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Nancy Grace
Search Intensifies for Missing California Nursing Student
Aired April 29, 2010 - 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, California. A beautiful girl described by everyone as timid, shy, a homebody, just graduates nursing school, then goes missing from the local Barnes & Noble book store. Tonight, why did cops get DNA from the parents?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Phuong Le`s mother pleads for her daughter to come home. She believes the 24-year-old who just passed her state nursing boards two weeks ago must have been kidnapped.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-four-year-old nursing student Phuong Le left home about 4:00 o`clock on Sunday. Hours and hours and hours had passed. Her family became concerned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Phuong left home headed for the Barnes & Noble in Fairfield. It was her favorite spot when she was in nursing school. A witness saw her there around 8:30 PM. She never returned home that night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Phuong Le`s own brother found her (SIC) sister`s car in the parking lot. Her cell phone and backpack were found in the trunk. No sign of the sister.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s never been out overnight before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huong Le says he called the Suisun City Police Department, who responded to the Fairfield book store. They didn`t immediately impound the car or take a missing persons report. They didn`t even turn over the case to the Fairfield Police Department for nearly 48 hours.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We feel that the system might have failed us in this case, or failed Phuong in this case because there was -- just because of the time delay. We don`t know what happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, live, Jacksonville. He shows up to church, like he does every Sunday, getting there early to play drums in the choir. But what the congregation doesn`t know is he just decapitated his mother, put the head in a bag and still made it to the early service.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Florida police have arrested a Jacksonville man accused of beheading his own mother...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jamar Henry (ph) severed his mother`s head from her body, according to police.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... headless body found inside her own home...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... beheaded by her own son, according to deputies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... then going to church hours later with blood literally still on his hands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Henry severed his mother, Jennifer Lane`s (ph), head from her body with a steak knife, and then disposed of his mother`s head in a plastic bag across the street from her house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to authorities, Henry arrived with blood on and under his fingernails.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those who know Henry say they have no idea why he would decapitate his mother`s head with a steak knife.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. A beautiful girl described as timid, shy, a real homebody, just graduates nursing school, then goes missing from the local Barnes & Noble`s book store. Tonight, why did cops get the DNA from her parents?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s just really odd. This is just really odd. This is not right. Something`s wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On Sunday, Le`s brother says, his sister left the house about 4:00 in the afternoon. Her brother says he didn`t worry until several hours passed and she didn`t come home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of the time, when she took off, she would usually go to Barnes & Noble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Monday morning at 4:00 AM, her brother says, he found her car in the parking lot with the windows down, and her purse, cell phone and wallet in the trunk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fairfield police say they are prepared for the worst case scenario, that this would be a stranger abduction. So they have dedicated significant resources to this case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have only one witness at this time that has put her at Barnes & Noble, said that they saw her studying over at Barnes & Noble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While on Tuesday, the Suisun City Police Department, which is where Phuong Le lives, got together with the Fairfield Police Department, where this book store is located, and they are collaborating with this case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At her home, police went through her room, taking credit cards, a digital camera, a passport and even her Social Security card, meaning if this young woman wanted to run away, why would she leave everything behind?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Straight out to Henry K. Lee, reporter with "San Francisco Chronicle," author of "Presumed Dead: A True Life Murder Mystery." Henry, what`s the latest? I know police in the last hours have had a press conference.
HENRY K. LEE, "SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE": That`s right, Nancy. I was at that news conference in Fairfield, east of San Francisco. No signs of Phuong Le still at this time, no signs of foul play. All they know is that she`s been missing. And they have taken DNA samples from her parents in the event of a development. What we do know is that they have no idea who might want to harm her. So it is a completely open case, Nancy.
GRACE: OK, let`s go back over the facts. Now, Henry Lee, you`re telling me they got DNA from the parents not because they suspect the parents of any wrongdoing, but because if they find suspicious DNA, they want to be able to compare it back to the parents, to try to match it to Le?
LEE: That`s right. This is a standard investigation technique...
GRACE: OK, wait a minute. Hold on. Why didn`t they get her DNA from the home, toothbrush, razor, a million ways -- a soda can she left in the refrigerator -- there`s a million ways to get her actual DNA. Did they do that?
LEE: I`m pretty sure they did, Nancy, but they`re not telling us. That is all standard for police to do, to take DNA samples from close family members, and we`ll see where that leads us.
GRACE: OK, Henry K. Lee, joining us live from San Francisco, I want to talk about when and how she disappeared. Go back through it with me.
