[Banfield:] He was once known as America`s dad. Now, he`ll be known as a sexually violent predator. Bill Cosby, sentenced to between three and 10 years in prison today. And look at that mugshot. Look at the mood on his face. All of this for drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, a former college basketball player, and after more than four years of accusations from oh, I don`t know around 60 other women. The final nail is in the coffin for Cosby. The comedian was taken from the courtroom in handcuffs this afternoon. Let me tell you, the silence was deafening. Look at that. He is going to spend his first night of his sentence behind bars tonight. Denied bail. And at 81 years old and in poor health, that could mean Cosby, this inmate, might spend the rest of his life in prison. The next hour of "Crime & Justice" starts now.
[Chris Watts, Suspect In Murdering Wife And Family:] She wasn`t here. The kids weren`t here. Nobody was here.
[Unidentified Female:] No movement in between those times of me dropping her off, Chris leaving and then me coming back.
[Banfield:] And first he said they were missing.
[Watts:] I have no information of where she is.
[Banfield:] But then they turned up murdered. Now he`s saying his wife killed the kids.
[Watts:] We had an emotional conversation. But I`ll leave it at that.
[Banfield:] But police say he killed them all.
[Unidentified Female:] He`s a monster.
[Banfield:] And he may have just left a trail of clues behind in the rush to get out of the house.
[Unidentified Female:] Something is seriously wrong
[Banfield:] Tonight, new reports about the state of that home that became a crime scene.
[Watts:] We got canine units, the sheriff`s department is going through the house trying to get a scent and
[Unidentified Male:] Feel free to say if no if you want to.
[Watts:] No, like you`re good. Just yes, go ahead.
[Banfield:] Plus, how did the Watts girls died.
[Unidentified Male:] Strangulation involves force that can increased the amount of skin cells.
[Banfield:] Someone has the answers, why aren`t they sharing?
[Unidentified Male:] The coroner`s office doesn`t have the report. It`s possible maybe they don`t want to have the answers out there.
[Banfield:] Why the dark details are staying secret for now.
[Unidentified Male:] Is this unusual? Absolutely.
[Banfield:] Good evening Everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield and this is Crime & Justice. Tonight, the darker details of this case hang in what you could call a paper purgatory. Court documents stuck between courts and the coroner and the actual forensic pathologist who got a look at the Watts` girls corpses. We`re going to get to that in a moment. But first, we have exclusive new details tonight, from the people in Colorado who are perhaps the most impacted by the case, the family members of Shanann Watts. The family members haunted by these murders of Shanann and her babies. The family members who buried Shanann and those two daughters, just weeks ago in North Carolina but tonight find themselves back in Frederick, Colorado, the same place where Chris Watts is accused of killing them. A source close to the case telling me that not only Shanann`s mother Sandy Rzucek but also Shanann`s brother and best friend, Frankie Rzucek traveling back from North Carolina back to Colorado, the scene of the crime. It is so tragic when you think of what they`re going through every single day. After burying them and hoping for some peace in this case, instead they are back in Colorado, this family. And not only that, they are back for specific reasons. They are back to quote, "take care of things." What entails, not entirely sure. But I can tell you this. Several days both Sandy Rzucek and her son Frankie went back to Colorado. They were seen checking into the Carbon Valley Recreational Center. Why that is unclear? What that recreational center may offer them either respite or information, also unclear. Whether they met with law enforcement at this time, not clear. But Steve Moore is a former FBI Agent and Investigator. Also a CNN Law Enforcement Analyst. Perhaps you can clear up why it might be that this family now six weeks after the murder would be traveling back to Colorado, spending several days there, and doing something which I can say a source close to the case has told me is taking care of things. What do you think that means?
[Steve Moore, Cnn Law Enforcement Analyst:] Well, besides the normal normal process of possessions and things like that, there may the police may want background on the husband, and certainly Shanann spoke to her family about him, and my guess is that they do they want to do a deep debrief with the family on any and every single thing she said to them.
[Banfield:] So you think he`s you think that they may be going back there not just to take care of a few things, but also to speak again with police officers or investigators there?
[Moore:] I think so, and maybe prosecutors specifically, because the police have put together their case, and now the prosecutors have to go in court and prove it. And so the prosecutors, you know, the investigators and prosecutors work at different paces at different times. And it`s very possible that they want to meet with the family. Of course with the detectives, but they want to start building the entire case.
[Banfield:] Let me ask you something else, the source tells me that the that the Prosecutor`s Office has been in regular contact with Shanann`s family back in North Carolina. And often the communications that come from the office to the family as opposed to the other way around, getting questions answered, et cetera. But the communications from the prosecutors to this family are offering them hope. Actually suggesting the prosecutors are going to get this guy, are going to find justice for this family. Does that sound out of the norm?
