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Nancy Grace
Teen Girl Stabs Mother to Death; Baby Found in Trash Bag; Human Remains Found in Box
Aired September 05, 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, suburban Aurora. Mothers and daughters have disagreed since the beginning of time. Mimi Hoy and her daughter, Bella, no different, Bella acting up and talking back since age 7.
Bombshell tonight. Mother Mimi working long hours at a local portrait shop that she owns, named after her daughter, Bella Portraits, brings home dinner for the family and heads upstairs for a shower.
Downstairs, Daddy hears a loud thud, running upstairs just in time to witness every mother`s worst nightmare, their teen girl, Bella, stabbing her own mother, 79 times, 79 times in the face and the neck, barricading the door against the father until he spots blood literally pouring from under that bathroom door.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eighteen-year-old Isabella Guzman...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s an 18-year-old female (INAUDIBLE) I think it might be (INAUDIBLE) Asian. She`s wearing a pink tank top, shorts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Isabella Guzman is charged with first degree murder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The female is going to be armed with a knife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Accused of having killed her mother, stabbing her 79 times.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The mom had 31 stab wounds to the face, 48 stab wounds to the neck.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The teen got into a fight with her mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police were called to her home for a disturbance. But when police arrived, they found something much worse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Inside, Isabella`s mother was found dead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stabbed 79 times. That`s not defensive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was -- (INAUDIBLE) officer describe a pretty gruesome scene.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The medical examiners apparently call this overkill.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seventy-nine times, even warns her that she would, quote, "pay."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, to the Garden State. Three boys playing hear tiny cries from a trash dumpster, then spot a tiny baby boy, double-bagged and thrown away like trash, baby John Doe at this hour fighting for his life at a nearby hospital.
Breaking now, so-called murder mom just arrested, turning her mug shot into a glamour shot, complete with blood-red lipstick, eyeliner and painted-on eyebrows, the works!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When the baby put out his hand, I put my finger on the hand, and the baby squeezed my finger. That was amazing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rosibel Christina Lanza. She is 39 years old. Lanza is charged with endangering the welfare of a child and child abuse. She faces up to 10 years in prison.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew when that happened that the baby was going to survive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kids went to the building superintendent and told him that there was a baby in the garbage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The baby was moving. The baby was not purple or anything like that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They had just left it out (INAUDIBLE) didn`t do anything, the baby probably would have died.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why she dumped the infant in the garbage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has to be a reason. Not that any reason justifies it, but -- it`s crazy. It`s sick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. To suburban Aurora. Mothers and daughters have disagreed since the beginning of time. And Mimi Hoy and daughter Bella, no different, Bella talking back, acting up, since she was 7 years old, Mother Mimi working long hours at a local portrait shop that she creates and owns, named after her daughter, Bella Portraits, brings home dinner for the family, then heads upstairs for a shower.
Daddy hears a thud, runs upstairs to witness every mom`s worst nightmare, their teen girl, Bella, stabbing her own mother 79 times in the face and the neck. From my understanding of the facts, Daddy tries to get into the bathroom, and Bella pushes back against the bathroom door, locking it so he can`t get in. He sees blood literally pouring from under the bathroom door.
Out to Jean Casarez, HLN legal correspondent. Jean, what happened?
JEAN CASAREZ, HLN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nancy, the coroner is saying tonight 31 stab wounds to her face, 48 stab wounds to her neck. And her daughter, who now is charged with first degree murder, the day before had spit in her mother`s face, and then that day, hours before...
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait, wait. Spit in her mother`s face over what?
CASAREZ: A simple argument, probably about not much, and then the next day, sent her a text message saying -- and this is the day of her killing, You`re going to pay for this.
GRACE: OK, take me from that point on. This is all leading up -- but you know, Jean, this has been going on since she was 7 years old.
