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Maliyha Hope Garcia: A child's death by starvation · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: A Rugby couple faces charges of murder by abuse tonight
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and the death of a young child. Sakara Horned Garcia
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and Estevan Garcia are facing five felony charges on the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: severy one last year nine one, one was contacted to
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: report five year old Malia Garcia was unconscious and not breathing.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Estevan and Skara are charged with murdered by abuse, two
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: counts of mansaughter in the first degree, and two counts
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of criminal mistreatment in the first degree. The criminal indictment
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: claims the couples did unlawfully and intentionally withhold necessary and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: adequate food from the girl, as well as necessary and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: adequate medical attention. This is crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Neighbors say the parents treated Melia differently than other children
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: in the house. They had a lock on our door
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and whenever she would try to get out, the alarm
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: would go off. District Attorney John Hummel said that the
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: girl went through town. I feel like they're trying to
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: teach her a lesson a five year little girl dead.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Malia died weighing just twenty four pounds. Hold on, let
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: me let that sink in. A five year old little girl,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Malia dead. She weighed just twenty four pounds. An Oregon
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: couple raising the child they're adopted girl, allegedly debated that
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: night whether they should take Malia to a doctor, just
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: hours before she collapsed dead. Now there's nobody nowhere, no
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: way they can tell me that they did not know
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: something was horribly wrong, that they did not starve this
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: child to death. And if they starved her, what else
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: did they do to her? I very rarely can find
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: a silver lining when a child dies. The only one
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: here is that wherever Malia is now, it is better
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: than where she was with these two devils. They are
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: the devil. One is Bill ze Bob, and one is
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: the devil's handmaid. And that's all I can say. This
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Oregon couple, just looking into their eyes, they're pure evil.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Who could do that? Now they're gonna claim they're innocent
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and they're gonna have a trial. But you can't tell
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: me a baby just suddenly dies at twenty eight pounds,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: five years old. I Nancy Grace, this is crime stories.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us. Big question for all
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: of us right now, how does this happen here in America?
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: In our country? And a regular subdivision. What nobody knew
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: this child was on nobody's radar. Joining me right now
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: is the Duke Alan, Duke out of l A Alan.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I am sick about these two. Steve and the wife Secora,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: we're texting each other that day the Dailiah died. Steve
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: and Secora the mom and dad trying to decide if
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: they should take her to the doctor. H yeah, you
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: should take her to the doctor. If you're wondering, Gee,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: should I take my child to the doctor? You know what,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: go when in doubt, act with caution. I mean just
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the fact that they were talking about taking her into
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the doctor Alan, when clearly Steve and Secora have been
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: starving her down to twenty four pounds. When paramedics find
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: her Alan, she's unconscious, unconscious horrible rugor mortis was just
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: when the muscles began to stiff him after one dies
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: had already set in by the time the girl reached
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the hospital. Alan. So that tells me she was either
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: dead when the E m t s got there, or
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: she was near death because rigor takes a little while
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: to set in. So how long did they let her
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: lie there? She died c O D cause of death, emaciation, starvation.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: They starved her death. I think this should be a
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: death penalty. Okay, Alan, sorry, go ahead. Unfortunately, I don't
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: think it will be a death penalty. Why justice in
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: the end will be done when these people do find
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: their death. This child whoa, whoa. You can't say this
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: was not premeditated. If somebody doesn't star of a child
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: overnight or in the moment it takes to raise a
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: gun and pull the trigger. This takes weeks and weeks
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: to murder by abuse, first degree manslaughter, first degree criminal mistreatment.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: I don't think those are death penalty cases. I've seen
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: no indication the d A who declined to speak with
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: us is able to to seek the death penalty. But well,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: why are you saying that it's not going to be
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: a death penalty. You can't just throw that out there
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: without some basis. I would agree it should be. I
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: would love for it to be. I'm not arguing with you.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying that there's no indication that it is
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: being treated as a death penalty case. Look, Nancy, I
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: had my two grandkids over this weekend and I then
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: I had to read this stuff. It hurts my eyes.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: To read the court documents that have just been released
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: in this what the witnesses are saying. I mean, this
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: poor little child the family, by the way, she had
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: nine sisters, according to the obituary, she had nine sisters.
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  Speaker 1: And according to witnesses, while these older children, who were
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: by the way from previous marriages, while they were eating
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: pizza and meals from Panda Express, this child was given nothing.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: They had an alarm on her bedroom door that would
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: alert these so called parents when she tried to sneak
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: out of the bedroom at night to eat. That's how
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: that's how vicious this was. Why why did you know?
