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Nancy Grace
Basement Boy Victim of Abuse
Aired July 10, 2014 - 20:30 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. To Michigan. After we report a desperate father literally running door to door, begging for help to find
his little boy, a stunning turn. We break the news to Daddy right here on our program his boy`s alive in Daddy`s basement.
Bombshell tonight. As we go to air, we obtain police documents, the shocking details of horrific child abuse at the hands of Daddy and
Stepmommy. Tonight, we want justice for little Charlie.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Your son has been found alive in your basement.
CHARLES BOTHUELL IV, FATHER: What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charlie alleges his stepmother has physically punched him and made statements such as, I can make you disappear, and unlike you,
I know where the sharp knives are.
GRACE: How could your son be alive in your basement?
BOTHUELL: I -- I have -- I have no idea!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, the tragic death of 22-month-old toddler boy, Cooper, seemingly left alone for hours in a baking hot car by Daddy. Was the tot
murdered? Damning evidence Daddy`s sexting six different women, even sending photos of his erect penis, as baby Cooper bakes dead in the car,
baby Cooper scratching his little face, abrasions on the back of his head as he bangs back and forth to escape, screaming out for Daddy.
Bombshell tonight. Mommy lawyers up with her own high-profile defense attorney, separate from Daddy. Is Mommy onto possible wiretaps and GPS
trackers catching her every move?
And tonight, we dig deep to reveal Daddy`s secret on-line double life and identify the exact carseat in which we believe baby Cooper breathed his
last, and the truth behind Daddy`s claim he`s deaf in one ear and couldn`t hear baby Cooper right beside him. Major bombshell. In the last hours,
results of baby Cooper`s toxicology test are in.
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. To Michigan. After we report a desperate father literally running door to door, begging for help to find his little boy, a
stunning turn. We break the news right here to Daddy the boy is alive in his basement.
As we go to air tonight, we obtain police documents, the shocking details of horrific child abuse at the hands of Daddy and stepmother. We want
justice for this little boy!
I had no idea when I came across the article of the dad looking for his son door to door that this would open up a can of worms that would result in
proving not a father desperate to find his child, but a father who allegedly abuses his child, along with the stepmother, in a horrific
manner.
Straight out to Susan Candiotti, CNN national correspondent. Susan, what have we learned?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot more. And there`s a lot, Nancy, in this multi-page petition that goes into, as you said, pretty
horrific detail about this alleged abuse.
Now we are learning that this went on, according to this, for two years. Charlie tells authorities that`s how long he was abused, hit with a PVC
pipe repeatedly, at times too sore to walk or even to sit down, and that day after day, seven days a week, he had to get up at 5:00 o`clock in the
morning, he told authorities, and do these incredible workouts that included 100 pushups, 200 situps, 100 jumping jacks, 25 arm...
GRACE: Hold on. Hold on. I`m writing all this down. Everybody, joining us from New York, CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti, detailing
what we have just learned.
We have obtained the written documents from police that detail exactly what little Charlie Bothuell told police. Remember, he was going for that
criminal forensic interview? What we have found out is so upsetting.
We found out that the father, according to little Charlie, would beat him until the skin on his little behind would tear open and bleed, that this
child -- that this father you`re seeing right there, according to the child, forced him to do 5,000 reps or turns on an elliptical, and at night
4,000.
If he wouldn`t do it, he would be beaten with a PVC pipe so brutally, his buttocks, the skin would crack open and bleed, that sometimes he was so
tired of doing the regimen, including 5,000 steps on an elliptical in the morning, 4,000 steps at night, his whole body would hurt from the beatings
and the workouts, that he couldn`t do it.
Susan Candiotti, what would happen when he could not complete his workout?
CANDIOTTI: Well, Nancy, he told police, I`d have to do it again. If he didn`t complete it in an hour, he had to do it all over again. And he told
police, Sometimes I just -- I couldn`t do it. I couldn`t do it because I hurt so much.
