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Kenya Observing Three Days Of Mourning; U.N. Meeting On Yemen; Prosecutors Focusing On Co-Pilot's Health For Motive; New Yik Yak App Lets You Talk Anonymously; Castaway Rescued After Two Months; Final Four Action Tips Off Today. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 04, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

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FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, again, everyone, and thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

This hour, we are learning more about another breathtaking story of survival from this week's massacre in Kenya, a 19-year-old hid in the closet for more than two days buried in clothes and drinking body lotion for hydration. Now she's safe.

Meanwhile, families of the 147 victims of the terror attack are grieving, and Kenya's president is calling for three days of mourning to honor them, and even before the dead can be buried, al-Shabaab terrorists have issued another warning saying Kenya's cities will, quote, "run red with blood."

Let's bring in CNN's David McKenzie in Garrissa, Kenya. So David, what is the latest on this threat and even the president's words of mourning?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, the latest is that al-Shabaab, as you said, threatened Kenyan cities saying they will be bathed in blood and will continue terrorist attacks on Kenya in the wake of this deadly terror attack that left more than 140 dead in this school, this university here in northeast Kenya.

Now we were with the students, those who survived, saying many of the classmates have been killed, some are still say are missing, and they were taken to safety today, out on busses back to the capital Nairobi.

Meanwhile, that extraordinary story of a 19 -year-old student who hid in a closet underneath clothes for 48 hours, she would not come out when the police came and asked her to come out. She asked for the school principal to come so she could feel convinced that she was safe -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Wow, unbelievable. Now the president says there will be three days of mourning for those who have been killed, yet, at the same time, they are still facing a threat from al-Shabaab saying there will be more. So how can this country try to better secure itself? MCKENZIE: It's a very difficult proposition certainly, Fredricka, here in this part of Kenya, the borders with Somalia, they are porous, people slip in and out, and in fact, what we are learning about these gunmen is perhaps they spent significant time in Kenya because they were speaking Swahili and even a local township language, which indicates to me that they could have deep ties within Kenya.

In fact, the person they are looking for, the most wanted in this case is someone who spent a lot of time in Kenya, and in fact, was a Kenyan-Somali. So we have the situation that there is both a home grown link of terror and a terror from next door.

Al-Shabaab is saying that they will continue to fight here in Kenya, taking soft targets until the Kenyan military moves out of Somalia. Another disturbing thing that happened today, Fredricka, I feel I should share, is that the Kenya authorities placed who they say were the dead gunmen after some many hours of them being dead in the back a pickup truck, drove them through town.

We were on scene, and then showed them to the townspeople of Garissa presumably to prove that they had, in fact, killed them and they didn't get away, but of course, horrifying scenes. They took the bodies to a primary school to a soccer field, in fact, to show them to the population.

So, certainly, very raw emotions here in Northeast Kenya, the president says he will vow to retaliate by any means necessary, but he faces an extremely challenging proposition to stamp out this threat -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Terribly sad situation. All right, David McKenzie, thanks so much.

Meantime, the U.N. Security Council is holding an emergency meeting on the conflict in Yemen. Russia had called the meeting to push for break in fighting to let humanitarian aid workers into the country, and the International Red Cross also called for 24-hour halt in the fighting.

All of this as new pictures appears to show an al Qaeda leader in one of the presidential palaces. CNN cannot confirm authenticity of these photos, Khaled Batarfi and more than 200 others were freed from prison by al Qaeda militants earlier in the week.

[14:05:00] The U.N. estimates that at least 519 people have been killed since the Saudi-led air strikes began last month. Saudi Arabia is trying to remove rebels from Yemen who were backed by Saudi Arabia's chief rival, Iran.

The last investigators have left the Germanwings crash site in the French Alps. Investigators are now focusing on analysis of the flight data recorder, which has now shown that co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, purposely used the controls to speed up the plane's decent right before it crashed.

And investigators are also taking a closer look at cell phones recovered the from the crash site. Let's take a closer look at the developments now. CNN's Will Ripley is following the investigation from Dusseldorf, Germany.

Page Pate is a criminal defense attorney who has handled numerous federal cases and has helped resolve international criminal cases around the world, and Jonathan Gilliam is a former FBI agent and former air marshal.

So Will, to you first, does this mean that the ground investigation is over, that investigators have now left that French Alps site?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. The investigation in the French Alps is over. This is a new development as of today. What this does, Fred, is that they have recovered the key pieces of evidence. We are talking about the two black boxes, the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.

They have recovered DNA profiles for 150 people, of course, because of the force of the impact, the plane hilting at 400 miles an hour, there were no intact remains, which think about the fact that tomorrow's Easter. This is certainly not the Easter that those families were planning for.

They recovered those, they've recovered some 470 personal effects, including, as you mentioned, 40 cell phones, most of them severely damaged, but they're going to look through all of that, look through those phones specifically to see if they can glean anymore indication of what was happening in the final moments of the flight.

