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Jane Velez-Mitchell

What Happened to Sherry Arnold?

Aired January 16, 2012 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, a terrifying disappearance gets more and more mysterious. A beloved mother confirmed dead, but where is her body? You won`t believe what we`re learning about the two men arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping of this mom and math teacher. What happened to Sherry Arnold? I`ll talk to the mayor of Sidney, Montana, about the shocked, grieving citizens of her small town.

Plus, the latest on Baby Ayla`s disappearance.

And we`re finally able to tell you where Casey Anthony`s reportedly been living ever since her release from jail. This as more and more new photos of Casey with her adopted dog leak online. Who`s behind the leaks? And is Casey about to start a new job? We`ll have the details.

And jaw-dropping new details about that disaster off the coast of Italy as this enormous cruise ship smashes into a reef. Six people dead, 16 missing. Bedlam, panic, chaos. Now the ship`s captain is under arrest. In an exclusive interview, a survivor joins me live with his harrowing tale tonight.

And we`re taking your calls.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Sherry Arnold, the beloved math teacher who was missing in Montana -- we`ve been covering it for days now -- is dead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The FBI believes Sherry Arnold is dead, and it`s asking people in Montana and North Dakota to check the land there for anything unusual.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re missing a daughter. We`re missing a mother. We`re missing, you know, we`re missing a sister.

GARY ARNOLD, HUSBAND (via phone): I don`t know who would want to harm her in any way. She is one of the best people I`ve ever known. She`s a good person. She`s kind. She`s sincere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police in North Dakota are holding two men on charges of aggravated kidnapping.

G. ARNOLD: Sherry and I just -- we talked about a lot of things when we walked, and we talked a little bit about how the nature of our town has changed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And guys like the predators and the violent people, you`re not going to have them moving into Beverly Hills. They want to move to a place where they could disappear.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Breaking news. Disturbing new details tonight in the mysterious death of a popular Montana schoolteacher and mother, Sherry Arnold, age 43. But where is her body?

Tonight, police and the FBI frantically trying to find her remains. It`s a search that covers two huge states with vast open spaces.

Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, coming to you live from New York City. Tonight, we`re going back to Montana, where the search is ramping up for Sherry Arnold`s body, and the secrets hit holes.

These two men have now been arrested -- you`re about to see their pictures in a second; there they are -- for aggravated kidnapping, and they are being held in North Dakota. They`re accused of grabbing Sherry Arnold as she went for a morning jog, but when her remains are found is still a perplexing mystery. We do not know.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: However, due to the widespread area, at this point, we feel it prudent for us to request help from land owners. We would ask land owners to check shelter belts and abandoned farmsteads. We have reason to believe that she may be buried in an area that contains trees that may be matured, dying, or rotting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Shelter belts and rotted trees. How do they know to look for that specifically? We`ll discuss that in a moment, as Sherry`s small town reels in grief, we`re asking, again, how would cops know to specifically look for shelter belts, which happen to be rows of trees along farmland designed to protect soil from wind, if they had not been told specifically where to look?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERRY ARNOLD, MISSING TEACHER: If you expect the best out of your students, that`s usually what you get. And they`re just doing really well and having a lot of fun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That is the woman who was confirmed dead tonight. Friends and family had hoped this was some terrible hit-and-run. It`s now looking more and more like abduction and murder.

Gary Arnold, Sherry`s husband, spoke to us. He tried to stay strong before he heard the horrible news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

G. ARNOLD: I don`t know if -- who would want to harm her in any way. She is one of the best people I`ve ever known. She`s a good person. She`s kind, she`s sincere. She`s loved -- she`s a great teacher. She`s a referee. She`s a great wife and mother. I don`t know. I don`t know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to hear from you. Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS. That`s 1-877-586-7297.

We are very honored tonight to have the mayor of Sidney, Montana, the hometown of the woman who has now been confirmed dead. First of all, mayor Bret Smelser, we are very, very sorry that this has happened. We spent all last week covering this story and hoped that we would find Sherry Arnold alive. We spoke to her husband, who was so brave and remained so calm, despite really the unthinkable.

How is this town dealing with this tragedy, something that has probably never happened in a small town, population 5,000 or so, before?

SMELSER: Jane, thank you. I can hardly hear you. This is a crime of the century for us, you know? There`s still a lot of thought process out there. We`re still mourning, we`re still grieving. We`re somewhat frustrated. But I think at the end of the day, patience is the order of the day. There are two men in custody for aggravated assault and that carries a pretty severe penalty in Montana.

