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Nancy Grace
Thirteen-Year-Old Girl Disappears, May Be With Internet Predator
Aired February 28, 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, live, California. A 7th- grader kisses Mommy good night, gets a glass of water for bed, and she`s never seen again. Bombshell tonight. All signs indicating 7th grade girl Jessie Bender taken by an Internet child sex predator posing as a 14-year- old boy. Where are they? Is the girl still alive? Every minute counts. Tonight, where is Jessie?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A beautiful 13-year-old middle school student may be with a child predator she met on line.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Volunteers have been meeting here for updates every few hours and have handed out thousands of these flyers. But so far, Jessie has not turned up, and her mother thinks she may be being held against her will.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to reports, Jessie Bender may be with a male who made contact with her shortly before she disappeared. Mom says she spoke to someone in the very early morning before family noticed Jessie was missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jessie Bender is also only in 7th grade, but for nearly a week, she`s been MIA. Her mother, now with the help of dozens of volunteers, has been searching for her night and day. Jessie hasn`t turned up, but some troubling clues have, among them some disturbing pictures in lingerie that her mother discovered Jessie has sent to somebody on FaceBook.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family reportedly says they believe the person may be a child predator. Now investigators scrambling to find Jessie. What happened to 13-year-old Jessie Bender?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, the beautiful wife of an LA restaurant owner vanishes without a trace. Cops alerted three weeks later by friends, not the husband. We learn just days after the wife goes missing, the husband moves a brand-new girlfriend into the family home and gives the girlfriend the missing wife`s job as hostess at the restaurant. We learn the husband cleans out the house of all his wife`s belongings. All her possessions, everything goes straight to the dumpster, even has the wife`s vintage black Jeep Cherokee towed away.
Breaking now. Reports confirm trace blood spatter found in the family home. So what does the husband do? He takes an 80-foot plunge off rocky California cliff, and he survives. Well, I hope he`s healthy, healthy enough for a pair of handcuffs!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police now believe Dawn Viens is dead. New blood spatter evidence homicide.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Evidence of blood spatter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Foul play found at the home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In various locations in their residence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They think that blood is Dawn`s.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dawn`s husband, David Viens.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has now become the primary suspect in his wife, Dawn`s, murder.
GRACE: He doesn`t report her missing. Friends report her missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wasn`t allowed to have her own -- you know, her own (INAUDIBLE) basically. You know, he was very controlling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Detectives were on their way to arrest him when they caught up with him near the Point Vincente (ph) lighthouse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s the target.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Viens went out to the cliff and jumped off the cliff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s a suspect.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Foul play.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Arrested in connection with the death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened to Dawn Viens?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight, live, California. A 7th-grader kisses Mommy good night, gets a glass of water for bed and she`s never seen again. Tonight, all signs the 7th grade girl, Jessie Bender, taken by an Internet child sex predator posing on line as a 14-year-old boy. Tonight, where is 7th grade girl Jessie?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s only 13 years old. She may be with an Internet predator, reportedly a man who lives in Chicago. Beautiful middle school student Jessie Bender was last seen late Monday night at home. Her mother says Jessie said she was going to bed. A few hours later, Mom hears a noise. It`s Jessie in the kitchen, Jessie telling her mom she was getting a drink of water. But at 6:45, when the family wakes up, Jessie is gone. Loved ones worry for her safety because Jessie reportedly suffers from seizures and doesn`t have her medication. Is a cyber-predator on the loose?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And if you are holding my daughter, please let her go because I`m not going to stop looking until I find her. And I will find her. I`m not going to not stop. I will not stop. She`s my baby. She`s my oldest daughter. And please, I beg you to let my daughter go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: This is the scenario we have all feared, the scenario we read about and hear about, about someone posing on line as another kid, in this case, posing as a 14-year-old boy.
Straight out to Debra Mark, anchor with 790 KABC, joining us out of LA. Debra, what do we know?
DEBRA MARK, TALKRADIO 790 KABC: Well, Nancy, what we do know is that she was talking to this person around 1:45 in the morning. Mom goes, 6:45 in the morning, to wake her up. She needed to go to school. She wasn`t there. So her mom is extremely worried that she is with this person who is posing as a 14-year-old.
