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Nancy Grace
Cadaver Dogs Added to Search for Haleigh
Aired February 26, 2009 - 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, Satsuma, Florida. A 5- year-old little girl tucked into bed, five hours later, she`s gone, vanished into thin air, the back door propped wide open. The father comes home from the night shift to find not a single trace of little Haleigh.
Bombshell tonight. Multiple teams of dogs, dogs specially trained to find human remains, spend the entire day re-searching dense woods around the home where little Haleigh disappears. Specialized cadaver K-9s brought in to join the search for Haleigh, this at least the third time the same area is searched, but now again with cadaver dogs. Why now? What do police know?
As dogs continue to search, the family, desperate to find their little girl, releases new home video, hoping to spark tips to find Haleigh. And while members of little Haleigh`s immediate and extended family have taken multiple polygraphs and stated they passed, lead investigators say no one - - repeat, no one -- has been cleared.
We confirm the girlfriend/baby-sitter with Haleigh the night she disappears back today for police questioning. It goes on for hours, this at least the fourth time Misty Croslin has been interrogated. Police sifting through over 2,000 tips, but can Haleigh`s 4-year-old little brother ID the kidnapper? The boy, ostensibly sleeping with his sister when she`s snatched, describing a grown man taking Haleigh in the middle of the night, a man dressed entirely in black.
And what about the mystery vehicle seized for evidence? Investigators still not divulging the make, model or ownership. As local police refuse to scale back the search and DNA is taken from the bio mom, tonight, where is 5-year-old Haleigh?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking developments in the case of 5-year-old Florida girl Haleigh Cummings, who police believe was kidnapped from her own bed. Authorities, including cadaver dogs, are out searching near Haleigh`s home today for any clues into the child`s disappearance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our main focus is finding Haleigh Cummings and getting her home to her family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say they`re continuing to follow up on the nearly 2,000 leads that have come in so far. That includes the four Haleigh sightings that investigators say have all turned out to be false.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While the search goes on, Putnam County officers are once again interviewing 17-year-old girlfriend Misty Croslin. Croslin, who was sleeping in the same room as Haleigh, was the last person to see the child before she was taken in the middle of the night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want everybody to know that I didn`t do anything to that little girl! I loved her like she`s my own, and I`ll do anything to get her back!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Also today, Haleigh`s family released home video showing little Haleigh opening Christmas presents. The family hopes this new video may trigger the tip that could lead them towards finding Haleigh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If she hears this, Haleigh, I love you and I miss you. And we will bring you home, and I will be right here waiting on you when you get home. I love you!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, a 14-year-old California girl on her way to school 7:00 AM vanishes into thin air -- a model student, loves to read, excited about purchasing a little lamb for Future Farmers of America. Police combing cell phone records, text messages just moments before the 14-year-old disappears without a trace.
Bombshell tonight. Is a dangerous Friday the 13th prank behind Amber`s disappearance? Her family and their PI piecing together the puzzle as best they can. And a new, disturbing theory emerges involving three recent kidnapping incidents near where Amber goes missing. Are they related? Amber`s mother and father both with us, asking for your help. Tonight, where is 14-year-old Amber Dubois?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If she was abducted and kidnapped, she can be anywhere. Anywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: California authorities are desperately searching for clues in the case of 14-year-old Amber Dubois, last seen the day before Valentine`s Day. A private investigator hired by the family says that Amber may have been the target of a cruel prank. PI Bill Garcia (ph) says because the day Amber went missing was Friday the 13th, it`s possible that either someone that knew Amber or knew of Amber may have targeted her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you have a relationship like our family has - - we`re very, very close -- you know, she`s not the type of girl to run away and then not come back to face the music, you know? She has no reason to run away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Garcia has still not ruled out the theory of Amber being abducted by strangers, while the family holds out hope that any new tip could help find Amber.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I go to bed at night and just wake up and hope she`s going to be here. And she`s not!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Tonight, multiple teams of dogs specially trained to find human remains spend the entire day re-searching dense woods surrounding the home where little Haleigh disappears. Specialized K-9s brought in to join the search for Haleigh, this at least the third time the same area searched, but now again with cadaver dogs. Why now? What do police know?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over 2,000 tips have been received in the case of 5-year-old Haleigh Cummings, who police say was abducted in the middle of the night. Law enforcement officials, as well as cadaver dogs, are out searching the area around the home where Haleigh was taken today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police have now received more than 2,000 tips, and at least four have been sightings of girls who look like Haleigh. The sightings have been reported in Tennessee, St. Augustine, Colorado and Indiana. But deputies say, and family members agree, it is not their little girl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Meanwhile, the 17-year-old girlfriend of Haleigh`s father, Misty Croslin, is being questioned by police again. Croslin says she woke up in the middle of the night on February 11th and Haleigh was gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you take a polygraph?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did. But I`m not supposed to talk about that. They told me not talk about that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you did...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I did take a polygraph.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you passed it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My understanding is that I passed it, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family, hoping to trigger more tips, just released home video of Haleigh opening presents Christmas morning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`ve got to believe that that baby`s alive somewhere. I mean, if you lose that, you`ve got nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family is still in tents, praying for their little girl`s safe return, while the reward for information leading to Haleigh`s recovery has now reached over $25,000.
