Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / WHERE IS BABY QUINTON? Tot goes missing from Pack-N-Play

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WHERE IS BABY QUINTON? Tot goes missing from Pack-N-Play · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greece. How does a twenty month old,
0:14
Speaker 1: beautiful baby boy disappear? How does that happen? Just let
0:19
Speaker 1: that soak in for a moment, because I can tell
0:21
Speaker 1: you right now where my twins are exactly. I think
0:26
Speaker 1: I know where my husband is, but I definitely know
0:29
Speaker 1: where my twins are. So how does a twenty month
0:32
Speaker 1: old baby boy vanish? Now? Granted, there was that one
0:37
Speaker 1: time at Baby's or us or I was looking for
0:41
Speaker 1: organic sunscreen and was literally on the floor of this
0:47
Speaker 1: tall shelf looking. I turned around and there was Lucy
0:52
Speaker 1: and no John David. I screamed, bloody murder. I got
0:56
Speaker 1: Lucy under my arm like a football, like a quarterback,
0:59
Speaker 1: started running, screaming, locked the doors. John David is missing.
1:04
Speaker 1: My son is gone. I could still remember hearing my feet.
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Speaker 1: I was wearing crocs, running along the babies are us
1:15
Speaker 1: linoleum floor, and then I people started looking. Everybody ran
1:21
Speaker 1: to the door so he couldn't get out or nobody
1:24
Speaker 1: would take him out, And it was all I could dream.
1:26
Speaker 1: And then out from behind one of the aisles, my
1:31
Speaker 1: son playing hide and go seek snuck out, Oh dear lord.
1:35
Speaker 1: But that lasted that whole episode lasted a couple of minutes.
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Speaker 1: How does your son disappear and you don't know where
1:43
Speaker 1: he is or where he could possibly be. That's what
1:46
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. I'm talking about Quentin Simon, I mean
1:51
Speaker 1: as he Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
1:54
Speaker 1: being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM
1:57
Speaker 1: one eleven. The whole thing start. Listen. Mother at call
2:03
Speaker 1: nine on one advising that when she woke up in
2:06
Speaker 1: the morning, her twenty month old baby boy, Quinton Smalls,
2:12
Speaker 1: was missing from his pack and play. Quinton was last
2:16
Speaker 1: seen wearing a sesame light blue Sesame street T shirt
2:20
Speaker 1: and black shorts or black bottoms. So we got here
2:26
Speaker 1: as quickly as we can, trying to assess the situation,
2:30
Speaker 1: trying to determine, you know, the nature of of why
2:32
Speaker 1: Quinton was missing. Currently, we're interviewing all parties involved the
2:38
Speaker 1: extent that we can. They've all been cooperative so far,
2:41
Speaker 1: and we're in the business interviewing them, securing a search
2:45
Speaker 1: warrant for the residence so we can do a more
2:47
Speaker 1: invasive search. Officers did do a Chris research of the
2:50
Speaker 1: residence to see if the child may have been hiding
2:52
Speaker 1: or something of that nature. We did not locate the
2:55
Speaker 1: child in any any of those spaces that we thought
2:58
Speaker 1: perhaps that a child could hide, but we would require
3:01
Speaker 1: a search warrant to do a more invasive search, and
3:04
Speaker 1: we're in the process of doing that. Okay, I just
3:08
Speaker 1: learned a lot with me an All Star panel to
3:10
Speaker 1: make sense of what we know right now about Quentin Simon,
3:13
Speaker 1: just twenty months old, missing. But first I want to
3:17
Speaker 1: go to Brett Buffington, the lead of us to get
3:19
Speaker 1: a reporter w SAV News three and News Nation affiliate. Brett,
3:24
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. First of all, do
3:28
Speaker 1: you have children? Number one? Oh? My goodness, No, I don't.
3:31
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen a packing play? I have, Yeah,
3:34
Speaker 1: now Denis's and nephews. Okay, so the thing about a
3:36
Speaker 1: packing play, everybody on the panel jump in if you've
3:39
Speaker 1: seen one. Quentin is just twenty months old. Could you
3:44
Speaker 1: tell me, Brett Buffington how tall he is? Now? Very
3:47
Speaker 1: judging by the pictures that we've been able to take
3:50
Speaker 1: a get from the family the pictures of the police
3:52
Speaker 1: have given us. But you know, the packing plays big.
3:55
Speaker 1: But Quentin's grandfather said he didn't even know how to
3:57
Speaker 1: open a door. Wow. That is because let me go
4:01
Speaker 1: straight out to doctor Angela Arnold right now, a psychiatrists
4:04
Speaker 1: joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. You can find
4:07
Speaker 1: her at Angela Arnold MD dot com Doctor Angie. The
4:12
Speaker 1: twins at our first home, the door to the laundry room,
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Speaker 1: which led out to the outdoors was beside a pair
4:21
Speaker 1: a set of stairs going upstairs to some other bedrooms,
4:25
Speaker 1: and the twins before they were safetily I can say three,
4:32
Speaker 1: but I think around h two. As soon as they
4:35
Speaker 1: could walk were like little monkeys. They would go up
4:40
Speaker 1: and of course I had a baby gate on like
4:42
Speaker 1: the third step. They immediately learned to go up to
4:45
Speaker 1: the third step and reach over and unsecure the high
4:50
Speaker 1: latch I had on the door going to the launder room.
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Speaker 1: I watched them both do it. It wasn't just one
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Speaker 1: or the other. They both could do it just like that.
4:59
Speaker 1: They knew how to reach up and unlock a tall
5:06
Speaker 1: latch that was about over five five and a half
5:10
Speaker 1: feet tall and get out. So I then raised the
5:14
Speaker 1: latch up so they couldn't reach it from from those
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Speaker 1: side steps. They're smart, so I mean, and very early
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Speaker 1: on John David could do it quicker than Lucy did
5:28
Speaker 1: found a way to get out of a crib. I
5:30
Speaker 1: forgot how he did it, but he would get out
5:32
Speaker 1: of his crib very easily go walking around. Well, kids
5:35
Speaker 1: are brilliant, and Nancy, they watch everything that we do.
