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Nancy Grace

Kidnapped Alabama Attorney Found in a Motel Room; Murder of Clemson Student Still Unsolved

Aired May 31, 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, breaking news. Just hours ago, broad daylight, a 34-year-old lady lawyer kidnapped by an armed abductor, Birmingham, Alabama, forced to drive off with him. Tonight, Sandra Gregory found alive. Repeat, she is alive. He is in Christian. Tonight, After an all-out search for attorney Sandra Gregory, we are live in Alabama.
And tonight, live to South Carolina. Breaking news in the Clemson University murder co-ed mystery, police tonight releasing an incident report in the brutal strangling of 20-year-old engineering student, Tiffany Souers, Souers found dead in her off-campus apartments. Murder weapon? Her bikini top, still around her neck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great girl, brilliant, very smart, very pretty, very wonderful person to be around, a lot of fun. She was out and dropped off, and that`s the last pretty much anyone heard or known.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. Tonight, late-breaking details in the bikini murder mystery. Police release the incident report outlining facts around the death of a 20-year-old Clemson engineering student, strangled to death in her own apartment.

But first tonight, breaking news. Live to Birmingham, Alabama. A gunman forces a 34-year-old lady lawyer into a car. Tonight, the all- points bulletin for Sandra Gregory ends, Gregory just found bound and covered with a sheet in a local motel. Tonight, we are taking your calls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a great, great effort, great cooperation, tremendous work on the part of the Birmingham Police Department and all the other agencies that are involved. The FBI -- many federal agencies were represented here. So it came to a very successful conclusion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Let`s go straight out for the latest to Paul Finebaum, talk show host for WERC radio. Welcome. Tell us the latest.

PAUL FINEBAUM, TALK SHOW HOST, WERC RADIO: Well, the latest is great news. And Nancy, I like to think about a year and one day after another very pretty blonde from Birmingham, Alabama, was abducted. This one, unlike Natalee Holloway, had a very happy ending about an hour-and-a-half ago. She was found in Homeland (ph), just right outside of Birmingham, at a Comfort Inn.

The police have the suspect in custody. She is unharmed, amazingly, after being with this individual, or perhaps more than that, for nine hours. But all ends well, that is well, and we`re all delighted here, as I`m sure you are.

GRACE: Tell us, Paul, how did the events unfold?

FINEBAUM: Well, she was -- apparently had dropped her daughter off at day care early this morning. She walked out. She was heading to Destin, Florida, of all things, to go to a seminar for divorce lawyers. And someone -- apparently, the assailant, a black man, grabbed her as she was walking to her Lexus SUV. As the story happened from there, he took her to three different ATM machines, where she withdrew money, and finally...

GRACE: Hold on. Hold on! Hold on, Paul. We are showing -- with us, Paul Finebaum with WERC. We`re showing you right now the video as it unfolds. There you see the Lexus, I believe it`s an SUV. Waiting for the action. There you see. Look very carefully over at the left. These events unfolded, as Paul Finebaum just told us, about nine hours ago. You will see the perpetrator come up on one side of the Lexus. He is armed. She is unarmed. This lady lawyer headed to Destin, Florida, to teach a seminar on divorce law, and in this open parking lot is ultimately accosted by the perpetrator.

Go ahead, Paul.

FINEBAUM: Well, that`s what happened. And apparently, he took her to three different ATM machines, where she withdrew money. They dumped the car. It was a Lexus SUV 300, as you mentioned, Nancy. They dumped it in a project, a housing project, in Birmingham called Cooper Green (ph). And from there, we`re still not sure how they got to this motel. It`s about three miles away from where the car was deposited. That is still a mystery.

Police naturally have been very tight-lipped, so we really don`t know a whole lot, unfortunately, but we do know that she`s well, and that`s really all that matters.

GRACE: OK, here we go. Here`s the video. There`s the perpetrator coming around, comes up to her as she`s coming from another direction, has a gun. There you see him putting her into the vehicle. Let`s take a look at this. And that is the last we see of this lady lawyer, until we get word she has gone to three ATMs.

Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a great, great effort, great cooperation, tremendous work on the part of the Birmingham Police Department and all the other agencies that were involved. The FBI, many federal agencies are represented here. So it came to a very successful conclusion.

It went down very quickly. It went down very quickly. Information was developed quickly. And once it was developed, the officers here acted on it.

