Return to Transcripts main page
Nancy Grace
New Mexico Woman Found Dead in Local Park
Aired November 12, 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 to Clovis, Goodwin Lakes Trail Park. It was an early morning in a peaceful local park when a
woman`s screams alerted park-goers. Racing to the park trail, they find 23-year-old mom Ariel Ulibarri stabbed dead. Wondering nearby, her 6-year-
old little boy. Bombshell tonight. We cobble together the clues left behind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 23-year-old mom of two is dead, and police are searching for her killer, the mom reportedly brutally murdered on a popular
walking trail around 7:30 AM. Her 6-year-old son was found in the parking lot. The boy reportedly leads an elderly man to his mom`s body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, Brevard County, Florida, a man dials 911, hysterical after home invaders storm his door and murder his wife. But tonight, does
forensic evidence prove otherwise? Tonight, we obtain the chilling 911 call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prosecutors said 52-year-old David Brevik (ph) called 911 after strangling his wife and say that the story that two men
who broke into their home were responsible for her death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don`t do this! (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Live to Clovis, Goodwin Lakes Trail Park. It was an early morning in a peaceful local park. A woman`s screams alert park-
goers. They race to the park trail and find 23-year-old new mom Ariel Ulibarri, Ariel stabbed dead, and wandering nearby, her 6-year-old little
boy. Tonight, we are cobbling together the clues left behind. We want justice!
Straight out to Michael Board joining us from WOAI. This is what I don`t understand. It was so early in the morning. Did nobody see
anything? What do we know, Michael? What happened?
MICHAEL BOARD, WOAI (via telephone): No, nobody saw anything, but we know they heard something. It was early that morning that police there in
Clovis started getting calls from other people who were walking around these trails. They said they heard screams. That`s when they got out
there and discovered what this boy had told a man -- he brought a man to where his mother is found dead.
What`s scary, Nancy, is we don`t know yet if that boy saw his mother being murdered. How traumatizing must that be?
GRACE: You know, you are seeing park trails, a 23-year-old young mom brutally slaughtered at a local park in broad daylight! You are seeing
shots of Ariel Ulibarri, a mom of two, her 6-year-old son there with her. Take a look at this woman.
To anyone with any tips, the number is 575-763-7000. We want justice. As her family prepares for a funeral, tonight her killer remains at large.
It was a very peaceful scene there at a local park, the Clovis park. Long story short, when park-goers who were out for morning jogs and walks hear
screams, they race over immediately. Nothing could stop the murder of the young mom. Even more tragic, her 6-year-old son is there. Did he see his
mother murdered?
Back to you, Michael Board joining us from WOAI. Do we have any idea about who the perp could be and why?
BOARD: We don`t know, and that`s what`s really traumatizing about this. We don`t know how the murder was even committed, but we do know from
police that there was so much blood at where the mom was found dead that they`re calling this a homicide. It must have been brutal for them to say
that this was a homicide!
GRACE: You know, that`s very interesting -- joining me right now, Dr. Bill Manion, medical examiner, forensic pathologist -- for them to rule
this a homicide based on the extreme amount of blood. What does that mean, Dr. Manion?
DR. BILL MANION, MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST (via telephone): Well, it must have been caused either by a stabbing or by
blunt force trauma, like a skull fracture with excessive bleeding. There may have been blood spurting at the scene. This couldn`t have happened
with somebody jogging and falling, to have that amount of blood loss or anybody tripping and...
GRACE: Why do you say that, Dr. Manion? Why could this not be a fall on a jogging trial? Explain.
MANION: Well, they`re saying the volume of blood -- a person her size -- suppose she`s 120 pounds -- may have four liters of blood in her system,
and if they see that she`s bled out, I mean, it would be extremely unusual to lacerate a carotid artery or a radial (ph) artery and have such
extensive bleeding from a fall.
GRACE: Everyone, you are seeing shots of the young mom, Ariel Ulibarri, out with her 6-year-old little boy at a morning -- for a morning
walk at a local trail at a local park. It just goes right around the park. You`ve seen them before. Park-goers hear screams in the early morning air.