[Moore:] No, because when you`re dealing with families of victims, you have to give them something. You can`t just say, this is we`re not we`re not going to get anything done here. I believe that they have reason to tell them that. They have reason to believe they`re going to get justice for them, as much justice as you can get, knowing they`re not going to bring the victims back. But it is a very delicate and painful thing for both sides for the prosecutors to work with the victim`s families, because sometimes the families want more from the prosecutors than they can give. And sometimes the prosecutors want more from the family than they have, so it`s very, very difficult.
[Banfield:] So Steve, what do you make of this that they were checking in with some friends. In fact one of Shanann`s watts best friends, long time best friends who also was in Colorado, Lauren Arnold, apparently with Shanann`s mother Sandy, and Shanann`s brother Frankie as well as Lauren Arnold`s mother, Lorie Williamson Carter, all four of them checking in at this Carbon Valley Recreational Center. Do you see that as anything potentially investigative? I mean recreational centers can be anything but they can also be places with a lot of workout facilities and we all know that Chris Watts was doing a lot of working out.
[Moore:] Yes. I don`t know if they would put the victim`s families in an area where evidence would be found. But the fact that they`re bringing people that were confidants of Shanann is indicative of something to me. It tells me they are trying to find out what was in her mind in the months previous to this, maybe in the years previous to this, maybe in the years previous to this. They`re going to try to build a case not just on the facts in evidence, but they`re going to try and build it on a profile of how Chris degenerated to a point where he was willing to kill his family.
[Banfield:] Let`s be clear, the Carbon Valley Recreational Center is right in Frederick. It is in that in that small community where Shanann and her children lived with Chris Watts, before being murdered. But we don`t know anything about it. I mean this could have been, like I said it could have been respite. It could have been them going for lunch. It could have them just going to get a quiet day. We really don`t know why these four were seen checking into the Carbon Valley Recreational Center or what exactly the several days in Colorado are all about. But I want to bring in Pat Lalama, Crime Journalist. Pat, one of the very fascinating aspects of this case which we broke on this show last flight, and then surprise, surprise started seeing motions flying around this morning, was that the prosecutor`s office had a deadline of today, to share the autopsies with the defense. The defense has been barking mad about not having discovery shared with them, understandably, right? But he prosecutors didn`t have the autopsy. They`re being ordered by the court to turn over the autopsies. But they don`t have the autopsies. So they filed a motion today telling the court, you`re barking up the wrong tree with us. But I am fascinated about this, because it seems to me that the only people who are in possession of these official reports are the people who did the forensic science. The people in the operating rooms, who actually witnessed these three bodies?
[Pat Lalama, Crime Journalist:] Well, Ashleigh, it`s really, you know, not to take the side of the coroner`s office. Everybody wants to see these details, but the prosecution is saying, at this point we don`t have everything. A lot of forensic evidence is yet to be completed, and when we do dear defense team. We know the rules of the court. And I have to tell you Ashleigh, I doubt that they`re going to mess with procedure. They`re not going to hold back something that they know the defense the defense is entitled to have. I think we have to give it a little more time. I don`t see this is shenanigans. It`s the way the game is played at this point.
[Banfield:] And I`ll tell you what. It`s not the first time we`ve witnessed this game.
[Lalama:] Yes.
[Banfield:] So here`s a very, very unfortunate coincidence. And we are not casting aspersions at all.
[Lalama:] Right.
[Banfield:] On this coroner but this particular coroner in this case was sued back in 2002 because very unfortunate for him, he took a job with the coroner`s office in Jefferson County, Colorado. It`s not this county. But it was Jefferson County Colorado. And lo and behold that was the county where the Columbine Massacre happened, and that was the county where Dylan Klebold`s body was being housed and the autopsy was being performed. Dylan Klebold one of two mass murderers along with Eric Harris killing thoe children at Columbine. His body and his autopsy was being withheld believe it or not.
[Lalama:] Right.
[Bandfield:] And that coroner was sued for not releasing the full autopsy. But again it may be the same coroner we`re talking about now, but he wasn`t the guy who did it. He joined the team later.
[Lalama:] Right.
[Bandfield:] He just happened to be named in the suit, it is fascinating now to see that the Dylan Klebold autopsy was also withheld for a very long time in that crime. Let me bring in Joseph Scott Morgan quickly here. Joe, you are a certified death investigator. You teach this stuff for God`s sake. I mean if anyone knows it as professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University. Not only that you`ve also participated, this is news to me. In about 10,000 autopsy, is that correct?
[Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University:] Yes, yes, you`re absolutely correct. I worked in Atlanta and the coroner in New Orleans.
[Bandfield:] So you would know the ins and outs of how this works. Can you help me to sort of navigate why the delay from the person actually performing the autopsy, the medical examiner, the forensic pathologist, why that report has not been delivered in seven weeks, seven weeks. Now six and half weeks or so, to the coroner`s office so the coroner, the elected guy can actually deliver it to prosecutors? What could be the holdup?
