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Nancy Grace
Girl Reunited With Mother 23 Years Later; Two Sisters Vanish After Leaving Mysterious Note
Aired March 22, 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)
TRACY BRADLEY, MOTHER: I`m just wishing my kids, whoever has my kids, please get them home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): The disappearance of sisters age 3 and 10 sparked one of the largest searches in Chicago`s history. Diamond and Tionda Bradley allegedly left a note for their mom on July 6, 2001.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are two beautiful young girls, and it`s heartbreaking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tracy Bradley left for work that day at 6:00 a.m. When she returned home at 12:30, she unknowingly read the first piece of evidence police would use to find her daughters.
BRADLEY: A note was there saying that me and Diamond went to the store. And from there, I mean, I didn`t hear anything else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Despite a massive search, the girls were never found.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We feel like, will they ever be found? Is everybody doing the most that they can to find them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s been glimmers of hope in the search for Tionda and Diamond Bradley -- a mystery note, a cell phone message about a man named George. Then a Web photo six years into the search of what family believes is a grownup Tionda. But that hope all ends in frustration.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We pray that you continue to search for them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nearly 500 Chicago police and a dozen FBI agents worked the case, searching with dogs, combing through thick forest preserves, dragging lakes. The community passed out flyers, held vigils.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A thousand interviews have been made, 5,000 abandoned buildings searched, and national media attention.
GRACE: We are live here on Chicago`s south side, joining in the search for two little girls, missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But none of it has led to the one clue that could bring the sisters home.
BRADLEY: Bring my children back home because I miss them and love them dearly. Here`s a sketch of them today that, you know, you see these two girls out there, Diamond and Tionda, call, get in touch with FBI.
(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 -- for 50 nights we go live, spotlighting America`s missing children, girls, boys, mothers, fathers, grandparents. They`re gone, but where?
Tonight, to Chicago.
It`s summertime. Mommy goes to work as usual, but when she comes home, her apartment is empty. Her two little girls ages just 3 and 10, gone. The only clue, a mystery note allegedly written by the 10-year-old saying they headed to a nearby playground.
The sisters are never seen or heard from again. But hope not lost. Sightings still reported. The family even believes they see Tionda on a social networking Web site.
What happened to two beautiful little sisters, Diamond and Tionda Bradley?
But first, we`re going to go straight out with an incredible story to Jean Casarez.
A little 19-year-old (sic) baby kidnapped. What happened, Jean?
JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Missing for 23 years, Nancy and found, found just days ago.
It was back in 1987 here in New York that Joy White and the father of her child took their little Carlina to a hospital in New York City because she had a 104-degree temperature. She was only 3 weeks old.
They hooked her up to intravenous feeding. They told the parents, you can go home for a while. When they came back, the baby was gone. It had been kidnapped, it is believed, by a woman parading to be a nurse at the hospital. And for 23 years Joy White has missed her daughter.
The daughter, believing something wasn`t right, contacted the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They helped her put it all together. DNA has confirmed that she has found her mother in New York, Joy White.
GRACE: You know, Jean, I can hardly take it in.
And let`s go out to Ernie Allen, our friend, the president from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children, joining us out of D.C.
Ernie, this is, you know, a very, very rare occasion and a moment to stop and thank God for what has happened. You don`t see this that often, Ernie.
What happened, Ernie? How did she know something was wrong?
ERNIE ALLEN, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN: Well, Nancy, there were a series of things over a period of time. She -- some very basic things.
She said she didn`t look like the other members of her family. There were some things that her mother was not able to do. She wanted to drive, and her mother hadn`t gotten a Social Security number for her.
But things built up, and it came to a point where this is a very smart, tenacious young woman. She went to our Web site and started looking at pictures of long-term missing children. She called us on December 22nd, called our hotline, and said something is not right in my life, I think I`m not who I`m supposed to be.
Our case workers did a lengthy interview, gathered lots of facts and details, and began to compare them, physical characteristics, began to compare them with some of these long-term missing child cases. Ultimately, working with the New York Police Department, we zeroed in on Carlina White.
And two NYPD detectives went to Georgia to interview her, took DNA samples. And a few days ago the DNA came back that this little 3-week-old baby who was abducted from the hospital in New York in 1987 is this remarkable 23-year-old woman.
