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Attorney Says, Father Of Idaho Suspect Drove Cross-Country With Son Last Month; Drenching Storm Causes Flooding, Power Outages In California; Rep.-Elect Under Scrutiny For Claims About His Mother And 9/11; China To Scrap Quarantine Requirements For Inbound Travelers; Federal Officials Warn Of Trail Of Death From Fentanyl Overdoses; Buckingham Palace Braces For Prince Harry's Memoir. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired January 01, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

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[13:00:00]

PAULA REID, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Reid in Washington.

New details this hour about the suspect charged with murdering four University of Idaho students in their beds seven weeks away. CNN has learned that Bryan Kohberger's father was with him as he drove cross- country, from Washington State to Pennsylvania, for the holidays after the crime took place.

Now, police began tracking them at some point during the trip. The suspect is now charged with four counts of murder in the first-degree as well as felony burglary. He's expected to waive extradition and return to Idaho.

CNN's Jean Casarez is in Pennsylvania. Jean, what else are you learning?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When I spoke with the chief public defender, who is his only attorney right now, Jason LaBar, he told me that in this trip from Washington to Pennsylvania, that he believes that they arrived in Pennsylvania, the home -- their home, about December 17th.

Well, CNN has also spoken with someone and actually corroborated with two people, that along the trip, but it was in Pennsylvania, that on December 16th, that they were at an auto repair shop. And this person tells CNN that they were getting some work done on the Hyundai Elantra. That's the white car. And that the suspect -- the defendant, Kohberger, was talkative and he talked about how he had go to DeSales University here in Pennsylvania, and was doing his doctoral work in Washington and that he was interested in becoming a professor.

The person said that they were -- he was a little awkward but communicative in talking. His father was there, too. And then when this all basically exploded on Friday, he recognized him, realized the conversation and contacted the FBI. So, December 16th, in Pennsylvania, December 17th possibly here at home, so there's a bit more to the timeline.

Now, he is behind me right here in the correctional facility. He's all by himself. It's protective custody because of the high-profile nature. They monitor him to make sure of his welfare. But I asked him attorney yesterday just on a human nature, a human point, how is he doing? Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON LABAR, MONROE COUNTY CHIEF PUBLIC DEFENDER: He's doing okay. He's shocked a little bit. Obviously, he's calm right now. We don't really know much about the case. I don't have any affidavit of probable cause.

He is entitled to a fair and impartial jury of his peers. He's presumed innocent. He's cloaked in that innocence. And, really, I don't want anyone to jump to conclusions as far as facts and evidence. Right now, everybody is making presumptions and assumptions, but, really, he has that presumption of innocence until proven otherwise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And, of course, this is the only attorney at this point in Pennsylvania for Brian Kohberger. Important words, because, constitutionally, he is entitled to a fair trial and does have presumption of innocence, and there was a potential jury pool, Paula, out there that may be watching this.

REID: Jean Casarez, I have to give you props to your reporting. Getting that public defender to talk, as you know, they don't usually talk, it's certainly not this early in an investigation. Excellent reporting, thank you.

CASAREZ: Thank you.

REID: And joining me now is CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst and former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey.

Charles, we learned late yesterday that the suspect's father had actually traveled with him as the suspect drove cross-country from the Washington State/Idaho border to Pennsylvania after the crime had happened. So, if they were willing to talk to you, what questions would you be asking his family?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT: First of all, my understanding is the father flew out and then drove back with him. And the question is, why? I mean, that's a long drive. That's over 2,000 miles. That's not something you do for no reason. Did he feel like his son was upset? Had he told him something that caused him to actually fly out just to drive back with him? We need to know that. We also need to know what did they talk about. That's a long drive. I don't think they sat silently in the car for 2,500 miles. So, what did they talk about?

Now, there's nothing to indicate at this point in time that the father knew anything about the murders, but, certainly, that's a line of questioning that you would have to follow as an investigator to find out, you know, why he flew out there, why he found necessary to drive back.

[13:05:10]

It's not as if he was moving and had a moving van or something where you would need assistance. I mean, he drove back in the same white car. And so I would want to know, you know, the rationale for that.

