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Nancy Grace
Missing Kids Found Alive
Aired July 04, 2012 - 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, miracles do happen. This hour, extraordinary stories of triumph and miracle missing kids, stories that seemed bleak, but then police, tip lines and help from you, our viewers, crack cases and bring children home.
Tonight, first to Virginia, 12-year-old Brittany Smith in extreme danger after Brittany`s mother found dead in the family`s beautiful home, complete with luxury pool on a quiet cul-de-sac, family car missing, The 12-year-old little girl gone.
Cops pursue dual investigations, kidnap and homicide. Grainy surveillance video emerges of Brittany and Mommy`s grown boyfriend at the local Wal-Mart. The search takes on a stunning turn. Brittany`s mom dead inside the family home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-two-year-old Jeffrey Stocky (ph).
GRACE: Mommy`s live-in boyfriend she met on the Internet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness felt that they had seen the suspect on a Nancy Grace television show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re hoping that someone will see this video.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s two-and-a-half times her size.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was another customer in the checkout. Maybe that person will see the video and maybe they spoke to him or the child.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The way she`s standing with her forearms clenched.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She appears to be following him, always remaining very close to him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: There is a God! Twelve-year-old Brittany found alive. After watching extensive coverage, photos, surveillance video of Brittany`s disappearance here on our show, a viewer, Theresa Shanley, spots the 12- year-old girl with convict 32-year-old Easley clear on the other side of the U.S., San Francisco. This 12-year-old little girl, Brittany Smith.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please, please...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please give us a call.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is with a tremendous sense of relief...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This bombshell right in front of our eyes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have located Brittany.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are so thankful for everyone`s contribution!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 911 call from a citizen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For making this a national event!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness felt that they had seen the suspect on...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nancy Grace.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nancy Grace.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On Nancy Grace.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nancy Grace.
GRACE: I want to thank you for being with us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Television show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that`s how the person called 911, saying that these people were the ones in the show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now that Brittany is safe...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She will be here to tell her mother good-bye!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can really turn their focus to finding out who killed Brittany`s mom, Tina Smith.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s a very good suspect at this time.
GRACE: I really believe that your prayers were heard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Our special guest joining us tonight, Theresa Shanley. She is the citizen who called in to 911. She is the one that spotted this little girl, along with convict 32-year-old Jeffrey Easley, who had taken this girl. He is the prime suspect in the little girl`s mother`s murder, 41- year-old Tina Smith murdered in her own home, the little girl missing.
We find out that ever since back at Thanksgiving at a family get- together, relatives have been calling Family and Children`s Services saying, Something is wrong with this relationship between this grown man and this 12-year-old. You got to go investigate.
Guess what they said? They were having their Christmas party and they couldn`t answer calls. Well, somebody picked up the phone and did something, and her name is Theresa Shanley.
Ms. Shanley, thank you for being with us.
THERESA SHANLEY, TIP LED TO BRITTANY`S RECOVERY (via telephone): Thank you, Nancy.
GRACE: Ms. Shanley, what happened? Tell me when you first spotted the little girl?
SHANLEY: When I went to the parking lot of the Safeway store, I thought to myself, Oh, great, panhandlers, and they bring a child with them. And it was a man and her. And I guess Easley was the man, and her. So I got out of my car...
GRACE: Ms. Shanley -- go ahead. I was just going to ask you, what were they doing when you first saw them?
SHANLEY: He was just standing -- she was sitting down, he was just standing there. He was kind of moving around because it was cold and wet. It wasn`t raining, but it was real misty and dewy here. It was kind of cold, not the cold they know back in Virginia, but it was cold for us here in San Francisco.
GRACE: Was she sitting on the ground, the sidewalk or...
SHANLEY: No, she was sitting on -- there`s a little bit of a ledge, a cement ledge, that she was sitting on.
GRACE: What did you do, Ms. Shanley?
SHANLEY: I was staring at her. And usually, I can read people`s faces pretty well, and I couldn`t read hers. And I knew she was young. I didn`t realize it was 12, but from the look of her, she looked under 18 anyway. And the hair on my arms stood up, and I knew something was wrong and this situation wasn`t right.
When she stared at me the whole time walking (INAUDIBLE) she spotted me and I spotted her, we never took our eyes off each other. And the stare was -- it was -- it was -- I couldn`t read it, but when the hair on my arms stood up, I was, like, OK, something is wrong here. The situation isn`t right.
