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Nancy Grace
9-Year-Old Indiana Girl Missing From Neighbor`s Home
Aired December 26, 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. We go live on this holiday evening because an Indiana mother and police need your help tonight. Live to Indiana, Christmas Eve, a 9-year-old girl vanishes from the home of Mommy`s neighbor. The little girl, 9-year-old Aliahna, partially deaf and blind, her and her two younger sisters there at the neighbor`s home while Mommy resting with the flu next door. The neighbor finds his front door unlocked, little girl Ali (ph) gone.
Bombshell tonight. In a stunning twist, why wasn`t Ali reported missing until 8:45 PM that night? Even now, little Ali`s Christmas presents stacked up, waiting under the Christmas tree. As the search goes on by land, by air, by water, tonight, where is 9-year-old Aliahna?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police and search teams aren`t leaving a stone unturned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Indiana police are desperately searching for a missing 9-year-old girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For more than 24 hours they`ve been looking for 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon. Lemmon`s mother dropped her off a week ago at a friend`s house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aliahna Lemmon was staying at a family friend`s house while her mom was sick with the flu.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The friend noticed the little girl was missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Family says Aliahna has vision and hearing problems and is reportedly partially blind and deaf.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The sheriff`s department called for support from nearby towns to search for Lemmon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops and the FBI searched a five-mile radius around the home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have boats out on rivers and ponds. We`re checking every place we can.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officers on ATVs, K-9s and helicopters all assisted in the search, but there has been no sign of the little girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, it`s just scary.
Where is 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. We are live this holiday evening because an Indiana mother and local police need you.
Tonight in Indiana, Christmas eve, a 9-year-old little girl vanishes from the home of Mommy`s neighbor. The little girl, 9-year-old Aliahna, partially deaf and blind, there at the neighbor`s home with her two younger sisters, Mommy right next door, resting, fighting the flu. The man -- the neighbor checks the front door, finds it is unlocked, with little Ali gone.
And tonight, in a stunning twist -- why wasn`t the girl reported missing until 8:45 that night? Even right now, as we go to air, little Ali`s Christmas gifts still piled up under the tree, waiting for her to come home and open them, while outside, the search goes on by land, by air, by water. Where is this 9-year-old little girl?
We are taking your calls. Straight out to Victoria Taft, talk show host, KPAM. Victoria, what can you tell me?
VICTORIA TAFT, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST, KPAM (via telephone): Well, this is a very odd thing, of course, Nancy. And the timeline, I think, is important here. She`s been missing, obviously. And she was missing -- and the person who is taking care of her decided that he would go at 6:30 in the morning or 6:00 o`clock in the morning and go get a cigar.
He left Aliahna and her two sisters at his home, went away for just a few minutes. And some tapes of the story, surveillance tapes, back him up. He comes back and then sees that everyone`s there and goes to bed. But he wakes up at 10:00 o`clock.
GRACE: Right.
TAFT: And by that time (INAUDIBLE) Aliahna is gone, but he doesn`t know it.
GRACE: With us tonight exclusively, grandmother Amber Story, the grandmother of 9-year-old little Aliahna.
Everyone, we are live on this holiday evening trying to help an Indiana family and local police in a desperate search, a search that has at this moment gone cold. Christmas Eve, three little girls right next door while Mommy rests up from the flu. The neighbor checks, finds his door unlocked, the little girl gone.
She`s partially deaf and partially blind. That`s Ali that was sitting in the middle. Take a look at this little girl, absolutely scrubbed in sunshine! Fort Wayne, Indiana, age 9, Christmas Eve, presents stacked up under the tree. Little did Mommy know that within a few hours, her girl would be gone.
Joining me right now is Ali`s grandmother, Amber Story. Ms. Story, thank you for being with us. Now, the mommy was sick next door. There`s only about 30 residences right there in that little community. Right next door is Mommy, who`s been resting up from fighting the flu, didn`t want to give it to her three little girls, the little girls right next door.
What happened? What are police telling you tonight, Ms. Story?
