Police Search Abandoned Car of Missing Toddler`s Mother
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, GUEST HOST: Tonight, breaking developments in the search for a beautiful little 2-year-old girl named Caylee Marie Anthony. Police are notified of Caylee`s disappearance after her grandparents report her missing. In the last hours, crime scene technicians now stop digging in the grandparents` back yard. The question is why. An investigator seized electronic equipment from the Anthony home. What are they looking for? And the most important question, where is little Caylee.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The search for a 2-year-old girl has taken a grim turn. Investigators have been digging in the family`s back yard after getting a tip from a neighbor. Police learn that Casey Anthony borrowed a shovel from a neighbor about a month ago, around the time her daughter, Caylee, disappeared. It was weeks before Anthony acknowledged to anyone that her little girl was missing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey gave me an explanation where she was, and it was very believable. And I had no reason to ever doubt my daughter. The only thing that raised a red flag to me is the fact that Casey could not tell me where she was at.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now a possible new lead in the investigation. A Florida TV station is reporting that police are focusing on the car allegedly driven by Casey Anthony, after noticing a strong smell coming from the vehicle.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Also tonight, breaking developments in the case of a young mom who reportedly goes out for a morning jog but who never returns, her two kids and husband at home, but it`s her neighborhood friend who calls police. Tonight, Nancy Cooper`s friends and family speak out, saying she was trapped, not even able to take the kids to visit her family in Canada because, they allege, husband Brad Cooper hid the kids` passports. This is just the latest allegation against that husband. It comes after bombshell claims that Cooper fought with his wife and allegedly had an affair.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like to know why.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think this is an act of extreme cowardice by whoever person did this, and I think if they had a shred of decency in their body that they would come forward</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While Nancy`s family mourns, police in Cary, North Carolina, search for the killer. Investigators say they have no suspects, but speculation is swirling around Nancy`s husband. And now another development. Citing Bradley was unstable and posed a threat to his children, a judge awarded temporary custody of the two children to Nancy`s family.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is not a suspect. He is not a person of interest. And he has been very, very clear with the police he did not kill his wife.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in for Nancy Grace. Thanks for being with us tonight. The question: Where is adorable little Caylee Anthony? In fact, that`s the question the entire nation is asking tonight. The missing toddler`s 22-year-old mom sits behind bars, where she is set to undergo a mental evaluation, that after authorities say she told them a pack of lies about the circumstances surrounding her daughter`s disappearance more than a month ago. Casey Anthony, the young mom, and her 2-year-old child, Caylee, had been living with Casey`s parents until June 9. That`s when she decides, I`m going to take off with the toddler in tow. After several weeks, Casey`s mom demands to see her grandchild, and when her daughter refused to produce her, called authorities. Now an ominous tern as police with cadaver dogs search for that child.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police are searching the back yard of a woman`s home near Orlando, trying to find her 2-year-old granddaughter. Now, they don`t know whether there`s any evidence about the girl`s disappearance in this yard, but a neighbor says the child`s mother borrowed a shovel about a month ago. Apparently, that is around the that time Caylee Marie Anthony disappeared.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did have somebody call to tell us that a shovel was borrowed on a day that -- in close proximity to the child being missing. So we thought that this would be a good place to look.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators say that Casey has told them lie after lie. Her story was that she dropped off Caylee, the little girl, on June 9 at a friend`s house, Zenaida Gonzalez, but investigator haven`t been able to find this Zenaida Gonzalez her or know if she even exists.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: WFTV in Orlando is reporting that police have begun to search the car allegedly driven by Casey Anthony, which reports say had a foul smell emanating from it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Caylee is missing, and that`s the word that I want to get out to everybody. This little girl needs to be found. So instead of thinking that she`s already dead, there`s no answer yet, and we have to find that answer.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: So the big question remains, where is Caylee, and is she dead or alive? For the very latest, let`s go straight out to Kendra Oestreich. Kendra, you`re outside the grandmother`s home. What is the very latest there?