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Nancy Grace
5-Year-Old Child With Cerebral Palsy Missing; Where Is Missing Mom Rena Marroquin?
Aired January 18, 2011 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vanished into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So many cases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re still looking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So few leads.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness had seen the suspect on "Nancy Grace."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a god.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "The Nancy Grace Show" was out there for us.
NANCY GRACE, CNNHN HOST, "NANCY GRACE": Found alive, 50 people, 50 days, 50 nights. Let`s don`t give up.
GRACE: August 10th, 2009, five-year-old Hassani Campbell vanishes in the blink of an eye.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hasanni Campbell was born with cerebral policy. The five-year-old boy wears braces on both legs, making it all the more confounding how he could simply disappear. Hassani`s foster dad reportedly tells police he left the child alone when he briefly leaves his car to drop off Hassani`s one-year-old sister with family at a store.
LOUIS CAMPBELL, MISSING FIVE YEAR OLD BOY`S FOSTER DAD, PRIME SUSPECT IN DISAPPEARANCE: I pulled into that parking spot then proceed to basically get out of my side, walk around, open up the door for Hassani. And then I proceed to the front of the store. I see their aunt. She knows why I`m there. I tell her, open up the back door.
I then circle back the same way I came, right around the corner, to basically hand over Alia. By the time I got there, Jennifer`s already out of the store walking toward me asking, where`s Hassani?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ross immediately calls police. Once on the scene, investigators fear Hassani was either kidnapped or hiding. Search and rescue dogs are given the three foot boy`s scent, but his scent is never picked up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We frantically searched the neighborhood, asking people if they`d seen his son, and nobody could find him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With no evidence the little boy was even at the store, the story changing and a failed polygraph, the foster father remains the prime suspect in the little boy`s disappearance.
GRACE: Mr. Ross, I understand you did not pass your polygraph, is that true?
ROSS: That`s what I`ve been told. Correct.
GRACE: What were the questions they asked you?
ROSS: Do I know where Hassani is?
GRACE: Ross and his fiancee Jennifer Campbell are arrested for suspicion of murder but later released for lack of evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A $75,000 reward remains in effect for information in the case of five-year-old Hassani Campbell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Every day, 2,300 people go missing in America. They disappear. Vanish. Their families left waiting, wondering, hoping but never forgotten. And neither have we.
Fifty people, for 50 days, 50 nights we go live, spotlighting America`s missing children, girls, boys, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents. Gone, but where?
Tonight, a missing five-year-old boy with cerebral policy, little Hassani Campbell vanishes outside a shoe store in a busy suburban shopping center. How could Hassani just disappear and nobody sees a thing?
The last person to see him, foster dad Louis Ross, who fails an FBI polygraph. Shocking text messages reveal the foster dad at one point threatens to abandon Hassani at a train station. In a stunning twist, police arrest the foster dad and the mom on suspicion of murder, but released just three days later.
Tonight, we learn foster dad moves across country from California to Maryland after he then loses custody of Hassani`s one-year-old sister. Why? Where is five-year-old Hassani? Straight out to Henry K. Lee, reporter with the "San Francisco Chronicle," author of "Presumed Dead." Welcome, Henry. What can you tell us?
HENRY K. LEE, REPORTER, "SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE": Good to see you, Nancy. Unfortunately not much is being publicly told about this case. The case remains open. It is not a missing person`s case but a homicide case. We do not know where Hassani Campbell is. Police are looking for his body but they have no idea where he is.
GRACE: Why did the foster father lose custody of the sister as well?
LEE: In cases like this, Nancy, the police will off put in their two cents to social services at child custody hearings. So I am sufficed to say those are closed hearings, but they probably had a lot to tell them behind closed doors, Nancy, about why they suspect Louis Ross in Hassani`s disappearance and apparent murder.
GRACE: Joining us, Jean Casarez, legal correspondent "In Session." What more can you tell us?
JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Nancy, this is so tragic because he was different than most little children in this country. He had cerebral palsy, and he had braces on his ankles that went into his shoe so he could walk. And on this day in August, the caregiver who was the boyfriend, Louis Ross, took him to the back of the shoe store because that`s where the foster mother, Jennifer Campbell, worked.
He opens up the car and he said he saw little Hassani taking his seat belt off, and then he walked around to the front carrying the one-year-old, and the whole point was to open up the back door for Hassani. But when they opened up that back door, he was gone, just evaporated into thin air, and that was the last that anyone ever saw him.
GRACE: The way I recall the story is that he says he drives, he leaves Hassani in the back at the backdoor then drives around front. Is that the way it went, Henry Lee?
LEE: He made some kind of a potentially convoluted statement that he had pointed his BMW in a specific part of the street, go around tell Jennifer Campbell of the shoe store to say I`m here. But he suggests Hassani was kidnapped or walked out of the car on this own. Police are telling us from day one they don`t believe Hassani ever made it to Oakland.
GRACE: Let me go out to Sergeant Gus Galindo with the Oakland PD joining us. Thanks for being with us.
SERGEANT GUS GALINDO, OAKLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Good evening, Nancy, how are you?
GRACE: I`m great. I`ve never forgotten this case about Hassani. It stuck in my mind from the very, very beginning. Tell us your recollection of what the story was, how this little boy went missing.
GALINDO: Well, the child was reported missing by Louis Ross to us. He called 911 and gave details he parked at the back of the Shoes of Rockford store here in Oakland, and he went around the front to contact Jennifer Campbell to have her open the rear door of the business. And Louis Ross said he walked to the front --
GRACE: Right there, why would you leave the baby in the back? I don`t understand up that.
GALINDO: He gave certain responses to that question and we did ask him that. Based on the case being still an open investigation, we can`t really divulge that. but he couldn`t articulate why, but he said when we walked back he saw no signs of Hassani Campbell.
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Unleash the lawyers, Darryl Cohen, Alex Sanchez, Darryl out of Atlanta, Alex out of New York. Darryl, you have children. I don`t -- I mean, when I have the twins, I don`t leave them out in a public place alone. I`m practically afraid to leave them in the back yard and look through the window. In fact, I don`t leave them in the backyard by themselves, much less at the back of a shopping mall?
DARRYL COHEN, ATTORNEY: Nancy, I have three girls.
GRACE: Have you driven behind the backs of the stores where there`s nothing but dumpsters and cardboard boxes and liquor bottles?
COHEN: I don`t leave my girls anywhere. My oldest is 16, nine and 11. They go nowhere without me being so visible, overprotective you can call it. But because they are children they have to be protected and if it can happen, it will, and it`s seldom if ever good.
GRACE: Hang on a moment, Darryl. Alex, can you see a video, a monitor? Liz, did I see little Hassani walking down the aisle of that store? Take a look. You`re going to see Hassani walking down, this is from the Oakland police department video. There he is on the left. Take a look. There you go. There he is with the foster father, mother, and they`re shopping. Keep it on that video, Liz. Sergeant Gus Galindo joining us, Oakland PD, what video is it that we`re seeing? Explain.
GALINDO: That is the family four days before the disappearance of Hassani at a store shopping for various items. And it`s the last footage we have where anybody saw Hassani Campbell. There are no reports of Hassani Campbell from that time on from the time he went missing other than what was reported by Louis Ross and Jennifer Campbell.
Let me clarify. You`re describing this location as a shopping mall. It`s basically a residential area, a neighborhood with commercial shops basically around the corner from residents. So it`s not a shopping mall.
GRACE: I thought it was like a strip center, like a shopping, outdoor shopping center?
GALINDO: No, ma`am, it`s a commercial area and the building where this happened, there`s apartments that you can enter through the front or the back as well as the business. So it`s basically one building that has various addresses, but it`s not a shopping mall.
GRACE: I see. So was it, in fact, a shoe shop, as he told me?
GALINDO: I don`t recall specifically what he told you, if he said it was a shopping mall, but similar to what he said to you, yes.
