Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Precious 9-year-old South Dakota girl vanishes, 911 call DELAYED? Where is Serenity?

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Precious 9-year-old South Dakota girl vanishes, 911 call DELAYED? Where is Serenity? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Authorities in Rockerville are searching
0:13
Speaker 1: for a nine year old girl who went missing earlier today.
0:17
Speaker 1: Nine year old Serenity Dinner was last spotted leaving the
0:20
Speaker 1: Children's Home Society on South Rockerville Road around eleven twenty
0:24
Speaker 1: this morning. Dinner. It is seven, is four to seven,
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Speaker 1: ninety pounds with blue eyes and shoulder length a dirty
0:30
Speaker 1: blonde hair. She was last seen wearing a long sleeved
0:34
Speaker 1: gray shirt with flowers, blue jeans and snow boots. Temperatures
0:38
Speaker 1: are expected to drop below zero to night. If anyone
0:42
Speaker 1: has any information regarding her whereabouts, please contact the Pinton
0:45
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office at six oh five three nine four
0:49
Speaker 1: six one one five. Friends at KOTATVS. That was Nick
0:54
Speaker 1: Reagan with the breaking knees seven Nity Dinner missing the
0:58
Speaker 1: gorgeous little girl in South Dakota. And we are now
1:02
Speaker 1: learning that the original reports regarding the disappearance of nine
1:06
Speaker 1: year old Serenity Dinner are not exactly correct. What, if anything,
1:14
Speaker 1: does it mean? This as a search for the nine
1:17
Speaker 1: year old girl goes on I Nancy Grays, this is
1:21
Speaker 1: Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Straight out
1:24
Speaker 1: to Mark Class, the founder of Class Kids Foundation. Mark.
1:29
Speaker 1: So many aspects of this story don't fit together with me.
1:35
Speaker 1: This little girl was in a children's home in South Dakota,
1:38
Speaker 1: and I'm now learning that the staff there called nine
1:43
Speaker 1: one one much later than they initially reported after Serenity
1:49
Speaker 1: goes missing. Now does it mean anything, I'm not sure.
1:53
Speaker 1: But whenever I find an inconsistency in the timeline and
1:57
Speaker 1: there is a missing nine year old girl, I don't
2:00
Speaker 1: like it, Mark Class, I don't like it at all. Well,
2:03
Speaker 1: what it means, Dancy, is that the home was ill
2:06
Speaker 1: prepared to deal with the emergency that they found themselves in.
2:11
Speaker 1: They waited an out over an hour and forty minutes
2:14
Speaker 1: before they notified law enforcement. And this is a little
2:17
Speaker 1: girl who was practiced at running away. One of the
2:20
Speaker 1: reasons she was in the home was because she is
2:22
Speaker 1: a problematic child and has various emotional and personality issues,
2:30
Speaker 1: and she was able to they're saying, she was almost
2:35
Speaker 1: able to finesse her escape, and the response was totally,
2:39
Speaker 1: incompletely inadequate. And the result is three months later, law
2:43
Speaker 1: enforcement is scouring the area with multiple search teams and
2:48
Speaker 1: multiple law enforcement agencies. I understood that people are at
2:53
Speaker 1: the facility saw her running away, and if they saw her,
2:59
Speaker 1: why could not retrieve her. Also, a couple on the road,
3:04
Speaker 1: as I recall the facts, saw a young girl going
3:07
Speaker 1: in the opposite direction. She was spotted. And I mean,
3:11
Speaker 1: and I'm ignoring the elephant in the room, is why
3:14
Speaker 1: she keep trying to run away? To start with? What
3:17
Speaker 1: is causing this girl, this little tiny girl, to take
3:21
Speaker 1: out in horrible weather conditions, to leave this facility. That's
3:26
Speaker 1: my number two question. My number one question is where
3:29
Speaker 1: is she to Mark Class, founder of Class Kids Foundation,
3:32
Speaker 1: give me your understanding of how her departure went down. Well,
3:38
Speaker 1: it's exactly as you said. She was in the gym with,
3:42
Speaker 1: as I understand it, three other children and two supervisors.
3:46
Speaker 1: One of the children ran, so the supervisor went after
3:51
Speaker 1: that little girl. When I say run, I believe she
3:54
Speaker 1: left the gym facility and was outside in the exposed
3:58
Speaker 1: there and that when Serenity decided, or that's when Serenity
4:04
Speaker 1: took the opportunity to do exactly the same thing, to
4:08
Speaker 1: bolt and run away from the facility. The remaining supervisor
4:13
Speaker 1: made the decision, as I understand it, to stay with
4:16
Speaker 1: the other two children, who were in the gym and
4:20
Speaker 1: did not follow after Serenity. And as you said, two
4:24
Speaker 1: people saw Serenity heading north. I believe on the road
4:29
Speaker 1: that she was never seen again. Mark Class Founder, Class
4:32
Speaker 1: Kids Foundation, You're absolutely right to search. Now goes into
4:36
Speaker 1: day two. Take a listen to Kota. A desperate search
4:40
Speaker 1: continues in Pennington County. Search and rescue teams continue looking
4:44
Speaker 1: for nine year old Serenity Denard, who ran from the
4:46
Speaker 1: Black Hills Children's Home on Sunday. Now, in case you're
4:49
Speaker 1: not familiar with the children's home, it's on South Rockerville Road,
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Speaker 1: between Rockerville and Keystone, in a fairly remote, mostly wooded area.
