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Nancy Grace
Chicago Girls Still Missing After Five Years
Aired March 12, 2007 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight, live, South Side, Chicago, the mystery that haunts the city. One of the biggest manhunts in the city`s history fails to locate two little missing sisters, just 3 and 10 years old. Mom says she goes to work as usual and then comes home to an empty apartment, the only clue left behind a mystery note allegedly written by the 10-year- old saying they were headed to a nearby playground.
We are live tonight at the playground where the Bradley girls spent their days before they disappeared into thin air. A hundred cops working around the clock, surveillance video at a local store, the FBI joins in, the disturbing discovery of a receipt for gloves, plastic bags and bleach, even the discovery of human remains, all dead ends.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just two days before they disappeared, these video images of 3-year-old Diamond Bradley and her sister, 10-year-old Tionda, captured the girls enjoying a 4th of July picnic without a care in the world. Two days later, they were gone, the victims of an unfathomable mystery. The girls were home on the morning of Friday, July 6. Tionda was babysitting for her sister. But Tionda didn`t like missing class, so her mom says she left a note saying she was taking her little sister to school.
Kids at the school playground told police they saw the two girls there. Around lunchtime, they say the two girls headed for this store right across the street. Somehow, in a matter of less than a block, in a space of just a few minutes and in view of literally hundreds of apartments that face the street, the two girls vanished. Police immediately launched a massive search but came up empty.
PHIL CLINE, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: All the tips and clues that are coming in, we`re following. And at this point in the investigation, that`s all you can do is just keep plugging away, and hopefully, you`re going to get lucky.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. Tonight, where are the Bradley girls?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They weren`t bad kids at all. They loved the park. They loved to be around me because I was the one that took them to shows, took them to the park district when I had practice. Whatever I had to do, as far as cheerleader, gymnastics, I had Tionda with me. I had her sister with me. But like I say, I love them, and they was the best.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Hello, everyone. We are live tonight here in Chicago, at a playground where two little girls spent many of their days before they went missing, vanishing into thin air. It is a parent`s worst nightmare. Mom reported she went to work as usual early in the morning, only to come home to a totally empty and quiet apartment. What happened to two little girls? A 10-year-old and a 3-year-old, still missing.
Let`s go out to Ed Miller with "America`s Most Wanted." Ed, tell me about the story. Take it from the beginning.
ED MILLER, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Well, to go back to the very beginning, it goes back to July of 2001. And as you say, the mother went to work. And when she came back, the girls were gone. At first, they thought the note that was written by the little girl might have been written by the kidnapper, but they`ve done handwriting analysis and they know for a fact that Tionda did, in fact, write the note. And eyewitnesses, as you say, did see the children playing in a park very nearby. That`s the window that we`re talking about. Somewhere there is where the children disappeared.
GRACE: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Ed, I want to get this straight. From all the research that I saw, it said preliminary reports -- repeat, preliminary reports -- stated this was the writing, the handwriting of Tionda, the 10-year-old. Are you sure? Is there a final report?
ED MILLER: According to the school. The school took handwriting samples of Tionda. And I did speak to the FBI shortly before we went on the air tonight, and they said to me that there is nothing new, that, as you say, the children vanished into thin air. And to the best of their knowledge, it was written by Tionda.
Now, here is where the story really gets interesting because the family insists that this note is at the key and is the heart of what the confrontation here is, or the dilemma, shall we say, is because the family maintains that it`s out of character for this child to write a note, that instead, if she was going somewhere, she`d pick up the cell phone and call mom and say, you know, I`m going to go out, or I`m going to go to the school, or I`m going to go to the playground, and that writing this note is totally out of character. And that`s why the note has become so important.
GRACE: Tonight, we are trying to invigorate a search for a 3-year-old and 10-year-old little girl, their families still wondering where are Tionda and Diamond. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just two days before they disappeared, these video images of 3-year-old Diamond Bradley and her sister, 10-year-old Tionda, captured the girls enjoying a 4th of July picnic without a care in the world. Two days later, they were gone, the victims of an unfathomable mystery. The girls were home on the morning of Friday, July 6th. Tionda was babysitting for her sister. But Tionda didn`t like missing class, so her mom says she left a note saying she was taking her little sister to school.
