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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

One Bomb Packed Inside Pressure Cooker; Remembering The Victims; Boston Marathon Terror Attack; Margaret Thatcher, 1915-2013; More Tests Today on Ricin-Laced Letter>

Aired April 17, 2013 - 06:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. We're getting our first look at the mangled remains of a device that literally blew up the Boston marathon. Images we hope that could help investigators determine who is behind the deadly terror attack.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And then gone too soon, a mother simply heartbroken over the loss of her daughter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was a wonderful person. Everybody that knew her loved her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Patty Campbell was originally told by the hospital that her daughter Krystle had survived the bombing.

CUOMO: The terrible twist in that story we will tell you. Also people come together for a night of healing, candlelight vigil for one of the youngest victims of the marathon attack.

In New York, the intense centuries old baseball rivalry between Boston and New York playing out on our set this morning, set aside, a moment of silence, solidarity, song.

BERMAN: That tribute put a lump in so many Boston fan's throats all across Red Sox nation.

CUOMO: I'll tell you what, one of the beautiful things in sports, right, Boston and New York? Something like this obviously transcends and you saw it there from people. They wanted to be together. They didn't want to just be sad.

They weren't there to just mourn together. They were to move on together and it was a beautiful way to do it through sport. Good morning, everybody. Chris Cuomo, John Berman. Welcome to a special edition of EARLY START, part of CNN's continuing coverage here.

BERMAN: It's 6:00 a.m. in the east.

CUOMO: All right.

BERMAN: Investigators are tracking down some 2,000 leads this morning, this investigation going on right behind us. We're just a block away from the crime scene right here. They're also poring over chilling photos. These photos just released overnight, over the remnants of one of the detonated devices.

These pictures as you can see they show wires, they show a battery, they show bits of what appears to be a circuit board, these photos coming from the news agency Reuters. They say they came from a government official who did not want to be identified, but he turned over the photos, along with images of that mangled pressure cooker.

Now in one photo you can see what appears to be a cluster of BBs. In the photo they're likely melted together by the heat of the blast. But again we heard from doctors all yesterday saying they were seeing BBs and nails in the victims they were treating. FBI investigators are also saying that the second bomb was in some type of metal container.

CUOMO: At home it may seem like this was random. It will be tough to pick apart, just the opposite as the case, this type of device, style from the 1970s, known to be an easy way to teach bomb making, known to be available on the net.

The items, different kind of camera batteries, wires, will actually all be clues. The agencies tell us that bombs tell a story. Every bomb does and one thing we know for sure here, they couldn't be working the scene harder. At 2:30 this morning, I was out walking around, that crime scene fully lit, 30 different government agencies in and out.

White jumpsuits there taking everything they could find, taking pictures, so the effort here is really exceptional that's going on. At the same time, as the investigation there's a separate struggle in the hospitals in the area. The good news, hospitals have released at least 100 of the 183 people injured in Monday's attack. It is great.

So many families finally being reunited, being able to start moving forward with their lives. We also learned last night in addition to the 8-year-old boy who lost his life, and 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, a Chinese graduate student who was studying at Boston University, also her life lost here. We're going to respect the family's wishes, not releasing her name at this time.

BERMAN: It does show you the international scope of this tragedy, a Chinese student, like so many foreign students coming to study here at one of the great universities in this city.

CUOMO: It wasn't just Boston that was damaged in this attack. It will resonate and hopefully so will the response. Again, this is CNN's special team coverage. We're going to begin with Susan Candiotti who is tracking the latest on the FBI probe. Good morning, Susan. What have we learned?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. And you're right. You can see those FBI agents and other technicians working around the clock, just like you walked around this morning and saw them, as well. Seeing these photographs, Chris and John, gives all of us a better understanding of how a terrorist built a homemade bomb, taking simple items, including things that you could find around your house, like a pressure cooker, and the object was to kill and to maim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Crime scene photos show part of what could be a pressure cooker used in the bombings. Others show charred wire, attached to a battery, what appears to be a small circuit board, a half-inch nail, and a blood-stained ziber pull tab.

Another shows what looks like a massive ball bearing BBs intended as deadly shrapnel. Investigators are also combing through hundreds of photos from the scene, including this one, where a light-colored bag sits next to a mailbox.

The before and after images capture its proximity to one of the two blast locations. Authorities are scrutinizing every lead. The FBI needs help. After all, someone knows who did it.

RICK DESLAURIERS, FBI AGENT IN CHARGE: The person who did this is someone's friend, neighbor, co-worker, or relative.

CANDIOTTI: Crime scene technicians also found gun powder residue. Gun powder ignited inside the metal container, building pressure, which caused the container to explode, and an explosive expert explains to Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence.

