Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Gorgeous Mom Missing Just Days before Son's 11th Birthday. LANDFILL SEARCH NOW!

Transcript

Gorgeous Mom Missing Just Days before Son's 11th Birthday. LANDFILL SEARCH NOW! · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:07
Speaker 1: A gorgeous young mom, literally a soccer mom goes missing.
0:13
Speaker 1: She's caught on video walking her little dog. She seemingly
0:17
Speaker 1: goes into a high rise building and never emerges, left
0:22
Speaker 1: behind her eleven year old little boy asking where's mommy?
0:35
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. First of all, take a
0:44
Speaker 1: listen to our friends at Fox eleven LA. We just
0:49
Speaker 1: sign LAPD patrol unit leave the landfill. We believe they're
0:53
Speaker 1: actually been stationed overnight guarding the remains the garbage that
0:57
Speaker 1: is now being searched. That search set to resume at
1:00
Speaker 1: a daylight. But take a look at some video for me.
1:03
Speaker 1: Yesterday's search, LAPD detectives with the Robbery Homicide Division using
1:08
Speaker 1: human remaine detection canines cadaver detection canines began the arduous
1:15
Speaker 1: task of sifting through tons of trash here at the
1:17
Speaker 1: Chiquita Canyon landfill looking for the remains of Heidi Plank,
1:21
Speaker 1: confirming publicly yesterday they believe that she has dead. The
1:25
Speaker 1: missing mother hasn't been seen since October seventeenth, when a
1:29
Speaker 1: security camera captured her walking her dog in downtown Los Angeles.
1:34
Speaker 1: They believe she's dead, but without a body, that may
1:37
Speaker 1: not be true. Missing her little boy's birthday party is
1:41
Speaker 1: something that Heidi Plank would never have done. You were
1:45
Speaker 1: just hearing our friends at Fox eleven. Now take a
1:48
Speaker 1: listen to our friends at NBC. This was the scene
1:51
Speaker 1: at dawn at the Chiquita Canyon landfill. Numerous investigators preparing
1:55
Speaker 1: for what could be a week long search for a
1:58
Speaker 1: missing mom. Detect you from the LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division
2:02
Speaker 1: putting on protective suits and boots to sift through potentially
2:06
Speaker 1: tons of trash by hand, searching for signs of Heidi
2:09
Speaker 1: Plank's body or other key evidence in the case. The
2:13
Speaker 1: city of La brought in heavy excavators to dig into
2:16
Speaker 1: places where trash from that downtown apartment building was transported.
2:20
Speaker 1: The LAPD now confirming forensic evidence found at the apartment
2:24
Speaker 1: building in downtown La where Plank was last seen several
2:27
Speaker 1: weeks ago and where her dog was found soon after,
2:31
Speaker 1: was a key clue that led to the landfill and
2:33
Speaker 1: the conclusion that Heidi Plank died probably the same day
2:37
Speaker 1: she disappeared. Did she or did she simply disappear? Again,
2:42
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories, and thank you
2:45
Speaker 1: for being with us, with me an all Star panel
2:48
Speaker 1: before I introduced them. Let me first go to special
2:51
Speaker 1: guests joining us. John Ellwood, Deputy Chief Manatee County Search
2:56
Speaker 1: and Rescue. You can find him in Manatee County SA
3:00
Speaker 1: our Search and Rescue dot org. John, thank you so
3:03
Speaker 1: much for being with us. You know we just as
3:05
Speaker 1: a matter of rote just toss it off. There's a
3:09
Speaker 1: search at a landfill. It's anything but that easy. It's
3:16
Speaker 1: very difficult to do a land fill search. Sometimes I
3:21
Speaker 1: catch myself saying land field, because it's usually a huge
3:26
Speaker 1: feel as bigger, bigger than a football field. And you
3:30
Speaker 1: think of a woman's body underneath literally tons of debris,
3:37
Speaker 1: all sorts of debris, old furniture, trash, refuse of all sorts,
3:44
Speaker 1: her body decomposing, coming apart, and finding part of a body,
3:53
Speaker 1: say hair, a bone in a football field size landfield.
4:00
Speaker 1: And we just heard our friends at NBC state they
4:03
Speaker 1: had to put on protective hasmat in effect clothing to
4:08
Speaker 1: do this to you. John Ellwood explained to me how
4:12
Speaker 1: a land feel search is done. Sure, Nancy, first you
4:17
Speaker 1: have to look at I'm sure the detectives determined at
4:20
Speaker 1: what time the trash in that area may have been
4:22
Speaker 1: picked up landfills. How they normally work is that they're
4:27
Speaker 1: gritted out, meaning that they're filled by sections, so they
4:31
Speaker 1: would find out what truck number. Wait a minute, Wait
4:34
Speaker 1: a minute, John, you got to slow down on our
4:38
Speaker 1: channel today. You have practicing lawyers, you've got one forensic expert,
4:42
Speaker 1: you've got a psychiatrist, and you've got a crack reporter
4:46
Speaker 1: from Inside Edition. But we're not experts at searches. So
4:50
Speaker 1: let's just start with we're gonna have to dissect. Just
4:53
Speaker 1: be glad you weren't one of the witnesses I'd put
4:55
Speaker 1: on the stand. I have to take a part every
4:56
Speaker 1: word for hours and hours before you got on the stand,
5:00
Speaker 1: so I can understand what you're saying. But when you
5:02
Speaker 1: say grit, let's just pretend you got a piece of
5:04
Speaker 1: paper and this represents the field into sections. Then hold on.
5:10
Speaker 1: What you would do is divide that big football field.
