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CNN Live Today

Missing in Aruba; Idaho Kidnapping; Close-Up on Crime

Aired July 05, 2005 - 10:59   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."
The mother of Natalee Holloway expresses new concerns about the investigation into her daughter's disappearance. In a news conference in Aruba last hour, Beth Holloway Twitty expressed outrage over the release of two of the three suspects in the case. She says she fears the two young men may try to flee the island. We'll have much more on the investigation in just a minute.

President Bush is on his way to Europe this hour. Mr. Bush will first stop in Denmark before joining other world leaders in Scotland for tomorrow's G8 summit. On the agenda for the three-day talks, aid to Africa and global warming. A live report about 30 minutes from now.

The suspect in the kidnapping of a young Idaho girl is set to appear in court later today. Convicted sex offender Joseph Duncan was arrested Saturday after a waitress recognized Shasta Groene at a Denny's restaurant. Meanwhile, authorities say this surveillance tape shows the 8-year-old Shasta accompanying her alleged kidnaper at a convenience store on Friday. The tape was shot just hours before Duncan was arrested.

We'll have a live report straight ahead.

Senior military officials say the bodies of two missing navy SEALs have been found in Afghanistan. One serviceman is still missing, another was rescued and is expected to make a full recovery. The four-man team was last heard from when they called for reinforcements last Tuesday. A military chopper crashed bringing in support.

Good morning. Welcome to CNN LIVE TODAY. It is 9:00 a.m. in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; 11:00 a.m. in Palm Beach, Aruba; and 5:00 p.m. in Copenhagen, Denmark.

From CNN Center here in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.

She is upset, she is angry. We begin in Aruba, where Natalee Holloway's mother made an emotional plea. You saw it live on our air just an hour ago. It comes after a judge freed two suspects in her daughter's disappearance.

Our correspondent Chris Lawrence is in Palm Beach, Aruba, with more on the story. Good morning.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

You know, we've been talking with Natalee Holloway's mother for the better part of a few weeks now. I've never seen her publicly break down like that. It was obviously an overwhelming moment for her as the two suspects were released. Earlier today, she got very emotional, she called the two Kalpoe brothers criminals, and she asked the Aruban authorities to notify the U.S. State Department if they try to leave the island.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S MOTHER: I'm asking this in the name of my beautiful, intelligent and outstanding daughter who I haven't seen for 36 days and for whom I will continue to search until I find her. Thank you all so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Now, we spoke with the Kalpoe brothers' attorney. He says they can leave the island but won't because they didn't do anything wrong and they are concerned about how that would appear. We also spoke with the Kalpoes' mother, who says they cancelled a trip they had planned to Surinam. And we have to remember a judge just yesterday looked at the case against these two young men and decided there was not enough evidence to hold them.

Right now, only one of the suspects, Joran Van Der Sloot, remains in custody. He can be held up to 60 days. But again, that decision may not be final.

He has about three days to decide whether to appeal the judge's ruling. And prosecutors are considering whether to appeal the judge's ruling to release the two Kalpoe brothers. So two appeals, two decisions to make over the next couple days -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Meanwhile, the physical search for Natalee Holloway still continues.

LAWRENCE: That's right. And they will be getting some help, we believe, starting tomorrow. The Aruban authorities asked Holland to send three F-16 fighter jets to help with the search.

They've been rigged with infrared sensors and special sonar equipment that allows them to almost see the entire island. And we believe that they are now in Curacao. The pilots are taking a day of rest, and they should be helping with the search by tomorrow.

KAGAN: Chris Lawrence, live from Palm Beach, Aruba. Thank you.

On to Idaho and the case of the Groene children. A chilling new videotape of Shasta Groene and her alleged kidnaper.

Our Rusty Dornin is keeping watch this hour from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, this morning.

Hello.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, it's definitely providing a clearer picture of what Shasta Groene was doing with the suspect before she arrived here in Idaho, but it's very haunting, almost disturbing, to see this 8-year-old girl get out of that red jeep at a convenience store in Kellogg, Idaho, and come into the store. And she's holding on to her arm, she walks past these customers, just looks at them, doesn't say anything, and you don't see the suspect anywhere. He's in another part of the store reading the newspaper.

Now, you have to wonder how powerful of a hold did he have on her that she did not reach out to someone, didn't say anything to anyone? She only looks very withdrawn, sort of holding on to herself while she's in the store. And then finally, eight minutes later, they end up walking out of the store into the jeep.

Meantime, the suspect, Joseph Duncan, has a very troubling, violent past. He became a sex offender at a very early age for a very brutal crime.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN (voice-over): On this street in Lakewood, Washington, Joseph Duncan's career as a criminal began. He was 16, according to police records. It was 1980. He broke into a neighbor's home and stole handguns and ammunition, but he wasn't done that day.

