Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Mom disappears on country road, 2-year old tot girl found strapped in car seat left behind

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Mom disappears on country road, 2-year old tot girl found strapped in car seat left behind · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Serious x M Triumph
0:08
Speaker 1: Channel one two. I sat on the porch. I'll I looking,
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Speaker 1: you know, I want her to come, trap way and
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Speaker 1: and she never did come. A young mom, absolutely gorgeous,
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Speaker 1: goes missing. And here's the crazy part. Her two year
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Speaker 1: old daughter found inside her vehicle unharmed. How does that happen?
0:44
Speaker 1: I'm talking, of course, about Tracy Pittman Kegley. I'm Nancy Grace.
0:49
Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
0:52
Speaker 1: Where is Tracy? Joining me? Joseph Scott Morgan, forensics expert
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Speaker 1: and Professor of Forensics at Jacksonville State University, Chicago, Psychologist
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Speaker 1: Dr Tiffany Sanders, and special guests joining us Jennifer Horton
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Speaker 1: w f S, a twelve knees reporter who's been on
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Speaker 1: the case. You know what, Jennifer, I'm looking at a
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Speaker 1: photo of Tracy right now. She's stunning. Her teeth looked
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Speaker 1: like a white picket fence. She's a frosty blonde. Um.
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Speaker 1: She looks petite and a big, big smile on her face.
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Speaker 1: And every photo I see if herd that's what really
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Speaker 1: stands out. And Jennifer, another fact that her little girl,
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Speaker 1: a two year old taught girl has found alive in
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Speaker 1: mommy's car. Uh, there is no way she would have
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Speaker 1: left her daughter that way. Jennifer. Let's start at the
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Speaker 1: beginning with me, Jennifer Horton, w f S A twelve
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Speaker 1: News Jennifer, what happened lasting at a gas state? Sh
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Speaker 1: We understand there were some kind of dispute, She left,
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Speaker 1: and her car was downe the next day with her
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Speaker 1: two year old child in the back seat. I'm heard, Okay,
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Speaker 1: hold on, wait a second, Jennifer, hold on, let let's
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Speaker 1: take one fact at a time. You know so much
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Speaker 1: information you gotta put it in SlowMo for the rest
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Speaker 1: of us. So she was seen at a gas station.
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Speaker 1: Was her daughter in the vehicle with her? Yes? Because
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Speaker 1: so the daughter's in the vehicle, which is going to
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Speaker 1: lead me to my a later avenue of inquiry. When
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Speaker 1: the daughter was found, when she still strapped in were
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Speaker 1: her diaper soiled? Was she wearing the same clothes she
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Speaker 1: had on the day before, which would lead me to
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Speaker 1: think she had been there since the day before. That's
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Speaker 1: what I want to investigate that in a moment, But
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Speaker 1: she's at a gas station. Did the gas station have
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Speaker 1: surveillance video, not that we understand. So many of those
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Speaker 1: things were not in play, but the case hitges on.
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Speaker 1: According to investigators, the reason that the child was in
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Speaker 1: the backseat is why they believe the people that did
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Speaker 1: this to Tracy Kegley our locals, and they knew her
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Speaker 1: because they could have easily hurt her child, but they didn't. Interesting. Uh,
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Speaker 1: hold on, let me let me start at the beginning.
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Speaker 1: I make a note of what you just said that
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Speaker 1: it could be people that knew her because of the baby.
3:22
Speaker 1: Hold On, let me get that down. I'm trying to
3:25
Speaker 1: go chronologically. So she's at this gas station. There's no
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Speaker 1: video surveillance. That hurts. That hurts a lot. Uh. We'll
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Speaker 1: keep going forward, but hopefully at a gas station there
3:34
Speaker 1: will be witnesses. So if it is a community where
3:37
Speaker 1: everybody knows each other, people would likely have spotted her there,
3:41
Speaker 1: or we'll have a receipt from a credit card or
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Speaker 1: an a t M the gas station where their eyewitnesses there.
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Speaker 1: That's what we understand. And this is a very small,
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Speaker 1: tight knit community. So she was staying there, good good,
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Speaker 1: So we know she was there. Eye witnesses place her there.
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Speaker 1: When you say there was some sort of a beat.
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Speaker 1: What do you mean by that? I think it was
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Speaker 1: a verbal dispute. People could easily see that they weren't happy.
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Speaker 1: No one's ever indicated to me what the dispute was about,
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Speaker 1: but that that's the Who was it with some friends
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Speaker 1: of hers? Okay? Were they in the car with her? No?
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Speaker 1: As I understand, they all left in their own vehicles.
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Speaker 1: And that's the last time she was ever seen. Was
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Speaker 1: it morning, noon, or night? I believe it was mid day,
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Speaker 1: mid day. That's good because you'll get a better eyewitness
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Speaker 1: account midday versus night or even really early in the morning.
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Speaker 1: So midday she's there, and you're saying the baby was
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Speaker 1: in the car right, assumed back seat, correct strapped into
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Speaker 1: a baby seat. Okay, And I'm asking all these details
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Speaker 1: for reasons, but I don't want to slow you down
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Speaker 1: with an explanation. Now, let me understand something. Jennifer Horton
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Speaker 1: with me w f S a twelve news reporter. Mid day.
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Speaker 1: Was it a week day or a weekend? April? That
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Speaker 1: was a Sunday, you know, Jennifer hor Um. The reason
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Speaker 1: I'm asking what day of the week it was is
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Speaker 1: because if it were midday, you know, anywhere between twelve
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Speaker 1: and five. I'm wondering why wasn't everybody at work? But
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Speaker 1: it was actually a Sunday, a Sunday afternoon. You're saying
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Speaker 1: the dispute was with some of her friends, where they
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Speaker 1: female or male. We've never been given the name, at
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Speaker 1: least in this stage of the investigation. Interesting. Okay, so
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Speaker 1: this is what we know. Let's start with that. Joseph's
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Speaker 1: got Morgan for forensics expert and Dr Tiffany Sanders Chicago
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Speaker 1: psychologists joining in on the mystery of missing mom Tracy
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Speaker 1: Pittman keg Ley. Last seen at a local gas stations.
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Speaker 1: She had a little spat with some of her friends.
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Speaker 1: She goes off in her car with her two year
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Speaker 1: old taught. They go off in their car. She's never
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Speaker 1: seen alive again. Joe Scott, what do you make of
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Speaker 1: what we know so far? Uh? This is a mark
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Speaker 1: could lead bizarre case, Nancy, in the sense that I
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Speaker 1: know the back roads in the South pretty well lived
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Speaker 1: on in my entire life. People don't just simply vanish
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Speaker 1: like this, particularly leaving a two two year old in
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Speaker 1: the car. Wait wait, wait, wait wait wait wait, just
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Speaker 1: got you know? I respect you, but people vanish all
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Speaker 1: the time in the South, as across the rest of
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Speaker 1: the country. People just quote vanish all the time. So
6:24
Speaker 1: refine your thought. What do you mean they don't just
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Speaker 1: vanish because they didn't? Uh. Destrikes me as particularly curious
6:32
Speaker 1: because you've got a young mother who essentially just leaves
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Speaker 1: a car on the side of the road with a
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Speaker 1: small child in it, completely defenseless. Uh like this, What
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Speaker 1: that tells me is that it's it's a vacant, large,
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Speaker 1: open area, isolated. Um, you're gonna tell me that someone
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Speaker 1: is just randomly just picks her out of thin air.
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Speaker 1: To me, this sounds as though that's someone was specifically
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Speaker 1: looking for her that facilitated to vanishing. I want to
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Speaker 1: go back to my original question, Joseph Scott Morgan, when
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Speaker 1: I asked you what you meant by people don't just vanish?
