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Nancy Grace
The Search for 2-Year-Old Noah; Vigilante Mom Threatens Child`s Molester; Florida Mom Fights Carjackers. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired January 20, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, Pinson, Tennessee. Temperatures plunging tonight in the Tennessee foothills as the search
turns desperate for a little 2-year-old boy who disappears hiking with Grandma, focus now turning to local registered sex offenders, 28 within
just a 10-mile radius of where the tot goes missing.
Bombshell tonight. At this hour, search teams and investigator battling not only the weather but rumors swirling around the boy`s family and the
search site.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the search for 2-year-old Noah Chamberlin, the effort continues to be a search and rescue mission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Law enforcement from across the state and thousands of volunteers searching around the clock.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The weather`s coming in. We feel like it`s a danger to everyone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... searching the wooded area where Noah was last seen and praying for clues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, a vigilante mom threatens to, quote, "blow the brains out" of her daughter`s alleged child molester. Tonight, the explosive 911
call. And will the avenging mom now face charges herself?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s a guy in my house that molested my kid!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pictures of his genitalia, pictures of her genitalia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Selfies he took while he was molesting the 4-year-old girl.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED) I`m going to blow (EXPLETIVE DELETED) his brains out, I swear to God!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That from Crimewatchdaily.com.
And tonight, a frantic 911 call from a foster mom-slash-aspiring lawyer as her 2-year-old choking dead on a chicken tender, minutes ticking by as
Mommy describes the tot fighting for her life. But after baby Layla (ph) loses her battle to live, questions swirl. Doctors say the evidence
doesn`t add up to choking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a toddler (INAUDIBLE) she was choking, and I tried to do the Heimlich on her, and she`s still breathing, but...
(CROSSTALK)
911 OPERATOR: Do you know what she was choking on?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chicken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The autopsy did not reveal the child choked. That report goes on to say the 2-year-old was killed when Jennifer Rosenbaum
(ph) struck the child in the abdomen with such force, the child`s pancreas was transected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And caught on video, a Florida mom goes ballistic when three armed carjackers attack at a local Tom Thumb gas station. But Mommy fights back
to protect her precious cargo, her own children in the back seat of that car. We have the video!
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. To Pinson, Tennessee, temperatures plunging tonight in the Tennessee foothills as the search turns desperate for a 2-year-old
little boy. Little Noah disappears hiking with Grandma. Focus, of course, on local registered sex offenders, 28 within just 10 miles of where the tot
goes missing, more beyond that 10-mile radius.
At this hour, search teams and investigators battling not only vicious weather, but rumors now swirling around the boy`s family and the search
sites.
Straight out to Michael Quander joining us from CNN affiliate WREG. Michael, what can you tell me about the search expanding?
MICHAEL QUANDER, WREG CORRESPONDENT: Well, the search is still going on right now. There are more than 100 law enforcement crews out here on the
scene where the search is going on. We`re told that they are continuing to forever (ph) expand this search. And they`re also kind of going over
grounds that they had already been over before.
One of the interesting things that happened overnight, they`ve added two port-a-potty areas for people to use the restrooms out there, which is a
clear indication that this is probably not going to be over any time soon.
GRACE: Everyone, law enforcement assuring us this is a search and recovery mission. And joining me there on the scene, in addition to Keith Sherley,
with us, our affiliate reporter, WREG, Michael Quander.
Michael, I understand the search has expanded from 6 to 800, to 1,000, now 1,200, what, square miles? How?
QUANDER: You know, I have not had the exact -- they are continuing to go as far as they can to find out where little Noah is. They say they`re
going to continue to expand in those woods. They`re not going to go outside of that wooded area, though. They`re going to focus their
attention on those woods because that`s where they believe he is right now.
[20:05:04]GRACE: Michael Quander -- take him full, please, Justin? You are standing in what I believe to be the search headquarters. Is that
what`s behind you?
QUANDER: Right. Now, this is the volunteer search headquarters. This is the Pinson Baptist church. They`ve been centered here. People from the
church have opened up their center here. They`ve been having all of their press conferences, all of the media has been here, all of the volunteers,
community members, people who have been concerned about Noah have been coming here to this site to get updates about what`s actually going on.
