Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Girl nabbed by sex predator at bus stop! 'Don't Be A Victim'

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Girl nabbed by sex predator at bus stop! 'Don't Be A Victim' · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. I know this sounds rhetorical,
0:12
Speaker 1: but why can we put people on the moon. Why
0:17
Speaker 1: can we have a telescope looking at Mars and we
0:23
Speaker 1: can't save our own children? Why is that? Over the
0:30
Speaker 1: years that I have personally investigated and prosecuted child kidnap,
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Speaker 1: child rate and child murder? I've always wondered why why
0:48
Speaker 1: are registered sex offenders allowed to roam free and pray
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Speaker 1: on our children? Why aren't the laws tougher? Why aren't
0:56
Speaker 1: monitors set up around schools, around school bus stops? Why? Today,
1:09
Speaker 1: more than ever, I'll tell you why in two words.
1:15
Speaker 1: Aliana da Frieze, That's why. And I had to pause
1:22
Speaker 1: just saying her name because every time I say it,
1:26
Speaker 1: I get a big lump in my throat. I want
1:30
Speaker 1: you to take a listen to our friends a wk
1:34
Speaker 1: YC three news. When she didn't make it to school,
1:38
Speaker 1: her aunt knew, just knew that she was in trouble.
1:42
Speaker 1: This isn't like her. She's been gone for more than
1:44
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. Family friends, someone just want to help
1:52
Speaker 1: Harry searching for Alanna Here police helped looking abandoned buildings
1:59
Speaker 1: down allyways, leaving no stone unturned. Let's review the timeline. Yesterday,
2:03
Speaker 1: at six thirty eight am, Mom puts her daughter on
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Speaker 1: the bus. She spotted getting off the bus at East
2:08
Speaker 1: ninety third. Shortly after later, she's reportedly seen outside of
2:12
Speaker 1: her school that's at East thirty six and Superior, then
2:16
Speaker 1: back near East ninety third and Kinsman at this McDonald's
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Speaker 1: with another girl. No one can say exactly where she went,
2:23
Speaker 1: but looking straight into the camera, her family can say
2:25
Speaker 1: this tonight, we will not stop looking for you until
2:29
Speaker 1: we find you. We love you, and we just want
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Speaker 1: you to come home. We just watch your bag. Just
2:35
Speaker 1: come home. You know, I know it doesn't make sense,
2:38
Speaker 1: but I've done it myself. When you can't find your child,
2:40
Speaker 1: you start going lucy lucy, and when there's no answer,
2:45
Speaker 1: he gets louder and louder and louder and start running looking.
2:49
Speaker 1: I've done that myself, looking from my son and my
2:53
Speaker 1: daughter at different times. And that's what I heard in
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Speaker 1: that voice calling out for Aliana with me. Sierra Gillespie
3:03
Speaker 1: Crime online dot Com investigative reporter Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor
3:07
Speaker 1: forensics author at Blood Beneath My Feet Now the star
3:12
Speaker 1: of Poisonous liaisons on crime and investigation. James Shelnott twenty
3:17
Speaker 1: seven years Metro major case now lawyer, psychiatrist, doctor Angela Arnold,
3:23
Speaker 1: renowned victim's rights advocate. One of my personal heroes, Mark Klass,
3:29
Speaker 1: who took the disappearance and death of his daughter Polly
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Speaker 1: and turned it into a world changing mission. Wendy Patrick,
3:38
Speaker 1: California prosecutor, author of Red Flags, host of Live with
3:42
Speaker 1: Doctor Wendy KCBQ. And to two very very special guests
3:49
Speaker 1: that I've long wanted to sit down with. Aliana's parents,
3:54
Speaker 1: her stepmom Watania DeFries and her dad Damon Diffrees. Damon,
4:03
Speaker 1: do you recall what happened the day Aliana went missing?
4:09
Speaker 1: That morning? That morning was like any other morning. Her
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Speaker 1: biological mother dropped her off at the bus stop. We
4:19
Speaker 1: weren't notified till five thirty that evening, as she never
4:23
Speaker 1: made to school. And stop right there, stop right there,
4:28
Speaker 1: that's a big time difference. Mark Class joining me, founder
4:33
Speaker 1: of Class Kids Foundation, A big lead six thirty in
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Speaker 1: the morning until five that's twelve hours. Hit me with
4:41
Speaker 1: the stat Mark, it's only you can what are the
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Speaker 1: stats about children going missing regarding school routes? Well? School
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Speaker 1: routes is unbelievable, and this is something that can definitely
4:52
Speaker 1: be addressed. As you mentioned at the very beginning of
4:55
Speaker 1: your show, thirty percent of all stranger abductions in the
5:00
Speaker 1: United States occur on school routes, either children going to
5:05
Speaker 1: school or children coming home from school, And certainly later
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Speaker 1: in the broadcast, we can talk about how we can
5:13
Speaker 1: address this. Now, children that are kidnapped by a predator
5:20
Speaker 1: within three hours, if the children are going to be
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Speaker 1: murdered within three hours, seventy four percent of those children
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Speaker 1: are going to be dead. So there's really absolutely no
5:31
Speaker 1: time at all to waste in these situations. There needs
5:35
Speaker 1: to be a mechanism at schools so that if children
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Speaker 1: don't show up in the morning, the school does an
5:41
Speaker 1: alert or does a check back with the parents to
5:44
Speaker 1: make sure that there isn't some kind of a miscommunication
5:47
Speaker 1: and that in fact, a child hasn't disappeared for unknown reasons. Guys,
5:54
Speaker 1: I was so moved and heartbroken about Aliana to Phrase's
5:59
Speaker 1: story when I started writing my new book, Don't Be
6:04
Speaker 1: a Victim Fighting Back against America's Crime Wave. I put
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Speaker 1: her at her story front and center in chapter one.
