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School Shooting in Ohio; Taliban Poisons Food at NATO Base; The Political Price of Gas; Florida Firefighter Missing 11 Days; Weather Delays Daytona 500

Aired February 27, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hour two here, welcome back, I'm Brooke Baldwin. New developments here out of our breaking news out of Cleveland, Ohio where a gunman opened fire this morning inside a high school. Five students were shot.

One of those students has now died. Here's what we know. This is according to the "Cleveland Plain Viewer," an area newspaper. The alleged gunman is a young man by the name of TJ Lane, believed to be a teenager.

This newspaper, along with CNN, has spoken to multiple eyewitnesses, in fact, one of those one included one of the shooting victims and take a look at this video with me. See who appears to be a law enforcement member and a suspect being taken into custody in handcuffs.

Here's how this whole horrific incident unfolded. The shooting took place inside Chardon High School a little before 8:00 this morning. And police say and students we have spoken say a teacher chased the suspect out of the building. He was ultimately slapped in cuffs, taken into custody in cuffs.

We now have Ted Rowlands on the scene there with the very, very latest.

Ted, I know it's a very tough day for people there. Tell me what you know at this point in time.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, there are two sides to the story, obviously. The one side is the investigation into what could have led to this, and that's ongoing, as you can see behind me at the high school here.

Local sheriff's department leading this investigation, but they're getting help from the FBI and the ATF. In fact, they have recovered the firearm that they believe was used, and they have given that to the ATF to do some ballistics work on it.

The other side of the story clearly is the absolute despair and shock that the people here are going through, and especially the family of a young man that has now been confirmed to be a fatality. There are, you know, really no words to explain the shock that this family must be going through. They actually did release a statement in the last few hours saying: "We are shocked by this senseless tragedy. Danny was a bright young boy who had a bright future ahead of him. The family is torn by the loss."

This is from the family of Daniel Parmentor, the sole fatal victim at this point. There are four other students that are being tended to at local hospitals here. As for the school itself, Brooke, it is in lockdown. The students have all been long told to leave the school. They at first were staged at a nearby elementary and middle school here. Their parents came and picked them up. But the stories you're hearing, and you can only imagine the fear that not only these kids went through during this, but the parents, trying to find information.

And then for these families either dealing with an injured child, or in the one case, a dead child, it's just a horrible, horrible, senseless tragedy.

BALDWIN: I can't imagine. We saw the images of parents this morning waiting outside the school hoping those injured certainly were not their sons and daughters.

Speaking of those injured, Ted, we know that four are in hospitals. Do you have any kind of update as far as conditions go?

ROWLANDS: The latest update we had was that there was one -- there are two separate hospitals. Two of the injured are in Cleveland and the other two are at a local hospital and we're about 30 miles east of Cleveland here.

And the last updates we got were basically three serious and one in stable condition, but we are expecting a news conference at the top of the hour locally here, and at that point, we should get an update on the condition of the injured and an update on this alleged shooter and possibly even a motive. We will watch to see what they say at the top of the hour, but we are expecting to get more information.

BALDWIN: And hopefully an update on this teacher who perhaps sort of saved the day and was able to chase the suspected gunman out of the high school.

Ted Rowlands, thanks for that. We will be looking for that news conference at the top of the hour.

Meantime, one of the high school freshmen at that school, Danny Komertz, was sitting 10 feet this morning from this alleged shooter. I spoke with him last hour, asked him just to describe the scene. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANNY KOMERTZ, WITNESS: Me and my friends and I were walking together, having a good time, and we just heard a pop.

And it was pretty loud and pretty noticeable. And just looked up, and I looked straight ahead and I saw a gun pointing at a group of four guys sitting at a table, and he was about two feet away from them, and he just fired two quick shots at them. I saw one student fall, and I saw the other hiding, trying to get cover underneath the table.

BALDWIN: Danny, when you talk about how he was -- pointed a gun at these four students at a table, can you describe how he appeared to be shooting? Did he appear to be aiming, or was he randomly shooting?

KOMERTZ: He was -- it was clearly, to me, that he was aiming right at them as he was two feet away and he was aiming right down at them. He wasn't shooting around the cafeteria at all. He was directly aiming at the four of them.

BALDWIN: Was he saying anything when he was shooting at them?

KOMERTZ: I'm not sure if he...

BALDWIN: You're not sure if he was -- you couldn't hear anything?

KOMERTZ: No, I didn't -- I couldn't hear anything, if he was saying that he -- if he was saying anything.