5:13
Speaker 1: I don't know if you can see this into different sections,
5:17
Speaker 1: tiny sections, because who knows how deep the trash could be.
5:22
Speaker 1: Now that's what it means, I think, to grid grit
5:27
Speaker 1: out the field? Is that what you mean by gritting it? Yes, ma'am,
5:30
Speaker 1: they did it. They divide it into sections, and then
5:32
Speaker 1: they put in certain amount of waste. Then it gets
5:37
Speaker 1: covered by a layer of dirt, and then more waste
5:39
Speaker 1: and then another layer of dirt and how and the
5:43
Speaker 1: reason why I'm familiar with this is what the fire
5:46
Speaker 1: station that I used to work at in our primary
5:48
Speaker 1: response area, we used to respond to the landfill all
5:51
Speaker 1: the time. So when we had to tour of the facility,
5:53
Speaker 1: they kind of explain how they do. I don't know
5:56
Speaker 1: what you're saying about layers of dirt. You're saying that
5:59
Speaker 1: the searcher put layers of dirt or that the landfill does. Right,
6:04
Speaker 1: So the garbage truck comes in, dumps, dumps the refuge
6:07
Speaker 1: onto the ground, and then they bring in dirt to
6:11
Speaker 1: put on top on top of what was dumped, and
6:13
Speaker 1: then they'll put another layer of trash and then another
6:16
Speaker 1: layer of dirt. See hold on just a minute. Daryl Cohen,
6:19
Speaker 1: a veteran trial lawyer, was a former prosecutor in inter
6:22
Speaker 1: city Atlanta with me now renowned defense attorney joining us
6:26
Speaker 1: out of Atlanta. Daryl, you and I have talked about
6:29
Speaker 1: landfill searches many times. Did you know that there's a
6:33
Speaker 1: layer of trash just think of a football field and
6:37
Speaker 1: the dump trucks keep coming. I guess they dump around
6:41
Speaker 1: the field, not all in one spot. But then they
6:44
Speaker 1: put a layer of dirt on top of that. Did
6:46
Speaker 1: you know that? I did not know that springs up?
6:49
Speaker 1: Another question is how deep is this layer of dirt?
6:52
Speaker 1: Is it just sort of like top soil or is
6:56
Speaker 1: it two or three inches or a foot thick? And
6:59
Speaker 1: I didn't know that either, Darryl, I'm about to find out.
7:02
Speaker 1: Excuse me to you, John Ellwood, I wasn't going to
7:05
Speaker 1: ask that, but that's a good question. How how much dirt?
7:09
Speaker 1: It's usually a couple of feet I mean, whatever the
7:12
Speaker 1: best management practices. I mean, obviously that's not my four
7:15
Speaker 1: tape waste management, but I mean I can just tell
7:18
Speaker 1: you that, having been too responses at landfills, I'm just
7:22
Speaker 1: kind of familiar with their practice. Okay, so they gritted out,
7:25
Speaker 1: the searchers grit out the field, and then what how
7:29
Speaker 1: deep is the trash? Typically it could be several feet deep.
7:33
Speaker 1: Tone oh man, it could be twenty thirty feet deep. Okay,
7:38
Speaker 1: let me just take that in for a moment. Let
7:40
Speaker 1: me just take that in because sometimes you know, I
7:44
Speaker 1: look at all my files that I've got all laid out.
7:47
Speaker 1: I think I gotta do this. I got to do
7:49
Speaker 1: that for the twins. I gotta do this for my mom.
7:51
Speaker 1: But La la, I gotta go through all these files
7:53
Speaker 1: and it's overwhelming. Can you imagine Jackie going up to
7:58
Speaker 1: a landfill thirty twenty thirty feet deep, trash and debris rotting,
8:06
Speaker 1: and you have to start looking for a decomposing body
8:08
Speaker 1: in a football field size landfill. I just this is
8:15
Speaker 1: deep as a house. I would assume that they would
8:17
Speaker 1: bring in dogs as well. Daryl, are you a landfill expert?
8:22
Speaker 1: I know you're used to shuttling that you know what,
8:25
Speaker 1: but just can we get back to the expert, just
8:28
Speaker 1: this one time, Daryl Cohen, I can't believe doctor Angie
8:31
Speaker 1: Arnold has managed not to pipe in yet. I'll be
8:33
Speaker 1: right to you, Angie, right to you. Time Stories with
8:50
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace john Elle went back to you. Okay, landfill
8:56
Speaker 1: starts go ahead. So I'm sure the detectives have leads
9:00
Speaker 1: that they've been following, so they have an idea of
9:02
Speaker 1: approximate time that this plank may have been picked up
9:08
Speaker 1: by the garbage guy. Yes, ma'am picked up. You make
9:11
Speaker 1: it sound much she's catching an uber out on the corner.
9:14
Speaker 1: You mean, once she's dead, let's just pretend throwing down
9:18
Speaker 1: the trash sheet on the whatever twenty first floor into
9:22
Speaker 1: the trash. Then you're saying the detect was to figure
9:27
Speaker 1: out when the garbage from that building was taken to
9:30
Speaker 1: the dump and what part of the grid that trash
9:35
Speaker 1: was dumped. Correct. Okay, that would give them obviously an
9:39
Speaker 1: area of interest and where one of your other panelists
9:41
Speaker 1: said that you could use can i ins. And the
9:44
Speaker 1: thing about when you talk about human remains canines and
9:49
Speaker 1: cadaver canis just to differentiate between the two. Cadaver can
9:53
Speaker 1: ins deal with a large source, meaning it could be
9:55
Speaker 1: like a body part. Human remains detection canine deal in
10:00
Speaker 1: very small sources. It could be in grams. So when
10:04
Speaker 1: you talked about bodily fluid hair, a fingernail, something, something
10:10
Speaker 1: very small, that's what those canines can do. And what
10:14
Speaker 1: that what those canines could do is if you have
10:16
Speaker 1: an area of interest, then they could actually locate it
10:19
Speaker 1: to a certain point. And then if you're familiar with
10:23
Speaker 1: how archaeologists do their quote unquote digs where they take
10:27
Speaker 1: PBC pipes and they interlace it to actually form a
10:30
Speaker 1: little grid, and then they'll start excavating that interlacing pipe.
