Return to Transcripts main page
Nancy Grace
Baby Kidnapped in Fort Myers
Aired March 03, 2011 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Vanished into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to kind her.
GRACE: So many cases --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re still looking.
GRACE: -- so few leads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
GRACE: Missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness had seen the suspect on NANCY GRACE.
GRACE: There is a God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The NANCY GRACE show was out there for us.
GRACE: Found alive.
Fifty people, 50 days, 50 nights.
Let`s don`t give up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): November, 2006, Fort Myers, Florida. A mommy meets her new son.
She poses for pictures in this home video. It should be the start of a long lifetime of memories, but these few images are all this mother is left with. Just three weeks after she holds him for the first time and chooses his name, Bryan Dos Santos-Gomes is kidnapped.
It`s December 1st. Mom, Maria, and a friend wait at the bus stop with newborn Bryan. A woman driving an SUV pulls up and asks for directions.
Maria offers to help until her bus arrives. She gets on. The woman in the SUV follows.
Mom, baby and friend get off at their stop. The woman in the SUV approaches them again for help.
SGT. MIKE CARR, FORT MYERS POLICE DEPT.: She pulled up to the two girls and started talking to them -- "I need to find" -- "I`m still" -- "I don`t understand what" -- "I need to find my mother. My mother`s got my baby. I`ll pay you money if you`ll show me where Pine Manor is."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They get into the SUV. Maria notices a baby seat and a diaper bag. Moments later, she`s held at knifepoint.
Mom and friend are released, but baby Bryan isn`t. The woman in the SUV drives away.
CARR: She was very cunning. I mean, you know, you have got to remember that when she pulled this off, she had a baby seat in the car, and she had diaper bag in the car, and she didn`t have a child in the car. So she was prepared to do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the first 48 hours, police issue a sketch of the suspect. Pictures of the 3-week-old are everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s still someone out in the community that has witnessed something. We have no change in the person that we`re looking for. We still believe that we`re looking for a Hispanic female. We also are looking for a black SUV with tinted windows.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four birthdays have passed. Four years of missed milestones and pictures and memories. The Dos Santos-Gomes family has grown since that day in 2006. Mom and dad have had two more children they hope one day to introduce to their big brother, Bryan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, CO-HOST: Every day 2,300 people go missing in America. They disappear. They vanish. Their families are left waiting and wondering and hoping, but never forgetting.
And neither have we. Fifty people, 50 days. For 50 nights we go live, spotlighting America`s missing children -- girls and boys, mothers and fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents. They are gone, but where?
Tonight, to Fort Myers, Florida.
Two mothers, they finish a visit with the doctor. They wait for the bus with their newborn babies.
A woman driving a Ford Explorer pulls over asking for directions. Eventually, the moms get in the SUV to help.
All of a sudden, the woman flashes a knife at 1-month-old Bryan Dos Santos-Gomes. Eventually, Bryan`s mother, she gets free, but she`s unable to free her little baby. Little baby Bryan never seen begun, considered to be in extreme danger.
This woman has already resorted to violence. Is she trying to replace a child?
An audio recording soon emerges made by the kidnapper just minutes before the abduction. We have got that audio. Will it help to crack the case?
Who abducted 1-month-old baby Bryan?
The scary thing about this is that it really could happen to anybody, because two young mothers were waiting for the bus. You see, they`d both just taken their children to the doctors, and they were waiting to get home on the bus.
So while they`re waiting for the bus, a black SUV pulls up, and they`re asked directions from a young woman sitting inside. So they give directions. Simple enough, right? And the SUV moves on.
They catch the bus. They get off the bus on their stop.
Guess what? That black SUV has followed the bus and it is still there.
I want to go out to Roy O`Neill. He is a national correspondent for Westwood One, joining us tonight from Orlando, Florida.
Rory, when that bus pulls up at the second stop, and these two young mothers get off, they obviously have to know at some point that black SUV has followed the bus.
What happens then?
RORY O`NEILL, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, WESTWOOD ONE: Well, the driver of that SUV asks for more specific directions. It`s funny. She gives these conflicting requests to try to find out where a local neighborhood is, but then can`t really tell them what street she`s looking for, and she really has this whole elaborate ruse to try to get these two women and their babies into her SUV.
