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Nancy Grace
New Details About Kidnappings in Missouri
Aired January 25, 2007 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight. Mystery photos emerge of then 11-year-old kidnap victim Shawn Hornbeck, photos taken during the time he lived with his kidnapper, photos looking into the boy`s forced life in captivity. And new photos emerge regarding the 41-year-old pizza parlor manager charged with kidnapping the Missouri boys, snatched off the streets, broad daylight, four years apart. The newly discovered photos show another young boy connected to Devlin. Is it a child missing since 1991? The big question, will we ever know how many children have fallen victim to Michael Devlin? FBI, police in and out of Devlin`s apartment collecting evidence all day today. What is their strategy? And tonight, is there finally a break in the disappearance of two-year-old Florida boy Trenton Duckett, reported kidnapped from his own crib. Tonight, police chasing leads that baby Trenton was taken beyond U.S. borders.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Hidden among the millions of people cramming the nation`s airports the weekend of August 27th, detectives are looking into the possibility that Trenton Duckett was smuggled onto a plane bound for South Korea. That`s where his mother, Melinda, was born just before being adopted by a New York family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do have certain individuals that stated that Melinda had talked about her roots and possibly sending little Trenton back to his roots.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Marion County authorities are working with immigration officials to see if Trenton and his possible captor were among the 12,000 people who traveled from the U.S. to Korea that weekend.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. First to Missouri.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: By late morning a team of investigators had gathered in the parking lot of Devlin`s apartment complex. Several of the investigators were from the FBI. For the next three hours, they removed several things from the ground floor apartment, at one point using a hand truck to remove evidence. It`s now been two weeks since Devlin was arrested and Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby were found in his apartment. Neighbors say since then, detectives have been around to ask questions but this is the first time they`ve seen evidence gathered since the scene was initially processed. Today they brought out what appears to be a bed frame, as well as a mattress, a chair, along with several smaller bags and boxes, loading everything into a nearby trailer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You are seeing brand new video, the FBI and local police removing evidence from Devlin`s apartment. They were there in and out of the apartment all day long, a lot happening in the Michael Devlin case. As you know, Devlin, the former pizza parlor manager behind bars tonight, suspected, accused in the kidnaps of two little Missouri boys, taken four years apart. Tonight not only do you see the FBI taking this so-called evidence out of the apartment, tonight we`re wondering, has photo evidence linked Devlin to yet another missing child there in Missouri? First let`s find out what the FBI is doing in Devlin`s apartment. Out to Melanie Streeper with 550 KTRS radio. Melanie, what`s happening?
MELANIE STREEPER, KTRS RADIO: Well, I tell you what, Nancy, FBI agents did go into that apartment. As you heard, they spent several hours. I heard they took out a bed frame, a mattress, a chair. They even checked a storage locker a couple of doors down, just looking for more evidence.
GRACE: Was the storage locker definitely connected to Devlin? Was it his storage locker?
STREEPER: That information I do not have, Nancy. But they did search that storage locker.
GRACE: Oh, they did?
STREEPER: Yeah. They did search that storage locker. So possibly looking for more evidence connected to Devlin.
GRACE: We see a lot of evidence being taken out of the apartment. We also believe at this juncture, police are accusing Devlin of holding Shawn Hornbeck, 11 years old at the time of his disappearance, in this apartment for four long years before the boy was found. What were some of the items taken from the home, Melanie?
STREEPER: The items that they took today, again, it was a bed frame. It was a mattress, a chair. Some of the things were actually in boxes, Nancy. So we were not able to see exactly what was inside of those boxes and those boxes were actually taped up.
GRACE: And we also know that Devlin has entered a not guilty plea by video. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Devlin, how do you wish to plead to this matter? Mr. Devlin?
