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Nancy Grace
Babysitter Shakes Baby, Plays Games While She Dies; Killer Bride Takes Back Guilty Plea; Mother Injects Son`s Feeding Tube With Salt
Aired March 26, 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. Two-year-old little Madeline found unresponsive in her Gloucester City home. Tonight, cops hone in on the dependable, the reliable babysitter. Bombshell tonight. Did the babysitter viciously shake this child, leave the toddler to die while the babysitter plays hours of games on Facebook?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two-year-old Madeline McHenry was in the care of a babysitter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators say 34-year-old Sheila Polanski violently shook Maddie (ph) and threw her to the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shook her and threw her to the ground and then proceeded to go play Yo-ville on Facebook.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, a storybook wedding, twilight garden ceremony, bridesmaids decked out in pink, extravagant reception. Fast forward eight days later, does the bride literally push the groom hundreds of feet over a cliff to a gruesome death? After she first agrees to a sweetheart deal on a guilty plea, now suddenly, she suddenly says, No deal. I want a trial. I`m innocent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A killer bride`s change of heart?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jordan Graham admitted that she pushed Cody Johnson to his death in an argument in Glacier National Park. They`d been married for eight days.
JORDAN GRAHAM, PUSHED NEW HUSBAND OFF CLIFF: (INAUDIBLE) and I pushed and he went over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Graham`s attorneys filed a motion to withdraw a guilty plea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, when a beautiful 5-year-old little boy dies in a hospital, heartbreak for a grieving mom, who chronicles her son`s final days over social media. But tonight, police ask, did Mommy inject a lethal dose of salt -- yes, salt -- into her own little boy`s feeding tube?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five-year-old Garnett Spears is rushed to the hospital suffering from agonizing abdominal pain. Doctors find an unusually elevated levels of sodium in the child`s system. Did a 26-year- old mother use salt to intentionally...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, a 25-year-old mom disappears from an Exxon gas station, seemingly no clues, the investigation stymied. Tonight, where is Jessica?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-five-year-old Jessica Furinga (ph). Police believe she may have been abducted from her job a gas station.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) nobody (INAUDIBLE) very (INAUDIBLE) nobody here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And to Houston, a deadly, raging fire. Was it arson?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a construction guy?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Watch as this construction worker trapped on a ledge as the building he was working in is engulfed in flames.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh! Oh, no! My God!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Did a reliable and dependable babysitter viciously shake a 2-year-old baby, leaving it to die while she plays hours of games on Facebook, leaving the child unresponsive, unmoving until the baby dies while she plays something called Yo-ville on Facebook?
Straight out to Joe Green -- Joe Green joining us, crime reporter from "South Jersey Times." Joe, what happened? What is Yo-ville?
JOE GREEN, "SOUTH JERSEY TIMES" (via telephone): Nancy, Yo-ville -- I had never heard of Yo-ville before this case, but apparently, it is a game on Facebook, I guess similar to the Sims or Sim City, I`m thinking.
GRACE: Tell me about the injuries to the little girl.
GREEN: Yes, the police and EMTs responded and found that Madeline had suffered fresh bruising on her forehead, chest and abdomen.
GRACE: You know, it`s my understanding also that they believe now -- and you cannot tell this from a visual inspection of the child -- that the toddler, Madeline, just 2 years old, died from vicious shaking of the baby.
Now, those of us familiar with shaken baby syndrome, we know this often determined by hemorrhage petechiae in the eye. The little tiny blood vessels in the eye will hemorrhage or burst or turn red. You wouldn`t know to look for that as a layperson. You can really only tell it in autopsy.
So very quickly, Joe, explain to me the scenario, the timeline. Who was with the baby when she died?
GREEN: Apparently, it was only Ms. Polanski who was with the baby, babysitting her at the time and...
GRACE: Where were the parents?
GREEN: The parents -- we haven`t been told where the parents were, to be honest with you, Nancy.
GRACE: OK, well, what we`re learning is we believe the parents were at work when this happened, the toddler, just 2 years old, with this woman right here, about 36-year-old white female, believed to be dependable, trustworthy, reliable. You know, she doesn`t look so reliable when she`s dressed in prison orange.
Long story short -- to Dr. Joye M. Carter, chief forensic pathologist, Marion County, author of "I Speak for the Dead." Dr. Joye Carter, what is shaken baby syndrome?
