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Nancy Grace
Hannah`s Mother and Brother Tortured?; Hannah Anderson Speaking Out; Search for Missing High School Senior
Aired August 15, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, San Diego suburbs, nationwide Amber Alert after a girl`s mother and 8-year-old little brother found burning dead in the fiery rubble of uncle Jim`s home, kidnapper 40- year-old computer expert, uncle James Lee "Jim" Dimaggio.
Then, miracle, 16-year-old Hannah found alive, rescued in a James Bond-type helicopter move on top of a mountain, James Lee "Jim" Dimaggio shot dead by the feds.
Bombshell tonight. In the last hours, we obtain the truth, the truth from the FBI detailing Dimaggio`s twisted scheme, luring the girl and her family, torturing Hannah`s mother and her 8-year-old little brother, leaving them both tied with rope to burn alive in Dimaggio`s log cabin home, then forcing his love object, 16-year-old Hannah, up the side of Idaho`s Cascade Mountains in nothing but her pajamas. Also tonight, Hannah`s horrific ordeal in her own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A terrifying week on the run with her captor, James Dimaggio.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Why didn`t you run?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "He would have killed me."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awful, harrowing week...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixteen-year-old Hannah Anderson recuperating from a hellish experience.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taken to social media, sharing details about her kidnapping (INAUDIBLE) help cope with her pain..
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "He tricked us."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "How did he separate you from your mom and brother?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "He tied them up in the garage."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grisly new details are surfacing. Police say they found a crowbar and what appeared to be blood on the ground next to Christina Anderson`s body.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I will never forgive myself for not trying harder to save them."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The daring rescue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dimaggio had a shoulder weapon, fired once. FBI agents returned lethal fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hannah in close proximity to her captor when he was gunned down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An Idaho coroner says he was shot at least five times.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Are you glad he`s dead?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Absolutely."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Threats leveled against her by Dimaggio.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hannah wrote Dimaggio threatened to kill her if she fled.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "He would have killed me."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Did he make you help him put the tree branches on his car?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Yes, he threatened me if I didn`t help."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As for why Dimaggio committed such horrible acts, Hannah says he`s, quote, "psycho."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, live, Virginia, a high school senior goes back-to- school shopping, never seen again. Mom works the night shift at the post office, desperate to find her little girl, a straight-A volleyball team captain, her car abandoned at a nearby cinema, but Alexis didn`t go to the movies.
As we go to air tonight, forensics don`t lie, high school senior Alexis`s hair found in the home of prime suspect 48-year-old white male Randy Taylor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seventeen-year-old Alexis Murphy left to go back-to- school shopping in Lynchburg and never returned home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mike Callahan (ph), the man representing Randy Taylor, says his client wasn`t the last person with Alexis Murphy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Met this missing girl at the Liberty gas station by coincidence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alexis Murphy vanished, last seen on surveillance video at a Lovingston gas station.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She made a comment to him about smoking marijuana.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So now she`s a good Samaritan, attempting to put together a drug deal? I think it`s an outrageous story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were just sitting in the parking lot, watching.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If someone looked like tat, she would never have a conversation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: According to him, Alexis helps, apparently, set up a drug deal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the drug deal went down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight, San Diego suburbs, 16-year-old Hannah found alive, rescued in a James Bond-type helicopter move on the top of a mountain, James Lee "Jim" Dimaggio shot dead by the feds.
Well, in the last hours, we finally get the truth from the FBI, FBI documents that detail Dimaggio`s twisted scheme, luring the girl and her family, torturing Hannah`s mother and 8-year-old brother, leaving them tied with rope to burn alive in his own log cabin home, driving away with the little girl, the object of his sex obsession, 16-year-old Hannah, and then detonating his log cabin home.
He`s about to lose it to foreclosure. Didn`t bother him if he blew it up. But he blew it up with Hannah`s mother, her 8-year-old brother and the family dog inside that log cabin. All the while, Hannah having no idea what was happening to her family. And we hear in her own words tonight, she describes what happened.
Straight out, first of all, to Mark Evans, morning anchor, KOGO. What do these documents detail? He is the devil. He`s the devil!
MARK EVANS, KOGO (via telephone): Nancy, the depravity of Dimaggio just keeps getting worse and worse. This story has so many twists and turns.
