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DNA Tests Confirm Ariel Castro Is Father Of Amanda Berry's Daughter; Did Russia Drop Ball On Warning U.S. Adequately Of Tsarnaev's Radical Leanings?; Conservatives Blasting IRS

Aired May 11, 2013 - 17:59   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: The White House calm tonight after a brief evacuation of the West Wing this morning. Secret Service evacuated the area after smoke poured out of a closet. Agents did it out of abundance of caution. The source of the smoke later turned out to be an overheated piece of equipment.

Unbelievable video out of Hawaii. Look at this. Watch as this helicopter makes an emergency landing in the middle of the street in downtown Honolulu. The pilot reportedly had mass engine failure before the chopper crashed. Amazingly, no one on the ground was hurt. And as for the pilot and her passenger, they're OK, too!

Imagine getting caught outside in weather like this. A hailstorm in San Antonio area caught on camera by Tracy Yunez, from our affiliate, KFAT. This is her backyard. Some of those hail stones were the size of baseballs. The storm knocked down trees and caused bower outages throughout that area.

One of the Cleveland kidnap victims is in a secret location, police know where she is but they're not telling her family.

What the Russians didn't tell us about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a source tells CNN the Intel could have changed the investigation.

Emergency in space. Astronauts take an emergency walk to repair an ammonia leak.

And a shootout between police and a drug suspect.

And a royal visit, Prince Harry in the U.S. honoring American wounded warriors.

This is Top of the hour, everyone. I am Don Lemon here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And we are going to begin with this. We are learning more shocking details about what transpired in this house in Cleveland, Ohio, which has now been boarded up to preserve the crime scene. This as DNA tests confirm Ariel Castro, the man accused of kidnapping Amanda Berry, and raping her over ten years, is the father of her now 6-year-old child.

And probably you have probably seen this guy, Charles Ramsey, he became a viral hit after his colorful account of kicking the door in to free Amanda Berry. Ramsey joined Rock Newman, radio host and former boxing promoter on "We Act Radio" in Washington, D.C. CNN was exclusively invited to join them in the station as Ramsey talked about his newfound hero status.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES RAMSEY, RESCUED ABDUCTED WOMEN: She didn't call 911, say forget it, just take me to the police station, we got cars on this street. We don't have to call nobody. She was free. All she had to do was get in somebody's car, take this girl to the police. She stuck around for the police to get there to tell them go in there, get the people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So Amanda Berry is a hero.

RAMSEY: That's the damn celebrity, not me. I just played my position.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: As for one of this alleged victims, Michelle Knight, she has been released from the hospital. But while Amanda Berry and Gina Dejesus are with their families, while Michelle's family doesn't know where she is. Susan Candiotti is live now in Cleveland.

Susan first, what is the latest on Michelle knight's whereabouts?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don.

Well of course, authorities know exactly where she is, in fact a source close to the investigation tell us that she is in a safe and secure place and that she is very, very comfortable where she is. For whatever reason it is unclear to the rest of us where Michelle Knight is, but she apparently has decided to keep that information to herself. And apparently that is why she's -- for some reason she has decided not to speak with her family, at least at this time.

There's clearly a complicated dynamic among family members there, and they talked openly about it, they had their troubles over the years. But right now, they would like to speak with her, she evidently doesn't want to now. But Gina Dejesus as well as Amanda Berry are with their families, and certainly also don't wish to speak publicly at this time, and who can blame them, Don.

LEMON: So, they are just not giving answers why. There's a complicated family dynamic and that's about all we know, right?

CANDIOTTI: Exactly.

LEMON: OK.

There has been activity behind the house, watching you live there all day, Susan. There has been activity in the house behind you and there were demonstrations. Who is this, FBI, law enforcement? What's going on here? CANDIOTTI: Sure. Well, the FBI has been involved in securing this crime scene. And just to remind everyone, it is the third house down over my shoulder where they have been boarding it up all day. And also they intend to put up a fence to make it safe and secure. After all, this is a crime scene, they have to maintain it as such in the event this comes into play during a trial.