10:39
Speaker 1: What yes, ma'am. If if you think you're familiar with
10:42
Speaker 1: PBC piping, why what they do is plastic looking Yeah, yes, ma'am,
10:46
Speaker 1: white plastic pipe. So what they do is they'll lay
10:50
Speaker 1: them out to form like small squares, right, and then
10:55
Speaker 1: they will start uncovering at the surface, staying within the
11:00
Speaker 1: small squares, kind of coloring in the lines, so to speak,
11:03
Speaker 1: if that makes sense to you. So they put that
11:05
Speaker 1: on they have and start digging down, man, and then
11:08
Speaker 1: start working their way down. And then with a pipe,
11:12
Speaker 1: it's to help isolate and create an exact area. So
11:16
Speaker 1: if evidence is located, then what they'll do is they'll
11:20
Speaker 1: use GPS to mark the location of that as well
11:24
Speaker 1: as obviously forensics will take the pictures and collect the evidence.
11:28
Speaker 1: So you've got blood bloodhounds, I'll call them, for lack
11:31
Speaker 1: of a better term, that could pick on. Pick up
11:34
Speaker 1: on a piece of tissue paper where a guy cuts
11:37
Speaker 1: his chin shaving, throws it away, You're going to pick
11:41
Speaker 1: up on all types bodily fluids. And that's the thing
11:44
Speaker 1: that with canines not an exact science as far as
11:49
Speaker 1: when you're using human remain canines to find that particular person.
11:53
Speaker 1: All they're going to do is they're going to locate
11:57
Speaker 1: any type of human tissue or and that's where your
12:02
Speaker 1: friends would obviously have to do DNA testing to say yes,
12:06
Speaker 1: it is indeed this person or no it is not.
12:08
Speaker 1: So when you lay the PB site PBC pipe squares
12:13
Speaker 1: on top of the dump and you start digging down
12:15
Speaker 1: within that square, what do you do with what you
12:19
Speaker 1: dig up? Put it in a bag. Obviously, material that
12:22
Speaker 1: is not related to the case they'll put to one side.
12:25
Speaker 1: And anything that they find as possible evidence, then they
12:27
Speaker 1: would go through their normal collection procedures as far as documentation, tagging,
12:32
Speaker 1: and bagging, because like if you throw it over your shoulder,
12:34
Speaker 1: are you're just going to have to redig it up
12:36
Speaker 1: when you get to that that square, could lord, ma'am?
12:41
Speaker 1: And they have to wear hazmat suits also, John Elwood,
12:45
Speaker 1: why yes, ma'am. If you look at when you see
12:48
Speaker 1: the white suits, it's made out of a material called
12:50
Speaker 1: seranec tibec TWA BK. And what that does is it
12:54
Speaker 1: gives the person a certain amount of protection because you
12:58
Speaker 1: think about any thing and everything that people dispose of
13:01
Speaker 1: and they're trash, to include possibly biohazardous waste, you know, needles,
13:06
Speaker 1: things of that nature that you want to make sure
13:09
Speaker 1: that the gators are protected. That also brings a point
13:13
Speaker 1: to where canines may actually wear booties over their feet
13:16
Speaker 1: to protect their paws. Nancy, I'm going to jump in here. Yeah,
13:20
Speaker 1: go ahead with me. Is I was just about to
13:22
Speaker 1: introduce everyone. Karen L. Smith. You're hearing forensic expert lecturer
13:27
Speaker 1: University Florida, hosts a Shatter Souls podcast and you can
13:31
Speaker 1: find her at Barebones Forensic dot com. Jump in, Karen Smith.
13:34
Speaker 1: I've been to the landfill a few times, unfortunately, on
13:37
Speaker 1: searches for human remains, and I can tell you that
13:42
Speaker 1: we wear the tivec yes, but when you're digging through
13:45
Speaker 1: this stuff. On one dig five of our investigators ended
13:49
Speaker 1: up with a staff infection, a very serious one, and
13:51
Speaker 1: a couple of them were hospitalized for it. So this
13:53
Speaker 1: is very very serious. It's very disgusting and dirty when
13:58
Speaker 1: we dig through this compress scrash, and you have to
14:01
Speaker 1: remember every time that layer of dirt and that layer
14:03
Speaker 1: of trash is placed down. John did a fantastic explanation
14:08
Speaker 1: of how that works. But it's compressed with a steam roller,
14:11
Speaker 1: So you're dealing with scrash that has then pressed down
14:16
Speaker 1: to make room for the next layer. So it's not
14:20
Speaker 1: just that we're rooting through with our hands. We're using rakes,
14:23
Speaker 1: we're using shovels, we're opening bags, we're looking through every
14:27
Speaker 1: single thing. And you asked what happens to the bags
14:30
Speaker 1: or the trash once we're done with it. There is
14:34
Speaker 1: a specific section set aside four things that have been
14:38
Speaker 1: through that do not contain forensic evidence, So that is
14:42
Speaker 1: set aside. I got a question for each air and
14:45
Speaker 1: I don't understand how if you're covered head to net,
14:49
Speaker 1: truist to toe, yes, protective has mat covering, how does
14:55
Speaker 1: somebody get a staff infection? That's a really good question.
