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Nancy Grace
2-Year-Old Snatched From Crib?; Son of Anna Nicole Smith Dies
Aired September 13, 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: a parent`s worst nightmare. The mom says she tucks her 2-year-old into his crib, settles onto the sofa in the very next room for a video. Next, the bedroom screen found slashed, we think, from the outside, and the baby is gone.
Refusing to take a polygraph or help police construct a timeline, Trenton`s mom found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, suicide.
Tonight: another bombshell. We learn Trenton`s mom, Melinda Duckett, actually put an ad in the local paper to sell her baby`s car seat -- repeat to sell her baby`s car seat before he goes missing.
We investigate the clues left behind.
And tonight: Cover girl Anna Nicole Smith`s 20-year-old son suddenly passes away. Tonight, criminal investigators called in.
But, first tonight, the disappearance of 2-year-old Trenton Duckett.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Members of the Leesburg Police Department, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and FBI continue to work tirelessly in their efforts to find little Trenton and bring him home. These are dedicated personnel, who will not stop until Trenton is found.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight.
The search goes on for 2-year-old Trenton Duckett, even in the wake of his mother`s suicide and the disturbing development that she placed the child`s car seat for sale in an ad in a local paper before he went missing -- still, no sign of Trenton Duckett.
Out to Marilyn Aciego, reporter with "The Daily Commercial."
What`s the latest, Marilyn?
MARILYN ACIEGO, "THE DAILY COMMERCIAL": Hi, Nancy.
The latest is, they`re still trying to reconstruct the timeline of Melinda and Trenton from basically about the 30 hours before he was reported missing. And they`re still working on that timeline, asking people to come forward, and, if they spotted either Melinda or Trenton in those two days, to please come forward and tell police where they saw them.
GRACE: What can you tell me about this ad that Melinda Duckett allegedly placed in the local paper trying to sell the kid`s car seat before the kid even went missing?
ACIEGO: Well, she placed the ad. She actually placed the ad on Trenton`s second birthday. And we have not been able to verify whether or not she did purchase another car seat for him, because Florida law states that a child must be in a car seat, some type of restraint, until they`re 3 years old.
GRACE: When did the ad run?
ACIEGO: It ran -- it started running on August 11, and ran, I believe, for 10 days after she placed it.
GRACE: And the day he went missing was August 27?
ACIEGO: Yes, so it stopped running before he actually went missing.
Joe -- Joe Lawless is with us, a veteran defense attorney out of the Philadelphia jurisdiction.
Joe, this is eerily reminiscent of the Scott Peterson case. Remember, Scott Peterson...
JOE LAWLESS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The timelines.
GRACE: ... put his wife`s Land Rover, I believe it was, up for sale before her body was found. She had only been gone a couple of days.
LAWLESS: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: And he put the car up for sale?
LAWLESS: It does -- it does raise an eyebrow, Nancy. When you have something like this taking place before the child`s disappearance, clearly, there`s a problem.
When you have someone who is at least a suspect not cooperating and giving you information to establish a timeline, which you will recall from the Peterson case was also important, it certainly at least raises an eyebrow, and makes you want to focus on the mother as being involved in the disappearance. They have really got to look at this closely.
GRACE: Well, another question out to Marilyn Aciego with "The Daily Commercial."
Marilyn, they are stating that, while they`re not calling the mom -- everyone, as you know by now, you legal eagles -- Marilyn, wasn`t it a self-inflicted gunshot wound? Melinda Duckett committed suicide last Friday.
Are they calling her a suspect or a person of interest, or are they saying they are narrowing their search to her?
ACIEGO: Basically, they -- they still will not call her a suspect, Nancy, but they are saying that they are focusing the investigation more in her direction. She is definitely at the top of the list.
To Jean Casarez, Court TV news correspondent.
Jean, we have all taken a long, hard look at Melinda Duckett`s blogging. In between raising the child and making a living for herself, she managed to blog quite a bit, and -- volumes and volumes of blogging, I might ad -- and all these sentences, for the most part, rhyme.
Have you taken a look at the blogs, Jean?
JEAN CASAREZ, COURT TV: You know, I have.
And, Nancy, this is on MySpace.com. And this space, this is where you can meet people, but you can also correspond with people. And it appears as though that was one of the things she did, was correspond with her friends. There was an entry in May of 2006, not too long ago, that she heads, "Light of my life." And it`s all about her son and how much she loves her son.
