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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield
Nicaraguans Arrested Man Suspect of Killing Coed; Married Man Flew with Allege Teenager Girlfriend. Aired 6-8p ET
Aired March 14, 2018 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00] (JOINED IN PROGRESS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- Galileo`s death day and died on Einstein`s birthday.
S.E. CUPP, HOST, HLN: Rest in peace. Crime & Justice with Ashleigh Banfield is up next.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST, HLN: Good evening, everyone. This is Crime & Justice.
The call came in as trouble unknown. And for Oklahoma City Police Officer Brandon McDonald that could have meant anything. But nothing seemed unusual
on Barton Drive that night. That is until Officer McDonald heard gunshots and people arguing inside the house. And that trouble unknown was about to
become very obvious because in a split second the man who answered the door pulled a gun on the cop.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bill, just go. Bill, please just go. That`s all you have to do Just please go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop trying to convince me. I`m a lot smarter than that, OK? Don`t do this anymore. It`s frustrating me, it`s making me more --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you need to go. Please, just go. Please.
(GUNSHOTS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired! Shots fired!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: It all happened so fast. But for Officer McDonald, it sure seemed crystal clear. William Young fired a shot before the cop could even ask his
name. Lucky for the cop Young missed. And Officer McDonald was able to fire back and take him out, but the dead man had a brother and that brother was
still inside the house along with a young woman who reportedly had been shot in the face, but was somehow still alive.
Her mom sadly was not still alive. She was shot. Her body was stuffed in a white van outside and in a strange twist, the surviving brother inside the
house is the one they arrested for first-degree murder.
Sometimes you just get lucky. And Seattle police might be feeling that way tonight along with the poor guy whose truck was stolen. But that victim of
the truck heft he didn`t even have time to report it stolen before the officers were on to the guy who did it.
They tried to pull that guy over because they actually thought the driver was the suspect in a far more serious crime. A shooting. But when they
turned on the dreaded lights and siren, he took off like a bat out of hell.
(BEGIN VOICE CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looks like he is trying at 64th and 228. Now he just turned northbound on 64th. Approaching south 28, just ran a red light at
south 28 and northbound on the oncoming lanes (Inaudible) through the 76 station.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: North or south?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s northbound. It looks like someone just tried to spike him. I got vehicles, I got police vehicles heading westbound on
272nd. It looks like attempted theft, just hit another vehicle in the oncoming lane. Slowed down. It looks like they pitted him and they are
calling commands out to the driver right now. It looks like they have the driver out of the vehicle and they`re taking him into custody right now.
(END VOICE CLIP)
BANFIELD: Fortunately, there were no serious injuries in all of this, but Michael Edwards was charged in several hit-and-run collisions, he was also
charged with stealing that vehicle. He will not, however, face any charges for the shooting that he wasn`t involved in, but that led to this chase in
the first place.
All week long we have been wondering how a 9-month-old little baby boy ended up facedown and drooling on a busy street in upstate New York, and I
don`t mean the sidewalk, I mean the middle of the road on a Friday night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re OK. Did you call 911?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can call 911.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Dominic, I got a blanket on the back of the car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s driving and --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s my baby! That`s my baby! That`s my baby! That`s my baby! My God. My God. Is he OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: My god, indeed. You hear that mom rushed up to the folks who found the baby. She had come from a few blocks away. And tonight, she is
blaming an unbuckled car seat and unruly car door for what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LADRIKA FORD, MOTHER OF 9-MONTH MONTH FOUND IN THE STREET: I just want to, this is my part of the story. I did not harm my baby. I would never harm my
baby. All I think about is my kids. I would never hurt my baby. I would never leave my baby in the street. I would never do that. Never.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Well, tonight that little baby boy is not with her. He`s with Child Protective Services, thankfully he`s recovering for a small contusion
on his tiny little head. His mom, however, is charged with child endangerment.
[18:05:09] So, it looks like something out of an action movie. Mass Nicaraguan policemen with rifles posing with their wounded young prisoner.
That`s 22-year-old American Orlando Tercero arrested yesterday for an American homicide after reportedly he fled the country.
Who would have thought just months ago he actually was hooking up with this hot friend of his from the nursing program they were in at their college in
upstate New York. This was a girl he was reportedly obsessed with. But her friends, well, her friends say his obsession went too far. That even though
she and Orlando were just friends, their classmates found their cold, dead body in his bed. And Orlando he was nowhere to be found.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never thought somebody would want to do this to her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s just hard to like accept it, like but it`s happening, and like, I feel like there is nothing we can do now. We`ll just
remember her like the way she was, it was just like perfect. Just everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Crime and Justice producer Michael Christian has been working on the story all day. There are some very strange details now coming from
Haley Anderson`s friend. Friend who actually made the discovery of her dead body. Walk me through what happened.
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, PRODUCER, CRIME AND JUSTICE: Well, Ashleigh, they hadn`t heard from her. They had seen her either late Wednesday or possibly really
early on Thursday morning. And then she was sort of off the grid and that wasn`t like Haley. So they were able to track her phone through an app.
They realized it was at her boyfriend`s house.
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: At his house.
CHRISTIAN: His apartment.
BANFIELD: And when you say boyfriend, let`s use the term loosely. She didn`t think of him as a boyfriend.
CHRISTIAN: Right. He was a friend who was a boy, apparently she thought it was platonic, he wanted it to be more. At any rate, at least two friends
went over, they went through a side window. They found her body inside his home on the bed and they called police.
BANFIELD: And when you say on the bed, in his bedroom, correct?
CHRISTIAN: Correct.
BANFIELD: What was the condition? Like how did they describe what they found? This is -- I mean, they`re kids. They were in their early 20s.
CHRISTIAN: They said that the body seemed to have been looked very nice. It was kind of peaceful on the bed. Now we don`t know when this woman had been
killed, but if she was last seen early Thursday morning and she was found around noon on Friday, sometime during that time period, so there may have
been a little bit of decomposition but probably not a whole lot.
BANFIELD: Did they say that they saw any evidence of violence?
CHRISTIAN: No.
BANFIELD: Nothing.
CHRISTIAN: Yes.
BANFIELD: So it didn`t look as though she had been stabbed or shot, they couldn`t tell from their perspective had been strangled?
CHRISTIAN: Correct. Couldn`t tell.
BANFIELD: Couldn`t tell. Couldn`t seen if she had been abused in any way?
CHRISTIAN: No. And the police are very tight-lipped about it. They haven`t given any details about her except to say that the manner was indeed a
homicide.
BANFIELD: There`s one report that the blankets were halfway up her body. Do we know anything more about that?
CHRISTIAN: No, we were not able to confirm that.
BANFIELD: And then what about the notion that she had her hands sort of down beside her, as though she were sleeping?
CHRISTIAN: Yes, again, that`s been reported but we just were not able to confirm it either with the friends or with police.
BANFIELD: So, my assumption is that when the friends, you know, climbed through the window of Orlando Tercero`s apartment home and made this
discovery, they were the first maybe to call the police?
CHRISTIAN: They were. They got there first, they found her and they called the cops.
BANFIELD: And so what about the notion that they knew Orlando. They knew of him. Did they look for him right away and discover he was -- he had flown
the coop?
CHRISTIAN: Well, obviously, since it was in his apartment he was somebody that the police wanted to talk to right now.
BANFIELD: In his bed.
CHRISTIAN: Right. In his bed. Now it turned out they had later put out a press release that he had left the country. It turns out we now know that
he flew from JFK airport in New York to Nicaragua, to Managua, Nicaragua earlier that same Friday morning so they basically missed him by a couple
of hours.
BANFIELD: What`s so weird about this, Michael, I know how you work. You`re dog, get on the phone. We have a team of people who are calling the police
at all times to get details, to get facts and to get facts confirmed. They were not really that keen on talking to us. In fact, they wouldn`t even
call him a person of interest or a suspect, as I understand it.
And yet, the Nicaraguans the day after are giving us pictures they don`t look like this. They`re looking like this. I mean, this looks like a drug
arrest where they`ve got the masked policemen with an injury -- what were the injuries? Do we know anything about the injuries?
