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Jane Velez-Mitchell
Hot Car Death Case; Is Alix Tichelman A Serial Killer?
Aired July 14, 2014 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, a stunning new theory in the hot car death case. A dad accused of murdering his own toddler by
intentionally leaving him to die a torturous death in a sweltering hot SUV. But he claims - it was just terrible accident. Is the key to this case
hidden in the phone records? We`ll examine.
But first, breaking news. Breaking news in the case of a CEO`s daughter turned high-price call girl accused of killing a Google executive, somebody
who was involved in developing Google Glass. While on his ritzy yacht called the "Escape." Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell coming to you
live.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was a high-priced prostitute, according to police, her Facebook page filled with provocative images.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Overdosed on what appeared to be their first time in using heroin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Discovered video showing her injecting heroin into Hayes and then letting him die.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stepped over the victim`s body to retrieve her glass of wine and finish the glass of wine as the victim is laying there dying at
her feet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Hayes may not be the only victim.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are brought into it because of their relationship with Mrs. Tichelman (ph)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when I heard that he died of a heroin overdose, I was immediately, no freaking way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This woman, 26-year-old Alix Tichelman, is charged with manslaughter, accused of shooting up the Google executive, Forrest Hayes,
with heroin and then sipping on her wine while the married father of five died right at her feet. Cops say the Silicon Valley mogul had hired the
high-class call girl for a night of sex and drugs. And now some shocking new developments. Cops are reopening another case tied to this woman. Are
you sitting down? Two months before she allegedly kills the Google executive, her then-boyfriend, also dies on her watch. Yeah, while she`s
right there. Cops have just released her 911 call from back then with the former boyfriend. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Tell me exactly what happened.
ALIX: I don`t know. I think my boyfriend overdosed or something. Like he`s - he won`t respond and he is just lying on the ground.
911 OPERATOR: Are you with the patient now?
ALIX: Hello?
911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, I have some questions for you. Are you with the patient now?
ALIX: Yeah. I`m with him right now.
911 OPERATOR: And is he awake?
ALIX: His eyes are open but, no, he`s not awake.
911 OPERATOR: Is he breathing?
ALIX: Yeah, he`s breathing on and off.
911 OPERATOR: OK. And why do you think it`s an overdose?
ALIX: There is nothing else it could be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Nothing else it could be. Cops originally said that boyfriend Dean Riopelle, died of an accidental heroin overdose. But now
they`re reopening that investigation. Two accidents or could this woman be a budding serial killer? Now, the first time she calls 911. You just
heard that. The second time, cops say she doesn`t even bother. She just leaves the man dying on the floor, she steps over his body while she`s
drinking wine. What`s your theory? What do you think this woman is after? What`s her motive? 1-877-JVM SAYS, 1-877-586-7297. The lion`s den fired up
and ready to debate. All right, straight out to Lisa Bloom, author of permanently title "Suspicion Nation," what is your suspicion tonight? Is
Alix just coincidentally at the center of these two tragic accidents or is she a budding serial killer?
LISA BLOOM, LEGAL ANALYST FOR AVVO.COM: No, I don`t believe it`s an accident. I don`t believe in coincidences in the criminal law. I think
these two incidents are too similar. And by the way, why is she hanging up the phone when she`s on with 911? Usually it`s the opposite, usually
people are begging the 911 operator to stay on with them, to send somebody right away. Why did -- she hangs up a number of times. And the 911
operator has to call her back and ask her questions. And she`s very, very calm. I think she`s very strange and suspicious on that call.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, but Evangeline Gomez, listen, the defense would say, she`s a petite woman, she`s not going to strap these guys down to the
ground and inject them herself. If this Google exec chose to allow her to shoot him up, well, that`s his fault. May he rest in peace.
EVANGELINE GOMEZ, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, that`s an argument that`s definitely going to be made. But what we also have to understand
here is we don`t know what happened before the videotape. Was he shooting himself up ..
VELEZ-MITCHELL: No, we saw it - no, cops say they saw her shooting him up. That`s what cops say is on .
