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Nancy Grace
Update on Julie Ann Gonzalez Disappearance
Aired March 14, 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 MALE: We`re still looking.
GRACE: -- so few leads.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
GRACE: Missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.
GRACE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness had seen the suspect on NANCY GRACE.
GRACE: There is a God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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: Julie Ann is beautiful. You could just look into her eyes and see that she is a kind person.
GRACE (voice-over): At 21 years old, Julie Ann Gonzalez was turning over a new leaf. Although in the midst of a contentious divorce, the young mother was optimistic about her future.
She had just bought a new car and was enjoying the job she`d had for a bit more than a year as a pharmacy technician. A friend even says Julie recently met a man who put a smile on her face. March 26th, 2010, is the last time anyone has seen that smile.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wouldn`t wish this upon my worst enemy. I wouldn`t wish this upon anybody.
GRACE: March 26th, 2010, Julie went to her estranged husband`s house to pick up their then 2-year-old daughter. The two shared custody.
But according to the husband, George De La Cruz, something was off with Julie. She seemed spaced out and kind of down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`d be willing to do anything, a lie detector, they can search my house, tear it apart. If they do, they can do that. They could actually put a police to track me down anywhere. Like I said, I have nothing to hide.
GRACE: Allegedly she made a request that her family says seems out of character. She asked De La Cruz to keep their daughter through the weekend so she could spend some time alone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was making plans Friday. She said she was going to run errands. That`s her day off. She made plans to go see the baby-sitter to pay the baby-sitter. She made plans to go to a baby shower we were going to be having on Sunday.
GRACE: Just a few hours after the last sighting of Julie Ann, the estranged husband is captured on video with the 2-year-old at a Wal-Mart buying a video with Julie Ann`s debit card.
On March 28th, her car is found abandoned in a nearby Walgreen`s parking lot.
Now, almost a year since Gonzalez`s mysterious disappearance, Austin police believe Gonzalez may have been murdered.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Every day, 2,300 people go missing in America. Disappear. Vanish. Their families left waiting, wondering, hoping, but never forgetting -- and neither have we.
Fifty people, 50 days, 50 nights, we go live spotlighting America`s children, girls, boys, and mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, missing. They`re gone, but where?
Tonight, 21-year-old Julie Ann Gonzalez goes to pick up her 2-year- old baby girl. It`s the last time she`s ever seen. A few days later, her car found abandoned in a Walgreens parking lot. Two months later, police execute a search warrant on the estranged husband`s home, reportedly finding drops of blood, hair.
Tonight, where is Julie Ann Gonzalez? Let`s kick it off with our friend, "Inside Edition`s" anchor Deborah Norville.
Deborah, what do you think about this case?
DEBORAH NORVILLE, ANCHOR, INSIDE EDITION: I think it`s really something, Nancy. I mean, this is a young woman who had gone to pick up her daughter. She`d gone early. Supposedly, she was supposed to pick her up at 4:30 in the afternoon. She got there at 10:30 according to the estranged husband.
And a lot of the information we have is information that came from the estranged husband, a man that she filed to divorce just a couple months earlier. They`d only been married six months although they had this baby together. So, there was a big gulf in this relationship.
He had had a suicide attempt earlier. So, clearly, this is a man who didn`t want this relationship to end and I don`t know. I mean, you read the facts of the case. And one of the things that strikes me is when they did finally search the car -- athis was a couple of months after the mom went missing. They found the baby`s medicine, her prescription in the car.
I don`t know many moms who would drop their kids off at the sitter or leave them with anyone if they needed medicine and didn`t hand the medicine off along with the diaper.
GRACE: Deborah Norville, don`t get me wrong, I`m not mad at you, but did you just say a few months later they search her car?
NORVILLE: They did. It was at least two months before the police actually looked at the car. The car had been found abandoned in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Excuse me -- a Walgreen parking, about a half a mile from the estrange husband`s home and it finally was taken to a tow yard.
And there it sat for a while until finally police looked at the car and searched it. Now, there doesn`t seem to be any indication that anybody else had tampered with the car, it`s just an awful long period of time when you have an active missing person`s case.
