Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Desperate Search for ELLA, 14, LURED ONLINE BY PREDATOR

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Desperate Search for ELLA, 14, LURED ONLINE BY PREDATOR · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grease.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: A beautiful young girl seemingly vanishes into thin air.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Worst fears could be true.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Has she been taken? Is she with a man she
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: met online that apparently is much much older than her?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: What is a little fourteen year old girl doing with
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: a much much older man? Where is Ella? Is she
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: still alive? Is she somewhere trying to get home right now?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: If she is with some predator she met online? Is
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: she being disallowed to call home or contact her mother?
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Who is joining us right now?
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: A warning to parents everywhere, but right now, let's bring
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Ella home.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Thank you for being with us here at Crime Stories
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: and on Sirius XM one eleven.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: First of all, take a listen to this.
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: On January sixth, Sarah Merrill contacts the Mount Vernon, Washington
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: Police Department and reports her fourteen year old daughter, Ella Jones,
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: is missing. Since she left home, Ella Jones has not
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: made contact with any family members or friends. Ella Jones
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: is five foot five inches tall, weighs about one thirty five,
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: and has brown eyes and brown hair. Her mother says,
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: Ella Jones has very distinctive dimples at the time she left,
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: she was believed to be wearing a black cooded sweatshirt,
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: multi colored plaid pajamas, and black Nike Air Force shoes.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Joining us right now is Ella's mother, Sarah Merrill, and
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I'm asking you please take a look at Ella Celeste Jones.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Absolutely gorgeous, beautiful dimples, as mom points out, light brown
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: hair to me, with a little touch of auburn to it.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: She looks like a very very young win on a
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: rider to me. Beautiful brown eyes, perfect porcelain skin. Where
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: is she now? Is she being disallowed to call home?
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: She has never run away from home. She has never
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: ever been this long out of contact with her mother.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Right now, to Sarah Merrill, this is Ella's mother, and
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: you can find her online. Find Ella Jones, Miss Merrill.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you for being with us.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Thank you for having me, Miss Merrill. Tell me what happened. First.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: First of all, I want to go to the moment
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: you realized Ella is gone.
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: I woke up in the morning, I made myself some coffee,
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: kind of stalled and was trying to enjoy a nice,
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: quiet Saturday morning before everyone got up. I started to
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: cook omelets, and then I realized it was awfully quiet,
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: and it was getting late, so I decided to go
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: check on Ella and wake her up, and that's when
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: I discovered she was gone.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: You went to her room.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Would she normally sleep in her room or fall asleep
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: on the sofa? Where would she normally sleep on a
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Friday night.
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: She's normally in her bed. So I went to her room.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Door closed, door, open, door closed? Is that normal?
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: It is?
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: So you're making omelets Saturday morning. Everything's quiet. You go
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: to her room, you knock on the door, you open
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: the door.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: And what do you see?
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: She was just gone. I was immediately frantic and panicking.
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: I called her sister first, and then I hung up
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: on her and called the police.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Why did you call the sister first?
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: I didn't know what to do, and I was still
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: looking around the house to make sure that I wasn't
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: just in a panic for no reason. That conversation was
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: about thirty seconds long, because then I hung up and
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: called the police.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I think all parents do the same thing. They first
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: looked for the innocent answer. Is she in the bathroom?
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Did we cross paths? Is she on the front porch,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: the back porch? Is she somewhere around the house before
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: you call police. So let me ask you. This was
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: her bed made or unmade?
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: Unmade?
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Is that the way she had it the night before?
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Does she make it up every morning?
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: That would be ideal, but she does not do that
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: every morning?
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: Gotcha? Does she have a window in her room?
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: She does?
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: Was the window open or closed?
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: It was closed?
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: Locked, her unlocked?
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: Unlocked?
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: When you go out, her window is on a ground
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: level or do you have to climb down or can
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: you climb down?
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: It's the first story window.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: So she could have gone through the window onto the
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: ground or someone could have gotten her out that way.
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: I believe that's how she left the house.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Question. Do you have a burglar alarm?
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: I do not. I have cameras on the doorbell and
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: one on the back, and the back camera had been pointed.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Up, So miss Merrill, you have a ring doorbell cam
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: on the front door and the other camera is that
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: on the back door or the side door.
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: I'd put it on the back of the house to
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: shoot down across all the windows in the sliding glass door,
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: so that I had covered.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: And can that be manipulated by digitally by your computer?
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Can it be manipulated or does it have to be
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: physically pointed up, like with a broomstick.
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: Or something physically pointed up.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Got it?
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Okay, what did you tell police when you call them?
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: What did you tell them.
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: That my fourteen year old was missing and I didn't
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: know where she was? And they immediately issued an ATO
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: and then asked if I wanted to file a missing
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: person By that time, I.
• 6:21
  Speaker 6: Had already what's an ATL attempt to obtain ATO attempt
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: to obtain And they asked you if you wanted to
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: file a missing person's report?