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I want to tell you something, And I thought it
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: was anecdotal, Alan, but I've noticed since I would say
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: one of the very first child molest stations I ever handled,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: that was back in the eighties, that there would be
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: a whole family full of children, but the purp either
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: the molester or the abuser, would typically pick one child
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: and that would be their target. And I'm not saying
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: they were good to the others. Sometimes they would be,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: but they would pick out one child and that would
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: be the target of their hatred. I mean, this child
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: couldn't even walk out in the house, she could sleep
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: sneak out of her room to get food. That's a
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: fact I didn't notice. See that makes me think this
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: should be a death penalty even more the fact that
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: you would put an alarm on the child's door and
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the child would know other people were getting pizza and
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: food and she's just starving. Oh the pain this child
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: suffered if they reduced this charge, so help me, I
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: will go berserk. Who who's the district attorney? The district
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: attorney is John Hummel. I contacted his office just before
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: we went on the air here and they said that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: the judge has imposed a gag order so that the
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: district attorney, the lawyers, and the police in the case
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: cannot discuss it. What county is this? Shudis County? Is
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: d E S C hu Well well, well, well, I'm
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: trying to write this down. D E s C H
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: T E s Shotas County. It's in the western part
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: of the state of Oregon, probably two miles north of
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the California border, so it's right in the middle there.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: And the d a's name is John Hummel h U
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: M M E L. Like the humble figurines that everybody
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: hap when we were in high school, as in that
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I didn't have them, but I didn't have them, but
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I wanted them. But my mother no way would chill
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: let me spend money on something like that, as if
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I had any money anyway to spend. You were well fed, yes,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I was. Oh, let me tell you something about that.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: My mom would come home from work, and she had
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: a very stressful job. She would come home and cook
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: a full mill every night, every night and in the mornings.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: When we would wake up at seven, she would be
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: long gone to work, and there would be three plates
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: sitting out with forks and spoons at the bar. And
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: on the other side of as we called it the bar,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: there was the stove and there would be grits and
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: eggs and bacon sitting there. That would be at seven o'clock.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know what time she actually left. Okay, I'm
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: trying to find this guy's phone number. Do you want
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: to give it to me or do you want me
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: to keep searching? Oh? Wait, wait, wait, did I actually
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: find it? Five four one three eight eight six five
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: to zero. It says District Attorney's Office reception five four
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: one three eight eight six five to zero and the
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: shoot this county. I'm sure that we're mangling it because
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: you know what pushed me over the edge. I was
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: already at the edge, ready to leap into a death
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: penalty proceeding. But when you told me they had an
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: alarm on this child's door. When she'd try to sneak
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: out and eat, it would go off. You know what
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: to h E double l with them, and if I
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: can push them through Satan's door, I will do it.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: God help me. I know that's not nice. I know
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: it isn't look at the obituary for this this child.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: This was like three day before Christmas, this past Christmas,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: they opted her. Yes, this this Garcia Estevan Steve Garcia
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: is the biological uncle. He adopted this child when she
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: was three months. It was two years later, when this
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: child was about two, that he met the woman he
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: then married, who is his now co defendant and alleged
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: partner in crime, Skora. And they already had kids from
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: previous marriages, each one of them. They lied and tried
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: to tell police she wouldn't eat because she was ill,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: she wouldn't eat because they wouldn't give her food. Prosecutors
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: claim that she had prolonged malnourishment, including a distended stomach
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: and muscle wasting, and that her arms and legs look
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: like bones with skin on them. So disturbing. In the obituary,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: they announced that they set up a go fund Me account,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and I checked on this. They actually after this child died,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the parents, the alleged parents, made twenty four dollars on
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: a go fund Me account. I wonder what they used
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: that money, probably more pizza and Panda Express meals for themselves.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: She was forced to take coal showers, endured spankings if
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: she did not talk or if she played with blocks,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: and affidavit said she was not allowed to play with
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: other children. They had all gone camping once and they
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: would not let her warm herself by the fire after swimming.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: They tried to force her to eat salad while everyone
