Skip to main content
U.S. Edition
Search
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

Return to Transcripts main page

NANCY GRACE

Inquest Opens in Bahamas in Death of Anna Nicole Smith`s Son Daniel

Aired March 27, 2007 - 20:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news -- day one in the investigation of Anna Nicole Smith young son, Daniel Smith, his death eerily similar to his covergirl mother`s, both dead from a lethal mix of deadly prescription drugs. A Bahamian court will decide, was foul play involved in the sudden death of 20-year-old Daniel, found dead at Anna Nicole`s hospital bedside just after she delivers baby girl Dannielynn?
And tonight, Amber Alert, live to Washington state. The search turns desperate for a 4-year-old girl and her 2-year-old little brother, the two believed to be in extreme danger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An unusual silence where two young children normally play, 2-year-old Lars Baugher and his 4-year-old sister, Remi, missing now for more than 24 hours. The children were last seen Saturday in nearby Waitsburg. The father, John Baugher, apparently took the kids to have lunch with a friend of his. Baugher got into some sort of dispute there just before taking off and hasn`t been seen since. The children`s great uncle, Pierre (ph) Remilard, says their father, John Baugher, has a history of making bad decisions and has battled anxiety. In fact, Remilard says, the courts haven`t allowed Baugher to see his children for the past several months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has a history of being unstable, especially under any -- he has a lot of anxiety and he has a stressful life. There`s a lot of anxiety in the family right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight.

First, live to the Bahamas and the investigation into the mysterious death of Anna Nicole Smith`s son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-year-old Daniel Smith came here to the Doctors Hospital in Nassau, came to celebrate the birth of his baby sister. But three days after she was born, he was found dead in his mother`s hospital room. A medical examiner says he died of an overdose of methadone and two antidepressants. Police have now determined his mother died of an overdose, too, although the drugs were different. Her death, they determined, was accidental. But was the son`s death an accident, suicide or something else?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was fine when he came to see his newly born sister, and for him to just suddenly drop down dead raises a lot of questions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, as part of the inquest into his death, 40 witnesses will be questioned, including hospital staff, friends of Daniel and police from the U.S. Another person authorities here definitely want to talk to, Howard Stern.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, he`ll be a key witness because he is the only surviving person who was in that room when Daniel died.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anna was in the room. Daniel slept next to Anna in the same bed, and Howard slept in the bed next to Daniel and Howard (SIC). I mean, it`s absolutely ludicrous to suggest a third person did something.

VIRGIE ARTHUR, ANNA NICOLE SMITH`S MOTHER: There wasn`t any sign of Daniel taking any kind of drugs other than a sleeping pill and an anxiety pill. Somebody had to give it to him. He had to get it from somewhere. I just know that Danny didn`t kill hisself. He did not overdose hisself.

HOWARD K. STERN, ANNA NICOLE`S ATTORNEY/COMPANION: Mrs. Arthur over there went to the media and said that I or Anna had murdered Daniel. It was the absolute, absolute final straw.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE I`ve never seen Daniel take anything. As a matter of fact, if anything, he had a deep hatred for any kinds of drugs.

LARRY BIRKHEAD, ANNA NICOLE`S FORMER BOYFRIEND: I just came to tell the truth, you know, the same thing like with Florida. You just say whatever you can, and they take -- they can take from that what they want, and if it`s helpful, it`s helpful. If it`s not, I`ll be on a plane to go back. So I`m just here to do what I think`s right to help Daniel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are your expectations going into today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Justice?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And will justice mean what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe a healing. I don`t know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Today, day one in the inquest of Daniel Smith, just 20 years old when he died mysteriously there in Doctors Hospital.

Out to Court TV`s Jean Casarez. What happened today at the inquest?

JEAN CASAREZ, COURT TV: Well, today was supposed to be the jury inquest, first day. Key word is "jury." Wayne Munroe, the attorney for Howard K. Stern, addressed the court, saying that the jury that normally would preside over the inquest that has already been selected and is ready to go should now be questioned and cross-examined to see if there is any taint because of all the media publicity.

GRACE: Well, that`s very unusual. That`s not how the system works in the Bahamas. So this attorney for Howard K. Stern just stands up and everything screeches to a halt?

CASAREZ: Yes, and this is the president of the bar association of the Bahamas, Wayne Munroe. And he got case precedent, he believes, such as this that is going to plead his case. He is saying that because of all the pre-trial publicity, that there are jurors now that could be tainted and would not be fair in the process.