You mentioned these search warrants that have been released by law enforcement. Tina Anderson, the mother of Hannah, the wife of Dimaggio`s best friend, was tortured, this according to police, who refused to go into detail about the torture. They used that language, though. They say that she was tortured.
Her body was found in Dimaggio`s garage, face down with a green tarp covering her, a crowbar next to her, and what police say was blood near her head. Their dog, the name Callie (ph), was found shot to death, and the dog was under a sleeping bag. Both bodies burned in Dimaggio`s garage.
Meantime, they find little Ethan, Hannah`s 8-year-old brother, in the house, burned beyond recognition. It took several days to determine whether or not, indeed, that was Ethan.
GRACE: Out to legal correspondent Jean Casarez. Jean, I can hardly take it in. Little Ethan is just about a year-and-a-half older than my twins. And what kind of a monster would burn the mother and the little brother alive just so he could get 16-year-old Hannah off on his own, forcing her up the side of some mountain? It`s just horrific.
How have they determined, and what exactly have they determined, Jean -- based on what we`ve learned from the FBI, what happened in that log cabin?
JEAN CASAREZ, HLN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that they`re doing testing now, but I think our common sense and our knowledge of forensics can tell us that, at least with the mother and with the dog, the blood that was found right next to the head of the mother and the crowbar shows that she was alive, and that crowbar could have been the torture that they are now saying happened to this woman. And then subsequently, the fire burned and charred a dead body.
GRACE: You know what I really resent, Jean Casarez? You know what I really resent? People suggesting that 16-year-old Hannah was part of this. She says she has -- she has been completely debriefed by the FBI. They have combed over -- I`ve got -- look at all these warrants I`ve read through here. I mean, it`s stacks and stacks of documents. They found phone calls between Hannah and Dimaggio, about 13 of them, that day.
But the reality is -- isn`t it true, Matt Zarrell, that he lured them to his log cabin home that day? That`s obviously what all the phone calls were about.
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, Hannah answered some questions on a social media site and actually wrote that, He told us he was losing his house because of money issues, so we went up there one last time to support him and to have fun riding go-carts up there, but he tricked us.
GRACE: Now, what I`ve got right here is called a telephonic search warrant. And this goes through all of their phone calls, all of their records. All with me is the warrant that the feds used, the FBI used to go into the home.
Back to you, Mark Evans, KOGO. What did we learn from the search of his home, of his log cabin, his obscure log cabin, his dream home? In fact, he used to live with Hannah and her family. They let him stay there while he saved money to get this log cabin home. It was his dream home.
He burned it all down to try to get a 16-year-old girl up the side of a mountain, Mark Evans.
EVANS: Yes, amazing what he went through to do this. And what`s interesting about this is that he would go on day trips with Hannah, most recently to Malibu. He took her to Hollywood.
Now, she claims, when she was talking on that Web site, Ask.fm, answering questions, that she did this because she didn`t want to create a rift between her family`s best friend, and she went along with it.
Now, we`re learning that phone records are indicating that there were 13 separate calls placed between Hannah and Dimaggio on the day her mother and brother were killed. She was at cheerleading practice. She was picked up at 4:00 PM that day, and that is the time the signal on both cell phones went dead. They were shut off. And it begs the question, why so many calls placed between the two on that day?
GRACE: Well, Mark Evans, obviously, he was trying to lure the family there. I`ve had a lot of speculation that this girl was somehow involved in this whole, horrific plot. And I am willing to stake my career on it, that this girl was not part of the plot to torture and burn her own mother and little brother and family dog alive.
Matt Zarrell, what else did we learn about the home from the FBI documents?
ZARRELL: Well, Nancy, one thing is that they did not find the mother`s body until the fire broke out in the detached garage. When they went over to put the fire out in the detached garage, the fire captain noticed the tarp and noticed a pair of human feet sticking out...
GRACE: What? What, what, what did you just say?
ZARRELL: He noticed a pair of human feet sticking out underneath a green tarp.
GRACE: Wait. OK, wait. Wa-wait. Wa-wait. Let me get my head around what you just said, Matt Zarrell. So feds are there and they see human feet sticking out from under a tarp?
ZARRELL: Yes. Correct.
GRACE: What can you tell me about some type of a detonation -- detonation device, Jean Casarez?
