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Nancy Grace
Misty Croslin Points Finger at Haleigh`s Mom`s Family
Aired October 12, 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: Breaking news tonight, Satsuma, Florida. A 5- year-old little girl tucked into bed, five hours later, she`s gone, vanished, the back door propped wide open. Daddy comes home from the night shift to find not a trace of little Haleigh. The last person to see the 5- year-old alive that night, new stepmother Misty Croslin.
Bombshell tonight. Just hours after Croslin handcuffed by cops on alleged road rage, she flies first class to New York, taking to the air to declare she`s innocent. How does a fish get caught? He opens his mouth. Even in one brief interview, she can`t keep her story straight. Minutes after Croslin`s debacle on national TV, her lawyer dumps her.
After her brother tells cops he was at the home that night and no sign of Croslin, completely debunking her story, her mother weighs in that Croslin`s not coming clean. Croslin`s response on TV? They betrayed me. They`re the bad guys. Look at them, don`t look at me.
And tonight, her staunchest supporter, her husband and Haleigh`s father, admits cracks in her story through lawyers. She first claimed she knows nothing about Haleigh`s whereabouts, but then in a stunning twist, blurts out, quote, "the other side of the family" took Haleigh. Who? Then a 180 on the failed lie detector, claiming she passed, then admitting she failed, blaming her own guilty conscience. Is that an admission? Cops reconfirm physical evidence contradicts Croslin`s story.
Has Haleigh`s disappearance, the nine-month search for the brown-eyed 5-year-old, and fingers pointing at baby-sitter turned stepmom Misty Croslin taken a toll? Cummings and Croslin divorce. Croslin claims neither Haleigh`s disappearance nor the holes in her story had anything to do with the split. But have Cummings`s worst fears been confirmed, that his new wife, Misty Croslin, implicated in the disappearance of his own 5- year-old girl?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD CUMMINGS, HALEIGH`S FATHER: The two of us have agreed to go separate ways.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are splitting up.
CUMMINGS: With the family problems and everything else, it`s just -- it`s too much on the relationship. We can`t go anywhere without being questioned or people staring at us or anything like that.
GRACE: OK, so you`re getting at a divorce because people stare at you? I don`t believe that for one minute.
CUMMINGS: No, that`s -- that`s not why I`m getting a divorce. I`m -- that`s a part of the reason why I`m getting a divorce.
MISTY CROSLIN, HALEIGH`S BABY-SITTER/STEPMOTHER: (INAUDIBLE) I don`t want a divorce, but that`s what he wants. So whatever. I`m not going to fight him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The last time you had seen her before, then, was when?
CROSLIN: At 10:00 o`clock, when I lay down to bed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You had put her to bed?
CROSLIN: She went to bed at 8:00 o`clock.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But your brother told police that when he went to the trailer that night that you were supposedly putting Haleigh to bed, you weren`t there. Did you go somewhere that night?
CROSLIN: No, I did not. I did not leave my house at all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did he tell police that you weren`t there?
CROSLIN: Trying to get out of jail. That`s what I think.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So your brother was in jail...
CROSLIN: Yes, he was in jail.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your own brother would betray you like that?
CROSLIN: That`s how my family is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, live, missing, a 13-year-old girl and her little 7-year-old twin brothers, upscale Atlanta suburbs. The three at home go outside all three together for a walk. They are gone, last sighting a local neighborhood carnival about a mile away. Where are 13-year-old Janet and 7-year-old twin brothers Alexander and Alexis tonight? Is there a break in the case?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 13-year-old girl and her 7-year-old twin brothers are missing after they disappear, possibly at a local shopping center, that shopping center hosting a carnival, Georgia police issuing missing children`s alerts in the attempt to locate 13-year-old Janet and 7- year-old twin brothers Alexander and Alexis Villanuva, the 13-year-old girl taking a walk with her brothers. They never came back, frantic parents calling the cops hours later. Just how do three children vanish?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Just hours after Croslin handcuffed by cops on alleged road rage, she flies first class to New York, takes to the airwaves to declare she`s innocent. How does a fish get caught? He opens his mouth. But even in this interview, she can`t keep her story straight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Changes, even subtle, small changes in Misty Croslin`s story about the night Haleigh went missing bothered you. What changes...
CUMMINGS: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: ... if any, do you recall?
CUMMINGS: I can`t really recall the exact changes. And they`re real small. It`s not like she -- she pretty much tells me the same thing each time she -- I ask her about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They keep saying that you failed. Do you want people to know something about that...
CROSLIN: They`re going to know. They`re going to know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So are you saying that you didn`t fail the polygraph, like people and law enforcement are kind of claiming that you did?