GRACE: You know, Charlie Langton, we`ve been on the story from the get-go, me, Susan Candiotti and you, joining me from WWJ News. And Susan was
starting the telling of it. There`s 5,000 -- I call them reps, but steps on the elliptical in the morning, 4,000 at night. What else did they force
the boy to do?
CHARLIE LANGTON, WWJ (via telephone): Well, Nancy, according to these documents, it`s 100 pushups, 200 situps, 100 jumping jacks, 25 arm curls on
each arm with a 25-pound weight. And as Susan said, if you don`t do it under an hour, you`ve got to do it again. And that was twice a day. And
he was threatened if he didn`t do this!
And that`s right in these documents. It was so painful, the child was beaten -- this is new to us now. He was beaten on his butt, his feet, his
chest, his head, his thighs, his sides, his arms. I mean, if that`s not abuse, I don`t know what is!
GRACE: And you know, it goes back to this. Everyone, we`re getting late- breaking news about what little Charlie detailed in his forensic criminal interview.
Liz, let me know when Matt Zarrell is hooked up on this. Charlie -- he had to do arm curls, 25 pounds on each arm, 25 curls on each arm. I think it
was 100 situps, 100 pushups, 100 jumping jacks, the 4,000 reps at night, the 5,000 reps -- revolutions on the elliptical. And then if he didn`t
finish, he had to do it -- start over again or take a beating.
Math Zarrell, at this hour, it`s my understanding that they want to rip away custody from the father, take not only little Charlie away, but all
the other children he`s got. He`s got one autistic child with Monique Bothuell.
And she`s in it, too! She`s in it just as bad, Matt Zarrell...
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): It`s even more, Nancy...
GRACE: Because according -- according to these documents, that day, the stepmother is the one making him do these horrific workouts. And she said
to him, Unlike you, I know where the sharp knives are, little boy, and I can make you disappear. Now, get in the basement. And she, according to
him, the child -- she`s the one that barricaded him down there and wouldn`t give him anything to eat!
ZARRELL: Yes, Nancy. And it was all because he didn`t do any of the workouts that evening, or at least she accused him of lying about doing the
workouts. But it`s even more than custody, Nancy. The Department of Human Services wants to take parental rights away from these parents on these
kids forever.
GRACE: You know -- you know, when we first started it, Matt, we knew something was wrong. When we saw the father react, when we heard that the
child was in the basement, we knew something was wrong. But I didn`t know what. Look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: ... getting reports that your son has been found alive in your basement.
BOTHUELL: What?
GRACE: Yes. That`s what -- if you could hand me that wire very quickly? Yes. We`re getting that right now from -- from -- yes. How could your son
be alive in your basement?
BOTHUELL: I -- I -- oh (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I`m just sick. I can`t tell you how sick I am about what this child is claiming. And police are saying that they believe the child.
They have no reason to not believe what this little boy is telling them.
When this whole case started, we thought we were doing a good thing, trying to find the boy and bring him back home to his father. And now we`re
learning what we suspected when we heard about the PVC pipe having blood on it and the bloody clothes -- and the defense claimed it was from scratching
an eczema? It`s not. According to police, who are now preparing to take these children away, all of them, not just Charlie, say that he endured for
years at the hands of his stepmother and father, horrific beatings with PVC pipe, horrific workouts twice a day.
In fact, we`re learning at this hour that when he disappeared, it was in the middle of a workout, and he heard the stepmother go upstairs, get on
the phone and tell the Daddy, He didn`t finish his workout. And that little boy knew what was coming.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Sir, did you check your basement?
BOTHUELL: I checked my basement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charlie Bothuell told police his stepmother put him in the basement after accusing him of lying to her about completing his
evening workout. According to the petition, Charlie says his stepmother said, I`ve got a place for you to go, and led him down to the back of the
basement, and pointed to an area along the wall, saying, There, back there, go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The more that is coming out, the worse it seems to get. In the last hours, we obtain police documents in black and white that detail
horrific abuse on this little boy. And all I can do is just thank God that police got the boy, they found the boy, and he`s being taken out of the
home, all because we thought we were doing a missing child case. We had no idea.
