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American Morning

Woman Finds Remains of Two New Hampshire Children; Black- Buried?

Aired December 06, 2005 - 08:32   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about the story out of Ohio. Did you hear this story? This is a woman who did something police just could not do. Her name is Stephanie Dietrich, and she was to find the remains of those two New Hampshire children who were murdered back in 2003.
CNN's Jonathan Freed has her story this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a mother's well-publicized plea for help to find the bodies of her murdered children that led to their being discovered by the side of a road in Hudson, Ohio last week, not far from Cleveland.

STEPHANIE DIETRICH, DISCOVERED CHILDREN'S BODIES: I never wanted to be the digger. I never wanted to be the finder. I wanted to just find the clues and have somebody else, you know, do that part.

FREED: Stephanie Dietrich, a grocery store cashier, had been searching for months, touched by Teri Knight's pain, after Knight's son and daughter were killed by her ex-husband in July of 2003.

TERI KNIGHT, MOTHER OF DEAD CHILDREN: They have confirmed the remains found in Hudson as Sarah and Philip.

FREED: Knight's 14-year-old daughter, Sarah Gehring, and her 11- year-old son, Philip Gehring, were last seen with their father, Manuel, near their New Hampshire home. The father was upset over a custody battle. He was arrested a week later in California, and admitted to killing the children, but never gave police more than a vague idea of where he buried them.

MANUEL GEHRING: It looked like abandoned property. It was like a dumping area. There was a large building fairly close to it.

Gehring killed himself in a New Hampshire jail in February of last year.

KNIGHT: I'm Teri Knight. And two years ago, my children, Sarah and Philip Gehring, I don't know if you remember the case, they were murdered.

FREED: Knight canvassed the Midwest, urging anyone and everyone to help look for the makeshift graves.

KNIGHT: Everyone wants to know how we feel, and I don't know. I'm relieved still, but I know I have a lot of sinking in to do.

FREED: Knight now hopes the success of her campaign will encourage others to keep looking for their lost loved ones.

Jonathan Freed, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: The woman who found the bodies, Stephanie Dietrich, joins us. She's in Cleveland this morning. Stephanie's dog, Rico, also helped her make the discovery.

Stephanie, thank you for talking with us. You know, there were vague clues. We know now Route 8 was mentioned. The northeastern Ohio area was mentioned. There was a certain type of pollen found. All of these clues really signaled to you, I know, that your neighborhood, your area was potentially where these children were buried. But it really was Teri Knight's, a mom's plea, I guess, that really tugged at you, is that right?

DIETRICH: It's the fact the mother kept it in the public eye. And that I knew where Route 8 and 303 intersected. And I knew that he had to take Route 8 north to get back to the Ohio Turnpike, to re- enter and continue his trip west.

S. O'BRIEN: Tell us what happened. We've got videotape that shows you and Rico taking a walk. And I know you started searching really in a very organized fashion, to see if you could track down where these children may be buried. How did you know where to go?

DIETRICH: Well, I actually started on Copley Road in Akron, and spent most of my time there. I was so convinced it was there, and then I actually had the FBI evidence-recovery team out of Cleveland, they came down and checked that spot, but it wasn't the right area. And my family and friends, they were concerned because I was spending too much time, so I had to put it away for a while. And then I just kept reading and rereading the transcripts that I had and...

S. O'BRIEN: It really became a mission for you. I mean, I see why your family members got concerned, because you were very driven to try to solve this puzzle, this mystery. It was Rico really at the end of the day who provided a big clue for you, right? What happened?

DIETRICH: Yes. I -- it was shotgun season in Ohio for deer, and I had gone to that site on Tuesday, just found it on Tuesday, and I didn't dig on Tuesday, because I had him, and it was shotgun season, and -- get up here.

S. O'BRIEN: That's all right. He's all right.

DIETRICH: It was shotgun season, and there were deer everywhere. And so I worked on Wednesday and called Hudson police on Thursday and gave them that area to possibly check, but I couldn't make myself stay home. I just needed to go check it myself. I wasn't going to be satisfied until I had been back this myself. And Rico just -- he wasn't -- he was agitated in a place I had hooked him to. So he broke a branch off, and he went and laid in the shallow area, that he seemed content then. It was like he could stay all day, if I could stay all day once he was content in this area.

S. O'BRIEN: And he wouldn't get up, right? And that was kind of a signal to you that something might be there. And you started digging, and what did you find?

DIETRICH: Well, I went and stood under the tree he was under, and I knew that the branches stretched down to the ground, as opposed to branches that would reach toward the sky. And I looked up and all of the branches, all of the twigs were snapped off of these branches, and it was too high that deer would of done it. And I thought to myself, well, somebody broke these off to work in this area, and I knew the father had backed his van into a spot. And from where I was standing without moving my feet, there was a perfect spot to back into.

S. O'BRIEN: You dug and you found plastic.

DIETRICH: Black plastic.

S. O'BRIEN: And then you called the sheriff's department?

DIETRICH: No.

