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Clemson Murder Suspect; Funeral Protests; Mount Merapi May Soon Erupt

Aired June 07, 2006 - 13:30   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: His mother says he's bipolar, and often suicidal. But Jerry Buck Inman is behind bars as a suspect in another person's death. Inman, a registered sex offender, was due to arrive at the Pickens County South Carolina jail a short time ago from Tennessee where he was arrested last night near his parents home in Dandridge. Well, Inman faces multiple charges in the death of a Clemson University student found strangled with her bikini top.
CNN's Fredricka Whitfield has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): His name is Jerry Buck Inman. He's 35 years old and a registered sex offender. Now he's being held in the death of Clemson University student Tiffany Marie Souers. Police say Inman's DNA match samples taken from Souers' apartment. Inman was arrested without incident last night near his parents' home in Dandridge, Tennessee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Took him into custody, he offered no resistance whatsoever.

WHITFIELD: Souers was a junior at Clemson studying civil engineering. Her body was found in her off-campus apartment last month lying on the bedroom floor almost nude. Her wrists and ankles bound, her bikini top around her neck. At her funeral last Thursday, hundreds of friends, family and classmates remembered her as an extraordinary young woman.

Inman, a construction worker, was registered as a sex offender in Florida and North Carolina. He now faces charges of murder, sexual assault and kidnapping.

BOB ARIAL, 13TH CIRCUIT SOLICITOR, S.C.: When someone is bound -- or forced against their will to stay where they are, and there's evidence in this case of her being bound in both her wrists and around her neck, then that's the basis of kidnapping charges.

WHITFIELD: Inman waived extradition to South Carolina and is expected to be returned there soon.

Fredricka Whitfield, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Erin Runnion is going to join us later on live from. You may remember, her daughter, Samantha, was snatched, assaulted and murdered by a sex offender back in the summer of 2002. She's going to talk with me about sex crimes and whether police can do more to stop them.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is at the Pentagon now. As you know, we saw that briefing not too long ago. The head of the Marine Corps speaking out, Kathleen, on those pending investigations involving possibly the murder of innocent civilians.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed, Kyra.

He wouldn't give specific details, though, on the two investigations. Marine Commandant General Michael Hagee insisting that they're still ongoing. He doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize those investigations. He did confirm, though, for CNN, the existence of some photos that were taken of the scene, at least of the slayings of roughly 24 civilians in the town of Haditha. He said he had seen the photographs. That's all he would say about them.

And the brigadier general did talk about how he was gravely concerned about the charges, how the Marines are fully committed to both investigations, both the Haditha investigation and the investigation into the slaying of one Iraqi man in Hamdaniya, and he said they would provide any resources necessary to help, that the investigations would be thorough, make sure the rights of the Marines would all be protected, and he talked about the impact that this is having on the morale of the Marines in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MICHAEL HAGEE, COMMANDANT, U.S. MARINE CORPS: In the last week, I talked with probably, I don't know, 20,000 Marines. I'll tell you what, I was inspired when I talked with them. They are focused on what they're doing. They are making a difference. They are very proud of what they're doing.

And I can tell you, their families are very proud of what they're doing. Are they concerned? Yes. But they know that we are going to do -- we're going to complete those investigations, and if any individual has been found to have violated our standards, rules or regulations, they will be held accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: General Hagee was asked if these investigations were revealing a failure of leadership at the highest levels. He -- would he resign himself. And he said he serves at the pleasure of the president, and he had not committed his resignation -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Kathleen Koch live from the Pentagon, thank you.

And as if they didn't have enough to worry about, virtually every active member of the U.S. Armed Forces is at risk of identity theft, thanks to a stolen laptop. The computer and a media drive were stolen from the Maryland home of a CIA analysts last months, and that computer held information on almost all 2.2. million active members of the military Guard and Reserves.

Earlier, the government said the data was limited to vets who left the service since 1975. So far, there's no sign of any information that has been compromised.

There ought to be a law and there is -- a brand-new federal law and restrictions in 15 states against protests at military funerals, specifically, protests by a radical sect in Kansas that claims God is punishing U.S. troops because America tolerates homosexuality. An outrageous assault on heartsick families, and now one grieving father is fighting back.

CNN's Allan Chernoff filed this report for "PAULA ZAHN NOW."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The pain is still raw for Al Snyder. Just 12 weeks ago two marines arrived at his door step with news that his son Matt had been killed in Iraq.

AL SNYDER, SON KILLED IN IRAQ: I knew as soon as I saw them, what they were there for. The worst night of my life. It just -- you can't describe how it is to lose a child. You can't even explain to anybody what it's like. You know, I just felt like somebody had taken a piece of my heart, and I still feel that way.

CHERNOFF: What could possibly bring more pain?