She`s met her family. She`s been reunited with her family. It`s a miracle, Nancy. And what you`re doing is going to generate even more miracles.
GRACE: Take a look at this. And take a look at what the mom said back in 1987.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She had something set up. For a person to put on a nurse suit, to wander in the hospital, and to go to that hospital anyway, you knew what you were doing. Because why wouldn`t you be in Connecticut having a baby when you wasn`t even coming from Connecticut?
No one`s around you. You`re not asking your sister, come with me to the hospital, I`m about to have my baby. Or, you know, is no one around you while you have this baby? So, where did you get me from?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Marc Klaas. Weigh in, Marc.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLASSKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, this is the ultimate fairytale ending and I share their show. Nobody was harmed, nobody was murdered, nobody was raped. The little girl and her mother are reunited, and hopefully the ending will continue to be happy.
GRACE: To Pat Brown, criminal profiler.
What kind of person goes into a hospital, pretends to be a nurse, and takes a baby?
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Time and time again, Nancy, you have a woman who has a psychopathic personality, and she wants what she wants. She wants the attention she`s going to get by having a child in her life, by being able to show that child off, and thinks, well, I should just go in and get one.
And it`s interesting sometimes the family members say, wait a minute - - that`s when you get the baby back. They`re the ones that say, well, she`s been lying all of her life, she always plays these manipulative games, and they`ll turn her in or say that`s who it is.
But there are other family members sometimes who will actually look the other way when the woman shows up with that baby that`s clearly probably not hers, and they will simply say, well, we just didn`t know. But we have a person here who wants the attention by having the child in her life.
She doesn`t care and love the child, but she wants it like a toy. And that`s what this woman apparently did.
GRACE: Liz, let`s hear the sound.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope she`s all right. For the love of God, I hope she`s taking good care of my baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: An incredible, incredible discovery. Twenty-three years later a child stolen, kidnapped from the hospital bed, is reunited with her mother.
Right now to another story, a story out of Chicago. Two little girls, her mom goes to -- their mom goes to work that day as usual. She comes home to an empty apartment.
I want to go out to Jean Casarez. What happened, Jean?
CASAREZ: Because in this particular instance, two little girls were abducted. And law enforcement say that`s very unusual and could signify that they are still alive, because it is so rare.
But Tionda and her sister Diamond Bradley actually were in the house that morning, and this was a summer morning in 2001. Their mother went to work and they left a note. The older girl wrote a note and left it on a sofa.
And when her mother got home from work it said, we went to a store then we were going to go to the Doolittle school, well, she had never written a note before to her mother. It was highly unusual.
But FBI analysts determined it was her handwriting. But the question always has been, what about this cell phone call saying George is at the door and he wants permission to take us to go get a cake, because there were several Georges in their life, one being George Washington, the father of little Diamond.
GRACE: Joining me tonight, James Miller. This is a private detective. He has worked on this case from the very beginning. He`s joining us from Woodridge, Illinois.
Hi, James. What can you tell us?
JAMES MILLER, PRIVATE DETECTIVE: Hi, Nancy.
All I can tell you is we worked this case very, very hard and very efficiently to the best that we could. We`ve ripped the city apart. We`ve gone into abandoned buildings. We`ve gone into sewer systems. We`ve gone on the lake.
We`ve had psychics come in. We`ve had psychics send us to Wolf (ph) Lake. We`ve had dogs out there.
But what I could also tell you is that we do constantly get leads, and we follow up on every lead. We had one recent lead about a couple years ago where a federal investigator was in a bar and he saw a Tionda look- alike. And this girl was also talking to somebody and said she was from Chicago.
So he just saw "America`s Most Wanted," and he did see the age- progressed photos of Tionda. And then when he went to question the girl about being from Chicago, some lady went and grabbed her, took her out of the bar, and drove her off.
We called the FBI. We called -- we sent an investigator out there. And we investigated the bar.
