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Jane Velez-Mitchell
Friend Speaks Out about Mickey Shunick Disappearance
Aired May 23, 2012 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: Jane Velez-Mitchell coming to you live from Los Angeles. Boy, we`ve got a lot to talk about. New details about missing college student Mickey Shunick. We are retracing her steps on the night she vanished.
Plus, does a traveling carnival have anything to do with her disappearance? We`re answering every question next.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Tonight, the desperate search for a missing Louisiana college student escalates. Volunteers take to the streets to search and support this devastated family as cops defend their response to her disappearance. Could a traveling carnival be the clue police need to finding this 22-year-old?
Tonight I`ll talk exclusively to the friend who last saw Mickey Shunick alive. What did this beautiful girl do in the hours before her disappearance?
Plus, her family joins me live tonight.
And Gary Giordano grabs headlines, again. The sole suspect in the disappearance of Robyn Gardner caught with his pants down, literally. Cops say the 51-year-old was having sex in the back of his SUV with a lady friend. He`s also accused of stalking and domestic violence in the past. I`ll talk to Robyn Gardner`s boyfriend tonight. And I`m taking your calls.
And come along on a travel adventure to garbage island? Yes, it`s a real-life horror story. A pile of trash bigger than Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean. I`m talking to an intrepid young man who dove into the middle of this monstrous mess to send you and me a message tonight.
Plus, the secret psychology of slim. Why making it fun is the only way to shed pounds permanently. We`ll prove why diets don`t work and how to narrow that bad food playing field.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s been four days since Mickey Shunick vanished.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hundreds packed Lafayette`s Park Saint Toussou (ph) Tuesday night, a show in numbers of the friends, family and strangers determined to bring Mickey home.
BRETTLY WILSON, FRIEND: We just want her back. We want her safe. We want our friend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She left here at this house around 2 in the morning.
NANCY ROWE, MOTHER: We want our daughter back and that would make everything better.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She reportedly left a friend`s home in Lafayette on her bicycle, headed home.
WILSON: Checked her bike, checked her mace. Closed the door and locked it. That was the last time I saw her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s just perfect, and I just love her so much, and I miss her so much, and I want her home now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reward for her safe return has now made it to $20,000.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know that I`ll never look at a missing person`s case the same ever again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, the mystery deepens. Frantic family, friends and bloggers, investigating every angle, desperately searching for beautiful missing Mickey Shunick, two days before her 22nd birthday.
This stunning, petite college student leaves her friend`s house in the dead of night and disappears. Moments ago police told the family they definitely have leads but would not divulge details.
Mickey was riding a bike that looked a lot like the bike we`re about to show you. But authorities are unsure what route she took or where she ended up. Her home, four and a half miles from the friend`s house and the most likely route, this one on Congress Street. But so far, she has not been seen on any surveillance video along the route.
Last night, a candlelight vigil held for Mickey. Hundreds of people banded together to lend their support to the distraught family.
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ROWE: We try to stay together out in public and then go home and fall apart.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: That poor woman. We interviewed her last night.
What happened the night Mickey disappeared? We`ve been interviewing Mickey`s friends and family. Here`s what we discovered, but we`re going to discuss this timeline because, boy, we get, you know, bits and pieces here and there.
Mickey and nine friends were at a bar called Artmosphere in Lafayette. That`s the bar right there. At about 1 in the morning, Mickey and her friend Brettly biked to Brettly`s house which has since become command central in the search for this young lady.
Then Mickey and Brettly reportedly got in Brettly`s car and drove to Taco Bell and picked up some food, drove back to Brettly`s house. At about 2 in the morning Mickey got on her bike and left Brettly`s house. Listen to Brettly describe the final moments before Mickey left.
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WILSON: Checked her bike, checked her mace, and then she went through the back door. I told her to be safe and closed the door, locked it. And that was the last time I saw her.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: With no apparent clues, blogs have lit up with theories about what might have happened. One such theory: well, there`s a carnival, it turns out, in town. And there have been theories, speculations, questions. Could some suspicious characters come along with this carnival?