They race over to find out what happened, and they find 23-year-old mom Ariel stabbed dead -- we think stabbed dead.
Hold on. I`m being told in my ear we are joined right now by a special guest. This is Ariel`s sister. Leanna Montano is joining us.
Leanna, thank you for being with us.
LEANNA MONTANO, VICTIM`S SISTER (via telephone): Thank you, Nancy.
GRACE: First of all, our prayers and our thoughts going out to you and your family and especially Ariel`s two children. My children are this
exact age. They just turned 7. She has a 6-year-old and a 7-year-old. And I can`t imagine anyone other than Mommy raising these two children.
I`m just so sorry, and please know that our thoughts are with you and your family.
MONTANO: Thank you so much. Thank you.
GRACE: How did you learn about this?
MONTANO: I actually got a morning phone call from my best friend. You know, we were in kindergarten together. And she couldn`t tell me --
she knew exactly what happened because her father is a superintendent for, like, the parks and recreation, so he had it all blocked off.
He called her and said, You need to let Leanna know, but she couldn`t tell me. She just said, You need to get over there by the hama (ph). It`s
your sister, and I freaked out. I thought she got in a car wreck, or you know, like, she ran over somebody. I didn`t know what happened.
I was like, OK, I`m going to get there. And I finally ended up getting ahold of my mom. She wouldn`t answer her phone. And whenever I
got ahold of my mom, she told me -- she was hysterical and she said, Your sister`s gone. And I literally freaked out, like, I could not handle it.
I screamed.
And I got there in probably a minute. I drove that fast over there. I got there, and the cops wouldn`t let me even close to the park entrance
at all. They stopped me and told me I needed to go. They wouldn`t tell me details or nothing, that I needed to go down to the police station, figure
it out. My mom and dad were already there.
GRACE: Wait. They told you to go to the police station and quote, "figure it out"?
MONTANO: Yes, because they couldn`t give me any details.
GRACE: Oh! Oh! Oh, Leanna! Everyone, with me is Ariel`s sister, Leanna. Leanna, first of all, who has the children, the 6 and 7-year-old
children?
MONTANO: Actually, my mom and -- Ariel had resided at my mom and dad`s address. So she lived there. She`s lived there most of her life,
obviously. She -- so they help her a lot with her kids already and -- so they`re going to keep her kids. That`s who will end up having her kids,
will be my mom and dad.
GRACE: I`m just -- I`m just beside myself! And to add insult to injury, tonight we learn that her killer is at large. We don`t know who
killed this young mom.
You know, I take my children to parks and playgrounds all the time. And because of the cases we cover, I`m always on the lookout. I`m always
on the alert about safety. But why, why do you have to be so afraid to take your children to a playground or a park? Why does it have to be that
way?
But that`s the way it is because this young mother, Ariel, the mother of a 6-year-old and a 7-year-old, has been found dead at a Clovis walking
park. Take a look at her. Her children are now going to be raised by -- not by Mommy but for Grandmommy and Granddaddy, as long as they`re with us.
We want justice for Ariel Ulibarri.
Leanna Montano, her sister, is with us. I understand that you and your family found a knife in the park. Is that true?
MONTANO: Yes, ma`am. It`s actually pretty horrible. The next morning, I -- like, I had to just go -- like, I actually went out there at
nighttime, and the -- my sister`s car was still out there, and the cops told my dad, You need to have her leave. So I don`t know if they were
trying to see if he would go back or what. But they didn`t -- you know, they didn`t tow her car or have my mom and them pick it up.
And I was -- I just wanted to be there with her. Like, I feel like she`s left in the park. Well, the next morning, me and my husband and my
mom and dad met up at the walk and we went -- we went to where it happened, and I laid roses around where it happened. And the cops left some spots of
blood out there, so they didn`t clean up the mess that well.
I laid the roses down. And we decided, You know what? We need -- because nothing was found. They didn`t have clues or nothing. And you
know, it just -- it really, really frustrates me that we don`t have an answer and we don`t have a person and...
GRACE: Well, how did you find the knife? How did you find a knife there? I don`t know if it`s even connected, but...