DR. JOYE M. CARTER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST (via telephone): Shaken baby is a violent moving of a child under the age of 2 whose brain and skull are not yet formed. The shaking or throwing of the child causes blood vessels to burst, resulting in subdural hematoma, subarachnoid hematomas or blood on the brain. It can cause the brain to swell. You can have irreversible injury. And you can have petechiae, but petechiae is just one of the things that you look for in this case. You look for evidence of bleeding under the skull and basically no other outside injuries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know what went through her mind or how she could pick her up and shake her and throw her across the room and kill my little girl. Best personality in the world, very outgoing. She loved everything. She loved to sing. She loved to sing her ABCs. She loved to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." She`s the sweetest, cutest -- cutest little peanut on the planet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She threw her to the ground, shook her and threw her to the ground, and then proceeded to go play Yo-ville on Facebook because there`s Facebook entries of playing Yo-ville for the two hours that she lay...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You were just hearing the father and the grandfather talking about this tiny 2-year-old child found unresponsive in the home, there with a 36-year-old babysitter. And it`s believed the child died of shaken baby syndrome. For all of you that must leave your children with a babysitter, with a nanny, at day care, the worst fear comes true, your 2-year-old child unresponsive as the babysitter plays on Facebook?
Clark Goldband, what is Yo-ville?
CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yo-ville, Yo-ville, Yo-ville! We`ve heard it quite a bit, Nancy, this evening. Let me break it down. You can take a look at Yo-ville behind me, and what you see here is you are creating and building a virtual home. Not only that, Nancy, you need to furnish the home, you decorate the home, and you have to get a virtual job to earn currency. When you earn that currency, you can buy more things to keep up in your virtual world and...
GRACE: OK, stop. Just stop, stop, stop. Quit saying, you`ve got to decorate your home...
GOLDBAND: Yes, you the player...
GRACE: ... you`ve got to get a virtual job. What about this babysitter who has a job and she shakes the baby and leaves it lying there...
GOLDBAND: Well, that...
GRACE: ... and unresponsive and it`s dead? Look, that`s the babysitter right there.
Unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, Deborah Blum (ph), defense attorney in New York, and Parag Shah, defense attorney and author of "The Code" out of Atlanta.
Parag, I just don`t quite understand what the defense could possibly be if this goes to trial. Are you suggesting she didn`t do it?
PARAG SHAH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes. You haven`t told me anything that says that she shook this baby. All you showed me is that the baby has been injured. We have no other proof.
GRACE: Well, how about this, Parag...
SHAH: There`s nothing showing she...
GRACE: ... the fact that the parents are away at work. The babysitter`s the only one there with the child, and now the baby`s dead of shaken baby syndrome.
SHAH: So what you -- that doesn`t prove anything. That two-hour Facebook, sure, she may have been neglectful in the fact that she should have probably been paying attention to the baby, but we don`t know how the baby may have injured herself. It is horrible what happened to this baby, but...
GRACE: OK, so if...
SHAH: ... to jump to the conclusion that she shook the baby -- come on!
GRACE: ... the baby died of shaken baby syndrome, and the babysitter is the only one there with her...
SHAH: It`s not concluded that it was shaken baby syndrome. I don`t think that`s what the medical people are saying.
GRACE: OK, hold on. Hold on. Michael Christian, also on the story, what do we know about cause of death?
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): The official cause of death is blunt force trauma, Nancy. What you have to remember -- there were two incidents here. Not only was this baby shaken and caused a subdural hematoma, but she was thrown to the floor. Now, some people say slammed to the floor. So this child was very brutally handled.
GRACE: So we`ve got blunt force trauma, and are you saying that there was the shaken baby issue secondary?
CHRISTIAN: It`s a combination of both, Nancy. She had a subdural hematoma.
GRACE: OK. All right. OK, so Parag Shah, you win. Let`s see Shah, the lawyer that I`m talking to, Parag Shah, Deborah Blum. So I see you in the monitor jubilant that it`s not shaken baby. You`re actually happy that it was blunt force trauma as the primary cause of death...
(CROSSTALK)
SHAH: ... innocent woman is not going to get convicted of something she didn`t do. That`s what I`m happy about.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... rephrase my question to you, Shah. So the parents go to work, the baby`s at home with the babysitter, and then suddenly, the baby`s dead of blunt force trauma with secondary shaken baby syndrome. Now what`s your defense?
SHAH: My defense is experts. We need to defend this in terms of the medical.