5:39
Speaker 1: It's very likely that your children learned how to do
5:42
Speaker 1: that by watching what you were doing, and you weren't
5:44
Speaker 1: even aware of it. They are watching everything you do
5:47
Speaker 1: all day long, and that's why your sweet little twins
5:50
Speaker 1: were able to open that gate and a minute, I
5:53
Speaker 1: mean just like that. So I'm just thinking about this
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Speaker 1: packing play. John W. Deal is with me. He's the
5:59
Speaker 1: probably profile lawyer out of Winter Park, author of the
6:03
Speaker 1: method Proven Techniques for Winning Jury Troucy's at johnw dial
6:07
Speaker 1: dot com. Also with me Karen el Smith, forensic expert,
6:11
Speaker 1: lecturer University of Florida, host of a hit series, the
6:15
Speaker 1: podcast Shattered Souls, and you can find her at Karen's
6:18
Speaker 1: Forensic Guys Jump in. But I'm thinking back on a
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Speaker 1: packing play which we rarely used. We tried, but we
6:27
Speaker 1: were with them all the time, so we didn't really
6:28
Speaker 1: need to put them in anything for them not to
6:31
Speaker 1: get out. But I think it may be fairly easy
6:36
Speaker 1: to get out of a packing play. But isn't that
6:38
Speaker 1: why they're built that way? Karen Smith, John Dill, doctor
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Speaker 1: Angie jump in so the child can't get out. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I don't believe they can. I think that's the idea
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Speaker 1: of it. They can't climb out of it themselves, especially
6:50
Speaker 1: at that age. I remember a packing play is having
6:56
Speaker 1: some pretty soft sides to it. There's nothing really for
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Speaker 1: a child to get their grip to be able to
7:02
Speaker 1: climb out of something like that, to latch to Let
7:04
Speaker 1: me go back to Brett Buffington. Guys joining me from
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Speaker 1: w SAV News Nation affiliate. So tell me what was
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Speaker 1: the scenario when twenty month old Quentin apparently got out
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Speaker 1: of a pack and play? What time was he reported missing? Okay,
7:20
Speaker 1: so the nine one one call, according to the Jadam
7:23
Speaker 1: Police Department, came in at nine forty two in the morning. Interestingly,
7:28
Speaker 1: they did tell us that he was last seeing at
7:30
Speaker 1: six am when the boyfriend who lives in the house
7:33
Speaker 1: went to work. So there was a big gap and
7:36
Speaker 1: the police came out. Of course, hold on, hold on,
7:38
Speaker 1: hold on, hold on, Brett Buffington, you got me drinking
7:41
Speaker 1: from the fire high track too much, too fast, okay, okay.
7:44
Speaker 1: The no On one calls at nine forty two am, correct, right,
7:47
Speaker 1: and Quintin, twenty months old, was seen at six am correct? Correct?
7:51
Speaker 1: And the day of the week was it a Friday? Saturday?
7:54
Speaker 1: At Sunday? Jack kilt up for me real quickly. It
7:56
Speaker 1: was a Wednesday morning. Okay, a work day now, So
8:00
Speaker 1: they see the baby at six am. Who sees the baby?
8:05
Speaker 1: Daniel Junkin. That's right. He was on his way to work,
8:08
Speaker 1: so he was going to work. Where did he work?
8:11
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure. We haven't been able to find
8:13
Speaker 1: out very much about him. And I'll tell you we
8:16
Speaker 1: haven't seen him. He hasn't been that we've been able
8:19
Speaker 1: to see there in the neighborhood since it has happened,
8:23
Speaker 1: all right, he probably thinks everybody's gonna blame him, so
8:26
Speaker 1: he's up going to work at six am. I like that,
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Speaker 1: an early riser. And he sees Quintin in the pack
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Speaker 1: and play. That's what we've learned from the family and
8:34
Speaker 1: the police department. Why was he in a packing player overnight?
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Speaker 1: I can't answer parenting questions. Is that common? Karen Angie
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Speaker 1: John no I pack and play? The idea of it
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Speaker 1: is that you put it like in the room so
8:47
Speaker 1: you could be watching in the room. Really shouldn't be
8:50
Speaker 1: a overnight type of situation, but I guess it can happen.
8:54
Speaker 1: I've never seen anybody's sleep overnight in the packing play,
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Speaker 1: although when I would travel with the twins on one occasion,
9:02
Speaker 1: thank god in Heaven, I only did it once. Go
9:05
Speaker 1: ahead and judge me. I didn't know what I was doing.
9:08
Speaker 1: I was at my parents house, and I put them
9:11
Speaker 1: in their baby seats, their car seats, and I bundled
9:15
Speaker 1: up blankets, let them put that, and then I pulled
9:18
Speaker 1: the latchdown so they couldn't fall out, so I can
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Speaker 1: look at them all night. I later learned that's a
9:25
Speaker 1: perfect way for a positional asphyxia, where the baby's kind
9:29
Speaker 1: of sitting up and let's it's head down and can't breathe. Okay,
9:34
Speaker 1: thank goodness, I only did that one time, but things happen.
9:38
Speaker 1: So the baby, they say, fell asleep in the packing
9:41
Speaker 1: place spotted at six am. Now, Brett Buffington, do I
9:45
Speaker 1: understand the mom is getting up at nine forty two am. Well,
9:49
Speaker 1: that's interesting because we know before that there was text
9:52
Speaker 1: message conversations between Daniel and the babysitter. The babysitter told
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Speaker 1: us who lives down street, that she wouldn't need it
10:01
Speaker 1: that day. And we know that there was another text
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Speaker 1: message from the grandparents to the babysitters before ninety two
10:09
Speaker 1: asking how she was seeing Quentin. So we know that
10:11
Speaker 1: there was commotion looking for this twenty month old little boy. Right,
10:17
Speaker 1: we know that there's a gap there that hasn't been explained,
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Speaker 1: that hasn't been you're saying they woke up and they
10:22
Speaker 1: started looking for the baby and then they call nine
10:25
Speaker 1: one one. Is that what you're saying, Brett? That's right,
10:40
Speaker 1: time stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, you heard Brett Buffington
10:45
Speaker 1: tell us nobody's saying hid in her hair and the boyfriend.