She convinces them to go inside her SUV to go find the neighborhood she`s looking for. They find that neighborhood. Then she drives them back to the bus stop, and seemingly is about to let everyone out of the SUV.
No problem. She got the directions she was looking for. But that`s when she pulls the knife, that`s when she takes baby Bryan, and that`s when she takes off.
CASAREZ: But to Natisha Lance, NANCY GRACE producer, joining us tonight from Atlanta, Janice Duarte, which is one of the young women, she actually got out of the SUV with her little baby. But why didn`t Maria?
NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: She did. She got out of the SUV with her baby. But Maria, the mother of Bryan, the woman allegedly told her to put the baby -- strap the baby into the car seat that was in the back of the car, and for her to get in the front seat of the vehicle. There was hesitation --
CASAREZ: Was she showing a knife at that point, Natisha? Did she have a knife out?
LANCE: No, not at that point. There was hesitation there. Then she pulls out the knife and she says, "Do what I say. I have killed somebody before and I will do it again."
So much hesitation, that the woman drives off, and then she pulls in behind a church and she forces the mother to get out of the vehicle, leaving the baby behind. And she drives off with him.
CASAREZ: All right.
To Rory O`Neill.
Here`s what I don`t understand. When was the knife pulled out? Because if a woman told me to put my baby in the car seat, I`m not putting the baby in the car seat. There was a threat of violence to this mother, wasn`t there?
O`NEILL: Well, there was, but there were also no signs indicating there was any problem. Again, this is a woman, she has got a baby seat in the car, a diaper bag in the car. Probably, you see a young mom, you would probably consider her one of the least threatening people we have in society. So she probably isn`t thinking at all that she`s in any danger, or her child is in any danger.
I`m not exactly sure on the timeline when the knife was pulled, but we do know it was enough to scare the mother to give up her own child who`s just 28 days old at the time he was abducted.
CASAREZ: This was a baby. This was a total, total baby, 28 days old.
We are joined tonight by the lead investigator on the case, coming to us from Florida, Detective Matt Sellers from the Fort Myers Police Department.
Thank you so much for joining us.
First of all, I want to ask you, in these moments of crisis -- and we don`t know how we`re going to react. I`m sure Maria was in shock when this happened. But the account that she has told to law enforcement, that she was threatened with her life and the life of her baby, right?
DET. MAT SELLERS, FORT MYERS POLICE DEPT.: That is correct.
CASAREZ: And at what point did that happen? They didn`t have a friendly little conversation. It was immediately after Janice Duarte, her friend, got out of the vehicle that she realized she was in danger.
SELLERS: Yes, that is correct. And you can`t really -- you have to be careful when you`re investigating cases where violence is used. Often, people refer to a fight or flight, or freeze, and you really can`t assume what a victim -- a mother of a child`s going to do in this situation.
CASAREZ: Detective Sellers, I know there was a lot of theories that went around. This happened in 2006. It`s been four years. It is still a very active investigation, but a lot of theories went around of what the motivation would be to abduct this little 28-day-old baby.
For a time, it was thought that since the parents were illegal, that possibly they had not paid money to a coyote. They were from Brazil, and that was the motivation.
But you have -- with all the evidence you have, the investigation you`ve done, what at this point do you believe is the theory of why this unknown woman abducted this little baby?
SELLERS: Well, it`s pretty clear on the facts that have taken place since, you know, the initial reports when those other theories were taking place. There was some significant pieces of evidence that were developed, some significant statements made by witnesses in the case, that would lead you only to believe that this could possibly be, like, a non-family stranger abduction.
CASAREZ: So, do you think this was a woman who had a car seat in the back seat and a diaper bag in the vehicle that wanted a baby, what we have seen as recently as the Carlina White situation, a young woman out of New York that was abducted out of the hospital and recently reunited after 20- some-odd years with her birth mother? Is that the situation you think we have here?
O`NEILL: I mean, we can speculate as to the exact motive, but when you follow the facts in the case, and there is no evidence at this time in the case to lead us to believe it has anything to do with human smuggling. Although the parents were here illegally and there`s illegal activity when it comes to illegal immigrants, this particular kidnapping case did not have anything to do with that.
CASAREZ: All right.
You know, everybody, we have got the phone call that was made by the kidnapper. Here`s the situation, all right?
