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Nancy Grace

Missing Fayetteville 5-Year-Old`s Body Found

Aired November 16, 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. How does a 5-year-old girl go missing from her own sofa? The child wearing nothing but a T-shirt and underwear. Shaniya`s favorite blanket found discarded, covered in feces, in the neighbor`s trash.

Bombshell tonight. In the last hours, the search for baby Shaniya comes to an end. After grainy surveillance video surfaces of Shaniya in the arms of a man at a hotel 40 miles away, police find little Shaniya`s body hidden in dense woods. The man in that surveillance video, 29-year- old Mario McNeill, confesses to kidnapping Shaniya but then clams up.

In a heart-wrenching and disgusting twist, Shaniya`s own mother is now charged with selling her 5-year-old girl into prostitution. There are really no words to describe this mother. I hate to even give the word "mother" to her. And her cohorts, animalistic behavior. Tonight, Shaniya`s sister with us live, taking your calls at this hour, as that tiny body is being processed in a morgue. We want justice for Shaniya!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her body was located, a small child, a little while ago off of Walker Road, about 100 feet off of the road. At this time, a positive identification will be made by family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Breaking news right now coming to us from Fayetteville, North Carolina. CNN has confirmed investigators have found Shaniya Davis`s body.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were acting on information that we received, reliable information we felt at that time. That`s what led us out to Walker Road.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police have charged Shaniya`s 25-year-old mother with human trafficking and felony child abuse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you Antoinette Davis? Ma`am, the state of North Carolina alleges that on or about the date of November 10, 2009, that you did engage in human trafficking with a child as the victim, knowingly provide Shanika (SIC) Davis with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude. Do you understand that charge?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: At one point in court, she put her hands up over her face, hiding her face. And she should.

Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. There`s no easy way to report this. After surveillance video emerges showing little Shaniya at a local hotel, hope was alive. That hope is gone tonight. Little Shaniya is dead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police have found the body of missing 5-year-old girl Shaniya Davis. The body was found near a North Carolina highway south of Sanford.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are currently waiting for the FBI to come out to the scene to help exhume the body for evidence and other information. We can only say that we did discover one off of Walker Road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re also charged with felony child abuse. Do you understand that? Human trafficking, ma`am, is a class C felony. It is punishable by 261 months in prison. Do you understand that? The other charge of felony child abuse for prostitution is a class E felony. That is 98 months in prison. Do you understand that? Knowing these charges, what are you going to do about an attorney?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Straight out to Gurnal Scott with WPTF radio. Gurnal, this is certainly not the ending you and I expected, especially after that grainy surveillance video emerged showing her, albeit in the arms of the man now who allegedly kidnapped her, going into a hotel room. We knew that wouldn`t have a good ending. But to discover her body has been hidden, hidden not far from that hotel -- I mean, the time period, we thought that we could find her alive.

GURNAL SCOTT, WPTF RADIO: That`s true, seven miles south of that hotel that she was last seen in. That -- those surveillance videos you that said that we all saw gave us all hope. But now everybody has left, us covering the story, many people who have been close to it, wondering how could this have happened.

GRACE: How could it have happened? Gurnal -- wait! Put him up on the screen! How did it happen? Well, according to the police, her father normally took care of her, her biological father, but he had to go traveling for work and he left her. He thought the mother finally wanted to be a mother instead of the animal that she has apparently proven herself to be, according to police. So he goes out on a limb and he lets the mother take care of the little girl while he`s out of town. He`s gone practically no time, and she`s dead!