Members of the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, operated by the Marshals Service, made entry into the room and arrested the suspect and freed the victim.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Right now, joining us a very special guest, going by her first name, Valerie. She is the hotel manager. Welcome, ma`am. Thank you for being with us.

VALERIE, COMFORT INN MANAGER: Hello. How`re you doing, Nancy?

GRACE: Well, I`m happy to talk to you in the flesh because if this guy had a gun when all this went down -- I tell you what, you tell me what happened.

VALERIE: OK. Around 1:50, I checked a gentleman in. And then about 5:15, a detective came in, showing us a picture of a young lady who was missing. And in the process of us, you know, taking a look at the picture, you know, trying to figure out have we seen her or not, I looked on our surveillance cameras of the hotel, and I seen the police just surrounding the place. You know, they were everywhere.

And then, as we were looking, trying to find out -- you know, figure out what was going on, another police officer ran in, called out a room number and asked me for all the information that I had on it. And once I provided him with that information, about three -- two to three minutes later, that`s when they came and said that they have, you know, the suspect and that the young lady was OK.

GRACE: Valerie, I`ve been in Birmingham many, many times at your fine University of Alabama Hospital Hartwing (ph). Tell me exactly, where is your motel in relation to where she was taken?

VALERIE: OK. We are located in Homewood. She was taken, let`s see, I`d say about three miles, three miles from where we were.

GRACE: With us, a very special guest, the manager there at the Comfort Inn. Valerie, who came in? Who checked who in?

VALERIE: I checked them in.

GRACE: Were they together?

VALERIE: Ma`am?

GRACE: Were they together?

VALERIE: No. No, they were not together. He walked in -- the way our hotel is made, is, like, you can park at, like, the side of the building and just walk up, and we can`t see that, you know, if you`re in a vehicle or not. And he walked in alone. He came in, he asked for a room. I checked him in, took a copy of his driver`s license or his ID, or whichever one it may have been. And then I gave him the room key and he left.

GRACE: Did he -- and I don`t want to say his name yet because we want to make sure we`ve confirmed that. But did he use his real name that was on his ID?

VALERIE: Yes.

GRACE: And question: What was his demeanor, Valerie? Did he seem nervous? Was he sweaty? What?

VALERIE: He -- he wasn`t -- well, when I thought back on it -- when they came and told me the room number, I thought back to when I checked him in, and he did seem a little, you know, fidgety, like, but nothing out of the ordinary that alarmed me.

GRACE: When you say he was fidgety, what was he doing?

VALERIE: Like, putting his hands in and out of his pocket, and you know, he was kind of turning around, looking around. But it wasn`t, you know, like I say out of the ordinary because we have locals come in all the time that -- you know, that do things like that.

GRACE: That act pretty fidgety.

(LAUGHTER)

VALERIE: Yes. Exactly.

GRACE: Did he use credit card or cash?

VALERIE: He used cash.

GRACE: How much is it to stay there overnight?

VALERIE: Well, he had, like, a coupon rate of, like, $59.

GRACE: He had a coupon?

VALERIE: uh-huh.

GRACE: The man had a coupon!

VALERIE: He had a coupon. And I didn`t have any coupon rooms available, so I gave him the next up from the coupon rate.

GRACE: Where did the coupon come from? Was it in the paper, a flyer, what? The kidnapper had a coupon! I can`t believe it!

(LAUGHTER)

VALERIE: You can get it from, like, any McDonald`s or anything like that. It`s one of those traveler discount books.

GRACE: Holy moly! OK, so the guy comes in, pays cash, has a coupon. So how much cash did it cost him?

VALERIE: With tax and all, it was $70.15.

GRACE: So he had 70 bucks cash. You saw his ID. You knew it to be him. Seemed a little fidgety, turned around and walked off. No luggage, I assume.

VALERIE: No.

GRACE: Did he ask for any kind of special room, like one looking at the parking lot or one looking at the pool or anything like that?

VALERIE: No. No. He just asked for a room.

GRACE: Now, how much later did the police arrive?

VALERIE: They arrived about 5:15. That`s when the detective arrived.

GRACE: How much later was that than when he checked in?

VALERIE: That was about, what, three, four hours later because he checked in at, like, 1:50.

GRACE: And so you did not see the woman at all.

VALERIE: No, I didn`t see her at all.

GRACE: Did they have to drive by you to get to the hotel room?

VALERIE: No, they don`t. We have two different entrances that you can come in. You don`t even have to drive up to the front desk or anything like that.