GOMEZ: Yeah. Based on the videotape. Based on the videotape, we don`t know what happened before the videotape and what was going on. However,
what we do know is that - there`s, look, we`ve got Facebook posts that look, you know, a little scary. She`s somebody who lives on the edge. But
that alone is not to convict her. Now, what`s interesting is she has got this ex-boyfriend who`s recently come out, we have found out, and that he
was involved in a death where there was an accidental heroin overdose. Coincidence? But the problem you have with the ex-boyfriend in Georgia is
how are they going to recreate a quote, unquote, murder scene if it`s been more or almost a year already?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you`re making a very good point. Although, remember, with Drew Peterson, when wife number four vanishes, they go back
and they exhume the body of wife number three who supposedly died accidentally by slipping in the tub and they determined that was a
homicide. And now Drew Peterson is serving time for wife number three. Wendy Murphy, you`re a former prosecutor, how are they going to handle
that? How are they going to really see if that - the one that`s involving the 911 call from two months before the Google executive dies, how are they
going to determine if that`s a killing -- intentional killing or the accident she claimed it was?
WENDY MURPHY, FMR. PROSECUTOR: Well, the good news for the prosecution is the more accidents you have like this, the more likely they all are
intentional. That`s the whole point behind pattern evidence. You get to use each of them to bolster the credibility of the murder case in all
three. And they may well try to, you know, in some way bring the cases together if they can so that they can argue that this woman has a very
strange pattern of conduct. You know, sometimes it`s unfair to use what we call prior bad acts evidence against somebody charged with a crime. But
when the pattern is weird, when you have a habit of shooting heroin into somebody`s arm and then they die, it`s the kind of thing that`s very
compelling, very credible and can be used to make a very strong case no matter how weak the evidence is otherwise.
You know.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: In a moment --
MURPHY: You are seemingly .
HARRY HOUCK, RET. NYPD DETECTIVE: You`re going to have to go back to the crime scene. The crime scene photos, her interview initially by the
police. She allegedly had said that she was in the shower and had heard him fall. Now, the detectives go into that shower and see if it was wet?
You know, she`d made a phone call from probably inside the house and then had left the scene. I mean that`s drawing a lot of flags for me in a case
like this.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely. Now, Facebook, Charlie, "I don`t think she should be charged with anything. She did what these men wanted." But
Chris says, "This would be an awfully big coincidence, two men dead." Now, here`s what`s really fascinating, this woman. Who is Alix Tichelman? We
know the 26-year-old has a way with men. She is beautiful. On her Facebook page, Alix describes herself as a model, a writer, a makeup
artist. Cops say she`s a hooker and a junkie. Here`s more of the makeup tutorial she uploaded of herself on YouTube. Check this out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALIX TICHELMAN: OK. The art of applying liquid liner is something that has to be mastered over time. I will do .
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This woman, Alix Tichelman, reportedly comes from a very wealthy family, ironically her dad is a high-tech CEO. The guy that she`s
accused of killing is a high-tech CEO or at least an executive. Alix has dual citizenship with Canada. In fact, cops were worried that she might
flee from California across the border. She studied journalism at Georgia State University of Atlanta and according to her Facebook profile, cops say
the truth is, though, she`s a heroin addict, a prostitute and they believe she is a cold-blooded killer. Now, get this, Dr. Tiff, we do need a
psychologist on this, what it appears one of her tattoos said "Hell is love." And I think she also has somewhere scrawled on her body "Kiss or
kill." Did she delude herself about what she was doing, also very glamorous, until ultimately she spiraled down to just being basically an
ordinary hooker and a junkie? Tiff?
TIFFANIE DAVIS HENRY, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, that "Hell is love" tattoo is very telling, isn`t it, Jane? That these were men that she fell in love
with or maybe allowed to fall in love with her, but she sent them to a death that was just really, really horrific. And I don`t know that it was
necessarily an accident. An accident says to me, yeah, I do call 911. And addressing what Lisa said earlier, I don`t hang up when I`m on the phone
with the 911 operator. And also, if it`s an accident, don`t - not call 911 the second time that this happens and just callously walk over the body.
There`s something fishy here, something else is going on. And quite frankly, Jay, she probably did put these men through hell before they died.
And if that`s love, then I don`t want any parts of it.
