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Nancy Grace

Former Boyfriend of Air Force Nurse to Talk

Aired December 01, 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 brunette beauty, a young nurse vanishes right here on American soil, at home waiting, her 16-month-old baby girl. Why has the baby`s dad refused to meet with police? Where is Nonnie Dotson?
And tonight, it is war on America`s number-one enemy, crystal meth. This guy pulls down over a quarter million dollars a year, but a high- powered CitiGroup executive allegedly running a meth lab in his high-rise luxury penthouse. Crystal meth -- take a look. You can cook it up in your own kitchen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) new details now coming out that she had been to a line dancing club, a country-Western bar the night before (INAUDIBLE) and apparently had been bothered by a couple of patrons, finally left that establishment, went back to her brother`s house the next day, planning to run errands, planning to go out, and was never seen again. It`s a situation where she left that 16-month-old girl with her brother. He was going to watch Savannah, along with his own children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... somebody`s got her, that somebody`s got her and doing who knows what, you know, to her. She would be here if she could.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.

Tonight: An Air Force nurse vanishes into thin air, not overseas fighting for her country but right here on American soil, leaving behind a 16-month-old baby girl. Where is Nonnie Dotson tonight?

Straight out to Kevin McGlue, the news director with KCOL in San Diego. Welcome, Kevin. What can you tell us?

KEVIN MCGLUE, KCOL: Well, I`ll tell you what, really three big developments in terms of really trying to find anything but dead ends in this case. First of all, the fact that the father of Nonnie`s 16-month-old daughter, Savannah, that being 53-year-old Edward Vehle, finally is speaking with investigators down in Texas. He had initially declined to speak with authorities. And that really being reported as something that his attorney had advised him to do. Now he is, in fact, answering some questions.

And you go into the past of both Nonnie and Edward Vehle and their relationship. and it certainly was a rocky relationship. So hopefully, there will be something gleaned from that conversation.

Also reports that Nonnie Dotson had a conversation with her mother about how, quote, "The Air Force has done me way wrong." Now, again, this might just be idle chatter between a mother and daughter, but for those people who are in the camp that believe that possibly Nonnie staged her own disappearance and wanted to leave and not go back to Lackland Air Force base down in San Antonio, this provides a little bit of fodder.

Third and finally, family and friends right now taking to the Internet in their search for Nonnie. They posted an informative clip on Youtube which gives all of Nonnie`s information, the description, last known whereabouts, several pictures, almost a slide show, if you will, set to music. Nonnie was someone who obviously was involved in the Internet, did some Internet dating, was frequently checking her Myspace page and posting blogs on there, was also active on Singleparentmeet.com. So family and friends really thinking that this is a demographic maybe that should be reached out to a little more effectively, as they may have some information that those in the general public may just not have.

GRACE: Let`s unchain the lawyers. Joining us tonight from the Texas jurisdiction, Courtney Anderson, and from the Atlanta jurisdiction, Renee Rockwell. First to you, Courtney. I don`t like it. Here`s the father of this baby. He`s 53 years old. He`s a grown man. He should know better. What`s he doing not cooperating with police? All this time passing, and finally, he breaks down and talks to police. What`s the holdup?

COURTNEY ANDERSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I`m not going to characterize it that way. I mean, it sounds like the gentleman did what anybody who is smart would do in the beginning. Somebody`s disappeared, police are asking questions, the media gets involved. You need to ask an attorney to help you. He gets an attorney to help him. Allegedly, apparently, some police tried to come to his home and he didn`t have counsel present. He was not able to speak to them because of that at that time. He now...

GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

ANDERSON: ... agreed to do so.

GRACE: What now? The mother of your baby is missing, a 16-month-old baby girl. Mom walks out to get a smoothie and run a couple of errands, she`s gone, and you can`t talk to police? Now, why was that?

ANDERSON: Some of the reports that I`ve seen have said that the father was not that close with the child and probably not that close with his former girlfriend. So he might not have had a good, strong, positive day-to-day relationship. Thus, if the police came calling, I would do like probably he thought to do. He thought, Let me talk to a lawyer. Let me see what I need to do. He got the suspicion that people weren`t coming to talk to him to see if he`d e-mailed her that day or had a conversation with her about what kind of smoothie she wanted. He probably suspected they were looking at him as a potential suspect in her disappearance.

