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Jane Velez-Mitchell
Have Police Dropped Ball on Case of Missing 23-Year-Old?; Casey Anthony Defense Team Argues Against 911 Tapes
Aired July 14, 2010 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, a family desperate for answers in the mysterious disappearance of their beautiful daughter. Jenna Lord vanished from a New Jersey train station coming home from a party over the Fourth of July weekend. The 23-year-old`s family says Jenna tried to contact them from a stranger`s cell phone and hasn`t been heard from since. What happened to Jenna? I`ll talk to her devastated family.
Then, head-spinning developments in the case of missing Oregon boy Kyron Horman. Was his disappearance a carefully planned plot? That`s what her distraught mom believes. She is haunted by warning signs and believes Kyron`s step-mom, Terri, plotted his disappearance. Meantime, Kyron`s dad is taking Terri to court as a new search gets underway for the missing child.
Plus, just when you thought it couldn`t get any more obscene, yet another alleged Mel Gibson audiotape takes it to a whole new level. You`ll hear the latest in a dramatic series of vicious tirades. Tonight, do these tapes reveal a star who could be a danger to himself?
ISSUES starts now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, a young mom`s mysterious disappearance leaves her family screaming out for help. Have cops completely dropped the ball in this case?
Twenty-three-year-old Jenna Lord vanished from a New Jersey train station on July 5. Her mom says Jenna`s cell phone died, so a stranger let her borrow his cell phone. And that is the last anyone saw of this young woman. It seems she has dropped off the face of the earth. Was she a victim of foul play?
Jenna vanished in the Philly suburb of Camden, New Jersey. Camden is known for having one the highest crime rates in the entire country. And yet, when we here on ISSUES tried repeatedly all day long to ask Camden police where this case stands. Nobody called us back. We tried over and over again.
Jenna`s family says police are ignoring her case. Could that be because of her troubled history?
I am honored to welcome Jenna Lord`s mom, Desiree Caruso. And also joining us, the missing woman`s boyfriend, Ed Steele, and little Ed, the adorable 3-year-old son of the missing woman, with Ed. And also, her aunt Kimmy is on the phone.
First of all, I want to say, Ed if you could just make sure he doesn`t scratch the mike there, Ed. I know you`ve got -- you`ve got a lot on your hands there. We`ve got a little toddler. OK. All right. He doesn`t have to wear the hat.
ED STEELE, JENNA`S BOYFRIEND: All right. Go ahead.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, we feel for you. We here at ISSUES feel for you. We understand you`re going through a nightmare. And you`re living a nightmare right now. Thank God you have that little -- that little tyke there to keep you smiling, because I know otherwise you`d be - - you`d be weeping.
Desiree, tell us what you know about the last time your daughter was seen.
DESIREE CARUSO, MOTHER OF JENNA LORD: The last time she was seen, me and my sister and friend, she dropped her off at Ed`s house. She called me on July 5 from a guy named Eric`s phone. And I didn`t -- I didn`t answer the phone. I didn`t get the phone call. And that`s all really know. I don`t know nothing else.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, there was a man, apparently, at the train station. Her cell phone died. This man named Eric at the train station let her use his cell phone. And that`s the phone that she used to call you early in the morning. You were asleep. You missed the call.
And then you later called this guy back, this Eric back. So what did he tell you? Apparently, he said something about your daughter was anxious and seemed confused?
CARUSO: Right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tell us about that.
CARUSO: When I called him back, he said that, you know, she looked -- she looked a little scared. And he took her -- she was at the train station. He got her a ticket. And they were waiting for the train. His train came a minute before -- a minute before her. So he got on his train. So I guess he figured that she would get on, you know, her train. But she never got home.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, Desiree, you acknowledge that your daughter, Jenna, has a history of drug use. Just last month Jenna was charged with aggravated assault, robbery, theft, reckless endangerment and making terroristic threats. She`s also faced charges of disorderly conduct, public drunkenness, harassment and drug possession.
STEELE: That was -- that was her sister.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But wait a second. But Desiree -- oh, OK. You say your daughter, Jenna, has been clean and sober for several months. Ed, you`re her boyfriend. You`re the father of her adorable child who`s running around that studio right now. Clarify all of this, because this is a breaking story. It`s just come in. We do the best we can. But tell us what you know. The last time you saw Jenna, the missing girl, your girlfriend, was she high or was she sober?
STEELE: She was sober. She called me on July 5, and she said she wanted to come home. And she went -- she got in the yellow pages and got a taxi and said she`ll call me right back when the taxi gets there. She never called back. Next thing you know, she was walking down the street up there and then she was at the train station, and that`s the last I heard of her, at the train station.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we`re going to talk to Kimmy for a second and give you a second to maybe get little Ed to quiet down a tad, because this is a very serious case, and we want to make sure that we get the information out there to the viewers.
