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Nancy Grace
Texas Police Search for Missing 13-Year-Old Cheerleader
Aired January 04, 2011 - 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. A 13-year-old cheerleader, broad daylight, leaves home around lunchtime, heads by foot down the street to a little friend`s house for a sleepover. She`s never seen again.
Bombshell tonight. Bloodhounds scan the neighborhood and a local motel, police combing that motel surveillance video, as we go to air, searching for images of Hailey. Tonight, we learn police seize the cell phones belonging to Mom and her live-in boyfriend. Why? This as police polygraphing friends and neighbors. Mommy volunteers for a polygraph.
Local police call in the Texas Rangers. Reports a body found, discounted. And has there been a sighting of the little girl? In the hours after we go live with the story last night, local caller raydo (ph) police, who originally dismissed the little girl`s disappearance as just a runaway, finally break down and upgrade the case to a missing person. But how many critical hours were lost in the search for the little girl? Tonight, where -- where -- is 13-year-old cheerleader Hailey Dunn?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A 13-year-old cheerleader.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No sign of what happened to her.
GRACE: Broad daylight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No sign that she was going anywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hailey Dunn left home to walk over to a friend`s house for a sleepover.
GRACE: She`s never seen again.
BILLIE DUNN, MOTHER: I want her to know that I have to have her back. Her dad has to have her back. We all need her back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you seen 13-year-old cheerleader Hailey Dunn?
BILLIE DUNN: My boyfriend, he came home from work. He seen Hailey. Hailey was there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She leaves her home to walk over to a friend`s house where she was supposed to have a sleepover.
BILLIE DUNN: Four to five blocks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She didn`t take anything with her when she left her house.
BILLIE DUNN: Hailey never made it over there. She never spent the night.
GRACE: Take a look at 13-year-old Hailey Dunn, absolutely precious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just how does a popular, smart student simply vanish?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, live, Knoxville, Tennessee. A 16-year-old girl, Allison Dougherty, disappears Sunday night from her own mother`s home. Has she been spotted with a 27-year-old man, a man with a long criminal rap sheet? Breaking now. As we go to air, we learn police have located the man, but no sign of Allison.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s just 16 years old, but tonight Allison Dougherty is missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A 16-year-old girl is missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you hear me, Allison, I love you!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops searching for her after she disappears Sunday night from her mom`s house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was last seen around 11:00 PM.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reportedly telling her mom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was going around the corner the a friend`s home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allison believed to be with a man who has a long criminal history, possibly in a silver minivan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) from vandalism to assault on officers to just a whole bunch of different things.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In East Tennessee, an endangered child alert was issued.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That man has just been located, and so has the vehicle. But police refuse to disclose his name. Why? Still no sign of 16-year-old Allison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. Bloodhounds scan the neighborhood and a local motel, police combing that motel surveillance video as we go to air, searching for images of Hailey. Tonight, we learn police seize cell phones belonging to Mommy and her live-in boyfriend. Why?
Police polygraphing friends and neighbors. Mommy volunteers for a polygraph. Police call in the Texas Rangers as reports a body has been found, discounted. And has there been a sighting of the little girl tonight? Where is 13-year-old cheerleader Hailey Dunn?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beautiful little 13-year-old girl.
BILLIE DUNN: She`s a wonderful girl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was supposed to have a sleepover.
BILLIE DUNN: I`ve never had to worry about Hailey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 8th grade cheerleader never seen or heard from again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened the day she went missing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was at work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Terrible.
BILLIE DUNN: My boyfriend, he seen Hailey.
It`s been very sad around here.
She told him, I`m going to Mary Beth`s (ph) and I`m staying the night there.
We`re torn up.
Let my mom know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left home to go from point A to point B.
BILLIE DUNN: Several leads, and they say they`re checking into all of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That never got to point B.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Tonight, joining us, both Hailey`s mother and father. But first, to Michael Board, reporter, WOAI Newsradio, Michael, what can you tell me?
MICHAEL BOARD, WOAI NEWSRADIO: Nancy, the last person to see Hailey Dunn alive was her mother`s boyfriend. This was on December 27th at about 3:00 o`clock in the last -- 3:00 o`clock in the afternoon. Her mother`s boyfriend says that Hailey told him that she was going over to her father`s house and then over to a friend`s house.
Police, we`ve learned this week, brought in bloodhounds, and amazingly, those dogs were able to pick up Hailey`s scent. Yes, they tracked her exact path. They went from her mother`s home to her father`s home, and then from her father`s home to her friend`s home, which is a couple blocks away.