GRACE: OK, back to you, Henry K. Lee, reporter with the "San Francisco Chronicle," author of "Presumed Dead," you know what, that`s a really good point the sergeant`s pointed out for us. What can you tell me about that area?
LEE: As Sergeant Galindo tells us, it`s what we call the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland in the northern part of the city, a very well to do area full of nice restaurants. It`s a tonier neighborhood of Oakland, that`s a turn of phrase I use. Crime is present but not as prevalent in other parts of the city.
So when we heard a little boy may have been kidnapped, disappeared from that area, a lot of red flags went up. How is it possible a five- year-old boy with cerebral palsy with arch support braces, how could he disappear in broad daylight with so many people in the neighborhood in that area of town? It was possibly not possible.
GRACE: We`ll be right back with our lawyers and the rest of our panel taking your calls.
But case alert -- last night we covered an 11-year-old North Carolina boy who vanished on Friday, returns home to his adoptive parents. Jim James, Timothy Green, he goes by Tim, found safe and sound.
And tonight, 12-year-old Maya Sylvester who we reported on last night, just 12, goes to empty the trash and went missing Sunday around 6:00 p.m. After our show last night, she was recovered. Miracles happen, both of them safe and at home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More than a dozen police officers have fanned out in this area looking for five-year-old Hassani Campbell. Alameda County Sheriff`s rescue team has joined the search with dogs. Police say around 4:00 they received a call for help from the five-year-old boy`s father. He told officers he drove his son to Shoes of Rockridge where the boy`s mother works so he could leave the child in her care.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know I`m innocent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told them the same story I gave the previous time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know Louis is innocent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got the same story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Authorities in Oakland, California, are searching for clues in the case of missing five-year-old Hassani Campbell who is disabled with cerebral palsy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was last seen we his foster father Louis Ross when he leaves Hassani behind to the back door of an Oakland shoe store to let him in from the outside and meet his foster mom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Within a few minutes the aunt, Jennifer Campbell, said she opened the door but Hassani was gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought maybe he was hiding behind something or maybe he was joking or maybe it was something.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I say, what do you mean? Where`s Hassani? I look around to the side and he`s no longer there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police searched for six hours, but they say there were no witnesses who could place Hassani behind the store other than Ross.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We`re taking your calls. To Maria in Texas. Hi, Maria.
MARIA, FROM TEXAS: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
MARIA: My question is -- actually I don`t have a question. I have a comment. We see this every single day. I watch your show all the time, all the time. What is going on with mothers not taking care of their kids?
When my son was born I didn`t even let my husband carry my child for, like, weeks. I didn`t trust him because he would drop him, inexperienced parents. You find someone out there on the streets, love is love, but your kids come first. Don`t you do a background check? Don`t you find out who they are? Why do you leave your kids with a stranger? I don`t understand this. I see this all the time. I`m a single parent. Why is it that us as mothers, why don`t we protect our children?
GRACE: You know what, Maria, I`ve asked that same question a million times all the way back to when I was prosecuting as a local county prosecutor. I don`t recall one case of child abuse or child molestation where the mother sided with the child. They were always siding with the father, the boyfriend, the live-in, always. I never understood it. What about it, Dr. Leslie Austin? Why?
DR. LESLIE AUSTIN, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: I don`t know why, but it`s incredibly irresponsible that people don`t prepare and really watch their kids. I really wonder if that little boy was in the car that day at all. Why didn`t anybody see him?
I understand the mom was working, but why is there in trace, no sighting for four days, no video, no neighbors, no people in the store? How could he have been there? He`s not very mobile. Why isn`t everybody looking for him, noticing, looking out for a little boy who needs help to function?
GRACE: Weigh in, Alex Sanchez.
ALEX SANCHEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think that the police are very frustrated because this fellow seems to be slipping through the legal cracks in the system. They`re pretty much convinced that he`s responsible for this child`s disappearance. He failed a polygraph test. His story doesn`t make any sense about disappearing in a public area.
