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Nancy Grace

Amanda Jones, Single and 9 Months pregnant, Disappears after Meeting the Father of Her Baby to Talk About his Future Involvement With the Child. Police in Georgia are Awaiting Test Results from Blood Found on Sheets in the Dryer of the Home of Missing Hairstylist Leslie Adams. The Search for the Kidnapper of Molly Bish Continues.

Aired December 28, 2005 - 20:00   ET

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

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight, there is no place like home for the holidays. Tonight, we highlight the stories of three women, all who disappeared seemingly into thin air, all whose families want them home.
Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Tonight, this Georgia hairstylist, Leslie Adams, missing since October, foul play suspected, but no clue as to what happened to Leslie. And the ongoing mystery of 16-year-old Molly Bish. The Massachusetts lifeguard vanishes until her body is found three long years later, found bone by bone. That`s right, 26 bones in total. Who murdered Molly Bish?

But first tonight, police need your help to crack the case of pregnant Amanda Jones. Jones went missing in the final days of her pregnancy four months ago, Jones not seen since.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you had a family member that was nine months pregnant and was missing and it was uncharacteristic for that family member to be missing, you`d want us to pull in every available resource and concentrate on that case, as well. And that`s exactly what we`re doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: I want to go straight out to investigative reporter on the case, Pat Lalama. Pat, bring us up to date, friend.

PAT LALAMA, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Oh, it`s so heart-breaking! I mean, when you think, moments away, practically, from giving birth to a baby boy -- she was so excited. Let me take you back a little bit. Last December, she met a gentleman, Brian Lee Westphal (ph). Her mother refers to that particular liaison as a one-night stand. She claims that this particular Mr. Westphal is the father of the child. He`s always denied it.

Now, Amanda never really pushed it. She really hadn`t had that much communication with him. But she wanted to drive to the civic center, where they had met last December, to have a meeting with him, to say, Hey, look, I`m about to give birth. Do you want anything to do with this child? Do you want me to give it your name?

She was so happy about having this baby. She had gone to church that morning, told her mother, Hey, I`m going off to meet Brian, and I`ll let you know what happens. End of story. They met at the fairgrounds, at the horse show. Even his lawyer has said they agreed to meet. But after that, gone. Nobody has a clue.

This case is wide open, and there`s nothing more frustrating for cops than to have not a single lead. And by the way, he is cooperating and not being called a suspect.

GRACE: What do you mean he`s cooperating?

LALAMA: He`s talking to the police. He`s allowed them to, you know, search, and he`s not closing the door on them. He`s just saying, I had nothing to do with this. It`s not even my kid. I don`t know what you`re talking about. And whatever you need, I`ll help you with, but that`s it. And there`s no physical evidence. She`s just gone.

Now, they did look at her car. Inside of her car, a Pontiac Sunfire, there were no keys, no wallet, no cell phone, and no activity on the cell phone or on the credit cards. So I mean, this is just anybody`s guess.

GRACE: Here is what the sheriff had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN BOYER, JEFFERSON COUNTY SHERIFF: My greatest hope is that she simply would walk in the front door and say, Hey, guess what? I`m home. I had to take a breather, and I`m back. And that`d be wonderful. I think that`s what all of us really want. Why she is missing, we don`t know. It`s close to her due date. I believe it was today. So I mean, we`re getting to that critical hour, and we need to find her.

We`ve gotten limited cooperation from her male friend that she went and contacted at the grounds, and also his girlfriend. We`re talking to both of them through an attorney. So that -- you know, it`s -- they`ve been cooperative, but it`s been through an attorney.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Been through an attorney. What exactly does that mean, Pat Lalama?

LALAMA: Well, that means that he got himself lawyered up, and the lawyer said, I`ll do the talking for you from now on. You just keep your mouth shut.

GRACE: Has he taken a polygraph?

LALAMA: My understanding is that he has not taken a polygraph.

GRACE: Vito Colucci, private investigator, Amanda Jones so close to giving birth. That`s one of the reasons we want desperately to help find her tonight. Vito, wouldn`t there be a hospital record if she had been admitted to the hospital to have her baby?

VITO COLUCCI, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: I was thinking that, Nancy, as Pat was saying that. Definitely. I`m sure the police would have tracked that down all across the country.