Kids at the school playground told police say they saw the two girls there. Around lunchtime, they say the two girls headed for this store, right across the street. Somehow, in a matter of less than a block, in a space of just a few minutes and in view of literally hundreds of apartments that face the street, the two girls vanished.
CLINE: All the tips and clues that are coming in, we`re following. And at this point in the investigation, that`s all you can do is just keep plugging away, and hopefully, you`re going to get lucky.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... walked the street with us and hoping against hope that we could find a clue, or someone who saw something.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know how many cars that just go past, and how people are walking around, full view of people with patios that possibly may know something or had noticed something on that day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining me here tonight at this playground, South Side, Chicago, are the little girls` aunt and grandmother. First of all, to aunt of Tionda and Diamond, Sheliah Bradley-Smith is with us. Sheliah, you told me that it is totally out of character, as Ed has just told us, for them to leave a note, that they would have just called their mom and say, Mom, we`re going to Jewel`s (ph), 7-Eleven, we`re going to go to the playground. Why that day, of all days, did they write and leave a note behind?
SHELIAH BRADLEY-SMITH, GREAT-AUNT OF MISSING GIRLS: I had told the investigators early on, when I first arrived on the scene, that if that note was written, that it was coached. She was coerced. And she was told exactly what to write.
GRACE: Why do you say that, Sheliah?
BRADLEY-SMITH: Well, because Tionda had access to her mom`s cell phone. She had access to her grandmother`s number, other family members` numbers. And we also found a letter that Tionda had written about six months prior to that. The grammatical structure was just not Tionda`s.
GRACE: What do you mean by that? See, I find that very, very interesting. And I want to go out quickly to the two lawyers, and to Vito Colucci. Ray Giudice is with us. Renee Rockwell is with us. Vito Colucci, private investigator, is with us. Also with us, the private investigator on this case, James Miller.
I find that very interesting -- first to you, Vito Colucci -- because when I would do handwriting comparisons in court, what was important to me is not only the actual structure of the "A" -- was it an umbrella or not, or the "V" or the "Y" or the "U," but the way, the content, the grammar, the sentence structure. You know, certain people have ways they always write and talk, Vito. It`s very important.
VITO COLUCCI, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: That`s right, Nancy. I used somebody in Connecticut that`s a handwriting expert, and that`s another one of the things that she does look at. Now, if the parents are right about this, Nancy, then this could be somebody that the 10-year-old would be very comfortable with, OK? The 3-year-old`s going to follow her sister wherever, OK?
So if that is true what the parents and relatives are saying, it`s going to be someone that`s close to the family, that the 10-year-old trusts completely, and they tell them, Write a little note, just leave it for Mommy. So that`s something definitely very interesting here.
GRACE: And back to you, Sheliah. What about the structure of this note seemed different than Tionda`s earlier writings?
BRADLEY-SMITH: Well, the grammatical structure of the word phrases and sentences, just as I said, matching it to a letter that she had written approximately five or six months prior to that, it just did not match up with the grammatical structure of, Mom, me and Diamond are going to the store and to the park. That just was not the grammatical structure.
GRACE: How would she normally have written it? This is actually very, very subtle, but important.
BRADLEY-SMITH: She would not have written the note to begin with because she would have called her mom.
GRACE: Interesting. With me tonight is another very special guest. And let me tell you something. A lot of times we claim the police drop the ball, they did this, they didn`t do that, they ruined the crime scene. Not so here. These police here in Chicago worked around the clock, 100 cops. They did over a thousand interviews. They pulled a video from a local Wal- Mart. They interviewed all the relatives. They`re at a dead end.
With me, Detective James Miller. He is a private investigator on this case. Detective, thank you for being with us. What`s your take on this?
DET. JAMES MILLER, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: You`re welcome, Nancy. Not only the Chicago police spent a lot of time on this case, but the FBI. They were phenomenal in the beginning on this case, and they helped rip apart the apartment building, the whole structure of that...
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! Why did the -- hold on. Why did the FBI get involved? That`s very unusual. Did they think it was a kidnap?
JAMES MILLER: The FBI had -- they took on the -- you know, the investigation, that it was a possible kidnapping, yes, which would have been against federal law.
