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Bret Michael Edmunds Suspect in Kidnapping; Colorado Fire Forcing Thousands to Evacuate; Bishops Draw Up Policy on Abuse
Aired June 12, 2002 - 20:00 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.
ANNOUNCER: Police are looking for this man in the case of a 14- year-old girl kidnapped at gunpoint from her bedroom.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Evans is also wanted for two outstanding warrants and he's also been known to be violent with police officers. So we do consider him dangerous.
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ANNOUNCER: A neighborhood and a city on alert and on the lookout.
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CHARLIE MILLER, MILKMAN: Just seemed to drive through the neighborhood real slow and so it seemed as though he was looking for something. And it just seemed out of the norm to me.
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ANNOUNCER: We'll go live to Salt Lake City for the latest on a case being followed across the country.
An all-out battle against an out of control wildfire.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is absolutely the worst fire I've ever seen in my life.
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ANNOUNCER: The largest blaze in Colorado history threatens tens of thousands of Denver residents.
America's Catholic bishops gather to deal with abusive priests.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we have to come out of here with a very clear, strong statement that we will take every step possible to make sure that children and young people are safe in all the church's ministries and apostolates.
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ANNOUNCER: But a new report reveals that over a hundred Catholic Church leaders have covered up sex abuse cases.
CNN's live from Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Dallas, Denver and other datelines around the globe. Her now is Carol Lin.
CAROL LIN: Police in Salt Lake City want to question a 26-year- old transient named Bret Michael Edmunds in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart. The 14-year-old was kidnapped from her bedroom at gunpoint a week ago. CNN national correspondent Frank Buckley live in Salt Lake City with more on that.
Frank, take it away.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, police are not identifying Bret Edmunds as a suspect. They are not saying he is the abductor, but they do want to talk to him. Let's show you his picture right away. He is 26 years old. He is described as a transient. He is wanted on two outstanding warrants -- assaulting a police officer and on a fraud warrant.
He reportedly lives in a green Saturn car, a 1997 model with the license plate number 266 XJH. He is wanted for questioning. And joining us now to explain exactly why is detective Dwayne Baird of the Salt Lake City Police Department.
Dwayne, first, thanks for joining us.
DET. DWAYNE BAIRD, SALT LAKE CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT: Thank you, Frank.
BUCKLEY: Tell us, first of all, why you're not calling him a suspect?
BAIRD: We don't have any information to believe that he was in the house that night. We are calling him a material witness in the sense that we do want to talk to him. We want to question him concerning his whereabouts of that evening. It was reported to us that he was, in fact, in the avenues or Federal Heights district of Salt Lake City in the northeast side of this city a day or two before the abduction here of Elizabeth Smart.
BUCKLEY: And let's tell our viewers how that came about. It involved a milkman who was working that neighborhood in the very late or early morning hours, late night hours.
BAIRD: Right.
BUCKLEY: And he came upon a vehicle one or two nights before Elizabeth's abduction. Take it from there and tell people how this came about.
BAIRD: OK, what he saw was a vehicle parked alongside the road with a man inside that car, appeared to be living in the car. He sort of made note of the license plate number, a partial plate. In the light -- in the streetlights that late at night, he thought the car was a gray. And it was reported to us as a gray automobile with the partial license plate of 266.
We went with that for about a week and we had several people call and inform us that, in fact, that this may be this individual with this car that's a green car, a Saturn, partial plate of 266.
BUCKLEY: And in fact, we talked about this last week when there was -- there were three other letters affiliated with that license plate. It was 266 and I can't recall the letters. But you ran the plates -- the department ran that plate and it didn't come back. Was it a dry lead at that point? And was it a member of the public who helped bring this back to an active lead?
BAIRD: Well, that's correct. It was a dry lead essentially then. It was a member of the public that called us and said, "You know, I know this guy. I know that he's been sleeping up in the Avenues in his car. He does have a partial plate listing of 266. You ought to check it out. However, it's not a gray car. It's a green car. It's a 1997 green Saturn."
And so running some cross-checks, we found that perhaps this is the guy we were looking for that was in this area at the time. There's a side note to this in the fact that he is wanted by the police on two arrest warrants.
BUCKLEY: Bring us up to speed on the investigation as to where we are now. You now have someone you want for questioning. What else is going on?
BAIRD: We're still looking at all the leads that we have. And we are getting leads every day in this case. This is just one small link in this chain of evidence that we're looking at to try to resolve this situation with Elizabeth Smart. We're still hopeful that she will be returned to her family safely and quickly in this case.
