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CNN Live Today

Death Row Donor?

Aired May 20, 2005 - 10:30   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: After nine days of delays a new weather-forecasting satellite is on its way to orbit. Scientists say it will help with predicting global changes such as El Nino and El Nina systems, and even assist worldwide search-and-rescue operations. It's the fourth launch in the series. The fifth and final one is slated for launch in about two year.
Consider it the benefits of war, make that "Star Wars," that is. The latest installment, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," hauled in a staggering $16.5 million. That was just yesterday's midnight debut. One industry expert calls that showing, even with such high expectations, extremely impressive.

First lady Laura Bush is on a five-day trip through the Middle East. Mrs. Bush arrived in Jordan about a half hour ago. She's also going to visit Israel and Egypt. The first lady says she wants to help repair the U.S. image overseas, and she plans to promote democracy and women's rights.

Now on the flight over, Mrs. Bush spoke about last week's Capitol security scare. She said the president's biking trip in Maryland should have been interrupted to tell him about the evacuation.

Let's look at stories making news coast to coast this morning. First to Charleston, South Carolina, oh baby, a big delivery. Lindsey Jackson's baby girl tipped the scales at 12 pounds and one ounce. And not only that, she was two weeks early. Let's look at the big baby girl. Get up there. We've got to see her. There she is. That is a big baby. No name for the baby quite yet.

Police in Massachusetts say a store clerk kept a customer's winning lottery ticket and claimed the $32,000 prize. The customer says she returned to the store the day after buying the ticket. She claims the clerk told her she won just $2, but the customer later saw the winning numbers on TV and remembered they were on her ticket. The clerk is facing several charges, but he's quoted as saying that's not the complete story. It hasn't been told, and the allegations, he says, are not quite right.

And 11 New York City construction workers were injured when a roof collapsed. The workers were renovating a building in Brooklyn. One man was buried under the rubble. He is listed in critical condition.

Indiana death row inmate Gregory Scott Johnson was convicted of killing an elderly woman in her home. He is scheduled to be executed next week, but a parole board meets today to decide an unusual request. Johnson wants a reprieve, enough time to save his sister's life.

Our Chris Lawrence has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gregory Scott Johnson is asking the state of Indiana for a reprieve, to find out if he could donate part of his liver to his sick sister, Debra. Johnson was sentenced to die for murdering an 82-year-old woman in her own home.

GREGORY SCOTT JOHNSON, DEATH ROW INMATE: I've done so much harm out there, my life is all that I have to pay them.

LAWRENCE: Doctors could do a split-liver transplant, just taking a piece of his liver out, but that's not as good as a full transplant. One doctor familiar with the case is confident he can find Johnson's sister another liver, and says, she'd get the next organ that comes up in her blood group. Whole livers are harvested from a donor after the person has died. But Johnson is scheduled to die by lethal injection, which could make his unsuitable.

JOHNSON: They're not killing me to harvest an organ. I'm volunteering the organ, whether they kill me or not.

LAWRENCE (on camera): This kind of case has come up before in other states. Prison officials have argued, what happens if something goes wrong during the surgery? They could be forced to indefinitely keep a death row inmate alive.

ALICE NEWMAN, JOHNSON'S MOTHER: This is something no mother should have to go through.

LAWRENCE: Johnson's mother supports her daughter's wish to receive a piece of her brother's liver.

NEWMAN: I would feel like a part of Scott was still with us.

LAWRENCE: The first step would be a blood test. If Johnson's not compatible with his sister, the other arguments are irrelevant. If they're a match, and if his liver is needed, it would be up to the parole board and Indiana's governor to decide if Johnson gets the extra time he's asking for.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: A murder linked to methadone and a little girl who accidentally got caught up in the middle. There are new developments in that case today.

CNN LIVE TODAY is back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: Well, obsessed with celebrity? What does it take to get the photos that the big names and faces don't want to see? There's a new book out on the subject. The author joins me live when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A feeding frenzy, a shark pool, star stalkers? We're talking about how some stars feel about the paparazzi. Stars despise them, yet without them, you wouldn't get those celebrity photos served up at check-out counters from coast to coast.

