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NANCY GRACE

Husband and Boyfriend of Missing Pregnant Army Wife Have No Alibi; Missing Pregnant Mother May Be in a Love Triangle; Missing Teacher`s Car Found Burned and Abandoned

Aired March 8, 2011 - 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, upscale D.C. suburbs. A beautiful co-ed and Army wife, five months pregnant with a second child, vanishes into thin air, 21-year-old Bethany Decker last seen entering her apartment. Three weeks later, her black Hyundai sits abandoned in the complex parking lot. But inside, no Bethany.

Bethany`s husband deploys to Afghanistan. First red flag? For the first time ever in their relationship, Army wife Bethany does not make it to the airport to see hubby off. Was she already missing? We learn all the while Bethany on a Hawaiian vacation with the husband, she`s pregnant by the boyfriend, not the husband. Do you think he knows? Well, he does tonight!

Shortly after she gets home, she vanishes. Investigators zero in on cell phone records, trace evidence, photos, e-mails, bank accounts, computers, and especially Bethany`s FaceBook page. Did someone go on line posing as Bethany, carrying on in-depth conversations with her friends? Was it a FaceBook ploy to make friends and family think she`s still at home, tapping away on her laptop? Well, she`s not!

Bombshell tonight. At this hour, we learn neither the husband nor the boyfriend can produce a rock-solid alibi. And why -- why -- was the husband`s FaceBook account seized by police? We also tonight confirm efforts, as we go to air, to bring hubby home from deployment in Afghanistan. But are they bringing him home as a witness or as a suspect? Are police certain the baby Bethany`s carrying is, in fact, the boyfriend`s?

And tonight, we obtain a list of what cops were looking for in the boyfriend`s home. What does that list reveal? Why did three full weeks pass for Decker to be reported missing? Didn`t the husband, the boyfriend or the family notice, Hey, she`s gone? Tonight, where is 21-year-old mother, Army wife Bethany Decker?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a missing person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-one-year-old Bethany Decker.

GRACE: Search warrants. And it says suspicion of murder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They want to search the home where the boyfriend is living with his mother. They want to search the FaceBook page, cell phones, computers, joint bank account between Bethany and her husband.

GRACE: We know that she`s five months pregnant. We know now that it`s the boyfriend`s baby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know that the boyfriend was living with her up until February and that he just moved out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She hasn`t been seen since January 29th.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bank records, credit cards, her cell phone, there`s been no activity since January 29th.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But he moved out after she allegedly disappeared on January 29th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The boyfriend has to explain exactly his timeline.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The husband takes off to Afghanistan because he`s a military guy on duty, so he leaves on February 2nd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The husband does need to come home and talk to the authorities to explain exactly his timeline.

GRACE: This is about possible murder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And tonight, live, Tennessee. A gorgeous young 8th grade school teacher goes missing without a trace. Her Pontiac Grand Prix goes up in flames. Her 6-year-old little girl left behind. Tonight, where is 24-year-old teacher Shelley Mook?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don`t have a clue as to where she might be.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the back of Mufreesboro this towing company lot sits a burned car that belongs to Shelley Mook, who hasn`t been seen or heard from.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In an arson case, it`s really hard to find evidence in anything like that, depending how bad it`s burnt and depending on what`s around the car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The teacher from Harris Middle School in Shelbyville was last seen by her ex-husband, who dropped off their daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dropped the child off, and from there have no idea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That same night, Mook`s car was found in flames on the side of Broad Street in Rutherford County.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This sets off a red flag. It sure does.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She never would just leave somewhere without, you know, letting us know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re not giving up hope. Shelley will come home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight, upscale D.C. suburbs, live. A beautiful co- ed, Army wife, five months pregnant with a second child, vanishes. At this hour, we learn neither the husband nor the boyfriend -- neither one -- can produce a solid alibi. Why? Are police certain the baby Bethany is carrying is, in fact, the boyfriend`s?

And tonight, we obtain a list of what cops were looking for in the boyfriend`s home. Why did he move out immediately when she goes missing? And why did three full weeks pass by for Bethany Decker to be even reported missing?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every last one of the search warrants that has been released says it`s on suspicion of first degree or second degree murder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have also stated in this affidavit that Bethany told them that the boyfriend was very abusive and very controlling.