RONALD CUMMINGS, FATHER: I`m here to plead for the life of my daughter. I want her to come home.
Please bring my daughter home. And if you`re watching, I love you. That`s it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Marlaina Schiavo, our producer standing by at the crime scene where police are searching. Marlaina, cadaver dogs specially trained to find human remains shipped in from out of the jurisdiction -- they`ve been searching the entire day. Again they`re near Haleigh`s home. Explain.
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: That`s right, Nancy. They had seven cadaver dogs searching today. They had multiple teams from counties in the surrounding area. And they also brought in dogs from Georgia. They are searching tomorrow. They went up and down the street. They are still behind us right now. The search is not over.
They`ve also brought in a boat just in case dogs led them to the water and divers would have to go in. They`ve since taken the boat away, but they are bringing in more dogs, and the search is not over, Nancy.
GRACE: You are seeing video from just hours ago, the search going on into the late, late afternoon. There you see specially trained human cadaver dogs. Marlaina, repeat what you said about the water?
SCHIAVO: Well, they brought in a boat because there`s a lot of water in the surrounding area, and just in case any of the dogs led to this water, they wanted to have a boat ready so that they could re-search the water. Right now, there is no water search. Right now, they`re just sticking to the dogs, Nancy.
GRACE: Joining me right now here in studio, Tracy Sargent and Cinco. He is a human remains detection dog, highly trained in the discovery of human remains, cadaver dogs, as they`re commonly known. Tracy, explain to me, are cadaver dogs able to find bodies, human bodies, even under water?
TRACY SARGENT, K-9 HANDLER: Yes. Dogs working in the water is actually easy for them. The reason being is because the dogs always work with scent, and scent rises to the surface of the water. So dogs searching for people under water is actually an easy thing for them to detect.
GRACE: So that`s easy for a cadaver dog to find someone under water? I didn`t know that.
SARGENT: Yes, ma`am. What makes it challenging for water recovery is the idea of the dogs may be responding to scent in one area, but based upon the currents and wind conditions, the body may be located in another location. So that`s the challenge with water recovery.
GRACE: Tracy, I understand you have a demonstration with Cinco?
SARGENT: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: Go ahead. And explain to the viewers as you`re doing it.
SARGENT: What we`re going to do is go ahead and show the viewers what we call a training aid. It essentially smells like a deceased person. And we`re going to hide this for the dog. Now, the dogs work really well for things that we can`t see or smell ourselves, so that`s the reason why we use detection dogs. So we`re going to show how Cinco tells us that there`s something there.
Hunt!
OK, so what he`s showing us is by his, what we call, trained alert, which is a sit, in this instance, he`s telling us there`s human remains scent in this location. Then what we do is we reward him and tell him he`s done a good job. So he`s done the job that we`ve asked him to do. At that point in time, if this was the real thing, we would investigate the area and see what exactly he is responding to. It could be evidence, it could be human body parts, it could be an actual body.
GRACE: And when she says evidence, everyone, that could be referring to Haleigh`s clothing. It could be referring to shoes, something she had with her. But remember, these dogs hit only on human remains. They are not bloodhounds, isn`t that right, Tracy? They`re not looking for a live human.
SARGENT: Yes, ma`am. That is correct. There is a big difference. It`s interesting with dogs is that when we`re alive, we smell totally different to dogs. Each person has an individual scent. But when we die, each person smells exactly the same. So regardless if it`s a child or an old person, to a dog, finding human remains, they smell the same. So we don`t have to have a person`s clothing for them to search for a deceased person.