Peter Howe has collected some of the best of the tabloid photos in his new book. It's called "Paparazzi and Our Obsession with Celebrity." Howe has served as the picture editor for "The New York Times Magazine" and he is the former director of photography for "Life" magazine. He joins us from New York. Peter, good morning.

PETER HOWE, AUTHOR, "PAPARAZZI": Good morning.

KAGAN: So are you celebrating paparazzi? Do you think this is a good thing?

HOWE: No, I'm celebrating them, I'm just trying to look at them and see why we pay them so much money, why their photographs are so popular with us and why we buy so many of them.

KAGAN: So they look at the stars and we're going to look at them. Let's look at some of the pictures from the book. The first, I think, it's of Ben Affleck, who's putting his hand over his face. You hear a lot of stars complain of stalkarazzi, that they too far, that this actually has crossed a line of danger.

HOWE: There certainly is a good case to be made for the fact that -- the car chases, in particular, have become dangerous. And that is something which I think that is the least defensible of the activities that the paparazzi indulge in.

KAGAN: Sometimes it's just wacky news, like Britney Spears' 55- hour wedding.

HOWE: Yes. Actually, that picture was taken by an amateur who happened to be getting married in the wedding chapel in Las Vegas at the same time and who managed to get $300,000 for those pictures.

KAGAN: Which is an interesting point. Is there more competition out there, now that everybody, whether its their camera phone or just carrying around a little digital cameras, has a camera ready?

HOWE: You know, it's kind of too early to tell yet. But, certainly, that is something that is likely to happen. I mean, if you and I are sitting in a restaurant and Cameron Diaz sits down at the table next to us, it's the easiest thing to just, like, take out your camera phone and do a little snap. And if you know where to sell it, you can get some good money for it. KAGAN: Speaking of Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake, there's a little take of them. They both have been pretty vocal that they don't like the paparazzi.

HOWE: No, I think you can pretty safely say they don't like the paparazzi.

KAGAN: Yes. Tom Cruise, rollerskating in Hyde Park.

HOWE: Yes, this issue brings up -- this picture brings up one of the issues there. If there is something that the paparazzi feel uncomfortable about, it is the photographs of the children of celebrities.

KAGAN: You think they're uncomfortable -- I don't think they're uncomfortable with anything.

HOWE: No, they are. Believe me, trust me. It's probably the only thing that I spoke to them about that they were uncomfortable about. The problem is, of course, is that we love to see pictures of the children of celebrities, and so they're valuable pictures.

KAGAN: It could actually be a security risk, though, giving identity to the wrong people.

HOWE: It is, yes, there's no doubt about it.

KAGAN: Let's get a few more pictures in here. Charlize Theron at a car wash. Doesn't look like she was looking to meet the media that day.

HOWE: No, and in fact, the bottle of water that's in her left hand, shortly after this photograph was taken, was all over the photographer and his camera.

KAGAN: Interesting. So she made her statement there.

HOWE: She certainly did.

KAGAN: And then, just quickly, Peter, the stars, they complain about -- I think that's Michael Jackson with his kids. That's just a whole other topic. But stars complain about it, but don't they also sometimes use the paparazzi for publicity?

HOWE: Yes, they absolutely do. There have been many cases where the paparazzi have been given tips about the location of celebrities from their own P.R. people.

KAGAN: There you go. Peter Howe, the book is called "Paparazzi." It was fun to look at the pictures and discuss the topic. Thank you.

HOWE: Thanks a lot.

KAGAN: The last installment of the "Star Wars" saga, sure to dominate this weekend. But what do you need to know about this and other films? For that, we turn to CNN'S Veronica De La Cruz at the dot-com desk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN.COM CORRESPONDENT: From a galaxy far, far away, "Star Wars: The Return of the Sith" opened in nearly 3,700 theaters across the nation. CNN.com takes a look at the long-awaited feature, as well as what's on tap for this summer's attraction. The latest "Star Wars" episode brings the saga full-circle. The original was the highest-grossing film until "E.T." came along in 1982.

