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Nancy Grace

New Underwear Clue Taunts Reno Police in Serial Rapist Case

Aired February 20, 2008 - 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: Human remains found in an open field identified as 19-year-old coed Brianna Denison, Reno, cause of death strangulation, Denison snatched from her own sofa, off-campus housing. Tonight: Is the killer actually taunting police by leaving a calling card of sorts alongside Brianna`s body, a unique pair of ladies` underwear bearing two separate DNA? DNA bombshells, the killer is linked to four other coed victims. As tips pour in to the police hotline, police delve into the mind of a predator to determined who murdered Brianna Denison.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Truly terrifying for everyone in the area, now new evidence, the underwear. DNA has matched it to the killer and serial rapist on the loose in Reno. The question is, whose underwear is it? Police found female DNA on it, and it is not Brianna Denison`s or any of his other victims`. Police are now trying to find out who that woman is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It certainly makes you wonder why the suspect would leave it there. Do police think he`s taunting them?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They did say that they feel he`s a deviant and either not a very smart criminal or a criminal that, you know, maybe even wants to be caught.

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GRACE: And tonight: Music superstar Britney Spears`s wild and erratic behavior cost her custody and even the barest visitation with her two toddler boys. Tonight: The battle rages over Spears`s multi-million-dollar music empire. After a police escort the length of a football field, Spears strapped to a gurney yet again and raced to the ER. Tonight: An LA court says no to a gag order, keeping Spears`s court proceedings secret, the courthouse gearing up for a media frenzy.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A gag order shot down in the latest court dispute in the Britney Spears custody saga. Spears`s attorney claims the media coverage is emotionally and physically dangerous to Spears, but attorneys for Spears`s ex say the paparazzi frenzy has always been around. Spears denied visitation with her two boys, Jayden James and Sean Preston, after she`s rushed to a psychiatric facility not once but twice, and just weeks apart, Spears also losing control of her own affairs and finances, her father, James Spears, now running the show.

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GRACE: And also tonight, a shocking murder for hire case, Missouri, two hitmen paid to gun down a wealthy couple, steal their jewelry and Jaguar to make the scene look like a break-in. The mastermind, the couple`s only son, a senior at the local high school.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The scene of the would-be murder, this home in Independence`s The Cliffs. The victims, the parents of 18-year-old Jacob Jett. Court documents say Jacob Jett asked his friend, Joseph Garcia, if he knew anyone who would commit a murder for money and that Garcia introduced him to two men he had in mind. Those documents say Jett provided the men with his parents` alarm code, three pistols from his dad`s gun collection, and $260 from his mom`s checking account. But instead of doing the murder, one of the men told police about it.

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GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. First tonight, did the killer leave a calling card? Who was the serial predator that murdered Brianna Denison?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The big news is that a pair of underwear was found with Brianna`s body, but they are not Brianna`s underwear. Is he taunting police? Is he teasing police? We have the predator`s DNA. We know his DNA is on that underwear, but there is some other woman`s DNA on that underwear, as well. It is a clue, and we`re asking the public`s help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It could be a victim that has not reported a crime yet. It could also be a wife, a girlfriend or even a friend of the suspect. But they do believe that they can find out whose underwear they are. It could be a major break in the case, and they think that they`re one step closer to finding out who killed Brianna.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Certainly a scary situation. Folks on the college campuses, the dean is saying carry Mace, carry whistles. Authorities are saying this guy is out there. Be careful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Should these girls be afraid on campus that he will strike soon?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As to the attacks, the man grabs them from behind. Using great strength, he holds them with one arm and covers their mouth and nose with the other. One victim was able on to scream and scare him off, but the other victim found it impossible to breathe and passed out. She woke up in his vehicle and was sexually assaulted.

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GRACE: Is a killer, a sex predator, taunting local police? Straight out to Ed Miller with "America`s Most Wanted." That seems to be the theory developing, Ed.

ED MILLER, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Absolutely, Nancy. Either that, or he`s deliberately trying to throw police off. Remember, there is the option that he could have stolen this pair of underwear, that he has no connection or real connection to this woman, that he is just wasting police time, that they try to figure out who the woman is that belongs to that underwear. And again, they have his DNA, so there`s no real issue there. And I doubt very much whether he accidentally dropped them there. He obviously purposely put them there.

Police are asking me not to tell you exactly how she was found, and you know, whether or not the body was staged, but we can say the underwear was found near the body. And again, it`s not an accident. He put them there.

