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Nancy Grace
4-Year-Old`s Parents Named as Suspects in Portugal Disappearance
Aired September 07, 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. A beautiful 3-year-old (SIC) little girl snatched during a luxury resort vacation while her parents party 100 yards away at a dinner party. Tonight, stunning evidence emerges. After a global campaign to find baby Maddy, millions of dollars raised for reward money, even a private meeting with the pope in Rome, in the last hours, police name Maddy`s own mother a suspect. And just minutes ago, the father also named, the police claim the baby`s blood discovered in the car rented by Maddy`s family a full 25 days after Maddy is reported kidnapped. Police hone in on Maddy`s parents, conducting nearly 20 hours of intense questioning. Is a plea deal on the table? Are police pressing Maddy`s parents to confess?
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gerry McCann, the father of Madeleine McCann, is now a formal suspect in the disappearance of his daughter. That`s along with his wife, Kate McCann. We heard of the news that Kate was a formal suspect in this case earlier on, on Friday. But a short time ago, her husband emerged after hours of questioning in the local police station in Portmao, and it emerged then in a statement that he, too, is now a formal suspect in the disappearance of their 4-year-old daughter, Madeleine, who went missing on the 3rd of May and has not been seen since.
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GRACE: And tonight, a young assistant principal heads into middle school for work in her Mercedes, day one of school, upscale Cincinnati suburbs, but, uh-oh, she leaves something in the car, her 2-year-old baby girl, temperatures soaring above 140 degrees. Cause of death, the heat. But Mommy says she forgot the baby. But hey, she remembered to bring donuts for the other teachers. Tonight, it`s revealed she did it before, and it`s all caught on a video confession. So why are prosecutors refusing to press charges?
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mom of two Brenda Slaby heads to the suburban Cincinnati middle school where she works as an assistant principal. Along the way, she plans to drop her 2-year-old, Cecilia, at the sitter, but being early, detours to pick up donuts for the staff. At the school, she forgets her baby, but not the donuts. End result, a dead toddler left in temperatures soaring above 100 degrees. Prosecutors say they will not file charges, so the careless mom gets off, even after it`s revealed it`s not the first time Slaby leaves her 2-year-old in the car alone.
BRENDA SLABY, FORGOTTEN 2-YEAR-OLD DIED IN HOT CAR: I was trying to be everything to everybody, and I failed my daughter!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. First, breaking news, a 3-year-old girl reportedly snatched from a luxury resort vacation, tonight police name baby Maddy`s mom and dad, as we go to air, suspects.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Portuguese police on this day formally announcing that the two parents are now suspects, formal suspects in the disappearance of their daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A family member says Madeleine McCann`s mom may have been offered a plea deal in return for admitting she killed her own daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... tried to get Kate to confess to having accidentally killed Madeleine by offering her a deal through her lawyer, which was, If you say that you killed Madeleine by accident and then hid her and then disposed of the body, then we can guarantee you a two-year jail sentence or even less. You may get off because people feel sorry for you it was an accident.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Madeleine, of course, vanished during a family vacation in Portugal. It`s been four months now since that happened. The apparent new break in the case comes after Madeleine`s blood in a car that her parents rented 25 days after the little girl was reported missing.
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GRACE: Let`s go straight out to Portmao, Portugal. Joining us tonight, Paula Hancocks, CNN correspondent. As we go to air, we learn the father now joins his wife as a police suspect in the disappearance of baby Maddy. Paula, thank you for being with us. What`s the latest?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, just in the last half hour or so, we heard that Gerry was going to join his wife, Kate, as chief suspects. And it really just shows exactly what can happen in a day so much. Twenty-four hours ago, these were two parents who had lost their daughter, they thought. They had the sympathy of millions. They had millions of dollars coming into a fund. They had a Web site with blogs. They were meeting the pope. And now, just 24 hours later, the Portuguese police have decided that they are two formal suspects.
Now, they can`t leave the country. They have to come back and talk to the police on a number of occasions now. And it`s just amazing what can change in 24 hours in a case like this.
GRACE: Paula, it really is. Now, if this were any other police force, Paul Hancocks, I`d be down with it. But remember, they also named Robert Murat (ph) a suspect, questioned him for hours upon hours upon hours. Remember, he lived nearby that luxury resort where baby Maddy was stolen. Now we haven`t heard another word about him. And now they say they found blood in the car 25 days after baby Maddy went missing? What has led up to this twist, this bizarre twist tonight, Paula?
