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Nancy Grace

University of Wisconsin Student Missing 11 Days

Aired July 03, 2007 - 20:00   ET

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

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, GUEST HOST: Tonight: A beautiful 22-year-old coed heads out for a night of fun with friends at a popular hangout in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. Hours later, she is somehow separated from the group. Then, after a phone call with her sister, she vanishes into thin air. Headlines tonight: Police are poring over surveillance tapes and hope to generate new leads by releasing photos of a purse similar to the one Kelly Nolan was carrying when she disappeared. Tonight, the nation worries and wonders, where is Kelly Nolan?
(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coed student Kelly Nolan went to a local bar with friends. Where she ended up after that is still a mystery. Police say the last person Kelly talked to her was sister later that evening, but surveillance video and cell phone pings continue to come up empty. Can a 22-year-old college student just disappear?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Also tonight, the mystery surrounding a young Raleigh, North Carolina, mom, eight months pregnant with her third child, found dead in the early morning hours on her routine paper delivery route, 22-year-old Jenna Nielsen, delivering newspapers for extra money to help out her family when she is stabbed to death in the pre-dawn hours.

Headline tonight: Police confirm a knife was found near the crime scene by a homeless man. Now there is a desperate search for a person of interest matching a composite sketch and a $10,000 reward in the hunt for Jenna Nielsen`s killer, as her friends and family ask why, why, in the wake of this cruel and totally senseless murder of a woman about to give birth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These friends, even strangers, whipped out a map, divided into groups and hit the surrounding area.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re looking for anybody who might know any information about the murder of Jenna.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-five hundred fliers distributed or on display.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jenna`s family hopes the increased exposure will lead them closer to justice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What they can`t live with is knowing Nielsen`s killer is still out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in for Nancy Grace. First tonight, a Wisconsin coed vanishes into thin air. Where is Kelly Nolan?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Law enforcement is still reviewing video from inside the bar, this as police are still asking the public for more information on Kelly`s slate-gray handbag. Detectives hope the purse provides new leads.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have at this point no evidence of foul play. That doesn`t mean that there was not foul play involved. We just don`t have any evidence of it. She`s a young woman who seemed to be out having a good time in the downtown Madison area, and all of a sudden, at some point in the early morning hours of Saturday the 23rd, she dropped off the radar. We found no evidence. We haven`t found her handbag. We`ve not found her clothes. We haven`t found anything, at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It has been more than a week since 22-year-old Wisconsin college student Kelly Nolan simply vanished without a trace during a night out with friends. Tonight, her case remains a baffling mystery, family members desperately hoping for some new leads.

Let`s go straight out to Jon Leiberman of "America`s Most Wanted." Jon, what is the very latest?

JON LEIBERMAN, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Well, I`ll tell you, Jane, the encouraging thing is that police have talked to a number of people who tell them that they did come in contact with Kelly that night after she left the bar and after she spoke to her sister. And that`s going to be a major key to this case because chances are, somebody had contact with her and somebody knows what happened to this young woman.

The scenarios -- there really aren`t that many, to be honest, Jane. There`s the foul play scenario, and then, of course, there`s the scenario that maybe she hurt herself, maybe she had too much to drink, fell down, could have fallen into the water. We hope and pray that she comes home safely and that she didn`t meet with any foul play.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We certainly do hope and pray for that. Absolutely.

CNN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks, who`s also a former D.C. police officer, we`re hearing there`s good news now, that some people actually saw her after she left the bar. She also spoke with her sister, which is absolutely crucial because of the pings. Tell us about the pings.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Absolutely. That`s going to play a big role in this, surveillance video and the pings on her cell phone. They should be able to find out, Jane, exactly -- or basically, in the ballpark of where she was when she called her sister sometime after midnight, and from there, maybe try to develop a timeline of exactly where she was, and if they can find out exactly where that was, go back and see if there`s any surveillance videos from ATMs, businesses, anything at all like that, to go back and see if she was by herself. Was she with someone? Was she walking along? Did somebody come up to her?

