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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield

Hunt for Killer; Homicide Investigation; New Danger; Wild Ride. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired August 28, 2017 - 20:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our hearts are heavy.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST (voice-over): Has Savanna Greywind finally been found?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Recreational kayakers on the Red River found what appeared to be a body-sized object.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eight months pregnant and gone without a trace between two floors of her apartment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heavily wrapped in plastic and duct tape.

BANFIELD: Was it her baby they found in that apartment upstairs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Savanna was the victim of a cruel and vicious act of depravity.

BANFIELD: And just what have those two neighbors done?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will continue to pursue justice for Savanna.

BANFIELD: A mom falls two stories from a window in her mansion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m just shocked. I`m just totally shocked.

BANFIELD: Tragic accident or sickening crime?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can`t imagine anyone doing anything like that.

BANFIELD: Now all eyes are on her family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These people kind of just keep to themselves.

BANFIELD: Was her teenage son behind the fatal push?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s hard to imagine what was really going on in that home that would have led to this.

BANFIELD: Fifteen years old and afraid for her life, Malia Salamka (ph) vanishes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When she woke up that morning, she said she was going to get her nails done with her mom, and I haven`t seen her ever since.

BANFIELD: Now those fears have come true.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s found in a dumpster/trash can with a pink shirt that was ripped, and naked.

BANFIELD: Her family says the killing was brutal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s very difficult to believe anything I`m hearing.

BANFIELD: Now the search is on for who did it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was so full of life. She would brighten up my day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The staying power of this storm is just unbelievable.

BANFIELD: As the flood waters rise in Texas, new fears of what`s swimming below. A gator farm floods out. Now 350 alligators are on the brink of

escape. How can they be stopped? And what happens if they can`t?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just can`t even believe a person who would do that.

BANFIELD: Behind the wheel of a school bus with tequila and vodka on board.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s insane.

BANFIELD: One student tapes his ride before the driver is arrested.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s heartbreaking, really heartbreaking.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Good evening. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.

When someone mysteriously disappears, the first place you look is home. And if home gets the all clear, you move out in concentric circles. But

police in Fargo, North Dakota, didn`t have many circles to search when Savanna Greywind disappeared. Eight weeks pregnant, she had just gone up

to a neighbor`s apartment to help her sew a new dress.

And that was the last anyone saw of her until some pretty grisly answers started flooding in over the last few days. Four days ago, a newborn baby

tuned up in that neighbor`s apartment, a healthy baby girl just two days old.

The very next day, they arrested the couple that lived there, William Henry Hoehn and Brooke Lynn Crews. And it didn`t take long before these two were

charged with conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping. That all happened earlier today.

Police say they admitted that little baby was Savanna`s, and that was where they stopped talking. No intel on what happened to Savanna. So for two

days, search crews kept on looking and neighbors kept on praying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHANDRA EATON, VOLUNTEER SEARCHER: It`s just very heartbreaking to know how afraid she was, you know, and I`m sure the last thing on her mind was

her baby. So we just wanted to come and do whatever we could do to help this family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Finally tonight, some answers. And this story does not have a happy ending. Kayakers just north of Fargo found Savanna. She was

floating dead in the Red River, and she was wrapped in plastic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID TODD, FARGO POLICE CHIEF: After extensive search efforts by law enforcement and by volunteers, the body of Savanna Marie Greywind was found

yesterday at approximately 5:44 PM. Recreational kayakers on the Red River found what appeared to be a body-sized object, heavily wrapped in plastic

and duct tape, lodged against a tree, sticking out in the middle of the river.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Jay Thomas is the host of "The Jay Thomas Show" on 970 WDAY, and he joins me live from Fargo, North Dakota. Jay, the two people arrested

are talking -- not entirely, but what are they saying?

JAY THOMAS, "THE JAY THOMAS SHOW" (via telephone): Well, they have conflicting statements. William Hoehn, the boyfriend, he`s claiming he

arrived home from work on the 19th, which would have been that Saturday. He says he came home about 2:30, discovered Brooke Crews, which would be

the girlfriend, cleaning up blood in their bedroom. He also stated that Crews then presented him with an infant baby, stating, This is our baby.

This is our family.

[20:05:12]Now, he also admitted to removing garbage bags containing bloody towels and his own bloody shoes from the apartment and then disposed of

them in an apartment building dumpster at an unknown location over in West Fargo.

BANFIELD: Well, if that`s his story, how does it differ from her story? Because I`m guessing they did the typical tactic. They arrest you, they

separate you, and they get you talking so you can`t get your stories together at least from that point.

