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Freescale Semiconductor Employees on Missing Malaysian Flight; Malaysian Flight Pilot Recently Interviewed by CNN; Dead Michigan Woman Found due to Foreclosure; Hadiya Pendleton's Parent Start Foundation

Aired March 08, 2014 - 18:00   ET

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

PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: And Rick Perry for example gave a good speech here, and I was talking to some people here who thought that Rick Perry would do better, and he didn't. So, I think a fourth place finish for Chris Christie is a win for him on the heel of a really good speech from him.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: All right, Thanks very much to Peter Hamby at the CPAC conference. Just to remind our viewers, the results of that straw poll is too early, but for 2016, 31 percent for Rand Paul, 11 percent for Ted Cruz and Ben Carson and then Chris Christie in fourth place there. But well behind Rand Paul, so a big win there. And we have been following this all day.

Please be with us. After this break, we will have more with all the latest international news and news back home in the U.S.

And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I am Jim Sciutto, in today for Don Lemon.

The hours are passing without no answers, even though clues, and hundreds of families afraid they will never see their loved ones again. I am talking about the disappearance of a commercial airliner, a Malaysia airlines flight somewhere b between the place it disappeared in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia and its destination Beijing, the capital of China.

These are families of some of the 239 people who are on board. So far, they have mostly been told to wait for information. Frustrating moments for them. The plane lost contact with the ground more than 24 hours ago now.

And not long after this plane vanish, the process of notifying the passengers' next kin turned out a problem with the manifest. It is now clear that two people boarded that, now missing flight, with stolen or lost passports.

I want to get to Tom Fuentes in her. He is our law enforcement analyst and a former reporter to the FBI director.

Tom, we talked about this a number of time last couple of hours, but how concern at this stage, and again, as we have been doing a number of times, reminding our viewers that it is very early to even guess as to what brought this plane down, but how concerned is a detail like this making the investigators in your experiences as the former assistant director of the FBI?

THOMAS FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Jim, it is a very important issue to try to resolve of who actually used the passports to get on that plane and why. And you know, in a case like this, yes, it is too early to speculate, however, law enforcement in the intelligence community can't wait until pieces of the plane are recovered or the flight data recorder or the voice cockpit recorders are recovered and analyzed. And then a month or year or two years from now decide, guess what, it was terrorism. We better start looking at that.

They need to look at every possible issue right now extensively. And that would include law enforcement authorities from every country who had passengers on the aircraft, including the United States. Obviously, China had the most passengers, over 150, so they are of great concern to them. It is a Malaysian aircraft, so they are concerned. It was manufactured in the United States so that is a concern.

So you have a number of countries with a direct interest in resolving what the cause was of bringing that aircraft out of the sky and crashing it probably into the ocean, and even that has not been verified yet. But something caused that plane to leave the sky and enter the ocean or enter the ground, and a catastrophe has occurs and still no clues. So all they have to go on right now would be who got on that plane, and try to identify each person.

In the process of trying to identifying individuals that they thought one was from Italy and one from Austria, and they have contacted those individuals, and they say, no, I was not on that plane, and my passport had been reported stolen, and in this case, the passport from Italy had been reported to Interpol, and in Interpol's database in Lyon, France, which has 39 million stolen documents, travel documents in the database. But apparently, no inquiry made of that database, and whoever used that passport boarded the aircraft.

SCIUTTO: We do know, and again it is early, what we do know that security officials are these following this detail. A U.S. intelligence S. official telling me earlier in the day quote "we are aware of the reporting of the two stolen passports. No nexus of terrorism, as connection to terrorism yet. Although that is by no means definitive, we are still tracking."

I want to get to causes, because it is early, how about just that problem that passengers were able to board a plane where at least one of them, but we know two stolen or lost, but at least one of them in a database that would have shown that, how worrisome is it that it was allowed to happen 13 years after 9/11.

FUENTES: Well, 13 years after 9/11, one billion airline tickets are issued and that is one billion with a "B" worldwide are issued annually worldwide, where there is no inquiry made as to whether the passport is valid or not. No other outside inquiry. Now, the secretary-general of Interpol, Ronald Noble, has been aggressively trying to make the countries to make that inquiry when the flights are departing as well as have them made the inquiry when people cross border patrol entering their country. Now, that happens in many countries that when you enter the country, the passports are checked, not only for arrest warrants or information in that country, but also if red notices or other notices were issued by Interpol out of the headquarters in Lyon. But currently, not many countries do that.

