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Nancy Grace
Prom Date Murder; Car-Lot King Wife Murdered?; 13-Year-Old Girl Suddenly Went Missing
Aired January 22, 2015 - 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, prom night, McArthur High School, Houston, Texas, suburbs, where a beautiful young high school
senior, Jacqueline, found choked dead. Bombshell tonight. Will the mother of her prom date be charged with murder?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A tragic turn for a female McArthur student whose prom night would be her last.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was found dead inside a room by her teenage prom date.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say they found alcohol and prescription painkillers in the hotel room.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was underage. All that stuff, she couldn`t get it by herself, or the boyfriend couldn`t get it by himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, live, Spencer (ph) suburbs, where a millionaire car dealer says he`s nothing to do with his wife`s disappearance from their
eight-bedroom lakefront mansion. But her friends say the car lot king wanted a divorce, and he had no intention of sharing his $5.4 million net
worth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michelle Harris (ph) was last seen on September 11. Her body has never been bound. Kelvin Harris (ph), a millionaire car
dealer, is now on trial for the second degree murder of his wife, Michelle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, we go live in the increasingly desperate search for a missing Bakersfield school girl. Where is Ashley (ph)?
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being us.
Bombshell tonight, live, prom night, McArthur High School, Houston, Texas, suburbs. A beautiful young high school senior, Jacqueline, found dead.
Tonight, will the mother of Jackie`s prom date be charged with murder? OK, that doesn`t even make sense. Why would this girl`s prom date`s mother be
implicated in a murder?
Straight out to Michael Board, WOAI. Michael, everything I found out about Jacqueline Gomez is phenomenal. She was a 4.0 student, saving all of her
money. She was a checkout girl at a Kroger grocery in her spare time. She saved all her money to go to college. She was an excellent cellist. It`s
just -- she`s what everybody dreams your daughter is going to grow into, hard-working, had goals, a musician, 4.0, not a party girl at all, spent a
lot of time with her grandmother. So how does she end up dead on prom night, Michael Board?
MICHAEL BOARD, WOAI (via telephone): Yes, Nancy, this story is just unbelievable from the start. Jackie Gomez went to prom with her prom date,
Eddie Herrera. They got a hotel room at the Hyatt North, which is the same hotel where the prom was being held. The next morning, the morning after
prom, she was found dead in her bed. Nancy, get this. It was...
GRACE: Wait, wait, wait! Dead in her bed. Let me just explore that for a moment, Michael Board. There you`re seeing Jacqueline. You should see her
prom date photo, her with her date that night. This is the last night of her life. There she is, picking out the perfect dress for prom. This
girl, 4.0 average, cellist, had a job at Kroger as a checkout girl, saving money, all her money to go to college to pursue a degree in pharmacology.
OK, Michael Board, you say she`s dead in her bed. She`s actually dead in the bed of a local hotel. And who, may I ask, Michael Board, paid for the
hotel the night of the prom?
BOARD: It was her prom date`s mother who paid for that hotel. And Nancy, this is amazing. Get this. It was not the date, Eddie Herrera, who called
911. It wasn`t his mom. It was the hotel that called 911...
GRACE: OK, you`re getting ahead of me. Hold on. Hold on. There`s the hotel where Jacqueline had her last breath. She dies on her prom night.
The room was booked and paid for by her prom date`s mother, for the son and his date to share the night of the prom. That`s not all Mommy did, is it,
Justin Freiman.
JUSTIN FREIMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): No, that`s right, Nancy. According to police, they say she dropped them off. She`s the one
who actually went there to pick them up. And also bought them alcohol.
GRACE: So she takes -- it`s my understanding, Michael Board, that the prom date, Eddie Herrera`s, mom takes the two of them to a liquor store? Now,
Jacqueline is not known to be a party girl, never done drugs, doesn`t drink. But it`s my understanding -- did the mom -- is she accused of
taking them to a liquor store and providing them hydrocodone?
BOARD: That`s right, Nancy. In this case, prosecutors say that she bought them drugs. In fact, we know that there were friends at this prom who
noticed that Jackie was sort of slurring her speech, stumbling around. It looks like the facts of this case show that she may have been taking drugs,
drinking alcohol while she was at prom.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining me from New York, Sue Moss, family law attorney, victims` rights advocate, Jeff Gold, defense attorney. Also
with me out of Atlanta, Kirby Clements, former prosecutor, now defense attorney.
