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NANCY GRACE

First of 11 Bodies From Ohio Sex Offender`s Home Identified

Aired November 4, 2009 - 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 tonight, live, Ohio. Cops raid the home of a convicted sex offender accused of yet another sex attack. Inside his three-story Cleveland home, seasoned detectives stunned, women`s bodies hidden throughout, bodies on every floor of the home, even stuffed in crawlspaces.

Bombshell tonight. In the last 24 hours, the body count rises, now 11 dead women in the three-story home of former Marine Anthony Sowell. And the investigation goes on. So far, only one positive ID made. Reported missing one year ago, a mother of two girls and one boy, Tonia Carmichael ID`d through dental records. Also ID`d in the last 24 hours. Tonight, her daughter with us, her mother`s body hidden in this house of horrors for the last year.

Just hours ago, Sowell in full shackle in court. And in yet another bizarre twist, we confirm just weeks after Sowell`s release from the pen, he lists himself on a sex Web site seeking, quote, "a submission." Is this one of the ways the former Marine trolled for victims? Tonight, unsuspecting neighbors in shock over an alleged serial killer living amongst them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have recovered 11 victims. We have recovered 10 bodies and one partial skeleton from the Imperial Avenue address. They are all African-American women. Seven died of ligature strangulation, one died of manual strangulation. Two, the decomposition of the body precludes accuracy sometimes, and we`re diagnosing that as homicidal violence in two cases. In the last case, the autopsy is ongoing. It does not appear to have a ligature and will undoubtedly be a case of either manual strangulation or homicidal violence.

GRACE: It is mounting to nearly a dozen dead women. Are there more? Put money on it!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were some in the attic. That`s where they were first discovered, two bodies that were so badly decomposed, we`re told, that they couldn`t determine the sex right away. They also found bodies in a crawlspace below some stairs. They found a skull inside of a bucket in the basement. They also found bodies buried outside, behind the home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and that you would prefer to have your matter bound over to the grand jury for further proceedings. Is that correct?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems like every they go into this house, they find something more. They`re going to tear through this place wall to wall and make sure there`s nothing left to be found.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And breaking news tonight, live, the Florida panhandle, a close-knit community reeling after a newborn baby girl sleeping in the same bedroom as her parents vanishes without a trace, Halloween. The story now becoming even more distorted. As we go to air, is there a break in the case? Police, as we speak, combing a gray van for evidence. But tonight, we want to know who took baby Shannon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shocking revelations in the search for missing 7- month-old baby girl Shannon Dedrick. Just two months prior to Shannon going missing, the family baby-sitter alleges a pattern of abuse and begs the state for help. But that baby-sitter also faced allegations of abuse herself.

GRACE: Something is not fitting together with the story. This is a 7-month-old baby girl. She cannot walk. It`s my understanding she cannot crawl yet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another huge gap in this story is the fact that the parents have not made any personal appeals. I really believe that this story is going to be solved or this case will be solved close to home, rather than far away from home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Department of Children and Families releasing information on two investigations into Shannon`s parents, Christina Lynn Mercer (ph) and James Dedrick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they are alleging foul play, and I think they seem to be pointing fingers directly at the parents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One investigation into drug use around the child, a second investigation over allegations members of the home shook baby Shannon. Both investigations result in no criminal charges.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is disturbing. I think there`s serious questions about these parents. And the fact that they would be asleep from 3:00 AM until 11:00 just does not make sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The parents forced to complete counseling and take drug tests. As the search continues for baby Shannon, many are asking, Did this have to happen in the first place?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Breaking news tonight, live, Ohio. Cops raid the home of a convicted sex offender accused of yet another sex attack. Inside his three-story Cleveland home, seasoned detectives stunned, women`s bodies hidden throughout, bodies on every floor of the home, even stuffed in the crawlspaces.