BALDWIN: Do you know if those four students were saying anything? Were they pleading with him?

KOMERTZ: I know the four of them, but they're upperclassmen, so we're not good friends or anything. I just -- I know who they were, though.

BALDWIN: How many pops did you hear? You mentioned one pop.

KOMERTZ: I heard one, and then I looked up, saw it. I saw and heard the quick two, and then after the quick two, me and my friends ran out the doors and I heard two more shots be fired behind me.

BALDWIN: Can you describe how he appeared, what he was wearing, the look in his eye?

KOMERTZ: I didn't know anything he was wearing. I just straightly looked right at the gun and just had fear inside of me. And I was really scared of what was going to happen, so I didn't look at his face. I just looked at the gun, and I ran.

BALDWIN: And you ran.

I understand, Danny, a teacher chased him out of the building. What can you tell me about that? Did you see that at all?

KOMERTZ: The teacher was Mr. Hall (ph). He's like the study hall teacher, and he's a very brave man.

He broke up a fight earlier this year, so he's known to do some good things like that. And I guess he chased him out of the building and saved a lot of other students' lives, probably.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Danny Komertz, thank you for calling in. He is 15 years of age. I just asked him at the end of the interview how he was and he just still basically said in shock. So, of course, our hearts and thoughts with people in that community today.

We're not going to go too far from that story but I do want to talk about this. Police are praising the school for the preparedness in the shooting. Coming up, we're going to walk through the training that the school likely went through. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: More and more details continue to emerge here on both the suspect and the shooting scene. I'm talking about Ohio.

Law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks is with me.

So much to run through. I want to just first begin with the fact that we now have this suspected gunman. "The Cleveland Plain Dealer" is identifying him as T.J. Lane.

Right.

The FBI, you say, the FBI is at his house right now. Why?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Right. Local law enforcement and FBI, most likely a violent task force, that's what usually happens in a town like this. It's a task force of different agencies together. They are there processing the house.

Number two, if I'm an investigation, I want to go to his house and find out, are there any writings?

Did he maybe Twitter a message last night that was ignored, that somebody may have seen? What's on his computer? What's on his phone? Anything else in his room that would make them say, well, he was planning this for quite some time, this happen just on the spur of the moment? Where did the gun come from? Was it his gun, was it a relative of his, his parents? This house will lead to a lot of clues, I'm sure.

BALDWIN: We know they found, they finally did recover somewhere outside a handgun, and I know federal agencies will be tracing that gun, as you mentioned.

BROOKS: Right.

BALDWIN: Also, when you hear, though, at least the silver lining, if we can call it that, it appears that any kind of training that this school went through, and I heard one student say countless times, it worked.

BROOKS: Right. It worked, and the response worked by both law enforcement, fire department, EMS, the school system and their notification system, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Good for them. BROOKS: I tell you what, these notification systems, if you're a school system and you don't have some kind of notification system that lets the parents know in a timely fashion and with accurate information what's going on, you need to get one, because it usually sends it as a text, as an e-mail and also through a voice. It will lead you a voice message, all three modes.

Apparently it worked with this particular incident. We have been hearing the parents say they found out quickly about it and it gives them instructions to the parents about what to do, what not to do and what's going on with updates.

BALDWIN: So we know there is a news conference just about 50 minutes from now, top of the hour. I presume perhaps they're going to identify a number of other people involved. As far as the suspected gunman goes, no charges yet.

BROOKS: No, no charges. Most likely, he's a juvenile. Does that mean he's going to be handled any differently? Possibly because there's different ways you deal with a juvenile suspect, but now that there is a death involved, now that it is a homicide scene, that could change things a little bit, especially on the investigative side.

BALDWIN: Anything else that jumped out at you from watching this whole thing unfold all day?

BROOKS: As a former law enforcement officer and a former firefighter, I can tell you it went very smooth, from what I saw. If you go back to 1999 and you look at Columbine, we have learned so much both on the public safety side, on the education side.

We as news media covering live events, we have a lot learned, too, from that Columbine incident and we continue to learn. So does law enforcement, they continue to learn on dealing with an active shooter like this at a school. And this wound out being a student at the school.

BALDWIN: Let me take you to your initial point about the FBI going through processing the home. They have also been going just within the neighborhood. Why?

BROOKS: Also do a neighborhood canvass.

BALDWIN: What are they looking for?

BROOKS: Somebody may have seen him earlier today. Did they see him possibly with someone else? What was he doing? Did he drive there? Did he walk there? Is there other people possibly involved in this? They are saying early on they believe that there was just one gunman, but did anybody know about this beforehand that could have prevented it?