CASAREZ: That`s right. And she`s now 18. And Mimi was scared of her daughter, so scared, Nancy, that after that text message saying, You`re going to pay for this," she called the police out for a welfare check. And the police told the daughter, You know, you could be kicked out of this house for what you`re saying and what you`re doing to your mother. And Mimi...
GRACE: Whoa! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Liz, play that back.
Jean, I don`t know if you`ve got a monitor in front of you, but we`re showing shots -- OK, watch this. Watch this. You know what? I am watching her in court.
For those of you just joining us, this little girl is in court for the incredibly gruesome stabbing death of her own mother, stabbing her 79 times, ambushing the mom when she gets home from work, Mommy bringing home dinner for the whole family, goes upstairs to take a shower. She`s been working until late that night at her portrait studio. And this girl, Bella, ambushes her mother as she`s in the shower, stabbing her 79 times in the face and neck. And look at her in court. Not a single tear. I am absolutely disgusted!
Go ahead, Jean.
CASAREZ: Well, when she went up to take that shower -- and how vulnerable in a shower, with no clothes on. And her husband...
GRACE: Plus, you can`t hear. You can`t hear, Jean. I`m sure everybody has seen "Psycho." You can`t hear with the shower going on. She may have been washing her hair. The next thing she knows -- wasn`t her throat actually slit from ear to ear, Jean?
CASAREZ: Yes, it was. Yes, it was. And Nancy, in that small bathroom, she also couldn`t get out because as her husband went upstairs, he saw an open door, and there was the daughter, Bella, with her back to the door. He knew something was going on, tried to get in. Bella used her back to shut the door, and then she locked it.
And so then the stepfather, husband, called 911, went back upstairs, saw blood coming out from underneath the bathroom door and realized right then and there that his wife was being killed.
GRACE: You know, she`s looking right at the camera. Liz, I want to see that again. She is in court, just staring down the camera. Uh-huh. She looks right at the camera and holds the gaze. Now, there you see her sniffing, like she might be crying, but look at this. Yes, she`s not crying. She`s not showing one ounce of remorse in court.
OK, Jean Casarez is with me, HLN correspondent. So the dad hears a thud, goes upstairs, and tell me what happens when he gets upstairs, exactly.
CASAREZ: He can see in because the door is still open and he sees the back. And then once she locks the door, he calls 911, comes back to the bathroom doors. He`s reporting to authorities. She then opens the door and he sees Bella with a knife in her right hand. And then Bella just walks out and leaves, and he sees his wife on the floor. And he told the 911 operator, I can tell she`s dead.
GRACE: How -- I want to go out to our medical examiner, joining us tonight, Dr. Bill Manion joining us out of Philadelphia. Dr. Manion, 79 stab wounds?
DR. BILL MANION, NEW JERSEY MEDICAL EXAMINER (via telephone): Just complete rage, just out of control rage. And she probably cut herself. She probably cut herself with all that effort.
GRACE: You know, I don`t understand it, Jean Casarez. Out to Brandon Johansson, crime reporter with "The Aurora Sentinel." Brandon, thank you for being with us tonight. What more can you tell me, Brandon?
BRANDON JOHANSSON, "AURORA SENTINEL" (via telephone): I think it`s a case that`s really getting everyone`s attention. This is a girl who seemed to be, by all outward appearances, a pretty regular 18-year-old girl. She hadn`t been in any legal trouble before this. And everyone who knew her says that the violence here is pretty shocking.
GRACE: But what -- what`s the background, Brandon Johansson? I mean, they`ve been arguing since age 7. And I don`t understand her attitude in court. To me, it`s repulsive. I mean, because she`s in court, Brandon Johansson, after she`s had time, even if she acted in anger, she`s had time to think about it. Look, this is hours, this is days after stabbing her mom 79 times. And she is displaying a belligerent attitude in court to a judge!
JOHANSSON: Yes. I think her behavior today was pretty surprising to everyone who`s seen -- seen the video of her brief appearance today.
