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Nancy Grace

Virginia Teen Disappears on Shopping Trip

Aired August 13, 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 (on-camera): Seventeen-year-old Alexis Murphy was last seen by her family leaving her home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... way to Lynchburg from her Nelson County home. Her car was found three days later in Charlottesville.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s like my heart just been ripped out. My heart`s been ripped out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alexis Murphy vanished, last seen on surveillance video at a Lovingston gas station.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A crime of this type has a significant impact on the community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: FBI search teams are combing the ground around Country Lane off Route 29, traveling on four-wheelers into the woods, armed with tools to dig.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... waits for word about her daughter`s disappearance and likely abduction.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even the days when she`d gone missing, I just kept calling her cell phone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alexis was last known to be wearing leopard print capri pants and a burgundy long-sleeved shirt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We continue to hope that Alexis will be found safe and returned to her family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our family circle is broken right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want her to come home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You do not deserve whatever has happened to you or any of this. You are an innocent 17-year-old girl!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.

Live to Virginia, a high school senior goes for back-to-school shopping, never seen again, today first day of school. She`s not at her desk. Mom, working the night shift for the Post Office, tonight desperate to find her little girl, a straight-A student, volleyball team captain, her car abandoned at a nearby cinema. But she didn`t go to a movie. K9s lead police to a large apartment complex directly adjacent to that cinema. At this hour, no sign of the missing girl.

Tonight, where is high school senior Alexis Murphy? Everybody that can hear my voice, take a look at this girl`s picture. She`s absolutely stunning. Today should have been her first day at school, her desk empty. Her mother, working night shift to have more time with her children, wants to know where is her little girl. Well, you know what? We`re going to help her find the answer to that. The tipline 434-263-7050.

Straight out to Jeff Stapleton, reporter with WRVA. Jeff, what happened?

JEFF STAPLETON, WRVA (via telephone): Well, thank you for having me on, Nancy. Her -- she told family and friends she was heading to Lynchburg for back-to-school shopping, and she told her Twitter followers...

GRACE: Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa, Jeff! For all of us that are not native Virginians, did you say Stapleton? (sic) Where is that in relation to where her car was found? And where is her home?

STAPLETON: No, no, no. It`s -- her -- she`s from Nelson County, and she was going to Lovingston to -- for a gas station to fill up before heading to Lynchburg. That`s about 20 minutes from her home...

GRACE: OK, hold on...

STAPLETON: ... Lynchburg is. Lovingston is very close to where she lives. And a couple days after she was reported missing, the gas station released the surveillance video and found that she was there, and that`s the last we`ve seen of her.

GRACE: OK. Hold on. Jeff Stapleton, I`m showing the video right now, the stills that we got from that video. So we know she made it from home, where she lived with her mother -- we know she made it from home as far as the gas station. And you`re telling me, Jeff Stapleton, that she filled up?

STAPLETON: That`s correct. And yes, she filled up. This is the evening of Saturday, August 3rd, which is the last day that anyone`s heard of anything from her (INAUDIBLE)

GRACE: When you say evening, what do you mean by that? Because in the photo, it was daylight.

STAPLETON: OK. Well, the sun hasn`t come out yet but -- or I mean it hasn`t set yet.

GRACE: Right.

STAPLETON: So it`s still -- it`s still daylight.

GRACE: So do you know what time she was there at the gas station? There`s a shot. Everybody, take a look at this huge, honkin` gas station! Look at this thing. Anybody could have been right there, watching this girl filling up, filling up at this local gas station.

Now, take a look at the sign, south 29, west 56, north 29. This is a junction. People coming from various spots turn here. They stop, they go to McDonald`s, they go to this gas station, and what do they see? A beautiful girl filling up her car alone.

All right, so we know she was there, Jeff Stapleton. What else do we know?

STAPLETON: Well, we know that she was driving a white Nissan Maxima. And the call was out, you know, after she was reported missing and the news started coming out, to be on the lookout for this white Nissan Maxima. And then, as I mentioned before, a couple days after she was reported missing, the gas station surveillance video came out that you`re showing right now.