BALDWIN: Mike Brooks, thank you.

BROOKS: Thank you, Brooke. BALDWIN: Coming up, in other news, food poisoning in a NATO air base in Afghanistan and the Taliban now taking credit. We will get a live report from Kabul after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The Taliban says it did indeed poison the food in a NATO base. Also, Vladimir Putin the apparent target of an assassination plot. And Ben and Jerry's says, I'm sorry. And this whole thing involves Jeremy Lin.

Time to play "Reporter Roulette."

I want to begin with CNN foreign affairs correspondent Elise Labott at the State Department for us.

The Obama administration in a diplomatic fix with the anti- American chaos rampant right now in Afghanistan -- Elise.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

Brooke, well, basically, this apology that President Obama offered to President Karzai after that accidental burning of the Korans has really been fueling a lot of criticism from the Republican candidates and also experts in Afghanistan that say this is giving the Taliban an excuse to go against us.

You have seen all this anger and rage coming out of Afghanistan, the killing of those servicemen, and some people argue now that U.S. has accepted responsibility, this puts a target on our heads.

BALDWIN: Is there anything, though, to this whole argument that President Obama may have made this worse by issuing a written apology over the Koran burning straight to the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai?

LABOTT: Well, the Obama administration says no. I was traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week and in an interview she told me, listen, it's really unfortunate that these political candidates are using this unfortunate incident.

President Obama, she says, did what anybody would do, and that the Bush administration, when inadvertent accidents happened, apologized because the U.S. obviously doesn't want to see something like this, the burning of a holy book, and wanted the Afghan people to know that this is not something that reflects U.S. morals and values.

But, Brooke, it's a much larger issue about what's going to happen with the U.S. and Afghanistan as the U.S. tries to pull out all of its troops by 2014. This next year-and-a-half is really critical for the U.S. and Afghanistan to be working in hand very closely, to train military and police, and that trust deficit is really going to be a problem now. And more importantly, the government of Hamid Karzai, is he a reliable partner?

He's been really speaking a very tough line against the United States, even in the face of the apology, and the question is, can the U.S. rely on him right now as we move toward withdrawal?

BALDWIN: A lot of questions, Elise Labott, a lot indeed. Thank you so much. We will watch and we will see what happens next.

"Reporter Roulette" here, CNN's Phil Black live in Moscow on these reports of an attempted plot of the life of Vladimir Putin.

What happened?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, all we know about this has been revealed by a Russian state-owned television network.

In a news report, it says there was an explosion in an apartment in the Ukrainian city of Odessa about two months ago. In that blast, they say one person was killed, another was injured and captured, a third person was hurt and managed to flee. He was tracked down about a month later.

And this news report claims that the two surviving suspects from that blast have confessed to this plot in which they were planning to come to Moscow to attack what they describe as economic targets. And then the ultimate goal was an assassination attempt on Prime Minister and current presidential candidate Vladimir Putin, attacking his motorcade using some sort of military mine.

The report didn't mention where they hoped to get that hardware from. For Putin's critics and opponents, all of this seems suspicious in its timing given that the authorities have clearly known about this for more than a month or so, and now it is only being revealed on a state-owned channel about a week out, less than a week, in fact, from the presidential poll.

They say it's a clear attempt to try and boost his share of the vote on March 4, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So just about a week from that election.

Phil, is Putin considered a shoo-in.

BLACK: Well, that's the thing, Brooke. It doesn't look kill he needs this sort of help to secure a victory. He's looking very comfortable.

The latest opinion polls predict that he could win more than 60 percent of the vote. He only needs to get more than 50 percent to ensure he wins in the first round and doesn't have to come back for a second round vote. That's something he wants to do desperately to ensure that he has a strong democratic mandate to continue leading the country, especially because of those huge street protests, that big opposition movement that we have seen gathering against him in recent months -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Phil Black in Moscow, Phil, thank you.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

BALDWIN: That's your "Reporter Roulette" on this Monday.

Coming up next, we just wanted to share something with you I had never seen before. A mother writes her son's obituary after he kills himself during a night of college drinking, but she gets very, very candid talking about his weaknesses and his strengths. She is going to join me live next. We're going to ask her why she did this next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Two Fridays ago, a 21-year-old college student from New York killed himself.