CHRISTIAN: We know it from a press release from the Nicaraguan police, they said that they arrested him in a hospital and that he had been treated for,
quote, unquote, "self-inflicted injuries." We don`t know any more details about that. Your guess is as good as mine.
BANFIELD: I mean, that -- I think that`s the essential comment. My guess it would be as good as anyone as whether they did it to him in Nicaragua.
CHRISTIAN: Yes.
BANFIELD: I don`t know how the police work there, but being arrested in the hospital, I don`t know if it means they took him to the hospital and then
actually placed him under arrest.
[18:09:59] CHRISTIAN: Yes. And not explaining at this point.
BANFIELD: Or found him at the -- in any case, they must have been working with the Americans in some way to track it. Now, what about getting him
back here. That`s a whole other kettle of fish.
CHRISTIAN: It is. Now it is also complicated by the fact that apparently, Mr. Tercero is both a Nicaraguan and a U.S. citizen. We know he`s a U.S.
citizen but we also know that he has a family in Nicaragua. Now, it`s one thing for a country to give up a foreign citizen but it`s a different thing
for them to voluntarily give up one of their own. So that is a question that`s going to have to be determined somewhere down the line.
BANFIELD: So, you know, every time I see the pictures of Haley Anderson, she just sort of reminds me of a Hollywood movie star for some reason.
She`s got that glow, that look. I think there`s a picture of her even with the days he chain, you know, around her --
CHRISTIAN: Yes.
BANFIELD: -- beautiful perfect blonde hair, which I think sort of catapults her to the top of the headline. For whatever reason people seem to be, you
know, just really taken with this young woman. And that`s the story I`m trying to get to with Orlando Tercero.
Her friends have sort of alluded to the fact that they had hooked up at one point, they were in the nursing program together. I can understand
completely why he`d be interested in her.
I don`t know what his -- her interest was in him, but had the friends been able to qualify a little bit more exactly what was going on with their
relationship and what he was doing leading up to, you know, her being found dead.
CHRISTIAN: The word that keeps coming up is obsessive that he was obsessed with her that she thought they were just plutonic friends at this point.
Apparently he wanted more.
Now one of the friends told us that he had been known to drive by her home if he thought that perhaps there was another man over there. And
apparently, there was an incident where he slashed some of her car tires, again, in a jealous rage perhaps of some sort. But we don`t know any more
details than that.
BANFIELD: But acting in a stalking kind of behavior prior to.
CHRISTIAN: Unfortunately.
BANFIELD: Do we know if she made any complaints to anyone either to her friends, her parents, her friends, her family, or maybe the authorities or
even the nursing school because they went to class together.
CHRISTIAN: Yes. And you know, we don`t and the interesting thing is she would have graduated this coming May. So maybe she kind of blew it off
because in a couple of months, she theoretically wouldn`t be seeing him anymore.
BANFIELD: I mean, it`s unbelievably sad. The D.A. in this case even though they wouldn`t even tell us, you know, that he was a suspect in the case.
Well, now the Nicaraguans have him with the whole gun toting, you know, injury prisoner profile picture. The D.A. is looking for an indictment
already. I mean, we`re moving quickly in this.
CHRISTIAN: Yes. The Broome County district attorney he said he`s going to submit this to a grand jury. Assuming a grand jury hands down an indictment
they will then try to get a warrant for him and then that process has to involve the State Department and Nicaraguan authorities to try to get him
back to the country for trial.
BANFIELD: So, there was also some humor about, you know, that Haley was interested in another old boyfriend and that this was driving Orlando, you
know, mad but that`s not confirmed. But the friend of Haley who we spoke with did describe him in a particularly egregious way, and what was that
way.
CHRISTIAN: Basically she said that this all involved one screwed up guy Orlando Tercel (Ph) and she did -- or Tercero, excuse me, and she did not
use the word screwed. She used another word.
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: A little bit more profanity than that.
CHRISTIAN: Yes.
BANFIELD: You know, I want -- I want our audience to just hear a little bit more about how this has affected her friends. They are absolutely shocked.
I`m not sure if I`m pronouncing this name right but Astha Katasky worked with Haley Anderson at the Jazzman`s cafe absolutely astounded by all of
this. Shocked, as she said. I want to you hear the effect that this death has had on her friends.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ASTHA KATASKY, EMPLOYEE, JAZZMAN`S CAFE: I texted him and I said are you sure it`s her? And they were like yes. I was like it can`t be because she
can`t be dead. It was a homicide. And I was like that`s crazy. She can`t be murdered, you know. I see her almost every day. And like, it was just so
sudden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Yes. That is the human toll that these stories take. It`s not just a story, it`s a crisis. It`s a tragedy for friends and family.
CHRISTIAN: Yes.
BANFIELD: Michael, keep on it and let us know what happens with the extradition.
CHRISTIAN: We`ll do.
BANFIELD: Because I know that we don`t always work well in the sand box well with Nicaraguans when it comes to this, so we`ll see how it goes.
CHRISTIAN: yes.
BANFIELD: Michael Christian, thank you, thank you for that.
Tonight, we also have a desperate search for a missing 16-year-old girl believed to be with, are you ready? A 44-year-old friend of the family. Not
sure how good of a friend, but that 44-year-old friend of the family is a daddy of his own with four kids.
Reports are these two were spotted on a flight from Philadelphia to Dallas. We`re going to talk with the man who said he saw them. Coming up, next.
Also you can listen to our show any time. Just download our podcast on Apple podcast iHeartradio, tuner -- tune in, stitcher, or wherever you get
your podcasts for your Crime & Justice fix.
[18:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:19:55] BANFIELD: Most people would say it`s acceptable to board a flight and ask other passengers to swap out seats so you can sit with your
travel buddy. When you board your flight late, hurried with lots of baggage and you are a married father of four trying to cuddle with your teenage
travel partner, that`s when some people might take notice.
And one passenger on a flight from Philly to Dallas definitely took notice. Frank Castrovinci spent under four hours eyeballing an unusual duo on this
flight that he was on and it just might be the duo that authorities are desperate to track down. Sixteen-year-old Amy Yu and her friend`s 45-year-
old married father of four, Kevin Esterly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN YU, AMY YU`S BROTHER: She left.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you mean she left?
YU: She just walked out she just went somewhere. My mom was upset and I was upset also. I felt mad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why mad?
YU: Because what her actions did and what her -- like what he did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Well, we don`t know everything he did or she did, but we do know some of what they allegedly did before they left town. Police say they
texted each other like a boyfriend and girlfriend. And that Kevin posed as her step-daddy, signing her out of school not once or twice, but 10
different times.
And then last week the two reportedly took thousands of dollars, some valuables and jewelry, personal documents and a passport from their homes
before both disappearing together. Remember that airline passenger, Frank Castrovinci? He was the first person who has reportedly seen them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANK CASTROVINCI, WITNESS: I just started thinking I wonder if he adopted this young girl. But then I saw her leaning on him, which daughters do, but
the way he was rubbing her leg, it just did not seem like a father-daughter situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: With me now is Jaccii Farris, reporter at CNN affiliate W -- WFMZ. Jaccii, this flight, any idea of the time frame in terms of the last
time that Amy was seen, and Frank seen them on this airline flight. How much lead time was it?
JACCII FARRIS, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WFMZ: Well, apparently, Amy got up early on March 5th, went to the bus stop with her brother. Her brother said
she ran away from the bus stop and then we fast forward to about 3.30 is when the flight from Philadelphia to Dallas was scheduled to take off.
And as your viewers heard, you know, they came on the flight late. They were trying to switch seats and made their way to Dallas. But before they
went, we were told by Amy`s mother that she took roughly $10,000 in her mother`s passport and then Esterly took roughly $4,000 from his estranged
wife`s bank account before getting on that plane.
BANFIELD: Well, that`s never good. I`m sure she was livid and there are reports that she then made her way over to the Yu household right away, I
believe notifying Amy`s parents or at least her mom who called the police right away.
There is also this report of the car they were in. The 1999 red Honda Accord Tudor with the Pennsylvania plates. Is there now some report that
that car is not going to be the best indication clearly of where they are going to be?