GRACE: I wonder how he got this lady to stay in the car while he went in and checked in.

VALERIE: That`s what I was trying to figure out also, Nancy.

GRACE: I mean, for all we know, he could have threatened some kind of rampage.

Liz, who`s our first caller?

VALERIE: I`m sorry?

GRACE: OK, Valerie, don`t move. I think the callers are going to have questions for you. Let`s go to Norma in Tennessee. Hi, Norma.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I love you. Could it have been somebody...

GRACE: Thank you for watching.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could it have been somebody that she had in court before?

GRACE: Good question. Very good question. That was my first question, as a matter of fact. Let`s go out to Lisa Borden, also a veteran trial lawyer there in the Birmingham, Alabama, jurisdiction. Did you know this lady, Lisa?

LISA BORDEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No, Nancy. She`s somebody who does almost exclusively domestic work -- divorces, child custody cases. And the caller`s absolutely right. This is the kind of thing that those people live in fear of constantly.

GRACE: They really do, Lisa.

In fact, to Richard Herman, defense attorney. Everybody, Lisa Borden there on the scene in Birmingham, Alabama. One of my best friends is a defense lawyer and she -- believe it or not.

RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Can`t believe it.

GRACE: Yes, I know. But she says she would rather represent a doper than a divorce case because the people getting a divorce are fighting over child custody -- will shoot you. They will shoot the lawyer in the parking lot. Why is it, as Lisa Borden just said, does domestic law and family cases cause so much anger and stir up so much emotion?

HERMAN: Well, Nancy, there are visitation issues here. There are child support issues. There are alimony issues. And there`s just hatred between the parties. It just breeds this type of atmosphere. And they`ve had many problems in the past in this area, in family courts throughout the country. Very, very dangerous.

GRACE: To Leslie Snadowsky, investigative reporter. Do we have any indication that this was one of her clients at any point? And this is no hack lawyer cruising the courthouse halls for appointed cases. She was actually on her way to go teach a seminar on divorce law, Leslie.

LESLIE SNADOWSKY, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, at this point, we don`t know if he was a former client. But you know, there are several things about this that made it seem like he could have been, and then some things that maybe he wasn`t. As you know, they went on this joyride. They went to three ATMs, three different Am South banks. He withdrew money...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: ... call it a joyride. It sounds like an extended armed robbery to me.

SNADOWSKY: Well, it was his joyride, not hers. And then again, if he was a client, he knew where she lived because he abducted her right in front of her home, just a couple blocks from her law practice. So I think it can go either way. At this point, authorities aren`t saying who this guy is or if, indeed...

GRACE: OK, wait a minute...

(CROSSTALK)

SNADOWSKY: ... relationship.

GRACE: Question to Paul Finebaum with WERC radio. Paul, I know she had a, if not several law partners. Do they all do family law, or were there other partners in the practice that did criminal defense, like dopers and killers and so forth?

FINEBAUM: Dopers would be the guy who checked into the Comfort Inn with a coupon. Nancy, I think she did primarily family law. She used to work at the Legal Aid Society of Alabama. That downsized a couple years ago, and she went into this practice, I think with one attorney.

I want to correct something I may have misstated. She was going to a seminar in Destin. I don`t think, and I could be wrong, that she was going to teach the course. But clearly, she was going to a seminar on divorce law.

GRACE: What, Eric (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, that was our understanding, that she was headed to this seminar...

GRACE: OK, we have...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... she may have been teaching...

GRACE: ... a conflicting report, Paul. We`ve been told she was actually teaching a seminar called "Divorce on the Beach." I`m not even going to go there!

Let`s go the caller. Michael in Michigan. Hi, Michael.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.

GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just wondering if this assailant had a previous record.

GRACE: Well, we have his name right now. We`re trying to confirm the name before we go public with it. We don`t know if he has a rap sheet yet.

But I`m willing to guess, psychotherapist Lauren Howard, not to impugn the reputation of this kind gentleman, that he`s got a rap sheet as long as the interstate because, Lauren Howard, you don`t just wake up one morning, pick up a coupon at the McDonald`s for the Comfort Inn and go, Hey, I think I`ll kidnap at gunpoint a lady lawyer, bind her head, toe and foot, cover her with her a sheet and keep her there for a while. No, he`s graduated from something else to this.

LAUREN HOWARD, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Well, that`s the question. I mean, this does look pretty premeditated just because he -- the sort of -- the whole accostation occurred in a kind of managed way. However, if it was really premeditated, why were there witnesses who actually identified him and saw him? Forget about the surveillance cameras...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: ... no premeditation?

