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Finding Paislee Shultis · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm Jackie Howard, executive producer
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  Speaker 1: of Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Police have been searching
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  Speaker 1: for Paisley Schultis for nearly two years. The little girl
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  Speaker 1: was four years old when she was reported missing in
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  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. It was thought that she had been kidnapped
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  Speaker 1: by her non custodial parents. At the time the little
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  Speaker 1: girl went missing, her parents were involved in a larger
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  Speaker 1: custodial battle over the little girl and her older sibling.
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  Speaker 1: Police have now announced that Paisley Schultis, now six, has
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  Speaker 1: been found safe and alive. She was found at the
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  Speaker 1: home of her grandfather, who owned the house where the
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  Speaker 1: little girl was found. Paisley was taken to the police
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  Speaker 1: station where she was met by paramedics and she was
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  Speaker 1: pronounced in good health and released to her legal guardian.
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  Speaker 1: This is not the first time that police had been
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  Speaker 1: to this home. They had made multiple attempts to look
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  Speaker 1: for the little girl at the residence. However, they were
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  Speaker 1: met with opposition. At the time, police did not have
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  Speaker 1: a search warrant, met with opposition from the residents, denying
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  Speaker 1: them access to the home. After receiving a tip, State
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  Speaker 1: police took a search warrant to the residence. Kirkscheltz Senior,
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  Speaker 1: again who owns the house, told police he did not
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  Speaker 1: know where the little girl was and had not seen
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  Speaker 1: her since she went missing. However, investigators went into the
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  Speaker 1: home and an eagle eye investigator is who made all
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  Speaker 1: the difference in this case. Detective Eric Field noticed something
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  Speaker 1: odd about the way steps were built, something was out
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  Speaker 1: of place. Field then took flashlight and shined it through
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  Speaker 1: a crack between the wooden steps and saw what he
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  Speaker 1: thought was a blanket. Then detective saw a pair of
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  Speaker 1: tiny feet. They removed more steps and found Paisley, along
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  Speaker 1: with her thirty three year old mother, Kimberly Cooper. Cooper
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  Speaker 1: and father Kirkshells Junior were taken into custody at the time.
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  Speaker 1: Joining me now is Mark class, the founder of Class Kids. Mark,
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  Speaker 1: what's your thoughts, Well, there are several things. First of all,
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  Speaker 1: it's a wonderful thing when any missing child is recovered,
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  Speaker 1: and we all know that with the passage of time
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  Speaker 1: that recovery becomes less likely and less likely, So it's
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  Speaker 1: a it's a marvelous thing that she has been recovered,
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  Speaker 1: and that has to give great hope to all of
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  Speaker 1: the other parents of children that remain missing. Certainly there's that.
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  Speaker 1: The second thing that really strikes me about this case
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  Speaker 1: is the conditions under which this child was living. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: they were not sending her to school, and they were
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  Speaker 1: not educating her at home. They were hiding her out
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  Speaker 1: in this horrible little box underneath the staircase. They were
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  Speaker 1: hiding her in secrecy. She was off the grid, and
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  Speaker 1: nobody deserves that in their life, if she deserves all
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  Speaker 1: the advantages that come with a loving family in their childhood,
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  Speaker 1: not this kind of horrible treatment that she was receiving.
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  Speaker 1: It was not in her best welfare or in the
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  Speaker 1: best welfare of anybody associated with this situation. Now obviously
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  Speaker 1: we know that, but as a four year old child,
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  Speaker 1: is it possible that she just thought this was normal.
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  Speaker 1: That you know, when somebody knocks on the door, you
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  Speaker 1: run an hide. Of course she thought it was normal.
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  Speaker 1: She's been conditioned to believe that it's normal. She is
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  Speaker 1: just a little child, we have to remember, and I
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  Speaker 1: suppose she probably thinks in her mind, if it even
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  Speaker 1: goes that far, that all little children are in similar circumstances.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, can't you look back on your life and
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  Speaker 1: see things that you thought were normal in your childhood
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  Speaker 1: that actually turned out not to be normal. I know
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  Speaker 1: I can. What is the difference, mark, and I'm not
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  Speaker 1: talking about an abduction where the child is mistreated or killed?
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  Speaker 1: What is the difference in a parental abduction? Even if
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  Speaker 1: it's a non parental and a stranger abduction? Was this
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  Speaker 1: child in any less danger? She was in much less danger.