You know, you have this individual. They`re lawyered up now, and it`s too bad because if I`m the lead investigator, I want to talk to not so much him but the new girlfriend, OK? You got -- and start pointing the finger and say she may be responsible, if at all they`re responsible for this. There`s $100,000 out there, you know? So being lawyered up, having to go through the lawyer, you`re not getting any place.

The best thing that can happen is she breaks up with this guy, if he is a possible suspect, and then you can go through her after that. That would be the greatest thing on this case.

GRACE: And explain, Vito, how that typically works. You`re absolutely right. When there`s a chain, break the weakest link.

COLUCCI: That`s right. You know, if she knows anything -- you know yourself, Nancy, criminals are very stupid people. In a lot of cases, they like to run the mouth. Someone knows. If this individual is responsible, somebody knows. Who would be the closest person? The current girlfriend, OK? So that`s what needs to happen on this.

Unfortunately, there`s no polygraph, OK? You`ve got this new girl. They`re not saying anything. You got to go through an attorney to get an question and answer. You`re not going to get any place with that.

GRACE: Here is what one of Amanda`s best friends had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF LOVEJOY, FRIEND OF AMANDA JONES: Well, 99 percent of people -- 99.9 -- are just going to drive by and not think (INAUDIBLE) nothing. But if that .1 percent stops (INAUDIBLE) and it comes up with something, well, I`ll sit out there for a week, if I have to, you know?

CARRIE PROPST, AMANDA`S SISTER: She needs the medicine. If she does not get it, it could hurt her, very well kill her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Renee Rockwell, why no polygraph with the ex-boyfriend?

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, they have lawyers, and I`m sure that the ex-boyfriend or the ex-friend and his girlfriend, present girlfriend -- I`m sure they probably have two separate lawyers. But that`s not anything, as a defense attorney, that I would allow somebody to do -- ie, take a polygraph.

GRACE: Why not, Renee, if he`s innocent?

ROCKWELL: Well, they`re -- Nancy, first of all, they`re not reliable. If somebody insists...

GRACE: Renee Rockwell, how many times have you taken a private polygraph and brought it to me in court and say, You should knock down these charges, my guy passed a polygraph?

ROCKWELL: OK, and that...

GRACE: Were you lying all those times?

ROCKWELL: No, but that`s the only way that I would let somebody take a polygraph, if I chose the polygrapher, because I want to know how they`re going to perform on the polygraph.

Nancy, just so you know, and you`re aware of it, a number of things are read when a polygraph is given. They test the perspiration on the skin. They test the heart rate. They test the respiratory rate. They test the blood pressure. And after seeing all these tests, you have somebody subjectively just looking at that and saying, This guy`s being deceptive, this girl`s being deceptive. He`s telling the truth, he`s not telling -- I don`t like them. They`re not reliable.

GRACE: OK. Well, you know what? I`m glad I didn`t pay any attention to all those private polygraph results you brought me for all those years, trying to get a sweetheart deal.

Joining me now, I`m hearing in my ear, two special guests. Amanda Jones`s parents are with us tonight, Hubert and Bertha Propst. Thank you for being with us.

BERTHA PROPST, AMANDA`S MOTHER: Thank you.

HUBERT PROPST, AMANDA`S FATHER: Thank you for having us.

GRACE: As you are heading into the Christmas holidays, I can`t even imagine wondering where my family is. How are you dealing with Amanda not being with you, as Christmas approaches?

BERTHA PROPST: Very hard. It`s just been very hard for us. It`s like it`s not real. She`s always there for Christmas, and this year, we don`t have her. We`re not even going to celebrate Christmas this year. We didn`t put up a tree. We haven`t done anything.

GRACE: Ms. Propst, do you recall when you first heard Amanda was missing?

BERTHA PROPST: Yes, I do.

GRACE: What happened?

BERTHA PROPST: I think I went ballistic, if I remember right.

HUBERT PROPST: Yes, we did.

BERTHA PROPST: You know, your daughter or your son, whomever it may be, they`re very close to you. And it`s like a part of my heart`s just been ripped out. Part of my life is gone.

GRACE: You know what I was thinking about you the other day, because my mom came up here to Manhattan to visit, and I was standing out in the street in my pajamas, waving at her good-bye. At least I knew where she was going. You know, I knew that I would talk to her in a couple of hours. You and Amanda very, very close, correct?

BERTHA PROPST: Yes, we are. Very close. And we were preparing for the new baby. And we had just the week before that gone to the hospital and looked at the nursery and checked out the room where she was going to deliver. We`re a very close family.

