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Nancy Grace

False Alarm in Search for Missing Pregnant Ohio Mother

Aired June 21, 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, breaking news. A young Ohio mom, nine months pregnant, just weeks from giving birth to her second child, vanishes from her own home, her 2-year-old son found home alone in dirty diapers by grandmother, possibly alone for days. The toddler tells police, "Mommy was crying," "Mommy broke the table," "Mommy`s in the rug."
Just hours ago, police amass at a wooded area just one mile from Jessie`s home, evidence recovery experts on the scene with cadaver dogs and shovels, as Jessie`s family continues to pray Jessie comes home alive with new baby girl Chloe, this after the home of the baby`s biological dad searched by police. What was taken from the home? And tonight, the clock ticking on DNA tests on a newborn baby girl, umbilical cord still attached, found abandoned at the door of a registered nurse just 30 miles from Jessie`s home. Is this Jessie`s baby?

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE Eighteen hundred volunteers gathering today in Canton, Ohio, to help search for any clue. That search, though, was cut short at one point. Cadaver dogs did, however, come upon a mound of dirt where something might be buried, investigators all looking into that now. Police and FBI, meantime, also searching the home of Bobby Cutts, Jr., again last night. Cutts has been fingerprinted. He gave DNA swabs to authorities. Police say he is not a suspect.

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GRACE: And tonight: Three children and mom found shot to death in their SUV off the Illinois interstate. Only survivor, Dad, with a single gunshot wound to the leg. Tonight, we want answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Christopher Vaughn tells police his wife shot him before fleeing in the family SUV. Vaughn then claims wife Kimberly killed their three children before killing herself. But after questioning Vaughn at least three times, police still don`t have a suspect. With Vaughn in Missouri for his family`s funeral, law enforcement executes the second search warrant, removing computers, cable boxes and modems from Vaughn`s home. Witnesses also claiming Kimberly didn`t like guns and wanted her husband`s weapon kept in his car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. First, stunning developments in the case of a young mom just weeks from giving birth to a second child. In pouring rain under a tarp tent, police digging near Jessie`s home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cadaver dogs and more than 1,800 volunteers teaming up today to search for any sign of missing pregnant mom Jessie Davis. She is nine months pregnant. There has been no trace of her for seven days now. This afternoon, cadaver dogs came upon a mound of dirt. Something could be buried there. Police and FBI, meantime, also searching the home of Bobby Cutts, Jr., again last night. He is the father of Jessie`s 2-year-old son, Blake. You see him here. He is also possibly the father of her unborn baby girl. Cutts has been fingerprinted. He gave DNA swabs to authorities. Police say he is not a suspect.

PATTY PORTER, MISSING WOMAN`S MOTHER: I think from everything that`s being portrayed, it points to him. And that`s very difficult because he is my grandson`s father. And I want the truth. I want the truth to come out. I want them to find my daughter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Where is 26-year-old Jessie now, less than one week away from her targeted birth of baby Chloe? As we went to air, we had learned police digging at a site one mile from her home. What`s the latest, Phil Trexler? Phil joining us from "The Akron Beacon-Journal."

PHIL TREXLER, "AKRON BEACON-JOURNAL": Well, Nancy, a lot of people had their hopes up that this would prove to be something of substance, but in the end, it turned out to be someone`s marijuana garden that had the FBI out there digging for. So the search was called off for tonight and will resume again tomorrow morning at 8:30.

GRACE: That is a tough call, Phil, to be happy on sad on that. One, it means that a body has not been found. But two, that leaves the family still in torment tonight. I know I spoke to Jessie`s mom continuing to pray she comes home alive with baby Chloe.

Phil, what led police and FBI to this spot to start with?

TREXLER: Well, there was a search team that was out there, part of that 1,800-member group. And the search team, in fact, included Jessie`s dad and Ned (ph). And the dogs had hit on a spot. It raised the suspicions of everyone. They cordoned off the area, blocked some streets and brought in the FBI evidence response team. They took to the scene, and it was just within the hour here that it turned out to be nothing but marijuana.

I did talk to Ned Davis, and he said that he in some way knew it wasn`t Jessie, and said to me, he said, in the end, there was some sort of relief that he felt.