AMBER STORY, MISSING GIRL`S GRANDMOTHER (via telephone): When Mike came back from getting the cigar, the door was still locked, like he left it. He came in. The girls were sleeping, the two younger ones, on the floor. And Ali was sleeping in the chair with a blanket over and her body pillow. And Mike laid down on the couch because he`d been up with her all night because she has nightmares and he was comforting her all night. An he was tired, so he laid on the couch beside them. The two younger ones were watching TV and Ali was sleeping in a chair.
About 10:00 o`clock, he woke up and he looked over -- or actually, a little bit before that, he had looked over and he thought Ali was still in the chair because the blanket was still over the body pillow. But at 10:00 o`clock, he realized that she wasn`t there. And he asked her sisters, and they said that she had gone with Mommy because she walked out the door on her own.
However, Aliahna sleepwalks, and she has sleepwalked before and opened and unlocked the door and walked outside in her sleep. That`s what we believe happened. She left on her own. She was asleep. She unlocked the door. And for some reason, we believe she was thinking she was going home, and she just disappeared. She never made it home and she never came back to her friend`s. And we don`t know any more.
GRACE: Mommy was just a few doors down from where her three little girls staying, as Mommy battled the flu.
You know, to Nicole Partin, investigative reporter. Nicole, I find it very, very disturbing that the neighbor who is taking care of the three children -- and he is being completely cooperative with police -- leaves the home -- locks the door, that`s true -- leaves the home at 6:00 o`clock in the morning for a cigar? Now, Nicole, I know that the surveillance video backs up his story that he did go to the 7-Eleven or the Quickmart, whatever it was, and get a cigar. I know that.
But why would you leave at 6:00 o`clock in the morning, Nicole Partin?
NICOLE PARTIN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER (via telephone): Good evening, Nancy. And that`s a wonderful question. Here`s something else that`s important to note. He told producers that this little young girl, Aliahna, awoke about 2:30 in the morning, crying for her Mommy, as many typical 9- year-olds would do. He consoled her. She wanted to go home. And he`s saying, I didn`t take her home because I did not want to leave the two other girls asleep alone in the home.
But as you noted, we find out four hours later, he says, I left all three girls home alone at 6:00 AM to go for a cigar. Very interesting that he says he didn`t want to leave two girls asleep, but he left all three asleep.
GRACE: Is that true, Ms. Story?
STORY: Yes, but who of us hadn`t made stupid mistakes? I mean, he left...
GRACE: Well, we`ve all made mistakes. Everybody in the world has made mistakes, Ms. Story. Of course, we`ve all made mistakes. We`re all human. But I have never left my children alone in a home, period, locked or unlocked -- never, not once, not ever, not in the car, never, ever, ever, ever -- because that`s not really a mistake. That`s a conscious decision. It`s not like, Whoops, I took the wrong turn, or -- no. That is a conscious decision. It`s not really a mistake.
STORY: There are people all over the United States who leave their older children with their younger children to watch them for five or six minutes.
GRACE: OK.
STORY: And I know for a fact that when I was a child, I was only 6 years old, and my parents would go out (INAUDIBLE) and leave us alone in the house. And my brother was not even 2 years -- was about 2 years old. So it may be different nowadays for most people, but not everybody`s perfect in this world. (INAUDIBLE) definitely not perfect.
And I have no, no qualms in saying that Mike would never hurt any of those children, or any children, period. I do not blame him. I do not blame my daughter. The only blame is to the person that took her. Circumstances just worked out that she disappeared. It was not anyone`s fault, other than the person who disappeared with her.
She walked out in her sleep. She`s done this before. He, however, did not have a lock high enough on the door where she couldn`t reach it. Her mother does. They have to get permission to get a chain-lock put on the doors out there. He did not have it.
GRACE: Well, let me -- Ms. Story...
STORY: He has been a family friend for very long.
GRACE: ... you`re saying two different things, from what I`m picking up. You`re saying that she wandered off on her own because she`s had night terrors, sleptwalked before. She can unlock a door and go out a door in her sleep. But you`re also saying it`s the fault of whoever -- whomever took her.
