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Experts: More Testing Need to Confirm Piece from MH370; Legendary Horror Film Director Wes Craven Dies; Warning Signs Ignored in Boys Death. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired August 31, 2015 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00] NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is an oasis. Named after the palms. And it's part of the Middle East's heritage, of the human race's. And it's part of what ISIS is cleansing considering not fitting with their world vision. These are relics before the Prophet Mohammad was even alive and they don't want to see standing anymore. They are slowly moving through them. And also killing the Palmyra antiquities chief. They beheaded him in the public square and hung his body up. It's remarkable how they know no bounds -- Brooke?
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Beheading, and he was 81, 82 years old age, and refused to give up the locations of the antiquities that he spent his life preserving and protecting.
Nick Paton Walsh, thank you.
It has been a month now since part of an airplane wing washed ashore on this island off the Indian Ocean in Africa. Now French investigators are saying this. They still cannot verify that the Boeing 777 part did, in fact, come from the missing Malaysia Air flight 370. This, even though Malaysia Airlines flight is the only missing 777 is in the world, and even though Malaysia's prime minister confirmed it earlier this month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIA PRIME MINISTER: It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts have conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is, indeed, from MH370.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: CNN aviation and business correspondent, Richard Quest, is with me.
We sat here together that day --
RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: Right?
BALDWIN: -- and worked through the breaking news. Here you have the flaperon, basically believed to be that of this missing plane, and now this confusion. Can you please explain this to me? QUEST: Well, there was a plate, a serial number plate that was
supposed to be on it --
BALDWIN: Right.
QUEST: -- which wasn't there. It's widely believed to have washed off because it was in the sea for so long, but inside the flaperon, there's also various honey combing and various other parts.
BALDWIN: Identifying marks?
QUEST: Well, there should be batch numbers and there should be identifying parts inside the flaperon, which is why they had to open it up and we should have known from there but we believe -- we believe that the Spanish company that manufactured them is now saying that there is insufficient evidence having got the numbers to profits MH370. Whether they know that means they can't find the details or they lost the records or the records are incomplete, you're right to look like that. You're absolutely right to look like that. We just don't know. We are waiting for the French prosecutor's office to finally say yes or no MH370.
BALDWIN: Can the French prosecutor's office, when they come forward -- and we already heard what seemed pretty definitive a month ago. Will it be definitive for these families?
QUEST: Well, remember, after we heard the prime minister we heard the French prosecutor.
BALDWIN: Looser in his language.
QUEST: Saying highly likely, strong possibility, whatever the phrase was. What really -- if the French finally say we cannot confirm one way or -- definitively, definitively, then questions have to be asked why the prime minister said conclusively. You don't use a word "conclusively" if there's any doubt.
And what the doubt surrounds is some people say maintenance repairs do not quite match up with the maintenance repairs on the flaperon. Questions about the paint color, was that exactly the same color used by Malaysia Airlines. Then you have the inability to do -- but at some point -- and I know there's lots of theories out there. At some point, an element of common sense does come into this. That's in the absence of definitive proof otherwise. You have to start saying --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: It must be.
QUEST: It must be.
But, unfortunately, there's an entire industry out there that is determined to try and throw as much shaft into the air and somewhat perversely because it is perverse at the moment to doubt it's MH370 until somebody says it's not.
BALDWIN: So you believe it is?
QUEST: Well, I think the -- well, the high probability is that it is. Yes. Because there's none other missing. We know it hasn't fallen off a ship. You don't manufacture a dozen and put it into Walmart. It's built for a particular aircraft.
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: But I'm prepared to be wrong.
BALDWIN: I admire that in you, Richard Quest.
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Only a fool would tie themselves to the mass of this story.
[14:34:58]BALDWIN: We'll see what the French prosecutor says.
Richard Quest, thank you.
Next, Wes Craven, the creative mind behind the horror movies, is dead at the age of 76. How the industry will remember this legend of horror.
