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Nancy Grace
Lynn Police Search for Missing Mom; Women`s Intuition Beats Kidnapper
Aired November 10, 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, live, Lynn city. After a young mom makes a desperate call to say she`s afraid, 25-year-old Jaimee Mendez,
mom of a pre-schooler, vanishes. Bombshell tonight. Where is Jaimee? Why was she afraid? We search for clues left behind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She can`t go!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just want to find her!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A family`s tireless and worrisome search for a missing mother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search is on for a mom who disappeared after she made an alarming call to friends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to talk to her!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, Sandy, Utah, so-called women`s intuition wakes up 33- year-old Stephanie Edson in the middle of the night only to discover just moments before, a male intruder enters the family home and kidnaps her 5-
year-old little girl from her own bed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a man in my home and he took my 5-year-old daughter!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her daughter was abducted from her own bed in the middle of the night by a complete stranger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He carried her right out the front door.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Moments after the first kidnapping attempt, the suspect enters another house a short distance away through a doggie door.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Live, Colorado. He takes his wife on a romantic hiking trip for their 12 anniversary. Tragedy strikes. Wife Tony (ph) slips while taking
a photo, falling to her death. The husband and their 9-year-old little girl in deep grief until authorities ask, Hey, didn`t your first wife die
in an accident, too? Turns out wife number one crushed to death by the family car as hubby takes her on a romantic drive, then asks her to look
under the car for a lugnut when they get a flat tire. Hiking trips, lugnuts -- coincidence or double murder?
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Live to Lynn city. After a young mother makes a desperate call to say she was afraid of something, 25-year-old Jaimee
Mendez, mom of a pre-schooler, vanishes. Tonight, where is Jaimee? Why was she afraid? We search for clues left behind.
Straight out to Cyrus Moulton with "The Daily Item." Cyrus, number one, she`s got this child that is special needs, a pre-school-type age. I`m
trying to figure out who she was with, and most importantly, what she said in that mysterious phone call where she admitted she was afraid and has
never been seen again.
CYRUS MOULTON, "DAILY ITEM" (via telephone): Well, her family says that Jaimee asked someone to pick her up on Thursday night. Family says that
Jaimee was -- said she was with someone and she wanted to leave and that she felt concerned.
GRACE: So she was with a friend, or she called a friend?
MOULTON: She was with someone. We don`t know the relationship between the two. And she called a friend to pick her up, from what I understand.
GRACE: So wherever she was, she wanted to leave. Now, I assume that she had arranged a baby-sitter for the 5-year-old little boy, so it must have
been some type of a planned outing. So she`s out somewhere, she becomes afraid, she makes a quick phone call trying to arrange a ride. Did the
ride go to pick her up?
MOULTON: I believe so, but could not find her.
GRACE: Do you have any idea, Cyrus Moulton with "The Daily Item," where the ride were supposed to get her?
MOULTON: No, we don`t. We haven`t been able to reach out to the family and -- to contact the family directly about it, and it`s unclear where
exactly they were looking, were sent to pick her up. They`re...
GRACE: OK, now, let`s move forward a little bit. After that, I find out that her shoes and other personal effects are found at a dumpster, a public
dumpster. OK, that`s not good, Cyrus.
MOULTON: Well, there were two main areas that police appeared to be searching on Sunday. One was a dumpster in Lynn behind a CVS, and another
was an office park in Salem, Massachusetts.
GRACE: Now, hold on. Hold on! Back it up. You said a CVS in Lynn, where she went missing, and then an office park. Now, let`s talk about the CVS.
Cyrus Moulton, every CVS I`ve ever been in it`s like NASA. They`re covered in surveillance video. I guess there must be a lot of shoplifting going on
in a CVS because they have surveillance videos out the ying-yang.
Now, let me ask. Have police gone to the CVS to find out did she go in? Now, that says Rite-Aid. Was it a Rite-Aid or a CVS, Cyrus.
MOULTON: I`m hearing it`s a CVS in Lynn. There`s no indication whether she went in or not or was even ever there. Police have not given any
details about what was found or reported found at the scene.
GRACE: Now, hold on. Justin Freiman, let`s go back to the shot of the Rite-Aid. We know that she stopped at that Rite-Aid for whatever reason.
She`s caught on surveillance after leaving the Rite-Aid pharmacy. We know she was there. Then her belongings, her shoes and other items, Justin
Freiman, were found behind a CVS. OK, give me the timeline as we know it, Justin.