That`s what happened, Gurnal Scott, according to police! This mother -- who, PS, is pregnant -- here she is in court a couple of hours ago -- allegedly sold her child into prostitution, her 5-year-old girl! And we have video of the man taking the 5-year-old girl into a hotel room. Play it, Liz!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you Antoinette Davis? Miss Davis, the state of North Carolina has charged you with two felonies. This is your first appearance. And also two misdemeanors. Do you understand why you`re here today, your first appearance, ma`am? Ma`am, the state of North Carolina alleges that on or about the date of November 10, 200, that you did engage in human trafficking with a child as the victim, knowingly provide Shanika Davis with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude. Do you understand that charge?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Out to Justin Moss, reporter with WNCN, was at the crime scene today. Justin, thank you for being with us. Describe the crime scene. And I assume you`re referring to the spot where the little body was uncovered.

JUSTIN MOSS, WNCN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nancy, the media actually was kept quite a bit away from the crime scene, so we didn`t actually get up to the crime scene itself.

GRACE: OK. I understand. You can tell me about the crime scene. Give it your best shot, Justin Moss.

MOSS: What I can tell you is where we were. We were in a pretty rural area. It`s near a highway, highway 87 up in Lee County. That is about 30 miles or so from where we are in Fayetteville. Now, police had been searching that area. They were combing the roads. They were combing the woods. And they tell us they found the body about 100 feet off the road into the woods. But Nancy, they are not releasing many details about the crime scene, about the body itself right now.

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Out to Carol in California. Hi, Carol.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. First of all, could I just tell you that you look absolutely beautiful this evening?

GRACE: Well, hold on before you say another word.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh!

GRACE: Mommy has been up since 5:27 this morning...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well...

GRACE: ... because Lucy has been sick. And you know what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh!

GRACE: I`m just -- when I heard about this story...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

GRACE: I`ve been thinking and praying about Shaniya all weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know, Nancy.

GRACE: And I would get up and stay up all night with them...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

GRACE: ... when I think about what has happened to this little girl, Carol.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Nancy, I had this figured out last Thursday, mostly because nothing in this case was making any sense at all and also because Shaniya was an exquisitely beautiful child. So I was wondering whether the man in the video was going to molest Shaniya or hand her off to somebody, why would he do it in a hotel, in such a public place?

GRACE: Excellent question. Out to Marlaina Schiavo, our producer on the story. What can you tell me, Marlaina?

MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, we`ve been trying to figure out exactly how and why this was all happening. But what we do know is -- the police aren`t confirming this but we know that this was the ex-boyfriend of Shaniya`s mother`s sister. We know there were drugs involved. We don`t know exactly all the details because we`re only getting it piecemeal. But we do know that -- I mean, sort of the picture is kind of worth a lot here. I mean, we know the intention and we know where he was. So we can only assume of what he was about to do.

GRACE: Back to Justin Moss, joining us from the police department. Justin, what more can you tell me about the scenario police believe happened?

Everybody, you`re seeing that video right now. There you are seeing Mario Andrette McNeill, 29 years of age, carrying 5-year-old Shaniya into a hotel room. OK, nothing good is going to come out of that.

Go ahead, Justin Moss.

MOSS: Yes, Nancy. Not releasing many details at that point, as you - - at this point. As you said, she was last seen at the hotel. They were there apparently a short time. And a few days later, McNeill turned himself in. But Shaniya hasn`t been seen since. That was the last confirmed appearance until they found the body today. Again, not confirmed to be Shaniya Davis, but police are pretty much assuming it at this point.

GRACE: OK, Justin Moss, you`ve told me now three times that police aren`t telling you much. I hear you. What can you tell me? What do you know? Do you know anything about when the body was discovered, how the body was discovered, what took police there, anything about the crime scene? What can you tell me, Justin Moss?