Now Interpol has initiated a new project called "I check it" where they are going directly to the airlines around the world, and saying, are you interested, yourselves in having access to the inquire of the database. Now right now, two airlines are actually doing it, Qatar air and Arabian air. It is a pilot study. They are going to see how this works out, and maybe expand into other airlines around the world, so that it doesn't require the government of those countries, but the airlines, themselves, can do the inquiry about the documents being used to issue tickets and boarding passes.

SCIUTTO: Interestingly if you would think, you know, computers are pretty powerful today that you would be able to do that already who with the number of people buying those tickets and travelling.

Thanks very much to Tom Fuentes, our law enforcement analyst, also former assistant director of the FBI.

Now, also, overseas, the Ukraine crisis is getting more volatile with fresh rounds of bullying from the pro Russian forces in Crimea. Meanwhile, President Obama personally spoke with key leaders today, all agree that Russia needs to immediately deescalate the situation.

The president spoke individually with British Prime Minister David Cameron, and France's Francois Holland and Italy's Prime Minister Renzi, key American allies in Europe. This comes as secretary of state John Kerry issued a no warning to his Russian counterpart or Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.

Kerry says Russia's continues military escalation, that was his words, may soon close any available space for diplomacy which has been the president's preference, the administration preference going forward.

In Crimea, mass troops seized control of a military office in the region's capital of Simferopol. And this video shows unmarked military trucks and road to the city. More Russian forces on the ground there according to the Ukrainian officials and U.S. officials.

Senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance, visited the scene after masked men showed up there in Simferopol, and said that the mood was oddly calm there.

Short time ago, I talked with Chance about the situation, and this is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Matthew, two issues I know U.S. officials are watching most closely are one, the number of Russian troops on the ground there, and two, how those troops and the militias are being used invading or taking over Ukrainian government posts, military posts, et cetera, are you seeing evidence of both of those things more troops and more incidents like that? MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we are. Quite significant evidence. In fact, today, there was a convoy of 60 military vehicles that made its way from the Russian border in the east of Crimea all of the way across Crimea and it is heading out to the undisclosed location somewhere at north of Simferopol, the city from where I am talking to you now, the main city in Crimea. Also, scattered around this region, there are outposts of forces that are pro-Russian. They are not wearing an insignia on the uniforms and the vehicles are not marked, but nobody I don't think anybody seriously believe they are not members of the Russian force for forces. But of course, the Kremlin denies has any troops here. Nevertheless, very organized contingents of pro-Russian forces at various locations particularly around Ukrainian military barracks that were surrounded by many instances.

And earlier as well, at the army recruitment center, for instance, was taken over by masked men, pro-Russians again, they took it over, they evacuated here in the middle of Simferopol, and they replaced their own people inside, civilians were brought in to man the offices. They put guards outside of the gates. And when we got there, they had taken down Ukrainian flags there and they were painting the Russian flags on the gates. And so, yes, it is a slow, but sure takeover.

SCIUTTO: And you know, there has been a lot of debate here, speculation as to whether Russia has carried out an invasion here, and does it constitute an invasion? Could it become an invasion? But practically looking around, you are on the ground there, is there any doubt as to who controls Crimea now?

CHANCE: I can't imagine that there is. I mean, obviously, we have to bear in mind that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president says very clearly that the Russian forces are not operating inside Crimea. And that is not the sort of view you will get though, if you look at the situation in front of you.

You do have these organized forces, and there are many thousands of them. And, of course, I'm talking about apart from the presence of the Russian fleet and the port of Simferopol. They have many thousands of troops outside of Simferopol in various locations as I mentioned. And independent observers clearly say, you know, these are regular officers and men from the standing army of Russia to have insignia on them, you can't possibly identify them. And clearly, it is Russians and it is pro-Russian militias that are calling over shots here, Jim.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Our thanks to our Matthew Chance on the ground in the middle of it in Crimea, Ukraine.

And still ahead, Ukrainians from across the United States, rally in support of their homeland in our nation's capital. Hear one family story as their worry grows.

And up next, a mother in court for the first time since driving her minivan into the ocean with her three children on board. Learn why investigators say she tried to kill her own children.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

Did the police miss the chance to stop a pregnant woman are from trying to drown her own children by driving a van into the ocean? We have learned that Ebony Wilkerson was stopped by police two hours before that fateful drive on a Florida beach. They suspected she might be mentally ill, but decided they could not legally hold her.