So is your theory that she sleptwalked out the door in an effort to go home, and then someone took her?
STORY: Yes. That`s what we believe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just pay attention to anything you think that was out of place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Indiana police are desperately searching for a missing 9-year-old girl last seen just before Christmas Eve.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After doing a five-mile-radius search around the area, Lemmon still hasn`t been found.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops and the FBI searched a five-mile radius around the home. Officers on ATVs, K-9s and helicopters all assisted in the search, but there has been no sign of the little girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The sheriff`s department called for support from nearby towns to search for Lemmon. Relatives have been searching for Lemmon, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities have questioned 15 registered sex offenders that live in close proximity to the home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s unusual. She hasn`t done this before.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Allen County sheriff Ken Free (ph) says runaways are typically older than 9.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family friend reportedly (INAUDIBLE) sleeping in his home around 6:00 AM Friday. That was the last time anyone saw her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Free says they`ll continue to look for Lemmon until she`s found.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police and search teams aren`t leaving a stone unturned. For more than 24 hours, they`ve been looking for 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon. Lemmon`s mother dropped her off at a friend`s house in Northway trailer park by Clinton Street and Diebold (ph) Road. A friend noticed the little girl was missing at 10:00 AM, but didn`t report it to police until 8:30.
Police believe Lemmon left on foot. The sheriff`s department called for support from nearby towns to search for Lemmon. Relatives have been searching for Lemmon, too. After doing a 5-mile-radius search around the area, Lemmon still hasn`t been found.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We go live this holiday evening because an Indiana mother and local police need your help. Take a look at this 9-year-old little girl. Christmas Eve, heading into the holiday weekend, Christmas tree up, presents stacked under the tree, this 9-year-old girl, partially deaf and partially blind, just down from Mommy`s home as Mommy sleeps fighting the flu, 9-year-old Ali and her two little sisters and a neighbor`s home. The neighbor steps out to get a cigar, comes back, the door still locked, 9- year-old Ali is gone.
We are taking your calls. There`s only about 30 residences in this little community. This girl is now missing as the temperatures plunge. Did she sleepwalk and leave the home? She`s been known to sleepwalk, her eyes wide open, can get outdoors, undo locks. But how far could she have made it?
Let`s to go back over the facts. To Nicole Partin. I understand that there are searches by land, by air, by water, scent dogs, cadaver dogs all called in. Come on! How far can she make it in the night? Isn`t she wearing her gown and no shoes?
PARTIN: (INAUDIBLE) being told that the local authorities there have called in the FBI. They launched this massive search with over 100 workers, using planes, boats, K-9 units, ATVs. They were hoping that the K-9 unit would uncover something, but that, too, proved unsuccessful.
Now, we`re being told by this friend of the family that she was last seen wearing a blue-and-black plaid coat, a beautiful silver-and-white sweater dress, white tights, black shoes, as though she were all dressed for the holidays.
But then he`s saying at 10:00 AM, when he looked over to the chair and saw her missing, he saw that pile of clothes laying on the floor. So Nancy, we`re not sure what this little girl could out in there, roaming around these cold temperatures in today.
GRACE: Wait a minute. I don`t understand that, Nicole Partin. So she -- he says she was sleeping in her clothes?
PARTIN: That`s what he`s telling authorities.
GRACE: All right. But then when he looked over, he saw the clothes she had been wearing in a pile on the floor?
PARTIN: That`s what he`s saying.
GRACE: But he believed that she went with Mommy, that Mommy came over and got her. He had been talking to Mommy on the phone. Mommy was planning to come get her.
OK, let`s clear it up. With me is Ali`s grandmother, Amber Story. Ms. Story, so the -- Ali was sleeping in her clothing?
STORY: Yes. Ali had been to a party at school and wore the same outfit that she wore to her grandmother`s funeral. She was sleeping in her grandfather`s chair, and that night, she wanted to sleep in her outfit. (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: OK, so bottom line is the answer is yes, she wanted to sleep in her outfit. All right. That`s not unusual. Sometimes my twins, who are 4, want to sleep in their shirt or their pants or their outfit. Fine. I got it.
