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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
House of Horrors; Dad Cuts Plea Deal Aired; New Outrage; Sex Assault Fallout; Booze Bust; CNN Heroes. 8-9p ET
Aired August 24, 2017 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST (voice-over): Gone without a trace at eight months pregnant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s very unlike her to just up and disappear like that.
BANFIELD: She`d just gone upstairs to help a neighbor, and no one saw her again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any details at all will help. Even just the littlest details can help a lot.
BANFIELD: Now an astonishing development.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My heart`s broke. I mean...
BANFIELD: A baby is heard crying in an upstairs apartment as police rope off an entire building and are seen rescuing an infant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s a woman (ph).
BANFIELD: But where is the mom?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we`re dealing with some fairly disturbed individuals here.
BANFIELD: There was something odd about those old unmarried brothers up the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It instantly sparked our interest.
BANFIELD: Living together and busted together for a mountain of kiddie porn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Writing detail not only some of the sexual abuse, the interest in young female children.
BANFIELD: And police say it could just be the tip of the iceberg.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But in their mind, it is normal.
BANFIELD: Now cops are looking at missing children in the area. Could they have ended up here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It fits the profile of a number of people that we`ve looked at.
BANFIELD: Who would murder a tiny little boy and leave him face down near a stream?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It showed me that maybe his spirit told them to (INAUDIBLE)
BANFIELD: His dad spins story after story as details emerge his 17-year- old girlfriend didn`t like kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) she didn`t like kids (INAUDIBLE)
BANFIELD: He may have skated through his first trial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really believe that they couldn`t prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
BANFIELD: But now he`s copping to the crime. It was him all along.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no!
BANFIELD: So what will happen to the dad who choked the life out of his son? And where did that girlfriend end up?
Talk about the ultimate shopaholic, this woman is on camera stuffing bottles and bottles of booze where the sun don`t shine. But she couldn`t
avoid the flashbulb of the mugshot.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Good evening. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.
There`s a story coming out of Fargo, North Dakota, tonight with details so hair-raising that even the famous Hollywood movie bearing that same name,
"Fargo," can`t compare. Last night, it was a developing mystery. Tonight, it`s a full-blown crime.
But one thing is for certain. We may just be one step closer to finding a young pregnant woman who vanished somewhere between two floors of her own
apartment building. Savanna Greywind reportedly went upstairs to help a neighbor with a dress, and that was the last anyone saw of her.
Today, however, while police have not yet found Savanna, who was due to give birth in a month, they did find something else.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID TODD, FARGO, ND, DEPARTMENT: When we conducted the search warrant at the suspect residence, we discovered an infant that appears to be a newborn
infant. At this point in time, we`re not able to confirm if that newborn infant is Savanna Greywind`s child or not, and at this time we do not have
information that tells us where Savanna Greywind is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: That baby as yet is unidentified. No idea if it`s Savanna`s baby. Two people are also being detained. No idea who they are. And in
some kind of an effort to answer the more burning questions, like what happened to Savanna and where is Savanna, they have now roped off that
entire apartment building while they search top to bottom.
Ashley Iona-Hunt is Savanna Greywind`s aunt, and she joins me live right now. Ashley, you hearing anything more about what they discovered in that
apartment upstairs and who that little baby is?
ASHLEY IONA-HUNT, SAVANNA GREYWIND`S AUNT (via telephone): (INAUDIBLE)
BANFIELD: They`re not telling you anything? They`re not informing you as they search through that building?
IONA-HUNT: No. I`m busy (ph) over here at the reservation. We`re setting up candlelight vigils and (INAUDIBLE) ceremonies to see if they could help
us find her.
BANFIELD: Ashley, what did your family say? How did you all react when you found out today that they went into that apartment and they found a
baby, a newborn baby in that suspicious apartment? How did you all react?
IONA-HUNT: I was actually in the store when my mother-in-law called, gave me the news. It was upsetting. (INAUDIBLE) tell the kids. They`re all
finding out on their own through Facebook. I can`t bring myself to tell my baby, Odessa (ph). Odessa is really close with her.
BANFIELD: Ashley...
IONA-HUNT: I can`t talk about it with my family. It`s hard.
[20:05:02]BANFIELD: Ashley, do you all suspect that this is your niece`s child? Do you all believe that this just might be Savanna`s baby, given
that she was due to give birth in less than a month?
IONA-HUNT: I can`t -- I want to believe it`s the baby, but I don`t know. We have to wait and find out.
BANFIELD: Are the police helping you to get through this burning question, if they found a baby, where is Savanna? Are they helping with you that at
all?