And the other two homes on this side of it are also involved, they bored those as well. They have been abandoned for quite some time. And authorities just want to be sure that those windows are boarded up as well so no one goes in there and trespasses on that private property also, Don.

But not only that, today on the street you had all kinds of people coming by today, drawn by what they have seen on television, and wanting to take a look. We have also seen a demonstration, people walking here this day, who are supporters in particular of Michelle Knight, sending a message they said that even if it is an adult who is missing, the community must stay involved. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't care if she was 20. I don't care if she was 30 or 50. Don't stop looking. I don't care. I don't care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: And as for the suspect in this case, Ariel Castro, who is currently charged with kidnapping and rape, well he, of course, is still in jail on suicide prevention watch. He remains under guard. The next legal step for him would be indictments that are expected. And there will probably be plenty of charges. Everyone is expecting that -- Don.

LEMON: Susan Candiotti, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

And coming up, CNN's incredible exclusive interview with the woman who calls Ariel Castro a vile monster, his owned daughter. She has some shocking revelations about the man accused of kidnapping, raping, starving three women over a decade. You don't want to miss it coming up here on CNN.

A tense standoff between police and a gunman holding three children hostage is stretching into a second 24 hours. The man has been barricaded inside a house that entire time. He is believed to have already killed his girlfriend and one of her children. Police say they're still negotiating with him, hope to find a way to end the standoff peacefully.

Here is the latest twist on the explosion in Texas last night. The attorney for first responder Bryce Reed said he will plead not guilty having the materials to make a bomb. Reed, a participate, treated victims at the explosion in west Texas. His lawyer says he is not involved in what happened. There's still no word what caused that fire and explosion, 14 people, most firefighters, died. News now from the Boston bombing investigation this hour, and today we're talking about how well the United States and Russia shared information about bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The answer might be not very well. A U.S. official tells CNN that Russia knew more about Tsarnaev's radical leanings than they revealed. This is information the FBI could have moved on before the bombs went off at the Boston marathon.

We want to go to CNN's Paula Newton now live in Boston for us.

So Paula, what did the Russians apparently know about Tamerlan Tsarnaev that they kept to themselves?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: They apparently did had proof that the mother of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Tamerlan were communicating about his desire to join extremist groups in Russia. We don't know the exact nature of it, but apparently it raised a red flag with the Russians. They didn't turn that information over to either the FBI or the CIA, and the problem here is that some authorities are saying look, had we known that, we would have tailed Tamerlan Tsarnaev. He maybe perhaps wouldn't have been allowed back to Russia when he came back from Russia in 2012. We would have questioned him, we would put him under some kind of surveillance. That just didn't happen. And many are asking about how many pieces to the puzzle are missing in terms of what information the FBI could have had ahead of time to avert the Boston bombing attacks.

But you know, Don, a lot of people you talk to saying look, it is unrealistic to think that detail of information would have been shared between the two governments anyway. It is hard to know. I can tell you in many investigations I have been involved in, if you are dealing with Europe, you know, Britain, Canada, United States, really the information sharing is like this. Clearly that's not what's happening in Russia. And many people are saying if they had that kind of relationship, this could have averted -- Don.

LEMON: You are in Copley right now, but you were at Fenway Park just a little while ago for the Red Sox games. Something special happened there. Tell us about it.

NEWTON: Yes, you know, Fenway Park with the Boston Red Sox and whether it was the Bruins or the Celtics, I mean, everyone here has been all hands on deck to really try and raise spirits of victims and their families. And today, Heather Abbott raised our spirits, Don, she really got out onto the field, the Boston bombing victim.

I can tell you, she squeezed it in between rehabilitation at Spalding rehabilitation center in Boston, and she threw out that pitch. We will give you more on that tomorrow, Don, and we will give you a look, really, at how this city is determined to just carry on, almost a month now to when the Boston bombings happened.

