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American Morning

Search for Dru

Aired December 08, 2003 - 09:02   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Authorities investigating the disappearance of Dru Sjodin will meet this morning to plan their next move. The search for her was suspended yesterday -- rather on Saturday, while new leads were examined. The University of North Dakota student was last seen on November 22nd. Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., accused of kidnapping her, has told his court appointed attorney that he is innocent.
Joining us this morning to talk about this case is Captain Mike Kirby of the Grand Forks Police Department.

Captain Kirby, good morning. Thanks for joining us. Let's get right into it.

Two and a half weeks now since Dru Sjodin went missing. What exactly is the status of the searches? Has the police department now officially called off the search?

CAPT. MIKE KIRBY, GRAND FORKS N.D. POLICE: No, that would not be the case. Over the weekend, what we did was try to evaluate any new leads that might have come in over the weekend. We had investigators looking at those leads, prioritizing them, decided what we needed to do with them. There may have been some small law enforcement-only searches that were done over the weekend. I haven't had the opportunity this morning to verify that for sure.

But what we will do this morning is visit with ourselves, the local sheriff's offices on both sides of the river, the core agencies that were involved in this investigation, get a good sense of where we've been, where we think we need to go, and what types of searches might need to be coordinated as the week progresses.

O'BRIEN: So then you're in the middle of planning for new searches for the week ahead?

KIRBY: Yes, I think that's an appropriate statement. We want to make sure we know what we have covered. U.S. Border Patrol's done a fantastic job for us in that area mapping things out. So we want to look at that, evaluate where we need to go or what areas we might need to look at again.

O'BRIEN: Dru Sjodin's father has said that family members are going to go out today to do their own search. In addition to that, he said there is a tip that got on the Web site, finddru.com, that they want to check out. Would you encourage them to do this? Do you support that? KIRBY: They have been a great deal of help to us over the last couple of weeks. They've covered some areas for us that at one particular time we didn't have the staffing to take care of. So they've done a fantastic job for us. I certainly commend what they've done. And we want to encourage that if they want to continue to do those types of things, we just ask that they coordinate with the local sheriff's office so that we do have a good sense of what areas have been covered.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the suspect, the main suspect in this case, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. Any information coming from him? How can you -- how do you characterize how helpful he is being to investigators?

KIRBY: Well, we did have a dialogue with him in the early stages after he was arrested. And at all times during that, if he exercised his right to counsel to remain silent, we certainly respected that. He has since been appointed counsel. So any further dialogue we might have with him would have to be coordinated with the state's attorney's office and with his counsel.

O'BRIEN: Is it fair to say he has been helpful at all to investigators, or in the converse, he has not been helpful in any way with your folks who have been interviewing him?

KIRBY: Well, at this particular point in time, the police department's unwilling to comment as to the level of cooperation. Just that we have had a dialogue, and we will continue to try and develop a new dialogue with him.

O'BRIEN: There were some published reports over the weekend that said that Alfonso Rodriguez's sister allegedly pleaded with a local police officer to keep an eye on her brother after his release, because she feared that he would strike again. Do you know about this report? And what can you tell us about it?

KIRBY: Well, I have read those accounts. I have no personal knowledge in that particular area. I've been asked about it several times. I can certainly understand how someone might feel, a family member might feel, given those particular circumstances. But I don't have any specific information on it.

O'BRIEN: Still hopeful that you're going to find Dru Sjodin alive?

KIRBY: Well, it's cold out here, there's absolutely no doubt about that. By the same token, we're going to make every effort that we can to do that. We just have to keep looking back. We look at things like the Smart situation. No one, I think, expected that to have a favorable ending after the long period of time that took place there. So, we're going to use that to keep in mind that there may be an opportunity, and we're going to keep looking.

O'BRIEN: Yes, certainly many people have mentioned that case as motivation to stay hopeful in any of these cases like this. Captain Mike Kirby, thanks for your time this morning from the Grand Forks Police Department. We certainly appreciate it. We know how busy you are.

