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Nancy Grace
Police Say Missing Teen Cheerleader May Be Hiding
Aired January 10, 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. Bloodhounds scan the neighborhood and the local motel. Police combing that motel surveillance video, searching for images of Hailey.
We learn officials seize the cell phones belonging to Mommy and the live-in boyfriend, but why? This as police polygraphing friends and neighbors. Mommy volunteers for a lie detector. Local police call in the Rangers. In the hours after we go live with the story, local Colorado police, who originally dismiss the little girl`s disappearance as, quote, "just a runaway," finally upgrade the case to missing person. But how many critical hours were lost?
Bombshell tonight. Police say Hailey`s family and Mommy`s live-in boyfriend changed their stories. Yet cops issue a statement they believe the girl is quote, in "hiding." This as the same cops who claim she`s in hiding searching an abandoned cotton gin and combing creek bottoms and the Colorado River. Plus, searchers zero in on the area surrounding the home of Mommy`s boyfriend. And has a sighting emerged? As police take DNA samples from Hailey`s parents, tonight, where is 13-year-old cheerleader Hailey Dunn?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After searching the skies, combing the fields and retracing footsteps, still no sign of Hailey Dunn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m confident we`re going to locate Hailey. I feel like Hailey does not want to be found. I think she`s in hiding.
BILLIE DUNN, HAILEY`S MOTHER: They asked if I knew anything about the disappearance of Hailey.
GRACE: Mommy volunteers for a polygraph.
BILLIE DUNN: If I caused the disappearance of Hailey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) my heart.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of buzz surrounding Hailey`s mother`s boyfriend, Shawn Adkins. He was the last person to see Hailey alive.
BILLIE DUNN: As soon as I found out he failed the test, I told him I didn`t want him back at my house.
GRACE: Leaves home around lunchtime, heads by foot down the street.
BILLIE DUNN: She only had four to five blocks to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No sign 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: And tonight, a 16-year-old straight-A honor student, a track and field superstar, vanishes over Christmas break. Tonight, where is missing girl Phylicia Barnes?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Phylicia Barnes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The teen disappeared during a visit with relatives in northwest Baltimore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If she comes up missing, it`s devastating.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every hour that passes, we get more and more concerned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She left the apartment where she was staying to get something to eat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Several hours later, her cell phone went dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do suspect some type of foul play.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officers from Baltimore homicide missing persons patrol.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They went building to building, handing out flyers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dive teams and cadaver dogs are scouring the falls (ph) and dense woods.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say they executed a number of search warrants.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No persons of interest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No smoking gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No suspects at this point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To date, it turned up nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s a picture of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want Phylicia`s picture on every television screen across the region.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want my daughter back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. Police say Hailey`s family and Mommy`s live- in change their stories. Cops issue a statement saying they believe the little girl is, quote, "in hiding." But these very same cops who say she`s in hiding are searching the bottoms of creek beds and the Colorado River and an abandoned cotton gin. They think she`s hiding at the bottom of a creek river? No, I don`t think so.
Searchers zeroing in on the area surrounding the home of Mommy`s live- in boyfriend. And has a sighting emerged? Police taking DNA samples from Hailey`s parents, but where is 13-year-old cheerleader Hailey Dunn?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m confident that we`re going to locate Hailey. I feel like Hailey does not want to be found. I think she`s in hiding.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Hailey Dunn`s house, the last place she was seen before disappearing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`re trying to find two teenaged girls who may be holding the missing piece to this puzzle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Witnesses seen two girls walking with her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last person to see Hailey Dunn alive was her mother`s boyfriend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before she disappeared.
GRACE: She`s never seen again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And for Hailey`s mother, Billie Dunn, frustration continues to mount.
BILLIE DUNN: It`s hard to hang onto hope when you`ve gotten nowhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hailey`s friends and family are desperate to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 13-year-old this whole community wants home safely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mom`s boyfriend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Red flags being raised on Shawn.
SHAWN ADKINS, BILLIE DUNN`S BOYFRIEND: My main focus is just Hailey.
BILLIE DUNN: He was very tearful, told me, You know I love you, you know I love Hailey and David. You know I couldn`t do this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shawn told me that he actually got home at about 3:00 o`clock and Hailey left the house at about 3:15.
BILLIE DUNN: He failed that test. Why did you fail that test?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Straight out to Michael Board. Michael, before you get going, this is what I found out right before we go to air. We investigate that local motel ourselves, Michael Board. We find out they`ve got surveillance inside and outside. I got all the answers tonight. They keep their surveillance video for at least 30 days, and that all of the surveillance video has been combed over by police -- outside, the parking lot, inside, on all the halls, the lobby. Nothing of Hailey, OK? So that`s a big scratch.
