Return to Transcripts main page
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Killer Bug; Deadly Month; U.S. Iran Talks; Darfur Crisis; Murder Mystery: Immigrants Killed; "Lost Boy" Speaks; Great Escape;
Aired May 29, 2007 - 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: ... spread it and drugs can't catch it. A man is in quarantine tonight and he's already been halfway around the world carrying a deadly strain of tuberculosis.
Also tonight, he once helped Warren Jeffs while the polygamist leader was on the lam. That was before they took his wife and child. Now, he's fighting to get them back and talking about Jeffs.
And the shot that landed Lindsay in the tabloids and back in rehab. What kind of rehab is Lindsay Lohan looking forward to? One hint, it's first class all the way. That's coming up.
We begin with a medical mystery. Tonight, for the first time since 1963, the federal government has ordered someone into medical quarantine.
An airline traveler -- and heaven help his seatmates. He's got tuberculosis, a disease straight out of the history books. Millions once died of it. There was no cure. Then came antibiotics.
But now, a deadly, new strain is emerging that in some cases no drug or combination of drugs can stop. Experts say the country's not ready for it, but ready or not it is here. The man in quarantine has it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): It was frightening news for some airline passengers to hear. They may have been sitting next to a man with a potentially fatal form of tuberculosis. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the patient boarded Air France flight number 385 from Atlanta that landed in Paris on May 13th.
On May 24th, he flew from Prague to Montreal on Czech Airlines flight 0104, then drove back to the United States.
DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: During these two long flights, the patient may have been a source of infection to the passengers.
COOPER: According to the CDC, the patient is a man who lives in the Atlanta area. They say he was diagnosed with TB some time ago, but they didn't know he had the highly dangerous drug resistant form of the disease until he was halfway through his trip to Europe. And they didn't know he intended to leave the country. GERBERDING: If we had been aware that travel was imminent, we may have been able to act, if requested by the local health officials, but under the circumstances, I think we were surprised that the patient had left the country.
COOPER: Health officials say there's no evidence the man was highly infectious and that the risk of his spreading the disease is low. But that risk is still there. They've ordered the patient into isolation at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, a very unusual step for the CDC to take.
GERBERDING: Because this organism is so potentially serious and could cause such serious harm to people, especially those that have other medical conditions that would reduce their immunity, we felt it was our responsibility to err on the side of abundant caution.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (on camera): 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta works at Grady Memorial in Atlanta. We spoke earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Sanjay, what is it about this guy's particular case of TB that made the CDC quarantine him, the first time in more than four decades they've done that?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was amazing. Last time this was done was actually for smallpox, to give you a sense of just how significant this is.
He has something known as extremely drug resistant tuberculosis. This is a thing that we've talked about for years, resistant bacteria. And then suddenly becoming so smart that no antibiotic can actually kill them. And this is what this guy has.
Most of the drugs that we have for tuberculosis, he just simply won't respond to.
While it's no more contagious than regular tuberculosis, if someone else gets it, then you can see how it starts to multiply. More and more people get it and all of a sudden you have many more cases of untreatable TB.
COOPER: How did he probably get it?
GUPTA: We don't know. And it's very difficult to say in these situations because TB, this particular bacteria, can just hang out in your body for a really long time without you even knowing that you have it or you may not feel sick or anything.
So it's unclear. And we asked that same question. We don't know about his travel history. We don't know where he's been more recently. I imagine some of that information's going to come out.
COOPER: Is there something about the fact that he traveled with it that made it more dangerous?
GUPTA: Well, you know, it's sort of interesting with that in particular. If you think about tuberculosis, the way that it's commonly spread is through the air. So coughing, sneezing, putting the bacteria out there, and it can just hang out there for a long time, someone else breathes it in.
So of most concern, then, obviously would be confined spaces, which is why for example prisons are always a real concerning place for TB. And possibly planes, especially long transatlantic flights over eight hours. They may be a concern.
Two things sort of work in the favor. One is that he didn't look sick. So maybe he wasn't coughing. Two is that he did have a test -- a sputive (ph) test, that didn't show active bacteria actually in the sputum at the time. So maybe not as contagious -- Anderson.
COOPER: So that's how he was able to get on board the plane because he didn't look sick?
GUPTA: Yes. You know, and it's interesting that there's not an absolute mandate. I mean, he was counseled not to take a flight when he was just told he had tuberculosis. He took that flight anyway and he went to Europe. And then when he was there, it came back -- some of the testing came back saying not only do you have tuberculosis, it's the very bad kind. It's the extremely drug resistant kind.
COOPER: What happens to him next? I mean, he's quarantined. How long does that last? Where does this go?