GRACE: We are live and taking your calls. Out to Matt Zarrell. Do we have any idea what was going on, why they have been feuding -- essentially, basically, this child has been feuding. The mom never kicked her out of the house. The mom continued to support her. She apparently wasn`t working and wasn`t going to school. The mom let her stay there. What was the beef?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): It seems, at least from the reports, Nancy, that they only described her as rebellious. She needed to respect her elders.
And Nancy, I should note that in addition to the cops, the father, the teen girl`s father, three hours before the murder went over to the girl`s house and asked the girl to be nicer to her mother. And the father thought he got through to her. Three hours later...
GRACE: So let me address what you just said, Matt Zarrell. You`re talking about, quote, "the father." That`s the biological father of Bella. Now, Bella`s mother, Mimi, and the father have been divorced for many, many years. She had been remarried to the stepfather for almost 15 years, and they were raising Bella.
So the father that -- the divorced father even came over and told Bella that day to be nicer to the mother? Is that what you`re saying, Matt?
ZARRELL: Yes, the mother actually asked the father to come over. He said he went and talk to his daughter and started to talk to her about respecting her elders and being more obedient to her parents and she should try and listen more. The father thought that he got through to her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know what could have happened. And only God knows. She`s always been very affectionate with me and loving with me. But I don`t know what could have happened. Honestly, I still can`t believe it. I thought that I made progress. But obviously, nothing -- it didn`t do nothing because hours later, then this thing happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The female is going to be armed with a knife. She`s supposed to be in the back yard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shortly after the 911 call and before police could even arrive on scene, they say 18-year-old Isabella Guzman took off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her mother and her had fought several times over the years, and it had escalated quite a bit a couple days leading up to her mother`s death. Isabella had been threatening her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s always been very affectionate with me and loving with me. I don`t know what could have happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The hunt to find her began. The police (ph) from the surrounding buildings took these pictures of officers while they worked to arrest the girl. Weapons were drawn and eyewitnesses say they heard police tell Guzman to get on the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And what`s also so disturbing about this is that even though the mother, you know, worked these long hours at this portrait studio that she had created -- - it was the family business, named after the daughter, Bella Portraits -- even though she had become increasingly afraid of her daughter`s belligerence and her anger toward her mother, her threats toward her mother, the mother would not kick her out, going to prove once again there is nothing in this world greater than a mother`s love.
And what did this girl do? This teen girl, Bella, stabs her mother in the neck and face 79 times.
Jean Casarez joining me. Jean, how did they apprehend the girl? I mean, she just walked out of the house like she had done nothing.
CASAREZ: The next day, afternoon, in a parking garage, somebody reported, There`s a body in a car. She must have gotten wind of that because she got out of the car and started to leave the parking lot, and she was apprehended at that point. But those actions right there could be considered consciousness of guilt.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Robert in Pennsylvania. Hi, Robert. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. With regard to the (INAUDIBLE) that I heard that -- read about being mentioned on the site, I think that is the -- and the multitude of wounds. I`d say that, you know -- I know that I`m just an armchair, but -- armchair kind of detective. But I would think that the letter is a pretty damning piece of evidence. But I guess that`s something of an understatement.
GRACE: You mean the e-mail or the letter?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I think -- I guess it`s the e-mail that I read.
GRACE: Robert, hold on just a moment, Robert. Liz, keep Robert.
Jean Casarez, speaking of e-mail, I know Robert claims he`s just an armchair, you know -- armchair quarterback. But the reality is, he`s actually right because it`s going to be very difficult for defense attorneys to argue, Oh, this was heat of passion, because she wrote her mother hours ahead of time, You will pay for this. You will pay.
And the mother was so afraid that she called police. She called her husband. She was really afraid.
CASAREZ: It started the chain of events of that day, no question about it. And it shows Bella`s state of mind on that very day.
