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Paula Zahn Now

Idaho Girl Rescued; The Search For Natalee Holloway

Aired July 05, 2005 - 20:00   ET

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


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you for joining us. I'm Miles O'Brien, sitting in for Paula Zahn tonight.
Tonight, mysterious murders and the disappearance of two children. A case that baffled investigators for weeks finally breaks open.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): One child's tragic odyssey, a grisly crime scene, spotted with a predator, then suddenly saved.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I said honey, what's your name? And she said, Shasta Groene, and started crying.

O'BRIEN: Tonight, Shasta's story of survival.

And new developments in Aruba, as a mother tries to contain her outrage.

BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, MOTHER OF NATALEE HOLLOWAY: 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.

O'BRIEN: And volunteers narrow their search.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have something right there.

O'BRIEN: How close are they to finding Natalee Holloway?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: We start with dramatic new developments in the kidnapping of Shasta Groene, the Idaho girl who was rescued over the weekend. Newly released court papers reveal that investigators believe convicted sex offender Joseph Duncan, the man now charged with kidnapping the little girl, is linked to the deaths of three members of her family.

Sean Callebs is in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where the sense of outrage is growing -- Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Without question, Miles.

And, indeed, we just got some court documents that were released with the criminal complaint against Joseph Duncan. It really outlines basically the reason for probable cause against Duncan. And, for the first time, we're hearing some details of the crime.

Now, much of this comes from the lead investigators in this and interviews with 8-year-old Shasta Groene. Shasta Groene says, on the night of the crime, Duncan came into the house, tied up her family, carried her out to a vehicle and took Duncan (sic) out to a vehicle as well. They later changed over to that red jeep we have heard so much about. And then Duncan took the two children to a campsite, where this community's worst fears were realized.

These documents say, indeed these two children were sexually assaulted. Now, all of this information comes out as Duncan makes his first appearance in court.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS (voice-over): Shackled and wearing a brightly colored prison jumpsuit, 42-year-old Joseph Duncan heard charges from Judge Scott Wayman through a video hookup.

JUDGE SCOTT WAYMAN: Do you understand the nature of the charges, Mr. Duncan?

JOSEPH DUNCAN, DEFENDANT: I believe I do, yes.

CALLEBS: Duncan is accused of first-degree kidnapping of Shasta Groene and her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, with the intent to commit rape.

Duncan received a court-appointed attorney. He's being held without bail on kidnapping charges and could face the death penalty. Politics say Shasta is doing well at a Coeur d'Alene hospital. And while Duncan was in court, two hours away, across the border in western Montana, investigators continued a grim search.

TIM FUHRMAN, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: We know that Shasta and Dylan Groene and Joseph Duncan spent some time in the Lolo National Forest over the last seven weeks.

CALLEBS: For days, investigators had said they feared the worst that young Dylan had been killed. It will take at least three days for the FBI lab to process the DNA results.

(on camera): The Groene children had been missing since May 16. That's when investigators made a grisly find here at the Groenes' home.

The children's mother, their 13-year-old brother and the mother's boyfriend had been savagely bludgeoned to death. And, authorities believe, Shasta and Dylan were in the house at the time of the attack.

(voice-over): But authorities were baffled. Who did it and why? Investigators aren't saying if they have any new evidence to connect Duncan with those murders. Three days after the crime, with no leads, the children's father, Steve Groene, who had shared custody with their mother after they divorced, made a desperate request. STEVE GROENE, FATHER: I would like to address my children's abductors or abductor. Please, please release my children safely. They had nothing to do with any of this.

CALLEBS: The case remained cold and eventually was pushed off the front page.

Then, in the early morning hours this past Saturday, nearly seven weeks after the crime, the break authorities needed came at this Denny's in Coeur d'Alene. Customers and employees called 911 after seeing Shasta enter the restaurant with a man driving a new jeep Laredo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just have something to tell you. I'm sitting down here at Denny's. And there was a little girl that just walked in that looks exactly like that Shasta girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. is she still inside?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, she is. And she's with an older man.

CALLEBS: It was Shasta. The man, Joseph Duncan, was taken into custody. Just a few hours earlier, the police had come close to Duncan and Shasta. These dramatic pictures are from a Coeur d'Alene service station. With Shasta near him, Duncan seems to shield himself from view as a police car drives right by.

Shasta is now hospitalized. She has been reunited with her father. And investigators have been delicately questioning her. Authorities say Duncan's red jeep was a stolen rental car. Over the past several days, they have been able to gather some evidence from the vehicle.

