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NANCY GRACE

Husband and Boyfriend of Missing Army Wife Named Persons of Interest

Aired March 24, 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, 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.

First red flag, after a Hawaiian vacation together, when Bethany`s husband deployed to Afghanistan, for the first time ever, Army wife Bethany does not go to the airport to wave good-bye. Was she already missing? Investigators zero in on Bethany`s FaceBook page to discover someone goes on line posing as her, having deep conversation with her friends. Was it a FaceBook ploy to make friends and family think Bethany`s alive at home, tapping away on her laptop? Well, she`s not!

Bombshell tonight. Bethany`s husband brought home from Afghanistan, back on American soil, as police in a bizarre twist name both the husband and the boyfriend persons of interest. Why? Paternity of Bethany`s unborn baby. At first, police think it`s the husband, then the boyfriend. But tonight, police admit they don`t know who`s the daddy. And at this hour, reports neither boyfriend nor husband have a firm alibi. All this, as police go shoulder to shoulder searching a large undeveloped stretch of land near Bethany`s home. And why -- why -- did three full weeks pass for Bethany to even be reported missing? Didn`t the husband, boyfriend or family notice? She`s gone!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The case of a missing Army wife.

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pregnant with her second child.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vanishes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a missing person.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s living a double life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her Army husband, 21-year-old Emile Decker.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Named persons of interest by police.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ronald Roldan, 30 years old.

GRACE: The alleged boyfriend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Law enforcement reportedly names Ronald Roldan persons of interest in the case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s two people that have motives to kill Ms. Decker.

GRACE: Neither the husband nor the boyfriend (INAUDIBLE) able to produce a solid alibi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police know that both of these men saw her that day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police now reportedly reveal they don`t know the father`s identity, despite saying earlier they believed the unborn child belonged to Bethany`s boyfriend. Could it now be her husband`s?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cops are still insisting there`s no evidence of a crime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve got to look at everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does anybody know where my daughter is?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And tonight, live to the heartland, Ohio. A 25-year-old mother of three, Summer Inman, kidnapped from the parking lot of the local bank. Eyewitnesses say kidnappers include a woman with long blond hair and two men. Who took 25-year-old Summer?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: 911. What`s your emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m calling about my daughter, Summer Inman.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say the first 911 call came from Summer Inman`s father.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s nowhere to be found.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mom of three Summer Inman. Summer reportedly worked the night shift for a cleaning crew at the local bank until the unthinkable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say two witnesses saw the kidnapping take place near the intersection of Hunter and (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight, live, upscale D.C. suburbs. Bethany`s husband brought home from Afghanistan, back on American soil, as police in a bizarre twist name both the husband and the boyfriend persons of interest. At this hour, reports neither husband or boyfriend has a firm alibi. Cops go shoulder to shoulder to search a large undeveloped strip of land near Bethany`s home as cops admit the reason they name both as persons of interest is because of paternity. Who`s the father of the unborn child? At first, they thought it was -- the father, the husband, then the boyfriend. Now they admit they don`t know who`s the baby`s daddy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news in the case of missing 21-year-old mom Bethany Decker.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.

GRACE: Goes missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vanishes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sheriff`s deputy puts out a marker to show what`s been searched and where they still need to look. The team of Loudoun County deputies are trying to find any sign of Bethany Decker.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: January 29th is the last day she was last seen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They scoured the wooded areas around her Ashburn apartment complex.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s when school was starting and other things were going on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She goes to Hawaii with her husband. She`s living with another guy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities reportedly announce they have two persons of interest in the investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was hiding the boyfriend from the husband or...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The minute he found out that she was missing, he did call. He`s just heartbroken.

GRACE: The Hawaii vacation. I`ve got a feeling that`s where things started to boil over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Law enforcement reportedly names both Bethany`s husband, Emile Decker, and her alleged boyfriend, Ronald Roldan, persons of interest in the case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our main thing is we want to locate Bethany.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Out to Emily Babay, staff writer with "The Washington Examiner" joining us from D.C. Emily, thank you for being with us. You know, at first, everyone just assumed the unborn child belonged to the husband. Under the law, that`s generally the way that the statute determines a pregnancy. Then cops believed it was the boyfriend. Now they say they don`t know who is the daddy. Maybe neither of them. Plus, you`ve got both the husband and the boyfriend seeing her the last day she was known to be alive, and neither of them seem to have a firm alibi.