How versed are you when it comes to the characters and it's ever- thickening plot? This guide connects the dots in an intergalactic story of love and war. And if you think you are the ultimate "Star Wars" fan, you can test your knowledge with this online quiz. Use the force for all the answers.

The movie industry makes more than half its money between now and Labor Day weekend. With "Star Wars: Return of the Sith" leading the pack, what else is out there? From "Batman: The Beginning" to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," browse this gallery to get the scoop.

Plot your summer diversions with CNN.com's entertainment calendar. Get release dates for books, movies, DVDs and CDs and find out when and where your favorite bands are on tour. Just logon to CNN.com/comingattractions. Also, don't miss CNN's entertainment, "Hot Ticket To Fun." That's this Saturday at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.

From the dot-com news desk, I'm Veronica De La Cruz.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: There are new developments this morning in the murder of a 10-year-old girl, a girl who might have seen a crime she was never meant to see. Our Drew Griffin gives us the background and then the developments at the top of the hour. That's all just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Just a few minutes from right now, prosecutors are expected to announce a new development in the death of a 10-year-old in Indiana. Investigators believe the girl might have come upon a meth lab, and that's why she was killed.

Our Drew Griffin went to her hometown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Traffic jams in Crudasville (ph), Indiana last only long enough for the Louisville- Nashville to pass through on its way to Chicago. If bad things happen in this town of just 1,500 people, it's hard to keep them a secret.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a close-knit town. Usually if something is going on, you know, most people know about it.

GRIFFIN: But that does not always mean people do something about it, as you're about to see.

On January 25th, 10-year-old Katie Collman was having a typical day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something that she'd done hundreds of times literally, a block and a half away, and never had a worry.

GRIFFIN: Katie's father, John, said she left home at 3:10 that afternoon, one block to the corner, turn left to the sidewalk, across the railroad tracks to the store, a five-minute walk. The family needed toilet paper. But Katie didn't come home. And after five hours of searching, her family was panicking. Five days later, the search ended here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got the news that Sunday that they had found a body.

GRIFFIN: Dumped face down in a ditch, hands tied behind her back. Charles Hickman, 20 years old, told police he killed the girl because on her journey from the store, he says she saw him making methamphetamine in the apartments across the tracks. And behind that confession, a lot of people in this small Indiana town had their own confessions to make. The path to Katie Collman's death had been paved long before she walked down this street.

(on camera): Is meth destroying southern Indiana?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. It's destroyed it. It has flat destroyed this community. It is just unreal. It's unreal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Naturally living in a small community, nobody wants to stand up and say yes, our town has a problem.

GRIFFIN: The fact is Katie Collman's town knew it had a meth problem, and apparently looked the other way until it was too late.

This is a house that burned a month before she died. A meth lab inside was the cause of that fire. Weeks before she crossed these railroad tracks to go to the general store, police in this town received calls that methamphetamine was being burned inside those apartments.

(voice-over): Not one call, but two. The first call made to police was December 30th. The caller happened to be Katie Collman's uncle, concerned about the smell of chemicals from an apartment building just a block from Katie's home.

A week later, January 5th, the apartment building's owner calls police, a similar suspicious odor. What happened? Police chief Norman Ford:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Checked the air, did not smell anything. Had no reason to, you know, knock on anybody's door or anything like that, because you know, we've got to have probable cause.

GRIFFIN: Despite of a history of problems at the Penn Villa (ph) Apartments, despite two calls from people who thought they smelled meth, despite the fact this county had the sixth highest number of meth labs seized in the state last year, at least three right in town, the police chief says the officers couldn't find a reason to investigate further.

Spend a little time with Chief Norman Ford, and you'll see why Crudasville is having problems tackling meth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've three officers, who you know -- we patrol, we do traffic, we do accidents, we do everything else, and when it comes to having to work drugs, drugs is something you have to put time in, and you can't be, you know, bothered with something else when you're working drugs, and that's where my problem is right now.