GRACE: Relief, relief that it`s not Jessie. Joining us tonight, Tim Miller. He`s the director of Texas Equusearch. You all know Time. He led the search for Natalee Holloway down in Aruba. He is not just an expert in his field, he is a crime victim himself, his daughter a crime victim of murder. That is one thing, Laura Miller, his daughter, that keeps him going. And he is helping in the search for 26-year-old Jessie.

Tim, you were there today. What was suspicious about this area where police were digging?

TIM MILLER, TEXAS EQUUSEARCH: Well, Nancy, I was actually working the command center all day. It was a huge challenge getting 1,800 people out. We anticipated 200 people this morning, and it was just overwhelming. So I was actually running the command center, along with the fire department out there. They were assisting us. And we heard over the radios that they`d found some ground that had been turned over. The cadaver dogs alerted on something and...

GRACE: So they found a spot, to my understanding, Tim, six by three, of freshly dug dirt, and as you said, cadaver dogs hit on it. That would certainly, in my mind, necessitate digging. Were they out there digging in the pouring rain, Tim?

MILLER: Well, they found that spot before the rain hit. And the reports we got from media -- they had the helicopters up there -- when it started to rain, they covered it with a blue tarp. And of course, everybody was anticipating this could possibly be Jessie and -- but we was continuing the search. We`re going to continue the search until we physically have her, or until we get to that point where we`ve exhausted every resource.

And it was just a huge outpouring of community. People came from just miles and miles around. And they were disappointed in the rain today because we had to cut it short, but I know they`re all going to be back here in the morning. And we`re going to pick up where we left off today. We`re going to widen the search area. And if Jessie is findable, with the people we have here, with the resources we have, I think -- and I`m very, very optimistic that she will be found.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Cindy in Ohio. Hi, Cindy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Love your show.

GRACE: Thank you, dear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m just wondering how he was hired as a police officer when in 1998 he was charged with criminal trespassing.

GRACE: Excellent question. To Jonathan Leiberman with "America`s Most Wanted." She`s talking about Bobby Cutts, the biological father of Jessie`s 2-year-old little boy, Blake, and her unborn baby girl, Chloe. How did that work? With a prior offense, how did he get on the police force, Jonathan?

JONATHAN LEIBERMAN, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": That`s certainly the question that we had, too, Nancy. And the answer was that those charges didn`t rise to the level of a serious enough felony to, you know, basically get him out of the running for the Canton police job, so he was hired.

But look, right now, the spotlight is on this guy. Call him what you will, but his house has been searched twice. Search warrants have been executed. Boxes and boxes of evidence have been brought out of there. He`s been swabbed for DNA. He`s been read his Miranda rights. So clearly, police believe he has something to add to this investigation.

GRACE: And Jonathan Leiberman with "America`s Most Wanted," we got that information from his mother, that he had been swabbed, orally swabbed for DNA, that his home was searched, that he had been Mirandized, but also that he had been fingerprinted. But wouldn`t his fingerprints be on record, since he`s a cop, anyway?

LEIBERMAN: Yes, they would, but this was just an opportunity, you know, to get everything in one fell swoop, is what we`re told. What we`re also told is this is evidence that police are not looking for just for right this very second, but something to keep down the road in case -- in case -- this 26-year-old woman`s body is found. And we certainly hope that`s not the case, but if the body is found, then, of course, you have all of this physical evidence, his fresh fingerprints, his DNA and things of that sort to compare to that crime scene, once that crime scene is found.

GRACE: As we go to air, everyone, tonight the headline is that after digging in the pouring rain under a tarp tent, FBI and police come up with nothing but a handful of marijuana growth. Cadaver dogs had hit on the area, a freshly turned area of dirt, six by three, we`ve been told, one mile from Jessie`s home. Hopes were raised. Now, nothing. Back to square one.

Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us, Susan Moss in New York, Joe Lawless out of the Philadelphia jurisdiction and Steve Greenberg out of Chicago. Sue Moss, they keep saying Cutts is not a suspect. But when you get your Miranda rights read and you`re fingerprinted and swabbed, I would be worried.

SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Well, I`ll tell you something, he is a suspect. And that is why he has retained counsel and he now is being represented by somebody who`s telling him to stop these interviews and stop all the conversations he`s done to the press. And the reason for that is whenever you have a pregnant woman going missing, the first person you`re going to look at is the baby`s daddy.

