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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Capitol Hill Terror Scare; Alabama Church Fires; Justice Wanted; Hiccup Hell; Mother and Baby Murdered; Doctor Death?; Cyanide: Silent Killer; Why Husbands Kill
Aired February 08, 2006 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again. An alarm goes off in the nation's capital after sensors detected the possibility of nerve gas.
ANNOUNCER: Scare on Capitol Hill.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We received an alarm at the Capitol Police for a nerve agent.
ANNOUNCER: Senators and staffers evacuated. Initial test, positive. But now, all clear. We have the details.
Alabama burning. Four more Baptist churches torched only days after five others burned down. Who's burning churches and why? A massive investigation underway.
And a doctor indicted for the murder of his wife. The weapon? Cyanide.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had another woman and he just wanted her out of the way.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight, the worldwide hunt for a doctor on the run.
From across the U.S. and around the world, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360. Live from the CNN studios in New York, here's Anderson Cooper.
COOPER: And good evening again. We begin with a developing story. The terror scare on Capitol Hill. It started around 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time, when alarms went off the Russell Senate Office Building. Those alarms signaled the possibility of nerve gas, a weapon of mass destruction.
Police promptly evacuated some 200 Senate staffers and about a dozen lawmakers and moved them to a nearby parking garage. About three hours later, after a series of tests, police gave the all clear, saying there was no chemical agent and no nerve gas found.
Getting that many people out of a building at once is no easy task and it had to be done very quickly in case it really was a terror strike.
Let's get the latest now from CNN Congressional Correspondent Joe Johns, who's been covering the story all night. He joins us again from the scene -- Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, it's certainly one of those things on Capitol Hill that happens all too often. We've seen it here again and again on Capitol Hill, certainly, since September 11, 2001.
A group of people inside the building, an alert goes out. This time, it was a device inside the Russell Senate Office Building. A device that alerted to the possible presence of a hazardous material. At the time, thought to be nerve gas. The police moved those 200 or so people to an underground parking lot and there they stayed for about three hours, until those tests were conducted and the all clear sign was given.
Among the group of people inside that parking garage this evening, a number of Senators. CNN talked to some of them after the all clear sign.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS, (voice-over): All right, what happened?
SEN. JUDD GREGG (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: Well, we were just all wanted to gather in the garage for an evening of bonding and we did that very effectively.
Well, around 7:00 o'clock, the alarms went off and I was actually in my car, heading out and they said well you really need to go to the garage because there may be a hazardous substance and so that's what we did and we've been there -- actually, it's been sort of interesting that, I don't know, there were four or five Senators there, and a bunch of folks that were enjoyable to talk to.
SEN. MICHAEL ENZI (R), WYOMING: Oh, it was a nice chance to visit with everybody and those of us who are Senators, were able to tell which of our staff worked late. And some people turned on car radios down there and were dancing.
SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: There were some lobbyists down there, actually. It was very creative of them, to get locked down there with us. No, there were, yes, well it's -- put a little furniture polish up there in the store room and have the monitors go off and then you spend two hours with your favorite Senator.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS (on camera): Certainly a bit of levity, there, as you can see, over the months and months after September 11, when we had a number of alerts here on Capitol Hill. People have started apparently getting used to it -- Anderson.
COOPER: Joe, you said this kind of thing happens a lot, but I mean, to my knowledge, we haven't really seen this sort of thing where people are actually quarantined for a good amount of time.
JOHNS: No, that's certainly true. When I say that, what I'm talking about is the alert on Capitol Hill, the evacuation for a variety of reasons. More commonly, we've had planes flying into restricted air space, which has caused the police to evacuate the buildings in case one of those planes might be headed toward one of the buildings here on the U.S. Capitol complex.
This was a little different, the hazmat situation. As you know, with anthrax, back in -- I think it was October of 2001. That was a real event, where actually there was anthrax here at the Capitol. That's a precaution, really, that we haven't seen since that time. So this is a little bit different.
COOPER: And this alarm went off in the attic of the Russell Building. At this point, are Capitol Hill Police saying what it was exactly that set that off? Do they know why it went off?
JOHNS: No, they're not. But we do know here from time to time there have been a number of other alerts. There have been, for example, some devices that have malfunctioned, false alerts in other words, to the possibility of some type of a hazardous substance here at the Capitol complex. They haven't said that and it'd be a speculation to go any farther than that, but certainly, that would be one of the things they'd rule in or out.
COOPER: Joe, stay with us. I want to bring in Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Sanjay, the difference between nerve gas and biological agents?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot of questions about that.
Nerve agents are basically a very poisonous type of chemical, a type of chemical agent that interferes with your nervous system. It keeps it from working properly. Oftentimes, some of the early symptoms can be coughing, it can be runny nose, chest tightness, watery eyes, blurry vision. Examples, as you see, there's sarin and VX gas.
