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Nancy Grace
D.C. Mansion Murder Mystery. Aired 8-9:00p ET
Aired May 19, 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. We go live as police reveal a murdered CEO, his young wife, 10-year-old son and their maid were,
quote, "bound and tortured" overnight in their D.C. mansion, then the house set ablaze. Who would torture and kill a mother, her 10-year-old little
boy, her husband and their maid?
Bombshell tonight. In the last hours, the only clue emerges. Video from the same neighborhood reveals this mystery man shrouded in black, a
hoodie covering his face. Is he the killer? Tonight, we search for clues left behind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire breaks out in a home in one of Washington, D.C.`s, most posh neighborhoods.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... fire appears to be intentionally set.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once inside the property, firefighters doused the flames. They quickly found four bodies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has been declared a quadruple homicide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, South Whitehall (ph) Township -- "She needs to go" - - bone-chilling words reportedly from a little school girl she texts to her boyfriend in the Army, Mommy`s body found covered in stab wounds to the
head, neck, torso, Mommy`s body dumped in a shallow grave, blood evidence leading back to Mommy`s car. Other reported texts from the little girl to
her adult, tattooed boyfriend, quote, "She`s lying about my age. Don`t believe her. And just do it."
Just as we go to air, the school girl appears in court sobbing hysterically while her lover laughs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "She needs to go, Caleb, right now."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mother stabbed to death in the driveway of her home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I want her gone. Do whatever necessary."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blood smeared down the inside of the passenger window...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dumped the body and buried it, then left the SUV.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blood splotted (ph) across the dash. It was horrifying.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I want her to shut her face."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And live, Oklahoma, a 23-year-old mom of two says the night in question, she and her husband get into a fiery argument. He storms off to
walk it off. She says she takes the family car out to search for him, and somehow runs him down dead!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A mother of two little girls kills her husband and says it was an accident. Pete Gonzalez (ph) was walking alongside an
Oklahoma road when he was run over by a vehicle. His wife then walks into a police station and brings police to the scene, where he is pronounced
dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. We go live, police revealing a murdered CEO, his young wife, their little boy and their maid, quote, "bound and tortured"
overnight in their D.C. mansion, then the house set on fire.
Who would torture and kill a mother, her little boy, her husband and the family maid? In the last hours, the only clue so far emerges, video
from that same neighborhood revealing this mystery man shrouded in black, a hoodie covering his face. Is he the killer?
Tonight, we search the clues left behind. This is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the whole area. It`s not far from the vice
president`s house.
To Mike Murillo, reporter, WTOP. What`s the latest?
MIKE MURILLO, WTOP NEWSRADIO (via telephone): What we are hearing now from our news partner here at WTOP, NBC 4 in Washington, that they talked
to investigators, and they`re looking for more than one killer. They said the killers may have known the family`s routine, may have come to the home
on Wednesday, as early as Wednesday, bounded (ph) the family.
You have the husband, you have Savvas, Amy Savopoulos and also 10- year-old Philip, also housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, bound them and kept them overnight, and then on Thursday is when we heard about that fire. And
that`s when those bodies were found later on that day.
GRACE: Everyone, you are seeing a shot of the mansion. We`re talking about the D.C. mansion murder mystery, the bodies of the father, the
mother, the little boy and the family housekeeper all found dead.
And Mike Murillo joining us, WTOP -- Mike, from what we are hearing from police sources, the family seems to have been under siege from the
previous night on. They had to be in the home. They had to be bound. It sounds to me like someone that knew them or had been watching them because
some unusual phone calls and texts were made, Mike. Explain.
[20:05:05]MURILLO: Yes. I spoke with the housekeeper, a different housekeeper, who was scheduled to work on Thursday. Her name is Nelly and
-- that`s all she goes by. But she was telling me that she got a message from the husband, Savvas, the night before around 10:30 in the evening
saying that she doesn`t need to come in.
And also, that the other housekeeper, who was found dead, Veralicia Figueroa, would be staying the night because his wife was sick, but saying
something along the lines of her cell phone wasn`t charged, and they didn`t have a charger, and wanted -- she wanted -- he wanted the other housekeeper
to call her family and say that she`s staying the night and...
GRACE: Wait! They -- they didn`t have a charger in the whole house?
MURILLO: That`s what...
GRACE: That doesn`t make sense.
MURILLO: And police haven`t said that, but that`s what`s coming from this housekeeper.