If somebody took video or whatnot, but to the investigation, even though the crash site is cleared, it will continue for many months in laboratories, in warehouses, and they will clear out the rest of the debris later this week and bring it to a separate location as well, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Will Ripley, thanks so much. Let's turn our attention now to Page Pate and Jonathan Gilliam to talk more about the investigation. We heard Will say the ground investigation is over because the searchers have left the French Alps, but that does not mean the entire investigation is over.

In fact, it really may mean that the homicide or murder investigation is really just in its infancy. When you hear this, Page, first of all, the evidence is clear that the co-pilot did this intentionally. He's dead. Why does there need to be an investigation that would be pegged either murder or homicide. What is that infer what's next?

PAGE PATE, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I mean, that's a great question. A lot of people are wondering, why are we doing a criminal investigation if the co-pilot is dead? I mean, you can't put him in jail or prison. He's no longer with us. You can't go after his family because he did this. But under European law both in France and in Germany, there's the possibility of prosecuting a corporation, a business.

WHITFIELD: Now we're talking Lufthansa, owner of Germanwings. PATE: Now you're talking with the owner, the managers, the supervisors, and even assuming no one else was involved in planning this, you can still have a criminal case for not murder, but a manslaughter type defense based on negligence. Should you have known that he was in this position?

WHITFIELD: Does that mean the doctors would in that realm as well?

PATE: It all depends.

WHITFIELD: There is that patient-doctor confidentiality, but in a case like this, when you talk about life or death or someone's job puts the lives of hundreds, you know, potentially in peril, does that change the investigation?

PATE: It does. There's a responsibility. It's the same for lawyers as well. Most of our conversations are privileged, but if you tell me something that I believe is going to lead to a future crime, then I have an obligation to disclose.

WHITFIELD: OK, so Jonathan, you know, when we talk about culpability, those who may have known how much they knew at what stage of the game, how do investigators get at that? We already know there have been notes that some of the investigators found at the apartment of the co- pilot, but does there need to be more that shows that more people knew where there were red flags?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER FBI AGENT: Well, the way investigation unfolds is think of it as a pie, and there are different pieces of that pie. Once you get one piece, you start to work that piece and try to develop a full pie, right?

And what -- you were just saying a second ago there, about if an attorney knows about something, it's their responsibility for a future crime to then report that. The same thing has, you know, is the case with the medical industry.

And I really think as investigators go forward, they know it was not mechanical errors in the plane so they can concentrate on the fact on what balls were -- where they drop the ball as far as the medical industry, the airline industry.

Lufthansa who said that they knew that there were some issues with the guy, I just see -- I'm not an attorney, but I see lawsuits all over the place with this.

[14:10:07] WHITFIELD: Yes, it would seem like it. All right, Jonathan Gilliam, Page Pate, thanks so much, I know we got so much more, you know, that makes this case makes us so curious, but I have a feeling we'll talk about it again. It's not over. It really is just the beginning. All right, thanks so much.

All right, still ahead, the amazing rescue story of a cast away who says he spent 66 days stranded at sea. It's a remarkable story. Do you believe it? Next.

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LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 24- year-old Tyler Drole and Brooks Puffington are the founders of Yik Yak. The app lets you send anonymous messages and read chatter within a 1.5 mile radius. Brooks and Tyler first worked on the app when they were in college.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw a problem where there's select few Twitter accounts that held the campus voice. Everyone should be able to have this power, and so we democratize it, and gave it to everyone.

SEGALL: Fast forward a year later, the app is exploding on college campuses across the country.

TYLER DROLL, CO-FOUNDER, YIK YAK: Basically, every campus in America. At Vanderbilt, they posted something about his brother getting a full body blood transfusion, and posted on Yik Yak, and 700 people showed up in the first hour to see if they are a match this brother.

[14:15:07] SEGALL: That's the upside of what can be accomplished with an anonymous discussion forum like Yik Yak, the downside? Anonymity can lead to bullying or harassment.

(on camera): How do you help with the cyber bullying problem?

DROLL: We have filters for name, personal information, just generally offensive things.

SEGALL (voice-over): Yik Yak still has growing pain, one professor complained after discovering demeaning yaks during her lectures. Other students have cited online harassment.

(on camera): For the people who have been bullied or bully, what's your responsibility?

DROLL: There's federal laws in place preventing sharing user information, so that we're limited in way we can do that, but in cases of imminent threat or harm, we work with law enforcement to do what we can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: A man adrift on the ocean is rescued after more than two months. He says he's grateful to be alive, but others think his story may be too good to be true. Martin Savidge has more on the story of survival.

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MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Frank Jordan hugs the son he thought was dead, and by all rights, Louis Jordan should be. The unemployed truck driver lived aboard his sailboat in South Carolina. Last January, he headed out to sea, he says to go fishing. Bad timing.

WHITFIELD: This reporter hanging on for dear life, hanging on to her vehicle there.

SAVIDGE: Remember those blizzards that blasted the east coast this winter? Well, they also caused huge waves at sea, sending Jordan and his boat tumbling.

LOUIS JORDAN, RESCUED AT SEA: Capsized, and I broke my shoulder, and many things were broke.

