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Nancy Grace

Five Years Later, Molly Bish`s Murder and Disappearance Still a Mystery

Aired July 03, 2006 - 20:00   ET

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

NANCY GRACE, CNN ANCHOR: Our culture calls it sweet 16, that time in your life when you have the world by the tail, your whole life before you. Molly Bish`s parents dropped their 16-year-old girl off at a life lifeguard job on a summer afternoon. They watched her, she walked away. They never saw Molly again. Three years later Molly Bish comes home bone by bone. 26 bones in all. No clues. No answers. Five long years of pain.
Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. Tonight, the ongoing mystery of 16-year-old Molly Bish. A wonderful young girl so full of life. A Massachusetts lifeguard seemingly vanishes until she is found bone by bone. 26 bones in total. Who murdered Molly Bish? Tonight, with us exclusively Molly`s parents Maggie and John Bish. Searching not only for answers but justice. Can you help us?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGI BISH, MOLLY BISH`S MOTHER: Every day they came and they told us first they found a shin bone, 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 until they confirmed that. Then we buried her on her 20th birthday, our 16-year-old.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: How long do these people have to wait for answers as to what happened to their little girl, just 16 years old. Just the light of their eyes. Kim Ring of "Worcester Telegram & Gazette". Kim, bring us up to date on the search.

KIM RING, STAFF WRITER, WORCESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE: Hi Nancy. Well, right now, there`s a grand jury that`s been impaneled for 18 months that`s looking into Molly`s case. They expect to wrap up their work later this month. It`s unclear from the district attorney whether there will be any indictments when that`s through.

GRACE: I want to go straight out to Magi Bish. With us tonight, her parents, Molly`s parents. Mrs. Bish, thank you for being with us.

BISH: Thank you so much, Nancy. I`m so happy to be with you.

GRACE: I`ve been thinking about you a lot. Tell us about the search for who killed your daughter.

MAGI BISH: Well, it`s been five long years. You know, when you think about it, when Molly first went lost, you think this can`t be possible. You know, you can lose your keys and you can lose your glasses, but how in America do you lose your child? Five years. Nobody`s prepared for this. You don`t know how to react. And you know, the first thing you do is you go to the police. And of course, you expect the police to know. We don`t know what to do. You know, you`re flabbergasted.

When this first took place, they called me after three hours, they thought that Molly had left and gone off with friends. Molly never had any history of being truant from school or from work. She had worked two jobs, jobs that weren`t as important as this job. She was so excited about making $9 an hour. She prepared all winter for this job. How does this happen? All we know is that when we -- I got the call at 1:30 that afternoon, I went to the beach. I went immediately, I told them I`d be there in five minutes. I called my older daughter. I told her what had happened. She said I`ll meet you immediately with her baby. We went to the beach. I went and I looked for her. I was running on the beach frantically trying to find anybody who had seen Molly. Of course, the moms now are older than I am.

I don`t know all the people. But there were Molly`s things, her backpack, the open first aid kit, the shoes. Molly`s shoes were left. This was a sign to me. Molly never went in to the beach without her shoes. We were pool people. She was the best swimmer in her class. She wouldn`t go in the pond without her shoes because she didn`t like the way the icky bottom felt. We knew this was a sign. There was something very wrong. What I did is people started saying go to the police, go to the police. So I went then to the police. My daughter met me on the way. Well, the police just thought she`d gone off with friends and they didn`t know what to do with us. They just had us standing on the side.

So my daughter and I, we stood -- we were too nervous to stand still and just wait. So my daughter decided to go see her boyfriend and another friend and then I went to another friend. Then I went to get my son. And all the friends were accounted for, and then my son who was a lifeguard for three years prior at this local pond, this was a town job that Molly had. She was responsible. She was going to work at 10:00 in the morning. This was her eighth day of work. We don`t know who or what took her, but what happened was my John came back to the pond. He said, mom, I`ll look in all the high and low water. When we came back, the crime scene tape was going up. They were thinking it was possibly a drowning victim.

My son jumped into the water. He was trying to go into all the places to see if she was there. They were bringing boats with cadaver dogs. It was like you were put in a bad dream and you couldn`t get out. We knew she was the best swimmer. I kept saying go to the highway, someone took her. There had been a car, a vehicle in the parking lot the day before. There was a man in a white car who had been there at 10:00 approximately the same time I dropped her off. I was very concerned about this individual. The police know it was in the record as we followed back in the case, I told them this is who we have a possible, you know a picture of him. In fact we had Gene Boyland come out and do a second drawing because we were so concerned about this person who might have been there at the same time to give us a better perspective, to give us a better look. Because when we did the first diagram it came from the police where you take eyes and nose.