And so the pieces have not come together yet and unfortunately they may never come together. I think the police made a mistake, though, by arresting him as early as they did because once they arrested him then he lawyered up and he refused to speak to the police and he moved away. That may be the end of the case at this point, unfortunately.
GRACE: You know what, Alex, you brought up something very interesting. Let`s bring up Alex and Darryl again. Alex Sanchez, New York, Darryl Cohen, Atlanta. What happened is they arrested him then three days passed.
Let`s explain the significance. Under our constitution it has been construed, you can`t just arrest somebody on suspicion then never formally charge them. You can`t just hold them without a charge because you think, well, you know, maybe they did something. Explain it, Sanchez. You got a time limit.
SANCHEZ: Yes. And they went and arrested him, apparently without sufficient probable cause. And then the prosecutor looked at the case and said, hey, you know what, we don`t have enough evidence right now and had to release him. But during that span of time he had a lawyer, and the lawyer told him, look, you may be a suspect, don`t speak to anybody.
GRACE: I mean, Darryl Cohen, at the end of 72 hours, you either got a fish or cut bait according to our constitution as it has been construed.
COHEN: You have to make the charge. So why in the world was there a rush to judgment? He wasn`t going anywhere. They knew where he was. Why did the police do that? Because they knew he did something but they couldn`t prove it and they need to wait to be able to prove it.
GRACE: To Sergeant Gus Galindo, Oakland PD. The cops, the FBI, you guys set up an FBI polygraph that he failed. Then he`s moved across country. The reality is there`s nothing you can do to stop him from moving across country.
GALINDO: That is correct, and you know, in our decision to make the arrest based on the investigative process at the time, we had developed information that led us to believe that the arrest was a proper step to take at that time in the investigation. So we did make the arrest and the district attorney determined that there were insufficient -- there was insufficient evidence at that time to charge Louis Ross.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A boy with special needs is missing. Five-year- old Hasanni Campbell has been gone for a year and a half and his foster father remains the primary suspect in his disappearance.
ROSS: I have nothing to hide, and basically I was just -- this has been a traumatic experience. We understood that the police had their job to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say the father left the boy in the BMW in the back lot of the store while he walked around to the front to unlock the door. When the father opened the store`s back door, he told police his son was gone.
GRACE: Mr. Ross, I understand that you did not pass your polygraph. Is that true?
ROSS: I`ve been told my results were that I failed it 99 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. I want to go out to Joni in Oklahoma. Hi, Joni.
JONI FROM OKLAHOMA: Hello, Nancy.
GRACE: Hi, dear, what`s your question?
JONI: I just got a real eerie feeling when you showed the footage of three days before, looked like a children`s store.
GRACE: Yes, yes.
JONI: The foster father has a big package in the cart. And I wondered if the police knew what happened to that box.
GRACE: You know, what about that? To Sergeant Gus Galindo. What was that he was carrying out?
GALINDO: Based on the investigation we learned that was a box that contained a car seat for a -- just a standard car seat for a child.
GRACE: The last known sighting of little Hasanni Campbell, just five years old. To Marc Klaas, president and founder of KlaasKids Foundation, child advocate. What do you think, Marc?
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, you know, his story, everybody says his story doesn`t make sense, and it does make sense to him. It doesn`t make sense to anybody else. There were no surveillance cameras back there. How convenient is that? Nobody saw the little boy. There have been no sightings of the little boy. He had threatened to abandon the little boy. He had a hair trigger. He`s not a good man. He moved away. He`s erased this from his history in his mind.
And I think the police are absolutely correct. They needed to do what they need to do at that point. You know, there are organizations out there looking for Hasanni Campbell but it`s a huge world. He`s a very small boy and they have absolutely no idea where to search. This man covered his tracks very, very well.
GRACE: You know, Marc, you just touched on something important, to clarify. As Sergeant Galindo said, we felt we had enough at the time. Just because you arrest somebody and the D.A. doesn`t bring formal charges, that doesn`t mean you`ve screwed up the case. That is not the end of the road. They can be rearrested and recharged.