HOWARD: Well, you know, it`s very easy to say that he`s someone who knew her through her work because, let`s face it, nothing`s uglier than divorce, and you want to talk about a crime of passion and what that entails. But taking her to ATMs, if the guy was thinking, he would know that he would be traced...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: That`s the fallacy in your reasoning. If he were thinking, he`d go get a regular job, like the rest of us, and not try to make money...

HERMAN: Oh, Nancy...

GRACE: ... with other people`s ATMs!

HOWARD: ... that`s not true. That is not true. Not everyone is capable of being highly functioning. I mean, we`re not saying the guy`s not maladaptive. That`s clear. That there`s no question about.

GRACE: Quick break, everyone. We are taking your calls. But let`s go to tonight`s "Case Alert." People of Nebraska, keep fighting! Protesters march on a city courthouse, demanding justice, demanding that Judge Kristine Cecava resign for sentencing a sex offender to straight probation. And he`s got to wear a little anklet. The judge says the convicted perv, Richard Thompson, is, quote, "too short for prison," Thompson convicted of a repeat molestation of a 12-year-old little girl. The judge says she`s concerned for his safety. Angry citizens put hundreds of signatures on petitions calling for this judge, Judge Kristine Cecava, to get a new job.

People, keep fighting!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Developing news in the case of a lady lawyer kidnapped as she walked to her car in Birmingham, Alabama. We are taking your calls and your questions.

Joining us now, a special guest, a dear friend, a former colleague of the victim, Martha Jane Patton. Miss Patton, thank you for being with us.

MARTHA JANE PATTON, FORMER COLLEAGUE OF SANDRA GREGORY: Glad to be here, and very happy for Sandy.

GRACE: We are all happy. As you know by now, Sandra Eubank Gregory, age 34, Birmingham family law attorney, has been found alive, bound wrist, foot, covered with a sheet in a local motel, her armed kidnapper there now in custody.

Martha Jane Patton with us. I understand you have spoken with those around her. How is she?

PATTON: Well, I have spoken with some people who were with her as she was brought to the emergency room, and they told me that she was OK. I haven`t seen her or spoken with her myself.

GRACE: Right. We understand that. Is there any suggestion that this assailant was one of her or her partner`s clients?

PATTON: You know, I guess further investigation will answer that question. When I heard about all the circumstances through the news media here in Birmingham, I did not think that it was anyone who knew her. It sounded to me as if it was a crime of opportunity, that there was a person who saw her, saw perhaps that she was well dressed and in a nice car, and thought perhaps they could get some money.

GRACE: What type of clients does she have? Are they all family law, divorce/custody disputes, Martha?

PATTON: As I understand, she does a combination of domestic relations and family law cases. In Birmingham, those two activities take place in different venues. There`s a separate family courthouse, where our work with Legal Aid occurs, and then there`s a domestic relation division of...

GRACE: Right. Now, I understand -- I just heard you say "our work." Do you practice law with her?

PATTON: I don`t at this time, but it sort of feels that we still do. We have a group of 13 lawyers here at Legal Aid who practice at the family court, and Sandy was one of those until she left to go to -- into private practice. But she still is handling many of the same types of cases...

GRACE: Right.

PATTON: ... so it`s as if she did not leave.

GRACE: With us, Martha Jane Patton, a friend and former colleague of Sandra Eubank Gregory, as we know, by now, just rescued, her kidnapper in custody.

We`ll all be right back, but as we go to break, let`s go to tonight`s "Case Alert." News in the recovery of CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier, critically injured in a Memorial Day bombing, Iraq. At the U.S. military hospital, Germany, Dozier in critical but stable condition, still on the ventilator, the CBS News veteran under heavy sedation, responding to her boyfriend, and she apparently knows her family is by her side. Our thoughts and prayers to Dozier and to the family and friends of CBS cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan, both killed in Iraq in their effort to send the news home to us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel (INAUDIBLE) no, there`s not a case that she`s working on that somebody would do this to her. There is not a case that comes to my mind because she`s not that type of attorney that gets these people upset. And second of all, she didn`t represent those type of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back. As you know by now, Sandra Eubank Gregory has been found alive, her kidnapper, the man who took this lady lawyer in broad daylight at gunpoint, behind bars.

