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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Robert Durst Officially Charged with First-Degree Murder; 20- Year-Old From St. Louis Area Charged in Shooting of Two Officers; Rape Kits Go Untested for Years; British Teenagers Attempt to Join ISIS. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired March 16, 2015 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
<20:00:00> JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The spacecraft took off, after Putin was abducted by the UFO, peace and calm came over the earth. But knowing Putin, he would have been riding that spaceship.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, OUTFRONT: All I'll say is, his face in that appearance today, it looked puffy.
"AC 360" starts now.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good evening. Thanks for joining us.
We begin tonight with breaking news. Robert Durst has officially been charged with first-degree murder, a charge that makes him eligible for the death penalty. That is the latest development in a case that is so full of drama and tragedy, the fact that he was arrested over the weekend in connection with the cold case murder of his friend 15 years ago, isn't even the most extraordinary detail to come out in just the last few hours and days.
For more than three decades, there have been questions about this man, Durst, the millionaire son of a New York million real estate mogul. Questions about whether he had anything to do with the disappearance of his wife in 1982, about whether he killed his friend in 2000, just days before she was going to be interviewed by investigators. And about why he was acquitted in the 2001 murder of his neighbor in Texas, even though he admitted to shooting the man and then dismembering him.
Durst has never been convicted in these cases. The questions never answered. Last night the season finale of an HBO documentary series called "the Jinx" aired. Its last scene was Durst in the bath room that allegedly after being interviewed, still with his microphone on, talking to himself after the filmmaker showed him evidence that seemed to implicate him in his friend's death. Here's what that microphone captured.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did I do? Killed them all, of course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: What did I do? Killed them all, of course. Durst's attorney said on FOX News today that people say things under their breath that they don't mean. Again, that episode aired just last night on HBO, just a day after Durst was arrested in New Orleans. He was in court today. Jean Casarez joins me now live with the latest.
So this murder charge that was just filed, what are you learning?
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they just filed it, as you said, minutes ago. It really shows the state of mind of the Los Angeles county district attorney's office. They want Robert Durst extradited now to California. But they also allege some special circumstances. And Anderson, under California law, you have to have special circumstances if you want this to be a death penalty case.
Number one, they say murdering a witness. Now, we have heard for a long time that New York authorities were just about to come to Los Angeles to interview Susan Berman, who is the woman that was killed in the year 2000, to interview her about the disappearance of Durst's wife. Before the Los Angeles investigators got there, she was dead.
Number two, the Los Angeles district attorney's office is saying that he was lying in wait. In other words, he was waiting, lying in wait, premeditating to kill Susan Berman, very serious special circumstances. And the L.A. district attorney's office says that potentially this is a death penalty case. They will determine later. But they want him, and they want him now.
Anderson, I want to tell you, this is the hotel right behind me where he was arrested on Saturday night. And a law enforcement source close to CNN just confirmed that when he was arrested, they found a large amount of cash in his room. They found a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver, and an amount of marijuana which may lead to why the prosecutor said in court today that before he's extradited to California, they may want to bring some local charges. The defense said they're very upset about this. They want to give him to California. We can see now so does the Los Angeles county district attorney.
COOPER: Do we know why this arrest happened now because authorities have been investigating him for quite some time in connection with the case. The movie brings out an interesting number of details. One, that he probably confided in Susan Berman, perhaps details of his wife's disappearance which has never been solved. Perhaps she was having money troubles. And he felt she might sell his story, or give his story up to investigators. And also, a letter was sent, an anonymous letter was sent to police
saying that there was a cadaver at her house. And that's what actually led police to go and find her body. The writing on that letter appears to match the writing on a letter Robert Durst had sent her previously that these filmmakers discovered. But do we know why authorities moved in now?
CASAREZ: Well, I think the defense would say its all timing. Because of this HBO documentary, that's why he's arrested now. And it's unfair and it's unconstitutional. But the other side is, a law enforcement source has told CNN that they were tracking Robert Durst, they won't say how, but they believe that he was about to leave the country bound from New Orleans to Cuba. And they say that last week he drove from Houston to New Orleans, last Tuesday, March 10th, checked into this hotel, and was making plans to leave the United States.
<20:05:17> COOPER: The other question, of course, and we don't know the answer to this, is do investigators have more information. Have they been able to collect more information? Because in the past, they were only able to show that Durst had flown to California. They couldn't necessarily show that he was in Los Angeles at the time of Susan Berman's murder.