GRACE: OK, I don`t know even if that`s a complete sentence, but I think what you`re saying is attack the medical expert.
Clark, I think the first thing I would do as a prosecutor is talk about Farmville, Fruitville, Fishville, Yo-ville. Clark?
GOLDBAND: There`s a whole bunch of Villes, Nancy. If we can advance it on to Farmville -- we`ll take a look at the farm. What you want to do is raise your crops and harvest your crops to the best of their ability. And here`s the thing about Farmville is there`s a time limit. So if it takes two days to harvest your crops, you have to harvest them in that certain time period or they will die.
And we can`t forget about Fishville, guys. Let`s take a look at that right behind me -- Fishville. You want to make the best aquarium you can in a virtual aquatic world. You see the rainbow and the fish swimming behind me.
GRACE: Joining me right now I`m hearing in my ear is Eric Helgren. This is Maddie, Madeline McHenry`s uncle. He does not want any part of a plea deal. Eric, thank you for being with us. How did you first learn about Maddie`s death, Madeline?
ERIC HELGREN, MADELINE`S UNCLE (via telephone): Well (INAUDIBLE) a call from my sister.
GRACE: You received a call from your sister. And what did she tell you?
HELGREN: Maddie`s hurt. That`s all I needed to hear. I was in the car and on my way.
GRACE: How does your family feel about the possibility about a sweetheart deal for this babysitter?
HELGREN: Well, we`re definitely not happy about it.
GRACE: Tell me about Madeline, 2-year-old Madeline.
HELGREN: She was beautiful. I mean, she loved life. She liked flowers. The night before, they were at the fireworks display. She was just a very loving, happy baby.
GRACE: Everyone, you are seeing a shot of 2-year-old Madeline McHenry. She is dead of blunt force trauma and shaken baby syndrome at the hands, according to police, of then 33-year-old babysitter Sheila Polanski, the reliable, dependable babysitter, who after beating the child, shaking the child, lets it lie there unresponsive while she plays on Facebook, according to police.
Out to the lines. Kim, Pennsylvania. Hi, Kim. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I just want to let you know that I was a professional nanny for several years and also worked in a day care, and they did extensive background checks. When I worked as a nanny, sometimes the parents would feel better if they had, like, a nannycam set up. Was that in place at all at that time?
GRACE: Good question. Joe Green, crime reporter. Did the parents have a nanny-cam? I don`t think they did.
GREEN: Not to my knowledge, Nancy. In fact, I believe Ms. Polanski had been babysitting the child for roughly five weeks, about a month-and-a- half prior to the incident.
GRACE: And you know, Joe Green, it makes me shudder at what this child went through during that five weeks unbeknownst to Mom and Dad.
And a newlywed killer bride agrees to a sweetheart guilty deal. But tonight, she says, No deal, I`m innocent.
An then to Texas. A deadly fire rages. Is it arson?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a construction guy?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Thank Jesus. Thank you, God. Oh, no! My God!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: A storybook wedding, twilight garden ceremony, bridesmaids decked out in pink, extravagant reception. Fast forward eight days, does the bride literally push the groom hundreds of feet over a cliff to a gruesome death?
Bombshell tonight. After the newlywed killer bride agrees to a sweetheart guilty deal, tonight, in the last hours, she says, No deal. I`m actually innocent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAHAM: He went to grab my arm and my jacket, and I said no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A newlywed who pled guilty to pushing her husband off a cliff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The new development comes just two days before Graham was to have been sentenced for the death of her husband, Cody Johnson.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jordan Graham wants to withdraw her guilty plea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK, I don`t know why Liz keeps playing that song. I think Jordan Graham actually wrote the song and had it played at her wedding. That was eight days before she pushes her husband off a cliff to his death.
Jon King, reporter, KGVO. Jon, she`s going to get a sweetheart deal. Now she wants -- she says the deal`s off the table, no deal. She wants a trial which involves a not guilty plea. What is she thinking?
JON KING, KGVO (via telephone): Well, that sweetheart deal didn`t seem so sweet when they asked for a life sentence.
GRACE: You know, but here`s the thing. Hold on, Jon King. Unleash the lawyers, Deborah Blum, Parag Shah. I don`t understand. You know, the jury will never know, Parag, that she was on the verge of sentencing to a guilty plea. She was going to stand in court and go, OK, OK, I pushed him over the cliff. Now she says no, she wants a jury trial. The jury`s never going to know she was set to plead guilty.