She has got Maria in the vehicle. She`s driving around the Fort Myers area with Maria and the baby and a knife. She makes a phone call off of the telephone of one of the young woman.
And listen to her voice. Listen to what she said.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go to Pine Manor. You go to Pine Manor, 11th Street.
Oh, OK. But how long will it be before you get here? Because I have to take the girls back. OK.
I`ll call you back, OK? All right. OK. Bye-bye.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
CASAREZ: All right.
To Detective Matt Sellers, joining us from the Fort Myers Police Department.
That phone call has become increasingly important, not so much with what she said, but who did she make that phone call to?
SELLERS: Well, it was a business here in Fort Myers. And it just so happens that the number was called twice from the suspect. Now, we can all speculate, of course, you know, someone who calls a number two times, have they memorized this number, are they familiar with it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- breaks down in tears, begging the woman who stole her baby to return him safely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two women were waiting at a bus stop on 41 when the suspect pulled up in a black SUV.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The suspect told the women she was trying to get to Pine Manor so she could pick up her own baby. The two women gave her directions and got on the bus. (INAUDIBLE) 41 and Linhart (ph), close to their home. The suspect in the SUV pulled up to the women again.
CARR: "I don`t understand what Pine Manor is. I need to find my mother. My mother`s got my baby. I`ll pay you money if you`ll show me where Pine Manor is."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wanting to help, the two women hopped into the SUV and showed the suspect themselves.
CARR: Who would expect somebody to steal your baby? These people were just trying to help somebody. And this person ends up stealing her baby? I mean, who would have thought that?
(END VIDEOTAPE) ELAM:
CASAREZ: Baby Bryan was only 28 days old when this happened.
I`m Jean Casarez.
This could happen to anybody. You`re waiting for a bus, someone comes up and asks you for directions.
Well, this time, to two young mothers. That black SUV returned and said, can you come on in the vehicle and show me where I need to go? They did get in the vehicle, and that`s when it began to go downhill very, very quickly.
Natisha Lance, we`re talking about this 911 call that the kidnapper, we will call her, made with one of the cell phones from the young mothers. It was made to a business, and I think that Detective Sellers had a valid point. The call was made two times. If it was a random call, as was originally thought, how would you remember the number twice?
Where do they believe that that call went to? And why is it significant?
LANCE: Well, there`s new information that police now have about that business and about that phone number.
Like you said, the call went in two times. That business was at a previous location before that, and at the previous location there were other businesses around it, making other people having access to that phone.
Now, that phone number, as well. They were able to make local calls from that phone number. So police are now interviewing an investigating, looking into people who had access to that phone number and trying to determine how the abductor may have possibly known one of these people who had access to that phone.
CASAREZ: To Marc Klaas, president, KlaasKids Foundation, joining us from San Francisco.
You know, Marc, we want everybody to not only see baby Bryan when he was 28 days old, but also, there are some age progression photos. Because if, as investigators believe, that this was a woman that wanted a baby, then the motivation would not be to harm the child. The motivation would be to keep the child.
MARC KLAAS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Yes. That`s absolutely true.
And I`d like to just weigh in on the last point made. Most cell phones have an automatic call back as well. So there could have been -- the second call could have been an inadvertent automatic call back and not something that was memorized.
The thing that`s troubling about this case is that most of these types of situations where somebody steals a baby because they want to raise the baby are ultimately solved rather quickly, simply because somebody shows up with a child that`s not theirs and they hadn`t been pregnant prior to that. That`s the thing that makes this one so puzzling.
I think it also brings into consideration the fact that she may have been working as an agent for somebody else. In other words, she was helping somebody else get a child for that purpose.
And it`s also significant -- and this is something that Detectives Sellers has said in the press -- that four hours prior to this kidnapping, the same woman attempted the same ploy on a grandmother and her infant child. She didn`t fall for it. So this was a desperate woman who, for whatever reason, needed to get a baby into her possession as quickly as possible.
CASAREZ: That`s very true. And that`s a good point.
Detective Matt Sellers, go over with us again, four hours previous to this abduction, another lady in the area almost lost her baby?
SELLERS: Yes. About nine days after the report of this incident, there was some information about some human smuggling.
