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Nancy Grace
Wealthy Dentist Indicted in Wife`s Death; Shopper Shot to Death at Upscale Mall
Aired December 16, 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, off the top, live, upscale Princeton, a wealthy dentist`s wife found lying dead under the couple`s mansion window. Suicide or murder?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s the wife of a wealthy dentist, reportedly falling out of a third story...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shattered window...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... of their massive mansion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lacerations to her heart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Questions swirling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Blunt force trauma to her torso.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Accident or something else?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A death police consider suspicious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities reportedly zeroing in on the husband.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, horrific holiday shopping excursion at an upscale mall ends in murder just outside Nordstrom`s department store. Tonight, we want justice!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are here at Short Hills mall. We have reports of a shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard gunshots from indoors.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they heard someone screaming.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It happened in a parking garage at an upscale mall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a carjacking, as well as a shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say the man was shot and killed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m scared! This is one mall that I would think would be so safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Also tonight, live to Conyers. Mommy puts her toddler through the doggie doors to steal money, prescription pills, even guns. Tonight, Mommy and toddler caught on tape. We have the video!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The small boy coming into her home through the doggie door, unlocking the back door and letting a grown woman in, 25-year- old Cheryl Keel (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just couldn`t believe it. I mean, it was -- I was so shocked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She immediately recognized the adult intruder as the woman who lives right next door. The child who crawled through the doggie door is the neighbor`s own 5-year-old son.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Also tonight, St. Tammany (ph) township, Louisiana, a 28-year- old mom of a 3-year-old boy goes to a local restaurant, stops for gas. She`s never seen again. Tonight, we have the last known footage of Crystal Freeman. (ph) Tonight, where is Crystal?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: St. Tammany investigators say Crystal Freeman was last seen between a Towle`s (ph) lounge and a gas station across the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But never made it back to the home she shares with her son and parents. Friends and family fear the worst.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We still need your help, and we`re not going to stop until we find my sister.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, another pot tot? We go to rural Mabel (ph). A young married couple and the grandfather force a 23-month-old toddler to smoke pot out of a lit bowl.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say it happened during a pot-smoking party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A young couple, along with the mom`s father, is accused of helping a 23-month-old toddler boy smoke marijuana.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They packed the marijuana pipe, lit it for the baby and gave it to him and encouraged him to inhale.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unfortunately, when babies are having babies, that`s what happens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Off the top, live to upscale Princeton, a wealthy dentist`s wife found lying dead under the couple`s mansion window. Suicide or murder?
We are live. We are taking your calls. Take a look at this woman. She is the wife of a wealthy dentist, also a professor at Harvard University. She is found dead under the mansion`s window.
Out to Alana Melanson, reporter with "The Sentinel and Enterprise." Alana, thank you for being with us -- Alana joining us tonight from Worcester. Alana, is it true that the dentist`s wife was found completely naked under the window? I believe it was a third story window?
ALANA MELANSON, "SENTINEL AND ENTERPRISE" (via telephone): Yes, that`s correct. She was naked, but she was covered by blankets.
GRACE: So when the police officers got there, she was already covered with blankets?
MELANSON: Yes, she was. Only her head was showing.
GRACE: Alana, tell me what police found when they arrived at the couple`s mansion.
MELANSON: Well, they found her on the ground below, you know, a broken third story window, surrounded by broken glass. According to a search warrant affidavit that we got ahold of, she was actually alive when police arrived, but stopped breathing a short time later.
GRACE: Whoa! She was still alive when police got there? Could she tell police what happened?
MELANSON: No. She was laying on her stomach and was unable to speak or move and having difficulty breathing.
GRACE: Take a look at Kathleen Desilets, found dead -- well, near death -- at the foot of the couple`s mansion, underneath -- directly underneath a third story window.
We are taking your calls. Out to Mary in Virginia. Hi, Mary. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I`m right here -- I have a comment. I`m right here at my computer. I`ve enlarged that window. Take a look at that window. It looks like a head and a torso. If she had thrown out a chair -- and she was angry at him, I would throw the chair at him. Why would I throw the chair out the window? And it wouldn`t have that pattern of a body going through...