HANCOCKS: Well, (INAUDIBLE) Nancy, we`re not actually hearing that much from the Portuguese police. All of this is secondhand from the McCann family, spokesperson for the McCann family lawyers. They`re saying that, yes, they did find these traces of blood 24 hours -- 24 days after -- this car was actually rented 24 -- 25 days after the disappearance. And this is just very confusing for everybody. People are speculating on what that could mean. The Portuguese media has certainly cooled towards the McCanns over the past couple of months, so they`re speculating more than most. But even the British media, which is known for being quite rampant (ph) in taking no -- pulling no punches, that`s started to also question what exactly happened that night.
GRACE: Well, another issue -- out to Jon Leiberman with "America`s Most Wanted." Didn`t police -- wasn`t it leaked at some juncture that baby Maddy`s blood had been found inside that luxury condo they were renting?
Everyone, the reason this is happening in Portugal is because the parents had taken baby Maddy and her two little twin siblings on a luxury vacation there in Portugal, and baby Maddy allegedly went missing. The parents were about 100 yards away, the size of a football field, having a dinner party, leaving their three children alone back in this luxury condo.
Jon Leiberman, whatever happened to the theory that was leaked that baby Maddy`s blood was in that condo? Right or wrong?
JON LEIBERMAN, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Well, police say that they did find blood inside of that condo. They tell us tonight that they do have DNA back, but they won`t tell us if that DNA is Maddy`s blood inside of the apartment.
My problem with it, Nancy, is the Portuguese police have bungled this thing from the beginning. They didn`t even find that blood until two-and- a-half months after Madeleine went missing. They didn`t know that there had been a rash of break-ins in villas around where Madeleine went missing for three months after she went missing. And they didn`t question hardly any potential witnesses or people that lived around that area for days and days after Madeleine went missing.
So why should we now believe the Portuguese police? If they had the goods on Gerry and Kate, then why not charge them with the crime?
GRACE: I want to go to an esteemed expert in his field. You all know Dr. Joshua Perper, medical examiner and author. Dr. Perper, yes, it has taken police a long time to find this evidence, if the evidence is accurate. But blood on a wall or on the interior of a car doesn`t just disappear in time, it can be found years later and still reveal accurate DNA results. Yes or no?
DR. JOSHUA PERPER, BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Yes. Yes. You can make this kind of analysis months and sometimes years, unless the area is cleaned or wiped.
GRACE: So back to Paula Hancocks, CNN correspondent covering the story. She`s there, joining us at Portmao, Portugal. Paula, we have alleged blood from baby Maddy in the condo. Police didn`t claim the parents were suspects then. It seems as if this is all turned on finding blood in that rental car. Tell me what you know about this rental car? And how many hours have the mom and dad been under questioning by Portuguese police?
HANCOCKS: Well, your second question first, Nancy -- 11 yesterday for Kate McCann, another 5 hours today. And for her husband, he`s been spending about 8 hours before he came out and had to let his lawyer admit that he is now a proper suspect, as opposed to just a witness.
The fact is, this all happened about 48 hours ago, a little bit more than that, when we got some DNA results from that condo from the British laboratory. And there was something in that -- they`re not telling us what, but there must have been something in that made the Portuguese think, We want to interview both Kate and Gerry, but we don`t want to interview them together, we`ll interview them separately. And at the end of both those interviews, they then say that they are suspects. So there`s something within those DNA results. That`s the speculation here.
GRACE: To Bill Majeski, former NYPD detective. He`s with the Safenowproject. Bill, welcome to the show. Thank you for being with us. It is not unusual at all -- in fact, it`s SOP, standard operating procedure -- to split up the parents and question them separately, is it not.
BILL MAJESKI, SAFENOWPROJECT: Absolutely correct. You know, why give them an opportunity to say the same thing while they`re in the same room together. You know, there are a couple of issues here with that car and the finding of the blood in it. There had to be a reason why the Portuguese police searched the car to begin with. It was rented 25 days after the child disappeared, so they clearly had suspicions. Now, maybe they were being surveilled. Maybe they brought something from the apartment into the car. That then caused the Portuguese police to start searching the car, and they did find some kind of trace evidence of blood in the car, probably from something that was brought out of the apartment. What that is, we don`t know.