GRACE: Right. And they make a composite based on all the little bits and pieces.

BISH: Right.

GRACE: But Magi, did you know instinctively that she was not in the pond?

BISH: I knew. Molly was a very good swimmer. Molly was very, very responsible. If her first aid kit was open, my belief was someone asked her for help. Molly was brand new on the job. She would have been very conscientious and a little bit nervous. She would have helped anybody. Molly would never leave her job. She would worry about her grades she would worry about school. She had no history ever of leaving a job.

GRACE: Here is what Molly`s sister has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOLLY`S SISTER: I 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 okay.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Straight out to Pat Lalama, investigative reporter. Pat, bring us up to date regarding the investigation.

PAT LALAMA, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, first, let me just -- I have to say this. I want to thank the Bishes for giving me inspiration to want to help more people in their position. They`re so brave and I wish we could give them peace of mind. Here`s the story. There have been 8,000 leads, there have been 250 witnesses before a grand jury, 70 different exhibits. There have been 11 people flunked lie detector tests. They still cannot point to a single person.

Three years after the fact, a hunter found the bathing suit. That brought in the red alert of the new search. That`s when they recovered the skull. I believe a piece of hair. And a tongue ring that she was allowed to get, that her father had allowed her to get. Aside from that, it`s just absolutely amazing that no one can pinpoint. It could be a transient, someone who knew that kids were in the area, could be somebody who knows the town, but at this point there just isn`t a suspect to name.

GRACE: To Molly`s father, John Bish, do you recall the day that you were notified that the bathing suit, the swimsuit had been found?

JOHN BISH, MOLLY BISH`S FATHER: Yes I do. It was actually the day that we had been observing missing children`s day. And somehow I knew this was Molly`s bathing suit. You know, it would be most unusual to find a bathing suit in the woods even though I had not seen it. I was fairly convinced that that was it. Especially since it was about 2 1/2 miles away from our home. Throughout Molly`s disappearance we were always hopeful but we were always realistic about her apparel. Once the bathing suit was recovered, we were very frightened. We were desperate and worried. And the reality of the danger she faced came crashing in on us.

GRACE: To Magi, molly`s mother. Magi do you recall the day you learned they had found her swimsuit?

MAGI BISH: I was terribly frightened. You know, I would call it between hell and hope. You wanted so bad to know that nobody was hurting her, for that fear to end. But the sadness, the reality of not seeing her again was beyond what I wanted for my family. We are a family of five and we`re mentally close, we are a link, we are so connected. We are broken. We are missing Molly. We can`t tell you, we`re not whole. It`s like a starfish missing its limb. We`re just not the same.

GRACE: Did you see the swimsuit?

JOHN BISH: We had seen a photograph of the swimsuit. We have not actually seen the swimsuit. But this is definitely Molly`s bathing suit. I had bought it with her at a sporting store in the winter months.

GRACE: But you definitely recognized it, right?

JOHN BISH: I definitely recognized it. It was the most unusual. It was bought in the wintertime. It was an unusual blue-white type pattern. I recognized it immediately.

GRACE: Oh, gosh. To identify something so distinctive that belonged to her Ms. Bish.

MAGI BISH: I tell you, I ran in my room -- I fell on the floor and I wailed. And I think there are those primal feelings that only you know in the depths of the sadness that you can feel that when you love someone so very much, that you cannot believe and you don`t want to believe something so horrible.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

We need a tough piece of legislation that`s going to protect our kids and give our states the minimum of guidelines of what to do. This is crazy for us to have to go back and forth like this. What`s it going to take? I mean why won`t these legislators trade places with me? You come sit in this chair and you tell me what you would do to protect your child if you live where I live.

MAGI BISH: The police came and the district attorney to our home to tell us that they had found the 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 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.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Molly Bish went missing five long years ago. Tonight, her death and disappearance still unsolved. Her parents tortured. Still not over. Help us find out who murdered this girl, Molly Bish. What did her parents get back of her? Her swimsuit and 26 bones of their girl, sweet 16. Medical examiner Dr. Jonathan Arden tells us what forensic evidence could have been gleaned from the scene where Molly`s remains were found.