</s>KENDRA OESTREICH, WESH 2 NEWS: Well, Jane, investigators have focused much of their investigation the last two days here on the grandparents` home, spending five hours last night with cadaver dogs, searching the back yard, another five hours out here again with dogs, digging in the back yard. But right now, investigators say there is no sign of Caylee back here and have called off this search here at the home. But they`re still really searching for Caylee tonight. Now, the reason that they came out to look here at the grandparents` home, first of all, Caylee and Casey used to live here together until they left about a month ago to spend some time at a friend`s house, is what she told the grandparents. The reason that they were out here digging in the back yard, the next-door neighbor called investigators when the search for Caylee began, saying that Casey, the mother, came next door and borrowed a shovel from the neighbor and apparently was digging in the back yard, was home alone at the time. But the grandparents say there`s a logical explanation for this. Apparently, they grow bamboo shoots in the back yard, and they say those shoots hurt little Caylee`s feet when she stepped on them. They keep the shovels locked up here at the house as a method of child-proofing the home, and that`s why the mother went next door to get that shovel. They say they stand behind their daughter. They believe that she had nothing to do with this little girl`s disappearance, and they truly believe that tonight Caylee is still alive.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Kendra, a very good explanation there of the shovel. We all got chills when we heard that she borrowed the shovel. Now the grandma saying, Hey, there`s an innocent explanation. And we do have to stress that this young mom deserves the presumption of innocence. She is not considered a suspect or a person of interest at this time, although she faces three charges, including child neglect, false official statements and obstruction of the investigation. But again, we are in the early stage of this investigation, and she deserves the presumption of innocence. I want to go to Rory O`Neill, a reporter for Metro Networks, and talk about another possibly ominous development, and that involves the abandoned car and reports that a stench was observed or smelled inside that car. Tell us all about that.</s>RORY O`NEILL, METRO NETWORKS: Well, Jane, yes, it is the car that Casey would use. It did belong to her parents, the grandparents, the same home where the search has just concluded. And the detectives found the car. It had been abandoned not too far from this house, and it was actually towed by the owner of the business there because it had been sitting abandoned in this parking lot for several days. They had it towed, and then they found out who it belonged to, tracked it down, and realized there was this stench inside. Now, the car has already been gone through, at least in preliminary terms, so we know that the young girl, luckily, is not in there. But it is something that they`re trying to get a hold of and get their heads around, figure out what that smell is.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: We have Casey Anthony`s attorney, Jose Baez, with us tonight. We`re going to get to him in a second. But one other aspect of this case -- and I want to go back out to Kendra Oestreich -- that is so bizarre are the boyfriends. According to the arrest affidavit, Casey was allegedly living with this boyfriend after June 9, the last time anybody else saw the baby, except for a couple of days later, when a friend says she saw the baby maybe the 12th, 13th or 14th. But he says that Casey never told him that this child was missing, that basically, she`s living with him and saying, Well, the kid`s with the nanny?</s>OESTREICH: That`s right. She said -- or he told investigators that it seemed to be a logical explanation, where she would tell him that the little girl was with the nanny, maybe at a theme park, the beach, visiting Universal Studios or Disney World. And so he didn`t ever think that there was anything was wrong because she always seemed to have an explanation as where -- where Caylee was. Now, I mean, it`s just one of the stories that may be being told by this mother here, the main question being, Where is Caylee? But in her arrest affidavit, as you brought up, there are so many lies, investigators say. They went to the apartment. Apparently, no one has been living there. Casey, the mom, took them to Universal, saying, I work there. Come to find out she had been fired back in 2006. They don`t know if this nanny even exists. They talked to a woman named Zenaida Gonzalez. She says she doesn`t know Casey, she doesn`t know Caylee. And a new turn of events today, her attorney is coming out, saying investigators need to be looking across the country in other areas of Florida for this little girl because of the babysitter in this case apparently has ties and connections to other locations, other cities...</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me jump in here because we have that attorney with us tonight, Jose Baez, the attorney for this young mom, Casey Anthony. Thank you for joining us, sir. You heard this reporter, Kendra Oestreich, very eloquently outline a list of lies, a pack of lies investigators say your client told them. What`s your explanation for all these discrepancies? I mean, she literally took them to a theme park and then finally admitted, I don`t work here, after walking them around for several minutes.