Plus, the tragic story of a 9-year-old boy. Could a series of red flags have saved his life? Red flags that he himself raised? Don't miss this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: He was the man behind the films that kept us up at night. I can attest to that, when I was much younger. Wes Craven has now died at the age of 76.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: The kids of Elm Street don't know it yet but something is coming to get them.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: There's something out there, isn't there?
(SCREAMING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[14:40:14] BALDWIN: I mean, oh, my goodness.
Craven is credited with defining the horror genre with "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series, and with "Scream" in the '90s, blurring the lines between reality and fiction. He died of brain cancer. He was surrounded by his family.
Louis Peitzman, senior entertainment editor for Buzzfeed, joins me from Los Angeles with more on this.
I was one of those people who was kept awake at night, sleepovers in elementary school, Freddy Crougar freaked me out. But I haven't seen it in years.
LOUIS PEITZMAN, SENIOR ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, BUZZFEED: The trailer still terrifies me, by the way. I'm glad you played that before I went on.
BALDWIN: You're welcome.
PEITZMAN: But, yeah, it is terrifying. I think a lot of that is because he played so much with reality and fantasy and it's really scary for us. In "scream" as well, he broke the fourth wall in a way that we find confronting.
BALDWIN: I mean, he was petrified, yet you're still sitting there gripping your pillow watching these films. For someone to be able to come up with these sorts of films and direct them, what was he like, you know, in his non-film life? Was he just like another regular guy or not at all?
PEITZMAN: Well, he was brilliant. He was a college professor briefly and also studied psychology so I think that explains a lot of where he was coming from. The story behind "Nightmare on Elm Street" was also terrifying. It was based on refugees having nightmares that they died during and they couldn't figure out what was happening and used that as inspiration for the movie. So the real-life story is also really scary.
BALDWIN: OK. That is frightening. I didn't know that. He told my colleague -- John Berman interviewed him -- and he told John, "Everybody has a little homicidal maniac in him." There's something about that that makes you appreciate watching horror movies?
PEITZMAN: I'm a big horror fan and I try to be a big out of that. He worried about the effects that it was having on children and whether he was leaving a negative legacy in some way. But I think the films speak for themselves and I think they are appreciated in their own way, which is not homicidal maniacs.
BALDWIN: Who was he passing the horror movie torch to, do you think?
PEITZMAN: I think Kevin Williamson really took what Wes Craven had done and made that more contemporary and then you have a movie like "cabin in the woods" and it was about horror films themselves and I think that is all sort of Wes Craven making this -- crossing those boundaries and showing us that we can still be funny and scary.
BALDWIN: I don't think I've seen a really, really, really scary movie since, you know, his. So I think we'll stay with Wes Craven forever, then.
Louis Peitzman, thank you so much, Buzzfeed senior entertainment editor. Thank you so much.
Coming up next, there's a story we really --
PEITZMAN: Thank you.
BALDWIN: You're welcome.
-- we really wanted to share with you today. The story of a 9-year- old boy who raised warning signs about his life at home. We even have a video of a visit from police. But this little boy has died. We're going to have and play for you these 911 calls that prosecutors say were ignored.
Plus, a CNN exclusive, what the parents of slain journalist, Alison Parker, told us about their daughter and their long road ahead to bring a halt to gun violence.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:48:42] BALDWIN: I want to know what happened to Omaree Varela because his short, only 9 years of life, shows what happens when adults ignore a call for help. There were many, many calls in young Omaree's life. 2012 records indicate that he reached out to adults at his school in New Mexico, telling them his mom had hit him in the head with a phone and a bat. The school reportedly shared the information with state officials. Fast forward the next year, there's a 911 call from Omaree's home. We're talking about Omaree because the trial is getting under way. Six months after that 911 call, Omaree was kicked to death in his own home.
Let me bring in CNN's Ana Cabrera, who is following this case for us.
Tell me, why were these warning signs ignored?
[14:49:34] ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is just so disturbing on many levels, Brooke. Omaree was just 9 years old. He apparently was a brave little boy, reached out for help a number of times and the system failed him. In fact, his mother, after their arrest of both his mother and stepfather, who are currently facing charges in his death, the mother said on camera that the boy's death, she says, was an accident and that she was trying to discipline him and accidently kicked him the wrong way.
