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NANCY GRACE

Murdered Jogger`s Family Gets Emergency Custody of Kids

Aired July 17, 2008 - 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: Tonight, breaking news. A young mom reportedly goes jogging, 7:00 AM Saturday morning, upscale suburbs, Cary, North Carolina, leaving behind her two little girls at home with daddy. Finally, 3:00 PM, her neighborhood friend calls police.
Breaking developments right now. A judge takes the two little girls away from the father, custody now with the mom`s parents and twin sister, stripping custody from husband Bradley Cooper.

And in those court documents, bombshell allegations husband Bradley Cooper did, in fact, carry on an affair with another woman, fought bitterly with his wife, Nancy, even withholding grocery money from his wife and two little girls, ages 4 and 2. We also learned since their mom`s disappearance, Nancy`s sister and parents have been the ones carrying for the little girls, not their own father, Bradley Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My sister will always be alive in me! Nancy, I love you and I always will!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 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. They say he was having an affair and is emotionally unstable. Brad Cooper has not been named a suspect in the case, we need to point out, but North Carolina investigators say they found his wife`s body at a construction site less than three miles from her home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And tonight, police desperately searching for a beautiful little girl, Caylee, after her grandparents report her missing. We learn now she was last seen five long weeks ago. So why hasn`t Mommy called the police? Tonight, where is 2-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Casey Marie Anthony (ph) walked out of the Orange County sheriff`s office with her head held high. Detectives say she has shown little emotion for her missing 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators reveal that the mother, Casey Marie Anthony, has not been truthful about what she has told them, including lying about the baby-sitter the child was allegedly left with, where she worked, and telling family and friends the child was fine when she`s been missing for over a month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She admitted to lying throughout her interrogation, and the whole time, detectives write in their report, Casey didn`t show any obvious emotion as to the loss of a child. She did not cry or give any indication she was legitimately worried.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s been my joy for the last three years. I just want her back. I want her back now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. A young mom reportedly goes jogging, 7:00 AM Saturday morning, upscale suburbs, Cary, North Carolina, leaving her two little girls at home with daddy. Finally, 3:00 PM, her neighborhood friend calls police.

Breaking developments right now. A judge takes the two little girls away from the father, custody now with the mom`s parents and twin sister, stripping custody from husband Bradley Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Late yesterday, custody of Nancy and Brad`s two children, Bella (ph) and Katie (ph), was officially transferred to Gary (ph), Donna (ph) and Christa (ph). I want to stress that this custody issue is a private civil matter between Nancy`s family and Brad. It was not initiated by the town of Cary Police Department, and it was not a part of our investigation into Nancy`s murder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The parents of murdered mom Nancy Cooper claim that Brad Cooper was a cheating, abusive husband and that he`s lying about what happened the day his wife disappeared. They don`t believe that Nancy ever went jogging the day she disappeared. They say that Brad emotionally abused Nancy and the kids, that Brad was having an affair, that he yelled and belittled Nancy in front of the kids.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the single, most (INAUDIBLE) tragedy that`s ever befallen our family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My best friend and my soulmate. She`s my sister, and she`s (INAUDIBLE) everything. She will always be half of me, and I promise to live my life in the way that makes her proud!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: The two ladies you just saw now have custody of the two little girls belonging to Nancy Cooper, her husband stripped of custody after an emergency hearing before a judge today.

Straight out to Lori Mack with Metro Networks. Why did the family, Nancy Cooper`s family, feel they must go into court for an emergency hearing?

LORI MACK, METRO NETWORKS: Well, the family insists, Nancy, that Brad Cooper is essentially unfit to care for the girls. Now, they list several reasons, including the fact that -- well, not the fact -- they allege that he had an affair. They say that he was verbally abusive to Nancy Cooper before her death. They say that he withheld money from her, she had to borrow money from her parents to buy groceries. They even say that he went into her vehicle, took the young girls` -- the two little girls had passports to go to Canada because Nancy was thinking about leaving her husband -- and he stole those passports out of Nancy Cooper`s car.

GRACE: You know -- to Gurnal Scott with WPTF -- Gurnal, it`s very unusual that she wouldn`t even have grocery money. I mean, they had two BMWs sitting in the driveway. They had a beautiful home. Obviously, money didn`t seem to be an issue. So she wouldn`t have grocery money?