The actual search site is a couple of miles up the road, in an area that the media has not been allowed to since this has first started.
GRACE: Michael Quander, where are Noah`s parents right now?
QUANDER: We`re told -- Noah`s parents, we`re told, are in Pinson, Tennessee. We`re told -- they were not giving an exact location where they
are. But I went past a house that has an address listed for the parents earlier today. They were not at that home, but we`re told that they are
still here cooperating with law enforcement.
GRACE: Joining me right now in addition to Michael Quander with WREG, is Keith Sherley, news director, 101.5. Keith, thank you for being with us.
Michael, thank you, as well.
Keith, I understand the temperatures have plunged, that the search is expanding. But tell me, what can you -- what do you know about why they
are expanding the search to 1,200 square miles? Excuse me, acres.
KEITH SHERLEY, 101.5 (via telephone): That would actually be more like 60 to 100 to 1,000 acres.
GRACE: Thank you.
SHERLEY: They`re really not looking out. And you`d really be hard pressed to get beyond maybe the 600 acres. The family property sits on what we`re
told -- I believe there`s about 60 acres of land. It backs up to timberland.
This is agricultural timberland. It`s basically agriculture land. There`s timber that is farmed on here. And that makes this very rough terrain for
searchers. You have the -- they come in -- the timber (INAUDIBLE) they cut out some of the timber. They clear it out. They leave others. You have
the debris left behind, and you`re battling everything that`s left from there.
The temperatures right now are expected to be -- we`re in the mid-30s right now. We`re expecting -- by Friday, we`re looking for about 3 inches of
snow and temperatures plummeting from the 30s down into the mid-20s.
GRACE: Yes, of course, 1,200 square acres. You know, what`s disturbing is that -- for those of you just joining us, little 2-year-old Noah is
missing. The temperatures are plunging tonight. The search has expanded from 6 to 8 to now 1,200 square acres. There are professional searchers
and there are volunteers by the droves.
But with temperatures plunging as they are, hard pressed to keep volunteers searching, the area very rugged terrain, not mountains, but hilly and cold.
There are also bodies of water to be searched, Keith Sherley. What can you tell me about that front?
SHERLEY: There are -- there`s a pond. There`s also some creeks on the property and adjacent properties. There are creeks down there. They have
searched those properties. They have taken dogs out to those properties. They have not led them to believe that Noah`s body is anywhere in that
water area.
GRACE: You know, very well put. Tracy Sargent, search, rescue and recovery expert, dogs are specifically trained to smell, detect under
water, and these dogs have not hit on the water. So right now, nobody thinks baby Noah is under water. Does that make sense to you, Tracy?
TRACY SARGENT, SEARCH, RESCUE AND RECOVERY EXPERT (via telephone): Yes, it does, Nancy, and that`s really a great indication that they can at least
eliminate one area so they can concentrate in other areas where Noah might possibly be.
GRACE: Michael Christian, rumors are swirling. What can you tell me about a rumor regarding a neighbor`s freshly poured cement?
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): That`s right, Nancy. There was a rumor on Facebook or on social media that Noah could
have either been killed or hidden in a newly mixed concrete slab that was recently poured for a storm shelter.
GRACE: You know, it`s very hard for me to imagine that a plan -- that`s got to have been debunked by now. One of the rumors that the sheriffs and
law enforcement had to deal with is that this beautiful baby, Noah, was actually murdered and his body hidden in some newly poured cement.
We have totally debunked that theory tonight, tracking down where the cement was poured. It happened about two years ago. And remember the
sequence of events here. They drop baby Noah off at Grandma`s for the day. That is not uncommon at all. What, the Grandma, the neighbor and the
cement pourer all in on this conspiracy? That did not happen. That`s totally hogwash, Michael Christian.
[20:10:02]I understand there is also some rumor swirling about the mother at Walmart and strange behavior at the time Noah goes missing?