Duncan, a level three registered sex offender, the highest level, was already on the run for allegedly jumping bail of charges of molesting a young boy in Minnesota. Investigators say they received some insight into his mind through his Web postings.

The writings reveal a dark side: "I was in prison for over 18 years, since the age of 17. As an adult, all I knew was the oppression of incarceration."

Later, writes: "I am scared, alone, and confused, and my reaction is to strike out toward the perceived source of my misery, society. My intent is to harm society as much as I can, then die."

Authorities say Shasta is doing remarkably well considering everything she's been through. And, after a seven-weeknight nightmare, this quiet tourist town hopes this is the beginning of its own healing process.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: Back live now in Coeur d'Alene.

This community has really rallied around young Shasta. At the hospital, the authorities say she has received so many gifts, so many cards, so many letters that the hospital and the family is asking, no more -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Sean Callebs reporting -- thank you very much.

Joseph Duncan's rap sheet is long and it is frightening. Here's some of it, just some of it. He was first in court 25 years ago, where he pled guilt to the abduction and rape of a 14-year-old boy. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Released on parole in 1994, Duncan was back behind bars three years later, when he failed to register as a sex offender.

In 2000, Duncan finished his 20-year sentence and was released from prison. This past March, was charged sexually molesting a 6- year-old boy. But one month later, he was free again on bail. When he failed to check in with a probation officer, authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, but nobody found him, until Saturday, when he was spotted with Shasta Groene.

Among those disturbed and outraged by what they're seeing in Idaho is Erin Runnion. Three years ago, you may recall her daughter Samantha was kidnapped in broad daylight from the family's front yard, later assaulted and murdered by a man who had previously been accused of sexually molesting children.

Erin Runnion joins me now.

Good to have you with us, Erin.

When you look at that record, when you hear it, it's just outrageous. Something is broken. Something is badly broken here. What's going wrong?

ERIN RUNNION, MOTHER OF KIDNAP VICTIM: What's going wrong is, we're treating child molesters the way we treat a common criminal.

And you can't arrest away child molestation. You cannot punish them and send them out on the streets, as if that will change their behavior. The only deterrent to a child molester is the risk of getting caught. And the only thing that there's any evidence that can help stop them is treatment. And most states have voluntary, instead of mandatory therapy. And there's no therapy attached to their probation.

What's wrong is that we're not treating these people. We're just slapping them on the wrist and sending them back out on the streets to hurt our kids.

O'BRIEN: Well, clearly, a voluntary system is not going to work, is it?

RUNNION: No, it's sure not. Nobody is going to admit that they're a child molester, especially in prison. And nobody is going to seek that help outside of prison, if they're not forced to.

O'BRIEN: Let's go back to the Minnesota judge, the most recent case before he ended up on the streets. Judge Thomas Schroeder in Minnesota set the bail at only $15,000. It said that the judge didn't really know what the background was, that he was a level three sex offender, which is the worst kind of sex offender. Who's to blame for that?

RUNNION: I would say the prosecutor in that case is to blame for that. I can't imagine that the judge wouldn't know that he's a registered -- level three registered sex offender.

So, there, too, I think you -- we see that the level of awareness nationwide has got to get even higher. I think that there's hope in the fact that I think most Americans now realize, more than they ever did, how pervasive crimes against children really are. But we have got to raise the level of awareness even higher to recognize that over two-thirds of child molesters who are released from prison reoffend within three years.

O'BRIEN: Does the system not treat these crimes seriously enough?

RUNNION: It doesn't treat them seriously enough. And it doesn't treat them as if this -- this is the rape of children. This is something -- this is a robbery that's never going to be repaid. You can never restore a child's sense of intimacy, of trust, of erasing the confusion that that causes for the rest of their life. It is a horrific crime.

And it is so pervasive. According to the Department of Justice, as many as one in four girls and one in six to 10 boys are sexually assaulted before they're adults.

O'BRIEN: In the case of Duncan, he had a Web site. He had a Web log.

RUNNION: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Very disturbing writings, really sick stuff.

RUNNION: Yes.

O'BRIEN: He was out there really...

RUNNION: Letting people know.

O'BRIEN: I guess a psychologist would say he was trying to get caught.

RUNNION: Yes.

O'BRIEN: The authorities didn't do it, though. I know they're all swamped. But why not?

RUNNION: Because the system isn't set up for this crime. And that's what has to change. We've got to make special laws that address child molestation and for the unique problem that it is.

O'BRIEN: Should these people just be put in jail for life or committed to institutions somehow? Should it be as serious as that?

RUNNION: I think so. I think if -- we either have to -- as a nation, we have to decide, are we going to make mandatory treatment a condition of parole for the rest of their lives or are we going to commit them civilly for the rest of their lives?