And most families tend to keep this kind of tragedy private, but Spencer Seupel's mother went public, writing her own son's obituary in "The Poughkeepsie Journal". And she writes not just about his strengths, as are certainly detailed in many obits, but also reflects on his weaknesses that perhaps led him to take his own life.

And Celia Seupel writes -- and I just want to quote part of this here. She says: "That night, Spencer got very, very drunk. Binge drinking at college has been a regular thing since freshman year. Why didn't he get the proper help? Thursday night was one of those binge nights at the frat. He had a fight with his best friend. He said he was going to kill himself. He locked his door and did it. He did not leave a note. He did not look for help. Alcohol brought down those prefabricated walls, and all that was left was thoughtless pain."

And Celia Seupel joins me live from New York.

Of course, Celia, my heartfelt condolences to you. And I appreciate you being here. It just really struck me.

CELIA SEUPEL, MOTHER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: When I read this obituary, I had never seen something so personal from a mother about her young son. Why did you do it?

SEUPEL: There are a couple of reasons. The first is because I am a writer. I have been a writer all my life. I am a poet and a journalist.

And for me, writing is a natural way to express my feelings. But more importantly than that, after I found out this happened, I would wake up very early in the morning, as is natural, 2:00, 3:00 in the morning -- I'm still doing that -- and think a lot about what happened and why did this happen, and what is it that did happen?

And I felt I came to an understanding of what had happened, and I wanted to talk to people about that, because I feel it's so important for people to understand, especially when there are statistics out there like suicide is the third leading cause of death among people in this age group, 15 to 24.

And I felt like I had to express what's going on, that this is an opportunity to explain to people what's going on. And that's why I did it. BALDWIN: Did you find yourself writing this obituary in the middle of the night?

SEUPEL: Yes. I did that, yes.

BALDWIN: You did.

I read, as you detailed, Spencer wanted to be a doctor. He had an internship lined up for this summer. He was an athlete. Yet, you write, "It seems early on Spencer felt he was not good enough."

Why?

SEUPEL: I feel this happened truly because he was so sensitive. He was an extremely sensitive child, physically, as well as emotionally, and when he went into that school environment, it got very rough, as it does for -- like all kids when they are adolescents and they go into middle school and junior high school, it becomes very rough, very competitive, very critical and lots of people playing tricks, making fun of each other.

And I think that he was incredibly hurt by things, and he began to build a very tough shell of what it was to be a man, you know? And this is what I have to do. And he was very smart and very goal- oriented, and he built this shell of confidence that didn't go all the way down to the bottom. It didn't really feel that he was loved or he was good enough, and that would break down every once in a while.

(CROSSTALK)

SEUPEL: What I was going to say is normally he would bounce back very quickly. He reached out for help. He had a lot of support growing up, but the alcohol is what...

BALDWIN: That's what I wanted to ask you about, the alcohol.

(CROSSTALK)

SEUPEL: That really slays me because, first of all, he knew he shouldn't be drinking like that.

And I feel that when -- especially when people -- first of all, this is such a typical college sport, even high school sport, the binge drinking and the drinking games, and they really think that this is fun and this is the way to have fun. And they don't really understand how dangerous it is.

BALDWIN: Had you had that conversation, Celia, with him at all?

SEUPEL: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Were you aware -- as you write that he was a binge drinker, were you surprised that you found out that he took life after drinking that night? SEUPEL: I was deeply shocked and surprised that he had taken his life, because he did not express suicidal feelings to me or to many other people.

He did say that night before he went to his room that he was just going to go kill himself. And that's another message I want to give to young people...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Go ahead.

SEUPEL: ... is that if you hear someone say that, you must stay with them. You can't leave them alone until you get some kind of adult help for that person. And I don't have any -- I've told -- I've talked to the boys in the fraternity who, of course, feel terrible, and it's not their fault. It's like they don't know that. They actually went back to check on him. But we don't have enough training for young people how to respond to these situations.

BALDWIN: Yes, it was just so heartfelt, and the very end, this is ultimately my final question. As you remember the meaning of this tragedy. The meaning of the tragedy is what to you?

SEUPEL: The meaning of the tragedy is very complex because it has to do with our -- with everything I expressed in that article. It has to do with our entire social scene that young people are growing up feeling like they have to be cool and they have to be perfect, they have to be on top, and they don't feel good enough about themselves just the way they are.

I feel like it's an aspect of schools and society being so huge that people get lost in that environment. And they also have a pecking order that's destructive. I feel the meaning of the tragedy is that someone who appears confident, as my son did, may not really feel that confident. And most important, that we have to approach each other with love and tolerance and communicate that to each other and help each other. And that too often in this world, that's just not happening.