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Speaker 1: She was last seen late Sunday morning at the home
4:59
Speaker 1: near Rockerville. The search and rescue teams took three dogs
5:03
Speaker 1: and used handheld thermal imaging device to search for any
5:06
Speaker 1: evidence of the girl. The search went until ten o'clock
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Speaker 1: Sunday night and started back up this morning around six.
5:12
Speaker 1: They say more than sixty five people, four dogs, and
5:15
Speaker 1: a Civil Air Patrol plane were searching the Rockerville area today.
5:19
Speaker 1: Alexis de Ville explains how the weather affected the search
5:22
Speaker 1: and how Dennard ran away from the hall. We just
5:25
Speaker 1: learned deputies are now looking for a couple who may
5:28
Speaker 1: have seen Dennard last A couple was cutting wood near
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Speaker 1: Foster Gulch and South Rockerville Road. They spoke with Children's
5:33
Speaker 1: Home Society staff Sunday morning, just before Dennard was reported
5:37
Speaker 1: missing to police. The couples described to be in the
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Speaker 1: late twenties or early thirties and driving a pickup truck.
5:43
Speaker 1: About sixty five search and rescue members, some with dogs,
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Speaker 1: are scanning the Rockerville area, but the cold weather is
5:49
Speaker 1: still affecting the search. Wow, so she was spotted by
5:54
Speaker 1: passers by and this couple, she could be anywhere. Joining
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Speaker 1: me right now is a special guest South Dakota State
6:03
Speaker 1: Senator Lynn DeSanto. Lynn, thank you so much for being
6:08
Speaker 1: with us. Senator, we received your plea on Facebook. Tell
6:15
Speaker 1: me how you became focused on Serenity Dinard. Thank you, Mancy.
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Speaker 1: I originally became involved when Serenity's biological family reached out
6:25
Speaker 1: to me and said, we need help. Our loved one,
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Speaker 1: our relative is missing, and we're not sure that enough
6:33
Speaker 1: is being done. And so they brought my attention to it,
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Speaker 1: and I started to make some phone calls, and I
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Speaker 1: realized that we had a very serious problem and someone
6:43
Speaker 1: needed to take a closer look. Senator de Santo, could
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Speaker 1: you tell me why you believe Serenity kept running away
6:52
Speaker 1: from the children's time, that she would brave sleet and
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Speaker 1: snow and horrific weather conditions to get away. Serenity had
7:01
Speaker 1: had a very tumultuous childhood. She had been in multiple
7:05
Speaker 1: foster homes, throwing up. Biological mother is incarcerated in prison,
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Speaker 1: biological father had been in and out of prison as well.
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Speaker 1: And so this is a child that came from a
7:18
Speaker 1: very difficult background who then was adopted by some people
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Speaker 1: who ended up getting divorced. And this little girl really
7:26
Speaker 1: got caught up in a lot of different problems of
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Speaker 1: adults in her life that were supposed to be taking
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Speaker 1: care of her and keeping an eye on her. And
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Speaker 1: so I think when you take that into consideration, you
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Speaker 1: have a child that has some emotional and behavioral issues
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Speaker 1: and running away and these types of behaviors are included
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Speaker 1: in that. I just can't help but wonder if she
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Speaker 1: was not threatened or deeply unhappy in some way, why
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Speaker 1: would she If she wasn't, why would she have run away?
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Speaker 1: And hearing her background down Senator makes me feel so
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Speaker 1: much worse for her. She has never had a chance
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Speaker 1: in life and if somebody picked her up in a car,
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Speaker 1: God in Heaven only knows what is happening to this
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Speaker 1: little child right now. Listen to our friend Alexis de Villa,
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Speaker 1: a KOTATV. Pennington County Search and Rescue Team leader Tammy
8:27
Speaker 1: Stradel says, between the steep terrain and the ice build up,
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Speaker 1: the team was struggling to move around and find evidence.
8:34
Speaker 1: The snow made it difficult for the crew to find
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Speaker 1: tracks and four dogs to pick up a cent Children's
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Speaker 1: Home Society Executive director Bill Colson says Dennard was the
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Speaker 1: last scene playing with three other children in the gym
8:45
Speaker 1: when she ran out of the school and headed towards
8:47
Speaker 1: the hills across the street. He says two staffers were
8:50
Speaker 1: watching the children, but neither could catch her in time.
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Speaker 1: One child in one direction, and one of our staff
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Speaker 1: members that was with those children followed her, and then
9:01
Speaker 1: Trinity went the other way, and another staff member could
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Speaker 1: pursue her because she had two other children to be responsible,
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Speaker 1: and she was the only staff remaining. Learning everything we
9:10
Speaker 1: can about this circumstance, and you know if this were
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Speaker 1: to go on unresolved and she's not located, the investigation
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Speaker 1: will remain a priority until she is located. Crime Stories
9:36
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. The search continues for missing nine year
9:45
Speaker 1: old Serenity Dennard and Rockerville, who was lasting at the
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Speaker 1: Children's Home Society. Let's head to our Alexus to deal
9:51
Speaker 1: alive near the ongoing search efforts. So alexis, do we
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Speaker 1: have any new information about Serenity. Pennington County Shares Office
9:58
Speaker 1: is thanking the public for being able to find the
10:00
Speaker 1: couple who was cutting wood. They believe they were the
10:03
Speaker 1: last people to see Serenity Lenard. Now they know they've
10:06
Speaker 1: the investagers have talked to them and found out a
10:08
Speaker 1: little bit more details to understand a little bit more
10:10
Speaker 1: of the timeline of what happened. Serenity was last seen
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Speaker 1: on Sunday morning at ten forty five, and they saw
10:17
Speaker 1: her when she ran out of the facility across Rockerville
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Speaker 1: Road and up into the hills. Now they've even added
10:23
Speaker 1: more people to the search and rescue team today. Yesterday
10:26
Speaker 1: was sixty five. Today it's more than one hundred. Now.