The Cajun Heartland State Fair being held at the Cajun Dome, which is just a little over a mile from Mickey`s friend`s house. But this theory, is it grasping at straws or could there actually be a connection?
Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS.
Straight out to our exclusive guest, Brettly Wilson, the very last person to see Mickey Shunick before she vanished.
Brettly, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Let`s just start by -- if you can tell us what happened, you`re at this Artmosphere with apparently nine other friends, including Mickey. And how did you end up getting separated from eight of them and then you and Mickey going back to your place?
WILSON: Well, Mickey was pretty tired. Her sister had come in the night before. They were both going to go to her brother`s graduation the next night. And so she as ready to go before anyone else was.
By the end of the night came, everyone decided they were going to go their separate ways. They didn`t want food. They wanted to go home and didn`t want to go somewhere else. So me and Mickey took off towards my house, and I offered to get her food at a nearby Taco Bell.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So you went -- you went to Taco Bell straight from Artmosphere, or did you go home first?
WILSON: We went to my house. It was too late to bike indoors (ph) with Taco Bell. So we got in the car, and I took her through the drive- through. She picked something up, brought it back. She ate it.
At that point we got two phone calls from friends, asking, you know, where we were, checking on us and saying they were going to go get food somewhere else. At that point, Mickey decided she was still too tired. She had gotten food and so she had wanted to go home at that point.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. So now here`s my question. She`s tired. She doesn`t want to bike to the Taco Bell to get something to eat. But then she proceeds to get on her bike and bike more than four miles home, even though she`s so tired?
WILSON: No. We can`t get into the Taco Bell after a certain period of night. The car was just so that we could actually get food.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What? I didn`t get that. You can explain to me. What did he say?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Went through the drive-through.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, the drive-through is open, but you can`t -- see, I don`t go to fast-food joints. That`s why I don`t know this. OK. We`ll be talking about that later in our show, but you have to drive to get into a fast-food drive-through. You can`t bike up there. So if you bike up there, they won`t serve you, is that it?
WILSON: No. No, we`ve tried.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. All right. So I am here with famed former prosecutor Marcia Clark, author of "Guilt by Degrees," as well as Wendy Walsh, psychologist and co-host of "The Doctors." And these two ladies are also going to participate and ask you questions.
Do you have some questions, Marcia, for Brettly?
MARCIA CLARK, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well, I actually want to pursue the question you asked, which is she was really tired and obviously, he had a car. So Brettly, if you had a car, why didn`t you just drive her home and carry the bike home in your car?
WILSON: I didn`t have a bike rack on my car. Mickey has done this, you know, every night we`ve ever gone out. She`s ridden her bike somewhere. She actually rode her bike to the show, which is a bit further than my house. It was nothing out of the ordinary for her to bike anywhere, no matter the time of day.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, she was drinking or not that night?
WILSON: No. She`d gone out the night before. She didn`t have anything to drink, to my knowledge. She seemed pretty exhausted and nauseous from the night before. So I didn`t see her drink anything. I don`t think she drank anything.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Have police searched your house, Brettly, to see if she left something there? Have they gone in and searched your house?
WILSON: Yes. The police have gone ahead and through protocol searched my home, searched my car. I allowed them access to my laptop, any of my personal information, Facebook, e-mail. I allowed them access to my phone, pretty much anything they could have used that would have helped find Mickey.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy Walsh, psychologist and co-host of "The Doctors."
WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: I want to know how long you`ve known Mickey.
WILSON: I`ve known Mickey a good while. We`ve become pretty close friends in the past three years.
WALSH: What`s a good while?
WILSON: About three, four years.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, I thought you knew her since, like, kindergarten or something.
WALSH: Did you go to college together? Are you a college student, as well?
WILSON: Yes, we`re going to college together. I kind of knew her off and on through high school, but we never really were that close until I finally started going to college.
WALSH: so is this a dating relationship? Is this a romantic relationship?