MIKE BOUCHARD, FORMER ATF OFFICIAL: Of course, in a crowd like this since it was so tightly packed with people, those people took the brunt of the explosion and all the projectiles.

CANDIOTTI: A pressure cooker with part of a homemade bomb inside an SUV that fizzles in Times Square in 2010, planted by admitted lone wolf terrorist Faisal Shazad now in prison. In Boston, authorities are convinced they'll solve the case, but as of now, have no clue who is behind it.

DESLAURIERS: At this time, there are no claims of responsibility. The range of suspects and motives remains wide open.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: So even though there have been more than 2,000 tips so far. It's not enough. The FBI needs the public's help to try to solve this. Chris and John, back to you.

CUOMO: All right, thank you, Susan. That part of the investigation still moving forward. Obviously, it's going to take some time though.

BERMAN: Coming up in the next half hour of EARLY START, we're going to talk about the pictures, images the investigators are poring through right now. We're going to talk to the man who really understands them, Tom Fuentes, former FBI assistant director. He is now a CNN contributor. In addition to the investigation this morning, there is still the remembering, and the mourning going around all around this city, all around the country. For the three victims who died in the marathon bombing. Thousands turned out for this candlelight vigil last night, paying tribute to one of the youngest casualties.

CNN's Pamela Brown has been following that part of the story. She's here with us this morning. Good morning, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you. Like you said, thousands turned out last night to remember the life of 8-year-old Martin Richard in a candlelight vigil, one of many ways communities throughout Boston coming together to pay their respects as the city tries to pick up the pieces.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): An outpouring of raw emotion from a community struck by grief. Friends and family of 8-year-old Martin Richard gathered in a park near his home to remember him and pray for his family. His 6-year-old sister lost a leg, and his mother has a serious brain injury.

On Tuesday, friends and relatives dropped off flowers at the family's house in the Dorchester section of Boston. Martin's unforgettable smile has become the face of Monday's senseless attack.

His picture celebrating his first communion and another with a sign that reads "no more hurting people" now emblazoned in the minds of millions. One of the first responders, Dr. Kim Mills, tried to revive him. Her husband matt describes the horror his wife ran toward after the blast.

MATT MILLS, HUSBAND OF KIM MILLS: She did. She told me that she handed it off to the EMTs. She said, he's dead, and somebody said we need to start CPR. And she said, I don't think it's going to help.

BROWN: Now he says his wife is grappling with the reality of seeing these pictures of Martin.

MILLS: You could see she just got quiet and you could see the tears welling up and all the emotion coming back from yesterday.

BROWN: The second fatality is Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old from Medford, Massachusetts, a suburb to the north of Boston. Krystle was standing along Boylston Street when the explosions went off. Her mother, heartbroken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of daughter was she, Ma'am?

PATTY CAMPBELL, MOTHER OF KRYSTLE: She was the best. You couldn't ask for a better --

BROWN: Krystle would have turned 30 on May 3rd. The third victim is a Chinese national and graduate student of Boston University studying Statistics. The injured continue to recover and tell their stories. CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke exclusively to Ron in his hospital room.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, CNN'S "AC 360": Were you knocked to the ground?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wasn't knocked to the ground. I absolutely knew that I was hit with something because the pain that shot through my leg was -- was incredible.

BROWN: Meanwhile, across the country, tributes to remember those lost, with the Red Sox playing away in Cleveland, the Indians held a moment of silence for the bombing victims. And the New York Yankees put their rivalry aside Tuesday night to pay their respects, posting this message on the Yankee stadium marquee, united we stand and playing the Fenway Park favorite "Sweet Caroline" in the Bronx.

Back on the streets of Boston an eerie quiet on normally busy streets. For Megan Kieler returning to the scene after memories of the explosion brought back overwhelming emotions.

MEGAN KIELER, WITNESSED BOMBINGS: I think I just kind of -- to be honest. I feel sadly for everybody, but it's, you know, people are waking up today and their lives are very different.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: An outpouring of emotion throughout the city this morning. Last night, hundreds turned out in the Boston common in a showing of solidarity. What we're seeing, these displays of pain, respect for the victims throughout the city.

BERMAN: There's still so much going on in the city. Right behind us is the crime scene. We just saw a gathering of police officers. I believe they're still right there getting ready to go out and do their work today. This area behind us still shut down today, but the rest of the city probably back up and running.

BROWN: That is the hope. You know, I think that residents here want to get life moving forward. Want to bounce back and so we saw one of those stores close yesterday. Today, there's a good chance that we'll see some life coming back to the city.

BERMAN: All right, Pamela Brown, thanks so much.

