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Nancy Grace

Jennifer Kesse Case Still Unsolved

Aired February 22, 2006 - 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, more clues revealed by police in the search for a missing 24-year-old Florida girl, Jennifer Kesse, a financial analyst. She vanished nearly a month ago. Tonight, are police closing in on a person of interest? We are live in Florida.
And also tonight, a stunning exclusive. A 16-year-old girl plots to murder her own father, but when the plot falls through, he doesn`t want her punished. Tonight, father and daughter together again, answering some tough questions, live.

Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. Tonight, a stunning exclusive interview. A father wants his daughter out of prison, even though she plotted to murder him, of all people. Tonight, the story of a father, a daughter, and the murder scheme that almost worked. They`re with us live tonight, thank God.

But first tonight, is there a new break in the case of Jennifer Kesse, the 24-year-old financial analyst out of Florida? Jennifer vanished nearly a month ago. Tonight, investigators seem to be on the trail of a person of interest. Police reveal new clues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Based on information that the FBI was given and those images, they believe that our person of interest is somewhere between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-5 inches tall.

JOYCE KESSE, JENNIFER`S MOTHER: Somebody knows something about this case. Please, for the love of God, call and share whatever information you have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing in our investigation that would indicate that Miss Kesse would be responsible for her own disappearance.

DREW KESSE, JENNIFER`S FATHER: We need to speak to this person to try and get our daughter back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe that this is an abduction of some sort. We are not sure whether it`s an abduction and she`s being held someplace against her will or whether it`s an abduction and a homicide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Tonight, let`s review the clues. We are looking for a 24- year-old girl out of Florida, Jennifer Kesse. The first time anyone realized she may be missing was when she failed to show up for work as a financial analyst. This girl never missed work.

Straight out to "America`s Most Wanted" reporter Ed Miller. Ed, bring us up to date.

ED MILLER, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Nancy, my sources tell me this so-called person of interest is more than a person of interest. In other words, it was not just somebody on their way to buy a quart of milk at a store and stopped and saw something. Police are saying that this person of interest knows something. Perhaps it is the suspect or an accomplice to the suspect.

Remember what we told you last week. I told you that it could be a man, it could be a woman, and that`s exactly what the FBI and police are now saying -- very thin person, 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-5. Again, cannot tell by the image, because it`s too fuzzy, whether it`s a man or woman, but there`s more to this person of interest than meets the eye.

GRACE: Has there been the FBI enhancement of that photo?

MILLER: There has been enhancement, and it turned out to be terrible. It`s just a blurry photo. As a matter of fact, they can`t even tell whether it -- he or she is wearing a hat or whether that`s hair. So basically, they have nothing more than the height.

GRACE: But Ed Miller, what do you mean the POI, person of interest, may know more? One thing that struck me was, I`m trying to figure out when the video was taken, how far away is this shot from her apartment in relation to when she left? I know, Ed Miller from "America`s Most Wanted," that her condo complex was largely uninhabited. So what is this person doing walking around? How close is this shot to her apartment.

MILLER: Well, the shot -- first of all, the surveillance camera, we should make crystal clear, is at the second apartment complex where her -- where her...

GRACE: I see. Where the car was found.

MILLER: ... car was found. Right. It is not at the first. As a matter of fact, there`s something very, very important that we should point out about the first apartment, and that it is not -- even though they said it was a gated and very secure building, it is not gated all the way around, a secure building. As a matter of fact, the gates only go around three quarters of the way. So if there is a lesson to be learned about this, and there are apartment complexes all over the country like this, a gated community does not necessarily guarantee your safety. In other words, this gate did not go all the way around. It was wide open in the back, as are many communities in this country.

GRACE: You know, that`s a very good point, Ed Miller, because when I was first reading the AP wires on this story to find out about Jennifer Kesse, I saw "gated community."

Hey, Elizabeth, could you put up that photo of the person of interest again? If they call this a gated security community, look at that. Now, you see the person right there is about 5-3. Anybody that wants to can climb over that fence. Even I could do it. I mean, you don`t have to be an Olympic high hurdler to get over this fence.

Joining me right now, Jennifer`s father, her mother, and tonight joining them, her brother, Logan. First to Drew Kesse, Jennifer`s father. Mr. Kesse, what do you make of this information regarding the person of interest?

DREW KESSE: We think it`s a very big break for us. We`re able to kind of break down the~ people that we`re looking for. We don`t have to look for a 6-foot person or a 5-foot-10 person. It`s a small person. And it takes a lot of the population out of the mix. So we`re very excited.

