Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / 3-Year-Old Tot-Girl Kidnapped From Home in the Middle of the Night, Cops Follow Trail to MOTEL

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3-Year-Old Tot-Girl Kidnapped From Home in the Middle of the Night, Cops Follow Trail to MOTEL · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greece. A parent's worst nightmare. In
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Speaker 1: the middle of the night, a stranger enters their home
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Speaker 1: and takes their three year old little girl. I Nancy Grace,
0:27
Speaker 1: this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us
0:30
Speaker 1: here at Fox Nation at series X one eleven. Imagine
0:35
Speaker 1: going to bed at night. You check on your child.
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Speaker 1: Everything's fine, the lights are off, the night lights on,
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Speaker 1: They've had their bottle the Banki's over them, everything's okay,
0:48
Speaker 1: and then you find out when you wake up your
0:52
Speaker 1: child is gone, taken in the middle of the night.
0:58
Speaker 1: It happens, and has just happened. Take a listen to this.
1:02
Speaker 1: Proximately five thirty one am this morning, we had a
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Speaker 1: missing person's call to twelve eight oh three North Borough,
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Speaker 1: a missing juvenile. The parents reported that they went to
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Speaker 1: sleep out of approximately eleven eleven PM eleven thirty. They
1:20
Speaker 1: said they woke up early this morning, the door was
1:23
Speaker 1: a jar, kid was missing. They searched for the kid
1:26
Speaker 1: in an apartment complex and after they couldn't locate them,
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Speaker 1: they called the police. You were hearing the Houston Police
1:32
Speaker 1: Chief Troy Finner in a press conference learning the entire
1:36
Speaker 1: community that this three year old little girl missing with
1:41
Speaker 1: me and All Star panel to make sense of what
1:44
Speaker 1: we know right now. But first, before I go to everyone,
1:47
Speaker 1: I want to go to my longtime friend and colleague,
1:51
Speaker 1: Mark Class. He is the founder of Class Kids Foundation
1:56
Speaker 1: and you can find him at class kids dot org
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Speaker 1: and on Twitter at Polly Dad Mark Class. Sometimes, as
2:06
Speaker 1: much as I want to hear your expertise, world renowned
2:11
Speaker 1: on missing children, I hate to ask you because I
2:14
Speaker 1: don't want to dredge up when Polly went missing your daughter.
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Speaker 1: But what's the first when you hear a scenario like this,
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Speaker 1: This three year old little girl, Lindsey l I Ncy
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Speaker 1: is missing. What goes through your mind immediately? Mark, The
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Speaker 1: very very first thing that goes through my mind, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: is that that house should have been secured. There should
2:39
Speaker 1: be no way somebody can get into a home like
2:42
Speaker 1: that from the outside. Secondly, my mind goes right to
2:45
Speaker 1: the numbers that if a child is going to be
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Speaker 1: murdered as a result of one of these incidents, they're
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Speaker 1: going to be seventy four percent of the will be
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Speaker 1: dead within the first three hours, So there's absolutely no
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Speaker 1: time at all to lose. And the third thing that
3:00
Speaker 1: goes through my head is that in these kinds of scenarios,
3:03
Speaker 1: the parents are always the primary suspects until they can
3:09
Speaker 1: retrieve evidence at points in other directions. So it's always
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Speaker 1: in their best interest to fully and completely cooperate with
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Speaker 1: both law enforcement and the media so that things can
3:20
Speaker 1: get straight and they can move the investigation forward. Mark
3:23
Speaker 1: Class is speaking from experience. His girl, Polly was taken
3:30
Speaker 1: from the home, and I always use Mark Class as
3:34
Speaker 1: the goal standard of what parents should do. He was,
3:39
Speaker 1: take my fingerprints, take anything you want off my body,
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Speaker 1: search my place, search my office, search my car, whatever
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Speaker 1: you want, and then find my daughter. Don't get hung
3:50
Speaker 1: up on me. And I don't get at Mark Class.
3:52
Speaker 1: Why all parents don't do that, I don't know. I
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Speaker 1: think there's a hesitancy sometimes. I mean, there is so
3:59
Speaker 1: much anti law enforcement rhetoric out there today, in both
4:02
Speaker 1: of the media and in the community, and I think
4:06
Speaker 1: people are taking that to heart when the reality is,
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Speaker 1: the harsh reality is is that every one of those
4:12
Speaker 1: cops has a child, and regardless of what you might
4:15
Speaker 1: have heard about those police officers, they're going to do
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Speaker 1: everything within their power to retrieve your child and get
4:23
Speaker 1: them home. And the same thing goes with the media, folks.
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Speaker 1: Everybody wants to help when a child disappears. We are
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Speaker 1: talking about three year old Lindsey who goes missing from
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Speaker 1: her own bed in the middle of the night. The
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Speaker 1: parents wake up as normal next morning, and the first
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Speaker 1: thing they notice is the door is a jar. Joining
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Speaker 1: me journalists KPRC two Houston, Zachary last way, Zachary, thank
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Speaker 1: you so much for being with us. I understand that
4:55
Speaker 1: when they saw the door ajar the way that was,
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Speaker 1: they immediately need something was wrong because that was out
5:02
Speaker 1: of the normal. Absolutely, Nancy, thank you so much for
5:04
Speaker 1: having us. You know, there are still so many questions unanswered,
5:09
Speaker 1: and we ourselves are asking the hard questions. You know,
5:11
Speaker 1: this is a heartbreaking story. The mother tells police when
5:15
Speaker 1: they went to bed at eleven o'clock Saturday night, their
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Speaker 1: little girl, their three year old child, was wearing purple pajamas.