GRACE: What do you think about the boyfriend lawyering up?

LALAMA: Well, I think if somebody`s going to get a lawyer, like he did right away, that he`s hiding something.

HUBERT PROPST: Can I say something?

GRACE: Sure. Jump in.

HUBERT PROPST: The sheriff said he had given limited -- what`s the word?

BERTHA PROPST: Access?

HUBERT PROPST: Had limited cooperation. If a person`s not guilty of a crime, why wait a week before you let somebody come on your property to check for somebody? If you`re innocent -- my life is an open book. Take a polygraph test, do anything you want to. I`m not guilty.

GRACE: What do they mean, Hubert...

HUBERT PROPST: If you`re -- if you`re not going to...

GRACE: What do they mean by limited access? Why not full access? If somebody in my family...

HUBERT PROPST: I don`t know.

GRACE: ... went missing -- you remember -- I know you`ve seen Marc Klaas on the show many, many times, victims` advocate. When his little girl, Polly, went missing, he insisted police take a polygraph, a police polygraph, search his place, search his car, search everything so they could then get on to finding the real perpetrator. And they did. And Richard Allen Davis is behind bars today because of that.

But my question is, what is limited access, Mr. Propst? What exactly has this boyfriend -- who, PS, is not a suspect -- what has he done to cooperate with police?

HUBERT PROPST: I`d like to know. I would like to know because he hasn`t taken a polygraph test. He didn`t let people on the property right after it -- right after the disappearance. He`s hiding something.

GRACE: Well, I want to...

HUBERT PROPST: Plain and simple, he`s lying. He`s lying.

GRACE: When did the new girlfriend come on the picture?

HUBERT PROPST: I don`t think she`s a new girlfriend. I think she was a girlfriend all along.

GRACE: Do you think that the girlfriend would be willing to cooperate with police?

HUBERT PROPST: Well, she hasn`t so far. She`s not even talking through the attorney.

GRACE: Everybody, we are trying to get information about Amanda Jones, Amanda Jones about to give birth when she went missing four months ago. Now, she was scheduled to meet up with her boyfriend regarding the birth of the baby. He says he is cooperating with police. He is not a suspect tonight. I want to give you a tip line, 636-797-5515. That`s for the Jefferson County Sheriff`s Department. Please help us bring this family peace at Christmas. Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For her to disappear in this manner, especially being nine months pregnant, is highly unusual. So her disappearance is suspicious, to say the least.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The surveillance video of Jones at a Festus (ph) Walgreen`s Sunday is still the last visual evidence of her being alive and well. Judging from her home, she had no plans to go anywhere, the rooms for her new baby already set up, Hayden (ph), the name she picked for him, on the door, the medicine she takes for Grave`s disease and for her unborn baby still sitting at home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOVEJOY: (INAUDIBLE) in the morning, and I had to do something. I didn`t have no plywood or nothing else. I just got this spray paint on (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jones`s friend, Jeff Lovejoy, has painted his trunk with the message, "Please help. Did you drive by here Sunday?" And parked it outside the civic center in Hillsborough (ph). Investigators say this is the last place anyone has seen Amanda Jones. They say Brian Westphal, who Jones`s family says is the father of her unborn son, met Jones here Sunday. Afterwards, Jones vanished, her car left on the parking lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back. Please help us find any tip, any lead regarding 26-year-old Amanda Jones. While we`re all celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah, this family has an empty place at the holiday table.

Straight to Amanda`s parents, to Hubert and Bertha Propst. Would she have ever left on her own? I find that very difficult to believe, with her medicine still at home, Hubert.

HUBERT PROPST: No way. No way. Her daughter (ph) is her life. There`s no way that she would leave.

GRACE: And what do you make of it, Mrs. Propst, that the boyfriend is now saying it`s not even his baby? That takes a lot of nerve.

BERTHA PROPST: Right. But first of all, it`s not her boyfriend. It was just a one-night stand that she made a mistake. He -- the first time that she told him that she was pregnant, he wanted her to get an abortion...

HUBERT PROPST: He offered the money.

BERTHA PROPST: ... and she wouldn`t do it. He offered her money to get an abortion.

GRACE: You know what? She is a very brave girl. A lot of people would have taken the easy way out. And I`m not saying it`s right or wrong, but she`s a very brave girl to go through the pregnancy with the father wanting her to get rid of the baby, and you know, keep on going.

