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Nancy Grace
Rural Michigan Mother Missing
Aired March 04, 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 FEMALE: She told me earlier she was going to go mail a letter. She needed to mail a letter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was surprised she didn`t wake me up to tell me to watch the kids before she went out and put the mail in the mailbox. I wish she would have.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know she would never leave on her own. There`s no way she would ever leave on her own.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife went to work. I was still in bed sleeping. And I heard the kids getting really loud and I thought, why is Venus letting those kids be so loud?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 7:30 in the morning, people are up, getting ready for work, whatever. But nobody saw anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They told me that, "Mommy went outside," so I went outside. She wasn`t there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Venus had no personal belongings on her. Police believe there was evidence of a scuffle in the yard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had heart-soled slippers on, and there were prints from her slippers on the side of the propane tank like somebody had picked her up and she was kicking against the tank to get away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve been doing this for 32 years, so this is unusual in the sense that I`ve never seen anyone disappear like this. There`s absolutely no trace, no hint, no nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stewart recently left her husband in Virginia with her two young daughters and moved in with her parents.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He calls every day, once a day, to talk to the children. But on that day he never called.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was scared to death of her husband. She told me that he was going to get her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those little girls love their mommy so much. Please, please don`t do anything to her. Please.
(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 and brothers, even grandparents. They are gone, but where?
Tonight, live, rural Michigan. A young mother in her pajamas wearing her bedroom slippers goes out to the mailbox to leave a letter for the mailman. It`s about 7:45 in the morning. The young mother was never seen again.
In the front yard, there are clear signs of struggle. In the grass, driveway gravel shows the mother kicked and she fought.
Kidnapped at the mailbox early in the morning in your pajamas. Authorities say something is very wrong. Immediately, they begin investigating this as a kidnapping.
Venus hasn`t been found.
Shortly before Venus Stewart disappears, her husband allegedly stops at a Wal-Mart. You`re not going to believe what he buys.
The husband says, I have got a solid alibi, it wasn`t me. But where is the mother of two young children, Venus Stewart?
I want to go straight out to Rex Hall Jr. He is a reporter for "The Kalamazoo Gazette." He is the crime reporter.
Rex, take us back to April 26, 2010. It hasn`t even been a year yet.
What happened at the home of Venus Stewart`s parents that morning?
REX HALL JR., "THE KALAMAZOO GAZETTE": She had gone out that morning apparently to mail a letter. And sometime between 7:10 and 8:30 that morning, police believe that she was taken.
And her father, who was sleeping at the time that morning, found some rocks near his house that had been disturbed. He found a pink hair tie on the sidewalk and some plastic packaging for a tarp underneath his pontoon boat that had not been there the day before, and immediately began to wonder about the whereabouts of his daughter. And he also began to become immediately worried because she was nowhere to be found.
CASAREZ: David Lohr, crime reporter for AOL.com, exactly what was Venus Stewart wearing in those early morning hours?
DAVID LOHR, CRIME REPORTER, AOL.COM: Well, they believe she was wearing pajamas and her slippers. Like you said, she went out to get the mail. As far as they know, whatever happened to her after that, nobody knew at the time.
But they did find the signs of a struggle not only in the yard, but also the gravel had been kicked around. And, you know, it definitely looked like she had met with some sort of foul play.
CASAREZ: Let`s go over that once again.
Rex Hall Jr., crime reporter for "The Kalamazoo Gazette," exactly what were the signs of struggle that police believe they saw when they got there?
HALL: I think the main thing that they noticed were the rocks, because her father was certain that the day before, they had not been disturbed. Because just prior to this, the day before, he had been out doing some spring yard cleaning and had been cleaning up, and specifically had gotten those rocks where they needed to be.
And I think that was one of the first things he noticed, along with this plastic wrapper for a tarp underneath his boat. I think those two things immediately caught his eye, and certainly were the two things he pointed out to police once they arrived on scene.
CASAREZ: We are taking your calls live tonight.
Where is Venus Stewart, a mother of two young children who were asleep in that home when she walked out to the mailbox to just leave a letter for the mailman?
To Natisha Lance, joining us tonight from Atlanta.
