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NANCY GRACE

Yale Grad Student Bride-to-Be Vanishes Before Wedding

Aired September 11, 2009 - 20:00:00   ET

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


JEAN CASAREZ, GUEST HOST: We begin tonight with breaking news out of Connecticut and the sudden disappearance of a beautiful 24-year-old Ivy League med graduate student, surveillance video capturing the last known sighting of Annie Le as she walks into a Yale research facility. But then she vanishes without a trace in broad daylight, her cell phone, purse, money and other personal belongings left behind. With the bride-to-be set to walk down the aisle for a dream wedding in less than 48 hours, where is 24-year-old Annie Le?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She just brings her Yale ID card and then goes into the laboratory. And surveillance video shows her going into the laboratory and does not show her leaving. It still seems to be a mystery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are search dogs going down that sidewalk right now. Originally, police said no sign of foul play, but now the search certainly intensifying. Now, just moments ago, they began going through the garbage behind this building, looking for any clue to the whereabouts of this Yale student who disappeared days before her wedding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eyewitness News has learned there was a fire alarm, so that`s why her belongings may have been left inside. The FBI and state police are now assisting Yale.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators are searching through the nearby trash bins, trying to get some clues, state police with bloodhounds combing the area, and officers are now reviewing images from closed-circuit cameras.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She left her pocketbook, her cell phone, everything in the lab. She didn`t go home last night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do know, however, Le used Yale Transit, but whether she jumped on a bus or was taken against her will remains a mystery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And also tonight, the investigation heating up in the case of a 5-year-old Florida girl, Haleigh Cummings. First her father and now her mother -- in a major development tonight, another family member turns on the last person to see Haleigh alive. Baby-sitter-turned-stepmom Misty Croslin`s own mother is now questioning her daughter`s story. She believes Croslin has something to hide about Haleigh`s disappearance. And tonight, we have the video.

It is all after her own father reveals Croslin may have left the home that night, leaving Haleigh and her little brother all alone. As the girlfriend-turned-stepmom flunks a polygraph, the family distancing themselves from Misty Croslin.

And Florida police heading north to Massachusetts, grilling Croslin`s brother and sister-in-law for 14 hours. Police want to know whether they helped hide the little girl. Tonight, what happened to 5-year-old Haleigh?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISTY CROSLIN, HALEIGH`S BABY-SITTER/STEPMOTHER: And people think that I had something to do with it. If I had something to do with it or I knew where she was, we wouldn`t be sitting here today. We would have her. I don`t know where she is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news in the case of missing 5-year-old Florida girl Haleigh Cummings. Stepmom-slash-baby-sitter Misty Croslin`s own mother says she believes her daughter, Misty, knows more about what happened to Haleigh than she`s admitting. Lisa Croslin told Fox affiliate WFLO...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Deep down in my heart, yes, I think my daughter`s holding something back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And her husband.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think them both are holding something back. That`s just in my heart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to tell her I love her. And if you know anything at all, please tell me. (INAUDIBLE) I`ll be right there by your side and we`ll get through it. And just please tell me whatever you`re holding back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This shocking development occurring less than 24 hours after Misty Croslin`s father says that Misty may have left home the night Haleigh went missing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was a 16-year-old child whose job was to look after somebody else`s two young children, and I can only imagine that this girl would want to get out and have some fun of some kind. I think that this scenario is very consistent with what could have happened.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Ronald, has the theory that Misty left the home sometime during the night been disproved?

RONALD CUMMINGS, HALEIGH`S FATHER: I`m not sure. I believe that it has, Nancy. I`m almost 100 percent sure, but I wouldn`t tell you that and lie to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators continue to scour for clues, looking through 160 taped interviews, trying to find any new information that could lead them to little Haleigh.

CROSLIN: They haven`t left me alone for six months. I`ve been the one, the main focus. They just need to move on and look for the right person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Good evening. I`m Jean Casarez of the legal network In Session, in for Nancy Grace tonight. Thank you so much for joining us. Breaking news out of Connecticut and the sudden disappearance of a beautiful 24-year-old Ivy League med student set to be married this very Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Where is brainy beauty 24-year-old Annie Le?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Annie Le described as 4 feet, 11 inches tall, 90 pounds. She disappeared without a trace.