GRACE: OK. Go ahead. Continue.
JAMES MILLER: I`m sorry. The FBI was involved. When -- the story goes that George Washington early in the morning came about 4:30 in the morning to see Tracy (ph). And they were together for about an hour-and-a- half. They had about 6:00 in the morning, he drove Tracy to work. And then he went to his girlfriend`s at around 97th Street. And he just -- and then he went to visit his mother. Then approximately around noon...
GRACE: Wait, wait, wait. What girlfriend? You`re talking about the boyfriend, George Washington, the boyfriend of the mom, right?
JAMES MILLER: Yes. Yes. George Washington...
GRACE: So he dropped Mom off at work.
JAMES MILLER: He dropped Mom off at work, and they -- you know, Tracy and George were boyfriend and girlfriend, but you know, I don`t know if they had a serious relationship or not. But he then went down to drop her off at work at about 6:00 in the morning. Then he went to visit his other girlfriend on 97th Street, and then went to his mother. Then after that, he went to pick up Tracy -- pardon?
GRACE: Go ahead.
JAMES MILLER: He went to pick up Tracy at work, and then they -- then he picked up Tracy and her two co-workers. He then dropped them off at their various locations around 47th Street. Then he and Tracy drove back to the apartment because they were going to go on a camping trip to Lake Schafer (ph) in Indiana. Tracy then went into the apartment, and then he stated -- she stated that the children were nowhere to be found.
GRACE: OK. Let me ask you a couple of...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Hold on. Hold on, James. A couple of quick questions.
JAMES MILLER: Sure.
GRACE: With me is Detective James Miller. He`s been on the case from the very beginning. Give me a couple of yes-no`s here. Are we sure she went to work that day? We`re absolutely sure? Yes?
JAMES MILLER: We`re absolutely sure.
GRACE: In fact, she went to work right here in this gymnasium, making sandwiches for a camp that day, correct, early in the morning?
JAMES MILLER: That is correct.
GRACE: Question. Did anybody else, other than her and her boyfriend, who is one of the girls` mother (ph), see the girls alive after, say, 7:00 PM the night before? That would have been on a Thursday night, yes?
JAMES MILLER: Yes.
GRACE: Who?
JAMES MILLER: Well, 7:00 PM the night before -- well, I mean, 7:00 PM the night before, you`re talking about July 6, correct -- I mean, July 5?
GRACE: Yes, I`m talking about the evening before the girls go missing the following morning. Can anybody place them alive in that apartment the night before?
JAMES MILLER: Well, yes. Tracy can place them alive, and George Washington placed them alive early in the morning.
GRACE: OK. Listen, listen. I said, anybody other than the mother and the boyfriend? Anybody else? I don`t care who it is. A neighbor, a deliveryman, anybody?
JAMES MILLER: Yes. I cannot comment on that because I really don`t have knowledge of that.
GRACE: OK. Let me go back to Sheliah. This is Sheliah Bradley- Smith. This is the aunt of the two little girls. Sheliah, after that afternoon, the day before, do you know of a single soul that can place those girls alive on Thursday evening?
BRADLEY-SMITH: Their grandmother.
GRACE: You`re sure?
BRADLEY-SMITH: According to their grandmother, yes.
GRACE: Let`s go to her right now. With us is Mary Bradley. This is the grandmother of the little girls. Welcome, Ms. Bradley. When did you last see the girls alive?
MARY BRADLEY, GRANDMOTHER OF MISSING GIRLS: I saw my grandchildren alive and doing well Thursday from about 11:30 until about 3:30, 3:35 Thursday afternoon.
GRACE: OK. Let me repeat my question. The evening before, after about 7:00 PM on Thursday night, July the 5th, Mary, did anyone see the girls alive?
BRADLEY: Just like I said, I saw them, the earliest at 11:00 and until about 3:30, 3:35...
GRACE: So the answer would be no.
BRADLEY: ... Thursday evening.
GRACE: OK, 3:35...
BRADLEY: I didn`t see them any time after Thursday...
GRACE: ... in the afternoon?
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: That is not the evening. That`s is the afternoon. That`s right after school time.
BRADLEY: Right.
GRACE: This is in the summer. This is July 5 and 6, correct?
