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CNN Larry King Live

Missing Woman's Body Found

Aired June 23, 2007 - 21:00   ET

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

TED ROWLANDS, CNN HOST: Tonight, a body believed to be that of the missing nine-month missing mom, Jessie Davis, has been found. Her boyfriend, father of her two-year-old son, arrested for her murder and that of her unborn daughter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At approximately 3:30 p.m. today we discovered the body of who we believe to be is Jessie Marie Davis from Summit County, Ohio.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: The body was found in a national park in a nearby county. We've got all the latest from Ohio next on LARRY KING LIVE.

And good evening, everybody, welcome to LARRY KING LIVE. I'm Ted Rowlands filling in for Larry tonight. A heartbreaking end to a 10- day search for Jessie Davis, the 26-year-old mother and expected -- mother of a second child, a pregnant mother. Her body, according to authorities, found today about an hour north of Canton, Ohio, where a massive search has been going on. Much of the nation has been following this. It was the worst possible scenario because not only was she apparently found dead, but her boyfriend and the father of her unborn child and the father of her two-year-old has been arrested and charged tentatively with those two murders, expected to make his first court appearance on Monday, 30-year-old Bobby Cutts, a member of the Canton, Ohio, police department. In jail tonight facing murder charges.

Joining us tonight in Canton, Ohio, Jim Acosta, CNN correspondent who's been covering this since this story broke. In San Francisco, Michael Cardoza, high-profile defense attorney, but a frequent guest on this program as well and has been following this story very closely.

And in Pittsburgh, Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensics expert, he's the former coroner of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

Let's start with you, Jim Acosta. Fill us in, extraordinary developments in this case, heartbreaking developments. What happened today?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Extraordinary and heartbreaking, indeed, Ted. Yes, about 3:30 this afternoon, authorities did recover the body that they believe is Jessie Marie Davis, the 26-year-old pregnant mother who was just weeks away from delivering her second child, a baby girl that she was planning to name Chloe.

Her body recovered by authorities, not only with the Stark County Sheriff's Department, but neighboring Summit County, which is where her body was found in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. FBI was also there and the National Park Service. Those authorities also aiding in this recovery.

And at some point during the day, it's not clear whether after the body was recovered or before the body was recovered, police took into custody Bobby Cutts Jr., that 30-year-old Canton police officer, who is also the father of Jessie Davis' two-year-old son, Blake, and also presumably the father of her unborn child, Chloe. He is now in the jail behind me here in Stark County.

And is, as you mentioned, expected to appear in court before a judge on Monday morning to be arraigned, to be formally charged with two counts of murder, one for Jessie Marie Davis and one for that unborn child. An attorney for the family of Jessie Davis has asked for the public to give them some privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time. Ted?

ROWLANDS: You were in Canton, obviously, when the news broke covering the story for CNN, like a lot of folks. And give us a sense of what happened when the news started to filter through all of these volunteers. This is something that really has taken people -- people have driven from all around Ohio to help search for this missing woman. Give us a sense of what sort of spread through as the word spread and the sense that -- of disappointment, I'm sure, that was felt by everyone involved in this who were invested emotionally. They didn't know this young woman, but terribly invested.

ACOSTA: Right, not just the family invested in all of this, but countless volunteers, people from all over Ohio. We had the private company out here, EquuSearch, that was leading a volunteer force of over well over 1,000 people, people who were just coming out of the goodness of their heart to search through corn fields and parks and neighborhoods that were close to where Jessie Davis was last seen.

And we talked to one of those searchers shortly before this press conference today. And she was out on one of the final searches of the day, had gotten on the bus with other volunteers, and almost as soon as she got to the location she was supposed to search, the authorities there said that's it, the search is over. Everybody go back, something is up.

And that is when word started coming down that a significant development had come about in this case. And it was just moments after that that all of this unraveled. You know, I think a lot of people were starting to wonder whether or not the focus would begin to heat up on Bobby Cutts.

His name had been talked about all week this week as the father not only of Jessie Davis' children, but also the father of children he had with his current wife, who is apparently estranged from, and also he has a child with another woman who has since left this community. And so the focus was on him towards the end here. His mom, in fact, not his mom, but Jessie Davis' mom had said in a televised interview that she was starting to suspect Cutts was behind this. And in the end, he is now the man in custody in this case, charged with two counts of murder.