REID: And we also learned that police carefully surveilled the suspect as he was driving across the country. That could be easy. What kind of resources go into that? It can't just be cars.

RAMSEY: Well, I mean, it does take a lot of resources. It's not like T.V., or it's not the easiest thing in the world to have a moving surveillance. But if you're on a highway, it's a little easier because you have limited number of exits, and so forth. So, they probably used in aerial surveillance as well as on the ground surveillance. Certainly, you can track cell phones, the towers that an individual is going through, so you know what direction they're moving in and so forth.

So, they were able to do it for four days. Now, that really tells me that he was a suspect even before he left Idaho, he was a suspect. And so they probably knew a lot more of what they were saying right now, which is understandable, because they do have a trial coming up. But we're going to find a lot more out once he's extradited, once that affidavit is open and we get a chance to really get a little more detail about the case, what led up to the actual arrest.

REID: And the suspect's attorney describes as being very intelligent. We know he was a PhD student studying criminal justice and criminology. So, would that change anything about the approach that police will take when they question him again?

RAMSEY: I don't think so. I mean, listen, a lot of smart people commit stupid crimes. And so, I mean, that's just one thing you have to deal with. He has a right to an attorney. If he's willing to cooperate and to talk, that's another thing. If he lawyers up and decides not to talk, then you have to rely on the evident that you developed through the course of the investigation and so forth.

But, clearly, I mean, he has got a certain level of intelligence. He's a PhD student, but that's going to have any impact on it as far as the investigators are --

REID: Well, sources tell CNN that the suspect's DNA was found at the scene, but they don't have that murder weapon. Does that really matter? And if so, how much?

RAMSEY: Well, it's always important to get the murder weapon if you can get the murder weapon. But there have been a lot of cases that we've been able to get successful convictions on where the murder weapon was not found.

They do have DNA. That to me is the key. Now, was that from blood evidence they found at the scene? It could have been fingernail scrapings, for example, from one of the victims? They did say that a couple of them had defensive wounds, maybe they'd fought back and were able to get some exchange of DNA that way. But all of that is going to come out during the course of the trial.

Now, getting the murder weapon is like the ultimate lock on the case. But do you really need that in order to get a conviction? It depends on how strong the other evidence is. Right now, they're also processing the Elantra itself, because that had to be a very bloodied crime scene. He left the crime scene in that car, which probably some trace evidence in that car from the victims. And if they can find something like that that would connect the victim's DNA in his car along with his DNA being at the scene, well, then they've got themselves a pretty good case.

REID: And there have, of course, been a lot of people who have been critical of local law enforcement, statements that they made initially they had to walk back, like the time it has taken to arrest a suspect. What is your assessment of the police performance here?

RAMSEY: I think they did an excellent job. Listen, I know people want to know a lot of things. They look for a lot of information. If anything, I think, in the early stages, the first couple days, the Moscow police put out too much information out when they first said that this was a started attack and that the community at large had nothing to worry about, then they had to walk that back a few days when they didn't have an actual suspect. You have to be careful, especially in the initial stages of an investigation about putting too much information out because as the investigation unfolds, facts can change based on the evidence and the information that you received during the course of the investigation.

You know, people have this unrealistic expectation that all crimes are going to be solved within an hour with commercial breaks, because that's what happens on television. They also think with the CSI effect that one strand of hair is going to lead you to the suspect. These cases are a lot more complicated than that.

They did an excellent job. It took them a while to bring it in, but they brought it in. And there are a lot of cases out here that are unsolved and there are families out there that still have no relief at all because the murder suspect is still out there. These families are fortunate that at least they have some relief, not closure.

[13:10:01]

There's no such thing in my opinion but some relief that a very dangerous person is off the streets.

REID: Charles Ramsey, thank you.

RAMSEY: Thank you.

And three NYPD officers are recovering today after what police are calling an unprovoked machete attack near Times Square. The attack unfolded outside a security screening zone set up for last night's festivities. Police say the man wielding a machete was just 19 years old. Fortunately, all three officers are in stable condition.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is following this story for us from New York City. Gloria, what else do we know about this violent attack?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A terrifying attack for these officers, Paula, including one officer, a rookie police officer who had just graduated the academy last week. One of the his first assignments, to go over to Times Square and be one of the many NYPD officers that the depth deploys on New Year's Eve to protect the thousands of people that turn out to this area of Manhattan every single year.