Matt Zarrell, I want to talk about the stepmother for a moment. What do we know about what little Charlie revealed about the stepmother?
ZARRELL: OK, well, the first important key is that Charlie told cops that he has been physically assaulted by his stepmother. He`s been punched by
his stepmother. He`s also been verbally abused, statements like, I can make you disappear, unlike you, I know where the sharp knives are.
GRACE: Well, what about, She says she doesn`t F-ing like me and will F-ing murder me? I know where the sharp knives are. I cap make you disappear.
I`m not going to argue with you, I will just tell your dad. If you don`t want anything bad to happen, you better get out of my face. I got a place
for you to go, there, back there. Go! Shut up. Stay quiet and don`t say anything, no matter what you hear. And I was so excited when I heard they
were going to move the box that I was behind -- he`s talking about police - - because I knew they were going to find me.
When I think about it -- what does he say exactly happened the day that he was found, Matt?
ZARRELL: Well, what he says is he says the stepmother put him in the basement after accusing him of lying to her about completing his evening
workout. Charlie told cops he heard the stepmother then go upstairs, call his father and tell him that Charlie was missing and that she looked
everywhere for him.
Charlie was actually in his pajamas after taking a shower. He goes into the kitchen, and the stepmom`s upset and says, If you don`t want anything
bad to happen, you better get out of my face. And I`ve got a place for you to go, leads him down to the basement, points to that area in the corner
and says, Go. And then climbs -- he has to climb over a 5-gallon drum to reach the area. The mom adds more boxes to cover the area. Then the mom
goes upstairs and calls the father and says, Charlie`s missing, and she looked everywhere.
GRACE: OK, Susan Candiotti, CNN national correspondent, does that jibe with the forensic evidence? Because it`s got to jibe with the physical
evidence or it`s not true, very simply put. And I know police went down there over and over. They didn`t find him.
CANDIOTTI: They didn`t find him. And they said, We looked repeatedly, although they acknowledge -- remember one of the tools they used was a
cadaver dog. And as you know...
GRACE: Right.
CANDIOTTI: ... that dog is trained to look for someone who is dead. And they acknowledge that, OK, we didn`t take a search and rescue dog in there.
Maybe that would have made a difference.
Obviously, they`re going over their procedures to figure out what else they could have done better and perhaps more thoroughly to look for him.
Remember, he`s stacked behind a bunch of boxes, a five-gallon drum that Charlie says his stepmom told him, Get behind there and hide, and she built
it up even higher. So supposedly...
GRACE: Yes, you know I noticed, Susan Candiotti, that they kept -- I mean, all the clues were there. Police were telling us in their own way. They
said at the get-go, We don`t think a child could have built this. And he didn`t.
CANDIOTTI: That`s right.
GRACE: The mom forced him -- the stepmother forced him back there, according to him, and then she put the barricade up where he couldn`t get
out.
And isn`t it true, Charlie Langton, WWJ, that the little boy was basically starving down there? And when the house would get quiet, he would sneak up
-- this breaks my heart! This is a little boy who would sneak up and try to get food that he says he didn`t think anybody would notice it was gone.
What was he living off of?
LANGTON: He was living off protein shakes, Gatorade, water, Mountain Dew. The guy -- this little kid -- he`s a 12-year-old kid! He was eating chex
mix and frosted flakes. And when he was found, he was shivering cold, besides being hungry.
And I mean, we can`t forget, too, that the mother was arrested just a year ago for a weapons violation, which the police found a gun in the home! So
this person is not a very good person and knows -- is already someone that violated the law.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining me tonight, Hugo Rodriguez out of Miami, Seema Iyer out of New York.
First to you, Hugo Rodriguez. You know, no matter which one of them you`re representing, what I would do if I were prosecuting the case -- I`d put
them -- I`d try them together. I`d put them in the same pot and let them stew in their own juices. And let`s see what they`d say sitting there in
court together. Because this stepmother is no better than the father, based on what the little boy said, if he`s telling the truth. And police
believe him. And the father is no better than the stepmother for letting each other do this to this little boy, Hugo!
