Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

New Developments in Search for Missing Bride-to-Be; Michael Jackson Trial

Aired April 28, 2005 - 07:00   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: New developments in the search for a bride-to-be who vanished without a trace just days before her wedding. This morning, police tell us why their investigation is now changing.
In the Michael Jackson trial, the singer's ex-wife back on the stand after her surprising testimony. Has this key witness now backfired for the prosecution?

And the surrogate mom who did the incredible speaks out for the first time since giving birth to five baby boys, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER:: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: 7:00 in New York. Good morning, everybody.

A busy day here. We'll talk about and try and sort out what happened in Congress last night. They're going after it. A fight about this man, Majority Leader Tom DeLay, coming to a head with a vote in the full House, Republicans joining Democrats to change the ethics rules, and we'll look at what all this means down there. They're going at it.

O'BRIEN: Also this morning, President Bush calling a primetime news conference tonight. We're going to take a look at what's on his mind.

HEMMER: All right, Jack, what's happening? Good morning.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Two of the things on his mind are nuclear power plants and oil refineries. He's going to talk about this country's energy problems tonight. The last nuclear power plant to be built in this country was given the go-ahead in 1978. And similarly, no new oil refineries have been built in 30 years as well. The president thinks we should have more of both. We'll take a look at what you think, as well as some other issues in a few minutes.

HEMMER: Jack, thanks for that.

Now to this mystery in the southeast. Police in Duluth, Georgia say the search for a bride-to-be who disappeared on Tuesday is now a criminal investigation. All this changing just about an hour ago.

Sara Dorsey is live in Duluth with the latest from there.

Sara, what did we learn today?

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, yesterday the large- scale search for Jennifer Wilbanks was called off after it turned up no significant leads. But this morning, police here, without giving many details as to why, announced this is now a criminal investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORSEY (voice-over): Unusual for 32-year-old Jennifer Wilbanks, an avid marathon runner, to take a jog in the evening. But Tuesday night, only four days before her upcoming wedding, Wilbanks went for a run, leaving the home she shared with their fiance, and never returned. More than 200 volunteers and law-enforcement agents searched for her all day yesterday.

MAJ. DON WOODRUFF, DULUTH POLICE DEPT.: They say that this behavior, her disappearance, is totally, completely uncharacteristic of her.

DORSEY: A case of a run away bride? Everyone who knows Jennifer says absolutely not, including her fiance, John Mason, the last person to see her.

JOHN MASON, FINANCE: If it's cold feet, she left her car, her money, her phone, her keys, her diamond ring. Something's happened, and I don't know what.

DORSEY: Jennifer's mother doesn't know either. The last time she spoke to her daughter, it was all about the wedding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was telling me to come by her office today. She's had a list of all the vendors. She said, momma, you're going to be with me all day.

DORSEY: Kim Kiesel has known Jennifer more than 10 years, when they worked together in a maternity ward. Kiesel was excited about her friend's upcoming wedding, and is shocked about her disappearance.

KIM KIESEL, FRIEND: It just makes you think, well, gosh, was it somebody she knows? Because I just think there would be more of a sign of a fight. I mean, if you know Jennifer, she wouldn't go down that easy.

DORSEY: Police say is there no sign of a fight, or of a crime, only a missing person at this point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORSEY: And the Wilbanks family has declined to speak to the media this morning. However, they did issue a statement, saying, in part -- quote -- "We beg anyone who has any knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Jennifer's disappearance to contact the police." However, unfortunately, the police are telling us, at this point, there are no significant leads -- Bill.

HEMMER: Sara Dorsey in Duluth, Georgia.

Also police holding a press conference at daybreak earlier today, and we are learning a bit more from police today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Major Don Woodruff, my guest now in Georgia.

Sir, good morning to you.

WOODRUFF: Good morning, sir.

HEMMER: Earlier today, you said this is now classified as a criminal investigation. Why is that, sir?

WOODRUFF: Well, yesterday, we did a massive search. We had over 250 people out searching the area, volunteers and law enforcement. We had canines on the ground and helicopters in the air. We were unable to find any trace of her. Based on the circumstances as reported us to by the family, we feel we have no other option at this point than to classify it as a criminal investigation.

HEMMER: When you put it in that category then, is that to suggest that you have evidence of a crime.