MICHAEL DEVLIN: I`m not guilty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t want everybody to think that he had this perfect life with this guy. There`s no way he had a perfect life with this guy. Shawn was happy at home. He had a good home. I know he wanted to be at home. So for people to speculate that he had every opportunity to get away, I`d just like to remind them, he`s the victim. He`s the child. He was 11 at the time. He wasn`t 15. He wasn`t an adult. Devlin was the adult, and he should have done the right thing and not taken the boy in the first place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did receive a call from a reporter today who in essence asked me is it true that Shawn ran away from home and was voluntarily with Devlin? And I`m going to tell you what I told her. We categorically deny that. If these charges do not clear that up, I don`t know what else we can do to clear that up. Shawn was abducted against his will, period, end of the story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight we also have newly emerged photos of Hornbeck in captivity, offering a glance into his life during the years he was forced to be with allegedly 41-year-old Michael Devlin. Now, there he is with a family friend. They studied together. They slept over at each other`s homes. They played together. You see him there outside the apartment, free to come and go as he wanted with his little friend. There they are again. This is Shawn Hornbeck during captivity with Michael Devlin, the 41-year-old pizza parlor manager. There he is in the background. Shawn Devlin kidnapped -- excuse me, Shawn Hornbeck kidnapped at age 11.
Out to Bethany Marshall, Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst. You know, already the vultures are circling, trying to blame the victim in this case. He`s an 11-year-old boy. All right? And now he`s under attack because he didn`t run. Grown people don`t run. Remember Patty Hearst? She could have run. We`ve got her on video robbing a bank, for Pete`s sake.
DR. BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: I think the public just doesn`t really know what a true trauma response is. I think there are three factors -- dissociation, guilt, and paranoia. Dissociation, he was probably brutally attacked, sexually assaulted when he first got there, which caused him to dissociate from his own feelings. Guilt, he probably blamed himself for the assault, which set up a mental state where he felt that if he reached out to his parents he would be blamed or the community. And then Devlin`s paranoia, because these perpetrators are quite paranoid. So what they do is they draw the victim in as a co-conspirator by saying things like, when we get caught we`ll get in trouble. If the police come knocking on our door, they`ll never believe us and it makes the child feel that he is equally to blame. This child may have been free to roam, but he was in a mental cage.
GRACE: Well, another issue, Dr. Bethany Marshall, is for instance, battered women, adult women. I`ve dealt with a million of them in court and at the battered women`s center. They work during the day. They have jobs during the day, but they don`t leave the situation. It`s a mind game that has been played with them. They`re convinced they need to, for whatever reason, stay in that relationship. It`s called the Stockholm syndrome in other cases, such as Patty Hearst. Explain.
MARSHALL: Well, the word Stockholm syndrome has been bandied around, but I think abused wife syndrome afflicted upon an 11-year-old child is a much better construct or a way to look at it. Think of the adult woman whose husband is beating her black and blue. She goes to work, but she`s afraid that if she tells her boss or friends that there will be greater repercussions when`s she returns home and she cannot yet distinguish that if she returns to other people, she will be safe. This is what happened to Shawn when he was at his little friend`s house. He couldn`t distinguish that if he turned to the mom or to the friend and said I`m being beaten, that he wouldn`t face greater repercussions, that he would actually be in a position of greater safety.
GRACE: And also tonight, in addition to the FBI seizing alleged evidence out of Devlin`s apartment, they`re in and out all day long, seizing a bed, a bed frame, the mattress, numerous boxes shrouded in brown paper. There you`re seeing the FBI carting out evidence from Michael Devlin`s apartment. Not only that, other photos emerged of another young boy. Now, Elizabeth, let`s take a look at the map, the map that we know of, of Missouri children taken, always in the same MO, or modus operandi, broad daylight, off their bicycle, typically in a rural area, not far away from home.
These photos allegedly could be Arlin Henderson, one of the little boys taken. He was taken some distance away from Devlin`s home, just like Ownby and Hornbeck. He disappeared back in 1991. He has never been found. He was still -- he was riding his bike at the time. Now, this photo, a photo of a boy that looks very much like Arlin, is said to be connected to Devlin. And joining us tonight is a very special guest, Debra Henderson- Griffith. This is Arlin Henderson`s mother. Ma`am, thank you for being with us.
DEBRA HENDERSON-GRIFFITH, MISSING BOY ARLIN HENDERSON`S MOTHER: Thank you for having me.
GRACE: What went through your mind when you heard that these two little boys had been rescued, Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck?
