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American Morning

America's Most Wanted Mark's 15th Year

Aired August 31, 2001 - 10:33   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: There are literally hundreds of crimes that have been solved thanks to one show that's become a fixture of American television, and this year "America's Most Wanted" is marking its 15th season, believe it or not. John Walsh is the host of "America's Most Wanted," as well as an advocate for missing children and victim's rights. He joins us from New York to talk about the headlines and a couple of other things as well.

How are you? Good to see you.

JOHN WALSH, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": Good to see you, Leon.

HARRIS: Let me ask you about moment ago we were talking about the Chandra Levy investigation. What's the latest that you've been hearing? I know you guys have been getting plenty of tips there at the show. Anything at all interesting lately?

WALSH: Nothing has borne fruit. We've got about 500 tips from the several times that we profiles her, and as you know, the Levys gave us the first exclusive interview. They felt that they had walked in my shoes when I was looking for my son. Unfortunately, nothing has borne fruit. I still say the D.C. police have got a lot of work to do, and I still think that they can't eliminate the fact there may be a serial killer in the area. Two unsolved murders of two former Capitol Hill interns, women that look just like Chandra Levy -- dark hair, slim build -- one walking home in the afternoon, body found a day later. Another one, Joyce Chung, a very accomplished INS lawyer. Her body found three months later very badly decomposed in the Potomac River, down river from Washington D.C.

I think that they have to look at those two murders. They don't have suspects in those murders. They don't have anybody they're talking to. So I think a lot of hard police work is still yet to be done.

HARRIS: And that's troubling, because it's been going on for so long, We're talking about a lady who's missing since April 30. And the dragnet that your show puts out is arguably much bigger than what the D.C. police can do, and still nothing.

WALSH: Still nothing. Very, very frustrating case. I mean, last week, we had great success. Eric Rosser, a top 10 FBI fugitive that I asked the FBI to put on there, the piano-playing pedophile. He used to play piano with John Cougar Mellenkamp. He molested girls in Indiana. He went to Thailand and bought an 11-year-old girl, raped her, and sodomized her, videotaped it, and was selling it on the Internet. Came back here, went on the run, and then we caught him last week in Thailand. He had plastic surgery, liposuction, but a die hard fan of the show spotted him watching the show on Air Force's satellite.

So it never ceases to amaze me how we catch the people. It's incredible, but I'm hoping and praying that we get that one tip, because you can remain anonymous and call "America's Most Wanted". I hope we get that one tip, because I know the Levys right now are going through hell. Not knowing about Chandra is what's killing them.

HARRIS: There is a community in Sacramento that is going through hell recently, Citrus Heights yesterday. We were following the story. I don't know if you were watching the coverage here as we were following the story...

WALSH: Every minute of it.

HARRIS: ... of the apprehension of Nikolay Soltys, and we actually his name being taken off, the red bar, the red across him on the FBI's most wanted list. Did your show get many tips on this case?

WALSH: We got a Ton of tips. We got over 500 tips last Saturday. We changed the whole show. The show was done. I was so disturbed by the fact he had slit the throats of 9-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, and then beat to death his 3-year-old son, we decided to throw out the first half of the show, put him at top of the show, and we got over 500 tips. Most of those tips said that he was still in the Sacramento area, hiding out, and that he might be getting help from someone in the Ukrainian community.

Now his mother unfortunately didn't pass a polygraph test and changed her opinion three times, and I think the police did a great job. When they removed the protection from the family, somebody put the word out, and Nikolay Soltys came to his mother's house this morning, probably for money, probably for food, and the cops nailed him, and it was a great capture, because I thought this guy has crossed the line, he's psychotic, he's going to kill again.

HARRIS: I know that's what that family had to be thinking, too.

WALSH: Absolutely.

HARRIS: I understand you are working on a new book as well, right?

WALSH: I just finished my third book called "Public Enemies," and I write the books for the fan. I take eight or nine of most famous cases. Our Web site is always jammed. We get about 17 million hits every two week, of people who say, John, how do you pick the cases? Why are you so passionately involved? What did the guy do when he was out there, like Ira Einhorn. He was out there, for 24 years. It took me four years to get him extradited from France.

HARRIS: He's the one that was hiding over in France, right?

WALSH: Yes, I profiled him nine years in a row. He was wanted 24 years ago for killing his beautiful girlfriend and mummifying her body. I tell the story about a guy named Kyle Bell, the only guy I ever profiled on "America's Most Wanted" twice, and caught him twice, a horrible child killer, and he escaped from prison after he killed an 11-year-old girl, and I had be catch him again, I was so afraid he would kill again. But the book has a really inside, behind-the-scenes look on cases on "America's Most Wanted" and an inside look at the criminal mind. I hope people will find it fascinating.

HARRIS: No doubt they will. You've had 15 years to go ahead and scrape them all up. I know it's been gruesome stuff. You've done a fantastic job, and many of us thank you for doing it. Good luck on this one. I hope to talk to you down the road, under much more pleasant circumstances, no doubt.

WALSH: Thank you, Leon.

HARRIS: Good luck, John. Take Care.

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