Return to Transcripts main page
Nancy Grace
Remains Found in River ID`d as Avonte; Woman Goes for Hike and Disappears.
Aired January 21, 2014 - 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. In the last hours, human remains pulled out of the East River positively IDed as little autistic boy Avonte. Avonte goes missing from his own school. How did the little boy get out? Look at this video. It shows him peeking up and down the hall. He makes his way out a door.
Bombshell tonight. The stunning news tonight, the underwear the little boy was wearing when his remains found not -- repeat, not -- the same size or brand his mother dressed him in. Tonight, we go live to the scene.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: DNA tests have now confirmed the human remains found alongside the East River are those of the missing autistic boy, Avonte Oquendo. The 14-year-old disappeared, and police have been working hard to try to find him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight live, Garden Ridge, Texas. He takes his wife on a fabulous, whirlwind trip around the world. But then as soon as they get home, police say 33-year-old Leanne Bearden goes for a walk. She`s never seen again. Tonight, Friends and family say that story just doesn`t add up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`ve been combing the area but have come up with nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I knew after three hours that something was really, really wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s a creekbed that just opens up. This is all greenbelt, completely undeveloped.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She could have slipped.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leanne was last seen by her husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But what happened after she left the house, I don`t know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, after befriending an eight-months-pregnant Worcester woman, a female neighbor tricks her way into Mommy`s home to mount a fatal attack. Why? To murder the new mom, physically cut the newborn baby girl out of her tummy, returning to her own home and posing as a radiant new mom as if the baby`s all hers. That is, until she`s suspected of murder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-three-year-old Darlene Haynes (ph) -- she was found dead in her Worcester apartment. Haynes was eight months pregnant. And police discovered the fetus had been cut from her womb. They traced Cory (ph) down and stopped her and another man. That was when they found the baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby had a ribbon tied around its umbilical cord.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And to Vegas. Imagine this nightmare. You walk in to find your mother on the floor, gasping for air, dying, actually turning purple. But when you call 911, all you get is a bad attitude, an operator that actually hangs up on the victim desperately trying to save his mom. So why does the nasty 911 operator get to keep her job?
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: I need a building number.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, please, please! (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: OK. Is she breathing at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, she`s purple!
911 OPERATOR: OK, you don`t have to holler at me. I didn`t do it, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
911 OPERATOR: Bye.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, Riverside, California. A 12-year-old little girl endures years of molestation at the hands of her female public school teacher. But in the last hours, we obtain video of that little girl, now a young mother of two, who confronts that school teacher and actually gets a confession. We`ve got the video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you realize that you brainwashed me and you manipulated me and that what you did was wrong?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. And I regret it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted to do this to expose her for what she really was.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How (EXPLETIVE DELETED) dare you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. In the last hours, human remains pulled out of the East River positively identified as the little autistic boy, Avonte. He went missing from his own school.
I want to know how the little boy just gets out of the school all on his own? Video shows him peeking up and down the hallways. He makes his way out a door. What happens after that?
Tonight, the stunning news, the underwear the little boy was wearing when the remains found, repeat, not (sic) the same size as the brand or size his mommy dressed him in.
We are going live to the scene. Noam Laden, anchor, WABC. Noam, thank you for being with us. This search has been exhaustive. We knew remains, pieces of the body, the little boy`s body, have been washing ashore. But why do we believe that the body is in pieces?
Was the body dismembered, number one? Number two, a bombshell fact that the mom says this is not the right size or make of underwear the little boy wears.
This is an autistic child, an autistic child. He does not pick out his clothes and dress himself. And I can guarantee you this, Noam Laden, if one of my children come home from school and they`re not wearing child size 8, there`s going to be hell to pay, Noam Laden! Hell, H-E-double-L!
NOAM LADEN, WABC (VIA telephone): You`re right about that. You know, the nightmare -- I mean, what a nightmare. This began back on October 4th, when Avonte goes missing, running out of that school. We still don`t know exactly how he was able to get out. So that`s nightmare number one...
GRACE: Whoa! Whoa! Right there, Noam, let me just interrupt you with one quick question. I`m getting tons of calls and e-mails. Did they not have locked doors at that school? I mean, any child can just walk out or any person can just walk in that wants to?