WOODRUFF: Well, at the present time, we have no physical evidence that suggests that, but at the same time, we feel based on the circumstances of her disappearance, according to the family members and friends, this is totally uncharacteristic of her. It's been suggested by some that she had pre-marital jitters. Family and friends completely dismissed that and said that this is totally out of her character. And that being the case, we feel we have to classify it as a criminal investigation and proceed forward in that respect.

HEMMER: It is my understanding her fiance said that he checked the hospitals in the area before he called police. Did he say why he did that?

WOODRUFF: I haven't spoken to him, so I couldn't answer that.

HEMMER: You haven't talked to the fiance?

WOODRUFF: I haven't. The investigators have talked him.

HEMMER: What did the investigators tell you about how they gauged the relationship now? Was it strong? Was it healthy?

WOODRUFF: Well, according to the investigators, they've interviewed him at least twice. They found him to very cooperative and helpful in everything that they've tried to do. And so that's how we're classify it at this time.

HEMMER: Do you consider him or anyone else suspicious?

WOODRUFF: Well I'd say this investigation is fairly new. It would be premature to classify anyone as a suspect at this time.

HEMMER: The search was called off last night, right? Will it resume today?

WOODRUFF: Well, yesterday, we did a massive search over the entire area. We expanded the search to cover a great deal of distance, and we were unable to find her. We made the more limited searching today with law-enforcement professionals to be looking for evidence that might have been overlooked by some of the civilian volunteers.

HEMMER: Well, let me take that a step further. What do you mean by limited search? What does that mean?

WOODRUFF: Well, go back over some of the same areas with law- enforcement people only to be looking for any evidence that may be there, that may have been overlooked.

HEMMER: So then a full-scale search will not continue today, right?

WOODRUFF: That is correct. We will not be on the same massive scale as yesterday.

HEMMER: And from an investigative standpoint then, help me understand why that decision would be made?

WOODRUFF: Why that decision would it be made? Because we didn't find her yesterday.

HEMMER: Why not a full-scale search?

WOODRUFF: We did that yesterday and we didn't find her.

HEMMER: Do you have any reason to think right now there's foul play?

WOODRUFF: I'm sorry?

HEMMER: Do you have any reason to think today there was foul play?

WOODRUFF: Well, again, based on the circumstances of this situation, the family and friends are insistent that this is totally out of character for her. And as such being the case, that's a good possibility at this point. We don't know.

HEMMER: One more thing here. You talked about the limited search today. What areas will you be looking for that you went over yesterday that you need to double-check?

WOODRUFF: Well, we go back to some of the same areas that we were yesterday, in a more controlled fashion, with law-enforcement professionals looking for evidence.

HEMMER: Major Don Woodruff, thank you, from the Duluth Police Department there in Georgia. Good luck to you and everyone down there, OK

WOODRUFF: Thank you. We appreciate it.

HEMMER: Sure -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, Michael Jackson's ex returns to the witness stand today at his molestation trial. Debbie Rowe's testimony is supposed to be the start of the prosecution's big finish. But on Wednesday, she threw them a curve.

Here's CNN Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael's Jackson's ex-wife didn't say what she was expected to on the witness stand. In opening statements, the prosecution told the jury that a videotaped interview Debbie Rowe did to help Michael Jackson was scripted. But under oath yesterday, Rowe adamantly denied that, saying, quote, "No one tells what to say."

LAURIE LEVENSON, LEGAL ANALYST: Up to now, she's actually gone against the prosecution's case, because she said she wasn't scripted, she wasn't coerced, she spoke her mind.

ROWLANDS: As prosecutors expected, Rowe was the first witness to directly tie Jackson to the video, by saying that Jackson personally asked her to do the interview. She also says Jackson promised she'd be able to see her children once things, quote, "settle down."

Rowe is currently in a custody battle with Jackson, but on the stand she seemed to have a lot of affection for him. At one point, Rowe broke down, saying she wanted to be reintroduced to her children and reacquainted with Jackson. When asked why she wanted to see Michael Jackson, her voice cracked saying, quote, "He's my friend."

CRAIG SMITH, LEGAL ANALYST: You have to wonder, what is it that she sees in Michael Jackson, because she obviously sees something in there that you have to assume that she thinks is good, and the jury just has to be wondering what that is.

ROWLANDS (on camera): One of the things that Debbie Rowe said in that videotaped interview she did for Michael Jackson, was that he was a great father, but on the stand, she said that she was lying about that. She is expected to be back on the stand when court resumes.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The judge has said he will limit Rowe's testimony to events surrounding her 2003 rebuttal interview, and won't allow questions that delve into Debbie Rowe's personal relationship with Michael Jackson -- Bill.