BUCKLEY: And Chief Rick Dinse was telling us yesterday that it's his belief that the abductor is a sexual predator. Is that still the assumption and has the FBI profile helped to give you a better sense of who the abductor is?
BAIRD: Well, we're still looking at that possibility and that's a strong possibility in the sense that she's 14 years old. There's been no ransom or request in this case. It's pretty hard to find some other reason that she would be abducted from her home in this area.
BUCKLEY: OK, Dwayne Baird, thanks very much. You've been keeping us posted throughout this investigation. Thanks for your information.
As the detective was saying, an alert milkman was actually the person who spotted the vehicle that police are now seeking the public's help in finding. A local television station, KUTV 2 News reporter actually interviewed this milkman. Here's what the milkman had to say.
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CHARLIE MILLER, MILKMAN: Just seemed to drive the neighborhood real slow and so it seemed as though he was looking for something. And it just seemed out of the norm to me. So you know, when we spot those things, we're out there, I just try to keep an eye on the neighborhood and hopefully this might be information that could help.
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BUCKLEY: And it's believed that the driver of that vehicle, described by the milkman, is this person who is being sought, Bret Edmunds. And joining me now is my colleague CNN correspondent James Hattori.
You've been looking into just who is Bret Edmunds. He does have a criminal history. What have you found, James?
JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know it dates back to last year when apparently in San Pete County, which is in central Utah, he's wanted on a warrant for passing -- apparently passing bad checks, a fraud case. His mother also lives there.
We talked with the sheriff there. The sheriff talked with the mother. The mother says she hasn't seen him in some time. And if she had seen him, frankly, she'd call authorities and let them know.
His more serious brush with the law occurred though just last month here in the city of West Valley, which is south of Salt Lake City. He was stopped around midnight May 2 by an officer there who noticed he had a bad tag on his vehicle. And he was acting suspiciously. The -- and this was an incident where he sprayed the officer with pepper spray, actually. The officer stopped him. He was acting suspiciously, approached him, noticed that he was apparently hiding something between his legs.
BUCKLEY: And...
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ASST. CHIEF CRAIG GIBSON, WEST VALLEY CITY POLICE: What he did is he reached in and grabbed his wallet and as he took his wallet out, he dropped the wallet right in his own lap, reached down and he brought back out a canister of pepper spray. He stuck the pepper spray out the window and started to deploy that at our officer.
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HATTORI: Now, after the pepper spray missed him, he took off. A high-speed chase ensued. And coincidentally enough, it ended here in Salt Lake City in the Avenues district, which is the very area they're searching now.
BUCKLEY: And so, now, he has been spotted, according to some people, according to the police. Do we know why he came to Salt Lake City? Does he have family relations here?
HATTORI: Well, apparently, he does have friends here. And we also have learned that he has a sister that lives actually in the West Valley area. We tried to make contact with her. Neighbors tell us that they have seen them together in recent months, but there's no idea -- no word whether he's actually been there in recent days or not.
BUCKLEY: James Hattori, CNN correspondent, thanks very much for your hard work today. A very long day for James, who started at about 3:00 in the morning local time.
This has affected no one more than the Smart family and the Francom (ph) family. They are the family of Elizabeth Smart. And joining me to talk about that is Dave Smart.
You are Elizabeth's uncle.
DAVE SMART, ELIZABETH SMART'S UNCLE: Yes, that's correct.
BUCKLEY: First of all, tell us how Ed and Lois are doing, her parents?
SMART: I just talked to Ed and Lois not too long ago and they seem to be doing very well, as well as they can in this situation.
BUCKLEY: They have had a very rough week, an understandably rough week. But they have also had moments of great kindness that they've experienced, a wonderful candlelight vigil on Sunday. Tell us how they have felt about this great community outpouring here?
SMART: It's really been overwhelming. I mean, just the heartfelt feelings of concern, people even mentioning that they've had a tough time going to sleep at night because it just keeps going through their mind of how could this happen and where might she be. It's just been overwhelming, the outpour of the community and also of the nation.
I mean people from around the U.S. have been calling in and special training units and other things have called up and offered their services. And it's just been -- it's been incredible.
BUCKLEY: It has been a difficult time for any parent going through something like this, on top of it all Ed has had to take a polygraph exam. Is there anything that -- even though investigators haven't been able to speak to that. Can you tell us at all what it was like for him to experience the polygraph exam?
SMART: You know I really can't comment on it just from the mere fact that I haven't talked to Ed about it. I have absolutely no idea. I'm sure that the polygraph test was probably pretty grueling, but you know, that's about all I can say.