IONA-HUNT: It seems to me, yes. I can`t tell from over here (INAUDIBLE) and I`m not with the family in Fargo, but it seems to me that they`re
helping a lot.
BANFIELD: Have they talked to Savanna`s boyfriend, the father of this baby? They were due to move in together in just a very short time. They
were due to get their own apartment. They were having a baby together, and in just a few short weeks. Have they talked to him as to whether this may
be his baby?
IONA-HUNT: I`m pretty sure they did. I haven`t talked to with him. Like I said, I`m over here at Spirit Lake and they`re in Fargo.
BANFIELD: And in the candlelight vigil you said you`re attending tonight, tell me what`s happening there.
IONA-HUNT: No, it`s going to be tomorrow, tomorrow night late.
BANFIELD: I hope the best for you as you await answers in this. And it is just such a fast-moving story at this time.
I want to bring in Jay Thomas, if I can. He`s the host of "The Jay Thomas Show" on 970 WDAY radio. Jay, your station has been doing some very good
gumshoe work on getting details in this story. Do you know anything more news tonight about what happened?
JAY THOMAS, WDAY (via telephone): No, at this point, we do not. Our reporters are still out on multiple scenes. And no, Ashleigh, at this
point, we don`t know any more.
BANFIELD: So, Jay, what we`ve we heard is that witnesses actually saw the police as they executed that warrant. They went into an apartment
upstairs, and they emerged from that apartment with a little bundle, a baby. And it appeared to be a newborn baby. And the police are confirming
they have what appears to be a newborn baby. Do we know anything more about what those witnesses saw after that?
THOMAS: No. All we know -- what we know is the witnesses saw law enforcement come out with a baby, newborn baby. During my show this
afternoon, we had reports from our reporters on the scene that had talked to family members that were in that command vehicle that law enforcement
has out there that the baby was healthy, And that was all we could get.
BANFIELD: So Jay, the suspect here -- well, there are two people being detained. Do we know who they are? And do they have anything to do with
that apartment where the baby was recovered?
THOMAS: We know that there are two people that have been detained, that are being questioned. At this point, we do not have names. There are
rumors floating around from other media sources as to the name of these people, but I`m not going to give those names because it`s a rumor, and I
don`t want to hurt the investigation at all. But we do know it`s one man and one woman.
BANFIELD: And again, we can`t connect them to that particular residence where the baby was found? We don`t know that to be true?
THOMAS: From what we understand from this afternoon, yes, they are up in that residence.
BANFIELD: They were in that residence. Is there one other thing you can confirm for me. And as we go over the timeline of what happened here,
Savanna reportedly gets a request from the neighbor two floors up to come up and give her a hand with a dress fitting. She orders a pizza, Savanna,
and the pizza is there waiting for her. So clearly, she would not have thought she was going to be up there long.
But when she went up, that was the last anyone saw of her. Her brother went upstairs at 2:30 in the afternoon, about an hour after her texts went
dark, knocked on the door, no one answered. Her dad then went up later, knocked on the door. The woman answered and said they`re not finished.
Still have work to do. After that, the mother goes upstairs, knocks on the door, and whomever answered said Savanna had left.
Do we know this to be the exact apartment we`re dealing with? Is this the place where they executed that warrant, found a baby and arrested two
people?
THOMAS: From what we understand, it was an upstairs apartment. And from some reports, that the apartment was an upstairs apartment, but it was not
the apartment directly above it. It was an apartment upstairs, but over on the other side of the building.
Those are some of the reports that are out there. Again, none of this right now, the exact apartment, is confirmed, but we do know that it was an
apartment upstairs. We do know that from tips, some neighbors came forward that did not live on that same level, but lived on another level that that
afternoon, when the text messages stopped, a couple came forward that lived there and said that they were ready to leave and they we heard a bunch of
thumping and loud noises from the bathroom upstairs and then heard the shower running.
[20:10:25]BANFIELD: There was also a report that neighbors heard a baby`s cry, is that true?
THOMAS: That`s what brought law -- that was the tip that got law enforcement there.
BANFIELD: OK. Speaking of law enforcement, as you look at some of -- well, you know, these pictures that we keep running on a loop -- there are
so few pictures at this point, because the officers you see carrying, you know, water and evidence and it looks like animal cages out of here, the
Fargo police have surrounded that facility, that entire building with crime tape, and not letting anybody in or out. Could be another whole 24 hours
before they do.