GRACE: Well, if he intentionally left this unique pair of underwear, a G-string type of underwear with, I believe, hearts and the Pink Panther on them...

MILLER: Right.

GRACE: If he intentionally did that, what else about this scene is staged?

I want to go out to Mike Brooks, former fed with the FBI. What does it mean to you, and what are the possibilities?

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Nancy, there`s a lot of possibilities here. They could have been taken during a burglary. It could have been taken out of a gym bag and he put his own DNA on this. It could be...

GRACE: Boy, that`s a nice way of putting it, he put his own DNA on it. OK. Go ahead.

BROOKS: But that`s -- that`s what happens, Nancy, unfortunately. Or it could be another victim who`s yet to be found or unreported rape. We don`t know. but it`s very, very strange. You know, having been (INAUDIBLE), you look at these, and you say, OK, what is the profile of this guy? You know, this is unusual for someone to do this. If someone`s going to leave a calling card, you can look at some of the other serial murderers, they`ve left ID and these kind of things, of some of the women, of their other victims. But this is very, very strange, Nancy. Very strange.

GRACE: Well, you know, let`s take a look at some well-known killers that kept what we call trophies of their victims. This is not unusual at all. The clown killer, John Wayne Gacy, Jeff Dahmer, who got death penalty behind bars from another inmate. Ted Bundy, of course, kept trophies or mementos, Dennis Rader, the BTK -- bind, torture and kill -- killer, kept trophies. Ed Gein, one of the most prolific serial killers in this country, also kept trophies.

I want to go out to a special guest joining us tonight, Reef Karim, psychologist. What does it mean when someone keeps trophies from murders? I compare it to, for instance, you and I keeping a Broadway ticket or a movie ticket or a concert ticket, putting it in a scrapbook.

REEF KARIM, PSYCHOLOGIST: Yes, it`s very different. This is a very different type of scrapbook that we`re talking about. Essentially, it`s sentimentality. It`s, I did something, I made something happen, be it absolutely disgusting. It`s a sentimental value. It`s almost like, Hey, look, I did this and I`m going to remember that I did it. It`s like capturing a picture in the form of a symbol.

GRACE: Also, before we go out to another special guest joining us, the president of Beyondmissing, Marc Klaas, is with us -- he has been in very close touch with the Denison family -- along with Jennifer Bushman, the Denison family spokesperson, let`s hit the lines. Kim in Florida. Hi, Kim.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.

GRACE: Hi, Dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m a retired police officer in Florida and I worked as a detective in sex crimes. And if I was looking at this case, I would be thinking -- everybody`s saying about their pubic hairs being shaved, that he didn`t want to leave evidence. I`d be looking at the adult entertainment. He could be a porno star. They shave their pubic hairs off, and it`s a control thing.

GRACE: What do you mean by it`s a control thing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, when people are in those types of movies, they make different types of movies, choking women out and stuff, S and M. Has anybody thought about looking at this adult entertainment section for your suspect?

GRACE: Well, you know, Ed Miller, the other night -- Ed Miller is with us, everyone, from "America`s Most Wanted" -- you said this is a college town and a stripper town. And I have heard from a lot of native citizens there in Reno, and they say, We take exception to being called a stripper town. But, A, why did you say that? And B, what do you think of Kim`s theory?

MILLER: Well, first of all, let me say what we know for a fact, concrete. The one thing we can get from a direct witness is that she knows that he shaved his private areas. The other thing we should point out, that he has a very light-skinned stomach area, but he has tanned forearms and hands, which means he might very well work outside. So we have that. Those are concrete clues that we`re getting from one of the victims, the closest that we have to an eyewitness, OK?

So in terms of a stripper town, what I mean is that there are strip shows there, so perhaps a stripper may have noticed one particular man paying close attention to her, that he may have offered her a huge amount of money for this pair of panties -- underwear. I don`t want to use that word "panties." It`s demeaning to women. But an undergarment, this very important clue that we have as of now. But again, it may mean nothing at all.

GRACE: I think it does, though, Ed. I think you`re on the right track.

Out to Kristen Flowers, news anchor with KXNT AM 840. Kristen, welcome. What more can you tell us?

KRISTEN FLOWERS, KXNT AM 840: Well, what we know right now is, obviously, that Brianna Denison was found. The autopsy did confirm that it was her. And the most important thing that police officers are working on right now is finding out the identity of this woman`s DNA in this underwear. His DNA was found, an unidentified woman`s DNA was found. This could be a girlfriend. This could be a sister. This could be a mother. This could be anybody`s DNA.

