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Nancy Grace
Sylar`s Adoptive Mom Hid Marijuana in Boy`s Backpack; Young Pregnant Woman Missing
Aired August 05, 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, rural Arizona. As the search for Emmett Trapp, one of two little 2-year-old boys, comes to an abrupt end just one mile from Emmett`s home, the search for Sylar goes on. The 2-year-old baby boy wearing nothing but a diaper, asleep in a tent with his mother, vanishes without a trace, Beaver Creek campground. Cops confirm the search for Sylar now a criminal investigation. FBI, local sheriffs and forensic specialists zero in on a local landfill, combing over 200 tons of trash near the campground. But tonight, still no signs of the boy`s body. The K-9 search mysteriously goes cold right in the middle of the campsite. That doesn`t make sense!
Bombshell tonight. As cops administer polygraphs, we discover adoptive mommy under police investigation for a dope pipe and drugs discovered stashed in the missing little boy`s backpack. Child protective services now involved. As investigators insist the little boy no longer at the campground, they don`t know if he was dead or alive when kidnapped out of that tent. Tonight, is an arrest imminent? Police convinced the boy`s kidnap is not random. How -- how -- does a little 2-year-old just disappear in the middle of the night, sleeping in a tent with Mommy?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... Sylar Newton...
911 OPERATOR: 911. Where`s the emergency?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... 2-year-old Sylar Newton...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to have a sheriff out here. We`ve got a little boy missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... 2-year-old child by the name of Sylar Newton...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is presumed dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... search efforts is now in a recovery mode, and the investigation has become criminal in nature.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... now a criminal investigation...
GRACE: Not a good sign.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... an extensive search effort...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`ve been looking non-stop. Nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... helicopters, ground crews, dogs and divers...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... bloodhounds...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... all sorts of specialty teams with scuba, swift water...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... underwater cameras...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... searched over 200 tons of garbage...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... garbage for evidence of his body.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... literally lined up arm`s length apart looking for evidence and looking for clues. We would not have missed him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... no luck finding him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, live, Cape Cod, and the mystery surrounding the suspicious disappearance of a beautiful young woman four months pregnant. Twenty-three-year-old Trudie Hall leaves home to head for a doctor`s appointment. She`s never seen again, her car abandoned at a roadside rest stop, blood evidence reportedly found inside her Toyota Avalon.
Breaking now. In the last hours, investigators storm a two-story house on the Cape. Is there a break in the case? Tonight, where is four months pregnant Trudie?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police are desperately search for a pregnant woman...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... Trudie Hall...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... who has been missing in beautiful Cape Cod for the last week.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Nantucket woman is four-and-a-half months pregnant. Her family reported her missing last Wednesday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-three-year-old Trudie Hall was reportedly headed to a doctor`s appointment and hasn`t been seen since.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A neighbor says plainclothes investigators began watching the house. Investigators also examined a dark sedan that was in the garage and a white SUV parked in the driveway. The 23-year-old woman, who is four months pregnant, reportedly knows a resident of the house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now reports emerge both traces of blood and bullet casings were found in Trudie`s car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... yellow police tape tied across the Barnstable garage, police say, where Trudie Hall`s car is locked up tight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Clues from Hall`s leased gray 2009 Toyota Avalon have led police to identify a person of interest in her disappearance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Law enforcement sources told "The Cape Cod Times" that cops believe Trudie, who is four months pregnant, is likely dead, but they continue to treat it as a missing persons case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. As the search for 2-year-old Sylar goes on, we discover adoptive mommy under police investigation for a dope pipe and drugs discovered stashed in the missing little boy`s backpack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... little Sylar Newton...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sylar Newton was last seen in his tent on camping outing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sylar went camping with a woman who identified herself as his custodial mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They presume that he is dead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Doing horrible! My baby`s gone!
GRACE: The baby is in the tent with the new would-be mom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The other night, I cried for a good two hours just wanting him back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... who is in the process of adopting the boy from his biological mother...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... long-time friends...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s just so many intricacies here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... digging into that relationship...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... the bio mother...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... custodial mother...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The bio mother says she and the custodial mother had regular conversations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s been helping, having the moral support of (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope he`s found alive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) of him being found alive is slim right now.
