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Nancy Grace
Missing Baby Elaina; Still No Information on Missing Toledo Child
Aired June 19, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now moving into its third week, the case of missing toddler Elaina Steinfurth is receiving national attention.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This Toledo toddler remains missing, but we are learning more about the alleged injuries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) basically told me that the baby had a bruised eye, a little bit of dried blood around one of the nostrils and a bump on the head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This video shows the room where Elaina was reportedly last seen, torn apart by authorities looking for evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They searched here I think a total of four -- four or five times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... Angela Steinfurth sobbing in court.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angela appeared in the front door, reporting that her child had vanished.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just afraid by some chance that maybe she had gotten out the back door, into the pool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I ran into the house, directly into the bedroom where she said she was sleeping at. I didn`t see Elaina anywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never got a straight answer. She said -- her statement was she did not know where the child was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody in that house knows where that baby`s at.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Live, Toledo, a parent`s worst nightmare, 18- month-old baby Elaina last seen taking a nap, but just minutes later, she`s gone, baby Elaina vanishing, broad daylight.
This story is developing by the minute. How does an 18-month-old baby girl just disappear from the family`s own bedroom in the middle of the day? I`m talking 1:00 o`clock. Nobody sees a thing?
We obtain crystal-clear surveillance video of Mommy with baby Elaina just before the baby seemingly vanishes into thin air. What clues does the video reveal?
In the last hours, did Mommy take off in a mystery van at midnight just before the baby disappears? And tonight, is Mommy changing her story behind bars? Also tonight, we go inside the room where baby Elaina disappeared.
We are live and taking your calls. Straight out to Fred Lefebvre, morning host, WSPD. Fred, thank you for being with us. What`s happening?
FRED LEFEBVRE, WSPD (via telephone): Nancy, there`s been one big bombshell today and a lot of little explosions. The bombshell is the news that a witness says he saw Elaina and Steven King pull away in a van between midnight and 1:00 AM Saturday night. That would be just hours, about eight hours before she went missing.
The smaller explosions come from neighborhood people who are now coming forward to "The Toledo Free Press," a local paper, and telling them that they`ve seen mistreatment by Elaina -- or by Angela of baby Elaina over a period of...
GRACE: Wait, wait, wait, wait, Fred Lefebvre! Maroon van, GMC Safari -- take a look at this mockup of the van that the neighbor says -- I think you`re referring to the neighbor, Fred Lefebvre -- that claims what, he sees Mommy, Angela Steinfurth, get in this van around midnight the night before the baby goes missing, and leaves until what, 12:00 to 1:00 o`clock?
LEFEBVRE: He says at least a period of 20 minutes. Some time between midnight and 1:00, she and her boyfriend left, came back about 20 minutes later. He`s saying that she seemed a little distressed, but at midnight, it`s hard to tell. But that`s the story he`s sticking with. The interesting thing is, he didn`t remember it until just yesterday and called the FBI with that information today.
GRACE: Well, what`s interesting about this neighbor -- and we are not revealing his name at his request -- this neighbor -- he doesn`t have a dog in the fight. I mean, he has no reason to lie or make anything up.
Now, there`s always a chance -- and any defense attorney will attack this -- it`s at midnight, how did he see who was getting in the car? How close was he? What was he doing out at midnight, all that. But that`s what he`s saying, and this is the van we`re talking about. Fred Lefebvre, WSPD morning host -- Fred, isn`t it true that this is the van that police seized and are processing?
LEFEBVRE: That`s the same van that cadaver dogs searched a couple of times about a week ago, that police then seized after the cadaver dogs were inside of it twice and took down to the police impound and have searched since then. It has not been returned to the street yet. No one has seen it since police confiscated it.
GRACE: Well, the neighbor says he thought maybe they were going out for cigarettes. That`s another story we were told about -- just about an hour before the baby goes missing, that the mom leaves the home to go get cigarettes at Family Dollar.