And the most important thing is, will that person have information about the suspect, where (SIC) he looks like, any kind of vehicle that he`s driving or anything kind of thing that a timeline -- you know, let`s start piecing this together. That`s what the police officers want to know right now.

GRACE: You know, I find it very hard to believe, Mike Brooks, that the FBI cannot figure out exactly what type of vehicle this is. We know about the LED display, where the clock radio is, where the tape player or the CD is. We know about the light up in the dome of the car. We know there`s a stepdown to the SUV. We know it is an SUV. We know a lot about the interior of this vehicle. So why can`t the FBI narrow it down?

BROOKS: It`s very difficult nowadays, Nancy, because a lot of people can customize their SUVs in a lot of different ways that don`t come stocked. So you know, that`s very, very difficult. But I`m sure it`s something that they`re looking at.

If there was any shoeprint impressions there, on, around this crime scene, that`s also going to be very important because they have a whole library of shoe impressions. But the other thing we talked about the other night, Nancy, on that thong, on that thong underwear, was a little label. And I call it -- they said there`s an "RN number." They can go back and try to find out who sold this and go back and say, Do we know who might have bought this? Because back, Nancy, on Pan Am flight 103, it was a little label like that on the T-shirt that led to the arrests of two terrorists. So the FBI are going to be looking at these kind of things also to try to find out who this thong belongs to.

GRACE: Let`s go out to Marc Klaas, the president of Beyondmissing. As you all know, Marc fought this battle himself when his little girl, Polly, abducted and killed many, many years ago. Marc, it is great to see you again. You have been in very close contact with the family. How are they? And how are they reacting to the theory that their daughter`s body may have very well have been staged, post in that position with evidence placed beside her body?

MARC KLAAS, BEYONDMISSING.COM: Well, I can`t address that particular part of the question because I haven`t talked to them about their state of mind. But first, briefly, in defense of Reno. I travel all over the country, Nancy, and whether it`s an urban, suburban or rural area, there seem to be strip clubs and gentlemen`s clubs all over this country. So this isn`t something that is particular to this particular piece of real estate.

Now, I believe that Bridget Denison is doing a remarkable job of trying to move forward in her life, and at the same time, remember or make sure that there is meaning out of her daughter`s death. She wants to pursue some legislative goals. She`s working very hard towards the memorial service that will be held Saturday night. And it looks to me like these people are fighters. And if you`re a fighter, you`re going to be able to survive a horrible ordeal like this. It`s the people that go into denial or the people that lose themselves in depression or alcoholism that are the huge victims in these kinds of situations.

GRACE: Marc Klaas, president of Beyond Missing.

To Jennifer Bushman, the Denison family spokesperson. Jennifer, thank you for being with us tonight. The kidnap and the murder of Brianna Denison is reverberating all across this country, and to me, it adds insult to injury that the killer actually posed her body. In fact, the killer may very well be watching tonight and is deriving some type of thrill out of any publicity about him. How is the family reacting to the fact their daughter may have just been some type of pawn to this man?

JENNIFER BUSHMAN, DENISON FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: I think they definitely are startled by these findings, particularly the fact that she was just thrown away into a field. At one point, Bridget said, How dare he? How dare he? Because this was a life that, you know, so many people valued. And I think it`s difficult. I mean, under any circumstances, it`s difficult.

They`re grateful that they know that it seems as if, at this point, that she didn`t suffer, that she didn`t know what happened to her. And they`re grateful that they`ve found her body in the time that they did. But you know, this girl was important to this family, and they are very upset about this.

GRACE: Jennifer, why do you say they believe she did not know what happened to her?

BUSHMAN: I mean, I think that the feeling, at least amongst the family, is that she was strangled right away. And so the hope is -- that`s their hope. And they`re getting comfort in the fact that they think that she was killed right away.

GRACE: Why do they believe that, Jennifer?

BUSHMAN: You know, there`s -- I think that they probably have discussed it amongst themselves. I don`t know at this point that there`s that evidence, but they definitely -- from the way that this has come down, they seem to think so, the fact that he choked people originally to knock this other person out. Their hope is just that this maybe happened right in the very beginning.

GRACE: I pray that that`s true, Jennifer. I pray that she was knocked out and did not realize what was happening to her.

Out to the lines. Kelli in California. Hi, Kelli.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Blessing to your twins. They`re so beautiful.