So at this point in time, we want to get closure on -- on the case for the family, especially, and the community, and then we need to have a serious discussion as to where we go from there.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, thank you, Mayor, and if you could stand by for a second, we`re going to bring some of our investigators in. These guys -- well, one of them, the oldest, Lester Vann Waters, age 47, he`s got a rap sheet, literally, it goes on and on for 14 pages. I`ve been reading it and it`s full of drug charges and fraud.

Here`s a couple of the lowlights. 2009, arrested for driving without a license. 2006, arrested for a hit-and-run. 2002, arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.

But Pat Brown, what really disturbed me most, and I say this as a person who as a -- has the dubious honor of being an expert in addiction, because I`m in recovery myself. What popped up at me, the many, many drug, drug offenses. Possession of cannabis. Possession of drug paraphernalia. Sale of controlled substance. Possession of cannabis. Possession of drug paraphernalia. It goes on and on for years, which leads me to believe that we could have had two guys who were high, who were together, and who were determined to go out there and make some trouble.

What are your theories, criminal profiler, Pat Brown, tonight?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, Jane, I think the problem is the two guys together. Since the beginning, I thought this was two people grabbing this woman, because that`s what happened.

You`re right. You get two guys together doing something like, hey, this will be cool. Because she wasn`t your normal, typical victim that you would pick jogging along the side of the road.

And I also think the reason the police are looking in these locations is because they`ve got one of these guys or both of these guys to have said something like, "Oh, yes, well, we were driving, and we hit her accidentally, and we got scared and we went and buried her body some place, but we can`t remember where her body was buried," which will be very convenient, because you don`t want that body found, because if the body`s found, you know it`s not going to look like any hit-and-run.

So I think they do have a clue to what kind of place she`s buried in, but not exactly the location. I don`t think those two are going to give it up.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, police have been very tight-lipped with details so farm and speculation has run wild. When we first heard that Sherry Arnold had been confirmed dead, we were receiving tips and other media as well that it was some kind of terrible car accident. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI LAURENZO, REPORTER, KTVG: Two separate people are saying that Mrs. Arnold was actually hit, and then these two suspects panicked and then hid her body. Now, we haven`t confirmed this with authorities yet, but we`ve received two tips that this may have happened to her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mayor, had you heard that as well? Was this simply that people couldn`t comprehend something far more awful, like that this was a kidnapping and abduction and murder?

SMELSER: At the end of the day, when the daylight for probably us trying to find her alive, I think that was our best alternative that we wanted to wrap our hands around.

But, you know, we`re in an oil community here, too, and I think part of the discussion, the communities -- eastern Montana and western North Dakota - are going to have to have is, you know, we`re not going to point the finger at anybody, but you know, we`re doing employment screening already for DOT physicals. We`re asking you, maybe, can you run a criminal background check? I think that`s probably something that we need to discuss.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, thank you, Mayor. And we`ve gotten some ominous, very ominous e-mail from somebody who wanted to remain nameless that alleged that, ever since these oil companies have come to town, there have been transients coming through, and that crime has gone up.

Mark Eiglarsh, criminal defense attorney, a lot of people are speculating that there could be drugs involved, given the history of drug use and drug selling alleged by one of the suspects. And also that these two men might very well be oil workers.

MARK EIGLARSH, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, I -- Jane, I wouldn`t rule out any theory right now, whether it be an intentional kidnapping to bring harm to this woman, or whether it be some type of tragic accident and then both gentleman took her for whatever purpose. The key, I see, is for law enforcement to work on the 22-year-old, Michael Spel, and see if he somehow will turn up information, turn against the co-defendant, whose record give up information that apparently relates back to the disco crisis.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And I`ve got to say, we`re going to be delving into this and analyzing these two suspects and talking about the three states that are now involved because this may have been a crime that crossed state lines. The feds are now involved.

More on this baffling mystery in just a bit. And we`re taking `your calls on the other side of the break, 1-877-JVM-SAYS. What is your theory?

And later, I`ve got an exclusive for you tonight. I`m going to talk to survivors of this terrifying cruise ship accident. A group of friends who were separated inside this in the pitch black. Imagine their terror.

