Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Teen boy Quawan Charles goes missing, found facedown in mud of sugarcane field

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Teen boy Quawan Charles goes missing, found facedown in mud of sugarcane field · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. How does a teen boy,
0:18
Speaker 1: a homebody who loves his dog, end up face down
0:24
Speaker 1: in a field dead by drowning? Well, this young boy's
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Speaker 1: family says this was no accident. We want justice. Crime
0:47
Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. Take a listen to what we
0:57
Speaker 1: know about this young boy Cowombobby Charles had just moved
1:02
Speaker 1: from Youngsville, Louisiana, to Baldwin to Louve with his father.
1:05
Speaker 1: He had just started a new school. His family says
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Speaker 1: he was a quiet, fifteen year old and slender. He
1:11
Speaker 1: stood five feet seven inches tall and weighed just one
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Speaker 1: hundred twelve pounds. A local newspaper reports charles dad is,
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Speaker 1: saying the teen had recently saved his allowance to buy
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Speaker 1: a computer, and he got a dog that he loved.
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Speaker 1: He named the dog my Baby. On October thirtieth, Roxanne
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Speaker 1: Nelson noticed her son was missing around three pm and
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Speaker 1: began calling around to find him. Soon after, Nelson and
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Speaker 1: Bobby Charles's father called nine one one, and this young
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Speaker 1: boy had just turned fifteen. He was just a little
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Speaker 1: over fourteen years old. That's one year older than my twins, John,
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Speaker 1: David and Lucy. Think about it, think about it. How
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Speaker 1: in the hay does he end up dead? Face down?
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Speaker 1: And I feel old, dying of drowning with me an
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Speaker 1: all star panel to break you down and put it
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Speaker 1: back together again. Doctor Bethany Marshall, Psycho Analyst to the Stars,
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Speaker 1: joining us from Beverly Hills and you can find her
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Speaker 1: at doctor Bethany Marshall dot com. Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University,
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Speaker 1: author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, and star
2:21
Speaker 1: of a brand new hit series, Poisonous Liaisons on the
2:24
Speaker 1: True Crime Network. It's Death Investigator Joseph Scott Morgan, lead
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Speaker 1: news anchor for Orlando's WDBO, Ray Kiputo, and special guest
2:36
Speaker 1: joining us, Ronald ron Healey Junior practices out of Baton Rouge,
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Speaker 1: but really all over the country, and he is the
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Speaker 1: lawyer for this young boy's family. First of all, to you,
2:48
Speaker 1: Ray Kipputo, explain to me the movements of Kawan that morning.
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Speaker 1: Kawan Bobby Charles, Well, he was he was in his
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Speaker 1: home in Ballwinner. I's about thirty five mental where you
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Speaker 1: just recently moved from Youngsville, and that's just south of Lafayette.
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Speaker 1: So we see him on video. He's sitting on a
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Speaker 1: curb and a card drove BUYD. Apparently this car has
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Speaker 1: a friend's mother who's driving and one of them, what
3:14
Speaker 1: you got me, Jake from the fire hychant It's too much,
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Speaker 1: too fast. So that day you're telling me, Ray Caputo
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Speaker 1: w DBO was a day like others. He was at
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Speaker 1: home whereas he and his dad were living, and around
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Speaker 1: three o'clock he what he gets into a car, leaves
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Speaker 1: comes back. It looks like a bunch of people got
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Speaker 1: out and they go into the backyard, then they get
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Speaker 1: back into the car. I don't know if it was
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Speaker 1: a bunch of people. Maybe you and I interpret the
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Speaker 1: facts differently. Take a listen to our friend, Jerika Duncan,
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Speaker 1: CBS police say. Video from the day Kawan Charles went
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Speaker 1: missing shows the teenager sitting outside his home on the
3:53
Speaker 1: afternoon of October thirtieth. A silver car passes in front
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Speaker 1: of him, and Charles appears to run after the vehicle.
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Speaker 1: Several minutes later, the same car returns and pulls into
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Speaker 1: Charles's driveway. According to police, three people, including the fifteen
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Speaker 1: year old, then exit the vehicle and head into his backyard.
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Speaker 1: They then return to the car and drive away. It's
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Speaker 1: my understanding to Ron Heley Junior, this is the lawyer
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Speaker 1: for Kawan Bobby Charles's family, that they go into the
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Speaker 1: backyard to pet my baby the dog. I mean, this
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Speaker 1: is a kid who is saving up his allowance to
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Speaker 1: buy a computer and hangs out with the family dog.
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Speaker 1: It sounds like Opie in Mayberry for Pete's sake. So
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Speaker 1: I don't see anything nefarious about friends driving by. As
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Speaker 1: it turns out, I believe it was a friend and
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Speaker 1: the friend's mom. But they drive by, he actually chases
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Speaker 1: after the vehicle. On the video, you see the vehicle
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Speaker 1: come back and they all go into the backyard. And
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Speaker 1: what I think happened in the backyard, although it's not
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Speaker 1: on video, is said they played with the dog. Then
5:00
Speaker 1: they got back in the car and left. Is that
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Speaker 1: your understanding of the facts so far, Ron Haley Junior
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Speaker 1: at that point, yes, okay, that's the fact that we
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Speaker 1: appreciate it. So doesn't sound to me like he was
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Speaker 1: kidnapped by these people. Who are the people, Ron Haley Junior.