5:24
Speaker 1: That was at eleven o'clock. As you mentioned, When they
5:27
Speaker 1: woke up at around five five thirty Sunday morning, their
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Speaker 1: three year old girl was nowhere to be found. They
5:34
Speaker 1: did realize at that point their front door was open.
5:38
Speaker 1: Zach Gary, what time did the parents wake up on
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Speaker 1: Sunday morning around five five thirty is what they tell us.
5:44
Speaker 1: What they told so early early in the mornings. Now
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Speaker 1: that's really interesting to me. I want to go out
5:51
Speaker 1: to a special guest joining us. Scott eight Johnson forensic
5:57
Speaker 1: psychologists joining us out of Minnesota, thirty two years and
6:01
Speaker 1: specializing in this area. Author of physical abusers and sex offenders,
6:06
Speaker 1: and you can find them at Forensic Consultation dot org. Scott,
6:09
Speaker 1: thanks for being with us. You know the early morning hours,
6:13
Speaker 1: for instance, when people are getting up and going to work,
6:16
Speaker 1: say between five and eight am in the morning, let's
6:20
Speaker 1: make that five and nine am in the morning. Typically
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Speaker 1: you don't see kidnaps, raves, murders in those really early
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Speaker 1: worktime hours. It's more I would say between midnight and
6:37
Speaker 1: three midnight three thirty that you will see all kind
6:43
Speaker 1: of hell break loose. Would you agree with that? Yeah,
6:46
Speaker 1: I mean usually that would be the time frame. But
6:48
Speaker 1: the problem we have here is we don't know what
6:50
Speaker 1: time she went missing. I mean, we know at five
6:54
Speaker 1: thirty that she's discovered missing, so it may well have
6:57
Speaker 1: been earlier in that morning that the abduction took place.
7:04
Speaker 1: Paul's Eye, former police commander Albuquerque author of stopped him
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Speaker 1: from killing them on Amazon. Paul fays for being with us.
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Speaker 1: What do you make of the timing. I mean, we
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Speaker 1: can narrow it down definitely between eleven thirty pm and
7:18
Speaker 1: five thirty am for sure. Well, right off the bat,
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Speaker 1: it's pretty egregious that we are not able to definitively
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Speaker 1: lock that down. I mean, even in my own home,
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Speaker 1: I'm the last one to go to bed. I know
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Speaker 1: where my kids are, I know the doors are locked,
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Speaker 1: I know things are secured. So any event that we
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Speaker 1: have somebody that's three years old, that we have a
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Speaker 1: five or six hour window where we don't know where
7:43
Speaker 1: they're at is ridiculous. I've got to agree with you.
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Speaker 1: I mean, Mark class the other morning, got up at
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Speaker 1: five as normal and was walking through to start getting
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Speaker 1: everybody's breakfast ready, and I walked past the alarm, one
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Speaker 1: of the alarm stations in the house, and noticed it
8:01
Speaker 1: was deactivated. I mean, I gotta tell you, Mark, I mean,
8:05
Speaker 1: nothing had happened, No alarm had not gone it hadn't
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Speaker 1: gone off. There's no problem. I checked the twins before
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Speaker 1: I went up front to the kitchen. Everything was fine.
8:15
Speaker 1: But just seeing that somehow that alarm was not triggered.
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Speaker 1: Put a chill down me. I can understand how that happened.
8:24
Speaker 1: It was my husband's fault, just so you know. But
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Speaker 1: I can't stress enough how important it is to have
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Speaker 1: your windows and doors lot and if you have an alarm,
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Speaker 1: have it on even when you're home. As a matter
8:37
Speaker 1: of fact, more importantly, when you're home, Hey, you know what,
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Speaker 1: take my TV. I'd be mad if you didn't. But
8:44
Speaker 1: don't come in when I'm home with my twins. Don't. Yeah,
8:49
Speaker 1: under no circumstances should you ever leave your home un security.
8:53
Speaker 1: And I think everybody that's on this line now understands that.
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Speaker 1: I mean, we're all in this field in one way
8:59
Speaker 1: or another. But unfortunately, there's so much complacency within the
9:03
Speaker 1: community and large people still leave their doors unlocked. They
9:06
Speaker 1: somehow think that evil will never touch them, or that
9:10
Speaker 1: something will go wrong, that your child will leave of
9:13
Speaker 1: their own volition, or that somebody will come in your
9:15
Speaker 1: house and take your child while you're there. We think
9:18
Speaker 1: that these places are sacri sent, but they're not. They're
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Speaker 1: just another door somebody can go through and create mayhem.
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Speaker 1: So we have to secure those doors always. What do
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Speaker 1: we know from the Houston Police Chief. Take a listen
9:30
Speaker 1: to our cut. Two officers arrived. I guess a little
9:34
Speaker 1: bit after five thirty one. Officers began to camis the area,
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Speaker 1: talk to a resident. That resident said he that they
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Speaker 1: spotted the kid. I'm sorry to suspect with the kid.
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Speaker 1: Officers began to camist the immediate area. Time stories with
10:06
Speaker 1: Nancy Greece. This is what we know. A neighbor actually
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Speaker 1: spots three year old Lindsay with an adult mail in
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Speaker 1: the parking lot of the apartment complex. Okay, what a fluke.
