Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Tots looked like 'concentration camp survivors,' ate paint off walls
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph Channel one.
- 0:11Speaker 1: Two children days from death who looked as if they
- 0:21Speaker 1: had just quote walked out of a concentration camp. You
- 0:28Speaker 1: know when I start reading the news this morning, I
- 0:31Speaker 1: started reading the news at five a m. Actually ten
- 0:34Speaker 1: till five. I hate it. That's the H word we're
- 0:40Speaker 1: not allowed to say in our house, but because the
- 0:41Speaker 1: children aren't here, I'll say it. I hate it when
- 0:44Speaker 1: I'm reading the news, and then suddenly I come upon
- 0:48Speaker 1: a sight that shows me the photos of the concentration camps.
- 0:54Speaker 1: Because it is so hurtful and painful to see what
- 1:02Speaker 1: humans due to each other. The bones nearly protruding through
- 1:09Speaker 1: the skin, people literally looking like walking skeletons. I cannot
- 1:19Speaker 1: imagine the pain they endured. And now I hear about
- 1:26Speaker 1: little children that looked like that in our country. Why
- 1:37Speaker 1: I Mancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for
- 1:41Speaker 1: being with us. I want the truth. Joining me juvenile judge,
- 1:49Speaker 1: child advocate and lawyer Ashley Wilcott also with me, forensic
- 1:55Speaker 1: expert Professor of FORENSICSIC Jacksonville State University, Joseph Scott Morgan
- 2:01Speaker 1: and joining me investigative reporter with Radar Online dot Com,
- 2:06Speaker 1: Alexis Terres Chuck. Alexis explained to me how three little
- 2:13Speaker 1: children are found looking as if they had quote walked
- 2:20Speaker 1: out of a concentration camp in our country, right under
- 2:26Speaker 1: our noses. Alice have said that they found three children
- 2:31Speaker 1: locked in the bedroom and they found them they were
- 2:34Speaker 1: so skinny, so malnourished and starving. These kids were actually
- 2:40Speaker 1: eating paint off the wall. The children were eating paint
- 2:47Speaker 1: off the wall to live. Ashley Willcott, I have prosecuted
- 2:55Speaker 1: and investigated so many child ab cases, not just child
- 3:01Speaker 1: molestation but child abuse as well, where children were burned
- 3:07Speaker 1: with cigarettes and beaten into an irreversible coma. This is
- 3:14Speaker 1: hurting my heart so much. The children, Ashley, were eating
- 3:20Speaker 1: the paint off the walls. They were tortured, they were
- 3:25Speaker 1: allowed to literally starve to death and the trauma and
- 3:28Speaker 1: the physical consequences. And I know Joe Scott Morgan can
- 3:32Speaker 1: speak better to that, but this is a horrific, sadistic
- 3:38Speaker 1: starving children to death, and these kids are doing all
- 3:42Speaker 1: they can to survive. Remember they were four years old,
- 3:45Speaker 1: five year old and six years old, so they are
- 3:48Speaker 1: very young children. And what's also disturbing to Alexis to
- 3:52Speaker 1: restaurant with writer online dot Com. The parents look healthy.
- 3:57Speaker 1: In fact, you know what mommy hasn't is the meal. No,
- 4:01Speaker 1: not at all. The parents were fine. They absolutely looked
- 4:04Speaker 1: like they were eating every meal. And you know another
- 4:07Speaker 1: thing that the police had about the kids. There were
- 4:09Speaker 1: no beds for these kids. There were no toys for
- 4:12Speaker 1: these children. They were just locked in an empty room,
- 4:15Speaker 1: eating the paint off the walls. Oh, this is just hurtful.
- 4:20Speaker 1: Joseph Scott Morgan first of all, explained to me how
- 4:25Speaker 1: the moment the police found them and unlocked that bedroom door,
- 4:30Speaker 1: they knew the children instinctively knew the children were days
- 4:36Speaker 1: from death. The children, Nancy, when they were initially found,
- 4:39Speaker 1: would have had almost I don't know how to describe
- 4:42Speaker 1: it other than ghosts like features. They're locked in a room, uh,
- 4:47Speaker 1: wasted in appearance. That means their eyes are gonna be sunken. There,
- 4:51Speaker 1: probably begging for water at this point in time, because
- 4:54Speaker 1: you know, even even if you're even in starvation cases,
- 5:01Speaker 1: you've got people that are absent water that just the
- 5:04Speaker 1: basics that are containing food. Uh, they would have been
- 5:08Speaker 1: unable to speak very well. Uh my suspicion is they're
- 5:12Speaker 1: just kind of laying about on the floor in total lethargy,
- 5:15Speaker 1: and that goes to absence of food. But it also
- 5:18Speaker 1: goes to something else, uh, Nancy, And that's that's toxicity
- 5:22Speaker 1: from other things in this room they could have been ingesting.
- 5:24Speaker 1: Thinking about them scraping the paint off the wall to eat,
- 5:29Speaker 1: it explained to me what paint, particularly lead paint, will
- 5:36Speaker 1: do to the human body, Joe Scott, Nancy. There's you know,
- 5:40Speaker 1: there's a variety of paints out there. This is an
- 5:42Speaker 1: older home. I was taking a look at the pictures
- 5:45Speaker 1: of this place, and if a lead paint is there, Lead,
- 5:48Speaker 1: as many people in your audience know, is a heavy
- 5:51Speaker 1: metal and this is uh gonna fit effect the the
- 5:55Speaker 1: central nervous system. It's uh, it can lead to seizures. Uh.
- 5:59Speaker 1: It's it's highly toxic and carcinogenic. So this could lead
- 6:03Speaker 1: to cancers. They'll have muscle stiffness, joint stiffness. At what
- 6:09Speaker 1: it does, it's it's kind of kind of it's really
- 6:12Speaker 1: really horrific because you can see an old a young
- 6:15Speaker 1: young person that has been ingesting lead or lead uh
- 6:21Speaker 1: diet that has lead in it um, and they will
- 6:24Speaker 1: give a manifestation Nancy, almost like they're they're well into
- 6:28Speaker 1: their eighties. Uh, you know, very stumped over and and
- 6:33Speaker 1: hard to move there. The hands will present almost in
- 6:36Speaker 1: claw like features. Uh. This is you know, lead obviously
- 6:39Speaker 1: is something that uh you know, I've worked cases where
- 6:42Speaker 1: people have have been poisoned by lead um and it's
- 6:46Speaker 1: a horrible set of circumstances. Not to mention the other
- 6:50Speaker 1: cocktail in the paint that binds his paint together where
- 6:53Speaker 1: it's made at the factory. Investigative reporter with Radar online
- 6:58Speaker 1: dot Com alexas the reason I wanted so badly to
- 7:03Speaker 1: do this story. As much as I hate even reading
- 7:07Speaker 1: the words in my investigation, I want the world to
- 7:12Speaker 1: know that this is happening. And the house next to you,
- 7:15Speaker 1: down the street from you, the house that's caddy cornered
- 7:19Speaker 1: to you in your neighborhood. This is a lovely rural area.
