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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
A Brutal Murder by Own Family; Elizabeth Smart Recalls Her Terror; Evidence Found to Solve a Crime Puzzle. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired November 13, 2017 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
[20:00:00] JEAN CASAREZ, HOST, CNN: A stepfather goes missing after a family fight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I don`t understand that.
CASAREZ: But investigators say this argument turned deadly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is probably the worst scene that I`ve actually observed.
CASAREZ: Days later, the body is found underneath the family trailer in pieces.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How anybody can do that, I don`t understand that.
CASAREZ: And now behind bars, you`ll never guess. Or maybe you will.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel like that the mother was just as involved. She could have done more to keep this from ultimately becoming a murder
investigation.
CASAREZ: She was abducted from her family`s home.
ELIZABETH SMART, ADBUCTED FOR NINE MONTHS: I was so scared and I couldn`t believe this was happening.
CASAREZ: Repeatedly raped.
SMART: Every day, sometimes multiple times a day.
CASAREZ: And held captive for nine months.
SMART: I felt like I`ve been broken.
CASAREZ: Before her kidnappers made a big mistake.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s walking towards town and he`s walking north and he`s with two ladies.
CASAREZ: Now Elizabeth Smart is talking about her ordeal.
SMART: I got to a point where I knew that they would kill me if I didn`t do what they wanted.
CASAREZ: In the new lifetime movie. "I Am Elizabeth Smart."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to lie to me.
CASAREZ: Brought back haunting memories when she returned to the set.
SMART: Puts you in a place of extreme vulnerability.
CASAREZ: A police officer`s body camera catches it all.
A young mother found passed out in a grocery store, but this wasn`t a bad fall or a heart attack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You had an overdose.
CASAREZ: And that`s not all. Where`s your baby at?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Good evening, I`m Jean Casarez in for Ashleigh Banfield. Thank you so much for joining us. This is Primetime Justice.
Gary Stone`s family told police he was missing that he had been gone for days. Which was unlike him. But then they got a tip to check Gary Stone`s
home for Gary Stone. And it turns out he wasn`t missing at all. He was under the house, in an igloo cooler, a duffle bag and three plastic trash
bags cut into pieces.
According to the coroner, his arms, his legs and his feet were severed. His organs were organized all in one bag. And he was beheaded. Police had to
piece the body back together like a puzzle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE MUELLER, SHERIFF, CHEROKEE COUNTY: Twenty eight years this is probably the worst scene that I`ve actually observed. And been at when this
type of discovery is made. And, again, you know, I`d ask everyone just keep officers in your thoughts and prayers. Everybody thinks that they`re
superman, superwoman, but they`re human beings. They have hearts. Things like this impact them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: It didn`t take police long to make arrests. Stone`s very own wife and her 18-year-old son. The son allegedly says he got into a fight with
Gary Friday night before allegedly stabbing and dismembering him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GAIL TALLENT, FORMER GARY STONE`S WIFE: To know he died like that, and how anybody can do that, I don`t understand that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Dennis Fowler is the Cherokee County coroner. He joins us tonight from Gaffney, South Carolina. Thank you so much.
You said that this was like a horror movie as it played out. You`ve been doing this for 12 years now. You`ve never had anything like it. So, you get
a call from the sheriff`s department and they believe that under this mobile home they found what?
DENNIS FOWLER, CORONER, CHEROKEE COUNTY: A body. They had body parts. In fact, when I got the call, I was told by their forensic investigators that
they had found parts of a body underneath the mobile home. Had confirmed it because they identified some of the parts.
CASAREZ: And from what I understand, they stopped because what they realized they had here. They called you to the scene. So you went to the
scene and what did you find when you got there.
FOWLER: Deputy went to the scene and found several containers, the sheriff`s deputies, their investigators. Their crime scene investigations
continued to pull more containers out and as they did, they found more body parts.
CASAREZ: Unbelievable. So all together, sir, five containers, right. We see on the screen here, a cooler, a duffel bag, and three trash bags.