[Morgan:] Yes. I`m not going to speak directly to the Watts case. But I will tell you based upon my experience some of the things that come into play here are cooperation with the D.A. The D.A. has asked that this not be released at this point. Sometimes the police will ask for these sort of thing, and sometimes if you have a staff of forensic pathologists, keep in mind these are highly technical people. They`re very bright, intelligent. They go over jot and tattle if you will in these cases. Sometimes they make decisions on mass. They try to come to a determination to help the primary forensic primary forensic pathologist, and sometimes they don`t agree. I would think that, you know, we talked a lot about postmortem interval in this case. We don`t know how oil actually affects bodies in a suspension like this. So, they may be going back and forth on scientific details. Then of course, people think about for instance layers of buffering that take place. You have the D.A. saying they don`t have it, the police saying they don`t have it. Then you have the coroner saying they don`t have it. And keep in mind in this particular case, the M.E.`s they have are employed as consultants. You can actually see that on their county website. They are not listed as direct employees but listed as consultants, Consultant Forensic Pathologists. So that adds another layer to this.
[Bandfield:] So let me bring in Donna Kauffmann, an Investigative Journalist. She`s also the author of Anne Rule presents Final Exams. Donna, you have covered so many of these crime stories. And you covered the JonBenet Ramsey case. And it might be that our audience doesn`t remember this one critical detail. But in that particular case as well, Jonbenet Ramsey`s autopsy was withheld from the public for how long?
[Donna Kauffmann, Investigative Journalist:] Eight Months.
[Banfield:] Eight months.
[Kauffmann:] And it was performed on December 27th. She died on the 25th or 26th in Boulder, Colorado. The 27th was the autopsy, it was very thorough. They even brought in colposcope which is the camera that can take photos of her internal injuries and they sat on it. And because
[Bandfield:] So tell me why? What was the reason ultimately because now so many years later I`m sure that that`s all had sunshine you know walked upon it. What was the reason they held on for eight months to that autopsy?
[Kauffmann:] Well first, they released it without the genital findings. And we said hey you`re missing a few pages here. And then they released the whole thing. They just wanted to get their ducks in a row while they were doing that, while we were all waiting. And believe me this was an international case. People were going to people who worked in that office with buckets of cash and saying just give me a copy of it. And they were refusing all offers of that nature. At the same time, the Boulder D.A. was meeting with other D.A.`s in the state, the FBI, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, international, national help, three pediatric gynecologists, I mean, it was a world class team
[Bandfield:] Did they also did the experts who did her autopsy also have disagreements about what ultimately killed her? We were trying to figure out if she was killed by the ligature or whether she was killed by the blow to the head. Is that also a factor in why they held the public release of Jonbenet`s autopsy for so long?
[Kauffmann:] And kept expanding their teams of experts to different opinions, what they the question, on the final exam, said asphyxia by strangulation, associated with cranial cerebral trauma.
[Bandfield:] So both? Yes, they didn`t it doesn`t sound like they decided one or the other.
[Kauffmann:] That`s means the asphyxia the ligature happened first and the blow to the head which fractured her skull eight and half inches on one side happened the second. And at the same time she had genital injuries.
[Bandfield:] Maybe maybe this is something we need to take into account. And again this is Colorado, right? Maybe this is what we have to take into account. The fact that there could be disagreements about the or there could be other injuries or other potential realities in this case and other than what Chris Watts allegedly has has confessed too. One last quick questions and this one is to Steve Moore. As a former FBI Agent, an investigator, tell me this, like I can`t get this from the D.A., they are locked tight with the information. But do you think they already know? Do you think they`ve had something called the cold read as I learned from you?
[Moore:] Yes.
[Banfield:] They already know despite having those formal reports in their hands how these women and how these two girls and these women died?
[Morgan:] The interaction between investigators and the medical examiner`s office is verbal. It`s on the phone. I mean I on my cases, I would be in the autopsy. There would be nothing surprises to me, when the report came. And I would be in touch with them every day, have you gotten the toxicology back? Have you gotten this back? So yes, the police know within minutes of the medical examiner knowing, and they might there`re reasons and we can discuss that later but one of the things you say, if you don`t want it out right away. They`ll say I`ll send you the report right now and, you say, you know, why don`t you go back and double check everything, might take you a couple days, right? OK, go back and do that, and then send it to me. So there are ways to get this done.
[Bandfield:] A little bit of time. Makes sense to me. Yes, but I just can`t imagine that they have started investigating a case without knowing the genesis of the case which is the cause of death before. I`ve seen cases go down on case of death. Steve hold your thoughts for a moment if you will because Shanann and Chris Watts home presumably had the latest in home security technology. And how do we know this? Because of the pictures on the outside of the house devices like this, a doorbell camera and a wireless smart lock. Here`s a question, might Chris Watts have been watching very closely what was going on outside his home, monitoring his security remotely the day Shanann and the girls were buried? And could investigators now themselves mind all of those electronics to potentially trip up his time line? And trip up the things he said he did at certain times? Wait until you hear what else is monitored in that home.