But we also know that when Portuguese police name someone as a suspect, they then tell the suspect the evidence that they have against them. So clearly, you know, both parents here, they can come forward and say, OK, we`re being accused because, and give the evidence that the Portuguese police should be telling them that they have against them. The police, on the other hand, are keeping things close to the vest, as they should.
GRACE: I want to go out to the lawyers. Let`s unleash them. Joining us, Susan Moss out of New York, Daniel Horowitz, defense attorney out of San Francisco, Renee Rockwell, defense attorney out of Atlanta.
Here`s the kicker, Daniel Horowitz. Being named a suspect in Portugal is not the same thing as being named a suspect here in the U.S. Explain.
DANIEL HOROWITZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, a lot of these foreign jurisdictions, foreign to us, have an investigative type of system. Just like with the Natalee Holloway case, they arrest people, hold them. They have judges supervising what goes on. And they really grill suspects much more vigorously than we do. But on the other hand, they do not have the forensics or the professionalism of U.S. police forces.
GRACE: And that brings up an interesting point. And I want to go to a guest before I go to the other lawyers, Susan and Renee. Joining us now is Philomena "Phil" McCann. This is Madeleine McCann`s aunt. Philomena, thank you for being with us. Maddy went missing on May the 3rd, and today, almost five months later, they -- police find that they have found blood evidence. Why five months later? Do you find that unusual, Philomena?
PHILOMENA MCCANN, MADELEINE`S AUNT: Well, I find it incredible, actually. They`re not actually saying it`s blood, they`re saying it`s bloody (ph) fluid.
GRACE: Oh, inside the car?
MCCANN: Uh-huh.
GRACE: Bodily fluids inside the car. Philomena, do you believe that it`s true that police are trying to get a plea deal out of baby Maddy`s mother in exchange for a confession of some sort?
MCCANN: Yes. Kate told me that was the case.
GRACE: And what is her response?
MCCANN: Well, it`s actually unsayable (ph), but in effect, she told them to get stuffed.
GRACE: Ms. McCann is with us. This is Maddy McCann`s aunt. She`s joining us by phone from Scotland. Philomena, she must have been shocked when police named her as a suspect.
MCCANN: Well, in some ways, she was, but she knew in advance before she went because they were informed on Monday night in the house. The police had sent someone out to speak to them to advise them of this and to make them aware of their rights, that their change in status would allow them to have legal representation and that they could now refuse to answer questions in case they would incriminate themselves.
GRACE: Yes. With us is baby Maddy`s aunt, Philomena McCann. Do they have lawyers with them, Philomena?
MCCANN: They have a lawyer. They have a Portuguese lawyer with them.
GRACE: Are they answering the questions? I understand Portuguese police told them they had 22 questions that they wanted to ask them. I don`t know, 11 is a long time for 22 questions. But are they answering the questions?
MCCANN: As far as I`m aware (INAUDIBLE) Gerry (INAUDIBLE) tried in every aspect to accommodate the police and be helpful. Kate said that she just, you know, made (INAUDIBLE) because she felt the questions were (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: I want to go out to Pat Brown, criminal profiler. Pat, weigh in.
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, obviously, there`s something there. I mean, this -- all the things the police are doing now, admittedly, they should have done right up front. They should have separated the parents in the beginning, along with their friends, got the different stories, got their alibis, got their timeline to make sure that there was nothing strange or that there wasn`t time for them to do something and move Madeleine`s body by putting her in the boot of the car and then later on taking her someplace. They should have done that right then. But they maybe didn`t because they didn`t suspect them.
I can`t blame them for doing it now, if they`ve found evidence. And if they have found evidence in that rental car, that`s a hard thing to explain away. And I believe that they only went there because they got some other information that was very concerning, as well.
GRACE: Pat Brown, what do you believe the police theory is?
BROWN: Well, my guess is they believe something happened earlier that evening, before they met and -- something tragic. Either the child was overdosed with some kind of medication because they wanted the children to sleep so they could go party. And then maybe they put the child in the boot of the car while they went and played sort of, Hi, hey, we`re here and everything`s OK, and then they went back to check and -- the police wouldn`t even look in the boot of their car if they`re looking for a stranger abduction.