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Speaker 1: Well they do. Please refine your thoughts. Are you saying
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Speaker 1: they don't just vanish without a trace? No, I'm not
7:19
Speaker 1: saying that they don't just vanish without a trace. Nancy,
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Speaker 1: and I think that that there is evidence that is
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Speaker 1: probably left behind that the police are not releasing at
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Speaker 1: this point in time. Uh. What is curious is that
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Speaker 1: she would leave this child behind abandoned in a car. Uh.
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Speaker 1: One of two things is at play. Either someone facilitated
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Speaker 1: this or she just simply walked away from the car.
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Speaker 1: And if that's the case, how did she make it
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Speaker 1: out on foot? How did she wander away from this car?
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Speaker 1: Unless she's affected by some kind of physical malady, mental malady, Uh,
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Speaker 1: that would have just caused her. Well, if she had
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Speaker 1: a physical or mental math holiday, she would have been
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Speaker 1: easily found because she wouldn't have made it very far.
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Speaker 1: She had a physical malady, wandered off into the woods. Uh.
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Speaker 1: But there's been exhaustive searches, and I'm gonna ask you
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Speaker 1: one last time, hopefully getting an answer. When you say
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Speaker 1: people don't just vanish, what do you mean by that,
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Speaker 1: Joe Scott, Well, what I'm saying, Nancy, is that if
8:23
Speaker 1: people don't just simply vanished, they just don't just out
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Speaker 1: of out of blue, they just don't you know. Okay,
8:30
Speaker 1: let me just throw out the name Tera Grinstead. Her
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Speaker 1: body has never been found. She just vanished. It took
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Speaker 1: over a decade to figure out what happened. So people
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Speaker 1: do just vanish. So when you keep saying over and over.
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Speaker 1: People don't just vanish. They do they do just vanish.
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Speaker 1: Go go look at National Center for Missing Exploited Children website.
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Speaker 1: There are lots of people that just quote vanish. So
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Speaker 1: let's see if we can figure out what happened here.
8:56
Speaker 1: Let me go to what the District Attorney R. H.
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Speaker 1: Houston and Elmore County Investigator Joe Herman have to say.
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Speaker 1: And this is at the search site after one day
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Speaker 1: of searching. I think we have searchs property as well
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Speaker 1: as it ever be searched, based on the technology we
9:17
Speaker 1: haven't used today. So I don't know that there's anything
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Speaker 1: else that we're gonna find the property once we can
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Speaker 1: make this section of of ourselves. I'm great, I'm it's
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Speaker 1: vere promise you. So it's the people that you will
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Speaker 1: are still in Elbur County that are involved in this.
9:38
Speaker 1: What would be the thing they need to do today?
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Speaker 1: They need to be looked for visitors. Do they need
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Speaker 1: to come see you know? They need to look for
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Speaker 1: visitors from him, you know the club. Somebody help them.
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Speaker 1: Somebody uh saw something. Now we don't report it and
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Speaker 1: they don't report it. Uh, they may have criminal liability.
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Speaker 1: All show at this point, what is the likelihood that
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Speaker 1: you're going to hand him a case to cross. I'm
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Speaker 1: very I'm it's very promising. But do you have an
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Speaker 1: idea who you're looking forty Yes, yes, so it's likely
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Speaker 1: only a matter of oblisation. If they don't come see us,
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Speaker 1: we're gonna come see them, you know. Dr Tiffany Sanders.
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Speaker 1: Let me just pause a moment. Chicago psychologists joining me.
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Speaker 1: Why is this so hard to get it? Yes? No,
10:30
Speaker 1: out of a man, I mean, you know what, they
10:33
Speaker 1: just talk in circles or is it just me? Or
10:35
Speaker 1: is it Joe Scotti? It's him? It's him? Okay, yeah,
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Speaker 1: you heard that. Joe Scott, she's the expert. And Jennifer
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Speaker 1: Horton wisely just keeping out of this. Okay, here we guys,
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Speaker 1: we're talking about the case of a gorgeous young mom
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Speaker 1: who disappears seemingly without a trace. Uh. In the last
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Speaker 1: hour's placed divers claim they have discovered potential evidence that
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Speaker 1: could lead to a breakthrough and the disappearance of a
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Speaker 1: thirty year old mother. Tracy Pittman Kegley, as Jennifer Horton
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Speaker 1: is telling us from w f S A twelve news.
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Speaker 1: Kegley was last seen at a gas station there in
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Speaker 1: Elmore County on April. Her car was found the next
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Speaker 1: day with her two year old baby girl inside. The
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Speaker 1: baby was left unattendant. Jennifer Horton get from when she
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Speaker 1: went missing is that there was an idea that possibly
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Speaker 1: she just left. So I'm not sure that this was
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Speaker 1: a situation that was a high alert at the time
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Speaker 1: for at least some law enforcement. Now, one thing I
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Speaker 1: just don't get, Jennifer Horton w fs A twelve is
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Speaker 1: how they could possibly have thought the mom would just
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Speaker 1: leave the baby in the car and just walk off
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Speaker 1: into a densely wooded area. What hitch hiker ride? I
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Speaker 1: don't get it. How could they not name it a
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Speaker 1: crime scene immediately because we hear the sheriff being questioned, Hey,
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Speaker 1: what's going on in gaus Well, it's close to being
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Speaker 1: a crime scene? You dar straight, it's a crime scene.
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Speaker 1: What was the hold of Jennifer. I'm not saying that
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Speaker 1: there was a hold up, but here's the fact that
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Speaker 1: could have thrown a wrench in some things. She had
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Speaker 1: been divorced for sixteen days at the time she witnessing.
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Speaker 1: Her divorce was cleared sixteen days before she witnessing, so
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Speaker 1: I think in that way some people felt that she
12:34
Speaker 1: may have may have just flown the coop, but at
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Speaker 1: the same rate her parents dead and leave her baby
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Speaker 1: strapped in the back of a car overnight. She was
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Speaker 1: she that bad of a mother. People who knew and
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Speaker 1: loved her said she would not do that. She was
12:47
Speaker 1: a loving mother. She would never leave her child, and
12:50
Speaker 1: said that was there. I won't even leave the children,
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Speaker 1: just got Morgan. I won't even leave the children briefly,
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Speaker 1: and when they think I've left him, I'm spying. In fact,
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Speaker 1: the other day, Joe Scott, and you know the children
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Speaker 1: very well, Lucy says, mom was that you drive through
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Speaker 1: the parking lot of the school at recess. I'm like, yes,
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Speaker 1: it was. And she said, why are you driving through
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Speaker 1: the parking I said, to make sure you haven't been kidnapped.
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Speaker 1: Lucy's very simple. Okay, there bam. So unless this mother
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Speaker 1: was derelict and just a horrible mom, I don't understand,
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Speaker 1: Joe Scott, why cops would not call it, name it
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Speaker 1: out loud what it is in the first moments and
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Speaker 1: get the ball rolling in the right direction instead of
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Speaker 1: losing twenty four hours pretending she left willingly. I don't.
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Speaker 1: I don't understand that either, you know, I still I
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Speaker 1: think I think that you have to entertain the possibility
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Speaker 1: that she was, uh maybe suffering from some kind of
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Speaker 1: uh mental break. Remember just as a young lady the
14:01
Speaker 1: reporter mentioned just a moment ago. Uh uh, this lady
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Speaker 1: has just gone through a very traumatic events. She's just
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Speaker 1: been divorced. Uh, maybe she's uh, you know, distraught to
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Speaker 1: the point where she pulls over on the side of
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Speaker 1: the road, opens the door and just simply walks away,
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Speaker 1: uh and just wanders off into the woods. Just got
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Speaker 1: what movies have you been watching? Because that does I mean,
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Speaker 1: has your wife ever just left one of the top
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Speaker 1: one of your children is taught to the car, strapped
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Speaker 1: in and just walked off and left. Okay, so this
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Speaker 1: this sounds like a fictional movie you're writing. I don't.