LEMON: All right, Paula, thank you very much. Appreciate your reporting and look forward to tomorrow.

NASA called it an emergency spacewalk. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw enough good indications that the FQDCS are successfully disconnected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The international space station started to leak ammonia Thursday, that's the stuff that cools solar panels on the ISS, which in turn provide power that runs the orbiter. Astronauts spent five hours replacing a pump. Problem fixed. NASA says none of the crew was ever in any immediate danger.

Coming up, the IRS admits to targeting the Tea Party. CNN has new information on just how long it was happening.

Plus, it remains a worst drunken driving crash in U.S. history. A new film lays out how it all happened and how 27 people lost their lives that night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The president honored the top cops. He used the event to push for tougher gun laws. He singled out officers that responded to the Boston bombings and took part in the manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers, calling their bravery typical.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're out there. Hundreds of thousands of them patrolling our streets every single day. And we know that when we need you most you will be ready to dash into danger to protect our lives, even if it means putting your lives on the line. That's what these folks are all about. That's what the men and women standing behind me have proven.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: In Another news, conservatives are blasting the internal revenue service after they admitted it made a mistakes in handling tax exempt applications of Tea Party groups. Seventy-five applications were singled out between 2010 and 2012 because the words Tea Party and patriot were included in the group's names. That's out of a total of about 300 that received additional scrutiny during that time.

Athena Jones is following brand new developments on this.

Athena, you are getting some new information. What can you tell us?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Don. You know, the treasury inspector general for tax administration has been conducting what they call an audit of this situation. I just spoke with an official there a short time ago who said a report is due out next week. I should also tell you our own Dana Bash confirmed through a congressional source that IRS officials knew about this issue as early as June of 2011. The issue is, of course, what you spoke about, the idea that some groups, Tea Party groups, conservative groups, especially groups that had Tea Party or patriot in their name were subjected to a lot of extra scrutiny.

I spoke with a Tea Party group yesterday that said they were asked to show all of their facebook fan comments on their facebook page, which would have amounted to thousands of pages of paper, and they still haven't heard back from the IRS on the application for tax exempt status, having put in for it back in 2009.

So this is a big issue that's angered a lot of people. This is being investigated. The White House also believes it should be investigated. I also had a chance to speak with Republican Orrin Hatch, senator from Utah. Listen to what he had to say about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R), UTAH: Let's face it, this is as ex-ownian (ph) as they get. In all honesty, we have to know who did this, why it was done, when it was done, how many times it was done. We have to have answers to these questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: A lot of people agree with senator Hatch. I should tell you one last thing, the American civil liberties union put it this way. They said even the appearance of playing partisan politics with the tax code is about as constitutionally troubling as it gets. That's what the IRS has been accused of doing, so there are a lot of people that want to get to the bottom of this -- Don.

LEMON: Athena Jones, thank you very much.

She was kidnapped in 1974, and didn't escape nearly a decade. Her incredible story and advice for the victims recently rescued from the house of horrors in Cleveland next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Very few people can understand what it is like for the three women that were kidnapped, abused, and held hostage inside a Cleveland home for nearly a decade, Ronique Smith can. And at the age of four, she was kidnapped by her baby-sitter. She was abused and lived hard conditions until the captors died of cancer. But by the time, Ronique was 12.

She joins me to share her incredible story and to share her advice to the victims from Cleveland.

Thank you for joining us. And I know it is tough to talk about these things. How are you doing?

RONIQUE LAQUETTE SMITH, KIDNAPPED AT THE AGE OF FOUR: I'm doing pretty well, every day is a new day, in the present I'm doing very well. The present moment is what is important. Trying not to live in the past.

LEMON: That was awhile ago for you. I am a gentleman, I won't ask you your age.

SMITH: Yes.

LEMON: So long ago for you. But do you still, do you ever get over it, do you still live it every day?

