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Nancy Grace
A Toddler on Ecstasy; Day Six in Desperate Search for 12-Year-Old Girl
Aired July 10, 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: Tonight, breaking news. A toddler on ecstasy and all caught on video. A video seemingly reveals a toddler girl sitting unsecured on the floor of a moving car. No safety belt, no car seat, all the while, the baby being teased just for the fun of it. The little girl appearing in a trance, eyes rolling back into her head. Then the homemade video reveals a second infant, passed from one person to the next, no car seat, no seat belt, as the van speeds on. A baby on ecstasy? Tonight, we want answers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look closely. There`s strong suggestion throughout this video that the toddler may be high on ecstasy. Law enforcement is worried for her safety and asking the public for help.
The video first surfaced on YouTube and shows the girl rolling her eyes while sitting on the floor of a moving car. There`s no child seat to be found. All the while, a chorus of teens chime in, mocking the girl. This toddler, one of the most vulnerable of our society.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, day six in the desperate search for a 12-year-old little girl, Tacoma, Washington, kidnapped the Fourth of July. Little Zina Linnik last seen watching fireworks on July 4th, then vanishing right behind her own home. Reports the little girl screaming as a grey van with Washington State tags speeds away. Tonight, where is Zina Linnik?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A grey van with a young Asian male driving. Zina was heard screaming and that`s the last she was seen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At approximately 9:45 p.m. on July 4th, 12-year- old Zina Linnik was kidnapped from the alley behind her family`s residence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since no one really saw the girl get pulled into the van, tracking dogs and searchers are checking the neighborhood, in case she left or was taken out on foot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening, I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. A toddler high on ecstasy? The stunning video that sends police on a manhunt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look what you did to my eye, girl!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is some bad (expletive deleted), man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That little girl whooped my ass. And I don`t want to (expletive deleted) with (INAUDIBLE) around her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That girl is crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at her, she`s taking those pills like (INAUDIBLE), look at her. (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Girl, what I tell you about giving her that (INAUDIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wanted it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s rolling it, girl. She`s rolling it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Girl, give her that (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, close the window, my mom put the AC on, girl.
Close the window!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, you`re wasting AC.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop rolling, girl. You shouldn`t have (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at her, she rolling hard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hell, yes, she going to be looking (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look in the middle, look in the middle. Girl, stop rolling so damn hard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She keeps (expletive deleted) with us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God! She keeps (expletive deleted) with us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Under her eyes, under her eyes!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at me, baby, stop doing that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s like, what`s going on? (INAUDIBLE) going on?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She just tried to do it again. Hold on.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Incredible. As you see, this little toddler girl sitting on the floor of a van. Clearly in the Houston area. You can hear a Christian radio station playing "Jesus Loves Me" in the background, while all of these seemingly teens mocking the little girl. Another infant being passed hand to hand also not in a car seat, not in a seat belt. Is this child being slapped in the face, hit on the head, played around the eyes, the mouth, seemingly unresponsive. Let`s go out to "America`s Most Wanted" Michelle Sigona.
Where did this come from? What is this?
MICHELLE SIGONA, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": This is a horrific video, Nancy, as you can see. Whether this child is in fact on ecstasy or not, the fact that she`s sitting in the back seat, on the floorboard, there`s another child being passed around, there is foul language being used in front of the children, they`re driving down the road. I mean, this is just -- it`s disgusting, it`s horrible.
From what we can tell, another person inside of that car was in fact taking this video. And then somewhere along the line it was actually posted on a number of Web sites and then actually made its way all the way around the circuit and onto your show tonight.
GRACE: Out to Dr. Robi Ludwig, psychotherapist and author, why would someone take the video to start with and of all places put it on YouTube?
DR. ROBI LUDWIG, HOST, "WITHOUT PREJUDICE": That is the big question. A lot of people view YouTube as a way to gain instant attention, or fame, or recognition. And this is just so disturbing. I don`t know what could have been going through the minds of the people taking this. It`s just absolutely child abuse. There`s just no doubt about it.
GRACE: But why would somebody put it on YouTube?