And also go back to the bar. Find out if she left alone. When she was separated from her friends, was there someone else with her? And hopefully, they`ll be able to put together some kind of timeline. But the cell phone records and the pings are going to be crucial.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: April Nolan, Kelly`s sister, is with us tonight. April, thank you so much for joining us. We know this has to be extraordinarily difficult for you. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, and I speak for the entire staff of NANCY GRACE. We want to find your sister alive and well.

Tell us about Kelly. Tell us about her hopes, her dreams, what she`s doing at school, what her plans for the summer are.

APRIL NOLAN, MISSING WOMAN`S SISTER: Kelly was a -- she is a UW Whitewater student. She`s been living in Madison for the summer. She grew up in Wanakee (ph), so Madison -- it`s only 15 minutes away from Madison. Madison`s always been a place for us to just go and have a good time, go out with friends. She has friends in Madison. So living there for the summer was just something she wanted to do and have employment for the summer. So that`s why she was there.

And she was continuing to plan on graduating from Whitewater this following year and was majoring in communications. She had a lot of goals. She`s always been extremely determined with her goals as far as school and has always persevered in those and been very strong-willed as far as accomplishing them. And the same with most areas in her life, so she was...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, I know you spent the day with her the morning before or the day before she went out with her friends and then ultimately disappeared. What was her mood like during that day?

NOLAN: It was -- I mean, I spent the day with her. And we`ve been together a lot this summer. It was pretty much like any other day. We were just laughing, hanging out. It was just a good day with my sister, you know, and nothing unusual. She was happy, cheery, just laughing like usual, just the normal Kelly I`ve always been around. So when we parted, it was nothing unusual at all.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, I certainly don`t say this to in any way embarrass you or -- it`s just really we`re trying to get to the truth of the matter here and try to help find your sister. She was reportedly let go from a job as a waitress a couple of days before, but she had an interview that morning, as well. How did that go, and what was her emotional reaction to that?

NOLAN: I would rather not comment on anything about Kelly`s employment.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. Now, I also know that you want to preserve the privacy of your last conversation with your sister. Again, we are asking these questions to try to be of service in finding your sister. So just tell us what you can tell us because I don`t want to pry, but we would really like to know around what time the call occurred and what her mood was. Was she, for example, intoxicated? Which, again, is not to say anything to disparage her, but she`s out with friends drinking, and that can happen.

NOLAN: All I want to say about my conversation with my sister -- I mean, it was a private conversation, so as far as the details go, I mean, I`ve discussed with the police as to what would help the public know, and they have informed me that, you know, as far as revealing anything, it would not help the investigation, at this point.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Bottom line, though...

NOLAN: So we`re keeping that all confidential.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Her mood, was it depressed, or was she the way she was earlier that day, happy?

NOLAN: No, she was happy. She was happy. There was nothing unusual about her mood when I talked to her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, that`s...

NOLAN: Nothing to alarm me.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s good news. And certainly happy to hear that.

Prosecutor Paul Henderson, as you heard at the top of our show, police are now talking to other people who have apparently come into the police station and said, Hey, you know, I saw her after she left the bar. How significant is that, and what do they need to do with that information?

PAUL HENDERSON, PROSECUTOR: Well, it`s very significant because one of the first things that police will want to do is eliminate the possibility that this is a walk-away, a runaway case where someone was trying to disappear. And this doesn`t look like one of those cases because this is someone that was enrolled in college, that was out with their friends, that had spoken to family recently and had plans upcoming in the very near future.

So the next thing that they`re going to do is focus on anyone that may have seen something or heard something. And what they`re collecting from witnesses that were around the scene is any information that may have seemed out of the ordinary -- if someone was noticing or staring at her in the bar, if she had received unusual phone calls or messages around her school or on her car recently or in the past few weeks. That`s the kind of information that law enforcement is going to want to hear, and so they can follow up on that information and try and look for someone that may have information about what has happened to her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Kelly`s mother has spoken out. Let`s hear what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kelly is out there. She will be found. And it`s just a matter of the next person sharing a little more specific information as to her whereabouts. So I`m not crying today because I really have hope that -- if it takes money, we have it and it`s going to be given to that individual or family or team or anyone, anyone who can tell us that last piece to put in the puzzle. We`re going to have Kelly home. She`s out there. She, in my heart, is OK.