BERTHA PROPST: Right. And she went through a rough pregnancy with her Grave`s disease. She had to be very careful. And she loved that baby that she was carrying. She loved him very much.

GRACE: How does it strike you that now he is trying to distance himself from this baby?

BERTHA PROPST: Oh, it`s heart-wrenching. I mean, if he didn`t want anything to do with the baby, then just tell her so. She was ready to raise that baby on her own. She wasn`t looking to get any child support from him or any money. She just wanted to give him the opportunity. If he wanted a life with the baby, he could have it.

HUBERT PROPST: He didn`t have to do something stupid.

BERTHA PROPST: You know, he didn`t have to do something stupid or anything.

GRACE: Ms. Propst, how is Amanda`s little girl doing?

BERTHA PROPST: She`s doing -- we don`t see her much. She`s with her dad. When I talk to her, she seems to be doing OK. She misses her mother. She asks about her mother. And she still says that, My mommy`s lost, the police are going to find her. She just turned 5 years old, and Amanda missed her daughter`s birthday and that was very hard.

GRACE: And tell me about the reward, please, Ms. Propst.

BERTHA PROPST: There`s a $100,000 reward that was donated by Joe Mamana (ph) of Philadelphia. The reward could be collected for anyone who has information to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons involved in this case.

GRACE: Mr. and Ms. Propst, our prayers and our thoughts are with you at Christmas.

HUBERT PROPST: Thank you.

BERTHA PROPST: Thank you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a photo that was taken...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s Jones`s last photo with her parents at their church Sunday school just hours before she disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s very pregnant. If you look at her legs, she`s not walking anywhere. Her legs are too swollen to walk (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An in-store video from a Festus Walgreen`s a little while later suggests she was hardly stocking up for a trip, buying a Dr. Pepper and hairspray. She hasn`t used a credit card since.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leslie, we are trying our best to find you, and we are going to find you. We are not going to let this lie. We are going to find you. We`re looking for you day in and day out. We`re praying for you. And if you see this right now, please try to get away, try to get a hold of one of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are also highlighting the case of a Georgia hairstylist now missing for months. She`s a beautiful young woman, disappeared without a trace, Leslie Marva Adams, $25,000 reward for information on Leslie Adams.

Straight out to Ken Sugiura, "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" reporter. Ken, it seems to me this case has reached a dead end. Why?

KEN SUGIURA, "ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION": Well, they`re just out of information, I think. They`ve worked the leads that they`ve had, but it seems like it really hasn`t gotten anywhere. There`s obviously, you know, the ex-boyfriend who police have interviewed, and they haven`t cleared him as a suspect, but you know, they haven`t named him a suspect, either. But they`re waiting for test results to come back from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and...

GRACE: What test results?

SUGIURA: Well, they found blood in her apartment when they went in just to investigate, on the bedroom floor. And they found some sheets that had -- and some other bedding that had been found. And they`re waiting for test results to come back from that and...

GRACE: Was there blood on the sheets?

SUGIURA: They wouldn`t say. There was -- but I mean, they were in the washer, and some were in the dryer. So they didn`t say what was in the sheets, but you know, it seems -- it is odd that, you know, she disappears and, you know, that there`s things in the dryer. It seems like an odd...

GRACE: To Anne Bremner, defense attorney out of the Seattle jurisdiction. Anne, why take the sheets, if there wasn`t some type of evidence on them? If they found blood...

ANNE BREMNER, TRIAL ATTORNEY: Right.

GRACE: ... in another part of the apartment, and they just suddenly decided to take the sheets with them, there`s got to be evidence on those sheets.

BREMNER: There`s got to be trace evidence there, Nancy. You know, some things you can`t see with the naked eye, but you`re talking about hair, fibers, you know, potential DNA, all kinds of potential evidence. And keep in mind, like has just been stated, there was laundry being done in the washer and dryer. And that`s very suspicious when you`ve found blood in that apartment.

GRACE: Very quickly to Pat Lalama, investigative reporter on this missing persons case. Pat, what are the facts that jump out at you on this?

LALAMA: Well, before I tell you that, just one other thing. There was also a .45 shell casing in that apartment, so police believe that she was killed inside of her own home.

