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Nancy Grace
Search Warrants for Missing Pregnant Wife`s Boyfriend; Joran Van Der Sloot Going on a Plea Deal; Police Search Home of Missing Pregnant Army Wife`s Boyfriend
Aired March 07, 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, upscale D.C. suburbs. A beautiful co-ed and Army wife, five months pregnant with a second child, vanishes into thin air, 21-year-old Bethany Decker last seen entering her apartment. Three weeks later, her black Hyundai sits abandoned in the complex parking lot, but no Bethany. Bethany`s husband deploys to Afghanistan, and in an odd twist, for the first time ever in their relationship, Army wife Bethany does not make it to the airport to see hubby off. Was she already missing?
Bombshell tonight. We learn all the while Bethany on a Hawaiian vacation with the husband, she`s pregnant by the boyfriend, not the husband. You think he knows? Well, he does now. Shortly after she gets home, she vanishes. Tonight, investigators zero in on cell phone records, trace evidence, photos, e-mails, bank accounts, computers, and especially her FaceBook page. Did someone go on line posing as Bethany, carrying on in-depth conversations with her friends? Was it a ploy, a FaceBook ploy to make friends and family think she`s still at home, tapping away on her laptop? Well, she`s not! Tonight, where is 21-year-old mother, Army wife, co-ed Bethany?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Where is Bethany?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does anybody know where my daughter is?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops have searched the home of the last person to see Bethany before she disappears.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was a boyfriend and this was the father of her unborn child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the search warrant, it alleges that the boyfriend made conflicting statements to police about when it was that he first noticed that Bethany`s car was parked outside her apartment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t like conflicting statements, period.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five months pregnant and lives on her own (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Inside the apartment, as far as reports are telling us, there was nothing at all to indicate that she had planned to leave, that there was a struggle, that anything was out of place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing says foul play louder than no cell phone activity and no debit card activity.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In bank records, credit cards, her cell phone, there`s been no activity since January 29th.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s so hard not knowing anything and not being able to reach her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So foul play has happened here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What role does this boyfriend have in all of this?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, breaking news in the disappearance of Alabama beauty Natalee Holloway, missing off her high school senior trip, Aruba. Aruban police refuse to make a case against judge`s son Joran Van Der Sloot even after he admits he hid her body. Then Van Der Sloot kills again. Another young girl meets him at a resort casino. Hours later, she`s dead. After allegedly beating her to a pulp and breaking her neck, he kicks back with a cup of coffee and Danish just inches from her dead body.
Breaking at this hour. Is judge`s son Joran Van Der Sloot set to walk on a sweetheart sentence of just three to five years behind bars -- repeat, just three to five years behind bars -- after two murders, including the murder of an American girl, Natalee Holloway? This is wrong!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Confessed killer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s psychotic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "I took my shirt and put it on her face, pressing hard, until I killed Stephany."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s no emotional connection.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Did you try to resuscitate her?
JORAN VAN DER SLOOT (through translator): I tried everything. I even lifted her up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "I didn`t want to do it. The girl intruded into my private life."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "I was explaining to her that five years ago, I was accused in the case of a missing girl."
JORAN VAN DER SLOOT, (through translator): And one time, Patrick, it was like in the movies. This is what she did. So I was talking to her, talking to her, talking to her, and she didn`t say nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "All of a sudden she hit me. I don`t know why. Then I threw her to the floor, but she was still breathing. So I took the shirt I was still wearing and put it on her face, pressing."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wants to blame Stephany, that it was her fault, just like he did that with Natalee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Can`t remember how much time, but she stopped breathing, and I think that`s how I killed her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops say he went into a rage and beat her to death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "I think she started to faint. It affected me so that I grabbed her from the neck and strangled her for a minute."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight, live to the upscale D.C. suburbs. A beautiful co-ed, mother, Army wife, five months pregnant with a second child, vanishes. We learn tonight all the while Bethany Decker on a Hawaiian vacation with her husband, she`s pregnant by the boyfriend, not the husband. And tonight, investigators zero in on cell phone records, trace evidence, photos, e-mails, bank accounts, computers, especially Bethany`s FaceBook page. Did someone go on line posing as Bethany?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The case of a missing Army wife.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-one-year-old Bethany Decker.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her Army husband, 21-year-old Emile Decker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She didn`t show up at the airport to say good-bye to him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If she`s not showing up at the airport to say good-bye to her husband, who`s off to war, I already smelled a rat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re told that the husband is cooperating.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She still is married. Her husband is deployed. And she`s got a boyfriend?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is pregnant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five months pregnant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Homicide is the second leading injury-related cause of death for pregnant women.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Search warrants were issued, and in there is the allegation that this boyfriend is the father.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police are searching her boyfriend`s home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have done extensive searching in the area surrounding her apartment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was a boyfriend and this was the father of her unborn child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Foul play.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s dead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Homicide.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were searching out with scent dogs in a wooded area nearby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-one-year-old Bethany Decker from Ashburn, Virginia, just disappears.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But nothing came up from those searches.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Taking your calls live. Straight out to Alexis Weed, on the story. Alexis, what can you tell me? I understand search warrants are happening right now, but I want to get right back to this Hawaiian vacation. Now, we know that she`s five months pregnant. We know now that it`s the boyfriend`s baby. I`m not sure how we know that, but we know that. Did the husband know that? That`s the big question.
ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, we don`t know if the husband knew, but we do know in these new search warrants that have just been released, we know that cops are saying that this was the father of her unborn child.
GRACE: OK. What I don`t understand is how they would know that, since they have not talked to her. But to Rupa Mikkilineni, also on the story. Weigh in, Rupa. What do you know? What can you tell me tonight?
RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right, Nancy. We know that the boyfriend was living with her up until February and that he just moved out. But he moved out after she allegedly disappeared on January 29th. Now, January 29th is the last day...
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop. Stop. She goes missing, and he just moves out of the apartment?
MIKKILINENI: That`s right, Nancy, and what...
GRACE: Look, I didn`t know that. You don`t think that`s odd?
MIKKILINENI: It is odd, and...
GRACE: Because if she goes missing, you would think he would stay put right there in case she came back or in case there was a phone call from her or a kidnapper calling. I mean, why would you get up and leave the apartment you`ve been sharing with her? Go ahead.
MIKKILINENI: Right. Well, we`ve got two men here involved. We`ve got the husband, who is in Afghanistan. But remember, Nancy...
GRACE: Oh, Rupa! Don`t act so shocked! It`s not the first time that there`s been two men involved in somebody`s life, OK? This is about possible murder. I don`t care about how she`s living or who she was with or any of that. Go ahead.
MIKKILINENI: Right, but we -- if we look at the timeline, she was last seen by other family members and by these two men in her life, the husband and the boyfriend, on January 29th. Now, then the husband takes off to Afghanistan because he`s a military guy on duty. So he leaves on February 2nd. Now, what we also know is that the boyfriend moves out of her apartment sometime in February. We don`t have the exact date on that, Nancy.
And now, we also know that she has -- she was not reported missing by her family, which we believe it was her mother that reported her missing, until February 19th. This is nearly three weeks after she was last seen. We also know that there was a FaceBook account that apparently was not active. It was inactive, and then suddenly became active. So now police are saying that this FaceBook account may have been accessed by somebody else, so they are now searching to see who might have had access to this FaceBook account.
GRACE: OK. Mike Brooks, law enforcement analyst -- Mike, explain how that happens. If a FaceBook account is inactive, if you don`t have her pass code and so forth, how do you go on and reactivate her FaceBook account?
MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: That`s the key, Nancy. Did this boyfriend -- was it her husband? Was it a girlfriend of hers? They don`t know. They`re not saying. But it could be key. You know, did somebody go in there? What exactly are they writing? Have they talked to her parents about her style of writing? These are all things that are key on this FaceBook account, whether somebody is posing as her, or did she put it in herself?
GRACE: Joining me right now, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation out of San Francisco, Marc Klaas. Marc, let`s just think about this for a moment. You really think the husband is over in Afghanistan bothering to re-activate her FaceBook account and chat away as if he`s her in order to throw people off to make them think she`s sitting at home on her laptop?
yes, I don`t really -- you know, at first, Marc, we all naturally look at husband, boyfriend, people right around her, but -- there was even talk he deploys after she goes missing. Why hasn`t he come home? All of those are still valid questions. But now that I know someone may be on line posing as her on FaceBook, do you really think he`s out there in the caves and the mountains and the desert sand on line, on U.S. time, Eastern Standard Time, chatting away with her friends? I don`t see it, Marc.