GUPTA: He's quarantined in a hospital where I work, at Grady hospital, and they do have an isolation ward for these sorts of cases. Extremely drug resistant TB -- there's only 49 cases in the United States.
But there's all sorts of other things that require people to be isolated. So it's a separate floor, Anderson. Patients are kept up there. They have what are called negative pressure rooms. So air is never blown into the room, but it's always sucked out and then filtered so you can't actually spread the bacteria within the room.
Everyone that goes up there -- myself, if one of my patients is up there, has to wear a mask, a special kind of mask that really is very good at filtering out these particular bacteria. And they get tested day after day for their sputum and they're given whatever treatment they can get.
There's not a lot of choices for him, so he'll probably just get symptomatic treatment until he starts to get better.
COOPER: All right, Sanjay Gupta, thanks.
GUPTA: Thanks, Anderson.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: While TB is a threat here in America, it poses a far greater risk beyond our borders.
Here's the raw data. According to Centers for Disease Control, there were 662 TB-related deaths in America in 2004. Worldwide -- and this is astounding, listen. A third of the earth's population has been infected with TB. Most never go on to develop the full-blown disease. But every year 9 million people do become sick from it and almost 2 million of those people will die. That's one reality check.
Here's another. Ten American troops were killed in Iraq on Memorial Day. Two when their chopper went down, eight in assorted IED attacks -- 114 for the month. The worst month this year. The third worst month in the entire war for fatalities.
As for Iraqis, at least 42 died in a pair of car bomb attacks. There's the aftermath. Thirty-one other bodies were found today, mutilated, dumped, making nearly 700 bodies dumped in Baghdad in May alone. The sectarian killings, which had been declining, are rising once again.
Five Britains were kidnapped outside the finance ministry in broad daylight. John Burns of "The New York Times" has been covering it all. We spoke earlier tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: John, this is now the deadliest month of the war for American troops this year, the third deadliest month of the entire war. Why is that? Is it part of -- just expected because of the new U.S. strategy, or somehow insurgent strategy changing as well?
JOHN BURNS, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Oh, I think it's both, Anderson.
The American commanders here warned early on that putting 30,000 more troops into this fight was bound to mean that there would be more casualties. And there have been, April and May, both of them, over 100 casualties, and, as you know, May, as you just said, heading to be the third worst month of the war.
COOPER: Are you seeing any progress being made on the political front?
BURNS: Very little.
Indeed, American commanders and diplomats have begun to lower the bar on that. They -- they set various benchmarks, some of them paralleled in the Congressional legislation that renewed the funding for the troops here. But the only one that they expect the Iraqis to meet -- and that's only a maybe -- is the oil law, a law for the sharing of oil revenues and field allocations between the Sunnis, the Shiites, and -- and the Kurds.
COOPER: There -- there is certainly a sense of urgency in the United States from everyone who is watching very closely, no matter what side of the political aisle you're on. Is there that same sense of urgency among these -- these parliamentarians, these Iraqi politicians?
BURNS: Politicians here are looking beyond the American military presence, or at least well beyond the surge.
And they are simply going to drag their heels on these issues, because they think that all of this, the division of power, the division of spoils, that the spoils that are, if you will, in the gift of the state, like oil, is going to have to be settled by force of arms in the long run among the Iraqis themselves.
COOPER: And would that -- I mean, people here say, well, that -- that will be a bloodbath of epic proportions. Is there that same sense there, or do we know what that -- what would happen?
BURNS: Well, there is. Amongst ordinary Iraqis, there is a very widespread sense that there would be a -- a catastrophic level of violence, one by a multiple of several times, perhaps, worse than there present -- there presently is.
There are some American officials I have talked to in recent times who say that the American people should be prepared to see as many as a million Iraqis die in the aftermath of an American military drawdown.
COOPER: CNN is reporting that commanders in Iraq have expressed concern about a rise in violence and a growing presence of al Qaeda among Iraqi militants. Is there a sense -- do you have a sense of is al Qaeda still growing there? Are they on the run? Or is it status quo?
BURNS: Al Qaeda seems to have an almost endless capacity to regenerate itself, despite American military success, and it's been considerable this year as in each of the three years past, in rounding up dozens, in fact hundreds of al Qaeda figures, including many of the leaders of al Qaeda.
COOPER: In Sunday's "New York Times", Frank Rich wrote about the millions of Iraqi refugees displaced by the violence and the fact that America has really only taken in about 500 refugees so far. Does that cause anger in Iraq? I mean, is that something that's on people's radar there?
BURNS: Already, as you know, there are more than 2 million Iraqis who have fled to Syria and Jordan, the most accessible of the neighboring countries. And the Iraqis I know best, most of them working for foreign journalists, will all put their hands up -- all of them put their hands up -- if you ask them who would like to find safe haven abroad.