And Nancy, I have to say I was in the Bahamas for quite a while, and as I talked with lots and lots of people, people have definite opinions about especially Howard K. Stern.

GRACE: Well, Jean, you mentioned that Wayne Munroe is the president of the bar association there, but isn`t it correct that the case law he cited has been reversed?

CASAREZ: I don`t think that`s necessarily true. What I`ve read right here -- this is a case that just came down in regard -- in London courts in regard to Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed, an inquest that has yet to be occurred for them. And in the opinion, it talks about how the need (ph) for pre-trial publicity can taint a jury inquest and there should be questions.

GRACE: Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIRKHEAD: I just came to tell the truth, you know, the same thing like with Florida. You just say whatever you can, and they take -- they can take from that what they want, and if it`s helpful, it`s helpful. If it`s not, I`ll be on a plane to go back. So I`m just here to do what I think`s right to help Daniel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are your expectations going into today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Justice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Justice?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And will justice mean what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe a healing. I don`t know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was fine when he came to see his newly born sister, and for him to just suddenly drop down dead raises a lot of questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Out to Mike Brooks, former D.C. cop, former fed with the FBI. He`s joining us there in the Bahamas. Tell me what happened in the inquest today.

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: Well, Nancy, we started off at about 10 minutes after 10:00 this morning, and all the prospective jurors were in the courtroom, all the attorneys. There were a number of attorneys representing some of the potential witnesses of the 40 witnesses that could come before this inquest. Everybody was there. The judge came in. Everyone rose. We sat down.

And then Wayne -- representative Wayne Munroe -- one of his cohorts started talking about what Jean was just talking about, and then Wayne came in and addressed the court. So then about 10:35, they dismissed all the media who was in the hearing, along with the potential jurors. They left. They started talking about these issues. And then they came -- they said, OK, we`re dismissing the jury, at about 11:35. They dismissed all the potential jurors, and they broke for lunch.

Came back at about 2:00 o`clock, the attorneys came back. And then about 3:00 o`clock, all the attorneys left, and the director of public prosecutions, Bernard Turner (ph), who is the one who is actually going to be representing the government here in this inquest -- he said that the -- they will begin again tomorrow at 2:30. There will not be any witnesses until most likely Thursday.

Now, he said there are 40 witnesses on the witness list. He said as the inquest goes along, because it is an investigation, there could be less than 40 that are going to come before the inquest, or as the investigation goes along, Nancy, there could be more than 40.

GRACE: I was taking a look at the witness list. I`ve got it right here in front of me, Mike Brooks. And I notice that number 39, the so- called witness is actually the statement of Vickie Lynn Marshall, that is Anna Nicole Smith. So they are counting her statement as a witness. It is number 39 on the list. Number 40 is Howard Stern. Was Stern present today?

BROOKS: Stern was not present today. As you e saw, Virgie Arthur was here and also, you know, Larry Birkhead was here. In fact, I spoke to Larry right before he left. He said he was going back to California to work on preparing the nursery. He says he will be back here in the Bahamas somewhere between April 3 and April 10. And keep in mind, Nancy, April 3 there is another hearing here on paternity.

But when I asked the -- when I asked Turner about the witnesses, who would be the first one to speak on Thursday, he said most likely it will be the police officer who took the pictures, the pictures at the autopsy and the crime scene. And then he said they will go sequentially through the witness list.

And he said -- and as you look at the witness list, Nancy, 16 of those witnesses are from Doctors Hospital and from Princess Margaret (ph) Hospital, Doctors Hospital where Daniel died, and Princess Margaret hospital where he was taken after he did die. So 16 of them are medical personnel from those two hospitals. So it should be an interesting three to maybe four weeks.

But sources are telling me once they get through all these procedural matters and get into the heart of the thing, get into the witnesses, that it should move right along. And hopefully, it will.

GRACE: Out to you, David Caplan, deputy New York bureau chief of "Star." Why wasn`t Stern in court? Why was he a no-show? I mean, according to him, he had married Anna Nicole Smith. This was her son, her beloved son. And he was not at the inquest?

DAVID CAPLAN, "STAR" MAGAZINE: Yes, it was a little surprising, but he`s not required to be there, as well, so he didn`t want to go. It was that simple.