</s>JOSE BAEZ, ATTORNEY FOR MOTHER OF MISSING TODDLER: Well, actually -- thank you, Jane, for having me. I can honestly say that, first off, I haven`t been turned over any type of conversations or discussions that she`s had with police, but I can honestly tell you that in this business, you can`t believe everything you read in a police report. Otherwise everyone...</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, the boyfriend says -- the boyfriend says she was living with him and she never told him that her baby was missing. Meantime, she has reportedly told police that she was doing her own investigation into the disappearance of her daughter and that`s why she didn`t call the cops. You`d think she`d tell the boyfriend she was living with.</s>BAEZ: Well, I can tell you that, based on my conversations with my client, what we ended up discovering, based on these conversations, was that there`s actually a very reasonable explanation for this whole delay in reporting the incident...</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to hear that.</s>BAEZ: ... or the kidnapping.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to hear that reasonable explanation.</s>BAEZ: Unfortunately, she is under criminal charges at this time. I cannot disclose any of the specific discussions that I`ve had with my client that would possibly lead to a defense. The prosecution nor the police are not telling me everything they know, and I certainly don`t think that as -- launching a proper defense would be disclosing every single thing that we know.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, listen, I think that all of America has questions for you. So fasten your seatbelt, Jose Baez, the attorney for this young mom. The calls are lighting up. Let`s start with Edward from Texas. Your question, sir?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I have two quick questions. One, is the girl on drugs? Did they give her drug tests? And B, where`s the father of the baby in all of this?</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Excellent questions. Jose Baez, your answer, sir?</s>BAEZ: The -- there`s no evidence of any prior drug use. I don`t think the police have uncovered any type of drug use in this case. And I`ve spoken with friends and family members of her. There doesn`t appear to be any type of past history of drug abuse. And as far as the father is concerned, unfortunately, the father is deceased. He died approximately a year ago in a car crash.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, I have to bring in Jeff Gardere, psychologist and author of "Love Prescription." We need a shrink on this one, Jeff. It seems to be sort of a portrait of two different people. The mother of Casey is saying she was a loving mother. She`s a 22-year-old mom, had this child when she was a teenager but was a loving mother, no history, no criminal history for this young lady that we can find. And yet her friends claim in the arrest affidavit that she was a habitual liar. They allege she stole checks and money from them. So we`re getting this sort of wildly different portrait from -- depending on who you talk to.</s>JEFF GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, this is a very complex young woman, from what we`re finding out. I`m really shocked that there doesn`t seem to be any tears coming from her. We saw her being -- in this film clip right here, walking through court, I guess, being arraigned. And here she is, not crying. She looks like she`s absolutely fine. I would think any mom whose child was missing would be distraught at this point. But what we do know about this young lady is that, I think, her mother must be in some sort of a denial, if the friends are saying that she has been a habitual liar, there has been issues with checks. So what is going on? Yes, she could be a good mom, but there are a lot of other personality issues that need to be addressed.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, before we get to the attorneys to talk about the mother, I want to show everybody a slo-mo or a tight shot of the expression of Casey as she is led through doors, and she is under arrest and she appears to see that, wow, the cameras are there, recording her every move. Jeff, it appears to be -- correct me if I`m wrong -- kind of like she`s trying to repress a smile. Or is that a misinterpretation?</s>GARDERE: No, I think that`s -- that can be a very accurate interpretation. It could be that she`s in shock, for one. Or it could be that she doesn`t know how to react at this point because this is such a strange situation that she`s in. Or it could be that she is in total disconnect from what`s happening with her daughter or what may have happened to her daughter. But this is something that is quite strange. The behavior is strange.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely. Let`s bring in the lawyers, Holly Hughes, former prosecutor, and Alan Ripka, defense attorney. You know, you have to say the grandmother, the mother of Casey and the grandmother of this little missing toddler, is the hero in all of this because she`s the one who went to authorities and called police in, knowing, of course, that it could very well have gotten her child in trouble. And yet you hear, well, she`s in denial because she`s defending her daughter. Certainly, that`s something, Alan Ripka, that is natural for her to do, right?