LADEN: No. What we`re being told is, initially, Avonte went to a back door, that door was locked, but then went to the front door where there`s a security guard. And there may have been some sort of conversation between Avonte and the security guard. Now, Avonte can`t speak, but so it would have been all the conversation on the part of the security guard, but some sort of interaction, and then he was able to get out the front door. We`re also being told...
GRACE: See, right there, that`s where you`re losing me. That`s where you`re losing me, Noam Laden. How does a little boy, quote, "manage to get out the front door" when there`s a security guard? That`s why there`s a security guard, so children don`t get out or somebody else comes in.
LADEN: Well, here`s the rub. You know, there`s the surveillance videotape that you`ve seen, right, of the boy running through the hallway, and then when he escapes out through that front door. But we`re also being told there might be a small slice of that surveillance tape that the school system didn`t give out. They might have even taken out that piece of surveillance tape, and that may be a part of this future trial, this future court case.
GRACE: No! No! I don`t like that right there.
To David Perecman, attorney for Avonte`s family. David, let me ask you one quick question. Thank you for being with us. You`ve got an excellent reputation as a lawyer.
DAVID PERECMAN, ATTORNEY FOR AVONTE`S FAMILY (via telephone): Thank you, Nancy.
GRACE: I start smelling a rat when I find out anybody takes part of a video out because, you know, we`re all trained as lawyers, me as a prosecutor, and I don`t want anybody taking a little bitty slice of a video out or a taped confession or surveillance video or anything.
Why would they take a little bit of the video out?
PERECMAN: First of all, Nancy, you know that I have a good reputation because I`m a careful guy.
GRACE: Yes, you do.
PERECMAN: And I am not saying if they took something out. What I have been saying is I am told by other sources that there is another video because they have multiple feeds on the same floor.
GRACE: That makes sense. That makes perfect sense.
PERECMAN: And that other feed may show more of what happened.
GRACE: OK. All right. I`m glad you said that, David. I used to have a judge that says to the jury, It`s your duty to make all the witnesses speak the truth and impugn perjury to no one. What I`m saying is, maybe you`re right, David. Maybe this was a different video that they didn`t release.
David, what kind of doors do they have there that this little child -- he has autistic -- can he just walk out? How can he do that?
PERECMAN: Let me tell you exactly what`s going on. He did not go out the front door, by the way. What happened is, he comes out a stairway, he runs in front of the front desk. He goes towards the back door. You see him coming back around. He doesn`t go out the front door, which are closed.
GRACE: Right.
PERECMAN: He goes down the hallway, out a side door, which you can see from other videos has been open for about 12 minutes or so. An adult left it -- left the building through that door, and the door did not self- close. It was open, and he ran down the side to Center (ph) Boulevard and ran out that door.
GRACE: With me is -- a very well known attorney, is David Perecman, who is representing the family. You`re seeing shots of the scene where this child, this little boy -- whoa! Can you even imagine? You take your children to school -- I take my children to school every single day. And I watch or walk them in myself.
Can you imagine, it`s time to pick your children up, and everybody comes out and you`re still sitting there, waiting? Where, where are they? Where, where -- and they have left a door open, and the child is gone?
Back to you, Noam Laden, WABC. In the last hours, we have learned -- and I had hoped for a different outcome. I had prayed for a different outcome, that these remains not be those of little Avonte. He is a little autistic boy that ran out a door at the school. What happened after that, we`re not going to know until the medical examiner makes a determination. But we know his body has been washing up in pieces.
And tonight, we are learning that the underwear the little boy -- the remains had on are not the right size and kind. Now, I know -- all you moms out there that dress your children -- I know what they`re wearing. I can tell you what they`re wearing right now.
To Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation. Marc, this fact about the underwear has just knocked me over.
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Nancy, I`d really like to offer my condolence to Avonte`s family. We were actually approached as Klaas Kids to try to assist in this case, and in fact, recently have done a few things. Unfortunately, it didn`t turn out right.
But here`s a couple of facts that I think need to be dealt with. These are statistics, that nearly half of all autistic children will run away and potentially go missing before they are 17 years old.
Of those children that are found dead -- listen to this -- between 2009 and 2011, those autistic children that ran away and are found dead, 91 percent of them drowned. Now, as I understand -- 91 percent. That`s a huge number. As I understand it, Avonte was seen heading towards the East River, so this would be very, very consistent with those statistics, if, in fact, that happened.
GRACE: We are also learning tonight that the body, as I mentioned, is coming up in pieces. To Dr. Bill Manion, medical examiner, joining us out of Philly. There`s only two alternatives, Dr. Manion, and that is, A, he was dismembered, or B, his body deteriorated in the water.
