[Nancy Grace, Hln:] Breaking news tonight, live, Arizona. A beautiful two-year-old baby girl last seen at a local Starbucks, Phoenix suburbs, vanishes without a trace. Bombshell tonight. In the last hours, we uncover stunning abuse reports. Baby Ava had a pattern of bruises, cuts, severe diaper rashes, even burns after visits with Daddy. Tonight, we uncover the photos. And tonight, desperate to find her baby girl, Ava`s mother with us live, making a national public plea to help find her baby, describing the final hours she had with her baby girl. Police say the child in extreme danger at this hour on the run with Daddy. Tonight, where is 2-year-old baby Ava?
[Unidentified Male:] Police short on leads for where to find Ava.
[Unidentified Female:] Is this child alive or isn`t this child alive? That`s the scariest part is not knowing, waiting for your child to come home!
[Unidentified Male:] Two-year-old Ava, of course, dropped off with her father.
[Unidentified Female:] I have no idea where she`s at.
[Unidentified Male:] At that north Phoenix Starbucks. Police tell us Brent`s house had recently been through foreclosure. Reportedly found Anderson`s house partially vacated.
[Unidentified Female:] News that terrified Athena. Brent, his whole life is Ava.
[Unidentified Male:] Ava`s mom claims in court documents that Ava had numerous and unexplained injuries. But when she went to pick Ava up, the father was a no-show. Such as cuts, burns, bruises, and severe diaper rash.
[Unidentified Female:] That`s all he`s ever wanted to do was take care of her.
[Unidentified Male:] When returning home from visits with Anderson.
[Unidentified Female:] No leads to where he or Ava might be. Why in the world would he be taking this baby away from the mother? Your heart is pounding incredibly fast. That`s not a good dad. That`s a bad dad.
[Grace:] We are also bringing you another story tonight, another Kennedy back in trouble with the law. And it`s caught on tape! We have the video.
[Unidentified Male:] New developments in the case against Robert Kennedy`s youngest son. Douglas Kennedy is charged with child endangerment after scuffling with maternity ward nurses when he tried to take his 3-day- old son outside. Douglas Kennedy was simply holding onto his newborn child. There you see Douglas Kennedy trying to take his newborn son off the maternity ward, he says for some fresh air outside. But watch what happens next. After the nurses block him from the elevator, saying he doesn`t have permission, he goes to a stairwell, where a confrontation ensues. Kennedy raises his leg, and Luciano falls straight on her back.
[Unidentified Female:] Was he defending his rights as a parent and protecting his child or refusing to follow a nurse`s order?
[Grace:] Good evening, I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. A 2-year-old little girl last seen at a local Starbucks, Phoenix suburbs, vanishes without a trace. In the last hours, we uncover stunning abuse reports. Baby Ava had a pattern of bruises, cuts, severe diaper rashes, even burns after visits with Daddy. Tonight, we uncover the photos. Straight out to Gregg Paul KFYA YI. Gregg, what is the latest?
[Gregg Paul, 550 Kfyi Radio:] Well, the latest, Nancy, is that with these allegations that were labeled by the mother, of course, with the cuts, the bruises, the severe diaper rush, that when baby Ava was coming back from his house back to the mother`s house this is what she was experiencing. And CPS, Child Protective Service, had been trying to get ahold of the father but were unable to because he did not have a phone and he would not contact them.
[Grace:] OK, to Alexis Weed, also on the story. Alexis, why am I just hearing about these allegations now that the baby has disappeared? Were there reports made to DFACS, Child Protective Services?
[Alexis Weed, Nancy Grace Producer:] We`re hearing those allegations, Nancy, from the mother of Ava. She`s one saying that when she would come back from the dad`s home that she would have bruises and cuts. We don`t, however, have confirmation from child services as these kind of records are usually protected.
[Grace:] OK, Clark Goldband, also on the story. Clark, take it from the beginning. The mother and the father have had, let me say euphemistically, a tumultuous relationship to the point where they couldn`t even have contact when they would hand the baby back and forth for visitation. There was a TRO, is my understanding, taken out because the interchange had become so violent, police would have to be called. So they`d have to have an intermediary hand the baby back and forth. Yes, that`s setting a heck of an example. But in this case, how does the baby disappear from a local Starbucks? What`s she doing, in there getting a cappuccino? How does a 2-year-old baby disappear from a Starbucks?