GRACE: Well, it`s interesting to me, Mr. Kesse -- why does this person -- why is it so unusual that they`re walking by in this location?

DREW KESSE: It was put to us that he or she seems to be walking by the same time that something may have happened with the car being parked, or what have you. So it`s a coincidental type thing that they`re hoping that this person just saw something that could help us to Jennifer.

GRACE: Well, interesting. Back to Ed Miller. How exactly are police placing the time the car was abandoned?

MILLER: Well, you know, they`re not telling me a whole lot, and of course, what they do tell me, I want to be very careful to not interfere with the investigation. But investigators have indicated to me that they are fairly certain that this person, the timing. is very close to when that car was discovered. And therefore -- and again, I`m not saying I know what happened, but it could be a fingerprint on the fence, could be a fingerprint on the car. They`re just not saying for sure. But they do believe there`s something more to this person of interest than simply meets the eye.

GRACE: Well, didn`t we also learn, Ed Miller, that someone else made off with her car? That says to me they have found prints in the car.

MILLER: Well, yes. Some -- I mean, I don`t know that for a fact, but yes, they are saying that...

GRACE: Ed, Ed, Ed! You are a veteran crime reporter. Use that noggin! They found these prints. I mean, sure, we could be wrong, but let`s deduce what we can.

MILLER: Yes, absolutely. But there could be other indications. You know, perhaps the seat was pushed back or whatever. But they are saying for sure that Jennifer did not get that car there. Somebody else got that car there, whether it`s fingerprints or something else, or you know, it`s some other evidence that was left there.

GRACE: Right.

MILLER: Yes, you`re absolutely right.

GRACE: Joyce Kesse is with us, Jennifer`s mother. Let`s go out to Joyce right now. Joyce, do you believe that Jennifer drove her own car there?

JOYCE KESSE: Not -- not -- not willingly. If she did, Nancy, it was not willingly.

GRACE: Do you believe the car seat was back? Is there some clue in this car that makes you believe someone else was driving.

JOYCE KESSE: Honestly, I have not -- I`ve chosen, actually, not to see the car.

GRACE: Go ahead. I hear Drew, I think.

DREW KESSE: Nancy, yes, it`s been established, I think, that Jennifer was not the last person to drive the car.

GRACE: How?

DREW KESSE: The police have come out and said that. They came out and said it yesterday.

GRACE: I know, but how do they know that?

DREW KESSE: I wish I knew. They -- we are really trying to track down from 10:00 PM on January 23 to 1:00 PM on the 24th, someone else driving the 2000 black four-door Malibu in the area. They have just told us that she was not driving that car.

GRACE: Here`s what police had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. RICHARD RING, ORLANDO POLICE DEPARTMENT: Based on the information the FBI was given and those images, they believe that our person of interest is somewhere between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-5 inches tall. They are not able to ascertain his -- his or her weight or ascertain his or her shoe size. We are still not specifying a gender because the information on the photographs are not specific enough.

Right now, there is nothing -- and I want to reiterate this -- nothing in our investigation that would indicate that Miss Kesse would be responsible for her own disappearance. We believe that this is an abduction of some sort. We are not sure whether it`s an abduction and she is being held someplace against her will or whether it`s an abduction and a homicide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Won`t you help us help Jennifer`s family find her? The tip line tonight 1-800-423-TIPS. There is a $115,000 reward for information leading to Jennifer`s recovery.

Straight out to Don Clark. Everyone, Don Clark is the former of the FBI Houston bureau. Don, I`m sure you used FBI enhancements to enhance photos, to enhance recordings. It`s not a mystery how you can look at a picture, and based on the picture, determine someone`s height and weight, their shoe size. Explain.

DON CLARK, FORMER HEAD OF FBI HOUSTON BUREAU: Well, it`s techniques. And these guys are pretty good at what they do. They are capable of doing these kinds of things, but they`ve got to have something to work with, Nancy. If they don`t have a good quality photograph, all the enhancing in the world is not going to get them to the point where they can make better identification. So the key is, is setting up these cameras so you can possibly get a better photograph, although, any photograph is better than no photograph, but they can do a lot of things.

They cannot do everything. They cannot tell you the difference, necessarily, between male and female. I`ve seen bank robbery photographs that`s taken, and I could have sworn that it was a female and it turns out to be a male, or vice versa. So these types of things they cannot do. It`s not like the crime shows that we see on television.