GRACE: Why do you take a 2-year-old camping?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does a 2-year-old boy wearing only a diaper simply vanish into thin air?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The longer it takes to find this child, the more interest we have in the relationship between Sylar and this custodial mom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Christina Estes, reporter, Newstalk 550 KFYI. The adoptive mommy has a dope pipe plus drugs hidden in the boy`s backpack? Was that before or after he goes missing? When did that happen?
CHRISTINA ESTES, NEWSTALK 550, KFYI (via telephone): We`re talking about earlier this year, about six months ago, late January of this year. And it`s a pretty disturbing scenario that`s laid out in the Coconino County sheriff`s office report.
Here`s the scenario. Thirty-three-year-old woman is baby-sitting. One of the kids she`s watching, little Sylar Newton. She says Sylar needed a diaper change. She went to his backpack to grab a diaper. Inside, she says she found a glass pipe inside a plastic bag. She thought that pipe was used to use drugs, so she called the sheriff`s office. Deputy shows up, says it looks like there`s burnt marijuana on the end of that pipe. Whose kid is this?
So this woman says, Christina Priem is the mother of this child. The deputy goes to Christina Priem`s play of employment, asks her, Hey, what do you know about this? She said, I don`t know anything about this. I don`t know anything about drugs. This is all according to the sheriff`s office report. And apparently, she speculated that her sister might own that pipe...
GRACE: Wait a minute. Christina?
ESTES: Yes.
GRACE: I don`t care! I don`t care if it`s her pot, if it`s her dope pipe or her sister`s. She`s responsible for the baby! And if the baby has marijuana in its backpack -- you know how many little backpacks I have for the twins? They`ll see them at Target or Wal-Mart and it`ll have Ariel (ph) or it`ll have Buzz (ph) the astronaut. To think that someone would put dope and a dope pipe in one of their backpacks? I don`t care who it belongs to! She`s responsible!
So what else did she say beside trying to blame her sister?
ESTES: Well, you`re really not going to like this, then, because the case was closed, it says, due to lack of leads. So it doesn`t look like, according to this report, that the sister was interviewed. It looks like the case was closed, and the quote is, "due to lack of leads."
GRACE: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. They just closed the case? That`s like me saying, I`m going to drop this murder case because he won`t confess. It doesn`t work like that, Eleanor Odom!
ELEANOR ODOM, PROSECUTOR: No, it sure doesn`t. They could find some leads. But at the very bottom line, they could have charged that so-called adoptive mother with possession because, clearly, that`s what she`s doing, as well as contributing to the deprivation of a minor child.
GRACE: OK, let`s unleash the lawyers. With us tonight, as you already know, Eleanor Odom, Atlanta sex crimes prosecutor, Peter Elikann joining us out of Boston, and Peter Odom joining us out of Atlanta. Weigh in, Odom.
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, it sounds like the police, from what you`re telling us, did exactly the right thing. It was a pipe that might have looked as if it had been used to smoke marijuana? Doesn`t sound as if there...
GRACE: OK, stop!
PETER ODOM: ... was any residue. I mean, come on, Nancy.
GRACE: Stop! Stop! Stop!
PETER ODOM: It`s all about the evidence. It sounds like there was none.
GRACE: I just told you! I just told you it was a dope pipe and drugs! Hold on! Hold on!
PETER ODOM: So one person said.
GRACE: To Natisha Lance. That one person is a cop, Peter Odom!
Out to you, Natisha Lance. You`re joining us, Prescott, Arizona, sheriff`s office. Here we have Odom saying, How do I know it`s dope? They tell me in the police report it`s a dope pipe and dope. What was in the baby`s backpack?
NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: They do, Nancy. In that police report, they do say that it was a pipe that was used for drugs. And also, when police got there and looked at it, there was still burnt marijuana that was in that pipe.
GRACE: So what is disturbing me right now -- out to you, Marc Klaas, president, founder of Klaas Kids Foundation -- we`ve got half the country praying, having vigils, looking for this little boy, and here is this adoptive mommy, where police obviously just dropped the case. I guess they didn`t have time investigate it. Somebody`s handed over their precious baby boy to this woman, who sticks pot and a dope pipe in the baby`s backpack!
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, it`s certainly reckless, Nancy. There`s no question about that. And perhaps they could have pursued her for possession of drug paraphernalia. It doesn`t sound like there was enough drugs to go there and...