BRADLEY: This was July the 5th.
GRACE: OK. To you -- I want to get back to you, Sheliah. Sheliah Bradley-Smith has been -- both of these ladies have been cooperating with the police from the very, very beginning, the girls` aunt and grandmother.
Hold on, I`m hearing in my ear, let`s go to the lines. Casey in Tennessee. Hi, Casey.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. You`re still my hero.
GRACE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is, how many registered sex offenders or convicted sex offenders is in that radius block area?
GRACE: Casey, I`m ready for you. I`ve already checked that out. There are about 100 convicted known sex offenders in the couple of blocks surrounding the area. And guess what? Chicago police did not let you down. They went and interviewed as many of them as could be rounded up.
Take a listen to what the mom has to say. P.S., the mom is here tonight, but does not want to come on camera to make a public plea to find her daughter. Take a listen to what Mom had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was at home during the time when they was there. I had to be at work at 6:30, or quarter to 7:00. So I left the house about 6:30 to make it to work to -- quarter to 7:00 to meet the troop (ph) that I have to put out for, to feed the kids at the program that I worked at. So my work schedule is from 7:00 to 12:00.
So I gets off at 12:00 o`clock, and I`d say I made it home about 12:00, 12:30, something like in between that time. So when I got in, come in from work, I put my key in the door and I unlocked my door, and I called for Tionda and Diamond. So I didn`t get no response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nancy, we`re right in front of the Douglas (ph) monument, which is about 100 yards across the street from where Diamond and Tionda Bradley used to live. Back in 2001, when the girls disappeared, approximately 75 known and registered sex offenders lived in this area. Behind me, and behind the Douglas monument specifically, there are two buildings where two known sex offenders resided. Both were investigated, questioned, and no leads were turned up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back, everybody. We are here, South Side, Chicago, helping in the search for two little girls that went missing, a 3-year-old and 10-year-old girl. We are live here at a park, a recreation center where they spent their days before they vanished into thin air.
Let`s go out to the lines to Marian in South Carolina. Hi, Marian.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy.
GRACE: What`s your question, dear?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love your show. My question is this. Why would a mother leave two little girls home alone unsupervised?
GRACE: That was one of my very first questions. Let`s go to their aunt, Sheliah Bradley-Smith. Why?
BRADLEY-SMITH: You know, unfortunately, a lot of women that are single parents that don`t have their father`s support, they have to go out and work. And I`m sure that even she may be familiar with the term "latchkey kids."
GRACE: Well, I`m a latchkey kid myself.
BRADLEY-SMITH: Right. So it does happen.
GRACE: But I had a brother and sister, you know, coming home with me. But didn`t DFACS, department of family and children`s services, get on the mom for leaving the kids alone that morning?
BRADLEY-SMITH: Yes, they did.
GRACE: But they had never been to the home before, there had never been any complaints before, correct?
BRADLEY-SMITH: No.
GRACE: No what?
BRADLEY-SMITH: No, there has not been any complaints as far as Tracy and her children. However, DCFS has to go through millions of families here right in the South Side and the inner city of Chicago when it comes to single parents leaving their children home.
GRACE: Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us, Renee Rockwell, Ray Giudice. Mom`s got a problem. Mom changed her story, defense attorneys. First to you, Ray Giudice. Mom`s first story was she slept until 11:00 AM that morning, woke up and the girls were gone. Then under police questioning, she stated she got up at 6:00 AM that morning, went to work, which has been verified, I believe, right here in this recreation center, making sandwiches for a day camp that summer. This is July the 6th. Mom changed her story, Ray.
RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, I agree with what you were asking before. The timeline problem is from early in the morning, not the six or seven hours that she`s at work. That not, to me, the issue. But she did pass a polygraph, and that`s critical.
GRACE: So you`re not going to answer the question. I`ll give Rockwell a chance when we get back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you go through something like this, especially when kids are coming up missing, we feel the same things. You know, we feel like, you know, Will they ever be found? Is everybody doing the most that they can to find them?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: One of the most intense manhunts in Chicago history yields nothing in the search for a 3-year-old and 10-year-old little girl. Tonight, we want to break that bad record. Where are Tionda and Diamond?
