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Nancy Grace
North Carolina 5-Year-Old Missing From Mobile Home
Aired November 11, 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. Live, North Carolina, a 5- year-old little girl vanishes without a trace from the child`s own home. Mommy tells police she left the little girl on the sofa 5:30 AM. One hour later, the baby is gone. A 5-year-old goes missing from her own sofa? The child wearing nothing but a T-shirt and underwear, little Shaniya`s favorite blanket found discarded, covered in feces in the neighbors` trash. As you know, the first 48 hours so critical. Tonight, where is 5-year-old Shaniya?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 5-year-old girl is missing in North Carolina. Authorities suspect foul play in her disappearance. Shaniya Davis went missing from her Fayetteville home at about 5:30 local in the morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andrea Moore, a neighbor, heard someone outside her house about two hours earlier, around 3:00 o`clock.
ANDREA MOORE, NEIGHBOR: Sounded like somebody was beating like that because, like I said...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the banging on her wall stopped, Moore says she went to sleep. When she woke up, police were at the door.
MOORE: And they told me that they were taking off my trash can because they found a blanket in it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She thinks whoever banged on the wall put the blanket in her trash. Police told her the blanket belongs to the missing girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had an extensive conversation with a woman by the name of Barbara Davenport (ph). She is the manager of the Sleepy Hollow mobile home park. I asked her, I said, Well, if someone were to come inside of the house in the middle of the night, or, let`s say, 5:30 in the morning to possibly maybe take Shaniya out of the residence, would someone hear that? And she says, Absolutely. There`s no way that anyone else could get through that trailer in the morning, in the middle of the night, any other time without someone else knowing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Helicopters, search dogs have been out. They never picked up a scent of the child outside the home. That`s a little disturbing to police officers because if there was any trace of the child outside the home, they say the dogs would have picked that up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don`t have any indication that she walked outside of her home, actually physically walked away. The canines would scent on that. They would pick up her scent. So no, they haven`t picked up her scent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, to Oregon and the disappearance of a gorgeous young satellite TV saleswoman, Jayme Sue Austin. She calls her mom to say her water`s on the blink, wants to shower at mom`s. Fine. Noon, the workplace calls mom to ask, Where`s Jayme? She never made in it to work. Mom races home to find daughter`s car still in her driveway, the shower used, and signs in the bathroom of a struggle. Tonight, her mother with us live. Where is 31-year-old Jayme Sue Austin?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A frantic search under way for 31-year-old mom Jayme Sue Austin after she disappears, police calling that disappearance suspicious and have activated a local major crime scene. Jayme always punctual to work. She called her job to tell them she`d be running a few minutes late because she couldn`t get water at her house. She called her mother just a few doors down and asked to use her shower, but Jayme never made it to work and is never heard from again. Jayme`s car found at her mother`s house, but no sign of Jayme. How could a 31-year-old dependable mother simply disappear?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Also tonight, live, Arkansas, grainy surveillance video shows mother and daughter shopping at a busy Sam`s Club. They make it home, Sam`s Club bags brought in from the car. They`re all there on the kitchen counter, family dog sitting in the den, but no sign of mother and daughter, their black Toyota pick-up found abandoned at a local strip club. Tonight, all signs pointing to foul play. What happened to mother and daughter Louise and Christina Bishop?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Surveillance cameras from the Sam`s Club in Bentonville, Arkansas, captures Louise Bishop and her daughter, Christina, finishing their shopping and leaving the store. That was the last time anyone saw either of them. Police say the pair have been missing ever since, and they suspect foul play after their car was found abandoned at a strip club 20 miles away. The Bishop family became concerned when Louise`s nephew came to the home after not hearing from them for a few days and found the front door open, the alarm shut off, groceries and medications on the counter, but no sign of Louise or Christina. The car, a black `97 Toyota pick-up, was found abandoned at a strip club in southern Missouri. Police believe the car was abandoned shortly after the women`s disappearance. The vehicle was taken to the crime lab for processing. It is unknown what evidence, if any, was found.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Live, North Carolina, a 5-year-old little girl vanishes without a trace from the child`s own home. Mommy tells cops she left the little girl on the sofa 5:30 AM. One hour later, the baby is gone. A 5-year-old goes missing from her own sofa?