The chief, David Todd, talked about the full court that they`re just descending upon this building, and the resources they`re dedicating to this
story. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: The Fargo Police Department has put all of its resources towards solving this case from the beginning. We`ve had 35 detectives, four
sergeants, two lieutenants and a deputy chief overseeing this investigation. We`ve also asked for assistance from outside agencies and
used three aircraft, watercraft and K-9s in trying to find Savanna Greywind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: K-9s? You`d think that the K-9s might have found something yesterday because they searched that apartment already. And now all of a
sudden today, they`re finding a brand-newborn baby in there.
This is Savanna`s mom. Just so you know the human factor here, the human detritus that`s left behind when this kind of thing happens. This is
Savanna`s mom. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NORBERTA GREYWIND, SAVANNA`S MOTHER: Looking forward to my first grandbaby. Now I don`t know!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: And just a little bit more from Savanna`s mom and Savanna`s sister about what they`ve been doing when they don`t have information and
all they can do is wait and hope. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAYLA GREYWIND, SISTER: We`re waiting for her to walk in. We need her home.
NORBERTA GREYWIND: It feels like a dream. My heart`s broke. I mean...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: I want to bring in former FBI agent and investigator Steve Moore. Steve, a couple of questions. When you saw that building cordoned
off, I want to know what it means to go top to bottom. When they go top to bottom, are they looking trash chutes? Are they looking in back dumpsters?
Are they looking in the basement boiler? Are they looking in every single nook and cranny to find out if maybe, just maybe Savanna might be there?
STEVE MOORE, FORMER FBI AGENT, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, yes, Ashleigh, the answer to your question is yes, they`re doing all of that.
But right now, in the absence of Savanna being there, they are probably testing every single room in that entire complex for any type of fluids.
They`re using luminol to pick up latent blood that`s been cleaned up, if there is such a thing in that room.
The problem here -- or not the problem, the interesting thing to me is I`ve never seen anybody go into a building and evacuate the entire building
before they started searching. This leads me to believe that there could be multiple actors in this building.
BANFIELD: Wow.
MOORE: That`s an extraordinary -- that`s an extraordinary thing.
BANFIELD: So the issue that I am sort of confused over is that they searched this apartment. They already searched this apartment. And you
just we heard Chief David Todd saying 35 detectives, four sergeants, two lieutenants, A deputy chief, K-9s, aircraft. Where were the K-9s? Why
wouldn`t the K-9s have struck on something yesterday in that apartment when the searches were done before today?
MOORE: Well, we don`t know that they didn`t, Ashleigh. I mean, it`s very possible that the police aren`t telling us everything that they found. For
instance, the search warrant was addressed to suspects in this crime. Well, obviously, now they believe there is a crime. She hasn`t just run
away, obviously. They have a suspect. So they went there.
The reading I`ve been doing this afternoon tells me that she and her family lived on the first floor. The boyfriend lived on the second floor. And
the apartment two she went to was on the third floor. So -- and then the baby was found back on the second floor.
And think about this. Everybody`s in the building. The police come, they evacuate the building, and that baby was left behind by whoever had the
baby.
[20:15:00]BANFIELD: So I still don`t have confirmation, though, Steve, that the baby was on the second floor or third floor. It`s still very
complicated as to which -- but I do have to ask you this quickly.
MOORE: But they did evacuate the building.
BANFIELD: Exactly. There is a newborn baby in the custody of child protective services right now. And there may just be a father, Savanna`s
boyfriend. How quickly can they figure out if this is his baby? How quickly can they be reunited. DNA doesn`t happen immediately. They got to
do something.
MOORE: Well, this can happen in the course of less than a week, I think, to get a real good hit on something like this. People have to donate their
-- you know, they have to agree to take samples.
BANFIELD: Sure, they`re going to do that. They`re going to do that. But how fast can they find out who is this baby and is this Savanna`s baby,
which then leaves us to now find Savanna? You`re saying this can be done inside a week?
MOORE: I think this is easily done in a week. But the thing is, they`re not going to hand the baby over to the boyfriend.
BANFIELD: Really?
MOORE: Not until -- I think the baby will probably stay in protective custody until they find something else because somebody in that building
the police believe was responsible for this. (INAUDIBLE) hand it over.
BANFIELD: Well, I`ll tell you what. I`m going to leave it on that note. But I`m also going to say this, so far, that boyfriend is not a suspect in
this case.
MOORE: You`re right.
BANFIELD: He has not been named a suspect in this case. He`s not facing charges. As far as we know, he is a very upset and grieving father to be,
and maybe, just maybe a father.
Steve Moore, thank you. Jay Thomas, thank you. And Ashley Iona-Hunt, thank you so much.
