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Crime and Justice With Ashleigh Banfield

Cliff Crash Mystery; New Web Of Lies. Aired 6-8p ET

Aired April 05, 2018 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:07] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST, HLN CRIME AND JUSTICE: Good evening, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield and this is "Crime and Justice." Could a

mysterious wet cell phone tell us why a mother drove her family off a cliff to their death? Police found it near the California crash site. Producer

Bernice Man is covering the story, Bernice?

BERNICE MAN, CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER: That is right, Ashleigh. That cell phone could hold valuable evidence and we are learning tonight, who

was and more importantly, who wasn`t wearing a seatbelt. The sheriff will fill us in on the very latest in the investigation.

BANFIELD: All right, Bernice, thank you for that and also tonight, the many stories of the Maryland man who cried on que when his pregnant

girlfriend was supposedly missing. Now he is headed to trial for shooting her and burying her. Our Kyle Peltz is on the story. Kyle, how many

versions of the story has he told?

KYLE PELTZ, CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER: That is right. When one story didn`t work, it seems that he just made up another, by our count, he`s told

at least three different versions and we will see if he is still crying when his in front of a jury.

BANFIELD: Looking forward to that, also the Arizona mother who said she just found her two little kids dead in the car, but was she the one who

left them there for dead and then tried to just spread the blame around? Justin Freiman is working on those details. What do you have Justin?

JUSTIN FREIMAN, SR. PRODUCER, HLN CNN: That mom tried to blame it all on a baby-sitter, only investigators found holes were so big, they filed murder

charges against mom.

BANFIELD: Wow, all right, we will look into that in a moment. Plus, the student driver trying to park at a Connecticut, DMV. Is it possible she

actually passed this driving test? I am going to get to that in a moment, but first I want to take you back to California. The cell phone found by

the road where a family drove off a cliff.

Two moms and three of their six adopted children were found dead. After they took that plunge over a week ago. Their three other kids though are

still mysteriously missing. Investigators now say it was no accident, it was a crime. That mom stead off that cliff on purpose. The local sheriff

joined me just last night to break some disturbing news about Jennifer Hart. Jennifer, who was spotted right here just hours before that crash at

a grocery store seemingly buying snacks for the family before continuing that deadly drive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF TOM ALLMAN, MENDOCINO COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE: I`m to the point where I no longer am calling this an accident. I`m calling it a crime.

And Ashleigh, we haven`t released the name of the driver, but I`m prepared to do that. I just got off the phone with the CHP commander. And

Jennifer, the same woman that was in the video from the grocery store is the woman that we believe was driving the vehicle when it crashed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Tonight, investigators are asking why Jennifer Hart would come to a full stop just 70 feet before the edge of that 100 foot cliff and then

pin the gas pedal and drive her family off the cliff. And they may have just found something that could reveal the answer. And maybe even the

location of those three still missing children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLMAN: A citizen found a cell phone in the area, alongside of the road that had been wet. We sent it in for forensic to see if we can determine

that was one of the Hart`s cell phones. And also a citizen reported several miles south of this location, like in the area of 30 or 40 miles

south seeing something in the ocean that looked like it had clothes on it. We had dive teams in the water immediately. And we are rushing to find out

what we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: With me now, Mendocino County Sheriff, Tom Allman, Shane Kavanaugh, the staff writer for Oregonian and on the phone, vehicle

engineering expert, Marcus Mazza. Sheriff, I want to begin with you, I know that the details are coming in pretty fast into your office. Sort

through them though, the last thing you told me last night, was that you found that wet cell phone. Do you have any forensics on it?

ALLMAN: Ashleigh, we don`t have the forensics on it. I do want to make a correction from last night. The CHP has contacted and we have been in

touch with them regarding the forensic pathologist information from the adults that died in this situation. And the CHP said clearly with 100

percent certainty that neither one of them weren`t wearing a seatbelt. So at this point, nobody in the car was wearing a seatbelt.

BANFIELD: Wow, hey, well, that is a big difference.

ALLMAN: That`s a big difference, that`s a big change.

BANFIELD: And does that change the dynamic of what you know called a crime. That they were all unbelted.

ALLMAN: Well, certainly gives more to the motivation of would everybody perish in a vehicle going off the cliff. And certainly with a seatbelt

your odds are better of surviving that crashed, but we don`t know. As I said yesterday, there is a lot of questions on this that we are just not

going to know the answer to. But as far as the forensics on a cell phone.

No, we don`t have it yet. Remember the cell phone was wet and we are waiting for the cell phone to get as much information as possible, but one

of the things we have talked about is because there are no survivors here, this is not going to be a situation where and when information is

developed, we are going to withhold it from the press. There is no survivors here. If this was an accident or this was a crime, we are going

to let everybody decide from the evidence that we found.

[18:05:20] So, we are trying to give you as much information as possible and unfortunately when I said they were seat belted in, it was because

people wanted to know and we did have a person that said, they were seat belted but their forensic autopsy clearly says that the injuries they

sustained were sustained without any seatbelt getting in the way.

BANFIELD: Well, you are right about that. It`s not going to affect any kind of litigation, any court case. What is critical though is the

information gets out, because it might just jar the memories of someone who may had seen this family. So throughout the segment Sheriff, I am going to

pop up those phone numbers for tips to come in.

ALLMAN: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Because, you know, this is after Easter break. Right and I think a lot of families from all over the United States might have

considered taking Easter break on that beautiful coastline. It is a tourist haven and they may be back in their states now, unaware of what

they might have seen. The dispatch line, if you want to talk someone live is 707-463-4086. And if you do not want anyone to know who you are, the

unanimous tip line its 707-234-2100. I am going to put those numbers up again, periodically. So, if you didn`t get a chance to take them down,

don`t worry. And Sheriff, hopefully we can get to the point where you get other tips. We are at about 20 or so tips. Have they found out -- what

you been able to chase down those tips you received?

ALLMAN: We haven`t. Now that the storm has come in and we are not in the water and in the air, on boats. We are certainly having deputy sheriffs

follow up the tips. And Ashleigh, during the situation like this, we certainly have, as I said last night, we certainly have the psychics who

are -- given us this information and people on a -- Ouija board who are giving us information. And honestly --

BANFIELD: It`s not helpful.

ALLMAN: -- we are trying to follow-up as much credible tips, as many credible tips that we can get. Some of the information that came in

yesterday is in the grocery store photograph. Those were the clothes that she was wearing when her body was found. And also there is a video in a

parking lot of the grocery store where we saw the Yukon -- the GMC Yukon there. So, we are very -- and she used the discount card from the grocery

store as she made the purchased, so that was under her name. So we are very comfortable stating that is Jennifer there.

BANFIELD: That`s the connection, the clothes that she is wearing right there in the last image we have of her so far, of Jennifer Hart, the driver

of the vehicle, are the clothes that she was found wearing in that crash scene, behind the wheel at the bottom of the cliff.

ALLMAN: Yes.

BANFIELD: And that she`d also used that discount card in that Safe Way that linked to her name as well. Let`s go in to the inside of that vehicle

if I can, I have an image that I want to show our audience of what that Yukon looks like inside. This is not the Yukon, but it is a similar Yukon,

with the two bench seats in the back. That carries eight. So, if you have six kids and two moms, every seat would be filled if in fact all six kids

were in the Yukon at the time. Sheriff, I know you have new information for us where you found Sarah, who was the passenger of that vehicle. Where

you found her body.

ALLMAN: Well, it was still in the vehicle. You know the fact that neither one was seat belted, it`s a, you know the first -- the first 911 call that

came in or the first arriving first responder from the fire department clearly stated that there were no -- he didn`t see anything at that point.

And then as they went down the cliff, rappelling, that is when they found that there were no survivors. And the two adults were inside the vehicle.

BANFIELD: But, did you find Sarah? As I`m seeing some of the forensics. And correct me if I`m wrong here Sheriff, were getting probably around the

same time that your office is sorting it, Sarah trapped between the roof and the seats in the rear of that GMC?

ALLMAN: Well, that is correct, but remember, the vehicle was found on its roof, so it was -- the engine and the drive train was facing up. And that

is a 100 foot cliff. You know, I`m sure that vehicle rolled over several times before it got to the landing space. The landing space was on the --

where the water hits the base of the mountain there.