Listen to this: "One component extremely valuable is my son. His name is Trenton. Many people I talk to do not know him. They are trying to date me, instead of being friends, and do not want a child involved."
She goes on to say, "I have had to fight to keep my son, who I am extremely proud of." And she ends up by saying, "I live for my son now."
But, Nancy, the month after that, in June 2006, the emotion seems to be in another direction. She talks about: "I can`t understand the burdens I hold within my hand. So many issues, I have to hide."
And 15 days later, she talks about moving on, which is -- seems to be moving on from a relationship, because her expectations are too high.
And then finally, Nancy, it hasn`t been released, but she blogged the day before she died. It was a very emotional blog about a very, very unhappy lady.
GRACE: You know, I noticed quite a bit in these blogs, she talks about death. She talks about funerals. Did you see that, Jean?
CASAREZ: Yes. Yes. There are so many emotions, Nancy, extreme highs, extreme lows.
GRACE: Here`s one.
"Can`t understand. Why cannot anyone understand the burdens I hold within my hand? Life cannot be all fun for I. So many issues that I have to hide. They hold me down from dreams I have had. They kept me moving when I`m sad. Obstacles I face at every bend. The pain I endure, you cannot mend. Stay out of my affairs and let me be. You think I only live in misery."
We have got quite a few blogs from Ms. Duckett. And, you know, blogging -- bloggers out there, power on, people. I just want to see if there`s any connection from what we are seeing in these blogs to the disappearance of this little boy tonight.
We are all about finding Trenton Duckett, if that is possible.
Joining me here into the studio, Andrea Macari, Dr. Macari, instructor of psychology.
Andrea, what do you make of these blogs and Melinda`s suicide?
ANDREA MACARI, INSTRUCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY: Well, it definitely speaks to the inner turmoil that`s going on.
And this rhyming that`s going on is actually a symptom of mental illness. Nancy, it`s called clanging. It`s a symptom of psychosis. We sometimes see it in schizophrenia. It`s just not plain old rhymes, like poetry. She`s not doing Shel Silverstein over here. This is a symptom of mental illness.
GRACE: Take a listen what police had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are in the 18th day of our investigation to find Trenton Duckett. We continue to explore new leads and reinvestigate previous leads, as time permits.
Our number-one mission has always been and continues to be finding little Trenton. Members of the Leesburg Police Department, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and FBI continue to work tirelessly in their efforts to find little Trenton and bring him home.
Many of the investigators are parents with small children of their own. Some of the investigators working this case have worked 15, 16, and 17 straight days, working 16-hour days in many cases. Those investigators were asked who would voluntarily agree to take time off to refresh themselves. We had no volunteers. These are dedicated personnel who will not stop until Trenton is found.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Out to Marilyn Aciego with "The Daily Commercial."
Marilyn, I understand there was a search at a local construction site that has been given up. What happened?
ACIEGO: Police were acting on a tip that was received some time last week that -- that Melinda and Trenton and her car were spotted about a week before Trenton was reported missing in this area. And it`s a very big construction site. It`s going to be a very big housing development. And being that there`s lots of dirt there and lots of places to hide things, police went out and searched, but were unable to find anything that linked Trenton to the area.
GRACE: Take a look at this. This is a construction site police were interested in. There you see cadaver dogs now brought out.
Tell me about her car, Marilyn, the car that police believed she was in the last days of Trenton`s life.
ACIEGO: It`s a silver 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse.
GRACE: Is this the car she committed suicide in?
ACIEGO: She did not commit suicide in the vehicle. She committed suicide in her grandparents` home.
GRACE: In the home.
Marilyn, what can you tell us that was taken by police as evidence?
ACIEGO: There were several personal writings taken both from her apartment and from the grandparents` home. And they also took a digital camera and her computer. The computer is currently at the FBI lab, and they are trying to get through it and find out what`s in it, to see if there`s any type of journal or diary.
GRACE: Let`s go to the lines, Liz (ph).
Let`s go to Ella (ph) in New Jersey.
Hi, Ella (ph).
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. I love your show.
GRACE: Thank you, dear.
CALLER: Since she tried to sell his car seat, do you think it`s a good possibility she -- she sold him?
GRACE: You know what, Ella (ph)? That thought has crossed my mind more than once.
Let`s go out to Mike Brooks, former FBI.
Mike, what can you tell us about the possibility this child was actually sold?
MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: There`s always that possibility.