A lot of things started happening in this case two months after this young woman went missing. Two months after this young woman went missing, the search warrant was executed on the estranged husband`s home, a home he shared with his mother. He apparently lived with his mom along with his daughter.
And she had lived there, too, during that brief period that they were married. In the divorce papers, she states that same address as her residence. She was not living there at the time of her disappearance. And when they made the search, one of the things that`s rather interesting is there was a hole in a shed and there seems to be some conflicting information about just when that hole in the shed was dug.
There`s one variation of this story where it was dug for plumbing purposes by previous owners. There`s another variation that said it wasn`t here when we bought the house. So, that`s another one of those things that I think have stuck out to the police in looking into this and deciding that this man is more than just a person of interest and the search warrants that were executed -- they called him a suspect in the murder of this young woman.
GRACE: Also investigating the case along with Deborah Norville, Jean Casarez, legal correspondent, "In Session."
Jean, what more can you tell me?
JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": You know, Nancy, for two months, they believe Julie Ann Gonzalez just left on her own. She left her 2-year-old child. She left her full-time job as a pharmacist assistant at Walgreens and she left her brand new car.
You know why they decided that maybe she didn`t leave on her own? Was because of some text messages that she sent from her phone right after she went missing, they believe for those two months she`d sent them, even though it appears, though, that maybe she didn`t. Maybe somebody else sent them in her name.
GRACE: We are taking your calls. To Vicki (ph) in Alabama. Hi, Vicki.
VICKI, CALLER FROM ALABAMA: Hi, Nancy. I would like to ask, I actually changed my question, but in Texas it seems like a lot of women are going missing. And the police are really not doing their jobs.
I mean, the girl on the show before, it looked like maybe they didn`t have money, maybe they didn`t check them out because of that. And in this case, it looks like because of their age the police didn`t check her out.
I mean, two months and not check her car, come on. I mean, I live in a small community and they would do better than that, really.
GRACE: Two months is crazy. To you, Sheryl McCollum, you`re the crime analyst, director of the Cold Case Squad, Pine Lake PD, author of "Cold Case."
You know, this wasn`t a cold case. And, you know, I almost always side with the cops, Sheryl, but the only reason they got cold is because police let it get cold. To not search for car that was found abandoned? Who knows what they could have found blood, hair, fingerprints. They found, as Deborah Norville pointed out, the baby`s medicine.
Now, Sheryl, you know my children John David and Lucy. Do you really think I would leave their medication --
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST: No.
GRACE: -- in the car and drop them off somewhere and leave for a few days of alone time? No!
MCCOLLUM: Exactly.
GRACE: I mean, I can smell that story, it stinks from here.
MCCOLLUM: Nancy, she had a new man. She had a job she enjoyed. She had family. She had future plans. She`s got a 2-year-old she adores. This is not when you leave.
The deal with the car that bothers me is how did law enforcement know she wasn`t in the trunk? And didn`t need their help in some way?
And the other thing that bothers me is, they`re estranged, it`s still her husband. I heard him say on your, you know, beginning, come search anything I`ve got. Then give us permission to search her car. They could have got a search warrant in three minutes.
GRACE: Joining me right now, special guest, also taking your calls. This is Julie Ann Gonzalez`s mother, Sandra Soto.
Ms. Soto, thank you so much for being with us.
SANDRA SOTO, MOM OF MISSING WOMAN, JULIE ANN GONZALEZ: Thank you for having me, Nancy.
GRACE: Ms. Soto, what can you tell me about Julie Ann as a person? Would she ever have left her children somewhere?
SOTO: Never. Never. Julie would have never done that to Layla. Layla is her everything. Julie was getting away from George because of the abusive relationship that they had and she did not want her daughter to see that anymore.
She didn`t want her daughter to live that way, so she got away from George. She was strong enough to do this. She was going on with her life. She had a full-time job. She was -- she had just bought herself a new car because her husband took the other car away from her.
He said, you know, the car that you have and that you`re using to get to and from work, it`s still mine, so I want it back. So, he took it back.
And she didn`t argue with him. That`s fine. You know, because she was working and she was -- she knew what she had to do and she was doing everything.
She was not a party girl. She was not the type of person that was irresponsible. She would pick up Layla from the baby-sitter every day, drop her off, took her time, you know, working -- being a pharmacy technician. You know, she made sure that Layla had everything that she needed at all times.