GRACE: But that`s not my problem, Marc. That`s my -- I`m not worried about a pot pipe, OK? I`m not happy about it, but I`m not worried about it. What I`m saying, what I`m worried about is, the mom, the adoptive mom, is, Oh, that`s not mine, that`s hers. She has an excuse for breaking the law, for something happening to that child that was dangerous! Now she`s out in a tent with him and he disappears! I see a pattern, Marc Klaas! But this time, the baby`s life is on the line!
KLAAS: You`re absolutely right, Nancy. And the more you look at it and think about this, given the fact that the little boy did not leave on his own volition, as has been demonstrated and proven by the bloodhounds and other search and rescue resources that were there -- he was taken out of the tent either by somebody from within the tent, or the far stretch that somebody had broken into that tent at night, either unbuttoned it, unzipped it, stepped over other people, gotten the little child and left with him. And quite frankly, that scenario does not make a lot of sense, leaving the obvious.
GRACE: Joining us right now, Yvonne Newton, the grandmother of missing 2-year-old Sylar. Ms. Newton, did you and your daughter have any idea you were handing the baby over to a woman that used drugs?
YVONNE NEWTON, SYLAR`S GRANDMOTHER (via telephone): No, we had no idea that she even used drugs at all. At least, I didn`t.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The longer this takes, the more concern we have that the child may not be here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... vanishing in the middle of the night...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re using bloodhounds and other tracking teams to try and figure out where -- where he went.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s the worst. We`re preparing for the worst right now!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sylar Newton`s custodial mom says she thinks the boy was taken.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The other night, I cried for a good two hours just wanting him back!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not found this young boy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A tragic turn, the case of missing 2-year-old Sylar Newton...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is presumably dead.
GRACE: This is the custodial mother of the missing boy, Christina Priem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... one of the last to see the boy alive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My daughter has known her for five years. From the time that I`ve known, her seemed nice enough. She offered to help out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She failed miserably in terms of custodial obligations of protecting this child!
GRACE: The would-be adoptive mom has a previous arrest!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to know the contents of that tent. Were drugs involved?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We absolutely believe that we will find out exactly what happened to Sylar.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Back to Natisha Lance, standing by at Prescott, Arizona, there at the sheriff`s office. Natisha, what is happening in the search? And what does this development mean in the search for Sylar, the fact that his adoptive mommy has stashed drugs and a drug pipe in the little boy`s backpack?
LANCE: Well, Nancy, they`re still not naming any suspects, any persons of interest. What they are saying now is that this is now a recovery. They have presumed that Sylar is dead. They are now conducting searches based on...
GRACE: Wait! Wait! Wait!
LANCE: ... tips that come in, but there is not...
GRACE: Natisha, don`t just throw it out there like that! They presume he`s dead. Why do I have to believe the little boy is dead? What evidence do they have that he`s dead, other than they haven`t found him yet?
LANCE: That evidence that they have, Nancy, they`re not sharing with us at this point. But they do say that there is evidence that proves that he was not at that campground. They don`t think he`s still at that campground. The only question is, Was he dead before he left the campground, or did he die after he left the campground? But they`re not sharing what that evidence is with us. But one of the statistics that they are throwing out there is that is based on the time limit and the timeframe that he has been gone and his age, that he would be presumed to be dead.
GRACE: Out to Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, author of "Dealbreakers." Bethany, it`s certainly not a good note when you`re the would-be adoptive mother, before you even get full adoption, you already have child services knock, knock, knocking at your door. That`s not a good sign!
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Nancy, there are so many red flags in this story. First of all, we`re calling her the custodial mother. She was not going through an adoption agency, as far as I know. Secondly, why do you stash a pot pipe in a toddler`s backpack? You do it because you`re not maternally protective. She did not have a maternal stance towards this little boy.
And the third thing is there are so many story holes. She has failed to account fully for what happened that night. And when there are story holes, then you have to presume the worst. And what I`m presuming is that there was some kind of neglect. Maybe she was high or loaded. Maybe the baby befell some harm. She didn`t know what to do. So then after the little boy was in an accident or deceased, she had to unload the body.
GRACE: I want to go out to Yvonne Newton, the biological grandmother of 2-year-old Sylar. Yvonne, all along, everybody has been supportive of the biological mom, that she gave up the boy, hoping that he would have a better life. But now we find out the woman she just handed her little boy over to on a silver platter has an arrest, at least one that I know of, and was stashing dope in Sylar`s backpack, along with her dope pipe. What about that?
NEWTON: That`s just -- that`s just amazing to me, what people will do sometimes. It seems like to me, considering she tried to blame someone else for it, that she was definitely...