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: else had pizza and Panda Express. Can you imagine the
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: tears this child cried. I'm looking at her picture and
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: those little eyes just they just call out to you,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: They just call out, just five years old, way twenty
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: four pounds. Twenty four pounds is what paramedics say, and
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: that should be the weight of like a twenty month
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: old child. What else do you know? Alan the morning
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: that she died. The text messages between this man and
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: woman are even more disturbing because they knew that she
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: was not I mean, they thought she had the flu,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and the text messages they actually debate whether taking her
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: to a doctor. Garcia Steve Garcia text to me, urgent
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: care is always less professional, like their doctors are always
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: laid back. In other words, they were considering taking her
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: to an urgent care instead of like a hospital emergency
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: room because they thought the doctors wouldn't be as aggressive
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and realizing something was wrong, and they said, yeah, you'll
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: just go in there on their check for the flu
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: and then we can go home. But they never took
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: the child even to urgent care. And they were talking
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: about yet this this is from the alleged dad, might
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: be good to go down there with all of the
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: kids to show they are healthy and other words, they
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: wanted to show that the nine sisters there was nothing
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: wrong with them so they could compare, Oh, these kids,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: these are great parents, because look they got these healthy kids.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: It must be this one child who just doesn't want
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: to eat, doesn't want to eat with an alarm on
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: her door. One source said that by the time the
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: girl was found, every one of her ribs were visible.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: You know what I do with Lucy, I'm Lucy doesn't
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: want to eat. Some horrible little wretch called her fat
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: when she was like three, which she was not, of course,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: And I mean that little kid called everybody in the
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: class fat. But it hurt Lucy's feelings so much. She's
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: so sensitive that I really think that that triggered her
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: about She always she's she's just a kid, she's just nine.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: She really watches what she eats. So we all drink
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: skim milk. But for her, I try to make When
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I hug her, I can feel her rib and it
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: nearly drives me insane. Alan So like I'll make her
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: oatmeal in the morning. I'll at heavy whipping cream in it.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Anything I can do to get her to eat anything.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: John David is like a horse, so I don't have
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to ask him. You know, he's happy, but whatever I make.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: But with Lucy, I asked her every morning what she
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: would like that night, so I can make it or
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: learn how to make it, and like squeeze that in
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: an all my spare time. But to think that you
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: could feel every one of this little girl's ribs and
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: you could see them. Now, the lawyers are not speaking
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: citing a gag order. I bet those defense attorneys shere
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: are glad there's not a gag that there's a gag
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: order so they don't have to try to defend these people.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: But um, the autopsy was performed the next day. She
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: definitely died of emaciation. Another thing, when you say this
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: doesn't look like it's going to be a DP death penalty,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you remember there are aggravating circumstances for a death penalty.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: For instance, when a death occur during the commission of
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: a murdyr here, the felony would be felony child abuse,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: and that would be the underlying felony to support a
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: death penalty case. What else do we know? I'm sorry
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: the police documents. The police interviewed this teenager, a thirteen
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: year old girl who spent a lot of time with
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the family, and what she said, her description of the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: treatment of this child is is really horrible. She says
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: that when they would have a dinner, for example, they
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: would have Panda Express or whatever, that the couple wouldn't
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: let this child eat. She kept I'm quoting now from
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: this police document, she kept asking if she could come
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: have food, they would just ignore her. Another time, the
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: family was watching a movie and they wouldn't allow Malaia
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: to watch, forcing her instead to read quote. Every time
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: she looked up, they would say, read the book. So
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: it wasn't just food, it was just different treatment between
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: her and her nine sisters that hurts me. Malia occasionally
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: would have dinner with the teen and her family, and
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: when she did, the little girl would beg for additional
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: food and she would be so hungry she would eat
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: to the point where she would throw up. The team
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: also said Malia was always in trouble, mostly for wedding
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the bed, not talking because she was shy, or trying
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to sneak food at night. It just hurts me. I mean,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: if this is what an outsider a visitor observed, what
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: do you think was happening behind closed doors? And the pain?