So, yes, there is pressure about this. Is there real anger? Do you know the surprising thing is that anger here, despite everything that has happened, is very muted. Iraqis learned under Saddam Hussein to suffer quietly and in the main they are suffering quietly now.
COOPER: I remember one Iraqi person said to me last time I was there, you never underestimate an Iraqi person's ability to withstand pain. It seems that's certainly being tested.
BURNS: That's absolutely right. It's something we can admire in them.
COOPER: John Burns, Baghdad Bureau Chief for "The New York Times," thank you, John.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: In Baghdad's green zone yesterday the U.S. and Iran held their first formal face-to-face talks in nearly three decades. The four-hour meeting focused entirely on Iraq's security, a narrow agenda, no doubt about it, but a groundbreaking meeting and a huge shift in policy for the Bush White House.
Reza Aslan is the author of "No God but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam." He's an Iranian American and a scholar of Islam and other religions. We talked earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: This is the first time that Iran and the U.S. have had official diplomatic talks since 1980. How significant was this event?
REZA ASLAN, AUTHOR, "NO GOD BUT GOD": Well, I think it's -- as far as short-term goals with regard to the security of Iraq, it's hard to say how significant that was.
I mean, it's really difficult to say whether this is going to lead to some major changes with regard to Iran's role in that country.
But, insofar as the possibility of these talks laying the groundwork for future, perhaps more official talks on more intractable issues like, for instance, Iran's nuclear program, this could be actually a huge milestone. It really could be the beginning of something that could be much more fruitful in the future.
COOPER: It's interesting, though, I mean, on the one hand, the Iranians were sort of talking diplomatic niceties about agreeing with, you know, supporting the Iraqi government. But Iran still denies supplying Iraqi militias with weapons. They still make no mention of the fact that these incredibly deadly explosives, many of -- the U.S. military, at least, is saying many of them are coming from Iran.
ASLAN: Yes. I mean, Iran is going to be coy about this issue for a while. Now, I think it's important to recognize that, while there is absolutely irrefutable evidence that there are Iranian arms in Iraq, we're still not exactly sure who is sending those arms.
There is a possibility that this is going beyond at least the clerical control.
As you know, the revolutionary guard in Iran has become much more influential, much more assertive and in some ways is beginning to act almost as an independent actor, an independent agent in Iran.
COOPER: But it's hard to believe that the people who control Iran couldn't control the revolutionary guard if they wanted to.
ASLAN: Well, OK, so this is absolutely the central problem when talking about modern day Iran. You know, we talk in the United States constantly about how Iran may be becoming more radical or more conservative. That's not what Iranians talk about. They're afraid that Iran is becoming more militantized.
The fact is that the revolutionary guards has a position in this government that they have never had before. They are far more influential, far more assertive. And even though technically they're supposed to serve at the pleasure of the supreme leader -- essentially, the revolutionary guards is the militia, the personal militia, of the supreme leader.
Over last few years, we've seen a lot of dissatisfaction and even anger, by these guards at the office of the supreme leader. And I think it's for that reason they have really rallied around Ahmadinejad as sort of the central figure head for this new, more militant, more robust, and revolutionary resurgence taking place in Iran.
COOPER: And so when we see Ahmadinejad, when he makes all of those absurd pronouncements, which he does about the holocaust and talking about Iranian nuclear capabilities, he's not necessarily the guy in charge?
ASLAN: By no means is he the guy in charge. First of all, the presidency of Iran is a pretty powerless position. He's not in control of the government. He's not in control of the economy or the budget. He's not the commander in chief. He has very little influence over foreign policy. And interestingly enough, he has almost no say whatsoever in what happens in Iran's nuclear program.
COOPER: Reza, appreciate you being on the program. Thanks.
ASLAN: Thanks a lot.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Just ahead tonight on 360, M.D. Sanjay Gupta returns, takes us to one of the largest refugee camps in the world.
Also these stories.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (voice-over): A string of killings in a New York suburb. All three victims, illegal immigrants.
FERNANDO MATEO, PRESIDENT, HISPANICS ACROSS AMERICA: Should they be deported if they are found guilty of committing a crime? Yes, they should. Should they be murdered? No, they shouldn't be.
COOPER: Are the killings a coincidence or is there a pattern emerging?
A nephew's nightmare. His uncle is Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs, and his wife and son are gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they tell me to walk away, that they're not mine, that they have been placed to another man.
COOPER: Walk away from his own flesh and blood. Instead, he's suing his uncle. Ahead, on 360.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I promise this to the people of Darfur. The United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (on camera): It's a promise that critics believe is being made far too late. The president, announcing new economic sanctions against Sudan.