Now, what we also know, Nancy, is on Jessie`s FaceBook page, it says that she had a boyfriend from Chicago. The person that she thought was 14 years old is not 14 years old, and authorities are concerned that she is with a predator.
GRACE: I guess they are. Our to Rupa Mikkilineni, also on the story. Rupa, give me the details behind the story.
RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right, Nancy. we know that she contacted or she was contacted on the Internet, on FaceBook...
GRACE: No! No! No! No! No! No! Rupa, start at the beginning. That night, the mother and the daughter are up. The TV`s going. I think they were having popcorn together. She kisses the mom good night on the cheek, says good night, goes to bed. Mom hears her a little while later, looks down, she`s getting a glass of water, obviously, still in her PJs. Everything`s fine. At 6:45 AM, time to get up, she`s gone! Have I left anything out?
MIKKILINENI: Well, we know there was also a phone call at 1:47 AM to somebody, an individual in Chicago, Nancy. We also know that the only individual that she claims to know in Illinois is this so-called boyfriend that she believes is 14 years old, but we now know is likely a child sexual predator posing as a 14-year-old boy. Now, Nancy, we also know that the mother went on line to the FaceBook site and saw pictures of this alleged 14-year-old boy, and she says that this person, this man, looks much older. Now, she can`t tell how old he looks, but certainly not 14 years old, Nancy.
GRACE: OK, Ellie Jostad, what I want to find out are the following. Just give me a yes, no. Just pretend you`re on cross-examination. Ellie, number one, any sign of forced industry in the home?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: No.
GRACE: OK. Number two, how do we know the girl called out? Was it on a cell phone? How do we know she called out around 1:45 AM?
JOSTAD: Well, what we`re told is that they found -- I believe it was on her cell phone. We know her cell phone is still at home. She didn`t take it with her, which her family is very unusual, always had that cell phone. And her mother tell us that the number that she called or possibly was -- that called her was a Chicago-area phone number.
GRACE: Do we know how long that conversation lasts?
JOSTAD: No, we don`t.
GRACE: OK, Ellie, did cops first call this a runaway?
JOSTAD: Yes, Nancy, they are saying that they believe this is a runaway.
GRACE: You know, when will they learn, Marc Klaas? Do I have to say these names? Kailee Clapp, Ali Lowitzer, Hailey Dunn, Paige Johnson., They always say, We think it`s a runaway, then the girl always turns up dead.
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, Nancy, if they`ve got -- if they`ve got compelling evidence or information that she was lured out of that house by someone who may be a sexual predator, it makes no sense on any level to classify this as a runaway. This should be classified as an endangered missing or certainly even a kidnapping. And I also think that the local police should have the authority to issue an Amber Alert within a limited radius if they find these types of situation. Unfortunately, they don`t.
GRACE: For those of you just joining us, a 7th grade little girl is now missing from her home. She kisses Mommy good night and literally never seen again. Her family believes that she has been lured out by a grown male posing as a 14-year-old boy on line.
To Pat Brown, criminal profiler, author of "The Profiler," joining us tonight out of Washington, D.C. Weigh in, Pat Brown.
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, Nancy, I think one thing that`s very important for parents to know is they`ve got to keep that Internet -- computer in the bedroom is fine, but the Internet must be where everybody can see it because I`ll tell you, these predators never come on line and just pretend to talk to you in a nice way -- you know, Let`s just talk about homework and life issues and where would you like to travel. It always goes to sex so quickly that if you were watching, you would see that this guy was exactly talking about that kind of stuff. So I think it is -- yes, I think she is very much an endangered child at the moment.
GRACE: To Debra Mark with 790 KABC. Did police take her computer so they can do forensics on it and get all of her conversations that she has been typing?
MARK: We do know that she left her computer, which her parents -- or her mom, I should say, thought was unusual. Police are not giving us that information, Nancy. I would assume, though, that they are checking her computer. That makes the most sense. She did take, however, $70. She took makeup. She took clothing and she also took all her jewelry. Now, I don`t really know how much jewelry a 13-year-old has, but those are the things that she did take with her.
GRACE: You know, people also said that Elizabeth Smart got her possessions when she left because the kidnapper told her, Get your tennis shoes, because the kidnapper knew that she was going to be walking up rocky terrain. So just because some of her possessions are missing -- to me, if this girl, Jessie Bender, a 7th grade girl, had been taking what she wanted, she would have grabbed her cell phone. Did she take what she was ordered to take? Why would she take all of her jewelry?
