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Tragedy Strikes Washington School; Ebola-Infected Doctor at NYC Hospital; New York City Hatchet Attack an Act of Terror; New Jersey Health Worker Tests Negative For Ebola; Remains Of Missing UVA Student Identified; Report Claims UNC Student Athletes Took Fake Classes

Aired October 25, 2014 - 11:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thanks so much, guys. Have a great day.

We've got a lot straight ahead. It is the 11:00 Eastern hour of the NEWSROOM which begins right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's sitting behind me. I heard the shots. I fell over and then I just got up and I just saw everyone running and I ran.

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WHITFIELD: Searching for answers this morning. Why did a popular freshman open fire on his student friends at school?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At first I thought it was just someone making a really loud noise with like a bag like a big loud pop until I heard four more after that. And I saw three kids just fall from the table.

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WHITFIELD: One student and the gunman both dead. Four other students badly injured. What we're learning today straight ahead.

Plus the fear of Ebola hits New York City. A doctor there is now battling the disease. We dig into how much further this virus could spread.

And a man charged at New York police officers with a hatchet in broad daylight. What the shocking attack shows about the threat posed by loan wolves.

All right. We start today in Marysville, Washington a day after a deadly school shooting, a community in shock and overcome by grief. An hour from now we're expecting an update from one of the hospitals treating students injured in that shooting. We'll bring you that live.

Here is what we know right now. Police say one girl was killed in the shooting, four students were hurt and they are in intensive care at two hospitals.

Witnesses say the shooter is 14-year-old Jaylen Fryberg. And his grandfather says he targeted his cousins. He shot and killed himself.

We're learning some new details from the sheriff's office this morning as well. They say they have finished their on-scene investigation and they have recovered a handgun. We're also learning that a school employee tried to stop the shooter.

Dan Simon is following the story for us live. So Dan -- what else are you learning from investigators?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well hi Fredricka, we are at Providence Hospital here in Everett, Washington. This is where two of the victims are receiving care. They both have significant gunshot wounds after being shot at very close range. Of course, the focus today is on the victims and the police investigation.

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SIMON (voice over): Hundreds gather at a Washington State church seeking comfort just hours after a nearby school shooting. It was around 10:30 a.m. Pacific time, students were gathered in a crowded cafeteria at Marysville-Pilchuck High School 40 miles north of Seattle when fellow students and eyewitnesses say freshman Jaylen Fryberg opened fire with a handgun apparently targeting a specific table.

JORDON LUFON, WITNESS: The table he went up to he came up from behind and had a gun in his hand and fired about six bullets into the backs of them. And they were his friends. So it wasn't just random.

SIMON: Students scattered. Many in the rest of the building say they thought a fire drill was underway. And many ran outside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's sitting behind me. I heard the shots. I fell over and then I just got up. I saw everyone running and I ran.

SIMON: In the hallways, teachers starting herding others into classrooms and ordering a lockdown. At some point someone inside placed a 911 call and by 10:40 police were swarming the building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move to the west side of the gymnasium. We've got to escort an additional 30 students out to the south.

SIMON: Going room to room placing tape over the doors of those they had secured so they would know what had already been checked. And in the process they discovered the gunman. By noon, officially saying he was dead, apparently having shot himself. A female student was also killed in the attack and four injured students are hospitalized. The grandfather of one of the survivors says the shooter and two of the wounded are related.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All three of them are cousins. All three of them are cousins and they live right close to each other.

SIMON: Fryberg was considered to be a well-liked student and the freshman athlete was recently elected homecoming prince. But his social media accounts paint two very different pictures. Fryberg's Facebook page shows his active engagement and pride with the Native American Tulalip tribe. He loved the outdoors, smiling here fishing on a boat. And in other pictures, hunting.

But turn to Twitter, a second more troubling image appears. In recent months the freshman tweeted multiple times a day. "It breaks me. It actually does. I know it seems like I'm sweating it off but I'm not and I never will be able to. I'm tired of this (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I'm so (EXPLETIVE DELETED) done."