MONTANO: Well, so we were there, and you know, we just decided, Hey, we should go for a walk. We should see if we could find anything, you
know, bloody handprints, anything. And so we take off on a walk. And then my dad was, like, You know, we shouldn`t walk on the trail, we should walk
in, like, the bush and the trees and stuff.
So we started walking, and we`re going, and we`re -- you know, we`re split up, and I`m, like, There`s prairie dog holes. Maybe he threw the
knife in the prairie dog hole. But no, it was stabbed in the ground with blood drenched on it still.
GRACE: Oh, dear Lord!
MONTANO: (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: OK, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, wait, wait. Leanna, of course, you gave this to police. Have they connected the knife to your sister`s
stabbing?
MONTANO: I was told -- because I went back again yesterday to look again. I was told by the officer that`s in charge of this, the homicide
officer, that they have it (INAUDIBLE) I guess for forensics and...
GRACE: Yes, they`re going to have to try and match the blood up. Let me ask you another question, which I think, Leanna, may be very probative,
may actually prove something.
In addition to you guys finding the knife that may be involved in her murder, what, if anything, has her son said, her 6-year-old son that was
with her? He was found out wandering alone after his mommy is murdered on a beautiful walking trail at this park. I mean, when I look at that
beautiful wide open space, I don`t even understand how it could happen.
What did he say, Leanna?
MONTANO: Well, Nancy, he spoke with the police and said what he seen, but you know, he`s 6 years, old so he didn`t really -- you know -- you
know, they could ask him millions of questions, but he`s 6 and it was, like, a traumatizing time. So I think he kind of freaked out, and you
know, didn`t get that good of a glimpse of the guy. He did give a small description.
GRACE: What did he say?
MONTANO: He said -- he -- all he said was that he was walking and his mom was talking to him and that they seen a guy standing by the tree, and
that they were passing the guy and Ariel told the guy good morning, and that the guy told her good morning back, and when they passed the tree,
that he grabbed his mommy and she started telling him, Run, Diego, and he ran.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was this random or targeted? Who wanted a 22- year-old mom (INAUDIBLE) dead? Mom Ariel was found dead on a trail of a popular walking park. Her 6-year-old son was left in the nearby parking
lot. Police say the crime scene was bloody, now treating the case as a homicide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight, we want justice. A 23-year-old young mom murdered at a local park first thing in the morning. It`s, like, 7:30 in the morning.
She`s out there with her 6-year-old little boy when park-goers hear screams. They race to where they hear the screams. They find her body.
She`s brutally murdered. The amount of blood immediately made police label this a homicide. Her 6-year-old little boy was wandering alone, trying to
find help.
Can you even imagine that, him growing up with that memory? I only pray -- and I don`t know if this is right or wrong, I`m going to have to go
to the shrink, Caryn Stark, on this -- that he blocks it out and can`t remember it.
Back to Michael Board, WOAI. Did you hear what Leanna, her sister, said, that the little boy says, as best as they can decipher from a 6-year-
old, that the man was behind a tree, like he was waiting, and all she said was good morning. There was no suggestion she knows the man. She just
sees somebody and says good morning. And the guy comes out and stabs her?
BOARD: Well, we know investigators have been looking for cell phone records, media sites, text messaging, stuff like that. But we also know
that investigators in this case have been looking at surveillance video. So if we know that this man was in the park there, maybe possibly we can
get a chance with that 6-year-old -- maybe he can look at that video and maybe say, yes, that was the man that said hi to Mommy.
GRACE: OK, hold on, Michael Board, WOAI. You`re telling me something new. I did not realize that surveillance video would show who went in and
out of the park. Is that what you`re telling me?
BOARD: Well, we know there are surveillance video around the park, unless they came in through some back door. We don`t know how people get
in and out of this park. There`s regular entrances to get in and out. But you know, gosh, who knows how they got in. But maybe there`s that chance.
And that`s probably what investigators are going to have to rely on, and hopefully, this 6-year-old boy, if he sees a picture of a person, can still
pick this person out.
GRACE: Well, let me ask you this. Do you know, Michael Board, is there surveillance video at the entrance of the park?