GRACE: You know what my question -- hey, Liz, hold Mary in Virginia. Take a look at what Mary is saying. When you look at that close up, she`s saying you can see the rough shape of a head and the body below coming through the window.
But Mary in Virginia is right. Clark Goldband, isn`t it correct, that the husband -- he`s a very wealthy dentist in the Princeton area. He`s also a professor at Harvard. He says she threw a chair toward the window. She threw the chair, tried to throw it out the window so she could jump out.
A, if she wants to commit suicide, why not just raise the window? And B, if she threw the chair out the window, where was the chair when police officers got there? It`s my understanding it was not on the lawn.
CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, I`ll take your last question first. It`s not clear where the chair was. But here`s the thing. The husband, according to court documents, says that either she jumped, or while throwing the chair, his wife somehow was propelled out of the window.
GRACE: OK. Now, wait. Keep Clark Goldband. So she`s trying to commit suicide, according to the dentist, and she`s going to do it by -- instead of just raising the window and jumping, she decides to attack the window with a chair. She wants to throw the window -- she wants to throw the chair out the window. So instead of throwing the chair out the window, she throws herself out the window? Is that the story? I want to make sure I understand this.
GOLDBAND: Nancy, according to arguments that night -- the husband says he was having arguments, and in fact, at one point, the wife threatened she was going to go upstairs and jump out the window. Now, here`s the thing. Was she pushed? Did she jump? Did she fall? That`s the big question tonight.
GRACE: OK, you know what? I need to start at the beginning. Clark, start at the beginning that evening. First of all...
GOLDBAND: Sure thing.
GRACE: ... was the husband having an affair? Let me just start with that.
GOLDBAND: He claims he was, Nancy. And in fact, the husband also claims that his wife started to feel insecure because of this affair. There was some arguing going on after the wife discovers all of her cell phone contacts...
GRACE: OK, stop. Wait, wait, wait! Did you just say, like she did something wrong, that the wife was starting to feel insecure because her husband -- her husband of many years...
GOLDBAND: Nancy, I didn`t say...
GRACE: ... was having sex with somebody else? Yes, I`d feel a little insecure, too, Clark Goldband. So...
GOLDBAND: I`m not making any judgments. I`m just relaying what the husband told law enforcement. And that, in fact, is what he said.
GRACE: OK, so he says his wife found out he was having an affair, and she became insecure.
GOLDBAND: Right, and there was a confrontation when, according to the husband, the wife discovers all of her cell phone contacts -- her cell phone contacts inside his briefcase. Now, the husband apparently suspected she may have been having an affair, as well. There was some arguing. The husband claims the wife got physical with him...
GRACE: Well, wait a minute. Wait! Who said she -- who says the wife`s having an affair, the husband?
GOLDBAND: Well, according to reports, she may have suggested that she was seeing someone else, as well.
GRACE: No. No. What reports? The husband, right? That came from the husband. Now he`s trying to say she`s having an affair?
GOLDBAND: Well, Nancy, they`re going like this, according to reports, everyone is (INAUDIBLE) But here`s the -- here`s the thing...
GRACE: Clark, we`re getting the information from the husband. She`s dead, all right?
GOLDBAND: Yes. Yes. That`s correct.
GRACE: So we`re getting all this from him. Now, why should I believe him?
GOLDBAND: Well, that`s -- he`s a well-respected dentist in that area, Nancy. But here`s the thing...
GRACE: You think I care about that? You think I care that he teaches at Harvard? All I care about is his wife is dead under a third story window. And let me also point out she was butt-naked.
GOLDBAND: Right, but it seems like that this calmed down for a while. That evening, there was some sort of a large argument. Then they made up, according to the husband. After she smacks him, they make up, according to the husband in court documents. They have sexual intercourse. Things calm down. But then just a few hours later, this arguing continues again.
And when it continues again, she storms upstairs. The husband hears a noise, he says. He goes upstairs. And there you see it on your screen. That glass is gone from the window, and so is the wife.
GRACE: You left something out. You left something out. Doesn`t he say they had a fight over his affair.
GOLDBAND: Yes.
GRACE: They have makeup sex.
GOLDBAND: Yes.