ROWLANDS: Michael Cardoza, WOIO Television and "Canton Repository," both reporting that Cutts has told his family that he found Jessie Davis apparently lying on the floor and that he called a friend possibly to help him with the removal of the body and also we're hearing from WOIO that he told police where the body was.

Looking at all the information, does it make sense that he, obviously, has confessed through his lawyer? Is that what you would take from this?

MICHAEL CARDOZA, WOIO TV: You know, I'm not sure, Ted, you can say that he's confessed through his lawyers. We don't know that. Remember the couple up in Oregon? They were lost in the snow up there and they eventually found the husband dead? The way they found them was through a cell phone. Even though a cell phone goes dead, the beeps goes off. We don't know if that's how they found these people or if Cutts actually confessed.

I'll tell you, if he did confess, I would think that his defense attorneys went in and struck a deal with the prosecution because back there in Ohio, this would be a death penalty case. They have aggravating circumstances, one of which is multiple homicides. And this certainly falls in the multiple homicide category.

So they could have gone in and said, look, take death off the table. Don't file death. We will tell you where the body is. I'm speculating that if he did confess, they had to do that.

Now, they may have negotiated a plea or said, we can argue later about whether it's a first-degree, second-degree or a manslaughter, and that may take a trial in this case. So because he confessed doesn't mean it won't go to trial.

ROWLANDS: Jim Acosta, you mentioned the heat seemed to be turned up a bit on Bobby Cutts Jr. in the last few days. This guy actually did an interview and said he had nothing to do with it. Why do you say the heat was being turned up?

ACOSTA: Well, obviously, you know, they were searching his home, not just once, but twice, had searched his car, had given him his rights, had read him his rights apparently at one point, questioned him at least on one occasion.

And so it would seem to observers that a lot of attention was being placed on him. As your guest just mentioned, though, a lot of this is still unknown as to what will happen next. Did he have help? Was it he, in fact, who led authorities to the body today? We're hearing some reporting about that from one of our affiliates here in Cleveland, but that hasn't been nailed down yet. And so there is still some unanswered questions about this. One of the other unanswered questions is what was Cutts doing on the night that Jessie Davis disappeared? We know that local bar here in town called Champs, there is some surveillance video of Bobby Cutts in that establishment on the night that she was last heard from, that Jessie Davis was last heard from. And that videotape has been seized by federal authorities.

So I think just about from every vantage point, the authorities were closing in, asking questions, conducting those searches, removing items from his house, removing items from Jessie Davis' house, and trying to, I guess, piece together the evidence that they need to bring about these charges and then the body, of course, being the next step in this case, and that they could then go ahead and bring him into custody and charge him with murder.

It's interesting, through all of this, though, they never once called him a suspect. And one of the reporters at this press conference today even jokingly asked the chief deputy here in Stark County, so are you now calling him a suspect? And even at that point, the chief deputy would not call him a suspect, only would say that he is now in custody.

So the investigators seem to have something that they're keeping close to the vest that we don't know about yet. And as they said to us today, you know, there are reasons why we don't tell you guys everything.

ROWLANDS: All right. We're going to take a quick break here. Jessie Davis, the 26-year-old pregnant mother, her body, according to authorities, found about an hour north of Canton despite the searches, a horrific end, a heartbreaking end to this search for this young woman.

Coming up, we'll talk to a local reporter who has more insight on Bobby Cutts who now tonight is in jail, charged with the murder of two individuals, not only 26-year-old Jessie Davis, but also her unborn baby girl. Stay with us. You're watching LARRY KING LIVE.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF DEPUTY RICK PEREZ, STARK COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: At 3:30 p.m. today, we recovered the body of who we believed to be is Jessie Marie Davis in Summit County, Ohio. Presently deputies from the stark county sheriff's office, agents of the FBI, the Summit County coroner's office, the Metro Parks Police and the National Park Service are on the scene. We have placed Bobby Cutts under arrest, and he is presently in the custody of the Stark County sheriff's office.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Hey, welcome back to LARRY KING LIVE. I'm Ted Rowlands filling in for Larry tonight. Twenty-six-year-old Jessie Davis, the pregnant mother who was expecting a child in early July found, her body, according to authorities, found today, very heartbreaking end for this search. Joining us now from Canton, Ohio, is Denise Strzelczyk, she is a reporter for WOIO television, and Chief John Bacon in North Canton, the fire chief there, and he and Tim Miller of EquuSearch who is also with us ran the search for Jessie Davis. And it was an extraordinary search. They not only have authorities, but the volunteers came out in droves, more than 1,000 people, 1400 people, actually, today showed up for that search. Let's start with Denise Strzelczyk, she is on the phone from WOIO. And I understand, Denise, you have more information about Bobby Cutts. You were out there today. What can you tell us?