HEMMER: Now from Washington, a House vote taken last night, and trips taken by Congressman Tom DeLay may soon be under investigation, this after the House Ethics Committee is back operating under old rules. The House overwhelmingly voted to rescind controversial changes made to the ethics rules. The voted, 406-20.

Under the original rules, if the committee was deadlocked on whether to formally investigate a member, that triggered an investigation. Under the revised rules, an investigation would be dropped in a deadlock. Democrats say the rules were a change to protect DeLay. DeLay says he's done nothing wrong, and even voted in favor of changing the rules back. Hope you got that from D.C.

A landmark vote today could move Iraq closer to political stability. The Iraqi parliament formed the country's first democratically elected government in more than 50 years. It voted on a partial slate of cabinet officials proposed by Iraq's prime minister, and that vote could end the dangerous power vacuum that has existed there since the elections at the end of January. Some key cabinet positions, however, still remain unfilled because of continued political wrangling in Baghdad.

Later tonight, the president will address the issues in Iraq and the DeLay matter during his primetime news conference. That conference begins at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time, but CNN starts live coverage and analysis all evening long here in primetime.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: In a moment, we'll meet the surrogate mother who just delivered quintuplets. She's be with us live, along with a couple out in Arizona who are now very proud and very happy, and very tired parents, too.

O'BRIEN: Also this morning, we're talking about airport security. Do screeners have the right equipment? Why it may not matter whether private or government workers are doing the job, just ahead.

HEMMER: Also, police make an arrest in a deadly two-year string of arsons. The DNA evidence that may have broken that case wide open. That's ahead, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, talk about your instant family. Surrogate mother Teresa Anderson delivered five baby boys in the space of just five minutes on Tuesday. She'd been carrying the quintuplets for their biological parents, Luisa Gonzalez and Enrique Moreno. Teresa, and Luisa and Enrique join us this morning from Phoenix, Arizona to talk about the experience.

Good morning to all of you. Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning. Thank you for having us.

O'BRIEN: Mom and dad, let's start with you, the proud new parents. Give me a sense of how you're feeling, and what it was like when you started seeing these babies being delivered.

ENRIQUE MORENO, BIOLOGICAL FATHER OF QUINTUPLETS: It's amazing. It's something that we've been waiting for a long time ago. It's -- there's no words to explain how we feel at that moment. And I'm talking for both of us. It was amazing.

O'BRIEN: Well, I bet it was amazing. We can only imagine.

Teresa, I want to ask you how you're feeling today. It has to be incredibly difficult, obviously, to carry and then give birth to the five babies within five minutes. The doctors told us that you actually walked into the delivery room.

TERESA ANDERSON, SURROGATE MOTHER OF QUINTUPLETS: Yes, I did. I was looking forward to getting it done. So I just kind of jolted in there.

O'BRIEN: Girl, I know how you feel. At some point, you're just ready to go.

You have gone, Luisa and Enrique, from zero kids to five kids within just about five minutes. Give me a sense how you're going to manage, sort of infrastructurally, all these changes to your life now.

MORENO: Well, we have a couple of neighbors that, you know, asked us if they can help us. We, of course, you know, we can take any help now.

O'BRIEN: And Luisa, I'd be curious, step one is to take everybody up on every offer of help, right?

LUISA GONZALEZ, BIOLOGICAL MOTHER OF QUINTUPLETS: Yes, we talked to all my friends and everybody, when they have time to come to us and help.

O'BRIEN: The babies are so cute. We're looking at pictures of them, and they're decent size for quintuplets. Teresa, you decided to forego the $15,000 fee. We've been talking about that. There a lot of people who say, you know, why wouldn't you quintuple the fee? I mean, it's a lot of work carrying quints. Give me a sense, in all seriousness, of why you acted so generously.

ANDERSON: Well, considering the circumstances, they're great people and I didn't want to put them under any more pressure than they already have. We kind of went into this expecting maybe only one, and that was kind of what it was in the beginning, you know, the whole fee. But after five, it's going to be -- there's no way. They're going to need all the money they can right now.

O'BRIEN: Every single dime.

Enrique, give me a sense when the babies will come home. Do you know yet?

MORENO: The doctors say in about three to four weeks. O'BRIEN: And now, little Javier, who is the baby who's got the congenital heart problem, he's supposed to head into surgery next week. That's what we're hearing now. Is that right?