GRACE: The search warrant -- it says murder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cops are seeking photos of Bethany, fingerprints, biological stains, fluids, trace evidence, records, receipts, weapons, notes, controlled substances, all evidence pointing to a possible murder.

GRACE: She`s pregnant by the boyfriend, not the husband.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last time the husband saw her was in the morning of January 29th. It`s the boyfriend, the last person to see her...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. And tonight, the bombshell. Neither the husband nor the boyfriend seems to be able to produce a solid alibi for the time Bethany Decker, five months, pregnant goes missing. Now, isn`t that an odd turn of events?

Out to you, Rupa Mikkilineni. Neither one of them can say where they were? They don`t have a receipt? Nobody saw them? What, were they both off, wandering in the desert alone, seeking solitude? How can both not have an alibi?

RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Right. Police will not confirm the exact whereabouts of where did this husband and this boyfriend were that day, Nancy. January 29th is the last day she was last seen by any other family members or friends. And what we do know is that police know that both of these men saw her that day, on the 29th. The husband saw her in the morning and the boyfriend saw her in the afternoon. They both apparently say this to police.

GRACE: Whoa. Whoa. Wait. I`ve got that the boyfriend saw her later in the evening. You know, we`ve got to nail down what we believe to be the timeline.

Out to you, Alexis Weed. Give me the timeline on Bethany Decker. There you see her. That`s with the husband, Emile. He is overseas right now, deployed to Afghanistan. If my wife were missing and maybe she was carrying my baby, you think he might come home? Not yet. We also learn tonight, efforting his return to American soil. But is it as a witness or a suspect?

Timeline, Alexis!

ALEXIS WEED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: OK, Nancy. On January 28th, Bethany and her husband are at the maternal grandparents` home. Bethany speaks to her mother...

GRACE: No, no, no, no, Alexis. I don`t mean to interrupt, but back it up to the Hawaiian vacation because I got a feeling that`s where things started to boil over.

WEED: Sure. The Hawaiian vacation, they leave on January 18th. They visit Bethany`s father, who lives there. They come back on the 23rd. It`s then on the 28th that they`re at the maternal grandparents` home, where they stayed when they came back from this vacation. The mother speaks to Bethany by speakerphone on the 28th, and then it`s the 29th that she`s last seen by the boyfriend.

GRACE: Alexis, what time of the day or night did the mother speak to her?

WEED: We don`t know exactly what time, but it sounds like, Nancy, it was some time during the daytime.

GRACE: OK. Let`s go to the 29th. The husband is with her that morning. Does that mean she spent the night with him, or did he just drive by? He wasn`t coming by to see the baby, the 17-month-old baby, because that baby is at the grandmother`s. So why did he see her that morning? What do we know?

WEED: We don`t know why. We just know that they were staying at the grandparent` home together. She then at some point leaves. There were early reports that she was at her apartment that day. That`s where we suspect it was that the boyfriend perhaps last saw her.

GRACE: Now, to me that is extremely significant. Let`s go to Wendy Walsh, psychologist and expert on Momlogic.com. She`s joining us out of LA. Did you hear those words, Wendy? Did you catch the significance of that? She`s staying with the grandparents. She`s staying with her husband at the grandparents`, spending the night there, living there. Then she goes back to the apartment, and that`s when the boyfriend sees her.

WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Yes. I`m a little worried that the boyfriend might have suspected there was some reconciliation going on. They just had the Hawaiian vacation. Now they`re sleeping together at the grandparents` house. So that could certainly be cause for him to become enraged.

And also, Nancy, how do we know for sure that this baby was the boyfriend`s? Have we charted the dates and perhaps the husband was in Afghanistan at time of conception? How do we know? We don`t have DNA this early, do we?

GRACE: Well, I believe you can get DNA in utero. Out to you, Dr. Howard Oliver, former deputy medical examiner, forensic pathologist, also joining us out of LA. Dr. Howard, Oliver, thank you for being with us. Can`t you get a DNA sample in utero?

HOWARD OLIVER, FMR. DEPUTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: Yes, you can. They could have done a thoracentesis, which they may have possibly done through...

GRACE: A what?

OLIVER: ... could have discovered that -- a thoracentesis -- or not a thoracentesis, but a centesis...

