Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

So Many Bodies, So Few Clues; Mom Drives Van Into River; Mubarak And Sons Held For Questioning; Breaking Down The Big 3; Long Island Serial Killings

Aired April 13, 2011 - 13:10   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Randi Kaye who's in for Ali Velshi.

Hey, Randi.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Suzanne.

Two major stories unfolding now as we speak. Police on New York's Long Island are about to brief reporters on their search for an apparent serial murderer.

And President Obama is about to roll out his long-term deficit reduction plan, or as Republicans call it his budget do-over.

We begin in New York where we now know the skull and bones found in two separate locations on Monday are human. How they got there, who put them there, who they belong to, all the subjects of intense investigation.

Since December, at least nine and maybe 10 sets of human remains have been found along the remote stretch of highway connecting beaches and a wildlife preserve on the southern edge of Long Island.

The first four victims found and identified were all young prostitutes who'd advertised their services online and so began the search for a suspected serial killer.

CNN's Allan Chernoff is standing by at the site of a news conference. We expect to get started any second now.

Allan, while we wait for the conference to start, tell us about this on-again-off-again search effort.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me tell you, the search all began with this woman when she went missing last May 1st. This is Shannon Gilbert, she had been working as a prostitute and she had visited a client on Oak Beach, that's on a barrier island not far from New York City and that's where the search has been occurring.

You mentioned all those other bodies that have been found, she has not been found, none of the body parts have been linked to her through DNA. So, here we are, a news conference, the search has been going on, but what happened in the months prior to all of this? Because the first body parts were found back in December, she went missing in May.

Well, I just spoke to the person to whom she ran to that very night. She was fleeing in Oak Beach, she knocked on the door, bang, bang, bang, 5:00 in the morning, came in, and Mr. Gus Colletti answered that door. He let her in, he called 911, as soon as she saw he was calling the police, she fled.

Mr. Colletti told me just a few minutes ago that it was not until four months later that a detective actually came to question him about Miss Shannon Gilbert's disappearance. Let's have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUS COLETTI, RESIDENT, OAK BEACH, NEW YORK: Well, they came in here, but as far as investigating it, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: That's a very short segment of that interview, but what he said was that the Suffolk County detective came over to him in August, four months after this woman went missing, and he called the police that very morning. The police came, they looked around. They left, but nothing happened, he said, until then.

He said the Suffolk County police told him the New Jersey police had dropped the ball. Shannon Gilbert was a resident of Jersey City. The Jersey City police tell me, we are not having any comment about an ongoing investigation. Randy, we'll be asking about this very issue at the upcoming news conference.

KAYE: All right. Allan Chernoff for us, thank you, as we wait for the news conference to get started. And be sure to watch "CNN Saturday" for a full hour special, Long Island serial killer. That is Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

And now to Washington where the budget showdown that almost shut down the government. The government was just a prelude to a showdown beginning, oh, about 30 minutes or so from now. That's when President Obama will introduce his free work for shared prosperity and shared fiscal responsibility.

Let me translate that title for you. It's the president's response to House Republicans to a bi-partisan group of senators and his own blue ribbon commission. All of whom have taken on the monumental task of managing America's debt.

The president's key word is balance, spending cuts, and tax hikes, saving and investment. And while we wait for the details, let's bring in our Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry.

Ed, there's a political balance being struck here as well, is there not?

ED HENRY, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That right, and we've some new information just coming, in fact, from a senior official here, telling us, Randi, that for the first time, the president is going to put a number on all this.

And he's going to announce in a speech, as you said, in just about a half hour from now from the George Washington University, that his plan will have $4 trillion in deficit reduction in 12 years or less, depending how quickly the economy comes back, brings in more revenue. They think they may be able to reach $4 trillion in deficit reduction even sooner than 12 years.

Now, the key here, though, of course, is going to be the details, what's in it. And that gets into the political balance that you were asking about. The president has liberals in his own party on Capitol Hill who are quite frustrated that he's put, frankly, any spending cuts on the table, recently, in his negotiations with speaker Boehner in that near government shutdown late last Friday night, for example.

