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American Morning

Police Florida Say Man They Have in Custody is Suspect in Abduction

Aired February 05, 2004 - 08:17   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Police in Florida say a man they have in custody is a suspect in the abduction of an 11-year-old girl. Joseph Smith was arrested Tuesday on drug charges. He has not been charged in connection with the disappearance of Carlie Brucia. She's been missing since Sunday night, when a video camera showed a man leading her away from a Sarasota car wash.
The chief investigator in the case made this plea to the public.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. JEFF BELL, SARASOTA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: We want to continue to receive phone calls and support from the community that indicates where and when Joseph Smith was during this time frame, from Sunday through Tuesday. Please consider this as a focus now to find Carlie and bring her home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: What might Carlie's family be going through right now?

Marc Klaas is the founder of the Klaas Kids Foundation.

His daughter Polly was abducted and killed in 1993.

He's joining us this morning from San Francisco.

Mr. Klaas, thanks so much for being with us today.

MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Sure.

COLLINS: Maybe you can shed a little bit of light on the family. Obviously, as we've been saying, there is a suspect in custody, but no Carlie.

What could the family be going through right now?

KLAAS: Well, when they arrested my daughter's killer, the police tried to convince my ex-wife and I that he had probably killed Polly and neither of us wanted to hear any of that. What we told them was that there was nothing on his rap sheet to indicate that he had killed previously, so there was no reason to believe that he had killed her and that we were going to need some kind of proof of death before we would ever accept the notion that we wouldn't see our child alive again. Now, at that point in time, we were absolutely steeped in fear and in anger. But we never let go of the hope until they were able to prove it to us. And I suspect they're going through a similar kind of emotional roller coaster right now.

COLLINS: No doubt about that.

KLAAS: Yes.

COLLINS: There has been quite a long criminal history here, though, with Joseph Smith -- drug charges. And, according to one report, he was arrested in 1997 on kidnapping and false imprisonment charges. He was acquitted.

But what do you make of this?

KLAAS: He's a terrible guy. He's an awful person. I think, though, that, you know, we have to remember that Elizabeth Smart exists as an icon of hope for the parents of the missing in America. And certainly she was returned under some very unusual circumstances many months later, and that can happen with any one of these cases. I don't think we can discount this girl until it's proven one way or another that she's no longer with us or is with us.

COLLINS: And Mr. Klaas, you may also know that the suspect's car is in custody.

KLAAS: Sure.

COLLINS: Of course they are processing that for any physical evidence.

How important is it to place Carlie in that car?

KLAAS: Oh, it's critical to place her in the car. What they have to do is tie her in with this guy at the crime scene. They have to tie her into the car, hopefully into the home and hopefully that will then give them the body of evidence they need to pursue a prosecution. And then perhaps use things like the death penalty as a bargaining chip to find out where she is. But certainly they have to build the case and they have to maintain this guy behind bars so that he can't get back out onto the street again.

COLLINS: All right, Marc Klaas, we certainly appreciate your insight on all of this, coming to us this morning from San Francisco.

Thank you, again.

KLAAS: Sure.

COLLINS: And joining us now with more about the case itself is criminologist Casey Jordan.

Casey, now, we were talking in the break.

What do you make of this that, of course, the suspect, a suspect, I should say, is in custody but no Carlie? What does it say to you as a criminologist?

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST: Well, it says that the police are working extremely hard on trying to solve this case. And the fact that we do have a suspect in custody within days is really a credence to the coordination between the public, the police, the parents, the community, who are all working together with that piece of video, people calling in, hundreds of tips. And I'm sure that all of that led to the apprehension of the suspect.

COLLINS: What do you think about the confidence level of the police right now that they have the right man?

JORDAN: I think that because of the video and because NASA was brought in and allsorts of technological advancements which allowed them to enhance the video frames, focus on that name tag, focus on the tattoos on the arm, I think their confidence level is extremely high and that they would not have taken him into custody unless they were relatively sure.

COLLINS: So frame it out for us a little bit. What is going on behind the scenes? We've heard a lot about Smith not being cooperative. I would imagine that would raise some alarms, too.

JORDAN: Sure. And we can only conjecture because they know a lot more than we do. But at the same time, if they brought him in on drug charges, I'm sure they're legitimate charges. But that is the way that they're going to keep him in custody while they continue to do the forensic testing, go through the car, go through the house and try to get the actual physical evidence that they would need to either go a step further and file charges against him or admit that they don't have anything more to do with this suspect.

But meanwhile he is in custody and that is allowing them to do their jobs.

COLLINS: And the criminal history we were just talking about, there is a kidnapping mention. He was acquitted on that, we want to be very clear.

What does that say to you?

JORDAN: It could say he just had a phenomenal defense attorney. We, this is a textbook case. We find that in many of these child abduction cases the perpetrators have histories of petty crimes and felonies, but not necessarily for the exact crime for which he is a suspect. So this is extremely typical. It is highly unusual that you have a suspect who has no criminal history at all.

COLLINS: All right, Casey Jordan, criminologist, we thank you so very much for your time today.

JORDAN: Great to be here.

COLLINS: Sarasota authorities are planning a news conference, we want to let you know this, about the investigation. It's coming up a little bit later this morning. We, of course, will bring it to you live. Expected to take place in our very next hour.