GRACE: Right. You are seeing, everyone, K-9s that were brought out today there at Haleigh`s home, where she disappeared. And earlier, you were seeing just-released home video of little Haleigh. We understand the girlfriend/baby-sitter has been in police interrogations for nearly three hours today. Plus a Haleigh sighting across the country in Indiana.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Haleigh`s one of them children who fills up a home with smiles and laughter. And you just couldn`t be in there without her!
CUMMINGS: I know somebody took my little girl! Somebody stole my child out of my bed.
This is my heart. And somebody stole my heart from me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is -- basically, getting to be more than he can bear. I mean, he stood up to all the scaredness of, you know, being afraid and tired and not eating right and everything, and it`s -- it`s wearing him down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: What`s her date of birth?
CUMMINGS: Y`all are (DELETED) playing games, man! I`m going to (DELETED) kill somebody!
911 OPERATOR: OK, tell him we understand. We need to get her date of birth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What`s her date of birth?
CUMMINGS: (DELETED) her birthday! We need to find her! (DELETED) her date of birth!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Specially trained human cadaver dogs searching the area around little Haleigh`s home. Hours were spent going through the dense woods surrounding the home. You are seeing newly-released video of little Haleigh released by her family just hours ago in the hopes that this would spur tips. Where is Haleigh?
Also, we learn that the bio mom was asked to give DNA. That`s right, Crystal Sheffield gives DNA to police today. Also, the girlfriend/baby- sitter, Misty Croslin, there in the home, ostensibly asleep when little Haleigh is snatched, re-questioned, re-interrogated for nearly three hours today at police headquarters.
Straight out to T.J. Hart with WSKY. First I want to hear about this sighting, this alleged Haleigh sighting in Indiana.
T.J. HART, WSKY 97.3 FM: Very much so. We got word that a truck driver spotted what he thought was missing Haleigh. He reportedly took a picture from his cell phone, and then sent it on to a friend. In this case, it was Marie Griffis. Couldn`t make out heads or tails whether or not it was Haleigh. They took it to a local television station to try to enhance the picture, and it was determined that this once again was not Haleigh. At this time, we`d still like to see that picture and get another shot of that, but we`re in the course of getting that taken care of, but once again, it turned out to be a -- just a dead end at this point.
GRACE: T.J., how many sightings have there been of Haleigh?
HART: Several, according to Captain Dick Showland (ph) with the Putnam County sheriff`s office. Just the other day, we had a sighting in a shopping area in Grand Junction, Colorado, which turned out to be inaccurate. And we`ve had a couple (INAUDIBLE) as well, in St. Louis, I believe, and also in St. Augustine, inconclusive.
GRACE: You know what? God bless him. God bless the truck driver who cared enough to take a cell phone photo, thinking he was getting a shot of little Haleigh. This is going to take more than just a police department to crack this case.
You are seeing just-released home video of Christmas morning, little Haleigh opening up presents, her family releasing this video in the hope it will jog someone`s memory and spur tips to find the 5-year-old little girl.
Straight back out to Marlaina Schiavo. Marlaina, what can you tell me about the biological mother giving DNA today, Crystal Sheffield?
SCHIAVO: Well, we spoke to Crystal very briefly today, and while we were talking to her, she was getting in the her car. She was on her way to an appointment. And right when she left, someone came from Jacksonville to take a DNA sample. And right before Crystal had left, actually, she said, Let them know I`m at an appointment. So she knew that they were on their way and they wanted a DNA sample. They weren`t going to wait for her. They actually drove off, and they said they would meet her wherever she was. Whether or not they actually got the sample, we`re still waiting to hear, Nancy.
GRACE: Well, you know -- out to Dr. Joshua Perper, renowned medical examiner, the chief medical examiner, Broward County, author of "When to Call the Doctor." Dr. Perper, it`s a very simple process to get a buccal swab, an oral swab in the mouth, for DNA, right?
DR. JOSHUA PERPER, BROWARD COUNTY CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER: Absolutely. Just a swab and it`s not painful to the individual and it`s easy to take, right.
GRACE: So you know, it`s less than a minute. Don`t you use one of those long Q-tips and just swab the inside of your mouth like you`re using a toothbrush?
PERPER: That`s about it. It`s a very simple procedure, and as I said, it doesn`t cause any discomfort.