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  Speaker 1: Parental abductions are usually about non custodial parents kidnapping the
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  Speaker 1: child so that they can have custody for whatever reason.
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  Speaker 1: Very rarely in those situations are the children's lives and endangered.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, there have been some high profile cases, but
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  Speaker 1: generally these are the children that when they are located,
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  Speaker 1: are going to be alive. Is it always that way?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, is you're talking a high percentage there for that? No,
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking about a high percentage. I mean there are
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  Speaker 1: revenge cases or vindicative situations where if I can't have
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  Speaker 1: the child, nobody can have the child, and parents will
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  Speaker 1: take those children and then then unfortunately murder them. There's
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  Speaker 1: really no justifiable excuse for a non custodial parent to
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  Speaker 1: take a young child. It's not in the child's best
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  Speaker 1: interest the vast majority of the time, and if a
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  Speaker 1: judgment needs to be made, that judgment needs to be
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  Speaker 1: made in a court of law, not in the back
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  Speaker 1: alleys of somebody's mind. This little girl has been missing
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  Speaker 1: for two years. Obviously the family. She was found at
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  Speaker 1: the grandfather's home. The entire family set out to hide
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  Speaker 1: this child. I mean, in a case like this, two years,
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  Speaker 1: there's really kind of just a drop in the bucket,
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  Speaker 1: it is sure. I mean, this could have gone on indefinitely. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: they weren't clever enough to keep her that well hidden
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  Speaker 1: because they received multiple tips that the little girl is
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  Speaker 1: or might be in the house. So this was not
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  Speaker 1: the first rodeo for these officers. They've been back there
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  Speaker 1: plenty of times before. It's just at this time an
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  Speaker 1: eagle eyed detective figured out what was going on and
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  Speaker 1: they were able to locate her in the secret room
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  Speaker 1: under the staircase, the small, dark, damp secret room under
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  Speaker 1: the staircase. Why do you think it took so long, because,
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  Speaker 1: as you said, the police have been at that residence
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  Speaker 1: several times. What took so long to find her, Well,
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  Speaker 1: for whatever reason, it took two years to get a
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  Speaker 1: warrant to the property. I mean, that's what made the difference.
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  Speaker 1: This time. They had carte blanche to move around in
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  Speaker 1: and around the property, and they've never had that before.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes there would be resistance from the family regarding allowing
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  Speaker 1: the police in, and sometimes they would be allowed in,
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  Speaker 1: maybe to the entryway, but certainly not to be able
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  Speaker 1: to do an exhaustive search, which is what resulted in
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  Speaker 1: her recovery. Mark, How does an amber alert work in
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  Speaker 1: this type of situation, a parental abduction versus a stranger abduction?
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  Speaker 1: Because of the criteria that is set up for Amber alerts,
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  Speaker 1: the only cases that oftentimes qualify are parental abduction cases,
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  Speaker 1: and that's because one of the criteria is abductor's vehicle information. Now,
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  Speaker 1: in a case like Paul's or J. C. Dugards are
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  Speaker 1: so many of these other historical cases nobody knows what
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  Speaker 1: the abductor was driving because they exist in stealth. But
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  Speaker 1: in parental situations you do know. So it turns out
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  Speaker 1: that many, many, many Amber alerts that are issued in
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  Speaker 1: this country are issued in non custodial cases, and as
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  Speaker 1: we discussed earlier, those are not the cases where the
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  Speaker 1: children the most, the ones where the children need amber
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  Speaker 1: alerts are situations where the child has been taken in
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  Speaker 1: the dead of night by somebody that is not known
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  Speaker 1: to anybody, because those are the ones that find themselves
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  Speaker 1: find themselves dead eventually. So you knows as critical as
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  Speaker 1: parental abductions are, I think there should be another alert
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  Speaker 1: criteria because it comes up the whole idea of amber
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  Speaker 1: alerts again. Paisley Schultis, missing for two years, has been
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  Speaker 1: found safe and alive with her non custodial parents. Schultis
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  Speaker 1: Junior and Senior were both charged with first degree custodial interference,
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  Speaker 1: a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child. Cooper
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  Speaker 1: has been charged with second degree custodial interference endangering the
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  Speaker 1: welfare of a child as well. These charges are both
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  Speaker 1: misdemeanor