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Rush-Hour Shooter Found; Honoring the Fallen; Frostbitten But Alive
Aired December 24, 2008 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Coming at you now...
The break, the deluge, the gut-wrenching rescue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My car is going all of the way down.
911 OPERATOR: Your car is moving now?
HOLMES: Could this happen to you just as easily as these drivers in Maryland?
Sludge, on the move, enough to fill 798 Olympic swimming pools, and where is this mess headed and what's to blame?
Also, too cold for the breathalyzer?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't walk?
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Not so fast, sheriff.
Plus, late or worse stranded, a not so merry way to spend the holiday. We have the latest on the weather and your travel plans.
It's noon in Seattle, 3:00 in Charleston, your comments unfiltered on Twitter, FaceBook and more like no where else, your newscast starts now.
Good afternoon everybody, T.J. Holmes here sitting in the NEWSROOM in place of Rick Sanchez this week. Hello to you all, happy holidays. We have to get to this not so happy news right now happening out of Utah. News we're just getting a short time ago that two people are dead, two snow mobilers dead at a place not too far from Salt Lake City. Here is some of the newest video and newest pictures we are getting in here. This is specially at Logan Peak Mountain, this is in Cash County 85 miles north of Salt Lake City. There had been a warning there of avalanche danger that officials there in Utah had put out.
There was extreme, there was considerable danger and there would be today as well as tomorrow, put those warnings out. As we know a lot of these crews, a lot of these officials certainly work and do their best to warn people about it, and also, Chad Myers, we'll bring you in here, they work to prevent these avalanches. They put explosives in certain places to try to loosen up some of that powder sometimes to try to prevent avalanches. I don't know exactly what was the case here and how these snowmobilers ended up where they are, but a tragic story today.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, they can't charge every mountain peak and every avalanche danger. They try especially in ski resort areas and such, but here, you see these guys are in their pickup trucks and the snowmobiles are in the back there. I'm going to move over and I'm going to play with Google Earth, because I can show you some really dramatic pictures here on Google Earth of what this mountain peak looks like. It's a very steep, almost 9,000 foot peak there just east of the valley that would be Salt Lake City. Now, Salt Lake City is just north of that word Utah. So there we go. There is the peak, itself, and a sharp, very distinct north south Wasatch range here. The snow has been piling up for days in this area, literally three feet of new snow piling up on top of this mountain in the past few weeks.
And now I'm going to take you right into where I believe the slide happened, and why do I believe that? Because there are past slides. You have to understand Google Earth is a picture that has been taken many, many days ago or months ago or years ago, we don't know. I don't know how much snow is actually on top of this right now, but I do know that this is not a live picture, but it is an indication of what has happened in the past. You see that looks like a ski resort? That is not a ski resort that is where past avalanches have taken all of the trees away. So this mountain slides a lot. It slides, because of the direction, it slides because of how it catches the snow, and it slides on the other side because of wet, because of heavy, because of sun, because of the snow on top of loose soil, on top of loose dirt, on top of loose snow.
This is a very dangerous peak everybody knows about it, usually people stay out of the way of these slides, but in this case, these two snowmobilers couldn't do that.
HOLMES: A sad story coming out of there right around the holidays as well. Chad Myers we appreciate that look you were able to bring us there. We'll be chatting with you again here a little later about certainly a lot of the delays and a lot of weather affecting travel on this holiday season.
We'll turn now to a nasty situation, a sticky icky situation out of Tennessee, out of the eastern part of Tennessee. Just take a look at some of these pictures.
We know about oil spills and mudslides, but what about a sludge spill/slide? That is what we are seeing in Tennessee. This is just outside of Knoxville, in Kingston, specifically, where we see a sludge spill that has taken out about 15 homes. At least 15 I should say have been affected by this thing. And what this sludge is a derivative from a coal power plant that's there. Coal goes through this combustion process and the byproduct of it is this sludge. Well, the sludge is being kept in a retention area, with a huge retention wall. There was a break in it and this stuff just came coming down a hill and really affected an area. We're told that some 500 million gallons of this nasty stuff, this goop essentially has come out and now it's going to take some time to clean this up. This is no question an environmental issue that we have on our hands here. This was an 80-foot wall that was holding this stuff back, and there was just so much of it, that it broke through. Residents who live around it, they certainly know what's there, there have been minor breaks there in the past, but nothing to this scale. So, as you can imagine, they are not too happy about what they're seeing today. Take a listen to some of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a disaster. Absolute disaster.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sludge, ash, whatever they want to call it, it is pretty much everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the worst part is the stuff that we can't see, the houses that are washed away that we can only see pictures of from the helicopter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When it blew, it rushed way down one valley and then it flowed back out and then came down here and took everything else with it.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Just some of those folks who are going through it right now. Again, this is some icky, some nasty stuff, this sludge. I want to bring in Holly Sheen now, she's a resident of Kingston being affected right now. Ms. Sheen, I appreciate you giving us some time today. Tell us the status of your home right now, I know you are being affected, but how badly is your home being affected by this?