Every time I`ve ever been at a Family Dollar, I`ve never seen cigarettes in there. So we actually investigated and found out this Family Dollar near that home does sell cigarettes. So you know -- yes, I know, laugh all you want to. But I want to know the truth.
And something as minor -- when you`re talking about a missing baby or even a homicide case, even a tiny detail like that can completely rip apart an alibi, all right? So are you with me with that, Fred?
LEFEBVRE: I`m with you so far, but I don`t believe that most Family Dollar stores are open after midnight. The ones around this area close around 9:00 or 10:00 o`clock at night.
GRACE: Hey, Liz in the control room...
LEFEBVRE: So that story`s got a lot of holes in it.
GRACE: Yes. Liz, get Matt on it right now. I want to try to get an answer, how late Family Dollar`s opening -- open at night.
Fred, you`re right. I`ve never seen one open past, like, 6:00 or 7:00, 9:00 o`clock at night. Fred, have you seen the condition on the inside of this house? Liz, roll the video. Have you seen inside the home?
LEFEBVRE: I haven`t personally seen it. I have seen the video that Liz is rolling. I was at the house today, and I sent your producer photographs of the outside of the house, of the back yard, and of the swimming pool that July (ph) King says that`s where they thought the baby might have gone.
But I think if you look at this, you can tell that an 18-month-old was not going to be able to get in that pool by herself. It`s an aboveground pool. The stand to get in it, the ladder, was in the pool itself. There was no way to climb into that pool as an 18-month-old.
GRACE: We`re taking a look inside the home, and now we`re in the back. No, an 18-month-old child -- while this one can absolutely walk because I`ve seen video of the baby walking, this child would not be able to negotiate, navigate that back yard and all this overgrowth and get into that pool, all right?
LEFEBVRE: No.
GRACE: That`s not what happened. And you know what? If somebody did say that, it sounds like tot mom all over again. Remember that big lie?
So Liz, take me back through the photos of inside the room where baby Elaina goes missing. This is a room where Elaina was last seen. This is not set up for a baby. It`s not. I`m just telling you.
And I don`t mean you`ve got to be like Beyonce and Mariah Carey and get a $20,000 baby crib with a crown on the top. But this is just wrong for a baby to be in this scenario. Take me (ph) down (ph). I want to show the viewers this home, please, Liz, if you could show it in full. Now, I want to go back to where the baby was supposed to be sleeping.
yes, I know. I see the cords (ph). I see all of that. But when you see this filthy bed covered in stains -- there`s blankets. There`s trash. There`s -- I mean, that -- that chifforobe, that dresser right there, that chest of drawers -- that alone is a health hazard for a baby.
Look at this! Look at this! What -- this is crazy!
And Fred Lefebvre, back to you. You were right, Family Dollar, that particular Family Dollar is only open until 9:00 o`clock. So she didn`t go there for cigarettes. I know that much.
LEFEBVRE: And just to mention the house -- I talked to a family member today. He said that when the police came out after originally searching the house last Sunday, that the first thing one of the officers said was, We need to call children protection services because this house is uninhabitable for children.
And that`s where the information originally came from that there was a backed-up toilet and that there was pet feces on the floor. It came from the original police report to Child Protective Services.
GRACE: And that`s where they were bringing up this baby. I want to go right now to the baby`s father joining me, along with his father. With me tonight, Terry Steinfurth, Jr., baby Elaina`s biological and legal father. He is the father of Elaina Steinfurth, an 18-month-old child missing. With me is his father, Steinfurth, Sr. On the other side of the fence, with me Mr. Richard Schiewe. That is Angela`s father. Also with us tonight, Mary Schiewe. That is the mom`s sister, baby Elaina`s aunt.
OK, out to you, Steinfurth, Jr. Can you see these pictures from where you are? I don`t know if you can see what I`m showing the viewers. Can you?
TERRY STEINFURTH, JR., ELAINA`S FATHER: No, I can`t.
GRACE: OK. Liz, I want you to fax him photos of this at the studio because, Terry, if you could see the inside of this home where your baby was being raised and your 4-year-old girl was staying, you are going to completely nut up because it is no situation to raise a child.