FARRIS: Well, Allentown police are saying they believe the car is in the Philadelphia area. Now whether it`s in the area surrounding the airport or
if it`s in one of the airport parking lots, you can imagine Philadelphia International Airport is a very large airport with a lot of cars and
perhaps police are saying, you know, at this point maybe the license plate scanners hadn`t picked it up, but they believe that the car was ditched in
the Philadelphia area and that Esterly and Yu went to the airport from wherever the car is at and got on that plane.
BANFIELD: OK. Jacccii, hold on for a minute, if you will. I want to bring in Frank Castrovinci. He believes he was on that flight from Philadelphia
to Dallas with Kevin Esterly and Amy Yu. Frank, can you hear me OK?
CASTROVINCI: Yes, I can.
BANFIELD: Can you describe for me a little bit about the moment you first sort of set eye upon this couple and then take me from there, walk me
through what you saw and what their behavior was like.
CASTROVINCI: Sure. They boarded the plane late. I think you alluded to that earlier. I was sitting on my seat on the aisle. There were two vacant seats
in my, one to middle seats, one behind the other and again they boarded late. He had a desire to sit next to her. So he was looking for volunteers
to move so that he could sit by her during the trip.
So that caught my attention and he did finally get a couple of people to move. They sat together one row up and across the aisle from where I was
sitting.
[18:25:08] BANFIELD: So then where they were -- sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to ask you, Frank, when they were seated, that`s a long flight. You
had a fair amount of time to sort of observe the behavior of this couple. It`s weird to call them a couple, but what did you think when you saw them?
Did you think they were father and daughter, did you think they were lovers? And did that change throughout the course of the flight?
CASTROVINCI: yes, during the course of the flight, that changed. I mean, my initial thoughts were here was a guy that adopted a girl, you know, she
looked obviously much younger. So, but I thought it was interesting that the mother wasn`t there. So, but, who knows? I mean, they were just
traveling together. Maybe they were going to visit the mother. I didn`t know.
But during the trip, it seemed a little bit odd the way she was leaning up against him and how he was -- how he was rubbing her leg and it seemed like
his hand was quivering a little bit. You know, so again, I just picked up on that and just I thought it seemed unusual. I wondered what was going on,
but that`s as far as I thought about it.
BANFIELD: So then also they were the last ones to get on board the plane. I think we`ve all been there as we`ve watched people get on board in a
hurried and rushed way especially with a lot of -- a lot of -- what did they seem like? Did they have heavy excessive carry on and were they -- did
they look like they rushed to catch that plane?
CASTROVINCI: Well, I wouldn`t say it looked like they rushed. When they were boarding at least she was pretty quiet and calm during the process. He
was, you know, kind of taking charge and trying to get them situated. They did have a couple of each had a carryon bag, you know, maybe a backpack or
duffle bag kind of thing.
You know, they were struggling trying to shove it under the seats. The flight attendant had asked them a couple of times to get it under the
seats. They were loaded up pretty good for a carry on, you know, on a full flight.
So, again, there were little things like that that just drew my attention. Now there was always something happening. He wanted a blanket for her
because she was cold. They didn`t have a blanket on the flight. So normally I wouldn`t even notice I couldn`t tell you who was sitting across the aisle
from me, but there were just -- there was always something happening with them. Several times throughout the flight it drew my attention to them,
which is why I was able to remember them.
BANFIELD: Doesn`t seem like they were trying to stay under the radar whoever they might be. And that bring me to my next question. You`ve now --
I mean, this was Monday. This was not in the news. You had no idea anybody was missing. You didn`t get home until Friday -- I think it was Thursday
four days later.
(CROSSTALK)
CASTROVINCI: Thursday, right.
BANFIELD: And then this all pops up on the news and all these pictures start cycling across the screen. Are you, do you feel certain, Frank that
you saw Amy and Kevin? Or are you sort of 90 percent? How much can you qualify how convinced you are that it was them?
CASTROVINCI: I`m as certain as I could be. I mean, I`d be shocked if it wasn`t them. I`m as close to 100 percent certain as it could be. You know,
again, it was a young Asian girl with very long hair, straight hair. You know, middle, 40 something-year-old gentleman with a, you know, kind of
greased hair combed to the side and glasses.
I came back Thursday, it would have been 10.30 at night roughly then I was looking at the local news. I don`t know when the photos hit, but when I saw
them, I mean, it was immediate that I recognized them.
BANFIELD: Well, I`m sure that -- and you had spoken with the police about this. You called them and clearly --
(CROSSTALK)
CASTROVINCI: Correct.
BANFIELD: Yes. Because that`s the kind of thing that they`d be able to start tracking down video inside an airport, et cetera and try to make that
confirmation.
CASTROVINCI: Right.
BANFIELD: Frank, stand by, if you can, please.
CASTROVINCI: Sure.
BANFIELD: I want to bring in John Yu. John Yu is Amy`s brother. Fifteen years old. John, can you hear me OK?
YU: Yes.
BANFIELD: So John, thank you very much for joining us. I know you and your mom are just, you know, just very -- you know, devastated about the
situation that you`re in right now. It`s been over a week and I know that you are doing everything you can with the police to find Amy and I`m sure
your mom is beside herself about this.
Tell me a little bit about the moment that Kevin`s wife came over to your house and notified you and your mom that Kevin had disappeared. Tell me
what happened that day and that moment.
YU: My mom dropped me and my sister to the bus stop at school. And then they left when my sister left, because I mean, I didn`t know where she was.
I was regularly and then that was it.
[18:30:00] I don`t know where she went and when I got the call when I came back after school, they said that they went with Kevin and that was about
it.
BANFIELD: So, was -- and Kevin`s wife, her name is Stacey.
YU (via telephone): Yes.
BANFIELD: About a week before this -- actually I think it was a month before this, Kevin and his wife, Stacey, came to your home and your mom --
YU (via telephone): Yes.
BANFIELD: -- had to call the police and the police came to your home and they gave a warning to Kevin and Stacey to stay away from your home. What
happened that night or that afternoon or that day that Kevin came to your home with his wife? What kind of words were exchanged between those two --
YU (via telephone): There was a meeting that time. My neighbors were there, my friends were there, and my mom`s friend was there. And they were
blasting, yelling about they think that Amy and Kevin actually are sleeping together and doing some stupid stuff and the neighbor got pissed off and
called the cops.
BANFIELD: So this is -- this is Kevin`s wife.
YU (via telephone): Yes.
BANFIELD: I`m only assuming here that this is Kevin`s wife --
YU (via telephone): Yes, right.
BANFIELD: -- coming to your home, dragging her husband along. Did he seem to be accusing Amy of something or did she seem to be accusing Amy of
something?
YU (via telephone): I think they know or they planned to do this. I think it was both of their ideas because Amy is not that stupid to learn this
stuff. She obviously knows how to do it.
BANFIELD: Well, I`m still curious about the -- a month before they disappeared, you know, Kevin, this 44-year-old married father of four
children ages, as I understand it, 14, 10 or 11, five or six, and two years old. Four daughters.
He and his wife come to your house a month ago and there`s a lot of of yelling and accusations. The police are called. But what are they yelling
about? What are Kevin and his wife yelling about and who was doing the yelling?
YU (via telephone): It was just -- the yelling was only Kevin and Stacey. They went to my house and the neighbor came to talk about it. It is about
Amy. They think about the stuff that Amy and Kevin were wrong. That they were like sleeping together or having sex or something.
BANFIELD: Was Kevin denying it in this meeting? Was he angry about it?
YU (via telephone): Yes. He was denying and angry. That was the day after on February 9th when my mother got rid of Kevin from the school thing or
guardian or contact or whatever.
BANFIELD: Yes, it looks like and I will just read this here. It looks as though on the 9th, Kevin is told by the school that he is not allowed to be
on school grounds again.
YU (via telephone): He`s not allowed to set foot on school grounds.
BANFIELD: OK. And then the next day, the police are at his house and both his wife and he are actually given citations by the police for harassing
one another. So there`s something going on between Kevin and his wife. They are very, very angry with each other on February 15th. And then --
YU (via telephone): Because I don`t know, but they said that they were arguing and yelling and Kevin got mad. It was on a Monday when he left. Not
last Monday. It was when Kevin almost did something bad to Stacey and the older daughter saw it and called the police and the police didn`t do
anything and Kevin left.