GURNAL SCOTT, WPTF: Well, it apparently seems that Brad Cooper had control of the money in that house, and if he decided that she wasn`t going to get any of it, then that was the rule. And she had to turn to family and friends perhaps even to get money to help care for her own kids.

GRACE: Gurnal Scott, what can you tell us about this alleged affair that he was having?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, there are really no specifics about the alleged affair. Looking at the complaint that was filed in court, they said that he felt -- the family felt that he was having an affair with another woman and felt that was part of the -- the issue that they had and the marital discord. That`s the first insight that we`ve seen into the marital discord that we have been hearing about over the past several days. And they felt that that was part of the reason why those kids had to come out of that house.

GRACE: To Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst and author -- we are taking your calls live, everyone. Dr. Bethany, I`ve got the court documents right here in my hand, and in paragraph 12, it states that these are allegations by Nancy Cooper`s, now deceased, family against her husband. It states that in the months leading up to her murder, he had become extremely emotionally and verbally abusive toward his wife right in front of the children. What does this suggest to you?

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Well, if you lay this alongside the fact that he tried to commit suicide when he was an adolescent, and then, according to one report this winter (ph), he`s impulsive, he`s rageful, he cannot control himself, and the wish to seek revenge is at the cornerstone of this personality.

But revenge for what? Maybe the reason he was having an affair is that he just did not want this family anymore. Maybe cut off money because he wanted to punish her for minor infractions, he easily got his feelings hurt. Or maybe he didn`t want her to be out having a good time and enjoying her life, and so he put a tight squeeze on her and the girls.

GRACE: You know, this woman, Nancy Cooper, was a real star, Dr. Bethany. I don`t know if you knew not that she was an Olympic hopeful. She was excellent at ice sports in Canada.

MARSHALL: Yes, can you imagine the envy, the jealousy that that must have stirred up on his part? And that`s why with intimate homicides, we look at the family members often because it`s in the context of attachment that envy, rage, the wish to be like the other gets stirred up. And she was a star. Maybe he felt he wasn`t.

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. I have in my hands the petition, the allegations made by Nancy Cooper`s family against her husband, basically begging a judge for immediate custody of her two little girls. And the judge agreed. As of right now, the husband has been stripped of custody of the two little children.

Right now, we still don`t have a cause of death on mom Nancy Cooper. There you see where her remains were found. We don`t have a cause of death. Also, we don`t know, Pat Brown, criminal profiler and author, what she was wearing at the time of her death. That is very significant because according to her family, she never went jogging that morning. And if that is true, if it is true she never went jogging, that means that the husband made that whole scenario up. Why?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, Nancy, of course, right now, we can`t be sure that the family would have any way to know that Nancy did not go jogging. I mean, I don`t know how they would know this.

GRACE: Well, maybe they knew what she had on. Maybe they know that she had on the same outfit she had on the night before at that neighborhood get-together.

BROWN: That`s a possibility, and if she isn`t in her jogging clothes and she`s not along her regular jogging route, and then they would obviously be suspicious of this. Now, it`s very interesting. I think what the judge is looking at right now with the temporary order is that, certainly, the children are going to be safer and more secure with the grandparents at the moment, regardless of whether their allegations are true. But be on the safe side, I`m sure the judge said, Hey, this is a better place for the kids.

GRACE: Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, Susan Moss, family attorney in New York, Raymond Giudice, veteran defense attorney in the Atlanta jurisdiction, and also with us, Penny Douglas Furr, family law advocate joining us out of Atlanta. Sue Moss, weigh in.

SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: This decision is extraordinary. What happened is the judge thinks that these children are at risk or that dad is an absolute unfit parent. There is a Supreme Court case that essentially says that natural parents get the nod for custody over everyone else, including sisters, grandparents, and the like. For the judge to have overcome this burden, he must truly think this guy did it.

GRACE: You know, Ray Giudice, just for once, could you surprise me? Can we have one guy not pop up having an affair, just one?

RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, there is a pattern here, but let me say two quick things. Susan, that`s an ex parte order. The judge only heard one side. That`s by the petitioners, the grandparents and the lady`s sister. The defendant, Mr.Cooper, has a right on the 25th of July to be heard. However, if I was his lawyer, I would waive that right. I don`t want him testifying and being subject to cross-examination.

GRACE: Well, that`s really interesting, Ray. So it`s more important that he protect himself than get his children back?