GRACE: And Mike Murillo -- everybody, Mike joining us, WTOP -- we`re talking about the D.C. mansion murder mystery. A mother, a father, their
little boy and a housekeeper all found bound and killed before the house set on fire.
So Mike Murillo, what I understand you saying is that the maid that was going to come the next day received a text that said, Don`t come, don`t
come. The other housekeeper is going to spend the night. And never in the family`s history had they had somebody sleep over.
I mean, they had these housekeepers, you know, when the little boy would come home from school, if the mom was out, there would be somebody at
the home. They were ladies, two ladies that would come in, sounds like alternate days. And the one lady said she had never been told not to come,
and never in all the history had either one of them spent the night in the home. They`d also go home when the mom and dad gets home at the end of the
day, right?
MURILLO: Yes, that`s what we heard from that housekeeper, that she said it was very odd because, Figueroa, the housekeeper who was found dead,
has never stayed the night there. And she even said that, normally, when the wife gets sick, Nelly told me that she`s normally the one who will come
over and help. So she thought it was very odd that she got this call the evening before, then the text message the following morning at around 10:00
o`clock just making sure that she`s not coming in that day, telling her to come in Monday, but don`t come in today.
GRACE: So obviously, the killers knew the maid was coming. That`s interesting. How would they know this other maid was set to come? How
would they know that? And then they actually contact her and tell her, Oh, yes, we don`t need you to come. Don`t worry about it.
What else do we now? Didn`t the maid that was there, the housekeeper that was there -- her husband came by during all this time, like on
Thursday morning, the day that the house was burned down -- that morning, the housekeeper`s husband came by to give her something or tell her
something.
What happened with that, Mike?
MURILLO: Yes, we`re hearing reports that the husband may have come to the home knocking on the door, trying to get the attention of the people
inside because his wife didn`t come home the night before. And then according to Nelly, who was speaking to another outlet at that point, NBC 4
here in Washington, saying that she`s not there and that he got a call from the husband at that point, saying that, She`s fine, but she`s not in the
home. So again, a lot of questions now with that, too.
GRACE: OK, we don`t know who this guy is right there. We don`t know what he`s carrying. But I know this. Nothing is good about running down a
back alley, something clutched in your hand like that, trying to avoid being seen, totally deserted. This guy did not work there. It`s in the
same neighborhood at the same time. Who is this guy? Also, we know the home burned, tried to burn it down, obviously to hide the evidence of the
bodies.
To Dr. William Morrone, forensic pathologist, medical examiner and toxicologist. Dr. Morrone, from what we are learning, these people were
held hostage in their own home overnight on a Wednesday night. Thursday, still held hostage.
Now, who could hold a father, a mother, the little boy and the housekeeper hostage? Then they`re killed and they set the mansion on fire,
obviously to hide the bodies.
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: The most important thing is that no matter what they tried to burn it down with outside, inside, in
a house, in a field, the body only burns so much on the outside. The interior of the body is spared.
And one of the things that you see in autopsy is when we look at the tubing for the lungs, how we are able to differentiate between somebody
being killed before the fire and left to burn in the fire or somebody who dies as a result of the fire or the fumes is the tubing is taken out, and
then it`s cut and then it`s opened up. And if there`s soot in the tubing of the lungs, they were breathing at the time of the flames and the smoke.
[20:10:10]We know they`re alive, and they likely died of smoke toxicity or fire inhalation or poisonous gases. But if there`s no soot,
they were killed before the fire. And that`s all out of autopsy.
GRACE: Dr. William Morrone, if a body is burned, let`s just say beyond recognition, how can you tell the true cause of death?
MORRONE: It`s really easy. Anytime they work hard enough to create blunt force trauma, whether it`s blunt force trauma in a limb, in bones, or
blunt force trauma to the head -- bones don`t burn in a house fire.
In cremation, we need degrees of greater than 1,000 degrees for the body to be cremated, for an hour or two. And temperatures don`t get that
high for that long a time in today`s homes. Fire departments shut them down, and we can see bone trauma, breaking, and those things are also
determined.
GRACE: Well, here, if you`re looking at your monitor -- I don`t know if you can see it or not -- the home was not burned to the ground. You`re
right, the fire department got there, put the blaze out. And even if they had not, Dr. Morrone, the reality is it takes a lot to destroy a body.