We`re taking your calls. Out to Jessica in Maryland. Hi, Jessica.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do we know if -- OK, this girl, did she take -- her e-mails -- her e-mails -- does her parents have the e-mails? Do they know exactly where this person was?
GRACE: OK, good question. Ellie Jostad, what do you know?
JOSTAD: Well, Nancy, her family tells her that they did go onto her FaceBook account. That`s when they learned that on her FaceBook page, she said that she had a boyfriend who lived in Illinois. But the parents tell us they don`t know that that is true. They don`t know where this guy lives. All they know is that phone number was a Chicago-area number.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beautiful middle school student Jessie Bender was last seen late Monday night at home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In my heart, I believe that Jessie would have contacted a school friend. She would have contacted her uncle. She would have contacted me. She would have contacted somebody. I really believe that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And if you are holding my daughter, please let her go because I`m not going to stop looking until I find her. And I will find her. I`m not going to stop. I will not stop. She`s my baby. She`s my oldest daughter. And please, I beg you to let my daughter go. She`s just 13 years old!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jessie Bender is also only in 7th grade, but for nearly a week, she`s been MIA. Her mother, now with the help of dozens of volunteers, has been searching for her night and day. Jessie hasn`t turned up, but some troubling clues have, among them some disturbing pictures in lingerie that her mother discovered Jessie had sent to somebody on FaceBook.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was told by her schoolmates that -- that this boy was an influence on her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The boy or man -- who knows who he is -- had a Chicago phone number. Jessie`s stepdad found it and called him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just told him to please send her back because otherwise, you`re going to be -- get arrested from the cops. They`re going to be on you any time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what was his response?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said he don`t have her. He`s going to let us know whenever he going to contact to her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you didn`t believe him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t believe him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We`ve heard about it, we`ve read about it, and now it`s happened. This little 7th grade girl apparently thought she had a boyfriend on line, has been dating him on line for several months now. Turns out he`s not a 14-year-old boy, and she is gone. She kisses Mommy good night to go to bed, gets a glass of water. She`s never seen again.
Straight back out to Rupa Mikkilineni. We are taking your calls live. Now, Rupa, earlier in the show, someone reported that this little girl took makeup with her. Let`s go through what the mother tells you was taken from the home.
MIKKILINENI: She said that she packed -- that Jessie, her daughter, packed sweaters, pants, shirts, clothing. She did not pack her makeup, which she found strange. She did not pack her hair brush. She did not pack her toothbrush or toothpaste. And she did not take her cell phone or laptop. Now, what she thought was really strange is that she packed her jewelry. Now, this is a girl that never wore her jewelry. She got gifts of jewelry for birthdays, from her grandmother. She had her baby earrings from when she first got -- that were gold, valuable jewelry, which she never wore. But she packed that, Nancy, which leads us to believe that the $70 cash and the jewelry -- somebody told her what to pack so that maybe she could hock this jewelry for cash later on.
GRACE: OK. Now, the boyfriend, the 14-year-old boy that we now realize is an Internet sex predator -- where do we think he lives, in Chicago? Let`s see the map, Liz. Rupa?
MIKKILINENI: Right. It looks like he`s from Illinois, according to his FaceBook page and according to the phone number that the mother found on an outgoing message. Now, we don`t know if that`s from her cell phone or from the home landline. But that was a Chicago number.
GRACE: It sounds as if somebody`s telling her what to take because she didn`t take the things she would normally take. She didn`t take her hair brush, toothbrush, toothpaste, her makeup. She`s a 7th grad girl. She carries that makeup everywhere she goes. She didn`t take her cell phone, her laptop, none of that. Instead, she scoops up all the jewelry she`s been given since she was a little baby, that she never wears, and a lot of heavy sweaters. Now, that sounds to me like someone is telling her what to do, Pat Brown.
BROWN: I definitely think there`s somebody there manipulating her and probably said, Oh, don`t worry about the little stuff. We can get that later. But be sure you bring along that important -- the important things, maybe to keep warm in Chicago or someplace. I also wonder, isn`t (INAUDIBLE) cell phone (INAUDIBLE) working (INAUDIBLE) says Chicago on it. Because he had to be in the neighborhood. She didn`t just jump on a bus.