Our Nick Valencia has more on this incredible story.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, Ebony Wilkerson made her first court appearance earlier today with the judge set her bond at $1.2 million. That is 300,000 for every count of first degree attempted murder, $100,000 for every count of child abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERIFF KEN JOHNSON, VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: She definitely tried to kill her children from everything we have seen.

VALENCIA (voice-over): The Volusia county sheriff's office says new details in the investigation show this was not accident.

JOHNSON: She actually told them to close their eyes, go to sleep. She was taking them to a better place.

VALENCIA: On Tuesday, Ebony Wilkerson drove a minivan filled with her children into the Atlantic Ocean. The dramatic drive on Florida's Daytona Beach caught on tape as kids inside cried for help.

TIM TESSENEER, EYEWITNESS: We thought it was a joke. Hey, they're having a good time.

VALENCIA: Eyewitness Tim Tesseneer found out quickly the situation was serious. It was Tesseneer and another onlooker Stacy Robinson who helped rescue the family.

TESSENEER: We didn't know there were kids in the car to begin with. Then the back windows rolled down and we heard kids, you know, hollering a little and then I thought I heard a faint "help." I was like, did I hear a faint help and then it come clear. They were screaming for help.

VALENCIA: The children's mother charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder and three counts of child abuse. Relatives told investigators Wilkerson was in quote "an abusive relationship with her husband and she had come to Florida to get away." Relatives said the 32-year-old pregnant mother of three had no history of mental illness. But a 911 call made by a concerned family member just two hours before Wilkerson allegedly tried to kill her kids.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. I need wellness, like she's having psychosis or something, or postpartum.

VALENCIA: Police say they did respond and evaluated her for about 30 minutes but said there was no legal right to detain her.

JOHNSON: The children weren't in crisis. The woman said I'm going to a shelter and she showed nothing that was no display she was a danger to anyone at that time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: If she is convicted, Wilkerson could face a maximum of 30 years in prison -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Nick Valencia in Atlanta.

Still ahead, here, nearly 5,000 miles separates Washington from Ukraine. And the miles only added the worry some families face as the crises there grows.

Rosa Flores is in New York now with one family story -- Rosa.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Jim, hundreds if not thousands of families here in the U.S. from Ukraine are worried about their family's safety, and one family's message to the world is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

Now, Ukraine may seem very far away, but thousands of Americans have family ties there in New York. Ukrainian Americans lit candles for protesters killed in Kiev. At rally, they round Russians aggression (ph). People across the U.S. road buses to the nation's capital as week this week so they could rally and support of Ukraine right outside the White House.

I want to bring in correspondent Rosa Flores in New York who took a bus trip and talk personally with worried Ukrainian Americans.

Rosa, tell me, how are they reacting to this and how worried are they about what is going on back home?

FLORES: Well, Jim, good evening.

I actually road along in one of the buses that traveled from New York to D.C. So I had a lot of time to talk to these families. And I can tell you that I can see a common thread, they all communicate with their families on a regular basis in Ukraine, and they are all extremely worried about their safety.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

FLORES: Worry is the same in every language.

HALYNA FENCHENKO, UKRAINIAN American: You feel that horrible thing what happened and then when kids are dying, it is unbelievable. FLORES: Halyna Fenchenko video chats with family in West Ukraine daily.

FENCHENKO: You are calling each other. And I'm going to say like what did you hear? What did you hear? What did you hear? Did you hear that? Did you hear that? It is just unbelievable. And we start to shake.

FLORES: Her biggest worry, war, of what she describes as an artificial divide with Russian speakers and Ukraine.

FENCHENKO: My father was from the east side. We love everybody. We are afraid that they are going to separate us. And not just even territorially, but what is the most important in the mind. They make us sort of enemy. But we are not. We are not. We are very friendly.

FLORES: Hundreds if not thousands of Ukrainians in the U.S. are gathering in states like New York, Illinois, Ohio and Connecticut to express their solidarity, and most recently in front of the White House.

KATYWINA BRANDYS, UKRAINIAN AMERICAN: There is no deeper emotion that has come across this country in many, many years. I think that since we gained our independence and that was in '91.

FLORES: What is life like in Crimea right now based on what your family is telling you?