You know, you`re right about the medicine. You know, Julie, being a pharmacy tech, knows how important it is to have her medicine with you. Why would she not give it to George if she was going away? She wouldn`t have done that.
GRACE: Miss Soto, everyone, taking your calls is Julie Ann Gonzalez`s mother. Take a look at Julie Ann Gonzalez. The tip line number is 512- 477-3588. Take a look at this woman, left behind, her little girl. Weigh in, Deborah.
NORVILLE: Miss Soto, I`m curious, this is Deborah here. What do you think happened to your daughter?
SOTO: I think George knows exactly what happened to her and I feel that there`s more than one person involved. He couldn`t have done this by himself because he did have Layla the day that Julie disappeared.
And so I`m, you know, I still feel in my heart, like every other parent who has a missing child, that their child is out there, alive somewhere, and that`s what I feel is going on here. You know, maybe he set her up to be kidnapped or taken away or just gotten rid of. Just so she wouldn`t be in his way anymore.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gonzalez was going through a divorce and on March 26th was supposed to pick up her daughter from her estranged husband`s home. He claims Gonzalez told him she was going away for a few days. Her family doesn`t believe the story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wouldn`t wish this upon my worst enemy. I wouldn`t wish this upon anybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Texas authorities are searching for clues in the case of a missing mom whose family is desperate to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re not giving up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gonzalez was going through a divorce and was supposed to pick up her daughter from her estranged husband`s home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The young mother of one, Julie Ann Gonzalez, was last seen by her estranged husband on March 26th.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He claims Gonzalez told him she was going away for a few days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her car just purchased weeks earlier was found abandoned in a pharmacy nearby.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A few days later, we found her car parked at a Walgreens.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s been no activity on Julie`s cell phone or credit cards and police do not have any suspect.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wouldn`t wish this upon my worst enemy. I wouldn`t wish this upon anybody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The estranged husband who says he`s cooperating fully says this is totally out of character for her, that she could never leave their 2-year-old daughter, Layla.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. What happened to beautiful Julie Ann Gonzalez? Leaving behind a beautiful little girl, just like her. Her family left behind wondering, but never giving up.
Marc Klaas, President, founder of Klaaskids Foundation. This is your expertise, missing people.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT, FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I don`t believe the police were aware that that was her car. I believe that it was towed to a lot and it was only some time later that connection was made. And I think that is something that could be corrected through some simple database flagging.
We just have too many government databases that don`t connect or talk to each other in this country.
But I -- here`s what I`d like to point out about this. Remember, George was the last guy to see this young woman. His mom reported that there was a hole in the shed in the backyard. She`s the one who said that it was a new hole.
George said that it was an old hole. George was seen using her debit card only days after she disappeared. George failed a polygraph exam. They have found blood and hair in the home. This is a really sloppy guy who claims to have an airtight alibi.
But I would suggest that if she knocked on the door, he opened the door, killed her right there and went along with -- went on with his day that his alibi could easily be airtight, but he still could have been the guy that did it.
I think it`s a fake defense and hopefully law enforcement will be able to hone in on this guy because I have no doubt that he is the perpetrator of this crime.
GRACE: Jean Casarez, what is his so-called airtight alibi? That`s what O.J. said, too.
CASAREZ: Airtight alibi is she came between 10:30 and 11:00 to get her daughter but said, you know what? I got to get away, just keep her for another day. So, he said he did.
That afternoon, he went to Wal-Mart and to McDonald`s, but here`s the thing -- he used her debit card when he went to Wal-Mart and McDonald`s.
GRACE: OK. Sheryl McCollum, far from being a cold case, this guy left a track a mile wide.
MCCOLLUM: Still got away with it for a year so far. He had the means. He had the motive. He had the opportunity.
She left a letter to her current boyfriend about how happy she is. That could be motive. He`s angry.
He`s angry that she`s moved on, you know? I mean, the trifecta here to me is, yes, the last person to see her, he`s got her personal property. He`s got blood. He`s got latex gloves and rope in his car.
And now, Nancy, he is no longer cooperating with police. That`s a shock, isn`t it?