But Nancy, this is where the story takes a tragic turn. The bloodhounds then track her scent to a motel in Colorado City. Nancy, why does a 13-year-old girl have any reason in the world to go to a motel? Right now, they`re scanning through the surveillance cameras, and we`re told so far, they have not seen Hailey`s pictures on those security cameras, but they`re continuing to look into that area.
Maybe there`s another business there. Maybe there was a convenience store that maybe had a surveillance camera or a security camera. They`re hoping, they`re praying that maybe there was another camera in that area that was able to catch her picture.
GRACE: Michael Board, when did the bloodhounds come to the scene?
BOARD: They -- where did they come to the scene? They tracked her scent...
GRACE: When? When? When did they come?
BOARD: Oh, when. When. They came this week. It was almost immediately. They were able to get bloodhounds from a nearby airport, to bring them over and start tracking the scene. This was almost from the beginning. So it was a fresh scent.
GRACE: I want to go to Priscilla Luong, reporter with CNN affiliate KTAB. She is joining us tonight outside Hailey`s home. Priscilla, thank you for being with us.
PRISCILLA LUONG, KTAB CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Nancy.
GRACE: It`s my understanding that police will not confirm the use of bloodhounds. Have you been able to confirm it?
LUONG: Well, Nancy, when I talked to police today, they kept a pretty tight lip about this. All I know right now is the reward that was originally $10,000 actually more than doubled overnight. It`s $25,000 now for anyone with tips that can help them track down this 13-year-old girl.
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Live out to Sheila in Illinois. Hi, Sheila.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good afternoon, Nancy. Thank you for being there for a voice for all these victims.
GRACE: Thank you, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I want to know more about the boyfriend. You know, he was the last person -- the live-in boyfriend with the mom was the last person to see her. I want to know where he was at, what his alibi is. I want to know about his criminal record, I want to know more about, you know, where his whereabouts were.
GRACE: OK, you want to talk about the boyfriend. First, out to Billie Dunn. This is Hailey`s mother joining us tonight live from Colorado City, Texas. She`s there at the home. Ms. Dunn, thank you for being with us. Let`s just address those issues right now. Let`s talk about your boyfriend.
BILLIE DUNN: OK.
GRACE: Last night, you told me he was on his way home from work, but now I`m learning he was on his way home from his mother`s home?
BILLIE DUNN: Yes. He had been at his mother`s house all day Monday. Police have confirmed that he got home about 3:00 o`clock, and Hailey left shortly after.
GRACE: OK. Where does he work?
BILLIE DUNN: He`s not working.
GRACE: OK. Last night, didn`t you tell me he was on his way home from work, or did I just get that mistaken?
BILLIE DUNN: No, I said that. He went in Monday morning, but there was an argument. He was fired or there was just a big blow-up there. He walked out. He left his job by 6:30 in the morning and went to Big Spring (ph) to his mom`s house.
GRACE: OK. What was the blow-up about?
BILLIE DUNN: I don`t even know. I just know he didn`t get along with one or two of the co-workers.
GRACE: OK. I want to go through his story again. But first let me go back to Michael Board, WOAI Newsradio. Michael, tell me what your understanding of the chronology is.
BOARD: This was about 3:00 o`clock on Monday, December 27th, that the boyfriend, from what we know, came home. That`s where he met with Hailey, at his home. Hailey at that time told the mother`s boyfriend that she was going from her mom`s house to her dad`s house, then her dad`s house to a friend`s house.
Now, earlier in that day, we had a neighbor confirm that she saw Hailey in the back yard speaking on some sort of a phone. We don`t know if that`s a home phone or a cell phone. They weren`t sure. That witness wasn`t sure at that time what Hailey was speaking on. But it was about 3:00 o`clock Monday, December 27th was the last time anybody saw Hailey alive.
GRACE: I want to go back to Billie Dunn. I understand police have seized yours and your boyfriend`s cell phones. Why?
BILLIE DUNN: Yes. They`re taking them to check out all the calls that were made on Monday. Hailey did have my cell phone at home and access to it. That would have been the cell phone she was on. She didn`t use Shawn`s cell phone, but they`re checking them both, getting the records off of both of those. And hopefully, we`re going to have answers from the cell phones tonight.
GRACE: OK. So this has nothing to do with you being under any kind of suspicion at all. This has to do with the fact that your little girl and you shared a cell phone, and they`re trying to figure out who she was calling and who was calling her, correct?
BILLIE DUNN: Correct. I left the cell phone at home while I was at work, for the kids.