I mean, there is a big market all over this country for young children, like Trenton. But, you know, it`s hard to tell whether or not he was sold. Putting together the timeline, Nancy, is going to be crucial, because that is going to tell them exactly where he was between 4:00 p.m. on August 26 and 9:00 p.m. on August 27, when his mother reported him missing.
And, no, she wasn`t cooperating with police. She wouldn`t take a polygraph. And, you know, to me, that says a lot. You know, by her not saying anything, to me, that says quite a bit.
But the possibility of him being sold, that`s -- that`s one of the things they should be looking into, if they`re not. And, you know, her computer will hold a lot. And the FBI unit up in Quantico that deals specifically with these kind of things, they are some of the best in the business. And they will go back on that hard drive, and they will look at every piece of communication, every key type on that particular computer, and they will come up with something, if there`s any evidence to be found in that -- inside that hard drive.
Marc Klaas is with us, president from Beyond Missing -- Marc Klaas not only victims` rights advocate, but crime victim himself. Much like the story Melinda Duckett gave about her child being taken from her home, Polly Klaas was taken from her home, molested, and murdered. Since that time, Marc has worked tirelessly for victims` rights.
Marc Klaas, a lot has been made about the cut, the slash in the screen. Have you taken a look at this, Marc? I mean, 10 inches for the screen is this much. That`s it, 10 inches. She says and the police have said the slash was 10 inches. And in this much space, Marc, her story was, an adult could reach through, lift the window all the way up, get in, get the baby, and pull the baby out, through this much, Marc, 10 inches.
And I don`t believe that. I just don`t believe it.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT, BEYOND MISSING: You know, Nancy, this is but one of numerous red flags that point to Melinda.
And I was very struck by the interview that she gave to you that was aired last Friday, and how cool and calm and collected she seemed to be. Yet, in her writing, she -- she emotes heavily, and shows this very conflicted nature of hers.
And I agree that probably a lot will be found in her writings. And, hopefully, that will lead people to where the little boy is. And I think people have to be very cognizant of the fact that this was a very striking young woman. It`s a very striking boy. And it`s a very obvious vehicle. And they should -- they should search their minds to see if they saw that combination at all over that 30-hour course last Saturday and Sunday, so that they can start to put this together.
Now, I also understand, Nancy, that they -- that cadaver dogs have alerted three times in one location at this construction site. So, I don`t know that they`re turning away from that at all. I think that they probably may continue to search that location.
GRACE: Marc, I have been told, as we went to air tonight, the latest is, they have left. They left the construction site. They started digging very deeply with heavy machinery. Then, there was a change in the search. And they started skimming the top of the dirt, which indicated to me they were searching for a more shallow grave.
And, since that time, they have stopped the search on the construction site. That is the very latest on the construction site.
Marc, you mentioned that Melinda Duckett seemed very conflicted, in her interview with us, very conflicted.
Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Two-and-a-quarter hours...
MELINDA DUCKETT, MISSING BOY`S MOTHER: Right.
GRACE: ... is all that had passed since you had checked on him. Now, it`s my understanding thought he was hiding, and you started looking for him.
M. DUCKETT: Yes. He had just learned how to open up the closet door that morning. And I thought that it was, you know, really a moment, like a Kodak moment, there.
So, that was the first place that I looked. The window, the rest of the room, there`s nothing there for him to hide or anything, so I didn`t even think about it. And he`s not one to go under the bed or anything like that.
GRACE: When did you notice the screen on the window slashed?
M. DUCKETT: Well, when -- after I checked out his room, I checked the bathroom and my room, which are right down the hallway, which he could have gotten to without me seeing him.
GRACE: Right.
M. DUCKETT: Like I say, he doesn`t ever do that kind of thing, so it would have been extremely unusual, but, you know, when you`re in A panic, you, you know, want to check every possible thing there is.
When I came back up the hallway, I looked in his room again, and there was actually a picture that had been on the windowsill and that had fallen. And that`s why I looked to the window, because there`s -- there`s curtains and everything else there. So, it`s not like, you know, it is just open to the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining us now is a very special guest. Trenton`s father, Josh Duckett, is with us.
Josh, again tonight, our show is all about trying to find your son, Trenton Duckett. At this juncture, what is your belief? Do you think the police will be able to find him?
JOSHUA DUCKETT, MISSING BOY`S FATHER: We`re still keeping our hopes high. I mean, that`s the only way to stay, is positive, because I feel, if you get negative, you`re not really getting any progress done. You`re not getting out there. You`re just kind of sitting there.