Over the past four years, violence in Sudan's Darfur region has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. The rape and murder of mainly ethnic Africans committed by the so-called Janjaweed militia on orders many believe from Sudan's central government.
The survivors have fled across the border to Chad, where millions now live in refugee camps.
Recently, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta visited one of those camps.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): Everyone here has a story.
"Like night riders, they came after midnight," this man tells me. He's talking about the Janjaweed, a pro-government militia accused of atrocities across Darfur, armed gunmen on horseback.
With a single bullet, they crippled these twin girls. Scrambling for their lives, they ran on shattered legs, desperate to escape Darfur. Though the wounds are healing, they may never recover from the terror.
(on camera): How many of you feel safe here?
Nobody.
How many of you lost somebody during this conflict?
Almost everybody.
(voice-over): This woman lost a daughter. Her story is so painful, her mother must speak for her. As she was fleeing, she put her 2-year-old little baby girl on her back. Two years later, she still can't talk about it, but her mother witnessed it all. Gunfire rang out and suddenly her daughter went quiet and limp, shot dead with a bullet meant for her.
Now they are bonded by that terrible moment and by their new lives as refugees.
(on camera): How is your life here in this camp?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We live in the situation that you see right now. We don't have many things.
GUPTA: A lot of people ask, what does a refugee camp look like. Well, you're looking at one of the biggest ones, where so many of the 200,000 displaced people from Darfur are living.
These little huts is where people actually live. These trees are actually bound together. They're sorogon (ph) trees. They use this to actually pound food into a paste that they can cook. And over here is where they keep some of their water.
It's not enough. Everyone tells us that all the time. They don't have enough food, they don't have enough water. This is where they're living now. This is how they're living.
(voice-over): Few of them know how they're going to get through next week, much less if or when they'll ever return home. Even so, they're trying to create new lives.
(on camera): Look at all the brightly colored clothing around here. These are all refugees that actually come to this market to exchange goods. They don't have any money, so they actually barter one service for another, so they can take some of these goods back to their homes.
(voice-over): Or what they now call homes. Huts, really, made of sticks, women preparing what little food they have.
(on camera): Besides food and clothing, what do you want for your grandchildren?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Food and education.
GUPTA (voice-over): The children also have stories. So many of them are of losing their parents.
LAURA PEREZ, UNICEF: We've heard just really terrible, heartbreaking stories. I heard a story of a young girl who is 14 who was gang raped by 15 men, 15 Janjaweed. Children who witnessed the murder of their parents. We've heard stories of mothers and girls being taken from villages by Janjaweed. We don't know where they're taken to. Just atrocities and horrible, horrible stories that are traumatic. These children are traumatized, and adults are traumatized as well. GUPTA (on camera): Yes, the stories are horrifying, and so many of them start just beyond those hills, where the Sudan-Chad border is. So many people came by foot, walked all the way to these refugee camps.
What we find, though, is they have so much in common with people in other parts of the world. Yes, they want food and water, but they also want their own land. And, most importantly, they want education for their children.
(voice-over): When their sleep is not broken by nightmares, they dream the dreams we all dream. It's so basic. They want a better future for their children. They want their kids to be safe.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, just ahead on 360, three murders in the same New York town. All three victims, illegal immigrants from Guatemala. All three crimes unsolved. Why some are saying that may not be a coincidence.
Also ahead, Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs has been accused of time -- time and again of breaking up families and banishing men and boys from his sect, but his own flesh and blood? Wait until you hear what his nephew has to say, next on 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: It began with a 911 call and it is far from over. An illegal immigrant was beaten to death in an affluent community. For the police department, the search for answers has turned inward. Three officers are now under investigation for the crime.
CNN's Randi Kaye investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Guatemalan came to the United States 14 years ago for a better life. Last month, he was found struggling to breathe on this deserted dirt road an hour outside New York City. He died later at the hospital. An accident? No. The medical examiner calls it homicide -- 42-year-old Renee Javier Perez died from internal injuries, he says, likely caused by blows to the abdomen.
FERNANDO MATEO, PRESIDENT, HISPANICS ACROSS AMERICA: Murder is no way of deportation.
KAYE: Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America, is demanding action.
Perez was homeless, the third Guatemalan immigrant killed in this community in the last four years. Two others were found strangled to death. Their murders remain unsolved. Some of the estimated 3,500 undocumented Guatemalans here wonder who's next.
MATEO: If they were as I said white, black, or gay, this would have been a national outroar. But it's three undocumented Americans. Doesn't matter.
KAYE: What does matter in this case, the stunning announcement three Mount Kisco police officers are being investigated. Their cars seized and examined. No charges, but there is more work to do.
