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Nearly 50 Year Old Kidnapping Mystery; Powerball Winners Speak Out; Search for Family Friend Kidnapper Goes On

Aired August 08, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: A newborn kidnapped for two years returned to his parents, or so he thought. Turns out, decades later, he has now discovered a stunning mystery.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

(voice-over): In Music City, the race to save babies and families as floodwaters rush in.

And the moment a tractor-trailer rams a bus full of passengers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come and take it, mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED)!

BALDWIN: CNN talks to the police chief who's leading his own militia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people showed up with firearms, and I encourage that.

BALDWIN: And Rambo vs. John McClane -- why Sylvester Stallone is livid with Bruce Willis, and now Harrison Ford is involved.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Just a heads-up to all of you. Any minute now, Minnesota's Powerball winner is stepping forward. The state's lottery is set to introduce the winner at a news conference. We're watching. We're waiting. The $448 million jackpot will be split among the Minnesota winner and the holders of two winning tickets in New Jersey.

Folks, this is the third largest Powerball Jackpot in history. We will see who the lucky person or persons are momentarily here.

But, first, let's talk about this one man who grew up doubting who he really was. Turns out he was right. And his story has now gotten the FBI's attention. Want to get to that in just a moment here.

But, first, this Nevada man grew up thinking this, thinking he was the baby in this headline kidnapped as a newborn, abandoned as a toddler and reunited with his parents. Grew up happy, healthy, case closed, except nearly five decades later, Paul Fronczak found out none of that is true. He learned his parents, Dora and Chester Fronczak, actually aren't his parents after all. His name, his nationality, his age, he has no clue. And "The Chicago Tribune" is reporting that the FBI has reopened this kidnapping case from all the way back to 1964.

I want to turn now to Ellen Hirst, metro desk reporter from "The Chicago Trib."

Ellen, what a story this is.

Let me start at the beginning here. Let's go back to '64, Illinois. A baby boy had just been born to these two happy parents, but was quickly snatched. What happened then?

ELLEN HIRST, "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE": Right. So a woman posing as a nurse snatched this baby, you're right, Brooke, and never returned him. So he wasn't even two days old when he was taken.

A search ensued. Hundreds of police officers searched for him. The FBI got involved. About 14 months after they started looking for this baby boy, you know, a boy showed up in New Jersey abandoned at a variety store. And they determined that that was probably the Fronczaks' child. They were reunited, like you said. He grew up with this family. And it seemed like it was a happy ending.

BALDWIN: So it wasn't, as we now know. Right? They think it's the Fronczak kid. This little boy grows up. He starts to think, I'm not really looking like my parents. Starts to have that feeling, I'm not quite sure I may be the baby who was snatched in the first place. So then recently his parents come over. He's bought this DNA test. He says, hey, mom and dad, do you mind taking this? What happened?

HIRST: Right.

So, you know, it took him a long time to work up the courage to even broach the subject with his parents. It wasn't something that they liked to talk about. When his parents came to visit him at his home in Nevada, he asked them to take this test. And they did. And then, yes, he got the results back and he said that he sort of knew what they were going to be. He had a hunch that it was going to come back and say that these weren't his parents.

You know, it kind of reopened some old wounds. It's been hard for them.

BALDWIN: We're going to talk about the psychology of that and the wounds in just a minute. As it turns out, Paul Fronczak isn't really Paul Fronczak. Here you have this grown man, this father now looking for his own family.

The real Paul Fronczak is still missing, if he's still alive. FBI has been reopening that case. Do they have any leads?

HIRST: Right.

So the FBI, you know, by happenstance they still had these files that were almost 50 years old. They were able to find the original files.

BALDWIN: Wow.

HIRST: They're looking at all the original research. They're planning to re-interview witnesses that they can find who are still available and able to be interviewed. So they're starting over, basically, with their investigation.

BALDWIN: You wrote, Ellen, in your piece that physical evidence might benefit from modern testing. What does that mean?

HIRST: Right. You know, I tried to push Joan Hyde to tell me, the spokeswoman for the FBI. She couldn't elaborate. But she said they might be able to retest some physical evidence that they still have.