So then later on, at some point in time when they`re not being watched, the child could be moved. Dad could say, Hey, I got to go search for my child. He could jump in the car, take off for hours and no one would pay attention to that, come back, and then they move on. I think that might be the theory. I don`t know that, but that`s what I`m guessing.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Dana in Illinois. Hi, Dana.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Thanks for taking my call.
GRACE: Yes, ma`am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am just wondering, if -- this is very premature, but if they are taken to trial and found guilty, can they be -- the parents be held accountable for all of the money that has been spent on the search?
GRACE: I would say definitely so, but let`s go to Larry Sutton, editor at "People" magazine. Larry, they have raised tons of money and reward money, haven`t they?
LARRY SUTTON, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: Indeed, they have. But the good news, if there is good news here, is a lot of that money is going to broader agencies that are looking for missing children everywhere. It wasn`t totally focused on just this one little girl.
GRACE: Larry, were you surprised when you heard the mom and now the dad named as suspects?
SUTTON: Well, I was surprised when I heard the mom, but I figured the dad was going to come 15 minutes after that because you can`t have one without the other. Yes, it is suspicious. It is surprising. But you know, there were no other suspects. And look at the -- who the police interviewed when the case first started back in May, and they went through everyone. And these were possibly the last people left they could talk to. So not all that surprising, in that sense.
GRACE: And to the lawyers again, Sue Moss, Daniel Horowitz, Renee Rockwell. To you, Sue Moss. The reality is, although the parents were very convincing in their grief after she went missing, the reality, the harsh reality of trial work, criminal law work, is those closest to the victim are the first suspects. And typically, statistically, they are responsible. So this shouldn`t be a surprise that the parents are being looked at, Susan.
SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: It`s like JonBenet Ramsey, but without the make-up. If there is a substantial amount of blood or other bodily fluids, then yes, she`s in real trouble. But if there`s only trace amounts, then not only is she not going to be convicted if taken to trial, but it will totally ruin the entire investigation and the true abductor will never be caught.
GRACE: But if there are trace amounts of Maddy in that car 25 days later, that`s incredibly damning!
MOSS: Unless it came from some other item from the apartment.
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MCCANN: ... tried to get Kate to confess to having accidentally killed Madeleine by offering her a deal through her lawyer, which was, If you say that you killed Madeleine by accident and then hid her and then disposed of the body, then we can guarantee you a two-year jail sentence or even less. You may get off because people feel sorry for you it was an accident.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is Maddy`s aunt, Philomena McCann, who is joining us tonight. As you know by now, breaking news in the baby Maddy search, both mother and father named suspects in the baby girl`s disappearance.
Out to the lines. Theresa in Florida. Hi, Theresa. I think I`ve got Theresa. Are you with me?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just wanted to say one thing. God bless you on your children to be and...
GRACE: Thank you! Thank you so much!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... you. You`re my favorite person -- you`re my favorite person on TV. And I wanted to say...
GRACE: And they have been dancing and doing taebo (ph) all night long. I`d just like you to know that. OK. Go ahead, dear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. I wanted to say is, how do they know that this blood was not in that car before they rented that car? And you know, to me it`s like speculation. It reminds me of the Holloway case.
GRACE: OK, let`s go out to Paula Hancocks. How could DNA, fluid from baby Maddy, get into the car, when the car wasn`t rented until 25 days after Maddy went missing, Paula?
HANCOCKS: Well, to be honest, Nancy, if I could answer that, I think I`d be quite useful on the investigation team. I mean, it`s not something you can -- you can really speculate on. The fact is, this has all come from the spokesman of the McCann family, saying that this is what the Portuguese police are saying to -- to this lady, to Kate McCann, saying that these fluids were definitely there. Now, of course, we can`t physically see the evidence. The Portuguese police are not showing any of the media anything, so it`s very difficult to answer that one.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now to Portugal and new developments in the disappearance of little Madeleine McCann, the British girl who vanished in May in Portugal. A family spokeswoman said her mother, Kate McCann, is now a suspect, though she`s not been charged. Police say traces of the child`s blood were found in the car the family rented 25 days after her disappearance. Portuguese authorities have not made any public statements yet on these new developments in Portugal.