MURPHY: Oh, here`s what Jeff said, I want to know what happened in her past to have such a serious hatred for men. We need more facts. I think
that`s very interesting. We`re going to talk about that in a second. Eric, Texas, what do you have to say? Eric, Texas?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I have to say is that I feel like she, you know, it`s in her eyes that she, you know, put in these drugs, or - she injected
it - I feel like - probably posting that, and I don`t know. She looks like (INAUDIBLE). Oh, man but I felt like she did put it in the drink or she .
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me clarify something. According to the surveillance video, she shot up the Google executive. Let`s just lay it out. That`s
what cops are saying. Didn`t drop it in a drink. OK? But here`s the point, Evangeline Gomez, criminal defense attorney, you know, a big man is
not going to be strapped down by some petite woman, or forced. What`s her motive to shoot him up? What`s her motive to kill him?
HOUCK: Exactly. Well, first of all, I think it`s .
GOMEZ: That`s a good point.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Evangeline.
GOMEZ: It`s a very good point, Jane. It`s a very good point, Jane. And the issue is here -and this is a problem we have in society. We see
somebody has a title attached to their name. This is somebody who is a high-top person at Google. And we don`t want to associate this person with
maybe using drugs, having a drug addiction or just being a drug user. And so we have to stretch our minds and leave that open as a possibility. And
this is somebody who could have been seeking her out because of the fact that she had access and could provide heroin. She could be a drug dealer.
When we think of drug dealer, we typically think of men. But .
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And you`re probably wondering who that guy with the monkeys was. That`s the former boyfriend that she called 911 when he
overdosed. On the other side of the break, we`re going to talk to a recovering heroin addict who was featured in the documentary on heroin,
Tracey Helton is very courageous to talk to us about heroin. And do executives use it? Well, as a recovering alcoholic with 19 years of
sobriety and I`ve heard a lot of stories about recovery I can tell you, yeah, people from all walks of life -- you`d be shocked who uses heroin out
there. Not that I`ve ever tried it. I haven`t.
And later, new details about the hot car death of little Cooper Harris. Did somebody at the boy`s daycare find out he was dead before the child`s
mom, Leanna Harris, did? Stay tuned. A new theory coming up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stunning claims of raunchy text messages.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s got this whole second life that he`s living with alternate personalities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspicious Internet searches, Harris watched videos online about the dangers of being trapped in a hot car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then she looks at him and she`s like, well, did you say too much?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was his joy, this was his pride. He was very proud to be Cooper`s Daddy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Why do you think it`s an overdose?
TICKELMAN: Because there`s nothing else it could be.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Accidental or intentional?
TICKELMAN: I think definitely accidental.
911 OPERATOR: What did he take?
TICKELMAN: I`m not too sure. Painkillers. He`s been drinking a lot, too, so --
911 OPERATOR: Painkillers -- was that his prescribed painkillers?
TICKELMAN: I don`t know. You`re asking the wrong person.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This woman, you`re looking at her there now, basically being investigated for two deaths. She`s been charged with manslaughter in
the death of a Google executive she allegedly shot up with heroin. And now they`re going back because two months earlier, her then-boyfriend dies of
heroin and alcohol. They thought it was accidental. Now they`re wondering, well, maybe she killed him, too. We don`t know. But friends
and family were shocked that Alix`s Atlanta boyfriend would be dabbling in heroin. However, we have to say the couple lived a very alternative
lifestyle. Published reports say Alix was into S & M and she would go out to clubs with this guy wearing a collar and a leash. And I want to go to
Harry Houck, retired NYPD detective. As you hear a profile of this woman emerging -- and we`re going to tell you she`s also obsessed with serial
killer shows like "Dexter" and talked about loving to discuss killing sprees, how would you as a detective approach this woman?
HOUCK: Well, first of all, you know, I mean her lifestyle does not make her a murderer. You know, we`ve got to remember that. We`ve got to look
at the evidence in this case. All right? The fact that she`s got two different deaths behind her regarding heroin is a problem for me, you know,
it`s definitely a red flag. All right, so, you know, we need to conduct a lot more investigation here on this case.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I understand that. But I mean you`re a detective. You`re sitting there in the room. You know, you`ve got a pencil in your
ear, a cup of coffee and you`re trying to figure out what makes this woman tick. What motive does she have, aside from sheer irresponsibility and
narcissism, what does she get out of killing a Google executive? She`s not going to get money. He`s not left her anything in his will. He has five
kids and a wife who are undoubtedly horrified by the fact that we`re even talking about this.