THOMAS: Exactly. And that`s why they do separate them. Now, Brooke Crews, who is the woman in question, she stated she arranged to have

Savanna Greywind come to their apartment on that Saturday. And Brooke Crews stated she then instructed Savanna Greywind how to self-induce

childbirth by breaking her own water. Crews claims Savanna Greywind then leaves the apartment and returns at 3:30 in the morning two days later and

gave Brooke Crews the child.

BANFIELD: Oh, and she doesn`t mention anything about blood that she`s cleaning up? She doesn`t mention anything about Savanna being in the

apartment? She doesn`t mention anything else that actually leads to the whereabouts of this young woman?

THOMAS: No. Nothing at all.

BANFIELD: Well, it sounds like one of those stories is a little more plausible than the other. What pregnant woman would take a lesson on how

to induce labor, walk out, go on some kind of crazy walkabout, deliver at 3:30 in the morning two days later, come back, hand over your baby to the

neighbors upstairs, and then disappear? That sounds ridiculous.

THOMAS: Yes. The community right now is devastated. I also want to add this, that this Brooke Crews also states that she did have multiple

opportunities to turn the child over to law enforcement or the Greywind family, but she didn`t, knowing that Savanna Greywind was reported as a

missing person.

BANFIELD: OK, so here is what the police are telling us regarding where their stories actually go from that point. Have a listen to the chief,

Dave Todd, from the Fargo PD.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: When it comes to the topic of what happened to Savanna, neither Hoehn nor Crews will cooperate with our investigation. Both Hoehn and

Crews invoke the right to counsel and refuse to answer any more questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So Jay, clearly, that`s it. That`s as much as we`re going to get, which, by the way, is a lot.

But here`s the thing. Brooke`s story is crazy and William Hoehn`s story is a little more plausible, and yet he`s the one with a pretty significant

criminal record. She`s got basically nothing except for a bad check. He`s got a 2016 simple assault. He`s got a 2016 violation of an order

prohibiting contact. He`s got a 2011 child neglect or abuse guilty plea, and he`s got a 2011 possession of drug paraphernalia.

Do we know anything more about these people? Do the neighbors know anything about these people?

THOMAS: The only thing more that we know about these people at this time is between the two of them, they have nine children. That was reported by

"The Forum" newspaper here in Fargo. And basically, these children are estranged from both these parents, haven`t talked to them in years.

And the big question in this devastated community right now is who -- how do you come home and there`s blood everywhere and you`re bagging this stuff

up? You should be calling the damn police! This guy is just as guilty in my mind as this woman!

BANFIELD: Well, right now, these are just charges, conspiracy charges, not even murder charges. But as I see things, typically, charges can be added,

can be taken away. Things can get much more damaging. Depends on how much you want to squeeze one against the other, squeeze the information from one

against the other.

There`s one other piece of information, Jay, I want you to clear up for me. Apparently, there was a farm near where Savanna`s body was found. If you

just look at the map, she went missing from her apartment complex, and six miles north up that Red River is the place where Savanna`s body was found.

And not far from that location was this farm where, quote, "some items of evidence were discovered." Do you know anything about what it was they

found at that farm?

THOMAS: We at this point do not know what was found at that farm, but we do know that that farmstead -- nobody has lived there for years. As a

matter of fact, during a press conference this morning, Clay (ph) County Sheriff Bill Burquist (ph), who by the way, their department is doing a

fantastic job as well as Fargo PD and all the other law enforcement agencies -- he knows the owner of that land, and he actually hunts on that

land. And he said that that property has been abandoned for years, but that land owner immediately turned that property over to law enforcement to

do whatever they had to do on it.

[20:10:28]BANFIELD: So we don`t know if a crime was committed there or if just detritus was left behind, but they think this is related evidence to

this crime.

Real quickly, I want to bring in Joseph Scott Morgan. He`s a certified death investigator and he`s also a professor of forensics at Jacksonville

State University.

So Joe, the question, I think, everybody has at this point is, how did that baby end up OK and Savanna end up dead? With your science, do you know if

it`s possible to tell with the autopsy of Savanna if she was alive when that baby was somehow removed, or if she was dead when that baby was

removed?

JOSEPH SCOTT MORGAN, CERTIFIED DEATH INVESTIGATOR: Yes. Yes. It will be Ashleigh. And it`ll be easy to determine. We`ve got an evidence-rich case

here, if you will, and the police really have that going for them from an evidentiary standpoint.