GRACE: OK, to you, Renee Rockwell. Doesn`t he owe her -- and he`s not a suspect. I`m just laying it out there, what we know tonight. Isn`t it true that he owes her several thousand dollars worth of child support payments?

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That`s true, Nancy, but -- because of a paternity suit. But I have never been happy about a client making a statement. People tend to want to talk to the police, to talk themselves out of trouble. But never have I, as a defense attorney, been happy about a statement. It`s not happening. You`re not going to talk the police out of anything.

GRACE: Take a listen to what her mother has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... somebody`s got her, that somebody`s got her and doing who knows what, you know, to her. She would be here if she could. (INAUDIBLE) Nonnie, and we`ll keep looking for you until we find you. We just want you home. Just want you home!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every time the phone rings, you jump. Every time somebody knocks on the door, you jump. And it`s just -- it`s a cumulative effect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Out to Art Harris, investigative reporter. Art, what can you tell me about the father of the baby? First of all, he is not geographically suitable as a suspect anyway. He`s in Texas. She is up in Colorado, as I recall. So where was he at the time she went missing?

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, we don`t know and have to assume, at this point, he`s not a suspect, say police. He was in San Antonio. If he`s in San Antonio, has an alibi, that brings us to her final hours, Nancy. The night before, she was at a country and Western bar called the Grizzly Rose in Littleton. She loved to line dance. She left there controversially, we don`t know, between 12:00 and 2:00.

GRACE: Did I just hear you say controversially?

HARRIS: Well, there are two stories when she left. Some people in the bar said she was last seen about midnight, Nancy. Others say that -- oh, she said to her brother later that she shut the place down.

GRACE: OK, now, let me ask you something, Art Harris. Let me see Art right now. Art, are you trying in some way to say that because we all know she was a -- she was a line dancing enthusiast. So are you saying that somehow, because this young mom went out and had a good time and stayed out late and closed the place down, that somehow that`s connected to her disappearance the next day, in the afternoon, after she`s been at home with her child...

HARRIS: Nancy? Nancy, it depends...

GRACE: ... and goes to get a smoothie, because she`s a party girl? Is that what you`re saying?

HARRIS: You know, Nancy, it depends on who she met. Apparently, reports she had some run-ins with some bad actors, bad characters that night. She left about 2:30, got home, was on her computer. Her brother heard her. And the next day goes out to get a smoothie about 1:00 o`clock.

Now, we don`t know where she met anybody, if she met somebody from the night before. This is something that police want to find out. They`ve been trying to interview people who were at the bar that night and close that timeline. They want anyone who has seen her between midnight and 3:00 in the morning the night before to please call police.

GRACE: OK, I`ve got a little problem here. Joining me is Jim Shires, the PIO, public information officer, with Jefferson County sheriff`s office there in Golden (ph), Colorado. Welcome, sir. Thank you very much for being with us.

Everyone is focusing on what took her so long to get home, from the line dancing the night before to home. She made it home safely. She spent the night at home. She played with her child. She was on line. She left the next day in the afternoon to go run some errands. Why is everyone so focused on the timeline the night before, Sheriff?

JIM SHIRES, PUBLIC INFO. OFFICER, JEFFERSON CO. SHERIFF`S OFFICE: Well, I think that`s one of the puzzles that`s still out there that we are trying to piece together with this whole incident of Nonnie missing. And that`s our major concern, is put all of the pieces together so we have a full understanding of who Nonnie met, who she was seeing, if anybody, and also why we want to talk to Mr. Vehle.

GRACE: Now, Mr. Vehle, that`s the boyfriend, the ex-boyfriend?

SHIRES: That`s correct. Mr. Vehle is the father of Savannah Marie.

GRACE: The biological dad. Do we know that he was there in Texas, where he lives, at the time Nonnie went missing?

SHIRES: I`m not aware of that, at this point, of his exact location where he was when she went missing.

GRACE: OK. Do we have any reason to believe that he was in the Colorado jurisdiction?

SHIRES: No.

GRACE: You know, another thing I`m trying to figure out, what was happening in the home at the time she left the home? Who all was at home beside her baby girl, Savannah? Who else was there?