And I don`t mean -- I`m not talking about who has a Ph.D., who makes a million dollars a year. I`m not talking about that. I`m talking about being clean and neat. Anybody can do that, making a home for a baby, a home for children.
I mean, did you have any idea where this baby and your 4-year-old girl was staying?
TERRY STEINFURTH, JR.: I knew where they were at. I did not know the conditions of the home, no.
GRACE: Out to Richard Schiewe. You have spoken to the mommy today. What`s happening?
RICHARD SCHIEWE, ANGELA STEINFURTH`S FATHER: Yes, I have. Yes, I did.
GRACE: What is she saying?
RICHARD SCHIEWE: (INAUDIBLE) same thing. She`s just still in jail.
GRACE: But she...
RICHARD SCHIEWE: She wants to come home. She misses everybody.
GRACE: Well, I`m sure she does. I`m sure she does. And you know what? I`d like to see baby Elaina come home. But what is she saying to shed light on who took the baby? What happened to the baby?
RICHARD SCHIEWE: I would, too. I`d like for her to come home and the baby to come home, too. I`d like to see the other people in that house in jail. You know, it`s not fair for one person to be in jail and the other people out, you know, having a good old time about this.
It`s not just about my daughter. It`s about everybody. It`s not just about being on TV and everything else. It`s about Elaina. It`s about the baby. It`s about the daggone baby. It`s not about what this person said and what that person said.
Let`s bring the baby home. Then after the baby`s home, then you can start slandering people and talking.
GRACE: You know what? You`re absolutely right, Mr. Schiewe. This is all about getting the baby. But see, in my mind, the key to finding the baby is what your daughter has to say. And not just her, everybody else in that house, you are right. You`re right. They need to all be held accountable for whatever involvement they have.
(CROSSTALK)
RICHARD SCHIEWE: ... and see if they crack.
GRACE: Let me ask you a question, Mr. Schiewe.
RICHARD SCHIEWE: That`s right. Get them behind bars...
GRACE: Does anybody else...
RICHARD SCHIEWE: ... and see if they start talking.
GRACE: Does anybody else -- well, the problem is, nobody else in that house had a duty to protect that baby other than your daughter. See, that`s the problem. She was the mommy. It`s her duty.
RICHARD SCHIEWE: That`s correct.
GRACE: They`re just like people that are wandering in and out of the house. But let me ask you this question, Mr. Schiewe. Did anybody in that house say they actually saw the baby that Sunday? Did they ever see her? I know they said they thought they heard her, but did anybody see the baby alive on Sunday other than your daughter?
RICHARD SCHIEWE: According to the paper, the mother -- the boyfriend`s mother went in and changed the diaper and gave the baby another bottle around -- I think the paper said 12:30 or something like that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Toledo police continue their search for Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search for clues into Elaina Steinfurth`s disappearance continued.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does a 1-year-old girl just vanish? Father comes to pick his daughter up. A few hours later, she`s gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Volunteers have scoured the neighborhood. The streets are lined with posters with one goal, to bring baby Elaina home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Toledo police giving an update on the investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They won`t say when the baby was injured or if they believe the mother knows the baby`s location.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m not going to comment exactly on what we`re looking for. We`ve (INAUDIBLE) search (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me (ph) immunity, I`ll tell you what`s going on. Somebody`s got to know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Where is baby Elaina? With me tonight, the baby`s father, grandfather, and on the other side of the fence, Mommy`s father is with us, Mommy cooling her heels behind bars, right now charged with child endangerment.
She says she woke up, looked over, and her baby has a black eye, a bump on her head and blood around the nostrils. She can`t tell anybody who took the baby, can`t or won`t. What`s the answer to that question?
We are taking your calls. Out to the lines. Bonnie in Ohio. Hi, Bonnie. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, Miss Nancy. I have a couple -- I have a question, is why was not an Amber Alert -- soon as that baby was missing, why didn`t they put an Amber Alert out? And two, where was children protective services in all this?