GIUDICE: No, no, it`s more important he put all of his energies in assisting finding the killer of his wife.

GRACE: Interesting that you bring that out. Lori Mack, has he, in fact, been trying to help? Did he try to help find his wife at the time she was missing?

MACK: Well, the only thing we`ve heard -- we`ve heard from his attorneys, who released a statement yesterday saying that he`s not going to talk to the media and that he`s very upset, he`s been devastated since learning of Nancy`s murder, but that he is actively cooperating with the police. Now, they did not say anything about his actions immediately after she was reported missing.

GRACE: To Penny Douglas Furr. Penny, if he wants his children, I think a great way to start off would be then to take care of them after the disappearance and the death of their mother. As it turns out, ever since Nancy Cooper went missing, her family -- her twin sister and parents -- have been taking care of her two little girls, not the daddy.

PENNY DOUGLAS FURR, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, it may be that he`s trying to find his wife and he`s very upset about this. Most people would be very upset. If he is not the killer and someone else killed her, he may be incredibly emotionally traumatized and he should not have the children at this time. But he didn`t even get notice that the court was going to do what they did today. And this petition is mild compared to some divorce petitions I`ve read.

(CROSSTALK)

FURR: ... allegations. It`s a custody petition. And a lot of divorce and custody petitions go together, and this is mild compared to some of them I`ve read.

GRACE: Well, it`s not a divorce because the woman is dead.

FURR: I understand that.

GRACE: And speaking of divorce, we now also learn, do we not, Gurnal Scott with WPTF, that she, Nancy Cooper, had been in the process of finalizing a custody agreement in pursuit of a separation from her husband at the time of her death.

SCOTT: Yes, we did find that out. As a matter of fact, when you heard Lori Mack talk about the passports, there had been talk that she was possibly going to move back up to Canada with the girls. So there was the possibility of a separation between the two.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Shelly in Louisiana. Hi, Shelly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Congratulations on the twins.

GRACE: Thank you, dear. And hello to all my Cajun friends. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like to know if the investigators have yet been able to question the 4-year-old daughter.

GRACE: Interesting question. What about it, Gurnal?

SCOTT: We haven`t heard anything about questioning of the children. As a matter of fact, we probably aren`t going to hear a whole lot about the details of the investigation. As you may know, the chief of Cary said that Wake (ph) County district attorney has sort curtailed what she can release about the case. Maybe perhaps he`s trying to build a case, as well.

GRACE: Joining me right now is a very special guest, joining us out of Raleigh, North Carolina. It is Michelle Simmons, a very dear friend of the murdered mom, Nancy Cooper. Ms. Simmons, thank you for being with us.

MICHELLE SIMMONS, FRIEND OF NANCY COOPER: Thank you.

GRACE: Ms. Simmons, I bet that you never thought in a million years that you would be introduced as a dear friend of the murdered mom, Nancy Cooper.

SIMMONS: No, never. It`s a nightmare.

GRACE: Do you know how her children are doing?

SIMMONS: They are doing, actually, very well. They`re very happy with their "Christa mom," their aunt.

GRACE: They may not really even understand what`s happening. I mean, they are ages 2 and 4, correct?

SIMMONS: Yes. Katie will be 2 next week and Bella`s 4.

GRACE: I know that, from what I`ve heard, Nancy Cooper was an amazing mother, correct?

SIMMONS: She was just about the best mom I`ve ever seen. She was fantastic. She was very hands-on, just always doing -- doing anything for the kids.

GRACE: Like what? Describe what her day would be like with her children.

SIMMONS: Just, you know, running them around to soccer, school, taking them to the pool, normal things like that. But she did a full day of -- of activities with the girls. She would get down on the floor and play with them, just so hands-on.

GRACE: I was just looking at a picture of the missing, and now we know murdered mom, Nancy Cooper. What was she like to you as a friend? I mean with that smile, it just -- life just seems to beam out of her.