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Speaker 1: So the people the woman's name is Janet Irban and
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Speaker 1: her son. I don't want to get the son's name out,
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Speaker 1: although it has been released because he is a juvenile,
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Speaker 1: and I do respect that. But that was his friend
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Speaker 1: buddy from school that he knew from around the way.
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Speaker 1: He got into Janet's car with the seventeen year old
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Speaker 1: son and drove off about twenty five to thirty miles
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Speaker 1: away from his father's residence. The issue that we have
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Speaker 1: with that is why wasn't his parents notified. That's a
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Speaker 1: good point because my children are. They just turned thirteen
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Speaker 1: Ron Haley Junior, and that's about a year younger than Kawan.
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Speaker 1: And let me tell you something, I know where they are.
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Speaker 1: I know where they are right now, and I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: know where they are twenty four seven, three sixty five
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Speaker 1: until they go to college. God help me. So I
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Speaker 1: would have a big problem with anybody coming and getting
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Speaker 1: the twins or one of the twins without me knowing.
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Speaker 1: But that, of course, it's not a crime. Back to you,
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Speaker 1: Ray Kaputo. So I don't hear a bunch of people.
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Speaker 1: I hear this friend from school and the friends and
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Speaker 1: mom and they go in the backyard and pet the dog.
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Speaker 1: So so far, I'm not hearing anything nefarious. As a
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Speaker 1: matter of fact, take a listen again to our friends
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Speaker 1: at CBS. The family's not questioning the veracity of the video, However,
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Speaker 1: our interest is now solely focused on what occurs as
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Speaker 1: soon as that video stops. Chase Trachelle is a lawyer
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Speaker 1: for the family of Kuwan Charles. He says the video
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Speaker 1: supposedly showing the fifteen year old willingly leaving his home
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Speaker 1: with two people does a little to explain why police
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Speaker 1: never issued in Amber alert after Charles's parents reported him
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Speaker 1: missing on October thirtieth. Yeah, I've got questions about why
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Speaker 1: Amber alert was never issued as well to Ray Kaputo
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Speaker 1: joining a wdbo Ray Kaputo, so we know he's alive
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Speaker 1: and well. Around three o'clock in the afternoon, he's there
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Speaker 1: at home with his dog. So he leaves with the
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Speaker 1: friend and the friend's mom. Now I would have been
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Speaker 1: a little suspicious about an older friend the friends seventeen,
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Speaker 1: I believe Ron Haley Junior said, without the family knowing
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Speaker 1: where he's going. But you've got the mom in the car,
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Speaker 1: and in my mind that makes it not as concerning.
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Speaker 1: So where do we think he went? Then, Ray Kaputo, well,
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Speaker 1: twenty five miles away to the friend's hospit. I believe
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Speaker 1: is called Waraville and it's about twenty five minutes away.
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Speaker 1: So they hung out and that was the last anybody's
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Speaker 1: ever seen of him. So we have this young boy,
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Speaker 1: Kawe Bobby Charles with his friends about thirty miles from home. Now,
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Speaker 1: what you have to understand to Ron Heley Junior, the lawyer,
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Speaker 1: a thirty minute drive is not a big deal in
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Speaker 1: that part of the world, except for the parents didn't
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Speaker 1: know where he was. What do you think about that, Ron, No,
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Speaker 1: I agree with you on that standpoint. And to make
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Speaker 1: it in a legal context, they're all a part of
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Speaker 1: the same judicial district, so they're right by each other.
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Speaker 1: God thinks the bigger issue is that his parents didn't
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Speaker 1: know that. Nobody came out Kawan's house that didn't come
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Speaker 1: out Wade say hey, where are you going when you're
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Speaker 1: gonna bring him back? You know all the things that
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Speaker 1: whenever look when your twins go spending nights so well
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Speaker 1: by somebody's house. You absolutely know the parents telephone number,
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Speaker 1: you know where they're going to be, what they're gonna
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Speaker 1: be doing. None of that happened. And as a father myself,
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Speaker 1: if I went picked up one of my little girl's
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Speaker 1: friends from their parents' house and mom and dad not home.
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Speaker 1: I'm calling him on the phone to make sure I
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Speaker 1: could pick him up. Hide that. Hey, it's cool for
9:05
Speaker 1: me to come over. Yeah, that's not happening. Crime Stories
9:22
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. Guys, we were talking about the disappearance
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Speaker 1: and the unusual death of a teen boy, real homebody,
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Speaker 1: uh Kawan Bobby Charles in rural Louisiana. So many questions
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Speaker 1: surrounding his disappearance, and then how does this young boy
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Speaker 1: end up dead, face down in a field dead by drowning?