BALDWIN: We have a lot of parents watching right now, and I hope they're listening closely. Again, we're sorry about Spencer.

Celia, thank you for so much writing what you did and coming on the show. Thank you.

SEUPEL: And I also would like to say, if I can, we started a Web site for Spencer, SpencerWatsonSeupel.com.

BALDWIN: SpencerWatsonSeupel.com. SpencerWatsonSeupel.com.

SEUPEL: I hope some people will --

BALDWIN: We'll speak that out. We'll speak that out.

(CROSSTALK) SEUPEL: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much. We really appreciate it.

SEUPEL: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: Coming up here, the race for the White House heats up this week with primaries tomorrow both in Arizona and Michigan. And one of the hot topics right now high gas prices. And Suzanne Malveaux is standing by live for us in Phoenix. We're going from hear, and why she went on a hot air balloon ride -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now to the race to the GOP presidential nomination. And next step, of course, primaries tomorrow in both Arizona and Michigan. And voters there head to the polls, as we mentioned, tomorrow. But here's something I know everyone is talking about wherever you live.

How much of a political price will candidates pay for high gas prices? Suzanne Malveaux talked to some business owners in Phoenix. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN FLANAGAN, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: All right, away we go.

Welcome to my office.

(LAUGHTER)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Beautiful.

FLANAGAN: That's the best view in town.

MALVEAUX (voice-over): The view, Phoenix, Arizona. Small business owner, Kevin Flanagan.

(on camera): How long have you been doing this now?

FLANAGAN: I've been flying hot air balloons for 28 years now. So I'm one of the luckiest guys around.

MALVEAUX (voice-over): But Kevin's luck is running out.

FLANAGAN: There's 105,000 cubic feet of just space above us. The propane heats the air inside and that make it is fly. And it seems like whenever the gas prices go up, the propane prices shoot up as well.

Just a few years ago, we were less than -- we were about $1.85 a gallon and now it's 2.99 a gallon. Just like overnight.

MALVEAUX (on camera): So the bottom line, how does that affect your profits? FLANAGAN: It kind of takes any profit away. So right now I would say most companies are operating at break even.

MALVEAUX (voice-over): So that's the view from a thousand feet above. But what about on the ground.

(on camera): We decided to come here to the desert's edge RV camp. This is where folks travel across the country and their trailers, their RVs. These are the people who are really impacted by the rising price of gas.

This is home for now, yes?

DEAN BAKER, RV OWNER: This is our home, our vacation home. Home away from home.

MALVEAUX: It's fantastic. I love it. It's huge. It's really big. Tell me a little bit about, what does it cost to fill the tank?

BAKER: It's a 100-gallon tank, and it will cost $4 a galloon, $400 to fill the tank.

MALVEAUX: For Dean Baker, that means cutting back on family vacations, but the expense is still worth it.

BAKER: Living in this enclosed space with two little kids, a five and an eight-year-old, sometimes it will drive you crazy. It's great because, you know, you've got all, everything you need here and that family time of being together real close, it's a close-knit time you spent, it's the greatest part.

MALVEAUX: You can't beat that.

BAKER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you want miles and you want spices --

MALVEAUX: At the local art fair, we met chefs Pam and Ron Maurer, who travel all the way for Washington State.

ROB MAURER, OWNER, MAURER'S FOODS: We have the original flavor, heavy garlic and soy with a little touch of cayenne.

MALVEAUX: They say higher gas prices mean lower sales.

MAURER: By mid-year, if it still is high or higher, it will transfer into my product price and that means probably less sales that I will have as well.

MALVEAUX: And despite some big promises from Republican candidates that they'll bring gas prices down, no one I talked to here was buying it.

(on camera): Is there anybody, any Republican candidates, who you think have some good idea to bring this place back? FLANAGAN: You know, I don't know. I'm kind of confused by politics because everybody saying stuff and how it's all going to turn around, and you know, the bottom result is at the pump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Nice offices, Suzanne Malveaux, 1,000 feet in the air. I like that. But you and I both --

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: I couldn't pass it up.

BALDWIN: I know. Nice, nice gig. I see why you're doing Arizona.

Let me, though, ask you, high gas prices, look, that's just a manifestation in the fear in the market, and I'm sure a lot of people who you talk to realize that. It's not like there's really a silver bullet. I imagine, though, people you are talking to, they realize it's just the economy, right? They want a candidate who can really fix it.