GRACE: Yes, I`m just wondering, either she`s with the person, who if they`re from Chicago, came all the way across the country to get her, or she`s taken a bus. That`s the only way it could have happened. What do we know, Ellie Jostad?
JOSTAD: Nancy, you`re right. It`s 2,000 miles from Hesperia, California, where she went missing, to Chicago. This girl only had $70 with her. That`s not going to buy a ticket. However, we are hearing from the neighbors that they didn`t see anything that night, so we don`t have anything to go on like a vehicle description who someone may have been in the neighborhood.
GRACE: But Ellie, how far was the nearest bus stop? Could she have walked to it?
JOSTAD: Well, there was a Greyhound station about seven miles away. There was a local bus stop closer, about a half a mile away.
GRACE: To Ron Shindel, former NYPD deputy inspector. Can is 7th- grader just walk up to a bus counter and buy a ticket to go across country all by themselves?
RON SHINDEL, FORMER NYPD DEPUTY INSPECTOR: Nancy, I don`t think s. I think they`re going to ask for some other identification. I don`t think a 7-year-old is going to be able to buy a bus ticket anywhere in the United States.
GRACE: A 7th-grader!
SHINDEL: Seventh-grader. Seventh-grader. I`m sorry. Yes.
GRACE: A 13-year-old girl!
SHINDEL: Seventh-grader. I`m sorry.
GRACE: I guarantee you they would let her get a ticket. Don`t you know, if she put up the money, they`d give her a ticket? She`d be gone.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her mother says Jessie said she was going to bed. A few hours later, Mom hears a noise. It`s Jessie in the kitchen, Jessie telling her mom she was getting a drink of water. But at 6:45, when the family wakes up, Jessie is gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So far, Jessie has not turned up, and her mother thinks she may be being held against her will.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And if you are holding my daughter, please let her go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now investigators scrambling to find Jessie. What happened to 13-year-old Jessie Bender?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was told by her schoolmates that this boy was an influence on her. In my heart, I believe that Jessie would have contacted a school friend. She would have contacted her uncle. She would have contacted me. She would have contacted somebody. I really believe that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Marcia in Pennsylvania. Hi, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Well, actually, I had two of them, and they were both covered. But I want -- I have another one. On FaceBook, if it is a cell phone number, it`ll say by -- right by the phone number, in parentheses it`ll say "mobile." And I`m wondering if he was -- because all his pictures being gone off FaceBook and everything, and I was wondering if it`s known if it was a mobile phone number and if possibly he was accessing his FaceBook from his phone, and that`s why all his pictures are gone already.
GRACE: Good question. To you Debra Mark, 790 KABC. What do we know?
MARK: Nancy, police are not really telling us very much. Investigators have made contact -- they have -- actually, I should say they have figured out that the call was to Chicago. But they`re not giving us any information if they`ve spoken to this person, so we have no idea if there was -- if this is a landline or a mobile.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining us out of Seattle, high-profile lawyer Anne Bremner, out of San Francisco, renowned defense attorney Daniel Horowitz. Weigh in, Anne Bremner.
ANNE BREMNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, there`s so many things. What we do know is what we don`t know, and that is we don`t know the circumstances of how she left. But we have luring statutes, of course. We have other child abduction statutes. And there`s a lot of information they can go on right now from what they know of the phone number and from the Internet. It may be the dark side of the social network. But right now, we just don`t know enough to know who`s involved and what the crimes are.
GRACE: Daniel Horowitz, isn`t that putting the perfume on the pig, "the dark side of the social network"? You mean child sex predator? Is that what she was trying to say?
DANIEL HOROWITZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, you know, we know Mr. Chicago is a sex predator, and my concern is that we don`t know that he was the one who took her. She never met him. Anybody could have met her at a bus station or even come to her front door. And it really concerns me that we don`t know an awful lot of things that I wish we did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search for young Jessie Bender.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s only 13 years old. She may be with an Internet predator.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you know anything about where Jessie might be, though, you can contact police.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is a cyber-predator on the loose?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police now believe Dawn Viens is dead. New blood spatter evidence --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Homicide.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Evidence to a blood spatter.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Foul pay found at the home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In various locations in their residence.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They think that blood is Dawn`s.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dawn`s husband David Viens --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Has now become the primary suspect in his wife Dawn`s murder.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: He doesn`t report her missing. Friends report her missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wasn`t allowed to have her -- you know, her own legs, basically, you know he was very controlling.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Detectives were on their way to arrest him when they caught up with him near the Point Vicente lighthouse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s the target.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) for the cliff and jumped off the cliff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s a suspect.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: His foul play --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Arrested in connection with the death --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What happened to Dawn Viens?