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: No, I don`t see it, either, Nancy. But in order to access a FaceBook account, you do require an e-mail address and you require the requisite password to get in. So somebody has that information and is using it.
I think what really needs to happen here is the husband does need to come home and talk to the authorities. He needs to sit down in a room with them and explain to exactly his timeline. The boyfriend has to explain exactly his timeline. And if those things happen before somebody lawyers up, they may be able to get a handle on exactly what went down here and how it went down.
GRACE: OK. Joining me right now, former military judge, former federal prosecutor Patrick McLain, joining us out of Hawaii. Patrick, thank you for being with us. Patrick, it seems to me unless he is operation essential, he should be sent home and take part in this criminal investigation -- I`m talking about the husband -- because if he`s on a Hawaiian vacation with her as she`s pregnant with somebody else`s baby, that could be motive for murder. It could be. He needs to come home and clear his name.
PATRICK MCLAIN, FORMER MILITARY JUDGE (via telephone): There`s no maybe about it. The military will send him home. He`s definitely not going to be in any position in his junior rank as a National Guardsman that he cannot be sent home to be interrogated by the local authorities there. So I imagine it`s just a logistic thing that he has not shown up yet in Virginia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When it came time for Emile to fly back to Afghanistan on February 2nd, Bethany was a no-show.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was a bit unusual.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bethany`s car was found in the parking lot of her Ashburn complex. Inside her apartment, no sign that she`d packed bags or had plans to leave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Bethany Decker seemingly vanishes into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Reaching out and saying, Does anybody know where my daughter is?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police have searched the home of boyfriend of Bethany Decker.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a search warrant that was issued.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators say Bethany did not see her husband of at the airport when he left overseas. No one in her family, including Emile, apparently knows why.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody knows. We would love to know the answer to it. Nobody really knows what the cause of it was.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He feels quite helpless being so far away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was happening? Was she with you? Was she not with you? We can`t answer it. It all begins with him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As soon as he found out that she was missing, he did call. He`s just heartbroken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody was willing to hang this husband. This case may be taken in a completely different direction.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The search warrant says that the boyfriend is the last person to see her on January 29th.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No one has spoken to Bethany, who is five months pregnant, since a family gathering in Maryland.
GRACE: The husband is over in Afghanistan, isn`t that right, Peter Byrnes?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. And I have just gotten in my hands search warrant, and it says suspicion of murder. Straight out to Alexis Weed. What do we know? Out of one side of their mouth, cops are saying, We don`t suspect any foul play in the disappearance of 21-year-old pregnant Bethany Decker. In the other hand, they`re searching, they`re searching under suspicion of murder?
WEED: Right, Nancy. Every last one of the search warrants that has been released says it`s on suspicion of first-degree or second-degree murder. They want to search the home where the boyfriend is living with his mother. They want to search the FaceBook page that we talked about. They want to search cell phones, computers, also a joint bank account between Bethany and her husband.
GRACE: Now, it`s also my understanding -- to you, Rupa Mikkilineni -- that her family has stated the boyfriend is the father of the baby.
MIKKILINENI: Yes. They have said that the boyfriend is the father of the baby. They have also stated in this affidavit that Bethany told them that the boyfriend was very abusive and very controlling. And Nancy, an example of this is the fact that he would have her take photographs of herself wherever she was whenever he was not around in order to document where she was exactly.
GRACE: You mean, like take pictures with her cell phone and send it to him, so he would know why she was to verify what she said?
MIKKILINENI: Exactly.
GRACE: OK, well -- why was she on Hawaiian vacation with the husband? What do we know about that, Rupa? If she`s pregnant, five months pregnant with the boyfriend`s baby, what`s she doing in Hawaii with the husband? Did they take the other child to Hawaii? Was that it?
MIKKILINENI: Nancy, this is very unclear. They do have a 17-month- old child and that child is living with her mother. We don`t know if the child went to Hawaii with them. It`s also unclear because the family says that the time that they went to Hawaii, they did not understand or know that there were any marital troubles. They say this in this affidavit. So then it seems that they returned from Hawaii and then...
GRACE: Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. She`s carrying the boyfriend`s baby. How could they not know there`s a marital problem? Did you see that picture? She`s clearly pregnant in the picture. You can`t look at her and not know she`s pregnant.