CHRISTIAN: That`s right, Nancy. That was another thing that was posted on Facebook. A woman posted that her daughter worked at a Walmart where
Noah`s mother was about the time that her son was missing. And according to this Facebook post, the mother came straight into the store, walking to
the clothes, picked up a pair of pants, put them back down without either examining them or looking at the pricetag, and then sat down on a bunch for
about 45 minutes or so before she left the store.
GRACE: Now, let me understand this, Michael Christian. You`re saying that a little girl observed this and told, what, her parents and then it got
somehow on social media?
CHRISTIAN: It was actually -- the daughter worked at Walmart, so she wouldn`t have been a little girl.
GRACE: OK.
CHRISTIAN: But yes, basically, it was a daughter told her mother, apparently, and it ended up on Facebook.
GRACE: To Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation. You know what? I don`t direct ill will to any of these rumors, as they have
been described. They`re people that are trying to help. Maybe they saw the mom at a Walmart, and somehow, this story turned into what we just
heard, that the mom sat there at the time the child was missing for 45 straight minutes and did nothing while her child had just been reported
missing.
That`s not the information that we have, but typically, Marc Klaas, detectives do start first with the parents. Why? I mean, they looked at
you when Polly went missing. Of course they did.
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Yes, of course they did, Nancy. And they always look at parents because when children disappear, more often
than not, a direct family member is involved. Statistics will take you there absolutely every time.
And I think one of the ways that they could dispel some of these rumors and some of these myths that are going about would be for the family to
directly address the media, so that people could see who they are, and so that people could see how desperate they are.
You know, there was a case a couple of years ago of a little girl named baby Lisa (ph) in Kansas City, Missouri whose parents never went before the
media, and rumors continue to swirl around that family, although that case does remain unsolved.
So I think that, really, they can be the best advocates for this little boy, and they could go a long way towards helping their own cause by simply
facing the camera and answering questions and making a plea for their child`s safety.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:16:58]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Noah`s grandmother says she was hiking in the woods behind the house with Noah and Noah`s 4-year-old sister. She says
she was focused on the 4-year-old for one minute. And when she turned back, Noah was gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s been cold, wet, muddy, lots of hills, a lot of high terrain, a lot of swamps, a lot of bottoms. I just pray that the
boy`s good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight, rumors are swirling, and every rumor that crops up, cops, sheriffs, law enforcement are on it. It is taking time away from a very
important search, but these rumors must be explored. One of those is alleged strange behavior by the mom in this scenario and questions about
where was the dad at the time little Noah goes missing.
OK, Michael Christian, we have managed to track down where the father was, right?
CHRISTIAN: That`s right, Nancy. He works for a trucking company, and apparently, he was in Canton, Mississippi, at the time that Noah went
missing. That`s about 200 -- actually, over 200 miles away.
GRACE: So the father is totally out of consideration at this point. From everything we have learned, the mom drops little Noah at the grandma that
morning. She takes him out into the woods behind her house just to play outside, and everything goes south after that.
Back to you, Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation. You were saying that in order to combat claims against the mom, against the
dad that you think they should come forward and speak. They have been noticeably absent from all of the media. And I can`t say whether that`s
right or that`s wrong. They`re dealing with a family crisis.
To you, Marc Klaas. When your daughter Polly went missing, the cops came knocking at your door. What happened?
KLAAS: Well, they came knocking at my door and they were very clear with me. They said, Statistics point to you, and you have to cooperate and do
everything you can to ensure that you`re eliminated as a suspect in Polly`s disappearance, as are the other members of your immediate family, so we can
fan the investigation out to what really happened to her.
And so that`s exactly what I did, and what I would counsel anybody in this kind of a situation to do. But there`s something about getting out there
and talking to the media, about working with the searchers, about shaking hands and giving people hugs, and that`s that it empowers you to be part of
the recovery process, as opposed to being a helpless individual sitting there, waiting for something to happen.