So, we`re keeping our hopes high, and continuing to move forward, and keeping our main focus, which is, basically, Trenton is our main focus. And we`re trying anything and everything we can to get his picture out there that much more to try and spark somebody`s memory, possibly, because we`re still having that lack of information, as far as the timeline. I mean, that`s -- that little bit of information means everything to us right now. We...
GRACE: Hey, Josh, did you...
J. DUCKETT: Yes.
GRACE: ... try to talk to Melinda yourself to find out where they had been that Sunday afternoon?
J. DUCKETT: No. I have had no contact -- I had no contact with Melinda, and I have had no contact with her grandparents.
I mean, I was more than willing to work with everybody. I feel that, at the time, even with the bad blood, to put everything aside, and work together, and get heads on straight, and get the same goal set.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We still need to continue our search for Trenton. We still need to continue the effort with the flyers. We still need to keep his picture out there, because there still is this likelihood and this possibility that Trenton is with somebody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The search is still on for 2-year-old Trenton Duckett, reportedly taken out of his own baby crib, out of his own bedroom, a 10- inch slash in the window screen the only evidence we have.
Out to "Daily Commercial"`s Marilyn Aciego.
Marilyn, was it ever determined if that window screen was slashed from the outside or the inside?
ACIEGO: The last thing police told us was, it appeared to have been slashed from the outside, but it has not been sent back from the lab yet.
GRACE: You know, that`s a very interesting point.
Let`s go out to the G-Men tonight, all former feds, Don Clark, former head of the FBI Houston bureau.
Don, how is it that you look at a screen, much the way you would look at a broken window pane, and determine, was the screen cut from the inside or the outside? The first time the public really became familiar with this process is during the Elizabeth Smart case. You remember that?
DON CLARK, FORMER FBI INVESTIGATOR: That`s exactly right, Nancy.
And, you know, this is not necessarily brain surgery, but they know, if they take an object, and if you have to cut something from one way or the other, particularly with a screen, that you`re going to find that the little wires that are in there are going to be bent from the in -- in towards the inside, if it happens to be cut from the outside, and vice versa. So, that`s very easy for the police to do.
And if it is cut from the outside, then, clearly, it would say that, yes, there was somebody out there who tried to get the baby out.
Now, having said that, if you`re trying to bring something through that same object, that same orifice there, then you`re going to find that the screens may reverse themselves. But it won`t be all of them. And you will still be able to get a sense that it was cut from the outside or the inside.
GRACE: Absolutely, because, unless it`s a single slash with, for instance, a razor blade, you will actually see the working on the wire from the serrated edge of the knife.
And to you, Harold Copus, also former FBI agent, current private investigator, we now know that the search has changed. The search is now focused on dumps, to large land clearings. That says to me, they do not believe Trenton is still alive.
HAROLD COPUS, FORMER FBI AGENT: You know, that`s very unfortunate, but that really is the -- the focus now.
What you have to do, working that timeline, you want to go back, and you want to now see, is there a possibility we can place her car and then expand your search for little Trenton from that location.
GRACE: Mike Brooks, why is the car so critical?
BROOKS: Well, the car, they want people to take a look at this car, look at the tag number, and, you know, maybe refresh their recollection of, hey, I saw this car at a shopping center on the afternoon before it happened.
You know, that`s why they have put it out there, made it open to the public, because they`re going to need the public`s help in this, Nancy.
If anyone has seen any ground, new ground that`s been turned over, let the law enforcement officers know. You see anything at all that seems suspicious, anything at all that you thought -- think you may have seen on those days leading up to this, please let law enforcement know.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Members of the Leesburg Police Department, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and FBI continue to work tirelessly in their efforts to find little Trenton and bring him home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The search is still on for 2-year-old Trenton Duckett. His mom, as you know by now, recently committed suicide, under intense scrutiny.
Tonight, with us, a very special guest, Trenton`s father, Josh Duckett.
Josh, where is the police search leading you? I mean, where are they looking now? Are -- they started looking in local lakes at all?
J. DUCKETT: Not to my knowledge.
I mean, they have just been doing the standard searches of properties and stuff, nowhere in particular, just the standard searches that they`re getting from tips.
GRACE: Josh, I understand that, this Friday, Melinda Duckett`s funeral will take place in a private ceremony. Are you attending that service?
