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Marine Reservist Kidnapped in Mexico; Crews Gain Edge in California Wildfire; Boston Suspect Makes Call to Family; Risking Their Lives for the Storm; CNN Anchor Recovering from Double Mastectomy; Triceratops Family Discovered

Aired June 04, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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


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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Kidnapped in Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They took him. You don't know he's dead. I mean you still have the hope that he's alive.

COSTELLO: The reservist vanished. The FBI with an urgent plea for your help this morning.

Also, breaking overnight. Fire threat spreads.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just nerve-wracking not knowing if your land is OK or not.

COSTELLO: Three states now blackened by blazes. A family of firefighters seeing their house reduced to rubble.

PATRICK STILSON, PARENTS LOST CALIFORNIA HOME: I just couldn't believe it. It was just -- how the fire spread.

COSTELLO: Plus, historical find. A rare, almost complete skeleton of a dinosaur found in Wyoming. We'll talk to the guy responsible for the find.

And our own CNN Hero. Zoraida Sambolin, recovering after a double mastectomy. Posting her progress on Facebook. We'll talk to her in just minutes.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning. Thank you for joining me. I'm Carol Costello. An American Marine kidnapped at gunpoint in Mexico and today the FBI is asking for your help. It's been 2 1/2 weeks since Corporal Armando Torres III was last seen or heard from. That's when armed gunman stormed his father's Mexican ranch just south of the border. Torres, his father and his uncle all kidnapped perhaps over a fight with Mexican drug cartels.

Rafael Romo joins us me now and the FBI is asking for help. But how can we help?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Well, somebody must have seen something, either in Mexico or maybe somebody with information in the United States and so the FBI is saying if you have any piece of information whatsoever, give it to us so that we can continue with this investigation.

It is a very worrying case. Armando Torres III is a Marine. He crossed the border on May 14th. It's been exactly three weeks today that he crossed the border in La Barranca. That's the name of the town where his father lives in Mexico, in Tamaulipas state. He was just going to visit shortly. His father owns a ranch there, and he was going to be there to be with him and his uncle.

All three of them were kidnapped by armed men, and nobody knows where they are. The family says that they received a phone call during the first week after they disappeared, but they haven't heard of the kidnappers since.

Now CNN affiliate KGBT in Texas got an interview with one of the relatives and this is what she had to say. Let's listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bring it to Mexico attention. You know, this is a Marine. Here on this side, that's a war hero. I don't want to lose the hope that he's alive, but at the same time, it is like a big reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And just to put it in perspective, Carol. We were looking at a map of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, across the border from Texas. This state, I was taking a look at some statistics and out of the 20 cities in Mexico with the largest number of kidnappings, five towns are in this the state of Tamaulipas. And that's because it has been in the middle of a turf war between two of the most powerful Mexican cartels.

Something else, Armando Torres III, he was a veteran, he's a veteran of the Marines, he served in Iraq, and was part of the reserves when he disappeared.

COSTELLO: It --

ROMO: So a lot of people worried about him.

COSTELLO: It strikes me that his relative didn't want her identity to be shown. She's in silhouette. So the family, even in the United States, is afraid.

ROMO: That's exactly right. And this area is essentially no-man's land. It has been for the last six years or so. A very dangerous area in Mexico. Not too far from there, more than 70 Central American migrants disappeared. So that gives you an idea of how dangerous it is there.

COSTELLO: Wow. Rafael Romo, thank you so much. Dry lands in the western United States making -- this early fire season a tough one for firefighters. Wildfires are now ranging in Colorado, New Mexico, and California. The largest one in Southern California has threatened 1,000 homes.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is covering that fire. She joins us live from Lake Hughes.

Good morning, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, the good thing that I can tell you is that this fire is now 60 percent contained, and fire officials are optimistic that they'll continue to make progress as long as the weather stays like this. It is a lot of humidity out here. It is a lot colder. And that's going to help firefighters today.

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ELAM (voice-over): Into the night, firefighters in Colorado battling a wildfire that erupted in the foothills west of Denver on Monday, forcing thousands to evacuate and now being allowed to return home. Although small in acreage, the Blue Bell Fire burned dangerously close to homes.

This blaze is just the latest outbreak of flames raging out west. From Colorado to the Tres Lagunas fire near Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the powerhouse fire near Palm Dale. California. These flames consuming much in their path.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a battle. That this hill, that hill, and this hill were all going at once and they're right here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's devastating and I feel really bad for all my neighbors. And feel really lucky for the firefighters to have saved our house.