They medical examiner will have already done the autopsy. They`ll be able to tell exactly how this child was delivered, delivered either in a vaginal

birth, or if this is some type of C-section that was performed.

As far as the induction of pregnancy, it`ll be really -- I`ll be really curious to see if they recovered the placenta in this case. That`s going

to be a key piece of evidence. And also, all of bloody garments and towels and all these things that are recovered -- this is going to be prima facie

evidence that`s going to connect these two, and the conveyance in which her body was removed from this location. If she was placed in this car, I can

only assume that there will be a tremendous amount of blood that was still in there with her. And as hard as they might try to clean this up, it will

still be visible.

The people in forensics will find this, and they will be able to attach these two events, both the birth, probably the killing and then the

disposal, so three events along our timeline here.

Another key piece to this, Ashleigh, is also her modality of death. How did they kill this woman, if she was, in fact, killed by them? Was she

allowed to bleed out after the pregnancy, which is a horrible thing to think about? Was it strangulation, blunt force trauma? Was she suffocated

in some way? But the medical examiner`s going to be right on top of this. They`ve got top forensics people in North Dakota.

BANFIELD: Can I ask you something? If they killed her, how long do they have before they can extract a baby and that baby can survive?

MORGAN: It would have to be done in very, very short order, I mean, within a matter of minutes for this to have occurred. And I`m very curious about

this, as well. This story that has been painted that you related so well a second ago about this woman giving her instructions on how to induce a

pregnancy -- this is a very odd event.

And I think another thing that we want to think about -- was she restrained in some way by one of these two people while the other person potentially

mechanically induced this labor and subsequently...

BANFIELD: Do you mean with drug injections or some other way?

MORGAN: Well, there are many ways that this can be done. Doctors do it -- can do it with a scalpel where the placenta is essentially erupted. There

are chemical inductions that can be done. Of course, there`s a lot of stories that float around on the web about how to do this, but either of

those two ways. My suspicion is this is probably going to be something where she was manipulated mechanically with an instrument or something,

more than likely.

BANFIELD: I want to bring in former prosecutor Randy Zelin who is with me now live. Real quickly, they searched that apartment three times. And on

the fourth time they went in, they found a baby. How is it that this William Hoehn can say, I came home and saw my girl cleaning up all this

blood, and yet they searched this apartment three times and found nothing?

RANDY ZELIN, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Because you admit what you dare not deny and you deny what you dare not admit. But what`s truly scary in this whole

conversation, I can assure you that the investigator and the radio host would be two people I want not want on this jury because they already have

convicted these two people, when all we know right now...

BANFIELD: These two people said all of this information without each other present!

ZELIN: That doesn`t make it a homicide. What you could very well have here is something having gone wrong with this pregnancy, and perhaps them

being guilty of disposing of a body after the fact. And I won`t even concede that yet. But how do we get to a homicide with no cause of death?

We have nothing other than the before and the after.

[20:15:10]BANFIELD: How about the admission...

ZELIN: These people are presumed innocent!

BANFIELD: How about the admission of, This is our baby, darling. This is our family.

ZELIN: For all we know, there was a delivery with no foul play, and then something went horribly wrong because they were not in a hospital. This

was not a midwife. And this woman died tragically.

BANFIELD: Well, then they`d be guilty of kidnapping a baby because they kept that baby in their apartment and that baby was not theirs.

ZELIN: That`s not necessarily a kidnapping. We need to slow down. Let the evidence unfold. These people are presumed innocent right now. Right

now, they have done nothing wrong, and we don`t even know if their statements are going to hold up in court. So again, in this country, you

are presumed innocent.

BANFIELD: Real quick question, 10 seconds left. What other charges could they be facing? Murder, as opposed to conspiracy to commit murder?

ZELIN: It could be an involuntary or voluntary manslaughter, could be criminally negligent homicide. It could be nothing more than the unlawful

disposition of a body and tampering with evidence.

BANFIELD: Yes. I think that story that she tells is the most ridiculous story I`ve ever heard.

ZELIN: They`ll turn on each other.

BANFIELD: Well, they probably are already without even knowing it. Randy, thank you for that.

A Michigan mother plunges to her death from a second story window out of her mansion in a Detroit suburb. So was this an accident, or was this a

murder in a very upscale part of town?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:20:44]BANFIELD: It all started out as one of those things, a horrible accident and a desperate call to 911. But in this case, it was something

else. It just didn`t fit. Beautiful mom, three kids, seemingly just fell out of her second story window, out of her second story window of a massive

estate in an upscale suburb of Detroit.