14:58
Speaker 1: I mean you're dealing with sharp object. I don't know,
15:00
Speaker 1: as something may have pierced the glove or scratch their arm.
15:04
Speaker 1: What is that? Dodger, Angie, you're not only a psychiatrust
15:08
Speaker 1: but let me get you to fall back on your MD.
15:11
Speaker 1: What has a staff infection? And why would these searchers
15:13
Speaker 1: get staff infections? And Karen said there are really bad
15:16
Speaker 1: staff infections. Doesn't that get into your blood? Yes, it
15:19
Speaker 1: can get into your blood. A staff infection is a
15:22
Speaker 1: certain type of bacteria that I mean, Nancy, you know
15:27
Speaker 1: how when some people, when we've heard these stories about
15:30
Speaker 1: people with flesh eating bacteria and things like that, those
15:35
Speaker 1: are a type of staff infection. How do you get it?
15:39
Speaker 1: You get it by touching. It's by touching something. It's
15:41
Speaker 1: not by breathing it in. Some things we get by
15:43
Speaker 1: breathing in through our lungs. But these particular staff infections
15:47
Speaker 1: are by and you know, Nancy, the problem is with
15:51
Speaker 1: this landfill where all this nastiness is. The staff can
15:57
Speaker 1: just be growing in there, Okay, like as I said,
16:01
Speaker 1: a flesh eating bacteria, it can just be growing in
16:05
Speaker 1: that ground. When you say touch it, what is it
16:08
Speaker 1: that you're touching, you're touching the actual the ground has
16:13
Speaker 1: the bacteria in it, just like the people can go
16:16
Speaker 1: in the ocean. And if you have a little bit
16:18
Speaker 1: of an open wound, I mean, we all have little
16:20
Speaker 1: scratches on us, and the bacteria comes in through those
16:24
Speaker 1: slight open wounds. That's why some people will get it
16:27
Speaker 1: and some people won't. You know, I've always wondered about that, doctor, Angie,
16:30
Speaker 1: and you just explain it. You know, we have devoted
16:33
Speaker 1: all this time to a landfill search. Oh, we haven't
16:36
Speaker 1: even been talking about the missing victim. Heidi Plank, the mom,
16:40
Speaker 1: I said, eleven year old when I first started our program.
16:43
Speaker 1: Today he had a birthday? Didn't he have a birthday? Jackie?
16:46
Speaker 1: Hold on, I'm going to go to Mira Montalbano, reporter
16:51
Speaker 1: with Insight Edition. Maria, thank you so much for being
16:55
Speaker 1: with us. Typically I start immediately with our reporter, who
16:59
Speaker 1: knows he was the very latest. Did the son have
17:03
Speaker 1: a birthday? I believe his name is Bond. Did he
17:05
Speaker 1: turn eleven or did he tail turn twelve while mom
17:08
Speaker 1: is missing? Um? I believe he turned eleven. I believe
17:11
Speaker 1: he was ten when she went missing, and he turned eleven. Um.
17:15
Speaker 1: But we haven't really heard too much from the son directly.
17:18
Speaker 1: I mean, I know we've heard from his dad mostly
17:21
Speaker 1: Heidi husband, who has been you know, out there. He
17:25
Speaker 1: really wants you know, he wanted to see her come
17:28
Speaker 1: home and to you know, at least have her at
17:31
Speaker 1: her own birthday party. But you know, unfortunately that doesn't
17:33
Speaker 1: look like that's going to happen and a very devoted mother.
17:51
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys with Me. Daryl co
17:56
Speaker 1: informer prosecutor now renowned trial attorney out of the Atlanta Jurisdiction.
18:02
Speaker 1: Doctor Angela Arnold Psychiatrists joining us. Also out of Atlanta.
18:06
Speaker 1: Karin Smith joining US forensic expert University Florida lecturer and
18:11
Speaker 1: host a Shattered Souls podcast. John Elwood, Deputy Chief with
18:15
Speaker 1: the Manatee County Search and Rescue at Manatee County SAAR
18:21
Speaker 1: dot org and investigative reporter Withinside Edition dot com. Mary
18:26
Speaker 1: and Montalbano. Guys take a Listen to Mary, Mary Beth
18:30
Speaker 1: McDade a, Katie l As the ets husband of missing
18:35
Speaker 1: mom thirty nine year old Heidi Plank says authorities are
18:38
Speaker 1: now searching an area of the Jiquita CanYa landfill and
18:41
Speaker 1: castaic for her body. The mid City woman was last
18:44
Speaker 1: seen on security cameras on October seventeenth walking her dog
18:48
Speaker 1: outside the Hope and Flower Building in downtown La. Her
18:51
Speaker 1: dog was found later that evening wandering on the twenty
18:55
Speaker 1: ninth floor of the high rise. Forensic evidence was located
18:58
Speaker 1: inside the building, which detectives to believe that an incident
19:02
Speaker 1: occurred resulting in plekstet. Investigators won't reveal what that evidence is.
19:07
Speaker 1: I think that friends and family alike, we've kind of
19:10
Speaker 1: all been hyper folks bused on the building from day one. Obviously,
19:16
Speaker 1: detectives believe the same thing. None November fourth, detectives found
19:20
Speaker 1: Heidi's gray Range Rover in a parking lot of a
19:23
Speaker 1: different residential building just two blocks away. Huh Range are
19:27
Speaker 1: over belonging to mom in a different building two blocks away,
19:31
Speaker 1: They find her dog wandering on the twenty ninth floor
19:34
Speaker 1: of a high rise. What do they find that makes
19:38
Speaker 1: them believe they need to go search a land feel?