And, you know, I think, in New York, there's a new bill that has been proposed to have registered offenders reregister every single year and meet with a psychologist at that time to see if civil commitment is the right avenue.

That sounds like that might be a positive direction to go in. But, yes, we have to decide. I think civil commitment is the only answer at this point.

O'BRIEN: And a final thought, Erin. Having lived through this personally, what is it like seeing a story like this play out again?

RUNNION: It's horrific to me. At some point, we have got to realize as a nation that we have to take responsibility for our nation's children. These kids are ours, as much as they are one parent's. We are in this together and we have to work together to stop it.

O'BRIEN: Erin Runnion, thank you for your time. We appreciate it.

RUNNION: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Just ahead, the latest developments in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, news that has made one mother very happy and another angry and worried.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NADIRA RAMIREZ, MOTHER OF SUSPECTS: I wish the best for her, that we can get this problem solved as fast as possible.

HOLLOWAY TWITTY: Help me by not allowing these two to get away with this crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: What happened and what it means for the ongoing investigation in Aruba when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Still to come: As he tries to win his seventh straight Tour de France, what makes Lance Armstrong tick? And how did his bout with cancer actually make him an even better racer?

But, first, a quarter past the hour. Time for the latest headlines from Sophia Choi at Headline News -- Sophia.

SOPHIA CHOI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Miles. Deadly roads in Baghdad. Another American soldier died and two others were injured by a roadside bomb. And a car carrying a diplomat from Bahrain was attacked in what may have been a kidnap attempt. He escaped with a hand injury. Also in Iraq today, a motorcade carrying Pakistan's ambassador was attacked, but he was saved by bodyguards.

And President and Mrs. Bush are on their way to the G8 economic summit in Scotland. But they made an overnight stop in Denmark to thank Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik for sending troops to Iraq and peacekeepers to Afghanistan. The royal couple greeted the Bushes and held a reception at the Fredensborg Castle.

Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi filed overdue reports today for trips she took several years ago paid for by private groups. A Taiwanese lobbying group and an Israeli lobbying group were among those who picked up the tab for more than $8,000 in travel.

And orders to American factories, mostly for auto and aircraft parts, took a 2.9 percent leap in May, the biggest gain in 14 months. The Dow gained 68 points.

And now time for our "Market Mover" report. Valerie Morris with a look at Hewlett-Packard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIE MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Divide and conquer seems to be the motto at Hewlett-Packard. New H.P. boss Mark Hurd recently announced plans to split up the company's P.C. and printer businesses.

And that reverses former CEO Carly Fiorina's decision to combine the groups. That happened back in January, the month prior to her ouster. It is all part of a big restructuring effort at the computer giant, which includes thousands of layoffs. H.P. has been losing market share to rivals like Dell and IBM.

Investors seem to like Hurd's turnaround plan. The company's share are up 20 percent since he took over in April.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHOI: And those are the headlines -- Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Sophia. We'll check back in about a half-hour. Appreciate it.

Just ahead, the latest from Aruba, a tearful mother's new plea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLLOWAY TWITTY: I am 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP) O'BRIEN: What was Natalee's mother asking for?

As well as a CNN exclusive, traveling board the search boat, what they see as they scan below the surface -- when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: In Aruba tonight, one mother has her sons home from jail. But another mother is furious. Her daughter, Natalee Holloway, has been missing for more than five weeks now. And the young men now free were considered suspects in the case.

But Natalee's Holloway's mother isn't about to give up her crusade for justice, as David Mattingly shows us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Reeling from the release of two more suspects, the parents of Natalee Holloway continue to pressure an Aruban investigation they believe has gone nowhere.

HOLLOWAY TWITTY: I am 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.

MATTINGLY: Without explanation, a judge in Aruba Monday released brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe after 26 days of interrogation.

TWITTY: Help me by not allowing these two to get away with this crime. It is my greatest fear today that the Kalpoe brothers will leave Aruba.

MATTINGLY: An attorney for the Kalpoe brothers maintains their innocence and says that they have no intention of leaving the island. Even though Aruban law does permit them to travel, the Kalpoe family has canceled longstanding plans to travel to their native Surinam.

RUDY OOMAN, ATTORNEY FOR DEEPAK KALPOE: Usually, in cases like this, is that, the longer you detain somebody, the stronger your evidence should be. But, in this case, in my client's case, it was the other way around. The longer they stayed in detention, the more proof came out that they didn't have to do anything with the disappearance itself.

MATTINGLY: Officially, the brothers and still suspects and can be taken back into custody if new information surfaces.