NORVILLE: There are other things I think, Sheryl, that also stands out. One of them is this is a conscientious young woman. She worked hard at her job. She had her check regularly deposited into her debit account.
We know that because deposits were made by the Walgreens where she worked on April the 1st, four or five days after she went missing. She never informed her employer that she was going to be gone for a few days. Again, that`s not the kind of behavior that someone who was conscientious, a good mother, a reliable individual would do.
GRACE: To Sandra Soto, the mother of Julie Ann Gonzalez, who has the baby, Sandra Soto?
SOTO: Right now, she is staying with -- right now she is staying with George and his mother at their house, but I am fighting for custody of her.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The 21-year-old Julie Ann Gonzalez was last seen by her estranged husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like I said I have nothing to hide and I`m here. I`m not running away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gonzalez was going through a divorce and on March 26th was supposed to pick up her daughter from her estranged husband`s home. He claims Gonzalez told him she was going away for a few days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she hasn`t been seen since.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls.
Out to Irma in California. Hi, dear, what`s your question?
IRMA, CALLER FROM CALIFORNIA: Hi, Nancy. I love your show.
GRACE: Thank you.
IRMA: And I just wanted to ask if he is willing to take a polygraph? When he was on Dr. Phil, he refused to do it. He changed his mind at the last minute.
GRACE: What do we know, Michael Board? Michael joining us from WOAI News Radio, San Antonio.
MICHAEL BOARD, REPORTER, WOAI NEWSRADIO: Nancy, no, he`s completely shut himself off to police. In the beginning he was actually working with investigators, but after they got the warrant to search his home -- after they got the warrant, found the stuff in the laundry room, that`s when he clammed up and lawyered up.
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Michael Board, let`s just think about what you just said. Hold on.
He was cooperating with police, but after they got a warrant, why did they have to get a warrant if he`s so cooperative? He could have given them permission to come into the house.
BOARD: You know, maybe he was making an alibi all along. Maybe he thought he could outsmart the police.
Nancy, this is a guy -- to say he has a mental illness, that`s probably putting it lightly. It`s a more accurate statement to say George De La Cruz is a psychotic who is off his meds and diagnosed with a mental illness. He`s a danger to himself and everybody else.
You know, whatever he says you probably should not trust whatsoever because this is a person -- he told police, he told police he is not taking his meds. What would you believe anything he says?
GRACE: Jean Casarez, why would he get to have custody if he is a paranoid schizophrenic or psychotic? Why would he get custody? I don`t believe that.
CASAREZ: Because he`s the father? I don`t have an answer for you. Child Protective Services obviously determined he was the best one.
And, you know, Nancy, I do want to say that he did take a polygraph and the determination was deception indicated in regard to knowing the whereabouts and what happened to Julie Ann Gonzalez.
GRACE: What more do police need?
To Dr. Howard Oliver, former deputy medical examiner in L.A. Dr. Oliver, if they found blood and hair in the home, I guess the defense could argue it`s there innocently.
DR. OLIVER: Yes, they certainly could. The missing person at one time lived there, so you would expect to find those items in the home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She says, I want to see my mom. I want to see my Julie and what can we say? You know, all we can say is she`s working, but that`s not working anymore. She`s only 2, but she`s very smart. She knows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Vanished into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to find her.
GRACE: So many cases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re still looking.
GRACE: So few leads.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
GRACE: Missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.
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: Julie Ann is beautiful. You can just look into her eyes and see that she is a kind person.
GRACE (voice-over): March 26th, 2010, is the last time anyone has seen that smile.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wouldn`t wish this upon my worst enemy. I wouldn`t wish this upon anybody.
GRACE: March 26th, 2010, Julie went to her estranged husband`s house to pick up their then 2-year-old daughter. The two shared custody. But according to the husband, George De La Cruz, something was off with Julie. She seemed spaced out and kind of down.
GEORGE DE LA CRUZ, MISSING MOM`S ESTRANGED HUSBAND: I`ll be willing to do anything. Lie detector, they can search my house, tear it apart. If they do, they can do that. They could actually put a police to track me down everywhere. Like I said, I have nothing to hide.
GRACE: Allegedly, she made a request that her family says seems out of character. She asked De La Cruz to keep their daughter through the weekend so she could spend some time alone.