</s>ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, It may be natural for her to do, but she`s defending her daughter because she`s watched her behavior over the last couple years, when she saw her raise her daughter. And there`s no evidence to show that her daughter has done anything, including the back yard digging, where they found nothing, including the call (ph), where there`s no forensic evidence. And there`s no history of abuse of this child or calls to the police for abuse. And the mother or the grandmother in this case would have called the police if there was abuse, like she called the police here. So now we have nothing against this girl, but she`s being prosecuted like she did it.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Holly Hughes, how long can they keep her in jail on these three charges, the neglect, the obstruction of justice and the lying to investigators, if they don`t file more serious charges?</s>HOLLY HUGHES, FORMER PROSECUTOR: What they`re going to have to do, Jane, is file their charges against her. They haven`t actually formally done this yet. They need to go ahead and get her accused or indicted within about 30 days. She can be held, actually, until trial if a judge finds during a bond hearing that she runs the risk of either committing another felony, interfering with witnesses or several other factors. And obviously, they found one of those exists because they haven`t let her out on bond yet.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This little girl is our entire life, and I still believe she`s alive because I do not believe that my daughter did any harm to her child. My daughter has been nothing but a loving mother, and I have seen that for the last three years.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Orange County investigators are searching the home of Cindy and George Anthony here in Orange County, Florida. They brought in a couple shovels and they are digging in the back yard. They brought in two large shovels, two smaller shovels. Neighbors in this area apparently told investigators that they saw Casey, the little girl`s mother, here recently alone when her parents, the grandparents in this case, were not here.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in for Nancy Grace. Investigators desperately searching for missing Florida toddler Caylee Anthony say they have had to unravel an ornate series of lies allegedly told by the young mother of that young toddler. That mom in jail tonight, not considered a suspect in her daughter`s disappearance, but facing charges of lying to investigators and obstructing their investigation. I want to go back to that mother`s attorney, Jose Baez. Her mother, the grandmother of the missing toddler, says her gut feeling is that this child is alive. What do you think? Is little Caylee alive?</s>BAEZ: Well, we all believe she`s alive. And in fact, what we`re trying to do with the media is we`re trying to get them to concentrate not necessarily on Casey but on Caylee and on the search for Caylee.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to jump in.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want you to say it again. Say it again because I think that was very big news. Do you think little Caylee is dead or alive? Can you answer it again?</s>BAEZ: We believe she`s alive. We believe she`s alive.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: You do believe she`s alive?</s>BAEZ: Absolutely. Absolutely.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK.</s>BAEZ: And we`re trying to get everybody to focus on the search, rather than on the prosecution of Casey, and that`s exactly what`s going on here. The police are talking about basically searching -- they spent five hours last night and five hours today searching in the back yard. It`s a very small back yard. The neighbors said that they borrowed the shovel -- that she borrowed the shovel for less than an hour. This young lady is 105 pounds, for crying out loud. Anyone would have been able to see, in that small back yard, if there was something dug up...</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: So who took the child?</s>BAEZ: ... especially over a month old...</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Who took the child, Jose? Because the woman she said she left her with doesn`t know Casey.</s>BAEZ: Well, actually, that`s some misinformation that`s being laid out. The person that the police spoke with was someone who has absolutely nothing to do with this case, and it is not the Zenaida Gonzalez that my client said was the baby-sitter in this case.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anybody that looks at this little girl will fall madly in love with her. There`s no -- no way that anybody would not want to have her around because you just -- when you`re around her, all you feel is her magic.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We spent the first day of the investigation with the mother prior to her arrest. We talked to her for a couple of hours. The initial information that she gave us, we followed up on. And of course, a lot of what she told us when we first began talking to her turned out to be false information. Since her arrest, we have not had any contact with her.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in for Nancy Grace. The phone lines are lighting up on this missing toddler case out of Florida. Let`s go to Evelyn in Minnesota. Your question, ma`am.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Since Mom is a habitual liar and the parents are in denial, who`s to say drug use isn`t the culprit? And can the courts force her to take a drug test?