HOUCK: Right. Exactly. As far as we are concerned, you know, it doesn`t look like she had any kind of a motive unless she has some kind of
underlying psychological problem, all right, where she actually enjoys doing something like this. But the fact that - you know, when you look at
that video that the police talk about with her, she injected him, all right, apparently he let her inject him. Maybe this is a service that she
provides to a lot of her clients. I don`t know. And then when he passes out, what`s going on in her mind? Is she thinking, well, the guy passed
out, I already got paid, I`m leaving, all right? Or we should really - she know he was dead or he was going to die and that she should have called the
police at the time? That`s what we have got to figure out.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Very good analysis, thank you. Joining me now, Tracey Helton, a recovering heroin addict who was featured in the documentary
"Black Tar Heroin." Check it out. And then we`re going to talk to Tracey.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRACEY HELTON, RECOVERING HEROIN ADDICT: It was like an impulse decision. I just didn`t like the feeling, I didn`t like the feeling of being out of
control. I thought it was going to be different. When I remembered it in jail, it was different than it was when I did it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tracy, I want to thank you so much for your honesty and for being here tonight. I appreciate it. You`ve been clean for 16 years.
And you`re speaking to somebody who I myself am a recovering alcoholic, with 19 years of sobriety. Take us inside the world of heroin. I think
there`s a big misconception that only people who are living outside in the street homeless do heroin. The shocking fact is that drug abuse,
especially even hard drugs, is rampant across all social specters.
HELTON: Well, I write a blog, TracyH415. And so, a lot of the people who read my blog because it`s specifically around heroin use e-mail me or
contact me through messaging and have questions about getting clean and talk about their own use. And a lot of the people who use heroin today are
different than what -- like you pictured in the mind of some of your viewers. I`ve had executives contact me, housewives, students, people from
a wide variety of backgrounds, with the Internet and the ability to connect, we`re finding out that there`s a whole new section of people who
are able to get drugs, able to do drugs in privacy. And there is, looking at the story that you`re looking at today, there is a section of people in
IT field who inject heroin, are involved in opiate use.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yeah. And let me try to get inside the mind of a heroin addict. Cops say this Alix Tichelman is a heroin addict, that she posted a
poem on Facebook entitled, appropriately enough "Heroin." Here it is as read by an HLN producer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This private downward spiral, this suffocating black hole makes you feel so warm inside, yet makes your heart so cold. Each day
takes its toll. Your thoughts become emotionless. Your soul feels too old. The demons whisper to me ever so lightly, he never lets go of this
hold taking everything from me. I`ll end up dying alone.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tracy, here`s a woman from a very wealthy family who got involved with heroin. Then next thing you know, she`s into S & M, bondage.
And then she`s a prostitute. And then she`s shooting up allegedly her johns with heroin. I mean it really is - just what happens to heroin
addicts. Their life goes downhill and they become morally bankrupt and sort of soulless, isn`t it true?
HELTON: Well, she outlined it herself in her poetry where she talked about the downward spiral and being emotionless. And so when people watch the
video, that might be something that they cannot relate with at all. But a person who`s using heroin, I mean that`s what it does. It`s a perfect
painkiller. It numbs your emotions and it sometimes numbs your ability to cope with different situations.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Do you think she killed these men intentionally, Tracy?
HELTON: I have no idea. I know that with the person - with her calling 911 and seeking assistance, it doesn`t sound like something that a person
that`s killing someone would do, would be to call the paramedics, seeking some kind of assistance. In the second case, she shot a person up with
heroin. But that probably was something that he requested, that he was interested in.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I have to stop you right there. Tracey, and again, I appreciate your honesty. Look, he was a - he is a Google executive.