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know what it feels like to starve,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: but I know it must be awful. There's a medical
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: history recorded by a doctor Mary Rogers at Central Oregon
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Pediatric Associates. It shows at age three, Malia was at
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: the five d percent tile for weight before she had
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: dropped to the fifth percentile, and at death she was
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: three ft two inches. She was in the zero point
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: one percentile. Now that interests me, Alan because why wasn't
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: the doctor following up? And why didn't doctor this doctor,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Dr Mary Rogers at Central Oregan Pediatric Associates. When you
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: know the child has gone from the fifty percentile for
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: weight to the fifth percentile, Okay, it doesn't that ring
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: a bell of alarm. Aren't you supposed to contact someone
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: and and tell them you think there's child abuse? I
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: think what's happening. What happened here, based on what I
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: see in these text messages is doctors would ask questions
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: and so guess what the parents, alleged parents would buy.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: They would stop taking that child to that doctor or
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: any doctor. That's why they were talking about care. Oh,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the doctors are less professional, like they look the other way.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: And I don't believe that for one minute. I think
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the doctor's urgent care can be wonderful. So Malia hoped
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Garcia literally wasted away. She starved to death. And I'm
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: telling you, if this district attorney does not seek the
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: death penalty on this for willingly allowing this child to
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: die I mean, Alan, if we're going to have the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: death penalty, is this not the perfect case for it
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: where you stand by and let a child die? In
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: my mind, yes, But in Oregon they have very few
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: death sentences in post I'm right now looking at some
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: of the statistics over the last several years. In fact,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and eleven, the governor imposed a moratorium
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: on executions. But they've had very few death sentences handed
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: down in Oregon in the last several years. I wonder
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: why that is a by lethal injection. Correct, Yes, it
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: is another issue I see is I think they knew
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: that she was dead or dying for a long time
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: before they called nine one one, because, as you mentioned,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: the father asked the wife to take the other children
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: with her too emergency care to show their healthy. The
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: affidavit says, but the wife writes him, you need to
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: come home and we need to take her in. That's
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: ten forty seven a m. Ten fifty three, she says,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: answer now emergency eleven oh six. She texts, I called
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: nine one one. They are here. Malia had collapsed in
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the living room floor and was not breathing. She was
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: pronounced dead at St. Charles Hospital in Redmond. They knew
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: before they called nine one one that she was dying,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and they just didn't know what, how well who to
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: take her to so they wouldn't get in trouble. I guess,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: is the way I'm trying to put it right. And
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: they were trying to blame it on the flu. If
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: they even taken her to that urgent care that day,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering medically, if they could have even saved her
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: at that point. Probably they could have pumped fluids in
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: her to keep her alive. I got a question, another question.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: If she's five years old, how come she's not on
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the radar of the public school system. She had just
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: turned five one month before. That's a good question. Why
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: didn't she go to kindergarten? I think when you're four
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: years old, you can stay off the radar. But she
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: turned five in November, so Alan, I understand that the
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: judge has imposed a gag order. Do we know why
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: they just don't want this discussed publicly? I think because
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: it's so sensational to preserve the discussion. It's a small
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: town relatively speaking. We're talking about Bend, Oregon, out in
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the middle of you know, right next to a big
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: national forest and it's a small community. We see this
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: a lot gag orders imposed when it's a small community.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: And I can tell you also, I've talked with two
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: local reporters there and they were even reluctant to talk
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: about it publicly. I mean, there's no bag order on them,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: but I think this is such a sensitive, controversial case
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: in their community that they're laying low. I kind of
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: find that hard to believe. And I haven't seen that
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: many gag orders in my lifetime. I mean occasionally i'll
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: see them, big metropolitan area, small town, I haven't seen
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: that many gag orders, and I'm suspicious. I'll give you
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: a good example. Tarat Grinstead, the judge down there in Ocilla,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Georgia right now, has imposed this broad gag order in
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: the Ryan Duke case, in the terrible investigation, because again
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: it's a small town. Okay, Can you name any others
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: because I can't. As a reporter, I've dealt with it
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: over the years, but it's it's it's kind of rare,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: and I was surprised to see that. Here. The press
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: release from the d A is all they're going to
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: give us. The lawyers on the other side aren't going
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: to talk, and even the reporters in town are somewhat reluctant.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I think we need to go keep pounding away at that.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I think we do and find out what's went on.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: The press release from the District Attorney, whiley wouldn't speak
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to us on the record, they did say this, This
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: investigation has been all hands on deck. Redmond Police and
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: my deputies work closely with medical professionals to piece together
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the final months of this girl's life. Suffice it to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: say she went through hell. Well, this is what I know.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: I know this child is dead from starvation. I know
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the District Attorney Hummel can be reached at five for one,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: three eight, eight, six, five to zero. And I'm very
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: curious about whether they're going to take a cheap plea
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: in this case and just sweep it under the rug,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: or if they're going to go forward to get the
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: maximum penalty that these two deserve. I'm Nancy Grace, this
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: is Crime Stories, signing off, goodbye friend,