GRACE: Amniocentesis?

OLIVER: ... of the -- amniocentesis, yes.

GRACE: So amnio, where they go in your tummy and they extract the fluid, amniotic fluid that is surrounding the fetus. And from that amniotic fluid, can they not get the DNA of the fetus?

OLIVER: They can get the DNA.

GRACE: OK. That would have been...

OLIVER: The cells would be free in that fluid.

GRACE: ... a relatively simple thing. But on the other hand, Doctor, you only get amniocentesis if you really need to because it can be a little dangerous, yes, no?

OLIVER: That`s correct.

GRACE: Also, Doctor, if she had already gotten an amniocentesis, if they had not saved the amniotic fluid, then we wouldn`t be able to get a DNA on it now, or could we?

OLIVER: Only if they saved the fluid.

GRACE: OK, out to the lines. To Kitty in North Carolina. Hi, Kitty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. Good evening.

GRACE: Good evening. What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`d like to know, did the husband know before coming home that she was pregnant?

GRACE: Well, you know what? I`ve got a shot of her. Let me see if you can get the shot, Liz, of her going by in an empire waistline dress that kind of comes just below your bosom and falls out. She looked pregnant to me in that photo. I don`t know if he knew she was pregnant or not. I don`t know if he knew who the father of the baby is. I don`t know that we really know. That would not be the empire waistline, Liz. That would have been a midriff top.

What do we know, Rupa Mikkilineni? Was she obviously pregnant at the time of the Hawaiian vacation?

MIKKILINENI: It looked like she was obviously pregnant. But here`s the thing, Nancy. We also know that she lived with the boyfriend in that apartment together for two months before he moved out in approximately mid- February, or early February. So there had to be some knowledge by this husband, even during the Hawaiian trip, that, in fact, there is a possibility...

GRACE: Well, wait a minute! Wait a minute!

MIKKILINENI: ... this baby`s not his.

GRACE: How do I know, Mike Brooks, that she wasn`t in the apartment with the boyfriend while he was out of town? How do I know he knew the whole scenario? And how do I know that the husband didn`t find out that she met the boyfriend at the apartment and he became enraged? I mean, you got a lot of wild cards going on here.

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: There`s a lot of wild cards, and I think one of the biggest ones, though, is the timeline of the husband and him not having an alibi, like you pointed out, Nancy. I hope the Army, CID, Criminal Investigation Division, in Afghanistan has taken his phone, taken his computer, like they serve a search warrant on the boyfriend. That could help put a lot of things together in that timeline.

GRACE: Tonight, we obtain the list of what police were looking for as they searched the home of the boyfriend. What does it reveal? And why would someone go on her FaceBook account and pose as her? Were they trying to make friends and family believe she was alive?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a FaceBook account that apparently was not active. It was inactive and then suddenly became active, so now police are saying that this FaceBook account may have been accessed by somebody else. So they are now searching to see who might have had access to this FaceBook account.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to locate Bethany.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No one has spoken to Bethany, who is five months pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a missing person, and we`ve got to look at everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-one-year-old Bethany Decker.

GRACE: Now, the husband is over in Afghanistan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`d like to talk to him, as well, and then try to get the opportunity to find out because he did have contact back in January with Bethany.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As soon as he found out that she was missing, he did call. He`s just heartbroken.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No one has spoken to Bethany.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, I haven`t heard from her, and this is very out of the ordinary.

GRACE: Bethany Decker`s husband, Emile Decker, is serving, Afghanistan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He wants to cooperate fully. He is very concerned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops have searched the home of the last person to see Bethany before she disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was a boyfriend and this was the father of her unborn child.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the search warrant, it alleges that the boyfriend made conflicting statements to police about when it was that he first noticed that Bethany`s car parked outside her apartment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t like conflicting statements, period.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wasn`t necessarily in contact with me every day, but usually with her siblings or via FaceBook. It`s a wonderful way to keep in touch. You know, we could see what was going on. That`s when school was starting and other things were going on, so sometimes, you know, she`d be busy with getting into a new routine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Out to Nancy in Pennsylvania. Hi, Nancy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I have a question. I don`t understand the mother. She doesn`t really seem concerned, you know, or showing really any emotion. So my question is, maybe the family or a friend is hiding her out to protect her from this abusive boyfriend.