SOTO: She was making plans. Friday, she said she was going to run errands. That`s her day off. She made plans to go see the baby-sitter to pay the baby-sitter. She made plans to go to a baby shower we were going to be having on Sunday.
GRACE: Just a few hours after the last sighting of Julie Ann, the estranged husband is captured on video with the 2-year-old at a Wal-Mart buying a video with Julie Ann`s debit card. On March 28th, her car is found abandoned at a nearby Walgreens parking lot.
Now, almost a year, since Gonzalez`s mysterious disappearance, Austin police believe Gonzalez may have been murdered.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: We are taking your calls.
Take a look at Julie Ann Gonzalez, leaving behind a beautiful little girl. Her mother says no way would she ever leave her daughter behind. Her mom, Sandra Soto, with us tonight. We are taking your calls. The tip line, 512-477-3588.
Deborah Norville with us tonight has a question for Michael. Go ahead, Deborah.
DEBORAH NORVILLE, ANCHOR, INSIDE EDITION: Yes, Michael, you said with such authority that the person of interest in this case, the estranged husband is psychotic and has proven mental illness. What do you base that on?
MICHAEL BOARD, REPORTER, WOAI NEWSRADIO: January 2010, George De La Cruz tried to commit suicide. He was upset about the pending problems that are going on with their marriage. It was a fact -- there was a good possibility he was going to lose the custody of his daughter. He tried to commit suicide.
After that, he was put on anti-anxiety medicine. He admitted to police he was off his meds. When police said, why weren`t you taking his meds? He said, we couldn`t afford them.
So, this is a person who has a diagnosed mental illness and was told I`m not taking my meds.
NORVILLE: So, wait a minute -- he had a diagnosis of mental illness prior to the suicide attempt?
BOARD: No, this was after the suicide attempt.
NORVILLE: I`m not sure the suicide equates mental illness. I think you`ve maybe gone a little too far in declaring that.
GRACE: Even Fantasia tried to commit suicide with aspirin. I`m not so convinced that because he claims he tried to commit suicide that he has some long-lingering mental illness. I mean, right now, he`s not being treated that we know of. He`s got custody of his daughter, Deborah Norville.
I mean, that doesn`t sound like a mental illness to me. It sounds like something he cooked up.
NORVILLE: Well, I don`t know who cooked it up, the gentleman who`s the person of interest or the media. I mean, it just doesn`t sound like a suicide attempt equates with mental illness. I think that that, you know, in defense of this man who opted not to participate in this discussion and his attorney opted not to participate in this discussion, I think, it`s a little bit extreme to suggest that he may be suffering from mental illness.
And maybe not in defense of cops, but I think it`s important to note look at some of the things that they`ve been asking for in the search warrants. They have gone to Facebook. They have gone to MySpace. They have gone to Yahoo! And they have asked all three of those Internet companies to provide IP addresses, copies of e-mails, contact lists both for the missing woman and for the person of interest.
Based on what is returned in those search warrants, there may be a great deal of evidence that we don`t know about right now that could lead them to a break in this case that will provide information that Ms. Soto was desperately looking for and the other members of Julie Ann`s family.
GRACE: To Dr. Caryn Stark, psychologist, joining us out of New York. What about his suicide attempt? You know, Caryn, have you noticed, so many people that gone to murder, other people claim to have a suicide attempt on themselves? But it doesn`t work on them. It just works on everybody else.
DR. CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, suicide is an angry gesture, Nancy. So, it`s like anger turned inward. It wouldn`t surprise me if that anger exploded against someone else, but in answer to the question about mental illness, it would be indicative of severe depression if he tried to kill himself, but it would not indicate that he`s psychotic. Those two things have nothing to do with each other.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Peter Elikann, defense attorney out of Boston, author of "Super Predators"; Randy Kessler, defense attorney, Atlanta.
You know, even if I agree with everything Michael Board told us tonight, joining us from WOAI, to you, Kessler, anti-anxiety meds does not a mental illness defense make. I mean, about 60 percent of America is popping anti-anxiety.
They`re on Paxil. They`re on everything. There are commercials on it on TV.
My children`s favorite commercial is the big ball popping along. It`s an antidepressant. I change the channel.