GRACE: But ma`am...
NEWTON: ... trying to take the eyes off herself.
GRACE: Yvonne Newton, when you say you`re shocked at what some people do -- I`m talking about you and your daughter! Sylar is your daughter`s son. She handed him over to this woman. Now he`s gone, believed to be dead!
NEWTON: I really -- I`m really not sure exactly how to answer that. We are all just shocked to hear a lot of this stuff that`s just now coming out. We had no idea this woman was the way she is. She put up an excellent front to us, made herself look good so she could have this child.
GRACE: You know what? I believe that. I believe that, Ms. Newton. I believe that. How did your daughter know her?
NEWTON: I`m not sure exactly the circumstances on how they met. I know they lived together for a time, and then my daughter ran out of -- she felt like she had to leave Flagstaff, like there was no place for her here. So she left Flagstaff and left Sylar with her.
GRACE: I want to go to Eleanor Odom. Eleanor, I`ve seen a lot of adoptions out of juvenile proceedings that stem from cases I have handled. But I`ve never known of just handing the baby over to somebody. That is not a legitimate adoption.
ELEANOR ODOM: No, it`s not, and it`s not legitimate custody, either, because you have to have that done by a judge, who does it in the best interests of the child. And certainly doesn`t sound like that was the case here, Nancy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were two adults and another child in that tent with Sylar when he was reportedly last seen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My friend`s mom -- well, his brother is gone. He`s missing and we can`t find him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were 25 people in the campground besides the family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re (ph) all questioned (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search and the investigation will continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re missing a little 2-year-old boy out here at Beaver Creek.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... a 2-year-old child at a campsite...
911 OPERATOR: Do you know how long he`s been missing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... vanishing in the middle of the night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t have any idea how long he`s been gone. We`re all looking for him right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... no evidence or indication of where this child is...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... authorities searching over 200 tons of trash at a nearby landfill, looking for clues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Out to Julia in North -- in New Jersey. For those of you just joining us, we now know that little Emmett Trapp has been found dead about one mile from his home. Apparently, Mommy says he wandered off while she took a nap for seemingly six hours. Around 2:00 o`clock, she took a nap, 8:00 o`clock he`s gone, or at least reported missing. He was there in the home with three other siblings and the dog.
But Now the other 2-year-old little boy, wearing nothing but a pair of diapers, goes missing from inside a tent, a tent he was sharing with Mommy. Tonight, we discover that Mommy was discovered stashing her dope and her dope pipe in the baby boy`s backpack. That certainly throws a wrench in the works.
Back to Julia in New Jersey. Hi, Julia. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. How are you? I just have a question. Did the adult who found the drug pipe inform child services or police? And if not, what`s her explanation why she didn`t?
GRACE: Well, I know for a fact that child services is involved, are they not, Christina Estes?
ESTES: Well, we`ve been told that CPS has had some reports involving Christina Priem, the would-be adoptive mother. We don`t know what they say. And I can tell you from past experience working in Arizona and covering cases involving child deaths or child abuse that usually, the details of the prior history with CPS -- they won`t release all of that until the investigation is complete.
GRACE: Well, nothing was done. The boy stayed with the would-be adoptive mom. This was not a formal or legal adoption. It sounds like the baby was just handed off, and handed off to the wrong person.
Take a look at this little boy. There are millions of people that would do anything to have a baby boy like this.
To Natisha Lance, there at Prescott, Arizona, sheriff`s office. What do we know? Were police involved? Wasn`t there a police report on the dope?
LANCE: Yes, there was a police report that was on that drug pipe that was found in the backpack. However, just as Christina said earlier, at the bottom of that police report, it said there was not enough evidence for them to file any charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... 2-year-old Sylar Newton...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still no sign of a 2-year-old who vanished from an Arizona campground just wearing a diaper.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re missing a little 2-year-old boy out here at Beaver Creek.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Well, we need to have a sheriff out here. We`ve got a little boy missing.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK. And you`re at the Beaver Creek campground?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they asked if it is possible he was taken and still alive, they were not able to say definitively no.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: What space are you at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in Arizona.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The trail is rough and it would have been really hard for this child to be wandering around.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Is it your little boy or somebody else`s?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of our campers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was kind of odd that the child would disappear out of a tent with adults right in the tent with nobody noticing anything.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Everyone at this particular point just really wants to find this child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 2-year-old has no survival instincts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don`t have any idea how long he`s been gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is presumably dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He got up during the nighttime and walked away, I guess.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Yavapai Sheriff`s Office. This is Karen. How can I help you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Have you got a call yet about a missing boy out here at Beaver Creek?