But what`s interesting, Ms. Story, is that when he wakes up and he sees the clothing she had on in a pile on the floor, is that when he realized she was missing?
STORY: That wasn`t -- yes, that`s -- at 10:00 o`clock, yes, that`s when he realized she was missing. But it was her pajamas and stuff and other clothes on the floor right beside the chair that he saw.
GRACE: Oh, OK. All right.
STORY: So it wasn`t the clothes she was wearing.
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Becky in Kentucky. Hi, Becky. What`s your question, dear?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. Happy holidays.
GRACE: You, too. Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah, dear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was wondering, has this man kept these girls before? I mean, is this, like, commonplace, or -- or, you know, was this, like, Oh, it`s an emergency, can you please keep my kids? And also, why wasn`t the grandmother watching them? I mean...
GRACE: Good question. Let`s go out to Ms. Story. Ms. Story, had he kept them before? I mean, it`s very -- it`s very convenient because, you know, he`s just a few doors down from Mommy. Had he kept them before?
STORY: Yes. This gentleman has for the last almost two years taking care of Tarah`s -- or Ali`s grandfather. He took care of him until he died. That has been what he`s been doing. And he`s been a close family friend for a long time. (INAUDIBLE) over to his house and spend the night because they get to play on the floor in front of the TV and watch TV and they play games.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`ve been looking for 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now cops are frantically trying to find any sign of the 9-year-old, who the family reportedly says is partially blind and deaf.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re hoping somebody sees this and said, Oh, Aliahna`s at our house, come get her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The sheriff`s department called for support from nearby towns to search for Lemmon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officers on ATVs, K-9s and helicopters all assisted in the search. Authorities have questioned 15 registered sex offenders that live in close proximity to the home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not been able to locate any trace of her so far.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But there`s been no sign of little Aliahna.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: This little girl disappears, as they head into Christmas, Christmas Eve, the presents stacked under the tree, the tree lit, this little girl just a few doors down from Mommy`s home, there with her two little sisters. She goes missing in the night.
We are taking your calls. And with us tonight exclusively, her grandmother, Ms. Amber Story. Amber, a couple of other questions about her hearing and vision impairment. I`m trying to understand correctly her going out the door sleepwalking. It is possible. But she`s partially deaf. She`s partially blind. How well could she see, Ms. Story?
STORY: She could see -- like, she had about 50 percent loss of vision, so she could still see fairly well, just not clearly. And she had a hard time with anything, you know, small print or anything like that.
GRACE: How about her hearing?
STORY: Her hearing? She has about 50 percent loss in both ears and (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: Does she hear people calling for her? Would she be able to hear if people were calling her name?
STORY: If they were close enough.
GRACE: OK. I`m just trying to understand what would be going through her mind in the night. Another question, Ms. Story. Were any of her shoes left behind, or is she shoeless?
STORY: No, she`s got shoes on, but she`s got dress shoes on, the shoes that she wore with her outfit, that she wore to her grandfather`s funeral.
GRACE: Everyone, we are taking your calls in the search for this 9- year-old little girl. I`m trying determine just how badly she was affected by her vision and hearing impairment.
Ms. Story, how did she lose her hearing and sight?
STORY: Well, the hearing loss, a small part of it was from damage to her nerves (INAUDIBLE) from (INAUDIBLE) younger.
GRACE: Yes.
STORY: The rest of it is just central nerve damage, and she is (INAUDIBLE) some kind of (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: Well, central nerve damage from what?