After changing their original story that Natalee was dropped off at her hotel, they eventually told authorities they drove Natalee and 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot from a nightclub to a beach, where they last saw the couple together. The brothers' mother, confident of her two sons' innocence, called on authorities to continue their search and offered words of understanding to Natalee's mother.

RAMIREZ: I wish the best for her, that we can get this problem solved as fast as possible, that Natalee can be out wherever she are -- wherever she is, as soon as possible. And I still have in my heart that she's living.

MATTINGLY: Dutch F-16s Tuesday roared over crowded resorts in preparation for a high-tech infrared search folks the island. It was a highly public demonstration of the government's commitment to the Holloway search, witnessed by thousands of beachgoers and at least one member of Natalee Holloway's family, her aunt, Linda Allison.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Aruba residents protested criminal of island officials and their handling of the search.

ARLENE ELLIS-SCHIPPER, ARUBAN ATTORNEY: What else do you want us to do? Because everybody is asking, if this would have happened to an Aruban girl in the states, I wonder how many people would have taken the day off from their work to go search?

MATTINGLY: The relentless question of what happened to the young blonde honor student once seemed to be a puzzle that was coming together. But the puzzle that has at times involved two former security guards, three young island men, a local deejay and an Aruban judge, has come apart piece by piece.

For now, the investigation seems to focus entirely on the 17- year-old son of an island judge. A handcuffed Joran van der Sloot took investigators on Sunday to the beach where he claims he left Holloway alone and alive. But the same judge who released the Kalpoe brothers ordered the teen to remain behind bars for up to 60 more days, meaning possibly two more months of lengthy interrogations and official silence in a mystery that seems less and less likely to produce a happy ending.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Defense attorneys for the Kalpoe brothers tonight confirmed to CNN that testimony from fishermen telling investigators that they didn't see a couple matching the description of Natalee Holloway and Joran van der Sloot on that beach the night that Natalee turned up missing.

What they are saying is that they saw a white Suzuki on that beach. And, if you remember, Miles, a white Suzuki was one of the vehicles confiscated during a search of the van der Sloot home.

O'BRIEN: David Mattingly, thank you very much.

As David reported just a few moments ago, Natalee Holloway's aunt, Linda Allison, watched as the Dutch F-16s flew over the island. She's also been keeping in touch with Aruban authorities and some of the volunteers as they have continued that exhaustive search of the island, so far fruitless.

Linda Allison joins us now.

Linda, the family views the release of the Kalpoe brothers as a huge setback. Why? LINDA ALLISON, AUNT OF NATALEE HOLLOWAY: I'm sorry. Can you say that...

(CROSSTALK)

ALLISON: ... question again?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

I know your family views the release of the Kalpoe brothers as a big setback. Why?

ALLISON: Well, as we have seen this unfold over the last couple of weeks, this seems to be a revolving door, where they have brought suspects in and then released them.

We have been assured by the prosecuting attorney that this investigation will continue and that there's evidence forthcoming, that we have information that the Dutch authorities is reviewing at this time.

O'BRIEN: You have information? The family has information?

ALLISON: The prosecuting attorney has told us that there is information, forensics, that has been confiscated from various locations and it's currently being reviewed by Dutch authorities.

O'BRIEN: Why has that information not come to light?

ALLISON: I think there has been so much information not available, again, not to jeopardize with this investigation. They continue to tell us that we can't compromise the integrity of this investigation. So -- and we don't know. We still don't know if there will be any positive results from this. We're just hopeful.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Is there any additional information that the family plans to release? That has been hinted.

ALLISON: And I guess I have to ask further what you mean as far as...

O'BRIEN: Well, Natalee's stepfather has indicated that there's information that they have, that the family has more information. Tell me about that.

ALLISON: And, again, I don't know any details as to what you're referring to. That's something I guess that Beth or Jug would have to -- that you would have to ask them about.

O'BRIEN: But Beth Twitty called the Kalpoe brothers criminals. How can she be so certain to say that?

ALLISON: Well, if you look at the scenario, the three of them were last seen with Natalee. And they have changed their stories several times.

So, if there's -- if all else, they're at least obstructing justice. They have lied numerous times. We still can't get to the bottom of this. So, there is some criminal intent here. And we just don't know what it is, whether it's just kidnapping or if it is further -- if it is a murder or whatever the situation. There's involvement.

O'BRIEN: Or it could have been -- it's possible they were just trying to cover up for a friend. Have you thought about that much?

ALLISON: Yes. That could be a possibility.

(CROSSTALK)

ALLISON: There's any number of possibilities that we just don't know at this point.