EMILY BABAY, "WASHINGTON EXAMINER": That`s correct. And thanks for having me, Nancy. Yes, the cops have named both Bethany Decker`s husband and boyfriend as persons of interest in the case. They say they have no evidence of foul play at this point, but...

GRACE: OK, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a minute! Emily Babay, you`re a very respected journalist, but how can you say with a straight face cops don`t think that there`s any evidence of foul play at this juncture? She`s six months pregnant. She`s got another child staying with her mother. And nobody`s heard from her. And somebody goes on her FaceBook page and poses as her, having these long conversations with her friends. It`s not her!

BABAY: That`s correct. And they`re saying that they haven`t turned up evidence that definitively points to foul play. But the longer she`s missing, the more they`re concerned about that happening.

GRACE: OK, Marc Klaas, president, founder of Klaas Kinds Foundation, why are they saying they don`t have evidence of foul play? Of course she`s been kidnapped or murdered! Hello!

MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: I think that there`s no question about that. But they have no place to search, really, outside of the woods that they have searched in. They don`t have any physical evidence that she was harmed. They don`t have any eyewitnesses to the fact that she was harmed.

But you`re absolutely correct, if she`s been gone for this long and she`s a responsible young lady that goes to school, watches out for her son, she certainly would have turned up by now. I think, though, that what we`re going to find is that whoever is masquerading as her -- whoever is masquerading as her is probably going to be the person responsible for her disappearance.

GRACE: Rita Cosby, investigative reporter, author of "Quiet Hero" -- Rita, you have investigated and written and reported on plenty of murder cases. This has got to be a parallel investigation of a missing person and a homicide case. I mean, how can cops say with a straight face there`s no evidence of foul play unless they`re trying to lure who they believe to be the perpetrator into a false sense of security?

RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: You know, Nancy, I think you hit it on the head. I think they have a lot more details than they`re letting on. Look, they would not name these two guys publicly persons of interest if they didn`t have something to go on. I bet that they are playing it close to the vest.

The other thing, too -- and this is what I think is so troubling -- how can this woman, five months pregnant -- she goes missing, she doesn`t show up when her husband gets deployed to Afghanistan, and then it takes three weeks until anybody reports her missing? She`s living with her boyfriend. He doesn`t report her missing. Her husband doesn`t report her missing. I think they are zeroing on both of these guys.

And I think what Marc said also, the forensics -- when they track down who was actually on the FaceBook -- and I bet they have a lot more information, cell phones, a number of things -- all the things they seized from the boyfriend`s home indicate they`re looking at phone records and also bank records.

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Unleash the lawyers, Eleanor Odom, former prosecutor, now with the National District Attorneys Association, death penalty-qualified, Peter Odom, defense attorney, Atlanta, Richard Herman, defense attorney, Las Vegas.

Eleanor, for the cops to say no evidence of foul play -- and I got to tell you, to now spring it on us that they don`t know who the baby`s daddy is -- for all I know, they`re suggesting -- they`re not naming anybody as a person of -- as a suspect, but they`ve said two people are persons of interest.

ELEANOR ODOM, NATIONAL DISTRICT ATTORNEYS ASSOC.: Well, and that`s not so unusual, Nancy, because here they`re keeping the pressure on right now because they`ve been publicly named. They`re the ones who are going to have to face the music. And it occurred to me, too, that maybe she didn`t know who the baby`s father was and wouldn`t until after the baby was born. So there may be that, as well.

GRACE: OK, to you, Richard Herman. They bring the husband home from Afghanistan. You know, you practically have to get a presidential order to make that happen. But they have brought him home. And the minute he puts his big toe on American soil, they name him a person of interest. What do you think?

RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, I think it`s disgusting. Here she is, leading a double life. Hey, maybe she`s leading a triple life! She`s a young...