CROSLIN: No, I did not.
GRACE: Ronald Cummings, did it ever disturb you that Misty Croslin`s story actually changed?
CUMMINGS: Yes, ma`am, it did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about his claims that there are -- that you`re telling different stories? Do you think he believes you`re guilty now of something?
CROSLIN: No, I don`t think so.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What has he said to you about this?
CROSLIN: He just -- he hasn`t really, said like, much about it. You know, he believes me. He doesn`t think I had anything to do with Haleigh going missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you say the other side of the family, you`re talking about Haleigh`s natural mother?
CROSLIN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would she harm her own daughter? I mean, that`s a pretty serious accusation.
CROSLIN: She wasn`t close with her daughter. They -- she admitted that they didn`t have a close relationship with her daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what do you believe in your heart of hearts she may have done?
CROSLIN: I don`t know. I don`t think that she personally had anything to do with it, just someone on her side of the family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You`re seeing new stepmother Misty Croslin on CBS`s "The Early Show." We are taking your calls live.
First out to Marlaina Schiavo. Marlaina, what`s the latest?
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: ... Nancy, is that Misty Croslin says that her brother lied about the night coming over to knock on that door because he wanted to get out of jail. And she also clarified that she is blaming Crystal`s family for the disappearance of Haleigh. And Crystal Sheffield has lashed out and has spoken out against what Misty is saying. They`re both pointing fingers at one another. So you know, Misty is just kind of digging herself in a deeper hole to the point where her attorney has now dropped her.
GRACE: OK. To Dr. Janet Taylor, psychiatrist and medical doctor. Dr. Taylor, do you get a sense -- and I`ve seen this with defendants on the stand. It`s like this. Everybody else is at fault but them. Here she`s saying, My brother betrayed me, my mother, it`s just my family. That`s supposed to explain it all? The brother places himself at the location that night, says he bangs on the door, no Misty Croslin. That totally debunks her story. The mother says she hasn`t come clean. And now on national TV she says, They betrayed me, they`re the bad guys.
DR. JANET TAYLOR, PSYCHIATRIST: Yes, I mean, it`s just one story after another. We know how dysfunctional, by her own admission, her life was. And now she`s backed into a corner, so it`s just all this finger pointing with no real understanding of -- she was the one in charge of little Haleigh. What happened to her?
GRACE: Take a listen to her ill-fated interview on CBS morning show, the interview her lawyer begged her not to do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The last time you had seen her before then was when?
CROSLIN: At 10:00 o`clock, when I lay down to bed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You had put her to bed?
CROSLIN: She went to bed at 8:00 o`clock.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But your brother told police when he went to the trailer that night that were supposedly putting Haleigh to bed, you weren`t there. Did you go somewhere that night?
CROSLIN: No, I did not. I did not leave my house at all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did he tell police that you weren`t there?
CROSLIN: Trying to get out of jail. That`s what I think.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So your brother was in jail...
CROSLIN: Yes, he was in jail.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your own brother would betray you like that?
CROSLIN: That`s how my family is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you say the other side of the family, you`re talking about Haleigh`s natural mother?
CROSLIN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would she harm her own daughter? I mean, that`s a pretty serious accusation.
CROSLIN: She wasn`t close with her daughter. She admitted that they didn`t have a close relationship with her daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what do you believe in your heart of hearts she may have done?
CROSLIN: I don`t know -- I don`t think she personally had anything to do with it, just someone on her side of the family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: So some phantom person on the bio mom`s side of the family comes and gets the baby in the middle of the night. That`s Croslin on CBS`s "Early Show." It doesn`t even make any sense. If the mother didn`t care enough to live in the town where the little girl was -- it`s not like she had a job demand or a reason to live elsewhere that she could not get around. Why would the bio mom bother to come kidnap the child in the middle of the night, if she didn`t even exercise visitation rights?
We`re taking your calls live. Let`s go straight to the lines.
But first to Ellie Jostad, our chief editorial producer. Croslin`s response about her own brother, claiming he betrayed her and he made the whole story up to get out of jail -- well, he didn`t get out of jail.
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right.
GRACE: Weeks and weeks passed. And think about it, Ellie. If you`re going to tell a big, fat, whopper lie to cops about your own sister to get out of jail, wouldn`t it be something like, She confessed she killed Haleigh by accident?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. Right, and...
GRACE: Or she confessed she knew where the body was. Why would it be, I went to the house and knocked on the door and nobody came? Who would make that story up?