A biological agent that we know a lot about because of anthrax, but also smallpox, ricin. These are typically either going to be bacteria or viruses or the toxins from one of those things.
That's the difference between the two -- Anderson.
COOPER: And the form these things can take and the ease with which they can be spread?
GUPTA: Yes, you know, with a nerve agent, it can come in the form of a gas, it can come in the form of a liquid, it can come in the form of a powder. All the different types of forms. And it can be spread that way as well.
Typically, when you talk about a gas, it gets into the air, but a liquid can be sort of vaporized as well and get into the air. But it's not very good at spreading, typically, which is why they say it's not a very good weapon of mass destruction. Biological agents, anthrax, everybody knows, can come in the form of a powder. But you can also breath it in and subsequently get it in the air as well.
COOPER: Joe, an investigation like this -- is it actually the Capitol Hill Police who are in charge?
JOHNS: The Capitol Hill Police help out, but there are a variety of other agencies around Washington, D.C. Federal agencies, certainly, that would participate in that and they'd have something to say about it. The FBI, certainly involved.
COOPER: Sanjay, also the symptoms. I mean, early on, a lot of the police were talking about, you know, looking for immediate signs and they would be pretty immediate, some of the symptoms.
GUPTA: Yes, you know, when you talk about the sarin gas in particular, you'd know it pretty much if you had been exposed to it in any kind of concentration, even a moderate concentration. Your eyes might burn a little bit, your vision will start to get blurry. You would actually start to drool maybe, you know. Basically, all the liquids would start to come out of your body. It's very obvious. Sometimes there's a slight odor in the air, either a fruity odor or a camphor oil like odor. So you'd pretty much know it.
VX gas, I should point out, though, sometimes it can take up to several hours for you to develop symptoms. That's the only one that's difference.
COOPER: And the key, Sanjay, in terms of quarantining people, is what? I mean, if someone has had exposure to it, could they spread it to other people?
GUPTA: Yes, potentially, but not in the way that you think of, for example, a contagious bacteria or a virus. Not like that, but rather just by virtue of the fact that you have the nerve agent on your clothes, for example, on your skin, for example. It can get into your hair. And then subsequently, if you're out and about and shaking hands with somebody or your clothes touch somebody, that's how you'd spread it.
So, the protocol is very clear. If a nerve agent is present, you take off all the clothes, you wash the hair and the skin with a bleach-like agent and oftentimes you'd start to give antidotes, even in the absence of any symptoms, just profilactively, so that people don't develop problems.
COOPER: And Sanjay, it was sarin gas which was used in Japan in the subway system by the Shinrikyo cult, correct?
GUPTA: Correct -- 12 people died, about 6,000 people were injured. But I think it makes the point again. They were trying to release this nerve agent into a closed space, with the idea that it would be a weapon of mass destruction. As soon as the subway doors opened, though, this agent disperses. It's not a very effective weapon of mass destruction. I couldn't imagine that it would be in a building the size of the Russell Building, as well. It just, it disperses much too quickly and even in high concentrations.
COOPER: And Joe, just in a regular day, I mean, getting into the Russell Building requires a number of security checks, correct?
GUPTA: Certainly. You have a number of security checks. You have to walk through the magnetometers. There are also fancy devices around the U.S. Capitol complex that can even check -- I'm told -- in place to place for certain kinds of hazardous materials.
COOPER: Well, I'm glad it all ended up well. Of course, as we all are.
Joe Johns, thanks.
And Dr. Sanjay Gupta, appreciate it. Thanks for sticking around.
From the nation's capital to the deep South, where there is growing fear that what happened a decade ago is starting all over again. Churches torched in the middle of the night. Why some think race is behind the fires.
Also, a police shooting caught on videotape. The victim, unarmed, and just back from serving in Iraq. Will the tape close the case?
And imagine having the hiccups all day long, every day for four years, with no cure in sight. Coming up, we'll meet a man in desperate need of help. Part of our look at "Medical Mysteries," when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Tonight in Alabama federal and state investigators are sifting through the rubble of nine Baptist churches that were torched, trying to see if the crimes are at all related. Arsonists set fire to five of the churches on Friday. The other four burned overnight Monday.
Some folks in Alabama, these fires are haunting, bringing back disturbing memories of a similar crime that happened a decade ago. A crime that remains unsolved.
CNN's Rusty Dornin investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Steps and a handrail -- all that's left of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Boligee, Alabama. Ten miles down the road, all this talk of church fires has shaken up Reverend Willie Carter of the Little Zion Baptist Church.