J. DUCKETT: I had had full intentions on attending. I mean, regardless of the bad blood, I mean, I still want to show my respects and stuff.
But, out of respect for her family, I won`t be at that service, due to the circumstances.
GRACE: You mean the fact that there had been bad feelings over the divorce and the custody?
J. DUCKETT: Yes, bad feelings from her family towards me.
Out of respect for them, I won`t attend the service.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If anybody has any information, whether they think it`s important or not, just come to the police. They may have seen Melinda or Trenton, anything that could be helpful in the investigation, we just -- we want Trenton home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The search for this little boy goes on. Two-year-old Trenton Duckett reportedly taken out of his own home as he slept in his baby crib.
Out to Court TV`s Jean Casarez. In addition to these MySpace postings, they`re voluminous, and they`re all talking -- a lot of them are talking about disappointment, death, funeral. Very disturbing, but what I also found interesting was that she wrote to her friends on her MySpace and stated that a lot of them didn`t know she had a child.
CASAREZ: Well, that`s true. But I think what will help her, because you know, her family stands behind her, Nancy. And on a lot of these blogs, she talks about her devotion, her love for her son, how she`s forsaking relationships for her son.
Listen to this one, Nancy, in terms of a breakup with a man. She says, "Because of a child, I search not only for I. The search presses on until the day that I die."
BECK: Let`s go to Andrea Macari, Dr. Macari, instructor of psychology. These MySpace blogs are very, very disturbing in that she states, "I know a lot of you don`t even know I have a child." I want to talk about that, and I want to ask you about what we know about suicide, Andrea.
MACARI: Well, unfortunately, we don`t know an enormous amount of suicide relative to other psychological concepts. We do know that suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States. Women attempt suicide more, but men actually are more successful at it.
And the reason why is that women use methods like poisoning themselves, taking an overdose or cutting their wrists, which tends not to be a very lethal way to kill yourself. Whereas men use very lethal methods, like shooting themselves.
There`s also a difference in terms of ethnicity. Caucasians and Asians have higher rates of suicide. African-Americans actually have a very low rate of suicide.
In terms -- go ahead, Nancy.
GRACE: And another issue regarding these blogs, I mean, a 21-year-old girl. She`s beautiful. Raising a child, trying to work, trying to support herself, dating a lot of people, having an active social life.
Where the heck does she get the time to write all these dark blogs about how life cannot be fun, I`ve got so many issues, they hold me down from my dreams? A lot about death. And she`s 21 years old. You don`t usually expect that from such a young person.
MACARI: Well, it`s definitely the 21st Century`s version of the "dear diary." I think that`s really what`s going on here. You see the sadness, the turmoil and conflict she`s experiencing.
GRACE: Andrea, please, when you were 21, did you write on and on and on about death, about how miserable you were?
MACARI: No, but I wasn`t dying on the inside, literally. I`m not suffering from mental illness. We know that people who kill themselves, 85 to 90 percent have an underlying mental illness going on. And I think that`s what you`re seeing there in those blogs.
GRACE: Do you believe that people cave in to stress and commit suicide?
MACARI: There`s no one cause of suicide. There`s many, many predictors. The strongest predictor of suicide is whether the person has engaged in any self injurious behaviors like burning themselves or cutting themselves. We also see that people that commit suicide feel disenfranchised with the world, isolated and lonely.
GRACE: To Josh Duckett, this is Trenton`s father, still trying to find his son. Can you help us tonight? Josh appeared on our show at the very beginning. He has taken a polygraph immediately upon request. He`s had police search his home. He`s given an alibi that checked out with his friends. I gave him a grilling.
Long story short, he`s doing everything, from searching himself to handing out flyers and tonight, he`s asking for your help.
Josh, again, thank you for being with us. Josh, it`s my understanding that the police had taken Melinda into custody in the past for her own well-being. Is that true?
DUCKETT: Yes, that is. She had been Baker Acted before for threats that she had been made about ending it all in terms of committing suicide before. She was Baker Acted, taken to a mental behavioral center. The average time that they keep them is 72 hours, and they kept her less than 24.
GRACE: And Josh, how long ago was that?
DUCKETT: That was in April of `04, I believe.
GRACE: And I know that out of respect for her, even though you guys had a lot of bad blood going on during this divorce and custody, that you do not want to comment on that very much. So I appreciate you commenting at all.