I want everybody to really get the layout of this home, because the mailbox was literally at the end of the driveway, right? Explain the scene for us.
NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right, Jean. And this is so scary, because how many people go out to their mailbox every day to mail a letter? The mailbox was just 80 feet away from this house.
And what the parents have told us in the past is that the house next door was 90 feet away and the other house was just 24 feet away. And there was this tarp that was under the boat, and then there was also a propane tank that also had a footprint on it. And police believe once they got to the scene that it appeared as if Venus must have been struggling and that she was kicking, and that she was pulled, and that her footprint was able to leave a mark on that propane tank.
CASAREZ: Natisha, where was that propane tank in relation to the mailbox with the footprint?
LANCE: OK. Well, we can see on this map right here, the propane tank is actually closer to the home. You see the boat that is next to it there over to the right.
The tarp wrapper was underneath that boat. The mailbox, down the driveway, 80 feet away from that, is where Venus was, apparently, when she was taken by surprise and then abducted.
CASAREZ: You know, to Marc Klaas, president and founder of KlaasKids Foundation, so often in these cases we cover more likely than not, initially police say, well, maybe voluntarily she left, maybe she got in the car, she left with somebody. But with signs of a struggle, Marc Klaas, they immediately realized this was an abduction and we have to investigate it as such.
MARC KLAAS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Yes. There`s no question about that.
And, in fact, when they showed up -- when the authorities showed up at the home, Venus` mother was in hysterics saying something along the lines, "He did it. He took her. He took her."
They realized the seriousness of this situation immediately, and immediately launched a very thorough investigation to backtrack and find out who in the world would have sat and wait for this young mother in the early morning to commit some kind of a crime against her?
CASAREZ: You know, Pat Brown, criminal profiler, generally speaking, who was going to kidnap somebody from their own mailbox when they walk out to put a letter in it?
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, we do have those instances where a woman goes out there and a serial killer just cruises the neighborhood, sees her and grabs her. We have had those situations.
But, of course, in this situation, we already know that there`s a husband who had something planned for her. That`s why she was so terrified.
But I`ll tell you, one problem women have is they`re paranoid, but they`re not paranoid enough. In this situation, her own father said, I wish I hadn`t let her go out to that mailbox. And I wish that, too.
If you have got that kind of situation, don`t be alone. You have to have somebody with you 24/7.
CASAREZ: Even when you go out to your own mailbox.
BROWN: Even when you go to the mailbox.
CASAREZ: We are taking your calls live.
Dorothy in Ohio.
Hi, Dorothy.
DOROTHY, OHIO: Hello.
CASAREZ: Thank you for calling.
DOROTHY: Yes. I`ve been watching just now, and I want to ask a question.
Somebody had to know this woman was actually taking her mail out that day to put that in the mailbox for them to be sitting there. If not, they`d been sitting there for a long time.
CASAREZ: You know, that`s a good point, because she`s a victim of circumstance, or was somebody lying in wait, as you legally say?
To Rex Hall, crime reporter for "The Kalamazoo Gazette."
There was a neighbor, and this is how they started investigating this. A neighbor in the area said she saw a pickup truck that seemed to be idling close by that home from almost 6:00 in the morning?
HALL: That`s right. There was a neighbor who spotted a pickup truck parked in a field, I think, sometime after 6:00 a.m. that morning. So this would have been about an hour before the beginning of the time that they believe Venus was taken. And I think that that neighbor also saw what she believed to be a man standing next to that truck.
CASAREZ: Nervously standing by that truck, I think is how she described it.
David Lohr, of course an investigation like this, you have to look at the people closest to Venus Stewart. Well, she was in her parent`s home. Her mother and father lived there. Her two children were there.
But she had recently separated from her husband just days before, right?
LOHR: That`s correct. Two months before she had moved in with her parents she had separated from her husband of eight years, and she had actually gained custody of their two young daughters.
Now, one of the reasons from the start police focused on the husband was because there was actually a history between them. She had attempted to get restraining orders in the past and succeeded in a couple cases. And, you know, felt that he was a danger to her and their daughters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: When you did speak to him, did you ask him, was he at work the day she went missing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did, but he wouldn`t answer me.