GRACE: OK. So you think possibly the family is hiding her to protect her from the boyfriend. Wouldn`t it be easier just to have the boyfriend arrested for domestic abuse?

Let`s unleash the lawyers, Raymond Giudice joining us out of Atlanta, Christopher Amolsch joining us out of Washington, D.C. Weigh in, Giudice.

RAYMOND GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, you know, if I had to represent one of these folks, I`d always rather represent someone who`s serving our military honorably in combat.

GRACE: That`s not what I asked you. Please get to the point.

GIUDICE: Well, you asked me to weigh in and I am weighing in. I think before we run around...

GRACE: On a particular question, the caller`s question.

GIUDICE: Well, I don`t think we can surmise that the family has anything to do with it. You`re absolutely right. If she`s scared, call the police. Get a restraining order. Have whoever it is that`s threatening them removed. But again, I don`t think it`s the husband that`s scaring her.

GRACE: OK. What about it, Amolsch?

CHRISTOPHER AMOLSCH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, the family is not hiding her. And if the husband had anything to do with it, there`s almost no way to get him -- the Virginia court`s going to get him back from Afghanistan anyway. So that`s going to be a really difficult way to investigate him.

GRACE: To Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation, his expertise, missing people. What do you think now, Marc?

MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, you know, Nancy, this young man -- the husband, I mean -- has been serving -- has been putting his life on the line in Afghanistan for many months, and then to come home and discover that his wife has not only taken up with another man but is carrying his baby, and in fact, is living with this guy could be -- could enrage him to the point of wanting to commit a terrible crime against her.

That makes perfect sense to me. But I think that in the end, whoever is accessing and mimicking her FaceBook account is going to be the person responsible for whatever it is that happened to Bethany.

GRACE: To Rupa Mikkilineni. Have we learned if the husband`s FaceBook account has been seized by police?

MIKKILINENI: Well, we know that there is an investigation. One of the warrants discusses talking about looking at the different accounts. So they are investigating both accounts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is married. Her husband`s deployed. And she`s got a boyfriend?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is pregnant, five months pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Homicide is the second leading injury-related cause of death for pregnant women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-one-year-old Bethany Decker from Ashburn, Virginia, just disappeared.

GRACE: Army wife Bethany does not make it to the airport to see hubby off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The husband does need to come home and talk to the authorities. He needs to sit down in a room with them and explain exactly his timeline.

GRACE: He should be sent home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Tonight, we know for a fact that the husband is being brought home. I don`t know how long it will take for those wheels to turn. He has not been named a suspect in this case.

To you, Rupa Mikkilineni. You actually spoke with Bethany`s family today. What did you learn?

MIKKILINENI: Right. I spoke with Bethany Decker`s family today, and they said that very clearly that she had no problems with this pregnancy. She was very healthy. In her first pregnancy -- remember, Nancy, she has a 17-month-old with her husband. That pregnancy went beautifully., no hormonal issues, no mental instability. She is the kind of person that`s highly responsible and would never have vanished on her own, would be in touch with her friends or family in some way in the last three weeks.

They also said that she always saw her husband off when he was deployed back to the military, back to Afghanistan. So that day on February 2nd, when he was deployed, she was noticeably not there. And that is the first time that has happened and that`s very suspicious, Nancy.

GRACE: To criminal profiler and author of "The Profiler," joining us tonight, Pat Brown out of Washington, D.C. Pat, somebody went to a lot of effort. You`ve got someone parking her car outside of her apartment complex, someone going on line, posing as her on FaceBook. Her body, or wherever she is, is going to be very well hidden. Somebody`s taken a lot of time in what they`ve done with Bethany Decker.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: That`s exactly true, if indeed, she was murdered. And this will focus more on the boyfriend simply because he had more of the time to do this kind of thing, to put a lot of effort into it, where the husband is being redeployed back.

But I also want to talk about the family`s response, about this being highly responsible. I mean, this girl did get pregnant before she got married the first time. She got pregnant by another man while she was married. And they say for three weeks, you know, well, you know, they didn`t even go look for three weeks. So she must disappear quite frequently for them not to put that much effort into trying to find her and being paranoid within a few days that something`s really wrong, especially that they`re taking care of her child. So I think they`re a little confused as to what happened. You know, maybe they question whether she ran away, to begin with.