- 7:25Speaker 1: It's beautiful. It's there in Pennsylvania. When you look around
- 7:29Speaker 1: the home, there lust trees and a lawn that looks
- 7:34Speaker 1: like it's just been mode. You would never imagine that
- 7:40Speaker 1: that's what's happening inside this home. And alexis there were
- 7:46Speaker 1: ten people living there. They all let the children starve.
- 7:54Speaker 1: It's very difficult for me to believe that the mother
- 7:57Speaker 1: and father, we're the only ones it knew the children
- 8:00Speaker 1: were locked in a room starving, Alexis. And that's the
- 8:05Speaker 1: thing is that you're right. There were ten people living there,
- 8:07Speaker 1: So it took somebody else outside the home to call
- 8:10Speaker 1: and report these children, to ask the police to go
- 8:13Speaker 1: check on them, and and they but they were locked
- 8:15Speaker 1: in there. They were not allowed out. And one thing
- 8:17Speaker 1: that the police learned in their investigation that they revealed,
- 8:20Speaker 1: they said the reason that these parents were starving these
- 8:23Speaker 1: kids was because they didn't want them anymore. And that
- 8:26Speaker 1: was that they just decided, we don't want you, so
- 8:28Speaker 1: we're just going to starve you today. Well, when they
- 8:30Speaker 1: were found, deputies questioned the mother and father Ashley, will
- 8:36Speaker 1: cut joining me, juven I'll judge and child welfare law
- 8:39Speaker 1: expert Ashley Again. When deputies arrived, they said that they
- 8:45Speaker 1: could see the children's bones through their skin. I just
- 8:52Speaker 1: want you to hold that mental image for a moment, Ashley. Now,
- 8:56Speaker 1: the mom and dad gave conflicting statements that they were
- 9:01Speaker 1: not the children's parents, but that neighbors insist, Oh, yes
- 9:04Speaker 1: they are. Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it. So are they
- 9:08Speaker 1: or are they not? The biological parents is something that
- 9:11Speaker 1: the state needs to be looking into because these children
- 9:14Speaker 1: are in foster care. To determine whether or not they
- 9:17Speaker 1: are one thing that always is interesting to note if
- 9:21Speaker 1: they let's assume and I know that we don't know this,
- 9:25Speaker 1: Let's assume they're adoptive parents. They would be receiving an
- 9:29Speaker 1: adoption subsidy for each of these children if they were
- 9:32Speaker 1: adopted from foster care. So there are a whole lot
- 9:35Speaker 1: of questions because some argue, what if they were receiving
- 9:39Speaker 1: a subsidy, earning money and didn't want the kids so
- 9:43Speaker 1: they just locked them in a closet. These are things
- 9:45Speaker 1: that have to be investigated. Well, the other issue is
- 9:48Speaker 1: I feel confident and I'm waiting for the investigation to
- 9:51Speaker 1: unfold that whether they are the adopted parents or the
- 9:54Speaker 1: biological parents, that they are receiving some sort of government
- 9:59Speaker 1: paycheck for these children, and with each child you get
- 10:03Speaker 1: another paycheck. So the neighbors and others insists that these
- 10:09Speaker 1: are the biological parents. But your suggestion adds a whole
- 10:14Speaker 1: another layer of deceit that they had the children to
- 10:19Speaker 1: get money and then we're slowly starving them. Joe Scott Morgan,
- 10:24Speaker 1: forensic expert, Professor of Forensics at Jacksonville State University. Joe Scott,
- 10:31Speaker 1: the children each weighed under thirty pounds. What does that mean? Well,
- 10:38Speaker 1: as we've discussed in previous cases, Nancy, you were painting
- 10:41Speaker 1: this picture of the police officers being able to see
- 10:45Speaker 1: the skeleton of of the children as they walked in.
- 10:48Speaker 1: This gives us an indication that now any kind of
- 10:52Speaker 1: fat reserves that the children had on their bodies, and
- 10:55Speaker 1: we all have fat on our bodies and some level
- 10:58Speaker 1: had already been consumed. That's that's based energy. Now you're
- 11:02Speaker 1: into a point and get this where their bodies are
- 11:05Speaker 1: literally ingesting themselves, where they're eating away at muscle. That's
- 11:10Speaker 1: how you get to the point when you see these
- 11:11Speaker 1: pictures of people that have been um in these horrible
- 11:15Speaker 1: captive situations in prison camps and things like that, where
- 11:18Speaker 1: they look like walking skeletons. That's what these children look
- 11:21Speaker 1: like because their body was seating, was seeking nutrition, and
- 11:25Speaker 1: so the body then begins to eat the muscle tissue.
- 11:28Speaker 1: You've gone beyond the fat into the muscle, and these
- 11:31Speaker 1: kids are wasted in appearance. Something else that they probably
- 11:35Speaker 1: saw as well is uh lack of nutrition means that
- 11:39Speaker 1: these kids teeth are beginning to fall out. More than
- 11:43Speaker 1: likely they're losing hair. Uh, they've got horrible there's a
- 11:47Speaker 1: horrible rash that comes about on the skin as well
- 11:49Speaker 1: as a result of maud nutrition. It's it's a pure,
- 11:53Speaker 1: total and living hell uh that these kids would have
- 11:57Speaker 1: been in. Yeah, what's amazing are online dot com. I'm
- 12:02Speaker 1: looking at the home right now, and the yard is mode.
- 12:07Speaker 1: There are islands of shrubs and ornamental trees in the yard.
- 12:15Speaker 1: They're everything is neat and it looks freshly painted on
- 12:19Speaker 1: the outside. The roof looks like it maybe knew. There
- 12:23Speaker 1: are clearly to fireplaces in the home. There was an
- 12:26Speaker 1: attached garage. I see a blue and a red a
- 12:31Speaker 1: very shiny red pickup truck out front that looks like
- 12:34Speaker 1: it may have just been waxed because it's so shiny.
- 12:38Speaker 1: They took care of the home, Alexis and the cars,
- 12:42Speaker 1: but not the children, it looks like and that's why
- 12:45Speaker 1: it took a neighbor who probably had seen the kids
- 12:49Speaker 1: for a while, and then all of a sudden they disappeared,
- 12:52Speaker 1: and so they got concerned about them, which is wonderful
- 12:55Speaker 1: that people are finally take notice in and calling and
- 12:59Speaker 1: not just assuming that they have no business getting involved
- 13:02Speaker 1: because it's the little children had nobody else to help them,
- 13:04Speaker 1: but they were locked in this house and with all
- 13:07Speaker 1: the other people coming and going, nobody said anything. It
- 13:10Speaker 1: took somebody that lived there and had seen those kids
- 13:12Speaker 1: and knew they were there and had seen them before
- 13:15Speaker 1: to call the police and say, something is going on
- 13:17Speaker 1: because we haven't seen these kids in a while. How
- 13:18Speaker 1: does that happen with me? Juvenile judge, child welfare law
- 13:22Speaker 1: expert Ashley Wilcott Ashley, how do you They can't possibly
- 13:27Speaker 1: be going to school in this condition? So how does
- 13:30Speaker 1: that happen? How do you just not show up for
- 13:32Speaker 1: school and nobody notices? Well, I know the ages are
- 13:36Speaker 1: four or five and six, and so let's assume as
- 13:38Speaker 1: six year old is in school, it doesn't shouldn't happen.