BALDWIN: You quote Paul Fronczak from your piece. Let me read this and he says -- quote -- "I think that the perfect ending would be to find the real Paul, see that he's doing well, and then on the same day find my real family. It would also be nice to have an actual birth date that I could believe in."

Then, what about the parents, Chester and Dora? They thought they had their little boy. Now they don't. I imagine this is pretty tough for them?

HIRST: Yes.

You know, I haven't had a chance to talk to them. We did go to their house. They weren't interested in commenting at this time. But Paul did say that his parents have been struggling with it. You know, it's been really hard for them and, you know, that they didn't want to talk right now. But it's something -- the investigation is ongoing. So, hopefully they will be able to help.

BALDWIN: Understandable. Their world has really just been rocked.

Ellen Hirst, "Chicago Tribune," Ellen, thank you.

Joining me now, human behavior expert Wendy Walsh.

And, Wendy, let me quote this. This is Paul Fronczak, because, as we mentioned, he had this DNA test. Finds out his parents aren't really his parents. He writes his parents this letter.

This is what he said: "Wouldn't you and dad like to know what really happened and who I really am? Like I said, I love you both and you have been wonderful parents. I'm not doing this to hurt you or discredit the fabulous job you both did in raising me. This is just about finding the truth."

For this Paul Fronczak who isn't Paul Fronczak now, what is this like?

WENDY WALSH, FAMILY THERAPIST: Well, I'm sure he's going through a giant identity crisis, but nothing that he hasn't been suspicious of his whole life, Brooke. And I'm most concerned about what happened to him in his early life? If he was found as a toddler, what happened from zero to then? What kind of trauma is in his bones that he doesn't actually remember? Obviously, I'm hoping he can go to some psychotherapy and work through this.

But let's also consider these parents. Of course, they have been loving parents. They have gone through one trauma losing their son. Then they got him back, they thought. And now they're facing the crisis all over again. Their son is out there somewhere. And they, you know -- obviously they're being completely re-traumatized by this event. It's understandable that they don't want to talk.

BALDWIN: Understandable. Completely understandable. And then you have sort of the third prong of this whole thing, which is the real Paul Fronczak, if, in fact, he is still alive and he is found and the real story is told. And if and when that happens, what will that discovery be like for him?

WALSH: It will be a miracle. Because of modern technology and the Internet connecting people, lots of previously -- remember, back in the 1940s and '50s, pregnant teenagers quietly gave up their babies to places like Catholic Charities and then went on living like nothing happened.

So people are now seeking out these adoptive siblings. But in this case, we're talking about trauma and a child that's been disappeared. It'll be very difficult to find this baby, by the way, because it's my understanding that the baby was only two days old and had not been fingerprinted or footprinted.

So, I don't know how they would ever identify except through DNA. And that would be really difficult.

BALDWIN: Just sounds like, you know, they want the truth. It may be difficult to find. Wendy Walsh, thank you, as always.

WALSH: Yes, fascinating.

BALDWIN: The search for a man who has been suspected of kidnapping this teenage girl and her younger brother has been extended now up the West Coast and into Southern Oregon. Ethan and Hannah Anderson have been missing ever since their mother's body was found Sunday morning inside a burning home near San Diego.

Police say they have received more than 100 tips so far. And that home belonged to this man here. This is James DiMaggio. He is a longtime family friend who spent a lot of time with the Andersons, was even described as being like an uncle to these kids. This is a Facebook photo, shows him and Hannah together.

Hannah is missing now. A witness says DiMaggio may have even had a crush -- that's the witness's word -- a crush on this little girl. An Amber Alert for DiMaggio's blue Nissan was extended into Oregon yesterday after unconfirmed sightings of the vehicle in Northern California and Southern Oregon. A very anguished father talked this morning to CNN's Chris Cuomo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have heard these rumors, as have you, that your 16-year-old daughter Hannah had become uncomfortable around him. He'd expressed that he had a crush. We don't know the context. We don't know what really happened. But had you heard anything about that until now?

BRETT ANDERSON, FATHER OF MISSING CHILDREN: I had not heard anything about that. If I had heard something about that, or my wife had heard something about that, it would have been cut off.