Now, according to cops, they had an ongoing prostitution relationship. I`m sure she knew that this would be all over the news and she might have
thought, let me get the heck out of here. But on the other side of the break, a lot of people on Facebook asking this question, was she a man
hater? Did she just hate men? And so we`re going to broach that with our team of experts on the other side.
And in just a minute, new information in that awful hot car death case. Is dad, Ross Harris, doing everything he can to protect his wife?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would I bring him back? No. To bring him back into this broken world would be selfish. Am I angry with Ross? Absolutely not.
It has never crossed my mind.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The similarities are basically the deaths of the two men by heroin overdose and the common denominator being Ms. Tichelman. In
both cases, the individuals seemed to have died from an overdose on what appears to be their first time in using heroin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Both of them using heroin for the first time on Alix Tichelman`s watch. She`s also a huge fan of "Dexter." On social media,
she talks about that. Dexter, of course, is a serial killer. There, by the way is the first boyfriend who died on her watch. Not the Google
executive. This is the Atlanta guy who apparently loved monkeys or at least had them. Anyway, get this, on Facebook, Tracy says, this is just
like a story on "Criminal Minds" where a girl turns to hooking and she had a successful father. And apparently there`s a lot of similarities to what
happened on this TV show right down to the yacht and the wine. So, Tiffanie Davis Henry, psychologist, could this woman be a man hater who
uses heroin, convinces them to do heroin, knowing she`s going to kill them?
DAVIS HENRY: She actually could be, you know. Obviously we don`t know, but there is something a little fishy going on when this doesn`t happen
once, but twice that we know of. And certainly in the second case, even if it was an accidental overdose in the first case, these two cases are two
months apart. So if she was so shaken up by the first thing, the love of her life, her boyfriend dies of a heroin overdose on her watch, she`s right
there with him, and then the second guy dies, it doesn`t make sense not to call the police, not to be panicked, not to make a 911 call when this
happens. So it is very, very fishy.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But Lisa Bloom, we all know that somebody who`s involved in prostitution and who, by the way, bragged about having up to 200 clients
and was ultimately caught when they lured her into a $1,000 encounter, maybe she doesn`t want to get arrested for prostitution?
HOUCK: That`s definitely possible.
BLOOM: I think the motive here is very simple. Most people who are junkies want their lovers and boyfriends to use with them. So she may very
well have just suggested to them that they should try it. She shoots them up. She`s highly reckless in her conduct. She didn`t necessarily
intentionally kill them, but she`s still guilty of a homicide crime, a negligence or a manslaughter crime if she was careless in the way that she
did this.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yeah, but Wendy Murphy, it`s her whole personality, the obsession with the dark side, the S & M and then also the obsession with
serial killers, talking about -- she was talking apparently on social media about, oh, I love to talk about thrill killing. I mean - Hello?
HOUCK: But Jane, did she ..
MURPHY: Yeah, but, you know, the problem is there are a lot of very creepy people with sociopathic personalities who do really strange things and they
don`t kill anybody. So it`s not fair to say because she had a strange lifestyle -- perhaps she was abused as a child. She`s acting out. Does
that prove she`s a killer? What I want to know, and I`d look at her internet searches and everything to see whether she loves the movie
"Monster." Remember that one?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.
MURPHY: A woman who was terribly abused and went around intentionally killing men to get back at men.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And john - and john - she killed johns.
HELTON: And johns, exactly. That`s exactly right.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yeah. I`m going to give the retired detective the last word we only have a couple of seconds, Harry Houck.
HOUCK: Yes. Did she know that she was giving the Google executive a lethal dose? If she`s the one giving him the injection, she`s got to know
exactly how much heroin is inside that syringe and she`s giving to him. Now, what they have got to be able to prove is if she knew there was a
certain amount in there that would kill him, then we have got intentional homicide. Now, if there was just a normal amount for a guy like him, all
right, were there other contributing factors to the injection that took his life?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think you make a very good point. Let`s face it - - cops say she`s a heroin addict. So that means she`s giving herself heroin and she`s doing just fine, thank you, standing up there looking like
she could pose in one of her kinky little YouTubes. So she didn`t do it to herself.
On the other side -- and by the way, her attorney is invited on our show anytime. We want to hear all sides of the story.