And she didn`t look anything like him, so I knew she wasn`t his kid. So I went in and asked the clerk to call their local police department, which would be the Richmond station. And she did. She dialed it for me, and I spoke to them and said, you know, There`s a young girl out here with a white male, from 25 to 35, and she looks to be between the ages of -- I think I said 15 to 18. But she`s young, and it doesn`t look right.
And last night, I seen a show on CNN and there was a woman crying, her aunt, asking to bring her home for her mother`s funeral and for Christmas. And that was the first time I`d seen her face. And her brown eyes is what got me.
So I said (INAUDIBLE) the police officer, I said, I was watching CNN, Nancy Grace. I think it was your show on -- I just know it was CNN and that it may be this child from Virginia. And the cop even said, Virginia? And I said, yes, there was a murder in Virginia and the man killed the woman and took the child, and this might be them.
I wasn`t sure, but my intuition was telling me something`s not right here. And sure enough, it was her and him. My intuition was right.
GRACE: You know, Ms. Shanley, the way you tell that story about how you came around and your eyes locked, and that little girl just looked at you and you looked at her the whole time, and how the hair went up on your arms and you just knew something inside of you...
SHANLEY: I knew it was wrong.
GRACE: It was meant to be. This is the way it was meant to be. Do you know what a miracle you have been part of, Ms. Shanley? I mean, when people were saying, Oh, he won`t hurt the girl, he`s infatuated with her, he loves her -- No. He is the prime suspect in her mother`s murder.
And if it weren`t for you, Ms. Shanley, she could be dead today. A 12-year-old girl could be dead today, Ms. Shanley.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have good news.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Incredible story to share with you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Britt is safe!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A witness called the police department.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The last time anyone saw the boyfriend and daughter in Virginia at a Wal-Mart store.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search is over now for young Brittany Smith.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Britt (INAUDIBLE) home for Christmas!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something triggered this witness`s memory. What was that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness felt that they had seen the suspect on a Nancy Grace television show.
GRACE: Look at these two.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were recognized from national news reports outside a nearby Safeway store and picked up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators say now that Brittany is safe, they can really turn their focus to finding out who killed Brittany`s mom, Tina Smith.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There has been a ray of sunshine on this very dark event!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: With us tonight is a hero that made a miracle happen. With us is Theresa Shanley out of California. She spotted this 12-year-old girl with a grown man who turns out to be a convict, the prime suspect in the little girl`s mother`s death, 41-year-old Tina.
With me tonight, taking your calls, Theresa Shanley. Ms. Shanley, we are being flooded with calls and e-mails, some of them are, God bless her, thank God for that lady and her courage to call and report her suspicions. Thank God she kept her eyes open. Thank God for you, Theresa Shanley. Ms. Shanley is an angel and a hero. It goes on and on and on. So Ms. Shanley, you`re pretty much a hero in our book.
After you called 911, did you stick around for them to come?
SHANLEY: Yes. I stayed. They asked me to stay and (INAUDIBLE) my cell phone handy. And she had rattled me so much that I thought my cell phone was in my car. So I had to go out again past her. And again, she stared at me. And when I get to my car, my cell phone ended up being in my back pocket.
But I was so rattled by her that I, you know, didn`t even realize where my cell phone was. And then I walked back in again, and we locked eyes again. Nothing -- we never spoke. I just kept looking, staring at her, trying to get a read on her, and I couldn`t.
GRACE: You know, it`s almost as if this little girl is pleading to you to help her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was in the command center when one of the call takers back at the phone banks was hollering my name across the room, waving me back, putting me in touch with an inspector with the San Francisco Police Department, who told us that they believed they had Mr. Easley in custody and Ms. Smith safe.
Brief conversation confirming some details and making sure that we did, in fact, have the right people, and then things started happening pretty quickly thereafter. We were -- tickled to death doesn`t come close.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a fantastic sense of relief. And I know in my heart that it`s due to information that you folks put out and the national news media and as it was relayed to them, and it`s just a tremendous sense of relief.