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Speaker 1: With me in addition to our panel, doctor Bethany Marshall,
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Speaker 1: Joseph Scott Morgan, and Ray Kiputo. Special guests joining us,
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Speaker 1: Ronald Hilly Junior, the lawyer for the victims family. I'm
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Speaker 1: with you on that, and I am not above driving
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Speaker 1: by where one of the twins is spending the night
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Speaker 1: and taking a look at the house. And if I
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Speaker 1: can see inside, that's all the better because I want
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Speaker 1: to know my children are all right. Am I understanding
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Speaker 1: ron Haley Junior that Kawan's dad was home when Kauwan left.
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Speaker 1: That's our appreciation of it. Around three o'clock Kauan's dad
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Speaker 1: was actually home. But what happened from then until he
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Speaker 1: realized that he was that Kawan wasn't home, We don't know.
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Speaker 1: So okay, film, he was in the room to you,
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Speaker 1: Ray Kaputo, at three o'clock, he's gone. What happens next, Well,
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Speaker 1: eventually his parents realize that he's missing, and his mom
10:46
Speaker 1: in his death. They called Baldwin police and they say
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Speaker 1: that they can't find our son. But what they don't
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Speaker 1: do is they don't issue an ambreller. They start to
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Speaker 1: ask questions or even the family and the lawyer can
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Speaker 1: tell you that they said that maybe he's in a
11:01
Speaker 1: football game, even though Kawan doesn't like sports, So they
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Speaker 1: immediately didn't take it seriously or as seriously as they
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Speaker 1: could have. Let me down, us down, Ray Kaputo, Ray Kaputo,
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Speaker 1: lead anchored WBO. What time did the parents say, okay,
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Speaker 1: this isn't right, where's Kawan? And they call police? What
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Speaker 1: time did that happen? My recollection was in the evening
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Speaker 1: around eight o'clock to Ron Hanley Junior, Is that correct?
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Speaker 1: That's correct? So did they do a cursory search before
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Speaker 1: they call police? Trying to figure out when they first
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Speaker 1: realized Kawan's gone well when he wasn't answering his mother's calls.
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Speaker 1: Because the mother was supposed to pick him up to
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Speaker 1: get a haircut that weekend. I don't know if that
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Speaker 1: was her weekend with Kawan or they were just supposed
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Speaker 1: to do some activities together. But when he didn't answer
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Speaker 1: the phone, she asked the father to go to his room.
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Speaker 1: When the father went to the room, they realized that
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Speaker 1: Kawan was not there and he was a real homebody. Guys,
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Speaker 1: this teen boy goes missing. The parents, I have no
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Speaker 1: idea where he is, so Ray Kaputo. They call early
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Speaker 1: evening and by the time they realize he's missing, say
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Speaker 1: around seven o'clock, they do a search. Then they call
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Speaker 1: police around eight pm. And is that correct? Ron Hilly,
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Speaker 1: junior lawyer joining us out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Is
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Speaker 1: that correct that At first the cops say, well, did
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Speaker 1: you go to a football game? Was this what a
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Speaker 1: Friday night? It was a Friday night, so yes, the
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Speaker 1: officers did say, tolicity fobly at a football game or
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Speaker 1: at a friend's house playing games. Not to worry. They
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Speaker 1: put his name in the missing Children's database or missing
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Speaker 1: Person's database, and that's about it. And I have a
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Speaker 1: problem with that. Listen, if there's a one percent chance
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Speaker 1: to prevent what happened to Kawan Tarles, you take that
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Speaker 1: chance and put all efforts, put boots on the ground
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Speaker 1: to find this missing kids. You have to do it.
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Speaker 1: And I don't care if ninety nine percent of the
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Speaker 1: time you find him at a Friendtilesey goes home, gets this,
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Speaker 1: gets this banking whatever. You take that chance, and they
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Speaker 1: just failed. They failed miserably. I think this case is
13:08
Speaker 1: a tale of two stories. One what happens to Bobby
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Speaker 1: and two what could have been done to prevent what
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Speaker 1: happens to Bobby? And Ron Helly's junior or police saying
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Speaker 1: why they did not issue an amber alert immediately because
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Speaker 1: we don't know time of death, we don't know that.
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Speaker 1: Is there a chance if they had issued an amber
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Speaker 1: alert and people really put his face on TV, put
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Speaker 1: it up on the interstate, put it you know where
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Speaker 1: there's flashing signs or I see them all the time.
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Speaker 1: If someone had seen him in the local area and
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Speaker 1: could have reported it, if they had known, and you
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Speaker 1: know what this makes me think of, hold your horses,
13:47
Speaker 1: everybody jo Scott Morgan, we covered this together, as I
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Speaker 1: did with you, Doctor Bethany. The case of Cherish a Periwinkle,
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Speaker 1: a little girl that goes missing in Florida. She's at
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Speaker 1: a superstore like a Walmart or a Target superstore, and
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Speaker 1: the part actually gets her to leave the superstore. Her
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Speaker 1: mom doesn't realize that until she goes up front and
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Speaker 1: Cherish is God can't find Cherish. The cops get there
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Speaker 1: and they give the mother Rain a really hard time
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Speaker 1: and think this is something to do with a custody dispute,
14:24
Speaker 1: and hours past hours, and the whole time Cherish Pirowinkle
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Speaker 1: is getting tortured and raped by her killer. And then
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Speaker 1: only after they put it on the knees and the
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Speaker 1: potential vehicle on the knees is it found and putting
14:44
Speaker 1: it on the knees changed everything. Remember that, Joe Scott, Yes,
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Speaker 1: I do. She was actually strangled to death, Nancy was
14:51
Speaker 1: right around Christmas time, and it's it's a heartbreaking case.