10:29
Speaker 1: Over here, I'm actually right beside the gaslight restaurant where
10:32
Speaker 1: they're taking a little break to have their lunch, get
10:35
Speaker 1: warmed up a little bit, and try to face the
10:37
Speaker 1: cold once again. I've talked to a few of the
10:40
Speaker 1: newbies who have come from are coming from box El.
10:42
Speaker 1: They're telling me that they're not even really prepared for
10:44
Speaker 1: this cold. Where they'd said they had the wrong shoes,
10:46
Speaker 1: they didn't have enough layers, So this cold is really
10:49
Speaker 1: something putting them behind. And it's still a big problem
10:52
Speaker 1: with this search. They've also talked about that today they're
10:56
Speaker 1: focusing about a one mile radius around in Rockerville. Are
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Speaker 1: so close to the Children's Home Society. They are checking
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Speaker 1: all the neighbors, are going through the hay piles, are
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Speaker 1: going woodpiles, asking people if they can look into that
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Speaker 1: to see if maybe Serenity might be hiding in there.
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Speaker 1: They are also asking the Sheriff's office because also asking
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Speaker 1: people of who hunt if they can check their game
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Speaker 1: cameras maybe there might be any type of footage there
11:18
Speaker 1: that could be helpful to the search. Hearing our friends
11:21
Speaker 1: at Kota, that's Kelly Schmidt and Alexis de Villa describing
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Speaker 1: the search third day for nine year old Serenity Denard
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Speaker 1: I don't understand how a child just nine years old
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Speaker 1: on foot could outpace searchers, hundreds of searchers, unless she
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Speaker 1: ended up in somebody's car, which is a very, very
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Speaker 1: bad thing to South Dakota State Senator Lynn De Santo Senator,
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Speaker 1: I'm trying to understand the thinking behind the search. We
12:01
Speaker 1: hear that the searchers were not prepared for the elements,
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Speaker 1: the weather conditions, and I get it, really really tough
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Speaker 1: cold weather conditions. So how could this child get away
12:16
Speaker 1: and they can't find her under these conditions unless she's
12:19
Speaker 1: in somebody's car. What is the thinking now regarding how
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Speaker 1: Serenity managed to outpace the searchers. That's an excellent question,
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Speaker 1: and I think that is exactly what the problem is.
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Speaker 1: Is when you look at the facts of the case,
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Speaker 1: you have a little girl, no jacket, no boots, not
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Speaker 1: dressed at all for the cold, a storm coming in
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Speaker 1: in an area that is very mountainous, filled with pine
12:48
Speaker 1: trees and difficult to train. You could be in the
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Speaker 1: best hiking boots and have excellent gear and have a
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Speaker 1: difficult time walking through this rain, and yet somehow the
13:02
Speaker 1: story has been that she somehow got away and was
13:06
Speaker 1: not found totally ill equipped. That doesn't make sense. And
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Speaker 1: so in my opinion, as well as many others, there's
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Speaker 1: a good possibility that serenity is not in the woods
13:20
Speaker 1: and we need to be looking somewhere else, you know,
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Speaker 1: State Senator DeSanto. I want to just take a moment
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Speaker 1: and tell you something. People often ask me about why
13:30
Speaker 1: I don't talk about politics, and I say, well, because
13:34
Speaker 1: it makes me sick, and I don't like politicians. I
13:38
Speaker 1: don't think they care about us. I think they're all lying.
13:42
Speaker 1: You know what hearing? You be involved and care and
13:49
Speaker 1: know the facts. You're not just b essing. You know
13:53
Speaker 1: the facts, you know what happened, You're involved, you care.
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Speaker 1: It's really meaning a lot to us in the crime
14:03
Speaker 1: fighting community because very often we feel like we're the
14:07
Speaker 1: only ones that care. And to hear I hate to
14:11
Speaker 1: even say politician, let me just a state senator be
14:14
Speaker 1: this involved in a case really gives us renewed, renewed
14:21
Speaker 1: strength to keep going. And I'm telling you Mark Class,
14:25
Speaker 1: founder of Class Kids Foundation. Mark has lived through it.
14:29
Speaker 1: He has walked the walk. He's just not talking to talk.
14:33
Speaker 1: His daughter Polly was abducted and what he did to
14:39
Speaker 1: try to bring Polly home is incredible, and what he
14:44
Speaker 1: has lived through since her death is overwhelming. Mark Class,
14:49
Speaker 1: I was I've been faulting the supervisor who just stayed
14:55
Speaker 1: there with the two kids that were safe and sound
14:58
Speaker 1: instead of running after the one that was getting out
15:01
Speaker 1: of the facility. Something's not working for me with this
15:05
Speaker 1: story that all of these rescuers, all of these searchers
15:10
Speaker 1: by air, by land, by foot with dogs, they can't
15:14
Speaker 1: find a nine year old little girl. The only thing
15:17
Speaker 1: that makes me think it's somewhat true is that couple
15:21
Speaker 1: who spotted her. I don't know that she's in the wood.