To Renee Rockwell, veteran defense attorney. That jurisdiction is called the Baker Act where police come and take you. In our old jurisdiction, it`s called the 24. Explain, how the police manage to haul you off behind bars for your own safe keeping.
RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, it`s just basically to protect the person, put him in the hospital, let the professionals look at them, and make sure they`re OK. Not only for themselves, but in the case like this, this woman may have had access a couple of years ago to young children.
But Nancy, what makes me interested in this contentious divorce the most is, could it be that she did not want her husband to have that child, therefore, she decided to kill herself and before she did that, maybe she did give the child away, or that`s my hope. And with this publicity, maybe this child can be recovered. I haven`t given up yet.
GRACE: You know what, Renee? Neither have we.
Looking at more of her blogging, and it`s three inches thick of all the blogs, the writings she wrote, Andrea, I`d like your take on this, our psychologist here tonight. Listen to this.
"I can paint a smile on my face. I can blend into a different race. I cry for all I`ve lost. I go on for all its cost." Listen to this. "I will hide the bruises on my arms. I will never admit my bodily harm. I will sink into myself. I will live on without anyone`s help."
Does this indicate some type of self-mutilation or what?
MACARI: It`s definitely possible now when she`s talking about bruises on her arm, does she mean literally bruises or maybe she`s talking about just figurative bruises? It`s really hard to tell.
I think, yes, it could certainly speak to the issue of some type of self-injurious behavior. Certainly by looking at your body, usually there`s scars when that takes place. Usually, people aren`t beating themselves, they`re punching themselves to get bruises. Usually, it`s more using knives and cutting themselves.
GRACE: OK. Let`s go to the lines. Sharon in Canada.
Hi, Sharon.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good. What`s your question?
CALLER: I`ve listened to this case from the very beginning, and I`m really beginning to wonder if little Trenton was ever put to bed in the first place in the home.
GRACE: Sharon, you are preaching to the choir.
Let`s go back out to our g-men. They`re all former well-respected FBI graduates. They all served with the federal government, with the FBI. So first, out to Mike brooks, former FBI and D.C. police detective.
You know, police are now saying they`re narrowing down the timeline from between 4 p.m. on Saturday, 9 p.m. on Sunday. That only makes sense. The grandmother saw the child till 4 on Saturday. He was announced missing 9 p.m. on Sunday.
She was with the child all that time, Mike. All that time. Nobody else saw them. She would not give police a timeline. The police told me that themselves. She wouldn`t give me a timeline or even name a store, for Pete`s sake, they went to.
BROOKS: Very, very -- it`s unusual. And...
GRACE: Sharon is right.
BROOKS: Absolutely. And she also created an alibi for herself by inviting friends over to watch a movie with her at her house, and that is when she discovered, at 9 p.m., that Trenton was missing.
And the other thing, Nancy, that I hope law enforcement has done is taken all the tools that were in her house, because with that also with that torn screen, with that broken screen, they can do tool mark impressions at the lab to see what kind of tool was used to cut the screen, whether it was a knife, whether it was something that was clipped. And may possibly -- may be able to match that to some tool that she may have had in her home.
GRACE: You just mentioned something very important. What about it, Don Clark, creating your own alibi? This would not be the first time we`ve seen that.
CLARK: No, it wouldn`t at all be the first time that we`ve seen that. And that is a very distinct possibility.
But right now, Nancy, law enforcement is priority. There are two priorities, and I think they`re one and the same. One is to find this little boy. That`s No. 1.
And No. 2, which I also think is equal, is to do everything they can to try to figure out where Melinda was and what she was doing. Because I think that`s going to be part of being able to find what happened to the little boy, is to try to find out where she was and what she was doing.
That`s the difficult task. That`s how they`re going to have to split up their resources to see if it if they can come to some solution.
GRACE: Right. Let`s go out to the lines. Sunny (ph) in Ohio. Hi, Sunny (ph).
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. My question is, now, I don`t know if you`re familiar with Florida area. There`s I-4, and I-75. And along those highways, there are many different communities, development communities. And I just want to know if those areas have been searched, too, outside of Leesburg.
GRACE: Out to Jean Casarez, Court TV news correspondent.
Jean, I know that they are looking all through Lake County. What do you know about the scope of the search, Jean?
CASAREZ: Well, that`s right. Well, I think the scope is broadening. You know, Nancy, I`m in central Florida right now, and Leesburg is about two hours down. But I`m in central Florida. Central Florida is a very large area.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Let`s go to Headline Prime`s Glenn Beck. Hi, friend.
