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Kidnapped Georgia Teen Found Alive; Alexis' Mother Speaks Out; Shooter's Past; Fed Won't Slow Down Stimulus; Sunken Cars Held Human Bodies; Government Shutdown Threat Grows

Aired September 18, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you.

I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We begin today with breaking news. Good news for a change. After 36 hours on edge, a teenager and her family are right now reuniting after she was kidnapped from her own home in what started as this home break-in. Police have now just confirmed they have found 14-year-old Ayvani Perez. We have learned she's doing just fine. She's being checked out. Police have the community to thank, as well as folks helping out with social media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF TURNER, CHAIRMAN, CLAYTON COUNTY, GEORGIA, COMMISSION: Local, state, and federal agents came together, worked together, and was able to bring this young lady home. I also would be remiss if I did not say my thanks to the community. They immediately jumped on social media outlets and spread the word. The word spread very quickly. Media responded. Thank you for putting out the word in response to the kidnapping as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Police and FBI speaking there at that news conference moments ago. We have learned two suspects have been arrested. We know that two men broke into this family home right around 2:00 in the morning on Tuesday. They demanded money. They wanted jewelry from Ayvani's mother. But when she couldn't meet their demands, this men then shot the family dog and took off with the 14-year-old.

I want to go straight to CNN's Martin Savidge who's been working this since the very beginning.

And, finally, the police chief in Clayton County said, this is a good day.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he did, Brooke. I mean you could tell that they were greatly relieved by all of this.

I should point out, this is the street that the Perez girl lives on. In fact, this is the time of day that a lot of kids are coming back into the neighborhood. Of course, they've been at school all day long. Talking to parents, they are -- it's two emotions you get here. Of course they're thrilled to hear that Ayvani is alive and well and there's relief too because this whole community had been on edge. They really have been fearing, because no one really knew why this happened. They couldn't figure it out. It seemed so random. And it was, of course, the worst thing that could possibly happen, breaking into a home and stealing a child. That's the most precious thing anybody has. So, in this community, a sense of relief and they're waiting - they're waiting to see the family come back and be reunited here.

But outstanding news was the way that that press conference began. And the tremendous number of people that were involved, you heard the county police chief essentially say they had at least 150 personnel, that's a mixture of both local and federal resources. You had everybody including the GBI, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, Homeland Security, and a number of other assets that they wouldn't even talk about because they were sensitive in nature. So there was a lot of federal and local law enforcement brought to bear very quickly in this investigation.

BALDWIN: Yes.

SAVIDGE: But now so many more questions, Brooke. You know, what happens to the other two men who were the ones depicted in the drawings? They're not in custody. So, how big did this case go? And it would seem, at least from the initial reading we're getting, that this was not a random act, but authorities wouldn't really go into any detail.

BALDWIN: So here's the question, because we heard from police and FBI minutes ago. They said, yes, they had these two people in custody. But then he continued saying, this is still an open investigation. They are still looking for other possible suspects, correct?

SAVIDGE: They are. And, you know, just reading some of who they have in custody, one is a Mexican national. All right, that sounds interesting because, of course, it's not a person from Georgia. But then there is another person from Atlanta who is in custody. So you've got two people there, plus the two people that allegedly broke into the home and apparently they're not in custody. So this becomes a larger crime, as it were, and seems to be more premeditated than, say, a break-in of opportunity, if you could call it that.

And that's always been something that has been on the minds of many people in this community here. Was there - was there something to it? This family has only been here about a month. So many here didn't know them. But, of course, the moment they heard of this tragedy, their hearts went out to this family. It's a mother and her two teenage children. And she did try to shield them. They tried to hide, but it didn't work. And the family dog was shot. It was a violent kidnapping. It really was horrendous and thank goodness it ended in a positive way, Brooke.

BALDWIN: It's nice to have a happy ending for a change.

SAVIDGE: It is. It really is.

BALDWIN: Martin Savidge for us in Clayton County. Martin, thank you.