But long story short, just because you`re on an anti-anxiety med does not make you have a mental illness.
RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No, it doesn`t. And really, that`s besides the whole point, Nancy. I mean, yes, in that little clip, he looked like maybe he`s a little narcissistic, like you can`t catch me is what he was saying in my ears when he was saying, you know, you can put a GPS, you can do this. But, really, even if he`s got a mental illness --
GRACE: Well, yes, wait, Randy, he was saying all that after he made the cops get a search warrant to go into his place and now, totally not cooperating after he flunks a polygraph. So, you know, I don`t know how much he`s willing to let them tear his place apart.
KESSLER: Well, I`ll tell you what`s interesting to me. I`d like to know more from the grandmother about this custody battle. She says she`s seeking custody. You know, in a criminal case, obviously, they got to prove he`s guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but they don`t have to wait that long to seek custody.
And if grandma is in a custody battle, there are a lot of options open. There`s discovery in a civil case.
There are a lot of things grandma could find out about that in this civil case. And to me, I`m worried about this 2-year-old child who -- if he is a murderer, if he is the perpetrator, them you know, we don`t have to wait until there`s a guilty verdict to address that. I`m surprised the courts haven`t changed that. And it means something to me that they haven`t gotten custody away. They must not have enough.
GRACE: Right now, everyone, we are quickly changing gears. We`re coming back to Julie Ann Gonzalez. But I want to tell you about an update. This girl -- beautiful brown eyes, shoulder length hair, gorgeous smile, the world in front of her -- 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes, straight A honor student, vanishes Christmas break, Maryland.
Straight out to Jean Casarez. What`s the latest, Jean?
JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": The latest, Nancy, is that they found through a tip an abandoned home, searched that in the Baltimore area, and specifically, a well that was within a shed on the property. They went down 20 feet, got water out, but no sign of Phylicia Barnes. And they continue the search, but they say they don`t have physical evidence.
GRACE: Joining us right now, Anthony Guglielmi. He`s the chief of public affairs, Baltimore Police Department.
Anthony, thank you for being with us again. What more can you tell us about Phylicia? We had her mother on the other night, and it is heartbreaking. She goes up to Maryland to connect with her half sister, didn`t know much about that side of the family. She`s never seen again.
VOICE OF ANTHONY GUGLIELMI, CHIEF OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, BALTIMORE POLICE DEPT. (via telephone): Nancy, we`re incredibly frustrated with this case. Just no physical evidence to guide detectives. We are literally interviewing people that last saw her three, four and five times. We have every option on the table. Every resource at our disposal is being used, but we`re just coming up empty.
GRACE: Everyone, we are taking your calls on Phylicia Barnes as well.
Marc Klaas, weigh in.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT & FOUNDE, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: We already spoken to the person responsible for her disappearance. It`s very problematic when you`re in an urbanized area and you have to look for a missing body because there are abandoned apartments, there are vacant apartments, flats, there are -- there are wells. They may have to search for this little girl one tiny little piece of real estate at a time. It`s a sad state of affairs.
GRACE: Tip line in Phylicia Barnes, 855-223-0033. There is a $4,000 award.
And tonight, also, please help us find a missing mom, Eyvonne Rosier, just 25, vanishes January 11, 2010, Pineville, Louisiana, 5`2", 110 pounds, light brown hair, hazel eyes, tattoo on her back that says Eyvonne. If you have information on this Louisiana beauty, please call 318-641-6009.
And if your loved one is missing, if you need help, go to CNN.com/NancyGrace. Send us your story. We want to help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Lynn in Ohio. Hi, Lynn.
LYNN, CALLER FROM OHIO: Hi.
GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?
LYNN: My question is, about the medicine --
GRACE: Yes.
LYNN: OK. Could she dropped the baby off and then went and got the baby`s medicine?
GRACE: Good question. Let`s go to her mother. Julie Ann Gonzalez`s mother, Sandra Soto, is with us.
Ms. Soto, what can you tell us about the meds for the little baby?
SOTO: The medicine was purchased a day before, and it`s asthma medicine. So, it`s medicine that she has to have with her all the time because she has a nebulizer, and she gets treatment. So, it`s not like, you know, it was medicine that, you know, she could take off and on only as needed. It`s medicine that she has to have with her at all times.