SHERIFF ED TROYER, PIERCE COUNTY, WASHINGTON: He came across a 14-year-old boy he didn't know. He kidnapped the boy at gunpoint, brought him into the woods out in the Lake City area by Fort Lewis and took him out there and raped him repeatedly. During that, he also beat him with a stick, burned him with a cigarette and dry-fired the gun.

DORNIN: No bullets, but he pulled the trigger twice, making the boy think he was going to kill him. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years. He served 14 and was released in 1994, but violated his parole and was back in prison by '97.

One week after his release in 2000, Duncan moved to Fargo, North Dakota. He enrolled at North Dakota State University. There, according to his student Web site, he described himself as an honor student and a go-getter who likes karate, skiing and scuba diving. He claimed he worked for several companies under the time he was in prison in the late '90s.

In March of this year, Duncan was arrested for molesting a 7- year-old boy in Minnesota. In April, the judge granted him bail. The judge told a Minnesota TV reporter this week he isn't sure whether he knew that Duncan was a level three sex offender when he granted him that bail.

Duncan then disappeared. Police believe he stole this red jeep in May in Minnesota. Until early May, police say he was an active blogger. He denied being a pedophile but wrote, "Because of my appearance and family circumstances, I was molested so often and by so many different people that up until the time of my offense I thought it was normal."

In this Web blog he also unveiled his battles with his so-called demons. "The demons have taken over." This entry five days before the triple murder in Idaho. "My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die."

And what about his connection to the triple murders here in Idaho? Investigators say Duncan is still their primary investigative lead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: Investigators say they will narrow their focus on Duncan now that they've found the remains and are hoping to soon confirm that it is indeed Dylan Groene.

Meantime, Joseph Duncan is about three miles away from the courthouse here. He will be appearing on closed-circuit television about 1:30 local time for his first appearance, won't be giving a plea or anything like that. But he perhaps will be assigned an attorney and the judge will talk whether or not he'll be granted bail.

Now, he was charged right now with kidnapping and then those two outstanding warrants. But, of course, they say other charges could be forthcoming -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And so, Rusty, they say that Joseph Duncan is their primary lead. Are they able to explain how he would have come across the paths of Shasta Groene or this family?

DORNIN: No. And that's what's very unusual. Even now investigators are saying -- and we've heard also that Shasta Groene's father say he never knew anything about this guy. The family had never met him, that he knows of.

Of course, he was not there when the triple murders did happen. He was separated from his wife. So -- but as far as he knows, the Groene family had no connection with this man.

KAGAN: Rusty Dornin, live from Idaho. Thank you.

In just a few minutes we'll continue our coverage of the story as I talk to a criminal profiler for insight into a criminal's mind and the impact on their victims. That's coming up in just a moment.

Now on to a high-tech way to catch suspected criminals, posting surveillance cameras on troubled city streets. While some liken it to big brother watching, others say the close-up on crime actually helps police and the public take back their streets.

CNN's Kelly Wallace has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you shoot down to -- towards Green (ph) and Lexington? There are two number one males. One guy has a striped shirt on.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Baltimore, a police officer spots potential trouble miles away thanks to new surveillance cameras in select areas of the city recording what's happening 24 hours a day. One of those cameras is just blocks from where Betty Harris lives.

(on camera): What was this area like before the cameras?

BETTY HARRIS, BALTIMORE RESIDENT: Terrible. Drugs everywhere. Terrible. It's much better now.

WALLACE: You say drugs everywhere.

HARRIS: Everywhere.

WALLACE: You could walk any time of day?

HARRIS: Any time. Any time.

WALLACE: And now?

HARRIS: Look at it. Oh! Thank you, Jesus!

WALLACE (voice-over): Betty knows firsthand. She says she used to buy drugs here, but has been clean for the past six years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's so good that we can actually pick up the license plate number of a car.

WALLACE: Extra eyes on the streets working to prevent crime and nab offenders when a crime takes place, like in this case, where cameras catch a man who police say is preparing to do drugs. Minutes later, officers move in.

Ironically, this all happened just as Baltimore's mayor was holding a news conference back in May unveiling the new cameras. He says they're already making a difference.

MAYOR MARTIN O'MALLEY, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND: Just in the first month here we've seen a more than double-digit reduction of violent crime, even in this area of downtown, which is generally safer than most anyway.

WALLACE: But back in Betty's neighborhood, some residents are concerned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What it is, is an evasion of privacy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't even come and sit on your own step no more. A lot of police pulling up in front of your door, talking about, "Why you all out here? What you all doing?" WALLACE: Leonard Hamm has served on the police force 22 years and was appointed police commissioner in November.