19:43
Speaker 1: First of all, back to you, Mira Montalbano joining us
19:46
Speaker 1: from Inside edition dot com. Where is Castaic? Oh, it's
19:50
Speaker 1: inland from LA. It's about I want to I mean
19:54
Speaker 1: about twenty miles, I think, yeah, it's not very close.
20:00
Speaker 1: So they're searching a landfill inc a state. Is that right,
20:03
Speaker 1: Jaquia Kenyon landfill? That's right? Yes? And you know, I
20:06
Speaker 1: mean I've spoken to the LAPD as recently as yesterday
20:08
Speaker 1: and the investigators are still out there. I mean it's
20:11
Speaker 1: been more than a week now. They are still searching
20:14
Speaker 1: for anything. They would not say yesterday if they actually
20:19
Speaker 1: found anything, but they are still looking for hiding basically, Well,
20:24
Speaker 1: it reminds me just at first blush, you know, doctor Angie,
20:29
Speaker 1: you and I cover the Gabby Petito Brian laundry case,
20:32
Speaker 1: and the cops kept going back to Carlton Reserve, kept
20:35
Speaker 1: going back, and I kept saying, he's either not there
20:41
Speaker 1: or he's in there dead, because they would have found him.
20:44
Speaker 1: But they kept going back for a reason. And like
20:48
Speaker 1: mar and Montalbano is saying, they're not leaving that landfill.
20:52
Speaker 1: They haven't found anything, but they're not leaving, and there's
20:54
Speaker 1: a reason for that, Doctor Angie. They must know something.
20:57
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, Nancy, you know how it's
21:00
Speaker 1: it feels like it's always so shocking when I know,
21:02
Speaker 1: during the Gabby Petito thing, well, we were all wondered,
21:06
Speaker 1: why do they keep going back there? Nobody can live there?
21:09
Speaker 1: Why did they keep going back? New My gosh, they
21:11
Speaker 1: found him there, didn't they They certainly did, And the
21:15
Speaker 1: exact same thing is going to happen here. They aren't
21:17
Speaker 1: wasting their goll know what they're doing. And John Elwyn
21:20
Speaker 1: joining US Deputy chief Manatee County Search and Rescue. They
21:23
Speaker 1: are guarding the landfill at night. Why, well, probably because
21:28
Speaker 1: of a chain of custody issues in some of the
21:31
Speaker 1: panelists being attorneys, know that defense attorney's going to try
21:35
Speaker 1: to throw doubt as to somebody may have planet evidence
21:39
Speaker 1: as opposed to it was actually collected at that location. Yeah.
21:43
Speaker 1: Darryl Cohen, veteran trial lawyer, put it in legal lees
21:47
Speaker 1: what he just said, and he's absolutely right about chain
21:50
Speaker 1: of custody. I'm going to take it out of legal
21:52
Speaker 1: lees and put it in If we can't show that
21:55
Speaker 1: it's stayed unpainted, if we can't show that no one
22:00
Speaker 1: went in there, then it's subject to being thrown out.
22:03
Speaker 1: So that's not legal ease, that's just dumbing it down
22:06
Speaker 1: for the jury or explaining it. Yeah, because I think
22:09
Speaker 1: some of those juries jurars are smarter than you and
22:12
Speaker 1: I put together, Darrell, So let's not talk about dumbing
22:15
Speaker 1: down for the jury. Maybe dumbing down for it Nancy
22:18
Speaker 1: and Darrell, but not for the jury. So in other words,
22:22
Speaker 1: I think Jackie did it. That's what the defense lawyer
22:26
Speaker 1: will say. And Jackie here in the studio, she had
22:30
Speaker 1: the body hidden in her home this whole time. So
22:33
Speaker 1: she took it when nobody was guarding the landfill, and
22:36
Speaker 1: she hit it there and then scurried away in the
22:39
Speaker 1: dark of night. That's what happened. That would be an
22:43
Speaker 1: excellent argument for the defense, except but for the fact that,
22:48
Speaker 1: as John Ellwood's telling us, that landfill is guarded day
22:53
Speaker 1: and night to protect the evidence and the chain of
22:57
Speaker 1: custody should we ever find her body or her remains. Now,
23:01
Speaker 1: you just heard Mary Beth mcday that Katie La five.
23:06
Speaker 1: But how did this whole thing start? Take a listen
23:08
Speaker 1: to our friend at k C AL nine, Stacy Butler.
23:14
Speaker 1: Where are you? That was the last communication Heidi Plank's
23:17
Speaker 1: ten year old son had with his mom eleven days ago.
23:20
Speaker 1: I said, can you please call me back? You haven't
23:24
Speaker 1: called me back in two days in a row. This
23:25
Speaker 1: is security tape of the thirty nine year old mom
23:28
Speaker 1: from Palms with her dog named seven, on her way
23:30
Speaker 1: to her son's football game Sunday, October seventeenth. She's leaving
23:34
Speaker 1: her house, She's got the dog following behind her. She's
23:37
Speaker 1: got a tiny little purse under her arm, and she
23:40
Speaker 1: jumps into her range rover and drives away Hitnah to
23:44
Speaker 1: her son's soccer game. She's a very devoted mom. Now
23:48
Speaker 1: you heard little bond State Mom, I hadn't talked to
23:51
Speaker 1: you in two days. And that's because the mom and
23:54
Speaker 1: dad are divorced, amicable, get along, both heavily involved with
23:59
Speaker 1: raising their son. So he was with dad. That's why
24:03
Speaker 1: it wasn't immediately noticed she was missing. But on day two.