The security and clearance and background checks were all in order for Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, but it's becoming increasingly evident in the weeks before his rampage that this young man was falling apart. Today, for the first time since the mass shooting two days ago, his own mother is responding. And we're going to play her voice, her words for you, choking back emotions, in just a moment.

But first, new details today about the 34-year-old man's state of mind. A police report from Newport, Rhode Island, details how just six weeks ago, six weeks, Alexis called officers about his hotel room, three people sent there to, quote, harass him. And the harassers were, citing the police report here, "using a microwave machine to send vibrations through the ceiling, penetrating his body so he could not speak."

This morning, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says his teams are looking into how Alexis got his quote/unquote secret clearance and this job as a military contractor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK HAGEL, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Obviously, something went wrong. As I said in my comments, we will review everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We can tell you that President Obama will be attending a memorial service on Sunday for the 12 killed. And as the nation grieves, so, too, does Alexis' mother, as you will soon hear. CNN's Deborah Feyerick joins us live from Brooklyn.

And, Deborah, this was incredibly emotional for this woman. And while she was willing to speak with you, she wouldn't show her face.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, she really didn't want to show her face. She has no idea what sort of ramifications this is going to have on her in her own life. But that's not where her thoughts are. I mean this is very, very difficult for her. She's clearly emotionally drained, both because of what her son did, but also because she's lost her son. And so like everyone else, she will never have an answer as to why he took that shotgun into that Navy base and killed all those people. But right now, her thoughts very much with the victims. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CATHLEEN ALEXIS, MOTHER OF AARON ALEXIS (voice-over): September 18, 2013, our son, Aaron Alexis, has murdered 12 people and wounded several others. His actions have had a profound and everlasting effect on the families of the victims. I don't know why he did what he did, and I'll never be able to ask him why. Aaron is now in a place where he can no longer do harm to anyone, and for that I am glad. To the families of the victims, I am so, so very sorry that this has happened. My heart is broken. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: Now, while she was giving this statement, Brooke, she actually had to lean on one of the clergymen who was on either side of her. They were there for support. They'd been sent actually by the police department, dispatched to help people in crisis and in need. But she herself was very dignified. She didn't want to give - she didn't want to elaborate on her son, wouldn't answer any additional questions and very specific rules, but wanted to make sure that people out here know what she's thinking.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: So here we have her thoughts today from the mother. It was you, Deb Feyerick, who had from your sources some information, some color from Alexis' father, saying that this 34-year-old man, you know, and before the last few years, you know, suffered PTSD after 9/11, after apparently responding to the scene there at Ground Zero. Did the mother mention that at all to you, Deborah?

FEYERICK: No, the mother wouldn't mention anything at all. What we do know is that back on September 11th, apparently, Aaron Alexis was working down at a community college that's right there. (INAUDIBLE) whether he was on his way to work, there are certain things that he saw that clearly affected him. The campus where he was working became a staging ground for first responders. And, you know, in those immediate days, everybody was sort of pitching in, everybody was volunteering, everybody was trying to do something because they felt so helpless. But, no, we don't know specifically what he witnessed, but we do know that soon after he left New York, citing 9/11, that according to his dad.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: That he snapped. Deborah Feyerick for us in Brooklyn. Deb, thank you.

I want to bring in Jim Clemente, a retired FBI profiler, joining me here.

And, Jim, when you look and you read about this young man, right, so it appears it's a laundry list of signs. You have gun incidents in the past, shooting the tires of a construction worker's car, firing a shot through his ceiling into a neighbor's floor. As Deborah and I were talking, his father, you know, discussing 9/11 and how that was really a catalyst for this PTSD when he snapped and then just recently, Newport, Rhode Island last month, these unseen individuals were talking to him through the walls and the floor, using the microwave. I mean, when you hear all of this through the years, what does that tell you?

JIM CLEMENTE, RETIRED FBI PROFILER: Well, at least recently, we're seeing a man who has serious mental health and rage issues. And those rage issues apparently have gone back to these early shooting incidents back in 2004, 2010. But clearly, this is a guy that's recently suffering from dilutions, paranoia, possibly psychotic breaks. This is not a guy that should have a security clearance and certainly this is not a guy who should have access to guns.