We know there is one more person who has the tip, and we have a substantial amount of money for you and any and all information leading to the return of Kelly. So we`re here with hope and optimism today that with all the tips that have come in -- and we thank you, and the detectives are working around the clock yet in order to get more information for the return of Kelly -- that we will find her soon. And we will have those details for you as soon as the legal offices have the financial amount set in place. It is there. It is guaranteed. And it will be released to you really soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: There you hear from the missing woman`s very courageous mom.

Clinical psychologist Andrea Macari, you were listening to the mom. She is optimistic. She is strong. She is positive. How important is that for her to maintain hope and be effective?

ANDREA MACARI, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: It is so strong because if she can direct this enthusiasm and passion she has for bringing her daughter home, she will be way more proactive. But you want to know something? Fifty-one thousand adults in America have gone missing already in the United States, so Kelly`s case is not unique at all.

And often we think that when someone goes missing, foul play is to blame, but actually, someone can go MIA for a psychological reason. And this can include something called dissociative fugue. A dissociative fugue is when someone actually disappears off the face of this earth. They have an unexpected travel away from the home. It happens in 1 out of 500 Americans.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you know, I hear what you`re saying, but I have to say, when I hear a very good-looking young coed out with friends at a bar disappears on a Friday night, alarm bells go off in my head because so many cases that have similarities and commonalities with those kinds of circumstances have ended in tragedy.

Mike Brooks, you have covered one out of Vermont.

BROOKS: Absolutely. When I first heard this -- if you recall, Michelle Gardener-Quinn -- she was a student in Vermont who basically disappeared off the face of the earth. But one thing was very crucial in that case was surveillance video. If you`ll recall, there was video of her by herself from a store right along the street, and then it showed a guy coming up alongside of her. That helped break that case.

But there are a lot of similarities here. She had also been with her friends and had separated from her friends. There was a telephone call involved, a text message. The parallels of these two cases are just unbelievable.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to bring the lawyers into the debating ring, defense attorney Mickey Sherman and prosecutor Paul Henderson. Let`s start with Mickey Sherman. The police are being extremely tight-lipped in this case. In fact, they said something that I thought was sort of astounding. Quote, "There`s no evidence of foul play. That doesn`t mean it isn`t foul play." Huh? What? I mean, come on. This woman has disappeared on Friday night after a night out of drinking with friends, on a Friday night, and she`s nowhere to be found? She has no history of running away or not calling a relative. To me, it says foul play.

MICKEY SHERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it could be a Jennifer Wilcox situation. Remember the runaway bride? We were all convinced that she was at the bottom of a lake or dead someplace. And as was just pointed out by the last couple of guests, Sometimes people just disappear, whether they`re in a fugue state or whether they`re just unhappy about God knows what.

But in the meantime, I got to -- I agree with everyone that the mom is doing the absolute right thing. She should be in front of that camera or as many cameras as she can, as long as she can and often as she can to keep this thing in the news, to keep people looking for her. And to throw money out there is a good thing. I think it`s a great idea. Put out a reward, as much as you can handle, because that`s what they`re going to need. They`re going to need people who want money to tip the police off. And they also need a lot of luck.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Susan Moss, family law attorney and child advocate, I know everybody`s saying it`s possible she walked away, but she has no history of doing that. She is a young woman who has always been responsible, who was in a great mood, who always calls her family. So it doesn`t really add up that she would just get into a fugue state and wander away into the darkness, never to be seen.

SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Well, none of this makes sense at all, but when you have a missing college student and alcohol involved, there could be an accident. There was a report that she might have been seen by a swimming pier. It`s certainly possible that she could have fallen in. They are now looking for a needle in a haystack, since she`s been gone for 10 days. Or since we`re in Wisconsin, a grain of salt in a wheel of cheese. Regardless, it`s going to be very, very difficult.