DILER MERGIN, UKRAINIAN AMERICAN: Everybody is sitting home not going to work, trying to watch as much TV as they can, but they are starting to get the Russian news, basically, so it is the Russian propaganda, and they are thinking that the rest of the world has basically forgotten and that we are not hearing what is going on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it is not just the --

FLORES: And Fenchenko prays regularly for her family and friends in Ukraine.

FENCHENKO: We want the live peacefully and that is it. That is it.

FLORES: Peace, another one of those words that means the same in every language.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Now, those demonstration organizers that you saw in the bus, in that piece tell me that they plan to continue demonstrating until peace is achieved in Ukraine -- Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, the crisis there is hitting close the home here in the U.S.

Thanks very much, Rosa Flores, in New York.

I want to talk more now about Ukraine and the diplomatic challenges ahead with former U.S. ambassador Christopher Hill, former Korea diplomatic U.S. ambassador Poland and to South Korea and Iraq, now Dean of international studies at university international studies in Denver.

Ambassador Hill, very good to have you on today.

CHRISTOPHER HILL, INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEAN OBEIDALLAH, POLITICAL COMEDIAN: , UNIVERSITY OF DENVER: Yes.

What we learned today that Secretary Kerry called Russian Sergey Lavrov. He were to being continued military escalation there, do we infer from that statement that Russian military forces are escalating there? Is he warning against them. You certainly are seeing more troops going in and you are seeing more of these incidents where you have Russian forces or the forces that we believe to -- U.S. believes to be Russian forces forcing Ukrainian forces out of the Ukrainian installations are taking them over.

HILL: You bet. I think it is very clear, the Russians have continued their military occupation in anticipation of a vote, a referendum that is which as you know the Ukrainian authorities have declared illegal. So probably, that is going to go on. And the Russians will be in a position to do something that is really going to cause a lot of problems for a long, long time, which I think is the nature of what secretary Kerry was saying to the Sergey Lavrov which is that the United States has to frankly going to have to throw the book at the Russians, and I think a lot of other countries are going to do the same, because you cannot have a neighboring state take over a part of its neighbor. You simply can't allow that to happen. Whatever the historical complexities of Crimea are, and by the way, there are a lot of complexities there, and a lot of the Russian skin in that game, but you simply cannot allow this to happen. I think that Kerry was making that point.

SCIUTTO: Now, Ambassador Hill, you have done some tours right in the middle of this area. You have been ambassador to Poland and also in Macedonia, you know, the history of the Yugoslavia war which has echoes of this right ethnic conflict, Russian involvement and so on.

I wonder as you know, President Obama has gotten a lot of heat for in effect tempting this Russian military intervention with some of the policy decisions, and for instance choosing not to attack Syria after the use of chemical weapons. Do you think there is anything to back up the argument? Do you believe that it is a product of the Obama administration foreign-policy decisions to this point?

HILL: I really don't think that there is at all. I mean, Russia is doing what it is doing in Ukraine, because it has what it perceives to be historical interests there. I mean, this is truly a part of the world where the supply of history exceeds the demand. This has nothing to do with what President Obama did or didn't do in Syria. I mean, that is a long way away from this place right on Russia's border.

The problem is that we have competing narratives. We have a Ukrainian nationalism, and by the way, if you want to the start looking at the blame, there is enough blame to go to the moon and back starting with the Russians. But you know, the Ukrainians have had 23 years to start sorting out the problems of the economy, to start sorting out the political problems they have never been able do it, and I think what we are seeing is the Russian nationalism seeing this as a target of opportunity.

SCIUTTO: Well, since you mentioned the history, you only have to go back as far as 2008, Russian military action in Georgia and the history going back even further spanning the administration parties in Hungary in 1996, Czechoslovakia in 1968.

I wonder, looking at the situation now, there is a lot of talk about Vladimir Putin judging the U.S. to be weak, whether it is Obama or Bush or either administration or either party, and there is a competing point of view, and a contrarian point of view that he is worried and he sees the U.S. in his view having sparked this demonstration right in his backyard, again, in his view spark the demonstrations and the protests and in the Arab spring. I mean, is there an alternative reading here that this is pushback from Putin feeling as back up against wall in effect? Can I argue it is a sign of weakness?

HILL: Well, I mean, certainly, I think it is clear. Putin did not really start this dance. This was something going on in Kiev due to a very, you know, corrupt and inept government they have there with the consequence that people wanted to sort of throw the rascals out. I think Putin reacted and very much pushed by Russian nationalism which he is part and parcel of.