GRACE: OK. What about your boyfriend? Why do they have his cell phone?
BILLIE DUNN: They have his cell phone, too. It was around probably just for 15 minutes, and she didn`t use it but they`re looking at his, also.
GRACE: I want to go to Ben Levitan, telecommunications expert, joining us out of Raleigh. Ben, these phones were disposable phones. What does that mean? Will police be able to track them?
BEN LEVITAN, TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPERT (via telephone): It doesn`t matter, Nancy. A prepaid phone, or like you call it, a disposable phone, is exactly the same as any other phone. It can be traced. It can be wiretapped. It makes no sense for the police to take the phones away. All the information they need is available from the phone companies, and that information for every person involved in this should be grabbed right now.
GRACE: I want to go back to Billie Dunn. Billie, you`re Hailey`s mother, and tonight you are making a public plea for her return. What can you tell me about these bloodhounds? We are learning police have brought bloodhounds out to your home, and they went from your home to a local motel?
BILLIE DUNN: Yes. I kind of don`t know what to say now since I heard police were being tight-lipped about it, but I`ll go ahead and say they started toward her dad`s house. They didn`t go there. They stopped, turned around, went to her friend`s, went to that motel, where they told me they`re reviewing video surveillance. There was video surveillance there. But didn`t have much luck there.
GRACE: And what motel is it, Billie? What is the name of the motel?
BILLIE DUNN: Western Inn or Western Suites. It`s a new motel close to my house.
GRACE: How far away is it?
BILLIE DUNN: Three to four blocks.
GRACE: Just three to four blocks.
BILLIE DUNN: Right.
GRACE: And what else did police tell you?
BILLIE DUNN: We hear that another lady says she saw Hailey, her friend and a boy she didn`t recognize Monday evening -- it was already dark -- walking on the main street by a store. So they`re looking at that video surveillance, too, seeing if that story checks out, see if they can put her somewhere that evening.
I`m just told that there are a ton of tips coming in, and they`re checking out everything. And they say when they hear somebody thinks they`ve seen Hailey an hour or two away, they`re running over there, checking video surveillance at a Burger King.
GRACE: Everybody, you are seeing shots of a 13-year-old cheerleader, basically vanished from in front of her own home. Tonight, we learn bloodhounds tracing her scent to a local motel, but yet no appearance of the little girl on the motel surveillance. Where is 13-year-old Hailey? Tonight, her mother and father are taking your calls live.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirteen-year-old Hailey Dunn is missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to have her back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police desperately trying to find the 8th grader. After she leaves her home to walk over to a friend`s house, where she was supposed to have a sleepover. But Hailey never arrives.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILLIE DUNN: I want her to know that I have to have her back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirteen-year-old Hailey Dunn left home to walk over to a friend`s house for a sleepover.
BILLIE DUNN: Her dad has to have her back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But Hailey never makes it.
BILLIE DUNN: We all need her back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does a popular, smart student simply vanish?
GRACE: Broad daylight.
BILLIE DUNN: It wasn`t rare for Hailey to walk a short distance during daylight.
GRACE: Leaves home around lunchtime, heads by foot down the street.
BILLIE DUNN: She only had four to five blocks to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 8th grade cheerleader.
GRACE: She`s never seen again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No signs that she was going anywhere.
BILLIE DUNN: I`ve never had to worry about Hailey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No sign of what happened to this girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) terrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. The latest developments in the search for the 13-year-old cheerleader missing out of Colorado City, Texas. At first, cops discount her disappearance as a runaway -- in fact, just a runaway. After our broadcast live last night, it has been upgraded to a missing persons case.
Out to Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation. Weigh in, Marc.
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, this case has been horribly mismanaged from the beginning. And in fact, if it wasn`t for the community standing up and advocating on behalf of this girl like they did, we wouldn`t even have a story now.
Here`s what needs to happen. The first thing that needs to happen is that the mom`s boyfriend has to do what I did. He has to march right into the police station and demand that they give him a polygraph so that they can move beyond him and find out what happened to this girl.
They need to canvass the neighborhood and talk to every neighbor between the point where she left and the point where she was supposed to go. They need to do searches or they need to do checks on the registered sex offenders within that community. And they also need to have a much more professionally organized search and rescue effort so that they can comb that area and see if she might be found somewhere nearby. Those are the beginning steps.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight out of New York, Susan Moss, family law attorney, child advocate, Atlanta, Ray Giudice, defense attorney, out of New York, Alex Sanchez, veteran defense attorney. Weigh in, Moss.
SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Last seen on the lawn, now she`s up and gone! This is a bad sign! Cheerleaders don`t just run away unless it`s with the quarterback! What I think needs to happen is that they need to center on that friend`s house. If the dogs found the scent going to this friend`s house, who was there? What did the neighbors see? Who saw people around that area? That may be the key.
GRACE: To Ray and Alex. I`ll start with you, Giudice. Why hasn`t the boyfriend done just what Marc Klaas has done, volunteered for a poly? The mother, Billie Dunn, says to police, Here I am, strap me up. What`s his problem?
RAYMOND GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Marc respectfully and correctly comes at this issue from a father, a parent, and a man that is doing great work in helping find missing children. From a defense lawyer`s perspective, and with some of these inconsistencies that I`ve already heard in these facts, I would not advise him to take a poly unless he could pass one in the privacy of my office first.
GRACE: Hold on. Alex Sanchez, it sounded like an inconsistency because last night, the mom says he just got home from work at 3:00 o`clock. Now we find out he was at his mom`s. I asked her that. She had a perfect explanation for that.
ALEX SANCHEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, but I don`t know if he`s refused to take a polygraph test. But if he`s, in fact, refused to take a polygraph test, you know, that raises concerns for me and it raises concerns for the police.
GRACE: OK, let`s go to the source...
SANCHEZ: And they need to concentrate on that boyfriend.
GRACE: You`re right, Alex Sanchez. Billie Dunn, what about your boyfriend? Has he agreed to take a polygraph?
BILLIE DUNN: He will take a polygraph in the morning. Yes, ma`am. It`s set up for in the -- hopefully, early.
GRACE: Well, there you go.
BILLIE DUNN: But it is set up for tomorrow.
GRACE: To the lawyers, he is set up for a polygraph first thing in the morning. He`s not dragging his feet. That says a lot to me. But still, the big question tonight, where is this girl?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Take a look at 13-year-old Hailey Dunn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you seen 13-year-old cheerleader Hailey Dunn?
GRACE: Where is Hailey?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hailey, supposed to walk over to a friend`s house.
BILLIE DUNN: I thought she was at Mary Beth`s.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But never arrives.
BILLIE DUNN: Hailey never made it over there. She never spent the night.
GRACE: Did anyone see her out walking at all? Can we confirm that she was out walking to her friend`s house?
BILLIE DUNN: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Along with us tonight, taking your calls, the mother and the father. Now, the two are separated. They`ve long been separated. He lives across the street from the little girl. With us right now, Clint Dunn. Mr. Dunn, thank you for being with us.
CLINT DUNN, FATHER: Thank you.
GRACE: Mr. Dunn, did you know that Hailey was on her way over?
CLINT DUNN: No, I didn`t.
GRACE: How often did she come visit you? You live right across the street, correct?
CLINT DUNN: Yes. She comes over every day.
GRACE: At what time?
CLINT DUNN: At all times. She might come over for five minutes, she might come over and spend all day. She comes over every day.
GRACE: Does she let you know she`s coming or does she just show up?
CLINT DUNN: She just shows up.
GRACE: Well, you know what?
CLINT DUNN: She just walks across the field most of the time.
GRACE: Mr. Dunn, I get it. For many years while we were growing up, my grandmother lived right across the street from us, and we`d go back and forth and back and forth. So yes, I`m not surprised she didn`t call before she came. So Mr. Dunn, tell me your recollection of what happened the day she goes missing.
CLINT DUNN: She just disappeared.
GRACE: OK. Let`s back it up a little bit. Did you see her at all that day?
CLINT DUNN: I didn`t see her at all that day.
GRACE: When did you first learn she was missing?
CLINT DUNN: I seen her the day before. Later on that night, David came over -- my son came over and asked me...
BILLIE DUNN: Tuesday.
CLINT DUNN: ... or Tuesday, he came over asking me if I had seen her, if she`d came over that day. And I hadn`t.
GRACE: OK.
CLINT DUNN: So it was the next day.
GRACE: Let me think just a moment. You told me you saw her the day before?
CLINT DUNN: Yes. She spent the night with me Christmas night.
GRACE: So Saturday night, she spent the night with you?
CLINT DUNN: Yes. And Sunday, she was there at the house with me.
GRACE: Who first told you that she was missing?
CLINT DUNN: My son, David.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hailey supposed to walk over to a friend`s house but never arrives. She`s never been seen since.
