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American Morning

Interview With Parents, Police Chief Searching for Missing Girl Leanna Warner

Aired June 23, 2003 - 09:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Tough story now out of Chisholm, Minnesota. Police there say they are redirecting officers to work through hundreds of leads in a case of a little girl who has been missing for 10 days. Leanna Warner never came back from walk to her neighbor's house. The town's chief of police and the girl's parents are trying to remain positive. Kaelin and Chris Warner and Chief Scott Erickson joining us now from Minnesota. Thank you for joining us in such a difficult, difficult time.
The Warners, let me talk to you first. I can only even begin to imagine what this must be like at this particular time. Why is now the time to come out and speak about your little girl? Are you trying to keep her name and her face in the media?

CHRIS WARNER, LEANNA'S FATHER: No. We feel it's important that we continue to search here for her. You know, but we need everybody's help (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to bring our daughter home. We believe that she's here. She we believe that she's alive. We need the help.

KAGAN: Kaelin, let me bring you in here. Take to us the day of June 14 and the last time someone saw Leanna.

KAELIN WARNER, LEANNA'S MOTHER: She had a wonderful day at the lake, playing, laughing. Just energetic, as she always is. And we came home and she was tired but the wanted to go see her friend real quick, just like she does everyday. And that was the last time we saw her in this nightmare began.

KAGAN: She walked down to the neighbor's house, nobody was home. Did somebody see her trying to walk back home?

K. WARNER: We're not even quite sure of that one. There's been reports, that, yes, she was seen. But nothing official yet.

KAGAN: And for people who might be wondering about her being unsupervised, please explain the kind of neighborhood you live in with a lot of kids running around and kids going from one house to another.

K. WARNER: We live in God's country up here on the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Range. Everybody knows everyone. You know all of the children in the neighborhood. If you didn't know Leanna personally, you knew of Leanna. And you could call each other out by name and all the kids would come running. Everybody just hung together in a group in our whole neighborhood. And it's very safe, or was. KAGAN: Chief Erickson, let me bring you in here, now. This has been going on a number of days, there are so few leads. What is the new turn in how you're redirecting this case?

CHIEF SCOTT ERICKSON, CHISHOLM, MINN. POLICE: Well, after a week of extensive searching done by hundreds of thousands of people, we've determined that somebody must have played a role in Leanna's disappearance. So, as of today, as we have during the course of last week, we've got approximately 30 investigators that have been chasing down leads that have come in on this case.

And right now, we're looking at over 550 leads. It takes a lot of man power to track those down. Unfortunately, none of those leads have given us any information as to what's happened to Leanna or where she may be.

KAGAN: Chief Erickson, there's been some criticism in how your department has handled this case. First of all, no Amber Alert was ever issued. What do you say to that?

ERICKSON: Well, the truth of the matter is, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was contacted right away to discuss an Amber Alert. But what people do not understand is in order for an Amber Alert to be effective, you have to have some additional information other than a missing child. And in this case, we don't have any information as to a description of an individual that she may have been last seen with, or a vehicle description.

So, in essence, you'd issue an Amber Alert for a missing child. If we did that on a regular basis, we'd have hundreds of Amber Alerts issued everyday for missing kids and the Amber Alert would be ineffective.

KAGAN: Kaelin and Chris, that has to be so frustrating to hear that as parents, to be told, I'm sorry, we just can't issue an Amber Alert for your child because there's not enough information for you. You know your child is missing, she's not home where she belongs. And that would simply have be enough information, I would think.

K. WARNER: It is frustrating, but the amount of support that we've received from the police department, we understand they have done everything that they could...

ERICKSON: And continue to do.

K. WARNER: ... and continue to do so. The people in this town have come together like you wouldn't believe. It's overwhelming the support we've had through this.

KAGAN: And finally, Chris, people can see at the bottom of the screen that the Web site that's been set up it's called FindBeaner.org. Explain your daughter's nickname, please.

C. WARNER: Beaner, that nickname came when she was born. Actually, my wife had started that just because she looked like a pod with a bean. It just kind of stuck with her her whole life. She even refers to herself as that.

KAGAN: Well she's a beautiful little girl. There's somebody out there who knows what has happened to her. And we wish you the best in finding that information and bringing your daughter home safely.

C. WARNER: There has to be somebody with some information. And again, as a family, we would ask the nation to go to that Web site and download a picture, post it and pass it on.

K. WARNER: Get the word out.

C. WARNER: Get the word out so we can get our daughter home.

KAGAN: You're doing that yourself. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Chief.

ERICKSON: Also, the Chisholm Police Department has a reward of up to $10,000 for the safe return of Leanna. We believe somebody has to know something. It's unusual for something like this to happen and nobody to see or hear anything at all.

But you know we believe that there's -- you know, friendships or people out there that just don't want to say anything because they don't want to get involved. And we are -- we implore anybody that knows anything at all about this case, please call us right away so we can put an end to this. It is truly a nightmare.

(CROSSTALK)

C. WARNER: We need people to get involved.

KAGAN: Absolutely. Impossible to justify keeping a little girl away from her parents.