BALDWIN: You know, I know people are digging on the issue of the security clearance, but when you look back, these incidents seem to be isolated. We know looking back at his past, he was never convicted. There are these little red flags. But in your opinion, are these little?

CLEMENTE: Well, actually, the best indicator of future behavior is a past pattern of behavior. And I think you put all these incidents together, and they should have come up on his background checks. If you look at that past pattern of behavior, he is not the kind of person that would - should qualify for a security clearance. So somebody dropped the ball along the way on this one and it was obviously fatal. And I think that, you know, when you're looking at whoever did the background investigations, I don't know if it was the GAO or the FBI, but whoever did it, certainly if this - if the - if their budgets were cut because of the sequester, if they have fewer people working fewer man hours to log, then you're going to have more and more people fall through the cracks like this.

BALDWIN: There are questions about the budget even pre-sequester that perhaps, you know, work into this. There are questions that are being asked right now because of this.

Jim Clemente, thank you very much for joining me.

And now to a decision that will affect the interest rates you will pay for everything from mortgages to car loans. The Federal Reserve panel has just decided what to do with the stimulus that has kept those interest rates so, so low. Let's go straight to Christine Romans in New York. We also have Alison Kosik to talk market reaction at the New York Stock Exchange.

But first, Christine, what is the word from the Fed?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: No taper. The Fed is not ready to take the training wheels off the American economy. The Fed saying while it can see that the economy is improving, there is moderate economic recovery here, but it's just not enough to withdrawal all of that stimulus it's doing every month. How much is it doing? It's doing $85 billion of stimulus into the U.S. economy to try to keep the job market going, to try to keep the oxygen really flowing in the American economy, and it's not ready just yet to pull back on that.

A very telling that the Fed, in its forecast, it always gives these forecasts for what it expected the economy and the jobless rate and all these economic indicators to do, the Fed downgrading its expectations for a growth. The Fed now saying it sees 2 percent to 2.3 percent economic growth this year. That's down a little bit from what it thought before. And 2.9 to 3.1 percent next year. Again, that is a downgrade on the expectations of growth from the Fed. It still would like to see a target of about 6.5 percent for the unemployment rate and we're just not there yet.

So, again, Ben Bernanke and the folks on the Federal Reserve, they are not going to give into the taper talk just yet. The taper tapering those purchases of bonds and mortgage-backed securities that has been propping up so much of the American economy. They're not ready just yet to do it, so the waiting and watching on Wall Street continues. We'll hope this means no big move up for the mortgage rates. We'll hope it means -

BALDWIN: Right, that was my next -

ROMANS: Yes, go ahead.

BALDWIN: That's what I was wondering, right, if we're keeping the training wheels on, mortgage, you know, interest rates, does that stay the same for now?

ROMANS: The market - market mortgage rates have been moving higher. They've moved higher to about 4.57 percent for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage in part because the world is waiting and wondering and expecting the Fed to start pulling back. This could be good. This could put a little lid on your mortgage rates. But the Fed is going to have to taper one way or the other sometime. If not right now, later this year or sometime next year. So you'll continue to see those pressure on those mortgage rates. If I were trying to refinance a home, I would do it right now. If I were trying to buy a home, and you're really sensitive to mortgage rates, it's still -- this is the time to do it, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. The good word, the good advice from Christine Romans.

Alison Kosik, I am hearing that the S&P is up, up, up.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Up, up, up is right hitting a new interaday record, Brooke. It's sitting at 1,720. So that - actually, the S&P 500 is what your -- maybe for your 401(k) or your mutual fund or your retirement funds really track. So it's hitting a new all-time high, at least for the trading session. We're going to see if it closes at this level.