Three elderly brothers busted for kiddie porn. But if those crimes weren`t disgusting enough, police say their sexual abuse may have been going on for
years. And why investigators think those old brothers with the long gray beards may just be linked to a high-profile missing child case.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:20:52]BANFIELD: You know that house nearby, down the street, just gives you the willies, and those neighbors who just don`t seem quite right?
Sometimes, you really need to go with your gut, especially if you live in Green Lake, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.
The neighbor says they just didn`t know what to make of the three aging and unmarried brothers who lived together in this house for more than 50 years.
They had those cliche long gray beards, ZZ Top-like. And they showed a particular interest in little girls around town.
And now police are showing a particular interest in them because a niece of theirs unearthed some pretty disturbing stuff among the junk that they`ve
been hoarding in that house for decades. They say Charles, Thomas and Edwin Emery kept a mountain of child pornography and children`s toys and
children`s clothing, used, including underwear. It is suspected and feared that they spent most of their lives sexually abusing children.
Police say the brothers began long ago by molesting their own sister, and then later other young relatives. Another piece of this mystery -- a
fourth brother lived about a half hour away before he died recently. Police say they found a flyer at his house for a little girl named Lindsey
Baum. And Lindsey Baum has been missing since 2009. Her disappearance set off a nationwide search.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SCOTT, GRAYS HARBOR COUNTY, WA, SHERIFF: And we`re certainly very interested in what`s developing in the searches that will be conducted and
have been conducted at that Shelton property. They would have had an opportunity to be in the McCleary area at the time of Lindsey`s
disappearance. They certainly would have been the type of people that would have victimized a girl her age.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: I want to bring in Captain Mike Edwards from the Seattle Police Department. He`s the head of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task
Force.
Captain, Charles, Thomas and Edwin, 82, 80 and 78 years old respectively. Where are they right now? And are they talking?
MIKE EDWARDS, SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT CAPTAIN (via telephone): They are in custody right now. So they`re in the King County jail. And at this
time, they are not talking. They were talking with us at the very start of the investigation. At this point in time, they`ve now stopped talking to
us.
BANFIELD: Does that mean they retained counsel, they lawyered up?
EDWARDS: They did. Yes, indeed.
BANFIELD: Before they did that, Captain -- look, people at 82, 80 and 78 can be all senses (ph) of their wits. Were they talking? And were they
giving you a lot of good intel?
EDWARDS: So they were at first. They were also doing everything they could to minimize and diminish the crimes that they have committed, the
child pornography, their interest in children, all of that. So there was...
BANFIELD: ... How so?
EDWARDS: ... a lot of effort and just...
BANFIELD: How do you mitigate that? Give me an example. How on earth do you mitigate that? How do you suggest that there`s anything wrong with
that?
EDWARDS: Well, you know, I really can`t tell you how you do it. But they were certainly making an effort to. It`s not something that we were buying
at all. But jut simply, you know, saying, Well, no, it`s not something I was -- you know, I had it around me, but I wasn`t interested in it. It`s
something that was available, but I wasn`t, you know, using it, I mean things like that, which makes no sense at all, especially with the amount
of material they had, the fact that they clearly were very obsessed and had been obsessed for many, many years with young girls.
BANFIELD: Captain Edwards, TV news people like me use hyperbole all the time when we talk mountains of evidence, etc. How much stuff are we
talking about here?
EDWARDS: Oh, my gosh. This house is one of the worst houses I`ve been in. I`ve been doing -- I`ve been in law enforcement for 37 years. These
individuals didn`t throw anything away. And so virtually every image that they collected along the way, they kept it.
Nothing was well organized, to say the least, but it was stacks upon stacks upon stacks of materials, photographs, printed materials that they would
print out from the internet using their computer and their printer. And it was all over the house.
[20:25:08]BANFIELD: What about the artifacts, like the children`s clothing and the underwear and the toys? As I understand, Captain, they were even
unearthed. I saw them digging in the yard. There were things literally everywhere. Have you been able to get a strike on any of that stuff that
might lead you to some cold cases?
EDWARDS: Not as of yet. But we`re still in the very earliest stages of this. I mean, we took so much stuff out of these -- both of these houses,
the house in Seattle, the house in Shelton, that just organizing this large, vast amount of material is taking its own time.
We`re going through everything very carefully with a fine-tooth comb, so to speak, to ensure that there are references to names, that we identify those
names, that we, you know, are working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to have all of the names that we find run through
them, as well as other database systems. We`re working with both the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Homeland Security investigations.
They`re assisting us in all of this because we just have so much material to go through, the photographs that these guys have. I mean, they -- a
large cache of photographs that were still -- that`s going to take us quite a while to get through all of it.