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: Correct?
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: Did you?
• 6:34
  Speaker 7: Yes?
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: I did?
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: And what time was that?
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: Kim do you remember.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Also with us Kimberly Fearly, this is Ella's godmother, It
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: was in the afternoon. Well, yeah, because you didn't go
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: try to wake her up till after eleven am when
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: you thought she had really been sleeping, you know, all night.
• 6:52
  Speaker 7: H Nancy. I know that Sarah called me at twelve
• 6:55
  Speaker 7: fifteen pm on Saturday, January sixth, and at that point
• 6:59
  Speaker 7: in time, she had already contacted the police and filed
• 7:02
  Speaker 7: the missing person's report.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Okay, so that's a lot within one hour, guys, you
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: are hearing the voice of Sarah Merrill, this is Ella's mother,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: and Ella's godmother.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: So this all goes down either in the late night.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Hours or the early morning hours of Friday Saturday, January five.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to figure something out, Sarah Merril. When did
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: you last speak to her?
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: It was about nine pm. I had been tired from
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: a long week of work. I was going to go
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: to bed. She came in and laid with me in
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: my bed for a few minutes. We talked, and she
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: said good night, mama and went to her room and
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: I went to sleep.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: Interesting, where do you work?
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: I am a chemist at a water quality level.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: When she came and laid in the bed with you
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: the night before she disappeared, was everything okay?
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: Was there an argument anything like that? At that time?
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: There is no argument. We had a seemingly normal evening.
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: It is normal for Ella to come and lay with me.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: What did you do when you stay a seemingly normal evening?
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: What is a seemingly normal evening for you too?
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: We had dinner together at home. We at home meet
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: her and her eight year old brother. The kids watch
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: something on TV for a little bit, and then we
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: got ready for bed.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: And that's normal for a Friday night.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Yes, hey, guys, joining me an all star panel to
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: make sense of what we know right now, but chip
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: line three six zero four two eight three two one
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: one very quickly after Sierrah realizes her girl is missing,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: the specter of a much older man online a predator emerges.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: Take a listen to Dave Matt from crime Online.
• 8:59
  Speaker 8: Some of eli owns as friends were concerned for the
• 9:01
  Speaker 8: fourteen year old and told her mother, Sarah Merrill, that
• 9:04
  Speaker 8: Ella had been talking to an older man in his
• 9:06
  Speaker 8: twenties or thirties that Ellen met online non o'meagal during
• 9:10
  Speaker 8: the pandemic, but since the site closed down last November,
• 9:13
  Speaker 8: they continue to talk using Discord. Sarah confronts her daughter
• 9:17
  Speaker 8: and as punishment, takes away her phone, temporarily.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Joining me in crime online dot Com Investige, a reporter
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Nicole part Nicole explain to me what we are hearing
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: about omegle and discord.
• 9:28
  Speaker 9: So o'neigel is an app that has since closed, an
• 9:31
  Speaker 9: online site where it would match you with random people.
• 9:34
  Speaker 9: So you would enter and you could begin to talk
• 9:37
  Speaker 9: about things that were of interest to you, and then
• 9:40
  Speaker 9: the program would match you with someone that they thought
• 9:43
  Speaker 9: were a good match and place the two of you
• 9:45
  Speaker 9: in a chat room for private chat, and it believed
• 9:48
  Speaker 9: that that is how Ella met this older man. She
• 9:51
  Speaker 9: was randomly chosen from this online site, matched with this gentleman,
• 9:56
  Speaker 9: and they could chat in a private online chat room.
• 9:59
  Speaker 9: Once that closed down, it's believed that she continued to
• 10:02
  Speaker 9: communicate with him online Vienna app called Discord, which is
• 10:07
  Speaker 9: a video talk text out that you can communicate with someone.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Time Stories with Nancy Grace.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: Anna Sinoda joining me.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Child grooming expert, clinical social worker and author of Duck
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Duck Groom Understanding How a child becomes a target an A.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: Sanoda.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Thank you for being with us. It's very difficult for
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: me to understand. And I'm not saying to call partner
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: is wrong. I think she's correct, but it's hard.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: For me to get my mind around a.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Website that puts a little girl just turned fourteen into
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: a private chat with a man that apparently is in his.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Thirty or forty. Yes, Nancy, there's something very wrong with that.
• 11:04
  Speaker 10: Yes, Nancy Omegal. It was a website that was started
• 11:07
  Speaker 10: in two thousand and nine and it was you know,
• 11:10
  Speaker 10: it's the world Wide Web, so it is a worldwide
• 11:14
  Speaker 10: video or text random matching Conversation Avenue. It's free, it's anonymous,
• 11:22
  Speaker 10: and it was heavily promoted, especially to teens via TikTok.