We found out that it was part of a known prostitution sex ring. And, however, we were not able to get any more information on that case.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Ten-year-old Tionda and her 3-year- old sister Diamond left their south side Chicago home July 6, 2001, leaving a note for their mother saying they were going to the school playground nearby. Nobody has seen the Bradley sisters since, and their family is desperate for answers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s been really, really hard for the family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is everybody doing the most that they can to find them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mom, Tracy Bradley, says when she returned home from work, there was no sign of her two little girls, besides the handwritten note by Tionda confirmed by police to be her handwriting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We pray that you continue to search for them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police searched nearby neighborhood parks, abandoned buildings, and conducted more than 1,000 interviews, but have found no sign of the Bradley sisters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s been glimmers of hope in the search for Tionda and Diamond Bradley -- a mystery note, a cell phone message about a man named George, then a Web photo six years into the search of what family believes is a grownup Tionda. But that hope all ends in frustration and investigators are no closer to finding the Bradley sisters.
Just 10 and 3 years old when they vanished in 2001, their mother reports coming home from work to find her little girls gone. A note was left behind in Tionda`s handwriting placing them at a nearby school, but no one has seen them since. The last sighting, 6:00 a.m. the morning mommy goes to work, the last time she would see her little girls.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Right now, a very special guest is joining us out of Lexington, North Carolina, Sheliah Bradley-Smith. This is the aunt -- the aunt of Tionda and Diamond Bradley.
Ms. Sheliah, thank you for being with us.
SHELIAH BRADLEY-SMITH, GREAT-AUNT OF MISSING SISTERS TIONDA AND DIAMOND: Thank you for having us, again, Nancy, on your show.
GRACE: Please don`t thank me. It is my honor.
It`s really my privilege to get to profile these two beautiful girls. You know, my little girl is 3 right now, and I cannot even imagine going home tonight and somebody telling me, well, they`re just gone. They`re gone.
Tell me what you believe happened, Sheliah.
BRADLEY-SMITH: Nancy, I believe that someone that was a close acquaintance with the mother of Tionda and Diamond took those children.
GRACE: Why do you say that?
BRADLEY-SMITH: Well, because the note. That was not the way Tionda spoke, the grammar, the sentence structure.
Even though it was her fingerprinting and her handwriting, she was coached to write that note. And there was a voice message left that several of our family members listened to. It was dated for that date, and it said that George was at the door.
GRACE: It said George was at the door. Who`s George?
BRADLEY-SMITH: George Washington is Diamond`s father. And there`s another George that was an acquaintance with Tracy, which was George Senor (ph), who used to baby sit the kids, and he`s a close family friend.
GRACE: Well, why would there be a voicemail from the girls saying George was at the door?
BRADLEY-SMITH: That`s exactly my point, Nancy.
GRACE: OK. A voicemail to who?
BRADLEY-SMITH: The voice message was to her mom`s cell phone.
GRACE: And all it said is George is at the door?
BRADLEY-SMITH: No. It said, "Ma, this is Tionda. Pick up the phone, ma. George is at the door. He says that we`re coming to pick you up from work and we`re going to Jewel`s (ph) to get the cake.:
GRACE: What cake?
BRADLEY-SMITH: Well, one of the other siblings, her birthday was the day after that the children were allegedly missing. So I could only believe that they were talking about the cake of the sibling, because it was her birthday.
GRACE: Had they planned to go get a cake?
BRADLEY-SMITH: To my knowledge, no, but when I questioned even their mom regarding the voice message, and other family members questioned her about it, she did indicate that that was a message that was left almost a month prior for her birthday. However, I don`t believe that because, one, the message was dated, and two, her mom would not have been picking up an explicitly made cake for Vicki`s (ph) birthday.
GRACE: Were the Georges in their lives checked out and located?
BRADLEY-SMITH: According to the investigators, yes.
GRACE: Well, what do you believe, Sheliah?
BRADLEY-SMITH: It hasn`t been done thoroughly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police need your help in bringing home sisters Diamond and Tionda Bradley. The girls go missing after supposedly leaving a note for their mom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On July 6, 2001, the girls left their mother Tracy a note and said they were going to play at this school. They haven`t been seen since.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And even though the disappearance has been turned over to cold case detectives, Chicago police have never lost hope.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My message to the individual or individuals that have these children is this is now the time to bring them back home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The tip line is 312-746-9690. There is a $30,000 reward.
Hey, you listening, $30,000 to help us find out what happened to these two little girls. The tip line: 312-746-9690.
Marc Klaas, very unusual, to me -- you`re the expert -- for two girls to be taken at once.