JUSTIN FREIMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Nancy, according to her family, around 6:00, 7:00 o`clock on Thursday, she made the call to the
friend saying she was very worried, she was concerned about the man she was with, that he was acting weird. She wanted to get out of there. The
friend comes to pick her up, she`s not there. Around 6:30 that evening, supposedly there`s video of at the Rite-Aid, but yet it`s a dumpster behind
a CVS that some of her items are found, according to her family.
GRACE: OK, Cyrus Moulton with "The Daily Item" -- everyone, for those of you just joining us, a 25-year-old young mom of one pre-school-age little
boy, age 5, has gone missing. Here`s her picture. It`s Jaimee Mendez. And she apparently gets a baby-sitter, and the next thing you know, a phone
call, a mysterious phone call from the mom stating that she is in fear, that she needs somebody to come pick her up right then.
Cyrus, what were the items found behind the CVS?
MOULTON: We`re not sure. We`ve heard conflicting reports about where they exactly were found, but the family has told police that a phone, a jacket
and her ID were recovered. The district attorney`s office would not confirm this or (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: OK. Got. Got it. Got it. OK, going (ph) forward (ph), Cyrus, I understand that the DA`s office is not confirming everything, not
confirming anything. All right, let`s just take that.
Justin, what were the items that we believe were found? Were they in the dumpster, near the dumpster? Where were they at that CVS?
FREIMAN: We believe they were found in and next to that dumpster, a rug, clothing, sneakers all found over there by that dumpster, according to the
family members.
GRACE: What about her cell phone, Justin?
FREIMAN: The cell phone, they say, was found in another location, in kind of a woodsy area of a technology park, her phone and ID.
GRACE: Now, the dumpster -- let me get this straight. What was in the dumpster? And it`s interesting, if you said something was found around the
dumpster, like on the ground, and someone just threw the stuff up at the dumpster, and some of it made it in and some of it didn`t -- that would
suggest to me they were throwing it from out of a car. They got out of a car very quickly and then took off.
Now, see, that`s the kind of thing that I`d like to see picked up on surveillance video. Who threw the stuff into the dumpster? Certainly,
this back parking lot was surveilled. But Justin, you`re telling me the other items are found thrown away elsewhere. Let`s see that map again,
Liz. Go ahead, Justin.
FREIMAN: That`s right. The other items are thrown away near, like, a technology park area, and it`s her jacket, possibly, her ID, her phone.
And we know that there`s been no use of the phone and possibly because it`s now been found.
GRACE: For those of you just joining us, a 25-year-old young mom from Lynn city has vanished. She made a disturbing phone call just before she goes
missing, asking for a ride to come pick her up.
Justin, do we know what was learned from the ride? Did they get to the destination and she wasn`t there?
FREIMAN: That`s right. The friend claims that he went to pick her up, and she wasn`t there.
GRACE: OK. Where is the little boy, Cyrus?
MOULTON: Don`t know. (INAUDIBLE) he`s with family. They were very concerned, and the family says that Jaimee wouldn`t leave her child and
that...
GRACE: Everybody, you`re seeing shots of the search right now going on for a Lynn city mother, Jaimee Mendez, mother of a 5-year-old son. And
interestingly, Jaimee herself is diabetic and must have insulin.
Marc Klaas joining us, president, founder, Klaas Kids Foundation. This is his specialty. Marc, what do you make of it?
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I make of it that the individual that she was with has done something terrible to her. She would not throw
away her own cell phone. She wouldn`t throw her own items into a dumpster. She was very concerned about her safety. She needs her medicine. Nobody
knows where she is. Who is this guy, and what did he do with her?
GRACE: OK, how are we going to find out the answers to that? Cyrus Moulton with "The Daily Item," does she live with her family? Does she
live with her mom and dad, or does she live on her own?
MOULTON: She lives in Swampscott, where we believe that she lives with her family, but again, we`ve not been able to confirm that.
GRACE: So I know that the son, the 5-year-old, is with her family as we speak tonight. That`s what we have been told. But why would this mother,
who had never left her son before, make this call, begging for someone to pick her up? When the ride gets there, she`s nowhere to be found. In that
area, 102 registered sex offenders within a seven-mile radius.
All right, Justin, what do we know, if anything, about the guy she was with?
FREIMAN: All we know is that her family claims that she was with somebody who`s a registered sex offender, but again, have not been able to identify
this person.