GRACE: Back to Keith Sherley, news director at 101.5 joining us out of Pinson right now. Keith, again, thank you for being with us. I understand
that not only have there been tracker dogs, but there have been cadaver dogs. As you told me, you`re saying that tracker dogs can confirm the
child was there where Grandma says he was. And we are learning now that cadaver dogs have not hit on anything. And I think that`s a good sign,
don`t you?
SHERLEY: Law enforcement and searchers think that`s a good sign, as well. You know, one of the things that Marc talked about -- Marc Klaas talked
about is the family cooperating with law enforcement. And law enforcement has been very clear that the family has cooperated.
[20:20:13]They have been interviewed multiple times. They have both been cleared with being in any way involved, and they`ve also been out with the
searchers. They`ve participated in searches. Uncles, aunts, cousins and even the father and mother have been out. And they`ve thanked them.
We are at a disadvantage in the media because -- to report that because we`re two miles from this, but they are active and taking the same approach
that Marc talks about.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the search for 2-year-old Noah Chamberlin, the effort continues to be a search a rescue mission.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Law enforcement from across the state and thousands of volunteers searching around the clock.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The weather`s coming in. We feel like it`s a danger to everyone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... were searching the area where Noah was last seen and praying for clues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Baby Noah is missing as the temperatures plunge. He was out with Grandma right beyond the home. There is very rugged terrain. It`s not
mountainous. It`s hilly, and it`s very densely wooded. There are sinkholes.
[20:25:25]And tonight, I`m learning, Keith Sherley, news director 101.5, that there are actually caves to be searched, is that correct?
SHERLEY: There are gullies. There are ravines. There are caves. They`ve used robots. They`ve used cameras. They`ve used every resource that
southeast and the federal, the state and local and regional authorities can bring in.
GRACE: I just don`t understand how a 2-year-old could get away that fast. And I`m not saying he did it. I`m not saying that. It just defies logic,
but it apparently has happened.
Keith Sherley, 101.5, is there any indication they saw anyone else out and about that day?
SHERLEY: No. No, there`s no indication...
GRACE: No one else whatsoever?
SHERLEY: ... that anyone else was in the area. This is a remote, rural area in west Tennessee. It`s agricultural timberland. Their back yard
backs up to this area that they often frequently went out to for recreation.
It was -- Noah knew this area. He would run up and down into different trails, and the family would be there. It wasn`t that uncommon. There was
nothing that was unusual about this. It was an unusually warm day and they were just out together.
GRACE: Michael Christian, what can you tell me about a timeline emerging in the last hours?
CHRISTIAN: Well, Nancy, there is a timeline, and what`s interesting about it is it shows how quickly law enforcement was on this. Basically, at
about 1:20 is when the grandmother first noticed that the child was missing. Twenty minutes later, at 1:40, is when there was a 911 call
reporting his disappearance.
Only 20 minutes after that, at 2:00, local sheriff`s deputies already were arriving at the grandmother`s home. By 3:00 PM, an hour later, helicopters
were already in the air searching for Noah. And by 6:00 PM, there were apparently some 75 to 100 personnel already searching the scene.
GRACE: Almost immediate. The parents, the mother and father, are out searching with the searchers along with family members and hordes of
volunteers trying to find little Noah. According to our calculations, in addition to those 28 sex offenders in just 10 miles, it leaps to about 130
sex offenders in a 20-mile radius.
Also, what can you tell me -- what`s this business about psychics, Michael Christian?
CHRISTIAN: That is another one of the rumors that`s been on line, that psychics who may know where Noah is. There have been people who`ve posted
postings saying, you know, I`m a psychic and I can tell you that he`s in A, B or C.
[20:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: A vigilante mom threatens to, "blow the brains" out of her daughter`s alleged child molester. Tonight, the explosive 911 call. And
tonight will the avenging mom face charges herself?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Steven Rekowski is a pedophile.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m going to (beep) kill him. I`m going to (beep) blow his (beep) brains out.
Do you know how hard it is to restrain myself from beating his face in?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That video from crimewatchdaily.com. I want you to hear the 911 call and what it reveals. Mommy threatening to, "blow the brains out" of this
guy right here after she believes he`s caught in the act of molesting her 4-year-old daughter. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m really doing everything I can not to kill this (bleep) right now.