DENISE STRZELCZYK, WOIO TV: Well, I can tell you that for the last week, his house has been inundated with family, friends, supporters, bringing him food, water. He hasn't left the house. Then suddenly today at 1:30, about 1:30, family and friends appeared to pack up their food, their water and here's the part that's a little strange, and electronics they were taking out of the house, put into their vehicles and then everyone left.

ROWLANDS: When you say "electronics," you're talking television? Stereos?

STRZELCZYK: Entertainment equipment.

ROWLANDS: Huh. As if they were moving?

STRZELCZYK: Well, it's really hard to say what was -- really, my hunch was that they were just moving to another location. They were really disgusted with the media continually asking them for interviews.

I thought that, you know, perhaps they were moving to another location. And then at 3:30, we later found out, is when Jessie Davis's body was actually found. We got tipped off that something was going on like that, so we kept an eye on the house.

And at about 5:00, the sheriff and an FBI agent showed up at Bobby Cutts' Jr.'s house. The sheriff had something in his hand. He was carrying a paper. I don't know what it was. He went to the front door. He knocked on the door. He peered in through the window.

Then him and this FBI agent went around the house to the backyard. They spoke with a neighbor, came back around to the front of the house, looked in through the front door again, and then left. All of this over the course of maybe 15 or 20 minutes.

ROWLANDS: Your station is reporting tonight that a member of your staff received a phone call from inside the house. What is it that you're reporting in terms of what happened with that phone call? What did you learn from inside that house?

STRZELCZYK: That would be Sharon Reed, one of our anchors, who has a contact who she says is embedded with the Cutts family. She got a phone call this afternoon, and we were first to report that he had, while he was home with his family and friends, began to apologize for everything he was putting the family through. And then, actually, then a confession came. And he confessed to murdering Jessie Davis, that he had something -- that he had something to do with her disappearance. And that's when -- from the time that Sharon got that phone call, it wasn't long after that that we observed the -- you know, people packing up the food and the water and taking stuff out of the house.

But he apparently confessed to his family and friends. Again, I wasn't the one that received that tip, so I'm just reporting to you what I've heard her talk about.

ROWLANDS: OK. So to be clear, you did not have that conversation?

STRZELCZYK: No, that was not me. That was Sharon's tip. Somebody came into her -- a very close friend of Bobby Cutts Jr. who's known her for several years said that he confessed, that he said that he -- he said that she died while he was over at her house. Her eyes rolled up into her head after she had yanked on his pant leg and that he panicked and called a high school friend, a female friend who came over and helped him dispose of the body.

ROWLANDS: Clearly that's information we cannot confirm, but being reported by one of the affiliates tonight in Canton. Chief John Bacon, you led this search. It was an extraordinary search. Give us an indication of how people felt when they found out this news today, that the search had come to an end, and you personally, who you invested a lot of time and effort into this, how did it feel, and what's the mood there tonight in Canton?

CHIEF JOHN BACON, N. CANTON FIRE DEPARTMENT Well, they're glad it's over. I mean, they wanted closure. Everybody needs closure to something like this. When Chief Vanteras (ph) from Greentown Park called us and the Stark County fire chiefs was activated, we wanted to help out. Stark County showed up with thousands of people that showed up to help with this. They wanted closure. They wanted to do something. When you put a call out in Stark County, everybody showed up. Everybody came out. I think it was more than the EquuSearch people expected to show up.

But everyone wanted to go out and do something. After we found out, there was mixed emotions. You saw people crying, saw people in tears, saw people, other people walking away saying at least they found her. At least they have closure for the family.

ROWLANDS: The area where she was found, her body was found, was it an area that you had searched, or were planning on searching?