LUDWIG: I think for attention and to gain notoriety. And if somebody has a disturbed mind, they may not recognize how ill this really is. So people will put anything on YouTube or through the Internet in order to get recognized. There`s this idea, if I can gain fame because it`s accessible to me, and then they don`t really think about the content.
GRACE: I want to go to Dr. William R. Morrone, medical examiner, expert in his field, he is a forensic pathologist and toxicologist.
Dr. Morrone, I want to talk about ecstasy. What is it? What does it do to you? What could it do to a 2-year-old little girl?
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Ecstasy is a psychotropic stimulant. It`s a Schedule I in the United States, which means the manufacture, the possession, and the sale are all illegal. It has no clinical value and it has addictive potential.
Ecstasy, being a stimulant, will increase heart rate, increase body temperature, and cause dehydration acutely. And the long-term effects can be damaged cognitive potential in the areas of the brain that use thought and memory. But the number one word that I have when I see this girl is "seizure."
Rolling in the eyes and loss of consciousness, this kid isn`t having a good time. That`s a seizure. Ecstasy will give you elevated heart rate, elevated blood pressure, tremors, cramps. The seizures are very serious. And if she`s not being given a drug, she has seizures and she needs an evaluation.
GRACE: Dr. Morrone, you have examined this tape over and over and over. Now, is the child responding to cues for her eyes to roll back in her head? Can a 2-year-old infant even respond to that kind of a cue?
MORRONE: No, no. That`s a seizure, the high effects, the toxic effects. I am a toxicologist by training. The toxicological effects on the brain put the brain in seizure. And the eyes roll back. Now, that`s not the seizure, the grand mal that you`re used to. Those are partial complex seizures. But they`re just as serious.
And that leads to stroke, renal failure, and death. This is so damning, because she`s so close to death. It`s not just abuse. This is.
GRACE: Dr. Morrone, is there any way that this child -- after you`ve examined the video, is there a way that she could actually -- is a 2-year- old competent to make a joke this sophisticated? To play along with a joke?
MORRONE: No. And it has to do with the reflexes and the rolling of the eyes. That`s paramount. That`s pinnacle for seizure. And if it`s not ecstasy, it`s another psychotropic stimulant, or it`s a lack of medical attention for real seizures. That`s why this is very, very serious.
GRACE: Out to the reporter with The Houston Chronicle, Melanie Markley is with us.
Melanie, what more can you tell us?
MELANIE MARKLEY, THE HOUST CHRONICLE: Well, basically when the video went on various Web sites, it caused so much outrage that people started contacting local law authorities, the media, begging people to do something about it.
It became a huge story, obviously, here in Houston. And law authorities did get involved in to track these people down.
GRACE: Right. Speaking of law enforcement, joining us right now is A.J. "Andy" Louderback with the Jackson County Sheriff`s Department. He is the Jackson County sheriff. He is investigating the video.
Sheriff, I want to thank you very much for being with us tonight. What was your first impression when you saw this video, Sheriff?
A.J. "ANDY" LOUDERBACK, JACKSON COUNTY SHERIFF: Deplorable, pretty pathetic.
GRACE: You know, Sheriff, I was wondering when I first heard about the video, if the child could be responding to cues, to act a certain way. Act drunk. Act like you`re on drugs. You know, pretend you`re smoking a cigarette. But when you look at the video, and they`re tapping her on the head and they`re pulling on her eyes, she doesn`t respond at all. I mean, it`s as if her face is numb.
LOUDERBACK: I agree with you. My first observance of the video, there were several indications that the child did that -- which were what I`ve known to believe to be part of the ecstasy experience.
GRACE: What would that be? I`m not -- I`ve prosecuted ecstasy but I`m not familiar with the ecstasy experience. What are you referring to?
LOUDERBACK: Well, mainly the eyes rolling.
GRACE: So when they`re saying "she`s rolling on us, she`s rolling on us," they`re talking about being on an ecstasy trip? That`s what that means?
LOUDERBACK: Yes.
GRACE: How old do you place this child, at about 2?
LOUDERBACK: Two to 3 years of age.
