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Paula Zahn Now

Carlie Brucia's Killer Receives Death Penalty; President Bush's Approval Ratings Continue Downward Trend; "Manorexia" Fairly Common; Colorado Man Uses Dummy To Drive In HOV Lane; Ferrari Wrecked In Classic Hollywood Story Of Intrigue

Aired March 15, 2006 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Glad to have you all with us.
Tonight, the ultimate punishment for a brutal murder that outraged the nation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): The death penalty -- an abduction caught on videotape. Today, Carlie Brucia's killer is sentenced.

JUDGE ANDREW OWENS, 12TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT COURT OF FLORIDA: You have forfeited your right to live freely among us in society. You are hereby sentenced to death.

OWENS: But, for the victim's family, the pain continues.

STEVE KANSLER, STEP-FATHER OF CARLIE BRUCIA: It still hurts. It doesn't change anything.

ZAHN: "Mysteries of the Mind" -- manorexia. Women aren't the only ones with the deadly disorder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had no idea that he was thin because he had an eating disorder.

ZAHN: Is someone you know starving himself nearly to death?

And the "Eye Opener" -- a real-life story that is fascinating everyone in Hollywood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is like a "James Bond" story.

ZAHN: A million-dollar Ferrari torn to pieces, a missing driver, and a playboy passenger vanishes into thin air. Can the police ever get to the bottom of this turbocharged (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And we start tonight with this afternoon's emotional drama that played out in a Florida courtroom. It was impossible to look away as a judge, in methodical, graphic detail, recounted how Joseph Smith kidnapped, tied up, brutalized, and finally strangled the life out of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in February of 2004. It is a murder that has attracted national attention, partly because there are pictures of the actual kidnapping, pictures that are all the more chilling because we know what happened next.

John Zarrella has been covering this and filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDGE ANDREW OWENS, 12TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT COURT OF FLORIDA: Stand for sentencing.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Joseph Smith stood motionless, expressionless, as Judge Andrew Owens sentenced him to die.

OWENS: Joseph Smith, based upon your actions, you have forfeited your right to live freely among us in society, and, pursuant to the laws of Florida, have forfeited your right to live.

Accordingly, it is hereby ordered and adjudged that, for the murder of Carlie Jane Brucia, you are hereby sentenced to death.

ZARRELLA: Smith nodded only slightly. Outside the courtroom, Carlie's stepfather said his closure will come when Smith dies.

STEVE KANSLER, STEP-FATHER OF CARLIE BRUCIA: I have wanted the death penalty from the beginning, because I want to watch him die.

QUESTION: Do you plan on being there (INAUDIBLE).

KANSLER: Front row and center.

ZARRELLA: Two years ago, on February 1, Smith kidnapped the 11- year-old girl as she walked home from a sleepover at a friend's house. Four days later, her body was found on the grounds of a church. Carlie Brucia's abduction was captured on a surveillance camera at a car wash.

The grainy 10 seconds of video led to Smith's arrest and was pivotal evidence at his trial last November. Upon his conviction, the jury recommended, 10-2, that Smith die. During this sentencing hearing, the judge laid out, in oftentimes painful detail, the ordeal the little girl suffered before she died.

OWENS: Carlie's death was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel. Her death was conscienceless and pitiless, and, undoubtedly, unnecessarily torturous.

ZARRELLA: Throughout the proceeding, as Judge Owens detailed how Joseph Smith strangled Carlie Brucia, Smith's mother wept.

OWENS: He held Carlie's life in his hands, not for eight to 10 seconds, but for minutes. And, as each moment passed, he made a conscious choice to slowly and methodically deprive her body of the blood and air necessary to sustain life.

ZARRELLA: Police and prosecutors who lived with the case for 25 months said, this was the only outcome there could have been.

DEBRA JOHNES RIVA, FLORIDA ASSISTANT STATE ATTORNEY: Joseph Smith will not be in this community anymore.

ZARRELLA: Smith's attorney said the automatic appeal to the Florida Supreme Court will be filed immediately.

(on camera): Carlie's mother, Susan Schorpen, was not in court. Schorpen is in jail, awaiting trial on drug and prostitution charges. Her natural father was not here either. It was simply too painful for him, his sister said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLIE BRUCIA, MURDER VICTIM: Hi. We're going camping today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA (voice-over): For the Brucia family, Smith's death sentence does not bring peace.

LAURIE BRUCIA, AUNT OF CARLIE BRUCIA: And I have to say that I don't think you're ever happy. Happy would be having Carlie right beside me, and giving her a hug and a kiss, and watching her grow up, and celebrating her 13th birthday tomorrow, which will never happen.