GRACE: Last spotted on grainy surveillance video walking into a Yale research facility.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She went to work as usual to her office. At about 10:00 o`clock, she left her purse in her office, took her ID card, walked a couple blocks to a laboratory she often went to. She swiped her card, went into the laboratory, and that`s the last anyone`s seen of her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s getting married Sunday. Her fiance hasn`t heard from her. So everybody`s pretty worried, pretty scared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She left all her personal effects, her money, her credit card, her wallet, her identification. If you`re going to plan a runaway, you`re not going to run away and leave all of those objects.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone`s sort of shocked by it. Everyone`s in disbelief that something like this could happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was in the building at about 10:00 o`clock, and the alarm was at about 1:00 o`clock. So there was a few hours in between that she was inside the building. But with all of the obvious chaos from a fire alarm going off and people rushing in and out, it may be very hard to see whether or not she went in or out, or whether she was with anybody at that time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And we have got some breaking news coming in right now. We have learned that dogs have been taken into the lab building on campus, the very last building Annie Le was seen going into by those surveillance cameras.

Let`s go straight out to Mary Snow, CNN correspondent. She is live in New Haven, Connecticut, at Yale medical school. Mary, what have you seen?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jean, that K-9 team was inside this laboratory building for about a half hour. They`ve now left. These K-9 teams have been on the scene here since yesterday, searching a couple of different sites. But law enforcement is really focusing their efforts, it seems today, on this lab building where Annie Le was last seen.

And what Yale is saying tonight is that they`re pursuing all kinds of -- all of its leads. A Yale spokesman indicated that there was not something that was found that indicated that the dogs had to be brought in tonight. What police are saying and what -- through a spokesman is that law enforcement is focusing on Annie Le`s computer. They`re also going through security cameras and the building`s footprints (SIC). There are about seven exits in this building and about 75 cameras altogether, both inside that building and outside that building. And Annie Le was last seen entering this building about 10:00 o`clock on Tuesday morning.

What hasn`t been determined yet -- officials haven`t been able to find an image of her exiting that building, and that is what they are still looking for, going through frames of surveillance video. Yale says about 100 law enforcement officers are now involved in this investigation. That includes local, state and federal. Of course, the FBI was brought in yesterday. And now there is a $10,000 reward for information being offered by Yale University.

A spokesman is also saying that there is still no evidence at this time of foul play. And a Yale spokesman is also saying -- you know, I asked him about the fiance, and Yale has said that he has been assisting law enforcement with this investigation, along with people here on the campus, including professors, colleagues and friends. But overall, Jean, throughout the day, everyone has been pretty tight-lipped with the information coming out of Yale.

CASAREZ: And this is a missing persons investigation, which is interesting. Mary, how many law enforcement agencies are involved now? And two, who took those dogs into the building?

SNOW: The K-9 teams are from the Connecticut State Police department. And they have offered the teams. The FBI is set up inside this building. And the agencies that are involved right now are Yale University Police, New Haven Police, Connecticut State Police and the FBI.

CASAREZ: All right, let`s go to Dr. Henry Lee, who joins us tonight, forensic scientist, renowned forensic scientist and investigator, live from Hamden, Connecticut, tonight. You know, Dr. Lee, you have such a vast experience in regard to DNA and forensic discovery and investigation. Hearing what has just been done, that these dogs have been taken into this building that is quite large, the last known building that Annie Le was seen to go into, what does that tell you?

HENRY LEE, PH.D., FORENSIC SCIENTIST: Well, that`s pretty clear. More likely, they bring bloodhound. Connecticut State Police K-9 unit would have an excellent reputation, a lot of good trained dog and handler. So they have to go through each laboratory, every floor, every corner. Sometime, you know, have to go to the underground (ph) dog (ph) and to look for any place because she apparently, 10:00 o`clock, was saw inside the building. She has to be someplace.

And they did -- law enforcement did the right thing to have federal, state, local joint task force to work on with FBI, Connecticut State Police, New Haven Police and Yale Police work together. This is a missing person case. She is in the building. Of course, now they look at the garbage, but they also should look at her lab coat. She gets into the laboratory. Any laboratory set up, any (INAUDIBLE) being used, any foul play, any sign, and then the investigator can look at it. She left because her own will or because, many time, people unconsciously walk -- disappear, and especially for her age, so young, and I don`t think she just walk away by herself.