Everybody, the tip line, 707-428-7345. This young girl just graduates nursing. She`s absolutely gorgeous. She spends a lot of time studying for her nursing boards there at the local Barnes & Noble`s. Now, how many times -- let`s see the outside of that, Rosie, in full, please. How many times do you go there and there`s, you know, 50, 100 people milling around. They`re eating pastries. They`re drinking that specialty coffee. They`re reading. They`re not buying anything, I`m sure, but they`re all congregating there. You`d think the group at Barnes & Noble is not the group you got to be afraid of, OK? Am I right about that?
Henry Lee, she goes to Barnes & Noble`s. Did she buy anything? Do we have a receipt?
LEE: They are not telling us what they found. And unbelievably, Nancy, they could not find her on surveillance tape inside the cafe, the Starbucks cafe...
GRACE: OK...
LEE: ... inside Barnes & Noble.
GRACE: ... Stacey Newman, our producer on the story, if police are not telling us whether there`s a receipt, then there`s not a receipt, all right? Because that`s one of the first things they put out there to try to establish a timeline. We can place her here by her receipt at 8:30 PM. Yes, no.
STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: True, Nancy. But remember, cops are keeping a lot of things close to the vest, as they normally do in investigations. As a matter of fact, in that news conference, they did say they were doing a lot of things behind the scenes that family did not know about. So there could actually be a fact that there is a receipt...
GRACE: OK, Stacey -- Stacey...
NEWMAN: ... and they`re just not letting us know that.
GRACE: I had somebody talking in my ear. Repeat. I missed you on the last two sentences.
NEWMAN: No, what I was saying is, normally, in investigation, cops do keep things close to the vest. Now, in that presser today, they did say that they were working a lot of things behind the scenes the family did not even know about. So there actually could be a receipt, Nancy, and they`re just not telling us that right now.
GRACE: Back to Henry K. Lee. We`re talking your calls. Henry -- let`s go out to Kim in North Carolina. Hi, Kim.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m great. How are you? And what`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I first had a comment to let you know that I`m 41 years young and I have a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old!
GRACE: Well honey, I got 10 years on you and one twin. But let me ask you something. You`ve got two. Do they stay in the same room?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, they do not.
GRACE: Mine are in the same room. They don`t want to be separated, but it`s causing a lot of problems at nap time. OK, Kim...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh! I can understand that!
GRACE: ... what`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You kind of answered one, and that was I wanted to know was there surveillance in Barnes & Noble. And my second question was, why did they wait 48 hours to report her missing?
GRACE: Excellent question. Let`s go to her brother. Huong Le is with us. Mr. Le, thank you for being with us. Why the delay in reporting your sister missing?
HUONG LE, BROTHER (via telephone): Hi, Nancy. Yes, the delay was because one of the officers told me that my sister was over 21. She`s an adult. She`s 25. She`s an adult. So the commissioner (ph) says missing just not -- that it was not even overnight yet, so it`s not critical.
GRACE: Oh! Mr. Le, Mr. Le, that is -- that is bad. And typically, having been on the side of the state, I side with the state. But to tell him that?
Out to Tom Shamshak, former cop, private investigator, instructor, Boston University. Tom, they said, She`s over 21. She`s not missing. She could be out at a bar somewhere. What the hey?
TOM SHAMSHAK, FORMER POLICE CHIEF: Nancy, good evening. Nancy, unfortunately, that`s the refrain that a lot of families hear. There is no uniform standard similar to what happens when a child goes missing, the NCIC requirement to enter that into the system immediately. That`s a problem in this country.
GRACE: To Henry K. Lee, "San Francisco Chronicle." Henry, how much time did we lose?
LEE: Well, at this news conference that I attended today in Fairfield, Nancy, police are saying there was no time lost. There was a miscommunication, they acknowledge, but that had to do with the designation of Phuong Le as either at risk or not at risk. She is now deemed at risk. Initially she was not, part and parcel of the, You`re over 21, so you know, she may not really be missing, kind of issue.
GRACE: OK. You know what? I don`t know what you just said. Let`s just go through the timeline, Henry. When did she go to Barnes & Noble`s?
LEE: She was last seen at 8:30 PM Sunday night at the Barnes & Noble by a witness, a male witness who confirms that...
GRACE: OK...
LEE: He believes that`s Phuong Le.
GRACE: At 8:30. Was she there in the restaurant area, the coffee area? Was she reading a book? Was she buying anything?
LEE: She seemed to be at a cafe, at a table. Nothing seemed amiss, according to the witness, the police tell us.
GRACE: OK. I know that she goes there a lot at night to study. How many times in the evening, ladies, have you gone to the book store? It seems like a perfectly safe place to be. All right, she`s there at 8:30. She leaves. Tell me about where her car was discovered, Henry Lee.