15:24
Speaker 1: Smart class. First of all, Matthew, I'd like to agree
15:27
Speaker 1: with everything that you said about the senator. You know,
15:29
Speaker 1: I've done a million photo ops with politicians, and I
15:32
Speaker 1: can count the ones that I really believe and trust.
15:35
Speaker 1: On one hand, I think what we have to do
15:39
Speaker 1: in this case is really look back, like they always
15:42
Speaker 1: say in a missing child case, look back at the
15:44
Speaker 1: last person that saw that child. And I don't necessarily
15:48
Speaker 1: mean the people that were chopping wood, but the people
15:51
Speaker 1: in the facility themselves. She was a difficult little girl,
15:55
Speaker 1: there's no question about that, and she might have just
15:58
Speaker 1: run somebody to the ground. Another thing they need to do.
16:02
Speaker 1: And I'm not quite sure how populated South Dakota is
16:08
Speaker 1: with surveillance cameras, but they need to check and probably
16:14
Speaker 1: have at this point any surveillance cameras that will give
16:17
Speaker 1: them a glimmer as to who might have been driving
16:20
Speaker 1: on that road during this time frame, within an hour
16:24
Speaker 1: or two of when this little girl disappeared. Because everything
16:27
Speaker 1: you're saying is correct, the idea that she somehow has
16:32
Speaker 1: been able to evade detection for this amount of time,
16:36
Speaker 1: given the fact that multiple agencies have been looking for her,
16:40
Speaker 1: defies credibility with me. Former FBI supervisory special Agent Jeff
16:45
Speaker 1: Cortez Jeff, I mean, I hardly know where to start,
16:50
Speaker 1: but I know something's not fitting together with me with
16:53
Speaker 1: this story. Number one, Why would a supervisor leave two
16:57
Speaker 1: children safe inside and not go after the one that's
17:02
Speaker 1: leaving the facility? To me, that defies common sense. Yes,
17:07
Speaker 1: the two may break out in a fight, Yes they
17:09
Speaker 1: may get into mischief while you're gone. Of course they will. Okay,
17:12
Speaker 1: that's just to be expected. But this is a life
17:15
Speaker 1: threatening situation, So that's a very interesting decision. Then you've
17:20
Speaker 1: got a delay over which they let me just say, euphemistically,
17:28
Speaker 1: gave the wrong time. They called nine one one, and
17:33
Speaker 1: it's really hard for me to accept a nine year
17:35
Speaker 1: old girl can outsmart dogs and one hundred volunteers and
17:40
Speaker 1: airplanes and the works. It's very difficult for me to
17:45
Speaker 1: make sense. I agree with South Dakota State Senator Lenda
17:48
Speaker 1: Santo No. I totally agree Nancy, And you can't help
17:52
Speaker 1: but see the glaring issues right out of the gates.
17:56
Speaker 1: I think if you had any one of those issues,
18:01
Speaker 1: it's less problematic. In other words, if they chased her
18:05
Speaker 1: right away, and that's why it took her took them
18:07
Speaker 1: an hour and forty five minutes to call the police,
18:09
Speaker 1: because they were running through the woods. Okay, I can,
18:12
Speaker 1: I can. I can understand that. But to not chase
18:16
Speaker 1: and not call and allow that time to lapse is
18:19
Speaker 1: certainly an area that would would stand out to investigators.
18:23
Speaker 1: You know, the time is of the essence and missing
18:25
Speaker 1: persons cases, and losing that first hour and forty five
18:29
Speaker 1: minutes is no small thing. Crime stories with Nancy Grace,
18:56
Speaker 1: but gorgeous little girl in South Dakota, any dinner missing
19:01
Speaker 1: to Randy Kessler for now, defense attorney, family law specialists,
19:05
Speaker 1: the author of divorce Protect Yourself, your kids in your future.
19:09
Speaker 1: You can find them at divorce protect dot com. Randy Kessler.
19:14
Speaker 1: We heard South Dakota State Senator Lynda Santo say, this
19:19
Speaker 1: little girl had been through so much, bounced from home
19:21
Speaker 1: to home, taken in, actually adopted. Then the couple divorces.
19:27
Speaker 1: I don't know how you somehow lose your children in
19:29
Speaker 1: a divorce. I mean, what you just leave them at
19:32
Speaker 1: the house with the dog and the doghouse and the
19:34
Speaker 1: furniture you don't want. Anyway, somehow she ends up in
19:37
Speaker 1: a children's home post divorce. That's your specialty, divorce. How
19:42
Speaker 1: the heck did that happen? You know, It's not like
19:45
Speaker 1: you bought a coffee maker at Target and then just
19:47
Speaker 1: returned it because you didn't like it. Human beings with
19:50
Speaker 1: the strangest creatures on earth. I mean, we see people
19:53
Speaker 1: that have the reverse custody fight, No you take the kids,
19:55
Speaker 1: No you take them. I want freedom. The kids are
19:58
Speaker 1: ruined my life. It's crazy what people will do, but
20:01
Speaker 1: it's me. How can that just roll off your tongue? Terrible?