MORENO: That's right, yes.

O'BRIEN: I'd be curious to know, for both Enrique and Luisa, how do you thank somebody when they've essentially given to you what I think every parent knows is the greatest gift you can possibly have. How do you say thank you to that person, and has done it five times over for you? What do you say to her?

MORENO: Thank you. Thank you. That's all we can say. Yes, she's a miracle to us. She's a gift from God.

GONZALEZ: I can say thank you, and she is angel, that God send to us and do all this for us. That's an angel.

O'BRIEN: Congratulations to all of you. You know, the hard work begins right now, because when those five babies are 2, they'll be really be running you ragged.

Teresa Anderson, and Luisa Gonzalez and Enrique Moreno, thanks for being with us, and good luck to you -- Bill.

MORENO: Thank you.

HEMMER: Lock all the cabinets now.

In a moment here, you're pain is their pleasure. The company reaping the benefits of sky high gas prices to the tune of billions of dollars. Andy's "Minding Your Business." He has that next here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. Time for "The Cafferty File" and the Question of the Day.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, ma'am.

President Bush is going to hold a primetime news conference tonight to talk about Social Security and energy. In his speech yesterday, the president said the United States needs more nuclear power plants and more oil refineries. He suggested using closed military ways bases for the new refineries. Permits for the last nuclear power plant built in the United States were issued in 1979. It's also been three decades since the last oil refinery was built.

President Bush said, quote, "Our dependence on foreign energy is like a foreign tax on the American people," unquote. And he also admitted that these steps he's suggested will not affect today's high gasoline prices.

The question is this, this morning, "Will new oil refineries and nuclear power plants solve the United States energy problems?" am@CNN.com.

HEMMER: How long does it take to build them?

CAFFERTY: It takes seven years to get a drop of gasoline out of a new refinery. Nobody's going to build them because of the environmental concerns. I mean, the permit process is just -- I mean, it's like getting out of the Army before you're discharged.

HEMMER: So even if they get it done, it's 2012 before you get...

CAFFERTY: And the cost. The oil companies won't build them because of the cast. It's over a billion dollars to build a new refinery.

O'BRIEN: But if you have one, to what degree does it help lower the cost at the end of the day of the gas that we go buy at the pump?

CAFFERTY: Well, there's a problem in this country with refinery capacity. All of the refineries we have are running 24/7 to the max. They can't refine any more gasoline. So there's a need, I guess, for more refining gasoline. But gasoline comes from oil, and we're right back to the start of the same old...

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Right, and the thing about refineries is not in my town. We need one, but not in my town. We'll put it in your town.

CAFFERTY: Well, the military bases might be a good idea. One, it's federal land, so the local environmental regulations may not come into play as much. And so That might be a possibility.

SERWER: But they're towns next to the bases, and that's going to be a problem. We'll see that happening over the next couple of weeks.

HEMMER: In the middle of all of this Exxon is making a whole lot of cash, too. They're going to report earnings later today.

A preview of the markets with Andy now. Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

A tumultuous day in the oil markets yesterday. The oil markets. excuse me, Bill. That was -- the oil business is what it's all about. The price of crude falling more than $2.50 to $51 and change. The reason why? President Bush's speech had an impact on the markets, as well as a report by the U.S. Energy Department. Inventories dropping. Or I should say increasing by five million barrels to 324 million barrels.

The important thing here is a lot of numbers, but it's 9 percent above where it was last year, and that's when the price of gasoline, or the price of oil was $32 a barrel, and it's $51 today. So it's interesting stuff. There's a lot of stuff going on in the markets. Analysts saying the price of oil probably going to fall below $50. Gasoline should be headed down, too. You can see the markets responding very nicely here in terms of the stock market averages. And as Bill indicated, Exxon is expected to report a profit of about $7.6 billion for the first quarter. Obviously, that is one group that's benefiting.

HEMMER: For a quarter.

SERWER: That's a quarter of the year.

HEMMER: That's three months.

SERWER: Yes.

And obviously benefiting tremendously from higher oil prices. So if you can't beat them, join them, right?

Look at that, there's the stock. What's interesting is you can see it trailing down a little bit there. And you know, maybe Wall Street knows the price of oil has peaked. That's something to look at, I think.