HOLLY SHEEN, SLUDGE VICTIM: I don't have a home anymore. It was moved 40 feet into the road. Everything in my home was destroyed. It's gone. All of my clothing, and my son's stuff and 3 1/2 years of renovations that my father had done on this house is completely gone. There is nothing left.
HOLMES: Ms. Sheen, that is horrible to hear certainly right now around the holiday time. How did you get warning and I guess this is not really some rushing stuff, not that so much fast moving that you can't get a warning and get out of there, I guess how did it go that you knew something was up and that you needed to get out of there?
SHEEN: Well, I actually wasn't in the home. My father was the only one home at the time. I received the call a few minutes after the dike broke from my son's football team mom, asking me, if we were ok. I had no idea what was going on. It has been -- she informed me that there was one man trapped in a house, she didn't know the address. Then called dispatch, and that's when they informed me that it was my father that was trapped.
HOLMES: What is the status now of your father?
SHEEN: He is ok. He was able to walk away.
HOLMES: Ok.
SHEEN: With the exception of the emotional damage. He is physically ok.
HOLMES: Ma'am, tell me, you live in this area, certainly, you all are aware of it and I believe we are seeing pictures now that you sent into us from around your home, just amazing stuff we're looking at here. And you said your home was actually moved several feet, but you live around this plant, you know it's there, and there have been some minor leaks before. I guess what has given you confidence before or do you always have in the back of your mind that possibly something like this could happen?
SHEEN: Well, I actually wasn't informed of the past faults of this dam or the dike until a couple of days ago. I had no idea and I don't think anyone was informed about the past faults of the dike.
HOLMES: All right. Holly Sheen, again, a resident of Kingston whose world has been turned upside down and like you said, ma'am, you have no home right now. Ma'am, the best to you and your family, and certainly your father you say who walked away from it, and you all trying to put the pieces together and recover from this thing. Ma'am, we appreciate you taking the time to share with us your pictures and your story. Thank you so much, and God bless you.
SHEEN: Thank you.
HOLMES: I want to turn now to Gill Francis, he's a spokesperson for the Tennessee Valley Authority which maintains that retention area, that retention wall specifically and that power plant. Mr. Francis, thank you, and certainly a lot of questions people have right now. The first one, how did this happen? Why did this retention wall fail?
GILL FRANCIS, SPOKESMAN, TVA: Ok. We're looking into that right now, we're doing an analysis in terms of exactly what happened. We do know that during the month of December, we had nearly five inches of rain, we had some freezing conditions that maybe a contributing factor, but we have not established the exact cause as of yet.
HOLMES: There have been I understand smaller breaks and breaches of some kind in the past at least. What did you all -- what was -- I mean, how aware were you all of any inconsistencies, any kind of possible breaches of this kind, of this magnitude? Did you all know something like this was possible?
FRANCIS: The prior thing that you're talking about was very small. This area is routinely systematically inspected and it is walked down everyday. Prior to the retention wall failing, there was no indication that there was an issue there. It was walked down everyday. HOLMES: So again, sir, you say it's looked at and it's gone through examinations, I guess what were the results of the last major study that was done on it, or the last major time it got a thorough looking over. And you say there were no indications, so again, I want to be sure here, there is nobody there, none of you all had any clue this could happen?
FRANCIS: Well, again, these things are designed, engineering, it's an engineering design to them, they're inspected regularly, we follow all procedures in that regard. And until this particular incident there were no prior indications that this would happen.
HOLMES: What do you all know about the toxic nature of this stuff that's sliding down now. I understand that it's possibly making its way down to a couple of rivers and could possibly contaminate the water supply. Have studies or tests yet been done on this sludge and just how toxic it is?
FRANCIS: The bulk of the material is fly ash, it's mostly inert. It does contain some contaminants in minute quantities. We are doing sampling of the water in various locations. We have sampled water near the Kingston Water Treatment Plant. With normal treatment and plant filtration, the water does meet drinking water standards. We will continue to sample and certainly we don't expect conditions to worsen.
