Return to Transcripts main page

Nancy Grace

Newborn Abducted From Hospital; Ex-Girlfriend Drowns Lover`s 2-Year- Old

Aired May 28, 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. Every parent`s worst nightmare. Bombshell tonight. We go live, a tiny newborn baby snatched, stolen from the hospital by a woman disguised in nurse`s scrubs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A woman pretending to be a nurse walked into a hospital room and took a newborn baby.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A newborn infant is snatched from the hospital, and police say she was taken by a woman dressed as a nurse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Warning to other new parents not to be fooled by a uniform.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And then live, Jupiter, Florida. An ex-girlfriend drowns her lover`s 2-year-old little girl. Then she tries to poison her 10-year-old little boy. Tonight, the lawyers blame it all on a head injury at birth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lucas gave the little boy a pill. The boy told police he felt sleepy. Lucas took the little girl to have a bath. The 10-year- old boy found his sister submerged in water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And live, Illinois. Fresh out of rehab, 21-year-old Carly Russo (ph) gets a cheap high sucking on Blast Away (ph), a canned air cleaning product, then plows her Lexus into a family of four, killing a 5-year-old little girl, running over the child over and over again. So for $22, she gets a high, and the little girl is dead today because of it? Tonight, will a legal loophole, the fact that inhalants are not a drug, let this killer walk free?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A loss linked to dusting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Buying a keyboard cleaning spray from a Deerfield (ph) Walgreen`s, inhaling or huffing the product in the parking lot, then driving home to nearby Highland Park.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Running her black Lexus sedan over young family, killing 5-year-old Jacqueline Santos Sacramento (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And to Torrance, California. A young dad of three, outside working on the car, comes in, finds his three little daughters dead in bed with Mommy, clutching a knife. Mommy of three Carol Coronado released from the hospital, at this hour now in a jailhouse, three counts of murder awaiting her.

New details emerging. We discover the killer mom tries to kill her own mother. And in the last hours, we determine where she is now located. This as her husband, the father of the three little girls, insists Mommy not be prosecuted or even be sent to jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Grief-stricken father collapses in front of a memorial to his three little girls.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carol Coronado was found lying on a bed covered in blood next to her three daughters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The husband does not want anyone throwing the book at her or condemning her to death. He wants her to get help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And live, LA, 6:30 AM, 2-year-old toddler body Edwin (ph) snatched right outside his own home from Mommy`s minivan. Hours later, Mommy`s Nissan Quest found abandoned, but not -- but tonight, no sign of baby Edwin. Where is Edwin?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two-year-old Edwin Vargas (ph) was allegedly kidnapped by 27-year-old Abraham Vargas (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where Vargas and the 2-year-old are, no one knows. Can you help bring this child home?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.

Bombshell tonight, every parent`s worst nightmare. We go live, a tiny newborn baby snatched, stolen from the hospital by a woman disguised in nurse`s scrubs. Can you even imagine going through childbirth, delivery, a nurse comes up and says it`s time to weigh the baby, you never see the baby again?

Straight out to Pat Lalama, correspondent with Investigation Discovery. Pat, what happened?

PAT LALAMA, INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY: This baby, 16 hours old -- and police say Valerie Collins (ph) dresses in scrubs, and by the way, Nancy, is so convincing that she takes the baby past the uncle of the child and says, Routine tests, everything will be OK. He claims you`d have never known that she was an abductor. She takes the baby, immediate alerts, Amber Alert, social media, and then the search is on for this child.

GRACE: Everybody, you are looking at a newborn baby girl, baby Victoria (ph), the child only hours old. Mom is still half out of it after giving birth. Dad doesn`t realize exactly what`s going on, although both Mom and Dad say something struck them wrong when the nurse said, It`s time to weigh the baby again.

Alexis Weed joining us on the story. Alexis, what more do we know?

ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right. So this woman walked right into the mother`s hospital room, in the maternity ward. She didn`t disguise herself other than wearing this uniform, this nurse`s uniform. But she walked, Nancy, right out the front door of this hospital with this 16-hour- old baby. She takes the baby with her, gets into her car, according to people at the hospital who saw her leave. People actually watched her walk out that front door. She left and took the baby in her car.

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Jamie in Oklahoma. Hi, Jamie. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does this happen? I thought that we had to have...

GRACE: I don`t know!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... (INAUDIBLE) and be buzzed into a nursery...