CROWD: God showed his wrath to thee.

CHERNOFF: Having a group of strangers protesting outside the funeral claiming Matt died because Snyder raised him with evil values.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Each one of them are going to hell.

CHERNOFF: These followers of Fred Phelps, all family members, claim American servicemen are being killed because the country provokes homosexuality and abortion. They run the Westborough Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.

SNYDER: But I did go to the funeral hoping to get closure. Instead I got hatred from this group of people. My son didn't deserve that. No one deserved what they do.

CHERNOFF: So Al Snyder decided to sue the Westborough Church and its members for falsely claiming his son was gay and a sinner.

(on camera): Did you ever know Matt Snyder? Did you ever meet him?

SHIRLEY PHELPS-ROPER, PROTESTER: I know him by some facts.

CHERNOFF: You never met him, did you? How did you actually have the nerve to make these claims against these people? You don't know these people.

PHELPS-ROPER: I know them by their deeds.

CHERNOFF: The first amendment gives powerful protection to freedom of speech, even to people like the Phelps. But it doesn't give the right to intentionally spread lies about someone. So Snyder's attorneys are suing on the grounds of defamation.

(voice-over): Prosecuting attorney Craig Trebilcock himself served in Iraq.

CRAIG TREBILCOCK, ATTORNEY FOR AL SNYDER: They've gone on for years stating their message in what I think they believe is some sort of protected either religious or political speech. They cross the line this time.

CHERNOFF: One lawsuit may not stop the Phelps from future protests, but constitutional law expert Peter Rubin argues it's the right way to begin a legal assault.

PETER RUBIN, PROFESSOR, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER: I think that the Snyder family has quite a strong case here. The Supreme Court has held that a defamation action, an action in which someone says this speech is false and has damaged my reputation, an action like that may go forward.

CHERNOFF: The Phelps say they plan to countersue.

(on camera): They are charging you with defamation.

PHELPS-ROPER: I don't care what they're charging. What they want to do is is they want to -- what they want to do is they want to litigate our religious doctrine. Well, you don't do that in America.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Though he's still mourning, Al Snyder is ready to fight for his son's honor. And he wants other families of fallen soldiers to follow his lead.

SNYDER: This will be the last thing I do for my son. I'm doing it for my son. And not just for my son, but I'm doing it for all his brothers.

CHERNOFF: Allan Chernoff, CNN, York, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Allan's report first aired on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." You can catch "PAULA ZAHN" each weeknight, 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific.

So how hot is the immigration debate? So hot that President Bush brought it up today, a thousand miles from the U.S./Mexico border. The president was in Nebraska, which added 26,000 Hispanic residents between 2000 and 2004. Mr. Bush touted his version of immigration reform, which includes a controversial guest-worker program and a path to possible citizenship. Some of the president's critics would kick out all of the illegal immigrants. Mr. Bush says that just isn't realistic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: It makes no sense at all to say we can find people and, you know, run 'em out of the country. For some, I guess that sounds appealing. It's impractical. It's not going to work. And it's not necessary in my judgment. It's not the right thing to do. The right thing to do is to recognize that if you've been here illegally that there ought to be a cost for doing so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The president says that he's creating an assimilation task force to step up English, civics and U.S. history instruction for foreigners living in America.

Well, coming up, check out this video. It's not every day that you have zero visibility in the middle of a desert. More LIVE FROM coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Race and breast cancer -- one may play a big part in the other, especially in a woman's chance of surviving. A new study finds that among women under 55, African-Americans are more likely to suffer from a quick-spreading form of breast cancer, but it's not clear whether it's hereditary or something in the environment. Other studies blame lack of access to treatment.

Can yoga help breast cancer patients? Well, it's not such a stretch. Researchers in Texas looked at a small group of women getting radiation treatments. Half of them did yoga, the other half didn't. After six weeks, the yoga group said they felt better. As you may know, yoga is all about meditation, controlled breathing, and a lot of stretching.

Blowing in the wind -- imagine running into this at rush hour, no less. A wall of dust literally enveloping Phoenix, Arizona. Sixty mile an hour winds drove it across the desert, bringing traffic to a crawl, shutting down airports, and making it a really bad day to do anything outside. Today, there's a chance of showers, but forecasters see a better chance of more dust.

Let's get to meteorologist Jacqui Jeras for more. You know, you look at that, Jacqui. Everybody was blaming it on 6/6/06 yesterday, but I think it's just one of those wacky weather things, right?

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Jacqui.

Well, we were talking about Mount Merapi. Lava's flowing and the air smells of sulfur and a layer of ash is covering the ground for miles, but it's what could happen soon that's causing the most anxiety around Indonesia's Mount Merapi.