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Speaker 1: And I hate to hear that name again because it's
14:59
Speaker 1: it's it was so horrible in the context in a
15:03
Speaker 1: timely fashion, instead of their default position, which is, well,
15:08
Speaker 1: you know, it's just another custody case mom and dad
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Speaker 1: aren't getting along or whatever, this little girl could have
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Speaker 1: been saved. And I think that that's a tragedy behind
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Speaker 1: this when police just go to this default position and
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Speaker 1: they hed a football game. So let me go back
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Speaker 1: to Ron and Haley Junior, the lawyer for the victim's family.
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Speaker 1: He practices outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Ron, When I
15:34
Speaker 1: think about that that could his life have been saved
15:40
Speaker 1: had an Amber alert been issued. I mean, you have
15:44
Speaker 1: to look at the time of death and why is
15:46
Speaker 1: that Because at the time he was reported missing, say
15:50
Speaker 1: seven to eight pm, and not he's been gone since three.
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Speaker 1: He may have already been dead, but we don't know that.
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Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, take a listen to what
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Speaker 1: police say about why they did not issue an Amber alert. Well,
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Speaker 1: there was no evidence of foul play whatsoever. There was
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Speaker 1: no eyewitnesses on an abduction or even a kidnapping, and
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Speaker 1: since it did not meet the criteria, we did not
16:14
Speaker 1: feel that was the reason for an Amber alert. But
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Speaker 1: we did put him in ncise once again as a
16:19
Speaker 1: missing person or missing slash runaway because I was told
16:24
Speaker 1: that he was going to hide from the family every
16:27
Speaker 1: now and again throughout the backyard some time. But that's
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Speaker 1: the reason why we didn't do amber Aler. We did
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Speaker 1: put him in ncise, we did call in the area,
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Speaker 1: none to hide from the family. That's the very first
16:39
Speaker 1: I've heard that, Ron Haley Junior. No, I mean, that's
16:42
Speaker 1: that's an excuse and absolutely ridiculous. Further, you don't even
16:46
Speaker 1: have to do Amberler. In Louisiana. We have something that's
16:48
Speaker 1: called a Level two advisor right where at least they
16:52
Speaker 1: would notify all the local news outlets and they could
16:56
Speaker 1: on their own decide to put this information out. What's
16:59
Speaker 1: that is that at his memorial on November the fifth,
17:01
Speaker 1: when the news stations came out to coverage, they didn't
17:04
Speaker 1: even know that a kid was dead, let alone a
17:07
Speaker 1: child went missing. They could have done more than the
17:11
Speaker 1: bare minimum. Here's the criteria, Ron Helley. Law enforcement must
17:16
Speaker 1: confirm an abduction has taken place. The child must be
17:20
Speaker 1: at risk of serious injury or death. There must be
17:23
Speaker 1: sufficient descriptive information of the child, the captor or the vehicle,
17:28
Speaker 1: and a child has to be under seventeen. Just because
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Speaker 1: they saw him leave at three o'clock in the afternoon
17:36
Speaker 1: willingly does not mean a kidnap did not happen when
17:40
Speaker 1: he is not home by eight o'clock at night and
17:43
Speaker 1: he's not answering his cell and that's totally out of
17:46
Speaker 1: character to me. That screams kidnap. I mean, what do
17:51
Speaker 1: you need a video of him kicking and screaming being
17:54
Speaker 1: dragged off into a white man. Hey, here's an important distinction.
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Speaker 1: The police did not act us that video to after
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Speaker 1: Kawan was dead. Ah, so they had no idea even
18:05
Speaker 1: that he had left willingly. Okay, that's a big problem.
18:09
Speaker 1: A lot of this is going to center on time
18:12
Speaker 1: of death, time stories with Nancy Grace. Guys were talking
18:31
Speaker 1: about the disappearance and the death of a young boy
18:35
Speaker 1: just turned fifteen, only way to one hundred and twelve pounds,
18:39
Speaker 1: soaking wet, found dead face down in a field. We
18:47
Speaker 1: are trying to determine what went wrong and the true
18:52
Speaker 1: cod cause of death, not only the cod of Kawan
18:57
Speaker 1: Bobby Charles, but how that happened, How was he drowned?