SHIRES: My understanding, it was her brother and his children.

GRACE: The brother and his children. Where was his wife?

SHIRES: She was at work.

GRACE: She was at work. So it was just the sister and the brother and their children. Did she leave behind her -- oh, no, she took her cell phone with her, right?

SHIRES: That`s our understanding, correct.

GRACE: Out to Mike Brooks. Mike, thanks for being with us, former D.C. cop and former fed with the FBI. Mike, I understand that scent dogs tracked her away from the home onto the ramp of an interstate. Tracker dogs can smell you when you`re in a car. That`s not unusual. Then they lost her somewhere on the interstate. What do you make of it?

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: That would (INAUDIBLE) to me (INAUDIBLE) these were the good tracker dog with a good handler, Nancy, (INAUDIBLE) she may have gotten into a vehicle with somebody by that interstate. Now, the smoothie place she was going to was apparently on the other side of the interstate. So there`s a possibility she could have gotten in a car with someone or someone could have snatched her and put her in a car.

And Nancy, also, we`re talking about the timeline with Deputy Shires. One of the things we want to take a look at, too -- she was supposed to have met a female at that bar and the female didn`t show up. Was there really a female or was there not a female? She also was on Singleparentmeet.com, apparently, before she went. And her brother said that she -- he thought that she was back on that Web site somewhere around 2:30 AM, approximately 2:30 AM, when she apparently got home. So who was she talking to? And that`s a big question.

GRACE: OK. Now -- now you`re talking. Although I don`t like the biological dad not immediately speaking to police, now, that`s his constitutional right. But long story short, if he`s down in Texas, this lady`s in Colorado, who gives a fig if he talks to police or not?

I`m interested in this Singleparentmeet.com. Mark Brooks, Onlinepersonalswatch.com. What can you tell me, Mark?

MARK BROOKS, ONLINEPERSONALSWATCH.COM: This is actually a niche dating site targeting single parents. It`s one of the top dating -- niche dating networks in the USA. Black people meet and senior people meet at two other properties that this particular network has. It`s the most popular by far in the single parents niche.

She had a profile which is actually still alive on the site. And I`m a little disturbed by a couple of things that she said in her profile. In the very first line, she says that she likes to be kissed anywhere and she also -- you know, it`s a very endearing profile, but it also portrays her - - it makes her seem a little vulnerable. She says, "I`m the girl who loves it when you introduce me to your friends as your girlfriend." So this kind of profile, I think, endearing as it is, is possibly going to draw in the - - somebody who`s more interested in a casual relationship, to be sure.

GRACE: OK, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. Mark Brooks is with us, joining us out of Tampa, Florida. He is with Onlinepersonalswatch.com. Mark, what about her profile bugs you? What makes her look vulnerable, as you say?

MARK BROOKS: Well, there`s a couple of things. I looked over her Myspace profile here, and her Myspace profile is quite -- quite -- she actually writes an extended blog post called "Ode to the nice girls," which -- she says, "This rant was written because a nice girl finally snapped."

GRACE: The nice girl finally did what?

MARK BROOKS: "A nice girl finally snapped." She refers to herself as a nice girl who finally snapped.

GRACE: What do you mean snapped?

MARK BROOKS: Well, good question. Let me read on. She says, "This is homage to the girls who laugh loud and often, who are comfortable in skirts, sweats and combat boots." But then she also says, "This is for the girls who have been used and abused." So -- and this goes on for three pages.

GRACE: OK. Let`s go out to Dr. Patricia Saunders, clinic psychologist. Dr. Saunders, for us to sit back and throw stones at someone meeting on line -- I`m not buying into that. You know how many people are meeting and getting married and having long-term relationships by meeting on line? It`s not that unusual anymore, apparently. But what do you make of what Mark has just told you? Does this make her more vulnerable in some way?

PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, I think that there are a number of factors that may make her vulnerable. If she has a history of abusive relationships with men -- women who have that kind of relationship will tend to be very vulnerable and miss certain danger cues. The -- we know that there are predators out there, even on a Singleparentmeet.com dating site. The Internet creates a false sense of intimacy, a false sense of security. And it`s very possible that somebody spotted someone who`s yearning to have a real relationship, who`s a good girl, and had nefarious purposes in mind.