Bombshell tonight. As the excavation goes on in and around the home of former Marine, Anthony Sowell, the body count of murdered women rises.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s 11 victims. There were six inside the house and five recovered from the yard. Seven ligature strangulations, one manual strangulation, two that are going to homicidal violence and then one autopsy that`s going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news. We now have 11 bodies recovered at the home of Anthony Sowell. He was in court today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Given the nature and the gruesomeness of the allegations that have been placed against you, the court believes that you should be held without bond.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to believe they`re going to go back to the house tomorrow and dig a little deeper because of her skull, and we need to find out where the rest of the body`s at.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And body that`s buried in the ground decomposes eight times slower than a body left in air. So we have two in the third floor out in the air. We have two bodies under dirt. And we have five buried in the yard. So they`re all decomposing at different rates. And they have (INAUDIBLE) months to years for how long they`ve been (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole house, we`re just going to -- we`re going go bit by bit, piece by piece through the house, make sure we didn`t miss anything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leaving no stone unturned?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ripping things apart?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: The excavation goes on, the police now set to tear down the walls to look in the walls starting in the morning. For those of you just joining us, Cleveland suburbs, the body count rises inside a three-story house of horrors. A former Marine, Anthony Sowell, lives there. In the last 24 hours, the body count goes up to 11 murdered women.

Out to Dan Haggerty, standing there out in front of the home. He`s joining us from WEWS. Dan Haggerty, 11 dead murdered women so far. What are the cops` plans? What more is there to investigate? I understand they`ve yet to tear the walls down?

DAN HAGGERTY, WEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they said that they plan to dig a little deeper. That may be an understatement. They were working on getting a warrant today to go in tomorrow morning with the fire department, and they`re literally going to rip this home apart. They`re going to tear down the walls. They`re going to check every inch. They`re going to make sure that nothing else is inside of this house, that there`s no more evidence and that for sure, there are no more bodies.

GRACE: Well, hold on. You mean they`ve got to get an additional warrant in order to tear the walls down?

HAGGERTY: Yes, that`s what we hear. We hear that they have to have a different type of search warrant to be able to go in and actually start to demolition -- demolish, rather, parts of the home, to tear down the walls and to search inside the actual structure of the house.

GRACE: Dan Haggerty joining outside the home, with WEWS. Dan Haggerty, I understand that they can confirm eight of the women died by strangulation -- seven of them by ligature -- for instance, with a rope or pair of stockings -- one by manual strangulation. Is it true that the ligatures were still around the necks of the dead women?

HAGGERTY: Right. It wasn`t real hard for the coroner to figure that one out. That`s how they knew that the suspect here, possibly Anthony Sowell, used either a cord or a rope to strangle his victims. They say that when they found these decomposed bodies, that the ones that they knew had been strangled in that way still had that rope or that cord around their neck.

GRACE: To Ken Robinson joining us from WTAM 1100 AM Newsradio, also joining us in front of Sowell`s home. Ken Robinson, what more can you tell me? Are people still gathering out in front of the home -- this is day three -- wondering every time they bring a gurney out with a body on it, Is that my mother, is that my sister, is that my daughter under that sheet?

KEN ROBINSON, WTAM 11 NEWSRADIO: That`s absolutely correct. People have been here since day one, waiting on the corner, waiting in front of the house, looking, watching, wondering what`s going to happen next. This series of crimes has rocked this neighborhood. There`s a gamut of emotions flowing through the neighborhood right now, from anguish, people wondering why police didn`t find out that something was going on here earlier, people wondering, are they safe now. Some have lost confidence in the police. I had one gentleman tell me that he`s thinking about starting his own patrol through the neighborhood because he`s lost confidence in the police department.

GRACE: I want to go to a special guest joining us right now. Everyone, we are taking your calls live. And with me right now is the daughter of the one woman who has been identified so far, the mother of three. She had two girls and one boy. With me is Donnita Carmichael, the daughter of Tonia Carmichael. Thank you for being with us.

DONNITA CARMICHAEL, VICTIM`S DAUGHTER (via telephone): Thank you for having me on, me and my family.

GRACE: We are showing some absolutely beautiful shots of your mom. We`ve got her at a barbecue. We`ve got her in front of a little gambling slot machine. There she is wearing a baseball cap. There she is dressed in a Santa Claus outfit, that little hat on. There she is with her family. And I just cannot imagine leaving Lucy, my little girl, and John David, my little boy, behind to grow up in this world without a mother.