Let`s go back out to attorney Renee Rockwell. Renee, the mom changed her story. First day, she`s saying she slept until 11:00 AM, then saying she slept until 6:30, went to work, came home, apartment empty.
RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That`s why you don`t...
GRACE: Not good.
ROCKWELL: Well, you know what, Nancy? If your -- you don`t want your client to ever give a story and then try to make up for a lie, and this and that. If you`re telling the truth, you tell it the same from the beginning, the middle or the end. She looked suspicious when she gave one story and then changed it to another story. She might have been perfectly innocent with that.
But Nancy, I don`t buy this note thing because we`ve already seen that the children made it to the school. But did they get to the school and get talked away from the school?
GRACE: No, no, no, no, no, no, no!~ No, no~! We don`t know -- to you, Ed Miller with "America`s Most Wanted." I don`t know the children made it to the school. I`ve got five little kids telling me five different stories. One said she was on a swing. One said that the two little girls were walking toward Lake Michigan. One said she was back at the apartment dancing to rap music, OK? I think they`ve got their days confused.
ED MILLER: Yes. Very well -- it could very well be. You know, if you ask children, you know, Did you see her playing there? Was it Thursday, Wednesday, Friday? You know, kids can easily get it mixed up. So as far as children being eyewitnesses to seeing other children, it could be a big question.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN WALSH, HOST, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Just two days before they disappeared, these video images of 3-year-old Diamond Bradley and her sister, 10-year-old Tionda, captured the girls enjoying a Fourth of July picnic without a care in the world. Two days later, they were gone, the victims of an unfathomable mystery.
The girls were home on the morning of Friday, July 6th. Tionda was babysitting for her sister, but Tionda didn`t like missing class, so her mom says she left a note saying she was taking her little sister to school. Kids at the school playground told police they saw the two girls there.
Around lunchtime, they say the two girls headed for this store right across the street. Somehow in a matter of less than a block, in a space of just a few minutes, and in view of literally hundreds of apartments that face the street, the two girls vanished.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the tips and clues that are coming in, we`re following. And at this point in the investigation, that`s all you can do is just keep plugging away, and hopefully you`re going to get lucky.
WALSH: Their aunt walked the street with us, hoping against hope that we could find a clue or someone who saw something.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know how many cars that just go past and how people are walking around, full view of people with patios that possibly may know something or had noticed something on that day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The reward tonight for these two little girls has climbed to $30,000. The number to the tip line is 312-746-0965 or 1-800-THE-LOST. Repeat, that reward, up to $20,000.
You know, the problem here, Ed Miller, with "America`s Most Wanted," is we can`t really even establish a timeline, because the mom has changed her story. And many people are concerned that the children may never have even been home the night before they were reported missing.
ED MILLER, REPORTER, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": You`re absolutely right. And within the community, the south side of Chicago, from what I understand, there`s been a great deal of suspicion against the mother.
That`s not to say that she`s guilty of anything, but because that the police said that she did not fully cooperate with them, that that cast some shadow of doubt against her. And because of that, there`s been some community support that has withdrawn. In other words, there used to be hundreds of people that would march, and parade around, and put out vigils, and now that number has dwindled quite a bit.
Again, we should point out, as your attorney said, the mother did pass a lie detector test, but there`s just so many other questions.
We should point out there are some other men in this woman`s life. There are other fathers. In other words, the children do not share the same father. And one theory that we should talk about, just briefly, is that perhaps Tionda`s father, that is a different man than Diamond`s father, that he may have taken the children out of the country. And we do know for a fact that the FBI has checked leads outside of the country.
GRACE: Another issue, to Mark Hillman, Dr. Mark Hillman, psychotherapist and author, Mark, I saw this myself prosecuting cases, very often a witness or a defendant will lie for another reason. They may change the time line or change their story because they are lying on another issue, not the ultimate issue, such as who took the girls, but lying to cover up for somebody, possibly lying because they left the child alone for several hours and were afraid that they would get in trouble with DFCS.
MARK HILLMAN, CLINICAL PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Absolutely right. I mean, with DFCS coming in, I mean, she`s going to change her story to say one and then another, in terms of what (INAUDIBLE) is. But I think at the beginning of the show, you talk about bringing national attention back to this case, because this is about two young girls.