GRACE: What did he say?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Mommy, in pajamas --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An abduction of some sort.
GRACE: -- goes to the mailbox in the front yard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was scared to death of her husband.
GRACE: Mommy, never seen again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Doug Stewart is considered a person of interest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspicious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspicious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspicious.
GRACE: Is there a crack in the case?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say his alibi appears true.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting ready for work.
GRACE: But did you go to work?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He claims to be in Virginia.
GRACE: Did he check in that day?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had to get ready for work.
GRACE: Did you go to work that day? Where were you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he couldn`t have been at work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was afraid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was scared to death.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was afraid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She told me that he was going to get her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s hard to believe that no one saw anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They told me that, "Mommy went outside." So I went outside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They got her footprint.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wasn`t there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Evidence of a scuffle in the yard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: May have been abducted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man was suspicious.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: May have been killed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone who had something to hide.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Either you`re there or not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He told me he told the police every step he took that day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it a yes/no answer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you never know.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez.
Venus Stewart, she got up that morning. It was just like any other morning, and she walked to the mailbox that was on the property at the end of the driveway.
She had her pajamas on. She had her bedroom slippers on, her fur- topped bedroom slippers. And she was never seen again.
Natisha Lance, Venus Stewart`s grandfather got some phone calls early on with a voice saying, "Grandpa, it`s me. It`s Venus." It was either a cruel joke, or somebody was trying to mislead police in the investigation, right?
LANCE: Right. Well, this phone call came on May 12th, which was days after Venus` abduction. And he says it was a woman on the other end of the phone.
He became excited because he thought it was her. And what this woman said is that she was OK, she was in northwest Chicago, that she left her parent`s home with a man, and that Douglas Stewart was not responsible for her disappearance.
When he asked her and pressed her further, "Where are you?" the line ended. But even before that, he said she had been speaking about her aunt and uncle in a way she normally would not talk about them. And her voice sounded different than it normally would.
And he knew at that point when she hung up the phone that it wasn`t his granddaughter, because he said they had a close relationship and she would never hang up the phone on him.
CASAREZ: And can you imagine what emotionally he went through?
But enters the picture right now, Douglas Stewart.
To Rex Hall Jr., crime reporter from "The Kalamazoo Gazette," this is the husband of Venus Stewart, but she was in Michigan with her parents. Where was he living at the time?
HALL: He was in Newport News, Virginia.
CASAREZ: And what did he say when police said, where were you the morning of April 26, 2010?
HALL: He told them that he was in Virginia at the time.
CASAREZ: But doggone it, Rex Hall Jr., that pickup truck that that neighbor saw in the vicinity of Venus Stewart`s home, her parents, it was strikingly similar to his pickup, wasn`t it?
HALL: That`s correct.
CASAREZ: So what happened next?
HALL: I think that it was safe to say that from the very beginning, he was a -- he was and was the only person of interest in this case, despite the fact that he told police he had been in Virginia. And as they were investigating, I believe at some point he did come back to Michigan, but still contended -- or at least police at that point only had information from him that he had been in Virginia at the time that his wife disappeared.
CASAREZ: Until they found the Wal-Mart receipt.
And we`re going to tell you in a minute what he bought allegedly at Wal-Mart.
Tonight, everybody, listen to this. Police announce they have received 11 new leads in the disappearance of missing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling after his story was featured this last Monday night on NANCY GRACE, America`s Missing.
Jacob was 11 years old when he was abducted by a masked gunman nearly 22 years ago while he was biking home from a convenience store, along with his brother and another friend. Investigators continue to urge the public to call with any information. Details that may seem insignificant could help police bring these missing people home safe to their families.
If you have any information, please call 320-251-4240.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stunning developments in the case of missing mom Venus Stewart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I called him a murderer and so-and-so.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The search person of interest Doug Stewart`s two cars turned up apparent blood stains, as well as a receipt for a purchase of a tarp and shovel.