But, first, the search for answers in the death of very popular math teacher Sherry Arnold. What happened to her? Where is her body?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you wouldn`t understand a math problem, she would just sit down with you and be so patient. And just believed that every student could succeed and just the fact that she cared so much.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMELSER (on camera) The process right now is we`re grieving. We`ve got to get through that process. We`ve got to get through the closure. We`ve got to make the family whole as much as we can, but we`re missing a daughter. We`re missing a mother. We`re missing, you know, we`re missing a sister.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And tonight, two suspects are under arrest. One, 47, one 22. And I am holding the rap sheet of Lester Vann Waters. It goes on and on for 14 pages. And I`m talking very small print, riddled with drug offenses.

So were these two high on drugs when they allegedly kidnapped Sherry Arnold as she was going for a morning jog?

And remember, there`s only one shoe. The only clue at this point that authorities have, aside from the man that they arrested, is this one jogging shoe that was found on the side of the road in a ditch, near her home.

I want to go out to Steve Moore, because as we start to learn more, there`s really so many unanswered questions. What happened? Where is her body? And if they don`t have a body, how do they know for sure that Sherry Arnold is dead?

STEVE MOORE: Well, I think they`re determining it from the statements the guys made. I`m sure they said something like, "Well, yes, we hit her and she`s dead, and we can`t remember where we put her."

The fact, though, that they`re look for old growth trees in those tree belts along fields and with dead trees around would indicate to me that maybe they have some physical evidence. Things that were in the sole of their shoes. Things that the FBI lab would have come up with and said the tree was this old, it was dead. And then you can match that to the type of trees and where they would be in the area.

I think this is more, you know, witnesses say large trees along a road. When you`re looking for old growth trees, witnesses don`t say that. Evidence says that.

And the fact, by the way, that they`ve been charged with aggravated kidnapping pretty much says that they don`t believe the hit-and-run theory or the hit-and-take theory, because aggravated kidnapping in Montana means you kidnapped for a later purpose. So they are saying that the crime that aggravated it happened after they took her, not before.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, let`s take a look at the Google map, which explains the wide trajectory of this story and how difficult it must be to investigate, because Sherry Arnold was kidnapped in Montana, in a very small town, Sidney, population about 5,000.

Then suspect No. 1 is arrested in North Dakota. Suspect No. 2 arrested in South Dakota. And they are both originally from Parachute, Colorado, which is another oil town.

Now, Pat Brown, here`s the thing. This is a race against time, is it not, to find her body, because they will not know -- authorities will not know for sure what really happened to her until they`re able to do an autopsy, and the longer we wait, the more chance that her body will have decomposed to reveal less and less information.

BROWN: Right, Jane. Because her body would be out in the elements.

What they do know at this point, which is one reason they don`t believe in this hit-and-run off theory is that, where her shoe was found, if she was hit hard enough for a shoe to fly off of her body, then there should be blood in that area. There should be something else, evidence of an accident occurring.

I`m guessing they never saw that, because all that probably happened is they grabbed her and dragged her into the vehicle, and she lost her shoe at that point, or maybe she kicked it off for evidence. Maybe she`s a smart lady.

But yes, they need to find her body sooner than later, because yes, they need all as much evidence as they can so they can get a real, real decent conviction on these guys.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`re going to go to the phone lines now. Chelsea in California. Your question or thought, Chelsea?

CALLER: Hi. I was wondering, did she have any, like, tracking device or cell phone on her or anything? And did she leave every time she went for a jog without any kind of protection on her?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: My -- yes, oh, my gosh, Chelsea, you`re absolutely right. It`s so important. And continue with what you`re saying.

CALLER: It`s so important that us women carry anything on them, a scream machine, mace. And when I check my mail, I carry it, because I`m just so -- you get ten feet from your house, you`re in trouble. And she was so close to her house.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mike Eiglarsh, criminal defense attorney, you`re a former prosecutor, and you`ve covered so many of these horrific cases. My understanding is that she left her cell phone at home, but it is a cautionary tale, and it is something that all women, all human beings should keep in mind. If you`re going to go jogging or running or walking, take your cell phone.

EIGLARSH: Agreed. Last week we spoke with the husband on this show, and he indicated that she did not have her phone on her, no tracking device, no nothing. And you know, the golden rule is, you always have something on you, unless you live in like Montana. Well, the rule now has been broken.

Anywhere in the United States, you could be a victim. People could be coming through, as we`ve learned with these two, and you just have to prepare in the event that there are opportunists, sexual offenders. They`re all out there, lurking, looking to do harm. It`s really a tragedy.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Steve Moore, I find this sort of older man/younger man duo very disturbing, especially when you put in the drug factor. I have no reason to believe that, if this guy has that long a drug history -- I`m talking about the older one -- that he`s not doing drugs at the time that he allegedly kidnaps her, which means the other one, the younger one might be doing drugs too, which, of course, always amplifies the possibility of heinous acts.