GRACE: Joe Cacace, a friend of Dawn Viens`, what has the husband said to you about her disappearance?
JOE CACACE, FRIEND OF DAWN VIENS: Well, as I said, she -- when I asked where she was, she was supposed to be here, she was going to meet me that next Monday and she didn`t show up, when I asked what happened, he said I fired her. That kind of thing. And I was like, that`s weird. I went back and asked again.
He said, you know, they had the argument, he caught her with like $1,000 on her, and -- which I knew about because she was bringing it here and basically never heard from her again. He said he found her with the money and they had the argument, they walked away.
He kind of claimed she came back one time from -- what I understand from my friend Mike, he talked to him, that she came back one night, she got a shower and slept, and then was gone in the morning. Don`t know how true that is, but I doubt it.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are getting breaking news in the search for Dawn Viens right now.
Out to Jean Casarez, joining us. What do you know, Jean?
JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Well, Nancy, you are the one that has covered this exclusively since Dawn Viens went missing several years ago. We can confirm now that her husband David Viens has been arrested, is going to be charged with first-degree murder.
But here`s the issue, Nancy. When he believed police were after him literally, he jumped off an 80-foot cliff at Rancho Palo Verde in California. He`s in critical condition, in a hospital right now outside of Los Angeles.
GRACE: Oh, boo-hoo. Could he still wear a pair of handcuffs, Jean Casarez? That`s what I want to know.
CASAREZ: And he has been arrested, the district attorney has the -- all the evidence right now and once charged he will be transferred to USC Medical Center where jail inmates are incarcerated in the hospital.
GRACE: I want to go to an authority on the story, Larry Altman, reporter with the "Daily Breeze." He interviewed David Viens shortly after his wife`s disappearance.
Larry, I want to go back to the very beginning. Remember the whole thing stunk and I couldn`t believe, almost immediately after his wife goes missing, he brings a brand-new girlfriend, moves her into the home and actually gives her Dawn`s position as hostess at the family restaurant.
LARRY ALTMAN, REPORTER, THE DAILY BREEZE, INTERVIEWED HUBBY DAVID VIENS AFTER WIFE`S DISAPPEARANCE: Right, and she`s still working there right up until what happened just the other day when he jumped off the cliff.
GRACE: OK. Here`s the thing, he obviously didn`t expect Dawn Viens to walk back in the door.
Take me back, Jean Casarez, how did it go down? Start at the beginning.
CASAREZ: You know, Nancy, I remember this like it was yesterday. He and his wife -- or I should say he owned a restaurant, his wife worked at the restaurant, she was the hostess. She actually interviewed some new potential employees and hired a lady to be a waitress there.
Well, after that, she disappeared. She was gone, Dawn Viens was never seen again. She walked out with her Louie Vuitton bag, her husband said. And that was it. Didn`t even take her red car with her when she left. Her cell phone, dormant, no calls were made on it, from her it`s believed afterwards.
But her husband said that he fired her. Fired her because she wouldn`t go to rehab for a drug and alcohol problem. And weeks later, this waitress becomes the hostess that was Dawn Viens` position and subsequently became the girlfriend of David Viens.
GRACE: There you go and she interviewed the woman.
As I recall, Larry Altman, the husband spoke to you and gave some story about how she just walked off into nowhere. What did he tell you?
ALTMAN: She just walked off, they had an argument, he wanted her to go to rehab and she didn`t want to. So he told her to leave. That was his story. And off she went. But she didn`t take her car, she didn`t take money she had stashed with a friend. And supposedly is just -- was carrying a Louie Vuitton bag and walked away.
GRACE: To Alexis Tereszcuk, reporter with Radaronline.com.
Alexis, the day that she went missing, what happened? From the very beginning to the end of the day?
ALEXIS TERESZCUK, REPORTER, RADAROLINE.COM: Well, this day they were at work together. What the husband has said, the reports are, that he accused her of being a drug addict and not going to rehab. So he told her that she was fired, that she had to move out, that they were no longer going to be together.