GRACE: Did you ask him, was he at work the day she went missing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did, but he wouldn`t answer me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police believe she was taking her mail to the mailbox around 7:30 in the morning and say there was evidence of a scuffle in the yard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he couldn`t have been at work. He was busy kidnapping my daughter.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CASAREZ: When Venus Stewart went missing from her parents` home last April, the only things that were left where she disappeared at the mailbox down from the home was her pink hair tie. And then underneath the family`s boat there was a plastic tarp cover, a container for a tarp.
I want to go out to David Lohr, reporter, AOLNews.com.
Police executed a search warrant on her husband`s pickup truck that was in Virginia. And lo and behold, on the front passenger floor seat was a Wal-Mart receipt.
What did it say that somebody had purchased at a Wal-Mart?
LOHR: That`s correct. They found the receipt, and it showed that on the day she had went missing, someone had gone to a Wal-Mart in Ohio, purchased a shovel, a tarp, a cap and gloves.
CASAREZ: A shovel, a tarp, a cap and gloves.
Natisha Lance, what more can you tell me about that?
LANCE: Well, this wasn`t the only thing that was found in this truck. There were also swabs that were taken from this truck, Jean, seven swabs that were taken from the bed liner of the truck. And there was also blood that was on the door of this truck, or apparent blood that was on the door of this truck. Police executed that search warrant, and not too long after that his status was updated to being a suspect and not just a person of interest.
CASAREZ: Right.
To Sheryl McCollum, crime scene analyst, director of Cold Case Squad, Pine Lake PD.
You know, we are learning that the blood that was found in his pickup truck could not be determined to be Venus Stewart`s because it said that the DNA -- the blood found no DNA was able to be confirmed from the bed liner of the truck or from the side of the driver`s door.
Why not?
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME SCENE ANALYST: It might have been too small of a sample. There might not have been enough cells to extract the DNA from.
But I`ll tell you what we do know. We do know that she tried to get protective orders, she moved to another state. She was divorcing him.
Clearly, she was afraid of this man. And he buys a tarp and a shovel and a pair of gloves and a hat. That is a recipe for murder.
(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 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 FEMALE: SHE told me earlier she was going to go mail a letter. She needed to mail a letter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was surprised she didn`t wake me up to tell me to watch the kids before she went out and put the mail in the mailbox. I wish she would have.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know she would never leave on her own. There`s no way she would ever leave on her own.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife went to work. I was still in bed sleeping. And I heard the kids getting really loud, and I thought, why is Venus letting those kids be so loud?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 7:30 in the morning, people are up getting ready for work, whatever, but nobody saw anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They told me that mommy went outside, so I went outside. She wasn`t there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Venus had no personal belongings on her. Police believe there was evidence of a scuffle in the yard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had heart-soled slippers on, and there were prints from her slippers on the side of the propane tank like somebody had picked her up, and she was kicking against the tank to get away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve been doing this for 32 years, so this is unusual in the sense that I`ve never seen anyone disappear like this. There`s absolutely no trace, no hint, no nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stewart recently left her husband in Virginia with her two young daughters and moved in with her parents.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He calls every day, once a day to talk to the children, but on that day, he never called.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was scared to death of her husband. She told me that he was going to get her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those little girls love their mommy so much. Please, please don`t do anything to her, please.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": I`m Jean Casarez. Venus Stewart just dashed out of her home one morning with her pajamas on, her, not even a robe on, went out to the mailbox just to put a letter in for the mailman to pick up. She had her bedroom slippers on that were fur- topped. She was never seen again, but she left signs. She left signs of an evidence of a struggle, and we need to find Venus Stewart. That is the point here.
I want to go out to Rex Hall, Jr., crime reporter of the "Kalamazoo Gazette." Her two young children, three and five years old were in the home when she was abducted at the end of the driveway. Didn`t anybody hear her scream at all?
VOICE OF REX HALL, JR., CRIME REPORTER, KALAMAZOO GAZETTE: Not that we know of. I think when she was taken, it was sort of like she vanished. No one saw what happened to her, and I don`t think that anyone saw anything or heard anything at the time of the incident.
CASAREZ: We are taking your calls live. To Theresa in Michigan. Hi, Theresa.
THERESA, MICHIGAN: Hi, how are you?