Let`s go to Pat Brown, criminal profiler. This guy comes up to a lawyer in broad daylight with a gun. What does the MO tell you?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, I don`t think it`s just about money, Nancy, because he could have gone after somebody at dark. He did this in broad daylight. He really wanted her, it seems. And after he got her, he could have just gotten money and gotten rid of her, but no, what did he do? He spends the whole day with her, and then he spends money on her at the motel...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: I don`t know that that`s actually spending money on her.

BROWN: Well...

GRACE: I mean, he -- I mean, the guy apparently used her money that he stole out of an ATM...

BROWN: Exactly.

GRACE: ... with a coupon, Pat!

BROWN: Correct, but he could have kept that for himself.

GRACE: That`s a really good time!

BROWN: He could have kept that for himself and...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Knows how to treat a lady!

BROWN: That is true, but he`s -- I think he wanted to be with her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did find a weapon in her room, and there was not much resistance. The victim was conscious and upset, obviously, when she left the scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: As you know by now, lady lawyer 34-year-old Sandra Eubank Gregory has been found alive, although it was being found bound, hand and foot, her face, her body covered with a motel sheet, her armed kidnapper there in the motel with her.

Take a look at this video. This is what tipped off an investigation, a massive manhunt that has lasted all day long. You see the SUV pull up. Now, this is raw footage. And shortly you`re going to see her come into the picture.

She was on her way to teach a seminar on divorce. Here comes the perp. Nothing like getting it on video. He comes up to the side of the car. He has a gun. You can make that out in the video, ends up forcing her back into the car. There you go, a little stall there. She tries to get away, sees the gun. It`s a done deal.

People, don`t ever get into a car if you can help it. Lay down on the asphalt, whatever you`ve got to do. He comes back around. He`s in the car. There they go for a joy ride.

Some guests have called it -- I call it a protracted armed robbery at gunpoint. And, shockingly, criminal profiler Pat Brown says -- and let`s show Pat Brown, who is kind enough to be our guest tonight, Elizabeth -- says she thinks the perpetrator just wanted to be with -- to be with -- Sandra Gregory.

Whatever happened to flowers and candy? Why approach her in a parking lot with a .38-caliber, Saturday night special, and force her into the car, then bind her, hand and foot, in the Motel 8? Pat, that was a question.

BROWN: Oh, that was to me? OK, well, I`ll tell you why: Because he`s not your normal guy. I`m talking about more of a stalker-type fellow. I mean, he let her make a phone call while he was in -- while they were in the room, or wherever they were. So he had some kind of feeling for her, which is different than just somebody who`s robbing her.

GRACE: He let her what? He let her what?

BROWN: She made a phone call.

GRACE: OK.

BROWN: Remember, there was that phone call?

GRACE: Yes.

BROWN: I think he has -- there`s a multitude of motives here, but the simple fact that he is spending all this time with her and, instead of just dumping her someplace and grabbing her money, I think he is more of a stalker type and perhaps a rapist type who wanted to get her into his control.

GRACE: You think he`s a stalker? OK. Should you believe me or your lying eyes? I don`t know. Take a look at this video and you`ll see him kidnapping her at gunpoint. And there`s no thinking to it, Pat Brown.

BROWN: Yes, he kidnapped her, because he`s a stalker and he wanted to grab her. That`s a rapist-stalker. That`s what they do; they kidnap people.

GRACE: Let`s go to Crystal in Texas. Hi, Crystal.

CALLER: Hi.

GRACE: What`s your question, dear?

CALLER: My question is, was the motel aware of the abduction before he had got there?

GRACE: That`s a really good question. And we had with us Valerie, the manager at the Comfort Inn. I don`t know if they knew for sure or not. I think they had been watching TV, but his face was not evident. Everyone was putting her face out there, which you are seeing right now.

But, as a matter of fact, police came in and got the vital information from Valerie and immediately made the arrest.

Let`s go to Katrina in California. Hi, Katrina.

CALLER: Hi, Nancy. I just love your show.

GRACE: Thank you.

CALLER: I tell all my friends not to call me between 5:00 and 6:00 when you`re on.

GRACE: Thank you.

CALLER: My question is, Nancy, if the perpetrator had her in the car and he went in to get the room for Valerie...

GRACE: Why didn`t she jump out?

CALLER: I`m wondering, yes, why didn`t she take off?

GRACE: That`s exactly what we were talking about in the break. Let`s go to our shrink. Joining us tonight, psychotherapist Lauren Howard.