CUOMO: The city is going to move on. It's a big, strong, dynamic place, but part of the connection here is that this city and all of us watching on this story feel connections to who was lost. So many of us have little boys like that. It could be your nephew.

It could be your friend's kid. To see Krystle Campbell, 29 years old, her whole life in front of her, the connection between her and her family. This was a good kid. This was a good, young woman. Everybody loved her. Those resonate.

And yesterday we got to meet someone who was so special in her life, Grandma Wilma. She did special things for her grandmother, they had a bond, and it really gave us a window into who this person was, and what was lost when this bomb exploded.

Take a look and a listen at Grandma Wilma Campbell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: What do you think when you see this photo?

WILMA CAMPBELL, KRYSTLE CAMPBELL'S GRANDMOTHER: Beauty.

CUOMO: What was she like in high school?

CAMPBELL: Smiling all the time. All the time she smiled. No matter what happened, she come out with a smile. I used to dress her up. I used to love to dress her up and put her hair in long curls, and lots of bows all in her hair.

She loved it. She'd go out prancing, proud as anything, to school. And then, in school the teachers would say, Krystle, you look so beautiful. Who did your hair? My Nanna did my hair.

CUOMO: You had a special bond.

CAMPBELL: Gosh, yes.

CUOMO: How did Krystle make you feel?

CAMPBELL: Full heart, my whole heart and soul. She was it and she made me feel that way. She made me happy. I used to look forward to her coming over to see me.

CUOMO: And as she grew up she didn't change?

CAMPBELL: No.

CUOMO: She still came.

CAMPBELL: She still came and she still made me feel the same, happy.

CUOMO: What kind of young woman did she become?

CAMPBELL: Smart, ambitious, and loving. She wanted -- she never complained what she wanted or talked about it that much. She just used to say, I'll just take one day at a time, Nanna, see what happens.

CUOMO: She just took life as it came?

CAMPBELL: She loved life.

CUOMO: Lots of friends?

CAMPBELL: Lots of friends. Lots of friends. Her disposition, her attitude, and her stubbornness, she was so bubbly all the time, and laughing.

CUOMO: When she got a little older, there was a time when you got a little sick and she was there for you.

CAMPBELL: Yes, definitely.

CUOMO: Tell me about it.

CAMPBELL: When I come home from the hospital, she comes over one day, and she said, Nanna, I think maybe I want to move in with you. So I said why? She said well I just figured that you should have somebody here with you to stay with you, make sure you're OK. I said you really want to do that, Krystle? You have your whole life ahead of you. She says, well, I can -- I'll make it. I'll arrange it so that I'll be here with you.

CUOMO: What did that mean to you?

CAMPBELL: Everything, everything. It did me so well because I felt good, and I felt comfortable and safe with her in the house with me.

CUOMO: Solidified her as number one, too, right? That was it after that. Everybody else was in a race for second.

CAMPBELL: Exactly.

CUOMO: What do you think when you see her on the TV?

CAMPBELL: What?

CUOMO: What do you think when you see her there?

CAMPBELL: I wish I could go up and grab and kiss and hug her. I can still feel her.

CUOMO: How do you make sense of this?

CAMPBELL: I don't. I don't have -- any sense of it at all. I can't believe it's happened. I can't believe it. I won't even accept it. Now and I'm sitting here with you. I'm having a hard time when I see her on the TV. It's killing me inside.

CUOMO: It's not real?

CAMPBELL: Huh?

CUOMO: You can't believe that something like this would happen?

CAMPBELL: No. There's a lot of things on my mind.

CUOMO: How are you going to remember Krystle? How do you want to remember her?

CAMPBELL: All my love will be there forever. In my heart, she's in my heart, always in all of them, that's my Krystle. And she'll always be my Krystle.

I love her. I love her so much. I love all of them. But she's my special one. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Grandma Wilma says, it's hard. It's hard for her.

But she wanted to feel because it's so important that these people who are hurt here and lost here don't become known for just how they died. And even though it wrenches your heart, it's good to know that they had lives, that they had futures and hopes.

BERMAN: A granddaughter who moved in with her grandmother to take care of her, checked on her every week. How do you make sense of it? Listen to Grandma Wilma. You don't. You can't.

CUOMO: She said you have to be strong and you have to keep going, because there are other people who need you and life needs you to be at your fullest.

BERMAN: She's an example.

CUOMO: All right. So when we come back we're going to have continuing coverage of the Boston marathon attacks. We're going to talk about the bombs and we're going to try and get the latest on who may have done this. But there's also other news this morning.