Kimmy, are you on the phone, ma`am?
KIMMY MCARDLE, JENNA`S AUNT: I am.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. We couldn`t get a call back from Camden police. And then when we called the police in this young woman, your niece`s hometown, we were abruptly told, well, if anybody has a tip, call 911, clink.
"The Philadelphia Daily News" had the same problem. They can`t figure out who`s handling the case. Camden P.D. pointed them to the local police station where you live, or where Jenna lives. And they said they weren`t handling it either. What response have you gotten from the police?
MCARDLE: Pretty much zilch. I had asked for a press release prior to -- this was about Friday. I did it Wednesday. And there was an officer that was nice enough to say, "I`m going to give it to whoever is in charge to do this for you." I get the call back two days later and I get, "I don`t want to hear anything more about this case, because it`s not in our jurisdiction. So give me the number to the news station that you want me to fax it to, and that will be the end of it." I thanked him for his time.
He also said, "You had me come out -- come out at 8 p.m. at night from the station to do this for you and leave my family."
And I got pretty bitter. And I said, "Well, you`re going home to your family. I`m searching for mine." So, yes, I was pretty ticked off about that.
So basically, anybody out there that needs help, come to our family, because we`re the ones doing all the investigating.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me go back to Desiree Caruso, the missing woman`s mom. Do you feel that police are treating the case this way because your daughter has a history of drug use? Because if so, I`m a recovering alcoholic. OK, I`m sober 15 years, but what if this happened to me 20 years ago? I certainly don`t think that I wouldn`t count because I had that disease. What do you say, ma`am?
CARUSO: Yes, I believe that`s why they`re not investigating it, because they think she`s a junkie. I don`t care what she is. She`s still my daughter. She`s still a human being, and I want her home.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What do you think about this, Ed?
STEELE: She ain`t even on nothing. So first of all, all the stuff you just said about -- the guy said about her, the cops...
CARUSO: Bobby Adams. Chief Bobby Adams.
STEELE: Her sister got charged with all that. She didn`t get charged with none of that. She got into a fight, yes, she got in trouble. But she didn`t get charged with none of that. And she hasn`t been convicted of what she got in trouble for. I mean, it was just the fight.
CARUSO: Right.
STEELE: She hasn`t been charged with none of them things that guy said on there, all that stuff you just said, all them charges. She has not been charged with none of that. That was her sister`s charges.
CARUSO: Right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow.
STEELE: They got her confused.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m so glad that you clarified that.
CARUSO: Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is outrageous. Seriously. You guys are taxpayers, right?
CARUSO: Right. Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: The missing woman`s family was shown surveillance tape from the Camden train station where Jenna was last seen. Now, tell us what you saw, Desiree. Did Jenna ever get on that train? And what about these two mysterious men who were apparently standing near her?
CARUSO: Right. The picture that I`ve seen, it was of Jenna walking, and then you seen two African-Americans walking behind her. But they were like, I would say like 10 -- maybe five feet behind her. And it looked like they -- that they were saying stuff to her. She wasn`t talking to them. Like, it looked like she looked back when they were saying something. And then she just kept walking, and that`s the end of the tape.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to bring in -- hang in there, family. We`re trying to help out here. Mark Harold, former police officer. What do you make of this situation, Mark, and the apparent lack of responsiveness by the police?
MARK HAROLD, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: Well, it doesn`t seem like much information`s coming out, obviously, at least to the family. There may be some jurisdictional issues. I`m not exactly sure why, unless they`re saying that she got on a train and went somewhere else.
But all the factors of her past are relevant in trying to recreate patterns and understand where somebody may or may not go, what kind of people they may have contact with and that sort of thing. So it`s relevant information, what she may have been involved with in the past, but it certainly shouldn`t cause the police not to take the case as seriously. So that`s unfortunate if that`s what`s happening.
But it doesn`t sound like we have much information from law enforcement to really understand what their role is so far.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Kimmy McArdle, you`re the aunt of the missing woman. You apparently have been -- have you been to this train station? Do you know what it`s like in that area?
MCARDLE: I have not, unfortunately. I`ve been trying to all do the legwork.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me ask Desiree. Have you ever been to this train station?
CARUSO: Yes, I have.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. What`s it like there?
CARUSO: It`s disgusting. It`s disgusting. It`s bad. It`s...
MCARDLE: Corrupt.
CARUSO: It`s -- they should shut it down. They should shut Camden down. Bad.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Because...
CARUSO: It`s scary.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... it`s dangerous? We know that Camden is a very dangerous city.