BANFIELD: So then the other issue is the debris down the mountain side. You mentioned that the vehicle may have hit several times and all of this

is critical in figuring out whether those three children were thrown from the vehicle, the children who are missing, as well as the other three

children who were thrown from the vehicle and were found. The vehicle went down the cliff and there is a picture that I couldn`t help but notice of

what looks like a door -- a door to the GMC with an arm rest that is on the side of the cliff. Can you confirm for me that, that photograph in fact is

part of the door on the side of that cliff?

ALLMAN: I can confirm and yes, it is. That is part of the vehicle that went over. That picture there. Yes.

BANFIELD: So that is the image that you are confirming is one of the doors and likely broken off the vehicle as it went -- as it tumbled down the

cliff?

ALLMAN: Yes.

[18:10:00] BANFIELD: And then the other issue is there is a picture of the GMC at the bottom. And if we zero in on it and highlight the -- what would

be the passenger`s side door, again, it`s on its roof, but the passenger side door is wide open and almost bent wide open. Did that happened in the

crash or was that from the rescue?

ALLMAN: I think, we are going to have to wait for the main team, the CHP Specialized Accident Team to give us that information. And there`s

certainly ways to find out. I was at the crash scene that day, Ashleigh, and I saw that door open also. But, when the vehicle tumbles like that,

there`s many ways that that door could had come open.

BANFIELD: It makes sense, but again, so critical to figure out, if you think of the children, they range in age from 19 all the way down to 12

years old, but those are large people. Even a 12-year-old can be like a small adult.

And to have that many people in the back, if there were six kids in the back, it`s critical to know what the egresses would have been if those

missing three children were in fact thrown from the vehicle and ended up in the sea.

To that, if do you know if all of the windows were all broken out? Because those GMC`s have very large back windows which would be big enough for

people to be thrown through the vehicle.

ALLMAN: When I saw the vehicle laying on its roof, it was clear that the bottom part of the vehicle, if it was right side up had smashed down to the

roof of the vehicle. So, while I didn`t see the vehicle when it was towed up, I would be very surprised if any windows were left intact.

BANFIELD: Also have you -- do you know if the sun roof was open when the vehicle went off?

ALLMAN: I don`t. And whether the sun roof was open or not, I think we are just going to see it was broken, because that is the part that landed on

the main rocks. I remember when I looked down --

BANFIELD: OK. I know your -- yes, sorry, go ahead.

ALLMAN: -- well, you can`t see it, but the front bumper had a very clear V in it, so one of the first thing the vehicle hit was a rock or something

when it lands and you could see the front bumper was pushed in, basically in the middle and push back well past the radiator.

BANFIELD: All right. I know you are looking all the way down the coast and we have counted from the distance that they traveled from Newport to

Fort Bragg. We have counted about 35 different gas stations. And you mentioned it yourself, it takes more than one tank to get down that route.

Have you been able to contact all those gas stations and checked surveillance video along the way?

ALLMAN: We have not. We are certainly working with the Oregon partners to see if there is any additional information. One of the things that we have

done is we have put flyers out all along our coast with the information. You know, that even though this is a new story at the national level, there

are certainly people who are not aware of it and we are putting the information out on pullouts to see if anybody has found anything, to call

us immediately.

BANFIELD: OK. I want to bring in Marcus Mazza As I can, as a crash investigator, can you help me sort through Marcus, whether it`s possible

for four -- of sorry, six, you know -- people, I will say people, because they were not little children, to have found egress from that vehicle. And

the reason I ask that is because it`s unknown if they were in the car when it went over, but they sure were not in it or near it when investigators

found the other three. Would it have been easy for all six passengers in the back to have been thrown from that vehicle?

MARCUS MAZZA, VEHICLE ENGINEERING EXPERT, ROBSON FORENSIC (VIA TELEPHONE): I mean, yes, it`s very dependent on obviously the exact crash dynamics and

how violently that vehicle tumbled on its way down the cliff, but obviously, you know, with the windows all being broken out and that vehicle

tumbling down a cliff like that, it is possible that many people could be ejected from the vehicle, yes.

BANFIELD: OK. And then real quickly, Shane Kavanaugh, I know that the search warrant for the Washington home had police looking for a list of

things. I am just going to list them off real quickly. Travel itineraries, bank records, phone records, credit card receipts, hotel

receipts, restaurant receipts, hand written or type journals or notes related to travel and care of children and or suicide notes. Anything

material actually show up in those search warrants? Do we know if they caught or found any of that material?

SHANE KAVANAUGH, STAFF WRITER, THE OREGONIAN: It doesn`t appear that they found any of that material, Ashleigh. I spoke to the Park County Sheriff`s

Office, what they recovered from the Hart`s family home was one laptop and one iPad. And then in the process tight now of downloading all the

information from those two devices, to see if there are any sort of clues or leads into this investigation. But they did not recover any of those

other items from the home that you mentioned and they do not recover a suicide note.

BANFIELD: But they sure did find a pet and chickens and looked as though they were not planning to be on these trip for long. Hopefully that pet is

now in good care, but seriously, I mean, with there are so many -- so many more questions unanswered than answered at this early stage of this

mystery. We are going to continue to follow it.

[18:15:03] My thanks to Shane Kavanaugh, Sheriff Tom Allman and also Marcus Mazza, for helping us sort through this. We are going to do more on this

story in our top hour at 7:00, 45 minutes still from now. So, join us then as well. We will have another person joining us as well with additional

information on this story.

And in the meantime, a popular teacher doesn`t show up for the first day of school and the family and friends of that teacher worried, because she is

also pregnant. Even her boyfriend seemed very distraught about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know what she means to me and I know what she means to everybody else. And we want just to know, if she is OK, and we just

want her back. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: You`re welcome. Here`s what`s strange though, when police started questioning that there boyfriend with those parents who are so

upset about their missing daughter, right beside them, he kept changing his story. And you are not going to believe what he is saying now, as his

murder trial inches closer and closer.

[18:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Laura Wallen was teacher of the year. So when she didn`t show up for the first day of school, everybody knew something was up.

Especially because Laura was pregnant and when she had been missing for a week, the father of that baby, got up in front of everyone they knew and

the whole bunch of TV cameras too and he begged and begged for his girlfriend`s return. He even held the hand of that girlfriend`s mom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYLER TESSIER, LAURA WALLEN`S BOYFRIEND: Somebody has her. Please understand that you`ve taken away a huge -- a huge person in so many

people`s lives. Friends and family, students that she has. I know what she means to me. I know what she means to everybody else. We just want to

know if she is OK. We just want her back. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Kind a tough to get your girlfriend back when you popped her in the head with a gun and then buried her. Because that is what police say

Tyler Tessier did, killing her eight days before he cried his way through that entire press conference, even offering to forgive her for something

that she may have done wrong with a guy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TESSLER: Laura, if you are listening, it doesn`t matter what`s happened. It doesn`t matter -- it doesn`t matter what type of trouble, there is

nothing we can`t fix together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, at least nothing that Laura did, because police say, Tyler had done a lot even before killing her. They say this Casanova had at

least two other girlfriends before taking Laura to a field and telling her this is where we should build our home for our growing family and that

field ended up being the place they found her body, two days after that press conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you remember any of your last conversations with her?

TESSIER: I`m sorry?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any of your last conversation with her?

TESSIER: I don`t know where she is. That is all. I don`t know. I don`t -- I know we are all trying to do everything we can to find her and I just

pray that -- I pray that she is safe. She comes back. That is all I care about right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: OK. But the prosecutors, there might have been something else he cared a lot about and that was, what if somebody finds Laura`s body in

that shallow grave. What story might I tell if they do, and boy did Tyler Tessier have some stories? Really great. I mean, honestly, just great.

At first when they arrested Tyler for murder just hours after they uncovered Laura`s body, he reportedly said, they had been kidnapped by a

group of men together, as a couple, but then those nice men took Laura`s life, but spared his. Didn`t say anything to the police back then though.

And then police say he told them something else that, oh wait a second, maybe Laura actually killed herself. That is it.

Yes, she slammed into a post while we are on the porch, because she was running at me with scissors, missed me and hit the post. I had to go bury

that body. But then they kind a -- asked him, so how would she have gotten a bullet hole in her head? Well, then Tyler had another story for that.