We saw an immediate reaction in the stock market when this decision came out. A sharp reversal. Stocks were in the red. Now they're very much in the green. Look at the Dow, up 107 points because what's been basically happening is, with this stimulus pumping into the financial system here in this country, we've watched stocked surge this year. The Dow is up 18 percent just this year. The S&P 500 up at least 19 percent. So investors are cheering this move. This is a surprise move because it was expected that there was going to be a pull-back in the stimulus. Not happening.

We're also seeing home building stocks surge 2 to 4 percent because the expectation is, by keeping things status quo, by keeping the punch bowl out and open for everybody to take a little bit of, the expectation is you're going to see people still get out there and refinance and look to buy homes.

BALDWIN: Good deal. Alison Kosik and Christine Romans, thank you again. You can always keep your eye on the big board, cnnmoney.com.

Coming up, this stunning development in these two cold cases unsolved for decades.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wasn't around at that time, you know? I'm a lot younger. But, you know, I've heard about it. I've heard about it for years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All these years, they weren't very far from home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Find out what crews found inside these old cars after they were pulled from the bottom of a lake. We're going to take you there live.

Plus, a gripping interview. The family of a woman killed at the Washington Navy Yard speaks to CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUGLASS GAARDE, WIFE KILLED IN NAVY YARD SHOOTING: I guess what I want them to know most about her is what a caring person she was, particularly how she cared about her family.

JESSICA GAARDE, MOTHER KILLED IN NAVY YARD SHOOTING: And I want them to know she lived. She's not a number.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: More of Anderson Cooper's exclusive, emotional interview ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: So, here's a strange story. Police divers, just training in a lake in Oklahoma, found two sunken cars. These are very old cars. They figured both were stolen. But then they found three bodies in the first car and then three more bodies in the other car. In all, six human bodies were found in Foss Lake. This is just west of Oklahoma City. I want to take you there live now. Standing by for us is Patti Moon of CNN affiliate KOCO.

So, Patti, set the scene for me. Tell me what's happening out there right now.

PATTI MOON, KOCO REPORTER: Good afternoon, Brooke.

A gruesome discovery here at Foss Lake. We are in western Oklahoma. I want to show you what's happening behind me now. You can see that Custer County deputies are collecting as much evidence as possible from these two cars. As you said, the two cars were first thought stolen. They were then pulled from the lake yesterday and deputies found the skeletal remains of up to six people.

Now, the Custer County sheriff has been poring over missing persons reports and they have been doing everything possible to try to find out who the owners of these two cars were and who were in these cars. Right now, the Custer County sheriff thinks that one of the cars belonged to a 16-year-old Jimmy Williams who went missing in 1970. He may have been in his car with two other teenagers. 18-year-old Leah Johnson and 18-year-old Thomas Rios. We were in Sayer (ph), Oklahoma, earlier today, and we actually did see that Jimmy Williams was in the Sayer High School year book in 1969 and 1970. A lot of people in Sayer talking about this case and remembering how these three teenagers disappeared just so suddenly.

Now, the other car still remains a bit of a mystery. But I did speak with a woman earlier today. She tells me that she thinks her grandfather was in that car. He is a John Alby Porter (ph) who went missing with two friends in 1969.

Now, right now, all deputies have to deal with are really just skeletal remains, so this is a very delicate process. They say basically what they're going to have to do is compare DNA evidence of living relatives with the skeletal remains that are here. But the Custer County sheriff stresses that this is a very important process. He is hoping to get some closure for these families that have not known what happened to their loved ones for more than 40 years.

Brooke, back to you.

BALDWIN: Can you imagine, decades later, and here you have the cars behind you, still encased in the mud, in the muck, through the years, found on a training exercise.

Patti Moon, thank you so much. Fosse Lake, Oklahoma.

And now to this. In less than two weeks, the government shuts down if President Obama and Republicans do not reach a deal to fund the government. And today, boy, oh, boy, a war of words shows they are nowhere close.

Plus, right now, bus passengers are fighting to live after a train collides with a double-decker. You will hear what crews found on that scene, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Bus passengers fighting for their lives right now after this tragic crash in Ottawa, Canada. A passenger train ramming into a double-decker bus, killing six people, including the driver. More than two dozen others hurt, 11 of them critically. We're told this train derailed a couple hundred feet down the track. The cause, not yet clear. We'll take you live to the scene coming up in the show.