Even if the body is, in fact, burned, you still have the bones, which will reveal breaks, nicks, bullets.
MORRONE: A lot of internal tissues, soft tissue. Body burns on the outside, the inside is almost totally intact. The heart, the lungs, the
GI, fat, muscles -- they`re all still there.
GRACE: Well, here`s the thing. Back to Mike Murillo joining me, Murillo and Morrone. Mike Murillo, if we figure out what, if anything, was
stolen from the home, then we`ll know the motive, and that will give us an idea of who did it. For instance, if it`s the wife`s jewelry, all right,
and it was in a secret place, that`s clearly, in my mind, somebody that knew her and knew she had jewelry. If it had something to do with the
husband -- he`s the CEO of a big company -- did it have anything to do with that? Was it sexually motivated? Was she -- was anybody molested?
These are the questions that will tell you, will point to who the killer is. So what do we know about that, Mike Murillo? Was anything
taken from the home? What`s my motive?
MURILLO: That`s the big question here. I`m sure that`s what police are trying to discover, but we do have Savvas Savopoulos, who was the CEO
of American Iron Works, a big company that -- with a lot of big projects in the region. Also, he was about to open a martial arts center in Virginia.
Again, he`s in a $4.5 million home. And some neighbors were talking about him having art in the home, and he would had people over at time to time --
from time to time to look at his fine art.
So a lot of questions, obviously. And I`m sure police are looking into all those as possible motives in this case.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:17:17]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The police chief said three of the four victims killed suffered blunt force trauma before the fire began.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fire appears to be intentionally set.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nelitza Gutierrez also worked at the Savopoulos home. She says Amy Savopoulos sent her this text asking something she`d
never asked before. A little over three hours later, the home was on fire.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I still in shock! I can`t believe it!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can`t understand why God saved my life. Around 9:56 AM, and they say, I want to make sure you do not come today. I don`t
know why.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK, let`s put together the timeline. If the kidnappers are using them and forcing them to write the housekeeper, that`s at 9:56 AM.
So they`re alive. We`re trying to nail down the timeline. So if they`re alive at 10:00 AM -- Mike Murillo, the fire breaks out at what time?
MURILLO: Just after noon, so around 1:00 o`clock in the afternoon is when D.C. fire responded to the home. So yes, the last correspondence we
have is from that housekeeper who says she got that text message at around 10:00 o`clock that morning. Three hours later, that house was in flames.
GRACE: So within three hours, it sounds like, the murders may have gone down and the house goes up in flame. But from what we re learning
from police sources, this family was held hostages in their own home overnight.
Straight out to Robert Rowe, fire expert, Pyrocop, Inc. Robert, thank you for being with us. At first, authorities thought the fire was
suspicious, but now they`re absolutely calling it arson. Weigh in.
ROBERT ROWE, PYROCOP, INC. (via telephone): Well, you know, whenever you have a situation where you have a crime and you`re the bad guy and you
don`t know what to do with your crime scene, the best thing to do, in their mind`s eye is, to destroy the evidence.
GRACE: You know...
ROWE: Unfortunately -- in fire conditions like this, the evidence is not always destroyed as a result of your actions to try to destroy it by
fire.
GRACE: Is it true, Mike Murillo, that one of the victims smelled heavily of gasoline?
MURILLO: That was a report we were hearing out there, but hasn`t been (INAUDIBLE) by police. So that`s one of the many things we`re hearing from
the scene. But again, that hasn`t been confirmed. But yes, that is one of the reports that a neighbor was saying when he saw one of the -- that
housekeeper being taken to an ambulance.
GRACE: Wow. So according to the neighbor, one of the victims smelled heavily like gasoline.
So back to you, Dr. Morrone. Clearly, if they poured gasoline onto the victim, that means that`s the point of this fire, is to get rid of the
victims` bodies, char them, burn them beyond recognition so it might look like they were asleep and the house caught on fire.
[20:20:08]MORRONE: And a good autopsy is going to take tissue and organ samples, no matter how burnt the body is. And those samples are
going to be tested for follicle (ph) solvents like gasoline. Those things are not found when curtains and carpets and chairs burn. So that`s an
important key. Now, they can actually tell you sometimes where the gasoline came from, what was the octane, what were the additives, and they
might be able to trace where that gasoline...
GRACE: What do you mean by that? Whoa, whoa. What do you mean by that?