And 34 hours before the attack he sent this. "It won't last. It will never last." For students who lived through the attack it is a day they will never forget.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard the guns and I turned around and he was just like pulling it and shooting everyone. And there is blood everywhere and some got on other girl's faces and stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: Well, as for that school employee who tried to intervene we are getting conflicted reporting whether it was a cafeteria worker or a teacher. But the bottom line is the account we're hearing is that when the shooting was happening, this teacher rushed over to the shooter or the cafeteria worker rushing over to the shooter. She put her hand on his arm and somehow tried to intervene. Moments later the shooter obviously took his own life. Whether or not her actions altered the outcome in any way, of course we don't know that, but certainly a very brave action indeed -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Brave indeed.

All right. Dan Simon, thanks so much. I know you'll be joining us later with the latest updates that we are expecting from that region.

Meantime some eye witnesses described chaos and sheer panic as that shooting happened. Joining me right now by phone is Alex Pietsch (ph), a 15-year-old student who was in that cafeteria and saw the actual gun used in the attack.

Alex thanks so much for being with us. How are you feeling today? What are your thoughts? What are your fears, concerns?

ALEX PIETSCH, MARYSVILLE-PILCHUCK HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Well I'm not really afraid as much as I am just really shocked. It didn't really hit me until today how serious this was because it just happened so fast. And I know some people that were on the table and I was concerned for them.

And I'm a sophomore and all of the people that were involved -- almost all the people who were involved were freshmen. So I didn't really know them as well as I probably should have. But it's still really saddening to know that something happened at your school and it is just really shocking that something like this could happen to you. WHITFIELD: Yes, do you also keep replaying the events, what happened

when you were in that cafeteria, and what are the thoughts that come to mind?

PIETSCH: I do replay those events. It has been replaying in my brain like all day for the past two days or this morning and yesterday. But I remember just hearing the gunshots but I didn't -- I thought they were fire crackers. Because I thought someone, you know, was having some fun on Friday but I look back and there is a gun in someone's hand.

And you just see this panic on everyone's faces and they just hit the wall because they just want to get away from it. And what I was thinking was not just staying down. I had to run so I ran out of the nearest exit and jumped the fence to go call my mom.

WHITFIELD: And then what about this young man Jaylen Fryberg? He had just been named a homecoming prince last week. So if you didn't know him personally, at least perhaps you knew him from that. He was a popular student. Describe for me kind of the surprise and shock that he would be the gunman and that he would also end up killing himself.

PIETSCH: It's weird to think about because you see him and he is such a happy person. Like you never really see him be so angry and so upset. And you could just -- the way I was hearing it people were telling me who it was when I was getting in my mom's car. And I was like what? Like, this is not happening. Like this is crazy. It was just -- it was just surprising to me that him out of all people would be the one.

WHITFIELD: And then I understand you know some of the people who are being treated in the hospital right now. What can you tell me about your friends?

PIETSCH: Well, they were probably some of the nicest people I knew. They were nice to everybody. They were nice to me even though since -- they didn't really see me that much. They were nice to me when they saw me. And, you know, they were -- everyone was beautiful inside and out. And I just can't believe this happened to them. They didn't deserve it. No one deserves this.

WHITFIELD: Well Alex, of course we're wishing the full recovery of your fellow students there in the hospital. And thanks so much for reflecting. I know this is a tough time. And I'm sure as a community you all will continue to pull together and look towards better days straight ahead at your school. Thanks so much Alex.

PIETSCH: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: So while there may be some signs that point to a possible motive in yesterday's shooting, right now no one really knows why Fryberg pulled the trigger, especially on his own cousins.

I want to dig deeper now into this with Steve Rogers. He has a served as detective in Nutley, Jersey and on the FBI joint terrorism task force; and Marissa Rendazzo, former chief research psychologist for the Secret Service, she has studied multiple school shootings.

So Marissa to you first, the boy's grandfather says the shooting was not random. He says Fryberg targeted his cousins and Fryberg may have also been so upset about the breakup with his girlfriend. So how do you make sense of all this?

MARISSA RENDAZZO, FORMER CHIEF RESEARCH PSYCHOLOGIST FOR THE SECRET SERVICE: Well, just as you were saying, investigators are still trying to figure out what the motives were in this particular case. But what we know from 15 years of studying school shootings across the U.S. is that the students who carry out these shootings usually do so when they are at that point of the personal despondency or maybe even suicidal.