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GRACE: Breaking news tonight as we go to air, not only the mother but the father, as well, named as a suspect by Portuguese police, baby Maddy taken on a luxury vacation to Portugal by her parents, never seen again.
Out to Paula Hancocks, CNN correspondent, joining us from Portugal. Will there be more questioning of the mother and father? They`ve already logged about 20 hours of intense questioning by Portuguese police.
HANCOCKS: Absolutely, Nancy, yes, there will definitely be more questioning. We don`t know the timing of it, though, but certainly, we`re going to be seeing McCanns back here at this police station in this small town in southern Portugal. What they`ll be asked is anybody`s guess, but the fact is, now they are suspects, they do have the right to remain silent.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kate McCann was questioned yesterday in Portimao. She was speaking to police officers there for some 11 hours. She emerged from that looking tired and drawn. She returned for further questioning today, Friday. And she had more questioning later on in the day.
Her husband, Gerry, was called in to speak to authorities. At that point, as we understood it, according to a family spokeswoman, he was going in just to be questioned as a witness. But a short time ago, it emerged that now both Kate and Gerry are both formal suspects in the disappearance of their daughter.
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GRACE: Breaking news tonight in the global search for a little girl snatched at a luxury resort during a vacation in Portugal. Out to the lines, Jolene in Florida. Hi, Jolene.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy, I love your show.
GRACE: Thank you for watching, dear.
CALLER: With all the crimes happening on these children, when parents or anybody is charged like that and they`re actually being charged with the crime, can`t they also be charged with filing false police reports, and interfering with an investigation, and improper disposal of the body, just rack the charges up on them to, you know, get these people what`s just deserved to them?
GRACE: Jolene, when I was prosecuting, I always tried to get the judge to run sentence consecutively, because we all know people will parole out, and about half do, 70 percent of their jail time sentence.
Out to Renee Rockwell, a veteran criminal defense attorney. If these allegations turn out to be true -- and you`ve got to keep in mind that these are the Portugal police that have bungled the case so far. Look, I`ll put it out there: They`ve bungled it so far. If these allegations are true, shouldn`t the parents be held responsible for going on television, and crying, and acting like they had no knowledge of what was happening, raising all those millions of dollars of reward money?
RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, but these are not people -- sure, they can be held responsible for wasting time and all that. But these are not people that are acting like suspects.
GRACE: No, they`re not.
ROCKWELL: They have lawyers. They continue to answer questions, even though they`re lawyered up. They`re there. They could have left this country months ago, Nancy, but they`re still there. It looks like there`s just a police department that`s trying to close a case, so they`re going to point at the parents now. I don`t buy it, and I`m behind these parents 100 percent.
GRACE: To Lillian Glass, Dr. Lillian Glass, psychologist and author, I`ve had a lot of cases where police looked at multiple suspects trying to solve a case before they finally cracked it. And you can`t hold, for instance, that Robert Murat guy -- again, police, remember they questioned the neighbor because he was acting suspiciously to them? They questioned, questioned, questioned, named him a suspect, and ultimately did not arrest him. You cannot hold it against police that they investigate more than one person before they crack a case.
DR. LILLIAN GLASS, PSYCHOLOGIST: No, absolutely. You`re so right. And when you look at these people, either way, psychologically, your heart goes out to them, because if it was an accident, the mother is devastated. And just what she`s going through right now, so from a human level, you can really feel what the parents must be going through.
GRACE: Back to Philomena "Phil" McCann. This is Baby Maddy`s aunt. Ms. McCann, thank you for being with us. Have either parent agreed to take a polygraph?
PHILOMENA MCCANN, AUNT OF MISSING BABY: No one`s asked them to take a polygraph. They have answered the questions and cooperated with the police fully in all of this. And, fundamentally, they`re suspects. They`re not charged with anything. And both Gerry and Kate are completely innocent of this heinous crime. And at this point, the Portuguese police are using this as a smokescreen to cover themselves, because they have made an absolute botch-up of the investigation.
GRACE: You know, I want to go to Larry Sutton, editor with "People" magazine. I threw it out there that they have botched the case; that doesn`t mean they can`t recover. That doesn`t mean they can`t call a Hail Mary and save the day. But what do you perceive, Larry -- you`ve been covering this from the get-go -- as failures in their investigation?