Sue Moss, I don`t know if I`m living in an alternate universe, but it would be a cold day in H-E-double-L that my mother would go and take me and my
prom date to the liquor store, provide me with drugs and book me a hotel room. No!
SUSAN MOSS, VICTIMS` RIGHTS ADVOCATE: Absolutely not. Felony murder rule. If mom committed a felony by buying these kids alcohol when they`re
underage and giving them hydro -- these drugs, then -- and that`s the reason why she died, then she`s part of the conspiracy with her son that
ended up killing this girl, and they are both going to face murder!
GRACE: Now, here`s the thing. The cause of death is unknown. Now, the mother of the prom date has not been charged with anything. But it has
been alleged and seems to be undisputed that the mom of the prom date takes the young girl -- the 4.0 grad, the cellist, the straight-A student --
takes her and her son to a liquor store, provides them with hydrocodone, a powerful, powerful painkiller, and books them a room at a local motel.
Now, here`s the thing. Cause of death has not been determined. It`s going to be, we think, asphyxia. We`ve heard that it is asphyxia due to neck
compression. Now, here`s the thing. Was -- did she pass out in a position that caused her to be able unable to breathe, or was she strangled?
But hold on. I`m going to throw that to Dr. Michelle Dupre, forensic pathologist and medical examiner joining me tonight out of Columbia. Dr.
Dupre, I got a problem. We don`t have the official autopsy yet. But asphyxiation due to compression is different from asphyxiation by --
positional asphyxiation, for instance, when you put a baby in the trash can and it`s crunched up and it can`t breathe. That`s positional asphyxiation.
This is asphyxiation, or -- your suffocate due to compression. What`s that?
DR. MICHELLE DUPRE, MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Nancy, this is when, basically, the neck, the veins of the neck, are compressed so that
oxygen is deprived in the brain. And it`s usually bilateral. It doesn`t take that long for someone to pass out.
GRACE: OK, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Bilateral. Hold on. In this context, what do you mean by her asphyxiation, her smothering death, is
bilateral? Bottom line, all that out the window. Was she choked or was she in a position where she couldn`t breathe?
DUPRE: She was probably choked. That`s what it sounds like.
GRACE: OK. OK because I`m finding out more about that night, Doctor. I`m finding out that at first, the boyfriend sent a series of texts when his
date was found dead the next morning. Let`s see the texts allegedly from Herrera. They said she overdosed. I woke up. I tried waking her, but she
wouldn`t. Sad, frowny, frowny, frowny. I was screaming and crying and telling her to wake up, but she didn`t. She didn`t. Frowny, frowny. I
should have took them away and flushed them. Frowny. I miss my girl.
He`s talking about flush the drugs. He also states that she was perfectly fine and happy when they left the Miami Nights-themed prom. She was happy,
that they both went to sleep, they were so happy when they went to sleep. This girl had never done drugs in her life.
Later -- unleash the lawyers, Sue Moss, Jeff Gold, Kirby Clements -- he says that she wanted rough sex and that he choked her. OK. What about
that, Kirby Clements?
KIRBY CLEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, the fact that she voluntarily engaged in rough sex nullifies any murder count, period. It just goes to
show...
GRACE: Really?
CLEMENTS: ... this was an accidental death.
GRACE: You think she wanted sex so rough that she wanted to die?
CLEMENTS: That`s accidental. An accidental death is not murder. Murder requires the intent to kill at the beginning. That`s the first point. I
understand Sue Moss may disagree, but that`s the law and those are the facts. This is an unfortunate tragedy between two kids who used drugs and
alcohol that night...
GRACE: OK, let me get my mind around this, Kirby Clements. So you`re saying after his -- his mom buys this underage couple on prom night booze,
provides them with hydrocodone, allegedly, takes them to the liquor store, books them a hotel room -- this girl`s never done drugs in her life. Then
suddenly, she decides, this 4.0 student decides that she wants rough sex to the point that she`s strangled dead. You think that was voluntary? You
think his hands around her neck is an accident?
CLEMENTS: No, his hands around her neck was part of the rough sex and what caused her death was strangulation, accidental perhaps caused by his
intoxication, but...
GRACE: OK, I`m going to...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... have to get a judge`s order for Sue Moss to -- close your mouth. I`m doing the same thing.
JEFF GOLD, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: He`s an 18-year-old kid. He`s saying he`s having rough sex. We don`t really know if asphyxiation was the cause of
death yet.