GRACE: Well, they have said point blank that she has never disappeared before, so that`s the word of everybody in the family. They made it clear that she would get in touch with one or the other. She would call the dad or mom or the siblings.

BROWN: But she didn`t for three weeks.

GRACE: As I was trying to say -- as I was trying to say, they claim they didn`t put it all together that nobody had talked to her in three weeks. Is that what they`re saying, Rupa?

MIKKILINENI: ... also, even if she wasn`t involved with talking with somebody in the family, she`d be talking to friends. And they believe she was in touch with friends on FaceBook.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a missing person.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: 21-year-old Bethany Decker.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Search warrants and it says suspicion of murder.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They want to search the home where the boyfriend is living with his mother, they want to search the Facebook page, cell phone, computers, joint bank accounts between Bethany and her husband.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We know that she`s five months pregnant. We know now. OK. I`m putting together the time line here and I see that she`s last seen by husband and boyfriend January 29th.

Her husband deploys from the airport February 2, three days later. She is not reported missing until February 19th? Her family says when she was not at the airport to wave her husband good-bye, that was the first red flag. OK. That was February 2nd.

Marc Klaas, they do not report her missing until February 19th?

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: I find that incredibly troubling.

GRACE: I do, too.

KLAAS: I can`t -- I can`t imagine somebody being gone for that long and nobody paying attention or realizing that they`re not there.

GRACE: You know I`m starting to see Pat Brown`s point, Rupa Mikkilineni.

Tell me again what the family said as to why they didn`t report her missing. I mean the husband couldn`t do it. He`s in Afghanistan. Why were they sitting on their thumbs?

RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, there were a couple of reasons. They`ve also said that she had just started university at George Mason so she thought -- they thought that she had been very busy with classes and that she was just out of touch for that reason.

And then on top of that they also believed that she had been in communication with her friends on Facebook. So the family actually told me today when I spoke to them that she was always in touch with somebody in her circle. It didn`t always have to be a member of the family. It could also be a close friend, friends on Facebook, e-mail, that sort of thing.

GRACE: OK. And we don`t know at this juncture, Mike Brooks, whether the husband knew, A, she was pregnant, B, it was or it was not his baby. Or, three -- excuse me, C, that she was already missing when he deploys to Afghanistan.

MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Exactly. But one of the things we had not been talking about or we haven`t heard anything about, Nancy, is her cell phone.

I hope law enforcement has got the subpoena to go and say, OK, was there any activity on her cell phone or -- any other devices that she has from the time that she was last seen until the second when her husband left until the day she was reported missing?

But I still find it weird. She wouldn`t -- didn`t even call her little baby, the parents, to find out how her baby was and nobody thought that was odd?

GRACE: You know, to me something is not fitting together.

BROOKS: No.

GRACE: I must not be getting a clear picture of the family relations.

Rupa, what do we know about the cell phone, her cell phone?

MIKKILINENI: Nancy, we don`t know very much about that cell phone. What we have is what the police have released to us which are the five warrants, search warrant affidavits, which do not discuss her cell phone records. They discuss the boyfriend`s cell phone records, they discuss her Facebook account. They discuss the bank joint -- joint bank accounts between the husband and Decker.

GRACE: Yes. Hold on, hold on. That reminds me. I didn`t get a clear answer from either you or Alexis on this.

Why has the husband`s Facebook account been seized?

MIKKILINENI: OK. So this is also a little bit confusing. It`s not clear if it`s actually his Facebook account and that`s the reason that they`re trying to check to see if this account was used and he was posing as her or if she used his Facebook account.

It`s possible that being husband and wife they had access to each other`s Facebook account.

GRACE: OK. Got it.

Out to the lines. Nancy in Pennsylvania. Hi, Nancy. Whoops. Mercedes in Michigan.

MERCEDES, CALLER FROM MICHIGAN: Hello.

GRACE: Hi, Mercedes.

MERCEDES: Hi. I`m glad you took my call. This has a lot of holes in it. And I`m wondering --

GRACE: Yes, it sure does.