GRACE: OK, now, I`ve got a missing link. Jeff Stapleton with me, WRVA.

Now to Joe Gomez, KRLD. Joe, fill me in. She`s at the gas station, this giant Liberty gas station. The next thing I know, her car is found abandoned at a cinema. She didn`t go to the movies. We`ve already checked. She did not see a movie that evening. What do you know, Gomez?

JOE GOMEZ, KRLD (via telephone): Well, that`s right, Nancy. It`s very bizarre. The whole situation is extraordinarily weird. I mean, the fact that she was -- at some reports, she was even spotted (INAUDIBLE) at this gas station. And as you know, the Liberty cinema says they have no surveillance photos that shows that she ever actually arrived at the cinema.

So what happened between the gas station and the cinema? Well, we know that she worked not too far away from the cinema, but we understand that she had already left work for that day. So what exactly happened, Nancy? Did she meet...

GRACE: OK, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Joe, I`m having a hard time hearing you. Fix the satellite, please, Justin.

Jeff Stapleton, back to you, WRVA. I know this. I believe she was in that car. I believe she did make it to the cinema parking lot, at least to the parking lot. I don`t know if she wanted to go there. This...

STAPLETON: Well...

GRACE: ... cinema -- hold on. This cinema is very close to where she works. She works at a children`s clothing store, Kids to Kids. It`s nearby. Her grandmother`s home is 20 yards from there, in that apartment complex, but she never went in the movie. And I also know that, Stapleton, that K9s led police from her car, through the parking lot, through all the cars, toward one of these apartment complexes adjacent to the cinema. Is that correct, Stapleton?

STAPLETON: That`s correct. And it is also interesting to note that this -- her car was found three days after she was found at the gas station. So this is the 6th of August, which is last Tuesday night. And it`s also interesting because she was headed south to Lynchburg for back- to-school shopping, yet her car was found north in Charlottesville, so...

GRACE: OK, yes, hold! Hold! Hold, Jeff. Let me just soak in this map for a moment. We`ve got the teen`s home. It`s not even a mile away from the gas station, about two miles, little less than two miles from another home we`re looking at.

Now, let me talk to you. Gomez, let me see if I can hear you again. Joe Gomez joining me, KRLD. Her phone pinged. What was the day of the last ping, and where was that?

Do I have Joe Gomez? OK, I guess I don`t. Clark, what do we know?

CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, her cell phone, according to family and reports we`ve seen, pinged around Saturday night around a quarter to 7:00, somewhere in that timeline, right by 29. Law enforcement spotted by multiple local media searching on 29, that area and the woods.

GRACE: All right, Clark, go through the timeline with me. Let`s go from when she went missing to what we know now.

GOLDBAND: You got it. Here`s what we know. About 6:45, she leaves the home, Nancy, to go back-to-school shopping. But before Alexis goes shopping, she stops to gas up at this local gas station. She`s spotted on surveillance. You see her there walking around the gas station, inside paying.

Then the big mystery because it`s not until Tuesday -- keep in mind, this happens on Saturday night. It`s not until Tuesday the car is spotted at the local movie theater. The dogs arrive at the local movie theater, the K9s. And according to reports, they have a scent that takes them to a local apartment complex.

However, we don`t know what`s happened past that scent. Sheriffs, law enforcement tells us that they, in fact, are aware of the scent, but they are not totally focused on that scent alone. Law enforcement desperately seeking tips tonight.

GRACE: Everyone, I`m hearing in my ear we are just now being joined by Laura Ann Murphy. This is Alexis Murphy`s mother, the mom out working the night shift for the Post Office that night. And she was doing this, working the night shift, so she could make the most of the time she had with her children, with her family.

With me right now, Laura Ann Murphy. Ms. Murphy, thank you for being with us.

LAURA ANN MURPHY, MISSING GIRL`S MOTHER (via telephone): You`re welcome.

GRACE: Ms. Murphy, when did you first realize that she was gone?