It is showdown time in Washington. Folks, we are bumping up against the end of the federal government's budget year. So in less than two weeks, the government will have to shut down unless Congress can get together to approve the money to run it beyond the end of September. And right now, doesn't look too likely. House Speaker John Boehner announced today that budget legislation will include a vote to defund Obamacare. Now that bill would pass the House, yes, but it will never get through the Senate as is. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: There should be no conversation about shutting the government down. That's not the goal here. Our goal here is to cut spending and to protect the American people from Obamacare. It's as simple as that. There's no interest on our part in shutting the government down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Does this feel like a little deja vu, perhaps, circa 2011, debt ceiling fight, remember that mess? Well, President Obama says, no, we are not going there again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we're not going to set up a situation where the full faith and credit of the United States is put on the table every year or every year and a half and we go through some sort of terrifying financial brinksmanship because of some idealogical arguments that people are having about some particular issue of the day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go to our chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash for us in Washington.

And, Dana, how did we get to this point?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it has been one of the top priorities of Republicans since Obamacare passed in the first place, to get rid of it. And lately they have been trying to do that by trying to defund it. And it was probably maybe right before Congress went into recess in the summer that Republicans, conservatives in particular, started to come up with the idea of linking defunding Obamacare to the spending bill, to keeping the government running. And leaders on both sides poo-pooed this privately more than publicly. But guess what? These conservative groups, in particular, spent all recess pounding away at conservatives in their district saying, you've got to support this. And so the House speaker, who didn't want to do this, didn't say so publicly, but didn't want to do this, is now forced to do exactly that, link these two things, which he knows is high-stakes. I asked him about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I know it's not been easy to be the speaker over this caucus, but at this point, have you kind of lost control over the caucus?

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Listen, we've got a lot of divergent opinions in the caucus. And the key to any leadership job is to listen. You know, I was here during the Gingrich era. He had a little plaque that was in his office. And it was a management model. Listen, learn, help, and lead. We listened to our colleagues over the course of the last week. We have a plan that they're happy with. We're going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So the question is, what happens now? We are going to see a vote likely by the end of this week in the House, which we do expect to pass given the fact that Republicans do have the majority in the House. Again, which would keep the government running through the middle of September, excuse me, of December, but also have a provision in there to take the money out to fund Obamacare, so it would basically make it impossible to put out there.

Then the question is, what happens in the Senate, which is led by the Democrats? Leaders today made very clear that in the words of Chuck Schumer of New York, we're not going to blink, we're not going to deal with this the way that the House is sending it over. But, look, I think at the end of the day, nobody really wants the government to shut down, so it is going to be very unclear in the days ahead how they're going to deal with this, particularly when the Senate gets it, they could try to strike out that Obamacare defunding portion. And then, if they can do that, which is a question mark how they actually procedurally do that, then what happens when this legislation goes back to the House. Again, September 30th, 12 days away. And by all accounts, it's going to be down to the wire once again.

BALDWIN: Once again, we'll be watching. Dana Bash, thank you.

And while we're talking money, I want to take you from Washington to New York and take a look here at the numbers on the big board. Folks, we have seen -- this is an interaday high for the Dow because it is officially above that 15,664. Not at the moment, but it has hit it. This is huge because we heard Christine Romans breaking the news on the big Fed announcement that they're going to keep those training wheels on. They're going to continue the stimulus program for the next little bit of time. So, good news for the stock market today.

Coming up next, the raw shock of learning your mom, your wife, has been killed. You're going to see the entire gripping interview with one family of one of the victims from the Washington Navy Yard shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA GAARDE, MOTHER WAS KILLED IN NAVY YARD SHOOTING: We have these periods of numbness where like the water's receding and i just feel nothing. And then something, whether it be a bill on the counter or, heck, I was in the bathroom and she recently bought me new towels and I just see the towels and it just all hits.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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