20:05
Speaker 1: When I think about the twins, Oh, I'd fight the
20:11
Speaker 1: devil himself try to take the twins away from me.
20:14
Speaker 1: Davy wouldn't even suggest it, No way. He wants to live. Well,
20:18
Speaker 1: you're normal, and not everybody's normal, and there are all
20:21
Speaker 1: sorts of Look, we're in an industry. Age of mental
20:24
Speaker 1: health is so prevalent everywhere, mental health issues, mental dilemmas,
20:28
Speaker 1: mental instability. It is crazy the things that I hear,
20:31
Speaker 1: and usually I may be the first line of defense.
20:34
Speaker 1: I actually hear people that sit in my office and
20:35
Speaker 1: tell me, you know what. I know this sounds terrible,
20:38
Speaker 1: but I don't want custody. And I take a gulp,
20:41
Speaker 1: and I can either fire them and not let them
20:44
Speaker 1: hire me, or I can try to fix it and
20:45
Speaker 1: try to get some help and get a psychologist involved.
20:47
Speaker 1: But you know, some people are beyond help. But I
20:49
Speaker 1: don't understand how anybody would not say I gave birth
20:53
Speaker 1: to this child, I'm responsible for the rest of my life.
20:55
Speaker 1: That just it blows me away. But I do hear it,
20:57
Speaker 1: and I do see it. Man, I don't feel that
20:59
Speaker 1: way all. I don't feel like, oh, I'm responsible for
21:02
Speaker 1: the twins your blessing. I feel like I can't wait
21:07
Speaker 1: to pick him up. I can't wait to see him.
21:09
Speaker 1: I can't wait for him to wake up. I feel
21:11
Speaker 1: like I'm the lucky one. Doctor Ryan Fuller, we need
21:14
Speaker 1: a shrink with me, Doctor Ryan Fuller, clinical psychologist, Executive
21:17
Speaker 1: director of New York Behavioral Health and lecturer at NYU,
21:21
Speaker 1: my old alma mater, Doctor Fuller, when State Senator Linda
21:28
Speaker 1: Santo was describing what this little girl has been through,
21:32
Speaker 1: why would that make her run away? I mean, in
21:35
Speaker 1: my mind, it would make her want to cleave to
21:37
Speaker 1: the home even more because she's never had a home
21:40
Speaker 1: and now she's got one. According to what I've read,
21:44
Speaker 1: the diagnosis that were mentioned were a reactive attachment disorder
21:47
Speaker 1: which is associated Now wait wait, wait, wait, wait wait wait,
21:52
Speaker 1: doctor Ryan Fuller, you are a shrink. Now you remember
21:55
Speaker 1: you're talking to Kesther and I are just trial lawyers. Okay,
22:01
Speaker 1: then you've got an FBI guy, you've got a state senator,
22:05
Speaker 1: and you've got Mark Class and Lee Egan. We're not shrinks.
22:08
Speaker 1: What did you just say? A react of what? So
22:11
Speaker 1: it's reactive attachment disorder was one of the diagnosis, But
22:15
Speaker 1: what is that It actually in fact touches on what
22:18
Speaker 1: you're what you're raising, which is that the child might
22:21
Speaker 1: have difficulty attaching and feeling close to um you know, adults,
22:25
Speaker 1: custodial figures, parents, and things like that. And it's oftentimes
22:29
Speaker 1: related to the kinds of tough situations that children oftentimes
22:36
Speaker 1: put through foster care and you know, having issues with
22:40
Speaker 1: you know, biological parents early on might have experienced and
22:43
Speaker 1: so they don't form those stable attachments that you might
22:46
Speaker 1: see and healthy families where a child has a sense
22:49
Speaker 1: of security and warmth and predictability, that is where they're
22:52
Speaker 1: getting from their their parents, where they feel that they're
22:55
Speaker 1: they're safe, they're going to be cared for, they know
22:57
Speaker 1: what to expect and things like that. And you know,
23:00
Speaker 1: I can't speak to this particular child, but you know,
23:03
Speaker 1: I can't speak to the nature of that kind of
23:06
Speaker 1: a diagnosis, which would mean, you know, she may not
23:08
Speaker 1: have felt attached to anyone particular adult person at the
23:12
Speaker 1: home right and the other I think the other diagnosis
23:15
Speaker 1: it was listed to the disruptive mood disregulation disorder, and
23:18
Speaker 1: so that's going to be associated with issues around emotion regulation,
23:22
Speaker 1: meaning that she's going to have intense negative emotions like
23:25
Speaker 1: anger and other negative emotions. So you know that might
23:29
Speaker 1: mean that basically that she's really unhappy, and so it
23:31
Speaker 1: wouldn't be happy in that home and might think, you know,
23:34
Speaker 1: if I go elsewhere, maybe I can find something better.
23:36
Speaker 1: I just still find it impossible for a child to
23:41
Speaker 1: run out without a coat, without anything on her really
23:45
Speaker 1: except for her you know, regular clothes, into the cold,
23:49
Speaker 1: into the snow, and then she out thoughts as all
23:52
Speaker 1: the searchers, I want to go back to where you
23:54
Speaker 1: start every case, the timeline and how I got s
24:00
Speaker 1: root up at the get go. Take a listen to
24:02
Speaker 1: kV and TV Stuart Huntington. The first hours had a
24:07
Speaker 1: lot of moving parts and there were some conflicting early reports.