GRACE: Then he, according to him, the dentist, the one with all the power, the one with all the money -- he make a sexually derogatory comment to the wife about the wife.
GOLDBAND: Yes. After the makeup sex.
GRACE: He says she storms upstairs, according to him, and kills herself.
GOLDBAND: She may have killed herself or she may have gotten propelled from the force of throwing that chair out of the window, Nancy. That`s what he says.
GRACE: OK, Clark, it sounds to me like you`re buying into this.
Out to Alana Melanson, reporter with "The Sentinel and Enterprise," joining me from Worcester. Alana, isn`t it true that on her body, there were no cuts, for instance, on her arms, her face, her legs, from jumping through that glass?
MELANSON: Yes. According to the search warrant and affidavit that we have, the medical examiner said that there was no glass and no cuts or anything like that. She did have a lot of bruises, however.
GRACE: She did have a lot of bruises? Is that what you said?
MELANSON: Yes. She had many bruises on her arms and legs that the medical examiner said were in various stages of healing, and the bruises on her right arm appeared to be finger marks.
GRACE: OK. Whoa. To Dr. Joye M. Carter, chief forensic pathologist in Marion County, the author of "I Speak for the Dead." Dr. Joye Carter, thank you for being with us. Did you hear that? A lot of these bruises on her body, according to autopsy report, were in various stages of healing.
In other words, they were old bruises, and some of them appeared to be finger marks, Dr. Carter.
DR. JOYE CARTER, MARION COUNTY CHIEF FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST (via telephone): Yes, I heard that. That`s what we look for in cases of domestic violence. There have been physical contact between these two before. It is important to know that some are healing and some are new. And finger marks suggest the lady was grabbed and perhaps pushed or shoved out of this window.
GRACE: You know what`s amazing to me? Unleash the lawyers. Joining me, Marla Chicotsky, defense attorney out of the Miami jurisdiction, out of Atlanta, defense attorney Eric Guster (ph).
To both of you, thank you for being with us. First of all, to you, Chicotsky. Why didn`t she have any glass in her hair? Why didn`t she have scrapes on her arms, her legs, her torso, anything? I mean, she was completely naked. She doesn`t have one speck of glass on her body?
MARLA CHICOTSKY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think, Nancy, that`s indicative that she didn`t go through the glass pane when she went out that window. It shows that either the glass was previously broken or in fact, that chair did go through the window prior to her going out the window.
GRACE: Really? Because...
GUSTER: So we don`t know...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... the chair was not found out on the lawn. So how did that go down? I want to hear the two of you re-explain Newton`s law on gravity. Go ahead.
ERIC GUSTER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, you have an enraged wife, Nancy, and she`s angry that...
GRACE: An enraged wife?
GUSTER: Yes. Absolutely. This man gave a sexually derogatory statement to his wife. She was emotional, and she wanted to either get attention by doing something to herself -- and I don`t think that she may have tried to kill herself, but she was trying to get his attention and affection, and she did something that ended up in her death.
GRACE: OK. You know what? Eric...
GUSTER: Yes.
GRACE: ... that doesn`t even make any sense. She was trying to get his...
GUSTER: Oh, it does.
GRACE: ... attention, so she jumps out of a window, not intending -- I mean, the chair did not go through the window. So how come she`s trying to throw a chair through the window, and she throws herself instead of the chair? There`s not one...
GUSTER: You have to remember...
GRACE: ... speck of glass on her. She`s not -- you know, Caryn Stark, psychologist. If she were trying to get his attention -- they`ve already had an argument, Caryn. They`ve already had makeup sex, according to the doctor. He`s the one, by his own admission, having an affair. There`s no evidence she`s having an affair. What do you make of this scenario?
CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: Nancy, she`s not having an affair. She`s angry at him. And it doesn`t make any sense that she would take her anger out on him and jump out the window. A closed window? She would just jump out and not have glass on her? People have makeup sex. That makes sense. But they don`t jump out windows.
GRACE: Tonight -- and what`s the point? Why would you throw a -- a chair at a window when you could just open the window?
Tonight, the husband, Dr. Roger -- Dr. Roger P. Desilets denies any involvement in his wife`s death.