- 13:41Speaker 1: Somebody should notice. They have to take attendance. They have
- 13:45Speaker 1: to note if the child's in school or not. If
- 13:48Speaker 1: it's not mandatory. For instance, in the state of Georgia,
- 13:50Speaker 1: it's not mandatory to go to kindergarten. So if they're
- 13:53Speaker 1: not in something that's not mandatory, it may not be
- 13:56Speaker 1: reported the same. But otherwise attendance is report it. It's
- 14:00Speaker 1: called truancy. It should be reported so that someone can
- 14:03Speaker 1: investigate us to where the children are. The three little children,
- 14:07Speaker 1: a six year old boy and two girls just five
- 14:10Speaker 1: and four, were discovered by deputies underweight, their skin caked
- 14:17Speaker 1: with animal hair, dirt, feces, and urine. According to the
- 14:23Speaker 1: arrest affidavit to Joseph Scott Morgan, their core body temperatures
- 14:27Speaker 1: were just ninety four degrees For I was spending so
- 14:32Speaker 1: much time locked in an unheeded bedroom shared by all three.
- 14:38Speaker 1: What does it mean when your body temperature is down
- 14:41Speaker 1: four points? Oh, it's it's you're you're getting into arrange
- 14:45Speaker 1: their nancy where the body is in an unsustainable uh posture. Again,
- 14:52Speaker 1: just goes back to the malnourishment the kids. I mean,
- 14:57Speaker 1: it's very simple science that these kids have no installation
- 15:02Speaker 1: in dwelling in their body. That's one of the reasons
- 15:04Speaker 1: we have a fat layer on our body, so their
- 15:08Speaker 1: core body temperature is easily going to drop. Let's think
- 15:11Speaker 1: about like if any of us have aged aged family
- 15:14Speaker 1: or friends around. One of the things that many of
- 15:17Speaker 1: the agent always complain about is talking about they're constantly
- 15:19Speaker 1: feeling cold. Well. One of the reasons is is that
- 15:23Speaker 1: they've lost body mass at that point in time in
- 15:25Speaker 1: their life and they've got poor circulation. That's what I'm
- 15:29Speaker 1: talking about with these kids. These kids have been almost
- 15:32Speaker 1: in an accelerated posture going forward where the aging process
- 15:36Speaker 1: is taken in my bed, is this Nancy moving down
- 15:39Speaker 1: the road years and years from now. There is a
- 15:42Speaker 1: possibility that these kids could have a shortened life as
- 15:45Speaker 1: a result of this taking place during their developmental process.
- 15:50Speaker 1: There was even a guy in his fiancee that rented
- 15:54Speaker 1: one I told you there wasn't a two attached garages
- 15:57Speaker 1: to the home. It turns out that one of them
- 16:00Speaker 1: was being rented out as an apartment. Believe it or not,
- 16:04Speaker 1: they were making money off a renter, like in a
- 16:07Speaker 1: guest area of the home. He says he and his
- 16:11Speaker 1: fiance lived there and they had no idea how many
- 16:15Speaker 1: children lived there. He never even knew about the inhabitants
- 16:18Speaker 1: of the locked room. When he was asked, he replied
- 16:22Speaker 1: he thought the wooden structure behind the home was a playhouse,
- 16:26Speaker 1: although he never saw any children in it. How can
- 16:29Speaker 1: that be? How can that be, Ashley, that you got
- 16:34Speaker 1: somebody renting and they are in shock they didn't even
- 16:38Speaker 1: know the children were there. Well, keep in mind, these
- 16:42Speaker 1: two parents are criminals, and they are going to hide
- 16:46Speaker 1: what they have done or are doing. And my question
- 16:49Speaker 1: is if you have three children who have been starved
- 16:53Speaker 1: to the point of malnutrition and almost death, which means
- 16:56Speaker 1: a long period of time, these children maybe not make
- 17:00Speaker 1: able to make any noise, to not cry out, to
- 17:04Speaker 1: not be heard. And if the renters are renting and
- 17:07Speaker 1: ignoring what's what's going on or going into the big house,
- 17:10Speaker 1: I see that criminals could hide this activity. Sadly, you know.
- 17:14Speaker 1: According to the state police affidavit, which I have read
- 17:17Speaker 1: in detail, the children told deputies they were locked in
- 17:21Speaker 1: their room and could not leave. Investigators found hook and
- 17:25Speaker 1: eye locks on the outside of the children's bedroom door.
- 17:30Speaker 1: They stated they would pound on the wall to be
- 17:33Speaker 1: let out to use the bathroom, and no one would come,
- 17:36Speaker 1: so they would just urinate on themselves or the floor.
- 17:40Speaker 1: The affidavit states that the room quote reeked of a
- 17:45Speaker 1: strong odor similar to that of caged animals. The two
- 17:51Speaker 1: older of five and six year old were so emaciated
- 17:55Speaker 1: that their ribs, spines, and other bones were actually visible
- 18:01Speaker 1: through their skin. And this just breaks my heart, Alexis.
- 18:08Speaker 1: The children say the last thing they remembered eating was
- 18:12Speaker 1: an apple, and they they told the police that the
- 18:17Speaker 1: reason they were locked in the room was because they
- 18:19Speaker 1: got caught trying to They used the word steal food.
- 18:24Speaker 1: When your child lives in your house, they're not stealing
- 18:26Speaker 1: your food, and that's what they said. And these kids
- 18:28Speaker 1: are so little, four, five and six to tell to understand,
- 18:32Speaker 1: to tell the police that the reason that they were
- 18:34Speaker 1: locked in was because they tried to steal food. It's
- 18:38Speaker 1: so sad. And also, you know the woman their parents
- 18:41Speaker 1: rented this home, this this they didn't even own this house,
- 18:44Speaker 1: they rented it. And their landlady said that originally they
- 18:48Speaker 1: had always been very responsible tenants, that they paid the
- 18:53Speaker 1: rent on time, they always called and said if something
- 18:56Speaker 1: had happened, they were they were respectful, and she said
- 18:59Speaker 1: with them when she when they went the police found
- 19:01Speaker 1: the house, there were lice in the house, there were
- 19:05Speaker 1: bed bugs in the house, and there was mold everywhere.
