Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Tennessee teen Savannah Leigh Pruitt found safe after 19 days missing, adoptive dad jailed

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Tennessee teen Savannah Leigh Pruitt found safe after 19 days missing, adoptive dad jailed · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: com Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. On January fourteenth, twenty nineteen,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Savannah Fleet Pruett, fourteen year old, email from our County,
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  Speaker 1: was reported missing by her parents, Christina and Randall Pruett.
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  Speaker 1: Our investigation has basically led us to this point. She
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  Speaker 1: was last observed by cell phone GPS to be in
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  Speaker 1: the Corbin, Kentucky area, possibly moving north to an unknown
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  Speaker 1: destination from there, and in her bedroom shockingly, her sheets,
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  Speaker 1: her bed sheets, the fitted sheet was gone, the window
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  Speaker 1: screen slashed. No sign of fourteen year old Savannah Lee Pruett,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: but Bobshell in the last hours a breakthrough listen. She
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: was found in a home in Wisconsin. The details of
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: how she got there, who she was with, or any
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  Speaker 1: connections to that area, the sheriff says, are still under investigation.
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  Speaker 1: US been the leading agency on the assistance of the
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  Speaker 1: Tensee Bureau of Investigations, the FBI, and the Department Children's Services.
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  Speaker 1: They have all done a great outstanding job on this
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  Speaker 1: to locate her missing from here to Wisconsin. The timeframe
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  Speaker 1: that they did all these agencies have just has been outstanding.
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  Speaker 1: The job that they've done. You're hearing from our friends
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: at wat ETV Knoxville. That's Madison KIV speaking to law enforcement.
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  Speaker 1: How did a fourteen year old little girl end up
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  Speaker 1: so many states away from home? She was spotted around
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  Speaker 1: eleven PM going to bed. At around five o'clock in
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  Speaker 1: the morning, the little sister says she's gone, the window opened,
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  Speaker 1: the screen slashed, her chargers still there. Why and even
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  Speaker 1: more disturbing news we learn her stepfather arrested. Imancy Grace,
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  Speaker 1: this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: with me an all star lineup. Director of the Cold
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Case Research Institute CSI expert Cheryl McCollum PI, author of
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Playbook to a Murder on Amazon. Vincent Hill, renowned Atlanta
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: criminal defense attorney, former felony prosecutor Daryl Cohen, joining us
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  Speaker 1: US from La LA psychoanalyst doctor Bethany Marshall. Right now
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  Speaker 1: to Crime online dot Com. Investigative reporter Robin will Lensky,
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  Speaker 1: author of Beautiful Life, CSI Behind the Casey Anthony Trial.
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  Speaker 1: Robin will Lensky. When I first heard there had been
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  Speaker 1: an arrest and no Savannah, I had to get up
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  Speaker 1: and leave the table with the twins. I just could
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  Speaker 1: not take the thought of this another child dead, kidnapped
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  Speaker 1: and dead. That's not the way it turned out. And
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  Speaker 1: now the stepfather, I don't get it. Let's just start
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  Speaker 1: at the beginning, Robin. What happened? You know, Nancy, it
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  Speaker 1: is amazing that this has had the ending that has
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  Speaker 1: had this little girl, Well, she's fourteen. She disappears from
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: her home. So she's the oldest of four children. There's
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the mother and stepfather living there. They had lived in
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: that area. They had just moved from Georgia over to Madisonville, Tennessee,
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  Speaker 1: and she's seen at eleven o'clock at night. Robin, Robin, Robin,
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  Speaker 1: you know how much I love you, right, but can
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: we cut the crap. The stepdad's charged with rape. Rape.
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  Speaker 1: This child is in Wisconsin, states and states and states away.