The Chicago police, the FBI, everyone`s been working overtime to find these young girls, but bringing national attention back is the key issue here at this point in time. She just doesn`t want to get into trouble. And as you said, no one saw the girls from the night before, raises some serious questions.
GRACE: Yes, well, that doesn`t help anything. To you, Sheliah Bradley Smith -- this is the aunt of the little girls -- because her changing her time line, again, that`s not to say that she did away with the little girls. But by changing the time line and not reporting the girls later until later on in the day, around 6:00 p.m., how many hours did police really lose in finding them, Sheliah? Why would she -- she`s your flesh and blood. Why would she change her story?
SHELIAH BRADLEY, GREAT AUNT OF MISSING GIRLS: Well, first of all, Tracey was told by another family member who had had some previous run-ins with DCFS, that you should just look for them, because if you call the police, DCFS, you know, they`re going to, you know, probably put you in jail or try to take your kids totally. So that`s the explanation that I got from Tracey personally as to why she had changed her story.
GRACE: Well, there`s another very, very important, what I consider to be a critical fact, and it is a cell phone call. I believe it was a cell phone call from the older of the two girls, one just 3 years old. And when you see these girls, I know you`re going to feel like I do, that you want to help find them.
Take a look at these two little girls, just 3 and 10 years old. They`re gone. Chicago police at a dead end. Now, the city of Chicago needs your help.
To their grandmother, Miss Mary Bradley, the cell phone call, the phone call to the mom`s phone, what was it, and when was it?
MARY BRADLEY, GRANDMOTHER OF MISSING GIRLS: Well, I had Tracey`s cell phone, so evidently I`m thinking that she never got the cell phone message.
GRACE: OK.
M. BRADLEY: Anyway, my other daughter, she got into the cell phone, and she saw the message, she went into it. And about 10 family members heard a message stating a name to let this person in. And we heard it that Sunday.
GRACE: What did the message say? This is from, I take it, Tionda, the 10-year-old?
M. BRADLEY: Yes, it was.
GRACE: What did she say to her mother?
M. BRADLEY: She said, "Mama, could I let this person in"?
GRACE: George? But was it George or was it not George?
M. BRADLEY: I don`t know. I don`t know, but they did say that name.
GRACE: Now, my question to you, Sheliah, is, when did the call come in? This is from the little missing 10-year-old girl. After she goes missing, a phone call is discovered on the mom`s phone saying, to my understanding, "George wants to come in and take us to go get a birthday cake. That`s where we`re going." And many family members heard this message, Sheliah.
S. BRADLEY: The message said, "Mama, this is Tionda. Mom, pick up the phone. George is at the door. Can I open the door? He said that we are going to Jewel`s to pick up the cake there. We`re coming to pick you up from work." Now, I must say that there were two Georges in Tracey`s life during that time.
GRACE: Right. George Washington -- that`s a name I can remember -- is the boyfriend and the father of one of the children, correct?
S. BRADLEY: Yes.
GRACE: And then there was another neighbor George. And there could have been other Georges that I don`t even know about. Now, this neighbor George, did he ever baby sit the girls?
S. BRADLEY: Yes. They would be over to his house -- for example, if Tracey was late getting home, she would instruct them to go over to his apartment.
GRACE: And when you say go to Jewel`s to get a birthday cake, Jewel`s is like a 7-Eleven up the street?
S. BRADLEY: No, it`s a large grocery store.
GRACE: Oh, I see. OK, so they were going to the grocery store to get a cake. Whose birthday was it?
S. BRADLEY: It was Vickie`s birthday, which is Tionda`s older sister -- well, younger sister.
GRACE: Let`s go out to the lines. Who`s the caller, Liz? Amy in Missouri, hi, Amy.
CALLER: Hello, hi, Nancy, how are you doing? I love your show.
GRACE: I`m doing well. I`d like to find these girls, though. What`s your question, dear?
CALLER: I do, too. Since six years have passed since the little girls disappeared, one of them will be 9 and one of them 16, right? Have they done any age progression photos to see what they`d look like now?