STORY: Just -- it`s a -- I guess it`s a genetic problem. We really don`t know exactly what...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police and search teams aren`t leaving a stone unturned?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police are desperately searching for a missing nine-year-old girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For more than 24 hours, they`ve been looking for nine-year-old Aliahna Lemmon. Lemmon`s mother dropped (ph) a week ago at a friend`s house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Aliahna Lemmon was staying at a family friend`s house while her mom was sick with the flu.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A friend noticed the little girl was missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The family says Aliahna has vision and hearing problems and reportedly partially blind and deaf.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The sheriff`s department called for support from nearby towns to search for Lemmon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cops and the FBIs searched the five-mile radius around the home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rivers and ponds, we`re checking every place we can.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Officers on ATV`s (ph) canines and helicopters all assisted in the search, but there has been no sign of the little girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, it`s just scary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is nine-year-old Aliahna Lemmon?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: We are live in Indiana tonight working the holiday evening because an Indiana mother and local police need your help tonight. A nine-year-old little girl partially deaf and partially blind vanishes from the home of mommy`s neighbor. The little girl, their in the neighbor`s home with her two little sisters, the neighbor finds the front door unlocked.
The little girl gone. For some reason, the little girl not reported missing until 8:45 p.m. We are taking your calls out to John in Massachusetts. Hi, John. What`s your question?
JOHN, MASSACHUSETTS: Hi, Nancy. Happy holidays to you, honey.
GRACE: Happy holidays, dear.
JOHN: First of all, I do have a question, and I would like to say whoever has her needs to bring her back, if anything. She`s a beautiful little girl and I`m very saddened. And my question is, has the family friend been questioned by the authorities at all?
GRACE: Good question. Let`s go out to Amber Story, this is Aliahna`s grandmother. I assume the family friend, the babysitter, has been questioned by police, right Ms. Story?
VOICE OF AMBER STORY, GRANDMOTHER OF MISSING NINE-YEAR-OLD ALIAHNA LEMMON: Oh, yes. They`ve done questioning on the whole family. All of the neighbors, as far as the family, they`ve done DNA (ph) testing on all of them so they can identify her if she is down. They`ve done everything they can as far as trying to rule out any type of problems in the family.
GRACE: You know, Ms. Story, I got another question. I know that they have brought in dogs. I don`t know if they are tracking dogs or cadaver dogs, but did the dogs pick up a trail leaving the neighbor`s home?
STORY: Yes. They picked up a trail from the house to her bus stop, and then, it just vanished. But you got to understand, her bus stop was up by the road and that road is very busy. And that`s why we believe somebody might have stopped and picked her up.
GRACE: OK. Joining me right now, the search coordinator looking for little Ali. Gary Peterson is joining us from Spring Valley. Gary, thank you for being with us. What can you tell us?
VOICE OF GARY PETERSON, MEDICO, LEGAL DEATH SCENE INVESTIGATOR & SEARCH COORDINATOR: Hi, Nancy. That was such a tragic piece. This poor gal going up to the bus stop and being so susceptible, and the thing that bothers me about it is the vision and the hearing impairments that she reportedly has makes her so susceptible and vulnerable. It`s just a really tragic thing, and we`ve got to find that girl.
GRACE: With us, criminal profiler, author of "The Profiler," Pat Brown, joining us from D.C. What about it, Pat?
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, Nancy, I think the police have a very difficult case, because here we have a lot of questionable things and a lot of kind of concerning behaviors and, perhaps, some of what we call careless parenting or just free kind of parenting. We have a situation where these little girls are over there with this babysitter.
And what I find particularly odd is that the child is missing for what, is it 12, 14 hours without anybody knowing it. Why does a mother never call to check on her children? Why don`t the children ever want to see their mom during that 14 hours? Why doesn`t babysitter never called back just to see how little girl is doing after she was screaming half the night?
So, these are very concerning thing. Could the child have left on her own? Apparently, it`s possible. And, are there maybe some other creepy people in the neighborhood? Yes, there is. So, they`ve got to look at the family, the babysitter, the next door neighbor, and the fact she could have gotten near that road and somebody took her away.
So, this is one of these cases that almost everything is on the table, and they`re going to have to really sift through it very, very carefully.
GRACE: Well, as a matter of fact, bringing up sex offenders, Pat Brown, in just that small community of 30, 31 residences. There are 18 registered sex offenders in the area. And I`m sure police have gone door to door looking for this little girl. We are taking your calls.