MURPHY: When I got a phone call from my mother on my way up the road that morning from work about 7:00 o`clock. She said Alexis hadn`t come home, and I assumed that she might have stayed with one of her friends. But when I got home, I was a little tired, so I lay down.

And my mom and my brother -- my mom and my son -- I`m sorry. My mom and my son went out looking for Alexis because I kept calling her cell phone when my mama told me that she hadn`t came home. I kept calling her cell phone and it just kept going to her voicemail. And that`s not like her because she keeps her cell phone with her 24/7. She keeps it charged up. Wherever she goes, she keeps it charged.

And I just kept calling. I stopped, pulled over, and I texted her, and I didn`t get any response, so I assumed that she might (INAUDIBLE) with one of her friends. So when I came home, I laid down to get me a nap because we were supposed to go school shopping that Sunday, too.

And my mom took -- and my son went looking for her. And they came back and said, Look, we -- Alexis is not at the places that she would normally be. That`s when I got up and went to the sheriff`s department to report her missing because it`s not like her to not call in. She always calls in. She calls when she gets there, she calls when she`s leaving. Wherever she goes, she always calls home and let us know that she would be home.

GRACE: With me is Alexis`s mother, Laura Ann Murphy. She worked that night at her night shift for the United Postal Service, comes home, she gets a call from her mother -- this would be Alexis`s grandmother -- going, Alexis isn`t here. Mom thinks she spent the night with her girlfriend, everything`s fine. The next morning, no Alexis.

Let me ask you something, Ms. Murphy. When you first went to the police and told them your daughter was missing, what, if anything, did they say?

MURPHY: They wanted to know how long she had been missing. You know, they wanted to know what she was driving. And once they (INAUDIBLE) and they got right on it there and there. The police officers, they called it in. You know, they started forming -- you know, just getting stuff together to report her missing because...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alexis Murphy vanished, last seen on a surveillance video at a Lovingston gas station.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If anybody know anything, please, please let us know! Please!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators (INAUDIBLE) searching for Alexis by air and combing her neighborhood, looking for answers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traveling on four-wheelers into the woods, armed with tools to dig.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we continue to ask the public to keep calling in with tips.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the small town of Lovingston, there are pink ribbons to remember Alexis and posters with details of her disappearance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re working on bringing you home because we all miss you!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: A high school senior, captain of the volleyball team, straight-A student, even worked at a local kid`s store selling kids` clothing, has gone missing. She leaves the house to go out for back-to- school shopping. She`s never seen again. Her little car turns out in the other direction, abandoned at a local cinema. She wasn`t going to the movies. Why was her car there? She never went to a movie that evening. Her plan was to go for back-to-school shopping.

Today was day one of her senior year. Her desk is empty. Her mother is with us tonight, Mom even working the night shift at the post office in order to spend more time with her children in the daylight hours.

Everyone, tip line, 434-263-7050. This on the heels of the kidnap of 16-year-old Hannah, now Alexis gone. We are taking your calls.

Out to Melissa in Virginia. Hi, Melissa. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, Nancy. I actually have two questions, and I`m hoping that you can maybe get the answers for those. The video or the pictures that have been released by the FBI only show her entering the store. They never show her leaving the store. So I was kind of wondering if maybe there`s photos of Mr. Taylor, you know, at the gas station with her.

And then my second question is, is there the possibility that there could be an accomplice, being that her car was driven to Charlottesville, which is 30 -- about 30 minutes away from Lovingston?

GRACE: OK, keep Melissa on the line. Back to Jeff Stapleton, reporter WRVA. Can you answer any of those questions, Jeff?

STAPLETON: They`re not telling us anything about that. However, I can tell you that Alexis was seen talking to a man at the gas station on Saturday evening. And...

GRACE: Really? Seen talking to a man. Do you have a description?

STAPLETON: No. It`s not clear who the man is. We can assume it`s probably Mr. Taylor, but there`s no actual official word about that.

GRACE: Everyone, you are seeing the last photos of high school senior Alexis Tiara (ph) Murphy, and with us tonight her mother, asking for your help.