GRACE: Now it`s my understanding that you guys really did some very serious police work, and based on what you see in the van, including right in that car pocket -- that back seat car pocket, evidence right there, a clue right there.
You listened to the -- there you go, there you go. Identifying the Houston and Jackson County area. You listened to the radio. You heard all types of information on it. And you have narrowed down who you think these people are. What is the latest? These people need to be rounded up and put in jail.
LOUDERBACK: Well, it was a good team effort. It also involved the Harris County Cyber Crimes Unit, which was an immense help. It also -- we were actually forwarded the video from Robert Arnold, investigative reporter with KPRC 2 News.
And that was last Friday. And so there was multiple law enforcement agencies involved in this. Along with the Harris County Cyber Crimes Unit, which is a part of the FBI, they are in Houston. And as part of good teamwork and law enforcement, we were able to get these folks identified today, and I believe some interviews took place today, this afternoon.
GRACE: You know, I know that some of these people in the car appear to be teenagers. I`ve got a surprise for everybody. Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, Susan Moss, Joe Lawless out of Philadelphia, Richard Herman and Susan out of New York. There is a procedure called bindover. When a juvenile commits an adult crime, they are boundover on certain designated felonies to adult court.
If any of these kids -- these teens, are 16, 17, 18, they could be looking at adult child endangerment charges, Sue Moss.
SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTY. & CHILD ADVOCATE: Absolutely. You know, good help is hard to find, but if a mom left a child with these losers who gave ecstasy to a child, she`s going to lose custody. And I`ll tell you something else, move over, Annie, because another kid`s coming to the orphanage after this one.
GRACE: Look at this child. Not reacting to the stimulus of having her face and head slapped, her eyes pulled down. All the while, everybody in the car mocking her. And back to the sheriff, A.J. "Andy" Louderback, kind enough to join us tonight, he`s a Jackson County sheriff, at one juncture I believe I hear them say, "close the window, mom turned on the AC." That means there`s an adult in the car.
LOUDERBACK: Yes.
GRACE: Sheriff, Sheriff, now, you know these people are going to tell you that the child is joking. You know, that right?
LOUDERBACK: Yes.
GRACE: OK. How long, Dr. Morrone, does ecstasy stay in someone`s system?
MORRONE: Ecstasy has a half life of six to eight hours. If the child is repeatedly exposed to ecstasy, it can be determined in a urine drug screen at the appropriate time.
GRACE: Dr. Morrone, like some other drugs, can it show up in your hair, like weeks and months later?
MORRONE: With chronic exposure. But the difficult part is, the people sampling for ecstasy actually have to make a specific test. The standard seven panel abuse doesn`t show ecstasy.
GRACE: Out to -- back to the sheriff, Sheriff Louderback. Does the little girl -- what is she wearing, Sheriff?
LOUDERBACK: I couldn`t really make out. It appears to be some type of a shirt and a pair of shorts.
GRACE: Because I`m seeing bare -- bare shoulders. I can`t see that she`s actually wearing anything. And it looks like one of the other young ladies, I`m using the term loosely, is wearing a towel as if they had gone swimming or something. Where had these people been?
LOUDERBACK: I`m not sure, Ms. Grace. I do not know.
GRACE: Let`s go to the lines. Rosie in Virginia, hi, Rosie.
CALLER: Hi.
GRACE: What`s your question, dear?
CALLER: My question is, even though the people in the car have been rounded up, I think that everyone, because there has been so much exposure to little kids on TV, those teenagers know better. They know exactly what ecstasy does. And they should be charged as an adult.
GRACE: And, Rosie, remember, there`s apparently a mom in the car, Rosie in Virginia. What about that? It`s not just the teenagers. Lost Rosie. Out to Dale in Ohio, hi, Dale.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy.
GRACE: What`s your question, dear?
CALLER: My question is, when these people put these videos on YouTube, does it come with an e-mail address where they can track them back to?
GRACE: Good question. To Mike Brooks, former fed with the FBI, former D.C. cop, what about the computer forensics?
MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, that`s exactly how they track these people down, Nancy. It was through the Harris County Sheriff`s Office deputy who was on the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force there in Houston that they were able to track this down, track down the sender and they were able to find these.
And there were a total of nine people in this van, Nancy. There were three adults, this little girl, and another toddler you can see getting passed around. But they -- were apparently have been interviewed, they`ve talked to everybody who`s in the van, they`ve actually had contact with this little girl. And -- but they were still unable to say whether or not that ecstasy was used.
But you know, I`d say, as Dr. Morrone was saying, why not go ahead and give her a drug test, take some blood, do some toxicology testing to find out whether or not there could be something in her system.
GRACE: Dr. Morrone, look at this. You`re the doctor. We`re all just lawyers and investigators, cops. What do you see, doctor? I`m just sick. I can hardly stand to look at it. The way they keep grabbing the little girl`s face, and she`s totally unresponsive. She`s not crying, she`s not laughing, she`s not joking along, her eyes are all rolled back in her head.
MORRONE: I`ll tell you, this is really tough. When I look at that, the first thing I see, is I have a 2-year-old daughter that weighs 25 pounds with brown eyes and curly hair. That`s what I see.
GRACE: Doctor, could this cause her permanent damage?
MORRONE: Permanent brain damage is known in rats and it`s expected in humans in areas of thought and memory. This is serious stuff.
GRACE: Dr. Morrone, I`m with you. Just looking at it -- I can hardly stand to look at it. What you`re seeing right now is a video posted on YouTube. Police there, including A.J. "Andy" Louderback, the Jackson County sheriff, managed to track down the people in the car. The question is, was the toddler on ecstasy, and what will be, if any, the permanent damage?
We`ll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hell, yes, she going to be looking (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look in the middle, look in the middle. Girl, stop rolling so damn hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Yes, it`s funny, all right. Allegations that about a 2-year- old little toddler girl had taken ecstasy while a carload of people, nine in all, taunted her cruelly, slapping her about the face, grabbing her head, pulling down her eyes. The little girl showing no response whatsoever.
But thanks to some good police work, the sheriff there in Jackson County and others found these people. We still don`t know the status of little girl tonight. We are taking your calls, out to Cindy in Kansas. Hi, Cindy.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. I was wanting to know since the baby is only 2 and they gave her the drugs, obviously she`s having seizures, can`t they be tried for attempted murder instead of child endangerment, just like people who will willingly poison other people?
GRACE: Back to the lawyers, Susan Moss, Joe Lawless, Richard Herman. What about it, Richard?
RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, here`s some breaking news. Nobody in this case is going to be charged. The sheriff can interview everyone he wants. The little child was chewing gum and laughing and carrying on with these people. The only potential people of any criminality here is the driver of the vehicle.
And there is a total defense because you said there were nine people in the van so there were no empty seats to put the child in a child seat. And as far as the endangerment goes, the only person that could be charged there is the mother, assuming she`s in the car, or the person entrusted to take care of the child.
And there the test is, is the child in imminent danger? They both fail. Nobody`s even going to be charged here, Nancy. Nobody.
GRACE: Once again, Richard Herman fabricating the law. To Joe Lawless. Joe, listen. Just go with me for a moment. When two people are pulled over in a car and cocaine is found in the ashtray, don`t both of them get charged?
JOE LAWLESS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, both of them get charged...
GRACE: No, just answer, yes, no?
LAWLESS: Yes.
GRACE: Do they both get charged?
LAWLESS: Yes. Can they both get convicted?
GRACE: Then why won`t everybody in this car be charged with child endangerment, including the mother?
LAWLESS: If you`re talking nine people, I agree with Richard, I don`t think all nine of them are going to be charged. The mother, the people in charge of the child, the people who were poking at the child. Absolutely I think are going to be charged with a crime.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look what you did to my eye, girl!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is some bad (expletive deleted), man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That little girl whooped my ass. And I don`t want to (expletive deleted) with (INAUDIBLE) around her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That girl is crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at her, she`s taking those pills like (INAUDIBLE), look at her. (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: According to allegations, a 2-year-old toddler girl being given ecstasy in a van full of nine people, including the 2 1/2-year-old girl, an infant who we see being passed around in a speeding van. No car seat, no seat belt. The little girl`s mother, two other adults and four girls all under age 17.