CASAREZ: This is interesting because Hannah started responding to some questions on line, and what she has said is that in actuality, that the fire was set to go off at a certain time. She must have learned this from Dimaggio herself. She said her mother and brother were tied up together in the garage, and that as she and Dimaggio were on the road to what she now knows is Idaho, that that trigger went off, and that`s when the fire broke out.
GRACE: Oh! Oh! And the child now forced by Dimaggio to believe that somehow, she should have saved her mother and her little brother`s life. And this just broke my heart when I learned the girl stated that she thought her mother would be the first one out there looking for her, only to learn her mother had been brutally murdered in this monster`s attempt to get the 16-year-old girl to himself. The feds find, according to these documents, burned hair, blood next to the little dog, Callie.
Out to the lines. Nicole in California. Hi, Nicole. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Miss Grace. It`s an honor to speak with you.
GRACE: Likewise.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you think the mother was thinking, giving such access, a grown man, to a 16-year-old daughter like that, having her cell phone number, being able to pick her up from cheerleading practice? I don`t think that the daughter had anything to do with this, but I`m shocked that the mother allowed such access to her 16-year-old...
GRACE: You know what, Nicole?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, ma`am?
GRACE: You know what? I think, on the outside looking in, that that may be a lot of people`s opinions, what you`re just saying. And we`re now questioning the mom`s every move.
But out to Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst and author of "Dealbreakers." You know, Bethany, the girl said that she didn`t want to tell her mother how horrible she felt about spending time with this freak because he was the mom and the dad`s best friend.
They trusted him implicitly. I believe that the mother thought it was just fine. I mean, she`s a working mom. The daughter is involved in cheerleading and all sorts of activities. She`s like, Oh, Uncle Jim can pick her up. Thank goodness. You know? She probably in her mind thought, This is wonderful. My daughter can do all these activities. She`s making great grades. She`s doing so well. And this is a ride for her. This is a way that I can make all of this possible for her.
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: And Nancy, you know because you`re a church attender, it`s a wonderful thing to be a part of a community and to have other adults love your child and to feel that there`s that social support there. And that`s probably what this mother thought. Here`s another adult who loves my child, and she was grateful for it.
She never thought that such a heinous, horrible thing was going on. It`s undigestible and incomprehensible to think that this man was such a monster. She couldn`t conceive of it.
GRACE: Tonight, we get from the horse`s mouth, the feds, the FBI, inside the twisted thinking of James Lee "Jim" Dimaggio, now shot dead and his attempt to lure away a 16-year-old girl.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: James Dimaggio tortured Hannah`s mother and brother before killing them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The documents say he lifted the tarp and saw the bottom half of a human torso, legs and feet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The crowbar was next to the mother`s body.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is a victim in every sense of the word in this horrific crime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sharing details about her kidnapping on social media. A user asked, "Did you want to go with Dimaggio?" She replied, "No, not at all." "Why didn`t you run?" "He would have killed me."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Why didn`t you tell your parents he creeped you out?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "In part, he was my dad`s best friend and I didn`t want to ruin anything between them."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining me tonight live and taking your questions, a very dear friend connected to the family, Dawn MacNabb. She has confirmed that these postings on the Web site Ask.fm are the girl speaking out about what she endured.
Take a listen to what Hannah had to say about her horrific ordeal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "So your mom and Ethan were just at his house for no reason, and the thing went off and they caught on fired and burned?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "He told us he was losing his house because of money issues, so we went up there one last time to support him and to have fun riding go-carts up there, but he tricked us."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "How did he keep the fire a secret?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "He had set it where it would catch on fire at a certain time."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Where were you when the fire went off?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "On the road to Idaho."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "What things did you lose in the fire?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "My family, phone, iPod, my dog, my ID, some money."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Dawn MacNabb. Ms. MacNabb, thank for being with us.
DAWN MACNABB, MOTHER OF FRIEND OF HANNAH`S (via telephone): Thank you.
GRACE: How can you confirm that this is Hannah`s own account of what happened?
MACNABB: Well, I think most people know my son is really great friends with Hannah. They`ve been friends since 5th grade. And I was contacted by other media asking me if it was accurate. And I was concerned that it was not her. And my son was up in the Bay Area, so I contacted him and I said, Look, they want to know if this is her, is it her posting the information? Is it true? And he did confirm more than once that it is her and it was her words. He did encourage her to...