Back out to Laura Ann Murphy, Alexis`s mother. Ms. Murphy, that evening, she was going for back-to-school shopping. You say that she always had her cell phone with her. Has her cell phone been recovered?

MURPHY: No, her cell phone has not been recovered.

GRACE: Are you familiar with the area where it last pinged?

MURPHY: Yes.

GRACE: What`s there? Is it a shopping area, industrial? What is it?

MURPHY: No, it`s just houses. It`s houses on both sides of the road. And it`s one business on the side of the road that`s called -- it`s a used car place.

GRACE: A used car place.

MURPHY: Yes. And there`s a store right down from it, another grocery -- another gas station. But it`s just houses down that stretch on both sides of the road.

GRACE: What used car place is it?

MURPHY: I think it`s called Jim`s used cars, used autos.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alexis is very close to her family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Murphy`s coach describes number 9 as a standout.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s very outgoing and athletic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alexis was going to be a leader on this team this year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An innocent 17-year-old girl who has so much promise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our family misses her so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.

Tonight, we are on the search for yet another high school girl gone missing. Today was the first day of her senior year. Her desk is empty. Tonight, her mother is with us, Laura Ann Murphy.

Out Sheryl McCollum, crime analyst, director of the Cold Case Investigative Institute. Sheryl, what do we do?

SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST: The key evidence right now is her car, Nancy. We have three days. We don`t know when the car was taken there. It could have been there for three days or it could have just been taken back.

Were her prints on the steering wheel? Was it wiped clean. Is there any blood in the car? Is there hair from somebody else in the car? Also, are there any tools? Is there a shovel? Is there duct tape, things of that nature?

Where it looks like to me she was parked, the vehicle, is at the corner of that mall. A lot of times, surveillance cameras, when they pan, that corner is a good place to park to hide.

GRACE: Explain. What are you saying about a corner of a parking lot again?

MCCOLLUM: Where she`s parked is not in front of any of the doors where somebody would come in or out. It`s on a corner. So sometimes, when cameras pan, that`s like an open area. It`s a void pattern. See where she`s parked?

GRACE: Yes.

MCCOLLUM: It`s on a corner, and somebody might know that to ditch a car there.

GRACE: Back to her mom, Laura Ann Murphy. Did she use a credit card or an ATM card? Has it been used since she went missing?

MURPHY: She did not have an ATM card or a credit card. The only thing she had on her was cash.

GRACE: What about her cell phone? Do you know the last number called or texted, Ms. Murphy?

MURPHY: Her voicemail. She called her voicemail.

GRACE: She called -- and what time was that?

MURPHY: She called her voicemail to get a message off of it, and that was the last thing.

GRACE: Do you know when that call was, when she checked her voicemail?

MURPHY: I think around about 7:20.

GRACE: 7:20 PM.

OK, let`s talk about Randy Allen (ph) Taylor, Randy Allen Taylor, age 48. A couple of years ago, he came under suspicion when another teen girl goes missing nearby, Samantha Clarke. Look at him.

This guy was the last person known to have been with another teen in the adjoining or nearby county, Samantha Clarke. Her mother worked the night shift. She goes out at night to run an errand. She`s never seen again.

Let me see her picture again, please, Samantha Clarke. On her cell phone, five phone calls from Randy Allen Taylor.

A lot of evidence had to be thrown out because, apparently, cops put a GPS tracker on his car without a warrant. So everything was thrown out because it violated the Constitution. He, five calls to Samantha Clarke just before she goes missing on her way to his trailer. We don`t know why. We don`t know how she was lured there.

Now, what I want to know is, is there a connection between Samantha Clarke and Alexis Murphy? That`s what I want to know.