When the announcement was made about the human smuggling, this woman comes forward, this grandmother, who gives a statement to us detailing this black SUV with a woman, the same description, speaking Spanish, and making the same statements based on her statement and the statements made from the victim in the case. We believe that they were related.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF HILTON DANIELS, FORT MYERS POLICE DEPT.: We have no change in the person that we`re looking for. We still believe that we`re looking for a Hispanic female. We also are looking for a black SUV with tinted windows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A massive search for a newborn baby boy. The mom and baby both kidnapped and knifepoint.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The woman said she needed directions to the Pine Manor neighborhood.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wanting to help, the two women hopped into the SUV and shows the suspect themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maria notices a baby seat and diaper bag. Moments later, she`s held at knifepoint. Mom and friend are released. Baby Bryan isn`t.
GRACE: Right now, all we know, Latina female, 28 to 30 years old, in a dark-colored two-door SUV, the tinted windows peeling. The 1-month-old baby Bryan, missing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: So, Maria Ramos Dos Santos gets in the vehicle, and all of a sudden a knife is pulled out and she says, look, I can kill you, I can kill your family, I`ve killed before. And Maria gets out, but the baby, the 28- day-old baby, Bryan, doesn`t get out. And since that time there` has been an all-points bulletin for this little baby Bryan, to find him alive.
To Tom Shamshak, former investigator and former police chief, now instructor at Boston University, joining us from Boston, Massachusetts.
The publicity this case has gotten is immense, from billboards to flyers, to telephone poles. Just the picture of baby Bryan has been plastered everywhere.
Obviously, Tom Shamshak, somebody knows something. Nobody has ever come forward. What do they do now?
TOM SHAMSHAK, FMR. INVESTIGATOR AND POLICE CHIEF: Jean, good evening.
This is a very perplexing case. So here`s my analysis.
This is a woman that has been out there looking to replace a child or, as Marc Klaas has said, to get a child to somebody else. The desperation with the weapon leads me to believe that this woman is still in the area.
She did this alone. She concealed it. She didn`t have any help.
The props that were in the automobile, the diaper bag and the car seat, I bet she had had them in the past. I would continue on what they`re doing.
I really like the investigative angle of looking at the phone numbers and then doing database research on anybody connected to that telephone, looking at the other identifiers, motor vehicles registered to anybody, and perhaps even looking to see if there were recent deaths, you know, months before of a child. This woman was particular. She went to the hospital. She was cruising for a young child -- Jean.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARR: Who would expect somebody to steal your baby? These people were just trying to help somebody, and they went to the extent of going with this person. And this person ends up stealing her baby?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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 MALE: Missing.
GRACE: Missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: November of 2006, Ft. Myers, Florida, a mommy meets her new son. She poses for pictures in this home video. It should be the start of a long lifetime of memories, but these few images are all this mother is left with. Just three weeks after she holds him for the first time and chooses his name, Bryan dos Santos Gomes is kidnapped.
It`s December 1st. Mom, Maria, and a friend wait at the bus stop with newborn Bryan. A woman driving an SUV pulls up and asks for directions. Maria offers to help until her bus arrives. She gets on. The woman in the SUV follows. Mom, baby and friend get off at their stop. The woman in the SUV approaches them again for help.
SGT. MIKE CARR, FORT MYERS POLICE DEPT.: She pulled up to the two girls and then again started talking to them. I need to find -- I`m still -- I don`t understand where Pine Manor is. I need to find my mother. My mother`s got my baby. I`ll pay you money if you`ll show me where Pine Manor is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They get into the SUV. Maria notices a baby seat and a diaper bag. Moments later, she`s held at knifepoint. Mom and friend are released, Baby Bryan isn`t. The woman in the SUV drives away.
CARR: She was very cunning. I mean, you know, you got to remember that when she pulled this off, she had a baby seat in the car, she had a diaper bag in the car, and she didn`t have a child in the car, so she was prepared to do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the first 48 hours, police issue a sketch of the suspect. Pictures of the three-week-old are everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s still someone out in the community that has witnessed something. We have no change in the person that we`re looking for. We still believe that we`re looking for a Hispanic female. We also are looking for a black SUV with tinted windows.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four birthdays have passed. Four years of missed milestones and pictures and memories. The Dos Santos Gomes family has grown since that day in 2006. Mom and dad have had two more children. They hope one day to introduce to their big brother, Bryan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Every day, 2,300 people go missing in America. They disappear, they vanish. Their families are left waiting and wondering and hoping, but never forgetting, and neither have we. Fifty people, 50 days, for 50 nights, we go live, spotlighting America`s missing children, girls, boys, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers and grandparents. They are gone, but where?