He said, oh -- to that part, right. Well, I was afraid that you know, when I buried her, she might be actually be alive. So, you know, like a

gentleman, he shot her and put her out of her misery. Because that is plausible?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TESSIER: I mean, I think leading up to -- leading up to the weekend that she is missing, I mean, I don`t -- I don`t believe if anybody has any

inclination to think that something was wrong or --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:25:10] BANFIELD: Something was wrong? Something was really, really wrong. Because, you thought she was doing something bad. The only bad

thing she was doing was decomposing. That is the truth. With Kylie Khan, she is a reporter with CNN affiliate WDVM, CNN law enforcement contributor,

Steve Moore, is with us, as well. He is a former FBI agent and investigator and defense attorney, Emily Compagno, joins me, too.

First to you, Kylie Khan. That is a lot of whopping stories, but that is only just scraping the surface. He went on to talk about wanting to help

Laura in her quest to disappear. That Laura wanted to make strange and get out of town. What was that about? What was he saying?

KYLIE KHAN, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WDVM: You know, it seems like every time I cover the story he has a different account of what happened that

day. And you know, the thing that gets me is that, it seems like he is almost blaming it on her rather than trying to take action -- take

responsibility for his actions.

BANFIELD: Didn`t he say she was pregnant with another man`s child and that this was awful news for her that he helped her to disappear, because that

is what she wanted?

KHAN: Yes. I have some court documents here that actually say that he consistently stated that she had been involved sexually with a former

student.

BANFIELD: Wow. And then, wasn`t he also making, you know -- getting busy with maybe two other girlfriends as well. Aren`t the police suggesting

there were other women in the picture?

KHAN: Yes. I heard about one other woman and I know that -- I believe that she and this woman actually had maybe tried to have a conversation,

but I don`t know if that actually happened.

BANFIELD: Now, looking back on this as we began the story and, I mean watching this press conference, this was a whole set up, by the way for

anyone who missed the story when we did it a few months ago. What you are seeing on your screen is Tyler Tessier putting his hand on his dead

girlfriend`s mother`s lap and holding those and knowing full well at this point, if you believe the police, he had shot her and buried her in a

shallow grave and when -- did the crocodile tears thing, pleading for everyone to help find Laura, holding Laura`s mother`s hand and that is

Laura`s dad on the far right.

It just -- it makes your skin crawl to think of what could have been going on at this moment. But it`s interesting, because even after that he

admitted to taking Laura`s phone after she went missing and he admitted to texting Laura`s sister pretending to be Laura. And here`s what he said.

"I`m right 95 percent sure Tyler, meaning him, is not the father, I`m probably going to lose my job over this. I`m going to try to get a hold of

Antoine.

Antoine happen to be a former ex-boyfriend of Laura`s, problem is Antoine doesn`t spell his name Antwan. Antoine actually spells his name, Antoine.

And Laura would know that. That is how Tyler spelled Antoine, pretending to be Laura. It wasn`t Laura. I want to bring in Steve Moore here, Steve

the inconsistencies abound. I may have missed some, because I can`t keep them all straight. That is never good in an investigation. It`s even

worse in a trial.

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, it`s devastating in a trial. I don`t know who had a harder time. This guy Tyler keeping a

straight face while he was saying that or the cops who were listening, keeping from laughing at the ridiculous stories he was giving. I mean,

this is pathetic. It`s not going to go well for him if any of this gets into trial.

BANFIELD: Especially with ballistics, because when you have -- when you find the body and you find that the body was not buried mercifully, instead

the body actually suffered a gunshot before being buried, that is also called forensics that they can bring that to trial.

Emily, to you about that. One of the things that is critical that all this different stories and all the inconsistencies and all of that -- like

honesty, it`s just garbage. The garbage that he told people. She ran at me with scissors and banged her head, so I buried her to put her out of her

misery, but she might have been alive, so I went back and shot her. You know, because it would have been nicer to die that way and I didn`t tell

anybody about it.

The issue that he said something to the police and this is critical, he said when do I get call my lawyer? He said, when do I get to call my

lawyer and the questions continue. And then another place, can I talk to my lawyer, please? That does not bode well for the police in the trial.

Why is that?

EMILY COMPAGNO, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right, because criminal procedure indicates such that if he does request an attorney and questioning has to

stop until he is has representation with him. So it`s difficult, hear us out, we are all privy to the fact that he had a million different stories

and he kept changing his tune and it`s clear to us that this guy is bad news, but it`s hard in the actual trial if this evidence is suppress and if

the Judge grants the defense`s motion to leave that inconsistency out, then the jury will never know about it. And in Maryland, you have to have a

unanimous jury. So we need 12 people to buy in to fact that this guy is now being charge by the way with first-degree murder which requires either

an intent or planning.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CRIME AND JUSTICE SHOW HOST, HLN: Sure.

COMPAGNO: So it matters what prosecution`s theory of the case is because --

BANFIELD: The jurors might be watching this TV show right now, but if they get on the panel, they`ll be instructed to forget everything you know,

which is very hard to unring that bell. Yes, I want to thank you very much. Emily, I want to ask you to stick around as well. Steve Moore, as always,

thank you for your expertise. And my thanks to Kylie Kahn (ph) as well.

Two young children found dead in the back of an SUV. Their mother seemingly distraught, even blaming others for their deaths. That is until the police

say her story also began to unravel. The twisted tale that has landed her behind bars and charged with murdering her own kids.

[18:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Tonight in Arizona, a 20-year-old mother is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of her own two kids. A 2-year-

old boy named Christopher and a 10-month-old girl named Brooklyn.

Police say the mom, Brittany Velasquez, didn`t just kill them, she tried to pin it on the babysitter. They say that they think she was tired of having

to deal with kids at the ripe young age of 20. But she will only say that she left them with the sitter and came home to find them dead.

Police say they are sure that she killed them herself, leaving them in her grandparents` SUV on her grandparents` driveway for over 12 hours. And then

carrying those lifeless little bodies into her grandparents` home and saying, look what the babysitter did.

But they insist that she isn`t someone who would kill her kids, that family. No. They say it`s not possible and that there is more to the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VINCENT VELASQUEZ, BROTHER OF BRITTANY VELASQUEZ: I`m not defending her, but I`m just trying to explain that, you know, we all know she didn`t put

them in there to die. She put them in there hoping maybe -- maybe my grandpa would go to the store, find the kids, and they will be stuck

watching them like she wanted.

If she was surely in love with her kids, it wouldn`t have -- you know, it wouldn`t have let her do some of the neglect that she did. She is very

mentally ill. I haven`t had time to grieve yet because, you know, I`m setting up funeral arrangements. I`m setting up all this stuff. I`m setting

up everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: With me now, defense attorney Emily Compagno and on the phone, Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb. Sheriff Lamb, I`m going to begin

with you. What did you find in the search warrants, when you executed those warrants, that led you to charge her with two counts of first-degree

murder?

MARK LAMB, SHERIFF, PINAL COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE (via telephone): You know, based off of -- thank you for having me on the program, by the way.

Based off of what we saw, we had enough to charge her with the first-degree murder as it was. Now we are weighing out those charges to pick all the

evidence for consideration.

We served the search warrant. We are still waiting for toxicology to come back. All of those things will help us determine final charging. But right

now, she is being charged on the two counts of first-degree murder.

BANFIELD: But I mean -- you know, I think about the story. It doesn`t sound plausible to me, but I`m not 20 years old with two kids and I haven`t

dropped kids off to a babysitter and gone to what looks like an 11-hour shift at work. What was so inconsistent about her story and the suggestion

that this is her grandparents` fault? What did you find that zeros you right back towards her?

LAMB (via telephone): She was the last person to see those kids. Right now, she is telling us about the last time she -- when she put those kids

in the car was at 9:30 in the morning. When she came back to the house and pulled them out of the car, it was almost 11:00 at night.

And we are actually doing the autopsy and toxicology. Those things are going to help us to determine whether they might even have been in that car

longer than that.

BANFIELD: Would the toxicology tell you anything other than -- we think, you know, toxicology is going to tell if the children were drugged. Might

it tell you something else?