The facts that jump out to me? I mean, I can`t help it, a restraining order that she had filed against her ex-boyfriend. And she stated in that restraining order, I fear for my life. He won`t leave me alone. And if I tell him to leave me alone, I`m afraid of what he might do.

She had gone to a club the night before, which I believe was October the 20th. She walked in with a friend named David. She claims -- or she had -- excuse me, not her, but others have claimed that her ex came up and tried to pick a fight with the friend that she had arrived with. She ended up leaving with another friend, another male friend.

And now this man, you know, this ex-boyfriend, says, Well, you know, I didn`t pick any fight. I didn`t even see her there. And oh, that restraining order, you know, we were just fussing, and friends didn`t understand it, and they manipulated her and talked her into doing that. But you know, there was never any violence. And I think she`s just doing one of those runaway bride things.

So there you go. You asked me what jumps out...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Yes, big thank you to Jennifer Wilbanks. Now every time a woman goes missing, you`ve got the runaway bride...

LALAMA: Right.

GRACE: ... specter hanging over the entire thing. You know...

LALAMA: Well, that`s not the case here. I can tell you.

GRACE: You know, I know the boyfriend has not been named a formal suspect, Renee Rockwell, but it seems to me these protective orders are not worth the paper they`re written on.

ROCKWELL: That`s not -- Nancy, you have a situation where you`ve got a young lady who on October the 19th goes and files this order. On that afternoon, he`s served with this order. So on October the 20th, when he runs into her at that bar -- I don`t understand why he hasn`t been -- and of course, this is just comment. I`m not being a defense attorney here. But he is absolutely a candidate to be arrested right now for an aggravated stalking. All you have to do is be served with this protective order, and if you go within feet of this person, you can be arrested, no bond, aggravated stalking. And then he sits in jail while they decide what to do with him.

GRACE: Quick break, everybody. We at NANCY GRACE want very much to help solve unsolved homicides, find missing people. Take a look at Diana Gama, just 13, Diana last seen, Fullerton, California, November 23, 2005. If you have info on this little girl, Diana Gama, please contact the Fullerton Police Department, 714-738-6800, or go on line to Beyondmissing.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY JOE COOK, EX-BOYFRIEND OF MISSING PERSON, LESLIE ADAMS: We was basically together most of the time. We argued a lot, but we never really got physical. But, basically, we was happy a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And when we wake up, Leslie is on our minds. I just want Leslie to be a part of our family again. I mean, I know she`s here, but, in the same token, I just want her to be here here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: The first speaker you heard was the ex-boyfriend of Leslie Adams saying they never got physical. Well, that`s interesting, because she had a restraining order put in place against him just before she went missing.

And I have with me here from Gwinnett County Police Department the return on a search of her home. A return is something that has to be filed, under the law, as to what police seized from a search.

And here we go: photographs, a video, a .45 shell casing, blood sample from carpet, carpet and padding, blood sample from wood floor, hair from the left corner of the bed, the comforter, sheets, pillowcases in the dryer, clothing from washer, rags and towels from dryer, and a handwritten note.

All of these things taken from the apartment of a Georgia hairstylist, a beautiful young girl, who went missing without a trace, coincidentally right after she takes out a TRO, temporary restraining order, against boyfriend. Boyfriend, Billy Joe Cook, not named a suspect as of tonight.

Straight back to Ken Sugiura, "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" reporter. Are police releasing any details to the family, any suggestion that they`re making any progress on the case whatsoever?

KEN SUGIURA, REPORTER, "ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION": Well, I think they`re telling them about as much as they`ve been telling us, that they`re concerned about just the integrity of the case and don`t want to tip their hand too much. I think, you know, the police have done a pretty good job, I think, according to the family, of just keeping them in the loop for the most part. But, beyond that, I don`t think they really know any more details than that.

GRACE: Well, speaking of the family, joining us now is Leslie Adams` brother, Eric Adams, joining us out of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Eric, thank you for being with us.

ERIC ADAMS, LESLIE MARVA ADAMS` BROTHER: Thanks, Nancy.

GRACE: Eric, when you hear items like blood seized from the apartment, hair, a .45 shell casing, that`s got to be like a stab to the heart.

ADAMS: Yes, it is. You know, it`s just hard that, you know, thinking that something bad has happened to your sister, you know?

GRACE: What was the last -- when was the last time you had spoken to Leslie?

ADAMS: Actually, I talked to her that Friday when she had called my mother.