CNN's Dan Rivers is there for us. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mount Merapi has continued to put on this awesome display with these huge rivers of molten rock flowing down the side of the volcano. The big concern at the moment is there is a big build-up in what the volcanologists are terming the dome of lava at the top of Mount Merapi. They're saying that is expanding by 175,000 square meters every day.

So a huge amount of pressure building up, and if that should rupture, then a huge volume of molten rock would surge down the side of Mount Merapi and would vaporize anything and anyone in its path. And that's why, at the moment, they have evacuated now some 11,000 people from villages dotted around the base of the volcano.

We drove up there to have a look at the situation and, certainly, there were still some people who were refusing to leave their villages. The villages already coated in a fine layer of volcanic ash, but the people who were there were saying they didn't want to leave their houses. They were worried about the security of their houses. They were worried about their livestock and they were staying put.

So clearly, the authorities have got a big battle persuading people to get away from the danger zone that could be engulfed by this pyroclastic flow of gas which killed 66 people more than 10 years ago in the last major explosion and, of course, the huge rivers of lava which could flow down and incinerate anything in its path.

Dan Rivers, CNN, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, in China it's out with the old, since the old is not needed anymore. Wow. Well, it took only seconds to blow up the long, but temporary dam that held back the Yangtze River while the giant Three Gorges Dam was under construction. The new dam is the world's largest hydroelectric project. It was finished last month but won't be generating power, we're told, until 2008.

No parents, no hope? Well, the life of this orphan may depend on whether she gets adopted. Find out why, straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Organ transplants are modern miracles, but people who need them almost always have to wait, and sometimes they don't reach the top of the list. For a two-year-old kidney patient, the wait is doubly hard. She can't even be considered for a transplant until she gets adopted.

Reporter Jeff McShan of CNN affiliate KHOU explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF MCSHAN, KHOU REPORTER (voice-over): Behind the wheel on a playground at CPS, little Carolina tries to act like a bigtime grown up, taking us for a ride. But where this precious 2-year-old ends up, her life journey is the big question.

ESTELLA OLGUIN, CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES: Little Carolina goes to Texas Children three times a week to have dialysis, and we'd like her to be able to get, you know, a family and also to be able to get a kidney so that she can stop having to go to dialysis.

MCSHAN: Estella Olguin is with CPS. She tells us Carolina is currently living with ten children in a foster home, a home run by Trista Moore's mother.

TRISTA MOORE, CAREGIVER: It's just funny to hear her talk sometimes and try to understand her. But she walks around the house. She likes watching TV and being -- basically being the boss of everybody, the mama.

MCSHAN: Carolina was taken away from her mom by the courts when she was 10 months old.

OLGUIN: Well, all our children that are in our custody are in our custody because they've either been abused, neglected or abandoned. And in Carolina's case, she did suffer from her mom not being able to provide for her medically. She was not doing what she needed to do to take care of her.

MCSHAN: Carolina is one of approximately 800 local CPS kids that are looking to be adopted. But her situation is unique. She does need a kidney transplant, and right now, Texas Children's Hospital told the family she isn't on the transplant list.

MOORE: They won't put her on one until she gets adopted. We've tried to get her on there, even though her mom did sign over her rights, but they still said they want an adoptive family to put her on the list.

MCSHAN: Moore says the hospital has given transplants to kids in foster homes before, but then the children weren't getting the proper care at home, mainly because, she says, they were passed around in foster homes. CPS hopes the special family will adopt Carolina soon so her life journey will be a long one.

Jeff McShan, 11 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well, you looking at me? That might have been on the minds of a couple of the peacocks at the Kansas City Zoo. Three-year- old Billy Holiday (ph) found out the hard way not to get too close to the brightly colored birds. He need stitches after one of them clawed his face on Memorial Day. That was the second report of peacock attack in the past few weeks. The zoo's director says it's breeding season and the birds are easily irritated. The offenders have been sent to a farm.

And you think you had a difficult labor? Well, this Asian elephant Romani has been trying to give birth for four days at a zoo in Syracuse. Her 300-pound calf is stuck in the birth canal. Now zookeepers fear for the mother.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK DOYLE, ZOO DIRECTOR: Elephants are very funny. They become very -- not just needy, but they look for support. And Romani is coming up to myself and her other handlers and tooting at us and looking for support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Well, the zoo has consulted some of the world's top Asian elephant experts. None has been able to help.

And this new arrival at Oregon's seaside aquarium is getting a seal of approval from mom. It's cute, it's cuddly, but there's something missing: a name. The aquarium is taking suggestions from the public as part of a fundraiser. The winning name will be announced on Friday.

Is your town ready for a hurricane? Before everybody moves on in the 2006 season, some people still want to know what's coming for them from the 2005 storm. We're going to talk about those forgotten victims in the next hour of LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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