WILSON: No. No, not at all. Me and Mickey actually got to know each other because I was dating her best friend. After me and her friend split up, me and Mickey kind of got a little closer, but it was never anything but platonic, and that was fine.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Brettly, I -- first of all, I want to thank you for answering these questions. And I know that you are a very, very dear friend of hers.
Now, in asking these questions we ask only because you were the last person to see her before she vanished. That`s the only reason. And we want to stress absolutely that you`re not being looked at in any way, shape or form. We are simply asking questions because we are desperate, as you are, to find this young lady. And we have to start at the beginning; that`s where we always start.
So I want to thank you for answering all those questions. And you gave excellent explanations for everything we asked. So I just want to put that out there and make that absolutely clear.
On the other side of the break, we are going to talk to Tom Shunick, this beautiful missing woman`s daughter -- father. And we`re also going to talk to the missing woman`s sister and Jon Lieberman, investigative reporter. Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She has a good side and then a good side. And she`s just perfect, and I just love her so much, and I miss her so much, and I want her home now. It means, like, everything. I mean, it`s just -- we just need her back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. Straight out to Brettly Wilson. We`re interviewing him exclusively. He`s Mickey Shunick, the missing woman`s friend, and he`s the last person to see her.
What message do you have for Mickey?
WILSON: Mickey, if you didn`t know how much everyone cares about you, you don`t have to look too far to know now. We`ve done everything we can, and we`re not going to stop until we get you back. We love you. We miss you. We want you safe. Be home soon.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you, Brettly, and stand by. We`re going to probably come back to you, but we just want you to know those questions we asked you are just our effort to try to find this young lady. They were not, in any way, shape or form meant to, in any way, point a finger at you. You`ve been helping incredibly.
As we show you some footage of a vigil that was held last night, a very emotional vigil, remember, Mickey goes to school in Lafayette. She also lives there. So she is, like, the center of this entire community. Everybody is devastated in Lafayette.
We want to go to Mickey`s dad, Tom Shunick.
Thank you for joining us, sir. Mr. Shunick, I understand that police did brief you just a couple of minutes ago. What did they tell you, if anything?
TOM SHUNICK, FATHER: Actually, they briefed us about 1 p.m., and they just told us that they`re trying to do everything that they can. They don`t have a whole lot of information. I`m sure if they`ve got some leads that I don`t need to know about and they don`t want to build up my hopes, when it`s not anything.
But -- but everybody is involved. The mayor talked to me last night and said that, you know, giving all of the resources he can to these people. And we`ve got the FBI involved, and homeland security has been here. They`ve tried everything they can, but as far as leads go, I have not -- I don`t know of any leads.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now you just heard Brettly say they were at the Taco Bell, so there has to be surveillance video, I would assume. Did cops say anything about the surveillance video at the Taco Bell?
SHUNICK: I`m not sure about the Taco Bell, but they did look at the surveillance -- surveillance at the -- at the club. And they did get pictures of her and a lot of other people, so they`ve got a good idea of what she was wearing, what her backpack looked like.
I`m not sure at the Taco Bell. They didn`t really bring that up. But I know they`ve got the surveillance cameras. In fact, there was some other videos they got that the band was taking out back.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Sir, if you can stand by a moment, we`re going to go to Jim Hummel, a reporter with KATC. He is with search parties as we speak.
Tell us, Jim, if you can hear us. I understand you`re out on the water, somebody told me? Tell us about it.
JIM HUMMEL, REPORTER, KATC: Yea, Jane. I`m out in the middle of Lake Martin right now, and this is about ten miles away from Lafayette. It`s also one parish over from Martin Parish.
And there are about -- I`d say about two dozen or so volunteers out here. They`re on powerboats. They`re on kayaks. And they`re just looking for clues. They`re really quite optimistic still that Mickey is going to be found safe and sound, but they`re out here saying that they`re looking for just any clue -- maybe her bike, purse, keys, anything that might provide the investigators with just that one clue that they need to move this investigation forward.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jon Lieberman, investigative reporter, we`ve got some stats about the number of sex offenders in the area. Tell us what you have learned.
JON LIEBERMAN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: That we`ve been digging into this all day, Jane, because one avenue that police are looking at, of course, are all of the registered sex offenders in the area.