6:14
Speaker 1: We thank you for that, Alanna goes missing. This little
6:20
Speaker 1: girl who is bright eyed and bushey tell very eager,
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Speaker 1: had a special tutoring class that morning, as I believe
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Speaker 1: I know the facts. Is that true and she would
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Speaker 1: never have missed it? In fact, she was planning on
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Speaker 1: being early to it is that correct, mister Freeze wa Tanya, Yes,
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Speaker 1: it is? What was she getting tutored in in math?
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Speaker 1: Aleanna love school even if she was six. She wanted
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Speaker 1: to go to school. Her math and her readings needed
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Speaker 1: to help in well. My children getting tutored in math
6:54
Speaker 1: right now, and your story got me so distraught. I
7:01
Speaker 1: make the tutor come to the house because I don't
7:04
Speaker 1: want them taking a bike or walking to the tutor.
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Speaker 1: Although it's not far away at all. I thought it
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Speaker 1: was in math. Guys, this little girl, not complaining about tutoring,
7:17
Speaker 1: not complaining about the early morning hours. She's catching a
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Speaker 1: bus at six thirty in the morning to go to
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Speaker 1: special tutoring because she wants to make an a. She
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Speaker 1: doesn't want to see, she doesn't want to be. She
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Speaker 1: wants an a in math. That's who Alianna was. Take
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Speaker 1: a listen to our friend Hillary Ghoston k w KYC three,
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Speaker 1: her family is just sick here, totally worried about this girl.
7:48
Speaker 1: They say she is sweet, outgoing and very trusting, and
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna come back and counting her home if she's
8:04
Speaker 1: cold or lonely or scared. At least the last time
8:08
Speaker 1: we know anyone saw Aleana Defrieze, it was her mom
8:12
Speaker 1: and she got a hug and a kiss, and I
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Speaker 1: always make sure she gets on the bus before I
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Speaker 1: leave the bus stop. Her school principle says, she's very
8:20
Speaker 1: impressionable to someone that wants to be well linked, and
8:25
Speaker 1: so she'll follow the crowd to schia. She's doctor Angela
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Speaker 1: Arnold joining me out of the Atlanta jurisdiction and Angela
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Speaker 1: Arnold MD dot com Doctor Angela. All little girls this age,
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Speaker 1: or most of them go along with the crowd. They
8:40
Speaker 1: want to be lyve. So you got that impressionism. They're
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Speaker 1: very impressionable at that young age. But the Bayou mom
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Speaker 1: takes her to the bus stop and puts her on
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Speaker 1: the bus stop, sees her get on the bus. So
8:56
Speaker 1: don't you know the Bio mom just be eat herself
9:00
Speaker 1: up every day, But there was she did everything she
9:03
Speaker 1: could that's right, and the little girl and it was
9:05
Speaker 1: such a typical day for the little girl. Also, everything
9:09
Speaker 1: was going along as it normally did. There is no
9:11
Speaker 1: fault on the part of that mother. Crime Stories with
9:25
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, Guys, we are talking about the disappearance of
9:31
Speaker 1: a gorgeous young girl. You can see her at crime
9:34
Speaker 1: online dot com and her story is told in this
9:38
Speaker 1: new book, Don't be a victim fighting back against America's
9:42
Speaker 1: crime wave. So let me understand this. To mister Defreese,
9:47
Speaker 1: father of Aliana, co founder of the Aliana DeFries Foundation, Damon,
9:54
Speaker 1: she's put on the bus at six thirty. Did she
9:56
Speaker 1: have to swap buses somewhere along they're out? Yeah, this
10:03
Speaker 1: is a dangerous area. I stressed her a bio mom,
10:06
Speaker 1: the dangers of this catching buses. She should have been
10:12
Speaker 1: rolled on. Someone should have been on the bus with her.
10:15
Speaker 1: That's the point, Fingers. I live a way across town.
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Speaker 1: I'm working, my wife has health conditions. This is the
10:21
Speaker 1: area is very dangerous, abandoned buildings. She should never been
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Speaker 1: on the bus. So she did have to make a switch, right, yes, ma'am.