SMITH: You know, when things like this come up, you tend to get retriggered and you can go there in your mind, but I try to focus on the present and not to live in the past as much, but it is definitely a challenge. I am grateful and I definitely wake up every day being grateful that I'm alive and I am here, sitting here.

LEMON: You are proof that these young ladies, that they can go on and lead a life, as normal as a life can be after that. I'm going to ask your advice to them a little later. Let's talk about your story quickly.

Did you even know that you had been taken or had been kidnapped from your mother because this was your baby-sitter and you were so young.

SMITH: Well, yes.

You know, my reasoning didn't grow until I grew older, but I knew something was bizarre because the way the situations we were in and living and the life-style that we had, and it was very difficult. We didn't have anything as so to speak a normal life, and we didn't live like most people did. We were in hiding. We lived in hiding my entire childhood and many different names. It was a challenge.

So as I grew older, I became mute during the journey and I didn't speak, just to my sister here and there. And as I got older, I was taking notes in my mind, so to speak. I was always dreaming in my head, that's how I survived it, and dreaming of getting away and having a different life and eventually that came into reality as I got older and my reasoning grew. And I was able to plot a way to get away, you know, plot it, and I eventually got out. So, it has not been easy because I had to integrate into mainstream without any resources, and I was quite limited for many years.

LEMON: So you didn't have the support that many of the people are having now. It was a different time then, is that what you're saying?

SMITH: Yes. There wasn't any support and I didn't have -- I lost my entire identity in that journey, therefore I didn't have documentation throughout my adult life up until two years ago, so I had no birth certificate, Social Security card, that was really difficult to maneuver because in our system we need paper to leave a trail.

LEMON: You say you lost your identity. You lost your identity in more ways than one.

SMITH: Yes.

LEMON: I asked you, this sounds personal, I asked you do you ever get over it. Do you still seek help now to this day, is this something these girls will have to for the rest of their lives seek counseling in some form?

SMITH: I do, yes, right now I do. What has helped me, what had happened in the last three years when I had found out my identity and found my mother and all those wonderful things I thought I would never have, what has happened is I know I came through it as an adult, and I raised my daughter, and I worked hard. But I got retriggered, and if you understand post traumatic stress or disorders like that, you can be retriggered, it was like I was reliving it all over again for the last three years, but I'm coming through it again. And I've used acupuncture, Chinese herbs to help calm the nervous system. And I have been using some yoga practices to calm the mind and to get into the body and to be present and to stay in the present because that's what's real. That's my mantra, to stay here now and the past is gone, there's really nothing we can do to change it, fix it, try to understand it, try to make sense of it, you'll never make sense of it. And if we can stay out of that --

LEMON: Yes. It is something you will never be able to make sense of. And not to cut you off, but I want to ask you, so did your mom ever report the crime and how did -- what happened for you to discover this? How was it found out?

SMITH: The initial finding out?

LEMON: Yes.

SMITH: I was always looking for identity, I couldn't get a driver's license and all those things as a young adult, and so I was always look and asking, I have been in front of judges, and lawyers, and telling them this bizarre story and what had happened, and the word kidnapping, you know, is hard to -- when you say that, not a lot of people believe you.

LEMON: Just one question at a time. One answer at a time. So, did your mom ever report it?

SMITH: Yes.

LEMON: Your mom reported it.

SMITH: She reported it.

LEMON: And you weren't found until years later. How did that happen, how did that process play out?

SMITH: Well, what happened, I ended up contacting Gloria Allred, and she helped me maneuver, she thought it would be -- because I wanted to find my parents because I was aware what happened, and I need to have identity basically is what I was trying to do as well. And she decided to go public with it, and that's where the miracles started happening. I went on "dateline in NBC" in 2011 and my biological mother happened to be watching the show and lo and behold, that's where it all started and that's where the miracle happened. Then I found my name, my identity. I know a lot about myself now. That's the true gift.