Tell me how you learned that your mother`s body had been hidden in this home for a year.

CARMICHAEL: Well, Nancy, first of all, let me just thank you for putting this story out there. I was listening to the show as it got started, and I was hearing the response you had given. And it sounded like you were speaking just from the family, you know, a lot of those things you touched on as far as what`s still taking so long for the other families to find out the information that we had to find out today. It`s still unbelievable. A search warrant? Are you kidding me? You know, it`s devastating enough that this murderous person was able to stay out on the streets and do this heinous act that he`s done for so long without being detected. It`s just very hard to believe.

GRACE: Everyone, you are seeing...

CARMICHAEL: So my grandmother is doing well. Unfortunately, the information she had to find out about her child is discomforting because she lost a child. I lost a mother, as well as my older sister and my younger brother. As you can see from the pictures, she had a beautiful smile. She was a beautiful person. She was a family-oriented person. She loved her family. She loved the holidays. She loved to horseback ride. She loved to make jokes and make her grandchildren smile. That`s the legacy that we`re trying to make sure gets out there. The slot machine -- she loved Vegas. She loved going to the Bahamas. Those were the things for the ones who truly knew my mother...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t think any of them have been there for less than a few weeks. But we have bodies in a third floor attic. In the summer, if there`s no central air, it can get to be 90 or 100 degrees in that third floor attic, 100 degrees plus. And that will be accelerating the decomposition. Bodies buried in the ground decompose eight times slower than a body left in air. So we had two in the third floor out in the air. We had two bodies under dirt and we had five buried in the yard. So they`re all decomposing at different rates, and they have the features of months to years of how long they`ve been down (ph). Some look very old, years, not months.

But it`s hard to tell. It`s difficult. There`s four or five different disposal situations with different characteristics -- attic crawlspace, open air in a room, cool basement, buried in earth. And so they`re all going to decompose at different rates. And internally, body size and infection at the time of death can alter decomposition, as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And the excavation goes on in the Cleveland home, a three- story home of former Marine Anthony Sowell. The body count has actually risen. It is now at 11. And we learn tonight that Sowell may be linked to other crimes on women in California.

Isn`t it correct, Dan Haggerty, joining us from WEWS, that Sowell was stationed with the Marines? He was honorably discharged in both North Carolina and California. What can you tell me about the possibility he`s connected to crimes in California?

HAGGERTY: Well, I don`t know about the possibility of him being connected to those crimes. All we know right now is that he did enlist in the Marines. This was in 1978. He was 18 years old. He was a Marine for eight years. He did serve in North Carolina and in California. And we know that he is being investigated right now as possibly connected to unsolved rapes there, in those states. But for now -- especially in Concord, California, doing investigations there to see if he`s connected to any unsolved rapes there. But for now, that`s all we know about that part of the investigation.

GRACE: Stacey Newman, our producer on the story -- Stacey, what more have we learned as we went to air tonight?

STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, just when you think it couldn`t get more bizarre tonight, Nancy, we have uncovered that Anthony Sowell -- he trolled a sex fetish Web site. Was he using this to learn (ph) victims? We don`t know. But what I can tell you is just weeks after his release from prison, he put up a profile wanting to dominate women using the sex fetish Web site.

GRACE: You are seeing the Anthony Sowell profile from a sex fetish Web site, Alt.com, the one that Stacey Newman is describing right now. And Stacey, are you telling me he did this just weeks after getting out of the pen on attempted rape?

NEWMAN: Just weeks. And what we`ve also uncovered is his last log-in was at least about three months ago.

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. To Barbara in Maryland. Hi, Barbara.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to say that if only there were more people in the world like you, we`d be so much better off. And you and your twins are angels.

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my question is, why on earth wasn`t anyone watching this monster when he was released from prison?

GRACE: To Sergeant Scott Haines, sheriff`s officer, Santa Rosa County, Florida. Sergeant, I`ve never seen -- well, actually, I have seen a few cases like this. He got sentenced to 15 years. He did the full 15. That`s my understanding. And that is extremely rare. They did not let this guy out. And he did all sorts of classes behind bars like "Cage (ph) Your Age (ph)." They made him go through that. They made him go through anger management. Clearly, they knew he had a severe problem.