WILLIE CARTER, REVEREND, LITTLE ZION BAPTIST CHURCH: I said, oh Lord Jesus, have mercy. I said it begin to start one more time.
DORNIN: The recent fires have brought back memories of 10 years ago. This church, the first Little Zion, was set ablaze. Three churches in Boligee were set on fire back then. Three of more than 400 churches in the mid-90s, investigated for arson, bombings and attempted bombings.
Does it make you fearful that it might happen here?
CARTER: Well, it make me feel that we might have it here again.
DORNIN: After the fire, Willie Carter, then a parishioner, helped rebuild the church, brick by brick. It was a labor of love. His family -- all the way back to his great great grandmother, had been church members. The new Little Zion is up on a hill in the middle of the pine trees. The closest neighbor, a cemetery.
But when we drove up, there was nobody here.
CARTER: Nobody here then, but...
DORNIN: ... It'd be easy for somebody to come here, wouldn't it?
CARTER: Yes. But at nighttime somebody gonna be around here.
DORNIN: It's easy to see how these churches can become targets.
(On camera): This is rural Alabama. There are no caretakers around and there's often no one around for miles.
(Voice-over): Carter believes his church was burned in 1996 because the congregation was black. And he believes the same about the most recent fires, even though four of nine congregations were white.
So you think these new fires are racially motivated?
CARTER: Yes.
DORNIN: Back at Morning Star Baptist Church, Governor Bob Riley wound up a tour of this week's church burnings. Riley says he believes individuals and not hate groups are involved in the arsons, but admits the isolation of these churches makes them especially vulnerable.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DORNIN (on camera): We were struck by that vulnerability just driving around within 10 miles of this church that was burned down this week. We came across four or five churches -- there was no one in the parking lots, no one around. You couldn't see any neighbors at all. Investigators say they believe whoever is responsible was familiar with the area. Perhaps they were hunters. But they had cased the places out. And they say they're not going to pressured into saying that these were racially motivated. They want to find out who did it and then they'll find out why -- Anderson.
COOPER: And were they all broken into? Were the fires started outside? Where exactly -- I mean, was it a similar location in all of these?
DORNIN: Well, in the four this week that are around Boligee, Alabama, here, like here they found a footprint they believe showed a forced entry into the church. The fire was started near the pulpit. They say that there are similar burn marks for all four of the fires that took place this week. So they think that they're all for sure connected, the ones this week. And they believe they could be linked to the ones last week, but they're not saying absolutely.
COOPER: Rusty Dornin, thanks.
In California, outside Los Angeles, a videotape has again become the prime piece of evidence in the shooting of an unarmed man by police. An unarmed Air Force security officer, just back from a tour in Iraq. It happened after a high speed car chase. The tape was broadcast nationwide. Perhaps you've already seen it. It's not easy to watch. Now the man's wife and others are seeking justice.
Here's CNN's Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mariela Carrion reacted to this grainy videotape the way many others have.
MARIELA CARRION, SOLDIER'S WIFE: It was so shocking. I couldn't believe it. I started screaming. I started crying.
SIMON: But Carrion isn't just any viewer. That's her husband, at first ordered to the ground by a deputy sheriff. Then it appears, told to get up.
DEPUTY: Get up. OK? Get up.
ELIO CARRION, SOLDIER: I'm gonna get up.
M. CARRION: I just felt like my heart had dropped. It's, I mean, it's unbelievable. He was pleading, he was telling the officer, I'm on your side.
E. CARRION: I served more time than you in the police in the military OK?
SIMON: He was telling the truth. Elio Carrion is an Air Force security officer, who only two weeks ago finished a six-month stint in Iraq. His wife speaks of the irony of him surviving unscathed over there, only to be shot by police at home.
M. CARRION: My heart was like, oh my God, he's safe. That was my initial reaction. Oh my God, he's safe. I felt like I could breath now. And I mean, this happens and it just tears us apart. It's unfair.
SIMON: The January 29 shooting happened after a brief high speed chase. The San Bernardino Sheriff's Department said Carrion had been riding as a passenger in this corvette that allegedly reached 100 miles per hour before crashing into a fence.
(On camera): Deputy Ivory Webb, who fired the shots is on paid leave, while the San Bernardino sheriff investigates. And the FBI is examining whether Carrion's civil rights were violated. The "Los Angeles Times," reports that Webb's father, a former police chief, said that his son felt threatened when Carrion started to rise, and that his son had only a split second to react.
(Voice-over): The man who shot the video is going through his own ordeal.
JOSE LUIS VALDEZ, AMATEUR VIDEOGRAPHER: Oh my God. I love everybody who gave support to me.
SIMON: Jose Luis Valdez, the hero to many in this case, spent a few days in jail. Valdez had two outstanding warrants for aggravated assault in Florida. Hew as arrested while trying to renew his immigration card. The sheriff's office says there is no connection.