GRACE: Well, that`s what the ME said.
GOLD: The mom has got a problem with this hydrocodone. That`s the most unbelievable part, that she would give this drugs -- that`s her problem. I
don`t know what happened that night I don`t know if asphyxiation or she was -- a 2.1 alcohol level plus hydrocodone killed her. We just don`t know.
GRACE: OK, you know what? I want to follow up on that. He`s right about that. To Dr. Michelle Dupre -- for those of you just joining us, look at
this prom photo. The theme that night was Miami Nights, OK? That`s the prom theme. She looked and looked and looked for the perfect dress. She
gets a prom date -- 4.0 student, plays the cello, works at Kroger as a checkout girl, saves every dime to go to school, to go to college She`s
dead, prom night murder.
And another bizarre twist is the mother of her prom date implicated. She has not been charged, but she took them to the liquor store. She provided
the hydrocodone. She booked the hotel room where the girl died on prom night.
Dr. Dupre, if she had alcohol in her system, is that a contributory factor? I don`t see how that can be argued to a jury when you`ve got neck
compression as the cause of death.
DUPRE: Well, Nancy, there`s a couple of things here. Yes, the alcohol could be contributory because it is also a CNS depressant, just as
hydrocodone is. It will have a synergistic effect. So it`ll be worse than one or the other by itself. But here`s thing...
GRACE: Well, that`s...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... me saying I have asthma and when you shot me, it contributed to my death.
DUPRE: It may. If you`re having an asthma attack and you`re shot, that may contribute to your death.
GRACE: OK, let me rephrase. How about the argument the defense says, she had asthma, and when you shot her in the head, the asthma was the cause of
death, because that`s what I`m getting here. I mean, she has neck compression asphyxia. She was strangled. That`s what they`re saying.
What does her drinking have to do with her being strangled on her prom night?
DUPRE: It doesn`t, Nancy. That does not. If that is the cause of death - - and like you said, we haven`t really seen the autopsy report yet. If that is the cause of death, it doesn`t. But when you strangle somebody or
coke them and you cut off their circulation, they will pass out. When you release that neck hold, they will wake up. If you continue to strangle
them, they will die.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) and you could never (INAUDIBLE) for something like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says the mother of her daughter`s date picks them up from her hour.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was there. He knows everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And even though she told the woman her daughter was not to spend the night, she never came back home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back. For those just joining us, prom date murder -- this 4.0 honor student at McArthur High School in Houston suburbs says yes to
the dress, the perfect prom dress. The theme, Miami Nights. She goes to the date (sic) with her boyfriend, Ed Herrera. Odd, his mother takes the
two of them to the liquor store. His mother provides them with the powerful painkiller hydrocodone. His mother books them this hotel room.
She`s found dead in that Hyatt hotel room. Not only does she have alcohol in her system -- and she has been a teetotaler her whole life, never a
party girl -- but also has neck compressions.
Straight back out to Michael Board, WOAI. Michael, what more do we know?
BOARD: This is really strange, Nancy. When the prom date, Eddie Herrera, found out that his prom date was dead in the bed, the first person he
called was not 911. He called his mother who was in that same hospital (ph). She came to the room, according to prosecutors, put clothes back on
the prom date, and then the pair of them -- they still did not call 911. They called the hotel, asking if there was a doctor there. It was the
hotel that called 911 saying, We need help here. There`s a woman dead in the hotel.
GRACE: How long had she been dead by the time they finally got EMTs there, Michael?
BOARD: That`s a great question. We know that when they went to bed the evening before, she was alive, and then when he woke up the next morning,
she was dead. We don`t know how long, what time in the night she passed away.
GRACE: You know, I`m looking at the indictment and I`m seeing that the prom date, Ed Herrera, is charged in count 3, I believe, with possession of
a controlled substance. I`m assuming that`s his mother`s hydrocodone, Michael?
BOARD: That`s correct. Herrera remains in jail, bond set at $50,000.
GRACE: He`s only got a $50,000 bond. OK. To Justin Freiman. Tell me what else do we know about her and about this prom date and what happened
that night.
FREIMAN: Well, what we do know about that night, according to police, they`re referring to his hands as weapons, which leads to the theory that
you were saying, that she was strangled by the prom date. We also know that they had only been dating for about three weeks before this prom.