Bombshell tonight. Little Shaniya`s favorite blanket, covered in feces, found discarded in the neighbors` trash. What does it mean?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is little Shaniya Davis? Police in Fayetteville, North Carolina, say the 5-year-old girl reported missing. She`s in extreme danger. Five-thirty in the morning, Mom says she put little Shaniya on the couch, noticed her missing about an hour or so later.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She did report her missing about an hour after she says that Shaniya -- she found Shaniya gone. Investigators did arrive on the scene a little after 7:00 o`clock in the morning.
MOORE: They told me that they were taking off my trash can because they found a blanket in it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police told her the blanket belongs to the missing girl.
MOORE: There was feces spread all over that porch and rail over at the little girl`s house, and this blanket was covered in feces.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Moore also says police told her they`re looking at surveillance video of anyone who left the mobile home park around 3:00 that morning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Barbara has installed four surveillance cameras. Barbara says that after Shaniya was missing, you can see on the surveillance tape the family coming out and actually looking around, as if they`re looking for a child at that point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police don`t believe Shaniya just wandered off. They say the circumstances of her disappearance are questionable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t feel she wondered away from home. We don`t feel she did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People that were in the home at the time, Shaniya`s 7-year-old brother, the mother and a person whom they`ve only identified possibly as a boyfriend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The more people we have, the more people that are potential witnesses or potential suspects. And they`re going to start with everyone who lived in that house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Gurnal Scott with WPTF radio. The bombshell tonight is not good, Gurnal Scott, the fact that the little girl`s favorite blanket is found in the neighbor`s trash can, that the blanket was covered in feces, and that it`s my understanding there was feces found on the neighbor`s porch. I`m not clear on that point. What can you tell me, Gurnal Scott?
GURNAL SCOTT, WPTF RADIO (via telephone): Well, that`s what the police are saying, that the feces were found on the back porch and on the blanket, as well. They are looking into any connection that there could possibly be in that. We also know that -- we know the house wasn`t a very clean area. As a matter of fact, the family isn`t being allowed back into the house because of sewage problems. So they are not in the house, and police are continuing their investigation there.
But as you said, the bombshell, as of right now is that blanket, which they hope is the clue that can lead them to where this little girl actually is.
GRACE: With me, in addition to Gurnal Scott with WPTF radio, also joining us, little Shaniya`s neighbor. It was her trash in which the blanket was found. With me tonight, Andrea Moore. Ms. Moore, thank you for being with us.
ANDREA MOORE, NEIGHBOR WHO FOUND BLANKET IN TRASH (via telephone): OK.
GRACE: Ms. Moore, can you hear me all right?
MOORE: I can hear you fine, yes.
GRACE: OK. Good. Again, thank you for being with us, Ms. Moore. Everyone, Ms. Moore joining us from Fayetteville, North Carolina. This is Shaniya`s neighbor. Ms. Moore, are you their direct next-door neighbor?
MOORE: No, I`m not. I live across the street from the family.
GRACE: Oh. So you`re like the front`s-door neighbor?
MOORE: Right. I live on the main street coming into this park.
GRACE: OK.
MOORE: And they live on a side street off of the main street.
GRACE: I understand. Ms. Moore, how far away from your home is their home, would you say? How many feet?
MOORE: Oh, maybe 200.
GRACE: Now, I`m interested in that, Ms. Moore -- with me is Shaniya`s neighbor of about 200 feet away -- how Shaniya`s blanket, her baby blanket, could end up in your trash? Had their family ever used your trash receptacle before?
MOORE: Well, I can`t say that that family did, but many people use our trash cans on this side of the street.
GRACE: Two hundred feet away is quite a distance to walk to throw away a baby`s blanket. Ms. Moore -- with me, everyone, from Fayetteville, North Carolina, Andrea Moore. Police have recovered Shaniya`s -- little Shaniya`s favorite blanket in her trash.
I understand that there were feces -- there was feces on your back porch, is that correct?
MOORE: No. No, that`s not correct.
GRACE: OK, tell me what happened.
MOORE: Well, about 7:30 that morning, I heard a knock at my door. And I answered the door, and it was a gentleman from the police department asking me about a little 5-year-old girl, had I seen her. And I told him no, I hadn`t seen her. He told me the child`s name and asked me did I know her. And I said, No, I don`t know her. He let me know, like I said, that she was missing and that they were just basically looking for her at the time.