On the other side, we`ve got breaking news, who was Justin Ross Harris talking to on the phone when he realized his son, Cooper, was dead? A
closer look at the time line in the hot car death, on the other side, is uncovering some things you will not believe. That`s next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MURPHY: At the probable cause hearing, we heard that the first call was Justin to his wife, Leanna. He talked to her and said, "Our child is
dead," or something to that effect. It was clearly her. And they traced the number. It was her number.
Guess what? After that call, she went to the day care center to pretend she was actually looking for the child. She knew he was dead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tragic accident or premeditated murder?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The father says he forgot to take the boy to day care.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- or something more sinister?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New search warrants just released this morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Up to six different conversations with different women.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Charged with murder and second-degree child cruelty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His exposed penis -- erect penis being sent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He wanted to live a child-free life. She asked too -- about cheating on his wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left for seven hours in his father`s car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A tragedy and an accident.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Or something much worse?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Stunning new information tonight in the hot car death investigation that just keeps getting more and more mysterious. Who knew
little Cooper Harris was dead in that boiling hot car and when did they know it? The Atlanta toddler suffered a torturous death inside his dad`s
scorching hot SUV. Dad, Ross Harris, claims he left Cooper there for seven hours by mistake. Cops say it was intentional. He is charged with felony
murder.
There is much more to this case than meets the eye. We already know about the suspect sexting at least six different women in his air-conditioned
office as hi son bakes to death in his SUV outside. We`ve heard about this dad`s phony online personas, R.J. Roscoe. New analysis of what cops have
said reveals a stunning possibility that somebody at Cooper`s day care may have known the child was dead before his mother, Leanna arrives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Cops say at 4:04 p.m., Ross Harris makes a one-minute phone call to his wife, Leanna. Then, a few minutes later, at 4:16 p.m.,
Ross leaves work and drives less than two miles to the shopping center where he pulls his son, Cooper, from the car. A witness named Anthony
starts doing CPR on the boy.
PHIL STODDARD, POLICE DETECTIVE: Anthony started CPR.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Anthony started CPR on the defendant`s son, what did the defendant do?
STODDARD: When Anthony started, the defendant stood up, walked to the other side of the vehicle and got on his phone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did they say he was doing on the phone?
STODDARD: He stated he was telling somebody on the phone that his child had died.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you spoke with the defendant, what did he say about actually speaking to somebody on the phone?
STODDARD: He said he`d not gotten anybody on the phone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you reviewed preliminarily his phone log?
STODDARD: I have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did those reflect?
STODDARD: They reflected three phone calls.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Cops say Ross lied to them when he claims he wasn`t talking to anyone noting phone logs showed three calls. One looks like a
missed call to Leanna. The second is to the Home Depot corporate center`s main number. Then the third call is through the corporate center to
toddler room five at the Little Apron Academy where Cooper went to school. And that call goes on for five to six minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The officer was stating that he was talking to somebody on the phone.
STODDARD: Correct.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you confront him with this when he said that he was not talking to anybody?
STODDARD: I did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what did he say?
STODDARD: He said he wasn`t talking to anybody on the phone.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: At 4:51 p.m., Leanna Harris arrives at Cooper`s school to pick him up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Out to the "Lion`s Den" -- Wendy Murphy, former prosecutor, we`ll start with you because you raised this theory on our show
last week. Why is the dad lying about having a six-minute phone call and who is he talking to at the day care? And why wouldn`t they then tell the
wife when she shows up at 4:51, "Hey, your husband called, your son`s dead?"
MURPHY: Sorry Jane, we had a connection problem. You know, I think this is probably the most important part of the case. So here you have a father
at the scene, not only making phone calls, which is weird enough because one of them was not to 911. But making phone calls first to his wife --
I`m not clear what he said, if anything, to his wife. But some people at the scene said he was overheard saying, "Our son is dead." Meaning, of
course, he was talking to his wife, at least for a moment.
She then goes to the day care center and starts asking for his whereabouts. Doesn`t really make sense, does it? But then he has a six-minute phone
call with somebody in a particular room at the day care center. We have no idea what he said. But the police officer who testified at the probable
cause hearing says that he specifically noted, "My child is dead."