Jean, appreciate the update there.
Durst's arrest is just the latest development in what is - I mean, it's an understatement to say it's a long history of bizarre disguises, fake names, rumors of ne nefarious activity and now a new capital murder charge.
Kyung Lah now has the background.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he has the ability to be a sociopath, but I think he's also a narcissist. If you put the two together, it's you know, it's basically the bottom of the barrel.
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jim McCormack mincing no words about Robert Durst. They were brothers-in-law, Durst marrying his baby sister, Cathy McCormack. Jim McCormack said his sister wrote in her journal that she feared her husband, that he abused her. She was planning to divorce him. January 1982, they have a fight and she vanishes. Immediately McCormack suspects Durst. We spoke last week, just two days before Durst's arrest.
MCCORMACK: There is too many, you know, subtle clues and bits of circumstantial evidence that were getting up to a preponderance of you are guilty.
LAH: One of those subtle clues, Durst takes four days to report her missing to now retired NYPD homicide detective Mike Struck. Struck never nails his prime suspect.
MIKE STRUCK, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: It keeps coming back to the fact that we never found her body. We never had a crime scene.
LAH: No evidence.
STRUCK: No evidence. No crime scene.
LAH: The case grows cold until 2000, when investigators reopen it. This time, the millionaire flees New York to this rundown apartment in Galveston, Texas, hiding out, cross-dressing and posing as a mute woman. For months he's speaking to virtually no one except this woman, Susan Berman. Durst and Berman were decades-long friend. She was his confidant, corresponding by letter and phone. New York investigators decide to interview her. But before she could be questioned, around Christmas 2000, someone shoots Berman execution style in her Beverly Hills home. The killer sends police this anonymous handwritten note obtained and shown in the HBO docu-series "the Jinx." The note list Berman's address and one word, cadaver.
When she died, what did you think?
MCCORMACK: In my heart, I thought, Bob is eliminating the witnesses. And people who have knowledge of Kathy's passing.
LAH: In "the Jinx," a new stunning revelation by the stepson of Susan Berman. In a storage box, the step son comes across a letter Durst sent to Berman shortly before she died. Durst's handwriting, the killer's note to police, they bear remarkable similarities down to the misspelling of Beverly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The address on the front is exactly like the cadaver note.
LAH: Remember, Durst is living as a mute woman in Texas. But police are able to track him to California at the time of Berman's death. So what, says Durst on "the Jinx?"
MCCORMACK: California's a big state.
LAH: Police never managed to place him at Berman's house at the time of her murder. The house has changed over the years, but the mystery persists. Susan Berman's murder remains unsolved and the man police suspect most still free.
Death continues millionaire. Less than a year later, October 2001, at Durst's Texas apartment building, his neighbor, Morris Black, goes missing. Black's dismembered body parts begin washing ashore in Galveston bay, 22 of them, a torso, limbs, but no head.
STRUCK: The fact that the head never showed up, that's his home run. That's his luck process.
LAH: And that ghoulish luck actually becomes his legal defense. Durst admits he chopped up black's body, but only after shooting Black in the head in self-defense. No head, no bullet, the jury buy it is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Robert Durst, not guilty.
LAH: Do you think he's Teflon?
MCCORMACK: No. No. I think he's been well protected by others and enabled by others financially.
LAH: Are the walls coming in on Robert Durst?
MCCORMACK: I would think so.
LAH: In the final episode of "the Jinx," Robert Durst is presented with a close match between his handwriting and the killer's.
On camera he appears un-phased. He then walks away to the restroom his mic still on. The camera records as he talks to himself.
<20:10:07> UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here it is. I killed them all, of course.
LAH: Killed them all, of course. Do you have hope?
MCCORMACK: I have a lot of hope. I think Kathy's coming home is a good way to describe it. Kathy will come home.
LAH: Is this the closest you've felt to that over the years?
MCCORMACK: Yes.
LAH: Retired cop, Mike Struck, also carries that hope that the elusive justice he sought will finally arrive. But he warns, do not underestimate Robert Durst.
STRUCK: I think they'll hopefully pull it out.
LAH: If they don't, will you be surprised?
STRUCK: No. Bob Durst seems to be a lucky guy. Some walk free from it. It kind of sucks, but it's the truth.