DR. JONATHAN ARDEN, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, Nancy, the first thing you want to do is try to put the remains into the context. You have the surrounding areas, you want to see if this looks like an area where this person was actually killed and where the events occurred or do you want to see if there`s any items here that relate perhaps to the killer, any items that relate to control over the victim --

GRACE: Wait a minute. Dr. Arden, you just brought up a very important but subtle difference. You said look at the scene -- and this is very important. I remember this in a murder case I tried when we found a disposed body, the remains. You got to figure out is this where the murder took place or is this where the body was simply dumped, disposed. It`s a very big difference. How can you tell?

ARDEN: Well you`re right, it is a big difference and it`s an important difference. First of all, if there is any evidence right there where you are that the events occurred there, items such as ligatures, any kind of weapons, any kinds of personal effects purposefully or accidentally left behind by the killer.

GRACE: Signs of a struggle.

ARDEN: Exactly. Signs of a struggle. Anything that shows the activity occurred right then and there is crucially important. Because the alternative of course is that you have someone who was killed elsewhere and then dumped there, and then that place where you`re recovering the remains is no longer the crime scene. It`s no longer the murder scene and so you have to look at that in a different way. You also have the very difficult issue when someone is found in a wooded area like this of spread of the bones because you have animal activity, you have weather activity, you have the passage of time, you have the decay of the body. You may very well have bones that are spread over a significant area. You may not have a very discreet localized death scene or crime scene. And that certainly will make life much more difficult for those who are doing the search and those who are doing the recovery.

GRACE: To high profile Seattle trial lawyer Anne Bremner. Ann, what`s the oldest murder case you`ve ever had to put together? My oldest one was 14 years old when I took it to trial.

ANNE BREMNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know Nancy, I think -- I`m trying to think what my oldest was. Probably ten years. But I was thinking, you know, about dump sites. I had a number of those. And those are the worst. There`s no evidence in those cases. You just have a body. I had one where the victim was so decomposed, those images still haunt me. I should never have looked at the pictures.

GRACE: Well, Anne why are you a trial lawyer?

BREMNER: No, I`m just saying --

GRACE: Nobody wants to look at that. I mean the parents don`t want their daughter to come home bone by bone.

BREMNER: No, Nancy, I`m saying -- you and I have looked at so many of those, as a defense lawyer and also as a D.A., but these for some reason are the ones that have always stayed in my mind. Those older cases, those terrible older cases. But one thing I wanted to say in this case is the family`s torture isn`t over. It brings to mind that quote from Dorothy Parker, what fresh hell is this? They go through it time and time again as leads come up and then their hopes are dashed.

And for five long years with 8,000 leads, 11 people flunking polygraph examinations, all kinds of different suspects including one very recently where this person has now been cleared and a crime scene where there`s no evidence that would remain. As the coroner said out there of the suspect himself, just evidence of the death and the body of Molly Bish. And it`s horrible torture year after year after year.

GRACE: When we get back, there has been a recent lead in the case of the disappearance and death of 16-year-old Molly Bish. With us tonight exclusively, Molly`s parents and they are reaching out for your help, for our help. We`ll all be right back with the mystery of Molly Bish. But first, we at NANCY GRACE need your help to find a missing girl. Britney Alexis Pelayo, last seen September 16th, Fresno, California. Alexis Pelayo, 15, 5`2", 115 pounds, brown hair brown eyes. If you have info on this girl, Britney Alexis Pelayo, please call the Fresno Police Department 559-621-7000.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MAGI BISH: 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. 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.

GRACE: This 16-year-old girl Molly Bish went missing five long years ago. She was a local lifeguard in Massachusetts at a pond. Years have passed. Finally her parents received a call that they had found Molly. They found bones and the remains of a swimsuit. But the mystery remains unsolved. Tonight, there is a $100,000 reward. 508-832-9124, www.mollybish.org. Molly`s mom Magi Bish, told us how her daughter`s bones were found.

MAGI BISH: Well, a hunter had actually I guess found the piece of blue bathing suit. Because they were in transition, there was a new parks director, they did not have traditional red or what they usually have for the, you know, lifeguards. So they were in the process of purchasing them. So he did not think when he seen this little piece of fabric that this could belong to anybody. He was telling another individual, a police officer who had been very kind of obsessed with another case that happened and was working on the Holly Paranian case.