There`s a guy in my house that molested my kid, and I swear to God if somebody doesn`t get here sooner it`s going to be bad. Really bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How old is the gentleman that did this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How (beep) old are you?
Forty (beep) four years old. I`m going to (beep) kill him. I`m going to blow his (beep) brains out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. All right. All right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I swear to God.
It happened last night and his friend found pictures on his phone and she just brought them to my house with him.
I tell you what. If I wouldn`t go to jail right now, I`d be on him. Do you know how hard it is to restrain myself from beating his face in? you better
hope you rot in prison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That video from crimewatchdaily.com. straight to Melissa Neeley, anchor WLW. So, how did the mom find out about the alleged molestation of
her 4-year-old little girl by this guy?
MELISSA NEELEY, WLW ANCHOR: Well, apparently a friend of his had found pictures, selfies, as you were, on his phone that he had taken of the
alleged incidents. And she made him go tell the mom what he had done and make a confession.
GRACE: And then the mom, what, seized the pictures? Pat LaLama joining me, managing editor of Crime Watch Daily. Did the mom see the pictures, Pat?
PAT LALAMA, CRIME WATCH DAILY MANAGING EDITOR: Yes, the friend comes over with Steven Rekowski, shows her the pictures, and then guess what? The mom
-- I call her the revengeful mama bear -- gets him in the laundry room and locks him in. I`d love to know how she gets him in there, and if I were
Steven Rekowski, I`d be more afraid of her than anybody behind bars. She`s ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Well, my concerns now, what were the pictures of that girl?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: According to the documents we have, the photos included him touching the girl`s genitalia, performing oral sex on
the girl and photos of his genitalia as well.
[20:35:00] GRACE: OK, hold everything. Pat LaLama, am I to understand that he actually took pictures? He allegedly took pictures of himself molesting
the 4-year-old little girl, and then what, sent them to himself so he could look at them at his leisure?
LALAMA: He took the pictures and he tells authorities, well, she was sleeping, as if it mitigates the circumstances. So he has them in an e-mail
-- in an e-mail to himself. He saves the pictures and puts them in an e- mail, and then his friend who says she`s using this phone, she sees those pictures.
GRACE: Take a listen to what mommy says on the 911 call.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty-year-old male supposedly molested a 4-year-old child last night. She just had ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I got the pictures.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s got photographic proof of it. Where is he in the house?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s in my laundry room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, and where are you at?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m standing in the doorway of the laundry room. He`s not going nowhere until you guys take him out. You better hope you rot in
prison.
I`m really doing everything I can not to kill this (beep) right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An angry mom threatens to kill the man she says molested her daughter. It`s one of the most explosive 911 calls you`ll ever
hear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a guy in my house that molested my kid, and I swear to God, if somebody doesn`t get here soon, it`s going to be bad.
Really bad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re not identifying the mother of a 4-year-old girl who claims her middle-aged babysitter, Steven Rekowski, is a pedophile. She
locks him up in the laundry room, making a citizen`s arrest, and taking matters into her own hands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And how old is the gentleman that did this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How (beep) old are you? Forty (Beep) -four years old.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Restlessly, she tells the dispatcher, get cops here fast or I`ll blow this guy`s head off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m going to (beep) kill him. I`m going to blow his (beep) brains out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. All right. All right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I swear to God.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That video from crimewatchdaily.com. Unleash the lawyers. Joining me, Marla Chicotsky, defense attorney out of Miami. Also with me, Patrick
McDonough, defense attorney, joining us from our Atlanta Studio.
Marla Chicotsky, I don`t understand why there is any suggestion that the mother did anything wrong. How could she possibly face charges?
MARLA CHICOTSKY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, the timing is very important here. As you heard, the friend drove him all the way over to her house where then
she then committed crimes of false imprisonment, assault. She can`t do that. What the friend should have done is driven Mr. Rekowski to law
enforcement. This is not middle of a crime (ph).
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: I`m asking you not about the friend.