- 19:07Speaker 1: And that's how these kids were living. And here's the dichotomy.
- 19:11Speaker 1: Listen to this. Ash The mom, Brandy Wyant thirty eight,
- 19:17Speaker 1: clipped cupons and eat it for food and actually sent
- 19:23Speaker 1: extra bushels of apples and frozen food to her neighbors.
- 19:29Speaker 1: Joshua the husband would clear away trash and rake the lawn.
- 19:35Speaker 1: And they even had recently hosted a birthday party with
- 19:38Speaker 1: the bonfire in the backyard. Now what do you think
- 19:43Speaker 1: about that, Ashid? The children could smell, for instance, hot
- 19:46Speaker 1: dogs and hamburgers cooking at the party in the backyard
- 19:51Speaker 1: while they're locked in the dark at ninety four degrees
- 19:54Speaker 1: body chump eating paint off the wall. Nancy, this is crap.
- 19:59Speaker 1: This It devastates me. It breaks my heart. But more
- 20:03Speaker 1: than that, it makes me angry. I am telling you
- 20:06Speaker 1: right now, in my expert opinion, they were getting a
- 20:08Speaker 1: paycheck for each of these children. They locked them away,
- 20:12Speaker 1: they ignored them, they discarded him. These children are going
- 20:15Speaker 1: to be traumatized forever. Their physical and mental health is
- 20:19Speaker 1: going to be an issue forever. They are going to
- 20:22Speaker 1: require treatment forever. In these pieces, you know what, parents
- 20:27Speaker 1: sat around living high off the hog. This case discuss me,
- 20:30Speaker 1: you know, I know defense attorneys and shrinks won't disagree
- 20:36Speaker 1: with me, but I just wish people that treated children
- 20:43Speaker 1: this way could just be sent away to an island
- 20:48Speaker 1: and they can all enjoy each other's company and never
- 20:53Speaker 1: be here to scare or mistreat or abuse children ever. Again.
- 21:02Speaker 1: Take a listen to what the chief Deputy District Attorney,
- 21:06Speaker 1: Jennifer Gettle says. I think that perhaps the most horrifying
- 21:10Speaker 1: pictures of are of the three children. Of course, Uh,
- 21:13Speaker 1: they look like they walked out of a concentration camp. Um,
- 21:16Speaker 1: just as we would have had the testimony about two
- 21:19Speaker 1: weeks for two of them, two weeks away from death.
- 21:22Speaker 1: Um is what the doctors had told us. Um. Of course,
- 21:25Speaker 1: the conditions of what they were sleeping in. I know
- 21:28Speaker 1: that there have been pictures out in the media that
- 21:30Speaker 1: show a room with lots of things in it. Um,
- 21:32Speaker 1: excuse me, but the reality was the room, as the
- 21:35Speaker 1: police founded on that day, was completely empty. Uh. There
- 21:39Speaker 1: were no beds in that room. There were no toys
- 21:41Speaker 1: in that room. Uh. The only thing that there was
- 21:43Speaker 1: was the paint peeling off of the wall. Um. Did
- 21:46Speaker 1: you talk about the kids, I don't. Uh did the
- 21:50Speaker 1: defendants the defendants did not make any statements today. How
- 21:53Speaker 1: are the kids doing. They're doing much better. All three
- 21:56Speaker 1: of them are now out of the hospital and they're
- 21:58Speaker 1: they're thriving. They have upled their weight since since the
- 22:02Speaker 1: police became involved. Are they in foster care at this
- 22:05Speaker 1: point there in care? It's not with their family obviously.
- 22:08Speaker 1: I want to pause right now and thank our partner
- 22:11Speaker 1: making our investigation into the Halifax, Pennsylvania case possible. It's
- 22:18Speaker 1: Legal Zoom and I value them as my partner here
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- 23:37Speaker 1: life meets legal legal zoom dot com thank you for
- 23:42Speaker 1: being our partner. Seventeen sets of parents laying their children
- 23:51Speaker 1: to rest. We are live in Florida with the latest
- 23:54Speaker 1: on the Florida school shooter, one of the worst shootings
- 23:59Speaker 1: in a school in US history, and of course this
- 24:03Speaker 1: morning it's WOULDA, COULDA, shoulda? What should we have done?
- 24:09Speaker 1: Why didn't this happen? Or that happen? That is cold
- 24:13Speaker 1: comfort for the families of these dead children. This shooter,
- 24:20Speaker 1: Nicholas Cruz, showing quite a bit of cunning and purchasing weapons,
- 24:28Speaker 1: sneaking back to the school where he had already been expelled,
- 24:32Speaker 1: gunning down classmates, then intentionally blending into the crowd, even
- 24:40Speaker 1: callously going to a sandwich shop at McDonald's to kick
- 24:44Speaker 1: back after murdering seventeen and injuring others. Straight out to
- 24:51Speaker 1: John Limley, Crime Stories investigative reporter John what is the latest.
- 24:58Speaker 1: I know that Cruise was just in court. I know
- 25:02Speaker 1: that a judge has ordered the release of social services
- 25:07Speaker 1: records on Nicholas Cruise. We're learning about the gun cabinet
- 25:13Speaker 1: that should have been locked, and we're learning about how
- 25:17Speaker 1: many guns Nicholas Cruise purchased. What do you know, John Lemley?
- 25:25Speaker 1: So many details Nancy coming our way in just shy
- 25:29Speaker 1: of a week now since the shooting. Funerals continue on
- 25:35Speaker 1: a daily, grim pace, several a day for the victims.
- 25:39Speaker 1: As you mentioned, the suspect Nicholas Cruise appeared in court
- 25:44Speaker 1: for a procedural hearing on Monday. He had nothing to
- 25:47Speaker 1: say in that Broward County Circuit court. This time. He
- 25:51Speaker 1: actually attended in person, not by way of video. He
- 25:55Speaker 1: kept his head down, did not appear to make eye
- 25:57Speaker 1: contact with the judge or others in the court room.
- 26:00Speaker 1: Maybe for a moment, he responded briefly to somebody on
- 26:04Speaker 1: his defense team. The hearing was all about the rules
- 26:08Speaker 1: going forward, about how documents are going to be sealed.
- 26:11Speaker 1: The circuit Judge, Elizabeth Sherri said that she was in
- 26:15Speaker 1: favor of openness whenever possible, and the lawyers for crews
- 26:22Speaker 1: have said that he will plead guilty if prosecutors agree
- 26:25Speaker 1: not to pursue the death penalty. No decision yet has
- 26:29Speaker 1: been made on that. Meanwhile, in Fort Lauderdale, UH judge
- 26:34Speaker 1: has ordered the release of a state investigation into allegations
- 26:38Speaker 1: of abuse and neglect in the home of Nicholas Cruz.