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Let me find out. Hold on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Did you find a boy or --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are missing a little 2-year-old boy out here at Beaver Creek.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: You are missing one. All right. We have not gotten a call yet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Well, we need to have a sheriff out here. We`ve got a little boy missing.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK. And you`re at the Beaver Creek, like, campground there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beaver Creek campground, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK. Do you know what space you`re at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do what?
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: What space are you at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re in Arizona.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: No. No. No. OK. OK. All right. Sir, what`s your phone number? OK, is it your little boy or somebody else`s --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of our campers.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK. And you`re, like, the manager?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We`re kind of -- we`re the camp host, uh- huh. They told me they already called.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: We haven`t gotten any calls of it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: And it`s a 2-year-old little boy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Do we know how long he`s been missing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don`t have any idea how long he`s been gone. He got up during the nighttime and walked away, I guess.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK. Do they know what he was wearing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t have any idea what he`s wearing. We`re all looking for him right now.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK. Do you know the mom and dad`s names are?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do what? The mom`s name?
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don`t.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK. Not a problem. I`ll send somebody out there and we`ll see what we can do. OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Bye-bye.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: So, Christina Estes, reporter, Newstalk 550 KFYI, the mommy didn`t call police?
CHRISTINA ESTES, REPORTER, NEWSTALK 550 KFYI: But we`re still trying to figure out whether she actually did and if so what time she made that call. Because we do know that two calls did make it through.
One call was made by custodial mother`s 14-year-old son`s friend. So her son had a friend there and that friend placed a phone call. That call, I believe, was dropped as they transferred the call.
And then the other call that you`ve heard was from the gentleman who`s considered the campground host. So we had early on heard that Christina Priem had made a phone call or some other adult in that group had made a phone call but the call was dropped.
And there is spotty cell phone coverage in that area.
GRACE: I`m very concerned. I`m very concerned because the campground manager managed to get through to police on just one ring. Why the mommy didn`t call police and keep calling until she got them?
Back to the lines. Henrietta in California, hi, dear.
HENRIETTA, CALLER FROM CALIFORNIA: Hi, baby.
GRACE: Hello. Thank you for calling. What`s your question?
HENRIETTA: I absolutely love you.
GRACE: Thank you for watching and thank you for calling in. I appreciate it. What do you make of this case?
HENRIETTA: I was a traveling governess for wealthy, you know what I`m saying? I had young babies. I cannot conceive of sleeping while my babies were down. I don`t understand why a child would be in the wild with bare feet and whatnot with the elements -- you know, that would be in grass and whatnot, spiders and stuff.
I really don`t get it.
GRACE: Hold on, Henrietta. Don`t let her go. Henrietta, that`s what I was saying when I first heard about this case, Miss Henrietta, is I`ve got two 2-year-olds. And I was just saying in the break, I can`t even take them to Target without a big scene.
HENRIETTA: That`s right.
GRACE: Much less camping overnight in the elements. There are scorpions. There are snakes.
HENRIETTA: That`s right.
GRACE: There are other kind of wildlife that would be a threat to the baby. And how does a baby go missing from your tent? I mean, Henrietta, you`re a governess -- they call them nannies now, babysitters. But certainly you`ve slept with a child before.
HENRIETTA: That`s right.
GRACE: And when I try to sleep with my children in the bed with me for whatever reason, whether it`s a nap or I can`t get them to go to sleep, they`re all over me. I -- I lay there awake the whole time.
How did this child get out of the tent and nobody knew anything about it?
HENRIETTA: The thing, Nancy, sibling rivalry. The kids are sick and tired of being stuck with watching him. OK?
GRACE: Hmm. So you think there`s a possibility some of these other children have something to do with it?
HENRIETTA: Got sick and tired being stuck with watching him. Sibling rivalry. That`s all I can see now. Really. Because I asked about the father because they weren`t -- they didn`t found them under a rock. They have fathers. I haven`t heard anything about a father.
GRACE: You know what, that`s a good point, Henrietta, in California.
Let`s go to Yvonne Newton, the bio mom of missing 2-year-old Sylar. She`s right. Nobody found Sylar up under a rock. He had to come from somewhere. Where`s the daddy?
