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CNN Saturday Morning News

2012 Olympics Opens; Plastic Surgery to Stop Bullying; Molly Bish Cold Murder Case

Aired July 28, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye. It is 9:00 on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. Thank you so much for waking up with us.

If you were waiting to watch London's Olympic opening ceremony today, well, here is your spoiler alert. The ceremony was staged with style, imagination, emotion and humor. Queen Elizabeth officially opened the 2012 games after an epic journey through the United Kingdom's rich history.

Oscar-winner Danny Boyle was the creative mind and director behind the periodic ceremony "Isles of Wonder." The recently crowned Tour de France champion Britain's Bradley Wiggins kicked things off followed by a tour of the United Kingdom's four nations and defining moments that celebrated historic traditions of British society.

Perhaps one of the more memorable moments of the night was the prelude to the Queen's introduction. Stunt doubles portrayed the Queen parachuting into the Olympic stadium with her escort to the opening, James Bond actor Daniel Craig. It was quite a scene.

Let's head over to London's Olympic Park where Amanda Davies is joining us live. Amanda, good morning.

So I understand China is already taking the lead in gold. What do we know about the 23-year-old woman winning her 10-year air rifle competition?

AMANDA DAVIS, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that just well pretty much less than 11 hours after Paul McCartney had finished his rendition of "Hey, Jude" we claimed the first gold medal winner. It was expected to be in the women's 10-meter air rifle because that is generally the way these things work, the Olympics, the first event, and as you said it, went to China's Yi Siling.

She was the world's number one. She was the favorite going into this competition, a 23-year-old who said she had been up since 5:00 this morning. She was so excited about competing here in London and she did that. Rafael Nadal-esque celebration when he wins a trophy. She won her gold and tried to bite into here gold medal. It was almost as big as she was actually, the medals here in London are so big this couple of weeks.

KAYE: That's great. That's the way to celebrate for sure. So let's talk about Michael Phelps. I mean he is getting a lot of attention. A lot of folks are excited about his race this evening. He won his heat this morning though. How did he look?

DAVIES: Well, 14-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps said that he was viewing London as how many toppings he could put on his sundae in terms of how many extra gold medals he could win and it was almost as if he would have to do without the cherry on the top. Because he only just scraped through to the final of the 400 meters individual medley. He finished as the eighth qualifier out of eighth by 0.07 seconds and the look on his face is well -- just words can't describe, was one of sheer and utter relief. He was basically in one of the slower heats, so there was nobody to push him on and he really only just scraped through.

Ryan Lochte made it through with some ease, but it was very interesting now because of the lane differences in the final that takes place in about five and a half hours time here but it means they won't be lining up next to each other which could have a bearing on who takes that gold medal.

KAYE: And let's talk about the queen. She made quite an entrance. I don't know who convinced her to take part in this James Bond skit. It was hilarious. But she actually -- she visited the Olympic Park today. She seems really involved and excited.

DAVIES: Yes. The Queen said she was delighted to have taken part in the opening ceremony yesterday and said she thought the opening ceremony was completely wonderful and Danny Boyle deserves a gold medal for getting her to seemingly jump out of a helicopter with James Bond. She has been back here today and she has been visiting the orbit, which is the tallest structure in Britain which I think you may be able to see behind me, like a helter-skelter. (INAUDIBLE) Boris Johnson, the London mayor and (INAUDIBLE) she is having to wonder around and hoping to see some of the events. And this a really proud moment for her, particularly given everything this year with the jubilee and increasing popularity of the royal family with Will and Kate Middleton and she seems genuinely delighted to have this in London.

KAYE: Yes, it's certainly nice to see. Amanda Davies, thank you so much for the update from London.