So, I think that he is kind of gotten himself into the series of forced moves. And what I don't think that he is adequately understood is we too have forced moves. I'm using a metaphor from chess which the Russians pride themselves on knowing, but we have no choice but to react to this. I think that Putin should have been able to think three moves ahead and understand that.

So, whatever he kind of got himself into, he's put us into the position where we have no choice, but to kind of push against, and pushback against the Russians. And so, we are going to see 23 years of trying to work with Russia kind of going down the drain, and I think it is going to a very tough time for Russia.

I would not want to change positions with Putin. I think he has a lot of problems starting with the fact that his own economy suffers from some of the problems that the Ukrainian economy has.

SCIUTTO: Well, that is a good point. And if we get to the situation where the sanctions are actually imposed, there is a lot to lose, certainly on the western European side of this. A lot of trade with Russia, we have supplies depends that are Russian side.

Thank you very much ambassador Christopher Hill, few people know the situation in that region there better than you. Much appreciated,.

Still ahead, as night turns to day in the China Sea, the focus remains on finding the missing Malaysian airlines jet. CNN met one of the missing pilots, just weeks before this flight. We will explain after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: This is just into CNN and this is about the Malaysian Airlines flight that crashed off of the coast of Vietnam. We have new information about the Americans on board of the jet. That the Americans on board were with an Austin-based company, Freescale Semiconductor, that had more than 20 people on board of the flight, and not all of them American, but the two Americans on board were working with or tied to the Austin-based company. This was just learned in the last few minutes.

Here is a statement from the president and the CEO of Freescale Semiconductor: "At present, we are solely focus on our employees and their families. Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this tragic event."

And again, new information that the Americans on board of this disappeared Malaysian Airlines flight that disappeared more than 24 hours ago that they were tied to this Austin-based technology company.

Something happened on that flight between Malaysia and China. And the investigators are looking closely at the passenger manifest, because two of the people whose passports were used to board that plane have reported their passports lost or stolen. So that means that two people on this missing plane checked in with passports not issued to them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST & FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT FBI DIRECTOR: Well, Jim, it is an important issue to the resolution of who used those passports to get on that plane and why. And, in a case like this, yes, it is too early to speculate, but law enforcement and the intelligence community cannot wait until pieces of the plane to be recovered, the flight data record, the voice cockpit recorders are recovered and then analyzed, and then a month or a year or two years from now, well, guess what, it was terrorism, and we should look at that. They need to look at every possible issue right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: That was Tom Fuentes, CNN law enforcement analyst, and former deputy director of the FBI.

CNN's Andrew Stevens is joining us now. He is near the international airport in Beijing. That is the destination of the flight.

Andrew, it is Sunday morning where you are. The passengers have been frustrated throughout, not given much information. Is there any new information given to the families now, are they hearing anything from the airline?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The only new information, Jim, is that China has sent two warships to that area where an oil slick was reported by a Vietnamese Air reconnaissance team, but other than that, nothing at the moment, because the facts are very, very thin.

You mentioned Freescale there, and looking at who was on that plane from Freescale, 12 Malaysians and eight Chinese nationals who worked for Freescale. And obviously, a massive tragedy for the company.

But the relatives and the friends of those who are on board still continuing to arrive here in Beijing. 120 family members of people on board are now at the hotel. There were 154 Chinese nationals in all. And Malaysian Airlines is saying that one of the key priorities is obviously looking after the families and offering whatever they can, and whatever help they can. And also in Kuala Lumpur, there are also relatives gathering there. Malaysia Airlines says they will fly any family member to either Beijing or Kuala Lumpur so they can be with other families.

So at this stage, Jim, the air search is resumed. The sea search is under way again, but still no definite evidence other than there is an oil slick in the region, which was on the flight path of the plane. The only fact that we know is that it disappeared from the radar view just two hours after it took off from the airport.

SCIUTTO: Thank you very much, Andrew Stevens. Very important clarification, because you are saying that the 20 employees of this American, the Austin-based company, Freescale Semiconductor, they were Chinese and Malaysian. None of them were Americans. But there were three Americans listed on the manifest, is that right?

STEVENS: Yes, that is what we have heard so far from the statement from Freescale. They're talking about the number 20 that are 12 Malaysians and the eight Chinese.