MALVEAUX: Of course, they want the economy to turn around, but it was really interesting, Brooke, the folks I talked to. They really felt that it was the price of doing business, especially those small business owners, Kevin, who was up in his hot air balloon, that chef couple that was down below selling their special sauces. It's all about -- it becoming a lot more expensive just to do their jobs.

And that's when they talk about gas prices, being able to transport those balloons from one place to another, or being able to ride in their RV and sell their sauces from one state to another. It really is all about the gas prices and how much it cost. And that is really what people see impacts the housing, impacts their own ability to make money as a small business or to do their job or to stay in their homes.

And Brooke, it was really fascinating, because I talked to all these folks and they don't think any of the Republican candidates can do the job. They're not excited about Obama, either, because they're Republicans. But they don't -- they're not happy with the candidates that they're actually seeing here. They want somebody they believe who can actually bring down the price of gas, because that's a real tangible way in their lives they can make a difference. Brooke?

BALDWIN: So they don't like anyone is what I'm hearing. There's this overall malaise. None of the above.

MALVEAUX: They don't like -- a lot of these folks do not -- they don't see the solutions coming from the politicians, they really don't.

BALDWIN: Great reporting, Suzanne Malveaux. Thank you so much. We'll see you back there tomorrow. In the meantime, a firefighter and former Marine disappeared while on a trip to Maine. And authorities have now named the person of interest in his disappearance. The man's stepfather joins me live -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A Florida father makes a living saving others, but now his family frightened because he could be the one who really needs to be rescued. Firefighter Jerry Perdomo has been missing since February 15 after travelling to Maine. And the father of two told his wife, Tonya, he was just heading there to help a friend. Police then found his rental car in this parking lot in Bangor, and just this afternoon, Tonya, the wife, spoke to reporters about her last conversation with her husband.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONYA PERDOMO, JERRY PERDOMO'S WIFE: He called me to tell me that he was fine. We only spoke for a minute because the reception was really bad. And he told me that he loved me and that to hug and kiss the kids, and then he told me that he would call me later. And I never -- he told me he loved me, and I didn't hear from him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Tonya says she has no idea who this couple is. This is Daniel Porter and his girlfriend, Cheyenne Nowak, also of Maine. Police believe they were the last to have contact with Perdomo and now investigators are suspecting foul play here.

But the loved ones of Perdomo, who is 31 years old, are hoping for the best. They have searched the woods near the home of Daniel Porter's father, where police executed a search as well as passed out flyers in the area.

And joining me now by phone is Jerry Perdomo's step father, Carlos Diaz.

Carlos, first, Bangor, Maine. Why did Jerry go to Bangor? Did he explain?

CARLOS DIAZ, JERRY PERDOMO'S STEP FATHER (via telephone): No, we have no acknowledgment as to why he was there. We know he has friends in different areas. He did communicate with different friends in different areas, but we have no idea whatsoever about this certain place that he went.

BALDWIN: So he had never mentioned going to Bangor before? He's never mentioned friends in Bangor?

DIAZ: We know that he had some friends, especially Tonya, you know, the wife, which is with him, so she would know more about the situation than we have, but we didn't know very much about the friends that he had there. We know he has different friends in different areas. BALDWIN: I see. He has two young children, 10 and 3 years of age. Is he the kind of guy to up and leave his family? Did anything happen to cause him to leave?

DIAZ: No. Jerry, is the, I would say, the perfect father. He is 100 percent for his children, and we don't believe that he intentionally would do anything to abandon his family in any way.

BALDWIN: Did you notice anything different about him lately, behaviorwise, anything odd?

DIAZ: No. Jerry has always been the perfect son, perfect husband, perfect father. The best to his community and serving.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: So I do have -- forgive me for interrupting, I do want to ask what this couple, persons of interest -- they were last seen with him. Do you know of them? Because this is the couple police suspect foul play somehow with someone.

DIAZ: We did not know them.

BALDWIN: He had never mentioned them before.

DIAZ: No. No.

BALDWIN: And so bottom line, as you sit, you have one family member in Maine helping with this search. You sit, wait and what, Carlos?

DIAZ: Again, would you please give me that question?

BALDWIN: No, just the final question. As you're sitting and waiting, what are you thinking day to day here?

DIAZ: We are thinking and hoping for the best and praying about this situation. We have faith that the Lord will reveal the situation to us and help us to get ahead of this tragedy.

BALDWIN: Carlos Diaz, we hope Jerry comes home safe and sound. Thank you.