Let me see his picture again. Tipline -- take a look at this guy. Have any of you seen him in the vicinity where she goes missing? 434-263- 7050.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to say if anyone knows anything about Alexis, I want her to come home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We really have got to get her home. Our family is just struggling with this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The FBI and local authorities searched the home where Taylor lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alexis Murphy vanished, last seen on surveillance video at a Lovingston gas station.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need the public to come forward with any information that you may have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our focus here is to bring attention to Alexis`s disappearance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Murphy is yet to be found.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Where is high school senior Alexis Murphy? She leaves home to go back to school shopping. She`s never seen again. This on the heels of Hannah Anderson being abducted. Every minute tonight counts. Her mother with us with a desperate plea to find her girl. Now, I got a problem. I got a problem with Randy Allen Taylor, because in the county next door, unsolved missing girl, Samantha Clark. High school girl leaves the house to run an errand, never seen again, five phone calls on her cell from him. This grown man. What`s he doing calling a teenage girl? All right? What`s that all about?

Straight back out to Jeff Stapleton, WRZA. Police are just as suspicious of Taylor as I am. What do you know about Taylor, Jeff Stapleton?

JEFF STAPLETON, WRZA: I know he`s been a person of interest in this Samantha Clark case. Samantha Clark lives in Orange County next door to Albemarle County.

GRACE: What is on his neck? Put that back up?

STAPLETON: That`s a Daffy Duck tattoo.

GRACE: What else don`t I--

STAPLETON: It`s a Duffy Duck tattoo, and apparently it`s very recognizable to people who see him.

GRACE: Yes, it certainly is. And it`s not the happy Daffy Duck. It`s the angry Daffy Duck. Back to you, Stapleton. Forget about the tattoos. Give me his rap sheet.

STAPLETON: He`s been no stranger to trouble.

GRACE: Surprise, surprise, surprise.

STAPLETON: Yes. Back in 1992 he was convicted of statutory burglary and grand larceny. His sentence was 4.5 years in prison. And then he was also convicted of an arson case in February of 2005.

GRACE: Let me ask you something. Isn`t it true, isn`t it true that he worked as a handyman at a used car dealership?

STAPLETON: That`s correct.

GRACE: What used car dealership?

STAPLETON: You had mentioned the GPS tracking device that he believes was not put on his car with his permission, he believes the Orange police put -- the town of Orange police put the GPS tracker on his vehicle --

GRACE: What`s the used car station? What used car place?

STAPLETON: He worked at a used car place, I believe in the Charlottesville area.

GRACE: Is it Jim`s Used Auto? That`s what I`m trying to find out. Oh, it`s Rutgersville (ph) car lot. That`s where he does handyman work. Is that what he does, he`s a handyman at a used car place?

STAPLETON: He works various odd jobs from what I understand, and people who know him say he`s a hard worker, quiet man. But he does odd jobs.

GRACE: Quiet. Quiet. You know, I don`t know that I would characterize him just like that, because that evening wasn`t he last seen at one of these adult video lingerie places, whatever that is?

STAPLETON: Right. Video surveillance saw him at a place called Ultimate Bliss, which is a couple of miles from where Alexis Murphy`s car was found at the cinema in Charlottesville, and actually a part-time worker at this particular place says she remembers seeing Mr. Taylor there before, so apparently more than once, a frequent customer at that particular establishment.

GRACE: Did you say he was a frequent customer at Ultimate Bliss store? Exactly what are they selling at Ultimate Bliss, may I ask, Mr. Stapleton?

STAPLETON: It is classified I guess as a sex store.

GRACE: They sell sex?

STAPLETON: Apparently.

GRACE: Don`t they sell like sex toys and videos?

STAPLETON: Sure. Movies, whatever.

GRACE: He bought two videos that night, right?

STAPLETON: And apparently he bought some items at the store.

GRACE: What movies? What did he buy? What did he buy, do we know?

STAPLETON: I don`t know that.

GRACE: Because I would be interested to find out if he`s buying movies about -- that depict, that claim to depict teenage girls. I wonder if that is his interest. Because if you look at the last girl that went missing after six phone calls from him, she`s a teen, dark hair, goes missing. This girl is a teen, dark hair, goes missing.

Unleash the lawyers. Sue Moss, New York, Regina Tsombanakis, Miami. Jeff Gold, defense attorney, New York. Weigh in, Sue Moss.