24:10
Speaker 1: Here's what we know today. At ten forty five am Sunday,
24:14
Speaker 1: Serenity was in the gym at the Black Hills Children's
24:17
Speaker 1: Home with two staffers and three other kids. One kid
24:20
Speaker 1: caused a disturbance and a staffer attended to that child.
24:24
Speaker 1: Serenity then ran out of the building. The other staffer
24:27
Speaker 1: stayed with the two other children. At eleven am, Serenity
24:31
Speaker 1: is last seen walking near the home At twelve twenty
24:34
Speaker 1: six pm and nine one one call goes out and
24:37
Speaker 1: Pennington County Sheriff's deputy arrives at twelve forty six. By
24:41
Speaker 1: one sixteen, several deputies are on scene and the decision
24:45
Speaker 1: is made to bring in search and rescue. We reached
24:48
Speaker 1: out repeatedly to the children's home today to ask about
24:51
Speaker 1: the hour and a half between when they say she
24:53
Speaker 1: disappeared and the call went out to nine one one.
24:57
Speaker 1: No one would speak to us, but they did offer
24:59
Speaker 1: this statement. Our hearts hold out hope for the safe
25:02
Speaker 1: return of a wonderful little girl. We are grateful for
25:05
Speaker 1: the efforts of the Pennington County Sheriff's Office and all
25:08
Speaker 1: those who continue to search for serenity in these difficult
25:12
Speaker 1: winter conditions. The staff the Sheriff's office had this to say.
25:16
Speaker 1: They got things going on there, They got protocols and
25:19
Speaker 1: stuff that they do. So I can't answer to all that,
25:22
Speaker 1: But what I can tell you is is we responded
25:25
Speaker 1: as quickly as we could once we got the information. Okay,
25:30
Speaker 1: right there too, you Mark, Class Founder, Class Kids Foundation.
25:34
Speaker 1: I've got so many problems with what I just heard. Well,
25:38
Speaker 1: you know, it turns out that the home was working
25:40
Speaker 1: off of a twenty year old plan. It didn't take
25:43
Speaker 1: into account to the contingency of a little girl running away,
25:47
Speaker 1: and they completely and totally failed in their response at
25:52
Speaker 1: that hour and a half. That hour and a half
25:54
Speaker 1: a lag time. Joining me right now, South Dakota State
25:57
Speaker 1: Senator Lynn DeSanto, what does the home have to say, Senator, Well,
26:03
Speaker 1: there's been a number of interesting things that have come
26:05
Speaker 1: to light through this particular situation. The executive director has
26:10
Speaker 1: announced recently that he is going to be leaving Children's
26:14
Speaker 1: Home Society. It has also come to life that in fact,
26:18
Speaker 1: the staff had radios that were supposed to be used
26:22
Speaker 1: if there were this type of a situation. Unfortunately they
26:26
Speaker 1: were on different channels and so they could not hear
26:30
Speaker 1: each other, and so there was really no solid plan
26:36
Speaker 1: or protocol in place. And I think that the home
26:41
Speaker 1: is really going to have to make some changes. They
26:44
Speaker 1: lost a child. They have a very important job keeping
26:50
Speaker 1: children safe and they have failed at that and it
26:54
Speaker 1: is just a tragedy all the way around. Yeah. The
26:57
Speaker 1: other thing, South Dakota State Senator with me, alien to Santo,
27:01
Speaker 1: who is raising the alarm to all of us regarding
27:06
Speaker 1: Serenity Dinner, a nine year old little girl. These homes
27:12
Speaker 1: are four children, many of them having been bounced around
27:18
Speaker 1: from home to home. I mean, that's how you end
27:20
Speaker 1: up in an orphanage. There's no nothing good leaves you
27:24
Speaker 1: to an orphanage. Okay, You're not coming from a happy
27:28
Speaker 1: home where your parents can't wait to pick you up
27:30
Speaker 1: in the afternoon. It's not like that. And my point is, Senator,
27:35
Speaker 1: that they need to be equipped for eventualities like this
27:41
Speaker 1: like this to protect the child. State Senator to Santo, absolutely,
27:48
Speaker 1: and I think it's pretty clear that that did not
27:51
Speaker 1: happen in this situation. And you know, when you look
27:54
Speaker 1: at Serenity, this is a little girl. You see a
27:57
Speaker 1: little girl's face looking at you. This could be anyone's daughter,
28:02
Speaker 1: and she deserved better than this, and she is important.
28:06
Speaker 1: And that's why I appreciate so many people like you
28:10
Speaker 1: getting involved in this case and caring, because it would
28:13
Speaker 1: be easy, because of her past and because of where
28:15
Speaker 1: she is, to not care. It would be easy for
28:19
Speaker 1: people to disregard her as a troubled child. But this
28:22
Speaker 1: is a little girl that is a troubled child, but
28:26
Speaker 1: for very good reasons that are not her fault. Crime
28:43
Speaker 1: stories with Nancy Grace moving ahead from that point, then
28:50
Speaker 1: tell me you know day to day. Were you able
28:55
Speaker 1: to work? I mean, what were you doing? This has
28:57
Speaker 1: got to be a terrible time emotionally, I mean, don't
29:00
Speaker 1: just go home and go on with your life. So
29:02
Speaker 1: tell me what those following days, just how were you coping?