LAH: Families in multiple states searching for their truth for decades, hope that luck may have finally run out.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: It's unbelievable case. Kyung joins us now.
There was another bizarre incident involving Robert Durst last year in Houston. What happened there?
LAH: A very bizarre case, and really unexplainable as far as we can tell. He went to a drugstore in Houston, a CVS, and for some reason exposed himself and he chose to urinate in the candy aisle. We don't know exactly why. We do know he ended up paying a fine, $500. His attorney at the time alluded to medical issues.
Here's the important takeaway. That attorney is also his defense attorney in this case, in Los Angeles. Will that medical issue resurface? At this point, Anderson, we just don't know. We'll have to see what happens with the extradition.
COOPER: I mean, I watched his documentary, I think in six parts. To say the least, he is a complex character, and that's being polite.
Kyung, thanks very much.
You heard from former NYPD detective Mike Struck in Kyung's reporting, he joins me now.
Detective, thanks for being with us. You investigated the disappearance of Kathleen Durst back in 1982, a still an unsolved case. What do you make of all this? The arrest, the stunning remarks that Durst made on tape in the final moments of the documentary, did you see this coming?
STRUCK: First of all, hello, Anderson. And thank you for having me. Did I expect it? I was hoping something like this would take place. He's been -- Bob Durst has been very fortunate in his travels especially being linked to these three episodes, with --
COOPER: Well, that's the thing.
STRUCK: With Kathy missing.
COOPER: As a police officer, have you ever heard of somebody linked to three separate -- I mean, a disappearance and two separate murders, one murder we know he committed. It was just declared self-defense even though he chopped up the body afterward. I mean, and I think someone might have said this in the film, he's either the unluckiest guy in the world, or you know, there's -- it's not a coincidence.
STRUCK: No. I think he's the luckiest guy in the world. Basically up until two days ago, if you look at the Galveston case --
COOPER: That's where he dismembered somebody.
STRUCK: That's correct. They found the majority of the body parts, but they never found the skull. If they found the skull, or the head, so to say, a terminal ballistic examination probably would have determined the trajectory of the bullet into the head and it would have refuted the, probably, the defense case with their self-defense issue that they raised in the Galveston trial. If the bullet is coming in from the back of the head, or top of the head or some any other angle that is not consistent with an altercation, I think that would have sent him into the can.
COOPER: And that, what's incredible about that is, and again, this came out in the film, and it's at least according to some theories, is that after throwing the body parts, which were put in garbage bags, into the bay in Galveston, he actually went back and fished around and got the head, and it's unclear whatever happened with the head, at least that's one theory. That he actually went back because the body parts started to wash ashore and he realized how important the head would be. What kind of a guy is he? I mean, in your interactions with him, is he as odd as he appears on camera? STRUCK: Yes, he is. He's a strange individual. To say that he's
bizarre, I think is an understatement. So the fact of him returning to the crime scene or at least to the bay and retrieving a head, if that is true in fact, I don't put that past him. I don't think anybody should be fooled by the fact that he stutters and blinks and appears to be nervous. I consider him a very cold and calculating individual. He's a lot smarter than people think.
<20:15:04> COOPER: Mike Struck, listen. I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you very much. It's just an incredible development just in the last 24 - in the last 10 or 12 hours.
Up next, much more on the Robert Durst case. Will what he said in that bathroom, well, as stunning as it is, will it actually be admissible in court.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)
COOPER: Killed them all, of course.
Also ahead, an arrest in the shootings of two police officers in Ferguson, what the suspect is saying, what police has to say about his comments, next.
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COOPER: Breaking news tonight. Robert Durst has been charged with the murder of his friend Susan Berman back in 2000. The latest development, decades of questions about his involvement to her death, the disappearance of his wife, and the killing of his neighbor in Texas, a case in which he was acquitted because of self defense.
Now, last night a bombshell in the HBO documentary series "the Jinx," new evidence and what some take as a confession by Durst muttering to himself in a bathroom, apparently unaware his mic was still recording.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT DURST, MURDER SUSPECT: What the hell did I do? I killed them all, of course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Now, the question to add to the pile of questions in this case is whether that recording would even be admissible in court.