10:29
Speaker 1: Can I tell you, living in New York, when I'd
10:31
Speaker 1: have to make a subway switch never failed fifteen years
10:36
Speaker 1: in counting. I still mess it up as a grown woman.
10:41
Speaker 1: Still mess up. You go this far on the subway,
10:44
Speaker 1: you gotta switch to that one. Still mess it up.
10:47
Speaker 1: I've never gotten it right the first time. It's always
10:50
Speaker 1: at least a second time before I get it right.
10:52
Speaker 1: And here we've got this young girl making a bus switch.
10:56
Speaker 1: Mark Klass helped me out. You know, when I'm taking
10:58
Speaker 1: the children's school every morning and I s one little
11:01
Speaker 1: boy in particular, his bicycle is bigger than him, and
11:05
Speaker 1: he's on the sidewalk peddling to school, and I know
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Speaker 1: how far he has to go, and I worry about
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Speaker 1: that little boy every morning. Why do we lull ourselves
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Speaker 1: into thinking it's never going to happen to us. Well,
11:20
Speaker 1: that's a great question, Nancy, and I think mister Dufreeze
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Speaker 1: hit the nail on the head. What we have to
11:26
Speaker 1: do in these situations. Knowing now that one third of
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Speaker 1: all abductions occur during school routes, what we have to
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Speaker 1: do is address that specifically. First of all, parents should
11:39
Speaker 1: always show their children the safest routes to and from school,
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Speaker 1: and the kids should always be with at least one
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Speaker 1: other person, and that person should be an adult if possible,
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Speaker 1: and there should also be surveillance at all school bus stops.
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Speaker 1: Maybe at all bus stops, I mean electronic surveillance, so
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Speaker 1: that we can look into the eye of the camera
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Speaker 1: and see exact what happened to that child should they disappear. Now,
12:03
Speaker 1: surveillance can be addressed in a number of ways, both
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Speaker 1: high tech and low tech. We can put cameras up
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Speaker 1: on all the surveillance routes, but we can also turn
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Speaker 1: it into a neighborhood kind of a project. It can
12:16
Speaker 1: be an elderly project where the elderly people in the
12:20
Speaker 1: neighborhood take turns watching the children go to and from
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Speaker 1: school to ensure no hanky panky takes place. Or it
12:27
Speaker 1: could be a neighborhood watch program, or it could be
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Speaker 1: alliance club program. There are ways to deal with this issue,
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Speaker 1: and we're not doing it as a society. As a result,
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Speaker 1: little children like Aliana and so many more that you
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Speaker 1: and I both know about, disappear, unfortunately on a regular basis,
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Speaker 1: and are never seen live again. To the bus stop,
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Speaker 1: from the bus stop, after drop off at the bus stop,
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Speaker 1: getting onto the right bus, school, walking to school, walking
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Speaker 1: home from school, that is when over thirty percent of
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Speaker 1: all stranger child abductions take place. Why mark class and
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Speaker 1: the defreezes. Can I tell you how much you have
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Speaker 1: impacted my life and the way I take care of
13:20
Speaker 1: my twins, and how I wrote this book with you
13:23
Speaker 1: and your voices echoing in my head the whole time
13:28
Speaker 1: I wrote that first chapter, which is safe. Let me
13:32
Speaker 1: get the exact wording of the first chapter, because it
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Speaker 1: covers so much your child safe at school, and it
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Speaker 1: starts off with bus stops, the route to bus stops,
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Speaker 1: the route to many people biking and walking to school.
13:50
Speaker 1: We all remember J. C. Duger who was walking to
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Speaker 1: school and she was grabbed as she walked on her route,
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Speaker 1: not a bus stop, but en route. That's the way
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Speaker 1: it happens. Guys, we're talking right now about aliana defrize.
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Speaker 1: There were no surveillance video cameras at the first stop,
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Speaker 1: but I want you to take a listen to our
14:15
Speaker 1: friends at crime Watch Daily. It was just after dawn.
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Speaker 1: Aliana is changing buses at this Cleveland intersection. She never
14:24
Speaker 1: arrives at school. The alert system is down and Denisia
14:28
Speaker 1: doesn't find out Aliana was gone for nearly ten hours.
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Speaker 1: Cleveland Police mountain intense search for the fourteen year old.
14:36
Speaker 1: We followed up on dozens of leads that we have
14:39
Speaker 1: from the community, and we asked the community to continue
14:42
Speaker 1: to fall in those leads straight out to Aliana's father.
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Speaker 1: Mister DeFries, Mister defrees, let me understand something. So she
14:53
Speaker 1: gets to one bus stop and then she has to
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Speaker 1: get off and catch another bus to get to tutoring.
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Speaker 1: She's fine, she's on time, everything's going well. But you
15:02
Speaker 1: never hear, nor does her mom, that she doesn't make
15:06
Speaker 1: it to school. I have told because of you, I
15:11
Speaker 1: have told my school by email, by phone, and in person.
15:17
Speaker 1: If my child is not in class, text me and
15:22
Speaker 1: the father immediately. Don't wait if they're not in first period.