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  Speaker 1: As you were just saying before somebody, Oh it was
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  Speaker 1: me so rudely interrupted, was in Lawrenceville. They moved to Madisonville, Tennessee,
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  Speaker 1: so she can have more land for all of her animals,
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  Speaker 1: much like my daughter Lucy. Next thing, I know, she's missing.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody knows where she is, the desperate search and now
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  Speaker 1: the stepfather is charged with rape. Can you ff. Fast
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  Speaker 1: forward just a little bit. I'll rewind in a minute.
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  Speaker 1: Charged with rape, bobin the stepfather, What what happened? What
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  Speaker 1: is that in connection with her disappearance? It's beyond belief. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: Apparently they say that the stepfather raised her and he's
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  Speaker 1: living in the house, and here he is doing all
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: these news conferences with TV shows, etc. Saying that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: he was her heart and soul and the sunshine of
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  Speaker 1: the family, speaking about her in the past tense along
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  Speaker 1: with the mother. And then the next thing, you know,
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  Speaker 1: she shows up almost six hundred miles away in the
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  Speaker 1: state of Wisconsin. I mean you're talking about almost the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: nine hour drives. How does she get there? Well, here's
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the other thing. There's the other thing. Let me throw
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: this to doctor Bethany Marshall. What hold on, Bethany. I'll
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  Speaker 1: bring you in in this shrink aspect of this, Cheryl McCollum,
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  Speaker 1: director of the Cole Case Research Institute. You and I
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  Speaker 1: said at the very get go. When I asked the
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  Speaker 1: detective was the screen cut from the inside or the outside,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: because you can tell that looking under a microscope, he
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  Speaker 1: said the inside. I knew something was very, very wrong
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: for her, not to be on social media. That's not
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  Speaker 1: like her at all. She's very quiet, very shy, but
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: she had a social media profile. She had two cell
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  Speaker 1: phones with her, the Georgia phone and the Tennessee phone.
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  Speaker 1: They both pained in Kentucky. That's the last we heard
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  Speaker 1: of her. But taking the fitted sheet and not taking
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  Speaker 1: a charger something was way wrong. And Robin was reporting
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: about how there's this rape charge he's not. It doesn't
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  Speaker 1: say yet who he allegedly rape. It says he's charged
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  Speaker 1: with rape in connection to her disappearance. Okay, Cheryl, let
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  Speaker 1: it go. It's a stage scene, so being cut from
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  Speaker 1: the inside. That's somebody wanting you to believe that if
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: perpetrator was outside and kidnapped or some stranger this you know,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the fitted sheep could very well have been removed because
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  Speaker 1: it would have had male DNA on it, which would
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  Speaker 1: be the clue who might have been the child. Oh wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: let me just let that soak in for a moment.
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  Speaker 1: You know. Daryl Cohen, Atlanta criminal defense lawyer. I remember
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  Speaker 1: your glory days, Daryl, when you were a lead prosecutor
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  Speaker 1: in the Fulton DA's office. Yeah, you hear what Cheryl
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  Speaker 1: McCollum is saying the sheets were removed because it very
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  Speaker 1: possibly had male DNA on it. You know what that means, right, sperm.
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  Speaker 1: It obviously means that it might have been her father, stepfather,
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  Speaker 1: could have been anyone. And then again, we're talking about
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  Speaker 1: a fourteen year old girl who doesn't think logically. Appears
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  Speaker 1: that she went ahead and slipped the screen from the inside.