KLAAS: And this gave them an opportunity, Nancy, to play these two off against each other in interrogations, and apparently it didn`t work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They described him as African-American, small for his age, three feet tall and weighs 40 pounds. He has short black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt and sweat pants. Police are asking people in the area --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Vanished into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to find her.
GRACE: So many cases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re still looking.
GRACE: So few leads.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
GRACE: Missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.
GRACE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness had seen the suspect on Nancy Grace.
GRACE: There is a God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nancy Grace show was out there for us.
GRACE: found alive. 50 people, 50 days, 50 nights. Let`s don`t give up.
August 10th, 2009, 5-year-old Hasanni Campbell vanishes in the blink of an eye.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: HASANNI CAMPBELL was born with cerebral palsy. The 5-year-old boy wears braces on both legs, making it all more compounding (ph) how he could simply disappear. Hasanni`s foster dad reportedly tells police he left the child alone when he briefly leaves his car to drop off Hasanni`s 1-year-old sister with family at a store.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I pulled into that parking spot then proceed to basically get out of my side, walk around, open up the door for Hasanni. And then, I proceed to the front of the store. I see their aunt. She knows why I`m there. I tell her, open up the back door. I then circle back the same way I came, right around the corner to basically hand over Aliyah. By the time I got there, Jennifer`s already out of the store walking toward me asking, where`s Hasanni?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ross immediately calls police. Once on the scene, investigators fear Hasanni was either kidnapped or hiding. Search and rescue dogs are given the 3 foot boy`s scent, but his scent is never picked up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We frantically searched the neighborhood, asking people if anybody had seen his son and nobody could find him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With no evidence, the little boy was even at the store, the stories changing and a failed polygraph. The foster father remains the prime suspect in the little boy`s disappearance.
GRACE: Mr. Ross, I understand that you did not pass your polygraph. Is that true?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is correct.
GRACE: What were the questions they asked you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do I know where Hasanni is and can I get them to where Hassani is?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ross and his fiancee, Jennifer Campbell, are arrested for suspicion of murder, but later released for lack of evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A $75 reward remains in effect for information in the case of 5-year-old Hasanni Campbell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The time we lost, people could have been looking at our son and not realized it was him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: I have just been handed a tip that has been called into our control room during tonight`s show. The caller who wishes to remain anonymous says she knows the family. She says this is how it happens. There is no physical evidence in the house. Hasanni was strangled or suffocated. There were threats against the little boy in the house. There was domestic violence. Jennifer Campbell never protected the boy.
She says, Ross murdered the child in the house. Aliyah, the sister, was in the house while Jennifer Campbell was working. The child was never in the car in Oakland. Police know the child is dead. Probably disposed of in one of the industrial parks. They have no physical evidence, no fiber, no blood splatter. There were latex gloves in the back of the car. Did they alert the landfill? Out to you, Sergeant Galindo.
VOICE OF SGT. GUS GALINDO, OAKLAND POLICE DEPT: Yes, ma`am?
GRACE: What about this information that we have received? Were there latex gloves in the car?
GALINDO: There were latex gloves in the car, yes. That`s definitely clear at the time that the --
GRACE: OK. Why would he have latex -- I don`t have latex gloves in my car, do you, sergeant? Why did he have latex gloves in his car?
GALINDO: That`s the question we`d like answered.
GRACE: Well, did you ask him? And what did he say?
GALINDO: Louis Ross` statement is very critical to this case. And obviously, we interviewed him quite extensively, and actually, we conducted several interviews with him prior to arresting him and day we arrested him. That`s information that we have to keep to ourselves because it`s still an open investigation.
GRACE: I understand. What about landfills? Were the landfills alerted?
GALINDO: Yes. We searched the area that we suspected Hasanni Campbell could have been dumped, basically, or discarded, and we alerted the landfills.
GRACE: Do you believe the boy was murdered in the home, Sgt. Galindo?
GALINDO: Based on my knowledge of the case, yes, I do.
GRACE: I bet it is just killing you that you cannot right now make an arrest in this case. Do you believe Hasanni was ever at that store, ever in that car?