BILLIE DUNN: Several leads. And they say they`re checking into all of them, but they keep hitting dead ends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This is Hailey Darlene Dunn.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Thirteen-year-old cheerleader.
BILLIE DUNN, MOM OF MISSING TEEN CHEERLEADER, HAILEY B. DUNN: She`s a wonderful girl.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She was headed to friend`s house for a sleepover.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Last time anybody saw her alive --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But never made it. The search for Hailey Dunn begins.
B. DUNN: I left from work and went to the police station in Colorado City and reported her missing.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This is Hailey Dunn`s house, the last place she was seen before disappearing.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Who would want to harm the excellent student who has lots of friends and is popular in school?
B. DUNN: Somebody took her. She`s mine and Clint`s daughter. We want her back.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Hailey, 5`1," 120 pounds with pierced ears.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Hailey`s friends and family are desperate to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Last seen wearing navy blue sweatpants, a light colored short sleeve t-shirt and pink and white shoes.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Her family and friends describe her as a bubbly 13-year-old girl that`s involved in sports, cheerleading and church. A 13-year-old this whole community wants home safely.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. And joining us tonight, Hailey`s mother and father. They have been separated for three years. They`re in the middle of a divorce. But they are uniting tonight in the effort to find their little girl.
Take a look at this 13-year-old cheerleader. She was on her way to her dad`s house, it was right across the street. Then for a sleepover at a little friend`s down the road, maybe four to six blocks max. She`s gone.
Since when did it occur in America that you can`t let your child walk four blocks down the street from your own front door?
Out to the lines. Sue in Wisconsin. Hi, Sue.
SUE, CALLER FROM WISCONSIN: Hi, Nancy. How are you tonight?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
SUE: Well, what I`m picking up on after raising four kids is the idea that she was to go to the friend`s house, Mary Beth, and she never showed up. If Mary Beth was expecting her, had she been trying to call either the mother or the boyfriend to try to see where is she?
I mean she was maybe an hour late or she`s two hours late, or is that just the boyfriend`s story that she was going off to a sleepover?
GRACE: OK. Out to you, Alexis Weed, our producer on the story. What do you know?
ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: That is the boyfriend`s story, according to what the mother`s told us.
And also, Nancy, you know Hailey didn`t take any of her personal belongings with her. Her mother had told us if she was planning to leave, she likely would have taken a backpack, some sort of bag other than just the clothes that were on her back.
GRACE: Now wait a minute, Alexis. I don`t know if you grew up going to sleepovers across the street or not. But when you say if she was planning to leave, let`s be specific. Do you mean if she`s planning to run away or she`s planning to go to a sleepover?
WEED: Well, Nancy, according to the mother, she hadn`t even told this friend that she was planning to have this sleepover. The police have interviewed the friend, the friend`s boyfriend, and as far as we know, this friend had no idea she had plans for a sleepover that night.
GRACE: You mean the little girl?
WEED: Yes.
GRACE: Mary Beth or the little girl`s mom?
WEED: The little girl.
GRACE: All right. Because when I grew up it was very common if I was going to spend the night at my little friend`s house, I would just go over there. I didn`t need to take anything. I was coming right back the next morning, right across the street. So why would you pack a big bag?
So if she was planning a sleepover, you know I don`t really see that she would have dragged a bag along with her, but let`s ask the mom.
Billie Dunn is with us, joining us from Colorado City, Texas.
Miss Dunn, when she would typically go for a sleepover, would she take a bag and take a lot of stuff with her?
B. DUNN: Nothing at all.
GRACE: OK.
B. DUNN: She would --
GRACE: Go ahead, dear.
B. DUNN: She would just go over there with whatever was on her back, and wait until the next day to come home, brush her teeth, take a bath, freshen up.
GRACE: Right. Right. That makes perfect sense to me. So the fact that she did not take anything with her, that doesn`t strike you as unusual.
B. DUNN: Right.
GRACE: All right.
B. DUNN: That`s why I`m getting worried that maybe my baby didn`t leave on her own for this long amount of time.
GRACE: OK. Miss Dunn, I want to go back over why the local police said this was a runaway. Why did they classify her as a runaway?
B. DUNN: All I know is because nobody saw her being abducted.
GRACE: Marc Klaas, that`s breaking my heart. I mean, did we get an Amber alert? Did we get anything at all?
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, you see, this is the perfect fall-back position for law enforcement. And it`s really a 20th century fall-back position.
If they can say that it was a runaway that absolves them from responsibility and puts the onus of the recovery on the shoulders of the parents. It`s irresponsible. It`s -- it`s not understanding the dangers that children live with in this country, and it`s shirking your responsibility. And as I said, this has been mismanaged by law enforcement from the beginning.