10:31
Speaker 1: That is straight out to James shell Nutt, twenty seven
10:34
Speaker 1: years Metro major case detective, former SWAT now lawyer at
10:39
Speaker 1: the shell Nutt Law Firm. James, do you know how
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Speaker 1: incredible that is for that time of the night, under
10:47
Speaker 1: those lighting circumstances, for someone to have actually seen the
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Speaker 1: girl leaving. Oh, it is the exception to the general rule.
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Speaker 1: It's very rare. You know. The Houston Police Marment did
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Speaker 1: a great job in this case. Often we talk about
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Speaker 1: police departments not given a proper response or how they
11:04
Speaker 1: should have been more aggressive and trying to locate someone.
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Speaker 1: The Houston Police Department set the gold standard on what
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Speaker 1: the department should do. When the situation comes up to
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Speaker 1: Zachary last way joining us KPRC to Houston, Zachary, I
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Speaker 1: understand there was a pet involved. Yes, the cat. The
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Speaker 1: child's mother tells police that this witness, this neighbor, has
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Speaker 1: videos showing the suspect calling out to the child, luring
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Speaker 1: her into the car, first with the cat and then
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Speaker 1: her Ah Mark class. It's the oldest trick in the book.
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Speaker 1: It's an example. I've even told the twins when they
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Speaker 1: were three and four, somebody comes along and says, have
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Speaker 1: you seen my puppy? Can you help me find him?
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Speaker 1: Get in the car? No, using a pet as a
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Speaker 1: lure for a child. It's age old, and it works.
12:03
Speaker 1: It works every time, and that's why it's age old,
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Speaker 1: and that's why they continue to do it. But there
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Speaker 1: are many types of lures out there, Nancy. My good
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Speaker 1: friend Mitzy Sanchez was lured into the kidnappers car because
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Speaker 1: he said he was feeble and he needed help picking
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Speaker 1: something up, and she was only seven years old. They're
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Speaker 1: lured by fame, they're lured by money, they're lured by pets,
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Speaker 1: They're lured by any shiny objects. It seems like sometimes,
12:30
Speaker 1: and that's why people should have that talk with their
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Speaker 1: children as you did, as I did. It's got to
12:37
Speaker 1: be part of the routine of raising your children to
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Speaker 1: let them be aware and know what's going on around
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Speaker 1: them so that they can avoid these kinds of traps
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Speaker 1: and another trap to run. Man Carrios Ceo Crime Stoppers
12:52
Speaker 1: of Houston, author of the online world what You Think
12:56
Speaker 1: you know and What you don't RUNNYA thank you for
12:59
Speaker 1: being with us. Another one is an adult asking for help. Hey,
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Speaker 1: I'm lost. Could you take lead me to the Methodist
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Speaker 1: church up the street. Do you know where that is?
13:10
Speaker 1: Could you just hop in and show me? Or just
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Speaker 1: get the child close enough to the car where they
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Speaker 1: can grab the child and throw him in the backseat.
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Speaker 1: It's really easy to do. I've told the twins a
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Speaker 1: million times. An adult does not need a child's help.
13:26
Speaker 1: Do not, even if it's a woman, or even if
13:29
Speaker 1: they say, hey I know your mom. No, Nancy, you're right,
13:35
Speaker 1: you're right. But the question we always get is when
13:38
Speaker 1: do you start having these conversations with your children. So
13:41
Speaker 1: here you have a three year old, you know, it's
13:43
Speaker 1: highly suspect that the parents have sat down and talked
13:45
Speaker 1: about this with a three year old, because a lot
13:47
Speaker 1: of parents singled, this child's too young. She or he
13:49
Speaker 1: is always in my sight, we're always running errands together.
13:53
Speaker 1: They're not wandering to and from school alone. So when
13:56
Speaker 1: do you start having the conversation? I say start as
13:59
Speaker 1: young as they're able to understand, even if you feel
14:02
Speaker 1: like they'll never be in the situation. Go through scenarios.
14:05
Speaker 1: You don't have to scare a child, but you can
14:07
Speaker 1: give them the tools in the assets, that deep understanding
14:11
Speaker 1: of how to react if they ever got forbid need to.
14:14
Speaker 1: It's something we encourage parents to do all over the city,
14:16
Speaker 1: all over they actually all over the country, and conversations
14:19
Speaker 1: we have at crime Suffer to Zachary Lashway, KPRC two, Houston, Zachary,
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Speaker 1: how did a neighbor happen to have video of that
14:28
Speaker 1: of seeing an adult male taking the three year old
14:32
Speaker 1: and getting her into a car with a cat? Oh?
14:34
Speaker 1: Was it a ring doorbell video? Yeah, you know that question.
14:37
Speaker 1: It's still unclear. We're not sure if it was surveillance
14:40
Speaker 1: video from the apartment complex. The mother just said there's
14:45
Speaker 1: video that shows. Still a lot of questions to be answered.
14:48
Speaker 1: This being one Paul's like way end. So I even
14:50
Speaker 1: take it one step further with my kids. You got
14:53
Speaker 1: to make it black and white. You have to be direct,
14:56
Speaker 1: straight to the point. And I tell them if somebody
14:59
Speaker 1: ever lures you into a car and you leave with them, nobody,
15:03
Speaker 1: none of your family, no one who loves people, will
15:05
Speaker 1: ever see you again. It's that simple. It cannot happen.