GRACE: Ms. Soto, I want to go back over what Deborah Norville asked you earlier. And let`s just take it from the beginning on. What do you know happened the day she went missing and what do you believe happened?
SOTO: I think that Julie Ann never really made it. Maybe never made it to George`s house. Or if she did, she wasn`t there for very long. George could not have done this by himself. I think that maybe he involved some other people.
The car -- Julie`s car was found four blocks away from George`s house at the Walgreens parking lot. And when we told him that we found the car, the look on his face was priceless. He went white, like he had just seen a ghost.
And I was watching him. I was looking at his reactions. And I noticed that he also had scratches on his face.
All these things that happened within those, you know, first 24 hours that we reported Julie Ann missing, we would tell the police, but they just wouldn`t listen.
GRACE: Have you talked to her daughter, Layla, and asked what she saw that day? Have you gotten to speak to her?
SOTO: I see her once a week. We are in a custody battle. And she is -- she`s really smart.
And the last thing that Layla told me was, I miss -- I want my Julie. I miss my Julie. And I asked her, where is she? And she used to say, she`s at work. But then this last time that I asked her, which was just last week, she said, she went far, far away. I don`t know where she is. She`s far, far away.
GRACE: Who told her that?
SOTO: I don`t know, you know? And that`s what I tell the police that concerns me. You know, from the research that I`ve done of, you know, child development, you know, the first five years of a child`s life are the most important.
She is 3 years old. She is the one that is going to hurt the most. She is the one that is going to suffer the most.
GRACE: Sandra, have you talked to him? Have you talked to George De La Cruz? What does he say happened that day? What does he tell you?
SOTO: The first few days that Julie, we reported Julie Ann missing, he told me, she just said she had to go away. And I was begging him. I begged him and I begged him and I`ve never once had any angry words to exchange with George or his mother and I beg him, what happened to Julie Ann? Please, George, please try and remember, what did she say to you?
And he said, she just had to go away. She just had to go away. And I said, how do you know that, George? How did you know that? He just tells me, she`ll be back. She`ll be back.
And I beg him, please, George, remember what else happened that day. If there is something that you need to tell me, I am begging you, George
GRACE: Well, Sandra, what is all this business about him having a mental illness?
SOTO: I don`t -- well, he did admit on the Dr. Phil show and he did admit that he stopped taking his Lexapro.
He -- when he tried to commit suicide in January, he was actually taking care of Layla that day. He left a message for Julie, wrote a letter to Julie, when Julie went by to pick up Layla. He said there`s a letter n the diaper bag for you, and I want you to read it later.
Well, Julie only got within a few blocks of his house and she got curious, so she opened the letter. And in the letter, it said that he had taken some pills and then he was going to kill himself.
GRACE: Hold on. Let me find out about Lexapro. What is that, Caryn Stark?
STARK: It`s an antidepressant, Nancy. It has nothing to do with psychosis. It`s something that you use when somebody is feeling really depressed or you use it if somebody is feeling anxious.
GRACE: Peter Elikann, Lexapro, again, probably half of America is on Lexapro. That`s not a mental illness.
PETER ELIKANN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That`s correct. If he`s in the process of getting divorced and upset about it, he`s depressed or anxious and he gets on some anti-anxiety, antidepressant -- that is not psychotic. That is not a mental illness.
So, I don`t see any kind of insanity defense or anything coming up here. It just doesn`t really rise to that level at all. It`s interesting, though, so many people who kill also are suicidal. It`s almost like life, itself, isn`t valuable. Sure, I`ll kill you, but I`ll kill myself, too. There`s a real pattern there.
GRACE: There`s a real pattern, in my opinion, of people committing murder and then feinting suicide doesn`t quite work out when they try to kill themselves -- Deborah.
NORVILLE: I`m curious. What has happened to Julie Ann`s cell phone? We know that some text messages were received from her cell phone. Did the police ever locate her cell phone? Michael, maybe you know about that.
BOARD: I know they were looking into her phone records. They`ve been working with the phone company to track down her phone records. They can do pings from different cell towers. I don`t know if they have the phone, itself, though.
