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Nancy Grace
Texas Mother Murders 4-Year-Old Daughter
Aired July 23, 2014 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEAN CASAREZ, GUEST HOST: We do begin tonight with breaking news out of Texas. Police say a 25-year-old mother, Stacie Parsons, comes home to
tell her husband, Don`t go near the trunk of that car. Meanwhile, the little girl`s father tries desperately to revive the tiny 4-year-old,
reportedly found wrapped in a garbage bag and allegedly stuffed into the trunk of that car.
And we have just gotten word the cause of death has just been released. It is revealing that this little girl was killed three times
over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police in Texas say a young mom murdered her daughter, shoved her in a plastic garbage bag, stuffed her in the trunk and
then drove home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Told me if I leave her, that she`d kill the baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The husband reportedly told Parsons the night before the killing that he wanted a divorce.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: And a renowned 41-year-old Florida State University law professor and father of two, Dan Markel, is rushed to the hospital after he
sustains a gunshot wound to the head in his home. Now he is dead, no signs of robbery or burglary. Police are saying this was not a random crime, he
was targeted. Who would want to murder the Harvard-educated FSU professor?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: FSU law professor Dan Markel gunned down in his own home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A gunshot wound to the head.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s still a lot of mystery surrounding it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police are sorting through clues to find his killer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: A 98-year-old wheelchair-bound woman is left alone in a sweltering pickup truck for nearly five hours. Why? Her son reportedly
leaves her while he tries his hand at the local casino.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 68-year-old man was arrested for leaving his 98- year-old mother alone in a pickup truck while he went to a Maryland casino.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Parked in the garage with the window cracked open in 81-degree weather. Investigators say she`d been there nearly five hours
while McGinness (ph) gambled inside.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: And police rush to the scene after a 911 call comes in about a baby left alone in a carseat, wrapped in a blanket, trapped in a hot car.
Yes, another baby left alone in a hot car. Where was the mother? We`ll tell you.
Good evening. I`m Jean Casarez, in for Nancy Grace. Thank you so much for joining us.
We do begin tonight with breaking news out of Texas. Police are saying a 25-year-old mother, Stacie Parsons, comes home to tell her
husband, Don`t go near the trunk. Tonight, she is accused of killing her own 4-year-old daughter.
Straight out to Michael Board, reporter with WOAI newsradio. Michael, what happened here?
MICHAEL BOARD, WOAI: Yes, Jean, bombshell tonight! Twenty-five-year- old Stacie Parsons has been charged with capital murder. And in Texas, that could mean she could face the death penalty.
This all started with fight with her common-law husband. They were having marital problems, and he said he wanted to get a divorce. They went
to bed that evening, woke up the next morning. Her common-law husband, Gary Wyatt, saw his wife and his daughter, 4-year-old daughter, were
missing. He just assumed that she took her to her first day of pre-school.
She later returned that morning without her daughter, parked the car in the driveway and just started walking away from her home. He chased
after her and tried to get ahold of her. And all she would say is, I wouldn`t go in that car. He raced back to his own car, looked in the
trunk. And Jean, that`s when he made this grisly discovery.
CASAREZ: Everybody, you`re looking at this beautiful little girl. This was her first day of pre-school. Her mother was supposed to take her
to pre-school. Her father thought that that`s where the mother had taken her.
But to Matt Zarrell, we are learning that the mother didn`t take her to pre-school, took her to under a bridge, allegedly?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, Jean. Police are saying that Victoria was murdered under a bridge about five
miles from the home. Parsons allegedly then drove -- put the body in a plastic garbage bag, stuffed it in the trunk, and then drove the five miles
back to the family home and parked the car right in the driveway.
CASAREZ: And we have just gotten preliminary autopsy reports. They were just released minutes ago. And homicidal violence is the cause of
death, but there are really three causes of death -- blunt force injuries to the head, stab wound to the chest, and since they were under the bridge
at the river, drowning another cause of death.
Out to Dr. William Morrone, medical examiner, forensic pathologist. When you have multiple causes of death that all seem to contribute, can you
determine what came first, the blunt force injuries to the head, the stab wound to the torso or the drowning?