GRACE: Matt Zarrell, what more can you tell me about the teen girl being arrested in a parking deck, trying to get away from police. This is after she murders her mother. Just the whole thought of leaving your mother naked and bleeding and wet on a bathroom floor, your mother -- the thought of that -- I can`t even think about it. When I look at this girl`s face, I`m just -- I`m absolutely physically repelled.
ZARRELL: Yes, Nancy. And to go to consciousness of guilt, the police believe that the teen girl turned her cell phone off after the killing so that they couldn`t -- tried to ping her cell phone to find her, but they couldn`t do that.
So just to give a little bit more about the arrest -- now, cops say that when they got the call to go to the parking garage about a body, they went to the car, no one was inside. They bring out a K9. They start to do a search of the garage.
Now, cops believe that the teen girl saw this coming, saw the K9 doing a search, and actually tried to leave and escape and walk out of the garage. But officers were able to recognize her and take her into custody.
Now, I should note, Nancy, inside or around the car, the cops say they found evidence related to the homicide. They won`t reveal what the evidence was, Nancy, but I have not seen reports that they found the murder weapon yet. So maybe that`s what we`re talking about here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The teen, police say, was armed and dangerous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I`m going to make you pay."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In court, she`s been quiet and calm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guzman was standing at the doorway, holding a knife.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her daughter stabbed her mother 79 times.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She left the crime scene. Police brought in K9s to sniff the area and say they found items consistent with a homicide.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Charged with first degree murder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Taken down and in custody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The female is going to be armed with a knife. She`s supposed to be in the back yard. I don`t have a description.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s a 18-year-old female, I think it might be with Asian (ph). She`s wearing a pink tank top and shorts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Well, physically, she`s absolutely beautiful, this teen girl now charged with stabbing her own mother 79 times while she`s in the shower, slitting her mom`s throat.
This after her mom works all day long, stops, brings home restaurant food for the girl and the dad, goes upstairs to take a shower before eating the food. When Daddy hears a loud thud from upstairs, runs upstairs only to find this girl, the teen, Bella, barricading the bathroom door. She locks it on him. He witnesses blood literally, pouring out from under the bathroom door. He hears his wife scream out "Jehovah" and she dies -- 79 stab wounds.
Show me that house again, Liz, please. Look at this. This mother worked her fingers to the bone to build up the family, to buy this home for the girl, to give the clothes and the jewelry and everything that she wanted. She created -- she founded and created a portrait studio that she named after the daughter, Bella Portraits, only to end in a 911 call of the father desperately trying to get police to the scene as their teen daughter stabs her mother in the face and the neck 79 times, leaving the mom`s naked, wet and bleeding body on the floor as she walks out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eighteen-year-old Isabella Guzman.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eighteen-year-old female, mixed race. I think it might be with Asian. She`s wearing a pink tank top, shorts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Isabella Guzman is charged with first degree murder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The female is going to be armed with a knife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Accused of having killed her mother, stabbing her 79 times.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her mom had 31 stab wounds to the face, 48 stab wounds to the neck.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The teen got into a fight with her mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police were called to her home for a disturbance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But when police arrived, they found something much worse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Inside, Isabella`s mother was found dead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stabbed 79 times. That`s not defensive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was what that officer described as a pretty gruesome scene.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The medical examiners apparently call this overkill.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seventy-nine times, even warns her she would, quote, "pay."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: This is even more stab wounds than in the Jodi Arias case.
For those of you just joining us, this is every mother`s worst nightmare. This mother, Mimi, works her fingers to the bone to build a home and a family life, for her daughter, Bella. She found and creates and builds up her own portrait studio. That she names after her daughter, Bella.
She works into the evening that night, comes home from work, stops on the way home to get food for the family from a restaurant since she`s worked through time to cook supper. Comes home after the mall has closed. Brings the food for them. Goes upstairs for a shower. The father hears a thud upstairs, goes upstairs to find out what`s happening and witnesses -- to all of you working mothers out there, the worst thing you can even imagine.