LARRY SUTTON, STAFF EDITOR, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: It seems to be more of a trend. You might recall a case out in Chicago a couple months ago where the father killed the wife and the kids in the car. That was another case where they sort of let him go, they waited, they waited. And then a few weeks later, they brought in all the evidence and brought charges against the guy. This seems very similar to me. I think it`s kind of a trend in the sense of...
GRACE: Take a look at your monitor, Larry. Take a look at this. Didn`t check the video of vehicles leaving the resort, didn`t check motorway cams, you know, like at toll booths and so forth. Didn`t notify the border patrol until 15 hours later. Ignored tips...
SUTTON: They did not treat this as a monstrous case from day one, and they should have, yes.
GRACE: But, Larry, what do you make of this most recent development naming the mom, then the dad as suspects? Remember, in Portugal, where this vacation took place, suspect doesn`t -- or aguido and aguida -- does not mean the same thing as in the U.S.
SUTTON: Actually, it`s beneficial towards the people who are named as suspects, because from this point on, the police have to tell them every bit of evidence that they collect against them. So it helps them prepare for a trial should charges eventually be filed.
GRACE: You know, Jon Leiberman, with "America`s Most Wanted," remember, of course, with John Walsh and his wife when their son went missing, with Marc Klaas when his daughter, Polly, went missing. The first thing they did, they said, "Search my house, search my car, search me. I`ll give you polygraph, I`ll give you DNA, whatever you want." Would you advise the parents, Jon, at this juncture to go full steam ahead, give a polygraph, whatever they want so the police can continue looking for the killer?
JON LEIBERMAN, CORRESPONDENT, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Absolutely. I have no indication that they haven`t been fully cooperative. In fact, Nancy, a McCann family member told me today that police told Kate that one reason why she was a suspect was that they found Maddy`s DNA all over a bunch of her clothing and that the sniffer dogs were very, quote, "agitated" near Kate McCann. I mean, that is just the flimsiest...
GRACE: Well, that doesn`t mean anything, for a mother to have their child`s DNA on her?
LEIBERMAN: No, it`s the flimsiest evidence I`ve ever heard.
GRACE: But the car, the car, Jon Leiberman, if this evidence about baby Maddy`s DNA being in the car, a car rented 25 days after Maddy went missing, that`s some hard evidence.
LEIBERMAN: Oh, yes, that is absolutely hard to overcome. However, if they have Maddy`s DNA in that car, why not charge the parent? I mean, it just -- it doesn`t make any sense to me. Look, Gerry McCann came here to the U.S. He met with our producers here. He went over to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He urged everybody to keep Madeleine`s case in the media. He urged scrutiny. I mean, it just doesn`t seem like a man who could be responsible for the disappearance of his kid.
GRACE: Out to the lines, Dale in Ohio. Hi, Dale.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy.
GRACE: What`s your question, dear?
CALLER: My question is, after all this time, they`re a little slow over there, aren`t they, that the evidence that they found now would be contaminated?
GRACE: You know, that`s an interesting point. To Dr. Joshua Perper, in my analysis, after looking at many, many DNA cases, time would only possibly degrade or contaminate DNA. And if they get a positive match of baby Maddy`s DNA in this car after all this time, I find that to be very strong, if it`s true, Dr. Perper.
DR. JOSHUA PERPER, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, that`s true. But it`s also very important toward the configuration, what is the pattern of the blood spots? Are they indicative of dripping blood? Are they indicative of somebody shaking someone who has a bloody area? So we really don`t know what kind of pattern this blood had, what it was inside the car. If the amount is minuscule, it might be from a doll or from something else which was brought to the car. Those are essential questions.
GRACE: Dr. Perper, you are so correct. When analyzing blood evidence, you have to look at the type of blood evidence. For instance, was it a drip from a nosebleed? Was it a splash from a skinned knee of baby Maddy? Or was it a blood spatter that occurs from a hit with a blunt object or a shooting? So the type -- or smear. A smear of blood can be very incriminating, Dr. Perper.
PERPER: Correct.
GRACE: So in this case, we don`t know what type of blood evidence we have. We don`t even know if it is sufficient blood evidence, Dr. Perper.
PERPER: That`s correct. That`s absolutely correct. We don`t know exactly what kind of evidence is available to the police. And, therefore, we don`t know whether they have legitimate conclusion which can be drawn.