And the coverage we've seen so far about his social media activities particularly on Twitter leads us to think that may be true in this case as well. That he had a personal problem, was overwhelmed and chose some particular targets as a way to try to solve that problem or get out of his own personal pain.

WHITFIELD: But Steve this is so perplexing for so many. Because, you know, everybody has problems or has a bad day or has encountered somebody that they are uncomfortable with or they don't like. And in this case, you know, people always want to see if there were signs, if there were things leading up to, if there were missed signals, et cetera. But just that there was this dialogue over Twitter, over social media involving Mr. Fryberg and others, would that be a big enough flag in your purview to think that this could be the end result of that kind of angst?

STEVE ROGERS, FORMER DETECTIVE, NEW JERSEY POLICE DEPARTMENT: Well, you know, Marissa is right. Usually there is a long history of indicators. And a lot of those indicators are on the Internet. But I've got to tell you what is baffling and unusual about this case is that for, you know, the investigation is leading to the point that this was a good kid. That this was a kid that was the prince, he was in football. He was in sports, academically doing well. And that is what's baffling. But there are indicators, as Melissa (SIC) said that usually lead up to an individual who will reach the breaking point and then commit such an act. In this case there weren't many indicators except the recent Twitters.

WHITFIELD: And then, you know, let's read a part of the statement from the Brady Centers to prevent gun violence. And the president, Dan Gross saying this quote, "Today's events underscore the startling fact that for the last two decades the rate of school shootings in Washington State was more than twice the national average." But Steve what does that mean? Because if there are no real common denominators here as to why one school shooting takes place and why another takes place around the corner, how does anyone kind of make sense of this? How does any school system try to put in place some sort of preventive measures? How do families have conversations with their kids to better resolve problems?

ROGERS: I get asked that question a lot. And I can tell you in a case like this almost impossible to stop because it is impossible to predict. But here is a key. A common denominator that I found in a lot of these cases, maybe not in this one but in a lot -- parents need to engage their children. They need to spend more time with their children. Our children could be doing great at school and they could be involved in all sorts of activities.

But family time is very important. And the mom and the dad is going to know. They are going to know if their child is troubled by something just by simple conversation. So that could be a big, big factor in preventing a lot of this.

WHITFIELD: All right. Steve Rogers, Marissa Rendazzo -- thank you so much to both of you. Appreciate it.

ROGERS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Still had ahead. New York and New Jersey going a step further than the CDC to control Ebola in the U.S. Elizabeth Cohen is following the developments this morning for us.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Fredricka. Doctors and nurses who bravely volunteer to take care of Ebola patients in West Africa will face a quarantine when they return to New York and New Jersey. Why that might hurt instead of help -- we'll have that after the break.

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WHITFIELD: All right. Good news for a healthcare worker quarantined in New Jersey this morning. She has tested negative in a preliminary test for the Ebola virus. The woman arrived at Newark Airport yesterday and was immediately quarantined when officials learned that she had been treating Ebola patients in West Africa. She returned to the U.S. just as new guidelines were issued by New York and New Jersey officials ordering a 21-day mandatory quarantine for some travelers coming from the Ebola hot zone. The World Health Organization reports Ebola cases now exceed 10,000 worldwide with nearly 5,000 deaths.

CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is outside Bellevue Hospital where Dr. Craig Spencer is being treated. He had just returned from West Africa and is fighting the virus.

Elizabeth, I was in New York when the news broke and visible concern from people there spread kind of like wild fire with people expressing their worries about all the places that he went from subways to a bowling alley. So what is it like there today and more importantly how is Dr. Spencer doing?

COHEN: Fredricka, we're told that Dr. Spencer is in stable condition. He's talking to people on his cell phone. So, all in all he seems to be doing pretty well considering that he has Ebola.

Fredricka, the sense that I get is people were more sort of ticked off. They were wondering if he was feeling sluggish why was he running around? When I'm inside the hospital there is a ton of people in there. If they were really concerned they wouldn't be coming to this hospital. Now speaking of that running around that I mentioned, you know a lot of attention that Dr. Spencer went to a bowling alley. We're hearing that the bowling alley is now being cleaned up by hazmat crews. And in the meantime, New York and New Jersey well, they say that any healthcare worker may be quarantined. So there's a lot going on here.

But in the meantime, as I said, Dr. Spencer is stable, doing well and they are looking for his contacts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: There is no cause for alarm.