SIMMONS: It did. She was one in a million. She never met a stranger. Nancy had a huge group of friends. And even if she didn`t know you, she was the kind of person that would walk up to you in a store and say, Oh, you just look adorable today, or, That`s a great hat. She just was the happiest, most friendly person, outgoing, always had a smile on her face. Wonderful. Irreplaceable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember her smile and her charisma and her ability to make everyone in a room happier and smile and laugh. But definitely, one of the first things that comes to my mind is I was never sad (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am one of the luckiest people in the world. I`m a twin! Sorry. I have a bond with Nancy that no one in the world has. All I have to do to remember her is just to look in the mirror!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Bombshell document filed in court, an emergency petition to take custody away from Nancy Cooper`s husband. She has been identified, her remains nearby, not on her regular jogging route. Her husband says she went jogging that morning. That cannot be confirmed. And now the husband has been stripped of custody, for now anyway, of his two little girls.

We are taking your calls live. Out to Linda in Illinois. Hi, Linda.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, honey, first of all, I think that you`re the amazing mom.

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`re welcome. I`m not real sure who the question would be for. But I raised four sons myself, which two of them are Marines. But there`s a lot of guys, it seems like, killing their wives and stuff. Who raised these guys? I mean, there has to be something going really wrong.

GRACE: You know, Linda in Illinois, you`re so right. Bethany, it seems that there is an increasing trend toward violence against women.

MARSHALL: Well, what the research shows, there`s actually a trend -- there`s an increase in homicide worldwide right now, interestingly enough, and it`s traced to two things. One is complete and utter maternal rejection. And the other, believe it or not, is watching a lot of media, playing a lot of games, where the child never has to concentrate on one thing. They`re watching, like, a toy or a Gameboy, where it jumps from frame to frame to frame to frame. And when they`re older, they have unbridled rage without the capacity to self-regulate, calm themselves down, focus and attach. And that`s the environment in which homicide can occur.

GRACE: To Dr. Bruce Levy, medical examiner. We still don`t have the cause of death. Why?

DR. BRUCE LEVY, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, I suspect that, in fact, that they do have a cause of death. They just haven`t released it. After all, they have told us that this is a homicide. And in order to do that, they probably know what the cause of death is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) today the investigations are as much about (INAUDIBLE) We have still not named a suspect or a person of interest. Everyone in this case continues to be cooperative with us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police investigators have been going through the Cooper house and carting out evidence. They got warrants to search not only the house and cars, but also for DNA from Brad Cooper, Nancy`s husband.

Cary`s police chief won`t deny reports that Brad Cooper was caught by surveillance cameras buying cleaning supplies in middle of the night. That was just hours before he says he last saw his wife when she went jogging. Sources tell Eyewitness News that account came from this grocery store close to the Coopers` home and close to the area where Nancy`s body was found.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We have also learned that around 2:00 AM, police executed a search warrant there in the home, and that search continued from 2:00 AM around the clock through the morning, through the afternoon, into this evening.

Out to Susan Moss, Ray Giudice, Penny Douglas Furr. Ray Giudice, what were they doing? They had already had one consensual search. Then they went back with a search warrant. That was a long search.

GIUDICE: Yes. To get a second search for that warrant, they probably had something specific that they were looking at or for and -- because that would have been alleged in the warrant.

GRACE: So what do you think, Susan Moss, going back in with Luminol?

MOSS: Absolutely. He was buying cleaning supplies that very evening. What was he cleaning? Let me tell you something. The first rule of winning a custody case, don`t kill the other side.

GRACE: Penny...

MOSS: The second rule, remember rule number one.

GRACE: Everybody, when we come back, police desperately searching for a beautiful little girl, Caylee. After the grandparents report her missing, we learn Caylee last seen five weeks ago. Why hasn`t Mommy called police? Tonight, where is 2-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Casey Anthony is a 22-year-old mother. That`s a fact. This is her beautiful 2-year-old Caylee. That`s also true. But the rest of the story is blurry at best, false at worst.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it`s difficult to sort through what we`re being told.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Detectives say they got a called from Caylee`s grandparents early this morning who just found out that Caylee had been missing for a month.

CINDY ANTHONY, MISSING 2-YR-OLD GIRL`S GRANDMOTHER: And I had every hope that when I found Casey Caylee was with her. And when Caylee wasn`t with her, and Casey couldn`t produce Caylee, then I knew something was wrong. Mother`s intuition, I had gut feeling something wasn`t write so I called the sheriff`s department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: A beautiful 2-year-old little girl is missing. Right now we have a live shot. Breaking news, there in the backyard of the home that was shared by the family, we have learned that police are gathering, they are converging in the backyard around an apparently a plastic playhouse. They have lifted it up.