GRACE: None whatsoever. Dr. Perper joining us out of the Miami jurisdiction today.
To Matt Zarrell, who`s been on the case from the very beginning. Matt, what can you tell me about the girlfriend/baby-sitter taken in for police questioning again today? How many times has she been questioned?
MATTHEW ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER: Well, we believe it`s been at least three or four times. We know last week, she was questioned. She was questioned initially...
GRACE: Well, Matt, last week, you told me it was three times last week. So that means it`s four times this week that we know of, correct?
ZARRELL: Yes. That`s correct.
GRACE: And it was regarding?
ZARRELL: It was regarding more questioning about similar transactions. They`ve been talking to her and asking similar questions each time. We know she`s been there. She was gone for about three hours and has returned now from meeting with investigators.
GRACE: Everyone, we are joining -- we are being joined right now by the grandmother of little Haleigh. She has been part of the search from the very beginning. When we come back, we`ll be questioning her about the latest search there at the home. Also, we`ll unleash the lawyers.
But as we go to break, outrage! A man who brutally tortured and raped a 24-year-old pregnant co-ed, Elizabeth Gillies, for hours before killing her is set for release from prison, the Mississippi parole board voting to parole Douglas Hodgkin, 43, convicted in `87 of murdering Gillies and her unborn child. This convicted rapist soon walking the street free again, a convicted killer and rapist. What was the Mississippi parole board thinking?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I stood there for about 30 minutes with her holding me, not wanting me to leave. And it hurts. And now I haven`t seen her in four weeks, and it hurts even worse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like my granddaughter is alive. I have faith that God will bring my baby home. And if you give up that hope and that faith, then you really have nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Right now, cadaver dogs are leaving the area after spending the entire day searching around the home where little Haleigh went missing. Now, that area has been searched, we know of, three times before. Why now? Why with cadaver dogs? What do police know? This as a sighting allegedly occurs in Indiana by a local trucker. He takes a photo with his cell phone.
Out to Teresa Neves, the paternal grandmother of Haleigh. Ms. Neves, thank you for being with us. I know the family is completely strung out at this time. I understand police are speaking to Ronald, your son.
TERESA NEVES, PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER: Right now?
GRACE: Today. Yes. Have they spoken to him?
NEVES: We spoke with them earlier. They were -- they were warning us in advance that the dogs would be here.
GRACE: Right. Right. Did they give you any idea, Ms. Neves, as to why they`re re-searching the same area with cadaver dogs?
NEVES: No, ma`am. They just said it was critical. Basically, we have to trust those detectives to know what they`re doing and let them do their job. I don`t feel like they`re going to find my Haleigh out there and so...
GRACE: Why do you say that?
NEVES: Because I have to keep the hope and the faith that my Haleigh is alive.
GRACE: We are showing the viewers the video of little Haleigh at Christmas. She`s been opening up a purple hat and putting it on.
Ms. Neves, tell me about Haleigh. We`ve talked about her a million times, but it`s always about the night she went missing, the circumstances around her disappearance, her illness, Turner syndrome. Tell me about her as a little girl.
NEVES: Oh, she`s a precious little girl. She`s very petite and tiny. She has a beautiful little voice. She likes to sing. She loves to put on make-up. She loves to put make-up on everybody else. I`ve looked like a clown at least a million times. She loves nail polish. She`s just a typical little girl.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While the search goes on, Putnam County officers are once again interviewing 17-year-old girlfriend Misty Croslin. Croslin who was sleeping in the same room as Haleigh was the last person to see the child before she was taken in the middle of the night.
TERESA NEVES, GRANDMOTHER OF MISSING 5-YR-OLD, HALEIGH CUMMINGS: I trust the detectives to do their job, and as far as Misty is concerned I know that she loved my grandchildren and they loved her dearly. You know, I mean, I don`t think you`ll find anybody who won`t say that those grandchildren didn`t love her just like a mom.
MISTY CROSLIN, RONALD CUMMING`S GIRLFRIEND, LAST SEEN HALEIGH: I just want everybody to know that I didn`t know anything to that little girl. I loved her like she`s my own and I`ll do anything to get her back, and if people think that I have something to do with it, if I have something to do with it, I knew where she was, we wouldn`t be sitting here today. We would have her and I don`t, and I don`t know where she is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello?
