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Nancy Grace
Building Owner Sued in Texas Cellphone Rape, Murder; Maryland Driver Crashes into Cop Car; Pokemon Go Causes Tragic Accidents; Desperate Search for Missing Girl. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired July 20, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:02] NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight. Chilling audio captures the final horrific moments as a teen girl begs for her own life,
begging, pleading, I don`t want to die, as she is brutally assaulted and murdered, the suspect actually recording the whole thing on his cellphone.
Tonight, a million-dollar lawsuit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Court documents accuse the boyfriend of raping and strangling Karen and recording it all on his cellphone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very last words, I don`t want to die.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fighting to see something done with the dilapidated property where the young girl was strangled and left under a kitchen sink.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A Maryland driver crashes into a police car, caught on video. A Pennsylvania school girl mowed down by a car, a pregnant mom tragically run
down by a Dodge Caravan all because of the sensational new sporting game Pokemon Go?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two men fell over the edge of a bluff. It happened because they were searching for virtual Pokemon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Caitlin (ph) was 38 weeks pregnant. A man driving erratically down the road backed into Caitlin (ph), playing the virtual
game Pokemon Go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fifteen-year-old daughter Autumn (ph) is bruised and banged up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hit by a car crossing the highway where a Pokemon took her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Playing the Pokemon Go game when he struck the patrol car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, urgent. A Florida school girl vanishes into thin air.
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Chilling audio captures the final, the horrific moments as a teen girl begs, begs for her own life, pleading and begging, I don`t
want to die, this as she is brutally assaulted and murdered. Believe it or not, the suspect allegedly records the whole thing, the assault and the
murder, on his cellphone. In the last hours, a million-dollar lawsuit goes down.
Straight out to Jeffrey Boney, associate editor with "The Houston Forward Times." Jeff, thank you for being with us. To add insult to injury, there
are reports tonight that the entire assault on this girl, a sex assault, and her murder was caught on cellphone video, that this guy is actually
callous enough to video himself attacking her and murdering her as she begs for her life.
It`s hard for me to believe, Jeffrey Boney. How do we know he actually recorded her begging for her life?
JEFFREY BONEY, "HOUSTON FORWARD TIMES" (via telephone): During their investigation, Nancy, authorities were able to recover the suspect`s
cellphone and this disturbing audio. You can hear the suspect asking and forcing Karen to have sex with him and calling her by name. And then you
can hear Karen cry out with her very last words, I don`t want to die.
GRACE: Oh! Oh, oh! This little girl so beautiful, a 9th-grade girl. Jeff, show me the scene.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BONEY: As you can see, Nancy, there`s a memorial site set up for Ms. Karen Perez, in memory of her, here at the apartment complex that`s been
abandoned. And as you can see, it`s no security around. It`s very vacant, really no one around. It`s right across the street from the high school
itself.
There is a padlock here on the lock, but if you look within, there are a lot of boarded-up apartment buildings, but people can still access them,
but easily accessible if someone really wanted to get in. And again, it`s right across the street from the high school itself.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Jeffrey Boney from "The Houston Forward Times" taking us to the scene and showing us where this young 9th grade girl was assaulted and
murdered.
Now, imagine, you bring up your children. You pour all your energy, all your time, all your love, all your money, everything you`ve got to give
them everything you didn`t have, to make their lives better. And to think your girl in the 9th grade, the 9th grade -- that`s middle school, junior
high in a lot of places -- is assaulted and murdered in this broken-down, vacant, abandoned apartment complex that is -- let me understand this, Jeff
Boney. It`s directly across the street from the high school?
[20:05:12]BONEY: Right, yes, right in the back of the high school. And looking around the apartment complex, it`s easy to see how teenagers might
be able to get inside of it. There doesn`t seem to be a lot of locks. Many of the windows appear to be missing.
And also, the property owners have reportedly arranged for some off-duty police officers to provide security. I didn`t see anybody patrolling in
the time that I was there, and nothing around. There was a memorial set up for her, and things like anybody can just roam around and do whatever they
wanted to do even after this incident.
GRACE: That is just wrong. This is what you call an attractive nuisance.
But back to that cellphone recording. I find it -- it`s horrific that not only would he kill her, attack her and crumple up, fold up her body and put
it under a sink in one of these many, many abandoned apartment kitchens, but that he recorded the whole thing on his cellphone.