BACON: No. The body -- from what we understand from you guys, the news, the body was found well above where we would have gone. We would have primarily searched in Stark County. The Summit County area that they're talking about that we're hearing from the news affiliates is well north of where we would have searched.

ROWLANDS: OK, Chief John Bacon, thank you for joining us tonight. We're going to take a break right now. Coming up, we're going to talk to the stepfather of Laci Peterson, give us an indication of what is it like to find out the terrible news after an exhaustive search for a young woman, Ron Grantski. He went through this. He's going to join us by phone.

As we go to break, this is Bobby Cutts Jr. During an interview he did with the "Canton Repository" earlier this week saying he had nothing to do with it. He's behind bars tonight. You're watching LARRY KING LIVE. Stay with us.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TODD PORTER, "CANTON REPOSITORY": Bobby, did you have anything at all to do with the disappearance of Jessie?

BOBBY CUTTS JR., CHARGED WITH MURDERING JESSIE DAVIS: No, I didn't.

PORTER: Have authorities given you any indication if you're a suspect?

CUTTS: I mean, they continue to say that I'm not a suspect, but, I mean, I'd be dumb and naive to think that they weren't treating me as a suspect by different things I've had to go through the past couple days.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN FERRERO, STARK COUNTY PROSECUTOR: As it stands right now, is he facing two counts of murder, which is the murder of Jessie Davis and also her unborn child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: And welcome back to LARRY KING LIVE. I'm Ted Rowlands filling in for Larry tonight. In Canton, Ohio, Tim Miller, the director of EquuSearch is joining us. He was involved in the search for Jessie Davis who was found today and very close with Patricia Porter, Jessie's mother, throughout this search. I understand you talked to Patricia just before the body was found. Was this family, and were the volunteers optimistic that there was going to be possibly a positive outcome, or was this something that people were bracing for?

TIM MILLER, EQUUSEARCH: You know what? We've done several hundred plus of these, and when the family's attorney got in touch with us, we knew it wasn't going to be a good ending.

All we was hoping for, that she was going to be found in a timely manner where they could determine the cause of death and maybe have some evidence around there.

We was getting frustrated. We had 4,000 plus searchers in three days. All the best equipment, and there was frustrations. I know they asked us, how far are you going to go out? And we said, we don't know. We left last week in Texas we did one that took us 180 miles away.

I know this much. Patti showed up this morning, Jessie's mother, and that's the first time she showed up on the search site. The command center. And when she seen more than 1,000 people there, she came up to me and hugged me and just cried and said, "I can't believe there are this many people that did not know my daughter or my family is out here helping."

And it was just overwhelming to her. It was overwhelming to us. And you know what? It just puts more pressure on you at that point to do everything you can try to do to try to get that loved one home.

You know, the end is here. Unfortunately for all of us, we're all going to be going home tomorrow. But the beginning is just starting, a new beginning for the family is just starting. The long, painful grieving process they have to go through.

And you know what? We've done so many searches, and we've found missing loved ones deceased. And we always think their life will never, ever be the same. There's going to be that one plate at the table that nobody can ever fill. And we thought about this, you know, after Jessie was found that, you know, this family has two plates that will never be filled.

They've got this precious little baby they've never had an opportunity to hold and love and hug. And you know, it's very, very sad day. And we put all the effort into it. The community put all the effort into it. And, you know, I just don't have words to say how everybody feels right now. We're real human. We get close to the families. We get emotional at the end of the day. We have real tears.

And we'll be back for the funeral and continue to support this family and this community.

ROWLANDS: Well, somebody who knows exactly how family members feel in a time like this is Ron Grantski who is the stepfather of Laci Peterson, and he lived this nightmare and continues to live it. He joins us on the phone tonight. Ron, when you look at this case, it has so many similarities to yours, pregnant young woman missing, turns up dead, and then the person that was supposed to love and protect her is accused of the murder.

What goes through your mind when you see what -- when you see this case and what went through your mind today when you found out that she was found?

RON GRANTSKI, LACI PETERSON'S STEPFATHER (on phone): Hi, Ted. First of all, I want to give my condolences to Pat Porter and her family because I know what they're going through. And just be strong for each other. Because you're going to have a long road ahead. And it's such a shame that we have to go through this so many times in this country. And I watched the show last night, as a matter of fact, and I feel so sorry for them. You have to let the police do their job. That's one thing I did learn. And hopefully they will get the evidence, handle it properly, and whether we like to admit it or not, Mr. Cutts is entitled to a fair trial.