BOARD: We don`t -- I don`t -- I do not know exactly where that...
GRACE: OK.
BOARD: ... surveillance video is, but we know...
GRACE: You know who might know? The sister. Leanna Montano joining me. Her sister is found murdered first thing in the morning. It`s, like,
7:30 in the morning. She`s got a 7-year-old and a 6-year-old. One goes to school, the other she has at the park with her. She`s going for a walk
with her 6-year-old little boy when she is brutally stabbed dead on a walking trail. No suspects.
Back to Leanna Montano. We want justice, everyone, and we are taking your calls, including her sister.
Out to the lines. Hi, Michelle. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. My only guess is, could it be a neighbor or a friend or even a complete stranger who doesn`t even know her?
GRACE: You know, that`s always possible. Now, here`s a thought on that, caller. Michelle, if it`s someone Mommy knows -- neighbor, friend,
ex, whatever -- the boy would probably recognize them. The little boy cannot name -- the little son, 6 years old, cannot name the assailant.
It`s someone that she just said, Good morning. That`s it. There was no conversation. There was no name calling, like, Hi, Joe, nothing like that,
no suggestion she knew him at all. It`s just so hard for me to take in that this is a random -- I guess I don`t want to believe it`s random.
I want to believe -- you know why? Unleash the lawyers, Dwane Cates, Areva Martin. Also joining us, psychologist Caryn Stark.
Caryn Stark, I think the reason we want to believe this is somebody she knows is because that sets us apart, because it gives us the false
sense that this can`t happen to us because this is obviously some nut that she knew at the grocery store, at work, someone that she had encountered,
has nothing to do with us.
That`s not true, Caryn. This apparently is random, and it can happen to us.
CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: It can happen to anyone, Nancy. We have to be really, really careful about doing something like that, walking where
there are no people around, watching very carefully.
And I also want to tell you about that little boy, that at 6, his brain is not developed enough to be able to cope with that kind of trauma.
So they have to be very careful about how they elicit information from him. They need to do behavioral therapy, tell stories, get to a 6-year-old level
because he is definitely going to either repress what happened, or block it, disassociate. He doesn`t have the ability to deal with it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 23-year-old mom of two is dead, and police are searching for her killer, the mom reportedly brutally murdered on a popular
walking trail around 7:30 AM. Her 6-year-old son was found in the parking lot. The boy reportedly leads an elderly man to his mom`s body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining me right now, Leanna Montano. This is the sister of Ariel, Ariel found dead, her 6-year-old little boy wandering the park,
trying to get help for his mother.
Leanna, again, police seem to suggest this is a random attack. But they don`t have a description? They got nothing?
MONTANO: They -- well, the guy that actually found Ariel gave the police a very -- a very dull -- I mean, it could be anybody, like, his
description that he gave. So there`s not really a released, like, picture or anything. You know, they don`t have...
GRACE: Well, I mean, the reality is it`s not the police`s fault that nobody saw the guy, nobody but the 6-year-old little boy.
For those of you just joining us, Ariel Ulibarri`s body found on a popular trail right beside what appears to be a very bucolic park. It`s
7:30 in the morning. You know, you`d think you`d be safe at park with your 6-year-old at that time of the day.
Michael Board, WOAI -- you were talking about surveillance video, that there is some in the area. But if you look at the map, backing up to the
park, there are other stores. It could very well be that those are the surveillance videos police are talking about.
Is it true that police have no suspect, IDs, not even really a description?
BOARD: No suspects, no descriptions, no persons of interest. Like we`ve been saying all along, Nancy -- very scary -- this looks like a
random attack.
GRACE: Well, there`s one lead because Leanna Montano and her parents go out and they are looking. They find a knife with blood on it nearby in
the bushes. Now, if that is connected to the case -- Leanna, how did you guys handle the knife? I`m thinking about possible fingerprints.
MONTANO: Yes, ma`am. As soon as we found the knife, we instantly -- you know, Everybody get away from it. We didn`t want our footsteps, you
know, around it. We backed up. We called the detective, my dad did, and they got over there really fast. You know, they measured, took pictures,
did all that. And I mean, it was a very -- how do I say -- barbaric knife. I want to -- that`s how I want to describe the knife. I mean, that knife
could easily go, you know, through my neck, like...