LEMON: It is a fascinating story. And you know, we would love to have had Gloria on, but I wanted to get your personal story and talk to Gloria about other legal issues like this at a different time. But before I let you go, can you please, though, because you can relate more than most of us, what do you say to Amanda, to Gina, and to Michelle now? What advice would you give them?

SMITH: You know, they are already survivors. Those women are amazing because they survived it and they will do well. And I think the best advice is to be with their families and to be quiet, be alone for awhile, and get through it, and to not give up, to know that it will get easier with time. Time is our best defense in healing, and you know, the joy, I am so happy that they're found and ecstatic about everything, and time does heal. And just research and get some resources and know that the worst part is over and now you can see a future that is different and bright, yes. Focus on the positive.

LEMON: You're very brave. I know you were a bit nervous my producer said before the spill, you did a good job. And we are very proud of you. And thank you for coming on, and giving advice, telling your story, giving advice for the three girls and all other victims out there.

SMITH: Yes, just bring awareness of this is great. So, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

LEMON: Thank you. We appreciate it.

SMITH: For giving me a voice.

LEMON: Thank you. Thank you.

LEMON: OK.

Evil, vile, demonic, those are words Ariel Castro's own daughter used to describe him. Her chilling interview after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Angie Gregg didn't think anything out of the ordinary was going on in her childhood home. But, all that changed Monday when three young women held captive by her father were set free. Now, shocked and in disbelief, Ariel Castro's daughter said she never wants to see him again.

CNN's Laurie Segall sat down for an exclusive interview with her.

Laurie joins me now live. Did Angie tell you about the moment she found out what her own father was accused of? LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She did, Don. She said she got a call first of all that these women were freed, and she said she was elated and she was so happy.

And then she got another call that said, hey, they've blocked off the street of your father's home right here, right here on Seymour Avenue. She got another call that said, "It is your father's home."

She said she wanted to die. She said she just melted.

I sat down with her exclusively. Listen to what she had to say to me, Don.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGIE GREGG, ARIEL CASTRO'S DAUGHTER: My husband and I are in complete disbelief that the friendly, caring, doting man I knew as my daddy was in fact the most evil, vile, demonic criminal that I have met or heard of over the past 10 years.

SEGALL (voice-over): This is part of a letter that Angie Gregg wrote after learning her father was allegedly behind the brutal kidnappings in Cleveland, Ohio. Now she's speaking out.

GREGG: And to go to the vigils, to show these girls the footage of their parents' pleas for their return, to rape, starve and beat innocent human beings, I am disgusted.

SEGALL: You learned that your father wasn't the guy you thought he was.

What is that like?

GREGG: It's like a horror movie. It's like watching a bad movie.

SEGALL: Only you're in it.

GREGG: It's -- only we're in it, we're the main characters. And I never suspected anything was going on, but the more I sit and dwell on it, I think of things that make a whole lot of sense now.

SEGALL: You look back and say, OK, you can piece together; you're beginning to piece together a puzzle. Where were the signs?

GREGG: Well, he never wanted to leave the house more than a day at a time. He was adamant in the fact that he wanted to leave home early morning and he had to be back by evening.

Were there certain areas in the home that were just off limits?

GREGG: Ever since my mom lived in that house, the basement was always kept locked. I've never been upstairs in the house, and I never had reason to be. I asked him if I can see my room for old time's sake, and he says, oh, honey, there's so much junk up there, you don't want to go up there. SEGALL: When you think about, you know, what might have been, what was behind those doors, how do you -- how do you cope with that?

GREGG: I mean, it all makes sense now. Now I know.

It's hard but I have no sympathy for the man, I have no sympathy. He was just another person who's lied and deceived and manipulated people and I could never forgive him. I could never forgive him. If you would have asked me this last week, I would have told you he's the best dad and the best grandpa.

SEGALL (voice-over): One thing she did suspect is that her father might have had another child, a child we now know is her half- sister, conceived with one of the women he allegedly held captive.