- 26:42Speaker 1: The records were released on Monday and detail how in
- 26:47Speaker 1: the late part of social workers mental health investigators evaluated
- 26:53Speaker 1: and diagnosed Crews with autism, depression, and a d h D.
- 26:59Speaker 1: All right there, why wh wha wait? Who diagnosed him
- 27:02Speaker 1: with autism? These were mental health investigators well hired by him.
- 27:07Speaker 1: They were part of the social worker case that had
- 27:12Speaker 1: been opened to look into possible abuse in his home.
- 27:17Speaker 1: Abuse because at the thirty nine times that I know
- 27:19Speaker 1: the police were called, it was all him abusing his
- 27:23Speaker 1: mother and others neighbors as well. I don't recall learning
- 27:29Speaker 1: about any police reports regarding his abuse. Correct me if
- 27:34Speaker 1: I'm wrong, John Limley, that that is correct. But there
- 27:37Speaker 1: were rumors that it might be the flip side, that
- 27:42Speaker 1: he might be the one experiencing the abuse. How could
- 27:47Speaker 1: thirty nine police reports all be wrong? John? That's that's
- 27:53Speaker 1: the head scratcher. Right, I'm trying to make sense of this, Um,
- 28:00Speaker 1: John Lemley, how many guns do you think do we
- 28:03Speaker 1: think at this juncture Cruise purchased. We think it could
- 28:08Speaker 1: be in the teens of firearms. A law enforcement source
- 28:13Speaker 1: briefed on the investigation, UH said that crews had obtained
- 28:17Speaker 1: at least ten all of them rifles, one of them
- 28:22Speaker 1: uh and a K fourteen just in the past month alone.
- 28:26Speaker 1: You know, I know that the family that took him
- 28:31Speaker 1: in owns up to him having five or six weapons
- 28:35Speaker 1: and claims he had a right to own an a
- 28:38Speaker 1: R fifteen. I'm I'm confused about something. Maybe I don't
- 28:45Speaker 1: understand the facts correctly, John Lemley. You said that police
- 28:48Speaker 1: forces are saying he had up in the teens of weapons, right.
- 28:52Speaker 1: Add in all of the accessories that go with these guns. Uh.
- 28:58Speaker 1: He purchased different guns at different stores. Uh. And then
- 29:03Speaker 1: on top of that, any sort of accessories to make
- 29:08Speaker 1: the gun more powerful. Uh. Those were purchased at yet
- 29:12Speaker 1: other stores could be online. Uh. There are still some
- 29:17Speaker 1: questions about that. I'm trying to understand. To Dr Tiffany Sanders,
- 29:21Speaker 1: Chicago psychologists joining us here on serious sex in two,
- 29:25Speaker 1: Dr Tiffany. Those that know him do not believe that
- 29:29Speaker 1: he is autistic. He had a job at the local
- 29:34Speaker 1: dollar tree and was performing normally, if not well. He
- 29:38Speaker 1: had gotten to all the way up through high school
- 29:43Speaker 1: m you know, functioning gray to great great. He had
- 29:46Speaker 1: been held back twice. I know at least that much.
- 29:50Speaker 1: He managed to go and purchase on his own all
- 29:56Speaker 1: of these weapons, filling out forms showing I D saving
- 30:01Speaker 1: the money to go by the weapons, going on social media,
- 30:07Speaker 1: posting about himself and photos, and his interests including his
- 30:12Speaker 1: intent to become a quote professional school shooter. I don't
- 30:17Speaker 1: see how he falls under the autistic spectrum, right, Nancy,
- 30:21Speaker 1: and I've worked with tons of children and adolescents who
- 30:24Speaker 1: fall in the autism spectrums UH disorder, and typically you
- 30:28Speaker 1: will see those kids identified as youngest age two and three.
- 30:33Speaker 1: These individuals will have developmental delays, difficulty with language, difficulty
- 30:38Speaker 1: with nonverbal skills UM. They also can suffer from other
- 30:41Speaker 1: mental health difficulties such as UH seizures, anxiety, a d
- 30:46Speaker 1: H d UM and and what you often truly see
- 30:49Speaker 1: as many of these kids have. With their poor language
- 30:52Speaker 1: skills difficulty communicating, they're not likely to hold down a job.
- 30:57Speaker 1: These individuals are often enrolled in high school pro rooms
- 31:00Speaker 1: that are life skill based, teaching them basic skills such
- 31:03Speaker 1: as math, reading, just so that they can function within life.
- 31:07Speaker 1: So I'm highly doubtful that he had autism UM, but
- 31:12Speaker 1: I'm more likely to assume that he had conduct disorder
- 31:15Speaker 1: because reports have mentioned that he tortured or abused animals. UM.
- 31:21Speaker 1: He had a history of posting uh ominous messages on
- 31:26Speaker 1: social media, threatening um and intimidating others. UH. He has
- 31:31Speaker 1: had access to all these sorts of weapons and and
- 31:34Speaker 1: truly has been a sort of a bully to others.
- 31:39Speaker 1: So that behavior is more in line with conduct disorder,
- 31:43Speaker 1: which leads to some of these actions that he later
- 31:45Speaker 1: took involving killing seventeen people. Take a listen to what
- 31:49Speaker 1: his new parents that have taken him in since his
- 31:53Speaker 1: mom passed away with the flu just recently have to say.
- 31:56Speaker 1: This is James and Kimberly Snead talking on our friend
- 32:01Speaker 1: ABC's Good Morning America. Listen, it's a roller coaster of emotions. UM,
- 32:09Speaker 1: you know, it's it's still tough. It's still we're still
- 32:11Speaker 1: already still grieving, um. The families, it's effected, and and
- 32:16Speaker 1: and you open your home to cruise for nearly three months,
- 32:19Speaker 1: and you tried to get him counseling. And what was
- 32:21Speaker 1: he like in your home? Nothing that they portrayed on
- 32:25Speaker 1: television or in the media. Everything everybody seems to know.
- 32:28Speaker 1: We didn't know. Um. We had rules and he followed
- 32:33Speaker 1: every rule to the team. And before he moved into
- 32:36Speaker 1: your home, how well did you know him? I had
- 32:38Speaker 1: met him a couple of times before, he had spent
- 32:40Speaker 1: the night at the house, and he was very polite. Um,
- 32:43Speaker 1: he didn't. He seemed normal. And Kimberly, can you take
- 32:47Speaker 1: us back to that day? Were there anything unusual out
- 32:50Speaker 1: of the normal with his behavior before that day? No? No, no.