GRACE: You know, I don`t know, David, how familiar you are with court proceedings, but very typically, a victim or the deceased`s family will show up in court, even though there`s no legal obligation for them to be there. Why? Because they care. They care about the outcome of the proceedings.

David Caplan, do we have any idea where Stern was today on day one of the inquest? I find that interesting.

CAPLAN: Yes. No. He was in the Bahamas. And I think it`s a little telling, though, about his personality because don`t forget, when we had the hearing in Florida, I believe, he also didn`t go for the first day. He came the second day. And I believe -- you know, we`re hearing he`s really sending that message that he wants to sort of have his lawyers. And it`s weird. He almost wants to almost, you know, get away from it. It`s weird. He did this before at the hearing, and it`s sort of like he wants to get away -- what`s the word I`m -- you know...

GRACE: Avoid.

CAPLAN: That`s it. Avoid.

(LAUGHTER)

GRACE: That would be it.

Back to you Jean Casarez. Jean has been on the case in the very, very beginning. Jean, I know Stern was not present in court today, but it seems to me that his lawyer, this Wayne Munroe attorney you`re telling me about, stood up and made statements as if Stern is somehow a target, ad defendant, a suspect, because why? This is an inquest, an inquiry into the cause of death of Daniel Smith, Anna Nicole Smith`s 20-year-old son, sudden and unexpected death. So why do Stern`s lawyers take it upon themselves to say they want a bench trial, as if somehow they are the target of the investigation?

CASAREZ: Because it is Wayne Munroe`s responsibility to protect his client, Howard K. Stern. So that is why I think he`s doing it.

GRACE: Protect him from what?

CASAREZ: Protect him from the taint of the media publicity because, as I spoke with people around the Bahamas, this is what I heard about Howard K. Stern. He`s suspicious. He`s a crook. I heard a lot of negative things. So I think it`s the duty of Wayne Munroe to have those jurors questioned so that they are not filled with the taint and are fair and impartial.

GRACE: Let`s go to the lines. Barbara in Missouri. Hi, Barbara.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. Love your show.

GRACE: Thank you, dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just wondering -- it`s never been brought up, and I read this last year in "People" magazine, either in the month of September or October, Daniel had been hospitalized for depression in a psychiatric institution. And I`m wonder if that`s going to be brought up as a possibility to show what his mood was.

GRACE: Interesting. Now, that seems to be making a connection, Barbara in Missouri, to suicide. And I don`t believe there`s any connection to suicide, but I would also like to know about his frame of mind. Back to you, David Caplan. Do we know anything about that?

CAPLAN: Yes. Absolutely. About a month or so before he arrived in the Bahamas, he was hospitalized for depression. And we`re hearing that he was depressed. He was having allegedly girl troubles, personal issues. And actually, at this hospital where he checked into, that is where he was prescribed one of the antidepressants which Cyril Wecht found in his system.

GRACE: I want to go to a special guest joining us tonight, Jack Harding, private investigator. He was contacted by the deceased, 20-year- old Daniel Smith, just before Daniel Smith died, and he made some very interesting revelations to Mr. Harding. Mr. Harding is joining us from LA. Jack, thank you for being with us. When did Daniel visit you?

JACK HARDING, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: He visited me, oh, I guess it was about, oh, a month after I met him and probably about a month before he left for the Bahamas. I didn`t even know he left. And he -- he didn`t seem depressed to me, and he didn`t seem anorexic, as well. His skin was clear. His eyes were clear.

He was really upset about his mother. And when he made phone calls to his mother, Stern would answer. Stern would hang up on him. And he told me that Stern had given orders to the staff that any time that he would call, to hang up on him. And the boy was frightened to death of Stern, according to what he told me, and to the point that, you know, he would be a little nervous there.

I know that he had a break-up with his girlfriend. That upset him. And that`s natural. And what got me was that when I told him I couldn`t take the case until I got paid, and so forth, he said he would get back to me. Now, the mere fact that the police found my business card on his body showed me that he still wanted to get back to me. And I don`t know if Stern had seen this card or not. That -- that`s something else.

But he -- as I said, he was frightened to death. And he was -- he wanted to help his mother. He loved his mother very much. And I heard a tape that was played to me over the phone by "Globe" magazine that they had -- it was a clip where his mother told him that he had a baby girl -- a baby sister, that is. And he said, Momma, really, do I have a baby girl? I have a baby girl? I really do, Momma? And she said, Yes, darling, you do. And he says, Really? Really? Can I come down and see the baby? Can I come down and see the baby, Momma? And she said, Yes, pumpkin, you can. And he said, Really, Momma? Really? Really? Can I? And that showed me that he was starving to death for the love of his mother. And he told me he wanted to protect his mother.