Michael Christian, how do we know for sure -- do police know for sure, Michael, is what I`m asking, that he actually recorded her assault and her
murder? I mean, what do you hear? What do you see? And I don`t want to show any part of it that we may have. I want to hear what you know is on
that video, Michael.
MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, our understanding is that it`s just audio. It was dark in these apartments. There was no
electricity. And so we don`t believe that there`s any picture there.
But the way it`s been described in court is exactly what Jeffrey Boney just said, that you can hear this woman, this girl, this child protesting that
she doesn`t want to have sex with this guy. She`s saying, I don`t want to. I told you I don`t want to. And then he responds, I told you. And then
again, as Jeff Boney said, her last words just before she`s strangled, choked to death, I don`t want to die.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Joining me tonight, Robin Ficker, defense attorney out of Maryland, Margie Mow, defense attorney out of LA. To both
of you, thank you for being with us.
OK, Ficker, you know, I remember a time when cases were tried when there wasn`t any video, OK? And the defense attorneys would do, Hey, we don`t
really know what happened. It`s not on video. It`s not on audio. Well, this is on video. This is on audio. Just because the lights may not be
on, there`s no electricity in that apartment complex, that abandoned apartment complext, that doesn`t mean a jury is not going to hear the audio
and see whatever blurry images may be there.
What is your best defense, Ficker?
ROBIN FICKER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Defense of the young man or perhaps adult -- we don`t know his age. I don`t see any liability of the abandoned
property, as you call it. Real property can`t be abandoned. It`s not an attractive nuisance because that doesn`t apply to adults. And if he was an
adult, it wouldn`t apply here.
GRACE: You know what? I asked you what your defense was, and you danced right around it. Margie Mow, I am talking about the life of a 9th grade
girl, OK? I also think the school should know if people are leaving in the middle of the day or during class time, OK? Did this girl -- was she
authorized to leave? Who was the perp? How did they get in? How was she lured to this location?
But as to the defendant, Margie Mow, the suspect, what`s your defense? He`s busted on his own cellphone video!
MARGIE MOW, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I respectfully disagree. I do not think that he`s busted. Yes, there is a cellphone video, but it has to be
authenticated. It was dark. There was a male voice. Was it his voice? Was there another voice? Was another person the one who was actually
raping her? She didn`t want it because it was not her boyfriend, it was somebody else? We cannot -- just because we have the audio, we cannot
prove that it was him at this point.
GRACE: OK, here`s the reality. Michael Christian, isn`t it true that police are telling us tonight that this video is on his, the alleged
perpetrator`s, cellphone? Is that correct? That`s a yes/no, Michael.
CHRISTIAN: Yes. Two phones...
GRACE: OK...
CHRISTIAN: ... they recovered. Yes.
GRACE: ... so long story short, if you are to follow through what the defense attorneys are arguing -- and yes, it all sounds good when you throw
something on the wall to see if it sticks, but let`s follow it through.
So if these cellphones belong to the boyfriend and they are taken from the boyfriend, which means he`s had them in his possession, what does that
mean? He was there when she was assaulted and murdered? Does she use his name? And what, then he just leaves her body? That makes him to a party
to this crime. So no matter how you slice it, he`s involved.
[20:10:05]Let`s talk about him for a moment. Jeff Boney, "Houston Forward Times," this guy, this alleged sex attacker and killer, is young enough to
be treated in juvenile. Isn`t that true, Jeff Boney?
BONEY: Yes, he`s actually under the age of 17 and considered a minor. And he has a tremendous amount of information that needs to be talked about
here, especially as to how he got tipped off to authorities by his own family.
GRACE: Now, what I want to talk about is the reality, Michael Christian, that he, under the law in this jurisdiction, can get out at age 19. It`s
possible, is it not, for him -- he`s currently in juvenile -- that he could get away in just a couple of years for rape and murder of this girl that
was begging, literally begging for her life!
CHRISTIAN: That`s correct, Nancy. If he remains in juvenile, if he`s charged as a juvenile and he gets what`s called indeterminate sentencing as
a juvenile, the state loses control of him at age 19.
GRACE: And he will walk free. I want you to take a listen to what the victim`s aunt tells us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They know when the kids, they skip school, they come here inside the apartments. Everybody knows about this. And I can`t
believe nobody haven`t do anything because this -- this thing is not just happening just right now.