MIKKILINENI: Right, but perhaps at that time, they don`t know -- he did not know. We don`t know when the husband found out or when he learned, if at all, whose baby that was.
GRACE: OK. Out to the lines. Elaine in Illinois. Hi, Elaine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. If I could just say real quick -- I talked to you before and I told you how you basically saved my life after I lost my fiance. I talked to you way back when. And then I also was telling you I`m the one that sent the letter about Azara (ph), the poem. And I was hoping you -- you can read it because I left my phone number because I really -- I don`t have a computer, can`t afford it. And I was just hoping to talk with you a little more about how you went through and made it and all that, but...
GRACE: You know what, Elaine? I would be happy to talk to you. Ellie and Liz, please get Elaine`s information so I can contact her. Elaine, do you have a question about tonight`s case?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do. I was just wondering what have they found out, if any, about any traces of the credit card use or anything like that?
GRACE: Good question. What about it, Alexis?
WEED: ... Nancy. She has not had any activity on any of her cards or her bank account.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her husband is deployed right now in Afghanistan.
GRACE: Why didn`t this Army wife bid her husband good-bye?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Searching her boyfriend`s home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boyfriend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have done extensive searching.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For three weeks, the family did not hear from Bethany, even though her mother, Kimberly Nelson, takes care of her and Emile`s 17-month-old son, Ky (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wasn`t necessarily in contact with me every day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bethany sort of had transient communications with various people in her family. It wasn`t unusual for Bethany to go off the grid for a little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was missing for three weeks. The family didn`t call the police earlier.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were some tensions going on. They didn`t want to talk about the boyfriend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I never imagined that today, I`d be here.
She wasn`t necessarily in contact with me every day, but usually with her siblings or via FaceBook. It`s a wonderful way to keep in touch. You know, we could see what was going on. That`s when school was starting and other things were going on, too, so you can understand she`d be busy with getting into a new routine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK. Here`s the big question right now. Straight back to you, Rupa Mikkilineni. Who`s the boyfriend?
MIKKILINENI: Nancy, the boyfriend is -- we actually don`t know how long they were exactly dating. We do know that they lived together for a couple of months, at least before he moved out in February. This is all we know, really, Nancy.
GRACE: Are they not releasing information about his name?
MIKKILINENI: I think we do have his name. Actually...
GRACE: Ronald Roldan.
MIKKILINENI: Yes.
GRACE: OK. But there`s a lot of Ronald Roldans, according to our searches, so we don`t know which one it is. But in the search warrant -- which is not secret, Rupa. You`re not really letting a cat out of the bag.
MIKKILINENI: OK.
GRACE: I can read it, OK. Ronald Roldan. It`s right here. But we don`t know which Ronald Roldan it is, so we can`t verify, did they work together, where did they meet, nothing like that. We just know the name, Ronald Roldan, correct?
MIKKILINENI: Correct. And we also know that the place that he`s residing, where the search warrants were executed and were being searched for evidence of murder, is his mother`s home, Nancy. That`s what we do know.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Gloria Allred, victims` rights attorney, child advocate, LA, Patrick McLain, military judge, former federal prosecutor, Hawaii, Peter Elikann (ph), defense attorney, author of "Super Predators," Boston, Alex Sanchez, defense attorney, New York.
OK, out to you, Sanchez. Looks like the boyfriend better lawyer up.
ALEX SANCHEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, I`ll tell you the truth...
GRACE: They`re searching his home and his mother`s house.
SANCHEZ: No, the boyfriend would -- it probably would be in his interest to hire an attorney. But I think the police at this point are entertaining the possibility that this woman`s alive and she`s communicating on FaceBook, and that should be very easy to verify by examining the text and examining the friends.
GRACE: You know, Gloria, it sounds more like they think that someone`s posing as her being alive on FaceBook, Gloria.
GLORIA ALLRED, VICTIMS` RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, absolutely, and they`re going to investigate that, as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Where is Bethany?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does anybody know where my daughter is?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She hasn`t been seen since January 29th.
GRACE: She`s five months pregnant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Where is Bethany?
KIM NELSON, MOTHER OF MISSING PREGNANT ARMY WIFE, BETHANY DECKER: Does anybody know where my daughter is?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Cops have searched the home of the last person to see Bethany before she disappears.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This was a boyfriend and this was the father of her unborn child. In the search warrant it alleges that the boyfriend made conflicting statements to police about when it was that he first noticed that Bethany`s car was parked outside her apartment.
MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST; FMR. D.C. POLICE DET., FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: I don`t like conflicting statements, period.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Five months pregnant and lives on her own.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Inside the apartment as far as reports are telling us there was nothing at all to indicate that she had planned to leave, that there was a struggle, that anything was out of place.
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nothing says foul play louder than no cell phone activity and no debit card activity.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: In bank records, credit cards, cell phone, there`s been no activity since January 29th.
NELSON: It`s so hard not knowing anything and not being able to reach her.
ODOM: So foul play has happened here.
BROOKS: What role does that this boyfriend have in all of this?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: 21-year-old Bethany Decker, whose a senior at George Mason University, and is about five months pregnant, she hasn`t been seen since January 29th. That`s when she was in Columbia, Maryland, with her --
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls, out to Connie in Connecticut. Hi, Connie. I think I`ve got Connie on the line.
Connie, are you there?
Let`s try Michelle in Indiana. Hi, Michelle.
MICHELLE, CALLER FROM INDIANA: Hi.
GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?
MICHELLE: Yes, I got a comment. You are the best when it comes to looking, you know, finding people and helping people out, and I love your show. And I am making a blanket for you.
GRACE: Thank you.
MICHELLE: I got a question. Is NCIS and FBI in on this?
GRACE: Good question. And Michelle, I want to thank you for the blanket because I use those. Not only do I use them with the twins, but also I put it around their crib in case they hit it in the night with their head. I don`t want them to hit that hard wood.
OK. NCIC -- are you asking if the FBI in on it, Michelle? Was that what you wanted to know? Do I have Michelle?
MICHELLE: The question?
GRACE: Michelle, did you want to know if the FBI is involved on this?
MICHELLE: Yes.
GRACE: OK.
MICHELLE: And NCIS.
GRACE: OK. What about it, Alexis?
ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: They didn`t return our call today. We have been asking. But we don`t know at this point if the FBI has been involved.
GRACE: To Kim in Florida. Hi, Kim.
KIM, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Hi, Nancy. Kudos to you and all of your accomplishments and to CNN. Kudos. But here`s my comment --
GRACE: OK.
KIM: The Facebook as you all know on these 4G phones, all kinds of apps, and it doesn`t matter in my opinion -- I don`t even own a cell phone. But in my opinion, whether he`s in Afghanistan or in Atlanta, Georgia, or L.A. or, you know, any other city or country. I`m assuming that they could get on Facebook and fake this woman`s account.
GRACE: You know, you`re absolutely right. I was just thinking, Kim, that being deployed in Afghanistan he would have other things to do other than go online and pretend to be his wife back home, but you`re right that you can get online over there just as easy as you can over here.
Back to the lawyers. Gloria Allred, Patrick McLain, Hawaii, Peter Elikann, Boston, Alex Sanchez, New York.
What about it, Elikann?
PETER ELIKANN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "SUPERPREDATORS": Yes, I guess so. I was just thinking, though, that it`s probably harder to get on Facebook there in Afghanistan just because you`re probably so incredibly busy and so scheduled to be chatting with friends, et cetera. It`s harder but it`s not impossible.
So I agree with what the viewer says. I think either person could get on Facebook. And I think it`s going to be the kind of thing that`s easy to trace. I think this is really going to be very helpful clue to us.
GRACE: Back to Patrick McLain, former military judge, former prosecutor, joining us out of Hawaii.
Patrick, here`s my question. If the husband was a legitimate suspect, and he has not been named a suspect, OK, don`t you believe that the military would have already sent him home?
PATRICK MCLAIN, FORMER MILITARY JUDGE, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: They may have. There may be logistics problems in it. But I`ve got to tell you, a lot of what you`ve been covering causes me to doubt that he`s truly a suspect. That year -- several questions you`ve had about him getting on Facebook.
It`s not a matter of whether or not he has more things to do, it`s just commanders have more things for him to do. They`re not going to give him the kind of time to sit around and monkey around with his Facebook account much less hers.
It is true that the troops over there on some morale time can get into an Internet cafe in some dusty tent somewhere to communicate back home for morale reasons, but there is no way that this National Guardsman is going to be able to pull off a big fraud like this.