• 11:27
  Speaker 10: And we know that children are using social media at
• 11:30
  Speaker 10: higher and higher rates, and one of the taglines is
• 11:33
  Speaker 10: join at your own risk. There's no way to report, flag,
• 11:37
  Speaker 10: or block users within omego, and it's also possible to
• 11:42
  Speaker 10: record chats, which again could be videos, so there's no
• 11:47
  Speaker 10: way to consent or maybe even have knowledge if you're
• 11:50
  Speaker 10: being recorded. As it was already noted, it was shut
• 11:54
  Speaker 10: down in November of twenty twenty three. But there are copycats.
• 12:00
  Speaker 10: Need to look out for websites such as Chat, random
• 12:04
  Speaker 10: you Now, monkey Chat, Roulette, tiny Chat, and text Now,
• 12:10
  Speaker 10: which are copycat.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Wait give me those names. The gamepoint Chat, random Chat,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: random you Now.
• 12:16
  Speaker 10: You Now, monkey Chat, Roulette, which is as just as
• 12:21
  Speaker 10: it sounds, tiny Chat, and text now. Not to mention
• 12:27
  Speaker 10: the fact, Nancy, that many of these are selling information
• 12:31
  Speaker 10: of the users, so we might be talking about personal information.
• 12:36
  Speaker 10: We might be talking about hackers being able to access
• 12:39
  Speaker 10: IP addresses and get locations on kids who are simply
• 12:42
  Speaker 10: using it for connecting with friends or with random people. However,
• 12:47
  Speaker 10: the risk factors are enormous alternatives that parents and kids
• 12:52
  Speaker 10: can look at that are more controlled are things like
• 12:56
  Speaker 10: childline and ditch the Label, which are too safer options?
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Okay, child line and ditch the label, Okay, what are they?
• 13:07
  Speaker 10: Those are more supervised, more moderated, curated within the safety context.
• 13:13
  Speaker 10: What you have to remember is that you know, parents
• 13:16
  Speaker 10: are sold this idea that we can control through parental
• 13:20
  Speaker 10: controls and settings the online experience for our kids. And
• 13:24
  Speaker 10: by and large, what's happened is technology is moving faster
• 13:29
  Speaker 10: than the rules and policies.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: What can you tell me an? It's the note about Discord.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: So apparently this guy got her, this fourteen year old
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: little girl to move from Omegle, which was then shut
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: down in November to Discord.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: Tell me about discord?
• 13:45
  Speaker 10: Right, So Discord started in twenty fifteen. It's recommended for
• 13:49
  Speaker 10: kids seventeen and older, but normally kids as young as
• 13:54
  Speaker 10: thirteen with parental supervision can use it.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Current Wait a minute, wait, white, white, white. When you
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: say they can use it, can't anybody use it and
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: say they're eighteen?
• 14:04
  Speaker 10: You're exactly right, You're exactly right.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: So anybody can get on there.
• 14:08
  Speaker 10: Absolutely, there's no proof of age.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Like a forty year old man talking to a fourteen
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: year old girl. To Sarah Merril, joining me, this is
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Ella's mother. When did you find out from the friends?
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: I understand that Ella had been online. There's a chat
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: room with a guy that at least in his twenties,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: possibly forties.
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: It was my first stop Saturday morning. I immediately went
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: to a few places that I thought would be more
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: likely for Ella to be, grocery stores that are within
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: walking distance. It was chilly, so I was thinking about
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: where someone would go if they wanted to get warm initially,
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: and then I went to her friend's house and it
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: was there that speaking with her friend and her parents,
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: they were very supportive. Her friend started telling me of
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: these in terms of an older man and that she
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: may have met him on amagle. She also started calling
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: other friends to see if anyone knew anything about where
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: Ella was, and she started helping me with the search.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: So let me understand the friend Ella's friend. You're out
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: looking for your daughter. You're not sitting back waiting for
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: the police to show up. You're looking for her actively.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: You go to the grocery store, she's not there.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: You go to the little friend's house, and how did
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: you get her to tell you about the online meeting?
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: Who was immediately very concerned about Ella's wellbeing?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Okay, I find that very very interesting. Del Carson joining me.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: High profile lawyer out of Jacksonville, former FBI agent, former
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Miami Dade, author of Arrest Proof Yourself. Del Carson, thank
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: you for being with us. Clearly the little friend knew
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: not that this was wrong, but that it was dangerous
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: because seemingly, pretty quickly after Ella's mom comes to the home,
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: where's Ella, she quickly gives it up.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: It's not like Ella's mom had to pull it out
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: of her.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: She said, hey, she has been talking to some older
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: guy online. Clearly, the little friend was concerned. And if
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: the little friend is concerned, that means it's real. It's
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: a big concern because at that age, they think they're invincible.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: They don't think anything's going to ever happen to them,
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: anything bad anyway.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: So for the little friend to be worried, it's very telling.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: Dell Carson, Well, absolutely it is.
• 16:43
  Speaker 11: And it tells us, of course that she was definitely
• 16:47
  Speaker 11: communicating with her friends and not her family. And this
• 16:50
  Speaker 11: is a real nightmare.