GRACE: Wa-wait, wa-wait, wa-wait!

(CROSSTALK)

HERMAN: Maybe she took off and ran away.

GRACE: I didn`t understand, Richard.

HERMAN: Maybe she ran away.

GRACE: OK, I know that -- your hearing...

HERMAN: No evidence of a crime.

HERMAN: ... apparently has a problem. But did you say he, she, who`s leading a double life?

HERMAN: Yes, her. She`s married to a man...

GRACE: Why?

HERMAN: ... fighting for the country...

GRACE: No, no, no, no, no! That doesn`t mean she`s leading a double life!

HERMAN: She`s living with another boyfriend. Yes, she`s living with a boyfriend, married to a serviceman protecting her and her freedoms as a U.S. citizen, and now she`s a 21-year-old woman, she`s pregnant, she`s probably confused. There`s a good chance -- Marc Klaas, there`s a good chance she took off, she ran away.

GRACE: OK. First of all, we have nothing to suggest that she`s living a double or triple life, as you are. For all I know, all the guys knew exactly what was going on. I mean, come on. She was sharing an apartment...

HERMAN: (INAUDIBLE)

GRACE: I`d like to finish -- out in the open with her boyfriend. That was not a big secret. OK. Give me your best shot, Odom.

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Richard, you hit it exactly on the head. Everyone keeps talking about how these two men have a motivation to have done her harm. She has a huge motivation to disappear. Doesn`t happen very often, but boy, if ever there were a case where you`d want to look at that...

GRACE: OK...

PETER ODOM: ... this is that case.

GRACE: ... put Odom up! So you`re suggesting...

PETER ODOM: Put me up! Put me up.

GRACE: ... that a six-month -- can I finish, Peter, or do I need to cut your mike? Because I will! You know, just go ahead and cut his mike now so I can get my sentence out! Long story short, you`re suggesting to our female viewers that a six-month pregnant mom with a 17-month-old left behind is just going to vanish. I`ve got news for you, Odom. Until you`ve given birth, you don`t even know what you`re talking about!

HERMAN: Twenty-one years old.

GRACE: Oh, I heard him again!

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing says foul play louder than no cell phone activity and no debit card activity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her cell phone, bank account and credit cards have not been used since the end of January.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So foul play has happened here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a missing person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-one-year-old Bethany Decker, five months pregnant and lives on her own here in Ashburn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was either neighbors or a friend, police are saying, that saw her going into her apartment or was at her apartment on January 29th.

GRACE: It took three weeks for her to be reported missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three weeks, no one`s seen her since.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her husband, Emile, had just deployed with the Army national Guard to Afghanistan on February 2nd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is in the Army serving our nation. Yes, that`s where he is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators say Bethany did not see her husband off at the airport when he left overseas.

GRACE: Why didn`t she go see him off?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great question. Don`t know. We would like to know the answer to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The biggest question right now is, is he the last person to see her alive?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have been in contact with him and we`re going to have further contact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We`re taking your calls live. At this hour, the husband comes home from Afghanistan and is named a person of interest. But don`t jump to conclusions because so is the boyfriend! They`re both named persons of interest. This mom, a pregnant Army wife, a co-ed, a mother expecting her second child, goes missing. The day before she -- the day she vanishes, her husband sees her, her boyfriend sees her, last time she`s seen alive, her Hyundai sitting out in the parking lot. Inside the apartment, no Bethany.

At first, everyone assumed her unborn child belonged to her husband. Then the story changed. It was her boyfriend`s. Tonight, cops admit they don`t know who`s the baby`s daddy. One thing they do know, she`s missing, and it took over three weeks for anybody to report her missing. Didn`t the husband and the boyfriend notice she`s gone?

Out to the lines. Linda in Washington. Hi, Linda.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Thank you for taking my call. And I want to say thank you for being the voice for all the victims. You`re definitely an angel.

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have two questions. Have they done a polygraph test on the boyfriend and the husband? And it seems like by now, they should have been able to figure out who was using her FaceBook, or are they just dragging their feet on that?