MOSS: Sure, Nancy. They aren`t saying exactly what led them to the crime scene. They are saying that they got information from a reliable source that led them to the area they were searching. They started searching that area yesterday. About four hours into the search today, they found the body, around 1:00 o`clock this afternoon. So immediately, they roped everything off, would not let anyone in. And a short time later, they did confirm they found a body believed to be Shaniya Davis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As far as this particular search, we were acting on information that we received, reliable information we felt at the time. That`s what led us out to Walker Road. And of course, we located something, so...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re also charged with felony child abuse. Do you understand that? Human trafficking, ma`am, is a class C felony. It is punishable by 261 months in prison. Do you understand that? The other charge of felony child abuse for prostitution is a class E felony. That is 98 months in prison. Do you understand that? You`re also charged, ma`am, with two misdemeanors, resisting a public officer and false report to a police station. Do you understand that? Both of these, ma`am, are a class 2 misdemeanor. Each of these is punishable by 60 days in jail. Do you understand that? That`s in addition to these other charges. Those are misdemeanors.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you have any hesitation at all about sending her to live with her mom, Antoinette?

BRADLEY LOCKHART, SHANIYA`S FATHER: Of course, you know, I had some reserves. However, you know, she had been trying. I know that she had been working for at least six months and she had been trying to get her life back on track. And she said she had just recently got her own place. So I was wanting to give her a chance. She had asked if she could be a mother, and I felt that she was sincere in asking and I figured to give her a chance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That is little Shaniya`s father. He was on the CBS "Early Show" this morning, heartbroken over his decision to let her biological mother take her, even if briefly.

Everyone, we are taking your calls live. And joining me right now is a special guest. This is Shaniya`s sister who`s with us tonight, Cheyenne Lockhart. She`s joining us out of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Cheyenne, thank you for being with us.

CHEYENNE LOCKHART, SHANIYA`S HALF-SISTER: Thank you.

GRACE: Miss Lockhart, when did you discover the news about Shaniya?

CHEYENNE LOCKHART: Actually, I think it was the day that she went missing, about noon. My brother called me while I was in school and told me.

GRACE: And what were you told?

CHEYENNE LOCKHART: He was just crying, saying that she was missing and stuff, and that her mother had put her on -- she went missing about 5:00 -- about 5:30 that morning, he said, and that her mom was saying she put her on the couch.

GRACE: How well did you know the mother?

CHEYENNE LOCKHART: I knew her enough, but I -- you know, I was never really friends with her. But her mother, I would never think that she would do something like that.

GRACE: Why do you say that, Cheyenne?

CHEYENNE LOCKHART: She just seemed like the sweetest woman. I mean, she didn`t come from much, and stuff, but her -- like, if you just met her, you know, she had the sweetest voice. She had the sweetest personality, and especially towards me. I would never think that she would do anything like that.

GRACE: It`s my understanding that department of family and children`s services had been to the home on many occasions and that there was a problem with drug use in the home. Were you familiar with any of that?

CHEYENNE LOCKHART: I did know about Antoinette using drugs, but I -- I knew of DSS going to her home, but I never knew that -- somebody told me that she wasn`t supposed to have her, so I didn`t know of that.

GRACE: I`m sorry. I can`t hear you. Repeat?

CHEYENNE LOCKHART: I was told that she wasn`t supposed to have Shaniya, but I did know about -- you know, I knew she did drugs and stuff.

GRACE: Do you know what drugs she was on? It`s our understanding it was cocaine.

CHEYENNE LOCKHART: Yes. I mean, I didn`t know for a fact, but I figured that. But I did know she smoked marijuana. But I`ve always thought that she did cocaine.

GRACE: Now, she`s pregnant right now. Who`s that baby`s daddy?

CHEYENNE LOCKHART: I have no idea.

GRACE: Cheyenne Lockhart, Shaniya`s sister, what can you tell me about the little girl, Shaniya?

CHEYENNE LOCKHART: She was just -- she`s so loving and caring. Like, she`s so -- she`s always happy and giggling. Like, you would -- nobody -- you would never think anybody would do that to her. She`s just the sweetest little girl.

GRACE: Everyone, we are taking your calls live, along with Shaniya Davis`s half-sister, Cheyenne Lockhart. Out to the lines. Patricia in Maryland. Hi, Patricia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I just want to hope Lucy gets better, and I pray for her.