BANFIELD: So, yes, just so I can clear that timeline. February 10th, the police are at Kevin`s house and giving citations to his wife and him both
for behavior towards each other.
YU (via telephone): Yes.
BANFIELD: Five days later, they are at your home and the police are called and Kevin and his wife are told to stay away. And one month later, Kevin is
gone with Amy Yu.
John, thank you for that. I really appreciate the details. We are going to continue to follow this and any lead that comes up as well.
We also got some explosive new details tonight as an Ohio teenager accused of killing her newborn baby and burying that baby girl in the backyard,
makes one of her last court appearances before her murder trial, but does not end up in the courtroom. Interesting.
[18:34:56] There is somehow still a lot more to answer to this, all as the trial gets closer and closer.
[18:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Most people who are accused of murder, they don`t get out of jail free card, but for Brooke Skylar Richardson, it might be a different story,
because she got out on bond with just a few thousand dollars. And the prosecutors had been seeking a million.
That`s because she is accused of killing her own newborn baby girl within days of senior prom and then just going ahead, burying that little body in
her parents backyard.
Brooke is an honor roll student, headed to a nice college, enjoying the summer maybe with friends in the backyard, maybe even polishing up the
convertible that she got for her sweet 16.
Because some people say that Richardsons were a family to keep up with. And that a surprise baby, well, that probably just would not fit into the
picture.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID FORNSHELL, WARREN COUNTY PROSECUTOR: Skylar and her family, particularly her mother, were pretty obsessed with external appearances and
how things appeared to the outside world. And you have a situation where, you know, she is a cute high school graduate -- recent high school
graduate, she was a cheerleader, described a good girl by her attorney as you heard after the arraignment.
And I think that kind of perception is one that Skylar wanted to perpetuate and her mother wanted to perpetuate. If members of the community will find
out that the Richardson girl was pregnant and perhaps gave birth and even after giving birth gave that child up for adoption, that was something that
simply was not going to be accepted in that household.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): So you`re describing a spoiled self- entitled teenager who was more worried about vanity than keeping the life of a baby alive. That sounds really horrible.
FORNSHELL: Those are your words.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: While her high school buddies moved on with their lives, beginning their careers or on spring break even right now with their
college friends, Skylar is not. She is sitting at home. Maybe hanging out with a dog.
But she is awaiting a murder trial. The details, however, of that night and the narrative about Skylar still need to be set straight. Because depending
on who you talk to, there are vast differences in the story. We got some new information tonight.
Wit me now, Stefano DiPietrantonio, investigative reporter for CNN affiliate WXIX. Stefano, there is some unusual reporting going on. A brand-
new article that is out on cosmopolitan.com --
STEFANO DIPIETRANTONIO, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WXIX (via telephone): Right.
BANFIELD: -- with some details about explanations for why we do not know whether this newborn baby`s body was burned before it was buried or just
buried and on -- God`s green earth I can`t figure out how you have ash on a body that doesn`t get burned. What is the reporting that is coming out now
about that very discrepancy?
DIPIETRANTONIO (via telephone): Well, from what I read in the article and this is not my reporting, this is reporting from a freelance journalist,
it`s her article that appeared in Cosmo today.
It talks about apparently the spring of flowers that she had taken to prom with -- that she got from her current boyfriend, that she had thrown them
and burned them in the fire pit.
And apparently when she went to bury the baby, she thought she would -- according to the article, place those flowers on the baby`s body before she
finished burying it there in the backyard.
That`s all according to the article and the very first time we hear anything like this that could explain potentially how some ashes may have
gotten on the corpse.
BANFIELD: And some of this makes me also think it`s a little like asking Mrs. Lincoln (ph) how the play was. Because the truth of the matter here
is, we are dealing with a first-degree murder and aggravated murder.
And, you know, that is extraordinary if that baby was born alive and killed. Would it even matter if the corpse was burned before being buried?
I mean, you know, they seem to be hashing out a lot of this story. Does it even matter at this point?
DIPIETRANTONIO (via telephone): Well, I think it was interesting today. Last week, we had a hearing that lasted all of five minutes. We were
waiting in court. The bailiff came out. And after five minutes of waiting, they said it`s not going to happen today. And there was an issue over a
petition for a change of venue.
Well, the memorandum was back in and then at this next hearing today, we waited for almost an hour and a half, waiting for the family to walk in.
They never did walk in. I believe they were in the room right next door to us.
And we were told that a motion to suppress information that you reported last week that may have been heard in that listening device in the
thermostat there in police department, when she would have been speaking with her parents, not in police presence, that that the motion to suppress,
those conversations were dropped.
[18:45:02] I thought it was kind of interesting today.
BANFIELD: It is interesting. There`s a lot of back and forth and we are less than a month away from trial at this point where I`m sure we are going
to get a lot more clear reporting of what`s going on in this case.
But so I am clear, in the Cosmopolitan article that come out I believe today or at least within a day or so, the mother is telling the reporter
that the baby tested positive for ash, because the baby buried and Skylar reached over into the fire pit where she had thrown her prom flowers for
some reason --
DIPIETRANTONIO (via telephone): Right.
BANFIELD: -- and decided to put those ashen from flowers over top of the newly-dug grave which is weird. This is why we see pictures like this. The
forensics team is going through the fire pit, et cetera.
And now we are hearing also that the family, and I think this might be according to the aunt through this article, wants those remains back so
that they can have a proper burial and that Skylar wants a funeral. Is that the current reporting from the family?
DIPIETRANTONIO (via telephone): That`s only what I have seen in the article there, Ashleigh. In fact, it does quote, the aunt Vanessa saying that
Skylar apparently in the article says she knows she might have done something wrong by burying the baby in the backyard, being scared that she
shouldn`t have buried her there.
And apparently, the family is requesting that the baby girl named Annabelle (ph) which, you know, when they release the lawsuit, that`s the very first
time in nine months that we ever heard a name surface about this child.
BANFIELD: That cuts both ways. Does that ever cut both ways. She named the baby, so was that baby alive or she named that baby prior to that baby
being born dead? Stick with that for a second, Stefano. I want to come back to it in a moment.
Next up, more of what Skylar`s family told reporters. Does it jive with what we are hearing from police?
[18:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: An Ohio teenager accused of killing her newborn baby within days of the senior prom. But Brooke Skylar Richardson might just get a lucky
break, because there seems to be a whole lot more questions than answers about what she did or did not do that fateful night, after the remains of
her newborn baby were found buried in the family`s backyard.
These were remains that prosecutors have said had been charred although the defense said the prosecutors have withdrawn that accusation. We don`t know
that to be true yet, but we cannot wait, and we might find out when the trial begins in about a month.
Defense Attorney Randy Kessler joins me now. Randy, it is fascinating without question. The back and forth about whether this newborn baby girl`s
body was charred before it was buried, but does it matter?
At this point, yes, there is a charge of abuse of a corpse. But it`s far more serious to be facing, you know, aggravated murder, isn`t it? I mean,
would the charred or non-charred corpse make a difference?
RANDY KESSLER, TRIAL ATTORNEY: You know, that`s not what the defense are going to focus on. The prosecution probably shouldn`t focus on that. I
think the real hardship for the prosecution is how do you prove this baby was alive? We might think the baby was alive, but that`s why it`s an
interesting case, is because we have all have doubt.
And that burden of reasonable doubt, proving it beyond reasonable doubt is significant one. All the facts to talk about why she did this, why she
killed the baby to avoid embarrassment, those facts also support the idea that she would have been embarrassed had they known she gave a stillborn
child --
(CROSSTALK)
KESSLER: -- the same facts as why.
BANFIELD: They do. I am just going to throw an idea out to you here. They have said they know the baby or that you can know a baby is alive because
if the baby aspirates, that`s what the remains will tell you. If the baby takes a breath, that baby is born alive.
But let`s just say for a minute, a teenage girl gives birth to a baby is exhausted, a baby takes a breath and then dies and teenage girl then does
not know baby was ever alive. Isn`t that plausible?
KESSLER: Yes. That`s another point for the defense. I mean, you will have a hard time proving it. Murder trials are hard enough when you have somebody
who was an adult, who was alive for sure, and there was no eyewitness to what happened. In this case, there was no eyewitness to what happened
whatsoever. All we know is that there is a baby that is not alive.