I can`t express it. I`m happy. Believe me, I`m happy. And it`s -- it`s difficult to put into words. And we have together worked through this for the entire week. And I think we`ve talked about it between each and all of us, and all of us wanted so much for her to be safe and well and get back to Roanoke OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Thanks to you, one of our viewers, this 12-year-old girl found alive 3,000 miles across the country, outside a local Safeway grocery. The perp, Jeff Easley, pleads guilty to capital murder of Brittany`s mother, Tina Smith, and gets life without parole.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM CARL PROBYN, JAYCEE DUGARD`S STEPFATHER: Just total shock after 18 years. You know, when my wife called me and basically said, Are you sitting down? And I said, yes. She goes, They found Jaycee. And she paused for, you know, 10 seconds, and she goes, She`s alive.
And we both cried for about 10 minutes. As a matter of fact, my voice hasn`t come back yet. And we just talked, and she had told me that she actually talked to Jaycee on the telephone, that the FBI agent called her at work and said that, We found Jaycee, and she thought she -- (INAUDIBLE) at first, and they actually put Jaycee on the telephone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Just 11 years old, Jaycee Dugard abducted on her way to the school bus stop, never seen again, held captive for nearly two decades, but Jaycee managed to survive. A miracle!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In 1991, she was grabbed as she walked to her bus stop in South Lake Tahoe, California. Her stepfather on the driveway saw his little girl, blond, blue-eyed, all dressed in pink, disappear into a strange car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you remember about the day that Jaycee disappeared?
PROBYN: The minute I saw that door fly open, I was trying to jump on my mountain bike and trying to get to her. And my neighbor was out front watering, so I told her, Call 911. They had a two-minute head start.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those two minutes turned into nearly two decades. There were searches, missing flyers and reward money. Nothing brought Jaycee back, not even her mother`s plea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: : Jaycee, if you hear Mommy, I love you. And I want you to come home tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jaycee finally did come home when she suddenly walked into a police station outside San Francisco with her alleged kidnappers and told officers who she was.
PROBYN: My wildest dreams after 18 years, I mean, this is like the total package, like winning the lotto.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jaycee`s stepfather got the call he`s been waiting for from Jaycee`s mom. They are now separated.
PROBYN: She goes, Are you sitting down? And I said, yes. And she goes, They found Jaycee. And she paused for a few seconds. She goes, She`s alive. So we both cried for about 10 minutes, you know, before we could talk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A security guard at the U.C. Berkeley campus noticed Mr. Garrido handing out flyers with two young children. A background check showed he was a convicted sex offender on parole. Authorities say Mr. Garrido admitted he had kidnapped her all those years ago and fathered two children with her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even though parole officers had visited Garrido`s house over the years, nobody ever spotted Jaycee Dugard. Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a secondary back yard that`s screened from view from literally all around, only accessed through a very small, narrow tarp. Her and the two children were living in a series of sheds. There was one shed entirely soundproofed, could only be opened from the outside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Philip Garrido served time for kidnapping and rape in Nevada. Out on parole, he wears a GPS tracking device. The children he fathered are now with their mother, Jaycee. Eleven and fifteen years old. Police say they`ve never been to school or to the doctor. Still, they and their mom are free.
PROBYN: I`m just so happy. I haven`t gone there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is this emotions coming from?
PROBYN: Oh, it`s years locked up. I`m an old Vietnam vet that`s shell-shocked. I mean, how much nerves do I have, you know, and then have to go through this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tears of joy after so many years of sadness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A peek into Philip Garrido`s back yard, a tent in a small compound hidden away in the trees. Authorities say Jaycee Dugard was held captive here for 18 years. Mike Rogers (ph) owns a house that sits up against Garrido`s back yard. He says in the last three years, he often heard men partying in the back yard where Dugard and her two daughters were held captive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They would be partying next door, be drinking and carrying on. And there`d be a bunch of guys back there, and they always had a bonfire going and they`d be high-fiving each other, just going crazy back there. It was -- it was crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He never saw the young girls, but now he`s disgusted to think about what might have been happening. From what we`ve been able to learn, it doesn`t appear Garrido kept Dugard and the young daughters hidden all the time. We`ve spoken with neighbors and several of Garrido`s business associates, who say they often saw the young women. Garrido operated a printing company, making business cards. Some of his customers say Jaycee was the creative force behind the business.
Neighbors describe Philip Garrido as creepy, someone who had become a religious zealot, yet loved music, often singing in his front yard. But those neighbors, many who refused to speak with us on camera, say Nancy Garrido acted like a brainwashed wife.