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: I was happy. I had mixed emotions. I was wishing it was Arlin. But I was so happy for the Hornbeck family and for Ben Ownby`s family. Their ordeal was over.
GRACE: With us is Arlin Henderson`s mother, Debra Henderson-Griffith. Ma`am, we`re showing a photo of Arlin right now, and he is the cutest little thing.
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: Yeah.
GRACE: Tell me about the day he went missing.
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: It was pretty much a normal day. He got up -- I usually didn`t let him go out until about 12:00, 12:30. I`d have him straighten his room or do stuff around the house. We would just visit. I had my grandmother that day, and he was also helping because I had my two grandbabies I was baby-sitting. So he was helping with grandma --
GRACE: Weekday or weekend?
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: You know, I can`t even remember that.
GRACE: OK.
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: Everything`s a blur.
GRACE: Probably a weekend because if he was in school --
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: It wasn`t school. It was school vacation.
GRACE: OK.
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: Yeah, because we`d been going swimming a lot that summer. And he`d been helping with the grandbabies. He`d been helping with grandma. Then one of his little friends came and wanted to talk to him. And they decided they were going to use his dad`s workout stuff. So they moved his bed out of his bedroom and moved the workout stuff in there. And they`d been in there working out. Then he went over to his friend`s house to play GI Joes. And he came back home, and I said, well, where is Justin? And he said Justin had to go over to his grandma`s.
So he went into his room for a while, and he was working out on his -- you know, his dad`s stuff. And come back out, and he said I`m going to go out and look for some friends to play with. And I said OK. And he was getting on his bike, and I got up and walked to the door, and I said, well, I`m going to fix supper early because grandma`s got to take medicine with her food. And I might get it all done early, so hurry up and come home and don`t leave the trailer park, Arlin, you know, just play around here.
And he said, well, just save me some polish sausage and he left. And I thought he was with his friends. At about 4:30 I hollered out and I hollered out the door, "Arlin?" and he said, "I`m all right, mom." so I thought, well, he`s fine, I`m going to let him play. And during that time my daughter and her husband come and got the kids, the two grandbabies. So I had fed my grandma and got her settled down. And then about 6:00, I guess, 6:00, somewhere in there, 6:30, his friends came to the house, and they asked where Arlin was, and I said I thought he was with you. And they said, "no, we haven`t seen him since this morning." And that`s when I knew something was wrong.
GRACE: With us tonight, the mother of Arlin Henderson. He has been missing now since 1991, correct?
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: Yes.
GRACE: You`ve seen these photos. These photos have just been presented to you, photos that are apparently connected to Devlin. They`re taken by a woman that says she knows Devlin, I guess through the pizza parlor and they`re photos of a little boy. Do you believe he looks like Arlin?
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: Yes. This young man looked like he was about 17 or 18. And when the police showed me, they didn`t give me very much information. They just wanted me to look at the pictures and know that these were out before anybody else would tell me. And I looked at them, and I said, yes. I said, it does resemble my son. I said, it looks better than the age enhancement did of Arlin. And they said, "well, we wanted you to see them before, you know, anything got back to you and it would bother you." And I thought that was awfully nice of them.
GRACE: Well, with us, Debra Henderson-Griffith. This is Arlin Henderson`s mom. He`s a Missouri boy that went missing in 1991. These photos have just come out.
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: Yes.
GRACE: A lady took them, claiming that she knows Devlin, the alleged perpetrator from the pizza parlor. Is this boy connected to missing Arlin Henderson? That`s the question tonight. What about the photo resembled your boy?
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: The hair and the shape of the face and just there was a lot of similarities. A lot of it might have just been a mother`s wish, too, to see what her son would look like at that age. But to me, yeah, it looked like him.
GRACE: Do police think it could be him?
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: They didn`t tell me. They said they were going to investigate and find out where the photos came from and you know, if the person that provided the photos was, you know, trustworthy and that they would get back in touch with me.
GRACE: How does it make you feel tonight? Do you believe he`s out there somewhere?
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: I`ve always believed Arlin was out there somewhere. I don`t know where. I haven`t ever received a body. I`ve never seen any remains of my son. I`m not going to give up. He was my baby. I can`t give up until I have something.