GRACE: Dawn, question. Do you believe, and if so why, that Hannah is in denial about what has happened to her mother and brother?
MACNABB: I believe she understands they`re not here. It`s my thought that she`s in some form of shock and really doesn`t grasp the magnitude of what`s transpired. And I think that would be understandable and normal in this sort of situation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to newly released unsealed arrest warrants, James Dimaggio lured her mom and 8-year-old brother, Ethan, to his home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dimaggio tortured and killed his best friend`s wife and 8-year-old son.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 16-year-old went on line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: After a miracle recovery of 16-year-old Hannah, tonight we hear what happened on the top of that mountain in her own words.
With me, a dear family friend, Dawn MacNabb. Dawn confirms these are postings by Hannah. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Did he tell you that he had a crush on you, or was that just a rumor?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Yes, he did. He said it was more of a family crush, like he had feelings, as in he wanted nothing bad to happen to me."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Are you sure you didn`t want to be with him? I mean, in Hollywood, you guys roomed together."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "No, we didn`t. We stayed at my godfather`s house."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Why didn`t you tell your parents he creeped you out?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "In part, he was my dad`s best friend and I didn`t want to ruin anything between them."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Dawn MacNabb is with us, a family friend. What this child, this 16-year-old girl, has gone through -- and it broke my heart, Ms. MacNabb, when she told the feds, I thought my mom would be the first one out there looking for me, only to come back and discover her mother was burned alive in this monster`s attempt to get Hannah to himself.
MACNABB: And what is your question?
GRACE: Tell me how you believe Hannah is doing.
MACNABB: I think Hannah`s coping the best she can. I spoke with her father, and he said it`s hour to hour. I mean, things are obviously pretty rough right now. There are so many things to cope with on so many levels for so many people, and it just can`t be easy.
My son and Hannah are going to connect tonight for the first time at 4:00 o`clock, and we are really looking forward to that. And we want to move forward into a more normal sense of life. I know Hannah`s got a huge recovery ahead of her. It`ll never be forgotten. And not only Hannah but her mother was a wonderful human being and mom, and little Ethan was a sweetie and -- don`t want them forgotten.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Documents say Hannah Anderson was picked up from cheerleading practice at about 1600 hours.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He begged the family to come up for one last visit. His house was being foreclosed on.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Her phone was turned off at about 4:00.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He told us he was losing his house because of money issues, so we went up there one last time to support him. And to have fun riding go-carts up there. But he tricked us.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Odyssey through at least four states.
MARQUEZ: Deep in Idaho`s River of No Return wilderness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn`t fit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was -- kind of had a scared look on her face.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It appeared that DiMaggio had geared up for weeks before, buying camping equipment to go into the wilderness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he tell you where he was going or what was going to happen?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All he told me was my job was to get him to the river.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: Bombshell tonight. Hannah Anderson was found alive, a miracle in itself. Tonight, we get the truth from the FBI about what happened to 16-year-old Hannah during her ordeal and the plight of her mother and 8-year-old little brother, Ethan. Both bound, tied up, tortured, and burned alive in DiMaggio, Uncle Jim`s, log cabin home.
Out to Jean Casarez, our HLN legal correspondent.
Jean, what did we learn about the evidence the feds found at the home?
JEAN CASAREZ, HLN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, we`ve learned a lot through this unsealing. We don`t know yet what the cause of death is, but let`s look at the facts. In the garage, authorities saw a glow and they saw some smoke. They went in and they found a body facedown, a tarp was over it. They saw the legs, they saw the feet, and they saw the hair, Nancy, was attached to the tarp, because of the fire that was breaking out.
Also, the dog, a dog was dead inside a sleeping bag. But there was blood next to the body and the dog, so they were alive at one point, but I don`t know that they died because of fire inhalation or because of the trauma of the crowbar that was next to what we now know is Hannah`s mother.
GRACE: Matt Zarrell, what do we know about that?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: Well, Nancy, we know that when Hannah was asked in her question and answer session if her family was burned live, she answered, yes, they were.
GRACE: Let`s hear what happened in Hannah`s own words. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he rape you?
ANDERSON: I`m not allowed to talk about it, so don`t ask questions about it. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did he separate you from your mom and brother?