CASAREZ: And that`s right. And everybody, she was getting married in 48 hours...

LEE: Exactly.

CASAREZ: ... from now, even less than 48 hours.

I want to go to Thomas Kaplan, editor-in-chief of "The Yale Daily News." I think the timeline is very important here because a little after 10:00 o`clock, with surveillance camera video and swiping her card, she went into that building. If she left before the fire alarm that went off - - and I want to talk about that, too, the fire alarm was about 12:40 -- the video surveillance would have seen her, all right? If she stayed in there, she was in there from 10:10 to 12:40. Has anybody said they spoke with her in the laboratory building?

THOMAS KAPLAN, "YALE DAILY NEWS": I believe so. When she initially arrived at work after 10:00 o`clock -- she worked in the lab with her colleagues. But the question right now is what happened in the meantime? Did someone lose track of her? What happened at that stage, between that and the fire alarm? That`s unclear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First I was really shocked, naturally. Then it came to the point, I`m, like, How can this be? And I was actually really scared and naturally feel extremely bad about -- for her because it`s a very weird situation that she`s been missing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the last known image of Annie Le, entering a Yale research lab.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Le is seen here on surveillance video wearing a brown skirt and a green shirt. Her purse, credit cards, cell phone and money were left behind, three blocks away, at her office at Sterling Hall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, a State Police bloodhound has been called in, and they`ve been searching this area over here. Annie Le works on Cedar (ph) Street, and she comes around here to the lab where she keeps some animals and she does some research. State police have been using their bloodhound to go up and down the streets, looking for any scent of the missing Yale student.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This surveillance photo is the last time anybody has seen Le. Co-workers say she just vanished, leaving behind all her belongings and her future husband.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was here, like, 11:00 o`clock. Look at all the people. How could that happen? She is a little tiny thing, but still, I mean, it`s amazing. It really is. It`s pretty scary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Le was preparing to get married this weekend, but there are no signs of her at her Lawrence Street apartment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators rummaged through dumpsters, and K- 9s and FBI agents searched parts of Yale`s campus. Right now, figuring out what happened to 24-year-old Annie Le seems to be on everyone`s minds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is actually a very severe situation, that she`s been missing for over 48 hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, the focus is on finding the 24-year-old Yale student who seemed to vanish into thin air.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez of the legal network In Session, in for Nancy Grace tonight. We learned that shortly before this program started tonight, law enforcement accompanied with dogs went into the last known building that this beautiful doctoral Ph.D. student, set to be married this Sunday in Long Island, last seen in this building. The dogs went in.

Mary Snow, CNN correspondent, standing by live. What did the dogs look like?

SNOW: Like German shepherds, bloodhounds, as a reporter had just mentioned a few moments ago. And they have been brought in to the scene since yesterday. Connecticut State Police provided these K-9 teams.

And Jean, while there`s been a lot of focus on this lab building where Annie Le was last seen, police and investigators have also gone in the past two days to her home and also to the other building where her office was, just a few blocks away. And that`s the building where her belongings were. So police have been canvassing the area.

And also today, Yale has stepped up, trying to get information out, trying to get tips from students. They`ve been distributing posters. They`re plastered all over the campus, trying to find some -- any lead, any information to what happened to Annie Le.

CASAREZ: And I believe law enforcement also got a hold of blueprints of this massive building. We`re hearing it`s 120,000 square feet. Think about it. Your home might be 2,000 square feet, this building 120,000 square feet.

I want to go out to Thomas Kaplan again, editor-in-chief of "The Yale Daily News." There was a fire alarm that went off on Tuesday, and that is raising in lots of people maybe a red flag. What are they saying about that, the officials?

KAPLAN: Well, that`s a big question right now. From what we`ve been told, though, investigators think that the fire alarm was not related at all to the disappearance. It was a false alarm, and they don`t believe that there was any correlation there.

CASAREZ: All right. What about the aspect that they are looking at footprints and also all of the entrances -- how many cameras are around that building?