GRACE: Do you think Devlin is connected to Arlin`s disappearance?
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: I can`t say that. I wouldn`t know. There`s so many -- there`s so many missing children, I can`t say it was Devlin because I don`t know where he was at that time. I`m letting the police do their job.
GRACE: Right, right, right, with us a very special guest, Debra Henderson-Griffin. This is Arlin Henderson`s mother. Little Arlin Henderson went missing 1991, out riding his bike, very similar to other children now connected to 41-year-old pizza manager Michael Devlin, behind bars. A lot happening tonight in the Michael Devlin investigation.
As we go to break, we need your help. The search is on for two Maryland teens who left for the movies, then vanished. Sixteen-year-old Rachel Smith, 18-year-old Rachel Crites say they were heading for Georgetown, but police believe they may have gone to West Virginia instead. A diary left behind raises concerns about the girls` safety. Rachel Smith is 5`1", 118 pounds, green eyes, brown hair. Rachel Crites, 5`4", 110 pounds, brown eyes, brown hair. Police on the lookout for a dark blue Subaru station wagon, Maryland license plates. Take a look. If you have information, please help us. 301-279-8000.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On October 6th, 2002 in Richwoods, Missouri, Michael John Devlin abducted SDH, utilizing force for the purpose of terrorizing the victim. After securing SDH, Michael Devlin flourished a handgun in order to gain compliance of the minor child. Michael Devlin then transported him out of the county and concealed his whereabouts for four years and three months.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Breaking news tonight in the case of 41-year-old pizza manager Michael Devlin. As you know, Devlin now behind bars, charged in the kidnap of two young Missouri boys, both taken broad daylight, very close to their homes, snatched right off the street. There`s Devlin, pleading not guilty in a video not guilty plea, security tight. They didn`t even want to chance bringing him into the courthouse. Let`s go out to the lines. Laurie in Pennsylvania. Hi, Laurie.
CALLLER: Hey, Nancy. Thanks for all the good you do.
GRACE: Thank you.
CALLER: If Devlin is convicted, hopefully they`ll keep him behind bars for the rest of his life?
GRACE: Well, kidnap does carry a life sentence in many, many jurisdictions and also, Laurie, there`s the theory of concurrent versus consecutive sentencing. If he is convicted, goes to trial, convicted on all of these counts, you`ve got kidnapping on two young boys, possible assaults. If convicted on all of that, it would run consecutive equal to a life sentence. Out to Amber in Mississippi. Hi, Amber.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. I was wondering if they saw Shawn Hornbeck outside Michael Devlin`s apartment with the photos, the missing photos of him, why didn`t someone report that?
GRACE: My question too, Amber. In fact people actually said to the little boy, gee, you look a loot like that missing kid, Shawn Hornbeck and the little boy kind of laughed it off. But now we all understand why, apparently living in great fear, never disclosing who he really was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shawn was happy at home. He had a good home. I know he wanted to be at home. So for people to speculate that he had every opportunity to get away, you know, I`d just like to remind them, he`s the victim. He`s the child. He was 11 at the time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight, in a bizarre twist, the family of Shawn Hornbeck, the little 11-year-old boy that was kidnapped off the street and held captive for several years, has turned somehow into the object of scorn. Joining us tonight, the Shawn Hornbeck family attorney, Scott Sherman. Mr. Sherman, thank you for being with us. Yes, the community has opened their arms to the Hornbeck family. Why are people turning on them?
SCOTT SHERMAN, SHAWN HORNBECK`S ATTORNEY: Thank you, Nancy. First of all, I don`t think people are. Basically, the Hornbeck family, it`s Pam and Craig Akers, that`s Shawn Hornbeck`s parents, Shawn`s folks. People are just curious. They want to know everything they can about Shawn. And I think everybody has the same hope in mind and that is they want what`s in Shawn`s best interest and --
GRACE: How is he tonight?