CARUSO: Right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I mean, that has been established by statistics. It ranks on the top or close to the top all the time. So you`re saying that this train station in Camden is a dangerous place within a dangerous city?
CARUSO: Right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So -- but she was there at 7:20 in the morning, right, is when she called you?
CARUSO: Right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And yet you don`t think she got on the train. What evidence do you have that she did not get on the train?
CARUSO: She just -- if she got on the train, she would be home. If she -- I mean, she would be home with us if she got on the train. I don`t care what she`s doing. She would have called my mom. She would call my sister. She would call me. She would call Ed.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, the train was headed to Philadelphia, right?
CARUSO: Right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. So it`s always possible that she got on the train and something happened to her in Philadelphia.
STEELE: Yes, but I went down 15th and Market, in Philly, and handed out fliers everywhere. No one`s seen her. She never got on -- she couldn`t have got on the train. At first I thought she did, but then when they were saying these guys were following her on the tape, and this guy on the phone saying some guy came up to her, make sure she got on the train all right, something happened.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Say that again? You just said something significant. You said the guy on the phone who lent her his cell phone...
STEELE: Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... said to you what about another person?
STEELE: He said some guy came up, because he had to get on his train first. And he said that some guy came up and said he`ll make sure that she gets on the train. He`ll make sure she gets on the train all right.
MCARDLE: He said, "I got this."
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. He said, "I got this"?
CALLER: "I got this."
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, that`s -- that`s certainly a disturbing piece of information.
MCARDLE: Yes, it is.
CARUSO: Right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: "I got this." Wow. OK. Well, that`s new information. I wonder if the police know about that. Does anybody in the family know if the police know about this?
CARUSO: I don`t -- like, as far as the police, like they told me -- when I called Collingsworth, Collingsworth told me that I had to file a missing persons where I live, which is Collingdale. And so I did. And now Adams is saying that it should be Jersey`s problem, not Collingdale`s.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I have to talk to the aunt for one second. Kimmy, what are your concerns when you hear that a strange man walked up and said to the other man who had lent the phone to Jenna, "I`ve got this," referring to Jenna?
MCARDLE: It`s disturbing, because you would think somebody would say, "Oh, I overheard what you were talking about, and, you know, you`re waiting for the next train. Well, I`ll see to it that you get on the train."
You don`t go up to somebody and say, "Oh, I got this." What have you got? That`s what I want to know. It`s disturbing; it`s scary. "I got this"?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, if there is -- we`re going to take a break for a second here, but if there`s video of her on the train station, then perhaps there`s video of that individual. Perhaps we should have a photo to put up on those individuals, if police are looking for them.
But again, police aren`t calling us back. So we can`t say if those are the individuals or an individual they`re looking for. Call us back, law enforcement.
More on Jenna`s disappearance in just a bit.
Plus, expert witnesses scoured through evidence in Casey Anthony`s car today. What are her attorneys focusing on, and did they get the crucial proof they need to prove Casey`s innocence?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE ANTHONY, CASEY`S FATHER: Shut up.
CINDY ANTHONY, CASEY`S MOTHER: No, I`m not shutting up. You`re telling me I can`t pray?
G. ANTHONY: I didn`t say that.
C. ANTHONY: Yes, you did. You went...
G. ANTHONY: Shut the door, please.
C. ANTHONY: You`re telling me I shouldn`t be praying. We`re out of here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did it go in there today?
C. ANTHONY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, missing in America. What happened to 23- year-old Jenna Lord? She was last seen in a New Jersey train station on the Fourth of July holiday. Are police doing everything they can to track her down?
We`ve been calling the cops all day. They haven`t called us back. The family also says they`re getting the run-around. "The Philadelphia Daily News" also says they`re getting the run-around. Why?
Beth in New Jersey, your thought or question, ma`am?
CALLER: Hi, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi.
CALLER: My name`s Beth, and I`m calling from New Jersey. I live in Cherry Hill.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK.
CALLER: Jenna does not look familiar to me, but I do know that train station. I know all about it. It`s a drug hub. I had somebody in my family with an addiction problem, and we needed to go down there and rescue him a few times, so I know all about that. She could very easily, you know, have been taken from there.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. I have to throw this out to Dr. Dale Archer, psychiatrist. You`ve been listening to all of this. What do you make of it?
DR. DALE ARCHER, PSYCHIATRIST: Well, I think several things. First of all, the behavior of the police is just very, very concerning. And I think a mantra that I use with my psychiatry patients is that everybody counts or nobody counts. And why they`re acting the way they do, I don`t know. But they need to understand that the media can be their best friend in a case like that. That`s No. 1.
No. 2, I do know about Camden. It has a horrific crime problem. I really wonder why she would be there by herself at that train station, because it`s not safe at all.