HUGO RODRIGUEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: If we believe him, and the police believe he`s telling the truth. So I`m sure the police have corroborated
his story. They`ve had him medically examined to show all the body bruises that he received. They`ve talked to all school personnel where the boy
would go to school and say he was abused, that all these things happened to him. They`ve talked to the family members, who have corroborated...
GRACE: So what`s your defense? What`s the mother going to say now?
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: He made me do it? The stepmother is going to blame the father and the father`s going to blame the stepmother...
RODRIGUEZ: I`m not suggesting anything.
GRACE: ... and they`re going to do this in court?
RODRIGUEZ: The police -- forget them. The police say they believe him because they`ve done all this work to corroborate everything that he has
said. I want to see the forensic work. I want to see the corroboration of witness interviews. I want to see a medical examination of this boy...
GRACE: OK (INAUDIBLE)
RODRIGUEZ: ... to say that he was physically abused the way he says he was.
GRACE: OK, Seema Iyer, what he`s trying to say in his own special Hugo Rodriguez way...
SEEMA IYER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, first...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... is the evidence doesn`t corroborate what the boy is saying. That`s what he`s claiming.
IYER: I got to break the news to you, Nancy. You`re going to be very disappointed, but you can`t try these two together. You know better.
You`re a former prosecutor.
GRACE: Don`t -- don`t -- whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Wait a minute! Number one, I would try them together.
IYER: You couldn`t.
(CROSSTALK)
IYER: Sorry, Nancy. Not going to happen because when two defendants have opposing defenses, and could make statements against each other, they can`t
be tried together.
GRACE: OK...
IYER: It`s going to be separate.
GRACE: ... please cut her mike.
IYER: Sorry, Nancy, you`re going to have to do this twice.
GRACE: You can cut it now. OK, what those are called -- and let`s tell the public the truth -- they are called interlocking statements, where one
defendant blames this one and the other one blames the other one.
And very simply, I have tried many, many cases like that, Seema Iyer, which you`ll be happy to know have been upheld on appeal up to the highest
courts. You simply redact the name in the two statements, or -- for instance, when the mother-in-law points to the father, if she does, you
redact his name. And Hugo Rodriguez...
CANDIOTTI: Well, maybe you didn`t...
GRACE: Did you not cut her mike? I guess you didn`t. I`m going to let you try again.
OK, Hugo, are you familiar with redacting interlocking statements? Yes, no.
RODRIGUEZ: I am. And you`re partially correct, but that isn`t the total answer. If it is so inculpating it would identify the other person and
there was no other person that it could be, it`s not coming in.
GRACE: And that decision...
RODRIGUEZ: So you`re right, but...
GRACE: ... is left up to...
RODRIGUEZ: ... he could only be accusing one other person.
GRACE: ... the trial judge. No, you know...
(CROSSTALK)
RODRIGUEZ: He`s only accusing one other person...
GRACE: Let Seema back in. You know, this is what they`re going to do, Hugo. If they don`t want to blame each other, they`re going to claim the
boy`s lying. What about that? That`s what they`re going to do. What about that, Seema?
IYER: Because -- Nancy, you just think because the police believe him, a jury`s going to believe this kid?
GRACE: Yes.
IYER: He`s 12 years old. He has a motive to lie.
GRACE: Really?
IYER: He is back with his mother.
GRACE: What is that motive?
IYER: He wants to be back with his mother. He was stuck with the stepmother. He could be making this entire thing up.
GRACE: OK, hold on.
IYER: And you...
GRACE: Hold on. Let`s follow through with that, Seema. Let`s just take that, and I`m going to take it with a big box of salt.
Charlie Langton, what do we know about whether the physical evidence corroborates what the boy is saying?
LANGTON: Well, the child was examined in the hospital. And in the hospital, there was a wound to his chest. And on the chest, it was a half
circle that looked like a PVC pipe. We also know about -- blood was found. And we are now waiting now for the forensic evidence to come back...