VALDEZ: My life changed. Everything changed.
M. CARRION: I mean, if it wasn't for Jose Luis Valdez, my husband could probably still not be alive. I'm very thankful for him.
SIMON: Elio Carrion is out of the hospital, expected to make a full recovery; while the videotape seen around the world will played and replayed in investigators' offices.
Dan Simon, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Coming up, a medical mystery. A man struggling to have a normal life, ready to try anything to cure his hiccups -- hiccups that started four years ago and have not stopped. He is desperate for help.
Also ahead tonight, a young mother and her 9-month-old baby murdered in cold blood. New details about their final hours, coming up on 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, some stories are a reminder that much of medicine, even now in the 21st Century, is uncharted, full of pioneers and mysteries waiting to be solved.
The world's first face transplant in France this week. I was thinking about that uncharted territory.
Tonight, our "Medical Mysteries" series continues with a rare and bizarre disorder that seems harmless enough at first. It begins with a single hiccup, but it doesn't stop.
Here's 360 MD Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): For most of us, watching someone with the hiccups makes us chuckle, especially when it's the "Looney Tunes," like Daffy Duck. But it's no laughing matter for Robert Smith.
ROBERT SMITH, SUFFES FROM PERPETUAL HICCUPS: I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. Not the hiccups. You got to have it to know. It's horrible.
GUPTA: The 53-year-old maintenance worker from Montgomery, Alabama, got the hiccups four years ago. Robert has the hiccups from the moment he wakes up until he tries to go to sleep. And when he's sleeping, the hiccups come back and wake him up.
It's not uncommon for him to get the hiccups at least 12 times a day, which means he's trying to make it stop all day and all night.
Most of all hiccups are diaphragm twitches. Usually we swallow too much air or we've eaten too much too fast. But chronic hiccups, which can make your life miserable, generally stem from something else in the brain, chest or abdomen.
SMITH: It's scary. I mean, sometimes it cut my wind off. Sometimes I think I'm gonna choke to death. It's just that bad.
GUPTA: Regular home remedies and drugs normally prescribed for chronic hiccups did not work for him. But he developed some home remedies of his own.
SMITH: I've drank a bunch of water sometimes and it'd come back. I take walks along with a cigar and I've taken this cigar, cut an end off of it and light it and inhale it, exhaled it, and hold it in. It might stop it for an hour. Then it'd come back.
GUPTA: Having hiccups that won't stop has had an impact on every aspect of his life.
SMITH: It affects my work habit, it affects my relationship with people, things I do. I'm just uncomfortable all the time because I hiccup all the time.
GUPTA: Robert was desperate to find a way to make it stop, but wasn't having much luck finding a medical solution because it's a rare disorder.
SMITH: I went to almost every doctor in Montgomery. Then, I went to UAB in Birmingham six times. No help. Then I went to Atlanta, the Emory Clinic. No help.
GUPTA: So he went to New Orleans to see Dr. Bryan Payne, who's a neurosurgeon at the LSU Health Sciences Center. He has treated three other chronic hiccup patients with some success by implanting what's called a vagus nerve stimulator.
Here's how it works. A battery for the stimulator is implanted in the chest and a stimulator wire is rapped around the vagus nerve in the neck.
DR. BRYAN PAYNE, NEUROSURGEON, LSU HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER: The reason that we decided to try it was because we essentially blocked the vagus nerve and got a brief period, several hours of hiccup-free time.
GUPTA: Robert had the device implanted three months ago. But so far, it's only had minor success because it takes time to find the right setting.
We met Robert when he was in New Orleans to get his vagus nerve stimulator adjusted once again.
After 15 minutes of adjustments, Robert has a new setting for his stimulator.
SMITH: And if I could stand it, that pain every 10 minutes, I can deal with it. I mean, if we have to cut off some thumbs and say this thumb make me hiccup, I (unintelligible). That's how bad the hiccup is. It ain't nothing near what you just saw me go through.
GUPTA: We checked in on Robert a couple of hours after his appointment to see how he was feeling.
SMITH: You know, you're always scared. I'm always scared that it ain't gonna work.
GUPTA: A few days later, when Robert was back in Montgomery, back at work, his hiccups are back as well. This time you see him using his water remedy.
SMITH: I take a cup of water. I drink it down, just drink it down. And I drink about two good cups of water. It'll stop it. It might stop it five minutes. It might stop it 30 minutes.
GUPTA: Less than an hour later, the hiccups are back again. So he uses his other tried and true method for making it stop, smoking a cigar.
SMITH: Sometimes it stop it for hours. Sometimes it don't work sometimes.