GRACE: Don Clark, you are so right. I remember the first bank robbery I prosecuted. I had the stills from the bank. I could not -- and I desperately wanted to get a good photo -- make an ID of the defendant. If he hadn`t been, slew-footed (ph) -- you know, walks like a duck -- we would never have gotten him. So thanks for the bank photos.

I want to go to Logan Kesse. This is Jennifer`s brother. Logan, thank you for being with us tonight. When did you learn of your sister`s disappearance?

LOGAN KESSE, JENNIFER`S BROTHER: It was Tuesday morning around 11:00 o`clock in the morning. My mother had called me, and I was just leaving the gym and she had called me and said, you know, Jennifer`s missing. She was crying, sounded very upset, and she just begin to explain that Jennifer didn`t show up to work. Her boss told one of my parents` best friends and relayed it to my father. And from there on out, I just headed home and met up with Dad, and he filled me in with the rest.

GRACE: This is totally unlike Jennifer Kesse not to reporter to work, everyone. Back to Logan Kesse, her brother. Logan, how far away was the car from Jennifer`s condominium?

LOGAN KESSE: Maybe not even a mile.

GRACE: Not even a mile. All right. In this condo area where the car was found, was it fully inhabited? Was it also part of the unit?

LOGAN KESSE: No, it was not.

GRACE: OK. What type of area was it?

LOGAN KESSE: It was just a general parking area.

GRACE: So it was a parking area. I want to go back to Ed Miller -- Ed, reporter with "America`s most wanted." Why would someone take the car, not steal the car, but just take the car a mile away and park it? Let`s think about this. What is the purpose? Was it to get Jennifer? Was it to get her pocketbook? Did they ambush her when she was leaving for work? I mean, clearly, it wasn`t to take the car. So what`s the thinking.

MILLER: Well, the thinking among investigators is that she was definitely kidnapped in some way, shape or form. What happened to her between her home and where the car was found is the big question, and that`s where all the gaping holes are.

We should point out one other thing that`s very important for the average person at home to understand. A missing adult is not top priority for the FBI. It may be high priority for Orlando police, but it is not for the FBI because missing adults happen all the time. Therefore, the burden of proof goes to Orlando police and to the family, that has done an outstanding job of keeping this case in front of the public eye.

GRACE: To Renee Rockwell, defense attorney. I can tell you right, now whoever did this, this is not their first offense, Renee. You don`t just suddenly go and try to abduct a young girl, a grown woman, 24-year-old Jennifer Kesse, take her car and you don`t leave a trace. Oh, no! No, no, no, no! Uh-uh! This is someone who has some type of a record, and I`m not talking about just a shoplifting.

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Not only that, Nancy, but here`s the situation. You`ve got $115,000 reward, and I`ve seen family members turn over other family members for $1,000 dollars. So there could be more than one person involved in this, Nancy, and with that kind of reward and with that kind of a situation, where there`s absolutely no leads whatsoever, somebody involved could come forward and say, Look, I want out. This is what happened. I`m coming in. I`m going to cut a deal. Sometimes, that`s how cases are solved.

GRACE: And Anne Bremner, money talks. Very often, when a case is cracked, it`s is because of a reward. There`s $115,000 on the table here!

ANNE BREMNER, TRIAL ATTORNEY: Right. And out here in Seattle, the cyanide Sudafed case, a daughter turned her mother in for it, for the reward money. I mean, shows that blood isn`t -- isn`t thicker than water. You bet, Nancy. And also, they say this isn`t "CSI," but there can also be other evidence out there we don`t know about yet from the car, et cetera, for linkage. But someone at 5-3 or 5-5, male, female, we don`t know that, the gender or anything else -- it`s a very...

GRACE: Well, they may not be...

BREMNER: ... perplexing case.

GRACE: ... the perp, they may very well be a witness. They may know something.

BREMNER: That`s right, Nancy.

GRACE: And very quickly, to Bethany Marshall before we go to break. Let`s just think this through, the psychology of taking Jennifer. Clearly, they took Jennifer as she was coming out from work. That`s my thinking.

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Yes.

GRACE: The police give a bigger window, but the parents say -- they told me the other night right here on the show, they went in, the shower was still wet, her makeup was lying out...

BREMNER: Yes.

GRACE: ... and her bed had been, I think, made up, but the clothes laid out to go to work.

