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CNN Live Saturday

Interview with James Alan Fox

Aired August 17, 2002 - 17:02   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this half hour with a puzzling abduction and murder case. Authorities in Virginia are searching for the abductor of 9-year-old Jennifer Renee Short and her parents' killer. Officials believe the family knew the person responsible. Our Jeanne Meserve joins us live from Collinsville, Virginia with the very latest from there. Hi there, Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. The big news in this investigation is that there is no news. As yet there is no sign of young Jennifer Short, who was discovered missing Thursday morning at about 9:00 a.m., her parents each shot once in the head, dead in different parts of the home.

Also, still no break in this investigation in any way, shape or form. We had -- we were a briefing in about an hour's time. We're hoping that we'll learn something new from that. But so far, what we've learned today from the sheriff -- he believes, as you mentioned, that of perpetrator or perpetrators of this were known to the whole family. He didn't tell us the specifics of why they thought that.

It may have something to do with his years in law enforcement. It may also have something to do with physical evidence, because he did tell us that there appeared to be no sign of a struggle in the Short home.

We also have learned that there apparently was nothing stolen from the home. This would appear to eliminate robbery as a possible motive here. But there are still many significant gaps. They still do not have a motive for this crime. They don't have a good timeline of who was doing what that night and early morning. Also, they have no suspect in this case.

The investigation has continued today. We were told between 30 and 40 sheriff's deputies, people from the FBI, from the Virginia state police, were out interviewing people, largely acquaintances and relatives and also people who have been employees of Mr. Short, trying to determine what in their background might lead them down a fruitful path. So that has continued.

Also, there has been some searching as well. We stopped by a staging area for the search. We were told by a couple of people that they'd been sent out to look at an abandoned house about seven miles away from the Short home, but they were unable to find anything there. They found absolutely nothing, and so the search does continue here. At the moment that's the state of play -- Fredericka. WHITFIELD: Well, Jeanne, you covered extensively the case of Elizabeth Smart, who is still missing out of Utah. In that case, you have parents who helped keep the search ongoing. In this case, investigators don't have that kind of push coming from the parents. How different are you finding this to be in terms of the investigators' involvement?

MESERVE: Well, the Smart family was very media-savvy. They went before the cameras almost every day. Very often they had a new tidbit of information to offer to the press, Elizabeth's favorite song, for instance, or some particular story that she liked to hear. They made heartfelt appeals that kept that story on the front page of the news.

As you noticed -- as you know, there are no parents anymore in this case, and there is extended family, but as yet we have heard nothing from them. We've heard from sources on the investigation that if anybody keeps this in the public eye, it's going to be the police themselves, but as to who keeps pressure on the police, that's a question.

At the moment, I can tell you they seem to be committing absolutely every resource they have to this investigation -- Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thank you very much. And officials say it's an around the clock job for them. In fact, in about 30 minutes or an hour from now, rather, they plan to hold a news conference, and CNN will be bringing that to you live beginning at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time.

As we have seen in other abduction cases, the Amber Alert system is being used in the search for Jennifer Short. The system uses radio, TV and billboards to urge people to look out for missing kids, but some fear the alert system may become misused.

James Alan Fox wrote an opinion article in today's "New York Times" about the Amber Alert system, and he is a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University, and he joins us now from Boston. Thanks for joining us.

JAMES ALAN FOX, NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROF.: My pleasure.

WHITFIELD: Well, with so much recent success from the Amber Alert system being used, how is it that you are finding that there are some real problems with this system?

FOX: Well, let's first define success. Yes, these cases -- many of these cases were solved with a happy ending. That happy ending may have come anyway. Abductions many times fail, and the victim does end up alive, fortunately.

I'm just concerned that we not rush to implement a system that has some drawbacks, where innocent people can be targeted, chased down by vigilantes because the wrong information gets on the All Points Bulletin. WHITFIELD: So perhaps it means a matter of refining or making sure that everyone respects the Amber Alert system the way it is currently being used?

FOX: Well, right now, there's panic in America about child abductions. People think it's an epidemic. This has been called the summer of abduction. In this kind of climate, I'm very concerned about what could happen to the failures, the times when the Amber Alert system has the wrong information.

WHITFIELD: And this is based on what? Have you found that there have already been some misuses of the Amber Alert system?