10:48
Speaker 1: Since Quentin went missing, there's a lot of ways to
10:51
Speaker 1: look at that. One flight as an indication of guilt,
10:55
Speaker 1: or two he thought everybody'd be pointing the finger of him,
10:58
Speaker 1: so he became gars. But where's the bio dad? You
11:03
Speaker 1: always want to look for the bio dad. Take a
11:05
Speaker 1: listen to Police Chief Jeff Hadley Chatham. We've located the
11:11
Speaker 1: biological father. He works very much, very north to here.
11:14
Speaker 1: We don't believe he has anything to do with being
11:18
Speaker 1: a custody thing or anything like that. At this point,
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Speaker 1: we have not determined whether or not it is an
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Speaker 1: abduction or kidnapping. Therefore, we did not issue an AMBER alert.
11:29
Speaker 1: That is a requirement of an Amber alert is who
11:32
Speaker 1: law enforcement has to be to have that belief that
11:37
Speaker 1: an abduction has taken place. So okay, So no Amber
11:40
Speaker 1: alert and the bio dad has been cleared. What more
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Speaker 1: do we know? Take a listen to our friends at
11:47
Speaker 1: wsa V. Chadow County Police Department told us that Quentin
11:50
Speaker 1: was last seen around six this morning and was reported
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Speaker 1: missing around nine. A massive search with law enforcement and
11:56
Speaker 1: neighbors took place in the hours that followed. At nightfall,
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Speaker 1: they law to helicopter with thermal imaging to continue the
12:02
Speaker 1: search for twenty month old Quentin Simon. We've also learned
12:06
Speaker 1: a dive team arrived near the scene tonight. Our cruise
12:09
Speaker 1: witnessed investigators going through the garbage at the property on
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Speaker 1: Buckhalter Road near Gerard Avenue. We told you earlier that
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Speaker 1: the FBI had asked for a search warrant to look
12:17
Speaker 1: inside the home, and since then we've seen agents actively
12:20
Speaker 1: searching the home and taking pictures. Okay, I'm just letting
12:23
Speaker 1: all of that, Saint An. A lot is jumping out
12:26
Speaker 1: of me, But let me circle back to what we
12:29
Speaker 1: know about the search for twenty month old Quentin Simon.
12:33
Speaker 1: Take a listen to more from our France at WSAV.
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Speaker 1: This is very much still a very active search here
12:39
Speaker 1: this afternoon, this evening. Now as we've gone into over
12:43
Speaker 1: seven hours of this search looking for a little quintin,
12:47
Speaker 1: I could tell you hearing this neighborhood people are very
12:50
Speaker 1: concerned tonight and neighbors here tell me that they've seen
12:53
Speaker 1: this little boy out before, and they've seen him wandering
12:57
Speaker 1: on this street before. The search for this little boy,
13:01
Speaker 1: Quentin Simmons, has been expansive in the air, with a
13:06
Speaker 1: helicopter and a drone on the ground, with search dogs,
13:12
Speaker 1: horses and deputies going door to door. You're hearing Brett
13:17
Speaker 1: Buffington joining us right now from w SAV and new
13:21
Speaker 1: station affiliate. You know, a lot is jumping out. I
13:24
Speaker 1: mean my first question to you, Brett is tell me
13:26
Speaker 1: about did I hear a dive team arrived and we
13:30
Speaker 1: later found out Nancy when they got that search warrant
13:32
Speaker 1: for the house which the FBI's evidence recovery team there
13:37
Speaker 1: at the seeing that night. They got a search warrant
13:40
Speaker 1: also for the swimming pool, which I thought was interesting
13:44
Speaker 1: because they were to be very specific. Okay, hold on,
13:46
Speaker 1: hold on. So that's why the dive team was there
13:47
Speaker 1: for the pool on the first night, and they told
13:50
Speaker 1: us to the pool was green and cloudy. Oh okay, yeah,
13:54
Speaker 1: that makes sense Brett Buffington that the pool was green
13:57
Speaker 1: and cloudy. But John W. Dill, profile lawyer joining me
14:01
Speaker 1: out of Winter Park, Florida and author, Obviously, you don't
14:05
Speaker 1: need a search warrant for anything to do with the curtilage.
14:09
Speaker 1: That's a legal term of art. I wish I had
14:11
Speaker 1: said that curtilage means the yard, the backyard, the front yard,
14:15
Speaker 1: if there's a shed, if there's a you know, playhouse,
14:19
Speaker 1: there's a pool. But I guess they wanted to cross
14:23
Speaker 1: their teath and dot their eyes, right, Yeah, I think so.
14:26
Speaker 1: I think they probably are looking at this that it's
14:29
Speaker 1: going to be an issue and they want to make
14:31
Speaker 1: sure that they're doing anything correctly in case there is
14:33
Speaker 1: some discovery won't be challenged. Later, I can tell you
14:35
Speaker 1: something else, John Deal. I'm not sure how it all
14:38
Speaker 1: went down. But I learned this from Mark Klass, whose
14:42
Speaker 1: daughter Polly was kidnapped from the home, not just from
14:46
Speaker 1: the home, not just from her room, but during a
14:48
Speaker 1: spending night party she had little friends over in the room.
14:52
Speaker 1: Polly was twelve at the time. She was abducted by
14:57
Speaker 1: a rule I mean, the devil, the devil on earth, right,
15:02
Speaker 1: and she was sex assaulted and murdered. And he, this
15:08
Speaker 1: is before he was a victim's rights advocate, basically said
15:12
Speaker 1: here I am, take my blood, take my fingerprints, search
15:17
Speaker 1: my place, search my car, searched my office. You can
15:22
Speaker 1: listen to all my phone calls, whatever you want to
15:24
Speaker 1: get past me to find my daughter, exactly. Hurry, hurry, hurry.