It costs $42 million in case you were wondering to put together, that opening ceremony, but from some of the reaction online, well not everyone was impressed. Bravo's Andy Cohen tweeted "Look at the Queen's glorious frown during the anthem." Comedian Conan O'Brien tweeted "Watching London's opening ceremonies hard to believe my ancestors were conquered by theirs." And one person tweeted this "Instead of James Bond, I wish they picked Dr. Who so he could take us all back in time before we started watching this." Wow, that's harsh.

Michael Phelps is going for gold tonight against fellow Team USA member Ryan Lochte. As we've been telling you Phelps won his swimming trial this morning by a hair. CNN's Piers Morgan talked to the 14-time gold medalist to ask him about being an American role model.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": London is my hometown. Everyone is very excited about you coming. What is extraordinary is every American athlete I've interviewed, when I asked them to cite a role model, I said 90 percent say you. That is weird god-like figure to them. With that comes responsibility.

Are you aware of the status you have amongst your peer group? What do you feel about that responsibility?

MICHAEL PHELPS, 14-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: I mean, sometimes I feel it, but I like to just think of myself as a normal person who just has a passion and has a goal and a dream and goes out and does it. That's really how I always lived my life.

MORGAN: I have seen you say that before. Come on, Michael, you're not a normal person.

PHELPS: I consider myself normal. I have spent 20 years in the pool. I consider that something that is normal.

MORGAN: That's not normal.

PHELPS: What do you consider normal?

MORGAN: Not spending 20 years in the pool.

PHELPS: I don't consider --

MORGAN: I spend about 20 minutes in the pool a day.

PHELPS: Well, that's not much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: He's a very funny guy.

Phelps hopes to be the first male swimmer to win the same individual event at three consecutive Olympics when he competes in the 400 individual medley coming up tonight.

Children and plastic surgery may sound a bit controversial. But there is a group of doctors doing it for free in an effort to help bullied kids.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back.

As you may know if you're a regular viewer of this show, I am very passionate about bullying. It clearly needs to stop. Some people suffer from self esteem issues and emotional scars their entire life as a result. Most of these victims are just children. They might look a little different, speak a little different and are relentlessly tormented because of it. Some of these kids are now getting help from a group of extraordinary surgeons.

Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a parent's nightmare.

NADIA ISLE, BULLYING VICTIM: I used to be very talkative when I was a little kid, and now I am just shy and I would rather not talk to anyone. I am antisocial now.

GUPTA: Children viciously bullied for their physical appearance. For 14-year-old Nadia Aisle, the bullying started in first grade.

ISLE: There was this girl that came up to me and says you have the biggest ears I have ever seen. I am like, well, I was just speechless because I didn't think about it until she said that.

GUPTA: She heard Dumbo, elephant ears and much, much worse. Seven years of torment and so withdrawn and still so hard to talk about.

(on camera): What is the -- do you remember the worst sort of taunting or teasing or you know whatever? Do you remember a day where that happened?

ISLE: It happened a lot. Well, it happened so many times that it kind of all blends together that I kind of don't remember.

GUPTA (voice-over): Nadia was just 10 years old when she asked her mom if she could have surgery to pin her ears back, also known as notoplasty. She wanted them to stick out less, all in an effort to stop the bullying.

(on camera): It has been a sort of dark place for you, for a long time it sounds like.

ISLE: Yes, it has been very depressing.

GUPTA (voice-over): Her mom desperate to help turned to the internet and stumbled across the Little Baby Face Foundation. The non-profit organization offers free plastic surgery for children like Nadia who were bullied because of their physical appearance and can't afford an operation.

(on camera): There may be people, Nadia, who say "Look, you don't need to do this. This is just the way you were born, you know, people should love people for who they are. What do you say to those folks?

ISLE: I say that they're right. But it will never stop. It will just keep going and get worse and worse.

GUPTA (voice-over): The foundation flew Nadia and her mother from Georgia to New York City for an all expense paid trip to this hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This will be our target ear so that it will match the other ear which is not as lateralized as this ear. GUPTA: In her application Nadia asked to have her ears pinned back. Dr. Thomas Romo with the Little Baby Face Foundation recommended she change more than just her ears.