BREMNER: Right. I mean, clearly, she didn`t know she was going to be abducted. One of the thoughts I had is that, as you know, one in four violent crimes occur in or near the victim`s home. And the reason for that is often, the perpetrator has a relationship with the victim, either in reality -- they know the victim -- or in fantasy -- the victim reminds the perpetrator of somebody they hate, they love, they want to possess, they want to have sex with -- and that a lot of times, these crimes are motivated by sex and aggression that are fused and confused. So I would be trying to take a look at who -- not only who did she know but who did run across in her daily life.

GRACE: Very quickly, to tonight`s "Trial Tracking." A defense expert in the triple murder trial of a former Indiana state trooper tries to explain away bloodstains found on the defendant`s T-shirt, David Camm, accused of killing his wife and two children. Prosecutors say it was blood splatter, not a smudge, not a transfer, and that that proves Camm was at the scene when his family was murdered.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RING: Immediately, I know people have jumped to the conclusion that, just based on the height, that it`s -- that they`re looking at a female. We`re going to still contend that we do not know the gender.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: This could be anybody`s daughter, Jennifer Kesse, just 24 years old, out of college, making good on a brand-new job as a financial analyst. When she didn`t show up, warning bells went off. This girl would never miss work that way. Her car found about a mile away.

Let`s see the map, Elizabeth.

Straight to Ed Miller, reporter with "America`s Most Wanted." Ed, again, I contend this is not someone`s first crime. A first crime is a shoplifting, a burglary, steal a car, take some rims, I don`t know, break into a house, if you`re really brave, if you don`t know the person`s home. You don`t walk up to a grown woman and carjack her.

MILLER: Right.

GRACE: All right? That`s what happened here. So have local police canvassed the area of known offenders?

MILLER: They have canvassed the area. From what I understand, they`ve canvassed the area quite thoroughly, as a matter of fact. I don`t know exactly if they`ve gone to the addresses of the known registered sex offenders, but of course, that`s a whole other issue because there are so many -- the sex offenders that are not registered or not properly registered. But I know for a fact that they`ve canvassed that area rather thoroughly.

I think the question becomes, again, that car. What is that car doing there? If Jennifer`s not there, what is that car doing there? And yet it`s so close to her house. It is really, really very baffling.

GRACE: And to Drew Kesse, Jennifer`s father. What are your thoughts on all the construction workers? She said point-blank, I am not comfortable here with all these guys around.

DREW KESSE: Yes, it was an apartment conversion over to a condo, and there are a lot of workers there and a lot of independent contractors that come in for people that live there. She was not comfortable with it. We had safe calls, and a safe call is calling someone while someone is in her home, doing some work, so someone`s on the phone in case something happens. We had a lot of that all the time. But she has consistently just felt uneasy with the amount of workers around at all times.

GRACE: Did she have curtains up at all of her windows and doors?

DREW KESSE: Yes. Yes. We put them up, actually.

GRACE: I heard Joyce Kesse, Jennifer`s mom, breaking in there. What are your thoughts at this juncture? What can we do to help you.

JOYCE KESSE: Actually, continue to air those photos, the pictures of her car, because, again, somebody knows something. You`ve got to be able to recognize...

GRACE: They sure do, Joyce!

JOYCE KESSE: ... that silhouette of that male or female, especially now that they`ve narrowed it down to that 5-foot-3, 5-foot-5 frame.

DREW KESSE: And we still have an abductor in the community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RING: We are urging people, if they have any suspicions, we don`t care whether it`s a remote suspicion or not, call the crime line, give us the information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DREW KESSE: My personal gut feeling is she got ready to go to work, as normal. And as soon as that condominium door closed, I don`t know what happened from that point. That`s -- that`s where I think it started to happen, whatever it was. I`m not sure whether she got in that car herself or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Won`t you help us in our search to find Jennifer Kesse? Let`s take a look what we know.

Very quickly, back to Drew Kesse, Jennifer`s father. Let`s take a look at where the car was left. In my experience, when you`re dealing with criminals, they go somewhere where they`re comfortable, somewhere they`ve been before, to commit a crime. Remember Scott Peterson? Where did he dump wifey? Where he liked to go fishing! He was a fisherman. Where this car found, at Huntington (ph) on the Green apartment complex. What does that say to you, Mr. Kesse?

DREW KESSE: It was in a place where that person thought they can get away quite easily. Maybe they had another vehicle close that they could get to quite easily.

GRACE: Right, their vehicle.