GRACE: Jamie -- can I tell you something, Jamie? When I had the twins -- because I was in the hospital for a long time, too. I got wheeled across to the other end of the hospital and was visiting with them and was there the whole day. Do you know it set off an alarm because I wasn`t back in my hospital bed and had not been checked back in? I don`t understand it.

Unleash the lawyers. Joining me, Eleanor Odom -- I`ll start with her -- death penalty-qualified prosecutor. Eleanor, with all the checkpoints that you have at hospitals, how does it happen? And how did this woman, who we now don`t believe is a doctor or a nurse -- how did she figure out how to beat the system and get the baby? Take a look.

ELEANOR ODOM, PROSECUTOR: Well, Nancy, obviously, it requires some type of planning to pull off this kind of crime. She probably went and looked and saw what the routine was in the hospital, the procedures. And remember, there she is, dressing up as a nurse. No one`s going to question it. Think about it, Nancy. When you go to a hospital or a doctor`s office, you see somebody in a white coat, you assume they`re a doctor.

GRACE: You know, I want look again at the scrubs. There`s the hospital. And what I don`t understand is how she got through security. How do you get out the door -- there`s cameras everywhere -- with a baby in your arms? I mean, didn`t it seem odd that you take a baby out on your arms right through the smokers?

Hey, another thing I`m just thinking -- to Dr. Michelle Dupre, medical examiner joining me out of Columbia. Doctor, isn`t it true that every time you leave the hospital as a patient, you get wheeled out in a wheelchair, no matter what? I remember I was fine by the time I brought the twins home, and they made me get in a wheelchair and get wheeled out both times I left the hospital.

Here comes a nurse in scrubs, you know, traipsing straight through all the smokers huddled outside the front door, with a baby in arms. Didn`t anybody think, Hey, that`s weird?

DR. MICHELLE DUPRE, MEDICAL EXAMINER (via telephone): Nancy, I can`t believe it. But you`re absolutely right. Patients get wheeled out in wheelchairs, but not the staff. If someone saw a nurse walking out the front door with a baby, they probably wouldn`t think twice about it.

GRACE: Let`s see a shot of this woman dressed in scrubs. For those of you just joining us, a mother just gives birth, she`s in the hospital, the baby`s only a few hours old. A nurse comes in and says -- Pat Lalama, doesn`t she say, We`ve got to weigh the baby again?

LALAMA: Well, she actually walks by the uncle of the child and says, Routine tests. And the thing that just gets to me is that he said she was so convincing, so in control, really knew how to play the role, like she had really practiced this, and believed it. And friends say that she was desperate for a child, Nancy, desperate.

GRACE: You know, Caryn Stark, what`s interesting is that almost immediately, the parents say, they feel this odd feeling come over them when the nurse comes in and says, We`ve got to weigh the baby again. What is that? I mean, they didn`t -- they had never seen this nurse before.

But you know, when I`m thinking back on it, I didn`t really remember all the nurses that were coming in and out of the room. But they had this incredible feeling of uneasiness when the nurse came and got the baby to weigh it.

CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: It`s parental instincts, Nancy. I`m sure that they were picking up on something about this person. I mean, no matter how carefully planned she had been, something was not right that at 21 years old, she wanted to steal somebody else`s baby. You would think at 21, she`s not even obsessed with having a child.

GRACE: Now, Pat Lalama, correspondent, Investigation Discovery, I understand the perp dressed as a nurse in scrubs, made off with the baby in a red Toyota hatchback with a "Baby on board" sign in the window!

LALAMA: Right. Right.

GRACE: I mean, she had this thing planned down to a T, "Baby on board" sign in the window. Immediately, an Amber Alert is sent out. And what can you tell me about this vehicle? Was it spotted on the hospital surveillance? Is that how we know about the car?

LALAMA: Witnesses in the area see it. And then the Amber Alert takes place. And then massive social media goes out. A picture of the woman from the hospital goes out instantly. It really was...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: How did they get the picture...

LALAMA: Nancy, I was just going to say this is where the power of technology does work in our favor, rather than against it. Everybody was on top of it. The Amber Alert, the cops, the security at the hospital snatched that picture as quickly as possible. They get it on social media. It goes viral. And now everyone is on top of it. It really is quite amazing how...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: This is something I don`t understand. I thought babies had a band on their ankle or their hand, and it would set off some type of an alarm if they left the -- if they left. I guess she had to cut that off of the baby, Pat?