According to him, she left and just disappeared. He didn`t even think to do anything about this. He didn`t alert the authorities for three weeks about his wife. Her family was concerned. Her friends were concerned. Everybody wondered where she was. But he had nothing.
There was no oh, my wife is missing, no flyers put out, it was just a she`s done and that`s it. Someone you`re married to, you tell them they have to have rehab and then you never see them again. He`s definitely luckily, thankfully been charged now.
GRACE: And Larry Atlman, joining us from the "Daily Breeze" who interviewed the husband. Isn`t it true that all over the community there were missing posters everywhere, but in his restaurant?
ALTMAN: Right. He`s still -- even with a new one that was just created that actually had the word homicide on it, he didn`t put that up. And they`re all on neighboring businesses around it. In fact, detectives told me he`s never contacted them at all to try to help to find her.
GRACE: Weigh in, Dr. Lillian Glass, psychologist, body language -- psychologist and body language expert out of L.A.
What about it, Lillian? Every restaurant, every 7-Eleven, every gas station has Dawn Viens` missing poster up in the window, but her own husband doesn`t put it up in his own restaurant?
LILLIAN GLASS, PSYCHOLOGIST, BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT, AUTHOR OF "TOXIC PEOPLE": That speaks volumes. And what speaks even more volumes to his guilt is that he jumped off a cliff. He was desperate because he knows he did it.
GRACE: What do we know about the blood spatter evidence, Larry Altman?
ALTMAN: They found the blood spatter on the walls of the bedroom in the house and in another room a little bit after David Viens and the new girlfriend moved out of the house last fall. They`re testing the blood right now to determine if it is -- if it is Dawn Viens` blood. And -- but they believe that that blood is an indication that she`s dead.
GRACE: We are taking your calls, out to Juanita in California. Hi, Juanita.
JUANITA, CALLER FROM CALIFORNIA: Hi, Nancy. God bless you. I have a question.
I`m so glad that he jumped off that cliff, because that was my question, now that can be used against him in a trial, is that correct? Because, you know, everything else he did, of course, he`s disgusting pointing to guilt. But this is the ultimate, and I wanted to know by him jumping of a cliff can it be used in a trial against him, points towards guilt?
GRACE: Juanita in California, you should have been a prosecutor. Because -- bring in the lawyers.
Anne Bremner, Daniel Horowitz, pardon the pun, you two, but evidence of flight can be used at trial to suggest guilt. Now in this case, to you, Anne Bremner, when he goes to trial, he`ll probably say I was so distraught about my wife`s disappearance and about finding blood in the home that I knew nothing about, I just couldn`t face the world anymore without her. Goodbye cruel world.
That`s what he`s going to say at trial, but will anybody really believe it, Anne Bremner?
ANNE BREMNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, he`ll probably say that but another thing is it was (INAUDIBLE) fence and he went over. He may say that he couldn`t see that was such a big drop.
Evidence of flight is evidence of guilt. But the question is, if I were defending him, is that where`s the other evidence that she`s actually dead, murdered? Blood spatter alone doesn`t show that she`s dead. And the fact he didn`t participate --
GRACE: Put her up, please. Put her up.
BREMNER: I`m right here, Nancy.
GRACE: What about him throwing out all of her belongings in less than 72 hours after she goes to rehab? Or just walks off down the street and disappears at the corner. Obviously he knew she wasn`t walking back through the front door again.
BREMNER: Well, the fact is whether people get rid of people`s clothes or burn them in a divorce or anything else, we don`t know that she`s dead. And that`s what`s required in a murder case. There`s not evidence that she`s dead, I don`t think they can prove their case right now. They`re going to have a lot -- have to have a lot more than they`ve got.
There`s just not evidence that she`s dead, and that`s what they`ve got to show.
GRACE: To Marc Klaas, president and founder, KlaasKids Foundation.
Weigh in, Marc. You don`t think they`ve got evidence to show homicide? The cops have charged him with homicide.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, if they have charged him with homicide and the district attorney has decided to press forward, obviously they`ve got enough evidence and -- take him out, you know, take him to trial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve kind of figured it out a long time back that, you know, after -- when she never came back for her money, she never called anybody, she hasn`t talked to her family, you know, you don`t just disappear.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Dawn Viens was last seen leaving her husband`s cafe. She was never seen again.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Evidence points to the fact that he`s happy she`s gone.