LEE: Car was found -- it`s a `97 Honda Accord, white, in the parking lot of the Fairfield Mall, where Barnes & Noble is located. And of course, the brother, Huong Le, found her cell phone and backpack in the trunk of the car. So the car`s there, no signs of the sister.
GRACE: Were the windows up or down?
LEE: The back windows were halfway down. That is not unusual, Huong Le tells me, because the front windows may not have been in working order. So it may have been used for ventilation purposes, which is why the windows were halfway down.
GRACE: OK, to Pat Brown, criminal profiler. Pat, what do you think?
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, I`m concerned about two things, one that the witness actually did see her and she actually was in the book store. And why is her backpack in the trunk with the windows down? Did somebody dump the car there? Was her stuff in it? Or did she actually drive there and something happened, or she was getting into her car and something happened? Did she usually put her stuff in the trunk? That`s a good...
GRACE: Missing...
BROWN: That`s an important question.
GRACE: ... 24-year-old nursing graduate Phuong Le. She`s absolutely gorgeous -- 707-428-7345, vanishes from the local Barnes & Noble`s book store. Have you seen Le?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anytime somebody leaves their home and doesn`t contact family members, leaves their cell phone -- I have a 20-year-old daughter and I can tell you that she doesn`t leave the house without that cell phone at any given time. So it`s little things like that that, yes, make this an at-risk or suspicious type of missing person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search intensifies for a 24-year-old California woman who was last seen at a Barnes & Noble book store.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her disappearance is out of the ordinary and around suspicious circumstances.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Friends and family members handed out flyers with a picture of 24-year-old Phuong Le to everyone they could.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say Phuong Le has been missing since Sunday night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her brother says he found her car in the parking lot with the windows down and her purse, cell phone and wallet in the trunk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is just really odd. This is not right. Something`s wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She had a minor disagreement with her older sister earlier that day, but family members insist it was nothing serious for Le, who is the youngest of seven children. Her brother says he didn`t worry until several hours passed and she didn`t come home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s never been out overnight before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huong Le says he called the Suisun City Police Department, who responded to the Fairfield book store. They didn`t immediately impound the car or take a missing persons report. They didn`t even turn over the case to the Fairfield Police Department for nearly 48 hours.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We feel that the system might have failed...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... or failed Phuong in this case because there`s -- just because of the time delay. We don`t know what happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Back to Pat Brown, criminal profiler. Pat, I wouldn`t classify the Barnes & Noble`s cafe gang as the group I would be terrified of. So break it down for me. What do you think? You`re the profiler.
BROWN: Right. Well, I wouldn`t think there`s anything particularly wrong with the place, but sometimes when it empties out late at night, the parking lot...
GRACE: 8:30. 8:30.
BROWN: Well, yes, the...
GRACE: Not late.
BROWN: So they`re not actually closed then, at that point. So then there should be cars in the parking lot. But you know, there can always be that window of opportunity to abduct somebody if you`re waiting out there just to see whether somebody`s going to come out that you like. But I still want to know, is that witness absolutely sure he`s got the right person? I don`t understand that yet.
GRACE: Well, another thing, Pat Brown, is did he observe her there at 8:30, but she wasn`t leaving at 8:30.
BROWN: It`s possible.
GRACE: Back to Henry K. Lee with "The San Francisco Chronicle." What do we know about that?
LEE: Well, the police officers are telling us that`s what they have. They are going upon information and believe that this male witness is credible, that he saw Phuong Le at the book store cafe at 8:30, Nancy.
GRACE: Was she leaving at 8:0 or just sitting there?
LEE: That was not clear to us. I think it was just that she was sitting there. No -- nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.
GRACE: OK. To Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst and author of "Dealbreakers." Dr. Bethany, she has been described as a homebody, timid, never spent the night away from home, quite shy. This doesn`t jibe.
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: No, and this is why the police should have taken into account the fact that this is a girl who never spent a night away from her family.
And I disagree with you and Pat Brown about Barnes & Noble being a benign place. This is a happy hunting ground for a serial killer. What more do they have to do but order a cup of coffee, sit at a table, read a book and look around and choose somebody who fits their type, wait until that person goes to the checkout stand and offer to walk that person to their car? And what more unsuspecting victim than a beautiful young girl who`s only 5-foot-3 tall and weighs 105 pounds? I think she was very vulnerable.
GRACE: Correction. Correction. I didn`t say it was benign. I said, typically, you`re not afraid of the gang at the Barnes & Noble`s cafe. But think about it, Dr. Bethany. You wouldn`t be afraid of a child`s playground, either, behind the school...