LALAMA: Well, the question is where did she get the scrubs? I mean, we probably don`t know everything about this...

(CROSSTALK)

LALAMA: ... at this point.

GRACE: You can get the scrubs at any medical supply.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: ... get scrubs just like that at a medical supply. Eleanor, think about...

LALAMA: But as one of your...

GRACE: Go ahead, Pat.

LALAMA: I was just going to say as your previous guest had said, that she knew the inner workings somehow. She felt a certain comfort here. So who knows if she new how to disarm the security system.

GRACE: OK, right now, I`m being joined by defense attorney Peter Odom out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. To both of you -- let me start with you, Peter. I don`t think that any kind of an insanity defense, a mental defect is going to work because she had to plan this so carefully. She had to remove the armband or the ankleband, whichever one the baby was wearing, she had to get the scrubs, put them on, figure out how to get in there, figure out how to get out.

Please put up Peter Odom. And Peter, just the cherry on top of the sour sundae, she had to get a "Baby on board" sign and stick it on the back of her car.

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy...

GRACE: That takes a lot of planning, Peter Odom.

PETER ODOM: Right, but you seem to suggest that just because she planned it means that she`s not insane. If she is acting under an irresistible impulse, that too can be insanity, even if -- even if there`s planning and premeditation involved. So your premise is just wrong, Nancy.

GRACE: OK, you know what, Eleanor? As much as I respect Peter -- if I kidnapped a child from the hospital, I might hire him. But the reality is, if you have the wherewithal to plan something and keep it secretive what you`re doing, to lie to the parents to say, Let`s go weigh the baby, you know you have to lie. Why? Because you know what you`re doing is wrong. That is the definition of insanity (sic), Eleanor.

ELEANOR ODOM: Exactly. So...

PETER ODOM: That`s one definition of insanity.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Is your name Eleanor? No!

ELEANOR ODOM: It goes directly against delusional compulsion. There is no evidence here that she suffered whatsoever under a delusional compulsion. There`s no evidence that she thought she was a nurse or any type of medical personnel, that she knew how to take care of babies, none of that.

GRACE: Let`s take another look at the video, everybody. Take a look at this woman dressed in hospital scrubs -- comes in, a newborn, 16 hours old, says, Time to weigh the baby. The baby is stolen from the hospital!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: We are bringing you the story of a newborn snatched from the hospital by a woman dressed in nurse`s scrubs. Here`s the happy ending to that, the rest of the story. Because of the hospital`s quick response and quick posting of the photo of the perp, neighbors of the perp recognize her, say she`s been desperate for a baby. The child is returned to Mommy and Daddy.

Let`s see Mommy and Daddy getting the baby back. Can you imagine the mom when she gets her child back? Thanks to Amber Alert and to the heroes who identify the perpetrator.

And now we take you live to Jupiter, Florida, an ex-girlfriend accused of drowning her lover`s 2-year-old little girl. Then she allegedly tries to poison the 10-year-old little boy, as well. Tonight, though, her lawyer blames it on a head injury at birth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two-year-old Eliana (ph) was found dead in the bathtub by her 10-year-old brother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Courageous life-saving efforts of the 10-year-old boy on the scene, who did everything he could to attempt to save his little sister`s life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Straight out to Joel Malkin, news director at WJNO. Joel, thank you for being with us. I don`t understand how this whole thing happened. I know the ex-girlfriend, angry over a break-up, has the two children with her, baby-sitting. What happened?

JOEL MALKIN, WJNO RADIO (via telephone): Well, she described herself to friends as the children`s other mother. She had been with the mother for about 20 years. And so she was with the children that day. I believe that was Sunday.

And she just, I guess, allegedly lost it. She tried to get the little girl, the 2-year-old, to actually take a pill. And she was -- put it in water. But the little girl wouldn`t drink it. The boy, she gave a pill and said, This will make you grow faster, and actually put the -- crushed it up, the pill, put it in a cup of coffee.

The boy drank it and then felt dizzy sometime later and went to bed, woke up, the woman, Kimberly Lucas, laying in bed unconscious next to him, the little girl, the 2-year-old, his sister, nowhere to be found, door to the bathroom locked. He pries the door open with a knife, gets in there, sees his sister under water in the bathtub -- this is the next morning -- and tries to do CPR to her to no avail.

GRACE: So the 10-year-old little boy tries and tries to save the sister. Matt Zarrell, extremely odd postings by the perp.

MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, Nancy. When cops got to the scene, the observed on a computer monitor a Word document, and the document referred to a sermon that the woman attended the day before with the 10-year-old, which discusses the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac and God stopping him at the last minute. And it includes lines that appear to be directed to the ex-girlfriend, including saying, "When you`re laying in bed at night, remember you f`ing did this to yourself," and "God never told me to stop," referring to the sermon about Abraham.

GRACE: With me right now out of West Palm Beach, Florida, is Brian Ladd, on the board of directors at the Metropolitan Community Church of Palm Beaches. The suspect referenced the sermon given by the church pastor.

You know, Brian, when you give sermon based on Abraham and Isaac, where Abraham was led into the wilderness and he thought he was -- he should be ready to sacrifice everything for God, including his son, the rest of the story is, he didn`t sacrifice his son, Isaac. That is the rest of the story. The child was not sacrificed.

In some weird way, people are trying to blame the sermon. I think that is ridiculous!

BRIAN LADD, BD. OF DIRS., METROPOLITAN COMM. CHURCH (via telephone): Well, I whole-heartedly agree with you. You know, the message of Metropolitan Community Church of the Palm Beaches has always been a message of love and compassion. It`s a message of God`s unconditional love and acceptance of all people. And we`re committed to that message of love, and we reach out to everyone, regardless of their spiritual journey of where they are. And what happened on Monday really has nothing to do with love or compassion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The report says Lucas gave each a pill. When the 10- year-old boy woke up, he made the horrible discovery...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ran to the bathroom for his sister, but the door was locked. So he grabbed a knife, broke in, started CPR and then called 911.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Back to Joel Malkin, news director at WJNO. So the ex-girlfriend is what, comatose? Let me guess. She said she was going to kill herself, too, but miraculously, she lives and the 2-year-old dies?

MALKIN: Yes, she was unconscious. The little boy, the 10-year-old, tried to revive her, couldn`t, didn`t know what was going on, and you know, as I said, found the sister, the 2-year-old, underwater in the tub.

GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. First out to you, Peter Odom. Her -- the ex- girlfriend`s lawyers are now claiming that she had a head injury...

PETER ODOM: Right.

GRACE: ... at work, and that`s why she did this. Now, of course, we all know about her postings blaming a sermon at the church, where she says, Oops, I didn`t read the end of that story about the father murdering Isaac, his son. Obviously, she does know the end of the story. And she says to the victim`s mom, I hope you`re laying in bed tonight realizing that you f`ing did this to yourself, blaming the parent.

I mean, it`s just she`s -- I`m overwhelmed. I really think that her e- mails and her postings show that she meant to do this out of pure meanness and evil, revenge.

PETER ODOM: If she has an organic brain injury and if there`s a well- documented history of that, Nancy, then that can lead it strange and even violent behavior. That`s part of her defense. That`s a viable defense. You know, the sanity defense rarely works, but the times when it works is when there`s a well-documented history of mental illness or an organic brain injury. Now, I grant you this, that there`s motive in some of those e-mails, but those same e-mails also might support a mental illness defense.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Welcome back. Now we go live to Illinois. Fresh out of rehab, 21- year-old Carly Russo gets a cheap high sucking on Blast Away. It`s a canned air cleaning product you spray onto your computer keys. Then, high on that, she plows her Lexus into a family of four. Mowing down a 5-year- old little girl. In fact, running over the child`s legs again and again and again, killing the child. So let me get this straight. Her $22, she gets high, and the little girl is dead tonight. Because of it. But will a legal loophole, the fact that these inhalants are not a drug, let her walk free?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She inhaled the gas from the container knowing full well what it would do to her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Surveillance video of her black Lexus jumping the sidewalk, crashing into a family, killing 5-year-old Jacqueline Santos- Sacramento, then rolling over the victims again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Oh, seeing that video, roll that back for me, Liz. The family, I think, is up on the sidewalk or in that parking -- oh, in the parking lot. And this is girl, she`s two weeks out of rehab, a fancy expensive rehab. She gets high on an inhalant. It is called huffing, like a whippet. In this case, blast away. When you inhale the air from the container of a cleaner. This cleaner cleaned your computer.

So she gets high on that. Goes and buys it at a Walgreens drugstore. Gets high. Gets behind the wheel. And runs over this family. Now if you look at the video again. You will see Carly Russo very clearly jumping up, there it is, blast away, jumping the curb and plowing -- look, they`re in the parking lot minding their own business. You see the family trying to save the little girl. She has already run over the little girl numerous times.