FOWLER: That is correct.
CASAREZ: Now, so you take this back to the coroner`s office and now as a coroner and a pathologist that you on stuff; you had to put it together.
[20:04:57] FOWLER: That`s right. Like a puzzle we preserved the evidence and label all the bags, seal the bags and brought them to the Cherokee
County Coroner`s Office. In our morgue and the next morning we went to autopsy and just like a puzzle, pathologist put it together and added
topical condition and laid it all back out to make sure we had all the parts.
One of the concerns that we had, the sheriff`s had, was that in the area the garbage had been picked up after this allegedly occurred. So there was
a whole place on the garbage trucks before they could unload.
CASAREZ: Wow. And as you put it together, you had to determine during autopsy a cause of death. What did you determine the cause of death was?
FOWLER: Multiple stab wounds to the chest and the back. Extreme (Ph) humiliation which is a blood loss was the cause of death. And the manner of
death was homicide.
CASAREZ: And could you tell the instruments that were used to sever this body.
FOWLER: Well, you could tell that the instruments used were not regular surgical tools. And the sheriff`s investigators had also made discoveries
as well which included a hammer, hacksaw, a sheetrock saw and a hunting knife.
CASAREZ: And is it true that all of the organs were removed.
FOWLER: All of the organs were removed. Placed into a container. That was part of the autopsy. The pathologist identified all the organs that were
removed and placed into a plastic bag, yes.
CASAREZ: From all of your vast experience, nothing like this, but in school and on the job, why would somebody do that?
FOWLER: I have no idea. It`s a crime of hate.
CASAREZ: Well, Craig Debolt is the program director for 94.5 WGTK and for Earth FM WRTH. He joins us tonight from Greenville, South Carolina. OK,
let`s stop from the beginning. Because it was about a week ago Friday I think that police were called out to the home. Why?
CRAIG DEBOLT, PROGRAM DIRECTOR, 94.5 WGTK: That is correct, Jean. They got the call that there was a disturbance of possible fight that was being
reported. That time the officers were dispatched to the home. They went to the home, they arrived, they checked in with the folks there and were
essentially dismissed actually by what would become the victim, by Gary saying it was a starvation that they handled and they cooled down and
everything was OK.
CASAREZ: So they actually spoke to Gary Stone.
DEBOLT: They did.
CASAREZ: The man who only became the victim.
DEBOLT: Just a couple of days three days beforehand, yes.
CASAREZ: And he said that his stepson had left the property. And he didn`t want to report it, you just said, right?
DEBOLT: He didn`t want to. You know, he thought that this was a situation that he could contain there and their residence. It was something that they
were having an argument. Figured they were going to cool down. Everything would be OK. They would work through it. That`s why he essentially sent
them on their way at that time.
CASAREZ: So what happened last Wednesday?
DEBOLT: So you then you fast forward on a few days later Wednesday. That`s when Gary Stone`s family now at this point haven`t seen him in a few days
and they`re getting a little suspicious. They wanted to have a welfare check done on Gary. And after a few days they went, they check at the house
there. They actually spoke to Don Wilkins who was the victim`s come along wife and mother of the 18-year-old son and the stepson of Gary.
And they actually asked them if they could enter the home and they agreed. So as they later would have to come back out the following day, on Thursday
to actually go through under the home like you heard there from Coroner, Dennis Fowler.
And this is a small town. This is a really off the charts crime for our area and Donna Charles, essentially Charles admitted to killing Gary. He
said they were in an argument, him and his mom. And he felt like at that point, as the son, his mom was being challenged more than he should. Then
he was defending her honor is how he stepped in.
CASAREZ: Right. So it was about a week later that they go to the home and they`re removing what is around the mobile home and that`s when they
discovered all these bags, the duffel bag, the cooler, the remains.
DEBOLT: Yes.