GRACE: So she goes somewhere, finds out the guy is a registered sex offender, calls for a ride, wants to get away. Next thing we know, Mom is
missing. Her items have been found abandoned. I`m talking about her shoes, her cell phone, her ID and her jacket.
I`m wondering also, Cyrus Moulton, what the temperatures have gotten down to in that area.
MOULTON: Oh, it`s -- we had our frost last night. It`s about 45, 50. It`s seasonable for the area, but it`s certainly cold at night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: And now live, Sandy, Utah. A so-called women`s intuition wakes up 33-year-old Stephanie Edson in the middle of the night only to discover
just moments before, a male intruder enters the home and kidnaps her 5- year-old little girl from her own bed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He had my daughter outside, and my husband ran out there and got (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mother`s voice clearly shaken and distressed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was, like, 4:00 in the morning when this happened. And if they had not awakened until 15 seconds later, that child would have
been down the street and gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My mom came down the steps, and she just looked over here and she seen a guy. He was just crouched down right here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please hurry!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Can you imagine waking up in the middle of the night, something wakes you up, just a feeling. And then you discover that just moments
before you sit up straight in the bed, a male intruder has come into your home and taken your 5-year-old little girl out of her bed in her bedroom?
Straight out to Jim Kirkwood, KTKK. Jim, what happened?
JIM KIRKWOOD, KTKK (via telephone): Nancy, this is unbelievable, this -- what -- his neighbors up in Roy (ph) describe Troy Morley as a super-creep.
He certainly acted that out. He goes into the home, grabs up the little girl. And fortunately, the mother could tell it wasn`t the little girl`s
gait because the little girl has a minor handicap and walks a little different, and that`s how she knew there was something really wrong, other
than her intuition.
GRACE: So the mom wakes up, Jim Kirkwood. No sound woke her up, nothing. She just sits bolts up in the bed, and she starts listening. She hears
nothing. She thinks she hears a footstep, but it`s not her daughter`s footstep. Suddenly, they look out and they see a man -- imagine the scene.
For those of you just joining us, you look out your bedroom window, and you see that guy walking across your front yard, holding in his arms your 5-
year-old little girl. That is exactly what happened to this Sandy, Utah, couple in the middle of the night.
You know, Jim Kirkwood, how did he get into the home?
KIRKWOOD: Well, the early reports said that the door wasn`t locked. I`m not -- I haven`t confirmed that, but he broke in other homes. He has a
history up in Roy, which is about 45 miles north of Sandy, up by the Air Force base, of going into people`s yards and things like that.
GRACE: Right. You know, I`m hearing in my ear I`m being joined right now by special guest Sergeant Dan Carriger from the Sandy Police Department.
Sergeant, this guy obviously has a record. I`m talking about 48-year-old Troy Morley. So Sergeant Carriger, what do you think woke up Mom? She
says it`s women`s intuition.
SGT. DEAN CARRIGER, SANDY POLICE DEPARTMENT: Well, that certainly could be the case because I know my wife always has a little something whispering in
her ear. But evidently, something woke them up. They heard a noise of the front door opening and went to investigate that, and that`s when they saw
this individual carrying their 5-year-old girl across the front yard.
GRACE: Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: What`s the address of your emergency?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (DELETED)
911 OPERATOR: And your name?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stephanie.
911 OPERATOR: OK, Stephanie. Tell me exactly what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a man in my home, and he took my 5-year-old daughter. And I happened to wake up, and he had my daughter outside. My
husband ran out there and got (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) my 5-year-old daughter!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: OK, straight to Matt Zarrell. Matt Zarrell, this guy had been seen around the neighborhood before. So what do we know about his history?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Well, Nancy, we know, surprisingly, he is not on the sex offender registry list. A criminal
records search revealed only a couple DUI convictions. As well, Nancy, he has a history of creeping into neighbors` back yards, as you`ve talked
about. Many neighbors have said that he has been found in their back yards without his shirt on, apparently, a number of times, and then the excuses
that he gives are very bizarre.
GRACE: Well, you know, I know his excuses are bizarre, Matt Zarrell, but we`ve done a little investigation on him. He has been married, has
sustained marriages twice. He just had a divorce. He`s declared bankruptcy for overspending. He`s got a couple of arrests under his belt.
So what more do we know about him? When was his last divorce, Matt?
ZARRELL: His last divorce was very recent, Nancy. The divorce was only finalized a couple weeks ago. And he did raise three children with his
first wife, as well.