15:28
Speaker 1: I need to know right then. Why is it? You
15:32
Speaker 1: know you go the whole day and at five thirty,
15:34
Speaker 1: How did you realize something was wrong? My centement exactly,
15:39
Speaker 1: missus Grace. When I was a child in school, we
15:42
Speaker 1: took attendance first period. You weren't there. Your parents are contacted.
15:48
Speaker 1: My wife and I were watching a movie at five
15:50
Speaker 1: thirty and even in the evening, and we received the
15:54
Speaker 1: call from Miss Cooper and asked you asked us, did
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Speaker 1: you guys pick up Alliana? I said, no, we didn't
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Speaker 1: pick her up. If we would picked her up, we
16:00
Speaker 1: would to contact you today before lie what's going on?
16:03
Speaker 1: As she said she'd never made to school. Mister DeFreeze,
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Speaker 1: who is miss Cooper? That's her biomma? Oh okay, I'm sorry.
16:09
Speaker 1: So the bio mom calls you and says, did you
16:13
Speaker 1: pick up Alliana? And what went through your mind when
16:18
Speaker 1: you heard did you pick up Aliana? I automatically knew.
16:22
Speaker 1: I mean, just there's something about me. I just my
16:25
Speaker 1: stomach dropped. The window was open, it was a near
16:28
Speaker 1: blizzard outside, snow was blowing. It's about two feet of snow,
16:32
Speaker 1: and my stomach to think, what is that? That feeling?
16:39
Speaker 1: And I want to go now to our other incredible
16:44
Speaker 1: guests joining us. When he calls and says he hears
16:50
Speaker 1: the mom say do you have Aliana? Two? Doctor Angela Arnold,
16:59
Speaker 1: he says, his stumb just dropped. That feeling you know
17:03
Speaker 1: immediately something horrible has happened. What is that? I mean,
17:07
Speaker 1: it's a premonition of some sort. Well, it's a premonition
17:10
Speaker 1: and it's also a connection that he has with his
17:13
Speaker 1: daughter it's a connection and you just and and it
17:17
Speaker 1: was so out of the ordinary for her to be missing,
17:21
Speaker 1: and that is why he knew immediately that something had
17:26
Speaker 1: to be wrong. Well, let me ask you this, mister DeFreeze.
17:29
Speaker 1: When the mom caused and says, do you have Alliana?
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Speaker 1: And all this time had passed? You called a school, right,
17:35
Speaker 1: and what did they tell you? We were We were
17:38
Speaker 1: told that there was a glitch in the system that day,
17:41
Speaker 1: so things weren't working. And I asked, well, do you
17:45
Speaker 1: have people sitting in offices every time I go to
17:47
Speaker 1: the school where I can't pay directly call parents for
17:51
Speaker 1: you know, to do what they're supposed to do. But
17:54
Speaker 1: there was a glitch in the system, and that's what
17:56
Speaker 1: we were told to see. Here the last pie joining
17:59
Speaker 1: me Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter. What happened next? Nancy?
18:04
Speaker 1: After that, a lot of people were deployed out looking
18:07
Speaker 1: for this little girl. I mean, for Dave, people are
18:11
Speaker 1: out hundreds of people searching the Cleveland area hoping to
18:15
Speaker 1: find her. To Damon Defrise aly On, his father, Sierra
18:20
Speaker 1: Gillespie has told us to search went on for days.
18:23
Speaker 1: After several days, what happened? Who was a blizzard. As
18:28
Speaker 1: I mentioned, every day, snowing. Families out there, communities out
18:33
Speaker 1: there helping us. The police are there where shoulder and
18:37
Speaker 1: showed to look at abandoned houses. My wife and I
18:40
Speaker 1: were searching. Would come home, it was freezing one two
18:44
Speaker 1: in the morning, would come home, try to sleep. We're
18:48
Speaker 1: looking at each other, We're quiet, our faces of blank,
18:51
Speaker 1: but deep down inside I know that she's no longer
18:54
Speaker 1: with us. I mean, I know, I know my child.
18:58
Speaker 1: And I had to be strong for my wife because
19:01
Speaker 1: out of my daughter's Alanah heard and Aliana had a
19:04
Speaker 1: very very special bond and this was tearing her apart.