What do you know tonight, Michael Board? Tell me something.
MICHAEL BOARD, WOAI NEWSRADIO: We know that they`re actually running two concurrent investigations. First of all, there is a criminal case going on here. Investigators believe that there is still the possibility that Hailey may have been kidnapped, may be being held by somebody, may have even been harmed in some way. At the same time they`re investigating this, they also say there is the possibility that Hailey may be in hiding somewhere. Not only here in Texas, but I just got off the phone with investigators a short time ago. They believe that she may be in hiding in another state and maybe she moved west to either New Mexico or Arizona in this case, so this is...
GRACE: Oh, really? Is that so?
BOARD: This is now a nationwide investigation.
GRACE: What, she rented a u-haul-it, a 13-year-old girl? And now she`s living -- what, did she set up in a penthouse condo somewhere? It`s a 13-year-old girl! She`s managed to put the slip over on the feds, the FBI, the Colorado police and the Texas Rangers.
BOARD: Nancy, Colorado City is right on I-20. It`s a major trucking route that runs all the way across Texas and into New Mexico and all the way over to Arizona. It would be very easy to hitch a ride with a trucker. I`m not saying that`s what happened, but that is one of the things that they`re investigating. They`re going so far -- I told you exclusively last week that they put up billboards all along I-20 with her name and her face. I`m told that there`s plans to also put up billboards in New Mexico and in Arizona.
GRACE: Wait! Stop! Put him up! Put him up! Michael Board, I don`t care who says what and who`s releasing what statement. But I find it irresponsible to put a theory out there that just confounds common sense. I mean, come on, Michael Board, if this little 13-year-old girl were out hitchhiking on -- what did you say, I what? Interstate what?
BOARD: You know, she could have...
GRACE: Interstate 20? Whatever the interstate was...
BOARD: Interstate 20, yes.
GRACE: OK.
BOARD: Interstate 20.
GRACE: OK. A 13-year-old girl is out on I-20 hitchhiking, and you don`t want to believe there had to be 100 people, including truckers who`ve got their CB radios right there, nobody saw anything? I don`t believe that. If she were at a trucking rest stop, people would have seen her. They would have reported it. This girl is not out hitchhiking on Interstate 20!
BOARD: Well, we know that she does have friends that are old enough to have driver`s licenses. She could have caught a ride with a friend west.
GRACE: What friend would that be? You got any friends missing?
BOARD: We don`t know -- it`s -- it is...
GRACE: A fantasy friend.
BOARD: It is a scattershot investigation. It is a scattershot investigators. (SIC) They told me this...
GRACE: That`s a nice way to put it.
BOARD: ... throwing everything up...
GRACE: Michael Board, look...
BOARD: ... against the wall to see what sticks.
GRACE: I`m not blaming you. I`m not blaming you.
BOARD: No.
GRACE: I`m just saying, instead of focusing on the reality that there were -- according to the mother, that there were bloodhounds that hit on her going to this local motel, all right, that...
BOARD: Which is right on I-20. That motel is on I-20, Nancy.
GRACE: Yes. But to put it out there, the theory that she has gone with a friend to another state -- what friend would that be? Oh, I don`t know. OK. Was she hitchhiking? I don`t know. All right. Then how can you support this theory you`re coming up with? I mean, I`m all about finding the girl and not throwing out wild, zany theories.
What else do you have for me besides she`s taken up in another state?
BOARD: Well, they did do investigations of some of the rivers, some of the low-lying areas. They did find some evidence. They don`t know if it`s related to this case or not. But you know, they are running that criminal investigation that she might have been harmed in this case, and that is still really a very big part of this investigation. I know they talked a lot about inconsistency within family members while they`ve talked to police.
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa...
BOARD: That`s bringing up big red flags.
GRACE: ... whoa, whoa! You know what? The way you say that, it sounds like maybe some kind of a legal issue you might write in an appellate brief to the Supreme Court.
Break it down, Jean Casarez. Inconsistencies in statements -- what does that mean, and who is being inconsistent?
JEAN CASAREZ, "IN SESSION": It means somebody`s not telling the truth, in plain English. Investigators have gone on the record, Nancy, to say that family members are inconsistent in their statements, and they have also gone on the record to say Shane (SIC) Adkins -- Shawn Adkins, who is the boyfriend, is not a credible witness.