And then there`s this meeting at the day care center where Leanna is talking about her son as if she thinks he`s alive. I think she knew he was
dead. And other people at the center clearly also knew he was dead. But who was having the conversation about where the child actually was and
whether he was alive or dead at that time? It`s such a mystery. I think it`s a critically important piece of this case.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: First of all, I want to point out, this woman has not been charged with anything and she is not being called a suspect. So I have to
ask, is there an innocent explanation for the father`s six-minute phone call to day care? Was he trying, perhaps, to protect his wife or cushion
this awful news? Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know who he was talking to?
STODDARD: Not yet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You learned during the interview that he was trying to reach Little Aprons before his wife got there to let them know, keep her
there, because she`s going to find out about this?
STODDARD: Correct.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s why he was trying to reach Little Aprons, right?
STODDARD: That is correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. Lisa Bloom, legal analyst for Avo.com, he leaves work at 4:16. It`s a very short drive, one of our producers made it in less
than five minutes. Let`s say it`s 4:30 -- let`s give him 15 minutes. As soon as the witness and the bystander starts doing CPR, he goes to the
other side of the car, starts making these calls. So let`s say ten minutes, that`s still way before the wife shows up at the day care at 4:51.
If he`s telling somebody at the day care, "My wife has to know this information, my son`s dead," why didn`t they greet her with, we have
terrible news instead of, oh, he was never dropped off?
BLOOM: I agree 100 percent, and hats off to Wendy Murphy for putting this together -- very, very smart. I would also add, what parent on the face of
the earth can be pulled off their child at a moment like this? There`s a stranger giving CPR to his baby and he`s making phone calls? The only
phone call we could understand would be to 911. And that`s not the call that he`s making.
He`s making a variety of different phone calls while his son is dead or dying. Are you kidding me? If this were my kid, you couldn`t pull me off
of him. I`d be crying. I`d be holding him. I`d be trying to breathe life into that little child.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Linda on Facebook says, "I think he called her and said, pretend to be surprised when you hear he`s dead." Leah, "Well, none of
those calls went to 911. Bianca, "If he did call his wife as they say then the whole story is bogus because she appeared unaware of Cooper`s tragic
death." Jean, "He called her and said, it`s done, that`s why it`s such a short call."
But, again, we`re only hearing one side of the story. I would love to hear the attorney for this wife, ok, who was not brought under suspicion because
of any investigative reporting. It was the prosecutors and the detective in open court who said things that they knew would have a suspicious eye
look at the wife. Why isn`t this attorney for this wife coming out and giving her side of the story? We`d love to hear it.
Stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STODDARD: All of a sudden she states, Ross must have left him in the car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On a sweltering hot day for seven hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Images of faithful husband and loving father.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He sexted women on the day his son died. Told police they are happily married.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s got this whole second life that he`s living with alternate personalities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just looking to talk. Message me, I`m harmless.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: On the morning of June 18th, Justin Ross Harris says he and his son, Cooper, ate breakfast at Chick-Fil-A. Investigators say only
30 or 40 seconds after Ross left that restaurant he would have had to have decided whether to turn to go to his son`s day care or to keep going to
work. Did this man really forget his son was in the car in 40 seconds or less?
It took an HLN producer less than two minutes to recreate Ross` drive from that restaurant to where he did go, his office at Home Depot Corporate.
During that drive, Ross likely would have had to turn right to look over his shoulder, meaning the boy`s car seat would have entered his field of
vision at least three times. Cops say the boy`s car seat was only about six inches behind Ross` seat and in the middle of the backseat, making it
even more visible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And then when he leaves work at 4:16 -- first of all, he`s got to back into a parking space and he`s got to look back when he`s
parking -- when he`s pulling in going to work. Then when he leaves at the end of the day, they believe the child was long dead. He doesn`t notice
the stench that detectives said was absolutely overwhelming, the stench of death.
And, by the way, Harry Houck, retired NYPD detective, he tells his friends, I`m going to be late to that 5:00 movie, even though he leaves at 4:16 and
the movies is just a couple of minutes away. None of it adds up.