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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, you hear Aliana's father
19:28
Speaker 1: describing the search. Searching till one and two o'clock in
19:32
Speaker 1: the morning, is literally a blizzard outside in Ohio, and
19:38
Speaker 1: he says he knows inside his daughter is no longer
19:42
Speaker 1: amongst the living. Take a listen to our friend Tiffany
19:45
Speaker 1: Tarpley wk YC three. Cleveland police are trying to figure
19:50
Speaker 1: out who would murder a fourteen year old girl. It
19:53
Speaker 1: is now confirmed that the body of Alana Dfries was
19:56
Speaker 1: found in a vacant home earlier this week. Tiffany Tarpley
19:59
Speaker 1: joins us from the newsroom. Now and Tiffany, investigators had
20:02
Speaker 1: to use DNA to identify her and Lena John. They
20:05
Speaker 1: also had to use her fingerprints. That's likely why it
20:08
Speaker 1: took days to make that positive identification. After her body
20:12
Speaker 1: was found on Sunday, she was in a vacant home
20:15
Speaker 1: on Fuller Avenue. Of course, that's on Cleveland's east side,
20:18
Speaker 1: and it's not far from where she was last seeing
20:20
Speaker 1: alive on video just days before that Tuesday, the mayor,
20:24
Speaker 1: police chief, FBI agents, and the medical examiner stood together
20:29
Speaker 1: asking for the public's help in this case. They are
20:31
Speaker 1: offering a twenty two one thousand dollar reward. Aleana's on
20:36
Speaker 1: to the rest of her family. Want justice. How could
20:41
Speaker 1: someone do this to a baby? How could someone do
20:46
Speaker 1: this to anyone? It's like a nightmare that I still
20:49
Speaker 1: haven't been able to wake up. From end route to school,
20:53
Speaker 1: as Mark Klass is here to tell you, Statistics show
20:57
Speaker 1: between thirty and forty percent of all non parental kidnaps
21:02
Speaker 1: of children center around the school bus, the school bus stop,
21:06
Speaker 1: the route too and home from school, or the school bus.
21:13
Speaker 1: Hearing this is tearing apart the Defriese family. It makes
21:19
Speaker 1: me feel sick to my stomach to go through what
21:22
Speaker 1: happened to Aliana. But do not turn away from the truth.
21:30
Speaker 1: We put together every case I investigated, prosecuted, reported on
21:37
Speaker 1: statistics experts to give you tips how not to be
21:44
Speaker 1: a victim, to fight back against America's crime wave, joining
21:52
Speaker 1: me with an all star panel. Or Aliana's parents, her dad, damon,
21:58
Speaker 1: her stepmom with Tanya. Mister Freeze, do you remember when
22:05
Speaker 1: you got the news that Aliana's body have been found? Yes, yes,
22:09
Speaker 1: I remember. Um, it just it tore me up inside
22:16
Speaker 1: because a Leana is my baby. She's has been since
22:21
Speaker 1: she was three years old, and it was it was
22:24
Speaker 1: very hard and it's still hard. I haven't her here
22:33
Speaker 1: with us today. Mister mister Frise, I know these words
22:37
Speaker 1: sound so empty. I'm just so sorry for what you've
22:42
Speaker 1: gone through and what you still go through every day
22:46
Speaker 1: of your life. I'm trying so hard to change things,
22:52
Speaker 1: to make a difference, to help other people, as you
22:56
Speaker 1: are doing with your Aliana de Frieze found out at
23:00
Speaker 1: the Aliana defres Foundation dot com. Mark Klass Howel was
23:07
Speaker 1: Polly when you lost her? Well, Paully was twelve years
23:13
Speaker 1: old when I lost her, and the dead unfolded under
23:17
Speaker 1: very different circumstances. I actually received the middle of the
23:21
Speaker 1: night phone call that Paully had been kidnapped and confirmed
23:25
Speaker 1: that with the police, and then spent sixty five days
23:28
Speaker 1: looking for her. But I always held out hope. I
23:31
Speaker 1: always believed that she was still alive until they were
23:34
Speaker 1: able to prove otherwise. Mark you hear the Defris family
23:40
Speaker 1: even now, just in tears. When does it start getting better? Well,
23:47
Speaker 1: it takes so much, you know. It took me a
23:50
Speaker 1: lot of It took me some medications, it took me
23:52
Speaker 1: the love of my family, certainly the love of my wife,
23:55
Speaker 1: and it took me about a decade worth of counseling.
23:59
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been over three years for Missus de
24:01
Speaker 1: Freeze and she can barely even speak about the incident now.
24:05
Speaker 1: She's still so torn up. But listen, ma'am, there is
24:09
Speaker 1: light at the end of the tunnel. It's not easy
24:11
Speaker 1: to find the light, but depend on those who love you,
24:16
Speaker 1: cling to your faith, and at some point you will
24:21
Speaker 1: be able to smell the flowers again. Listen to the
24:23
Speaker 1: music and put a smile on your face, because that's
24:27
Speaker 1: how Aliana would have wanted it. She wouldn't want you
24:30
Speaker 1: to spend the rest of your life in misery. Yeah,
24:33
Speaker 1: I know that. I know that guys were talking about
24:36
Speaker 1: the disappearance and now we know the death a gorgeous
24:40
Speaker 1: little girl in ro Oute to an early morning tutoring session.