And so I closed my door and I came back in here and I laid back down. And then I heard footsteps on my porch. And so I went back into my living room and opened the door, and there were a whole lot more police officers on my porch. And they had taped off my garbage can in the front of my trailer and my porch. And when I opened the door to find out what was going on, they asked me did I throw a blanket into my trash can. And I told them no. And I also let them know that the garbage pick-up was Monday, and so none of the trash cans should have basically had anything in them at all. And so he, you know, said that they were going to be possibly taking that trash can away.
GRACE: In fact, Ms. Moore, do you have any children living in the home with you?
MOORE: I do. I have my daughter stays with me, but she wasn`t here.
GRACE: How old is she?
MOORE: She`s 24.
GRACE: Well, I`m glad you told me her age because I doubt she would have a baby blanket. So you said Monday was the trash pick-up. What day did police tell you the blanket, Shaniya`s baby blanket, was in your trash?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That morning, Tuesday morning, they told me that it was in there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOORE: I was told that there was feces spread all over that porch and rail over at the little girl`s house, and this blanket was covered in feces.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search for 5-year-old Shaniya Davis is still the main focus of Fayetteville investigators. A small army of lawmen have been looking for her ever since she turned up missing yesterday morning from her home in the Sleep Hollow mobile home park.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say her mother last saw Shaniya around 5:30, when she was put on the sofa. A few minutes before 7:00, the mother called police to report her daughter missing, but it`s unclear how she left the home. Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance (ph) says search dogs never found her trail around the home or in the neighborhood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shaniya`s mother isn`t being called a suspect, but police are very familiar with her. Earlier this year, police searched the home and found narcotics. Shaniya`s mother spent most of the day being interviewed by police yesterday, who now believe foul play is involved in the child`s disappearance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From the information that we have, that we`ve gained today, during the night. That`s the easiest way to put it. During the night, there was something that went wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Well, we know something went wrong. The baby`s gone! She`s 5 years old. And the mom says she put the baby on the sofa -- why, I don`t know -- 5:30 AM. At 6:30, one hour later, the baby`s gone. The baby goes missing off its own sofa.
And now the bombshell tonight. The news is not good. This child`s favorite blanket has been found in the trash can of a neighbor at least 200 feet away, in her trash receptacle. We`ve also been told from our sources that that blanket was covered in feces.
Out to the lines. Ashley, California. Hi, Ashley. Uh-oh. Excuse me. Heather, West Virginia. Hi, Heather.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s so wonderful to finally talk to you. I admire you so much.
GRACE: Likewise. Thank you for calling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just wondering, do you know if the mother has willingly taken a polygraph yet to rule herself out completely as a suspect?
GRACE: Excellent question, Heather in West Virginia.
Marlaina Schiavo, our producer on the story, what do we know about polygraphs?
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: The police have not told us that she`s taken a polygraph. All they`ve said so far, Nancy, is that she`s been questioned -- she was questioned all day yesterday and again today.
GRACE: OK, let`s go to the expert, Marc Klaas joining us from San Francisco. He`s president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation. And as you all know -- you see the button he`s wearing on his left lapel? That`s a picture of his daughter, Polly Klaas. Polly went missing from her own home. She was kidnapped. She was assaulted and murdered. And since that time, Klaas has been nothing but a victims` rights advocate.
Now, as I recall, Marc Klaas, when Polly went missing, the first thing you did was, Please take my DNA, take my hair, take my fingerprints. I demand a polygraph. Whatever you want. Search my place. Search my car. I insist. This mother hasn`t taken a polygraph. What`s going on, Marc Klaas?
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I don`t know what`s going on. Actually, in 1993, DNA was not a big-time investigative tool yet...
GRACE: Right.
KLAAS: ... so that really never played into it. We the -- we did take the polygraph, and I think that they`ll probably give this woman a polygraph. I think they need to give this woman a polygraph because her story doesn`t add up, quite frankly, whatever that story may be. It just doesn`t make sense to me, this business of the little girl being put on the couch at 5:30, and then totally having disappeared at 6:30.
I think one commonality, though, is that there apparently is feces in the house. There are sewage problems. There`s feces on the blanket. There`s feces on the porch. There`s no way of getting around but saying this is really a crappy story, and the answer lies close to home, as I said last night.
GRACE: Well, another question I have -- there are six people in the home, are there not, Marlaina Schiavo, and nobody heard anything? Everybody, this is the mobile home, OK? It`s not that big. It`s about 12 by 40. There`s the mother, the mother`s boyfriend is slung (ph) up in there, the mother`s sister, who`s Shaniya`s aunt, there is Shaniya, her older brother, age 7, and an infant. That makes six. And in a 12 by 40 trailer, you want to tell me nobody heard anything, Marlaina Schiavo?