SGT. SCOTT HAINES, SHERIFF`S OFFICER, SANTA ROSA COUNTY, FL.: Absolutely. Somebody who does the full 15 years, doesn`t get paroled or out on probation and is kept that entire time, they`re a dangerous person. They`re not going to be rehabilitated. And they had a responsibility to follow this person closely.

GRACE: What about it, Pat Brown?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Absolutely. I mean, this guy probably committed lots of crimes before he was 30, when he went in, and we`ve seen he`s committed lots of crimes when he came out. So he`s unrehabilitatable, yes, absolutely.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miss Carmichael disappeared out of Lawrenceville (ph) Heights approximately a year ago November. Her car was located by family members at 115th and Kinsman (ph). The investigation was ongoing, I believe by Lawrenceville Heights police department.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miss Carmichael was the first one recovered from the back yard, and she was a ligature strangulation. There was something around the neck.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anthony Sowell has been charged with five counts, as of right now, of aggravated murder. And of course, that could possibly rise as investigators continue to go through these bodies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And the suspect, Anthony Sowell, in court just a couple hours ago. He had on a paper outfit that they dress you in when they are afraid you may commit suicide. He`s in a psych ward where they get special privileges.

Ken Robinson with WTAM 1100, why was he in court?

ROBINSON: He was in court to answer the charges. He was being arraigned in municipal court. Agencies often do that to get the ball rolling. It`s kind of like a preliminary deal.

GRACE: Right.

ROBINSON: The charges are entered in a municipal court. It will likely go to the grand jury. It`ll go to county court. There`ll be a county prosecutor assigned.

GRACE: OK. so he was in court answering up on charges. Unleash the lawyers. Kirby Clements, Atlanta, Alan Ripka, New York. Kirby Clements, they`re already setting up an insanity -- put Kirby Clements and Ripka up, please. They`re setting up an insanity defense already! They`ve got him dressed in a paper outfit. His lawyer is behind that. Kirby Clements, he`s on a sex line trolling for victims as recently as three months ago, we can confirm. He`s not crazy!

KIRBY CLEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, he might be -- he still is crazy. I mean, he`s got 11 bodies in his house. Just because he`s on sex line doesn`t mean he`s not crazy.

GRACE: Crazy like a fox! Go ahead, Ripka. Go ahead and tell me how he`s crazy.

ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, first of all, insanity`s not the only defense here. First you have to prove that he did it. He could claim someone else did all this and he stood by. There`s no forensic evidence yet...

GRACE: Put Ripka`s face on the screen! You can smell the stench a block away! You`re telling me he didn`t know all the bodies were in his house?

RIPKA: He may have known they were there. No one`s proven that he did this yet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Six of them are described as African-American women and at least five of them appear to have been strangled. They were all found in and around the house of 50-year-old Anthony Sowell.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You could smell the dead bodies. There are a whole lot of people that are showing up in this neighborhood. Dozens of missing women and their families and their loved ones that have been showing up here and trying to figure out if their loved ones are one of the bodies inside this home.

PAUL PENZONE, DIRECTOR OF PREVENTION PROGRAMS, CHILDHELP; FORMER SERGEANT, PHOENIX POLICE DEPT.: The likelihood that there are victims in other places, missing people who were never recovered and no one knows their whereabouts is extremely high.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: I guarantee you, they go and they look at California and North Carolina where he was stationed with the Marines, there are going to be women there that have never been found, never been accounted for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve obtained a warrant to get the DNA from the suspect. We are in the process of now entering it in the state database and also the national database to see if we have any hits relative to any criminal activity relative to this particular suspect across our nation.

DR. EVELYN MINAYA, M.D., WOMEN`S HEALTH EXPERT: This is exactly 10 bodies in different stages of decomposition. How can you not smell that? How can you not investigate it a little bit better?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: It`s no longer 10 bodies. The body count rising in the last 24 hours to 11 bodies. And now an additional search warrant has to be obtained in order for the police to start tearing down the walls. Don`t think that is so farfetched. If you will recall the recent Yale medical student, Annie Le. She was murdered, her body was hidden in about a 24- inch space in the wall.