We doing this for Karen. And we`re doing this for the kids. We don`t want nobody else going through this. It`s hard. There`s no words to explain
this. It`s very hard. We know she passed away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:15:39]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police went to the suspect`s home and found video on his cellphone of him sexually assaulting Perez. The teenage girl
can be heard pleading for her life, and the accused killer telling her, I told you so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight, we learn of a million-dollar lawsuit that has just been filed on the heels of criminal charges. A little 9th grade girl is lured
to an abandoned apartment complex. It`s right across the street, the back side of their school, the high schools, where she is attacked and murdered.
For some time, no one could find her body. Ultimately, it was found folded up in a way under a sink in that abandoned apartment complex. Why? Why?
Jeff Boney, "Houston Forward Times," did the school know that she was out of school?
BONEY: The school did not know that she was out of school. Actually, what ended up happening, again, the suspect sent a dark (ph) encrypted text
message to her and demanded that she skip class that day and meet him...
GRACE: Well, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on! Jeff, I`m asking you about the school, OK? Why didn`t the school know this girl comes to school
and then she is gone?
BONEY: Well, I mean, people...
GRACE: If she`s not in school...
BONEY: ... skip school all the time, Nancy. And I mean, sometimes they`re missing and before they know it, you know, they`ve skip school, and they
don`t know why they`re gone and...
GRACE: Wa-wa-wa-wait! Did she report in that morning?
BONEY: She did go to school that morning, yes.
GRACE: OK. So you`re telling me that all the time -- I mean, I don`t know what schools you go to Jeff Boney, but if my child reports in to school,
and then say, at lunch, they`re suddenly gone and I haven`t signed them out, then it`s on the school!
Why don`t they know a child is missing? Why don`t they know, Jeff Boney?
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... hands up in the air?
BONEY: I do believe that the school bears some responsibility there. But again, I mean, I don`t know about you, Nancy, but when I was younger, I
skipped school, too. And many times, they school didn`t know I was gone and my parents didn`t know I was gone. But I do believe...
GRACE: Well, I don`t know what...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Let`s just go on the record here. No, I didn`t skip school. You know why I didn`t skip school? Because I knew it would break my parents`
hearts and I didn`t know what they would do if they found out I did skip school. So no, I did not ever -- not even once -- skip school.
So Jeff Boney, I`m proud that you managed to graduate and move on in life, even though you skipped school. Congratulations. You tricked your
parents. Do you feel good about that?
What I`m talking about is this girl! Why didn`t the school know she`s missing? She shows up in the morning. Then she`s gone. And they don`t
even know?
Now, let me ask you another thing about this apartment complex, Jeff Boney. You just showed me the whole place. The have to know, the owners of this
apartment complex, this abandoned apartment complex -- they`ve got to know that students go over there. They smoke. They skip class. Some students
do drugs. Some students get alcohol.
They have to know this is going on. And what do they do to stop it, if anything, Jeff Boney?
BONEY: Well, the Pasadena Independent School District has tried to purchase this complex from the owners in the past in order to tear it down,
but the owners have refused to sell it.
GRACE: Go to clinical psychologist Chloe Carmichael. Dr. Carmichael, you know what I don`t like? You know what I don`t like, Dr. Carmichael?
People suggesting that somehow, this is this girl`s fault.
She is a little girl. She is in the 9th grade, just started the 9th grade. This is junior high. So she gets lured over to this place, and bam, she`s
killed. She`s assaulted and killed. And the fact that the school doesn`t know -- they don`t know this girl is missing from a hole in the ground!
They`re totally not keeping up with it. They don`t call the parents, nothing. The girl is dead on their watch, Doctor!
CHLOE CARMICHAEL, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, Nancy, that`s a great point. And you also mentioned that as a girl, one of the reasons that you
wouldn`t skip school is because you would be thinking about your parents.
[20:20:00]And so because this little girl has a history of her family filing police reports against this young man, and he had texted her
multiple times threatening to kill her, I`m curious about the role of the parents and why she didn`t, when she got that text, go to the school or go
to her parents and show them the text.
GRACE: Now, hold on, Chloe. It sounds dangerously like you`re blaming the girl. And as I started this sentence, I don`t want any victim blaming.
CARMICHAEL: Absolutely not!
GRACE: This is a little girl. Why didn`t she go to her parents? Well, obviously, she had gone to her parents and she was acting out of fear. She
was lured over there, and sure enough, her fears came true.
Another thing -- back to you, Jeff Boney. And again, Jeff, this is not about me and you. It`s about this girl, OK?