Now, the police investigation revealed this was likely not the first time Omaree was abused.
It was six months, as you mentioned, right before his death, that there was a 911 call made from the family home. It's unclear right now who made that 911 call. The phone line was just left open.
But it's really disturbing when you listen to what transpires in the call. You hear a lot of yelling. You hear adults threatening a child, of taking physical abuse action. You hear a child saying, "Please stop." And it's hard to understand what else is going on because there's so much swearing, but I want to play a clip of that 911 call to get you a better sense of what happened.
(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)
STEVE CASAUS, STEP-FATHER OF OMAREE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
OMAREE VARELA, WAS BEATEN TO DEATH: Please, stop! CASAUS: (EXPLETIVE DELETED). (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
SYNTHIA VARELA-CASAUS, OTHER OF OMAREE: You brought this on yourself, Omaree. Because you (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
CASAUS: All I asked was you but you can't even do that for me or your mother.
(END AUDIO FEED)
CABRERA: Now, there are a couple of officers who are dispatched to follow up on that 911 call. Their interaction with the family is all recorded on one of the officer's lapel cameras.
Listen to what one of the officers says as they are walking up to the phone to confront the family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: The 911 lady sent me a call and said, if I want to hear the call, how bad it was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: So you heard when the officers say that the 911 dispatcher told them to listen to the call, but they did not before responding. So when they talked to the parents, the parents say, oh, it must have been an accident, that the 911 call was probably made by one of the children who was playing with the phone and must have been a misunderstanding. The officers seem to buy the parents' story. Three children are standing with the parents as they are discussing this with them, but the officers leave and they fail to ask any questions to the children separately or directly even. They tell the parents that they seem like a nice family and the officers leave without taking any further action.
BALDWIN: Oh!
CABRERA: Now, after Omaree's death, the police chief said he had not heard about this 911 call. There were definitely some changes that they've implemented since then. One of those officers was fired. The other was disciplined, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. They would not provide the specifics because it's an internal matter. And the mayor, also outraged, put together is a child prevention task force that offers recommendations on how police can better do their jobs in these types of cases. But sadly, all of that is too late for Omaree -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: Nine years of age. Let's cover the trial. Follow it for us, Ana Cabrera.
Thank you.
Next, for the first time, days after tragically losing her daughter, we are now hearing from WDBJ Reporter Alison Parker's mother. In a CNN exclusive, she and Alison's father speak at length about their daughter and their new mission in life.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:57:29] BALDWIN: The parents of Alison Parker, one of the young journalists murdered on live television last week, say they will not be pushed aside. Barbara and Andy Parker have already met with several gun control advocates and they say, unlike shootings in the past, their daughter's story must bring about change.
They sat down exclusively with my colleague, Poppy Harlow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA PARKER, MOTHER OF ALISON PARKER: She was absolutely the best of both of us. We're both passionate about what we do. Passionate about the arts, passionate about the things that we feel are right and important and she -- she had that. She had that passion from day one.
ANDY PARKER, FATHER OF ALISON PARKER; And now we're passionate about a new mission. And that's a -- you know, it's the only thing that has given me strength right now that -- to take on this cause because I know that somewhere she'd be looking down and saying, you go, dad, you're -- this is what she would want me to do.
BARBARA PARKER: We cannot be intimidated. We cannot be pushed aside. We cannot be told that this fight has been fought before and we're just one more grieving family trying to do something. Can you look your child in the eye and say, we're willing to allow you to be collateral damage in order to keep what some people perceive as their constitutional rights? If we as a society are willing to accept that, what kind of society are we?
ANDY PARKER: Every time there's been one of these tragedies, we say, well, this is the tipping point. After Gabby Giffords was shot, you think something has got to be done. This time I think the circumstances of this tragedy, they are different. They are different this time. It has been not just another -- you know, well, gee, a gunman goes and -- it's all horrific but because of who Alison was and, you know, she was a rock star and she has such potential. Alison would be really mad at me if I didn't take this on and, I promise you, and I've said this time and again, these people are messing with the wrong family.