GRACE: OK, hold on!
LANGTON: ... to determine whose blood that is.
GRACE: You know, Langton, you and Candiotti know all the facts. But I got one fact that`s going to trump Rodriguez and Iyer. Put them up. I want to
see their faces when I -- when I say it. Hugo Rodriguez and Seema Iyer -- I want to see them! OK. The father admits, the father states that he
disciplined the boy with PVC pipe, and blood is found on the PVC pipe. Now, what do you have to say to that, Seema Iyer?
IYER: You`re confounding the issues. The unlawful imprisonment of the child behind the boxes is separate and apart from the PVC pipe. You`re
conflating this entire story, and you`re trying to build something that doesn`t exist.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: You are seeing now shots of the basement where a little boy was apparently hiding, being forced down by his stepmother. Now, in the last
hours, we get the report in black and white detailing horrific abuse he claims he suffered at the hands of his father and stepmother. According to
him, evil stepmother is just the tip of the iceberg to describe what was done to him.
To Matt Zarrell. Let`s put the arguments by Seema Iyer and Hugo Rodriguez to bed. What were the child`s injuries, and do they corroborate his
statement?
ZARRELL: Yes, Nancy. So the doctors from the hospital examined Charlie. This is all in the documents that we have. And they saw a half circular
scar on the child`s chest, where Charlie said his father had struck him with a PVC pipe. The petition also says, Nancy, that Charlie had old scars
on his butt and that he told cops that he was physically disciplined so severely by his father with the PVC pipe that the skin on his butt split
open in several areas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Charlie, we`re getting reports that your son has been found in your basement. Sir? Mr. Bothuell, are you -- are you...
BOTHUELL: What?
GRACE: Yes. We are getting reports that your son has been found alive in your basement.
BOTHUELL: What?
GRACE: Yes. That`s what -- if you could hand me that wire very quickly? Yes. We`re getting that right now from -- from -- yes. How could your son
be alive in your basement?
BOTHUELL: I -- I -- (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I have -- I have no idea. Oh!
GRACE: Now, this is just a report that we are hearing out of Detroit that we`re trying to confirm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: The tragic death of 22-month-old toddler boy Cooper seemingly left alone for hours in a baking hot car by daddy.
Was the tot murdered?
In the last hours we learn mommy lawyers up with her own high-profile defense lawyer separate from daddy`s.
Is she on to possible wiretaps and GPS trackers?
And major bombshell. In the last hours the results of baby Cooper`s toxicology tests are in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Child-free lifestyle. How to survive in prison. Child deaths in hot cars. Broiling Atlanta heat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Raunchy text messages.
DET. PHIL STODDARD, COBB COUNTY POLICE: He`s got this whole second life that he`s living.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tragedy and accident.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mother`s face mostly stoic.
STODDARD: Ross must have left him in the car. And they`re like what? She`s like why aren`t you crying? Why aren`t you reacting to this? And
she said I must be in shock. Yelling and screaming, oh, my god, what I have done? The child is dead. Blank look on his face and just stand
there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: In the midst of mommy lawyering up with a high-profile defense attorney separate from daddy`s, we get the staggering autopsy results.
This child died a horrific death, strapped in as tight as he could be strapped in, in an old car seat that didn`t fit without even a dose of
Benadryl. Nothing. Nothing to lessen the torture in that baking hot car.
Straight out to Ninnette Sosa with News Radio 106.7.
You know, I was actually hoping the child would have been given Benadryl, anything, to lessen the torture he went through.
NINNETTE SOSA, REPORTER, NEWS RADIO 106.7: Nothing. The child was given nothing, Nancy. According to the Cobb Medical Examiner`s Office, that
toxicology report comes back clean. And that`s from the GBI that was sent. That he died of a heat stroke. We know that. And now we know that he was
not even given any type of Tylenol, Benadryl, nothing.
GRACE: To Steve Helling, writer with "People" magazine, we learn the stunning results from the toxicology test on baby Cooper`s body at the same
time mommy lawyers up. Coincidence or no?