</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, let`s go to the lawyers. Holly Hughes, former prosecutor?</s>HUGHES: They can`t force her to take a drug test. And at this point, Jane, it`s too late because what they`ve done is, they`ve had her in custody and they didn`t take the blood right away. They could have gotten a search warrant. You can`t just force her to do it. You have to have probable cause, go to the judge, get him to sign off on the search warrant for her blood, and then they could test it. At this point, it`s been a couple of days. It`s going to be too late to be able to tell if she`s an habitual user, if she used in the past, unless they were to snip hair or something and go back and look at the usage that might show up in the hair follicles.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All very good questions. We don`t have the answers.</s>CINDY ANTHONY, MISSING 2-YR-OLD GIRL`S GRANDMOTHER: Caylee wasn`t with her like she had told me she was with her for the last month. Then, you know, I asked her, well, let`s go get her because I miss her, I want to go see her. I want to bring her home so she can sleep in her bed. And when she told me tat, you know, it was too late to go because she`s already sleeping at the babysitter`s house and, you know, why disrupt her because -- you know wake her up and then have to bring her home and then she`ll be up all night. Let`s pick her up in the morning. I said, no, I`m selfish, I want to see my granddaughter, I haven`t seen her in a month. And I guess a little bit of tone in Casey`s voice -- you know, mom, you know, she was pretty persistent and insistent. Then I got a gut feeling that -- I just knew something was wrong. So I told her that I was going to call the sheriff`s department. By the time they got there, she had told us that Caylee had been kidnapped.</s>JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, GUEST HOST: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell in for Nancy Grace. Who knows the truth about what happened to little Caylee Anthony, an adorable Florida toddler missing for more than a month. Her young mom in jail tonight after failing to call police to report her daughter missing. The mom claimed she conducted her own investigation instead, something that is raising a lot of eyebrows. We are delighted to have with us tonight Erin Runnion, a very courageous mother who tragically lost her own daughter to murder. I covered that story years ago as a reporter and she is now a leader of the Joyful Child Foundation. Erin, thank you so much for joining us tonight.</s>ERIN RUNNION, MOTHER OF MURDER VICTIM SAMANTHA RUNNION: Thank you for having me.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: What do you make of this case, because I know that statistically time is of the essence when it comes to missing children?</s>RUNNION: It is. And I`m just -- I`m so frustrated given that it`s been five weeks. I mean, that is -- it`s just unheard of to have a parent who refuses to cooperate with the police.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, of course, we all look at the options. And we have to reiterate that this woman, this young mother, is not a suspect. She is not a person of interest in her child`s disappearance, although police say that she did lie to them. But here are the possibilities. I mean, just speaking logically. Let`s hope, number one is not true, that this child was murdered. God hope that that`s not the case.</s>RUNNION: Absolutely.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: But perhaps she was given away and is safe. Perhaps she`s given away and is not safe. Perhaps she was sold. Perhaps she was lost. And perhaps she was accidentally killed followed by a cover-up. What are your thoughts given those possibilities?</s>RUNNION: Well, I think any of them are possible. I mean, you know, part of my challenge is I`ve been so focused on addressing child exploitation issues and recognizing that, you know, the Internet Crimes Against Children task forces are battling to try and ensure that we`re investigating and prosecuting child pornography, which is driven by new victims. And I just -- I`m horrified. I`m just horrified that Caylee is in danger and I want her photo everywhere and I want people to be looking for her and I want law enforcement to have the resources to investigate these cases and rescue these kids who get trapped in that kind of trafficking. You know, and that`s why I -- not just with the Joyful Child Foundation but with the Surviving Parents Coalition, I`ve been advocating for Senate Bill 1738 , the Combating Child Exploitation Act to do just that.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: So, Erin, you`re.</s>RUNNION: We`re heading to Washington next week to do that.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I hope you`re successfully, but you`re essentially saying possibly she could be involved in some kind of ring abduction that exploits children in some horrifying way. Let`s hope not but...</s>RUNNION: And I`m very concerned that this young mother has no concept of the danger that her daughter could be faced. If she gave her away, if she put her in the hands of somebody that she`s afraid to let law enforcement know about for any number of reasons, that it just -- it points to danger for Caylee.