The daughter, Bella -- there you see her in court in the last hours -- has begun to stab the mother. He hears his wife yell out, "Jehovah." He tries to get in. She, the daughter, backs up against the door and then locks it. He runs to call police. He sees blood literally -- there she is smiling at her lawyer. She sees blood -- the father sees blood literally pouring out from under the bathroom door.
Now, Jean, isn`t that true that there was supposed to be a morning hearing today, but Bella, once again acting out, refused to come out of her cell. They had to postpone the first hearing until they could get her ungrateful self out of the jail cell to come to court.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: And this is an important hearing. This is where her formal charges are announced, and she gets to hear them. And the reports are that she wouldn`t leave the cell. So it all happened this afternoon.
GRACE: We are taking your calls, out to Dawn in California. Hi, Dawn. What`s your question?
DAWN, CALLER FROM CALIFORNIA: Hi. I`m just wondering -- excuse me. You indicated that she said that -- to her mother, she said that her mother would pay.
GRACE: Yes.
DAWN: And I`m wondering if we know what her mother was supposed to pay for.
GRACE: I don`t know. Out to Brandon Johansson, "Aurora Central Crime" reporter. What do you know?
BRANDON JOHANSSON, REPORTER, AURORA CENTRAL CRIME: We don`t know much about what exactly they were fighting about, other than they had been fighting for quite some time, and in the couple of days before the homicide, the fights had gotten much more severe.
GRACE: We are taking your calls.
Dawn in California, we don`t know what the argument was over.
Unleash the lawyers. With me out of Chicago, Kelly Saindon, former prosecutor out of Miami, Hugo Rodriguez, out of Atlanta, defense attorney Kirby Clemens.
To you, Hugo, 79 stab wounds?
HUGO RODRIGUEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FMR. FBI AGENT: Nancy, you gave an eloquent opening before break. But this case is about rage. Anger. Out of control emotions. And you said it. A psycho episode. That`s her defense.
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn`t say a psycho episode.
RODRIGUEZ: You said the movie -- that reminds us of the shower scene in "Psycho."
GRACE: I thought you were referring to --
RODRIGUEZ: And was that person --
GRACE: -- a psychotic episode. OK.
RODRIGUEZ: What I`m saying is --
GRACE: "Psycho" was a movie. The movie "Psycho." Yes, you`re right. Go ahead.
RODRIGUEZ: I know what it was.
GRACE: But this should is not an actor.
RODRIGUEZ: Some of us are old enough to remember that.
GRACE: This is not a drama. This is not Norman Bates.
RODRIGUEZ: It`s not Norman Bates, it`s Bella. And instead of giving a snapshot of what happened we as the defense is going to give a motion picture of what`s happened for those 18 years. And something triggered this action and as you said --
GRACE: Yes, you know what?
RODRIGUEZ: -- it was a "Psycho" episode.
GRACE: You know what triggered it? Satan, the devil. Because this girl is pure evil. I guess you`re going to agree with me, Kelly Saindon or no?
KELLY SAINDON, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: A hundred percent I agree with you. She is pure evil and everything that he just said is absolute malarkey from the prosecutor`s standpoint. She plotted it, she threatened her mother, she brought a knife, she chased her in the bathroom, she trapped her in the bathroom, she locked her stepfather out. She did have a fit of rage, making sure that her mother was dead and she slit her throat.
It`s first-degree. There is no other way to look at it.
RODRIGUEZ: We`ll see.
GRACE: You know, Kirby Clemens, I know where you`re going to head. You`re going to head with heat of passion. But I think Robert in Pennsylvania, our caller a few moments ago, was right. She threatened her mother. She said you will pay. Just hours before she murders her. Not only that, the mom was terrified.
You know -- you know what, Kirby Clemens, Lady Justice is blind. She is blind as to the race, the gender, the age of the defendant.
Now let me tell you something. If this had been a grown man that came into that bathroom and cut up this mother, killed this mother, and leaves her naked, wet, bleeding, stabbed 79 times on the bathroom floor, honey, it would be a death penalty case and you know that.