But exactly what the other guests have said, we have to keep the media attention on this issue and we have to keep Kelly`s face in our -- in our - - in our minds and in our hearts.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Terry from West Virginia, I know you`ve been hanging on. What is your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Jane. You`re just as precious as Nancy is.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, I`ll pass that along to Nancy, but thank you so much. Can you ask your question, ma`am?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, hi.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just wondering -- they said that they were -- yes...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Your question, ma`am?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. They said they were just following up on pings, and I was just wondering, are they still continuing to get pings from her cell phone?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. That is a good question. And let`s take it out to Jon Leiberman of "America`s Most Wanted." We heard that there was a phone call between the sister and the missing woman, and that would obviously produce pings. But how long do those pings go on? Do we have any idea where they led to?

LEIBERMAN: Yes. Our understanding is that the phone went dead shortly after the call with the sister. But we do know police are combing through the cell phone records, looking for the trail of calls up to the time when she spoke to her sister, and also the day before, too, to see if anything out of the ordinary, any out of the ordinary numbers were coming in or going out on that phone.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. We have just begun to discuss this subject. We do hope that this young woman is found alive and well.

To tonight`s "Case Alert." The hoaxster behind the on-line posting announcing the death of WWE superstar wrestler Chris Benoit`s wife hours before police discovered the crime spree and the crime scene will not face charges. Police say the 19-year-old unidentified man is a wrestling fan from Stamford, Connecticut, who has previously edited entries on the Internet encyclopedia known as Wikipedia. The 19-year-old says the posting was based on rumors and was a total coincidence. Police say Chris Benoit strangled his wife and their 7-year-old son, then hanged himself inside the family`s upscale home in the Atlanta suburbs.

Also tonight, Benoit`s personal doctor released on bond, now under house arrest on federal charges of improperly distributing prescription drugs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anyone who`s going to take someone`s life has to be one of the one quarter of a percent of this country who are sick. And I don`t believe that one sick person Kelly would let get close enough to let them do that. She`s strong. She walks away from people she doesn`t like. She won`t tolerate a conversation with someone who`s after her because they`re a pest. That`s Kelly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in for Nancy Grace. Another beautiful young woman disappears without a trace. This time, the mystery unfolds in Madison, Wisconsin, where 22-year-old University of Wisconsin coed Kelly Nolan has not been seen in 11 days. She had been out with three girlfriends at a popular bar, but at about 11:30 on Friday night, somehow she got separated from her friends. The last anyone heard from her was her sister in an early morning phone call Saturday, and that is where the trail runs cold.

I want to go back to Jon Leiberman of "America`s Most Wanted" and ask Jon about the whole separation from the friends because I`ve read it three ways in various news accounts. One that she left the bar, one that her friends left the bar, and the third is that they somehow got separated, which doesn`t make a lot of sense to me. You don`t just get separated from your friends.

LEIBERMAN: Here`s what police are telling us. Police are telling us that Kelly went to the bar with this group of friends, that the friends wanted to leave but that Kelly wanted to stay. So Kelly stayed at the bar for some amount of time. We don`t know if she left alone or with somebody, but we do know that at some point, she left. Other people in the community and downtown Madison saw her during that time. And of course, she called her sister, as well.

One thing I want to point out, Jane, many times in these cases, in addition to the surveillance tape, one thing that`s very important is people need to come forward, even if they think their information is inconsequential, even if they just saw her or noticed something, because these people can -- as many of your guests spoke about, can help police come up with a timeline, an exact timeline of her progress through the night.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jon Leiberman, do you think that police are knowing - - know a lot more than they`re saying right now? Because I`m getting that impression from everything the mother said and what the police are not saying.

LEIBERMAN: I think police are still in the early stages of their investigation. And frankly, they have so much surveillance tape to go through, cell phone records to go through. We`re talking about hours and hours of surveillance tape. And so I think they`re hoping that they find something on that tape. But frankly, you know, keeping the cell phone conversation with the sister quiet -- that`s a matter of -- of really typical police investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: College student Kelly Nolan was fired from her job as a waitress just two days before she went missing. Witnesses now coming forward saying Kelly was seen on a swimming pier the same day she disappeared. The Dane (ph) County dive team has investigated the area without finding Kelly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in for Nancy Grace. Where is beautiful 22-year-old coed Kelly Nolan, who vanished into thin air 11 days ago? Has the case stalled due to lack of information, or are the police being tight-lipped because they know something and are playing it very close to the vest?