What we found was at Brettly`s house, within a two-mile radius of Brettly`s house, there are 166 registered sex offenders who either live or work in that area.
Then when you look at Mickey`s home, within a two-mile radius of her home there are 65 registered sex offenders who live or work in that area.
And I wanted to just add to what the reporter was just saying. Police are looking at a number...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hold on one second. Hold on one second. Before you get into that, we have a pretty shocked reaction from Marcia Clark and Wendy Walsh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, that is -- that`s almost too...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: More on the search for Miss Mickey, but first we`re keeping an eye on what`s trending. "Viral Video of the Day."
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WILSON: I don`t think you realize -- what a special person this is and how many people she`s touched and what you`ve done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That young man, the last person to see Mickey Shunick before she vanished, and he is our exclusive guest. We have several, including a good friend who was with Mickey in the hours before she vanished. We`re going to get to her next.
But first, Marcia Clark and Wendy Walsh, your reaction was shock when you heard 166 registered sex offenders in the area of the friend`s house and 65 within her house.
CLARK: It seems as though if she`d even go from point A to point B, from his house to hers, she`s going to encounter, what, over 200 sex offenders. That`s an awful lot of possible suspects. Imagine what the police have to go through, not to mention the fact this is a pretty woodsy area. So looking for -- looking for evidence, looking for clues is going to be complicated by that, as well. It`s going to be quite a job.
WALSH: It`s a lesson for young single women. You know, it`s usually mothers that check the sex offender registry in your neighborhood, but young single women need to look at these numbers, too.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, but I mean, it seems like every other person, every time we do one of these stories, it`s the same story. Hundreds of sex offenders in the area. I mean, you wonder, is every other person in America a sex offender the way these things are written? And I know there`s some dilution, because some people who shouldn`t be on it are, but that`s a subject for another day.
I want to go to Raven Talley.
You are a friend of Mickey`s. You were with her at Artmosphere, my understanding is, in the hours before she vanished. My question to you is you were a group of ten. You were having a good time at Artmosphere. And you were on your bikes. How did it go from that to her getting on a bike at 2 in the morning and driving into disappearance?
RAVEN TALLEY, FRIEND: Well, actually, not all of us were on bikes. A lot of us have -- were driven there to Artmosphere. I know for sure, Mickey and Brettly were on their bikes.
The entire night, she was saying that she was hungry. We were trying to plan all of us going to a diner, but a lot of us had been drinking. Some wanted to stay. Some weren`t hungry. And at that point Mickey was like, "I don`t -- I don`t want to wait around. I`m hungry." So that`s when they took off on their bikes, and we stayed there.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So Mickey and Brettly left, and the eight of you, the other eight did something else. And you never saw Mickey again?
TALLEY: Correct.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So the last time you saw Mickey what -- what was going on?
TALLEY: I mean, we were just -- we were hanging out on the patio and outside of Artmosphere. I wouldn`t say smoke-free convention there, so no one was allowed to smoke inside. So a lot of people were inside of Artmosphere just right in front.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Was she in a good mood?
TALLEY: Yes, she was -- I mean, she was perfectly normal, other than just -- you know, she told us she had a crazy night the night before. She was just a little sluggish, not like, about to fall asleep. But just...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But she wasn`t drinking, correct? At Artmosphere?
TALLEY: Definitely not. She mentioned several times that she drank three -- like, three cups of water in front of me. I saw her order water at the bar. And she mentioned it several times, that she was definitely not drinking.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So there is a young woman who was not drinking, OK, completely sober and now she`s missing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s been over 40 hours since Mickey Schunick was last seen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`re searching areas such as drainage canals again for the slightest clue as to where Mickey could be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just want her back. We want her safe. We want our friend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She left here at this house around 2:00 in the morning and was on her way home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We started calling around to all of her friends and she was supposed to have been home and no one had heard from her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was no indication either way whether foul play was involved.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s such a large area; it`s a very wide scope for us to look at.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something is clearly unusual with the circumstances.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`ve exhausted every possible place she could be and every reasonable explanation for her missing and there isn`t one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Where is 22-year-old Mickey Schunick? It was a Friday night just like any other in Lafayette, Louisiana. A gang, a group of friend had gone to Artmosphere (ph) to hear some music. And then Mickey and her friend, Brett Lee (ph), whom we talked to exclusively got some friend at Taco Bell. Went back to Brett Lee`s home and at about 2:00 in the morning Mickey decides to get on her bike and it looks like a black Schwinn and head back to her house which is a distance of about four- plus miles. She is never seen again.