MORRONE: Gasolines are made with recipes. Different gasolines have different components. And based on the gasoline when it`s analyzed, they
might be able to say where that gasoline was -- was it purchased at a Marathon station or a British Petroleum, and then go look for cameras of
people purchasing big plastic containers of gasoline around the time before the burn.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New details possibly giving clues into what happened inside this home blocks away from the vice president`s residence,
a deadly fire claiming the lives of a wealthy businessman Savva Savopoulos, his wife, Amy, and two others believed to be their son and housekeeper.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police releasing this video, searching for this person they believe might have been driving the family`s blue Porsche the
day of the fire, the car found miles away from the family`s home, burned in a nearby church parking lot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:25:33]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire breaks out in a home in one of Washington, D.C.`s most posh neighborhoods.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s growing evidence something was wrong well before. The night before, a voice message to a housekeeper from Savvas.
The next morning, a text from Amy Savopoulos reminding her not to come. The Porsche lit on fire after it was taken from the Savopoulos home.
Police seeking to talk to this man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I got there, not too much (INAUDIBLE) because the second floor is completely burned. The windows broken. But
(INAUDIBLE) firemen working there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Mike Murillo, WTOP, were the bedrooms upstairs?
MURILLO: Yes, there were bedrooms upstairs, from what we understand, and there were also -- the downstairs, of course, where you had the living
room and that sort of thing. And that`s where police are, you know, going through their investigation. The members of the family and the housekeeper
were found in different parts of the home, from what we`re hearing.
GRACE: Can you imagine, this family in a very low-crime area, very low-crime area, apparently held hostage in their home overnight, including
the housekeeper, who would normally leave in the afternoon around 4:00 or 5:00. She was made to stay overnight in that home, where she died, along
with the mother, the father, the little boy, their son.
During all this, obviously, the mom and dad are forced to call and text the other housekeeper and say, I want to make sure you`re not coming
tomorrow. Housekeeper one is staying over, which had never been happened - - had never happened in history. So long story short, these people were under siege in their own home.
There are two other little girls that were not in the home that night. They lived. The whole family being held under siege in their own home.
Now, what power would have held that father back from breaking free and getting out of that home to get help? What happened? According to one of
the neighbors, at least one of the bodies reeked of gasoline.
To Robert Rowe, fire expert, Pyrocop, Inc. Robert, again, thank you for being with us. What`s the most likely scenario that you can decipher
at this time?
ROWE: Well, based on the information I`ve received at this point, it appears that, you know, there`s a homicide that occurred and it`s a cover-
up crime by the use of arson to hide evidence. And that`s kind of the -- my gut feeling on this case.
GRACE: To Mike Murillo, WTOP. What can you tell me about the Porsche? Because the guy we`re showing right now with the black hoodie,
the black outfit, clutching something and running around in -- it`s like a back alley, back parking lot of a building connected to or in the vicinity
of a church and cemetery -- the black Porsche from the family was taken from the home and parked near where that man was, Mike Murillo. What do we
know?
MURILLO: And that`s what police are trying to get answers because that Porsche did leave the home. It made its way all the way to Lanham,
Maryland, which is about 30 minutes away from this home in Maryland outside of D.C. And they`re trying to see what we can discover, what type of clues
we can find by what people saw. And that video was taken nearby. It`s -- the guy was in a hoodie. It was blurry. It was grainy. The big thing
will be...
GRACE: We`re showing you the car burning right now. Could you put that back up? So the Porsche was found about 30 minutes away in Maryland
on fire. So where was the guy that we caught on surveillance running behind that building? Where was he in relation to the home?
MURILLO: He was actually in Maryland, not far from where that Porsche was burning.
GRACE: OK. All right, so he`s not far from the Porsche burning, the family car. Do you know what time, Mike Murillo, this surveillance of him
was taken?
MURILLO: Right now, we don`t know the exact time that was taken, but we do know it was taken near -- after the fact when that car -- after that
car was left and after the fire crews were called to the scene of the car on fire.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:34:25]
GRACE: Live, South Whitehall Township. She needs to go. The bone chilling words reportedly from a little schoolgirl, she`s texting to her
boyfriend, her grown boyfriend, in the Army. Mommy`s body found covered in stab wounds to the head, neck, torso. Mommy`s body dumped in a shallow
grave. Blood evidence all leads back to mommy`s car. Other reported texts from the little girl to the adult, tattooed boyfriend, quote, "she`s lying
about my age. Don`t believe her and just do it." As we go to air tonight, the schoolgirl appearing in court, sobbing hysterically while her lover
laughs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you. We can do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say Jamie Silvonek helped her boyfriend murder her mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please do it. I`m going to throw up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say Barnes stabbed the girl`s mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m trusting you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The mother was found dead in a shallow grave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Solomon Jones, host of WURG, thank you for being with us. So, the father in this scenario didn`t even know the little girl was dating
a grown man in the Army, and the mom, Cheryl Silvonek, wanted to bust up the relationship. What more do we know, Solomon?