GRIFFIN: He brought to us the local farm co-op where tanks of anyhdrazamonia (ph) sit right out in the open.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's used to -- for -- to fertilize crops with.

GRIFFIN: The chemical inside is also used for making meth, yet there are no locks, not even a fence, and have been many thefts.

(on camera): I'm dumbfounded that this is just out here. I can't believe that it's here, and...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just like your batteries in your flashlight. They use household batteries. They use Drain-O. They use Sudafeds.

GRIFFIN: So how are you going to stop this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. It's going to have to be some legislation, I guess.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Two weeks before Katie's disappearance, Chief Ford and his two officers were ordered into this room behind closed doors in a special executive session of the town board. Board members weren't there to hear about new legislation. Board member Vaughn Eisenhower says he and the other board members felt the town's drug problem was out of control. They wanted some old-fashioned arrests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All three of them were told to step up the patrol, and...

GRIFFIN: And to bust meth users.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bust meth users or suspicious activity, and they say, well, the time you take them to the county jail and fill the paperwork out, they're already back on the streets. Somebody's coming to pick them up, you know. So it's kind of a futile effort, but that's their jobs. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To me that's an excuse.

GRIFFIN: The town leaders decided simply to talk about it again in a few weeks. Nothing had changed. Then everything changed.

Even for Debbie Hoffricker (ph), the aunt of the man now accused of murdering Katie Collman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could have been anybody in this town.

GRIFFIN (on camera): What happened to this town?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That, I don't know. They're shutting their eyes to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is little (INAUDIBLE) Morgan. It's one of Katie's friends.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): John Nays (ph) and his family have lost their 10-year-old angel. He now believes his daughter died because so many shut their eyes to the grip meth has on this small town, and has a warning for other small communities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want them to realize that all it takes is for the town, the community to stand up against the riff-raff in their town and take their community back away from these individuals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And here is the update. Prosecutors in Indiana now plan a news conference at the top of the hour. They're going to announce the man originally charged with Katie's death is having the charges dropped against him.

More on that as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired May 20, 2005 - 10:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: After nine days of delays a new weather-forecasting satellite is on its way to orbit. Scientists say it will help with predicting global changes such as El Nino and El Nina systems, and even assist worldwide search-and-rescue operations. It's the fourth launch in the series. The fifth and final one is slated for launch in about two year.
Consider it the benefits of war, make that "Star Wars," that is. The latest installment, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," hauled in a staggering $16.5 million. That was just yesterday's midnight debut. One industry expert calls that showing, even with such high expectations, extremely impressive.

First lady Laura Bush is on a five-day trip through the Middle East. Mrs. Bush arrived in Jordan about a half hour ago. She's also going to visit Israel and Egypt. The first lady says she wants to help repair the U.S. image overseas, and she plans to promote democracy and women's rights.

Now on the flight over, Mrs. Bush spoke about last week's Capitol security scare. She said the president's biking trip in Maryland should have been interrupted to tell him about the evacuation.

Let's look at stories making news coast to coast this morning. First to Charleston, South Carolina, oh baby, a big delivery. Lindsey Jackson's baby girl tipped the scales at 12 pounds and one ounce. And not only that, she was two weeks early. Let's look at the big baby girl. Get up there. We've got to see her. There she is. That is a big baby. No name for the baby quite yet.

Police in Massachusetts say a store clerk kept a customer's winning lottery ticket and claimed the $32,000 prize. The customer says she returned to the store the day after buying the ticket. She claims the clerk told her she won just $2, but the customer later saw the winning numbers on TV and remembered they were on her ticket. The clerk is facing several charges, but he's quoted as saying that's not the complete story. It hasn't been told, and the allegations, he says, are not quite right.

And 11 New York City construction workers were injured when a roof collapsed. The workers were renovating a building in Brooklyn. One man was buried under the rubble. He is listed in critical condition.

Indiana death row inmate Gregory Scott Johnson was convicted of killing an elderly woman in her home. He is scheduled to be executed next week, but a parole board meets today to decide an unusual request. Johnson wants a reprieve, enough time to save his sister's life.