24:08
Speaker 1: You know what my son said to those of you
24:11
Speaker 1: that know him, Karen Smith. The other morning, I was
24:18
Speaker 1: working and I couldn't be there to wake him up
24:22
Speaker 1: and turn on the music. Oh what a beautiful morning
24:25
Speaker 1: by Gordon McRae from Oklahoma. I'm sure they're gonna wake
24:29
Speaker 1: up years from now without ringing in their ears. He said, Mom,
24:33
Speaker 1: I forgot X whatever it was, because you weren't there.
24:36
Speaker 1: You weren't there playing the music, and I didn't see you,
24:39
Speaker 1: and I just everything went sideways because it is a
24:45
Speaker 1: certain routine. And here we first realize she's missing when
24:50
Speaker 1: the son alerts everyone, Hey, I hunting her from mom
24:55
Speaker 1: in two days. When I'm with dad, I talked to
24:58
Speaker 1: her every day. He didn't hear from her in two days.
25:02
Speaker 1: That's called routine evidence and that it is evidence of
25:07
Speaker 1: someone's behavior, their routine. Karen right. That was one of
25:12
Speaker 1: my first questions was, you know, does she speak to
25:15
Speaker 1: her son on a daily basis of the parents are divorced.
25:17
Speaker 1: You would think with zoom and with FaceTime and all
25:20
Speaker 1: these other things, you would say good night to your child,
25:24
Speaker 1: or hey, how was your school day? Something like that.
25:27
Speaker 1: And the first thing that hit me was when was
25:29
Speaker 1: her last communication with her son? Now we know, and
25:33
Speaker 1: that starts the timeline of something obviously nefarious happening to her.
25:38
Speaker 1: And you know what's interesting, Daryl Cohen, you and I've
25:40
Speaker 1: seen this a million times in cases that we've tried.
25:43
Speaker 1: I just remember what it was my son John David
25:45
Speaker 1: how I knew something was wrong when I finally went
25:48
Speaker 1: back to the kitchen. I saw on the din floor
25:52
Speaker 1: his strawberry shake. I make him a strawberry shake organic
25:57
Speaker 1: every day. That's what he has for breakfast. Lucy's on
26:00
Speaker 1: a kick where she wants to make her own beautiful
26:02
Speaker 1: breakfast that she's obviously seen on Instagram and it's like
26:06
Speaker 1: fresh fruit and it's beautiful. I want to take a picture,
26:09
Speaker 1: but I don't have time. But I saw his shake
26:12
Speaker 1: Darryl sitting on the floor by the sofa in the din. I.
26:20
Speaker 1: He always takes that on the way to school and
26:22
Speaker 1: drinks it on the way to school. What happened? And
26:24
Speaker 1: it was half full that afternoon? Said, what happened? You
26:27
Speaker 1: didn't have your breakfast? And that's when he said, you
26:30
Speaker 1: didn't come in, you didn't play the music. Every I
26:32
Speaker 1: forgot everything and went crazy because it wasn't his standard routine.
26:36
Speaker 1: And that is what this little boy noticed day two,
26:39
Speaker 1: hat and face times with mom. How many times Daryl
26:42
Speaker 1: Cohen has one little detail like that solved a murder case. Nancy.
26:48
Speaker 1: It's not the big stuff. It's as you say, it's
26:50
Speaker 1: the little stuff. It's the little things that we don't
26:54
Speaker 1: even notice until they're not there. So they've solved numerous
26:59
Speaker 1: murder cases, frost robbery cases, numerous rate cases. What happens
27:04
Speaker 1: is every day we've got to shake and all of
27:08
Speaker 1: a sudden, it's half gone, half there. Something happened. What's
27:13
Speaker 1: going on? You weren't in the surrey with a fringe
27:15
Speaker 1: on top. You weren't having old a beautiful morning. What happened? Mom?
27:20
Speaker 1: Something's going on? So his mom, who he's accustomed to
27:24
Speaker 1: speaking to even when he's not with her, or especially
27:28
Speaker 1: when he's not with her, didn't talk to him. Time
27:44
Speaker 1: stories with Nancy Grace And back to Maera and Montalbanos.
27:49
Speaker 1: You're wanting up from Inside Edition dot com. He's been
27:51
Speaker 1: on this case from the very very beginning. Maria, again,
27:55
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. That is seemingly what
27:58
Speaker 1: set the search in to motion. Tell me about the
28:03
Speaker 1: video that first emerged of Heidi out walking her dog.
28:09
Speaker 1: Where was that? Was that the outside of her home?
28:11
Speaker 1: Are you talking about the latest video of that's shot
28:14
Speaker 1: from the back, because no, that was taken. They said
28:17
Speaker 1: it was close to the last location where she was seeing.
28:20
Speaker 1: This was very hiring. Yeah, okay, I'm glad you said that.
28:24
Speaker 1: I'm glad you said that to differentiate between the videos.
28:27
Speaker 1: The first video I think it's her. It's like rain
28:31
Speaker 1: came or something like that at her home, coming out,
28:35
Speaker 1: She's getting in the car to go soccer game. Okay,
28:37
Speaker 1: now where are you talking about. I'm talking about this
28:41
Speaker 1: video that kind of shows a woman from the back.