HOLMES: Sir, for many of us and a lot of people who are listening who aren't familiar with this stuff and how it works, this ash that's leftover, this fly ash we're talking about from a coal plant, why does it have to be collected like this? Is there a way to -- I heard so many people phrase it to me like this, why not take the trash out? So, again, for lay people out there who really don't understand this stuff, why does it have to sit and collect and get to a point where there's so much that it breaks the retention wall?
FRANCIS: Well, half of the material that we do generate is used in the various locations, it could be used for roads, it could be used into asphalt, shingles, but the market for the rest of it is simply not there, so what we do as a result, we place it on site in an established permanent area for the retention of that material. But again, a lot of it is used, it could be used in brick or concrete construction, road construction, asphalt, shingles, those kinds of things. So the material, does have, but again the volume that we have, we are only able at this point to sell off half of it.
HOLMES: And again, not a big enough market to get rid of it as quickly as you are collecting it. Did I hear that right?
FRANCIS: Correct.
HOLMES: All right, Gill Francis, again sir I appreciate you taking the time and coming on and speaking to us about it, but again, a nasty situation that some of the residents there have on their hands, an environmental situation there. Again, thank you sir.
Stay with us here, we're going to hit onto several more stories, but two in particular here. Remember that Guy Madoff who essentially made up with some $50 billion in some ponzi scheme? Well, there has been a death related to the scheme. Somebody who got bilked out of possibly $1 billion has been found dead.
Also, beauty queens, we're used to them wearing crowns and not handcuffs. That is not the picture we're going to show you of her later. She looks a lot different this week. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL RBREAK)
HOLMES: And hello and welcome back everybody. T.J. Holmes here sitting in for Rick Sanchez. As always, you can participate in this show, give us your comments, questions. Rick Sanchez on his Twitter board, also his myspace page and his facebook account. You can send those comments and we'll continue to show those at the bottom of the screen and we'll share those and strike up a conversation from some of the notes you sent in to us.
I want to turn back to the $50 billion ponzi scheme. People can't believe what they heard that a man was able to bilk people out of $50 billion and essentially a ponzi scheme. Mr. Madoff is his name, you know about him but who you may not know about is a gentleman by the name of Tierri Vilashay. He was just found dead this week. There is his picture there. Found dead in his office yesterday morning of an apparent suicide officials say. He ran the Access International Advisers which lost $1.5 billion investing with Bernard Madoff. Autopsy under way right now, also some pills, some medicine found in that office. They are doing toxicology exams as well. Those results are not expected until next week, but police say he had cuts on his arms, his wrists and his biceps as well from a box cutter. Madoff, again, accused of $50 billion, a $50 billion scheme he's getting from people. Our Allan Chernoff now on how this worked. Allan Chernoff joining me here now. Allen, we're trying to understand this scheme in so many ways and certainly trying to get our head around the numbers, but also trying to get our head around what's in somebody's head who is trying to make something like this work?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's absolutely incredible, T.J., I actually did interview Madoff several times back in 1999 and 2000. And then I can tell you that he was charming as you might expect, very polite, but also reserved.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): In the Wall Street world of big personalities Bernard Madoff did not stand out. He was low key, understated. His business card had no title. Friends say he was shy, but inside was the drive of a highly competitive person.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a need to prove to the world that I am somebody powerful.
CHERNOFF: Madoff earned respect. In the 1970s and '80s he built an innovative high tech trading firm. Correctly anticipating that the buying and selling of stocks would be computerized.
JIM ANGEL, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Here is a very intelligent man who knew this business really well, and who also was very driven to succeed.
CHERNOFF: Madoff was successful, but matching buy and sell orders is not a glamour job on Wall Street, not like managing other people's money. He bolstered his reputation by becoming non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market in 1990, 1991 and 1993.
ANGEL: This is somebody who didn't need to start a scam to become a multimillionaire many times over, yet apparently there must've been some flaw in his makeup that led him to get into this mess and to dig himself in deeper and deeper.
CHERNOFF: Madoff lacked a pedigree, he was not an alumnus of a prestigious school, but at the Palm Beach Country Club and other social circles he created an aura of exclusivity by selectively choosing whose money he would manage, in effect creating a velvet rope like a chic nightclub.
JERRY REISMAN, MADOFF ACQUAINTANCE: That's how he sucked his people in, that's how he got them to go into this, and it was a fantastic, brilliant job of marketing.
CHERNOFF: Madoff reported steady annual returns, 10 to 18 percent, year in, year out, never seeming to lose.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That determines whether you're a success or failure. They get their identity from how solid their returns are.