And this is really suspicious to me, the way that this whole thing came out. His mother -- that is -- he passed on with an overdose, and then all of a sudden, his mother passes over with an overdose. You know that the child -- especially when she was being given drugs when she was pregnant, the child is going to have a trace of narcotics in her system. Now, what`s to say that later on, if Stern was to get custody of the child later on, that the child would have an overdose? And who gets that money?

GRACE: Well, of course, there`s been no suggestion by authorities that homicide has played a role, but let`s just take a look at the similarities between the death of Anna Nicole Smith and her son, 20-year- old Daniel. Both died during daylight hours. Both died within the vicinity of trained nurses, both with antidepressants in the system, both with sleep aids. Both given drugs by multiple sources. Both died of a combination of drugs, found dead in the presence of those they trusted. Both set to inherit large sums of money. Both had methadone in their systems. Both died away from home. There are even more similarities, in my mind.

To you, Jack Harding. It`s very disturbing to me that both died after just falling to sleep. They both go to sleep at night. Daniel was there asleep in his mom`s hospital room. They both wake up dead. The MO of both of their accidental deaths are extremely similar.

HARDING: Yes. Yes, that`s true.

GRACE: We`ll all be right back. We are taking your calls live. And when we come back, we`ll be joined by medical examiner Dr. Joshua Perper.

Let`s go to tonight`s "Case Alert." A judge sentences a Georgia couple to life plus 30 behind bars on the murder of their 8-year-old son, Sonya (ph) and Joseph Smith locking the boy inside a wooden box and forcing him inside a closet for hours as punishment for not praying hard enough during on-line church services.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-year-old Daniel Smith came here to the Doctors Hospital in Nassau. He came to celebrate the birth of his baby sister. But three days after she was born, he was found dead in his mother`s hospital room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was fine when he came to see his newly born sister, and for him to just suddenly drop down dead raises a lot of questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: It certainly does raise a lot of questions. Tonight, we are talking about day one into the inquest in the death of Daniel Smith, Anna Nicole Smith`s 20-year-old son, who died unexpectedly and suddenly there in the hospital with her after she had delivered her baby girl.

Joining us tonight, Dr. Joshua Perper. As you know, he conducted the autopsy on Anna Nicole Smith. Dr. Perper, you have told us that you see many, many deaths due to a deadly and sometimes unintentional combination of drugs. But Dr. Perper, you`ve got to see the similarities between the deaths of Anna Nicole and her son, Daniel. They`re eerily similar.

DR. JOSHUA PERPER, BROWARD COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, by the same token, you have to see the differences and to balance one against the others. And there are clear differences. There were methadone -- in one case, methadone was a cause of death. In the other case, it wasn`t. In the case of Anna Nicole Smith, the major cause of death was chloral hydrate. This was not the case with her son.

In one case, Anna Nicole Smith, she had an infection which was accompanied by high fever. In the case of her son, it wasn`t. In the case of the son, this was apparently a minor depression or an occasional one. In the case of Anna Nicole Smith, it was a chronic depression. So you really have to balance both.

But I cannot speak about the son because I didn`t do a thorough investigation in this case, and therefore I don`t feel competent to speak about that.

GRACE: OK. Dr. Perper, didn`t Anna Nicole Smith have methadone in her bile?

PERPER: Yes. But this methadone in her bile didn`t have any impact on her death or on her consciousness. It was just there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIRKHEAD: I just came to tell the truth, you know, the same thing like with Florida. You just say whatever you can, and they take -- they can take from that what they want, and if it`s helpful, it`s helpful. If it`s not, I`ll be on a plane to go back. So I`m just here to do what I think`s right to help Daniel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back. Today day one in the inquest of Daniel Smith. That is the young son of covergirl Anna Nicole Smith. He died unexpectedly at the age 20 at his mother`s hospital bedside right after she delivered.

Out to you, Jean Casarez. Let`s go back over a recap regarding what happened to Daniel Smith.

CASAREZ: Well, Daniel Smith flew to visit his mother in the Bahamas three days after his little baby sister was born. He went immediately from the airport to the hospital. He was there with her and Howard K. Stern for a number of hours, and then literally collapsed, I think on a Sunday morning. And he was dead within minutes, I believe. But it was hours after he got into the commonwealth.