Tonight, to Ft. Myers, Florida. Two mothers, they finish a visit with the doctor. They`re waiting for the bus with their newborn baby. A woman driving a Ford Explorer pulls over asking for directions. Eventually, the moms get in the SUV to help, but all of a sudden, the woman flashes a knife at 28-day-old Bryan Dos Santos Gomes. Eventually, Bryan`s mother gets free but unable to free her little baby. Baby Bryan is never seen again.
Considered to be in extreme danger, this woman has already resorted to violence. Is she trying to replace a child? An audio recording soon emerges made by the kidnapper just minutes before the abduction. We have that audio. Will it help crack the case who abducted (INAUDIBLE) is somewhat confusing because it appears as though there was a lag of time. We can confirm the amber alert was put out at 7:15 in the evening.
We can also confirm that a phone call was made by Ms. Dorte, Sherry Dorte (ph), who was the friend of Maria`s who was standing with her at the bus stop, about 4:51 p.m. But to Rory O`Neill, national correspondent for Westwood One coming to us from Orlando, Florida, set out this timeline for us, and why does there appear to be some lags in the time that authorities were called?
RORY O`NEILL, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT WESTWOOD ONE: Well, you know what, Jean, it`s been a problem among law enforcement across Florida, actually, any population that has such a transient population and a high percentage of illegal people living in those communities. They were here illegally, and there is some fear now and reluctance to call police for help when you`re in this country illegally. There`s also a language barrier.
This family immigrated from Brazil, so they spoke Portuguese. A lot of people speaks Spanish in Florida, not so much with Portuguese, so there was a little bit of, perhaps, a lag time with the language and getting the story straight at that point. But, really, we`ve seen that in other missing child cases across Florida where the people, the parents are reluctant and scared to call police because they fear they will be deported and sent back to another country because they have been the victims of a crime.
CASAREZ: We are taking your calls. But first to Natisha Lance, when the parents were first questioned in all of these and there may have been a language barrier, but were there some inconsistencies in the stories?
NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: There were some inconsistencies in the story. For one thing, the mother says that the abductor told her that she would give her $500 or she asked the mother, actually, for $500. She said, if I drive you to this store, call your husband, ask him to give you $500, and I will give the baby back to you. And according to the mother, that is why she didn`t feel like her child was in danger because she felt like she was going to get him back if she paid the money.
CASAREZ: To Stacy in Wisconsin. Hi, Stacy.
STACY, WISCONSIN: Hi, Jean. Thanks for taking my call.
CASAREZ: You`re welcome. Thank you for calling.
STACY: Is it possible that the boy was taken by human traffickers?
CASAREZ: All right. Good question. We`ve got the lead detective with us tonight, Det. Matt Sellers from the Ft. Myers Police Department joining us from Ft. Myers, Florida. What do you think about in that question? You`ve gone through all of the theories. I know you`ve been working on this consistently since 2006. Human traffickers? What do you think?
VOICE OF DET. MATT SELLERS, FT. MYERS POLICE DEPT.: There was some information had come in about human trafficking, and it was announced in the media. Subsequent to that, there was a set of facts including the woman with her grandson and, in addition to that, some leads with the phone number that the suspect called and some other independent evidence that basically to rule out any possibility of human trafficking.
CASAREZ: Did anyone ever ask for a ransom amount? You can have your baby back if you pay "X" amount of dollars?
SELLERS: I won`t go into specifically what a kidnapper said repeatedly several different things to Maria. Talked about the timeline, the initial call to the police was from Janice, who called 911 immediately as the kidnapper drove off for 45 minutes with Maria to another location in South Ft. Myers in Astor (ph), Florida. At that point is where another witness had seen the SUV and Maria getting out of the car or the car leaving a parking lot of a church.
CASAREZ: All right. And we`ve got more to continue this story.