SHERMAN: I would say that he is as well as can be expected. And to explain that, the family, the Akers family, is amassing, as you probably can well imagine, the best possible mental health professionals and therapists for him and they`re turning their attention to the healing process for him. And frankly, that`s a big undertaking.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, what does that mean, pretty good? Everybody says you`re a student. So I want to ask you some tough questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, just doing what I usually do. Play videogames.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has it been tough to get back into normal cycle?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not really. I haven`t been gone too long.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of Shawn`s friends in the area confronted him and actually said you look like Shawn Hornbeck. And he sort of blew the whole thing off and got away with it. And this apartment complex, I own one building, but the buildings are close together, and there are a lot of people out, especially in warmer weather. And apparently, this kid was in plain sight. Michael, you know, obviously not doing anything much to hide. In fact, you could see right into the back bedroom driving by some nights. It`s just kind of frustration over if I could have or should have done anything differently.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Hiding in plain sight. According to police, a pizza parlor manager, 41-year-old Michael Devlin, held one little boy for four years there in his apartment in St. Louis. Another one had been gone for about a week before the two were discovered alive and well. Hiding in plain sight. But Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, let me remind everybody that when Shawn Hornbeck was first taken Devlin took off one or two months from his job, blaming it on a diabetes problem. So during that time he had the child allegedly and could indoctrinate him, a doctrine of fear.
MARSHALL: There was definitely an initial period where this child was terrorized, traumatized, made to feel completely helpless. But there was one report I read where a neighbor asked Devlin to turn down the volume of noise in his apartment and what Devlin did is he went and keyed the guy`s car in the middle of the night. When he saw the neighbor the next day, he ran away scared. So that tells me about Devlin that he`s the kind of guy who likes to do things in secret, he likes to have absolute power and control, quite vengeful individual.
GRACE: Tonight a lot happening in the Devlin case. Number one, you see the FBI and local police in and out of 41-year-old Michael Devlin`s apartment, taking things out, marked as evidence. They`ve got the bed frame, the bed, the bed mattress, and many other boxes shrouded in brown paper and marked, taped up, being removed in that trailer, apparently, from the apartment.
Will that evidence make it to trial? Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, John Burris out of the San Francisco jurisdiction, a veteran trial lawyer and author. Out of Atlanta, Raymond Giudice also a veteran trial lawyer.
To you John Burris, on the kidnap charge you don`t have to prove in court that you held a gun to somebody`s head for the next four years. It doesn`t require that to show kidnapping under the law. And will every day be an additional false imprisonment charge? How will it work, John?
JOHN BURRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, you`re right. You don`t have to have a gun to a person`s head or use force every day in order to maintain a kidnapping charge. But I haven`t seen a case, though, where every day represents another false imprisonment type charge. I just haven`t seen that. It is enough. Obviously, kidnapping is a severe enough crime in and of itself.
GRACE: What does it carry in California? Life?
BURRIS: It could be a life sentence. No doubt about it. Now, I know there`s this argument, and it probably will not play, but if I`m the defense lawyer I`m really looking to see what I can find out about the relationship, who this kid was. I don`t know that I`d be able to do much with the whole question of consent or anything. But at the same time, you know, you`ve got to find out what you can do here. You know, you have the defense lawyer faced with a very nasty case. It looks like --
GRACE: Well, look at these photos, John and Ray. I mean, these photos will come in front of a jury, and they`ll show the boy looking happy and smiling. That means absolutely nothing in a court of law. What matters is what happened the day the boy was abducted.
RAYMOND GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That`s right, Nancy. You can`t put the kidnapping back in the bottle. John`s exactly right. I really think what John`s going towards is you`re looking at mitigation at sentencing on this to show that yes, there was a kidnapping, there was -- assuming there`s no facts of sexual molestation, and we don`t know anything about that yet from what I understand, but at least then you can go to sentencing and say hopefully this is not a case where there`s great harm to this young man --
GRACE: You`re going to take a kid away from his mother and daddy. Did you see --
GIUDICE: I`m going as a defense lawyer --
GRACE: Great harm -- you have to be dead before get a sentence, Ray?
GIUDICE: Well Nancy, I`m just saying I agree with John that this is all interesting speculation about this relationship but the state`s got a pretty good case, and of course I think they`ve got a slam dunk on the Ownby boy. So why would you even go to trial on the second kidnapping?