CASAREZ: So he and his mother have now been charged with murder. And here`s my question, and maybe to Dennis Fowler, the Cherokee County coroner, this
was a 200-pound man and the stepson is saying that he got him by choking him and then he started stabbing him. And you counted the wounds. That`s
how you determined your cause of death, front and back. How could this young, I think I read 115-pound kid, overpower a 200-pound man to kill him?
[20:10:03] DEBOLT: Well, the Cherokee`s office deputy, in fact, he did in the interview that he had first choked him out. Put him to sleep in a choke
hold.
CASAREZ: Interesting. A choke hold to put him to sleep. Jason Lamm, if this defense attorney says that it was in self-defense, they don`t really have
anybody to say they were a witness to it at this point. To say there was self-defense here. What would you look for with the wound patterns and
where the wounds were to establish a self-defense?
JASON LAMM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Jean, I think the wounds are very telling for a couple of reasons. First off, as the coroner said we had wounds to the
front and wounds to the back. Now the wounds to the front could be indicative of self-defense or heat of passion situation.
What is more troubling to me, not only as defense attorney, but as a former prosecutor are the wounds to the back. That is indicative of some type of
anger or malice or hatred. And I`d also be really interested to see what the young man, Mr. Bridges, had in terms of wounds. Because you are allowed
to use deadly force to defend yourself. But it`s got to be reasonable and proportionate to the harm that you`re facing.
But I will tell you, Jean, what`s more perhaps intuitive to me is the way the body parts were found. This is not indicative of a premeditated
situation. I think that individuals who would plan out this crime wouldn`t be so hasty to dispose of a body.
Whatever happened in that trailer, I think they panicked. I think they cut up the body and they stuffed it under the trailer because they had nothing
better to do with it. They didn`t know what to do.
And as we look a duffel bag, trash bag and a cooler those really aren`t the best things to put body parts in because they`re going to leak, they going
to seep. To me, this is something that was not well-planned. And perhaps not self-defense, but not really a premeditated murder based on the
evidence.
CASAREZ: To the Cherokee County Coroner who is joining us tonight, Dennis Fowler, how many stab wounds were there in total that you counted front and
back and how many were on the back?
FOWLER: I`m not going to release that right now. I think that`s part of the investigation that`s ongoing and I don`t want to deter the investigation.
CASAREZ: But multiple stab wounds.
FOWLER: Yes.
CASAREZ: Were you able to find the knife?
FOWLER: I understand that the sheriff`s office has recovered a number of weapons.
CASAREZ: A number of weapons. When they retrieved the bags and the cooler, et cetera, there had to be a terrible smell. This is out in the middle of
nowhere. So it`s not like neighbors would be able to smell something in the air, but it had to be a week later.
FOWLER: Absolutely. Decay, very much on odor and I`m sure that they could smell it inside the truck.
CASAREZ: And are people in your office in the sheriff`s department getting counseling because your community and most communities have not gone
through something like this.
FOWLER: You know, it`s always taxing as the sheriff said at the opening of your show on the people who have to work as first responders. So do we. So
it does affect us. We do reach us for help, for counseling because we did that as well.
CASAREZ: All right. Thank you so much for joining us.
Tonight in State College Pennsylvania we are getting a clear picture of what investigators say the night a Penn State freshman died after a night
of binge drinking and alleged hazing. The center county D.A. said the deleted video was recovered from a surveillance system in the Beta Theta Pi
fraternity house.
It was deleted. It was gone and they recovered it. It shows Timothy Piazza was given at least 18 drinks in an 82 minute period the night he died. This
is brand new information today. The video is from the basement of the house and it was recovered by the FBI after it was manually erased by one of the
fraternity brothers following Piazza`s death.
Twelve more fraternity brothers are now facing charges in Piazza`s death in addition to the 16 others previously charged.
And Elizabeth Smart speaks out next about her kidnapping, her captors and the daily rapes she endured during her 281 days away from her family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SMART: Eventually there did come a point in time where I just knew if I wanted to survive, I just had to lay there and let it happen because the
harder I fought, the more it was going to hurt and the longer it was going to last.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:14:56] CASAREZ: Her story of faith and survival in her own words, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: It`s been 15 years since Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her home in the middle of the night and held captive by a couple in the woods.