SOLOMON JONES: We know that the father was not at home on the night when the mother apparently took them to a concert that they went to before
the killing took place. The mother even texted the father and said when you come home, we`ll probably be gone. There`s a tuna casserole, you can
eat that, and then when they found him, the father was apparently asleep and didn`t even know that the mother and the man were in the house and that
his wife was dead.
GRACE: The mom apparently stabbed dead by this guy. That guy right there. According to police. Caleb Barnes, who had been dating, the and I
am putting that euphemistically, the underage schoolgirl, Jamie Silvonek. Listen to the texts these two exchanged about murdering her mom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Caleb, if she asks about your age, say 16 and a half again, and that the reason you said 20 is you`re used to lying about
it to fellow soldiers in the Army to avoid harassment. So when you`re in stressful scenarios, it just comes out. She needs to go, Caleb. Right
now. You don`t understand. She threatened to throw me out of the house. I want her gone. I just need you to be able to come over so we can do
whatever necessary, honestly. I`m going to go to the bathroom while you do it, okay? I`ll come right out as soon as you`re done. Why don`t we wait
until we get in the car with her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would be easier for you, I would guess. Caleb, Caleb, leave the age thing alone. Just do it. Caleb, Caleb,
seriously, what are you doing? Caleb, I`m serious. She`s lying. Please do it. I`m going to throw up. I can`t stand her lying to you like this.
Caleb, respond to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ll talk later.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What the actual, she`s lying about my age. Just do it. Caleb, I`m about to cry. What is going on? Please don`t leave.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s out here with me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do something, please.
Caleb, I`m trusting you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s no way she could fake a passport.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Caleb.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Baby, I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where are you? Come in the basement. I need to talk to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: It`s almost too much for me to wrap my head around right there. Matt Zarrell also on the story, so, the mom is trying to break up
this relationship between her little schoolgirl and a grown man in the Army covered in tattoos. I understand that. So, she`s arguing with the
daughter, argue, argue, argue to break them up. Not working, so she takes them to a concert that night that the little girl wanted to go to. I guess
she was going to try to reason with the daughter and appear reasonable, but on the way home, this is what we learn as we go to air tonight. We learn
from court documents we`ve just obtained, the mother begged for her life. In that car. What happened, Matt?
ZARRELL: It`s not only that, Nancy, but detectives believe that the 14-year-old eighth grader watched her mother as she begged for her life as
the boyfriend stabbed her repeatedly. Police say the victim begged for her life, telling Barnes, just take my daughter, if you want her, just take
her, let me live.
GRACE: It sounds like Solomon Jones, WURD, that the little girl lied to the boyfriend about her age because the mom then produces a passport
with the little girl`s true age to show she`s underage, so just before they kill the mommy, he`s going back and forth with the girl, and the girl is
saying she`s lying about my age. Just kill her. Just do it. Just kill her so you can come over whenever you want to, we can have sex, she`ll be
out of the way.
Ben Levitan, telecommunications expert, how can we determine the time and possibly the location, all of these texts were sent?
LEVITAN: Well, Nancy, you hear on the news about metadata all the time. Every time you make a call, receive a call or a text or even attempt
to make a call, the phone company keeps a really accurate record of the time and the date of that call. The parties to that call, and also, the
cell tower that you used when you received or sent that text. That cell tower gives you a location.
[20:40:00]
Not a perfect location, Nancy, it`s going to place you in a location about a one square mile area, and that`s how we know the location.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining me, Chris Chestnut, trial lawyer out of Atlanta. Jeff Gold, defense attorney out of New York. First to
you, Jeff Gold. The guy, he doesn`t stand a chance, all right? It`s over for him. I guarantee you, they`re going to find a ton of blood evidence on
his clothing. Some of his clothing I believe was found at the home. I`m going to double check that with Solomon and Matt, but what about mommy`s
little princess? What about that? Just do it, just kill her so we can have sex?