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Speaker 1: I know very few cases where that has happened. Let's
14:39
Speaker 1: go to the shrink. Dr Tiffany Sanders, Chicago psychologist. Dr
14:42
Speaker 1: Tiffany When a person has a history of being a
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Speaker 1: loving mom, that's really a euphemism. A loving mom is
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Speaker 1: somebody that gets up early early in the morning and
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Speaker 1: makes breakfast or uh changes diepes and and doesn't look
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Speaker 1: the other way, and no matter how they feel, take
15:04
Speaker 1: the children to the doctor, into this and to that,
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Speaker 1: and you put your child first because you want to,
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Speaker 1: and you really don't even think twice about it. Um
15:15
Speaker 1: just when you have a track record of being a
15:18
Speaker 1: great mom and no history of mental illness whatsoever, and
15:23
Speaker 1: you're spotted at a gas station getting gas and the
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Speaker 1: next thing you know, twenty four hours pass and your
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Speaker 1: child's found strapped in a car seat in the middle
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Speaker 1: of nowhere and you're gone with a card door open.
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Speaker 1: That's way in Tiffany. Please help me out with the
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Speaker 1: those that would argue that she left on her own.
15:41
Speaker 1: It's not even plausible to think that she would leave
15:43
Speaker 1: on her own. And do we even have any history
15:45
Speaker 1: of any problems with Department Children's Family Welfare. Usually when
15:49
Speaker 1: you see someone abandon or not taking care of their child,
15:52
Speaker 1: or some swarm of neglect, you would have history of that.
15:54
Speaker 1: There will be some sort of precedence. It wouldn't be
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Speaker 1: this new occurrence. So for a loving mother who is
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Speaker 1: attentive to her child to leave her child on her
16:03
Speaker 1: own willingly does not seem to make sense. It would
16:06
Speaker 1: seem to me that you know, an intimate partner, because
16:09
Speaker 1: oftentimes when things happen to us, it's usually some sort
16:12
Speaker 1: of intimate partner. So the reporter just suggested that she
16:16
Speaker 1: was divorced recently, Nancy, Why weren't the investigators looking at
16:20
Speaker 1: her intimate partner or a family member? Those lily plausible reasons,
16:24
Speaker 1: which is one reason why they may not have harmed
16:27
Speaker 1: the child, because they didn't want to harm their own
16:29
Speaker 1: session blood. So uh, there's other things to suggest there
16:33
Speaker 1: were other people to possibly look at in dis missing person. Finally,
16:37
Speaker 1: the voice of reason, I'm not alone screaming in the wilderness.
16:42
Speaker 1: Dr Tiffany Sanders, Chicago Psychologists with me. Um, you know,
16:47
Speaker 1: here's another possibility, Jennifer Horton w fs A twelve Knees reporter.
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Speaker 1: You know what, I bet you the police thought at
16:55
Speaker 1: the very beginning means a small town. As you've pointed out,
16:59
Speaker 1: they'll know her, they know she's a good mom, they
17:02
Speaker 1: know she is uh steady eddie. They probably thought at
17:06
Speaker 1: the very beginning, you know what, this isn't right. There's
17:09
Speaker 1: some stinks, but they weren't willing to go out on
17:12
Speaker 1: a limb and say it yet and alert the potential suspects.
17:16
Speaker 1: Take a listen to what the d A. R. H.
17:18
Speaker 1: Houston at the search site says about the effort. Listen,
17:22
Speaker 1: we are putting together the pieces for a very large
17:24
Speaker 1: search that we're fixing conduct on about three three and
17:28
Speaker 1: fifty acres of land. Uh. We're bringing in assets from
17:31
Speaker 1: all over the country. It's probably going to be one
17:34
Speaker 1: of the largest searches conducted in the Southeast. We had
17:37
Speaker 1: Mr Miss Pittman here with us today. I think Miss
17:39
Speaker 1: Pittman was getting a little stir crazy, you know, sit
17:42
Speaker 1: around the house and working at the office and not
17:44
Speaker 1: being able to be here and contribute to help locate
17:48
Speaker 1: her daughter. So um, she came up here to visit
17:51
Speaker 1: with us, and we took the opportunity to show her
17:53
Speaker 1: some of the technology that we've been showing y'all this week,
17:56
Speaker 1: but actually have her actually look at it and see
17:59
Speaker 1: it and be having explained to her. She met some
18:02
Speaker 1: of the technicians, she met some of the volunteers from
18:05
Speaker 1: a group called Ezra, which is a private company that
18:08
Speaker 1: volunteered their time and they're mapping in technology skills to
18:11
Speaker 1: come down here, and um, she got the opportunity to
18:14
Speaker 1: thank some people, and uh, I think they appreciated it.
18:16
Speaker 1: And I think that she realizes, I think the family
18:18
Speaker 1: realizes that this is really this is a really big
18:21
Speaker 1: effort that's being put forward. I truly believe that the
18:25
Speaker 1: people who are responsible for her disappearance are here. They're
18:29
Speaker 1: in Olmore County, and they're still here in Olmore County,
18:31
Speaker 1: And as soon as we find her, then that will
18:34
Speaker 1: help us get a little bit closer to um putting
18:37
Speaker 1: them where they belong. For those of you just joining us,
18:39
Speaker 1: clues are just now surfacing in the case of a
18:43
Speaker 1: missing mom who disappeared one hot sunny Sunday afternoon in Alabama.
18:50
Speaker 1: Police divers have just discovered potential evidence that could lead
18:54
Speaker 1: to a breakthrough in the disappearance of a thirty year
18:58
Speaker 1: old Alabama mom um Tracy Pittman keg Lee Now. According
19:05
Speaker 1: to Jennifer Horton w FSA twelve, she had only been
19:09
Speaker 1: divorced for sixteen days. Okay, she finally got free in
19:16
Speaker 1: a divorce. Does that have anything to do with the disappearance?