Now, here`s the problem under the law. Blast away, whippets, which is like, it can be, whip cream that you spray. You can get the little containers. They are very cheap. There was recently an incident where Demi Moore actually allegedly went into convulsions and had to go into the hospital because she he was high on whippets. It is like a kid`s drug. So now we`ve got a dead girl, Pat Lalama, Investigation Discovery, help me out. I want to know about this legal loophole that this little girl is dead and similar cases cannot be prosecuted because blast away and whippets and so forth are inhalants and not identified under the law like cocaine, hash, heroin, methamphetamine. This is not a drug per se. Let`s start at the beginning. What happened?

LALAMA: What happens is she tells the cops she left her house. She went to get some food. She got into daddy`s Lexus. Then suddenly gets the urge. She`s been sober for a while. She is out of rehab. She`s been sober.

But she gets the --

GRACE: She has only been out of rehab for two weeks. Please. It`s not like she is on this long journey of sobriety. She has been out of rehab, a fancy expensive rehab I might add, for two weeks only. When she is in Walgreen`s going to buy something and decides to get blast away and suck it up and run down a family.

LALAMA: And she buy two cans of it. My question is, if you`re going to do this, why not pull over so you get other people out of danger. She goes across oncoming lanes and lanes of oncoming traffic into a curb, over the 5-year-old. The car goes backward. The car comes forward. Three times. Other people, witnesses, are trying to stop her. They see she appears to be unconscious in the car, trying to get the car to stop. It is incredibly tragic. All because of her slip, her selfish self-motivated slip.

GRACE: Everybody, you are seeing video surveillance at the scene. This family minding their own business as you can see, they are not in the street. They are there along the side of the sidewalk, when this woman, two weeks out of rehab, jumps the curb and plows down a family of four. She kills a 5-year-old little girl. Just for a cheap $22 high. Quickly, to Cheryl McCollum, former state director of MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Cheryl, the legal loophole that for instance blast away or whippet is not considered a drug, that may let thousands of people go without prosecution because this is not covered in the statute.

MCCOLLUNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, in some instances, Nancy, it is. It does say chemical. Which this is. The reason, you`ve got people buying this type of agent is because it is accessible. And it is not going to show up in, you know, your urine test. They like it because they can --

GRACE: Oh good point, cheryl mccollum. Out to Dr. Harold Samuels, founder and CEO of the Hills Treatment Center, an addiction expert. Howard, it doesn`t show up in your urine test. I hadn`t thought of that until Cheryl McCollum points it out. No wonder it is so popular. What is it? How is it used? And what effect does it have on you, doctor?

SAMUELS: First of all, it is unfortunately a very common high. Cheap, easily accessible. You can go to the store, buy any aerosol can. Spray paint, whip cream. Computer duster. You take off the top. You have a rag or a piece of clothing. As a buffer. And you get the gas so the cloth blocks the liquid and you suck in the gas which has all the chemicals in it. And then that gets you light-headed, euphoric. Gets you a little high. You become disoriented. You hallucinate. And as in this case, the disaster and the disgusting results of addiction occur.

GRACE: Okay. So you get a cheap high by going into Walgreen`s or any drugstore, office supply, and you get for instance the stuff you squirt on your computer keyboard to clean between it. Or you get whip it. What is whip it?

SAMUELS: Whip actually is a whip cream little device where you can take it home and it`s got, you know, chemicals in it that you can make whip cream with. A lot of people will break it open and snort the chemicals in it. In fact when I was using many, many years ago, active in my addiction, whip its, popular at the nightclubs. Everyone was doing it. You get a little rush from it. Light-headed. Lose your inhibitions, that kind of thing.

GRACE: A lot of people didn`t even know about this, until Demi Moore, allegedly, following the break-up of her marriage, depressed. Used whip its. Ended up going into convulsions and going into the hospital. She is a grown lady. I don`t really think of adults with whip its.

SAMUELS: I got to say, that`s very rare. Whip its used to be a big disco thing in the 70s. Okay? But the whole aerosol huffing experience really is with younger teens. And that`s where that comes from.

GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining me, Peter Odom, and now to you, Eleanor, the fact that there is a legal loophole that this little 5-year- old girl is dead, because she, Carly Russo, wanted a cheap high. And she could evade prosecution because whip its and blast away and all of the other aerosol cleaners are not considered drugs.