PROBYN: I was down the garage and this car came down, circled and kind of real slow. So I thought maybe they wanted to talk to me or maybe directions. The car went past, went up the hill, kind of, like, just went real slow and waited for her to get to the top of the hill, I guess so they could see if any cars were coming up or any cars were coming down. And they basically cut her off and pulled her in.
And I jumped on my mountain bike, but actually, I couldn`t catch them. You know, my energy was going after seeing what happened. I just -- so I rode back down the hill, and we had a neighbor call 911. So they had, like, a two-minute head start.
I had given up hope of having her alive. I was in the process of wanting to recover, you know, her body, basically, and find out who these people are. I didn`t want to pass on and these people have a free ride and get away with this.
So that was my hope was, at that point, after these years, is to recover her and prosecute these people. And now to get her back alive, it`s like winning the lotto, you know? You know -- so we get her back alive, and she sounds like she`s OK.
Hopefully she`s been well treated decently. And these people are going down for this, and it`s going to have a happy ending.
I went through hell. I did a lie detector test. I`ve had to write my life history down. I was questioned intensively. You know, people think, you know, stepdad, you know, he was mean to her, he made her have manners. He did this. It`s, like, all of my wife`s relatives, you know, they hired a detective (ph) to put me in jail. You know, it`s, like, I went through a fun experience.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: What happened to Philip Garrido? He`s now serving 431 years behind bars, his wife, Nancy, 36 years to life.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY WHITE, KIDNAP VICTIM`S MOTHER: Carlina is back! Carlina was a missing link, and we have gotten her back! In the name of Jesus, hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
JOY WHITE, KIDNAP VICTIM`S MOTHER: I knew she was coming back one day. Twenty-three (ph) years later, she`s back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Imagine you give birth to a newborn baby girl, nine days now. Then she runs a fever. You take her to the hospital. Then you never see her again. Why? She`s snatched, taken by a woman who disguises herself as a nurse. That`s what happened to the family of Carlina White, a nightmare they thought would never end.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On August 4th, 1987, then 19-day-old Carlina Rae (ph) White was taken to the hospital by her mother, admitted for having a high fever. But when the mother returned, her baby was gone. The abduction sent the family into a frenzy, leaving her mother, Joy White, devastated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was broken! She was broken for so long!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the girl, who had been raised as Nedra Denise Nance (ph) in Connecticut, found her picture on a missing children`s Web site. She contacted the woman listed as her mother and authorities. Family members say her mother didn`t need DNA test results to know the girl was hers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I knew she was coming back because when you see her, it`s a trait (ph). The whole family got the trait. The whole family!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: DNA test results did come back confirming Nedra Denise Nance is, indeed, Carlina Rae White, the girl who was taken.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ann Petway (ph) wanted a baby so badly, she allegedly took one that wasn`t her own, snatching a 19-day-old baby from a New York hospital. The FBI says Petway confessed to kidnapping Carlina White in 1987 because Petway had suffered so many miscarriages. And she admits, quote,, "She`s sorry and she knows she has caused a lot of pain."
When her stolen daughter started pressing for details and wanted a birth certificate, documents state Petway allegedly lied again, telling her daughter a woman on drugs was her real mom who gave her to Petway. She even tried but failed to create a phony birth certificate, according to court papers.
Victim Carlina White`s blood relatives have no sympathy for Petway.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that something you can ever forgive?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can`t! No! I won`t forgive her!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) for 23 years, the same amount of time that she took away from my family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The woman who admits stealing baby Carlina, Ann Petway, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to federal kidnap. Prosecutors reportedly will recommend 10 to 12 years.
The search for 17-year-old California girl Jackelin Panigua, last seen with a mystery adult male, Santa Rosa. Police on the lookout for a `98 burgundy Toyota Camry, California tag 6-LOB, as in brother, 753. If you have info, call 1-800-THE-LOST.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Tonight, miracles do happen. This hour, extraordinary stories of triumph and miracle missing kids, perhaps none more miraculous than what happened to Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby, two boys kidnapped four years apart, but ultimately found alive together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have some good news for you this evening, and probably some unbelievable news. Some of you may already speculate on what we have. We did locate Ben this afternoon in the city of Kirkwood (ph), and we`ve also located Shawn Hornbeck, who was at the same residence with him when he was located.