19:20
Speaker 1: Tracy lasting in the gas station Elmore County, her car
19:24
Speaker 1: found the very next day with her two year old
19:27
Speaker 1: taught girls still strapped inside unattended. Authorities searched a three
19:34
Speaker 1: hundred acre property in Elmore County for her body, pursuing
19:39
Speaker 1: to search warrant, including cadaver dogs. Right now, authorities not
19:44
Speaker 1: saying what evidence divers found in a pond on the property. Hmm,
19:50
Speaker 1: it's been sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Science
19:53
Speaker 1: lab for testing. Okay, um, Joe Scott, this is your
19:58
Speaker 1: neck of the woods. Here's an another thing. And you
20:01
Speaker 1: know we saw this in the recent Delphi murders of
20:04
Speaker 1: the two precious little girls. Immediately the owner of the
20:09
Speaker 1: property was given a search warrant the entire where their
20:13
Speaker 1: bodies are found. The entire property was searched, homes, outbuildings, garages, sheds,
20:19
Speaker 1: you name it. That is not to cast dispersion or
20:23
Speaker 1: doubt on the owner of the property. When you've got
20:26
Speaker 1: a big area like this three acres, you don't know
20:30
Speaker 1: what's happening at the outskirts of those acres. You drive
20:33
Speaker 1: in and out every day on your driveway and you're
20:36
Speaker 1: not roaming the land looking for evidence. So the fact
20:40
Speaker 1: that the owner has served with a search warrant does
20:43
Speaker 1: not suggest guilt on their part. But it's a place
20:47
Speaker 1: to start, right Joe Scott. Yeah, it absolutely is, Nancy,
20:51
Speaker 1: And you know you have to have that from the beginning,
20:54
Speaker 1: just to make sure that all the all the teas
20:57
Speaker 1: across and all the eyes are dotted. What's really fatascinating
21:00
Speaker 1: about this particular case, Nancy, is that this is really
21:05
Speaker 1: on the cutting edge of forensic science. And let me
21:07
Speaker 1: tell you why. UM, for the first time, uh, one
21:12
Speaker 1: of the first times in recent memory. UH, they are
21:15
Speaker 1: employing what's referred to as g I S, which is
21:18
Speaker 1: geographic information systems. And what happens is is that they're
21:24
Speaker 1: utilizing satellite technology, drone technology, and then human intelligence on
21:30
Speaker 1: the ground where you have these teams and there's teams
21:33
Speaker 1: from all over the state of Alabama that are searching
21:36
Speaker 1: this property. A vast number of officers are out there
21:39
Speaker 1: along with canine units. So every bit of disinformation has
21:43
Speaker 1: been kind of uh coalesced through g I S and
21:47
Speaker 1: their processing this UM and they have covered this and Nancy,
21:51
Speaker 1: as you know, in the South and rural South, these
21:53
Speaker 1: areas are absolutely vast. There's a lot of vegetation, and
21:58
Speaker 1: there's things that we can't see with an unaided eye,
22:01
Speaker 1: and so it opens up an entirely different types of
22:05
Speaker 1: entirely different type of world. What I'm gonna be fascinated
22:08
Speaker 1: to try to try to see is what has been
22:12
Speaker 1: recovered from this lake. They haven't given us a lot
22:15
Speaker 1: of information, but whatever has been recovered is going to
22:18
Speaker 1: be taken back to the state crime Lab. I'm sure
22:20
Speaker 1: that it's already there and it's being analyzed at this
22:24
Speaker 1: particular time. And when the d A and the police,
22:29
Speaker 1: uh decide to release whatever it is this bit of information,
22:34
Speaker 1: because I'm sure that people are just sitting um sitting
22:36
Speaker 1: on the edge of their seats, waiting to find out
22:38
Speaker 1: this was a very impactful case in this small community
22:42
Speaker 1: all those years ago, Nancy. All of that technology is
22:45
Speaker 1: under the eye of Joe Mosley, director of the Alabama
22:48
Speaker 1: Fusion Center. He says, the advanced technologies giving investigators advantages
22:53
Speaker 1: they didn't have twenty years ago. Uh. There are certain
22:56
Speaker 1: areas there that you just can't get to, the swampy areas,
22:59
Speaker 1: Marty area, things that just aren't safe to go to.
23:02
Speaker 1: So we needed something that we can get high resolution
23:04
Speaker 1: imagery and look have analysts look at it and determine
23:07
Speaker 1: is there a need to go over there or not.
23:09
Speaker 1: So the drones have given us that capability. Using this technology,
23:13
Speaker 1: we're ensuring that we had every square inch of the property.
23:16
Speaker 1: We're know in real time exactly where we've been and
23:18
Speaker 1: where we haven't been. Guys, take you listen to what
23:22
Speaker 1: Tracy's parents have to say. Steve and Linda Pittman absolutely
23:29
Speaker 1: devastated who have shown up at the command center and
23:32
Speaker 1: adding ten thousand dollars to the reward. Now it's climbed
23:37
Speaker 1: to twenty five thousand dollars in the search for this
23:40
Speaker 1: beautiful young mom. Take a listen to her parents. Now,
23:44
Speaker 1: I have been more nervous and more I guess just
23:54
Speaker 1: not no, and I just could not stay in office
23:56
Speaker 1: today and I just had to forgot your clothes. So
24:02
Speaker 1: that sort of holds it down to I'm really nervous
24:06
Speaker 1: and I'm in such a hope that we run find you.
24:13
Speaker 1: M everyone that's here, there's been certainly been a lot
24:19
Speaker 1: of volunteers. There's been a lot of technology. Millions of
24:24
Speaker 1: dollars of technology is out here, and uh then everybody
24:30
Speaker 1: has volunteer every time. So we're very proud of what
24:37
Speaker 1: the effort. Everybody is pretty into. It's kind of making hope.
24:41
Speaker 1: It does. It does it makes me feel I had
24:44
Speaker 1: no idea until I got at you today. Just how
24:50
Speaker 1: m h intense the search was in the area, and
24:56
Speaker 1: like I said, the technology you can see eighteens team
25:00
Speaker 1: um they donated tum bones and had everybody's name on it,
25:09
Speaker 1: and they showed them the spots where they were. A
25:12
Speaker 1: mom and of course the dogs volunteers. They volunteered all
25:18
Speaker 1: their time, so there was a lot of people. That
25:22
Speaker 1: was Jennifer Horton speaking with the victim's parents. Jennifer from
25:26
Speaker 1: w f S A twelve. The break that police have
25:31
Speaker 1: been looking for in a coal case may have just
25:35
Speaker 1: occurred during a massive search friendship Elmore County, Alabama. As
25:40
Speaker 1: the search effort for Tracy Pittman Kegley goes on, the
25:45
Speaker 1: district attorney says potential evidence has been found, but will
25:50
Speaker 1: require forensic review. It was found in a body of
25:54
Speaker 1: water on the sprawling property. Let me go back to
25:58
Speaker 1: Jennifer Horton w f S, a twe old news reporter
26:01
Speaker 1: who's been on the story from the very beginning. Jennifer,
26:04
Speaker 1: I keep thinking about that two year old little talk
26:07
Speaker 1: girl left behind with no mom. Tell me about the
26:11
Speaker 1: terrain that they searched three hundred acres and they have
26:16
Speaker 1: used incredible resources. Thirty two miles were flown by drone
26:22
Speaker 1: twenty two hundred that's two thousand, two hundred drone photos
26:26
Speaker 1: were taken. A hundred and thirty seven points of interest found.
26:30
Speaker 1: That's from a dog, about one hundred thirty seven dog
26:34
Speaker 1: miles walked, about one thousand, five hundred and fifty one
26:40
Speaker 1: human miles walked. One hundred sixty nine cell phones issued
26:47
Speaker 1: to search teams. This has been an exhaustive search. Jennifer
26:54
Speaker 1: Horton tell me about the terrain the three hundred miles
26:57
Speaker 1: and specifically this body of water and what is the
27:01
Speaker 1: speculation as to the item that has been found. The
27:04
Speaker 1: body of water is simply a pond in this land.
27:07
Speaker 1: It had some marshy points. They were very concerned about
27:11
Speaker 1: letting it go too far into the spring and summer.
27:14
Speaker 1: That's why they felt they had to do the search immediately.
27:17
Speaker 1: Some of that land is and trust and some people
27:20
Speaker 1: have hunting camps or they hunt on it, which is
27:23
Speaker 1: another reason why they had to wait until this point
27:25
Speaker 1: in the winter to go ahead and get that search
27:28
Speaker 1: for it, because they didn't know who they would encounter
27:30
Speaker 1: in the woods that were there for whatever reason. So
27:33
Speaker 1: this is a difficult terrain, which was another reason why
27:36
Speaker 1: they felt they really needed those trackers. Not only did
27:39
Speaker 1: they want to know they covered every square inch of
27:42
Speaker 1: the acres, they wanted to make sure that everyone returned
27:46
Speaker 1: back to the command center and that they left no
27:48
Speaker 1: stone and turned. And interestingly enough, they touched on this
27:54
Speaker 1: great technology, the stones that they used at various apps.