Domestic violence is an epidemic in this country. Thirty-one percent of all women murdered are killed by either husbands, ex-husbands or lovers. And so those numbers can`t be ignored.

GRACE: And amazingly, Joe Lawless, defense attorney and author -- Joe, according to a recent, I would say four or 5-year-old, study by the AMA, the journal, number one cause of death amongst pregnant women -- oh, no, it`s not miscarriage, it`s not complications during birth, it is homicide, Joe. So what would you say to a client that has been Mirandized, orally swabbed for DNA and read his Miranda rights and had his home searched?

JOE LAWLESS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, the first thing I`d say to anybody who`s being looked at as a suspect in a homicide case is they have an absolute right not to say anything under the 5th Amendment. And the way police focus on spouses, people in a relationship, that`s a target, and I think someone has to be very cautious. Simply because they`re exercising their rights doesn`t mean they`ve committed the crime, and to assume because someone hires a lawyer, they`re are guilty, just flies in the face of reality. I think anybody with any intelligence would want to protect themselves under these circumstances.

GRACE: To Steve Greenberg, Chicago lawyer. Steve, he`s got one thing really going for him on his side. That`s Bobby Cutts, I`m talking about, biological father. And that is, when I spoke to Jessie`s mom, she wants very much to believe Cutts is not involved. So he has the support, at this moment anyway, of Jessie`s mother, and I think that is invaluable to him, Steve.

STEVE GREENBERG, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I don`t think the support of the mother makes any difference. What he`s got going for him is they don`t have any evidence that he did anything wrong. They don`t have any evidence coming back to him. Nothing`s been leaked. He has a lock-tight alibi, as far as I know, that he was at a softball game, which will mean there`s a lot of people...

GRACE: Hey, Steve?

GREENBERG: ... who can back up his story...

GRACE: Steve...

GREENBERG: ... and identify him as being there.

GRACE: Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve. Softball game...

GREENBERG: Nancy, Nancy...

GRACE: You done? Softball game Wednesday night, OK? You know where he was at 12:00 midnight after the softball game and after going to (INAUDIBLE)? Do you know where he was after that? You got an alibi for that, Steve?

GREENBERG: Well, probably...

GRACE: No, just yes/no.

GREENBERG: ... at home asleep, like most people would be.

GRACE: So you don`t have an alibi for after that, so don`t tell me about the softball game. You`ve tried a lot of cases, right?

GREENBERG: I have.

GRACE: Tried a murder case?

GREENBERG: Tried a lot of murder cases.

GRACE: Good. So let me ask you, then...

GREENBERG: And they`re based on evidence. People are convicted on evidence.

GRACE: ... Joe Lawless, when the prosecutor hears the victim`s family say, I don`t think he did it, you don`t think that counts for something, Lawless?

LAWLESS: I don`t think it hurts. I think it...

GRACE: You`re crazy!

LAWLESS: ... makes the prosecutor want to back off a little bit. But I think Steve`s right. If they don`t have any evidence he did it, it certainly doesn`t hurt, but it`s not determinative. I think the key thing...

GRACE: Well, I don`t think it`s determinative. I don`t think it`s determinative to the outcome, Susan Moss, but I think it`s a heck of a valuable thing for a possible suspect to have on his side.

MOSS: Absolutely. The police aren`t going to take a bit of their lead from the family. Nobody knows the situation and the players as well as this family. And if the family is saying, May not be daddy, I think it carries a great deal of weight.

GRACE: And let`s go out to the lines. Jennifer in Pennsylvania. Hi, Jennifer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I have a quick question. I heard on another news channel that Bobby didn`t show up for his shift Wednesday or Thursday of last week. Do we know where he was? Is that normal? Does he have an alibi?

GRACE: You know what, Jennifer? You should be a criminal investigator. Back to Phil Trexler with "The Akron Beacon-Journal." It`s my understanding -- correct me if I`m wrong -- that Cutts normally works the night shift after midnight. But he did not work the night shift following the softball game and the revelry at, I think, a local bar or restaurant following. But I don`t know if that really means anything. I don`t know if he was off that night, if he just didn`t show up to work, that would be significant, if he had planned to be off that night. What do we know, Phil Trexler?

TREXLER: We know from the press conference today, Chief Deputy Perez said that Bobby Cutts was not working the Wednesday night/Thursday morning shift.