O'BRIEN: Do you have the sense you're sort of back at square one?

ALLISON: In -- some days, we feel very frustrated and we feel like, where is this going to lead us to? We just don't know. We don't have the information that the prosecuting attorney and the police investigators have.

O'BRIEN: Your family has repeatedly asked for more involvement by the FBI, the U.S. FBI. And, so far, the Aruban government has resisted that. Have you really lost faith in the local government and the local justice system there?

ALLISON: Well -- and, again, we are in such a difficult situation, because the Dutch law is so different than the U.S. law. And it's hard for us to understand and appreciate what they have to deal with, in comparison to what we're used to.

And when we look at all of these scenarios about how they arrest someone on reasonable suspicion and then they turn them loose a couple of days later, it just -- it's mind-boggling. And it is frustrating, because every day that this goes by, it's just not quick enough for a family that has been missing a child for so long. It's just nothing moves quickly enough.

And I think people can appreciate that. If you're missing a child, you want answers and you want them now. And it's just not moving the way we would want it to move. But the -- again, the prosecuting attorney tells us that the investigations usually take several weeks to months to do this properly. And we just have to have faith what she has in her pocket is going to result in finding the end when this case finally comes to trial.

O'BRIEN: We can only imagine the frustration. Linda Allison, thank you very much for your time. We wish you and your family well.

ALLISON: Thank you. O'BRIEN: Still ahead, searchers looking for Natalee Holloway take a controversial step by adding a spiritual medium to the search team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They also put her inside of something. They weighted her down. Sharks, and nothing has gotten to her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: An extraordinary look inside the search when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Even as the wheels of the Aruban justice system slowly turn, searchers keep try to solve the agonizing mystery of what happened to Natalee Holloway. Our Alex Quade has been given extraordinary access to a special team of volunteers from Texas. And now, their search has taken some surprising new turns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tim Miller and his Texas search team say they have a lead about where Natalee Holloway might be.

TIM MILLER, TEXAS EQUUSEARCH: I think we're going to Alabama next week and we're going to have (INAUDIBLE).

QUADE (on camera): That sure?

MILLER: I'm optimistic. I'm not positive.

QUADE: Is this from a lead? Is this from intel?

MILLER: It's been a lot of work. You know, information.

QUADE (voice-over): The team eliminated other likely locations. Tides and currents and Mary Ann Morgan brought them here, to Aruba's north shore.

MARY ANN MORGAN, SPIRITUAL MEDIUM: Natalee three weeks ago, woke me up in the middle of the night...

QUADE: Morgan is a medium who's worked with police on several high-profile cases. She's been secretly in Aruba, working with searchers. She says Holloway has been communicating with her.

MORGAN: So she went through and gave me like five to seven detailed pages of notes about the whole circumstance, and that was three weeks ago. I've never been to Aruba. She gave me names of boats. She gave me coordinates.

QUADE: Tim Miller says the information supports his team's findings so far.

(on camera): Where do you think that she is?

MILLER: I think we're going to find her right at this spot, half a mile offshore, (INAUDIBLE).

QUADE (voice-over): The area has high swells.

(on camera): What we're worried about now about the waves. The seas are five to six feet out there.

(voice-over): It's a place divers don't visit, and boats only rarely. But the volunteer searchers are going to risk it.

Gene Ralston is a sonar expert who worked on the Laci Peterson case. He shows what he's looking for.

GENE RALSTON, SONAR EXPERT: Sometimes the shadow will tell you as much about what the object is as the object itself, or as in this case...

QUADE (on camera): I mean, this is very obvious. It looks like a body...

RALSTON: Yes.

QUADE: Because you can see...

RALSTON: And you can see shadow coming from his toes right here, sticking up.

QUADE (voice-over): Ralston is also scanning for anything that looks like a box.

MILLER: I think that they also put her inside of something. They weighted her down.

QUADE (on camera): You think she might be in a box, weighted down in there?

MILLER: Pretty sure that she is.

QUADE (voice-over): Police have not said they should be looking for a container.

RALSTON: This is the area that has been identified as a distinct possibility for where she may have been placed.

QUADE (on camera): And right now, our problems are?

RALSTON: Well, the sea is (INAUDIBLE) sidescan images.

QUADE (voice-over): Anticipation is high, but so is the surf.

Next day, the conditions are still bad, but Ralston gets a sonar hit. RALSTON: We have something right there.

QUADE (on camera): Something? So you got something there, but you don't know what it is?

RALSTON: That's correct.

QUADE (voice-over): The divers go out. All they find are oddly shaped rocks.

It's exhausting work.