MERCEDES: I`m wondering why when he`s at the airport or maybe some of her family -- why didn`t someone call her cell phone or do you have a ping from anywhere that they did try to call her cell phone when he was being deployed, if she didn`t ever miss it before? And why he didn`t --

GRACE: I know. I know, Mercedes. I mean, it seems like everybody you look at is like, huh? The family didn`t report her missing for 17 days after they professed they saw a red flag? The husband says he doesn`t know she is missing. The boyfriend moves out of the apartment they were sharing and moves home to his mother`s.

We know all that. Nobody knows anything. I`m sure police are having a very hard time getting information.

Back out to the lines, to Chanel in Florida. Hi, Chanel.

CHANEL, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Hey, Nancy. I just want to say thank you. You are truly a divine intervention in this world of justice that we have.

GRACE: Thank you.

CHANEL: However, two things. I want to know whether or not the boyfriend knew -- the husband knew that she was living with the boyfriend and also is it probable that the two of them could have coerced something together?

GRACE: You know, since neither one of them can give a rock solid alibi right now I doubt you`re the first one that has thought of that but you are the first one that`s verbalized it.

Let`s go out to you, Pat Brown. What do we know? What do we know about those questions?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER, AUTHOR OF "THE PROFILER": Well, I don`t think we know very much about it at all. It`s one of these big mysteries. Who actually knew anything? But I would say the caller has a point. That could be another possibility. We can`t ignore that.

I do want to bring up one point again about this not seeing the baby. Not only does she not call she only lived about 25 miles away. And when you have a child that`s only a year and a half old you want to see that child so it seems very odd to me that her mother wouldn`t be upset that she wasn`t calling to find out how her child was doing, coming by, and that she wouldn`t be on that phone to her.

I don`t care -- you know, maybe she`s calling lots of people, but I would be on the phone to her saying, where is she, where is she, where is she, and calling everybody to find out.

GRACE: I agree.

Rupa, what about the question from Mercedes? Did they try to call her from the airport and say, hey, the plane is about to take off, where are you?

MIKKILINENI: Nancy, we don`t know. I don`t know the answer to that.

GRACE: OK. Rupa, you know, instead of me asking you rapid fire, why don`t you tell me what you do know?

MIKKILINENI: Here`s what we do know. We know what`s in the search warrant affidavits. We know that family has made statements to police which are in those affidavits. For example, family was told that that baby, the unborn baby that she was pregnant with belonged to the boyfriend.

The family was also told that the boyfriend was abusive and controlling. And we have examples of that behavior. For example, we know that he used to make Bethany take pictures of herself in certain locations whenever he was not around and as a master text those photos to him so that he would know exactly where she was at every given moment.

So there seems to be -- and then of course now we have these search warrant affidavit that are really focusing on this boyfriend. The search warrant - -

GRACE: OK. Speaking of the search warrant affidavits. Let`s go through what police say they hope to find in the boyfriend`s mother`s home. That`s where the search warrant is assigned to. That address. What did they say, Rupa? Let`s see a list.

MIKKILINENI: Right. The warrant seeks photos of Bethany, fingerprints, biological stains or fluids, trace evidence, records, receipts, weapons, notes, controlled substances, basically anything that could help find her.

GRACE: Have we gotten the return yet, Rupa? We don`t know exactly what they took out yet, do we?

MIKKILINENI: We don`t.

GRACE: Out to the lines, to Melinda in West Virginia.

MELINDA, CALLER FROM WEST VIRGINIA: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: Hi, dear.

MELINDA: OK. My brothers just got back from Afghanistan. And he came back with some issues, granted he`s having that taken care of. OK? Anger management. OK. Well, imagine this guy comes home, sees his wife with a little baby bump and confronts her, and so she takes him to her boyfriend`s and perhaps they get into an altercation and she gets into the middle of it somehow. Maybe breaking it up or whatever.

And something tragic happens and the boyfriend is hiding the body or they both hid the body. You know, there are days gone that she`s unaccounted for before he leaves. He`s in Afghanistan doing, you know, his work. And this guy is over here.

Perhaps he`s the one covering up his own guilty feelings by getting on his -- on the Facebook.

GRACE: OK. Let`s talk about the reasonableness of that scenario.

Raymond Giudice, Christopher Amolsch.

First of all, Ray Giudice. My experience and this is of course anecdotal, but you can`t have two codefendants together in a murder case and somebody doesn`t blab. It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow but they will talk. They will crack for a variety of reasons.