What I don`t understand is if this young man had been threatening to kill her, had been threatening her over text and phones, why wasn`t he in jail?
Why was he out wandering around?
BONEY: Well, the family`s been trying and trying to try to let people know about some of the things that this young man had done. I mean, this guy is
a guy who for some time had threatened her if they broke up together. He threatened to harm her family, her friends, that they would never see her
again.
GRACE: And now he could actually walk at age 19 after assaulting and murdering this little girl?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:25:34]UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prosecutors say Perez`s father was concerned when his daughter didn`t come home, and when he asked the boyfriend to help
him look for his daughter, the teen replied, You won`t find her. She`s dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A 9th grade little girl dead, found folded up underneath a sink in an abandoned apartment complex behind her middle school. Why didn`t the
school alert anyone that she wasn`t there? Why had the perp not been put in jail after threatening the little girl`s life in the past?
So Michael Christian, how did they find her body?
CHRISTIAN: Well, she was -- they were searching for her for three days, Nancy. And at one point, the suspect`s father was helping in the search.
He was driving around, trying to find her in the neighborhood. And he said to his son, the suspect, Hey, come and help me. Let`s go look for her
together. And the son apparently said to the father, She is not alive. Well, based on that, the father of this suspect contacted authorities.
GRACE: His own father. Justin, let me see the picture of Karen at her sweet 15. Here she is dressed up in this beautiful outfit, wearing a
tiara. Look at her. The parents spending so much of their savings to throw this party for her, celebrating her turning 15.
And it was shortly after that, in the 9th grade, she is sexually assaulted brutally and murdered. To make matters worse, insult to injury, salt in
the wound, the alleged killer records the attack and the murder on his cellphone as she literally begs for her life.
In the last hours, we learn of a million-dollar lawsuit. Who`s suing who, Michael?
CHRISTIAN: The mother of Karen Perez is suing both the defendant, but she`s also suing the owners of this abandoned property.
GRACE: And what is the theory, Michael?
CHRISTIAN: Well, basically, as you said earlier, that it`s an attractive nuisance, that it`s so easy to get into that kids go here all the time to
do drugs, to smoke, to have sex, that everybody knows you can get in. There`s really no security to speak of, and that the company knew or should
have known that somebody was going to get hurt or that criminal acts were going to take place there eventually.
GRACE: And Jeff Boney with "The Houston Forward Times," you said the school tried to buy the property or close down the property? What do we
know about that?
BONEY: Yes, actually, the Pasadena Independent School District itself tried to purchase the complex from the owners, and they wanted to do that
so that they could tear it down because they knew it was a nuisance and a place where they drank alcohol, used drugs, had sex. And the owners
refused to sell it, and now they`re faced with this lawsuit.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:30:00] GRACE: A Maryland driver crashes into a police car caught on video. A Pennsylvania schoolgirl mowed down by a car, and a pregnant mother
tragically run down by a Dodge Caravan all because of the sensational new sporting game Pokemon Go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pokemon Go Craze is prompting a flood of warnings from our emergency responders across the country because people are getting
hurt. Her 15-year-old daughter, Autumn, is bruised and banged up. She said it`s all because of game.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A Toyota RAV4 struck one of the patrol cars that was parked at the location. The driver of the RAV4 told investigators that he
was looking down playing the Pokemon Go game.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then she landed on the ground and that van reversed some more and it ran her legs over.
NANCY GRACE, THE NANCY GRACE SHOW HOST: All because of the new sporting game Pokemon Go. The first thing I want to do is take a look at a car
crashing into a police car caught on video. Now, watch this.
UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: Car and none of the occupants inside of the other vehicle were injured.
GRACE: Now, did you see the cop standing right beside that? One more foot and that would have mowed down the cops as well. Let`s see that in slow
motion. Now, when the guy gets out of the car, he go -- there we go, take a look. Look at the cop. He`s only a couple of feet off the sidewalk. He
nearly t-bones a bus as well.
One more time, nice and slow. The cop has no idea what`s going on. Wow, okay. The driver gets out and says, ooh, sorry. I was playing Pokemon Go.
What the hay?
Tammy Rose, an investigative reporter, joining us. Tammy, explain Pokemon Go. This is just one of many, many near deadly act internet.
[20:35:00] TAMMY ROSE, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, who would think that you can get hurt or even killed by playing this game but it`s happening all
over the country. Those scary moments caught on tape in Baltimore, Maryland where a man plowed into a cruiser nearly missing two officers. Luckily, no
one was hurt but the police tell me that that man faces some serious charges.