GRACE: To David Lohr, crime reporter, AOLNews.com, joining us tonight from Pennsylvania. David, that is a fairly simple thing to do, once you get the computer. Now, didn`t they get the husband`s computer, the laptop he was using in Afghanistan, and the boyfriend`s computer?

DAVID LOHR, AOLNEWS.COM: Yes, they actually served a search warrant on the boyfriend`s house recently. They got several cell phones, Mac computer, an external video decoder, a remote-control device, whatever that means, and some miscellaneous receipts and stuff.

But what`s also interesting about that search warrant is, where the section in it where they have to put the reason for the search, they were putting suspicion of first or second degree murder. So that goes a long way towards telling us where their heads are. They say they don`t suspect foul play, but they put that in the search warrant.

GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Eleanor Odom, Washington, D.C., Richard Herman, Las Vegas, Peter Odom, Atlanta. Richard, did you hear that? On the warrant, the police say suspicion of murder. And you`re still trying to tell the viewers, Oh, she just disappeared to be with a third guy?

HERMAN: Yes, wasn`t that unethical of them to put that...

GRACE: I hate to...

HERMAN: ... in a warrant...

GRACE: I hate to break in to you and Odom...

HERMAN: ... to get a judge...

GRACE: ... but she`s probably -- at six months pregnant, probably not that interested in a third guy right now. I don`t know what else I need to say...

HERMAN: Well, we don`t know that.

GRACE: ... to explain it to you any further. But I don`t think she disappeared with a lover. What about it, Odom?

PETER ODOM: Nancy, the police are going to talk about suspicion of murder, but that doesn`t exclude the possibility that there might be something else going on.

GRACE: Oh.

PETER ODOM: And the police would be foolish to only focus on the possibility of murder.

GRACE: So Eleanor Odom, when Peter Odom says something else might be going on -- yes, like little green men may have blown in from Saturn. Maybe they took her, Eleanor! Maybe that`s what happened.

ELEANOR ODOM: Well, Peter`s misguided, Nancy, and they had to have probable cause to get that warrant. And let`s keep the focus on the victim.

GRACE: For those of you just joining us, 21-year-old Bethany Decker missing, and tonight, her husband and her boyfriend named persons of interest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Take a look at this girl, 21-year-old Bethany Decker.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The search for a young mother.

GRACE: She`s the mother of a 17-month-old.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ky (ph) misses his mother.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He does ask. He says Mama.

GRACE: She`s a full-time college student.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was studying global and environmental change.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Close to graduating from George Mason University.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: She`s five months pregnant. Tonight, the husband brought home from Afghanistan. When he puts his toe on American soil, he`s named a person of interest. But it doesn`t stop there. The boyfriend -- there they are. The boyfriend also named a person of interest. This while many suspect the unborn child may belong to a third male.

And we`re getting floods of calls and e-mails. One from Linda in Menlo -- "Funny how so many men always suggest women disappear and vanish with another guy, and funny how so many men are the reason they do vanish."

Out to Rita Cosby, investigative reporter, author of "Quiet Hero." Rita, what more can you tell me? And why don`t either of these guys have an alibi?

COSBY: Yes. That`s a very interesting point. And the fact that we know that they don`t have an alibi I think is a very strong suggestion from authorities. The other thing, to hit on the point that you`ve been talking about, Nancy -- she apparently also had a joint account with her husband, a joint bank account. We do know from authorities that, apparently, there`s been no activity on that. If she fled, you would assume she`d be using the money from that.

The other thing, she also was supposed to pick up a check for $1,000. It was from an accident, some insurance claim. She`s 21 years old. You would think $1,000 would be a good chunk of change. She hasn`t picked up that check, either.

GRACE: Rita, wasn`t she five months pregnant at the time she disappeared?

COSBY: She absolutely was.

GRACE: OK.

COSBY: And that`s the other thing. Come on! What is going on? She needs the money. You`re 21 years old. Nobody reports her missing? And the two people who knew the most you would assume it`d be the boyfriend and the husband. And what about her family?