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Here`s the way we do this. We usually look at ABCs -- airway, breathing,
circulation. But anything that stops the decedent from breathing, like blunt force injury to the head, would come first. And when that stops
breathing and bleeding -- stab wounds won`t bleed. So you`ll see stab wounds without a lot of blood. That would mean that the blunt force trauma
to the head came first.
And drowning would be assumed to be the last thing because it`s the slowest. So that`s how we would probably proceed with this. And with the
specifics from the autopsy, that`s what I would expect.
CASAREZ: Which is very significant, Doctor, because in this case, we`re talking about a capital crime, a potential death penalty case, and
the state of mind to show the intent to kill in the premeditation and if one manner doesn`t work, you then go to plan B is extremely significant.
To Michael Board, reporter with WOAI newstalk radio in San Antonio. This is a Texas case, another mother allegedly killing her child. What do
we know about her past? I mean, did she have a propensity for violence at all?
BOARD: No, she did not have a criminal history. She did not have any meetings with child protective services, which would have been red flags
off the start. But there are some family members who have been quoted in different articles saying that she was having some anger management issues.
She, you know, had come from a broken home. She was adopted with her sister as a child. She still had some connection to her birth mother, but
you know, that was tenuous at times. There were some signs along the way that there might be some problems with her mental state, but that never
showed up -- there was not a criminal history. She didn`t beat her daughter. CPS was never involved with this family. So the fact that --
you know, those weren`t outward signs of problems here.
CASAREZ: There is no sign at all of a history of violent behavior. That is what the police are telling us. And this is Athens, Texas. It`s
70 miles east of Dallas, Texas.
To Matt Zarrell. What was her marriage like? Because we`re hearing that it was very volatile, but we are hearing that she was a loving and
kind mother and lady.
ZARRELL: Well, Jean, it depends on who you talk to. Her adoptive mother says that while Parsons did have a temper, she never saw it towards
the baby, and that Parsons appeared to be a good mother.
However, the husband says that Parsons had told him weeks before the murder that if he ever left her, she was going to kill the baby. This is
what he alleges. And Wyatt was concerned that there was just angry talk. Now he`s concerned, Jean, that he could have set this up by the night
before saying he wanted a divorce, that that -- you know, to allegedly kill the child.
CASAREZ: To Wendy Patrick, prosecutor joining us out of Los Angeles. If, in fact, this loving mother said to her husband, If you ever leave me,
I`ll kill the baby, and then the night before, he says I`m leaving you, and the next day the baby`s dead, that statement right there -- prosecutors
could use that, or would that be determined to be hearsay?
WENDY PATRICK, PROSECUTOR: Well, Jean, in a court of law, if somebody testifies, anybody`s allowed to use hearsay to -- for impeachment. And of
course, in a criminal case...
CASAREZ: My guess is...
PATRICK: ... the defendant`s statements are admissible.
CASAREZ: ... she`s not going to take the stand and testify. Let`s just go on the premise that she, as a defendant in a capital case, is not
going to take the stand. Would it come in?
PATRICK: Sure. We`re allowed to use defendant`s statements in court unless it`s excludable for any reason. At the very beginning stages, Jean,
that`s one of the things that everybody`s looking at is, are these statements going to be admissible, or is there some independent reason to
exclude them? So you`re right on the money in stating that anything she said could, in fact, be powerful evidence in court against her.
CASAREZ: A statement against her. Heather Hansen, defense lawyer out of New York, it is critical at this moment for her attorney to get a
psychological exam because that`s where the defense is going to go, right?
HEATHER HANSEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely.
CASAREZ: The defense is going to go that there is a mental issue, defect, or out and out insanity.
HANSEN: That`s right, Jean. And everything that we`ve heard so far will lay that out for us, the fact that this is not part of her history,
the fact that she came in and told her husband, Don`t go near that car. All of those things weigh in favor of some sort of a psychotic break. And
in Texas, insanity defense is available. She could argue irresistible impulse. And you are 100 percent correct that she will need to get a
psychological evaluation as soon as possible.
CASAREZ: And Peter Odom, defense attorney out of Atlanta, psychological defenses have been very helpful to mothers in the state of
Texas. But the fact is, if you get in your car and you go down to the river under the bridge and you have three different mechanisms of causing
the death, and then you go to your husband and you say, I wouldn`t go near that car, if I was you -- that shows a knowledge of what she was doing and
that it wasn`t right.