Most likely if this is indeed is fraud and this is not Bethany doing it, that somebody back in the states who has access to her username and password, and is for whatever reason pretending to be Bethany.
GRACE: Good point.
I want to go back to these two search warrants I`ve got here.
Rupa, outline the search warrants for me. What did we learn from them other than an attachment, A, where they`re trying to get her bank records. We learn her family believes that she is in danger. That the joint account she had had no activity since she`s been gone. She had a check of over $1,000 waiting to be picked up. Nobody picked it up.
Also, we learned that she was in an intimate relationship with Ronald Roldon, living together for two months at the time she goes missing.
That`s what I`ve learned from this search warrant. This search warrant, it says murder and it`s served on the Bank of America for Bethany Anne Decker.
That`s what I learned in that warrant. What about the other warrant?
RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right. Well, I think the most important one here that we`re looking at is the first warrant which talks about the search of the home.
GRACE: Yes.
MIKKILINENI: Where the boyfriend was living with the mother after he moved out.
And it`s vey detailed, Nancy. It talks about seeking photos of Bethany, fingerprints, biological stains, fluids, trace evidence, records, receipts, weapons, notes, controlled substances, all evidence pointing to a possible murder and then of course the key is that this executed search warrant is actually called a -- called a search warrant released under suspicion of first-degree murder. First or second-degree murder.
GRACE: Well, one of the reasons they initially became suspicious of him -- out to you, Alex Sanchez -- is they state that the boyfriend Ronald Roldon gives inconsistent statements as to -- now that picked my interest. But then when I read what the inconsistent statement was, not so much.
Made conflicting statements regarding when he noticed her car parked in the parking lot they shared together.
ALEX SANCHEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, you know, and that`s a red flag. And the police are looking for red flags. They`re looking for inconsistencies. Because why should he be giving any inconsistencies? Anybody can make a mistake.
GRACE: But that`s not that big of an inconsistency.
SANCHEZ: Yes, but if it`s an inconsistency that`s central to the issue in the case, it`s big. And in this case it`s a big inconsistency.
GRACE: If it`s central, you`re right. You`re right. But when he first noticed her car was sitting there, I could -- I could have built a case on that, but if that is key to the case and it sets off a timeline, I would be much more disturbed about it.
Out to the lines. Tracy in Michigan. Hi, Tracy.
TRACY, CALLER FROM MICHIGAN: Hi, Nancy. I have a quick question.
GRACE: OK.
TRACY: The first one, Bethany went missing around January 29th.
GRACE: Yes.
TRACY: And her husband deployed on February 2nd. Were they not together in that brief time frame?
GRACE: OK, that`s a good question.
What about it, Alexis? What do we know?
WEED: The last time the husband saw her was in the morning of January 29th. It`s the boyfriend, the last person to see her known by police, known to be alive is the afternoon of January 29th.
GRACE: We also have information the husband is estranged. But yet they had just come back from a Hawaiian vacation together.
To Paula Bloom, clinical psychologist. You can find her at Paulabloom.com.
Weigh in, Paula, on your thoughts. She`s on a Hawaiian vacation five -- with the husband five months pregnant, well, at that time more like two or three months pregnant with the boyfriend`s child.
PAULA BLOOM, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: What I don`t understand, Nancy, is how can the family say we didn`t realize there were any marital problems when they`re the ones who say, oh yes, the baby is the boyfriend`s? Oh yes, the guy is living with her? I mean how can you say there`s no marital problems when there`s an extra marital affair? I don`t get it.
GRACE: I don`t get it either. I also don`t get how cops can say we don`t suspect foul play while they`re issuing search warrants concerning a possible murder.
We are talking about a 21-year-old co-ed. She`s a college student. She`s pregnant. Five months pregnant. And she`s missing.
Out to the lines, Dee in Florida. Hi, Dee.
DEE, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Hi, Nancy.
GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?
DEE: My question, is, Nancy, when -- after she left him and he possibly was upset because of the pregnancy, do you think that possibly she may have went to a shelter and she`s hiding out because she fears him?
GRACE: I think that everything is possible.
Mike Brooks, do you think it`s probable?
BROOKS: Probable not. Because I`m sure Louden County law enforcement as well as Fairfax County where the house was where the search warrant was served, they`ve checked the local shelters and hospitals. That`s one of the first thing they would do.