When he heard that, he said, well you need to take me to see this. What could this be? And when he went there, he took him, and he said, oh, my God, this is something serious. This cannot be overlooked. This is something real. And so from that point they started calling all the local police and the local police, I guess, they at least spotted the place and then I guess they called the state police in and then the media and then followed through because they wanted to know what was going on. And then --

GRACE: How big was the piece of swimsuit?

MAGI BISH: You know, we never were able to see it.

GRACE: Because I heard you say it was a tiny piece of swimsuit.

MAGI BISH: Yeah, we were never ever shared that information with the police.

GRACE: You know, Mrs. Bish, if your husband, if you guys didn`t remember that distinctive pattern and that tiny piece of swimsuit, you may have never known that that was even Molly. With us tonight, exclusively, Molly`s parents, John and Magi Bish, speaking out about the disappearance of their girl, sweet 16 Molly Bish. Tonight we are asking for your help. We`ll all be right back including the experts. As you know, we at NANCY GRACE want very much to help solve unsolved homicides, find missing people. Tonight we are looking for Nita Mayo, 64 years old. Ms. Mayo went missing from Sonora, California, August 8, 2005. If you have info on Nita Mayo call The Carole Sund Carrington Foundation toll free 888-813-8389.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGI BISH: I drove her to work and it was the last time I`d seen her. She jumped out of the car and told me how much she loved me and said, good- bye, mom, I love you. And hopped out of the car. And that was the last time I got to see her. And talk to my Molly. And it`s nearing our six- year anniversary and we still don`t know who did this to her or why. And we won`t stop till we find this person.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGI BISH: We thank the district attorney, state and local police, and the search-and-rescue teams, who have worked tirelessly to reunite Molly with her family. We thank the media, the community, especially our family and friends who have held us up during this difficult time. We ask you to continue to pray for us during the difficult days ahead.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We want to solve the case of Molly Bish, a 16-year-old girl, truly sweet 16. She went missing five years ago. And, tonight, we`re looking and asking you for answers.

For a time, it was believed there was a break in the Molly Bish case. What happened?

Investigative reporter Pat LaLama explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LALAMA: Boy, it`s almost like, you know, salt on the womb every single -- on the wound every single time. I mean, there was a guy up in New York I believe is named John Regan. And he...

GRACE: Oh, yes, yes.

LALAMA: Yes, yes, yes, right, the rich guy...

GRACE: Yes, the rich guy that`s now being connected to two dead prostitutes and the high school girl, very...

LALAMA: Right.

GRACE: It reminded me a lot of Molly, actually, because this high school girl was in a local shopping -- a strip mall coming out to the car, and he allegedly tried to grab her from behind. She was about Molly`s age.

LALAMA: And kidnapped her, right.

GRACE: Cute, cute, cute.

LALAMA: Correct.

GRACE: And the high school coach saw it, scared him off, and police got him. Regan.

LALAMA: Right. And that sort of lit up some hope, I believe, for the Bish family. If I`m not mistaken, Mr. Bish received a phone call from someone he knew in the New York area who had told him about this person. And, then, of course, lo and behold, it turns out not to be connected. I can`t imagine what that must be like for this family.

GRACE: I`m not sure how they ruled him out, Mr. Bish. How was Regan ruled out in Molly`s case?

JOHN BISH: Well, we`re not sure. The district attorney has indicated that he believes there is no connection. However, we are still very concerned about Mr. Regan...

GRACE: I am, too.

JOHN BISH: ... because of several factors in the attempt and the similarities of that.

GRACE: Like what?

JOHN BISH: That victim.

And we also know that his work brought him to the community of Sturbridge, which is right next to our community, as a salesman, and that a roofing company in our community purchased supplies from ABC Supplies, which is the company that Mr. Regan had been working for. And that roofing company in Warren is located at the foot of Ware Road, where Molly`s remains were found.

So, although I do respect the work of the state police and -- and Mr. Conte, I`m still very...

GRACE: You still have a concern.

JOHN BISH: I`m very concerned.

GRACE: Hold on just a moment.

I think Ellie (ph) has the answer.

Ellie (ph), police think they can rule Regan out with Molly how?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. Well, he was a traveling salesman, so they went back and looked at receipts, things like that, about where he`d been at that time. And we understand that they determined he wasn`t in that area.