DR. BILL MANION, MEDICAL EXAMINER, NEW JERSEY (via telephone): Well, his body in the water for so many months would be subject, first of all, to advanced deterioration in the water. And there may have been, you know, sharks or fish or something like that that could have accelerated the dismembering of this body.
GRACE: So what we`re going to have to figure out -- we`re going to have to look at the body and determine, are there marks on the body, because isn`t it true, Dr. Manion, you can look at the remains and you can tell if this body was dismembered or cut...
MANION: Yes, that`s right. If there are...
GRACE: ... or if the body naturally...
MANION: ... saw marks...
GRACE: ... disintegrated.
MANION: ... or chisel marks, yes, you can tell that from examining the bones. That`s correct.
GRACE: And what we are hoping tonight, as well -- we are hoping that in the mother`s desire for this not to be her child that she said, Oh, those aren`t the right underwear. That is what we are hoping at this point.
No good can come out of this scenario. And that is the prayer tonight, that there was some sort of mistake made by the mom in her mind when she was desperately hoping that this was not her child, that the heart played a trick on the brain and went, Oh, that`s not the right underwear, that can`t be him, that can`t be him.
But what we`re learning tonight is that the underwear, according to her, was not the right size or brand he would wear, and we will report on that when we learn the truth. Right now, we are awaiting word from the medical examiner. But we do know this. These remains are little autistic boy Avonte.
When we get back -- he takes his wife on a fabulous vacation, but as soon as they get home, she goes for a walk. She`s never seen again.
And then later, a 911 operator gets a bad attitude and then hangs up on a dying victim!
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Is she breathing at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, she`s purple!
911 OPERATOR: OK, you don`t have to holler at me. I didn`t do it, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
911 OPERATOR: Bye!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: And now live to Garden Ridge, Texas. He takes his wife on a fabulous trip all the way around the world, but as soon as they get back to home, sweet, home, police say 33-year-old Leanne Bearden goes for a walk -- she`s never seen alive again. And tonight, friends and family say this story just doesn`t add up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She came upstairs and told me that she was going to go for a walk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rugged, unforgiving country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Friends, relatives and volunteers are searching the area.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... missing persons case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leanne was last seen by her husband, who says she`s an adventurous type of person.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She needs help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Where is she? Out to Michael Board, WOAI. Why are friends and family saying that this story doesn`t add up? I mean, she goes for a walk, she`s never seen again?
MICHAEL BOARD, WOAI: Yes, it just doesn`t make sense. Why would someone just pick up and leave? It`s not like she took anything with her that makes her (ph) think that she`s leaving home. She didn`t take a backpack or a suitcase or clothes. All she had was her wallet, her wedding rings, and she took off on a hike in the area and never showed up again, Nancy.
GRACE: What was she wearing, Michael?
BOARD: She was wearing bluejeans. She was wearing hiking shoes. And she was wearing a T-shirt, which doesn`t sound like somebody who`s running away. If you`re running away, wouldn`t you take a whole lot of your precious goods with you?
GRACE: Now, were they staying with the husband`s parents in Garden Ridge? That`s San Antonio.
BOARD: Yes, let`s start from the very beginning with this, Nancy.
GRACE: OK.
BOARD: They had quit their jobs. They had gone on a world tour that took them just about a year. They had come home on December 23rd, and they were staying with her husband`s parents in Garden Ridge, Texas, which is just outside of San Antonio, on the northern edge of San Antonio. They were living there while they got their lives back together. And she had contacted some of her friends in the Denver area saying, Hey, you know, when I get back there, you know, let`s meet up. So it seemed like they were just, you know, trying to get their careers back. And all of a sudden, poof, out of nowhere, she disappears.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: You know, Michael Board, WOAI, it seems to me that the husband has been pretty cooperative.
BOARD: He has been very cooperative. They have been working with the family. The family`s been working with police in the area. There have been searches done of that area using dog teams. And today we got word that they even hired a pilot of what`s called an ultralight, one of these little go-carts with wings, to fly over some of the rough area to look down, see if they found anything in the remote area to the north of San Antonio that might give any clues to where Leanne might be.
GRACE: Everyone, you are seeing Leanne Bearden, 5-2, 100 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes. Take a look. She had just gotten back from this wonderful trip that most of us just dream of. She went with her husband around the world. He took her on an around-the-world trip. They quit their jobs. They said, It`s now or never. We`re going to do this.