MARSHALL: It`s true.
GRACE: ... behind the elementary school. But where do child predators go? There.
MARSHALL: You`re right.
GRACE: Some of the most seemingly innocent locales, that is where predators hang. I`m a nervous wreck every time I take the twins to the playground.
MARSHALL: You`re right because there`s total suspension of disbelief, right? You feel safe, and the playground is bright and sunny. But that is where predators go.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Sherry, Illinois. Hi, Sherry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Thank you for taking my call.
GRACE: What`s your question, dear?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got a quick comment and a question.
GRACE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to tell you your children are beautiful and your book was fantastic.
GRACE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my question is, did they speak to or interview all the employees yet?
GRACE: Good question. What about it, Stacey Newman?
NEWMAN: Cops aren`t releasing that information at this point. But it seems like with this Barnes & Noble`s angle, something interesting must be going on there because cops are keeping super-tight-lipped about what went on inside that Barnes & Noble`s.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need the community support to help us and the Le family find their daughter. The Fairfield and Suisun Police Departments are working jointly together in this investigation. A Suisun detective has been assigned to work full-time with our investigative team. We are also working with the district attorney`s office and the FBI as we attempt to uncover additional leads that will help us successfully locate the whereabouts of Ms. Le.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search intensifies for a 24-year-old California woman who was last seen at a Barnes & Noble book store. Police say Phuong Le had been missing since Sunday night, when she was spotted by a witness at around 8:30 PM inside the coffee shop of a Barnes & Noble in Fairfield, California, her car found in the parking lot of the store with the young woman`s cell phone, backpack and wallet all inside. Police are very concerned for Phuong`s safety and say her disappearance is completely out of character.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Out to Sue in Canada. Hi, Sue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a quick comment, very quick. I love your show. I don`t know how you do it with all this trauma every night because I feel depressed when I hear it myself, but you`re doing a wonderful...
GRACE: Well, let me tell you...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... job.
GRACE: ... I learned it being a crime victim. I don`t think I could absorb it all if I didn`t feel like we were helping.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know what? You are helping. And I am, as well. My daughter was picked up at age 5 years old. It`s a happy story. Everything`s fine. She`s now 36, with three children. She`s fine. And it`s a wonderful story. So I won`t detail you with that.
But what I want to know is, why was everything in her trunk? If she was in a book store, she would need her money, her card to buy the books. She would need something on her. Put it your car and lock it, yes. But in your trunk? So she had to have left that store, come out and put it in her trunk. That seems odd to me. Even if you`re driving, you need your driver`s license in your car.
GRACE: You know, I thought about that, too, Sue in Canada. And the only explanation I could come up with is that she had gone in the store, came out, put her stuff in the trunk and was getting in the front. But why would she throw her stuff in the trunk, lock it, in order to get into the front seat to drive?
Now, we do know that she left her windows down, Sue in Canada, so maybe, just maybe, she felt the only safe place to keep it was in the trunk. But that goes back to your original question. If she`s going in Barnes & Noble`s, didn`t she need her wallet, some money, her cell phone, any of that?
Rosie, do I still have Mr. Le with me? Mr. Le with us, the brother of missing Phuong Le. What did she leave at home? Did she leave anything, like a wallet, her driver`s license, anything at home, or was it all in the car?
LE: Everything was in the car except for her Social Security card and passport. Those were at home.
GRACE: OK, what exactly was left in the car?
LE: Her credit cards, her driver`s license, her books.
GRACE: What about her cell phone?
LE: Even her cell phone was also, yes.
GRACE: All locked in a backpack in the trunk, locked in the trunk.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The suspicious disappearance of Miss Le, we need the community`s support to help us and the Le family find their daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: These are pictures taken of Le back at her graduation from nursing school back in December. Friends say Le was looking for a job and was celebrating passing her boards just a couple of weeks ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She just passed the boards the first week of April. She just found out.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Fairfield police say they are prepared for the worst case scenario, that this could be a stranger abduction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the key thing is to go to all the stores in the area, get receipts of all the people who shopped around there, the nearby gas stations, and see if you can find a license plate number on the video cameras. Because if we don`t find that evidence, we`ll never find the person who I believe took her.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police will only say her disappearance is suspicious. That they consider her a woman at risk and call the circumstances out of the ordinary.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight Renee Rockwell, defense attorney out of Atlanta. Peter Odom, defense attorney, also out of Atlanta.
Out to you, Renee Rockwell, let`s talk about her computer. We know that she was very fluent, very well versed in the computer. If cops have taken that, what can they learn?
RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Whether or not she`s been engaging in any kind of conversations with someone that might have been acting bizarre towards here, maybe stalking her, maybe trying to court her affection.
Very interesting, Nancy. And I think they`re deep into that computer at this point.
GRACE: What about it, Odom?
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, I want to know where are the car keys. We haven`t seen that. And I want to know what the police have been able to find from her cell phone records. When was the last she used her cell phone.
GRACE: Good questions. What do we know, Stacey Newman?
STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, interestingly enough, I`m glad Peter brought that up because there is a report, Nancy, she made a phone call the night she went missing to a former boss and a friend at a postal express she used to work at in (INAUDIBLE) City.
He said she was upset about having to pass out flyers for her sister`s hair salon but said nothing about wanting to run away.
GRACE: OK. Put -- go back to Newman. What is the relevance?
NEWMAN: Well, the relevance just back to the cell phone records. Who did she call? Did anybody call her?
GRACE: Does she -- so she called up a friend and complained that she had to help her sister at the hair salon? Where does that get me in trying to find this girl dead or alive?
NEWMAN: Well, it`s just more for time line, Nancy. As far as I --
GRACE: Good point.
NEWMAN: -- who she contacted.
GRACE: Do we know what time that was?
NEWMAN: We don`t have a time on that right now.
GRACE: Stacey?
NEWMAN: Yes, Nancy.
GRACE: Please come to me again when you have something relevant.
Back to Henry Lee. Henry, we`ve got that. Does it help us with the time line at all?
HENRY K. LEE, REPORTER, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, AUTHOR OF "PRESUMED DEAD": Well, the brother tells me -- Huong Le tells me that, you know, Phuong Le did pass out flyers at about noon to 12:30 on Sunday. Three hours later, she left the house without telling the family where she was going. She was --
GRACE: Was that unusual? Was that unusual?
LEE: Well, yes and no. Huong Le tells me that she did go to Barnes & Noble regularly to cool off if she had a disagreement and to study.
GRACE: Cool off? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Cool off from what?
LEE: Well, in this case, that`s why what Stacey says is semi-relevant in the sense that she was upset that she had to pass out flyers. She felt that her older sister who owns the hair salon should possibly do the publicity herself.
Other than that, it may not be relevant but it does go into state of mind.
GRACE: OK, Stacey, you`ve been upgraded to semi-relevant.
Let`s go back over it. Because you know, at this point, Stacey Newman, we got nothing. So we might as well start at the beginning.
So she actually got into a tiff, an argument with the family before she went to Barnes & Noble`s?
NEWMAN: That`s what we`re told. And like we heard from Henry, she went to this Barnes & Noble to cool off. A place she normally went.
GRACE: Cool off?
NEWMAN: Cool from this argument.
GRACE: But wait. Put Newman back up. Cool off? What happened to timid, shy, homebody? Now she`s storming out of the house angry to cool off? What`s the truth?
NEWMAN: Well, I don`t think they said storm out. That`s your word, Nancy, but --
GRACE: Well, when you have to leave the house cool off.
NEWMAN: Well, instead of getting into a heated confrontation in your home, sometimes it`s better to just walk away.
GRACE: OK, let`s go back to the brother.
NEWMAN: Because she is quiet and timid.
GRACE: Huong Le is with us, the brother of the missing young nursing student. Just got out of nursing school. Was there an argument within the family before she left, Mr. Le?
HUONG LE, BROTHER OF MISSING NURSE, PHUONG LE: Yes.
GRACE: About what?
LE: It wasn`t really a big argument. It was just a little minor, minor disagreement. She called my older sister and complained and -- that they had to go out and pass out flyers and doing (INAUDIBLE). My sister (INAUDIBLE) and it just went on back and forth, back and forth for a couple of minutes.
GRACE: OK. Hold on, hold on. I can`t understand what he`s saying.
Henry, could you make that out?
LEE: Well, he`s characterizing this as a minor disagreement that may not have any bearing yet. I will go back. It does go into state of mind. The first thing cops want to know is, is she upset? Is she depressed? Is she stressed?
Huong Le has told she was not depressed but stressed out over the job search. And a little bit upset over this --
GRACE: Stressed out over the job search. OK. So the sister owned a salon and she was asked to hand out flyers?
LEE: That`s correct. And she --
GRACE: She did.
LEE: Phuong Lee did pass out flyers for about 20 minutes and everything was fine, but she has complained to people.
GRACE: OK. Edith in Massachusetts, hi, Edith.
EDITH, CALLED FROM MASSACHUSETTS: Hi, Nancy, how are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
EDITH: It`s so nice to talk to you. I`m a fan of yours from CourtTV.