They have to prove two things. They have to prove a live birth and a murder. That`s twice as much if you have to prove an average -- if there is
such a thing as an average murder case.
BANFIELD: That is a very good point. There are two burdens here, you are right, and that is tricky. Randy, stand by. Thank you for that.
Straight ahead, who wouldn`t want to build a snowman, right, during all that wicked weather that dumped so much snow over the northeast? Who would
not want to maybe also channel their inner Elsa? Although that there looks like a dude.
[18:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: One more thing for you tonight. We are pretty sure that the Boston PD was glad that this Elsa wannabe didn`t let it go. He channeled
his inner snow queen to a push free (ph) a police van that was stranded in a snowbank. This dramatic rescue happened outside of a local pub, of
course.
That`s where Elsa`s heroics were celebrated. Sadly, nobody else came out of the pub though to help Elsa in her efforts.
[19:00:00] It is a very good thing that the cold weather never bothers a snow queen, right? Or should I say a frozen queen? Or just a queen? I don`t
know. I love that.
Next hour of "Crime and Justice" starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was once a million dollar player for the Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros. But this is how he will be remembered. So how
did Danry Vasquez stay on the field until the video surfaced? And if you think he was locked up for years, think again. How did this player walk?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A couple starts cuddling on a flight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My mom was upset. And I was upset also.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the female was likely just a girl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was a pretty beautiful sister.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A teen who has been missing for over a week with her friend`s married father of four.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I felt mad because what her actions did and what he did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So where was this disturbing duo headed?
(INAUDIBLE), she was cheerleader, pregnant before prom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-eight to 40 weeks pregnant at the prom wearing barely tight an attire.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And police say she got rid of the baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was something that simply was not going to be accepted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, she is headed to trial for aggravated murder. But days before it begins, the grizzly details are up in the air.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charred remains as well as decomposed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did she or didn`t she torch that newborn before burying it in the back yard.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BANFIELD: Good evening, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield.
Welcome to the second hour of CRIME & JUSTICE.
A million dollars is a lot of money especially to a 16-year-old kid. The major league coaches were eager to see what Danry Vasquez they could do.
They probably didn`t see domestic violence in this future when they gave him that whopping signing bonus to play in the Detroit Tigers` organization
before he was traded to the Astros.
And watching him weave his way through the minors. Vasquez spent a lot of time on the field and a lot of time on camera too as outfielder for the
Corpus Christi Hooks. But maybe Vasquez didn`t know that there are cameras everywhere including inside the stadium. Because that`s where he was caught
beating his girlfriend brutally the second they stepped into the stair well.
It`s hard to watch, but he knocks her in the face, slams her in the head, pulls her hair, grabs her glasses only to hit her again in the face. And
then he is back to being boyfriend and helping her slide those glasses back on. From another angle, you can see that second attack from behind, the
sudden punch to the face. His girlfriend cowering in the corner, Vasquez forcing her up, trying to hand her back those glasses before picking up her
handbag.
That assault was at the field and it happened a year-and-a-half ago. And for a year-and-a-half, Vasquez has been paying for it. But paying for it
privately. Tonight, however, everything is out in the open.
With me now Michael Board, a reporter for WOAI Newsradio.
Michael, give me the timeline on when this assault happened. When people found out about it, when he was arrested and when he got cam?
MICHAEL BOARD, REPORTER, WOAI NEWSRADIO (on the phone): Yes. That has happened in 2016 and it was a barely high profile story in Texas. Baseball
is a pretty big deal in Texas and this was a professional player in one of the higher leagues in the minor league system.
It was a big deal when he was arrested in 2016 and this came out. Two days after this started this - charges came in this, the Corpus Christi Hook,
his baseball team fired him. And then it started into the criminal case. But that quickly fell apart.
What we are told by the district attorney and then (INAUDIBLE) in this case is that the victim in this case did not want to press charges. She didn`t
want her boyfriend to get in trouble. Without her testimony it became very hard for the district attorneys to make any case in this. He was eventually
Danry had to pay a fine and he had to go to counseling. He had to go to classes to learn about domestic violence. But after that happened, he was,
you know, a free man like anybody else. And it is kind of amazing when he watched those pictures that someone who could do that type of damage would,
you know, a deadly weapon, you know, these are professional baseball players. Their arms are deadly weapons. You know, it`s amazing that is one
who can do this can walk free.
BANFIELD: Every time I see each one of those violent strikes against that young woman who does not appear to be fighting back, you know, it`s a
silent video, but it doesn`t appear that there is an aggressive argument going on between them. She is blindsided with every one of the strikes. She
can`t even see it coming. And it so uncomfortable to witness this is happening. But then it`s also worse to know he still played baseball.
Now, I just want to be really clear. He was arrested two days after that happened. He was suspended by major league baseball and released by the
Astros almost immediately. So that happened.
He made a plea deal in February of 2017 last year but then he ended up playing for the Lancaster Barnstormers. And that is, you know, an
independent league. He was playing in Pennsylvania.
So I`m going for you the team`s statement because they damp him as soon as they saw this video. But who knows what they knew about the nature of the
assault. This is what they are saying about it, though.
They are saying upon being made aware of the nature of this incident, the barnstormers made a prompt decision to cut ties with the 24-year-old
outfielder. There is no choice but to sever the relationship said manager Ross Peoples. Neither I nor the Barnstormers organization as a whole can
condone or associate with that behavior.
If I can, I want to bring in Danry Vasquez`s attorney Les Cassidy.
Les, can you explain to me why he got the diversionary program, the pretrial diversion? That`s - as I understand it the 24-week program with
counselling therapy education and a fine for such a violent assault. How did he get that sweetheart of a deal?
[19:06:38] LES CASSIDY, DANRY VASQUEZ`S ATTORNEY: Well, it wasn`t a sweetheart of a deal. It was a deal that he was followed by for because it
was a misdemeanor offense and he had no prior history at the start of the event. Also, it was the request of the victim that he not be prosecuted on
the case. And she said she did not want to cooperate with the district attorney`s office in the prosecution of the case. She was represented by a
separate counsel.
If she had said to the district attorney`s office that she wants this case to be prosecuted, there is no doubt in my mind that we would have gone to
trial on the case. But because she did not want to go through that process, he was allowed to enter into the pre-trial diversion program which is a
rehabilitation program that is very effective.
BANFIELD: So - I have so many difficulties with that because, you know, so many women who are abused, don`t want to testify for many reasons. They
fear their assailant and that man is an abusive assailant because I can see it with my own eyes. I don`t need her testimony.
Why the hell did we need any testimony from her? She is a victim. Why do we need testimony from any of these victims when it`s on TV, when there is
videotaped of a man repeatedly battering a woman who can`t even see it come something? Why?
CASSIDY: Well, in a jury trial, the jurors would want to hear from the victim in the case.
BANFIELD: I don`t need to hear from her. I could be a juror. I`m a jury of her peers. I do not need to hear from her. I can see what`s happening to
her. I can see that she probably would be terrified of a man who did that. In fact, Les, I`m going to tell you right now, it looks like she was not
even shocked by this. It looks like this may not have been the first time. It looks like she might be used to it.
CASSIDY: Well, that`s why you want her testimony at trial so that you can get evidence about that if that wasn`t the case.
BANFIELD: No, it doesn`t matter if he beat her up before. I can see her beating her. I can see him beating her up now. It doesn`t even matter if he
has done it 100 times before. I can see it happening. The crime is happening before my eyes.
CASSIDY: Right, but you would also want her to describe her injuries things of that type. By the way, pretrial diversion is used quite often in these
types of cases because if the defense does not complete the rehabilitation program as required to do, they basically waive their right to a jury
trial. They stipulate to the evidence in the case and they can be convicted in basically a summary trial before the judge.
BANFIELD: Yes. This always makes me crazy. I have to be honest. It just makes me crazy. Because as I understand it and this comes right from the
assistant district attorney we spoke with before the program. We understand that Vasquez had to do 52 lessons in the batterers` intervention program.
Is he still with this girlfriend, by the way, do you know?
CASSIDY: I don`t think he is, but I don`t know.