KLAAS: It is very unusual, and I think there`s a couple of scenarios, a couple of things that present themselves and that can be learned from here.
Number one, there is a very small set of perverts out there who would enjoy the company of children this age. So they very well could have been trafficked out.
Secondly, I think it`s instructive that this case has gone on for so long, yet it`s not a cold case. And even the fact that there are private investigators involved in the case I think is a real sign for hope.
And I hope that people who have long-term missing would learn from that. I know everybody can`t afford it, but in a case like this, where there`s a $30,000 reward, perhaps if a PI were able to crack the case, they could take that reward.
However, not any PI will do. You want to find either an individual or a firm that has experience in searching for missing children, and hopefully a law enforcement background so that they can use those connections within law enforcement without having the restraints that law enforcement has, as they are independent operators and independent contractors.
GRACE: What about it, Pat Brown?
BROWN: I think in this case the PI is going all over the place chasing down a bunch of scenarios that are ridiculous. I think Ms. Sheliah is exactly right, right on the money.
She believes that this is not a stranger abduction. I believe it`s not a stranger abduction. I believe that go right back to those Georges. And my guess is George Washington, the father of Diamond, they ought to be looking there at him.
And they also ought to be looking in Indiana, where they supposedly were going camping. Why would that state come up into somebody`s mind if they never camped before? Indiana, look over there. And they`re not going to be alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRADLEY: Thank you, all. I`m just wishing my kids, whoever got my kids, please get them home.
(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 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.
TRACY BRADLEY, MOTHER: I`m just wishing my kids, whoever got my kids, please, get them home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The disappearance of sisters, age 3 and 10, sparked one of the largest searches in Chicago`s history. Diamond and Tionda Bradley allegedly left a note for their mom on July 6th, 2001.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two beautiful young girls, and it`s heartbreaking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tracy Bradley left for work that day at 6:00 a.m. When she returned home at 12:30, she unknowingly read the first piece of evidence police would use to find her daughters.
BRADLEY: A note was there saying that me and Diamond went to the store, and from there, I mean, they didn`t hear anything else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Despite a massive search, the girls were never found.
BRADLEY: We feel like, will they ever be found? Is everybody doing the most that they can to find them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s been glimmer of hope in the search for Tionda and Diamond Bradley. A mystery note. A cell phone message by the man named George (ph), then a web photo six years into the search of what family believe is a grown-up Tionda, but that hope all ends in frustration.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We pray that you continue to search for them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nearly 500 Chicago police and a dozen FBI agents worked the case, searching with dogs, combing through thick forest preserves, dragging lakes. The community passed out fliers, held vigils.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A thousand interviews have been made, 5,000 abandoned buildings searched, and national media attention.
GRACE: We are live here on Chicago`s south side, joining in the search for two little girls missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But none of it has led to the one clue that can bring the sisters home.
BRADLEY: Bring my children back home because I miss them and I love them dearly. Here`s a sketch of them today that, you know, you see these two girls out there, Diamond and Tionda, call, get in touch with FBI.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. I want to remind everyone, there is no official suspect named. Out to the lines. Sheila, New York. Hi, Sheila.
SHEILA, NEW YORK: Hi, Nancy. Well, I tell you, you got God`s calling.
GRACE: Bless you. Thank you.
SHEILA: You`re welcome. And I can`t believe how big your little ones are already.
GRACE: You know, John David is 3. He`s right up to here. He`s up to one of my top ribs.
SHEILA: Wow.
GRACE: That`s how tall he is. And Lucy`s right behind him. Can you believe it? And she was just two pounds when she was born.
SHEILA: I saw them in the snow on TV. And -- It`s just an -- I couldn`t believe they got that big.
GRACE: I can`t either.
SHEILA: I was wondering, were those children left home alone while she worked?
GRACE: Good question. To Sheliah Bradley-Smith, were they alone while mom went to work?
SHELIAH BRADLEY-SMITH, GREAT AUNT OF MISSING SISTERS: From my understanding is that Tionda and Diamond were left alone in the apartment as George and Tracy left that morning.
GRACE: How long was she at work?
BRADLEY-SMITH: I believe three to four hours.
GRACE: And in that space of time, gone. To Paul Penzone, former sergeant Phoenix PD, child advocate. Do you believe suspicion was ever placed on the mom?