SHAH: Well, we don`t want the jury to know that because it will prejudice or taint the jury.
GRACE: Because they might find out the truth?
SHAH: No. Deals are made all the time where people didn`t actually commit the crime...
GRACE: Really?
SHAH: ... but it`s in their best interests to plead because the risk of losing can be so detrimental.
GRACE: Well, OK -- come on, Blum Why are you shaking your head yes and no? Give me one example, Deborah Blum, where you know of, you personally know of somebody that entered a guilty plea that wasn`t really guilty.
DEBORAH BLUM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: A lot of my clients. But many of my clients enter a plea of guilty to things that they`re not guilty of to avoid jail time, to avoid a felony conviction, to avoid a misdemeanor conviction.
GRACE: And here you see them. They`re starting to chance, basically a clutch. She`s holding onto him for dear life. You`d never guess that eight days later, she pushes him to his death. Tonight, she`s withdrawing her guilty plea. She wants a jury trial. That jury will never know she was set to plead guilty.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: So the killer bride was set to plead guilty now insists she`s innocent. The jury will never know she was set to enter a guilty plea.
Clark Goldband, what more do we know?
GOLDBAND: Well, Nancy, there`s an important point here that we`re not hitting on. This couple was only married for eight days. You`re talking a little more than a week. Of course, there was a lot of evidence the state claimed they had against this bride. Namely, she allegedly created a fake e-mail she received that said her new husband had just gone out with some friends and was not coming back, authorities able to prove it came from her family`s computer, they say.
GRACE: Everybody, take a look at this wedding photo. The so-called killer bride lures her husband to the top of a cliff eight days after their storybook wedding, sending him plunging over the side of the cliff to his death. She also never reports that he`s gone. Long story short, set to plead guilty. Just hours after the plea is set to go down, she says she`s rejecting the deal. She`s suddenly declaring she`s innocent.
When we come back, a beautiful 5-year-old little boy dies in the hospital, heartbreak for the grieving mom who chronicles the boy`s death, his final days over social media. But tonight, police ask, did Mommy inject a lethal dose of salt in the boy`s feeding tube?
And then to Texas, a deadly fire rages. Is it arson?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: When a beautiful 5-year-old little boy dies in the hospital, heartbreak for a grieving mother who chronicles the child`s final days over social media. But tonight, police are asking, did Mommy inject a lethal dose of salt into her own little boy`s feeding tube?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did Lacey Spears poison her own son with salt?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) woman gets a thrill out of the power and control she gets when she causes her child to be sick or she kills it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Munchausen by proxy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You decide that your child has all kind of illnesses, and it`s really because you want the attention.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you do to her?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you suggesting?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m her mother. I`m going with her!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cheryl (ph) is slowly poisoning your children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You are seeing a clip from YouTube from the Lifetime movie "The Good Mother."
What I`m talking about tonight, a 5-year-old little boy dead, dead in the hospital. And now police suspect his mother, his loving mother, who chronicles his final days on social media -- and let me read you a few things that she says.
She says, "Please, please send love. Went from fine to really sick in minutes. He`s completely back to himself, but no word on lab results. And the sedation meds must have nearly worn off. He`s screaming in pain, screaming his head hurts. We laid (ph) is bed (ph) flat and just wait to see what happens."
It goes on and on. I`ve got pages and pages of what she would post on social media. She watched her 5-year-old screaming in pain! And tonight, police believe she is the one that was injecting the child with salt, injecting it into his feeding tube, killing him with salt! I know it`s hard to believe. Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This isn`t the first time that a mother has been suspected of harming her own child. Over the last few years, several women have allegedly suffered from Munchausen by proxy. Alexis Felton was caught on tape choking her 11-month old baby six times while it sat in her crib in the hospital. Family suggests she had Munchausen by proxy. Kathy Bush was accused of intentionally making her child sick, forcing her to undergo 40 needless surgeries. Blanca Montano, accused of poisoning daughter for attention, infecting her over and over again with fecal and other bacteria as the child lay in the hospital. Gigi Jordan--
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Frank Morano, talk show host of 970 the Answer. Frank, it`s almost more than I can take in, because you like I, have been reading all her postings, that she would write, "Garnett is sick with the flu, but feeling well enough to try out his new homemade paint. He was admitted to Nyack hospital. He, quote, had a seizure. He was completely back to himself. No word on lab results. Sometime tomorrow I will make the decision to remove his life support."