DR. THOMAS ROMO, PLASTIC SURGEON: I love thin chins, but I don't want them as pointy as that chin. We talked about that, didn't we? We looked at some pictures of some different people.

ISLE: Yes.

ROMO: Their chins come off just a little more square, so that's exactly what we're going to do, too.

GUPTA: And there was more.

ROMO: When I looked up inside her, the whole septum is actually going off this way and as the septum goes so goes the nose.

GUPTA (on camera): She never talked about the nose or the chin before, right?

ROMO: She did not because she didn't recognize it.

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Romo says with her ears pinned back, her nose and asymmetrical chin would be more pronounced. He said all three surgeries combined are necessary to balance out Nadia's features.

(on camera): Is there any last thoughts as we go into the O.R. here?

ISLE: Nervous. Excited.

GUPTA (on camera): In some ways it has been seven years in the making for Nadia. She just went under but she tells me she has been dreaming about this day for some time and now it is all happening for her.

So what Dr. Romo is doing is an otoplasty, a reduction rhinoplasty, reducing the size of the nose and a mentoplasty here on the chin. What may surprise people is that 42 percent of otoplasties on the ears are done on people under the age of 18.

(voice-over): This four-hour operation would normally come with a price tag of about $40,000. For Nadia it's free.

(on camera): Here in the operating room when you see what's happening here behind me, it gives you a good idea of just how significant bullying can be. Kids become depressed. They can become anxious. In Nadia's case she told me it changed her entire personality.

(voice-over): But surgery alone won't wipe away the pain from years of all that bullying. Nadia's mom hopes counseling will be the final step in the healing process.

Seventy two hours post op, Nadia is still swollen but cautiously optimistic as Dr. Romo removes the bandages and she sees her new self for the first time.

ISLE: I look beautiful. Really, exactly what I wanted. I love it.

GUPTA: Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: She does look great. And if you would like to sound off on stories about bullying, you can tweet me now or any time. Use the hashtag bullying stops here and you can find me on Twitter @randikayecnn. I would love to hear what you think about this and so many of the other bullying stories.

A murder mystery still unsolved after a dozen years. But police may be getting closer to cracking this cold case. We'll talk with the victim's sister next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Molly Bish was a vibrant 16-year-old lifeguard loved by all but 12 years ago someone abducted her while she was on duty in Massachusetts. Three years later her body was found after the largest search in Massachusetts' history. To this day no one has been charged with her murder. But investigators now believe that they are close to finding the person responsible.

This man is a person of interest. He is currently in jail in Florida convicted of killing his girlfriend but he lived in Massachusetts at the time Mollie disappeared. There are some new developments in the case. CNN is looking into those. And today though we're going to tell you the story of Molly and the ninth anniversary of finding her remains.

Joining me now is Molly's sister, Heather Bish. Heather, good morning to you. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

HEATHER BISH, SISTER OF MOLLY BISH: Good morning. Thank you.

KAYE: The area that Molly was found was heavily wooded, certainly not a place most people visited. Do you think that the person who took your sister, who took Molly had to be familiar with that area?

BISH: Absolutely. Where Molly was taken from at Cummings Pond was not a well known pond. It was down a dead end street. There were no signs advertising Cummings Pond. It is a pond where mostly people fished but some people came and brought their kids to swimming lessons, but it wasn't a well-advertised town beach. Where Molly was found was also a very wooded area, very thick under brush, steep, steep hill, lots of bushes, lots of trees, not a trail in the area, not a well-traversed area, more hunting ground. So it gives us the picture that the person that took Molly may have been a fisherman, may have been a hunter, definitely knew the area around (INAUDIBLE).