DREW KESSE: Very well possible. Honestly, you know...

GRACE: How would you get to Jennifer`s car? Did the person have to go over a gate? How would he have done it?

DREW KESSE: Well, to -- well, to take Jennifer`s car out of where she was, you`d just have to go through a gate that opens up. Where the car was left, there`s no gate. You simply drive in, you park, and you leave.

GRACE: And to Ms. Kesse. He says you got to go through a gate that opens up to get to her car. But if Jennifer was in the car and had driven out of that gate or -- could the person be there around her car when she got in, Ms. Kesse?

JOYCE KESSE: You know, we have run so many scenarios, Nancy, through our heads, and that is actually one that we have tossed around. Could they have been crouching behind the back of her car? You know, we just don`t know.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. RICHARD RING, ORLANDO POLICE DEPARTMENT: Right now, we are not trying to say that the person of interest is anybody more than may have been in that area of the complex when that vehicle was dropped off. That person of interest may have seen somebody get out of Ms. Kesse`s car at the time that this occurred. And that person of interest, we need to talk to them.

We treated Ms. Kesse`s vehicle as it was a crime scene. It is the one link that we have or the last link that we have between Ms. Kesse -- and we believe that she was in or near that vehicle during the time of her abduction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back. Tonight, what can we glean from the facts that we have? Police are slowly revealing information about Jennifer Kesse`s disappearance. Her parents believe she was at her condo that morning preparing to go for work.

I`ve asked her mom. She told me the clothes laid out on the bed were work clothes. Now this picture shows up right around the spot her car was abandoned, around the same time. Look at this person of interest, between 5`3" and 5`5". Take a look at the clothing.

We also know tonight that someone else was driving Jennifer`s car at the time she went missing. A $115,000 reward on the table tonight.

With what we know, Don Clark -- you`re a former head of the FBI Houston bureau -- what`s the scenario? What went down?

DON CLARK: Nancy, this is a really, really difficult case. And all of those different things that we`ve heard about -- and her mother said it best a few moments ago -- is that what has to be done now is to analyze all of these different situations and see which one may take you to a possible good lead to really find out what took place.

The bottom line is: We really don`t know what took place that night. I mean, you can shoot holes in every one of these theories because there are some plusses and minuses with them, but you`ve got to keep looking back at that evidence scene and that crime scene.

You mentioned it, the car. That`s your best crime scene, and work their way outward from that car to neighborhoods, to people, re-interviews, re-interviewing close people, and really discerning if there are any other possibilities here. That`s what`s got to be done, Nancy.

GRACE: You know, Drew Kesse, Jennifer`s father, it`s all in the physical evidence right now. It is in front of us, if we could just see it.

Drew Kesse, fingerprints. I believe fingerprints have been lifted, have they?

DREW KESSE: Personally, I believe so. I mean, the car has evidence. We know the car has evidence.

GRACE: Why do you say that?

DREW KESSE: We`ve been told that there`s additional evidence out of the car. It takes time, and there`s different tests that take anywhere from two weeks to two months.

GRACE: To process?

DREW KESSE: For results to come back.

GRACE: And, Joyce Kesse, Jennifer`s mom, you`re convinced that this occurred that morning, not the night before. Why?

JOYCE KESSE: Mother`s intuition. But, again, you know, 10:00 at night Monday night was the last time that anybody spoke with her. You know, it could have been any time after 10:00 at night. My...

GRACE: Well, what did you find when you went in her condo?

JOYCE KESSE: Well, my gut tells me she got ready to go to work.

GRACE: What type of -- was her bed made up?

JOYCE KESSE: It was partially made. She had a couple of outfits, like she couldn`t decide what to wear. Her makeup was on the counter. The curling iron, the hair dryer, you know...

GRACE: And you`re telling me the outfits were work clothes?

JOYCE KESSE: Exactly.

GRACE: And the bed was partially made up. What do you mean by that?

JOYCE KESSE: You know, sloppily made.

GRACE: OK, so why would it have been the night before? If someone had abducted her the night before, the clothes, why would she go to sleep with clothes all over the bed?

DREW KESSE: Deduct what you need to.

GRACE: Say what?

DREW KESSE: Deduct out of it what you need to.

GRACE: Yes, I mean, I`m just trying to figure out the time line here. And another question. In the morning -- she had a long-distance relationship with the boyfriend. Did she call the boyfriend in the morning?

DREW KESSE: No, and that was...