ELAM: The wildfire in New Mexico was spread over 8,000 acres, forcing residents in 100 homes to evacuate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just nerve-wracking not knowing if your land is OK or not.

ELAM: And true to its name, the powerhouse fire has packed a punch, scorching more than 30,000 acres of land, threatening 1,000 homes and destroyed at least six.

Homes like the one where the Stilson family used to live, reduced to rubble. The family is used to wildfires because they are a family of firefighters. Retired Fire Captain Patrick Stilson, now picking up the pieces of his parents' home. Like so many residents, he spent his life saving.

STILSON: I just couldn't believe it. It's just how the fire spread, but it's -- no, it's -- you know, some of the wheelbarrows that I pushed when I was -- when I was a teenager over there all melted. ELAM: And sifting through what's left of the home where he and his wife tied the knot, he happy discovers that one of his mother's most beloved keepsake still stands.

STILSON: The most important thing for me and -- or my mom is St. Francis over there, that's her patron saint.

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ELAM: And Patrick did send me a picture this morning that showed me a wedding picture and in the corner you can see St. Francis right there. So St. Francis is still safe on the property which is actually down back this road here.

The road is closed because the power lines are down and there's still some falling rocks from the fire. But they're allowing residents to get back into these community so the thousand or so people who were evacuated, who can come back in now and check on their homes and for most of them, they are returning to homes unlike the Stilson family -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Stephanie Elam, reporting live from California this morning.

The Midwest weather nightmare rages on, too, this morning. Take a look at this. A levee breached nearly St. Louis. The water gushing out of the Mississippi River, now threatening small towns all along the river as emergency workers scramble to reinforce barricades and temporary dikes.

Residents in St. Charles county near St. Louis had to be evacuated last night after that levy breached. Flood warnings and advisories are in effect from northern Illinois to Louisiana.

Meteorologist Indra Petersons joins me now for more.

So any rain in the forecast for the fine people of Missouri?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Unfortunately, yes, it looks like there are going to be more showers in the forecast. And just keep in mind, we've been talking about storm system after storm system, really just inundating the area and they've been slow training. Now keep in mind, at the beginning of the year, January 1st. We had negative 4.5 feet. Now we're talking about 40.1 feet.

So 45 feet of water since the beginning of the year. Unbelievable the amount of water in the area, and yes, we were talking about the forecast, yes, there's even more showers on the way. A very large amount of water. It really doesn't matter where they're seeing that rain even if it's within that region. We're stilling seeing it track through the tributaries and really overloading the area -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Wow. And Indra, dangerous weather again in Oklahoma. There could be more tornadoes. And despite the fact, three veteran storm chasers died in Oklahoma, Tornado Alley could again be full of storm chasers. PETERSONS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Your colleague CNN meteorologist Chad Myers says it's becoming a real problem.

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MIKE EILTS, CEO, WEATHER DECISION TECHNOLOGIES: You put yourself 100 yards away from debris flying, you put yourself in pretty grave danger.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Mike Hails knows a lot of about tornadoes. He was part of the research team that the movie "Twister" was based on. He thinks storm chasing has gone too far.

EILTS: It's no longer pictures of tornado that people want. It's video of debris, or buildings blowing up, or trees being blown around. So people are taking, I think, big, big chances.

MYERS: But it's not just scientists and videographers. Thrill secrets hoping to capture chaos up close. Tornado tours are big business in these parts.

PHIL RECTOR, OWNER, CROSS TORNADO TOURS: People go to see the whales and everything else, they want to see tornadoes. They want to see the big winds. That's what we do, so we take them out.

MYERS: But meteorologists and researchers on the ground, measurements are vital. Because so much still needs to be learned when it comes to violent weather.

EILTS: We still don't know anything about tornadoes, and it's really important to be able to measure because you can't measure with a radar, you can see thing as loft. You can't really measure what's going on the ground. So very dedicated people that have risked their life to do that. They're just value created by that.

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COSTELLO: So Indra, Chad is on his way home, but I just wanted you to issue a warning for these storm chasers.

PETERSONS: You know, one of the things I do want to point out, though, Carol, yes, we still have a slight risk area today and of course the bull's eye once again over Oklahoma, seeing portions of Missouri and Texas. A lot of people forget when you see the signature on the radar, TBS signature, only 30 percent of those actually become a tornado. Believe it or not these storm chasers that are making our warning time longer.