• 16:52
  Speaker 10: For every parent.
• 16:54
  Speaker 11: It is frightening more than anyone seems to understand.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean the mother with Sarah Merrill fearing her
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: fourteen year old girl was lured on a social platform,
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: matching quote random people and like Anatinoda was saying earlier,
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: childdreoming expert. It is like having your child play a
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: game of Russian Roulette, except instead of a bullet, they
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: get an older man that has now lured them away.
• 17:24
  Speaker 11: Right, an older man who's a man who is prepared
• 17:28
  Speaker 11: to do most anything to acquire the object of his desire,
• 17:32
  Speaker 11: and focuses all of his energy into doing that. And
• 17:37
  Speaker 11: that's what parents don't generally understand. These individuals are focused
• 17:42
  Speaker 11: on that activity in a way a professional ballplayer focuses
• 17:46
  Speaker 11: on their game. They're not just doing it randomly.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Well, I want to I want to explore what you're saying,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: joining me.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: In addition to Dale Carson, Sarah.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Merrill, who is Ellis's mother, the godmother, Kimberlyarly all searching,
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: physically searching, having vigils, begging for help. Tip line three
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: six zero four two eight three two one one repeat
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: three six zero four two eight three two one one.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: You know Bill Garcia is with us licensed PI at
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Bill Garcia Investigative Services. What he just said is right.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: For instance, you and I work all day. These people
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: sit at a computer all day and they fish and
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: they search. It's literally like fishing, it's literally like hunting,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: and they do it all the time. I have seen
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: these guys. They're usually men. They may even be at
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: work and they'll have their laptop up, they'll have their
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: work screen up, and then they'll have another screen.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: It could be another laptop, it.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Could be a gaming laptop, it could be their iPad,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: and they're.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: Trolling all day long. I mean, a little kid, it's
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: no match for someone that determined.
• 19:10
  Speaker 12: To Bill Garcia, Unfortunately, they are very determined and they
• 19:14
  Speaker 12: spend a lot of time thinking about these things. For
• 19:18
  Speaker 12: over thirty years, we've been helping families try to recover
• 19:23
  Speaker 12: children that have been abducted under these types of circumstances,
• 19:27
  Speaker 12: and it's only getting greater and greater.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: What do you do to try to find the child?
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: What's your first move?
• 19:33
  Speaker 12: Well, the most important thing is to have law enforcement
• 19:37
  Speaker 12: get on the case as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, small
• 19:41
  Speaker 12: departments or overwhelmed departments don't give it quite as much
• 19:47
  Speaker 12: credibility as it needs to be able to jump on
• 19:51
  Speaker 12: one of these cases quickly. And so as time goes by,
• 19:56
  Speaker 12: the difficulty factor gets greater and it becomes more difficul
• 20:00
  Speaker 12: cold to actually find the perpetrator. And unfortunately, with the
• 20:08
  Speaker 12: passage of time, so does the distance between the location
• 20:13
  Speaker 12: where they may have been taken from and where they
• 20:16
  Speaker 12: have gone grows.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: To Delle Carson, sixty miles an hour, times an hour,
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: one hour, sixty miles, two hours, one hundred and twenty miles,
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: three hours, one hundred and eighty miles, and so forth
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: and so on. But in this case, Dale, let me
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: go back to Sarah Merril. You did immediately call police.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Let me ask you something, Miss Merrill. Uh? Has she
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: ella just fourteen years old? Has she ever gone twenty
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: four hours forty eight hours to me two hours without
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: contacting you.
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: No, even if she is upset with me, she generally
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: wants me around. We have a really close relationship. And
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: also so just to point out the mention of limiting
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: social media, I had been limiting social media. I believe
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: primarily most of her access was through her school computer.
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: I had gone in December and spoke with the principal
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: and the technology department to limit websites on her computer
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: because I had found texts now on History, so I
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: had gone to the school to ask them to limit
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: it because it was the only device that I didn't
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: have access to parental controls. She did have a phone,
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: but I had it so that her app store and
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: Safari was shut off on it. She was still able
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: to circumvent some of that. They're smart.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: They really aren't.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Here's the other thing to say, well, just take all
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: their devices away, Anna Sonota. In this world, the world
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: we live in, it's a new world.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: They have devices at school.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: They have their phone, which if you will notice a
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: certain generation, they don't even bother using their laptop very
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: much or their iPad. Everything they do is on their phone.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: So if you want your child not to be s
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: trended at school, or not to be streaded after a game,
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: or they have a phone because to be so they
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: can be in constant touch with you if they need you.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: Plus you can track that phone with Life three sixty
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: or find my iPhone. But you know, it's draconian and
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: I think a little, not a little, very unrealistic to say, well,
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: they don't have access to digital media.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: They do.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: If they don't have it at home, they're going to
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: get it at school or at a friend's house.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: It's going to happen. So instead of sticking.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: Your head in the sand and your butt in the air,
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: you need to accept they're going to get their fingers
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: onto a device. So now, now, what are you going
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: to do about That's the way I look at it,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Anthonota am i wrong.