BERMAN: There is other news. Live from London right now the funeral procession, the funeral proceedings for Lady Margaret Thatcher, the late prime minister there, going on at this moment. We'll take you there live.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back to our live coverage here in the aftermath of the Boston marathon bombings. We are just a block away from the crime scene itself. You can see the picture right behind us right now. The Boston police officers right there finishing up their morning briefing, obviously, going out to their beats, walking to protect the area.

Very much, very much still an active crime scene. I know, Chris, you were out there 2:30 in the morning and they will still poring over the evidence all over the sidewalk. They've been literally digging BBs and nails out of the sides of buildings.

We have a lot of developments overnight in this investigation. New photos to show you. New information to tell you about. We will be here all morning with that news.

But there is other news going on in the world right now.

For a check on the other developing stories let's go back to Christine Romans in New York.

Good morning, Christine.

(INAUDIBLE)

BERMAN: I'm sorry, we seem to be having audio -- what we're going to tell you about right now is what you're looking at right now -- pictures for the funeral services of Lady Margaret Thatcher, the baroness, the former prime minister of England. Services are under way right now at St. Paul's Cathedral. She's receiving full military honors there.

And CNN's Becky Anderson is live in London for us with the coverage.

Good morning, Becky.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very good morning to you. The coffin brought on a horse-drawn carriage. The casket brought up to St. Paul's Cathedral about 15, 20 minutes ago. The queen and Prince Philip had already arrived. It was put under the nave of St. Paul's Cathedral.

And then as the funeral began, 2,000 former presidents and prime ministers, her cabinet, Henry Kissinger is here, Mr. and Mrs. Dick Cheney are here. Men and women from all over the world gathered to mourn Baroness Thatcher today.

We've heard from her granddaughter, Amanda Thatcher, who is born and brought up in America. She read one of the -- one of the readings today, right at the beginning, followed by David Cameron, the current British prime minister, who said today, we are all Thatcherites today.

Well, I'm not sure that everybody here in the U.K. would agree with that. She was a fairly divided character, as you know. The funeral now continues. It will go on for another 20, 25 minutes or so, and then the party here will move on to mansion house -- John and Chris.

BERMAN: All right, our thanks to you Becky Anderson in London for us this morning, covering these funeral services, the pomp and pageantry going on at St. Paul's Cathedral. Thanks, Becky.

CUOMO: One type of memorial there. A very different one here in Boston where we are live part of CNN's continuing coverage of the Boston marathon attacks.

There is progress. Even though it's just a couple of days since this happened. It is what's called a frantic investigation, 30 agencies on it. You are looking at pictures of what they believe to be a pressure cooker bomb. Still working on what was in the second bomb. We're going to take you through it, what's it mean, what kind of clues are in it.

BERMAN: Those pictures coming in overnight.

And then this, a letter laced with poison sent to a sitting U.S. senator. We're going to have the latest on that investigation, too, when this special edition of EARLY START, from Boston, continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to STARTING POINT.

More tests will be done today to confirm whether a letter sent to a U.S. senator was laced with ricin. A tiny drop of that poison is enough to kill a human. The letter was intercepted before it reached the Capitol Hill office of Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi.

CNN's Shannon Travis is in Washington for us this morning. The big mystery, Shannon, who sent this letter?

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, that is the mystery. That's what investigators want to know.

We have a clue, Christine, about where it might be from. The letter was postmarked Memphis, Tennessee, but there was no return address. That information from Senate sergeant at arms Terrance Gainer in an e- mail to senators an aides.

Now as you mentioned, experts are going to be performing tests today to determine if, without a doubt, that substance on the letter was ricin. We know that a Maryland laboratory obtained -- excuse me, confirmed the presence of ricin, but the FBI says field test can be unreliable and that only a full analysis at an accredited lab can truly determine if the poison was present.

The FBI says those tests generally take between 24 to 48 hours. They'll happen that at a research lab, an Army research lab in Maryland, according to the U.S. Capitol Police.

Now, the Boston marathon bombing was on Monday. This potentially poisonous letter to the senator on Tuesday. Is it reasonable that they're linked? The chairman of the House Homeland Committee Security committee, whose name is Mike McCaul, he says no.

ROMANS: All right. He says no. OK. Thanks, Shannon Travis, for that. We'll continue to follow that and investigate.

Let's go back to Chris Cuomo and John Berman in Boston. Hi, guys.

BERMAN: Hey, thanks so much, Christine. Again we are on the streets of Boston. Right behind us is still this very active crime scene. Investigators are still poring over every inch of that. And it is still closed to the public. We are covering the latest breaks in this investigation this morning.

CUOMO: The key, the pictures. The pictures of what they believe to be the bomb. We'll take you through them with an expert. What are the clues there? Where will they lead?

BERMAN: You're watching a special edition of EARLY START.

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