GALINDO: No. That`s part of the basis for us making the arrest of Louis Ross. We never believed that Hasanni Campbell made it to Oakland on the day that he was reported missing by Louis Ross. And Louis Ross was the last person with Hasanni Campbell. And it`s my belief that Hasanni met foul play at the hands of Louis Ross.
GRACE: And Jennifer Campbell, do you believe it`s true there was domestic violence in the home prior to Hasanni`s disappearance, and Jennifer Campbell did nothing to protect the boy?
GALINDO: As far as domestic violence, we uncovered no reported domestic violence in the police, but based on interviews and statements we took from people, we did learn that there was definitely disharmony in the relationship and there were some problems going on. But as far as any police reports or things of that nature, there were never any reported to us.
GRACE: I`ve got right here in front of me part of your investigation. It says that DFCS had been called out, that Ross sent a message to Jennifer Campbell, who is Hasanni`s aunt. Ross` girlfriend. It says, this is effing over. I will watch her, talking about the little girl, but I will be out on the B.A.R.T. which is a rapid transit, Bay Area Rapid Transit.
It`s your responsibility, so "F" you. There was also mentioned that he was having a lot of problems and concerns about raising a developmentally disabled child. And that he admitted to leaving the two little children, one of them age 1, at home when he went to the bank?
GALINDO: Those facts are correct. Yes.
GRACE: Oh. To Dr. Glenn Kolansky, board certified Physician, joining us out of New York. Dr. Kolansky, what would you have to find, what would you have to have left of a body to find it in a landfill?
DR. GLENN KOLANSKY, BOARD CERTIFIED PHYSICIAN: Nancy, it depends how long the body was left. If it`s after a year, you maybe just left with bones. Depending on what`s in the landfill, the temperature out there. You know, first the bugs come in, and as time goes on, the body is basically destroyed. After 50 days maggots come in and just either way the body and all that has left there after 50 days approximately maybe just hair and bones.
After that time, you know, other insects come in, bacteria come in, and basically, after about anywhere depending on the temperature, 50 days to a year, you`re just left with simple bones. So, at this point, it`s over a year, you may have nothing but bones.
GRACE: Joining us, Dr. Glenn Kolansky out of New York. Very quickly, I`m hearing in my ear we got news on a missing woman out of Florida, Rena Marroquin. Alexis Weed, what`s the latest?
ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: New Year`s Eve when Rena was last seen. She was seen leaving her job at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Port St. Lucie, Florida, and she was seen getting into a gray van that is owned by the estranged boyfriend of her daughter.
GRACE: And what`s the most recent?
WEED: Just last week, Nancy, on Wednesday, police recovered this van. It was in a neighboring community, 15 miles to the north of where her KFC employment was located. That van was found. Investigators haven`t said exactly what was in it, but they say they believe that Rena`s in danger. They said that there was evidence in that van that shows that she may have been injured, Nancy.
GRACE: Let`s go over the tip line. And tell me one more time, Alexis, the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.
WEED: Yes. It was New Year`s Eve. She left her job around noon. She was seen getting into this van. The van is owned by the estranged boyfriend of her daughter. They happen to have the same last name, but they`re not related, Nancy.
GRACE: Everyone, there you see the tip line, 772-871-5000. Take a look. Rena Marroquin, age 44, Ft. Pierce, Texas, last seen just New Year`s Eve.
Everyone, as you can see, we are getting information on missing people in America. We`ve had a call in tonight in our control room about Little Hasanni. Won`t you help us?