911 DISPATCHER: OK, sir, let me talk to you wife. Let me get some information from her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man. (INAUDIBLE)
911 DISPATCHER: OK. Can I talk to her?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
911 DISPATCHER: OK, listen to me. I need you to answer some questions. Does the door look like it was pried open?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Um.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Straight back to paternal grandmother, Teresa Neves, joining us there at the home where little Haleigh went missing.
Miss Neves, I was just watching Misty Croslin with tears in her eyes. There`s something very believable about what she says. Look, I know she`s had some inconsistencies in her story, but a lot of that was explained away regarding was she in the bed with the little girl. No, the little girl was in the bed beside her, but in the same room.
About the little pink t-shirt. Misty Croslin is the one that reported her gone in the pink t-shirt, but then saw the t-shirt and showed it to police. That`s not entirely inconsistent.
NEVES: No, ma`am. I believe.
GRACE: Tell me.
NEVES: I believe.
GRACE: Tell me about the birthmark on Haleigh`s cheek. Let`s see if we can get a picture, Rosie, that shows that even faintly. There it is if you look down towards the bottom. Explain where her birthmark is, Miss Neves.
NEVES: It`s a little tiny -- I don`t know, almost like a peanut shape on the left side of her face.
GRACE: You`re seeing that up beside her ear.
I want to go out to the lawyers. Mickey Sherman, high-profile defense attorney joining us out of New York, and veteran defense attorney, former prosecutor, Peter Odom, joining us out of Atlanta.
To Mickey Sherman, this is now, we believe, the fourth time Croslin has been interrogated by police. Should she lawyer up?
MICKEY SHERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "HOW CAN YOU DEFEND THOSE PEOPLE?": You know, she probably should. Without a doubt. But I think it speaks volumes that she apparently hasn`t, that she has been submitted to two polygraph tests and apparently passed them and doing what the grandma just said that she believes in her character and also the way we just saw her present herself.
She`d have to be a pretty darn good actress to carry that off. So she`s the most logical suspect, but she seems to be doing OK by herself so far.
GRACE: You know, Peter, he`s right. She is the most logical suspect. The father and the mother, because typically in child disappearances or child homicides, the family is responsible. That`s just the harsh reality. I don`t like it, but that`s the truth. But it`s hard for me to believe a 17-year-old girl can pull a hoax over on police for this long.
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, the fact -- I agree with you, frankly, that she seems very candid, she seems very believable, but the fact that the police have been talking to her repeatedly, the fact that they have asked her many of the same questions over and over again, may be an indication they`re looking for inconsistencies and she probably needs to get a lawyer.
GRACE: Back to grandmother Teresa Neves. I have not seen your son Ron on air making public pleas regarding Haleigh`s disappearance in many, many days. Why?
NEVES: Ron was actually out, I believe, it was the day before yesterday at 1:00 press conference.
GRACE: Good.
NEVES: . to make a plea for Haleigh. He, basically -- he`s pretty much taken all he can take, you know? I mean.
GRACE: You know to.
NEVES: . it`s hard enough to lose your daughter and then people beat on you and badger you on top of it.
GRACE: To Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst and author of "Dealbreakers," she`s right. He and the girlfriend have taken quite the beating even though they`ve been cooperating with police. You know, maybe I`m wrong, but every time I`ve heard the girlfriend speak she seems relatively free of guile.
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": I think she`s free of guile. I think she`s innocent. I think it`s easy to throw stones at the family because we don`t know much about the broader picture, but it`s also easy to kind of confuse if there was some family dysfunction that contributed to this and to try to distinguish that from the fact that that doesn`t mean she was the perpetrator.
Like let`s say, perhaps she didn`t have a key or wasn`t allowed to have one, maybe she did go out that night. Maybe she propped the door open with the cinder block so she could have a way back in. Maybe she talked to someone in the neighborhood who knew she wasn`t at home and that contributed, and if that`s the case I`m sure she`s come clean at this point.
She`s just a 17-year-old girl, but that is quite different from whether or not she`s the perpetrator or had any malice towards this child. Someone came in and took little Haleigh and the sad fact is that when a child is abducted and a part of a sexual homicide abduction, the body is usually dumped within three blocks of the home.
That`s what we saw with Caylee Anthony, and I`m sure that`s why they have the cadaver dogs out searching at this point.
GRACE: To Marc Klaas, president and founder of KlaasKids Foundation. He is also a crime victim. His daughter Polly was kidnapped from her home many years ago and murdered.