GRACE: Yes, as a matter of fact, they have. Elizabeth, let`s show Amy in Missouri the age progression photos of the girls. That`s before. We`ve got the 3-year-old and the 10-year-old. Now, look, this is now, age 10 and 16. Take a look.
That tip line is 1-800-THE-LOST. And there is also a Web site, www.findtiondanddiamond.com. Look at these girls. The family believes strongly they are still alive.
Very quickly, back to Sheliah Bradley Smith. Was that phone call played for Chicago police?
S. BRADLEY: Yes.
GRACE: And?
S. BRADLEY: And the message mysteriously disappeared off the voicemail.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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GRACE: Tonight, I want to tell you about a special report on "AC 360" called "Sins of the Father." Our friend, Headline News anchor Tom Roberts, joins Anderson tonight, sharing his story of childhood abuse by a Catholic priest.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): In the cafeteria, walking the halls, presiding over every mass, Father Jeff was at every turn in Thomas` life.
(on screen): And what did you think when you were sitting there watching him give a sermon or give communion?
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: I thought how people respected him, I thought how people really looked up to this man, even not even understanding what was happening to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That`s "Sins of the Father." It`s tonight, "AC 360," 10:00 p.m. sharp Eastern.
Right now, we are live here in Chicago`s south side, joining in the search for two little girls, missing, a 3-year-old and a 10-year-old. I want to go out to a special guest joining us, Reverend Paul Jakes, Jr. He`s a family friend, and he has personally conducted a search for the girls.
Welcome, Reverend. What do you make of this theory that the girls were in a different country?
REV. PAUL JAKES, JR., FAMILY FRIEND IN SEARCH FOR MISSING GIRLS: Well, it certainly is a reality that any possibility is available, and every stone ought to be overturned, and to see if the children actually are in another country, speaking of Morocco.
GRACE: Now, why specifically would you pick Morocco?
JAKES: Well, that was kind of brought up by some of our local stations, and we believe that, if it is a possibility, that we ought to actually do what we can to see if the children are there.
GRACE: To Ed Miller, with "America`s Most Wanted," the Reverend Paul Jakes, Jr., has actually been taking part in the search himself. But wouldn`t it be a fairly easy thing to check the flight manifest back and forth to Morocco?
MILLER: One would think, but we should remind you that this happened more than five years ago, and laws were a little looser than they are now. You know, now to take a child out of the country, it`s very difficult. You have to have a birth certificate or a passport. And at the time, you did not have to do that. So I would say that it`s probably not as easy to check those flight records as you might think.
GRACE: Morocco? Morocco? Can everybody just get real for a moment? Hanging in the balance is a 3-year-old and a 10-year-old little girl. Think about your own children. I`m thinking about my nieces and nephews, children that I worked with in my church, at my school where I taught, a 3- year-old and a 10-year-old. The reality is that most children, Vito Colucci, when they are taken or abused, it`s by someone within their own home or their own neighborhood.
VITO COLUCCI, PRIVATE DETECTIVE: That`s right. That`s right. The only way I feel these children are alive, Nancy -- and I hate to say that - - is if they are in Morocco or someplace over there. I think what the FBI needs to do, if they haven`t done it already, is try to get some cooperation with the government of Morocco and see what kind of relationship we do have with them.
Obviously, they know the man`s name, OK? They would have to cooperate with the FBI, as well as the FBI may be going there themselves. So, I mean, I think that`s very important to see. That`s the only way I feel they could be alive.
GRACE: OK, OK, well, to me, Morocco feels pretty far-fetched. To Cindy in Pennsylvania, hi, Cindy.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. I have a question. I noticed both children had scars on their bodies, I think one was on the head and one was on the arm. Have they asked the mother how they got those scars? Because I was trying to think of maybe some type of child abuse.
GRACE: To you, Sheliah, do you know of any scars on the arm?
S. BRADLEY: Yes, Tionda had burnt herself on her arm when she was younger, and she had touched an iron.
GRACE: OK. And Diamond has a scar on the left side of her head in her hairline. What about that, Mary?
M. BRADLEY: OK, that was when she had fell.
GRACE: Fell. Who saw her fall?
M. BRADLEY: She had allegedly fell down the stairs at the complex.
GRACE: Says who? Who says?
M. BRADLEY: Says the mother.
GRACE: Says the mother.