They get back home. They`re trying to reestablish their lives. They`re living with his parents while they get jobs again. They`re in the midst of this. She walks out the door to go for a walk. She`s never seen again. The entire family is cooperating. No one thinks that anybody is responsible within the family. It`s not like that.
Where is she? Who took her? What happened to her? Where is Leanne Bearden?
Justin Freiman, what more do you know?
JUSTIN FREIMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Nancy, I know that that area that she has actually disappeared in can be quite dangerous. There`s a cave. There`s lots of sharp cliffs. And there`s also rattlesnakes in the area. So you know, if somebody`s hiking around there and just taking a walk, something could have happened. And the family`s very concerned...
GRACE: But Justin, wait a minute!
FREIMAN: ... that she could be injured and need help.
GRACE: Justin, I agree with you. I understand what you`re saying.
But Michael Board, WOAI, she was going for a short walk. It`s not like she was going to scale up and down the side of a mountain. So she was staying on the track. So if she had been, say, bitten by a snake or she fell or some accident befell her, she should have been right along that trail, shouldn`t she?
BOARD: Right. Exactly. And they talk about a cave and an area to hike around there. That`s probably about a five-mile hike, a four or five- mile hike. So if she was going there, she would probably take a bottle of water, maybe a snack to have along the way. This was -- she was maybe going to be gone for 30 minutes, wearing jeans...
GRACE: Listen, when you`re going...
BOARD: ... and hiking shoes.
GRACE: ... up (ph) in a cave, you take equipment with you to do that. She was not a novice. She knew what she was doing. I do not believe that this woman went and went up in that cave. I don`t believe that. Everybody, 830-620-3400. We are looking for Leanne Bearden.
When we come back, a female neighbor tricks her way into Mommy`s home to murder the new mom, physically cut the newborn baby girl, the unborn baby girl, out of Mommy`s tummy, then going back home as if the baby is all hers, posing as a new mom.
And then later -- a 911 operator cops a bad attitude and actually hangs up on the dying victim.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Is she breathing at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, she`s purple!
911 OPERATOR: OK, you don`t have to holler at me. I didn`t do it, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
911 OPERATOR: Bye!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: After befriending an eight-months-pregnant Worcester woman, a female neighbor tricks her way into Mommy`s home to mount a fatal attack. Why? To murder the new mom-to-be, then physically beat her, then physically cut the baby girl out of Mommy`s tummy, go back to her own home to pose as a radiant new mother as if that little girl is all hers. That is, until she is suspected of murder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 23-year-old Darlene Haynes. She was found dead in her Worcester apartment. Haynes was eight months pregnant. The police discovered the fetus had been cut from her womb. Investigators were tipped off by friends who became suspicious when Cory told them she had just given birth. They didn`t even know she was pregnant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Concerned about how she got home so early after just giving birth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby had a ribbon tied around its umbilical cord, not your normal umbilical cord severing device.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Certainly if you`re going to carve something out of a human body, you must be insane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Dave Mack, syndicated talk show host. So she befriends the pregnant mom. She`s like eight months pregnant, tricks her way in. I wonder how she got in the door, what lie she told. Then she brutally attacks the new mom, cuts her stomach open and takes out the unborn baby? What?
MACK: Crazy story, Nancy. When you actually get into this, you realize that Julie Corey actually, and her boyfriend Deion, were living with Darlene and had recently moved out, so they had an extended relationship --
GRACE: Wait, this is new to me, Dave. So she was friends with mom? She was actually friends and went through all the ups and downs of the pregnancy with her?
MACK: Absolutely. And the thing is, Julie Corey, the accused here, they were BFFs, okay, they actually had lived together, and then Julie had only recently moved out of the home. Then she would give Darlene rides to the store and that`s when --
GRACE: Wait, stop, stop. Matt Zarrell, I got a bad feeling. Why are they cleaning out that closet? I think I have Matt Zarrell with me. Why were they cleaning out a closet?
ZARRELL: Nancy, it`s because Darlene`s body was discovered wrapped in a comforter in the bedroom closet in her apartment.
GRACE: So that is why the forensic crew is poised outside of a closet? The mom -- look at this closet. It`s one of those tiny, shallow ones. It`s like 12 inches. She stuffed the mom`s body in that closet, Matt Zarrell?