GRACE: You know what, Edith?
EDITH: Yes?
GRACE: Likewise. And thank you, thank you for watching over on CourtTV.
EDITH: You`re welcome.
GRACE: That was really something covering those trials live.
What do you think about this case, Edith?
EDITH: Well, I think that -- I wonder if the information desk at the mall has a copy of the surveillance from the parking lot? I think the abductor may be approached her from behind?
GRACE: Well, if it happened in the parking lot, you may be right. And Edith, if she is timid and shy -- I mean, if somebody came up to me in a parking lot, I would be ready to rumble because, you know, I cover these cases all the time. Much less if I had the twins with me.
But if she is timid, shy, subservient in any way, she may have turned around and engaged somebody out of seemingly -- seeming friendliness, you know, thinking that was the polite thing to do.
I want to go back to Henry Lee.
Henry, let`s talk about this. You`re telling me the only video in Barnes & Noble that we know of is really directed at the employees and they don`t have Le on the video.
LEE: That`s right. They don`t have her in the video from inside and outside the store. Again, it`s possibly for internal reasons for the internal --
GRACE: OK. What about the parking lot?
LEE: Apparently there are no signs of her outside. You know, keep in mind, this might be because of the specific time of day. There might be cars blocking. We just don`t know.
GRACE: How do I know she didn`t just get fed up with her family and leave? Although frankly, Henry K. Lee, that contradicts everything we know about her.
LEE: That`s correct. And Huong Le has told she has never been missing overnight. We just don`t know where she is. And anyone with information is asked to call --
GRACE: OK.
LEE: -- the Fairfield police tip line.
GRACE: I know that, 707-428-7345.
Dr. Michael Bell, Palm Beach County chief medical examiner, Miami.
Dr. Bell, it`s now been several days. What are the statistics?
DR. MICHAEL BELL, PALM BEACH CO. CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, at this point, I would be very worried that something tragic has happened.
GRACE: I think you`re right, statistically speaking.
Out to the line, Sheeba, Illinois. Hi, Sheeba.
SHEEBA, CALLER FROM ILLINOIS: Hey, Nancy. My question is, why don`t the cops listen to the families? When they have stuff like this? And God, I wished you lived close to me because I need your advice so badly, sweetheart.
GRACE: You know what, stay on the line with the producers, I`ll get your number and we`ll call you after the show.
SHEEBA: Oh, god, thank you.
GRACE: Let`s talk -- I would be happy to.
Tom Shamshak, explain to me why when the family calls in and says she`s missing they go she`s over 21, we`re not reporting her missing?
TOM SHAMSHAK, FMR. POLICE CHIEF, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, INSTRUCTOR AT BOSTON UNIV.: Nancy, again, I`ll echo what I said earlier. There`s no uniform standard reporting mechanism when an adult goes missing in the United States of America.
It`s -- it`s an awful experience for families. That needs to be addressed through federal legislation. And I hope that at some point in the future --
GRACE: So bottom line, are you telling me it`s SOP and the cops don`t think there`s anything wrong with it?
SHAMSHAK: Absolutely. This is how they handle it.
GRACE: OK. Shirley in Ohio, hi, Shirley.
SHIRLEY, CALLER FROM OHIO: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: Hi, dear. I am great. I`ve been playing all day long with the twins. I can hardly walk. But other than that, I`m fine.
SHIRLEY: We love them, we love you, we love your husband. And thank you so much for all you do.
My question is -- I haven`t heard it yet and I don`t know if it`s been up yet. Has anyone searched the store or the surrounding area?
GRACE: You know what?
SHIRLEY: Around the store?
GRACE: A lot of people might scoff at your question, but remember the Yale professor, the student teacher? She ended up -- the research. That what she was. Anna Le was her name. And she was actually hidden in the wall.
Cart (ph), wasn`t it Yale University? Yes. Yale University.
What about it, Stacey Newman? Shirley`s idea was not farfetched.
NEWMAN: That`s a really great idea. And I`m sure cops have done that. But back to an earlier caller.
GRACE: Now why are you sure they`ve done it, Stacey? How do you know they`ve done it?
NEWMAN: Because I saw at least 25 cops, Nancy, and video outside that store.
GRACE: OK.
NEWMAN: So I know that they combed the store.
GRACE: You got me. You got me. What was your other thought, Stacey?