SUE MOSS, ATTORNEY: They arrested this spawn, but this girl is still gone. That`s a really bad sign. But now the scientific DNA work has got to start. What has to happen everywhere where Taylor was, they`ve got to go in and try to dig up any type of DNA evidence they can, because when we can`t find her and we can`t find a body, we`ve got to do it the old fashioned way, through science.

GRACE: OK. Jeff Gold. I`d like to hear what you have to say about this guy.

JEFF GOLD, ATTORNEY: Look, Nancy. Right now they don`t have enough. They have very, very little. They have this image of him. They know he`s a bad guy. That he has a record. They know that they suspected him about that other girl, Samantha, but they don`t have much more. And unless they`re very careful, they`re going to end up with a Zimmerman, end up with a Joshua Young and an acquittal, so they have to be very, very careful here that they have enough evidence before they move.

GRACE: OK. Let`s back it up. Before you move me, Gold, all the way to the not guilty, can we just go through what we`ve got? Let`s just start with that. Let`s try out Regina Tsombanakis from Miami. Regina, thank you for being with us tonight. Let`s talk about Randy Allen Taylor. Now, you do know that we believe, I believe it was his image at a gas station with Alexis, right?

REGINA TSOMBANAKIS, ATTORNEY: Correct.

GRACE: OK.

TSOMBANAKIS: However it`s not really clear if that`s really him. And there`s been nobody to actually at the gas station come out and testify as to who she was, or make a statement as to who she was speaking to. There`s a lot of people there, and those people should be questioned. You should be trying to track down license plates that were there. Talking to the people that were there. For all we know, she never left the gas station. We don`t know what occurred.

GRACE: Out to the lines, Christy in Georgia, what`s your question, dear?

CALLER: Yes, my question is, anybody question`s Randy`s brother or brought him in on any of the investigation?

GRACE: May I ask you, Christy in Georgia, how you know he`s got a brother?

CALLER: It`s all over the Internet, Facebook, Twitter.

GRACE: I just thought maybe you knew something I didn`t know. You know what? That is a good question. Keep Christy on the line, please. Out to Joe Gomez, investigative reporter, KRLD. Gomez, do I have you? Hi, Joe. Can you hear me, Joe?

JOE GOMEZ, KRLD: I can hear you fine.

GRACE: Great. What do we know about this guy`s brother?

GOMEZ: We don`t know too much about his brother, but as was previously established, we know a lot about Taylor`s rap sheet. He`s had a long criminal history. He`s certainly is not unfamiliar to conflicts with the law, but we don`t know much about his brother, Nancy, at this point.

GRACE: Jeff Stapleton, what do you know about his brother?

STAPLETON: I don`t know anything about his brother. I was not aware that he had one.

GRACE: I want to go back to the lawyers, Sue Moss, Jeff Gold, Regina Tsombanakis. Sue, let`s analyze this. Sue, he`s seen talking to her at the gas station. All right? We know he was prime suspect No. 1 in the disappearance of a teen in the next county, Samantha Clark. It was never solved, her body had never been found. He claims his rights were violated and police planted evidence. And true, it`s been reported they stuck a GPS on his car without a warrant. All right. You know what? That was just stupid. And I don`t allow my children to say the s word, but that was flat out stupid, to do that without -- but, you know what? They were trying to find the girl, they got carried away. Maybe they thought they could save her life. So I`m not going to call foul, all right? It`s not my little girl missing, thank God. But with me tonight is Laura Ann Murphy, and it is her daughter missing. So what do we do, Sue?

MOSS: The only good news is with this arrest, there will be a subpoena fest. They are going to subpoena everywhere. Where he lives, where he works, anyone he was seen with for the last week or so. They are going to go from top to bottom everywhere he`s been, every car he`s been in, and they are going to scrub that for DNA, to try to find clues, to try to help us figure out where he was, where she is, and how we can help her.

GRACE: Back to Alexis`s mother, Laura Ann Murphy. Ms. Murphy, have police looked at her computer? Have they gotten -- I know they don`t have her phone, but have they gotten the content of her text messages? Could this guy, Randy Allen Taylor, could he have been communicating with her?