We are very happy to have with us tonight April Nolan, Kelly`s sister. I know you can`t talk about the investigation. I don`t want to ask you about it. But could you say if the police know more than they`re saying?

NOLAN: I mean, there`s been so much information coming in that it`s - - it`s smart of them probably -- you know, they have to go through all the facts and put all the pieces together before they say more. So I -- I would think they would definitely have a lot of information that they`re not going to release all of it to the public. And that`s just, you know, the way they do their investigation, so...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I know your family has undertaken extraordinary efforts to find Kelly, going to the next big city, Milwaukee, to distribute fliers. Tell us about that and the reward money you`re collecting.

NOLAN: We`ve been definitely trying to go anywhere where we know there`s going to be large crowds of people, just to be able to get Kelly`s name out there and face out there, and the Crimestopper number, which we`ve said so many times, but we`ll say it again, the 608-266-6014 for anybody to call.

And we have definitely now thought of the best thing to do would possibly -- well, it`s under way now -- is offering a substantial amount of money to anyone that can provide the information that is going to locate or find Kelly. And that is under way, and the exact details on the amount will be released very soon, as soon as we can finalize the legal details in getting that finalized. It`s just a matter of -- tomorrow`s 4th of July, so we just need to have the right people sign off on these papers, and we will be able to release that amount of money that will be offered to who can provide information to find Kelly.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you so much. And again, here at the NANCY GRACE show, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. We hope she comes back alive and well.

NOLAN: Thank you.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: When we come back, a young Raleigh mom, eight months pregnant with a third child, found dead on her routine newspaper route. The search for Jenna Nielsen`s killer is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The car was empty?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, the car was empty. It was funny because the light was on inside the car. The car was pulled up right in front of his paper box. So I thought maybe it was the owner of the store. So I looked -- I rode by the car and seen it was still a whole lot of newspapers stacked up in the passenger`s seat. So then I looked on the ground and there was like four or five papers laid across the ground like somebody dropped them or something.

(END OF AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nielsen was eight months pregnant when she was found dead behind a Raleigh convenience store. She`d been delivering newspapers for "USA Today." Police still have no suspects, but they continue to search for a person of interest. For the family, the wait has been nearly unbearable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help. Anybody who knows anything, anybody who has seen anything. It doesn`t matter if it`s the littlest, tiniest bit of information. Those have been known to break cases and that`s what we need right now.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell in for Nancy Grace. Why would anyone want to kill a very pregnant young woman who was just doing her job, delivering papers, to help out her family? As reward money floods in, friends and family fan out distributing reward posters. For the very latest on this baffling and heart-breaking case, let us go straight out to Randall Gregg, editor-in-chief of the "Raleigh Chronicle." Randall, what is the very latest?

RANDALL GREGG, EDITOR IN CHIEF, RALEIGH CHRONICLE: The family had a press conference on Friday where they announced a $10,000 reward and they`ve also been canvassing the area along Lake Wheeler Road near the gas station where the murder took place, asking for any information, even the smallest clue, and talking with the police department. They said to our newspaper that, you know, they`re just one phone call away from making an arrest. You know, so if anyone has any information that`s even the slightest of interest to the case, then they should call the specific number set up by the Raleigh Police Department.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to go to my very favorite forensic scientist, Dr. Lawrence Kobilinksy, who`s been very patient with us tonight. Dr. Kobilinsky, the other big lead in this case is that they found a bloody knife. In fact, a homeless man found it and at first apparently panicked and threw it over a fence but eventually told people and police got it. They don`t know yet for sure, or they`re not saying if it`s the murder weapon. How do they work in the case of a bloody knife to try to connect it to a murder?

DR. LAWRENCE KOBILINSKY, FORENSICE SCIENTIST: Well, number one, she was murdered. She was stabbed with the knife. It`s a very bloody scene. Most likely there is corroded arteries severing and spurting of blood. The knife wound itself could reveal something about the knife itself, the murder weapon, whether it was double-edged, how wide the knife was. Basically whether it was serrated or not. And clearly there`s blood on this knife, which can be tested in a number of ways and linked directly to the victim. Unlike the previous case we just spoke about, we have a crime scene, we have the possibility of trace evidence, perhaps fingerprints. But if that knife was the murder weapon, they certainly will be able to tie it to the victim.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We are very delighted to have with us tonight Tim Nielsen, who was Jenna Nielsen`s husband, the father of her children. Thank you for being with us, sir. There are no words to express our condolences from everyone here on our staff to you and your family. This is just a nightmare for you, I know. Tell us about your late wife. Paint a picture of her for us.