When we come back, horrific holiday shopping excursion at an upscale mall ends in murder just outside Nordstrom`s department store.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Horrific holiday shopping excursion at an upscale mall ends up in murder just outside Nordstrom`s department store. Tonight, we want justice!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s a shooting here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the third level of the parking deck.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty much everyone just started freaking out inside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a beautiful mall. It`s a safe mall. It`s one place that I always felt comfortable. I`m shocked.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) shot in the head.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carjacking with one person shot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shot and killed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The assailants left this area in a 2012 silver Range Rover that belonged to the two victims.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Thirty-year-old Dustin Friedland shopping with his wife there just outside Nordstrom`s department store when tragedy strikes. A holiday shopping excursion ends in a horrific murder when their Range Rover, a silver 2012 Range Rover, carjacked. He struggles, he fights, and in so doing, saves the life of his wife, pictured here. He is shot dead in the Nordstrom`s parking lot.
Out to Noam Laden with WABC. Noam, do we have a description on these guys? And why is the back shot out of the Range Rover?
NOAM LADEN, WABC RADIO (via telephone): We don`t know why the back of it is shot out. It could just be the gunfire from when these thugs, who were, you know, packing heat started firing on Dustin Friedland. But we don`t know who they are. I mean, there`s great surveillance camera of their, you know, trip out of this mall and onto a highway. But more than that, we don`t know at this hour.
GRACE: OK, everybody, take a look at this silver Range Rover. It`s a 2012 silver Range Rover. The tip line 877-847-7432.
When we come back, more details on a holiday shopping excursion that turns deadly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A husband and wife had just finished their holiday shopping when somebody apparently carjacked them at the mall, and police say the man was shot and killed. It happened in a parking garage in an upscale mall. The man`s wife was not seriously injured.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Third level of the parking deck.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty much everyone just started freaking out inside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a beautiful mall. It`s a safe mall. It`s once place that I always felt comfortable. I`m shocked.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) shot in the head.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carjacking with one person shot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shot and killed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The assailants left this area in a 2012 silver Range Rover that belonged to the two victims.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Out for Christmas shopping, the holiday shopping excursion turns deadly. A young husband and wife out shopping jut outside of Nordstrom`s when they are attacked by two assailants on the third of the parking garage. The husband struggles. Dustin Friedland loses his wife -- his life as he protects his wife from the assailants. She lives, losing her husband. Tonight, the assailants at large.
In addition to Noam Laden from WABC, also with us, Matt Zarrell. Matt, what do you know?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, a witness heard two gunshots followed by the horrific screams of a woman as car sped off around 9:00 PM. The couple was walking back to the car after shopping. The mall wasn`t even supposed to be open that night. It was open late for holiday shopping. They got back to the car, and that`s when the shooting took place.
GRACE: So the mall typically -- we`re talking about the Short Hills mall, everyone. The mall usually closes at around 9:00 o`clock -- excuse me, around 6:00 o`clock. But this night, in anticipation of Christmas and all the Christmas shopping, they stayed open for three extra hours.
It seems to me, Noam Laden, WABC, that the assailants planned this. They knew the mall would be open later. They were in a parking garage, which is a great place to commit a crime. There`s very limited vision. You could be in the garage and hear screams and not be able to see what`s happening because you can`t see through all the cement and the columns and the elevators, and the escalators.
This is a really high-toned mall, really high-scale. They had no reason to be afraid at all. Relatively, no crime whatsoever at Short Hills mall.
Noam, what do we know about the perps?
LADEN: We don`t know a whole lot about them. But this is a prime spot, this mall. It`s a tony mall. It`s a wealthy mall. The anchor stores -- Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom`s, Bloomingdale`s, Saks Fifth Avenue. And so you can imagine the array of high-end cars that are in this mall. You know, Range Rovers -- a Range Rover goes to about $82,000.
So these -- you know, these thugs came in ID`d this car, and they probably just waited for this couple to walk out of the mall.
GRACE: The tip line, 877-847-7432. There is a $10,000 reward, Helping to solve the mystery of who murdered Dustin Friedland just 30 years old. He put up a fight to save his wife there outside the Short Hills mall. Everybody, this is in Milburn (ph). Take a look at Dustin Friedland. Be on the lookout for a 2012 silver Range Rover. By now, I`m sure it`s been to a shop, a chop shop. There, Milburn, New Jersey.
