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Nancy Grace
Woman`s Body Found in Shallow Grave After Date; Hunt for Missy Bevers` Killer; 9-Year-Old Florida Girl Missing From Own Bedroom; Husband Beats Intruder to Death. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 01, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RITA COSBY, GUEST HOST: Breaking news tonight, a 24-year-old Arizona woman thinks she meets a dream man on line. Then she`s reported missing without
a trace until cell phone evidence leads police to a shallow grave and the body of 24-year-old Angela Russo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the last photo they have of the 24-year-old, a selfie leaving (ph) work (ph)...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really, truly was just trying to date, to find maybe Mr. Right!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her mom, Diana, believes now that Angela was catfished (ph) on a dating site.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: The desperate search for a 9-year-old Florida girl who suddenly vanishes from her own bedroom. Tonight, we investigate new leads.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a little girl that`s not (ph) seen in her home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Still no sign of her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Emergency vehicles and K9 units searching the woods near the family`s home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just want to find my daughter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: A husband rushes home after a frantic call that his wife`s being assaulted by an intruder, the husband caught on video beating her attacker
to death with a tire iron. Some say he`s a hero as he leaves the courthouse to cheers, but will the husband who saves his own wife`s life
end up behind bars?
Good evening, everybody. I am Rita Cosby, in for Nancy Grace. Thank you so much for being with us.
We begin in Arizona, where a 24-year-old woman goes on a date with a man she meets on line. Then she ends up dead in a shallow grave.
Let`s go out to public safety reporter Yihyun Jeong with "The Arizona Republic." Yihyun, start with the circumstances surrounding Angela`s
disappearance.
YIHYUN JEONG, "ARIZONA REPUBLIC": Well, she went missing April 19th on a Tuesday night. She left her family`s home about (INAUDIBLE) she told her
parents she was going to Chandler, which is a city nearby, to meet up with a friend, but turns out she went to Phoenix to meet up with a man named
Lashawn Johnson.
COSBY: Now, Matt Zarell, NANCY GRACE producer, how do we know that she went to meet with this guy?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Well, we know from phone records because police records show that Angela had been texting with
Johnson in the hours leading up to her disappearance and that they had arranged to meet that night.
COSBY: Ben Levitan, we understand that cell phones played a key role. How can you detect where the cell phone is? Walk us through why that is key.
BEN LEVITAN, TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPERT (via telephone): Rita, every time you use your cell phone to send a text, receive a text, the phone company
keeps a record of your general location. So Rita, they had a whole list of her locations leading right to that apartment. The text messages also
indicated where she was going to meet the suspect, Rita.
COSBY: Matt Zarrell, what do we know about her relationship with this guy? We just heard from Yihyun that they met on line.
ZARRELL: Yes. Our understanding is that they really had no real relationship before this, but they may have communicated for a few days
leading up to this meeting, but that they had no prior relationship leading up to her disappearance.
COSBY: Detective Doug Matteson, public information officer with the Maricopa County sheriff`s office -- Detective, do we know anything about
the back story, how they got engaged, meeting? Was it on line? Was there some other sort of communication?
DET. DOUG MATTESON, MARICOPA COUNTY SHERIFF`S OFFICE: We believe that it`s on line at this time. We got information from the family, also with
another police agency, that led us to get the Maricopa County Sheriff`s office involved in this matter. And we believe it was on line it started.
COSBY: And how long were they communicating, Detective, on line? And what was the name of the site? How did they get involved? Like, what`s the
name of the site?
MATTESON: That`s still under investigation right now. That`s something that our detectives are still looking into, so I`m not able to respond at
that at this time.
COSBY: And do we know exactly how long the period was? You talk about a few days. Is there any trace (ph) that they may have known each other
before that?
MATTESON: We believe two days at this time, but we`re still investigating, so more information is coming forth to the Maricopa County sheriff`s
office.
COSBY: And Matt Zarrell, NANCY GRACE producer, when was the first sign that there was trouble, obviously?
ZARRELL: Well, the first real sign was when Angela had -- Angela texted her mom and said she was going to go to work, she`ll see her after work
tomorrow. But what actually happened was Angela does not show up to work the next day, and that is when family becomes concerned. There`s no
activity on her cell phone. It`s going straight to voicemail.
COSBY: Diana Schalow, the mother of victim Angela Russo, walk us through and tell us a little bit about your beautiful daughter.
DIANA SCHALOW, VICTIM`S MOTHER: She was vibrant and happy about life. She loved children. She was just trying to start dating people to move to the
next chapter. She had just graduated from becoming a medical assistant and was living at home and started dating. And as the producer said, she just
didn`t come home.
