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American Morning

Talk with Former FBI Agent Candice Delong

Aired April 16, 2003 - 09:32   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From San Francisco now, Candice Delong is an FBI agent, worked for 20 years, and the new host of the Lifetime channel program "What Should You Do?" Candice is live with us.
Good morning to you. Appreciate you getting up early.

Tell us what investigators are look for right now in Northern California now that these bodies have been located. What do you do with this investigation at this point?

CANDICE DELONG, FMR. FBI AGENT: Well, now they have a specific area that they can focus in on very, very closely. And I would imagine, Bill, that they would have a team of divers who are trained in underwater evidence recovery, and they are probably doing a grid search very slowly, very meticulously, going over the area there, underwater, looking for whatever might be there that possibly was holding that body down.

HEMMER: Candice, help us understand why it would take possibly weeks to get a positive identification. What does that say about the condition of this woman's body, whoever she is at this point, and maybe the decomposition that has taken place also?

DELONG: Well, of course, being in saltwater, there would be some contamination or degradation of the DNA, possibly. But what they're saying is that all of the tests may take weeks to come back, anywhere from days to weeks. So there's a variety of tests they're going to be doing, including toxicology and other things, in addition to trying to get DNA markers on them.

HEMMER: Listen, I don't know if you know that area well. I know you're in San Francisco, but it is said that Scott Peterson said he went fishing on that day...

DELONG: Right.

HEMMER: ... three miles south of where the body was located. If you can, be an amateur investigator for us. Do you which way the water currents go in that part of the bay area? Do they go north where the bodies were located, or do we know?

DELONG: No, I really don't know. But what I find interesting as an investigator, looking at that statement that Scott made, it looks to me like he put himself very, very close to the crime scene.

HEMMER: Just by saying it, admitting it? DELONG: Yes, yes. He didn't have to do that. Yet that's where he said he was. Now it turns out, 100 days later, I mean, three miles, OK, that's a distance, but when you look at the entirety of the distance, it's 90 miles from where he lived, and there was a lot of other bodies of water between where he lived and where he...

HEMMER: I want to stay away from suggestions of guilt right now.

DELONG: Sure.

HEMMER: Police say that he is being looked at, and has for several months. But if you can keep it specifically right now on the investigation, what do you want to know specifically if you were able to look at this body and the scene?

DELONG: Well, what course they want to be looking at is to try to find out what it was that, assuming that something was holding that body down in the water and what they want to do is try and find that and see what they've got, was it a chain, was it some kind of anchor? What was it that was holding her down? And then they are going to compare that to other evidence that they have taken from various searches that they have already conducted. And possibly they may find it has absolutely no link whatsoever to anything they found.

HEMMER: Finally, Candice, They say cause of death not known right now. Is it possible we will never know?

DELONG: It's possible because of the soft tissue decomposition. It's possible. But I think, though, I think it's probably very likely they're going to come back and say cause of death homicide, but the exact cause, strangulation or whatever,. they may not be able to determine.

HEMMER: Thanks, Candice. Candice Delong with us in San Francisco today.

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 April 16, 2003 - 09:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From San Francisco now, Candice Delong is an FBI agent, worked for 20 years, and the new host of the Lifetime channel program "What Should You Do?" Candice is live with us.
Good morning to you. Appreciate you getting up early.

Tell us what investigators are look for right now in Northern California now that these bodies have been located. What do you do with this investigation at this point?

CANDICE DELONG, FMR. FBI AGENT: Well, now they have a specific area that they can focus in on very, very closely. And I would imagine, Bill, that they would have a team of divers who are trained in underwater evidence recovery, and they are probably doing a grid search very slowly, very meticulously, going over the area there, underwater, looking for whatever might be there that possibly was holding that body down.

HEMMER: Candice, help us understand why it would take possibly weeks to get a positive identification. What does that say about the condition of this woman's body, whoever she is at this point, and maybe the decomposition that has taken place also?

DELONG: Well, of course, being in saltwater, there would be some contamination or degradation of the DNA, possibly. But what they're saying is that all of the tests may take weeks to come back, anywhere from days to weeks. So there's a variety of tests they're going to be doing, including toxicology and other things, in addition to trying to get DNA markers on them.

HEMMER: Listen, I don't know if you know that area well. I know you're in San Francisco, but it is said that Scott Peterson said he went fishing on that day...

DELONG: Right.

HEMMER: ... three miles south of where the body was located. If you can, be an amateur investigator for us. Do you which way the water currents go in that part of the bay area? Do they go north where the bodies were located, or do we know?

DELONG: No, I really don't know. But what I find interesting as an investigator, looking at that statement that Scott made, it looks to me like he put himself very, very close to the crime scene.

HEMMER: Just by saying it, admitting it? DELONG: Yes, yes. He didn't have to do that. Yet that's where he said he was. Now it turns out, 100 days later, I mean, three miles, OK, that's a distance, but when you look at the entirety of the distance, it's 90 miles from where he lived, and there was a lot of other bodies of water between where he lived and where he...

HEMMER: I want to stay away from suggestions of guilt right now.

DELONG: Sure.

HEMMER: Police say that he is being looked at, and has for several months. But if you can keep it specifically right now on the investigation, what do you want to know specifically if you were able to look at this body and the scene?

DELONG: Well, what course they want to be looking at is to try to find out what it was that, assuming that something was holding that body down in the water and what they want to do is try and find that and see what they've got, was it a chain, was it some kind of anchor? What was it that was holding her down? And then they are going to compare that to other evidence that they have taken from various searches that they have already conducted. And possibly they may find it has absolutely no link whatsoever to anything they found.

HEMMER: Finally, Candice, They say cause of death not known right now. Is it possible we will never know?

DELONG: It's possible because of the soft tissue decomposition. It's possible. But I think, though, I think it's probably very likely they're going to come back and say cause of death homicide, but the exact cause, strangulation or whatever,. they may not be able to determine.

HEMMER: Thanks, Candice. Candice Delong with us in San Francisco today.

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