ZARRELLA: The sheriff who led the investigation put it this way. "Carlie," he said, "is probably watching over us, trying to bring us all a little peace."

John Zarrella, CNN, Sarasota, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: In John Zarrella's report, we heard a little bit of reaction from Carlie Brucia's stepfather, Steve Kansler. He was in the courtroom today, as the judge went through Joseph Smith's crimes and sentenced him to die.

And Steve Kansler is back with us now.

Steve, was justice served today?

KANSLER: Yes, I believe it was.

ZAHN: You had to sit in the courtroom, as the judge methodically laid out this case against Joseph Smith. What was it like to have to relive the crime directed against your stepdaughter?

KANSLER: For first time in two years that it -- since this happened, I actually really showed any emotion at all, because, I sat there, with my eyes closed, I tried to somewhat put myself in Carlie's shoes and try to pretend I was there when it happened. And it just -- I pretty much lost it. I -- it was hard.

ZAHN: Will you be relieved to see Joseph Smith die? KANSLER: Oh, yes, without a doubt. I -- that's what I have asked from day one. That is what I have always wanted. And thank God I got my wish.

ZAHN: When he was convicted, he accepted, he said, full responsibility for the crime committed against Carlie. Did you ever buy any of that testimony?

KANSLER: Not at all.

It was his last plea to save his own butt. And he never showed any remorse whatsoever throughout any of this, always joking, smiling. So, it was just something he had to do to try to save himself. But I didn't believe any of it, from the beginning that he started to read it.

ZAHN: Did you look at him today when the death sentence came down?

KANSLER: From where I was sitting, I couldn't look at him. I sat further to the wall, where I couldn't see him. But I actually did catch it on TV later on. And he still had no remorse then either, no facial expression, no nothing.

ZAHN: How nerve-wracking was it to sit in court, not knowing which way this was going to go today?

KANSLER: Honestly, when the first two life sentences came out, I kind of lost hope some, so to speak. But, as the judge talked further and further into the -- into the hearing, I started to get confidence that I was going to get what I wanted.

ZAHN: Steven Kansler, thank you for joining us tonight. You have had a tough day. My heart goes out to you and your whole family.

KANSLER: Thank you.

ZAHN: And we move on now to one of the more disgusting stories I have heard about lately. You're not going to believe what people were watching live on the Web, as it happened to very young children. How many suspects were actually caught?

And, then, we move on to a brand new poll. It has more bad news for the president. How low can his approval rating go? And is it time to start firing the White House staff?

And then we are going to meet a young man who suffers from a mysterious eating disorder that most people associate with women. Can he conquer his obsession, obsession, it seems, that millions of men in America also share?

Now we move on to our CNN.com countdown.

No. 10, we begin with the wildfires that have scorched more than 800,000 acres in Texas. Tonight, residents of six towns in one county have been evacuated. And Texas officials are warning that the flames could cross the state line into Oklahoma.

Number nine now -- today, prosecutors asked a judge to reconsider her decision to throw out half the government's case against confessed 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. The judge actually barred several key witnesses from testifying because a government lawyer coached them -- numbers eight and seven straight out of the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Coming up, the amazing story of a man who wrecked this very expensive car. Then he told witnesses he was with the Department of Homeland Security. And guess what? No one has seen him since then.

But, first, it is another day, another poll, another all-time low for President Bush. This time, it is the Pew poll. And the president's approval rating is a never-before-seen 33 percent. Fifty- seven percent of those surveyed disapprove of how he's doing. Is it time for heads to roll in the Bush administration? And, if so, who might go?

White House correspondent Dana Bash has been way out in front of the story. She has heard some of the names being whispered in the corridors, and takes us "Beyond the Headlines" tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are at work before dawn and there late into the night. And weekends -- what weekends? Andy Card sets the pace. He has been the president's right-hand man for 1,880 takes, White House days.

BRADLEY PATTERSON, AUTHOR, "THE WHITE HOUSE STAFF: INSIDE THE WEST WING AND BEYOND": You're on duty all the time, never off-duty.

BASH: Bradley Patterson worked for three presidents and wrote a book on the White House staff.

PATTERSON: And you're always pushed and challenged and squeezed by this sense of deadlines. It is a stressful place. So, it tends to be wearing. And -- and people sometimes burn out.

BASH: Yet, many of this president's inner circle were there on day one and are blamed now, at least in part, for a series of stumbles, from the Katrina response to not knowing their own administration had OKed an Arab company taking control of U.S. ports. Two presidents brought David Gergen in as part of big shakeups.