JOYCE KESSE: Atypical. She normally always spoke with him in the morning.

GRACE: OK, see, that`s a clue right there.

JOYCE KESSE: Right.

GRACE: So what time would they talk, before she went to work?

JOYCE KESSE: Or actually during her commute to work. And...

DREW KESSE: Right around 8:00 a.m.

JOYCE KESSE: Right around 8:00, you know, 7:30, 8:15 was normally the time she left to go to work.

GRACE: And let me ask you this. To Ed Miller, with "America`s Most Wanted," with a PIN register, for instance, can`t police tell the last time a phone call was made out of a residence?

MILLER: Yes, absolutely. And I`m really glad you brought that up about that phone call in the morning, that she normally would have called her boyfriend, because that, as you pointed out, is a very, very important clue. That probably pinpoints a time element here because she did not make that phone call. Normally, I`m sure you`d do the same thing.

GRACE: I do.

MILLER: When you`re in the car, you`re sitting on the phone talking to loved ones, you`re passing the time that way. The fact that that didn`t happen pinpoints a problem time.

GRACE: It certainly does. See, if you look at the evidence you`ve got, you can glean so much. We are not giving up on the Jennifer Kesse investigation. Jennifer Kesse, take a look, $115,000 reward, 800-423-TIPS. It is a confidential tip-line.

And also, Elizabeth, again show that POI, person of interest. This person was right there on the scene when Jennifer`s car went missing. That`s where this photo is from, the apartment complex over about a mile from her condo.

This person could have been a lookout. They could have been looking through the area. They could have been walking away from the car. You name it. The scenarios are endless.

Help us find Jennifer Kesse.

To the Kesse family, thank you.

We are shifting gears to an incredible interview out of Florida. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL PULCINI, DAUGHTER HIRED HIT MAN TO KILL HIM: All I have left is my family. I don`t have any money left; I don`t have any pride.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Michael Pulcini begs the judge for leniency. Michael is the victim here.

M. PULCINI: I do believe my daughter regrets it with all her heart.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His daughter, Ashlee Pulcini, is the convicted criminal, charged with plotting to kill her own father.

ASHLEE PULCINI, PAID HIT MAN TO HAVE HER DAD KILLED: I know what I did was wrong. Not that it makes it right, but I tried as hard as I could to fix it. And I will live with what I have done for the rest of my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Joining us tonight together, father and daughter, along with the mother. The Pulcini family is speaking out and answering some tough questions.

Let`s go straight to Ashlee Pulcini, 16 years old when she paid a friend to pull the trigger and kill her own father. Ashlee, do you realize how much time you could have done in the penitentiary for this?

A. PULCINI: Yes, I do.

GRACE: What was the possible sentence?

A. PULCINI: Up to 30 years.

GRACE: Thirty years behind bars. Ashlee, why, is my first question? Why? Why would you want to kill your own father?

A. PULCINI: At the time, I was just very angry. I was pregnant. I was pressured.

GRACE: Well, a lot of people are angry, they`re pregnant, and they`re pressured, a lot of single moms out there. But why kill your dad? I`m not getting the connection.

A. PULCINI: I was angry with him for everything that was going on.

GRACE: What was going on?

A. PULCINI: I was pressured into doing it. He had put a restraining order on my then-boyfriend, and I couldn`t see him, and I was pregnant by him.

GRACE: OK. Wait a minute. You were pressured to hire a hit man? By whom?

A. PULCINI: By the hit man.

GRACE: And the hit man was?

A. PULCINI: Derek Loring.

GRACE: Now, I don`t know. If somebody came up to me and said, "Hey, I`ll kill your dad for $200," they`d get a mouthful of this, all knuckle, no mayo, pronto, 911, step 2.

So how could you be pressured into arranging a hit? It`s not like out of anger you pull the trigger when you`re mad and you go, "Oh, my god. What have I done? God, forgive me." This was a plot, a thought-out plot to kill a parent.

A. PULCINI: At the time, it was my sister`s boyfriend. And he was the one who came up with the idea. He basically talked me into doing it. It was a 10-minute decision.

GRACE: A 10-minute decision.

To Michael Pulcini -- this is Ashlee`s father -- explain to me, sir -- first of all, thank god you`re with us live tonight, OK? Tell me your rationale to going to the judge yourself and pleading for mercy.

M. PULCINI: Well, my rationale, Nancy, was the fact that Ashlee did do what she did. However, she did that night, the night that the gun was taken from my home, did everything she could do to get that firearm back.