Frank, I`m overwhelmed that she could stand by and watch him screaming, having seizures when she`s the one injecting salt into his feeding tube.
FRANK MORANO, 970 THE ANSWER: Nancy, yes, if any one of your viewers has a heart or a brain, you can`t help but be disturbed by this. It`s really an incredibly sad situation. While they haven`t filed any kind of criminal charges yet against Lacey Spears, the one thing that`s clear is this woman is deeply disturbed and deeply dishonest.
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What are they waiting on, Frank Morano? What are they waiting on? She has been injecting his feeding tube with salt, according to police. What are they waiting on to file the charges?
MORANO: You know, Nancy, I know many people are confused by this, but I actually haven`t been elected Westchester County district attorney yet, so I can`t tell you for sure. But the one thing that seems odd is there really seems to be no other reason that young Garnett would have died. Here he had dangerously high levels of sodium even before he died. There is no reason he even should have had a feeding tube at five years old, let alone having salt go into the feeding tube. Thank goodness for the Spears neighbor who, when she was called by the boy`s mother to dispose of the feeding bag after Garnett died, she instead contacted the police, who tested the feeding bag and found, yes, there were dangerously high levels of sodium in here.
GRACE: Frank, let me understand something. She had him using a feeding tube at home?
MORANO: Yes, at five years old, even though she claimed he couldn`t eat without vomiting regular food. But apparently whenever he was outside of his mother`s care, whether it was with somebody else or at the hospital, he had no problem eating on his own. So it doesn`t seem to jibe with what he was saying, that he was malnourished and couldn`t eat.
GRACE: With me is Marc Klaas, president and founder of KlaasKids foundation. Marc, to look at the pictures of this little child, you know he`s about the age of my twins. And to think that someone was systemically injecting him with salt? Marc, the little boy would just scream in pain.
KLAAS: It wasn`t someone who was injecting him, Nancy, it was his mother. You know, also throughout this little boy`s history, he would be taken to the hospital numerous times for strange ear infections, and they were very similar to ear infections that another little boy suffered that was under her care. Another little boy, incidentally, that she called my child until she was confronted by the boy`s mother. There is something terribly wrong with this woman, and she should never be allowed near another child again, and she should most definitely be spending the rest of her life behind bars if she`s convicted of murdering this child.
GRACE: You know, Frank Morano, radio talk show host on the Answer, I found it very probative that she, the mom, was having a fit for the neighbor to come throw out the feeding bag so police wouldn`t find it. The feeding bag revealed what, Frank?
MORANO: It revealed that there was sodium, which, of course, we know we get from salt, in the feeding tube that she was giving her own son. So not only should the boy have not had a feeding tube, but there certainly shouldn`t have been salt in there.
GRACE: OK. Everybody, I know it`s a crazy thing to get your mind around, it is for me, but it`s called Munchausen by proxy. In other words, you make people around you sick so that you get the attention. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to calm down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take my hand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re losing oxygen.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve already lost one child. I can`t go through this again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bob Keller from social services. We have an order of protection for Hilary Jordan. We need to remove her from the premises.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you do to her?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you suggesting?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cheryl is slowly poisoning your children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is a clip from Youtube and the Lifetime movie "The Good Mother." To Caryn Stark, psychologist. The Munchausen by proxy does not rise to the level of insanity. Explain what it is, Caryn.
STARK: It`s when a mother needs to have attention. Rather than create her own illnesses, Nancy, she puts it onto the children and she makes them sick, and then she rises to the occasion, cries, gets lots of people paying attention to her, and tries to figure out what to do about her terribly sick children. And this woman, the fact she was so engaged on Facebook and writing all these things, you see that she`s created a world that`s not quite real. And in this not real world, it`s very easy for her to create illnesses for her son.
GRACE: Karen, the one that`s getting me the most upset is about him screaming, screaming, "G is screaming in pain, screaming his head hurts."
STARK: And in her world that she`s created, this screaming is happening because of a real disease. Because this is somebody who is a pathological liar. She probably doesn`t know the difference between what she`s lying about and what`s real, because she`s capable of doing all this.
GRACE: To Dr. Joy M. Carter, chief forensic pathologist, author of "I Speak for the Dead." What does salt poisoning do to you? Why was the boy screaming his head hurt?