GRACE: The restaurant owner in the L.A. area immediately moves a new girlfriend into the home.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: David Viens, her husband, is the primary suspect.
CACACE: He always just had a problem with her because she was a very honest and simple person, and he was kind of a shady guy and he liked to be in charge of everything, you know?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Evidence points to the fact that she`s dead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: New blood spatter evidence found at the home the two shared.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Where do they think Dawn`s body is tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was some statement made in the past that he threw her out with the trash.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The police come up with something concrete.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did find the evidence of blood spatter in various locations in the residence.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Now the primary suspect in his wife Dawn`s murder. Taking a flying leap off a Rancho Palo Verde cliff. Today detectives arrest him.
GRACE: He doesn`t report her missing. Friends report her missing. And who is this person that he move into his home right after she goes missing? His wife. And then props her up as the hostess as the restaurant? It`s like his wife`s gone one day, and the next day he goes, here, here`s the menu, you be the hostess. I don`t get it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Out of sight, out of mind, I guess. It`s very bizarre, this is a very bizarre case. She has a handful of friends, allegedly her friends say that her husband discouraged her from having a lot of friends. They have not heard anything from this woman, nothing.
GRACE: Speaking of Dawn Viens` friends, out to Joe Cacace, a friend of Dawn`s, joining us from Alameda, California.
Joe, when did you learn that her case had gone from missing person to homicide?
CACACE: About two weeks ago.
GRACE: And you know, I remember when we first covered the case and you and I talked, I was stunned at how little had been done on her case. And right after our show, you said that the cops came back out and started sniffing around and reinvestigating.
Tell me what you know, Joe Cacace, about the blood found in the home?
CACACE: Well, I just recently found out about that myself. The police that came out were new detectives. The original detective got off the case, they had moved it up to a different detective. And they really - - I`m telling you, they`re wonderful guys, the sheriff`s department, they did a wonderful thing, they found all kinds of new evidence.
And evidently I actually found out from their customers that they were moving out of their apartment, told the sheriff, they went over there, and got into the place and found the blood spatter, and I was glad to hear they went in and were actually able to find that.
GRACE: So how did they get into the home, Joe?
CACACE: Well, the place was empty. He had moved out, him and his new girlfriend vacated the property and -- so it was empty. There was nobody living there so they were able to obtain access to the place by asking permission from the owner.
GRACE: You know, you just can`t place a value on cleaning your place before you move out. Because we found out police go back into the home -- when the husband and his new girlfriend move out, and they found the wife`s blood spatter on the walls.
Where was the blood, Larry Altman?
ALTMAN: It was in the bedroom and in another room in the house.
GRACE: And we know, Jean Casarez, that it was in fact blood spatter?
CASAREZ: That was the presumptive test and it is now being tested further. But Nancy, I definitely think this added and properly gave that probable cause for an arrest.
GRACE: You know, you`re right. Of course after a period of years, someone can be legally declared dead, but prosecutors don`t have to wait on that. And now this blood evidence, this guy thought he was never going to get caught.
I want to go out to you, Dr. Vincent DiMaio, chief medical examiner, former chief medical examiner, Bexar County forensic pathologist.
Doctor, how did the husband survive an 80-foot plunge? He finds out about the blood evidence in the home and what does he do? Drives straight to a cliff and jumps off. Happily he lived and has been arrested tonight. But how do you survive an 80-foot plunge?
DR. VINCENT DIMAIO, M.D., FMR. CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, BEXAR CO. FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Two ways. One was is the way he landed, he obviously landed on his feet because he`s got fractures of both hips. If he had landed on his head, his head would have burst like a melon.
And the second thing is, as he was going down the cliff, he probably hit some projections, probably maybe shrubs so that reduced his velocity. So when he hit, he wasn`t really going down 80 feet, you know, less of a height, and then he landed on the legs and acted like a cushion. And, you know, the head, you want to protect.
GRACE: Dr. Vincent DiMaio is joining us tonight from San Antonio -- San Antonio, Texas. Former chief medical examiner there in Bexar, forensic pathologist.
Dr. DiMaio, do you think he`s suffering tonight? I know he has some internal injuries, two shattered hips, any chance he`s in pain?