GRACE: Uh-oh. You know, that`s a euphemism. That`s saying it politely. When you say the last person to see the little girl alive that we know of is not a credible witness? What more do you know, Jean?
CASAREZ: Well, we do know that they have launched a huge search in Dunn (ph), Texas. Where is Dunn, Texas? Well, Dunn, Texas is allegedly where the boyfriend has been staying with his grandmother. But they have searched that area. We don`t know what they found or if they found anything. But there has been a huge foot search while at the same time, Nancy, they say they believe she`s alive and they`re not going to search Colorado City Lake because they`re looking for someone who is alive.
GRACE: So they`re looking in creek beds!
Out to Priscilla Luong, CNN affiliate KTAB. Thank you, Priscilla, for being with us. She`s joining us outside Hailey`s home. Priscilla, how can they say out of one side of their mouth, We think she`s alive, and out of the other side of their mouth, they`re searching creek beds and rivers and densely wooded areas for a body?
PRISCILLA LUONG, KTAB CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nancy, that is a loaded question. And I`m going to tell you why they think Hailey is still alive. There was actually a witness that called in a tip to authorities that they might have seen Hailey walking down the street between her mother`s house and her father`s house with two other girls. I was actually at an assembly over at Hailey`s middle school this morning, and I was told that they are looking for two teenage girls that might have some key information for investigators to cracking this case.
GRACE: But isn`t it true, Priscilla Luong, that those two little girls were sighted either Sunday or Monday? If they were sighted with her on Sunday, that does me no good! She went missing on Monday.
LUONG: Yes, that`s the thing, Nancy. That`s a little tough here. The witness doesn`t know if they saw the girls either on Monday or the day after Christmas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILLIE DUNN: A neighbor saw her out in my back yard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are still many questions that need to be answered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our main focus is just Hailey.
BILLIE DUNN: Wonderful to know that everybody cares and everybody wants her back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hailey Dunn walked out the doors of this house and was never seen again.
BILLIE DUNN: Hailey didn`t know that. I just want her to walk through the door.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Still no sign of the missing girl.
BILLIE DUNN: It`s frustrating.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last person to see Hailey Dunn alive was her mother`s boyfriend.
BILLIE DUNN: In the beginning, she didn`t like him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She didn`t like Shawn being there.
BILLIE DUNN: He had been pretty upset. He appeared shaken to me, also.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shawn says Hailey told him she was going to her father`s house.
CLINT DUNN, HAILEY`S FATHER: She might come over for five minutes. She might come over and spend all day. She comes over every day. I didn`t see her at all that day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then to a friend`s house down the road.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was revealed that bloodhounds traced Hailey`s scent to this hotel.
ADKINS: I would never do nothing to that little girl.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. But also taking your calls tonight live, Hailey`s mother and father, Billie and Clint Dunn, joining us at Colorado City, at Hailey`s home.
First to you, Ms. Dunn. Thank you for being with us. Ms. Dunn, why are they saying that you and the live-in boyfriend and the family have inconsistent statements? Who has changed their story?
BILLIE DUNN: I don`t know. I did ask one of the Rangers that because I heard that on the news last night also, and he`s supposed to be getting back with me. I asked him if there`s something I needed to clarify or something I need to know about.
GRACE: OK. I want to go back to you being told that you were deceptive on your polygraph test.
BILLIE DUNN: OK.
GRACE: Had you taken any drugs or smoked pot before the polygraph test?
BILLIE DUNN: No. But they knew I had taken some pain medicine and antibiotics for a bad tooth. They told us not to take any anxiety medication. I didn`t know I was going to take the test that day.
GRACE: OK. To Michael Board, WOAI Newsradio. Michael, what can you tell me about the polys?
BOARD: We`re told by investigators that both the mother and the mother`s boyfriend were not told the results of the polygraph test. I was told by the Texas Rangers who were involved with the polygraph testing that they were not told whether they passed or failed. So that might be some of the inconsistencies that we`re trying to get at.
GRACE: OK. You know, the issue about the poly is not helping me find the girl, OK? If that`s the only inconsistency, that`s not going to really affect the investigation. What do you know, Michael, about anything regarding the use of drugs before polys?
BOARD: I was told by investigators that there is a very strong sense that both the mother and the mother`s boyfriend have been involved with drug use in the past. They didn`t say how recently this was, but they did say that they believed in the past, both of them had been involved with drugs. They would say marijuana, but they said that was not the only drug. They believe there may have been some prescription drugs involved in this. And they said because of that, because of the drug use, they do not believe that these are credible witnesses.