Unleash the lawyers. Eleanor Odom, senior attorney, National DA`s Association, death penalty qualified, Alan Ripka, defense attorney in New York, Pilar Prinz, the defense attorney in Atlanta. OK, Eleanor, assess it.
ELEANOR ODOM, SENIOR ATTORNEY, NATIONAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY`S ASSOCIATION, DEATH PENALTY QUALIFIED: Well, Nancy, nobody has mentioned interviewing the two other children. Remember, they said at some point, allegedly, that the little girl went with her mother. Now, they may not have seen this happen.
Maybe the little girl was sleep walking and said I`m going with mom or whatever, but I think they need to be interviewed thoroughly by an expert to know what they saw, what they heard. And I don`t know that that`s been done.
GRACE: You know, that`s a good question. Hold on, Allen and Pilar. Back to Amber Story. This is Ali`s grandmother. Ms. Story, have you talked to the two little sisters? And if so, what have they told you?
STORY: The same thing that they`ve told everybody. One did actually see her go out the door, but her other sister did see her go out the door. She was leaving to go with her mother, and as far as them being questioned, yes, they have. They`ve been --
GRACE: OK. That`s good. That`s good. With us exclusively is Ali`s grandmother. Back to the grandmother, Amber Story. Now, when the babysitter neighbor sees the pile of clothes, the other girls say Ali went with mommy. How did it happen? That`s ten o`clock in the morning. How did it happen it was nearly nine o`clock at night before anyone reports the child missing. How did that happen?
STORY: OK. When the girl says that Ali went with their momma, she talked to Tara (ph), but there was a miscommunication. Tara (ph) asked how the girls were doing. She assumed that all three were still with Mike, and Mike said the girls are doing fine. He is assuming that Ali is with Tara. Nobody mentioned things exactly.
So, it wasn`t until the Tara (ph) called for the second or third time that day to check on them that she told them that they could go ahead and come home that they figured out that Ali wasn`t with either one of them, and that`s when they called the police immediately.
GRACE: OK. Back to the lawyers, Alan Ripka and Pilar Prinz. What about it, Pilar?
PILAR PRINZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, this just shows so much why communication is key. I mean, we`ve heard of this before. Mom thinks dad picking the child up from school. Dad thinks mom picking the child up. And here it is, you`ve got the critical first few hours where this little girl is missing, and everybody`s got their signals crossed.
You know what really bothers me? You`ve got, as you said, 18 sex offenders in this neighborhood. Where is this child?
GRACE: Alan Ripka, I`m having a hard time buying into the wires crossed thing because Pilar just threw out there, you know, come on. A child, that many hours, and you don`t --
PRINZ: It happens. It happens. You see it all the time. I agree it`s a very long time, but both sides are saying -- they both said the same thing.
GRACE: I appreciate that, Pilar. What about it Alan?
ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I mean, Nancy what`s important to me here is to understand how many times this is girl has walked off while she was sleeping and how far was she able to go --
GRACE: You know what, Alan? That`s a great question. Back to Amber Story. How many times -- Ripka wants to know, Amber, as she walked out of the home and walked off while she was sleepwalking?
STORY: She`s never actually got farther than the frontyard because somebody caught her when she did it.
GRACE: So, she has made it out of the home before.
STORY: Yes, she has. When she sleepwalks, you would swear she`s sleep.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police and search teams aren`t leaving a stone unturned. For more than 24 hours, they`ve been looking for nine-year-old Aliahna Lemmon. Lemmon`s mother dropped her off at a friend`s house in Northway trailer park by Clinton street in Diebold Road. The friend noticed the little girl was missing at 10:00 a.m. but didn`t report it to police until 8:30. Police believe Lemmon left (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is nine-year-old Aliahna Lemmon?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police and search teams aren`t leaving a stone unturned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rivers and ponds, we`re checking every place we can.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Indiana police are desperately searching for a missing nine-year-old girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s unusual. She hasn`t done this before.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lemmon`s mother dropped her off a week ago at a friend`s house while her mom was sick with the flu. The family friend reportedly saw Aliahna sleeping at his home. That was the last time anyone saw her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Family members find it hard to believe Lemmon would run away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody wants her home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Christmas eve, a nine-year-old little girl goes missing from the neighbor`s home, mommy just a few door`s down, battling the flu. This little girl, nine-year-old Aliahna and her two little sisters there at the neighbor`s. Neighbor gone just a few moments to the 7-11, comes back, door still locked, Ali gone.