PAUL PENZONE, FORMER SERGEANT PHOENIX PD; CHILD ADVOCATE: Oh, I`m sure it had been early on because everyone close to the children are --
GRACE: I don`t really see that, though.
PENZONE: I`m just saying from a perspective of the investigators, but I will tell you this. The facts are just not sitting well with me. I think there`s too much information there. As the family member stated earlier, go back to the beginning and start from scratch with this investigation. If you have not completely identified the Georges and gone down that road, you need to.
And the $30,000 you spoke of, I have a long history in crime stoppers, and money is a very powerful motivator. But at the end of the day, there`s somebody out there with this weight on their heart because they know where these children are, and they need to be back with their mother. If it`s the money that inspires you, then make the call, but please make the call because, morally, these children need to be home.
And we`ve seen cases. It`s years later, but miracle happens. Just like the story you spoke of earlier on the show, and I saw one here in Phoenix similar to that. We need to hope for that miracle because it can and it should happen.
GRACE: To Kathy Chaney, web editor, "Chicago Defender," joining us out of Chicago. Kathy, it`s great to talk to you again. Kathy, who had seen these children last other than the mother?
KATHY CHANEY, WEB EDITOR, "CHICAGO DEFENDER": Well, that`s where it becomes sketchy, because it`s that -- they`re saying that some kids say they saw the kids outside playing, then, the mom said she saw them last when she went to work. So, it`s kind of sketchy to pin down who really saw the kids. And then, I have to mention that there was critical search time that lapsed because there was several hours when the family did a private search before the police was actually called to join in the search.
The police was called around 6:00 that evening. So, you have several hours that was critical search time that was not utilized.
GRACE: Kathy, go through the timeline, as you know it. With us, Kathy Chaney, web editor "Chicago Defender." Go ahead, Kathy.
CHANEY: From our understanding from accounts, Tracy Bradley, the mom, she left for work around 6:00 or 6:30. I believe her shift was, like, maybe 7:00 to 12:00. She left work. The girls were asleep. She comes home. The girls are not there. Then, she calls family and friends. They go searching for the girls, couldn`t find the girls. So then, the police was called, like I said, several hours later, and then, that`s when the massive search started by the Chicago Police Department.
FBI got involved. And I know that Tracy, initially, told the police that she was at home sleeping until about 11:00 that morning and then she woke up and the girls were gone. She was scared to say that she left the girls home alone to go to work. So, I know that there were some inconsistencies, but you know, she fessed up to it. But after that, it`s pretty much the lost search time. And then, I have to mention also that the family had moved away shortly after the girls were missing.
So, I know there were some concerns from some community leaders that if the girls had tried to call home, you know, to find out something, they would hit a brick wall because the family didn`t live there anymore. It`s just -- it`s really sad. And today is Tionda`s 20th birthday.
GRACE: Yes. That`s why we timed tonight`s program specifically for that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are constantly searching. We are constantly looking in to leads. The Chicago police is working very deeply on a couple other suspects in the. We`re re-interviewing witnesses. There is some activity going on that which (INAUDIBLE) that we cannot really discuss on the line, but we are working this very hard and following up on everything.
BRADLEY: When you go through something like this, especially when kids come up missing, we feel the same things. We feel like, you know, will they ever be found? Is everybody doing the most that they can to find them?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Help us find missing woman, Shelaya Gonzalez, 21, vanishes July 16th, 2005, Brooklyn, 118 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes. A beauty. Tattoo on upper thigh says "drip." If you have info, call 800-577-8477.
And if you have a loved one missing, go to CNN.com/nancygrace. Send us your story. We want to help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ten-year-old Tionda and her three-year-old sister, Diamond, left their Southside Chicago home July 6th, 2001, leaving a note for their mother saying they were going to the school playground nearby. Nobody has seen the Bradley sister since, and their family is desperate for answers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s been hard for the family.
BRADLEY: Will they able be found? Is everybody doing the most that they can to find them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mom, Tracy Bradley, says when she returned home from work, there was no sign of her two little girls besides the handwritten note from Tionda confirmed by police to be her handwriting.