BANFIELD: Captain, you know how it works, though. You come upon a trove like this, and you can have a room full of detectives who go silent with
the knowledge of they have in their possession, and what this could do for them. Do you have that sense of either doom or at least hope for the
resolution of what had been doom for so many families?
EDWARDS: You know, we always have hope. I mean, that`s what we`re in the business of, is to find the truth, uncover it, where there has been a crime
committed, to solve it, and out of that, hopefully, give closures to families, to individuals.
We have no idea where this is going to ultimately lead us. We do know that we`ve got good cases of the child pornography procession on them. We know
that they have abused family members over many, many years, and although much of that was years and years ago and it`s no longer chargeable because
it`s past the statute of limitations, it may lead us to other crimes, as well.
So we`re investigating every aspect of this in the hopes of being able to solve as many crimes as we can.
BANFIELD: And I`m hoping you`re able to get witness and even potential victims who can come forward.
I want to actually play a part of an interview from someone named Carly Rose, who had interactions with Charles Emery when she was 8 years old,
about 20 years ago. And they are crystal clear in her mind. And she was kind enough to articulate this. It may be helpful as you move forward in
this investigation. Let`s hear Carly Rose, what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLY ROSE, INTERACTED WITH CHARLES EMERY AS A CHILD: I just felt weird. It`s, like, why is this man that I don`t know giving me things? As a kid,
I was like, OK, cool. I`ll take this gift.
Showed up at our house with a photograph of myself and my sister, like a family photo. And my mom didn`t know how he got it, but he wanted to see
both of us. He brought a dress, he wanted a used dress, a used little girl`s dress. He wanted my sister to try it on and he wanted to see her in
it. And my mom said no. He brought me a pack of stationary and he said that there`s a Catch-22 to this gift, that you have to write me letters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: So knowing that, clearly, you start thinking about the other missing kids. And Lindsey Baum went missing in 2009. I traveled out
there. I interviewed her mom. I walked those streets Lindsey went missing on a short walk from her friend`s house home -- and the devastation that
wracked that community.
I want to play for you, Melissa Baum, her mom, not -- well, you know, two years after her daughter had gone missing, but just how that stands with
you. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELISSA BAUM, MISSING GIRL`S MOTHER: I knew something was wrong by 10:00 o`clock, when we couldn`t find her, even though I kept thinking maybe she
had gotten sidetracked and -- or ran into another friend and was maybe up at the park, or you know, somewhere right there close by and just not
paying attention to the time. But we were out looking for her and calling her friends, trying to find her. But by the time dark set in, I was in a
panic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: That`s Melissa Baum talking to Nancy Grace about the disappearance of her husband, still unsolved, Lindsey Baum, which brings me
to -- you know, I was just going to say which brings me to Steve Bloomer (ph), unfortunately, with McCleary`s police department, but we just lost
our connection with him. If we could reestablish it, I`d love to get Steve Bloomer`s connection just to find out where this goes from here and what
connection he`s making to the case that`s happening not far away from him.
In the meantime, I want to bring in Levi Pulkkinen, who is a senior editor of Seattlepi.com. Levi, [20:30:00] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, PRIMETIME JUSTICE
SHOW HOST: . pi.com. Levi, this community must be, well, slightly shocked but at the same time not surprised given how strange this house was to so
many neighbors.
LEVI PULKKINEN, SENIOR EDITOR, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER: Yes. I think that shock is the word for it. The idea that these men had been living
there and collecting the kind of material that they were caught with for so long, it`s jarring.
I mean, Green Lake is one of the kind of nicest quaintest neighborhoods in the city and not that any place expects to have people like this, but it`s
an area that has, you know, a lot of parks and a lot of places where people would congregate, let their children run free.
And just the knowledge that these guys appear to have been engaged in generational abuse, it`s all very concerning. It`s setting aside the
manifestos and the writings and all that.
BANFIELD: And, you know, you are the senior editor of the Seattle Post- Intelligencer now, but at the time that Lindsey Baum went missing, you were actually working as a local reporter in the community of McCleary. I think
we actually have Chief Steve Blumer back on the line. If you can hear me, chief, are you there? Are we establish with you?
STEVE BLUMER, POLICE CHIEF, MCCLEARY POLICE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Yes, I can hear you now.
BANFIELD: Oh, thank you, chief. The chief is at the McCleary Washington Police Department. So, clearly, chief, the biggest question I have for you
is about Lindsey Baum. I covered that case. I talked to a lot of the detectives who are working on that case. Everybody was stumped.