Nada Huranieh`s body was found on a patio two stories down from that window, and now police have turned that Farmington Hills mansion into a

full-on crime scene. What`s worse, Nada`s 16-year-old son is in custody, and police think that he actually pushed his mother from that window.

Naturally, the neighbors on these quiet leafy streets cannot believe it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONI JONES, NEIGHBOR: I`m just shocked. I`m just totally shocked. I`m speechless. That`s very tragic. I can`t imagine anyone doing anything

like that to anyone, let alone your mom or someone close to you, your family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, the family, like all families, has had its share of problems. Nada was divorcing her husband, who, just so you are clear, was

not at home at the time of her death and is not a suspect in any of this.

Charlie Langton is a reporter for WWJ newsradio 950, and he joins me now from Detroit. So how did they zero in, Charlie, on the 16-year-old son?

CHARLIE LANGTON, WWJ NEWSRADIO 950 (via telephone): Well, this is a big mystery. Somehow, the police believed originally that this was just an

accident, that the mother happened to fall from her second story mansion. This is a beautiful area 20 miles or so from Detroit. This is a really

nice area, and stuff like this doesn`t usually happen.

But after the police investigated and after they consulted with some people at the scene, apparently, the police then determined it was a murder. And

then they look to a 16-year-old, the 16-year-old son. And today, formally that 16-year-old son was in court. He was arraigned on one count of second

degree murder again for allegedly pushing his mother out of that second story mansion in Farmington Hills.

By the way, bond was denied. His passport was surrendered. And he`ll spend time now until his other hearings in the local children`s village.

That`s the juvenile detention center.

BANFIELD: So there`s that local children`s village. It`s called the Oak County Children`s Village. We looked into it. It`s not only the detention

center for youth but it also houses a mental health facility for youth, as well, so curious to find out if he`ll be under observation at this point.

Denied bond, as you said, at 16 years old with a father and two sisters.

I`m just curious as to what the neighbors know about all of this. And I want to play, if I can -- it`s an anonymous interview that was dome with

one of the neighbors. She didn`t want to be identified, so you`ll see her feet while you`re talking. But I think it`s going to give you a bit of a

flavor for how big these sprawling properties are, how tricky it is to actually hear anything that`s going on next door, and just what this

neighbor thinks about all of this. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve seen the son ride on his hoverboard up and down the driveway, but that`s about it. The cars just go out of the garage and

come back in the garage. These people kind of just keep to themselves, and there`s not too much going on in and out of the house.

It`s a tough situation. I mean, I have kids of my own. And it`s hard to imagine what was really going on in that home. It`s a little concerning,

certainly. This is a really quiet road. Everybody who lives here, it`s kind of on their own, it`s very woodsy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: A three-car garage certainly speaks volumes, as well. Charlie, real quickly, two daughters, reportedly 12 and 14 years old. Dad is still

around. The police are very careful to say, Look, don`t think for a minute he`s a suspect. He is not.

What do we know about these two daughters? Where are they? Where`s the father? How are they sort of fitting into all of this with the 16-year-old

now in custody?

LANGTON: Well, his 12 and 14-year-old daughters, they were actually home at the time of this murder. The police were called in the early morning

hours back on August 21st. But these two daughters were in the house at the time of this murder.

[20:25:02]Now, what`s interesting here is that the victim`s husband is a doctor. He`s Dr. Altanawi. He was living apart. The two had filed for

divorce back late last year, 2016, and he was living in nearby Canton. He was a doctor.

But his medical license was actually stripped because he was involved in a Medicaid (sic) fraud scheme where he allegedly defrauded hundreds of

thousands of dollars, actually, from various health care facilities, including Medicaid (sic). So he had -- the husband now had his own legal

problems. But they were divorced, and coincidentally, the divorce trial between these two was set to start in November. So kids were home...

BANFIELD: Well, that...

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: You know what? That can certainly cause a lot of consternation in a family not only for the couple but also for the children involved, as

well.

Real quickly, Charlie, any information about the crime scene? I mean, we know that she was found outside the window. What did the room look inside

like? What did it look like? Are they releasing any details of what things looked -- was there a struggle, did it look like things were broken,

had she been fighting? There`s all these reports she had multiple injuries. That`s not being confirmed. What do we know about what happened

inside the room where she fell?

LANGTON: Well, I do know that (INAUDIBLE) the prosecutor`s office and the various police departments. They had released (INAUDIBLE) there was an

autopsy that was done but the results have not been released yet. There will be a preliminary exam (ph) coming up in another week or so, back on

September 22nd, so we`ll get a little more details as to actually how this crime happened. But at this point in time, the police are not releasing

details at all about the crime (INAUDIBLE)

BANFIELD: So mysterious.