15:30
Speaker 1: So here I find it curious that they're getting a
15:34
Speaker 1: search warrant. Now, maybe they did it out of an
15:36
Speaker 1: abundance of caution, even though they already had, as we
15:39
Speaker 1: call in the law, permission to search. But see that
15:43
Speaker 1: they're not. I only got a search warrant, but they
15:45
Speaker 1: got a search warrant for the pool. That doesn't strike
15:47
Speaker 1: you as odd, John w Deal, It doesn't strike me
15:50
Speaker 1: as died. And it's also it's not just a precaution. Hey,
15:53
Speaker 1: let's just look and see if there's something in the pool.
15:56
Speaker 1: Clearly they were thinking about it and possily Rand We're
15:59
Speaker 1: thinking you're going to run into some resistance, which is
16:02
Speaker 1: absolutely not liking mister Class's situation. Hey, find my child.
16:07
Speaker 1: I'll take myself out of the equation by giving you
16:09
Speaker 1: all the information you need. So it is curious for sure,
16:12
Speaker 1: And there could have been any number of things in
16:14
Speaker 1: that pool. With me, as Karen L. Smith not only
16:17
Speaker 1: the host of Shadowed Soul's podcast, which is a huge hit,
16:20
Speaker 1: but she's a forensic expert. There's a lot of things
16:23
Speaker 1: that could be found in that pool, not just Quinton himself. Absolutely, Nancy,
16:28
Speaker 1: what you just said it hit me as a red
16:30
Speaker 1: flag to getting a search warrant for a pool. Oh
16:32
Speaker 1: hable l n oh girl, I'll be going get in
16:37
Speaker 1: the pool, get in the pool, getting the pool myself,
16:40
Speaker 1: trying to find what happened. If my son was I
16:44
Speaker 1: don't even want to say if a baby was at
16:46
Speaker 1: the bottom of the pool, wouldn't everybody be jumping in?
16:49
Speaker 1: Absolutely so yeah, that that struck me a little odd
16:53
Speaker 1: as well as well as the search warrant. You're right,
16:55
Speaker 1: I mean Mark Klass hit her on the head. Check
16:57
Speaker 1: my house, check my office, check my phone, just find
17:00
Speaker 1: my child. And when you have a search warrant through
17:04
Speaker 1: a home, that kind of spends this whole thing on
17:06
Speaker 1: its head to me as a forensic person. But on
17:09
Speaker 1: the other hand, Karen, maybe they had permission and they
17:13
Speaker 1: just said, look, just go get a warrant. Maybe they
17:15
Speaker 1: ordered the warrant before they got I mean, you can
17:17
Speaker 1: get a warrant over the phone. But who knows how
17:20
Speaker 1: that played out. Well. The neighborhood in a rucus in
17:24
Speaker 1: an uproar listen to search for Quentin. These news neighbors
17:28
Speaker 1: have found shocking. It's a kid that's probalys here. Casey
17:32
Speaker 1: Bowers not the only one with that feeling that they
17:36
Speaker 1: had to do something. Michelle Miller and her friend, they're
17:41
Speaker 1: both mothers. I mean, I would be devastated, would have
17:44
Speaker 1: borne everybody helped me as well. If it was my child,
17:46
Speaker 1: I'd want everybody, anybody that's willing to help come out.
17:50
Speaker 1: He look, it's why they showed up on this four wheeler.
17:54
Speaker 1: So far, there's been no sign of Quentin. The Chatham
17:58
Speaker 1: County Police Chief admits this search is emotional, adding his
18:02
Speaker 1: investigators will find out what happened. I'm curious. Tell me
18:06
Speaker 1: about it, Brett Buffington joining me, sav And News Nation affiliate.
18:10
Speaker 1: Tell me about the neighborhood joining into search. Oh yeah,
18:13
Speaker 1: it was just like you would expect for a missing child.
18:17
Speaker 1: Everyone wanted to help, the neighbors, the babysit are, anybody
18:22
Speaker 1: who was in that area. They wanted to go out
18:24
Speaker 1: in the woods. And I'll tell you that the police
18:26
Speaker 1: were very quickly to tell everyone stay on the street,
18:29
Speaker 1: stay on the street. You know, I'm curious. I heard
18:31
Speaker 1: earlier you said that people observed Quentin coming in and
18:39
Speaker 1: out of the house like they saw him on the
18:42
Speaker 1: street by himself. Did I get that right? Right? Well,
18:45
Speaker 1: the family as the south in a normalst nice yard,
18:50
Speaker 1: and this is not as the street. It's not heavily traveled.
18:54
Speaker 1: I mean, people go up and down this street. It
18:56
Speaker 1: is two lanes, but it's like a quick cut through
18:59
Speaker 1: to get from one road to the other. And yet
19:01
Speaker 1: there was a neighbor right down the street who told
19:03
Speaker 1: us that day he went missing. She was crying. She
19:06
Speaker 1: was in tears because she knew she figured something would happen,
19:10
Speaker 1: but she had reported to the police and a bunch
19:13
Speaker 1: of neighbors in this neighborhood called defects, and they stated, yeah,
19:16
Speaker 1: we've seen these kids out in that yard next to
19:19
Speaker 1: the road, and we're still worried. Doctor Angel Arnold is
19:22
Speaker 1: called free range children. Free range. I disagree with it.
19:25
Speaker 1: I think it's a horrible idea. But I've seen the
19:28
Speaker 1: worst of the worst. I've seen children. It doesn't matter
19:32
Speaker 1: where you live, what part of town. It can be school,
19:34
Speaker 1: it can be a playground, it can be a front yard,
19:37
Speaker 1: a lot. With Samantha Runyan, her grandma was looking out
19:42
Speaker 1: the kitchen window and saw she was playing with other
19:45
Speaker 1: little children. The perp take Samantha, three year old Samantha.