Our Chris Lawrence has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gregory Scott Johnson is asking the state of Indiana for a reprieve, to find out if he could donate part of his liver to his sick sister, Debra. Johnson was sentenced to die for murdering an 82-year-old woman in her own home.

GREGORY SCOTT JOHNSON, DEATH ROW INMATE: I've done so much harm out there, my life is all that I have to pay them.

LAWRENCE: Doctors could do a split-liver transplant, just taking a piece of his liver out, but that's not as good as a full transplant. One doctor familiar with the case is confident he can find Johnson's sister another liver, and says, she'd get the next organ that comes up in her blood group. Whole livers are harvested from a donor after the person has died. But Johnson is scheduled to die by lethal injection, which could make his unsuitable.

JOHNSON: They're not killing me to harvest an organ. I'm volunteering the organ, whether they kill me or not.

LAWRENCE (on camera): This kind of case has come up before in other states. Prison officials have argued, what happens if something goes wrong during the surgery? They could be forced to indefinitely keep a death row inmate alive.

ALICE NEWMAN, JOHNSON'S MOTHER: This is something no mother should have to go through.

LAWRENCE: Johnson's mother supports her daughter's wish to receive a piece of her brother's liver.

NEWMAN: I would feel like a part of Scott was still with us.

LAWRENCE: The first step would be a blood test. If Johnson's not compatible with his sister, the other arguments are irrelevant. If they're a match, and if his liver is needed, it would be up to the parole board and Indiana's governor to decide if Johnson gets the extra time he's asking for.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: A murder linked to methadone and a little girl who accidentally got caught up in the middle. There are new developments in that case today.

CNN LIVE TODAY is back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: Well, obsessed with celebrity? What does it take to get the photos that the big names and faces don't want to see? There's a new book out on the subject. The author joins me live when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A feeding frenzy, a shark pool, star stalkers? We're talking about how some stars feel about the paparazzi. Stars despise them, yet without them, you wouldn't get those celebrity photos served up at check-out counters from coast to coast.

Peter Howe has collected some of the best of the tabloid photos in his new book. It's called "Paparazzi and Our Obsession with Celebrity." Howe has served as the picture editor for "The New York Times Magazine" and he is the former director of photography for "Life" magazine. He joins us from New York. Peter, good morning.

PETER HOWE, AUTHOR, "PAPARAZZI": Good morning.

KAGAN: So are you celebrating paparazzi? Do you think this is a good thing?

HOWE: No, I'm celebrating them, I'm just trying to look at them and see why we pay them so much money, why their photographs are so popular with us and why we buy so many of them.

KAGAN: So they look at the stars and we're going to look at them. Let's look at some of the pictures from the book. The first, I think, it's of Ben Affleck, who's putting his hand over his face. You hear a lot of stars complain of stalkarazzi, that they too far, that this actually has crossed a line of danger.

HOWE: There certainly is a good case to be made for the fact that -- the car chases, in particular, have become dangerous. And that is something which I think that is the least defensible of the activities that the paparazzi indulge in.

KAGAN: Sometimes it's just wacky news, like Britney Spears' 55- hour wedding.

HOWE: Yes. Actually, that picture was taken by an amateur who happened to be getting married in the wedding chapel in Las Vegas at the same time and who managed to get $300,000 for those pictures.

KAGAN: Which is an interesting point. Is there more competition out there, now that everybody, whether its their camera phone or just carrying around a little digital cameras, has a camera ready?

HOWE: You know, it's kind of too early to tell yet. But, certainly, that is something that is likely to happen. I mean, if you and I are sitting in a restaurant and Cameron Diaz sits down at the table next to us, it's the easiest thing to just, like, take out your camera phone and do a little snap. And if you know where to sell it, you can get some good money for it. KAGAN: Speaking of Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake, there's a little take of them. They both have been pretty vocal that they don't like the paparazzi.

HOWE: No, I think you can pretty safely say they don't like the paparazzi.