Steve Helling, she`s hired a defense lawyer who is well versed in this type of case. I noticed upon reading his resume that he was the chairman of the
computer section of the defense bar for a period of time, which opens a whole Pandora`s box of what could be going on with these two -- these two
computers.
But what`s significant to me, Steve Helling, is that she is not using her husband`s lawyer, Maddox Kilgore. She`s not using him.
What do you know, Steve Helling?
STEVE HELLING, STAFF WRITER, PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Well, yes, I did think it was interesting that she hired him. And I`m going to actually quote from
his Web site. He says, "We fight criminal charges before you go to court." So, you know, obviously she`s seeing that there`s a possibility that she`s
going to be charged with something.
GRACE: You`re seeing Leanna Taylor Harris right there as time passes and we`re learning her identity inextricably wound with his, even her online
handle is "Ross Goes Wild." That would be him. You see how things have changed over time.
Steve Helling, writer with "People" magazine joining us and Ninnette Sosa also joining us. In the last hours we learned the toxicology report on
Baby Cooper clean, not even a dose of Benadryl to help him through the horrific moments he endured before his death. And mommy lawyers up.
We are taking your calls.
I want to go back out to Ninnette Sosa.
Ninnette, what we have learned in the last hours about what the baby went through is stunning.
SOSA: Not just being in a small car seat, to be strapped so tight in there the abrasions that they said that were on the back of his head, on his
body, the scratches on his face according to detectives that gave testimony in the pretrial hearing there. It was just stunning that a child with
temperatures that CNN meteorologists I want to say could have reached 140 degrees in that car.
GRACE: Everybody, you are seeing the reconstructions of this crime scene that went down yesterday.
Joining me right now, Ben Levitan, telecommunications expert out of Raleigh.
Ben Levitan, many court watchers believe mommy has just lawyered up because she believes, possibly rightly so, that she is the -- not the victim but
the target of a wiretap on cell phone and home phone, and police have put a GPS tracker on her vehicle, catching her every movement. How does that
work?
BEN LEVITAN, TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Well, Nancy, it`s pretty straightforward. If you have probable cause to get a wiretap on somebody,
all you need to do is -- the law enforcement needs to get their phone number. They present it to a judge. And a judge under seal will authorize
a wiretap for in a 30-day period.
GRACE: Right. I understand how to get a wiretap because I`ve gotten them before.
LEVITAN: Yes.
GRACE: But I want you to tell me how a GPS tracker would work on her car. I mean, it`s been done before. For instance on Scott Peterson, drew
Peterson, many others.
LEVITAN: Yes. It`s simply a GPS device that -- there`s two different types, Nancy. There`ll be a GPS device that can be secretly attached to
her car. And this has to be done in a public setting. Has to be -- they cannot trespass to do that. And then every two weeks or so, this device
has to be retrieved and downloaded.
The more sophisticated ones include a cell phone device where that information is constantly transmitted back to law enforcement. So if --
and this is the more likely scenario. So there can be a law enforcement department somebody can be tracking her 24 hours a day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About what time did they get to Chick-fil-A?
STODDARD: Around 9:00.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left Chick-fil-A at 8:55 a.m. and drove to Harris` place of employment. Less than half a mile away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you confirm what the time the defendant arrive at work?
STODDARD: Around 9:25.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Harris would have needed to make a right turn out of the parking lot, then a U-turn just in front of the Home Depot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is to his right?
STODDARD: It would have been the car seat which is visible in between the two seats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Also we learn in the last hours the truth about daddy`s claim that he was deaf in one ear. Recall the defense brings it up in the preliminary
hearing, taunting the lead investigator, Stoddard, on the stand, insinuating that the father didn`t hear the baby in the car seat right
beside him.
Michael Christian, you`ve learned the truth about daddy`s claims that he`s deaf. What do you know?
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, SENIOR FIELD PRODUCER, "IN SESSION": Online for about a year ago, Nancy, he posted that he had a bottle rocket exploded in his ear.