Now, this unprovoked attack, as you mentioned, happened shortly after 10:00 in the evening near a screening area, where everyone that is trying to go to Times Square to see the ball drop has to go through and be screened for security. That's where police says this 19-year- old male approached an officer and struck him over the head with a machete. You can see the weapon there on your screen.

He then tried to strike another officer and that's when a third officer fired his service weapon, injuring the suspect in his shoulder. Now, those three officers, thankfully, are in stable condition at the hospital, the suspect also recovering from his injuries, and Mayor Eric Adams praising the response of these officers amid the chaos. You know, this area of Manhattan is very congested on any regular day. It is triple that on an evening like New Year's Eve. Listen to Mayor Eric Adams during an early morning press conference following this incident last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): They maintained the scene, they got the scene immediately under control. Those responding officers then, after securing assistance for their fellow officers and subduing the person involved, the officers responded back to the location, because we still had a city we had to protect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Mayor Adams also spoke about that rookie officer that was injured. He met with him in the hospital last night. He said he was in good spirits and, of course, highlighting the danger of the jobs and what these officers sign up for.

I should also mention that the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, is investigating this incident, and we are waiting to learn more about this 19-year-old male that tried to attack these officers last night. Certainly, a very scary situation, but I should mention, it did not affect the Times Square New Year's Eve festivities in any way. And at this moment, there are no credible threats against the city, according to both the mayor and the police department. Paula?

REID: Gloria Pazmino, thank you.

And terrible news out of the Mobile, Alabama, at least one person has been killed and nine others injured in a shooting just blocks away from the city's New Year's Eve celebration.

CNN's Nadia Romero is following the story for us today. Nadia, what more are you learning?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, it's supposed to be New Year, new you, but it's the same old gun violence we're dealing with in this country. We know that a 24-year-old man was killed right before the ball dropped, before the clock was supposed to strike midnight to ring in that New Year. A 24-year-old man killed, nine others injured, ranging from 17 to 57 years old.

Now, this happened about 45 minutes before the New Year came in, in a very crowded area just blocks away from this massive New Year's celebration. You can see people there as they're responding right after hearing those gunshots and before the ball was supposed to drop for New Year's. The police chief says that this was not random act of violence, that they believe that they have more of a handle on this investigation. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF PAUL PRINE, MOBILE POLICE DEPARTMENT: I think it's safe to say, though, at this stage that the perpetrators and the -- at least the deceased may have been known to one another. And so I think that should give some comfort to all of us downtown that this was not just a random shooting where a person lost their life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMERO: So, we're still checking on those nine people who were injured. We're told that their injuries are non-life-threatening all the way to severe. So, whenever you have an incident like this, you just hope that those people are able to recover in the hospital so that our number of dead doesn't rise after an event like this.

[13:15:03]

We also know that there have been no arrests so far, but the police chief did say that they detained several people, witnesses, they got some information from them, but he stopped short to say if any of them are persons of interest in this crime. Paula?

REID: Nadia Romero, thank you.

And we're also learning about a shooting with multiple victims in Florida. It happened in Ocala, just south of Gainesville at around 4:30 A.M. So far, police aren't releasing any details of the incident, including how many people were shot or their conditions. But they're asking for anyone who has information to call police. We're following this story and we'll update you as details become available.

And still ahead, epic flooding in California, heavy rains causing power outages and making roadways look like rivers, major cities seeing their wettest day on record. We'll have more detail. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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REID: Feet of snow, hurricane-force winds and powerful downpours are making a mess across California this holiday weekend. Severe flooding making roadways look like rivers. Heavy rain and snow melt forcing the closures of several major highways, evacuation warnings issued in some parts of Northern California. The storm causing power outages for hundreds of thousands of customers in California and Nevada.

CNN's Camila Bernal is in Los Angeles. Camila, how many people are still without power?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Paula. So, we just checked, and 226,000 people are still without power across these two states. In addition to the power outages, a lot of these people also dealing with the epic flooding. We didn't just have the urban flooding. We also had many rivers and creeks that were overflowing.