GRACE: To you, David Caplan, with "Star." Why has it taken so long for the inquest?

CAPLAN: It was initially slated to happen in October, but then at the time, they had their own legal wranglings in the Bahamas and they wanted to just simply postpone it until now.

GRACE: You know, out to you, Ray Giudice. You`re a defense attorney. It seems very odd to me that Howard Stern`s attorney is acting as if Howard Stern is the target.

RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, I think he`s going on the offensive for what he anticipates is a process that`s going to point to his client. And I can`t blame him at all. I think he`s doing the right thing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She died tragically and, I believe, quite accidentally as a result of the cumulative effect of three brain depressant drugs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anna Nicole, the mother of Daniel, is dead, and Howard`s the only one who`s alive who was in the room. So it really arouses our interest to speak to him, to find out exactly what happened in the room.

LILLY ANN SANCHEZ, HOWARD K. STERN`S ATTORNEY: Howard will make his own comments in due time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: That`s right. That is his criminal attorney, Lilly Ann Sanchez, speaking yesterday that Howard K. Stern would speak out on his own. That never happened. We`re still waiting on that.

Today, day one in the inquest in the death of a young man, 20 years old, still just a baby himself. I guess that`s going to be ruled an accident, too, just like the death of his mother. What I don`t understand -- to you, Dr. Joseph Deltito, psychiatrist -- is how can there be an accidental overdose with nine different drugs in your system?

JOSEPH DELTITO, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY: Well, by accident, I think they really mean just that there was no evidence that anyone forced it upon her. But it`s not accidental if someone is giving her the drug, if she`s taking it under different names. Certainly it`s not an accident in the usual sense. There still may be culpability here for someone. And no rational doctor would have described this combination of drugs.

GRACE: Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, Virgie Arthur`s lawyer, he is a veteran trial lawyer out of Houston. Also with us, Midwin Charles out of New York, Ray Giudice out of Atlanta. Welcome, counsel.

You know, to you, Midwin Charles, I don`t see it. Is it an accident? She had nine different drugs in her body. He had at least three. Is it an accident that drugs are prescribed in somebody else`s name and they were given to the deceased? Is it an accident they both lay there, wake up dead, and nobody does anything? Anna Nicole Smith was blue, for Pete`s sake, before 911 was called.

MIDWIN CHARLES, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, we can`t deny that there are a number of similarities here between the death of Anna Nicole Smith, as well as Daniel. However, they did obtain the drugs from various different sources, which could explain this accidental overdose.

GRACE: Accidental. Accidental. To you, John O`Quinn, what is your analysis?

JOHN O`QUINN, ATTORNEY FOR VIRGIE ARTHUR: I`d like to add one more circumstance. Howard Stern was there when both of them got deadly sick and died.

GRACE: You know, what`s another thing that`s disturbing, John O`Quinn -- and I`m not doubting Joshua Perper. If you look at Perper`s history, the thousands, literally thousands of autopsies he`s performed, his analysis is not incorrect. My concern is about the investigation that goes along with that analysis, Mr. O`Quinn. Two people dying of accidental drug overdoses, including some of the same drugs?

O`QUINN: I agree with you entirely. The fact that he concluded, Perper concluded that it was a drug overdose, I don`t quarrel with that, and I don`t quarrel with his talents to figure that out. But he basically based his story on what happened based on what Howard Stern told him. That`s like asking the murderer to tell us how this person died. You don`t necessarily get the truth.

GRACE: Well, again, before we call Stern a murderer...

O`QUINN: OK, OK. He`s acting like he`s the one. He storms into court this morning, demands that his lawyers pick the jury, demands that the media be thrown out of the courtroom. I mean, what`s going on here?

GRACE: Well, I agree. I don`t understand why he has the position -- he was a no-show at court. He didn`t demand anything. His lawyers did, though. You`re correct about that. He has not been named a murderer. He`s not been named a suspect. In fact, according to Dr. Perper, all of this is an accident.

But, Dr. Perper, it doesn`t turn your head around just a little bit to know that the son died under very similar circumstances in such a short time before his mother`s death?

DR. JOSHUA PERPER, BROWARD COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, I think that the question is the following. If you suspect that it was foul play, and you have a suspect, and if you theoretically assume that they will go to court, do you think that any court of law would find a conviction or a presence of homicide based on the evidence available? Not in a thousand years.