CHERNOFF: Bernie Madoff joined the board of Uchiva(ph) University, then became chairman of its business school. His prominence kept investors from questioning his success. Even those whose monthly account statements were pure fiction. Last month Madoff even reported to them that cash was held in Fidelity Spartan US Treasury money market fund. Fidelity says it hasn't had a fund by that name for three years.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFFF: Some people who know Bernie Madoff say his story reminds them of a Greek tragedy, just like Eucharis who tried to fly too close to the sun. They say that Madoff destroyed himself with his never ending quest for respect and success. Even his attorney tells CNN, this is a tragedy. T.J.?
HOLMES: It's a tragedy for him and a tragedy for a lot of folks. Respect -- he's not going to get that now. And success, he doesn't have that right now either. Allan Chernoff, fascinating look there. We appreciate you.
Stay with us here. We have plenty more to be talking about to get to in this hour, and again, keep your comments coming to us. We're going to share some of these shortly, but we will continue to run those at the bottom of the screen there as well. But you see the big boards we have up there, the Myspace, Facebook page, also Rick's Twitter account. You can certainly send your comments to that.
But we are going to be talking coming up next, again, a beauty queen who was just maybe hanging out with the wrong crowd some people might say. You can see her on stage there, she's lined up next to some beauty queens, we'll show you next who she's lined up next to now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Something else we need to take note of this afternoon. Well, a few who watch CNN at all in the past 24 hours, well, you have seen this video, rescuers battling that rushing river. It is not really a river, but it was one that was created by a water main break in Maryland. Luckily, they reached those terrified trapped drivers in time.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My car is going all the way down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your car is moving now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes! I'm going down! Please, please, I'm going down! Yes, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am. [ screaming ]
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Ok, you're hearing one of those 911 calls there. Some terrifying stuff. We watched this all play out on television, but there is something else about this scene that maybe you didn't think too much about or talk too much about, because of course, it's a human drama that was playing out in front of us, amazing pictures here. But that water main that did bust it was more than 40 years old, and despite more than 2,000 breaks in that system's pipes in the past year alone, "Washington Post" now reporting that the district sanitary commission chose not to assess a $20 a month fee on residents. Those residents of course reluctant to fund a pipe replacement project. Now does that sound like something you find buried in your local newspaper? Water and sewer systems usually stay out of sight, they stay out of mind. Until what, we see a scene like that and it affects you. And sometimes yes, they end up on national news, maybe it's worth asking your community right now have we invested enough in our infrastructure.
Stay with us, up next, what happens when the sheriff gets pulled over?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: And welcome back everybody, T.J. Holmes here in the NEWSROOM sitting in for Rick Sanchez this week. We appreciate your comments, they're coming in on Twitter on Myspace and on Facebook, for Rick's accounts. We have one myspace comments over here for someone who's making a comment after that sludge story we saw of people losing their homes. It was such a shame that some families are facing such disasters the day before Christmas. I truly hope that local folks will extend a hand and be there for some of these folks. God bless everyone. If anybody knows a way or would like to find a way to start anything to help those folks out who all are having a tough time and who are losing them quite literally. A lady says she does not have a home anymore a way to possibly help them out, by all means send those to us and we will certainly pass those along to our viewers.
Something we want to pass along to you, our viewers right now. A beauty queen in a different type of lineup. I want to take you to Mexico. Those do not look like beauty pageant contestants. They are not. They are accused of being some pretty shady characters by the authorities down there, but that one right there in the middle, she is a beauty queen. That is Laura Zuniga, she's 23 years old and she is a Mexican beauty queen. That's how people are used to seeing her, but she has been busted along with seven other men. She says she was just riding along with these guys, and they were heading for a shopping trip to Bolivia and Colombia. They were on the way with AR-15 assault rifle, 38 caliber specials, 9 mm handguns, cartridges and $50,000 in cash. I'm not sure what your shopping spree is like, but I usually don't carry those things with me when I head over to Lenox Mall or Phipps Plaza here in Atlanta.
She is not at this point proven guilty of anything and neither are the other men, but they are being held by federal authorities. As we have been reporting certainly drug cartel violence in Mexico has really been on the rise this year. Some 5,400 deaths affiliated with the government crackdown and also these drug wars going on between them.
Now apparently authorities say that Mexican beauty queen was in the car, one of those men was her boyfriend. That boyfriend they say is the brother of a known drug trafficker. Story is all over the place. We will see what happens. That picture one more time, a lineup of one beauty queen. She is not used to standing next to those types of characters. What you are seeing there, authorities actually, they do this all the time down there, they have a big arrest, they want to make it public down there. The authorities put them out and paraded them in front of the press to take pictures of them. And that's what you were looking at right there.