GRACE: Oh, no! So she gets a boyfriend. He asks her to the prom. This is the last night of her life, Jackie, spotted there, dies that night a few
hours after this photo is taken. She is dead in the bed in that Hyatt hotel room after her Miami Nights prom date.
To Dr. Michelle Dupre, forensic pathologist and ME. The fact that the medical examiner could actually find neck compressions -- what does that
mean? Does that mean bruising? Does that mean there`s damage to the trach? What does that mean? Possibly to the sternum?
DUPRE: Nancy, it could mean any of those things. It likely means there was significant hemorrhage in the strap (ph) muscles of the neck. There
may also be small bones that are broken or fractured. The thyoid (ph) cartilage or crycord (ph) cartilage could also be fractured.
GRACE: Now, how much pressure would it take, Dr. Dupre? Now, when you`re saying hemorrhage among the muscles there, that`s bruising. How much
pressure would it require to do any of what you just named, the fracturing of those tiny bones, the hemorrhaging or bruising to the ligaments or the
muscles? How much pressure would that take to kill this girl?
DUPRE: It takes about 10 pounds of pressure to make someone pass out. Continued pressure more than that for an extended period of time, even a
few minutes, can cause those fractures.
GRACE: OK, back to Michael Board, WOAI. The cause of death that we are understanding of this girl on the night of her prom has nothing to do -- it
does not say that alcohol or drugs were contributory factors. They`re not claiming her cause of death had anything to do with that. Am I right on
that?
BOARD: That is right. The only thing we know is that prosecutors say she had hydrocodone in her system, a blood alcohol level of .21, which is very
high, but we are -- that`s about all it`s saying about the drugs and the alcohol.
GRACE: So what do we know, Justin Freiman? Don`t her friends say she was acting very unusually at the prom?
FREIMAN: Yes, one of her friends actually talked to local media and had said that her eyes looked a little glossed (sic) over, she seemed a little
out of it at the prom. That`s correct.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A tragic turn for a female McArthur student whose prom night would be her last.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was found dead inside a room by her teenage prom date.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say they found alcohol and prescription painkillers in the hotel room.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was underage. All that stuff, she couldn`t get it by herself. Or the boyfriend couldn`t get it by himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: But that is not the cause of her death. Yes, she took a drink the night of her prom, but the cause of death is compression to the neck. She
was suffocated dead.
Out to the likes. Hi, Lisa. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Thank you for taking my call. Just wondering, please, because she was under age and also over-drinking, could
have got him into a rage of some sort?
GRACE: Absolutely. What about it, Dr. Bethany Marshall?
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Well, yes, she should have -- either one of them could have gotten into a rage, but what I really see is a pattern
of someone who might have been grooming her in order to take advantage of her in some way, and then when she didn`t follow through, he flipped out,
so that he already was building up a head of steam, so to speak, in terms of being predatory, and then the alcohol just really loosened his impulses.
GRACE: I mean, according to friends, she had only been dating this guy for three weeks. I don`t know that she signed up to have sex with him in this
room, in this bedroom. What do you think that may have had to do with it, Bethany?
MARSHALL: Well, you know, she seemed like she`s innocent, kind of wholesome, worked at the local grocery store. And he has this huge fantasy
life that he`s going to have sex with her, and that`s not even on her radar. I mean, remember, her mother thought she was going to return home
that night. He could have -- if he fits the profile of a male sociopath, he could have totally flipped out when she refused him.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Sue Moss, Jeff Gold, Kirby Clements. Sue Moss, she wanted rough sex, and you know, I`m sure a jury`s going to have
it up to here.
MOSS: They`re going to hear all about this young victim, everything that she does, going to the grandmother`s house, working, saving, 4.0 GPA. And
they`re going to think to themselves, Would a girl like this after three weeks sign up for rough sex with this guy? They`re going to say no.
They`re going to convict him. And if they find that alcohol or the drugs were in any way contributory, then there`s going to be a conspiracy theory
and they`re going to go after that mother!
GRACE: OK, no offense, Kirby Clements, but I don`t like that smirk on your face. I really don`t.
CLEMENTS: Well, you-all`s theory ignores several factors.
GRACE: (INAUDIBLE) what?
CLEMENTS: She`s got a selfie with her in the hotel on prom night.
GRACE: So? So?
CLEMENTS: So you think she was surprised that sex was going to happen?
GRACE: I have a question.
CLEMENTS: I`m not going to blame her, but let`s be realistic.
GRACE: Where -- where was the prom, Michael Board? Was it in that hotel in the lobby?