Marc Klaas, a tireless victim`s advocate since that time. Marc, another thing about lie detectors and I -- I just can`t say this enough, when Polly was kidnapped you go to police, you did, and said, quick, polygraph me right now so you can clear me and go on to look for my daughter.
You know, someone can lie on a polygraph about one issue like, were you drinking that night? Were you -- did you smoke pot that night? Did you take medication? Did you leave the back door open that night? And the person thinking of getting in trouble can lie about a tangential or collateral issue and flunk the polygraph.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: I -- I don`t know. All I know that I took a polygraph and I passed it. I think one other thing that people have to understand about Misty is that she`s ground zero on this issue and she was the person that was the last one to see the little girl.
The little girl was in her care. There appear to have been inconsistencies in her story, therefore law enforcement does have to continually ask her questions so more information will emerge. Was there a man in black? Did she see him? Perhaps. Was there a pedophile cousin in Tennessee that was there and then left shortly thereafter?
Well, that`s something that seemed to emerge a little bit later as well. But also, I think that Dr. Marshall was exactly right about the cadaver dogs being in their neighborhood. Remember, Jessica Lunsford and Caylee Anthony were both found within several hundred yards of their homes and then finally, I think that people have to understand that I thank you so much for talking about the truckers.
You know, America`s truckers are unheralded and unsung heroes in the fight for missing children and they`ve got a long and storied relationship with this issue. There are more than two million long-haul truckers on the highways of America on a given day and they are in constant communication with each other.
So this is a force that can probably do much more than they already do, but already they`re a great ally for our cause.
GRACE: You know, they really are. How many times have you seen a truck go by with a missing child`s.
KLAAS: Yes.
GRACE: . picture on that truck? So you`re absolutely right again, Marc Klaas.
I want to go back to our special guest, Tracy Sergeant and Cinco, who`s joining us, a cadaver dog, human remains detection dog. I understand you have with you part of a human rib? Please, go ahead.
TRACY SERGEANT, DOG TRAINER: Yes, ma`am. We`re going to show you a demo. It`s important to understand that the body goes through different phases of decomposition and the dogs need to be trained in those different phases. So earlier we showed you how a dog will find somebody, let`s say the smell the flesh. In this case we`re going to show you how he will locate bone.
GRACE: OK.
SERGEANT: Again, I`ll give him the command to search for it. Cinco, hunt. Again, he will respond just as he did before, in this case, a trained alert. So I will give him the ball and reward him and again, we`ll investigate what he has searched.
GRACE: Cadaver dogs, the entire day outside the home of little Haleigh where she went missing.
As we go to break happy birthday to hair and makeup superstar Jill Devito. She`s a cover girl herself. Happy birthday, Jill. You`re finally 21. And happy birthday, 74, to a friend of the show Jimmy Johnson. Happy birthday, Jimmy, Fayetteville, Georgia. Isn`t he handsome?
And a very special happy birthday to Sam. A junior at Georgia Southern University majoring in biology, minor computers, holds down a job and knows how to cook. There he is on the right. He`s a handsome fellow. Happy birthday, Sammy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL GARCIA, CALIFORNIA LICENSES P.I., HELPING FAMILY IN SEARCH FOR MISSING TEEN, AMBER DUBOIS: I don`t think she`s a runaway. She had too many things planned. There was nothing taken from the home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators are looking for answers in the mystery surrounding what happened to 14-year-old Amber Dubois. Amber was headed to school the day before Valentine`s Day but hasn`t been seen since. Two family members claimed they saw Amber only 300 yards from school that morning, but the school says Amber never showed up to class.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family came forward immediately and volunteered to be polygraphed. The entire family has been cleared.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now a private investigator hired by the family has new fears about what may have happened to Amber. P.I. Bill Garcia says it`s possible being that it was Friday the 13th that Amber was the target of a cruel prank. While Garcia still believes it`s more likely Amber was abducted by strangers, the family is desperate for answers, hoping for Amber`s safe return.
MAURICE DUBOIS, FATHER OF MISSING 14-YR-OLD, AMBER DUBOIS: She was in a great mood. We went out after the movies. Went out and fed the ducks at the park, like we typically do, me, her and my niece. She was in great spirits.
GRACE: Mr. Dubois, what are police telling you?