So you have to maintain a certain amount of restraint in what you say and do because unfortunately you're in the public eye.

ROWLANDS: What will the family go through in these next weeks and months ahead?

GRANTSKI: Well, they're going to be constantly grieving. And in the midst of all that, they have to try to maintain some form of sanity and respectability because everyone's watching them. And there are moments, believe me, where that's very hard to do.

ROWLANDS: What advice would you give to Pat Porter?

GRANTSKI: I know what you're feeling. And unfortunately, there isn't anything that's going to make it any better. And you just have to go on for yourself and your family. And remember, you have a two- year-old now that you're responsible for. And just love each other, and don't be afraid to speak your mind to your family because that's what they're there for.

ROWLANDS: OK. We're going to take a quick break. More with Ron Grantski when we come back. As we go to break, a clip from Larry's interview this past week with Jessie Davis' mom about her hopes in this case and whether she thought that Bobby Cutts had been involved in any way. Don't go away. You're watching LARRY KING LIVE.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICIA PORTER, JESSIE DAVIS' MOTHER: Bobby Cutts is my son's -- my grandson's father. This is the most painful part of this whole thing for me. Is that I pray every day that it's not Bobby Cutts. This is my prayer, that it is not him. I want it to be someone that doesn't even know us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: And welcome back to LARRY KING LIVE. We're talking with Ron Grantski, the stepfather of Laci Peterson who went through the nightmare that the family of Jessie Davis is now just beginning. He's on the phone with us. Ron, is this a case that you and Sharon, Laci's mother, had been following, or to what degree had you known this was going on and had been following it?

GRANTSKI: Well, we, you know, unfortunately, we follow a lot of them like this. Yes. And we're praying that it wouldn't be Mr. Cutts, and, of course, he still hasn't officially accused of that. So I don't want to say anything about that. ROWLANDS: When you found out that Scott Peterson was responsible for Laci's death, how more or less did that hurt, knowing that the person responsible for her death was someone you knew?

GRANTSKI: We loved Scott Peterson. You have to remember, he was a member of our family. And we lost a daughter and a grandson and a son-in-law. And it's very hard to understand how something can happen like that. I mean, not that it's right. You can understand a stranger, but not your son. So I know what they're going through. It's going to be very, very tough.

ROWLANDS: It still hurts?

GRANTSKI: Always will. Always will. It's just something you have to live with. And that's probably a hard thing to realize because you don't have any other choices. But you try to make some good out of that. And that's what Sharon has done, and I'm very proud of her for that.

ROWLANDS: Let's bring in our panel, Jim Acosta, CNN correspondent, has been covering the story since it began in Canton, Ohio. Michael Cardoza, high-profile defense attorney in San Francisco.

Stacy Honowitz is a Florida state attorney, she specializes in sex crimes and child abuse cases. Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensics expert, he is the former coroner of Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, and pat brown in Minneapolis tonight, she's a criminal profiler.

Jim Acosta, the two-year-old that we have seen throughout this -- the young two-year-old, Blake, what happens to this young boy? Is there any indication who's going to take care of this young -- the two-year-old who witnessed, apparently, the murder?

ACOSTA: You know, that's a great question, Ted. I think at this point he probably feels very close to his grandmother, Patti Porter. She is the woman, as we all know, who came home, came to Jessie's home on Friday after not hearing from her daughter since that previous Wednesday evening, last Wednesday evening -- or excuse me, a week ago Wednesday evening, and that is when the two-year-old boy there, Blake, told his grandmother, "Mommy's in the rug." and that is essentially the four words that launched a lot of the media attention in this case.

And essentially what we know about this little boy is that he saw, perhaps, what had happened to his mother because he's a two-year- old, not able to articulate exactly what he saw, but perhaps he has said more, and we just don't know.

Perhaps the investigators have gotten more information from him, we just haven't heard yet. But at this point, from what we understand from talking with the family, that little boy, and we have to realize he's just two years old, has had a tough time with this, you know, repeating that phrase over and over again, "Mommy's in the rug. Mommy's in the rug," even saying it during interviews with Patti porter, the grandmother, sort of uncontrollably. So this has had a tremendous traumatic effect on him, and it's going to be difficult for this family to decide what exactly to do with this young boy.