GRACE: But why?

TREXLER: He was off. It was his regular day off. And he did go back to work Thursday night at 10:00 o`clock and was off duty at 8:00 AM Friday, and in fact, 8:00 AM Friday, he went to Jessie`s house after being called by Jessie`s mom.

GRACE: Oh, so that was his regularly scheduled day off, in answer to Jennifer`s question. I was wondering the very same thing.

I want to go out to Mike Brooks, former D.C. cop, former fed. What is the slowdown with the cell phone records? We ask that every time. Last time, we asked it about Kelsey out in Kansas.

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: Right.

GRACE: That was, like, three days following her disappearance. Now we`re into week two.

BROOKS: Well, Nancy, they might be getting to -- they might have gotten the analysis. They went back last night to search his house again, they say for the cell phone and for the comforter. What was the reason they`re searching for the cell phone at his house? This is pure speculation, but now it would be about the same time that the analysis would be back. Maybe the last time they had a ping from her cell phone may have been in the area of his house. That`s one theory.

And also, if I was going to go back and I was looking for any more evidence, I would -- first thing I would go to would be the dryer in his house. Pull all the lint out of the dryer, looking for any trace evidence, just in case he hadn`t tried to wash his clothes. Also, Nancy, let me explain to you the reason...

GRACE: Are you talking about blood, fiber, hair?

BROOKS: It could be hairs, fiber, any other trace evidence from -- if he had any contact with this comforter or with any...

GRACE: Oh, you`re scaring me. You`re reminding me of Scott Peterson. Remember, suddenly, the night Laci went missing, he turned into a neatnik and started mopping and washing and drying clothes.

BROOKS: He sure did, Nancy. And again, there`s a lot of similarities here. And let me just quickly explain to you why they may have taken another set of prints. If the evidence -- the FBI evidence response team took a DNA sample, there`s different kind of fingerprints that they would do. It`s called a set of major case prints. Instead of just taking prints from every finger and the four fingers, like you do on a normal fingerprint card, they roll the whole hand, the whole hand all the way down past the wrist. And they`ll also take the side of the hand, so if someone gets a partial print of maybe of a side of a hand, they`ll be able to compare that to the major case prints that they`re taking. I`ve taken many sets of major case prints both here and overseas, working terrorism cases, and that`s one of the things that the FBI evidence response team does.

GRACE: Well, speaking for myself, you can teach an old dog a new trick because, you know, you, Mike Brooks, myself, a lot of people on the panel tonight had to be fingerprinted for their jobs -- you as a cop, me as an assistant district attorney. And I did not think through that they may have taken a roll across or down or a side. Interesting. Interesting.

And very quickly to Bethany Marshall. Bethany, the fact that he allowed police in the first time to search, that he spoke to them willingly, I think also goes to his credit.

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Actually, I don`t think it does, to be honest with you, because if you think of the type of personality that can commit homicide, usually there`s a very shallow emotional quality, lack of cause-and-effect thinking and not a sense that they`ve done anything wrong, which could lead to opening the door to his house.

GRACE: Another thing, Bethany, I`m starting to think back on a lot of cases I tried and the ones we`ve covered. First of all, Cutts not named a suspect or a person of interest at this juncture. But remember, a lot of people think they can outsmart the cops. Talking about Scott Peterson and many, many others.

We`ll be right back.

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PORTER: We`re trying to get her boyfriend on the phone because he got -- he had to have dropped the baby off yesterday because he had...

911 OPERATOR: OK, dropped what baby off?

PORTER: The 2-year-old. He`s been here -- he`s by himself, and my daughter`s gone.

911 OPERATOR: The 2-year-old was there by himself?

PORTER: Yes. My daughter`s due in two weeks. She`s pregnant. And the house is trashed.

911 OPERATOR: OK, does the house look like it`s messed up or like she just walked away?

PORTER: It`s -- everything`s just everywhere. She would never walk away.

911 OPERATOR: OK, say that again. I need to you slow down.

PORTER: I don`t know. There`s stuff everywhere. Her purse is dumped out.

911 OPERATOR: OK. Has anybody been in contact with the father recently?

PORTER: No.