(on camera): You've heard the critics who say, "It's like big brother is watching. It's impacting my privacy to have cameras watching you 24/7." What do you say to that?

LEONARD HAMM, BALTIMORE POLICE COMMISSIONER: I say, before we put cameras up, we go to the community and say, "This is what we want to the do. What do you think?" And they say, "Give them to us." And every community we go into, they want more and more and more.

WALLACE (voice-over): And some of the cameras are on the move. Officers take them to areas with high crime rates. They are designed to deter. Commissioner Hamm says it's all about giving Baltimore streets back to the people.

HAMM: It allows them to live their life, sit on the steps, to ride their bicycles, to go to the store. That's what citizens want.

WALLACE: That is what Betty wants.

HARRIS: It's the saving of our neighborhood. Not the hood, the neighborhood.

WALLACE: Kelly Wallace, CNN, Baltimore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Kids and television. Just how much time in front of the tube is too much? Elizabeth Cohen weighs in, in our "Daily Dose" segment.

Plus, Cindy and Dennis. Could these tropical storms mean trouble for the residents along the Gulf Coast?

And there's been another death in the boxing arena. We'll take a look at what this might mean for the sport a little later in the show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Kicking up a storm in the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Cindy is moving fast, and it's getting stronger. It's expected to hit the northern Gulf Coast either later today or early tomorrow.

It's not expected to become a hurricane. Cindy's maximum sustained winds are howling around 50 miles per hour. The National Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm warning for areas between intracoastal city Louisiana to Pascagoula, Missisippi, and that includes the city of New Orleans.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Joseph Duncan goes to court later today. He is charged with kidnapping Shasta Groene in Idaho. Police know a lot about the suspect thanks to his own words on a Web blog. The last entry came May 13. That is two days before the Groene children disappeared. Duncan's writings offer a fascinating look inside the mind of a sexual predator.

Pat Brown is a criminal profiler, and she joins me from Minneapolis this morning.

Good morning.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: What do you make of what you've learn so far of Joseph Duncan?

BROWN: Well, I think you said it right. I think his blog is absolutely fascinating to look at and really does tell us how a sexual predator thinks. And if we understand how they think, we can stop letting them back out on bail again, which was just the most...

KAGAN: Yes, kind of scary how this last judge let him out. Let's look at some of these statements and maybe you can break them down for us here. We just heard from them in Rusty Dornin's peace, but we're going to put them back up.

He writes, "I'm afraid, very afraid. If they win, then a lot of people will be badly hurt. And they've had their way before. So I know what they can do."

I think he's talking about his demons that he said he has inside of him.

BROWN: Right. He's trying to play a little bit of psychotic thing here and I don't buy it. That's a psychopath trying to excuse the things that he likes to do, which is molest and rape and kill people.

He's just -- he's creating an alternate personality so he can blame everything on that. But quite frankly, he knows exactly what he's doing.

And if you look at another place in his blog, he said, "When I was in prison, all I could wait for was to get out and to get even and hurt society. And when I got out, I did hurt society again and again. And I didn't get caught."

So while he was going to this -- getting his computer degree, he was busy doing some kind of crimes he didn't get caught for. And then when he did get caught finally, he said, "I didn't do that one." So -- but -- so he's always got an excuse for something because he's a psychopath and you can't quite believe what he says. But...

KAGAN: Right. So do you believe him when he says that he did crimes that he hasn't been caught for? Is he boasting there?

BROWN: That I do -- that I do believe. I really do believe that part, because he's not going to not do his crimes as long as he can get away with them.

The problem is he finally got caught. And what happened, when that judge gave him bail, he knew he was going to go back to prison. And the judge really sent him into a spree mode, where he became a spree killer, like Andrew Cunanan, because he knew he was going to get back. He didn't -- you know, he was going to get all the fun he could, and he was going to get all the revenge he can on society before he went back. And he did a very good job of getting that revenge.

KAGAN: Well, and meanwhile, talk about a sick society. We've come to a point now where psychopaths and alleged kidnappers and potential murders have their own blog?

BROWN: Pretty bad, isn't it? Yes. They can now express themselves to the world, and he did, right up until the very last bit, which does give us some insight into him.

But yes, you have the freedom to talk to anybody. It's not as bad, though, as after prison. When these guys go to prison, serial killers will continue having their blogs from prison, having their own Web pages, and still hurting all the victims and still spouting off all this kind of many dangerous thoughts. And I think we should stop the prisoners from having the blogs, because, I mean, after all, why are they in prison if we're going to, you know, allow them to still contact society like that?