GRACE: Let`s go out to the lines. Allen in Illinois. Hi, Allen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Nancy. I love you, and...

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... keep up the good fight.

GRACE: Thank you. That will take some energy, but I`ll try. What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was wondering, have they been able to ping her any on her cell phone?

GRACE: Let`s go straight back out to Mike Brooks. What can you tell me?

MIKE BROOKS: Apparently, they were able to trace her to one part up by the interstate. And then after that, nothing else -- nothing at all on her cell phone. And also, have not been any activity on her credit card or her ATM card. They`ve been following that, but no activity whatsoever, which concerns me also, Nancy.

GRACE: Now, the pinging -- again, sorry, I couldn`t quite hear you. Where did the pinging drop off, Mike?

MIKE BROOKS: It was somewhere around the interstate, where they were able to trace it back to her interstate where she went to get the smoothie. Apparently, then it dropped off right about there. So either she turned it off, the battery`s run down -- and you know, as I said, there has been no activity on her credit card or ATM card at all, Nancy. And that is very concerning to me.

GRACE: To Jim Shires, the PIO in Jefferson County sheriff`s office there in Colorado. Sheriff, again, thank you for being with us. That is very, very disturbing, for her cell phone to stop pinging. In other words, it`s either cut off or the battery is dead. No ATM withdrawals, no credit card, nothing. She`s not out gallivanting or having a good time or doing a walkabout.

SHIRES: Well, that`s definitely some things that concern us, too. As far as the cell phone goes, we tried three or four times to, as they call it, triangulate where that cell phone was, and we came up to the same location each time we did that. That field, that area where that phone was supposedly located at and had not moved for three days until we believe the battery went dead, has been walked by our K-9 units, many of our employees here, investigators here, sheriff`s deputies out there in the field. We walked about five to six miles in that area.

GRACE: Very quickly, to tonight`s "Case Alert." A federal judge orders FEMA to pay up on housing aid for thousands of Katrina victims, victims left homeless and penniless when government aid suddenly shut off. FEMA, how would you like to live in the backyard and eat out of a can? Get to work!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I came back, it was as though God had left me. Everything as far as you could see was gone. Everything was turned on its side. Everything was turned -- covered with green slime.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The people waiting on this money are people who were paying mortgages on homes they can`t afford to move back into. They`re people living in FEMA trailers. And FEMA is now coming to take away those trailers, and the people can`t afford to move back into their homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Say "Hi, Mama."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sixteen-month-old Savannah is to young to understand why her mother is missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She would be here if she could.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But her grandmother knows something horrible may have taken her away. Nonnie`s family is doing everything they can to find her...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s Mommy!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... before her little girl asks where her mother is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: A young brunette beauty, an Air Force nurse, goes missing right here on American soil. No, not overseas in Iraq, but just feet away from her brother`s own home, the family home, she is last seen, never seen again.

Straight back out to Jim Shires with Jefferson County sheriff`s office. Sheriff, let me get this straight. Almost the same place you can last detect her cell phone is where you also lost the dog scent on her? Sheriff, are you with me? OK, not hearing Sheriff Shires.

Let`s go to Art Harris. Can you fill me in on that?

HARRIS: The cell phone apparently was in that area where they last believe she was, near the interstate. But they also wonder if the ping may have been the tower of the cell phone nearby. So inconclusive exactly what that ping picked up.

GRACE: Do we know, Kevin McGlue, whether she ever made it to the smoothie shop?

MCGLUE: No, she apparently did not. And again, this is a situation where it was a 10-minute walk, and apparently, where they located not only the pinging but the scent was also about 10 minutes away from her brother`s house. So all indications say, no, she never did.

GRACE: What more can you tell me about the father of the little girl?

MCGLUE: Well, when you look at, really, what goes into this case with Mr. Vehle, what I think interests authorities is the fact that he called police back in Hollywood Park, Texas, in June of 2005, after Dotson had apparently refused to leave his home while she was picking up some of her belongings. That was just two weeks before she actually gave birth to Savannah, the couple`s daughter, and later had to come back with a police officer to retrieve those belongings.

GRACE: OK.

MCGLUE: So again, a situation where it`s rocky.

GRACE: So not a happy home life.