GRACE: Let`s see. Because it`s true. Another quick question to you, John Burris and to you, Ray. John, we saw the not guilty plea done by video. I never liked video arraignments myself. I wanted to see the defendant in court, size him up, see how they`re going to respond in court. But I understand security is so tight they decide to do video arraignment, and there`s going to be another court appearance by video, I understand, John. Why?
BURRIS: I think that`s appropriate. There`s always safety concerns. You want the whole process to be as dignified as possible. You want to make sure that the person`s constitutional rights are not only protected but also his personal safety. I think you cut down on the circus atmosphere if the person doesn`t have to be in court.
Now, generally, it`s better to be in court, certainly from the prosecution`s point of view. I don`t think they gain anything by the person not being there. There`s plenty of time to see this person over the course of time. I think right now everyone is just trying to get the focus on this case and see how best to handle it.
GRACE: And of course Ray Giudice we don`t want another incident like the Atlanta courthouse shooting which was all caught on videotape and no one seemed to notice.
GIUDICE: You know from experience how difficult it is to bring the prisoners from the Fulton County Jail all the way over to the courthouse on the guarded school buses and drag them in the courthouse just so they can walk in and their lawyers say we enter a not guilty plea and drag them back to the jail. John`s right. Lots of security issues. They did the right thing.
GRACE: Well, you know, I`ve never seen -- there`s Brian Nichols right there on video just before a courthouse rampage, talking about courthouse security.
Also joining us tonight, in addition to Arlin Henderson`s mother, is James McWilliams, Arlin`s uncle. Mr. McWilliams, thank you to both of you for being with us tonight. As we are talking about the Ownby and the Hornbeck cases going to trial, what are your thoughts thinking back on Arlin`s disappearance in `91?
JAMES MCWILLIAMS, MISSING BOY ARLIN HENDERSON`S UNCLE: It`s a long time ago, but it`s just like, you know, it just happened because one minute he`s there, the next minute he`s gone. But I mean, the similarities with Shawn Hornbeck is just hard to believe.
GRACE: They`re incredibly similar.
MCWILLIAMS: Yes.
GRACE: Incredibly. All three of the victims, at the time of their disappearance, all three thin white males, similar haircuts even, out riding their bike, rural area, not far away from home, broad daylight, clearly kidnapped by someone in a motorized vehicle. And you know that someone is a male. If you take a look at M.O.s, it`s probably a white male. I mean, obviously, there is the possibility of a connection between the three. Mr. McWilliams, have you seen the photos we`re talking about of an older boy, purportedly Arlin?
MCWILLIAMS: Well, yes, I`ve viewed some photos when I went to the police station. And me and my wife sat there looking at them, comparing them. But when we were asked a question, we told them we`re not going to say yes, we`re not going to say no because there`s slight similarities, but you know, what we`ve gone through in the last 24 hours, you know, I don`t - - you know, we don`t want to take a chance right now of hindering this case any at all whatsoever because --
GRACE: Exactly, by making a false I.D.
MCWILLIAMS: Correct.
GRACE: Back to Debra Henderson-Griffith, this is Arlin`s mother. Arlin disappeared in `91, Missouri. Debra, in your heart of hearts do you think that photo was Arlin?
HENDERSON-GRIFFITH: I`m afraid to say. I`m afraid to get my hopes up. I`ve cried this whole day because I`m scared.
GRACE: Debra, please know that there are thousands of people praying for you and Arlin tonight. You`ve heard us all talk about simple trial 101, modus operandi, the method of operation. How all of these little boys were taken can and will come into court in the connection of Ownby and Hornbeck. We`ll take to you that arraignment as it happens.
Coming up, is a 2-year-old Florida boy hidden outside the U.S.? The latest in the investigation of Trenton Duckett.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why aren`t you telling us and giving us a clear picture where you were before your son was kidnapped?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I`m not going to put those kind of details out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want my son back. I mean, he`s my pride and joy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We still want the picture of Trenton in the news, and it`s very important that we keep his picture out there. We`ve got to know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight, is there finally a break in the case of missing Florida boy, 2-year-old Trenton Duckett? Tonight, police chasing leads that baby Trenton has been taken outside U.S. borders. Out to investigative reporter Jane Velez-Mitchell. Jane what`s happening?
