylor's seemingly innocent offer to travel abroad on a "nail business trip."

Once in Thailand, bizarre things occur. Taylor's "business" connections seem to be taking the young women on a wild goose chase. Then, just before the ladies are scheduled to fly back to the United States, Taylor's connection surprises her with extra "baggage" he says she must carry.

Upset, Taylor refuses. Kim, fearful that this new bump in the road will prevent her from getting back to Alabama in time for her manslaughter trial, agrees to carry the extra "baggage."

It is at this moment Kim says she realized Taylor's "business product" trip was nothing more than a cover story Taylor created to hide the fact that she was a drug mule for a Nigerian "businesswoman."

The two women head for the airport hoping to make it aboard their return flight without their luggage raising the suspicions of Customs officials. Taylor and her bag pass through airport screening unnoticed, but Kim isn't so lucky.

Within hours, both women are caught with Heroin and sent to a Thai jail. Following their convictions in Thailand, both women spent several years in Thai and American prisons.

Today, Taylor is a college graduate and an inspirational motivational speaker. At press time, I had not made contact with Kimberly Hood, but I am hoping to set up a brief interview with her to learn where her journey has taken her since her release from prison.

Hood is a military veteran who served her country honorably in the United States Army.


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