And then you've got Republicans like speaker Boehner saying if the president puts tax hikes on the table, that's a nonstarter. The Republicans are not going to go there. So, there is a challenge here for the president to walk that balance but also an opportunity for him.

He's faced a lot of criticism, in recent days, that he's been late to this party, that he has not put a real deficit reduction plan on the table like Republican Paul Ryan, for example.

The president has a unique opportunity with this megaphone to use this speech to say, you know what? Some of my colleagues on the left, they don't want spending cuts, some of my friends on the right, they don't want any tax increases. But I got news for you, you need both of those things in order to turn this budget balance around.

Neither side really wants to say that right now. This president with the bully pulpit has the opportunity. We'll see if he rises to the occasion and sort of has the political guts to say, you know what? We're going to have to do this, we're going to have to take some tough medicine whether either side wants to do it or not, this has to be done. So, this is going to be very, very closely watched -- Randi.

KAYE: But meanwhile, Ed, House Republicans are calling this, as we said, a budget do-over. You said that the president is now talking about a deficit reduction of $4 trillion, but why didn't the president call for this much debt reduction in his 2012 budget plan?

HENRY: It's a great question, and I'm not really sure that there's a great answer to it. Now, the White House position is that if the president had put some sort of a real deficit reduction plan on the table, say late January for a state-of-the-union address, given the partisan divided here in Washington, you would have had Republicans almost immediately saying this is dead on arrival and harden their position.

The Democrats would harden their position as well. Some of the liberal Democrats I was talking about saying, no more to these spending cuts and, frankly, the thing would have gone nowhere. They were hoping by waiting a bit, now you've got the Republican plan from Paul Ryan on the table that's got some deep cuts, now you've had this budget deal that was cut late Friday. And now, frankly, you have a bit of a consensus emerge in the country that it's time for both parties to stop talking about the problem and actually do something about it.

And so, I think that the debate has shifted a bit, and they're thinking inside the White House, and that's why on the Sunday talk show you saw David Plouffe, a senior advisor, announce this that maybe now there is an opportunity for the president to weigh in here, and keep this momentum going toward some deficit reduction.

Now, the reverse of that is also a potential that all of this fall falls apart and becomes just another 2012 campaign issue. Let's not forget, tomorrow the president is heading to Chicago to start doing fund-raising for 2012. So, there's a lot of politics just beneath the surface as well.

KAYE: All right, Ed Henry, and you'll be with us as we watch the president's speech here in a short time, and we'll talk with you in just a little bit.

And before we move on though, a heads-up, as we said, the best political team on television will join our live coverage of the president's address at George Washington University. That is at 1:35 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

And during the president's speech, we want to know what you think about it. So, go to CNN.com/politics and click on President Obama. Join the live chat and share your thoughts, and we will share some of your comments later on in the show.

Now, a tragic story out of Newburgh, New York. A mom and three of her kids drowned after police say she deliberately drove her minivan with her family inside into the Hudson River last night. Firefighters say her 10-year-old son barely escaped. They say the little boy managed to roll down the window at the last minute and swim to shore. The Newburgh fire chief says a driver saw the boy soaking wet and drove him to a nearby firehouse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL FERRARA, POLICE CHIEF, NEWBURGH, NEW YORK: If that boy had not escaped that car and gotten to report this incident this could still be a -- very well be a missing person. The entire family could be missing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Responders found the van in up to 10 feet of murky water 25 yards off shore. They found the bodies of the women, her 5-year- old and 2-year-old sons and 11-month-old baby girl inside. Police say, shortly before it happened, a relative called to report a domestic dispute between the mom and the children's father. The police chief says the family has a history of domestic problems. Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president and two of his sons are being held for questioning. The justice ministry says they were detained more than two weeks ago while Egyptian authorities investigated the Mubaraks for the killing of protesters during the uprising two months ago.