GRACE: Now, it`s my understanding that an Amber Alert has to do with a child missing in a vehicle.
Let`s go out to Eleanor Odom, prosecutor of crimes on women and children. What is an Amber Alerts, Eleanor?
ELEANOR ODOM, PROSECUTOR: Well, first of all, Nancy, it has to meet certain criteria, and one of those is that they have a suspicion of who`s actually taken the child so they can say, Here`s who we think has the child, here`s the kind of car they`re driving, here`s what you should be to looking for.
Here we don`t have any of that. We just have a missing child. And it`s an awful thing, but not to go right to the Amber Alert because they wouldn`t be able to tell people, Here`s what you look for because they don`t know what to look for.
GRACE: You`ve got to have a car. You`ve got to have a car. You got to have a car to do an Amber Alert. Boom. That`s the deal.
ODOM: So means that the person`s taking the child.
GRACE: Exactly. Hold on. Bonnie, did you hear that? With an Amber Alert, there`s got to be a car involved. And we don`t know that.
Hold on. I`m hearing in my ear, with me right now is Mary Schiewe. This is Elaina`s aunt and it is the sister -- Mommy`s sister. Mary, thank you for joining us.
MARY SCHIEWE, SISTER OF ELAINA`S MOTHER (via telephone): Hi.
GRACE: Mary, you have spoken to Mommy. And I`m referring to Angela Steinfurth, your sister, as Mommy in this scenario, for viewers that are just joining us. What did she tell you happened?
And look, I`m not about putting her in jail. I`m not about putting anybody in jail. I want to bring the baby home. I want to find out who`s responsible, and I think your sister may have the answers. She may have maybe a part of the answer.
What is she telling you?
MARY SCHIEWE: I haven`t spoke to her in jail, but before she got put in, she just said that Elaina had a black eye and a bloody nose and that she believes that Steven hurt her.
GRACE: Who is Steven, the boyfriend?
MARY SCHIEWE: Yes.
GRACE: I want to point out Steven, the boyfriend, is not a suspect, and cops are telling me he has been cooperating. That`s what they`re telling me, OK? But I`m on the outside looking in.
With me is Mommy`s sister. OK, I know that you confronted her about the scenario. So if Steven -- she says Steven hurt the baby, then why didn`t Mommy take the baby to the hospital, Mary?
MARY SCHIEWE: I`m not sure. I asked her the same thing. When I found out, I asked why she didn`t take her to the hospital. Her response to me was, I don`t know. This was before, you know, she came out and said that she knew what happened. This was before that.
GRACE: OK, before she said she -- see, what I`m hearing is that she`s saying she doesn`t know what happened.
MARY SCHIEWE: No, she knows that Elaina was hurt and she knows who did it. She`s saying that she don`t know where she`s at, but she does know that she was hurt and who did it.
GRACE: OK. You have told us that your sister lied to you to your face about what happened. What was the lie?
MARY SCHIEWE: Just, you know, the whole time that we were out here looking for Elaina, she had -- we were asking if she knew anything, anything at all, any ideas of where she could be and who hurt her and what happened. And she kept telling us, No, I don`t know anything. I wish I did. I don`t know anything. But really, this whole time, she knew.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Welcome back, everyone. The search for baby Elaina goes on. With me right now, joining me for the first time, is Mommy, Angela Steinfurth`s, sister. With me is Mary Schiewe -- all of us coming together to try to find this baby.
Now, Mary, you were saying that your sister lied to you at the get-go, saying she didn`t know what happened, didn`t know what happened. Everybody`s out searching. Then she says she does know what happened. What exactly did she say really happened?
MARY SCHIEWE: Pretty much that Elaina was hurt and she was taken out of the boyfriend`s house, but she don`t know where she`s at.
GRACE: How was Elaina hurt? Was she thrown to the ground? Was she strangled? What happened to her?