27:58
Speaker 1: If they saw something they thought interesting, they could take
28:01
Speaker 1: a picture and it was catalog it back at the
28:04
Speaker 1: command center. A hundred and thirty two points of interest.
28:08
Speaker 1: It wouldn't elaborate of what that was. But day for
28:11
Speaker 1: the search, it was the very final day they sent
28:14
Speaker 1: home to Canaine units, they sent home to ground searchers.
28:17
Speaker 1: It was strictly with the state divers and it was
28:19
Speaker 1: before eleven o'clock that morning when they need to have
28:22
Speaker 1: found something. And of course you and I think we
28:25
Speaker 1: all know exactly what they found, but there's still going
28:28
Speaker 1: to get that, you know, the check by the State
28:31
Speaker 1: Department of Forensics to confirm either whether they go back
28:36
Speaker 1: or whether they've got enough to make your case, you know,
28:39
Speaker 1: Jennifer Horton w fs A twelve knees. I'm looking right
28:43
Speaker 1: now at a photo of Lisa and Steve Pittman. There,
28:46
Speaker 1: Tracy's parents. They're at the command center of the search
28:50
Speaker 1: for their daughter. They remind me so much of my
28:57
Speaker 1: own parents. They must be in so much pain, Jennifer, Guys,
29:04
Speaker 1: take a listen to Tracy's parents, Linda and Steve. Is
29:08
Speaker 1: it an internal battle too, not allow yourself to get
29:13
Speaker 1: too emotionally involved, But then on the other hand, you
29:15
Speaker 1: can't help they get emotionally involved. You don't want to
29:18
Speaker 1: get too hopeful in case it doesn't work, But at
29:21
Speaker 1: the same time, you're a mother. You it's hard to
29:24
Speaker 1: hold that back. We've been back and forth with this,
29:27
Speaker 1: you know, like I tell I told told h Randam
29:32
Speaker 1: Houston that we've been up and down so many times
29:36
Speaker 1: in twenty years that I thought I could keep my
29:40
Speaker 1: emotions and under control as it's been so long, But
29:45
Speaker 1: it eventually gets to you because of the people that
29:51
Speaker 1: care the show. They care, they're the year and I
29:57
Speaker 1: just wish that the people people could see, like I said,
30:01
Speaker 1: the technology that they have there. Yeah, I'm talking to
30:05
Speaker 1: people who do this for a living, and you know,
30:07
Speaker 1: they say and some of them have a scientific answer,
30:10
Speaker 1: and some people say, well, I just have a feeling,
30:13
Speaker 1: you know. I said, how do you think he's going
30:14
Speaker 1: to something said, I just find a feeling. Either. If
30:16
Speaker 1: you have a feeling, because you've been through this so
30:18
Speaker 1: many times unfortunately in the past, do you have a
30:21
Speaker 1: feeling as to how this is going. While I was excited,
30:25
Speaker 1: I was very excited about this. Um My feeling today
30:31
Speaker 1: was I thought maybe they could find her today because
30:37
Speaker 1: of the dogs hitting certain areas, and um so I
30:44
Speaker 1: was very excited about just the search and in general.
30:49
Speaker 1: So so as the weaklinds down. Is it gonna be
30:53
Speaker 1: tougher to manage your mentions? How if we don't find it? Really,
31:06
Speaker 1: I've been this point in so many times, you know,
31:12
Speaker 1: but they're doing their best. I know this time they
31:15
Speaker 1: are really doing their best because and I keep on
31:20
Speaker 1: saying technology and people, but they have amazing stuff and
31:26
Speaker 1: people back here. You know. Another thing, um I'm curious
31:30
Speaker 1: about to Jennifer Horton, Jennifer, was this search predicated by
31:38
Speaker 1: a tip of some sort? What it was predicated by?
31:42
Speaker 1: A search from the time Stoppers action lines we had
31:45
Speaker 1: at the station where we profile cases. Where they need
31:48
Speaker 1: to either find the suspects that they know of or
31:51
Speaker 1: they just need information, and it was in. It took
31:54
Speaker 1: them that long to get all the resources corralled, walk
31:59
Speaker 1: down the information and seated it was possibly viable. Do
32:03
Speaker 1: you know what the tip was, Jennifer. They've not really
32:05
Speaker 1: seen anything. They're calling it quote confidential information because they
32:09
Speaker 1: want to protect the person who tipped them off. They
32:12
Speaker 1: say it's the best tip they've ever had in this
32:14
Speaker 1: twenty year long search. I can't even imagine going twenty
32:19
Speaker 1: years and not knowing where my daughter was. She's dead
32:24
Speaker 1: or alive? What happened to her? Um Guys Tracy, a
32:31
Speaker 1: thirty year old young mom, was reported missing on a
32:33
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon, April six. She has not been seen or
32:38
Speaker 1: heard from since. The case has gone cold. The search
32:44
Speaker 1: has just gone down. That has brought several hundred law
32:47
Speaker 1: enforcements and volunteers to a huge, a vast search area
32:52
Speaker 1: just west of Tallahassee. Her car, a GEO Storm, was
32:57
Speaker 1: abandoned on Old Georgia Road, a few miles north of
33:03
Speaker 1: the Chumpka. Her two year old little daughter was inside unharmed.
33:08
Speaker 1: That right there, to me is the clue. Dr Tiffany Sanders.
33:13
Speaker 1: Dr Tiffany joining US Chicago psychologist. What does it say
33:16
Speaker 1: to you, Tiffany, Yes, this is surprising that you will
33:18
Speaker 1: leave that two year old who can possibly depending on
33:21
Speaker 1: their language skills, maybe say something or um some sort
33:25
Speaker 1: of identification. It might be a little bit difficult to understand,
33:27
Speaker 1: but you might get something. So why would they leave
33:29
Speaker 1: that two year old um alive and well? And that
33:33
Speaker 1: suggests that there may have been a loved one or
33:35
Speaker 1: someone that was close to that to your two year
33:37
Speaker 1: old who didn't want to see that two year old harmed. So,
33:41
Speaker 1: you know, to walk away from your car again not
33:44
Speaker 1: plausible to leave your child. Some potential harm was done
33:47
Speaker 1: to that mother, and maybe we're seeing that now that
33:50
Speaker 1: the search crew is finding something twenty years later. But
33:53
Speaker 1: to leave the two year old harm suggested that person
33:56
Speaker 1: may have encountered their loved one and didn't want to
33:58
Speaker 1: do any harm to that child. Thinking about that GEO
34:01
Speaker 1: storm and the potential evidence that may have been found
34:04
Speaker 1: on it, um Jennifer Horton, do we know if at
34:09
Speaker 1: the time Tracy went missing, it was process for Prince
34:13
Speaker 1: d n A anything. I think in the most formative
34:17
Speaker 1: way that they could do, and all those boxes were
34:20
Speaker 1: checked at some point, but you know, nothing that I've
34:25
Speaker 1: ever seen has ever come from that. And as far
34:28
Speaker 1: as clearing anyone, the only people that have ever been
34:32
Speaker 1: cleared in this investigation are Pittman, her mom and dad.
34:36
Speaker 1: The mom and dad. The largest portion of the search,
34:40
Speaker 1: which included twenty law enforcement agencies, seventeen cadaver dogs, half
34:44
Speaker 1: a dozen companies, has just wrapped up. Dive team still
34:49
Speaker 1: on the property working in a pond. That pond seems
34:53
Speaker 1: to be a real area of interest. How far away
34:57
Speaker 1: was the pond from where she lived, Jennifer I would
35:01
Speaker 1: say it would probably be closer to fifty But where
35:06
Speaker 1: they were searching was about twenty miles away from where
35:10
Speaker 1: they found her car. So this isn't just across the
35:13
Speaker 1: street or down the road a piece. It's a sizable distance,
35:18
Speaker 1: and I think maybe that's why early on investigators had
35:21
Speaker 1: not linked the property with with that evidence that they
35:26
Speaker 1: found on the side of the road and so forth.