JOSTAD: Yes, and her brother didn`t even go into any, you know, real detail about it. He said he went there, he knocked on the door, he hung out a little bit, the house was dark. He didn`t say, Oh, and I went inside and she wasn`t there. All he said is that he knocked and she didn`t answer. Now, of course, Misty Croslin is saying, Oh, I was there the whole time, I was asleep, I must not have heard him knocking.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Shirley in Florida. Hi, Shirley.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, Nancy.
GRACE: Hi, dear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. My question is, have they put any comparison between Misty and her actions and Casey Anthony? Because to me, she`s acting like another Casey Anthony.
GRACE: To Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation. He`s a child rights advocate. What do you make of that comparison?
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, it`s not far off. I think that Misty`s complete and total lack of life experience is what`s really betraying her, not her brother. And I think that that`s a very revealing statement, Nancy. If this family is willing to betray each other over something like getting -- a "Get out of jail free" card, what does that say about her? And who is she willing to betray? Is she betraying Ron? Is she betraying Haleigh? Is she betraying everybody that`s standing behind her?
SHOEMAKER: And why does Ron continue through his lawyers to say that he`s supporting Misty and that he`s not concerned about the inconsistencies in her story, when we thought he was divorcing her? He`s still providing cover. He`s probably his own worst enemy at this point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CUMMINGS: ... to keep Haleigh`s face out there, and if you have any information leading to her disappearance, to call it in. It don`t matter who it hurts. And I want to let everyone know that I`m not hiding anything for anybody. Let`s bring Haleigh home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The stepmom of missing little girl Haleigh Cummings breaking her silence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So are you saying that you didn`t fail the polygraph, like people and law enforcement are kind of claiming that you did?
CROSLIN: No, I did not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. So bottom line, you don`t know where Haleigh is?
CROSLIN: Bottom line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She tells a local reporter on her way that she never failed the polygraph. Then she gets on the CBS "Early Show" and blatantly admits that she failed a poly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Misty did do this interview without the blessing from her attorney, Robert Fields, who said that he did advise her not to do this. But Misty Croslin is speaking out, saying that she`s not worried about getting an arrest, she does believe that Haleigh is still alive and well.
CROSLIN: I didn`t do anything with -- to that little girl. I would never hurt her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She didn`t say that it was fact that the other side of the family`s involved. She said, I felt it. I watched her eyes roll a little, too, all indicators that she`s lying. This is just another diversionary tactic from some individual who is a suspect in a very, very serious case, obviously.
CRYSTAL SHEFFIELD, HALEIGH`S MOTHER: I thought all along that she has something to do with it, and now this kind of just proves it. I mean, she was the last one to see our daughter, and her stories just don`t add up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And also we learn that Ronald Cummings, through his lawyer, states he no longer accepts her story. He`s beginning to see the cracks in it. And he has been her staunchest supporter.
Out to the lines. Sandy in Arkansas. Hi, Sandy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, Nancy Grace. I love you, dear.
GRACE: Thank you. And thank you for calling in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I`m so proud of you and your hubby and your twins.
GRACE: You know what? We are -- it`s like God heard our prayers and answered them 10,000 times over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have followed you for so many years, Court TV, all of them. But anyway, I`d just like to make a comment on the cell phone bills, if it is a cell phone that Ronald tried to call Misty that night. If he tried to call 20 times -- Ronald`s got a hot temper. I wonder why he didn`t leave work and go home and check to see what was going on. I`m not buying this story.
GRACE: To Terry Shoemaker, attorney for Ronald Cummings. That`s Haleigh`s father. Of course, Terry a well-known attorney in the Jacksonville area, in fact, the whole region. Terry Shoemaker, thank you for being with us.
TERRY SHOEMAKER, ATTORNEY FOR RONALD CUMMINGS: Thank you.
GRACE: Let me just clarify again, and correct me if I`m wrong because I`ll find out later. At some point, the truth will be uncovered. Isn`t it true, Mr. Shoemaker, that Ronald Cummings stayed at work his full shift and he got home around 3:00 AM?
SHOEMAKER: Absolutely. He never left.
GRACE: OK. Terry, what did he do for a living? What was it exactly he did there?
SHOEMAKER: He was a crane operator, among some other responsibilities.
GRACE: I`m sorry. I couldn`t hear you. Repeat. He did what?
SHOEMAKER: He was a crane operator.
GRACE: OK. Were there other people around him observing him operating the crane, amongst other things?
SHOEMAKER: Yes. He was there all night. You know, there were some times, you know, based on our conversations with FDLE, that people didn`t actually see him, but they were for very short periods of time. And people saw him there all night, for the most part.
GRACE: And his home was about a 30 or 40-minute drive away?
SHOEMAKER: A little less than that. You know, probably anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes.
GRACE: OK. Give him 30. He would have to have been gone about an hour-and-a-half, 30 minutes there, 30 minutes back...