COHEN: New York City health officials are urging calm as they look for anyone who had contact with Dr. Craig Spencer, the city's first Ebola patient.

DR. MARY BASSETT, NEW YORK HEALTH COMMISSIONER: The patient continues to be stable at Bellevue Hospital, where he remains hospitalized on the isolation unit.

COHEN: The 33-year-old doctor returned to the U.S. last week after treating Ebola patients in Guinea with Doctors without Borders. Three people who had contact with Dr. Spencer have been quarantined including his fiancee who will be monitored for symptoms over the next 21 days.

And as hazmat crews work to decontaminate his apartment city officials are retracing Dr. Spencer's steps and alerting all who may have come in contact with him.

BASSETT: We want to find every person with whom he may have been in contact and we want to account for all of his time from the time he developed symptoms.

COHEN: On Wednesday just one day before his diagnosis with Ebola, he was out and about in New York visiting a Brooklyn bowling alley, going for a jog and riding the subway. The Metropolitan transit authority released a statement listing their procedures about isolating and disinfecting rail cars to help calm New York commuters -- adding that it is safe to travel.

This amid good news from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dallas nurse Nina Pham is Ebola free. today.

NINA PHAM, DALLAS NURSE WHO CONTRACTED EBOLA: This illness and this whole experience has been very stressful and challenging for me and for my family. Although I no longer have Ebola I know that it may be a while before I have my strength back.

COHEN: The NIH director said no experimental drugs were given to Pham while under their care. Exactly when or why she turned the corner is hard to pinpoint but that the blood transformation from cured Ebola patient Dr. Kent Brantly could have been a factor.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: Certainly that could have been the case but remember when you have so many separate factors at the same time going into the care of a patient and the end is won for this patient it is virtually impossible to say that this is the thing that did it and this is the thing that didn't do it.

COHEN: Pham was invited to the White House where she received a hug from President Obama in the Oval Office. And Atlanta's Emory Hospital reports that the other Dallas care giver to contract Ebola Amber Vinson, tests no longer detect the virus in her blood. She remains under close watch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So doctors and nurses who volunteered to go to Africa when they come back to New York and New Jersey, they will face a 21-day quarantine. And Fred, doctors and nurses tell me they won't go back to Africa if they face that quarantine. That will make the outbreak even worse -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Ok, something more that we'll talk about a bit later. Thanks so much Elizabeth. You are going to be joining our panel discussion coming up. We'll delve into that.

All right. Also a hatchet attack in New York -- now it's officially ruled an act of terror which raises new concerns this morning about lone wolf attacks and how to stop them. We're going to talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The New York police commissioner calls it a violent act of terror -- a hatchet attack on New York City police officers. It comes on the heels of that deadly shooting in Canada's parliament and raises new concerns this morning about what intelligence services fear most, a largely self-radicalized person who attacks a target he has privately chosen. A lone wolf?

Joining me right now Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst -- Peter, good to see you.

Authorities say both attacks appear to be committed by loners who were self-radicalized online. So when we talk about lone wolves or even say the three teenage girls from Colorado who were lured to join the fight over seas by an online predator you say they really are our biggest threats. Why?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I mean Fredricka I think there's some good news and some bad news. If lone wolves are the biggest threat we face in a way that is a form of good news; after all when al Qaeda attacked us on 9/11 that was the opposite of a lone wolf -- that was a very organized group with lots of people, members in it doing all sorts of activities.

You know, when you look at this lone wolf attack on the Canadian parliament or the attack on the New York subway, you know, undoubtedly they were tragedies. One officer was killed and a soldier was killed in Canada and a police officer was wounded in New York. But these are not -- these are individual tragedies. These are not national catastrophes. And that is the difference.

So in a sense Fredricka, the fact that lone wolves are the biggest threats right now shows in a sense that the system overall is working. It's very hard to organize as a group now in the United States to carry out an attack. It's very hard for a foreign terrorist organization to send one of its members to the United States.

And so you are left with these self-radicalizing people. They don't have any links to any formal terrorist organizations. They radicalize on line. They are very hard to stop but they don't usually pose a particularly big threat.

WHITFIELD: So when you say the system is working you are talking about the counterterrorism efforts, right?

BERGEN: Sure.