[20:05:10]But those who know her and love her know what a beautiful spirit she was inside and out. And she had a gorgeous smile, crystal blue eyes
that will never be forgotten. And it`s just -- she was just taken from us way too soon.
COSBY: Absolutely. It must be so heart-breaking, Diana, as we hear the story here. Did you know she was communicating with people on line?
SCHALOW: Yes, she had gone out on a few dates and would come home and said, No, that one didn`t work out, or just, you know, Next, you know,
trying to find Mr. Right. And as I`ve said before, she just made a wrong turn and definitely found Mr. Wrong.
COSBY: How did you find out that there was a connection to this individual? How did you know that she was going on a date that night?
SCHALOW: From text messages that were retrieved from a previous phone that she had.
COSBY: And now, she sent you this message we were just hearing that said, I love you, Mom. Obviously, you two were very close.
SCHALOW: Very close. She didn`t tell me every detail of her life. Pretty much could read between the lines when she was going out on a date and when
she just hanging out at a girlfriend`s. But you know, sometimes, she wouldn`t come home, and like, as a 24-year-old woman, I didn`t question
every single move. And she just never came home. And that`s when I started worrying because she said, you know, See you tomorrow after work,
and I promise, and I love you.
COSBY: And where was she working? And when was sort of the first sign when she hadn`t shown up?
SCHALOW: She was working in a medical office in Phoenix city, in the city of Phoenix, called Allatooki (ph) area. And I called the day after she
went missing, and they told me that she was a no call, no show. And that`s when I really got concerned because that wasn`t like our daughter.
COSBY: Matt Zarrell, what was the first sign that tied (ph) her? We know about these pings, and that`s how they were able to make some connections.
How did they finally connect her to somebody? And how did they pinpoint who it was?
ZARRELL: Well, when they looked at the text messages and they saw that Angela was communicating with Lashawn Johnson, they started to investigate
further and made contact with a girlfriend that was living with Johnson at the time, and that is what led them to the big break in the case and led
them to all the evidence.
COSBY: Now, what else do we know -- Yihyun Jeong, what else do we know about this Johnson guy?
JEONG: Well, we do know that he has quite the criminal history. In the past few years, he`s been arrested for assault, with intent to cause harm,
for theft and just a lot of other charges. And so beyond that, we don`t know much about him, but that he was already being detained for another
unrelated charge at the time of his arrest.
COSBY: And Detective, Doug Matteson, we understand -- he had a girlfriend, we were just hearing, but he was also married. Is that right?
MATTESON: We believe so. We`re still getting more information on this, and we have some people that are cooperating with us and giving us good
information with our detectives with the sheriff`s office.
COSBY: And Matt Zarrell, the body is then led (ph). We understand they pinpoint him. And then what happens? How did they break this case?
ZARRELL: Well, so they break this case when they speak to the girlfriend because the girlfriend allegedly directs police to this desert area about
50 miles west of Phoenix, where Johnson had actually brought the girlfriend out a week-and-a-half earlier. And they observed a car and what appeared
to be a shallow grave. She told...
COSBY: Wait, Matt. Wait. The girlfriend says she sees the car and a shallow grave? What kind of a date is this?
ZARRELL: Yes. Correct. Apparently -- and Angela was last seen in the car fitting the description that the girlfriend saw at this location. And the
girlfriend says she actually picked Johnson up, the day after Angela was last seen, from a convenience store just steps, just steps from where the
body was found along with a burned-out car.
COSBY: Now, Detective Doug Matteson, describe this car. And this was the car we`ve been able to put it to Miss Russo?
MATTESON: We believe that it is the car that she was driving and that the suspect, Lashawn Johnson, took her out in that location after we believe
the murder took place, and the car was burned, and believe that -- buried Angela Russo in a shallow grave out there.
COSBY: Were you able to ID the body? And what did the body look like, Detective, because obviously, this was a long time it had been out there?
MATTESON: It has. And we can`t comment too much on that right now because it is a medical examiner`s case and it`s going to -- still wait for an
autopsy, so it`s taken a few more months to get all the information so we can get it ready for court.
COSBY: Dr. Ken Redcross, board-certified internal medicine and also concierge doctor -- let me ask you, Dr. Redcross, what would a body look
like if it was sadly out there for that period of time?
[20:10:11]DR. KEN REDCROSS, BOARD-CERTIFIED INTERNAL MEDICINE: Yes, Rita, that was such an important question that you asked the sheriff there
because finding a body at a high temperature like this is huge for investigators for a couple of points.