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: The time-test method of try trying to fix things is to bring in an outsider.

BASH: Mr. Bush has heard, and ignored, this talk before. But, this time, it's friends and confidants urging him to bring in one or two seasoned hands to help with frayed congressional relations and other political troubleshooting. Thanks, but no thanks, is the White House line. Senior officials tell CNN, they -- and, more importantly, the president himself -- don't think changing personnel will solve their problems.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is part of the inside-Washington babble that goes on in this town. It's part of the parlor game.

BASH: David Gergen says outsiders can help, but only if the boss truly wants change.

GERGEN: He almost is resolute in saying, because you're saying it so loudly, I'm not going to do it. It makes no sense to bring a graybeard in, unless the president really wants that individual by his side.

BASH: Loyalty has always been a Bush trademark. And this team has been through a lot, two grueling campaigns, 9/11, two wars and more.

The president's father was known for loyalty, too. Ironically, it was a young George W. Bush who pushed to have John Sununu fired as White House chief of staff. He later built his teams based on the lessons he took from his father's struggles.

GERGEN: There is a view: Let's bull it out. Let's go -- you know, keep going straight down this course. And, one day, people will look back and say, we're Harry Truman. Even though we may go out of office with low approval ratings, they will come back and say, well, because he was resolute, because he was stubborn, he hung in there. It worked out. That's a big, big gamble.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: (AUDIO GAP) the Republicans pushing for new blood concede, the president's political challenges are far greater than any one or two people can overcome.

In fact, polls show Americans feel so bad about things in general in this country, one leading GOP strategist said -- quote -- "Anybody who believes that you can somehow change senior staff, and these numbers would change, are kidding themselves" -- Paula.

ZAHN: Ouch.

White House correspondent Dana Bash, thanks so much.

In Washington, we now have two CNN contributors who voluntarily came and went from jobs with different administrations. Paul Begala was a Clinton White House aide. Victoria Clarke was a Pentagon spokeswoman during President Bush's first term.

Good to see both of you.

VICTORIA CLARKE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, Paula.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hey, Paula.

ZAHN: So, Paul, I want to put this into perspective tonight.

Let -- let's look at Ronald Reagan's lowest approval rating ever. That stood at some 35 percent. And, yet, by the end of his presidency, he was at 63 percent. Go on to your boss, Bill Clinton.

He had a low at 37 percent. But, by the time he left office, he was back up to 66 percent.

So, what would it take for this president to turn his numbers around?

BEGALA: Well, just three things, the father, the son and the holy ghost.

(LAUGHTER)

BEGALA: He's in...

ZAHN: Oh, just those three things?

BEGALA: He's in complete -- first off...

CLARKE: Divine intervention.

BEGALA: I -- I -- I like him. He's a nice man. But he's no Ronald Reagan, he's no Bill Clinton, in terms of his own talent.

Second, those presidents had discrete problems, not something that was as fundamental as Iraq, corruption, Katrina, the deaths that -- the things that are bedeviling this current president.

Third, both of those presidents, Clinton and Reagan, as Dana pointed out in her piece, were willing to reach out. They were both -- both stubborn and strong men. And, yet, they were willing to reach out of their inner circle and bring in some new ideas, as well as new people, and to change course.

Ronald Reagan passed the largest tax increase in history, after the largest tax cut. Bill Clinton helped to balance the budget with a Republican Congress, even though he's elected as a Democrat with a lot of new spending ideas. So, both of those guys, I think, are good models for President Bush. I just don't think he has followed those models.

ZAHN: All right, but, Torie, neither one of those presidents had an Iraq war dangling over those poll numbers.

CLARKE: Right.

ZAHN: When you look at -- at the -- the probably most devastating number, it shows that 57 percent of all Americans think going into Iraq was a mistake. In the end, doesn't, ultimately, the success of his second term ride on what happens in Iraq?

CLARKE: Well, it depends on what you mean by success.

You know, thank God the president isn't obsessed with the poll numbers, the way people like us are. And he's not running for reelection. I would argue -- I'm listening to Paul talk about Reagan and Clinton. The challenges this president has faced were far more significant, far more serious, quite honestly, than anything faced by Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton.

What I hope he -- the president doesn't do is react for the sake of reacting, do something, hoping it will change the poll numbers. What you want him to do is stay focused on the challenges and say...

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: Yes, but you want things to improve, Torie, in...

CLARKE: Sure.

ZAHN: ... Iraq as well.

CLARKE: Absolutely.