GRACE: Thank you. Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my question is, straight off the bat, this mother, she`s evidently had problems with child protective services before. Now, does she have any kind of sexual abuse in her record?

GRACE: I`ve already checked into her record as best that we can, Patricia. She does not have a criminal conviction on her record, but we know child services has been called to that home on many occasions. And what I don`t understand is why she had children in the home at all. We know Shaniya and her 7-year-old brother often in the home. And there`s another infant at stake. Now she`s pregnant again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`ll continue to build a case, to try to tie up loose ends, to put information together as far as charging somebody, again, if that -- if that does turn out to be Shaniya.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma`am, it`s very important that you understand that you have a constitutional right to remain silent, that you should not speak about the facts of this case with anyone, unless it is to an attorney who is properly representing you. Do you understand that? If you talk to anyone else, ma`am, it can act as a waiver of your constitutional right to remain silent and it can be used against you in a court of law. It`s very important you that speak only with your attorney. Do you understand that?

BRADLEY LOCKHART: I`ve been feeling hopeful every day that someone out there would do the right thing and take my daughter somewhere, to a hospital, police station, just anywhere safe, drop her off at Wal-Mart, anywhere, I don`t care, you know, just that somebody can find her and bring her back to the people that love her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That was Shaniya`s father on CBS "Early Show" this morning.

We are taking your calls live. There is no easy way to report the latest on this case. When we saw video of little Shaniya being carried into a hotel room -- Liz, let`s show that video, please -- there was hope that although the child had been abducted, that she was still alive. Here`s the video I`m telling you about. That is 29-year-old Mario Andrette McNeill -- he`s got a $100,000 bond tonight -- carrying little kidnapped Shaniya into a hotel room.

Gurnal Scott, how long did he stay in that hotel room that we know of? The video surveillance should reveal it.

SCOTT: Yes. From what we know, that Mario McNeill and Shaniya Davis only stayed in the hotel for about an hour. As soon as police found out that that video existed, they made a race to that hotel, didn`t get there in time to catch the two of them there, but it`s still not known if they searched whatever room they were in. But they were only in that hotel for a very, very short time, just an hour.

GRACE: So he leaves with the little girl after an hour.

SCOTT: Yes.

GRACE: All right. Gurnal Scott joining us from WPTF radio. Gurnal, we assume that he was in a vehicle, correct?

SCOTT: Assuming -- and taking into account the time it took to get from the mobile home park in Fayetteville to Sanford, they would only have to travel by vehicle (INAUDIBLE)

GRACE: And tonight, Gurnal Scott, he is admitting -- I guess he has to, we can see him -- to kidnapping the child. But then he clams up and won`t say anything about her murder, correct?

SCOTT: They`re calling him extremely uncooperative in this case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Breaking news in the frantic search for 5- year-old Shaniya Davis. Police say the body just found dumped along the highway could be Shaniya.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are currently waiting for the FBI to come out to the scene to help exhume the body for evidence and other information. So again, we do not have a positive identification on that body as of yet. We can only say that we did discover one off of Walker Road.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This body was found about seven miles away from the surveillance that we had last seen of Shaniya in the arms of a man by the name of Mario McNeill. That man has since been charged with first- degree kidnapping.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can`t get any more evil than a case like this. In fact, investigators are going to start looking into why that little girl was being brought into that hotel room in the first place.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This is her own mother appeared in court today on prostitution charges for offering up her 5-year-old for sex. Did this little girl ever have a chance?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charges that were just named, human trafficking and the promotion of prostitution, obviously all very serious charges. Obviously, this is a very disturbing crime in and of itself.

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: The weak link is obviously the mother. None of this stuff makes sense. If they`re going to break this case, she`s probably the weak link and the one that they`re going to use to break it.

BRADLEY LOCKHART, FATHER OF MISSING GIRL SHANIYA DAVIS: I just ask that they let her go and bring her home safe. We all miss her and love her very much.