Number one, usually, there`s a negative and a positive when you have those high temperatures. The negative is that because the temperatures are so
high, you get a quicker decomposition of the body, which we don`t want as investigators. But on the second side of things, something positive can
actually happen. You can get a process of mummification, very similar to what used to happen in ancient Egyptian, when they used to wrap people up
and put them in hot weather, but under the sand.
This could be a break, actually, for the law enforcement to be able to really get in there and have preservation of some of the evidence,
potentially.
COSBY: Can you tell if there`s a struggle, if it is just skeletal remains of this beautiful young woman?
REDCROSS: No. Honestly, Rita, unfortunately, that`s not usually the case. But you are able to pick up some things such as potentially toxicology,
potentially DNA of the assumed killer in this case. So you can pick up a lot of data. So we would hope if there`s any positive from this that that
process of mummification could have happened because that`ll really help us gather enough evidence to put this guy away.
COSBY: Now, Matt Zarrell, has the guy admitted to it? What`s the status with that, Matt Zarrell?
ZARRELL: No, he has not admitted to it. And here`s what`s interesting. He says that he was actually out at the location where Angela`s body was
dumped and that he asked a girl for a ride. But he made -- police say that he made up reasons why he was out there, including that he was doing
landscaping for a friend.
COSBY: Wait, landscaping in the desert?
ZARRELL: Yes, apparently.
COSBY: Police are looking for the backpack in the search for a California girl, Pearl Pinson, kidnapped on her way to the school bus in Vallejo, her
kidnapper gunned down in a firefight with police. Pearl`s backpack is purple and green with a picture of the Joker. If you have any information
in this case, call Solano County sheriff`s office, 707-784-1963.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:16:02]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like a shrine, Angela Russo`s family has kept her photos out, those twinkling eyes, that bright smile, praying she`d
be found, but not like this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our lives will never be the same (INAUDIBLE) Mr. Wrong in every possible way!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: And let`s continue with Diana Schalow, the mother of this beautiful woman that you`re seeing here, Angela Russo, whose remains were found a
month later in the desert. The guy said he was out there landscaping.
Diana, what did Angela`s little brother say about this?
SCHALOW: He said that, He just wanted to have fun with her, Mom, and that the devil got inside of him and made him hurt her like this. But he`s
trying to say he`s sorry.
COSBY: Do you believe that he learned (ph) that -- do you believe he`s sorry at all? I`m so sorry to interrupt you.
SCHALOW: How are you sorry for taking someone`s precious life, someone that he knew from pictures that she had on Instagram of her and her little
brother, of her and her sister, brothers, fiance of her brother`s, Mom and Dad? How can you be sorry for taking someone`s life like that?
COSBY: And he still has not admitted to the crime, either. It just has to be so unbelievably heart-breaking. Matt Zarrell, he wrote this letter
asking for forgiveness -- they had offered, Do you want to write this -- but yet he still hasn`t technically admitted to the crime right now?
ZARRELL: No, he has not. He has said that his life was over, that he made a mistake, that he`d rather be sentenced to 20 years in prison than get the
death penalty. He repeatedly asked for a second chance. And when he was offered the chance to write an apology letter, he asked Angela`s family to
pray for him and forgive him, and he said he would pray for Angela`s family and was, quote, "sorry for their loss."
COSBY: Pray for them (sic) and forgive them, but yet not admitting to the crime. He still says he was landscaping.
Let`s go to the defense attorneys, Mindy Smith, also Troy Slaten. Troy, you know, I hope they forgive me, but I was landscaping -- that doesn`t
sound like a very good excuse.
TROY SLATEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Rita, I`d really like to see the videos of these -- of interrogations because it seems to me like this is a lot like
the "Making a Murderer" interrogations of that poor 16-year-old boy. It seems to me like the interrogators here were using some classic read (ph)
techniques to encourage confessions. Here...
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: Wait, wait, wait! Wait a minute, Troy! Troy!
SLATEN: And then maybe you can get out.
COSBY: Troy, wait a minute! OK, Please forgive me. Doesn`t that sound like I did something? Come on!
SLATEN: When a police -- when a police officer is is saying, Don`t you want forgiveness, wouldn`t you like people to forgive you...
COSBY: You know what? I wouldn`t admit to something I didn`t do!
SLATEN: (INAUDIBLE) isn`t super-bright...
COSBY: Come on, Troy!
SLATEN: Well, they might. You know, when you`re in an intense interrogation situation, people will say anything...
COSBY: All right, Troy! All right, Troy!