And some things are improving. Some things aren't. But people start talking about throwing people overboard, and wholesale changes in the staff, and I say to myself, OK, have there been some mistakes recently? Absolutely. But do you throw overboard the staff that got two Supreme Court nominees confirmed?

Do you throw over the staff that has helped get the economy to a very robust place, where unemployment is at historic lows, where the average wage is at historic highs?

Do you throw overboard the staff that got...

ZAHN: Well...

CLARKE: ... the energy bill and the transportation bill passed?

Some good things have happened. Some bad things have happened. What you need to do is not become obsessed with poll numbers for the sake of poll numbers, but look at what your objectives are...

ZAHN: All right.

CLARKE: ... and say, do we have the right horses?

ZAHN: Paul, in spite of what Torie has just said, who would you fire?

BEGALA: All of them.

I would start with Dick Cheney and finish with Barney, the dog. I would keep Laura. She's a home run. But I would fire all of them, honestly. And here's why.

We can't fire the president. He has a four-year no-cut contract. We really can't fire Dick Cheney either. But I guess, if I was Mr. Bush, I would ask him to fake a heart attack and get out.

And here is why. Some of those people are very bright, but burnt out. Some of them just never were competent to begin with. They're all toast right now. I -- I used to work there. And -- and, as you have pointed out, I left voluntarily. In fact, I -- I gave the president two weeks' notice the day after he was found not guilty in the impeachment trial.

ZAHN: Yes.

BEGALA: Why? I was burned out. And I was about 15 years younger than the gang that is in the White House now. In many cases, they are much older than I was.

ZAHN: Right.

BEGALA: There's only so much you have got to give.

And it is not just about poll numbers. It is about casualty numbers in Iraq. It is about deficit numbers and debt numbers. It's -- it's -- there are some real lives and jobs and -- and our future at stake here. And I -- I admire the president's loyalty, but he's not being loyal to his country first.

ZAHN: Surprised you didn't recommend they bring your good friend Torie Clark back...

BEGALA: I would...

ZAHN: ... to the White House.

BEGALA: I would love to see that.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN: You two, we got to leave it there. Thank you for both of your perspectives tonight.

CLARKE: Thanks, Paula.

BEGALA: Thanks, Paula.

ZAHN: Always good to see you.

You can find a lot of really bizarre Web sites on your computer. But the government has just put a stop to one that is absolutely disgusting. Why would anyone watch children being sexually abused?

And, a little bit later on, what secret has actor Dennis Quaid just revealed? And how many other men have the same problem?

Before that, here is number eight on our CNN.com countdown. The U.S. military officials order an armored battalion of up to 700 troops into Iraq, as sectarian violence continues.

Also today, a U.S. soldier was killed in a mortar attack near Baghdad. Two thousand three hundred and twelve service men and women have been killed in Iraq.

Number seven -- authorities say the reigning Miss Deaf Texas, Tara McAvoy, was actually text-messaging her parents and friends when she was killed by a train as she walked near the tracks in Austin on Monday -- number six when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: It's always shocking when you hear about pornography involving children. But the story you're about to see will likely leave you absolutely outraged. It is number six on our CNN.com countdown of the most viewed stories, and for very good reason. It is about a global crackdown on a porn ring that used Internet technology to do the sickest things, live and on demand, to incredibly young victims.

Kelli Arena has tonight's "Outside the Law."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The acting Toronto police chief has seen a lot of pornography cases, but Tony Warr says, this is one of the worst he has ever seen.

TONY WARR, ACTING TORONTO POLICE CHIEF: This is very disturbing. But they all are disturbing. It is children. You know, these are our children. And -- and anything that does -- anybody does to abuse or exploit them is disgusting.

ARENA: The global sting started with an arrest last year in the city of Edmonton in western Canada. Since then, 27 people have been charged in Canada, Australia, Britain, and 13 in the United States. The defendants allegedly used a chat room called "Kiddypics" and "Kiddyvids" to trade pornography.

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The behavior in these chat rooms and the images many of these defendants sent around the world through peer-to-peer file-sharing programs and private instant- messaging services are the worst imaginable forms of child pornography.

ARENA: One defendant from the Chicago suburb of Bartlett who went by the screen name Acidburn is accused in an indictment of molesting an infant live on the Internet.

Brian Annoreno's lawyer says he will plead not guilty.

MICHAEL FALCONER, ATTORNEY FOR BRIAN A. ANNORENO: He tells me that he has never and never would molest any infant.

ARENA: According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators, who led the effort, the case illustrates some key new trends.

JULIE MYERS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY FOR U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: At one time, about 85 percent of child pornography featured -- quote, unquote -- "known victims," shown in recycled images over and over again. That is starting to change. We're seeing more new material and more new victims.