Out to Joann in New York. Hi, Joann.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I`m wondering if anybody`s doing -- checking on any connections where she made comments about the military, you know, did her wrong. You know, is there any, you know, looking into anything like that? I mean, you hear all these stories, like with the runaway bride and stuff like that. I mean, you know, what`s going on there? And also, what about anybody she may have been on line with? You know, they can trace that stuff, too, can`t they?

GRACE: Yes, they really can. To Kevin McGlue. What do we know about the computer? Has it been taken? And what does she mean about her comments regarding the Air Force?

MCGLUE: Well, and again, this is a situation that comes out of the affidavit that the courts have just filed earlier in the week. And that is a comment that`s covered in the affidavits, and the exact quote of, "The Air Force has done me way wrong," which apparently she made to her mother on Wednesday, the 15th.

Apparently, that computer is right now being examined by authorities in Texas. And they have sent out and sent this affidavit to acquire the not only Hotmail service but also Myspace and Singleparentmeet.com to divulge these records to authorities.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody knows.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family is adamant Nonnie would never abandon her 16-month-old daughter, Savannah, but she`s been gone more than a week now, leading them to consider the worst case scenario.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re trying not to think about that, but that`s the reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Won`t you help us bring this young nurse home?

Out to the lines. To Jessica in Pennsylvania. Hi, Jessica.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. I was just wondering, I heard you ask about her not going to -- about never being at the smoothie store. Have they checked local business surveillance cameras to see if she was anywhere else, any other stores?

GRACE: Kevin, have they? OK, I`m hearing in my...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Yes, let me just try Jim Shires. Jim, have they checked local business surveillance?

SHIRES: Well, we have gone to the strip mall there, where the juice shop is, and talked to business owners and everything, and we are looking into that aspect of any other kind of surveillance of where she may have gone to.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN GILBRIDE, NY OFFICE OF DEA: John Gilbride, special agent in charge, New York Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and I am the supervising special agent in charge for Operation Red Fusion.

Michael Knibb was operating a clandestine lab that posed a danger, not only to Mr. Knibb, because he was in contact with caustic and volatile chemicals, he created a hazard for everyone else who lived in that building where that clandestine lab was located.

Finding a clandestine lab in New York City on 39th Street in an apartment operated by Mr. Knibb, that is extremely unique. It is shocking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: It is war on America`s number-one enemy: crystal meth, methamphetamine. Here`s a guy that pulls down over a quarter million dollars a year, but a high powered Citigroup executive allegedly ran a meth lab in his own high-rise luxury penthouse. That`s right.

The photos I was just showing you depict the effect of crystal methamphetamine on a person. There he is coming out of his high-rise. Let`s go straight out to Erika Martinez with the "New York Post."

This is right across from the U.N., and this guy is cooking up crystal meth?

ERIKA MARTINEZ, "NEW YORK POST": Yes, and that`s not the only thing. He was also cooking up some mescaline in that penthouse, as well. He`s a 36-year-old information and technology manager and vice president for Citicorp here in the city. And he moved here from Seattle about two years ago. And since did he not find a meth dealer here, he decided to make it himself.

GRACE: OK.

Out to Ken Seeley, crystal meth interventionist, you can cook up meth with items that you get at the pharmacy or now that you get at the grocery store, not just Sudafed, of course, but all types of over-the-counter drugs, right?

KEN SEELEY, RECOVERING ADDICT AND INTERVENTIONIST: Absolutely, Nancy.

GRACE: How do you do it?

SEELEY: Absolutely. You cook it up with all kinds of chemicals underneath your kitchen sink, Sudafed, anything that you have. They`re just baking it all over the country. It`s wiping out our country. You are so right, Nancy: This is a war. This is a war that`s wiping out millions of Americans right here in our backyards.

GRACE: OK. Another question to you: What are signs someone is on crystal meth?

SEELEY: Some of the signs you`re seeing right now, with the faces that you`re watching, are the people picking at their skins, but that`s when it gets further into the addiction. What we want to look for is the signs that the family and the employer has seen prior to this, the signs that are things like them, erratic behavior, staying up for days on end. These are things that are not normal behavior that I`m sure his employer, his friends recognized way prior to this time.

