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Sheriff: "Person Of Interest" Helped Search For Missing TX Girl; Capital One Buying Discover In $35 Million Deal; Growing Debris Field In Earth's Orbit Worries Scientists; Police: Search Underway For American Woman Who Disappeared In Spain. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired February 20, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:52]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Some new details in the disappearance of an 11-year-old girl in Texas. The local sheriff says a man who originally helped search for her is now a "person of interest" in her disappearance.

Audrii Cunningham vanished on her way to the school bus stop on Thursday. Authorities say a 42-year-old family friend took Audrii to the bus stop -- or was supposed to take her to the bus stop that day, and that was the last time that anyone saw her.

We have CNN's Rosa Flores joining us now.

Rosa, tell us what else we are learning here?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, I talked to the sheriff. He actually took us to the location where authorities found one of the key pieces of evidence, the backpack that belonged to 11- year-old Audrii Cunningham.

It's an area that's near a dam by Lake Livingston. And according to the sheriff, the backpack was found on the riverbank. There was some debris there.

I asked the sheriff if there were signs of a struggle or blood or any DNA in the area or on the backpack. He said, no, that was not found there. That, of course, could provide some hope that Audrii is OK and this search continues.

The sheriff also sharing a key point in the timeline that investigators have. And that is, at what point they started seeing the person of interest, Don McDougal, the 42-year-old that is in custody right now on unrelated charges.

According to the sheriff, McDougal was knocking on doors on Thursday afternoon, that neighbors and witnesses told authorities that he was walking through the neighborhood asking where Audrii was, if she was OK.

And that is one of the biggest frustrations for the sheriff because he says that McDougal knows more information than he's telling law enforcement.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BYRON LYONS, SHERIFF, POLK COUNTY, TX, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: The missing part of is that Mr. McDougal will not stand up and tell us where our baby's at and give some peace. I truly believe that he knows where she's at.

[14:35:05]

FLORES: How big of a responsibility does that weigh on you to make sure that those charges stick once you do find the evidence to charge him or anybody, you know?

LYONS: It is a weight that is unbelievable. Most folks would never, ever feel the responsibility that a lot of -- that some of us have to bear.

FLORES: Have you cried over this?

LYONS: Several nights, several days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Been a very emotional time for the people of Livingstone and this entire county, Polk County.

Brianna, I should mention that the sheriff also said that McDougal was the last person to see Cunningham, that they left their home together.

And that Cunningham actually, at the home where she lives, that McDougal lives in a trailer behind the home. And so he says that McDougal is the last person to have seen Cunningham.

Now, we should make clear that McDougal has not been charged in connection with her disappearance. He is in custody on an unrelated aggravated assault with a deadly weapons charge.

And we've been trying to find an attorney that represents him or family to seek comments, and we have not been successful -- Brianna?

KEILAR: He has quite the rap sheet. That is raising a lot of questions as well.

Rosa Flores, thank you for that report from Polk County, Texas.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Now to some of the other headlines were watching this hour.

The Coast Guard is officially calling off the search for four boaters in Florida who never returned from their fishing trip over the weekend. Officials say that all four men were experienced fishermen and that

while seas weren't that rough, thick fog could have played a role in their disappearance.

Also, the Santa Barbara Airport is back open today after they experienced significant flooding yesterday. Officials say that, fortunately, there was no major damage. At least 35 million Californians still remain under a flood watch today, though.

A new study finds that women need less exercise to get the same cardiovascular benefits from working out as men.

According to the study published in the "Journal of the American College of Cardiology," men needed to work out 300 minutes a week to see their biggest health benefits. Women only needed to work out 140 minutes.

I couldn't think of a joke quickly enough to come up after that story, one that wouldn't get me in trouble.

Still to come, a major credit card merger. Capital One buying Discover. What this could mean for millions of borrowers.

Plus, efforts are now underway to clean up a big mess in outer space. More on NASA's new program to get rid of all that debris that's orbiting around the earth.

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[14:42:09]

SANCHEZ: Capital One is buying Discover Financial Services in a $35 million deal. If approved, it would bring together two of the largest credit card companies in the United States. Capitol One says the deal could close as early as this year.

Let's bring in CNN's business correspondent, Vanessa Yurkevich.

So, Vanessa, will cardholders feel anything different because of this merger?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Not just yet. But we heard from Capital One and Discover this morning in a conference call and they said that they were making this deal for three key reasons.

Capital One is about to acquire 300 million more customers and an international foothold. Discover card is widely accepted internationally because some of the lower merchant fees that they offer.

Also merchant fees are key here because Capital One only provides the credit card. They don't do the processing. Discover does do the processing. And they get all of those merchant fees. So Capital One, with this buying of Discover, is going to get a lot more revenue. And third, it's important to note that the credit card field is not that diverse right now. And now that you have two big juggernauts coming together, it's going to be a lot more competition. They believe that this is ultimately good for shareholders.

But, Boris, ultimately, the FTC, they have to approve this deal and that could take some time. Capital One optimistic that this deal will close at the end of this year, maybe early next year.

But government regulation, they're going to be the ones to really indicate whether or not this deal goes through -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Yes, regulators are going to look at every aspect of this still very close.

Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: When it comes to earth's orbit, the cosmic clutter has never been this bad. Old satellites fragments from rocket boosters and other man-made celestial scraps are part of a growing debris field that is circling the planet.

In fact, NASA experts say roughly 100 million pieces of space junk are hovering above our heads, well above our heads as we speak.

And we have CNN's chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, explaining why it's a problem and how it might be cleaned up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We all dropped things around the house.