YVONNE NEWTON, BIOLOGICAL GRANDMOTHER TO MISSING 2-YEAR-OLD SYLAR NEWTON: The daddy is nowhere to be found. He`s here in Flagstaff somewhere. I`m not sure if that is where -- as far as I know he gave up his rights even before the child was born.
GRACE: Man, that sounds like this kid never had a chance. Take a look at this beautiful baby boy.
We are taking your calls. I want to now go to Peter Odom, defense attorney joining us. Excuse me, Peter Elikann, joining out of Boston, defense attorney and author of "Super Predators."
Peter, I haven`t gotten to you yet but since I spoke to Eleanor and Peter earlier -- Peter Odom -- it`s now come out that the mother apparently didn`t call 911. The camp manager calls 911. She`s got a dope pipe and dope stashed in the baby`s backpack.
I mean, Peter, how did the baby get out of her tent? Sleeping right there beside the baby in a tent, for Pete`s sake.
PETER ELIKANN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "SUPER PREDATORS": Yes. Nancy, that`s the million-dollar question we all want to know. I mean if I was a parent -- if I was in a tent with a child I`d at least be sleeping in the entrance way or something. If an intruder came in you`d probably hear them.
It`s -- it is such a mystery. There`s so many scenarios. Was it one of the other children? Was it the mother? Was it an outsider? Did he actually start to wander off?
I think we`re just all in the dark here until the evidence really starts to come out. But something seems radically wrong.
GRACE: I agree with you.
ELIKANN: I`ll concede that.
GRACE: Right now the evidence is sifting down and is being formulated and we`re getting more and more of a look at this would-be adoptive mom.
I want to go to Bethany Marshall. Dr. Bethany, what about this theory of Henrietta`s about the other children?
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": Well, here`s -- here`s where I think Henrietta`s right. A mother cannot fall asleep when she`s taking care of a little child unless she is a substance abuser.
Substance abusers are not light sleepers. And what substance abusers do is they tend to relegate the care of the little ones to the other siblings in the household. So I think she was relegating maternal care to the 14-year-old.
The 14-year-old`s friend noticed that the little toddler had gone missing and the 14-year-old friend is the one who placed the phone call.
I don`t think it`s sibling rivalry. I think the 14-year-old was being used as the caretaker.
GRACE: Well, that`s what I don`t get, another thing, Bethany, is that if you`ve already got children and you`re not really taking care of them, why do you want another child?
MARSHALL: Nancy, some women collect children like other people collect cars, toys, houses or objects. They only want the child for what the child can do for them. And that is so they can get the love and affection from the child but they don`t give it back.
GRACE: Everybody, we are taking your calls live. For those of you just joining us, the would-be adoptive mom who last saw this boy alive in a tent on a camp trip with her other children has now been discovered -- we learned tonight that she was stashing dope and a dope pipe in this little boy`s backpack. Police and child services involved. That case just languishing.
As we go to break, my brand new book, "Death on the D-List," hits the shelves August 10th. And my proceeds go to Wesley Glenn, providing a loving home for the mentally handicapped who need one.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Twenty-three-year-old Trudie Hall is four months pregnant and was reportedly headed to a doctor`s appointment on Cape Cod. That was the last time anyone saw her.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: State Barnstable and Yarmouth Police searched the house throughout the morning in connection with the disappearance of Trudie Hall from Nantucket.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Now her family fears the worst as sources say traces of blood and shell casings were found in Trudie`s rented Toyota Avalon.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Clues from Hall`s leased gray 2009 Toyota Avalon have led police to identify a person of interest in her disappearance.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Evidence reportedly found in the car has led authorities to an unnamed person of interest in the case and bow a home is allegedly being searched in the area.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Law enforcement sources believe the 23-year- old is dead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police will not confirm the searches in connection with Trudie`s case but say it`s part of an active investigation.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Karen Jeffrey, reporter with the "Cape Cod Times." Karen, this doesn`t make sense. What happened?
KAREN JEFFREY, REPORTER, CAPE COD TIMES, COVERING STORY: Well, the police and the Cape & Islands district attorney are keeping very mum about this. But today we were all outside a house on a side street not too far actually from the Barnstable police station and police and crime scene services people were taking out evidence in bags. They processed two vehicles at the scene and then removed a car and a motorcycle from the scene.
GRACE: With us Karen Jeffrey with the "Cape Cod Times" joining us out of Cape Cod.