GRACE: Did he travel, Ellie (ph), by car or by plane?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: By car, I believe.

GRACE: You know what? Mr. Bish, I agree with you. Just because somebody is at a restaurant 45 miles away at a certain time of day, if they`re traveling by car and not by plane, I would not rule out them being back in the area where Molly was.

JOHN BISH: Well, he`s a salesman. He has great control over his schedule.

Waterbury, Connecticut, and Saratoga Springs are not next door to us, but they`re not very distant. He had -- he -- we had a great deal of work going on in our community. We had our high school being rebuilt. We had a junior high school being built, as well as just normal building that was going on. So, it`s entirely possible that he was in our area.

GRACE: Mmm-hmm.

JOHN BISH: Molly...

GRACE: But isn`t he in custody right now on the attempt -- attempted kidnapping of the other high school girl?

JOHN BISH: Yes.

GRACE: OK, well, he`s behind bars now, so police can sort it all out.

Very quickly to Dr. Laura Fulginiti, forensic anthropologist.

I want to get back to Molly Bish. We`ll revisit Regan in just a few moments.

Doctor, explain to me what we can learn. Now, a couple of years had passed until the Bishes were told the bones of their girl had been found. What can we learn from the bones?

DR. LAURA FULGINITI, FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST: Well, there are quite a few things that we can do.

We can look at the age of the individual, the sex of the individual. We can try to determine how tall she was. We can look at individual things that might have been on Molly`s skeleton, old, healed fractures, things of that nature that would be specific to her. And, if we were lucky and we got the right bony elements, we could also try to determine the cause of death for the medical examiner.

GRACE: Now, what can bones reveal this much later about cause of death?

FULGINITI: It really depends on how the individual was killed. If you think about the human body, there are very few places where the body does not have bony structures underlying the skin and soft tissue.

So, if you stab someone or shoot someone or hit them with some sort of blunt object, the bones are going to reflect that trauma, as well as the soft tissue. So, if you get lucky and you have the right elements present, you can determine either a modality of death, i.e., stabbing or shooting, or you can give the medical examiner some idea of a trauma that might have contributed to the death.

GRACE: To psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere.

Dr. Gardere, someone she knew or a stranger?

JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: It sounds to me like it might have been a stranger. And one of the things that you definitely want to do is check the list of people who have been recently paroled, especially if they have a history of violence, especially if they have a history of sex offenses.

GRACE: What about Regan?

GARDERE: Well, Regan is an individual who I think -- I`m -- I`m so proud of John Bish, that he`s staying on top of this and just not dismissing it.

I mean, certainly the fact that he tried to abduct someone, who, in many ways, has some of the same physical characteristics of Molly, I think speaks volumes in itself. And now we know that this individual is an extremely disturbed individual, not insane by any legal sense of the word. This guy tried to kill himself and is now in a psychiatric, forensic placement right now. So, I think we need to keep eyes on him.

GRACE: To Tony Brooklier, defense attorney.

What`s your take on Regan?

TONY BROOKLIER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, Nancy, it`s a mixed bag. I -- I think you have to trust the prosecutor in this case, John Conte. He seems like he`s dogged with regard to this case. He`s not giving up. He`s calling a grand jury in.

And for John Conte to have excluded this man at this point, you know, I think -- I think that says something. You want to get the right -- the right murderer. You don`t -- it wouldn`t be justice for Molly to prosecute the wrong -- the wrong person and convict the wrong person.

I think that -- I think that he`s a person of interest. I think that what I would do -- I`ll tell you what I would do -- if he has an alibi with regard to receipts -- you know, you can easily make up receipts. I think you need to actually investigate those receipts further, to see if they actually do stand up. Because, after the fact, receipts could have been made up -- we`ve all seen that happen -- to put forth an alibi, a fake alibi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN WALSH, HOST, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Mom dropped her off at her lifeguard job that day, and there was a guy in the parking lot for hours. And her mother sat there and looked at him and said, "What is this guy doing here?" Gut feeling was something was wrong.

Then the guy drove away. Mom went to work, came back to pick up Molly, and Molly was gone. And now they`ve found her -- her bones. We`ve got to catch this guy. We`ve got to catch this guy, and I`m hoping that somebody will look at that composite and make that call.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGI BISH: 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.