LAMB (via telephone): Well, the toxicology -- you`re right. The toxicology is going to tell us whether or not she had Benadryl or any type of drug in

the system. They`re still looking into the autopsy as well to identify or get a better idea of how long the kids were in the car.

BANFIELD: Yes. Is there video along the route surveillance, from Ring.com (ph) or any of those kinds -- you know, personal surveillance systems that

people have along those roads that shows you her story of driving the kids to the babysitter and then coming home and all those other stories that she

told just aren`t true?

LAMB (via telephone): No. Unfortunately there is no video that we know of right now.

[18:40:01] We are continuing to investigate this case. The big things are that she claimed the babysitter had them. The babysitter denied ever having

made arrangements for or taking the responsibility of babysitting. She also said that she left them with the grandma in the car and was driving the

grandma`s car which is also not true.

The grandma doesn`t give her permission to drive the car and hasn`t driven the car in a while. So, there was a lot of inconsistencies. The search

warrant, when we served the search warrant, the condition of the home, not only what we saw in the search warrant, but based on friend who visited the

home, very filthy. Feces, pee, trash all over. Dirty diapers and flies. I mean it was a mess.

BANFIELD: Sheriff Lamb, that`s so distressing. It`s just so distressing to hear that. What`s equally distressing is to hear that she has been

concerned apparently, according to family, about her social media. What people are saying about her on social media since she has been locked up

trying to post a $2 million bond.

Sheriff Lamb, I want to have you back, if I can, because obviously there is a lot more details to this story, especially if those tox reports come

back. My thanks to you, Sheriff Mark Lamb, Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff`s Department.

The golden state killer. That is a name that strikes a lot of fear into the hearts of many people after decades, decades since his last kill. Tonight

on the heels of a new HLN original series, new tips are coming in that could help investigators finally unmask a killer.

[18:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: The golden state killer terrorized California for a decade. And more than 40 years later, we are still looking for him. A serial rapist and

murderer who left dozens of victims in his wake. Tips have been pouring in since authorities released this new composite sketch, but this is the

sketch of a 1973 burglary suspect. A suspect that they now linked to being the rapist and the murderer too.

HLN`s five-part series unmasking a killer unveils that the golden state killer took what some people called trophies from his victims. But the

stolen personal items actually could end up being his downfall. They could be the key to catching him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are a lot of clues. You just have to know where to look for them and you have to understand what they mean.

LARRY POOL, FORMER INVESTIGATOR, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF`S DEPARTMENT: The golden state killer often took driver`s licenses, identification cards from

the victims, and also important items such as their jewelry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I believe he would have them even to this day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We call them souvenirs or trophies. Offenders like this will take these items as souvenirs while committing the crimes. They

can think about what they have done and still be sexually gratified. That`s very significant because if we can find these items, we can find the golden

state killer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: With me now, cold case investigator Paul Holes, and also Jennifer Smith. She is the daughter of murder victim Lyman Smith. And as I

understand, his wife, Charlene Smith as well, her stepmother. Thank you to both of you for being with me.

Paul, I want to begin with you, that last little nugget about those trophies being a key to finding him. You had 200 tips as I understand

coming into this case since the series began. Fifty as of last week, 200 as of this week. Tell me why the trinkets matter. How can that link you to

finding him?

PAUL HOLES, COLD CASE INVESTIGATOR: Many of those trinkets were very unique. He stole driver`s licenses of some of his rape victims. So if

somebody sees that, those drivers licenses have the victims` photograph, their address, their phone numbers, and the driver`s license number. It`s

as unique as it gets. We have a list of those driver`s licenses.

BANFIELD: And what about the rings as well? I`m assuming every pawnshop has been scoured as far as the eye can see but that hasn`t turned up

anything, right?

HOLES: That`s correct. The original investigators were hitting the pawnshops as hard as they could back in the day. We are trying to see what

we could find today. Unfortunately, nothing has turned up. So I firmly believe he has kept those unique items.

BANFIELD: Yes. That they weren`t for money. They were just, like you said, as trophies. Jennifer, I want to ask you a little bit about the case that

involved your dad and your dad`s wife. I understand they were battered to death in their bed.

This was back in 1980, towards the end of his spree. He used a log from the fireplace, which would require an enormous amount of brute force and yet

you were considered a suspect for a time. Walk me through that.

JENNIFER SMITH, DAUHTER OF MURDER VICTIM: Yes. Actually the log came from a wood pile outside the back of the house which is fairly consistent with

his M.O., that he knew what was outside of this house. He spent time testing (ph) the house and knowing how the patterns worked.

[18:49:58] So at first, of course as you imagine, I was 18 years old, I just turned 18. And as I now know -- I know now because of course somebody

who has a murder in their life when they are 18 ends up following a lot of true crimes -- I know now that family members are of course looked at right

away.

As I learned more about the murder and at the very beginning there was not a lot of information, if you remember, it`s 1980, the news came out, the

paper came out at 5:00 in the afternoon, it just wasn`t where we see news like we do today.

And so there was not a lot to understood about the murder. And I did -- I personally did think it was nuts that they thought I somehow pulled it off.

But of course I also couldn`t have committed a rape. So it was very early on and I took it in stride because you are a kid. You just follow the

rules.

BANFIELD: As a kid, even a grown up would struggle to take in stride the killing of a family member, but as an 18-year-old kid, I can`t imagine what

you had to go through. You just heard what I reported and talked to Detective Holes about it. That is the trinkets, the trophies. Do you know

if anything was taken from your dad and his wife?

SMITH: You know, I know there were things taken and my stepmother sold gold. And she had some incredibly unique rings. And if I remember

correctly, and I apologized it has been a lot of years, as you said early on, I believe that some of her jewelry was taken and again to

investigators` point, these things, her things were incredibly unique.

They were one-of-a-kind. That was the whole point. So they were -- a lot of her rings were empty stone settings, gold settings that didn`t have stones

in them yet. So they were -- they look incredibly unique.

BANFIELD: That is fascinating. And I understand what Holes has said, if there is a wife out there with a husband who may have looked something like

those sketches -- let`s pop those sketches back up again -- who always wondered why he had these unusual rings or stoneless rings, as you just

said, that could be a key, that could be an important clue. 1-800-call-FBI. 1-800-call-FBI. Two hundred tips now and maybe that can go a lot higher by

next week.

My thanks to you, Jennifer. I appreciate you joining us. I know it has been a long time, but it still doesn`t make it easy. And my thanks to Paul Holes

as well for the amazing work that he has done on this cold case. We are going to continue to follow it. Thank you both. We will see you again.

Don`t miss the latest episode of "Unmasking A Killer: Inside The Killer`s Mind." It`s Sunday night, 9:00 Eastern, right here on HLN.

If you happen to be driving and you see another car with student driver emblazoned all over it, you might want to steer clear, and this is the

reason why. How this classroom instantly became a drive-through.

[18:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Child hunger and lack of education are massive problems. But 2010 CNN hero Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow had a very simple solution. Serve

one free meal a day in schools. This organization, Mary`s Meals, started pretty small back in 2002, but its work has grown tremendously. Late last

year celebrated a mind-blowing milestone. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGNUS MACFARLANE-BARROW, CNN HERO: We started serving 200 children. And it is beyond our wildest dreams that it would grow like this. Incredibly,

recently we served the one billionth meal since we began. It`s a very humbling experience. (INAUDIBLE) the next child is waiting. Really more

than ever we feel this work of ours has just begun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Wow! A billion meals! Go to CNN heroes to watch the full story. And you can nominate someone that you think should be a CNN hero.

In Connecticut, a student driver taking that nerve-racking driving test made the worst kind of mistake and the outcome was a very close call for

all those people who are standing in the building called the DMV. Keep your eye on that left window in the back. A white car comes careening through

that window after the student driver hits the gas instead of the brake while she was trying to back out of her parking spot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of sudden I heard this loud bang and glass came flying out of the side of the window there. You could feel the whole

building shake. People came running. We didn`t know what happened. We thought it was a bomb or something at first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: A few bystanders did suffer some minor injuries, but the driver and instructor in the car were both OK. It goes without saying, but I am

going to say it anyway, the driver is not going to be getting the license that she wanted this time around. Lucky us. Next hour of "Crime and

Justice" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Tonight a road trip tragedy takes a dark turn.