Also there in the backyard, we see German shepherd dogs. We don`t know at this juncture whether they are cadaver dogs or search dogs. We do than little Caylee has been gone now for several weeks. Weeks had passed without the mother reporting her missing.

Joining me right now on the scene is Kendra Oestreich with WESH.

Kendra, what can you tell me?

KENDRA OESTREICH, REPORTER, WESH: Well, I can tell you right now Orange County investigators are searching the home of Cindy and George Anthony here in Orange County, Florida.

They brought in a couple shovels just moment ago and they are digging in the backyard. They brought in two large shovels, two smaller shovels, and as you said, they have moved to the playground off. They have been focusing on a sandy area around that.

Neighbors in this area apparently told the investigators that they saw Casey, the little girl`s mother, here recently alone when her parents, the grandparents in this case, were not here. And so they`re just making sure that it`s possible, whether or not Casey might have buried Caylee, a little 2-year-old girl, here in the backyard.

GRACE: With me, Kendra Oestreich from WESH, joining us right there on the scene. You are seeing a chopper shot of the backyard. This little girl apparently had been gone for weeks without her mother ever reporting it then get confronted by cops after her grandparents, the grandmother and grandfather, became very, very concerned. And they called police.

The mom told police, Kendra, apparently, that she had been conducting her own investigation?

OESTREICH: That`s right. And investigators say that Casey, the mother in this case, has told them lie after lie. Her story was that she dropped off Caylee, the little girl, on June 9th at a friend`s house, Zenaida Gonzalez. But investigators haven`t been able to find this Zenaida Gonzalez or know even if she even exists.

She says she dropped the little girl off and then headed to work. When she returned to the apartment complex, both the friend and Caylee were apparently gone.

But again, this girl has told them lie after lie. She even went as far as to take them to Universal Studios the other day, saying, "I work here," was leading them through an office complex saying, "This is where I work," and in the middle of that, all of a sudden she stopped and said, "You know what, I don`t work here."

Come to find out she was fired from the theme park back in 2006.

So investigators are having a hard time, you know, telling heads from tales from what this mother is actually telling them. Her story versus what is reality and the worst fear, of course, is if this little girl is here in the backyard.

GRACE: When the neighbors, Kendra, saw her, the mom, in the backyard, when the grandparents were not there, what was she doing?

OESTREICH: Well, apparently investigators just told us only that, that a neighbor is what led them to search here at the house again and that`s all we know at this point. Just that there is some concern that potentially when she was at this house that she was maybe up to no good.

GRACE: Kendra, is that a cadaver dog that is with the police?

OESTREICH: That`s what police are thinking -- our spokesperson here believe that must be the case because usually when they`re using canines to search, track a suspect, is a different kind of dog. This dog is likely trained to be searching for remains here in this backyard.

GRACE: With me right now is a special guest. This is Caylee`s grandmother Cindy Anthony.

Miss Anthony, thank you for being with us. Are you with me, Miss Anthony?

ANTHONY: Yes, I am.

GRACE: Miss Anthony, first of all, our prayers are with you right now at this moment because there is a chance that the little girl is still alive. There is a very distinct chance.

ANTHONY: Absolutely. Absolutely.

GRACE: What happened, Miss Anthony?

ANTHONY: I don`t know what`s happened. I don`t know what`s happened. That`s why I`m here trying to ask the public if they can find Caylee, because I still believe she`s alive.

GRACE: Tell me why do you believe that?

ANTHONY: A gut feeling, because anybody that looks at this little girl will fall madly in love with her and 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.

GRACE: When you spoke to Casey, did anything she said make sense? I mean everything she`s told police so far has been a pack of lies, one after the next.

ANTHONY: Well, no, when I spoke with Casey on Tuesday, nothing made sense. That`s why I called the police. I`ve been told Tuesday, everything made sense to me. I`ve communicated with my daughter, every day since the last time I saw her, which was -- I -- the last time I saw Casey and Caylee was June 8th.

My husband saw them both leaving on June the 9th. Actually my husband saw Casey a week or two after that at the house when she came by to pick up some things. And we haven`t seen Casey -- or Caylee, though, since the 8th and the 9th.

But Casey gave me an explanation where she was and it was very -- it was very, you know, believable. And I had no reason to ever doubt my daughter. My daughter has been nothing but a loving mother. I mean I`ve never had any evidence otherwise.