E. ODOM: That might be true, Nancy, but there is always a way to prosecute this behavior. For example, it is reckless endangerment of a child. Still vehicular homicide, even though you don`t do it under a drug issue. So there are other ways.

GRACE: Peter, you`re looking very smug. I take it you`ve come up with another defense.

P. ODOM: You have a gripe with the legislature where it happened. If you want it close the loophole, it is up to the legislature to close it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: And now to Torrance, California. A young father of three outside working on his car comes in to find his three little girls dead in bed with mommy clutching a knife. The mom of three, Carol Coronado, now in jail. Three counts of murder awaiting her. New details emerging at this hour. We`ve also learned she tried to kill her own mother but at this hour, she has been moved out of the hospital and into the jail. As her husband, the father of the three little girls, insists mommy must not be prosecuted or even sent to jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Father jumps to his knees and sobs overcome with grief. Sheriff deputies say the maternal grandmother found her daughter naked, covered in blood and holding a knife. Her three granddaughters lying in a pool of blood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Father Rudy Coronado reportedly says he believes there was a demon inside his wife. And he wants her to get help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Straight out to Larry Altman, reported with the Daily Breeze. Carol Coronado, now in the jailhouse. This as her husband, father of three little girls, insists his wife not face the death penalty. Really not be prosecuted at all.

Larry, something occurred to me. She walked out of the house after stabbing her three little girls to death. There`s all this discussion about her physical ailments. That she tried to kill herself. She walked out of her own volition. Yes, they put a blanket around her. Police were beside her. But she was able to physically stand and walk. So her claims that she tried to kill herself, I`m not buying that, Larry.

ALTMAN: Well, I guess we`ll find out tomorrow. I plan to be in the courtroom. We`re told she will be aboard special transportation to get to the courthouse. She won`t be on the regular jail bus. We will see what her condition is.

GRACE: What special transportation is that?

ALTMAN: I believe deputies will be driving her. She won`t go on the regular school bus that inmates are transferred on.

GRACE: Why is that?

ALTMAN: Well, it is for whatever medical problem that she has, that she is going to be driven separately.

GRACE: Larry Altman, what can you tell me about the husband not wanting her prosecuted?

ALTMAN: I`ve been told by two different relatives that he just believes there was something inside her that caused her to do this. It wasn`t her. And I`ve been told that`s his wife. He loves her and he doesn`t want anything more to happen to her. He just believes she needs treatment.

GRACE: OK. He thinks she needs treatment. Let`s talk about the facility where she is right now. Tell me, where is she and is she held on a separate unit?

ALTMAN: Yes. She is on the women`s floor at the twin towers facility in downtown Los Angeles. That is a regular jail where everybody goes. For anything.

GRACE: To Matt Zarrell also on the story, what can you tell me about where she is now? What do we know about the facility? And also, what`s going to happen in court tomorrow?

ZARRELL: Okay, so she`s being held at the correctional treatment center inside the jail. She`s still under doctor`s care. They`re not detailing exactly how long she`s going to be there. It is not quite a hospital, Nancy, but it is above and beyond normal housing. It is very similar to a hospital setting. She`s got a single-person room. Very much like a hospital. She got a large-viewing window. The door is secured. It is a 50/50 mix of medical and custody personnel to secure the environment. She will also have access to religious services, educational services, alcohol and narcotic therapy and television.

GRACE: Caryn Stark, psychologist, I don`t think the husband even realizes, I don`t think it has soaked into him, sunk into him, that his three daughters are dead. He is actually saying he doesn`t even want her prosecuted at all.

STARK: Very strong denial, Nancy. Saying she had a demon inside of her. We can say that about every single person who kills. She killed her own children. She lined up the bodies like notches on the belt. And her mother, who happened to have lived. But she lined her up to. So she knew exactly what she was doing. And you are surprised, I would think, that he he instead of being upset and angry, wants to have her taken care of and cured.

GRACE: Eleanor Odom, death penalty qualified prosecutor, she has been charged with three count of murder for her three children with special circumstances. One count of trying to kill her own mother. When the mother tried to stop her. Explain special circumstances.

E. ODOM: In order to get the death penalty, the jury has to find one of the set of special circumstances, like the murder is particular cruel or heinous. At any rate, you have to alleged --

GRACE: Murder -- more than one body.