- 32:53Speaker 1: The only thing that was maybe different was that he
- 32:56Speaker 1: didn't go to school. He usually drives him to school
- 32:58Speaker 1: and with him in the morning, he didn't go and
- 33:01Speaker 1: that particular morning, which sometimes happens anything. He said he
- 33:04Speaker 1: didn't go to school on Valentine's Day? But when did
- 33:08Speaker 1: you realize what he had done? Um? After the SWAT
- 33:13Speaker 1: team called me and asked where if I knew where
- 33:16Speaker 1: my son Nicholas was, and I said, he's not my son,
- 33:19Speaker 1: but I don't know where he's at. And at that
- 33:21Speaker 1: point I got in touch with my son, who was
- 33:23Speaker 1: fleeing the scene at that point, and m Description came
- 33:28Speaker 1: out and we put two and two together, me and
- 33:31Speaker 1: my son, and we figured out what was happening and
- 33:34Speaker 1: what was going through your mind when this happened. Did
- 33:37Speaker 1: you did you both find out at the same time. No,
- 33:39Speaker 1: she was home sleeping and um. At that point, I
- 33:42Speaker 1: was panic stricken for her safety. So I called the
- 33:44Speaker 1: SWAT officer back to get the police back to my
- 33:48Speaker 1: home to check on her. And and after all this happened,
- 33:51Speaker 1: at one point, you did get a chance to see
- 33:53Speaker 1: Nicholas And what did you say to him? Did he
- 33:56Speaker 1: and did he speak back to you? It's anything back.
- 33:59Speaker 1: It was at the police station when they were going
- 34:02Speaker 1: past us, and I basically I went after him. I
- 34:06Speaker 1: really wanted to strugg neus, to strangle inbu more than anything,
- 34:08Speaker 1: and I just everything I wanted to say, I just didn't.
- 34:12Speaker 1: I tried to reserve myself. I was is really nick
- 34:15Speaker 1: really you know, yelled at him and he mumbled something
- 34:18Speaker 1: but I didn't hear. And he said he said he
- 34:20Speaker 1: was sorry. I said he was sorry. I didn't hear
- 34:22Speaker 1: that I was just furious and heartbroken, absolutely just heartbroken
- 34:28Speaker 1: and devastated. And I still can't process it what he's
- 34:32Speaker 1: done because this wasn't the person that we knew, not
- 34:36Speaker 1: at all, and he was friends with your son. How's
- 34:39Speaker 1: your son holding up? He's he's angry, he's angry, he's betrayed,
- 34:43Speaker 1: he's you know, um, he's upset, furious. Um. He was
- 34:47Speaker 1: at that school too, and he had friends at that school.
- 34:51Speaker 1: Joining me right now, special guest in addition to Ashley Wilcott,
- 34:56Speaker 1: Joseph's Got, Morgan Dodger, Tiffany Sanders, and John Limley joining
- 35:00Speaker 1: me now. A lawyer who specializes in school law, Andrea Titil. Andrea,
- 35:07Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. I'd like to hear
- 35:09Speaker 1: your thoughts. This poor child fell through the cracks. And
- 35:14Speaker 1: the school district is the pay or and identify or
- 35:19Speaker 1: of first resort and a child spends most of their
- 35:22Speaker 1: time in school. He was identified, should have been identified
- 35:28Speaker 1: under the I d e A, under a mandate called
- 35:31Speaker 1: Child Find and he fell through the cracks. Oh, my
- 35:35Speaker 1: thoughts are are so focused on the school district and
- 35:40Speaker 1: what could have and should have been done in school
- 35:43Speaker 1: districts Nancy have an affirmative duty to identify these children.
- 35:49Speaker 1: They received federal block grant money from Congress every year,
- 35:55Speaker 1: and in exchange for that money, they promised to implement
- 35:59Speaker 1: and provide special education law. Special education law, under a
- 36:04Speaker 1: mandate called child find requires the school districts to identify, evaluate,
- 36:13Speaker 1: and remediate problems. This boy's problems did not start before
- 36:18Speaker 1: he was expelled. These this boy's problems started long ago,
- 36:24Speaker 1: and they had a duty to identify him, to assess him,
- 36:28Speaker 1: to hold a meeting, and to make sure he was
- 36:31Speaker 1: offered the programming and services necessary to help remediate him.
- 36:36Speaker 1: School districts have an array of services that they can offer,
- 36:40Speaker 1: including counseling in school and all the way up through
- 36:45Speaker 1: hospitalization and residential treatment programs at no cost. Question to you, Andrea,
- 36:51Speaker 1: Andrea Titel, why do you think none of this was
- 36:55Speaker 1: done the things you're saying should have been done. It
- 36:57Speaker 1: seems to me that we've got a a cadre of
- 37:01Speaker 1: social workers and mental health counselors and school administrators who
- 37:05Speaker 1: are the on the front lines documenting everything they've learned.
- 37:11Speaker 1: They are meeting with him, they are counseling him, they
- 37:15Speaker 1: are trying to help him because they've had multiple countless
- 37:19Speaker 1: meetings and sessions with the workers. Unfortunately, there is so
- 37:24Speaker 1: little continuity of care, and that's what happens. This was
- 37:29Speaker 1: an accident waiting to happen long before. But you were
- 37:34Speaker 1: saying he should have gotten all that. But apparently he
- 37:37Speaker 1: did get all that based on and paid for by
- 37:40Speaker 1: you and me and everybody listening right now. We paid
- 37:44Speaker 1: for that, and I'm happy to and he got those services.
- 37:47Speaker 1: Those services were rendered to him. The services that that
- 37:52Speaker 1: he needed required a residential more likely mill you with
- 37:58Speaker 1: education and therapy and whatever else he needed. It doesn't
- 38:04Speaker 1: sound to me like this young man was given the
- 38:07Speaker 1: extent and the level of service that he deserved and required.
- 38:11Speaker 1: So now, Andrea, you're saying, first it was he didn't
- 38:15Speaker 1: get the services. Then when I point out he did
- 38:17Speaker 1: get the services, you are now saying he got the
- 38:19Speaker 1: wrong services, and you are deciding that he should have
- 38:24Speaker 1: been you said residential treatment. I mean, I don't know
- 38:27Speaker 1: if that ever did or didn't happen, but I do
- 38:30Speaker 1: know that family and neighbors say his parents, mother and
- 38:35Speaker 1: father that took him and his brother in when they
- 38:38Speaker 1: were infants, when they were little little boys worked so
- 38:43Speaker 1: hard to give them a quote beautiful home, and outwardly
- 38:48Speaker 1: the home is beautiful. The mother and father both worked
- 38:52Speaker 1: full time and really strove to give them all the
- 38:57Speaker 1: love they thought they needed after they were abandoned by
- 39:01Speaker 1: their first parents. And I'm just trying to figure out
- 39:05Speaker 1: what you know that I don't know, because I know
- 39:08Speaker 1: he met met with mental health workers at the school.
- 39:11Speaker 1: Social workers, school counselors repeatedly, Now, why do you think
- 39:18Speaker 1: he should have gone into a residential treatment. I don't
- 39:21Speaker 1: believe that this young man had an I e P.