GRACE: What was her spirits at that time?

ADAMS: It was early in the morning, so, you know, I really can`t tell. You know, it was real early in the morning and we were on our way out the door, so...

GRACE: What did she have to say?

ADAMS: She was just basically talking about she went to a party and just asking about the kids, just general questions about the kids and -- because the kids were living...

GRACE: Did she mention any of her problems with the boyfriend?

ADAMS: No, that`s one thing. She never really brought the situation with her and Billy, even, you know, from the past, like physical fights and things that they had. She never really mentioned too much to me and my mother, because she know we would have stepped in, you know, and we basically would have got in her business. And, you know, she didn`t want us to do that.

GRACE: How long had she been dating this guy?

ADAMS: Approximately a year-and-a-half.

GRACE: Mr. Adams, I notice that you said "physical problems." Now, he has jumped up on TV in front of a microphone and said they never had any physical altercations.

ADAMS: Well, that`s a lie.

GRACE: Why did she take out a temporary restraining order against him if they never had a physical altercation?

ADAMS: Right. Well, you know, right now, he`s going to do the best that he can to cover his tracks. And, you know, we know what really went down, you know, as far as him and her relationship.

And, you know, if he thinks it`s just going to be swept under the rug and, you know, it`s going to go away as time goes on, he`s mistaken. He`s wrong. This family is going to stand up and fight, you know, until we find my sister, dead or alive.

GRACE: To Stephanie Jones, clinical psychologist, why is it, Stephanie, that -- and I remember this distinctly, working at the battered women`s center -- they never want their family to find out, family, friends, you name it? Women will go to such great lengths to hide the fact that they are being beaten.

There`s no pretty way to put it. We say "domestic abuse," "marital conflict." B.S. It is a beating. Why do they hide that they`re being beaten?

STEPHANIE JONES, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: You know, there`s so much secrecy, Nancy, around victimization of all sorts. Women, especially battered women, feel ashamed, like they`re trapped in something that they just don`t know how to get out of and that they would if they could.

But there`s a tremendous sense of pressure that they put upon themselves to extricate themselves from this situation. And they just feel stuck. And they feel that, if they turn to people, they`ll feel perhaps embarrassed or ashamed that they got themselves into this in the first place.

And they really are just scared, too, to voice the truth, because fear of repercussions, which is an issue, I think, in this case, in particular, because this woman went out and got a restraining order, which took tremendous courage for her to open her mouth and to break the silence.

But unfortunately, a piece of paper does not stop a bullet. And this is a problem for many women in this types of situations. They have the courage to go out and get a restraining order, but then they experience the backlash and the ramifications when the perpetrator gets angry.

GRACE: Well, in response, here is what Cook has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You never hit her?

COOK: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Choked her?

COOK: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Threatened her life?

COOK: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why would she say that about you?

COOK: I don`t know. All of a sudden, she just changed.

Whoever she was talking to on the phone was manipulating her. Maybe she was talking to somebody that she liked or something. I don`t know. And (INAUDIBLE) I`m assuming it may have been a him who called. I don`t know. But I think they may have had some motivation behind that, basically.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: What is he saying, him, who, the other guy? You know, Renee Rockwell, I think you were with me in court one day when a battered woman came in, in a full leg cast on crutches -- I mean, from the hip down -- wanting me to drop the charges against her lover who had broken her leg, because she didn`t want to testify.

Naturally, I did not drop the charges. But, again, this guy is not named a formal suspect in this case. But you`ve got to admit, Renee, the timing is a little more than coincidental.

RENEE ROCKWELL: It is, Nancy, because now here he`s saying that this has never happened, so he`s painting himself into a corner. All we have to do is have somebody come in and say, "No, this absolutely did happen."

But here`s a girl who -- she`s not being manipulated. I mean, this is a girl that`s a Navy veteran. She`s a hairstylist. And she`s going to school. Uh-uh. No.

GRACE: Very quickly, back to Eric Adams. Eric, if you could speak out to Leslie tonight, what would you say?

ADAMS: You know, we`re going to do everything possible to find you. And, you know, it`s just hard. It`s hard on me. It`s hard on the kids. It`s hard on my mom.