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  Speaker 1: Did she take her fitted sheet to fool everybody? Did
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  Speaker 1: she take it? Did someone else take it? It's very
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  Speaker 1: hard to tell. Wad Satan. Now, you can get away
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  Speaker 1: with arguing that in front of the jury because nobody
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: can really interrupt you. But hold on, did somebody else
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  Speaker 1: come into the home and take the little girl's fitted
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  Speaker 1: sheet sometime in the hours between eleven PM and four
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  Speaker 1: and five AM. Okay, that absolutely makes no sense. Who
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: why would anybody do that? Well, it makes no sense
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  Speaker 1: that she would take it with her either. So none
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  Speaker 1: of this makes sense. But the evidence will be what
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  Speaker 1: it is, and when they find her and be and
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  Speaker 1: they're able to speak to her, and maybe after she's
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: settled down, they'll be able to get some logic out
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  Speaker 1: of this. None of this is good. None of this
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  Speaker 1: makes sense and only makes crime. Guys, the bombshell right
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  Speaker 1: now is seventally prue at the little fourteen year old
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  Speaker 1: girl we've been trying to help. Fine has been found,
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  Speaker 1: but we now know her stepfather charged with rape. At
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  Speaker 1: this hour, detective on the way to get her. My
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: partner in crime, Alan Duke, managed to get a hold
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: of Detective Jason phel y'all just as he was getting
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  Speaker 1: on the plane to go get Savannah. This is what
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  Speaker 1: he said, Detective, I understand you're about to get on
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  Speaker 1: a plane now. We're on our way to Wisconsin to
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  Speaker 1: pick up Savannah and bring her home. She would sound safe,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: and she had been sheltered, and she was in a house,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: and she was fed and seemed well rested or seemed
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  Speaker 1: to be taking good care of her. What can you
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: tell us about who Savannah has been with while she's
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: been in Wisconsin. I can't release that information right now.
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  Speaker 1: I know that that BI has her in custody right now.
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  Speaker 1: She was a very loving, very bubbly She stole the
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  Speaker 1: spot line out of the room. I mean she really
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  Speaker 1: really did beautiful as she looks, that's how her soul was.
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  Speaker 1: It's very beautiful. You guys aren't giving up hope. I'd
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  Speaker 1: just like to please anybody knows anything, please come forward,
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  Speaker 1: help with the investigation. No lead is too small. We
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: cannot rest and until we know something about her Savannah.
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  Speaker 1: You are hearing the voices of her mother, Savannah Lee
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Pruett's mother, Christina, and that stepfather, Randall Pruett speaking to
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: our freendsy wat Knoxville. Did you hear that? To doctor
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Bethany Marshall Ellie psychoanalyst. That guy, Randall stepfather has now
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: been booked into the Monroe County jail. He's charged with
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: rape and being held without bond. Still not clear or
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: they're not saying how this may be connected to the
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  Speaker 1: little girl's disappearance. The Sheriff's office not providing any other details,
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  Speaker 1: including the circumstances of his arrest. But I know this,
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  Speaker 1: he's booked on rape and she ran away or she
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: got out of that home one way or another. Doctor
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Bethany Marshall way in, I mean, did you hear him?
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  Speaker 1: The sunshine of my lives? I can't sleep. She's a
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: star of the room. If anybody knows anything what that sounded,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: it's sort of adoring and sexualized. That that sounds how
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: you would talk about somebody towards whom you have a
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: preoccupation or a fixation. Yancy, when he said no lead
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: is too small. In my field, we call that trite, rehearsed,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: stereotyped speech. What that means is the person that's just
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: playing a role. Fathers don't talk like police officers. They
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: talk like fathers. Please call us, I'm panicked. We want
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: to know where she is. Instead he says, no lead
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: is too small. And you know the other thing that
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  Speaker 1: gets me about all of this is the family had
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  Speaker 1: recently moved to this very remote area because of quote unquote,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the daughter liked animals. To me, that sounds like a
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: predator trying to sequester the family far away from civilization
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: so he can have his way with everybody. I know
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: that sounds creepy, but that's a big picture that comes
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: to mind to me. I am beside myself to Vincent Hill,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: cop turned PI author a playbook to a murder on
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Amazon Vincent Hill. When the stepfather and the mom were
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: behind and she was gone, no one really focused on
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: them at the beginning. Vincent Hill. Yeah, and that's the problem, Nancy.