ANDERSON: He tied them up in the garage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know why he did it?
ANDERSON: Because he`s psycho.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he tell you where he was going or what was going to happen?
ANDERSON: All he told me was my job was to get him to the river.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he make you help him put the tree branches on his car?
ANDERSON: Yes, he threatened me if I didn`t help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he take you because he loved you and wanted to be with you?
ANDERSON: No, he took me to basically use me to carry his (EXPLETIVE DELETED) to the river.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he take you because he wanted to be with you or out of hate?
ANDERSON: He took me to get him to the river. I had to carry 50-pound backpacks up mountains, back and forth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you talk to hikers when you were in the woods? Because the news said that the hikers said that you were calm.
ANDERSON: I had to act calm. I didn`t want them to get hurt. I was scared he would kill them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What were you doing when they found you?
ANDERSON: Sitting on the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Mary in Virginia. Hi, Mary. What`s your question?
MARY, CALLER FROM VIRGINIA: Hi, Nancy. Real quickly, I just want to say that I belong to a group on Facebook that`s named after you. It`s 2500 members.
GRACE: Thank you so much. And thank you to every single one of those members. Thank you.
MARY: Yes, we have been showcasing her -- Hannah and actually her great aunt is one of our members of the group.
GRACE: Wow. Wow. Now, dear, do you have a question?
MARY: Yes. It`s a comment. I agree with you -- with your comment about that we got to remember who is the adult here and who was the child, and DiMaggio was an adult who was a pedophile and was grooming Hannah and played the part of the fun uncle and eventually was trying to groom her to lure her to become part of his sick dream of having a relationship with her.
GRACE: You know, Mary in Virginia, I think you`re right.
Out to Marc Klaas, president and founder of KlaasKids Foundation, I have many, many child molestations were the perp would be a friend of the family, so to speak, and would groom, as she -- Mary in Virginia is saying, the child. I remember one of the first ones I had, it was a learning disabled child and the perp would give the little boy rolls of coins to play videos with and befriended him, and then proceeded to molest him. So that`s not uncommon.
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: No. In fact, the majority, the vast majority of children that are sexually abused are abused by somebody that is in a trusted position. It`s either a relative, a close friend, it can be a coach, it can be a religious leader, it can be anybody in a number of positions, but what these guys do is they put themselves in a position of trust.
They try to create an environment where they could have unsupervised access to the children, and that`s when the damage gets done. So this whole thing kind of turns the stranger-danger concept on its ear. It`s never been about strangers, really, except in a few instances. What it is, is about people that gain your trust and then betray you and abuse your children.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Alexis Murphy, 17 years old, no sign of her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We continue to hope that Alexis will be found safe and returned to her family.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This guy, Randy Taylor, is in custody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have him charged with simple abduction.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, he`s got an explanation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had indicated to her that he would like to get some more. She said, I know a guy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know for a fact that if someone looked like that, she would never have a conversation with him.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Allahan (ph) says Alexis and the unknown man left before sundown, separate cars, and Taylor hasn`t seen them since.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Doesn`t seem like it`s a coincidence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I look at him I just see a monster. I just see evilness. I know you know, where is she?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You know, this whole week, we have been in an uproar because my little twins went back to school this week, starting kindergarten. This little girl was starting her high school senior year. She went out for back-to-school shopping, never seen again. Her mother has come on our program multiple times, begging to help find her girl. And tonight, the prime suspect is set to walk. He`s got a bond hearing coming up.
And let me tell you something, people, forensics don`t lie. This girl`s hair, high school senior, Alexis` hair, is found in his home. And he makes up some cockamamie story that they were all sitting around, smoking pot together? Uh-huh. Absolutely not.
Straight out to Dave Mack, syndicated talk show host.
Dave, why is he up for bond, number one? And number two, so he won`t talk to police and help us find this girl, but he`ll come up with some BS story about pot?
DAVE MACK, MORNING TALK SHOW HOST, CLEAR CHANNEL WAAX RADIO: Nancy, when I heard this crazy story, and I thought, please, don`t make me have to figure out what he`s lying about. His attorney is saying, since he`s only accused of abduction and he`s not accused of murder and the actual penalty is only 10 years on abduction, that he deserves to have the right to be out on bail while they`re investigating, instead of having to sit behind bars until January.