MARY SCHIEWE: I heard that she was dropped, but -- she had a broken nose and a black eye. You`re not just dropped.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... for missing 18-month-old Elaina Steinfurth continues tonight.
TERRY STEINFURTH, JR.: Angela came out of the home. She told me that Elaina was missing.
ANGELA STEINFURTH, ELAINA`S MOTHER: People are pointing fingers at me when they don`t even know what`s going on.
RICHARD SCHIEWE: She`s guilty of not taking care of that baby like she should have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby was injured at one point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While I`m waiting outside, I was talking to Angela. She made it clear that, you know, the baby had a black eye, dry blood, and a bump on the head.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Investigators comb through the wooded area along the river while dive crews searched the water.
RICHARD SCHIEWE, STEPFATHER OF ANGELA STEINFURTH: No signs of Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With him and I are looking in the pool and the garage.
TERRY STEINFURTH, SR., GRANDFATHER OF MISSING BABY ELAINA: Something has to break. Somebody knows something and somebody has to talk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You`re darn right about that. Somebody does know something. Where is baby Elaina? We are live and taking your calls.
Out to mommy`s sister. Mommy, Angela Steinfurth, her sister Mary is with us.
Mary, you told us that you confronted her and you got angry with her that you said, look, somebody is lying and she said something about, I`m done talking. I`m not talking anymore. What was that?
MARY SCHIEWE, MISSING TOT`S AUNT, HALF-SISTER OF MISSING TOT`S MOM: I had talked to the detective that day and, you know, they are pretty much telling me, if you hear anything or see anything, anything let us know. So I figured, you know, maybe I can sit down and talk with her and I came home and asked her if she wanted to talk and she told me that she was done talking and she didn`t have to answer to nobody, that she answered enough questions.
GRACE: You know, see, Mary -- Mary, do you have children?
M. SCHIEWE: Yes, I do.
GRACE: How many?
M. SCHIEWE: I`m sorry?
GRACE: How many?
M. SCHIEWE: I have one 4-year-old.
GRACE: A 4-year-old.
M. SCHIEWE: Yes.
GRACE: You know, so you know what I`m talking about. If I thought -- if I had to lay down on the front steps of the police station and lay there so that they`d have to step over me to walk in the door, I would do that until my child came home. You would not be hearing, oh, no, I`m done, I don`t answer to anybody.
No, you would not hear that. I don`t understand that unless she`s angry that she thinks she`s a target. But still, even if you are a target yourself of the investigation, you`d think that she`d be trying to find the baby.
M. SCHIEWE: Definitely. I -- there`s no way -- there`s no way that I would have waited. I would have opened my mouth the very first day. Threatened or not. If this was my kid, oh, my mouth wouldn`t have done been opened.
GRACE: What do you know about the van that goes missing, the GMC Safari that goes missing around the time that baby Elaina vanishes?
M. SCHIEWE: When we got -- when I got the phone call to go over to the boyfriend`s house. When I got there, the van wasn`t in there. And it wasn`t in the alley, it wasn`t down the street, it wasn`t across the street. We looked all night until 3:00 in the morning. There was no van. And, you know, then Steven comes home from questioning and the van appears.
GRACE: And that is the night before they say she was missing that day?
M. SCHIEWE: Yes. That was the night that she went missing.
GRACE: Where are they saying they went that night? Because the neighbors saw your sister and the boyfriend getting into the van at about midnight.
M. SCHIEWE: Yes. I just seen that. I read that in the "Toledo Free Press." That`s the first time that I`ve heard that. So I have no idea.
GRACE: Mary, who else in the family saw the baby that day? This was Sunday around 1:00 when basically all hell broke loose when Steinfurth Jr. comes over there to get the baby and Senior shows up, and then they say, the baby is gone. Who else saw the baby alive that day?
M. SCHIEWE: I`m not sure. My sister, for sure. She`s saying that she`s seen here. Steven was the one that was supposed to be checking on her when she was taking her nap. I`m guessing that Steven`s mom and dad were both in the house. I am not hearing that anybody else`s name, but it`s just funny that the day that she comes up missing, nobody`s in the house but any other day they`re all in there.