CHIEF CHRIS MENZEL, BEDFORD POLICE DEPARTMENT: We know for certain Mount Kisco police officers did also have contact with Mr. Perez just prior to his death.
KAYE: That contact took place at this Mount Kisco Laundromat. Perez, for some reason, had called 911. Police responded. Call logs show they arrived at 10:47 p.m. One hour and eight minutes later, 11:55 p.m., a passerby found Perez in neighboring Bedford on the side of the road.
(on camera): So many unanswered questions. Did Mr. Perez leave this laundromat that night with police or alone? If he was alone, how did he manage to get several mile away to where he was found? Especially if he was severely injured.
(voice-over): And how will one officer be able to explain a 44- minute gap in his whereabouts after he left the Laundromat? He said he was going to check on an arriving train.
His attorney tells CNN he doesn't believe his client will be charged. The attorney for another officer says, he has no doubt about his client's whereabouts. He could not have been involved.
Joe Dimauro's seafood store is just down the street from the laundromat. Dimauro says he had often seen Perez stumbling around.
JOE DIMAURO, OWNER, MOUNT KISCO SEAFOOD: The guy was obviously an alcoholic and had major problems. And who knew? Who knows? Maybe he got hit by a car. Maybe he took a dive somewhere.
KAYE: Dimauro says he doubts police harmed Perez, who had a reputation as a drunk and a nuisance.
Perez reportedly has had hundreds of run-ins with the law. Some wonder why he wasn't deported long ago, like other undocumented workers.
MATEO: Should they be deported if they are found guilty of committing a crime? Yes, they should. Should they be murdered? No, they shouldn't be.
KAYE: Mount Kisco's mayor pushed for the officers in question to be reassigned to desk duty.
MICHAEL CINORICH, MAYOR, MOUNT KISCO, NEW YORK: If the truth doesn't come out, this cloud will darken this community for a long, long time.
KAYE: No witness, no clues. The cloud may hang around for a while unless someone comes forward.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Mount Kisco, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, just ahead on the program. They say blood is thicker than water. Not in this case. Not if you believe this man's story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (voice-over): A nephew's nightmare. His uncle is Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs, and his wife and son are gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they tell me to walk away, to -- that they're not mine. That they have been placed to another man.
COOPER: Walk way from his own flesh and blood. Instead, he's suing his uncle.
Lindsay Lohan goes back to rehab. What kind of treatment do the stars really get?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the master bathroom and it is by far one of the biggest bathrooms I've ever stepped my foot on.
COOPER: Rehab, Malibu style. Tonight on 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER (on camera): There have been many bizarre twists and turns in the case of Warren Jeffs, the polygamist leader facing trial right now in Utah. But this one may be among the strangest.
His very own nephew, a blood relative, alleges that Jeffs turned on him one day, throwing him out of the church and taking away what meant the most to him, his family. Now he's fighting to get them back.
CNN's Gary Tuchman has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 22-year-old Wendell Musser has a construction business in western Idaho. Keeping busy helps him cope with the mystery involving the two loves of his life -- his wife Vivian and his toddler son, Levi.
WENDELL MUSSER, FORMER MEMBER FLDS CHURCH: I missed his first birthday. He just started walking when I got ex-communicated.
TUCHMAN: Excommunicated from the church run by Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs. And as a punishment, Musser says, Vivian and Levi were take friend him, and nobody will tell him where they are.
(on camera): Have you searched for them?
MUSSER: Yes, I've searched everywhere for them, where we've lived in Colorado and Utah and Arizona. I've talked to her father, my father, our families.
TUCHMAN: Who are still in the church?
MUSSER: Yes.
TUCHMAN: And they won't talk to you?
MUSSER: No one will talk to me.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Warren Jeffs is now in jail, awaiting trial. He's accused of arranging marriages of young girls to men. He's pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
But for those still devoted to the church, devotion to Jeffs, who they believe is a prophet, often takes precedence over one's own flesh and blood.
(on camera): Do the officials in the church know where she is?
MUSSER: Yes, they do. Yes.
TUCHMAN: And what do they tell you when you say you want to be brought back to your wife?
MUSSER: They tell me to walk away to -- that they're not mine, that they have been placed to another man.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Musser says he has 45 brothers and sisters and 3 mothers and he had a special relationship with Warren Jeffs.
MUSSER: He is my uncle, my real uncle. My mother is his sister.
TUCHMAN: In the winter of 2005 he received a phone call from the so-called prophet, who Musser estimates has around 180 wives.
MUSSER: He said I qualified for a mission and to be a caretaker for his family.
