[Nancy Grace, Hln:] Breaking news tonight, live, Jacksonville. A desperate mom calls 911 after her 8-year-old daughter vanishes from a Walmart superstore. After a frantic search, authorities locate Cherish`s tiny body bloody, half-clothed, submerged in murky water. Does video and just obtained 911 calls leave behind clues in the 8-year-old girl`s disappearance? Tonight, we go deep inside the investigation. We discover disturbing details, including two previously hidden critical calls that could help crack this case, and the shocking possibility Cherish could have been saved. And tonight, joining us live, the little girl who got away.
[Unidentified Male:] The desperate 911 call she made from the Walmart where she last saw her 8-year-old daughter, Cherish.
[Perrywinkle:] And I don`t understand why he would
[Unidentified Male:] Newly released surveillance video shows him with that family and then casually walking out of the store with Cherish next to him.
[Grace:] Breaking right now, "Star Trek" star`s $170 million love child claim. The son of an actress mom boldly goes where no man has gone before, firing torpedoes in the courtroom that the "Star Trek" superstar, Captain Kirk, is his bio dad, that the lead star of the "Star Trek" franchise, "Boston Legal," "T.J. Hooker," and of course, Priceline, has an affair with his mom, and now, years later, demands nearly $200 million. But is he trying to live long and prosper from a fake connection?
[Unidentified Male:] Captain Kirk. The amount of integrity in both universes, Mr. Spock. William Shatner is being sighed for $170 million by a man claiming to be Shatner`s long lost son. So when I see this guy, I should call him out on the air. Yes. I mean, I don`t know what he`s doing or why he`s doing that.
[Grace:] That`s from CBS TV distribution and 102.5 The Bone radio. Breaking right now. Mom`s lover goes on the run. A massive manhunt follows when a 2-year-old little girl found, according to doctors, dead from severe child abuse. So what about Mommy? Where was Mommy during all of this? Did she lie to cover up, even accepting Gofundme donations? Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. Bombshell tonight, live to Jacksonville. A desperate mother calls 911 when her 8-year-old little girl goes missing in a Walmart superstore. After a frantic search, authorities locate the tiny body of Cherish. She is bloody, half-clothed, submerged face down in murky water, under a log. Does video and a 911 call leave clues in the 8-year-old girl`s disappearance? Tonight, we go deep inside the investigation and discover disturbing details, including two previously hidden critical calls that could help crack the case. And tonight, the shocking possibility that we have been wrestling with. Could Cherish have been saved? And tonight, another little girl who got away. I want to go straight out to Larry Hannan, court reporter with "The Florida Times-Union." But first, Larry, watch your monitor. I want to pull up the video that we`re talking about, the heart-breaking video of little Cherish. There`s her mom, and there`s who we believe to be the killer, in the black outfit, short sleeves, long pants, whitish baseball cap. See him honing in on Cherish? She`s the 8-year-old little girl with the long, dark hair. See, he follows her, not only with his body but his eyes, wherever she goes, even into the changing room. Now, he meets the mom at a Dollar store and he sees the mom is having difficulty paying and there they go out the door. The mom thinks they`re just going inside the store to the McDonald`s located in the Walmart superstore. But instead, he lures her out to his car. Watch. Watch him. Keep your eye on the video. See him targeting her, ignoring the mom and the other two little girls, following along with her? Now, they met earlier at the Dollar store. They come to Walmart. He sees she can`t pay for the children`s clothes, offers to pay, says he`s waiting on his wife. But when they get to the McDonald`s, look, the McDonald`s is just off to one side, to the left. They go out the door. Keep watching. They go to his white van. Now, Larry Hannan, I want you to hear one of the two phone calls that we uncovered. And let me tell you, everybody. This is getting extremely complicated. We have learned that police officers have been thrown out of the homicide unit, that they have been reprimanded, that they have been suspended for getting to the scene, not reporting this as a kidnapping to the superiors for hours, not telling the media for five hours. All this time, the little girl`s life could have been saved. But what about this 911 call? Listen.
[Operator:] Jacksonville 911
[Unidentified Female:] Hi, we are calling about a suspicious van over here, a white van. It was parked behind some bushes really deep. And then we heard that it was... 911
[Operator:] The nearest crossroad?
[Unidentified Female:] Yes, ma`am. I know it`s a white van. It`s not there anymore. But we don`t know if he dumped anything because
[Operator:] Right.
[Unidentified Female:] So we are not sure that`s the van, but a white van was pushed all the way to the back of the bushes this morning. 911
[Operator:] Near some bushes?
[Unidentified Female:] Right behind the church. 911
[Operator:] And how long ago did you see it?
[Unidentified Female:] Oh, man
[Operator:] All right. You said it`s now gone?
[Unidentified Female:] Yes, ma`am. 911
[Operator:] But you think he may have just in case he might have dumped something?
[Unidentified Female:] Right. We don`t know, but just in case. It looked suspicious because it was all the way to the back.
[Grace:] Larry Hannan, court reporter, "Florida Times-Union," that call makes me sick. And I`ll tell you why. Did you hear them say, We just found out a little girl was kidnapped. We`re just hearing it. But we saw this way, way, way back, hours ago. It`s gone now. If this had been handled properly, they would have heard the Amber Alert. They would have known about the Amber Alert. Everybody would have. They saw the white van! That is where he raped and murdered this little girl, in the back of his van. They could have stopped this, had they known. Did you hear the caller, Larry, say, We just heard about the little girl?