WHITFIELD: But when we do talk about these lone wolves or someone who is just inspired to either attack a high profile person or a high profile place, it really does speak to the success of this cyber recruiting, doesn't it?

BERGEN: Yes, but again, very good there -- there is also a sort of double-edged picture here because these online recruiting efforts are pretty successful but they are also something that law enforcement can track very easily. And in fact of the dozen cases we've seen of Americans who try to go to fight in Syria or have succeeded, almost all of them have pretty active social media profiles which makes them pretty easy for law enforcement to track.

WHITFIELD: Ok. Peter Bergen -- thanks so much. Always good to see you -- appreciate it.

BERGEN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Next what's ahead in the fight against Ebola? With the release of the nurse Nina Pham I'll ask our panel of experts if U.S. hospitals are getting a handle on how to treat this frightening disease?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Several stories we are covering this morning.

In Washington State, investigators are trying to figure out why a popular freshman opened fire on his peers including his cousins. And we're learning about the heroic efforts of one school worker who tried to step in?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She like grabs his arm like a hand on hand. It happens like in seconds.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: And the remains of the University of Virginia student, Hannah Graham have been identified. We'll take a closer look at where authorities are now focusing their investigation.

And following New York City's first Ebola case, New York and New Jersey officials are ordering a mandatory 21-day quarantine of healthcare workers returning from countries hit hard by the virus.

Also this morning, a New Jersey health worker quarantined has now reason to smile. She has tested negative for the Ebola virus. The woman arrived at Newark Airport yesterday and was immediately quarantined when officials learn that she had been treating Ebola patients in West Africa.

This as the World Health Organization reports cases now exceed 10,000 worldwide with nearly 5,000 deaths in the West African region. Our expert panel is here, Dr. Celine Grounder, also an infectious disease and public health specialist, and CNN senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.

So good to see both of you, Ladies. So Nurse Pham, who contracted Ebola from the patient in Dallas who died, is now out. She looked good at that news conference yesterday. What does her situation tell us about how to treat Ebola patients, Dr. Gounder?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, FORMER ASSISTANT NYC HEALTH COMMISSIONER: I was really pleased to see her walk out, look pretty healthy actually at that news conference. I think the key thing that we've learned from our experience with Nina Pham in contrast for example to Thomas Duncan is that time is of the essence when you're treating a patient with Ebola.

You need to institute treatment as soon as possible. And Nina Pham was monitoring her own symptoms as was appropriate and as soon as she developed symptoms presented for attention.

And again, in the case of the Thomas Duncan, there was at least a two- day delay before appropriate therapy was started and that made a big difference.

WHITFIELD: So Elizabeth, does it feel like especially with the success of this nurse, you know, Dr. Sacher, that there have been a number of people who have been treated now in the U.S. whether they contracted overseas or in the case of Nurse Pham, who know she contracted it from a patient here in the state.

How much more encouragement is this sending to especially go along with the federal message from public health authorities and CDC and on, who are saying it is not that easy to contract this disease. We are a country with a health system that can handle when there is a patient. How reaffirming is Nurse Pham's release?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, what I think, Fredricka, it is very reaffirming as is the recovery of almost every other U.S. Ebola patient, everyone except for sadly Thomas Eric Duncan. Health experts have been saying that the situation with Ebola would be different here than in West Africa because of the health system that they have, and it turned out that they were right.

Everyone has survived except for Mr. Duncan and as we just pointed out his care was delayed. It was delayed because they sent him away and then even once they got him back and realized he had Ebola, it took them days to get him an experimental drug and a blood transfusion.

So I think the proof is in the putting, when you get someone help quickly in this country the chances of survival are quite high.

WHITFIELD: So Dr. Gounder, now you have this doctor being treated in New York there at Bellevue where Elizabeth Cohen is, and then you have New Jersey and New York saying there is going to be a mandatory 21-day quarantine for any kind of health care workers that were in that -- any one of those three countries in West Africa hit hard by Ebola.

Is this smart safety precaution in your view or does this undermine the federal response and federal guidance that is being given to various states and hospitals?

GOUNDER: I think this is not a scientific decision. It is a decision that's been made on the basis of fear and public relations. And I do have very real concerns especially since I am somebody who's planning to go myself that this is really going to prevent some people from volunteering.