TUCHMAN: Jeffs asked Musser to move to a rural area of Colorado and take care of some of his wives while he was on the run. Musser told his prophet protecting the wives was a privilege.
MUSSER: They had high needs, special foods, special clothing, just almost like princesses I'm going to say, queens and princesses.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Wendell Musser says he moved three times with the same eight or nine of Warren Jeffs' wives, most recently to this house in the isolated Colorado mountain community of West Cliff. He says Jeffs spent time here. But presumably spent more time at other secret locations with other wives. So in essence, Musser was the leader of this polygamist household.
Last spring around the same time that Jeffs reached the pinnacle of infamy, by appearing on the FBI's 10 most wanted list, Musser's world came crashing down.
(voice-over): He was arrested for DWI. After spending two days in jail, he went back to the mountain home.
(on camera): So you got to the house, and your family was gone?
MUSSER: They were gone. Yes.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): So were all of Jeffs' wives.
Wendell Musser had been stripped of his position as the caretaker and stripped of his family.
(on camera): This is the ultimate punishment in this church, isn't it?
GREG HOOLE, MUSSER'S ATTORNEY: Absolutely, banishment.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): So Musser's lawyer, Greg Hoole, has filed a most unusual lawsuit, a request for a judge to order Warren Jeffs to reveal where Vivian and Levi are.
MUSSER: I sure think of her every day. And I think that she thinks about me. She can't help that. Look at our little boy and -- I mean, we had so much together.
TUCHMAN: Musser has talked with the police about Jeffs, including about how Jeffs' wives didn't know how to act when he would make his occasional visits to the picturesque hideaway.
MUSSER: We would have the room set up in a way where he could sit in front of us and talk to us.
TUCHMAN (on camera): And what would he talk to you about?
MUSSER: He would read his revelations, and -- it was like a meeting.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Church officials would not comment to CNN about the lawsuit.
Musser says that now, for the first time in is life, he can be responsible for himself. But his heart aches for his little son. And he's adamant that he will wait as long as it takes to find out if Vivian wants him as much as he wants her.
MUSSER: I think that she would think that's very honorable and that I really do love her a lot to be waiting for her like I am and looking for her.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: It's so crazy that this can happen in America in this day and age that she can just disappear with the kid and he not being able to see her.
There's been developments in this case.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Well, this is what's incredible. He didn't have to wait very long. A couple of days after we did the story, Vivian's father and his father called him and said we want you, Wendell, to fly back down to the FLDS headquarters in Colorado City, fly to St. George, Utah. We will take you into town. We want to show you something.
He thought that it might be a reunion with his wife and son. He was brought into an auto repair shop with his father and in the auto repair shop walks in his wife, Vivian, his son Levi.
He says to his wife, he says, I love you. There are other people with the church standing around. She's very cold to him. He's immediately heartbroken about this.
She says why are you filing this lawsuit against Warren Jeffs? Please don't file this lawsuit. Why are you harassing the prophet? He said listen, I just want to be with my son. I want to be with you. She says, this isn't your son because we're not married in the eyes of the state. We're only married in the eyes of the church. He said, no matter what, it's still my son, whether we're married or not. She says, I disagree. And ultimately, she and her son walked out of the house.
And once again, he doesn't know where they are and he's continuing with his lawsuit.
COOPER: Unbelievable. It's just incredible that can happen.
Gary, appreciate that. Thanks.
We'll keep you updated on that.
Still ahead on 360, the death photos of Princess Diana. Should they be shown? A new documentary plans to do just that and the royal family is fighting mad.
Plus, it is back to rehab for Lindsay Lohan, her second time this year. For a lot of celebrities, of course, rehab means living in the lap of luxury. We'll take you inside to show you what it's like, next on 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Lindsay Lohan, by all accounts, passed out in the backseat of an SUV. Maybe it's the front seat -- hard to tell. These photos, shot just a couple days after she crashed her Mercedes and got hit with a DUI. Lindsay's dad, who did time himself for fraud and drunk driving says maybe now she'll get the help she needs. Lindsay Lohan is back in rehab tonight.
You might ask where some -- someone as rich and famous as Lohan goes to actually try to kick a bad habit.
Entertainment Correspondent Brooke Anderson takes a look at what you might call luxury detox.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Surfing. Massages. Gourmet meals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two balconies up here.
ANDERSON: Luxurious accommodations.
You may think this is a posh resort, but in fact, this is drug and alcohol rehab, Malibu style.
21-year-old Scott Young is nearing the end of his 30-day stay at Passages Addiction Cure Center.
SCOTT YOUNG, RECOVERING ADDICT: I ended up smoking pot and drinking when I was like 10 years old, 11 years old, and ever since then it's just progressed, using heroin, crack, cocaine, drinking when I couldn't get those things. I spent two months in jail before I came here. It's been a long journey for me.