LANGTON: It`s a beautiful mansion.

BANFIELD: I mean, it is massive. I mean, you look at it and you think they`ve got the life, don`t they? And don`t we all want that life? Don`t

we all want that life! You can have it!

Randy Zelin, I want you to jump in here for a moment as we look at these pictures. I mean, you`ve seen it as well as I`ve seen it. Crime happens

in every socio strata, you know, that we live in. You are not devoid from being a victim of a crime if you live like that. But this 16-year-old is

being denied bond. They have all the money in the world to pay whatever bond they want to set. Is that why he`s being denied bond?

ZELIN: Well, certainly, when you talk about bond, it`s, Are you a risk of flight? And in some jurisdictions, Are you a danger? Now, it sounds to me

-- since the reporter indicated that there`s a preliminary hearing coming up, that leads me to believe that a grand jury has not heard this case yet

because a preliminary hearing is designed to allow a defendant an opportunity to say, Hey, judge, let`s make sure there`s enough evidence to

hold me in a jail cell.

BANFIELD: He`s 16. What kind of flight risk is a 16-year-old when you got a dad and two sisters who could, you know, possibly say, Look, we`ve got

this under control? He`s my child.

ZELIN: Unfortunately, judges and prosecutors tend to panic a little bit when you talk about homicides. There`s a lot we don`t know about this

case. And we don`t know what the prosecutor`s evidence is. But certainly, with a divorce, maybe they`re concerned that the father takes off with the

son and the kid`s gone, good-bye, and that`s your flight risk.

BANFIELD: OK, he`s charged with second degree murder as an adult, all right? And if you look into the statute in Michigan, they don`t have the

death penalty there and you can`t put a child to death anyway in the United States as of, you know, recently, according to the Supreme Court. The

Supreme Court also said you can`t arbitrarily automatically give a kid under the age of 18 life with no parole, but you can if a jury decides it.

It can`t be automatic, can`t be part of your law, but you can give him life without parole at 16 if a jury decides. Do you think this is the kind of

case, second degree, where he could get that?

ZELIN: Well, remember We do the balancing test of aggravating factors and mitigating factors. And I don`t want to diminish a life, and you can`t

say, Well, it was his mother, so somehow that`s not as aggravating.

But aggravating factors are typically vulnerable victims, a child, something particularly horrific or gruesome. So I don`t know that you have

that here just yet. There`s a lot we don`t know about this case. Initially, this was deemed to be an accident. So somebody must have

thought there was a reason why it was an accident then and now suddenly, it`s not. So I think we need to stay tuned.

My sense of it is, are the social media, a computer, a telephone or a confidant...

BANFIELD: Yes.

ZELIN: ... created something where it went from being an accident to, I hate my mom.

BANFIELD: Right. And a 16-year-old is not so clever as to have whitewashed a lot of that social media, any diaries, journals, any kind of

tweets, any kind of, you know, electronic communications or Google searching, as well. We`re going to have to put a pin in it there for now,

but poor Nada Huranieh, I mean, a beautiful personal trainer, seemed to have it all. And again, looks can be deceiving.

I want to take you to another part of the country, a beautiful 15-year-old girl killed, and not just killed, brutally killed and then found naked in a

dumpster. And here`s the twist. She tried to warn her family something was wrong. She was scared about something and someone. So are police

going to be able to find that someone? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Two and a half months after 14-year-old girl was found dead in a Texas landfill, her case was finally ruled a homicide. Two and a half

months. And yet police in Arlington, Texas

[20:35:00] still have not found a suspect. At least not somebody they`re going to publicly reveal. Instead, in a very bizarre twist, police are

continuing to tell all the neighbors there`s nothing to worry about, nothing to see here, nothing to fear from Kaytlynn Cargill`s killer. They

say it was ruled a homicide and yet nothing to worry about. So that mystery remains.

The same cannot be said for a small town in Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Maleigha Solonka vanished nearly three weeks ago on the day she was

supposed to get her nails done with her mom and the day before her birthday party. Just a few days ago, police made a gruesome discovery.