BUCKLEY: And we should say that the police have said all along the family has been nothing but cooperative. Anything that they ask for, the family has cooperated. And you have done that because you have said that you don't want there to be any question about that?
SMART: That's correct. You know, the police have -- they've done an incredible job and trying to follow up all the leads, the amount of leads that they've gone through and how they've narrowed it down. If they need -- any question they have, if they need us to do anything, we are more than willing to help in any way possible.
BUCKLEY: This photograph that we've now seen of a person who is being sought for questioning, Bret Edmunds. Has the family ever encountered this person as far as you know?
SMART: No, the family has not seen -- I mean, everyone's seen this picture of Bret Edmunds and no one recognizes him.
BUCKLEY: Did -- we have on a number of occasions, Lois and Ed have spoken directly to Elizabeth with the hope that she might be watching or listening. Is there anything that you want to say directly to Elizabeth if she happens to be watching?
SMART: Yes. That -- Elizabeth, we love you and we will not stop until we find you no matter what. We ask the nation to keep her in their prayers and through faith and searching and with the Lord's help, we'll bring you home.
BUCKLEY: Dave, thanks very much for joining us this evening.
SMART: Thank you very much.
BUCKLEY: The family is touched. Everyone in this community is touched. We experience that sort of emotion everywhere we go, but of course no one experiencing it more than the family.
Joining us now to talk about the investigative side of this -- of what's going on is Candice Delong. She is a former FBI profiler. She is joining us from San Francisco. She is the author of the book, "A Special Agent."
Miss Delong, the first thing I wanted to ask you -- we were told that FBI profilers or behavioral scientists, as they are called, came in to provide the local police with some help. Take us through the steps of exactly what it is they did when they arrived on the scene.
CANDACE DELONG, FORMER FBI PROFILER: Well, they sat down with the police and they went over everything that the police knew, that they had, and that would include interviews of everyone, in particular Mary Catherine, the sister witness, and family members and they went over all the forensics. And then, they did an analysis, a behavioral analysis of the -- what behavior they did know regarding the unknown offender.
The most important thing, of course, being -- the most telling thing being that he entered an occupied home in the middle of the night, a very large home. It would have been easy to get lost. Seven bedrooms and he accomplished his goal without detection. That tells them a lot about him behaviorally. BUCKLEY: You know what does that tell us about an abductor who is willing to go into a house, a $1 million house, that presumably will have some sort of a security system, enter this home and then abduct one of the people in that house?
DELONG: Well, it can say a few different things. Cases that I'm aware of where it has happened before, the offender has turned out to be on the older side. And what I mean by older is, older than 25. This is not generally a behavior that we see on the more youthful sex offenders, 19, 20, 21.
Another thing is that it's an indication that -- well, it's a very bold move. And why would somebody do something so bold? Possibly confidence? Perhaps that he has done it before. Another thing may be that he may have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs. I'm aware of a case in the past in Illinois, a child serial killer who -- also someone who was a serial killer of adult women who only attacked when he was high on marijuana.
So it can say a number of different things. It also could say -- one interpretation could be that the offender was -- that was a pretty stupid thing to do because it actually -- when you consider how much that told -- that left the investigators to deal with in terms of interpreting his behavior versus if he had lured her off the street or grabbed her when no one was looking while she was out on her bike, there wouldn't be much to go on at all.
BUCKLEY: It struck me yesterday when Police Chief Rick Dinse was telling us that based on what the profilers were telling them, based on what they found at the crime scene, that they were able to narrow their investigation. They had some 6,000 leads at one point. They've narrowed that to 600. What component do you think the profilers played in helping to narrow that search for leads?
DELONG: Well, I think probably what was - what they finally settled on or certainly focused on was the likelihood that this offender has been in this home before or had, for some reason, a pretty good working knowledge of that house. You think about seven bedrooms on one floor and he -- and a lot of people sleeping and he was successful in his accomplishing his goal.
It would seem to indicate that he knew what he was doing in terms of the geography of the house. It was nighttime. It was dark and yet, he was successful. That certainly says to me there is a likelihood that he was in that house before.
Now, maybe he had a reason to be in that house. Maybe he had a legitimate reason to be in that house, perhaps he was a visitor, perhaps he was a worker. However, it's always a possibility that it might have been someone who was an intruder when the family wasn't home.
BUCKLEY: We were told by the police chief yesterday that there is a high probability that the abductor is a sexual predator. From what you have heard -- and clearly you don't have the details of everything involved in this investigation -- but from what you have heard so far, is what you are seeing consistent with a sexual predator?