To Marlaina Schiavo, our producer on the story. Marlaina, go through what happened. This is a gorgeous young mom-to-be. She`s four months pregnant. Where is Trudie?
Marlaina, how did it go there? Where was she last seen? Take it from the beginning.
MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: Well, Nancy, this 23-year-old -- mother-to-be was supposedly going to a doctor`s appointment on Cape Cod. And the next day she was reported missing by her mother.
Apparently she wasn`t at that doctor`s appointment, but reports say that she went to a nearby resort in Cape Cod with her husband. A husband her mother didn`t even know that she had and she has not been seen since.
They found a car that was --
GRACE: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. A husband her mother didn`t know she had?
SCHIAVO: Exactly. Apparently at some point she got married and her mother had no idea. We do not know the name of her husband. Police are not releasing that. And as far as a marriage license or certificate, they will not verify this marriage to the media right now. However, we`re being told that she was married.
GRACE: OK. To you, Andrew J. Scott, former chief of police, Boca Raton, president, AJS Consulting.
Andrew, right there. Why do you want to keep a new husband a secret? Why is it a secret? What about him didn`t she want her mom or her family to know about?
ANDREW J. SCOTT, FMR. CHIEF OF POLICE, BOCA RATON, FL.; PRESIDENT, AJS CONSULTING: Well, that`s interesting. There would be no reason to have this as a secret. And for the mother to be so surprised really is shocking. And who else in the family doesn`t know who this person is.
Obviously, the pieces of this puzzle don`t fit. The police seem to have a very good lead with what they`ve found in the car. They`ve gone to this house to search it. And somewhere in this mix I believe that the husband or the alleged husband may have something to do with this.
GRACE: OK. I want to go to Dr. Eric Braverman, founder of Path Medical Center, joining us out of New York.
Dr. Braverman, thank you for being with us. Doctor, at four months, what is the likelihood that she would lose the baby if she encounters any kind of trauma?
DR. ERIC BRAVERMAN, M.D., FOUNDER OF PATH MEDICAL CENTER, NYC: Well, you can lose the baby. Also the baby could be hurt and you can tell the difference between the blood of the mother and the baby at eight weeks. So there may be a mix of blood of two people.
And certainly, you can always lose a baby very -- from trauma, blunt trauma and babies do not survive well at 20 weeks or that type of area. You have to really get to 28 weeks to avoid respirators in most cases.
GRACE: I want to go back to Marlaina Schiavo. She was last seen leaving her home. Is it a home or an apartment? And she`s heading to a doctor. Did she ever make it to the doctor`s appointment?
SCHIAVO: There are no reports saying that she made it to the doctor`s appointment. However, she what -- that same day she was supposed to go to the doctor. They`re saying she -- checked into a resort on Cape Cod and she also rented a car which they found with some evidence that she -- this may turn from a missing persons case into a homicide investigation, although it`s not there just yet, Nancy.
GRACE: What evidence is that, Marlaina?
SCHIAVO: They found blood evidence in the car, some brain tissue and case -- shell casings from a gun.
GRACE: Everybody, take a look at Trudie Hall. She is four months pregnant. She is just 23 years old. She is absolutely beautiful. Won`t you help us? 508-790-0032.
I want to go very quickly, Marlaina, I`m not clear about something. You are telling me that she was actually checked into a hotel. Does that mean she checked in online? Somebody checked in for her? Did she go to the front desk and get the key?
SCHIAVO: We are not being told if she was at the front desk. But we are being told that she did check in with another individual who is allegedly her husband.
GRACE: OK. So the mom and the family knew nothing about that.
This is a photo of the Bayside Resort where Trudie Hall reportedly was checked into just before she goes missing.
Well, that opens up a whole plethora of questions. A lot of questions. Was she seen going to her room? What do you know, Karen Jeffrey? Did she ever leave her room? When she left, was she with this man? Did he get in the car with her? Do we know the answers to any of those questions, Karen?
JEFFREY: No. No, unfortunately, we don`t. No. What we have been told is that she and the man the police have described as her husband checked into two separate rooms at the resort.
GRACE: So they were staying in separate rooms?
JEFFREY: That`s what we have been told.
GRACE: And this was her husband, right?
JEFFREY: That`s how the police have described him. We don`t know the nature of the relationship.
GRACE: OK. Tell me this, Karen, when she left the hotel do we know if she left by herself?