HEMMER: We will. Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

HEMMER: Still to come this morning, what's it going to take to improve security at U.S. airports? Is it the security screeners, or is it the equipment they use? We'll look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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


Aired April 28, 2005 - 07:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: New developments in the search for a bride-to-be who vanished without a trace just days before her wedding. This morning, police tell us why their investigation is now changing.
In the Michael Jackson trial, the singer's ex-wife back on the stand after her surprising testimony. Has this key witness now backfired for the prosecution?

And the surrogate mom who did the incredible speaks out for the first time since giving birth to five baby boys, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER:: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: 7:00 in New York. Good morning, everybody.

A busy day here. We'll talk about and try and sort out what happened in Congress last night. They're going after it. A fight about this man, Majority Leader Tom DeLay, coming to a head with a vote in the full House, Republicans joining Democrats to change the ethics rules, and we'll look at what all this means down there. They're going at it.

O'BRIEN: Also this morning, President Bush calling a primetime news conference tonight. We're going to take a look at what's on his mind.

HEMMER: All right, Jack, what's happening? Good morning.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Two of the things on his mind are nuclear power plants and oil refineries. He's going to talk about this country's energy problems tonight. The last nuclear power plant to be built in this country was given the go-ahead in 1978. And similarly, no new oil refineries have been built in 30 years as well. The president thinks we should have more of both. We'll take a look at what you think, as well as some other issues in a few minutes.

HEMMER: Jack, thanks for that.

Now to this mystery in the southeast. Police in Duluth, Georgia say the search for a bride-to-be who disappeared on Tuesday is now a criminal investigation. All this changing just about an hour ago.

Sara Dorsey is live in Duluth with the latest from there.

Sara, what did we learn today?

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, yesterday the large- scale search for Jennifer Wilbanks was called off after it turned up no significant leads. But this morning, police here, without giving many details as to why, announced this is now a criminal investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORSEY (voice-over): Unusual for 32-year-old Jennifer Wilbanks, an avid marathon runner, to take a jog in the evening. But Tuesday night, only four days before her upcoming wedding, Wilbanks went for a run, leaving the home she shared with their fiance, and never returned. More than 200 volunteers and law-enforcement agents searched for her all day yesterday.

MAJ. DON WOODRUFF, DULUTH POLICE DEPT.: They say that this behavior, her disappearance, is totally, completely uncharacteristic of her.

DORSEY: A case of a run away bride? Everyone who knows Jennifer says absolutely not, including her fiance, John Mason, the last person to see her.

JOHN MASON, FINANCE: If it's cold feet, she left her car, her money, her phone, her keys, her diamond ring. Something's happened, and I don't know what.

DORSEY: Jennifer's mother doesn't know either. The last time she spoke to her daughter, it was all about the wedding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was telling me to come by her office today. She's had a list of all the vendors. She said, momma, you're going to be with me all day.

DORSEY: Kim Kiesel has known Jennifer more than 10 years, when they worked together in a maternity ward. Kiesel was excited about her friend's upcoming wedding, and is shocked about her disappearance.

KIM KIESEL, FRIEND: It just makes you think, well, gosh, was it somebody she knows? Because I just think there would be more of a sign of a fight. I mean, if you know Jennifer, she wouldn't go down that easy.

DORSEY: Police say is there no sign of a fight, or of a crime, only a missing person at this point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORSEY: And the Wilbanks family has declined to speak to the media this morning. However, they did issue a statement, saying, in part -- quote -- "We beg anyone who has any knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Jennifer's disappearance to contact the police." However, unfortunately, the police are telling us, at this point, there are no significant leads -- Bill.

HEMMER: Sara Dorsey in Duluth, Georgia.

Also police holding a press conference at daybreak earlier today, and we are learning a bit more from police today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Major Don Woodruff, my guest now in Georgia.

Sir, good morning to you.

WOODRUFF: Good morning, sir.

HEMMER: Earlier today, you said this is now classified as a criminal investigation. Why is that, sir?

WOODRUFF: Well, yesterday, we did a massive search. We had over 250 people out searching the area, volunteers and law enforcement. We had canines on the ground and helicopters in the air. We were unable to find any trace of her. Based on the circumstances as reported us to by the family, we feel we have no other option at this point than to classify it as a criminal investigation.

HEMMER: When you put it in that category then, is that to suggest that you have evidence of a crime.