- 39:23Speaker 1: I don't know that to be the truth, but I
- 39:27Speaker 1: would be very curious to ascertain that. And I e
- 39:31Speaker 1: P is an individualized educational program that does cover mental
- 39:35Speaker 1: health issues. I believe that he was and should have
- 39:39Speaker 1: been found eligible for special education under the criteria of
- 39:44Speaker 1: severely emotionally disturbed. I don't believe that to be the case.
- 39:48Speaker 1: And the fact that DCF identified him through mental health workers,
- 39:54Speaker 1: they are not the ones that provide the services. It
- 39:58Speaker 1: is the school. The school is the identifier and pay
- 40:02Speaker 1: or of first resort for these services. But I've also
- 40:07Speaker 1: done some investigation, and I've learned that DCF said he
- 40:12Speaker 1: was in good shape, he was with his mom, and
- 40:14Speaker 1: he was going to school, and that was the last
- 40:17Speaker 1: report that they did and posed no threat whatsoever to society.
- 40:22Speaker 1: Joining me also as child welfare law expert Ashley Wilcott
- 40:26Speaker 1: Ashley Um investigators noted his health diagnosis and it seemed
- 40:35Speaker 1: to manifest in hatred, Nazi symbols on his book back
- 40:41Speaker 1: his backpack, next to a declaration written I hate and
- 40:50Speaker 1: a racial slur which I'm not even going to state
- 40:55Speaker 1: and Sully serious sex that's on his backpack. Um. Yes,
- 41:06Speaker 1: all the signs were there and he was expelled. Ashley,
- 41:12Speaker 1: I mean you hear what Andrew ty Tail is saying.
- 41:14Speaker 1: She specializes in school law. I'm sure she's right in
- 41:19Speaker 1: that he should have been dealing with a counselor at
- 41:23Speaker 1: school and someone to help him. But it sounds like
- 41:27Speaker 1: that did happen, Ashley. What am I missing? Well, even
- 41:30Speaker 1: if that happened, that's not the only person or agency
- 41:34Speaker 1: responsible when you have a child who has so many
- 41:38Speaker 1: signs of red flags of help, help, help, help, keeping
- 41:43Speaker 1: mind Nancy. From my perspective of child welfare, he was adopted.
- 41:48Speaker 1: We don't know if he was adopted from the system
- 41:50Speaker 1: or a private individual. We don't know what happened to
- 41:53Speaker 1: him before he was adopted, but if it caused trauma,
- 41:57Speaker 1: repeated trauma, Brian brain science now shows that could change
- 42:01Speaker 1: the way his brain functions. Was that ever treated by
- 42:05Speaker 1: the adoptive family, Was that ever treated by anyone who
- 42:09Speaker 1: was caretaking for him in his life? So they're a
- 42:12Speaker 1: whole host of people responsible for seeking the help for him.
- 42:17Speaker 1: Bottom line, he was messed up. He did not get
- 42:20Speaker 1: whether services were provided or not, it was not sufficient.
- 42:24Speaker 1: Well I know this. Uh. Cruiz finally declined to talk
- 42:30Speaker 1: to Department Child and Family Services, an investigator who comes
- 42:34Speaker 1: to his home to try to help him, and said
- 42:37Speaker 1: he had quote talked about the situation enough. I want
- 42:41Speaker 1: to speak also to the FBI, and I agree heads
- 42:47Speaker 1: should roll a. I believe it was a parole officer,
- 42:54Speaker 1: Is that right? Joseph Scott Morgan partnered parole in Mississippi
- 42:59Speaker 1: contacted the FBI about Cruise posting I'm going to be
- 43:04Speaker 1: a professional school shooter online. And also I'm looking right
- 43:09Speaker 1: now at an Instagram post by Cruise allegedly showing I
- 43:14Speaker 1: don't know even know how many weapons lying out on
- 43:19Speaker 1: his bed on display, including you know, semi automatic weapons. Yeah.
- 43:26Speaker 1: The uh, the the image they're based on what we're hearing,
- 43:29Speaker 1: Nancy is only scratching the surface relative to the weapons
- 43:33Speaker 1: that he had. Uh. The if you in that image,
- 43:38Speaker 1: you can actually see the the a R platform weapon
- 43:42Speaker 1: that he had that's based upon. For people at home
- 43:45Speaker 1: that don't understand this is this is based upon the
- 43:48Speaker 1: same platform that our troops use in Afghanistan. Um, it's
- 43:54Speaker 1: them four and uh it was just mentioned by John
- 43:58Speaker 1: a little while ago. There are a lot of a
- 44:00Speaker 1: attachments that go onto this weapon. This weapon gets to
- 44:03Speaker 1: can get to be very very expensive. And that's one
- 44:06Speaker 1: of the curious things about this. He's working at Dollar
- 44:08Speaker 1: Tree and he can afford these weapons. He's also got
- 44:11Speaker 1: scoped high powered rifles there. I think I saw what
- 44:14Speaker 1: appeared to be uh maybe like a three or eight
- 44:18Speaker 1: dear rifle with a scope. There's a handgun there, a
- 44:20Speaker 1: couple of shotguns. And then John had also mentioned that
- 44:24Speaker 1: he got an a k uh platform weapon. And again
- 44:28Speaker 1: for folks that don't know, that's the variant on what
- 44:32Speaker 1: the Russian Army carries. And so he's got a lot
- 44:36Speaker 1: of firepower here. And for me, from the perspective of, say,
- 44:41Speaker 1: looking at this as an investigator and talking about the FBI,
- 44:46Speaker 1: how in the world, how in the world can you
- 44:48Speaker 1: take all of these reports and not make something out
- 44:52Speaker 1: of this and move forward? Uh? This this kid is
- 44:56Speaker 1: a threat. Uh. And people can accuse me of mon
- 45:00Speaker 1: d morning quarterback. I don't care because at this point
- 45:03Speaker 1: they're seventeen dead people. And not to mention people that
- 45:07Speaker 1: have been scarred and maimed for the rest of your life.
- 45:10Speaker 1: And let's don't forget about the victims families, um, and
- 45:14Speaker 1: and for what it costs you a gallon of gasoline
- 45:18Speaker 1: to go and and and use old fashioned shoe leather
- 45:20Speaker 1: as an investigator and route these things out, I think
- 45:24Speaker 1: their focus needs to be on cases like this, keeping
- 45:27Speaker 1: as we say, the homeland secured. I'm just looking at
- 45:32Speaker 1: these photos and I'm thinking of how I dropped my
- 45:35Speaker 1: children at school every day, and what these parents must
- 45:40Speaker 1: have gone through when they learned there's been a school shooting.
- 45:44Speaker 1: They raced to the school, leaving home, leaving work, trying
- 45:47Speaker 1: to get there in time, and they find out their
- 45:51Speaker 1: child is the one found dead in a pool of
- 45:55Speaker 1: blood at school. I mean, we can Monday Morning quarterback.