Everyone, when we come back, did Mommy put her toddler through a doggie door to go in and steal money, prescription drugs, a gun? Well, guess what, Mommy? You`re busted! You`re caught on video. We have the video.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Welcome back. Did mommy actually put her toddler boy through doggy doors in her neighborhood to have the toddler go in, like a trained monkey, and steal money, prescription pills, even guns for mommy? Tonight, mommy and toddler, caught on tape, and we have the video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A small boy coming into her home through the doggy door, unlocking the back door and letting a grown woman in. 25-year-old Sheryl Keel (ph). The child who crawled through the doggy door is the neighbor`s own 5-year-old son. Even investigators couldn`t believe it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it`s horrible. In fact, that might be what shocked me more than anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says she installed a small surveillance camera like this one when she began noticing things disappearing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come home in the evenings, and things would not be where they were.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheryl Keel was jailed on a burglary charge and could face others, like contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Plus, I guess she`s kind of hard to miss in that video with the blonde hair and the pink tuft on the bottom. That doesn`t blend in. OK, straight out to Brett LarsOn, investigative reporter. All right, it`s one thing if mommy wants to steal prescription drugs, money, God only knows what. A gun? But to put your child -- how old was the child? 3 or 5? She`s got two. Correct?
BRETT LARSON, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Yes. She has two kids. 3 and 5, and she trained the 5-year-old to go through the doggy door to do her dirty deeds.
GRACE: Whoa. Did you just say she trained her 5-year-old to go through the doggy door to do her dirty deeds. OK, I thought I couldn`t repeat that back, but, surprise. I did.
Take a look at this. This is the video. So this time it was her next door neighbor. People were noticing things missing. And isn`t it right, Matt Zarrell, that the next door neighbor -- she -- there you go. She wouldn`t be able to find her gun? She would find things moved around. She would make sure all the windows and the doors were locked, but still, she had the sense that something was going on.
ZARRELL: Yes. Exactly. She arrives home on several occasions after locking everything, and would notice that the rear door would be unlocked. So she actually set up her own sting operation, Nancy.
GRACE: OK, what do we know, Brett Larson, what do we know about the video camera she put in to catch mommy?
LARSON: Right. So she installs this video camera when she notices these things randomly start disappearing, and the doors she`s locking she`s coming home to find unlocked, only to find that when she goes to the video camera, to get whatever she caught, the video camera was stolen, but not before some images were e-mailed to her from the video camera of the neighbor sneaking in with her child through the doggy door.
GRACE: OK. So the burglar, the mommy next door who is putting her toddler through the doggy door to go in and steal, I wonder how she trained him to do that? But long story short, she even stole the video camera in the end?
LARSON: Yes. Takes the actual camera that has been catching her doing the crime, and then -- and then gets caught on camera doing it.
GRACE: Is she actually over there in her pajamas? Look at her toddler. Clinging to mommy. Well, that helped a lot. She pushed him, rump first, through the doggy door to go in and steal a gun. What were they? Prescription painkillers?
LARSON: They were prescription painkillers, which the neighbor said that mommy was often asking if she could borrow from the neighbor.
GRACE: OK, you know what, Brett Larson, nobody ever comes up to me and asks for a joint or prescription pills or a line of coke. Nobody ever asked me. So this woman, what about you, Matt Zarrell, actually actually approach neighbors? Say, hey, do you have any Vicodin? How did that go down?
ZARRELL: Yes. Neighbors haven`t been really specific. But I can tell you, Nancy, that the husband involved in all this, the father, he is profusely apologizing. He`s got no idea what was going on.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Marla Chicotsky out of Miami, Eric Guster, out of Atlanta. All right, Eric, last time you blamed the dead wife. Let`s hear your defense on this one.
GUSTER: This is a tough one, Nancy. I mean, this lady is clearly hooked on drugs.
GRACE: Not tough to me.
GUSTER: She`s hooked on drugs and drugs make people do some dumb things. She definitely needs to be in rehab.
GRACE: The drugs did it. The devil was in the Vicodin.