That 15-year-old was found dead about 18 miles from home. And she was found in the worst of ways. She was naked in a dumpster. Her grandmother said

before Maleigha disappeared, that teenager told her she was afraid someone was going to hurt her. That grandmother also gave some disturbing details

on how Maleigha was discovered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONNA ELLIOT, SOLONKA`S GRANDMOTHER: A couple weeks ago she came to stay at my house because she feared that someone was going to hurt her. She was

found in a dumpster/trash can with a pink shirt that was ripped and naked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Corporal Dan Petz is the public information officer for the Havre de Grace Police Department and Detective Jeff Cokewell is one of the

investigating officers. Gentlemen, thanks for being on tonight. Can you tell me if you have any leads on who did this to Maleigha?

CPL. DAN PETZ, PIO, HAVRE DE GRACE POLICE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): At this time, we`re not releasing any information on leads or suspects, but

detectives are working to find who did this.

BANFIELD: Well, what about that hint that her grandmother just happened to mention to a reporter that Maleigha was scared weeks before she died. She

was scared someone was going to hurt her, and lo and behold, she ends up dead in a dumpster. Did that lead help you? Has it taken you anywhere?

PETZ (via telephone): Absolutely, any information that people have we`re asking them to call our police department at 4109392121 and to get that

information to us. It will help the detectives as they work the case.

BANFIELD: So Detective Cokewell, how many people, how many guys like you are working on this case? How many detectives are out there doing the

gumshoe work trying to figure out who got near that dumpster? Maybe there was DNA on that pink shirt she was apparently found with. How many people

are sleuthing this crime?

DET. JEFF COKEWELL, DETECTIVE, HAVRE DE GRACE POLICE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): We`re utilizing all resources we have at the department at this

time to conduct the investigation.

BANFIELD: All of the resources. Well that`s -- I mean, listen, that`s kind of a standard answer as a detective. You know, I want to know if there`s

sex crimes officers? I mean, is this a suspicion? When a body is found naked, clearly that`s usually the first things to suspect. Was there a

suspicion of a sex assault here?

COKEWELL (via telephone): At this time we`re not going to comment on that because of ongoing open investigation that we`re still receiving

information daily. It`s being looked into. Any tip that`s come in, like I said, we`re taking everything seriously and looking into and tried to see

what information is viable --

BANFIELD: OK. Corporal Petz, I respect, you know, what the police have to do and I respect the fact that you do have to keep a lot of information and

evidence close to the vest when you`re working an investigation. It is not an easy task and you are tasked with the worst part of it.

But I also respect the community and how fearful they are that someone`s out there lurking amidst them who could do this to a 15-year-old girl,

someone she feared or something that she feared may have led to this. And so with the rights of the community, I ask you, how can you assuage their

concerns? How can you tell the community they are going to be OK or can you?

PETZ (via telephone): We can never say that. But Havre De Grace is a tight- knit community. We`re getting a lot of good information from people in the community. People know how to get hold of us out here. We have a quick

response time.

BANFIELD: What do you mean good information? What exactly do you mean by good information?

PETZ (via telephone): Well, people are calling in with tips, social media about information pertaining to Maleigha.

BANFIELD: Have you investigated her ex-boyfriend?

PETZ (via telephone): We`re not going to comment on any -- on anything like that at this time.

BANFIELD: Understand. I want to bring in Corey Kills. He is the uncle of Maleigha Solonka. He joins me from Baltimore, Maryland tonight. So, Corey,

tell me a little bit about your fears and your concerns and what information

[20:40:00] you are getting in this tragedy?

KOREY KEELS, UNCLE OF MALEIGHA SOLONKA (via telephone): Well, we`re not getting any information right now. There`s an ongoing investigation and

we`re going to let the police department handle that on their end.

BANFIELD: And you`re OK with that? Because I tell you what, Korey, a lot of families are very frustrated and very upset when they can`t get

information. Do you feel satisfied that everything`s being done and that you will eventually learn what you need to know happened to your niece?

KEELS (via telephone): Yes, there`s the process and everything. We`re going to let the process play itself out. The police department is doing a great

job right now. We`re going to let them handle that on their end. Whatever comes out for the investigation hopefully we can get some justice for

Maleigha.

BANFIELD: I know you mentioned in the interest for justice for Maleigha when you were trying to think of who on earth could be a suspect in this

case, you mentioned that she had an abusive boyfriend and that that relationship ended last year. What more can you tell me about that?

KEELS (via telephone): I can`t tell you no more about that.

BANFIELD: Why is that?

KEELS (via telephone): Because there is no evidence of that. We are going to let the police department handle their --

BANFIELD: Are you being asked not to say -- OK, so that`s the question, are you being asked by the police not to say anything about --

KEELS (via telephone): No, not at all. We are going to let the police department handle their investigation and we`re going to go from there.