GRACE: And neither -- neither of them report her missing. To Dr. Vincent DiMaio, former chief medical examiner, Bexar County, forensic pathologist joining us out of San Antonio. Dr. DiMaio, that would put her at about a little over six months pregnant now. Is the baby viable at, say, 6-and-a-half months?

DR. VINCENT DIMAIO, FMR. CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, BEXAR COUNTY: Oh, it`s viable, technically, at 20 weeks. But really, you have to have about 24 weeks to make it viable.

GRACE: So that would make the baby viable. And isn`t it true -- out to you, Eleanor Odom -- in that jurisdiction, the death of an unborn child constitutes a second life. That means two dead bodies if she`s been murdered, and that makes the perpetrator qualified for the death penalty.

ELEANOR ODOM: Yes, it does, Nancy. And he`s got not only murder of her but fetucide of the fetus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does anybody know where my daughter is?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kimberly Nelson is talking about her 21-year-old daughter, Bethany Decker, who`s a senior at George Mason University and is about five months pregnant. She hasn`t been seen since January 29th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(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 phones, computers, joint bank account between Bethany and her husband.

GRACE: We know that she`s five months pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And we know that the boyfriend was living with her up until February, and that he just moved out.

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

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

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

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: The boyfriend has to explain exactly his timeline.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The husband takes of to Afghanistan because he`s a military guy on duty. So he leaves on February 2nd.

KLAAS: The husband does need to talk to the authorities and explain exactly his timeline.

GRACE: This is about possible murder.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: For three weeks the family did not hear from Bethany. Even though her mother, Kimberly Nelson --

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We`re taking your calls. Out to Dale in California. Hi, Dale.

DALE, CALLER FROM CALIFORNIA: There is a God, I got through to Nancy Grace. Oh, my god.

GRACE: Thank you.

DALE: I`m a nurse anesthetist, and I`ve had years of on obstetrical experience. And I find it just fascinating that only men would think that a woman would leave. No woman is suggesting this. But if you are correct, she would be in her third trimester.

I want to know who is the last one to see this girl alive.

GRACE: OK. Emily Babay with the "Washington Examiner." Run through the timeline with me, Emily.

EMILY BABAY, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Sure. Authorities have said that Bethany`s husband, Emile Decker, saw her alive in the early morning hours of January 29th. Later that day, her boyfriend, Ronald Roldin, saw her and he is believed to be the last person to have seen her alive.

GRACE: You know, I thought, Rita, that somebody saw her that evening, maybe the boyfriend? Was it the afternoon?

RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, AUTHOR OF "QUIET HERD": Yes. We`re told it was in the afternoon. The other thing that`s interesting, too, about the boyfriend, is apparently this boyfriend, Nancy, was very controlling. One of the things that authorities seized when they went in for the warrant, they actually seized a couple of pictures that were on his cell phone, and she would have to send him e-mails saying, I`m here, this is where I am tonight, he wanted to know where she was every minute. And now --

GRACE: Wait a minute. Rita, Rita, Rita. Put her up, please. I mean are you telling me that, say, she goes out to Target.

COSBY: Right.

GRACE: So she has to take a picture of herself with the red big bull`s eye behind her?

COSBY: Yes. That`s what it sounds like.

GRACE: And if she goes out to Subway sandwich she`s got to take a picture with Jared? And -- so he can see -- OK, I got it.

So Rita, it was the afternoon the boyfriend says he saw her? You know what`s odd to me, Rita Cosby, that all of a sudden the boyfriend moves out of the apartment. See, if somebody in my family or my loved one goes missing, I wouldn`t suddenly just pack up my bags and leave. I find that very unusual.

COSBY: Yes. And I do, too. And the fact that, say if it`s a legitimate reason he moved out. He had no communication with her after that point? The husband had no communication? It does not make sense.

GRACE: To Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, author of "Dealbreakers," joining us from L.A. Weigh in, Bethany.

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": Well, I think this is where a psychological examination of both the boyfriend and the husband would be very useful. Which man has the least curiosity about where Bethany went. Has either man expressed concern over the unborn baby? Who has a financial incentive to have her out of the way?