15:09
Speaker 1: And I've kept that lying throughout their entire lives. Okay,
15:12
Speaker 1: Well I wasn't as harsh. Yeah, when the children were three,
15:17
Speaker 1: I told them that people would try to take them
15:21
Speaker 1: and make them work in orange groves in Florida and
15:25
Speaker 1: pick oranges for free day till night and have nothing
15:29
Speaker 1: but gruel for dinner, and that I wouldn't be able
15:32
Speaker 1: to find them. And they said, out of all that,
15:34
Speaker 1: they say, what's gruel? Okay, So anyway, that's what I
15:38
Speaker 1: told them was going to happen to them if they
15:40
Speaker 1: were picked up by a street. As they got older,
15:43
Speaker 1: I mean, finally there came a point where you know,
15:46
Speaker 1: Lucy asked me, well, why would they take me? And
15:50
Speaker 1: I said, to hurt you, to hurt you, And I
15:56
Speaker 1: mean I hated to be graphic with them, but I
15:58
Speaker 1: wanted to scare them a so they wouldn't get into
16:01
Speaker 1: a car. But a three year old a study, So Seouan,
16:04
Speaker 1: isn't this treemark class that you can tell a three
16:07
Speaker 1: year old don't get the car with a stranger, and
16:09
Speaker 1: then they perform a test after that and the child
16:12
Speaker 1: gets in the car with a stranger. They've just been
16:14
Speaker 1: told don't get in the car with a stranger, but
16:17
Speaker 1: they can't process that mark. Well, the pedophiles, the abductors
16:24
Speaker 1: are fully aware of that, and as somebody I think
16:28
Speaker 1: you mentioned, the whole goal is to get the child
16:32
Speaker 1: close enough to the car so they can toss them
16:35
Speaker 1: in and drive away. So again, you don't want to
16:38
Speaker 1: leave three year old children ever unsupervised, There's no question
16:43
Speaker 1: about that. And I also totally believe that you need
16:46
Speaker 1: to have these conversations and that they shouldn't be fair
16:49
Speaker 1: based conversations. They should be informational conversations so the children
16:54
Speaker 1: at least have some basis from which to some baseline
16:58
Speaker 1: from which to react. And I hope that these lessons
17:01
Speaker 1: take hold sooner rather than later. Zachary, last way with
17:04
Speaker 1: me KPRC two, Houston. Zachary, this apartment complex. How close
17:09
Speaker 1: is it to a major thoroughfare. Oh, it's it's just
17:12
Speaker 1: due west of forty five. It's it's Your viewers are
17:15
Speaker 1: familiar with the Houston area. This is North Houston, just
17:19
Speaker 1: due west of Bush Intercontinental. The neighborhood is called Green's Point,
17:25
Speaker 1: a very diverse area. It's it's a it's a large
17:28
Speaker 1: area just due west of Bush. Okay, that right there.
17:34
Speaker 1: Let me go to you on this Runya Macario, CEO
17:37
Speaker 1: Crime Starpers of Houston. That's enough to put a chill
17:40
Speaker 1: down your spine because you remember what Mark Class said
17:43
Speaker 1: right when we started talking, seventy four percent of stranger abductions,
17:48
Speaker 1: a child is dead within three hours. They've raped the child,
17:53
Speaker 1: they don't want to witness. They kill the child to
17:55
Speaker 1: get rid of evidence. And that is the child. And
17:59
Speaker 1: when you think of an interstate that close to the
18:02
Speaker 1: home where this three year old Lindsey was kidnapped, think
18:06
Speaker 1: of how fast every hour they're seventy miles further away. Yeah,
18:10
Speaker 1: it's chilling. It's absolutely chilling. As a parent and as
18:13
Speaker 1: anyone who carries you know, in the community, it just
18:17
Speaker 1: goose bumps. According to Zachary Lashway, KPRC. There is video
18:23
Speaker 1: surveillance of the adult male leading this child to a
18:27
Speaker 1: car with a pet cat as allure. Thank heaven for
18:33
Speaker 1: that neighbor that had that surveillance video, whether its surveillance
18:37
Speaker 1: video or ring doorbell camera, it shows the car. Take
18:43
Speaker 1: a listen to Brooke Taylor Katie r K ABC thirteen.
18:47
Speaker 1: It's all captured on surveillance footage from that apartment complex.
18:52
Speaker 1: We're not going to share it with you, just because
18:55
Speaker 1: the mother had said she didn't want that video out there.
18:57
Speaker 1: But I could tell you what I saw, and that
18:59
Speaker 1: was that little girl on a man's lap. He then
19:02
Speaker 1: carries a cat into his car. Soon after, he carries
19:06
Speaker 1: that little girl into the car and they drive off,
19:09
Speaker 1: leading to this frantic search. Oh you know, just hearing that,
19:16
Speaker 1: I want to go to Scott A. Johns and forensics
19:18
Speaker 1: psychologists joining us out of Minnesota and author he puts
19:23
Speaker 1: the three year old little girl on his lap, and
19:27
Speaker 1: that's saying in the video surveillance, right, and so what
19:31
Speaker 1: you're likely dealing with here's a psychopathic sexual predator. He
19:36
Speaker 1: was certainly not anxious about it. He approached her. We
19:39
Speaker 1: don't know if there was previous contact. Between him and
19:41
Speaker 1: the victim, because the victim wasn't struggling, so certainly that
19:45
Speaker 1: might imply he's already groomed her, had some other contact,
19:49
Speaker 1: but he was going to take his time with this
19:51
Speaker 1: particular victim. Take a listen to our friends at KHOU.
19:55
Speaker 1: The alert came in around five thirty this morning. Police
19:59
Speaker 1: say the child's parents sold them. They went to bed
20:01
Speaker 1: around eleven last night at an apartment complex just a
20:05
Speaker 1: few minutes away. When they woke up this morning, she
20:08
Speaker 1: was gone and the door to the apartment was open.