So what they are doing really is very valuable, you just don't want the amateurs out there congesting those roads and that's the problem.

COSTELLO: All right. Thanks, Indra.

So why do thrill seekers risk their lives storm chasing? In the next hour of NEWSROOM, I'm going to talk to a storm spotter and the owner of a popular storm chasing adventure tour company.

Boston's fire chief, the man under fire for his handling of the Boston marathon bombing, will leave the department. Steve Abraira has submitted his resignation. It will be effective actually this Friday. Comes just days after his attorney threatened to sue the 13 deputy chiefs to get them to stop testifying against Abraira at a city council meeting.

Those deputies say they had no confidence in their chief. And Abraira says he cannot continue to do his job without the support of his command staff. We're also learning more about a lone phone call, marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev made to his family from inside a federal prison hospital.

Phil Black joins us live from Moscow.

What did he say in those phone calls?

PHIL BLACK CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, Tsarnaev is heard speaking Russian and his mother, Zubeidat, is clearly very emotional as she listens to this recording of their conversation be played again around the week or so after it actually happened. We're told that at the time, when they spoke, they were not allowed to discuss details of the Boston marathon case itself.

So the conversation was relatively brief and they were really just confined to questions about Dzhokhar's welfare, how is he doing? That sort of thing. Really words of comfort and so forth. At one point, his mother asked him, are you in pain? And this is how he replied. He said, "No, of course not. I'm already eating and have been for a long time. They're giving me rice and chicken now. Everything is fine. Everything is good. Please don't say anything."

His mother said to him, he has to be strong. But she says she was really surprised at just how strong he was being. She said that he was the calm one when she expected him to be far more emotional, far more demanding of answers about precisely what is going on to him. Instead, she says he was the one who was accompanying her. Telling her that everything is going to be all right -- Carol.

COSTELLO: She also asked him if he had money for a defense team. How does he -- how did he answer her?

BLACK: Well, he said that he didn't need money. And this part a little bit obscure. We don't know the precise details here but apparently his parents have been raising money, people have been sending him money, people who, like them, believe that he is innocent of the crime of which he's accused. And he said, no, he doesn't need that money, because he's already receiving some himself, and he said he has received around $1,000, but wasn't specific in just who has provided those funds, but he's parents remained adamant, Carol, that he is innocent. They say that both he and his brother are the victims of some sort of setup. Carol.

COSTELLO: Wow. Phil Black, reporting live for us this morning. Another day, another congressional hearing on the IRS and their targeting of Tea Party groups. Today we expect to hear from witness who's say their groups were among those singled out by the IRS.

Briana Keilar joins us live from the White House with more.

Good morning, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.

You know, yesterday we heard from the IRS and the inspector general who investigated this controversy? Today we'll be hearing from the alleged victims in this case and we caught up with some of them before they testified today.

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KEILAR (voice-over): Becky Garretson will tell congressional investigators this morning that her Tea Party group in Alabama was unnecessarily scrutinized by the IRS. In 2010 just before the midterm elections where victories by Tea Party candidates gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives, the group applied for tax exempt status, and was sent a 90-question form.

BECKY GERRITSON, WETUMPKA, ALABAMA, TEA PARTY: They wanted me to identify volunteers and donors. And they wanted to know about every speech we'd ever given. I felt like it was just oppression over me as a citizen. I live in America, and I should be able to express my views. I felt like it was very unfair. It was a little scary.

KEILAR: After nearly two years, Gerritson's group finally did get IRS approval. Susan Martinek is president of a small anti abortion group in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She says the IRS ultimately granted her book tax exempt status but a worker at the Cincinnati IRS office asked the group to agree not to picket Planned Parenthood offices.

SUSAN MARTINEKY, COALITION FOR LIFE OF LLAMA: And she required that our entire board would sign a letter under perjury of oath that we would not protest or picket at Planned Parenthood.

KEILAR: After the group's attorney sent a letter asking the basis for this demand, Martineky says it was dropped. By the end of this week, Congress will have held half a dozen hearings on the IRS controversy. Monday, the new acting commissioner of the IRS, pledged to clean up the agency. Daniel Werfel and the inspector general who first investigated the allegations, also denied knowing of any direct White House involvement.

REP. RITA LOWEY (D), NEW YORK: Is there any evidence that the White House directed, requested, recommended, or in any way supported such a review?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not aware of any evidence of that. (END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Now, this next IRS hearing will begin on Capitol Hill here in just about 45 minutes, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, Carol, and we'll be monitoring that at CNN.