After a tropical depression passes on day three of this mission, the seas are calm. That's when Ralston picks up a sonar image that looks like a box. The divers mark the spot with a buoy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The (INAUDIBLE), I have to look at the charts, but around 20-some minutes, 25 minutes.

QUADE: They find nothing. But will try again.

(on camera): You're taking a risk, your divers are taking a risk.

MILLER: Everybody's taking a risk. We almost lost a boat out there yesterday.

QUADE (voice-over): Tim Miller and his team believe it's just a matter of time and resources before they find Natalee Holloway.

MILLER: We never came here to be in the criminal business. We've...

QUADE (on camera): But you're playing a pivotal role. If you find this body, I men, this is the key to the case.

MILLER: She's our girl. When we bring her up, you got an investigation. We're going to bring our girl up.

QUADE (voice-over): And they are prepared if they don't.

MILLER: The day may come where we've exhausted our resources, and we'll have to leave this island. We'll all have tears in our eyes, but we'll know that we made every single attempt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That was Alex Quade. A number of searchers will be leaving Aruba tomorrow. Their normal jobs and bills are calling. But Tim Miller hopes he can bring in fresh volunteers and more high-tech search equipment. You can go to their Web site. That's at texasequusearch.org. That's e-q-u-u -- to get more information.

Still to come -- he was born to a 17-year-old mother and grew up to win the Tour de France six times. Now, he's trying one more time. What drives Lance Armstrong? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SALLY JENKINS, SPORTSWRITER: A bike is a great instrument for a runaway boy. And that's a bit of what Lance was. He got on that bicycle, he was free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: An intimate look at the man who refuses to let anything stop him -- not even cancer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Still ahead -- he's back in first place -- Lance Armstrong, his quest to win his seventh Tour de France in a row, and how cancer made him a better athlete. Cancer.

But first, time for another look at the latest headlines with Sophia Choi of HEADLINE NEWS -- Sophia.

CHOI: Thanks, Miles.

Well, as predicted, it's turning out to be an active tropical storm season. Right now, the most immediate threat is in the upperleft part of the screen, Tropical Storm Cindy, rolling toward the Louisiana coast, with heavy rain, and 70-mile-an-hour winds. Cindy is just four miles an hour short of hurricane force, and expected to more ashore late tonight or in the early morning hours.

Well, the largest settlement yet has been approved in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. A judge in Kentucky gave preliminary approval to $120 million to settle claims against the diocese of Covington, by hundreds of people who claim they were victims of priests and other church workers.

Average gas prices are just a few cents a gallon away from setting a new record. The government says gasoline has gone up 33 cents a gallon in just one year, and the price of diesel has gone up 63 cents in a year, adding to the cost of everything that moves by truck.

And watch this -- a classic Ferrari gone in a flash at a filling station in Seattle. Luckily, the driver wasn't hurt, and an attendant quickly removed the nozzle and snuffed out the flames. Yeah, but the Ferrari is toast. Just a reminder to keep alert and be careful when you're filling the tank.

And those are the headlines -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, Sophia. "LARRY KING LIVE" just ahead, a little less than 20 minutes from now. Larry, who do you have tonight?

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Miles, good sitting in with you tonight. Something we don't need, Miles, extreme makeovers. We're perfect, but it's a big hit show. And tonight, we're going to have six different examples of their success stories, with the doctors who made it possible. Extreme makeovers. O'Brien and King don't need it, but others do, so we'll take a look.

O'BRIEN: We don't need -- I was thinking about maybe dreadlocks. What do you think? How would that look on me?

KING: Perfect.

O'BRIEN: It's beautiful! It's beautiful.

KING: An Irishman, too. Good, perfect.

O'BRIEN: All right, Larry, we look forward to that.

Coming up, why Lance Armstrong finds racing the Tour de France a snap.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LANCE ARMSTRONG, CYCLIST: It doesn't compare to cancer, to the anguish, the depression, to the confusion, to the torture of 12 weeks of chemotherapy. It's small.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: This superstar of cycling, on his amazing road to recovery, and, he hopes, a seventh Tour de France title when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Today's "People in the News" profile focuses on a superb athlete. He's a real inspiration, because he's also a cancer survivor. Lance Armstrong took the lead of the Tour de France today, still early, this is only stage four out of 21. And they're going more than 2,000 miles.

Just before she left on vacation, Paula Zahn looked at the man who's won six in a row and would like one more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): What does it take to spend three weeks in agony, enduring hour after hour of pain, racing more than 2,000 miles with a bull's eye on your back?

JENKINS: He has got an absolute willpower to do anything he puts his mind to.