GRACE: So he`s managed to present a fairly normal outward appearance.
Unleash the lawyers, Kirby Clements and Robert Schalk. First to Robert Schalk, joining me out of New York. Robert, don`t even start with
insanity, all right, because this guy has a history of breaking into homes. So he breaks into this home, and instead of taking a TV or the DVR, he
takes the little girl, a 5-year-old little girl. The mom`s women`s intuition wakes her up. She looks out the window to see this guy making
off across the front yard, holding the 5-year-old little girl.
ROBERT SCHALK, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, Nancy. I mean, obviously, you know, insanity would be a very difficult play here. He does have a history of
alcoholism. One of the interviews with one of the neighbors said she believes he has a drug history. I mean, there could be something else at
play here...
GRACE: Oh, do you think that`s helping, Robert?
SCHALK: No, it`s not...
GRACE: Put him up, please!
SCHALK: It`s not...
GRACE: Robert!
SCHALK: We have to sit here and mitigate the damage for him. This is not a trial case. This is a plea negotiation case, Nancy. It`s a horrible set
of facts...
GRACE: Really? Hold on.
SCHALK: Of course!
GRACE: Back to the question that I was asking you. You threw out, like the wild card, Oh, he`s probably got a -- probably got a drug...
(CROSSTALK)
SCHALK: I didn`t say probably. I said someone said he did.
GRACE: Do you think that that somehow helps him, that he kidnaps a 5-year- old little girl because he`s on drugs?
SCHALK: It`s the fact that he`s not some sort of predator, that this is something where there`s alcohol or drugs at play, where he doesn`t
appreciate what he`s doing. He was saying to the police officers, you know, if I take her with me, they won`t come get me. Who is they?
GRACE: Well, you know what?
SCHALK: What`s going on here? I mean, there`s something else going on. That`s not reasonable and rational behavior.
GRACE: Well, no kidnap of a 5-year-old little girl out of her own bed is, Robert Schalk. And if you don`t think this is a predator -- you say he`s
not some kind of predator? To go in and take this little 5-year-old girl out of her own bed and take off with her, kidnap her -- I don`t know what
you think the definition of predator is!
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: What`s the address of your emergency?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (DELETED)
911 OPERATOR: And your name?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stephanie.
911 OPERATOR: OK, Stephanie, tell me exactly what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a man in my home and he took my 5-year-old daughter.
911 OPERATOR: Was the man white, black or Hispanic?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Aaron, what color was he? He`s white. And he`s down the road.
911 OPERATOR: All right. How old did he look to be?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know. I didn`t see him. My husband did. Aaron, I need you to go -- I need you to go find him.
911 OPERATOR: No, no. Tell your husband to stay there. We`re going to get the officers out. I need to know what he looked like so the officers
can find him. Can you ask your husband how old he looked to be?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How old, Aaron? 40 to 50. He was bald.
911 OPERATOR: He was bald?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: All right, and what color shirt was he wearing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What color clothes, Aaron? Shorts and a T-shirt.
911 OPERATOR: All right. And where is he at now? Down the street in which direction?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. He went -- we live in a cul-de-sac, and he went south in our cul-de-sac.
911 OPERATOR: All right. I`ll get that information out to the officers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, please hurry!
911 OPERATOR: Are you or anyone else in immediate danger?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. But I don`t know where this person is, and he has my daughter!
911 OPERATOR: We`re getting the police officers out there right now, OK? Does anyone need medical attention?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don`t think so. She was, like, still dressed and everything! Oh, my God!
911 OPERATOR: All right. All right. Do not disturb anything at the scene. I guess you`re not in contact with your husband. So did he go to
try to find the person?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he did. He went out in my car and he (INAUDIBLE) He was still looking for him so he can...
911 OPERATOR: We`re going to have an officer...
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: For those of you just joining us, a mom says her women`s intuition wakes her up in the middle of the night only to discover just moments
before, a white male intruder had come through an open door, gone into her 5-year-old daughter`s bedroom and taken the daughter. They look out the
window to see him leaving with the daughter in his arms.
We are taking your calls. Unleash the lawyers, Robert Schalk and Kirby Clements. All right, Kirby Clements, I know because he`s caught red-handed
and he`s been observed -- there`s a description of him, we know it`s him. How are you going to plead anything other than insanity?