And so in some regions, authorities telling people to evacuate, to leave their homes all together, in other regions, authorities just saying shelter in place, because it is extremely dangerous to go out and drive in these conditions. In fact, just moments ago, authorities in San Joaquin County saying that all of the northbound lanes and State Route 99 have been closed yesterday for a portion of time.

[13:20:04]

We saw all lanes in Highway 101 closed near South San Francisco, so just many highways and many roads. The National Weather Service saying too many roads were closed to even count. And that's why they were telling people to be extremely careful. There were many water rescues, there were divers out there, firefighters who had to go and rescue people who were left stranded in these floodwaters. Here are some California residents who explained what they went through.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a little concerning, for sure. When you see the water moving this quick and rising like this, it's a little unsettling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I opened one of my gates, there was so much water, it was gushing and it knocked me over. And I got stuck and I lost my phone in the water.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It started raining, but the water kept getting deeper and deeper. And I've been here six years and this is the worst it's ever been.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And our weather team confirming that here in California, the rainfall exceeded eight inches.

Now, look, it is difficult to deal with this. It was difficult for the people that had to leave their homes and people who were driving yesterday, but the reality is that this is much needed rain here in California. It's unclear if it will make any conditions in terms of the drought conditions, but we needed the rain. Paula?

REID: Camila Bernal, thank you.

And more scrutiny for the congressman-elect already under fire for lying about his education, work history, Jewish heritage and claims that his grandparents survived the Holocaust. Now, there are questions about whether George Santos also lied about his own mother's death.

In July 2021, the congressman-elect tweeted, quote, 9/11 claimed my mother's life. But five months later, Santos tweeted that December 23rd marked the day he lost his best friend and mentor. Santos' campaign website also references the story but claims his mother survived the attacks and passed away a few years later from cancer. An obit says she died 15 years after 9/11.

Now, joining me now, the former Republican governor of New York, George Pataki. All right, Governor, what is your reaction to all of this?

FMR. GOV. GEORGE PATAKI (R-NY): Paula, it's just incredible. It seems like the question is what did he not lie about as opposed to what he did lie about. And one of the jokes I'm hearing is he's now mourning the death of his grandfather, Pele. And it's just a tragic indictment of him that it seems he's incapable of telling the truth.

REID: Well, we saw falsehoods called out during Herschel Walker's campaign, for example, in George, but this really seems to be next level. Have we set a new precedent? Is there a new standard or is this really an outlier?

PATAKI: No. I think this is clearly an outlier. He is clearly, I would hope, unique in the annals of people successfully elected to Congress, particularly in the 21st century when we can do such thorough background checks, which clearly wasn't done in this case. He has lied about pretty much everything. It's obvious he's unfit to serve in Congress, and now we're investigating -- there's a criminal investigations, federal criminal investigations, and state criminal investigations, and the House Ethics Committee certainly should conduct an investigation if he is seated.

REID: Republicans are about to have a majority in the House and the only thing anyone wants to talk about is George Santos and his lies. So, if you're Kevin McCarthy, clearly, he's focused on securing a speakership, assuming he does that, what does he do next?

PATAKI: Right. The big thing now is to elect a speaker. And the odds are it will be Kevin McCarthy. And then you have to have a positive agenda. You can't let Santos become the agenda of the first year of your new majority in the House of Representatives. You have to have an aggressive agenda, a positive thing, solutions to the border, economic growth, helping with our energy independence and dealing with the climate issues.

So, what McCarthy should focus on is the positive agenda going forward that Americans can identify with, not on a partisan basis, but on an American basis. REID: Well, speaking of the global warming issue, before you go, you have talked about how to make global warming, climate a bipartisan issue.

PATAKI: Hello?

REID: You just saw we were reporting on a historic blizzard, flooding. I think we may have just lost the governor before I had a chance to ask him about climate change.

Well, George Pataki, thank you so much for joining us.

And coming up, the Vatican releasing former Pope Benedict XVI's final message to the world.What he said, next.

[13:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

REID: The New Year begins with millions of Catholics around the world offering up prayers and mourning for the lost Of Pope Emeritus Benedict, who died Saturday at the age of 95. His body is lying in state in the St. Peter's Basilica, where public viewing begins Monday.