GUSTER: OxyContin, all that stuff.
GRACE: As both of you know, don`t try to pull that on me. Because we all know, practicing attorneys know that voluntary use of drugs or alcohol is not a defense, unless or until you are absolutely comatose, like lying out flat unconscious. So that`s not the case here.
Liz, can you put up that photo for Chicotsky and Guster to see, the little boy and the mommy. Obviously this is happening in the morning. He`s clinging to mommy. She`s standing there in her P.J.s and her robe. The little boy has on his P.J.s. Mommy, don`t make me go. Don`t make me - - oh, ow. That doggy door hurt. What about it?
CHICOTSKY: Well, I think when you have a woman using a child as an instrument, and any type of criminal acts, you maybe need to look at some sort of mental health disorder. I don`t think any parent would put their child --
GRACE: Is that what you think?
CHICOTSKY: I think that that could be at play in this case.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Do you have any evidence at all to support the argument you`re making?
CHICOTSKY: Well, I think the husband saying he had no idea this was going on. That he saw no signs or clues that his wife`s behavior, I think, it`s very odd. I think a lot of times bipolar and other mental disorders become undiagnosed until certain behavior such as this that`s not of the normal comes to light.
GRACE: I`ll take that as, a no. Caryn Stark, psychologist, what do you think about the defense claim that she`s obviously mentally ill?
STARK: Mentally ill, the way that somebody who has an antisocial personality is mentally ill. This is a narcissistic individual, who is not fit to be a mother, and could care less about the consequences for her child. So I don`t see any type of mental illness happening here. I don`t hear the husband saying there was mental illness. I just think she`s negligent and a criminal.
GRACE: You know what, Caryn?
STARK: Yes.
GRACE: I always wonder what my children are going to remember when they grow up. They can`t already -- can`t remember when I took them to Disneyland, can`t remember all sorts of things we did. I do have the photographic proof so when they want to go again, I can go, no. You`ve been there. Here`s the picture. There you are with Tigger, but what does this do to a child when they grow up and they`re on a first date, and they are explaining I`m from so and so, and I went to this school, and yes, I remember my mommy putting me through the neighbor`s doggy door so I could go in and steal prescription drugs and a gun?
STARK: This is a child that will definitely need help. Because it doesn`t go away. There`s something that stays, an imprint, an impression, of having done this, and this child also needs to understand that his mother is a good mother, because he needs to believe that he loves his mother, but that she did the wrong thing, and that it`s not OK.
GRACE: Tonight`s case alert. The search for a medical resident, 30- year-old Taleka Patrick, Kalamazoo, Michigan. She is last seen December 5 in the parking lot of Borger (ph) medical center. Her car found abandoned that night in Indiana. Look at this beauty. A medical student. This is her earlier graduation photo. If you have information on Taleka Patrick, age 30, please, call Indiana state police. 219-696-6242, or call Kalamazoo sheriff`s, 269-383-8748.
When we come back, a 28-year-old mom of a 3-year-old boy goes to a local restaurant, stops for gas. She`s never seen again. Tonight, we had the last known video surveillance of her. Where is Crystal?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Tonight, live to Louisiana. A 28-year-old mother of a 3-year- old little boy goes to a local restaurant, stops for gas. She`s never seen again. Tonight, we have the last known footage of Crystal Friedman alive. Tonight, where is Crystal?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A woman goes out to have a few drinks and watch a New Orleans Saints game. She leaves the bar, stops as a gas station and disappears.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This surveillance footage was taken from a gas station in Pontchartrain Avenue in Slidell. This is the last place she was seen by the public.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re still hopeful. We haven`t given up. We`re trying to find her. I mean, we`re doing everything we can.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Loved ones say she would never go this long without contacting her family. So where is the missing mom? Police need your help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight we go to Slidell, Louisiana, in the heart of Cajun country, in the search for Crystal Friedman, a 28-year-old mom of a 3-year- old little boy. She goes out to eat and watch a football game, at a local tavern and restaurant. She stops for gas at a convenience store afterwards. We have the video of her, the last known video of Crystal alive. Take a look at her. She is not seen again. Out to Jill Ryan, news anchor with Newstalk, KTAR. Who is Crystal Friedman? What do we know about her, Jill?