SAVIDGE: A rollover in a storm can be a sailor's worst nightmare as depicted in "All Is Lost." For Jordan, it was just beginning. With his mast and rotter broken, electronics fried, Jordan says he was on his own. He may have battled 19 more storms and weather fronts off the Carolina coast, running out of food and water so he collected rain to drink and grabbed fish with his hands.

JORDAN: Put hand in there slowly and pick him up quick.

SAVIDGE: Then Thursday after 66 days, he was rescued by a container ship 200 miles from the nearest land. A Coast Guard helicopter raced to the scene lifting Jordan from the deck and to his heart sick parents raising him from the dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the cabin, eyes in the cabin.

SAVIDGE: But when Jordan walked from the helicopter into the hospital, he looked good, incredibly good.

KYLE MCCOLLUM, RESCUE SURVIVOR, U.S. COAST GUARD: You'd expect severe sunburns, blisters, a bunch of medical issues that could be wrong with him.

SAVIDGE: Rescue swimmer, Kyle McCollum, was the first to care for him on the flight back to land.

MCCOLLUM: For him to be in his current state was pretty amazing.

SAVIDGE: Coast Guard officials said they have found no reason to doubt Jordan's story, noting his father contacted them January 29th to report his son and boat missing.

And Petty Officer McCollum got another view of Jordan, only those on the rescue chopper could see. Jordan's face, when they reached shore.

MCCOLLUM: When we got over land, there was the biggest smile on his face, and you could tell he had been through something serious.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Wow, that's an amazing story. Martin Savidge, thanks so much.

All right, still to come, it's April, but there's plenty of March Madness left. Set for tonight's final four tipoff, Rachel Nichols is joining me live from Indianapolis next.

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WHITFIELD: All right. The NCAA men's basketball tournament begins hours from now in Indianapolis. Four teams, thousands of fans issue and college basketball's biggest weekend.

CNN sports anchor, Rachel Nichols, is live for us now in Indianapolis. So, everyone's asking the questions, you know, can Kentucky become the first team to go undefeated, go all the way? Your predictions?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, this has become a huge story line, Fred. Look, it's not enough to try to win the NCAA tournament or anything, but now they have to be perfect. But that's the position they put themselves in.

And I sat down with the coach and asked how he prepared his team this week, and he used an unusual analogy, you know, the famous Triple Crown winning horse, Secretariat? Well, that's who he brought it up this morning, even though kids were not alive when Secretariat was racing. Take a listen.

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JOHN CALIPARI, HEAD COACH, KENTUCKY WILDCATS: Secratariat was told to back off, he's going to win, he's fine, don't go too hard. The trainer said this horse runs, he loves to run, that's what we're doing. He trained him even harder and they won the Belmont by 26 lengths.

And I told them this has been my message the last week, I trained them hard. We scrimmaged. I know it's dangerous. We scrimmaged.

NICHOLS: No injuries, right?

CALIPARI: Believe me, I walked out of the gym, like, oh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: So those Kentucky players are ready, and we'll bring you so many of those kinds of stories coming up just next on the "Final Four All Access Bleacher Report" special we have here on CNN at 2:30. You'll see me ditch the jacket, run inside, and give you great stuff with Clark Kellogg and Steve Smith.

We have coming up later on our sister networks, you can watch the main broadcast of the games on TBS, just the regular broadcast for all of us national fans, but if you are a big Duke fan, and you want to go to TNT, you can find a team stream Duke flavored broadcast, or TruTV, a Michigan State flavored broadcast.

Later, there's Kentucky, they will be on TNT, which for the Kentucky fans, Wisconsin fans, tune into TruTV for your game, and the rest of us are straightforward broadcasts will be watching on TBS. We'll be glued to the sets, ratings off the charts, and people are loving this tournament, Fred, I can't wait.

WHITFIELD: That's so great. No excuses, we'll take you there. If you're not there, you will be there by way of all the different routes.

NICHOLS: Soon.

[14:25:12] WHITFIELD: That's cool. Thanks so much, Rachel Nichols, appreciate that.

NICHOLS: I'm going to run inside. See you soon.

WHITFIELD: Ditch the coat, head inside for all access at the final four, that's today at 2:30 Eastern Time, just 5 minutes to run inside, Rachel, hurry, hurry. We'll be right back in a moment.

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[14:29:27]

WHITFIELD: All right. Checking our top stories now, the U.N. Security Council is holding an emergency meeting at it pertains to Yemen now, an Arab led coalition continues to bombard rebel targets.

The U.N. estimates at least 519 people have been killed since the airstrikes began last month. Saudi Arabia is trying to remove Iranian-backed rebels from Yemen and the Arab League has agreed to send in ground troops.

After slaughters 147 people at a college in northern Kenya this week, al-Shabaab terrorists are threatening to strike again releasing a statement, quote, "Our message will be written to you not by words, but with the blood of your people. Dig their graves and prepare their coffins now."

I'm Fredricka Whitfield, thanks so much for being with me here in the NEWSROOM.

Right now, "All Access in Indianapolis" with Rachel Nichols.