19:49
Speaker 1: She was dead in a couple of hours. It can
19:52
Speaker 1: be Elizabeth Smart taken out of her home, and others
19:56
Speaker 1: Isabel Sale. It goes on and on and on. Hallie
19:58
Speaker 1: Cummings point is crime can touch anyone, no matter where
20:03
Speaker 1: you are. But I am totally against the free range
20:07
Speaker 1: children concept, where hey, they'll be fine, they're like chickens.
20:10
Speaker 1: Just let them water wandering around the yard. No. No, Meanwhile,
20:15
Speaker 1: they have a pool in their backyard that you can't
20:17
Speaker 1: see the bottom of it because nobody's taking care of it.
20:21
Speaker 1: So how would at the very least, how do you
20:23
Speaker 1: know that the little free range child didn't fall in
20:26
Speaker 1: the pool at just twenty months old, not even two
20:30
Speaker 1: years old. Yet we have also heard that neighbors were
20:35
Speaker 1: alarmed and actually called authorities when they would see Quinton
20:38
Speaker 1: twenty months old wandering the neighborhood. Now that makes me
20:44
Speaker 1: think that it is possible, Brett Buffington, that he did
20:48
Speaker 1: get out and start wandering around. Guys, take a listen
20:53
Speaker 1: again to our friends at w SAV. But we're learning
20:56
Speaker 1: that Quentin Simmons at just twenty months old has wandered
21:00
Speaker 1: off before. He was running back and forth and been
21:04
Speaker 1: in the house. And I was afraided that going game.
21:09
Speaker 1: Yet that neighbor didn't want to show her face on camera,
21:13
Speaker 1: she cried telling us the story today, Belie, how is
21:17
Speaker 1: her game of an answer she get in my bakhood?
21:20
Speaker 1: Her home is just one of the many places police
21:25
Speaker 1: have searched. So let me understand, movington the police, we're
21:28
Speaker 1: actually going door to door. Oh yeah, And I would
21:30
Speaker 1: to tell you that that defect clip he just used
21:33
Speaker 1: it was so chaotic there. We didn't even have the
21:36
Speaker 1: right name for the kid. Yet we called him Simmons,
21:39
Speaker 1: the police called him Simmons, they called him Smith and
21:42
Speaker 1: then we originally we found out in the end that
21:44
Speaker 1: it's Clinton Simon. But yes, of course the police, they
21:47
Speaker 1: had the Savannah Police Department sent out horsing. They's mosquito control,
21:52
Speaker 1: but a alicopter album then the police helicopter came later,
21:54
Speaker 1: they had a drone and yet officers were knocking on
21:57
Speaker 1: doors trying to find this little boy that Sir treat
22:00
Speaker 1: is about a mile by a mile and a half
22:02
Speaker 1: when police first started searching on that Wednesday, and Brett
22:05
Speaker 1: Buffington and everybody joining me w sa V News three
22:08
Speaker 1: News Nation affiliate. We've got almost a four hour window
22:13
Speaker 1: that we can absolutely confirm where he could have gone
22:16
Speaker 1: between six am when boyfriend left and nine forty two
22:20
Speaker 1: am on the nine one one call was made, although
22:23
Speaker 1: we believe the family was up looking for him before
22:25
Speaker 1: they calling nine one one, which I understand. I was
22:28
Speaker 1: screaming my head off and that babies are rough before
22:32
Speaker 1: I would think of calling nine one one. I was
22:33
Speaker 1: hoping I would find him there. I wanted to bring
22:35
Speaker 1: up the babies hitter, who lives literally three houses down
22:39
Speaker 1: just on the other side of the stream of the quarter.
22:41
Speaker 1: She came over and asked, do you want out looking
22:45
Speaker 1: for this little boy before the golfs were called? And
22:48
Speaker 1: they told her no, that's what she the babies hitter,
22:50
Speaker 1: so they wanted to find the baby on their own
22:53
Speaker 1: before police were called. So that sounds like at least
22:56
Speaker 1: a good hour. So then let us back it up
22:59
Speaker 1: six to eight forty two am because the babysitter had
23:04
Speaker 1: to hear about it and then come over there and
23:08
Speaker 1: have the conversation. Everybody looking for twenty month old Quinton Simon,
23:14
Speaker 1: could you tell me something Brett Muffington who lives in
23:17
Speaker 1: the home. The house is owned by the grandparents Thomas
23:20
Speaker 1: and Billy Joe Howell in there. We also understand that
23:25
Speaker 1: one of their sons stayed there, Leliney Simon, Quintin's mom,
23:28
Speaker 1: her boyfriend, and Leliney has three kids. We know grandma
23:32
Speaker 1: has custody of two of those. So yeah, house. So
23:35
Speaker 1: all right, You've got the grandmother and the grandfather they
23:38
Speaker 1: own the home. You've got Quentin's mother, Leilanie, You've got
23:43
Speaker 1: her boyfriend Daniel Junkan, who got up and went to work,
23:46
Speaker 1: and you have other children, So a lot of people
23:49
Speaker 1: in the home and nobody knows what happened to Quentin.
23:54
Speaker 1: Although I know this, they've got enough money to have
23:56
Speaker 1: a pool in the backyard. Guys, take a listen to
24:00
Speaker 1: this inside it this morning when Quentin went missing, my stepdaughter,
24:06
Speaker 1: her boyfriend, three kids, and her brother. The theory that
24:12
Speaker 1: Quentin simply wandered off, he says, is puzzling. I've never
24:17
Speaker 1: seen him open the door, and the oldest ones opened
24:20
Speaker 1: the door and came out, but he's never opened a door,
24:23
Speaker 1: So I mean, that's what's crazy about everything, he says.