BOARD: Yes, it was in that same hotel (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: OK.
BOARD: ... same hotel where there were -- where she was found dead.
GRACE: OK, FYI, Kirby Clements, just that`s the 411, for your information.
CLEMENTS: OK. Give it to me.
GRACE: A lot of times -- a lot of times, girls at these proms go to a room. They rent a room to freshen up. They rent a room to change into
after-clothes, like a casual outfit. After you go to the prom, like, you want to go out to a burger place or everybody wants to go out for Mexican
or go out after party, you got and change out of your fancy dress. So just because, Kirby Clements, they`ve got a room for her to freshen up does not
mean that she signed up for rough sex, where he choked her dead!
CLEMENTS: A room, liquor and drugs, and she`s high at the prom. Come on! I`m not trying to blame the victim, but you all...
GRACE: Sounds like you are.
CLEMENTS: ... are painting her like Cinderella...
GRACE: Sounds like you are.
CLEMENTS: ... frolicked around and just...
GRACE: No! No! Because...
CLEMENTS: ... snatched up by the evil man.
GRACE: ... you know what I know? You know what I know...
CLEMENTS: That`s not what happened.
GRACE: ... about her? No, I`m not saying he`s an evil man. He`s her prom date. His mother reportedly enabled them to get booze, to get hydrocodone.
That is a deadly mixture. That`s a deadly recipe. So you throw in teenagers with booze and hydrocodone and him wanting sex and her saying no,
it`s a bad scenario. I`m not saying he`s evil, but I`m saying...
CLEMENTS: Where does she say no?
GRACE: ... this equals murder because she`s dead!
CLEMENTS: Where`s the evidence of no?
GRACE: She`s dead!
CLEMENTS: There`s no evidence of no. No, she`s dead, but there`s no evidence of no.
GRACE: OK.
CLEMENTS: This is a rape and a murder now, apparently.
GRACE: Sue Moss -- Sue Moss, the girl is dead. I think somewhere along the way she resisted.
MOSS: The girl is dead.
GRACE: (INAUDIBLE) you!
MOSS: She`s got choke marks around her neck.
GRACE: I can`t believe you! All those years you prosecuted and right down the hall from me, and now you`re jumping up and saying this? I`m actually
shocked!
KIRBY CLEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Don`t be shocked. The facts don`t --
GRACE: Yes, I am. I am. You put --
CLEMENTS: Don`t be shocked.
GRACE: Go ahead, Sue Moss.
MOSS: She`s got choke marks around her neck. What more do you need a big sign "I did it"?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Live to Spencer suburbs where a millionaire car dealer says he has nothing to do with his wife`s disappearance from their eight-bedroom lake
front mansion. But her friends say the car-lot king wanted a divorce. And that he had no intention on sharing his $5.4 million net worth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Michelle Harris was last seen on September 11th. Her body has never been found. Calvin Harris, a millionaire car dealer, is
now on trial for the second-degree murder of his wife Michelle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Candace Trunzo, senior news editor, DailyMail,com. Now I know that she disappears without a trace. I know that he was having
an affair. I know it was a bitter fight at the divorce time. And that he did not want to share his $5.4 million income, his net worth.
I don`t know if that`s all of his money. That`s what he claims is his net worth in the divorce. So how do I know she didn`t just disappear? How
many children does she have, Candace.
CANDACE TRUNZO, SENIOR NEWS EDITOR, DAILYMAIL.COM: They have four children. And --
GRACE: And how old were they when she disappeared?
TRUNZO: They were -- they were quite young. They were between -- I think they were, you know, from 5 to 10 years old.
GRACE: OK. Hold on.
So, Michael Christian, also on the story, I`m supposed to believe that this mother of four walks out not only on her eight-bedroom mansion on a lake,
leaves her husband, takes a horrible divorce offer and turns her back on her four children? That she just left, was never seen again? Just left
behind her toddler children? I don`t believe that, Michael.
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: The prosecution doesn`t believe it either, Nancy. They say that Calvin Harris murdered his wife to avoid
this divorce.
GRACE: OK. This is the thing. If she`s never been seen before, how do we know, Michael, that there was a murder? Wasn`t there blood found in the
home?
CHRISTIAN: Yes. Several days after she went missing, Nancy, police investigators found some blood on the garage wall and also on the floor of
the kitchen. Now these were just little pinpricks of blood.