GUPTA: Robert is caught in a vicious cycle between temporary relief and the return of the painful hiccups. So Robert waits for the hiccups to return and for someone to make it stop. Until then, he keeps a cigar close by because he knows it's just a matter of time until he'll need it again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (on camera): I hope you get a sense of just how problematic these hiccups can be. Especially when they don't go away.
We checked in with Robert actually today and he's doing better. He thinks that device is working a little bit better, but he still has to resort to these other techniques, Anderson, sometimes. For example, smoking that cigar to try and get some sleep at night.
COOPER: Why is it so hard to help people like Robert?
GUPTA: Well, you know, the thing about it is and you know, we're focusing so much this week on rare disorders, but when you have a rare disorder, in this case chronic hiccups that won't go away, there's just not a lot of studies that have been done on them. So people don't know how to take care of these problems.
The same problem, incidentally, with orphan diseases. So, you know, as they get studied more, you may come up with better solutions.
COOPER: And are there any other devices that might help?
GUPTA: Yes, you know, interestingly the device that we showed you just now was a vagus nerve stimulator. It stimulates one of the nerves that controls your diaphragm and they believe that hiccups like this is just sort of an irritation of your diaphragm over and over again.
There's another nerve called the phrenic nerve. You could put a stimulator on that as well to try and control how much your diaphragm actually goes back and forth or hiccups.
They're expensive, Anderson. The device that Robert has in place right now is about $40,000. The phrenic nerve stimulator, about $60,000. In Robert's case, insurance covered it, but insurance doesn't usually cover these devices.
COOPER: What a nightmare. Sanjay, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you.
COOPER: More on the case that has appalled the country -- the murder of a mother and her baby, with the husband and father of the victims hiding beyond the reach of the law.
And another tale of a fugitive. This one, a doctor accused of putting a fatal dose of cyanide in his wife's calcium supplement, when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, we turn now to the Entwistle case. If you cannot get it through your head, is that a vibrant young wife and her beautiful baby girl were buried together at the beginning of this month -- buried together because they had been shot to death together. Well, the authorities are having a hard time that through their heads as well. That's why they keep going over exactly what happened and when.
CNN's Jason Carroll investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The mystery began here at Priscilla Matterazzo's home in Carver, Massachusetts. When Matterazzo spoke to her daughter, Rachel Entwistle, on Thursday evening, January 19, for the last time.
(Voice-over): Investigators have not said how long they talked or what they talked about. The next thing we know in this story happened here at Boston's Logan Airport.
Early Saturday, January 21, Rachel's husband, Neil Entwistle walked through Terminal E at the airport. He appeared on a passenger list for an 8:15 a.m. British Airways flight to London's Heathrow Airport. Officials, however, are not saying definitively whether Neil Entwistle was on that flight, could have been on another flight at another time.
(On camera): Later that same night, several of Entwistles' friends show up here at the home in Hopkinton, invited for an informal dinner party, but no one answers the door. Rachel's family, who had been unable to reach her, are concerned and call police.
(Voice-over): Sunday morning, January 22, Entwistles' family and friends check inside the home. They too look in the bedroom upstairs and notice the unmade bed. But they see nothing out of the ordinary and file a missing persons report.
(On camera): In response, that same Sunday night, police reenter the Entwistles' home and detect an odor. That's when they discovered the bodies of Rachel and her baby, Lillian, under the disheveled covers in the bedroom upstairs.
(Voice-over): The death certificate says Rachel Entwistle died from a gunshot wound to the head. It says her death was immediate. Baby Lillian died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Her death occurred within minutes.
The medical examiner cannot pinpoint the exact time of deaths. Investigators say it appears to have been sometime between Thursday and Saturday.
That does not explain how both family and police missed the bodies in previous checks of the home or whether there is some chance Rachel and her baby were shot in that bedroom after those checks.
Monday, January 23, police find Neil Entwistle's BMW at Logan Airport. The Middlesex County District Attorney holds her first press conference, labeling Entwistle a person of interest.
MARTHA COAKLEY, MIDDLESEX COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I have not labeled him a suspect. We do not label people suspects. He is somebody we would always be interested in talking to, in that the husband of two people who have been killed.
(On camera): January 24, Rachel's family get a phone call here from Neil Entwistle who is staying with his parents in Worksop, England. The British tabloid, "The Sun," reports Entwistle told Rachel's stepfather, quote, "I can't remember how I got to England. Is it true Rachel and Lillian are dead?" (Voice-over): CNN's attempts to reach Entwistle or his attorney have been unsuccessful.
January 25, four Massachusetts investigators travel to England to meet with Entwistle. Two days later, Entwistle heads to the U.S. Embassy in London to meet with them. But prosecutors say, under advice from his attorney, he does not answer their questions.