20:11
Speaker 1: Police say they were looking in this area and around
20:14
Speaker 1: two pm they located the suspect's car. The car was
20:18
Speaker 1: just a few blocks away from the hotel here. All
20:20
Speaker 1: because of that neighbor's surveillance video they could id the car.
20:25
Speaker 1: Listen tomorrow from KTRK ABC thirteen. Video from the apartment
20:28
Speaker 1: complex shows the girl being lurned into a car with
20:32
Speaker 1: a cat. ABC thirteen the only station to find this
20:35
Speaker 1: surveillance video that shows that car parked minutes away on
20:39
Speaker 1: Gilman's Park Drive. The suspect in the car with the
20:42
Speaker 1: girl for about an hour before they're scene walking off
20:46
Speaker 1: straight back out to our friend joining us in KPRC
20:50
Speaker 1: Zachary last right, how far away from the home is
20:54
Speaker 1: the hotel? One point five miles away from that child's apartment.
20:58
Speaker 1: That's where the hotel is. Yeah, take a listen to
21:00
Speaker 1: our cut nine our fens at KTRK. Nearly ten hours later,
21:05
Speaker 1: and the suspects car found near a motel on Rankin Road,
21:09
Speaker 1: just four minutes away. Management confirming to police that Hernandez
21:13
Speaker 1: rented a room. Sunday morning. Our cameras rolling as police
21:17
Speaker 1: crowded outside the motel room. Officers approached the room, officers
21:22
Speaker 1: forced entry until the unit and what happens when police
21:26
Speaker 1: entered the room. Take a listen. Police say that suspect
21:29
Speaker 1: did put up a fight in this motel right behind me. Now,
21:33
Speaker 1: I asked the police chief, Troy Finner, whether the suspect
21:37
Speaker 1: knew the family. He says it's early on right now
21:40
Speaker 1: in the investigation, doesn't want to jump to conclusions, but
21:44
Speaker 1: says he believes that this was a complete stranger. Mark
21:47
Speaker 1: Class Founder, Class Kids Foundation. That is unusual. This is
21:53
Speaker 1: a complete stranger, no connection to the family. The thing
21:58
Speaker 1: people have to understand is that the vast majority of
22:01
Speaker 1: children that are that are sexually abused are or taken,
22:06
Speaker 1: are abused or taken by somebody that is very well
22:11
Speaker 1: known to the family the vast majority of cases. So
22:15
Speaker 1: what you're dealing with in a situation like this is
22:18
Speaker 1: the ultimate needle in the haystack. There's three hundred and
22:22
Speaker 1: thirty million Americans. One child disappears, and it's got to
22:26
Speaker 1: be one of those people, unless it's a foreigner. So
22:29
Speaker 1: the fact that they had ring of video camera or
22:33
Speaker 1: ring footage of what went down here is absolutely the
22:37
Speaker 1: biggest break they ever could have expected in this case,
22:40
Speaker 1: and that ultimately is probably what led law enforcement to
22:47
Speaker 1: the perpetrator. Guys were earlier talking about, could the parp
22:50
Speaker 1: have groomed this little girl? Gets still be unknown to
22:54
Speaker 1: the parents. Absolutely, how many times this little girl maybe
22:58
Speaker 1: played on the apartment complay playground. How many times did
23:02
Speaker 1: she be in the apartment complex laundry room. That's the
23:05
Speaker 1: perfect time for someone like this adult male to talk
23:11
Speaker 1: to the little girl under friendly circumstances with mommy or
23:15
Speaker 1: daddy nearby, which gives him the indicia of being a friend.
23:20
Speaker 1: What about it, Runya mccarios. Absolutely, I'm thinking about what
23:24
Speaker 1: you're saying. There's many different opportunities for him to have
23:27
Speaker 1: noticed her, to have just gentle high smile, Oh you
23:31
Speaker 1: look nice to the acute, for him to feel familiar
23:33
Speaker 1: to her. So they find the car, they find the
23:36
Speaker 1: hotel room. But what about three year old Lindsay take
23:41
Speaker 1: a listen to our friends at ABC thirteen. We're getting
23:44
Speaker 1: our first look now at an updated mugshot of the
23:47
Speaker 1: suspect at the center of yesterday's Amber alert. We're talking
23:50
Speaker 1: about fifty year old Holman Hernandez. Court documents say Hernandez
23:54
Speaker 1: lured the three year old girl to his car before
23:56
Speaker 1: he was found hours later at a motel by police.
24:00
Speaker 1: Those same documents say her Nandez was found in bed
24:03
Speaker 1: with the little girl wearing only boxers. She was in
24:06
Speaker 1: a shirt and diaper. Her parents told police they woke
24:09
Speaker 1: up at five am, notice their daughter was missing and
24:12
Speaker 1: the front door open. Police tracked the pair down at
24:16
Speaker 1: the motel, not far from where the child lives. They
24:19
Speaker 1: found her Nandez and the three year old girl inside
24:22
Speaker 1: a room in a bed. Okay, nothing good is going
24:28
Speaker 1: to come of that. To Scott Johnson, forensic psychologists joining
24:32
Speaker 1: us out of Minnesota, the little girl has on nothing
24:36
Speaker 1: but a T shirt and a diaper. The man has
24:39
Speaker 1: her in bed in a hotel away from her parents. Yep.