The whole country followed her story. But tonight Elizabeth Smart is here to tell it herself. Breaking years of silence to address head on what they
really did to her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:19:53] CASAREZ: As Elizabeth Smart and her family slept, a determined kidnapper entered their home through a kitchen window by cutting the
screen. Within minutes, police say, he was upstairs in the bedroom, Elizabeth then 14, shared with her younger sister.
It was June 5, 2002 around 2 a.m. He told her, "I have a knife to your neck. Don`t make a sound. Get out of bed or I will kill you and your
family."
Elizabeth testified her kidnapper quickly made her his second wife. Her testimony hard to hear. Elizabeth said she pleaded with her kidnapper. She
told the court "I was just a little girl and I hadn`t even started my period yet. He yelled out to his wife and asked if that was still OK and
she said it was and then he continued."
She testified her conductor raped her while her ankle was tied to a pole so she couldn`t escape. She was raped, she said, at least once a day.
In March, 2003, the trio surfaced in Sandy, Utah about 25 miles south of Salt Lake City. Not far from Elizabeth`s home. Police received two 911
calls from witnesses claiming they had spotted Mitchell.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s walking towards the town. He`s walking north and he`s with two ladies.
CASAREZ: An officer on the scene questioned the girl with Mitchell. She insisted she was not Elizabeth Smart, but when investigators showed her a
missing person`s poster with her face on it, she tear up and confirmed her identity. It was March 12, 2003. Nine months had passed since she was
kidnapped. Nine months of terror.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: And Elizabeth Smart joins us now. It`s so wonderful to have here you. You know, Elizabeth, I was in the courtroom and I heard every bit of
the testimony of the trial of Brian David Mitchell and I can tell you this movie it is exquisite, but it is so accurate.
SMART: It was really important to me over the years I`ve been approached so many times. Let me do your movie. Let me do your story. Let me do your
story, and I said, no, no. I mean, it`s -- they say a picture is worth a thousand words. I mean, how much more is a movie. Plus it puts you in a
place of extreme vulnerability and I was so worried that it would never be accurately done. How could it be?
So when I finally decided to be involved in this project, it was very important to me that everything be absolutely 100 percent accurate.
CASAREZ: It took a while for you to sign on. You were a producer. We`re going to show up in a minute a little bit. But you were a producer on it.
SMART: I am. Yes. And that was another part of it. Because when I was initially they were like, we just want you to sign off and say, OK, go to
do it. We want you to be involved. We want you to have your input. We want to be as involved as you possibly can stand to be involved. And so it was a
-- it was a very intensive process but I`m so glad I did it.
CASAREZ: Wow. I bet it was tough. We`re going to talk more in a second, but now we watch a little more of your movie, Elizabeth Smart.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a divine proclamation. I must obey you. Get out of bed now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would you do this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lord commanded me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I take you as my wife.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re not married. We`re not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You do what I say when I say.
You are mine forever.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s your name?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am Elizabeth Smart. I am Elizabeth Smart. You may think you know my story, but you don`t.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: It does premier on Lifetime, November 18. I want to ask you one thing, the movie didn`t have time to go into, when you were abducted, in
the middle of the night, you hiked with Mitchell hours until you got to the camp. What do you remember from that?
SMART: I remember it feeling -- I know -- I know how hard it is to get back to that camp. I`ve been back to that camp since then. But that night that I
was kidnapped, it did not feel like it was that long. I think I was so full of adrenaline. And I was so scared. And I couldn`t believe this was
happening to me.
And how could this be happening to me. I just remember just praying and praying and being so worried at the same time that maybe I missed my chance
to escape. I remember being just brought into the mountains that it was so hard, it was so hard to climb. It was so hard to hike back in there because
eventually we weren`t on a trail anymore.