GRACE: You know, Marc, it`s gotten to a point now -- I mean I was this way when the twins were first born, when they go outside the home, either me or my husband or my parents, their grandparents, are with them.
I mean there is no way, no way would I let them go play in the front yard anymore. And this is why.
I want to go back out to the lines, but very quickly, you may have been hearing a dog barking when I was speaking to Billie and Clint Dunn.
Joining me right now, Brad Dennis is with us. He`s the director of Search Operations for KlaasKids Foundation, and they made an opportunity for him to be with us tonight. He`s got his dog with him.
Brad, let`s go over what you believe may have happened with them looking for the little girl. Now, my question is, if she had walked in the direction of that Western Motel before, I mean it`s only a few blocks away, according to the mom, could they have picked up that scent? Did it have to be from that day?
BRAD DENNIS, DIRECTOR OF SEARCH OPERATIONS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: They definitely could have picked up that scent. You know the key for the bloodhounds is to get activated as quickly as possible, and from the information from your earlier caller, basically suggested that they were activated early on.
But bloodhounds can definitely do this job. I mean they are trailing machines. That`s exactly what they`re bred for. They have 230 million olfactory receptors inside their nose, which is 40 times that of what we have.
GRACE: Let me ask you this. How would they be able to tell, for instance, that she went from the home to the father`s house and then toward this motel? How do we know that she wasn`t coming back backwards? I mean how -- can the dogs determine that? I don`t see how they can.
DENNIS: They actually -- they do this a number of times whenever they`re setting up their training and their trailing exercises, is they`ll run backtracks. They`ll have their subject actually run backtracks. It will give a different indication to the handler from the canine that this is a fresher scent versus the older scent.
GRACE: Well, you know, you just taught me something new. Thank you, Brad Dennis. I was wondering about that.
I want to go back to Billie Dunn, this is Hailey`s mother.
How far did they tell you the dogs tracked your little girl to that Western Motel? Did they track her into the lobby? Did they track to a certain room, to the parking lot? How far did the trail go?
B. DUNN: They didn`t tell me that. They just let me know that to the friends, to the motel, and they`re reviewing the video at the motel, and calling everybody who had been checked in to the motel that day.
GRACE: Now a woman in the community says she spotted Hailey that evening. This would have been Monday evening, with the little neighbor girl and the neighbor girl`s little boyfriend. What would he have been, 12, 13? Is that the little neighbor she was going to visit?
B. DUNN: No. That was the girl she was going to visit.
GRACE: What did this woman see?
B. DUNN: She saw Hailey, Mary Beth and a boy that she didn`t recognize.
GRACE: Now have you -- have you spoken with Mary Beth? Did that in fact happen?
B. DUNN: I hadn`t asked her about that. I`m letting the police handle Mary Beth. I do call her to ask her hey, what did Hailey say to you on Monday, did she call you Monday, did you guys text, did she say she was going somewhere else Monday, or with another friend Monday, and she tells me no.
GRACE: Did she say she even saw Hailey on Monday?
B. DUNN: She hasn`t told me that she did. No.
GRACE: OK. So to your knowledge, Hailey never went to Mary Beth`s?
B. DUNN: Right. That`s what she says.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Stephanie in Ohio. Hi, Stephanie.
STEPHANIE, CALLER FROM OHIO: Hi -- hi, Nancy. I`m so glad to hear you`re getting better.
GRACE: I am. Thank you.
STEPHANIE: And I always keep you in my prayers. You are my favorite.
GRACE: Stephanie, thank you.
STEPHANIE: You`re welcome, sweetheart. My question is, you know I keep hearing about the dogs tracking the little girl to the hotel, and they`re reviewing the tapes in the hotel.
What about the outside cameras? And you know, they should reach a pretty good distance around that whole hotel area, so have they looked at them? You know, if she was in the parking lot?
GRACE: Good question. To Andrew J. Scott, former chief of police, Boca Raton, president, AJS Consulting, what do you know about motel surveillance?
ANDREW J. SCOTT, FMR. CHIEF OF POLICE, BOCA RATON, FL.; PRESIDENT, AJS CONSULTING: Motel surveillance is usually better than most and hopefully in this particular town it`s the same case. They are always placing monitors outside of the hotel premises looking out into the parking lots as well as into the lobby and what have you. So there should be some surveillance camera footage if the young girl was indeed at the hotel. So that`s a good lead.