Earlier today, Pope Francis presided over mass in Vatican City sending prayers for his predecessor.

Well, let's go to CNN's Frederik Pleitgen live in St. Peter's Square. Now. the former pope left a final letter published after his death. And in it, he asked for forgiveness from those he thought he had, quote, wronged. What can you tell you about this letter and its meaning?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Paula. Well, it was a lengthy letter that he left behind to those in the Catholic Church that which he oversaw, but then also, of course, for the many other people that he dealt with throughout his life as well. And that letter touches on many subjects. It touches on, you know, when he was born, him thanking his parents, thanking the Catholic Church, also his new home, as he put it, here in Rome, but also Bavaria, which is, of course, where he comes from as well.

But it was quite interesting, and that was also that segment that we took a lot of note of as well, where he asked for forgiveness for those that he had wronged, as he put it. And I want to read to you that passage real quick just so our viewers can hear. He said, quote, to all those I have wronged in any way, I sincerely ask for forgiveness. What I said before to my compatriots, I now say to all of those in the Catholic Church who have been entrusted to my service, remain firm in the faith, don't get confused.

[13:30:07]

So, obviously, despite that there are maybe people he had wronged, he's asked for people to keep the faith and to remain loyal to the Catholic Church. Of course, one of the things that we had been talking about over the years, reporting when Pope Benedict was still in office was the fact that the Catholic Church was dealing with those sex abuse scandals and generally abuse scandals in that time. And many felt that Pope Benedict wasn't taking the action that many felt that he should have.

And, in fact, in the final months of his life, he acknowledged that he had made mistakes in the past. This was pertaining to the time before he was pope, when he was the archbishop of Munich in the late 1970s and early -- acknowledging that mistakes had taken place there as well.

So, this could pertain to that, it could pertain to a lot of other things as well. One of the other things that we also picked up on that letter was way at the end, where he said, despite the fact that he had many flaws about him, that he had committed sins, that he humbly asked, as he put it, to be taken into God's heaven nevertheless. So, those were the final words, really, in that letter that he left behind and something, of course, that was very important here in Rome and in the Vatican as well, Paula.

REID: And I want to go back to one of the moments, really a significant moment in his tenure. He shocked the world's 1.2 billion Catholics by announcing he was going to resign. How consequential was that decision at the time?

PLEITGEN: Well, I would think it was something that was hugely consequential, because it was something where he was the first pope to resign in, I think, it was around 600 years. It was simply something that was unheard of. But at the same time, I think many people ultimately felt that it was quite a strong step, because he was acknowledging that he was not up to the task of running this gigantic organization.

Paula, I was actually here in St. Peter's Square when he became pope. I saw him here on that balcony when he took the reins of the Catholic Church. He was already 78-year-old at that time and had already a hugely influential cardinal here in the Catholic Church for decades before that, since the early 1980s. There's a lot of people who say that he was one of the most influential people really in a long time in the Catholic Church and really ran the place, really the second one behind John Paul II at the time. But he was already 78 years old when he took the reins of the Catholic Church.

And for the first couple of years when he was pope, he did exude a lot of energy. I remember the World Youth Day in Cologne in 20025, where hundreds of thousands of people showed. But you did notice that as time went on, some of these scandals came to light, there were a lot of issues in the Catholic Church, and he simply lost a lot of that energy, he felt he was not up to it anymore. And I think a lot of people believe that it was a pretty strong step on his part to then acknowledge that he was not up to the task of running this gigantic organization, which also needed some fresh leadership at the top at that point, many people felt as well, Paula.

REID: Well, Fred Pleitgen, thank you. And China is planning to drop quarantine requirements for all international travelers beginning this month. It's the latest sign the country is moving forward towards reopening borders to the rest of the world. As Selina Wang reports, the country has high expectations for 2023.

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SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: People in China will take any opportunity to celebrate. The country is finally opening up after years of lockdowns, abandoning its zero COVID policy. There's hope that 2023 will look more like that. This year, China even managed to pull off the Beijing Winter Olympics.

There we go. We're taking off.

I flew into Beijing for my previous posting in Tokyo to cover the games in January.