MOORE: Yes, absolutely. And these are the kind of guys that we were talking about last Thursday, that we were afraid of. The kind of guys that have huge, long rap sheets, and then at a certain point, they just decide that they`re going to leave town and start a new life somewhere else where they don`t know them.

And this guy, all of those convictions were in Florida. They weren`t up in Colorado. They weren`t in North Dakota. He bailed on Florida, because he was tired of getting arrested, and they knew him down there.

Looks like he probably got a job in the oil industry. He`s out at Parachute. He may have been -- I`d like to see where his company sent him for the last few weeks, because I`ll bet they sent him over to Sidney. You`re going to find a paper trail on his...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`ll stay on top of that.

Casey Anthony shocker next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ayla Reynolds` dad reported her missing December 17. Police say that they suspect foul play and that the family is cooperating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our investigation continues. We have ruled out no scenario. We have ruled out no one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody in his family or him himself has done something with Ayla.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe, my gut is that the maternal family has something to do with Ayla`s missing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring her home! Just bring her home to us. I want my baby home. I want her home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Stunning new developments in the search for Baby Ayla in Maine. We`ve just gotten new video of Ayla`s mom, Trista Reynolds, talking openly about her pregnancy and her relationship with her missing 21-month-old daughter. Look at that precious child playing, before she disappeared. Family video.

Listen to this from the "Bangor Daily News".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRISTA REYNOLDS, MISSING GIRL`S MOTHER: I was going to have a baby, I was just like, happy, and sad and, I mean, I think I had every emotion that a mother, just finding out is going to have. I just -- my biggest thing, though, I kept telling myself, I was definitely scared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: By the way, that was little Ayla`s baby brother, sitting in Trista`s lap.

Ayla`s been missing since mid-December. Her dad says he put her to bed one night, and the next morning, she was gone.

Straight out to Christopher Cousins, reporter with "The Bangor Daily News." Great interview. You interviewed Ayla`s mom, and you have new information, I understand, that Ayla`s mom says she plans to take a polygraph? Tell us.

CHRISTOPHER COUSINS, REPORTER, "BANGOR DAILY NEWS": That`s right, Jane. Trista told me today that she`s arranged with investigators to take a polygraph. She wouldn`t tell me when she`ll take that test, but apparently, she and some others in her family are preparing to work with investigators on that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Why? She is estranged from her ex, who had the child. The child disappeared from his home. She was purportedly nowhere near that area. Why would she feel the need to take a polygraph?

COUSINS: Well, I believe that the reason she`s taking the polygraph is because investigators want her to. At this point in the investigation, it seems like they`re in the mode of trying to rule things out. They`re leaving no stone unturned, doing searches in various places, just to rule them out as locations.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me ask you this. She`s in recovery. The reason why the child was with the father is because she went into rehab for substance abuse, the mother. Did she really do rehab? I heard something about a ten-day rehab. That`s not how it works. You usually have to go for a lot longer than that. Did she seem sober to you?

COUSINS: Yes, she seemed sober at the time I interviewed her. I`ve interviewed her twice. I did ask her how her recovery`s going. She said she`s been sober since she left rehab. I have to take her at her word on that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we certainly wish her the best with her recovery. What a crisis, what a stress for somebody newly sober to have their child disappear because they were in rehab. What a horror story.

The father said that he took a polygraph and quote/unquote "smoked it" but won`t tell us the results, except for that he smoked it. Cops say he knows the result and if he says he doesn`t know the results, he`s not telling the truth. So it`s a fascinating case. We`re all over, and we`re going to stay on top of it

Up next, a Casey Anthony shocker, a head-spinner. We now reportedly know where, exactly, she`s been hiding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has Casey Anthony finally been found?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And also, we hear she`s connecting with her brother again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice for Caylee. Justice for Caylee. Justice for Caylee.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As to the charge of first-degree murder, verdict as to count one, we the jury find the defendant not guilty. Not guilty.

CASEY ANTHONY, ACQUITTED FOR DAUGHTER`S DEATH: I just want to let everyone know that I`m sorry for what I did.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Baby killer. You`re a baby killer.

JEFF ASHTON, PROSECUTOR: Casey`s lies fit the audience.