All that being said, though, I think that the suspicion has to fall to the guy that said, "I got this." And also the guy whose cell phone she used. I don`t think he can be let off the hook either.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mark Eiglarsh, obviously the caller is saying perhaps she went there for the purposes of scoring drugs. You hear her family is saying that she was clean and sober for several months. Could that be the reason why police may be less aggressive on this, apparently, than they might be, because they`re connecting the dots? But what if, for some reason, she`s wrong -- they`re wrong and she just happened to be there and was sober?
MARK EIGLARSH, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, it shouldn`t be a reason, Jane. As Dale pointed out, everybody matters.
But there`s too little that we know about their position to draw the conclusions that we are. At a minimum, they have screwed up big-time in the P.R. department.
And it`s not necessarily to the media that I`m offended they have not necessarily opened up their arms, but it`s to the family. At a minimum step forward and say, "We`re doing everything that we can for your daughter." And that`s it. And they haven`t done it. And that`s reprehensible.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, is Kimmy back on the phone, the aunt?
MCARDLE: Yes, I`m here.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. We just heard that the -- Eric, the guy that lent her the cell phone, said that some other guy approached her and said, "I`ve got this," in reference to your niece. Do you know if police have videotape of that individual? Do you know if police have interviewed Eric? What have you been told?
MCARDLE: Absolutely nothing.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Nothing?
MCARDLE: Nothing.
CARUSO: No.
MCARDLE: We are desperately, desperately crying for help here. And I`ve spoken to maybe two officers that have been really, really nice and tried to help me. But they can only do so much. We need the police force to do what they need to do to help us find my niece.
And it`s just horrific. It`s -- one police station, "It`s not our jurisdiction." The next police station, "We can`t give you this information, because it`s not our jurisdiction." Well, damn it, whose jurisdiction is it?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s at least clarify whose jurisdiction it is. Who is handling the case? Somebody give us a call back. We`re going to stay on top of this and keep this story alive. Thank you, fantastic panel.
More on Kyron Horman next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: In the "Spotlight" tonight, a dramatic day ahead in Casey Anthony`s murder case. Her mom, Cindy, and her brother, Lee, are set to take the stand tomorrow. ISSUES will have full coverage of tomorrow`s highly anticipated hearing. Crucial evidence hangs in the balance here. Will a jury ever get to hear Cindy`s incriminating 911 call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
C. ANTHONY: My granddaughter has been taken. She has been missing for a month. Her mother finally admitted she`s been missing. Get someone here now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your daughter admitted the baby is where?
C. ANTHONY: That the babysitter took her a month ago. My daughter has been looking for her. There`s something wrong. I found my daughter`s car today, and it smells like there`s been a dead body in the damn car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Imagine if Cindy`s own words helped convict her own daughter of murdering little Caylee, her own granddaughter. Prosecutors say the three 911 calls reveal Casey`s progression of lies after little Caylee vanished. But the defense says the calls are hearsay and should be kept out of the trial. What will the judge decide?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Welcome back, fantastic panel. But first to "In Session" correspondent Jean Casarez.
Jean, what can we expect from tomorrow`s big hearing?
JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": The big thing tomorrow is going to be the 911 calls. The defense is making a concerted effort to try to keep them out of the trial. They don`t want the jury to hear these calls.
But the prosecution is firing back, because they`re saying, No. 1, we only want the first one and the third one. And the first one we don`t want it for the truth of what Casey is saying; we want it for the impact of Casey Anthony to hear it. Because the prosecution says it wasn`t until after that first call that Casey developed the story of Zenaida Gonzalez, and that showed her consciousness of guilt. And that`s the pivotal issue right there.
The third one they say, if we offer it for the truth, it`s an excited utterance, that Cindy said the dead body in the car, that she was talking to law enforcement unexpectedly, spontaneous statement, and that is truthful.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dr. Dale Archer, the reason the prosecution wants these 911 calls in, is it 99 percent of communication is not just about the words; it`s about the passion with which you say them? When the mother says, "There`s something wrong here," it really tells the whole story without having to tell the story.
ARCHER: Well, there`s that, Jane, but also there`s the fact that, when you`re under stress and duress, you do say a lot of things that you wouldn`t normally say.
But here`s the deal: they are usually true. When you`re stressed, you don`t have time to think about a lot. You usually say the first thing you think about, and usually that`s accurate.
So you know what? I think these tapes are real, and I think the emotion is real. And I think that they are hugely powerful for the prosecution. Big, big damage control for the defense.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Mark Eiglarsh, you`re the former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. I mean, some of the headlines from these tapes: it smells like a dead body in the damn car. My daughter admits now that the babysitter took the child a month ago. And apparently there`s also references to her having taken the car when she shouldn`t have taken the car. In other words, it wasn`t really her car to take. It was her mom`s car.