GRACE: Dr. Perper, you`re absolutely right. With what we know right now, you are absolutely correct. No one would return a guilty verdict on what is known right now. And another thing, to you, Dr. Joseph Deltito, following up on what Dr. Perper just said, think about it. Look at all the pictures you`ve see of Stern. Look, we all know who we`re talking about. We`re talking about Stern.

Look at the pictures of him. He`s holding the umbrella. He`s carrying the bags. He`s lifting the train. He`s helping her up, helping her down, bringing her this, bringing her that. Do you really think that he has the will, the fortitude to actually commit a murder? I don`t know that I see it.

DELTITO: Well, he might not have wanted her dead. He may just have been someone who felt, here, honey, take a little methadone, here, Danny, take a little Lexapro to make you feel better. You know, he may not have wanted the outcome of death, but he may have been someone who facilitated the drug use in a particularly dangerous way.

And I think the real connection between the two is the methadone, the methadone which it wasn`t an intoxicant that killed her, but she probably was in methadone withdrawal and was probably taking these other drugs to treat the methadone withdrawal that she was in, because there`s got to be some reason why she`s taking all these sedating -- not antidepressants. They`re not antidepressant medicines. They`re sedative medicines that she was taking.

GRACE: You know, back to you, David Caplan, the bureau chief of "Star" in New York, I was reading a synopsis of what she went through. It was basically hell, the last hours of her life. And it suggested that she went and sat in a dry bathtub, and she was dry heaving and retching. I know that there was emesis, vomit, in the bathroom sink. There was some type of vomit or discharge there in the bed. Couldn`t everybody see the woman was dying?

DAVID CAPLAN, "STAR" MAGAZINE: I mean, it was very -- you know, it was very shocking -- it should come of no surprise to anyone why no one even bothered to help, despite, you know, what she is saying, this is outrageous.

GRACE: And, Dr. Perper, I saw there was bloody fluid on her bed sheet. Was that coming from the abscesses, do you think?

PERPER: I didn`t think that it was bloody fluid. It looked more like a diarrhea fluid.

GRACE: So she was throwing up, having diarrhea, couldn`t keep anything down. Oh, Dr. Perper, that reminds me of something. I was looking at all the things that were listed by her bed stand. She had all of these prescription bottles. She had the gum you chew when you`re trying to quit smoking. It looked like she was living off SlimFast and not really eating. I know she tried to keep down a little omelet but couldn`t.

I mean, how does that affect your body, Dr. Perper, when you go indefinitely on diet pills, and you`re drinking SlimFast, and you`re taking all these various drugs?

PERPER: Well, she was a number of -- first of all, the drugs were both antidepressant and anti-anxiety. It`s not correct to say they were not antidepressant, the three drugs.

Second, there were no nine drugs. There were only five drugs. The first was chloral hydrate. There were three antidepressant, anti-anxiety, and an antihistaminic drug, Benadryl. And, obviously, those three drugs, the anti-depressant, can cause confusion. People are counseled not to drive car, not to operate machinery. And sometimes confusion can be a result of those drugs.

And I think that there was information in the media that at the time she appeared to be very confused in her behavior. So it`s consistent, in terms of her behavior, as described previously and the presence of drug in her system.

GRACE: Back to you, Mike Brooks, joining us from the Bahamas. What now? Stern`s lawyers have managed to put the kibosh on the whole thing. They`re going to have an argument tomorrow about what?

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE: Well, Nancy, they`re going to continue their argument on what they were talking about today, on the impaneling of the jury. So hopefully -- we`re hearing that hopefully this will be done tomorrow. Thursday we`ll get the first witness on the stand, and we`ll get the ball rolling. And, you know, this could still last maybe three to four weeks. But hopefully get the ball rolling on Thursday, Nancy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`ll be a very key witness, because he`s the only surviving person who was in that room when Daniel died. And Anna Nicole, unfortunately, has died, and (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Day one of the inquest in the death of 20-year-old Daniel Smith, the young son of Anna Nicole Smith. To you, Jean Casarez. Jean, I don`t quite understand the objection that Howard K. Stern`s attorneys lodged. What is their standing in court?

JEAN CASAREZ, COURT TV: Well, first of all, they`re an interested party, and their client is going to be a witness. And you can have your own attorney to basically examine you after the registrar general, the police inspector, questions you as part of the direct examination.