SLATEN: ... that they think that the interrogators want them to say.
COSBY: You know -- all right, so throw that out. I don`t believe that for a second. But then the other thing is the pings. What about the pings?
Happens to be just a few blocks from his home. And then -- and then we didn`t get into this fake profile. He created this fake profile saying,
Oh, I`m a good guy. I`m a military guy. It ain`t true! He lied!
SLATEN: You mean -- you mean somebody engaged in puffery on the Internet about their true...
COSBY: I`ll give you that. I`ll give you that.
SLATEN: ... about their...
COSBY: That happens a lot. I give you that. But what about the pings?
SLATEN: Absolutely, and...
COSBY: What about the pings!
SLATEN: So he has a logical and reasonable explanation of that, that he was assisting a friend in landscaping. And yes, they do landscape in the
desert.
COSBY: Assisting a friend in -- all right, so what, a cactus needs some landscaping? Come on. And the car just happens to be there?
[20:20:00]SLATEN: Maybe there are, you know, water-saving landscaping available. But -- but Rita, the point is, he`s got a reasonable
explanation, and police officers, when they really want to get a confession...
COSBY: Let me -- let me -- let me go to Matt Zarrell because there was also evidence in the home, as well, that showed that there was some sort of
struggle and that there was cornering, right, in one particular part of the home. Tell us about that, Matt, because that just happened to be there,
too, right?
ZARRELL: Yes, exactly. So a search warrant was executed at Johnson`s apartment. Cops found substantial biological evidence consistent with foul
play. It led them to believe this was the scene of her kidnapping and homicide. It indicated that the victim was attacked in the corner of the
kitchen near the dining room table, appearing to have been trapped in the corner of the dining room.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Johnson used a fake name to pose as someone he wanted (ph), a military man, someone safe, trustworthy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One could of murder in the second degree, one count of kidnapping.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say they met at his Maryville (ph) apartment. At some point, he attacked, cornered her, killed her, then tried to hide
the evidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:25:08]COSBY: And this is Rita Cosby, in for Nancy Grace.
Let`s go to Matt Zarrell, CNN producer. Matt, real quick, this guy, who she meets on line, pretends he`s a military guy, says he`s a good guy --
all BS, right?
ZARRELL: Yes, so he not only used a fake name, he tells Angela he`s in the military, he provides pictures in Army fatigues. He says he`s trustworthy
and single. In fact, he`s got a live-in girlfriend and an estranged wife who he`s still married to.
COSBY: And what does the wife say about all this?
ZARRELL: Well, the wife admits that he is -- he did cheat on her, but the defense is innocence and claims that Johnson knows who the real killer is
and is working with cops on the case.
COSBY: All right, so she says that, but then on the other hand, there`s evidence in the house, as you pointed out, Matt, and then of course, that
car is burned, the shallow grave. He puts himself there.
Let`s go back to the defense attorneys. Mindy, how do you defend this guy? What do you say?
MINDY SMITH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Rita, I would start with poking holes in the entire investigation. The police may say they have this evidence
and that evidence and they may say that they have proof that she was there and an altercation occurred, but I`d have to see it. Very rarely do the
police conduct...
COSBY: What, they`re making it up? They`re making it up? You don`t believe police?
SMITH: No, I do believe police, but I don`t believe they conduct a pristine investigation 100 percent of the time.
COSBY: So wait a minute. They -- the evidence was planted...
SMITH: They`re human beings. They`re fallible.
COSBY: ... and he happens to be -- there`s a lot of pieces here, Mindy.
SMITH: Yes, there`s a lot -- there`s evidence. There`s cataloging that evidence, chain of custody. There`s also solidifying the timeline. His
comments are circumstantial at this point. Was he coerced? Did he ask for an attorney?
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: I guess everything`s coerced! I guess the damage evidence, and also the hiding of the evidence I think looks really bad. Happens to be
there. The girlfriend puts him there. This is a wild case.
Let`s go to Diana Schalow, the mother of Angela Russo. And Angela, (sic) as a mom, this has got to be unbelievably heart-breaking. I can`t imagine.
And also, I`m sure you have a message about on-line dating for folks listening out there because so many people go to these social media sites,
and you don`t know what you`re going to get. You don`t know who`s going to come up and if they are really the people they portray themselves to be.
SCHALOW: That`s right. That`s very true. You know, you just never think it`s going to happen to you, to your family. And if there`s one thing we
can do for our beautiful daughter going forward is not to just let her be gone, but to get the message out there that whether it be on-line dating,
meeting someone in a bar, just -- just not knowing a person and possibly going back to their place on a first date, second date, third date. You
just don`t know who you`re actually with.