SCHIAVO: No one is saying they heard anything, except for that neighbor that we spoke to earlier saying that there was some sort of noise at about 3:00 AM. And now, you know, investigators are looking at this surveillance video, trying to figure out...
GRACE: Well, hold on. Let`s go to Andrea Moore -- Andrea Moore. Ms. Moore, what did you hear around 3:00 AM?
MOORE: Well, it didn`t sound like anyone was trying to literally get into my house, but I heard noise outside of the house.
GRACE: What kind of noise?
MOORE: It sounded like a struggle, but I know it wasn`t anybody per se fighting. But it just sounded like banging on my side of the house.
GRACE: Right. Right.
MOORE: So you know, I was...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They searched by plane and by helicopter and with dogs. They searched cars leaving the neighborhood. They talked with everybody in the Sleepy Hollow mobile home park. But so far, officers haven`t found 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, who lives in this home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police don`t believe Shaniya just wandered off. They say the circumstances of her disappearance are questionable. Neighbors here feel the same way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope that she`s found alive. That`s what I hope for. I don`t know what to think about this. It`s just so strange to me. You know, just from what I`ve heard and how the situation happened, it just doesn`t add up to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Straight out to Bekah in North Carolina. Hi, Bekah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Thank you for taking my call.
GRACE: Thank you for calling in, dear. What`s your question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was wondering if there are any registered sex offenders in the child`s area.
GRACE: OK, Bekah, come on. Please. No matter what zip code you stick in, there`s going to be registered sex offenders. But here`s the answer to your question. Thank you, Elizabeth -- 212 registered sex offenders in Fayetteville, North Carolina, area. You see the Davis home right there, in the blue pinpoint. So yes, they`re surrounded, Bekah in North Carolina.
Ashley, North Carolina. Hi, Ashley.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy Grace. Thanks for taking my call. And your twins are beautiful.
GRACE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is, what is the little girl doing asleep on the couch at 5:30 AM anyways?
GRACE: Well, I don`t know. I`ve been trying to figure that out. I know Lucy and John David went through a phase. They`re in the same room, so when one wakes up, the other`s up. They got up at about 5:00 o`clock every morning for -- sometimes 4:3 -- for about six months. It was hell. Hell! But we would put them back to sleep. And also, I don`t know about the safety of lying a child on a sofa unattended because you know they`re going to roll off.
Back to Gurnal Scott, WPTF radio. Gurnal, what can you tell me about that? Did the mom state why she put the baby on the sofa 5:30 AM?
SCOTT: We still don`t know why that happened, and many people have brought up that very point. First of all, a child`s not usually up at that hour in the morning of 5 years old. And they are still wondering why that child was put on the couch.
Many other things are still -- that police are trying to figure out in this case as far as, I mean, how, like you mentioned earlier, no one in that house heard anything. And we have to consider the weather, as well. It`s been raining a lot here. Any evidence that may be out there may have been washed away.
GRACE: But you know, Gurnal, cadaver dogs and bloodhounds can smell in the rain. They can even smell under water.
SCOTT: But no scent has been found as of yet, and that`s still puzzling police.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yellow police tape now surrounds the mobile home where Shaniya Davis was last seen. The girl`s mother said she put Shaniya on the couch at about 5:30 Tuesday morning. When she went to check on her daughter about an hour later, the girl was missing.
Andrea Moore, a neighbor, heard someone outside her house about two hours earlier around 3:00.
ANDREA MOORE, NEIGHBOR OF SHANIYA DAVID, POLICE FOUND BLANKET IN HER TRASH: It sounded like somebody was beating like that because.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When the banging on her wall stopped, Moore says she went to sleep. When she woke up, police were at the door.
MOORE: And they told me they were taping off my trash can because they found a blanket in it.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She thinks whoever banged on the wall put the blanket in her trash.
MOORE: Every time I think about it, it upsets me. I`m sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Because police told her the blanket belonged to the missing girl.
MOORE: Well, from what I was told that there was feces spread all other that porch and rail over at the little girl`s house. And this blanket was covered in feces.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It is unclear how the feces got on the blanket. Davis`s family has not returned to the home because it was deemed a health hazard due to extensive sewage leaks.