WOODRUFF: Well, at the present time, we have no physical evidence that suggests that, but at the same time, we feel based on the circumstances of her disappearance, according to the family members and friends, this is totally uncharacteristic of her. It's been suggested by some that she had pre-marital jitters. Family and friends completely dismissed that and said that this is totally out of her character. And that being the case, we feel we have to classify it as a criminal investigation and proceed forward in that respect.

HEMMER: It is my understanding her fiance said that he checked the hospitals in the area before he called police. Did he say why he did that?

WOODRUFF: I haven't spoken to him, so I couldn't answer that.

HEMMER: You haven't talked to the fiance?

WOODRUFF: I haven't. The investigators have talked him.

HEMMER: What did the investigators tell you about how they gauged the relationship now? Was it strong? Was it healthy?

WOODRUFF: Well, according to the investigators, they've interviewed him at least twice. They found him to very cooperative and helpful in everything that they've tried to do. And so that's how we're classify it at this time.

HEMMER: Do you consider him or anyone else suspicious?

WOODRUFF: Well I'd say this investigation is fairly new. It would be premature to classify anyone as a suspect at this time.

HEMMER: The search was called off last night, right? Will it resume today?

WOODRUFF: Well, yesterday, we did a massive search over the entire area. We expanded the search to cover a great deal of distance, and we were unable to find her. We made the more limited searching today with law-enforcement professionals to be looking for evidence that might have been overlooked by some of the civilian volunteers.

HEMMER: Well, let me take that a step further. What do you mean by limited search? What does that mean?

WOODRUFF: Well, go back over some of the same areas with law- enforcement people only to be looking for any evidence that may be there, that may have been overlooked.

HEMMER: So then a full-scale search will not continue today, right?

WOODRUFF: That is correct. We will not be on the same massive scale as yesterday.

HEMMER: And from an investigative standpoint then, help me understand why that decision would be made?

WOODRUFF: Why that decision would it be made? Because we didn't find her yesterday.

HEMMER: Why not a full-scale search?

WOODRUFF: We did that yesterday and we didn't find her.

HEMMER: Do you have any reason to think right now there's foul play?

WOODRUFF: I'm sorry?

HEMMER: Do you have any reason to think today there was foul play?

WOODRUFF: Well, again, based on the circumstances of this situation, the family and friends are insistent that this is totally out of character for her. And as such being the case, that's a good possibility at this point. We don't know.

HEMMER: One more thing here. You talked about the limited search today. What areas will you be looking for that you went over yesterday that you need to double-check?

WOODRUFF: Well, we go back to some of the same areas that we were yesterday, in a more controlled fashion, with law-enforcement professionals looking for evidence.

HEMMER: Major Don Woodruff, thank you, from the Duluth Police Department there in Georgia. Good luck to you and everyone down there, OK

WOODRUFF: Thank you. We appreciate it.

HEMMER: Sure -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, Michael Jackson's ex returns to the witness stand today at his molestation trial. Debbie Rowe's testimony is supposed to be the start of the prosecution's big finish. But on Wednesday, she threw them a curve.

Here's CNN Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael's Jackson's ex-wife didn't say what she was expected to on the witness stand. In opening statements, the prosecution told the jury that a videotaped interview Debbie Rowe did to help Michael Jackson was scripted. But under oath yesterday, Rowe adamantly denied that, saying, quote, "No one tells what to say."

LAURIE LEVENSON, LEGAL ANALYST: Up to now, she's actually gone against the prosecution's case, because she said she wasn't scripted, she wasn't coerced, she spoke her mind.

ROWLANDS: As prosecutors expected, Rowe was the first witness to directly tie Jackson to the video, by saying that Jackson personally asked her to do the interview. She also says Jackson promised she'd be able to see her children once things, quote, "settle down."

Rowe is currently in a custody battle with Jackson, but on the stand she seemed to have a lot of affection for him. At one point, Rowe broke down, saying she wanted to be reintroduced to her children and reacquainted with Jackson. When asked why she wanted to see Michael Jackson, her voice cracked saying, quote, "He's my friend."

CRAIG SMITH, LEGAL ANALYST: You have to wonder, what is it that she sees in Michael Jackson, because she obviously sees something in there that you have to assume that she thinks is good, and the jury just has to be wondering what that is.

ROWLANDS (on camera): One of the things that Debbie Rowe said in that videotaped interview she did for Michael Jackson, was that he was a great father, but on the stand, she said that she was lying about that. She is expected to be back on the stand when court resumes.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The judge has said he will limit Rowe's testimony to events surrounding her 2003 rebuttal interview, and won't allow questions that delve into Debbie Rowe's personal relationship with Michael Jackson -- Bill.