I have another picture for you now to look at, this one is not from Mexico but from New Mexico here in the U.S. A sheriff had to be stopped, because he was suspected of maybe being a little drunk. Authorities got a call that the sheriff or the person was in a vehicle and may have been a little drunk. What you are seeing there is the sheriff there in New Mexico, particularly New Mexico town, and he is trying to take a sobriety test there. His name is Robert Chavez, he's from Guadalupe County there, he's the sheriff there, this is about 2:00 in the morning. You see the scene playing out right now, deputies who stopped him were giving him a chance if you will saying, go ahead and take this test. You are not doing so well right now sir, just go ahead and cooperate. He was saying he was too cold. They say, too cold to take the breathalyzer test? You see him there in handcuffs now, he was finally allowed to get into the police cruiser and warm up. Then authorities say he got out and proceeded to not do so well on that test. He refused to take the breathalyzer, but he did take the field sobriety test. But the sheriff there, Robert Chavez taken in by some of his own. We will continue to follow that story and see what happens to the sheriff as well.
Stay with us here.
A story we talked about yesterday that really had people terrified on the roads in Dallas. We will get to that.
Before I get to that, though, before we take a break, we do want to show -- we were teasing this story about the Mexican beauty queen. We are starting to get some comments in.
And one from AshHuntsville in Huntsville, Alabama says: "This just shows you that not one -- no one, essentially, is perfect. We all have our inner demons. Not even a beauty queen is immune from those things."
So we certainly agree with that. Nobody is perfect. And someone else asking here about the sludge story: "Is this sludge still going? My prayers to those affected by this. What a mess."
Also, someone else asking there to please tweet about how we can help -- help those victims -- those sludge flood victims."
And we are we're asking for that information, we understand. We are getting it right now and we will certainly pass that along to you before the end of this newscast so stay here. A lot of people want to reach out the day before Christmas. It's a shame any day, a tragedy any day. But the day before Christmas really -- really gets at you.
So, again, stay here. This story we're talking about down in Dallas. The people there are terrified -- four shootings in a three mile stretch of highway just north of Dallas. Two people dead. Authorities were wondering who in the world was doing this. They think they have their man and it was a fellow police officer.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We want to turn now back to that -- that water main break that we saw yesterday in Maryland, just outside of Bethesda. Essentially this water main that gave people on this road no warning and they essentially looked up and they saw a wall of water coming toward them. Some 15 people had to be rescued. We saw all this play out live on television.
Getting more about it -- hearing a 9/11 tape from someone who was out there as the water was filling up in her car.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you see anybody, ma'am?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a lot of people in here. There are so many cars stuck, too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. OK.
So are there other cars with people in them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Huh?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many cars do you see?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Normally like 10 or 20.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That many?
And they're all in the water?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are in the water. I live by River Road by the school (INAUDIBLE). Please, we need help.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HOLMES: Oh, you can hear just a scary situation, if you can only imagine going through something like that. Again, the water -- this was not like a flood. There was rain and people know the water was coming kind of a thing and areas to stay out of. This was a flash flood like you wouldn't believe -- driving down the street and a four foot wall of water was coming toward them. That was literally what happened.
Luckily, everybody was rescued. No one was killed in that situation. And right now questions about the infrastructure there -- the water main, the water pipes around the Washington, D.C. area being examined now. And even some council members there are asking for money from the possible Barack Obama stimulus plan to go toward infrastructure there and improving that water main -- that pipe system in D.C. . So we will see how that plays out now.
We want to turn to Texas, the story we talked about yesterday that just had people frightened.
And why wouldn't it?
Someone driving around on the highway just randomly shooting motorists.
Well, police believe now that they know who was doing it. They believe they do. And they believe it's a former Utah state trooper. He's the suspect. There he is. You're seeing him right there.
Police believe he is the one. And they believe this man now -- the suspect -- possibly trying to commit suicide. And he is now in a hospital.
They have been able to link him to the shootings through ballistics tests -- four shootings we know up on the highway. Three of them, they believe, they have linked to this suspect. Again, a former Utah state trooper, Brian Smith.
I want to bring in our Mike Brooks, who is our security analyst, who always helps us out on stories like this -- Mike we were talking about this yesterday. And you brought it to our attention that authorities were going to be looking at this possible standoff that they had with a guy who then tried to commit suicide. You said they'd be looking him and here they are today saying, in fact, they believe he is their guy.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, T.J. . And remember, also, you know, the law enforcement said -- we were -- you and I were talking about something -- that they knew something because they were telling the public it was safe to go about your business.
HOLMES: Yes. That was it.
BROOKS: Well, apparently they did know preliminarily ballistics matched up. They took the bullet out of Smith's head in the hospital and then compared it to one of the truck drivers who was shot and killed. And that's where they were able to do the preliminary ballistics match up. And they think that -- you know, if you look at the time line and all the other ballistics, it matches up to all four shootings.