KIRBY CLEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY (via telephone): At this point in the game, I don`t think there`s anything you can plead. And trust me, as a
criminal defense attorney, I`d love to plead something different, but in this case, he`s caught literally red-handed. But his statements that were
made to the father at the time suggests that he clearly was -- had some mental problems going on. (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: Well, we`ll see about that because there are others that disagree with you.
Joining me now is Andrea Shearer (ph). She is the next-door neighbor of this man. Andrea, thank you for being with us.
ANDREA SHEARER, NEIGHBOR: Thank you.
GRACE: Have you observed any unusual behavior with this guy morally who is now accused of kidnapping a 5-year-old little girl?
SHEARER: Yes, quite a bit. Paranoia and just very odd -- just things that he says and things that he`s told me.
GRACE: Well, what things does he say that strikes you as odd?
SHEARER: Well, most recently he was showing us pictures of his attic, pictures of just insulation and saying that there were creatures in his
attic.
GRACE: Wait. Okay. What is in his attic, Andrea?
SHEARER: He was saying, look, there`s ears, there`s eyes, it was just pictures of his insulation inside of his attic.
GRACE: It was just the insulation in his attic. Okay. What else have you observed?
SHEARER: Well, he came over my house one time, and this was the same day that I got the no trespass, and he was telling me that the shadows were a
man with a gun, and then he made a sexual pass at me.
GRACE: All right. Now, that got me confused, Andrea, because how is he going from men with guns to making a sex pass at you? Andrea, there was
another occasion where he allegedly breaks into another woman`s home and says that he was convinced she flashed him, and he went in, I mean, some
people call it a pass and some people call it sex assault.
SHEARER: (inaudible) at the window in the front of the house, knocking on the window and peaking in at the window at the child and terrifying the
kid. Terrifying them.
GRACE: You know, very unusual. Greg Cason, psychologist joining us. I`ve noticed in all of the years that I`ve prosecuted, very often you would see
deviant sexual behavior start with peeping toms. And we used to talk about it. When we would see a misdemeanor peeping tom, we`d go, uh-oh, that`s
tomorrow`s felon. There is something about it. If you have it in your makeup that you want to go peep in other people`s windows and watch them
undress or whatever, that`s the buds of something much more serious.
CASON: Well, yes, Nancy. Everything has to be taken in steps. People don`t generally jump into murder. They have to have some kind of a step.
And here is a step where he was drawn to look at little girls or women through the window and then wanted to take it into the next step, into the
backyard, into the next step, into the house.
So here we can see that he was actually a predator, even though it may have started as a peeping tom.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: And now live to Colorado. He takes his wife on a romantic hiking trip for their 12th anniversary when tragedy strikes. Wife Toni slips
while taking a photo and falls to her death. The husband and their 9-year- old little girl in deep grief until authorities ask, hey, didn`t your first wife die in an accident, too? Well, it turns out that wife No. 1 was
crushed to death by the family car as hubby takes her on a romantic drive. Then asked her to look under the car for a lug nut when they get a flat
tire. Hiking trips, lug nuts, coincidence or double murder?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Toni Henthorn (ph) fell 40 feet off the mountain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The indictment saying Henthorn deliberately killed his wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To have two wives die in freak accidents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suspicion has also swirled around the death of his first wife, who died under equally bizarre circumstances.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The odds are better that you would win the Powerball lottery.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining me now is Randy Corporon from KLZ. Randy, I can understand her in a precarious position trying to take a photo and slipping and
falling. It`s hard to understand, but I can understand it. But then when I found out about wife No. 1, I mean, the scenario in that, Randy Corporon,
is that they go on a drive, alone, once again in an isolated area, where there are no witnesses, much like this romantic hiking trip for their 12th
anniversary, and suddenly they get a flat tire, according to him, and his wife -- he gets her to grab a lug nut that gets loose and goes under the
car, and while she`s under there, something slips and his wife, his first wife is crushed. Crushed dead. I`ve got the autopsy right here. She
sustained massive injuries, Randy.
CORPORON: Yes. She was crushed and the autopsy results on this latest, this second wife`s death create a whole lot of suspicion themselves. The
actual quote from the autopsy is that she fell or was pushed down a cliff. That`s a pretty unique statement to get out of an autopsy report.
GRACE: Here`s the thing. She fell 50 feet. This one, the first wife -- to Dr. Joy E. Carter, chief forensic pathologist, Marion County, author of
"I Speak for the Dead," I`m taking a look at the autopsy report, the first wife. And in that case, the autopsy said that she had vascular congestion
and she died of mechanical or positional asphyxiation. What does that mean? She also had blunt-force injuries.