ANDERSON: This is Scott's fifth or sixth time in a rehab. His first in the lap of luxury. A family friend picked up the tab this time because a stay at Passages isn't cheap at nearly $70,000 a month.
Meet Concetta Bruce, a 43-year-old mother who extended her stay to two months. Her parents are pick up the whopping $135,000 bill.
(on camera): What does your family think about you being here? Because from the outside, boy, it looks like a five-star resort.
CONCETTA BRUCE, PASSAGES PATIENT: They all said, we want to go. You know, we would like to go. They realize that in order to get here, I had to be in a really dark place. And I don't think anybody would want to change places with me, to go through the darkness to get to this place.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Concetta says she's been in and out of rehabs over the years, struggling with everything from an eating disorder to gambling, abusing alcohol and methamphetamines, even attempting suicide. Before getting help this time, Concetta became isolated from her family.
BRUCE: It's, you know, four intensive hours a day of therapists, one-on-one, which I really felt I needed to -- to be able to get to the core issues.
ANDERSON: Passages is very different from your average rehab. With less focus on group therapy and more focus on one-on-one treatment. Which Concetta and Scott allowed us to witness.
YOUNG: Putting the toxins and the poisons into my body, it really, it didn't affect me at all. And it just -- it just numbed me to having to feel all of this, this self-hate and misery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're accepting yourself right now without judgment. And accepting your emotions right now. It's pretty cool.
ANDERSON (on camera): Chris Prentiss and his son, Pax, a former heroin and cocaine addict, founded Passages six years ago based on the tools they say helped Pax become sober.
Why the gourmet chefs? Why the massage therapists? Is that necessary?
CHRIS PRENTISS, PASSAGES ADDICTION CURE CENTER: It's not necessary in a way, but in another way, it is. Because this is a healing center. The people who want to come to this program expect to be in a nice surrounding.
ANDERSON: Nearly $70,000 a month?
C. PRENTISS: Yes.
ANDERSON: Why so expensive?
C. PRENTISS: Because it's one-on-one treatment, because it's in a $22 million estate, because there's 100 people who work here to take care of 29 clients. It just -- it's an expensive program to put on.
ANDERSON (voice-over): The Prentiss duo claim a success rate of better than 80 percent, and even wrote a book about their unconventional approach.
They reject the decades-old 12-step program and proudly defy scientific studies about addiction.
(on camera): Doctors, scientists, say addiction is a disease. You say it's not?
PAX PRENTISS, PASSAGES ADDICTION CURE CENTER: I know it's not.
C. PRENTISS: That's correct. That's correct. We know it's not.
People do not use drugs and alcohol because they have a disease in their brain. People use drugs and alcohol because of heartbreak, because of loneliness, because of stress, because of anxiety, because of peer pressure, because of childhood problems, rape, incest, brutality, abandonment, guilt, things they've done to others.
ANDERSON: When you send patients home, what do you say to them?
P. PRENTISS: You're cured.
C. PRENTISS: Totally cured, 100 percent.
BRUCE: I can't wait to, you know, have my -- the rest of my life unfold. And it's going to be wonderful.
YOUNG: I'm definitely capable of growing out there just like I am in here.
ANDERSON (voice-over): While the Passages' to treatment may be debatable, hope is never questioned.
Brooke Anderson, CNN, Malibu, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: An upcoming TV special on Princess Diana is sparking outrage in Great Britain. The documentary marks the tenth anniversary of her death and it contains photos of Diana as she lay dying in the crashed car. Critics say showing the photos is insensitive to Diana's sons, Princes William and Harry. The photos have never been publicly shown in England, but they were published in an Italian magazine.
Just ahead, what could possibly have caused a mother in Texas to apparently hang her young daughters and then herself? A horrible crime scene with no easy answers.
Plus, he's climbed the world's highest mountains and now he's working just as hard to keep them clean. The hero who treks for trash. His story just ahead on 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: I want you to meet a guy named Ken Noguchi. He's a mountain climber from Japan. He's also one of the CNN heroes. And the honor has a lot to do with garbage. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEN NOGUCHI, CNN HERO: Before I was known for being the youngest one to climb the highest peaks. But recently people say, oh, it's the garbage guy.
(BEGIN GRAPHIC)
Thousands of pounds of trash litter Mt. Everest and Mr. Fuji each year ... including oxygen tanks, batteries, medical waste, food containers, and tires.
(END GRAPHIC)
NOGUCHI: I started picking up trash on Everest eight years ago.
My name is Ken Noguchi and I (UNINTELLIGIBLE) clean the mountain.