Mubarak's sons were transferred to a Cairo prison while the ex- president was taken to a hospital yesterday. State TV reported he suffered a heart attack but Egypt's health minister later told the media that Mubarak's condition was stable enough to allow prosecutors to resume questioning him at the hospital.

On Capitol Hill, the House is holding a hearing right now on scathing reports that the army's sloppy management of Arlington National Cemetery resulted in grave mix-ups. A recent "Time" magazine article revealed workers often came across unidentified remains in graves across the cemetery and just guessed their identities.

Congress is examining evidence that the army, which runs Arlington, mismanaged burial records and mislabeled graves while the superintendent and his deputy did little to correct the problem.

As we get ready to listen the President Obama's big speech on cutting the national debt, you may be wondering about the future of entitlement programs. We're breaking down the big three, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back. In a few minutes, we'll hear President Obama's plan the for reducing the nation's debt and trimming the federal budget. The president will also talk about strengthening Medicare, Medicaid, along with Social Security. These three entitlement programs make up a big part of the federal budget, but cuts to these programs could cost you some big bucks.

So, Don Lemon is here to fill us in on exactly what this all means.

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A big part of the federal budget, and if you look at, Randi, over the next 11, 12 years, $40 trillion. Imagine having to deal with that. But it makes up a big part of the budget, as I said, 40 percent of the budget - 40 percent of the budget comes from entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.

Look at this, 24.4 percent, that comes straight from Medicare -- 12.8 percent from Medicaid -- excuse, 12.8 percent for Medicare, 7.2 percent for Medicaid, 20.4 from Social Security, pardon me. So, that's a big, big chunk of the budget.

KAYE: Sure.

LEMON: And then when -- these are places where changes can be made, but people in Washington are reluctant to it. They're hesitant to do it, because people paid into these and they want them, right? So -- these so-called entitlements. If you look at this, this is what happened in 2010, just about now, we're in 2011. You've got three workers to support every retiree, that's what you have now. But by the time those baby boomers start -- at the height of their retirement in 2035, Randi, you'll only have two workers in the workforce to support one retiree and that's because all those people will have left the work force and you won't have -

(CROSSTALK)

KAYE: That's why it's running out of money.

LEMON: And that's why it is running out of money. And, look, 1975, 24 million people were enrolled in Medicare. 2010, last year, 47 million. That's almost double that. And then by 2040, look at that, 88 million people.

And here's what they're paying. 1975 here, 24 million, they were paying about $2,800. That's what the government was paying per person. Here, 2010, about $12,000 per person and you've got 47 million. It jumps here to $44,000 that the government is paying in per person. And if you're looking at that at 88 million, you do the math. That is a lot of money.

KAYE: So more and more people need the program and there just isn't enough people --

LEMON: More and more people --

KAYE: There are not enough people contributing.

LEMON: Not enough people contributing. So they're going to have to do something that they can't really -- they can't cut that much from it because they need the money, but they're going to have to re- jigger and change somehow and let's see if the president's going to talk about it. Who knows. But, of course, Republicans will have their rebuttal and they'll say, hey, that Paul Ryan budget, it was all in there and it will be back and forth. But that's a lot of money.

KAYE: Is that your prediction? Can we write -- make that official?

LEMON: oh, of course. Oh, you mean there's going to be consternation in Washington about --

KAYE: You heard it here.

LEMON: Oh, the Democrats said this and the Republicans said that.

KAY: I never would have expected that.

LEMON: Who would have thought. Yes, I will predict that.

KAYE: All right, Don, thank you. And thank you for this explainer as well. Appreciate it. LEMON: Thank you, Randi.

KAYE: We're a little more than 15 minutes away from President Obama's speech to lay out his blueprint for dealing with the nation's $14 trillion debt. Wolf Blitzer will be joining me shortly. So keep it right here for the speech and analysis from the best political team on television.