But first, tonight, please help us find Patricia Viola. She is 42 years old, vanished on February 13th, 2001, from Bogota, New Jersey. She`s a white female, 5 feet 2 inches tall, 125 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. If you have any information, please call 201-487-2400. There is a $10,000 reward.
If your loved one is missing and you need help, go to CNN.com/nancygrace. Send us your story. We want to help you find your loved ones.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A visibly heartbroken Maria Fatima Ramos Dos Santos with the help of a translator spoke out to the woman who took away her pride and joy.
MARIA FATIMA RAMOS DOS SANTOS, MOTHER MISSING 28-DAY-OLD, BRYAN (translator): I ask her to please, please leave my baby at any, any fire station. No questions will be asked.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maria, who stood next to her husband as well as her friend, Janice Duarte (ph) who was with her at the time of the abduction, are all having a tough time coming to grips with the event.
DOS SANTOS (translator): I suffer very much because our baby not being with me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maria and her friend got into the woman`s SUV to help her find the Pine Manor neighborhood where she was trying to find her family. Maria and her friend never thought their act of kindness would result with the abduction of 28-day-old, Brian.
DOS SANTOS (translator): When I saw the knife in her hand, I thought this was a kidnap.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maria and her husband are thinking about their worst fears.
DOS SANTOS (translator): I will look outside to my window in my bedroom and never see my baby come back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez. Let me tell you how fast police got into action in this case to try to find Baby Bryan. They immediately had a composite sketch drawn of this woman because there were eyewitnesses. They immediately got it on television and on billboards and telephone poles all over the South Florida Area, Ft. Myers area. They publicized Baby Bryan and who they believe had abducted the woman.
I want to go out to John Manuelian, defense attorney, joining us tonight from Los Angeles. Here is the central issue because if people know, and I`m going to assume for a minute that people know what this woman did, that she suddenly from one day to the next had a baby, they`re not going to want to come out to talk about it because they may be illegal. Not only that, they may face charges for knowing what this woman did and harboring a criminal. So, how do they get the answers, law enforcement?
JOHN MANUELIAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, they could do it anonymously, and there`s a reward out now. My understanding is for $21,000. And as a chaplain for the Ft. Myers Police Department said, money makes the monkey dance. The higher the reward, typically, the more people come forward and give information to the police. So, one of the ways that we could do this is through your program and through the reward and through community help.
CASAREZ: To the lead detective on this case, Det. Matt Sellers, joining us from the Ft. Myers Police Department. First of all, do you believe that Baby Bryan is alive?
SELLERS: there`s no evidence in the case that would indicate that he has died. So, you know, I would say Bryan`s alive.
CASAREZ: And if someone abducted him because they wanted a baby, the whole point would be to have a baby, right?
SELLERS: Yes, that would be correct, yes.
CASAREZ: So, how do you deal with the issue of maybe those that have information, know information, are illegal, don`t want to come forward to law enforcement because they may be deported, but have the answers to all the questions you seek?
SELLERS: You know, that`s one of the large hurdles in the case. We were receiving tips from people, you know, weeks after the incident occurred just because people were somewhat reluctant to say something. One tip was reported to a child support office because the people didn`t want to meet with the police. So, yes, that is one of the hurdles in the case and, you know, only way to overcome that is to continue to ensure people, you know, they can leave information anonymously and, you know, without any threats of being deported or anything like that.
CASAREZ: Right. So, someone can call the tip line and there is a tip line. What is the reward, detective, at this point?
SELLERS: We don`t disclose the actual reward amount in the case, but yes, there is a substantial reward in the case.
CASAREZ: All right. but anonymously, if you want to step forward at this point, please do, because Baby Bryan needs to be reunited with his mother and father that have longed for him since December 1st of 2006.
I want to go to Kathryn Smerling, psychologist, joining us from New York tonight. You know, what these parents went through and what the mother went through because she experienced it, along with the issues they were in this country illegally, they knew they shouldn`t be here, but they came forward to police because they wanted to find their baby. What has she gone through in all these years? And will it ever change course so she can truly live again?
KATHRYN SMERLING, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST: Oh, my goodness. She has been through what no parent wants to go through, and she doesn`t have any closure on the experience right now. Even though, she has two other children, which will give her some optimism and joy and an open spirited look at life, but she will have to fight every day. And new children and new children that come into her family will never replace Bryan.