28:44
Speaker 1: I mean, if you know, if the police didn't say
28:47
Speaker 1: that this was Heidia, I wouldn't have known because it's
28:49
Speaker 1: it's just kind of her from the back walking a
28:52
Speaker 1: dog on a leash um and you know, that's that's
28:59
Speaker 1: kind of all you know, we're seeing. But they're saying
29:01
Speaker 1: that this is the last video of her before she vanished. Now,
29:05
Speaker 1: this video is not near her home. This video is
29:10
Speaker 1: near the building where the dog is wandering around inside
29:15
Speaker 1: on the twenty ninth floor. Now, listen, don't discount an
29:18
Speaker 1: animal taking an elevator. Because our frequent guest, high profile
29:23
Speaker 1: lawyer out of Seattle, A. Bremner, had a cat named Jimmy.
29:27
Speaker 1: She lives in a high rise and Jimmy knew how
29:30
Speaker 1: to wait at the elevator on her high floor and
29:33
Speaker 1: when a neighbor would get in, he'd hop on and
29:36
Speaker 1: they all knew him, and he'd go to the floor
29:38
Speaker 1: he wanted to get to. And when the elevator finally
29:41
Speaker 1: would stop there typically the lobby, Jimmy would get out
29:44
Speaker 1: and walk around and go where he wanted to go,
29:47
Speaker 1: and then come back and wait at the elevator till
29:50
Speaker 1: somebody would take him back up to Anne's floor. That
29:52
Speaker 1: is a true story. So there's more than one way
29:55
Speaker 1: for a dog to end up running around up and
29:58
Speaker 1: down the halls. On the twenty ninth floor. But I
30:00
Speaker 1: want you to take a listen to our cut twenty
30:02
Speaker 1: three Mary Beth mcday Katie La five. We're told on
30:08
Speaker 1: the day Heidi vanished, there's video of her entering the
30:11
Speaker 1: Hope and Flower building but never leaving it, and now
30:14
Speaker 1: detectives are searching that Castaic landfill for her body. I
30:17
Speaker 1: served as search warrant at the lad fill to excavate
30:21
Speaker 1: a specific area, mantually searching for human remains and to
30:24
Speaker 1: collect any additional evidence. Prior to her going missing, Heidi
30:28
Speaker 1: was caught on her home security cameras getting into a
30:31
Speaker 1: range Rover to go see her son play football in Downey.
30:34
Speaker 1: She left the game early, but later texted with her son.
30:37
Speaker 1: She wanted to congratulate him on his win. Her ex
30:40
Speaker 1: husband thanks. Her disappearance could be linked to sac charges
30:44
Speaker 1: against your boss, Jason Sugarman at Camden Capital Partners for
30:48
Speaker 1: allegedly swindling some forty three million dollars from a tribal nation.
30:53
Speaker 1: Forty three million dollars fraud. Now that was high the plank, boss,
31:01
Speaker 1: is my understanding, Mara montal bone with us. That certainly
31:07
Speaker 1: thickens the plot. Let me say take a listen to
31:10
Speaker 1: our cut nine. This is Christina Gonzales with Fox eleven.
31:17
Speaker 1: There in La Take a listen to Christina Gonzales. A
31:22
Speaker 1: lot of the people who know her say they're getting
31:24
Speaker 1: calls from the SEC. It seems that she was never
31:29
Speaker 1: involved in this, but people she worked with out of
31:31
Speaker 1: a company nel Segundo, were being investigated. It's a financial company,
31:36
Speaker 1: a financial advising company, and there have been investigations because
31:41
Speaker 1: of misuse of funds. Now, she was never investigated, She
31:44
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with it. But one of the
31:46
Speaker 1: principles was sentenced in twenty twenty to sometime in federal prison.
31:50
Speaker 1: That is what they're looking at. Well, hold on just
31:53
Speaker 1: a moment, Daryl Cohen that on trial lawyer the boss
31:57
Speaker 1: has sent us back in twenty twenty. Wouldn't that be
32:00
Speaker 1: over and done with? Or do you believe that somehow
32:05
Speaker 1: somebody's worried she quote knows something. Well, it seems to me, Nancy,
32:10
Speaker 1: it should be over. But then again, was there a trial,
32:13
Speaker 1: is there an appeal? And does he know something? And
32:16
Speaker 1: someone else worried that they're going to be thrown under
32:19
Speaker 1: the bus, which means they may be prosecuted, and they
32:22
Speaker 1: may be at risk for far more problems than her
32:26
Speaker 1: boss got. Maybe her boss is rolling now that her
32:29
Speaker 1: boss is incarcerated. There's so many maybes that we need
32:32
Speaker 1: to determine what the maybes are and are not and
32:36
Speaker 1: then start narrowing it down. You know too, Doctor Angela
32:40
Speaker 1: Arnold psychiatrists joining us. There are now reports that Heidi
32:45
Speaker 1: Plank's boss, not Heidi, but the boss actually did business
32:52
Speaker 1: with members of one of the most notorious crime families
32:57
Speaker 1: in this country, the Gambino crime family. Now you get
33:01
Speaker 1: the mob in on this, people start going missing, Doctor Angie.
33:06
Speaker 1: And I will never understand. I often heard and Darrel,
33:11
Speaker 1: I'm sure you'll agree. I'd heard a defendant say I
33:14
Speaker 1: was at the wrong place at the wrong time. In
33:16
Speaker 1: other words, I was with the wrong crowd. And sometimes
33:19
Speaker 1: you do see a good person mixed in with the
33:21
Speaker 1: wrong crowd. Why would you stay in business or working
33:26
Speaker 1: for somebody that has connections with the Gambino crime family.