What has happened to Mickey Schunick? We are desperate to find her. There`s been vigils, there are searches going as we speak.
And we are here now exclusively with Tom Schunick the missing young woman`s father as well as Charlie Schunick, Mickey`s sister.
So Charlie, you are both joining us exclusively tonight because you want to find out what happened to your sister. You are desperate to get some information. We are trying to get answers. We have a team of experts here to try to help you.
Tell us about your communications with Mickey? Did you have any text or phone calls involving Mickey in the hours before she disappeared, Charlie?
CHARLIE SCHUNICK, SISTER OF MICKEY SCHUNICK: Yes, actually I just happened to be in town for my vacation. I was taking a week coming in for a couple of graduations of my little brother. I knew she had been wanting to go to that show. She`s like, "If you`re going to be here Friday let`s go to the show."
She texted me about 11:45 and she was like, "Hey, I`m at Artmosphere. If you`re coming back, you should come and meet me. I ended up staying in Baton Rouge with some old friends who I hadn`t seen in a while. That was the last time I talked to her, so --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, I understand her cell phone, when it was tried later -- when did it appear to be shut off?
C. SCHUNICK: My mom gave her a call about seven hours, I guess, after she`s been declared missing or, you know, after they said she went missing and where we`ve been staying. We called her around 9:00 in the morning. It went straight to voice mail as far as we know.
I called her as well. I was texting her all morning like, "Where are you? What are you doing? You need to meet up with us. Don`t freak about that graduation." You know, we thought -- I thought it was really strange that her phone was off in the first place. We have the same phone and they take a long time to die. But I was just thinking maybe she just didn`t bring her phone charger with her. So --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Thank you for that information.
Again, as we try to solve this mystery, Jon Leiberman, investigative reporter, what have you learned?
JON LEIBERMAN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, police are very concerned that the fact -- the fact is that this area is very close to I-10 which as you know is a main thoroughfare that runs all the way out to California. That`s one thing.
The second thing is look, police know this young lady did not just vanish. So they are right now, they`re back canvassing at that bar. They`re at red light camera video. They`re gathering all the surveillance video that they can and they are essentially also looking at employment records from the people who were supposed to work at that carnival, the Cajun Heartland State Fair.
We understand police are looking at the employment records and any criminal history of anybody associated with that event, just as one more avenue that they`re exploring to help find this young lady.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And let`s go back to that carnival. There was a carnival in town, and there`s no connection at this point. We don`t have any, any information that it`s in any way, shape or form, but of course, it`s a shot in the dark but why leave any stone unturned when we`re desperate to find this young lady.
And this is just footage, general footage of carnivals, so this has nothing to do. If you see anybody on there, they`re not connected. But Marcia, how do they -- how do police check that out.
MARCIA CLARK, PROSECUTOR IN O.J. SIMPSON CASE: Well, they go -- they do exactly what they`re talking about here. They check the criminal records of everyone who`s working at the carnival and whether any of them are registered sex offenders. And then they check alibis for any of the people that might be looking good for it. They`ll probably check everyone`s alibi who might possibly have done it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I don`t want to say anything that will disturb the family, but again, our primary focus is to help them find this beautiful young lady. Baton Rouge about an hour away, unfortunately has a dubious distinction Wendy of being one of the top ten cities in human trafficking.