ARENA: Investigators say those victims are younger. In this case, the youngest was less than 18 months old. And the molestation is becoming much more violent, including gang rape and torture with deadly weapons.

JAMES PLITT, DIRECTOR, IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT CYBER CRIMES CENTER: You want to find the -- the perpetrator. When you want to free that child, that child can't talk. That child can't tell you what happened. That child can't testify. That -- that child, in some cases, cannot even stand.

ARENA: Officials say child porn cases are becoming more difficult to crack, as perpetrators become more technologically savvy.

(on camera): In this case, the chat room was protected by several security devices, including an encryption key, which was limited to members of the ring. It took nearly a year, but investigators were able to open up that chat room and track down the alleged pornographers.

(voice-over): According to law enforcement officials, seven of the children who had been molested were identified and are now in safe hands.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Out of the 27 people charged, one is still a fugitive tonight.

And, by the way, about the only piece of good news out of all this is, Microsoft says it has developed a program that can actually help trace Internet porn trafficking.

Still to come tonight -- a young man struggling to control a very mysterious obsession with his weight and food. And he's not alone. There are millions of men struggling with the same problem. What might help him?

Before that, though, let's turn to Erica Hill at Headline News. She updates the hour's top stories -- Erica.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Paula, Saddam Hussein is urging Iraqis to stop killing each other and to fight the American military instead -- the former Iraqi dictator making those comments today while testifying during the latest stormy court session in his genocide trial.

The judge briefly closed the courtroom to the media to stop Hussein's political rhetoric. The trial has been adjourned for three weeks. It will resume on April 5. Just hours ago, a man entered a Denny's restaurant in Pismo Beach, California, and shot and killed two men, then killed himself. Two others were injured. Police say the shooting appears to be a random act of violence.

And work has resumed at the Sago Mine in West Virginia, more than 10 weeks after an explosion trapped and killed 12 miners. The mine's owners say their investigation showed a bolt of lightning triggered the deadly methane gas explosion. Government investigators have not yet released their findings.

Paula, that's the latest at this hour -- back over to you.

ZAHN: Erica Hill, thanks so much.

Actor Dennis Quaid has just revealed a startling secret. Millions of men have the same problem. What causes it? Can anything help?

And have you ever thought that the people in the car next to you might be dummies? Guess what? As Jeanne Moos will show us, some are.

Number five on our CNN.com countdown -- a follow-up on a scandal we first told you about, allegations that this man's company fraudulently sold body parts from corpses to medical facilities. Well, now one facility, Medtronic, says at least 8,000 of the parts it received were implanted and fear some may carry disease.

Number four is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Coming up in this half hour, a Hollywood mystery. Who is responsible for a million dollar car going to pieces? And what happened to the guy who was in it, the one who said he was with the Department of Homeland Security?

And why is this guy holding a sign that says the HOV lane is not for dummies? What does he want?

Coming up at the top of the hour on "LARRY KING LIVE," Liza Minnelli on her life, her loves and constantly being in the tabloids.

Well, this week actor Dennis Quaid made a stunning admission that he has battled what he called "manorexia." Quaid tells a health magazine that he went from 180 pounds down to 138 pounds to play a deathly ill Doc Holiday in the film "Wyatt Earp." But after the final take, Quaid didn't see himself as too thin. He continued to starve himself, even though he says he was even too weak to climb out of a swimming pool.

Well, that's pretty darn surprising because many of us think eating disorders affect only women. But, as Ted Rowlands found out, a lot of men are living in that secret world where you're literally dying to be thin. It is tonight's "Mysteries of the Mind."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you haven't been on a scale since the last time that I weighed you?

JAI PERUMAN, DIAGNOSED WITH BULIMIA: No.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Taking off his shoes to step on a scale, Jai Peruman looks away so he can't see his weight. Jai is recovering from bulimia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The amount of minutes in the day, the amount of time in the day that you're thinking about this is pretty minimal?

J. PERUMAN: I don't know. It's probably still a significant amount. But it is definitely not like it was.

ROWLANDS: Three years ago at the age of 17, Jai started deliberately throwing up his food.

J. PERUMAN: It was out of control from the start. You know, just I'd just be binging and purging three or four times a day.

ROWLANDS: Jai, who loves playing the bass guitar, lives by himself in this Berkeley, California, apartment. He was living at home with his family when his obsession began and says he was able to keep it a secret until he actually swallowed the toothbrush he was using to gag himself.