Out to the lines. Let`s go to Donna in Texas, hi, Donna.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. First of all, I`m absolutely disgusted with watching the video. And I want to know why that poor little girl was not taken out of that home immediately, pending an investigation.
GRACE: Let`s go out to Estella Olguin, she is a CPS, Child Protective Services spokesperson.
Estella, thank you for being with us. How is this case being handled? Explain it to us.
ESTELLA OLGUIN, HOUSTON CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES: Well, currently the case workers are still at the office, meeting with the family and everyone that was in that van. What we`re learning is that there were three adults in the van and six children, including the 2-year-old toddler and the 8-month-old infant and some of the other children.
GRACE: Estella, hold that, dear. We`re going to be right back for your answer.
OLGUIN: OK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look what you did to my eye, girl!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is some bad (expletive deleted), man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That little girl whooped my ass. And I don`t want to (expletive deleted) with (INAUDIBLE) around her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That girl is crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at her, she`s taking those pills like (INAUDIBLE), look at her. (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Girl, what I tell you about giving her that (INAUDIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wanted it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s rolling it, girl. She`s rolling it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Girl, give her that (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, close the window, my mom put the AC on, girl.
Close the window!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, you`re wasting AC.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop rolling, girl. You shouldn`t have (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at her, she rolling hard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hell, yes, she going to be looking (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look in the middle, look in the middle. Girl, stop rolling so damn hard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She keeps (expletive deleted) with us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God! She keeps (expletive deleted) with us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Under her eyes, under her eyes!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at me, baby, stop doing that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s like, what`s going on? (INAUDIBLE) going on?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She just tried to do it again. Hold on.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: According to allegations, this toddler girl sitting on the floorboard of a speeding van, possibly being given ecstasy. If you take a listen to the conversation around her and look at her demeanor, it`s a real possibility. Out to the lines, Linda in Missouri, hi, Linda.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy.
GRACE: What`s your question?
CALLER: Oh, I`m just so devastated. The individuals in the car admitted that -- or made comments to the fact that they gave this child pills. If they do any kind of drug testing and find none in her system, based on the fact of what they said, can these individuals still be charged with endangerment or abuse?
GRACE: Linda in Missouri, I`m with you. What about it? Mike Brooks, you`ve handled similar cases with child endangerment before you were with the feds when you were a D.C. cop. How would you charge it? How would you go about finding that out? If Morrone is correct, and I believe he is, ecstasy is out of your system in about eight hours.
BROOKS: Well, they couldn`t find any residual from any kind of toxicology test, Nancy. These -- interview all of these little thug-ette wannabes in this van and find out exactly what`s going on. If they`re telling the truth. Apparently they`re being very cooperative with law enforcement right now. They`re coming back.
GRACE: I guess they are, they got caught.
BROOKS: Yes, you`re damn right, they had better be, with the FBI involved. I think there.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: You know, it`s amazing how cooperative people get when they get caught and they`re on video. Yes, they`re cooperative.
BROOKS: Absolutely. I mean, they had better be, with the FBI involved. I think they`re in way over their head, Nancy. But number one, you see one of them has an iPod. They can afford an iPod but they can`t afford a car seat? But on the child endangerment, they`ll have to go back and take a look at all of the records with Child Protective Services in Harris County.
And it`s going to be Child Protective Services that are going to make recommendations to law enforcement and it should be a joint investigation between CPS and the sheriff`s office there in Jackson County and Harris County.
GRACE: And now to you, Richard Herman (ph), I know you graduated law school. Let`s see what really learned. You said the little girl is chewing gum and she`s playing. Let`s see if you can roll your eyes back to the back of your head like that and hold it.
HERMAN: Hey, Nancy, listen.
GRACE: All cameras on Richard Herman, let`s see. I want to see this.
HERMAN: I don`t want to show of for you, Nancy.