GRACE: Thank you. Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was wondering, but I think the reporter brought it up, but could this be the killer`s girlfriend`s underwear?

GRACE: Very possible. Back out to you, Mike Brooks. There`s a host of possibilities. It could be stolen. He could be an electrician or a plumber and swiped it out of somebody`s home.

BROOKS: Yes.

GRACE: He could have swiped it from a million different places. We know it wasn`t shoplifted. It had been worn by someone.

BROOKS: Right. Exactly. And as I said, it could be -- just like you said, Nancy, could have been stolen in a burglary. But again, you know, and we hope and pray that this isn`t another victim that we haven`t found yet, who hasn`t been reported missing somewhere, and that they just threw them on the crime scene, like we`ve seen so many other times.

GRACE: When we get back, we`ll unleash the lawyers, Susan Moss, Renee Rockwell and Gwen Lindsay-Jackson. And joining us, our now medical examiner Dr. Daniel Spitz.

But first, tonight`s "Case Alert." Two Fort Worth officers heroes tonight after a daring rescue, all on video. Officers Victor Tapia and Adam Coleman respond to the scene of a rollover, the driver, unconscious when his car burst into flames. The officers risked their own lives to save him. Hero cops, Tapia and Coleman, on the force just three years, heroes tonight.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Basically, you have a murderer still on the loose, and we won`t rest until he`s brought in. And so as a community, as a family, we are going to help find this guy.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As to the attacks, the man grabs them from behind. Using great strength, he holds them with one arm and covers their mouth and nose with the other. One victim was able to scream and scared him off, but the other victim found it impossible to breathe and passed out. She woke up in his vehicle and was sexually assaulted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Let`s go straight back out to the lines. To Kelli in California. I think I`ve got Kelli. Hi, dear. Oh, it`s Sandy in Indiana. Hi, Sandy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First off, you are my hero for the rights of victims. And congratulations with your two sweeties.

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is the underwear. How did the police rule out right away that they did not belong to Brianna?

GRACE: Let`s go straight back out to Ed Miller. How do we know that?

MILLER: Well, because the DNA and because the family told them, just like the way that we know for a fact it doesn`t belong to any of the girls in the house.

GRACE: But if it didn`t belong to any of the girls, and we understand that she had on her clothing, it`s just a simple matter of deduction.

To Kristen Flowers with KXNT 840. What more can you tell us about this?

FLOWERS: Well, what we know is it wasn`t Brianna Denison`s. The DNA proved that it was not her. Also, they looked back into the other three suspects and compared their DNA, hoping that maybe it was one of the other attacked victims. And that`s what`s so scary about this is it didn`t match any of the alleged victims. So police are worried that this is another victim.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know this man will be caught. The police are committed 24/7, 100 percent, like the rest of the community. They`ve really taken this on. And Brianna is their daughter, too.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This person, murderer, whatever, you know, he is, took Brianna away from us. We had her 19 years. For why? Nothing good. I mean, he strangled her and threw her out like a piece of garbage, and this is a person that was a part of our family, that kept us as a family. And how dare he?

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GRACE: The body of Brianna Denison has apparently been staged, posed by the killer. He also left behind a bombshell, a unique pair of ladies` underwear with not one but two sources of DNA on it. What can we learn?

Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, Susan Moss, Renee Rockwell, Gwen Lindsay-Jackson. To Susan Moss -- Susan, the three of you have handled a ton of cases. Do you believe that the killer is actually leaving a calling card?

SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: No. I think that this was absolutely staged. Our best clue is that baby`s shoe that was allegedly seen in the car by one of, unfortunately, the victims. Absolutely, underwear will be staged. But a baby`s shoe, probably not. It will be the key.

GRACE: Renee?

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I agree. And Nancy, how do we know that he wasn`t wearing these underwear? So no stone should be left unturned.

GRACE: OK, Renee, thank you very much for conjuring up that image. To Gwen Lindsay-Jackson. Thoughts?

GWEN LINDSAY-JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I`m in agreement with that. It does definitely look like it is staged, you know, the way her body was left, the posing, and also the underwear. It just doesn`t sound like he would have just left them.

GRACE: To Dr. Daniel Spitz. Dr. Spitz, we can learn so much from the evidence actually found at the scene.