[Larry Hannan, "florida Times-union":] Yeah, the one thing I should point out is these were the early morning hours. It`s quite possible these people wouldn`t have been awake or seen the van before then. But you know, the sheriff took action after this incident and disciplined several officers for not responding quickly enough.
[Grace:] Larry, I appreciate that, but the girl is dead, OK? And I`m glad the sheriff, the elected sheriff, did the right thing by disciplining all these officers, but that doesn`t change anything. Five hours passed before the media was alerted. The Amber Alert was all messed up. And not only that, when police got there, they didn`t they acted like they didn`t believe what the mother was saying. She was standing there saying, My daughter could be being killed and raped right now. Did you hear her saying that over and over? She`s not getting any action. They`re acting like she`s making the whole thing up. Here are people seeing the van go by and nobody knows. The child is in the van. If you look at the inside of the van, that is where the child was raped and murdered, for Pete`s sake! Hold on. I`m being joined right now by two special guests. I mentioned when we first said good evening that there is a little girl that got away. Several years ago, this little girl was stopped by the same guy. And when you hear white van I see you crying. I see you, Mommy. I cannot imagine sitting beside my daughter or my son right now and reliving this! Tell me, why are you crying? What about Cherish`s story is impacting you this way? Your girl is safe now. Ma`am, what has moved you to tears?
[Stephanie Thornton, Mother:] It`s sad. It feels like nothing`s being done about none of it!
[Grace:] Tell us in your own words, Chrystina, what happened when you had a brush with Donald James Smith. What happened?
[Chrystina Thornton, Girl Who Got Away:] All I can remember is when he called my grandmother and called me and started asking me all these sexually [sic] questions and stuff.
[Grace:] Ms. Thornton with me is Chrystina and Stephanie Thornton. It is a mom and a daughter. And her terrible encounter with the same man happened when she was just 9 years old. Ms. Thornton, what happened? Stephanie, how did I still don`t understand how he got your daughter`s number, figured out who she was. He had to be stalking her, to start with. But tell me what happened when you picked that phone up.
[S. Thornton:] Well, it started with he called my oldest son, Chrystina`s brother, and asked for Chrystina Hand. And my son said that she lived with her mother. He asked for my number. My son gave it to him because he said he was a DCF worker, that his sister had been abducted by her grandfather so he needed to speak with her. So he gave Donald Smith my phone number. Donald Smith contacted me that morning and said he was with Department of Children and Families. He read me a like, a badge number. And he started telling me that my daughter had been abducted by her grandfather. There had been allegations called in that her grandfather was sexually molesting her. I had argued with him for a while on the phone and told him that I didn`t believe that. And he just started I mean, he sounded so professional, so professional.
[Grace:] And let me understand this, Stephanie. He wanted to get your daughter on the phone, right?
[S. Thornton:] Yes, ma`am.
[Grace:] So ultimately, he at that moment, she happened to be at the grandmother`s house, right?
[S. Thornton:] Yes, ma`am. She was in Callahan at her grandmother`s house.
[Grace:] So he called the grandma`s house. Justin, do you have the tears of what he was saying to Chrystina on the phone? I really don`t want to ask her. Chrystina, could you tell us as best you know what? I`m going to ask your mom. What did he say to your daughter on the phone, Ms. Thornton?
[S. Thornton:] Her grandmother put her on the phone, and his first words for her was, Do you wear a bra? Then his second words was, Do you have hair down there?
[Grace:] She`s 9 years old? She`s 9 years old?
[S. Thornton:] Yes, ma`am.
[Grace:] Then what happened?
[S. Thornton:] And she started crying. She handed the phone to her grandmother. And she hadn`t said nothing to her grandmother of what was said to her. And her grandmother was talking to Donald Smith on the phone, and he said that they had to meet at McDonald`s so they could meet up, that she had to go to Fernadina hospital to be checked out to see if she had been messed with.
[Grace:] And let me guess, Ms. Thornton, he was going to take her to the hospital? So he got the grandmother to actually did she bring Chrystina to the McDonald`s?
[S. Thornton:] Yes, ma`am. She met him up there. And but in the mix of that, while she got dressed and everything to get her up there, I had got on the phone with DCF. I called them because something was telling me in my mind that DCF...
[Grace:] Thank God!
[S. Thornton:] ... doesn`t call. They come to your house.
[Grace:] That`s just what Cherish`s mother said, I thought something was wrong, but I didn`t trust myself. So you go to McDonald`s, right?
[S. Thornton:] I contacted DCF first. They said there were no allegations made against my child. So I called JSO as I was getting in my vehicle to go to Callahan because the grandmother done said that she was meeting him up there. So I got into the McDonald`s parking lot. I was flying. I got there. And there was a white van sitting two cars over from her and her grandmother. So I kind of locked them in...
[Grace:] A white van. I cannot believe this, the same thing as with baby Cherish! I want you to hear what he said to police when they questioned him about luring yet another little girl in a white van. Listen.
[Unidentified Male:] You have not come up with any reason why you might have been in contact with this family on the west side or...
[Donald Smith, Accused:] None whatsoever.
[Unidentified Male:] ... on the west side or...
[Smith:] None whatsoever. I don`t know anything from Adam or Eve. Never even heard of her.
[Unidentified Male:] No?
[Smith:] Never heard of them.