KAGAN: Yes. Tom Cruise, rollerskating in Hyde Park.

HOWE: Yes, this issue brings up -- this picture brings up one of the issues there. If there is something that the paparazzi feel uncomfortable about, it is the photographs of the children of celebrities.

KAGAN: You think they're uncomfortable -- I don't think they're uncomfortable with anything.

HOWE: No, they are. Believe me, trust me. It's probably the only thing that I spoke to them about that they were uncomfortable about. The problem is, of course, is that we love to see pictures of the children of celebrities, and so they're valuable pictures.

KAGAN: It could actually be a security risk, though, giving identity to the wrong people.

HOWE: It is, yes, there's no doubt about it.

KAGAN: Let's get a few more pictures in here. Charlize Theron at a car wash. Doesn't look like she was looking to meet the media that day.

HOWE: No, and in fact, the bottle of water that's in her left hand, shortly after this photograph was taken, was all over the photographer and his camera.

KAGAN: Interesting. So she made her statement there.

HOWE: She certainly did.

KAGAN: And then, just quickly, Peter, the stars, they complain about -- I think that's Michael Jackson with his kids. That's just a whole other topic. But stars complain about it, but don't they also sometimes use the paparazzi for publicity?

HOWE: Yes, they absolutely do. There have been many cases where the paparazzi have been given tips about the location of celebrities from their own P.R. people.

KAGAN: There you go. Peter Howe, the book is called "Paparazzi." It was fun to look at the pictures and discuss the topic. Thank you.

HOWE: Thanks a lot.

KAGAN: The last installment of the "Star Wars" saga, sure to dominate this weekend. But what do you need to know about this and other films? For that, we turn to CNN'S Veronica De La Cruz at the dot-com desk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN.COM CORRESPONDENT: From a galaxy far, far away, "Star Wars: The Return of the Sith" opened in nearly 3,700 theaters across the nation. CNN.com takes a look at the long-awaited feature, as well as what's on tap for this summer's attraction. The latest "Star Wars" episode brings the saga full-circle. The original was the highest-grossing film until "E.T." came along in 1982.

How versed are you when it comes to the characters and it's ever- thickening plot? This guide connects the dots in an intergalactic story of love and war. And if you think you are the ultimate "Star Wars" fan, you can test your knowledge with this online quiz. Use the force for all the answers.

The movie industry makes more than half its money between now and Labor Day weekend. With "Star Wars: Return of the Sith" leading the pack, what else is out there? From "Batman: The Beginning" to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," browse this gallery to get the scoop.

Plot your summer diversions with CNN.com's entertainment calendar. Get release dates for books, movies, DVDs and CDs and find out when and where your favorite bands are on tour. Just logon to CNN.com/comingattractions. Also, don't miss CNN's entertainment, "Hot Ticket To Fun." That's this Saturday at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.

From the dot-com news desk, I'm Veronica De La Cruz.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: There are new developments this morning in the murder of a 10-year-old girl, a girl who might have seen a crime she was never meant to see. Our Drew Griffin gives us the background and then the developments at the top of the hour. That's all just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Just a few minutes from right now, prosecutors are expected to announce a new development in the death of a 10-year-old in Indiana. Investigators believe the girl might have come upon a meth lab, and that's why she was killed.

Our Drew Griffin went to her hometown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Traffic jams in Crudasville (ph), Indiana last only long enough for the Louisville- Nashville to pass through on its way to Chicago. If bad things happen in this town of just 1,500 people, it's hard to keep them a secret.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a close-knit town. Usually if something is going on, you know, most people know about it.

GRIFFIN: But that does not always mean people do something about it, as you're about to see.

On January 25th, 10-year-old Katie Collman was having a typical day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something that she'd done hundreds of times literally, a block and a half away, and never had a worry.

GRIFFIN: Katie's father, John, said she left home at 3:10 that afternoon, one block to the corner, turn left to the sidewalk, across the railroad tracks to the store, a five-minute walk. The family needed toilet paper. But Katie didn't come home. And after five hours of searching, her family was panicking. Five days later, the search ended here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got the news that Sunday that they had found a body.