GRACE: Mary, this is my problem. OK. She says -- your sister says she wakes up, the baby has a black eye, that she`s bleeding around the nose, that she`s got a bump on her head. You mentioned she had a broken nose. Did your sister tell you she had a broken nose?
M. SCHIEWE: Yes.
GRACE: OK. That`s the first I`ve heard that, that the nose was broken. How did she know the baby`s nose was broken? Did it look broken?
M. SCHIEWE: I`m guessing that the way that it was bleeding, that there was -- I mean, for it to be bleeding as much as it was. She thought it was broken.
GRACE: OK. See, when you wake up and your baby is in that condition, then the next -- there`s nothing in between that and the baby`s gone. Did your sister give you any story line about what happened from the black eye until the baby`s gone?
M. SCHIEWE: I`m not sure.
GRACE: OK. To Brett Larson, investigative reporter. What more do we know, Brett?
BRETT LARSON, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, Nancy, we also know that police today were -- they were searching the river. They had drivers in there. They`re no longer diving into the river. And as you showed the pictures inside that house, or just -- they`re deplorable conditions that this baby was living in, which might actually explain why she had so many bumps and bruises, having to be on a mattress like that or wherever it was that she was sleeping, it`s no surprise that she fell down and hurt herself.
And also, a neighbor came forward and said that he recalls hearing the mother being abusive with both children and was telling the FBI about tales of that, about her calling her children really offensive names and being physically and verbally abusive with both the younger and older daughter prior to the youngest going missing.
GRACE: I didn`t know that there were allegations that she had abused them and called him those ugly names.
To Terry Steinfurth Sr. This is Elaina`s grandfather.
Liz, can I see the photos of inside the home?
I think pigsty would be a kind way to describe it, Terry.
TERRY STEINFURTH, SR.: When I walked into the house, when she showed me where the baby was supposed to be, I looked at her and I said, you had that baby sleeping in that pigsty? And I went out the door. That`s the way I - - that`s the way I would have worded it, too.
GRACE: What did you observe, Terry Steinfurth, Sr. when you went in the home?
TERRY STEINFURTH, SR.: I walked in the front room. The front room didn`t look bad. She`s -- I asked where the baby was. She said it was in the front bedroom. I looked in the bedroom door, there were clothes stacked on the floor all the way around the bed. You had to step over clothes to get -- well, you had to step on clothes to get to the bed.
And I just looked at her and I said, you had the baby sleeping in there? I said that`s a pigsty. And that`s when we went out front and I wanted to call the police for finding my baby.
GRACE: What did she say? What did she say?
TERRY STEINFURTH, SR.: I looked at her, I told her -- I asked her, I said, call the police, call your dad, call your sister, and anybody else that knows what that baby looks like and she looked at me and said why? And I said, because I want to find the baby. The baby`s gone. And she walked over, sat down on the front porch and said, I don`t know what to do. And I called 911 and I believe my son was dialing it on his phone at the same time.
GRACE: So you told her to call police and she said why?
TERRY STEINFURTH, SR.: That`s what her reply was to me.
GRACE: OK. I`m going to go out to her dad, Richard Schiewe. There`s no evidence that has been brought to us that your daughter has abused either child in the past. OK. I want to start with that.
Richard, I want to hear what you make of what you`re hearing tonight.
R. SCHIEWE: It`s all hearsay. When I got over there, when T.J. called me, everybody is standing around and standing on the front steps all nonchalant like nothing happened. I ran up there and I was ready to kick Steven`s dad`s butt. I wanted to know where they were at. But that`s -- you know, you just don`t sit around and talk. Get your butt up and start looking. Everybody was just sitting on the steps. That`s a bunch of B.S. That`s just B.S.
GRACE: So I`m talking about --
R. SCHIEWE: That`s the first time I`ve heard that.
GRACE: I`m talking about now reports from your daughter that the nose was broken, the baby`s nose was broken. I mean, maybe you can get through to her.