BRADLEY: We pray that you continue to search for them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police searched nearby neighborhood parks, abandoned buildings and conducting more than a thousand interviews but have found no sign of the Bradley Sisters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s been glimmers of hope in the search for Tionda and diamond Bradley, a mystery note. A cell phone message about a man named George. Then, a web photo six years in to the search of what family believes is a grown up Tionda, but, that hope all ends in frustration, and investigators are no closer to finding the Bradley sisters.
Just ten and three years old when they vanished in 2001, their mother reports coming home from work to find her little girls gone. A note was left behind in Tionda`s handwriting placing them at a nearby school, but no one has seen them since. Last sighting, 6:00 a.m., the morning mommy goes to work. The last time she would see her little girls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diamond was 3 and Tionda was 10 when the girls disappeared from the south side neighborhood without a trace. Their mother, Tracy Bradley, last saw the girls at 6:30 on the morning of July 6th, 2001.
BRADLEY: I unlocked my door, and I called for Tionda and Diamond. So, I didn`t get no response back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their mother comes home from work to find a note the little girls were going to a nearby playground. That playground, just one block away from their home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Despite a massive search, the girls were never found.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any information that`s come in, we`ve followed through on. We have people looking at. And at this point, we`re still looking for two missing girls.
BRADLEY: If anybody knows anything out there and here`s a sketch of them today that, you know, you see these two girls out there, Diamond and Tionda, call, get in touch with FBI.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Eleanor Odom, Peter Odom, Renee Rockwell. Eleanor Odom, right now, no suspects that they`re telling us about. Where do cops go?
ELEANOR ODOM, FELONY PROSECUTOR: Well, I think, Nancy, we`ve said before, you got to start at the very beginning. Look at these two Georges. Ask them to take polygraphs. See what they say. You can`t force them to, but that should give you some information if they`re willing to take polygraph, including the mom as well.
GRACE: And to you, Renee Rockwell, what sticks out most to you about this case?
RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, let me tell you what bothers me. I`m a little unsettled about why the mother tried to deny that this message came maybe a month earlier instead at the very time. Another thing, Nancy, just because the girls said hey, George is at the door, doesn`t necessarily mean that it was George at the door.
Somebody may have presented themselves as George, but the fact that the child wrote something down, we, at least, know that the child was comfortable enough to sit down and write a note, being coached, was comfortable enough with the person that was in the room with them. So, I think it is someone that knows them.
GRACE: I don`t know if you have to be comfortable with somebody to be forced to write a note. What about it, Peter Odom?
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right. The kid might have done it under duress or under threat. Unlike some of the other people on the show, Nancy, I`m, frankly, comforted that there`s a private investigator involved in the case and that reward is out there, and here`s why. As the case ages, as it becomes colder and colder, the police departments, the public police departments are less and less willing to put resources into it. That`s where a private investigator can really help to stir things up and to put a pair of fresh eyes on a case and do what Paul Penzone suggests. Start from the beginning.
GRACE: Also, also, Peter, I`m encouraged by the fact that there`s no body. No bodies have been found. Now, if these were a random kidnap and murder, the bodies would not have been hidden. They would have been dumped somewhere in a landfill --
PETER ODOM: One would think. One would think.
GRACE: A trash dump. Yes. And why is that, Pat Brown? It`s normally the ones that know you that go to these great efforts to hide the body.
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: When you have -- these girls just walked out the door and somebody grabbed them, they probably would have been dead within the hour like we usually see with abducted children, and the guy just tosses them because he doesn`t have a link back to those children. He`s not worried about police coming knocking on his door. But if you are, you know, related to those children in some way, and this certainly looks like that in this particular case, I don`t believe those girls ever left that place on their own accord.
Then, you don`t want the police knocking. So, you want to make sure those bodies go far, far away, you want to go, perhaps, to a camping site somewhere in the woods, dig a large hole and put them in it, sadly enough, and make sure they`re never discovered. And then, you go back home and say, well, you can`t prove it because you can`t find any bodies. I think the police definitely have to go back to the beginning on this.
And as far as a P.I. goes, I love a P.I. in a case, but if he`s going after bunch of leads that are not based on the evidence, that concerns me.
GRACE: To Kathy Chaney, explain to me what the mother was saying about that message?
CHANEY: That, you know, George was there. We`re going to the store. We`re going to come pick you up, and that`s what was left.
GRACE: She was saying it was from another time?