How is this going to help the prosecution, and do you think it`s going to be allowed in?
EIGLARSH: I think it will be allowed in. And I think it`s going to help the prosecution. Not for all the reasons that you mentioned. Those are like No. 2, No. 3, No. 4.
The No. 1 reason is that the defense wants the jury to think that the person sitting behind the accused always believed her, always supported her, and always thought that there was nothing fishy about the story. From the 911 tape, we`ve all concluded, my God, Cindy even questions her own daughter.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hold on...
EIGLARSH: And that`s what you get out of it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: More on the other side. Is Cindy going to be able to handle it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Head-spinning developments in the case of missing Oregon boy, Kyron Horman. Was his disappearance a carefully planned plot? That`s what his distraught mom believes. She says she`s haunted by warning signs and believes Kyron`s stepmom, Terri, plotted his disappearance.
Meantime, Kyron`s dad is taking Terri to court as a new search gets under way for the missing child.
Plus, just when you thought it couldn`t get any more obscene. Yet another alleged Mel Gibson audiotape takes it to a whole new level.
You`ll hear the latest in a dramatic series of vicious tirades. Tonight, do these tapes reveal a star who could be a danger to himself?
Tonight, Casey Anthony`s lawyers frantically preparing for a huge day in court tomorrow. We`re going to cover it here on ISSUES. They want Cindy Anthony`s desperate chilling 911 calls dropped. The defense says Cindy was acting when she said her daughter`s car smelled like a dead body. They say she wanted law enforcement to come to her house in a hurry. That`s why she said that.
But George Anthony also later said the car smelled like a dead body. Check this out.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GEORGE ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY`S FATHER: I got within three feet of my daughter`s car. And the worst odor you could possibly smell in this world. I`ve smelled that odor before; it smelled like a decomposed body.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And George told that to police at the station. Will that 911 call be dropped?
Straight out to Holly in Arkansas, your question or thought, ma`am?
HOLLY, ARKANSAS (via telephone): Well, first of all, I love your show.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.
HOLLY: What I want to know is, not an everyday person, I know Casey Anthony`s dad has smelled dead bodies but an average person would not know what it smelled like. So how does her mother know what it smells like when she called 911 that day?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, think one of the reasons is that everybody, when they smell that particular smell, it`s almost instinctive. Even if you`ve never smelled a dead body before, it`s a new and frightening smell that --
MARK EIGLARSH, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: A former nurse, too. She`s a former nurse.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead, Dr. Dale.
DR. DALE ARCHER, CLINICAL PSYCHIATRIST: Yes. I think you hit the nail on the head, Jane. It`s in our DNA. It is absolutely instinctive. It is stored. And when you smell that smell, even if you never smelled that smell before, you know, first of all, you know it`s something bad, and you know it`s associated with death. I agree with you on that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We will be watching tomorrow to see if Cindy Anthony can keep her cool on the witness stand. Remember this?
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s all I have.
CINDY ANTHONY, MOTHER OF CASEY ANTHONY: You know, you slandered me on TV.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop.
CINDY ANTHONY: And you perjured yourself with this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop.
CINDY ANTHONY: Because she`s not Fernandez. So there you go. You want to fight it? Go for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. That was a civil deposition. But Jean Casarez, you cannot act like that in criminal court. Do you think Cindy will keep it together tomorrow on the stand?
JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": I do. I do. This is a court of law. Judge Belvin Perry, the chief judge is presiding at this point in the trial. And I definitely think, but it will be a dress rehearsal, I think, for both sides because this is a star witness for the prosecution. It will be interesting to see how she does or how the questions are fielded.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I mean, really, this is a preview of the trial.
CASAREZ: Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is a huge day tomorrow because the defendant`s mom, who is at the center of the storm, is going to take the stand and be grilled. It`s really extraordinary.
Now, Casey`s brother, Lee, is also expected to testify tomorrow. Will he be able to continue acting like the good brother? Remember, Casey has purportedly accused him of fondling her breasts. This came up in a letter that was released in the document dumps. Now he`s going to have to get up on the stand and defend his sister?
That`s got to be emotional torment, Dr. Dale Archer.
ARCHER: Yes, I think so. You know, I`m going to be very curious to see what type of tack Cindy in particular takes. Because I think that her testimony and that tape could be absolutely -- just a huge blow against her daughter. And she said all along she doesn`t think she did it. She supports her 100 percent. So she`s going to have to come up with some explanation if that tape is allowed. And I`m going to be very curious to see what that is.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Nick, New York, your questions or thoughts, sir?
NICK, NEW YORK (via telephone): Hello, Jane, it`s an honor to speak to you again.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.