[Clark Goldband, Nancy Grace Producer:] Well, that`s right, Nancy. Mom`s husband walked in, this little 2-year-old girl Ava to the outside of the Starbucks from the car. The father`s wife was standing outside to take Ava back to their car. And in as simple as that, in just a few moments, Ava has never been seen again.
[Grace:] Everybody, we are showing you the photos that we have uncovered. There`s bruises, scratches, allegedly even burns on the child`s fingertips after visits with Daddy. Clark Goldband, what can you tell me about Mommy going to find the child? The child`s not at the Starbucks, where she`s supposed to pick the child up, and she goes to the Daddy`s home. What does she find?
[Goldband:] She finds something very disturbing, that the home was partially removed of its furniture and contents. Now, this was a shock to her. She talked to some of the neighbors in the area, and they said on that same day, they saw this father, Brent Anderson, removing some of the belongings from the home. She called law enforcement. Law enforcement searched all over for Anderson and wasn`t able to find him or the little girl.
[Grace:] Tonight, joining us exclusively, making a national public plea to bring her 2-year-old baby girl home, is Ava`s mother. With us, Athena Manuma, Ava`s mother. And also with us is the mother of Brent Anderson, the bio dad of baby Ava, Melinda Barros. Ladies, thank you so much for being with us. Athena, first of all, to you. The photos are very, very disturbing. I mean, all children will get a cut or a bruise now and then. But I want to hear about your allegations that when the baby would come home from visits with Daddy, there would be numerous cuts, bruises, severe diaper rash, even burning on her fingertips? Explain, Athena.
[Athena Manuma, Missing Child`s Mother:] Yes, there was some marks on her when she would come home, and we wanted to document it. We had brought it up to at one point in time, when CPS was involved, we had brought it up to them to see what we needed to do to move forward, to get it notated. They said to take her to the doctor and also let them know, too, so they could see it, as well.
[Grace:] Were all of these on one occasion? And I`m specifically interested in the burns.
[Manuma:] The burns were on two separate occasions. They were on, like, the top of her fingers near the joints.
[Grace:] I don`t know what you mean by that, the top of her fingers. What is that?
[Manuma:] It wasn`t on her fingertips.
[Grace:] Show me.
[Manuma:] It was on, like it was, like, on this top of her finger, like here, on the top of her finger here. And that was
[Grace:] That`s odd.
[Manuma:] on two separate occasions.
[Grace:] That`s extremely odd. What did the father say caused the burns?
[Manuma:] I didn`t get an answer from the burn. I had asked, but
[Grace:] Did you ask him?
[Manuma:] Yes. I e-mailed him about it.
[Grace:] And did he answer at all or simply no answer?
[Manuma:] There was no e-mail back.
[Grace:] OK. Explain to me I don`t want to hear it from just a reporter, Athena. I want to hear it from you. You go to the Starbucks to pick up the baby, all right? Had Ava been with the father for five straight days? That`s what I was told.
[Manuma:] Yes. Yes, she had.
[Grace:] During those five days, had you called or e-mailed or texted to find out how the baby was doing?
[Manuma:] Yes, I had e-mailed him twice.
[Grace:] And did you hear back from him?
[Manuma:] No.
[Grace:] All right. Well, right there, if I didn`t hear back about my twins, I would have been camped out on the front porch. But you two have these TROs and you can`t really legally get near each other. So you didn`t hear back. At the end of the five days, you go to the Starbucks that`s already arranged to pick up the baby. What happened then, Athena?
[Manuma:] Well, we waited we had gotten there a little bit early, maybe, like, 8:50, and
[Grace:] Who`s we? Who`s we?
[Manuma:] Oh, my father-in-law and my mother-in-law and then myself because my husband had been working that day.
[Grace:] So the three of you.
[Manuma:] Yes. And my mother-in-law was waiting outside to pick her up.