COSTELLO: Of course.

We'll check back with you. Brianna Keilar, thanks so much.

Before we take a break, we want to check in with our friends and anchor of "EARLY START," Zoraida Sambolin. She has now undergone a double mastectomy, a decision she made after finding out she had breast cancer. She decided to go public after Angelina Jolie shared her story publicly.

Zoraida posted this picture on Facebook. It shows her fiance, Kenny Williams, who's the executive vice president of the Chicago White Sox. He's helping her. What a great guy.

Zoraida is on the phone right now.

Zoraida, how are you feeling?

ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN'S "EARLY START" ANCHOR (via telephone): You know, I'm feeling well. You know, it starts out as a good day or a mediocre day. I think today is probably a mediocre day.

COSTELLO: Oh, my. So, you're still in the hospital obviously, right?

SAMBOLIN: No. No. I'm back home.

COSTELLO: You're kidding.

SAMBOLIN: No, no, no. Two days in the hospital and then I went back home. There is some women who only spend one day in the hospital and back home. So, you know, I was surprised too at first when we talked about how soon I was going home. But, no, it was pretty quick.

COSTELLO: So I would take it, you are really sore and probably can't lift arms or do much for yourself at all.

SAMBOLIN: Yes, you are right, Carol. I have to say is the hardest part. You know, we're constantly going, going, going, to slow down and have limited mobility has been a bit of a challenge and to allow people to do for you is also a bit of a challenge.

But I'm very fortunate, as you show Kenny's picture, he singlehandedly handled my care at home. He's a superstar in my book.

COSTELLO: And, you know, loving support is really key, because you kind of have to give it up. And I know you are a person who likes to take control and likes to do things for yourself. But now is the time to depend on those who love you.

SAMBOLIN: Well, you know, I think for most women, that's probably going to be the hardest part. You know, I have been sharing my journey on Facebook, and these amazing women have told me how they handled their journey and I have to tell you, more often than not, they say relinquish control, let people help you.

I know it's the hardest part, and it really is. I've been blessed that I'm surrounded by people who love me and want to take care of me and are doing fantastic job at it, including the folks who released me from the hospital. I'm very blessed.

COSTELLO: I know, I'm loving Kenny right now.

So, what's the next step?

SAMBOLIN: Well, today is actually my first visit back to see both doctors. I'll see Dr. (INAUDIBLE) who actually is the breast cancer surgeon and she'll give me the final results, the pathology results on both breasts, we know it's not invasive cancer. Now, I'll find out if there was cancer in my right breast. I don't know that answer to that yet. So, today, I'll find out.

And then I'll meet after that with the reconstructive plastic surgeon, Dr. Kim, and, you know, he'll tell me what's next. These drains, but you have you been seeing, the picture I posted yesterday, are really complicated and probably one of the hardest parts of this. It can be very uncomfortable, very painful, and you've got to constantly see how you are draining.

And once you drain less than 30ccs I think for three days in a row, they finally take the drains out. I'm really looking for to that. I can't wait to talk to him and see when they finally come out.

COSTELLO: I know, and it will be hard not to try to convince that doctor to take them out sooner than --

SAMBOLIN: I'm not capable of doing that. I doubt that he'll take my word for it and say, hey, it's a good time to take the drains out. That is the tough part.

COSTELLO: Oh, look. All of your colleagues back here are wearing their super Z shirts, including John Berman, your co-anchor. So, we're rooting for you here, Zoraida. And thank you so much for sharing your story, because I know as you say --

SAMBOLIN: I love you guys. You guys have been amazing, I appreciate all the support. And thank you, Carol, for always checking in.

COSTELLO: Any time. Talk to you, soon. Zoraida, thank you.

SAMBOLIN: All right.

COSTELLO: Just ahead on THE NEWSROOM, an unprecedented scientific discovery, one of the most complete skeletons of triceratops. I knew I would get that wrong. You know, the triceratops, the plastic figure in grade school.

Anyway, a family of them has been found. Details from the dig, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Twenty-two minutes past the hour. Time to check our top stories.

A judge in South Africa is delaying the trial for Oscar Pistorius. It's being postponed two months to allow for more time to investigate the Olympic star's shooting of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The date of the trial could be announced on August 19th, which would have been Steenkamp's 30th birthday. Pistorius is charged with premeditated murder. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

One of the women at the center of the scandal involving former CIA Director David Petraeus is now suing the federal government. Jill Kelley says her personal e-mails were wrongly searched and false information was given to the media. Kelley is asking for an apology and unspecified damages.