SHOEMAKER: Exactly.
GRACE: ... and 30 minutes for whatever was to take place there. Was there that big of a gap of people seeing him?
SHOEMAKER: Absolutely not, Nancy.
GRACE: OK. Mr. Shoemaker, you`re giving me your word on that?
SHOEMAKER: Absolutely, Nancy.
GRACE: And again, you said he operates a crane. Was he operating a crane that night?
SHOEMAKER: I don`t believe he actually was that evening. I know he had a couple different things he was doing, but...
GRACE: Like what?
SHOEMAKER: I can`t really answer that specifically. I know when we spoke...
GRACE: Why?
SHOEMAKER: Well, when we spoke with law enforcement the last time, they asked him about his different jobs that evening, and he said that he had to move some material from different locations and -- so I know that he had a number of different responsibilities, but his primary responsibility at that job was as a crane operator.
GRACE: Indoors or outdoors?
SHOEMAKER: Well, the crane is outdoors, but he -- you know, he would move things to different aspects of the job site and take care of material that way.
GRACE: So we know absolutely he did not leave the job site?
SHOEMAKER: Absolutely.
GRACE: OK. I need to go to you. Ellie Jostad, this one I don`t understand, about all those phone calls. If she did not have her telephone turned on, that may be explaining why cops can`t get a ping on her to locate where she was because even if you don`t pick the phone up, if your phone is ringing or it`s turned on, you`re still emitting pings. Am I right or wrong about that?
JOSTAD: Yes, you`re right. And police have told us that they have not been able -- or they haven`t been real clear about what they`ve been able to learn about Misty Croslin`s cell phone. But you`re right, we do know that Ron called her over 20 times that night and apparently never got an answer.
GRACE: Everyone, quick break. We`re taking your calls live. Now we know why Misty Croslin`s lawyer insisted she not give an interview.
To tonight`s "Case Alert." A miracle, 16-year-old bipolar Chicago girl who vanishes off the streets on her way to school in the morning found alive after a tipster sees our program. Tonight, 16-year-old Jessica Jones reunited with her family. Breaking news. There is a God.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you say the other side of the family, you`re talking about Haleigh`s natural mother?
CROSLIN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would she harm her own daughter? I mean, that`s a pretty serious accusation.
CROSLIN: She wasn`t close with her daughter. They -- she admitted that they didn`t have a close relationship with her daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what do you believe in your heart of hearts she may have done?
CROSLIN: I don`t know. I don`t think that she personally had anything to do with it, just someone on her side of the family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is new stepmother Croslin on CBS`s "Early Show." Unleash the lawyers -- Joe Lawless, defense attorney out of Philadelphia and author of "Prosecutorial Misconduct," and Stacy Schneider, defense attorney out of New York.
Let`s see that map again, Norm. Joe Lawless, don`t you just love it when your client actually points to a specific person as the one who did it? Take a look at how far away Crystal Sheffield lives from little Haleigh. So she drove over an hour to get there in the middle of the night, sneaks in, leaves the door propped open, Misty Croslin doesn`t hear a thing. Then she leaves...
JOE LAWLESS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, you stole the phrase I`ve used on the show countless times, that even a fish wouldn`t get caught if she kept her mouth shut. If this woman keeps...
GRACE: That`s not exactly what I said. I said, How does a fish get caught? He opens his mouth. That`s what I said.
LAWLESS: Well, if this girl keeps doing what she`s doing, it`s only a question of time before she`s charged with something having to do with this kid`s disappearance. She just repeatedly, repeatedly contradicts herself, and if I were her lawyer, I`d have dropped her, too.
GRACE: Stacy Schneider, I always loved it as a prosecutor when a defendant or a suspect points a finger at a specific person and says, They did it, because then you could bring that person to court and have them speak to the jury and clearly give an alibi, show why they didn`t do it. Look, this mom doesn`t even exercise visitation. You think she`s going to go to Satsuma, Florida, and steal a child in the middle of the night?
STACY SCHNEIDER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, Nancy, that was a really bad move on her part. It`s sort of like throwing junk up against the wall and seeing what will stick. And I think she`s in a desperate position. She just threw it out for to us hear.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD CUMMINGS, FATHER OF 5-YR-OLD HALEIGH CUMMINGS: I think we both agreed on it.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Who brought it up first?
R. CUMMINGS: I did.
MISTY CROSLIN-CUMMINGS, RONALD CUMMING`S WIFE, LAST SEEN HALEIGH: Everybody knows that I love Haleigh and Ronald and Junior. It`s a family like Haleigh wanted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just being married, it can be stressful and there can be challenges.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK, sir, let me talk to your wife. Let me get some information from her. OK. Can I talk to her? OK.