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That doesn`t necessarily preclude an insanity defense, Jean. She could have been acting under an irresistible
impulse. But this mother is going to use the psychological evaluation for two reasons. First of all, she might assert an insanity defense of some
kind. But even if she doesn`t do that, remember, Texas is a death penalty state, and they`re not afraid to put people to death, even women. She is
going to use that psychological evaluation as a mitigating circumstance so she can come out of this alive on the other end.
CASAREZ: Matt Zarrell, what else can you tell us about the facts as we know them?
ZARRELL: OK, well, I can tell you some more details about when they found the body. A family friend who was there with the father said when he
opened the trunk, he saw Victoria`s leg hanging out of a plastic bag. They saw visual trauma to the head and chest. Victoria was also foaming at the
mouth, and her head was bashed in.
And the family friend also says, Jean, that when he and Victoria`s father pulled the girl`s body from the trunk and tried to perform CPR,
water came out of her lungs, which is where we see the drowning cause of death from.
CASAREZ: You know, when you describe that, Matt Zarrell, the violence that this little girl was a victim of is just absolutely horrific to hear
about. If her mother did this, the propensity to violence is immense. And the main thing that we want to remember here, this little girl was supposed
to have her first day at pre-school, which was the day of her demise.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: Prosecutors are saying this mother right here in Athens, Texas, literally murdered her child three times over, her little girl that
was just about to go to registration for pre-K.
We do have a caller. Out to Michelle in Canada. Hi, Michelle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jean, first of all, thank you for taking Nancy`s place for the past couple weeks.
CASAREZ: Well, Michelle, I`ve got to tell you, I am so honored to be doing it. And I am so grateful to Nancy for asking me to do it. And don`t
go on because I`ll start to get emotional, but I`m really appreciative. And I love your show. So Michelle, what`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I just say quickly? A mother holds her -- in her body a baby for nine months and then gives birth to her with all her
soul. And I`m just wondering, how can she have the audacity to kill the baby, let alone just ignore it?
CASAREZ: You know, Michelle, that`s an excellent question.
Erik Fisher, licensed psychologist, joining us. You know, Michelle talks about a mother gives birth to the child. She should feel so close
and have such a bond. We`re hearing that this mother was actually very jealous of her little girl from almost the beginning when she was born.
How do you rectify that?
ERIK FISHER, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, the first thing that I look at here in the case is that -- her history of adoption. We don`t know what
happened in the first seven years of her life before she was adopted. Just because somebody may be adopted into a loving home, sometimes, all the love
in the world can`t undo what happened the first formative years of her life.
And people with attachment disorders, which often kids with adoption issues can develop, they can develop attachment disorders -- they don`t
connect to people the same way they would. She might have felt like if she had this child that it would bring her and her husband together. But then
she saw the child as a barrier between her and her husband.
And often with attachment disorders, there`s a very deep-seated rage that bubbles up inside. And not everybody sees it. Kids with attachment
disorders and adults who often develop borderline personality disorders, around one set of people can appear wonderful and fabulous, but then in
other situations, they can then be very vicious. And one of the things the father said was that in this situation, she would often be verbally abusive
to the daughter, was one of the reports that I read in this case.
CASAREZ: You know, to Heather Hansen, defense attorney joining us from New York. There are a lot of people that are adopted and they do not
have these disorders that then cause you to kill your kid. And of course, she is innocent until proven guilty. But jurors are going to want to know
a motive. Jurors are going to want to understand why a mother would do something like this when a mother-daughter bond should be so strong.
HANSEN: Right. And that`s why I think they`re going to have to really investigate into what happened in her early life. They`re going to
have to investigate. There`s been some allegation by the woman who took her in as a child that she was abused in those earlier years. And so most
adopted children are not -- don`t undergo that type of abuse.
In addition, the fact that there must have been some type of a break - - I mean, even in the pictures, she looks very different in the mugshot than she does in the prior pictures. Again, something may have happened to
cause a break so that she had an irresistible impulse and she went on to commit this horrible crime.
CASAREZ: But to Wendy Patrick, this wasn`t just in the blink of an eye. She had to get some instrumentalities, some murder weapons,
allegedly, if the child was beaten to a pulp and stabbed. You don`t find those things just normally around the river`s edge under the bridge. You
could. But go ahead.