BANFIELD: You mentioned that you were worried about an abusive boyfriend, that he was an ex-boyfriend, and I think you said as well that she was

going to be visiting him. Is that not true?

KEELS (via telephone): No. That`s not true. I never mentioned that.

BANFIELD: OK. What about the fact that this was her birthday party the next day? Was there some concern about the birthday party having to do with any

of this? Is it coincidence?

KEELS (via telephone): You know, I`m not sure. You know, I`m not sure. I just know that she had a birthday party coming up, and she didn`t return

for her birthday party. And we were all concerned about it.

BANFIELD: Her grandmother seemed very distressed, very upset about the warning that Maleigha gave her that she was worried that she was going to

be hurt. Did you know anything about that?

KEELS (via telephone): Not at all.

BANFIELD: Have you talked to the grandmother about that?

KEELS (via telephone): Not at all.

BANFIELD: You and the grandmother haven`t spoken at all about your missing niece, about your murdered niece?

KEELS (via telephone): We`ve spoken, but I`m not going to share the details of those conversations.

BANFIELD: I want to bring in Randy Zelin, if I can. I`m used to police, you know, not sharing much. This one seems weird. A 15-year-old girl naked in a

dumpster who was worried about something weeks beforehand and not a word. I mean, if I live in that community, I`m not happy about this.

I want to know I`m OK. I want to know that this something exclusive to them, that there`s not some random rapist or murderer running around that

I don`t have to keep my daughters or my sons locked up at night.

RANDY ZELIN, FORMER PROSECUTOR: My sense of it is -- and it`s just my sense -- you look at a grandmother who is falling apart. You have an uncle who is

much more calm and much more together.

My intuition tells me that they have a pretty good idea who did this because the mere fact that the grandmother had the heads up, again, social

media, computers, smartphones, somewhere people talking, somewhere there is some link to someone that this is not a surprise, and my sense is that the

uncle has been told by the police, keep your mouth shut and let us do our job.

BANFIELD: Yes, and no disrespect to Korey Keels at all. I appreciate that he came on the air. I appreciate that he did that interview with us. I

heard a lot of lingo that`s not common parlance. It`s police lingo. Which is why I asked him, did the police ask you to answer questions that way?

ZELIN: He`s not going to answer yes. It`s a script.

BANFIELD: Well, we`ll continue to look at it. This is really a distressing story, a 15-year-old girl just found naked in a dumpster. Her family is

obviously devastated, at least some of them. We`ll find out exactly where the story goes from there.

I also want to touch on a story that you probably have been watching over the last few days. Millions of people struggling to cope with that

catastrophic flood in south Texas. But there`s an unseen risk in all of that water as those guys wade through it. There are literally thousands of

alligators in that area. And one particular risk I want to tell you about, an alligator preserve that could be flooded within hours.

[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: We`ve all been watching with horror as the tragedy unfolds in Texas, the hurricane Harvey flood waters where entire cities are being

literally flooded away, taking people`s lives, taking people`s worlds.

This is live right now, some rescues that are going on. This is from KTRK. This video and these live pictures have been nothing short of spellbinding

as people really run for their lives. There is something else though that is starting to cause some alarms, not getting a lot of headlines yet.

But it involves what is lurking beneath those waters. Where all those people who have been rescued or looking to get rescued have been wading

knee deep. This woman jumping in, now waist deep, a man or a woman. We can`t tell. I think it might be a man. Then they make off in those deep

waters and who knows what`s under, right?

This is 40 inches of rain. It has meant 11 trillion gallons of water where it shouldn`t be. It also means alligators are where they shouldn`t be. They

have been washed into communities that are not used to seeing them. And in some cases, the alligators are being flooded up and out and

[20:50:0] over the fences of game preserves like Gator Country. It`s a preserve that is home to more than 350 alligators that are kept in outdoor

fenced-in areas and those areas are flooding. And the water levels are getting perilously close to a level that could allow a lot of those gators

to escape, if they haven`t already.

I want to bring in Gary Saurage. He`s the owner of Gator Country. He`s an alligator expert. He joins me from Beaumont, Texas. Gary, what`s the

circumstance right now? Are the gators getting up and over the fence? Is the water that high?

GARY SAURAGE, OWNER OF GATOR COUNTRY, ALLIGATOR EXPERT (via telephone): Well, I will say this, it is possible and with the rain that we continue to

get, it absolutely could be possible. However, you do need to understand that we`re taking mode here and that means that in southeast Texas alone,

we have almost 600,000 alligators in the wild.