GRACE: Wait, Michael, why do you say there were just pinpricks of blood? It sounds to me you`re saying it`s just pinpricks. To me it sounds like
blood spatter. Blood spatter.
CHRISTIAN: Yes.
GRACE: All right? And the fact that it`s in two locations. Did you say it`s on the floor of the kitchen?
CHRISTIAN: Floor of the kitchen alcove and also on the garage wall. And yes, you`re right. It has been classified as medium velocity blood
spatter.
GRACE: OK. Now wait, wait, wait. Right there.
Let`s go to Dr. Michelle Dupre, forensic pathologist. When you say -- and we`re giving you a tour inside the missing mom`s home.
Michelle Dupre, when somebody says oh well, it`s just a little blood. It`s a pinprick of blood. OK. I get it. All right. But when you start saying
it`s medium velocity, when you tell me there is a spray of blood, and it`s pinpoints of blood, you know what that means, Doctor Dupree. You tell the
viewers what it means.
DR. MICHELLE DUPRE, M.D., MEDICAL EXAMINER AND FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Nancy, that`s a typical definition for impact spatter. That would be
consistent with blunt force trauma.
GRACE: Now explain to the viewers impact. What is so serious? What is so probative about these being pinpricks?
DUPRE: Impact is a strike, a force, a hit. Somebody is struck with an object. The fact that it is pinprick really may not mean anything because
the rest of the blood may have been cleaned up. But pinprick, it is there. It`s still there.
GRACE: Well, what it means to me is this, Michael Christian. When you have a medium velocity pinprick type pattern of blood, that means it is
from an impact. Something hit her and it flew a certain distance. Now the distance is important because that shows how hard she was hit. The fact
that you`ve got a spray means she was hit probably with a blunt object and it sprayed out of her body.
Now you can also get a secondary blood spatter mark from the object itself if the object is then lifted back for a second blow. You will get a spray
of blood from that movement of the object when you lift that to perform a second blow.
So, Michael Christian, you say there`s blood in the garage, blood on the kitchen floor. Where in the garage?
CHRISTIAN: It is on the wall near the door leading into the home.
GRACE: So in the wall -- on the wall near the door leading into the home. Now correct me if I`m wrong, but doesn`t that door lead into the kitchen
kind of a mudroom appendage to the garage?
CHRISTIAN: I believe that`s correct, Nancy.
GRACE: So that`s not a far stretch. You`ve got blood in the garage. Blood in the kitchen. They are adjoining through that door where the blood
was found. I wouldn`t be surprised if I didn`t find out that some of that blood was a smear.
OK. Back to Candace Trunzo, senior news editor, DailyMail.com. So this mom, the defense would like us to believe, just walked out on her whole
life, just took a powder. Disappeared. Left behind her four tots, her children. Her home, her life, everything. And the husband is having an
affair? Is that the scenario, Candace?
TRUNZO: Yes, Nancy. But, you know, she was having an affair, too. Not only that, she was going to be moving in with a boyfriend and she had a
tryst with somebody that she was working with at the bar/restaurant where she was a waitress. So there are -- there are some more characters in
here.
GRACE: Now wait a minute. Was she still working at the time of her death as a waitress?
TRUNZO: Yes. She was working as a waitress and she was --
GRACE: And the husband owns all those car lots?
TRUNZO: Yes. Because she wanted to buy another house with her new boyfriend and she was saving up for that.
GRACE: OK. Now let me understand the scenario. The blood is found in the home she shares with the husband, correct?
TRUNZO: Correct.
GRACE: All right. And the husband is still living in the home with her, right?
TRUNZO: Yes. And the children.
GRACE: OK. That is a deadly cocktail to have. It`s like the "War of the Roses." You`ve got the husband and the wife living together in the home.
TRUNZO: Yes.
GRACE: It`s in a bitter -- in the middle of a bitter divorce and she disappears and there is blood on the floor of the garage, and on the wall
there in the kitchen.
All right. Michael Christian, what more do we know?
CHRISTIAN: Nancy, this boyfriend that she had, supposedly she had seen him that night but then she went home. She was never seen again. Prosecutors
believe that Cal Harris, the husband, killed her when she came home. They believe he struck her as she entered the home and incapacitated her, then
somehow got rid of both the body and the murder weapon.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining me out of Atlanta, Kirby Clements, out of New York Jeff Gold. Also out of New York, family law attorney, Sue
Moss.
All right, Sue, weigh in.