But they found her hair in his trailer. A place she would never go with this guy. He has just concocted this whole story that doesn`t makes any sense. It`s the bushy haired stranger story that every cop in America knows. It`s crazy and it`s sick we have to talk about it. I feel so sad for this family.
GRACE: To Clark Goldband, how does he describe the unknown male that he just invites into his home to smoke weed?
CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: According to the attorney, Nancy, it`s an African-American male in his early --
GRACE: Please stop. It`s just like Susan Smith. Blame the black guy. OK.
GOLDBAND: African-American --
GRACE: Who does he say -- and so this girl, this little girl, what`s his story? How does she hook him up with the pot dude?
GOLDBAND: Here`s what the attorney is saying in local reports. Taylor is there, pumping -- trying to buy some cigarettes at the gas station. The girl is pumping her gas. Taylor remembers her from a car wash where they supposedly spoke about marijuana, and says, hey, I need marijuana.
Taylor`s attorney claims that`s when Taylor and the girl drove in separate cars to find this African-American drug dealer, according to Taylor. The three of them then drive over to Taylor`s house, he buys about $60 of marijuana, but makes a point to say the girl does not smoke or drink.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers joining me tonight, Atlanta defense lawyer, she represents a lot of dope dealers, all right? I`m not talking about an addict that gets high on a doobie, I`m talking about dope dealers. The kind that you don`t want in your school district, that kind of person.
No offense, Renee, but you do.
Also with me, Lewis Gainor, defense attorney out of Chicago.
All right. So, Renee, his lawyer says he`s not behind bars on murder, so he should walk free. Well, hello, he`s behind bars on kidnapping a high school senior girl and he thinks he should walk free? And he`s got this cockamamie story about why her hair is in his home? He didn`t know her. She wouldn`t go to his home.
RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: And that`s what you`re saying, but that`s not what he`s saying, Nancy. He`s bondable. It is a kidnapping, not a homicide. And for any other reason, he could make a bond. He`s not a flight risk.
GRACE: What do you mean "for any other reason"?
ROCKWELL: Well, why should he stay in jail --
GRACE: How about danger to the community? Did you forget that prong of the bond regulations?
ROCKWELL: OK, Nancy --
GRACE: If you are a danger to community, a danger to a witness, or to yourself, you don`t get bond. He`s a danger. Have you seen his rap sheet?
What about it, Gainor?
LEWIS GAINOR, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You should let him go. Listen to what you`re saying. Is this even America anymore? He`s got a right to a trial. He`s presumed innocent. This isn`t Guantanamo Bay.
GRACE: They can have a trial.
GAINOR: We`re not going to hold him indefinitely.
GRACE: After he sits his behind in jail and waits on it. I`m not saying he shouldn`t have a trial. He absolutely should have a trial before he gets the death penalty.
ROCKWELL: Nancy, do you know when the prelim is set for?
GRACE: No.
ROCKWELL: January.
GRACE: So?
ROCKWELL: So they`ve locked him up, but they can`t even have a preliminary hearing until January?
GRACE: Yes.
ROCKWELL: And because the hair is in the trailer --
GRACE: And you know why? Because he won`t talk and tell them what -- you know what, Miss Rockwell, Mr. Gainor, no offense, you both have excellent reputations as defense attorneys, but let me go to Alexis` mother, Laura Ann Murphy.
Miss Murphy, working the night shift at the post office so she can spend more time with her children in daylight hours, reminds me so much of my dad working the night shift on the railroad.
You know, Miss Murphy, did you hear his story about why Alexis` hair is found in his home?
LAURA ANN MURPHY, MOTHER: Yes, I did.
GRACE: I`d love to hear your response to that.
MURPHY: That is a lie. Alexis would never go there with him. I mean, his story just got so many holes in it that if he knew that we`d been looking for Alexis, why did he wait a whole week to come forward?
GRACE: That`s an excellent point, Miss Murphy. He knows that you guys are turning that county upside down, trying to find your girl. And he sits behind bars for a week before he goes, oh, yes, right, right, oh, that girl. Yes, she was over here getting high on weed. You know, uh-uh. Uh- huh.
To Dr. Joshua Perper, former chief medical examiner, Broward County, Florida.