ZARRELL: Yes, Nancy, in fact, the body was found by the landlord after residents called to report a strong odor coming from the apartment. The body had been decomposing.
GRACE: You know, here`s one thing I meant to ask right off the top. Matt Zarrell, a baby shower? The killer has herself thrown a baby shower?
ZARRELL: Yes, Nancy, we have confirmed reports that the boyfriend`s family had thrown a baby shower for this woman in May. Now, I should keep in mind, Nancy, that for months leading up to the murder, months and months and months, she was telling people she was pregnant.
GRACE: There`s the picture right here, Matt. There is the killer. There is the friend that breaks into the home, gets into the home, murders the mom, and cuts her stomach open and takes the baby out. She gets the baby all cleaned up, ties the little bow on its umbilical cord, and basically throws herself a baby shower. Talks her relatives into throwing her a baby shower. Look, look at them. That`s her right there. She`s holding a bottle. Okay, Matt, a baby shower?
ZARRELL: Yes. Apparently, Nancy, she was not -- the boyfriend believed that she was never pregnant, that she lied about all the pregnancies, and that the due date kept changing. So in May when she was supposed to give birth, the due date was June. Then in June the due date was August. And it kept getting pushed back and back and back.
GRACE: I have got news for everybody. That`s not how that works. Unleash the lawyers. Jeff Gold and Eric Guster, also with me, special guest out of L.A., Cheryl Hunter, trauma recovery expert and author. She wrote "Turning Setbacks Into Success." She`s a crime victim herself. First to you, Jeff Gold. What`s your defense?
GOLD: It`s circumstantial evidence. They don`t have the evidence she actually did it. It certainly mounts up against her. It looks like she did it, but they don`t have her inside that house killing the victim.
GRACE: What do you say that?
GOLD: They don`t have her DNA doing it, they don`t have her blood there, they don`t have her spit there, her hair there that would prove the case. They have before, they have after. It looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, but the defense attorneys are going to say you can`t prove it`s a duck.
GRACE: You left out walking like a duck. Just like you left out fingerprints, okay? All this blah, blah, blah. They don`t have--
GOLD: They don`t have any prints. (inaudible), they`re not in the house.
(CROSSTALK)
GUSTER: Well, the problem they have in this case they don`t have any physical evidence on this lady. It sounds like she had an adoption already planned, and probably the boyfriend did this, or someone else did it.
GRACE: The boyfriend did it. Matt Zarrell, what can you tell me about the evidence in this case?
ZARRELL: Two things. One is the fingerprints. Now, Corey`s fingerprints were found on one of the two wine coolers Darlene had bought at the package store with her, and the fingerprint was recovered from the bottle in the bedroom. That is the first thing. The second thing, Nancy, is I think the biggest piece of overwhelming evidence might be the fact that she had the baby in New Hampshire, hundreds of miles away, and the DNA confirmed that the baby was Darlene`s.
GRACE: Okay, so her fingerprint is in the home? Matt Zarrell? The fingerprint is in the home?
ZARRELL: Yes.
GRACE: Let`s see the lawyers again, Jeff Gold and Eric Guster, and Guster, during all that rendition, you`re just smiling. You both are lying. You both are forgetting the facts, let me put the perfume on the pig. The prints by the perp is in the home.
GUSTER: She lived there, Nancy. The lady lived there for a while. And that`s what we were telling you.
GRACE: First you say there`s no prints. Now there`s prints. And you say--
GUSTER: They found one print in this entire house where she lived for months, and this sounds like an adoption that was planned, and that`s what happened.
GRACE: Mark Klaas, how is it they can turn the facts on their ear? There was no adoption planned for this baby. Plus she lied to her boyfriend for months on end about being pregnant.
KLAAS: That`s right, and she never -- there is no record of her giving birth.
GRACE: To Dave Mack, syndicated talk show host, tell me about the evidence we know of.
MACK: Actually, we do have the fingerprint on the wine cooler bottle she bought at the package store. We`ve got the victim, Darlene, texting a friend of hers at 11:20 that night saying she was drinking wine coolers with a friend. We have Corey texting her boyfriend that her water had just broken and she was headed to the hospital to give birth at 10:20. We also have the claw hammer that was used to crush the skull of the victim. It was found under the sink. We have the tied cord around the neck. All of this with only two people in the room drinking wine coolers, and that would be the victim and the accused in this case.