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  Speaker 1: I mean when you're talking about a child going missing
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  Speaker 1: from the home, you want to start that investigation inside
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  Speaker 1: the home. And the fact that the screen was cut
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: from the inside and the fitted sheet was missing, to me,
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  Speaker 1: that was the biggest red flag in the world. Now,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: did Savannah take that sheet to preserve evidence and maybe
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: that's how we came to this rape charge. We don't know,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: or did the dad take it because he knew his
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  Speaker 1: DNA was on that sheet. But everything pointed to inside
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  Speaker 1: this house and Nancy from the beginning, even the fact
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: that her cell phone was pinging one hundred miles away.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: In an abduction, somebody's going to make sure that phone
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: stays where it is and it doesn't leave the house.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: To Cheryl McCollum, director of the Coldcase Research Institute, weigh in, Cheryl,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the other thing that I wanted to point out that
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I think is critical. January thirteenth was a Sunday, so
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: she had school the next day, So if a stranger
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: had come in and just snatched her, she would not
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: have had two cell phones in her hand when that happened. Yeah,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: you're right, that's very clear to me that she left
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: like ready was something like somebody made her go. So
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the other thing that's interesting to me is when you're
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: talking about three weeks Nancy, somebody had to feed her
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: her casters if they were casters, I had to watch
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: her around the plot to make sure she did not escape.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: They you know, miss work potentially, so around the clot
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: somebody's been with this child. Nobody ran from to hers,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: So that wasn't their motives. They didn't kill her, so
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: that wasn't their motives for a lot of you know
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: evidence to me. Well, Cheryl McCollum, listen to this, Cheryl McCollum,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Director of the Cold Case Research Institute, Cheryl. We contacted
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: the parents to get them to come on, and usually
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: parents relatives, they cannot wait to broadcast their missing child
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: to try to get all the help they can. The
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: DA and the stepdad didn't want to do it. Gee,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I wonder why, Cheryl, why didn't you want to come
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: on and Q and made with me answer a few questions.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: M anybody that didn't want to go? Wait? Aland what
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: was it? What was it that the dad the stepdad
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: says something like he needed to rest. Yes, he said
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: that they were tired. They'd done a local interview and
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: he said that they were tired from that and made yeah,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: because nobody was asking him any hard questions. Well, that's
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: why he got tired. There is a difference between being
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: interviewed by a local Tennessee reporter Nope, disregard to them,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: and being grilled by prosecutor Nancy Grace, Cheryl, what were
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: you saying? Amen. The other thing that really just you know,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: was key to me is the father. He says, you
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: can't sleep, you can't eat, but he said we haven't
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: been able to do that. Sich she left. He didn't
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: say she was kidnaps. He doesn't say, you know this
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: is a crime. He says she left. As a matter
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: of fact. Speaking of the stepfather, ran Prue it now
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: charged with rape. And again, as Jackie Howard in the
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: studio keeps pointing out to me, waving her arms thrashing
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: about wildly, has not said the name of the victim.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: It's just in connection with her disappearance. But now take
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: a listen to what rape suspect. The stepdad, Randall Pruett
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: says at the sheriff's conference, he just moved up from
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: a large foot Georgia. If you hear from your original yes,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Fay said that she's the oldest of four. Can you
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: just talk about the rest of your family and how
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: they're doing in light of everything, and how they're holding on. Well,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: they're very heartbroken, she miser. They don't understand person, None
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: of us understand. So it's like having your soul ripped
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: out of your body and said, you can't think, you
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: can't eat, you can't sleep, can't rest. Life has just
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: ceased for us in from way she left. She was
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: no suns, time, hours, he dearly, wonderful, uncome for sure
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: outside of force writing. Is there anything else that she
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: was interested in? Music? Hurts anything, fuzzy cute? She's a
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: fun girl. Yes, actually got here lizards. I mean she
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: never met a strange and hood she didn't do it correccoon.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: She raised last year from her baby. Yes she was.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: She was the step dad. Now George was rape says,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: it's like having your soul ripped out of your body.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: He can't think. Well, Daryl Cohen, you're the Atlanta criminal
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: defense lawyer. You've represented murderers, rapists, drug lords. He'll have
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: plenty of time to clear his head behind bars because
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: he's sitting there with new bond. Nancy the more answers
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: we get, the more questions I have. For instance, where
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: did she spend her summers? Did she go to camp?