[19:00:01] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I no longer am calling this an accident. I am calling it a crime.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Three of the kids are still missing after a family drove off a cliff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was pinned at 90 miles per hour.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): This is the behind the wheel just hours before the crash. Did she plunge that car off the cliff on purpose?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They came through our county hopefully to be tourist and something happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And does a wet cell phone they just found --.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The cell phone alongside the road that had been wet --.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- hold clues to a family that may have been less than perfect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The child told authority her mother Jennifer struck her and submerged her in water and withheld food from her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They didn`t have a voice. They didn`t have anybody else to go to.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He sobbed when his pregnant girlfriend went missing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven`t slept. We haven`t eaten. We are just looking.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, surprise, surprise. He is being tried for her murder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He lied to my face. I believed him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While she was in a shallow grave with a bullet to her head, he said he had no idea where she was.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know where she is. That`s all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then why multiple stories to police? Each more twisted than the last.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is a monster. And he is a liar.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you won`t believe the latest thing he said.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn`t matter what`s happened, doesn`t matter what type of trouble, there is nothing we can`t fix together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s such a tragedy on so many levels.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two kids were found dead in the driveway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One toddler, on infant have been found deceased inside a vehicle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they may have been left there by mom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is very mentally ill.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But she said the blame lies with the babysitter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all know she didn`t put them in there to die.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now police try to sort out the stories.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST: Good evening, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to the second hour of CRIME & JUSTICE.

Even in the world`s most remote and scenic places, there is trash discarded on the side of the road and no one pays that much tension. But yesterday

in Mendocino County, California, a discarded cell phone is getting national headlines. Because it`s not just any cell phone, it is one that may have

been water log. And it was found near the spot where a family flue off a 100-foot cliff, crashing and dying down below. Could that phone yield any

clues to this tragic mystery? A potential homicide seven times over?

Because investigators now say this was no accident. This was on purpose. The local sheriff joined me last night to break some disturbing news about

one of the moms who was here, spotted at this grocery store, the morning before the crash, seemingly just buying healthy snacks for the family

before getting behind the wheel of that deadly vehicle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF TOM ALLMAN, MENDOCINO COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: I`m to the point where I no longer calling this an accident. I`m calling it a crime. And

Ashleigh, we haven`t released the name of the driver but I`m prepared to do that. I just got off the phone with the CHB commander. And Jennifer, the

same woman that was in the video from the grocery store is the woman that we believe was driving the vehicle when it crashed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Tonight, investigators are asking why Jennifer Hart would come to a stop just 70 feet before the cliff`s edge before flooring it and

launching her family off that cliff. Now that they have that cell phone, is it something that will lead to answers? Will it reveal clues and maybe,

just maybe, even they find those three kid who is are still missing?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLMAN: A citizen found a cell phone in the area alongside of the road that had been wet. We have sent it in for forensics to see if we can

determine that was one of the Hart`s cell phones. And also a citizen reported several miles south of this location like an area of 33 miles

south seeing something in the ocean that looked like it had clothes on it. We had dive teams in the water immediately. And we are rushing to find out

what we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: With me live again tonight, Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman. Also with me, anchor for HLN`s WEEKEND EXPRESS Lynn Smith and

telecommunications expert Ben Levitan.

Sheriff, if I can begin with you. The newest, we are looking for whatever information you may have been able to glean from that cell phone. A wet

cell phone certainly does sound like a good clue, is it?

ALLMAN: It is. And remember, Ashleigh, that a cell phone itself, that piece of plastic and metal is not the only piece of evidence that we get

from a cell phone number. We can certainly do or serve in search warrants on the cell phone provider to see the text messages and the calls that were

made or the calls that came in. So all of this is happening as fast as we are talking about it. My hope that by early next week, we would be able to

get some more of this information.

BANFIELD: I put the tip line up for specific reason, sheriff. If it done on the earlier, that because it was Easter break last week for a lot of

schools across America, a lot of Americans may have travelled to your coastline because it is a tourist destination. And they may have gone home

by now. So this is a national network program. And if there is anybody, anywhere other than California who took a trip there with your family

perhaps for Easter break, and you happened to notice this modern family, tow moms and perhaps six children with them, driving a silvery gray Yukon

SUV. It`s a big car. GMC Yukon with black rims. Looks like this with the black rims. This is another vehicle that is almost exactly the same except

for those rims. Instead of silver, black rims.

If you happened to have seen that and you have gone home and you are forgetting about the vacation, but something jars your memory about this

family, there is a lot of questions and not a lot of answers, sheriff, about the journey that they took, that ominous photo that that has taken at

the supermarket just hours before Jennifer Hart plunged that family off the cliff.

Tell me a little bit about why you knew that that was Jennifer. Because both of the moms actually look quite similar. How did you know it was her

in that photo?

[19:06:08] ALLMAN: They do look similar. And first of all, let`s get to the vehicle that was in the grocery store parking lot, certainly was a GMC

Yukon that matched the description of the one that had gone over the cliff. And second, as Jennifer purchased the fruit and whatever, she used her club

card from that grocery store and the clothes that you can see she is wearing in that photograph were the clothes that were on her when her body

was recovered from the ocean.

BANFIELD: And her body was recovered in the driver`s seat, correct?

ALLMAN: That`s correct. In the front seat area, how about this? In the front area, you know. The car tumble-yes.

BANFIELD: But it`s clear, even though, she was on the front seat area, that she was the driver as you mentioned last night, not Sarah, not her

wife, Sarah?

ALLMAN: That`s correct.

BANFIELD: And then also, let`s clear something up from last night. As the details come in, I understand processing them quickly and getting them out,

there can be something lost in translation. They actually were not in seat belts, correct? They were, just like the children, unbuckled.

ALLMAN: Actually, you are correct. Nobody was seatbelt while the vehicle went off. And that information is coming in from how the bodies were

located and also from the autopsies, a seat belt would leave obvious injuries to a body whether you survive or not, you are going to be able to

see some bruising across the chest and that bruising was not there.

BANFIELD: Sheriff, the fact that they were all unbuckled when they went off that cliff, is that another one of the factors that has led to you this

conclusion that this was no accident? This was intention? This is a crime?

ALLMAN: It certainly leads us to believe it`s more of an intentional act than an accident, yes.

BANFIELD: There is video surveillance at the parking lot at that supermarket where Jennifer and Sarah were with the children and that GMC.

Have you been able to see -- I understand it`s not easy when you are dealing with a supermarket chain to get. They require warrant. It`s a

hard process. It is not immediate. Have you at least seen the video?

ALLMAN: My investigators have seen the video. And as I explained to them one of our goals on this, this case is not going to go to criminal court.

It may go to civil court, we don`t know. But if it is not going to criminal court, then we have no reason to keep this evidence and withhold

it from the press.

And so, once that evidence is able to be released, we are going to bury and release it. You know, this is something that I hope that a lot of lessons

can be learned from. Whether it`s the CPS investigation, whether it is mental health, whether it is driving, who knows what, Ashleigh? But we

need to know how this happened? Why this happened? And what can we do to prevent this from happening again?

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Sir, go ahead.

ALLMAN: And when the picture of Devonte was hugging the Portland sergeant here and it went through the Internet two years ago, we fell in love with

Devonte. And as a law enforcement officer, I felt sorry for that. I felt for that Portland sergeant there. And that man himself, I never met him, I

don`t know his name, but he is certainly feeling the pain of this loss also. So Devonte is still missing.

So one of the things we haven`t talk about is if you are traveling our county or any county between Portland and Mendocino County and you happened

to have seen three kissed hitch hiking or walking down the street, give us a call. That is information we need, you know.

We are not going to go out and say 100 percent certain that these three children have perished until we recover their bodies. And if they were

lashed out ahead of time and they were hitch hiking and then they are hiding in the woods, we need that information. We need the help of this.

BANFIELD: And sheriff, we have the dispatch numbers up there again on the screen, 707-463-4086 to talk to someone, a live person, an anonymous tip

line. You can just leave your information and stay anonymous at 707-234- 2100. We will continue to put the lineup as well.

ALLMAN: Thanks, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So if you didn`t get this time, don`t worry. We are going to continue to do it.