GRACE: To Terry in Washington. Hi, Terry.
CALLER: This is Virginia actually, but that`s OK.
GRACE: What`s your question, dear?
CALLER: My question is, if you look back on cases in the past where mothers have killed their children, like the Yates case and the Susan Smith case, they didn`t leave the rest of the other children alive. They killed all of the children. My question is, why was this little girl singled out? And, you know, God forbid...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Terry, very interesting that in a majority of cases of parents killing children or abusing children, they very often pick on one. So it isn`t always a whole wipeout of the family. And very quickly, Susan in Pennsylvania, what`s your question, dear?
CALLER: Yes, Nancy. Since this was a rental car, shouldn`t the Portuguese police be checking the rental records of that car the night that Maddy disappeared? Isn`t it possible whoever had that car rented that night was somehow involved?
GRACE: Interesting question. I don`t know when they first got the car. As a matter of fact, we`re investigating that right now, Susan.
Everyone, when we come back, a young assistant principal leaves her 2- year-old baby to die in a hot car in a Cincinnati suburb. Oh, but she does remember one thing: to bring doughnuts to work for the other teachers.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This silver Mercedes-Benz SUV ended up being a death trap for a 2-year-old girl on a scorching summer day. Police say the toddler was strapped into a car seat with the windows up and no air conditioning for hours. By the time medics got there, she was already dead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After reviewing the evidence, which included this school security video of Slaby taking doughnuts out of her car but leaving the toddler inside, Union Township detectives and the chief of police recommended Slaby be charged with endangering children. But prosecutor Don White decided no charges would be filed.
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GRACE: The temperatures went up to about 140 degrees inside that Mercedes-Benz vehicle, with a 2-year-old strapped in a car seat in the back seat. An hour after the baby had been found, her core body temperature over 110 degrees. Can you imagine what that child suffered while Mom was inside having doughnuts? Yes!
And guess what else? This wasn`t the first time. She had left the baby in the car. In fact, out to Theresa Herron, editor of the "Community Press" newspapers there in Cincinnati, isn`t it true that there was an earlier incident which caused a memo to go out in the school newsletter about leaving your children in the car, don`t do it?
THERESA HERRON, EDITOR, "COMMUNITY PRESS": I`m not aware of the school newsletter. I`m aware that her husband and her were warned by the daycare center administrators that they shouldn`t be leaving their child in the car two separate times for each of them.
GRACE: You know, I found in police documents, Theresa, exactly what you`re saying, that there had been at least two to three prior incidents. And I have a police statement from another teacher here in my hand that outlines two of the occasions when the mom left the baby in the car. But back in, I believe, 2006, it had happened again, and a memo went out in the school newsletter to parents, "Don`t leave your kids in the car." Theresa, do you have any understanding as to why police are not prosecuting this case?
HERRON: I don`t. You`d have to ask Don White that. I wasn`t privy to his decision-making process. But what he said here to us and all the media in Cincinnati is that the circumstances surrounding this case did not meet Ohio law, did not justify bringing charges against her.
GRACE: Jon Leiberman with "America`s Most Wanted," what more can you tell me? I`m stunned.
LEIBERMAN: Here`s the deal. Here`s the situation, Nancy. Police recommended that this woman be charged with a third-degree felony of reckless endangerment, but the prosecutor decided that there wasn`t enough evidence to show that this woman willfully and knowingly left her kid in the car.
GRACE: Oy! Oh. Susan Moss, that is not what the law demands to prosecute a negligent homicide.
SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: That`s absolutely correct. It is unbelievable and outrageous that at the very least she`s not charged with felony child endangerment. Forgetting is not an accident. I mean, it`s amazing. She remembered the doughnuts, forgot the kids. Who is she, Homer Simpson?
GRACE: And another thing, just recall this week we had the guy out in the -- excuse me people, shut your ears -- whorehouse, the Mustang Ranch, left the child in the car. He`s getting prosecuted. Then we had the hard- working mother who left the child in the car at a restaurant where she worked for a full 18-hour shift. They died. She`s getting prosecuted. What about this one? Take a listen to her in police interrogation.
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BRENDA SLABY, LEFT DAUGHTER IN HOT CAR: I don`t know how you go on having done this to one of your kids and ever forgive yourself.