First thing I saw walking at the airplane is a sea of hazmat suits.

With literal walls separating us from the rest of China.

He said the police will take me if I were to walk out of the gate.

In 2022, China became a giant sanitized bubble under constant high tech surveillance. The country growing more isolated as ties fray with the west and grew tighter with Russia, military tensions rise over Taiwan. While the man who's calling the shots, Xi Jinping, stepped into an unprecedented third term as China's supreme leader this year. His goal is to make China great again and turn it to a technological superpower. And not just on Earth. This year, China successfully launched crewed missions to its new space station, fueling national pride.

2022 also marked a milestone for China's national animal. 15 panda cubs were born at Chengdu Panda Research Base alone. And next year, China is preparing to host the Asian games, an event that people hope would boost the COVID-battered economy and morale. There's relief and joy that people have their freedom back finally in 2023.

[13:35:02]

There's hope people in China can party and travel without fear, just like they used to.

Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID: Still ahead, with the country struggling to contain the fentanyl crisis, we'll introduce you to the parents who lost a teen to it and are now working to make sure no one else goes through that agonizing pain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) REID: Officials in Alabama are investigating how an airline worker was killed at Montgomery's airport. The incident Saturday involved an employee who was on a ramp where an American Airlines regional jet was parked. The airport briefly shut down operations following the incident. In a statement, American Airlines offered condolences to the worker's family and called the death an accident. But details around the circumstances of his death have not been released.

Now, some sobering statistics from the CDC, in 2021, more than 71,000 people in the U.S. died due to overdosing on synthetic opioids, mostly fentanyl, a 23 percent jump from the previous year. CNN's Josh Campbell spoke with the parents of one teen who died after taking a fentanyl-laced (ph) pill, and they're trying to sound the alarm for other families.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHRIS DIDIER, SON DIED OF FENTANYL POISONING: I found Zach asleep at his desk. His head was laying down on his arm. I could feel before I even touched him that something was horribly wrong were.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Every parent's worst nightmare, 17-year-old Zach Didier found unresponsive in his room two days after Christmas of to 2020. Medics arrived and began resuscitation efforts, but it was too late.

CHRIS DIDIER: And I started resuming CPR and they just stood there. And I got mad at them and said, guys, help me save my boy. When they didn't, I started trying to talk to Zach, and begged him, do not go. Come back.

[13:40:00]

Please come back. Do not go.

LAURA DIDIER, SON DIED OF FENTANYL POISONING: I walked up and Chris said just our baby is gone.

CAMPBELL: We sat down with Chris and Laura Didier inside Zach's old high school theater classroom surrounded by memories of their son.

LAURA DIDIER: He loved school. He loved sports. He starred in the musical. Zach was such a stellar young man. He always wanted to help other people.

CAMPBELL: Zach's sudden death initially a mystery to investigators, but the Placer County coroner near Sacramento had two theories on the day of his death, either an undetected medical issue or fentanyl.

CHRIS DIDIER: And that further spiraled us into --

LAURA DIDIER: Into confusion.

CHRIS DIDIER: -- debilitating confusion. It's why would you say that word? We had no red flags of Zach having struggles with any kind of drug use or addiction or depression. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nine out of every ten overdose deaths in teenagers involves opioids, and most commonly fentanyl.

CAMPBELL: Dr. Scott Hadland is head of adolescent and young adult medicine at Boston's Mass General for Children Hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fentanyl is so potent that teens, particularly teens who have never used an opioid before and have no tolerance to them can die really quickly. We're talking within seconds to minutes.

CAMPBELL: New CDC data indicate the most common place for teens to overdose is at home. And experts say there are various reasons they turn to pills.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About two out of every five teens who overdose has a historic of struggling with depression, anxiety or other mental health problems. And in many cases, these problems have gone unaddressed.

CAMPBELL: In Los Angeles County alone, health officials recently announced accidental fentanyl overdoses skyrocketed over 1,200 percent from 2016 through 2021.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem was very serious not just in the city of L.A. but nationwide.

CAMPBELL: To understand where many teens are obtaining fentanyl, we spoke with an LAPD narcotics detective. We agreed not to name him as his work involves undercover operations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The more personal sites would be Facebook marketplace, Instagram and Snapchat. If you're buying it on a social media account or you're buying it from somebody on the street or a friend, that most likely it's going to be counterfeit.