Nancy, the wish to kill somebody never comes out of the blue. Even if it appears to be a crime of passion, usually the -- the perpetrator has what we call persecutory distress. They feel persecuted by the victim`s very presence on this planet. So who felt the most persecuted by Bethany? Who said horrible things about her to other people?

And has either man participated in the search? Because, you know, with the perpetrator, there`s just going to be a big blank space. They`re not going to express any fantasies about what`s become of her or where she is.

GRACE: You know I find it extremely unusual that neither the husband nor the boyfriend report her missing. Three weeks pass. Neither of them report her missing. You don`t find that odd, Bethany?

MARSHALL: Well, but it may not be apples to apples in terms of the boyfriend or the husband. They may have not reported her for different reasons. I mean, with the husband, it may have been a very acrimonious relationship, whereas with the boyfriend, he may notice she`s no longer around --

GRACE: They just got back from a Hawaiian vacation. Hello? Dr. Bethany, the husband and Bethany have just gotten back from a Hawaiian vacation. It couldn`t have been that acrimonious.

MARSHALL: But she really may have wanted to distance herself from the husband. Because think about it, the boyfriend was extremely controlling. He probably had much more power and influence over her. I mean, she was texting him her whereabouts for god`s sakes.

So which man is she going to have the greater deference to? The boyfriend, not the husband, even though she`s been with him for a long, long time. The husband may be a very malleable character where she just made up a ton of excuses and he just accepted it and didn`t really question why she wasn`t in contact with him.

GRACE: To Nancy in Pennsylvania. Hi, Nancy.

NANCY, CALLER FROM PENNSYLVANIA: Hi, Nancy, how are you?

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

NANCY: I have a couple questions about Bethany`s mother.

GRACE: OK.

NANCY: You know, at first it doesn`t seem like she`s -- anytime that she`s on that she`s that concerned about her daughter. If she didn`t hear from her even in a week, even if she contacts the different family members sporadically -- you know, I would think the mother would think something was unusual.

And she didn`t visit or come to see her other child. And when she didn`t show up as usual for the husband, you know, to go off to Afghanistan, I don`t understand why red flags didn`t go up all over the place. You know, that just doesn`t make sense.

But I have one comment, if you would pass it along to the gentleman attorneys tonight. Tell them that sometimes -- and I think men in particular, are so high-minded, they`re no earthly good.

GRACE: Well, you know what? I believe that their ears are working correctly. I`m not absolutely positive of that. But I assume Richard Herman and Peter Odom heard that. You know, Rita Cosby, what about the mother? Now what they are saying is that every couple of days, they were taking care of the 17-month-old baby, while she was in school.

That every day or so, she would call to talk to one or other of the family members. And it wasn`t for several days that they put together, hey, have you heard from her? No, have you? Have you? And they all realized she had not been in touch with anyone.

COSBY: Yes. It is still strange. I brought that up. The family, I think, it`s unusual.

GRACE: Yes.

COSBY: But what we do know, Nancy, is apparently she didn`t have a very close relationship with her mother. But obviously close enough that the mother`s taking care of this young child.

What I find strange is that it`s a 17-month-old child, as you point out, wouldn`t you be checking on your baby? Wouldn`t have someone figured it out, why did it take three weeks there? There`s something a little unusual about that, even if it`s a fragmented relationship.

GRACE: And to Bill Majeski, former NYPD detective, now president of Majeski Associates, Inc., joining us out of New York.

Bill, as far as the laptop computers go, wouldn`t they already have the results of that?

BILL MAJESKI, FMR. NYPD DETECTIVE, MAJESKI ASSOCIATES, INC.: Sure. And there`s probably a tremendous amount of information on that laptop as well as the cell phones that were used by both the husband and the boyfriend.

You know, the term timeline was mentioned a number of times. And that`s absolutely crucial. There has to be parallel timelines of the boyfriend`s activities, the husband`s activities, and then the intermingling of the wife between those two.

I`m sure the police have an awful lot of information, and they`re probably very close to solving this case.