OPRAH WINFREY, "THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW": Can you tell me how you got through these past four years?
SHAWN HORNBECK, KIDNAP VICTIM, RECOVERED AFTER 4 YEARS: Hope and praying.
WINFREY: Hope and praying? You said you would pray and cross yourself every night.
HORNBECK: Yes.
WINFREY: And what would be the prayer be?
HORNBECK: That one day my parents would find me and I would be reunited with them.
WINFREY: Do you think she was sexually abused?
CRAIG AKERS, SHAWN HORNBECK`S FATHER: Yes.
WINFREY: Do you think he was -- do you think he was tortured?
PAM AKERS, SHAWN HORNBECK`S MOTHER: That I don`t know yet.
C. AKERS: Well, you know, there`s more than one kind of torture. There`s mental torture, there`s physical torture. I have no doubt that, you know, mentally that he`s not the same boy that he was.
DORIS OWNBY, BEN OWNBY`S MOTHER: We got our child back in four days, some of these kids, you know, may never come home. You know, some of these kids -- you know, they come back in four years, they`re still, you know, a lot that they have gone through. So we`re just extremely fortunate that Ben came back to us as fast as he did.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You`re looking at Ben Ownby, he disappeared on Monday, and this is Shawn Hornbeck who vanished more than four years ago. They are back with their families after being found together inside a home in Kirkwood, Missouri.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both boys appeared to this point to be OK. Obviously they`ll be checked out to make certain that they`re in good shape.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This remarkable story unfolded when two police officers went to serve a warrant at an apartment complex.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While they were at that location they found a vehicle that fit the description of the truck that we were looking for.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: That truck matched the one speeding away from the sport where 13-year-old Ownby went missing. Ownby, a Boy Scout and straight A student, was last seen getting off a school bus just outside of St. Louis.
OWNBY: We want people to know that we just want Ben back, that we miss him and love him and just to get him home to us.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Once they found the truck, police found the boys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have one of these in your career, that`s quite an experience and luckily that one had a positive ending and to have another one come up is just unbelievable.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Arrested was Michael Devlin. The 41-year-old was charged with first-degree kidnapping.
While Ben Ownby was last seen four days ago, the family of Shawn Hornbeck hasn`t been seen him since October 6th, 2002. Some 60 miles from St. Louis. At the time he was only 11 years old, riding his bicycle to a friend`s house. His mother pleaded for help.
P. AKERS: If there`s one person out there that has seen him or -- you know, as the person has done something to him and it only takes one phone call to let us know where he`s back.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Two boys who vanished years apart have finally come home, safe and sound, and the prayers of many have been answered.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: In 2002, Shawn Hornbeck was a smiling 11-year- old boy, growing up in a small town 20 miles from the nearest interstate. Just a regular kid who likes Spongebob and PlayStation. But when he disappeared riding his bike on an October Sunday afternoon, Shawn became a symbol of every parent`s worst fear.
P. AKERS: That`s what`s killing us. Not knowing anything at all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As time goes on, it`s just -- you know, it just gets scary and I just want him to come home.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Richwoods, Missouri resident Wayne Evans joined the search at the very beginning. The town was turned upside down then, Evan says, attention turned to these nearby woods.
WAYNE EVANS, RESIDENT: With kids, there`s a lot of caves around here and there`s a lot of things that a child could explore.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: In just the first few days, help was abundant and so was hope. Former fire chief Rose Hoffman remember believing Shawn would be found quickly and found alive.
ROSE HOFFMAN, FORMER FIRE CHIEF: Because we`ve had missing kids before where they were lost in the woods, you know, something like that and we always found them.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But this time the search was fruitless. Shawn vanished without leaving a single clue.
P. AKERS: At this point, I`m clueless. I wish I had the answers, but I don`t. I -- this is totally out of the, you know, ordinary for him. He`s never been late, he`s scared of the dark.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The news media carried the heartbreaking emotions throughout the state and beyond. It wasn`t unusual for volunteers to field 200 calls a day, but none of them helped find Shawn.
But when the crowds and the cameras went away, this town continued its search, even though they nothing to go on. They treated every theory as if it were believable, no matter how unbelievable or how dreadful it may have sounded.