DUBOIS: Basically, they`re continuing their investigation, you know? They`re following up on leads that come in. There`s been no concrete leads, nothing significant that can help us find her at this point.
GRACE: Just one mile from her home to the Escondido High School.
DUBOIS: That`s correct. Even less than that. I would probably say closer to a half mile than a mile.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: How many millions of parents let their children walk to school every day? I did. My brother and sister did, seemingly millions of children every morning walking to school, walking home in the afternoons. That is what happened with Amber Dubois, just 14 years old.
Straight out to Phil Farrar with KOGO. Phil, what`s the latest?
PHIL FARRAR, NEWS ANCHOR, REPORTER, KOGO RADIO, COVERING STORY: Well, the latest is right now Bill Garcia is out searching, the private investigator, back out searching once again. I talked with him this morning. He has told me of a couple of new developments.
One of the developments was they found four kids who were taking some of the flyers off of poles and these parents saw that they put these flyers back up and once again, these kids took these particular flyers back down so they`ve been kind of looking at these particular kids as well.
Once again, Friday the 13th. That unlucky day, the significance of that. Did that play a role as well? Garcia also told me that he would be searching particular areas today near Lake Wolford which is due east of Escondido. There was a report of two men on Friday the 13th that late evening who had a plastic bag and they dumped something near the lake.
GRACE: Joining me right now, the mother and father of little Amber, Carrie McGonigle and Maurice Dubois, joining us from San Diego. Thank you to the two of you for being with us.
To Carrie, Miss McGonigle, tell me about the morning she disappeared.
CARRIE MCGONIGLE, MOTHER OF MISSING 14-YR-OLD, AMBER DUBOIS: I went to work early that morning. I saw her before I left for work, and I went in and I told her she was getting her baby lamb, that she was -- been wanting for a year to -- she guaranteed she`d take care of it. I went over and gave her a hug, a kiss, told her I loved her and told her I`d see her later that evening.
GRACE: She wanted to get the -- to purchase the baby lamb for her Future Farmers of America project?
MCGONIGLE: It was for her -- it was actually for her science, but she is part of the Future Farmers of America.
GRACE: And where were you going to keep it?
MCGONIGLE: The Escondido High School keeps it at the high school. They have, I think, a five-acre farm there and they raise it for four months and then they auction it off at the county fair.
GRACE: And she was excited about having one for herself and plan to name it Nannette?
MCGONIGLE: Yes.
GRACE: To Amber`s father Maurice Dubois. Mr. Dubois, thank you for being with us again. I don`t understand this new theory that`s emerging about her disappearance being part of some kind of a prank. What does it mean?
DUBOIS: It`s a little confusing to us. I wouldn`t understand any prank that would go on this way, you know? I don`t see any student who could pull a prank on a family that`s this devastating. I just couldn`t see it.
GRACE: So is the theory behind the prank that they kidnapped Amber as a cruel joke and they`re holding her somewhere? That doesn`t make any sense.
DUBOIS: I don`t -- I don`t see any sense in it either.
GRACE: And you know what else, too, Mickey Sherman and Peter Odom, they may call it a prank, but I call it felony kidnapping, Odom.
ODOM: Well, first of all, Nancy, if that`s a theory, then it`s a theory in search of evidence and frankly, if there`s no evidence to back it up I think they ought to stay away from saying anything about it.
GRACE: I agree, Mickey Sherman. This is not a prank.
SHERMAN: No, frankly.
GRACE: If it started as a prank it is felony kidnapping at this point.
SHERMAN: I don`t believe it even started as a prank.
GRACE: I don`t either.
SHERMAN: I think that`s an absolutely ridiculous theory. A prank is when you throw water balloons to somebody or order too many pizzas to go to their home. This is serious as a heart attack. Our hearts going out to these folks. And they should be going down different avenues.
GRACE: To Mike Brooks, former fed with the FBI. Mike, much more legitimate is the fact that there have been multiple kidnappings and attempted kidnappings in the area. In fact, one was very near a school, an elementary school.
MIKE BROOKS, FMR. DC POLICE DETECTIVE SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: All around in the same school district, Nancy. There, apparently, were three in an eight-day period. Now law enforcement, they`re all -- the vehicles that were used in this were all different. There was, apparently, a firearm on the dash of one of the vehicles of these attempted kidnappings, but right now they don`t believe that they`re connected, but it`s something I would definitely be looking into.