S. O'BRIEN: And they eventually recovered the bodies I guess, briefly, if I'm not mistaken.

I mean, I have to imagine, if I can ask you, you know, Teri Knight, who'd been on this mission to provide for her some closure, how do you feel about your discovery. As grim as it is, you have to feel good about what you were able to do for her in some way?

DIETRICH: I'm pleased with the outcome, but it's still not over, because of all the media. And when she comes to town, it's just going to get crazier again. And I just never dreamed that there would just be this much attention afterwards. I never ever thought there would be this much attention afterwards.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I guess in this day and age, that's kind of the way it is. But I guess if you think beyond that and think about what you've done a mom who was searching for her son and daughter for two years really. I can't imagine as a parent being able to rest knowing that my children are buried near some highway somewhere. You've done a tremendous service to her. Did you ever think about that?

DIETRICH: I haven't had time to think about anything. It's just been crazy. But I'm sure she is going to be at peace now.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. Gosh, I think so. Stephanie Dietrich, good work. You did it very methodically. Thank you for talking with us and sharing your story. We appreciate it.

DIETRICH: You're welcome. S. O'BRIEN: Wow.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That's quite a story, quite a story.

S. O'BRIEN: It's remarkable. I mean, as grizzly as it is, can you imagine not knowing ever where the bodies of your children are after your husband has murdered them?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, that's...

S. O'BRIEN: A grim and a good deed.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Andy's here "Minding Your Business."

What you got, Andy?

SERWER: Miles, more delays at the movie theaters.

Plus, is Ford bowing to pressure about it advertises? Stay tuned for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: All right, hold on to your Blackberries. The wireless device that has become an electronic lifeline for millions of Americans could soon be out of service.

Our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield, has some thoughts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: But the pricking of my thumb, something wicked this way comes. No, those witches in MacBeth weren't talking about a shutdown of the looming Blackberry, but they might as well have been. For more than three million Americans, the very thought of cutting off their constant ability to read e-mail or to surf the Web over coffee or in transit, or just about anywhere, is right up with the threat to their oxygen supply.

It keeps our elected representatives in touch.

AL GORE, FMR. VICE PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: It's the right thing for me.

GREENFIELD: Here is how Senator Joe Lieberman found out that Al Gore wouldn't be running for president again.

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: It was by Blackberry.

GREENFIELD: And here's how New York Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy found out about an office evacuation.

REP. CAROLYN MCCARTHY (D), NEW YORK: I got a Blackberry notification. GREENFIELD: So what's the crisis? Research in Motion, the company that makes the Blackberry, has been on the losing end of a lawsuit by NTP, a tiny company who says its patents were there first.

Apart from the possibility of, oh, a billion dollars or so, NTP wants an injunction, shutting the Blackberry down, and they may get it.

And what would it mean if the Blackberries just stopped working? One looks into this nightmare to a century half a day old. In "The Day the Earth Stood Still," an alien, aided by a robot, Gort, who has really bad migraines, comes to Earth to warn us humans about playing around with nuclear weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: This earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder.

GREENFIELD: To demonstrate his power, he shuts down every machine in the world -- every car, every train, elevators, washing machines, everything. Now, obviously, it's not as if Blackberry users would really be paralyzed by a shutdown. There are cell phones, pay phones, faxes. It's just that for some these devices are addictive. Crackberry addicts they're called, who believe that if they wait more than 15 seconds to respond to a message, even if it's about millions of dollars in Nigeria, or body-part enhancement techniques, they will crumble into the dust and die.

(on camera): In fact, maybe a temporary shutdown of the Blackberry would be a good thing. It would force all these addicts to stop, and take a minute and think and mediate on the folly of constantly -- excuse me -- checking their messages -- Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York. Give me a minute.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: And the company in question here, Research in Motion, says it will take the Blackberry case to Supreme Court, if necessary.

I think they should go to the galactic court, if they have to in order to...

S. O'BRIEN: We want our Blackberries!

We're willing to protest, Andy.

SERWER: I can tell.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's chip in to the billions. Well, we will.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, we will. We will pay one way or another.

SERWER: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about advertising, and also other news as well. A check on Wall Street. Andy has got that in "Minding Your Business."

Good morning.

SERWER: Good morning, Soledad.

A story in "USA Today" about advertising in movie theaters, something near and dear to everyone's heart, I'm sure, delaying the movie, beginning by yet another five or 10 minutes. Well, get used to it, because it's a business that's growing, 18 percent last year. It's a $400 million business, and it's going to grow even more, 15 percent a year.

The movie theater business is actually not doing so well right now, because the movies aren't very good. That might be one reason. But these new digital projectors make it easier and easier to put these packages in before the trailers. So it's really not...

S. O'BRIEN: And buys you time I love it, because I can be 15 minutes late, as always.

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: But if you start baking that in, it's bad. It's makes you long for the days of subliminal stuff, when they just did a couple of flashes. Why do I want popcorn?

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: Another advertising story I want to tell you about this morning. This has to do with Ford Motor Company. It says it will stop advertising Jaguar and Land Rover, two of its brands, in magazines that cater to gays and lesbians.