ROWLANDS: Michael Cardoza, can the boy be used to sort out exactly what happened, or is he just too young?

CARDOZA: Well, Ted, he can be used to sort out what happened in this sense. My guess is that he said something a little bit more to the police than "Mommy cried, mommy broke the table, mommy in the rug." I think he identified who was in that room, but the police won't let that out. And they won't let it out because it cannot be used in a courtroom. The little boy cannot testify, cannot qualify to testify.

But the police can use that, and I'm sure they did use that to focus on Bobby Cutts in going through this investigation. So that's how they will use it. I'll tell you what, the one thing I would be concerned about, as a defense attorney, would be that the -- that somebody corroborate that, that the little boy did say that Bobby Cutts was there. If that gets out into the public, if that gets out into the jury pool, he doesn't have a chance of a fair trial.

Those defense attorneys have to run in and devise some sort of way that the police are ordered not to let that bit of information out because I'm telling you -- I mean, think about what you would do if you heard the little boy said that, would he have any chance in front of that jury? Absolutely not. People would believe the little boy, and that would be it. That's why it's so important they get in and get a record sealed and keep that out of the public domain.

ROWLANDS: All right. We're going to take a break. We'll talk about the forensics involved with Dr. Wecht and also what would motivate someone to do this with Pat Brown. That coming up. But as we go to break, here's more of Larry's interview with Jessie Davis' mother, Patricia Porter, earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PORTER: My hopes are that we just find my daughter. My grandson misses her. He says he misses his mommy. It's just such a tragedy for everybody, for every family that's involved. Most of all for my grandson. He loves his mother so much. And I just pray that we find her soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Welcome back to LARRY KING LIVE. I'm Ted Rowlands in for Larry. Larry will be following this case in the upcoming week. But on Wednesday of this week, does he have the Hollywood interview of the year, the celebutante, Paris Hilton. Don't miss Larry's exclusive interview with the heiress everybody wants to hear from this Wednesday on LARRY KING LIVE. Cyril Wecht, from a forensic standpoint, can you, in your opinion, what you know about this case, do you think investigators will be able to piece together what happened inside that home?

DR. CYRIL WECHT, FORMER ALLEGHENY COUNTY CORONER: This is where the real problems now begin, Ted. You have a body that has been exposed for nine to 10 days with temperatures in the daytime ranging from the 90s to 80s. So I don't want to get too graphic, but let me tell you, the body is going to be substantially decomposed. You have to determine cause, manner, mechanism, time and place of death. You take nothing for granted. Everybody's talking about Bobby Cutts and there may be a confession and this and that, but things are not going to be as they may appear at this moment.

The defense attorneys are going to come into the picture. You've already heard him saying that she just collapsed or something. You're going to have to get her prenatal medical records. Was there any evidence of preeclampsia? Was she hypertensive? Is there a possibility she could have had a convulsive seizure disorder? Is she going to be able to be examined in such a way at this time with the condition of the body that you will be able to determine the actual cause of death? Was she dead at the place, or was she dead later on? That could be significant. You're talking about a capital case versus first-degree versus second-degree or manslaughter. So these are things that are now going to come into the area of forensics.

What was the time? What was the place? What was the mechanism? Questions that were not able ever to be answered in the Laci Peterson case, I can tell you, I did a second examination. Those questions remain unanswered to this day. So I'm sure that a thorough, meticulous, careful, medical legal autopsy will be performed. The defense may bring in a forensic pathologist asking if that forensic pathologist can be present when the postmortem examine is done or to come in and do a second examination after the first one has been performed.

They will be looking obviously for all kinds of evidence, fingernail scrapings and everything else that might possibly tie in Bobby Cutts to that death. And he -- we've already heard this -- I'm not conjecturing, and I don't want to go far into that realm. Just based on what I've heard this evening, he's talking about, well, she just collapsed or something and etc.

ROWLANDS: Right, yeah.

WECHT: Keep that in mind. And by the way ...

ROWLANDS: ... collaterally discussing it.