TIM NIELSEN, JENNA NIELSEN`S HUSBAND: She was -- she was everything. She was this 5`3``, you know, little girl. She loved to dance. She loved to sing. She loved to play the piano. Her attitude that she had just lit up the room whenever she entered into it. She`s -- she was everybody`s friend. She wanted to be everybody`s friend. She wanted to meet everybody and see everything and she wanted -- she wanted to be pretty much the center of attention and that`s how everybody treated her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You have two children, correct me if I`m wrong, 11 month old Caden and 3-year-old Skylar, I understand is about to turn 4. I can`t even imagine how difficult it must have been to try to explain to him what happened to his mommy. How did you do that and how is that boy coping?

NIELSEN: I tried not to say anything to him. It was actually the help of the family that -- that talked to him and sat him down and explained what was going on and what happened. He`s -- he`s 3 years old. He`s coping as well as any other 3-year-old would, I guess. He still asks where mommy is every once in a while. He knows that she`s not coming home. He does miss her. And it`s -- it`s been -- it`s been hard when he starts asking those type of questions.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I can imagine. Clinical psychologist Andrea Macari, what advice would you give to the family in helping them cope and this toddler cope.

MACARI: I wouldn`t ask the what-ifs, but answer the what-nows. What now can I do to honor Jenna. What now can we do as a family to cope and grieve? So that would be my advice to you guys.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. The phone lines are lighting up over this tragic case. Elizabeth from Louisiana, your question.

ELIZABETH: Yes, I would like to know, since Jenna worked for "USA Today" newspapers, have they put up any kind of reward money since they`re a big multimedia company and are they helping in any way to find the person that did this to her?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I understand they`ve been very generous. Jon Leiberman from "America`s Most Wanted", tell us about it.

LIEBERMAN: We deal with murder cases all throughout the country and I can tell you "USA Today" has been phenomenal. They put full-page ads in their newspaper multiple times looking for clues in this case, putting out the crime stoppers number. They put $15,000 in a fund for the family. They`re doing everything they can. We`re running a piece this weekend because we need to find this cold-blooded killer.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, prosecutor Paul Henderson, and defense attorney Mickey Sherman, weigh in on this complex issue. More than half the states in the country have laws that make the killing of an unborn child a homicide, but apparently North Carolina does not. However, the family would like to see that law changed, it won`t happen in time for this case. Mickey Sherman do you think that law should be changed and if so why, if so why not?

SHERMAN: I`m not so necessarily sure it should be. You know most states certainly consider it such an aggravating factor that the person who is convicted or pleads guilty is going to get the same horrendous punishment. The only difference is that some states, I think my state is one of them, Connecticut, if you kill one or more people then you`re eligible for the death penalty as opposed to one person. In that case it makes a big difference. But it`s not like he`s going to get a free ride or whoever did this act is going to get a free pass because there`s no specific law against killing an infant. It`s going to be such an aggravating factor that they`ll get maximum punishment.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Susan Moss, this is a very, very complex subject and apparently in some cases, the law varies from state to state. In some states it really depends on the viability of the child.

MOSS: That`s right. As we saw in Ohio, because the child if born -- would have been viable, there was and is two murder charges in the Bobby Cutts matter. In this case, however, it is only an aggravated circumstance. However, it`s all academic because if the killer is caught, they can be charged with murder and the prosecutor can seek the death penalty. Unless you`re a cat, you can only die once.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, let`s talk about possible motive. Because what`s really so horrific about this case is it seems utterly senseless, Mike Brooks. Do we even have any concept as to what the motive is?