And tonight, help us find a missing woman, Heather Riggio, just 20, vanishes May 7, Miami Beach, Florida, 5`1", 110 pounds, blond hair, blue eyes, black nautical star tattoo on her back. Take a look. If you have information on Heather, call 305-471-8477. And if your loved one is missing and you need help, please, go to CNN.com/nancygrace. Send us your story. We want to help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five-year-old Hasanni Campbell last seen behind an Oakland shoe store August 10th, 2009, when the boy`s foster father, Louis Ross, says he parked his vehicle behind the store leaving Hasanni behind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know I`m innocent, and I know Louis is innocent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ross talked about being arrested and interrogated by police. He said investigators tried to deceive him shortly after their arrested his fiancee at the union city B.A.R.T. station without Ross` knowledge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ross reportedly told authorities he left Hasanni at the back door of the store. He says he ran inside to tell Hasanni`s foster mother and aunt that he arrived to drop off the boy along with the boy`s 1-year-old sister. Ross later arrested and jailed on suspicion of murder was released after no charges were filed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jennifer was texting me back and forth. Her text messages didn`t make sense, but I find out she wasn`t texting -- they have her in custody, they have her cell phone texting me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What were they texting you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, cautioned me to come out, come and get her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say Ross who failed an FBI polygraph remains the primary suspect in Hasanni`s disappearance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told them the same story I gave the previous set of detectives. I told the same story I gave the other -- they got the same story, but they were not happy with the stories they got. They wanted something else.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Yes. You know what, you told me the same story, too, Ross. And I wasn`t happy with it because it doesn`t make sense. And I know where you are. You moved across country, but you didn`t get away. Right now, cops cannot make an arrest. They had arrested the foster father but let him go after three days. They needed more evidence.
During our show tonight, a tipster calls in with information we didn`t have about the foster father having latex gloves in the back of his car, domestic violence allegedly in the home, how the aunt didn`t take up for the little boy and let him be abused, a little boy with cerebral pals palsy. Out to the lines. Theda in Missouri. Hi, Theda.
THEDA, MISSOURI: Hello. Thank you for accepting my call. And I`m deeply disturbed by the information that I have been hearing. A friend of mine told me about your show, and I wanted to thank you for allowing Hasanni to even be on here. He resembles my son, Christian Taylor Ferguson, missing St. Louis, Missouri. He`s been missing since June 11th 2003. And I am so disturbed, but my feeling about this case is this.
This is my question. Could this be a copycat situation based on my son`s disappearance here in St. Louis, Missouri? The father has not been charged. He`s walking around as if nothing has occurred. They took him down for questioning. He (INAUDIBLE) questioning, lawyered up and has not responded to law enforcement or any kind of authorities here in St. Louis. Even though my situation is all over the internet and --
GRACE: Christopher Taylor Ferguson.
THEDA: Christian. C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N.
GRACE: Christian.
THEDA: And if you went to lookforanangel.org, which is my website, I`d started an organization, too, and I like to thank the foundation, Polly Klaas. They helped me in the past. And actually, the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation started off here in St. Louis. They came to my rescue immediately. And after the experience with them, I started my own organization called --
GRACE: Tell me the name. Tell me so I can look it up online.
THEDA: My son`s name is Christian Taylor Ferguson.
GRACE: No, I`ve got that. Your organization. Your website.
THEDA: Lookingforangel.org.
GRACE: Lookingforanangel.org.
THEDA: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: You know what, here`s the thing, Theda, and I`m going to look it up as soon as I get off the air because I know when I get home, I pray the twins are going to be asleep.
THEDA: Yes.
GRACE: Unless the cops get enough information at the get-go --
THEDA: OK.
GRACE: If they don`t have enough, they can`t make an arrest. They can`t make him, not that he`s a target, they can`t make him come in and talk to them.
THEDA: Well, let me tell you about my case, they have enough evidence. There`s a 33-page police report. They know that this father stays the (ph) disappearance and they`re doing nothing about it.
GRACE: You know what, Theda, I`m going to look at it as soon as we get off the air and so is my whole staff. Because you know what, if we can get it on the air, how do I know another tip like the one that`s just come in about Hasanni Campbell won`t come in about Christian? We don`t know.
THEDA: That`s right.
GRACE: So, we`ll be on it. And, hey, to you, Marc Klaas, did you hear that? What about all these --
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: I did hear that.
GRACE: People you have helped over all the years.