Randi Kaye reports on other cases with similar issues.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A victim's own words weren't enough to make it into the O.J. Simpson trial back in 1994. Just nine days before she was slashed to death, Nicole Brown Simpson wrote in her diary about threats from her husband. She wrote, when she was pregnant, O.J. demanded she have an abortion and pointed a gun at her. Prosecutors said it showed a pattern of abuse. But Judge Lance Ito ruled her journal were inadmissible hearsay.
<20:20:00> UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: O.J. Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder --
KAYE: O.J. Simpson was acquitted.
When George Zimmerman was on trial for killing Trayvon Martin in 2012, an audio recording of the struggle between the two was played in court. Listen carefully as it was captured in a 911 call.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it a male or female?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It sounds like a male.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't know why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know why. I think they're yelling help. But I don't know.
KAYE: The judge allowed that, but refused to let a forensic voice analyst testify who believed Trayvon Martin could be heard on the tape saying, stop. Also in this case, the judge refused to allow Trayvon Martin's text messages about marijuana and a gun into evidence. The defense argued Martin's text the day of the shooting show the teenager was in a hostile mood, but the judge still rejected them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have no further business with the court.
KAYE: George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the teenager's death.
Remember Casey Anthony's trial following her daughter's 2008 disappearance? Her defense team argued these pictures of Anthony going clubbing while her daughter Caylee was missing, should not be shown in court. The defense said the pictures vilified Casey, portraying her as party girl. The judge allowed the pictures in court.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Juror number 12 (INAUDIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
KAYE: Still, in the end, Casey Anthony was acquitted of murder.
Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, there's plenty to talk about tonight with our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin and Mark Geragos.
Jeff, first of all, do you buy the timing of the arrest only hours before the season's finale was just of coincidence? Could the director of the movie said they gave the audio to the California authorities many months ago and the filmmakers had actually, they claimed hoped Durst would be arrested sooner.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Did you ask me?
COOPER: Yes, Jeff.
TOOBIN: I don't know. But surely, the film had a lot to do with this. Remember, this is a story about a competent journalist, and incompetent police across three states. So the fact that the LAPD and the L.A. district attorney's office is whining or saying things that, we had him all along, where the heck have they been for the past few decades?
I mean, the fact is, Andrew (INAUDIBLE) broke this case, and the police are finally catching up. Thanks to these filmmakers' outstanding work.
COOPER: That's who Andrew (INAUDIBLE).
Now, Mark, the two big pieces of I guess evidence to be considered by the court, one is this handwriting sample, which matches the anonymous note that was written to police after Susan Berman was found, saying, go to that address, there's a cadaver there. You know, according to their handwriting analyst and just about everybody, it looks the same. Is that admissible? Is that real science? And then there's also the question about the audiotape.
MARK GERAGOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the audiotape, I think, is going to come in. What it actually means, that will be up to Dick Degaren to talk about. And I think he's going to have a field day with the idea that it wasn't an answer in response to a question, which is meaningless.
The other piece of evidence is more troubling. I've actually defended a case where ironically enough, it was the prosecution argued the same thing, this Beverley Hills in a particular way that it was spelled was damning evidence against the accused. So that is going to be something that I think is a much more meddlesome than the audiotape, believe it or not.
COOPER: Jeff, I know have doubt, Dick Degaren by the way is the attorney who represented Durst, and got Durst a plea bargain.
GERAGOS: Acquitted.
COOPER: Yes, acquitted -- not a plea bargain, but on self-defense, even though after killing this guy in Texas, in Galveston, he chopped him up and threw his body parts in the water and then went on the run. Jeff, you have a problem with the handwriting analysis?
TOOBIN: Well, the only thing I have a problem with is the way it was characterized in the film. The expert in the film said, it's definitely the same person. Handwriting analysis is not DNA. It is not the kind of science that can be rigorously tested. All you can say is that the handwriting is consistent with one another. And the jurors can make up their own minds.
GERAGOS: Exactly right.
TOOBIN: It certainly looks like the same person. But I just object to the use of certainty, when it's an uncertain science.
COOPER: Wait, Jeff, I do want to tell everyone what we're looking at on the screen, those are the two versions of the words Beverley Hills, which are spelled wrong. One of those was written by Robert Durst on his stationery to Susan Berman when he sent her a letter. The other was written anonymously, dropped off in the post box, ended up with police informing them that there's a cadaver at her house, informing police to go there. And I mean, again, to most of our viewers, I mean, I think and surely to me, it looks exactly alike. But Jeff, you were going to say about the audio?