PATRICK: That`s absolutely right, Jean. And you know, that`s what really makes this case challenging on all fronts, is we don`t have a
documented history of mental health. What we have is anecdotal evidence from people that knew the family.
Unfortunately, when we don`t have formal diagnoses to work with, we`re left with questions like the one you just asked. If this was -- was it a
sudden break, or in fact, did she take the time to find, you know, different types of instrumentalities to commit this crime?
As investigation continues, you bet those are going to be dynamite questions that jurors are going to want to know the answers to in order to
determine was this some sort of a psychic break at the last minute, or is this something that, in fact, was premeditated, which will make a big
difference for everyone involved?
CASAREZ: And talking about premeditation, Dr. William Morrone, that little girl was found in a plastic bag inside the trunk of the car.
Plastic bags normally would have to be taken also to the river`s edge. Are plastic bags forensically important? Would you want to know and have
fingerprints on that plastic bag or any other type of forensic evidence, even for the cause of death?
MORRONE: Plastic retains fingerprints. Plastic retains blood samples. Plastic retains DNA. Plastic is an excellent container. And
it`s going to work against her in the forensic science.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Texas mother allegedly killed her 4-year-old daughter and stuffed her in the car trunk because, reports claim, she was
jealous of the 4-year-old little girl. Parsons`s common-law husband was pulling his daughter, Victoria, out of the trunk, where she had trauma to
the head and chest and was not breathing. The father was unable to revive her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: You know, and other people are saying this was a very loving mother in Texas that loved her child. But people are also saying that she
had a history of verbal abuse and anger, and that she even said at one point that she would rather go to prison than continue to have her child,
had a lot of anger toward Victoria.
I want to go to Erik Fisher, licensed psychologist. If you make a threat, OK -- people make threats all day every day. When do you know that
a threat is actually serious? Because she told her husband, If you divorce me or try to divorce me, I`m going to kill her.
FISHER: Right, and you don`t have any history of violence in this situation. So a lot of times, people do say things, and people will say
almost anything to keep somebody in a relationship.
But I don`t see -- if I`m looking at this from the outside without having interviewed her, knowing a lot of the details of the case, what I`m
looking at, though, is that, to me, it almost seems like this would have been more to punish him because she wanted him to feel the pain. She told
him to look in the car. And even going to the police and reporting it, she`s saying, I`m following through on my threat. You`re going to pay
attention to me.
And why she would do this, is this is a re-enactment of her abandonment wound. You know, if she didn`t attach to a parent...
CASAREZ: You know, a lot of people are not going to want to hear that because she`s been charged with capital murder, intentionally killing her
child.
FISHER: You`re right.
CASAREZ: Matt Zarrell, NANCY GRACE producer, we can learn a lot about someone`s state of mind from their Facebook pages, what they post, what
they say. Does it -- does that correlate to what they mean? What are some of her Facebook postings that you were able to find?
ZARRELL: We`ll go through these, but I should preface it by saying they were posted well before the murder or the alleged murder. The first
one is, "My mama taught me never to throw the first punch, but you can bet your sweet (DELETED), I will throw the last one." The next one is, "I have
watched `CSI,` `NCIS,` `Law and Order` and `Criminal Minds.` I can kill you 50 ways and still make it look like an accident."
And then the third one, "I`m exhausted. I`m grouchy. I`m mentally and emotionally worn out. So when the next idiot pisses me off and I snap
and beat them to a pulp, someone please come bail me out."
CASAREZ: Wow! Really something. And Matt Zarrell, we are getting some information in right now that she actually has gone to the police
department herself and voluntarily made a statement, Matt Zarrell?
ZARRELL: Yes, Jean, we just got a press release that states, quote, "Stacie Marie Parsons walked into the Athens Police Department at
approximately 8:46 AM stating she had killed her daughter."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: A renowned 41-year-old Florida State University law professor and father of two, Dan Markel, is pronounced dead at the hospital
after he sustains a gunshot wound to the head. Who would want to target the Harvard-educated FSU professor?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The criminal law professor is now a crime victim. His life was cut short by a bullet to the head, shot at his Tallahassee
home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) this is a terrible tragedy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police have yet to name a suspect in the case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: To Sean Rossman, reporter with "The Tallahassee Democrat." OK, Sean, there`s just something -- something wrong with this case. But
what are police telling us? And do we have any information on who would have gone into this man`s home, a professor, a law school professor,
nationally renowned, shoot him in the head and basically leave?