24:26
Speaker 1: He's stepdaughter claims that Quentin's father came and picked the
24:30
Speaker 1: little boy up, something that police have ruled out and
24:33
Speaker 1: Thomas himself admits doesn't add up. Quentin's mom and others
24:38
Speaker 1: in the house this morning, we've learned are at Chadam
24:41
Speaker 1: County Police headquarters being questioned. The fact that they're all
24:45
Speaker 1: at the headquarters being questioned does not concern me. But
24:48
Speaker 1: the fact that a story doesn't seem accurate given by
24:51
Speaker 1: the bio mom, that does concern me. You know, very often,
24:57
Speaker 1: John W. Dill, everybody would be questioned. Right, they are
25:00
Speaker 1: at the home, but they took them to HQ. Interesting, right, Yes, absolutely,
25:05
Speaker 1: I think they certainly were thinking that they had to
25:09
Speaker 1: get everybody's stories with an eye towards foul play, maybe
25:13
Speaker 1: get obviously get them separated so they could compare all
25:16
Speaker 1: the different stories and see what added up to the
25:18
Speaker 1: actual facts. So it's pretty clear for everybody that went
25:21
Speaker 1: on the scene, somebody's not right. Yeah, something's not right.
25:24
Speaker 1: But you typically, I mean, let's look at John and
25:28
Speaker 1: a Ramsey, how that was bungled. Everybody in that moment
25:31
Speaker 1: should have been separated, whether you suspect foul play or not,
25:34
Speaker 1: absolutely to get their story so you won't be influenced
25:39
Speaker 1: by what your mother or your father or your brother said.
25:42
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that when you don't
25:44
Speaker 1: really remember that, but you're being influenced. Yeah, and listened
25:48
Speaker 1: to the story and then fell in their story if
25:50
Speaker 1: they had something to do with it. Yeah, that's absolutely
25:53
Speaker 1: what can happen with a group interview like that. Exactly
25:56
Speaker 1: you were hearing Brett Buffington, you know, Brett joining me
25:59
Speaker 1: say a News Nation affiliate, Brett. Nobody could say other
26:06
Speaker 1: than the boyfriend who got up and left at six am.
26:09
Speaker 1: No one saw Quentin. Other than him until everybody realized
26:15
Speaker 1: he was missing. That's the story that the family told me,
26:18
Speaker 1: and that's the story that the police told everyone. And
26:21
Speaker 1: this gap from six am to nine forty two am
26:24
Speaker 1: and no one knows where this baby is. At least
26:27
Speaker 1: that was their story, because doesn't anybody have to get
26:30
Speaker 1: up and go to work other than the boyfriend. We
26:32
Speaker 1: were talking about the search warrant just a little earlier.
26:34
Speaker 1: Grandma was in Illinois, Grandpa was in South Carolina. They
26:37
Speaker 1: owned the house. They were there working to provide for
26:40
Speaker 1: his family, and so they didn't Grandpa didn't get there
26:44
Speaker 1: Jil that evening and Grandma and not Joel late that night.
26:48
Speaker 1: They weren't home. They were out of state, but they
26:51
Speaker 1: lived there, that's correct. I'm not sure what their jobs are.
26:55
Speaker 1: Grandpa works in some kind of service job. He has
27:00
Speaker 1: a workshop that he was driving. I'm not sure what
27:04
Speaker 1: the grandmother does. But day more there And I think
27:06
Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons that police filed the search
27:08
Speaker 1: warrants so fast, is the people who owned the home. Yeah,
27:11
Speaker 1: and of course, as we all know, are you legal legals.
27:14
Speaker 1: If anybody allows says yes, you can come search, it
27:18
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be the homeowner or the name on
27:20
Speaker 1: the lease. But that said, that's making it more clear
27:23
Speaker 1: why I've already saw the head of a search warrant.
27:26
Speaker 1: Now hold on just a moment, take a listen our
27:31
Speaker 1: friends at WSAV. This video is absolutely jarrish that it
27:40
Speaker 1: shows the desperation of the people who love Quentin. Simon,
27:46
Speaker 1: You're gonna memorial not Baby's not dead. Quentin's grandmother and
27:50
Speaker 1: Quentin's babysitter's house. The intense moments recorded by Dana McCarthy's daughter.
28:01
Speaker 1: Dana says Quentin's grandmother barged through her back door, mad
28:05
Speaker 1: over the thought of a memorial for the missing toddler.
28:09
Speaker 1: My okay, what was that? I know that the last
28:16
Speaker 1: voice was the grandmother yelling, my baby's not dead. So
28:21
Speaker 1: this sounds to me like a Cindy Anthony situation where
28:24
Speaker 1: the grandmother looks at Quintin as her baby. Right absolutely,
28:30
Speaker 1: because Brett a million times my mother has said has
28:33
Speaker 1: referred to my children as her babies. And I'm fine
28:36
Speaker 1: with that. The more love they can get, the better.
28:38
Speaker 1: So what is all the screaming going on about? You
28:41
Speaker 1: know what, if we're having this case, technically grandmother did
28:45
Speaker 1: have legal custody of Quentin. That was her child. That said,
28:49
Speaker 1: she told me that in her interviews with us, she's
28:52
Speaker 1: talked to me Lisa the phone liston text, but when
28:55
Speaker 1: I talked to her with the camera and she didn't
28:57
Speaker 1: say that this is my child. She really had a
29:00
Speaker 1: connection to who is she arguing with who wanted to
29:05
Speaker 1: have a memorial? The other lady who loves quitting so much,
29:09
Speaker 1: and we know that is the baby sit there, Dana Macarta,
29:12
Speaker 1: Diana Macarta, and she was sitting in her house. This
29:15
Speaker 1: was Saturday, a week ago when grandma barged in the
29:18
Speaker 1: back door. Of course, they're very upset, they're very emotional,
29:21
Speaker 1: and when you get media for a team to come
29:24
Speaker 1: through there, there's TV reporters in front of your house.