That person is out there. And wherever he is, we`re not going to stop. And he needs to know this, this perpetrator, we`re not going to stop looking for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Sixteen-year-old Molly Bish went missing five years ago. Tonight, her parents ask for your help, 508-832-9124, $100,000 reward.

Magi Bish, Molly`s mom, tells us what they went through and what went through her mind when she heard about the other little girl -- I believe she was a soccer player there in the area -- a man tried to abduct her from a parking lot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAGI BISH: Nancy, I have to tell you that, since that time, I have been unbelievably unnerved. I think this was the first time that I`ve seen John as concerned. He has always believed, contrary to the police -- they thought it was someone local. John believed it has always been somebody from outside.

I want to thank all your panel for helping and -- and giving more ideas to us and more information. I -- I have felt extreme difficulty. This little girl looked like Molly. This little girl had so many commonalities.

You know, the fear that we might have to know what this person did to Molly -- no one knows that, every waking day, we wake up thinking of Molly and going to bed saying prayers. We feel so bad that we couldn`t help Molly.

This is what`s been going on lately in this world. Parents, this is the worst nightmare that anyone could live. Five years have passed, and we still live with this horror.

When we see those beautiful children, like her, I was so grateful she was able to go home to her mom. But we don`t have our Molly. Molly`s life and her death now define who we are, and we have to keep fighting, so that this does not keep happening.

But it makes us want to know more. Who did this to Molly and why. It also scares me with every breath. To be a victim is not an easy person -- to live in a family that become victims, you`re -- you`re changed. Your every breath changes.

You know, we wear a cloak of guilt, because we couldn`t help her. Molly was our baby, you know? She was her dad`s best friend. He took her on mall -- mall runs. We -- that day, she probably was calling for us. We couldn`t help her.

You know, I believe that there was commonalities, that this -- this similarity, with the man having a business where he was not watched, that he had traveled an hour-and-a-half. An hour-and-a-half is the same distance to our home. He had Mass. license plates. He went -- he lived in Connecticut. He was in New York doing this to a blonde, blue-eyed girl.

He had also pictures of people who were athletes. Molly was an athlete. She played baseball, right last season, when they were building this new addition.

It made me very fearful. And, again, when the media came, and they were so concerned, we thanked the media for -- for being there and helping these families. They want to help us bring this to an end. And we are very grateful, because they, too, believed that there was a possibility. And that made me believe that this might then very much be a reality.

And like one of your panelists also said, this is a -- you know, up and down. And it`s very emotionally draining, but we would like some peace. We would like to be able to put this in the back-burner. We will never have our Molly back with us. We`ll never have her sitting with us.

She used to sit on our lap, pick our flowers. She used to be the person -- Molly was a little bit -- she had two twinkles. She was like Lucy. She -- she had the silliness of Lucy and the tenderness of Forrest Gump. She would make you laugh. She had a job in Disney. She would be one of those characters that you would just want to have at your party.

She had -- she was a gentle soul. And I don`t know why it is that all of these gentle children are the ones they take.

Yes. And we miss her terrible. And I don`t even know how we`re going to get through this holiday. And I just want to thank you once again for your goodness and kindness to all of us families and helping us bringing these people to justice, so that we can have some peace. And I thank you so very, very much.

GRACE: Ms. Bish, you -- you don`t have to thank me.

You know, when we hear stories like yours, the only thing we know to do here is to just fight harder and harder and harder.

I want to ask a specialist, Vito Colucci.

Vito, I can`t get this -- this Regan off my mind. I -- I did a little research. Not only, as Molly`s mom said, was this last girl he allegedly tried to kidnap, right in broad daylight, just like Molly, in a parking lot, a young athlete, Vito, they went on -- and he`s from a very wealthy family, too, I might add, got a wife, kids, the works, the picture of respectability.

On his Internet, he had all of these pictures of track meets and practices of high school girls. He has a string of alleged attempted assaults on women, assaults on women.

And, if you look online, you see that there he`s now possibly linked to two dead prostitutes. If you look online, there are a lot of women found partially nude in wooded areas dead, just like Molly. These two prostitutes were found that way, Vito.

VITO COLUCCI, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: That`s right. This guy`s an outside salesman. We keep hearing about they have checked the hotel receipts in Sturbridge and different things. And they`ve done a great job with that. But all he needs is the time to get from point A to point B, commit the crime, and go back to wherever he was.