DELONG: Well, I'm afraid so. And of course, one of the most telling things is that there has been no demand for ransom. And this is very similar in terms of the method of abduction, is very similar to the Polly Claus case in 1993 and the Jeanine Nechiro (ph) case in Illinois where a little girl was taken out of her home in the middle of the day. I'm afraid that it does look that way.
BUCKLEY: All right, Candice Delong, thank you very much. A fascinating insight from the side of the former FBI profiler. We know that the profilers involved in this case or behavioral scientists as they prefer to be called, as I understand it, have been crucial in this investigation. Thank you very much for your insight.
DELONG: You're welcome.
BUCKLEY: I want - I'd like to take our viewers now inside of that building right there. We have been here for the past week, at one point across the street at Shriners Hospital. That was the volunteer headquarters. This here, which is the church that the Smart family attends, this has become the headquarters where some 8,000 volunteers over the course of the week have come to sign in and register and do what they can to help find Elizabeth Smart. We went inside earlier. We'd like to take you inside now.
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BUCKLEY (on-camera): So once you're in the door, this is where the volunteers check in and are directed to where they need to go. And the person who is in charge of it all is Dawn Davis from the Laura Foundation. Where are we right now?
DAWN DAVIS, LAURA FOUNDATION: Well, we're in what we call the command center. It's where we brief, debrief, map, target, all those areas that we're going to search.
BUCKLEY: Give us a quick tour, would you?
DAVIS: Sure. In these doors, we have our briefing area. This is where people come to learn about safety issues, about where they're going out to, the mapping, anything concerning that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just checking in, wanted to know how things were going out by (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
DAVIS (voice-over): They'll be given a description of Elizabeth, what she was last wearing. They'll even be shown the color and type of fabric that she was wearing the last time she was seen.
BUCKLEY(voice-over): But they're not professional searchers, are they?
DAVIS: No, they're not. They're what you would call an emergent volunteer. These are mothers and fathers coming from their professions to help search. And we put them in the orange vest. It makes them highly visible. It's another safety element. It helps us track them. And you know, we give them information about evidence and what to do if they come up with any potential evidence. So we try to do all of the safety things in this room.
BUCKLEY: Now, this says "Elizabeth's shoe" and it has a diagram under here. And then, you have fliers. Are these the things that the volunteers take out?
DAVIS: We do. We give them each a little packet to take out with them. We give them the diagram of the shoe so that they know what shoe they're looking for, not just any white shoe. We also give them a search team roster that tells them who is with them so that we don't leave anybody out there.
BUCKLEY: Why are so many people so compelled to be here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just a lot of family. Family is very important to me and I want to be able to help this family, to have their family back again.
BUCKLEY (on camera): Is it satisfying for you as the coordinator from the Laura Foundation to see what started as a tragedy in Texas become an incredible community building thing in Utah and other areas?
DAVIS (on camera): You know I honestly wish somebody would put us out of business. I would hope that there would never be another missing child. But what we've seen here is the good that comes out of one person who is a monster, what happened from that evil act has all this good surrounding it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BUCKLEY: And there is a great deal of good going on inside that building. As I said, more than 8,000 people have come here to register during the past week to get involved in some way to bring back this member of the community, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart -- Carol.
LIN: Frank, it's really heartwarming to see the kind of turnout that you're finding, to try to help the Smart family. So it appears that the physical search of the area is still going on. How wide an area? And where are they actually focusing? Are they still in the neighborhood, the specific street of the home?
BUCKLEY: They're essentially focusing -- they told us yesterday that they were narrowing their focus to the Federal Heights neighborhood, which is around the home that the Smarts live in. But they are still going up in aircraft and helicopters.
Today, four helicopters from Nevada, law enforcement helicopters, came in to join in this effort. And they are flying around in the wilderness areas, just outside of the city, looking for anything suspicious, looking for abandoned vehicles, looking for people who might be camping at a time when others aren't camping. They're trying to check out every possibility.
Yes, they're focusing on the neighborhood around the Smart home, but they're not giving up the possibility that something could have happened outside of this area.
LIN: Got you. All right, thank you very much. Frank Buckley live in Salt Lake City.
You can count on us. Stay with CNN for the latest on the search for Elizabeth Smart. Tom Smart, in fact, the uncle of the abducted 14-year-old girl, will be just one of many high profile guests on "LARRY KING LIVE" coming up at the top of the next hour, which is 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific.
Meanwhile, a dangerous day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. A Special Forces transport aircraft crashes. The latest in a moment from the Pentagon.
Wildfires raging, ravaging Colorado and in some cases, firefighters can only watch them burn. A live report coming up.