ZAHN: What does it take to battle a disease that is conspiring to kill you, then ride with the hopes and dreams of so many cancer survivors on your shoulders?

DOUG ULMAN, LANCE ARMSTRONG FOUNDATION: It's the way he lives his life. It's, you know, don't dwell on the negatives. You got this disease, what we are going to do to get past this? ZAHN: What does it take to worker harder, train harder, race harder, live harder than anyone else?

BILL STAPLETON, FRIEND AND BUSINESS PARTNER: Lance is constantly in search of excellence, in being better.

ZAHN: What does it take to be Lance Armstrong?

LINDA ARMSTRONG KELLY, ARMSTRONG'S MOTHER: Lance was a high- energy young man. Definitely like a little tornado coming into a room.

ZAHN: Lance Armstrong was born in 1971, and raised in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His mother, Linda, gave birth to him when she was just 17 years old.

KELLY: I had every excuse in the world to fail. Having a child at 17, and I was determined that this would not be failure for me. And the fact that I had a child and I was a child, was the greatest thing that I could have ever wished for. And I'm proud that that happened.

ZAHN: Armstrong's parents divorced when he was a toddler. His mother remarried when Lance was 3.

JENKINS: The father issue in Lance's life is more about the absence of one. His real father evaporated before Lance was even a conscious human being. And then his stepfather, Terry Armstrong and he had a pretty fractious relationship. Lance is not fond of him. They had some real tension when Lance was growing up.

ZAHN: The bond between mother and son, however, was unbreakable. An independent young woman teaching her child as she herself learned about life.

KELLY: Many a time we would sit down and talk at the end of the day, over dinner. And, you know, I would have a bad day, and he'd say, mom, you know, why don't you just quit? And I'd say, son, you never quit.

ARMSTRONG: She taught me a lot growing up, of course, normal things that parents teach their kids, but a lot of it just more mentality and attitude.

ZAHN: The Armstrongs lived in Plano, Texas, a mostly upscale area just outside of Dallas. Lance didn't fit in.

JENKINS: He was a kid who didn't have the kind of money the kids around him had. He didn't come from the right kind of parents. He didn't have a country club membership. He didn't play football in Texas, which was the thing to do. He was always on the outs, you know. He was an outsider, and I think that in some ways, it was the making of him.

ZAHN: To escape, Armstrong would turn to his bike. JENKINS: A bike is a great instrument for a runaway boy. And that's a bit of what Lance was. You know, he was trying to run away from some problems, maybe, trying to run away from Plano, Texas, maybe.

He got on that bicycle, he was free.

ZAHN: As a teenager, Armstrong competed in triathlons -- running, swimming, biking. And beating competitors years older than he was.

ARMSTRONG: That's what gave me the biggest hesitation about entering cycling. I said, you can't make a living doing that. I'm making a living now doing triathlons. I don't want to do that, I can't make a living. I was wrong, I mean, obviously.

ZAHN: Armstrong was invited to train with the junior U.S. national cycling team, and moved into the sport full time. He was a brash young rider who knew only one speed -- all-out, who seemed to ride with a chip on his shoulder the size of his home state.

CHRIS CARMICHAEL, ARMSTRONG'S COACH: Early in his career, he was very kind of -- had sort of a cocky attitude and headstrong about the way he wanted to do things. But you know, the interested thing is, is most of the time, he could back it up with some excellent results.

ARMSTRONG: I didn't really know a lot about traditional tactics. It's a very traditional sport. And I came in with all this sort of this American attitude that, well, I don't care about your traditions.

ZAHN: By age 21, Armstrong became the youngest man ever to win a stage of the Tour de France and would later a capture world championship as well. He was young, rich and appeared destined for greatness.

SALLY JENKINS, SPORTS WRITER: Eddie Mercks, the world's greatest cyclist ever, predicted for years that Lance would be a Tour de France winner, when he lost some weight and settled down and focused. The real question mark, was whether he was ever going to work hard enough to fulfill his potential.

ZAHN: When our story continues...

ARMSTRONG: On Wednesday, October 2nd, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

ZAHN: Lance Armstrong comes face to face with death.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back.

Lance Armstrong has was won the Tour de France six times and as of today, is in first place as he tries for a seventh. But he knows better than anyone, life has a way of putting unexpected roadblocks just around the bend.

Paula Zahn continues our "People in the News" profile.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): Imagine being an elite athlete capable of pushing your bicycle, pushing your body to nearly superhuman levels. Then, imagine finding out you're very human, indeed.

ARMSTRONG: Naturally, my first question was to myself and to the doctors: When am I going to die?