What do you think about that scenario?

RAY GIUDICE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I agree that if that`s the fact, that both of these two individuals -- let`s say any two individuals who are involved in a murder you are right. The chances increase exponentially that one or both are going to blab to a jailhouse snitch, a buddy, get drunk, put it on line, text it.

So I agree with your hypothetical.

GRACE: What about it, Amolsch?

CHRISTOPHER AMOLSCH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think the idea that the husband and the baby daddy would somehow be working together to cover up a murder seems pretty farfetched.

GRACE: And if they are, believe me, a search of their computer records will disclose the whole thing.

Tip line, 703-777-0475. Let me reiterate. No one has been named a formal suspect at this time.

Where is pregnant mom Bethany Decker?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Bethany Decker seemingly vanishes into thin air.

KIM NELSON, MOTHER OF MISSING PREGNANT ARMY WIFE, BETHANY DECKER: Reaching out and saying, does anybody know where my daughter is?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have searched the home of boyfriend of Bethany Decker.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: With the search warrant that was issued.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s just -- she`s vanished.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mook, an English teacher at Harris Middle, was last seen by her ex-husband at his old Nashville dirt road home. She was dropping off their 6-year-old daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re not sure what happened at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Then the case took a terrifying turn. Deputies found Mook`s Pontiac Grand Prix burnt and charred in Murfreesboro. No sign of Mook.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It worried me. When I saw the car burned up. They`ll be able to tell what chemicals were used to burn the car.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: After calling around and finding out no one heard from her they knew something was wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Especially to leave her daughter. Without her mother, she would never -- you know, never do anything like that.

DEBRA SIKORA, MOTHER OF MISSING TEACHER, SHELLEY MOOK: Please. Any information is greatly appreciate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re concerned. And we`re -- we`re going to try to turn her up pretty quick.

SIKORA: Bring her home.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: In the back of this Murfreesboro towing company lot sits a burned car that belongs to Shelley Mook. Mook`s car was found in flames on the side of Broad Street in Rutherford County. But it wasn`t until after she was reported missing that authorities found out the now burned car belonged to Mook.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Where is the missing 8th grade teacher?

Straight out to Nicole Partin. Nicole, what can you tell us?

NICOLE PARTIN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Good evening, Nancy.

We are able to nail down a time line. It was a Monday afternoon about 3:30 in the afternoon when Shelley left the Harris Middle School where she was a school teacher. She left the school, went to her ex-husband`s home where she dropped off their 6-year-old daughter.

Now she had an appointment at her apartment with a maintenance man around 4:30 that afternoon. Her landlord said she never showed up for that appointment so something happened to Shelley between 3:30 and 4:30 in the afternoon.

GRACE: Matt Zarrell, what more can you tell me.

MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: Nancy, hours later Shelley`s car was found 25 miles away in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville. Now cops are actually not able to link the car to Shelley until Wednesday because Shelley wasn`t reported missing until Wednesday.

Shelley had a scheduled day off the day before because she was in the process of moving and she was not reported missing by the school until Wednesday, and that is when cops linked her to the car that was found on fire.

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Joining me right now, Debra Sikora, this is -- this is Shelley`s mother.

Debra, thank you for being with us.

SIKORA: Thank you so much for having us.

GRACE: Miss Sikora, what do you recall of the day her car was discovered on fire? What led up to that moment?

SIKORA: I came to visit my daughter over the weekend to help her move and on Monday I left to go back to Pennsylvania. When I arrived back in Pennsylvania I tried to call my daughter Monday afternoon and evening. Tuesday I tried to call her.

Wednesday I called the school and found out she hadn`t reported for school. I got a call from my brother on Friday -- I`m sorry, on Wednesday, and then I proceeded to drive down to Tennessee. I drove all night, and came into town into Murfreesboro early in the morning, hoping -- hoping she would be back at her apartment.

When she wasn`t there I went to the police station. Later in the afternoon I was told they found her car.

GRACE: What are cops telling you tonight about her disappearance?

SIKORA: The police have been diligently looking. I understand there`s different counties involved in Tennessee with the location of her home, the location of the car, but sheriffs from Rutherford County, the police from Shelbyville have been working together to locate my daughter and bring her home.