CASEY ANTHONY: I know we`re going to see Caylee. I know she`s coming home. I can feel it.

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: She is public enemy number one.

CASEY ANTHONY: Can someone let me -- come on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good evening, everyone. Jane Velez-Mitchell back with you live from New York City. Has Casey Anthony`s super secret hiding spot finally been found? What do new leaked photos of her and her dog tell us about where she`s been living and how?

Check this out, people. It`s Casey`s newest photo from twitter. There she is, same blond hair, big smile, and she is snuggling her new dog, whose name is apparently "Smooch". Smooch, we`re not holding it against you, seriously.

She looks insanely happy, Casey Anthony does. But what about Smooch the pooch? Well, guess what. He has made it big-time, i.e., "Saturday Night Live".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MYERS, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": How did you end up with Casey Anthony?

DANIEL RADCLIFFE, ACTOR: Yes, I`ve been wondering that myself. I think that perhaps the dog adoption screening process could be slightly more diligent. For instance, when someone comes in to adopt a dog, you could ask, who are you? And if they say, I`m Casey Anthony, or perhaps more tellingly, I`m not Casey Anthony, you could say, we`re out of dogs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So where is Casey Anthony and her four-legged BFF? "People" magazine reporting tonight she has been staying in a house in Port St. Lucie, Florida. It`s a small town, halfway between Orlando, which, of course, is her hometown, and Miami. And it`s kind of north of West Palm Beach.

Other photos popping up on YouTube show Casey out and about, even going to bars. Now, this woman you`re about to hear from says she swears she saw Casey on the streets of Port St. Lucie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISSANDRA JENNINGS, CLAIMS SHE SAW CASEY ANTHONY: I happened to hear this young lady yelling on the phone. And when I looked over, I seen this young lady with a cigarette in her hand and an iPhone, and she was yelling in the phone, and she was like, "You got me freaking here, I`m freaking lost, I don`t know where I`m going." So when I`m looking, I`m like, oh, my god, that`s Casey -- Casey Anthony.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So Casey Anthony is now smoking? All right, now that she`s been located, reportedly, a nearby bar owner is offering a Casey a job. Look at the sign here for the Body Talks Sports Bar. It says, "Hey, Casey, we are hiring."

Would you hire Casey Anthony? Call me, 1-877-JVM-SAYS.

With me tonight, Doug Devlin, manager of Body Sports; Doug, I went to your Web site and it wanted me to confirm that I was at least 18 years of age. That to me says a lot. Do you want to hire Casey to be a stripper? What`s going on here?

DOUG DEVLIN, GENERAL MANAGER, BODY TALK SPORTS BAR: This was actually done as a little joke. I`ve been here for 15 years and we`ve been doing little catchy sign phrases on my marquee for a long time. And this one popped up and we kind of thought it was funny. And we ran with it and it kind of went the way it went. So we`re having fun with it.

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s say Casey shows up. Ok, I got you. But let`s say Casey Anthony shows up. What would you hire her for? Is this a strip joint?

DEVLIN: It`s a gentleman`s sports bar and, you know, she shows up, you know, I`ll --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: A little dirty dancing, perhaps?

DEVLIN: It depends on what she wants to do, actually. It really depends on what she wants to do, actually. You know, she kind of looks like she`s an attention-type of a person, so you know, it depends on where she wants to go with it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And let me ask you this. From what I`ve heard, you`ve heard people saying oh, I`ve spotted Casey out and about in Port St. Lucie. What do you know?

DEVLIN: Oh, yes, Facebook. I`ve got a Facebook account for Body Talk Sports Bar, and you know how the chatter goes, I seen her at this nightclub, I seen her at the Lowe`s, I`ve seen here at the Publix. It`s just everybody`s chattering about it. And once the "People" magazine article came out, everybody started paying more attention to who`s around them, and who knows; maybe she`s here, maybe she`s not. I don`t know. I haven`t seen her.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, well, hang on there. Thanks for joining us. And we have a lot of questions. My biggest question, how is Casey surviving in Florida? Remember, she was indigent. Who`s paying her rent? Who`s giving her those gifts she talked about in her video diaries; cameras and what not?

Listen to what "People" magazine found out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THATSHA ROBERTSON, SENIOR EDITOR, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: We definitely know that she`s getting help from some of her lawyers, some of her legal team, but also from charity and from some churches. So people are definitely reaching out to her. She has no -- she really has no way of making any money right now. And also, we hear she`s connecting with her brother again. So -- we don`t know, but, you know, he could be helping her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Unbelievable. She`s connecting with her brother, the very same brother that she accused of molestation. Robyn Walensky wrote "Beautiful Life, the CSI behind the Casey Anthony Trial". I want to know who`s giving her the money, but I also want to know -- my jaw`s dropping -- connecting with her brother, of all people?