So before they can tear down this house of horrors, they`ve got to go back to court and get another search warrant. That is why the wall excavation did not happen today. There is a crowd of mourners and onlookers standing beyond that yellow crime scene tape tonight, wondering each time a body is pulled out on a gurney, is that my mother, my sister, my daughter who`s gone missing?

We are taking your calls live. Out to Deb in Michigan, hi, Deb.

DEB, CALLER FROM MICHIGAN: Hi, Nancy. I want to thank you for fighting for those who don`t have a voice.

GRACE: Thank you.

DEB: My question is, the serial killer, are they going to look at his past addresses to see if there are bodies there where he`s lived before?

GRACE: To Dan Haggerty, WEWS, joining us there in front of Sowell`s home. What do we know about that? I mean, I know that he got out of the pen on attempted rape conviction, 15 years in the pen on that. Did he move straight here to this location or was there a stop over in between?

DAN HAGGERTY, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WEWS; ON THE SCENE FROM HOME WHERE BODIES FOUND: He moved here. He moved to this neighborhood in this house in Cleveland and he`s lived here since 2005 right after being released from prison. And like we`ve been saying, the coroner hasn`t given us an exact date on when these women were killed, but they say it could be years, months or weeks so some say that the killings could have started right after he moved here in 2005.

GRACE: And back to you, Stacey. What do you know about any link to California crimes?

STACEY NEWMAN, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: OK, here`s what we know. Cops are also looking into Coronado, California. This is right near San Diego. Of course, this is where Sowell was stationed. They are looking into a 1979 rape case there.

Now I could also tell you, there is a report that a woman in North Carolina has come forward to say she believes she was raped by Sowell sometime in the `70s. But of course cops have not been able to verify that. They are also looking into that as well.

GRACE: I`m going to go to a special guest we have with us tonight. First of all, Dr. Lillian Glass, psychologist joining us out of L.A. And of course Pat Brown, criminal profiler and author.

I want to remind you that also with us is the daughter of the only victim, as of tonight, that has been positively identified.

Lillian Glass, Pat Brown, let`s talk to it briefly before I go to the victim`s daughter, Donita Carmichael

First to you, Lillian Glass. I`ve got three scenarios in mind. Number one, he is acting out of rage and anger toward women. Number two, after being convicted on rape, attempted rape, and doing 15 years, he decided to kill all of his future victims so there would be no evidence, no live witnesses. And three, he has this insatiable desire to murder.

Those are my only three scenarios. Do you have any other ideas, Lillian Glass?

LILLIAN GLASS, PSYCHOLOGIST, AUTHOR OF "I KNOW WHAT YOU`RE THINKING": They are all correct and all absolutely right. Because this is a man that is misogynist. He hates women. He`s methodical in how he`s killed them. He`s not leaving any evidence. You`re absolutely right.

GRACE: Hold on, Lillian. Lillian, excuse me.

Rosy, I want to see the photos of Tonia Carmichael. She is a beautiful mother of three. She leaves behind two girls and a boy. Her body, hidden in Sowell`s home for the past year. Decomposing, along with the bodies of 10 other women, that we know of.

Go ahead, Lillian.

GLASS: No, you are absolutely correct. When you are looking at the pain that this family has to endure now, my heart goes out to the daughter and to all the relatives because it`s so difficult.

GRACE: To you, Pat Brown, theories on motive. Not that the state needs motive. But you can`t tell me this guy is crazy. Don`t even start singing that same tired song. He`s trolling on the Internet looking for victims as recently as nine weeks ago. All right? He`s not crazy. What about motive.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER, AUTHOR OF "KILLING FOR SPORT": Well, Nancy, you`ll never hear the crazy word from me when it comes to serial killers. Serial killers are psychopaths and they want power and control. And somewhere in their lives they lost it and they want to get back at society and they especially like to get back at women because they like to put the blame somewhere.