CUOMO: No question about it?

ANDERSON: No question about it.

Ethan wore his heart on his sleeve. He would give -- do anything for anybody, loved everybody. He was just my buddy. We spoke quite often since I have been in Nashville. And he would tell me his daily routines. He was just getting back into football for a second year. And Hannah was just a beautiful, beautiful girl, very, very good student, hundreds and hundreds of friends. And there's nothing bad to say about my kids.

They never did anything to anybody. They were always wonderful. We were pretty tight-knit, even though I was a couple thousand miles away. I don't know -- I don't know what to say. It's surreal to me right now.

CUOMO: What is the hardest thing for you emotionally in this dealing with having your wife, your daughter and your son all in some type of not being with you anymore? What's the hardest thing for you emotionally in dealing with this?

ANDERSON: I believe the hardest thing emotionally is still to come when I have to go and start cleaning out their apartments and rooms.

But I have a lot of support here with me. And we will try to get through it.

CUOMO: We are here for you as well. We want to get the word out that everybody is looking for DiMaggio, that they're looking for Hannah, and, yes, that we have Ethan's face out there just in case. What do you want to say to this man if he's monitoring the news?

ANDERSON: Like I said before, you have taken everything. The damage is done. Just let my daughter go. Let her go home safe. Let her be with me and try to mend things from there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Your heart just goes out to that dad.

Let me just pass this along to you. Anyone with information on the case, call the San Diego Sheriff's Department, 1-858-974-2321, the number there on your screen.

And now to a bit more uplifting story here, Powerball and the winner in Minnesota. Let's dip in.

PAUL WHITE, POWERBALL WINNER: Nothing yet.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... ask for one thing?

P. WHITE: Well, I told my son to start -- he's 16. He's just been driving for a little while.

But he's got his own car. But I don't think it's quite like the car he will be driving soon.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) phone calls?

P. WHITE: I have gotten phone calls. Media outlets have called me already. I'm not sure how that happens, because you think it's kind of secret with the cell phone thing.

But I have had buddies who've seen it on the Internet call me already. And Piers Morgan's show called me, wants me to do an interview.

KIM WHITE (ph), POWERBALL WINNER: CNN.

P. WHITE: That's CNN.

(CROSSTALK)

P. WHITE: I got a number from a guy at "Good Morning America." He wants me to call him when we're done.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: You have talked about people calling you. Are you afraid that people are going to now try to get at you and start soliciting you?

P. WHITE: No.

What I'm hoping is, this is the big story of the day. I will tell you anything you want to know. And then let's move on to the next thing is what I'm hoping happens.

You know there's two more winners out there, too. There's still two more people that have to go through all this. And what I'm hoping, like I said, I'm yesterday's news as soon as possible, so I can go back to my quiet life.

(CROSSTALK)

P. WHITE: Huh?

QUESTION: Are you a private guy? P. WHITE: I wouldn't say. You just don't want all this attention. You just don't. You know what I mean? It's kind of daunting, because you think about the safety of your family and your kids, because there's crazy people out there. We have all seen "The Jerk." Remember the movie "The Jerk"?

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are the funniest winner.

Kim, could we ask you a question?

K. WHITE: Sure. Sure.

QUESTION: Tell us about the telephone conversation. You guys wouldn't be sitting here if you weren't double-checking and making sure (OFF-MIKE) double-checking (OFF-MIKE)

K. WHITE: More times than not, we don't check. We check later in the day or the next day when we come home.

And I -- for some reason somebody at my work said, do you have 32? And I said, I think I do. And I looked and I didn't.

So for some reason, I called Paul, and not the norm. But he didn't want to do it then. He will call me back in a couple hours. So, no. We had to talk about it then.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

K. WHITE: No, not even. I don't know. I have no idea. I don't play a lot. So, I don't expect to win. So, it was kind of shocking. It was fun last night, them guys getting in the convertible to go for a little cruise and my son thinking that's so exciting. But I think this topped it.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

K. WHITE: I work at a printing company in Brooklyn Park.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

(LAUGHTER)

P. WHITE: She's been there.

Well, it won't be up to me. It'll be up to her, if you know what I mean by that. She won't have to work again. But she's been there a long, long time.