[20:24:56] And I just remember getting down on my hands and knees and crawling because the brush was so thick and I remember stopping fairly
often because he would have to urinate and he would stop and he would just be a few feet away from me, and I just remember being so scared and I would
keep going and sit down for a minute and say we`re just going to wait for the sun to come up and then he change his mind and then we keep going.
And it was -- I mean, looking back, it was hours. But in the moment, I was so scared. I was so full of adrenaline and it felt like minutes. I did not
realize how far back in the mountains I really was.
CASAREZ: There was a safety pin. It became very important to you.
SMART: So as a child, I was extremely modest. I was extremely self- conscious about my body. I had been given a gift of red silk pajamas and I had, I was so self-conscious. I mean, they weren`t like -- it wasn`t a
plunging neckline or revealing in any way. But I was just so self- conscious, I had taken the top of the collar and I had a safety pinned it shut.
And when may captors kidnapped they eventually came a point where they had, they forced me to burn my pajamas and the only thing that survived the fire
was the little safety pin that I had pinned the top of the pajamas. And I remember holding onto that for months because it was like the last sort of
link between my family and I.
CASAREZ: So it became your anchor, it became your strength, maybe hope.
SMART: It certainly was a reminder that my family was still out there and that ultimately I did want to still go back to them.
CASAREZ: And we have to remind everyone. You were 14 years old, 14. It was very important to you in the movie and it is important for people to know
that you did not suffer from Stockholm syndrome.
SMART: No, I didn`t. And over the years I`ve been asked that question many, many times. I said, well, you seemed like you went along with them. You
seemed like you did what they wanted. But it`s important for people to understand that everything I did, I did to survive.
So whatever it may have looked like on the outside was a survival tactic. A survival instinct. I got to a point where I knew that they would kill me if
I didn`t do what they wanted. I knew that they could go after my family and would my family expect something else to happen to them? Probably not.
I mean, yes, I`m sure they had taken precautions to keep the rest of the family safe while I was gone. But even still, I was kidnapped from the
place I thought was safest in the world. I was in bed, in my bed in my home. I mean, what safer place is there than that. And yet it still
happened to me. So what if he did go back. What if he did break in?
I mean, what if he waited for the opportune moment and just pounced and killed someone in my family. I never felt like I could risk that. And so I
wanted to protect myself. I wanted to protect my family and that`s why I would go along with everything that he said.
CASAREZ: It`s very deep thinking for a 14-year-old. There was a point of time when you were at the library because he wanted to do some research.
And that`s in the movie and an investigator comes, law enforcement. What went through your mind right then because I guess a lot of people wonder,
well, that was her chance. She could have thrown herself on law enforcement right there.
SMART: It was on one side I was hopeful. I was hopeful he would rescue me, I was hopeful that he would see through everything. But as soon as he
approached us, as soon as he flashed his badge, I remember one of her hand just clamping down on my leg and just holding on to me. It was just like --
it was like being kidnapped all over again.
It was just like reliving everything that had happened to me. All over again. It was like she was saying, if you want to live. If you want your
family to live, you`ll sit here and you won`t say anything and you won`t do anything. And it was terrifying.
CASAREZ: Yes. One of the things I did learn in this movie, I didn`t realize Wanda Barzee, who was the first wife of Mitchell, I didn`t realize how mean
she was to you. I mean, this was another layer of abuse.
SMART: I think it is easy to overlook her because Brian Mitchell is the one that forced his way into my home. He is the one that held me at knife
point. He is the one that raped me. He did all these terrible things. But she was a mother. She had come from a prior marriage. She had six children.
And honestly, part of me feels like she is more evil because of that. Because she was -- I don`t want to say mother, but she did have six
children. And how can you have that many children and allow that to happen to another child.
[20:30:00] I have two children now, and they are the most precious thing in the world to me. And it isn`t anything I wouldn`t do. And that goes, I
mean, if something -- if another child came into my life, I wouldn`t let anything happen to them either because I am a mother, and children are
precious.