GRACE: No, go ahead, feel free.
HERMAN: Let me just tell you, you know, not that I have personal experience in this, but I have seen people on ecstasy, and you know, I really believe that if a 2-year-old took a hit of ecstasy, those eyes wouldn`t be coming back down. So I mean, come on. This kid`s laughing, chewing gum, playing with these people.
GRACE: I don`t know where -- I guess we`re watching two different videos.
HERMAN: No, we`re seeing the same one.
GRACE: Because for the most part, I see her sitting there with her eyes rolled back in her head, unresponsive when they slap her in the face and try to pull her eyes down.
HERMAN: I mean, everybody is blowing this thing out of proportion. Nothing`s going to come of this, Nancy. You can take my word, there`s going to be no charges brought in this case.
GRACE: I want to go back to Joe Lawless. Joe, did you see that last clip where the little infant is being handed around person to person in the back seat? What`s wrong with these people?
LAWLESS: Nancy, there`s a line in the movie "Parenthood," you need a license to drive a car, any moron can be a parent. These are people that are not wrapped real tight in my opinion. I think they have to take a long, hard look at whoever the parents are of this little girl. Before we even get to whether or not there was ecstasy involved.
I was the national counsel for the National Child Passenger Safety Association. This kid`s in the back seat of a car, on the floor. That car stops suddenly, that little baby becomes an air bag and she`s crushed by the knees of the person sitting in front of her. There`s clearly child endangerment issues here before you get to whether or not anyone can prove there were drugs involved.
We`re dealing with some people who think a child is a toy, a source of amusement, something to post on the Internet. These are not people who should be responsible for human life under any set of circumstances.
GRACE: I want to go back to Estella Olguin, she`s the Child Protective Services spokesperson there in Houston.
Estella, again, thank you for being with us. What I`m wondering about is ecstasy, no ecstasy, what mom would sit by and let a group of teenagers mock her 2-year-old? I mean, do you know how many people in this country are in a big, long line to try to adopt somebody like this little girl so they can love her and raise her and send her to school and take care of her and dress her up and take care of her when she`s sick and look at how this child is being treated. And the mother is just sitting there, letting it happen.
OLGUIN: Right, there`s a lot of things that are concerning about just watching this video. The treatment that the child is getting and also the language that those teens are using. And we`re learning now that there were three adults in that car.
So any one of these three adults you would think would have stopped this behavior. So there`s still a lot of investigating to do. But we are right now as we speak meeting with all these people that were in the van.
GRACE: And you know, you`d think, Susan Moss, that one of them would crack and tell the truth.
MOSS: My goodness, this is one of the cruelest videos we`ve ever seen. One of them is going to tell the truth. Because they`re in way over their head. There`s a lot of video evidence. And somebody is going to do the right thing.
GRACE: You know, I want to go back to Michelle Sigona with "America`s Most Wanted."
Michelle, what was your reaction when you first saw this video? "America`s Most Wanted" deals with so many missing and mistreated children.
SIGONA: We really do, Nancy. And a lot of us actually put it on today and we were all watching it. And our reaction in the newsroom as a group, as a whole, was we were completely disgusted, we were outraged at the fact that this child is sitting on the floorboard in the back of a moving van. Who knows what`s going to happen.
I mean, I`m a volunteer firefighter for the last 12 years, I`ve been on the scene of many accidents before and seen children not strapped in car seats is definitely one of them. Number one, you have that child. You have the other child, the infant, in the back seat that`s being tossed around like a hot potato, from person to person and place to place.
And I did speak to the investigator who is investigating this case today, another one, there`s a lot of jurisdictions who are involved. And what he told me is that they were actually putting that child -- they had passed the child around and putting that child back into the car seat again.
But the reaction is definitely outrageous. Completely disgusting. Completely absurd. And I cannot even believe that somebody would put this out there for everyone to see.
GRACE: You know, back to you, Dr. Robi Ludwig, psychotherapist -- and now host of a brand new show of her own, "Without Prejudice." Robi, back to them posting it on the Internet where anybody could see it. Not only is that a certain arrogance, it`s as if they don`t care if they get caught.