HOUCK: No. Nothing about this case adds up at all. I mean The fact that he got through to his wife in one of those three phone calls -- was that
the first phone call he made was to his wife of the three phone calls that were made?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: The first one is to his wife. But detectives said it looked like he didn`t get through because it was very short.
HOUCK: How short was it? Was it a minute, was it less than a minute?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: No, no. That`s all they said. The first call at 4:04 was about a minute. But that`s before he leaves work.
HOUCK: Ok. If we find --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, you know, hypothetically, if you`re going to be a prosecutor although she`s not charged with anything, you could say, he had
to have known by 4:00 p.m. his son was dead, if indeed he did this intentionally so he could have called her and said something to the effect
of, it`s done. And that is short.
HOUCK: Right exactly. You know -- right. If we find out that that happened -- if she picked up that phone at that time, ok, then went to the
school and pretended she didn`t know what happened, we`ve got a conspiracy between the mother and the father to kill their kid. And that`s the bottom
line.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Evangeline Gomez for the defense?
GOMEZ: Absolutely not. Again, we don`t know whether or not he was calling to inform her that he was going to a movie or he didn`t reach her or he
left a voice mail message regarding the movie or something else. Again, we can`t burn him at the stake for this. There just simply isn`t enough
evidence.
We have too many people saying because of the life insurance policy, he`s guilty. Because he was juggling all these women, he`s guilty. And
frankly, that`s just not enough evidence. If anything, the fact that he`s juggling all these women proves he`s got a case for negligent homicide
because he was distracted. He was on autopilot that morning.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well listen, how long is it going to take for these women to start coming out of the woodwork and telling their stories to a tabloid?
And I wonder if we`re just scratching the surface as cops said of what he was involved in sexually.
On the other side, we`re going to talk to a man whose video of what it`s like to be trapped -- first hand account trapped inside a hot car has now
gone viral to the point of over a million hits.
Stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Am I angry with Ross? Absolutely not. Would I bring him back? No. To bring him back into this broken world would be selfish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRY WILLIAMS: And I`m sitting in the car with the windows rolled up because I want to know how it feels to be left in a car and sitting in the
backseat strapped into a car seat with the windows up and doors probably locked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And look at how he`s sweating. We have him on the phone - - Terry Williams. Your video of being trapped in a hot car has now gotten 1.2 million hits. You did this to demonstrate. And you can just look at
the video and see how you are pouring sweat.
What did it feel like? Because this poor boy, this poor little child he had scratches on his face and he had lacerations to the back of his head as
if he was hitting his head and scratching his face in agony while he`s strapped into the car seat inside this hot car. Tell us what it was like,
Terry.
WILLIAMS (via telephone): Hot, suffocating, you could see I was fighting the sweat, trying to keep the seat out of my eyes. It`s unbearable. And I
was only in there nowhere near longer than seven hours.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: How long did you stay in there?
WILLIAMS: Approximately about 15 to 20 minutes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And you were not strapped into a child seat that was strapped way too tight as this child was. And that was actually too small.
Can you give us a sense of what this angelic -- look at this angelic little baby -- this angelic boy must have gone through trapped in that car?
WILLIAMS: Yes, this is a sad tragedy that it happened to him and he had to pass --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Do you think it was intentional?
WILLIAMS: Oh yes. Most definitely.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Why? Why?
WILLIAMS: Oh because he had a lot of time on his hands. I mean seven hours. I mean they say he ate lunch with his child, even went to the car
on lunch break. I think both parents played a big part in covering it up.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know you raise a good point. It is one thing to forget your child, as many people have admitted having done, for 5 minute,
for 10 minute, for 20 minutes. As awful as that is. But for seven hours while you are getting a mass e-mail from the son`s day care center in your
inbox, while talking to your wife at 4:04. Wouldn`t that set off the alarm bells?
Stay right there. More on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Cops believe that Justin Ross Harris intentionally left his precious son to die a horrible death in a hot car. But about 40, at
least 40 kids are accidentally killed in hot cars every year. And I`ve been thinking there`s got to be a technological solution, an infrared
sensor, something that, says when the heat gets above a certain level inside a car, if there is a living being a child or a dog, it calls 911.
Come up with that solution, tech world. We need it.
Nancy next.
END