ROBYN WALENSKY, AUTHOR, "BEAUTIFUL LIFE": That`s absolutely insane, but I actually believe it, because anything is possible, Jane, when it comes to this family. I mean, in the book, in "Beautiful Life", I call them the shady bunch. I mean there`s something -- the family dynamic there is just totally odd.

She could also have a very wealthy new boyfriend, some sort of sugar daddy figure in her life. People were writing to her when she was in prison for all those years. So who knows? But in terms of the Port St. Lucie, it`s only 100 miles southeast. This would be the perfect place for her. The job would be right up her alley. We all know that she likes to dance and wear very skimpy clothing when she`s doing it.

We went together to check out those hot spots out on a field trip --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We did when we were in Orland.

WALENSKY: -- for full disclosure, to check it out, to see what was really going on there, and do women really dress like this, and are there really hot body shot contests and we both saw it --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We found out yes.

WALENSKY: We saw it for ourselves.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We saw it for ourselves. Let me put it this way, the shortest miniskirts; I think they also qualify as towels, let`s put it that way, black towels.

I want to play a little bit more from "Saturday Night Live". Here is Daniel Radcliffe -- Daniel Radcliffe -- playing Casey Anthony`s dog, a Yorkshire terrier, and adopted. This is -- you`ve got to see it for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RADCLIFFE: I checked Casey`s Internet history last night. Here`s what I found. Here`s a search from two days ago, "How to kill your dog"; followed by "how to kill my dog"; followed by "how to train your dragon".

MYERS: Oh, well, that was just a movie.

RADCLIFFE: Followed by "how to train your dragon to kill your dog".

MYERS: Where is she going to get a dragon?

RADCLIFFE: Dragon is the name of her new boyfriend. They met at a party, a booty-shaking contest in Ft. Lauderdale.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: all right. Come here for a second. Here`s what I think, Casey Anthony may not be an ideal person to adopt a pet, but here`s the truth, the facts: four million dogs and cats, at least, minimum, are put down -- that means killed every year in shelters across the United States. That`s more than 10,000 precious, priceless pets destroyed every single day.

I want to show you -- those are my three beautiful rescue pups. One of them is my mom`s. All of them taken off the streets or left outside shelters. I can`t imagine life without them. So many of these dogs need homes, beautiful rescue dog. That`s my little Cabo San Lucas.

If this dog had not been adopted by Casey Anthony, the chances are "Smooch" would already be dead. So I say, take your chances with Casey, because the odds aren`t good in the shelters. And please, don`t shop, adopt.

All right, we`re going to go to the phone lines. Morella, North Carolina -- you`ve been so patient -- your question or thought, Morella?

MORELLA, NORTH CAROLINA (via telephone): Hi Jane. First of all, Jane, I want to thank you for doing the animal stories that nobody else does. Keep it up, please.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.

MORELLA: And also, I wanted to tell you, I love what you`ve be doing with highlighting your hair lately.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you.

MORELLA: Now, as far as Casey, I have seen it mentioned several times that there were several hairs found in the trunk and only one was tested. What I have always wondered is why did they test -- I think it was all four of Caylee`s hair for chloroform? Because if she had been dosing her with chloroform for a period of time before she died, it would show up in the hair. And if that`s the case, she could still be charged with aggravated child abuse.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Morella, you have said some very interest things, and thank you for watching and paying such close attention. Robyn, very briefly on the hair?

WALENSKY: There was only one hair. She`s confusing the four with the four canisters of the air. It was only one hair that was found and six months after the fact, there was no sign of any sort of drug or anything like that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Leonard Padilla, bounty hunter, you bailed Casey Anthony out. What do you make of her being spotted, purportedly identified in Port St. Lucie, Florida?

LEONARD PADILLA, BOUNTY HUNTER: I have no doubt that she`s been out and about. If she`s, let`s say, being sponsored by an individual that owns a major business in Florida and he`s got vans that don`t have tinted windows or windows at all, it`s not difficult to get out of a place where she`s residing and be anywhere she wants to be, get out of the vehicle, do her shopping, do what she wants to do and then get back in and go home.