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Did she spend the time with someone that she's now
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: with when they moved? How did she hide herself and
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: become secretive after this took place? Now they ask you
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: what it matters where she went to camp two summers ago.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know what you're doing, Daryl. You're playing
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: look at this, not that, Look here, not over there,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: not at all, Nancy. No, what I'm saying to you
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: is I'm trying to figure out where she found the
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: people to stay with in Wisconsin. So how did she
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: know them? She didn't just get on a bus. You
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: what does that have to do with a stepfather being
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: charged with rape? If anything, it has a great deal
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: to do with her state of mind and how credible
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: she is with whatever statement she's going to give. Look,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: her stepfather, in my view, has done absolutely everything wrong.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: If he's innocent, you certainly don't say the things that
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: he's said. You don't do the things that he's done.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: And you're never too tired to be interviewed. Hi, Nancy Grace, here,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: have you ever googled yourself? Your neighbors, somebody at work,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: a crush. Fifty seven percent of Americans and meant to
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: keeping an eye on their own online reputation. Forty six
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: admit to using the Internet to look up somebody from
• 20:26
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  Speaker 1: truth crime Stories with Nancy Grace. What can you tell
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: us about who Savannah has been with while she's been
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: in Wisconsin. I can't release that information right now. I
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: know that FBI has her in custody right now. When
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: you get her back to Tennessee this afternoon. Will she
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: be reunited with her mother? At this point, we have
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: no reason to believe that she would not be really
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: united with her mom. And what can you tell us
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: now about her adopted father at this point? He has
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: been He was arrested yesterday after an early afternoon for
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: charge of rate and he's being held with no bond,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and that part of the investigation is still ongoing. At
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the sheriff's news conference last night, it was unclear the
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: connection between the father's arrest and Savannah's disappearance. Can you
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: tell us anything more today about that. I can't release
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: the details on that yet just because of the criminal investigation,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: but that information will come out. Yeah, well, we'll be
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: able to release quite a bit more information probably in
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: the near future, once we get everything kind of buttoned
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: up on the investigation. You are hearing Detective Phil y'all,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: who's on his way on a jet plane right now
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: to bring savannahley Prue at home to Robin Lynskey, Crime
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Online dot Com investigative reporter and author of Beautiful Life,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: The CSI behind the Casey Anthony Trial on Amazon. Robin,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: I'm really surprised that they are letting her go back
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: to her mother, because in many of these cases, and
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: I'll go to Daryl and Cheryl on this, in many
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: of these cases when there has been molestation of the
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: child in the home by a male living in the home,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: they won't let the child go back because they deem
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: that the mom has allowed this environment to continue. Yeah,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: you're dead on on that that you know, perhaps she
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: was the enabler and looked the other way. Who knows
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: what was going on in the house. But I will
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: say this to you, Nancy, Let's not this fact be lost.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: This is a fourteen year old girl. She is not
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: a world traveler. She is not a worldly person. Look
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: at the miles the trauma of God knows what happened
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: to her on a physical and emotional level. But then
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: you take someone you move them from Georgia to Tennessee. Okay,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: there's one hundred miles. Then she's possibly in Kentucky where
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the phone is pinging. That's another one hundred and fifty miles.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: And then oh what next, You're in Wisconsin almost six
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: hundred miles away. Look at all these places. How traumatic
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: that would be. I'm picturing myself at fourteen years old.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Picture yourself at fourteen years old, under normal condition and
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: being in all these states, and then with her what
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: her mental and physical state was. I can only imagine
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: the trauma that this well a fourteen year old has
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: been through. You know. Right now, doctor Bethany Marshall l
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: a psychoalence. I'm taking a look at Randall Pruett and
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: he looks like he's at a you know, the podium
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: and a church where the pastor gets behind it. That
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: he looks like he's there with like a photo of
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the River Jordan behind him, with his eyes closed, like
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: he's about to start crying. I mean, really, everything he
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: says is going to be brought in at trial, and
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: we're assuming we know who he's accused of raping. But
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: doctor Bethany, I mean, my soul's ripped out of my body.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I can't think. I can't eat. I bet he couldn't. Well.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: It all sounds so dramatic, like he's playing a role.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: And even the mother veers back and forth between the
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: past tense and the present. We missed her, where is she?