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 December 8, 2003 - 09:02   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Authorities investigating the disappearance of Dru Sjodin will meet this morning to plan their next move. The search for her was suspended yesterday -- rather on Saturday, while new leads were examined. The University of North Dakota student was last seen on November 22nd. Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., accused of kidnapping her, has told his court appointed attorney that he is innocent.
Joining us this morning to talk about this case is Captain Mike Kirby of the Grand Forks Police Department.

Captain Kirby, good morning. Thanks for joining us. Let's get right into it.

Two and a half weeks now since Dru Sjodin went missing. What exactly is the status of the searches? Has the police department now officially called off the search?

CAPT. MIKE KIRBY, GRAND FORKS N.D. POLICE: No, that would not be the case. Over the weekend, what we did was try to evaluate any new leads that might have come in over the weekend. We had investigators looking at those leads, prioritizing them, decided what we needed to do with them. There may have been some small law enforcement-only searches that were done over the weekend. I haven't had the opportunity this morning to verify that for sure.

But what we will do this morning is visit with ourselves, the local sheriff's offices on both sides of the river, the core agencies that were involved in this investigation, get a good sense of where we've been, where we think we need to go, and what types of searches might need to be coordinated as the week progresses.

O'BRIEN: So then you're in the middle of planning for new searches for the week ahead?

KIRBY: Yes, I think that's an appropriate statement. We want to make sure we know what we have covered. U.S. Border Patrol's done a fantastic job for us in that area mapping things out. So we want to look at that, evaluate where we need to go or what areas we might need to look at again.

O'BRIEN: Dru Sjodin's father has said that family members are going to go out today to do their own search. In addition to that, he said there is a tip that got on the Web site, finddru.com, that they want to check out. Would you encourage them to do this? Do you support that? KIRBY: They have been a great deal of help to us over the last couple of weeks. They've covered some areas for us that at one particular time we didn't have the staffing to take care of. So they've done a fantastic job for us. I certainly commend what they've done. And we want to encourage that if they want to continue to do those types of things, we just ask that they coordinate with the local sheriff's office so that we do have a good sense of what areas have been covered.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the suspect, the main suspect in this case, Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. Any information coming from him? How can you -- how do you characterize how helpful he is being to investigators?

KIRBY: Well, we did have a dialogue with him in the early stages after he was arrested. And at all times during that, if he exercised his right to counsel to remain silent, we certainly respected that. He has since been appointed counsel. So any further dialogue we might have with him would have to be coordinated with the state's attorney's office and with his counsel.

O'BRIEN: Is it fair to say he has been helpful at all to investigators, or in the converse, he has not been helpful in any way with your folks who have been interviewing him?

KIRBY: Well, at this particular point in time, the police department's unwilling to comment as to the level of cooperation. Just that we have had a dialogue, and we will continue to try and develop a new dialogue with him.

O'BRIEN: There were some published reports over the weekend that said that Alfonso Rodriguez's sister allegedly pleaded with a local police officer to keep an eye on her brother after his release, because she feared that he would strike again. Do you know about this report? And what can you tell us about it?

KIRBY: Well, I have read those accounts. I have no personal knowledge in that particular area. I've been asked about it several times. I can certainly understand how someone might feel, a family member might feel, given those particular circumstances. But I don't have any specific information on it.

O'BRIEN: Still hopeful that you're going to find Dru Sjodin alive?

KIRBY: Well, it's cold out here, there's absolutely no doubt about that. By the same token, we're going to make every effort that we can to do that. We just have to keep looking back. We look at things like the Smart situation. No one, I think, expected that to have a favorable ending after the long period of time that took place there. So, we're going to use that to keep in mind that there may be an opportunity, and we're going to keep looking.

O'BRIEN: Yes, certainly many people have mentioned that case as motivation to stay hopeful in any of these cases like this. Captain Mike Kirby, thanks for your time this morning from the Grand Forks Police Department. We certainly appreciate it. We know how busy you are.

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