This has been happening for several months and she`s in contact with her mother. It doesn`t surprise me that she`s also in contact with Lee. But she has been in contact with her mother.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You`re saying she`s been in touch with her mother. Yes, you know that?

PADILLA: Yes, absolutely. Yes. Definitely.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we don`t have any independent confirmation of that, but you`re hearing it first from Leonard Padilla. If it`s true --

PADILLA: Yes, it is.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. So, thank you, Leonard. What a shocker.

PADILLA: You`re welcome.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Lee and Cindy, purportedly back in touch. We know Lee from "People" magazine -- all right. Fantastic panel.

Up next, we`re going to talk to somebody who was inside that cruise ship that now looks like that; the disaster that had everybody frantically, chaotically terrified, fighting for their lives in pitch black. We`re going to talk to three survivors, friends who were separated. Unbelievable stuff.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just battling, mad scramble to get on the lifeboats. Nobody followed any procedure.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From wine glasses in the cafeteria.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were helping the staff more than they were helping us. They weren`t in control. There were very few people who knew what was going on in our area. Only one person and he was shouting, "Don`t jump". But the boat was turning so fast that if we wouldn`t have, we would have died. So everybody jumped and swam to shore. And it turned so fast, that the place where we were at was underwater already.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the Marx Brothers watching these guys trying to figure out how to work the boat. They couldn`t coordinate. They`re shouting at each other. They`re -- one of them would suddenly drop one end of the boat and everyone would scream and then they`d reel that side of the boat back up and try to get it even.

I heard that there were other boats that twisted and turned so that the passengers were like falling down into the (INAUDIBLE) parts of that boat.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, mayhem: terror on the high seas. How did a dream vacation for thousands turn into the worst night of their lives -- a total nightmare?

My exclusive guests tonight will describe the horror firsthand. Yes, these two were in the boat and I`m happy to say they got out alive in one piece. But they barely escaped. A luxury cruise ship sailing off an Italian coast Friday night, it collides with rocks along the sea floor. In an instant, passengers find themselves fumbling around in the dark. Plates, glasses, lights crash to the ground.

The boat lists so far to one side, people can`t even stand up at one point. The boat begins taking on massive amounts of water. At least six people are dead; 25 passengers and 4 crew members are still missing as we speak tonight.

And here`s the damage to the bottom of the ship. We`re talking about a massive cruise liner, 3,500 passengers, 1,000 crew members. How can a modern vessel with state of the art mapping and technology get into a wreck like this? The captain`s explanation was infuriating. Listen to him.

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FRANCESCO SCHETTINO, CAPTAIN, COSTA CONCORDIA (through translator): I don`t know if it was detected or not, but on the nautical chart, it was marked just as water at some 100 to 150 meters from the rocks. And we were about 300 meters from the shore, more or less. We shouldn`t have had this contact.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, the ship`s captain, the guy you just heard from, under arrest and in the middle of this uproar, he could be charged with manslaughter. Causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship while passengers were still on board. He claims he and his top lieutenants were the last people off the ship. That is being disputed, tonight, by passengers.

Straight out to my delightful, very special guests, Joe Ryan and Jordan Powell; they got home to Louisville late last night. First of all, I`m so happy that you guys got out of there in one piece.

Jordan, we`ll start with you. Describe the moment of impact and what happened after that?

JORDAN POWELL, SURVIVOR: We were in the dining room at about 9:30 p.m., eating our first course of our meal when there was an initial jolt that caused the ship to jump forward several times and then immediately after that, after I tried to give an explanation that one of the engines might have gone out, the ship began to jerk sideways multiple times, which caused complete chaos.

The dining room was shattering into pieces with dishes and people were trying to escape quickly for their lives, as soon as we all realized what was happening.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, Joe Ryan, I`ve been reading and hearing from people saying that they lied. Essentially, the loud speakers announced that, oh, it was a technical issue and it`s been taken care of. What do you know there? What did you hear?

JOSEPH RYAN, SURVIVOR: Yes, when I was up in our cabin, we were trying to get information over the loud speakers, and the first time we heard anything, it took about five minutes to get an English translation. And then when they did say something, they first said it was an electrical error, but the problem had been taken care of. And then about 20 minutes after that, they said it had been another error and it had also been taken care of. That was the last announcement we heard. We didn`t even hear one to say board the ship -- or board the lifeboats.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: If that`s true, that`s criminal because, clearly, that`s not the truth. They were lying over the loud speakers, allegedly, if what you heard is what you just said you heard; sounds like this crew was utterly unprepared for this disaster.