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LIN: There's a report tonight that an al Qaeda member has been detained in Sudan for trying to shoot down a U.S. military plane in Saudi Arabia. U.S. officials who told CNN about the arrest would not say where the man is being held.
Now, an empty missile tube was found inside a security fence at a base in Saudi Arabia last month. And officials believe the man in custody, a Sudanese national, left it there.
Three people were killed today when a U.S. military aircraft crashed in Afghanistan. The MC-130 plane crashed during takeoff from a base about 40 miles southwest of Gardez. Here's CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
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JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): It was 1:00 Eastern Time, about 9:30 at night in eastern Afghanistan, a U.S. Air Force MC-130, Special Operations aircraft, was taking off from the forward operating base near Gardez when it crashed upon takeoff. On board were 10 U.S. military personnel, a crew of seven and three listed as passengers.
The plane is an MC-130, which is the Special Operations version of a C-130 cargo plane, usually used to transport Special Operations troops from one part of the theater to another. In this case, as the plane was not fully loaded, only having a crew of 10 people on board, including three passengers.
Now, initial rescue efforts were able to recover seven people, some of those with quite minor injuries, just cuts and bruises, the most serious being a broken leg. The cause of the crash is still not known, but the U.S. Central Command says there is no evidence that hostile fire played any part in downing the aircraft.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
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ANNOUNCER: Next, this is the scene, just miles from the Mile High City. A massive wildfire threatens Denver and thousands are ready to flee their homes. We'll go live to the front lines in the battle against an out of control blaze.
Fueling the fires, drought.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in the midst of a 100-year drought.
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ANNOUNCER: And it's not just the west that's parched. And later...
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, hopefully, will say to them through this meeting that this is not going to happen anymore.
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ANNOUNCER: A major meeting of American Catholic bishops to deal with the sex abuse crisis battering the church. We'll go live to Dallas.
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ANNOUNCER: The Hayman fire has been scorching the forests of Colorado since Saturday, causing an estimated $20 million in damage and forcing thousands of people from the area. The huge fire was sparked by a campfire in the Pike National Forest.
LIN: Firefighters say the 90,000-acre wildfire threatening Denver, Colorado could explode and possibly even double in size. You can actually see the smoke plume from space in this satellite photo there. It stretches across central and northeastern Colorado.
Hundreds of people are waiting to find out if they're going to be forced to join thousands of others who have already had to evacuate and CNN's Charles Molineaux is live in Castle Rock at the command post with more of this. Charles.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes, Castle Rock is the new northern command center for the efforts to fight the Hayman fire and it's going to soon be a big clearinghouse and dispatch point for hundreds of new reinforcements coming in from all over the country to help with the firefighting efforts and not a moment too soon based on, you mentioned it, the possible explosion of this fire, the chance that it may indeed double in size. That's the projection that the Forest Service is now working for - working with. It may indeed be scary sounding, but they say this is a very realistic scenario.
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MOLINEAUX (voice over): The Forest Service's nightmare scenario was a fire that ends up burning 200,000 acres. That could happen if the wind picks back up again like it did on Monday when the Hayman fire burned 60,000 acres in one day.
RON RALEY, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: If the winds were to change right now out of the, come out of the south, all along the north end of this fire, you probably got a 15-mile front that could very rapidly spread, if you look at the amount of acres burned in one day.
MOLINEAUX: So far, the Hayman fire has scorched 90,000 acres. Thirty more homes burned up in Teller County Wednesday, making more than 50 homes destroyed so far. Firefighters are standing their ground to keep that from happening in the tiny town of Trumbull. If the Hayman fire starts raging north again, Trumbull's right in the middle of its path.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's probably down to 126 and maybe I'm going to say 20 minutes maybe, so your place is still fine.
MOLINEAUX: The town has been evacuated but its volunteer firefighters are staying on in a last ditch struggle to protect their neighbor's homes and their own.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I may not have a job after this is over with because everything's going to be burned down.
MOLINEAUX: All along Colorado's fire lines, a tight supply of resources has been a problem for the firefighting effort, so a new wave of reinforcements is welcome. Eighteen hundred fresh firefighters are coming in from around the country, effectively quadrupling the number on the job here. And aircraft, too, the number of available planes will go from four to six. Helicopters will go from five to 14. With them comes a change in strategy, to stopping the fire instead of just getting out of the way.
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MOLINEAUX (on camera): A quick clarification, those 30 homes reported burned up in Turner County, we are standing by for exactly what the correct numbers of those are. The fire officials say that there was some miscommunications involved in that report, but right now we're dealing with a fire that is far from under control; in fact, only about five percent contained, and 5,000 people have now evacuated. Tens of thousands more are standing by. They may also get the call. Carol.