KIRBY CLEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, no, you know, it would be a death penalty case. But I`m not going to go heat of passion. I`m actually going to say that this appears to be more of a psychotic episode, and I`ll tell you why. Look at how this --
GRACE: Whoa, whoa --
CLEMENTS: Look at how she`s acting in the courtroom. She doesn`t even appreciate what she has done. She is showing you right there, I`m not crying, I`m not upset. Any criminal --
GRACE: Scott Peterson acted like that.
CLEMENTS: -- even though you`re a hardened criminal, show some sign of -- some sort of emotion in court.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Scott Peterson acted like that. I saw him walking in and out of the courtroom.
CLEMENTS: Scott Peterson -- look, that was Scott Peterson.
GRACE: Yes, (INAUDIBLE) football player.
CLEMENTS: No, that`s Scott Peterson. Look at this girl right here. She stabbed her mother, she has been having issues since she was age --
GRACE: She looks like a brat.
CLEMENTS: Since she was age 7 years of age.
GRACE: A brat.
CLEMENTS: She clearly has something wrong with her. Her behavior in the courtroom that even display --
GRACE: Yes, she was a spoiled brat. That`s what`s wrong with her.
(CROSSTALK)
CLEMENTS: No. Spoiled brats don`t act that way. We`ve dealt with spoiled brats before. Spoiled brats do other things like steal their parents` cars. They don`t cut their parents` throats. This girl has some mental problems. She might even be diagnosed as schizophrenic.
GRACE: She`s got a problem all right. But it`s not mental, it`s criminal.
To Dr. Ramani Durvasula, joining me out of L.A., OK, what`s your analysis?
RAMANI DURVASULA, PH.D., CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: My analysis is that this is a girl who for a long has had problems with fighting with her mom. She seems very oppositional. And the fact is, Nancy, no mother wants to see their kid as a manipulative sociopath. But when you look at her, that`s what you see.
GRACE: Out to the line. Doreen in California. Hi, Doreen. What`s your question, dear?
DOREEN, CALLER FROM CALIFORNIA: Hi. Thank you, thank you so much for taking my call. My question is -- I see it on your post that there was an initial call to the police department regarding an initial e-mail that her daughter had sent and she felt threatened by it - the mother felt threatened by it.
GRACE: Right.
DOREEN: Was there any follow-up? Anything, you know, that --
GRACE: Absolutely, yes.
Jean Casarez, the mother was so afraid earlier that day, she called police. What happened?
CASAREZ: That really started the domino effect. She called police, they came to do a welfare check because of what her daughter had written to her. "You`re going to pay for this." They spoke to the daughter. Police said, you could be kicked out of your house for what you`re writing to your mother, what you`re saying.
And then later on, her biological father talked to her, saying you`ve got to treat your mother with respect. And then her mother was killed.
GRACE: Jean Casarez, you covered this case with me.
Everyone, we are just getting reports out of Toledo. A package with human remains -- I`m referring to the baby Elena Steinforth case.
A box containing human remains. Near the home of Stephen King, Lucas County coroner, just confirming as we go to air, that the box does contain human remains. We are referring to baby Elaina Steinforth.
Straight out to Matt Zarrell.
Matt, what do we know at this hour? I`m just reading the wire right now.
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: Yes, so WTOL is saying that police removed a box containing human remains near the home of Stephen King. The coroner confirmed that the box did contain human remains. Police say they`ve executed a search warrant at the King residence based on new information received today. They will be holding a press conference in just a few hours. And we`re waiting for more information as it comes in.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Rosibel Christina Lanza. She is 39 years old. Lanza is charged with endangering the welfare of a child and child abuse. She faces up to 10 years in prison.
REBECCA WOLMERS, FOUND NEWBORN BABY IN GARBAGE BAG OUTSIDE BUILDING: The one miraculous thing that happened was when the baby put out his hand, I put my finger on the hand, and the baby squeezed my finger.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They heard crying and saw movement in a pile of trash.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The kids went to the building superintendent and told them that there was a baby in the garbage.