January 28, Rachel's obituary runs in the "Boston Globe." Neil Entwistle's name is not included.
February 1, Rachel's family lay her and Lillian to rest. Neil Entwistle misses the funeral of his wife and daughter. Today, he remains in England in seclusion.
Jason Carroll, CNN, Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, we talked about this awful case earlier this evening with CNN's Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin and Forensic Scientist Lawrence Kobilinsky of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: There's no way they can get him back from England?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Not unless they charge him with a crime. A grand jury subpoena won't do it. They actually have to charge him with a crime and begin this process known as extradition. It can be a very long process, but it is ultimately likely to be successful, but it can only be done if he's charged first.
COOPER: Why not say he's a suspect? Why is the district attorney there going out of her way, repeatedly to say a person of interest?
TOOBIN: You know, this is something that's happened only in recent years. None of these terms have any particular legal significance, person of interest, suspect, they're not clear categories.
What prosecutors try to do is avoid a claim down the road that there was some sort of prejudicing of the jury pool. So, basically, they're trying to be as cautious as possible. But, I mean, you'd have to be an idiot, frankly, not to regard the husband as an obvious suspect here. So, the fact that the prosecutor isn't saying it, doesn't mean that in any real sense he isn't one. So, of course, he's a suspect.
COOPER: And Larry, you actually have a copy of the death certificate for Rachel.
LAWRENCE KOBILINSKY, FORENSIC SCIENTIST: Yes. COOPER: What jumps out at you?
KOBILINSKY: Well, clearly, they have no real indication of the time of death. Unfortunately, the longer the postmortem interval, when they find the bodies, they're limited in the ability to narrow down the time of death. So there's a wide range.
COOPER: Why does that change? Why if it's 24 hours later or 48 hours, does it matter?
KOBILINSKY: It makes a big difference because some of the indicators of time of death disappear very quickly. For example, rigormortis, livermortis or the change -- the cooling of the body over time.
COOPER: But can they determine from stomach contents, things like that?
KOBILINSKY: Those things are useful when the postmortem interval is short. In other words, they find the bodies soon after death. When you start talking about days passing, you can rely on other kinds of things. For example, the potassium level in the vitreous humer, a certain fluid in the eye. That usually goes up with time. So we can get a good estimate, but it's not a pinpoint estimate.
COOPER: What shocked me, though, from what you showed me in this report is that, I mean, she died immediate they say; but that the baby, Lillian Rose, who was shot in the stomach, it took minutes for that baby to die.
KOBILINSKY: Indeed. The medical examiner found that the bullet that entered the abdomen penetrated and ruptured the liver, as well as the kidney. The child died of exsanguinations -- blood loss, hemorrhage, and so that takes time.
COOPER: Jeffrey, Neil Entwistle has not answered police questions. I mean, it's the smartest thing to do. I mean, if you've seen any cop shows, it's always people talking to the police that ends up tripping them up down the road.
TOOBIN: Well, and he has a lot to explain. You know, why he left, why he didn't go back for the funeral. All of those things you could do a lot with if you had answers to them. He's much better off as a suspect, which is what he is, not saying anything at all. So he's getting the right legal advice.
COOPER: They did not impound the car immediately. They found the car on Monday, after he had left. But for legal reasons, they just kept an eye on it. Is it possible evidence in there could have disappeared in that time?
KOBILINSKY: Well, it's a possibility. We have to know if anybody else had access to the vehicle. That's why the videotapes of the vehicle are quite important. But I think what's even more important is the timing of when he left that vehicle because he could have stayed around at the airport. We are saying we don't know exactly when he took off to Britain. It may have been another flight. We're not sure, but we do know from the videotapes when he left the car. So that kind of narrows down his timing with respect to did he have the capability of committing the crime.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: There is another case of a murdered wife that is getting scrutiny tonight. This one has striking similarities to the movie, "The Fugitive." A doctor, accused of poisoning his wife and now he is on the run. But did she live long enough to convict him from the grave?
Plus, why are women more likely to be murdered by their husbands than by total strangers? That and more when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Domestic homicides are extremely common. We're going to prove the reasons why in a moment, but first there is something especially disturbing about a doctor indicted in the fatal poisoning of his wife. Authorities in Ohio say the mother of two, was tricken (ph) to swallowing cyanide. It is fast-acting, but with her dying breath, she apparently got the last word.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put that gun down!
COOPER: It's a tale eerily reminiscent of the "The Fugitive," the movie based on the true story of Samuel Shephard, a doctor wanted for murdering his wife in Ohio 50 years ago.
Now, some of those same authorities are on the trail of another Ohio doctor, indicted yesterday in the murder of his wife.