BANFIELD: Do we know if he has got in any trouble since all of this and since completing his 52 lessons in the batter`s intervention program?
CASSIDY: No. There is no indication that he violated the conditions of the pretrial diversion.
(CROSSTALK)
BANFIELD: Do you know the amount -- how much did he have to pay in a fine money for this?
[19:10:03] CASSIDY: I believe it was $1,000 or $500.
BANFIELD: That`s it?
CASSIDY: This is a misdemeanor offense. That`s typical. The maximum fine is $4,000. But that`s a point of conviction. And this was not a conviction.
BANFIELD: Right. This was a plea. Again, yes. Yes, go ahead.
CASSIDY: Yes. He was (INAUDIBLE) terminated from his employment and I don`t believe he played baseball in the United States. And I think he is still
out of the country at this time.
BANFIELD: Speaking of that, he not a U.S. citizen as I understand it. Correct?
CASSIDY: Right. And that was a problem, too. Originally, in some of those pretrial diversion program, we required to report in parson in Corpus
Christi as required by the probation officer entered the program here. Well, with his employment was terminated with major league baseball. His
work visa was also revoke and he had to return to Venezuela.
BANFIELD: Is he allowed to come back in this country ever again?
CASSIDY: He would be eligible to return into the United States because he was not convict and he completed the rehabilitation program.
BANFIELD: Les, I appreciate all of these information. Don`t go anywhere.
I want to also bring in Christina Dalpiaz. She is a domestic abuse survivor. She is also an expert, the author of "Breaking Free and Starting
Over.
Christina, your reaction to all of this?
CHRISTINA DALPIAZ, DOMESTIC ABUSE SURVIVOR: What everyone fails to understand is domestic violence is a progressive behavior. It`s like grand
larceny. You don`t go out and steal $100,000 on your first round. What you do is you work up to. You get confident and with each success you get more
confident. So what ends up happening, you can see that video that this is not his first round in a boxing ring. Because the first time somebody
assaults someone like that, they actually have -- they are shocked at what they did and they show remorse.
Not only did this guy not show any remorse, he repeated the behavior. He continually hit her. And my thought is, you know, this guy can`t spit on a
ref without getting fined, you know. So he doesn`t spit on refs. So what we need to do is we need to change. We need a societal shift in how we look at
this. That DA said that the pictures, you know, -- I`m sorry, the pictures.
BANFIELD: They were not enough. They needed testimony. I find that astounding.
Yes, Christina, I find that shocking.
DALPIAZ: That`s what it looks like. And so, if you hear someone has been domestically abused, you need to remember the picture you saw on the stair
well there.
BANFIELD: So one other question for you about this. The DA in this deal said that it was all part of the batterer`s intervention program, those
were in capital letters, and that is supported by a women`s shelter in Texas.
Now I know that your organization Chants (ph) provides services to help clients with their relationships, helps them become better parents, prevent
or end family violence and an addictive behaviors. But I mean, this program that he entered into seems to have the backing of the shelter in Texas. Is
there a mistake here or am I simply mistaking thinking well, just maybe, maybe, maybe Danry Vasquez would have, as a first time offender, benefitted
from this and won`t ever, ever do it again.
DALPIAZ: Listen. I teach a lot of abusive people and I have to believe that they will change. But checking a block is not enough. There has to be
assessments. In Denver, we have a 36-week, not 24. So that is really shy, the amount of time. Because it takes three to six months to change just one
behavior. And this, this young man has probably witnessed domestic violence as a child.
BANFIELD: It`s possible.
DALPIAZ: And he - this is so ingrained in him.
BANFIELD: If I can --
DALPIAZ: Twenty-four weeks is not going to touch what he has learned. He has got to figure out how to change the behavior and learn new ones, you
know.
BANFIELD: Right.
DALPIAZ: And so, I want to believe that education help but was he assessed? Did he get the right help? Because that video shows that he is --.
BANFIELD: It is extraordinarily difficult to see it.
Christina, I have to leave it there. Unfortunately, I`m running flat out of time. But the video speaks for itself, even if the treatment he got at the
hands of U.S. justice does not.
My thanks to all my guests.
Tonight, the desperate search for a 16-year-old girl missing believed to be with a 45-year-old family friend. The search intensifies as the report is
that they were spotted on a flight from Philly to Dallas. We are going to talk to the man who said he saw the pair next.
And also, you can now listen to our show anytime. Download our podcast on Apple podcast, Iheart radio, Stitcher, Tune In or wherever you get your
podcasts for your CRIME & JUSTICE fix.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: Most people would say it is entirely acceptable to board a flight and ask passengers to swap out sees to sit with your travel buddy. But when
you board a flight late, hurried with lots of baggage and you are a married father of four trying to cuddle with your teenage travel partner, well,
that is when some people might take notice. And one passenger on a flight from Philly to Dallas definitely took notice.
Frank Castrovinci spent under four hours eyeballing an unusual duo on this flight that he was on and it just might be the duo that authorities
desperate to track down. 16-year-old Amy Yu and her friend is 45-year-old married father of four, Kevin Estherly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[19:20:39] JOHN YU, BROTHER OF MISSING TEEN: She left.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you mean?
YU: She just walked out. She just went somewhere. My mom was upset and I was upset also. I felt mad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why mad?
YU: Because what her actions did and like what he did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: Well, we don`t know everything he did or she did, but we do know some of what they allegedly did before they left town. Police say they
texted each other like a boyfriend and girlfriend. And that Kevin posed as her step daddy, signing her out of school not once or twice, but 10
different times. And then last week the two reportedly took thousands of dollars, some valuables in jewelry, personal documents and a passport from
their homes before both disappearing together.
Remember that airline passenger, Frank Castrovinci? He was the first person who has reportedly seen them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANK CASTROVINCI, WITNESS: I started thinking I wonder if he adopted this young girl. But then I saw her leaning on him. And which daughters do, but
just the way he was rubbing her leg, it just didn`t seem like a father- daughter situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: With me now is Jaccii Farris, reporter with CNN affiliate WFMZ.
Jaccii, this flight, any idea of the time frame in terms of the last time that Amy was seen and Frank seeing them on this airline flight. How much
lead time was it?
JACCII FARRIS, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WFMZ: Well, apparently Amy got up early on March 5th, went to the bus stop with her brother. Her brother said
that she ran away from the bus stop and then we fast forward to about 3:30 is when the flight from Philadelphia to Dallas was scheduled to take off.
And as you heard, you know, they came on the flight late. They were trying to switch seats and made their way to Dallas.
But before they went, we were told by Amy`s mother that she took roughly $10,000 and her mother`s passport and then Estherly took roughly $4,000
from his estranged wife`s bank account before getting on that plane.
BANFIELD: That`s never good. I`m sure she was livid. And there are reports that she then made her way over to the Yu household right away, I believe
notifying Amy`s parents or at least her mom who called the police right away.
There is also this report of the car they were in. The 1999 red Honda accord two-door with the Pennsylvania plates. Is there now some report that
that car is not going to be the best indication clearly of where they are going to be?
FARRIS: Well, Allentown police are saying they believe the car is in the Philadelphia area. Now, whether it`s in the area surrounding the airport or
if it`s in one of the airport parking lots, you can imagine Philadelphia international airport is a very large airport with a lot of cars in it and
perhaps police are saying at this point maybe the license plate scanner his not pick it up, but they believe that the car was ditched in the
Philadelphia area. And that Estherly and Yu went to the airport from wherever the car is at and got on the plane.
BANFIELD: OK. Jaccii, hold on for a minute, if you will.
I want to bring in Frank Castrovinci. He believes he was on that flight from Philadelphia to Dallas with Kevin Estherly and Amy Yu.
Frank, can you hear me, OK?
CASTROVINCI (on the phone): Yes, I can.
BANFIELD: You can describe for me a little bit about the moment you first sort of set eyes upon this couple and then take me from there, walk me
through what you saw and what their behavior was like.
CASTROVINCI: Sure. They boarded the plane late. I think you alluded to that earlier. I was sitting in my sit on the aisle. There were two vacant seats
in my area, one -- two middle seats. One behind the other. And again, they boarded late. And he had a desire to sit next to her. So he was looking for
volunteers to move so that he could sit by her during the trip. That caught my attention and he did finally get a couple of people to move. They sat
together one row up and across the aisle from where I was sitting.