GRACE: Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: May 14, 2003, I was driving my car, and I heard God, so I thought, "Tell me to let go and let God." I let go of the steering wheel, and I wound up in the hospital with three broken ribs, two broken arms, a severed pancreas was there for 15 days. After I was out of the hospital, I went to a mental hospital for three days -- too, like Lani (ph) said, thought the world was after Miriam (ph) and thought my own, precious little 3 1/2-year-old daughter was after me, trying to kill me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was imagining that my brother was after me, and I would have my husband go out and look outside the window, and it was wintertime, and there wouldn`t be any footprints in the snow. I thought my brother had brought people with him, but I couldn`t see these people. I just saw, like, what some people describe as dark shadows. I would see them with their noses pushed up against the glass. And so I thought to myself, "My brother`s coming after me to kill me."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Crystal meth is believed by many to be America`s number-one enemy here on our own soil.

Back out to Art Harris, investigative reporter. This guy is living in a luxury penthouse that most people can only dream about, all right? It`s like what you see on television. He`s looking right down on the U.N. and the East River. He`s got it all; this guy`s a millionaire. He`s putting down a quarter million dollars a year, and he`s cooking up meth in his own home?

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: It was his hobby, Nancy. I talked to the agent who did the raid.

GRACE: His hobby.

HARRIS: That`s what he said.

GRACE: You know what happens when your hobby goes wrong? The whole place blows up.

HARRIS: That`s right, Nancy.

GRACE: That`s why so many houses have fires. At this time of the year, your house is on fire, it`s either your Christmas tree or you`re cooking up crystal meth in the kitchen.

HARRIS: Well, you know, he believed he was careful, according to the agent. He had the waste products, Nancy, in a giant jar by the bed with a cork on it, but he had converted a whole bedroom to his lab. They found seven grams of very pure, 94 percent crystal meth, as well as the mescaline.

And it was a bizarre place. He had 300 alarm clocks. He did not have a TV, so he couldn`t watch your show, Nancy. But he was obsessed with meth. He had printed out a stack of recipes from the Internet. And he kept a diary, Nancy, of his drug experiences. It was like a Timothy Leary overlooking the U.N., $6,000-a-month penthouse.

GRACE: Good to know. Of course, when anything goes wrong while you`re stirring up a little crystal meth over the family stove, the whole place blows. And this is a high-rise across the street from the U.N. Next thing you know, we think it was a terrorist attack, and here you`ve got this executive cooking up a little crystal meth overnight.

Let`s go out to the lines. Matt in North Carolina, hi, Matt.

CALLER: Hello, Nancy.

GRACE: Did you see those pictures, Matt? Do you see these poor freaks we`re showing? Show me the progression, Rosie. They start off so young, so rosy-faced. Next thing you know, they look like a crone from beyond the dead.

CALLER: That`s true. Nancy, I`m a firefighter EMT in North Carolina. And we see a lot of that, as this disease progresses from the West to the East. And my question for you tonight is: Here in the South, in some parts of the South, if you go to the store and buy an ephedrine or a pseudoephedrine product, you have to log in with the pharmacist, because most of these products have been put behind the counter.

Now, are the standards in New York the same? Is that something that`s been employed in New York or other parts of the North?

GRACE: You know what? I don`t know. Out to Erika Martinez. Erika is with the "New York Post."

Erika, I think you can go straight into a pharmacy and get Sudafed in the grocery store. Maybe it is behind a case. What can you tell us?

MARTINEZ: When you go to buy any kind of cold medicines like Sudafed that contain the products that are used to make crystal meth...

GRACE: Yes.

CALLER: ... you have to actually go in and show them your license. The government keeps track of how many of these you buy, how many of these boxes you buy.

GRACE: Well, apparently Tylenol cold pills don`t count because nobody ever stopped me when I was trying to buy those.

To Dr. William Morrone, toxicologist and pharmacologist, exactly what is it in OTC, over-the-counter, things like this that are typically harmless? How do you secrete it from -- I don`t want to give anybody a how-to, but if you can explain what I`m talking about, people cooking up meth at home and how dangerous it is.

DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, they`re converting ephedrine to amphetamine, and then they`re converting amphetamine to methamphetamine. And the process involves many caustic materials, many flammable materials. And many of these sites are treated as hazardous sites when they`re finally shut down by the authorities.