GRACE: OK. Let me tell you something, Michael. And again, this is not about you. I`m not coming down on you. But if you corralled everybody in this country that`s on Prozac or Ambien or whatever, there`d be nobody left.
BOARD: Well...
GRACE: So to say they`re not credible witnesses because they smoked a joint back in 1977 or whatever, what does that have to do with Hailey`s disappearance? And I`m not even saying they did or they didn`t. But what I care about is the fact that they are saying, cops are saying the family, including the live-in boyfriend, are giving inconsistent statements. Now, to me, that says you changed your story.
Unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight out of Boston, Peter Elikann, defense attorney, author of "Superpredators." Also joining us out of New York, defense attorney, Joey Jackson.
When I hear "inconsistent statements," Peter Elikann, that is a bell of alarm. What does it say to you, that the family and the live-in have changed their stories, inconsistent statements?
PETER ELIKANN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I would agree, Nancy. Usually, it`s changing your story, inconsistent statements, that they really have a strong sense somebody`s lying. But if it`s just a problem with polygraph - - I mean, we all know there`s a reason why polygraphs aren`t allowed in courts. They`re so -- they can be very, very inaccurate, kind of a little bit helpful as far as an investigative tool, but they really are rather inaccurate. People can just be nervous and they can come up the wrong way, so...
GRACE: OK, Joey Jackson...
ELIKANN: ... therefore, if that`s all they have...
GRACE: ... according to experts, polygraphs are 97 percent accurate. But what I`m talking about is, when a cop says the family`s given inconsistent statements, to me that says they changed their story, not that they`re going back and forth about whether they passed their own polygraph!
JOEY JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I mean, it could potentially be that they`re being misleading, but there are other innocent explanations, Nancy, as well. People are anxious. People get stressed out. People do also believe they`re being accused, and therefore may not be as forthcoming. So there are innocent explanations as to why there may be inconsistencies.
GRACE: Tonight, we learn police searching creek beds, the Colorado River, as well as an abandoned cotton gin, but yet telling in public statements they believe the girl is in hiding and still alive. Where is Hailey?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The mother`s boyfriend, Shawn Adkins, said she was on her way to her father`s house and then to a friend`s, but she never made it.
BILLIE DUNN: She would 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.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This family where she was supposed to spend the night -- did they know she was going to spend the night?
GRACE: No. The little girl or the mother did not know she was coming to spend the night.
BILLIE DUNN: I wish I would have called to tell her good night. I wish I would have called the little girl`s phone that night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK, I`m getting breaking news right now. I want to go to Priscilla Luong with KTAB. Priscilla, what are you hearing?
LUONG: Well, Nancy, we just got a press release from senior trooper Sparky Dean, and he`s telling us that there is not enough evidence to show that Hailey was a runaway or is in hiding.
GRACE: Did you hear that, Michael Board?
BOARD: Yes, I did.
GRACE: So where are they going? This just sounds like a runaway train that nobody`s steering. They tell a whole...
BOARD: Nancy, a more, you know, appropriate explanation for this is it`s more like a shotgun blast. It`s all these different theories, and they don`t know what it is. I asked them today, I said, Is there any suspects or are there any persons of interest in this case? They said, Well, yes and no. Pretty much everybody is a suspect or person of interest in this case. So you know, it really is -- they`re not ruling anything out at this point.
GRACE: Well, I understand that. I understand that.
Let me go out to Marc Klaas, president, founder of Klaas Kids Foundation, joining us out of San Francisco. Marc, this is your expertise, missing children. You know what you`re talking about. You lived through it when Polly went missing. You were there for the trial, the perpetrator that took her, and now you`ve devoted your life to finding missing children.
Look, I don`t mind when cops don`t know what`s happening and they`re following every lead. That`s what we want them to do. But to put it out there, Oh, you know what? We think she`s still alive and she`s hiding out -- to disseminate that kind of information when you really don`t believe that, when you really are looking for something altogether different, I think, harms the investigation.
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I completely agree with you, and I think that there`s several things that are red flags here. First of all, I think saying that the mother is an unreliable witness because she might have used drugs in the past smacks of character assassination to me. I also don`t understand...
GRACE: Wait a minute! Or even if...
KLAAS: ... why anybody would admit to having...
GRACE: ... she used drugs now. And I`m not saying she does or she doesn`t, but people have children go missing all the time. You don`t have to be a nun, a priest or virgin to be a reliable witness!