DR. DANIEL SPITZ, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, sure. This underwear is key. It has the DNA of this suspect, and so we need to keep that in mind. There`s a lot of different ways as to how it could have ended up there, but the bottom line is the DNA of the suspect is on those underwear.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A wild year for music star Britney Spears and now she has not only lost custody and visitation with her boys but control of her finances and estate worth millions. Two bizarre late-night escorts by paramedics to the E.R. Two mental evaluation holds at the hospital and failing to comply with court orders. Just some of the incidents costing Spears custody. And now, Spears`s father granted control over his daughter`s affairs. Spears`s family and this ugly court battle with her manager, side kick, and attorney. People they say are trying to take control of Britney Spears`s life.

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GRACE: Major developments in the case of Britney Spears, her wild, erratic behavior has now cost her custody and even the barest visitation rights with her two toddler boys. Tonight an L.A. judge says no to a gag order. Parties have requested the court proceedings remain secret and not only that, we learn from a TMZ report that her former manager, so to speak, Sam Lutfi, is now under L.A. police investigation for allegedly giving Spears sleeping pills and anti-psychotic drugs, sometimes ground up and put in her food?

Can we believe that report? To Kareen Wynter, CNN correspondent.

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we saw in court filings from Spears`s own mother, Lynn Spears. And this happened days ago, that she was quite concerned the kind of effect that Sam Lutfi, her so-called manager, has been having on her daughter. And I read this whole report. It was several pages and I was just so disgusted to be honest with you, by the end.

The detail that it went into that he would grind up, allegedly, putting pills in her food and that`s the reason sometimes she appeared at court so disoriented is that she apparently was being drugged. And that this had to do with the whole control issue. And again, we haven`t been able to confirm this with Lutfi because he`s been MIA the last several days. But it was quite, quite disturbing.

And not just with the allegations of drug abuse, Nancy, but also some finances, that he wanted to keep Spears under control and was really taking advantage of her on that end as well.

Very, very startling.

GRACE: You`re seeing video from CelebTV.com. This is a bombshell in the Britney Spears case. This has gone beyond civil court proceedings, filings, allegations, possibly to an L.A. police investigation, according to TMZ, that her so-called manager, Sam Lutfi, is it possible, was truly grinding up anti-psychotic pills, sleeping pills, and putting it into her food?

Out to Dawn Yanek, editor at large with "Life & Style Weekly." What do we know, Dawn?

DAWN YANEK, EDITOR AT LARGE, LIFE & STYLE WEEKLY: We know that Sam is a very shady character. And that`s one of the reasons that Lynn Spears -- that Jamie Spears and Lynn Spears stepped in and got conservatorship over Britney`s estate. They were very, very concerned about this.

But things right now seem to be on the right track. She is under close supervision of psychiatrists right now and we`ve learned at "Life & Style Weekly" that she`s under supervised medical care. She is receiving two different anti-psychotic medications, as well as a sleeping aid. So she seems to be on the right track.

Unfortunately, of course, she was denied visitations to her two young sons, even though both sides want to make that happen. Even Kevin Federline wants his children to see their mother at this point.

GRACE: I want to go to Dr. Daniel Spitz, medical examiner and forensic pathologist. Would the combination of these drugs, an anti- psychotic and other drugs, we don`t know what they are, possibly sleeping pills, ground up and put unknowing by her, into her food, would that explain her behavior, for instance, if she were bipolar?

DR. DANIEL SPITZ, MEDICAL EXAMINER AND FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: No, I don`t think so. I mean it`s easy to make allegations about this when it come from the family. But the bottom line is Britney Spears has severe psychological problems. She needs long-term treatment. And I`ll tell you, it`s most important that she gets the long-term treatment and therapy that she so desperately needs, because if she doesn`t, she is the kind of person that could end up doing something drastic like harming herself and certainly nobody wants that to happen.

GRACE: Or even her children.

Let`s unleash the lawyers, Susan Moss, Renee Rockwell, Gwen Lindsay- Jackson.

To you, Renee. Both parties have requested a gag order. The judge denied it. Why?

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, they didn`t think that this was going to be danger. But the party that wanted the gag order, Nancy, was the lawyer for Britney, because she didn`t feel like Britney can take any more media coverage. It`s absolutely emotionally and physically wearing on her. That together with all these -- and Nancy, grinding pills and putting them in someone`s food, I don`t know about anywhere else, but in Georgia, that is an aggravated battery. You go to prison for that.

GRACE: You certainly do. What about it, Gwen?

GWEN LINDSAY-JACKSON, FMR. MILITARY PROSECUTOR, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, let me say this. In terms of the issue of the aggravated, you know, situation where you`re putting pills into food.