[19:25:09] BANFIELD: Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to ask you, Frank, when they were seated, that`s a long flight. You had a fair amount of time
to sort of observe the behavior of this couple. It`s weird to call them a couple. But what did you think when you saw them? Did you think they were
father and daughter? Did you think they were lovers and did that change throughout the course of the flight?
CASTROVINCI: Yes. During the course of the flight, that changed. My initial thoughts were there was a guy that adopted a girl, you know, and look, she
was obviously much younger. So I thought it was interesting that the mother wasn`t there. So - but who knows? Maybe they were just traveling together.
Maybe there are going to visit the mother. I didn`t know.
But during the trip, it seemed a little bit odd the way she was leaning up against him and how he was rubbing her leg and that seemed like his hand
was quivering a little bit, you know. So, again, I just picked up on that. And just thought it seemed unusual and I was wondering what was going on.
But that`s as far as what I thought about it.
BANFIELD: So then also, they were the last ones to get on board the plane. I think we have all been there as we watched people get on board in a
hurried and rushed way especially with a lot -- what did they seem like? Did they have heavy excessive carry on and were they -- did they look like
they rushed to catch the plane?
CASTROVINCI: Well, I wouldn`t say it looked like they rushed. But they were boarding, at least, she was pretty quiet and calm during the process. He
was, you know, kind of he control her strength, give them situated. It didn`t have a couple. They each had a carry on bag. Maybe a backpack or a
duffle bag kind of thing.
Yes, they were struggling and trying to shove it under the seats. Flight attendant had asked them a couple of times to get it under the seat. So -
and they were loaded up pretty good for a carry on, you know, on a full flight. So, yes. Again, so they are just little things that just drew my
attention. There was always something happening. He wanted a blanket for her because she was cold and they didn`t have a blanket on the flight. So
they normally I wouldn`t even noticed. I couldn`t tell you who was sitting across the aisle from me. But they were just -- there was always something
happening with them. I just, you know, (INAUDIBLE) just drew my attention to them which is why I was able to remember.
BANFIELD: Doesn`t seem like they were trying to stay under the radar whoever they might be. And that bring me to my next question.
You have now - I mean, this was Monday. This wasn`t in the news. You had no idea anybody was missing. You didn`t get home until Thursday four days
later and then this all pops up on the news and all these pictures start cycling across the screen.
Are you -- do you feel certain, Frank, that you saw Amy and Kevin or are you certain, 90 percent there? Like how much can you qualify how convinced
you are it was them?
CASTROVINCI: I`m as certain as I could be. I mean, I would be shocked if it wasn`t them. I`m as close to 100 percent certain as I could be. You know,
again, it was a young Asian girl with very long hair, straight hair. You know, middle -- 40 something-year-old gentleman with, you know, kind of
greased hair combed to the side, you know, glasses.
Yes, I came back Thursday. It would have been 10:30 at night and roughly that I was looking at the local news. I don`t know when the photos hit but
when I saw it, I mean, it was immediate that I recognized them.
BANFIELD: Well, I`m sure that - and you had spoken with the police about this. You called and clearly, yes. Because that is a kind of thing that
they would be able to start tracking down video inside and airport, et cetera and try to make that confirmation.
Frank, stand by if you can, please.
I want to bring in John Yu. John Yu is Amy`s brother. 15 years old.
John, can you hear me OK?
YU (on the phone): Yes.
BANFIELD: So John, thank you very much for joining us. I know you and your mom are just, you know, just very, you know, devastated about this
situation that you are in right now. It`s been over a week. And I know that you are doing everything you can with the police to find Amy. And I`m sure
your mom is beside herself about this.
Tell me a little bit about the moment that Kevin`s wife came over to your house and notified you and your mom that Kevin had disappeared. Tell me
what happened that day and that moment.
YU: My mom dropped me and my sister to bus stop at school. And then they left. When my sister left (INAUDIBLE). Was regularly and then that was it.
I don`t know where she went and when I got the call when I came back after school, they said they went with Kevin, and that was about it.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST: So, was -- and Kevin`s wife, her name is Stacey?
YU: Yes.
BANFIELD: About a week before this -- actually I think it was a month before this, Kevin and his wife, Stacey, came to your home and your mom had
to call the police, and the police came to your home and they gave a warning to Kevin and Stacey to stay away from your home. What happened that
night or that afternoon or that day that Kevin came to your home with his wife? What kind of words were exchanged between those two and your family?
YU: There was a meeting that time. My neighbors were there and my friends were there and my mom`s friend was there. And they were laughing, yelling
about they think that Amy and Kevin actually are sleeping together or doing some stupid stuff. And then, the neighbor got pissed off and called the
cops.
BANFIELD: So, this is Kevin`s wife. I`m only assuming here that this is Kevin`s wife coming to your home, dragging her husband along. Did he seem
to be accusing Amy of something or did she seem to be accusing Amy of something?
YU: I think they know or they planned it to do this. And it was -- I think it was both their ideas because Amy is not that stupid on this stuff. She
obviously knows how to do it.
BANFIELD: Well, I`m still curious about that a month before they disappeared, you know, Kevin, this 44-year-old married father of four
children, ages -- as I understand it -- 14, 10 or 11, 5 or 6, and 2 years old, four daughters. He and his wife come to your house a month ago and
there`s a lot of yelling and accusations, the police are called. But what are they yelling about? What are Kevin and his wife yelling about? And who
is doing the yelling?
YU: It was -- it was just -- it was a -- it was just the -- the yelling was only Kevin and Stacey. He went to my house and then, the neighbor came,
talked about it because -- about Amy. They think about the stuff that that Amy and Kevin were wrong. And that they were, like, sleeping together or
having sex or something, and --
BANFIELD: Was Kevin denying it in this meeting? Was he angry about this?
YU: Yes, he was -- he was denying and angry because they put -- that was the day -- that was before -- that was the day after when -- on February
9th when my mother got rid of Kevin from the contact, from our emergency -- well, got rid of him from school -- the school thing or guardian contact
whatever and then --
BANFIELD: Yes, it looks like -- and I`ll just -- I`ll just read this here. This -- it looks as though on the 9th, Kevin is told by the school that he
is not allowed to be on school grounds again.
YU: He`s not allowed to set foot on school grounds.
BANFIELD: OK, and then, the next day, the police are at his house and both his wife and he are actually given citations by the police for harassing
one another. So, there`s something going on between Kevin and his wife. They`re very, very angry with each other on February 15th. And then --
YU: Because -- I don`t know, but I -- they said that they were arguing, yelling, and Kevin got mad. It was on -- it was on the -- on a Monday when
he left. That -- not last Monday, like last Monday, it was when Kevin almost did something bad to Stacey and then the older daughter saw it and
called the police, and the police didn`t do anything and Kevin left.
BANFIELD: So, yes, just so I can clear that timeline, February 10th, they are -- the police are at Kevin`s house and giving citations to his wife and
him both for behavior towards each other. Five days later they are at your home and the police are called and Kevin and his wife are told to stay
away, and one month later, Kevin is gone with Amy Yu.
John, thank you for that. I really appreciate the details. We`re going to continue to follow this and any lead that comes up as well.
We`ve also got some explosive new details tonight as an Ohio teenager accused of killing her new-born baby and burying that baby girl in the
backyard, makes one of her last court appearances before her murder trial but does not end up in the courtroom. Interesting. There is somehow still a
lot more to answer to this. All as the trial gets closer and closer.