KLAAS: Indeed, you do. And the whole idea that you would -- the whole idea that you would admit that you failed a polygraph or were told that you had, when you hadn`t, has no logic to it. It just doesn`t make sense on any level.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENIOR TROOPER SPARKY DEAN, TEXAS DEPT. OF PUBLIC SAFETY: I`m confident that we`re going the locate Hailey.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Nobody is holding out hope more than Hailey`s mom.
BILLIE DUNN, MOM OF MISSING TEEN CHEERLEADER, HAILEY B. DUNN: Come home to me. I need her.
DEAN: I feel like Hailey does not want to be found. I think she`s in hiding.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: One of the challenges investigators are facing in this case is the story some are telling isn`t the same as the one they told before.
DEAN: Family has not been forthcoming.
B. DUNN: She`s my daughter. She`s a 13-year-old baby. I want her back.
DEAN: Their discernment of the truth continues to change. Very frustrating.
B. DUNN: I want her home more than I`ve ever wanted anything in my life.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Two teenaged girls may be holding the missing piece to this puzzle.
DEAN: Witnesses seen two girls walking with her on Manual Street proximity.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Law enforcement says the girls were seen together just before Hailey went missing.
DEAN: If they`ve got any information they may know about Hailey or Hailey`s whereabouts or information that`s leading to us finding her, you know please come forward. And I think that we`re very receptive to that. So it`s a good day and a good group of students.
And again, they`re not in trouble. We`re just, you know, they may have information they don`t know they have. So we just want to ask them a few more questions and, you know, they`re back doing what seventh grade students do. We just appreciate the opportunity to speak with them and they talked with us.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: That officer was specifically referring to law enforcement going to Hailey`s class and interviewing all of the students, including two little girls that they believe were with Hailey either the day she went missing or the day before.
Joining me right now and taking your calls, Hailey`s mother and father, Billie and Clint Dunn.
Back out to Billie Dunn. Billie, cops were searching an abandoned cotton gin. Did they tell you why?
B. DUNN: No. We hear most of -- we hear a lot of the information over the news. We just now learned that they`re not thinking she`s run away and hiding out on her own anymore. That -- I guess they`re thinking something different. They -- we`re starting to get a little hopeful again that maybe she was just hiding out and maybe she was scared and now that hope is fading.
GRACE: And Billie, they`ve also -- our sources are saying, cops believe that she has run away before, but you told me that never happened.
B. DUNN: No. She never has.
GRACE: To Clint Dunn, Hailey`s father.
Clint, have you taken a polygraph yet?
CLINT DUNN, DAD OF MISSING TEEN CHEERLEADER HAILEY B. DUNN: No, I haven`t.
GRACE: Well, it sounds like they`ve strapped everybody up. What`s your holdup?
C. DUNN: I don`t know. I told them I`m ready to take a polygraph but they haven`t gave me one. They gave me DNA yesterday, they took my DNA. They`re not -- I don`t know.
GRACE: How did they get your DNA?
C. DUNN: A lot of questions every day. A cotton swab.
GRACE: To your mouth, to the inside of your mouth?
C. DUNN: The mouth.
GRACE: To Dr. Glenn Kolansky, board certified physician joining us out of New York, explain the swabbing of the inside of the mouth. How do you get DNA from a mere swab?
DR. GLENN KOLANSKY, M.D., BOARD CERTIFIED PHYSICIAN: Well, very easy. The swab gets some skin samples and basically when they`re looking for different samples, basically there`s two different kinds of DNA they look for. The nuclear DNA is usually from the father and usually the other form of DNA that -- mitochondrial is from the mother.
So basically they can look for two different specimens of DNA depending on what they find, or different -- you know, of decaying of a body. So basically if they get the mother and the father, they can compare those specimens to anything that they find, you know, to know if it`s related to her.
GRACE: We are taking your calls live, including Hailey`s mother and father. Marcia in North Carolina, hi, dear.
MARCIA, CALLER FROM PENNSYLVANIA: PA. But --
GRACE: Yes, I see that in my notes. Thank you. Joining us from Pennsylvania, hi, Marcia. What`s your question?
MARCIA: Well, first off, thanks for taking my call.
GRACE: Yes, ma`am.
MARCIA: And I want to say the police handling this case are a joke, because they -- I heard they wanted Texas EquuSearch to come out and they won`t even let them come out so they`re letting people search who don`t know what they`re doing.