<20:25:02> TOOBIN: Well, I was just going to say about the tape in the bathroom, the audio in the bathroom. That is definitely admissible. You know, he has no expectation of privacy against a journalist. That whole theory of law enforcement -- of the constitution is that you have an expectation of privacy under certain circumstances when you're dealing with the police. But here he's dealing with filmmakers. The police are not involved at all.
Second, he's wearing a microphone. You can't have an expectation of privacy when you're wearing a microphone. So, yes, he maybe forgot. But that's not good enough. Sure, the defense can argue that it's not a confession, by the way, good luck with that, but it's certainly going to be admissible.
COOPER: Although Mark, I don't know about good luck with that. I mean, first of all, Degaren, the attorney, who got him the self- defense ruling --
GERAGOS: MCCORMICK: The acquittal.
COOPER: -- the acquittal in Galveston, I mean, just let's think about that. Robert Durst killed somebody, chopped him up, threw his body parts in the water, then went on the run and the jury was convinced it was self-defense.
GERAGOS: Right. Anderson, I was going to say the same thing. If you're given a set of facts here, one is where they can't even prove that he's in Beverly Hills or that part of the state on the day that the murder happened. The other one where you've admitted to dismembering -- shooting and dismembering somebody, I'm going to run with the case where he's -- they can't even prove he was in Beverly Hills.
COOPER: Right. And he's mumbling under his breath. I mean, watching it, I was like, he just confessed. But then in a courtroom, he's mumbling under his breath.
GERAGOS: Well, Anderson.
COOPER: Yes.
GERAGOS: You also showed prior to us getting up here, the package about him urinating in a convenience store --
COOPER: The candy aisle. GERAGOS: The candy aisle, things like that. Look, if you don't think
that somebody's going to start talking about, Degaren's not going to have a field day with some of these things, and the fact that he's got maybe early onset of some mental issues, I think you're ignoring reality. And Dick Degaren is an accomplished lawyer. He is going to have a field day with that.
COOPER: Yes. Mark Geragos, Jeff Toobin, we got to go. But it is just a fashion these days, not the last time we are going to talk about it.
Just ahead, an arrest and the shooting that tensions in Ferguson, Missouri police say this man, a 20-year-old, has admitted he fired the shots that struck two officers.
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<20:31:14> COOPER: A 20-year-old man from the St. Louis area has been charged in the shootings of two officers outside the Ferguson police station. Police say Jeffrey Williams confessed.
The shots caught on video there were fired as protesters were demonstrating outside the station. As you know, two officers were wounded. Neither worked for the Ferguson police force. Witnesses say the shots appeared to come from a hill in the distance. Ed Lavandera has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The gunfire set off a frenzy of fear just outside the Ferguson police department. Now prosecutors say Jeffrey Williams admits he fired the shots that wounded two police officers during protests last week. But the 20-year-old insists he wasn't aiming at officers. Prosecutors say Williams might have been shooting at someone else in the crowd. But Williams' attorney tells CNN police have arrested the wrong person.
JERRYL CHRISTMAS, ATTORNEY: Any statements that he made, I'm not confident that those were voluntary statements. One thing that I can be clear, from my conversation with him, was that this was no police ambush. As it was stated earlier. There was no intent of any to target out any police. And that he's not part of the protest community.
LAVANDERA: But prosecutors say they found a 40 caliber handgun inside Williams' home that matched shell casings found at the shooting scene. Prosecutors have charged Williams with two counts of first-degree assault and firing a weapon from a vehicle, as well as three counts of armed criminal activity. Williams was already on probation on a charge stemming from receiving stolen property. The St. Louis County prosecutor is skeptical of Williams' story.
ROBERT MCCULLOCH, ST. LOUIS COUNTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: He may have had a dispute with some other individuals, or felt some dispute. We're not sure we completely buy that part of it. LAVANDERA: The prosecutor says investigators are still trying to
interview witnesses and learn more about the altercation which led to the shots being fired. Bishop Robinson, who has been heavily involved in the Ferguson protest movement, also accuses law enforcement officials of mistreating Williams since he was arrested Saturday night.