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`d like to bring in Donald Schweitzer, who`s a former detective with Santa Ana PD. This is what doesn`t make sense to me. There are a lot of young mothers -- this woman had her child when she was a teenager -- who don`t want the responsibility. They chaffed at all the obligations and they leave the child with the grandparents and they split. In this case, this young woman took the toddler with her. So it`s not like she was really trying to escape the responsibility of having a child, because it would have made sense if she had just left the child with her grandmother -- with the grandmother.</s>DONALD SCHWEITZER, FMR. DETECTIVE SANTA ANA P.D.: Yes, Jane, there`s a lot of things that don`t make sense in this case. The first thing you got to think about is that she didn`t report this for a month. The second thing is when she`s questioned by the police she makes about 10 different lies that lead the police to the opposite direction. And, finally, right now, she could be helping the police. She doesn`t have to have that attorney saying that she can`t speak because of her Fifth Amendment right. If she wants to fight this child, and we want to find her very badly, she can cooperate right now. She doesn`t have to hide behind her Fifth Amendment right and the fact that she`s charged with some -- you know, some crimes out there. It`s better that she go to prison for, you know, one year rather than letting her child be at harm`s way. And that`s why I think that there`s something that`s really wrong in this case.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Something is fishy in Denmark. Jose Baez, Casey Anthony`s attorney, your response to that criticism.</s>JOSE BAEZ, ATTORNEY FOR MISSING GIRL`S MOM: Well, let me tell you. We have opened the line of communication with law enforcement. What happened in this case was law enforcement basically jumped the gun. Nobody heard about this -- about Caylee`s disappearance until after she was arrested. And I think that was a big blunder on police`s part by arresting her, thereby cutting off any type of communication where you`re going to violate someone`s rights. What should have been done is they should have allowed her to stay free, maybe perhaps watch her a little bit longer, see if there`s any activity, where she goes, what she`s doing, who she`s talking with. And in addition to that, she doesn`t have to go through a lawyer. But what they did was they arrested her.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, let`s allow Donald to respond on that because he`s a former detective. Should they have let her just roam around while they followed her?</s>SCHWEITZER: Yes, you can still help the police, sir. You don`t have to have her hide behind her Fifth Amendment right. This is a child that`s missing, for god`s sake. Do whatever you can to help her. Get this little -- get your client to start talking to the police rather than hiding behind you. There`s no need for that.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right.</s>BAEZ: Well, first of all, I don`t think you really know what you`re talking about because we are the ones who actually spoke out to the police. We`ve asked for the police to come and give us access to a -- sketch artist where she can actually describe the babysitter and actually go out and put some type of leads out there. But that`s not what`s happening. Police hasn`t contacted us to specifically ask her any questions or to show.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: But, Jose, she lied about where she dropped the child off. Authorities determined that the house where she said she left the child with this mysterious babysitter was -- that apartment was unoccupied for something like 142 days, since February 28th. So she`s lying about key components of the story.</s>BAEZ: Some of the representations that were made to the police are -- there`s actually a very reasonable explanation for that. But unfortunately, due to the fact that she`s facing criminal charges, I can`t allow her to specifically lay out her entire defense and to.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. I hear what you`re saying. Beth in North Carolina, your question. Want to get that in.</s>BETH, NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENT: Yes, as a grandparent, I cannot understand how a grandmother that is so close to her grandchild could allow 30 days to go by without laying eyes on or hands on this precious child. And if she was so close to her daughter, why can she not convince the daughter that she needs to tell her?</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, Kendra Oestreich, your explanation from what you know about this case.</s>KENDRA OESTREICH, REPORTER, WESH: I can tell you that investigators right now are frustrated with Mr. Baez as well as Casey. Apparently the attorney has come forward telling media these investigators need to be looking at other cities and other places for this little girl. However, they`re telling me that he has not gone to them, allowing them to question and talk to Casey again or telling them directly this information. So they, on the other hand, are frustrated, feeling it`s not a two-way street when it comes to communication. They`re going to be handing out flyers tomorrow.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, we got to jump in right there.</s>OESTREICH: . in this neighborhood to find this little girl.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: We hope this child is found. When we come back, a mother of two found murdered at a construction site near her North Carolina home. Nancy Cooper`s husband tells cops she went out for jogging, never came back.