Her Christmas presents still under the tree stacked up waiting for Ali to come home as the search rages on by land, by air, even by water. We are taking your calls, but out to Dr. Bill Lloyd, board certified surgeon and pathologist joining us from Winter Park. Dr. Lloyd, it`s always such a pleasure to have you on.
Aliahna`s mother says she has hearing and vision problems. How much more difficult will that make it for her to be found and these night terrors the child had combined with sleepwalking? I`d like to hear your opinion on that as well, doctor.
DR. BILL LLOYD, M.D., BOARD CERTIFIED SURGEON & PATHOLOGIST: Good evening, Nancy. Yes, it sounds like it`s a very complex story. There appear to be handicaps here, many of which could have started at birth. So, with this combination of latent development, perhaps, some immature brain wiring, she has trouble hearing, she has trouble speaking, she has trouble seeing, maybe she has trouble getting help if she`s in a dangerous condition.
If she finds herself in a strange environment and it`s destabilizing for her, it can be very difficult for her tor get help. Now, we know that children have more problems with sleep walking than adults, maybe part aware about that, but perhaps, 15 to 20 percent of preadolescent children sleepwalk now and then.
Typically, it`s just for a few minutes, and typically, it`s in the early hours of sleep, up until about one o`clock in the morning. But the dynamics in this case are very different. She was up half the night. So, six in the morning is still early in her night sleep. So, yes, she has a history of sleepwalking.
Sleepwalkers can do all kinds of amazing things that we can talk about, combined with her underdevelopment, that latent development that makes it hard for her to hear and hard for her to see adds many challenges to her recovery.
GRACE: You know, another issue, what are night terrors?
LLOYD: Night terrors are in that family of what we call parasomnias. It`s in the same bucket as sleep walking. They wake up in the middle of night, scared to death, and oftentimes, it`ll just be episodic. It may happen once a month. Some children, unfortunately, it happens almost every night, but it typically only happens once a night.
So, now, if the story of 2:30 in the morning, she had an episode night terrors, which goes along with the sleepwalking story, resets the clock. So, if the neighbor, Mike, is able to help her get back to sleep, let`s say at three in the morning, well, for you and me, that might be like 10 o`clock at night.
So, that her brain activity and this immature brain that we`re hearing about now makes her highly susceptible to that sleep walking at sunrise, six, seven o`clock in the morning.
GRACE: Dr. Bill Lloyd joining us from Winter Park. Dr. Lloyd, why do children have night terrors?
LLOYD: It may be a reaction to some previous event in their life or it may be -- and this is what most neurologist think under the belt end up the brain fibers that children that haven`t yet fully matured in their brain can be more susceptible to disruptions in their ordinary nighttime sleep patterns, and this can cause things like restless legs, sleep walking or these night terrors.
No child has to have all of these, but more often than not, they have more than one of these parasomnias. So, we hear about the sleep terrors and we heard the story about the sleep walking.
GRACE: Well, doctor, I can`t completely identify, because, as a child, in my youth, I slept walked, slept talked, had night terrors very badly, then it all went away until after the murder of my fiance, it all came back for years. It`s only been, really, in the last say, four, five years since I had my twins that it has subsided. So, it`s not that uncommon.
And what the grandmother is telling you is not that uncommon. And, I`m thinking back on a time, Dr. Lloyd, when I spent the night with my little friend across the street and actually did get out their door. Of course, by that time, I was in about the fifth grade. But long story short, this can happen. The story is not farfetched.
Although, to Wendy Walsh, Dr. Wendy Walsh, psychologist, co-host of "The Doctors" joining me from L.A., I still have a problem with leaving the child -- in the middle of the night, child wants to go home. She`s having bad dreams. The neighbor says no, because he did want around (ph) at two o`clock in the morning. I get it. All right?