• 23:02
  Speaker 10: Phones are often given to children as a safety tool.
• 23:06
  Speaker 10: The average age of a child getting their first smartphone
• 23:09
  Speaker 10: in America is age ten. So when we expect these
• 23:13
  Speaker 10: children to be raised in a digital native environment, and
• 23:18
  Speaker 10: then we're not equipping them or equipping ourselves as adults
• 23:24
  Speaker 10: to recognize what are the risk factors online. It's so
• 23:28
  Speaker 10: easy to impress teens in person, it's even easier to
• 23:32
  Speaker 10: impress them online. And grooming is the process of duping
• 23:36
  Speaker 10: somebody in order to get what they want, in order
• 23:39
  Speaker 10: to gain access to a minor. So when we are
• 23:42
  Speaker 10: raising our kids, we're having to have those conversations that
• 23:46
  Speaker 10: everything online is fake, everything is curated, everything is made up.
• 23:50
  Speaker 10: The only thing you can be assured of is that
• 23:53
  Speaker 10: there has been a premeditation in conjuring up this picture
• 23:59
  Speaker 10: or con bring up this scenario. And when it comes
• 24:02
  Speaker 10: to predation online predators don't even need to come in
• 24:06
  Speaker 10: through our threshold of our home anymore because the virtual
• 24:10
  Speaker 10: world has taken over a large swath of the access
• 24:15
  Speaker 10: for potential victims, and the Center for Missing and Exploited
• 24:20
  Speaker 10: Children just in twenty twenty one had twenty nine point
• 24:24
  Speaker 10: three million tips of online predation.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: To Karen joining me, renowned psychologists joining us out of Manhattan.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: You can find her at karenstart dot com. That's Karen
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: with a C if you try to locate her. Karen,
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: thank you for being with us. You know, I don't
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: think that parents should be made to feel guilty because
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: their child has a cell phone.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: And you know our story, Karen Stark.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: I was holding out until they were fourteen to give
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: them a cell phone, or maybe fifteen.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: And then we went to a football game.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: My fred girl son was in the marching band, and
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: that was the night he was going to perform. So
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: we all went so John David and Lucy said to me, Mom,
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: can we go walk around and go get whatever or
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: a corn dog with our friends?
• 25:12
  Speaker 12: Like sure?
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Come back In twenty minutes, twenty minutes past, thirty minutes past,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: I started getting nervous. At forty minutes, I got up
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: and started looking for them. And guess what was right
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: behind the stadium? Parents, grown women and men tailgating like
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: they were at a.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: Party for them. They were drunk as skunks. I thought,
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: my little girl, she was twelve.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: At the time, and you know, Lucy's very slight is
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: walking through this with a bunch of drunk guys. I
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: don't know them. Karen started.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: There had to be fifty to one hundred.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Cars tailgating behind a high school football game. Why I
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: don't get it, but anyway, I swore, right then, if
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: I ever get my men back on them, they're getting
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: cell phones.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: And Karen, I was standing there in a throng of people.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: There had to be two thousand people kneeling around, and
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: I was looking as like anela and a haystack. And
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: guess what happened, Lucy? Somebody grabbed me from behind me
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: with Lucy, she had got her face painted. With her
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: little friends, they all had their faces painted with flowers.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: And right after that, John David walked up with two
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: hot dogs, one in each hand, and I thanked God,
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: and I went out the next day and they got
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: cell phones so I could be able to find them.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: And in that moment, I was thinking about a predator
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: like Sarah Merrill is having to think about right now.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, I just can't even imagine what she's going through.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Where is my daughter if she went this guy in
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: his thirties, where does he have her? Is she even alive?
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Why can't she call me? I mean, Karen, the dilemma
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: do you give them then?
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: What do you do? Then? Once they get the phone,
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: it's like the parents can't win.
• 27:06
  Speaker 13: That's what makes this day and age so difficult. Nancy,
• 27:10
  Speaker 13: your exact story, because you want them to have the
• 27:14
  Speaker 13: phone for safety reasons, just like one of the guests said,
• 27:18
  Speaker 13: And so how do you cope with that situation? It's
• 27:21
  Speaker 13: a conundrum And the most important thing to realize is
• 27:26
  Speaker 13: it's the spin line between not wanting to frighten them
• 27:30
  Speaker 13: but also educate children about these possibilities. They need to
• 27:36
  Speaker 13: understand that not everybody who comes across as kind and
• 27:41
  Speaker 13: charming and helpful, and that's exactly how these predators are.
• 27:45
  Speaker 13: They're really, really manipulative, and they make you feel like
• 27:50
  Speaker 13: they're your friend. And so they need they need to
• 27:54
  Speaker 13: really talk to their parents.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Karen Dark truer words that were never spoken.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Time Stories with Nancy Grace.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Sarah merrill Is with me, Ella's mother, and Kimberly Fearley,
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: her godmother. When the little girl the friend told you
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: she's been talking online to some guy, what else did.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: She tell you?