MOSS: Well, this just proves it`s cheaper to keep her than even to delete her. I mean, this was a classic divorce case. You had the father who had
at least $5.4 million in assets. He only offers her $740,000 to make this semi long-term marriage just sort of go away. She says no. And then the
best part about it, there is a third party witness who heard him say, I will expletive kill you and I`ll make you disappear.
So it`s not just that you have the blood evidence. It`s not just you have the scenario of a horrific divorce on the horizon. You actually have his
just about -- him saying, you know, I`m going effing kill you. And then also saying and I can make you disappear with a witness who heard this.
GRACE: And what a coincidence, Kirby Clements. She does disappear.
CLEMENTS: Yes, you know what, what a coincidence. Her hair dresser is supposedly this ear witness. A lot of credibility there. Number two --
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Wait, wait, wait. Wait. Wait.
CLEMENTS: Well, what do you got? What do you got?
GRACE: So you`re just saying because it was the hairdresser I`m to disbelieve them?
CLEMENTS: Well, the hairdresser, she`s what, she tips the phone and the hairdresser hear this guy?
GRACE: You know what, Kirby?
CLEMENTS: This guy threatens to kill her. No cops were called.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: That might work on somebody else.
CLEMENTS: No police are called.
GRACE: But I remember some of the witnesses you called and put in front of the jury, as have I. So let`s not knock the hairdresser. All right?
CLEMENTS: No. Those are guilty people I was trying. In this case you got a guy whose wife never called the cops. No one thought enough of this so
called threat to do anything about it because it wasn`t a threat, and it`s not credible to believe.
GRACE: Well, why don`t you say that had anything to do with the divorce? What more does she need to do about it? She`s divorcing him. She`s
getting away from him. What more do you want her to do?
CLEMENTS: He wanted her gone. He wanted her gone. He`s cheating. She`s cheating.
GRACE: Yes. And now she`s gone.
CLEMENTS: This marriage is over.
GRACE: OK. Let`s hear it, Jeff Gold. What`s your best defense?
JEFF GOLD, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: There is no body. There is no weapon. There is no proof a crime was committed. She could have taken off for whatever
reason on 9/11 and never come back. You got to prove the corpus delicti and this prosecutor never can.
GRACE: Actually you don`t have to have a body to prove a murder.
GOLD: You have to prove the corpus delicti. That a crime occurred. Not the body, but the body of the crime. That a crime occurred. They can`t
even prove it. There is less blood on there than if I cut myself shaving.
GRACE: That`s not true.
To Dr. Bethany Marshall, weigh in.
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": We said time and time again women are at the greatest risk for domestic homicide as they
are about to leave a relationship.
But, Nancy, we`re assuming this is about money. This could have been about power, too. Let`s say he did kill her. Here she is, she`s courageously,
she`s moved on with her life, she has a boyfriend. She`s working in a bar. The control is about to slip. She`s saving up for her own house even
though he`s depriving her economically. So she`s carrying on with her life. That may have enraged him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Yesterday we posted this photo to our Facebook and Twitter, asking you to guess where the infamous camera as discovered in Travis Alexander`s
home.
You sent us the answers using #crimeIQ. Answer, the washing machine.
Congratulations, Ohio Facebook friend Loretta. You got it right.
And help us crack this case. Lynn City. After a young mom makes a desperate call to say she`s afraid, 25-year-old Jaimee Mendez, mom of a
preschooler, vanishes.
Where is Jaimee? Why was she afraid? We`ve got to keep her case alive. Here`s what you can do, go to Facebook, go to Twitter, share this photo
with your friends, with everybody you know. And please, help us bring Jaimee home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you seen 13-year-old Ashley Arellano? Ashley`s family says the girl hasn`t been seen for several days.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Tonight they are just pleading for Ashley`s return.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we just want you home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining me tonight is a special guest. With me is Ashley`s father Chris Arellano.
Chris, thank you for being with us.
CHRIS ARELLANO, MISSING GIRL`S FATHER: Thank you.
GRACE: What can you tell me about your daughter?
ARELLANO: That she just -- she`s a great child. She`s a great kid. She`s just a little girl, not knowing what she`s doing, thinking she`s in love or
something, or whatever he`s making her say or believe.
GRACE: You know, she has last been seen with a man nearly 30 years old. I really resent and am very disturbed by people suggesting that she is a
runaway.