29:06
Speaker 1: What were you doing? They were hell? Well, you know,
29:11
Speaker 1: like I said, we wanted to stay out of their
29:13
Speaker 1: way because we wanted them to be doing everything that
29:16
Speaker 1: they can possibly be doing and not get in their way.
29:20
Speaker 1: At the same time, our hearts just say, you know,
29:27
Speaker 1: it was a constant up and down. We weren't working.
29:31
Speaker 1: Brian does a lot of work from home and tried
29:33
Speaker 1: to work, but he wasn't able to work. I just
29:38
Speaker 1: I wasn't working at all. You were hearing State Senator
29:41
Speaker 1: Lynda Santo speaking with Serenity's adoptive parents saying that then
29:47
Speaker 1: the days after her disappearance, their lives have been hell.
29:52
Speaker 1: They can't work. They also go on to state that
29:55
Speaker 1: they thought Serenity was living with her biological dad. Now
30:02
Speaker 1: this doesn't make any sense to me, joining me a
30:05
Speaker 1: special guest, South Dakota State Senator Lynda Santo, she had
30:09
Speaker 1: been in the home. How could they not know where
30:12
Speaker 1: she was? So Nancy. The way that it worked out
30:16
Speaker 1: is is that there was two people that adopted Serenity
30:19
Speaker 1: and ended up getting divorced a year later, and both
30:23
Speaker 1: then remarried other people. And at that time, the agreement
30:27
Speaker 1: was that the adoptive father would have physical custody of
30:31
Speaker 1: Serenity and the adoptive mother would have visitation and doing
30:37
Speaker 1: every other weekend or some type of an arrangement like that.
30:41
Speaker 1: At some point the communication broke down between these two
30:44
Speaker 1: people and he actually placed her at children's home without
30:49
Speaker 1: the knowledge of the adoptive mother. This woman was at
30:53
Speaker 1: work one day and sees there's a missing child on
30:56
Speaker 1: the news and looks up and it's her daughter. And
31:00
Speaker 1: that's how she became aware that her ex husband had
31:04
Speaker 1: placed Serenity at children's home. Okay, whoa, whoa wait right there,
31:10
Speaker 1: State Senator to Santo, I believe everything that you just
31:15
Speaker 1: told me in that I think that's what the adoptive
31:19
Speaker 1: mother told you, Mark class what happened to every other weekend?
31:23
Speaker 1: You know, Nancy, two little girls somehow outsmarted the entire
31:28
Speaker 1: staff of this children's home, and the end result is
31:31
Speaker 1: one of those little girls lives is very much in danger.
31:35
Speaker 1: Now and I want a salute law enforcement because they
31:39
Speaker 1: continue to go out into the wild and look for
31:43
Speaker 1: this little girl. She's getting me attention now that she
31:46
Speaker 1: deserved and did not receive for her entire life. Well
31:50
Speaker 1: as usual, I have to agree with everything you just said.
31:53
Speaker 1: You're right, and you know, cops and law enforcement always
31:57
Speaker 1: get the bad rap when a cop or a sheriff
32:01
Speaker 1: does something wrong, and they do things wrong, I get it,
32:04
Speaker 1: But for the most part, this is who they are.
32:07
Speaker 1: They're out there in the snow, in the wild, up
32:10
Speaker 1: and down the side of mountains, trying to find this
32:12
Speaker 1: little girl and they never get the credit. State Senator
32:17
Speaker 1: to Santo, explain to me how the mom was she
32:20
Speaker 1: not doing her visitation or had Sunity just been in
32:24
Speaker 1: the home a day or two? I mean, how did
32:27
Speaker 1: she not see her on the weekends like she was
32:29
Speaker 1: supposed to. Well, there has just recently been a lawsuit
32:32
Speaker 1: filed between these two parties, and she is claiming parental
32:36
Speaker 1: alienation in her lawsuit that he was not responsive to
32:40
Speaker 1: calls and that he was in fact breaking a court
32:43
Speaker 1: order saying that she was to get visitation and he
32:47
Speaker 1: was not allowing it. So that is going to be
32:49
Speaker 1: hashed out in court here over the next couple of weeks. Okay,
32:53
Speaker 1: so then we really don't know. She may have been
32:55
Speaker 1: trying to see the daughter and was prevented from seeing
32:59
Speaker 1: the daughter or somehow blocked from seeing the daughter. So
33:02
Speaker 1: before I come down to you hard on her, I
33:04
Speaker 1: don't know those facts yet, and they are not clear
33:07
Speaker 1: to me. You're absolutely right. I don't know why the
33:12
Speaker 1: adopted dad put her in this home. Somebody put her
33:15
Speaker 1: in the home. I know that much. And now she's gone, Nancy,
33:19
Speaker 1: go ahead. A little bit of a little bit of
33:21
Speaker 1: insight that has been brought to light, as the adopted
33:24
Speaker 1: father had recently remarried a woman, and there's reports that
33:29
Speaker 1: there was some very difficult and strained relationships that were
33:34
Speaker 1: occurring between Serenity and the new mother, the new wife,
33:39
Speaker 1: and there actually had been reports made by Serenity of
33:44
Speaker 1: some mistreatment to her by the new wife, and so
33:48
Speaker 1: that certainly seems to be a factor in the mix
33:51
Speaker 1: on why that adopted father made the decision to take
33:55
Speaker 1: her to Children's home and place her there. I think
33:57
Speaker 1: I would have placed any wife add on the street
34:00
Speaker 1: before I would place a child in home. But I
34:04
Speaker 1: don't know what he was thinking. Maybe he thought he
34:07
Speaker 1: was doing the best thing for the child. I don't
34:10
Speaker 1: know why the mother wasn't seeing her. All that aside,
34:14
Speaker 1: I know that she's gone, and I know the search
34:17
Speaker 1: is on. Take a listen to this. Yesday night, authorities
34:20
Speaker 1: moved the search from a rescue to a recovery effort.