911 OPERATOR: No?

PORTER: He was supposed to have had him all day yesterday. That`s why we didn`t talk to her. And then he was supposed to have brought him home last night.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

GRACE: Where is 26-year-old mother-to-be Jessie, just less than a week from giving birth to a baby girl? Police come up empty-handed in a dig one mile from her home.

Out to the lines. Amy in South Carolina. Hi, Amy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I understand they are using cadaver dogs when they find an area during the search like they did today. But have they actually used scent dogs to track Jessie`s scent away from the home, as they did with Laci Peterson?

GRACE: Excellent question. I asked that the other night. Didn`t get an answer. Phil Trexler from "The Akron Beacon-Journal," have they brought in tracker dogs?

TREXLER: The answer is yes, Nancy. They brought them in Friday and again over the weekend. The dogs -- they took them from the house, they gave them some of Jessie`s things, and the trail stopped at the door.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: We are talking about the disappearance of 26-year-old Jessie, Jessie Marie Davis, just a week away from giving birth, and taking your calls live.

Out to Pastor Herman Matherson with the House of the Lord. He is the family pastor to this family. Pastor, I know that you have attended a prayer vigil. Could you tell me how the mom, Patty, is doing?

HERMAN MATHERSON, DAVIS FAMILY PASTOR: Well, Patty did not come to the vigil before I left the church. We do know she`s very tired, very concerned, very anxious, so we are very much aware of that. We want her to get some rest, as much as she possibly can. She`s trying to tend to everyone that she can. She`s very much other (ph) person concerned right now, so we do know she`s pretty fairly exhausted right now.

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DISPATCHER: OK, does the house look like it`s messed up or like she just walked away?

PATRICIA PORTER, MOTHER OF JESSIE DAVIS: Everything`s just everywhere. She would never walk away.

DISPATCHER: OK. Say that again. I need you to slow down.

PORTER: I don`t know. There`s stuff everywhere. Her purse is dumped out.

DISPATCHER: OK, this is your grandson?

PORTER: Yes.

DISPATCHER: What is his name?

PORTER: His dad works in the (INAUDIBLE)

DISPATCHER: What`s his dad`s name?

PORTER: Bobby Cutts.

DISPATCHER: Bobby what?

PORTER: Cutts, C-U-T-T-S.

DISPATCHER: OK, and you haven`t made contact with him yet?

PORTER: No, I haven`t heard, but I`m trying to get a hold of him.

DISPATCHER: OK, stay on the line with me. Do you know if he`s on duty today?

PORTER: I have no idea. He had him yesterday, and he was supposed to drop him off last night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cadaver dogs, more than 1,800 volunteers teaming up today to search for any sign of missing pregnant mom Jessie Davis. She is nine months pregnant. There is no trace of her for seven days now.

This afternoon, cadaver dogs came upon a mound of dirt. Something could be buried. Police and FBI meantime also searching the home of Bobby Cutts, Jr., again last night. He is the father of Jessie`s 2-year-old son, Blake. You see him here. He is also possibly the father of her unborn baby girl. Cutts has been fingerprinted. He gave DNA swabs to authorities. Police say he is not a suspect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We learn just as we go to air that a dig by police and FBI focusing on fresh dirt one mile from Jessie`s home has come up empty- handed. All police got out of that, a handful of marijuana plants. But I want to go to Mike Brooks on the fact that the scent dogs, the tracker dogs, stopped at her door. What does that mean?

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE: It could mean a lot of things, Nancy. I mean, keep in mind that dogs are a great tool. And I tell you, and one of the best tools available on trying to find human scent evidence are the bloodhounds. Now, there`s a team of bloodhounds. This is a forensic canine team that the FBI evidence response team has in their headquarters at Quantico, Virginia.

I`ll tell you what, Nancy, if I were the FBI evidence response team leader, out of the Cleveland FBI office that`s running this investigation and these searches, I would be sending a lead to Quantico and having them talk with their experts down there to see if they could be of any use, because it depends on the dog and the handlers and the technique used.

They are some of the best in the business. And, Nancy, they have detected human scent up to 35 days after someone went missing. So, you know, it doesn`t mean -- even though it`s rained, it doesn`t mean that there couldn`t be possibly still some human scent evidence of her or maybe of someone who was there still on the scene.

GRACE: Well, another issue, what if she was put in a car just outside of her door? Now, I do recall in the Peterson case that tracker dog tracked her, Laci, in a car all the way from her home to San Francisco Bay. And she was obviously in a car.