DIAZ: Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, a special guest putting on his jacket right now joining me live, fresh off a trip to Orlando where he schmoozed with basketball's biggest stars. And that's really what he wants to talk about other than, you know, the fact that you're here because you want to be exposed. We're talking politics.

We'll talk about the song you sang as you were coming to say hello to me today in just a minute.

Hello.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: And now sitting next to me one of my absolute favorite people here at CNN.

Hello, sir.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back.

BALDWIN: Welcome back to me?

BLITZER: No, welcome back to me -- yes.

BALDWIN: Welcome back to you. And we should -- if people were watching you and I talking on Friday, we were talking about how you were headed to Orlando -- excuse me, Thursday, because you took a day off to do this.

BLITZER: Correct.

BALDWIN: And he went to go to the NBA all-star weekend.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: First of all, I was working. This is TNT, our sister network, televising.

BALDWIN: Right, of course.

BLITZER: The NBA also had to do a little, you know, support.

BALDWIN: So we have some pictures to accompany all of your various tweets. So let's pull up, I think this might be the Steve Nash picture?

BLITZER: Yes. It was a great thrill to see him. He's a great -- first of all, he's a great ball player but he's also a terrific guy. He has got 80,000 followers on Twitter.

BALDWIN: I saw that.

BLITZER: Yes, he's very active on Twitter.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: I spent some quality time talking to him. He's an NBA all-star. A real, NBA all-star.

BALDWIN: You sat on the legend's dinner?

BLITZER: And that was a breakfast. That was a brunch with all the old-timers. That was great, but I went to the rookie sophomore game Friday night and I was courtside. Were you watching on TNT?

BALDWIN: Friday night?

BLITZER: No. BALDWIN: You don't, but you know who was there?

BLITZER: Jeremy Lin.

BALDWIN: Did you say hello?

BLITZER: Well, I did. I said, hi, Jeremy. How are you doing?

BALDWIN: Hi, I'm Wolf Blitzer. What? Did he say --

BLITZER: He looked at me like as if --

BALDWIN: Just another one of those.

BLITZER: He's been under a lot of pressure.

BALDWIN: He's got a lot going on.

BLITZER: Yes. He has a great future ahead of him.

BALDWIN: Who else do we have, guys? Do we have other pictures?

BLITZER: You got more?

BALDWIN: Do we have the Pit Bull picture? Yes.

So as you came over to say hello to my team today you were singing the Pit Bull song.

BLITZER: Because I know you love Pit Bull.

BALDWIN: Oh, of course. It's my jam.

BLITZER: This was at the House of Blues in Orlando. TNT had a party Saturday night after the slam dunk competition. A three-point shootout. He was amazing. Have you ever seen him in concert?

BALDWIN: No. Did you meet him?

BLITZER: No, I didn't meet him but I watched him, you know.

BALDWIN: Great performer?

BLITZER: Terrific. And he did the halftime entertainment at the all-star game last night as well, but he was better at the House of Blues because that was a terrific venue for -- here's your song, should we pause? Let's hear it.

BALDWIN: OK.

BLITZER: I like that. One, two, three, four.

BALDWIN: Uno, dos, tres, catorce, I think.

BLITZER: Yes. BALDWIN: So let's talk politics, because really, that's why you're here and we're doing the whole primaries tomorrow night. What happens if Mitt Romney does not win Michigan?

BLITZER: It's a huge setback for him. If Santorum upsets him in Michigan, where he was born. His father was governor. He was raised there, it would be a huge setback.

BALDWIN: We thought it was upsetting when he lost Colorado.

BLITZER: Very. All three of those states (INAUDIBLE), that's where Santorum rise. If he loses Michigan, the most recent polls show there's a little bit of momentum going for Romney now. Santorum, apparently, suffered at that last CNN debate. Didn't necessarily do that great. But we'll see what happens. The voters could surprise all of us tomorrow night. That's why we love covering politics.

BALDWIN: We do love politics.

BLITZER: Because we don't know what the end result is going to be. I'm looking forward to it.

BALDWIN: OK. We'll see you back here.

BLITZER: A week from tomorrow, Super Tuesday.

BALDWIN: It's huge.

BLITZER: I'll be here.

BALDWIN: I will be, too.

BLITZER: So you should be at the NBA all-star game next year.

BALDWIN: OK. Well, you brought me to -- where did I go with you in.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: The B.E.T. Soul Train Awards.

BALDWIN: Soul Train Awards. So it will be a date next year.