Moore also say police told her they`re looking at surveillance video of anyone who left the mobile home park around 3:00 that morning. Police don`t believe Shaniya just wandered off. They say the circumstances of her disappearance are questionable. Neighbors here feel the same way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Very quickly, to Gurnal Scott, WPTF Radio, why is the sewage under the house backed up? Have police looked at it?
GURNAL SCOTT, ANCHOR/REPORTER, WPTF RADIO (via phone): Police haven`t looked specifically at it. They know, as we said, that it is backed up. They are not letting the family back in the house. And.
GRACE: Well, I mean, could something be down there, causing a problem, an obstruction such as a body?
SCOTT: That is the question that many of us have been asking.
GRACE: Well, if we`re asking it, why haven`t the police asked it?
SCOTT: That`s another good question.
GRACE: All right. Let me go back to Andrea Moore, the neighbor. The child`s favorite blanket found in her trash.
Miss Moore, again, thank you for being with us. You believe that the sound you heard around 3:00, 3:30 a.m. was in connection with the blanket being left in your trash, why?
MOORE (via phone): Well, the reason I say that is because I know that the sound came from that end of my house and the way my trash can sits, it sits in a little cubby hole over there wedged in between the side of my trailer and my porch.
So if you lift the lid up, if you don`t jiggle it straight over, it gets caught on the ledge.
GRACE: Got it.
MOORE: . like a ridge on the side of my trailer. So I know that`s what I heard, hindsight being 20/20.
GRACE: Let`s unleash the lawyers. Renee Rockwell, defense attorney, Atlanta, and Joseph Lawless -- Joe Lawless, defense attorney in the Philadelphia jurisdiction, author of "Prosecutorial Misconduct."
First to you, Renee. What`s your advice to mommy?
RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, based on what the neighbor is saying, that sound being at 3:00 a.m., her story is not matching up, Nancy. So, first of all, she`s not going to take a polygraph. Secondly, she needs to quit talking.
GRACE: Well, I don`t know how much she`s been talking. OK, Joe Lawless, you`ve handled plenty of cases revolving around homicide, missing people. Weigh in. What`s your advice?
JOE LAWLESS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT": Well, if I`m representing the mother, anybody in that trailer, as their lawyer at this point, I`m advising they not talk anymore, obviously. They are the focus of this investigation. There doesn`t appear to be anyone else.
You`ve seen the size of the trailer. Six people in that trailer, if someone walked in and took the child, they`d have been heard, they`d been seen, they`d been noticed. The police are focusing on these people at this point. And my advice at this point, as their lawyer, not as a concerned citizen about this child -- but as their lawyer, I`d tell them to shut up.
GRACE: I`m sure the both of you would. Out to Andrew J. Scott, former chief of police, Boca Raton, Florida, now with Scott-Roberts Associates.
Andrew, thank you for being with us. There has been steady rain since yesterday in North Carolina, all across North Carolina, but of course, it`s not going to help anything, but bloodhounds and cadaver dogs can pick up a scent, even though it`s rained.
ANDREW J. SCOTT, FORMER CHIEF OF POLICE, BOCA RATON, FL.; V.P. OF SCOTT-ROBERTS & ASSOCIATES, LLC: That is correct. However, obviously, they`re not having that scent. There is no scent that`s been out or about from the trailer. The other issue that is so concerning with regards to any evidence that might be collected is that the rain can and will contaminate the evidence. So that is indeed a problem for the police right now.
GRACE: To Dr. Titus Duncan, specialist in his field at the Atlanta Medical Center.
Dr. Duncan, it`s wonderful to have you on with us, again. Doctor, if this child was killed in the home, what forensic evidence could be found there?
DR. TITUS DUNCAN, M.D., GENERAL SURGERY, ATLANTA MEDICAL CENTER: IF she was killed in the home, you could find things possibly of a struggle. You can find things such as a hair.
GRACE: What if it was a soft kill? Such as a suffocation or asphyxiation?
DUNCAN: Well, you could have hair follicles from the victim and hair follicles from the actual perpetrator as well. Skin as well as saliva and things of that nature. Anything that can actually give you some sort of forensic evidence that you can draw the DNA from to kind of match that with the data base that you may have.
GRACE: Right. Right. And to Dr. Caryn Stark, psychologist, joining us out of New York. You know, the lawyers are saying shut up, clam up, keep your pie hole shut to everybody in that trailer. But don`t you think, Caryn Stark, that a mother`s love for the child should trump what`s best for her?
CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, I think so, Nancy. That would make a lot of sense, but very often that`s not the case. Particularly here, where they suspect something has gone wrong, and perhaps this mother has witnessed something. You would think that she would confess or tell what happened but my guess is she did not and she would not.
GRACE: Caryn, are you ever surprised? I always was, no matter how many times it happened, I`m trying to remember one time a mother sided with the dead or molested abused child other a husband or boyfriend.
And I`m not remembering out of 10 years of felony prosecution a single time the mother sided with the child.
STARK: Well, Nancy, I think you`re right about that. And I think the reason is that they`re in the situation to begin with because they are insecure and they side with the man because they feel like they have to be with him.
GRACE: You know what, Caryn, like I care why? I don`t care why they side with a man who slung up. I don`t care. What I care about tonight is where is this child.
STARK: Yes.
GRACE: We are switching gears, take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thirty-one-year-old mother of two Jayme Sue Austin was running late for work after her water stopped working. She called her mom around 8:30 asking to use her mom`s shower just a few houses down. Jayme is never heard from again. Jayme`s car was found at her mother`s house but Jayme nowhere to be seen.
Police search by land, air and water with few leads. Tonight, law enforcement needs your help in bringing mother of two, Jayme Sue Austin, home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You know what? We have reporters there on the screen. Everyone covering the story of this gorgeous young girl, missing. But I want to go to straight to her mother. Cindy Gisholt is with us tonight, the mother of Jayme Sue Austin. Miss Gisholt, joining us from Oregon, Coquille, Oregon.
Miss Gisholt, thank you for being with us. Jayme called you that morning, said her water wasn`t working. She never missed work. And she wanted to come to your place just a few houses down to take a bath, take a shower. All right?
CINDY GISHOLT, MOTHER OF MISSING WOMAN, JAYME SUE AUSTIN: Yes, that`s right.
GRACE: And the next thing you know, her job calls you at noon-ish to say where`s Jayme?
GISHOLT: Yes, I do.
GRACE: What do you do? OK, I`ve led you that far, what do you do then?
GISHOLT: I called her best friend to ask her if she had heard from her and she said that she hasn`t heard from her yet or that day. And -- then I just started calling, you know, a few people to see if they heard from her or anything.
I then thought probably she -- there`s a gravel road that heads (INAUDIBLE) from our house. And she drives that road quite often and you know she drives pretty fast so I thought possibly she`s just been in a car accident.
So I left -- I left work and picked up one of my friends in Sumner, which is a little town between us. And -- so she was going to help me ride the road and look for her, look for her car.
In the meantime, I called another friend that lives in Fairview and had him head down to meet us on the other end. And he called me back just a few minutes later and said her car was in my drive way. So I asked him to come in the house and look around to see if she had possibly fallen in the shower or something, you know? And he said that she wasn`t here.
And I was about five minutes away so I came straight to my house and to start looking around for her. And that`s when everything started.
GRACE: Started what?
GISHOLT: Well, I mean, you know, looking for her. I went to her house to see, you know, if possibly she was at her house and had, you know, fallen and hurt herself or something and...
GRACE: Miss Gisholt, could you tell if she had taken a shower like she asked?
GISHOLT: There -- someone had taken a shower. The carpet was wet, clear out to my counter, you know, the counter on the other side of the room. It was quite wet, yes. Someone had been in my bathroom.
GRACE: Everybody -- hold on, Miss Gisholt. I want to get this tip line out. 541-396-3121, extension 371. Please, look at this girl, Jayme Sue Austin. Goes to her mom`s to take a shower, never makes it to work. She was there all right and there are signs of a struggle. Where is this beautiful girl?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The search continues for 31-year-old Jayme Austin missing since Monday. The Coos County search and rescue team, police officers, family and friends has searched along forest and logging roads in the area of Austin`s Fairview home. And they`ve also searched the land near her mother`s home. But still no sign of Austin. Austin had gone to her mother`s home to take a shower but never arrived at work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I want to go back to Jayme Sue Austin`s mother joining us exclusively tonight. Cindy Gisholt is joining us from Coquille, Oregon.
Miss Gisholt.
GISHOLT: Yes?
GRACE: Was there anything out of place in that bathroom? Was everything in place in your home?
GISHOLT: Everything was in place in my home, but not in the bathroom. And -- you know, the sheriff`s office has asked me not to disclose any of the information.
GRACE: OK.
GISHOLT: . about it.
GRACE: OK, I understand.
GISHOLT: But because of what the bathroom looked like, they`ve listed it as suspicious, you know, as a crime.