CAMPBELL: If you look at these photos, the fake pill looks like just the real pill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They sure do. The dealer's main objective is to get you hooked. And if you don't die, then you're a customer for as long as you live.

CAMPBELL: In Zach Didier's case, his parents said he met a drug dealer on Snapchat who sold him a deadly fentanyl that Zach thought was a pain reliever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zach's case was really the first for our county dealing with whether or not to hold someone who provides drugs to someone else who ultimately dies, whether or not to hold them responsible for their death, and if so, how much? The message to dealers is we are fed up. We are tired of seeing young people dying in our communities.

CAMPBELL: Zach's the dealer was sentenced to 17 years in prison, but Placer County's district attorney, who has advocated for aggressive charges against dealers, says prosecution alone won't solve the fentanyl crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The solution will be education, awareness, and talking to parents, talking to teachers.

CAMPBELL: Warning families about the dangers of fentanyl has become a life mission for Zach's parents, who now spend countless hours going into schools, telling their shattering story.

LAURA DIDIER: As hard as it is to talk about it and as hard as it is to share the story, I feel him with me when I do it. I feel him helping my find the words even.

CAMPBELL: What is it that goes through your mind before you step out on the stage?

LAURA DIDIER: I hope we reach them. I see their faces. I just scan the room and they're listening and absorbing it, and I just thinking, please let us reach them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMPBELL (on camera): Now, for parents out there who might be asking the question, how do I talk to my kid about fentanyl, teen health professionals say that you want to approach the conversation in the spirit of curiosity? Ask questions, like have you heard of fentanyl, are you aware of the potentially deadly side effects? Is anyone trying to sell you pills online? That will help open up a dialog. Health professionals also stressed that in order to increase the likelihood of making a breakthrough with your teen, parents should do more listening than lecturing.

Josh Campbell, CNN, Los Angeles.

REID: Coming up, more drama for the British royals, as they brace for Prince Harry's tell-all memoire to drop. What it could mean for the family as they plan for the coronation of King Charles.

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REID: First, it was the Oprah interview, then the Netflix series. And now Buckingham Palace is bracing for the release this month of Prince Harry's new memoir detailing his split from the royal family. The book release comes after what has been a tumultuous and emotional year that, of course, included the death of the queen.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A seismic year for Britain, the commonwealth and the world, for the family at its center, an incomparable 12 months they will never forget. In January, Prince Andrew was stripped of his military titles and royal patronages. With the queen's oversight, Andrew stepped back from public duties to focus instead on defending himself against allegations of sexual abuse brought by accuser Virginia Giuffre. The prince paid an out of court settlement for an undisclosed amount and the case was dismissed.

In March, William and Kate toured the Caribbean to a backdrop of negative media attention and accusations of colonial nostalgia. The trip was meant to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 70 years on the throne. However, the royals, William said, were not in the business of telling people what to do. For most Brits, the late queen was the only monarch they've ever known, ruler for more than 70 years, an unprecedented platinum jubilee delivered one last hurrah. Four days of pomp and ceremony was scheduled for the height of summer, a standalone opportunity to celebrate the life and legacy of her majesty, parades, pageants and a few old faces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would like a marmalade sandwich? I always keep one for emergencies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So do I.

[13:50:00]

I keep mine in here.

FOSTER: Concerns for the queen's health cast a shadow over the festivities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, if we cheer loudly enough, she might, might, just hear us.

FOSTER: Attention focused on the balcony, would she or would she not make an appearance? Then just three months later in September, the second Elizabethan age came to an end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Buckingham Palace has announced the death of her majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

FOSTER: Thus follows ten days of mourning and commemoration, during which some 250,000 people filed past the coffin as it lay in state. Prime ministers, presidents, leaders and dignitaries from around the world, 2,000 in all, joined together in chorus inside London's Westminster Abbey.

Decades of meticulous preparations and centuries of tradition amid the wreath a handwritten note from the new king, in loving and devoted memory, Charles R.

Charles used his first address as king to reassert the commitment his mother made seven decades ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I shall strive to follow the inspiring example I have been set.