R. CUMMINGS: Man, (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK. Can I talk to her?
R. CUMMINGS: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK.
R. CUMMINGS: How the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) can you let my daughter get stole (EXPLETIVE DELETED)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t talk with that, everything that they went through during their marriage.
R. CUMMINGS: I don`t know anything about her flunking a polygraph. I know what`s been said about it, but I`m not a polygrapher myself, so I didn`t see any results.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s definitely an issue that she`s 17 years old because she doesn`t have those adult thinking skills that a lot of us would have even though she`s leading a very adult life.
M. CUMMINGS: Divorce. I mean, I don`t want a divorce, but heck, that`s what he wants so whatever.
TERRY SHOEMAKER, ATTORNEY FOR RONALD CUMMINGS: Ron has stuck by Misty all along. He`s always thought that she`s told the truth. He has had some turns -- concerns, I`m sorry, regarding what she has said, some discrepancies between different statements. But he has stood by her all along.
He bases that on the fact that she has been a little loose on certain situations and she has changed her story a little here and there, but nothing major. I don`t think he`s doubting whether or not she was involved. He`s just doubting whether everything she said is what transpired that night. But he in no way believes she was involved whatsoever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is Terry Shoemaker, who was on "The Early show," CBS. He`s with us live tonight. And earlier you saw Misty Croslin from CBS morning. We are taking your calls live. But I want to go back to Terry Shoemaker. This is the attorney for Ronald Cummings, the biological father of little Haleigh. He had custody of her.
He goes to work that night, comes home, she`s gone. And there rubbing her eyes like she`s sleepy is girlfriend turned new stepmother Misty Croslin, who said rut-roh, I guess I slept through the whole thing.
OK. Terry Shoemaker.
SHOEMAKER: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: Please don`t sugarcoat it for me the way you did on the morning shows. Because if you are doubting aspects of Misty Croslin`s story, that means you doubt the whole story, whether -- you know, you may want to take the light version and think she went out that evening and somebody else came into the home.
I don`t know how likely or probable that is. Or you may take a more realistic look that she was the last one with the child and most typically that is the person responsible for the disappearance. But has the divorce been signed yet?
SHOEMAKER: I know that Misty was in our office today. We gave her the paper. She`s no longer represented by anybody. She looked them over, she took them to a notary, brought them back signed. And they will be filed shortly.
GRACE: Now after the divorce is final, do you believe Ronald Cummings will have more to say to police?
SHOEMAKER: I don`t believe so. I know, that you know, in all the times that we`ve met with law enforcement, which really hasn`t been that many times, I know that he`s been very forthright on the number of times he called her, when he called her, what the conversations were all about. So I don`t think that he`s really going to come out with any, you know, bombshell as to I was holding this bag.
GRACE: You`re seeing video of Cummings and Croslin`s wedding from the NBC "Today Show."
Let`s take a look at some of the inconsistencies in her story. Norm, if you could pull that up for me. First of all, we know there were the inconsistencies about who was in bed that night. First of all, we hear that she`s in bed with both children. Later she says she was in bed with Junior.
Then she finally said oh, the children were in two separate beds from her. She said she did laundry. No detergent in the home. Claimed to be sleeping, but cops and Cummings said that the beds were made when they got to the home.
The time frame in which she called the cops, well, that`s not correct. That full screen is not correct. She didn`t call the cops. Cummings made her call the cops. She didn`t voluntarily do that. Why she went to the further bathroom away from the one right beside her bed?
There are so many things that don`t make sense.
Out to the lines, Melody, Ohio. Hi, Melodie.
MELODIE, CALLER FROM OHIO: Nancy, you`re beautiful. Two quick comments here, please. Ronald`s mother on the show one night made a comment about the taste of Oxycontin being very sour and she couldn`t imagine Haleigh taking it. No, not if the child was forced to take it.
Is his mother, in so many words, hinting that there was Oxycontin in that home and was it the mother`s?
And then my other question being, when I look at the scene in the bedroom I see those air ducts on the floor. Have those air ducts been searched for anything? Thank you.
GRACE: Good question. Norm, let`s pull up that video of our tour inside the home, including the bedroom from which Haleigh went missing.
To Dr. Gerald Feigin, Camden County, New Jersey. Dr. Feigin, thank you for being with us. There are those air ducts.
Hey, Norm, if you can rewind that, I know that might be difficult.
Dr. Feigin, what can you tell you -- I saw those air ducts again. They didn`t look very big but probably big enough for a child. What about the taste of Oxycontin? I don`t know. I`ve never had one.