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: She had mentioned she had seen Ella have a video
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: chat with him, gave a vague description. It later came
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: out amongst other kids that kids had been talking to
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: each other and concerned about it. Primarily the boys and
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: the friend groups.
• 28:41
  Speaker 10: Had not liked it.
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: Nobody had come forward with it. I had had conversations
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: with Ellis, and she was very little about stranger danger
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: and not keeping secrets and the fact that online anyone
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: could be anyone anything, and to never talk to anyone
• 28:57
  Speaker 5: that you don't know in person. She's kind of my
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: rule set. So, I mean, my warning to other parents
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: is that you can do everything right and it still
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: may not work.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Exactly you're doing exactly what I'm doing. I try to
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: monitor them.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: I tell them about stranger danger, everything you're saying, but
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: enough about what could have, would have should have because
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: you were.
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: Doing everything right, no blame. Yes.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: In fact, you had taken her phone away when you
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: thought she had broken a rule.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: You were monitoring her.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: You had gone to the school to ask them to
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: limit her acts and her social media access. But let's
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: talk about this guy. The friend group had seen him.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Is he a white male?
• 29:42
  Speaker 7: This is completely We don't actually know if he is
• 29:44
  Speaker 7: a white male. I think that kids have a really
• 29:47
  Speaker 7: difficult time positively identifying people, and the context under which
• 29:53
  Speaker 7: they saw him didn't really make him very clear. So
• 29:57
  Speaker 7: he'd been seen possibly on Discord, and he'd also been
• 30:00
  Speaker 7: seen by another child, possibly on Snapchat with Ella, which
• 30:03
  Speaker 7: is a very common app I think most of us
• 30:05
  Speaker 7: are pretty familiar with. And the descriptions between those two girls,
• 30:10
  Speaker 7: which do not know each other, don't look by each other,
• 30:12
  Speaker 7: were very similar, as in that he had a slightly
• 30:15
  Speaker 7: heavier set face, he had a chin strapped beard, and
• 30:18
  Speaker 7: he also had short, yet puffy hair, and that hair
• 30:21
  Speaker 7: was described as very dark brown, almost black. One child
• 30:25
  Speaker 7: also said that in his video chat with her, he
• 30:28
  Speaker 7: was wearing jewelry like a gold chain, he had a
• 30:31
  Speaker 7: really nice watch on, perhaps a Rolex, and he was
• 30:35
  Speaker 7: vaping on the screen. And so those were just some
• 30:37
  Speaker 7: really specific details that were given to us about this.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: Individual suspect online name Keith. And remember, we don't know
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: if this is real because a profile shot could be
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: completely different from what you look like. But these children,
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: these chains say they saw him on a video chat
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: more likely to really be him. So, Sarah Merrill and
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Kimberly Fearley, I'm trying to understand, we're all the change together,
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: and they saw the chat going on, So you've got
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: more than one witness seeing him.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 31:16
  Speaker 7: No, she was chatting individually at one of her good friends' homes,
• 31:21
  Speaker 7: and then a couple months after that, she was chatting
• 31:24
  Speaker 7: at a totally different residence with a friend that is
• 31:27
  Speaker 7: not related. So the two witnesses we have saw this,
• 31:31
  Speaker 7: and tips came from the boys and the friend group
• 31:34
  Speaker 7: based off of conversations they had been having in person
• 31:37
  Speaker 7: at school and you know, over the phone and text.
• 31:40
  Speaker 7: And so the boys had come forward saying that she
• 31:43
  Speaker 7: had mentioned this individual. She had said his name was Keith,
• 31:46
  Speaker 7: and she had said he was thirty or approximately in
• 31:51
  Speaker 7: his thirties.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Well, this is something I don't understand. Let me go
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: to Bill Garcia. Anybody on the panel jump in it
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: seems to me her devices could be backtracked and we
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: could go into her cloud and find out who this
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: guy is and find out his IP address.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: I mean that.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: Is that not happening? Have they seized her items? Sarah Merril?
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: Do they have all of her digital items?
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: About ten days after she was missing, they did come
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: collect her school computer and her phone and they are
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: going through it forensically currently and I haven't gotten any
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: information as to where they've gotten with that so far.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: Ten days.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a long time. Ten days before they get
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: the information.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: Sarah, Yeah. Okay.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Kimberly Fearly is Ella's godmother. Kimberly, jump in, give me
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: your analysis on what's happening right now.
• 32:48
  Speaker 7: Currently we are three weeks of Love being missing, and
• 32:53
  Speaker 7: great amount of the work, the investigative work the community outreached,
• 32:57
  Speaker 7: the contacts with transit centers other police departments, have been
• 33:01
  Speaker 7: done by our individual group volunteers, friends and family members
• 33:05
  Speaker 7: that came together really quickly after we realized Ella was missing.