CASAREZ: I`m fine.
THERESA: Hello?
CASAREZ: Thanks for calling. Yes?
THERESA: Yes. You know what, I really do think that the husband did have something to do with it, and I was wondering if did they ever give him a lie detector test or something, because that poor mother and father and those babies, they need some justice. It`s a shame.
CASAREZ: Yes. And that`s the point. We want to find Venus Stewart, but Theresa, they did better than a lie detector test. They charged him with murder. They charged him with murder without a body. And they are now prosecuting him, but the body needs to be found.
To Meg Strickler, international law attorney, defense attorney, joining us from Atlanta. Prosecution without a body, without a cause of death, can be extremely difficult. It can be done, but it`s tough.
MEG STRICKLER, INTERNATIONAL LAW ATTORNEY: It`s a lot more difficult for the state to prove a case without physical evidence, and the best physical evidence is a dead body. So, it`s a much more difficult case period, and I do hope we can find Venus Stewart if she is alive or dead.
CASAREZ: And time is of the essence, because they need to find Venus Stewart if she is alive or if she is deceased. To David Lohr, reporter, AOLNews.com. In regard to this alibi that this husband had, where does he say he was at the time?
DAVID LOHR, REPORTER, AOLNEWS.COM: Well, it appeared as though he had a pretty solid alibi when police looked at his bank records and everything. He`d gone to a fast food joint. He had gone to his lawyer`s, made a payment on a bill there. He`d logged into his social networking websites from his home.
So, you know, it appeared that he had been at home this entire time, but it was -- as they began to investigate this further, they uncovered this elaborate plan or scheme where he had involved a man he had met in Delaware to come and pose as him while he was off kidnap, allegedly kidnapping his wife.
CASAREZ: But he`s denying all that?
LOHR: Yes.
CASAREZ: Correct, David Lohr?
LOHR: He`s denying all of that, but the story -- he`s denying all this, but the man, Richard Spencer, he tells quite an interesting tale that kind of weaves all the aspects of this together.
CASAREZ: To Dr. Doug Bremner, professor of psychiatry and radiology, author of "Before You Take That Pill," joining us tonight from Atlanta. Her two children, ages three and five, were still asleep in the house when her mother went abducted. And now, how do they reconcile this that mommy is just gone from one day to the next, and how was the family going to tell them that they probably won`t have a father either?
DR. DOUG BREMNER, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY AND RADIOLOGY: Well, this is just a tragic case, Jean. I mean, the kids at the age of three and five, they don`t have a conception of death. So, they may say that mommy went away and she hasn`t come back and they`re probably wondering, well, did I do something to make mommy mad at me that she doesn`t come back? Or, you know, what is this death place? What does it mean?
I`d like to go there to visit her. And this is going to affect them for the rest of their lives, assuming that she is dead, which I think we have to assume is the most probable thing that has occurred. They won`t be able to go through the normal grieving process until they`re really adults because kids are not able to grieve at that age.
CASAREZ: You know, Natisha Lance, so many searches have been done for Venus Stewart. They`ve all been done in Michigan, is that correct?
NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yes. That is correct, Jean. There`ve been four significant searches that have been done around the time that she disappeared, and most recently, a search was done in September of 2010. Police searched an area that Douglas Stewart was affiliated with. He had gone hunting in that area before.
And they also searched a field that was across the street from Venus Stewart`s parent`s home, but none of those searches have led to anything. So, police still are trying to figure out the clues to where this woman could possibly be.
CASAREZ: And Sheryl McCollum, here`s my thought or here`s my point. There are two vehicles involved. There is the pickup truck that prosecutors say was in Michigan, but there was also a family car that was still in Virginia. Guess what? That family car, blood was found on the back driver`s floorboard seat.
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST: Well, what I think probably occurred was he got rid of the body in the truck because he`s not going to drive around with a dead body in the truck, you know, for any extended period of time. So, I believe she`s also in Michigan. But then once he got home, he had to get rid of the shovel and possibly the tarp and the gloves, so blood could have gotten disposed in the other vehicle when he drove around to dispose of other items. CASAREZ: All right. Well, the one aspect is in Michigan, they don`t have the death penalty. Virginia, they have the death penalty. Prosecution, though, at this point in Michigan.