All these alligators that I`ve caught have come from this community. They`re nuisance alligators that have been in people`s pools and ponds in

the past and we`ve taken them and made a tourist attraction out of it. So I want to let everyone know out there, we don`t need to worry about our

alligators. We only had two that got out and we caught those.

It`s the alligators that are coming from the bayous and the rivers. Those are the alligators I want people to pay attention to. Not only that, you

need to watch out for the venomous snakes. We`ve seen 18 snakes today and all of them venomous snakes. That`s the reason I want to share this

message.

BANFIELD: So, one of the questions I have for you and I understand what you`re saying, clearly gators in the wild that are being washed into places

where people like this would have no clue. You`re not used to seeing a gator. They may have never seen a gator in their lives.

But the 750 gators that you have total, 350 of them could go up and over a fence. They`re used to approaching people to get fed. Doesn`t that concern

you when you see people holding kids or carrying people on their backs, especially if they`re holding little kids and going through that water?

SAURAGE (via telephone): No, what concerns me is these alligators that are being displaced from the wild. They`re in places that they haven`t seen.

This water is a lot different. Some of this water`s moving.

That`s why we`ve had nine different reports today where people have called us to come get alligators that are out of -- you know, 20, 30 miles away

that are in people`s garages. They`re trying to get to higher ground.

BANFIELD: Aren`t you having trouble doing those rescues because you`re having to grab the ones that are getting over your fence and bring them

back in?

SAURAGE (via telephone): No, you don`t understand. I got crews. I mean, that`s all we`re doing the entire time, making sure we`re good. My concern

is to let those people know stay away from those alligators that are in your garages, under your cars. They`re trying to find higher ground. I get

that. I`m trying to get everybody to be very cautious about the alligators that are everywhere in southeast Texas.

BANFIELD: So I do want to ask because we are looking at a lot of pictures of people who are wandering, you know, through these waters, and many of

them are knee deep. That`s the best case scenario, oftentimes, they`re knee deep and others are waist deep. Are you telling me that gators will be

looking for higher ground and will not be lurking in those kinds of waters or they very well could be and these people could be at risk?

SAURAGE (via telephone): Absolutely. As alligator expert, they can stay underwater two hours if need be. There`s no question an alligator can do

that. I`m just letting you know of the calls that we`ve got today to go get wild alligators in places like garages. They`re in high ground that they

could get. That`s why I`m sharing with you this. Those people seeing the alligators --

BANFIELD: Stay away.

SAURAGE (via telephone): They`re trying to get to somewhere where they can get to higher ground.

BANFIELD: OK. And then just real quickly. These people who we`re looking at, is there anything they should be doing proactively? How on earth could

there be? But you are the expert. Is there anything they could be doing to fend off the possibility of gators in the water?

SAURAGE (via telephone): Just stay aware of your surroundings. We do have a million alligators in the state of Texas. Stay aware of your surroundings

and just understand. It is alligators, but it`s also snakes, it`s also bobcats, it`s also coyotes. All these animals that are trying to get out of

these flood waters, I`m trying to teach people let them go --

BANFIELD: I`m just so concerned about the stuff you can`t see. You know, just so concerned about the stuff you can`t see. You can be aware of your

surroundings, but you can`t know what`s under that water. Gary, got to leave it there. Thanks so much. I appreciate --

SAURAGE (via telephone): I just want to share one more thing with you.

BANFIELD: Real quick. I`m flat out of time.

SAURAGE (via telephone): There are seven million alligators in the United States, 0.03 are fatal attacks in this country. That`s how rare it is. I

just want people to understand. Don`t try to catch that alligator. Leave him alone.

BANFIELD: You got me. I`m on your side. Gary Saurage, thank you. Back right after this.

[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Back to school season and in Georgia, a school bus driver is in some pretty hot water for allegedly driving while intoxicated with a bunch

of kids behind her on the bus. This is Carole Ann Etheridge. She was arrested and she was charged with DUI. But she also got hit with 16 counts

of child endangerment. One student said he was actually scared for his life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she`s going 60 or 70 up there, from what it seemed like. And she kind of turned into the ditch because it`s just pure ditch

there. And she hit a driveway and we started to wobble. I was scared for my life. We went off the road and I thought we were all going to die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Police say Ms. Etheridge had that little cache, a bottle of tequila, four airplane bottles of vodka in her purse.

[21:00:00] Hello. When she was booked, she told the officers during her breathalyzer test that she`d been out the night before celebrating her

birthday. Naturally, we tried to contact Ms. Etheridge for comment, but we didn`t get a call back.

END