GRACE: You know what, Dave, I can remember there at the end when I was carrying the twins, I could hardly -- I was in a wheelchair. I can`t imagine how this mom tried to fight back to protect her child when all along it was her female friend, killing her to cut the baby out of her womb to have the baby for her own. Everybody, when we come back, a 911 operator gets a bad attitude and actually hangs up on the dying victim.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is she breathing at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, she`s purple!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay, you don`t have to holler at me. I didn`t do it, okay?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [ bleep ] you bitch!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bye!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: And now to Vegas. Imagine this nightmare. You walk in and find your mother on the floor dying, actually turning purple. You call 911, but all you get is a bad attitude, an operator that actually hangs up while you`re desperately trying to save your mother? So why does the nasty 911 operator get to keep her job?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s saying that he thinks his mom`s passed away. I don`t have the address yet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, she`s purple.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, then calm down a little.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My mom`s purple. I want my mom!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Did you hear that, Liz? I want you to cue that back up again. Out to Pat Lalama, correspondent with Investigations Discovery. Pat Lalama, I can`t even tell you what I saw when I was a prosecutor when I went to go see or visit or subpoena the 911 dispatchers. They would be kicking back, eating fast food, just taking the calls with a pencil. You know, what about it, Pat?
PAT LALAMA, INVESTIGATIONS DISCOVERY: These people are trained to be sensitive, to understand, to have patience, to listen to all kinds of vitriol. Their loved one`s life is at stake, and this woman says to him, because he did get angry, and he did call her, you know, he said the f word and he said the b word, and she`s just, bye!
GRACE: Wait a minute, wait a minute, the reason he called her an f- ing b is because she`s going, address, please? Address? (inaudible). I just want to slap her.
LALAMA: He is so distraught, Nancy, it makes you want to cry for him. And Lord help if we ever get this woman, and she is not losing her job. She gets to keep this job. She is obviously desensitized to this man`s pain and suffering. And he is so upset, he can`t remember his address. She has no patience for it, and says, is she breathing? And that`s when it goes bad.
GRACE: I`ve got caller ID. They don`t have caller ID? They can`t tell where he`s calling from? Take a listen to this 911 call. He comes home, his mom dying. Can you imagine trying to save your mother, your wife, your child? You call 911 and all you get is this girl with a bad attitude?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need a building number.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, please, please!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay. Is she breathing at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, she`s purple!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay, you don`t have to holler at me. I didn`t do it. Okay?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [ bleep ] you bitch!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bye!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining me right now is Chief Willie McDonald with the Vegas fire and rescue. Chief, thank you for being with us. What is your response to this?
CHIEF WILLIE MCDONALD, LAS VEGAS FIRE AND RESCUE: When I heard it, it clearly is not anywhere near the standard of what we would expect from our dispatchers. And so it was brought to us from a news agency, and we took it very, very seriously, and conducted an investigation right away.
GRACE: Why does she still have her job, Chief?
MCDONALD: Because she is a very good employee who deserves due process, and so we needed to investigate the circumstances of the incident, and we also needed to interview any and everyone else that may have heard what went on, as well as determine what happened after she hung up.
GRACE: Okay. So she can`t be placed on leave and stop taking 911s or at least give her a job where she is not interacting with victims?
MCDONALD: Well, you have to understand that what occurred that day was not representative of the entire experience that we have with this employee. That was one call that you heard out of thousands, maybe more than that, that she`s answered over the period of her time with our department.
GRACE: To John Schaefer, program director at KDWN. John, I got what the chief said, that this is not the level that they wanted, and she`s being great so far. Do you know what? That just doesn`t make sense to me. The chief has a great reputation, but I`m telling you, hanging up on victims on the phone is not okay. All right? Now, if they need to do an investigation, fine, do an investigation. I`d be mad if you didn`t. But she does not need to be answering 911 calls if that`s what she does, John!
JOHN SCHAEFER, KDWN: You are right, but she does have a great reputation here. And as he also told the media, when all this got out, that they answer over 500,000 calls a year, and this is one of those unfortunate calls that had happened, but, again, had it not been reported to the news media here, we never would have heard this 911 tape.
GRACE: What`s that got to do with it? If someone had never given it to the media, we wouldn`t have known, so what, it wouldn`t have happened? If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, what, it didn`t fall? I`m glad the media brought it to everyone`s attention. Look, when I`m trying to save someone`s life, which sadly I had to do when I was still a prosecutor, I want help. I don`t want someone getting an attitude and hanging up on me.