35:28
Speaker 1: Let me understand that you're saying the property is about
35:31
Speaker 1: forty to fifty miles from her home and about twenty
35:34
Speaker 1: miles from where her GEO Storm car was found abandoned
35:37
Speaker 1: with her little girl in it. Next question, did the
35:40
Speaker 1: owners of the property have any connection to her? We
35:45
Speaker 1: are still unclear exactly where this property was. The command
35:51
Speaker 1: center is where it was, the repository where everyone came
35:56
Speaker 1: and met that they were actually being shoveled over to
35:59
Speaker 1: this property. And as you can imagine with your history,
36:01
Speaker 1: they didn't want us to know exactly where they were.
36:05
Speaker 1: From what we could gather, some of this land was
36:08
Speaker 1: a generational property and some of it was in trust.
36:12
Speaker 1: And we've attempted to work with investigators to see if
36:15
Speaker 1: they would confirm or deny who owned that land based
36:18
Speaker 1: on pot with property records. We've not been successful in that.
36:23
Speaker 1: But on day one they affirmed that the person who
36:27
Speaker 1: owns the property is not a suspect, at least at
36:31
Speaker 1: this time. They did not give way to the idea
36:34
Speaker 1: that that had changed on Thursday when this evidence was
36:38
Speaker 1: found in that water body on the property. Well, that
36:41
Speaker 1: leads me to another another issue. For instance, in the
36:45
Speaker 1: Tera Grinstead case, Joe Scott Morgan, the owner of the property,
36:51
Speaker 1: you know it belonged to a family, and the owner
36:55
Speaker 1: is not a suspect in the the disappearance of Chara Grinstead,
36:58
Speaker 1: but a relative of the owner, maybe a suspect. So
37:03
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily the owner of the property, but somebody
37:07
Speaker 1: connected to the property, somebody that knows that pond, that's
37:10
Speaker 1: fished that pond, that's familiar with that pond. I mean
37:14
Speaker 1: for Jennifer, who's there on the scene to be kept
37:18
Speaker 1: in the dark about the exact location, that means to me,
37:22
Speaker 1: not everybody knows about this pond or this area, but
37:25
Speaker 1: it's someone that's familiar with it. Could it be a hunter,
37:28
Speaker 1: Could it be somebody connected to it. Couldn't be somebody
37:32
Speaker 1: that's done work in that area on that property before.
37:35
Speaker 1: Not necessarily the owner, but someone connected to the property.
37:41
Speaker 1: Joe Scott, Yeah, you're absolutely right. What if someone was
37:44
Speaker 1: given access to go in and fish the pond? We
37:47
Speaker 1: have this, you know, there's a lot of hunting leases, uh,
37:51
Speaker 1: where people wander that property looking for a place to
37:54
Speaker 1: set up to hunt. Or maybe it's just you know
37:56
Speaker 1: a group of people that have gone out to take
37:58
Speaker 1: hay off the field, you know in the fall, for instance,
38:01
Speaker 1: when they bushog it and rolled the hay, that sort
38:04
Speaker 1: of thing. So any number of people could have come
38:07
Speaker 1: across this pond and knew that it was in a
38:10
Speaker 1: particularly isolated area. Uh, Nancy. This this goes to just
38:15
Speaker 1: as we were speaking about how small the world has
38:19
Speaker 1: become now relative to technology, and um, you know, we're
38:24
Speaker 1: kind of fighting the past here, relative to the fact
38:27
Speaker 1: that this happened all those years ago, and now we're
38:31
Speaker 1: moving forward and moving on to an era where we
38:34
Speaker 1: have access to electronic technology and this sort of thing
38:37
Speaker 1: that hopefully is going to narrow the field so that
38:39
Speaker 1: we can determine, uh, if this is in fact her
38:43
Speaker 1: final resting place, or at least give us more information
38:45
Speaker 1: to to follow up. We were talking about the mysterious
38:48
Speaker 1: disappearance of a young mom and thirty year old mom
38:51
Speaker 1: absolutely gorgeous. There's no way this woman walked off on
38:55
Speaker 1: her own, leaving her taught girl strapped in a car seat,
38:59
Speaker 1: the car abandoned in the middle of nowhere. That did
39:03
Speaker 1: not happen. According to Jennifer Horton with w f S
39:07
Speaker 1: A twelve News, this was a loving mom, no history
39:10
Speaker 1: of de facts or child services ever, being called loving
39:15
Speaker 1: grandparents the works. She would never have left that child
39:20
Speaker 1: strapped in a car seat alone for twenty four hours.
39:24
Speaker 1: That simply did not happen. Listen to her parents. There's
39:29
Speaker 1: nothing about this is no, it's not it's you know,
39:35
Speaker 1: it's been. It's been pretty horrible experience. I don't know
39:41
Speaker 1: my experiences. What we're here, and I know there's a
39:44
Speaker 1: lot of people I am um. My last question, do
39:49
Speaker 1: you feel better when she got here? Did it kind
39:52
Speaker 1: of calm your nerves? Walking in getting to talk to people?
39:55
Speaker 1: I wanted to be I wanted to be here, you know,
39:58
Speaker 1: I just wanted to. I feel like I'm closer to everything.
40:02
Speaker 1: Not that I'm I'm nosy or anything, but I just
40:06
Speaker 1: I fail up a lot intermlessing that it's hard to
40:09
Speaker 1: sit in the office. You can't think the found must
40:12
Speaker 1: go around. There's nothing that can take the place of
40:15
Speaker 1: a child that you've lost. Um. But I think that
40:20
Speaker 1: it's a relief for them to know that even after
40:22
Speaker 1: twenty years, we're still looking. And I think that's how
40:25
Speaker 1: you have to be in law enforcement. I think if
40:26
Speaker 1: you're gonna be in law enforcement, you have to understand
40:28
Speaker 1: that you've got to be patient. And if it takes
40:31
Speaker 1: twenty years, it takes twenty years. If it takes twenty
40:33
Speaker 1: more years and I'm still here, it will be another
40:35
Speaker 1: twenty years. For those of you just joining us, we
40:38
Speaker 1: were talking about a cold case of a thirty year
40:40
Speaker 1: old mom who goes missing in the middle of nowhere,
40:43
Speaker 1: leaving her two year old todd girls strapped in the
40:45
Speaker 1: car for twenty four hours at least. Uh No. A
40:51
Speaker 1: massive search has just gone down and authorities saying they
40:54
Speaker 1: have found evidence of interest in a pond, but are
40:59
Speaker 1: not saying what the evidence is. What can you tell me,
41:03
Speaker 1: Jennifer Horton, I understand police are now saying they have
41:07
Speaker 1: three potential suspects, and that's that's been our big question
41:12
Speaker 1: all week. And you know, as as law enforcement so
41:15
Speaker 1: often does they have a feeling about things, They get
41:18
Speaker 1: a little bit of information, But my biggest question to
41:21
Speaker 1: them was, twenty years have passed. I'll have three people
41:25
Speaker 1: potentially in a very high profile case, been able to
41:29
Speaker 1: keep this under wraps all those years in a very
41:32
Speaker 1: very small town. That's what's one of the most perplexing
41:36
Speaker 1: things to me. But law enforcement feels they know exactly
41:39
Speaker 1: who they're looking for all these years. All they've needed
41:43
Speaker 1: there's that probable cause to make the arrest for it,
41:45
Speaker 1: and they've been inspard to say, if this turns out
41:48
Speaker 1: to be what we wanted to be or think it
41:50
Speaker 1: will be as far as the evidence is concerned, the
41:53
Speaker 1: arrest will happen instantly, and they know who they're looking for,
41:58
Speaker 1: and they've been made a plea last week to say,
42:01
Speaker 1: if you don't come see us, will come see you.