KAGAN: I want to question you about some other behavior that he had here, the surveillance tape that we saw. This was about 12 hours before Duncan was actually arrested.

This is in a video -- not video store -- in a gas station and convenience store. There you see Joseph Duncan and 8-year-old Shasta Groene walking in, her arms are crossed. He allows her to kind of just walk the store freely and then they leave together. Basically, he was hiding with her in plain sight.

BROWN: Exactly. I think that Duncan didn't exactly know what his plans were. He knew eventually he was going to get caught for one thing or the other.

He might have taken her as a hostage, thinking at some point he was going to go out in a hail of, you know, bullets and have a big showdown. And he may just simply not have gotten to that point or just given up on the idea along the way.

And we don't know what his thinking was, and probably he didn't know what his thinking was. He was probably confused, which he did say in his blog, of how he was going to go out in this at the end here.

KAGAN: Well, there's still a lot of questions about this case, including how much involvement he has, including the murders that preceded what we have seen here with Shasta Groene.

BROWN: Right. KAGAN: Pat, thank you for your insight today.

BROWN: My pleasure, Daryn.

KAGAN: It is 21 minutes past the hour. President Bush is on his way to Europe for a G8 summit. What kind of reception will he get there? Here's a little bit of a look. We'll have a preview from Scotland on the event and what the president can expect when he gets there.

OK, kids and parents. We're talking TV and test scores. Why it's not just how much television your kids watch, but also where they watch it. That matters.

Stay with us on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The latest results from Tour de France. In France, he pushed his pedal to the metal to claim a big win. Lance Armstrong and his Discovery Channel squad have just won the fourth stage of Tour de France.

The 33-year-old Texan led his squad to victory. That means he gets the yellow jersey as overall race leader. Armstrong is going for his seventh straight Tour de France win.

Of course it is a long race, three weeks. And we're just day four. But a lot of people rooting for Lance Armstrong.

On to today's "Daily Dose." Your children's TV viewing habits may affect how well they do in school. A new study has some surprising results.

Our Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has details as a mom and a correspondent.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, both. Put the two of them together. And, in fact, I have a daughter who's going to be a third-grader, which is the level they looked at.

KAGAN: The level they looked at. OK.

COHEN: The level they looked at. They looked at third graders, and what they found is that it wasn't just important how much TV they watched, but where they were watching TV.

They looked at the set of third graders, and they saw where they had a television, were they watching in their living room or were they watching in their bedroom, and how did that affect standardized test scores. Some very interesting results.

First of all, they looked at 348 children, all third graders, and 70 percent of these third graders had a television in their bedroom, a percentage I found pretty astounding. And when they looked at these kids with TVs in their bedrooms, they had an eight-point drop in math scores, compared to kids who didn't have TVs in their bedrooms, a seven-point drop in reading scores, and an eight-point drop in language arts.

So the authors of this study from Stanford and Johns Hopkins says the bottom line is pretty simple: don't put a TV in your kid's bedroom. Or if you have one, take it out.

Now, an interesting finding is that they found that kids who had access to a computer in the house, their test scores were higher

KAGAN: Now, back to the TV, we're now just talking how much. We're talking about the fact that where it was, in the bedroom. Why would that make a difference?

COHEN: The reason why they think that it makes a difference is because parents can't control content as well when the child is in the bedroom. They're not really keeping as good tabs on what the child is watching, so they're probably watching stuff that's really not so educational.

And second of all, in the bedroom, a child can be watching TV late at night. So they don't go to sleep, so they go to school not as well rested, they don't perform as well.

KAGAN: And what's an acceptable amount of how much?

COHEN: Well, preferably...

KAGAN: None?

COHEN: ... I guess as little as possible. Right, a little educational. I mean, a lot of this has to do with content.

I mean, let's face it, there's a huge difference between watching a wonderful educational program like "Sesame Street" and watching some mindless cartoon. But the American Academy of Pediatrics has these general guidelines for television viewing: no TV at all for children under 2. I guess even those Teletubbies that you see there. And no more than one to two hours of quality TV, quality TV, per day for older children.

Now, Daryn, studies show that kids are watching...

KAGAN: Good luck.

COHEN: ... more like three hours a day. So pediatricians may not be quite in sync with their patients.

KAGAN: There you go. The most disturbing thing you said, that your oldest is going into third grade.

COHEN: Isn't that amazing?

KAGAN: I remember when you were pregnant with her.

COHEN: When I was pregnant, that's right. KAGAN: So I'm going to think about that one. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Elizabeth.

To get your "Daily Dose" of health news online, log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library, and information on diet and fitness. The address is cnn.com/health.

President Bush and other world leaders are headed to Scotland for the G8 summit. A preview of the meeting coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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