Now there`s this, there`s this happening with these three aging men, these brothers; Charles, Thomas, and Edwin Emery. Do you have hope you may
actually have a break in the case of Lindsey or is this just something you are starting on?
BLUMER (via telephone): We definitely have hope since the investigation has been going on since 2009. I have been working with the Grays Harbor
Sheriff`s Office there. I am contacting with Sheriff Rick Scott out there probably on a weekly basis because we get tips on a weekly basis. I can
kind of weed a lot of those out, on the information we are receiving, that we can tell they`re not credible by the information they`re providing.
But in the leads that we`ve seen that might be credible, I`ll contact the sheriff and also the FBI agent in charge out of Olympia (ph) to assist my
department. My department is so small, we actually don`t even have detectives to go handle it and follow up on this sort of investigation,
that`s why the sheriff`s office, the lead agent there --
BANFIELD: If I can, chief, I want to put up a map of the distance between where Lindsey went missing. You see that down below, approximately where
Lindsey found, the last known location in McCleary, about 20 miles northeast is the home of that fourth brother, where her missing person`s
flier was found.
And then 90 miles northeast of that is where his three other brothers lived. I guess the question is, at the time when Lindsey Baum went missing,
did you ever have an inclination, an idea or a suggestion to check out that home of the one brother or that home of the three brothers, considering
they were so suspicious back then?
BLUMER (via telephone): Me, personally, at that time actually wasn`t the chief here when this happened.
BANFIELD: Did anybody -- was any police division, the sheriff`s department, the McCleary police, did anybody check them out with regard to Lindsey
Baum`s disappearance?
BLUMER (via telephone): I wouldn`t be able to answer that because I wasn`t here at that time.
BANFIELD: Isn`t it in the file?
BLUMER (via telephone): I don`t have the file. I said the Grays Harbor Sheriff`s Office is the lead agency, so they actually have the case file.
When this initially happened, we contacted the Grays Harbor Sheriff`s Office, since we usually only have one officer in at a time.
We called all the three officers in, but even with only four officers, limited resources, the sheriff`s office stepped in and Rick Scott at that
time was the undersheriff and he actually had command and control --
BANFIELD: I remember.
BLUMER (via telephone): -- contact the FBI.
BANFIELD: I look at that age progression, it`s unbelievable. I do remember that department of yours was so small. I wish you the best luck, Chief
Blumer. My thanks to Levi Pulkkinen and also to Captain Mike Edwards for joining me. I sure hope that they make some progress on that case.
A father on trial for killing his son to be with his teenage girlfriend now admits he did it. Just admitted it. But a jury is not going to hear that
case. He copped a plea, and it`s a real sweetheart of a deal. It will keep him out of prison for the rest of his life. David Creato`s attorney joins
me next.
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Is it right for a baby killer to serve just 10 years? What if that baby killer killed his own baby? Because that`s what the people of New
Jersey are being forced to swallow, an alarming plea deal, just announced in a headline making murder case, David Creato killed his little three-
year-old Brendan.
And I can say that for sure now, even though his first trial ended in a hung jury, because rather than facing a second jury, David Creato decided
to fess up and he just went ahead and admitted it. He killed his own little baby boy. That laughing, smiling, baby boy.
We all wondered if David was the one who killed Brendan and then dumped his little body still in his jammies and his socks in the woods face down near
a creek. Brendan was slumped over a rock not far from
[20:40:00] Creato`s apartments in New Jersey. And now in retrospect, when the detectives informed him that they just found his son dead, just watch
him, watch his reaction. And the unbelievable act that that monster performed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m sorry, sir.
DAVID CREATO, PLEADED GUILTY TO MANSLAUGHTER: He`s my best friend. I love him so much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: You did, huh? You loved him so much. Best friend. What`s equally sickening here, his possible motive. His 17-year-old girlfriend, yes, 17,
was away at college and didn`t like kids, least of all his. He seemed afraid that she was going to leave him. So you might expect that Creato
would be put away for a really long time, right?
But he pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter, not murder. And next month, he`ll be sentenced to about, ready? Ten years. Ten years.
Under oath, all he would say is he deprived Brendan of oxygen and showed extreme indifference to the boy`s life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMANTHA DENOTO, MOTHER OF BRENDAN CREATO: He was a big crazy ball of joy. He was the kind of kid that you would -- just huge (INAUDIBLE). He would
just go. Even though no one really knew who he was, they still knew he was a great kid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: If Creato had been tried and convicted of murder, he could have actually received a life sentence. I want to bring in David Creato`s
attorney, Richard Fuschino Jr. Richard, how did you get this deal? How on earth did they agree to this deal?