WENDY WALSH, CO-HOST, "THE DOCTORS": Oh dear, and she was very small body weight -- only 5`1. Now, it`s interesting that her bike is missing. Her purse is missing. Her cell phone is missing. There`s no trail of any evidence. That`s a lot to grab and go.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And I think the most disturbing thing that I`ve heard and one that I really hope that authorities focus on is this connection to I-10. I rode on the 10 today here in California. The 10 goes coast to coast practically.
And so I would suggest that authorities start focusing on the 10. And again, I will call for cameras on all public streets because if we had cameras on all public streets we wouldn`t be dealing with this right now. We would have a lot more information.
My heart goes out to this family, Mr. Shunick and the rest of your family members. We will do everything to stay on top of this story. Please update us as soon as you know anything.
All right. Now, this.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The same guy who was wanted in the disappearance of a woman last year in Aruba has been arrested for indecent exposure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A naked couple was cuddling in the back of an SUV on the second deck of a parking garage. A bicycle officer responded and claimed that when he looked in the 2013 Cadillac Escalade, he got an eyeful of both Gary Giordano and his companion Carol Ann Bock.
Giordano who lives in Gaithersburg spent months last year in an Aruban jail as the only suspect in the disappearance and presumed death of his traveling companion and lover, Robyn Gardner.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s ridiculous. Yes. He`s got a lot of problems.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think like all criminals, he`ll be caught in time. It just takes time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, Gary Giordano, the only suspect in the disappearance of American tourist Robyn Gardner in Aruba last year was arrested again, this time for some seriously bad behavior. Giordano busted for alleged indecent exposure. Cops say he was caught buck naked having sex with a woman in the back of a Cadillac Escalade in a public parking garage.
This was no spur of the moment decision. He had a mattress shoved in the back of the SUV. The woman he was with, 45-year-old Carol Ann Bock also arrested. You might say Bock.
Giordano spent four months in an Aruban jail after his travel partner, the beautiful, blond Robyn Gardner vanished during what some have called an alcohol-fueled vacation. They met on an online dating site, a bitter pill for Gardner`s boyfriend to swallow.
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RICHARD FORESTER, BOYFRIEND OF ROBYN GARDNER: It`s an issue that I have to deal with. But right now I`m more concerned with dealing with finding her.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: (inaudible) sponsorship. Giordano claims Gardner disappeared while they were snorkeling. After four months of searching, Gardner and never finding her in searches for this woman. Aruban authorities released Giordano from jail and allowed him to return to the United States. He was never charged. But by that time, women from Giordano`s past were coming out of the woodwork to talk about his weird and allegedly violent tendencies.
Listen to this.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First date we were taking a walk by the horses and he threw me down thinking something else was going to happen, and I`m, like, what are you doing?
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to go straight out to Richard Forester. You are the boyfriend of Robyn Gardner, 35 years old last seen alive August 2nd. What is your reaction to Giordano`s arrest for allegedly being naked and having sex with a woman in the back of his SUV?
FORESTER (via telephone): There`s a whole lot of reaction. I`ve had a day to settle in. I mean most importantly I think it shows this fool`s character but it also more importantly shows -- it gets Robyn`s name back out into the public again. And you know, the more he screws up like this, he`s going to keep doing that then perhaps it will lead to some sort of answers.
It obviously brings up a lot of, you know, emotions for me, you know, concerning Robyn, but, you know, I just think it shows his character and to be honest with you, I think it`s pretty funny that he got arrested.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think it`s very bizarre and Wendy Walsh, quickly, this shows inappropriate sexual behavior.
WALSH: Yes, this is a somebody person who is boundary-less, who has a sense of entitlement that they can have sex wherever they want to. Not even caring that people could watch; his windows weren`t tinted enough apparently. There were actually calls from people watching this who were complaining, bystanders seeing this.
Yes, it`s a loose cannon move.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: To me, it points to inappropriate behavior when it comes to women -- do the math.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: It looks like I work here, it`s because I do. I spend so much time at the office and now I am bringing in my fitness magician to teach me and you how we can work out at the office. Tell us.
