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Video of Person Fleeing after Savopoulos Family's Stolen Porsche Was Torched Has Been Released; Father, Trapped by Floods, Calls Daughter to Say Goodbye, Gets Rescued. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired May 25, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00] PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: There are looming questions about who was in that video of a person fleeing after the family's stolen Porsche was torched. I guess we don't have the video of the show, but basically -- there we go. So they want to know who is this person. And there's an indication that it's not Daron Wint. Here's why.

There was a witness, according to the court affidavit, who saw the Porsche being driven erratically out of Washington by someone with short, well-groomed hair. Now, of course, that's a different description from Wint, who appeared in court with medium-length dread locks. So the description isn't matching up there.

And also deepening this mystery, Brooke, court documents show that Savopoulos' assistant changed his story several times when questioned by police, altering details about how he dropped off the $40,000 to the mansion just before the house was torched. According to police, the assistant changed his story about when his boss contacted him to pick up the money, revised details about the car that he left the car he left the money in that mansion, and admitted he lied by not telling police the cash informs a red bag.

And police say, Brooke, that the assistant texted an unidentified person a picture of that red bag with moneyed inside. That was just four hours later the family's home went up in flames -- Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Short, well-groomed hair. I'm still back on that. That's some description.

Pamela Brown, thank you so much. Hopefully they're able to figure out exactly who else was in on this.

Next, the brave women in uniform who protect America's freedom all the while trying in to really fit into a male-dominated military culture. One veteran is opening up about what it's like to be a woman in the military. She join me live straight ahead.

Plus, a man pulled out of the flood waters in Texas by a helicopter. He thought he was going to die. And he will join me live next to tell me about emotional phone call he made in those moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:36:07] BALDWIN: Just past the bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You see all the colors here on your screen. This part of the country is a huge, huge weather story. Severe weather making its way across Texas, Oklahoma. Today word of another tornado touching down north of San Antonio. All of this after severe flooding just yesterday left three people dead and another 12 are still missing. Texas governor Greg Abbott speaking about it just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: Moments ago I had the opportunity to fly over Blanco River and to observe firsthand what the devastation looks like. And you cannot candy coat it. It's absolutely massive. And I think it sends a powerful message to anyone who's in harm's way over the entire state of Texas over the coming days as we see ongoing rain. And that is the relentless tsunami-type power that this wave of water can pose for people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We are hearing all kinds of just incredibly frightening and dramatic stories of people, their cars being swept away because of the flash flooding. Imagine this, if your father called you to say he was trapped by flash floods, couldn't get out, wanted to call to say good- bye. That is what happened to one young lady who got a call early Sunday morning at the height of the storm. Her dad was caught in it, had to be rescued by black hawk helicopters. Here -- these are the pictures before he was saved, his daughter was terrified.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNAH PULLEN, FATHER RESCUED FROM FLASH FLOODS: I kept calling him over and over. And I was like, are you OK, are you OK? He was like, I don't know if I'm going to make it, but he was like, I love you. Just hold on, please, don't leave, I'm here for you. And then he was like, I don't know what to tell you, I'm sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And here they are together in Austin, Texas, father and daughter, Danny and Hannah Pullen.

Hannah, my heart goes out to you. Watching you, you know, in the midst of all of it. Thank you, both, so much for taking the time with me today. But Danny, I have to start with you. I mean, can you take me back to yesterday morning. You hop in the truck, you're running errands, you're heading to work, you see the flooding up ahead, you decide to turn around, and as you do so, what happened?

DANNY PULLEN, RESCUED FROM FLASH FLOOD: Well, it's just a little more dark than daylight. And I get to a point -- I'm just in a normal area that normally you would not think flood, not low water, no river, nothing. And I say, well, I'm turning around here. You know, the saying turn around, don't drown. We have it down here. And a guy was close behind me and two little cars and a police car behind them. And he walked up and I said, look, I'm turning around so you all need to turn around so I can. He agreed immediately. They all three turned around. And we had just come through an area that was fine and nice. The roads were good. As we turned around, and I followed them, they got through, and the police car, the guy in the police car, the policeman said he saw my red four-wheel drive pickup get washed off the road as they made it and I didn't. So I was perfectly timed with a wall of water, essentially.