• 33:09
  Speaker 7: It was very frustrating in the beginning because the police
• 33:12
  Speaker 7: were simply not taking this seriously, despite the fact that
• 33:16
  Speaker 7: we had multiple children coming forward and stating they believed
• 33:20
  Speaker 7: she was speaking to this individual. They were afraid that
• 33:23
  Speaker 7: she may have left with him. They were afraid she
• 33:24
  Speaker 7: was in danger. The police continued to treat it that
• 33:27
  Speaker 7: as hearsay. They were looking for what they would consider
• 33:31
  Speaker 7: concrete evidence, some sort of picture, some sort of chat
• 33:35
  Speaker 7: history that proved that she was talking to an adult,
• 33:37
  Speaker 7: and they waited ten days to take her devices. In
• 33:41
  Speaker 7: that period of time, her mother, myself, one of our
• 33:44
  Speaker 7: other good friends went through those devices. We actually hacked
• 33:47
  Speaker 7: into all of her socials. We were pulling screen names,
• 33:50
  Speaker 7: we were downloading chat history, we were doing everything we
• 33:53
  Speaker 7: could to try and find a username that might be
• 33:56
  Speaker 7: associated with this individual who was calling himself Keith. And
• 34:01
  Speaker 7: we have put together a group of approximately ten individuals
• 34:05
  Speaker 7: right now, primarily women that are really close to Ella,
• 34:09
  Speaker 7: and we're working really hard to canvas and communicate with
• 34:13
  Speaker 7: every possible location that somebody might take a kid and
• 34:16
  Speaker 7: be hiding out. So we're covering Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho
• 34:21
  Speaker 7: all the way up to the border at this point
• 34:23
  Speaker 7: in time, and getting Ella's information to as many people
• 34:26
  Speaker 7: as possible.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Anna Sanota joining US child grooming expert. It seems to
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: me that the first thing police should do is deliver
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: the penuts to the websites that this guy is using
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: to lure Ella Jones, Sharah's daughter, for instance.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: I know that.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: Amegal is no longer working, but what about the others
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: the other site she was using, like cord to talk
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: to this guy, Because in order to have his profile key,
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: whether that's.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: His real name or not, you have to give them the.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: Website you're real a real email address, right, Isn't that
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: how it worked in a Tonda.
• 35:18
  Speaker 10: So On discord where you have two hundred million users, Nancy,
• 35:23
  Speaker 10: there are different channels available to you, so you could
• 35:27
  Speaker 10: have a private conversation, you could post announcements, you could
• 35:31
  Speaker 10: join a general chat. You know, it's quote your place
• 35:35
  Speaker 10: to talk. So, because there's no age verification and there's
• 35:40
  Speaker 10: no identity required either, so you come up with your
• 35:45
  Speaker 10: own username, which, as you've already stated again and again
• 35:48
  Speaker 10: in this show to your audience, identities are fabricated.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: Kimberly Fearley, this is godmother.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Is my understanding that you have to have a phone,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: usually a cell phone, or an email address in order
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: to establish your fate profile.
• 36:09
  Speaker 7: Yes, that's correct, you have to have an email address,
• 36:12
  Speaker 7: for Discord.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Chamberly, has there been any stubpoenas to Discord or what's
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: left of Amegal. You can actually go back to their
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: records even though they're closed now, or to any other
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: of the account she Ella was using.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: Has that happened, Yes.
• 36:31
  Speaker 7: It has happened now, But it took them over two
• 36:34
  Speaker 7: weeks to submit those warrants to the various social medias
• 36:38
  Speaker 7: that we were concerned about. We actually asked them at
• 36:42
  Speaker 7: day four of this to contact Discord and to contact
• 36:46
  Speaker 7: text Now because that was another platform we were aware
• 36:50
  Speaker 7: she may have been using. And I personally sent that
• 36:53
  Speaker 7: email to them asking them to put in a request,
• 36:56
  Speaker 7: an emergency request for information from text Now and asking
• 36:59
  Speaker 7: them to subpoena from Discord. And it took them about
• 37:03
  Speaker 7: two weeks to verify with us that they had submitted wars.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, the warrants will take a minute to turn around,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: because then the companies themselves have to do the search.
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: To Sarah Merrill, this.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Is Ella's mother and again Ella is about five five.
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: H porcelain skin. She here she looks.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: Like a young win ow A rider, a very like
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: a teen girl, a thirteen year old win ow A rider,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: that's what she looks like with longer hair. Sarah Merrill,
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: tell me about potential sidings of Ella again, Chip line
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: three six zero four two eight three two one one,
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: tell me about potential sidings of your daughter.
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: Initially we had quite a few. Some were on local
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: city transit buses. We tried to obtain video footage. Unfortunately,
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: one of the first ones, the GVR on the bus
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: was not operational, so we were not able to obtain that.
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: We have had some other sightings. Unfortunately, again we have
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: not someone's camera is either not working or we have
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: obtained the wrong footage. We have not caught her on camera.