PIERS SELLERS, ASTRONAUT: Guys, I think my spatula escaped.

WEIR: So, when astronaut Piers Sellers dropped a spatula while spreading putty on the space shuttle, it was relatable news.

SELLERS: I don't see it on me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. We'll take a look.

WEIR: But while a spatula in space was still novel in 2006, it seems quaint now. Because nearly 70 years after Sputnik, the moon holds tons of human trash. And the final frontier is filthy with rocket fumes and orbiting junk.

Check out this NASA time-lapse. Each dot, a manmade object bigger than a softball, flying 10 times faster than a bullet.

[14:45:02]

The Web site orbiting now is tracking over 8,300 satellites, most of them put there by private companies like SpaceX. And over time, they will only add to the hundred million tiny pieces of manmade debris in orbit.

(on camera): So behind us is the National Air and Space Museum. Do they have an exhibit on space junk? Is it time that we start paying attention?

RON LOPEZ, ASTROSCALE: There's been discussion about it. And it is time that we pay attention to the issue.

WEIR (voice-over): Ron Lopez heads the American branch of Astroscale, a Japanese entry into the growing field of orbital debris removal.

LOPEZ: The interesting metric is that, over the next 10 years, were going to launch three times as much into space as we have launched since Sputnik, since the beginning of the Space Age, three times as much in just the next ten years.

WEIR: While they're a long way from flying garbage trucks, Astroscale just launched a second test mission and funded only by private investment recently proved that they can use magnets to catch and potentially extend the lives of dying satellites.

In 2018, a team from the U.K. proved that space junk can be snared with a net, which helps with traffic control up there, but does nothing to stop dead satellites from burning into countless pieces of metal. Thrown-off remnants can stay in our skies for years.

(on camera): The launches are almost a weekly fear daily occurrence. Is that having an effect on the stratosphere?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. So as we see this increase in space traffic, we see significantly increased emissions. And that's something we've been talking about is adding a lot of material to the stratosphere that was never there before.

All of the sort of the mass of material that we put into space doesn't all just stay there. And when it is de-orbited, it basically acts and same way that a meteoroid does.

WEIR (voice-over): With special high-flying jets, a team from NOAA recently discovered that 10 percent of the particles in the stratosphere contain bits of rocket and satellite metal.

And in the next few decades, it could be 50 percent, matching the amount created naturally by meteorites.

Scientists worry that this could eventually alter earth's climate. So this summer, Japan and NASA aim to launch the world's first biodegradable satellite, made mostly from wood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Our thanks to Bill Weir for that report.

And still to come, an American woman visiting Spain has not been seen in weeks. Hear about the final text from her phone that could provide some clues in the search. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:52:03]

SANCHEZ: Spanish police are intensifying their search for a missing American woman who was last seen in Madrid two and a half weeks ago.

Strange details are emerging from around the time that she disappeared, including a suspicious text message she sent to a friend and evidence that someone had tampered with security cameras at her apartment building.

Journalist Al Goodman is in Madrid with the details.

Al, what are police saying about the investigation?

AL GOODMAN, CNN JOURNALIST: Hi Boris. Well, the police are not really commenting, but a government official says the Spanish police very much are investigating. And they have asked other countries now, authorities in other countries to provide information that might be pertinent to the case.

Now what we know is that Ana Maria was renting an apartment on the street behind me since early January. And she recently tried to extend that another month until March.

Around the time that she went missing was when that someone spraypainted black over the security cameras at the door, the front door just down the street and inside near the elevators, according to the building superintendent talking to CNN.

Her brother told CNN that Ana was going to take a train trip to Barcelona with a friend on February 5th, but she never showed up at the Madrid station.

So a missing persons report was filed later that day. And the police report has information about her, that she stands four feet, eight inches tall. She's thin and she requires medication. Those posters have been going up around the city.

Her Swedish friend said that around the time that Ana went missing, she sent a text message that you just mentioned, Boris.

And it says that Ana says she had met someone wonderful and that she was going to his country home near Madrid a few hours later and was going to spend a weekend, would call when she came back.

She said she had met the man the day before when he approached her when she was out walking on the streets. She said it was an amazing connection.

Now, the brother and the Swedish friend both told CNN independently they reached out to her husband. The couple are from south Florida and they have a computer services business there. But they said the husband said he was in Serbia. Now police searched the apartment early last week under a court order,

according to three sources to CNN. But, Boris, there are a lot more questions in this case right now than there are answers.

SANCHEZ: Yes. A lot of unanswered questions.

Al Goodman, thank you so much for the update.

Brianna?

KEILAR: The widow of slain Haitian president, Jovenel Moise, has just been charged in her husband's 2021 assassination. Martine Moise is among 50 others, including Haiti's former prime minister, indicted on murder conspiracy charges.

Haitian court documents released online by the judge investigating the case site claims that Mrs. Moise and others were plotting to take over the presidency from her husband.

CNN has reached out to confirm the authenticity of the documents.

[14:55:55]

President Moise was gunned down in his home after more than two dozen armed men from Colombia swarmed the presidential compound.

His wife was also shot multiple times and had serious injuries. Her lawyer denied the accusations, in a statement to CNN, calling them unjust.

And just ahead, the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos are children. So what does this mean for in vitro fertilization and families who may want to use it? We're going to explain the potential implications next hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[14:59:59]

SANCHEZ: President Biden wants his surrogates to take a different approach when it comes to the 2024 Republican frontrunner. Why he's now directing them to dial up the attacks and pointing out Donald Trump's crazy stuff.