GRACE: Well, the thing is this, Leanna. The fact that she is stabbed there, we believe, with a great deal of blood loss, and then very nearby,
you find a knife with blood on it, seems like it`s too coincidental not to be connected. It`s seemingly got to be connected to your sister`s death.
Let me ask you this. Has the 6-year-old little boy, the son who was there when Mommy was stabbed -- has he told you anything?
MONTANO: I actually spoke with my nephew as soon as they got him home. We went into his room, and I held him, and I said, baby, whatever
you know tell me, because I want to know, I want to find the person that did it. If Diego -- my sister had her kids with her all the time, so if it
was somebody she knew, Diego could describe the man very easily. So I don`t believe it was somebody she knew at all. Diego told me just that
story about how he walked and said good morning, and that was it.
GRACE: Well, okay, I think you`re right, a 6-year-old is old enough to identify friends or relatives or neighbors that they have seen before,
they`re absolutely old enough, even if they don`t know the person`s name. So the fact that the little boy did not recognize the assailant suggests to
me it`s not somebody that mommy knows. What is he saying about his mom? Where does he think his mommy is?
MONTANO: It`s really sad, because whenever Diego had ran back to the front of the park, and it`s a really long -- to me I would not drive there
because I feel it`s super creepy, that park. She literally got stabbed by one tree in a field, and then on the other side of that tree, there`s an
R.V. park and a house on the other side of the fence. There`s a whole R.V. park where people are there in the morning, and, you know, 7:30 in the
morning, it`s a Sunday, everybody is there. So somebody should have heard. And Diego ran up to the front, and there was a second man that found Diego.
He was standing by the trash can up at the front by Prince Street, and he told the man, can you take me home, in a panic. The man said where are
your parents? Diego said my mommy is laying in the weeds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: And now live to Brevard County, Florida, a man dials 911, hysterical, after home invaders storm his door and murder his wife. But
does forensic evidence prove otherwise? Tonight, we obtain the chilling 911 call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When police arrived, they found nobody inside except for Brivik (ph) and his wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Damn it, guys, come on!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brivik immediately tried to blame the crime on someone else.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Died from manual strangulation at the hands of her husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is wrong with you!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: He claims home invaders storm his home, murder his wife. Seemingly on the phone call, he`s attacked, too. Look, where are the
bruises, where are the cuts. What can we learn from the 911 call? Let`s take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 911, hello? hello?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the address of your emergency, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s going on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help! I think somebody just jumped on my girl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone did what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Choked on my girl!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They jumped on your girl?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They choked her out. Goddam it, guys, come on, why did you do that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who did it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know these guys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they break in or what happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know. They`re her friends, I guess. They won`t stop. Stop it! Stop! Stop! Francia, get away from them! What the
[mute]! Stop it! Damn it! Stop it! They`re crazy. They won`t stop!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many people are there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know. At least two. At least two. Don`t do this! You guys are going crazy. What`s wrong with you!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do they have any weapons, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know. I don`t know!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Is this the worst 911 call you have ever heard? Unleash the lawyers. Dwayne Cates, Areva Martin. Let`s start with you, Martin. Did
you hear that? Guys, guys, don`t choke my wife. What? Why isn`t he in the mix beating them off his wife? Where are his cuts and bruises?
MARTIN: Clearly, Nancy, there`s so much about this case that we don`t know, and the defense attorneys are going to educate us about what it is
that caused this man --
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, let`s get back to the 911 call. Just to prepare you, Dwayne, she`s dead and he`s just fine. Let`s hear some more
911 call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, guys, don`t do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did the guys go?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know. They`re still here. They`re still here. Come on, stop it! Stop it! They`re choking her, man, they won`t
stop! Stop it! [mute], Francia, what`s wrong with you? Why do you keep going to them? I don`t know what to do, man. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
How can you just [mute] somebody, help!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We already have units on the way, okay?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have units on her way. What`s her name?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I don`t know whether to believe him or my lying ears. Let`s go to the lines. Apparently the defense attorneys don`t see anything wrong
with that 911 call. Out to Michelle. Hi, Michelle, what`s your question? First of all, did you hear that 911 call where the husband is going, stop,
stop, stop choking my wife. Francia, what`s wrong, get up?