34:24
Speaker 1: The Pennington County Sheriff's Office says if Serenity has been
34:27
Speaker 1: outside this entire time, it's unlikely she survived. However, they
34:32
Speaker 1: have not ruled out the possibility that she could still
34:34
Speaker 1: be alive in a warm shelter or was picked up
34:37
Speaker 1: by someone. More than one hundred people helped in the
34:39
Speaker 1: search for Serenity di Nard on Tuesday, but now only
34:43
Speaker 1: people from the Paignton County Sheriff's Office remain in the area.
34:47
Speaker 1: We still have deputies up there, we still are manning
34:50
Speaker 1: our command post, but as far as ground search people
34:55
Speaker 1: that are back in the woods, we don't have them
34:58
Speaker 1: Folks right now doing that. We suspended that at approximately
35:03
Speaker 1: four or five o'clock yesterday. The Sheriff's office says it's
35:06
Speaker 1: still trying to figure out all the details of what
35:08
Speaker 1: happened the morning Serenity disappeared. We have five investigators that
35:13
Speaker 1: are assigned to this that this is all they're doing,
35:16
Speaker 1: is working every lead, every possibility. Again, they continue to
35:20
Speaker 1: interview staff and other children in the home and family
35:24
Speaker 1: and neighbors, anybody that might have possibly been on that road.
35:28
Speaker 1: Hearing our Free Kota's Alexia de Villa of the search
35:32
Speaker 1: is on for this little girl. To Jeff Gretz, a
35:36
Speaker 1: former FBI supervisory special agent, what should the search be now,
35:41
Speaker 1: because I've never been convinced she was in those still
35:44
Speaker 1: in those woods, you know, I think in terms of
35:48
Speaker 1: what the investigators are going to be focusing on now,
35:51
Speaker 1: it's going to be you know, a lot of what
35:52
Speaker 1: you're doing keeping this story in the news, tickle the
35:56
Speaker 1: complaint line, so to speak, putting our photo out there,
36:00
Speaker 1: covering multiple avenues, one obviously searching the woods and continuing
36:05
Speaker 1: to search, while at the same time chasing down other leads,
36:10
Speaker 1: you know, identifying sex offenders in the area that may
36:12
Speaker 1: have a propensity towards young children, interviewing, interviewing all of them,
36:17
Speaker 1: exhausting those leads, answering any answered questions to date related
36:22
Speaker 1: to the parents, the children's center, local and regional sex
36:27
Speaker 1: offenders locking down and identifying any CCTV in the area.
36:34
Speaker 1: You know, I think one of the biggest takeaways from
36:36
Speaker 1: this story is that, you know, emergency preparedness has has
36:39
Speaker 1: to be more than words on a page. Policies, procedures.
36:42
Speaker 1: They need to be updated reviewed, staff need to train,
36:46
Speaker 1: they need to rehearse. This stuff has to stay up
36:49
Speaker 1: to date so that situations like this don't happen in
36:51
Speaker 1: the future. Man, you're telling it, and I guarantee you
36:53
Speaker 1: South Dakota State Center to LANDA. Santo is all over
36:56
Speaker 1: that Mark Class Founder, Class Kids Foundation. What now? What
37:01
Speaker 1: should they be doing? This is your specialty. If I
37:04
Speaker 1: can add absolutely nothing to what the special agent just said,
37:07
Speaker 1: he completely covered the next steps, the steps that have
37:11
Speaker 1: been taken in the next steps. And let's just hope
37:14
Speaker 1: law enforcement is able to somehow find this little girl
37:17
Speaker 1: and that maybe the public can stay vigilant. Somebody must
37:21
Speaker 1: know something, somebody might know something, and hopefully they'll come
37:24
Speaker 1: forward in this case can be resolved. Nancy Joehead, if
37:27
Speaker 1: you know Warren Jeffs, he is the polygamous fact that
37:32
Speaker 1: you know was arrested for marrying off twelve and thirteen
37:35
Speaker 1: year old little girls. You know, this little girl is
37:38
Speaker 1: missing within the vicinity of that place, and I would
37:42
Speaker 1: like to see that looked at further as an angle.
37:45
Speaker 1: And so far they've been told, I've been told they've
37:48
Speaker 1: been blocked. So this is a very unusual situation. We
37:54
Speaker 1: stand by as just as unfolds and the search for
37:57
Speaker 1: nine year old Serenity goes on. If you have information
38:01
Speaker 1: on Serenity, please dial six zero five three nine four
38:06
Speaker 1: six one one five repeat six zero five three nine
38:11
Speaker 1: four six one one five Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off,
38:17
Speaker 1: goodbye friend,