Mr. Blitzer, thank you so much. We'll see you in a couple of minutes.

Meantime, another delay in NASCAR's Daytona 500. The weather once again holding up the big race. Coming up next, we're tracking the weather for you -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Mother Nature apparently not so much a fan of NASCAR this year, because now for the second day in a row, look at this. Heavy rains delaying the start of the Daytona 500 from Sunday to 7:00 p.m. tonight. And, you know, our weatherman, Chad Myers, but you're also NASCAR extraordinaire. You used to be a pit reporter, which we'll get to in a second. But let's just first preface this -- I just talked to Wolf about his amazing weekend in Orlando.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

BALDWIN: Your voice is a little gone because --

MYERS: I had a better weekend than he did.

BALDWIN: With the cub scouts?

MYERS: 60 cub scouts and their fathers on the USS Yorktown sleeping in the old bunks of the 1943 aircraft carrier.

BALDWIN: So you're coming down with something?

MYERS: Well, with 47 of those 50 kids, coughing, sneezing and everything else, it appears that one little bunk bed was --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: OK. People were wondering as you're speaking.

MYERS: I will not be here tomorrow.

BALDWIN: Great. Stay over there. Meantime, we'll talk Daytona 500. This is a huge deal. Never in a -- what is this, the 54th year of running it?

MYERS: Yes.

BALDWIN: Has it ever been rain delayed?

MYERS: You know, you have so many people coming from so many states. 150,000 to watch that race yesterday, and they have to work today. So they had to leave and their tickets are worthless, because we can't give them away now, they're done. So the race will -- they'll try to start it tonight, but I've had radar up. I haven't look at that all day. It doesn't look good for tonight.

BALDWIN: It doesn't look good for 7:00 tonight? So what do they do?

MYERS: You know, they have the jet dryers going. The thunderstorms have moved offshore, but you know, there's still more rain back from Gainesville back toward Daytona right now. And every time it rains, you know, they get the track dry and then it rains again. You get the track -- those there's the jet dryers that they're trying to do.

BALDWIN: I was going to ask you what that is. So how did that work? They're literally drying the track?

MYERS: They're literally need about 1500 of those things. They have three or four, driving around the track and the heat from this jet engine, blow on the track, warm up the asphalt and dry it. But we need a lot more than that to get this thing going.

BALDWIN: So how do they fill the seats? If and when -- is it even possible they call it off?

MYERS: If they have to call it off because they can't run it tomorrow, then it will be Easter Sunday instead, but that won't happen. Tomorrow is going to be plenty dry day. And they may get it in tonight. They have to run 100 laps, just over half the race, then it's an official race. And they're going to try to do that tonight. They don't want to put this off. They're excited that Daytona 500 is on a Monday night. This is Monday night primetime football show for them. This is like "Welcome to the NFL" for the Daytona. So they're happy about this. They're not happy obviously. The concessions are gone now. The people are gone.

BALDWIN: How do they fill the track?

MYERS: They won't.

BALDWIN: They won't. It will be empty Daytona 500?

MYERS: It will. That's pretty sad.

BALDWIN: That's kind of anti-climactic.

MYERS: People are at home watching it on TV. So it's OK. That's just going to sell more ad dollars.

BALDWIN: You've been with Daytona 500.

MYERS: I had. I love Daytona. Daytona is fantastic.

BALDWIN: What is it like?

MYERS: It's big. It's bigger than you think.

BALDWIN: The cars when they go by you, they will, oh, there they go and they're gone. They're gone for like a whole minute. They've been driving all around. They are so tiny. You can't see them and then they come back around again.

MYERS: It's better to watch a big super speedway track like that on TV, anyway. Go to small tracks, go to Bristol, go to Richmond. Watch Bristol, those small tracks, live. There, in person. Big tracks, watch them on TV.

BALDWIN: All right. We'll see if they run tonight or not. Chad Myers, you're calling that they are not. Hey, feel better, by the way. I won't see you tomorrow.

Before we go, we want to tell you about this. The sister ship of the doomed Costa Concordia cruise line running into trouble. This ship, it's called the Allegra. It's currently a drift off the coast of the Sea Shell Islands. The Italian coast guard say a fire broke out in its engine room, leaving it without proportion. So now a tugboat is on its way to help.

And that is it for me. I'm Brooke Baldwin here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. My friend, Wolf Blitzer, just upstairs in the studio. He's going to take things over now the day before the Michigan and Arizona primaries. Wolf?

"THE SITUATION ROOM" is now.