24:44
Speaker 1: She couldn't wait because she wanted to make an a
24:47
Speaker 1: in math. Now we learn more. Take a listen to
24:52
Speaker 1: our friends at crime Watch Daily. Less than a week
24:56
Speaker 1: after Eliana's bonny was found in arrest, this defendant followed
25:01
Speaker 1: a child from Abasco, didn't have hern and savage lay,
25:07
Speaker 1: assaulted her, murdered her. Christopher Whittaker is a registered sex
25:11
Speaker 1: offender who had done time in the past for a
25:14
Speaker 1: felonious assault and sexual battery. I was Whittaker caught a
25:18
Speaker 1: tip leads comes to a house where he was reportedly living,
25:22
Speaker 1: a house which was miles away from where authorities believed
25:25
Speaker 1: he'd been staying where he'd registered as a sex offender.
25:29
Speaker 1: We spoke to him every day. They was our neighbors.
25:31
Speaker 1: I never even knew so that I seen it on
25:33
Speaker 1: my Facebook that that was Chris. I'm I'm like Whittaker
25:36
Speaker 1: is now being held with a bond, charged with aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping,
25:41
Speaker 1: aggravated burglary, and abusing a corpse. Joining me Death investigator
25:47
Speaker 1: Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of
25:52
Speaker 1: Blood Beneath My Feet and star of a new program,
25:56
Speaker 1: Poisonous Liaisons. Joe Scott It pains me so much to
26:02
Speaker 1: look at Aliana's photos of her in life and to
26:06
Speaker 1: ask you this question, what did the autopsy show? Nancy?
26:12
Speaker 1: I can't even begin to plumb the depths of what
26:15
Speaker 1: she went through. It absolute and total utter brutality. And
26:22
Speaker 1: you know, when you read over what the pathologists found,
26:29
Speaker 1: it's not just in the immediate It wasn't forgive me
26:34
Speaker 1: for saying this an immediate death. There's evidence that she
26:37
Speaker 1: had been tortured and that things had begun to injuries
26:40
Speaker 1: that she had initially sustained had begun to heal, and
26:46
Speaker 1: that just makes this all the more darker. You know,
26:51
Speaker 1: mister class had had mentioned just a moment ago about
26:56
Speaker 1: surveillance in our neighborhoods to protect our neighborhoods. Well, let
26:59
Speaker 1: me tell you something else, Nancy. There are people that
27:02
Speaker 1: are surveilling, but it's not the right people. You have
27:05
Speaker 1: people like Whittaker that are almost like a lion, that
27:09
Speaker 1: are just sitting there and they're waiting quietly. They don't
27:12
Speaker 1: even in these tough neighborhoods. They don't mind the drug addicts,
27:16
Speaker 1: they don't mind the prostitutes. They look for the weakest person.
27:20
Speaker 1: And that's what he did because when he took her
27:22
Speaker 1: back to that abandoned house, and it was abandoned, he
27:26
Speaker 1: was prepared, Nancy. He had all manner of tools. I'm
27:30
Speaker 1: not going to go into all of the graphic details,
27:33
Speaker 1: but this guy was prepared, fully prepared, and he is,
27:39
Speaker 1: as he is, a predator without question. He even had
27:45
Speaker 1: a history a predatory behavior. So what you're saying is
27:49
Speaker 1: this is a registered sex predator. I'm talking about the defendant, Whittaker,
27:56
Speaker 1: who had with him a kill kit, a drill, a screwdriver,
28:02
Speaker 1: and other tools used to torture this little girl, a
28:07
Speaker 1: killed kit, A killed kit. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Guys,
28:23
Speaker 1: we are talking about a gorgeous young girl on her
28:26
Speaker 1: way to tutoring, a little girl who wanted an a
28:30
Speaker 1: in math, who made a bus stop change and at
28:35
Speaker 1: that moment the world collided. The name Aliana DeFries is
28:42
Speaker 1: now known throughout the crime victim community. Take a listen
28:47
Speaker 1: to our friends at crime Watch Daily. One eyewitness, Kenneth Chambers,
28:51
Speaker 1: who had never come forward before, claims he saw Whittaker
28:54
Speaker 1: Graham Aliana. Chambers, now haunted by that decision, was a
29:07
Speaker 1: high school student at the time. He testifies he didn't
29:10
Speaker 1: call cops because he thought Whittaker might have known Eliana.