BROOKS: That`s absolutely right, Nancy, tracked all the way to the Berkeley marina. And, also, if you remember the D.C. sniper case, these dogs that I`m speaking about, they also were able to track along the highway because of -- and with the scent of these two guys who were in that car. You know, at the time they didn`t know exactly what they had, but these dogs just took off and followed that scent that they had picked up in the parking lot of one of the shootings. So these dogs, again, a great tool that`s available and possibly could be of some assistance in this case.

GRACE: Hey, Brooks, you`re preaching to the choir. The best witness I ever had in court was a drug dog.

I want to go back out to Jonathan Leiberman with "America`s Most Wanted." What can you tell you me about this surveillance of the local sports bar of the not-a-suspect Bobby Cutts?

JON LEIBERMAN, CORRESPONDENT, "AMERICA`S MOST WANTED": Yes, bottom line is, the surveillance shows him at the sports bar that Wednesday night, the night that Jessie is last seen. It gives him an alibi for a couple of hours, but police have to construct the next 36 hours. That`s what they`re working on right now, because, frankly, it`s about 36 hours between the last time that Jessie speaks to her mother to the time when her mother comes to the house and finds the 2-year-old.

And this 2-year-old, Nancy, it can`t be underscored how important what this 2-year-old has to say is to this investigation and how carefully police are dealing with the 2-year-old so as to not suggest anything to him. They have to ask him very open-ended questions and things of that sort.

And one other quick thing, Nancy. There are a number of scenarios that police are looking at. Bobby Cutts has a cousin with a history of drug charges. Police are looking at the idea, was this some sort of revenge on Bobby or on somebody of his family having to do with drugs? There was no forced entry at Jessie`s home, so this somebody that most likely knew this family, or had something to do with the family, or that Jessie felt comfortable opening the door and letting into her home.

GRACE: No forced entry, but once the perpetrator got in, all hell broke loose. The mom says the place was ransacked, her pocketbook, Jessie`s pocketbook, dumped upside down in the kitchen, the sheets torn off the bed, the coverlet gone, and bleach thrown all over the floor in the bedroom, also, a table broken. And we know the 2-year-old little boy, Blake, said, "Mommy cried, Mommy broke the table. Mommy is in the rug." But did he say who put Mommy in the rug? She didn`t put herself in the rug and leave the house all on her own.

I want to go out to Dr. Michael Hunter, an expert in his field, he`s a forensic pathologist and medical examiner. Dr. Hunter, I was thinking just before we came to air, the dig going on, where they found the fresh dirt a mile from her home. Came up empty.

DR. MICHAEL HUNTER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Sure.

GRACE: But does burying a body preserve evidence in any way?

HUNTER: Yes. If we have a deceased victim here, the best possible environment would be that she`s buried, and that does several things. That keeps the body at a much cooler temperature than, say, if it`s on the surface, and that would cut down on the decomposition that we oftentimes see when individuals are out in the environment in direct sunlight.

It also keeps scavengers away. It keeps insects away. It keeps other types of scavengers away, and so it keeps the body intact in one location, so if there is evidence, if there`s trace on the body, you`re more likely to come across that if you recover the body carefully from a grave.

GRACE: How long, as the body begins to decompose, can you get someone else`s DNA off or from inside the body?

HUNTER: You know, with victims of violence, homicidal violence, one of the keys to always look at is fingernails. Oftentimes you`re going to get biological material transferred to the victim from the assailant and that material is going to dry. And if this person is, say, in a grave -- you know, I hope not, but if that is the case -- then that should remain for a very, very long time. So that`s the kind of evidence that they`re going to try to get if, indeed, she is recovered in that way.

GRACE: Very quickly to the lines, Jan in California, hi, Jan.

CALLER: Hi.

GRACE: What`s your question, dear?

CALLER: Did anybody think that maybe the body was moved because there was going to be a search where the cadavers found their scent today?

GRACE: Interesting. What about it, Phil Trexler? Any possibility of that?

PHIL TREXLER, REPORTER: Well, there might be a question for Mr. Miller, with all of his experience in these situations, but we`ve heard nothing that there was a body being moved. In fact, Mr. Miller talked about keeping the search area kind of confidential, not publicizing it, because for fear that exact thing would happen.