NICK: Hello?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, hi. What`s your question, Nick?
NICK: Yes. The question that I have is that, I`m having a lot of problems with, you know, I don`t want to rush to judgment. But I have a problem as far as like Casey Anthony, like her actions when her daughter was missing. I mean, first of all, she goes dancing at bars and she buys beer at Target.
I mean if anybody`s child is missing, I mean, you would be upset, like you couldn`t eat. Like you would be going to the police stations every day; it`s just that -- it`s just her actions. I have a lot of problem with Casey`s actions the thing is that it`s --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You`re looking at the pictures right here, by the way, Nick, of Casey`s so-called dirty dancing. I believe this is during the time that her daughter Caylee was missing. She later explained that she was going to nightclubs to look for her daughter.
It doesn`t look like she`s looking for her daughter there, Mark Eiglarsh.
EIGLARSH: Jane, that is going to be the centerpiece of this trial. Not only was she out dancing, but she got a tattoo. And it`s called "the good life", living the good life. Who does that when their child is missing? She`s not conducting any search.
So DNA evidence, perhaps that might be called into question; but these actions, reprehensible -- no way.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Today was also a very big day for the defense`s dream team of forensic experts. They put on gowns, they put on masks and a den of crucial pieces of evidence. And they did it firsthand. They paid special attention to Casey`s car.
Remember this? Investigators found traces of chloroform. They found evidence of human decomposition in the trunk. Along with a hair that purportedly corresponds to some Anthony family member but showed signs of decomposition. The only person who was dead in the family that it could apply to would be Caylee Anthony, according to prosecutors.
Jean Casarez, what do you know about what the defense dream team did today with their much heralded examination, physical examination of the evidence?
CASAREZ: You know what`s so interesting, Jane, the defense is really targeting into the areas that they don`t want in this case. The 911 call is one. This car is another one.
Now, Dr. Lee, Henry Lee, already made an assessment of that car. He even found, I think, a hair or two that forensic evaluators on the side of the prosecution had not found. But they`re going to try to disassociate Casey Anthony and the decomposition. That`s going to be their focus from that trunk because the air samples showed signs, according to the prosecution, of decomposition.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Mark Eiglarsh, there was a huge battle over how this examination of the physical evidence could occur. Remember, the defense didn`t want anybody from the Sheriff`s Department there.
I read today that the sheriff`s department was actually videotaping them. And that if they wanted to talk amongst themselves, they had to go away in a separate room. Does that sound like putting pressure on the defense so they can`t really effectively analyze this evidence because they know eyes are upon them?
EIGLARSH: Well, that`s what the defense would argue. I`ve argued that before. But what they`re saying is they`re simply maintaining the integrity of the evidence. The defense is going to question every single piece. And they don`t want anything disturbed.
So they`ve got to keep their eye on them. It`s their position. They want to videotape, make sure nothing was touched. Jose didn`t take something off something and put it over here. And, you know, I understand why they`re doing it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Carol, Texas, your question or thought, ma`am?
CAROL, TEXAS (via telephone): Hi, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi.
CAROL: I would like to -- way back when this first started, I really, really, really watched it. Casey Anthony had stated that her brother had sexually abused her, as well as her father. And then she recently got a letter stating that her father was poking fun that she`s getting fat in jail.
And I want to know if her little dream team, now that one of her good lawyers is no longer on the team, if they`re going to pull this, you know, she was sexually abused. They were spending all this time on little -- the little girl; she didn`t want that to happen.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good question. We don`t know where these trials go. This is runaway freight train. And as we saw with other high-profile cases like the O.J. Simpson case, you never know where it`s going to take us. It`s going to be an adventure. We just hope justice is the final stop.
Thank you so very much, excellent panel.
Meantime, so many of us are completely outraged about the Gulf oil spill. So where is the outrage from celebrities, like the ones who were screaming during Katrina? ISSUES viewer Mike Andrews is going off on his own ISSUES rant. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE ANDREWS, VIEWER: The day-to-day American, I`m not sure if they`re relating to what`s happening down there. What I would like to see, I know this is small, and a lot of people might not agree, but I want to see more celebrities onboard with what`s going on.
You know what I`m saying? I want to see -- you know, they can`t fix the problem, I understand that. There`s very little they can do to actually effect the issue in terms of stopping the oil. But we all know how important it is to be aware, how important it is for people to know what`s going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Mike, way to go. Thank you for sending in your ISSUES rant.
Are you at home as outraged about an issue that you see on this show? Send us a video rant. It can be about any story that gets your blood boiling.
Send your ISSUES rants to Jane@cnn.com; please try to make it 30 seconds or less, speak loudly. Use your outdoor voice and speak into your web cam. And make sure there`s some good lighting so you look fabulous.