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Speaker 1: He was found? Oh, why would he go out into
19:07
Speaker 1: the middle of a field of sugarcane field and go
19:11
Speaker 1: face down in the water and the water is only
19:14
Speaker 1: about ankle high? Why why would that happen. Take a
19:19
Speaker 1: listen to this. On November second, the fifteen year old's
19:22
Speaker 1: body was found in a sugarcane filled in Laureville, thirty
19:26
Speaker 1: minutes from his home. The coroner's office says the team
19:29
Speaker 1: likely drowned and had no injuries before his death. They
19:32
Speaker 1: also ruled that the wounds on his face happened after
19:35
Speaker 1: his death and were likely caused by aquatic animals. But
19:39
Speaker 1: according to the family's attorneys, the water in the sugar
19:42
Speaker 1: cane field is very shallow. Those bodies of water barely
19:45
Speaker 1: go up to your knees. And so this isn't that
19:48
Speaker 1: Kawan trying to go for a swim. I want to
19:51
Speaker 1: go to Ron Haley Junior, the lawyer for the victims family,
19:55
Speaker 1: tell me about the discovery of Kaiwan's body. Well, that's
20:01
Speaker 1: with frustrating to us. Listen, his body was discovered on
20:05
Speaker 1: November third after they pained his cell phone sometime on
20:09
Speaker 1: November the second. Had they pained his cell phone on
20:13
Speaker 1: the thirtieth when he went missing. And for your audience listening,
20:16
Speaker 1: you do not need a warrant to ping a cell phone.
20:19
Speaker 1: That case laws is out there. You ping that cell phone,
20:23
Speaker 1: you find him because a drone was able to locate
20:25
Speaker 1: his body just hours after his cell phone was pained.
20:29
Speaker 1: That's frustrating. So you're telling me the police could have
20:34
Speaker 1: pained his phone immediately when he was reported missing. And
20:39
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I think is a critical time,
20:43
Speaker 1: Ron Haley Junior, and that is when his mother was
20:46
Speaker 1: trying to call him and he wasn't picking up. He
20:49
Speaker 1: was never known not to pick up when his parents called.
20:52
Speaker 1: Right then he was in trouble by not picking up
20:56
Speaker 1: when she called the dad and said, hey, where is he?
21:00
Speaker 1: By then it was too late. Take a listen to
21:04
Speaker 1: what police say in response. This is reported by kfl
21:08
Speaker 1: y ten. We did not drop the ball. We did
21:11
Speaker 1: everything within our powers to help this family. When Colon
21:16
Speaker 1: Charles's mother called police at eight oh four in October thirtieth,
21:19
Speaker 1: Bolton police say they immediately began their search for him,
21:22
Speaker 1: started thinking, started talking, and started hitting the streets, beating
21:25
Speaker 1: the streets because that's what I do. Initially, after searching
21:28
Speaker 1: for Charles at local events, Bolton Police filed a missing
21:31
Speaker 1: person's report at ten thirty four that night into a
21:34
Speaker 1: national database for missing people. They did follow protocol. They
21:37
Speaker 1: did everything by the book and take a listen to
21:41
Speaker 1: more of that you were hearing. Is it real? Is
21:46
Speaker 1: this really what happened? The police really think they went
21:50
Speaker 1: by the book? Or is this what we call cya?
21:54
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our cut number nine. Kfly Why
21:57
Speaker 1: says he was on vacation when Charles was reported missing,
22:00
Speaker 1: but came home on November second to help with the investigation.
22:03
Speaker 1: He says, Baldwin police officers spoke with people closest to
22:06
Speaker 1: Charles and zug up surveillance footage to track his last movements,
22:10
Speaker 1: and my officer stayed in touch with the family the
22:13
Speaker 1: whole weekend. The father told me himself that my officer
22:18
Speaker 1: stayed in touch with him the entire weekend trying to
22:22
Speaker 1: locate his kid. Because we do care. I appreciate that
22:25
Speaker 1: they care, but why not paying the phone? Take a
22:28
Speaker 1: listen to Brett la Fazzo cut t kfy. Iberia Parish
22:33
Speaker 1: officials say they were not aware of the team's disappearance
22:36
Speaker 1: until November third. That's when Charles's family contacted the Iberia
22:40
Speaker 1: Parish Sheriff's office. Iberia Parish authorities found Charles's body in
22:44
Speaker 1: Lauraville after pinging his cell phone The body was found
22:47
Speaker 1: in a fields near the home of the family last
22:50
Speaker 1: scene with Charles Baldwin. Police are now facing criticism from
22:54
Speaker 1: Charles's family as well as on social media. Facebook and
22:58
Speaker 1: social media has cost so much within my department, who
23:02
Speaker 1: received threats every day, who received emails every day, and
23:07
Speaker 1: some of the guys are wondering, are we going to
23:09
Speaker 1: be okay? All right, they dropped the ball. They should
23:13
Speaker 1: have pinged the phone immediately and put him out as
23:15
Speaker 1: an Amber alert and gotten his face on local media.
23:18
Speaker 1: It could have saved his life. But they're not the
23:22
Speaker 1: ones that kill this young boy. So you got two
23:26
Speaker 1: competing issues here, what happened to Kawan Bobby Charles and
23:31
Speaker 1: the police dropping the ball. I want to circle back
23:34
Speaker 1: to Ron Hilly Junior, the lawyer for the victim's family.