We are already having difficulty recruiting healthcare workers to go over and if you are going to institute even what frankly feel like punitive measures against people who are volunteering their time, taking real risks. It just doesn't really feel right and fair.

WHITFIELD: And Elizabeth, you are already hearing that from members of the medical community who say now this is becoming a deterrent to even going back to West Africa to assisting?

COHEN: Right. I was just talking with a pediatrician, who's been volunteering in Sierra Leone for the past month. He is on way back and I said, will you go back again, and he said, no, if there is a quarantine, I will not go back again.

You take a month out of your life to risk your life to take care of patients in Africa and then you come back and 21 days you are in quarantine? And this doctor is flying home through Newark, but he lives in New Orleans.

So the question is what they are going to keep this New Orleans doctor in New Jersey for three weeks, for what? He is perfectly capable. He is incapable of the spreading Ebola.

And I'll tell you, Fred, I've been on the phone with federal officials and with folks from the mayor's office here in New York and they said this was stunning, surprising, shocking.

They had no idea. It sounds like the two governors went rogue and didn't consult any of their public health experts.

WHITFIELD: All right, this is just the tip of iceberg in that discussion then. Elizabeth Cohen, Dr. Celine Gounder, thank you so much to both of you. Appreciate it.

All right, still ahead the remains of Hannah Graham, the missing University of Virginia student now have been identified. Where the investigation goes from here? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In Virginia, authorities confirmed human remains found last weekend belonged to missing UVA student, Hannah Graham. The suspect, Jesse Matthew, is in custody charged with abduction with the intent to defile. Police say he was caught on surveillance camera following her on the night she disappeared, but the investigation is far from over.

CNN's Jean Casarez joins us now on the phone. So Jean, now that there is confirmation of the remains. Where does this take the investigation?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, I think now it goes to another phase because this is the first phase. You know, the identification of the remains, a very somber time for the community and think they have to take that all in.

But the chief medical examiner's office, their work has only begun because now they have to try to determine the cause and manner of the death. The cause of the death, meaning actually how did she die? And that can be very difficult when you just have skeletal remains.

And then the manner of death on the side being by another and -- but both of those are questions at that point. But I think the key to this case and this criminal investigation because that is what it is now is those pants.

And all of my sources tell me that is the only thing they found were her black pants. They didn't find the top she was wearing, her cell phone. That's why one of the reasons they were doing all of those searches this last week. We would see them out on the side of the road.

But those pants are going to be tested in the forensic lab and it may be undergoing right now to try to find foreign DNA, perpetrator DNA. And of course, we're going to see if there is a match there with Jessie Matthew. If there is, these charges for Mr. Matthew could be elevated.

WHITFIELD: Will they say where the pants were found in relation to the skeletal remains?

CASAREZ: Were found near, nearby. Of course, then you have a question well, does that mean that they were taken off of her and were not on her or animals come in and they can rip things. So were they taken away nearby by animals? We don't know. WHITFIELD: All right. Jean Casarez, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

All right, it is the biggest academic scandal to hit college sports in decades now. Next, I'll talk to those who helped uncover the cheating scheme at the University of North Carolina. What is next for this prestigious university?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: For almost two decades, thousands of students at the University of North Carolina, many of them athletes, took classes that never actually happened, and they got A's, based on writing one paper that was sometimes not even read.

But they stayed eligible to play on their teams. Those stunning findings come out of an eight-month investigation at the university. Sara Ganim has the story that's shaking a college community.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Top-notch teams alongside excellent academics, that's been the foundation of UNC's national reputation. But the school is now admitting to a widespread fraud, keeping athletes eligible by enrolling them in fake classes.

CAROL FOLT, CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: The length of time that this behavior went on and the number of people involved is really shocking.

GANIM: Whistle-blower Mary Willingham, a tutor to athletes, told CNN in January that UNC had not owned up to the full scope of the scandal. UNC immediately tried to shut her down, attacking her credibility.

MARY WILLINGHAM, UNC WHISTLEBLOWER: It wasn't just my colleagues in the Athletics Department that were mad at me, angry with me. It was the BOT, the Board of Trustees, that was so angry with me.

GANIM: Now an independent report has confirmed her claims that many people knew about the fraud and that it lasted for more years than originally thought.

KEN WAINSTE, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: They were glaring deficiencies in overnight.