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: You are absolutely right, Nancy. A flurry of new developments in this case. Authorities are looking into the possibility, and I have to stress it`s just a possibility they`re checking out, that this little boy may have been taken to South Korea. Why South Korea? A number of reasons. Number one, Melinda Duckett, his mother, was born in South Korea. She was adopted out to the United States when she was just a tiny baby. Number two; friends of Melinda Duckett have said that she talked about taking her son to South Korea. Number three, a couple of weeks ago a co-worker of Melinda Duckett came forward to authorities and said that Melinda had been talking very intensely about finding her biological mother in South Korea, raising the possibility that she was becoming obsessed with South Korea and may have wanted to go back there.
Now, obviously, Melinda Duckett committed suicide. So this would involve somebody else being involved. The 2-year-old would not be able to get back there by himself. So police are looking into whether there was a hand-off or some kind of conspiracy. To that end they are examining the manifest of all the flights from that area in the time and around the time of this little boy`s disappearance to South Korea and trying to see if anybody on any of those flights had any connection to Melinda Duckett. It`s a big job, 12,000 names at the very least.
GRACE: Joining us also tonight, a face you know well by now. Still searching for his son. Josh Duckett. He still has not given up the search for his 2-year-old little boy. Welcome, Josh. It`s great to see you over the airwaves again. What do you think about this development?
JOSH DUCKETT, MISSING TRENTON DUCKETT`S FATHER: It`s definitely a step forward. I mean, at this point we`re looking at anything and everything that`s possible. And I mean, leaving no stone unturned.
GRACE: Do searches still go on, Josh, for remains of Trenton in the area?
DUCKETT: They search periodically for the remains just in case. I mean, they cover that. But there`s absolutely nothing that`s pointed in that direction. There`s been no sign of any kind of struggle or anything at the apartment, in the car, or anywhere. So I mean, we`re staying positive, as we`ve been since day one and moving forward with it.
GRACE: With us now, Don Clark, former head of the FBI Houston Bureau. Don, how would you go about checking whether Trenton was taken to South Korea?
DON CLARK, FORMER HEAD OF FBI BUREAU HOUSTON: Well, this is a task but it is something that they`ve got to follow through with, Nancy. The bottom line is you have to start checking manifests and hopefully with technology they can get through a little bit better. But also they have got to see and check here because there had to be connections between here and overseas and see if they can find any connection with these arrangements being made long before this little boy went and disappeared. This just didn`t happen overnight, to be able to move a kid out of this country into South Korea.
GRACE: To Major Chris Blair. Major Blair is the Marion County sheriff`s office major. Major, thank you for being with us again. It`s great to talk to you again. Tell me about this development. What do you make of it?
MAJOR CHRIS BLAIR, MARION COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE: Well, Nancy, we`re certainly looking -- we`re in the early stages of looking at this part of the investigation. It`s something that`s been on our agenda, and certainly we must visit that avenue to see where it takes us. And we`re looking -- this case is a mystery, and it`s got many twists and turns in it. And certainly, you know, it`s been the theory of the Marion County sheriff`s office that there was a hand-off.
GRACE: You know, you really have. You got that theory. You`ve got the witness there at Wendy`s. And no remains have ever been found. What about this player, Chi Nguyen Chen, and his relationship with Melinda?
BLAIR: Yes, ma`am. We`re still interested in him, and he`s still out there. And certainly he is an associate of her. And that`s where we are at with him at this point within the investigation.
GRACE: To Josh. What`s the significance of Chen?
DUCKETT: I really don`t know too much about him. I know that him and Melinda were really good friends, that they talked a lot, and the day she was supposedly seen in Bellevue at the Wendy`s that she had talked to him shortly after that. So that throws a bit of suspicion in.
GRACE: Now, there`s another issue. Melinda attempting to visit your father, Josh, behind bars the weekend Trenton went missing. Is that just a coincidence? Why did she go? What did she want to talk to him about?