I mean, she was having conversations of just getting to know people, telling them things, like she loved watching Disney movies. She was a
romantic. She loved romance comedy movies. And just, he made himself seem so perfect for her world. And whether it be a young man, a young woman, an
older person trying find love, you just -- there needs regulations. There needs something more than just a freebie of throwing yourself out there and
seeing who picks you up.
You know, I want to work on making her life, for the 24 years we were blessed to have her, mean something, maybe help start a foundation so that
we can get more people educated and trying to get Congress to do something with these sites to make them more liable for situations so that no one
other family has to endure the pain that we`re having to endure!
[20:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... not a very normal-minded person.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got dressed into a uniform.
KEVIN JOHNSON, MIDLOTHIAN POLICE DEPARTMENT ASSISTANT CHIEF OF POLICE: She was inside the church not realizing the intruder was already inside.
She was murdered inside of the church.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I knew who the killer was ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The person has a very distinct walk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`d arrest them myself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: And this is Rita Cosby, in for Nancy Grace. A 9-year-old Florida girl goes missing from her own bedroom. We investigate new clues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diana went to bed around 10:00 Saturday night and in the morning, missing. A pan filled with oil was left on the stove. It was
on. They tell me whoever took Diana may have been planning to set their home on fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: And let`s go straight to Corey Lazar, reporter with WINK-T.V., a CNN affiliate. Corey, what happened here? When did they notice she was
missing?
COREY LAZAR, CNN AFFILIATE WINK-TV REPORTER: Yes, so let`s go back early Sunday morning. Family says she went to bed, they noticed her asleep when
they went to check on her around 2:00 a.m., she was in her bed in her bedroom all by herself. The family says when they got up to get ready for
church around 7:00 a.m., they noticed that Diana was not in her bed and her blanket was missing.
COSBY: So, how many hours go by? About five hours from when the mom sees?
LAZAR: That`s right. About five hours go by. From 2:00 a.m. until when she noticed that Diana wasn`t there. Five hours that, you know, where
Diana was missing.
COSBY: Justin Freiman, Nancy Grace producer, describe this home. Who`s in the home? What does it look like?
JUSTIN FREIMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: OK. So, this is like a mobile-type home. There`s a whole family living there. She`s got her mother there,
her stepfather there, three siblings in there.
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: Wait, wait, Justin. This is like a mobile home and there`s six people inside and nobody hears anything?
FREIMAN: Nobody hears anything, and these homes don`t have very thick walls. Not only that, there`s also their pit bull living in this home.
[20:35:00] COSBY: Wait, a pit bull in the home. Did the pit bull bark?
FREIMAN: This pit bull did not bark, and according to the family, when this pit bull sees a stranger, it barks so loud, it wakes up the
neighborhood, and nobody heard a thing that evening.
COSBY: Marc Klaas, president and founder of KLaasKids Foundation. Marc, doesn`t it sound unusual that the dog, it`s a pit bull, doesn`t bark?
MARC KLAAS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER: Well, if it doesn`t bark -- only if -- only unless the person that came in was familiar
to the pit bull. Either a neighbor or someone else or if somehow Diana had been lured outside for a pre-arranged meeting, which totally sounds out of
character for her.
COSBY: Corey Lazar, what do we know about this little girl? Marc makes an interesting point. Does it look like someone came in the home or that she
may have wandered out of the home?
LAZAR: Well, let`s get to that question first, because we spoke to a lot of neighbors out there who say Diana is a very well-behaved girl, she was
always supervised. She had many friends down the street and they don`t believe she would just walk out that home and wander off.
Now, her parents tell me, and I asked them specifically, do you think she walked out or do you think someone came into your home and took your 9-
year-old daughter? They believe someone came in to their home and took her, that she would not simply walk away.
COSBY: Nancy Vizcarra, stepmother of the missing girl, tell us about this beautiful, beautiful little Diana, 9 years old, and I understand also that
she was very protective of her younger siblings.
NANCY VIZCARRA, STEPMOTHER OF MISSING GIRL: That is correct. She is very protective of her younger siblings. She`s not the type of person who runs
away. I`ve been her -- I don`t know who was (inaudible) but said that there were six people in the house. There lived six people taking a house,
and not a person knows where this child is, or didn`t even hear her walk.
It`s a mobile home. You could hear when somebody walks through the mobile home. It cracks. I live in a mobile home myself. When I walk, the floor
creaks.