TOM HOLLAND, FITNESS GURU: So much you can do. So we don`t want to sit down all day long and so many exercises we can do. One that`s great is you just stand up like we are. Hold under the desk Jane and just pulse that right leg back. You`re going to really tone those gluts. Feel that squeeze as you go back.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Do you squeeze your butt while you`re doing it?
HOLLAND: Yes, really try to focus on that glut muscle right there. So good, right? Everyone wants that tight glut --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, yes, yes.
HOLLAND: And just switch. So ten on one side and on the other.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I can do this while I have the phone on speaker?
HOLLAND: You absolutely can. You know, if you have the -- if you don`t have speaker phone, you can use your hand. It doesn`t matter.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I can actually do this and that will make a difference?
HOLLAND: Huge difference. Little chunks throughout the day, science has shown, makes a difference. We don`t have to work out for 30 minutes. You can do three minutes. 30 seconds makes a difference. It builds up.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I can feel it.
HOLLAND: You can feel it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know where.
HOLLAND: Exactly.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s already an island of garbage polluting the northern Pacific Ocean and it has been there for years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s basically out in the middle of nowhere. And it`s completely saturated with our trash.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the hell is that?
A misconception of the worst kind of spill is the thing -- the gooey, oily mess.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it`s really these nice little bits of your plastic bottles that are going to be around forever, basically.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, breaking news that makes me want to cry tears of joy because I love our planet earth. The entire state of Hawaii and the Los Angeles City Council have now both banned plastic grocery bags. Now, somebody immediately when I said that, coming on to the set said "Oh, damn. I pick up my dog`s poop in that."
Well, before you think about the hassle, you really have to consider the horror that these plastic bags which last a thousand years are visiting upon our world, our world that our grandchildren will hopefully one day inherit.
There is something that is being called, well, an island, Garbage Island. It`s bigger than Texas and it`s in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Check this out.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All plastic, too. All gross, sun-baked plastic -- it`s absurd.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What in the hell is that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s a misconception that the worst kind of spill is the thing the gooey, oily mess.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When it`s really these nice little bits of the plastic bottles that are going to be around forever, basically.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, people. We`re turning our oceans into a giant sewer, ok. Ocean currents collect trash along thousands of miles and deposit the garbage into a vortex in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Straight out to my very special guest, I would call him my hero. Thomas Morton, contributing editor and videographer for "Vice" magazine -- you went out to Garbage Island, tell us about how it impacted you seeing firsthand what so many people don`t want to know about?
THOMAS MORTON, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "VICE" MAGAZINE: Well, getting out there, our expectations were kind of a little different from -- in terms of what we thought we were going to be seeing just because nobody had been out there to film it or even take photographs.
We`d been hearing about it for years really about this Texas-sized island that`s supposedly floating there. And so when we got there it was interesting because there`s not an island, like there`s not a contiguous land mass of junk that, you know, you can see from space. What it is, is once you get under the surface, there`s just this kind of confetti like almost like it was being in a snow globe just of broken down pieces of plastic bottles and bags and that kind of stuff that`s completely saturating the water table there.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: It breaks my heart. It breaks my heart. And I don`t have children or grandchildren. If I had children or grandchildren, I`d be horrified because we are destroying their world. What? For a little convenience?
I mean take a look at me, people, if you come to me for a second. People get furious. I`ve had fights with people when I say, do you really need that. do you really need to buy a disposable water bottle and put it inside a plastic bottle? All of which is going to last a thousand years while you barely drink the water and then toss it all in the trash.
We know most of this don`t get recycled but let`s take a look again at the impact of Garbage Island. And this is getting worse. You know, it`s going to wash up on our shores eventually, Thomas if we don`t do something about it. This is getting bigger and bigger and bigger, is it not?
MORTON: Well, the trash kind of takes a long time and a lot of it comes off the shore really and gets swept around in the clockwise currents there and eventually ends up in the middle. And like that trip can take upwards of years. So there`s trash right now that`s floating on its way there. There is a problem.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We are doing --
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Trending video online. Watch Larry teach us something.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight the most important aspect of our adventure, the psychological relationship we have with food.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of it is stress. We keep addressing this as food and diet, exercise and diet. When we don`t pay attention to who am I and how am I behaving in the world --
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m an addict and left to my own devices I have the very worst habits. I`ve studied food addiction for research in my book "Addict Nation".