[19:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:40:09] BANFIELD: Most people who are accused of murder, they don`t get a -- get out of jail free card. But for Brooke Skylar Richardson it might
be a different story because she got out of bond with just a few thousand dollars. And the prosecutors have been seeking a million that`s because
she`s accused of killing her own new-born baby girl within days of senior prom and then just gone ahead burying that little body in the parents`
backyard. Brooke is an honor roll student headed to a nice college, enjoying the summer maybe with friends in the backyard, maybe even
polishing up the convertible that she got for her sweet 16. Because some people say the Richardsons were a family to keep up with and that a
surprise baby, well, that probably just would not fit into the picture.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID FORNSHELL, WARREN COUNTY PROSECUTOR: Skylar and her family, particularly her mother, were pretty obsessed with external appearances and
how things appeared to the outside world, and then, you have a situation where, you know, she`s a -- she`s a cute high school -- recent high school
graduate, she was a cheerleader, as -- a described a good girl by her attorney as you heard after the arraignment, and I think that kind of
perception is one that Skylar wanted to perpetuate and her mother wanted to perpetuate. If members of the community were to find out that the
Richardson girl was pregnant, perhaps gave birth, and even if after giving birth gave that child up for adoption, that was something that simply was
not going to be accepted in that household.
REPORTER: So, you`re describing a spoiled self-entitled teenager who was more worried about vanity than keeping the life of a baby alive? That
sounds really horrible.
FORNSHELL: Those are your words.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: While her high school buddies have moved on with their lives, beginning their careers or on spring break even right now with their
college friends, Skylar is not. She`s sitting at home, maybe hanging out with the dog, but she`s awaiting a murder trial. The details, however, of
that night and the narrative about Skylar still need to be set straight. Because depending on who you talk to, there are vast differences in the
story. And we`ve got some new information tonight.
With me now, Stefano DiPietrantonio, Investigative Reporter for CNN affiliate WXIX. Stefano, there is some unusual reporting going on, a brand-
new article that (INAUDIBLE) cosmopolitan.com.
STEFANO DIPIETRANTONIO, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WXIX: Right.
BANFIELD: With some details about explanations for why we do not know whether this new-born baby`s body was burned before it was buried or just
buried and on -- God`s green earth I can`t figure out how you have ash on a body that doesn`t get burned. But what is the reporting that`s coming out
now about that very discrepancy.
DIPIETRANTONIO: Well, from what I`ve read in the article -- and this is not my reporting, this is reporting from a freelance journalist, that`s her
article that appeared in Cosmo today -- and it talks about apparently the spray of flowers that she had taken to prom with -- that she got from her
current boyfriend, that she had thrown them and burned them in the fire pit and apparently, when she went to bury the baby, she thought she would --
according to the article, place those flowers on the baby`s body before she finished burying it there in the backyard. That`s all according to the
article and the very first time we`re hearing anything like this that could explain potentially how some ashes might have gotten on the corpse.
BANFIELD: And some of this makes me also think it`s a little like asking Mrs. Lincoln how the play was because the truth of the matter here is we`re
dealing with a first-degree murder and aggravated murder. And you know that is extraordinary if that baby was born alive and killed, would it even
matter if the corpse was burned before being buried? I mean, you know, they seem to be hashing out a lot of this story. But does it even matter at this
point?
DIPIETRANTONIO: Well, I think it was interesting today, you know, last week, we had a hearing that lasted all of five minutes. We were waiting in
court, the bailiff came out, and after five minutes of waiting, said, look, it`s not going to happen today. And there was an issue over a petition for
a change of venue. Well, the memorandum was set back in and then, at this next hearing today, we waited for almost an hour and a half waiting for the
family to walk in. They never did walk in. I believe they were in the room right next door to us. And we were told that a motion to suppress
information that you reported last week may have been heard from that listening device in the thermostat there, in the Carlisle Police
Department, when she would have been speaking with her parents, not in police presence, that that the motion to suppress those conversations was
now dropped. So, I thought that was kind of interesting today.
[19:45:02] BANFIELD: So -- it is interesting. There`s a lot of back and forth and we are less than a month away from trial at this point where I`m
sure we`ll get a lot more clear reporting on what`s going on in this case. But just so I`m clear, in the Cosmopolitan article that`s come out, I
believe, today or at least within a day or so, the mother is telling a reporter that the baby tested positive for ash because the baby was buried
and Skylar reached over into the fire pit where she had thrown her prom flowers for some reason --
DIPIETRANTONIO: Right.
BANFIELD: -- and decided to put those ashen prom flowers over top of the newly, you know, dug grave of -- which is weird. And this is why we see
pictures like this. The forensics team is going through the fire pit, et cetera. And now, we`re hearing also that the family -- and I think this
might be according to the aunt through this article -- wants those remains back so that they can have a proper burial and that Skylar wants a funeral.
Is that the current reporting from the family?
DIPIETRANTONIO: That`s only what I`ve seen in the article there, Ashleigh. In fact, it does quote the aunt Vanessa as saying that Skylar --
apparently, in the article, said she knows she might have done something wrong by burying the baby in the backyard, being scared that she shouldn`t
have buried her there, and apparently, the family is requesting that the baby girl named Annabelle, which -- you know, when they released that last
week, that`s the very first time in nine months that we`ve ever heard a name surface about this child. So --
BANFIELD: Well, does that cut both ways? Does that ever cut both ways; she named that baby so was that baby alive, or she named that baby prior to
that baby being born dead? So, stick with that for a second. Stefano, I want to come back to you in a moment.
Next up, more of what Skylar`s family told reporters. Does it jive, though, with what we`re hearing from police?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:51:44] BANFIELD: An Ohio teenager accused of killing her newborn baby within days of the senior prom. But Brooke Skylar Richardson might just get
a lucky break because there seemed to be a whole lot more questions than answers about what she did or did not do that fateful night after the
remains of her newborn baby were found buried in the family`s backyard. These were remains that prosecutors had said had been charred although the
defense said the prosecutors have withdrawn that accusation. We don`t know that to be true yet, but we cannot wait. And we might find out when trial
begins in about a month. Defense Attorney Randy Kessler joins me now. Randy, it is fascinating without question the back and forth about whether
this newborn baby girl`s body was charred before it was buried. But does it matter? At this point, yes, there is a charge of abuse of a corpse but it`s
far more serious to be facing, you know, aggravated murder, isn`t it? I mean, would char or noncharred corpse make a difference?
ATTY. RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, that`s not what the defense is going to focus on, and the prosecution probably shouldn`t focus
on that. I think the real the hardship for the prosecution is how do you prove this baby was alive? You know, we might think the baby was alive but
that`s why it`s an interesting case is because we all have doubt. And that burden of reasonable doubt -- proving it beyond a reasonable doubt is a
significant one. All the facts that talked about why she did this, why she killed the baby to avoid the embarrassment, does that also support the idea
that she would have been embarrassed had they known she gave a stillborn child -- passed a stillborn child. So, the same facts apply.
BANFIELD: So, here -- but here`s -- they do. And I`m just going to throw an idea out to you here. They have said they know the baby or that you know a
baby is alive because if a baby aspirates, that`s what the remains will tell you. If the baby takes a breath, that baby is born alive. But let`s
just say for a minute a teenage girl gives birth to a baby is exhausted, a baby takes a breath, and then dies and teenage girl then does not know baby
was ever alive. Isn`t that plausible?
KESSLER: Yes, that`s another point for the defense. I mean, you`re going to have a hard time proving, you know, murder trials are hard enough when you
have somebody who is an adult who was alive, for sure, and there was no eyewitness to what happened. In this case, there was no eyewitness to what
happened whatsoever. All we know is that there is a baby that is not alive. And to prove -- they`ve got to prove two things, they got to prove a live
birth and a murder. That`s twice as much as you have to prove in an average -- if there is such a thing as an average murder case.
BANFIELD: That is a very good point, there are two burdens here, you`re right. And that is tricky. Randy, standby, thank you for that. Straight
ahead, who wouldn`t want to build a snowman, right, during all that wicked weather that dumped so much snow all over the northeast? Who wouldn`t want
to maybe also channel their inner Elsa? Although, that there looks like a dude.
[19:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BANFIELD: A "ONE MORE THING" for you tonight, and this one goes to show that anybody can channel their inner Disney princess and do amazing things.
Just check out this Elsa wannabe, singlehandedly using all her might to push a Boston Police van out of a snow bank. We are pretty certain that the
officers were thrilled he didn`t let it go. Did you hear that? Did you catch that? Instead set them free. Dramatic rescue video happened outside a
local pub. Elsa`s heroics were celebrated there, even though nobody rushed out, even Olaf, no, nobody assist. She just did it all on her own. Hiked up
the skirt, too, to make it happen. Knock, knock. Thank you, Elsa.
END