COSBY: And she`s a good little girl. I understand that when she is to go outside before, if there was someone unusual, she would say, you know, mom
or stepdad, listen, this is somebody here. This is the kind of kid who would report something unusual, right?
VIZCARRA: Yes. If something doesn`t add up, something`s not -- somebody`s not saying something, it`s weird that she`s going to be -- going to be
gone. She`s not the type of person to run away.
COSBY: Justin Freiman, Nancy Grace producer, tell us about this area because we`re looking at an image here and we`re seeing that there are 45
registered sex offenders in a five-mile radius, 98. Justin, this sort of proximity. That`s a lot. Is there anyone close by?
FREIMAN: That`s right. There is one close by in that -- on her street, actually, just a few doors down, and that person has been convicted of a
sex act with a child.
COSBY: With a child. Had they interviewed this person?
FREIMAN: Well, police have said they`ve gone door to door in the area, so we can assume this person has been interviewed, and of course they`re also
searching those woods and the marshlands.
COSBY: Corey Lazar, reporter with WINK-T.V. There was also something unusual in the house. I saw some reports of something with a stove.
LAZAR: Yeah, that`s right. The family thinks this is very bizarre. So when the mom got up around 7:00 a.m. to check -- to wake up and go to
church, she found the stove was on. All of the burners were on. There was a pan on the stove with some oil in it.
The family says that was smoking pretty good and they believe that someone turned that stove on. The mother says the family inside the mobile home,
they did not touch that stove.
COSBY: That`s interesting. Cheryl Arutt, forensic psychologist, what do you make of that when I hear what Corey is saying, that the stove was on?
First of all, it sounds to me that somebody is familiar with the house.
The other thing, we don`t hear of any word of forced entry, Dr. Cheryl. And then, now we`re hearing of something on the stove? Is it someone who`s
maybe trying to hide evidence? Trying to burn the place down?
DR. CHERYL ARUTT, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: It certainly looks like somebody was trying to cover their tracks and burn something down.
You know, in a mobile home where you can hear everything that goes on and where we would expect that this child would be able to cry out if somebody
came in and tried to grab her and would expect that her family would hear her, I have to think that this dog not barking, it`s really something we
want to tune into. I mean, after all, there`s a song, a country song, that goes, how come my dog don`t bark when you come around? And I think that
...
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: ... a pit bull, too.
ARUTT: Yes. So you would expect a guard dog to really be protecting the family and alerting the family if anybody came in. And so the pit bull
needed to be familiar with that person.
So they can look at the special predators that the family doesn`t know, but I would really look closer to home and see someone who the dog was familiar
with.
[20:40:00] COSBY: And Marc Klaas, I think Dr. Cheryl hits it right on the head. Where would you look, Marc Klaas?
KLAAS: I think as well, but I think that there is one scenario that we have to talk about, and that`s the scenario where somebody does come into
the house who does not have her trust and that she does know and simply says, as they said to my daughter, Polly, I will slit their throats if you
make a sound. You come with me. That`s a distinct possibility.
COSBY: So, it could have been someone who actually got into the house, but you know what`s interesting, Marc? No sign of forced entry. We haven`t
heard anything about any damage to the windows, nothing to the doors. Don`t you think there would be something small, Marc?
KLAAS: Yes. I do. No, I do. I think that definitely there`s a small possibility that the scenario I just mentioned will play out.
I agree with everybody else that it`s most likely somebody that knew her, that knows the family and probably had some kind of power over her.
Somebody very close.
COSBY: Absolutely. I agree.
Well, the mystery of a Tennessee mother who vanishes while visiting friends in Tennessee. Regina Hubler, a traveling nurse, last seen may 22nd,
leaving a Best Western Hotel in Johnson City after checking out.
Her car found at the hotel, but no sign of Regina. If you have any tips, be sure to call the Johnson City Police Department, that`s the number on
the screen, 423-928-9111.
ANGELA NICKEL, MISSING MOM`S DAUGHTER: Call me, let me know you`re OK. That`s all I care about. I want to know that you`re safe. I love you.
Come home.
[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSBY: And this is Rita Cosby, in for Nancy Grace. A husband beats an intruder to death with a metal tire iron for attacking his wife. Some are
calling him a hero, but will the husband who saves his own wife land behind bars?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call him a mad vigilante. Call him a hero.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charles Bronson famously delivered vigilante justice in paramount Pictures` Death Wish. And now, a husband takes the law into his
own hands, fatally beating a man who allegedly tried to rape his wife.
He may be a local hero, but should the husband face charges for killing his wife`s accused attacker?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: And let`s go to Noam Laden, WABC Radio news director. Noah, tell us what happened here. We can see this video. It`s amazing.