JILL RYAN, KTAR: Crystal Friedman is a single mom. She`s got a 3- year-old little boy, and her friends and family say it wasn`t unusual that she would go out on a Sunday to watch the football game. So we know that she was raising this little boy to the best of her ability, and family members have said she was really making a name for herself and holding a job since she`d had her son.
GRACE: It`s my understanding, Justin Freiman, that she was working as a clerk at a local hotel. She was raising her son on her own. The little boy`s only 3 years old. Crystal Friedman, 5`2, blond hair, about 165 pounds. Take a look at Crystal. Last seen at this -- at this gas station, this mini mart. Long hair, brownish-blonde. Back to you, Justin Freiman, tell me about where she was that night.
FREIMAN: That night, as was said, she was out at a local tavern, she was watching the football game, which wasn`t unusual for her to do. But then afterwards she did leave the tavern, she had gone to a gas station where she was caught on video, and then she hadn`t been seen since. Her family was very worried when they realized she was not home the next morning.
GRACE: Caryn Stark, it just seems to me, that taverns, restaurant/bars, bars, they also seem to be not just a fun place to go watch a football game but almost like a hunting ground?
STARK: I agree with this, Nancy. Because if someone sees a single person sitting there and that person is a predator, they`re going to follow her to wherever she`s going. You have to be really careful. You really have to watch.
GRACE: Jill Ryan, KTAR news anchor on Newstalk, do we know of any incident that happened at the tavern or that happened at the gas station?
RYAN: We were told she actually -- she didn`t have a boyfriend at the time, but she was on her way to meet a friend, that was just a friend, but he never showed up. Then there are some reports that she was supposed to meet him and never showed up at his apartment later on. So we`re not exactly sure what happened.
We do know that sometime in the middle, though, she stopped at that gas station, and that`s where they got this surveillance video.
GRACE: You always start at the center and work out, Justin Freiman. What about the father of the little boy? The 3-year-old boy? Where is he?
FREIMAN: He actually lives out of state. He`s not really in the picture at the moment.
GRACE: Okay. So he`s not a suspect. You know, everybody, if you could take a look one more time at Crystal Friedman, 28 years old. 5`2, long, blonde hair. She weighs about 160 pounds. Last seen in a four-door sedan, Louisiana license plate VIH-727. Now, she was at a bar on Pontchartrain Drive for the Saints game, last seen in her silver Hyundai Sonata. A four-door sedan. Tip line 985-726-7824. That`s the Tammany Parish Sheriff`s Office. And as we are going to air tonight, Justin, it`s my understanding that police have found what they believe to be her vehicle, her Sonata, in a body of water. I assume that`s Lake Pontchartrain?
FREIMAN: Nancy, unfortunately we do have some sad news here. They did find a vehicle, according to her father. They do believe it`s her vehicle. Her body is possibly in that vehicle, found in water in Oak Harbor, which is right there in the Slidell area.
GRACE: We`ll stay on the story. What became of Crystal Friedman? When we come back, another pot tot? A young married couple and the grandfather force a 23-month-old toddler to smoke pot out of a lit bowl.
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GRACE: Tonight, another pot tot? We go to rural Mavel (ph). A young married couple and the grandfather force a 23-month-old toddler to smoke pot out of a lit bowl?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators were in for a shock when they received a tip that a young couple and the family grandpa had allegedly helped their 23-month-old toddler boy smoke marijuana.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jessica Kelsey (ph) and her father, 54-year-old Donald Baker, are accused of coaxing Jessica`s 23-month-old boy to ingest marijuana.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are they thinking? You have a 23-month-old child who`s completely helpless. Can`t really say yes or no.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mother and the grandfather are encouraging the child. They packed the marijuana pipe, lit it for the baby and gave it to him, and encouraged him to inhale. It`s just unbelievable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A 23-month-old little baby being forced to smoke pot out of a lit bowl? Mommy and daddy right there, and the grandfather too? Out to Dave Rowley with WDOE joining me here. Dave, what happened?