What about the possibility she was already bound in the car?

HOWARD: Well, I`m sure she was restrained, but there is also the issue of whether or not he was threatening her in a believable way.

He had a gun. She was obviously terrified by the gun. He saw a child seat in the back seat of the car. He could have said, "Your child will be hurt." There are all kinds of threats that occur under duress that could have scared her into complacency.

And, in fact, if you`re under gunpoint, you`re sort of better off, at that point, to try to sort of get along with your abductor, rather than anger him or make him trigger happy. So it`s very possible that he threatened her, that her hands were tied...

GRACE: You`re saying it`s better to cower?

HOWARD: And he said, "You better wait right there, if you move"...

GRACE: I`ll what?

HOWARD: "I will hurt your child."

GRACE: Use my super powers and spot you with my x-ray vision through the wall and shoot you?

HOWARD: No. He all of a sudden can sort of create an attitude of knowledge about her child. This is a very threatening situation. This is certainly not something this woman has ever encountered before.

She has never been in this situation before. There`s no practice. There`s no dress rehearsal for it, terrifying. Imagine how terrifying this was for her.

GRACE: You know, Lisa Borden, a veteran defense attorney, trial lawyer there in Birmingham, Lisa, are you familiar with where this Comfort Inn is, in relation to where she was taken?

BORDEN: Yes, Nancy. It`s an interstate Comfort Inn right off of the I-65 in Homewood, which is about three miles from downtown, where she was abducted. And, you know, I`m not surprised to hear that the man looked nervous checking in, and I`m not surprised to hear that Valerie was used to that, because this is the kind of motel where people check in and out all day long.

GRACE: All day long, renting by the hour.

Back to Lisa Borden, it`s also not a shocker to me that she didn`t get out of the car and run. We know he pushed her down into the backseat. For all we know, he could have already bound her and then gotten her up to the room.

Lisa Borden, explain to us what is Legal Aid?

BORDEN: Well, in Alabama, we don`t have public defenders as people in a lot of states understand that. And, also, there`s not a lot of resources for people who don`t have a lot of money to be able to hire attorneys to do things like divorce work, like family law kinds of cases...

GRACE: Right.

BORDEN: ... those kinds of things that everybody needs but a lot of people can`t afford to pay for them. So Legal Aid is an organization that provides either low-cost or sometimes no-cost representation for people who don`t have a lot of money.

GRACE: And the thing about Legal Aid, everyone, you get tons and tons of trial experience. So I would not be surprised, Richard Herman, if either this lady, Sandra Eubank Gregory, or somebody else in her practice may have come in contact with this guy.

Richard Herman, is there any doubt in your mind that this guy does or does not have a criminal record? Let`s just put it out there. You don`t graduate to armed robbery and kidnap at gunpoint on your first felony. Please.

HERMAN: Nancy, three ATM machines, the no-tell motel. I think this guy is a crack head. I think he`s got a huge history. But this case further illustrates what you and our friend, Marc Klaas, have been saying for the last year or so, Nancy: The first 24 hours in a missing child, missing persons case is critical. And look at the great result we had today. Great police work.

GRACE: And our hats off to all the law enforcement, did not only safely rescue Sandra Eubank Gregory, a local lady lawyer, but apprehended her perpetrator. She`s alive, and he`s behind bars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was a great, great effort, great cooperation, tremendous work on the part of the Birmingham Police Department and all of the other agencies that were involved. The FBI, many federal agencies were represented here, so it came to a very successful conclusion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have developed a timeline that accounts for Ms. Souers` location and whereabouts up and through 12:03 a.m. Friday morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a ligature strangulation with an article of clothing that has been defined as the top of a bikini. And the young lady was not wearing any panties.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has struck fear; it has struck sadness. People are shocked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: This Clemson engineering student, just 20 years old, found strangled to death in her own home. The murder weapon: her own swimsuit bikini top.

Welcome back, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. We are taking your calls, your questions and, most important, your tips tonight in the death of this young 20-year-old co-ed Tiffany Souers.

Straight to Lidia St. Mark with WHNS. Today, this incident report was released, three of eight pages. I`m guessing, Lidia, the other five pages are what is called a supplemental police report. What did we learn by the release of this police document?

LIDIA ST. MARK, REPORTER, WHNS: Well, they actually blacked out quite a bit of information on there, like the two girls that found her. They`re both also Clemson students. But what we did learn is that they are searching the dumpster by Tiffany`s apartment, as well as that she had $500 cash in her apartment that was not taken.