GRIFFIN: Dumped face down in a ditch, hands tied behind her back. Charles Hickman, 20 years old, told police he killed the girl because on her journey from the store, he says she saw him making methamphetamine in the apartments across the tracks. And behind that confession, a lot of people in this small Indiana town had their own confessions to make. The path to Katie Collman's death had been paved long before she walked down this street.

(on camera): Is meth destroying southern Indiana?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. It's destroyed it. It has flat destroyed this community. It is just unreal. It's unreal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Naturally living in a small community, nobody wants to stand up and say yes, our town has a problem.

GRIFFIN: The fact is Katie Collman's town knew it had a meth problem, and apparently looked the other way until it was too late.

This is a house that burned a month before she died. A meth lab inside was the cause of that fire. Weeks before she crossed these railroad tracks to go to the general store, police in this town received calls that methamphetamine was being burned inside those apartments.

(voice-over): Not one call, but two. The first call made to police was December 30th. The caller happened to be Katie Collman's uncle, concerned about the smell of chemicals from an apartment building just a block from Katie's home.

A week later, January 5th, the apartment building's owner calls police, a similar suspicious odor. What happened? Police chief Norman Ford:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Checked the air, did not smell anything. Had no reason to, you know, knock on anybody's door or anything like that, because you know, we've got to have probable cause.

GRIFFIN: Despite of a history of problems at the Penn Villa (ph) Apartments, despite two calls from people who thought they smelled meth, despite the fact this county had the sixth highest number of meth labs seized in the state last year, at least three right in town, the police chief says the officers couldn't find a reason to investigate further.

Spend a little time with Chief Norman Ford, and you'll see why Crudasville is having problems tackling meth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've three officers, who you know -- we patrol, we do traffic, we do accidents, we do everything else, and when it comes to having to work drugs, drugs is something you have to put time in, and you can't be, you know, bothered with something else when you're working drugs, and that's where my problem is right now.

GRIFFIN: He brought to us the local farm co-op where tanks of anyhdrazamonia (ph) sit right out in the open.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's used to -- for -- to fertilize crops with.

GRIFFIN: The chemical inside is also used for making meth, yet there are no locks, not even a fence, and have been many thefts.

(on camera): I'm dumbfounded that this is just out here. I can't believe that it's here, and...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just like your batteries in your flashlight. They use household batteries. They use Drain-O. They use Sudafeds.

GRIFFIN: So how are you going to stop this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. It's going to have to be some legislation, I guess.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Two weeks before Katie's disappearance, Chief Ford and his two officers were ordered into this room behind closed doors in a special executive session of the town board. Board members weren't there to hear about new legislation. Board member Vaughn Eisenhower says he and the other board members felt the town's drug problem was out of control. They wanted some old-fashioned arrests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All three of them were told to step up the patrol, and...

GRIFFIN: And to bust meth users.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bust meth users or suspicious activity, and they say, well, the time you take them to the county jail and fill the paperwork out, they're already back on the streets. Somebody's coming to pick them up, you know. So it's kind of a futile effort, but that's their jobs. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To me that's an excuse.

GRIFFIN: The town leaders decided simply to talk about it again in a few weeks. Nothing had changed. Then everything changed.

Even for Debbie Hoffricker (ph), the aunt of the man now accused of murdering Katie Collman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could have been anybody in this town.

GRIFFIN (on camera): What happened to this town?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That, I don't know. They're shutting their eyes to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is little (INAUDIBLE) Morgan. It's one of Katie's friends.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): John Nays (ph) and his family have lost their 10-year-old angel. He now believes his daughter died because so many shut their eyes to the grip meth has on this small town, and has a warning for other small communities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want them to realize that all it takes is for the town, the community to stand up against the riff-raff in their town and take their community back away from these individuals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And here is the update. Prosecutors in Indiana now plan a news conference at the top of the hour. They're going to announce the man originally charged with Katie's death is having the charges dropped against him.

More on that as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.

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