DR. GERALD FEIGIN, M.D., MEDICAL EXAMINER, CAMDEN COUNTY: I haven`t either. But you can mask a taste of anything by mixing it with something sweet, for example.
GRACE: That`s a good point. Now in these letters that popped up, Ellie Jostad, the writer said that she accidentally, I believe, took Oxycontin at a drug party. I still don`t believe that theory, Ellie, because you can`t tell me a bunch of potheads sitting around at a party are going to keep their yaps shut for this long and not say Haleigh was here, especially when there`s a $30,000 to $70,000 reward hanging in the balance.
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: Right. And Putnam County Sheriff`s Office has sort of downplayed that letter. Remember, it was written by a friend of Misty Croslin who is in jail right now. She claims she heard this he information secondhand. She was writing a letter to her boyfriend about it. So police are saying take it easy on this letter.
GRACE: Yes, you know what, Lawless, Schneider -- first to you, Schneider, you`ve got to take every letter you get from the jailhouse with a box of salt. Yes/no?
STACY SCHNEIDER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes. I mean, no question about it. And everyone -- most people in jail have a motive. And I -- I`m a defense attorney. I get all kinds of letters from jail with agendas, and I never trust them.
GRACE: Oh yes, Lawless, I would even get faxes from the jail when I was a prosecutor.
JOE LAWLESS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT": I get phone calls from the jail when I was a prosecutor. People are looking for a get-out-of-jail free card and that`s probably what that letter was.
GRACE: John Lucich, president of High Tech Crime Network, I still don`t understand why they`re not getting pings on her cell phone to pinpoint where he was that night. What`s the problem?
JOHN LUCICH, FORMER CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR, PRESIDENT, HIGH TECH CRIME NETWORK: The problem is she probably did have her cell phone off. That phone registers with the MTSO, the Mobile Telephone Switching Office, as it moves around from cell site to cell site.
They will be able to see where she was at any given time by looking at the records at each MTSO. Now if that cell phone was off, and you know there have been so many cases out there where people know about cell phones that she probably did turn it off for this case.
GRACE: To Marc Klaas, founder of KlaasKids Foundation. Hey, Marc, as an aside, isn`t it true you can now put a chip in your kid`s cell phone and then you can turn on your computer and actually see where they are? Have you heard about that?
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: You don`t have to put -- yes, you don`t have to put a chip in your kid`s cell phone. The vast majority of cell phones come GPS-enabled and the vast majority, or the major cell phone carriers have a pretty low-cost and quite effective child locator plan where you can go onto the Internet and do certain things.
You can have a breadcrumb feature that lets you follow the history of where the child is or where they`re going. It gives you a panic button and it also provides you with geo-fencing so that you`re able to create a barrier that if the child goes outside that barrier, wherever it is, you will be notified. It`s a marvelous system, I think.
GRACE: Marc Klaas, as usual you`re an encyclopedia.
To the lines, Linda, Indiana. Hi Linda.
LINDA, CALLER FROM INDIANA: Hello. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
LINDA: I was just wanting to know has -- have they investigated if anything happened before Ronald went to work?
GRACE: Good question. To Marlaina Schiavo, I believe that they have accounted for her time up until the time he went to work. And what about those air ducts? Let`s go back to Melodie`s question also.
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: OK. As far as the air ducts, yes, Nancy, the investigators have searched that entire home. And as far as what happened leading up to Ronald going to work, there were arguments and -- yes, they`ve accounted for her time. They knew where she was. And she was definitely home with Haleigh. And there was an argument that happened before he left for work.
GRACE: And how about Cummings? Was he accounted for at the last sighting of Haleigh?
SCHIAVO: Absolutely. Absolutely.
GRACE: OK.
SCHIAVO: Yes.
GRACE: Got it.
SCHIAVO: (INAUDIBLE) with this child.
GRACE: So there you see why defense attorneys tell you don`t talk, much less on national TV. Every one of her renegade theories have been shot down. Misty Croslin taking to the airwaves to declare her innocence.
Very quickly to tonight`s safety tip. Road rage. All too common for drivers to lose their temper behind the wheel. But some go way too far. It ends in road rage.
If a driver harasses you, do not react by swerving, braking, or speeding up. Most common form of road rage, tailgating. If you are being followed, drive to the nearest police station or any busy area to get help.
Road rage can and does escalate. Keep your doors and your windows closed and locked. If someone tries to get into your car, blow your horn non-stop to attract attention and take off if you can. And please, don`t be baited into a fight. You could end up hurt or worse. You never know if the other driver has a gun, for Pete`s sake. For more go to AAA.com.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Law enforcement has issued missing child alert for not one, not two, but three brothers and sisters. Police say 13-year- old Janet Villanuva took her 7-year-old twin brothers for a walk Sunday evening. But they never came back.