BISHOP DERRICK ROBINSON, FERGUSON PROTEST ORGANIZER: He was brutally beaten by the police, and he was sore, still had bruises all around his neck, his back and his entire body. And also, was denied medical attention. And also, he was placed in isolation when he asked for medical attention.
LAVANDERA: Monday, the St. Louis County police department called the allegations completely false. And added in a statement that every person who enters justice services is seen by a nurse, who evaluates each inmate to see if they are fit for confinement. The nurse released Williams as fit for confinement.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Ed joins us now from Ferguson. What's the mood been like since last week's police shootings? Are there still protests?
LAVANDERA: The protests lasted for a few more days. Out here tonight, Anderson, it's quiet. It's really slowed down dramatically since last Wednesday when the police chief announced his resignation. And obviously all the chaos we saw last week, but so far tonight, out here, very quiet.
COOPER: Ed, thanks very much.
Just ahead tonight, justice delayed. A rapist whose DNA is turning up in a huge backlog of untested rape kits aren't getting prosecuted for lack of money.
Plus, dramatic video of baby Lily's rescue, showing step by step how the rescuers found her inside that overturned car. Can you hear the mystery voice that they say called out for help?
20:34:32
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
20:38:12
COOPER: Welcome back. At a state police lab in Maryland, Vice President Joe Biden announced $41 million of new funding to help clear a huge backlog of untested rape kits nationwide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT: If we're able to test these rape kits, more crimes could be solved, more crimes could be prevented, and more women would be given back their lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We've been reporting on this issue for years. Nationwide, there are more than 400,000 sexual assault kits that have never been tested. 400,000 instances where women have gone through the humiliating process of providing DNA samples for investigators after allegedly being sexually assaulted, only to have those samples sit unused and uninvestigated. Imagine how that would feel. Obviously the new funding can't come soon enough, but it will not guarantee the rapists will go to prison. In Detroit, for instance, another backlog is growing, another one just as maddening. The cash strapped city has run out of money to actually prosecute suspects. Here's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: January 23rd, 2011, the night Paula Perry thought would be her last.
PAULA PERRY, RAPE SURVIVOR: I was so afraid that he might try to do something else, like kill me.
KAYE: It was about 5:30 in the evening. Paula was on her way to the post office. She was walking down this street when she says her attacker pulled up alongside her, telling her he had just been released from prison. That's when she says he jumped out of his car, pulled his pants down, and exposed himself. Paula froze. Next thing she knew, she was in the man's car.
PERRY: He parked his car in the alley. The next thing I know, he gets on top of me. I could not move. I remember the windows fogged.
KAYE: You must have been terrified.
PERRY: I was.
KAYE: Did you say to him, get off me?
PERRY: I just kept saying, please stop. Please stop.
20:40:08
KAYE: Paula says the man raped her repeatedly. Then by some miracle agreed to let her go. Shivering and alone, Paula made her way here to Henry Ford hospital. She told a nurse she had been raped and agreed to an exam. Doctors photographed and swabbed her, a humiliating experience, but necessary to collect evidence for a so-called rape kit.
Doctors collected DNA evidence so that the police could catch the man who raped her. She couldn't have been more wrong.
It turns out that rape kit, the one with the rock-solid evidence of who attacked her, just sat on a shelf. So did thousands. That's right, thousands of other rape kits in this warehouse. Never processed, never investigated, never any arrests.
KYM WORTHY, WAYNE COUNTY PROSECUTOR: You have women going through these four to ten-hour exams and have their evidence sitting on a shelf is just not right.
KAYE: Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy sounded the alarm on untested rape kits back in 2009. That's when her office discovered 11,341 untested rape kits in a city warehouse. The kits, they later realized, went back 30 years. All that time the women who the kits belonged to expected police to be using that evidence to help catch their attackers.
Detroit has completed testing on 2,000 of the rape kits. Another 8,000 are in the process of being tested. Of those that are done, Worthy says they've identified 188 serial rapists. 188. Sadly, she expects to find more.
WORTHY: Rapists rape on average of 11 times. So again, anytime you stop one rapist by getting their DNA into the database and being able to investigate and prosecute them, you're stopping many more rapes from occurring.
KAYE: It's all led to a unique and desperate situation. Cash- strapped Detroit has run out of money to take the next step, prosecute the rapists.
You heard right, they don't have enough money to keep these rapists off the street.