And it`s not like I don`t see them every day. I mean, Casey has always lived with me, you know? She was 19 when Caylee was born. And so naturally, Caylee, when she came home from the hospital, there was a room in the house that was Caylee`s room. And so that`s been their home for, you know, as long as they`ve both been alive.

I mean we moved to Orlando in 1989. And that`s how long we`ve been, you know, at that -- you know, at that residence. And that`s been Casey`s, you know, home.

Casey actually was a little bit older. She was about 3 1/2 when we moved there. And Caylee`s going to be 3 in a month. So there`s a little - - you know, a lot of the similarities there. Caylee is a spitting image of her mother when she was little.

GRACE: How many weeks had your granddaughter been missing before she was finally reported to police as missing?

ANTHONY: I don`t know. Casey states that she`s been missing since June 9th. I haven`t seen her since June 8th but I had no reason to believe that she was missing until Tuesday which was July 15th.

GRACE: And what happened on that day?

ANTHONY: I found out that she wasn`t where she said she was. I found out that Caylee was not in the city that she said she was and so when I found her and 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 that, you know, it was to late to go because she was 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 just go pick her up in the morning, and, you know, 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, "no, mom," you know, she was pretty persistent and insistent, and then I got a gut feeling that -- I just knew something was wrong and Casey couldn`t tell me.

So I told her, you know, to either take me to her or I`m going to bring someone that could take me to her and so I told her that I was going to call the sheriff`s department if I didn`t.

GRACE: What did she say when you told her you were calling the sheriff?

ANTHONY: She said go ahead and call them. She said, you know, I know why where she`s at, I`ll tell them where she`s at. So, you know, I called them and by the time they got there, she was -- had told us that Caylee had been kidnapped. And Caylee was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is Caylee Anthony? Well I can`t -- I can`t force you to answer that question but that`s the question I leave with you. Do you understand?

CASEY ANTHONY, MISSING 2-YR-OLD GIRL`S MOTHER: Yes, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: 2-year-old Caylee Marie Anthony remains missing and detectives continue to plot through a tangled web of what they consider to be lies told by the 22-year-old.

Detectives say that Anthony claimed she dropped her daughter off at this apartment on June 9th and when she came back the babysitter was gone. It turns out no one has lived here in five months. We`re told Anthony admitted to lying about many details. But she has not said anything about the location of her daughter.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: In fact, as it turns out, nearly everything she told police was a lie.

I want to go out to Marc Klaas, founder of Beyondmissing.com. What should police be doing right now?

MARC KLAAS, FOUNDER, BEYONDMISSING.COM, FATHER OF MURDER VICTIM POLLY KLAAS: Well, I`ll tell you what they should be doing -- they`re doing a very good job of responding to this very difficult situation. They got the public involved right away. They`ve got this woman in custody.

And you know, this woman has the answer. She either killed, sold, or gave away this little girl. And just like in the Trenton Duckett case, they have to keep an eye on this woman because if she`s not on a suicide watch, she should be, because if she were to die, she will take the answer with her.

At some point they`ve got to lean on her. They`ve got to get her to tell them the truth. That`s all they can do.

GRACE: To Rory O`Neill with Metro Networks, Marc Klaas has an excellent point. Where is the mom right now?

RORY O`NEILL, REPORTER, METRO NETWORKS: Well, the judge in the case ordered that she be held at the Orange County jail without bond and pending an investigation, pending an evaluation. So she will be held up in the jail without any chance of being released at least for the time being.

GRACE: An evaluation for what?

O`NEILL: A mental evaluation.

GRACE: OK. That`s not good.

To Cindy Anthony -- this is Caylee`s grandmother -- a mental evaluation, did your daughter have any history of mental disturbance?

ANTHONY: No. No, no history of mental illness.

GRACE: What do you make of her telling police she left the daughter in this apartment. The cops go there, nobody`s lived there in months. Everything she says doesn`t make any sense.

ANTHONY: You know I can`t comment on that. I don`t know. I`m not in Casey`s head. I`m not a psychiatrist. I thought I was here today to discuss Caylee. Not to defend what my daughter`s doing.

GRACE: Tell us then what you want the public to know about your granddaughter.

ANTHONY: Well, I want the public to know is this a beautiful little girl and what I want the public to know is if you see her, to pick up the phone and to call. And -- I don`t care what city, you know, where you`re at, if you think you`re going to get your friend in trouble or whatever you pick up the phone and you call anyway.