GREGG: He showed me a picture that was in his cell phone randomly, and he said look at this cute little girl. It was a face shot. And I said she's cute, who is that, you know, and he said, "This is my girlfriend's child."

And I said, "Dad, that girl looks like Emily." Emily is my younger sister.

And he said, "No, that's not my child; that's my girlfriend's child by somebody else."

SEGALL (voice-over): Angie says she was always close with her father, but she says she witnessed abuse in their home.

GREGG: He was pretty jealous. He was always saying that my mom was, you know, messing with certain neighbors, things like that and I've seen him basically stomp on her like she was a man. Like he's beat her pretty bad several times.

SEGALL (voice-over): Her mother passed away from cancer-related complications in 2012.

GREGG: I've lost my mother, now I've lost a father. But I don't cry for him.

SEGALL: If you had a message for him, what would it be?

GREGG: All this time, why? Like why? I don't even know what to say. Why after all this time, why did you do it in the first place? Why did you take these girls and why did you never leave and why did you never -- why didn't you never feel guilty enough to let them go?

SEGALL: What message do you have for these women and their families?

GREGG: I feel so much sorrow that you had to endure this. I'm glad that you're back home with your family finally, because they never stopped thinking about you. They never stopped, they never forgot you. You know, right now, these girls need to heal.

SEGALL: Do you feel that you're going to need to heal, too? GREGG: I'll be fine. I wasn't submitted to the horror that they were.

SEGALL: In a day, you've lost -- you've lost the man that raised you. That must be hard.

GREGG: He is nothing but a memory any more. He can never be Daddy again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Laurie, you know, most people are used to seeing you on our program every Saturday as our tech expert. And I would imagine that has something to do with how you got this particular interview.

SEGALL: I guess you're right. The tech qualities can expand. And essentially any time someone is accused of something, if you want to take a look, and try to find out more information about them, you look online, right, Facebook, Twitter. These social networks are ubiquitous now.

I went and I found Ariel Castro's Facebook page and I saw a woman who just kept posting, who has been posting from months ago, saying, "I love you, Daddy," with pictures of children.

And I said this woman has to be someone that's closely connected obviously to Ariel. So I reached out on there. And that's how we actually got the interview. You know, we all have a digital footprint. It's important to remember that, too, Don.

LEMON: Yes. It certainly is. Laurie Segall, thank you very much, appreciate your reporting.

SEGALL: Thank you.

LEMON: One bad decision led to the deaths of 27 people aboard a fiery bus on a Kentucky interstate. A new film is coming out about this, the worst drunken driving accident in U.S. history. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It is the worst drunken driving crash in the history of the United States. In 1988, a man got into his truck, crossed over the median on I-70 in Kentucky. He was very drunk and to this day doesn't even remember the crash. Twenty-seven people died.

Some of the survivors and families of the victims have now filmed a documentary. And earlier, they talked to me about their film.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, Harold, you were in this bus filled with your friends, coming back from a great day at the park. Next to you is your best friend, Andy. You're sleeping on the bus after this perfect day. What was the first thing that told you something is wrong? Was it a sound, was it a smell? What was the moment where everything changed?

HAROLD DENNIS JR., BUS CRASH SURVIVOR: Well, Don, I was asleep at the time of the collision, and you know, being on a bus, the only way you could really attempt to sleep comfortably was to put your head down in your lap.

Instantly it was like there was a loud crash or a boom. I hit the seat in front of me and I remember thinking, what in the world just happened?

The front of the bus was engulfed in flames, so there was only -- there was really only one way to exit, to get out of the bus, and that was the rear exit. And I attempted to get out of a window and was unsuccessful with that. And at that point I was really left with one choice, and that was to really fight my way back to the rear of this bus and that's what I attempted to do.

LEMON: Yes. You know something, it's -- the human body is amazing because many times when something happens, you don't feel the pain right away; you may feel an initial sting but you don't know the severity of it.