FOSTER: With Charles on the throne, the new family dynamics face fresh scrutiny. Will he bridge the divide that has cleaved his children apart? William and Harry briefly came together in the wake of their grandmother's passing, though the two couples interacted little during a walk-about with mourners in Windsor. In September, the Sussex's Netflix docu-series, Harry and Meghan, sent further reverberations through an institution still reeling from the infamous tell-all interview with Oprah in 2021.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was already clear to the media the palace wasn't going to protect her. Once that happens, the floodgates open.

FOSTER: The pair detailed their struggles avoiding intrusive media attention. They point to Meghan's mental health as a reason they left the royal fold.

King Charles' coronation ceremony on the horizon in May promises another show of tradition and stability.

Max Foster, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID: And joining me now, CNN Royal Historian Kate Williams. Kate, I think a lot of people are wondering what the release of Harry's memoir will do to this already strained relationship with his family. What are you expecting?

KATE WILLIAMS, CNN ROYAL HISTORIAN: Yes, Harry's memoire coming out in just over a week now, coming out on bookshelves all over the world. We do expect this to be quite explosive. Now, the publishers have been very tight about this, but there has been a source that gave comment to the London Sunday Times saying that actually the book is quite easy on Charles but not on William. And the source said, I can't see any reconciliation after this, because, according to the source, there were quite detailed accounts of the arguments that Harry and William have had.

And, of course, in the Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary, which Max was just discussing there, in there was really a quite detailed account of the moment when Harry went to the queen and asked to have a half in/half out setup on how William apparently, he said, was screaming at him there. We don't yet know what's going to be in the book. They've been very tight about it. The source could be wrong, but I do think certainly that is going to be explosive for the royal family.

Harry feels that he has not had a chance to speak out to tell his truth and to tell exactly what it was like growing up in the royal family when he was, in his words, seen as a spare. So, I think it's going to be a difficult few months for the royal family, and particularly for the king, even if Harry has been, as this source suggests, light on him, still, people are going to say the king was at the head of the family. What was all of this going on?

REID: Well, now that it's been out for a few weeks, how do the British people feel about this Netflix series and everything that was said in it?

WILLIAMS: Well, the Netflix series was -- it was really shocking. It was -- to hear Meghan talking about her suffering, her mental health suffering, how there was no help for her and particularly about how these stories that were so distressing, these stories that had sexist, racist overtones, these stories that the palace not just failed to stop but also in the documentary this is what they suggested, that they were horse trading stories, stories are being fed to the press to protect the other royals. I mean, these were quite shocking allegations.

I think that Harry and Meghan feel very strongly it's clear that they wanted very much to be half in, half out of the royal family. At the time, I said this could work, let's give it a try, let's do it half in and half out.

[13:55:02]

All the European royals' younger siblings do that. But all the other media said no and the royal family said, no. And this is what it's like to be Harry and Meghan out of the royal family. They feel that they want to get their story out there, and I think, certainly, Harry has suffered a lot after the death of his mother. Meghan coming into the royal family, she felt unsupported. Harry felt unsupported throughout his time in the royal family. He's now particularly now the queen is dead, he's not going to hold back and he's going to say how he feels.

And I think if he feels it's going to damage his relationship with his brother and father, then so be it. He feels that this is the only way to protect his children and Meghan was to exit the royal family and out of the royal family, he will say how he feels. As Max was saying, we have the coronation coming up. The royal family would, of course, like this to be a great celebration of royal work, but I think that Harry's truths are going to throw a lot of bombs in there.

REID: Interviews, documentary, now a memoire, certainly getting the story out there. Kate Williams, thank you.

And Dionne Warwick is a musical icon with 56 worldwide hits, six Grammy Awards and one extraordinary legacy. She brings her exclusive story to CNN in the new film, Don't Make Me Over, premiering tonight at 9:00 P.M. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dionne Warwick, one of the great female singers of all time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dionne was the first African-American woman to win a Grammy in the pop category.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The music I was singing was nothing like anything any of them were singing. The legacy of my family, music, pure and simple, music.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dionne Warwick, Don't Make Me Over, premiers tonight at 9:00 on CNN.

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