GRACE: Right.

LINDSAY-JACKSON: If that explains why she acted that way and if there`s corroboration of that, I would think this would help Britney. Because if they can establish that that`s what happened to her and it wasn`t done, you know, on her own volition.

GRACE: Right.

LINDSAY-JACKSON: .and she does get better, she might be, you know, able to apply again for custody and say, hey, I wasn`t sick because I was taking all these drugs on my own. I was being drugged up by this Sam Lutfi guy.

GRACE: Got it.

Sue?

SUSAN MOSS, CHILD ADVOCATE, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Britney can`t even win custody of Britney. She`s not winning custody of these kids. Even K- Fed can`t mess this up.

GRACE: Well, another issue, another legal issue, back to you, Sue Moss, is, you know, you`ve got lawyers that beg that do it pro bono, for free to represent serial murderers, that she goes through one lawyer after the next that leaves the case. Why?

MOSS: Well, in this characters you`ve got a manager who`s fired, new lawyers who are hired. She is the Los Angeles full employment act. She can`t keep anyone because, apparently, they`re not doing what she wants them to do or they`re not following -- no, Britney is not following her lawyers` advice.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Jocelyn in Nevada. Hi, Jocelyn.

JOCELYN, FROM NEVADA: Hi, Nancy. Congratulations on your babies.

GRACE: Thank you, love. What`s your question?

JOCELYN: My question is, isn`t there some way that Miss Britney Spears can be forced to get some kind of help? She`s obviously a danger to herself.

GRACE: Oh, yes. In fact, the commitment was involuntary, correct, Kareen?

WYNTER: .and you know, we saw her in the hospital, the latest psych visit. Just really being under the care of physicians. But this is where it gets technically complex, Nancy, is that, you know, they can say, the psychiatrist, maybe she`s OK to be released and she comes out and others may dispute that. But it`s really a fine line there as to how long she can stay and when she can be released.

GRACE: Well, another issue in answer to Jocelyn in Nevada`s question, yes, it can be involuntarily committed but her commitment was cut short. She did not stay in psychiatric treatment as long as she was supposed to, inexplicably released. And that very afternoon, driving around in a Mercedes with a trail of paparazzi chasing her yet again.

She is out. Her father, Jamie Spears, has been named conservator of her estate. Her brother has now been allowed to get into a trust fund of hers to pay the bills. Can`t tell if things are under control there or not, but from what we see from here, they`re not.

Back to Julian in Montana. Hi, Julian. I think I`ve got Julian in Montana. Hi. OK. When you get her hooked up, let me know, Liz.

Back to Mike Brooks. Mike, the possibility that Lutfi is actually is poisoning her with all these anti-psychotic drugs, that is an aggravated battery in many jurisdictions.

MIKE BROOKS, FMR. DC POLICE DETECTIVE, SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: Absolutely, Nancy. What they`re going to -- the investigators going to have to do I think they have to go back. Let`s take a look at her behavior months ago prior to Sam Lutfi coming into the picture. And then take a look at her behavior now and interview all her friend and associates along the way and ask them, did you ever see Sam Lutfi give her anything?

Did you hear of anybody? And maids, her house staff. Did you ever see them or him grinding up things and putting them in her food? There is a lot of legwork to do in this particular case, Nancy.

GRACE: You know, if there is an L.A. police investigation going on, they apparently have taken this allegation seriously.

To Reef Karim, psychologist, addiction specialist, what would these various medications do to her if taken in conjunction?

REEF KARIM, PSYCHOLOGIST, ADDICTION SPECIALIST: Yes, I think we need to slow down for a second here. First off, she`s got what looks like bipolar disorder. OK? Bipolar disorder, you`ve got manic energy, you`ve got depression. It`s treated by a mood stabilizer, like you`ll probably have Lithium or Depakote some of chose which brings down the mania and improve the depression. Or it`s treated with an antidepressant in combination with an anti-psychotic medication. The anti-psychotic agents are often also anti-manic agents, meaning to control that manic energy.

So what`s happening here is that most bipolar patients, once they get better, want to continue to feel that manic energy, because all of us would like to feel a little bit of mania, right? So what ends up happening here is a lot of them stop taking their meds. So I`m not saying, I`m not giving him an excuse, I`m not saying this is what he is doing. But there are often desperate family members and desperate friends that will sprinkle into people`s food an anti-psychotic medication or something to try to improve their overall mood status.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Melissa in Texas. Hi, Melissa.