On the show on Thursday, when you were asking Hailey`s dad about her walking across the street, I could have swore I heard him say that she would walk across the field and I read online also that she walked across a field, like 540 yards, so it wasn`t -- I just want clarification on that. And also, about her iPod. Does she still have that iPod or --
GRACE: OK. This -- hold on. Don`t let Marcia go. As to the iPod, it`s my understanding she had a knock-off iPod that quit working before she went missing.
And Marcia, your question to the father is does he live across a field or across a street from her? Right?
MARCIA: Yes. Yes.
GRACE: OK. What about that, Mr. Dunn, Clint Dunn, street or field?
C. DUNN: I live across the field, about 50 yards.
GRACE: About 50 yards.
C. DUNN: Yes.
GRACE: OK. Got it. Back to Marcia, does that answer your question?
MARCIA: Yes.
GRACE: And before we all get down on the cops, you know I have been very concerned about a few things that they`ve done, but here`s the deal. They`re trying everything. You got to give them that. Even though they released a statement that she may still be alive, that she`s in hiding, now they`ve withdrawn that, that was an avenue that they were pursuing.
Maybe it was wrong to put it out there as a theory when that`s not what the evidence is supporting, but at least they are trying everything. You got to give them credit for that. Plus they brought in the rangers, plus they brought in the feds.
Back to the lines. Eunice in New Hampshire, hi, Eunice.
EUNICE, CALLER FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE: Hello. Hello. I have a question about the boyfriend.
GRACE: OK. Yes, me, too.
EUNICE: When his job was eliminated, he -- I heard on the program that he was very angry. He got very angry about that. Now would this man have anger management problem, because if that is the case, then that anger will stay with him until when he got home, and maybe had some problems with the girl there or an argument with her. But there could be an anger -- anger management.
GRACE: To Billie Dunn, you`ve known him for, what, almost three years now? Did he have an anger management problem?
B. DUNN: No, ma`am. He did have a problem with one of the guys he worked with, but didn`t have a problem with Hailey.
GRACE: Have you questioned him again, Billie, about her disappearance? Have you gone over what happened that night?
B. DUNN: Yes, because I don`t know where my daughter is.
GRACE: And what did he say?
B. DUNN: I haven`t been talking to him much. He lets me know he loves us and he misses us. I just haven`t talked to him a lot. Tells me I know him --
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Well, let`s go back over what he said. Tell me what he said about her disappearance again.
B. DUNN: He said Monday he went to Big Springs, stayed at his mom`s, came home in the afternoon and got home around 3:00, and Hailey left shortly after that, around 3:15. He didn`t see her much at all. She just told him that she was going to go over to her dad`s and go to Mary Beth`s and stay the night.
GRACE: Did she have anything with her? Did he say she had a backpack or a bag or a pocketbook?
B. DUNN: No. He didn`t say that, but I`ve looked through her room and her bags are there. It doesn`t look like anything`s gone.
GRACE: What had she been doing that day before he got home?
B. DUNN: We don`t know.
GRACE: Although the neighbor saw her --
(CROSSTALK)
B. DUNN: Watching TV or -- right, walking around in the backyard talking on the phone. She did that a lot, usually if we were here. If she just wanted it to be more quiet where she could hear her friend, she would walk around in the backyard on the phone. She should have been staying in the house --
GRACE: What`s your response to police saying that you`re not a credible witness because of drug involvement?
B. DUNN: That`s ridiculous to me. It upsets me. And they tell me they trust me. I tell them that I trust that they know what they`re doing. They`re putting their brains together. They -- we hear so many different things. But that`s frustrating. I`m a credible witness. I`m not a liar.
GRACE: Everyone, we are taking your calls. We are talking about a 13-year-old little girl who has gone missing. This is her. Hailey Dunn, 5`1," 120 pounds, hazel eyes, brown hair with blond streaks. Please help us. There is a reward. The tip line, 325-728-5294.
In response to your e-mail requests and your calls, I brought you photos of the twins tonight. John David and Lucy, this is today, playing in the snow. This is us all out playing with our neighborhood friends.
That`s mommy in the pink hat with Lucy. There`s John David. We went down hills on the tops of trash cans. We did it all.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Hailey Dunn missing --
C. DUNN: We started getting out of the place and started realizing that she was missing.
ELEANOR ODOM, FELONY PROSECUTOR, DEATH PENALTY QUALIFIED: Time line is so important on this case.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Where is Hailey Dunn?
E. ODOM: In any missing person`s case.
GRACE: Where is this little cheerleader?
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Categorize the girl as a runaway for the first four days.
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": Why would anyone ever believe she left voluntarily?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The investigation is ongoing.