So Worthy's office, along with the Michigan Women's Foundation, and the Detroit Crime Commission, have started a new campaign called Enough Said. The goal is to raise $10 million. Detroit has already prosecuted 15 cases. But Worthy says she's expected to indict as many as 3,000 more men.
PERRY: It's morally degrading to have someone who assaults you, to rob of you of your dignity, your pride. And they just said, we'll put it on a shelf.
KAYE: Turns out Paula Perry's rape kit wasn't processed either. About nine months after she was raped, October 2011, a man matching her attacker's description was picked up in Ohio for attempted abduction. She identified him in a lineup. That's when she learned her rape kit had never been tested. While his DNA and Paula's kit sat on a shelf, Alondo Steel (ph) was out there, lurking, stalking, maybe even raping.
This guy was out there, continuing to assault people.
PERRY: Yes. Yes.
KAYE: And you had done a rape kit.
PERRY: Yes. And they just said, we'll just store it.
KAYE: Just went on a shelf.
PERRY: Yep. Just like the other kits.
KAYE: Two and a half years after she was raped, Paula finally met her attacker in court. And testified against him. He was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. At least her attacker is behind bars. But still, thousands of women in Detroit are left wondering if their case will ever be prosecuted.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: This is such an important story, Randi. It's just stunning that this happened. The thing is, Detroit and other cities, they've received federal money to fix this backlog before, right?
KAYE: They have. But it's still not enough. In December last year, Congress allocated $41 million. Now they're doing that again. Also in 2013, Michigan alone gave another $4 million to try and get these rape kits tested. But it costs about $1200 to $1500 to test each kit. And Detroit is broke. They've lost police officers, they have lost investigators. So to go back and do this and really reinvestigate the entire case, it takes a lot of money and a lot of time. And some of these cases, as I've mentioned, they go back 30 years. And before 2001, there was a statute of limitations on rape cases. That went away after 2001. But it's not retroactive. So a lot of these guys could remain on the street because they just simply can't prosecute them. So they're trying to move as quickly as they can, trying to get as many of these guys off the street.
COOPER: We've got to keep following this. This is such an important story. Randi, thank you very much.
KAYE: Thank you.
COOPER: Just ahead, rescuers say a voice called out for help as they ran toward the car overturned in the river. The toddler they found inside was unconscious. Her mother was dead. So whose voice did they hear? New body cam video is out now. Does it solve the mystery? We'll show it to you ahead.
20:44:55
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
20:48:30
COOPER: Tonight we have new video to show of you Lily Grossbeck, the Utah toddler who survived that harrowing car crash. Take a look.
That's Lily singing with her dad over the weekend. As you can see, she seems to be doing great. That fact, that she is alive, let alone apparently healthy after what she's been through, is incredible. Lilly, as you may remember, was trapped for 14 hours upside down after the car of her mom was driving plunged into a river. Her rescue was captured on a body cam worn by a rescue worker. We now know exactly how the rescue unfolded, with every second counting. This is the first time we've actually been able to see it. There's still an unsolved mystery, where was the cry for help that rescue workers swear they heard? Where did that cry actually come from?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: You're watching body cam footage from Officer Jared Warner of the Spanish Fork Police Department, speeding toward an emergency. A car is upside down in the Spanish Fork river, but the officers don't know if anyone is trapped inside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What have we got. What have we got.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get it?
COOPER: And then they think they hear a faint voice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get over here, Beddoes. We're coming! Better get down here and (inaudible).
COOPER: Officer Tyler Beddoes was also on the scene.
TYLER BEDDOES, SPANISH FORK POLICE: We heard someone saying help us, help us inside. So it was at that point that we said, we have to get in that car now. The four of us were able to push the car on its side.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on!
20:50:08
BEDDOES: That's when I looked inside and was able to see the child infant strapped in the back seat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, God, there's a baby in there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a baby.
COOPER: The baby is Lily Grossbeck. Her mother, Jennifer, is strapped in the front seat, submerged in water. Both had been there for 14 hours. Lily is upside down in her car seat above the water line. Despite hearing that voice, the first responders fear no one has survived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two on this side, one is on top of the other, but I think -- I think they are echo.
COOPER: Echo is a code at this police department for appears to be fatal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody got scissors?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got it? Pass her up! Pass her up! Pass her up! Right here!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, baby. She's definitely hypothermic. She's freezing.