Sheriff, you said something interesting. Your investigator saw the video, even though you don`t have oppression of it yet. And I know you do plan to

release it. Did your investigator tell you yet, whether you could see how many were in the vehicle at the safe way?

ALLMAN: It couldn`t. And we can`t see the license plate itself, you know. The video camera is up high. And it wasn`t able - we were not able to get

a lot of information other than certainly it matches a description and then, you know, you are seeing Jennifer in there. We certainly can surmise

it was the same vehicle.

[19:10:18] BANFIELD: One other question for you. Were all of the windows in the GMC blown out from the impact of that crash or from hitting the

cliff on the way down? Because we do know now that the vehicle did made impact with the cliff on the way down. There is a car door I believe that

was found partially ripped off and on the cliff side above the debris that is in the ocean. And I know we have the photograph. So let`s -- there is

the car door or portion of a car door that was found on the way down. Do you know if all the windows were blown out?

ALLMAN: I certainly heard that the windows were broken, but let me talk about the CHP MAIT team, the multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team.

These are some of the very best that California has to offer for accident investigation. And the CHP, they are ones in-charge of the accident

investigation. My agency is in-charge with the coroner`s investigation. We are in-charge of the missing person investigation as well as search and

rescue. And then the law enforcement officers in Clark county under the (INAUDIBLE), they are the ones who are working that case with the CPS

allegations.

BANFIELD: And the reason I ask with those windows, sheriff, you know, is that it is so - obviously, there is still this mystery left to be solved,

several mysteries. But are the most pressing is are those three children still missing somewhere or did they end up being thrown from the vehicle

and washed timeout sea? Which is why I asked about the windows. A GMC has huge, huge side windows in the back and has a big rear window as well. So

if the windows were all blown out, it might be more plausible that that children were thrown those three missing children were also thrown from the

vehicle as well as the three children who were found dead outside the vehicle, you know, in the crash zone, right?

ALLMAN: It is. And Ashleigh, an unpleasant part of this conversation and I work in Mendocino County for 34 years, and when we had drownings,

(INAUDIBLE), or fishermen drownings, sometimes a bodies won`t surface for a month or so. It depends upon the temperature of the water, the flow of the

ocean, and so forth.

And as pleasant as it is, we certainly have the knowledge and the ability to predict where and when a body would surface. And that`s what we are

looking at. And so, we are looking at the storms and we are notifying every county along the coast of California. This is what we are looking

for and southern Oregon.

BANFIELD: And sheriff, a little more new information tonight as well. We know Jennifer was in the front seat. She had been the driver. Where was

Sarah Hart`s body found in that vehicle?

ALLMAN: She was inside the vehicle. She was not thrown out like the children. The two adults - they were inside the vehicle.

BANFIELD: In the back seat area? Is that correct?

ALLMAN: I don`t want to misspeak. I know that - you know, because it had landed on its roof, crashed, I don`t want to misspeak and say where it is.

But all of this information is going to get out to you and the other press -- members of the press as soon as we get it from the CHP.

BANFIELD: I`m looking at a replica inside - photograph inside the GMC. It had two bench seats which, you know, if you think about having a large

family, two parents and six children, you would need the two bench seats. Three children per seat. But I did read through some material, the search

warrant suggested that Sarah was trapped between the roof and the seats in the rear of the vehicle. And that`s why - I`m just wondering if you knew

if she was between one of those benches in the back when she was thrown.

But let me ask you this, and I think this is critical. Was the sun roof open? Is it possible that on the way down, one of the children at the back

may have ended up going out the sun roof?

ALLMAN: It is possible. Anything is possible, you know. And certainly, can talk to vehicle experts that will say this. But you are missing one

thing, too, Ashleigh. If these folks were visiting as tourists into our county, where are the suitcases? Where are the camping equipment? Where a

lot of things they should have for a family of eight. There is a lot of stuff for going on vacation. And we haven`t found a lot of that.

BANFIELD: That`s extremely curious. And again, I`m going to put that tip line up because other people were on vacationing in that area and thy may

have been vacationing over Easter break and this might jog their memory. That set of tip line is there. It is invaluable. If you think you may

have seen that GMC, if you think you might have seen this family at the Safeway or anywhere along the coastline as well.

I want to get to Ben Levitan, if I can.

Ben, the cell phone, I know we are waiting on the forensics of it, but if it was wet or water logged, does that compromise any information it might

have?

BEN LEVITAN, TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPERT (on the phone): Well, Ashleigh, basically, a cell phone is plastic. As soon as it hit the water, the

battery shorted out and the (INAUDIBLE) -- it`s going to be OK when it drives up. But the sheriff is exactly right. We don`t need the cell phone

to do analysis. There is potentially eight devices. It`s possible that everybody in this car had a device and the kids got away, possibly they had

their devices. So there is two things we do. I think the sheriff is already - imply that the cell phone companies are doing this. They can

ping those phones to see if they are alive, if the phones are active. And that ping will give us the location if those kids are out there with the

phone. Second thing we can do it a cell powered dump.

[19:15:25] BANFIELD: Sorry, I have to wrap it there only because I`m up against a hard break. But it is good to know that there is still data that

can be recovered on the cloud as well.

My thanks to both of you. Sheriff Allman, thank you so much. I look forward to having you back as we continue to get this information. Ben

Levitan as well. I appreciate that from both of you.

A popular teacher does not show up for the first day of school. Family and friends are worried because she is pregnant and even her boyfriend is

distraught.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know what she means to me. I know what she means to everybody else. And we just want to know she is OK. We just want her

back. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Interesting. Why does his story keep change if he is so upset? You won`t believe what he is saying now about this as his murder trial

looms closer and closer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:21:06] BANFIELD: Laura Wallen was teacher of the year. So when she didn`t show up for the first day of school, everybody knew something was up

especially because Laura was pregnant. And when she had been missing for a week, the father of that baby got up in front of everyone they knew and a

whole bunch of TV cameras too and he begged and begged for his girlfriend`s return. He even held the hand of that girlfriend`s mom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYLER TESSIER, LAURA WALLEN`S BOYFRIEND: Somebody has her. Please understand that you have taken away a huge person in so many people`s

lives. Friends and family, students that she has. I know what she means to me. I know what she means to everyone else. We just want her back.

Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Kind of tough to get your girlfriend back when you popped her in the head with a gun and then buried her. Because that`s what police say

Tyler Tessier did, killing her eight days before he cried his way through the press conference, even offering to forgive her for something she may

have done wrong with a guy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TESSIER: Laura, if you are listening, doesn`t matter what`s happened. Doesn`t matter what type of trouble. There is nothing we can`t fix

together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, it is nothing that Laura did. Because police say Tyler had done a lot even before killing her. They say this Casanova had at

least two other girlfriends before taking Laura to a field and telling her this is where we should build our home for our growing family and that

field ended up being the place they found her body two days after the press conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you remember your last conversations with her?

TESSIER: I`m sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any of your last conversation with her?

TESSIER: I don`t know where she is. That`s all. I don`t -- I know we are all trying to do everything we can to find her. And I just pray that - I

pray that she is safe. She comes back. That`s all I care about right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: People in the prosecutors, there might have been something else he cared a lot about and that was what if somebody finds Laura`s body in

that shallow grave. What story might I tell if they do? And boy, did Tyler Tessier have some stories.

Really great. I mean, honestly, just great. At first when they arrested Tyler for murder, just hours after they uncovered Laura`s body, he

reportedly said they have been kidnapped by a group of men, together as a couple. But that those nice men took Laura`s life, but spared his. Didn`t

say anything to the police back then, though.

And then police say he told them something else. That, wait a second, maybe Laura actually killed herself. That`s it, yes. She slammed into a

post while we were on the porch because she was running at me with scissors, missed me and hit the post. I had to go bury that body.

But then they kind of asked him so how would she have gotten a bullet hole in her head? Well, then Tyler had another story for that. He said, to

that part, right. Well, I was afraid that, you know, when I buried that she might still actually be alive. So, you know, like a gentleman, he shot

her, put her out of her misery, because that`s plausible?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[19:25:11] TESSIER: I mean, I think leading up to the weekend that she is missing. I mean, I don`t believe anybody has any inclination to think that

something was wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Something was wrong? Something was really, really wrong. Because you thought she was doing something bad. The only bad thing she

was doing was decomposing. That`s the truth.