M. O'BRIEN: What is that all about?

SERWER: The company says that it's merely a business decision it's made. But it has acknowledged that it's met with a Christian group, the American Family Association. Gay and lesbian activist say it's caving to this group. This group says it shouldn't advertise in magazines like "Advocate" and "The Out." But Ford says, no, we've just made this business decision not to advertise in these publications anymore.

S. O'BRIEN: They don't think gays should be driving Land Rovers and Jaguars?

SERWER: Maybe the American Family Association thinks that.

And in a similar kind of a story, interestingly a Christian group called Focus on Family has decided to pull its money out of Wells- Fargo Bank, which is one of the biggest banks in the country, because it says this company caters to gays and lesbians. Recently they gave a $50,000 grant to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. So the Christian group, Focus on Family, has decided to take its money elsewhere. The bank says it will continue to support such groups.

M. O'BRIEN: This is like that boycott of Disney.

SERWER: Well, that doesn't go anywhere.

M. O'BRIEN: That didn't go anywhere.

Exactly. That's my point.

SERWER: Yes, well, we'll see.

You know, actually the magazines say that Ford actually has not pulled its ads yet, so maybe they're saying one thing and doing another.

S. O'BRIEN: Sure, we'll pull our ads.

SERWER: Trying to appease all of our customers and constituents, right?

S. O'BRIEN: We should follow that story. That's very interesting, to pressure anybody into pulling ads in another publication, that's sort of a fascinating turn of events, as they say.

SERWER: I think so.

S. O'BRIEN: Andy, thank you.

SERWER: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, minding your manners. We're going to tell you about long overdue rules for men only. That's a little bit later on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: It really is a horrifying thing to think about. These are the bodies of Eddie and Toni Jackson (ph), both of them in their 90s. And elderly couple from the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. Their bodies just discovered now after Katrina through a series, I guess, of miscommunications.

And this morning, there's, you know, fingers being pointed at the Oregon National Guard, that they didn't quite do their job. But that really doesn't tell an accurate story about how this whole process worked out.

One of their neighbors in Gentilly is our boss, Kim Bondy, vice president here at CNN and in charge of this program, who;s taking a day off, so she joins us on the phone today. And that is her house. That's when Kim and I and her brother Blaine went to see her house for the first time a couple of weeks after -- not even a couple of weeks, a week or so after Katrina.

And you can't make it out, but in between those two right windows there are the markings on there, which indicated that a National Guard group had been there, I think it was on the 14th of September, if I recall correctly. A zero but it had also had an "ex" on it, meaning an exterior search. And that's a key point.

Kim on the line with us now. Kim, the exterior search was, you know, a hard knock, a whistle, a yell or two, and then they would move on, correct?

KIM BONDY, CNN PRODUCER: Right, Miles. And what's really key, what happened -- my house was initially searched by the National Guard by boat, exterior search only on 9/11. Remember that, because I remember thinking oh, my house was tagged on 9/11. And they only did an exterior search to look for signs of life. However, the National Guard would also enter a home, if asked.

Because you'll remember, Miles, we had a family friend and we asked him to enter that home, which was in a neighboring area and they did and recovered -- well, they found a body, but they didn't have the authorization to remove the body. So it's a little misleading. And if the family in Gentilly was -- their house was marked on 9/14. Our neighborhood didn't actually dry out until about that day.

So the National Guard, in large part, only did exterior searches of homes. Now, what happened after that, a recovery team -- recovery teams, plural -- assigned to parts of the city, in particular Gentilly, my area, we -- Soledad and I happened to pull up when they came to my house, which was on September 25th. I think that was a Sunday. And I spoke to these guys because they were going to actually enter my home. Up until that date, miles, my home had not been entered at all, not even by me.

So I asked him what they were going to do. They said we have to break into your home to make sure there are no bodies inside. I said I can vouch for you there is no one inside of my home or my brother Blaine's home next door. And so I stood there and talked to the guys. They gave me a letter. And this is key. They gave me a letter, which they had to leave inside of each home that they entered to say that we've been inside, this home has been searched for bodies.

So if there is no letter inside of that home on Annette Street, where Keith Oppenheim is reporting from today, chances are, the recovery team, not the National Guard, the recovery team that did the door-to-door recoveries of bodies -- that's a horrible picture. Take that picture down! That's awful! The recovery team did not enter that home because they had to leave a letter saying that they had been in there. So it is misleading to say that this was the responsibility of the National Guard.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Kim Bondy, serving as interviewee and producer simultaneously here, trying to -- once a producer, always a producer. Take that picture down right away! Kim, thank you for helping clarify that. Because, you know, I do think in the wake of this, it's -- you know, the fingers start pointing and it is not fair just to say Oregon National Guard here, given the way this all transpired.

Thanks and we'll see you tomorrow, boss, right?

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, multiple groups checking those homes, too, walking through. Much more to tell you about this morning. New developments out of Iraq that we're watching the scene of a massive suicide attack carried out apparently by two women who were strapped with bombs.

We're going to take you live to Baghdad just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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