GRACE: And, and, Andrew, if the motel hasn`t taped over it. You know? That`s what happened in the Chandra Levy case. They taped over it every 72 hours.
SCOTT: That`s correct. And hopefully that`s not the case, Nancy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Take a look at 13-year-old Hailey Dunn. Absolutely precious.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just how does a popular smart student simply vanish?
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A 13-year-old cheerleader --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: No sign of what happened to her.
GRACE: Broad daylight.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: No sign that she was going anywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Hailey Dunn left home to walk over to a friend`s house for a sleepover.
GRACE: She`s never seen again.
B. DUNN: I want her to know that I have to have her back. Her dad has to have her back. We all need her back.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you seen 13-year-old cheerleader Hailey Dunn?
B. DUNN: My boyfriend, he came home from work, he seen Hailey. Hailey was there.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She leaves her home to walk over to a friend`s house, where she was supposed to have a sleepover.
B. DUNN: Four to five blocks.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She didn`t take anything with her when she left her house.
B. DUNN: Hailey never made it over there. She never spent the night.
GRACE: Take a look at 13-year-old Hailey Dunn. Absolutely precious.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just how does a popular smart student simply vanish?
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Very quickly, I want to go to Dr. Robert Kaufmann, doctor of internal medicine, Atlanta.
Dr. Kaufmann, if there had been a cleanup of a crime scene, whether it`s in a hotel, whether it`s in a car, a vehicle, a home, what would you expect to find, Dr. Kaufmann, as far as DNA or forensic evidence goes?
DR. ROBERT KAUFMANN, M.D., INTERNAL MEDICINE: Well, the cleanup, like we do in our office if we have a blood spill or something like that, you use ammonia-based products to clean that up.
And that`s not the typical products that you use in normal cleaning of a hotel. So that`s the first thing you would notice. But even the best cleaner, there always seems to leave some spots or some specks or something that can be tested for DNA.
GRACE: To Dr. Leslie Austin, psychotherapist out of New York.
Dr. Austin, it says a lot to me that this mother has been saying from the get-go, please polygraph me. The boyfriend, her live-in, whether we agree with that or not, he has agreed to take a polygraph first thing in the morning.
DR. LESLIE AUSTIN, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: These people seem very credible to me and also this seems like a really good little girl who may have just had a heartbeat of bad judgment or met somebody somewhere.
I don`t think it sounds like she planned anything and she wasn`t trying to get away with anything. I think she just came randomly into some circumstance and it was a bad moment.
GRACE: I want to go back out to the lines. Rosemary, Ohio, hi, Rosemary.
ROSEMARY, CALLER FROM OHIO: Hi, how are you? And God bless you.
GRACE: I`m good, dear. Thank you. What`s your question, dear?
ROSEMARY: You know I agree with this young lady that just was on the air a moment ago. What about the Internet predators? She`s a cheerleader, popular, blond hair, and you know, maybe she met someone online.
GRACE: You know let`s talk about that.
ROSEMARY: And may have enticed her to the hotel.
GRACE: What about, Billie Dunn? This is Hailey`s mother. You know your daughter is beautiful. What kind of cheerleader was she?
B. DUNN: Just one of the middle school cheerleaders for this year.
GRACE: So her cheerleading was basically at the school and at other middle schools, right?
B. DUNN: Right.
GRACE: And police --
B. DUNN: They mostly -- they just stayed in town.
GRACE: So police have taken your two disposable cell phones, they have also taken -- you have a computer at home?
B. DUNN: No.
GRACE: So have they looked at her Facebook account?
B. DUNN: They say they are looking into her Facebook. She did have a Facebook account.
GRACE: Now when you say that they didn`t know, the friend didn`t know that she was coming for a sleepover, are you talking about Mary Beth and her mother, or just the mother?
B. DUNN: Just Mary Beth.
GRACE: OK.
B. DUNN: She`s the only one I`ve asked.
GRACE: Did your daughter have a boyfriend?
B. DUNN: She had a boyfriend that I didn`t know about, about three weeks ago, for a short time.
GRACE: How old was he?
B. DUNN: He was 13 also.
GRACE: OK. I want to go back to Clint Dunn. This is Hailey`s father, who has lived for some time across the street in an effort to be close to his family.
That day -- do you have a 16-year-old son, Clint?
CLINT DUNN, DAD OF MISSING TEEN CHEERLEADER HAILEY B. DUNN: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: Where was he the day that Hailey goes missing? Was he at home?