ROSSMAN: Well, all we know now is that police arrived shortly after getting a call from a neighbor saying they heard a loud bang. Police
arrived and found Mr. Markel with a gunshot wound to the head. And he died at the hospital early Saturday morning. We do know that this wasn`t a
random incident. We do know that Mr. Markel was the person that whoever killed him was looking for.
CASAREZ: Now, who are you looking at right here is the victim in this case. He`s a law school professor at Florida State University, Harvard
educated, got his masters at the University of Cambridge, went back and got his law degree at Harvard. He is nationally renowned for his articles in
law journals. More than that, he`s the father of two young children, beloved in the community. Clark Goldband, Nancy Grace producer, what more
can you tell us?
GOLDBAND: Jean, you just mentioned the kids. They`re just three and five years old. Here`s what`s interesting. Law enforcement just moments
ago, Jean, has updated what exactly they`re looking for. Out of the blue, Jean, they`re now saying they want information on this particular car. And
they`ve issued a photo of this car.
Now, it`s hard to say. It`s grainy surveillance. There you see it on your screen. Could it be a Prius? Could it be some sort of a hybrid? it
definitely looks like it`s on the smaller side. But again, hard to make out that vehicle of interest. Cops also saying that this doesn`t mean the
person driving this car is a suspect or anything like that. It could be a neighbor, it could be someone dropping off lunch. They just want to talk
to this person.
Also, Jean, authorities say they`ve obtained surveillance video from the surrounding area. This is a nice, upscale community. There are
parentally surveillance cameras on adjacent properties nearby. And authorities are combing through that surveillance as we speak, trying to
determine who may have gone in and out of this home. Jean, perhaps most perplexing, no sign of robbery, according to law enforcement.
CASAREZ: And I think that`s an important point, Clark. Because there were some robberies or burglaries just as there can be in residential
areas. But there is no sign that we know of, that we`ve been told that there was anything taken at all. And it doesn`t appear as though there was
any sign of forced entry.
A really important question, Sean Rossman, and I know law enforcement is just keeping what they know close to the vest. So something`s going on
here. But do we know where he was shot in the house?
ROSSMAN: That is a big unknown. It`s been a question of mine of law enforcement since Friday. We don`t know exactly where he was shot at this
time.
CASAREZ: Which could be an important question. Because as we were discussing, if he`s shot at the front door and he`s allowing someone,
opening his door to see who is there, it is one thing. Or if he`s shot further on in the home, that`s another thing. That could have been someone
that he invited into the home.
With us tonight is a very close friend, an attorney, but before that a family friend of this nationally known law professor that is now a murder
victim himself. Allen Grossman is joining us. Sir, thank you.
ALLEN GROSSMAN, FRIEND: Yes, Jean.
CASAREZ: First of all, tell us the last time that you spoke to your friend. What was going on in his life? How was he?
GROSSMAN: He was like he always is, very much wrapped into the care and benefit of his children, very much concerned about things that were
going on in the community. And in tune with the usual day-to-day things that we all are.
CASAREZ: What are people saying? I mean, this is a mystery. And this is just -- I don`t think someone can wrap their head around. What are
you hearing?
GROSSMAN: I think that`s the biggest issue most of us are just having a hard time wrapping our head around what seems to have happened. Dan was
a vibrant member of our community. You couldn`t find a more devoted father. Obviously very dedicated to his career as well. And very active
in his faith community.
CASAREZ: You know, so many times when an attorney is killed whether they`re a prosecutor or defense attorney, especially in the criminal law
area, you`re wondering if there`s someone that wanted to get revenge about a way a case was prosecuted or defended. But this is a law professor.
This is someone who teaches students. Is there any word that any of his students had something against him? A bad grade, not being able to go on
and graduate and take the bar exam?
GROSSMAN: I have not heard anything like that. I don`t have any reason to presume that. Of course, we all wonder at any number of things
that could be possibilities. But I can`t venture a guess as to what that might be.