WECHT: Yeah, collaterally, no significance to the homicide charges, they'll do DNA testing, too, to determine if that is his baby. And no matter what happens, by the way, with regard to Jessie and the cause and mechanism and time and place of death, the fetus, unquestionably, from a forensic, medical, scientific, obstetrical standpoint, that death is directly attributable to the death of Jessie, no matter how and when it occurred. And so that homicide charge is firmly in place, I would say, no matter what ever happens with Jessie. But forensics are going to be extremely important here from this point on.

ROWLANDS: Pat Brown, when you look at Bobby Cutts Jr., if, indeed, he is responsible for this, what kind of person would do this? Who is Bobby Cutts Jr.?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: There are a lot of psychopaths out there. Women get involved with these men. They don't recognize the signs. Men who love power and control who want to be able to manipulate, they're pathological liars, they do what they want. They're entitled to everything and you're entitled to nothing. They're always right, you're always wrong.

And this is the kind of person Bobby Cutts most likely is. And unfortunately, when this kind of man decides that -- he has a game he's set up, and he wants everybody to play his game. He thinks he can manipulate every one of the moves. And when somebody objects to one of the moves he tells them to make, then he can get very angry because they don't have the right to do that on his game board, and he decides he might want to eliminate that person out of his life because they're causing him a problem.

ROWLANDS: All right. We're going to have more on this, and we'll get to Michael Cardoza and the other members of the panel. But right now we want to go to Atlanta and check in with Rick Sanchez as to what's coming up at the top of the hour. Rick?

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, hey, Ted. We're going to be following up on this. Did he in fact, Bobby Cutts, lead police to the body?

Also, is there a possibility that some evidence was removed from the house by people who were there at the time prior to police arriving? And if so, what? We're going to be checking in on this story. And we're also going to be looking at something else tonight.

We are looking at America for some of the problems that America has with itself. Tonight, the gay problem in America, if it is so. One of the questions that's being raised by those on both sides, the question of nature versus nurture and the question of immorality and sin, both right here coming up in just a little bit. Ted, back over to you.

ROWLANDS: OK, Rick Sanchez coming up at the top of the hour, look forward to that.

Coming up on this program, more from our panel including more thoughts from Ron Grantski, the stepfather of Laci Peterson who lived the nightmare that the family of Jessie Davis is starting this evening. You're watching LARRY KING LIVE. Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: At approximately 3:30 p.m. today, we recovered the body of who we believe is Jessie Marie Davis in Summit County, Ohio.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: Welcome back to LARRY KING LIVE. I'm Ted Rowlands filling in for Larry tonight. We're talking about the death of Jessie Davis, the 26-year-old pregnant mother whose body was found today after 10 days of exhaustive search.

On the phone with us is Ron Grantski, the stepfather of Laci Peterson, who lived through a very similar scenario a few years ago. Ron, throughout this Scott Peterson has maintained his innocence. Would it help you if, at some point, he said, "Yes, I did it, here's how I did it." Do you yearn for those answers? Do you still want all of those questions answered?

GRANTSKI: Not a bit. I mean, we know he did it, he knows he did it, and the country knows he did it. And -- No, I couldn't care less what he says.

ROWLANDS: What about during the first few days and months?

GRANTSKI: Well, naturally, you don't want to believe that your son-in-law, on Christmas Eve, would murder your daughter and grandbaby, so yeah, we wanted to give him support. And I can't blame Pat Porter for the same thing. And here again, we still don't know that Mr. Cutts has officially been convicted or accused because it's not the police or the district attorney's office. I'm assuming they have that there. I'm not a lawyer. I'm sure Mike can handle that. They haven't officially made a charge yet. So ...

ROWLANDS: We expect that on Monday, but you're right. And how -- What advice would you give to the family in terms of dealing with Bobby Cutts in assuming that he's going to put up a defense and maybe deny it, or who knows what's going to come out of this?

GRANTSKI; They just have to get together as a family and just basically, he's not their problem anymore. They just have to -- if he is convicted, that's number one, like I said before, the district attorney will make the official charges, and the police department will have the evidence to give to them. And hopefully, things will all come to light very, very soon. And then they'll have to set up a game plan from that point.

ROWLANDS: How much real closure did you get, and do you think families get after a conviction in your case, it was a death penalty conviction?

GRANTSKI: I don't know if you remember, Ted, you know, we both cried. Yes, justice was done, but you lost so much. You lose your son-in-law and your daughter and your grandbaby. And so it's hard to explain, I guess, but there isn't any feeling of winning or losing or happy. It's just horrible.