One popular theory had Shawn murdered in the words by operators of secret meth labs. Another suggested he was hit by a car. Then taken away by a panicked hit-and-run driver. None of the theories included the idea that Shawn was still alive.
At any point, did you start to despair?
EVANS: You know, the stories out here from the day he disappeared until recently have just been the most horrendous things that people could even -- I couldn`t even imagine the things that people that called in, so after a while you hear so many stories that you just assume the worst.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And it would be years before the news finally got better.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: For more than four years, authorities say young Shawn Hornbeck lived here, held captive by 41-year-old Michael Devlin. A hulking 300-pound pizza parlor manager. The living arrangement apparently raised no red flags among neighbors. Many thought perhaps a single father, raising an active 15-year-old.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just seemed to just like an average euphoric child. You know, as -- you know, as young kids are, just going back and forth with, you know, their, you know, guardian or a parent or relative or whatever. And he didn`t seem to display any type of social dysfunctions.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Shawn wasn`t going to school, neighbors say it appeared he came and went freely, so why didn`t he just walk away?
C. AKERS: It`s been like a dream.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Shawn stood silently at his only public appearance since his ordeal ended. There will be plenty of time to fill in all the blanks as he begins to put his life back together. His family thrilled to be reunited with the shaggy haired boy and seemingly heart sick he was being held so close to home for so long.
C. AKERS: It just boggles my mind that someone thinks that they can get away with it. And obviously they do. I mean this has been going on for four years and he`s been right here under our nose the whole time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our agents entered the apartment. Young Ben, as he was sitting there, he looked up at one of our agents and said, are you going to take me home?
OWNBY: Ecstatic. We don`t want to let him go or out of our sight. He doesn`t want us to hold on to him, but we have.
C. AKERS: Obviously this is probably the best day of our lives. It`s hard to even come up with words that can express the feeling that we have been going through.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as we`re concerned, is that a successful conclusion, but there`s still a lot of ground work that needs to be done, a lot of leg work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Shawn and Ben`s survival, a miracle. As for Devlin, he`ll never hurt anyone else again. He is serving multiple life sentences, plus 170 years. His most recent excitement, being stabbed with a homemade ice pick. He only suffered superficial wounds.
Dillon Green, 15, missing, Breckenridge, Colorado, 5`5", 120 pounds, brown hair, hazel eyes, wearing braces when he disappeared.
Take a look. If you have info call 970-668-8600.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: A beautiful 2-year-old baby girl last seen at Starbucks, Phoenix suburbs, vanishes without a trace. Stunning abuse reports surface. Baby Ava has a pattern of bruises, cuts, severe diaper rashes, even burns after visits with daddy. The same man who`s supposed to return her to her mother after the visit, but never does. Mom desperately looking for Ava.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ATHENA MANUMA, MOTHER: Fantastic, I couldn`t ask for more.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What does it feel like to have her in your arms?
MANUMA: Unreal. Unreal. It`s so surreal, I can`t believe she`s home.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Ava hadn`t seen her mother for 45 days. Police say Ava`s father disobeyed court orders and disappeared with his daughter.
MANUMA: That`s the scariest part is not knowing, and waiting for your child to come home.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Two-year-old Ava, of course, dropped off with her father.
MANUMA: I was afraid I was never going to see her again.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: At that North Phoenix Starbucks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s all he`s ever wanted to do was take care of her.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When returning home from visits with Anderson. She`s back in her mother`s arms.
MANUMA: Fantastic. I couldn`t ask for more.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Ava`s father was on the same flight from Mazatlan tonight escorted by U.S. Marshalls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why in the world would he be taking his child away from the mother?
MANUMA: Your heart is pounding incredibly fast.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s not a good dad, that`s a bad dad.
GRACE: Just in, I want to go straight out on news that a baby we have been looking for, baby Ava Enlow, age 2, has been found.
Straight out to Dave Mack, morning talk show host with WAAX.
Dave, what can you tell me, baby Ava found?
DAVE MACK, MORNING TALK SHOW HOST, CLEAR CHANNEL RADIO, WAAX: Nancy, it`s some of the most exciting news that we have been able to tell in a long time about a missing child. Custody -- kidnapping happens all the time, but in this one, as you have covered since the very beginning, baby Ava went missing after her dad did not return her from a scheduled visit. They had no idea where he had gone. They knew that he had cleaned out the house, he`d cleaned out the bank accounts, and they found his truck at a bus depot.