And the other thing, too, you know, when she walks all that way, she was seen 300 yards, Nancy, from the school. My question is, do any of the homes along where she was walking, do any of them have any kind of surveillance video? You know, a lot of people nowadays have surveillance cameras around their house.
If I was law enforcement I`d make sure that I`d -- checking to see if any of these homes along her route had any surveillance cameras.
GRACE: You know, Mike, you`re absolutely correct. Practically anyone that has a nanny cam these days can have one trained on the front door which also shows the yard, the driveway, the road in front of the home.
I want to go back to Carrie McGonigle, this is Amber`s mother. Again, thank you for being with us. You said Amber had her cell phone with her. Did she take her charger as well? Did she carry that with her?
MCGONIGLE: No, her charger was left at the house.
GRACE: Did she have a debit card or a credit card of any type, Miss McGonigle?
MCGONIGLE: She had no access to any money whatsoever. She has -- she hides her money in her room and I found it and it was $8 and she puts it in a secret spot and that`s all the money she had on her besides the check to -- made out to the school.
GRACE: You know, how people are suggesting she ran away, Maurice Dubois, is beyond me. She -- her cell phone`s gone dead, she didn`t have any money. She only had the check to buy the little lamb at school. Did she take anything with her such as clothes or any of your or her mom`s money?
DUBOIS: Absolutely not. There`s nothing -- nothing else is missing from the house.
GRACE: Out to Marc Klaas, where do we go from here, Marc? I mean the police have -- stopped the searched because -- not to their discredit, they followed up on all of the leads. They don`t know where to search -- where to search next. What about it, Mike Brooks?
BROOKS: Tell you what, Nancy, they`re going to continue to look for any kind of leads that they can find. You know there`s a lot of things -- she was seen within 300 yards of that school. Someone else had to have seen her. Was she by herself? Was she with friends? You know, if this -- if this -- whole prank theory which I don`t think -- I would totally discount that.
GRACE: I wish nobody had even said that. That`s hurting the investigation. That`s BS!
BROOKS: I think you`re absolutely right, too, Nancy.
GRACE: Look at this girl. Amber Dubois, the tip line, 888-55-AMBER. It is anonymous. There is a reward. Go to www.bringamberhome.com. Please help us find this girl.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DUBOIS: Typical home life. I mean, I`m not going to paint a golden picture. I mean everything is great there. I mean she loves her house, she loves her life. Great friends. No problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight back out to Amber`s parents, joining me today, the father, Maurice Dubois, and her mother, Carrie McGonigle.
To Carrie, have you and the father done any ground searches, any searches yourself for Amber?
MCGONIGLE: I did last weekend. I went up on Amber`s horse up into -- all through up a big park near us. We did -- we covered about 15, 20 miles of searching.
GRACE: Miss McGonigle, when did you realize Amber was missing?
MCGONIGLE: About 4:30.
GRACE: Oh, no. So the whole day had gone by before anybody realized?
MCGONIGLE: Well, yes. She -- called me when she gets home from school. And when she didn`t call, I was at work, I called her cell phone and it went straight to voice mail. And then I left work. Thinking she was.
GRACE: So.
MCGONIGLE: Thinking she would be at a friend`s house, or, you know, just being a teenager. But there was no sign of her.
GRACE: So Mr. Dubois, the whole day passes and no one realized she was gone, the school didn`t call home or anything?
DUBOIS: The school called and left a message at the house. And once Carrie got home, she listened to the message and received it. But, yes, we had no -- no notification that.
GRACE: Mr. Dubois, you are speaking to the public tonight. What is your message?
DUBOIS: Help. You know what? Help us find our daughter, you know. Keep her in your mind. Go to her Web site. Print up a flier. Keep it on your dash. You know keep it somewhere nearby so that if you see her or see someone that looks like her, you know, look at the picture, keep it for reference.
GRACE: Everyone, the tip line, 1-888-55-AMBER.
Let`s stop and remember Army Chief Warrant Officer Brady Rudolf, 37, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killed Iraq. From a family of military vets, had more than 20 years service, a pharmacist. Would give you the shirt off his back, with a sparkle in his eye, a smile that lights up a room.
Loved family, God and country. Leaves behind grieving widow, Jennifer, three sons, brother, Dustin.
Brady Rudolf, American hero.
Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us. A special good night from friend of the show, VG, Virginia Gunn (ph).
Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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