DETECTIVE: I don`t think anyone is saying that this is something that was done on purpose, OK? But you got to remember you have a 5-year-old, too. I don`t think anybody`s -- I don`t think that`s crossed anybody`s mind.
SLABY: I was trying to be everything to everybody, and I failed my daughter. My plan was to go to the sitters` after (INAUDIBLE). Go to the sitter after (INAUDIBLE). Evidently, I just didn`t. It just was out of my routine. So as soon as I got the doughnuts, I thought you got to get it all out.
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GRACE: You know, Dr. Glass, I don`t understand it. You know, today I think I may have called my mom three times in one day. How can you go a whole day at work, chowing down on doughnuts and so forth, and not even think about your kid, "Where`s the 2-year-old?"
GLASS: It is unbelievable. And, statistically, it doesn`t happen that often with women. Most of the time in cases like this, unfortunately, it happens with men. But when you look at the situation with her -- and it`s happened multiple times -- you wonder psychologically or subconsciously if she wanted that child in the first place.
GRACE: To Pat Brown, weigh in, Pat.
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Got a good point there. I can understand the multitasking problem and getting things out of order and thinking you`ve done one thing and then, you know, you didn`t do that. I can understand that.
GRACE: Wait, wait, wait, Pat, we`ve all made mistakes. This child is not a pocketbook you left in your trunk.
BROWN: True. People do make those slight mistakes like that, but here`s what concerns me. Eight hours, she never thought about the child and thought about what the child was doing and where it was. That concerns me. Secondly, she might have a Munchausen`s by-proxy, where she maybe doesn`t mind the attention she gets from doing these things to the children or even maybe letting them die and get that attention. They ought to look in her past to find out there`s a problem there.
GRACE: Take a look at all the children to the left of the monitor who died perished in hot cars. Dr. Perper, what would a child go through dying of heat stroke?
PERPER: Well, obviously, he would feel the heat, and we cannot live in an environment which is extremely warm, so the child would sweat, would feel extremely heat, eventually would probably start to sink gradually into a coma and die. He died four degrees above what people die usually.
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GRACE: What a week in America`s courtrooms. Take a look at the stories and, more important, the people who touched our lives.
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CALLER: Hi, Nancy, thank you for taking my call.
GRACE: Thank you for watching, dear, what`s your question?
CALLER: I was wondering if anybody has bothered to check Mr. Fossett`s bank accounts for any weird transactions before his disappearance?
GRACE: Oh, Ashley, you little mink.
Where is the 22-year-old Brigham Young coed?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The surveillance cameras didn`t work, unfortunately.
GRACE: Oh, oh, oh, how many times have we heard that story? The surveillance camera not working.
I want to unleash the lawyers quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In light of the Michael Vick case, I don`t think you should be unleashing the lawyers these days, so...
GRACE: Get to the point.
Temperatures soaring while Daddy forgot about the 2-year-old out in the car. To top it all off, he was at a brothel full of hookers with the air conditioner cranked up on high.
MOSS: Let me get this straight. He can find a ranch full of prostitutes but he can`t find a babysitter? I don`t know about you, but I bet he paid that bail in singles.
GRACE: I can always clean my meth pipe with Q-Tips. You know, I can shoot a million holes through this story, and I`m 2,000 miles away, Detective.
CALLER: First of all, I want to congratulate you on your pregnancy. And I`m very, very happy for you.
GRACE: Well, Sherry, I`ve got some news for you. I just got back from the doctor about three hours ago, and the twins are fine. They`re kicking. One kicked the other one while I was looking at it on the screen.
CALLER: Oh, that`s awesome.
GRACE: So they`ve already started.
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GRACE: Let`s stop to remember Army Private Alan Austin, 21, Houston, Texas. Awarded the Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Army Achievement Medal, loved dancing, parades, cooking, wrote home often, signing letters, "Your American soldier." Loved God and family and cared for his autistic brother, Matthew. Leaves behind mom, Rhonda. Alan Austin, American hero.
Thanks to our guests, but most of all to you for being with us. Special good night from Orlando friends of the show Steve and Jenny, and Atlanta friend Ross in law school. And a special good night from the New York control room. Good night, Liz, Norm, Stacey, Brett.
Everybody, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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