BILL MASON, CUYAHOGA COUNTY PROSECUTOR: Yazeed Essa is a fugitive as of yesterday. There is a warrant out for his arrest. Hopefully, that will circulate through law enforcement and we'll have him shortly.
COOPER: Dr. Yazeed Essa and his wife, Rosemarie, had been married for five years. They had two small children and lived in this affluent suburb outside Cleveland. By the looks of it, they were a happy family, but everything changed on February 24 of last year.
That day, Rosemarie left the house to meet a friend for a movie. She never made it to the theater. Rosemarie Essa collapsed at the wheel of her Volvo. Prosecutors say she called a friend just before she passed out, saying:
MASON: Her husband had just given her a pill, that her stomach was making her vomiting and sick and then she had passed on.
COOPER: Dr. Essa now stands accused of giving his wife a lethal dose of cyanide in a capsule she thought was a calcium pill. MASON: Well, he took the calcium pills shortly before this death, dumped the calcium out and put cyanide in it. He insisted that she take the cyanide pill before she left, which she did. Approximately 10 minutes later, she was dead.
COOPER: Police interviewed Dr. Essa about three weeks later, on March 17, and confiscated the bottle of calcium pills, pills they later tested.
MASON: There were 56 pills in the bottle. Nine of those pills still had cyanide in the packet.
COOPER: Hard to believe, but that night there was a party at Essa's house.
MASON: Our interpretation certainly is that it was a goodbye party. He had his family and friends over, got to see them all for one last time. The next day, he took off for Detroit and boarded a flight in Toronto and went to Cypress.
COOPER: From there, he disappeared. Authorities say Essa has traveled to Greece, Lebanon and Syria. His family is thought to own property in Syria, a country that does not have an extradition policy with the U.S. Authorities also say he may have spent the holidays in Florida.
TED WASKY, SPECIAL AGENT, CLEVELAND FBI: We did receive information that he may have been in the Fort Myers Beach area. We did execute a warrant, but we have not apprehended him to date.
COOPER: Essa's lawyer, Larry Zuckerman (ph), would not agree to an interview, but says he hasn't had any contact with his client since he disappeared, and that he's presumed innocent under the law.
Prosecutors, however, say the motive is clear.
MASON: The motive that really goes back throughout time, it's he had another woman. He was seeing another woman and he just wanted her out of the way unfortunately.
COOPER: The other woman, according to prosecutors, was a nurse at Akron General Medical Center, where Dr. Essa worked as an emergency room physician -- a job that authorities say would give him easy access to cyanide.
Rosemarie Essa's brother has taken custody of his sister's two young children.
Nearly a year after her murder, police say they have finally identified the killer. Now, they just have to find him.
JAMES COOK, POLICE CHIEF, HIGHLAND HEIGHTS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We do believe he is responsible for her death and we're comfortable to present our case in court and we believe we can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, they would like your help. If you have seen Dr. Yazeed Essa and know his location tonight, authorities would like you to call 216-522-1400 or your local FBI office.
For more on what makes cyanide so deadly, I spoke earlier with 360 MD Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: So Sanjay, how deadly is cyanide?
GUPTA: Well, you know, interestingly with cyanide, most people have sort of the Hollywood perception of cyanide. I just saw this on "24" the other day, somebody puts a tablet in their mouth. They immediately start frothing and they die. That's obviously the deadly side of cyanide, the thing you see in movies.
But cyanide is actually present in lots of different foods. For example, in almonds and spinach and tapioca pudding. If I were to test your cyanide levels right now, Anderson, you'd have trace amounts of cyanide probably in your blood. It's when you get large doses in a very quick period of time, that it becomes deadly.
It's been used as a genocidal agent, they believe, in World War II. So, it can be a very deadly agent in high doses and in a quick time.
COOPER: What actually happens to your body when you're exposed to those toxic doses?
GUPTA: You know what cyanide does, it basically competes with oxygen in your blood. So oxygen is trying to get in your blood. The cyanide basically says no and it gets -- your blood cells and it makes it so that you're not circulating any oxygen in your body. So essentially, you're starving your body very quickly of oxygen. That's what causes death.
COOPER: How can you tell if someone's been poisoned with it?
GUPTA: You know, it can be very hard, which is why spies, for example, love to use this agent. You know, unless you do a blood level or a urine level very quickly after death, you may never know that cyanide was actually the culprit.
Another little interesting tidbit, though, is if you smelled the breath of someone who's just been poisoned with cyanide, it'll have this very distinctive almond-like smell. And that's another way that you can tell, as well.
COOPER: Bizarre. Sanjay, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: So why do husbands kill their wives? We'll have more on that in a second, but first Susan Hendricks, from "HEADLINE NEWS," joins us with some of the business stories we're following -- Susan.