CARTER: That means the vehicle was on top of her and she could not breathe. So she basically died from lack of oxygen to her brain. And the
blunt trauma from the weight of the vehicle being on her and for a sustained period of time.
GRACE: Is that what the vascular congestion came from? From the car? Sitting on her chest. I`m looking at it, Dr. Joy Carter, you are seeing a
picture of Harold Henthorn`s first wife. The first wife died after their car crushed her dead. He had taken her for a romantic drive in a secluded
area when suddenly they have a flat tire. Now, I don`t understand who is going to crawl under a car to find a lug nut. I mean, I would call AAA.
But they didn`t do that. She ends up with pulmonary vascular congestion. Her peticheae in her eyelids burst from I guess suffocation, and she was
there and died a painful death, Dr. Carter, I would say --
CARTER: Yes.
GRACE: -- as she sees her husband`s feet out there outside the car and she`s dying under the car, Dr. Carter.
CARTER: Yes. Why wasn`t he crawling under the car for the lug nut? How romantic is that?
GRACE: I mean, really, unleash the lawyers. Kirby Clements, Robert Schalk. Your husband, you take me out on a romantic drive and then we have
a flat and I`ve got to crawl under the car to find the lug nut, Schalk?
SCHALK: Different relationships, Nancy. Things happen.
GRACE: Really? Are you married?
SCHALK: Yes. I am.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: You won`t be much longer with that attitude if you ask your wife to crawl under the car to find a lug nut.
SCHALK: AAA, Nancy. AAA.
GRACE: AAA. You say that with a smile, but now we`ve got a second dead body, Schalk. Let me get back on that. Clark Goldband, you and Corporon
are explaining the facts around this. How does she allegedly slip off the top of a cliff, Clark?
GOLDBAND: Well, Nancy, it took place during a hike that the couple had been celebrating their 12th anniversary, and after that hike concluded on
Deer Mountain, at a national park, keep in mind, all of a sudden according to the husband, reports say that the wife was trying to frame a photo, and
as she was framing this picture, she allegedly tumbled down nearly 50 feet below. The husband then came rushing to her aid, but it took about 15
minutes to get there, according to reports, and Nancy, by the time authorities got there to try to save his wife, about 90 minutes later, she
was dead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her death was first thought to be an accident. An anniversary hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. He said she slipped and
fell 50 feet to her death while taking a picture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now investigators say that Toni Henthorn was murdered by her husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you push your wife?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: After he and his 9-year-old little girl go through deep, deep grieving, suddenly authorities go, hey, didn`t your first wife die of a
freak accident as well? A little research, and it didn`t take much, reveals that first wife, Sandra Lynn, also died alone with her husband,
Harold Henthorn, after he takes her on a romantic ride in a place where there are no witnesses. They have a flat tire. She is asked to look under
the car for a loose lug nut, and while she`s under the car getting that for her husband, the car accidentally slips, crushing her dead under the car.
Fast forward, years have passed, wife No. 2.
Now, the first wife died after 13 years of marriage. Wife No. 2, a very successful successful ophthalmologist, mother to their nine-year-old little
girl, they are now in year 12 of their marriage. He takes her on a an anniversary trip. Part of that trip culminates in a hike, a romantic hike
in the Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. While they are there, alone, she tries to take a photo according to him, and slips and falls to
her death. Joining me now, Allison Talley, a very dear friend of wife two, Toni Henthorn. Allison, thank you for being with us.
ALLISON TALLEY, FRIEND: Thank you.
GRACE: Allison, what did she see in him? I mean, she had a very successful practice which she left to go be with him? What is it about him
that sucks women in?
TALLEY: Well, we ask ourselves a lot that here, too. I`ve heard several people mention what a romantic he seemed to be and I think more of the
words we saw or we used was charming. He was a very -- I remember very vividly like it was yesterday, the day I met him. She brought him to meet
some of her close circle of friends, and he was very charming, very outgoing, well dressed, well spoken, and instantly walked out to meet us
and extended a hand and acted like family. So just a very -- a very charming man.
And I think she saw that. That was a little opposite of what she -- she was more -- I wouldn`t call her shy or introverted at all because she`s
not. I think she was one of the most brilliant people I`ve ever known, and when I hear people say she walked up to a cliff, that`s not -- she didn`t
walk up to a cliff.