CASAREZ: Defense attorney Peter Odom, I`d love your thoughts on this. Because it was at this point we believe it was one shot to the head. So
that is very targeted, very intent to kill, and a very fast and quick way to murder somebody.
ODOM: And what the police will do, as I`m sure they`re doing now, is they start with people closest to the person killed and work out from
there. Over 90 percent of murders such as this are committed by someone that`s known to the victim. And of course, the fact that there was no sign
of forced entry here would support that theory.
CASAREZ: Dr. William Morrone, medical examiner, when we look at the crime scene in that home and they are working that crime scene, obviously
fingerprints. What about the forensics, though, in that crime scene beyond fingerprints?
MORRONE: The most important forensics are going to be how close was the gun to the head. That will be determined by char, stippling and a
blood pattern. If he was shot from far away, that`s totally different than if he was shot from right next to his head. So the forensics and the
actual gunshot wound critical.
CASAREZ: That`s very important. Now, why forensically, why do you think substantively that is important? Does it show an assassination?
Does it show a greater intent to harm and kill? Or is it just something that forensically as a pathologist you`re interested in?
MORRONE: Well, forensically we don`t know how many times he was shot. And if it happened to be some kind of random setup for theft and then
somebody left, that would be best defended from something shot far away. If he was shot in an assassination style, it`s going to be very clear. And
remember, he survived. Any shot lower separating the spinal cord from the brain would be instantaneous death. So his shot was probably behind the
ears, somewhere up and then across.
CASAREZ: And the Tallahassee police department is really asking for your help tonight. They are getting tips. They say at this point they
have about 50 tips. But they want to talk to anyone who was in that upscale area of Tallahassee, Florida in case they saw anything. So
obviously they need help in solving this case.
We`ll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: A 98-year-old wheelchair-bound woman is left alone in a sweltering truck for nearly five hours. Why? Her son reportedly leaves
her while he goes to have some fun at the local casino.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After entering the garage at 1:42 in the afternoon, he didn`t come out of the casino until 7:25 in the evening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say while Dwight McGinnis was gambling, his mom was left behind in the vehicle for nearly five hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where a passerby called 911 for help after seeing McGinnis`s 98-year-old mother apparently locked alone in his red Ford
truck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: All right. Out to Cameron Thompson, reporter with All News 99.1 WNEW, Cameron, we talk about children left in the car, so vulnerable,
so young, let`s not forget the elderly. Prosecutors are saying this is elder abuse of a felony nature. What do we know?
THOMPSON: Well, and actually to piggyback on this, police department who have handled this are saying this is the first time they`ve ever
actually seen an elder person left in the car. They mentioned pets and kids before, but first time they had seen an older person left in the car.
But as you said, as we know, 1:30 p.m., the man in question, Dwight McGinnis Jr., goes into the Maryland Live casino, leaves his car in the
parking garage. And when he was in there, his 98-year-old mother was left in the car with only a can of soda and one of the windows partially
cracked. The woman was in no condition to take care of herself and is wheelchair bound.
Now, surveillance footage shows McGinnis never went back to check on his mother, and no one noticed she was in the car until about five hours
later when that concerned citizen saw and called police. When they got on- site and paramedics got to the door, they said she was in pretty good shape considering, and didn`t have to be taken to the hospital, and she was
picked up by a daughter who lives in the area and has since been taken there.
CASAREZ: Michael Christian, what I have heard police saying is that when they got to that car finally after five hours, that she was
incoherent.
CHRISTIAN: That`s right, Jean. They say that she was confused and she was originally not able to help them at all. To really understand what
they were asking or help them in their investigation. However, once EMS arrived, they gave her some water, she apparently felt much better, and
then she sort of regained her faculties and was able to tell them who her son was, gave them her son`s cell phone number. They called the son and he
came to the scene roughly ten minutes later.
CASAREZ: Michael Christian, you and I talk about our mothers all the time. Your mother is in Illinois, my mother is with me in New York. And
when I read this story, if I was a juror, I don`t think I could be an unbiased juror. This is a 98-year-old wheelchair-bound lady. She`s not
able to get out of the car to get some air. She`s got to sit in the car. She can`t move for five hours to sit in her seat in the car. To lieutenant
T.J. Smith joining us tonight from Annapolis, Maryland. He is the media relations officer with the police department. Thank you for joining us.