GRACE: Let`s unchain the lawyers and go to Trial 101 tonight. The difference between simple possession of methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute. It can cost you about 30 to 40 years more behind bars.

Sometimes, Renee Rockwell, it`s very difficult for a prosecutor to prove if someone, for instance, has meth for their own consumption or to distribute. I once had a case where there were four hits of crack, and I had to prove intent to distribute. Not hard to do. But explain the difference, Renee.

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, in the situation like just this guy that we have right here, he`s going to say, "I`m a multimillionaire, only had this for my own use," but he was manufacturing it.

What we`re looking for is someone that`s using it for themselves or perhaps distributing it to others. That`s the difference between a little bit of probation and a lot of jail time.

GRACE: You`re absolutely right. What about it, Courtney Anderson? What kind of jail time is this guy looking at, if he is convicted between a simple possession of meth and possession-intent to distribute?

COURTNEY ANDERSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it`s like you`ve already outlined. I mean, if it`s just simple possession and you have somebody here who, I would argue, if I was his defense attorney, the fact that he had such a successful life and he`d already accomplished so much shows the power of this disease.

He was gripped by it. It took over his life. And if it could destroy someone like him, what could it do to just the average person? So I would argue disease, disability, simple possession.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Meth abuse and meth production affects the United States nationwide. From the cornfields of the Midwest to the penthouses of New York City, this drug is a poisonous danger. And it not only it affects the user, but it affects the entire New York community.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my blog entry when my dad and I cook breakfast together. He always called me his honey, but then he started using the kitchen to make meth. One night, the police came in with white suits and gas masks. I was taken to the hospital and decontaminated. I haven`t seen my dad since.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: A millionaire executive living near the U.N. in New York City up in a luxury penthouse cooking up methamphetamine. Yes, he`s getting an escort out of the house, all right, by the feds! So many people don`t understand how addictive crystal meth is.

Joining us right now, a recovered addict, Vicki Sickles. Vicki, thank you for being with us.

VICKI SICKLES, RECOVERED METH ADDICT: I`m pleased to be here. Thank you.

GRACE: Vicki, how does it get a hold of you? I mean, here`s a guy, a millionaire, cooking up meth in his kitchen.

SICKLES: I think what people need to understand, Nancy, is how seductive this drug is. We live in a world that wants us to be productive and effective, and this is a drug that gives you 24 hours in every day, because you stay awake and you can get every minute out of every hour.

It`s a drug that gives you energy. It`s a drug that -- in the beginning, when it first tricks you into and seduces you into using it, you can think more clearly. You have social and sexual confidence. It really gives you a boost.

GRACE: How can you look -- how can you feel socially and sexually confident when you have oozing sores on your face?

SICKLES: Well, that`s down the line a little ways. People wouldn`t do it if it started out that way. At the beginning, the reason it`s so seductive is because it gives you energy and let`s you make the most out of every hour. It takes awhile for it to progress to the point where there are oozing sores coming out.

The hard part to understand, Nancy, is that, you know, we can educate people about the fact that it`s going to take your life down this road, but if you find yourself in a position where you`re vulnerable enough to try it for the first time -- and at the beginning, there`s positive benefits -- it takes a little while for it to progress to the point where you`re seeing shadow people, and picking your face, and your thinking is so distorted that you`re mixing up a batch in your kitchen in a New York high-rise.

GRACE: Vicki, how far did it take you? And how did it affect your life?

SICKLES: When I first started using it, I was a college graduate. I had never heard of it before. I was raised in a Midwestern town. I was an honor student. I had piano lessons. I had every advantage that a person could have growing up in the Midwestern United States. And I didn`t know what I was getting myself into. The places that it took me were places that I never thought that I would go.

GRACE: Like?

SICKLES: I was homeless; I was jailed; I was evicted; I was fired from every factory job that I tried to hold when I was addicted to methamphetamine; I neglected my child; I neglected my family. It devastated me.

GRACE: Out to Dr. William Morrone, toxicologist and pharmacologist, Doctor, what does it do to your body?