HEMMER: Now from Washington, a House vote taken last night, and trips taken by Congressman Tom DeLay may soon be under investigation, this after the House Ethics Committee is back operating under old rules. The House overwhelmingly voted to rescind controversial changes made to the ethics rules. The voted, 406-20.

Under the original rules, if the committee was deadlocked on whether to formally investigate a member, that triggered an investigation. Under the revised rules, an investigation would be dropped in a deadlock. Democrats say the rules were a change to protect DeLay. DeLay says he's done nothing wrong, and even voted in favor of changing the rules back. Hope you got that from D.C.

A landmark vote today could move Iraq closer to political stability. The Iraqi parliament formed the country's first democratically elected government in more than 50 years. It voted on a partial slate of cabinet officials proposed by Iraq's prime minister, and that vote could end the dangerous power vacuum that has existed there since the elections at the end of January. Some key cabinet positions, however, still remain unfilled because of continued political wrangling in Baghdad.

Later tonight, the president will address the issues in Iraq and the DeLay matter during his primetime news conference. That conference begins at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time, but CNN starts live coverage and analysis all evening long here in primetime.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: In a moment, we'll meet the surrogate mother who just delivered quintuplets. She's be with us live, along with a couple out in Arizona who are now very proud and very happy, and very tired parents, too.

O'BRIEN: Also this morning, we're talking about airport security. Do screeners have the right equipment? Why it may not matter whether private or government workers are doing the job, just ahead.

HEMMER: Also, police make an arrest in a deadly two-year string of arsons. The DNA evidence that may have broken that case wide open. That's ahead, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, talk about your instant family. Surrogate mother Teresa Anderson delivered five baby boys in the space of just five minutes on Tuesday. She'd been carrying the quintuplets for their biological parents, Luisa Gonzalez and Enrique Moreno. Teresa, and Luisa and Enrique join us this morning from Phoenix, Arizona to talk about the experience.

Good morning to all of you. Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning. Thank you for having us.

O'BRIEN: Mom and dad, let's start with you, the proud new parents. Give me a sense of how you're feeling, and what it was like when you started seeing these babies being delivered.

ENRIQUE MORENO, BIOLOGICAL FATHER OF QUINTUPLETS: It's amazing. It's something that we've been waiting for a long time ago. It's -- there's no words to explain how we feel at that moment. And I'm talking for both of us. It was amazing.

O'BRIEN: Well, I bet it was amazing. We can only imagine.

Teresa, I want to ask you how you're feeling today. It has to be incredibly difficult, obviously, to carry and then give birth to the five babies within five minutes. The doctors told us that you actually walked into the delivery room.

TERESA ANDERSON, SURROGATE MOTHER OF QUINTUPLETS: Yes, I did. I was looking forward to getting it done. So I just kind of jolted in there.

O'BRIEN: Girl, I know how you feel. At some point, you're just ready to go.

You have gone, Luisa and Enrique, from zero kids to five kids within just about five minutes. Give me a sense how you're going to manage, sort of infrastructurally, all these changes to your life now.

MORENO: Well, we have a couple of neighbors that, you know, asked us if they can help us. We, of course, you know, we can take any help now.

O'BRIEN: And Luisa, I'd be curious, step one is to take everybody up on every offer of help, right?

LUISA GONZALEZ, BIOLOGICAL MOTHER OF QUINTUPLETS: Yes, we talked to all my friends and everybody, when they have time to come to us and help.

O'BRIEN: The babies are so cute. We're looking at pictures of them, and they're decent size for quintuplets. Teresa, you decided to forego the $15,000 fee. We've been talking about that. There a lot of people who say, you know, why wouldn't you quintuple the fee? I mean, it's a lot of work carrying quints. Give me a sense, in all seriousness, of why you acted so generously.

ANDERSON: Well, considering the circumstances, they're great people and I didn't want to put them under any more pressure than they already have. We kind of went into this expecting maybe only one, and that was kind of what it was in the beginning, you know, the whole fee. But after five, it's going to be -- there's no way. They're going to need all the money they can right now.

O'BRIEN: Every single dime.

Enrique, give me a sense when the babies will come home. Do you know yet?

MORENO: The doctors say in about three to four weeks. O'BRIEN: And now, little Javier, who is the baby who's got the congenital heart problem, he's supposed to head into surgery next week. That's what we're hearing now. Is that right?