GRACE: Mike Books, what do you make of the search warrants?
BROOKS: I mean it`s interesting. But they -- I know they did get the boyfriend`s Mac notebook computer which they can find out if he logged on to her Facebook account with her password as well as his HTC android phone. So they`re going to take a look at that.
And also they were looking for trace evidence and other biological and stains in the house that are visible and not visible which says to me they probably used Luminol and went over that house with a fine-toothed comb, Nancy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Her mother, Kim Nelson, says Bethany was with her husband, Emile, on leave from his Army National Guard deployment to Afghanistan. Emile went back overseas February 2nd.
Kim cares for Bethany and Emile`s 17-month-old son while Emile was deployed and Bethany was in school full time close to graduating from George Mason University.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Van Der Sloot calls it an impulsive act.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: "It was an impulsive act, after I received a hit in the head."
JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": She hit him, he says, on his left temple.
BROOKS: And he took his right elbow and hit her in her nose and he said that there was blood everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What you`re describing is impulsive and anything can set him off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s open and shut.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His version that it was an impulsive act.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: "I remember what I was doing but not the motive."
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It`s like you hear a gun go off, you open the door, there`s a gun smoking and there`s someone lying there dead, it`s over and out.
BROOKS: Premedication can be made in a blink of an eye.
CASAREZ: He knew he had to flee. He knew he had to leave.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: "I feared that she would go to the police and they could detain me for what was an impulsive act."
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are hearing that there is a possibility Joran Van Der Sloot could walk in as little as three to five years. This after being involved in not one, but two alleged murders including the murder of American girl Natalee Holloway.
To David Lohr, crime reporter, AOLnews.com. What do you know, David?
DAVID LOHR, CRIME REPORTER, AOLNEWS.COM: Well, Nancy, Van Der Sloot is now allegedly saying that he`s willing to plead guilty to the May 30th slaying of Stephany Flores but there`s a catch. He`s willing to plead guilty to the lesser charge of violent emotion. And basically what he`s trying to do is get a ridiculously light sentence by claiming temporary insanity in the case.
GRACE: To Jean Casarez. Jean, what do you know about the case?
CASAREZ: Nancy, I`ve got the motion right here. This is the defense motion. "In Session" got it minutes ago. And this motion says that they want this first-degree murder case to be pleaded down to a manslaughter case. He would serve three to five years.
And why, Nancy? Because the violent emotion of Joran Van Der Sloot came after Stephany Flores, the victim, attacked him.
GRACE: To Dr. Panchali Dhar. Dr. Dhar, thank you for being with us. He is now essentially by suggesting he will plead guilty admitting that he did it. But I don`t understand how that type of a beating can be something that happened in just a second. She had a brutal beating.
Then after that, we can tell by the way she bled and bruised, her neck was broken after a brutal beating. That had to take a period of time. How could that be in a flash?
DR. PANCHALI DHAR, M.D., INTERNAL MEDICINE, AUTHOR OF "BEFORE THE SCALPEL": No, he beat her to a pulp for a couple of hours. He didn`t kill her that quickly. I mean, obviously there was a struggle going on and she was trying to defend herself.
And as far as this temporary insanity, does anybody not realize that he is a textbook case of anti-social personality disorder? Somebody who is manipulative, violent, impulsive, synonymous with criminal disregard with right and wrong, can`t see the difference between good and evil. Nothing like that. He has a mental problem.
GRACE: He may have a mental problem in that he`s a psychopath, that he cannot empathize with other people`s hurting, their suffering, but it`s not going to rise to insanity. I can promise you that. At least not here in the states it wouldn`t.
To Michael Griffith, international criminal defense attorney.
Michael, what do you think of what`s happening? Is there a possibility he could walk in three to five years?
MICHAEL GRIFFITH, INTERNATIONAL LAW ATTORNEY/CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY (via phone): Nancy, I don`t believe it` because there were no plea bargains down in Peru. He has to have a trial first and then after the trial and then he gets sentenced.
But Nancy, I`m going to tell you something. I`ve represented Americans in foreign countries for many years. We should rejoice. We should open up the champagne if he only gets three to five years because there`s an extradition warrant that will then bring him back to Alabama that will not only get him on the extortion charge but you know under passive personality principles of U.S. -- of international law, the U.S. has jurisdiction over any of its citizens that are killed or injured overseas like in the Nairobi case, or in the piracy case in Somalia.