And it`s such a brief moment in life that they -- they need to be protected and loved and taken care of and she never did that for me. She stepped
aside and let rape and torture and abuse continue and not only continue, but she -- she encouraged it.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN AND HLN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
SMART: -- which how could she do that.
CASAREZ: Evil is a good way. It is portrayed so well in the movie just how she was to you. You`ve been very open in this movie for the first time
about the continual sexual assaults that were done to you.
SMART: It was a very big decision. And as I decided to make this project, I wanted it very clear what it was like because, well, as I`ve continued on
in my life and in my advocacy and I`ve met so many other victims and so many other survivors, what happened to me is really not that unique.
I mean, women, children, men, sexual abused, raped every day single day. And kidnappings, they happen every single day. And so I felt like it was a
very important part of the story that rape doesn`t just happen once. It happens all the time.
CASAREZ: It`s not over. Next, we`re going to talk to Elizabeth about the brutal abuse, the assaults that she suffered every day. How she got through
those sexual assaults and what she says to the victims of assault coming out now across the country.
[20:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: Thank you for joining us. Now we are back with Elizabeth Smart. How often did he rape you?
SMART: Every day. Sometimes multiple times a day.
CASAREZ: And how did you get through it at the time?
SMART: Initially, it was devastating. It just felt like I -- it felt like I had been broken. It felt like I was now worthless. But eventually there did
come a point in time where I just knew if I wanted to survive, I just had to lay there and let it happen because the harder I fought, the more it was
going to hurt and the longer it was going to last. So if I just laid there and didn`t move, it would be over quicker.
CASAREZ: I learned in the trial testimony too and it`s in the movie, he applied you with alcohol.
SMART: And initially that was very hard. That was terrifying. I mean, I remember being in the fifth grade dare program, I was, like, I promise I`m
never going to do drugs, I`m never going to do alcohol. And in my faith as well. That was something that I had not done. Had no intention of ever
doing was drinking.
So, initially it was very hard. It did feel like just like another sort of degradation. Another sort of him just cutting me down continually.
But eventually once I`ve come to realized the effect alcohol had on me and that it was going to happen whether I liked it or not, I finally just got
to a point where I was like, well, if I have to be raped, if I have to be hurt, if these things have to happen to me, drinking alcohol doesn`t make
it go away, doesn`t make it less painful.
It just kind of numbed me a little bit more. So it became not quite as much of a bad thing as I had always felt it was.
CASAREZ: You said that in the movie you had a new understanding of why people have an addiction to alcohol sometimes. California, you ended up in
California. He then wants to move back east. You figured something out that I think changed your fate. What did you say to him at that point? I don`t
want to go to the east coast.
SMART: It was terrifying because nobody had found me in Utah. No one had found me in California. I just remember thinking, well, New York, that`s
the melting pot of the world. If we go there, no one is ever going to find me. And so I remember just for the last nine months, I had watched him
every day.
I listened to his manipulations every single day. Every time he wanted something. He would always say this is a revelation from God. I feel like,
yes, this is the next step in our journey. We need to experience. You need to give in to this. You need to accept this. And I had listened to this for
so long.
I remember just thinking, well, if this can work for him, surely has to work for me just once. And so I remember just turning to him and just
saying, I know I`m just so wicked and I`m so sinful and I know God would never speak to me, but I just have this feeling like we`re supposed to go
back to Salt Lake.
Like, please, can you just ask God because I know he will tell you. You`re his prophet, you`re a servant. I know he will tell you. Could you please
ask him.
[20:40:00] For him, I think he just felt like oh, she accepts me. And now she`ll be a willing participant and anything that I want to do and -- it`s
finally worked. My control is finally complete over her. Because ultimately I think ultimately that`s what he did want. He was addicted, I think, to
control and power.
CASAREZ: You did it and you got yourself and them back to Utah.
SMART: That was the turning point.
CASAREZ: That was the turning point. You end up in Sandy, Utah at one point. And all of a sudden, the police come from every direction. And they
ask you what your name is.