C. DUNN: He`s been at his friend`s house. And then came home --
B. DUNN: He was home later.
C. DUNN: Came home later that day.
GRACE: And is his name Davis? Is that who you`re talking about?
C. DUNN: Yes.
GRACE: OK. When Davis called you or came over to ask about Hailey, what exactly did he say?
C. DUNN: He just asked me if I had seen her, that she was supposed to come over to my house and then she was supposed to go to Mary Beth`s, and that everybody was starting to get worried about her. And that`s when we started getting the police and started realizing that she was missing.
GRACE: Do you know, Mr. Dunn, why police first called her a runaway?
C. DUNN: I don`t know. We stressed to the police that she wouldn`t run away, that she`s wasn`t -- she`s never said those words in her life. And --
GRACE: You know, I got to tell you, Mr. Dunn, I don`t want to stir the pot here, but that was a critical, critical error to call this a runaway. They lost a lot of time finding her.
OK, everybody, tip line. 325-7285-294.
Very quickly, I want to take you to Knoxville, Tennessee, and another missing child.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Clyde Dougherty and his wife plead for information on Allison Dougherty`s location.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just bring her home.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The teen has been missing since around 11:00 Sunday night --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- after reportedly leaving her mother`s house and saying she was going over to a friend`s house.
Is there a crack in the case of missing Tennessee girl Allison Dougherty? Police reveal they have the man she was believed to be last seen with in custody. Investigators have not released his name but he`s now being held for questioning. He has a lengthy criminal past.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But Allison is still missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just like to make sure this young lady is returned safely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That would be the best thing that`s ever happened in my life besides seeing her being born.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Sixteen-year-old Allison Daugherty is missing out of Knoxville, Tennessee. Has she been spotted in the presence and the company in the vehicle with a 27-year-old man with a long rap sheet?
Cops -- as we go to air -- find him but not her. What about it, Nicole Partin?
NICOLE PARTIN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: The 16-year-old Allison last seen Sunday evening now breaking developments. Authorities are intensifying their search after the man they believe she could have been with has been located. He is in police custody.
She was last seen with her mother at her mother`s home, in the Sunny Side Apartment, this in a very small town, Wartburg, Tennessee, with a population of less than 1,000 people.
Authorities have 27-year-old individual that they were looking for but still no sign of Allison.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. I`m telling you about another little girl missing, a 16-year-old out of Knoxville, Tennessee.
Joe Gomez, KTRH News Radio, what do you know?
JOE GOMEZ, REPORTER, KTRH NEWS RADIO: Nancy, right now police are concerned if this is just a kidnapping case or this is something much worse. Right now police have in their custody the man who potentially took little Allison.
This man is nearly 30 years old, has a long criminal history ranging from various felonies. We don`t know the exact details on that. But she has been missing for three days now. Three days no trace of little Allison but they have the man who might have taken her. We just don`t know what to think, Nancy.
GRACE: OK. Joe, what can you tell me about her disappearance and why do we think she was with this guy? Unidentified male?
GOMEZ: Well, she left her home Sunday night. She told her parents that she was going to go to a friend`s house but in reality she was actually going to go meet up with some 27-year-old man who lived in the same apartment complex as she did, that she had apparently some romantic relationship with.
Keep in mind she is only 16 and this guy is nearly 30 years old. Well, fast forward three days later. She is still missing but police found this guy apparently hiding out at his grandma`s house. Still no trace of little Allison, Nancy.
GRACE: The tip line, everyone, 800-TBI-FIND. 1-800-824-3463.
Let`s stop and remember Army Lieutenant Colonel Leon James II, 46, Sackets Harbor, New York. Died, Walter Reed Medical Center from injuries sustained in Iraq. Awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, Army Commendation, passed up retirement to continue in the Army.
Loved the outdoors, running, a good cigar, and being with family. An elder at United Presbyterian Church. Leaves behind mother Jean, three sisters, two brothers, wife Sylvia, daughters, Maria, Rachel and Katherine.
Leon James II, an American hero.
Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us. And tonight prayers for 4-year-old Florida boy Ayden in the fight of a lifetime battling spinal cancer. During surgery docs removed 30 percent of a tumor and now he is undergoing chemotherapy. So far, the tumor has not grown.
Ayden, please keep fighting.
For information, go to CureforAyden, A-Y-D-E-N.com.
And tonight a hello to Georgia friend, 3-month-old Carson. And let me tell you, when his mommy Abby raced to the hospital to deliver Carson, she was wearing her NANCY GRACE t-shirt.
Everybody, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp, Eastern. And until then, good bye, friend.
END