KLAAS: You know, there is a common thread here that extends to Christian, it extends to Hasanni, it extends to Zahra Baker. Did you know that the maltreatment of children with disabilities is 1.5 the ten times higher than the maltreatment of children without disabilities? And that immediate family members perpetrate the majority of neglect physical abuse and emotional abuse against these children?
GRACE: Marc, I did know. I did know. Out to Tom Shamshak, former police chief, private investigator, instructor at BU, Boston University. What do we do now that cops have tried everything? Now, a suspect that they did have has moved across the country. Now, what can they do?
TOM SHAMSHAK, INSTRUCTOR AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY: Nancy, good evening. The police can continue to investigate. Hopefully, there`ll be an investigative grand jury at some point. I would make sure that they continue to try to figure out what occurred in terms of, you know, what happened with that child. Did this fellow purchase a container? I mean, he had his hands covered up. That could have been on a trash bag, but obviously, he disposed of something.
Again, did they check dumpsters and the likes of that? Now, the National Center for Missing Exploited Children has a volunteer group of investigators who can continue to work on this case and assist the Oakland Police Department with this case, but what you`re doing tonight is, it`s only the second night of the series, and you`re shining a bright spotlight on a social problem that this country needs to address -- Nancy.
GRACE: You know, as we`re going to air, we have just received a call out of California. There is an amber alert just issued for a 4-year-old. Juliani Cardenas. The child abducted 4:12 p.m. Tuesday. California, that would be 7:12 eastern. Suspect, Jose Esteban Rodriguez, 27, Hispanic, possibly driving a 2003 silver Toyota Corolla.
Listen. A silver Toyota Corolla, California plate, 6 H, happy, B, brother, W, why (ph) 445. An oversized aluminum wheels. Left rear wheel, spare wheel. Suspect is a non-biological ex-boyfriend of the mother. Amber alert. Danger. 6 HBW 445. Amber alert. A 4-year-old boy has been taken. Amber alert. California. The little boy, Juliani Cardenas. Can you help?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say the father left the boy in the BMW in the back lot of the store while he walked around to the front to unlock the door. When the father opened the store`s back door, he told police his son was gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: These are the faces of America`s missing. Every 30 seconds, another child, a sister, brother, father, mother, disappears. Their families left behind wondering, waiting, hoping. We have not forgotten.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are the last images we have of 23-year-old Nadia Kersh. You`re watching the Youngman leaven on her lunch break. Police have recovered her car in West Birmingham.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nadia`s purse found on nearby railroad track. The mother of a 1-year-old boy left work to pick up her son at daycare but never arrived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to Nadia`s boss at Homewood`s Tria Market, Nadia left work for lunch at 1:00 and didn`t come back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She didn`t miss work. So, we knew something was up then. And then, but when we found out that she didn`t go to get her son, then we knew something was terribly wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The two girls only had each other in this world. That`s really the only family that they know of.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police were back at Nadia`s apartment searching for clues to her disappearance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re securing this as a crime scene, and we`re processing and gathering things to try to find, you know, financial records, medical records, things like that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s very sad. I`m glad to know that her son`s OK. That`s what really concerned me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re not giving up hope. Every day that goes by, common sense tells you, you know, the odds go down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My brother never met a stranger. He was full of life. He was caring. He`d bend over backwards for you. My oldest brother, Vernon Kent Jones, left a New Year`s Eve party in the lower east side of Manhattan. Did not make it home and has not been seen or heard from since.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was last seen in the apartment by three of his -- three people who were at the party with him. His I.D. was located in his apartment. His bank accounts were never touched. He was 23 at the time he disappeared.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s hard to remain hopeful that he`ll turn up or his remains will turn up or somebody will have a lead or some kind of information for us. But we`re just living it one day at a time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hart Island is commonly referred to as Potter`s Field. What we need to do is just keep combing through, (INAUDIBLE) and see if we can get somebody that`s buried there under a John Doe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My family and I have lived with this for the past 18 years, and there`s always a part of me that`s going to grieve about this until the day that I die.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: I`ll see you tomorrow night. 9:00 sharp eastern. And until then, we will be looking. Keep the faith, friend. Goodnight.
END