GRACE: Wait. Right there, I find that very interesting. Everyone, with me and taking your calls is Allison Talley. This is Toni`s very dear
friend. Now, remember, with the first wife, Sandra Lynn, right now that`s just chalked up to a coincidence, he`s not been charged in that, nothing.
But right now suspicion has turned his way in the death of his second wife pictured here. Toni Henthorn-Lace (ph), a successful, very successful
ophthalmologist practice. To marry this guy, they have a 9-year-old daughter together. Allison, what`s interesting about what you tell me you
say she`s not shy, but you know her and she would never walk up to the edge of a cliff to take a picture. Is that what you`re saying?
ALLISON TALLEY, FRIEND OF WIFE WHO FELL OF CLIFF: Yeah, I just don`t see it for one thing, I knew about the trip, he had told me about the trip.
And she had had knee replacement, or knee surgery, and, you know, to take a trip like that kind of caused me to be concerned a little bit. So nothing
-- I know she wouldn`t have been in a very advanced hiking mode, and so I know she wouldn`t have walked. I just don`t feel like she would have done
that. And she certainly is not - and stand over and look over a 50-foot drop-off. So, you know, when we heard that, it was of immediate concern,
that that just didn`t sound right.
GRACE: Allison Talley, the moment you learned that your friend, Toni, was dead from a freak accident fall, what did you think?
TALLEY: Probably exactly what you thought. We knew about the first wife, and we knew not all of the details, because it was -- and Toni told me the
details and they weren`t anything that match up to the story you just told.
GRACE: OK, wait, wait, wait. Right there, Allison Talley, what had Toni, your friend, been told about her husband`s first wife?
TALLEY: She told me that it was nothing about crawling under a car, because I would have immediately - we would have had a talk about that.
That`s not something that a woman would have done. It was more in line of it was very -- that part is consistent, that she was opening the trunk of
the car to get the jack out, so there was still a flat tire involved. A flat tire involved. But the trunk snapped and hit her and broke her neck
instantly. That`s the story that Toni told me. So I don`t know if Toni didn`t know the story or if - or maybe I didn`t hear it right, but it`s
just - but it was not the story that`s documented now in the police report.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UM: Here`s a man, for 20 years, has scammed, lied, he`s definitely not who he wants - you public to think he is. It`s an extremely logical conclusion
to come to that he had a hand in my sister`s death. To have two wives die of freak accidents, you`re -- the odds are better off that you win the
Powerball lottery.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Second wife, Toni Henthorn, dead from a freak fall at the Rocky Mountain hiking trails. Now, this was the culmination of a romantic 12-
anniversary trip. She falls taking a photo, according to him. One thing I haven`t asked Allison Talley, very dear friend of Toni`s, what about money?
They have got one nine-year-old daughter together. Was there money involved, Alison?
TALLEY: He talked a lot about money. It was definitely something that drove him and he talked to me a lot about it.
GRACE: What do you say, just sit around and talk about the - money, said, whoa! Three life insurance policies totaling $4.5 million. Holy moly. OK,
when he would talk about money, Allison, what is there to talk about?
TALLEY: Well, he never told me about $4.5 million in life insurance policies. It was more along the lines that they were struggling
financially. That her practice at medicine had changed so much, that she was not making the amount of money that used to support them and the
family. He and the daughter. I didn`t try to probe a whole lot into that, I just found it incredibly odd that he would make those kind of comments.
But that - we had a lot of conversation about she wasn`t making as much money.
GRACE: Wait a minute. If he`s belly aching about how much money she`s not making, what is he doing?
TALLEY: That`s a good question. He posed as a successful fundraiser for nonprofits. And we never really questioned it, but every time we were out
there, every time we visited, he was home, and she was at work. So it`s very unclear as to if he worked at all or what --
GRACE: A fund-raiser? But he couldn`t raise enough funds to support his own family? You know the answer to that. That`s called a second job.
That`s the answer to that. So he`s complaining about her not bringing in enough money when he`s always at home? All I know is there`s a nine-year-
old daughter in the mix. Remember, that firs one, still chalked up to a freak accident.
Let`s stop and remember American hero Army Sergeant Kip Jacoby, 21, Pompano Beach, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, National Defense Service Medal. Family
military vet - Steven and Susan. Kip Jacoby, American hero. Thank you for being with us tonight. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00
sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friends.
END