And let me remind everybody of other cases that were deemed runaways. Hailey Dunn was considered a runaway, found dead. Amber Dubois, she`s a
runaway, found dead. Elizabeth Ennen, Kayleah Wilson, Cailee Clapp. The list goes on and on and on.
It seems sometimes when you don`t have a hard crime scene, a young girl, as young as her, she`s just 13, is presumed to be a runaway. And let me tell
you something. Even if this girl, even if Ashley did think that she was going away willingly -- with me is her father, and tonight we are begging
for your help. The tip line is 661-861-3110. That`s the current county sheriff`s office. Repeat, 661-861-3110.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We are on the search for a missing schoolgirl.
Bret Larson, investigative reporter, she was last seen in her home, correct?
BRET LARSON, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: That is correct. Last seen in her home and we`re, Nancy, talking a 4.0 student with perfect attendance,
completely vanished.
GRACE: Completely uncharacteristic.
With me her father, Chris.
Chris, again, thank you for being with us.
Chris, you said that she is just a little girl. And yes, she is. She has just turned 13. What are police telling you tonight?
ARELLANO: They`re just telling us that they`re doing everything they can do. And that`s about it.
GRACE: You know, she is last -- she is known to be associated with or of getting e-mails or texts from a nearly 30-year-old man Aaron Weirich. Now
he is not charged with kidnapping, but we know that they have been exchanging texts and they`ve been exchanging e-mails.
To Ashley`s father, Chris, now, let me ask you this. Is it true that your daughter suddenly was given a cell phone by this man?
ARELLANO: I guess, we found he had -- he did give her a cell phone. And then after we found out she had left, we were going through her room and
found another cell phone charger, so we believe that he got her another phone. After that.
GRACE: Why? Why would he give her a secret cell phone?
ARELLANO: To stay in contact with him.
GRACE: Had you and your wife forbidden her to see this guy? I mean, he`s nearly 30, for Pete`s sake. She`s 13.
ARELLANO: Yes. Yes, we have.
GRACE: And what was her reaction to that?
ARELLANO: Just -- she claimed that he was the only one that would understand her when she had to talk or she was going through problems or
whatever. Only he could understand what she was going through.
GRACE: Oh. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. OK. Unleash the lawyers, with me, Jeff Gold, Kirby Clements, Sue Moss. Also with me, Dr. Bethany Marshall.
OK. Sue, I want to reiterate, this guy Aaron Weirich, he`s almost 30 years old, he`s not charged with kidnapping. OK. He`s not charged with anything
tonight. But he provided this little girl, this schoolgirl of straight A`s, with a secret cell phone. Now her parents forbid her to see him, but
apparently that didn`t stop him. Sue?
MOSS: Only a fiend would lure a teen into something obscene. You know, people are thinking oh, maybe she`s fine, she`s happy.
GRACE: She`s 13.
MOSS: This girl is in danger. This girl`s life is in danger. For a 28- year-old to start a relationship with a 13-year-old and try to manipulate her so that this kid thinks that he`s the only one who understands, he`s
the only one she can speak to, he`s the only one that she should put her trust in is horrifically --
GRACE: OK. Let me ask the father. Again, this guy, Aaron Weirich, has not been charged with anything. But this is what I know. She was
forbidden to see him. He gives her a secret cell phone so they can stay in touch.
To Mr. Arellano, Ashley`s father, did you ever talk to Weirich and say, stay away from my daughter?
ARELLANO: We did. We spoke to him. I spoke to him, and I told him to just stay away, leave her alone and not to talk to her.
GRACE: And what was his response?
ARELLANO: We got information a little while ago that I guess that`s a criminal case and that they`re going to be put a -- a felony warrant out
for him now.
GRACE: OK. We have not confirmed the warrant, but I know this. He`s not charged with anything at this hour. I know this girl is missing. A 13-
year-old girl, just turned, with braces, glasses, and braces. 4.0, missing. She says this guy, nearly 30 years old, is the only one she can talk to.
Secret cell phone.
Guys, you got to help us find this girl. 661-841-3110. What if she were your girl? What if she was your girl? 661-861-3110.
Let`s stop and remember American hero, Army Private 1st Seth Stanton, just 19, Colorado Springs. Bronze Star, Army Commendation medal. Loved off-
roading and paintball. Wanted to go to college. Parent Steven and Anna, brothers Nathan and Dylan.
Seth Stanton, American hero.
And a special good luck to our star intern Lawrson headed to college.
Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
END