LIN: Now, Charles, it looks like the weather might be helping out. Is this a lucky break?
MOLINEAUX: It is a lucky break. Firefighters say that really what they've got to start doing now, especially with these new resources is, take advantage of the fact that the winds have been not as severe and do as much good as they can while they have the chance, because they're expecting sooner or later it is going to start picking up again.
But just because there hasn't been a stiff, steady wind pushing the fire one direction or another, don't think that it's not moving because this is what they're calling a plume-driven fire. It is so big and so hot it's creating its own weather and actually creating wind conditions that continue to push it outward, so there are continuing efforts to stop this fire as it continues to progress and destroy property.
LIN: Right. You just described a very tricky situation. A plume fire can actually have winds blowing in opposite directions, so that scatters some of the firefighters trying to get on that ridge.
MOLINEAUX: Very unpredictable and very dangerous.
LIN: Speaking of firefighters, you mentioned 1,800 additional firefighters. How are they going to be used? Are they working the front lines or are they specialists?
MOLINEAUX: They are actually going to be all over the place. We've got people from - firefighters who will be on the front lines personally to working on taking out trees and fuel -- to kids from Job Corps programs who will be working support.
We've seen some of them coming in actually from other fires. Before this fire started blowing up on us, we were talking about the Coal Seam fire in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. That one is more or less away from populated areas now. Firefighters who were working on that one have now come here to help out in this effort. So these are firefighters who've gone out of the frying pan and into the frying pan next to it.
LIN: You got it. All right and it's still early in this fire season. It looks like it might be a bad one this summer.
MOLINEAUX: It's not even fire season yet. It starts this weekend.
LIN: Thank you very much, Charles Molineaux, live at Castle Rock covering that fire. Well the Hayman fire that Charles was talking about is the biggest burning through Colorado tonight, but it is not the only one.
At least eight fires are burning on more than 100,000 acres across the state. That just gives you some idea of the scope of what's happening in that state. And, part of the reason for the fire spreading so quickly were the extreme dry conditions in Colorado and much of the United States, which has been suffering from drought for years. CNN environmental correspondent Natalie Pawelski looks at the growing danger.
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NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN ENVIRONMENTAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Where there is now a sandbar, there should be a river. After years of drought in Texas, the Rio Grande doesn't have enough water to make it all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
JO JO WHITE, IRRIGATION DISTRICT MANAGER FOR THE RIO GRANDE RIVER: Obviously we're very short on water and every drop of water going down that river belongs to somebody. It's been ordered by somebody, whether it's a farmer, a city, whatever.
PAWELSKI: As spring has turned toward summer, drought has spread across much of the U.S. and now affects about a third of the country, hardest hit the Four Corners area of the Southwest. Colorado records show the driest 12 months in history, or at least in the 107 years that records have been kept, and that's fueling a brutal fire season.
GOV. BILL OWENS (R), COLORADO: Well, it's a huge challenge. Colorado is, in fact, in a crisis right now.
PAWELSKI: Next door in New Mexico, water restrictions prompted one shopkeeper to put in freeze dried shrubs that don't require watering instead of thirsty flowers, and some parched lawns are getting spruced up with green paint.
For some New Mexicans, there's not even enough water to meet basic needs.
GOV. GARY JOHNSON (R), NEW MEXICO: Twenty communities statewide have got some real problems right now with water supply and that needs to be primary focus certainly is that we have water to be able to bathe and drink.
PAWELSKI (on camera): Other parts of the country are drier than normal too. Here in the Southeast, we're in the fourth year of a drought that stretches from Georgia to Virginia. And in the Northeast, despite spring rains that have eased things for some farmers, a lot more rain is needed.
PAWELSKI (voice over): But right now it's in the Southwest that the biggest worries lie.
JOHNSON: We are in the midst of 100-year drought.
PAWELSKI: The forests are tinder dry. The streams are running low, and it's looking like a long, hot summer. Natalie Pawelski, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: But get this, in some parts of the country the problem is too much water. Minnesota's Roseau River near the Canadian border crested today, more than seven feet above flood stage. The National Guard brought in 80,000 sandbags by helicopter and Governor Jesse Ventura declared a state of emergency for 13 counties in the northwest part of the state.
We're back in a moment.
ANNOUNCER: Disturbing numbers, a new report says that over 100 Catholic bishops reassigned priests that abused children. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They should be the first ones coming forward with this, not some reporter. No offense to reporters, but you know the bishop should come out with this.