GANIM: An independent report commissioned by UNC found that 3,100 students took so-called paper classes, students never had to go to class, only write a paper and they always received a good grade. Counselors steered the athletes to the classes so they could remain eligible to play.

KEN WAINSTEIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: They were, in their terms, GPA boosters. They knew these were classes that gave disproportionately high grades regardless of quality.

GANIM: The university had previously said the paper classes were the work of one rogue professor, head of the Afro-American Studies Program, Julius Niangaro. But the report says it's actually his assistant, Debbie Crowder, who masterminded the whole system out of sympathy for students who were, quote, "not the best and the brightest."

Three of the national basketball championships the team won could now be in jeopardy. And while the news has this prestigious school and its proud alumni reeling, it comes as no surprise to Mary Willingham.

WILLINGHAM: What's really upsetting still, we still have athletes here at Carolina and across the country, that aren't getting the real education that we're promising them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM: Fredricka, you know, one of the things the University of North Carolina criticized Mary Willingham for was when she said that these athletes, many of these athletes of that university were being brought in and were underprepared.

They were not prepared for the rigor of classes at the University of North Carolina. These e-mails that were uncovered seem to show that she was right about that all along.

Now I also want to tell you, Fred, that I spoke yesterday to the association that accredits the University of North Carolina. They are reviewing this. They did say it was unlikely that a school like this would lose their accreditation.

But the last time that they reviewed the paper class scandal, what they did was force the university to offer additional classes to those who were in the paper classes. But the students, if they had already graduated, were not forced to take those classes over again.

This time, it appears that there were many students who took multiple paper classes. One student took up to 19 paper classes --

WHITFIELD: My gosh.

GANIM: -- Fred, so the question is now, are these degrees valid? That's something that the university has to decide and they haven't decided yet.

WHITFIELD: My goodness. All right, Sara, well, stay with me because let's now have a bigger and broader conversation here.

Joining us via Skype from Chapel Hill, North Carolina is Jay Smith, the UNC professor, who worked closely with Mary Willingham, who we just saw in your piece, Sara.

So Jay wrote a book about the scandal with Mary called "Cheated," that book coming out next year. So then Jay, you were not surprised about all this. You have been doing the research on this.

But perhaps surprised now that there's an acknowledgement as a result of this independent investigation that this problem is deep and it's been going on for a long time?

JAY SMITH, UNC PROFESSOR: Right. I can't say I'm surprised really at the findings in the report. Seeming to want to turn a corner and (inaudible) --

WHITFIELD: We apologize. The signal is very not good. I'll try to keep the conversation with you, Jay. You think UNC is trying to turn the corner and that is encouragement. That is really encouraging when you look at, you know, students incoming and those who continue to be enrolled there.

But then what about all the students who have either graduated with this kind of system or those who have, you know, been able to win those titles that Sara talked about that are now in jeopardy. What should happen, if anything, to them?

Because, you know, certainly they were done a great disservice by not being able to get a good education. Many of whom might be struggling, you know, in their post-UNC years even.

SMITH: Right. Right. Well, the chancellor and the athletic director recently announced that UNC plans to deliver on the promise of an education for its athletes who left university without having completed their degrees.

I would like to see them extend that, to extend that program and to enable those who were cheated of their educations by having been steered into or forced into these paper classes, to allow them also to come back and to complete or complement their educations so that their degrees are not under a cloud, are not stained in this way.

WHITFIELD: And then, Sara, you mentioned these championships might be in jeopardy. What is being weighed here? How will that decision be made?

GANIM: Well, that decision will be made by the NCAA, which reopened its investigation into the university a few months back, after, you know, more allegations began to surface. Originally the NCAA said this didn't appear to have anything to do with athletics.

Well, we now know that that was not true. It had a lot to do with athletics. They are reviewing. They have a full copy of the Wainstin report, which is a report that was released this week.

We do anticipate some kind of decision from them. You know, certainly a lot of wins are in question. And at least three championships while -- I do believe that realistically it's only two.

The one that they won in 1993, that was the year that the paper classes began. And so really, realistically, 2005, 2009, that was the height of the scandal. Those two championships could definitely be in jeopardy.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sara Garim, Jay Smith, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. We'll have much more from the NEWSROOM after this.

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