Shaniya, if you`re listening to Daddy, I miss you so much, honey, and I`m waiting for you. I`m not going to give up, and you don`t give up either, honey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know Mario McNeill, the man that was seen on surveillance carrying her into a hotel room and was later arrested?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don`t.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you heard about that, when you heard that a man had been seen with her at a hotel room and then you heard that her mom had been charged with child prostitution, what goes through your mind? Can you wrap your head around that possibility?

LOCKHART: Just everything inside of you falls out and you just lose all train of thought and reaction is none. You just -- you just hope for the best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: That is Shaniya`s father, Bradley Lockhart, on CBS "Early Show."

Straight out to Marc Klaas. Everyone, we are taking your calls live. Marc Klaas is the president and founder of KlaasKids Foundation. His daughter was taken. She was molested and murdered. And that is why he is a victims` rights advocate and has been for years.

Marc Klaas, I`ve just been sick about this story, physically sick. Weigh in.

KLAAS: Well, I think we have to be clear. This woman pimped her child. That`s what she did. She sold her child into prostitution. There is no punishment great enough to meet the crimes that she has committed. Really the moral crimes that she`s committed and the legal crimes that she`s committed.

However, Shaniya is really the tip of the iceberg, Nancy. The Department of Justice estimates there are between 200,000 and 300,000 American children that are victims of human trafficking. And in each one of those cases there is a pimp that is out there exploiting those children.

Now the United States does take this issue very seriously, but relatively few resources are directed towards the domestic side of the issue. Almost all of the money that is -- and it`s a huge amount of money. Almost all of the money that the United States invests in human trafficking is invested in the global issue.

And that`s based on the theory that the United States was only a source of -- or was only a destination location for human trafficking, but it looks like we`re actually funding a lot of our own destination, we`re a source society as well.

GRACE: Of victims. We`re a source of the victims, of these child victims. And you know, to you, Eleanor Dixon. Let`s unleash lawyers. With me Eleanor Odom, Peter Odom, Anne Bremner. Eleanor and Peter out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Anne Bremner, high-profile lawyer out of Seattle.

Eleanor, here`s the kicker. People think all this money is traded for child prostitutes, for a 5-year-old girl. This mother probably sold her own girl for a hit of crack. Come on.

ELEANOR ODOM, PROSECUTOR: Exactly right, Nancy. Especially looking at somebody with a drug problem. She killed her child. She may not have dealt the final blow, but because she sold her child into prostitution she`s responsible for her murder.

GRACE: Well, obviously, Peter Odom, felony murder. You commit a felony and a death occurs during that felony, you sell your child to a pimp, your 5-year-old beautiful child, to a pimp to get raped and sodomized for money.

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Exactly.

GRACE: And the child dies, surprise, surprise. That`s murder. That`s felony murder.

P. ODOM: Felony murder.

GRACE: On that mother. That`s it. And in that jurisdiction you can get the death penalty, which in North Carolina is lethal injection, the needle, for felony murder.

P. ODOM: Nancy, if even a small part of these horrendous allegations prove true, then this mother is in terrible trouble. This is just inhuman as you can get.

GRACE: Whoa, whoa. Put him up. The mother`s in trouble? The mother`s in trouble?

P. ODOM: As well as Mr. McNeill. As well as Mr. McNeill.

GRACE: The girl is dead.

P. ODOM: Right.

GRACE: Do you think I care about the mother? Do you think I care about that woman? That I`m paying for her cot and her three hots? No, I don`t care about her being in trouble.

And to you, Anne Bremner. I assume the defense will use her pregnancy to their advantage. Right?

ANNE BREMNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No, I don`t know. I think you`re going to hear a lot of people say there`s a special place in hell for both of these people. We don`t have all of the dots -- or the connecting the dots and the evidence right now, but what you just brought up was excellent.