HOLMES: Well, Mike, I mean we don't know for sure if this is the guy. Police believe they have their guy. But, again, he's laid up in the hospital in pretty bad shape right now.
BROOKS: Yes.
HOLMES: But -- but, you know, what goes on?
I mean he's a 12-year veteran, a former Utah state trooper.
What do we know about him and his background, who he is?
BROOKS: Well, apparently he left the Utah Department of Public Safety as a trooper because he was caught drinking in his car and also because of theft charges. And everything seemed to go downhill for this guy.
Apparently, when he -- right when all of this started, he went to a Kroger pharmacy in Garland, jumped the counter with a handgun and took a bunch of painkillers and that was right around 5:30. The first shooting happened at 5:41 just a short distance away from that -- that pharmacy, when someone was shot. And then we had (AUDIO GAP) dead.
Shortly thereafter, T.J. , three more shootings along the freeway. Just -- things just seemed to unravel for this guy. He's being told that he has an addiction to painkillers. And, you know, former law enforcement -- he definitely knows how to use a gun. And his life just seemed to unravel.
And then he was stopped because he did have a burglary and a robbery warrant out for him. And he was stopped by police. SWAT team surrounded him and tried to negotiate with him. And as the SWAT team members moved in after a few hours, he attempted to take his life. But apparently he wasn't successful at that.
HOLMES: All right. And, you know, it sounds like, certainly, a troubled guy.
BROOKS: Very much so.
HOLMES: And, you know -- and, again, no -- police believe they have their guy, but he hasn't been convicted, certainly, of anything just yet.
BROOKS: No.
HOLMES: But why -- was this kind of an automatic -- and we talked about this yesterday. And you -- you were right on top of this yesterday when you talked about this guy that they had a standoff with and who possibly tried to commit suicide.
What was it -- I mean, this is kind of an automatic that triggers for law enforcement?
Was there something else where they thought this might have been the guy in the first place?
Or why would they know to go ahead and try to match the bullets up from his weapon to the bullet at the -- at the particular crime scene?
BROOKS: Well, I think it's just, if you look at the time line -- and they knew who they were looking for from that particular robbery at the Kroger. And, you know, there didn't -- apparently, the car description didn't match up to his car. But that still didn't matter.
They turned -- when they were talking to him, probably -- I'm thinking, probably, T.J. , during the negotiations, when he was talking with negotiators while he was inside his car, they were able to glean some other information about what possibly had happened to him recently. That's one of the things, as a former negotiator -- you know, you ask -- you want to know what went on -- what's been going on with this person for the past 24 to 48 hours. And they probably were able to get some intelligence and find out, you know what, we think this is our guy.
HOLMES: All right. Mike Brooks, a security analyst who was all over this yesterday, pointing us in the right direction in talking about this story and being a little ahead of it.
Mike, we appreciate your time, as always.
Thank you so much and Merry Christmas to you.
BROOKS: No problem.
HOLMES: All right. He really did say Merry Christmas to me. They just turned it down. You couldn't hear it. Trust me. He said Merry Christmas back.
Stay with us here.
We do have another story coming to us out of Canada we are going to share with you about a woman stuck in the snow for four days. When I say stuck in the snow, she was literally in the snow. But that might have helped her and saved her life. We'll explain.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. We have been talking this hour -- one of the stories we did talk about was the beauty queen, which is from Mexico, who got busted, along with seven other guys. And they had a vehicle full of weapons and full of cash and some connections to some of those guys who are some drug lords -- on and on and on.
But a lot of you -- that has generated some comments. And we want to share this one, which is kind of funny and kind of not. But this comes to Rick's Twitter board. And it says: "When you sleep with dogs, you get fleas. And this goes for the beauty queen. Beauty fades, but dumb is forever."
Well said there, FreakyFran. I just had to get that name in there, as well.
But stay with us. We're going to be talking a lot more about travel and about weather. As we talked about earlier, we know two snowmobilers are dead out in Utah. This situation we saw a scary one. Anytime you have to see those flashing lights out on the tarmac. But this is down at an airport out in Sea-Tac, in Seattle, where this has happened. We'll tell you how people out there have more than just a headache from their delays. They literally got a headache from some fumes in that plane.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: OK.
Is America not doing what it should -- not doing enough to honor its war dead?
That's a question that many have, including a mother who lost a son.
