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CNN Live At Daybreak
Missing Journalist in Jamaica: Parents Speak Out
Aired August 16, 2001 - 07:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: This week we have touched on unsolved cases, not the least of which has been Chandra Levy. The 24- year-old Washington intern has been missing since the last day of April. Police have found no trace of her in the last 3 1/2 months. Chandra's parents, Bob and Susan Levy, keep pressing the press. The Levy's tell CNN's Larry King that Congressman Gary Condit went back on a promise to cooperate with their investigators.
Well, there is a similar mystery around Claudia Kirschhoch. She's a travel book editor. She was on assignment in Jamaica. Claudia disappeared without a trace, hasn't been seen in nearly 15 months. No suspects, no arrests, no charges filed.
But Claudia's parents, Fred and Mary Ann Kirschhoch, haven't given up. They join us from our Washington bureau this morning.
Both of you, thank you very much for being here.
FRED KIRSCHHOCH, DAUGHTER MISSING IN JAMAICA: Thank you for having us.
MCEDWARDS: I understand she was at a resort in Negril. This is an all-inclusive place, no need for her to really ever leave. How do you -- how much do you know at this point about how she disappeared and who might be responsible for this, Mary Ann?
MARY ANN KIRSCHHOCH, DAUGHTER MISSING IN JAMAICA: Well, -- Fred, could you take it, I'm sorry, just...
MCEDWARDS: Oh, that's fine, sure -- Fred.
F. KIRSCHHOCH: We know that she had gone to a reggae concert with the bartender at the Beaches Hotel, which he denied initially. But after the FBI went there and started their investigation and performed lie detector tests, he admitted that he had taken her to the reggae concert. He's probably the last one that has seen her.
MCEDWARDS: And, Fred, have police investigated this bartender?
F. KIRSCHHOCH: To some degree. The Jamaican police took information then -- a statement from him then started their investigation. But it was really the FBI that brought everything to a head by -- and the search and rescue dog that we brought in through our Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen... (CROSSTALK)
MCEDWARDS: So you actually -- you actually took your own search and rescue dog to Jamaica to get on this?
F. KIRSCHHOCH: Yes, over the objections of the Jamaican government. They had a six-month quarantine period, which they finally gave up on.
MCEDWARDS: And did you find anything through that, Fred?
F. KIRSCHHOCH: The search and rescue dog found evidence -- found her scent in the back of his car -- in Anthony Grant's car and in his gloves and boots. And those items were taken to Virginia and analyzed, but there was no conclusive DNA evidence from that. But we know that, as a minimum, he knows what happened.
MCEDWARDS: Mary Ann, I know how difficult this is, but I'm wondering if I can ask you how you feel about the kind of cooperation you've gotten from police and just how much of this you've had to do on your own?
M. KIRSCHHOCH: Well, with the help of our congressman, we have pressed for them to continue with the investigation. And we hoping now with a new American ambassador there to Jamaica that we will have someone else who will be able to help press our case and that we can have a little bit more activity.
MCEDWARDS: Mary Ann, when Claudia didn't come home after her business trip, what went through your mind?
M. KIRSCHHOCH: Well, we initiated the call. We did not receive a call, and we found out that Claudia was expected home June 2, which is the Friday. The last day she was seen was May 27. No one called us from the hotel to advise us. We were terrified. That wasn't like Claudia not to come back and tell us at least to say, you know, I'm tired and I'll give you more information when I see you on the weekend. But we didn't have that, and we are devastated that it took so long before we were advised of her not being in the hotel.
MCEDWARDS: And it must be difficult, Fred, to be -- to be so far away as well and having to make so many trips back and forth on your own in this?
F. KIRSCHHOCH: Yes, but we've had -- you know we keep in constant contact with people from the island. We've had a number of anonymous tips through our Web site and by phone and we've had the police and the FBI follow up on them. We do have -- we have made a number of friends in Jamaica and we keep following up with them.
MCEDWARDS: And has the Levy case brought more attention to yours, do you think?
F. KIRSCHHOCH: The Levy case prompted a couple of interviews. Obviously it's helped us, and we advise them to continue to work with the media because the media -- every time we've been on television or there's been an article in a paper or a magazine, that's when we've gotten our anonymous tips or our tips and -- to follow up on. So this is 15 months and we had a tip as early -- as late as about three weeks ago that the police are now following up on as a result of an earlier story.
MCEDWARDS: All right. Fred Kirschhoch, Mary Ann Kirschhoch, thanks for your time this morning.
M. KIRSCHHOCH: Thank you.
MCEDWARDS: And truly wish you all the -- all the best in this -- all the best of luck.
F. KIRSCHHOCH: Thank you very much.
M. KIRSCHHOCH: Thank you, Colleen.
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