Now, did he have access to a white car? I believe they talked about a white car back in 2000. Salesmen, they may use different cars.

Also, how about the composite picture, Nancy, does that look like this individual? You know, even though right now he`s eliminated, supposedly, from the mix, if I`m the lead investigator on this, this guy`s right in my mind all the time.

GRACE: Everybody, I want to reiterate, this guy, Regan, is not -- he`s been ruled out, according to police, as of right now, as a suspect in Molly`s case.

So, Jeff Gardere, you are hearing, I know, the pain in Molly`s parents` voice. What can you tell them? I mean, I know you`re not a miracle worker, but you are a psychologist.

GARDERE: Well, first of all, I just want to thank them for their unselfish behavior in reaching out to other families while they`re experiencing their own pain over the disappearance of Molly. And, in many ways, they`ve been able to help so many other people going through this, and educating people.

But I think what they`ve taught us is that we must stay together as a family unit. We must have our spiritually. We must love our children when we have them, because we don`t know what tomorrow will bring for our children.

So, all I can tell them is God bless you, both of you, Magi and John, and know that our prayers are with you. And I`m so proud to be part of your show, Nancy, because you`re helping these people.

GRACE: Jeff, thank you. And thanks to all of our guests.

A quick break, everyone.

As you know, local news will be next for some of you, but all of us will be right back, including Molly`s parents.

Please stay with us tonight.

We want to remember. We remember Army Sergeant Timothy R. Boyce, just 29, an American hero.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE," JULY 25, 2002)

ERIN RUNNION, MOTHER OF SAMANTHA: But why do you have to hurt them, you know, to take your own illness out, to not realize how sick -- what a sickness it is and to hurt children, to realize that this is your problem, not a baby`s, that these are human beings who have histories, that have personalities, that have potential that you can never imagine?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUNNION: He is guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty!

And that feels really good, because nobody should get away with this. And, in honor of Samantha, in honor of Jessica And Molly Bish and Polly Klaas and Adam Walsh -- how many children do we have to take away before we, as Americans, get organized?

We outnumber you so many times over. There is no excuse. And we`re not going to let it -- get away with this anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: We ask for your help tonight. What happened to Molly? Take a look at this girl. She went missing five long years ago -- her remains, found, a $100,000 reward, 508-832-9124, or go online to MollyBish.org.

Kim Ring, reporter with "the Worcester Telegram and Gazette," Kim tells us now about a man named John Regan, who has been, allegedly, ruled out as a suspect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIM RING, "WORCESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE": Well, we -- we can put him in Sturbridge some time in 2000 before Molly disappeared. I talked with a bartender who remembered serving him at a pub there.

And, later, after Molly`s mom worked with Gene Boyland (ph) to do the sketch, he saw the sketch and -- and remembered having a customer that looked a lot like that. He said he had made a mental note to try and talk more to the guy when he came in again, and he hasn`t seen him since.

GRACE: So, what do you think of the -- the police ruling him out, as of right now?

RING: My understanding is, they used a cell phone record to rule him out. But this is a guy who`s traveled. He has family on Cape Cod. He does travel back and forth across Massachusetts. We have a lot of other unsolved cases in the area.

GRACE: You certainly do, around the Waterbury area. It`s incredible.

RING: Yes, we have quite a few in Worcester, some bodies found in 2003, 2004 in Marlboro.

Still, Lisa Ziegert, Holly Paranian (ph), and Patti Gagne (ph), Jennifer Fay, Teresa Croley (ph), all of them unsolved.

GRACE: Oh.

To Magi Bish.

When you hear those names just rolled off like that, that just must strike terror in your heart. Before Molly went missing, I`m sure you thought nothing like this could ever happen in your home.

MAGI BISH: I was much a Pollyanna. I had to come to grips that there really is evil out there. And I think that`s why we started the first Missing Children`s Day in Massachusetts, so that we could bring the families together.

It really is a day where families come together, so that they can remember those who are missing, and for the families who are missing them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Ms. Bish, I know there is evil. I know there is evil out there, but you and your husband, John Bish, have proven there is also good.

Thank you.

And thank you to all of my guests. Our hearts and our prayers with the Bish family.

Our biggest thank you tonight to you for inviting us and the story of Molly and her parents into your home.

I`m Nancy Grace, signing off for tonight. Hope to see you right here tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern.

Until then, good night, friend.

END