23:37
Speaker 1: I appreciate that the cops care and that they did
23:40
Speaker 1: what they did do, but staying in touch with the family, well,
23:44
Speaker 1: I appreciate that that is not issuing an amber alert
23:48
Speaker 1: and that is not pinging his phone. You're absolutely right,
23:52
Speaker 1: and that's what really aggravates the legal team. That's what
23:55
Speaker 1: really frustrates and aggravates the family that the Sheriff's office
23:59
Speaker 1: state he should have been contacted immediately. What your audience
24:02
Speaker 1: needs to know is that the Baldwin Police Department is
24:04
Speaker 1: a very small police department. They do not have a
24:07
Speaker 1: lot of officers, and so they should have immediately sought
24:11
Speaker 1: the assistance of neighboring law enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction there.
24:17
Speaker 1: Baldwin is the city and Iberia Parish is the county,
24:21
Speaker 1: so to speak for those who aren't familiar with our
24:25
Speaker 1: parish county system in Louisiana, that that should have been
24:29
Speaker 1: done immediately. And if that's cell phone is team, we
24:31
Speaker 1: believe Bobby Charles would be alive. And so I get it. Yeah,
24:36
Speaker 1: you care, but you need more than than caring. We
24:39
Speaker 1: need boots on the ground. We needed this to be
24:41
Speaker 1: taken seriously, and we feel that this matter wasn't taken seriously.
24:45
Speaker 1: Now we have the issue with me. You know the reality,
24:48
Speaker 1: Ron Hanley Junior, words are cheap. I can tell anybody
24:51
Speaker 1: all day long, I care, show me, show me you care.
24:55
Speaker 1: Do what you're supposed to do. Take a listen to
24:58
Speaker 1: Jane Norman at A B. C. Nieves Kawan was a
25:03
Speaker 1: good kid, a loving child. You know, I loved him
25:07
Speaker 1: and he loved me. A mother mourning the loss of
25:10
Speaker 1: her son and questioning whether fifteen year old Kwan Charles
25:13
Speaker 1: was murdered. I cannot sleep at night like I want to.
25:17
Speaker 1: I'm constantly thinking about my son and trying to figure
25:21
Speaker 1: out exactly how he died. The family says Kawan disappeared
25:26
Speaker 1: and they reported him missing October thirtieth. Video from that
25:29
Speaker 1: day shows him being picked up by a friend and
25:31
Speaker 1: the friend's mother. His body was found November third in
25:34
Speaker 1: a sugarcane field about twenty miles away, his face barely recognizable.
25:40
Speaker 1: Roxanne Nelson believes police could have saved her son had
25:44
Speaker 1: they acted faster, they could have done more. They didn't.
25:47
Speaker 1: They didn't do what it was supposed to do. Had
25:51
Speaker 1: they done what they were supposed to do, my son
25:53
Speaker 1: would be alive today. You know another issue. I just
25:57
Speaker 1: heard the Iberia parish official they were not aware Kawen
26:02
Speaker 1: was missing until November three, Ron Haley, everybody's trying to
26:07
Speaker 1: hide the ball and shift blame on each other, and
26:12
Speaker 1: that's sad. In a situation like this, we need truth through,
26:14
Speaker 1: we need accountability, and I share the frustration of the family.
26:18
Speaker 1: I believe that as he was of a different color,
26:22
Speaker 1: they would have cared more. We have FBI statistics that
26:25
Speaker 1: prove that that black children make up fourteen percent of
26:28
Speaker 1: the children population in this country, yet make up thirty
26:31
Speaker 1: eight percent of missing children. Yet of those missing children,
26:35
Speaker 1: only seven percent of cases evolving black kids get to
26:40
Speaker 1: get the benefit of having an amber alert. Also, listen,
26:43
Speaker 1: this is a practical question. Fancy ye have kids. If
26:47
Speaker 1: one of your kids went with me and I didn't
26:51
Speaker 1: let you know and he or she ended up like that,
26:56
Speaker 1: I'm in jail right now. Well, first of all, and
26:58
Speaker 1: have you arrested? Second of all, I have you disbarred?
27:02
Speaker 1: Then I'd burn your house down and blow up your car.
27:05
Speaker 1: But that aside, I hear what you're saying. Try to
27:09
Speaker 1: figure something out about the cod Ronald Haley Junior is
27:13
Speaker 1: with me. He is a lawyer for the Charles family.
27:16
Speaker 1: Take a listen to Elwyn Lopez ABC seven. A preliminary
27:22
Speaker 1: autopsy reports list of the team's cause of death as
27:25
Speaker 1: quote likely drowning. The fifteen year old's cousin says Charles's
27:30
Speaker 1: severely disfigured face tells a different story. The space tells
27:34
Speaker 1: it all. On the left side of his face, there
27:37
Speaker 1: is like a knot on the right side, there's like
27:40
Speaker 1: a incision. The same corner's reports suggesting any injuries on
27:44
Speaker 1: its face happens after his death and quote a likely
27:48
Speaker 1: aquatic animal activity. Person that's a deceased can't talk, so
27:52
Speaker 1: you don't know his side of the story. Justice fork
27:55
Speaker 1: One in response to that preliminary autopsy or ortho, the
28:00
Speaker 1: teen's family's under statement that the water where he was
28:03
Speaker 1: found was ankle deep and that they believe he could
28:05
Speaker 1: not have drowned without outside influences Crime stories with Nancy Grace,
28:26
Speaker 1: what was the co d cause of death on this boy?