GRACE: Tonight, a $15,000 reward for information about the whereabouts of Jessie Marie Davis. Tip line: 330-430-3818. Out to the lines, Jean in Ohio, hi, Jean.

CALLER: Hi, Nancy. Thank you for taking my call. Love your show.

GRACE: Thank you.

CALLER: I`m wondering, are they tracking the ping of her cell phone and, if not, why not?

GRACE: What do we know about that, Mike Brooks?

BROOKS: Nancy, the cell phone is missing, but they`re not able to get any pings at all, so that`s why I`m saying, you know, where, after they got all the data they had, and did the analysis, where was the last time a ping was found? And that`s what they`re probably looking at right now. But if the phone is off or the battery is dead, you`re not going to get a pings at all on any cell sites anywhere at all that she is.

GRACE: And another thing, Dr. Michael Hunter, we have been told it`s going to takes two weeks to get DNA results from the little baby girl that was found abandoned. We know Jessie`s carrying a baby girl, that a baby girl was found abandoned 30 miles away, umbilical cord still attached. That is not true. You can get DNA in about three days or less. Why would they say that?

HUNTER: Well, I mean, you can.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: What do you mean? I know that you can.

HUNTER: Of course, of course.

GRACE: You can do that 10 years ago.

HUNTER: Right, but the lab has to follow certain protocols, as far as getting that material into their assays, having it run...

GRACE: Right.

HUNTER: ... along with other assays, so it does take time. You really can`t help that you want to run this along a certain time...

GRACE: Well, you can say that, Doctor, but I know for a fact you can get DNA back in three days. To Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, analyze this, Bethany. How often does a random killer hide the body?

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Well, what you have -- if there`s a random killer, like a crime of opportunity, let`s take Kelsey Smith, who was leaving the Target, Samantha Runnion, a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time, she`s a victim of crime, a child of child molestation, you know, Nancy, the body`s usually left out in the open, because a dump site hasn`t been prepared. But if it`s a family member or a relationship, usually a dump site has been prepared for the body. The body is hidden.

GRACE: Which suggests this is not a random killing.

MARSHALL: Right.

GRACE: Everyone, when we come back, stunning developments in the case of a mom and her three children dead in their SUV just off an Illinois interstate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What police are saying is that Chris Vaughn, the father, is not a suspect, that the mother is not a suspect. But if you take into account the grizzly fact that each of the children was shot multiple times, and police say that the incident was confined to the family, there are only two possible scenarios. One is that the mother wielded the weapon; the other is that the father wielded the weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: A mom and her three children found dead in a SUV just off an Illinois interstate, apparently on an access road to a cell tower. Dad was driving, but he survived with a gunshot wound to the leg, all the others dead. I don`t get it, Jonathan Leiberman with "America`s Most Wanted," you`ve got three dead children and a dead mom and nobody`s a suspect?

LEIBERMAN: Well, police are saying that the crime scene was contained right there, and it`s pretty clear what the scenarios are. It was either a murder-suicide or just a straight-up murder. So either the wife killed the children, wounded the husband, and then killed herself, or the husband killed the wife and the children and wounded himself to make it appear that it was a murder-suicide.

GRACE: Joining me now, a very special guest out of Illinois, Trooper Mark Dorencz, with the Illinois state police district number five. Trooper, thank you for being with us. Trooper, I understand that there was a search of the Vaughn home. What was taken?

MARK DORENCZ, ILLINOIS STATE POLICE: That is correct. And what was taken were some computer components.

GRACE: Computer components? I understand that there were several boxes and bags taken. What else?

DORENCZ: The computer components, which consist of pretty much of cable boxes, modems, and then additional computer-related attachments.

GRACE: Oh, I see. Question, there have been a lot of comparisons to a recent "Law and Order" episode, where apparently a family was wiped out and at first it was believed that the mom did it, turned out otherwise. Was the cable -- and this is speculation within this case -- was the cable box taken? And is there any way to track what was watched in the home?

DORENCZ: Well, Nancy, you know that this is an ongoing investigation. And I cannot comment on the investigation.

GRACE: OK, I respect that. I don`t want to hurt the integrity of the investigation at all. Where is the father tonight?

DORENCZ: I don`t wish to comment on that.

GRACE: OK. Jonathan, is he at home with his family in Missouri?