She started that night with phone calls, the next day driving to his home, which all came out in the depositions from his own mother and his brother. So that`s the reason why, because I feel my daughter -- she`s admitted to taking responsibility for what had happened that night; however, she did everything she could do to correct it.

The reason we agreed to come on your show is to try to get other families, other teenagers, not to get involved with something like this. Because, like my daughter just told you, a 10-minute bad decision in your life could ruin the rest of your life. That`s why we`re here tonight.

GRACE: Well, it`s interesting, and I`m glad you`re speaking out. We just covered a double-homicide, a 16-year-old girl, same age as your daughter, killed both parents when they tried to keep her from seeing her boyfriend, Sarah Johnson. And she has gotten life behind bars.

Now, sir, question. You said when the gun was taken from your home. Who took the gun from your home?

M. PULCINI: Derek Loring took it.

GRACE: I`m sorry, what?

M. PULCINI: Derek Loring took my firearm.

GRACE: And how did he get into the home?

M. PULCINI: He was a regular here. We`ve known him -- you know, Nancy, everyone refers to him as a hit man. We`ve known him since he was in first grade. And to refer to him as a hit man, I don`t know. It`s a little strong. However, my daughter has admitted she gave him that firearm.

GRACE: She gave it to him? So it didn`t just disappear. She gave him the gun?

M. PULCINI: No, it did not disappear. She did hand it to him. However, in the depositions that have come out, he didn`t even make it home and she was trying to do everything she could do to get that gun back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIZ PULCINI, DAUGHTER PAID TO HAVE HER HUSBAND KILLED: My biggest fear is her going to Rockwell (ph). She`s like a little guppy, and they`re like piranhas. They`re older women, and I just really fear for her safety being put in a general population like that.

A. PULCINI: The night that I gave him the gun kind of hit me, and I called him back right away and told him to bring it back, but he wouldn`t. And I kept calling him every day, and trying to get a hold of him, and going to his house, but he kept saying, "No, I`ll bring it back. I`ll bring it back." And then eventually he stopped answering my phone calls and wouldn`t talk to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: She planned to murder her father. He has saved her from the penitentiary. Tonight, they are with us live, along with the mom.

To Ashlee Pulcini, you`re currently on house arrest, is my understanding, while you`re finishing a term of school. But I want to go back to the night in question. You told me that someone else pressured you into this, but you went and got the gun from wherever it was kept in your parents` home and handed it over to this guy. What were you thinking at the time?

M. PULCINI: Nancy, you know, I don`t mean to interrupt you, but I think she`s already answered that question. And you know, we`d kind of like to get past that.

GRACE: OK then, what was she thinking? No, I never got -- when I, walking through a house to get a gun, that belongs to my father, so I can have him murdered...

M. PULCINI: That`s correct.

GRACE: ... what goes through your mind?

M. PULCINI: That`s correct. That is correct. And when he had left, she has done everything she could possibly do to get it back.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Right. But that`s not what I asked! I`m asking: What was she thinking when she went and got the gun? And I`m asking it to Ashlee Pulcini.

M. PULCINI: I hear you. I want to get past that.

GRACE: Ashlee, what were you thinking?

A. PULCINI: I was just very angry, confused. I was pregnant. I didn`t really know what to do. He had talked me into it and asked me to get it, so I did.

GRACE: To Liz Pulcini -- this is Ashlee`s mom -- what has this been like for you, Mrs. Pulcini?

L. PULCINI: This has been very, very hard. It was a hard two years to go through wondering what`s going to happen to your daughter and your whole family. I`m just glad we`re still all together.

Ashlee and my husband have an excellent relationship now. I just want to say that society, this day and age, both parents usually have to work to make ends meet. It`s not like when we grew up when your mother stayed home and your father went to work...

GRACE: My mother didn`t stay home. Both my parents went to work.

L. PULCINI: Well, mine did. My husband`s parents did...

GRACE: Well, you`re lucky.

L. PULCINI: ... everybody in our neighborhood did.

GRACE: But how does that factor into this, working moms?

L. PULCINI: Well, I believe that parents who work all day, they come home, they pick up their kids from school, they make dinner, they`re tired by the end of the night.

So I think sometimes that I don`t think they really listen to their children or they really hear the underlying issues when -- so maybe they don`t even talk to them. But I think that`s a major concern for my husband and myself is trying to get a message out there that, yes, even though we all have to work, we have to be better communicators with our family and our children, especially the children.