GRACE: Okay. This is the car crash we were just talking to you about, plowing into a police car. Now, this is how the game is played. You see
Pokemon characters juxtaposed over your surroundings. Your actual surroundings.
See, the person is walking along trying to catch the Pokemon character, and it`s where you are. It`s there on the street. It`s there on the sidewalk.
It lays out a semi-transparent Pokemon world over the real world around you using your GPS and your own camera in your cell phone to make the Pokemon
character appear where you are.
Joining me right now is Kaitlin Shelton. She`s joining me out in Gladstone. Hit by a Dodge Caravan. This is after playing Pokemon Go. Ms. Shelton,
thank you for being with us.
KAITLYN SHELTON, HIT BY VAN AFTER PLAYING POKEMON GO: You`re welcome.
GRACE: Ms. Shelton, so tell me what is so intriguing about Pokemon Go?
SHELTON: Honestly, I don`t really like -- I don`t play the game really. I mean, my sister loves it. I think it`s just because it`s so far back that
all of us older kids remember playing it as a kid so it`s kind of brings it back to us.
GRACE: What about the game makes people walk out into oncoming traffic? We`ve got two guys that actually fall off a cliff playing. A little girl is
mowed down in traffic by somebody playing Pokemon Go. So, what is it about the game? I mean, you had an emergency C-section. What is it about the game
that makes people lose all sense of sight and sound perception around them?
SHELTON: I don`t know. I wondered the same thing the day I got hit. I understand it`s a fun game and, you know, it`s easy to get into and it`s
fun to play, but I just don`t get how they get so wrapped up into the game that you can`t pay attention to what you`re doing.
I mean, you have a whole bunch of other apps that people play too, but this seems to be the number one game that everybody is getting hit or killed on.
GRACE: Now, you had to have an emergency C-section. How`s the baby?
SHELTON: Yes, ma`am. He`s doing really good. He`s five pounds and 18 inches.
GRACE: We`re -- we`re showing a shot of you and your gorgeous baby in the hospital right now. You know, he almost lost his mommy. Did you even see
the driver?
SHELTON: No, ma`am, I didn`t. It was so bad that I didn`t even remember getting hit. I didn`t know why I was in the hospital or why I ended up
there.
GRACE: Look at this beautiful baby. Mommy run down. A hit and run. This pregnant mom. She has another baby as well. And many people are saying this
and other incidents may be because of the new game Pokemon Go. And it`s not just that. To Tammy Rose, what can you tell me about a little girl that was
hit?
ROSE: Yeah, a 15-year-old was actually lured out into a busy highway while playing the game. She actually caught one of those monsters. She was so
excited that she said she ran home to tell her mother. That`s when she was struck by a vehicle. She received some serious injuries and she is still in
the hospital recovering.
GRACE: It`s my understanding, to Marc Saltzman , technology expert, joining us tonight. Mark, the mother of that little girl, that middle schooler
says, the game dragged her into the street. That`s impossible.
MARC SALTZMAN, TECHNOLOGY EXPERT: I don`t know if I buy that. It is true that you play the game by looking at the real world around you through your
smart phone`s camera lens in order to catch these virtual cartoon Pokemon characters.
But you`re not certainly encouraged to, you know, to ignore what`s happening around you, in fact, and I`m not here to defend the company,
Niantic, that published the game. But you can see a clear disclaimer. Whenever you load the game with a big red exclamation mark saying, look
around at your surroundings. Don`t go through private property to try to catch Pokemon. Don`t walk into traffic. Look around you.
[20:40:00] GRACE: So, it makes you -- you`re looking at your -- your own cell phone. You`re seeing what`s in front of you and you also see the
Pokemon character juxtaposed onto your phone. So, when you reach out, you try to get it, you could be going in front of a car. Now, take a listen to
what the little girl`s mother says.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said, mom, I heard about the Pokemon game, I wanna go play, give me your phone. She was actually hit by a car crossing the
highway where a Pokemon took her. The Pokemon game took her across a major, major highway at 5 o`clock in the evening. No game is worth your child`s
life.
Please, parents, don`t let your kids play this game, don`t. Because you don`t wanna go what I went through last night. I mean, I really thought I
was losing my daughter. That`s how scared I was.