MARSHALL: There`s no evidence of all of that.
B. DUNN: They didn`t get the dogs out here until four days later.
GRACE: How many critical hours were lost?
B. DUNN: I want her home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s been gone too long.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lost time in this case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they say after so long that she might not come home.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Not giving up until they find what they`re searching for, 13-year-old Hailey Dunn.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Out to the lines. Rita in Texas. Hi, Rita.
RITA, CALLER FROM TEXAS: hi, Nancy. Glad to see you`re doing better.
GRACE: Thank you.
RITA: I have a question and then an afterthought.
GRACE: OK.
RITA: Since it`s not been established that the boyfriend actually saw this girl that day, who had seen her prior to his claim, and I would also like to just tell the ladies out there, really need to think hard and maybe think twice about meeting men over the Internet. That`s really not very safe.
GRACE: Rita, I know that the last sighting was a little bit after noon, that would be 12:00 p.m. Neighbors observed her in the backyard talking on a cell phone. It was a disposable phone that she shared with her mother and the cops have taken that, and practically everybody else`s cell phone. Just to see not that anyone is under suspicion, but to see who she was calling.
Also, I learned that the mom met this guy two and a half years ago on the Internet. They have been dating all this time, and he just moved in four months ago.
I want to go out to Mark Smith, retired detective, polygraph expert, VP at New Jersey Polygraphists, joining us out of New York.
Mark, what do you make of all this controversy about the polygraphs?
MARK SMITH, RETIRED DETECTIVE AND POLYGRAPH EXPERT: There`s no controversy. It`s used every day to solve criminal cases. The government depends on it for national security.
There`s no controversy. Obviously something happened in the boyfriend`s interview and/or polygraph that diverted this investigation a certain way.
GRACE: You know, that`s very well put. And the mom is saying that right before she went to take her poly, the police said well, your boyfriend just flunked. The police are saying no, that didn`t happen, but the word she used, Mark Smith, were that there had been -- excuse me, deception indicated.
Now typically a layperson would not use that type of police language unless they had heard it.
SMITH: That`s police language for you didn`t pass.
GRACE: You didn`t pass. Now the police are saying that did not happen.
I want to go to Dr. Jeff Gardere, psychologist, contributor at Healthguru.com.
Weigh in, Jeff.
JEFF GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST, CONTRIBUTOR TO HEALTHGURU.COM: Well, I think what`s going on here is whether Hailey Dunn ran away or not, the police are making some real value judgments about the family dynamics. Perhaps the mom living with the boyfriend, the boyfriend perhaps babysitting Hailey Dunn.
But they probably believe there was some sort of dynamic that was going on that might be a possibility as to why this little girl might run away.
GRACE: I want to go back to Jean Casarez.
Jean, what do you make of the allegations that the family and the live-in have had inconsistent statements?
JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Well, you know, I`ve been studying this and here`s one. I found an inconsistency, all right?
Shawn Adkins, and we heard it today from Billie Dunn tonight, she said that Shawn Adkins said that he last saw Hailey at 3:15 back at their home. But the two young girls that law enforcement finally found today at the middle school, witnesses say they saw those girls walking with Hailey between 1:00 and 3:00.
That`s earlier that she was out of the house, when the boyfriend said that he saw her at 3:15, when she said she was leaving to go spend the night at a little girlfriend`s house.
GRACE: You know what, Jean, if they saw her on Monday, you`re right.
CASAREZ: Yes.
GRACE: But the witnesses say they don`t know if they saw them on Monday or Sunday. But here`s the question.
To Billie, had she been in school on Monday? Was she off for Christmas break?
B. DUNN: No. She was out for Christmas break.
GRACE: So it would be entirely possible for her to have been walking along with two little friends at 1:00?
B. DUNN: Yes. And Sunday I was off of work. We all stayed home on Sunday.
GRACE: So it was not Sunday that she was out walking with little friends.
B. DUNN: I don`t believe so.
GRACE: It would have been --
(CROSSTALK)
B. DUNN: She could have been out walking on Monday, come home and said bye, tell my mom, I`m going.
GRACE: So you know, that really, right there, Jean Casarez, if the mom was home with her all day the day before, that places her with the two little girls, in fact, on Monday. So that -- if all of this is correct, that gives us another sighting later in the day.
You just figured something out, Jean. That gives us another sighting other than the neighbor at noon of the little girl being alive and walking with friends between 1:00 and 3:00.