Mom and dad called police after they couldn`t find the kids. The children possibly last seen at the Blue Ridge Shopping Center, where a local carnival is going on. Tonight police need your help.
FRANK HOOPER, CHIEF OF POLICE, GAINESVILLE, GA; ON THE CASE: Our investigators have been knocking on doors, running down leads. The school system is out for fall break right now. So that does make things a little more difficult because these children aren`t in school, but, again, they`re out looking and talking to classmates and just trying to run down possibly where these children could be at.
We are asking the public`s help. And if somebody saw something or possibly saw one of these children to give us a call.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A 13-year-old girl and her 7-year-old twin brothers are missing after they disappeared, possibly at a local shopping center. That shopping center hosting a carnival. Georgia police issuing missing children`s alerts in the attempt to locate 13-year-old Janet and 7- year-old twin brothers Alexander and Alexis Villanuva.
The 13-year-old girl taking a walk with her brothers, and they never came back. Frantic parents calling the cops hours later. Just how do three children vanish?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Matt Zarrell. Matt, what`s the background on this?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: Well, apparently, 13-year-old Janet took the twin boys for a walk around 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. Now, they were possibly seen at a carnival at a local shopping center later that day. The parents waited eight hours after searching, called cops, and we`re learning that there may be news coming in soon, Nancy.
GRACE: OK. Wait a minute. What kind of carnival? What are you talking about? How far away was it from the home?
ZARRELL: The carnival was about a mile, mile and a half from the home. They would have had to walk through a wooded and backroads to get to. It`s a carnival that`s just takes place in the parking lot of a shopping center, Nancy.
GRACE: OK, but Matt Zarrell, they were just going for a walk in the neighborhood and they end up nearly two miles away at a carnival? Was there a sighting there?
ZARRELL: Well, cops believe they were possibly sighted in the area, but no one had saw them officially except for 6:00 p.m. when the three of them left the home Sunday night.
GRACE: OK, I`m hearing in my ear with me right now, Eric Jens, WRGA Radio. Eric, what`s the latest?
ERIC JENS, REPORTER, WRGA NEWS RADIO (via phone): Yes. Thank you, Nancy. We do have some breaking news on this story. All three children have now been found. The two twin boys have been reunited with their parents. The 13-year-old, Janet, has been taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, where she`ll be medically cleared there.
GRACE: Wait. The 13-year-old is in a medical center?
JENS: Yes. And we don`t know the details surrounding that other than that a hall county juvenile court judge has issued a detention order, and - - which needs to be evaluated at that hospital. And again, anything more detailed beyond that would be speculation at this point. They were just found moments ago. About four to five miles away from their residence.
GRACE: Joining me right now, Chief Frank Hooper. He is the chief of police in Gainesville.
Chief, it`s a pleasure to have you on with us. Where were they found, Chief?
HOOPER (via phone): Thank you, Nancy. We found them here locally in town probably about -- it was about four to five miles from their residence. It was in an area of town here that`s predominantly a Hispanic community.
And we were able to follow up on leads. Our investigators had really been working on this case ever since 2:00 a.m. yesterday, when the parents first reported these children missing --
GRACE: Holy Molly. 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning?
HOOPER: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: So it took eight hours for the parents to report them missing. They were doing their own search during that time, correct?
HOOPER: Yes. That`s apparently what happened. The children were last seen by the parents about 6:00 p.m. there at the home. She was taking the two brothers, who were 7-year-old twins, she said, for a walk. And they never returned. And of course the parents looked for them, but they didn`t notify us until 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning.
GRACE: Chief Hooper -- Chief Frank Hooper is with us from Gainesville. Chief, you said they were about five miles away. Where?
HOOPER: It was at a residence.
GRACE: What in the world were they doing five -- was it a family friend? Five miles away at the residence, somebody didn`t think to call the parents?
HOOPER: No, ma`am. It would appear that they had friends at this location. And our investigators most of the day were pretty close behind these kids, and it looks like when they were spotted at this carnival last night, this was before they`d even been reported missing.
So had we gotten the report earlier, that`s a lead we could have followed up on immediately but we weren`t able to follow up on that lead. And you know sometime around midnight it would appear the kids kind of went to ground at a residence somewhere and didn`t resurface until later on today. And we developed additional leads that we could follow up.
GRACE: Chief Hooper, how`d you do it? How did you find them?
HOOPER: Well, just good hard old-fashioned police work. Like I said, we dedicated about four to five investigators and of course a lot of patrolmen to this case and diverted them. They were out knocking on doors in neighborhoods. And our school system here is out on fall break. So we had to basically go knock on doors and try to identify friends.