Was apparently shot by a friend. According to Harris, quote, "It caused me to have vertigo and terrible balance and facial paralysis for a long time.
Thankfully after two surgeries I have no outward issues. I`m just deaf in my right here."
GRACE: OK. You know what? I guess he`s trying to claim that he couldn`t hear the baby right there in the car seat next to him.
And let me remind you, he may be deaf in one ear but what about the other ear? And what about seeing the baby? We performed an experiment with the
car seat that we have now identified that mommy wanted off a wish list. We found it on her Amazon wish list. It`s a Britex. Take a look at what we
found.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One question that a lot of people have for us is what would it have been like that day in the car when little Cooper died. Well,
we wanted to show you. So here I am sitting in the same make and model. It`s a 2011 Hyundai Tucson, the same car that Harris would have been
driving that day.
Now I wanted to point out that you can see immediately the car seat is right here to my right. It`s literally in between the two front seats.
Now let me show you what Ross Harris would have seen that day. From this vantage point, every time I turn to my right there`s the car seat, there`s
the head. Now, if I would look out my back window, once again there`s the head, there`s the car seat.
Also I wanted to point out that when I look in my rear-view mirror, once again there`s the head, there`s the car seat. So what did happen that day?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst and author of "Dealbreakers," what, he`s deaf in one ear from a bottle rocket? What is
he, blind, too? He can`t see the baby right behind him?
We did that experiment over and over and over and over. And every time it was the same.
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": Well, not only is he a shallow liar but he`s a drama queen, too. Those crocodile tears in
court, the screaming and crying about the child in the car when evidently he planned it all along.
You know, Nancy, I`m really struck by the wife`s demeanor in court. She looks like she`s at a sporting event. You know, she`s chewing gum, she
looks slightly bemused, almost like this is the biggest thing in her day. Like she`s totally entertained. And it makes me wonder if, you know,
initially they acted in concert together to get rid of the little boy, and now that her husband`s on the hot seat she`s secretly taking pleasure in
it.
GRACE: Dr. Bill Manion, medical examiner, joining me out of Philly, is it possible to lose your hearing from a bottle rocket going off too close?
DR. BILL MANION, M.D., MEDICAL EXAMINER, BURLINGTON COUNTY, NJ: Yes.
GRACE: I mean, it didn`t stop him from shooting naked photos of his penis and sending it to six women. You know, so I don`t know why it would keep
him from hearing his son beside him. Right there he`s practically in his lap.
MANION: But you made a good point. If a person`s deaf in one ear, the other ear will sometimes compensate and become more sensitive to hearing.
GRACE: OK, everybody, we`ll be right back with what we have learned. But now, "CNN HEROES."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The atmosphere at World Cup is like nothing else. It`s electric. You get that rainbow of kaleidoscope of all the different
nations that come together.
Football is the only worldwide sport, really. In 2004, I was in the full stadium, I suddenly saw all the fans around me. It`s like it`s a little
army. Some of the children that love football the most live in very poor areas. And I started asking myself, what could I do if we could mobilize
some of these people to do some good?
So at Lionsraw we bring people to the World Cup. They get to watch games but for a huge chunk of that time. Local charities that are working with
children and ask how can we help you.
Three classrooms to come and to do this for us for the children, this is a World Cup spirit.
In Brazil we`ve got about 300 volunteers here from about 12 countries. Within a couple of days part of the team of 400 really working hard.
When we invest in a place it`s for the long term. Lots of guys come and kind of get it in their blood. That`s what we`re about.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my second go. This time my son`s come with me. A bit of bonding and just building things together.
You`re tired out but look where we`ve come in a week. It`s fantastic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Football has always had the ability to break down barriers. We`re taking it a step further. Trying to harness the passion
of football fans to make a difference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Welcome back, everybody. In the last hours we learned mommy lawyers up with a defense lawyer all her own, separate from daddy`s, as
toxicology reports come in on baby Cooper. He was given nothing to numb the pain of the death he suffered in the baking hot car.