24:44
Speaker 1: Likely there was some sexual abuse going on, and that
24:48
Speaker 1: you know that he was calm enough to still keep
24:50
Speaker 1: the victim there implies that there was likely going to
24:54
Speaker 1: be far more sexual contact in the future. We don't
24:58
Speaker 1: know whether he was going to keep her for his
24:59
Speaker 1: own sex toy if you will, for for days weeks
25:04
Speaker 1: what have you, or sexually continue to sexually molest her
25:08
Speaker 1: if he did in fact sexually molest hert Mark class
25:12
Speaker 1: way in Oh god, Nancy, There's there's no good ending
25:16
Speaker 1: to a scenario like that under any circumstances. It was
25:20
Speaker 1: just a ticking time bomb until he probably did what
25:22
Speaker 1: you suggested at the very beginning, got rid of her
25:25
Speaker 1: to destroy evidence. Either that or what keep her around forever.
25:30
Speaker 1: There's just there's no good way this ends. If they
25:33
Speaker 1: hadn't had that surveillance video, and if Houston PD hadn't
25:38
Speaker 1: been well trained and done exactly what they needed to
25:41
Speaker 1: do to bring them to that hotel room and save
25:44
Speaker 1: her life. Nancy. Yes, absolutely, yes, this was going to
25:48
Speaker 1: end with a homicide, no doubt, and Houston PEDE were
25:53
Speaker 1: stars and finding this young lady. Yeah, you know what's
25:56
Speaker 1: amazing is that the little girl is a live. This
26:01
Speaker 1: scenario that Mark Class just laid out has happened oh
26:05
Speaker 1: so often. There's the name Danielle van Dam ring a bell.
26:12
Speaker 1: I will never forget it. Danielle van Dam, a little
26:16
Speaker 1: seven year old girl taken out off her California home
26:22
Speaker 1: by a neighbor, never seen alive again. Take a listen
26:28
Speaker 1: to our friends at CBS eight San Diego, ar Cut sixteen.
26:32
Speaker 1: Former district Attorney Paul Finks remembers the day the seven
26:36
Speaker 1: year old girl's body was discovered after he'sa road. I've
26:40
Speaker 1: never in my career seen a case where someone has
26:44
Speaker 1: actually gone into a home, taken a child out of bed,
26:49
Speaker 1: and taken that child back to his home, sexually abused
26:52
Speaker 1: and taken the child away, killed the child, and dumped
26:55
Speaker 1: the body. I remember that the only way that Danielle
26:59
Speaker 1: Van Dam's body could be identified is that she was
27:04
Speaker 1: wearing one of the Mickey Mouse ear rings her family
27:08
Speaker 1: had gotten her on a trip to Disneyland. And Danielle
27:14
Speaker 1: van Dam is certainly not the only child taken from
27:18
Speaker 1: her home. Now, Danielle Vandam was taken by David Westerfield,
27:24
Speaker 1: who lived a few houses down from the Vandam family.
27:27
Speaker 1: Both parents were home and did not hear anyone enter.
27:33
Speaker 1: It's believed Westerfield came through a sliding glass door that
27:40
Speaker 1: was unlocked, which is one of the main ways people
27:45
Speaker 1: break into homes is through sliding glass doors. They're very
27:49
Speaker 1: easy to manipulate. David Westerfield kept Danielle alive, molesting her
27:58
Speaker 1: for days and his RV before he was finally apprehended.
28:05
Speaker 1: That leads me to another little girl. Six year old
28:10
Speaker 1: is Sabella Seles? Take a listen to this nine one
28:15
Speaker 1: one call and our cut seventeen. Hello, I need to
28:20
Speaker 1: record a missing child. I believe she was adopted from
28:24
Speaker 1: my house years old. Okays at your daughter? Yes? Why
28:31
Speaker 1: do you think she was adopted? I have no idea.
28:33
Speaker 1: We woke up this morning, I went to book get
28:35
Speaker 1: her up for her baseball game, and she's gone. I
28:36
Speaker 1: woke up my sons. We looked everywhere in the house
28:39
Speaker 1: and my oldest son noticed that her window was wide
28:42
Speaker 1: open and the screen was laying in the backyard. And
28:45
Speaker 1: then the end of the story our friensic k gun
28:50
Speaker 1: nine cut eighteen six year old Isabel Sellis Is discovered
28:53
Speaker 1: missing from her bedroom. Her father, Sergio Sellis, calls nine
28:57
Speaker 1: one one Saturday morning, reporting her missing. The search went
29:00
Speaker 1: on four days, weeks than years went by. The family
29:05
Speaker 1: invited Ka nine into their home in twenty fifteen to
29:08
Speaker 1: talk about the investigation they feel was botched from the beginning.
29:12
Speaker 1: She should have been found within the first twenty four
29:14
Speaker 1: hours instead of wasting three days. On us March thirtieth,
29:19
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, investigators reveal they found her remain and Mark Class,
29:25
Speaker 1: I'm not inferring that the Sales family withheld DNA or fingerprints,
29:29
Speaker 1: because I don't believe that they did. I think they cooperated,
29:33
Speaker 1: but parents have to cooperate fully so cops can move
29:39
Speaker 1: on from them. The Sales family was in no way
29:43
Speaker 1: responsible for their daughter's disappearance, Mark Class. That tells us
29:49
Speaker 1: how careful parents have to be. Who is exposed to
29:52
Speaker 1: their child, whether it's at your church, your softball team,
29:56
Speaker 1: your neighbors. You don't know these people the way you
30:00
Speaker 1: You don't know anybody the way you think they do.