When your officers arrived to the vehicle, we have heard that this 98- year-old lady was incoherent, she was dehydrated. There was an empty can of Coca-Cola there. Her son says it was hers. But who knows if she`s
really the one that drank the Coca-Cola. She must have, though, gotten to a point where she was able to give your officers her son`s name.
SMITH: Yes. Actually the officers got there and as they started speaking to her, she was extremely incoherent where she was rambling on
about things and not making a lot of sense. They actually provided her with some water. She began to come around, became a little bit more
coherent. She actually had a cell phone and she realized she had that cell phone, gave it to the officers. They found the son`s phone number. In
turn they called him.
When he got to the scene, as he said that he had been there to check on her. But it`s not appropriate, it never is. And the weather is
actually secondary in this scenario. Yes, it was a hot day. It`s 80 something degrees in the mid-Atlantic area in the middle of July. It`s a
hot day. Yes, it is. But a 98-year-old woman should never be left alone in a car for five hours anytime of the year period.
CASAREZ: And this son, Dwight McGinnis, who is now being charged in this, did release a statement to us saying that he believes this has been
blown out of proportion and that she was not in distress. I`ve taken care of my mother for the last 11 years.
Dr. William Morrone, that`s a scary thought right there. Because when did this happen before? When did other things allegedly happen to her?
Dr. Morrone, we talk about children. But what about the elderly left alone in a hot car? This time for five hours?
MORRONE: The elderly are just as susceptible. And you have to deal with dehydration, toileting, bladder and bowel hygiene, possible evaluation
to critical medical events. But you`re also talking pressure sores and wounds in the skin from somebody that doesn`t move. And we measure six
activities of daily living. Cleaning yourself, feeding yourself, moving yourself. She can`t do any of this. She`s stuck. And cracking a window is
no excuse to leave anybody anywhere.
CASAREZ: Wendy Patrick, prosecutor, what about the duty? He is her caregiver. So that elevates him right there with that duty to care of his
98-year-old mother, which really even takes it more of a responsibility on his part.
PATRICK: Absolutely, Jean. And I share the sentiment, outrage. I too have a mother whom I adore. And I can`t believe we`re talking about
this kind of a case. We are all on hot car patrol officially this summer. Thank goodness that a bystander saw this. You have to wonder, have people
been left in hot cars for the last however many years and we haven`t been paying attention? We`re sensitive to the issue right now. And we`re
especially sensitive to it when as you mentioned you`re talking about a caregiver. This isn`t a case of forgetting that you`re giving somebody a
ride or a stranger. This is somebody who is probably the primary caretaker for this woman. That is one of the things that investigators are looking
at in deciding whether or not what charges are appropriate whether there are additional charges that we might see. And as investigation continues,
you bet these are some of the questions that we`re going to be asking.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: Police rush to the scene after a 911 call comes in about a baby left alone in a car seat, wrapped in a blanket, trapped in a hot car.
Yes, another baby left alone in a hot car. Where was the mother? We`ll tell you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She parked next to a car with an unattended 6- month-old baby inside of it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just appalled that someone would leave a baby in the car in this heat by itself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Called 911 right away, worried for the child`s safety.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Out to Stacy Newman, Nancy Grace producer. Okay, Stacy, this is the dollar store, and a lady, a patron is going to go in the dollar
store, pulls up and she looks straight into the car, and there is this baby in the hot car, wrapped in a blanket. Where was the mother?
NEWMAN: Well, Jean, this is incredible. This baby was in this parking lot, as you just said, the mother was nowhere to be found. The
customer who pulled in and saw the baby in the car went inside the dollar general store and screamed out, if you left your baby in the car, I`m about
to call 911. Nobody responded. She called police. Police came, got the baby, and then, Jean, the unbelievable thing is, the mom shows up over an
hour later, after the baby was left in the car, and that`s when cops arrested her.
CASAREZ: And Stacy, the fact is, the mother had not even gone into the dollar store. She had gone to try to get a friend to give her some gas
money, but there`s more to the story than just that, right?
NEWMAN: Yes, Jean, she has this friend come to give her gas money. Then they leave the parking lot, as I said earlier, but here`s the thing.