BALDWIN: How high was the wall of water with your car? How high did it go?

D. PULLEN: At that point, it was about, real quick, three feet. It hit the side of my door enough to be more powerful than speed I'm going, you know, five or ten miles an hour. It pushed me off the road so that I could no longer go forward. And I instantly go, OK, I'm stuck here.

BALDWIN: So you're stuck. You realize you need to call 911.

Hannah, to you, you know, you get this phone call from your dad. What did he say?

[15:40:05] H. PULLEN: Well, I was actually asleep already. And I just get a call. He never calls me, ever. So I know he called me and that was an emergency. So I called him right back after I missed the call. And he just kept saying that he was stuck and he don't know if he's going to be able to get out. He said this would probably be the last time you hear from me. And I thought I was dreaming. He was like -- and he was like, I don't know what to do. Just call your mother. Tell everybody I love them. It's probably going to be the last time I talk to you. And then I was like, what are you talking about, where are you at? And then he just told me where he was at. And you know, I just jumped out of bed real quick and took off over there. And ty the time I get there, I can't see nothing. There's cops everywhere. There's helicopters. I can't get ahold of him. So at that point, I just think that, you know, the worst has happened, you know. And finally, I got a call back from him saying that -- just to tell everybody that he loves them and that -- I don't know, that he probably couldn't get ahold of nobody no more. And this will be the last time that I hear from him.

BALDWIN: And you s there and you watched this rescue. I mean, Danny, all of the sudden, you have this black hawk helicopter heading your way. I understand they had to wait for about an hour, because just to wait for the right conditions to swoop in.

D. PULLEN: Right. Well, I had a state trooper helicopter that circled me a good hour, but they weren't able to rescue me. And as I'm sitting there in the truck, I'm watching the water rise to a point that I -- it's right up by my door window. And I realize I have to roll the window down and get up on the roof, or I'll be trapped in there. So I do that and get up standing on the roof and watch the water for the next half hour slowly rise until my windshield disappears.

I wind up standing in a three-square-foot area of roof. And there is nothing left and that's when I realize, this is over. Your whole life e does flash before your eyes. You go, if they don't come, I have no choice here. I'll either be swept away. If I jump off, it's over. You can't do anything in that kind of water. It controls you. So, I thought, well, OK. And I tried to call a bunch of people. Fortunately, I had this thing here saved my life.

BALDWIN: Cell phone.

D. PULLEN: And along with everything that followed it. I was able to immediately call 911 and tell them exactly where I was, told them it would only be a helicopter rescue that could save me and they got right on it. They answered real quick. They got right on it. But I waited on top of that roof for 45 minutes or so for that to come. And I lost all hope. And the water got right up on the roof and I'm going, well, I'm either going to jump or it's taking me away.

BALDWIN: Oh, my goodness. I cannot even begin to imagine, the two of you.

D. PULLEN: I was trying to get the right last best thought in my mind. That's where I was at and asking for another chance.

BALDWIN: And you got it. And I'm so grateful to be talking to you.

Just quickly, Danny, you have a personal connection with the way you were rescued and your father that's this whole other twist to the story.

D. PULLEN: Well, it's too incredible. I'm right close to what used to be Gary air force base as the crow flies, maybe a mile from there. I was born when we lived there in 1947. My dad had the very first helicopters that any military branch had. They brought them from Wright Patterson air force base in Illinois to there. He was the first air rescue helicopter people maybe on the planet. He had went around the world rescuing people. He prototyped the very thing that saved me.

BALDWIN: How about that?

D. PULLEN: He designed and prototyped the cable system to go down and pick people up where they could not land. And I'm a half a mile or a mile from where that all started to rescue me with that very method that my dad prototyped and designed.

BALDWIN: So a little piece of your dad.

D. PULLEN: And they took me and dropped me off at that air base. That's where I was born and where my dad initiated and started that very system.

BALDWIN: I'm sitting here listening to you and keep shaking my head. I mean, this entire story.

Danny and Hannah Pullen, thank you so much. I'm so grateful you're a- OK and together. I really appreciate it. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your memorial day Monday together. We'll be right back.