GRACE: Do we know, Lidia -- with us, Lidia St. Mark with WHNS -- do we know, Lidia, where the $500 bucks was? I mean, was it in a location where a perpetrator may not find it?

ST. MARK: Well, I mean, obviously, the investigators found it, you know, right away out in the open, because it was right there in the incident report. They found $500 cash. An incident report doesn`t say how her body was found. We actually found out that information from the coroner.

That`s basically it; there`s not that much information in it. A lot of it`s been blacked out.

GRACE: Right.

ST. MARK: And the solicitor on the case, he says that`s because -- you know, he doesn`t want to give out too much information out there that the suspect can eventually, you know, use against them in the long run.

GRACE: Duffy, can you take a look at this, so we can show our viewers? This is the incident report that we have gotten from South Carolina police. And I believe the $500 that Lidia St. Mark, a reporter with WHNS, is correctly referring to is the value of a computer there in the apartment. And we know that computer was, in fact, taken.

Back to Lidia. Tell me about -- whoa, Lidia -- Lidia, tell me about - - that`s quite a trick -- Lidia, tell me about the Dumpster. Where is the Dumpster in relation to her apartment?

ST. MARK: Well, the coroner, Dr. Mahanes, said that she was found in the living room on her back and, like your promo had said earlier, she was just wearing her bra, and then she had her bikini top wrapped around her neck. I believe that the desk is possibly in the living room, but I`m not sure. This is just all kind of secondhand, so...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: OK, the Dumpster. The Dumpster, where`s the Dumpster?

ST. MARK: The Dumpster, she actually lives in the back of an apartment complex. And because it`s summer session, it`s actually pretty dead back there, and I believe the Dumpster is in the back over there. And then behind that Dumpster, there`s kind of like a hill and it`s a big construction site they`re actually developing right now.

GRACE: Let`s go out to Leslie Snadowsky, investigative reporter, Leslie, both Lidia St. Mark, myself and my whole staff has been pouring over this incident report. We`ve learned a little bit. What are the latest developments, Leslie?

LESLIE SNADOWSKY, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, "NEW YORK POST": Well, still no suspect, no motives, but we did learn that there are some leads, and there`s definitely a list consisting of persons of interest. But, again, no named suspect.

The corner did Come out and say a little more about a possibility of a sexual assault. He actually said that, judging by what he found, that there was no possibility of a sexual assault, even though, as we discussed, she was found without her panties.

GRACE: Let`s go out to the lines. Joe in Florida, hi, Joe.

CALLER: Hey there, Nancy. You`re great.

GRACE: Hi. Thank you. What`s your question, dear?

CALLER: You know, she was said to be a terrific woman. And, in addition to that, a debutante. Debutantes tend to be social. Have the cops checked out possible boyfriends or acquaintances yet?

GRACE: Excellent question. To Leslie Snadowsky, what do we know about her dating history?

SNADOWSKY: At this point, what we know is that she did not have a boyfriend at this time. They have interviewed ex-boyfriends. And, in fact, I read a report about just a girlfriend of hers basically saying she was friends with all her ex-boyfriends in school and that she didn`t suspect any of them of any wrongdoing.

GRACE: Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have developed a time line that accounts for Ms. Souers` location and whereabouts up and through 12:03 a.m. Friday morning.

Somebody asked yesterday, how do I know that -- or how do I feel that things are -- there`s going to be a solution to this? And I can assure you that there is so much information that`s been developed in this relatively short period of time by these agencies, and that I feel very confident, with the rate they`re going, that a resolution is certainly achievable, in terms of finding out who committed this act.

How many people have been interviewed? Why don`t we say numerous? I can`t give you a specific number, but numerous people have been interviewed.

Lots of information was developed yesterday afternoon; lots of information was developed during the evening. As I told you, the lab work -- (INAUDIBLE) told me the lab worked all night. We`ve obtained some additional physical evidence that the lab will be processing tonight.

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GRACE: Joining us tonight, forensic pathologist Dr. Daniel Spitz. Welcome, Doctor.

Doctor, I`m taking a look at the fact that she had been out with friends the night before. They dropped her off around 12:30-ish. Her body was found 1:45 p.m. that following day. Explain to me how they`ve come up with the figure that she was killed at 1:30 a.m. What changes does the body go through?

DANIEL SPITZ, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Well, there are forensic clues that the body gives as to determination, estimation as to the time of death. The way you do it, really, is to start with what you know, the facts of the case.