KAPLAN: We believe there are something like 75 cameras, and there are also cameras on adjacent buildings that are being examined, as well.

CASAREZ: All right, to Woodrow Tripp, former police commander. Think about this. There is a building with 75 cameras around. And by the way, there`s an attached garage to this building. Does that concern you at all, that an attached garage to this building, which has a lot of vehicles, although Annie Le didn`t have one -- concerning?

WOODROW TRIPP, FORMER POLICE COMMANDER: Certainly, it does, Jean. And one of the things that we have to remember, in addition or association with this fire alarm, is the fact that Annie being the size that she is, we cannot rule out that she may have been placed into a container, if, in fact, this is a foul play-related situation. She`s small enough that she could be wheeled out that way.

CASAREZ: What does it say to you, though, they just took dogs into this 120,000-feet facility and brought them out very quickly? They couldn`t have combed the entire area in that time.

TRIPP: Absolutely not. But also keep in mind there`s several different types of dogs. You have tracking dogs. You also have cadaver dogs. And if, in fact, it is foul play and she possibly has met some ill will timed (ph) episode, the cadaver dogs would also be able to locate a body. So there are different types of dogs that can be used in this.

CASAREZ: Is it true, though, that tracking dogs, the scent can be lost in time? And this is -- Tuesday was the last time she was seen alive.

TRIPP: Absolutely. We`re now talking about Friday. And I`m also seeing that it`s raining there, which again, that diminishes the scent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s just really sad. It`s really sad. I`m just going down for -- just to get some lunch, and just to see that it could happen, like, in daylight to anybody, it`s just a scary situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Across the street from a small poster that displays the picture of missing 24-year-old pharmacology student Annie Le, FBI investigators dig through yet another trash can. Although Le is listed as missing, students here question the seriousness of the case when men in yellow suits dig through trash.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The tone and the tenor of this case has now changed. The search for Annie Le seems to be intensifying. FBI agents and state police search dogs enter the building where she was last seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: State police bloodhounds and German Shepherds left the scene around 8:00 o`clock Thursday night, and authorities remain tight- lipped about the status of the investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez of the legal network In Session, in for Nancy Grace tonight. Well, as authorities comb the Yale University medical campus -- FBI, state authorities, local authorities -- we do want to tell you the family has canceled the wedding. It was set for this Sunday. It was set in Long Island, New York, at the North Ritz (ph) Club. It was going to be a very lavish and wonderful affair between the families. In fact, Annie Le had written on her FaceBook page that she was so excited about her dress and the decorations and even the food that was going to be at this celebration that is no more. The family has canceled it for this Sunday.

Let`s go out to the callers. Marjorie in North Carolina. Hi, Marjorie. Thanks for calling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Has anyone questioned the family? Sometimes they wouldn`t want them to marry out of their race, and it`s a possibility they`re just keeping her away until after the wedding would have been.

CASAREZ: Ah! Very interesting question. I see what you`re saying. To Stacy Kaiser, psychotherapist out of Los Angeles. Marjorie has an interesting question in regard to all of that, and my thought was we haven`t seen anybody from the family. This is a missing person. This is someone that you want to find. Wouldn`t somebody come out and ask for help?

STACY KAISER, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: I think it very much depends on the kind of family. You do have the kind of family that reaches out and gets involved in the media, but then there`s also the kind of people that want to pull in and hunker down and be close to people. This is a really scary time for them. They were just planning the greatest day that every parent, every family looks forward to, and now they`re having to face the possibility that they may never see her again.

CASAREZ: Let`s go out to the attorneys, to Susan Moss, family law attorney, child advocate out of New York, to Alan Ripka, defense attorney out of New York, and to Tamara Holder, defense attorney also out of the jurisdiction of New York

You know -- to Susan Moss -- one aspect is you`re not seeing any friends, family, anybody coming out, pleading for anyone to have seen her. And time is of the essence here. This is a missing persons case.

SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Absolutely. And it`s very surprising that that is, in fact, the case. If she didn`t just bail on Yale and wearing a veil, some perp is going to go to jail because Yale and the resources that they have, they`re not going to stop until they find someone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS KAPLAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, YALE DAILY NEWS: This surveillance photo is all that Yale University police have showing the 4"11 inch, 90- pound Placerville native, walking through Yale`s campus the day before she was reported missing.