CASAREZ: Right. But we haven`t heard anything that she then went back home and the boyfriend saw her at 3:15. The boyfriend said he saw her and then she left, and he never saw her again.
GRACE: Marc Klaas, let`s hear more of your thoughts.
KLAAS: Well, I think that law enforcement -- I agree with you, law enforcement is moving into the right direction. They`re investigating multiple scenarios and multiple possibilities. They`re looking at family, they`re looking at friends, they`re looking at the boyfriend, they`re looking at strangers, registered sex offenders, et cetera.
GRACE: Everybody, we are taking you very quickly to another story. It`s an honor student, Phylicia Barnes. She`s 16 years old. She was visiting her relatives in Baltimore and goes missing.
I want to go straight out to Matt Zarrell, our producer on the story.
Matt, tell me what you know about this honor student and she`s an athletic star.
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: Yes. Phylicia Barnes was the definition of a model student. She was actually graduating high school early and was to attends Townsend University just outside of Baltimore. But Nancy, she was last seen December 28th at about 1:30 p.m.
She allegedly -- she sent a text message to her sister at about 1:28 saying she was going out to get food and possibly get her hair done. An ex-boyfriend of the sister who was actually in the process of moving out was coming in and out of the house that day, saw her at 1:30 in the house. That was the last time anyone saw her.
GRACE: To Deputy Anthony Guglielmi, chief of public affairs, Baltimore PD.
Deputy, thank you for being with us. Tell me what the cops are doing to find this girl and where exactly was she last seen?
ANTHONY GUGLIELMI, CHIEF OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, BALTIMORE POLICE DEPT.: No, Nancy. We are enormously concerned. This is unlike any missing person case that we`ve had, and we`ve thrown every law enforcement resource, every tool, trinket, witches, that we have at this in an effort to bring Phylicia home alive.
GRACE: Everyone, take a look at Phylicia Barnes. She turns 17 Wednesday. She`s absolutely beautiful, 5`8", 120 pounds, brown eyes, brown shoulder-length hair, disappeared in the Baltimore area. An honor student, straight A`s, and she`s an athletic star. There`s a reward for her. 1- 855-223-0033.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We are talking about a missing honor student, Phylicia Barnes. She`s just 16 years old. Straight A`s.
Jean Casarez, what do you know?
CASAREZ: She leaves the home of her half-sister at the apartment complex on Tuesday, the 28th. But she didn`t have a vehicle. She was there visiting her for Christmas. How did she leave to go get a bite to eat or to get her hair cut? That`s the mystery.
GRACE: And to you, Deputy -- I think -- Guglielmi?
GUGLIELMI: Guglielmi, Nancy. Guglielmi.
GRACE: Guglielmi. Thank you. I understand that there were 20 different guys in and out of the apartment where she was visiting? I think this is her half-sister. What was this, like, a college party scene or who were these people?
GUGLIELMI: You know it makes our job difficult. I mean I would best describe it as an apartment near a college or a dorm, Phylicia`s half- sister`s younger. She had a lot of friends that came in and out, they would socialize. But that makes law enforcement`s job incredibly difficult.
We had nearly 20 people that we had to interview in the onset of the investigation. We`ve whittled that list down to 12. And we are -- we are interviewing, making sure that the timeline is consistent.
What`s very frustrating for police is that there`s really no physical evidence that we have to help --
GRACE: You know what? You`re right. This girl seemed to vanish into thin air. We are going to stay on the story. Tip line, 855-223-0033.
Please look at this young honor student.
Everyone, let`s stop. Over the weekend I received an e-mail asking for prayers for "Darkhorse" 3rd Battalion 5th Marines fighting Afghanistan. They lost nine Marines in four days. The e-mail read, "God bless America, the U.S. Marines, Semper Fi, tested, faithful, brothers forever."
Lindsay Lohan gets her name and face all over the news because she went to jail. And now again for failing a drug test. But nothing about these guys because no one cares. But we do care.
Roll call, William Donnelly IV, Robert Kelly, Derek Wyatt, Justin Cain, Tevan Nguyen, Alec Catherwood, Brandon Pearson, James Stack, John Sparks, Jose Maldonado, Joseph Lopez, Joseph Rodewald, Kenneth Corzine, Matthew Broehm, Randy Braggs, Colton Rusk, Victor Dew, Ian Tawney, Jason Peto, and Matthew Abbate.
All Marines that gave their lives for us. Tonight we remember them all American heroes.
Thanks to our guests but especially to you. And happy birthday New York friend of the show, Vincenza. What a beauty inside and out.
Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp, Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
END