GRACE: Now I know she had a long-term boyfriend and that`s the first place police are going to look. But it`s my understanding, he`s deployed right now. He`s over at the Bering Strait right now. So it`s not him.
GISHOLT: No. He`s in the Bering Sea. He`s a commercial fisherman.
GRACE: OK. Thank you for clearing that up. So he`s not a possibility?
GISHOLT: And I did -- you know, I don`t believe so. I confirmed with his employer this morning that he was on the fishing boat. He has been since he left. So.
GRACE: And Miss Gisholt, is it true that she had some cook calling her a few weeks ago, calling her on her cell, would continue to call her over and over? Did she ever identify who that man was?
GISHOLT: No, never did, and it`s actually been a couple of months ago.
GRACE: Months.
GISHOLT: You know she kind of jokingly just called it her stalker. And you know, he got into her cell phone messages, her home phone messages, her MySpace messages. And she changed her phone numbers, she changed her password. He got into them, again. And then, she changed them several times. And.
GRACE: Well, this is someone that obviously knows her well enough to figure out her pass codes. And she had no idea who that was.
Everybody, take a look. Jayme Sue Austin, 31. She`s just got a smile that lights up a room. A gorgeous young satellite TV salesperson. She goes to her mom`s house, her water is on the blink. Takes a show. She never misses work. She never makes it to work. Evidence in that home suggest to police there was a struggle.
Out to the lines, Mary, South Carolina. Hi, Mary.
MARY, CALLER FROM SOUTH CAROLINA: Hi, Nancy, how are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
MARY: Well, you mentioned about the boyfriend overseas. And now I`m curious. She`s a young mother of two.
GRACE: Right.
MARY: So where is the father of the children?
GRACE: To Lori Tobias with the "Oregonian", where is the father of the two children, Lori?
LORI TOBIAS, STAFF WRITER, THE OREGONIAN, COVERING STORY: The father -- one of the children is in Coos Bay. He has custody of the 12-year-old.
GRACE: Right.
TOBIAS: The 4-year-old is with Cindy.
GRACE: And where is the 4-year-old tonight, Miss Gisholt?
GISHOLT: She is with me. She lives with me.
GRACE: Right. I thought that she was living with you. Lori Tobias, with "The Oregonian," what more can you tell me?
TOBIAS: Well, what has struck me about this as Mr. Frazier tells me I`m wrong, and I suspect I am. But a week ago, I was in Coquille to write about a 10-year-old unsolved cold case. The murder of Leah Freeman. I drover Fairview Road because that leads to the road where Leah Freeman was found.
Well, yesterday, suddenly there was another person missing in Coquille, which is this itty bitty place in the middle of nowhere, everyone knows each other. It`s as rural as can be. And I just had 30 inches of the front page of "The Oregonian" less than a week ago. I had to say all kinds of lights went off in my head.
GRACE: Well, we`re showing a shot -- let`s see that again, Elizabeth -- of Leah Freeman. She was the 15-year-old girl that vanished in June, 2000. Lori Tobias of "The Oregonian," doing an in-depth study on that disappearance.
Clark Goldband, anything else?
CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: What`s really confounding about this case is there are no signs of forced entry in the home. Law enforcement is.
GRACE: Well, wait, I don`t find that unusual, Clark, because she goes in, for all I know, to take a shower. The car keys are found in the car -- on the floor of the car. Somebody could have come in right behind her.
GOLDBAND: Point well taken. Law enforcement says the cell phone was found in the home but won`t comment on where the purse is or if it was in the home.
GRACE: Got it. Good point, Clark Goldband.
Everybody, I`ve got another story I`ve got to tell you about to get your help. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Arkansas police are desperate to find a missing mother and daughter whose family fears the worse. Police say 81- year-old Louise Bishop and her daughter, 40-year-old Christina Bishop, were last seen leaving a wholesale club in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Louise`s nephew says he last spoke to the pair that night, but hadn`t heard from them since. Days later, the nephew went to their home only to find the front door open, the alarm system off, groceries and medications on the counter, and no signs of either Louise or Christina. Authorities found their car a month later about 20 miles north in the parking lot of a Missouri strip club.
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GRACE: Straight out to Matt Zarrell, our producer on this story. Mother and daughter missing. Grocery bags from Sam`s on the counter. Dog there in the family den. What happened?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: Well, apparently, the nephew became concerned after a couple of days after not hearing from them. He went to the house. No sign of them. The front door is open. The groceries they bought are on the counter. The dog, the Pomeranian family dog is quivering in the corner, Nancy.