When did you find out about your burns and just how severe you were burned?

DENNIS: Not only do you deal with the physical injury itself, you deal with the fact that you are disfigured wherever you're burned, so you deal with the social aspect of that. You know, you face society looking different now.

LEMON: Stand by, Harold, because I want to bring in Karolyn Nunnallee on the -- she's on the phone now.

Karolyn, you've lost your lovely daughter in the crash, Patty (ph). By everything we hear, a brilliant little girl.

KAROLYN NUNNALLEE, LOST DAUGHTER IN BUS CRASH: When I walked into my home, my dad was sitting there.

And when I looked at his face, I knew something horrible had happened. And my father-in-law stood up and said, Karolyn, there's been an accident. And I thought immediately. being a military wife, we are trained. So immediately I thought it had to be Jim. And in the next word, he said Patty (ph).

LEMON: After this tragedy, which was due to drinking and driving, you got directly involved with campaigns to fight drinking and driving. Tell me about that.

NUNNALLEE: Drunk driving is not taken as serious a crime as it is, even to this day. The bottom line is that people are still killed and injured every single day. Every single day, 27 people, the total number of those killed in the Kentucky crash, die on our roadways, and thousands are injured by those who make the wrong choice to drink and drive.

This is serious. You know, when something happens, when, for example, when the school shootings occurred, you know, the nation just was in an upheaval. Well, that happens every day in our country because someone makes the wrong choice to drink and drive.

LEMON: Do you ever think about the driver of the truck?

DENNIS: I do, yes, I do. I think about the driver, you know, not as frequently as I used to. I mean, I get the question often, do I hate him, do I hate him. And the answer today is no, you know. I really don't have the time or energy to put thought into him, quite honestly. If you had asked me 20 years ago, I probably would have had a different answer.

LEMON: I'm going to ask you a similar question.

Can you forgive the driver, have you forgiven him? Is that possible? Do you have to in order to go on?

NUNNALLEE: Well, I forgave this driver 25 years ago. I realized that if I held malice toward him and did not forgive him that he would kill me just like cancer would.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: My thanks to both of them. And make sure you keep an eye out for Harold's documentary, it'll release sometime later this year. We will update you here on CNN.

You remember Aesha, right? She's the young Afghan woman who came to America after the Taliban cut off her nose and her ears. Well, we're going to have the latest chapter in her story coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A young Afghan woman who was disfigured by her Taliban family is refusing to let that horrifying attack ruin the rest of her life.

Aesha's nose and ears were cut off, a punishment for running away. The brutality of the attack was revealed to the world on the cover of "Time" magazine in 2010. Well, three years later, Aesha is rebuilding her face and her life in the U.S., and CNN's Christiane Amanpour has her remarkable story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST (voice-over): It is a work in progress. Twenty-two-year-old Aesha's face and her life, imperfect and incomplete.

AESHA: People laugh at me here, too. But I don't care if they laugh or if they don't laugh. When people ask what happened to your nose, I told them, it is none of your business. AMANPOUR (voice-over): But Aesha's nose became the world's business when her face graced the cover of "Time" magazine in 2010. Her nose and her ears were hacked off by her husband and her in-laws. She'd been in a marriage borne out of Taliban justice.

As so often happens to young women in Afghanistan, she was handed over when she was 12 years old as blood money after her uncle was accused of murder.

AESHA (from captions): Otherwise, they said, we will sentence you to death. And my father agreed.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Aesha says that her in-laws physically and verbally abused her for five years.

AESHA (from captions): In Afghanistan, when a woman is given to settle disputes, this is the treatment she receives.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Too many Afghan women know this suffering. A recent poll ranked Afghanistan as the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman.

Aesha dared to run away from the abuse. She was caught, though, and imprisoned and then returned to her in-laws, and that's when they mutilated her face and left her for dead. But somehow she survived and found her way to help. She was brought to a NATO military base, where she was treated.