RICHARD FUSCHINO JR., ATTORNEY FOR DAVID CREATO: Ashleigh, I think the answer is really simple. The deal is a direct product of the fact that we
went to trial and the prosecution was unable to prove my client`s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
BANFIELD: How did he kill Brendan? How did he kill him?
FUSCHINO JR.: The facts that are on the record are that he recklessly caused his death.
BANFIELD: Yes. How did he recklessly cause his death? Off the record or at least on television, how did he recklessly cause his death?
FUSCHINO JR.: That death is not an answer that the court has.
BANFIELD: Will we get that? Because we, the people, are pretty pissed off. I mean, prosecutors are supposed to protect us, too. And I can`t believe
that a guy like that and killed that little boy won`t even tell us how.
FUSCHINO JR.: Well, you use this phrase he killed him. He has not pleaded guilty to murder. He has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, to recklessness.
And he is saying in that plea is that it is his conduct that resulted in Brendan`s death and --
BANFIELD: Which is why I`m asking how it happened.
FUSCHINO JR.: -- he obviously felt extraordinary guilt.
BANFIELD: Yes. Those words -- I mean, you understand, Richard, like those words aren`t good with me. I want to know how it happened. Did he do it
because of the girlfriend? Was that the motive? Didn`t want the 17-year-old to leave him?
FUSCHINO JR.: There is no motive on the record. There is no motive on the record. There is no specifics on the record. What is on the record is that
there is a deal that instead of risking potentially the rest of his life in jail, that he`s going to do at least 85 percent of a 10-year sentence and
that he`s going to get credit for the almost two years that he has in.
BANFIELD: So let me bring Joey Jackson into this real quickly. He`s a defense attorney. I know this is the kind of thing you want. But how do you
get it?
JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, CNN AND HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.
BANFIELD: How is this OK?
JACKSON: It`s not OK. So let me say two things. First of all, credit to the attorney, it`s not easy getting a mistrial. You know, he did that. As a
result of it, there must be some lack of evidence that the prosecution has. Having said that, I think it is a letdown for the people certainly in New
Jersey and I think anywhere.
The fact is that a prosecutor has a responsibility and apparently there is some evidence or something that they don`t have confidence in their case
that they can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, hence you get this.
And what I found also interesting in looking at that time statute, apparently it`s a 10 to 30-year sentence to get a 10-year plea deal. What I
am also interested in, two things, Ashleigh, number one, with the breakdown was that jury the first time in terms of when it was hung. And the second
thing is, you know, how on earth did he get the low end of the 10-year deal --
BANFIELD: Right.
JACKSON: -- with this aggravated manslaughter?
BANFIELD: So, real quickly, Richard, can a judge reject this? Like could you be disappointed after all of this?
FUSCHINO JR.: I think that that`s unlikely, technically speaking, sentence won`t be imposed until September 29th, but I would be surprised, I think is
the appropriate way of putting it, if the court who has heard the terms of the plea and accepted the plea for some reason would not enforce that plea
deal.
BANFIELD: Well, I tell you what, Richard, you are hell of a lawyer. You did a good job for your client.
FUSCHINO JR.: I appreciate it.
BANFIELD: I, of course, feel very frustrated seeing what that man did, that at least if he is going to cop to it, tell us what you did. Tell us what
you did. Put it on the record, out yourself, and then go in. But, you know what? That`s certainly not, you know, kudos to you for being a good lawyer.
Thanks very much, Richard, for being on.
FUSCHINO JR.: I appreciate it. Thank you, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: One college co-ed unloads on her rapist.
[20:45:00] Outraged after the man convicted of sexually assaulting her walks out a year early. She says her rapist got off way too easy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: The name Austin Wilkerson may not mean much to you, but for one young woman in Boulder, Colorado, it means a lot and always will. Because
he is the college kid who brought her back to his home office campus after a night out of party and promising her friends that he would look after
her, gave her some water, checked her pulse, her temperature, and then he raped her.
He actually faced up to life in prison for doing that, but he was just sentenced to two years, that`s it. He could even leave jail during the day
to go to work or to go to school and then go back to jail to do sleepovers.
[20:50:00] And he just got another golden ticket too, getting out of jail after just one year for good behavior. You can see Kendra Heuer, his
victim, in this Denver post video and in a statement to the daily camera. She says she cannot even begin to explain her disgust and her, quote, utter
rage.
This is what she said. I am not afforded the same privilege of getting an early release from my life sentence. In her victim impact statement, she
said the assault ruined her life, socially, psychologically, academically, and also financially to the tune of a quarter million dollars and lost
income in hospital bills and a whole lot more.