Dr. Perper, I can`t tell you what a pleasure it is to have you back on the air waves. Thank you so much for being with us.
Dr. Perper, what can we learn from the hair found in the prime suspect`s home?
DR. JOSHUA PERPER, MEDICAL EXAMINER, AUTHOR OF "WHEN DOCTORS KILL": Because they said that they identified the hair belonging to the missing girl. Obviously, they had to have the root of the hair, the bulb of the hair, because from the bulb of the hair, it`s possible to extract DNA. And if they have some DNA from brushes of the missing girl, they can match it, and they can determine that, indeed, it is the DNA of the missing girl.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Alexis is very close to her family.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Murphy`s coach describes number nine as a standout.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s very outgoing and athletic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alexis was going to be a leader on this team.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to C.W. Jensen, retired police captain, joining me out of Arizona.
C.W., thanks for being with us. As we go to air, we also learn that cell phones have been found in the general area of where the last ping was on her cell phone.
Let`s see that map, please, Justin. What do you make of that? What can we learn if one of those are hers?
C.W. JENSEN, RETIRED PORTLAND POLICE CAPTAIN: Well, certainly, it`s interesting that there are one or two phones, and there obviously, they already have her phone records and things like that, but it would show that, one, you know, she may have tossed it, it may have been tossed, but certainly she didn`t do that herself. No girl is going to go and just throw her phone. So it`s just one more thing that shows, you know, she was dragged off involuntarily.
And, you know, this guy`s story, you know, it`s like the grassy knoll theory. Every crook I ever arrested, there was always some other guy he didn`t know that really did it. And this guy just -- he stinks.
GRACE: Put up Rockwell and Gainor, please, my defense attorneys joining us tonight.
You know, Miss Rockwell and Mr. Gainor, no offense but what Jensen just said is absolutely true. I`ve never heard one felony defendant that once he started talking, didn`t come up with a whole line of BS. We even, all this, oh, yes, yes, I met her at a car wash and we were talking about weed. Just trying to explain -- I`ll tell you what happened, Renee. The forensics came in, and his lawyer said, hey, man, her hair`s in your place.
How that happen?
ROCKWELL: How you going to explain that, right?
GRACE: And then they concocted up a story. That`s what he did.
ROCKWELL: And Nancy, what do you call it, SOD? Some other dude?
GRACE: Yes.
ROCKWELL: Nancy, granted he`s a creep.
GRACE: Some other dude.
ROCKWELL: He`s a creep. I`ll put it out there.
GRACE: He`s a felon.
ROCKWELL: But there -- there could be another creep that`s got this girl. Just because there`s a hair there, doesn`t mean there isn`t another creep.
GRACE: What about it, Gainor?
GAINOR: She`s right. Listen, Nancy, the fact that there`s a hair in his residence doesn`t mean anything. There`s a hair in every taxi cab in Chicago. So somebody goes missing. What are you going to do?
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: But it doesn`t belong to Alexis.
GAINOR: Round everybody up --
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We remember American hero, Army Specialist Joseph Pentler, just 20 years old, Finwick, Michigan. Parents, Tammy and Joseph, brother, Dakota.
Joseph Pentler, American hero.
Everyone, back to the search for Alexis Murphy.
Back out to you, Dave Mack, syndicated talk show host. What more do we know about the discovery of that cell phone?
MACK: Well, Nancy, you know, they`ve sealed everything and they`re keeping it quiet. What we do know is that they found more than one cell phone. We know that the last time that cell phone pinged, it was right there near this guy`s property, and that`s what led them there and now they`ve just got to determine which one is Alexis`.
GRACE: Everyone, the tip line, 434-263-7050.
Everyone, as we go to break, Labor Day, coming up, we celebrate a very special group of workers, working moms. Are you a working mom? Do you know one who deserves recognition for hard work at home and at work?
I want to hear from you. Send us a video, explaining why you or your loved one is the best working mom in America. Five videos with the most votes win my signature handcuff necklace, earrings, T-shirts, the works.
Details, go to Nancygrace.com. After you go to the Web site, send in those videos.
Everyone, I want to thank you again for being with us tonight. And before we go to break again, a special good night from one of the best court reporters in the world, Evelyn.
Dr. Drew up next. Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp, Eastern, where we will continue our search for high school senior Alexis. And until then, good night, friend.
END