ANNOUNCER: We'll go live to Dallas as a major meeting of Catholic Church leaders gets underway. But first, time...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: Welcome back. Here's a brief look at our top stories. Utah police want to question this man in connection with the abduction of Elizabeth Smart. He's 26-year-old Bret Michael Edmunds, a transient with some outstanding criminal warrants. Police consider Edmunds to be dangerous.
They say a milkman spotted Edmunds in Elizabeth's neighborhood one day before she was kidnapped, but they stress he is not a suspect. They simply want to talk to him.
The largest wildfire in Colorado's history is bearing down on Denver tonight. Some 1,800 additional firefighters are joining the battle against the blaze. It's already burned 90,000 acres, destroyed 29 homes and forced the evacuation of 5,000 people.
Three American military personnel were killed in a plane crash in Afghanistan today. Seven people survived the crash of the MC-130 plane. The accident happened as the plane was taking off near Gardez. The aircraft, similar to these you're seeing here, was operating out of a forward base. The Pentagon says it doesn't appear the aircraft was brought down by hostile fire.
Jurors in the Andersen Obstruction of Justice trial say they can not reach a verdict. The deadlock has prompted the judge to meet with lawyers on both sides to decide what to do now. Jurors had deliberated for seven days.
And the nation's Roman Catholic bishops are gathering in Dallas for a crucial conference on how to deal with sexual abuse in the clergy. CNN's Leon Harris is covering the meeting and he joins us now live. Leon.
LEON HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol. Yes, crucial is one way of putting it but there's another way that many of the bishops who are here assembled for this meeting are putting it. They're saying this may be the most important and historic decision they have to make in the history of the American Catholic Church. We'll talk about that more after the break.
ANNOUNCER: But first, time for your opinion. Should campfires be banned in U.S. forests during fire season? To take the quick vote, head to cnn.com, the AOL keyword is CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: American Roman Catholic bishops meeting in Dallas begin debate tomorrow on how to deal with the church sex crisis. All the nearly 400 retired and active bishops in the U.S. have been invited to the conference, but only the active bishops, about 285, can vote on policy.
LIN: And this bishop conference will be like no other for much is at stake as the leaders debate a national policy to rid the Roman Catholic priesthood of sex abusers. CNN's Leon Harris is covering the conference and joins us again from Dallas. Leon, you said you're looking at history being made.
HARRIS: That's exactly right, Carol, and you know mainly - you might have thought that that was maybe overstating the case before coming in to this, but I have to tell you almost every single bishop that we've heard speak, and some of them have been speaking in some press conferences here, all have made it clear that they really understand what is at stake.
They understand that right now they find themselves on the verge and on the eve of the process that's going to put them perhaps in the position of making the most important decision in the history of the American church, that of course being the decision about what to do with priests who have sexually abused their parishioners, both in the past and in the present.
Now as you may know, this ad hoc committee here of this United States Conference of bishops has put together a proposed policy that cites zero tolerance for any abuser from here on out; however, they will allow a one strike policy for all those in the past.
That apparently is not going to be strong enough. There's an emerging consensus, both inside here and outside of this group of bishops here, who are collecting here for this meeting, that that is just not going to be strong enough.
As a matter of fact, we heard a report this afternoon that before they even really get started with the process tomorrow of going through or making the decision and going through all the rigmarole, they have received, the bishops who are on this ad hoc committee, have received 107 pages, not just 107 different suggestions, but pages of suggestions and changes they would like to have made in that policy, and the other part of that report was that so far, they've only gone through 50 of those pages.
They also say they're going to have to stay up all night tonight and go through the rest of them before they can actually really fully get themselves into the process of going through everything tomorrow and making this decision.
Now in addition to dealing with the sexually abusive priests, another big problem is emerging here and that is what to do about the bishops who have basically been protecting these priests and keeping them in the priesthood. Many people are calling for something to be done about them and holding these bishops accountable.
Now as these bishops arrived here in Dallas, there's a front page report of the Dallas Morning News that couldn't have made them too happy and it underscores just how big this problem is of this problem of holding these bishops accountable.
They figured this -- according to this report, two-thirds of all the bishops have done something like this, like they protected a priest or shuttled priests from one diocese or one parish to another and that is one of the reasons why this problem is so tough for them to tackle here. And our Ed Lavandera took a look here at exactly how this debate is shaping up and what they're going to have to do about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Bishops pull into a downtown Dallas hotel for three days of meetings. Some say this is the last chance for these Catholic leaders to heal the wounds among the faithful.