30:04
Speaker 1: My brain is exploding here a little bit, Nancy, because
30:07
Speaker 1: you know Paully's killer unknown to the family walked in
30:13
Speaker 1: through an unsecured backdoor, and the only reason he was
30:16
Speaker 1: detected was because he calculated incorrectly. He did not realize
30:21
Speaker 1: there were other children in the house with Polly. He
30:23
Speaker 1: thought he would be able to go in and grab
30:26
Speaker 1: her and simply disappear. And if that, in fact it happened,
30:29
Speaker 1: we never would have been able to resolve this case.
30:32
Speaker 1: There is no crime worse against an individual than a
30:37
Speaker 1: stranger abduction by one of these sexually sadistic psychopaths, by
30:43
Speaker 1: one of these characters that have nothing more on their
30:45
Speaker 1: mind than abusing little girls and then getting rid of
30:49
Speaker 1: the evidence. And it's the cases you mentioned and so
30:53
Speaker 1: many other cases that we've worked through the years. But
30:56
Speaker 1: it just sent an absolute chill down my spine because
31:00
Speaker 1: we can stop this, yet it continues to happen time
31:04
Speaker 1: and time and time again. I'm thinking of another little
31:08
Speaker 1: girl out of Florida, Hally Cummings. Take a listen to
31:11
Speaker 1: our friends at News four. Jack's okay, all right, you
31:19
Speaker 1: said your back door with wine open, mister Crosslin said,
31:27
Speaker 1: when she went to bed that night in this bedroom,
31:30
Speaker 1: Haley was sleeping right next to her. Hours of searching
31:35
Speaker 1: turned into days, then weeks, months past and now years
31:41
Speaker 1: there's been no sign of Haley. And the case that
31:44
Speaker 1: has always broken my heart the case of Shania. Little
31:49
Speaker 1: five year old Shania. Take a listen to our cut
31:53
Speaker 1: twenty w r A l five year old Shania was
31:56
Speaker 1: taken from this trailer park in two thousand and nine.
31:59
Speaker 1: Her body found sixties later in a kudzoo patch. Prosecutors
32:03
Speaker 1: saved this man, Mario McNeil, raped and killed her. He's
32:07
Speaker 1: now on death row. Also in Shanaiah's case, the kidnap
32:13
Speaker 1: rape her took this five year old little girl, Shanaya,
32:16
Speaker 1: and it is seen on hotel video into a hotel room.
32:21
Speaker 1: He's actually carrying her in his arms. He goes on
32:25
Speaker 1: to rape, sodomize, and murder five year old Shania. It
32:32
Speaker 1: happens so much more than we think. When parents think
32:37
Speaker 1: they've tucked their child in and they're safely asleep, an
32:40
Speaker 1: intruder enters and ruins their lives. Time Stories with Nancy
32:59
Speaker 1: Grace back to Lindsey was found in the hotel room
33:06
Speaker 1: with her t shirt and diaper on, in bed with
33:09
Speaker 1: a complete stranger. And as Jackie has pointed out to me,
33:14
Speaker 1: yes she was found in the hotel room and a
33:17
Speaker 1: T shirt and a diaper, but she was spotted on
33:20
Speaker 1: the surveillance video leaving in pajamas, so she had been undressed.
33:28
Speaker 1: Now take a listen to our friends at KHOU. Police
33:33
Speaker 1: said they found her Nandez's car a few blocks from
33:35
Speaker 1: the hotel, and when they searched the hotel, they forced
33:39
Speaker 1: their way into the room he'd rented and put her
33:41
Speaker 1: Nandez in custody. The judge speaking today about her Nandez's
33:45
Speaker 1: bomb decision, which again is set at one million dollars.
33:49
Speaker 1: The thak motion for a million dollars. Barnes, I'm ordered
33:52
Speaker 1: you to surrendart now. We also viewed apartment surveillance video.
33:57
Speaker 1: That video appears to show her Nandez in acting with
34:00
Speaker 1: the little girl and then loading her and a small
34:04
Speaker 1: animal into his car before taking off. What this three
34:07
Speaker 1: year old girl endured in that hotel room, we may
34:11
Speaker 1: never know. She's alive, but she will never be the
34:17
Speaker 1: same again. As for the defendant, take a list of
34:21
Speaker 1: our friends at kPr C. An immigration hold has been
34:25
Speaker 1: placed on fifty year old Holman her Nandez. His bond
34:29
Speaker 1: has been set at one million dollars. The girl's family
34:32
Speaker 1: hopes he stays in jail. He's due back in court.
34:35
Speaker 1: You have been charge of the first degree felony. It's aggravated,
34:39
Speaker 1: could not be. Holman Hernandez charged with aggravated kidnapping. Accused
34:44
Speaker 1: of luring a three year old girl inside his vehicle,
34:47
Speaker 1: abducting her from her family's apartment complex on the North Side,
34:52
Speaker 1: and taking her to a motel. She was wearing long
34:54
Speaker 1: sleeved purple pajamas at the time. To Zachary lash Way,
34:58
Speaker 1: our special guest joining us from kp RC two Houston,
35:02
Speaker 1: he was given a bond, yes of one million dollars.
35:05
Speaker 1: He's expected to be back in court today that bond.
35:10
Speaker 1: A judge could increase that amount, but as of right
35:14
Speaker 1: now it has been set up one million dollars. What
35:18
Speaker 1: do we know about this fifty year old Holman Hernandez.
35:22
Speaker 1: So we still again a lot of questions surrounding him.