CALLER: First of all, yes, Nancy, that was horrible. First, of all, I would drop the phone and would try to get that person off of my wife or
husband. That was actually deplorable. I have a question. Do we know anything about an affair maybe on his side or her side?
GRACE: Excellent thought. You should be a detective. Out to Justin Freiman on the story. Justin, is there any knowledge, do we have any idea
that there`s a girlfriend lurking in the wings?
FREIMAN: We do not have any knowledge of anybody else lurking in the wings, any other love affairs going on there, Nancy.
GRACE: But this is what I know. This 911 call is bogus, all right. This did not happen that way. For him to be calling police saying stop,
stop, get off my wife, what? Steve Summers, news anchor with 820 Tampa Bay, Steve, did he sustain, the husband, David Brivik, did he sustain any
injuries at all the?
SUMMERS: We`re not hearing about any injuries on David Brivik. In fact, when they checked under his fingernails they didn`t have any DNA from
Francia, but she of course had those marks on her neck, those telltale marks that something was around her throat at some point.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s just chokign?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. She`s choking. Please, hurry, send somebody. I don`t know what`s wrong with her. What the [mute] is wrong
with you, girl. Stop it, don`t go on me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, let me just make sure, she`s just choking, nobody is choking her, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see people physically choking her or no?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You do see people choking her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Hurry, hurry, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have units, light and sirens coming to you right now, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hurry, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need fire and I don`t know--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? Hurry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Did you hear that, police say, okay, sir, do you see people physically choking your wife? He`s going, wake up, baby, wake up. Okay,
unleash the lawyers. Dwayne Cates and Ariva Martin. According to you two, you don`t smell a dead fish here. You think this is just normal. Dwayne
Cates, come on, please. Baby, baby, wake up. Did you know that the mother-in-law was asleep in the home? She didn`t hear any home invaders.
And listen to the 911 call, Dwayne. You don`t hear home invaders or you don`t hear anybody screaming, nothing.
(CROSSTALK)
CATES: Nancy, he`s screaming at the 911 operator, Nancy. Come on. He`s screaming and you can tell from listening to him, he`s out of breath.
When the police got there, he was all sweaty and freaking out. Come on, you can hear it. You can`t make this kind of stuff up. He can`t act like
that.
GRACE: I would argue that he`s sweaty because he just murdered his wife. Go to the 911, Liz.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man, stop it! They won`t stop. Please send somebody! Hurry! Stop, guys! [mute].
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are they inside the house or outside?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes! They won`t stop. Hurry up! Hurry up! Stop! Stop it! Stop choking her!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining me right now is a special guest, Major Todd Goodyear, the Brevard county Sheriff`s Office. Major, Major, thank you for being
with us.
MAJOR TOD GOODYEAR: Thank you, Nancy.
GRACE: Major, I`ve played many a 911 call in court, and I find them to be extremely, extremely probative. They prove a lot. It takes a jury,
if there ever is a jury, it takes a jury to the moment that the crime occurs. It takes a jury to the moment where the crime is discovered and
somebody calls 911. And I am telling you, Major, I`m on the outside looking in, but there is something very wrong with that 911 call.
Major, I assume you either are or have been married, right?
GOODYEAR: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: If you see somebody strangling your wife, you would stand there and let them do it while you`re on the phone? I understand going
911, here`s my address, 1122 Maple Lane, and hanging up, but to stand there and let somebody strangle your wife? That does not even make sense.
GOODYEAR: We found it very suspicious. And once we got the call and talked to the deputies and dispatchers about what the call contained, that
raised our suspicions quite early in the investigation. Because I`m married and have children, and if that were happening at my house, like you
said, you would be very quick to get anything off of me on the phone before I went to their aid.