GRACE: To Steph Watts, the prosecution in this case wanted hard jail time. Why?

STEPH WATTS, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, they took this case very, very seriously. She could have gone to jail for 30 years. They wanted four years for her, but they left it up to Mr. Pulcini to make his case to the judge, which he did.

And the judge gave her two years of house arrest, 120 days, 30 of which she already served, and four years of probation. But people need to understand, if she breaks one rule of house arrest, one rule, she`s going to jail for 30 years. And I was...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: And who exactly will report her if she broke the house arrest rules, her mom and dad?

(CROSSTALK)

WATTS: No, the probation officer comes by all the time. I was actually here interviewing a family last night, as she did a surprise visit. She came in. She questioned who I was. She questioned the family. She`s very stern, very strict. She can come by in the middle of the night, which they say she does. She checks in Ashlee`s bedroom window.

GRACE: Well, Steph, you`re a veteran in the justice system. So let me just say: There`s a reason the season for attempted murder is 30 years.

Very quickly to tonight`s "All-Points Bulletin." FBI, law enforcement across the country on the lookout for Dwight Preston Steele, wanted for failure to register as a sex offender, West Virginia. He`s 49, 6`1", 170 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes.

If you have info on Dwight Steele, call West Virginia police, 304-425- 2101.

Local news next for some of you, but we`ll all be right back. And, remember, live coverage of the sentencing of the young man, Cody Posey, the New Mexico teen convicted of shooting three members of his family, 3:00 to 5:00 Eastern, Court TV.

And tonight, on a happy note, a happy birthday wish to some twins, Jane and Jean (ph) at the Rome, Georgia, library. Happy birthday, girls.

Everyone, please stay with us as we stop tonight to remember Marine Private First Class Jason T. Poindexter, 20 years old from San Angelo, Texas. Poindexter died in Iraq`s al-Anbar province. His mom recalls he was smiling, even when he was born. Poindexter, the boy with the smile, grew up to become a man with a heart, a brave heart, an American hero.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

A. PULCINI: ... he had put a restraining order on my boyfriend. We weren`t allowed to see each other. And after he put the restraining order on, I found out I was pregnant.

And we kept seeing each other. I couldn`t tell my parents I was pregnant; I thought they`d kick me out, so I was going to wait. My sister`s boyfriend at the time knew everything that was going on, and I talked with him, and he didn`t really didn`t like my dad, either. So he eventually came up with the idea and kept talking me into it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back. Tonight, a father stopped a judge from giving his daughter hard jail time after she plotted to kill him.

Out to Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst. Denial, it ain`t just a river in Egypt. I mean, she tries to kill him. Now they`re all living together under one roof, and everything`s fine. Whoa!

MARSHALL: It`s loud and shocking. You know, kids kill for one of three reasons. Either they`re being abused in the home. That`s the largest category. They`re mentally ill, or they`re what we call dangerously anti-social. They lack a conscience, remorse. They lack regard for the rules of society.

And when she says, "He didn`t like my dad, either," like she still doesn`t like him, or when she says, "I couldn`t tell them I was pregnant or they might kick me out," she`s really talking about concern for self and for not others. And she seems so calm. She`s not anxious and flustered about being in front of the camera.

And really someone like this, who seems to really not be afraid to commit a wrongdoing, a severe one like this, needs to be in a treatment community where she`s forced to follow rules, to have empathy and remorse, and really listen to other people. I don`t think that`s what`s going to happen in the home, because the father doesn`t really want to think she`s done anything wrong.

GRACE: And what about that, Mr. Pulcini? How do you respond to this?

M. PULCINI: I respond to that...

GRACE: Bethany is a veteran psychoanalyst.

M. PULCINI: I respond to that she has no idea what she`s talking about. We just lost two years of our lives, all right? I never had the relationship that I thought I had with my daughter; however, we have it now.

And my daughter has agreed to come on the show with me so we can get a message out there to parents and other teenagers, and try to help even just one family not go through what we`ve been through.

GRACE: Well, Mr. Pulcini...

M. PULCINI: We just spent two years crying.

GRACE: Mr. Pulcini, I hope...

M. PULCINI: You know, you get to the point, after two years...

GRACE: ... that you are heard. I hope that you two are heard tonight. I want to thank the Pulcini family.

Our biggest thank you is to you for being with us, inviting us and this story into your homes. I`m Nancy Grace signing off for tonight. See you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END