J. PERUMAN: And had like I basically my whole hand in my mouth and, you know, and then holding on to the head with, you know, the ends of two fingers. And you lose it.

RAVI PERUMAN, FATHER: I knew he was thin. That part was easy to recognize. I had no idea that he was thin because he had an eating disorder.

ROWLANDS: Jai and his family would soon learn they weren't alone. And estimated 10 percent of people with eat disorders are boys or men like Jeff Everts, who said he started 30 years ago when he was just 15 growing up on a farm in Wisconsin.

JEFF EVERTS, DIAGNOSED WITH BULIMIA: It wasn't that I was worried about getting fat. It's that I wanted to be lean as a football player.

ROWLANDS: Jeff says he remembers avoiding food all together in high school, skipping breakfast and lunch for days at a time and intentionally coming home late after football practice.

EVERTS: I'd get to that door and I would run as fast as I could through the kitchen, as my dad and mom are yelling at me, hey, Jeff, sit down and get something to eat. Come on. And I'm just making a beeline up that stairs and up into my bedroom. It was the dreaded moment of the day. ROWLANDS: Eventually, Jeff was so thin, he couldn't play football anymore. The local newspaper published this photograph of Jeff getting an honorary game ball when he was a senior. At the time, nobody knew what was wrong with him.

EVERTS: My parents didn't have any clue about anorexia or bulimia or any of these eating disorders. We lived on a farm. This is 30 years ago.

ROWLANDS: Eventually, Jeff and Jai ended up getting help. They each spent time at Rogers Hospital in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. The hospital has the only in-patient eating disorder clinic in the country for men and boys.

DR. THEODORE WELTZIN, ROGERS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: Many males with clear eating disorder symptoms are not diagnosed.

ROWLANDS: Dr. Theodore Weltzin helps run the treatment program at Roger's Hospital. Patients here are put on a special diet to the help them gain weight. Their activities are also closely monitored, including trips to the bathroom. Dr. Weltzin says in recent years more and more men are being diagnosed with eating disorders partly because of the same societal pressure women have dealt with for years, to have that so-called perfect body.

WELTZIN: Six-pack abs and having this ripped abdomen as a way of somehow being happy, being successful, having a good relationship, I mean, that is the message that is going out. That's why we're seeing greater rates of males with eating disorders.

ROWLANDS: Jai keeps a photograph of himself when he entered treatment. He weighed 117 pounds. He also keeps this photo of a friend he met in treatment who later died. Jai, who sees a nutritionist, now weighs more than 140 pounds, and says he thinks he has his problem beat.

Jeff, on other hand, is still struggling.

EVERTS: All right, lightning.

ROWLANDS: He lives alone with his dog in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And he is still throwing up his food.

EVERTS: It's not like once a week. We're talking about every day.

ROWLANDS: Jeff says he doesn't eat a lot. In his refrigerator, there is some milk, low fat cottage cheese and protein drinks.

EVERTS: This is the source of my protein because again I don't eat much meat.

ROWLANDS: In the freezer, you see Jeff's problem.

EVERTS: We had the binge unfortunately. We have the ice cream. ROWLANDS: Half gallon bricks stacked in rows. Jeff says around 8:00, every night, he eats about a gallon of ice cream then he throws it up.

EVERTS: It is almost like a second high. when you are eating the food because you already created your fantasy world where nothing matters now. OK, you're in a sense a lawless world. So you get that high from that. And then when the pain reaches the point where you realize all the wickedness you might say you absorb, now you throw it all up and get rid of it out of your life and then there's back to this low pressure peaceful mood again.

ROWLANDS (on-camera): Why can't you beat this?

EVERTS: It's a good question. I keep working at it. Keep working at it.

ROWLANDS (voice-over): An estimated 10 percent of people with eating disorders eventually die from the illness. The experts say with help, most people like Jai can get past the disease and lead a normal life. But for others, like Jeff, it is a life-long struggle.

EVERTS: It would be nice to be totally free and never have to think about that again. But I can't foresee that.

ROWLANDS: Ted Rowlands, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Wish him luck.

We're going to switch gears now literally in just a minute. How far would you go to get in the fast lane? We've got the story of a driver who found a way to fool the cops. How long was he able to do that? You'll find out.

And who is responsible of turning a million dollar car into almost a million pieces? And was the passenger who fled the scene really with homeland security?

Now on to number four in our CNN.com countdown. In Hawaii, crews search for bodies one day after a dam burst on the island of Kauai causing flooding and mudslides. Officials say one body has been found but six other people remain missing. Heavy rain is being blamed for the disaster.