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: We missed having her around as if she was once
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: there and is no longer on this earth. So there's
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: something very chaotic about the way the couple is communicating
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: and like I said, trite, rehearsed and stereotype, like they've
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: come up with like a movie script, rather than parents
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: connected to the reality that their child is missing. And
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: you know another thing about this, I keep going back
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: to the fact that the family moved recently, that they
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: were very cut off from society. I keep wondering about
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: what that meant. And you you were thinking to comment
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: about why did this? Why is fourteen year old Savannah
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: allowed to go back home to their mother? Because one
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: of the things we know about families where there's a
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: predator or a child molester in their midst, the family
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: always protects the child molester. I have a friend who
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: worked in Wrap around Services here in LA. They would
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: court mandated remove the molester from the family. When she
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: came to visit the family, they would pretend like the
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: molester had moved out. The minute she would leave, they
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: would move the molester right and through the back door.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: So families protect the molester, they always do. So this
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: is a part of the story I'm really curious about
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: as it unfolds, like why is she back home with
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: her mom? Mom has not protected her, And what about
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the other three children? What happened to them? Why are
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: they still in the home? Why haven't they've been removed? Guys,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I want to go to Cheryl McCallum, the wrector of
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: the Cold Case Research Institute. Cheryl, what about it? We
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: also know that the sheriff said quote is the possibility
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: of multiple charges with multiple people being involved. That's all
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: we can say at this time. What other potential charges
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: could there possibly be? For those of you just joining
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: us fourteen year olds of ENII Prue. It has been
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: found far far away from home, being hidden in Wisconsin,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: not with family members. We are told Detective Phil y'all
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: on the way on a plane right now to bring
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: her home. Her stepfather now behind bars. No bond on rape.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: What other possible people? What other possible charges? Charyl McCollum.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: If the people in the nowity, like I said earlier,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: you had to watch her twenty four hours a day
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: for three weeks, ain't sure she didn't escape, So you've
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: got kidnapping, They miss work, they drove her across for
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: safe somebody had that child over all that period of time.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: What I would like for law of sportsman to do
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: it's halt to her teachers in Georgia, these are mandated reporters.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Those teachers know when a child changes their personality. If
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: she made an outcry of some sort, Nancy, you and
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I both know perpetrators that molest children if they think
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: the facts is about to get involved. In Georgia, we
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: go to Kentucky. We go to Tennessee. If Tennessee is
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: closing in on us and she's gonna make another outcry,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: perhaps she's pregnant, then we go to Wisconsin. We hide
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: her and let me say something else. Nancy, and you
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: and I both know this that it is not popular
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: when I say it. But if stepfather is not her father, period,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Watch the way he seeks when he says things like, well,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: it's rough when somebody takes jers. She ain't jers, sir,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: she's not your daughter. So when he changes any language,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: that should be a clue. Guys want to pause very
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: quickly and thank our partner who's making our investigation into
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: the recovery of fourteen year old Savantay Prue. It possible.