NEWMAN: If she was going in and out of the store, surveillance video would have caught her and I`m surprised that we haven`t heard anything about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don`t want to say it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don`t want to say it, but I think somebody --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Foul play.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Foul play. I think she may have been kidnapped. I don`t know. We just don`t want to think the worst.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think somebody --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But we just -- this is just not feeling right.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A 21-year-old Jacksonville man has been arrested for allegedly killing and decapitating his own mother.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Following the murder, police say Henry put his mother`s head in a plastic bag, walked through the neighborhood and left his mom`s remains across the street.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police were called to the local church Sunday by church members who saw Henry inside with visible injuries to his head and blood on and under his fingernails.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Authorities say 43-year-old Jennifer Lange put up a fight inside her own home but when she was killed, her son removed her head.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Jumar Henry remains in jail on no bond.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Immediately following the murder, police say Henry went to church to ask for forgiveness.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. He shows up early. Even showing up early at church to play drums in the church choir. What the congregation didn`t know is he has just decapitated his mom and put the head in a bag, and still made it to the early service.
And don`t start, Renee Rockwell and Peter Odom, with the insanity defense because he played the drums beautifully.
To Tiffany Griffith, WOKV, joining us out St. Petersburg. What happened, Tiffany?
TIFFANY GRIFFITH, REPORTER, WOKV RADIO: Well, you know, it was just a gruesome series of events and discoveries for these people who live in that Jacksonville neighborhood. It was the discovery of the body, the headless body in that Jacksonville home.
And there was a discovery of the head inside of the bag, and then the suspicious behavior of Henry when he was at church with a giant gash across his forehead and also blood underneath his fingernails.
All those calls came into police at about the same time. When they responded, they found the body inside of the house on Sunday. They went a couple of blocks away and they found this woman`s head inside of that black plastic bag.
And when he tried to be questioned by investigators and they put him downtown to the sheriff`s office, he was acting unusual then. And even got into a scuffle with police which added three charges of fighting with police officers on to his case.
And that`s in addition to the now murder charge that he is sitting in jail for right now.
GRACE: Well, Tiffany Griffith, having a scuffle with police does not mean you`re insane. People getting arrested scuffling with police happens about, I would guess, 80 percent of the time police make an arrest. Nobody wants to go to jail, bottom line.
Matt Zarrell, what more can you tell me?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: Well, the mom`s boyfriend said that she -- he last spoke to the mom at about 8:45 p.m. Saturday nigh and that Henry was in the house with the mother.
Now at 9:50, about an hour later, witnesses saw Henry with a plastic bag walking towards the grass lot where the head was eventually found. So that gives us an hour time frame where the murder occurred.
GRACE: An hour and five minutes. 8:45 to 9:50. Do we know about any disagreement the two had?
ZARRELL: No, we don`t. Apparently this was a good kid. He had played drums in the church choir. There was no sign of any motive. Police are still trying to investigate that at this point.
GRACE: OK. Unleash the lawyers. Renee Rockwell, defense attorney, Atlanta. Peter Odom, attorney, Atlanta.
What about it, Odom?
ODOM: Everything about this case says that this man was not only unbalanced but that he did not appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct. And Nancy, that`s the very definition of insanity. And you know it.
GRACE: Put Odom up.
Peter, he got ahead -- got up, got dressed.
ODOM: And just because he was able to play the drums doesn`t mean that he was not insane.
GRACE: As I was saying before so rudely interrupted.
ODOM: I apologize.
GRACE: Got up, got dressed, fixed his hair, went to church, talked to everybody, acted like nothing was wrong. Played the drums to the music, read music.
ODOM: Exactly.
GRACE: And acted like everything was fine, until they find mommy`s head in a plastic bag.
ODOM: Exactly. Exactly.
GRACE: Renee, just because you do something that`s pure evil, that does not mean you`re insane.
ROCKWELL: No, but --
GRACE: It could me he hates his mother.
ROCKWELL: When you do something that`s purely crazy -- if he would have tried to hide the entire body --
GRACE: Whoa, whoa. Wait, wait. Put Rockwell back up.
ROCKWELL: Hold on, Nancy. Wait a minute.
GRACE: No. No, I`m not holding on.
ROCKWELL: OK.
GRACE: One of the first cases that you and I had in the same courtroom -- you were on it -- was a murder of a young mother over a $10 drug debt. Now I thought that was crazy. To shoot somebody over a hit of crack. Now that person was not insane.
Now what`s any different here? Long simmering hatred against your mother finally erupts? That`s just pure-out mean.
ROCKWELL: The fact that he`s taking his mother`s head, putting it in a bag, going across the street and just putting it in the backyard -- remember, he comes back through the house without the bag, then he goes to church, Nancy, and he`s sitting there like everything is fine --
GRACE: Like he knew enough --
ROCKWELL: Wait a minute.