CHICOTSKY: You can`t make a citizen`s arrest.
GRACE: I`m asking you -- let me go to you, Patrick McDonough. Why is there any suggestion that this so-called vigilante mom should face any charges?
What she did, what she sees on his cell phone, explicit photos of this creep.
Justin, can you show this guy, please? The alleged perp Steven Joseph Rekowski. I want to -- there you go. There you go. Right there. Him. With
explicit photos with her 4-year-old little girl. And she locks him in and threatens to blow his brains out. What`s wrong with that, Patrick?
PATRICK MCDONOUGH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I think most parents could identify that and relate to that, but it`s always a risk when you step into
that vigilante role, right? When you play police, prosecutor and judge and don`t let the process come out. If it turned out, for example, his pictures
weren`t correct, and he was innocent and she did that, she would be in a world of hurt.
GRACE: And what - he was locked in her laundry room for 5 minutes? A world of hurt? What world of hurt?
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: She didn`t shoot him in the head.
MCDONOUGH: Here`s the thing. If he didn`t do it, right, and she actually did falsely imprison him, I think she could be in trouble. But obviously if
he did do this, she`s got a pretty good mitigation defense.
GRACE: OK, yeah, I hear you. Tiffany Sanders, I think everybody has lost their mind. There is no way in H-E-double L that this mother should face
any charge for what she did.
TIFFANY SANDERS, PSYCHOLOGIST: None. This woman should receive an award for standing up for her child to keep that man in that closet, in that laundry
room, to protect him - protect other children from him getting away and doing this to someone else.
Her child can face all sorts of trauma and distress as she gets older because he did this to her.
GRACE: Right.
SANDERS: He`s lucky that she just kept him if anything else.
GRACE: Ben Levitan, telecommunications expert. How can we confirm that these photos are for real? I mean, the woman says she recognizes her 4-
year-old daughter. It`s on his phone, it looks like him. How do you confirm it is him?
[20:40:00] BEN LEVITAN, TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Nancy, this happened on New Year`s Eve. Every picture on his phone is going to have time, a date,
and it`s going to have a GPS location on it. All the police have to do is do a forensic on every one of those pictures. That picture is going to show
that he was in that house.
Not only that, we`re going to look at all the other pictures that are on his phone. We`re going to be able to identify the locations of every one of
those pictures, too, Nancy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: A frantic 911 call from a foster mom/aspiring lawyer as her 2-year- old daughter choking dead on a chicken tender. Minutes ticking by as mommy describes the tot fighting for her life, but after Baby Laila loses her
battle to live, questions tonight. Because doctors say evidence doesn`t add up to choking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rosenbaum said the toddler choked on a piece of chicken and claimed she used her fingers and then a butter knife trying to clear
her airway.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:45:00] JENNIFER ROSENBAUM, BABY`S FOSTER MOTHER: I`m hoping I didn`t break a rib. I`ve been pushing hard. I don`t really know how to do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A criminal warrant for Jennifer Rosenbaum claims she failed to feed the child and struck Laila in the abdomen so hard that she
bled.
ROSENBAUM: I have a toddler, a foster daughter that I just thought she was choking and I tried to do the Heimlich on her and she`s still breathing,
but it doesn`t look good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know what she was choking on?
ROSENBAUM: Chicken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The autopsy did not reveal the child choked. That report goes on to say the 2-year-old was killed when Jennifer Rosenbaum struck the
child in the abdomen with such force the child`s pancreas was transected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That video from crimewatchdaily.com. What`s so disturbing about this is this foster mom/aspiring lawyer, Pat LaLama, managing editor of Crime
Watch Daily, was actually running for office for the county commission?
LALAMA: Nancy, this story so horrific and twisted. In all the years I`ve done these kinds of stories, she has this glowing, stellar resume, right?
She`s a law intern. She`s running for office. She works in the D.A.`s office.
She was a foster child herself so she has this mission to be a voice for foster children. And she shows up for this particular child`s hearing as to
who will take her and her sister. She gets the kids, and there`s even implications that she got fast-tracked because of who she was. And now, we
find out in the death of this child what really went on behind closed doors.