To the Warners, we wish you the best. Good luck. And, Chief Erickson, thanks for coming with us. Once again, we appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Girl Leanna Warner>


Aired June 23, 2003 - 09:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Tough story now out of Chisholm, Minnesota. Police there say they are redirecting officers to work through hundreds of leads in a case of a little girl who has been missing for 10 days. Leanna Warner never came back from walk to her neighbor's house. The town's chief of police and the girl's parents are trying to remain positive. Kaelin and Chris Warner and Chief Scott Erickson joining us now from Minnesota. Thank you for joining us in such a difficult, difficult time.
The Warners, let me talk to you first. I can only even begin to imagine what this must be like at this particular time. Why is now the time to come out and speak about your little girl? Are you trying to keep her name and her face in the media?

CHRIS WARNER, LEANNA'S FATHER: No. We feel it's important that we continue to search here for her. You know, but we need everybody's help (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to bring our daughter home. We believe that she's here. She we believe that she's alive. We need the help.

KAGAN: Kaelin, let me bring you in here. Take to us the day of June 14 and the last time someone saw Leanna.

KAELIN WARNER, LEANNA'S MOTHER: She had a wonderful day at the lake, playing, laughing. Just energetic, as she always is. And we came home and she was tired but the wanted to go see her friend real quick, just like she does everyday. And that was the last time we saw her in this nightmare began.

KAGAN: She walked down to the neighbor's house, nobody was home. Did somebody see her trying to walk back home?

K. WARNER: We're not even quite sure of that one. There's been reports, that, yes, she was seen. But nothing official yet.

KAGAN: And for people who might be wondering about her being unsupervised, please explain the kind of neighborhood you live in with a lot of kids running around and kids going from one house to another.

K. WARNER: We live in God's country up here on the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Range. Everybody knows everyone. You know all of the children in the neighborhood. If you didn't know Leanna personally, you knew of Leanna. And you could call each other out by name and all the kids would come running. Everybody just hung together in a group in our whole neighborhood. And it's very safe, or was. KAGAN: Chief Erickson, let me bring you in here, now. This has been going on a number of days, there are so few leads. What is the new turn in how you're redirecting this case?

CHIEF SCOTT ERICKSON, CHISHOLM, MINN. POLICE: Well, after a week of extensive searching done by hundreds of thousands of people, we've determined that somebody must have played a role in Leanna's disappearance. So, as of today, as we have during the course of last week, we've got approximately 30 investigators that have been chasing down leads that have come in on this case.

And right now, we're looking at over 550 leads. It takes a lot of man power to track those down. Unfortunately, none of those leads have given us any information as to what's happened to Leanna or where she may be.

KAGAN: Chief Erickson, there's been some criticism in how your department has handled this case. First of all, no Amber Alert was ever issued. What do you say to that?

ERICKSON: Well, the truth of the matter is, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was contacted right away to discuss an Amber Alert. But what people do not understand is in order for an Amber Alert to be effective, you have to have some additional information other than a missing child. And in this case, we don't have any information as to a description of an individual that she may have been last seen with, or a vehicle description.

So, in essence, you'd issue an Amber Alert for a missing child. If we did that on a regular basis, we'd have hundreds of Amber Alerts issued everyday for missing kids and the Amber Alert would be ineffective.

KAGAN: Kaelin and Chris, that has to be so frustrating to hear that as parents, to be told, I'm sorry, we just can't issue an Amber Alert for your child because there's not enough information for you. You know your child is missing, she's not home where she belongs. And that would simply have be enough information, I would think.

K. WARNER: It is frustrating, but the amount of support that we've received from the police department, we understand they have done everything that they could...

ERICKSON: And continue to do.

K. WARNER: ... and continue to do so. The people in this town have come together like you wouldn't believe. It's overwhelming the support we've had through this.

KAGAN: And finally, Chris, people can see at the bottom of the screen that the Web site that's been set up it's called FindBeaner.org. Explain your daughter's nickname, please.

C. WARNER: Beaner, that nickname came when she was born. Actually, my wife had started that just because she looked like a pod with a bean. It just kind of stuck with her her whole life. She even refers to herself as that.

KAGAN: Well she's a beautiful little girl. There's somebody out there who knows what has happened to her. And we wish you the best in finding that information and bringing your daughter home safely.

C. WARNER: There has to be somebody with some information. And again, as a family, we would ask the nation to go to that Web site and download a picture, post it and pass it on.

K. WARNER: Get the word out.

C. WARNER: Get the word out so we can get our daughter home.

KAGAN: You're doing that yourself. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Chief.

ERICKSON: Also, the Chisholm Police Department has a reward of up to $10,000 for the safe return of Leanna. We believe somebody has to know something. It's unusual for something like this to happen and nobody to see or hear anything at all.

But you know we believe that there's -- you know, friendships or people out there that just don't want to say anything because they don't want to get involved. And we are -- we implore anybody that knows anything at all about this case, please call us right away so we can put an end to this. It is truly a nightmare.

(CROSSTALK)

C. WARNER: We need people to get involved.

KAGAN: Absolutely. Impossible to justify keeping a little girl away from her parents.

To the Warners, we wish you the best. Good luck. And, Chief Erickson, thanks for coming with us. Once again, we appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Girl Leanna Warner>