K. WHITE: I have been there almost 25 years. We will see. I don't know. Haven't thought about that yet.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: How long you guys been together? K. WHITE: Four-and-a-half.

P. WHITE: Four-and-a-half years.

QUESTION: What about you? Anything that you really -- are you going to go buy a car off Craigslist or...

(LAUGHTER)

K. WHITE: I'm banning Craigslist from our house. Craigslist is no longer -- no, uh-uh. I hope it doesn't change us a lot. It will give us more conveniences. But, big picture, I hope we stay grounded. And it's just a nice little cushion. Yes.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

P. WHITE: You know, I'm more of a scratch-off guy.

I play scratch-offs more often than I do the Powerball. But usually if it gets up to a couple hundred million and everybody else is saying, oh, I'm going to get my Powerball tickets. I just do a quick pick. I don't have a certain set of numbers or anything.

QUESTION: Where exactly did you buy it?

P. WHITE: Holiday Station store in Ham Lake.

K. WHITE: Crosstown and Highway 65.

P. WHITE: Crosstown and 65, yes.

QUESTION: Do the numbers have any significance?

P. WHITE: No. It was a quick pick. No idea, though when I talked to one of my good friends today, he said, oh, what were the numbers? Was my birthday in there? And his was. And then it just so happened that my birthday is 5/30. And that was two of the numbers, too, five and 30, which I think if I picked numbers, I would have probably picked those. I pick like my kids' birthdays, but...

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

K. WHITE: I'm 45 as well. It's V-A-N-R-E-E-S-E.

P. WHITE: Her birthday is in January, though. So she's much older.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

K. WHITE: ... older.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

K. WHITE: One word, capital R.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

P. WHITE: You know what? I have had my bumps in my life. There's no question about it.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Self-inflicted bumps.

P. WHITE: Some of them self-inflicted, absolutely.

But I have always considered myself fortunate, absolutely. You know, stuff doesn't get me down. I have got -- I have got a real good family that's taught me values that are -- you know, a lot of them are church-based, I will say, that just give you a certain confidence that things are going to work out. So, yes, I have had my bumps, no more than anybody else, I would suppose, though.

QUESTION: Did you grow up in...

P. WHITE: No. I grew up in a little town called Rhinelander, Wisconsin, home of the Hodag.

And me and five guys I went to high school with moved down here to find work and go to school in 1987, I suppose. And I have been here and in the northern suburbs pretty much every day since, except I took a job transfer to Massachusetts for about three thank you.

BALDWIN: So, this guy seems to have a pretty decent sense of humor. But you know what? I think I would be chuckling, too, if I were Paul White and who I believe is his wife there, because they just won the Powerball jackpot. Do the math. They're going to have to split this. They will have to go three different ways. Grand total, $448 million was the jackpot.

Bought this ticket in Ham Lake, Minnesota. Will they go back to work? They sort of dodged that one and laughed. Who knows if they will go back to work? And those pesky reporters like Piers Morgan trying to get him on the show. How awesome would that be? I would love to see that interview with Piers. Stay tuned for that. They're hoping it won't change them too much. But they always say, you got to play to win. Congrats to them.

Now to a video that has shocked a town. A police chief going on profanity-laced YouTube rants, firing this semiautomatic gun, making fun of liberals. He was suspended. Now some people he is charged with protecting say they don't feel safe. CNN caught up with the chief who has a specific message for all of those who say he's not fit to serve. Hear directly from him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Some folks in a tiny town in Pennsylvania do not want their police chief to return to duty after his suspension, because they say Mark Kessler scares their socks off. One man says because his wife is afraid of him, so is he. I'm going to show you why they say that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK KESSLER, GILBERTON, PENNSYLVANIA, POLICE CHIEF: I have a message to carry. Any of these (EXPLETIVE DELETED) over in the U.N., here's your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) agreement. Sign anything you want to sign. It's not going to mean (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

It don't (EXPLETIVE DELETED) mean (EXPLETIVE DELETED) to me. You know what I have to say? Come and take this (EXPLETIVE DELETED)!