She hasn`t been seen since. Investigators feared the worst, combing through nearby dumpsters for any clue or any sign of her whereabouts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The FBI are still searching the research facility where she was last seen. But at this point no suspects, no leads, no indication of foul play.

KAPLAN: Lee was preparing to get married this weekend, but there are no signs of her at her Lawrence Street apartment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In talking to her friends, in talking to her co- workers, one thing that has been abundantly clear is that she seemed very, very excited about the wedding. She had been planning it for a year.

She had been writing for the past couple months on her Facebook page about the preparations. And just was absolutely giddy. So that`s why it`s just so puzzling the thought that she would run away.

KAPLAN: Lee had written for a Yale Publication earlier this year called "B" magazine. The title of the article was "Crime and Safety in New Haven." The last sentence in the February edition reads -- "New Haven is a city and all cities have their perils but with a little street smarts one can avoid becoming yet another statistic."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL NETWORK: I`m Jean Casarez of the legal network "In Session," in for Nancy Grace tonight.

It is a very active missing person investigation at Yale University Medical campus today: the FBI, state police, local police, they are still there tonight combing the area.

Out to Mary Snow, a CNN correspondent that is live at the scene at New Haven, Connecticut and Yale Medical School. What`s happening now, Mary?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Jean, as an FBI spokesman told me tonight, they`re leaving no stone unturned and they are really going -- they`re having a very intense search. Particularly we`ve seen the most activity today here at the lab where Annie Lee was last seen at about 10:10 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

And part of that search right now is a concentration on her computer. Investigators are looking at that. They`re also combing through surveillance video. There are more than 70 cameras both inside the building and outside. And as you mentioned just a short time ago, part of this building is attached to a parking garage.

So all of those tapes are really being looked over right now and as you`ve been reporting that officials haven`t been able to isolate an image of Annie Lee leaving the building. They only have that image of her roughly at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning when she entered this building.

CASAREZ: Mary, do we know if there are cameras that show the vehicles that leave the garage?

SNOW: It`s unclear. But there are cameras around this building. So one would suspect that there probably are, right?

CASAREZ: Yes. And during a short time period it could be something investigators are looking at.

To Thomas Kaplan, editor in chief of the "Yale Daily News," let`s go back to this fire alarm for a second. Who tripped it? Who turned it on? How did it create a situation where everyone had to be evacuated from this huge building?

KAPLAN: So what we`re told by the university is that it was steam in a laboratory that set off the alarm. The big question is whether Annie Lee was actually in the building when the alarm went off or perhaps if she left with the alarm and then didn`t come back.

The surveillance images from when the alarm was set off, it`s hard to pick her out. There were so many people leaving the building at that time that no one was able to isolate a frame of her.

CASAREZ: Well, all right, well, let`s look at -- we`ve got the wedding invitation. We want to show everybody tonight. This was the wedding invitation for this very formal affair that Annie Lee and her fiance had planned for, for over a year now.

As you see, it is in beautiful script and it talks about the festivities that would take place this Sunday at the Ritz Club, the north Ritz Club on Long Island. Family and friends invited. Her fiance is also a doctoral student at Columbia University, working on his Ph.D.

It was a wedding that everyone was truly looking forward to and now has been cancelled by the family.

Let`s go out to Karen in Alabama. Hi, Karen, are you there?

KAREN IN ALABAMA: Yes. How are you?

CASAREZ: Hi, I`m fine. Thank you for calling.

KAREN: I was wondering, they`re looking on the surveillance cameras to see if that girl left. Did they look to see if anybody was exiting carrying a bag? The alarm could have been a distraction for that person to get away. Or did they check the ceiling tiles or...

CASAREZ: Right. Right. Mary Snow, do we know anything about that? And 75 cameras produce an immense amount of videotape to go through.

SNOW: Right. And we don`t really know the details, Jean. And that is -- it`s a good question. Is there anybody else being looked at in terms of a bag being carried out? And as you mentioned, any vehicles leaving the building. We don`t know the specifics.