28:32
Speaker 1: First of all too, Joseph's Goot Morgan, professor forensics, death investigator,
28:38
Speaker 1: So much of this really depends on the time of
28:41
Speaker 1: death and the cause of death. But I find it
28:45
Speaker 1: very hard to believe that this teen boy goes out
28:48
Speaker 1: into the middle of a sugarcane fill and throws himself down,
28:52
Speaker 1: face down into ankle deep water and drowns. That did
28:56
Speaker 1: not happen. No, No, it wouldn't happen. I think the
29:01
Speaker 1: question that has to be asked is how do you
29:07
Speaker 1: reconcile the fact that his lungs are in fact hyperinflated.
29:12
Speaker 1: Per the autopsy report. They are heavy and it's muddy water,
29:16
Speaker 1: so he has obviously inhalated this muddy water, so he
29:22
Speaker 1: was alive while he was faced down. In addition to that,
29:25
Speaker 1: he's also got this muddy water contained in what's referred
29:29
Speaker 1: to as the sphenoid sinuses, which is something in suspected drownings.
29:34
Speaker 1: We open these in the head at autopsy and we
29:37
Speaker 1: inspect these areas to see if there is in fact
29:39
Speaker 1: water there, and there was. Now the question is how
29:43
Speaker 1: does a seemingly healthy fifteen year old wind up in
29:47
Speaker 1: a position where he's incapable of coming facilitating himself from
29:53
Speaker 1: rising up out of the water, because you know, as
29:56
Speaker 1: it's mentioned Nancy, it's only ankle deep. So my question
30:00
Speaker 1: would be was he held down, was he pressed down?
30:04
Speaker 1: Was there something that was going on metabolically in his system?
30:08
Speaker 1: I don't know what his talks report is. I have
30:11
Speaker 1: no idea, and so all this stuff needs to be
30:14
Speaker 1: revealed so that we can get to the heart of
30:16
Speaker 1: the matter. Well, I'm sure you recall the case of
30:18
Speaker 1: Andrea Yates, the mother that murdered her children by drowning,
30:23
Speaker 1: even the little baby. I believe the little baby girl's
30:26
Speaker 1: name was Mary, had bruises around her face and neck,
30:31
Speaker 1: as I recall where she tried to live, even an
30:36
Speaker 1: infant tried to live. So wouldn't you expect to find
30:41
Speaker 1: Joseph Scott Morgan some type of bruising around Kawan Charles
30:47
Speaker 1: face and neck. Well, yeah, particularly since let's keep in
30:50
Speaker 1: mind he's in a prone position, which means face down,
30:53
Speaker 1: so the bruising I would be looking forward would be safe,
30:56
Speaker 1: for instance, on the backside of his neck, that is
30:59
Speaker 1: your forcing him down. Now, I've seen a very crude
31:03
Speaker 1: image that has been out on the net on the
31:06
Speaker 1: net relative to this image that we have of him
31:11
Speaker 1: in death, and being from South Louisiana myself and having
31:14
Speaker 1: worked a number of these cases, the aquatic life that
31:17
Speaker 1: they're referring to specifically as crayfish or crawfish as we say,
31:21
Speaker 1: and I think that that's probably what is creating these
31:24
Speaker 1: post mortem injuries. And I haven't seen all of the evidence,
31:27
Speaker 1: but just based on this image that I'm seeing, it
31:30
Speaker 1: would appear that these are consistent with post mortem injuries. However,
31:35
Speaker 1: we still have to go back to the drowning. How
31:38
Speaker 1: does a fifteen year old get into this position, and
31:42
Speaker 1: that's the big question. I'm not aware and maybe counsel
31:45
Speaker 1: has an answer to this. I don't know. Is he
31:47
Speaker 1: physically impaired some way, as he had any kind of
31:50
Speaker 1: health problems. I would as a medical legal death investigator,
31:53
Speaker 1: I would want answer to those questions to Ron Haley
31:57
Speaker 1: Junior answers health problems. In regards to Quan Charles, we
32:03
Speaker 1: are anxiously waiting to Talk report to see if that
32:06
Speaker 1: can give clue. I think that would be a big
32:08
Speaker 1: piece of the puzzle as to how this possible going
32:12
Speaker 1: to happen. If there was something in the Talk report,
32:15
Speaker 1: then we want to know how how do you get there? Right?
32:18
Speaker 1: I mean, he's, you know, with this adult in her
32:20
Speaker 1: son twenty miles away from his family's house without permission.
32:26
Speaker 1: How does this happen? If that's in fact the case.