GRACE: Oh, I understand he was being a witness. But to go to the judge and say, hey, we don`t like the whole setup, we don`t like a jury, we want to do it our way, that`s crazy.

CASAREZ: But, you know, Nancy, you can ask Mr. O`Quinn this, and I think I`m right on it. Remember last week in the Bahamas when an objection was made to the Texas attorneys being there for the proceedings, and they were ousted from the courtroom from the Bahamas? Well, that was Wayne Munroe, once again, that made a motion to the court that only the parties and their attorneys should be there.

GRACE: Is she right, John O`Quinn?

O`QUINN: ... that was in court with a judge in a judicial proceeding.

GRACE: Was it Wayne Munroe?

O`QUINN: This was inquest. It`s an inquest. There are not parties in an inquest.

GRACE: Right. But was it Wayne Munroe that met Howard K. Stern`s lawyer that did it? OK.

O`QUINN: Oh, yes, Wayne Munroe, you`re correct about that.

GRACE: Yes, yes, yes. OK, to you, Midwin Charles and Ray Giudice, very quickly, because I want to get to those two missing kids in upstate Washington. The liability, if any, of an enabler in our judicial system, what about it, Midwin? Would Stern face any liability if he`s deemed to be an enabler? Remember the testimony about that duffel bag full of drugs he got her in the hospital?

CHARLES: Absolutely. If he`s found an enabler, he certainly can face charges of murder or manslaughter. I mean, at this point, the sky is the limit, because we don`t know his full involvement.

GRACE: You know, though, I don`t see liability for murder or manslaughter as an enabler, Ray Giudice.

GIUDICE: No, Nancy. The most important similarity that everybody is glossing over is that both Anna Nicole and her son were prescription drug abusers. And if there`s any civil liability, somebody ought to look at these doctors who wrote multiple prescriptions for her under multiple various names.

GRACE: But, Midwin, we don`t even know if all these doctors knew about each other.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: ... wrote all to Stern and Anna Nicole.

GIUDICE: But they also wrote prescriptions under false names to her.

GRACE: That`s true.

GIUDICE: And there are reports that Anna Nicole was quaffing methadone from the bottle like it was Gatorade. So not only was she abusing the drugs in the amounts the way she got them, but she wasn`t taking drugs the way they`re ordered by the doctor.

(CROSSTALK)

GIUDICE: No. But why don`t we get some of these investigators and journalists to stop accusing Stern of killing this girl and her son? Because I`m telling you, if they want to listen to some free legal advice, they better look at the law on slander and libel in this country. They`ve got no evidence. There`s no D.A. in this country that will draft an indictment on this case.

GRACE: You`re right, but you`re so way beyond the scope. I just didn`t think I could stop the runaway train that you just were.

Back to you, Midwin Charles, liability, that`s the question. I don`t see criminal liability with Howard K. Stern. I just don`t see it. But could someone potentially file a civil suit?

CHARLES: Someone could file a potential civil suit, but also, Nancy, let me just take you on a tangent for a moment here. I do see possible criminal liability here, because if Howard K. Stern knowingly, with intent, supplied Anna and Daniel with those drugs, he certainly could be facing criminal charges.

GRACE: OK. We`ll find out more as the inquest continues, whenever Howard Stern`s lawyers decide they can go forward with the inquest down in the Bahamas. I guess they`ll get going.

I want to tell you about two missing kids in Washington state. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s hard to just stand back and wait, but we can do -- we can`t do anything else. And we have a lot of people praying, and I believe that the children are protected. I don`t believe that John would harm them. If he knew the damage that he was doing to them by this behavior, I don`t feel that he would do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The children are now likely in other clothing, at least with regard to the jacket and the shoes that were put out in the original Amber Alert.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: These two little children, ages 4 and 2, go on a custodial visit with their father. They have not been seen again. They were supposed to be brought back on Sunday. The van has been found empty. The little boy`s coat is in the van. The van was found about 80 miles from the Canadian border. We think there`s a problem tonight.

The search has turned desperate, but I`m hearing we`ve got some breaking news. To Karinna Shagren with KXLY, what`s the latest?

KARINNA SHAGREN, REPORTER, KXLY: Well, Nancy, we just learned within the last 20 minutes or so that the FBI has information which makes it believe John Baugher may be in the Missoula, Montana, area. Not elaborating, they say that there isn`t much new information beyond that, but we do know the children have not been found.