We just know that they are poring over those surveillance tapes.

CASAREZ: Ok.

To Alan Ripka, defense attorney out of New York. You know, Alan, I have a very dear friend and her daughter is a student at Yale University Medical School and in fact the student body did not get an e-mail on this until yesterday, that`s Thursday, mid-morning.

When you have a missing person`s case and especially when you have other students that maybe should have an awareness for their own safety, does that concern you at all?

ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, NEW YORK: Well, Jean, this is an interesting point. Because the bottom line is many people get lost or are not around or go out for coffee or go visit a friend.

So what`s a school to do? Every time someone doesn`t seem to be where they should be, do you call the police? Do you alert the student body? Or do you make certain that it`s really a missing person before you alarm an entire student body?

In retrospect we certainly wish that the authorities were notified much earlier because every moment they weren`t was a moment lost in the investigation.

CASAREZ: To Tamara Holder, defense attorney out of New York, agree or disagree?

TAMARA HOLDER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY, NEW YORK: I absolutely agree. I think that this is a college campus so, kids go out and party, they sleep in. I know this isn`t this girl`s character. But you know, this is a large campus.

So they can`t go looking and then notifying all other students about missing students. And I think the authorities did a good thing here. They investigated preliminarily and really made sure that this girl was missing and it was out of her character and then began the investigation and then began notifying the student body and everybody else on campus.

CASAREZ: To Dr. Henry Lee, renowned forensic scientist. You are so aware of New Haven, Connecticut. That`s where you are.

DR. HENRY LEE, FORENSIC SCIENTIST: Yes.

CASAREZ: That`s where you live. Yale University is such a home to you. This building that we now know that dogs have gone into tonight with law enforcement, it is 120,000 square feet. We know that law enforcement got the blueprints. But are dogs always able to find a body in a building with so many nooks and crannies?

LEE: Yes, not necessarily. In the past experience we`re looking for many missing persons. For example, this is a research laboratory. You have to know, Jean, they have a freezer, refrigerator. Sometimes the body hiding in air-conditioner duct, the dog cannot sense.

Of course they have to check room by room by the process of elimination. As far as the garage, usually you have tickets and surveillance camera. And I`m sure they`re going to see all the parking ticket. We solved couple cases by checking fingerprints on those parking tickets from the suspect.

CASAREZ: To Corinne in Missouri. Are you with us?

CONNIE, MISSOURI: Connie.

CASAREZ: Hi, Connie. What`s your comment? Thanks for calling.

CONNIE: hi. On the surveillance video I noticed that it looks like she`s carrying something into the building. Does anyone know what she was carrying in there and what type of lab project she was working on? Was it something she could have been injured possibly? Because it does look like she was carrying a bag of something.

CASAREZ: That`s a great, great question. Let`s look at that surveillance video that actually shows -- it`s the last time she`s ever seen alive. It does show her with something in her arms.

To Thomas Kaplan, editor in chief of "Yale Daily news," do we know? Have you heard what she was carrying in?

KAPLAN: That`s actually something we`re trying to look into right now, as you can see it playing in the picture. But no, we don`t know what that is that she was carrying.

CASAREZ: And what`s the building? What is the lab building on Amistad Street? What is done in that building?

KAPLAN: So it`s a variety of different types of laboratories doing all sorts of different medical research. Lee, she was in the department of pharmacology. That was the type of research she did. But it`s a sprawling complex, and as has been said, searching a building of this size obviously very difficult.

CASAREZ: Thomas, have you spoken with any members of her family or her friends or anyone that knew her? What have they said?

KAPLAN: Anyone that knew her? I`m sorry?

CASAREZ: Yes. Anyone that knew her. Have they come forward? I mean, you are the "Yale Daily News." You are who they would speak to.