32:30
Speaker 1: I just don't understand why they didn't call the police
32:32
Speaker 1: when he went missing. And I'm speaking of the urban
32:34
Speaker 1: family because obviously at some point they knew he didn't
32:37
Speaker 1: walk home. They don't they give a story that he
32:42
Speaker 1: stated he was leaving and they say, well where are
32:47
Speaker 1: you going? And they never get an answer, and that
32:50
Speaker 1: he left on foot. That's the understanding I had. Of course,
32:55
Speaker 1: he's twenty miles away from home. Why would he leave
32:57
Speaker 1: on foot. It's ridiculous. I don't believe that's what happened.
33:02
Speaker 1: I don't believe them at one bit. Listen, just as
33:06
Speaker 1: a as a parent. Again, I'm not even talking as
33:08
Speaker 1: a lawyer. As a parent, if one of my kids
33:11
Speaker 1: friends said, look, I'm out of here, I'm going, Hey,
33:17
Speaker 1: where are you going, and you're not telling me you're
33:19
Speaker 1: not leaving my house and I'm calling your mom and
33:20
Speaker 1: get daddy, any normal person would do that, and so
33:25
Speaker 1: their their story isn't cutting the muscle with me either.
33:28
Speaker 1: To doctor Bethany Marshall, psycho Allens joining us from Beverly
33:31
Speaker 1: Hills at doctor Bethany Marshall dot com. Doctor Bethany, we
33:35
Speaker 1: are parsing the evidence fairly coolly, but you know, we're
33:42
Speaker 1: talking about so many different aspects of the disappearance and
33:46
Speaker 1: death of this teen boy. But for the family is
33:50
Speaker 1: just one huge nightmare. Nancy. The worst kind of nightmare
33:56
Speaker 1: is when you lose touch and contact with your child
34:00
Speaker 1: and you have no idea what happened to them. As
34:03
Speaker 1: I say so often on your show you know when
34:06
Speaker 1: you have a child, When we have a child, our
34:09
Speaker 1: primary feeling goal is to ensure the safety of that
34:16
Speaker 1: child throughout the lifespan, and the idea that that child
34:20
Speaker 1: would go missing and that you would have no idea
34:23
Speaker 1: what would happen to them, Nancy, the family he was
34:26
Speaker 1: with apparently was the family that he got the dog
34:30
Speaker 1: my baby from, so there was this great familiarity with
34:33
Speaker 1: the family. But when they say that he just took
34:36
Speaker 1: off on foot, if they're twenty to thirty miles away
34:40
Speaker 1: from his home residence, that makes no sense at all.
34:44
Speaker 1: This reminds me of babysitting stories where somebody goes and
34:49
Speaker 1: babysits a child and something terrible happens, and then they
34:52
Speaker 1: make up some cockamam story or the child sell off
34:56
Speaker 1: the bed, the child hit his head, and then you realize,
35:00
Speaker 1: you learn afterwards, when you piece all the evidence together,
35:04
Speaker 1: that something really terrible happened in that home. So I
35:08
Speaker 1: would want to take a look at the home. I
35:11
Speaker 1: would wouldn't take a look at the behavioral evidence. What
35:14
Speaker 1: about this mom? How responsible was she was? She mature?
35:18
Speaker 1: What would have motivated her to take this little boy
35:21
Speaker 1: from his home without calling the parents. First, Kwan hid
35:27
Speaker 1: in the backyard of his family home. Do you know
35:29
Speaker 1: what that means? It means he's young, naive, and playful.
35:33
Speaker 1: He was still at a developmental age where hiding behind
35:36
Speaker 1: a bush was exciting to him. That's how vulnerable this
35:41
Speaker 1: little boy was. You know, doctor Bethany, when you say
35:44
Speaker 1: it like that and it amount breaks my heart to
35:47
Speaker 1: Ron Hanley Junior, is it true? This family, the mother
35:53
Speaker 1: and the son and whoever else lived there, has packed
35:55
Speaker 1: up and moved. That's correct? Why, according to the sword
36:00
Speaker 1: is on the ground. Uh, they allegedly got evicted. I
36:03
Speaker 1: find it very convenient that they will move the week
36:07
Speaker 1: of Kawan's death once it made public. But that's the
36:11
Speaker 1: story they're sinking to. I want to talk about Ron
36:15
Speaker 1: Haley Junior. The mother. When she saw Kawan's body, she
36:21
Speaker 1: ran out of the examination room and the more screaming
36:27
Speaker 1: because of the disfigurement to his face. Is that true,
36:31
Speaker 1: Ron Haley Junior? Unfortunately, that is true. Is there going
36:35
Speaker 1: to be an independent autopsy? Mister Haley. We did conduct
36:39
Speaker 1: the independent autopsy. Those results were similar to that of
36:44
Speaker 1: the Corners report. They did not they did not give
36:49
Speaker 1: a cause of death. Though, and the one that we receiving,
36:51
Speaker 1: and that's common in Johny cases, and when they are
36:55
Speaker 1: the one doing the second autopsy, that a lot of
36:59
Speaker 1: evidence potentially gets lost. The body is likely at least
37:03
Speaker 1: wiped down or cleaned by the time it gets to
37:06
Speaker 1: the morgue, and so a lot of the findings were inconclusive.
37:12
Speaker 1: We wait as justice unfalls. Nancy Grace Crime story, signing
37:16
Speaker 1: off d my friend