GRACE: -- to hide the evidence. Well, if you could just make your point, I would appreciate it.
ROCKWELL: Hide the evidence? He hit the head.
GRACE: Yes, I know.
ROCKWELL: He didn`t hide the body. So anyway --
GRACE: He hid the head.
ROCKWELL: He went to church with a big gash in his head --
GRACE: OK, hold on, hold on.
ROCKWELL: -- acting like --
GRACE: Matt Zarrell, isn`t it true that he had his wits about him to lie about it?
ZARRELL: Yes, you`re right, Nancy. About midnight Saturday night, he goes home to his house where he and his father live. His father asked him about the visible bruise on his head -- you can see in the mug shot -- and he says he was beaten by three men and has no other explanation for it.
GRACE: So he had the wherewithal to lie about bruises and injuries.
Everyone, we are taking your calls live. But as we go to break, a special thank you to our Facebook crime fighters. Illinois friend Karen and her pug Yoda. They watch every night. Texas friend Kimberly, mother of 3- and 5-year-old boys. Man, I respect you. North Carolina friend, grandmother, Linda, and California friend, Aura.
Facebook friends, thank you so much.
Submit your photo at CNN.com/Nancygrace and click on Facebook.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My family and I and his other half of his family, we`re all here to support him, to let him know that no matter what, we still love you. My mother is gone. But she is not forgotten.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: He cut his mom`s head off. And -- you know what? I`m not even going to go there.
Out to the lines, Carla in Michigan. Hi, Carla.
CARLA, CALLER IN MICHIGAN: Hi, Nancy, how are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear, what`s your question?
CARLA: First of all, I want to say my mother-in-law and I, Brenda Surveli (ph), love your show and we watch you show every night. And we want to wish her a speedy recovery and tell her we love her.
GRACE: What`s her name?
CARLA: Her name`s Brenda Surveli.
GRACE: Brenda, please get well. I know how that is. My father just got out of the hospital. What`s your question, love?
CARLA: We were just wondering, does he have any sort of criminal background?
GRACE: Yes, you know what? That`s a good question.
Tiffany Griffith, does he have a criminal or a mental illness background that we know of?
GRIFFITH: Here`s some things I can tell you from the short-term and the long-term. Investigators tell me that even within his family that they are, you know, not unfamiliar with the Jacksonville Sheriff`s Office.
And even in the weeks leading up to this homicide, this murder case, family members tell me that he was acting very unusual. Don`t know what the nature of that is and what may be would have transpired to this murder. But investigators do say that there is a history.
GRACE: Hey, you know what? Bethany Marshall -- Dr. Bethany, you`ve got to give me a lot more than unusual to insanity.
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": Well, we learned from Andrea Yates, remember, that she was delusional and psychotic when she killed her children, but she waited until her husband left the house which showed consciousness of guilt.
You can be crazy and want to kill somebody. But with this guy, I`d really screen to see if there`s something organic going on. Like if there`s a brain tumor. I would want to know if there`s a formal thought --
GRACE: Dr. Bethany. Dr. Bethany.
MARSHALL: Yes?
GRACE: He clearly waited for her to get off the phone with her boyfriend.
MARSHALL: Yes.
GRACE: She was on the phone at 8:45. He waited for that. Nothing was amiss with the mom, his mother, on the telephone. He then hid the head, put it in a bag, got rid of it, lied about it, and went to church as if nothing was wrong.
MARSHALL: But Nancy --
GRACE: What do you mean organic?
MARSHALL: Well -- but organic meaning there`s something growing in the brain. Nancy, you can have a lot of things --
GRACE: Yes. Evil.
MARSHALL: -- going on --
GRACE: Evil.
MARSHALL: Yes. Well, that too. But you can have so much going on with the perpetrator. You -- they can be delusional, they can be psychotic. Maybe there`s a history of drug abuse and he also hated his mother and maybe there was something organic.
GRACE: All I can say is --
MARSHALL: All of it is going on at once.
GRACE: Florida death penalty.
Let`s stop and remember Army Corporal Joshua Harmon, 20, Mentor, Ohio, killed Iraq. Awarded the Bronze Star, Army Commendation medal, National Defense Service medal. A combat medic, nickname Doc.
Took pride in taking care of troops, loved sports, rollerblading, guitar, drums, restoring cars, dreamed of med school. Leaves behind parents Donna and Richard, brother Jason, grandmother Mildred, widow Kirsten.
Joshua Harmon, American hero.
Thanks to our guests but especially to you. And a special good night from Texas friend, Tony. Now there`s a fine-looking fellow.
Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
END