GRACE: And joining me right now is baby Ava`s grandmother, this is her paternal grandmother. Melinda Barros is with us exclusively.
Miss Barros, I know that you`re concerned about your son tonight, but the big news is, they`re both alive, baby Ava is safe. What can you tell us? Why did your son take baby Ava out of the country?
MELINDA BARROS, PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER OF AVA ENLOW: Well, Nancy, first of all, and let me -- let me set the story straight here. Her name is Ava Anderson, it`s not Enlow. And my son takes my granddaughter out of the country to protect her.
GRACE: You say it was to keep baby Ava safe. Safe from what?
BARROS: OK, that is an exclusive that I am going to give to everybody, as soon as an attorney is hired for my son.
GRACE: It seems to me that if you really believe your little baby granddaughter Ava is threatened or is in trouble, you wouldn`t be talking tonight about exchanging her safety for an exclusive interview. Now what is wrong with her surroundings? Why is he not safe? If she`s not safe, she needs to get out of that home right now.
BARROS: That`s exactly what I`m saying, that`s why we called CPS. How come our judicial system is not working for us. We`ve gone to the police, we`ve gone to the sheriff. We`ve gone to the --
GRACE: Well, for one reason if you are as difficult to get the answer, I mean I`m pulling teeth here, if she`s not safe, then tell it, let it be known, let`s get the child safe, if your son felt he had to go and take her to Mexico.
BARROS: She is not safe, I tried saying that. I said that to CPS. My son has said it to CPS, nobody will step in and take over. They say it`s not our jurisdiction or we`re not going to do this. How else are we supposed to do. The judicial system is not working for us. Nobody is listening to what we`re saying, there is some serious issues going on.
GRACE: Well, maybe that`s because you`re not giving any answers, Miss Barros. I mean, no offense, I want the baby safe, all right? But you`re not giving me answers. When you say the baby is not safe, I say why and you won`t tell me why, so that you`re losing all your credibility.
BARROS: No.
GRACE: Yes.
BARROS: OK. Let`s try incest. OK? Let`s try incest. How about my granddaughter`s been molested? How about we go there? How about we get some people on this show and let`s do some lie detector tests? It`s all there, there`s some serious issues going on in that household. I have got a lot to say. There`s a lot to tell you about what has gone on and what makes us come to this conclusion that it is -- this is what is going on. My granddaughter does not need to be in that --
GRACE: All right. Miss Barros, let me get this straight. Are you saying that baby Ava has been the victim of child molestation while in the custody of her mother?
BARROS: Yes, ma`am, I am.
GRACE: Have you taken her to a doctor?
BARROS: Yes, we have.
GRACE: You say the child has been molested while in the custody of her mother and that you have taken her to the doctor. Repeat, what did to the doctor tell you got baby Ava?
BARROS: Nancy, I was not at the doctor to know what was said, and then my son fled from the country. I do not know what the conversation was between him and the doctor. We`re trying to obtain --
GRACE: OK. So you`re on national TV saying the child`s been molested, has been taken to a doctor, but that`s the one fact you don`t know the answer to as to whether the doctor said she`s been molested?
BARROS: Brent has told me that -- that she has been molested. And I don`t have the records to prove it.
GRACE: Straight out now to special guest, joining us, the mother of baby Ava, you see her there being reunited with her child. Athena Manuma is with us.
Ma`am, thank you for being with us. Last night on national television, baby Ava`s paternal grandmother makes a bombshell claim that your daughter, 2-year-old Ava Enlow, has been molested while in your care. Response?
MANUMA: It`s a complete false accusation. There is no kinds of abuse whatsoever in our home.
GRACE: So my question to you, Miss Manuma, is did you know where baby Ava was all this time?
MANUMA: No, not at all. No. And on the last show when you had us on there she had said that she didn`t know where he was and that he was trying not to be found. So -- and I had no idea where she was.
GRACE: You know what, Miss Manuma? You`re absolutely right.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Back home safely.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Private reunion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ava, of course, dropped off with her father.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The mother dropped Ava off with the dad. Her father, Brent Anderson.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police say Ava`s father disobeyed court orders and disappeared with his daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First he went to pick Ava up. The father was a no-show.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police found he`d cleaned out his home, emptied his bank accounts and smuggled Ava on a bus into Mexico.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That he was already gone.