Tonight, everybody, please help us find Roy Greg Brooks, 21 years old. He vanishes on January 18th, 2000, from Castlebury, Florida. He is 5`11", 140 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. If you have any information, please call 1-800-690-3463.
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: I don`t know what`s going to happen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Search warrants reveal apparent blood stains found in both cars belonging to Venus` husband, Douglas Stewart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m sure that he took her as I am of my name.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What appear to be blood stains from inside the driver`s side door in Stewart`s gray pickup and the rear driver`s side floor of Stewart`s silver mercury were recovered by forensic investigators.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops say there are signs of a struggle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Inside the pickup, authorities find a Wal-Mart receipt that included purchases of a shovel, tarp, cap, and gloves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The person who did this had to have been outside the house surveying the house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Located in the truck bed of Stewart`s car, rope and twine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He does, indeed, say that he was in Newport News, Virginia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He claims to be in Virginia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Claims he has witnesses proving his alibi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two witnesses that know he was there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On that day, he never called.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You cannot be alone even for one minute even to go out to the mailbox.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops calling Venus` estranged husband their only person of interest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s the only day he missed is the day that Venus came up missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doug Stewart is the man that took my daughter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez. We`re taking your calls. Tammy in South Carolina. Hi, Tammy.
TAMMY, SOUTH CAROLINA: Hi. I have a question. Was this a routine thing for her to go to the mailbox that early? It sounds like a crazy question, but how would they know when she was coming out in order to take her like that? That`s just crazy. I want to pray for the family and hopefully, you know, everything will be all right and that she will come home alive.
CASAREZ: Yes, we definitely do. It is crazy. To Rex Hall, crime reporter for the "Kalamazoo Gazette," have you heard at all about her patterns? Is that the way they did it in this rural area, that if you have something for the mailman, you put it in the mailbox?
HALL: Sure. I think that that would have been routine for her if she has something to mail. I think, on that particular day, as far as why she was abducted that day, how did someone know that she was going to be going outside that day? I think, you know, some information has come out from Richard Spencer, himself, that what Doug told him was that he was able to surprise Venus by calling her parent`s home or calling her cell phone and acting like he was a mailman with a package for her which then caused her to exit the house, and he was there waiting for her when she came out.
CASAREZ: And you know what`s the reality here? We won`t know the truth because Venus Stewart isn`t here to tell us exactly what happened. That`s why we don`t know. Rex Hall, I want to ask you about that blood in the other car. Was it found to be Venus Stewart`s blood, the car that was in Virginia?
HALL: I don`t think the personnel from the Michigan State Police crime lab had looked at that blood. I don`t think, much like with the blood in the truck, they weren`t able to make a determination.
CASAREZ: Wow. That`s really something. That`s amazing to have so much blood and not be able to make a determination. One other question, what about cameras? Because there are a lot of interstates around there. Did cameras ever catch that pickup truck, his pickup truck getting off on a certain exit at all, which would possibly lead to find Venus?
HALL: I don`t think cameras on the highway ever really played much of a role in this case. I think for police, the cameras that came into play and were of more assistance to them were the cameras at two different Wal- Mart stores, the Wal-Mart in Hampton, Virginia, and then the Wal-Mart in Vanwert, Ohio, where they, where Doug bought the shovel, tarp, gloves and hat.
CASAREZ: Nandi in Texas. Hi, Nandi.
NANDI, TEXAS: Hi, how are you doing?
CASAREZ: I`m fine.
NANDI: Hello? OK.
CASAREZ: Yes, your question?
NANDI: I don`t want to sound judgmental, but I really don`t think his alibi is very credible. My question is, were investigators able to recover any of the said items that he purchased from Wal-Mart for possible evidence examination?
CASAREZ: Well, listen to this. I can tell you one thing, the gloves, they were found in the front seat on the floor of the passenger`s side. Rex Hall, you`re right there. You`re the crime reporter at the "Kalamazoo Gazette." You know everything about this case covering it from the beginning. Forensically, they collected that glove. Did they test them? Do we know at all yet if the DNA of Doug Stewart is inside?