BROOKS: Police are not saying what the motive is yet because right now apparently they don`t know. So here`s a couple possibilities. The first one, the first thing that comes to mind, robbery. Is that the motive? Second one, is it someone that she knew because she was on the same route in the middle of the night all the time? Was it someone that knew that she was going to be at this certain place and had been stalking here, knew she would be there? Someone she possibly just ran into one time? Just didn`t know them well, but he knew her. That`s another possibility. You know Jane, having worked as a cop on the midnight shift for many years, I can tell you that that time of the day, that time of the night, there are the same people, you see some of the same people all the time that go to and from work. You see delivery people. Anyone at all who saw something that even if they thought they don`t know what they saw and the area of Lake Wheeler Road and Centennial Boulevard, they need to come forward. Even if you thought it`s something insignificant, let the police know about it. They`re just a phone call away of possibly breaking this case.

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NIELSEN: Our two boys, they miss her very much. Every time she walked into the room, when my youngest Caden was playing in his play pen, he`d jump right up and just start laughing and giggling and the first thing Skylar would do is just run towards the door and that`s what we`re going to miss.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell in for Nancy Grace. What could possibly be the motive behind the Raleigh, North Carolina murder of a beautiful young woman who was eight months pregnant and delivering newspapers in the pre-dawn hours to make money to support her beautiful family? Who is the coward responsible for this? Sadly, no suspects yet. But editor in chief of the "Raleigh Chronicle," Randall Gregg, I understand we have a person of interest and a composite sketch to go with. Tell us about this person of interest.

GREGG: That`s correct. The police have released a composite sketch of a person seen near the gas station that morning. And they`re not saying who saw that person or if they`re a suspect or not, but they`ve released that to the media and it`s being kind of plastered all over the place. Anyone with any information is requested to call. Also, the police have not stated anything official on this, but a man was arrested last week who assaulted and abducted and robbed and even raped four women in the Raleigh area. They`re not saying that he`s a suspect, but I`m sure that the police are looking into his whereabouts as well.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Our police sources actually told us that there was no connection, but you`re saying he`s not been eliminated as a suspect yet, correct?

GREGG: Well, the police haven`t made any official statements, it`s all pure speculation. But the police are putting a lot of resources on this. This is probably the case -- I`ve never seen a case like this where the police would put so much attention on one case. They`re following each and every lead and of course they`re tracking down each and every potential suspect.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Of course they are. And, John Lieberman, America`s Most Wanted, what about the homeless man who found the knife? Has he been eliminated as a suspect and what about all these homeless encampments apparently in that area? That certainly doesn`t sound like pretty good news.

LEIBERMAN: No, that`s a great point, Jane. For one, there`s a drug treatment facility right in the area. There are a lot of transients, a lot of homeless people. And look, the brutal way that this woman was murdered, the killer could see she was pregnant. Was this done for 10 or 20 dollars so that a drug addict could get their fix? That`s a certainly a scenario that police are looking into. They are telling us that they have ruled out the person who found the knife and then threw it over the fence. This person apparently was transient. Might have had some mental illness issues and panicked when they saw a bloody knife, but certainly the area around is center to this investigation right now.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And you know what`s interesting is that the woman`s car was left. So you`d think if it was a robbery that the person would want to take the car. Dr. Lawrence Kobilinsky, we`ve been talking about these homeless people in the area. I`m going to bring you back to a very tragic case that you`re very, very familiar with and that is the abduction of (INAUDIBLE) that resulted in her gruesome murder. In that case I remember reading that homeless people provided some clues to authorities about what they saw when she was taken out of the bar. So they can be very good witnesses.

KOBILINSKY: Absolutely. There`s no question that law enforcement needs the assistance of the public. The public -- there are a lot of people that could have seen something. Memories need to be jogged and any little tip could trigger a new avenue to an investigation. The fact that there are homeless encampments in the area is in a sense it`s good because the police can look at all of those areas to try to eliminate or possibly include somebody as a suspect.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: The phone lines lighting up. Mary in Virginia, your question, ma`am.

MARY: Yes. I was wondering when they found her body, did they find anything like any signs of a struggle, anything under her fingernails or any fingerprints on her body?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What do you say Mike Brooks?