CNN's Paula Newton now examines the question of if the U.S. would be better off doing what they do over in the U.K.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): It's solemn, it's serene and it's not censored. Every time Britain's fallen soldiers make their way home, a Union Jack, their families and cameras are waiting for them. And this is where their journey takes them next. The cortege leaves the air force base in Lyneham, England and drives through the small town of Wooten Bassett nearby. The bell tolls, the crowd hushed and condolences from silent strangers begins.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rain, hail, snow, sunshine, we all come out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's not organized. It just happens. That has the bigger impact.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We let the families know that we are completely behind them.
KAREN MEREDITH, KEN BALLARD'S MOTHER: In America, we don't get to do that. It's just glossed over.
NEWTON: Karen Meredith Is a single mom who lost her only child, Ken Ballard, in the Iraq War in 2004. Meredith believes her son's first homecoming, at Dover Air Force Base, should have been respected, documented. Instead, she says the Army advised her not to receive his body there and refused her pictures of that repatriation. She received her son back home days later close to her home in California.
MEREDITH: It's the final journey home.
Why would you not want documentation of that when you've got their baby pictures and their first grade pictures, their high school graduation?
And this is it. You don't get anymore pictures. And that's really hard.
NEWTON: For Ron Griffin, a father who lost his son Kyle in Iraq in 2003, the homecoming at Dover is misunderstood. He says he respects the military's decision to not publicize the event and to him and his family, it was a relief.
RON GRIFFIN, KYLE GRIFFIN'S FATHER: When you know who my son was and you know what he did, he not a flag-draped transfer case. He's a human being. He's got a face. He's got a history. He's got a story.
NEWTON: Griffin says he took comfort from his son's very public funeral in his hometown -- a tribute he believes is just as valued as the one in Wooten Bassett.
GRIFFIN: I watched the video. I cried. You could see the people -- the older soldiers with their British salute. There were a lot of people there. It's the same thing that we saw here. There's no difference.
NEWTON: The Pentagon admits it discourages families from coming to Dover, saying it is a busy base, but also not wanting to emotionally or financially burden families who can't make it or might like they have to. MEREDITH: I really plan on pursuing this with the Obama administration, that this is a rule that is wrong for the families. It's as if they're hiding us and hiding our sacrifice. And that's wrong.
NEWTON: Paula Newton, CNN, at the British Royal Air Force Base in Lyneham, England.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HOLMES: And some comments we got just a short time ago I'll share with you on Twitter at Rick Sanchez at CNN. It says: "Merry Christmas to all the troops that are serving our country and the veterans and disabled veterans who have served." That's coming to us from Galaxy5007. We just wanted to pass that one along -- a nice one we got and a nice Merry Christmas.
Well, a not so Merry Christmas so far for some people who are traveling right now. Weather issues out the wazoo, if you will, all up and down the Northeast, the Midwest, the Northwest, as well. A lot of people having issues out there. But travelers having issues, as well.
We're going to talk to our Chad Myers over in the Weather Center about what's going on out there and also share the story of a woman who was buried in snow for four days and she survived.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. An incredible little Christmas miracle, some might call it -- a woman in Canada able to survive for four days packed in the snow. You're seeing video of that rescue of this lady now.
Her name is Donna Molnar. And she went out several days ago -- supposed to just be going to get some baking supplies so she could do a little -- do a little cooking. Well, she had been missing for several days. Nobody could find her. Search crews were out looking for her. Certainly a snowy mess going on there in Canada, as well.
Well, come along now Ray Lau and his dog Ace -- part of the search team here.
Here they are joining us now live here.
Mr. Lau, thank you for being with us. And you're there with Ace, as well.
RAY LAU, RESCUE VOLUNTEER: Hello.
HOLMES: We appreciate you giving us the time.
You tell me, how did you come up on her, because she wasn't in a position where you could see her very well, I understand?
You pretty much just came across a face in the snow.
LAU: Yes. We're -- we have assigned search area -- our team, which is Ace and myself. We have backup.
Good boy.
We have a grid. We're doing a grid. We were maximizing the use of the wind to benefit the dog's keen sense of smell. We were walking the grid line. Ace is off leash. We do an area search like that.
HOLMES: So what did the dog come up on?
I guess what was the dog, essentially, sniffing for?
LAU: He's sniffing for human scent. If there's human scent in the area, his -- his nose is going to find it.
HOLMES: OK.
And did he certainly react when you all started getting close?
LAU: Yes, he took right off. He took -- he ran right away from me. We were probably downwind about 75 meters. And he went straight out bark, bark, bark right into the snow -- down into the snow.
HOLMES: And what did you walk over there and see?
And what was your reaction to what you saw?
LAU: I ran over there. And as soon as I came up, I'm looking at my dog barking. I'm looking down. There's a -- there's an opening. And I saw Mrs. Molnar's face half covered with a hood and her eye just staring back at me.