SMART: And that moment actually was really terrifying. It was scary because as we`ve been talking, I mean, I had been so abused for so long. I had been
so manipulated for so long. I had been so threatened for so long.
And I had seen time and time again, officers, people of authority coming up to Brian Mitchell and questioning him and he was so good. He was so for
lack of a better word, talented at manipulation. I would watch just officers walk away being fully convinced.
And so in that moment, on one hand, yes, it was hopeful. Yes, I absolutely wanted to get rescued. I absolutely wanted to go home. But at the same
time, there`s just this side of me thinking, what if they don`t believe me?
What if the officers believe him? What if I say who I am, and he says no, she`s wrong, she`s lying to you, this is my daughter, this is, you know,
we`re ministers for Christ, this is --
CASAREZ: Were you able to say those words finally?
SMART: I was able, but it was only after one of the officers separated me from my captors. I think the physical separation actually played a very big
role for me to admit who I was.
CASAREZ: And then I assume you were taken to a medical facility at some point.
SMART: I was taken to a police station in Sandy, where I was reunited with my father.
CASAREZ: What was that like?
SMART: It really wasn`t until he was hugging me that I don`t know the whole situation kind of made sense now, because there was still a moment where I
was handcuffed and put in the back of the car. And I just don`t think there had ever been a situation like mine before. I don`t think the police knew
what to do. I don`t think anyone knew what to do.
So while I was being handcuffed, I started thinking oh, no, they`re going to send me to jail, they`re going to send me to prison. So it wasn`t until
my dad was holding me in his arms that I just finally knew it was going to be OK. That I was now safe. And then I was brought up to headquarters where
my mom and my siblings were waiting for me. And it was after that I was then taken to the hospital.
CASAREZ: A sexual assault nurse routinely does an assessment. At that point, were you able to tell her what has happened to you?
SMART: To tell my mom or the nurse?
CASAREZ: To tell the sexual assault nurse.
SMART: Well, actually while I was at the station, while I was at police headquarters, they actually did separate me from my family and they did
start to question me.
CASAREZ: Were you able to describe it?
SMART: At that point, I don`t know. I think as a 14-year-old, I felt like well, I guess I was 15 at that point, but I felt like the police already
knew everything. I felt like there was nothing -- I couldn`t hide what had happened.
I felt like everyone already knew everything, so it wasn`t going to do me any good and pretend things didn`t happen. So I admitted straight from the
very first day that I was rescued that I had been raped and I had been sexually assaulted many times.
CASAREZ: What`s your advice to women that have just come forward now or haven`t yet come forward? That they just don`t have the strength, because
you`re really the inspiration. You`re the one that people can really look up to on what to do.
SMART: Well, I think first and foremost, you do have to take care of yourself. You need to do what`s right for you because this is your life.
And ultimately one way or the other, you will have to live with the consequences of your actions.
CASAREZ: What is your life like now?
SMART: My life is wonderful. So I`ve been married coming up on six years now. And my husband, he`s just the best. He`s my match. And we`ve got two
wonderful beautiful little children. They`re just my world. There isn`t anything I wouldn`t do for them. And --
CASAREZ: Are you ever afraid? Does it ever still haunt you? Go through your mind?
SMART: If I think about it, it`s because I choose to think about it.
[20:45:00] I speak about it because I choose to speak about it. I do advocacy because that`s what I want, because I feel like that`s important.
I feel like I`ve been blessed so many times over and over and over. I feel like this is an opportunity for me to give back and to make a difference in
something that I know is so devastating.
So it certainly has affected my life. It certainly has changed my life in more ways than I ever could have imagined, but I also feel like it happened
to me for a reason. And this is my opportunity to contribute.
CASAREZ: You know, when I saw you testify in that courtroom, you are so strong. You were so tough on that stand. And we see that in the movie, the
intelligence that you used as that little girl, and thank you so much for joining us.
SMART: Thank you.
CASAREZ: And the movie once again premiers on Lifetime, Saturday night, November 18th, 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. You do not want to miss this movie.