And I`d be really curious to see what his behaviors were when he was in the Marines. Because, although he got an honorable discharge, a lot of times you get the honorable discharge because they want to get rid of you and they don`t want to go through some big review or get accused of throwing out for no reason.

So they`ll just give you an honorable discharge just to get you out of here. So it`ll be interesting to see. He`s got to have committed crimes during that time. He did not just jump up at 30 years old and decided to start raping and murdering women. No way. He`s been out there doing something.

GRACE: I think you may be right about that, Pat Brown. And that is certainly -- veterans all over this country are shocked that this guy is a former Marine that served our country.

I want to go to Dr. Kent Harshbarger, medical examiner, forensic pathologist.

Dr. Harshbarger, of course, we know that many of these bodies still had the ligature around the neck. And that`s a whole another psychological can of worms. All right? But before I go there, how can they tell, with the other bodies, the mode of death?

DR. KENT HARSHBARGER, M.D., MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Well, it`s assumed from the scene, generally. They can`t find a cause of death because of the decomposition. It`s going to be assumed it`ll be homicidal violence as you heard Dr. Miller...

GRACE: I was wondering what he meant by that.

HARSHBARGER: But I`d use undetermined. Well, you should say undetermined homicidal violence because we can`t tell but from the scenario, the circumstances around this death, there`s no other explanation other than violence.

GRACE: Dr. Harshbarger, have you ever dealt with a forensic artist, a re-constructionist? I had to, unfortunately, as a prosecutor, when bodies were so decomposed they could not be identified. So you could get a sketch, a composite sketch of what you thought the victim looked like in life as to identify her.

Have you ever dealt with one of those artists?

HARSHBARGER: Yes, I have. It`s rare nowadays because of DNA analysis and other technologies. But it is done. It`s done by tissue thicknesses on the skull and then they make a clay model and then they`ll make renderings from that. But it still takes an artist, eye color, the smile, the shape of the nose, the hair color. All that has to -- an artist is creating the look of this person.

GRACE: It`s very, very difficult. It`s a highly, highly specialized field.

To Donita Carmichael, this is Tonia Carmichael`s daughter. Her mother`s body has positively identified as one of the 11 women in Sowell`s home.

Miss Carmichael, I didn`t hear, during our last interchange how you discovered your mother was one of Sowell`s alleged victims.

DONITA CARMICHAEL, DAUGHTER OF TONIA CARMICHAEL, MOM`S BODY FOUND IN SEX OFFENDER SOWELL`S HOUSE (via phone): The police actually came to my grandmother`s home, my mom`s mother`s home, and told us that there was a positive DNA match.

GRACE: I`m just looking at these pictures of your mom. She has the most beautiful smile.

Donita, tell me something about her. What were her joys in life? What was she like?

CARMICHAEL: Well, as you can see from the photographs, she had a gorgeous smile, thank you for the compliment on that. But she loved her family. She loved holidays and vacations. She loved to cook and prepare meals, Thanksgiving and Christmas. She loved seafood. She loved trips to Vegas. She just loved her family. She loved being around her family.

GRACE: She loved life.

Everyone, you are seeing shots of victim Tonia Carmichael. She`s one of 11 that we know of as the body count rises in that Cleveland suburb.

Tonight`s safety tips, women are easy targets, especially at night. How can you protect yourself? Have a place to meet others if you become separated. Never leave a drink unattended, it`s so easy to slip something like DHB, the date-rape drug, in a drink.

Designate a safe driver or use a taxi service, please. Identify security guards. Locate exits in case of emergency. And trust your instinct. If you don`t feel safe for whatever reason, please. For more information, go to nfpa.org.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just two months before Shannon went missing, the babysitter claimed that she alerted the governor of Florida the baby may be in danger. Babysitter Susan Baker alleges Shannon was being abused, shaken and was around drugs and cigarettes. But that babysitter has also faced abuse allegations in her past.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The story begins in Beaufort, South Carolina in March of 1987. Forty-one-year-old James Arthur Baker and his wife Susan, also 41, reported their 3-year-old son Paul missing. A massive search for the boy turned up nothing.