KAYE: Let's talk about what your mother saw that day all those years ago. She saw a suspicious man in a white car before your sister was taken. Her sketch of the man is so similar to photos of the person of interest from 2000. What do you think? I mean do you think there are similarities to the two pictures? BISH: Absolutely. It is shocking how similar they look. The hairline, the facial features, the look of arrogance, I guess you would say. The moustache certainly, but definitely the tiny features. We really are in debt to Jane Boyle who came out and did this wonderful sketch for my mother and my family of this person and the remarkable tiny characteristics that resemble this person is unremarkable.

KAYE: So what do you think? I mean do you think police are close or at least closer to finding your sister's killer?

BISH: I do. I do. I feel that we are very, very close. I am hoping and praying and hoping for that lucky break. I think we have always been very close in this investigation, the Massachusetts State Police have worked very diligently to find this person, and I feel like we are very, very close to getting this guy.

KAYE: What was Molly like growing up? I am just curious and I can't imagine how much you have missed her over the years.

BISH: Oh, I miss her terrible. Molly, we are a very close family. My brother, my sister and I and my parents. We often say that everybody had a Molly. She is your sister, your daughter, your best friend, the girl who passes you a note in class. Molly was silly. She loved to do Adam Sandler impressions and she was loving. She was a good, good friend and she was an athlete. She played three sports, and she had given up her winter prior to her disappearance to be trained as a lifeguard.

KAYE: What would you like police to do next in this investigation?

BISH: I would like to see them go down to Florida and certainly obtain some search warrants and look through that trailer and the safety deposit box down there and I would also like them to interview as many people as possible while they're there, and I know the state police have searched under every rock and they followed every avenue that they could to find this person. I am truly grateful for the commitment.

KAYE: I'm sure. Heather Bish, thank you so much for your time.

BISH: Thank you.

KAYE: And we wish you the best of luck in finding out what happened to your sister.

BISH: Thanks.

KAYE: And CNN as we mentioned is looking into this case and we will continue to do that as well. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back. Checking headlines, this just into CNN this morning, Reuters is reporting that U.S. officials are investigating an oil leak in Wisconsin that spilled about 50,000 gallons of oil. The leak came from a pipeline that delivers oil from Canada to the U.S.. The company being investigated is Enbridge Inc., the same company has been criticized for a spill in Alberta, Canada last month and a spill in Michigan just two years ago.

The suspect in the Aurora shooting was under psychiatric care. We learned that from court documents filed by the Colorado shooting suspect's attorneys. Now there is a legal battle over a package the alleged shooter sent to his psychiatrist at the University of Colorado citing patient-doctor confidentiality defense attorneys want the contents of that package handed over to them and kept out of the public record.

Several victims of the Colorado theater shooting will be put to rest this weekend. Thursday friends and family gathered for funeral services for 23-year-old Micayla Medek. She was one of 12 killed last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I see so much sadness around and so much grieving and it is evident that we are all hurting. Because her physical presence is no longer with us. She filled our hearts with nothing but love and although we cannot see her, she resides within each of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: A Maryland man is in custody after he allegedly called himself the joker and apparently threatened to go on a shooting rampage at his former officer. Twenty five guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition were found in his apartment. You will remember that Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes also called himself the joker. Maryland police say they're not taking any chances.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF MARK MAGAW, MARYLAND STATE POLICE: Well, when he said that he had made reference to the joker, we took this very, very seriously and moved quickly to have him evaluated mentally. That's the way we took it, that he was making reference to Colorado.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And now to Idaho where this shocking billboard is causing a stir under a photo of James Holmes it reads kills 12 in a movie theater with assault rifle. Everyone freaks out. Under a photo of President Obama it says kills thousands with his foreign policy, wins Nobel Peace Prize. The Ralph Smeed Foundation owns the ad and says it wants to draw attention to troops dying overseas and a local democratic official says it is offensive and has no factual basis.

Coming up next hour, the Jackson family drama is heating up. A missing matriarch and a mutiny among the sons. It is getting so juicy. We'll get into all of that, next hour.

I'll also be back with more headlines at the top of the hour but first "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" starts right now.