But then, at six o`clock in the morning, he leaves to go get a cigar and leaves the all three girls alone. Now, the grandmother is saying that that was a mistake. That`s a pretty big mistake.
WENDY WALSH, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST, CO-HOST OF "THE DOCTORS": It`s a pretty big mistake, Nancy. Obviously, in his mind, maybe a nine-year-old is old enough to leave in the custody of little ones. I`m not really sure, but there are so many holes in this story that disturb me. First of all, the two younger sisters, one is a step-sister, one is the sister that both six years old.
There is a mother and a step-father not far away. Do you leave all three of your children, including a step, with someone else when there are two other parents around? This is confusing to me. And then, big fact that he left them alone, and we all know that`s against the law, folks. Left them alone at six in the morning, three little girls by themselves.
GRACE: To Woody Triff, former police commander, polygraph expert, what about it, Woody?
WOODROW TRIFF, FORMER POLICE COMMANDER, POLYGRAPH EXPERT: Well, Nancy, are we looking at a perfect storm situation here. I mean, granted, Mike, we already know, has been in the system. He, obviously, has to know that if he brought harm to these children, you know, the criminal justice system is going to be all over him.
So, are we looking at a perfect storm? Did this child wander away, in fact, and then, literally, like a little lamb walk amongst lions, tigers, and bears, encounter something out there. It`s a lot of questions here that need to be answered.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nine-year-old Aliahna Lemmon girl was staying at a family friend`s home while her mother was recovering from the flu. That was the last time anyone saw her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Family members find it hard to believe Lemmon would run away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s unusual. She hasn`t done this before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not been able to locate any trace of her, so far.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But there`s been no sign of Little Aliahna.
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GRACE: You can imagine the Christmas tree still up and lit in the home, presents piled underneath for this nine-year-old little girl. Mommy is still waiting for her to go home. Little Ali goes missing Christmas Eve from a neighbor`s home. We are live tonight on this holiday evening, asking for your help.
Police and the family begging for tips, begging for help to find his nine-year-old little girl. Out to Gaetane Broders, president of Peas in their Pods. Weigh in, Gaetane.
GAETANE BRODERS, PRESIDENT, PEAS IN THEIR PODS, MISSING CHILD ADVOCATE: My heart breaks for this family, truly does, but I do have some questions here. This is a close family friend, very close by the grandmother`s assertion. So, wouldn`t he have known that she has these night terrors, that she sleep walks, that she has vision and hearing problems?
And so, wouldn`t that cause him to be a little bit more vigilant in taking care of her? I just don`t understand how he would walk away and leave her after she had these night terrors. I don`t get it.
GRACE: You know, I want to go back to you, Eleanor. You and I have seen so many, and you (ph) prosecuted so many cases regarding children. Your specialty is crimes on women and children, what do you think?
ODOM: Well, Nancy, first of all, there`s neglect. There`s a huge neglect issue because the man in charge went away and left three small children, especially one, Little Aliahna, who has some physical impairments, too. So, there`s definitely a neglect charge there. Because of his actions, Nancy, the child is missing. So, maybe, she slept walked. No matter what happened, he was responsible and he did nothing.
GRACE: Everyone, the tip line, 260-446-2543.
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Let`s stop and remember Army Master Sgt Bernard Deghand, 42, Mayetta, Kansas, killed Afghanistan. Awarded bronze star, purple heart, combat infantryman badge. Loved golf, softball, archery, playing cards, family board games, coaching his son`s football teams. Leaves behind grieving mother Barb (ph), three sisters, two brothers, a widow, Lisa, children, Jamie, Craig, and Emma.
Bernard Deghand, American hero.
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GRACE: Thank you to our guests, but especially to you for being with us. Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, eight o`clock sharp, eastern, where we will be right here in our own way seeking justice. I hope you`ve had the most wonderful Christmas. See you tomorrow night, eight o`clock sharp eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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