And we can then -- we can then prosecute him for the death of Natalee Holloway so let`s get him home here where we can take good care of him.
GRACE: You know what, now that you put it like that, Michael Griffith, maybe you`re right.
Out to the lines. Sandra in Colorado. Hi, Sandra.
SANDRA, CALLER FROM COLORADO: Hi, Nancy. It`s so good to talk to you.
GRACE: Likewise. What`s your question, dear?
SANDRA: Hey, well, Michael just answered it pretty much but I was wondering if -- since he is in that prison overseas if, you know, that three to five deal is because it`s overseas. Because if he was in the states there is no way with that horrible beating and how she died that he was going to get three to five years for that.
GRACE: What do you think, Jean Casarez?
CASAREZ: Murder in Peru is a minimum of 15 years. It`s a maximum of about 35. They don`t even give life. So three to five would follow suit for a manslaughter.
GRACE: To the lines. Katie in Wyoming. Hi, Katie.
KATIE, CALLER FROM WYOMING: Hi, Nancy. I just have a comment. I mean, it doesn`t matter if -- to me if the other girl was American or not. I don`t understand how it can be -- they can say it`s an emotional defense when he`s murdered two women.
Obviously he`s pre-dispositioned to murder. He`s a violent person. How can they say it`s just emotion and he can only get three to five years?
GRACE: How can they say that, Peter Elikann?
ELIKANN: Nancy, I don`t think there`s any chance at all that this is going to be successful. I mean people hate the insanity defense. It really works. Temporary insanity defense, like I`m normal all the time and I got a little crazy in the middle, perhaps, particularly when he`s accused of doing it before, I just think this is what we call a Hail Mary pass. And I just don`t think it`s going to fly at all.
GRACE: What about it, Gloria Allred? Do you agree with Peter, Gloria?
GLORIA ALLRED, VICTIM`S RIGHTS ATTORNEY, CHILD ADVOCATE: Well, I mean, he`s desperate. He`s got to try something because after all apparently he`s admitting that he did it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: "When we arrived at the hotel we arrived at my room and played poker on my laptop. At that moment, I opened my e-mail and saw a message that said, I`m going to kill you, mongoloid, referring to the Holloway case."
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He gave them a detailed account of how he killed Stephany Flores Ramirez and why.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Van Der Sloot says he elbowed Stephany Flores in the face.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: "I hit her in the face exactly on top of the nose. There was blood everywhere. I think she started to faint. It affected me, so that I grabbed her from the neck and strangled her for a minute."
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Suffocating her with his own shirt.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: "I was explaining to her that five years ago I was accused in a case of a missing girl because at that moment I had received a message on Facebook from a person and she was listening to me. All of a sudden she hit me. I don`t know why. After I responded with hitting her - -
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The possibility that Joran Van Der Sloot may serve just three to five years behind bars after the murders of two girls, including Natalee Holloway, our Natalee, American girl Natalee Holloway from Alabama.
Weigh in, Marc Klaas.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, this whole idea of this diminished capacity, this business that he`s doing is really saying that she`s dead because of something that she did, not something that he did. He`s blaming the victim.
Now that`s not justice in any moral sense whatsoever and it shouldn`t be justice in any legal sense whatsoever. This guy needs to spend the rest of his miserable life behind bars. He certainly needs to spend decades behind bars.
GRACE: Let`s stop and remember Army Sergeant Phillip Dodson, Jr., 42, Forsyth, Georgia, killed Iraq. Awarded the Bronze Star, Amy Achievement Medal, Operation Enduring Freedom Medal, a Georgia correction officer for 20 years.
Loved hunting, fishing, time with his family. Westerns and war movies. Leaves behind grieving mother, Janice, stepparents Lewis and Ann. Widow, Melissa. Daughter, Allison.
Phillip Dodson, Jr., American hero.
Thanks to our guests but our biggest thank you is to you for inviting us into your homes.
And tonight, a special happy birthday to California friend, Catie. A Stanford honor grad, now working on her Ph.D. in creative writing. Loves to run. Loves her dog, King Charles Cavalier, Gus. And loves her little brother, Timmy.
Happy birthday, beautiful Catie.
Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
END