Number three is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Well, we've all heard about some of the wild things people will do to drive in the carpool lane. Well, one Colorado man came up with a very creative way to get into the lane, only to find that the punishment for being there fit the crime. Here is Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Her name is Tillie (ph), but don't let that serene face fool you. Tillie has lived life in the fast lane with Greg Pringle.

GREG PRINGLE, MOTORIST: Oh, I knew I was doing wrong from the get go. I was nervous.

MOOS: Pringle got busted a month and a half ago using Tillie as an extra occupant to sneak into the HOV lane for car-poolers. And this is his punishment.

PRINGLE: Almost halfway done.

MOOS: Four hours by this Colorado highway, holding a sign saying "HOV lane is not for dummies." Not since the automatic pilot in the spoof "Airplane" ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There it is.

MOOS: ... has a dummy gotten this much attention. But dummies in HOV lanes are nothing new. From the Netherlands to California, drivers have been nabbed for propping them up to fool the police.

But the best excuse came from this Arizona woman when she was pulled over for driving alone. The officer asked her how many occupants she had, and she said two.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She pointed to her obvious pregnancy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An unborn child is defined as a person.

MOOS: The judge didn't buy her argument.

This dummy, known as Safety Man, was meant to be used by women to scare off potential attackers. Now that's a dummy that might pass for real. But Tillie was homemade, consisting a Styrofoam head from a beauty supply store, hangers for shoulders and newspaper stuffing. For about a year, she saved Greg half an hour a day.

PRINGLE: I had a summer outfit and a winter outfit. And I had legs. I added legs later so that the truckers wouldn't look down and see that I had a person with no legs.

MOOS: Greg had to pay 125 bucks in fines and corporate costs. As for his public punishment ...

PRINGLE: It has been kind of fun.

MOOS: Tillie will be auctioned off on eBay with proceeds going to Alive at 25, a driver ed organization.

If a fetus doesn't help your HOV count, how about the body in the back of a hearse? No way, say cops. That's cargo, you dummy.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Heck of a lot easier to follow the rules.

Coming up, a super expensive car that didn't have any dummies in it. Well, I guess that's a questionable judgment to have been made. Would you have taken better care of this million dollar car than the so-called secret agent who owned the Ferrari that ended up in what seemed to be a million pieces? And by the way, where is he, the same guy who also happened to claimed he was with Homeland Security? What is he up to now?

Before we get some of those answers, let's turn to Erica Hill who has the Headline News "Business Break."

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

ZAHN: Time to turn to Larry King, who will be joining us at the top of the hour. Hi, Larry. How are you doing tonight?

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: I'm doing well, Paula. We've got a great guest.

Liza Minnelli -- you know she's won everything there is to win? Grammy, Emmy, Tonys -- multiple Tonys and an Oscar, and she's had quite a life. And she's just turned 60 years old. Liza with a Z at the top of the hour with viewer phone calls.

ZAHN: You should see the green room here in New York, Larry. People are lined up around the corner wanting to meet her.

KING: She's special.

ZAHN: But we'll wait for your interview, about 14 minutes from now. Have a good show.

KING: Thanks, Paula.

Now we move on to number three in our CNN.com countdown. Rusty Yates, whose former wife, Andrea, drowned the couple's five children in the family's bathtub in 2001, is getting married this weekend to a woman he met at church. The wedding is on Saturday, two days before Andrea Yates' scheduled capital murder retrial.

Number two is up next.

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ZAHN: Welcome back. A spectacular car crash has grabbed the attention of Hollywood. Yes. A car crash making news in a town that made exploding cars an art form. Only this one is for real. If it were a movie, the plot would be pretty darn thrilling. The disappearance of a playboy, an incredibly hot set of wheels worth about a million bucks. And a whole lot of international intrigue. Let's see where all it leads in tonight's "Eye Opener."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At first glance, anyone could have mistaken this Malibu scene for a Hollywood stunt.

A Ferrari sliced in half sitting in the middle of the highway. Helicopters hovering overhead. Cameras rolling but they weren't shooting some high budget feature, they were filming the action for the local news.

HANS LAETZ, FREELANCE JOURNALIST: That's the engine of this car.

SIMON: Hans Laetz was at the crash scene in minute.

LAETZ: When You see a nasty crash, it is in one little place. This stretched over almost half a mile of highway. There were parts strewn about everywhere. None of them bigger than a toaster.

SIMON: Amazingly, no one was seriously injured in the early morning crash on February 21. But car enthusiasts were mourning the loss of the incredibly rare Ferrari Enzo, one of only 400 ever produced.