HALL: I believe that they did find some of his DNA in those gloves, but no other DNA on those gloves but his.
CASAREZ: OK. Pat Brown, what do we do next? Because here`s the issue, you want to find Venus Stewart, not only because you want a successful prosecution, but because you want justice for her family. What do they need to do next?
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: This is an extremely difficult issue because he drove a long distance, and I know they are focused on Michigan because he knows the area. And I always say, people tend to go where they know, but he could, indeed, have dumped her some place else on the way back. You know, because it is a long trip back.
She might be in another state way off the road, and he took all the equipment with him, his tarp and his shovel, so she is buried underground. So, it is going to be a very difficult to run across her body in a usual manner like having somebody trip over it because she`s not above ground.
CASAREZ: Gee. Marc Klaas, president, founder, Klaaskids Foundation. Your thoughts? I mean, we don`t want someone to succeed or be rewarded because they crossed state lines and were able to get away from authorities.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Yes. I doubt that he went too far to bury the body. Nobody wants to drive around with a dead body, and presumably she was dead, in the back of their car, but I need to address something that was said earlier in the show. It was suggested that people need to live their lives in fear of crime and of bad things happening to them.
I would suggest that that`s exactly the wrong thing to do, because if we live our lives in fear, we let the bad guys win. Franklin Roosevelt famously said in his first inaugural that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. We need to live our lives with courage, but we have to do it with intelligence as well.
CASAREZ: OK.
Tonight, everybody, "CNN Heroes."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMY STOKES, CHAMPIONING CHILDREN: Are you going to help me do this other one?
In 2003, my husband and I went to Johannesburg, and we adopted our son. HIV/AIDS has really decimated some of these communities. Seeing all of the children and so few adults to help them grow up. With none of the adults you care about has ever lived past 35, then why would you think you can? Why would you stay in school? Why would you invest in yourself?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell me something new that happened in school this week.
STOKES: I had to find a way to bring the caring, nurturing effect of other adults for that child to invest in themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who`s this?
STOKES: I`m Amy Stokes. I use the internet to create a global village where the mentors and the kids can interact face-to-face on a regular basis.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: Hi Jill, how are you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How was your day at school? Did you work in the garden?
STOKES: That mentor shows up every week. A relationship starts between one person here and one person there. And then that relationship expands.
My mentor is so good. I like him very much.
Because they want to connect with that special someone, they`re going to learn keyboard skills. The skills that they will need to have jobs and to be able to do whatever they need in the future.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: At first, I was nervous.
OK. I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Love you, too. Bye.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: Jill is part of my family and also part of my life.
STOKES: It`s a bite-sized opportunity to change a world, and there`s no commute.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: These are the faces of America`s missing. Every 30 seconds, another child, a sister, a brother, a father, or mother, they disappear. Their families are left behind wondering, waiting and hoping. We have not forgotten.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
Anthony Klama was last seen at a sports bar in Palatine, Illinois. He was playing darts with an unknown male. He left the bar about midnight and may have been seen getting out of a small light colored car near his apartment. If you have any information, call 1-800-843-5763.
Heather Kullorn was last seen baby sitting at a friend`s apartment. She has not been seen since 1999. Her mother --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was a diabetic, and she was in need of her insulin and her -- six meals a day. She was a very loving girl. She had a heart of gold. Somebody took her away and did what they did to her was not fair. Heather is not at peace. She hasn`t had no justice. And they took a beautiful thing away from me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andrea Parsons vanished in 1993. Her mother is still searching.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was July 11th, Port Salerno which is in Stuart, Florida. She was last seen at a grocery store called Buckies. She had went in to buy some candy and chips. She`s the sweetest girl in the whole world. She loved everybody. Everybody loved her. All the kids she went to school with. She would be 28 this May 12th. So, they`ve been searching for her not alive all these years, and I`ve been trying to search for her alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shykemmia pate was last seen at her family`s Georgia home. She suffers from asthma and needs at-home breathing treatments. If you have any information, call 1-800-the-lost.
(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