WOLMERS: I`m glad that I didn`t see the baby purple or anything like -- the baby was moving.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The baby boy, born premature and weighing just under three pounds --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The superintendent`s wife called 911 and police rushed the baby to a local hospital.
WOLMERS: I was able to clean the baby`s mouth and nose and, you know, I saw the chest moving up and down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: For all of you that followed this story along with us, the trash baby mom, now arrested in the last hours. This woman, Christina Lanza, taken into custody. And she turns what would be a mug shot into a glamour shot, complete with blood-red lipstick, heavy eyeliner, painted-on eyebrows, for her mug shot.
Out to staff writer with the "Jersey Journal," joining me right now, Anthony Machinski.
Anthony, thank you so much for being with us. Do we have any idea how Christina Lanza was ID`d as the mother that throws her baby, double-bagged, away like trash, the umbilical cord still attached?
ANTHONY MACHINSKI, STAFF WRITER, JERSEY JOURNAL: Right now, authorities haven`t confirmed that her name is actually Rosibel Christina Lanza. She lived in the apartment next door to where the baby was left. She lift lived in the apartment next door to where the baby was left. She had the baby that day, that would have been Saturday, and deposited the baby in the backyard of the apartment sometime on Saturday.
GRACE: Did anyone know -- Anthony Machinski, did anybody know she was pregnant? Did she keep it a secret?
MACHINSKI: Right now we spoke to the brother this afternoon, and he told us that he had no clue that him and his mother who both live in the downstairs apartment with Rosibel, that they had no clue that she was pregnant. That she may have hid it from them.
GRACE: So what about the father? Was she with any particular man leading up to this?
MACHINSKI: Again, talking to Melvin twice today, he said that they did not know who the father was. Rosibel has no children to speak of right now. She was unmarried. Had no recent boyfriends of any kind. So right now the father is still a mystery.
GRACE: You know, to Jean Casarez, legal correspondent.
Jean, it`s my understanding that Christina Lanza actually has a nursing license and that upon arrest and up until this time has not needed any medical attention, which in my mind is ruling out any type of a insanity plea.
CASAREZ: No, I think you`re exactly right. And I think police were able to narrow the focus of this search because the little baby was found behind the apartment complex, next to the trash cans. But they were very high fences in that backyard of the apartment complex. And there was a gate. But you`d have to know where that gate was. Sometimes it was unlocked, sometimes it wasn`t.
GRACE: Joining me right now is the hero that helped save the baby`s life. Miss Rebecca Wolmers. She found the trash baby there in the trash bin after the little boys playing alerted her and her husband to the crying sounds. She ripped open that double-bagged trash bag. She helped the baby be resuscitated by blowing oxygen.
She held the baby and he wrapped his little hand -- his little fingers around her finger and squeezed. And at that moment she says she knew the baby was going to live.
Rebecca Wolmers, again, thank you for being with us. What do you make -- I understand that you actually didn`t know her as a friend, but knew of Christina Lanza.
WOLMERS: Yes, that is correct. I didn`t see her often, but I did speak with her a few times. As well as her mother. And we knew of her, yes.
GRACE: Are you surprised?
WOLMERS: Honestly, no, I`m not.
GRACE: Why?
WOLMERS: Just from speaking with her, my first impression was that she wasn`t all up there. She just didn`t seem normal to me. She never really gave anybody any eye contact. Things like that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Some children playing in the back of this apartment building on Kensington Drive heard crying coming from a garbage bag.
WOLMERS: A few seconds later saw the bag moving and that`s when I just immediately picked up the bag and made a hole to expose the baby`s face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Trash bag baby. Mom Christina Lanza now in custody. Take a look at this mug shot. There you go. Blood-red lipstick. Eyeliner. Painted-on eyebrows. Hair smoothed back. The works for a mug shot turned glamour shot.