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.

The only thing that raised a red flag to me is the fact that Casey could not tell me where she was at. I do not know why. Casey may be dealing with this in her own way. She may not be able to -- I don`t know. When something tragic happens, our, you know, we don`t know how we`re going to handle it.

I know how I would handle it now at being the age that I am. But a 22-year-old does not always make the right decisions. I cannot answer. No one knows what the person`s going through. I mean what they`re doing, you know, when something tragic like this happens, and I saw Casey break down.

I saw Casey cry. And a lot of people are stating that they haven`t seen it. I did see it. Casey spent the night with me. Well, the night was over. It was all day with me from Tuesday to Wednesday, you know, I was with her for several hours.

Casey created the Caylee Marie Anthony missing MySpace page. Casey was instrumental in connecting a lot of what -- a lot of what we`re doing right now, you know? And her efforts -- those efforts have not been shown on the camera.

So right now, Casey`s not on trial. Right now, Caylee is missing. And that`s the word that I want to get out to everybody. Caylee`s missing. This little girl needs to be found so instead of thinking that she`s already dead or you know something`s already -- there`s no -- there`s no -- there`s no answer yet. And we have to find that answer.

GRACE: The tip line to help find Caylee is 800-423-TIPS, 800-423- 8477.

We have no suggestion this little girl is dead. There is a distinct possibility she may still be alive.

Out to Kendra Oestreich, WESH, there on the scene -- what more can you tell us, Kendra?

OESTREICH: Well, the lead investigator in the case just came out to brief us on progress. They say they are searching every area in this backyard. I can tell you that CSI investigators brought out a shovel from a neighbor`s home earlier tonight and they took that into evidence as well.

They say they`ll be here throughout the night searching until they do find those answers that the family is looking for.

Now I can also tell you that investigators talked with several of Casey`s friends, saying that they saw her June 2nd, and she didn`t seem or give any indication that there was anything wrong that Caylee was missing. Her story was that Caylee was always with a nanny at the beach or at a theme park and never really gave any indication that there was anything wrong Caylee.

Now investigators said when they were talking to her yesterday, she showed no sign of remorse or concern that her 2-year-old daughter was missing. That also concerns investigators as well as getting no answers from her yet, even today.

GRACE: With us there on the scene is Kendra Oestreich with WESH.

What exactly are police doing there in the backyard right now, Kendra?

OESTREICH: Well, basically they are exhausting all possibilities at this point. They want to make sure that Caylee`s not here. They`re using a tool to poke into the ground to see if there is any soft spots and just make sure that nothing is back here, using a dog, another one is on its way, and they`re just hoping to find answers here.

Where is Caylee?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY: I`ve never seen her be a bad mom. She`s -- she loves her daughter. I don`t doubt that. Casey has been a very wonderful, caring mother. And I`ve never seen anything to not believe her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Where is little Caylee?

With us right now, her grandmother. This is where Caylee lived her whole life.

Back to Cindy Anthony, Caylee`s grandmother, well, for the last month, where did you believe they were?

ANTHONY: I believe Caylee was with her mom. They needed some time to bond. It`s been very difficult for Casey to, you know, have Caylee all the time when my husband and I -- you know want to spend time with her as well.

So Casey`s 22 years old. She wanted -- she told me that she wanted some space. She wanted to go to work and then she wanted to go take a little vacation, take Caylee with her. So that`s where we thought she was.

I talked to my daughter all the time and always had a good explanation of where they were at. And it made some sense. I mean there was no reason to believe.

GRACE: Right.

ANTHONY: . that Casey and Caylee weren`t together at any time.

GRACE: Everyone.

ANTHONY: So...

GRACE: . please help us. There is a desperate search going on right now in the Orlando area for a beautiful 2-year-old little girl Caylee. The tip line is 800-423-8477.

Let`s stop and remember, Army Corporal Scott McIntosh, 26, Houston, Texas, killed, Iraq, on the second tour. Involved with a youth group at his local church. Leaves behind parents Alexander and Gwen, brother Eric.

Scott McIntosh, American hero.

Thank you for being with us tonight and to our guests. And tonight, a special happy birthday to veteran defense attorney, Raymond Giudice.

Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern, and until then, good night.

END