GRACE: That`s a good question. Sandra Soto, did they find her cell phone?
SOTO: They`ve never found the cell phone, and they never did the pings.
GRACE: What about it, Sheryl McCollum?
SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST: The pings should have been done. All of these things should have been done. I mean, I`ve got notes and notes here, and what concerns me now is there`s a pattern.
The suicide attempt was when she was coming to pick up the baby. She goes missing when she goes to pick up the baby. That, to me, is a clear pattern.
He`s losing her. So, how does he draw her back? Oh, I`m going to kill myself, and then, I`m going to kill you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Plainfield`s first missing persons case in more than a decade. The state police and FBI are assisting in the search. Right now, there`s little to go on. Her car was left at home and Stebic`s estranged husband who still lived with her told police that Lisa allegedly left around 6:00 Monday night, to go to the high school fitness center.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was Monday. She left home here, supposedly to go work out. And as far as I know somebody picked her up and on Tuesday morning to go to work, she wasn`t here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the Chicago suburbs of Plainfield, Illinois, 37-year-old mom, Lisa Stebic, reportedly heads out for a routine jog and hasn`t been seen since. Friends and family believe something is very wrong. Saying the devoted mother of two, popular in the community, would not leave her 10-year-old and 12-year-old behind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police are now saying Lisa Stebic was a victim of foul play.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s now a reward of $20,000 that we hope will bring in some tips leading to the finding or the location of Lisa Stebic. We`re hoping that someone will see Lisa`s picture and provide some new lead, some new tip.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We are talking about a missing mom, Julie Ann Gonzalez.
Back to you, Sheryl McCollum, as we were going to break, you were laying out your scenario about her going missing. Explain.
MCCOLLUM: Well, again, she goes to his house. He`s waiting for her. Nancy, he could have easily said, hey, the baby is in the back asleep, come on in and then attacked her.
The suicide attempt -- again, Julie goes to him, and he puts a note in her diaper bag. All of these things are to get her attention and to draw her back to him. He`s trying to hold on to her. If he can`t, then nobody else is going to have her. How many times have we seen that, Nancy? If you`re not going to come back to me, then I will kill you.
GRACE: Out to the lines.
Brittany in Georgia. Hi, Brittany.
BRITTANY, CALLER FROM GEORGIA: Hi, Nancy. My mother and I are your biggest fans. We watch your show three times a night every night. We record them on our DVR. We kind of do our own investigation at home on all these cases.
My question is --
GRACE: What do you make of this case?
BRITTANY: Well, I was kind of thinking about Ms. Gonzalez`s car at Walgreens which has a pharmacy in it, that tells me that she must have been in the Walgreens. Have they questioned the employees or check surveillance tape? And why they didn`t concentrate on the ex-husband? And could you post on your Facebook a way to help these missing people?
GRACE: What about it, Jean Casarez?
CASAREZ: Here`s a fact from the search warrant affidavit. You know the car keys to the car, they were found in the home of George De La Cruz.
GRACE: So, he`s the one that took it to Walgreens. He`s the one. Back out to the lines.
Sheryl in Ohio. Hi, Sheryl.
SHERYL, CALLER FROM OHIO: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
SHERYL: Well, I have two. I`m going to make them quick.
GRACE: OK.
SHERYL: When she came to the door, he says he got an alibi that the baby, you know, that he couldn`t have killed her because the baby was there. Was it possible he could have put the baby to sleep then killed her? And the second one is: why is it when he said that she told him that she was leaving town, why not the mother? A daughter always tells her mom everything.
GRACE: What do you make of it, Deborah Norville?
NORVILLE: Well, I don`t know. I think -- I think there are a lot of different scenarios, and I think, you know, what we`ve got to find out is what are the results of the Internet searches, what are the results of the lab test on the trace evidence that was found both in the car and at the home? And it will be really interesting to have someone from the local police authorities here with us, but I think we`ll be hearing from them in court.
GRACE: The tip line: 512-477-3588. With us tonight, Julie Ann`s mother asking for your help. There`s a $20,000 reward.
I`m Nancy Grace. See you tomorrow night, 9 o`clock sharp Eastern. And until then, we will be looking. Keep the faith, friend.
END