42:04
Speaker 1: You know, on one hand, you say they know exactly
42:06
Speaker 1: who they're looking for and they're speaking to them directly,
42:08
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, are they bluffing. It really
42:11
Speaker 1: felt like to me that they know exactly who they're
42:13
Speaker 1: looking for. So it will be very interesting to see
42:17
Speaker 1: what exactly it was outside this potential evidence that really
42:22
Speaker 1: bolstered their confidence in the case they've always felt they
42:25
Speaker 1: had simply couldn't make want to reiterate and confirm what
42:29
Speaker 1: Jennifer Horton w fs A twelve News has said. According
42:33
Speaker 1: to police, then the sheriff, the owner of the property
42:36
Speaker 1: is not repeat is not a suspect quote. That's why
42:40
Speaker 1: we've been very vague about saying just where the property is.
42:44
Speaker 1: We don't want people out there making the difficult job
42:47
Speaker 1: of the search teams even more difficult it is in
42:51
Speaker 1: the friendship community. Our investigation shows that the owner of
42:55
Speaker 1: the property is in no way involved in this case. Now,
43:00
Speaker 1: the sheriff goes on to say he is confident the
43:03
Speaker 1: church is looking for remains that means Tracy is dead.
43:09
Speaker 1: He says, the day Tracy just disappeared off the face
43:12
Speaker 1: of the earth and has never been seen or heard
43:14
Speaker 1: from again. We felt foul play was involved from day one.
43:18
Speaker 1: That's what I suspected, Jennifer. I feel confident that whoever
43:23
Speaker 1: did this to Tracy, listen to this are in Elmore County.
43:30
Speaker 1: Are not is are in Elmore County. That means more
43:35
Speaker 1: than one defendant still in Elmore County. And when they
43:42
Speaker 1: they look over their shoulders they see us coming. We
43:47
Speaker 1: had very good intelligence if she is on this property,
43:52
Speaker 1: we will find her. I think that's very very telling, Jennifer,
43:58
Speaker 1: extremely telling. What do you make of it. I believe
44:02
Speaker 1: they know who they're looking for, and I think they've
44:04
Speaker 1: just needed to thread that needle to be able to
44:06
Speaker 1: make their case to get the warrants that they need.
44:09
Speaker 1: And I believe that on Thursday, it's quiet as they've
44:12
Speaker 1: kept everything, and I mean they have really kept everything
44:15
Speaker 1: close to the best for them to go as far
44:17
Speaker 1: as to say that we have potential evidence in many
44:20
Speaker 1: ways because we work around these people so often, that
44:24
Speaker 1: is a green light for me, because if they had
44:26
Speaker 1: any question in their minds, they wouldn't have said that
44:29
Speaker 1: to us. You know, that's usually something we have to
44:32
Speaker 1: really sort of dredge out in the details. But you know,
44:36
Speaker 1: on the other hand, we're dealing with time, and that
44:39
Speaker 1: has really been the most difficult part. I think if
44:41
Speaker 1: they had this technology twenty years ago, this case would
44:44
Speaker 1: be closed. But the fact that this case has never
44:46
Speaker 1: been closed, no arrest has ever been made. Virtually everyone
44:50
Speaker 1: is still a suspect. You know. I feel like they believe,
44:53
Speaker 1: at least at this juncture, that the ball is back
44:56
Speaker 1: in their court. And I also, just as a reporter
44:59
Speaker 1: on the ground, I wonder how quickly all this will
45:02
Speaker 1: happen as soon as forensics gives its final report. Who
45:05
Speaker 1: was speaking just then that I was quoting was District
45:07
Speaker 1: Attorney Randall Houston. Um, you know, I'm curious. Jennifer Horton
45:13
Speaker 1: w fs A twelve knees. Jennifer, tell me again what
45:18
Speaker 1: kicks started this case again? I mean, it's been a
45:21
Speaker 1: cold case two decades. About two years ago our station
45:25
Speaker 1: had something we call it crime Stoppers action line law
45:28
Speaker 1: enforcement from feeling the area. They come in and they
45:31
Speaker 1: have particular cases they want to profile to generate tips.
45:35
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, this law enforcement agency to us
45:40
Speaker 1: go with the Cagley case. They pulled it out. It's
45:42
Speaker 1: a cold case, we need information. They received the tip
45:46
Speaker 1: on that day in sixteen and after walking it down
45:49
Speaker 1: because now this is the State Police and the State
45:52
Speaker 1: Police has kind of taken over this cold case. They
45:54
Speaker 1: have a cold case unit. And after they walked it
45:57
Speaker 1: down and got the ref worths and got the warrants,
46:01
Speaker 1: they said, it just simply took that long. I'm not
46:04
Speaker 1: sure all that what all it took to get that far,
46:07
Speaker 1: but for some reason, it took them a couple of years.
46:10
Speaker 1: But you know when they came, they really brought everything.
46:12
Speaker 1: They happen with it. Guys, we are talking about a
46:15
Speaker 1: so called cold case. It isn't cold anymore. It's about
46:19
Speaker 1: Tracy Pittman Kegley. A massive search has just gone down
46:24
Speaker 1: and law enforcement says they have found items of interest
46:27
Speaker 1: in a pond that sits on over three hundred acres
46:31
Speaker 1: of densely wooded area. Straight to Jennifer Horton Jennifer, what
46:37
Speaker 1: can you tell me about her divorce? And I'm not
46:42
Speaker 1: pointing the finger at the husband or the ex but
46:46
Speaker 1: we all know statistics that when somebody goes missing or
46:49
Speaker 1: is found dead, you look first and those closest to
46:52
Speaker 1: the victim. What what do we know about him? We
46:54
Speaker 1: know very little about him. We know that he's had
46:57
Speaker 1: a role in, you know, their child's life after to
47:00
Speaker 1: this disappearance. UM, From all intents and purposes, it seems
47:04
Speaker 1: like a pretty standard divorce. Looking back and just talking
47:07
Speaker 1: just some folks around the community that remembered it. Um.
47:11
Speaker 1: You know, I believe that everyone is still around as
47:14
Speaker 1: they mentioned, as far as the suspects and the people
47:17
Speaker 1: at play and even her family, none of that has
47:20
Speaker 1: changed because her disappearance. UM. It's it's really puzzling. But
47:26
Speaker 1: for them to continue to reiterate no one has been
47:29
Speaker 1: ruled out except her parents leaves a lot to the
47:32
Speaker 1: imagination about who they're looking for. UM. But as far
47:36
Speaker 1: as her its husband's concerned, we've heard very very little.
47:41
Speaker 1: At the time, did he enter any um, please to
47:44
Speaker 1: the public to help find her. Was he cooperating with police?
47:47
Speaker 1: What do we know based on our station's records. I
47:50
Speaker 1: went back and looked at every show where we feature
47:53
Speaker 1: a story about this, which was a vast number of shows.
47:57
Speaker 1: We always spoke to her parents. Parents were always at
48:01
Speaker 1: the helm of pleading for help and preuting for information,
48:04
Speaker 1: and as I understand, they were part and partial. There
48:08
Speaker 1: was a sixty thousand dollars award on the table when
48:11
Speaker 1: she went missing for any information about her disappearance. And
48:15
Speaker 1: you know, I believe that they were ready, really at
48:17
Speaker 1: the helm for pulling that money together. Between was a
48:22
Speaker 1: sizeable and kind of cash. Yeah, still is. Authorities has
48:26
Speaker 1: spent days combing over three acres in Elmore County for
48:31
Speaker 1: evidence in the disappearance of Tracy Pittman Kegley. She disappeared April.