- 46:00Speaker 1: All we want to, as you put it, Joe Scott
- 46:02Speaker 1: Morgan Andrew Titail brings up with the school should have
- 46:07Speaker 1: been doing Did they? I don't know. Dr Tiffany Sanders
- 46:11Speaker 1: has an opinion well founded Joe Scott Morgan, Ashley Willcott,
- 46:16Speaker 1: John Limley. But I know for one clear direction is
- 46:22Speaker 1: the FBI. John Limley. I'm stunned at the FBI ignoring this,
- 46:31Speaker 1: doing nothing, even saying they couldn't verify the posters I
- 46:35Speaker 1: d I mean even I know how to identify an
- 46:39Speaker 1: I P address, John Limley, That investigation has just begun,
- 46:43Speaker 1: if you could even consider it underway. We mentioned from
- 46:47Speaker 1: the outset that Florida Department of Children and Families investigation
- 46:52Speaker 1: of Nicholas Cruz possibly being mistreated at home. It's interesting
- 46:57Speaker 1: to note the ultimate findings in the report. The DCF
- 47:03Speaker 1: noted that Cruise had admitted to cutting himself, felt depressed,
- 47:08Speaker 1: and planned to purchase a gun, but investigators determined that
- 47:12Speaker 1: Cruz's mother did not mistreat him. That was the ultimate
- 47:17Speaker 1: goal of the investigation, was to determine if he was
- 47:20Speaker 1: being mistreated. They did site earlier decisions by counselors that
- 47:26Speaker 1: he was not a threat to himself or others. Ultimately,
- 47:31Speaker 1: Cruz was not hospitalized and DCF closed the file. Take
- 47:36Speaker 1: a listen to what the family that took Cruise in
- 47:40Speaker 1: had to say on ABC's g m A. We knew
- 47:43Speaker 1: he had one Instagram account that my son had, and
- 47:46Speaker 1: I guess that would be the normal one. Um these
- 47:49Speaker 1: other Instagram accounts that he had, we had no idea about.
- 47:52Speaker 1: My son had no idea about. Um. As far as
- 47:55Speaker 1: the animal killings, he never did anything like that at
- 47:57Speaker 1: our house. We have animals, and he loved our animals.
- 48:00Speaker 1: Our animals loved him. And you were aware that he
- 48:02Speaker 1: had weapons when he moved into your home. Absolutely, and
- 48:05Speaker 1: where were they kept? Um? We before he moved in.
- 48:08Speaker 1: One of the stipulations is that he had to get
- 48:10Speaker 1: a gun safe. And we got a gun safe on
- 48:13Speaker 1: the way back from Lantana from moving his stuff to
- 48:15Speaker 1: our house. And did he have he didn't have free
- 48:17Speaker 1: access to this gun? No? No, um I thought I
- 48:19Speaker 1: had the only key to the gun safe. And and
- 48:22Speaker 1: had he ever asked you beforehand to to you the
- 48:24Speaker 1: gun to take it out of the safe? He asked twice?
- 48:27Speaker 1: Um once um I said yes, because he wanted to
- 48:29Speaker 1: clean it. And I don't know which gun he wanted
- 48:32Speaker 1: to clean, but he said, you want to clean the gun?
- 48:33Speaker 1: I said, okay. And another time he asked, and I
- 48:35Speaker 1: told him no, it wasn't a good time. And why
- 48:37Speaker 1: did you tell him no? There? I don't know what
- 48:40Speaker 1: the situation was in the house. It was just it
- 48:41Speaker 1: wasn't a good time. I don't know we were getting
- 48:43Speaker 1: ready to leave, or getting ready to sit down for
- 48:45Speaker 1: dinner or something, but it wasn't a good time. And
- 48:47Speaker 1: and judging from any path interaction with him, and seemed
- 48:50Speaker 1: that you had no problem with him having a weapon, No,
- 48:53Speaker 1: not at all. He followed the rules. He followed the rules,
- 48:56Speaker 1: followed the rules. They weren't allowed to be out if
- 48:58Speaker 1: we weren't home or one of us wasn't home. Um,
- 49:02Speaker 1: and he knew that, and to our knowledge, he never
- 49:04Speaker 1: had them out as far as the animals goes, if
- 49:07Speaker 1: he I am very much an animal person. Anybody who
- 49:09Speaker 1: knows me knows that there's no way I'd let anybody
- 49:11Speaker 1: in my house if I thought they was torturing animals
- 49:14Speaker 1: at all. And if we'd known anything about the Instagram
- 49:17Speaker 1: accounts or I don't, I don't even know how to
- 49:19Speaker 1: use Instagram a little old school. But if we had
- 49:22Speaker 1: known anything about that, he wouldn't even been in our home.
- 49:24Speaker 1: That wouldn't even been an option. And do you have
- 49:26Speaker 1: any do you have a message for the family that
- 49:28Speaker 1: there who've lost children, an or of lot of loved
- 49:31Speaker 1: one didness trappy? Nothing I can say, well, we'll heal them. Um,
- 49:36Speaker 1: we hurt for them deeply, very much. So we're devastated
- 49:43Speaker 1: and I can't imagine um the pain they must be feeling.
- 49:48Speaker 1: And like he said, nothing that we can say is
- 49:51Speaker 1: going to be any kind of help. But I'm very sorry.
- 49:58Speaker 1: You know, they had this experience and never should have happened.
- 50:03Speaker 1: And again, if we had known any of the things
- 50:06Speaker 1: that we're hearing, we're learning a lot about all of us,
- 50:10Speaker 1: just the same as everybody else, you know, and we
- 50:12Speaker 1: feel a trade as well and just shocked. You know.
- 50:18Speaker 1: I may sound like I'm disagreeing with various guests today.
- 50:23Speaker 1: I'm looking for answers. They may be right, they may
- 50:26Speaker 1: be wrong, because we're sifting through the rubble of a
- 50:31Speaker 1: horrific crime, a crime that will reverberate in that community
- 50:38Speaker 1: and in those families and at those cemeteries from now on.
- 50:45Speaker 1: You know, so often when I investigate a report on crimes,
- 50:50Speaker 1: I don't let myself think about the actuality of the crime.
- 50:56Speaker 1: I was forced to do it as a prosecutor. And
- 50:59Speaker 1: it's hanful to think of a child gunned down dead
- 51:05Speaker 1: at school when you are forced to think about them
- 51:10Speaker 1: lying in the floor as their life force drains out
- 51:14Speaker 1: of them, alone, with people running away, jumping over them,
- 51:21Speaker 1: away from their parents, dying alone on the floor. That
- 51:30Speaker 1: is what has happened to these children. The only thing
- 51:35Speaker 1: we can do now is search for the truth, whatever
- 51:39Speaker 1: it may be, and seek change. Nancy Grace Crime Story,
- 51:47Speaker 1: signing off, goodbye friend,