E. ODOM: Exactly. That is what the state has done. Of course you also take the surviving, the victim`s family`s opinion into consideration as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Now live to L.A., 6:30 a.m. 2-year-old toddler boy Edwin snatched outside his own home from mommy`s mini van. Hours later mommy`s Nissan Quest has been found abandoned but no sign of baby Edwin. Tonight, where is 2-year-old Edwin?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An Amber alert has been issued after a 2-year-old Los Angeles boy was allegedly snatched.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Abraham Vargas, the van and the boy inside. Authorities fear they may be heading for Mexico.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Right now, still no sighting of the 2-year-old little boy. Straight out to Jim Roope with KABC. Jim, thank you for being with us.

JIM ROOPE, KABC: My pleasure.

GRACE: The mom was -- thank you -- was putting the little boy in her minivan when suddenly she gets knocked down and the perp takes off in the minivan with the baby.

ROOPE: That`s exactly right.

GRACE: Tell me what we know tonight.

ROOPE: Well, we know the Amber alert is still in effect, although it was issued all the way down into Mexico, but right now sort of San Diego and Los Angeles County is where the Amber alert still is in effect. This little boy, Edwin, is about 2 feet tall, brown hair, brown eyes, Hispanic. Last time he was seen as you mentioned Friday May 23rd about 6:30 in the morning wearing a red sweatshirt and blue sweatpants.

GRACE: I am so sick about this little child, Edwin Vargas. He`s just 2 years old, everyone. And you all know how much he is wanting his mother right now. The vehicle has been found. Give me the circumstances, Jim Roope, with KABC. How did they find the mom`s minivan? There it is, everybody.

ROOPE: Yes, the search began right away once Beatrice Perez called police. The search began right away. It was found just a few hours later, not too far away, abandoned in East Los Angeles. It was an orange Nissan Quest, as you mentioned. No sign of the boy. No sign of the father, who is suspected of kidnapping this young man. But the van has been found, was found just a few hours after he took it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the man police are hunting for. 26- year-old Abraham Vargas accused of kidnapping and sparking a statewide Amber alert.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come back with my little baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Michael Christian, what more can you tell me about the missing 2-year-old, and Edwin Vargas?

CHRISTIAN: You know, he`s afraid of his father according to his mother. She filed a restraining order earlier this year. It was approved by the court, but never actually served an Abraham Vargas, therefore it was not in effect at the time of this alleged kidnapping.

GRACE: Jim Roope, I am scared to death this father is going to take out all of his anger on this child. Has there been any update about what we think that the perp is driving? He ditched the mom`s minivan. What could he be in and where could he be headed?

ROOPE: Unfortunately the LAPD has no further information on what may have happened. The biggest fear is because the mother was saying on Friday morning that he threatened her since he returned from Mexico. He was gone for two years. He returned from Mexico in November, and since November has been threatening her. Two months ago he took out his restraining order. She said he told her he was going to hit her where it hurts most, her son, and continued to harass her. So that`s the biggest fear right flow, not only where he is, but what he might be doing with his son. We believe he loves his son enough that he kidnapped this boy, but from what --

GRACE: Whoa, wait a minute, back it up, Jim Roope. I don`t know if he loved his son so much he kidnapped him.

ROOPE: That`s what I think from what his mother was saying.

GRACE: I think he was so angry at the mother that he kidnapped the son.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: I don`t think this was an act of love by any stretch of the imagination.

What`s concerning me is I feel like this whole case has gotten lost in the sauce. The case of Edwin Vargas, haven`t heard a thing about it. I happen to find out about it. It is not on any national programming. Nothing. It`s like this kid for some reason doesn`t matter. Everyone, please, take a look at this little boy. Edwin Vargas. I believe he is in extreme danger. I don`t know what the perp is driving. We don`t know where he`s headed. Many people believe he is still in the L.A. area. Jim Roope joining me from KABC. Everyone, tip line, 800-222-TIPS. T-i-p-s.

Let`s stop and remember American hero, Army Sergeant Daniel Wallace, 27, Dry Ridge, Kentucky. Bronze Star, Purple Heart. Army Good Conduct Medal. Loved nature. Parents, Kenneth and Karen. Brothers, Kenneth jr., Brian, Alex. Sister, Kim. Children, Abigail and Cody. Daniel Wallace, American hero.

A special good night from Kentucky friends, law students Stephanie and Cindy. I`ll see you two in court. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night, everyone. Again, thank you for being with us. Tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.

END