We should point out, as far as the search is concerned, Jim, China has sent one of their biggest war ships to the area. It's an amphibious assault aircraft. It's carrying a big medical team, some 30 or so on the medical team. They have helicopters on board. It has underwater detection equipment on board, and a giving team on board. So they are going into the area now. And that follows the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, saying that all efforts must go all out to find that plane and to find out what happened, and hopefully to carry out some rescues.

SCIUTTO: It is interesting. That's a rare use of the Chinese navy outside of the Chinese waters. So that is telling as well. Of course, they lost the bulk of the passengers on that plane.

Thank you very much to our anchor, Andrew Stevens, in Beijing.

And as we told you, 239 people left Kuala Lumpur on that Boeing 777, passengers and the flight crew, the pilot and flight attendants.

When we learned the names of the captain and the co-pilot, one name sounded familiar. I will let Richard Quest tell that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, HOST, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: We were filming for CNN "Business Traveler" on a flight from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur and had been granted access and permission to film on the flight deck. Flying the plane was a very senior training captain and the first office, Falu Kameed (ph), who we now believe is the first officer involved in the particular incident plane.

He had been flying for 2,700 hours, and he was transitioning from the narrow-bodied fleet to the wider-bodied fleet, a process that was well, well advanced. And he had been in the simulators for many, many week, and was now flying the actual aircraft under the careful supervision of the captain.

When I asked him about flying, he just said that he loved it. He said it was a wonderful experience, and particularly flying the larger, big, 777 plane that we were on board.

It is one of the incidents that we now reflect upon as you discover coincidences of fate that we filmed the officer who is now involved.

Richard Quest, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: A face and the story of one of the victims of the crash.

A shocking discovery inside of a Michigan, garage, a woman found dead for at least five years. Her body found inside of the car there. And wait until you hear the turn of events that led to this incredible situation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. I'm Jim Sciutto, in Washington.

It's hard to believe a woman went missing for more than five years and no one notices. But it may make sense when you hear what happened and left neighbors oblivious to the woman's death.

CNN's Alexander Field has more on the case that has shaken an entire community in Pontiac, Michigan -- Alexandra?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, according to the investigators, the woman found in the garage is the homeowner, Pia Ferencoff (ph). How could she go missing for so long without attracting any attention? Well, several factors. First, Ferencoff (ph) was last seen in September 2008 at the time she stopped working, so her employer was not looking for her. And also, she had estranged relatives on the east coast, but the pair had not talked for a long time, so that person was not looking for her. And other things, too. The grass was continued to be cut by a neighbor for years at a time, and her mail was sent directly to the post office and nothing was piling up. And we now know that she had tens of thousands of dollars in the bank. The sheriff's office tells us that the bills were being paid through auto pay accounts. And when the money finally ran out, $54,000 later, the home went into foreclosure. And that is when a bank sent a contractor to the house, and that is when they discovered the body.

Right now, the sheriff's office says there's nothing inside the car, inside the home or inside the garage to immediately indicate the cause of death here, so it could take weeks to figure out how what happened, because it is that long to find out how long it will take to get the toxicology reports back -- Jim?

SCIUTTO: Alexandra Field, in New York.

And once again, we want to give you new information just into CNN. An Austin, Texas-based company Freescale Semiconductor says that 20 of its employees were confirmed passengers on that lost Malaysia Airlines flight. The company says 12 of those employees are from Malaysia, eight from China. Again, an American-based company says 20 of its employees were on that flight, but none of the employees were Americans. The statement from Freescale Semiconductor says it is continuing to monitor the situation, and they will provide more information as it becomes available.

Now, Chicago knows gun violence all too well. And, in fact, the city's struggles are front and center in a new CNN series. We will talk with one man who is using his daughter's death to change the city for the better.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: In the past few years, Chicago has become the face of gun violence in the country, and many times young people were in the crosshairs as victims. We have a new series called "Chicagoland," that takes a raw look at education, politics, crime and life in the city.

In the past year, there has been some progress when it comes to violence in Chicago. According to the police, the murder rate dropped 18 percent from 2012 to 2013. But it was not enough to save 15-year- old Hadiya Pendleton. You remember that she was killed while hanging out with her friends.

Since her death, her parents have started an organization called Hadiya's Foundation in her honor. The goal is to partner with police, schools and after school programs to make positive changes for the kids in Chicago.