GRACE: Yes, I heard all about fall break. It used to be Columbus Day. Chief Frank Hooper, you know, this happens so rarely that we have a miracle like this.
Marc Klaas, weigh in.
KLAAS: Well, kudos to the chief and his investigators for taking this seriously and doing what they needed to do. Now, in hindsight I think the parents -- what parents need to understand is that time is the enemy in all of these cases. 74 percent of children that are murdered as a result of an abduction are murdered within the first three hours.
Therefore, it`s incumbent upon them to know who their kids` friends are, to know the routes that they use, and to make that search very, very quickly. And if they don`t recover the kids very quickly, then get a hold of law enforcement and let them do what the chief and his people did so well, which is go out, find the kids.
As the chief said, they could have found them at the carnival and resolved this much more quickly and resolve these things and bring these happy endings along. Now, I would also suggest that if parents are going to send three young children like that out for a walk the 13-year-old should have an open, on cell phone, for all of the reasons we`ve spoken about earlier and also so that the parents can simply call them and say, where are you, should it get too dark.
GRACE: Chief Hooper -- Chief Frank Hooper is joining us. Chief Hooper, why is the 13-year-old girl in the hospital?
HOOPER: She was taken to the Northeast Georgia Medical Center to be medically cleared and also she had a history -- we`ve investigated her before as a runaway. So, of course, we were immediately concerned about that, but then her two 7-year-old twin brothers were with her so that really ramped the case up.
GRACE: Everyone, tonight a miracle. These three have been gone, missing, since Sunday, but they have been found.
Chief Hooper, thank you so much. And to you, Eric Jones, Matt Zarrell, thank you.
As we go to break, thank you for your thoughts and your prayers for our friend, felony prosecutor, Eleanor Odom. She was out working out, thought she had heartburn, went to the doctor, they didn`t let her go home. She completed triple bypass surgery like a champ. She`s on the mend. In fact, I took her a casserole today.
God bless, Eleanor.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOOPER: Our investigators have been walking on doors, running down leads. School system is out for fall break right now so that does make things a little more difficult. They`re out looking and talking to classmates. Still trying to run down possibly where these children could be at.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Law enforcement has issued missing child alerts for not one, not two, but three brothers and sisters. Police say 13-year-old Janet Villanuva took her 7-year-old twin brothers for a walk Sunday evening but they never came back. Mom and dad called police after they couldn`t find the kids. The children, possibly last seen at the Blue Ridge Shopping Center where a local carnival is going on. Tonight police need your help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Janet Villanuva, age 13, Alexander and Alexis, 7-year-old twin brothers, miracle tonight, have been found.
To Sherry, Pennsylvania, hi, Sherry.
SHERRY, CALLER FROM PENNSYLVANIA: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear, what`s your question?
SHERRY: I want to say my thoughts and prayers go out to your mother. And me and my husband watch you every night and he loves you. He`s going to be so mad I got through.
GRACE: Thank you so much.
SHERRY: We`ve been trying for so long. But my question is, where were the parents at? I mean.
GRACE: Good question.
SHERRY: If the girl was a runaway, and that why would they let her take these two little babies by herself?
GRACE: To Eric Jens, WRGA Radio, what about it?
JENS: That`s obviously a judgment question and in hindsight it seems a very ill-advised decision if indeed they did give them permission to all three leave in such a situation. But, you know, obviously, it doesn`t seem like it was a good call but the good news, of course, is that all three are now back and hopefully lesson learned.
GRACE: To Chief Frank Hooper, what about it, chief?
HOOPER: Well, of course, that`s a question that we`ll be asking as we complete our investigation in this case, but one thing I can`t say enough about, we activated the child is missing program initially last night, which is a phone system that calls residents in the neighborhood and lets them know these children are missing, give a description.
And of course that helped also to develop some leads. But that`s a great system that we can utilize. And Nancy, we appreciate you getting the word out because folks don`t forget about the victims as long as they`ve got a voice.
GRACE: You know, Chief Hooper, I really appreciate that, and God bless the children and, Chief, thank you for what you and your force did in finding these children alive.
Everyone, let`s stop and remember Air Force Senior Airman, Ashton Goodman, 21, Indianapolis, Indiana. A family`s third generation female to serve. Also served Afghanistan where she mentored local women.
Loved writing, social development, photography, animals, dreamed of being a veterinarian. Leaves behind parents Vicki and Mark. Brother, Levi. Four sisters.
Ashton Goodman, American hero.
Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us. I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp, Eastern, and until then, good night, friend.
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