You know that she was alive around midnight. You know she found the next day at 1:30 p.m. And you take those facts, and then you start to use the forensic clues to work backwards. There`s changes that occur to the body; there`s pooling of the blood, which is called liver mortis.

GRACE: Now, wait a minute. You mean the blood in the body goes to the lowest point? Such as, if she was lying on her face, her body would pool in the back of her back, the back of her head, maybe the back of her legs?

SPITZ: Well, the blood pools to the dependent areas of the area.

GRACE: Right.

SPITZ: So if the body is on the back, the blood will pool to the back side. If the body is on its front, then the blood pools to the front side. It`s really that simple.

GRACE: How long does that take to happen?

SPITZ: Well, it begins once the heart stops beating. And it may not become visible for an hour or so. But then, over the next several hours, it becomes much more prominent and very easily to recognize.

GRACE: Doctor, when does rigor mortis, the stiffening of the muscles, begin?

SPITZ: That, again, will begin at right at the time of death, but it may not become visible or recognizable until about an hour or so after death, and then it progresses from there.

GRACE: And what about liver mortis, the de-coloration of the body?

SPITZ: Yes, that`s the liver mortis which is the pooling of the blood after death, which we discussed.

GRACE: And, also, there is the standby of knowing when the last dinner or meal was and then tracking how far the body had digested it.

SPITZ: Yes, you can use gastric contents. And we know from studies how long it generally takes for various food to move through the stomach. And that would be one other factor that the medical examiner would use to try to estimate the time.

GRACE: Quick question, Doctor. Does your height and weight change or effect how quickly you digest food?

SPITZ: Your height and weight really shouldn`t have much of an effect on it.

GRACE: OK. I want to go to a friend, a good friend of Tiffany Souers, Lisa Trippany. Tell us about your friend, please.

LISA TRIPPANY, FRIEND AND NEIGHBOR OF TIFFANY SOUERS: Tiffany was really great. Everybody that knew her, you know, really loved her. And she was a really practical person. She loved everybody for who they were. And I really think that it`s going to -- you know, this is a really big loss for the whole student community and for everyone that was in her life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hard to make reason out of it. You want logic to apply, and it doesn`t. I know she was such a good person; I`m sure she`s at peace and happy. God must have had more work for her to do up there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That may be true, but we won`t be at peace until her killer is found. That wake occurring right now for this beautiful 20-year-old girl.

To Tracy in Mississippi, hi, Tracy, what`s your question, dear?

CALLER: Hi, Nancy. I absolutely love your show. I was wondering, I heard about how much volunteer work this young lady did, and I was wondering what kind of people she was coming in contact with, with her volunteer work?

GRACE: Interesting question. And thank you for watching the show, Tracy.

To Lidia St. Mark, do we know what kind of volunteer work she did? And when do we expect the rape kit back, Lidia?

ST. MARK: We expect a rape kit to come back as early as tomorrow, along with that DNA profile. As for her volunteer work, we heard from her parents that she went as far as to learn sign language so she could teach deaf children. She did as much as 500 hours of community service a month. This was a remarkable young woman, almost too good to be true. The typical...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Lidia, did I hear you say -- did I hear you say DNA profile?

ST. MARK: DNA profile, that`s what they`re saying. The solicitor, which is also the prosecutor on the case, he is saying that they are expecting a DNA profile as early as tomorrow. And that would obviously be...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Where did they get DNA? Where did they get DNA?

ST. MARK: He said he could not comment on that. Every time we asked him, "What kind of DNA? How much did you collect?" He said, "I can`t comment on that."

He`s saying that his investigators are working over time, double overtime. There`s like four different agencies involved in this case.

GRACE: DNA...

ST. MARK: State law enforcement divisions, yes, they are going all- out.

GRACE: OK, Lidia St. Mark with us from WHNS and Leslie Snadowsky, our investigative reporter, we expect that rape kit result tomorrow.

Tonight, we stop to remember Marine Lance Corporal Eric A. Palmisano, 27, Florence, Wisconsin, killed, Iraq. His fiancee says Palmisano will always be her laughter, joy, and love. Eric Palmisano, an American hero.

Thank you, thank you to all of our guests tonight. Our biggest thank you to you for inviting us into your homes.

A special good night for a friend of the show from South Carolina, Cindy, here on the set.

I`m Nancy Grace, signing off again for tonight. See you here tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END