29:15
Speaker 1: So right there, let me go out to Wendy Patrick,
29:18
Speaker 1: California prosecutor, author of Red Flags and host of Live
29:21
Speaker 1: with Doctor Wendy KCBQ. You can find her at Wendy
29:25
Speaker 1: Patrick PhD dot com. Wendy, there was an eyewitness that
29:29
Speaker 1: sees the per dragging Aliana, leading her off. At first,
29:35
Speaker 1: I've looked at the video, they just seem to be
29:37
Speaker 1: walking together. Then he kind of grabs her and steers
29:41
Speaker 1: her away. The witness said, nothing, when you see something,
29:46
Speaker 1: say something, Amen, Nancy. You know, we've talked about a
29:51
Speaker 1: couple of things. We've talked about the fact that neighborhood
29:53
Speaker 1: Watch not only the good guys are watching. We've also
29:56
Speaker 1: talked about the reality that people have to be trained
29:58
Speaker 1: what to watch for, and what to do with the
30:01
Speaker 1: information they see. As you point out, you can't just
30:05
Speaker 1: witness something and then just assume the best, Well, maybe
30:08
Speaker 1: it's a relative dispute. These types of things have to
30:10
Speaker 1: be reported. So we talk about it being a watch,
30:14
Speaker 1: a neighborhood watch issue, but we also talk about it
30:16
Speaker 1: being a training issue. Community members want to know what
30:19
Speaker 1: my book is about the red flags. They want to
30:22
Speaker 1: know what to look for, what to be suspicious of,
30:25
Speaker 1: how to detect behaviors that are and are not typical
30:29
Speaker 1: of somebody that knows a perpetrator, or whether it's a
30:31
Speaker 1: stranger or a relative. And then, like you said, all
30:35
Speaker 1: we've been an abundance of caution to report it rather
30:37
Speaker 1: than simply assume, Oh, I guess maybe it's just relatives,
30:41
Speaker 1: or I don't want to get involved. That last piece,
30:44
Speaker 1: you and I, as prosecutors know sometimes police to these
30:47
Speaker 1: kinds of tips being overlooked and unreported. Jallo, twenty seven
30:52
Speaker 1: years Metro Major k SWAT officer now lawyer, shall not
30:56
Speaker 1: lawfirm dot com. Did you hear what mister freet said?
31:01
Speaker 1: At this spot where Alliana was to change buses to
31:04
Speaker 1: get to school, there were abandoned houses. Abandoned houses, that
31:11
Speaker 1: is a recipe for disaster. That's a playpen for criminals.
31:17
Speaker 1: Abandoned houses where children change routes to school. Are you serious?
31:23
Speaker 1: How many times have you and I you investigating me,
31:27
Speaker 1: prosecuting seeing crimes go down in abandoned houses. I can't
31:31
Speaker 1: even count them all. And here it is on a
31:33
Speaker 1: school bus route, oh frequently. You know, my question is
31:36
Speaker 1: where is the government, that's the local government in that situation.
31:41
Speaker 1: You know that those kids are kidding on a bus there.
31:44
Speaker 1: You know what goes on at abandoned houses. You know
31:46
Speaker 1: as as as mister Friest described, this is a high
31:49
Speaker 1: crime area. This is a perfect recipe for disaster. And
31:53
Speaker 1: that's exactly what happened to you. I want to go
31:55
Speaker 1: back to the parents of Alliana de Freeze. I mean,
31:59
Speaker 1: one thing after the next, after the next, there's no
32:04
Speaker 1: control over these abandoned houses. At a bus stop where
32:08
Speaker 1: children change school bus routes, the registers sex offender walking
32:14
Speaker 1: free that closed to a school, the school not alerting
32:18
Speaker 1: you when Aliana didn't make it, the tutor not alerting
32:23
Speaker 1: you when Aliana didn't make it, the head start of
32:26
Speaker 1: twelve hours I mean at all, all combines, it's a
32:31
Speaker 1: perfect storm for disaster, mister DeFreeze. When you look at
32:39
Speaker 1: all of these things in conjunction combined, it's Aliana didn't
32:45
Speaker 1: have a chance, mister DeFreeze. Basically, she didn't. This is
32:51
Speaker 1: this is something that we fight with here, fight for.
32:55
Speaker 1: Should I say here at the Aliana defrieses make a
32:57
Speaker 1: change foundation. We've tires. We went back and forth with
33:01
Speaker 1: city Hall here in Cleveland about these abandoned structures around
33:04
Speaker 1: our city. We have had a few removed at our
33:11
Speaker 1: pace and at our liking, but we have got the
33:13
Speaker 1: tension of Mayor Frank Jackson and others. There have been
33:18
Speaker 1: getting buildings removed, but it's not at the pace we
33:21
Speaker 1: would like. There's still crime, criminal activity taking place in
33:25
Speaker 1: these buildings, and children are still being found in these
33:28
Speaker 1: buildings as we speak. There was a body found a
33:30
Speaker 1: couple of days ago in the abandoned house. There wasn't
33:33
Speaker 1: it wasn't a child, But there was a body found
33:35
Speaker 1: an abandoned home two days ago. Again, people on the moon,
33:42
Speaker 1: a telescope on Mars, but we can't get this straight
33:46
Speaker 1: in our own backyard, guys. We worked tirelessly and we
33:51
Speaker 1: started with the story of Aliana de Frieze in Don't
33:56
Speaker 1: be a victim fighting Back against America A crime Waves.
34:01
Speaker 1: This is for you. This book is for you. The
34:06
Speaker 1: Defriezes are taking their pain and they have created the
34:10
Speaker 1: Aliana Defrieze Foundation for you. Mark Klass. The very first
34:20
Speaker 1: tip I give in chapter one regarding your child's safe
34:24
Speaker 1: at school, bus crossings, routes, on the routes home from
34:30
Speaker 1: school is instruct your child's school to call and test
34:34
Speaker 1: you immediately if you're a childless absence, and then insist
34:39
Speaker 1: that they follow through. You know a lot of times
34:43
Speaker 1: I pick up other children, I pick up the twins,
34:45
Speaker 1: and I write all the teachers, I write to school emails.