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





Abduction>


Aired February 5, 2004 - 08:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Police in Florida say a man they have in custody is a suspect in the abduction of an 11-year-old girl. Joseph Smith was arrested Tuesday on drug charges. He has not been charged in connection with the disappearance of Carlie Brucia. She's been missing since Sunday night, when a video camera showed a man leading her away from a Sarasota car wash.
The chief investigator in the case made this plea to the public.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. JEFF BELL, SARASOTA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: We want to continue to receive phone calls and support from the community that indicates where and when Joseph Smith was during this time frame, from Sunday through Tuesday. Please consider this as a focus now to find Carlie and bring her home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: What might Carlie's family be going through right now?

Marc Klaas is the founder of the Klaas Kids Foundation.

His daughter Polly was abducted and killed in 1993.

He's joining us this morning from San Francisco.

Mr. Klaas, thanks so much for being with us today.

MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Sure.

COLLINS: Maybe you can shed a little bit of light on the family. Obviously, as we've been saying, there is a suspect in custody, but no Carlie.

What could the family be going through right now?

KLAAS: Well, when they arrested my daughter's killer, the police tried to convince my ex-wife and I that he had probably killed Polly and neither of us wanted to hear any of that. What we told them was that there was nothing on his rap sheet to indicate that he had killed previously, so there was no reason to believe that he had killed her and that we were going to need some kind of proof of death before we would ever accept the notion that we wouldn't see our child alive again. Now, at that point in time, we were absolutely steeped in fear and in anger. But we never let go of the hope until they were able to prove it to us. And I suspect they're going through a similar kind of emotional roller coaster right now.

COLLINS: No doubt about that.

KLAAS: Yes.

COLLINS: There has been quite a long criminal history here, though, with Joseph Smith -- drug charges. And, according to one report, he was arrested in 1997 on kidnapping and false imprisonment charges. He was acquitted.

But what do you make of this?

KLAAS: He's a terrible guy. He's an awful person. I think, though, that, you know, we have to remember that Elizabeth Smart exists as an icon of hope for the parents of the missing in America. And certainly she was returned under some very unusual circumstances many months later, and that can happen with any one of these cases. I don't think we can discount this girl until it's proven one way or another that she's no longer with us or is with us.

COLLINS: And Mr. Klaas, you may also know that the suspect's car is in custody.

KLAAS: Sure.

COLLINS: Of course they are processing that for any physical evidence.

How important is it to place Carlie in that car?

KLAAS: Oh, it's critical to place her in the car. What they have to do is tie her in with this guy at the crime scene. They have to tie her into the car, hopefully into the home and hopefully that will then give them the body of evidence they need to pursue a prosecution. And then perhaps use things like the death penalty as a bargaining chip to find out where she is. But certainly they have to build the case and they have to maintain this guy behind bars so that he can't get back out onto the street again.

COLLINS: All right, Marc Klaas, we certainly appreciate your insight on all of this, coming to us this morning from San Francisco.

Thank you, again.

KLAAS: Sure.

COLLINS: And joining us now with more about the case itself is criminologist Casey Jordan.

Casey, now, we were talking in the break.

What do you make of this that, of course, the suspect, a suspect, I should say, is in custody but no Carlie? What does it say to you as a criminologist?

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST: Well, it says that the police are working extremely hard on trying to solve this case. And the fact that we do have a suspect in custody within days is really a credence to the coordination between the public, the police, the parents, the community, who are all working together with that piece of video, people calling in, hundreds of tips. And I'm sure that all of that led to the apprehension of the suspect.

COLLINS: What do you think about the confidence level of the police right now that they have the right man?

JORDAN: I think that because of the video and because NASA was brought in and allsorts of technological advancements which allowed them to enhance the video frames, focus on that name tag, focus on the tattoos on the arm, I think their confidence level is extremely high and that they would not have taken him into custody unless they were relatively sure.

COLLINS: So frame it out for us a little bit. What is going on behind the scenes? We've heard a lot about Smith not being cooperative. I would imagine that would raise some alarms, too.

JORDAN: Sure. And we can only conjecture because they know a lot more than we do. But at the same time, if they brought him in on drug charges, I'm sure they're legitimate charges. But that is the way that they're going to keep him in custody while they continue to do the forensic testing, go through the car, go through the house and try to get the actual physical evidence that they would need to either go a step further and file charges against him or admit that they don't have anything more to do with this suspect.

But meanwhile he is in custody and that is allowing them to do their jobs.

COLLINS: And the criminal history we were just talking about, there is a kidnapping mention. He was acquitted on that, we want to be very clear.

What does that say to you?

JORDAN: It could say he just had a phenomenal defense attorney. We, this is a textbook case. We find that in many of these child abduction cases the perpetrators have histories of petty crimes and felonies, but not necessarily for the exact crime for which he is a suspect. So this is extremely typical. It is highly unusual that you have a suspect who has no criminal history at all.

COLLINS: All right, Casey Jordan, criminologist, we thank you so very much for your time today.

JORDAN: Great to be here.

COLLINS: Sarasota authorities are planning a news conference, we want to let you know this, about the investigation. It's coming up a little bit later this morning. We, of course, will bring it to you live. Expected to take place in our very next hour.

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





Abduction>