That light sentence sounds eerily similar to this guy, Stanford rape case. Although in that case, the judge who handed down that sentence, Judge Aaron
Persky, he is now actually fighting an effort to get him kicked off the bench. There are some other brand new developments, too. Take a look at
what`s on your screen.
This is a photograph of where that dumpster used to be, the dumpster where Brock Turner`s victim was sexually assaulted near comatose. That dumpster
has been removed now. What you`re seeing is construction of a small park that is being built in Emily Doe`s honor.
I want to bring in Michele Landis Dauber. She is a professor at Stanford University Law School. She heads up the Judge Aaron Persky recall campaign.
Michelle, sometimes the people can fight back when they`re really angry about these types of sentences, that`s exactly what you have been doing.
But I thought you were well on your way. I thought that you already gotten to the point where you were collecting signatures and that it was going to
be in the ballot in June. What happened?
MICHELE LANDIS DAUBER, PROFESSOR AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY, HEADS UP JUDGE AARON PERSKY RECALL CAMPAIGN: Well, what happened is that on August 9th,
the county after a long process approved us to start collecting signatures and we were elated. You know, we have over 300 volunteers. We have raised
half a million dollars to get this on the ballot. We were on our way.
And just a few hours later, Judge Persky ran into court and filed a frivolous lawsuit to block the recall from collecting signatures and a
fellow judge issued a restraining order to stop us from petitioning. And this restraining order is essentially a prior restraint of our protected
First Amendment rights to petition.
BANFIELD: So you can get other judges, right, other judges can come along and hear that case and dispense with the restraining order if that`s what
they choose. Is that happening?
LANDIS DAUBER: No, actually every judge in the county has refused to hear the case. And so we missed a court date actually as a result of that. Now,
they have a new judge that is a retired judge from outside our county who has agreed to hear the case. We have a hearing on Monday.
The attorney general of the state of California has come into the case on our side and said there`s nothing to his lawsuit. The secretary of state of
California, the county council, no one agrees with him. His lawsuit is frivolous, but he is not trying to win.
His point is to avoid facing the voters, to stall, to delay, to cost the taxpayers millions of dollars to defend his frivolous lawsuit and just to
tie us up in the courts so that we can`t get to the voters.
BANFIELD: I tell you what. I said when i read Emily Doe`s letter on CNN that I would not leave this story. I said I would continue to look for
justice for her and that we would get to the bottom of it. So, I will see you again, Professor Dauber, and we will see how this goes. Good luck to
you.
LANDIS DAUBER: Thank you so much.
BANFIELD: Michele Dauber joining us again. Shoplifters sometimes go to extraordinary measures to get their loot out of the store. But police say
the spirits must have really moved one woman who tried to boost the spirits at the liquor store. But you know what? Sometimes you`re on the TV. That
doesn`t bode well for you later on.
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: It`s back to school for many classrooms around the country and students are going be learning all about the world around them and all the
people who make it better. A lot of those people are CNN heroes too. There is a teacher in suburban New York who developed a pretty unique way of
helping students get inspired by these amazing people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN heroes is absolutely helping me to mold my little buddies in fifth grade into the type of teenagers and adults that we all
want them to be.
As you`re watching, think about what makes your heart feel good. Here we go.
In our classroom, it always starts with the CNN heroes segment. So, we watch it and then we have great discussion. It never gets old. CNN heroes
makes me a better teacher because I know that they are giving us the most valuable lessons that you would want any kid to have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: And to see more heroes in the classroom, you can go to cnnheroes.com. You can also nominate somebody that you think should be a
2017 CNN hero.
So this gives drinks on the house a whole new meaning. I want you to take a look at a woman in Louisiana, caught on tape stocking up at the liquor
store, only look where she is stocking it. Look at her go. She is putting bottle after bottle in her purse and in her pants and in her bra and kind
of anywhere she can fit it.
She turned herself in today though because she was kind of on the TV and it kind of was played all over the place and she`s now facing one count of
misdemeanor theft. Oops. Joey.
JACKSON: She was a little thirsty. It happens. Apparently, the local station said she fit 18 bottles there.
[21:00:00] BANFIELD: Come on!
JACKSON: Believe it?
BANFIELD: I don`t believe it.
JACKSON: Fascinating fact.
BANFIELD: You said it, I believe it. Thanks so much, everybody. Thanks, Joey Jackson.
JACKSON: Of course.
BANFIELD: Stay tuned though because "Forensic Files" is up next.
END