GLENN BECK, HOST, "GLENN BECK": Coming up, you know it has all gone to hell when "The Today Show" gives a platform to a pedophile, and a nice new set and a beautiful flowery platform. Deb LaFave is beautiful. So having sex with one of her students is OK, right, America? Wrong.
And you want to talk about wrong? How about padded bras for 6-year- olds? I ain`t kidding.
All that plus Iran, North Korea and getting cozy on a summit 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Hate in Havana. Don`t miss tonight`s episode.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had a lot of input, wise kid. Just very, very sincere. And he just absolutely loved his mom. He lit up when he saw his mom, and his mom lit up when Daniel walked into the room. They had a magical relationship.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back, everybody. As you may know by now, cover girl Anna Nicole Smith`s 20-year-old son passed away. Criminal investigators now being called in.
Out to Jean Casarez with Court TV. Jean, what happened?
CASAREZ: Well, what happened was that her son arrived in the Bahamas over the weekend Saturday night, we understand. He went straight to his mother`s room and stayed with her in the room. The next morning, he was talking to her, taking care of her, attending to her. And then he went to a chair and appeared to just sort of fall asleep.
Well, she tried to rouse him at one point, couldn`t rouse him. Medical personnel went in. For 22 minutes, they performed CPR on him, and he was pronounced dead shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday morning.
GRACE: A 20-year-old gone. And let me advise you, the reason he went to the hospital is his mom, Anna Nicole Smith, had just given birth to a brand new baby, and he was there visiting her.
Found sitting upright in a chair. Cause of death not natural. No external injuries on body, no evidence of heart attack. So far, drugs, we`re still waiting on a toxicology report yet. So we don`t know anything, really, about drugs in his blood stream.
Joining us, a very special guest, the CEO of Trimspa. As you all know by now, you can`t escape those ads of Anna Nicole Smith shedding tons of weight to become a cover girl all over again for Trimspa. But more important to us tonight, he`s a very dear friend of Anna Nicole Smith`s, Alex Goen.
You know, Alex, Anna Nicole shot to the headlines in my world, because she was fighting with her deceased husband over the fortune. She was his legitimate wife, but his son was trying to take the fortune. Long story short, that`s when she burst into the legal scene, but she`s been in the celeb scene forever.
How is she? You spoke to her en route to the show.
ALEX GOEN, CEO, TRIMSPA: She`s doing a bit better today. This morning, she woke up at 4 in the morning. And it was probably the first full hour that she didn`t break down. She was taking care of her beautiful baby girl, nursing her. Later on in the day, she was thinking about Daniel once again and having many challenges. I spoke to her.
GRACE: That`s her son right there in the wedding picture, correct? We were just showing.
GOEN: Yes, it is.
GRACE: Yes, I mean they were together all the time. You know what? That is her husband`s funeral. Remember, she wore the wedding dress. And her son was with her through thick and thin. And on our show, he was always with her on our show, with her all the time, constant companion.
GOEN: They had a magic relationship. Absolutely no question about it. I mean, anytime Daniel walked into the room, Anna lit up, and when Anna walked into the room, Daniel lit up. They really loved each other, and it was an amazing relationship.
Not only did they have a great relationship, Howard K. Stern and Daniel, Howard was like a father at times, a brother at times, and a great friend at times.
GRACE: Let`s go out to the lawyers, Joe Lawless and Renee Rockwell. To Renee Rockwell, why are police being called in? Why is this turning into a criminal investigation?
ROCKWELL: Well, Nancy, anytime there`s a sudden death in the Bahamas, they rule it as a suspicious death. And they will have an inquiry, criminal inquiry, and if -- I mean if need be, people will be questioned. I understand there was another person in that room.
How do you die in a hospital? If you have an overdose somewhere else, and you`re brought to the hospital, maybe you die. It just sounds a little too much for me to handle. There needs to be an inquiry.
GRACE: Well, Renee, throwing out a theory without naming it, what do you think happened?
ROCKWELL: Nancy, I`m not going to say anything till the toxicology comes back.
GRACE: Wise, wise. Joe Lawless, jump in.
JOE LAWLESS, ATTORNEY: That`s what I think the Bahamian officials are doing. They`re throwing out theories with absolutely no evidence. This young man could have died of a brain aneurysm. I had someone drop dead in front of me when I was in college.