GRACE: Has she ever stayed away from her little girl?

SIKORA: No, no, never. Never.

GRACE: With us tonight is Debra Sikora. This is Shelley`s mother.

We`ve also looked into her employment history and it is very unlike her to miss a day`s work. Much less without calling in.

Did you realize that she had not reported to work?

SIKORA: I knew she had off on Tuesday. She had scheduled a substitute teacher to take over for her because she had things to do. She had a doctor`s appointment and we had just helped her move over the weekend so I knew that she wouldn`t be in school on Tuesday but when I kept on trying to call her, I started to get her voicemail right away and then I sent her an e-mail. No response.

When I called the school on Wednesday I knew definitely something was wrong. This was not like my daughter, no, no.

GRACE: Why was she moving?

SIKORA: A couple of issues with a place she was renting. She was having some maintenance issues that weren`t being taken care of. She wanted to move to Murfreesboro.

Also, she was starting -- she did start graduate studies at MTSU which is in Murfreesboro, to be closer there.

GRACE: Where is her daughter tonight?

SIKORA: I can`t tell you for sure but it is my understanding her ex- husband or his family are caring for her.

GRACE: Why, Miss Sikora, do you say that you can`t tell us for sure?

SIKORA: I`ve not been able to see my granddaughter.

GRACE: Why?

SIKORA: I don`t understand the proceedings. I`ve gone to visit my granddaughter before. I`ve gone on field trips with her at school. I`m on the list for school to pick up my granddaughter, but my granddaughter`s father is not allowing me to visit her at school. I`m taking further measures to look in to see how I can see her.

GRACE: Everyone, the tip line, 931-684-3232. There`s a $10,000 reward.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: News of Shelley Mook`s missing status is spreading. With her Pontiac Grand Prix found burned and abandoned on the same day she was last accounted for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sets off a red flag. It sure does. We`re concerned.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But the sheriff and Shelbyville police --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s just -- she`s vanished.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- grow more uneasy with each passing day.

SIKORA: Just make sure that everyone keeps her in their thoughts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve all missed two or three nights sleep here, four or five nights sleep, trying to figure all this out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An arson case that`s really hard to find evidence of anything like that, depending on how bad it`s burnt and depending on what`s around the car, something could have been dropped on the ground. That type thing. They`ll be able to tell what chemicals were used to burn the car.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Out to Sheryl in Ohio. Hi, Sheryl.

SHERYL, CALLER FROM OHIO: Hi, Nancy.

GRACE: Hi, dear, what`s your question?

CALLER: OK, I have a question and a statement. My question is, was the husband the last to see her? And my quick statement is, watch the writing on the wall. He did it.

GRACE: You know what, Sheryl, according to detective and police all across the country, the first place you look is husband, ex-husband, boyfriend, live-in.

You`re certainly right about that.

To Patrick Jones joining us out of Nashville. This is Shelley`s brother.

Isn`t it correct that when cops go to search the home, he`s moving out?

PATRICK JONES, BROTHER OF MISSING TEACHER, SHELLEY MOOK: Yes, Nancy. That is correct. He had been seen with a trailer attached to his vehicle moving stuff and we`re unaware exactly where he`s moving to. We don`t have that information. But yes, he is moving.

GRACE: Let me get that tip line out again. 931-684-3232.

Tonight, let`s stop to remember Army Private 1st Class Timothy Seamans, 20, Jacksonville, Florida, killed Iraq. Awarded Bronze Star, Purple Heart, National Defense Service medal.

Loved WWF, surfing, rollerblading, comic books, playing Madden football. Favorite teams, Florida Gators, Jacksonville Jaguars. Dreamed of studying at UF an and being a cop.

Leaves behind parents, Monica and Dave, a Navy vet, sister Ashley, niece Isabella he never got to meet.

Timothy Seamans, American hero.

Thanks to our guests but especially thank you to you. And good night from Georgia friends, Stephanie, Emmy and Ann.

Aren`t they beautiful?

And good luck to one of our stars, Danielle, heading up, up, up to CNN operations. Walk slow and hurry back. Hurry back.

And happy birthday to Georgia friend, Isabelle, turning 101. Happy birthday. Two children, 10 grandchildren, 25 greats and five great-greats.

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

END