R. SCHIEWE: That came -- that came to me after -- pardon me?
GRACE: Maybe you can get through to your daughter to make her tell you where the baby is.
R. SCHIEWE: If I could go some place private, maybe I could, yes. But they won`t let me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
R. SCHIEWE: They took the baby out of the house. And people said, if you say anything to the police, you`re next.
TERRY STEINFURTH, JR., FATHER OF MISSING 18-MO-OLD BABY ELAINA: And I seen that the back door was wide open. She had told me they had run out the back door. The boyfriend and a friend of his.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Steven and I, both of us, went running out the back door.
R. SCHIEWE: We found out that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) and his dad pulled. (INAUDIBLE) the back door.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no way anybody walked past me to go through that window.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining me tonight, Peter Odom, defense attorney out of Atlanta. Also with me tonight, death penalty qualified crimes prosecutor on women and children, Eleanor Odom, joining us.
All right. Peter, what do you have to say, regarding Angela Steinfurth?
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, the best thing I can say about her so far in defense of her is that there are a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. Because there`s really a lack of physical evidence, there`s not enough to arrest her for anything but what they`ve already arrested her for which is child endangerment. So unless the police gets something substantial she`s probably going to avoid any more serious charges. And when I say substantial, Nancy, I mean, if they find a body or if they get a witness.
GRACE: Find a body or get a witness. All right
P. ODOM: Right.
GRACE: How about if she talks?
P. ODOM: Well, or if she gives a confession, you`re right, that would -- that would seal the deal. But, you know, already she`s given so many stories, I don`t know if that`s going to happen.
GRACE: I don`t know. When you get so many conflicting stories in my mind that amounts to an admission.
All right, to you, Eleanor Odom, weigh in.
ELEANOR ODOM, FELONY PROSECUTOR, DEATH PENALTY QUALIFIED: Well, I agree with you, Nancy. And look at what I like to call the evolving story. You know the person tells one little story which might have a negative truth in it, and then when the cops start questioning them, well, that didn`t make sense, they add to the story. And it kind of evolved over time as if they`re trying to fit all these pieces together but they`re not making the complete puzzle at all. None of the pieces fit.
So that`s one thing I really look at, are the stories and how it evolved and what`s not true. But I bet you anything there`s some type of kernel of truth in what she`s saying somewhere.
GRACE: To Dr. William Morrone, medical examiner and forensic pathologist, also a toxicologist joining me tonight out of Madison Heights.
Doctor Morrone, thank you for being with us. What do you make of what you`re hearing of the injuries -- broken nose, black eye, goose egg on the head?
DR. WILLIAM R. MORRONE, MEDICAL EXAMINER; FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST, TOXICOLOGIST: If you listen to them individually, you say, OK, the kid fell down. But when one child has all three injuries, this is very dangerous. A black eye called periorbital hematoma results from blunt- force trauma to the face. A bloody nose results from blunt-force trauma to the nasal bones and a bump on the head results from blunt-force trauma to the skull.
These are not things that happen when children trip over toys or fall down. This triad is deadly and the fact that it was a black eye. Black eyes are red-black. It was fresh. Something -- if it`s an old injury and the child is functional, it`s faded colors. But a fresh black eye on a head needs to be brought to E.R. You need x-rays and you need an evaluation by a doctor.
GRACE: You know, the falling, the dropping scenario stinks to me and I don`t know if I`m saying the same thing you`re saying, Dr. Morrone, because, if you fall, you have that blow, you can get a goose egg from falling or a bump, like Natasha Richardson did. She ran into a tree and then, boom, she had bleeding to the brain and she died. The actress.
All right. But when you start getting multiple injuries that speaks -- that bespeaks as something more than just falling because you`re getting multidirectional injuries. Does that -- am I making any sense?