CARTER: I could have been a lot of pain because salt is going to cause dehydration and cause dehydration of the brain. It`s going to cause problems with the kidneys, cause the kidneys to shut down. Salt is kept in limits so our blood pressure is normal. But even an adult`s daily consumption of salt can kill an infant. So it really has to be taken into context for the size and age of the person. So you can definitely have changes with your blood pressure, your brain, all your vital organs are very sensitive to the levels of sodium in the body.
GRACE: Everyone, of course, if these allegations are true, may she rot in hell. Final legal note there.
When we come back, a 25-year-old mother disappears from an Exxon gas station, seemingly no clues. The investigation is stymied. Tonight, where is Jessica?
And then to Texas. A deadly fire rages. Is it arson?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Tonight, a 25-year-old mother disappears from an Exxon gas station seemingly into thin air and seemingly without a clue. The investigation is stymied. Tonight, where is Jessica?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 25-year-old Jessica Heeringa was working as a clerk at the Exxon Mobil station.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police are now looking for a van a witness saw shortly before Jessica disappeared.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was an abduction, not just a missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just don`t know where she is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to bring her home. We need to give her medical attention and she needs to go home to her little boy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, police are saying there are no clues, but after I have read the evidence, I agree with them that there is foul play. This mom did not just disappear into thin air of her own volition. In fact, straight out to Gene Parker, news director with 1260 the Pledge. Isn`t it true, Jean, that her blood was found somewhere outside on the pavement of the Exxon where she was.
PARKER: Yes, kind of a chilling discovery, Nancy. After police were called, and it was found there was still cash in the drawer at the gas station, hundreds of dollars, as a matter of fact, her purse, her keys, and that chilling discovery of a single drop of blood that later turned out to belong to Jessica Heeringa.
GRACE: Let me ask you, Gene, where was the blood?
PARKER: The blood was on the sidewalk behind the door, I believe.
GRACE: Okay, on the sidewalk behind the door. And that would have been exiting, possibly she put up a fight as she was leaving. Hey, Liz, let`s see the video. The FBI was able to call some surveillance video. Take a look at this. They are suspicious of a minivan. It`s a 2005 silver town and country minivan. Just keep playing it, Liz. Keep playing the minivan. I want the viewers to see it. A 2005 silver town and country minivan. We`re also looking for a white male, 6 feet tall, 30 to 40 years old, medium to heavy build, broad shoulders, light brown or sandy blond hair, wavy with a part in the middle. The hair slightly longer on top. Police are stymied and are asking for your help. With me right now, Craig Harpster. He called 911 after the gas station was found empty. Craig, thank you so much for being with us. Tell me what happened when you called 911.
CRAIG HARPSTER: Well, we came up to the gas station and tried to pump gas. It was unavailable because I was paying with cash. Went inside, noticed that nobody was available. Only one attendant was normally there. Hollered, hello, hello, even proceeded to look into the bathroom, the cooler, out the back door, and was returning to leave and decided with a gut feeling to call 911.
GRACE: You know, Craig, if you had not done that, how many more hours would have been lost? Craig Harpster joining us, an everyday hero. Comes to the gas station, pumps gas. Nobody ever comes to take the money or process the gas transaction. He calls 911 when he finds the Exxon station empty. That leads us to the single drop of blood found on the sidewalk outside the Exxon store -- Exxon gas station door. We`re talking about a mom, a young mom, 25 when she goes missing, Jessica Heeringa. With me right now, special guest, Jessica`s grandmother, Diane Homrich. Ms. Homrich, thank you for being with us.
DIANE HOMRICH, GRANDMOTHER : Thank you for having us on here.
GRACE: Ms. Homrich, I am completely intrigued by a story where you have a missing mom who, by all accounts, would never leave her child.
HOMRICH: Never.
GRACE: Never would she take a powder and leave and run off with some man and not take her child with her. That`s what I`ve learned about your granddaughter, one thing I`ve learned.
HOMRICH: Yes.
GRACE: I`ve learned she`s an extremely hard worker, a devoted mom, and there`s that one drop of blood. What are police telling you, Ms. Homrich?
HOMRICH: They aren`t very forthcoming with anybody in our family. However, we feel it was somebody she was familiar with and perhaps told her they had a problem and could she help and lured her out of the station and grabbed her.