MELISSA, FROM TEXAS: Hi there, Nancy. My question is, if they suspect that she was possibly being drugged without her knowledge and given anti-psychotic medication and sleeping pills, maybe she wasn`t psychotic to begin with. So why are they continuing to give her anti-psychotic meds along with sleeping pills now if they don`t really know what she`s been on and if she even needs them in the first place.

GRACE: Well, we`ve got to take into account, Melissa, that she did have a stay in the hospital where she was off whatever Lutfi allegedly was giving her. So she`s basically got a clean slate right now. We`re talking about Britney Spears, the judge saying no to a gag order and an astonishing allegation that her sometimes manager was actually poisoning her with various drugs, ground up and put in her food.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 18-year-old Jacob Jett was upset with his parents, hired two hit-men to kill them.

That former inmate tipped off police. Cops say the teen gave the supposed hit-men three pistols, $260, his parents` ATM card and the pin number, even the alarm codes to his family`s home. Jett`s friend 17-year- old Joseph Garcia is accused of introducing him to the would-be hit-men. Both teens now face attempted murder charges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: An incredible story out of Missouri. A wealthy couple, the target of two hit-men. In fact, their Jaguar and jewelry were to be taken from the home in order to make it look like a robbery. The mastermind? The couple`s only son. A high school senior.

To Ed Miller with "American`s Most Wanted," it`s hard to believe, Ed.

ED MILLER, CORRESPONDENT, AMERICA`S MOST WANTED: It is hard to believe. And you know the real incredibly difficult thing to believe is why, because he says, Jacob Jett says, because they didn`t give me a big enough allowance. That`s fine. Let`s just get rid of them. You know, we`ve done these hired gun stories before and usually psychiatrists say there`s a very special person that looks for a hired gun because he believes he is not guilty at all. He believes his hands are clean. Someone else did the dirty work.

GRACE: Let`s go to a special guest tonight. Joining us, Sergeant Eric Greenwell, he is the supervisor of the investigation. He`s with the Kansas City police.

Sergeant, thank you for being with us.

SGT. ERIC GREENWELL, KANSAS CITY MO P.D.: No problem. Thank you.

GRACE: Sergeant, you had the very difficult task of breaking the news to Jett`s parents to tell them that their only son had planned to have them killed. You know, they took this little boy in when he was 5 months old and apparently given him every opportunity under the sun. They must be devastated.

GREENWELL: Yes. You know, quite frankly, the situation like this, when we -- it was one of the most dreadful things I`ve ever had to do, quite honestly, about this situation. It`s really essentially almost the same as a death notification.

GRACE: You know, I`m just stunned, because from everything we have learned, the parents were nothing but loving and caring to this kid since he was 5 months old.

GREENWELL: That`s correct. There is no indications through talking to them. They`re wonderful people. Appear to be wonderful parents and they were -- both of them were, of course, in complete shock, denial. All the emotions that you would expect I guess in a situation like this. I just can`t imagine it.

GRACE: Well, there is another unusual turn of events. Let`s go out to Jim Kanatzar, the Jackson County prosecutor.

Sir, thank you for being with us. Stunning, the hit-man turns himself in before the hit. I mean he confesses, basically, tells police before that it is going to happen. Now that`s very rare. Normally, when confronted by police, you hear the defendant clam up. They very rarely say, you know, by the way, I had planned to do a hit. What happened?

JIM KANATZAR, JACKSON COUNTY PROSECUTOR: Well, it is unusual and quite frankly, we were very lucky in this case because I don`t know that we would have broken this case if we hadn`t had the cooperation of one of these would-be hit-men. I have to wonder myself if they ever intended to go through with it or if they were just going to take advantage of these two young criminals and their -- with the intent of eliminating two people from our society.

As to whether or not they were really that serious about doing it, and then at some point decided to go to the police before they went to somebody else to carry out the murders.

GRACE: We know Jett is 18. His co-defendant, Joseph Garcia, is 17. They will be treated as adults, won`t they, Jim?

KANATZAR: Absolutely. In Missouri, 17, you`re eligible to be tried in adult court. And both of these defendants have been charged in adult court and are facing attempted murder in the second-degree and also, our criminal action, attempted murder in the second degree carries a range of punishment up to 15 years in the penitentiary. Arm criminal action carries a range of punishment of a mandatory minimum of three years to life in penitentiary.