GRACE: Can you imagine? Now it`s all about Pokemon Go. And Stacey Newman, two guys actually walk off of a cliff. They walk off a cliff. Am I getting
that wrong? Stacey, what happened?
STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yeah. This was out in California. Two men in their 20s so engrossed in this Pokemon Go. They actually...
GRACE: Let`s see the cliff.
NEWMAN: They actually pass through a fence, Nancy, and fall off a cliff. One of them over 100 feet. The second one was actually found unconscious
because they`re trying to catch Pokemons.
[20:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Urgent, tonight, a Florida schoolgirl vanishes into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Katelyn was last seen while on vacation with her extended family. A desperate search in Washington to find her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re tracking her cell phone to rest stop off I-5 about 30 miles from the cabin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Simply tossed into the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have no doubt that someone has taken her.
GRACE: This little girl is gone. Now, this is my understanding of what happens, Dan O`Donnell. They are vacationing at a family cabin that they
own, some fairly exclusive area in Big Lake. And the little girl`s in her pajamas. They`re all sitting around in their cabin. They`ve been there for
several days. There`s the cabin right on the water. Beautiful around them.
The little girl says she has to go to the bathroom. Go outside to the bathroom. She goes out in her PJs. They`re all sitting there waiting to
start the movie, and she never comes back. What do you know? Dan O`Donnell, anchor at WISN. What happened, Dan?
DAN O`DONNELL, ANCHOR AND REPORTER OF NEWSTALK: Well, just as you said, Nancy. She said she has to use the restroom. It`s important to note that
she was wearing pajama shorts. It was 50 degrees outside. She was barefoot. She wasn`t wearing any shoes. Her cell phone was found 32 miles away at a
rest area off the side of I-5.
Her family says she doesn`t have a history of running away and says the fact she wasn`t dressed for the weather and that she was without her cell
phone means this was not a case of a little girl running away. They are fearing this might have been an abduction.
GRACE: Well, I absolutely agree. What little girl is going to run away in the middle of the movie in her shortie pajamas, and to top it all off, lose
her cell phone. That would never happen. This little girl is gone and tonight, the search turns desperate.
We need your help. We want to bring Katie home. Tip line, 360-428-3211. This little girl apparently snatched outside her family`s cabin. It`s a
very exclusive area. It is right on the water, a vacation haven. It`s just beautiful. The whole family is gathered around the T.V. set. She goes to
the bathroom, boom. She`s gone. Hold on. Joining me right now is Katie`s stepfather, Kevin O`Connor. Kevin, thank you for being with us.
KEVIN O`CONNOR, STEP-FATHER OF MISSING TEEN: Thank you, Nancy.
GRACE: Kevin, this is, I know, overwhelming, and I want to let you know that the moment we heard about Katie missing, we immediately started
prayers and trying to do Facebooking it, tweeting, everything we could think of to try to bring your girl home. That night, when she goes missing,
you`re all sitting around watching a movie, right?
O`CONNOR: This was in the cabin. She was actually on the family vacation with my brother. There is...
GRACE: Why?
O`CONNOR: ... she`s with her cousins and that happened in Washington. This was her first trip there with them. Like I said, where -- where exactly
everything happened. But, we know that everybody is missing her greatly. And just -- this is baffling all of us. It`s -- it`s not like something she
would do.
GRACE: Well, I`m curious. They managed to track down the cell phone and no little girl her age is going to throw her cell phone out the window. She
had to get there and she had to be in some sort of a car.
Hold on. Marc Klaas, joining me now in addition to Katie`s step-father. Marc Klaas, present founder of KlaasKids Foundation. Because Marc,
apparently they did, which I do all the time, find my iPhone app when I can`t find it.
Apparently, they used that app and they traced it that night and it was already 32 miles away. Marc, somebody took this little girl and threw her
phone out the window. That`s what I think, Marc.
[20:50:00] MARC KLAAS, FOUNDER OF KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I think the fact that the FBI Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team has been utilized,
demonstrates how seriously the authorities are taking all this and the fact that she was not wearing any real clothes. She didn`t have her glasses with
her, that her cell phone was thrown off by the side of the road at a rest off, I think all is very points very much towards some kind of an
abduction.
GRACE: Take a look at this little girl. The tip line, 360-428-3211. Where is Katie? You know, Matt Zarrell, tell me, and the reason I keep going back
to this, is because it doesn`t fit. There`s -- there`s no logical explanation for what happened.