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell in for Nancy Grace. Tonight a tragic mystery deepens. A mother of two, who was also an avid runner, found murdered at a construction site a few miles from her North Carolina home. Nancy Cooper`s husband told cops she went out for a jog Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. and simply never came home. But he did not call the cops. It was a worried friend who dialed 911. Now police are calling it murder. They have no suspects and no person of interest, but the dead woman`s family is claiming her husband had cheated on her and was verbally and emotionally abusive. They also say she was planning on leaving him. Explosive new developments tonight. Let`s go straight out to Gurnal Scott, a reporter at WPTF radio, who`s been tracking this story from the start. Gurnal, what is the very latest is?</s>GURNAL SCOTT, REPORTER, WPTF RADIO: The very latest is, as you`ve said, the family has been very skeptical about what Brad Cooper has been saying. They have said in the custody complaint that they never thought that she did go jogging, that he has been abusive, that he has kept money from her, that he has been abusive to her verbally in front of the children. And she wanted to leave. He hid passports so she couldn`t take the children with them. They have made several complaints that have allowed them to go to a court and get custody of these children and they are proceeding on from there, hoping that police can catch the person who is behind this killing.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: And there were duel news conferences today, the attorney for Brad Cooper speaking out, saying their client is innocent, wants to grieve in private, is cooperating with investigators. And then the family of Nancy Cooper also speaking out. Gurnal, exactly what was said by either party? What are the headlines?</s>SCOTT: Well, the headlines, as far as the family is concerned, once again, Garry Rentz, the father of Nancy Cooper, urged, as you said, the person who is responsible, if they have a shred of decency, come forward, admit what you`ve done. But in the dueling news conferences, as you just said, the attorney for Brad Cooper, Seth Blum, is saying that Mr. Cooper is a private man, this is why you haven`t seen him at these press briefings that have been held by the Cary Police Department. He wants to grieve in private. And he doesn`t want to mourn, as he said, in front of the hot glare of media -- of the media spotlight. He wants to be left alone so he can mourn his wife.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to go to Nicole Partin, investigative journalist, and ask you about this other woman. What do we know about this claim, which certainly has not been confirmed in any way, shape or form by Brad Cooper? He has admitted they had marital problems but that`s as far as he went. What do we know about this possible other woman that Nancy Cooper`s family is claiming he had an affair with?</s>NICOLE PARTIN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Good evening, Jane. What we know is that in the allegations presented by Nancy`s family yesterday in a court order, the family claims that Brad was having an affair. Those claims were also backed up with his apparent verbal abuse and battering verbally to Nancy. We don`t know anything about this woman and the affair other than that the father and other family members of Nancy are alleging that, indeed, Brad was having an affair.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to bring in the attorneys, Holly Hughes, former prosecutor, and Alan Ripka, defense attorney. Let`s start with you, Alan. This man deserves the presumption of innocence. He is not considered a suspect or a person of interest. He says he is innocent but skeptics would point out that this case, at least theoretically, has the hallmarks of a classic estrangement homicide. It`s the, you know, the wife seeking divorce and she turns up dead. How would you defend Brad Cooper in that scenario?</s>ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Jane, there are plenty of people in this country who is seeking divorce and having marital problems and they don`t go around killing people. In this particular case there`s not one shred of evidence that he did anything of the sort. No witnesses, no forensic evidence, never threatened to kill her in the past. No domestic violence. No police coming to the house. So I don`t see why -- that`s why he`s not being charged and that`s why he`s not a person of interest. And in this particular case, he`s cooperating with the police. He doesn`t have a lawyer. And I figure he`s going to be fine in this one.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think he actually does have a lawyer because they held a news conference today. So I don`t think they were just volunteers. Holly Hughes, what are your thoughts given the claims that we`re hearing from Nancy`s family about an affair, about the belittling, the withholding money, taking the passports?</s>HOLLY HUGHES, PROSECUTOR: Well, I got to tell you. In response to my esteemed colleague, Mr. Ripka, let me just say this, Mark Hacking, Scott Peterson, Drew Peterson, I could go on and on. I mean, come on, Jane, this is the same scenario we see all the time. Scott Peterson didn`t have any history of abusing Laci but one day something snaps and these men are killing their wives. As far as saying there`s no evidence, no forensics evidence, we don`t know that. There was a search warrant executed. They hauled six bags of evidence out of that house. First of all they did a consensual search and after that consensual search they went back and got a search warrant because they thought there was more in there and they certainly had to have probable cause to support that warrant, Jane.