Up next, is your bank pulling a fast one on you? A new study finds banks may be hiding fees from you. We'll tell you what these fees are and how to avoid them in "Your Money." Keep it here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: I want to take you right to this press conference in Long Island, New York, were police are investigating a possible serial killer.

Let's listen.

COMM. RICHARD DORMER, SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK, POLICE: this is an intensive, long term investigation that includes the use of sophisticated technology, as well as good old-fashioned detective work. As many of you are already aware, our police department dive team is searching the water just west of the Cedar Beach Marina today. Five divers are searching and possibly later in the week, weather permitting, other dive teams will go into the water. They're looking for evidence, any evidence connected to any of the found remains.

In support of the Ocean Parkway investigation, the Suffolk County Police Department has requested the support of the FBI. This support will include the use of various aerial imaging technologies. Use of this technology will require flights over Ocean Parkway Barrier Beach area using both fixed wing and rotor wing aircraft, which will potentially involve short-term closures of Ocean Parkway. If the roadway will be closed, we'll put out a traffic advisory.

Weather permitting, this operation will commence later this week. The high resolution technology should be able to provide a detailed representation of the area and will extend through Nassau County. We are hoping the technology will help identify skeletal remains that may still be out there.

The FBI has been providing support to our department since the discovery of the four sets of human remains in December of 2010. On February 7th, the FBI provided an investigative team from the behavioral analysis unit located in Quantico, Virginia. This team spent two days with our homicide task force and included visits to Warf (ph) Beach and Gilgo Beach areas. The case was reviewed and discussed. Investigator strategies, recommendations, and opinions were shared. Consultation with this FBI unit continues on a regular basis.

FBI officials in varying capacities have continually offered any and all assistance. We recognize and deeply appreciate the FBI's support and want to publicly acknowledge their assistance. The remains found on March 29th and April 4th of this year have been sent to the New York city Office of Chief Medical Examiner, and our forensic team is working diligently, analyzing the remains. After we received reports from the medical examiner's office pertaining to identification of the victims, that information will be made available. At this time, we will not speculate on age, gender, or condition of the victims or any of the evidence that may have been collected.

We are being patient, awaiting the results, and ask that you do the same. The identities of most -- of the most recently discovered remains are very important in furthering our investigation. We've been working closely with Nassau County and New York State Police. On Monday, Suffolk County Police Officer John Maella (ph) and his canine, Blue (ph), accompanied by a Nassau County officer, discovered a set of remains in Nassau County. It is our understanding that Nassau County police will be continuing its search tomorrow and have requested our assistance. We will be sending our canine units and other personnel to assist. Our homicide task force will be meeting with Nassau police and state police this afternoon to discuss this investigation further.

I would also like to -- you, the media, to get this information out to the public. No matter how minor they may believe an item is or a tip is, please call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. That's 1-800- 220-8477. So far we have received more than 600 tips on this case. All tips are reviewed by the homicide task force.

Now, I will entertain a few questions. And, again, I caution everybody that I can't talk about the evidence, about the remains that we just found, or the investigative issues that we want to keep close to the vest.

QUESTION: Sir, can you talk about who you might be interviewing in terms of zeroing in on a suspect?

DORMER: We're interviewing a lot of people. And I'm not going to get into names for obvious reasons. But we are doing a lot of interviews. And the homicide task force has been engaged in that process from the beginning.

QUESTION: Do you believe the most recent set of remains --

KAYE: You've been listening to a press conference there where reporters have been trying to get some information on the last in this possible serial killer on Long Island, New York. Dive teams, we're learning, have been searching the waters west of that nearby marina. They're looking for any evidence connected to these remains that have been found. More than 600 tips, he said, have been received. The FBI is involved. And we will, of course, continue to watch this story and bring you the very latest developments.

Meanwhile, earlier this morning, President Obama talked budget with congressional leaders at the White House. Our Ed Henry has worked his sources and will tell us what exactly went on behind those closed doors.

Hi, Ed. We'll get right to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(INTERRUPTED BY SPECIAL COVERAGE OF A LIVE EVENT)