One survivor says the crew just couldn`t get the order straight. They kept contradicting each other and sending mixed signals. Listen to this.

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BENJI SMITH, CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER: We were ordered to go back to our bunks and wait for the orders, but when we went to the stairs to go to our bunks, we were ordered not to go back to our bunks and get back out to the boats. The orders were contradictory. I felt like the disaster itself, you know, hitting the reef, the capsizing of the boat was manageable, but I felt like the crew was going to kill us.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jordan, did they allow, ladies, women, and children first, or was it sort of everybody for themselves?

POWELL: It was complete chaos. The group of three people that I arrived to the lifeboat deck with, we were the first of probably 20 people there. We rushed immediately to the deck boats instead of to our cabins. With the failure of having a drill so people would know where to go and that life jackets were available at those decks did not require them to go to their rooms. It was chaos. But slow chaos until the boat returned to normal and began tilting and capsizing the opposite way. Women and children were allowed on first, but like he mentioned before, the crew was obviously unprepared for the disaster.

On the other side of the break, one of your friends you were separated from.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The crewmember ran through the lobby yelling "abandon ship".

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Believe it or not, it is the 100th anniversary of the Titanic going down. And this ship had almost twice as many people as the Titanic, we all remember that Oscar-winning film from Paramount Pictures.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can easily understand the comparisons to the film. How it must have been on the Titanic or in a fiction film. The scenes of panic create disaster. There were people scrambling over each other and elderly people wetting themselves.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, we`re going to go out to another survivor, Nick Hope. Thank you for joining us. And I`m glad that you made it out and you`re back in Louisville. I don`t know if you ever saw Titanic, but was it like that, passengers just frantic, fighting over jackets everybody really sort of losing their decorum at the end?

NICK HOPE, SURVIVOR: Sure absolutely. It was very eerie in that it was very similar to the movie and we have all kind of seen that movie and I think there was a comment made before hand about the movie Titanic that it was being released and very eerie, indeed.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I got to tell you something, so come here and listen to me for one second. Here`s what I think, this ship was way too close to the shoreline. This ship was not hit by some iceberg that popped up in the middle of the ocean, people. These rocks have been off of this Italian coast for centuries now. They`re massive, immovable land formations. It`s not in some remote part of the world. It`s a football field or so off a very popular coast with no port right there.

How could that ship`s captain not know that those rocks were there? Why was this massive ship so close to land without a port? People literally swam to safety. Obvious conclusion Mark Eiglarsh, criminal defense attorney, human error, also known as unbelievable incompetence; the CEO, the chief executive has admitted as much. What are the possibilities here of civil and criminal, briefly?

MARK EIGLARSH, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, let`s just say it`s not going to be as easy as you might think. First of all, all civil lawsuits because this is an Italian will be in Genoa, Italy; so all these people have to go sue in Italy.

Secondly, you`ve got the Athens convention which limits liability even for wrongful death up to $70,000. The only way to get around that is to show that the actions were intentional, intentional conduct. And while it was very grossly negligent and some would argue, reckless, it may be difficult to show that this was an intentional act.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Unbelievable. Joe Ryan, did they help you get on the boats? Because I had read that they stopped some people from getting on the dinghies or the life rafts.

RYAN: No, we didn`t get any help. We basically just -- somebody said there was a spot and we just ran into it and got on there. And then after that, luckily, it started -- we got in there before it got full. And then they were fighting people off with oars and sticks to keep them out of our boat. And people just started screaming at that point trying to keep our boat safe but then people were just trying to run and dive and get on our boat.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Unbelievable -- fighting to stay on the boat, using their oars to keep other people on.

More on the other side.

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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Joe, what did you learn about yourself from almost dying but getting out alive from this cruise ship?

RYAN: I would say it was just my ability to stay level headed and be calm and realize what was going on around me and know what I needed to do. Basically I went into battle mode and knew that I needed to fight to survive. So that`s what I did.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow, well done. Nick, what did you learn about yourself?

HOPE: Well, it was a true test of myself. And I think, you know, I always wondered (AUDIO GAP) the ability to make the right decisions and as Joe said, I think, you know, we made the best decisions we could.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m so happy you guys got out; again, 29 people missing -- 25 passengers, four crewmembers. We pray that they are found alive, but obviously it`s a race against time, and with every passing moment, the chance of that happening, this is a horror, a true tragedy.

Thank you for joining us and "NANCY GRACE" is up next.

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