MURPHY: There`s no evidence of that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To Alexis, if you can see me, if you can hear me, I love you, we all just want you to come home. You know, we`ll never stop looking for you. You will come home. We will find you. And to Randy Taylor, I will not let you take anything else from me. I`m not going to hate you. I`m going to pray for you. And if you know where my niece is, you need to let the authorities know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are live and taking your calls. Out to Melissa. Hi, what`s your question?

CALLER: Hey, Nancy. My question is her car was found abandoned in Charlottesville, which is 30 minutes away from the gas station where she was last seen. So my question is, is the FBI exploring that there`s an accomplice? Because Mr. Taylor would have had to have a ride back to Nelson County, which is again, 30 minutes away from where her car was found.

GRACE: Out to Jeff Stapleton. Can you respond to that? You know the area much better than we do.

STAPLETON: I can. That is -- she`s right. It`s a half-hour north of where her -- where she was last seen at the gas station in Lovingston. The police are really not giving a lot of details as far as whether or not there are other people. But I can rest assured that they`re looking into that. You would think that`s a legitimate question as to is he acting alone, and that`s a question that a lot of people are asking right now, if he`s the only one or if there`s somebody else.

GRACE: Out to Brian Russell, forensic psychologist joining me out of Lawrence, Kansas. Brian, thank you for being with us. You`ve taken a look at this guy`s history. What do you see?

BRIAN RUSSELL, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: You know, Nancy, unfortunately, what we know is people who have the capacity, people who have it in them to commit the kinds of crimes that this guy is alleged to have committed, they tend to commit them repeatedly, and they tend to escalate in their violence and lethality until they`re stopped. Unfortunately, we`ve got him in custody now, but people like this tend to be profoundly self-interested. And so the question is how do you get him to divulge whatever information he might have about where this girl is. And the only way to do that, Nancy, is to make it somehow be in his best interest to do so. So until he thinks that they`re on the verge of finding her anyway and somehow divulging what he knows will end up getting him some kind of a better deal, he may keep himself tight-lipped, unfortunately.

GRACE: Do we know where he lives, Joe Gomez?

GOMEZ: Yes, we do, Nancy. In fact, they arrested Mr. Taylor at his home, apparently without incident. So he did not put up much of a fight. So we know where he lives. We also understand that police went with shovels around the area where he lived. They taped off his residence. They looked around the area trying to search for any pieces of evidence or a body or anything like that. So, yes, we do know where he lives.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Well, he lives directly across from where he worked. Isn`t that correct?

GOMEZ: That`s correct.

GRACE: OK. Does he live in a home or does he live in a trailer?

GOMEZ: I understand he lives in a home. And police, now know, went through his house. They (inaudible) arrested him, they got a warrant, they went through his house to find any pieces of evidence, but then afterwards they released the crime scene, and they (inaudible) all the tape and so forth. So that tells me that this man isn`t speaking. Why is he not talking? What does he have to hide?

GRACE: Got you.

GOMEZ: If he truly is the abductor of this beautiful 17-year-old girl--

GRACE: Out to the lines. Sally in Virginia. Hi, Sally, what`s your question?

CALLER: It`s not a question. I`m from that area, and the terrain there is so treacherous, you can`t even get cell phone service. And I think that was the problem with pinging her phone for those two days. I`m actually best friends with her cousin, Ira (ph), and it`s tearing her family apart.

GRACE: What do you know? What can you tell us, Sally?

CALLER: Just that the aunts are being very strong. The mother I think is doing as best as she can. And that`s about it. But the terrain there is just -- you go miles and can`t get cell phone service with any provider.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to say, if anyone knows anything about Alexis, I want her to come home so --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We want her home too. Today would have been the first day of her high school senior year. On the heels of Hannah Anderson being abducted, tonight another teenage girl. This girl, Alexis Murphy, goes out for back to school shopping, never seen again. Tonight with us her mother, Laura Ann Murphy, begging for your help. To Dr. Vincent DiMaio, forensic pathologist. What are we looking for in her car, and what are we looking for in his car? And DiMaio, wait until you see his car. I`ve never seen anything like it. Let`s see it, Justin. Go ahead, DiMaio.