HOLMES: How did she look?
I mean, she had been there for several days -- I mean, three, four days now.
How did she look?
And did she say anything to you?
LAU: We expect the worst. We prepare for the worst. But there's so much positive in the end result of this one, it's just -- it's mind-boggling.
HOLMES: Mr. Lau, yes, how in the world was she able to survive out there for so many days, I mean, packed in the snow?
And we saw -- read some things that maybe the snow had some kind of an insulating effect?
LAU: That's my understanding. I think the human nature -- the will to survive, there is no measurement to it. But it's an amazing find. And here's the four-legged star that did it.
HOLMES: The four-legged star. All right. And one last thing.
Do we have any idea how she ended up in that position in the first place?
How did she end up just buried like that?
Where was her car, as well?
LAU: Her car was about 250 meters away. It's a rural area.
Our area just on that given date was that search area. And Ace did his job and...
HOLMES: Well, you did your job too, Mr. Lau.
Ray Lau up there, one of the rescuers -- and his four-legged star, as he describes them.
Sir, thank you so much.
Glad this all worked out and had a happy ending.
But thank you for being with us.
LAU: Thank you.
HOLMES: All right.
Chad Meyers, I will turn it over to you now. Everybody's getting a bit of weather. But that's amazing to hear, that she was able to survive that long.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
HOLMES: Essentially, she was in there. She was packed in snow.
MYERS: Yes. And what she was saving herself from was the wind chill.
HOLMES: Ah.
MYERS: I mean that's -- that's really what would have taken all the heat out of her body. And so even though it was cold in that snow, it wasn't nearly what the wind chill factor was outside of that snow. So amazing, amazing stuff there.
And I wish I could have just -- I wish we had video of that dog just tearing on off because that would have been a -- that would have been something to see, as he finally smelled her.
From Newark back into San Francisco and JFK, all with delays right now, but not all that significant. Newark, yes, OK, you're two to three hours behind and have been most of the day. But planes are still leaving. We're not seeing this rack and rack of canceled, canceled, canceled, over all of the flights there out of Newark, JFK and La Guardia today.
OK. So it's not picture perfect, but it's better than it has been the past couple of days. A lot of people are trying to get out now -- or at least for the last couple of minutes, trying to get out and be there on time, if they can.
Rain showers and thundershowers now from Buffalo right on down to the Gulf Coast and even some potential for some strong weather today.
A new tornado warning popped up to the northwest of Montgomery and south of Hoover, kind of out in the middle of the hinterlands out there. But still, a couple of these storms could be spinning winter -- late fall, when you have warm air on one side, cold air on the other side, it's not out of the question to get a potential for a strong to severe thunderstorm.
And, hey, Santa -- he's in Russia right now. He's still flying around doing his duty, dropping off his presents.
HOLMES: All right.
In Russia?
MYERS: In Russia.
HOLMES: All right. He'll get over here.
All right, Chad, we appreciate you, as always.
MYERS: Sure.
HOLMES: Coming up next here, Snuggies in The Fix.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. It is time for your daily Fix.
Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO," COURTESY NBC)
JAY LENO, HOST: Have you seen these ads on TV for the Snuggie?
Have you seen this thing?
I'll tell you, it makes a great Christmas gift. It's a blanket with sleeves in it and you wear it, you know?
It's kind of like the opposite of lingerie, you know?
(LAUGHTER)
LENO: I mean what are you saying to a woman when you give her a Snuggie -- look, just cover all that up will you?
(APPLAUSE)
LENO: Put it over your head. Do whatever you've got to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "CHELSEA LATELY," COURTESY E!)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are mad because this whole thing happened behind closed doors. I kind of wanted him to do it above board. It's Illinois. It's Chicago. Do it on "Oprah." I just would love Oprah to just give the seats away. You know, just ladies, look under your chairs and find out who's going to be the next senator.
(LAUGHTER)
CHELSEA HANDLER, HOST: There are so many -- I mean they're all -- first of all, his hair is amazing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.
HANDLER: Let's just go on the record and talk about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean his hair looks like the hair on a LEGO guy.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The helmet hair.
HANDLER: It is ridiculous. It's borderline amazing is what it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't -- is it?
I don't think it's that bad. Man, this isn't the worst thing a governor could do.
Our governor was in "Red Heat" with Jim Belushi. So, this isn't really that bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: I'm giving everybody Snuggies for Christmas. I can't believe they were dogging the Snuggies.
All right, it's time for us to turn it over to "THE SITUATION ROOM" and Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne, it's all yours.