Felony murder. And the best defense of her right now, Nancy, is that she`s not charged with felony murder. That may happen. And of course, you know, robbery, or excuse me, rape or the kidnapping. Other enumerated felonies could lead to the death penalty in North Carolina. So the best defense for her right now is where she is based upon the charges of class C felonies and misdemeanors.

GRACE: The reason they haven`t been charged with felony murder yet, to the two defense attorneys, is because we`re waiting for the formal autopsy identification.

BREMNER: Sure.

GRACE: All right?

BREMNER: That`s -- but what I`m saying is right now they haven`t spoken of it and it will not talk a rocket scientist of a prosecutor or a quantum leap in prosecutorial discretion or.

GRACE: Look at her.

BREMNER: . to make that, Nancy. And what I`m saying is.

GRACE: Look at this woman. Dr. Ellyn Gamberg, psychotherapist, help me out. You`ve got the sister, the half-sister saying that this mother was mild-mannered, calm. And according to police, and by all outward appearances, I don`t know -- I don`t have the case file in my hand. She sold her 5-year-old to a pimp to get raped and sodomized.

Ellyn?

ELLYN GAMBERG, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Nancy, she is desperate, deranged, and an excuse right now, especially carrying another child, an example of why there should be in a case like that of mandatory sterilization. This woman should not be having a child and should not have ever had the responsibility for the child she had.

GRACE: I can hardly take it. And I want to go to a renowned guest. Dr. Joshua Perper, chief medical examiner in Broward County, author of "When to Call the Doctor."

Dr. Perper, you have performed literally thousands, thousands of autopsies. Have you performed an autopsy on a child that has been murdered and sexually molested?

DR. JOSHUA PERPER, MEDICAL EXAMINER, AUTHOR OF "WHEN TO CALL THE DOCTOR": Well, you have to make a very careful examination of the outside of the body for the presence of any injuries and make a determination what was actually the cause of death. And many times those children are sometimes smothered.

They are strangled or they may be hit and beaten. And then it`s most important to find out whether there was sexual assault. And in this particular case the body was in a swampy area. So the outside of the body might not show a great deal. But if there are bite marks, then the imprints can be matched to a suspect.

And in addition to that, samples taken from the mouth, from the anus, and from the vaginal area would be protected and they can be tested for DNA fingerprinting.

GRACE: Dr. Perper, that was my next question. There`s really no delicate way to put it. But if the outside of the body was decomposed, the canal within the vagina, the anal cavity would have been protected and hopefully DNA would have been obtained from there.

Dr. Perper, my question was have you ever performed an autopsy on a child victim like this?

PERPER: Yes, I did. And it`s very upsetting to the performer. You know, I`m used to do autopsies, but that`s one of the most difficult examination to perform by a forensic pathologist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The detectives are out there. They`re out there with our command staff. And they`re just trying to get that body exhumed so they can get a positive identification and get it to the medical examiner`s office for cause of death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The news no one wanted to hear in the search for a 5-year-old girl who`s been missing for nearly a week. They believe Shaniya`s body has been found.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can tell everybody that a body was located of a small child a little while ago off of Walker Road, about 100 feet off of the road.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police in Fayetteville, they`ve been searching all morning after getting a tip that she`d been dumped along a highway in central North Carolina.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police have charged Shaniya`s 25-year-old mother, whom you see here, with human trafficking and felony child abuse. Shaniya lived with her father until last month. He says he was hesitant to let her stay with her mother but felt she deserved an opportunity to be part of Shaniya`s life.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police in North Carolina also have filed kidnapping charges in the case against 29-year-old Mario McNeill. He was captured on surveillance camera last Tuesday, right there, carrying Shaniya into a hotel room 30 miles from her home.

Police say he admitted to taking her but his attorney says he will plead not guilty to the charge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Knowing these charges, what are you going to do about an attorney?