MORRONE: There is no doubt -- at recent scientific meetings, we`ve discussed the neurotoxic effect that methamphetamine depleted endogenous dopamine, and dopamine is a very important chemical in the brain. In the beginning, when you`re feeling alert and self-confident and you have energy, it`s the dopamine release that does it, but it`s neurotoxic.

GRACE: Well, what does it do to your -- break it down for me, Doctor. What did that just mean? What does it do to your internal organs and your nervous system?

MORRONE: You will become dependent on that drug to maintain a baseline function. In the beginning, you take it because you look for euphoria and everything works, and you need higher and higher doses to reach euphoria. And when you don`t take it...

GRACE: No, no, no, no, no, I`m asking you why these people, Doctor, look fresh-faced and young at the get-go, and at the end they look like skeletons with oozing sores on their face. What does this stuff do to you? I mean, with marijuana apparently you just raid the refrigerator and get fat, dumb and happy. But this -- I mean, it kills you.

MORRONE: Well, this is a stimulant. This is a stimulant. And these people are burning a lot of calories, and earlier guests said you get 24 hours out of every day. And sometimes these meth binges last two weeks. I had patients who`ve seen me that have taken enough meth to lose 50 or 60 pounds in 30 days. That`s scary.

GRACE: Back out to Mike Brooks.

MORRONE: Burning calories.

GRACE: Yes. Mike Brooks, former D.C. cop and former fed with the FBI, this guy endangered thousands of people, if that meth had blown in this apartment, this luxury high-rise.

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE: Depending on what kind of recipe he was making. Nancy, there are a number of different recipes that are involved in making methamphetamine. It sounds like he was making one that came out fairly pure, and he knew what he was doing because he was fairly educated, knew how to do it.

But, still, it`s an environmental hazard. It`s highly volatile. It could catch fire. And there`s a possibility that they could have had to decontaminate that whole building.

Nancy, I`ve seen cases, California, other places, where they`ve basically had to tear down houses because of the contamination problem. And you go anywhere in the country now, from the Midwest and Iowa to North Dakota to Georgia, and all the fire departments are trained in hazmat dealing with clandestine labs.

GRACE: To Tammy in Indiana, hi, Tammy.

CALLER: My question is: If it wasn`t for the Internet and the recipes weren`t on there, would this be as powerful as it is?

GRACE: Good question. What about it, Art Harris?

HARRIS: That`s right. I mean, this is something that is cooked up normally out in the heartland. You see places blow up when they`re not careful. But it is frightening for neighbors, Nancy. In this high-rise, they were getting -- the police are now getting calls from all over Manhattan or at least from this building initially and other places that were busted, "Am I in danger?"

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: What a week in America`s courtrooms. Take a look at the stories and, more important, the people who touched all of our lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Is she pregnant again? Just months after her baby girl was born and her 20-year-old son, Daniel, died at her hospital bedside, and tonight, the former cover girl-turned- reality TV star faces the threat of eviction from her home in the Bahamas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s so much drama around Anna and them, if it wasn`t for bad luck, they wouldn`t have any at all.

GRACE: A missing Army nurse disappears here on American soil, leaving behind this little child, a little girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ll tell you what: This is really a story that has led to a lot of dead-ends for investigators. Sheriff`s department officials triangulated her cell phone. They found a location near an onramp or close to an onramp where they thought they were going to find that cell phone.

GRACE: We continue with the search for Nonnie Ann Dotson.

A stunning case out of Ohio. A 26-year-old mom charged with death by microwave. Her 3-week-old baby girl found dead.

What kind of pain would someone suffer from injuries like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Burning, terrible burning.

GRACE: From the inside out?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excruciating pain.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They told me that it looked like somebody had cooked her. I don`t know why -- I don`t know why anybody would do that to her.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Tonight, we stop to remember Sergeant James Musack, 23, Riverside, Ohio. A star on his high school football and basketball teams, he joined the Army junior year. So proud, he wore his uniform to the senior prom. James Musack, American hero.

Thank you to our guests. Our biggest thank you, to you, for being with us. A special good night from friends of the show in New York. Shirley, Melanie, and Robin, and happy birthday, Melanie. And in our Atlanta studios, Donna, Steve, Nick and Zach want to say good night.

And a good night from our New York control room, everybody there, goodnight. Night, Rosie. Night, Dean.

NANCY GRACE signing off for tonight. See you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END