[15:40:05] D. PULLEN: Thank you. BALDWIN: You got it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:00] BALDWIN: Captain Wilson joins me now. Thank you so much for your service and for all you're doing with charities, helping PTSD suffers and families of fallen soldiers. Welcome.

Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: Read the piece where you were featured this morning in the "New York Times" and I think my first question being the fact that as I mentioned this really is still a male-dominated world in the military. You know, I imagine you knew going into it, it would be tough, but when did you realize how tough?

CAPT. COURTNEY WILSON, SAVED IN AFGHANISTAN IN 2010: I think in Afghanistan. It was just -- it was isolating when I was deployed. My soldiers were great but other things at play. And I think that when I was in Afghanistan and I saw all the guys around me, you know, bonding, going to the gym together and laughing. And I felt like I was left out. Just the isolation, I think, is the most difficult part. So definitely when I was in Afghanistan.

BALDWIN: Because you didn't have other, you know, female colleagues all at that one location where you were based. Correct?

WILSON: No. In my entire unit I think there might have been three or four other female officers.

BALDWIN: Wow.

WILSON: In my company I was the only female officer. So -- I was on my own. And then a platoon leader, I was the only female officer in my unit at that base, and -- I was pretty much on my own.

BALDWIN: So while you were there in Afghanistan, I think this was, what, half way through your deployment. You talk about writing an email home to a friend, saying you were determined not to take your own life. Why did it get so bad for you?

WILSON: I think just -- being alone. I felt, you know, I cared so much about my job and we were working like 16, 18-hour days, and it's just all of this constant stress and I felt there was never a way that I could release it. I didn't feel like I had anybody to talk to or just, you know, to let my guard down. So I was just always on, and, you know, when you do that for months on end, it just -- with no release, it definitely takes its toll.

BALDWIN: How did you get through it, Captain?

WILSON: I trained for a marathon and ran three hours a day, and worked out all the time and emailed my friends and family a lot.

BALDWIN: And that's what helped carry you through.

WILSON: Absolutely, yes.

BALDWIN: You came back -- so Fort Hood, that's when you really sort of -- I was reading about what your panic attacks and almost blinking out and not being able to breathe it got not bad for you and you got help. And what was that help? What did that enable you to do?

WILSON: It absolutely gave me my life back. I am the happiest person ever now and it's completely because the military stepped up and they gave me amazing resources there like do you want biofeedback, do you want to do yoga, medication, therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, just threw resources at me and I could not be happier with the service that I received. It absolutely -- it gave me my life back.

BALDWIN: Wonderful. That's wonderful. We know that and want more women to enter, you know, the forces. So I guess what would your message be to women wanting to sign up today?

WILSON: I would say, be authentic. I think that I spent way too much time caring about what other people thought and what type of leader they wanted me to be rather than understanding that I was competent and I was good and to just be myself. I wish that I had been more authentic.

BALDWIN: Quickly, I know you're out now. What's next for you?

WILSON: So I actually started my own fitness business. And I'm going to Babson College in Massachusetts to get my MBA. So hopefully open up a nonprofit gym that focuses on young women, and just getting them to understand the value of fitness and see how strong they are and lo for that to be led by female veterans.

BALDWIN: I love that idea. I love that idea.

WILSON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Captain Wilson, thank you so much. Thank you so much for your service to this country and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:00] BALDWIN: Today is a sacred day in America where we honor the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in one of America's most powerful ceremonies at one of the country's most hallowed ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For many of us, this Memorial Day is especially meaningful. It is the first since our war in Afghanistan came to an end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, your fellow Americans, lack the words to describe what you feel today, because try as we may and try as we do we can never fully know, but we do know what your sacrifice means to us. OBAMA: A sacrifice that preserves the freedoms we too often take for

granted. If you know what it's like to take a bullet for a buddy, or to live with the fact that he or she took one for you, that our gold- star families, our military families, our veterans, they know this intimately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tomorrow when you resume life's daily routines, take a moment to think of the families who will return home and leave their loved ones here in this sacred place. Think of the families of those brave souls in cemeteries at home and abroad, in unmarked graves on distant battlefields and in the tranquil blue seas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: For all the families remembering loved ones today, we are thinking about you. We are grateful for you and for them and their sacrifices.

That does it for me. John Berman is in for Jake Tapper. "The LEAD" starts now.