RICHARD SNIPE, FORMER PRIEST: The general public is just clamoring and demanding accountability from these bishops.
LAVANDERA: The bishops are in Dallas hammering out details to a policy that will set guidelines on how to deal with sexually abusive priests. But according to a Dallas Morning News report, 111 out of the roughly 285 bishops at the conference have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to continue working in churches across the country.
BROOKS EGERTON, DALLAS MORNING NEWS: The numbers didn't surprise me. We've covered this issue for many years, as a lot of other news organizations have, and I think the more familiar we became with it, the less surprised we became.
LAVANDERA: Church critics say the Dallas Morning News report raises serious questions.
SYLVIA DEMAREST, VICTIM'S ATTORNEY: I find it difficult to believe the people who created this problem over the years are in a position really to correct the problem.
LAVANDERA: Some church leaders, however, are questioning the accuracy of the report, which outlines specific allegations of cover- up against the 111 bishops.
THEODOR MCCARRICK, WASHINGTON, D.C. CARDINAL: I'm saying that the article is flawed because it mixes apples and oranges. It mixes the mistakes that were made in the '80s, because that was the knowledge we had at the time with some very unfortunate, tragic mistakes that were made later on.
LAVANDERA: Bishops say they handled abuse cases in the 1980s and 1990s the way experts suggested at the time. Now they've realized how wrong those choices were.
CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY, LOS ANGELES: I know today those were not correct assessments by those (inaudible) and so today, I think we have the people in place, bishops across the country, who can make this, turn this around and make it move forward. DEMAREST: You almost have to demonstrate your ability and your willingness to conceal these crimes in order to be appointed as a bishop.
LAVANDERA (on camera): The bishops have already come up with a rough sketch of the sexual abuse policy, but it doesn't include an all-around zero tolerance policy. Some bishops say they can't accept anything less than zero tolerance, sot he question now becomes, how much will this plan change once the bishops start debating the details. Ed Lavandera CNN, Dallas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Well before the discussion about the policy can even happen, the bishops decided that they first must speak to the survivors of past abuse. That meeting happened this afternoon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA BLAINE, PRESIDNET, SNAP: Number one, that any priest who has molested a child be removed from the priesthood. Number two, any bishop or church leader who had aided and abetted in the reenactment or furthering of any criminal behavior on the part of the priest, that they be removed from their positions. And lastly, we're asking all the bishops to open the records.
MCCARRICK: It touched me deeply, as maybe you can see. I think it touched us all deeply to see how so many people have suffered because of a few very sick and mixed up priests, criminal priests I guess you'd say. And I think that they make their point very clearly. They make their point very strongly, very forcefully.
MARK SERRANO, BOARD MEMBER, SNAP: This issue is not just about a few mixed up priests. This issue is about felony sex offenders in the priesthood. This issue is about bishops who have decided to keep them in the priesthood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well, Bishop McCarrick also went on to say afterwards that what happened in that room, in that meeting between them and those - the SNAP Organization and some (inaudible) organizations, organization of survivors of abuse, he says that what they heard in that meeting is definitely going to affect the way this charter is going to be drafted, Carol, back to you.
LIN: All right, thanks Leon for setting the stage. We look forward to your live coverage tomorrow, Leon Harris in Dallas, Texas. All right, when we come back, we're going to take a look at the other headlines we've been working on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: Now we're going to take a look at some other stories in the headlines. President Bush is spotlighting the war on terror today. He signed the Bioterrorism Response Act, aimed at stockpiling vaccines, improving food inspections and boosting security for water systems. He also met with his Homeland Security Advisory Council for the first time.
A fresh group of suspected terrorists have arrived at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Two planeloads of 50 detainees from the Afghanistan region were dropped off (inaudible). The Pentagon says this brings the prison count to 454.
And Palestinian officials say Israeli tanks and troops have pulled out of the West Bank city of Ramallah, two days after blockading Yasser Arafat's compound. Israeli forces reentered the town on Monday in what was called a short operation to round up Palestinian terror suspects, so far, no comment from the Israeli military.
Now when we come back, President Bartlett (ph) heads to the Hill. Is it Hollywood or is it real? But first, the latest from Wall Street.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: Finally, the president was on Capitol Hill today. Well, not the real president, the television president. Actor Martin Sheen who plays President Josiah Bartlett on NBC's "The West Wing" was in Washington to help college Democrats launch a voter registration drive. Also at the rally were Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Senator Joe Lieberman, appearing as themselves. And that's our report tonight. I'm Carol Lin, "LARRY KING LIVE" next.
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