KAPLAN: We have not heard from her family or her fiance. We have heard from some of her friends, many of her colleagues in her department. And the one thing they`ve said, they`ve just said they`re so shocked about this. She was such a sort of organized, meticulous person, so responsible, would never be a minute late for a meeting. So that`s what`s so surprising.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At first we thought, ok, maybe she ran away from the coming wedding. But then it`s like more than 48 hours. And nobody has seen her after that. So it`s kind of scary right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CASAREZ: Stepmom/babysitter Misty Croslin`s own mother believes her daughter, Misty, knows more than what she`s saying. Lisa Croslin told Fox affiliate WOFL that deep down in her heart she thinks her daughter is holding something back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISTY CROSLIN, RONALD CUMMINGS` WIFE: 3:00 in the morning I got up and I got up because I had to use the bathroom. I see the kitchen light on. And I walked in the kitchen and the back door`s wide open. And then I go in the room and she`s gone.

RONALD CUMMINGS, HALEIGH CUMMINGS` FATHER: It had nothing to do with her, man. She can`t help that. She can`t help she was the last one to see her.

CROSLIN: She didn`t make no noise that night. I would have woke up if I heard any noise. I didn`t hear anything at all. I mean, I was really exhausted that day, you know.

I just wish they would have took me instead of her. What do they want with a little 5-year-old?

CUMMINGS: It could have been any one of us and our children, any one. You know, nobody knows where there`s a psycho or sicko. Nobody knows.

CROSLIN: She is scared of the dark. She would not go anywhere by herself.

I did take a polygraph. I mean, my understanding is that I passed it.

CUMMINGS: I want to let everyone know that I`m not hiding anything for anybody and if somebody has something to do with it so be it. Whoever it might be, that`s who it is. Just bring Haleigh home.

CROSLIN: I showed up there, they told me I was taking a polygraph. I was like, ok.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you at any point say I don`t want to do this?

CROSLIN: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?

CROSLIN: Because I thought I was helping. I`m trying to do everything I can to find Haleigh.

CUMMINGS: To find my daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think Misty holds some information that can help do that?

CUMMINGS: I don`t think that she holds any information that`s going to find Haleigh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez of the legal network "In Session," in for Nancy Grace. A lot of people never believed that Misty Croslin`s own mother would question her credibility. But the fact is she has today. Yesterday it was her father. Today it`s Misty Croslin`s own mother.

Let`s go straight out to Marlaina Schiavo, Nancy Grace producer. What do you know?

MARLAINA SCHIAVO, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Jean, her own mother is speaking out against her finally. She has followed suit with the rest of the family. She does not believe Misty`s story anymore.

This is really shocking, too, Jean, because just last weekend we heard from Ronald`s attorney, Terry Shoemaker. He said that Misty`s mother called Ronald left him a long voicemail saying how she did believe Misty and how she stood by her. And now just less than a week later she`s completely flipped and she`s completely against Misty.

CASAREZ: Well, Marlaina, what is she exactly saying about her daughter now publicly?

SCHIAVO: Publicly, Jean, she said that she feels that Misty is holding something back. Deep in her heart she feels that Misty knows something and that she`s just not saying it.

CASAREZ: Let`s go straight out to Woodrow Tripp, former police commander. You`re an investigator. When you hear that someone`s own mother is saying that she may be holding something back and not telling all the truth, what does that say to you? And how does that change the focus of your investigation?

WOODROW TRIPP, FORMER POLICE COMMANDER: It`s certainly a big credibility issue then when her own mother starts to speak against her and obviously now other family members are getting involved in this, speaking against her also.

CASAREZ: Ok. We want everybody to listen to Misty Croslin`s mother. Her name is Lisa Croslin. Listen to exactly what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA CROSLIN, MISTY CROSLIN`S MOTHER: Deep down in my heart, yes, I think my daughter`s holding something back. I think they both are holding something back. That`s just in my heart.

I`m going to tell her I love her and if you know anything at all please tell me. We can work it through. I`ll be right there by your side. We`ll get through it. But just please tell me whatever you`re holding back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And that`s Misty Croslin`s mother, Lisa Croslin. She was on WOFL, Fox 35.

To Art Harris, investigative journalist that has been on this case, Art, I read your blogs, your Web site. You`ve done so much on this case now. Everybody is saying that Misty`s family is pulling away from her, and we see evidence of that. But you say it`s sort of the opposite; that Misty is pulling away from her family.

ART HARRIS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Today I talked to her lawyer, Jean, Robert Fields. He said he talked to Misty and she says she`s the one who`s been distancing herself from the family. That`s a totally different story than we`ve been hearing. And Monday she`s going to come out swinging. So we`re going to hear Misty take up for herself.