MANUMA: And that`s when my adrenaline was running.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She`s back in her mother`s arms.
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GRACE: Six weeks after the kidnap and abduction to Mexico, little Ava reunited with mommy. A tearful reunion took place at the airport, removing mommy`s fears Ava may not even recognize her after 45 days on the run.
The search for Missouri teen, Shameka Cosey, age 16, vanishes, Berkley, 5`2", 135 pounds, black hair, brown eyes. This age progression shows what she may look like now at 19. If you have info, call 314-524- 3311.
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GRACE: A 16-year-old straight-A student Chanel Petro-Nixon on the hunt for a summer job walks to an Applebee`s close by to her parents` home but never makes it back. She`s gone. What happened to Chanel Petro-Nixon.
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LUCITA NIXON, CHANEL PETRO-NIXON`S MOTHER: That evening I was on a trip from Panama. I was away for three days, came back about 5:30 that evening, Father`s Day. And we spent about an hour. She just asks me if she could go out to meet her friends. I told her yes, she could. She got a call about maybe 6:18. I heard when she said, you`re there already? And I guess the person must have said yes. And she went, she got dressed. Not really dressed. Fixed her hair up, she came to the kitchen, she kissed me good-bye and she left.
GRACE: What was the little bracelet?
L. NIXON: It has her name on it "Chanel." It was a gold bracelet. And I bought it in Panama so there`s no way it could be duplicated. It was a personalized bracelet.
GRACE: What went through your mind as a mom when you saw that bracelet?
L. NIXON: I was in shock. All I could -- I just started rocking and begging God to give me the strength because that`s all I needed at that time, was the strength to cope with what I was about to face.
GAVIN NIXON, CHANEL PETRO-NIXON`S FATHER: She comes home before dark if she`s about to stay a little longer, she will call and ask. I will -- if she`s with friends and her family, her friends wouldn`t be bringing her home, I will go and meet her and bring her home. I started to worry 7:30 because I was out and I call and I ask -- I call and ask if Chanel was home. And they said she went to meet her friends at Applebee`s.
L. NIXON: She was quiet, very laid-back person. But at the same time she wasn`t scared or afraid to voice her opinion. We were a happy family. We trusted each other. We respected each other. She respected us as her parents.
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GRACE: No clues, silent witnesses in the disappearance of Chanel. She was found stuffed in a garbage bag, thrown away like trash. Her parents and we want justice.
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GRACE: Tonight, miracles happen. So many extraordinary stories of triumph, miracle missing kids.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is safe. And I know the NANCY GRACE SHOW was out there for us. We appreciate that because that provided a lot of tips to us and for us.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police say the child was taken by a convicted sex offender, 27-year-old Robbie Potter. And the girl`s mother, 24-year- old Candice Watson --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The trio had been staying at the ranch for about a week.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re one of the only shows that kept us in the media. You have my deputies on the last couple of weeks every single night.
GRACE: The daughter, the baby girl, was alone with a tier-three sex offender.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Four-year-old Haylee Donathan is alive and safe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We generated a number of tips in the San Diego, California, area because of your show.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to tell her right now I love her and we all love her.
JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Did she take anything unusual with her, like she knew she`d be going to Mexico?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. She only had her backpack, which was full of her books from her studies from the night before.
GRACE: After police tell Chioma`s mom her girl is dead in Mexico, a P.I. discovers Chioma is alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An officer observed Alexandria Bane in a heavily wooded area.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Alexandria and Kylia Bane were said to have been hungry, thirsty and dehydrated.
RICK FOSTER, VICTIMS` FAMILY FRIEND: I am so glad that prayers were answered.
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GRACE: On this Fourth of July, let`s stop and remember Army Corporal Benjamin Kopp, 21: Rosemount, Minnesota, killed Afghanistan. An elite Army Ranger wanted to enlist since age 13, inspired by his World War vet grandfather. On a third tour. Also served Iraq. Bronze Star, Purple Heart, two Army Achievement Medals, buried Arlington. An organ donor, saved the lives of 60 people. Loved the outdoors, country music, his black Chevy truck. Leaves behind parents Jill and Dwayne.
Benjamin Kopp, American hero.
And tonight I wanted to show you something. John David and Lucy, showing their true colors. This is red, white and blue all decked out for July 4th.
Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us.
END