ROWLANDS: Michael Cardoza, what do you expect in the next few days in terms of Bobby Cutts' defense? He has apparently a lawyer. Given what we know about this case right now, what's next? CARDOZA: I've got to tell you, Ted, like i said before, the defense attorney should have been working before this to cut the best deal he could for Bobby Cutts because if Bobby confessed to his family and that's how this all came out, the district attorney has carte blanche.

The best the defense attorney now can do is to go into the district attorney's and hopefully keep the death penalty off the table. If you listened to what the interviews said when they announced this, they said there would be two counts of murder filed against him and possibly later, that could be aggravated. And by that, they meant it could possibly go to the death penalty.

If, like in most district attorneys' office, what they'll do, they'll file the murders, both murders -- I say simple first degree, but certainly it's not simple. Later on their death penalty committee will meet to decide, should Bobby Cutts be charged with the death penalty?

So a number of district attorneys with an awful lot of experience will get together and make that decision. The defense attorney, after they make that, at least begin that decision, should go in and talk to them and try and talk them out of it. And I'm not sure that he's going to have much success at this time.

ROWLANDS: All right. We're going to have more with our panel in just a few minutes. You're watching LARRY KING LIVE. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROWLANDS: Michelle Sigona is a reporter for "America's Most Wanted." she joins us now on the phone with more information about Bobby Cutts. And Michelle, what can you tell us about how authorities found the body?

MICHELLE SIGONA, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": Our sources, Bobby Cutts did, in fact, lead investigators to the body. That's how they were able to find her body about 30 miles from where she went missing. And were able to recover her from when investigators had told us. Also, in addition, in that particular press conference earlier today.

ROWLANDS: OK. We just missed the very beginning, Michelle, if you would. You were basically saying that Bobby Cutts did, indeed, help authorities find this body?

SIGONA: That's what our sources are telling us, that Bobby Cutts did, in fact, lead investigators to the body of Jessie Davis, and that's when he was arrested, and then that's when he was charged.

ROWLANDS: When you hear that, Pat Brown, it sounds like he may be cooperating. Do you expect he will continue, as you called it before, play games to make himself look maybe as some sort of almost victim in this in that he may have found her or come up with more stories? Or do you think he's going to help out?

BROWN: No. A psychopath never helps out. A psychopath tells you exactly as much as you need to hear that will help him. So I think what will happen, if Bobby committed this crime, is he will be looking at the evidence the police have. The police will say, hey, bobby, we know this, this and that. Then he'll evaluate and go, OK, they got me there. So he'll admit just enough. And I think what he may be doing now -- we have heard the thing about how, you know, Jessie just collapsed.

So I think what he's trying to do now is say, look, I freaked out and did something with her body because I thought I would be blamed, but I didn't kill her. Until they can prove something, he's going to stick with that story. If they come up with something else, he'll shift just enough to keep himself from the worst next penalty.

ROWLANDS: Ron Grantski, stepfather of Laci Peterson, you were in the courtroom every day during the trial of Scott Peterson. Does that help you, and was it important for you to know all of the details, or would you recommend, and if you could do it over again, would you have just stayed home and forgotten all about Scott Peterson?

GRANTSKI: Believe me. I wanted to be there. We do our homework. I want to say what was going on. I wanted to make sure that everything was in our minds explained and for the juries we were fortunate enough to have a great police department and district attorney's office that would fill us in on different things, so no, I recommend being there and because it's important for closure if there is any closure, that's one of the steps.

ROWLANDS: Have you gotten any closure?

GRANTSKI: Yes we do. We're trying to -- she'll probably get upset but we're in the process of moving. And so we're going to -- we're going to another house. And we have grandboys and we're about to have another one and we're happy about that. So -- But, no. As far as closure, never happens. We miss Laci at Christmas, all of our holidays. And her birthday was May 4th. So, no.

ROWLANDS: Which the family of Jessie Davis is now just going to begin, a long, long road. Thanks for watching. We are out of time here. Our thanks to Larry King for letting he sit into him tonight. Don't forget Larry's big interview next Wednesday, this coming Wednesday, with Paris Hilton.

She'll be talking about her release and re-release from jail in Los Angeles. Now let's go to Rick Sanchez, who's in Atlanta to begin our next hour -- Rick.

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