• 28:15
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• 28:19
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• 28:21
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• 28:24
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• 28:27
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• 28:33
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• 28:36
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• 28:40
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• 28:45
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• 29:03
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• 29:09
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• 29:19
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• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Blink Protect dot Com Slash Defense. That's Blink Protect dot
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Com Slash Defense. Thank you, Blink. She has never misbehaved
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: a mad kid ever, in her life and this is
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: just really way on left field for her. These parents
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: aren't giving up, absolutely not. How we lost home and
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: will we lose hope? No, please come home. We do
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: miss you terribly. M that's w VLTCBS Knoxville, and you
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: were hearing porter of Robert Grant speaking with the mom
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: and the stepdad Little SAVANNAHY Pruett. That's stepdad Randall Pruitt
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: now behind bars on rape being held with no bond.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: This is but we know the adoptive dad of Little
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Savannah is behind bars. She's been found in Wisconsin. He
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: was arrested charged with rape. Monroe County Sheriff Tommy Jones
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: said the missing team was found, but that the rape
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: charge does not necessarily have anything to do not directly
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: correlated with the girl's disappearance. Now, I don't know what
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: that means. The sheriff says, quote, we don't believe at
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: this time he has connection to her being missing. How
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: do you decipher that? To Robie Willinski, I think that
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: the police are looking at the tentacles of the stepfather,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: who does he know what one down in Georgia before
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: they suddenly left and moved to Madisonville, Tennessee. Nancy. I
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: think that they're still investigating him. Who he knows, what
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: the associates are, What is the mothers involved in it?
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: In this was they're enabling? Was she looking the other way?
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: That's why they're not connecting all the dust and telling
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: the public what they think is the connection. Doctor Bethanie Marshall,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: LA psychoalenst way In. Well, you know, the investigator says
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: multiple people, multiple charges. Sure, it could be the person
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: who helped her escape. It could be, as one of
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: the guests said, the tentacles of the father's involvement in
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the community and how he may have co opted other
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: people into his crimes, But it could also mean the
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: other children in the household. So intra familial molesters, men
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: who molest within their own families are the most prolific
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: of all molesters. It's multiple offenses, multiple times against the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: same victim. It's not somebody who snatches a child off
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: a lawn, molests them, wants and kills them. This is
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: repeat offending. So when he says multiple people, multiple charges,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: you don't have to have a vast conspiracy in the
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: community to bring these kinds of charges. You can have
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: one guy running loose in his own household and there
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: are a lot of charges. And I'm wondering if that's
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: also what the investigator was referring to pi Way in Nancy.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: You could also have the figure to report on behalf
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: of the mother. If she knew what was going on
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: inside that home, which I suspect she did, and she
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: did not come forward, then she's liable as well. So
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: that could be the other charges of these multiple people too.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen, this guy is sitting behind Mars, what's his
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: lawyer telling him? You're the defense attorney? As a lawyer,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: I would tell him kyd BMS, which is keep your
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: damn big mouth shut. I have again so many questions.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: How did they know that he raped her? Did she
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: leave on her own? Was she taken? Did she have
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: a series of people that she stayed with? Was she kidnapped?
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: These are all things that I need to know before
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: I can rush to judgment. But if I were here
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: before you can rush to judgment, absolutely rush to Johnny cockform,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: he would be so proud of you right now throwing
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: that up, Cheryl McCollum, did you hear Daryl coh and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: just say, let's not rush to judgment. Well, we'd had
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: three weeks. I don't think that's three weeks, because if
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: three weeks, you had three weeks three weeks. Know that
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: this was not ransom. She was not killed. She had
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: two cell phones of her at eleven o'clock at night
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: on a Sunday that stopped pinging one hundred and forty
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: miles away from where she left. She's been fed, she's
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: had shelter for three weeks. A fourteen year old girl
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: didn't pull that off by herself. Not possible. So what
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: where are you going with this? Yarl? That multiple people
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: were involved to get her that far? She didn't coordinate that,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: she didn't get these people and say, hey, come to
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: my house at eleven o'clock at night and I'll stage
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: a crime scene and then drive me to Wisconsin and
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: feed me and shelter me and don't letbody see us