We want to hear from you. Send them in and we`re going to air the most passionate ones live.
All right. We`ve got to ask, the Mel Gibson drama continues.
And we`re first going to go to Kyron, was Kyron`s kidnapping carefully planned. Tonight cops return to the scene of the crime. Those stories next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Fast breaking news in the desperate search for little Kyron Horman. As we speak, cops in Oregon have returned to the scene of the crime. And they are once again searching high and low in the area near Kyron`s school.
This adorable 7-year-old boy vanished from inside his school hallway more than a month ago now. And tonight, local reports say cops are questioning anyone in the area who owns a pickup truck and on top of that, they`re allegedly searching for a certain family -- certain family?
Could this be a major break in the case? Meanwhile the walls continue to crumble around Kyron`s stepmom. His biological mother now says Terri Horman, the stepmother wasn`t just involved, bio-mom insists the stepmom carefully planned and plotted the kidnapping.
Listen to what she told NBC`s "Today" show.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think Terri Horman planned to do something?
DESIREE YOUNG, KYRON`S MOTHER: Something that Terri Horman -- oh, yes, without a doubt. I think it was very planned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ahead of time?
YOUNG: Oh, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We absolutely believe that Terri Horman is responsible for Kyron`s disappearance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. Talk about not holding back. There are plenty of allegations. But is there any proof? Remember, Terri Horman is not considered a suspect or a person of interest.
I`m bringing back my fabulous panel, former police officer Marc Harrold. We begin with you. What would make cops return to the scene and look for a certain family? That is bizarre to me.
MARC HARROLD, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: Well, it does seem like they have some new information. I`m not exactly sure what it is. But given that and given the fact they may have already had this information, they just did not release that they were looking for a particular family. But it sounds like with returning to the scene, some physical evidence they`re looking for, the pickup truck and actually saying that they are looking for certain people, they probably do have some information.
But I don`t have any way of knowing.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I`m sure they have information, Harold.
Mark Eiglarsh, I guess what I`m getting at is, let`s use some deductive reasoning. Let`s take out our pipe and our Sherlock Holmes hat and try to figure out what this is all about. Because --
EIGLARSH: Right, because I own one of those.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: -- yes of course, you should.
EIGLARSH: I`ve got one.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You`ve got a stepmom here who purportedly, according to documents that have been filed, allegedly tried to hire a hit man to rub out her husband who fled the home.
EIGLARSH: Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And then you have her supposedly starting up an affair with some guy that she met after the little boy went missing. And texting him sexy text messages as well as graphic sexual images. And now we`re hearing they`re looking for a certain family? That doesn`t match the previous two things we`ve heard.
EIGLARSH: Right. And first and foremost, she was the last one to see the boy. Let`s start there. Jane, they don`t have to call her a person of interest. They don`t have to call her a suspect. She is the number one. She`s the one they`re looking at.
The problem, however, is if what we`ve heard is all of the evidence, while it looks to the average person like she`s really, really, really guilty, it`s not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. This would get dismissed in court because there`s another hypothesis of innocence that could be put out there.
So they need more in this case, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: They sure do.
Lynn, Canada, your question or thought, ma`am?
LYNN, CANADA (via telephone): It`s great to talk you, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.
LYNN: My comment is, it seems -- what`s the connection with her son being sent back with apparently the child`s father or grandparents? Then her husband -- she has a hit man out on her husband. And this little boy is gone missing. Has the police ever questioned her son?
(CROSS TALKING)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think -- I think that`s very interesting that you mention that, because, yes, Terri Horman has a 16-year-old son from a previous marriage. And that boy had reportedly been living with the two people you`re looking at there, Terri and Kyron`s biological dad.
And then at some point in the recent past, that 16-year-old reportedly left the home and went to live somewhere else, perhaps with his biological father. We don`t know.
I think it is interesting that all these changes were happening within the household shortly before, Dr. Dale Archer, little Kyron disappears.
ARCHER: Yes. And I think that that we can all link that together, because first of all, she tries to hire a hit man, allegedly and that didn`t work. So then she turns to an easier target that would be Kyron and she could handle that on her own.
And then after that breaks, there`s the sex thing to Michael Cook. But that`s not about sex. She wanted to use him for something and we don`t know what that is. And it probably got short circuited before she could develop it.
But this is a woman that clearly uses men and she uses sex, or sexual favors, or a promise of that in order to get them to do what she wants. And I think Kaine probably fell into that category early on. But then I think when the child was born, the daughter -- 18-month-old daughter was born, that he started pulling away.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right.