GOLD: Nancy, those texts are really amazing. This kid, the 21-year- old soldier, he fell on his sword for this girl because it looks like the girl is pulling the strings on this whole thing. He`s hesitant. He
doesn`t want to do it. She`s going go ahead, what are you waiting for, keep -- do it, do it, do it. It`s unbelievable.
GRACE: I could see a scenario, Chris Chestnut, where one of the them turns on the other. But there`s not going to be any doubt physical
evidence wise, that he was the one wielding the knife. That`s how I think it`s going to go down. But what about her? What defense does she have?
CHESTNUT: I think she flips on him. I think there`s an additional charge here of probably statutory rape of some sort that will be an
additional negotiating tactic with the young lady against her boyfriend.
GRACE: You know what, Chris? Forget it. I wouldn`t even do a flip. They don`t need these two. They do not need either one`s testimony against
the other. I would say put them both in the same pot and let them stew in front of that jury, because William Morrone, Dr. Morrone, there`s going to
be evidence on the body that mommy put up a struggle, right? And you know what else? You`re going to hate this part. Every once in a while, the
mother would kind of blow the horn, trying to get the husband to wake up to come out and save her. He slept through the whole thing. His wife is
basically murdered outside the house, and she`s trying to get help, a neighbor hears the horn but has no has no idea what`s going on. What are
we going to learn from her body?
MORRONE: You can be rest assured that in defensive wounds, where the hands are moving back and forth, defensive wounds are stab, bruise and
possibly fractures of the bone. And the fatal wounds in the torso, in the neck and in the head, will be around major arteries. None of these are
accidents. The ones in the arms are going to be defensive. And the fatal wounds will be in the head and the neck.
GRACE: Head and neck. You know, Matt Zarrell, as awful as this was to the mom, awful, isn`t it true that the little girl`s original plan was
to kill both of her parents?
ZARRELL: Yes, Silvonek`s best friend told police she witnessed a call between Silvonek and Barnes where they talked about killing both parents,
and that the father`s life insurance would leave them set for life. The witness told cops about the plan about luring Silvonek`s parents away from
the house to a place where Barnes could kill them, and then rejoin with Silvonek and dispose of the bodies.
GRACE: So she wanted to kill both her mom and her dad. Look at this house. It looks like it`s out of Norman Rockwell. When you look inside,
you can see the fireplace, you can just imagine them putting up the Christmas tree. There`s the family table where everybody eats dinner
together. The all-American kitchen with the island, how many times did the family gather there? Only for it to all end in murder when the schoolgirl
demands her mommy be murdered so she could be with her older boyfriend?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:48:00]
GRACE: Live, Oklahoma a 23-year-old mom of two says the night in question, she and her husband get into a fiery argument and he storms out
to walk it off. She says she takes the family car out to look for him and somehow, runs him down dead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gonzalez was walking alongside an Oklahoma road when he was run over by a vehicle. His wife then walks into a police
station, says she did it by accident. Whitney Gonzalez had alcohol on her breath, according to investigators, and a blood test was administered. No
charges have been filed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Chris Fargo with dailymail.com. I`m having a hard time understanding how this is an accident when she has a fight, an
argument with her husband. He storms out to walk it off, she goes out in the family car, he`s walking along the side of the road. She knows he`s
out there walking, and she runs him down dead. How is that an accident?
FARGO: Exactly. It`s 4:00 in the morning. She says she`s looking for him, so why should she be speeding along? And she runs him over. She
said by accident. Of course there are no other witnesses, and he dies almost immediately of massive internal injuries to his body.
GRACE: With me, Chris Fargo from dailymail.com, also, Lieutenant John Vincent, spokesperson for Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Lieutenant, thanks for
being with us. According to reports, Whitney Gonzalez driving intoxicated. What was her blood alcohol?
LT. JOHN VINCENT, OKLAHOMA HIGHWAY PATROL: At this time, she just had the blood test. We`re still waiting on the toxicology reports to come back
from the lab on that.
GRACE: Okay, Lieutenant John Vincent joining us. Lieutenant, how close do you believe he was walking to the side of the road?
[20:50:00]
VINCENT: At this point in time, from everything we can understand, he was probably roughly somewhere between three to five feet from the edge of
the roadway. In the roadway, not off of the shoulder or anything.