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: And, Holly Hughes, you bring up the Scott Peterson case. In that case, his mistress who had no idea that he was married, thought she was just having a regular relationship, ended up being the smoking gun because she tape recorded her conversations with Scott Peterson and that`s partially why he was convicted.</s>HUGHES: That`s exactly right, Jane, and I wouldn`t be surprised if we don`t have another star witness come forward once she realities the gravity of the situation just like Amber Frey. She didn`t know she was going out with a murderer. And when these women finally realized what these men are like they`re going to start singing, as they should, and get some justice for Nancy Cooper.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. We have to leave it right there but we want to stress again that this husband is not a suspect, not even a person of interest, and he does deserve the presumption of innocence in this case. Moving on, all this year, you`ve told us stories of ordinary people having an extraordinary impact in our country and all around the world. But the deadline is fast approaching for you to tell us about your favorite hero at CNN.com/heroes. Your last date is Friday, August 1st, to tell us. Here is tonight`s CNN "HEROES."</s>KAREN SHIRK, CHAMPIONING CHILDREN: Children with autism are often isolated. They just don`t connect to people. I worked as a social worker in the field of mental retardation and autism. I knew that children with autism connected to animals and I knew that service dogs would be able to help. I`m Karen Shirk, and I bring service dogs to children with disabilities like autism. One of the biggest problems children with autism have is they wonder away. We train the dogs in tracking so the parents basically have their own search and rescue dogs. We also train the dogs to intervene when the child is frustrated. Their anxiety just diminishes. It`s just the magic of dogs.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MOTHER: The changes in Sam have been really fantastic. Now, with the dog, his mood is better, and his ability to tolerate is better. Karen, she just really changed all of our lives.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you think, Justin?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good dog? What do you say to Karen?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.</s>SHIRK: You`re welcome. The dogs go in and become the child`s friend.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s my buddy.</s>SHIRK: He`s your buddy already? Cool. I love to see their faces and just know that I was apart of that.</s>ANNOUNCER: July is the last month to nominate someone you know for 2008. Go to CNN.com/heroes.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: And now a look back at the stories making the rest of the headlines this week.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Holly Wimunc`s husband, Marine Corporal John Wimunc, now facing a first degree murder charge. Investigators say they believe burned remains found in a brush fire yesterday are those of the missing Ft. Bragg army nurse.</s>NANCY GRACE, HOST: Why are police so convinced she was killed in the apartment before she was ever taken?</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They are not going into many specifics, but only say that the evidence they found in the apartment indicate that she was indeed murdered there.</s>GRACE: After a spate of children dying in overheated cars, now, this story. Mom and dad inside partying in a bar while their child is locked in the car for hours on end.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The family of a murdered North Carolina mother has custody now of her two young daughters. Nancy Cooper`s family filed an emergency petition to take those children from her husband, Bradley Cooper.</s>GRACE: Police now reveal they consider the home of potential crime scene. As of right now, the husband has not been named a person of interest or even a suspect.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Casey Anthony is a 22-year-old mother. That`s a fact. This is her beautiful 2-year-old, Caylee. That is true. But the rest of the story is blurry at best, false at worst. Detectives say they got a call from Caylee`s grandparents this morning who just found out that Caylee had been missing for a month.</s>GRACE: With me right now is a special guest. This is Caylee`s grandma Cindy Anthony.</s>ANTHONY: I`m here trying to ask the public if they can find Caylee, because I still believe she`s alive.</s>GRACE: Tell me, why do you believe that?</s>ANTHONY: A gut feeling.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, let`s stop to remember Army Sergeant Cody Legg, 23 from Escondido, California, killed in Iraq. Legg was on his second tour of duty. He was awarded several medals including the Purple Heart. He loved baseball and wrestling and hoped to become a professional baseball player. Legg leaves behind parents Dave and Bunny, two half-brothers, DC and Derrick, two step-brothers, a step father and a step mom. Cody Legg, an American hero. Thanks to all of our guests for their insights and thanks to you at home for tracking these very important cases with us. See you tomorrow tonight right here, 8:00 sharp Eastern. Meantime have a happy and a safe weekend. END