34:48
Speaker 1: I'm picking up so and so. Do you know how
34:51
Speaker 1: many times nothing happens the other parent is not told.
34:56
Speaker 1: I now include the other parent on there. But the
35:00
Speaker 1: right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.
35:02
Speaker 1: I got pages one, two, three, four, five pages of
35:07
Speaker 1: tips on this alone for parents with children that walk
35:11
Speaker 1: to a bus stop or walk to school and home.
35:15
Speaker 1: Some of the most important ones I think is to
35:18
Speaker 1: practice the route with your child. Walk the route, just
35:22
Speaker 1: don't say walk to the bus stop. Have fun see
35:25
Speaker 1: it at three. No, walk the route with them if
35:28
Speaker 1: you can. If you can, if you're already at work,
35:31
Speaker 1: like my parents were, we walked with a group as
35:35
Speaker 1: you mentioned, mark class, or practice the route with your child.
35:39
Speaker 1: Practice the route home with your child. Have a safety route,
35:44
Speaker 1: which means if a car comes up to you while
35:47
Speaker 1: you're walking, find a route that's off the street, Go
35:51
Speaker 1: in somebody's backyard and go as the crow flies home.
35:55
Speaker 1: Don't just tell your kid to do it, practice it
35:57
Speaker 1: with them. Practice for them to always go in the
36:01
Speaker 1: direction opposite to where the car is headed, because the
36:04
Speaker 1: car is gonna have to turn around to come after them.
36:07
Speaker 1: That's important. Time and find a safe house if there
36:12
Speaker 1: is one, a neighbor at home that your child can
36:15
Speaker 1: run to if you're not home. It's so important. What
36:19
Speaker 1: can you tell me about safety at school, bus stops,
36:24
Speaker 1: routes to school, and routes to the bus stop, Mark class.
36:27
Speaker 1: What can we can we tell people to help them? Well,
36:31
Speaker 1: here's what I would tell people. I mean, we're talking
36:33
Speaker 1: about systemic failure from the top to the bottom. But
36:36
Speaker 1: there's an eight hundred pound gorilla in the room that
36:38
Speaker 1: hasn't been mentioned, and that's a failed criminal justice system
36:42
Speaker 1: that would allow somebody like Christopher Whittaker to be on
36:46
Speaker 1: the street in the first place. This is a guy
36:49
Speaker 1: that's got a criminal history that extends back years and
36:53
Speaker 1: involves grand theft, burglary, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, and sexual battery.
36:59
Speaker 1: And you're telling me this character is allowed to walk
37:02
Speaker 1: the streets, allowed to walk the streets unsupervised and get
37:08
Speaker 1: his hands on young children. That's why all of these
37:11
Speaker 1: other factors are so important. Why we have to ensure
37:15
Speaker 1: that our routes are safe for our children when they're
37:18
Speaker 1: going to and from school, and that we are able
37:21
Speaker 1: to somehow get control over this system, because quite frankly,
37:25
Speaker 1: I truly believe government is not protecting us or more importantly,
37:31
Speaker 1: our kids. A few other chips I've come up with
37:34
Speaker 1: that I've amassed over time from other cases. Don't have
37:39
Speaker 1: your child's belongings monogrammed or their name. For a stranger
37:43
Speaker 1: to call out to your child Aliyana, the child might
37:46
Speaker 1: come over to the car thinking you know, the family,
37:50
Speaker 1: get the child to the bus stop ten minutes early.
37:53
Speaker 1: You don't want the bus to have already gone and
37:55
Speaker 1: they're standing there all alone and if you pick your
37:58
Speaker 1: child up from the bus stop, get there early. Take
38:02
Speaker 1: your child to the bus stop if you can, If
38:04
Speaker 1: you can't, have them walk in a group. Walk the
38:07
Speaker 1: route with your child before they walk it alone, and
38:10
Speaker 1: struct your child. Don't be engrossed with games your devices
38:13
Speaker 1: like smartphones. Be aware of what's going on. I mean,
38:17
Speaker 1: I've got so many tips to help your child that
38:23
Speaker 1: could save their life. As I mentioned earlier, this book
38:28
Speaker 1: is for you. My proceeds are going to help find
38:34
Speaker 1: missing children. Don't be a victim. Fighting back against America's
38:40
Speaker 1: crime way. Chapter one, Your Child Safe. I want to
38:46
Speaker 1: thank what Tanya DeFries and Damon DeFries who are taking
38:51
Speaker 1: their pain and they're suffering and turning it into something
38:56
Speaker 1: to help you. At the alley on It's Foundation dot com.
39:03
Speaker 1: Thank you guys for being with us. Nancy Grace hunting up.
39:07
Speaker 1: Good bye friend