GRACE: Has the son shown any remorse, Jim?

KANATZAR: You know, Nancy, you know, oftentimes in cases that are outrageous like this, we look for some sort of remorse or we look for some sort of explanation as to why someone would do something like this. At the end of the day, you just have to tell yourself, there is no explanation for it.

Sometimes criminals do things like this that are unexplainable. And those of us who live within the decent bounds of society would never think of doing it. And we can`t relate to them or understand what their motivation is.

GRACE: Hey, Jim, how long have you been prosecuting?

KANATZAR: Fourteen years.

GRACE: I knew it. I just knew it, because it took me about five years of trying felonies until I finally got into my head, stop trying to figure out why. Just prove the case. Because.

KANATZAR: Absolutely.

GRACE: .there`s never an explanation for murder or attempted murder, rape, child molestation. There`s never a decent why. So even if you knew why, it wouldn`t matter.

Out to the lines. Kathleen in California. Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN, FROM CALIFORNIA: Hi, Nancy. Your twins couldn`t have picked a better mother. Anyways, I come from two abusive, very abusive parents. In fact, my father was so abusive, he beat our younger sister to death when she was a newborn infant. And I never, I mean, even I never would consider killing them. You have to be so detached from humanity.

GRACE: You really do. I think detached is a good way to put it, Kathleen. And believe me, a jury will pick up on that.

To Lisa in Virginia. Hi, Lisa, what`s your question?

LISA, FROM VIRGINIA: Yes, Nancy. I`m wondering, was there any sort of psychiatric evaluation done on this teenager in the past? Was he diagnosed.

GRACE: What about it, Ed? What do we know? Any mental problems?

MILLER: Not that we know of, as a matter of fact, we believe that he was quite the successful drama student. He was quite the actor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: To "HEADLINE PRIME`s" Glenn Beck. Hi, friend.

GLENN BECK, HOST, HEADLINE PRIME: I want you to try these three words on for size -- President Barack Obama. If you don`t like it, you better start trying because Hillary`s campaign is teetering and ruined. John McCain has actually turned a red state like Texas blue. I`ll explain in just a second.

And then, is it a sign of strength? Or is it safety? The truth behind our plan to shoot down a satellite. Welcome back to the cold war, friend. And more on my series of talks with liberal fascism author Jonah Goldberg. Details on that and so much more coming up next.

GRACE: Two hit-men hired to gun down a wealthy couple, take their Jaguar and jewelry, make it look like a robbery. The mastermind, their high school son. Their only son behind bars tonight with his co-defendant.

Unleash the lawyers. Susan Moss, Renee Rockwell, Gwen Lindsay- Jackson.

Renee, he`s looking at substantial jail time.

ROCKWELL: Yes, he is. Now who are you talking about? I think the fascinating thing, Nancy, is there`s one guy all holed up in jail sitting there trying to figure out, wait a minute, I`d better withdraw myself from this conspiracy, because even though I`m in jail, this other guy, this other hit-man, he goes through with this murder and we`re both eligible for the death penalty.

GRACE: Susan?

MOSS: Please, no Menendez defense. That`s all I ask.

GRACE: Gwen?

LINDSAY-JACKSON: It looks like this parole, this guy that gave the tip that was in jail, he was picked up on a parole violation, isn`t that true? Now I would hope that we want to look at all the facts. Was this a murder for hire? Or was this a situation where you had kids that were giving things.

GRACE: Quickly.

LINDSAY-JACKSON: .or drugs, you know, in exchange for drugs.

GRACE: OK. OK.

LINDSAY-JACKSON: Was there some other motive for this?

GRACE: And very quickly to Jim Kanatzar, when does it go to trial, Jim?

KANATZAR: The case will go to circuit court arraignment here in the next two weeks or so.

GRACE: OK.

KANATZAR: And then it will be assigned to a trial judge who will then set the case for trial, probably in the next six or eight months.

GRACE: OK. Jim, Sergeant, thank you.

Everyone, let`s stop to remember Army Sergeant Mason Lewis, 26, Gloucester, Virginia, on a second tour. Dreamed of becoming a sergeant since childhood. Loved giving toys to Iraqi children and calling home. With the heart of gold, his tattoo said it all. An American`s freedom is a soldier`s sacrifice. He leaves behind Lisa -- parents Lisa and Jeff, sisters Ashley and Britney, brother Jeffrey.

Mason Lewis, American hero.

Thank you, everyone, and good night, friend.

END