48:37
Speaker 1: This is what we know. The thirty year old young
48:40
Speaker 1: mom was last seen on a Sunday, April six, when
48:44
Speaker 1: she left her residence and Eclectic to the man SBP
48:49
Speaker 1: convenience store. Now that's at the corner of US two
48:51
Speaker 1: thirty one North and Redland Road with tomp Coke. Her
48:56
Speaker 1: n G O. Storm was found a abandoned in the car.
49:02
Speaker 1: Were her personal belongings, her pocketbook, her I D and
49:07
Speaker 1: most importantly, her two year old taught girl. Her family
49:11
Speaker 1: insists she's a crime victim, that she would never have
49:14
Speaker 1: left her child alone. Interesting she had separated from her
49:18
Speaker 1: husband earlier, and her divorce was final sixteen days just
49:22
Speaker 1: sixteen days before she disappears. At the time, she had
49:26
Speaker 1: been living with her mom and was just starting a
49:30
Speaker 1: new job at a dental office in Montgomery the day
49:33
Speaker 1: after she went missing. From the get go, police have
49:37
Speaker 1: been tight lipped and they're remaining that way as to
49:40
Speaker 1: why this property is seeing a huge concentration of people
49:47
Speaker 1: and equipment volunteers. It all came, according to Jennifer Horton
49:52
Speaker 1: from a crime stopper segment on the case. Why what
49:57
Speaker 1: was in that tip? Take a listen to Tracy's parents
50:02
Speaker 1: Really surprised as long as it's spend, that they have
50:05
Speaker 1: come up with something that might lead us to her.
50:08
Speaker 1: What do we know about her? Little girl? Left behind?
50:13
Speaker 1: To Jennifer Horton w fs A twelve. What do we know?
50:16
Speaker 1: We know that she's a twenty two year old adult.
50:20
Speaker 1: She is in LOLd in college. Um as far as
50:23
Speaker 1: we understand from her family, I think she's a nursing
50:26
Speaker 1: student that her grandparents have kept her very shildred from
50:30
Speaker 1: this protast. We have never seen her. Um, you know,
50:34
Speaker 1: they've they've been very protective of her for all the
50:37
Speaker 1: right reasons. And you know, if we asked them a question,
50:41
Speaker 1: sometimes they will appeal to us and and give us
50:44
Speaker 1: an answer. But you can tell that's something that they
50:46
Speaker 1: really they really still want to continue to sheeld her
50:50
Speaker 1: from what's going on. We never saw her at the
50:53
Speaker 1: command center. We know, like I said, she's in school,
50:55
Speaker 1: she's got a lot going on, but it's you can
51:00
Speaker 1: tell that there's been a lot of years trying to
51:03
Speaker 1: remove her from this process. According to authorities, they believe
51:08
Speaker 1: the people responsible for Tracy's death and disappearance are still
51:14
Speaker 1: in Elmore County. Interesting, law enforcement says, when they look
51:21
Speaker 1: over their shoulder, they're going to see us coming. Well,
51:24
Speaker 1: you know, it's been justice delayed. This is absolutely a
51:28
Speaker 1: cold case. And this girl has grown up having been
51:31
Speaker 1: abandoned in mob's g O storm car on a secluded
51:36
Speaker 1: road where anything could have happened to her all this
51:39
Speaker 1: time ago, as now a young lady in college. But
51:44
Speaker 1: when people trash law enforcement listen to this. The Southwest
51:52
Speaker 1: Panhandle Search and Rescue Canines sheriff's officers from Lee Elmore
51:58
Speaker 1: a Taga Blunt Children, Tellapoosa police departments from Opalalaka, Pratt Bowl,
52:04
Speaker 1: with Tomka Auburn, the S B I, the A, E.
52:08
Speaker 1: M A, you name it, all of them pulling together
52:13
Speaker 1: to try to get a resolution in the disappearance of
52:16
Speaker 1: this young mother. What do we do now, Joe Scott
52:20
Speaker 1: Morgan continue to work together in this particular case. It's
52:25
Speaker 1: gonna require all of these resources. Nancy, this is such
52:28
Speaker 1: a very old case. They have to be very, very
52:31
Speaker 1: careful going forward. I would anticipate that the powers that
52:37
Speaker 1: be are still gonna play this very very close to
52:39
Speaker 1: the vest relative to the information they're gonna let out.
52:43
Speaker 1: Because one, because the key to this is this this
52:47
Speaker 1: this piece of evidence or a piece of information, however
52:50
Speaker 1: you want to frame it, that they have come across
52:52
Speaker 1: on this property and they've already got a seed planet
52:55
Speaker 1: here with this tip that initially came in um and
52:59
Speaker 1: they're going to be very you're careful in the processing
53:01
Speaker 1: of this. I would think that they're not just watching
53:06
Speaker 1: watching the posture of this d A throughout this thing.
53:09
Speaker 1: The interviews that I've seen with him, he seems like
53:11
Speaker 1: he is very, very careful, meticulous, and he is going
53:15
Speaker 1: to leave no stone unturned before he moves forward with anything,
53:19
Speaker 1: including release of further information. You know. I also noticed
53:23
Speaker 1: Jennifer Horton w F s A that she has never
53:28
Speaker 1: been declared dead. Now in Alabama, you have to wait
53:33
Speaker 1: a period of time. I think it's five years before
53:36
Speaker 1: someone can be declared legally dead if their body has
53:39
Speaker 1: not been found. Those steps were never taken here. Is
53:44
Speaker 1: that correct? That is correct? I wonder what that means
53:50
Speaker 1: to Dr Tiffany Sanders, Chicago psychologist. It it says to me,
53:54
Speaker 1: I'm just an armchair shrink. It says to me that
53:58
Speaker 1: her family, either the parents or the daughter, don't want
54:02
Speaker 1: to declare her dad. And and that makes sense, Nancy,
54:07
Speaker 1: I mean, you want to have hope that your loved
54:08
Speaker 1: one can come home a lie, So to believe that
54:12
Speaker 1: she's been that she's dead or she's been dead for
54:15
Speaker 1: least twenty years as a very frightening thought. Um. And
54:18
Speaker 1: it's okay because that's the typical of our signs of grief,
54:21
Speaker 1: or one of the stages of grief is denial. Um.
54:24
Speaker 1: You know, bargaining. Maybe they're bargaining with the Lord, asking
54:27
Speaker 1: them please, we don't hope it's any another person's kid,
54:30
Speaker 1: but please let it not be our child or our mother.
54:32
Speaker 1: So it's understandable that they may not want to technowledge
54:35
Speaker 1: at this point. They haven't gotten to the stage of acceptance,
54:38
Speaker 1: and we got to give them time to process this information.
54:41
Speaker 1: There is a reward, a dollar reward. If you have information,
54:47
Speaker 1: please call toll free eight hundred three nine to eight
54:51
Speaker 1: zero one one repeat eight hundred three nine to eight
54:55
Speaker 1: zero one one or three three four to one five seven, eight,
55:01
Speaker 1: six seven repeat three three four two one five seven
55:06
Speaker 1: eight six seven, or a Secret Witness Hotline Secret Witness
55:14
Speaker 1: Hotline three three four, five six seven five two two
55:20
Speaker 1: seven three three four five six seven five two two seven.
55:29
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace Crime Stories signing off, Goodbye friend,