LUDWIG: Well, it`s true, and also what I noticed, and I think what everybody is responding to in the video, it`s very sadistic. The way this child is being treated, aside from children metabolizing drugs differently, it`s just sadistic all the way around.
GRACE: Out to Carmella in Texas. Hi, Carmella.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. I just want to know what the relationship is between this girl that is slapping this baby in the face and the child.
GRACE: To Melanie Markley with The Houston Chronicle, what do we know, Melanie?
MARKLEY: Well, the Harris County sheriff`s department has not released a great deal of detail on their investigation at this point. But we expect to learn more very soon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At approximately 9:45 p.m. on July 4th, 12-year- old Zina Linnik was kidnapped from the alley behind her family`s residence in the 2500 block of South J. (ph) Street in Tacoma. A witness heard a scream from the alley and saw a vehicle. This vehicle has been described as an older model van, possibly gray in color, with the numbers 677 or 667 in the license plate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tonight police are asking the public`s help, hoping anyone who was at this nearby bus stop will come forward. They believe the two men may have seen the van they`re seeking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Zina Linnik, just 12 years old, is about 4`10", she only weighs 80 pounds, blonde hair, last in a pony tail, wearing a pink T-shirt, orange and yellow capri pants, red flip-flop sandals. Kidnapped during Fourth of July fireworks.
Out to Paul Sand, The Tacoma News Tribune, what`s the latest?
PAUL SAND, THE TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE: Well, Nancy, investigators are out searching a wooded area about 30 miles northeast of Tacoma. And they`ve been out there most of the day. And they haven`t said what they`ve found. When I spoke with the police spokesman this afternoon, he said they weren`t finding much.
The other new development today is that the search warrant documents from yesterday`s search of a house about 10 miles south of Tacoma were released today. My paper obtained those. And it indicates that a 42-year- old man who is a convicted sex offender was living at this house.
He was driving a van that had a license plate that closely resembled the partial description that Zina`s father gave police. And also the other interesting detail was that police took some items from the house during an extensive search Sunday night into Monday, and found, among other things, a girl`s undergarments.
GRACE: Thank you, Paul Sand, with us, from The Tacoma News Tribune. Out to Michelle Sigona with "America`s Most Wanted."
Michelle, give me the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.
SIGONA: Well, right now, from what we know, Nancy, she was at home, it was on the Fourth of July, outside with a lot of family and a lot of friends and around -- just after 9:30 on the Fourth of July, her father heard a scream. That`s when he went outside and saw that Zina was gone. And he thinks that he saw a man getting inside of a gray van.
At the time, originally investigators did say that they were looking for an Asian man. However, we did talk to investigators today and they said, look, right now we`re scaling back that particular description, we`re just going to say that we`re looking for an unknown male at this point.
It was an unknown van. But now investigators are telling us that it`s probably a Toyota or a Volkswagen, with that tag number you just mentioned, either 677 or 667, as in the tag number. And from this point we have not heard anything from her. It`s so sad.
GRACE: 667, 677, Toyota or Volkswagen van, gray. I imagine a white or Asian male, at first thought to be Asian. Take a look. Out to Mike Brooks.
Mike, where do we go from here?
BROOKS: Well, Nancy, one of the things they can do is go ahead and try to come up -- the Department Motor Vehicles, try to come up with this partial, and run all kinds of different combinations. But that`s going to take quite some time.
But I can tell you, they -- when they got that search warrant and they searched that house for 18 hours. I mean, they had to have probable cause to go ahead and get that search warrant. Apparently that search warrant.
GRACE: Which -- was this the house of the next-door neighbor?
BROOKS: I`m not sure exactly what house it was. They gave the address, but I don`t know that area.
GRACE: Michelle, was it? Is that the house of the next-door neighbor?
SIGONA: Well, here is what I can tell you. It`s a house in Parkland. I`m not sure if it is the house of the next-door neighbor or not.
GRACE: OK. Because a tracker dog went immediately to a next-door neighbor house and that guy has been ruled out.
Go ahead, Mike Brooks.