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: when we stopped for gasoline and we stopped for food
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: the seven hundred miles you're gonna take me? And then
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: only when my stepfather's arrested are you going to quote
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: find me? Fourteen year old girl didn't pull that off.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: But if you listen to again to the stepfather when
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: he says things like I can't say, I can't sleep,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: I can't risk you know where you do all those
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: things in the bed. So, Cheryl, you're saying this is
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: a conspiracy with a number of people that took her
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: after her stepfather raped her. I think you're dreaming, no
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: thought of conspiracy. That's my point. She did not pull
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: this off. She was taken, but she didn't do it.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Robert Willisky, it's my understanding that she was found because
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: of a tip, the one we've been broadcasting every day.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: That is correct. Someone either saw her picture on TV,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: on the crime online website, heard this on the news nationally,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: knew it was her, and called the FBI hotline. You know,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering to doctor Bethany Marshall, Psychoana's joining us about
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: her re entry into her home with her mother. Now
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: we're assuming a lot, Okay, We're assuming the rate charge
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: of the stepfather, Randall Pruett. We're assuming that she Savannah Leepruit,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: the little girl, is the victim. Okay. Now they've said
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: very clearly that the charge is not correlated to her disappearance.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know how else to interpret this, but I
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: know the dad, the step dad's behind bars on rape
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: and she's about to get on a plane with our
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: friend to take to phil Yaw who's going to bring
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: her home? Bethany, what will happen when she comes back
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: in the home. Well, Savannah needs a lot of support.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: This idea that the rape charge is not connected to
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: her disappearance. How could what about this? What about this, Cheryl?
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: What about this? He's not charged with kidnapping her, but
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: the rape charge could have been the catalyst for her
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: leaving the home, Absolutely, Nancy. Investigators have interviewed her siblings,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: They've interviewed neighbors, they've interviewed her friends. Clearly evidence about
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: the stepfather has come to the purpose. That's without discussion.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: I mean that's a fact. Because he's been arrested. We
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: now know it's worth sexual assault Again, Was she spent
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: the West Thompson because she's pregnant? Did she you know,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: make an out pride of somebody. I'm telling you, for
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: everything to be put into place, for her to get
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: seven hundred miles away and be kept for three weeks
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: virtually undetected is an extraordinary thing to happen. Instantly when
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: somebody inside the home was also staging the seat. Doctor Bethany,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: what were you saying what I was saying. If the
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: rep charge is not connected to her disappearance, if the
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: father's a predator, or anything could have happened. She could
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: have watched witnessed him raping the mother in a domestic
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: violent situation. She could have witnessed him raping one of
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: her friends. We can't just assume it's sort of linear
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: in the way that we're thinking. You know, he's up
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: on rape charges. She was secreted away from the house
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: with a lot of help. She's a clever young woman. Obviously,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: she got support from the community in extricating herself from
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: a very functional home. Something bad happened in that home,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: and my clinical experience tells me that what we think
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: happened and what really happened may not be. There may
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: not be a one to one correspondence. It could be
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: worse than we think. She could have witnessed him raping
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: one of the siblings. But she definitely needed to get
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: away from a toxic environment, and I think she deserves
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: a lot of congratulations for getting the support and getting
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: away from this household. I mean, she obviously is quite resourceful.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: We are just now getting breaking news out of the
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Monroe County Sheriff's office. The authorities have confirmed that Randall
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Lee Prue at forty one years old, yes, is charging
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: connection to the case of the missing girl, but the
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: charge was not directly correlated with the fourteen year old
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: daughter's disappearance. We are learning Prue was arrested after explicit
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: photos and videos were found on the team's cell phone.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Now what does that mean? Who is the victim? Why
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: is it on her cell phone? How did they get it?
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Did they get her cell phone or did they get
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: it from their records request of all the cell phone
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: and media digital media data? Is that where they saw it?
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Who is in it? What is it all about? We
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: don't know yet, but this is unfolding. We are learning, repeat,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: we are learning, repeat that the circumstances of the arrest
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: of the adoptive father, the stepdad, regarded explicit photos videos
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: found on the teens cell phone. Nancy Grace Crime Stories
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: signing off goodbye,