I want to thank Elizabeth Smart so much for being so authentic and from the heart for the first time really telling us her story.
The tragic reality of the heroin epidemic in America. A young mother passed out in a grocery store bathroom while her toddler child cries for help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where`s my baby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know. We just found you. Stay sitting down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: More and more people are affected by heroin abuse and the impact of the drug got brutally real in a grocery store bathroom in Gwinnett
County, Georgia. That`s where police say staff found a young mother passed out from an overdose. And her baby crying in the shopping cart next to a
purse. Her purse, that was full of needles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I gave her Narcan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did give her Narcan?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is you Narcan at?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the pharmacist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. So she`s had one dose of Narcan?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One dose.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Second dose of Narcan down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you feeling? Just relax. Just relax. Stay laying down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where`s my baby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know. We just found you. Stay sitting down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need to -- I need to find my baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just relax. Where`s your baby at? Tell me where your baby is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When was the last time you had him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was in here with me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you take so that way they know to give you the right medicine?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you take?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Heroin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ten? Less? More?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Less.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you almost killed yourself so good thing you didn`t take anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CASAREZ: Now, Jessica Widner is behind bars on a charge at this point of cruelty to children. Her baby is safe tonight with his father.
Defense attorney Jason Lamm joins us again tonight from Atlanta. Jason, it`s so sad to watch this. And the report says that Widner was unconscious
and slumped over on to the wall with her pants down like she was going to the bathroom.
What are your thoughts here about the charges because cruelty to children based on her baby being in the cart in a baby bassinet car seat with her
purse full of needles close by? Should there be drug charges here?
JASON LAMM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, Jean, we could look at this in a couple of different ways. Yes, it`s a legal issue. The child was
endangered. You know, he was in proximity to this drug paraphernalia, sharp object. He could have been injured.
What`s the real problem? What`s the bigger problem? We have an epidemic in this country. It doesn`t discriminate based on economics, on race or
ethnicity. That fact is, you know, you have a young mother here who was found with a needle in her arm. She didn`t have any regard for her child
because she`s in the grip of addiction.
And I have represented countless individuals including suburban soccer moms who progressed from pills to heroin. It`s just goes downhill and it`s
awful. So this is just yet another example of an absolute tragedy that we`re seeing nationwide.
I`m not trying to get political about it. But we as a country need to recognize that this isn`t going away. And the charge, yes, its valid. What
do we really need to do? We need to get this woman and others like her some serious help.
CASAREZ: You know, it`s so interesting that you say a soccer mom. And if you look at her, Jessica Widner, that`s what she looks like. She looks like
anybody, right? And there she is at Kroger grocery store in the bathroom.
Jason, do you realize that the pharmacist at Kroger once they heard what was happening, came into the women`s bathroom and administered that Narcan.
Two times it took, Jason, for her to be revived.
LAMM: Jean, this woman is so lucky and so is her child because think about it. What if she decided to shoot up that heroin in the parking lot in her
car? No one would have heard the baby crying. No pharmacist would have come running. No one would have had Narcan. And this woman would have died.
CASAREZ: It`s a really good point.
LAMM: She`s very lucky.
CASAREZ: Very good point. Two bad guys in Florida. They made the mistake of going into this dog`s backyard and he jumped at the chance to join the K-9
ranks.
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: Talk about a good boy. In Florida, a Volusia County dog gets some freelance K-9 unit work for the sheriff`s department when two suspects
fleeing the police ended up in his backyard, and he was having none of it. You can see the two guys. They`re running between a couple of houses and
that`s when the dog gets in on the action.
He runs towards one of the men and then gives chase, knocking one of the guys down. They manage to get away from the dog, but were eventually
arrested for drug charges and resisting arrest. An amazing hero, the dog.
Thank you so much for watching tonight. I`m Jean Casarez. We`ll see you back here tomorrow night
[21:00:00] for 8:00 "Primetime Justice." "How It Really Happened" with Hill Harper begins right now. Good night, everybody.
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