GRACE: Well, yes, to get her out of the station, unless they pulled her out, I don`t understand why she would leave. Maybe they told her something was wrong with one of the gas pumps? Gene Parker, that leads me to a question. Gene Parker, news director, with 1260 the Pledge. What about interior surveillance camera, Gene? In the meantime, let`s show that outside surveillance again.
PARKER: Sadly, Nancy, there were no surveillance cameras in the gas station at the time. Jessica`s mom, Shelly Heeringa, lamented that if there were security cameras in place, my Jessica would still be here today. The owner of the gas station installed the security camera a couple weeks later. There was a state lawmaker who has proposed a bill requiring at least two people work overnight in a gas station or a security camera be in place. That security camera could have saved Jessica.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just walked inside. There`s nobody. There`s a car here. There`s another car out front. But it`s just very suspicious why there`s nobody here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay. So did you yell or anything?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I hollered, hey, walked around the building. It`s just -- I don`t know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Gene Parker, are you telling me that she`s working alone on a night shift and they don`t have interior surveillance camera? Is that what I just heard?
PARKER: Yes, that`s what you just heard, Nancy, no camera.
GRACE: Okay. What, if anything, are police saying?
PARKER: Well, police are saying what Jessica`s grandmother said, that they believe that the person who abducted Jessica did so against her will and possibly was a person whom she knew, either a customer, an acquaintance or a friend.
GRACE: Marc Klaas joining us, president and founder of Klaas Kids foundation. That`s consistent with everything that you say, Marc.
KLAAS: Well, you know, Nancy, young women, particularly attractive young women, I would say, are vulnerable in situations like this, and this is a situation where there needed to be surveillance. There needed to be at least one other person at the location. And you know, notwithstanding that, she should have had some kind of -- she should have been armed in some way with at least pepper spray or more likely a weapon if she was trained in the use of weapons, and there should also have been very easy access to emergency services, i.e. 911, and she should always have a GPS tracking device of some sort on her, so if she is forced away from that location, which she should never leave on her own volition, they would at least be able to track her someplace.
GRACE: Everyone, tip line in the case, 231-72-crime. Repeat, 231- 722-7463. Please, help us find Jessica.
When we come back, live to Houston. A deadly fire rages. Is it arson?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: And now live to Houston, Texas. A deadly, raging fire. Was it arson?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can see the five-alarm fire ravage through this apartment complex in Houston.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Nick Rajkovic, KTRH. Nick, thanks for being with us. What`s the possibility that this was actually intentionally set?
NICK RAJKOVIC: Well, Nancy, good evening to you. Some people in the neighborhood were upset that this complex being built near a historic cemetery in that neighborhood. So arson was a big concern here. Residents also upset that these high rise buildings were going up. These are older neighborhoods, older infrastructure. They were worried about the traffic and the water lines and the pressure and everything. There was a big concern about arson, but so far arson investigators have not issued any reports, anything linking this to arson.
GRACE: Nick, you`re right. It takes so long to determine arson. With me right now is senior captain Brad Hawthorne with the Houston fire department, who saved the worker that you see stuck there on the side of the building. And then you see the whole building collapse. Captain, thank you so much for being with us. Is that you climbing up to save him?
CAPT. BRAD HAWTHORNE: Yes, at the end of the ladder there, yes.
GRACE: With me, senior captain Brad Hawthorne, the real hero tonight who saves a construction worker. You know, so often we hear about our hero cops. We don`t always hear about our hero fire people. So tonight, as we are watching this raging, deadly fire, we want to thank you and your team, captain. And just let me ask you, as you`re going out there and you`re saving someone`s life, now the possibility that this is a crime, an arson, is rearing its ugly head. What do you make of that, captain?
HAWTHORNE: Well, you really can`t focus on that, Nancy. We train a lot. And (inaudible) training, you want to be repetition on what you`ve done before. It`s not nothing new. So it was reported there was three workers on the roof. So we went to the roof first, and we didn`t see anyone on the balcony until we got to the roof, then we could see him on the balcony, then we started moving forward to get to the balcony.
GRACE: With me senior captain Brad Hawthorne with the Houston fire department.
As always, being modest after he saves a life. The arson investigation goes on. Congratulations, captain. Thank you for being with us.
Everyone, let`s stop and remember American hero, Army Sergeant Patrick Williamson, 24. Louisiana. Bronze Star, Purple Heart, loved history and the outdoors. Parents Leon and Sybil, brother Max, sister Betsy. Patrick Williamson, American hero.
Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
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