The vehicle packs a 660 horsepower V-12 engine and can accelerate from 0 to 60 in 3.3 seconds. Authorities believe the million dollar vehicle was going more than 160 miles an hour before it hit an embankment and crashed into a power pole. This is a digital re- creation made by the L.A. Sheriff's Department.

(on camera): Car accidents here in Malibu or anywhere else for that matter certainly aren't uncommon. But what makes this one so unusual isn't just the pricey car, but the man at the center of it all. A Swedish national named Stephan Erickson.

(voice-over): This is Erickson, who made a fortune in high tech. He told deputies at the crash scene he was just a passenger in his own Ferrari, which he said was being driven by a German acquaintance he knew only as Dietrich. This mysterious Dietrich, he said, ran for the hills literally and disappeared.

SGT. PHIL BROOKS, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF: It instantly put the deputies in a search and rescue mode.

SIMON: There was no Dietrich to be found and no trail of him either, says Sergeant Phil Brooks. It would be the first of several puzzling statements made by Erickson. Listen to what he said to Hans Laetz when the reporter tried to take his picture.

LAETZ: He said don't take my picture. I'm with homeland security.

SIMON: Erickson repeated this claim to deputies and there is also his statement that the Ferrari had been racing another car, a Mercedes. But investigates don't buy that. Just who is this international man of mystery Stephan Erickson? Well, according to investigators in the early '90s, he served five years in a Swedish prison for counterfeiting. He may have became a top executive for a European electronics gaming company called Gizmondo, a company that collapsed after losing more than $100 million.

BROOKS: You have the million dollar Ferrari. Then you this background on the driver, some type of Swedish playboy involved with possibly homeland security and other police agencies. It is like a James Bond story. It is just the background is just amazing.

SIMON: Investigators says dozens of witnesses place Erickson behind the wheel prior to the crash. The driver's side air bag also had blood on it. Erickson had a bloody lip. The sheriff department is conducting a DNA test.

BROOKS: We'll see if his DNA match up to the blood on the driver's side.

SIMON: Authorities theorize Erickson concocted a bogus story because he was drunk. His blood alcohol level was just above the legal limit. Sergeant Brooks says a DUI would have been a lot easier than the trouble Erickson faces for allegedly lying to deputies. Not to mention the international media exposure.

BROOKS: I had calls from -- all from Sweden, the UK and even Australia.

SIMON: What about Erickson's claim of having ties to Homeland Security?

(on camera): Does Stephan Erickson have connections to Homeland Security?

BROOKS: As far as I know, no. Not at all.

SIMON (voice-over): But at the scene, Erickson flashed around a business card. Declaring himself to be a deputy police commissioner of a San Gabrielle, California, anti-terrorism unit. The only stated purpose of the so-called anti-terror unit is to provide security for a bus company that serves the disabled. Another bizarre aspect to the case. Journalist Hans Laetz says it is no wonder the L.A. media has been fixated on the crash.

LAETZ: It has a little touch of international intrigue. A little touch of Malibu. A little touch of schadenfreude where people laugh at other's misfortunes.

SIMON: Erickson's attorneys declined to speak with CNN and he has yet to be charged with any crime. The sheriff's department tells us he's left the country. In any case, the Swede probably wishes he got in a different car that day. A car that wouldn't have attracted so much attention. Dan Simon, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: One more piece of the puzzle. Detective also found part of a Glock pistol, a model, made mostly out of plastic and favored by criminals because it can pass through some metal detectors.

Coming up at the top of the hour, one of the true legends of show business, Liza Minnelli looks back on her life and loves and all controversies that confronted her along the way. That's coming up on "LARRY KING LIVE" at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: You may not know this, but you're looking at our front yard here at the Time Warner Center. Chilly night out there. Everybody is calling it the calm before the storm. Of course, you know, on March 17th, St. Patrick's day, we're supposed to get some snow. Winter has returned here.

We leave you with number one on our CNN.com countdown. Jay Leno says he's sorry. The "Tonight Show" host called a viewer to apologize after he received her letter complaining about a recent sketch done on his show comparing Vice President Cheney's hunting accident to the 2003 videotaped shooting of an attorney outside an L.A. courthouse.

That wraps it up for all of us here tonight. Thanks so much for being with us. Tomorrow night a really interesting story, a test that claimed 99.9 percent accuracy in telling parents to be weather they are going to have a boy or a girl. So why do dozens of women all over the country say they got the wrong answer. Was the gender test bogus?

We're going to investigate that story tomorrow night. We hope you join us then. Again, good of you to drop by here tonight. Here's "LARRY KING LIVE."

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