Here is what I discovered. Diets are a billion-dollar industry but nearly all dieters regain the weight because diets don`t work long term. Why? Because dieting requires willpower. Willpower creates stress. Stress creates cravings. Cravings will ultimately lead to a binge. It is a self-defeating mechanism.
You know, diets mean white knuckling it. No matter how hard you try to fight it, eventually you`re going to crack. That`s why what we`re doing on this show is an adventure to slim that is fun. It`s about tweaking our lifestyle, not eating that -- what you`re seeing right there. Don`t eat that. That`s not good. That`s the bad stuff, ok?
We`re talking about eating the good stuff. And tweaking our lifestyles so we don`t eat that and we eat something healthy for the rest of our lives.
So far we`ve been drinking eight glasses of water a day, eating an apple a day and starting our day with a healthy breakfast. There you have brown rice and almonds. Now this is all tweaking being done at the advice of our healthy eating expert Kathy Freston who says hey, don`t go into fast food restaurants whatever you do.
All right. Wendy, Wendy Walsh, you are a psychologist. Explain to us why diets do not work.
WALSH: They don`t work because, as you just said, they mostly fail so they`re teaching you how to fail, not how to succeed. And then you`re using that scale as a barometer of your self-worth. You don`t lose two pounds by Friday somehow you`re a bad person, so that makes you want to eat more food.
What works better is if people think about how they feel because so many people are disconnected from their bodies and intuitive eating plans instead of counting calories, guess what they count? Feelings. You look at the clock. At 8:00 a.m., how do I feel? You`re feeling down. A scale of 1 to 10, how hungry am I? And you start to attention every hour to how you`re feeling.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Again, this is the bad food. You know, we`re going to be positive here. Let`s stop showing the bad food. Show some good fruit.
WALSH: Where`s the fruit? Where are the fruits and vegetables?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`ll show you some fruit and vegetables, right here.
Kathy just the other day said, ok, Jane, I never used to eat breakfast. So Kathy said start eating breakfast. And so what I did was I made a banana and I put raw almond butter on it and this is actually delicious and it`s a great way to get a high energy start.
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WALSH: Research shows that breakfast eaters tend to have a lower body weight.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And so this is what I had. A nice ripe banana with some raw almond butter on it and it was delish.
Another thing I`ve learned through my research. Unlike drugs or alcohol, food is one of the trickiest addictions because we can`t just say no. We have to eat. However there`s something called managing the grays where we stay in the light gray and eat healthy food but avoid the black gray, the black which signifies the worst foods. This will narrow the bad food playing field -- narrow the bad food playing field.
It`s going to eliminate the most addictive foods of all. So if you simply, Wendy, don`t eat fast food and don`t eat sugar, aren`t you making a huge leap to health?
WALSH: Well, it`s a step, you know. The point is that you want to eat high nutrition food. A lot of people that are overweight are starving. They`re hungry and they`re starving because they`re eating and eating and eating but they`re eating empty calories. They`re not eating nutrition. So they`re continuing to eat food that`s not satiating them.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, I agree. And, again, we`re doing this every night. It`s an adventure to slim. It`s fun, not a diet.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: For people who feel like, hey, I`m going to binge and not on the good stuff, this is the good stuff. It`s ok to eat this stuff. It`s healthy. But if you feel like you`re going to go out and have a junk food binge, there is something you can do, and that is called Overeater`s Anonymous or oa.org. This is a fabulous program based on the 12 steps that will help you deal with your desire to binge and you can call it at anytime.
They have phone meetings. You can listen on your cell phone and actually get support, group support, to counteract your desire to binge.
You can also join our adventure to slim. Go to my blog, hlntv.com/Jane or my Jane Velez-Mitchell Facebook page. We`re taking you through. You can jump on our adventure at anytime. Eight glasses of water, an apple a day, a healthy breakfast. We`re on our way.
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