[Grace:] Right. And you can`t actually approach your husband yourself. You`ve got to have an intermediary so the two of you won`t get into it. Is that correct?
[Manuma:] Yes. His wife now is doing the exchanges, so I wasn`t able to get out of the car.
[Grace:] OK.
[Manuma:] We`re supposed to stay in the vehicle.
[Grace:] OK. Well, good. God bless her. Now, one quick question. Is it true that he was a manager and you were a cashier at the same store? Is that how you met?
[Manuma:] At one point in time, well, he was one of the night people. He wasn`t a manager at the time. But yes, I was a cashier and he was a night person.
[Grace:] All right. Back to the story. You`re at Starbucks. What happens?
[Manuma:] Well, I mean, we waited there for about 20 to 30 minutes. And I you know, I had let him know beforehand that what we were going to pick her up at 9:00, and you know, because that is our court-ordered time. And at that time, I told my father-in-law that I`ll go over and call the police just to see if they can do a well check on her and see what`s going on, why he`s not picking her or why he`s not dropping her off at the Starbucks. So that`s what I did. I went over to Wal-Mart near his home and I called the police, and they were dispatched out.
[Grace:] And what happened?
[Manuma:] They came out. They knocked on the door, and there was no answer. There was I guess they had knocked on the door a few times. I`m not sure he has windows into his garage, and I`m not sure if they got to look into the windows because they told me to stay in the parking lot. But they knocked and they said there was no answer, that they heard a dog barking but there was no answer at the door.
[Grace:] So the dog was left inside?
[Manuma:] No, the dog was outside, is my understanding. And the dog sounded like it was outside, too, when I had gone over later on.
[Grace:] All right. Did you go over to the home later?
[Manuma:] Yes, I had gone over to the home
[Grace:] Did you look inside the home?
[Manuma:] probably four times. I didn`t the blinds in the front were closed, and I didn`t go in the back yard.
[Grace:] Then how do you know he`s partially moved out?
[Manuma:] I didn`t say he was partially moved out. Somebody a neighbor had told me that they had seen him removing items, but I never said I knew he was partially moved out or anything.
[Grace:] And when was that, Athena? When was that, that he removed furniture?
[Manuma:] The neighbors were telling me that they had seen it one neighbor told me they saw him removing things on Saturday, and somebody told me they seen him removing items on Tuesday, Tuesday night.
[Grace:] OK, Athena, as you were sitting there in the Starbucks parking lot and he didn`t show up, did you know instinctively something was wrong?
[Manuma:] When he when there`s no answer? Yes, there`s something wrong.
[Grace:] OK. Let`s go to his mom, Joining us tonight, the mother of Brent Anderson, the biological father of baby Ava. With us, Melinda Barros. Ms. Barros, thank you for being with us. Ms. Barros, have you heard from him? Because police are saying the baby girl is in, quote, "extreme danger" with your son.
[Melinda Barros, Mother Of Suspected Abductor:] I disagree. I have not heard from my son, but I do know that he would not do anything to hurt her or harm her. And Athena, you even admitted that to my daughter days ago when we were at Brent`s house. She went over there and saw my daughter.
[Grace:] What do you mean by that, Ms. Barros, that she has admitted what?
[Barros:] Athena admitted that my son would not harm Ava. She knew that. She just wants her back.
[Grace:] Ms. Barros, I find it very disturbing that he has not even been in touch with you. Why?
[Barros:] He does not want to be caught. He`s not going to contact me.
[Grace:] Why?
[Barros:] He`s not going to because he does not want me to get in trouble. He does not want to get caught and does not want me in any trouble.
[Grace:] So he you believe he realizes that what he is doing is wrong.
[Barros:] Well, I I believe that what he is doing is not the right way of doing it. I`m not going to condone what he`s done. There is a different way of doing this.
[Grace:] Ms. Barros, what is your response to these photos of bruises, cuts and burns on baby Ava`s body after visits with your son?
[Barros:] They are not abusive by any means. My son took her to the doctor and verified and had the doctor verify. We have documentation that it was not abuse.