33:32
Speaker 1: I would run for the heels is if I had
33:35
Speaker 1: seen a monster, Doctor Angie. What is it to people
33:38
Speaker 1: think they're lulled into complacency, They think nothing bad can
33:42
Speaker 1: happen to me. Well, maybe I mean Nancy. Maybe she
33:45
Speaker 1: maybe she needed to make a living. Let's make it
33:48
Speaker 1: as simple as that. And they probably do lull you
33:51
Speaker 1: into a sense of well being, and they're not gonna,
33:54
Speaker 1: you know, I don't imagine the Gambino family says, look,
33:56
Speaker 1: if you make a wrong turn, we're going to kill
33:58
Speaker 1: you and put you in a in a landfill somewhere. Hey, look,
34:02
Speaker 1: she may also have been frightened. And she may have
34:05
Speaker 1: been frightened. And once you realize here it's so down
34:08
Speaker 1: deep do you turn left, right, go up or down?
34:12
Speaker 1: The best thing to do is do nothing because she's frightened.
34:16
Speaker 1: That tells me a lot more than the Gambino family
34:19
Speaker 1: because they don't know the Gambino family. They may know
34:22
Speaker 1: Luigi who's going to be the hot moss or going
34:25
Speaker 1: to break your leg, But she has got to be
34:28
Speaker 1: frightened at this point, and that may very well be
34:31
Speaker 1: the key to this whole situation. So you're suggesting she
34:33
Speaker 1: went on the run. I don't think she would have
34:35
Speaker 1: gone on the run without her son or no, I
34:39
Speaker 1: don't think. No. I'm not suggesting that at all. I'm
34:41
Speaker 1: suggesting that she was frightened and didn't do anything, and
34:44
Speaker 1: that may very well understand their fear that she was
34:47
Speaker 1: going to open up and start talking about all the
34:50
Speaker 1: little things that happened in the office. That may or
34:53
Speaker 1: may not be instrumental in an additional prosecution. Though, Tamia
34:57
Speaker 1: Montalbano joining us from inside edition, we know that cops
35:01
Speaker 1: have found something in that high rise, not the one
35:05
Speaker 1: where her arrange rover was part, but the one where
35:07
Speaker 1: the dog was wandering on the twenty ninth floor, which
35:10
Speaker 1: shows me a lot of premeditation. Somebody had her part there,
35:15
Speaker 1: or parked her range rover at that building and got
35:18
Speaker 1: her in another building, or vice versa, got her in
35:21
Speaker 1: the first building where the dog is found and then
35:24
Speaker 1: moved her range rover. What did they find to send
35:28
Speaker 1: them on a search of a landfilled Mayor Montalbano, cops
35:32
Speaker 1: are being vague, and I mean that's putting it lightly.
35:35
Speaker 1: They have not said anything about what they found. They
35:38
Speaker 1: haven't said, you know what, where they found it. Even
35:42
Speaker 1: they haven't said it they found it like in an
35:43
Speaker 1: apartment building versus like one of the common areas of this,
35:47
Speaker 1: like luxury building. So they are being purposely vague, and
35:51
Speaker 1: I think they're very much leaving open the possibility that
35:54
Speaker 1: this was an accident because they have They're not even
35:59
Speaker 1: saying that's so one caused her death. Wait, admit of that, Mara, Mara,
36:04
Speaker 1: So an accident where her body disappears, that doesn't make
36:09
Speaker 1: any sense. I don't think that's completely out of the
36:13
Speaker 1: realm for it to happen. Okay, how could it happen
36:15
Speaker 1: or her body disappears? How could that be a you know,
36:18
Speaker 1: it's one scenario where this was an accident that possibly.
36:21
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you touched on it, like earlier
36:23
Speaker 1: in the show where you said, you know, falling down
36:26
Speaker 1: a trash shoot or something. I mean, I know it's
36:29
Speaker 1: uh from what you said. You know, like the scenario
36:31
Speaker 1: you put out there is like maybe someone put her
36:33
Speaker 1: in the trash shoot, but that would be an accident.
36:36
Speaker 1: If somebody put you in the trash shoot that no, No,
36:38
Speaker 1: that wouldn't be an accident. And there are apparently surveillance
36:43
Speaker 1: video cameras I know, in the lobby of that building,
36:46
Speaker 1: and I would assume on various floors of the building
36:49
Speaker 1: or in the elevators she went in. She never came
36:53
Speaker 1: out that we know. Yeah, jump in, John. If I
36:57
Speaker 1: could offer another there, I guess tidbit. If everybody's focusing
37:03
Speaker 1: on canines being at the landfill, but going back to
37:06
Speaker 1: the questions that the panelists have asked, what directed them
37:10
Speaker 1: to the landfill, they may have used canines actually at
37:13
Speaker 1: that building of interest, they could have used cadaver slash
37:18
Speaker 1: human remain detection canines searching her apartment, the trash shoot areas,
37:23
Speaker 1: and then they could have also even used tracking canines.
37:26
Speaker 1: Because I did this a couple of weeks ago, where
37:29
Speaker 1: a vehicle was present, the person was missing. We go
37:33
Speaker 1: to the vehicle, We searched from the vehicle, obtained the
37:36
Speaker 1: person's sin and found their direction to travel, so they
37:41
Speaker 1: could do several different diagnostics to rule things out or
37:46
Speaker 1: to find it proof positive. Guys, the tipline two one, three, nine, nine, six,
37:51
Speaker 1: eighteen hundred or toll three eight seven, seven five to
37:55
Speaker 1: seven thirty two forty seven. Where is Heidi? Nancy Gray's
38:01
Speaker 1: crime story signing off Goodbye friend,