BROOKS: No, no, the tracker dogs, apparently three bloodhounds hit on the same house. They investigated that, nothing came of that. They received a tip that led them to the other house where they did this 18-hour search warrant, and they went ahead and towed away a van from that particular house also.
And now they`re up in this forest -- this heavily-wooded area, about 40 searchers. And this came apparently from what they`re calling a well- vetted tip. So that means that they had some pretty good information to lead them to this particular area.
GRACE: Mike, I`m just getting in information right now, that as of right now, nobody, no person has been found in the search that they are conducting tonight. Very quickly, everyone, we`ll all be right back. But first, "CNN Heroes."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOMALY MAM, "FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE": In Cambodia prostitution is illegal. But right now you can see everywhere we have the prostitutes because of the corruption.
The brothel owners, they force them to have sex. They hit them. They receive a lot of violence. I remember when I was young. I was sold into the brothel. I was forced to have sex and I was raped. When I need the people to help me, I need the people but nobody helped me.
My name is Somaly Mam. And my mission is to help the victims, to take them out from the brothel. And many of them, they have HIV/AIDS. Sometimes they say cut themselves. Sometimes they try suicide. I just say to them, you have your pain full, everybody treats you so bad. Why you treat yourself bad? It`s not your fault.
My work is so dangerous. You face the police, who are corrupted. You go in the courts, sometimes they are so corrupted.
I have a lot of people trying to destroy me everywhere. They are trying, trying. But I just want to say to them, no way. My organization, we have the counseling, we have all kinds of training, like sewing, hairdressing. And then give them opportunity to work and then integrate them into society.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I feel like I have a new life. I was so upset before. It seems like everything was destroyed. Now I have a new life.
MAM: I just want to give them love for real. It`s what I needed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: To HEADLINE PRIME`s Glenn Beck. Hi, friend.
GLENN BECK, HOST, "GLENN BECK": Congress continues their war debate today, taking a much-needed break from the launching of those silly investigations and calling for the president`s impeachment, again.
Hey guys, the world is literally on fire, maybe you shouldn`t be wasting your time. What about a congressional inaction investigation?
Then Robert Kennedy Jr. has said that those who question global warming are traitors and should be treated as such. Gosh, I had better schedule my last meal.
And Miss New Jersey is being blackmailed. Some pictures of her on the Internet. They say she might lose her crown. We`ll have details on that and more next.
GRACE: Welcome back, everybody. Where is 12-year-old Zina Linnik? Out to Sherry in Missouri. Hi, Sherry.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy, congratulations.
GRACE: Oh, can you believe it, Sherry? I`m just so blessed. And when I see this little girl missing or that 2-year-old little girl being mistreated, it`s just killing me. What`s your question, dear?
CALLER: It is sickening, first of all. Second of all, I would like to know what it is more that a community can do, since we`re falling through the cracks of the law, to try to protect these children from these child predators?
GRACE: You know, I want to go back out to Susan Moss. Protection from child predators. We just showed you a map, they show 281 sex offenders in that area. Susan Moss, child advocate thoughts?
MOSS: That is just huge. We are failing our children. We send these people to jail, there is no rehabilitation that has been proven by studies to work. And then we put them back out in our communities. We are failing our children. I don`t know as I sit here what the answer is, but I do know we have to work on this problem or we have more.
GRACE: I`ve got two, Susan. Number one, life behind bars without parole for repeat child sex offenders. And civil commitment when they finish their sentence. That`s just a couple of thoughts that are already out there, not implemented.
Hold on everybody, let`s stop to remember Major Kevin "Sonny" Sonnenberg, 42, McClure, Ohio. Killed, Iraq. A graduate of Bowling Green University, a National Guard pilot on a first tour. Also served in Turkey. Jack-of-all-trades, also a former Delta pilot, farmer, middle school teacher, wrestling coach. Remembered as man who loved God, family and country. Leaves behind grieving widow Lauren (ph) and 6-year-old stepson Carson. Kevin Sonnenberg, American hero.
Thank you to our guests but especially you for inviting us into your homes. See you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