But someone got to pay for this. You know, she`s missing. We can`t find her. No phone calls. And I know something happened. I know something`s wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s hard. It`s hard to, you know, go on every day, but I`m very hopeful that she`s going to come home alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGI BISH, MOLLY BISH`S MOTHER: Molly is a light, and she will continue to be a light for all missing children. And Molly now has moved to the endless journey where we know she will be safe and protected. But we will miss her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Help us find out who murdered Molly Bish. This little girl -- look at her, is she not scrubbed in sunshine? A Massachusetts lifeguard went missing. Three years later, her body discovered, literally bone-by- bone. It is so hard to look at her, so full of life, so vibrant, her life ahead of her. And to think of her being recovered in that way.

Straight out to Kim Ring, staff writer with the "Worcester Telegram and Gazette." Thank you for being with us. Bring us up-to-date, friend.

KIM RING, STAFF WRITER, "WORCESTER TELEGRAM AND GAZETTE": Well, right now, there`s a grand jury that`s finished up its work in the Bish case. They`ve been sitting since May of 2004. And Worcester County District Attorney John Conte tells us they`ll be wrapping up in January. No indictments or arrests in the case so far.

GRACE: Kim, do you think they have anyone, such as a person of interest?

RING: Well, early on in the investigation, there were 11 people who took polygraph tests and failed, according to the district attorney. So I imagine all of them have been, at some point, people of interest. A lot of level-three sex offenders have been questioned in the case. Right now, there doesn`t seem to be anyone that`s standing out.

GRACE: And you know, Vito Colucci, the problem with polys is that, yes, they`re lying, if you flunk a polygraph, but it could be lying about a tangential issue, something not related to Molly, such as, "Have you been following the terms of your probation?" And they`re, "Yes," when they haven`t.

And so that would give them -- they would flunk the polygraph. So we don`t know if they flunk the polygraph if it`s on questions related to the disappearance of Molly.

VITO COLUCCI, PRIVATE DETECTIVE: That`s right, yes. Polygraph is still a police officer`s best friend, because you`re able to look across the table, you`re able to say to these people, "Come on, we want to cut you loose. We don`t want to be thinking about you anymore. Help us out on this."

But, you know, this is the most difficult of the three cases we`ve talked about today, because we have no persons of interest on here, OK? You`ve got a 16-year-old girl. Very easily, she could be watched. She goes to the same job every day. She`s in a bathing suit. Any sicko out there that`s interested could watch her every day, can see her walk to her vehicle, would know -- maybe even follow her to her home, could know everything about her.

GRACE: Well, Vito, that is a hell of a note, that you can`t go to a public swimming pool in a swimsuit.

COLUCCI: Well, a lot of sickies out there. You need a big break in this case. This is going on a long time. As a police officer, you`ve got to follow all across the country any arrests made of people in murders of this nature. And you have to see what their location was, if they were in the northeast at that time. It`s a lot of tedious leg work, but that`s the only way you`re going to bring -- you need a big break in this case, Nancy.

GRACE: Back to Kim Ring with the "Worcester Telegram and Gazette." Kim, take us back to the day that Molly went missing. What happened?

RING: June 27, 2000, Magi, Molly`s mom, dropped her off at Comins Pond. And Molly went off, as she normally did, to work that day.

Sometime later, a very short time, swimmers arrived and Molly was gone. Her first-aid kit was open. Apparently, her shoes had been moved across the beach. Later, that first-aid kit was closed by someone who arrived on scene. And it seems like the first thought was that she may have drowned or run off with friends. So people were tromping all over the beach. Any evidence that might have been there was probably gone at that point.

Molly`s family was insisting that she had no history of running off and leaving her job like this. It was very unusual. Within the first few days, it became more of a missing person`s case.

GRACE: Here`s what Molly`s sister had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve put myself in my sister`s position many times in my mind. And, like my mom always says, we have to fight those demons and we have to have faith and trust that maybe angels came down and surrounded her and everything was OK.

JOHN BISH, MOLLY BISH`S FATHER: The loss of a child is really the -- has got to be the worst experience. It`s been torturous for us. We`ve experienced a lot of -- an overwhelming amount of psychological, emotional, and spiritual pain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: To Pat Lalama, investigative reporter on these missing persons cases, Pat, where did we find the 26 bones?

PAT LALAMA, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Well, it`s an interesting story. What happened was, many years later, a hunter discovered a blue bathing suit. And we know that she had on a blue bathing suit and khaki pants when she went missing.