ZAHN: Twenty-five-year-old Lance Armstrong was entering the prime of his career, when he was diagnosed with cancer. Surgery removed his cancerous testicle. Armstrong vowed to beat the disease.

ARMSTRONG: I'm entering this battle in probably the best shape of my life. This isn't going to stop me and I might have a bald head and I might not be as fast as I used to go, but I'm going to be out there.

ZAHN: However, Doctors soon discovered Armstrong's battle was bigger than he previously thought.

DR. CRAIG NICHOLS, CANCER SPECIALIST: He had presented with amass in his testis and at that time, when it was discovered, he had spread to his abdomen, to his lungs and to two small areas in his brain.

Literally, this is something that untreated or undetected would have swept over him in a matter of weeks.

ARMSTRONG: In fact, Armstrongs's chances of surviving were at best, 50-50.

LINDA ARMSTRONG KELLY, ARMSTRONG'S MOTHER: What did I say to Lance was that I love you and we're going to beat this. There's nothing worse than someone getting sick and to have it be your only child. That wasn't going to happen. That just wasn't going to happen.

ZAHN: Armstrong underwent additional surgery to remove the tumors in his brain and began intense chemotherapy. The hours of pain he had experienced on a bike, paled in comparison to the ravages of the disease.

ARMSTRONG: It doesn't compare to cancer, to the anguish, to the depression, to the confusion, to the torture of 12 weeks of chemotherapy; it's small.

KELLY: And he'd lost of his hair. He had big dark circles under his eyes.

BILL STAPLETON, FRIEND AND BUSINESS PARTNER: He never lost his fighting spirit, his attitude. But, his voice would shake. He lost a lot of weight. He was bald. He had scars on his head. He looked like a cancer patient who was going to die.

ZAHN: But Armstrong didn't give up. In February 1997, after undergoing four rounds of chemotherapy and months of anguish, Armstrong's cancer was declared to be in remission.

JENKINS: Lance didn't beat cancer, he kicked it to death. He didn't just survive it, he stomped that bastard into the ground. He has no idea why he survived, nor does anyone else really. What part was science, what part was something bigger than science, what part was self will and self-determination? He can't tell you what that mysterious calculus was. Not only that, he doesn't want to. He enjoys the mystery of it.

ARMSTRONG: I feel humbler now, more vulnerable.

ZAHN: Just a few months after finishing chemotherapy, Lance Armstrong could be found relaxing at his waterfront home in Austin, Texas.

ARMSTRONG: He survives cancer and dies from pneumonia.

ZAHN: He was healthy and strong enough to water ski. Uncertain about his future as an athlete.

ARMSTRONG: I don't think I can win the Tour de France. I thought I could. You know, a year ago, I certainly thought I could win the Tour de France. Not that year, but in years to come -- no now.

ZAHN: But Armstrong's attitude would change. After a year off, he began a comeback.

JENKINS: What cancer did for Lance, was give him a reason and an excuse to finally settle down and really become everything he should have been.

ARMSTRONG: Psychologically, it was a good thing for me, to be so scared and so fearful; to be given another chance.

ZAHN: After months of rigorous training, Armstrong entered the 1999 Tour de France. He was considered to be beyond a long shot. But those who knew what he had been through, knew better.

KELLY: I said, you know, you were so sick in that bed, there's nothing that'll keep you from going up that mountain, when you think about how sick you were.

ZAHN: Over three weeks, Armstrong rode more than 2200 miles over grueling terrain, overpowering competitors, like he had overpowered cancer. At the race's end, Lance Armstrong wore a yellow jersey. He had won the Tour de France.

CHRIS CARMICHAEL, ARMSTRONG's COACH: I remember watching him come down the Champs E'leyse and crying and just being like: Man, this is, I mean, this is just a miracle.

KELLY: Lance Armstrong puts his mind to something and it's -- that's all it takes.

ZAHN: Five more yellow jerseys would follow. Making Armstrong the first person to win six Tour de France titles.

But for Armstrong, those victories meant more than one man beating the competition or one many overcoming cancer, they were victories for an entire community of which he was now lifetime member.

ARMSTRONG: If the people can see one of their own that was given not such a good chance of survival; see him return and thrive and be better than he was before, I think that's the most powerful message and perhaps, the one they can get the most hope from.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: And of course, that was Paula Zahn reporting. Tomorrow's stage of the Tour is a 113 miles.

Asked how he stays motivated, Armstrong replied, "There's always somebody who wants your place. Someone coming up who's younger, stronger and hungrier. I stay nervous and hungry."

Thanks for joining us tonight.

"LARRY KING LIVE" begins right now. His topic: Extreme makeovers.

END

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