In money news, United Airlines is offering yearly subscriptions on checked baggage, starting at $349. Under the plan, a traveler and an up to eight companions of the same reservation can each check up to two bags per flight for free. United also has a new subscription offer for passengers wanting extra leg room.

Justin Verlander is arguably the best pitcher in baseball. But the Detroit Tigers' ace wants to take a shot at a home run derby during next month's all star game. Verlander has never had a hit in 24 major league. That's something I teased him about the fact that he never had a home run, during spring training.

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COSTELLO: What's your biggest goal this season? Like --

JUSTIN VERLANDER, DETROIT TIGERS PITCHER: Win the World Series.

COSTELLO: Of course. I guess I was thinking like develop a new pitch or get a hit.

VERLANDER: Ha, ha, ha. Thanks for that. You know, I've been saying for the last seven years, this is my year, so I'm going to go the other direction and say I'm not going to get a hit. Who cares, I don't care if I get a hit. I'm doing to do everything I possibly can to jinx it the other way.

COSTELLO: Oh, I think that's a good idea.

VERLANDER: I do, too.

COSTELLO: So, you just admit that --

VERLANDER: I suck.

COSTELLO: You suck.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Yes!

VERLANDER: You might be the first person to ever hear me say that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Oh, but I think he changed his mind. Verlander has tweeted a link to the MLB.com page where fans can vote for him to be in the home run derby. Who knows? Maybe he can fill in for Prince Fielder. I don't think so.

Another cool discovery: 67 million years in the making. Scientists unearthed three triceratops skeletons -- triceratops skeletons -- something that has never done before. You remember these guys from high school, right? The three-horned dinosaur looked scary, 30 feet long, 10 feet tall, weighing in at about four to six tons.

But it's actually spent its day munching on low-lying plants. It was vegetarian.

It's big five-foot head was likely used to charge predators and in mating rituals. It was one of the very last dinosaurs before they all became extinct. And what's so cool about this latest discovery is that three dinosaurs were found and they were probably all part of the same family, two adults and maybe a toddler. One of the adults is even though to be the most complete skeleton ever found.

Paleontologist Peter Larson helped lead the discovery.

Welcome, Peter.

PETER LARSON, PALEONTOLOGIST (via telephone): Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: This is fascinating. So, you said this find could rewrite the book on these kinds of dinosaurs. Why?

LARSON: Well, there's several different reasons. One, we -- despite the fact that triceratops is one of the most widely, publicly known dinosaurs, we have very few skeletons that are even close to 50 percent complete. There's only three that have been found so far.

And in this find is three skeletons together, which is going to tell us a whole lot about their anatomy. But in addition to that, we also have something that's very unprecedented where we've got what looks like -- as you mentioned, the family group. So we can look at ontogeny and how these animals change as they grew up, which is a very, very cool thing to look at.

There has been some more done on skulls, but not on skeletons on this particular things. So, this also is going to show us about behavior. And in addition to that, we've got evidence right now that points to the -- point to the inclusion that perhaps these guys were fed upon by Tyrannosaurus Rex. So, we're going to even have an interaction with the main predator at that time.

COSTELLO: So, is that how they died, do you think?

LARSON: I don't know how they died, and we may not be able to find that out. But we certainly that we know that they -- it looks like they were fed upon, whether they were killed by a T-Rex or not, we don't know yet at this point. And that's something that's really hard to pin down, if they were articulated, we might have a better chance. But since these are just articulated remains, we probably won't be able to learn why they died.

COSTELLO: So, one of the adults was particularly well-preserved. Why do you think that was?

LARSON: And we haven't dug the whole site yet, so maybe we have more than just the one adult that's going to be quite a bit there. I think because there was so much to eat, that T-Rex in this particular case had more than he could handle, and was not able to really finish all the carcasses.

The little one is the least complete so far, and I think it was because it was probably the most tender and most easily consumed. T- Rex, by the way, didn't just eat dinosaur flesh. It ate most of the carcass, which is why we don't have many triceratops skeletons that are beyond 50 percent complete.

COSTELLO: Well, I can't wait until you get all the bones dug out and put together. That will be fascinating. And hopefully, we'll get to see them some day.

Peter Larson, thank you very much.

LARSON: My pleasure.

COSTELLO: We're back in a minute.