That got the red alert going again and search teams. About five miles from the swimming pond, in a wooded area, they found bones scattered over about a 1,000-foot-circumference area, just an absolutely heartbreaking story. They also found a tongue ring that she had gotten because her father had agreed that he would allow her to get the tongue ring if she promised not to get any more piercings until she was 45.

GRACE: Joining us right now, Molly`s parents, John and Magi Bish. Thank you so much for being with us. I know this Christmas is going to be so difficult for you.

M. BISH: Thank you so very much. Nancy, you are an advocate. We want to tell you, you are an angel and an advocate for missing families and victims. And I can`t tell you how much we appreciate you sharing Molly`s story before and today. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

GRACE: Ms. Bish, I hate to see you upset like this. I do. We all, here at our staff, so lucky to have our families. And when I hear this story of them finding that swimsuit -- do you remember that day?

M. BISH: Absolutely. I came home. The police came and the district attorney to our home to tell us that they had found a piece of bathing suit. And we had to wait some more for the DNA.

We had waited for three years to find Molly, but we knew -- we had actually had seen a piece -- someone from the media had shared it with us, and we knew -- I knew before they even had found it that it was Molly`s. But we had to still wait before they could send in a search team.

And they sent a search team in once they had -- you know, it was confirmed. And then, every day, they came and they told us -- first, they found a shinbone. Then they found her skull. The next day, they found her ribs. And only 26 of Molly`s bones were returned to us. And we buried her. And then we had to wait some more to confirm that. And then we buried her on her 20th birthday, our 16-year-old.

And it won`t be a Christmas. That perpetrator is somewhere out there in this world, and he will celebrate Christmas. He might be getting presents. There`s no presents under our tree for Molly this year, and she won`t be sitting at the table.

We have a very small family, and our family link is broken. We were five, and now we`re four. And we love her with all our heart and we miss her tremendously. And this has to stop.

I watch your show every day. And I thank you for your feistiness. And Molly was feisty and full of fun and love, and it has to stop. We have to be strong and get these bad guys who are taking our children and our women.

And I thank you tremendously. And I hope that you can help us find this person who had done this to Molly so we can know why and put him away so he doesn`t hurt anyone else.

GRACE: By God, we will help you. I don`t know if anyone can hear this tonight.

Rosie, let`s put up the information again, 508-832-9124. Please help us give Molly`s parents peace at Christmas.

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GRACE: Straight out to Kathy Reichs, forensic anthropologist. Kathy, what can we expect to learn from these bones?

DR. KATHY REICHS, FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST: Well, there would have been two things. The first would have had to do with I.D., to make sure that the profile on those bones was consistent with Molly`s, the age, the sex, the race, the height, all of that.

Then they would have gone ahead with the DNA testing. And that`s all been done. The positive I.D. was from the DNA.

The second level would be to look at those bones to determine manner of death. Is there something on them that can tell what happened to Molly? Is there an indication of gunshot wounding, of strangulation, of stab marks, of blunt instrument trauma? So you would look at the fracture patterning.

The third thing that could be of interest -- probably not in this case -- is what happened after death. Was there some sort of mutilation, dismemberment, animal damage? Why were those bones scattered over such a wide area? That`s probably the result of animal activity.

GRACE: To John Bish -- this is Molly`s dad who is with us today -- sir, thank you for being with us, along with your wife. And I know it is painful to hear us talk about Molly like a legal case, because she is your girl and will always be your girl. And I`m just wondering, do you ever feel Molly`s presence with you? And do you think this case will be solved, Mr. Bish?

J. BISH: Well, we`re a family struggling to achieve resolution. We`re a very desperate family. However, we are determined to find out who harmed Molly.

We can`t imagine who would have wanted to harm her. The district attorney and the state police have always talked about this being a local individual. However, it has always been my fear that it might have been someone who came to our area, was able to stalk her, and get near her at her post as a lifeguard, and get her away from there.

I`m convinced that they will be able -- the police will be able to solve this crime. We still need that big break. We need some information. We need anyone who has any information at all to contact the Massachusetts State Police.

GRACE: On behalf of all of our staff, we wish you peace.

J. BISH: Thank you very much.

M. BISH: Thank you so very much.

GRACE: Thank you to Molly`s parents. And thank you to all of our guests. But our big thank you is to you for being with us, inviting Molly and Leslie and Amanda into your homes.

Coming up, headlines from all around the world. I`m Nancy Grace signing off again for tonight. See you right here tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END