35:26
Speaker 1: According to court documents, he does have a couple of
35:29
Speaker 1: DUIs from here in Harris County. One interesting point, one
35:34
Speaker 1: thing that we've been talking about through all of this,
35:37
Speaker 1: we've been putting a lot of emphasis on neighbors. He
35:41
Speaker 1: it should be mentioned that he only lives approximately two
35:44
Speaker 1: point four miles away from where this child was abducted
35:47
Speaker 1: at her apartment complex. That's a seven minute drive. We
35:50
Speaker 1: do know that he brought her to a hotel, a
35:53
Speaker 1: motel that is located one point five miles away, which
35:58
Speaker 1: is approximately a five mild drive. One question that we
36:01
Speaker 1: asked the mother of this child, last name is Hernandez.
36:05
Speaker 1: We asked police if there was any known relation between
36:09
Speaker 1: the suspect and the child. Their answer, of course, at
36:13
Speaker 1: this point in the investigation, is no. I've heard from
36:16
Speaker 1: multiple sources there is no relationship between the parents and
36:20
Speaker 1: the suspect. I do know that the hotel rented the
36:27
Speaker 1: room to this guy, and I'm wondering if he had
36:30
Speaker 1: the little girl with him at the time. What do
36:35
Speaker 1: we know about that, Zachary Lashway? If anything, We do
36:38
Speaker 1: know that he checked in at approximately seven thirty Sunday morning.
36:44
Speaker 1: Other than that, we have not been able to get
36:46
Speaker 1: any surveillance video from that hotel motel, but we do
36:51
Speaker 1: know this is approximately two hours after the parents noticed
36:56
Speaker 1: she was missing early Sunday morning. So let me stand
37:00
Speaker 1: they sat in the car for a long period of
37:02
Speaker 1: time before they left. Yeah, that's that's what that video shows.
37:07
Speaker 1: That's what that video is showing with a girl on
37:10
Speaker 1: his lap. To Paul zyke Way, Yeah, I believe it
37:15
Speaker 1: was an hour that she little girl was on his lap,
37:20
Speaker 1: which really, you know, throws up a lot of red flags.
37:23
Speaker 1: I mean, normally these types of situations rapidly end. So
37:29
Speaker 1: the fact that he was hanging out in the car
37:32
Speaker 1: and then went to a motel and kind of nonchalantly
37:36
Speaker 1: went about this. You know, we got lucky law enforcement.
37:39
Speaker 1: The family ever get lucky on this case that this
37:41
Speaker 1: individual did all those things. If not, this would be
37:45
Speaker 1: a matter of where is she or a recovered body.
37:48
Speaker 1: Scott Johnson way in, Yeah, I mean I agree with that.
37:51
Speaker 1: I mean there's a psychopaths who's calm, premeditated and not
37:54
Speaker 1: concerned about getting caught, taking this time doing what he
37:57
Speaker 1: wants to do, so a very dangerous man. McCarey is yeah,
38:01
Speaker 1: I want to echo what Scott said. I think from
38:03
Speaker 1: the parents perspective, they put her to sleep, they woke
38:05
Speaker 1: up a minute later, they called law enforcement. I do
38:08
Speaker 1: want to say, you know, the suspect appeared to be
38:10
Speaker 1: with her in the car. You know, son son is
38:13
Speaker 1: coming out, People are getting back out into the world.
38:16
Speaker 1: He escapes with her to a local hotel. I also
38:19
Speaker 1: want to add one other thing. We were talking about
38:21
Speaker 1: what he could possibly doing with this child in the room.
38:24
Speaker 1: I want to throw one other thing out there. We
38:26
Speaker 1: are seeing the exploitation of children online rapidly increased. So
38:31
Speaker 1: did he potentially sexually assault her, You know, without question,
38:35
Speaker 1: that is a huge potential. But he also might have
38:37
Speaker 1: been taking photos of her or videos of her for
38:39
Speaker 1: other you know, money making agendas, and that is something
38:43
Speaker 1: we're seeing more and more. Unfortunately, it is horrific and disgusting,
38:47
Speaker 1: but something we want people to be aware of. James
38:49
Speaker 1: shall not. Let's also not overlook the possibility that sometimes
38:52
Speaker 1: young children are sold into the sex trafficking tride. I
38:57
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if this was an option to Chilma
39:00
Speaker 1: was considering. And like somebody would say previously, this is
39:03
Speaker 1: the exception to the rule. And I hope that whoever
39:06
Speaker 1: was responsible for this little girl at the time that
39:08
Speaker 1: she was taken, that this is a wake up call
39:11
Speaker 1: for them if they realized they got luck a wake
39:13
Speaker 1: up call too late. Mark class final thought, Well, of
39:17
Speaker 1: course it's a wake up call. Not only does those parents,
39:20
Speaker 1: but to everybody. But I think the good use here,
39:23
Speaker 1: the silver lining is that it's almost impossible to escape
39:27
Speaker 1: the glare of surveillance cameras anymore. They're absolutely ubiquitous, even
39:32
Speaker 1: on our doors. So I would hope that those individuals
39:36
Speaker 1: who would be even considering doing something like this will
39:40
Speaker 1: keep it in their mind that you can run. But
39:43
Speaker 1: the reality is that it's much much more difficult to
39:46
Speaker 1: hide now than it's ever been before, and that these
39:49
Speaker 1: kinds of technologies are going to help us solve these
39:51
Speaker 1: cases and more and more little children will be brought home.
39:55
Speaker 1: Wait wait as justice unfalls. Nancy Grace comes to our
39:59
Speaker 1: signing off. Goodbye friend,