GRACE: Take a listen, Pat LaLama, to the 911 call. What can we learn?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 911, what`s the location of your emergency?
ROSENBAUM: It`s (AUDIO GAP). McDonough, Georgia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What`s going on there?
ROSENBAUM: I have a toddler, a foster daughter that I just thought she was choking and I tried to do the Heimlich on her and she`s still breathing,
but it doesn`t look good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How old is she?
ROSENBAUM: Two.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s 2 years old?
ROSENBAUM: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is breathing now?
ROSENBAUM: She is breathing. I`m trying to do CPR and she keeps on going white on me. I`m hoping I didn`t break a rib. I`ve been pushing hard. I
don`t really know how to do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know what she was choking on?
ROSENBAUM: Chicken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said she is asleep?
ROSENBAUM: Yes. But her eyes are rolled back. This is so scary. Are her eyes supposed to be like rolled back?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her eyes are rolled back?
ROSENBAUM: Oh, my God. Yeah, like I told you, her eyes are rolled back. Her eyes are closed but they`re rolled back. She`s really pale.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is really pale now? OK.
ROSENBAUM: Yeah, she`s still breathing. Hey, she`s still breathing but it doesn`t sound as good, as strong as it was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn`t sound as good or strong anymore? all right. We`re gonna go ahead and do CPR then.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: OK, if the allegations are true and this aspiring lawyer or foster mom is lying, it sounds as if she`s trying to cover her tracks even in the
911 call.
With me is Dr. Devi Nampiaparampil, Assistant Professor, NYU School of Medicine.
Doctor Devi, thank you for being with us. If a child had choked on a chicken tender and the mother had done, as the foster mom says, reached her
fingers in there -- and I actually performed this on my son John David, when he swallowed a bottle cap.
Reached a finger in there, and she says she didn`t get the chicken tender out, that she then used a butter knife to reach in. At the medical exam,
what would you have expected to find in Baby Laila`s throat?
DEVI NAMPIAPARAMPIL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Well, you would see some fragments of the chicken that actually caused her to choke,
or even if she got that out by doing the Heimlich, you might still see some fragments or some trauma in the throat and in the airways and you can see
other signs also in the body that the person might not have had blood flow or oxygen during that time.
GRACE: Very interesting you said that, Dr. Devi, because if the child is choking on a chicken tender, as the foster mother says, that`s basically
asphyxiation, she can`t get oxygen. So wouldn`t you see the hemorrhaging of the petechiae and the eyes, the tiny little vessels burst when you are
smothered or asphyxiate?
NAMPIAPARAMPIL: Sure. You could see that. I mean, the other thing that`s very strange about this is the pancreatic injury, the pancreas transection.
So that`s not actually ...
GRACE: Right.
NAMPIAPARAMPIL: ... in front of the belly, like the stomach. It`s all the way back in the spine, near the spine.
GRACE: Which would have nothing to do with an ill-performed Heimlich maneuver. Matt Zarrell, what more can you tell me about the story?
ZARRELL: OK, so what Rosenbaum told cops is that she initially, she mentioned, used her fingers to try to dislodge the food. When that didn`t
work, she used a butter knife to try and clear it but Laila continued to struggle to breathe. She then called 911, she took Laila to the living
room, put her on the floor to try and get the food out. And she`s doing CPR on the floor and was concerned that she injured Laila doing CPR.
[20:50:00] GRACE: Joining me right now, a special guest, it`s Laila Daniel`s aunt, Kim Smith.
Ms. Smith, thank you for being with us.
KIM SMITH, LAILA DANIEL`S AUNT: Thank you, Nancy.
GRACE: I cannot even imagine what your family has gone through. What do you make of the revelations, according to doctors, Laila did not die from
choking on a chicken tender?
SMITH: Right. Well, what the family has been told from the medical examiner`s report is that there was no evidence of choking at all. That her
cause of death was that she went into shock due to internal bleeding from the transected pancreas.