ARCHER: And that`s when she broke narcissistically.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Doting housewife or evil stepmom, initially Terri Horman was painted as the perfect stepmom, always happy, involved in Kyron`s life. Now Kyron`s biological mother is telling a different story.
Listen to this. Check this out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: Kyron became increasingly unhappy about not spending time with me. He wanted to come and live with us. Several times he would just break down and just sob, because he wanted to stay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So Mark Eiglarsh, now we`re hearing that the little boy was not happy living with the stepmother and that he would sob when he had to leave his biological mother`s home.
EIGLARSH: I can`t imagine what that must be doing for the family to think that he wasn`t happy. And if they had heard that, they could have done something. You know, it`s not fair for them to -- to make themselves feel that way but I`m sure that that`s on their minds.
ARCHER: You know what?
EIGLARSH: It`s really unfortunate.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead.
ARCHER: You know, I just want to say that kids are very, very intuitive. And so clearly Kyron knew that something was up. Things weren`t right and kids sense that. They may not be able to verbalize why, so I think that that explains why he was feeling the way that he did.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: An eyewitness has come forward. Terri Horman is accused of trying to kidnap her own daughter while her husband was out working. Tonight the owner of the gym is speaking out. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB BRIEDE, XTREME EDGE GYM: Her behavior was definitely suspicious, and I felt that it justified making a phone call to the authorities. Somebody needed to know about that just in case there was something there, you know. I sure wouldn`t want two kids to go missing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Just to explain that, according to Kyron`s dad, when he was working out at the gym, he left his little daughter at the gym day care and that`s when Terri purportedly came in and was trying to find out when he would be working out and he believed that was to snatch the child.
All right. Stay right where you are. The latest on Mel Gibson`s alleged meltdown, right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: More alleged Mad Mel audiotapes, another shocking reporting hits the web. And I mean shocking, people. Oksana Grigorieva says the spitting mad, lunatic screaming at her on this tape is her hot shot Hollywood ex, Mel Gibson. Oksana who has an 8-month-old baby daughter with Mel fruitlessly tries to calm the furious man who`s berating her and he goes ballistic, ranting, panting and threatening to burn the house down.
Check this out from RadarOnline.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How dare you act like a (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I swear I`ll burn the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) house down. You`re a pain in my (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Stop being that.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, boy. Police are investigating Mel for domestic violence due to Oksana`s claims that he punched her in the face, breaking her teeth which he denied. Is Oksana`s dentist the key to this case?
And now, a new report out saying that dentist has photo graphic proof; apparently, allegedly, pictures of a battered, bruised, broken, ashamed Oksana.
CNN has not been able to verify the voice on these tapes is in fact Mel. We have reached out to Gibson`s camp. So far, they have not commented. They`re always invited on the show at any time to tell their side.
Straight out to Dylan Howard; Dylan, RadarOnline is all over the story. What is the very latest?
DYLAN HOWARD, RADARONLINE: Well, we reported today exclusively on RadarOnline more details, chilling details, Jane, about what happened in the immediate aftermath to when Mel Gibson hit his baby mama Oksana Grigorieva.
Now we`re told Oksana ran out into the backyard. Mel disappeared into his bedroom. She ran back into the house searching for her key so she could escape the Malibu mansion and that`s when Mel Gibson, according to the statement that Oksana Grigorieva provided to law enforcement official, Mel began waving gun in her face.
He chased her outside. As she got into the car and he said, "I know one quick way to get you out of here." Another alleged death threat from Mel Gibson directed to his baby mama, hot off the heels of more explosive audio recordings in which he`s heard threatening to blow down the house but not until she performs oral sex on him first -- disgusting stuff.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. I have to say HLN has not been able to independently confirm anything about this gun. Police aren`t confirming it. You`re the only ones reporting it.
And Mel Gibson`s camp has pointed out in the past that Oksana did not call 911. So how did you get this information?
HOWARD: We got this from sources closely connected to the law enforce management investigation probing that January case. And we are not the only ones to report that it ought to be noted, Jane. The gun claim is one of just a series of claims that Oksana Grigorieva is making.
But interestingly enough, these are claims that she has leveled to the Los Angeles Sheriff`s Department.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I have to say, listening to these tapes, if it is Mel the thing that strikes me is sort of underlying misogyny and hostility toward women throughout all of it. What are your thoughts without getting too graphic?
HOWARD: Well, these are crazed rantings. I don`t think we`ve ever heard anything like this, especially from the ilk of a Hollywood A-Lister. That`s what makes this so frightening.
Now, clearly Mel Gibson is aggrieved (ph) in all of those. We don`t know why he hasn`t come forward to provide any reasonable explanation. What we think, perhaps maybe he did.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And we`ve got to leave it right there. Dylan, you`re fabulous. Thank you.
You`re watching ISSUES.
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