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: We're getting sightings all over the place. I'm sure most
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: of them are not Ella, but it is a sign
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: that we have gotten attention, and we do have eyes
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: out there looking and caring and helping us find her.
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: So in that sense, it's total. On the other sense,
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: it's confusing because you don't know which direction to go.
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: I've spent a long time, a lot of time, as
• 38:35
  Speaker 5: well as Kim and some of our other friends. If
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: we get a tip that we feel is more viable,
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: we head right down to wherever that tip had come
• 38:44
  Speaker 5: from and start talking to employees at the local stores
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: in that area and trying to get her flyers up
• 38:51
  Speaker 5: and trying to get further.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: Leads Sarah question, do either you or Kimberly know whether
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: anyone else in your neighborhood have ring dormll cam?
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: So that is something I did on day two, so Sunday,
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: after I had found her, Sunday and Monday, I went around. Actually,
• 39:09
  Speaker 5: I think the first one I gathered was my very
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: closest next door neighbor was on Saturday, I started reaching out.
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: I got into that next door app and put a
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: post out and I went physically door to door. Unfortunately,
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: most people have their ring cameras their proximity turned down
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: so that they don't catch all the street traffic, so
• 39:33
  Speaker 5: I wasn't able to obtain anything.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: How about any red light cams or business cam.
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: So the red light cameras are public information. I would
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: hope that the police had gone through it, but because
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: I didn't have an exact time and they were treating
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: her as a runaway, I'm not sure what happened with that.
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: As far as the red light cameras. I did go
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: to the local gas station around the corner and it's
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: family owned, and he had remembered Ella coming in and
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: he was very eager to try to help and find
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: anything on his cameras. But that would only be if
• 40:12
  Speaker 5: they happened to stop there.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Well, what about if they passed by there? Because that
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: was a big factor in the Brian Coburger case. That
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: was a real break in the case. There was a
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: convenience store gas station at a corner, and after combing
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: through records for hours and hours and hours, it's what
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Elantra was spotted going by around four am ish in
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: the morning the night of the murders. So I'm just wondering,
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: is their gas or their gas gas tanks there?
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: There are?
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so those.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Are usually covered with close circuit TV. Would he let
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: you go through that night till the early morning? Would
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: he let you come through it?
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure he would. He was very forthcoming, concerned
• 41:02
  Speaker 5: and helpful, and he had gone through it. I had
• 41:06
  Speaker 5: also told the police that he was very helpful and
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: willing and suggested that I don't have all the details
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: as far as what is going on with the police investigation.
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: It's kind of a black box.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: Is this the Mountain Vernon, Washington Police Department? It is
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: guys again. Tip line three six zero four two eight
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: three two one one. Ella is just fourteen years old
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: and her mother has reason to fear she has been
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: lured on a social platform that matches up random people
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: regardless of age, putting them into a private chat room.
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: With Merrill.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: Why were her friend boys in her group were about
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: this guy that we're calling cheek because that's what he
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: was calling himself.
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: Why were they so worried?
• 42:06
  Speaker 5: In hindsight? As more time went by, the kids started
• 42:09
  Speaker 5: opening up more and more and more things came out,
• 42:11
  Speaker 5: and the perception that I was given was that they
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: found it creepy and they didn't like it, so that
• 42:16
  Speaker 5: a couple of the boys had had a discussion between
• 42:18
  Speaker 5: themselves in the past. Unfortunately, none of the children had
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: come forward to an adult.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: Did they ever confront Ella about it? And if so,
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: what did she say?
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: I am unaware if that was something that happened.
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: Guys again.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: The tip line three six zero four two eight three
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: two one one, Sarah Merril, how are you getting through
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: the days and the nights?
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: Not very smoothly? Sleeping was pretty much impossible for the
• 42:53
  Speaker 5: first week week and a half. I finally started sleeping
• 42:56
  Speaker 5: a little bit more. I think just at a sheer exhaustion.
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: I have been physically ill, sick to my stomach, and
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: my back is even going out, like my body is
• 43:09
  Speaker 5: just shutting down. If I'm not actively out looking for
• 43:12
  Speaker 5: her or scouring the internet or doing something active, I'm
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: breaking down and crying, which is not helpful for finding
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: her or for my eight year old son. So I've
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: been just trying to stay going.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Do you believe Ella, your girl is being disallowed from
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: calling you to tell you she's okay?
• 43:37
  Speaker 5: Absolutely?
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: Why do you say that there's.
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: No doubt in my mind that she would call me
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: if she could, And I wake up panicked when I
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: do fall asleep. Something is really wrong.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: Please help us bring Ella home again. The chip line
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: to help find this fourteen year old little girl, Ella
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: Ella Celesto Jones three six zero four two eight three
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: two one one. There is also a family tip line.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: Find Ella Jones at gmail dot com. Repeat find Ella
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: Jones at gmail dot com.
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: Goodbye friend,