This mom accused of double-bagging her infant child immediately after birth and throwing it away to die like trash.
Out to the lines. Mary in Ohio. Hi, Mary, what`s your question? I think I`ve got Mary in Ohio. Mary, are you there?
MARY, CALLER FROM OHIO: Yes, I am.
GRACE: What`s your question, dear?
MARY: I would like to know why a mother would do this to their child. It is very wrong and I hope she gets what she deserves. And I do not -- will tolerate a mother doing this to their child.
GRACE: You know, Mary in Ohio, you know what she`s got going for her? That a jury will probably feel the same way you do. It`s very hard. I mean, look at tot mom. The evidence was overwhelming. It`s hard for a jury to believe, to accept, that a mother could do such a horrible thing to their own child. Because when you say mother, you think of your own mother.
Jean Casarez, don`t you? I think of my mother. And I -- it`s hard for me to believe that a mother would do this. That`s the only thing Christina Lanza`s got going for her, Jean.
CASAREZ: Do you want to hear something really ironic, Nancy?
GRACE: Yes.
CASAREZ: The heroine in all of this, Rebecca, who you`re talking to, her husband who was the manager of their apartment complex, had actually helped the mother next door of Christina Lanza with a project that she needed done.
GRACE: To Rebecca Wolmers, that`s right, your husband actually helped this woman with a home project, right?
WOLMERS: That`s correct. Before all this happened, I believe he -- she had asked him if he could paint her apartment, which he did.
GRACE: Everyone, with me is the hero of this case, Rebecca Wolmers. Trash bag baby mom, behind bars right now.
But I want to alert you, we`re hearing out of Toledo right now. We all joined in a search for baby Elaina. The little girl allegedly was taking a nap, taking a nap in a home with like 11 people in the home, and the bio-dad comes to pick up the baby for visitation. The mom won`t hand her over, has a big fight with him, the dad goes back in, she goes back in to get the baby, and comes out and says, the baby`s gone.
Well, as we go to air tonight we are hearing out of Toledo, from "Toledo News Now," Toledo Police removed a box containing human remains near the home of Stephen King, which as I recall was the boyfriend. The boyfriend of the mom. That a box, according to the Lucas County coroner, was removed that does contain human remains.
Police at this hour executing a search warrant at the King residence based on new information they just received today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Tonight we remember American hero, Air Force Senior airman Daniel Johnson, just 23. Shiller Park, Illinois. Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Air Force Combat Action medal. Parents Gem and Holly. Three brothers. Widow Kristin.
Daniel Johnson, American hero.
And now to the breaking news in the search for baby Elaina Steinfurth.
Out to Fred LeFevour with WTPD.
Fred, we are hearing that a box of human remains has been found and removed from, what, a garage?
FRED LEFEVOUR, REPORTER, WTPD: Yes, that`s right, Nancy. They went back to the garage that had been searched earlier at 704 Federal Street where baby Elaina disappeared from three months ago. Police removed a box today. The Lucas County Coroner, Dr. Patrick, has confirmed that it did contain human remains. It`s been turned over for an autopsy.
The family received notification, just as everybody else on the street did, which is kind of disgusting because they heard it on a TV station instead of from police themselves, as they stood here and waiting after the search warrant was executed early this afternoon.
The family gathered at the corner of (INAUDIBLE). And we`re awaiting word. T.J., the father, was taken downtown. He was only told that it would be -- he`d find out everything tomorrow morning. There`s a press conference tomorrow at 11:00 at the Toledo Police Department Offices and that`s when everything will be relayed to the general public.
But it has been confirmed that the human remains in the box and we can speculate but it`s pretty good speculation that it would be the baby.
GRACE: Fred LeFevour join me from WSPD.
Fred, thank you.
A sad ending to our search for baby Elaina.
As we go to break, happy birthday to our friend Caryn Stark, beautiful on the inside and the outside.
Dr. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. Good night, friend.
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