JEFFREY: We have no idea when she left her house. She may have left -- we know that she told her mother that she was going to the movies. But --
GRACE: OK. Everybody, you`re taking -- you are seeing shots of 23- year-old, four months pregnant, Trudie Hall. Blood has been found inside her rental car. She told her mom she was going someplace. Ended up at a hotel there on the Cape.
Now we learn about a secret wedding? Where is she? What has become of the baby?
I want to go to Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst and author of "Dealbreakers."
Bethany, the statistics of violence toward women not good. In fact, a recent study a couple of years ago indicate -- I believe it was out of the "New England Journal of Medicine" -- that homicide is the number one cause of death for pregnant women.
MARSHALL: Yes. And it`s the second leading injury-related cause of death amongst women, second only to car accidents. And the reason for that is the perpetrators are usually the father of the baby and they either are jealous of the unborn baby or they do not want to take up the responsibilities of fatherhood, either in the emotional or the financial responsibility.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Twenty-three-year-old Trudie Hall is four months pregnant and was reportedly headed to a doctor`s appointment on Cape Cod. That was the last time anyone saw her.
Now her family fears the worst as sources say traces of blood and shell casings were found in Trudie`s rented Toyota Avalon. Evidence reportedly found in the car has led authorities to an unnamed person of interest in the case. And now a home is allegedly being searched in the area.
Police will not confirm the search is in connection with Trudie`s case but say it`s part of an active investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The longer this takes the more concern we have that the child may not be here.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Vanishing in the middle of the night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re using bloodhounds and other tracking teams to try and figure out where he went.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the worst. We`re preparing for the worst right now.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: State Barnstable and Yarmouth Police searched the house in connection with the disappearance of Trudie Hall from Nantucket. The 23-year-old woman who is four months pregnant reportedly knows a resident of the house.
Investigators also examined a dark sedan that was in the garage and a white SUV parked in the driveway.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Out to Marc Klaas, president and founder of KlaasKids Foundation. Your specialty, missing people. Weigh in, Marc.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, her family must just be reeling right now. You know, this is a young lady that was known and respected and liked in her longtime community of Nantucket which is just off of Cape Cod.
And for her to -- now, you know, be pregnant, have a secret marriage, these poor people must be just living in absolute fear with the police on the one hand saying that she`s probably dead, yet not being able to offer up any kind of proof at all.
I feel so terribly for these folks right now. I think we all have to keep this entire family in our thoughts and prayers until this is resolved.
GRACE: Eleanor Odom, weigh in.
ELEANOR ODOM, PROSECUTOR: Well, Nancy, what I`m curious about, too, is I wonder if they were going on some type of honeymoon since they -- she was recently married. And I bet police are looking very closely --
GRACE: Honeymoon in separate rooms?
E. ODOM: Well, I -- but, you know, maybe that`s how he lured her in. And I`m very curious as to what the police are finding out --
GRACE: I don`t get it.
E. ODOM: -- about that man.
GRACE: Lure her in with separate rooms, what do you mean?
E. ODOM: Well, maybe he said, hey, we`re going to just have separate rooms to more room. They could have been connecting rooms. So there`s a little more to it, I think. But it looked like a pretty plush resort so I`m thinking honeymoon.
GRACE: What about it, Elikann?
ELIKANN: Boy, you know, you`ve got me. I`m hearing all these conflicting information, a secret marriage, we don`t know why it`s secret, but they sleep in separate bedrooms. And certainly -- and yet her whole background seems really wonderful.
A very well-liked, decent young lady in her community. And all I do is hear these conflicting stories. And my head is spinning. I don`t think I`m a smart enough lawyer to figure this one out, Nancy.
GRACE: Peter Odom, where do we go from here?
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, it sounds to me like the police are way, way ahead of us on this, and I`d be surprised if there wasn`t an arrest made within the couple of days before the weekend.
GRACE: Tonight, 23-year-old Trudie Hall missing.
Let`s stop and remember Army Private 1st Class Landon Giles, just 19, Indiana, Pennsylvania, killed Iraq. Also served Kuwait, awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Good Conduct Medal.
Loved outdoors, hunting, fishing, diving. Remembered for his smile and love of life. Leaves behind parents Kim and Allen, stepmother, Cindy, four sisters, one brother.
Landon Giles, American hero.
Thanks to our guests but especially to you. A special hello to Columbus, Georgia friend, WLTZ reporter Miller Robson.
Everybody, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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