ANTOINETTE NICOLE DAVIS, MOTHER OF SHANIYA DAVIS: I want the court to appoint one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have your affidavit in front of me, Miss Davis. I have examined it. And I`m going to appoint you a member of the public defender staff. Do you understand what I`m doing?

DAVIS: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have a public defender helping you on any other matter, ma`am?

DAVIS: No, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ll appoint a member of the public defender staff to represent you. I`m going to continue your case until December the 3rd. Do you understand that date, ma`am?

DAVIS: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know Mario McNeill, the man that was seen on surveillance carrying her into a hotel room and was later arrested?

LOCKHART: No, I don`t.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you heard about that, when you heard that a man had been seen with her at a hotel room and then you heard that her mom had been charged with child prostitution, what goes through your mind? Can you wrap your head around that possibility?

LOCKHART: Just everything inside of you falls out. You just lose all train of thought and reaction is none. You just -- you just hope for the best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That is Shaniya`s father, Bradley Lockhart, on CBS "Early Show." The mother now behind bars, charged with pimping her child, selling her into child prostitution. You are seeing stills from a hotel video of a 29-year-old defendant, Mario Andrette McNeill, carrying the baby along the hallway at a local hotel.

Not long after that her body has been found. There`s no easy way to explain it. Right now we don`t know cause of death. We don`t know the condition of the body. But I know as I came to work today I could hardly leave the twins just to go to work.

And God willing, I`ll see them when I get home tonight. And I can`t imagine handing one of them over to someone to sell them into prostitution. I can`t even imagine it. This is the reality that the prosecutors are dealing with in this case, according to police.

To you, Eleanor Odom. I was asking Dr. Perper about this earlier. And I recall my over a decade in court prosecuting violent crimes, but when you go home at the end of the day I could never shake it.

How do you do it, Eleanor? Your specialty is crimes on women and children. When you see those crime scene photos, when you see the autopsy photos, unless you attend the autopsy yourself, as you and I have both done, and you see that the child has been mutilated and harmed the way this child obviously was, how do you get up in front of that jury and explain it to them?

E. ODOM: Nancy, I think you just have to tell them the truth. As horrible as it is, you can`t, you know, gloss over it. You have to say how it happened. And you know, you just deal with these things by going home and hugging your own child and taking care of yourself.

But all I can say is we`re doing what`s right for the victims of these awful crimes, and that`s prosecuting those defendants.

GRACE: To Brian Reich, detective Bergen County Prosecutor`s Office. Brian, thank you for being with us. Brian, obviously the way to get the real truth is to crack one defendant against the next, one suspect against the other.

You`ve got the mother and you`ve got this former boyfriend or whatever he is, Mario Andrette McNeill. There he is. There`s the mom. And also -- please, Liz, I thought you were about to put up the video of McNeill with the little girl in the hotel room. There they both are.

But if the prosecutor wants to seek the death penalty on the whole kit and caboodle, you don`t want a lighter sentence on one in exchange for testimony. So how do you crack did? It can`t be that hard.

BRIAN REICH, DETECTIVE, BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR`S OFFICE: Well, certainly she`s going to be the weak link, and the investigators are going to have to find who`s the best person to try to influence them to get them to talk? In this case it looks like it`s going to be her.

I think they`re going to be able to use some emotion. They`re going to be able to use some theme development and hopefully get her to talk. And that`s hoping that they have not invoked their Miranda rights. Because once they invoke and they say that magic word lawyer the investigators have to stop, as you know.

GRACE: Out to the lines, Mary in Wisconsin. Hi, Mary.

MARY, CALLER FROM WISCONSIN: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: What`s your question, dear?

MARY: God bless you for being the voice for all the little Shaniyas that can no longer speak for themselves. My question is does the mother have other kids at home? And if so -- she`s pregnant now. Is somebody going to take that child? I don`t think she should ever be able to have children again. And she shouldn`t even be able to have contact with children. So I was just wondering if somebody`s going to take the baby and.