With me, Kylie Khan. She is a reporter with CNN affiliate, WDVM. CNN law enforcement contributor Steve Moore is with us as well. He is a former FBI

agent and investigator and defense attorney Emily Compagno joins me, too.

First to you, Kylie Khan. That`s a whole lot of whopping stories, but that is only just scraping the surface. He went on to talk about wanting to

help Laura in her quest to disappear. That Laura wanted to make strange and get out of town. What was that about? What was he saying?

KYLIE KHAN, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WDVM (on the phone): You know, it seems like every time I cover this story, he has a different account of

what happened that day. And, you know, the thing that gets me is it seems like he is almost blaming it on her rather than trying to take

responsibility for his actions.

BANFIELD: Didn`t he say she was pregnant with another man`s child and that this was, you know, awful news for her and that he helped her to disappear

because that`s what she wanted?

KHAN: Yes. I have court documents here that actually say that he consistently stated that she had been involved sexually with a former

student.

BANFIELD: Wow. And then wasn`t he also making, you know, getting busy with maybe two other girlfriends as well? Are police suggesting there were

other women in the picture?

KHAN: Yes, I heard about one other woman and I know that -- I believe that she had (INAUDIBLE) actually, had maybe tried to have a conversation, but I

don`t know if that actually happened.

BANFIELD: Looking back on this as we began the story and probably watching this press conference, this was a whole set up by the way. For anyone who

missed the story when we did it a few months ago, what you are seeing on your screen is Tyler Tessier, putting his hand on his dead girlfriend`s

mother`s lap and holding those, knowing full well at this point, if you believe the police, he shot her and buried her in a shallow grave. And

then went into the crocodile tears thing, pleading for everyone to help find Laura, holding Laura`s mother`s hand. And that`s Laura`s dad on the

far right.

It makes your skin crawl to think of what could have been going on at this moment. But it`s interesting because even after that, he admitted to

taking Laura`s phone after she went missing and he admitted to texting Laura`s sister pretending to be Laura. And here`s what he said.

I`m like 95 percent sure Tyler, meaning him, is not the father. I`m probably going to lose my job over this. I`m going to try to get ahold of

Antoine. Antoine happened to be a former ex-boyfriend of Laura`s. He doesn`t spell his name Antwan, actually spells his name Antoine and Laura

Wallen would know that. That`s how Tyler spelled Antoine pretending to be Laura. It wasn`t Laura.

I want to bring in Steve Moore here.

Steve, the inconsistencies abound. I may have missed some because I can`t keep the most straight. That is never good in an investigation. It`s even

worse than a trial.

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. It`s devastating in a trial. I don`t know who had a harder time, this guy Tyler keeping a

straight face while he was saying that or the cops who were listening and keeping for laughing at the ridiculous stories he was giving. I mean, this

is pathetic. It`s not going to go well for him if any of this gets into trial.

BANFIELD: Especially with ballistics because when you have - when you find the body and you find that the body was not very mercifully, instead, the

body actually suffered a gunshot before being buried, that`s also called forensics. That they can bring you to trial.

Emily, to you about that, one of the things that is critical that all these different stories and all the inconsistencies and all, like honestly, this

garbage. But garbage that he told people. He ran at me with scissors and banged her head so I buried her to put her out of her misery. But she

might have been alive so I went back and shot her, you know, because it would have been nicer to die that way. And I didn`t tell anybody about it.

The issue is that he said something to the police and this is critical. He said when do I get to call my lawyer? He said when do I get to call my

lawyer? And the questions continued. And in another point he said, can I talk to my lawyer, please? That does not bode well for the police in a

trial. Why is that?

EMILY COMPAGNO, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right. Because criminal procedure indicates such that if he does request an attorney then questioning has to

stop until he has representation with him. So what is difficult here is that we are all privy to the fact that he had a million different stories

and he kept changing his tune and it`s clear to us that this guy is bad news, but it is hard in the actual trial if this evidence is suppressed and

if the judge grants the defense`s motion to leave that inconsistency out, then the jury will never know about it. And in Maryland, you have to have

a unanimous jury. So, we need 12 people to buy into the fact that this guy -- now, he`s being charge, by the way, with first-degree murder which

requires either of an intent, you know, or planning.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST: Sure.

COMPAGNO: So, it matters what prosecution`s theory of the case is because --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: The jurors -- the jurors might be watching this T.V. show right now, but if they get on the panel, they`ll be instructed forget everything

you know, which is very hard to un-ring that bell.

I want to thank you very much. Emily, I`m going to ask you to stick around as well. Steve Moore, as always, thank you for your expertise, and my

thanks to Kylie Khan as well.

Two young children found dead in the back of an SUV. Their mother seemingly distraught, even blaming others for their deaths. That is until

the police say her story also began to unravel. The twisted tale that has landed her behind bars and charged with murdering her own kids.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:36:22] BANFIELD: Tonight, in Arizona, a 20-year-old mother is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of her own two kids.

2-year-old boy named Christopher and a10-month-old girl named Brooklyn. And police say the mom, Brittany Velasquez, didn`t just kill them, she

tried to pin it on the babysitter. They say that they think she was tired of having to deal with kids at the ripe young age of 20. But she`ll only

say that she left them with the sitter and came home to find them dead. Police say they are sure that she killed them herself, leaving them in her

grandparents` SUV on her grandparents` driveway for over12 hours, and then, carrying those lifeless little bodies into her grandparents` home and

saying look what the babysitter did. But they insist that she isn`t someone who would kill her kids, that family, no, they say it`s not

possible and that there is more to this story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VINCENT VELASQUEZ, BRITTANY VELASQUEZ`S BROTHER: I`m not defending her, but I`m just trying to explain that, you know, we all know she didn`t put

them in there to die. She put them in there hoping maybe my grandpa would go to the store, find the kids, and then, they`ll be stuck watching them

like she wanted. If she was truly in love with her kids, it would have -- you know, it wouldn`t have let her do some of the neglect that she did.

She is very mentally ill. I haven`t had time to grieve yet because, you know, I`m setting up funeral arrangements, I`m setting up all this stuff,

I`m setting up everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: With me now, defense attorney Emily Compagno, and on the phone, Pinal County Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb. Sheriff Lamb, I`m going to begin

with you, what did you find in the search warrants when you executed those warrants that led you to charge her with two counts of first-degree murder?

SHERIFF MARK LAMB, PINAL COUNTY ARIZONA SHERIFF`S OFFICE (via telephone): You know, based off of -- thank you for having me on the program, by the

way, based off of what we saw, we had enough to charge her with the first- degree murder as it was. Now, we`re weighing out those charges and taking all the evidence into consideration. We served a search warrant. We`re

still waiting for toxicology to come back. All of those things will help us determine final charging. But right now, she is being charged on the

two counts of first-degree murder.

BANFIELD: But I mean, you know, I think about to this story and it doesn`t sound plausible to me, but I`m not 20 years old with two kids and I haven`t

dropped kids off for the babysitter and gone to what looks like an 11-hour shift at work. What was so inconsistent about her story and the suggestion

that this is her grandparents` fault? What did you find that zeroed you right back towards her?

LAMB: You know, a lot of it is that she was the last person to see those kids. Right now, she`s telling us that the last time she -- when she put

those kids in the car, is it 9:30 in the morning. When she came back to the house and pull them out of the car, it was almost 11:00 at night. And

we are actually doing the autopsies and toxicology, those things are going to help us to determine whether they might have even abandoned that car

longer than that.

BANFIELD: So, would the toxicology have told you anything other than -- we think, you know, in common (INAUDIBLE) toxicologist going to tell you if

the children were drugged. Might it tell you something else?

LAMB: Well, the toxicology -- you`re right. The toxicologist is going to tell us whether or not she had Benadryl or any type of drugs in the system.

They are still looking into the autopsy as well to make -- to identify -- or get a better idea of how long the kids were in the car.

[19:39:58] BANFIELD: Yes. Is there a video along the route surveillance from ring.com or any of those kinds, you know, of personal surveillance

systems that people have along those roads that shows you her story of driving the kids to the babysitter, and then, coming home, and all those

other stories that she told just aren`t true?