Meanwhile, James and Susan Baker moved out of South Carolina and into rural Washington County, Florida. Authorities were suspicious. A Washington County sheriff`s investigators began watching the Baker property closely. South Carolina authorities have received a tip that the Bakers had killed their son and dumped the body.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Law enforcement said they have a person of interest, but still refuse to name them. Where is 7-month-old baby Shannon?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Straight out to Allyson Walker with WMBB. Allyson, I understand as we go to air police are searching a gray van in connection with little Shannon`s disappearance. Who owns the van?

ALLYSON WALKER, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE WMBB (via phone): The sheriff`s office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are not saying who owns the van. We do know that they do have it at the sheriff`s office. They are looking for evidence in the van. Searching it thoroughly.

Medford (ph) have said that Shannon -- or that Susan Baker does drive a gray van but we do not have that confirmed. We don`t know that for sure.

GRACE: Now, Clark Goldband, Susan Baker be the babysitter?

CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: Yes, Nancy. She`s been there about two months working with the family. Susan Baker, the babysitter, also sending an e-mail to the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, pleading with him just a few weeks ago to save the child, saying the child was around an abusive household.

The child has been shaken by her parents and also Shannon has also inhaled drugs such as marijuana and smoke from cigarettes when instructed by staff at the hospital not to smoke around the child.

GRACE: But wait a minute, Clark Goldband. This babysitter has problems of her own.

GOLDBAND: She certainly does, Nancy. And they stem all the way back to 1987 when the sitter reported her stepson missing. He was 3 years old. Went down for a nap. She says when she returned, the child was gone. Law enforcement.

GRACE: Wait a minute. When she returned from where?

GOLDBAND: Well, from the home. It`s not exactly clear where she went. She says, allegedly, when she came back from the house, the 3-year- old was gone. As investigators searched all out for the 3-year-old boy, they examined her 6-year-old stepdaughter. And that stepdaughter had welts and broken bones. So the sitter..

GRACE: And she becomes a babysitter in the home where little Shannon disappears. But still, to Allyson Walker, that doesn`t clear up the discrepancies. And the parents` story, they say the baby is asleep in the room with them. They all sleep until 11:30 in the morning.

You know, by that time, I`ve been up at least five hours. So, they are sacked out 11:30 a.m., and then find out the baby is missing.

WALKER: Yes. That`s true.

GRACE: So they place themselves with the missing child at the time she disappears, correct, Allyson Walker?

WALKER: That`s correct.

GRACE: With us tonight, Faye Woods, she is the godmother of the missing child Shannon.

Miss Wood, thank you for being with us. Miss Wood, what can you tell me about the home and what this little girl lived?

FAYE WOOD, GODMOTHER OF MISSING CHILD, SHANNON DEDRICK (via phone): When I met them, they live down the road from where we reside at. And I have been in the house several times without telling them I was coming. They didn`t know. I had no notice. I would just walk in.

Tap on the door, open up the door and I would go in. And the baby was always fine. They never abused that child. That baby was healthy and -- everybody is saying the baby weighed 11 pounds. The baby was not no big 30-pound baby or anything but, she weighs more than 11 pounds. She was a premie when she was born.

GRACE: Boy, I know how that is. Because my daughter was born at 2 pounds. What can you tell us about possible marijuana and cigarette used around the baby?

WOOD: Now they did smoke cigarettes but the marijuana use, no, ma`am.

GRACE: OK. I hope that you`re right about that. I mean cigarettes are bad enough, they are known contributor to sudden infant death syndrome. But marijuana is another animal altogether.

Miss Wood, for the longest time the parents` names were not even out there. They are not making public pleas whatsoever. Why did they want to keep their name secret?

WOOD: The only thing I can say is they`re doing what the sheriff of Washington County asked them to do.

GRACE: Kirby Clemens, Alan Ripka, this is a conundrum. You`ve got the parents sacked out until 11:30 a.m. No baby sleeps until 11:30 a.m. No. All right? That`s not a statistic, that`s just what I know. Now you`ve got this babysitter coming on to the scene. She`s had a problem with a missing child way back home from where she came from.

Kirby, what about it?