(BEGIN GRAPHIC)
Ken Noguchi
"Defending the Planet" NOGUCHI: When I first climbed Mt. Everest, it was full of garbage, especially Japanese garbage (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Many European (UNINTELLIGIBLE) reproached me, saying you Japanese have bad manners. I really felt terrible.
It's obviously Japanese garbage. Anyone can see that.
So I thought if it's so obvious, we should clean it up.
Cleaning Everest is especially tough. Many times I thought I would quit because it was so hard. But if I stop, all I've endured loses its meaning.
On Mt. Fuji we clean year round. First, we teach the volunteers how to separate for recycling. But then the important thing is to explain to them why we are picking up the garbage.
When I find this dangerous garbage, I fear the sense of crisis firsthand. I do this because it's my social responsibility.
(BEGIN GRAPHIC)
Noguchi and his team have collected nearly 8 tons of garbage from Mt. Everest ... and, with volunteers, more than 200 tons of trash from Mt. Fuji.
(END GRAPHIC)
NOGUCHI: With such a mission, rather than doing it quietly, it is bettor advertise. So if I become a hero and lots of people start coming, then being a hero is a good thing, isn't it?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: There's a lot more about Ken Noguchi and his organization on our Web site. For the details, go to CNN.com/heroes.
Coming up, it was a rally for immigration rights that ended in chaos as rubber bullets were fired into a crowd. Now L.A.'s chief of police is speaking out. We'll tell you what he has to say.
Plus, is it real or photo magic? The boy who allegedly bagged a monster pig -- that's right. He tells his story to CNN. Hear it for yourself, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: A quick check of the headlines with Erica Hill with a 360 bulletin -- Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, a gruesome discovery in Hudson Oaks, Texas. A young mother apparently hanged three of her small daughters and herself in a closet. A fourth child was also found dangling, but that 8-month-old baby managed to survive. She's now in good condition at a hospital. Police believe the woman may have been depressed. In Los Angeles, Police Chief William Bratton says that quote, "Command and control breakdown led to chaos at an immigration reform rally at the beginning of the month." Nearly 100 people have complained of mistreatment by officers who had fired rubber bullets into the crowd. Bratton today saying problems in the planning stages for the event created a domino effect that led to police failures at the rally.
One of the three former Duke University LaCrosse players cleared of rape charges will be transferring to another school. Read Seligman (ph) said he's going to Brown University this fall and he's going to play LaCrosse there. All charges against Seligman (ph) and his former teammates were dropped last month.
And finally, we have an update for you on that monster pig that became our shot of the day on Friday.
COOPER: Oh, thank goodness.
HILL: Yes. OK. So you remember this.
COOPER: I've been wondering about that. Yes.
HILL: Well, luckily I'm here for you. 11-year-old Jamison Stone, of course, claimed to have shot and killed a wild hog that his dad said weighed more than 1,100 pounds. Some people, though, doubting the story, including several newsrooms across the country. But today Jamison talked about his prize on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMISON STONE, KILLED 1,000 POUND HOG: And we saw it and, man, it was looked like a hippopotamus. It was huge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you think when you saw it?
STONE: I said, man I hope I hit this thing so it doesn't run at me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: So, Anderson, sticking by the story there, I don't know if you're convinced.
COOPER: That's...
(CROSSTALK)
HILL: That's his story and he's sticking to it.
COOPER: That's a big pig.
HILL: It is a big pig.
COOPER: Yes.
HILL: And his dad's sticking by him, too. I mean, you wouldn't think he'd teach his kid to lie so.
COOPER: If he's lying, he's getting deeper and deeper into it.
HILL: Ain't that the truth? They say they're going to make 700 pounds of boar sausage.
COOPER: Mmmm. That's good eatin'.
HILL: Indeed it is.
COOPER: Erica, thanks.
HILL: Bye.
COOPER: I'd like to get me some of that boar sausage. I'd like to try that.
Don't miss the day's headlines or the 360 daily podcast. You don't need an iPod. You can watch it on your computer at CNN.com/AC360podcast. Woosh. And get the cool sound effects all for free. Go to iTunes.
Now here's Kiran Chetry with what's coming up tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING."
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tomorrow, on "AMERICAN MORNING," a way to track your every move. Every purchase, every stop on your commute, with photos and satellite confirmation, available live on the Internet as it's happening.
We're going to meet a man who designed it. He says it's to protect himself. We're going to show you tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING," beginning at 6:00 a.m., Eastern.
Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: Kiran, I'm shuffling the paper. So it's almost time to go.
Our international viewers will be watching "CNN TODAY," coming up next.
Here in America, "LARRY KING" is coming up.
Thanks for watching. I'll see you back tomorrow night.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com