NOAM LADEN, WABC NEWS DIRECTOR: It really is. And it was an awful, awful scene for Mrs. Diallo. She`s in her apartment with her sister. Someone
knocks on the door, she thinks it`s kids who want to get into her apartment. She opens the door.
On the other side, is this guy who says, I don`t want to rob you, I want to rape you. And he starts attacking her and her sister. And they start
fighting back. And it`s just this awful scene that goes on for about 20 minutes or so.
COSBY: So Noam, he just knocks on the door. Did he go door to door first? How did he pick this door?
LADEN: Well, no. You`re right, he had gone door to door beforehand in some places, asking people for a cup of water. Nobody else had let him in,
they turned him away. But in this case, this woman, Mrs. Diallo, she opened the door thinking it might be somebody else on the other side and
ended up being this attacker.
COSBY: Michael Christian, Nancy grace producer, this is just horrific when you hear Noam saying, no, I don`t want any money, I want to rape you. What
happens once he gets inside?
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: He apparently locks the door, Rita. He takes off his pants and he attacks these two women. I mean, he`s
literally punching Mrs. Diallo in the face. He rips off her clothes or at least part of her clothes. He pushes her to the floor. A horrible,
horrible scene.
COSBY: And then how does it stop? What happened? She is able to grab -- somehow during this altercation, she is able to grab her cell phone and punch her husband`s key. Her husband is downstairs outside the apartment
building. He`s a livery cab driver and he`s trying to park his car, his cab.
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: So wait. So Michael, does he -- she calls him? How did she find him? Or screams out the window?
CHRISTIAN: Yes, with her cell phone. She finds his, he`s the first number there. She hits the right button, calls him and asks for help. He grabs
his tire iron and immediately rushes upstairs.
COSBY: And then what happens, Noam Laden? The guy is where when the husband finally gets upstairs and where`s the wife and the sister?
LADEN: The wife and the sister are now out of the apartment. They`re on this sixth floor. And Earl Nash, the alleged attacker, is outside and he
is running from them and that`s when Mamadou Diallo, her husband, walks off the elevator and the wife yells, there he is. That`s the guy that was
attacking me.
The attacker, Earl Nash, first kicks Mamadou Diallo and that`s Mamadou Diallo picks the tire iron that he has in his hands and just starts beating
Earl Nash senseless.
COSBY: And beats him to death. I know that I`ve seen the scene in the elevator. It is just a bloody, bloody mess. Dr. Ken Redcross, Board-
Certified Internal Medicine doctor, you can tell sort of what kind of wounds based on both of them. But the elevator clearly, there`s evidence
that there was a fractured skull.
DR. KEN REDCROSS, BOARD-CERTIFIED INTERNAL MEDICINE: Yeah, absolutely. And Rita, the other thing you have to really think about, it takes about
500 pounds of pressure to fracture a skull. But in this case, it`s a little different.
We have a tire iron, so we have to think about the weight of the iron. We have to think about the force and the acceleration of the iron and then we
also have to think about gravity.
So, it really didn`t take 500 pounds of pressure to fracture this skull especially when using a tire iron. So this was a very, obviously, brutal
beating, but it didn`t take much to really fracture his skull at all.
Dr. Redcross, there were some reports that the guy, we saw, Noam was saying that the guy kicked the husband. First of all, the husband comes up, I
can`t even imagine, the wife is saying the guy has his pants down, he`s saying he`s going to rape me, runs upstairs and then sees this guy I the
hallway, but there`s evidence, too, that this guy was actually, like, pulling his belt even though his pants are down, as you can see, and was
trying to whip the husband too after kicking him.
Can you tell what kind of altercation between the two, like if there was defensive on both?
[20:50:00] REDCROSS: Well, you know, it doesn`t really look so much defensive. It looks like that there is a problem with this man, like maybe
he`s intoxicated or he`s not in his right mind because he`s just kind of
staggering around.
Actually he committed this crime, but he`s just kind of acting like everything is kind of normal and he`s going back down the elevator and
going about his merry way ...
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: Yeah. You know, you had an interesting point. Let me go to Dr. Cheryl Arutt. Dr. Cheryl, this guy is just hanging out in the hallway. He
is just attempted to rape this woman. He`s sitting there with his pants down for God`s sakes and he`s just hanging out in the hallway waiting for
the elevator? What`s going on with this guy?
ARUTT: Literally caught with his pants down and walking to the elevator as if nothing happened. That sounds like a sociopath to me.