FOX: Well, we really don't know, because those data are not collected. Essentially anytime you have an abduction, there are always false leads and false reports. Information comes through that's just wrong.

Now we're going to take wrong information and to put them on the highways, on the emergency alert systems, on radios and TV sets, a lot of bad things can happen. I'm not saying the system won't work, but before we go national, before we start investing in a wide scale way, we have to be real careful about the criteria.

What triggers an alert, so that we don't have too many alerts so that people will just ignore them like they did the milk cartons years ago?

WHITFIELD: And that push to go national could come as early as early as next month with lawmakers say they want there to be a system where every state is using the Amber Alert system.

So what would be your recommendation to bring about the most fair program in place and make sure that it is one that wouldn't be abused, as you would see it?

FOX: Well, we just simply have to look at the way the procedure will be implemented. How are we going to verify information? For example, if some good samaritan calls in a license plate of a suspected abductor, it's very easy at 65 miles an hour to look at a "B" and think it's an "8." And then we're going to have all sorts of people being chased down by the cops or, maybe even worse, by some citizens who are taking matters into their own hands.

I believe in "Blue Alert," which is simply let the police broadcast far and wide to each other. Let them cooperate more...

WHITFIELD: But we're already seeing in so many recent cases that the public has been able to help. And even law enforcement has applauded the public's input.

FOX: Well, law enforcement is not going to stand there and say, no thanks. Yes, very often public information can help, but very often public information sends investigations into the wrong directions. We know of many cases where people call in tips, the cops follow them, and the wrong people are arrested or suspected. Those are the kind of cases we don't spend a lot of time hearing about, but those are the kinds of cases that worry me.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: All right. James Alan Fox -- thanks, we're out of time. Appreciate it, from Northeastern University. Thanks for joining us.

FOX: My pleasure.

WHITFIELD: Well, across the atlantic, another abduction case is getting attention. British authorities have two people in custody in the kidnapping of two girls. This as police find two unidentified bodies. CNN's Diana Muriel joins us live from Soham, England with the very latest. Hi there, Diane.

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka. Hello, Fredericka. There have been various developments during the course of the day. The most recent one was only this afternoon, when police said that two bodies had been discovered near the village of Mildenhall (ph), which is about 10 miles northeast of Soham, not far away from the RAF base of Lake-and-Heath (ph), where U.S. Air Force personnel are also based.

Now these two bodies have not yet been identified by the police, but we do understand that the families of the two missing girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, their families have been told about this discovery. We're waiting for further details there.

In a separate development early in the morning, at 4:00 a.m. in the morning local time, here in Soham, the police arrested two people in connection with their investigation, a 28-year-old man, who was arrested for the abduction and murder of the two girls, and a 25-year- old woman, who was arrested for the murder, just the murder of the two girls.

Now the police have not released the identity of these two arrested persons. We understand that they're still being held in police custody at separate police stations in Cambridgeshire. But it has been widely reported here in the UK and it's widely understood amongst the people of the town of Soham that these two people are Ian Huntley, 28-year-old caretaker of the school here behind me where the police are conducting a thorough forensic examination of the grounds, and in fact they say they have recovered items which are of significant importance to their investigation.

And the 25-year-old woman is Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant here are the schools who completed a short-term contract at the school and indeed is understood to have taught both the girls who were in the same class, but has not had her contract renewed.

Now Ian Huntley has been involved with the investigation since Day One, August 4. He came forward to the police and said that he'd the two girls walking through the town as he was outside his house washing his dog, and he actually spoke to them, and in press reports -- he's spoken to the media about this experience -- this is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IAN HUNTLEY, QUESTIONED BY POLICE: It doesn't help the fact that I was one of the last people to speak to them, if not the last person to speak to them. I keep reliving that conversation, thinking perhaps something different could have been said, perhaps kept them here a little bit longer and maybe changed events.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURIEL: Now, of course, it's not been -- the police have not confirmed that Ian Huntley is indeed the man who has been arrested, and we wait for more details of that over the course of the next few hours. They have 96 hours before they have to charge the two people that have been arrested, and we understand from the police that they're taking this examination -- the forensic searches that they're conducting -- very, very thoroughly before any charges are brought -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Diana Muriel, thank you very much.

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