CASAREZ: To Stacy Kaiser, psychotherapist out of Los Angeles. You know, in other cases, I think of Casey Anthony, originally Cindy Anthony spoke against her daughter.

What does this do to the mother-daughter relationship? And psychologically, why does a mother talk to the entire nation about her daughter like this?

STACY KAISER, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Well, let`s be honest, most parents would lie, cheat, and steal for their kids. So there`s really only going to be one of two reason that`s they would come out and say something like this or go against their child. The first would be that there`s conflict between them. And the second would be that they have some sort of a guilty conscience, that they`re feeling like something needs to come out.

And this could be really damaging to the mother-daughter relationship, particularly if the mother is wrong and the daughter hasn`t done anything.

CASAREZ: And it also can be very, very difficult if anything would ever get to trial in relation to this case.

To Alan Ripka, defense attorney. This is a statement that the prosecution will bring back to haunt someone that would take the stand as a witness.

RIPKA: I think so. If that mother ever took the stand and they spoke to her about knowing her daughter the best and she`s in the best position to judge the credibility of her daughter and what was the basis of her doing so, it would help the prosecution tremendously because she`d be locked into that prior statement.

CASAREZ: And the fact is this has also taken the focus away from Haleigh Cummings. This is still a little girl that is missing, a little girl that needs to be found.

And tonight, tonight "CNN Heroes."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is "CNN Heroes."

ALEX GRIFFIN, FINALIST, "CNN HEROES": I was abandoned at a hospital number 20 at birth.

I was adopted at 11 1/2 months old.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First time we saw Alex he had rickets and was malnourished. We fell in love with him immediately. There`s my son. Let`s go home, son.

GRIFFIN: Hospital number 20 gave me a chance to survive. And I learned to give something back.

I`m Alex Griffin, and I`m building a playground at the hospital where I was adopted from.

Everyone get plates.

I`ve been a Boy Scout for five years. I`d like to build a playground for my Eagle project.

While we were playing around at Hospital number 20, we had a rusty old swing with a wooden seat and a sandbox which is actually a mud pit because of all the rain.

We had to design the playground.

These are the double glide slide that I ordered for the playground and then (INAUDIBLE) to build it.

Volunteers from all over the world, help save (INAUDIBLE) playground.

All of us adopted from Russia have not and probably will never forget our birthplace (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I like this playground because when you slide on it all of a sudden it goes away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes me very proud. He is becoming an example to others that anything is possible if you don`t give up.

GRIFFIN: It`s made me really happy just being here. That`s all I can say.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CASAREZ: Tonight we remember nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives on September 11th.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Eight Septembers have come and gone. Nearly 3,000 days have passed. City streets where our two towers were turned to ashes and dust and a quiet field where a plane fell from the sky and here where a single stone of this building is still blackened by the fires. We remember with reverence the lives we lost. We read their names, we press their photos to our hearts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Neil Joseph Levi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My cousin (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my brother, Michael Whittenstein (ph). Michael, we miss you every day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And my son (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kathleen Hunt (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my father, Thomas J. Fisher. We love you and miss you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my beloved brother, Michael (INAUDIBLE). I miss you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My brother, Alvin Romero

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my beautiful daughter, Maria Isabel Marino Ramirez (ph).

OBAMA: The men and women who lost their lives eight years ago today leave a legacy that still shines brightly in the darkness and it calls on all of us to be strong and firm and united. That is our calling today and in all the Septembers still to come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Tonight, let us stop to remember Army Private First Class Matthew Wildes. He was just 18 years old. He was from Hammond, Louisiana. He lost his life just one day after talking to his mother. He was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, an Army service ribbon. He fulfilled his dream of serving his country.

Remembered for his sense of humor, he loved making fellow soldiers laugh by impersonating Ben Stiller`s character in the movie "Zoolander." He leaves behind his parents, Mary and Clint; sister, Jamie; brother, Clint; and grandmother, Fay.

Matthew Wildes, American hero.

Thank you so much to all our guests and to you for being at home with us. See you tomorrow night at 8:00 sharp Eastern.

Until then, good night, everybody.

END