DR. VINCENT DIMAIO, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: DNA. You want to check her car, steering wheel, and the headrest, and perhaps the mirrors for DNA. People don`t understand if you put your hands on a steering wheel and you sweat a little, you`re going to deposit DNA.

GRACE: So your sweat does emit DNA. What about tears? Do they have DNA in them, DiMaio?

DIMAIO: What? In what?

GRACE: Tears.

DIMAIO: Tears?

GRACE: Uh-huh.

DIMAIO: In their cells, yes. A very trace amount. Because you would lose some cells in any fluid coming from the body.

GRACE: But definitely from sweat when you touch a steering wheel.

DIMAIO: Yes. When it`s sweat, your hands are going to be sliding across and you`re being -- depositing cells. And they can do swabs and they will pick it up. People don`t realize that just touching the wheel, you can deposit DNA.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: We remember American hero, Army Staff Sergeant Dave Weigle (ph). 29, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal. Father Raymond, wife Michaela, son Tristan. Dave Weigle, American hero.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was like my heart had been ripped out. My heart just ripped out. Someone called me, I was like I hope that`s her. I look at my phone hoping it`s her. Even the day she went missing, I just--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Straight out to the director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, Sheryl McCollum. Cheryl, you`ve got to know about the other girl, Samantha Clark. Her mother says no way would her daughter have had anything to do with this guy, Randy Allen Taylor. He had to be disguising himself as somebody else to get her to go to his trailer. And I bet he was doing the same thing here.

SHERYL MCCOLLUM, COLD CASE INVESTIGATIVE RESEARCH INST.: There`s no question. Because they had to have some prior involvement. Because he had her cell number. The other issue, Nancy, they`re going to do what they call a parallel investigation. They`re going to be running both these investigations now at the same time. You and I have both worked enough of these cases, we know good and well nobody starts kidnapping and potentially sexually assaulting at his age. He`s got other victims out there.

GRACE: Sheryl, you`re right. Again. Unleash the lawyers. Moss, Gold, Tsombanakis. Out to you, Jeff Gold. Why isn`t he talking? If he`s innocent, why isn`t he telling police why he was having a conversation with this girl at the gas station?

GOLD: Well, he has a right not to talk.

GRACE: I didn`t ask you that. I know the Constitution.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: I know the Constitution.

GOLD: -- a sex shop. He had a burglary conviction. Come on. There`s nothing --

GRACE: A burglary conviction? Tsombanakis, that`s the tip of the iceberg. He`s got a rap sheet as long as I-75. A burglary conviction? Your name is not Tsombanakis, is it? Isn`t your name Jeff Gold?

GOLD: Yes, ma`am.

GRACE: All right. Regina, if he has nothing to hide, why isn`t he talking?

TSOMBANAKIS: Well, he`s already had a bad run-in with the police. And Taylor doesn`t strike me as a genius. So how is it that no proof has come out that he`s been involved with Samantha Clark definitively? This guy doesn`t seem like he`s that intelligent to be eluding all of law enforcement for years. And now you`re going to do a parallel investigation with Samantha Clark? That was three years ago.

GRACE: You know what? I`ve heard that he`s too stupid to commit this type of crime before. And out to you, Sue Moss. That`s just the type of person that commits a crime like this.

MOSS: Absolutely. There was proof.

(CROSSTALK)

MOSS: There was proof with Samantha Clark. It was thrown out because there was a constitutional violation. But remember, Virginia`s a death penalty state. And if this guy doesn`t start speaking, he`s going to seal his fate.

GRACE: We can only pray tonight and help police. Tip line 434-263- 7050. Tonight, as we go to break, happy birthday to superstar Anita. Mother, grandmother, you`d never believe it. Happy birthday, beautiful friend. And special good night from Georgia and Texas friends Leigh and Shannon. Aren`t they a beautiful pair? Ladies, thank you for being with us. Everyone, Dr. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night. 8:00 sharp Eastern, where we will continue the search for Alexis. Until then, good night, friend.

END