They`re giving interviews. They`re throwing out tidbits. They should just do their job, keep their mouth shut and wait till the hard evidence is in before they start casting this kind of pall over what was a very tragic set of circumstances. I think their behavior is despicable.
GRACE: Now I don`t know how you got off me asking you about criminal investigators to saying somebody`s behavior is despicable. But I`ll get back to you in a moment, Joe Lawless.
Let`s take a listen to what the coroner had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDA VIRGILL, CORONER: The question was asked by me whether or not there was a third person in the room, and I said I could not confirm that. What I could say is, based on the police report, there may have been other persons or person in the room.
That is important, and the reason why it is important, again, you must protect interested parties, and it`s a jury who will determine at the end of the day whether or not there was, in fact, a third person in the room or whether there were, in fact, persons, other persons, in the room. You see, at the end of the day, it is not Linda Virgill the coroner who makes the decision. That is the decision that is made strictly by the jurists.
On examination of the body there no injuries -- visible injuries -- to the body. No physical injuries. You see in all of these things, and that is why we need an inquest, because you need -- even though you have the medical cause of death -- we need legally to have the legal cause of death. So when I used the word, "No external injuries," we`re talking about physical injuries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: It`s not really a big secret, is it, Alex Goen? I mean, we all know that Howard Stern, her lawyer, was her constant companion, as well. It had to be him.
GOEN: They were best friends.
GRACE: What`s wrong with that? What`s wrong with him being in the room? Why is that a big secret?
GOEN: I think it`s crazy. I mean, Anna was in the room, and Daniel slept next to Anna in the same bed and Howard slept in a bed next to Daniel and Howard. I mean, it`s absolutely ludicrous to suggest a third person did something, like it was Howard Stern.
GRACE: Like it was suspicious.
GOEN: Correct. It doesn`t make any sense.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIRGILL: We are going to move quite quickly in holding the inquiry, and that will take place at the end of October. So at that time, all matters leading to cause of death and also cause of death will then be revealed in the current inquest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The young son of Anna Nicole Smith found dead in the hospital there in the Bahamas.
Out to the lines, Julie in Montana. Hi, Julie.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. Love your show, love your book.
GRACE: Thank you. What`s your question?
CALLER: Listen, another network earlier in the day -- and I only caught daytime TV because I happened to be home sick today -- but reported that there was large amounts of blood around the hospital room. Have you heard anything about that or...
GRACE: Well, I got a source right here that is in constant touch with Anna Nicole Smith. Alex Goen, CEO of Trimspa and a friend of Anna and Daniel. I don`t think that`s true.
GOEN: There was no blood, and there was no vomit. And I know that was both reported.
GRACE: Was this young man on antidepressants?
GOEN: I don`t know if he was on antidepressants.
GRACE: Now, is it true that Anna Nicole Smith actually is the one that learned he was not breathing? You`re sitting in a hospital. Aren`t nurses supposed to be checking on them? And she figures out he`s not asleep; he`s not breathing?
GOEN: Exactly what happened.
GRACE: What the heck is going on in that hospital?
GOEN: That`s right. It doesn`t make sense. She yelled at Howard, and Howard woke up and quickly took his pulse and called the doctors into the room to try to resuscitate him.
GRACE: Is that the same hospital where she had had the baby girl?
GOEN: Yes, it is.
GRACE: If he used an antidepressant, how could that affect him?
MACARI: Well, it would be highly unlikely for an antidepressant to actually cause death. There are many different kinds of antidepressants. There`s one class called an MAOI, which has a lot of actions and interactions with different kinds of dairy foods, things like cheese, certain kinds of aged wines. It would be very unlikely for him to have been prescribed that.
GRACE: Right now, so many theories swirling. Final thoughts?
GOEN: My final thought is right now, at a time when Anna and Howard should be able to grieve, they can`t grieve. And Howard right now is just working 24 hours a day, and it`s just so unfortunate.
GRACE: With us, Alex Goen, CEO of Trimspa and friend of Anna Nicole and Daniel. Our thoughts are with them tonight.
Tonight we start to remember Army Specialist Joseph Micks, 22, Rapid River, Michigan. A former Boy Scout, first tour of duty, leaves behind a loving family, a grieving widow, Ramona, he met on duty. Joseph Micks, American hero.
Thank you to all of our guests but especially to you. Nancy Grace signing off again for tonight. See you tomorrow night. And until then, good night, friend.
END