LAMB: No, unfortunately, there is no video, at least, not that we know of right now. We`re continuing to investigate this case. You know, the big

things are, she claimed the babysitter had them. The babysitter denied ever having made arrangement or taking the responsibility of babysitting.

She also said that she left them with the grandma in the car and was driving the grandma`s car which is also not true. The grandma doesn`t give

her permission to drive the car, hasn`t driven a car in a while. So, there`s a lot of inconsistencies. The search warrant only served as search

warrant, the conditions of the home, not only what we saw in the search warrant, but based on friends who visited the home, very filthy. Feces,

pee, there`re trash all over, dirty diapers, flies, I mean, it was -- it was a mess.

BANFIELD: Oh, I mean, Sheriff Lamb, that`s so distressing. It`s just so distressing to hear that. What`s equally distressing is to hear that she`s

been concerned, apparently, according to family, about her social media. What people are saying about her on social media since she`s been locked

up, trying to post a $2 million bond. Sheriff Lamb, I want to have you back if I can, because, obviously, there`s still a lot more details to this

story, specially, as those tox reports come back. My thanks to you, Sheriff Mark Lamb, Pinal County Arizona Sheriff`s Department.

The Golden State Killer. That is a name that strikes a lot of fear into the hearts of many people after decades since his last kill. Tonight, on

the heels of a new HLN Original Series, new tips are coming in that could help investigators finally unmask a killer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:49] BANFIELD: The Golden State Killer terrorized California for a decade, and more than 40 years later, we are still looking for him. A

serial rapist and murderer who left dozens of victims in his wake. Tips have been pouring in since authorities released this new composite sketch,

but this is a sketch of a 1973 burglary suspect. A suspect that they`ve now linked to being the rapist and the murderer, too. HLN`s five-part

series "UNMASKING A KILLER" unveils that the Golden State Killer took what some people call trophies from his victims, but these stolen personal items

actually could end up being his downfall. They could be the key to catching him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are a lot of clues. You just have to know where to look for them and you have to understand what they mean.

LARRY POOL, FORMER INVESTIGATOR, ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF`S DEPARTMENT: The Golden State Killer often took driver`s licenses, identification cards from

the victims, and also personal items such as their jewelry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I believe he would have them even to this day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We call them souvenirs or trophies. Offenders like this would take these items so when they`re not committing the crimes, they

can think about what they`ve done and still be sexually gratified. That`s very significant because if we can find these items, we can find the Golden

State Killer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: With me now, Cold Case Investigator Paul Holes, and also, Jennifer Smith, she`s the daughter of murder victim Lyman Smith, and as I

understand, his wife Charlene Smith, as well, her stepmother. Thank you to both of you for being with me.

Paul, I want to begin with you that last little nugget about those trophies, being a key to finding him. You had 200 tips, as I understand,

coming into this case since the series began. 50 as of last week, 200 as of this week, tell me why the trinkets matter. How can that link you to

finding him?

PAUL HOLES, COLD CASE INVESTIGATOR: Well, many of those trinkets were very unique. He stole driver`s licenses of son of his rape victims. So, if

somebody sees that, those driver`s license have the victims` photograph or address or phone numbers and the driver`s license number, it`s as unique as

it gets. We have a list of those driver`s licenses.

BANFIELD: And what about those rings as well? I mean, I`m assuming every pawnshop has been scoured as far as the eye can see but that hasn`t turned

up anything, right?

HOLES: That`s correct. The original investigators were hitting the pawnshops as hard as they could back in the day. And we`ve tried to see

what we could find today and unfortunately, nothing has turned up. So, I fully believe he`s kept those unique items.

BANFIELD: Yes, that they weren`t for money. They were just like you said as trophies. Jennifer, I want to ask you a little bit about the case that

involved your dad and your dad`s wife. I understand they were battered to death in their bed. This was back in 1980 towards the end of his -- of his

spree. He used a log from the fireplace which would require an enormous amount of brute force, and yet, you were considered a suspect for a time.

Walk me through that.

[19:50:05] JENNIFER SMITH, DAUGHTER OF MURDER VICTIM: So, yes, the -- actually, the log came from a woodpile outside the back of the house, which

is fairly consistent with his M.O. that he knew what was outside of these houses. He had -- he had spent time casing the house and knowing how the

patterns worked. So, at first, the -- of course, as you imagine, I was 18 years old, I had just turned 18, and as I now know -- as I now know because

now, of course, anybody who has a murder in their life when they`re teen ends up following a lot of true crime. I know now that family members are,

of course, looked at right away.

As I learned more about the murder, and at the very beginning, there wasn`t a lot of information. If you remembered at 1980, the news came out at --

the paper came out at 5:00 in the afternoon. It just wasn`t where we see news like we do today, and so, there wasn`t a lot who understood about the

murder, and I did -- I, personally, did think it was nuts that they thought I could have somehow pulled that off. But, of course, I also couldn`t have

committed a rape. So, that was very early on and I took it in stride because that`s what you do. You`re a kid. You just follow the rules.

BANFIELD: Well, I mean -- I mean, as a kid, look, even a grown up would struggle to take in stride the killing of a family member, but as an 18-

year-old kid, I can`t imagine what you had to go through. You just heard what I reported and talked to Detective Holes about, and that is the

trinkets, the trophies. Do you know if anything was taken from your dad and his wife?

SMITH: You know, I know there were things taken and my stepmother sold gold, and she had some incredibly unique rings. And if I remember

correctly -- and I apologize because it has been a lot of years, as you said early on -- I believe that some of her jewelry was taken. And again,

to the investigator`s point, these things, her things were incredibly unique. They were one of a kind. That was the whole point. So, there

were -- a lot of her rings were empty stone settings, gold settings that didn`t have stones in them yet, so they were -- they looked incredibly

unique.

BANFIELD: That is fascinating, and I understand what Stephen Holes (ph) has said, if there is a wife out there with a husband who may have looked

something like those sketches. Let`s pop those sketches back up again. Who`s always wondered why he had these unusual rings or stoneless rings, as

you just said, that could be a key, that could be an important clue. 1- 800-CALL-FBI. 1-800-CALL-FBI. 200 tips now and maybe that can go a lot higher by next week.

My thanks to you, Jennifer. I appreciate you joining us. I know it`s been a long time, but it still doesn`t make this easy. And my thanks to Paul

Holes as well for the amazing work that he`s done on this cold case. We`re going to continue to follow it. Thank you both. We`ll see you again.

Don`t miss the latest episode of "UNMASKING A KILLER," Inside the Killer`s Mind, it`s Sunday night 9:00 Eastern right here on HLN.

If you happen to be driving and you see another car with student driver emblazoned all over it, you might want to stir clear. And this is the

reason why how this classroom instantly became a drive thru.

[19:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Child hunger and lack of education are massive problems. But 2010 CNN Hero Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow had a heck of a solution. Serve one

free meal a day in schools. His organization has grown tremendously. You won`t believe it. Late last year, he celebrated a mind blowing milestone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGNUS MACFARLANE-BARROW, 2010 CNN HERO: We started serving 200 children and it`s beyond our wildest dreams that it would grow like this.

Incredibly, recently, we served the 1 billionth meal since we began. It`s very humbling experience, but for us, it`s very much the next child that`s

waiting. Really more than ever we feel this work of ours has just begun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: 1 billion. Go to CNN Heroes to watch the full story and nominate someone you think should be a CNN Hero.

"ONE MORE THING" tonight, in Connecticut a student driver taking that nerve-racking driving test made the worst mistake you could possibly make,

and the outcome was a real close call for the shocked people standing in line at the DMV. I want you to keep your eye on the back window on the

left. White car comes crashing through after the student driver hits the gas instead of the brake when she was trying to back out of the parking

spot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden, I heard this loud bang and glass came flying out of the side of the window there. You could feel the whole

building shake. People came running. We didn`t know what happened, we thought maybe there was a bomb or something, at first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, a few bystanders suffered some minor injuries, but the driver and the instructor were OK but no license. Sorry, ma`am. That`s

just the way it is when you crash through the DMV during the test. Thanks for watching, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. We`ll see you right back

here Monday night, 6:00 for CRIME & JUSTICE. Meantime, "FORENSIC FILES" is up next. Have a good night.

END