29:27
Speaker 1: So obviously they have been emotionally drained. And you could
29:30
Speaker 1: case if you've listened to that entire clip, you can
29:32
Speaker 1: hear the emotion and they care. But she barged in
29:35
Speaker 1: the babysitter's house and they just had a screaming badge
29:38
Speaker 1: at each other. Well, I gotta tell you again, that
29:40
Speaker 1: reminds me John Deale, this is your neck of the woods.
29:45
Speaker 1: They Cally Anthony Case because I've got to tell you,
29:48
Speaker 1: I've met George and Cinda Anthony, and I know a
29:52
Speaker 1: lot of people don't think this, but they're perfectly nice people.
29:57
Speaker 1: And they have been absolutely death stated, without question about
30:02
Speaker 1: and Kelly's death, and they've been videoed over and over
30:06
Speaker 1: and this have been played a million times where they're
30:08
Speaker 1: yelling at the news media. They were so heartbroken and
30:14
Speaker 1: angry and didn't understand what had happened. And the news
30:17
Speaker 1: media was camp literally at the edge of their lawn,
30:21
Speaker 1: and their front yard's not that big. You can't even
30:23
Speaker 1: go out the door without the media yelling at you.
30:26
Speaker 1: And at one point George and or Cindy were out
30:29
Speaker 1: there yelling at the media to go away, and that's
30:32
Speaker 1: how they were portrayed. I completely understand it, and I
30:35
Speaker 1: get this grandma going crazy on the babysitter, just you know,
30:39
Speaker 1: you don't know what's happening, and you're at the end
30:41
Speaker 1: of your rope and you just explode right exactly. I mean,
30:45
Speaker 1: it's it's eerily similar to that situation that obviously Cindy
30:50
Speaker 1: Anthony was the one who was leading the charge for
30:53
Speaker 1: the search. George was obviously devastated. Then we had that
30:57
Speaker 1: their daughter, the mother of Keiley, was acting obviously erratically,
31:02
Speaker 1: So it was I can imagine the pressure, but we we
31:04
Speaker 1: can't imagine the pressure they were under. And just like
31:07
Speaker 1: hearing that grandmother, I can hear it intense pressure. Okay,
31:11
Speaker 1: with this pot pourri of emotions and facts that don't
31:15
Speaker 1: fit together, I get what's coming down. Take a listen
31:18
Speaker 1: to our friends at WJCL. For the first time today,
31:22
Speaker 1: Channam County Police chief said there is a possible criminal
31:25
Speaker 1: element to this case. But still five days in Quentin
31:30
Speaker 1: is missing. We have you're hearing Chennam County Police dispatchers
31:35
Speaker 1: on Wednesday morning, when Quentin Simmon went missing from his
31:38
Speaker 1: buck Culture Road home in Savannah, A plain of us,
31:42
Speaker 1: her one year old son is missing. Will Her door
31:45
Speaker 1: was open, but I think he's unable to open a door.
31:47
Speaker 1: Scene one came in and from pound. Fast forward five
31:50
Speaker 1: days to Monday. Everybody is being looked at, Everybody is
31:55
Speaker 1: being interviewed. Time stories with Nancy Grace. You know, I'm
32:17
Speaker 1: just thinking through what you told me earlier, Bret Buffington.
32:20
Speaker 1: Now they think there's a criminal element to Quinton's disappearance.
32:24
Speaker 1: If the grandma has legal custody, the grandma is out
32:29
Speaker 1: of town and the grandpa is out of town. I
32:33
Speaker 1: guess that's why they have the babysitter so often that
32:36
Speaker 1: the grandmother has arranged. Who was watching Quinton the morning
32:40
Speaker 1: he disappeared? Mom? How long have the grandma been gone?
32:43
Speaker 1: Was she gone overnight? Oh? Very sure. I don't know
32:46
Speaker 1: exactly how a long. She told us that she got
32:49
Speaker 1: the news and she got back to Georgia's fast as
32:51
Speaker 1: she could. But I mean, obviously overnight baby goes missing
32:55
Speaker 1: on mommy's watch, that's correct. Another thing about mommy, Brett Buffington,
32:59
Speaker 1: heyst of the panel, Please don't sit back and sip
33:02
Speaker 1: your latte. Jump in, Bret Buffington. Another thing, is it
33:07
Speaker 1: the mother Leilanie Simon, this is Quentin's bio mom. Didn't
33:12
Speaker 1: she say that? She the one that said the bio
33:16
Speaker 1: dad came into Quintin and her parents, her stepdad and
33:21
Speaker 1: mister Thomas, and her mom both told me that there
33:24
Speaker 1: was absolutely no way that happened. That the bio dad
33:27
Speaker 1: hadn't been in bobbed this kid's life since he was born.
33:30
Speaker 1: So that's not just a mix up where she thought, oh,
33:32
Speaker 1: this was the day he was going to come pick
33:34
Speaker 1: up Quentin. Oh no, no, no, note, Okay, I don't
33:36
Speaker 1: like that at all. It was incredible police work. They
33:39
Speaker 1: had this ninety two in the morning. On Wednesday, at
33:42
Speaker 1: two thirty they announced they cleared the dad, nobing to
33:45
Speaker 1: do with him. Okay, guys, le's turned into a criminal
33:49
Speaker 1: investigation or it's heading that way. Take a listen to
33:53
Speaker 1: Diana mccarta. This is the babysitter. A lot of people
33:57
Speaker 1: are saying, well, you're the babysitter. You should have did more. Look,
34:02
Speaker 1: I did well. I thought was best. Defects was aware
34:07
Speaker 1: of the situation. People can say no, they wasn't or
34:11
Speaker 1: they would have took him. Look, I don't know all
34:13
Speaker 1: the circumstances, but I know Defects was aware, and I
34:19
Speaker 1: know that I did contact the grandmother Alat via text
34:24
Speaker 1: or calling because she had custody. Defects was aware of this.