BROOKS: That`s definitely something they`d want to take a look at, see if there`s any defensive marks, anything. And also this knife that Dr. Kobilinsky was talking about, you know is there any DNA from the person who was holding the knife during the stabbing, their hand will slip down and sometimes cut themselves, leaving evidence from the perpetrator on the weapon also. But, again, it`s something they`re going to have to take a look at and forensics will play an important role in this case.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to go to Tim Nielsen, the husband of Jenna Nielsen. Tell us about the family fund for your two young children. I understand if people want to contribute, they can log on to justice4jenna.org. What are you going to use that family fund for sir?

NIELSEN: Take care of my boys. It`s there for whatever they need, for food, for clothes, you know, if -- if and when the time comes, just college, you know, if it`s -- if it`s there. When they get older, just whatever I need to take care and to support them, that`s what I`m going to use that money for.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I understand you`ve also been working very hard putting up reward posters all over the area.

NIELSEN: That is correct. Saturday we had about 2,600 of the wanted -- the reward fliers. We had at least 30 people there. A lot of our friends, a lot of our families, some volunteers from the community that have been following the case.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tim, I am so sorry. We are out of time. But again, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family and your children. And tonight, we turn now to CNN Heroes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead, please.

RYAN: Every day, 6,000 children die. Because they don`t have access to clean water. That`s like 20 full jumbo jets crashing every day of the year. I feel that we shouldn`t live in a world like that.

I was six years old and I was in my grade one classroom. My teacher said there are people who have to walk ten kilometers to get to a dirty mud hole and I decided to do something about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryan told me he has been saving money to put up a well in Africa. And he said he wanted it in a school. The well which Ryan built was the first clean water they ever had.

RYAN: I went to Uganda when I was 10. I was pretty excited to go see what the impact was.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryan`s well. Funded by Ryan H.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Up to that moment, maybe Ryan never knew how much this means. A little boy who had this big dream now look where he is. Not only doing one well, but so many wells. The clean water has reached far and wide.

RYAN: When a well is built in a community, the health skyrockets. Just to see smiles light up on people`s faces because they have clean water to drink, it`s great to see the impact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryan has changed many, many lives out here. So he is a hero. He is a warrior who made it happen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re just struggling through it day by day. I mean, I can`t tell you what we`re going to do tomorrow. How we`re going to prepare ourselves for the rest of our lives with that void. But we just keep going on. We`re always waiting for the phone, and it doesn`t ring.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell in for Nancy Grace. Jenna Nielsen and her husband Tim both worked very hard to make money to support their young family in Raleigh, North Carolina. Jenna did a pre-dawn newspaper delivery route as they juggled their schedules to care for the children. Now, she is dead. We only have a few moments but I want to go to prosecutor Paul Henderson for the big picture. The amount of cowardice that it would take to attack an eight month pregnant woman. Is it time that our society say it`s a crisis, this violence against women?

HENDERSON: It is. This is really the worst kind of crime, an unprovoked attack on some of our most vulnerable victims in society. I think a case like this is going to renew and spark the debate for those states in the minority that don`t have statutes that allow you to have fetal homicides. We already have it in the federal courtrooms and now I think this is going to renew the debate because you really restrict prosecutors from charging that second homicide when the fetus is viable. In a case like this, where a fetus is killed along with a mother. It`s really just reprehensible and I hope they catch this scum bag and send him under the jail.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well said and I think we also have to just declare this a crisis. A crisis of all these women being murdered left and right, night after night. Every time you open the newspaper or turn on the TV or look at the internet, it is a crisis that has to stop and let`s stop victimizing America`s women.

Tonight, let`s also stop to remember Army Sergeant Richard Parker, just 26 from Phillips, Maine, killed in Iraq on a second tour of duty, receiving a purple heart, a bronze star and an Iraqi campaign medal. Parker loved playing basketball and fishing with his cousin, Jonathan. Parker leaves behind grieving parents Scott and Dixie. His fiancee Ashley and a five month old son Kagyn, a child he was just weeks away from meeting for the very first time. Richard Parker, an American hero.

We want to thank all of our guests tonight for their insights and thanks to you at home for tracking these very important cases with us. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in tonight for Nancy Grace. Hope to see you right here tomorrow night, 8 o`clock sharp eastern. Until then, have a wonderful and a safe evening.

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