AESHA: When I was in the hospital with Americans, that was the first time when I felt like a human being.

How are you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm good; how are you?

AESHA: I'm good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): And then she was moved to a women's shelter in Kabul. Nine months later, her haunting image appeared. And now she was even more of a target for the Taliban. So she had to leave the country. A U.S. foundation agreed to bring her to California for a new face and a chance at a new life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you in America?

AESHA: (Inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're in America?

AESHA: I am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you going to get your nose?

AESHA: Yes. AMANPOUR (voice-over): But because of the years of trauma she had endured, she was deemed not ready to take on the additional burden of massive and difficult surgeries. And so she was moved across the country to New York, where a team of women began to give her some counseling, some life skills and the education that she's never had, starting with her ABCs.

ARIELA PERLMAN, AESHA'S TEACHER: This is our first project that we did together. Sometimes we felt like we were with a 3-year old, a 7-year old, an 11-year old, a 15-year old, a 45-year old, depending on what she was feeling at the moment and what she felt she needed to communicate.

SHIPHRA BAKHCHI, PSYCHOLOGIST: Her behavior could be erratic. She could be having fun and you know, wanting to be social and talkative one minute and then locking the door and throwing the covers over her head another minute. And her behavior was impulsive and very difficult at times.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Even though she made some progress in therapy, Aesha was still emotionally empty because what she needed, what she wanted most was a family to call her own.

And soon she met an Afghan family from Maryland, Mati, his wife, Jamila, and daughter Mina (ph).

JAMILA ARSALA: (Inaudible). What do you like here?

MATI ARSALA (from captions): Uncle Mati?

(LAUGHTER)

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Aesha won them over and persuaded them to take her in. And now for the first time in her life, she was choosing her own path and she seemed happy.

JAMILA ARSALA: I like here because I'm going to the pool. I put my purse like this. When she (inaudible) going to the playground there is a swing and she loves to swing.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): After seven months with this family, Aesha would have the first of many surgeries to start rebuilding her face.

AESHA: I'm OK, I'm happy. My surgery, I'm not scared.

MINA ARSALA (PH): I'm pretty sure once she gets all her surgery she'll have a lot of guys drooling.

(LAUGHTER)

AMANPOUR (voice-over): This is Aesha after that first surgery. She would look worse before she would look better. And she had surgery after surgery after surgery.

AESHA (from captions): It was very difficult in the beginning. But then I got used to it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (from captions): Do you like your nose? How do you feel about it?

AESHA (from captions): It's good.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Aesha still has more surgery to go. After doctors finish her nose, they'll begin to reconstruct her ears. But to live in the United States and to be independent, she needs at least to learn how to read and write. As it stands, she's got the education level of a young child.

JAMILA ARSALA: So she stays at home; she do her jewelry. Then she watch movies or some series. This is her life now.

MATI ARSALA: She is in her own world. She is going through these things, you know.

JAMILA ARSALA: We talked with her about that after this process you have to come back to your real life. It will be not so easy.

AESHA: You know that I am not afraid of anything in life. I can handle anything as long as I am good and healthy.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): On this swing, Aesha doesn't worry about her future, and she's soaring free right now. But how softly will she land? Christiane Amanpour, CNN, New York.

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LEMON: Very nice, Aesha.

Very nice, Christiane.

Crash landing, look closely. Yes, that is a helicopter traveling down a street. We'll tell you what happened next.

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LEMON: A helicopter taking pictures over downtown Honolulu suddenly had photographers aiming their lenses at it when this happened.

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LEMON (voice-over): Look at that. I want you to look closely. The chopper lost power and plunged into a busy street on Wednesday. The question now is why did it happen. A Honolulu firefighter says it's pretty miraculous nobody was hurt seriously. The pilot said she was cruising at 3,000 feet when the engine suddenly stopped.

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LEMON: Caught on tape. A shootout between police and a suspected drug dealer. That's next.

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