We also know that Walla Walla police department says John Baugher is an avid hitchhiker. He often hitchhikes between Seattle and Spokane. He certainly knows how to get around the area without his own vehicle. So it wouldn`t be too out of the question to be somewhere else out of the state.

Police are also looking into the possibility that he may have dropped the children off with another adult, so certainly things changing right now. It`s a very fluid case...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: There`s an alleged sighting of him, but not the kids?

SHAGREN: I don`t want to say alleged sighting. Again, the FBI is not really elaborating on why they believe Baugher is in the Missoula area, but they do have information which makes them believe that.

GRACE: It`s my understanding that Walla Walla is about 400 miles from Missoula. I want to go to another special guest in addition to Karinna. It`s Captain Dan Aycock. He is with the Walla Walla Police Department.

Captain, thank you for being with us. Isn`t it true that the father had only had supervised visits? The mom had made some serious criminal charges against the father, and that was being investigated, and this would have been the first weekend he had non-custodial visit?

CAPT. DAN AYCOCK, WALLA WALLA POLICE DEPARTMENT: Yes, that`s true.

GRACE: Oh, good lord! What happened, Captain?

AYCOCK: They went through a court process involving the kids and the married couple. And the result of that investigation by the court was that they could not determine that there was a specific and identifiable danger to the kids, so apparently the judge felt that he had no choice but to grant this request for visitation.

GRACE: So the judge grants the request for unsupervised visitation, and now these two little children, Remi and Lars are gone. One little jacket still left in the van.

Captain, what can you tell us about the location of the van in connection to the Canadian border?

AYCOCK: Like you said, it`s probably in the neighborhood of 80 miles from there. The land in that area is variable. There`s mountains, forest area, some scrub land, farmland, and that kind of thing, very open and very sparsely populated.

GRACE: Well, Captain Aycock, it would seem to me, if he were trying to cross the border, he would ditch that van, because it would be recognizable, right down to the name plate -- I mean, to the tag plate.

AYCOCK: Absolutely. And that`s one of the reasons we`re not really concerned about him probably going over the border for that reason, and some of the information we`ve received from contacts suggested that he would not go to Canada.

GRACE: To Karinna, were the toys still in the van, as well, the children`s toys for the visit?

SHAGREN: You know what? I`m not aware of any toys. We were certainly at the children`s home. There were toys spread out all over. It was kind of sad to see an unusual silence at the home where two kids normally played. But I`m not aware of any in the van.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, he has a history of being unstable, especially under any -- he has a lot of anxiety, and he has a stressful life. So this was the first visit in quite some time. And so we were reluctant, but the authorities could not keep him from seeing them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: The authorities, the judge could do whatever they want to do. And they were hell-bent on letting this guy have unsupervised visits with a 4-year-old and 2-year-old little boy, even in light of his unstable background. Now they`re gone.

Back out to Captain Dan Aycock with the Walla Walla Police Department. Captain, again, thank you for being with us. I`m concerned. It`s my understanding that the little boy`s coat and the toys were still in the van.

AYCOCK: The coat from the little boy was left there and at least part of the toys and the belongings that were characterized as being taken with them were still in the van, yes.

GRACE: What`s disturbing is, if the children are there, their toys and their coats would be with the kids. That makes me very concerned about the children. What`s the latest you`re hearing, this latest FBI report, Captain?

AYCOCK: They`ve characterized it to me as an actual sighting being there in Missoula, Montana, some place, and that`s about where we were just before the phone call came alerting me. So I don`t have the latest on what resulted from that.

GRACE: OK, that tip line, Captain, is 509-527-1960.

Let`s stop to remember Army Sergeant Brandon Allen Parr, 25, Utah, killed, Iraq, second deployment. He enlisted after 9/11. Loved travel, football, baseball. Last night, we forgot to tell you about his widow, grieving widow, Shannah, his mother, and son, Nicholas, left behind. Brandon Parr, American hero.

Thank you to our guests, but especially to you. NANCY GRACE signing off. See you tomorrow night. And until then, good night, friend.

END

CNN U.S.
CNN TV E-mail Services CNN Mobile CNNAvantGo Ad Info About Us Preferences
Search
© 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map.
Offsite Icon External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pipeline Icon Pay service with live and archived video. Learn more
Radio News Icon Download audio news  |  RSS Feed Add RSS headlines