We have also dug deep to find out the truth behind his claims that he`s deaf in one ear and couldn`t hear his son sitting next to him. That`s
virtually impossible.
Kyle Peltz, what else have we learned?
KYLE PELTZ, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, a couple of other interesting things that we found online. Starting with the dad`s Flickr
account. When you look at the photos of him and his wife, his wedding ring is on and very visible. But then we took a closer look at the photos from
dad on his Scout profile. This is a dating site, Nancy. And his wedding ring is gone. So no wedding ring for those urinal selfies.
GRACE: You know, I like the way you refer to it as a urinal selfie. I`ve never really thought of them that way. What else did you learn, Kyle
Peltz?
PELTZ: We also combed through more post on Reddit which is a site Harris seems to visit most and found some comments that the dad was making
apparently bewildered about how someone could leave a laptop in a car outside of a popular stadium in Atlanta, saying he`ll never understand
this.
And there are just more stunning posts where he reveals details about his personal life, including his past love life saying, "My girlfriend of three
years dumped me because her parents didn`t think I was going anywhere in life. I can`t wait to call them when I`m promoted to VP of Fortune 50
company."
GRACE: Wait, "My girlfriend of three years dumped me because her parents didn`t think I was going anywhere in life I can`t wait to call them when
I`m promoted to VP of Fortune 50 company."
I guess that would be Home Depot. They were 29 in 2010.
Don`t worry about that. I think they`ve heard enough of you right now. That poor girlfriend probably just sobbing tonight she didn`t marry you.
You know, that brings up another question.
Ben Levitan, telecommunication expert, police are saying and have confirmed to us that they think it`s going to take weeks for them to put this whole
investigation together. And I`m wondering, you know, this guy, Justin Ross Harris, was in IT. He`s a computer expert. He`s on numerous accounts.
What about the possibility he`s using a VSP, kind of a private, a secret provider. It`s very, very difficult to trace.
LEVITAN: That`s absolutely right, Nancy. People who want to remain anonymous will hire a service that acts as kind of a go-between. Say I
want to send anonymous text messages to somebody. I can, for very cheap or free, hire a company that I`ll send them the messages and they will forward
the messages to whoever the victim is.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Back to Ben Levitan, telecommunications expert. What do you mean, an anonymous-izer? You`ve got to dumb it down for me, Ben. And what
exactly is a VSP? So he could go to all these remember Web sites and find out how to kill his baby and we would never be able to track it?
LEVITAN: That`s right, Nancy. These are companies that offer you anonymity when you are doing Web searches. It`s kind of a go-between,
between you and where you want to go. So you send requests to these anonymous-izers, these virtual service providers.
GRACE: Right.
LEVITAN: And they on your behalf --
GRACE: OK. So you don`t go to Google or Yahoo. You go to this private VSP and you go through that to get to sneaky Web sites. OK. I think I`ve
got it.
LEVITAN: Exactly. Exactly, Nancy.
GRACE: Very quickly, let me go to Michael Christian.
Michael, what do we know about the horrific smell in his car? We`ve been researching that more overnight. Did he have his windows rolled up?
CHRISTIAN: He did, Nancy. According to what we heard at the probable cause hearing last week, he got in his car within seconds of leaving his
office, it was approximately 88 degrees at the time. He got in his car and drove off but he didn`t roll down his window. He would have been in an
enclosed space with whatever stench was in that car.
GRACE: Everybody, let`s stop and remember, American hero, Army Specialist William Mulvihill, 20, Leavenworth, Kansas, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, NATO
award. Parents John and Pam, two brothers, one sister.
William Mulvihill, American hero.
And tonight, happy birthday to Fayetteville`s Chuck Lynch. After a career in printing, he`s now retired with his wife Ann.
Happy birthday, Mr. Lynch.
And happy birthday to New York friend, Michael McFadden. Loves boating on the Hudson.
Happy birthday, Michael.
Everyone, thank you for being with us. What a night in American justice. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then,
good night.
END