GRACE: And I don`t see that there`s any way she could get a transected pancreas, which is basically, your pancreas being torn in half.
SMITH: Right.
GRACE: Torn apart, is transected, from a Heimlich maneuver, ill-performed. Let me ask you this, when you found out that Baby Laila was being rushed to
the hospital, what happened?
SMITH: We actually, as a family, didn`t find out until the very next morning. And by then she had already passed away. The family, of course,
thought that it was an accident. We thought that she indeed did choke on a piece of chicken.
We had no other reason to think otherwise. There was no sign or there was no -- I guess, abuse was not on our radar, so we had no reason to doubt
what Jennifer -- Miss Rosenbaum was saying.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Marla Chicotsky, Miami, Patrick McDonough, Atlanta. OK, Marla, what`s your defense? You don`t get your pancreas torn
in half from a Heimlich maneuver.
CHICOTSKY: If you listen to the 911 call, she did say, "I do not know what I`m doing." she did CPR, she also did the Heimlich maneuver. So, the doctor
even said, you might see these things. That`s not - you`re going to see these things or you`re not going to see these things. So it`s possible ...
GRACE: Dr. Devi -- Dr. Devi ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... not knowing how to do the Heimlich does not equal a pancreas torn in half. And not only that, Dr. Devi, once they looked at her, they
found a lot of bruises and even evidence of previous breaks and fractures on this child.
NAMPIAPARAMPIL: Exactly. So all the evidence together points in a different direction. I mean, she had bruises that were different colors and sizes, so
the fact that it`s different colors means that they were sustained at different times.
There are signs of abuse there, as well. And I`m sure if they do more x- rays and stuff, they may see signs of fractures from the past as well.
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: "Caught On Video." A Florida mom goes ballistic when three armed carjackers attack at a local Tom Thumb Gas Station. But mommy fights back
to protect precious cargo, her own children in the backseat of that car. We have the video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One gets in the passenger seat, the other in the driver`s seat. But the victim fights back, and rips a ski mask off the
carjacker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What that bad guy didn`t know is in the backseat of that car were two kids. And she wasn`t going to let them be taken.
GRACE: Justin, re-rack the video. I want to get a good look at what happens. Could you play that in full, please? I want to see the whole
thing, starting at the beginning.
Here you are, the mom, is at the gas pump. Take a look, three armed attackers approach her car as she`s on the other side. One makes it in.
He`s got a gun, and look at this mom. Take a look at this. Yeah, he`s out of there. Even with a gun. Mommy`s not having any of it. Stacey Newman, as
we continue to watch this video, what happened?
STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, just as you said, Nancy, this mama cub wasn`t having it. These armed suspects run across this gas station
in Hialeah, Florida. So carjacked not one, but two vehicles.
The second one is this convertible we`re looking at. The mom comes out, drags the suspect from behind the wheel, pushes him to the floor, rips his
ski mask off, and they both run off like cowards to another car that had a female driver in that vehicle, and they sped off and were quickly caught
about a mile away by Florida Highway Patrol.
GRACE: Can you imagine the guts it took to take on an armed carjacker? Not just one, but three. Look at this mom. So, Stacey, I assume that these are
not choir boys that were attacking mommy`s car?
NEWMAN: Well, of course. This wasn`t their first attempt at something like this. We were able to find priors on these three. Everything from burglary
to theft to ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Whoa, one of them is a woman?
NEWMAN: Yes.
GRACE: Rebecca Utria.
NEWMAN: She is the alleged getaway driver. She was the vehicle that these two cowards are running towards hen they drove away from this gas station
after trying to carjack this mother.
GRACE: Well, that`s what you call mommy power, Stacey.
Let`s stop and remember, American hero, Utah Police Officer, Douglas Barney, 44, killed in the line of duty. Served 18 years, especially loved
helping children. Worked overtime to pay for his own cancer treatments. Widow, Belle; three children. Douglas Barney, American hero.
Thanks to our guests, but especially to you for being with us. Nancy Grace, signing off. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8 o`clock sharp, Eastern, and
until then, good night, friend.
[21:00:00]
END