GRACE: Now, let me understand this. You`re saying he was on the road itself?
VINCENT: From the investigator that I talked to at this point in time, we believe he was on the roadway.
GRACE: On the roadway. Now, is this a rural area? It looks to be. It looks to be rural. And around 4:00 in the morning after a night of
arguing, you wouldn`t really expect a lot of traffic. Did she know, didn`t she tell police that they had been arguing?
VINCENT: She did relate to the trooper and I believe some other law enforcement on the scene that they had been involved in an argument earlier
that evening.
GRACE: What were they arguing about, do we know yet?
VINCENT: I wouldn`t have a clue.
GRACE: Also with me right now, Chris Gonzalez. His brother, run over by the wife after a night of arguing. Heated argument. He goes outside to
walk it off. He storms out. She goes after him in the family car. Well, she runs him down dead. Chris, thank you for being with us.
CHRIS GONZALES: Yes.
GRACE: You know, Chris, fist of all, I know this was a horrible shock. And we`re sorry for what you`re going through. And also, the two
children losing their father. There are two little children involved. This mom of two running down her husband dead. What do you think, Chris,
about her claim? She has not been charged yet. What do you think about Whitney`s claim it was a big accident?
GONZALES: In my opinion, it was no accident. I know in my heart that she meant to hit him.
GRACE: There was a time that you asked who hit your brother. What did Whitney reply?
GONZALES: Whitney replied, "I do not know. I don`t know who hit him."
GRACE: Can I ask you something? Why did he stay in the relationship? Did he ever consider divorce? Could that be what they were arguing about?
GONZALES: Yes. We would talk about it all the time when he would come over, more than three times. The only reason he stayed was for his
little daughter, his oldest. And at the time, his youngest was not born yet.
GRACE: Is it true that Whitney Gonzales has now texted your sister as we go to air tonight, stating that you guys cannot come to the funeral?
GONZALES: Yes, that is true. She had texted my sister earlier today saying that she wants a private funeral with just her immediate family.
And she does not want any of our family or friends, which my father and mother should be there to bury their son.
GRACE: At this hour, no charges against wife Whitney Gonzales. We know she mowed down her husband dead after an argument. With me, the
victim`s brother, Chris Gonzales. Chris, question. You are saying that she would have had to basically do a u-turn in the street, in the middle of
the road to run him down the way that she did. Why do you say that? Explain that to me.
GONZALES: Because her mother lives three and a half miles west of Carnegie. My brother left her mother`s house and was heading to my
father`s house, and he made it almost two and a half miles east, walking east. And he was on the north side of the road. So she had to have passed
my brother and seen him and turned around to be traveling westbound to hit my brother.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:58:15]
GRACE: Murder by family car or a big accident? Joining me right now, Dr. Leslie Austin, psychotherapist out of New York. Dr. Leslie, thanks for
being with us. You know, it`s hard for me to understand. She knows he has left the house to walk it off. He storms out. She goes out in the family
car and runs him down. He is dead. How is that an accident?
AUSTIN: I don`t think it is an accident. And even if she was drunk, this was an act of extraordinary rage. This is way beyond road rage. And
I think she had a premeditated intention. Premeditation can be a few seconds before you commit an act. I think she intended to harm him,
whether she was drunk or not, she still had that intention.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyer, Chris Chestnut, Jeff Gold. Jeff Gold, voluntary intoxication is not going to be a defense.
GOLD: I don`t know how the psychologist or therapist can say she knows what happened here. Right now I would like to see what that blood
alcohol is. Of course, if it`s very high, that`s part of the defense to murder. It may be manslaughter, because she ran him over. But you can`t
say she intentionally did it. She might have been just as drunk as they both were before.
GRACE: Chris, weigh in.
CHESTNUT: I think it is a very defensible case because there are no witnesses. So we can`t even say she had alcohol prior to hitting him, that
alcohol could have been consumed afterwards.
GRACE: You`re saying because nobody saw what she did. Okay, with that, we will stop to remember American hero, Army Sergeant Dustin Laird,
just 23. Martin, Tennessee. Bronze Star, Purple Heart. Loved playing guitar and writing songs. Dreamed of working in the medical field.
Parents Linda and Billy, sister Heather, brothers Billy and Derek. Dustin Laird, American hero. Drew is up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night at
8:00 eastern. Until then, good night, friend.
END