GRACE: Well, Mary -- Mary, all we can really do at this point is pray. Pray. But my educated guess is that she will never see freedom again a day in her life.

I want to go out to Marlaina Schiavo. We know that DFACS, Department of Family and Children`s Services, has been at the home on many occasions. We know one child was burned badly. They claimed that was an accident. We know that drugs specifically, either crack or cocaine, was in the home. That marijuana has been in the home. Allegedly. These are reports that have been sent. There`s not been a trial on these issues.

What more do we know about other children in the home?

MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: Well, what we do know is the day that Shaniya went missing there were reports that there was a 7-year-old. What they were saying was a brother. But then we heard from sources that this was the sister`s son. So we`re not entirely sure if that was Shaniya`s brother. And we also heard reports about an infant being in the home. But again, police aren`t confirming either of those reports.

GRACE: What about her pregnancy? Is that confirmed?

SCHIAVO: That is confirmed. That was confirmed by Clarence Co, the man who was falsely arrested for Shaniya`s kidnapping.

GRACE: And typically, out to the lawyers, Eleanor Odom, Peter Odom, Anne Bremner, she would give birth in the women`s correctional facility and then child would either go to the biological father or be put in a foster home.

P. ODOM: Correct. Yes.

GRACE: What about it, Anne?

BREMNER: Absolutely. Look at Mary Kay Letourneau. I mean but of course she can`t.

GRACE: Do I have to? Do I have to look at her? She got her kids back.

BREMNER: No, I mean, look, as a figure of speech. Butt the birth in jail and off to social and health services, Nancy, absolutely.

GRACE: But she has some of her children, doesn`t she?

BREMNER: Well, she spent seven years in prison and it looks like Antoinette is going to spend a lot more time than that like you said.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miss Davis, the state of North Carolina has charged you with two felonies. This is your first appearance and also two misdemeanors. Do you understand why you`re here today, your first appearance, ma`am?

DAVIS: Yes, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Straight back out to Gurnal Scott. Wrap it up for me, Gurnal. What are the facts that we know right now that can convict this mother?

GURNAL SCOTT, ANCHOR/REPORTER, WPTF RADIO: Well, what we know is we have a body. We`re waiting for the identification from the medical examiner`s office in Chapel Hill.

If this is -- does prove to be Shaniya Davis and all the indications point toward that with the Amber Alert being canceled right after they found that body, then this mother could be put on the hook for murder as well as I would believe the -- Mr. McNeill who`s also been charged in this case.

GRACE: And another question, Gurnal Scott. How many hours or days passed from the time that we see on video this Mario Andrette McNeil taking the baby out of a hotel room to the time the body -- the tip came in about the body?

SCOTT: From what we understand, Tuesday and the video was time- stamped before the mother called police, so the video came from the hotel before 6:53 in the morning Tuesday when the call came in to police. The body was found today. So we`re looking at six days, at least, before.

GRACE: OK. A lot will depend, Gurnal, on how long Shaniya had been dead. What I`m getting at is feasibly, reasonably, practically speaking, did he really have time to pass this girl off to another perpetrator or is, the most simplest scenario, the easiest, that he is responsible for her death? We`ll find out a lot once we have the autopsy report.

Tonight our prayers go up to heaven for little Shaniya.

Let`s stop and remember Army Sergeant Michael Vaughan, 20, Odis, Oregon, killed Iraq. From a family of military vets, had a smile that lit up a room. Loved riding ATVs, camping, hiking, music, making people laugh.

A wrestling champ, dreamed of attending Virginia Tech and being a cop. Leaves behind parents, George and Debra.

Michael Vaughan, American hero.

Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us. And a special good night to the winner of our "Number One Fan" contest, Florida friend Kristin, and friend, Adam. She loves the show so much. Go ahead and show it to them, Kristin. She got a tattoo to show her devotion and a quote that says, "Hello, Friend." Other than being called mommy, that`s the greatest compliment I`ve ever had.

Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.

END