MORENO: That's right, yes.

O'BRIEN: I'd be curious to know, for both Enrique and Luisa, how do you thank somebody when they've essentially given to you what I think every parent knows is the greatest gift you can possibly have. How do you say thank you to that person, and has done it five times over for you? What do you say to her?

MORENO: Thank you. Thank you. That's all we can say. Yes, she's a miracle to us. She's a gift from God.

GONZALEZ: I can say thank you, and she is angel, that God send to us and do all this for us. That's an angel.

O'BRIEN: Congratulations to all of you. You know, the hard work begins right now, because when those five babies are 2, they'll be really be running you ragged.

Teresa Anderson, and Luisa Gonzalez and Enrique Moreno, thanks for being with us, and good luck to you -- Bill.

MORENO: Thank you.

HEMMER: Lock all the cabinets now.

In a moment here, you're pain is their pleasure. The company reaping the benefits of sky high gas prices to the tune of billions of dollars. Andy's "Minding Your Business." He has that next here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. Time for "The Cafferty File" and the Question of the Day.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, ma'am.

President Bush is going to hold a primetime news conference tonight to talk about Social Security and energy. In his speech yesterday, the president said the United States needs more nuclear power plants and more oil refineries. He suggested using closed military ways bases for the new refineries. Permits for the last nuclear power plant built in the United States were issued in 1979. It's also been three decades since the last oil refinery was built.

President Bush said, quote, "Our dependence on foreign energy is like a foreign tax on the American people," unquote. And he also admitted that these steps he's suggested will not affect today's high gasoline prices.

The question is this, this morning, "Will new oil refineries and nuclear power plants solve the United States energy problems?" am@CNN.com.

HEMMER: How long does it take to build them?

CAFFERTY: It takes seven years to get a drop of gasoline out of a new refinery. Nobody's going to build them because of the environmental concerns. I mean, the permit process is just -- I mean, it's like getting out of the Army before you're discharged.

HEMMER: So even if they get it done, it's 2012 before you get...

CAFFERTY: And the cost. The oil companies won't build them because of the cast. It's over a billion dollars to build a new refinery.

O'BRIEN: But if you have one, to what degree does it help lower the cost at the end of the day of the gas that we go buy at the pump?

CAFFERTY: Well, there's a problem in this country with refinery capacity. All of the refineries we have are running 24/7 to the max. They can't refine any more gasoline. So there's a need, I guess, for more refining gasoline. But gasoline comes from oil, and we're right back to the start of the same old...

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Right, and the thing about refineries is not in my town. We need one, but not in my town. We'll put it in your town.

CAFFERTY: Well, the military bases might be a good idea. One, it's federal land, so the local environmental regulations may not come into play as much. And so That might be a possibility.

SERWER: But they're towns next to the bases, and that's going to be a problem. We'll see that happening over the next couple of weeks.

HEMMER: In the middle of all of this Exxon is making a whole lot of cash, too. They're going to report earnings later today.

A preview of the markets with Andy now. Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

A tumultuous day in the oil markets yesterday. The oil markets. excuse me, Bill. That was -- the oil business is what it's all about. The price of crude falling more than $2.50 to $51 and change. The reason why? President Bush's speech had an impact on the markets, as well as a report by the U.S. Energy Department. Inventories dropping. Or I should say increasing by five million barrels to 324 million barrels.

The important thing here is a lot of numbers, but it's 9 percent above where it was last year, and that's when the price of gasoline, or the price of oil was $32 a barrel, and it's $51 today. So it's interesting stuff. There's a lot of stuff going on in the markets. Analysts saying the price of oil probably going to fall below $50. Gasoline should be headed down, too. You can see the markets responding very nicely here in terms of the stock market averages. And as Bill indicated, Exxon is expected to report a profit of about $7.6 billion for the first quarter. Obviously, that is one group that's benefiting.

HEMMER: For a quarter.

SERWER: That's a quarter of the year.

HEMMER: That's three months.

SERWER: Yes.

And obviously benefiting tremendously from higher oil prices. So if you can't beat them, join them, right?

Look at that, there's the stock. What's interesting is you can see it trailing down a little bit there. And you know, maybe Wall Street knows the price of oil has peaked. That's something to look at, I think.

HEMMER: We will. Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

HEMMER: Still to come this morning, what's it going to take to improve security at U.S. airports? Is it the security screeners, or is it the equipment they use? We'll look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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