GRACE: I`m telling you, Major, I would die before I stood by and let my husband or my children be attacked in that way. If I had to go down, I
would go down fighting. I agree with you. And let me clear something up, Major. She is what, asphyxiated, strangled dead?
GOODYEAR: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: OK. Was there anything taken from the home? Was there a robbery?
GOODYEAR: From what we could determine in our investigation, we did not find any articles that were taken from the house.
GRACE: Okay. Was there a sex attack on this woman?
GOODYEAR: No, we have no evidence of that.
GRACE: Okay. So what would be the reasoning for home invaders to storm this upscale home and murder the wife in front of the husband with
the mother-in-law asleep in the next room? What`s the motivation? There`s no theft. There`s no sex attack. And then they just leave?
GOODYEAR: We were not able to find any motives that would be directed to her as the victim, as far as anything -- took anything, any financial
gain from her death or a sexual assault or any of that. We did not find any motive for it. Of course, there was suspicion toward him being the
person that caused her death.
GRACE: Well, from what I understand, Major Goodyear, your people did an excellent job forensically. Could you tell me, was there a forced entry
in the home?
GOODYEAR: No. We were not able to find that. In fact, he has a very good security system. We were able to get records--
GRACE: Whoa, whoa, wait, wait. Major, you`re telling me something new. They have a security system?
GOODYEAR: Yes. He had an alarm system as well as security cameras that were at each point of the entrance of the address.
GRACE: Did the alarms go off?
GOODYEAR: The alarm went off actually when our deputies arrived at the house and came up into the area of the --
GRACE: Wait a minute. Major, are you telling me that the police are the ones that set off the alarm when they come to the 911 call?
GOODYEAR: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: So (inaudible( the home invaders come in, murder his wife, leave, then he turns the alarm back on?
GOODYEAR: The alarm was on. The records we got from the alarm company show that the alarm was already set, and the first activation of
the alarm was actually deputies arriving on scene.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Okay. We are taking your calls and if you want to believe this man, he stands by and lets armed intruders storm into his home and
murder his wife. He is unharmed. Nothing is stolen and there is no sex assault. And mommy, the grandmother sleeps through the whole thing. Out
to the lines. Hi, Joe, what`s your question?
CALLER: Hey there, Nancy. You know, I`m always overwhelmed by the stupidity of husbands that want to get through with their wives. Go out
and get a divorce. It will cost you some money, but you won`t end up in prison. You know, this guy is unbelievable. He needs acting lessons for a
few years to be able to try to pull this off.
GRACE: Joe, you`re preaching to the choir right now. I`m going back to Major Tod Goodyear and Steve Summers. Major, did you notice at the get-
go in the phone call, you don`t hear any home invasion going on? And how did they get in? Did you tell me, I want to get this correct, that the
police are the ones that set off the alarm system when they responded to the 911? The alarm was still on. Nobody had ever even come in.
GOODYEAR: That`s correct, Nancy. The alarm was set at about 7:15 that night. The first activation is about a quarter till midnight when our
deputies arrived at the house.
GRACE: Steve Summers, news anchor at 820 Tampa Bay, Steve, this is a pretty upscale neighborhood. Don`t they have -- is it gated, are there
surveillance cameras?
SUMMERS: It is an upscale neighborhood, actually, Nancy, over in Brevard County on Florida` Atlantic coast. As far as a gated situation,
not sure about that. But you can bet that all of these homes have the same kind of high quality alarm systems and they set them every night. Because
I mean, after all, when you`re guarding something that expensive, you`re going to go ahead and be conscientious about doing that sort of thing.
(CROSSTALK)
SUMMERS: They all have alarms.
GRACE: Steve Summers, according to Major Goodyear, the police are the ones that set off that fancy alarm system, (inaudible), nothing including
home invaders had set it off before.
Let`s stop and remember American hero, Army Sergeant First Class Michael Russell, 31, Vinson (ph) Georgia. Two Bronze Stars, Purple Heart,
Senior Army Aviator Badge. Parents Linda and Lee, brother Lee Jr., sister Melissa, widow Annette. Two daughters. Michael Russell, American hero.
Thank you again for being with us tonight. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