CHANEY: Originally, yes, but then, it was, like, it was -- her two days later, so that`s hard to pinpoint of when the message was actually left, when it was actually heard. Sheliah can probably speak a little bit more to that since they heard it, but it`s just hard to pin down some of those details.
GRACE: OK. What about it, Sheliah? Explain that again.
BRADLEY-SMITH: Nancy, as I stated earlier, several family members heard the voice message. Tracy did not hear the message. One of Tracy`s sisters went into Tracy`s cell phone and she played the recorded message that indicated that George was at the door.
GRACE: And so, there was just confusion about when the message had been left?
BRADLEY-SMITH: Well, I`m not confused about it because as I stated earlier, Tracy`s birthday, she usually has a birthday party at a lounge. That lounge usually supplies a sexually explicit birthday cake. They will not sell that in your local Dominic`s or your local Jewel`s. So, that`s how I know that message was geared towards picking up the cake for one of the siblings` birthday.
GRACE: Weigh in, Bethany Marshall.
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": Whoever did this had intimate knowledge of the family because they knew that there was a George, that there was a school nearby. They knew the mother`s work schedule. And in terms of whether, why the children have not been found, it speaks to the premeditation of this crime. Unlike the body that`s dumped in alley or in a garbage can, when the perpetrator thinks about committing a crime for a long, long time, then, they prepare a dump site for the body.
And we think of these types of crimes with sexually motivated perps as being a guy in a dark alley in a trench coat, but let`s remember that most crimes occur in the context of attachment systems. Meaning, maybe a guy that was mad at the mom so took two little girls as a form of revenge against the mother or who had an obsessional fixation on these little girls, so he wanted control over them or motivated by greed, and so, he took the little girls in order to sell them to some freaks as Marc Klaas suggested. So, it`s the attachment system that may have motivated the crime.
GRACE: Everyone, tonight, authorities are hoping advanced technology can help in the search for missing Massachusetts boy, Giovani Gonzalez, just 5 years old when he vanished during a weekend visit with his father more than two years ago. Giovani would now be 7 years old. His father, Ernesto Gonzalez, claimed he killed Giovani, but the boy`s body never found. Any information, please, call Lynn Massachusetts Police, 781-595- 2000.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Calls that have been received, any information that`s come in, we followed through on, we have people looking at, and at this point, we`re still looking for two missing girls.
BRADLEY: Thank you, all. I`m just wishing my kids, whoever got my kids, please, get them home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: These are the faces of America`s missing. Every 30 seconds another child, sister, brother, father, mother, disappears. Their families left wondering, waiting, hoping. We have not forgotten.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I miss him and I love him and I want him to come home. He`s my brother. He`s my whole world. I love him. I love him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These clothes of his (inaudible) until he comes home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joseph Pichler was a child actor. He had roles in movies including two of the Beethoven comedies, "Varsity Blues" and "Children on their Birthdays." But Pichler has missed several birthday celebrations of his own since he vanished on January 5th, 2006.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is so hard everyday. I think something else.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His car was found in a parking lot in Bremerton, Washington.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of us were terrified we`re going to find him dead somewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just miles from his apartment, his family found his silver Toyota Corolla. It was parked in the back of a Bremerton Mexican restaurant, Sheridan Road and Wheaton Way. Police found a note buried in the car which contained poems and many troubling questions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has anything ever been the same?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. And it never will be. And whoever knows, I feel like someone is just like dangling us like puppets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His car keys and wallet were missing. The car was a few miles from his apartment where the door was unlocked. No one has seen Joseph ever since.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing matters. Nothing will be OK until Joe is found no matter what that means.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pichler`s family dismissed early theories that he may have killed himself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t believe he killed himself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s a missing person that needs to be found.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`ve been praying he will some day be found alive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, another day, we all are full of hope that we`re going to find him today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pichler moved to Los Angeles and later back to his hometown in Washington State to finish high school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whether he walks through the door or he`s carried to us, he has to come home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He always kept his love for acting. Joseph has a tattoo of a red star wars emblem on his right forearm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing will be OK until he`s home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you have any information on Joseph Pichler, call the National Center For Missing & Exploited Children at -800-the- lost.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: I`m Nancy Grace. See you tomorrow night, nine o`clock sharp eastern. And until then, we will be looking. Keep the faith, friend.
END