OK, I`ve got another issue, a very important issue, and it`s the issue of a missing key. To the girls` grandmother, before they went missing, either on Thursday or Friday, the key, just the single key to the home, the apartment, went missing off Tionda`s key chain. All the other keys were there. What can you tell me about it, Miss Mary?
M. BRADLEY: OK. A key had gotten missing off from Tionda. And we couldn`t find the key. So she was using Tracey`s key. I know that for a fact, because we had gotten into the apartment, me and her, and Diamond, that Thursday morning.
GRACE: And to you, Sheliah, Morocco. Where is that coming from? That`s out of left field. Morocco.
S. BRADLEY: Yes, this Arabian guy was supposed to have been allegedly Tionda`s dad, but I don`t believe that they were taken to morocco. I have been in touch with this person, and I believe that they were taken by someone who Tracey knows well.
GRACE: And what day do you believe they really went missing, Sheliah?
S. BRADLEY: I don`t believe that they went missing on July 6th. I believe that they were missing July 5th.
GRACE: Last seen by anyone other than the mother and boyfriend around 3:30 or 4:00 p.m., the afternoon before on Thursday, that person is right here with me, the grandmother.
Let`s unleash the lawyers, Ray Giudice, Renee Rockwell. As much as you guys don`t like it, as defense attorneys, to you, Ray Giudice, the reality is, we can create a whole mystery around the missing girls and talk about Morocco and Arabians taking her. Typically children are harmed within the home or the neighborhood.
RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, that`s right. I mean, I have no problem with investigations like this that start inside the nuclear family and work their way out.
And, yes, I don`t think the mother responded exactly appropriately. Perhaps she had some bad counsel. But, again, she passed a polygraph. She`s been available. They`ve had five years to see if she was involved in this.
GRACE: OK -- Renee?
RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: And, Nancy, I`m not throwing the towel in yet. You`ve got a 9-year-old and a 16-year-old potentially out there. I`m not giving up.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you all. I`m just wishing my kids, whoever out there got my kids, please, bring them home.
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GRACE: We are here live at the south side in Chicago, helping in the search for a 3- and 10-year-old girl who went missing from their very own home, according to their mother. We`re not the only ones trying to help. With me here at the park is NBA superstar Ben Gordon, with the Chicago Bulls, and NBA legend Bob Love.
And, gentlemen, I`ve been looking at you very carefully tonight, and you look guilty. You just look guilty to me. I think you did something. What`s funny? You think it`s funny? Do you want to tell the viewers what you did?
BOB LOVE, NBA LEGEND: Well, we spoke to the kids today, and we tried to express the importance of having dreams, education, and safety.
GRACE: Like you. You were just a young man from Louisiana, and now you`re an NBA legend.
And, Mr. Gordon, NBA superstar, we`re all very big fans of yours where I come from. The tickets, I want to hear about the tickets.
BEN GORDON, CHICAGO BULLS: Well, we just want to do something special for the children here, and so tomorrow we have a game against the Celtics. And I think it`s about 30 or 50 tickets we`re going to have, and we`re going to give to each of the kids to come out and see a game. You know, I realize a lot of them don`t get the opportunity to, you know, come and watch basketball games like this, so I think it`s just something to cheer them up.
GRACE: I want to thank the Chicago Bulls, and especially to the center where we are tonight. The Bulls heard we would be here tonight, helping to look for Diamond and Tionda. And in their own way, they wanted to help the children of this neighborhood.
They could have been anywhere tonight, at some fancy restaurant living the high life; instead, they`re here with me in this recreation center in our search for Tionda and Diamond. Thank you, gentlemen. I still think you look like you did something.
Let`s stop for a moment to remember Army specialist Ryan Bell, 21, Colville, Washington, killed, Iraq. A wrestling star, Bell turned down college scholarships to enlist. He dreamed of becoming a doctor, loved the outdoors, singing, dancing, and a walking sports encyclopedia. Leaves behind widow, Terri, and proud parents. Ryan Bell, American hero.
Thank you to our guests, but our biggest thank you is to you, for being with us tonight, inviting us here in Chicago into your home. NANCY GRACE signing off for tonight. Thank you, Chicago Bulls.
See you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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