LEIBERMAN: Funeral...

GRACE: Jonathan?

LEIBERMAN: Yes.

GRACE: Where is he?

LEIBERMAN: The funeral is set for Saturday in Missouri. We believe he is with his family there to attend the funeral of his wife and children.

GRACE: OK. OK. Back to Trooper Dorencz, Trooper, has there been anymore investigation or information determined about the murder weapon? Who did it belong to? The friends of the female victim, Kimberly Ellen Vaughn, said she hated guns and wouldn`t even have one in the house.

DORENCZ: Once again, Nancy, this is an ongoing investigation. I do not wish to comment.

GRACE: OK. Question, have the bodies been -- I know they`ve gone to the coroner. Have they been checked for the trajectory path of the bullets?

DORENCZ: Once again, I do not wish to comment.

GRACE: OK. I understand, Trooper. I`m just trying to -- I want to go out to Mike Brooks. Why is that trajectory path, the angle where the bullet entered and where the bullet exited, why is that so important?

BROOKS: It`s extremely important, Nancy, depending on who shot? You know, who was the one that shot? Was it him? Was it her? He was shot in the thigh. OK, then he was found a short distance away, so we`ve got -- besides bullet trajectory, Nancy, they`re going to be taking a look at the blood spatter, blood spatter, fingerprint, gunshot residue, all kinds of other -- it`s going to come down to a forensic case, period.

GRACE: You`re right. You`re absolutely correct. Very quickly, everyone, tonight, "CNN Heroes."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALVARO RESTREPO, "CHAMPIONING CHILDREN": Catalina is one million people, one million inhabitants city, where 70 percent of the population is living below poverty line.

My name is Alvaro Restrepo. I co-direct a college of the body. We work with kids coming from poor, difficult neighborhoods of Catalina, teaching them dance and, through dance, values that can change their lives. So kids like Jose, well, he was born in the midst of something that for him is natural.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Sometimes here we see violence. Almost every Saturday or Sunday, someone is killed.

RESTREPO: They have the courage to realize, "Yes, I can become somebody with doing this." So when you are teaching a simple exercise, you are speaking about concentration, about self-esteem, you are learning to work with others.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Whenever I performed, I was afraid. But Alvaro encouraged me. He tells me there are two options: Either you do it, or you do it. I have to do it.

RESTREPO: From the very beginning, we started to realize that we were plowing in very fertile soil. We were able to prove that, if these kids are given opportunities, they can become great human beings.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Welcome back. Straight out to the lines, Sheryl in Canada, hi, Sheryl.

CALLER: Hi, Nancy. Love your show.

GRACE: Thank you. What`s your question, dear?

CALLER: Was there any evidence of defensive wounds on any of the children, as if they were trying to help one another?

GRACE: What do we know about that, Jonathan Leiberman?

LEIBERMAN: That`s why these trajectory tests are going to be so interesting. We do know the children were each fired at multiple times and hit multiple times. That`s one thing that makes this so heartbreaking, as well.

GRACE: And to Dr. Michael Hunter, medical examiner, I`ve seen child murders by moms, but I`ve never seen one where the children were shot to death multiple times by a mom, have you?

HUNTER: No, I really haven`t.

GRACE: OK. And what about you, Dr. Bethany Marshall?

MARSHALL: Well, my thought about this is, in cases of domestic homicide, usually if the man commits the murders, he`s very angry at the wife. He wants to retaliate against her, and he does that by killing what`s most precious to her, the children, and usually there`s overkill in a case like that.

GRACE: Yes, ma`am. Have you ever seen a mom shoot the children?

MARSHALL: Never. Poison, suffocating, drowning, but not gunshots wounds.

GRACE: Me either.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: But this is all anecdotal.

Let`s stop very quickly to remember Army Staff Sergeant Joseph Weiglein, 31, Audubon, New Jersey, killed, Iraq. Enlisting from high school, awarded Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Loved soccer, golf, swimming, spending time with the elementary school who sent him care packages in Iraq. He leaves behind widow, Jennifer, parents, Michael and Ellen, sisters, Catherine, Michelle and grandma, Doris. Joseph Weiglein, another American hero.

Thank you to our guests, but most of all to you, for inviting us into your homes. And a special good night from a Georgia friend of the show, Holly. See you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END