SCHAEFER: You`re right. You`re right about that. And you`re right that if it had not been brought to the media`s attention, it is like a tree falling in the forest. We wouldn`t have heard it.
GRACE: You know, Heidi Peterson, you`re the dispatch manager at Pleasant Grove Public Safety. You answered Martin MacNeill`s frantic 911 call and later took center stage in the court. Heidi, I appreciate what everybody is saying, that they`ve taken over 500,000 calls and this one happened. It wasn`t an accident. She said those words. She hung up on him. All right? And one time, in my mind, is all it takes. Yes, I want there to be an investigation, but she should not be answering 911 calls if she hangs up on victims, Heidi.
HEIDI PETERSON, 911 OPERATOR: Well, yes, and unfortunately, this might be the only interaction this gentleman has with 911, and it was a very bad one. So, you know, a very bad -- probably one of the worst moments he will experience in his life, and to not get the help and the compassion that he so needed at that moment is really quite sad.
GRACE: We`ll stay on it.
When we come back, a 12-year-old little girl endures years of molestation at the hands of her female public schoolteacher. Now a young mother of two, she confronts that schoolteacher, and actually, on Youtube, gets a confession.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You ruined my life. You ruined my childhood. Do you realize that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You sicken me. You sicken me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know that I am completely messed up. I have so many issues because of you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just wanted to help you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How is having a sexual relationship with a 12- year-old student helping? She ruined my life, why should she get a life?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Bret Larson, investigative reporter. A 12-year-old girl at the time, endures years of molestation by a female teacher. Confronts her. She gets a confession and posts it on Youtube.
BRET LARSON, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Yes. And that video, Nancy, went viral very quickly. We`re talking in just a couple of days, she has almost 400,000 views of this video of her getting her accuser on her cell phone, getting her at her desk at her now former job, and getting her to confess. She has this very brief, I would say, two- or three-minute conversation with this woman that she alleges had molested her between the ages of 12 and 18 years old. So almost 10 years ago, this ends for her. And 3,000 people post comments to the video.
GRACE: Here she is, now a mother of 2, confronting the female teacher she says molested her as a child.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`re an assistant principal, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what happens when a student comes in and says that they`re having sexual relationship with a teacher.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then I would involve law enforcement.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So how is that any different from what you did when I was at Chemawa Middle?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So why are you excluded from the law? I mean, why did you do that? Why -- I was only 12 years old when I met you. Do you realize that you brainwashed me and you manipulated me, and that what you did was wrong?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. And I regret it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know that I am completely messed up, that I have so many issues because of you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just wanted to help you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How is having a sexual relationship with a 12- year-old student helping?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That wasn`t anything that I intended. I don`t even know what happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Cheryl Hunter, trauma recovery expert, you are a crime victim, and I`d like to hear your response.
CHERYL HUNTER, TRAUMA RECOVERY EXPERT: She must feel immensely vindicated now, being able to rectify the years of suffering by getting, getting the confession. Now putting it on Youtube is another thing and having that vindication public, but for her, it must really be the start on the long road to recovery, being able to confront that woman and get a confession.
GRACE: Cheryl, what you are saying in my mind is one of the main things our justice system offers, because so often, yes, you want the perpetrator to go to jail, but especially for child victims, they remember all those years of torment. I`d like to see Cheryl Hunter. And they finally get to speak out in court, and they finally get to take up for themselves, and they finally get to fight back, which is what they couldn`t do when they were a child. And that is why I am so proud of Jamie Correo (ph), who is now a mother herself, she got to fight back. And I only pray that there is a way around the statute of limitations, that this perpetrator, this alleged perpetrator can be prosecuted.
HUNTER: Advocating for yourself is so essential when you have been abused or attacked in any way, and I applaud her for what she has done. Well, well done.
GRACE: And you know, Cheryl, she has gotten to do what so many molestation victims and crime victims never get to do. She got to confront her perp and call them out and say, you did this, and it is not okay.
Everyone, we will keep you updated on this story. We are trying to figure out a way around the statute of limitations in this case. But stop and remember American hero, Army Sergeant Jonathan Peney, 22, Marietta, Georgia, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal, loved rock climbing. Mother Sue, widow Kristen. Jonathan Peney, American hero. Dr. Drew up next, but I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern, and until then, good night, friend.
END