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Kessler making it pretty clear how he feels about gun control and liberals. Obviously, he is against them.

Well, after some outrage about that video that surfaced last month, we showed this to you then, Kessler made another video which was supposed to be an apology. Here's how that worked out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KESSLER: Yes, I don't think so. This boy don't roll that way. For all you people out there who cried and cried about, oh, I used profanity, (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you. Here's what I got to say. If you didn't get enough the first time around, go (EXPLETIVE DELETED) yourself and get some more.

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Kessler, who heads a political gun organization 100-men strong, is suspended because he used borough property without permission, not for what he said.

Our Joe Johns caught up with him and got the scoop on why he's causing such a stir.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KESSLER: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gilberton, Pennsylvania, Police Chief Mark Kessler is the only officer in this small town of about 1,000 people, but some are calling on him to go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kessler is a detriment to this borough. So, my wife is afraid of him, so I am going to be afraid of him, too.

KESSLER: Come and take it (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

JOHNS: The calls for Kessler's ouster started after he posted profanity-laced videos of himself shooting semiautomatic weapons.

KESSLER: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) again.

JOHNS: The borough council met on July 31st to suspend Kessler for 30 days. Kessler posted about the meeting on his Facebook page saying, "I am expecting a large crowd of anti-gunners and anti- constitutionalists to show up."

A couple dozen or more armed men showed up. Kessler, who also heads a group whose stated aim is to uphold the Constitution, says the men with guns at the meeting were just supporters of his.

KESSLER: Some of my supporters showed up and, as you well know that -- for those who don't know, Pennsylvania's an open carry state. So some people showed up with firearms, and I encourage that.

JOHNS: And Kessler offers no apologies for the videos. He broke no laws and says he was expressing his constitutional rights of free speech and to bear arms.

KESSLER: Come and get it!

JOHNS (on camera): Does your firing the weapon and using profanity or whatever, does it reflect badly on the town?

KESSLER: Well, you know, everybody's entitled to their opinion and I would hope everybody would express their opinion under the Constitution, the First Amendment, just like I have in my videos.

Oh, you (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out there.

JOHNS (on camera): Mark Kessler is at a county school board here. On a meeting Wednesday night, not a word of criticism was uttered about him or the videos.

Joe Johns, CNN, Gilberton, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Joe, thank you.

Coming up next, a family fast asleep gets a -- on the door, middle of the night. Sheriff's deputies show up asking them to open up. What happens next is all caught on cell phone video. And it's led the department to launch an internal investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just jumped on top of me. They were kicking me and punching me. My face was, like, on the corner of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Angry voices banging at your door. What do you do? You call law enforcement, right? But what if those voices are law enforcement? Eight deputies in DeKalb County -- that's the Atlanta area -- are now under fire after they raided this home back in July. And the two brothers inside the home recorded what went down. And here's some of the video they have now posted on YouTube.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's about 1:30 in the morning. They're still banging on the door. I told them over and over again they're at the wrong address. They keep yelling out 4663. And that is the wrong address. They are not at the right place.

You're not at the right place. Please, stop.

There are about four or five officers outside and a bunch of cars. They're shining bright lights in my home. We're very scared. We have called the police. We have called 911. No one is telling us what they're here for and what the reason of this is. We're very scared. We just want to have everything documented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You hear that, calling the police on the police? This family says they did allow the officers inside, fearing they would ultimately break down the door. Here's what happened next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I haven't done anything. I haven't done anything. I'm a Christian woman who hasn't done...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing? What are you doing?

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not doing anything. Stop. We're not doing anything. We're not doing anything. We're not doing anything. We're not doing anything. We're not doing anything. We're not doing anything. We're not doing anything.

Please stop. Please stop. We're not doing anything. We're not doing anything.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the ground! On the ground! On the ground!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the ground!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, God! UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing? What are you...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not resisting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Wow. So we have two --

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Devon, stay calm. Don't say anything. Say the Lord's Prayer.

(END AUDIO CLIP)