GRACE: Renee Rockwell, Joe Lawless. Joe Lawless of the Philadelphia jurisdiction, what about the fact that their Toyota was found abandoned in a local strip club? Don`t even start, Joe, to tell me that these two went to a strip club. Just don`t. All right?
LAWLESS: Nancy, even.
GRACE: Come up with something other than that.
LAWLESS: Even I can`t give you that. What that suggest to me is that someone who may have been involved in their disappearance stole the truck and dumped it when he was finished with it. That`s all I can come up with. This one is baffling. This doesn`t seem to have any rhyme or reason to it.
GRACE: Renee, it says to me somebody followed them home from Sam`s warehouse, Sam`s Club.
ROCKWELL: An excellent hunting ground, Nancy. How many times have you seen serial killers that have followed people home, they`ve watched them and people are vulnerable when they`re putting groceries in the house.
They`re in and out of the car. The door is open, they`re not paying attention. Another thing that Joe was talking about. This truck being dumped. On the back of the truck was scribbled "free car, please just tow." Nancy, that too is interesting to me.
GRACE: We`ll be back with Renee Rockwell, Atlanta, Joe Lawless, veteran trial lawyer, renowned out of the Philadelphia jurisdiction.
Very quickly to tonight`s "Salute to the Troops.` Nebraska friend Wendy Lundeen, saluting her 85-year-old father, Wendell Fetters, a POW during WWII, also a Korean War vet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WENDY LUNDEEN, FATHER OF POW AND KOREAN WAR VET: We want to leave a message for our dad thanking him for being so brave in World War II when he was captured at age 20. And we want to thank him for his contribution to all the freedoms we enjoy in this great country and we just want to tell him we are so proud of him and that we love him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: "Salute to Troops," brought to you by.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Surveillance cameras from the Sam`s Club in Bentonville, Arkansas, captures Louise Bishop and her daughter, Christina, finishing their shopping and leaving the store. Police say the pair have been missing ever since and they suspect foul play.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Caryn Stark, psychologist. Caryn, they`re right. Something Renee and Joe Lawless mentioned. When you`re getting your groceries out of your car and you`re trying to get them in, you`re not paying attention to what`s going on behind you.
STARK: Excellent point, Nancy. And they both -- if you look at them, they look like they might have become vulnerable because they`re helping each other along and perhaps they were distracted there. They`re not young women.
GRACE: No, they`re not. Mom 81 years old. Kathee Baird with the "Ozark Sentinel."
Kathee, what more can you tell me?
KATHEE BAIRD, CRIME REPORTER, OZARK SENTINEL: Well, I can tell you that Christina Bishop was heard from to her cousin about 8:30 that night so they didn`t immediately go missing from their shopping trip.
GRACE: What did she have to say to the cousin?
BAIRD: Her mother had a doctor`s appointment the next day and that she would be in touch with him that afternoon. They never heard from again. She was getting fuel that night.
GRACE: But the thing is, they were at Sam`s Club at 5:36.
BAIRD: Right.
GRACE: So say they get everything out to the car and leave, get out of there at 6:00. If they stop for gas or did any other errands, 8:00 is not that farfetched for them to just be getting home.
Marc Klaas, weigh in.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I agree with everything that has been said about the parking lot at Sam`s Club. I think people have to take parking lot security much more carefully than they do.
GRACE: Right.
KLAAS: Single women should be escorted to their cars. They should park under lights at night and they should be certainly aware of their surroundings when they`re in these lots.
GRACE: Everyone, there`s a $25,000 reward, tip line, 479-271-3170.
Tonight we honor our vets. Let`s stop and remember Marine Lance Corporate David Baker, 22, Ohio. Awarded the National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, loved time with family cabin -- with family at the cabin with his brother.
Dreamed of college and being a cop. Favorite song, "Chicken Fried" by Zack Brown Band. Leaves behind parents Mark and Lori, brother, Mark, Jr., twin sisters, Taylor and Lauren and his dog, Tootsie.
David Baker, American hero.
On this Veterans Day, to all of our country`s veterans, God bless you and God bless our troops at home and abroad.
Thank you to our guests, but especially to you. And a special good night from friend of the show, Kay Hilliard. Her daughter, Brooke, celebrating her 37th birthday today.
Happy birthday, Brooke.
Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern, and until then, good night, friend.
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