Bryan will always be alive in her mind, and he will always be there. One hopes that she will be able to live and give her new children, her two and four-year-old, I believe, right now, a chance to be able to experience joy, and she experiences joy and optimism with them without ever forgetting Bryan and teaching the other children about Bryan.
CASAREZ: To Det. Matt Sellers joining us from the Ft. Myers Police Department, to be fair to the rest of the Ft. Myers community, there was some outrage in the community when this all happened because these parents were there illegally and that they were not being deported. What is their status at this point?
SELLERS: They`re currently still here in the country.
CASAREZ: Are they on a type of immigration status that allows victims of crimes to remain in the United States?
SELLERS: I know that they had applied for that. I`m not sure currently what the status of that is, though.
CASAREZ: OK. Is it important for the investigation for them to be here?
SELLERS: You know, with today`s technology, I mean, as long as I can communicate with the parents and have contact information, I can pretty much do what I need to do no matter where the parents are as long as they`re in communication with me.
CASAREZ: OK. To Leslie in Illinois. Hi, Leslie.
LESLIE, ILLINOIS: Hi, Jean. I just wondered, why did the mom get into the car with the stranger?
CASAREZ: OK. Let`s go out to the lead detective, Det. Mark Sellers - - Matt Sellers. Why do you think -- why did the mother go in? She thought that -- she was naive. That`s what I`m getting. Is that right?
SELLERS: Well, that`s the only thing you can assume. Not only the mother but the mother and her friend. They saw desperation. They were actually convinced to get in the car. It was a complete con from what was reported. Two independent statements from these two women that were taken or driven. There`s no other explanation but that.
CASAREZ: You know, to Marc Klaas, president Klaaskids Foundation, when we hear about them getting in a car, it does put up a red flag because I wouldn`t get in a car with somebody I don`t know, but I guess, some people look for the good in others and don`t believe something like this could happen.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, this is an extraordinary situation, Jean, simply because these people were brand new in our country. They`d only been here a couple of months. They came from a small, obscure area of Brazil. They were not educated. They were not sophisticated. They did not know how our system worked.
I believe she was simply trying to be kind and I believe that a lot of the outrage that has been generated since comes from the fact that law enforcement on day nine of the investigation suggested that this was some kind of an immigration deal gone wrong and that they had an unpaid debt that needed to be dealt with. So, I think if we were to put ourselves in a situation such as Natalee Holloway`s parents or Amanda Knox`s parents without the sophistication or the resources, we might understand who these people are and why they`re in the situation that they`re in.
And I think it would be inhumane to send them out of the country at this point without having some kind of a resolution in this case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Latina female, 28 to 30 years old, and a dark colored two door SUV, the tinted windows peeling. The 1-month-old baby Bryan missing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: These are the faces of America`s missing. Every 30 seconds, another child, a sister, a brother, a father, a mother, they disappear and they leave their families behind, wondering and waiting and hoping. We have not forgotten.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Monique Santiago disappeared from Albany, New York in 1990. Monique`s aunt --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From what I hear, she had left to go to school, called her mom, told her she missed the bus. Her mom told her to go home and when they got home, Monique was nowhere to be found. Monique and my son were close. She was always at my house. She looked more like myself than my sister because Monique has a gap in her teeth like I do.
My sister didn`t have that gap. And I hope that from this something like I said come because so many years not knowing anything, you know, it`s like a part of your soul that`s empty and you don`t know where to find it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Richard Goodwin was last seen at his home in Henderson, Nevada in 2008. His wife reportedly told investigators she saw him getting into a newer model champagne colored vehicle with tinted windows that she did not recognize. It is not believed he took any personal belongings with him. If you have any information, call 702-267- 4750.
Aleacia Stancil vanished from Phoenix, Arizona in 1994. Her grandmother still hopes to see her again some day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve never given up. I hope and I believe that she is, because all this time not hearing nothing, even if it is bad news, it`s just -- I just believe that she`s somewhere out there. If any of this sounds familiar to you at all, Aleacia, please get in touch with the station. We have been looking for you all these years, and we`ve never stopped.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez. See you tomorrow night, 9 o`clock sharp eastern. Until then, we will be looking. Goodnight, everybody.
END