Recently, our Don Lemon sat down with Hadiya's dad, Nathaniel Pendleton, to ask, what is the cause of Chicago violence?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATHANIEL PENDLETON, FATHER OF HADIYA & FOUNDER, HADIYA'S FOUNDATION: You have a whole bunch of parents who don't pay attention to the kids. They will sit them in front of the video game, and they're playing the video game all day long, and shooting and killing people on the video game, and they are not reading a book, or reading something about their own history. It is a lot of kids out here that know more about a video game or more about texting, and different things of that nature, rather than Marcus Garvey, you know, Frederick Douglass. You know, technology has really taken a big swing, you know, on these kids. And they just have to have a different chain -- a different train of thought.

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How does that contribute to the violence?

PENDLETON: It dissociates them with the other kids. Other kids, they don't know how the really interact with each other except with the video game. You know, you shoot a kid in the video game, and it is a reset button, and they come right back to life. You shoot a kid in real life, and a lot of times they don't come back to life, you know, or that something is wrong with them for the rest of their life. So, it just pretty much dissociates them. They need to learn how to interact with each other.

LEMON: To some people, they may feel that you are blaming the parents?

PENDLETON: I am not -- I am not only blaming parents. I am blaming parents. I am blaming myself. You know, I'm blaming activities that have been taken away from kid kids where, you know, you could find where baseball was a dime a dozen when I was coming up, and it is not like that anymore. And it is going to cost so much money to get them into a structured program. So they just don't have those options.

LEMON: You said that you are blaming everyone, and not just the parents and yourself. But do you think the city, the mayor, do you believe has done enough to curb the violence in the city?

PENDLETON: I thing we are doing it. I think that everyone is doing it. I don't know how much enough is, but I think that we all are doing it. We are trying.

LEMON: Hadiya epitomized what a good student was, and going on to meet the president, and then going on to do great things, and then all of the sudden, her life is taken away from her. That is the heartbreaking pain of the city.

PENDLETON: Well, believe me, it hurt us. We hurt everyday. I can't -- I know that me, personally -- I can't necessarily speak for my wife -- but I'll never get over it. So, you know, what I mean, the only thing that we can do is to keep moving, and hopefully, we can try to save another kid.

LEMON: Is that why you made it your mission, because you can't -- you state, if you didn't keep moving, you would just stop?

PENDLETON: I would fall. (LAUGHTER)

LEMON: What do you mean by that?

PENDLETON: Well, if you stop moving, I don't -- I mean, I have to keep running, and that is the only way I will keep my balance right now. If I stop moving, I feel like everything will fall around me. And that means fall with it like a domino effect.

LEMON: This is an odd question, but if you don't keep moving, and if you stopped, does it become real?

PENDLETON: Very. Very. I have had stop moments. And they don't feel good. They don't feel good at all.

LEMON: I said that you represented the heartbreak of Chicago. What do you want people to know about what you're dealing with and how that sort of represents what Chicago is dealing with?

PENDLETON: Well, what I am dealing with, I would really hate for anyone to have to feel. And that's why our mission with our foundation and everything is to just try to put mentored kids and make things better. Where they don't have a father, and maybe we can try to give them someone to talk to. So pretty much the thing is that we don't want anyone to feel what we feel, and that is the whole mission. We don't want anybody to feel this feeling, because it is an alone feeling. It is a fraternity/sorority that nobody wants to be in, but we are in it, me along with Annette and Ron Holt and a lot of other people that lost their kids.

(CROSSTALK)

PENDLETON: Yes. Exactly. Nobody wants to be in this club. But we are.

I want people to know that Chicago is a great city. But it is only as great as we can make it. I mean, we have to stand up. We have to be responsible for our kids. And I mean, man, this is a great city. I'm not going to run from nobody here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Nathaniel Pendleton says he does have hope that things will get better in Chicago, and he's looking for the brighter future. He also told Don he thinks the president's new "My Brother's Keeper" initiative will make a difference in the city. You remember that Hadiya had performed in the president's second inaugural celebration.

Tonight, at 8:00 eastern, you can catch a premier of the first episode of "Chicagoland." And you can see a new episode, Thursday, 10:00 eastern, right here on CNN.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Sciutto, in today for Don Lemon.

That commercial airliner is still missing a full day after it lost contact with the ground. In the past few minutes, we have heard from the U.S.-based company that says that 20 of its employees were on the plane. 12 were Malaysian and eight are Chinese. This statement from the CEO of Freescale Semiconductor in Austin, Texas, says, "At present, we are solely focused on our employees and their families. Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this tragic event."