When somebody is unflappable, when they`re caught red-handed and they have absolutely no sense of shame or guilt or not upset by what`s just happened,
that`s a sociopathic reaction. And I think all of us can certainly understand Diallo`s feelings about wanting to beat the rapist to death.
Unfortunately, I think that this made one tragic situation into two, because now they have this enormous legal situation, and as long as that
goes on, whatever trauma or PTSD that he and his wife and their family are suffering, is going to get extended by the triggers that extend out by
having to go through the litigation and the potential for something happening to him at this point.
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: Let me go to Michael Christian. Yes, certainly, yes. But let me go to Michael Christian because a lot of people are looking at this guy
saying, bravo. I mean, this guy -- what kind of record does he have? Has he done this before?
CHRISTIAN: He has a very extensive record, Rita. It goes back almost 20 years, almost 20 charges, and apparently at one point, he pled guilty to
imprisoning a 17-year-old woman, raping her, beating her, stabbing her. Not a good guy.
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A livid husband rushing home on the hunt for this guy who police say tried to rape his wife in their own apartment.
Beating the intruder with a tire iron in the hallway, hitting him so hard police thinks he died from his injuries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSBY: And now that husband is charged with a number of offenses. Let`s go to the defense attorneys, Troy Slaten and also Mindy Smith.
Troy Slaten, should this guy be charged with anything? He was defending his wife.
TROY SLATEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, Rita, he should absolutely be charged with a crime.
COSBY: What?
SLATEN: We`re not vigilantes. This is not the Wild West. Or this is not Charles Bronson.
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: But don`t you think ...
SLATEN: This is not the movies.
COSBY: ... but what, was he supposed to sit back? The guy was still sitting there in the hallway, come on.
SLATEN: He was a - look, he`s a horrible person. He`s a lifelong criminal, but that doesn`t mean that he should be suffering the death
penalty at the hands of this man. It looks to me from the video like he was trying to run away, like he was trying to get in the elevator ...
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: He`s hanging out there.
SLATEN: ... and get away from this guy.
COSBY: By the way, he`s hanging out there. Troy, he`s sitting right there in the hallway, right in front him. Mindy Smith, he`s still hanging out.
Who knows, he might be going back in the apartment for all we know.
MINDY SMITH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Whatever occurred with the attack with the wife was over at that point. We would be in a different situation ...
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: So what, it`s over?
SMITH: ... talking about a different matter.
COSBY: So it`s good news that she got away, you know, that she`s OK?
SMITH: Yes, that`s great news. But the attack was over. He caught him in the hallway. It doesn`t look like to me that the perpetrator has a weapon.
COSBY: Mindy Smith, I don`t know if you`re married or not, but if your husband happened to find somebody who is doing this to you, don`t you think
he`d want to beat them senseless?
SMITH: I`m sure he would. I would he would, but the attack is not ongoing. He was in the hall. He approaches this man.
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: The hallway was right there ...
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: This man does not looked to be armed.
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: hang on one second, let me show the video. The hallway is right there. this is a small apartment building. Who`s to say he might be going
down to another apartment? He`s roaming around, Mindy.
SMITH: He approached -- he approached the perpetrator and began a physical assault on him. I don`t blame the guy for being mad. Any husband would be
mad and should protect their wife, but there was not an ongoing attack. You just can`t attack someone and kill somebody because you`re angry with
them.
COSBY: Michael Christian ...
(CROSSTALK)
COSBY: ... the guy has a violent background, correct? The guy has a violent background.
CHRISTIAN: That`s correct.
COSBY: And also we know that he had done this before with somebody, held them captive for multiple days.
CHRISTIAN: That`s right, Rita.
COSBY: We remember everybody, American hero Marine Lance Corporal Shayne Cabino, 19 years old, from Franklin, Massachusetts. He was awarded the
Purple Heart. Star high school wrestler. He leaves behind his parents, William and Jodie, four brothers and two sisters. Shayne Cabino, an
American hero.
And everyone, I was fortunate to host the national Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C. which is seen by U.S. troops and 174 countries and honors
all of those who have served and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
A lot of great Americans were there, Gary Sinise, also singer (inaudible), also singer Tony Orlando and former Marine Mark "Oz" Geist who heroically
fought in the battle of Benghazi. One of the very special guests was General Robert Hardaway, 100 years young, the oldest veteran survivor of
the attack on Pearl Harbor.
It was a privilege to meet him and his daughter-in-law there, Shauna (ph). Robert Hardaway, a true American hero.
And thank you all of you for being with us. I`m Rita Cosby, in for Nancy Grace. "Forensic Files" is coming up next.
END