She has another child, Jean, a 1-year-old little girl. And she decided to take the 1-year-old off the premises with this friend, but leave the 6-
month-old newborn alone in a sweltering hot car.
CASAREZ: All right. Heather Hansen, defense lawyer, I`m going to say right here that this woman needed help. She had two children, and there`s
no excuse to leave your child in the car, period and final. She had two children, a 6-month-old and a 1-year-old, maybe it`s a little older than
one, because if you look at the math, that`s a little hard to produce. But she couldn`t carry both of them. She chose and selected one to take with
her and one to keep in the car. But isn`t this just a focus of women, single mothers, need help?
HANSEN: Well, that`s absolutely part of the case. And we need to support -- and it has to be a community support for single mothers. This
particular mother clearly needed some sort of help, and clearly had some sort of issue. When you leave a 6-month-old in a car on purpose, which
seems to be the allegation, that there`s certainly something that the police are going to investigate. The question is whether she was aware
that the child was in the car, whether she was low on sleep, didn`t have the correct support at home, but in any event, there`s got to be better
support for these mothers, and there`s got to be a better understanding of the consequences of your actions when you leave these children in the car.
CASAREZ: Well, Heather Hansen, I think she was very well aware that the child was in the car, because Dr. William Morrone, she put the windows
down a little bit, which is, I think, a very critical fact for prosecutors to show her state of mind, that she was trying to get some air in there.
But here is what I want to ask you, Doctor. This was in Illinois, near the Ohio border, one of the hottest days of the year. She had the baby wrapped
in a blanket. Who cares about the outside temperature? Even internal temperature in the car, to have the baby in the blanket? What does that do
to that child`s inner core temperature?
MORRONE: The blanket does not allow the baby to cool. So as the car heats up, and the baby needs to cool, it`s a double effect. It`s a double
whammy. And 80, 90 degrees outside, 145, 155 degrees inside, the baby needs to be watched closely for critical changes and long-term behavioral
health consequences.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CASAREZ: You know, the questions about the Cooper Harris case, they keep coming in on Facebook and Twitter. And thank you so much for sending
questions to my Twitter and Facebook account. We want to share one from Donna K. Church, who is in Beaumont, Texas, who asked, was Cooper a planned
baby or a surprise baby? Michael Christian, do you know the answer to that?
CHRISTIAN: According to the Harris family friends, Cooper was very much a planned and wanted baby. This couple married in 2006. Cooper
wasn`t born until 2012. And according to accounts, they definitely wanted to have that baby. And in fact, according to Justin Ross Harris` half-
brother, Michael Badgens, they were also hoping to have a second child before Cooper turned 3. Now, he was 22 months at the time he died.
CASAREZ: And they were even looking into buying a larger home for that second child they were planning to have. Okay, Vanessa wants to know
if the father had a desk or a cubicle at work at Home Depot. If so, every parent has a picture of their child at their office space. We don`t know
if every parent does, but most of them do, right? She wants to know why Ross never looked at that picture. Michael Christian, do we have any
answers there?
CHRISTIAN: We do not know specifically what his work space was like. Home Depot has not released that information, nor have the police.
However, it seems likely that he would have had some sort of memento of his son, because friends have said that Ross Harris was always bragging about
Cooper, always talking about him, both before he was born and after he was born. So it certainly seems likely that he would have had something at his
work space.
CASAREZ: All right. Thank you to all of our viewers and your questions.
We remember tonight, American hero, Army Sergeant First Class, Joseph McKay. He was 51 years old from Brooklyn, New York. He was awarded the
Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Badge. He loved helping others. He actually loved caring for the homeless. He leaves behind a
large family, his mother, Sheila, 16 siblings, his daughter, Tiffany, his wife, Rose, and two sons. Joseph McKay, an American hero.
A new photo, you`ve got to look at this, of Nancy`s twins, John and Lucy, with their grandma, Elizabeth, on the pier after dinner. Isn`t that
beautiful? And here is one of Nancy and John David. Look at that. Enjoying the afternoon sun. And a special thank you to Ms. Swellen (ph)
for giving John and Nancy a ride. For more pictures, go to nancygrace.com. Dr. Drew is coming up next. Good night, everybody.
END