COOPER: Officer Warner rushes Lily into a waiting ambulance and immediately starts life-saving measures.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you get a pulse?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't feel any.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, sweetie.
COOPER: For nearly six agonizing minutes, Officer Warner and the others worked to save Lily's life.
Lily survives. Her mother, Jennifer, died before help arrived, according to police. And with Lily only 18 months old and unconscious at the scene, officers wrestle with who called out to them for help.
BEDDOES: For two nights, I've laid awake trying to figure out exactly what it could be. All I know is it was there. And we all heard it. And that just helped us to push us harder and do what we could to rescue anyone inside the car.
COOPER: Whose voice was it? The officers can't say. But each is convinced they heard somebody calling for help.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Incredible to finally see that video from the body cam. I want to again show you the picture of Lily we got over the weekend of her and her dad. A lot of good work by a lot of brave officers.
Another group of teenagers arrested apparently trying to join ISIS. We'll have that story ahead. Plus, a popular megachurch pastor is asking for, get this, $60 million in donations for a new jet. The details next.
20:52:34
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
20:56:37
COOPER: Welcome back. Several British teenagers thought to be just steps away from crossing into Syria to join ISIS were stopped and sent home. Now they face terror charges. Brian Todd has more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A tense moment at the airport in Istanbul. Three teenage boys from northwest London grabbed by Turkish intelligence. They were moments away from trying to make their way to Syria, the British say, to commit terror.
HELEN BAILS, COUNTER TERRORISM SR. NATIONAL COORDINATOR: It was very fortunate that the families realized very quickly what had happened. That we had time to understand and work out their travel route.
TODD: It appears the boys had help from someone Turkish officials call suspicious. MUBIN SHAIKH, FORMER JIHADIST: It's a very good chance that the
individual is a fixer. They're known by the people who run the checkpoints on the road. That's what it comes down to. And, you know, a fee is, of course, passed off to the people on the checkpoints, and they're able to make their way. It happens all the time, every day.
TODD: In recent days, Turkish intelligence had apprehended this man, who they said was a fixer for three British school girls who made it into Syria to allegedly join ISIS. It turns out the man was a double agent, the Turks say, also working for a coalition country fighting against ISIS.
What attracts teenagers to this vicious, murderous band of terrorists? Analysts say for boys, the lure is adventure, and the jihadist ideology, mixed with some grievance they may have in their home countries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For girls, increasingly we're seeing romance as a pathway. Where they look at these fighters, they make for a dashing Che Guevara-like figures, and some of the girls have wanted to go over and marry these warriors on the battlefield.
PETER BERGEN, CNN ANALYST: The parents of these kids are often first generation immigrants. They don't really understand the Internet that well. They certainly don't understand, you know, the ins and outs of Youtube and Facebook and Twitter and all that.
TODD: The flow of teenagers from Britain is disturbing. An 18-year- old man was just arrested on suspicion of preparing to join ISIS. He was picked up before trying to leave his hometown of Birmingham, England. And there were the three teenage girls seen at the Turkish border in this new video, who got from Britain to Syria without their parents' knowledge. British officials say in the past year, 22 women and girls have been reported missing by families who fear they traveled to Syria.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The British definitely have a problem. They've been trying to look at ways that you can find the danger signs.
TODD: British Officials wouldn't comment when we asked them about the idea they may have a specific problem stopping teenagers from defecting to ISIS. But they are admitting they need help from parents. Police there have just launched a radio and TV ad campaign, targeting mothers in immigrant communities, pleading with them to talk to their children, especially their daughters, about the dangers of defecting to Syria. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: There's a lot more happening tonight. Amara Walker has a "360" news and business bulletin. Amara.
AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Anderson, at least 24 people are dead after cyclone Pam hit the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. In the capital, at least 90 percent of the homes are damaged or destroyed. And at the Boston bombing trial, three police officers involved in a
shootout with the Tsarnaev brothers in Watertown days after the attack, told jurors about a tense showdown, involving pipe bombs and a hail of bullets. They also said the defendant, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, tried to run them over, but instead hit his brother, killing him. Jurors and the defendant traveled offsite this morning to see the bullet-riddled Watertown boat he was captured in.
21:00:04
And a controversial megachurch pastor near Atlanta is praying followers will bless him with about $65 million in donations to buy a private jet.