SUSAN HENDRICKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Anderson, thanks. What a difference a day makes. The markets bounced back nicely today from yesterday's bill sell-off.
Cisco's upbeat earnings report sparked a broad rally. The NASDAQ was up 22 points; the Dow, up more than 108; and the S&P 500 Index was ahead almost 1 percent.
Look for that familiar Starbucks logo in some unfamiliar places. Twelve to 18 months from now, the world's largest coffee retailer plans to open stores in Russia and Brazil as part of a plan to increase its shops abroad fivefold. Overseas growth is a critical part of the company's attempt to maintain an annual growth rate of 20 percent.
Facing the possibility of a $2.4 million a day fine, Microsoft today lost a bid for a second delay in responding to charges it failed to comply with European antitrust remedies. An independent European commission hearing officer also turned down the U.S. software giant's request for access to correspondence it wanted for its defense.
Think of this next story as the people's choice award for cars. At the Chicago auto show today, a web research company released what it calls consumer voice awards -- the vehicles most praised by regular folks on the web, as opposed to journalists. For instance, compact car of the year, according to the general public, was the Mazda 3; though pro-automotive writers went instead for the Toyota Prius. And I think, he should maybe listen to the regular folks.
Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: Thanks very much, Susan.
We're going to look deeper into the question, why do men kill their wives? We'll have an expert who talks about that. He says it is about need. But what needs are so strong that they drive men to kill the women they once adored? When 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, we have been following the case of a husband accused of killing his wife with cyanide.
On average, a spousal murder happens every day in this country, and then some. According to the FBI, 579 women were murdered by their husbands in 2004.
CNN's Rick Sanchez looks into why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Redwood City, California, December of 2002, Scott Peterson kills his wife, Laci. She was eight months pregnant.
Boston, 1989, Lawyer Charles Stuart makes up a story about a, quote, "black man who shot his wife." It turns out, it was Stuart who pulled the trigger.
North Carolina, 2003, Novelist Michael Peterson is convicted of bludgeoning his wife of five years. He did it in the stairwell of their Durham mansion.
All are cases that fascinated and made us wonder why. Why would a husband kill his own wife? Even near accusations seem to make us all take notice. Who in America can say they don't remember this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely 100 percent not guilty.
SANCHEZ: OJ Simpson was found not guilty.
But the fascination with everything OJ continues, as does every book, TV show or movie on husbands who stand accused of killing their wives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard Kimball.
DR. ROBERT FRIEDMAN, CRIMINOLOGIST: You have crime, you have sex, you have money.
SANCHEZ: Criminologist Robert Friedman has spent decades studying why people kill. He says, to understand the motives that men like Scott Peterson, you first have to understand not why they did it, but why they needed to do it.
(On camera): What's to gain? Why not walk out?
FRIEDMAN: If the convenience of the moment is that he views her standing in his way, he will resort to that resolution that for the wide majority of the population is incomprehensible.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Friedman says wife killers all have a problem they need to resolve. Whether it's greed, lack of freedom, convenience, ego or jealousy, the answer tends to be the same if the man views life as frivolous.
FRIEDMAN: The ultimate resolution that he arrives at is that taking it out is best for him.
SANCHEZ: So for police, the challenge is to find out what their suspect was trying to resolve.
(On camera): So when you figure out what the conflict is, that will lead you to figure out what the motive was?
FRIEDMAN: Exactly.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): So why do husbands kill? Power, authority, possessiveness -- we've all heard the pop psychology. But key to breaking any case, says this veteran investigator, is finding out what conflict was seemingly resolved when a spouse turned up dead.
Rick Sanchez, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: A quick look now at some of the stories on the radar and on the 360 blog. Viewers weighing in on the cartoon controversy in a big way.
Jeff, from River Ridge in Louisiana, writes, "This is not a war with radicals. This is a war of cultures."
OK, what about plain, simple common sense and decency?
John, from Kansas City, wonders, "One should not abuse the rules and dogma of another's religion, it is just simple courtesy."
From Ahmad in Rolla, Missouri, there's this, "Muslims are forgetting that Prophet Mohammad dealt with insults thrown at him by forgiving people and praying for them not by violently reacting to it."
And Stacy from St. Louis, weighs in with this blog e-battle cry, "Okay," she writes, "let's hear you say it: 'My name is Anderson and I'm a blogoholic.' Don't worry, you're not the only one."
Well, Stacy, neither are you. We're getting about 300,000 hits a day. And yes, I'm becoming kind of a blogoholic. I admit it. Nothing wrong with it. No shame. Thanks. And keep the dialogue going. We'll do our best on this end, on the blog and on the radar.
More of 360 in a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: That's it for tonight. Thanks for watching 360. "LARRY KING" is next, with more on the Capitol Hill terror scare.
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