KIRBY CLEMENS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, first of all, I think the babysitter is suspect number one because apparently whenever little children are around her, they go missing. And in this letter to the governor, who does that? Who -- she could call the sheriff. She could have called the Family Children -- Family Services. She writes a letter to the governor. There`s something wrong with that babysitter and there`s something afoot with her. I think she`s going to be your person.

GRACE: Alan Ripka, what about it? Right now there are no named suspects. Go ahead, Ripka.

ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, there`s no named suspects because they have no evidence against the babysitter or evidence against either one of the parents.

GRACE: Well, you don`t know that.

RIPKA: Well, if they did, they would certainly be a person of interest or potentially a suspect.

GRACE: No, no, Alan. As a matter of fact, they may not want to name them yet. They may know exactly who they`re looking at. But hopefully they`ll give them enough rope to hang themselves. I`m sure you`ve heard of that ploy before, Alan Ripka.

RIPKA: Well, if you`re thinking they want to follow.

GRACE: Boy, you just jump up to say they don`t have evidence. That`s just a bald-face statement right there.

RIPKA: Well, Nancy, if you`re thinking that the police are thinking the parents or the babysitter are going lead them to the child, well, I hope that`s the case. But there`s been nothing said to lead us to that belief.

GRACE: You are seeing a shot of little Shannon. She`s only 11 pounds, 2 feet tall.

Everyone, on a happy note, as we go break, today marks one of the most wonderful days in my life. This time, two years ago, my twins, Lucy and John David and myself were all in intensive care. Today they turn 2.

I truly believe your prayers were heard as they were lifted up. Breaking news, prayer changes things.

Happy birthday, Lucy and john David. This is this morning at about 5:30 a.m. I made them cookies last night to go with their candle. And in the other shot, those were some paper crowns that we made for them to wear today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: I think another huge gap in the story is the fact that the parents have not made any personal appeals. I really believe that this story is going to be solved or this case will be solved close to home rather than far way from home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls tonight. This little baby, allegedly taken out of her parents` bedroom as they slept, sacking out until 11:30 a.m. According to them, the baby never made a peep.

Out to the lines, Sharon, Alabama. Hi, Sharon.

SHARON, CALLER FROM ALABAMA: Hi, Nancy. Thank you for taking my call.

GRACE: Thank you for calling, dear. What is your question?

SHARON: I just heard again that the parents didn`t make a personal plea for the children. And I`m wondering if the local affiliates were made that available to them?

GRACE: Well, let`s find out.

SHARON: And if so, did they turn them down?

GRACE: You are seeing new shots that we have obtained of little Shannon. She`s absolutely beautiful.

To Faye Wood, the godmother of missing child Shannon Dedrick. What about it? I`m sure news crews have approached the parents and offered them the opportunity to make a public plea.

WOOD: No, they have not.

GRACE: I find that hard to believe. Have they approached the media themselves? Miss Wood?

WOOD: They have just finally -- the sheriff`s department of Washington County has just finally offered a $10,000 ransom for the safe return of the child.

GRACE: That would be a reward, $10,000, everyone. The tip line, 850- 638-6111.

Pat Brown, criminal profiler, what do you make of it?

BROWN: Well, I think the parents did something to the child because it wouldn`t sleep until 11:00, unless that babysitter who has access to the home and knew their habits, and has a kind of a history of Munchausen syndrome by proxy with all that grandiose sneaking (ph) and missing children. She knew their habits, went there and snatched that baby, and they had no reason to wake up because the baby never cried again.

GRACE: That`s a very good point. And tonight, no parents, no babysitter, nobody has been named a person of interest or a suspect in this case.

Let`s stop and remember, Navy Petty Officer Michael Monsoor, 25, Garden Grove, California, killed Iraq. A Navy SEAL, highly decorated. Awarded the Medal of Honor, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart. Loved snow and body boarding, riding motorcycle, his Corvette. Leaves behind grieving parents, George and Sally, brothers James and Joseph, sister Sarah.

Michael Monsoor, American hero.

Thanks to our guests but our biggest thank you to you for being with us. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern and until then, good night, friend.

END