34:30
Speaker 1: I think that she's trying to take the heat off
34:34
Speaker 1: of them. Diana talking with us today, telling me she's
34:37
Speaker 1: called Georgia's Department of Family and Children's Services about Quentin
34:42
Speaker 1: and his siblings before Defects told you there was a case. Yes, absolutely,
34:48
Speaker 1: Diana isn't the only neighbor here to tell us they
34:52
Speaker 1: were concerned about the children in this home. I was
34:56
Speaker 1: afraid she would go and get it, yet afraid that
34:59
Speaker 1: the baby would be hit by an oncoming car. Was
35:04
Speaker 1: that the problem on Brett Buffington neighbors were afraid the
35:08
Speaker 1: children were out in the yard and on the street
35:10
Speaker 1: too much. We know the neighbors, the babies that are,
35:13
Speaker 1: they had all reached out to Defects, according to what
35:15
Speaker 1: the babies that are told me, And there was an
35:17
Speaker 1: open Defects investigation according to what Diana said. And yet
35:22
Speaker 1: we know that the calls from the neighbors were because
35:24
Speaker 1: they saw the children out in the yard unsupervised. Okay,
35:27
Speaker 1: so it was an issue of non supervision. That's why
35:31
Speaker 1: Defects kept getting getting called to do what Diana told me,
35:34
Speaker 1: guess said, there was just so many people in that
35:37
Speaker 1: little neighborhood. They're worried that one of them was going
35:40
Speaker 1: to get industry and something bad would happen. And I guess,
35:43
Speaker 1: once again, doctor Angie Arnold, Defects did nothing right. Well.
35:48
Speaker 1: One of the comments that I want to make first
35:50
Speaker 1: of all, Nancy, is you know, it's very difficult for
35:53
Speaker 1: people to call Defects. Nobody wants to call defects. I
35:57
Speaker 1: call them all the time. I don't know what you're
35:58
Speaker 1: talking about, do you really? Yeah, well, I think it's
36:02
Speaker 1: hard for neighbors to do something like that. So, but
36:07
Speaker 1: that would mean to me, if the neighbors are doing it,
36:09
Speaker 1: this was happening a lot. Actually I correct, let me
36:12
Speaker 1: correct myself. I've called nine one one many times. If
36:15
Speaker 1: I see, for instance, parents on the side of the interstate,
36:18
Speaker 1: you know when you're on off ramp, trying to get
36:21
Speaker 1: money and they got their babies. There are people wandering
36:25
Speaker 1: and parking lots trying to get money, or children wandering
36:29
Speaker 1: alone and a parking lot. Yeah, I don't have any
36:32
Speaker 1: problem with it. I understand that. But really and truly, Nancy, psychologically,
36:36
Speaker 1: it's a little bit more difficult for the people that
36:39
Speaker 1: live around you to actually call defects. So what so
36:43
Speaker 1: what that means is this was this was a really bad,
36:47
Speaker 1: ongoing problem. These children were not being supervised. And we
36:51
Speaker 1: can play around with that term of you know, what
36:55
Speaker 1: was that term that you used about just wild children
36:58
Speaker 1: being really range free range, I like free range chickens.
37:02
Speaker 1: That's certainly putting perfume on a pig. I get you.
37:06
Speaker 1: I hear what you're saying that neighbors don't want to
37:08
Speaker 1: rat each other out, but apparently these neighbors were more
37:11
Speaker 1: concerned about Quentin and what they know. Guys, um, I
37:18
Speaker 1: want to take Listen to our cut, Jackie, please play
37:21
Speaker 1: Police Chief Jeff Haddling our cut twenty three. Our investigation
37:25
Speaker 1: over the last eight days has led us to the
37:29
Speaker 1: heartbreaking conclusion that twenty month old Quentin Simon is deceased.
37:35
Speaker 1: We have named his mother, Lelani Simon, as a primary
37:38
Speaker 1: suspect in Quentin's disappearance and death. We have not made
37:43
Speaker 1: in the rest or filed any charges at this time
37:46
Speaker 1: and more in our cut twenty seven, twenty eight. I
37:49
Speaker 1: cannot get into any specifics relative to evidence what I can.
37:54
Speaker 1: What I can say is the evidence that we have
37:57
Speaker 1: so far, based on multiple search, warrants and interviews, has
38:02
Speaker 1: led us to the conclusion that Quentin is deceased. The
38:06
Speaker 1: investigation doesn't end, you know, right there. We will continue
38:10
Speaker 1: to investigate this until its final conclusion. Brett Buffington, lead
38:14
Speaker 1: investigative reporter, to w SAV News Nation affiliate, why are
38:19
Speaker 1: all eras pointing toward the mom? Police came out and
38:22
Speaker 1: let out the suspect number one of why they didn't
38:25
Speaker 1: get into any of the details we'd pressure to them.
38:28
Speaker 1: I asked the police chiefs at that press conference, you're
38:31
Speaker 1: telling us that you think you have a dead child.
38:34
Speaker 1: Now you have nobody. You have all these people who
38:37
Speaker 1: are so concerned about this little boy. Tell them why
38:40
Speaker 1: you no longer think they're gonna he's gonna come home
38:43
Speaker 1: and he's that. I can't. I'm not going to talk
38:45
Speaker 1: about the evidence we have, but there's something that let
38:48
Speaker 1: us believe that Quinton is that also, Nancy, When a
38:53
Speaker 1: young child is murdered, the most frequent perpetrator of is
38:58
Speaker 1: the victim's parents or step arent. That is written in stone.
39:04
Speaker 1: Right now, tensions are running high in the search for
39:08
Speaker 1: Quentin Simon. We know that the bio mom, the mother
39:14
Speaker 1: Leilani Simon, is now considered suspect number one, and police
39:19
Speaker 1: are telling us without a reason, they believe this baby
39:23
Speaker 1: is dead. We pray that is not true and wait
39:27
Speaker 1: for justice to unfold. Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off.
39:32
Speaker 1: If you have information, please the all nine one two
39:35
Speaker 1: six sixty seven thirty one thirty four repeat nine one two,
39:40
Speaker 1: six six seven thirty one thirty four Goodbye Friend,