DUCKETT: I actually -- that hadn`t been brought to my attention, the weekend of -- the weekend that he went missing. I knew that she had visited him multiple times in the past.
GRACE: What can you tell me about it, Major Blair?
BLAIR: I can tell you that our detectives visited him at the state penitentiary, and he made that statement, that Melinda did make contact with him and that she wanted to make an arrangement for a visit right during that weekend.
GRACE: But it never came through, Josh. She attempted to, apparently, but your dad was having other visitors. I don`t think the visit ever happened. But I`m wondering the coincidence, that Trenton goes missing and she goes to visit your biological dad that very weekend. Back to Don Clark. How do you go about -- and I`ve been down to Marion County. Everyone is honed in on this case. But it is a small police force. How do you go about -- there have been 12,000 flights in and out of South Korea? How do you go about searching?
CLARK: It`s going to be an odious task. They`ve got to get people to assist them with this and suppose they got to get county police. They`ve got to get federal officials. And they can probably get some of the homeland security people. And I know they`re trying to protect us from terrorism, to work with manifest and flight and so forth. It may not be as difficult as it is because they may be able to weed out a number of those 12,000.
GRACE: But that`s not all. And I want to find out if Major Blair agrees. We just heard the news ten days ago. A little 9-year-old boy not only took one flight, he took a connecting flight across the country, convincing the airport security and flight attendants that it was OK. So I wonder if this child could have been taken on a flight without it coming to anybody`s attention, Don.
CLARK: Well, it`s possible, but not likely. Especially if they were going overseas. Domestically, yes, the kids would be taken on the plane, not a problem. But going overseas, you`re going to have to have a passport.
GRACE: What about it, Major Blair?
BLAIR: We have been making contact with numerous people concerning this issue, and I think we have learned one thing, that there`s a possibility that Melinda could have obtained a passport mailed to her from Korea, which would have made it a little bit easier for her to actually get Trenton over there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: To "Headline Prime`s" Glenn Beck. Hi, friend.
GLENN BECK, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: In the wake of a bloodless resolution on the war from Congress and John Kerry`s under whelming announcement that he isn`t running for president, are we staring a gutless government straight in the face?
And a shocking solution to our little Iran problem.
Also, a screaming 3-year-old makes passengers wish they had snakes on the plane.
I`ll also show you the latest craze in Internet. The movie trailer mash-ups. Don`t miss it. It`s hysterical. That and more next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have certain individuals that stated that Melinda had talked about her roots and possibly sending little Trenton back to his roots. There`s a lot of activity going on. We`re still subpoenaing some phone records, waiting on those phone records to come in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Is baby Trenton Duckett being held outside U.S. borders? Police now changing leads. The child may have been shipped off to South Korea. Let`s unleash the lawyers again. Ray Giudice, John Burris. Out to you, Ray. If someone did help her remove the child from the states, what`s the penalty?
GIUDICE: Well, you`d have at least a conspiracy to interfere with custody of the father, and you would have maybe an international baby smuggling, some type of federal baby smuggling offense.
GRACE: And to you John Burris. The likelihood that it could ever be traced.
BURRIS: Well, it depends on a lot of different factors. I think you could trace these kinds of things, but you`ve got to have some leads. Once you get a lead from someplace --
GRACE: What`s taking so long with the phone records?
BURRIS: Well, that I don`t know. I mean, you would think, given homeland security and the access that they seem to have to all our phone records, they should be able to do something more quickly. I don`t really know -- I do think investigative work is time-consuming. You never know where the leads are going to come from. You just have to tape one step at a time. Obviously, you`re in a serious situation with the baby. But I think you have to be patient. You have to work at it day in and day out.
GRACE: John Burris, Ray Giudice. Let`s stop our legal analysis to remember Army Sergeant Keith Fiskus, 25, Townsend, Delaware, killed Iraq, second tour of duty. He wanted to enlist since he was a boy. Loved golf and bass fishing and taught himself electric guitar.
The second of four, he leaves behind a loving family and parents Daryl and Pamela. Keith Fiscus, American hero.
Thank you to all our guests, but most of all, to you. Nancy Grace signing off again for tonight. See you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Good night, friend.
END