You know, Matt, every night, after we have dinner and the children all done their homework, we watch a part of a movie that I pick and they like, and
we all gather around, and if anybody has to get up and go to the kitchen, we stop, we pause it, right?
And just imagining they`re all sitting around. The whole family`s there. It`s not like the girl is off with somebody else. They`re all there
together and they all gave a statement, said this is what happened. Recap it for me, Matt.
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yes. So, official say that Katie walked out of her family`s cabin just to use the bathroom. As you mentioned, she
was wearing the short pajamas. No shoes. No glasses. Apparently, the uncle said hey were watching the movie. Katie decided to go out. She never came
back.
The grandmother actually went out to the bathroom and knocked and said she needed to get in there and asked if Katie was okay but got no response. And
then the uncle came out and opened the door and there was no one there and that`s when the family got very concerned.
[20:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was on vacation. She was having a great time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Katelyn was with her aunt and uncle at a family cabin at Big Lake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe this is some sort of type of abduction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They tracked her phone to the site of an interstate nearly 30 miles away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re just absolutely desperate to find her.
GRACE: To Dr. Panchali Dhar, physician, what evidence could be found on that cell phone, Dr. Dhar?
PANCHALI DHAR, PHYSICIAN: They`re going to have to see if that cell phone was grabbed by anyone else and if there`s any DNA or touch DNA finger
prints that they can expand on and trace it to somebody, whose finger prints are probably in a DNA database, and if there`s a felon out there
that could be prone to abducting children. They could trace these guys back. Who knows if it`s one person or two people who can act like that.
GRACE: You know, one thing I don`t understand, to Kevin O`Connor, why did she have to go outside to go to the bathroom?
O`CONNOR: She didn`t have to go outside. The bathroom is inside the cabin. And she actually stepped -- the door goes on the outside of the -- inside
door and outside door of the cabin.
GRACE: Got it.
O`CONNOR: So, she would have had to step outside the cabin to answer a phone call or for whatever reason or to step out there or someone knocked
on the door.
GRACE: Okay. Marc Klaas, the family is not saying anything at all that they heard a knock. They`re saying she stepped out to go to the bathroom and
boom. They waited and waited. The grandma even goes to try to go in the bathroom and the girl is gone. Marc Klaas, somebody had to be watching that
location.
KLAAS: On that order, there is a slight possibility that she had been conversing with somebody, Nancy, either via phone or somebody she connected
to an internet.
GRACE: But they got her phone, Marc. They`ve got her phone. And -- and they`re not saying anything about that. Take a look at this girl. 360-428-
3211. I`m not ruling out what Marc Klaas`s theory is as well. But what I do know, this girl is gone.
Everyone reports to (inaudible). A shooting death of a Kansas City police captain gunned down. Kyle Peltz, what happened?
KYLE PELTZ, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: That`s right, Nancy. Robert Melton, a captain with a Kansas City police, shot and killed while pursuing a suspect
who was allegedly involved in a drive-by shooting. When he spotted the suspect, officer Melton boxed him in with his vehicle and that`s when the
perp pulled out a handgun and fired several shots into the passenger side of the police car.
GRACE: Any leads on the perp?
PELTZ: Well, as of now, Nancy, police haven`t released any details about the suspect involved in the drive-by shooting, other than to say that
everyone involved, including the person who fired the shot at Captain Melton, is believed to be in custody.
GRACE And what -- what can you tell me about the condition of the officer?
PELTZ: Well, Nancy, they haven`t said much. We know he was shot multiple times. And this is a man who has been with the Police Department for 17
years and according to the police chief, Captain Melton was a war veteran who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq and even received the bronze star
for his service.
GRACE: Tonight, our prayers and thoughts for Captain Robert Dave Melton`s family. Tip line, 816-474- (inaudible).
Let`s stop and honor American hero, Nicholas Tullier, 41, gunned down in the Baton Rouge police ambush. At this hour he`s still fighting for his
life, with Uniform Patrol Traffic Division, 18 years of service. Tonight, we ask you for your thoughts and prayers for his recovery and for his
family. Parents are James and Mary. Two children. Nicholas Tullier, American hero.
And tonight, happy birthday to long time viewer and friend of my parents, Jesse Evans. He loves pop. He loves R&B. He loves Bluegrass and model
railroading because his dad, like my dad, a railroad man. Happy birthday, Jesse.
Thanks to all of our guests, but to you, thank you for being with us. Nancy Grace signing off. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8 o`clock sharp eastern.
Until then, good night.
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