DAVE ROWLEY, WDOE: Well, basically three adults in a room with this 23-month-old child, just unbelievable, as you mentioned. 17-year-old mother and 18-year-old husband and a 54-year-old grandfather, all in the same room.
GRACE: Matt Zarrell, where is the little boy tonight? And start at the beginning, Matt. Tell me the whole thing.
ZARRELL: OK. So what happened is that police got a tip that these parents, along with grandpa, were having the child -- they were inside their home and the child was being force-fed a lit bowl and encouraged to smoke the marijuana. The child is now, Nancy, in the care of Child Protective Services. All three of them are behind bars tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police call the case unbelievable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mother`s husband, 18-year-old George Kelsey, was allegedly there too. All three have been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The child along with another sibling are now in the care of Child Protective Services.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Merry Christmas. This 23-month-old toddler didn`t get a tricycle, he didn`t get a toy, he didn`t get a G.I. Joe, he got a big fat doobie stuck in his face. Mommy and stepdaddy and granddaddy all there. Another pot tot. Here`s some other pot tot video, children being forced to smoke pot. A 23-month-old child being forced to smoke pot from a lit bowl. To Sheriff Joseph A. Gerace. Sheriff, thank you for being with us. Have you ever seen anything like it, Sheriff?
SHERIFF JOSEPH A. GERACE: Nancy, in 34 years of law enforcement I`ve never seen anything like this before.
GRACE: I mean a 23-month-old toddler. I hope these three stay behind bars.
GERACE: I couldn`t agree more. Right now the bail is set at $10,000 cash, $20,000 property, and they so far haven`t been able to bail themselves out.
GRACE: With me tonight, special guest, from the Chautauqua County sheriff`s office, the elected sheriff, Joseph A. Gerace. Again, Sheriff, thanks for being with us. Question. If this happened in their home, how did they get busted? Did they take a video of this, a cell phone video?
GERACE: I`m not able to talk about the case right now, because it`s pending. We had information given to us from a third party. And after our investigation, we were able to determine what took place there, and at this point in time, I can`t discuss it any further than that.
GRACE: Sheriff, can I ask you this? I respect you can`t answer, you don`t want to mess the case, the integrity of the case up. Sheriff, were there other witnesses to this?
GERACE: There was another witness, that`s correct.
GRACE: So I`m taking it, there was something going down in that home. Sounds like a big pot party to me. Where did they get the pot?
GERACE: That we don`t know, because the information came to us several days after the occurrence. So we`re looking into that now.
GRACE: You know what, Sheriff --
GERACE: But we don`t have it.
GRACE: With me is the elected sheriff, Joseph A. Gerace out of Chautauqua County. You know, so many times when children are the victims or when it`s a case about marijuana, it just slips through the cracks. Nobody thinks it`s important. I`m so glad that your department made an arrest in this case, because you caught it now, Sheriff. What else do you think would happen to this little boy down the road if his own mother and grandfather were forcing him to smoke pot out of a lit bowl today? What are they going to do to him tomorrow, Sheriff?
GERACE: Well, that`s interesting that you say that, and we all -- all the people in my office and the investigators have talked about the same thing, the what-ifs and what is this poor little guy going to be looking toward to in the future. From what we understand, the three that were charged thought it was comical, and it`s really appalling is what it is.
GRACE: Yes, well, I bet they`re not laughing tonight. You know what, I bet they`re not laughing at all, Sheriff Gerace.
Everyone, all three of them are behind bars, the mother, the father and the grandfather, the maternal grandfather who thought it was really funny to force a 23-month-old toddler to smoke pot out of a lit bowl. Merry Christmas to all three of you.
Tonight, we stop and we remember American hero, Army Sergeant David Thomas, 40, St. Petersburg, Florida. National Defense Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, also served the Navy and Marines. Mother, Mary, widow La Toya, three sons, two daughters. David Thomas, American hero.
And tonight, a big thank you to Macy`s pink pig ride at Christmas. It`s just once a year, and we took the twins. There they are on Priscilla, the pink pig, and there`s Miss Julia, who showed us around. You know, Christmas is such a magical time for so many children, and God bless all those children who are not being taken care of this evening, and a big thank you to Macy`s for putting a smile on the face of so many.
Everybody, Dr. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
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