MORRONE: That`s absolutely correct. You just -- you don`t have this number of things happen to a very small baby`s head and the critical thing here is small babies are short. When they fall down, they don`t have the trauma or the weight to cause those kinds of injuries by themselves as accidents. It`s being thrown against the wall, being hit by a flat object, or being picked up and slammed. This is blunt-force trauma. This should not happen to children.
GRACE: Out to psychologist Caryn Stark. Caryn, I`m very interested in hearing your take.
CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: This is terrible, Nancy. It`s really deplorable. And you know what else concerns me? That there`s other children in that household, that there`s another child who knows that this little girl is missing and who children blame themselves, who is taking responsibility, and thinking she did something wrong and terrified. And that those two children are being raised in this situation. There is no way that a baby would attain those kinds of injuries unless she had been beaten or hurt in some way.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby had a bruised eye, dry blood around one of the nostrils.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Angela admitted to knowing baby Elaina suffered a serious physical injury.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby was injured at one point.
R. SCHIEWE: Why my daughter hasn`t been tried, convicted at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back. Where is baby Elaina? We are on the trail in the search for this 18-month-old little girl. Look at her. She looks like an angel on earth. Is there a chance we can bring her home safe?
We are live and taking your calls. To Mary Schiewe joining us tonight. She is the mommy, Angela Steinfurth`s sister. With me tonight the Schiewe family and the Steinfurth family. They`re at odds with each other but they`re joining together to try to find this baby.
Mary, what do you know about dogs in the home?
M. SCHIEWE: I do know that there was a couple of dogs. I had dropped off Elaina and Kylee a couple of times, and I`ve seen dogs outside. And the one time that I walked them up into the house, there was dogs inside the house. I`m not exactly sure what kind they were.
GRACE: I know that you have confronted your sister, Angela, at least twice about what happened. What did she say the first time and what did she say the second time?
M. SCHIEWE: The first time I said something to her, she just said, I don`t know, Mary. She`s like, I know she was hurt. She`s like, I don`t know where she`s at, and that was pretty much it. And then the second time that I had asked her was when she told me that she didn`t have to answer to anybody anymore.
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GRACE: We remember American hero, Army Staff Sergeant Adam Dickmyer, 26, Winston Salem, North Carolina. Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Commendation medal. Parents David and Stephanie, sister Erica, widow Melinda.
Adam Dickmyer, American hero.
And now to the search for baby Elaina. Back to Mary Schiewe. This is mommy`s sister. What else strikes you as suspicious or odd about the baby`s disappearance?
M. SCHIEWE: I`m sorry?
GRACE: What strikes you as odd or suspicious, unusual, doesn`t fit together about the baby`s disappearance?
M. SCHIEWE: I just don`t understand that she`s missing and she`s been hurt, and it took her a lot of days to tell us that she knew that she was hurt, but where is Elaina? That`s what we want to know is where she is. Somebody has to know where she`s at.
GRACE: And you know, back to you, Mr. Schiewe. You say everybody else in that house needs to be behind bars. Don`t you think if police were suspicious of them --
R. SCHIEWE: That`s right.
GRACE: -- that they would be behind bars?
R. SCHIEWE: You would think, yes, but if they were in the house -- if you read the newspaper, I think it was the next day stating that the boyfriend`s mother changed the diaper and gave her a bottle. Why aren`t they in jail? What the hell is wrong with these people? You sit around on the porch and lollygag around. Get out and look for the baby. Don`t be sitting around campfire talking all the smack and stuff. Look for the daggone baby.
GRACE: Everyone, the tip line --
(CROSSTALK)
R. SCHIEWE: Don`t sit around.
GRACE: Call FBI, there is a $10,000 reward for baby Elaina. Even if you think you know something and you`re not sure 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Everybody, Nancygrace.com. We`ll live after 5:00 Roswell, Georgia Thursday night supporting Murphy-Harpst home for abused children. Stop by or go to Nancygracce.com and use coupon code MHKIDS. All proceeds go directly to help abused and mistreated children.
Tonight our prayers with baby Elaina. Wherever you are, little girl.
Dr. Drew up next, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, goodnight, friend.
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