DIMAIO: Unfortunately no. They`ve got to probably doped up or way -- I`m sure they running an IV drip, something like fentanyl, that is got him so sedated he`s not feeling anything.
GRACE: Hmm.
DIMAIO: But one day they`re going to have to stop the --
GRACE: Maybe he`ll be in pain? Maybe he`ll be in pain when he starts to wake up?
DIMAIO: Let me tell you, every time it rains he`s going to be in pain with all those fractures.
GRACE: Good to know.
DIMAIO: He`s got a -- he`s got a lifetime of pain from all those injuries.
GRACE: You know, he`s got a lifetime. That`s the key to this case, she doesn`t.
Unleash the lawyers, Anne Bremner, Daniel Horowitz.
So, to you, Anne Bremner, if he starts talking as he`s going in and out of this medication, to doctors, talking about the murder or about Dawn Viens, his wife, just disappeared at the end of the block, he just never saw her again, and thinking she wasn`t going to come home, the next day he moved his girlfriend into the home and gave her his wife job`s as hostess at their family restaurant.
Any of that -- could that come into evidence if he starts talking to nurses or doctors while he`s coming in and out of this pain medication?
BREMNER: Unless they`re agents of the police? I mean if he`s voluntarily --
GRACE: Did you say yes?
BREMNER: The answer, I mean, is yes, with a qualification as I have stated. But the other thing is it goes to the weight of the evidence not its admissibility in terms of whether he`s saying things that are true or not. He`s coming out of --
GRACE: Daniel Horowitz, come on. You think a jury is not going to believe what he says when he`s coming in and out of pain medication? Of course they are.
DANIEL HOROWITZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Sure. It`d be like truth serum to the jury. Of course they will. It`s like truth serum. But he`s not going to do that. This guy is pretty tight and close mouthed.
But I`ll tell you, Nancy, that blood spatter may actually exonerate him. It may prove it`s not a murder. I`ll tell you why later.
GRACE: Yes, you know what, I can`t wait to hear this line of BS. How blood spatter all over the home, blood that belongs to his wife, can exonerate him. You know, he needs to hire you. He`s going to need you and Bremner at trial.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The Viens were small business owners running this Lomita Cafe for the past few years. Fellow business owners and friends of the couple say they were aware of domestic trouble and have feared the worst since Dawn disappeared.
CACACE: Talked to David. And he said that he fired her. He said he was tired of her drinking on the job and fired her. And I wondered how he fired his wife. I don`t understand how do you fire your wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We developed information that his vehicle was --
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: How do you fire your own wife from the family-owned restaurant?
We are taking your calls. To Sheila in Illinois. Hi, Sheila.
SHEILA, CALLER FROM ILLINOIS: Hi, Nancy. How are you tonight?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
SHEILA: Well, I remember when you first covered the case and her husband`s original actions and reactions were simply appalling and the jump off the cliff was the consciousness of guilt. I believe. But if he does confess to what he`s done to -- to Dawn Marie`s body, Nancy, could he avoid the death penalty?
GRACE: He absolutely could. In fact, that`s a very typical maneuver we see. But the state has got to announce that they`re going to seek the death penalty or at least suggest to him and his lawyer they are or I guarantee you he won`t say a word. Unless he says it coming in and out of that pain medication.
Hubby jumps off a cliff when he finds out police discover his wife`s blood spatters in the family home.
The tip line still exists, 800-222-8477. LACrimestoppers.org.
Let`s stop and remember Army Sergeant 1st Class Sean Dostie, 32, Rumford, Maine, killed Iraq. Awarded Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Commendation. Buried at Arlington. Graduated Troy University in criminal justice. Loved vacations to amusement parks, cars, time with family and friends.
Leaves behind parents Robert and Delain, sister Crystal, widow Stephanie. Children Cameron and Bailey.
Shawn Dostie, American hero.
Thanks to our guests but especially to you.
Happy birthday to Colorado friend, Donna Munch (ph). Worked 35 years with Colorado Mental Health. Mother of two, grandmother to three. Happy birthday.
And happy 101st to Dorothy Rosette. Loves quilting, crocheting, reading, cross word puzzles. Secret to long life? Staying busy.
And happy birthday to Illinois friend, Sheeba. Loves her dogs, Cappy and Tick, and we love you, Sheeba.
Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
END