GRACE: To David Lohr, crime reporter, AOLNEWS.com. David, do you think it`s possible they`ve got a GPS stuck on both the boyfriend and the husband`s vehicle to see what they`ll do? Remember Scott Peterson kept going back and back to look out at the San Francisco Bay where he dumped Laci`s body?

DAVID LOHR, CRIME REPORTER, AOLNEWS.COM: Oh, yes. I`m certain that they probably do. And who knows, that could be something they`re basing these searches on that they`re doing right now. That`s a pretty common thing in cases like this.

GRACE: We are taking your calls. To Beth in Mississippi. Hi, Beth.

BETH, CALLER FROM MISSISSIPPI: Hi, Nancy.

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

BETH: I think it`s disgusting to say this woman ran away, especially when there`s an innocent baby involved. But my question is, can`t they trace the person that posed as Bethany on Facebook by their Internet service provider even without confiscate the computer?

GRACE: Yes, they absolutely can. Bill Majeski just told us they would have already gotten those results back.

And Marc Klaas, it`s not that difficult to determine an IP address. Every computer has one. And when you get an e-mail, you can tell the IP address from whence it came.

KLAAS: You most certainly can, Nancy. There`s no question about this. The big mystery in this case is where is Bethany. And if they don`t find her -- I`m sorry, if they don`t find Bethany, they may not be able to hang this on anybody.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Where is Bethany?

KIM NELSON, MOTHER OF MISSING PREGNANT ARMY WIFE, BETHANY DECKER: Does anybody know where my daughter is?

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

GRACE: She`s five months pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: 21-year-old Emile Decker.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: His wife is missing. She`s carrying his baby.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When it came time for Emile to fly back to Afghanistan on February 2nd, Bethany was a no-show.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Breaking news in the case of missing 21-year- old mom Bethany Decker.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Missing.

GRACE: Goes missing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Missing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Vanishes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sheriff`s deputy puts out a marker to show what`s been searched and where they still need to look. The team of Lowden County deputies are trying to find any sign of Bethany Decker.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: January 29th is the last day she was last seen.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They scour the wooded areas around her Ashburn apartment complex.

NELSON: That`s when school was starting and other things were going on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She goes to Hawaii with her husband, she`s living with another guy.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Authorities reportedly announced they have two persons of interest in the investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was hiding the boyfriend.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Out to Claudia in Nevada. Hi, Claudia.

CLAUDIA, CALLER FROM NEVADA: Hi, Nancy. I`ve been curious about this from the very beginning. During the time that the husband was home from Afghanistan, did he make any attempt to see his son who was living 25 miles away with the grandmother?

GRACE: What do we know about that, Rita Cosby?

COSBY: I don`t know if he actually saw the son. But I can tell you that when they went on vacation -- remember, they went away on vacation, they went away with her family. The family apparently says that there was nothing acrimonious, at least nothing apparent, that everything seemed normal, that they seemed to get along. And that`s what makes this even more confusing.

GRACE: To Patty in North Dakota. Hi, Patty.

PATTY, CALLER FROM NORTH DAKOTA: Hi.

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

PATTY: I have a question. Well, I guess my question was kind of answered by the person before. I was wondering if Bethany`s husband was the father of the 17-month-old baby.

GRACE: David Lohr, it`s my understanding that now we don`t know if it`s the husband`s or the boyfriend`s.

LOHR: Well, the first baby we believe is the husband`s.

GRACE: Right.

LOHR: The second baby, we don`t know whose baby that is. And in regard to the other question, whether he saw his kid, we know they went to a family reunion together the day before she went missing. So chances are he probably saw the child then.

GRACE: So we`ve got the husband and the boyfriend, both with her the last day she`s seen alive. Neither of them reporting her missing for over three weeks. Both of them being named persons of interest. Not suspects. (INAUDIBLE) Police do not know the paternity of her unborn child.

To Bethany Marshall, joining us from L.A. I`m just wondering how this paternity fits into this?

MARSHALL: Well, it`s a very important question, because homicide is the second leading injury related cause of death for pregnant women. And the reason for that is usually the father of the unborn baby is jealous of the unborn child, or does not want to take up the financial responsibilities of fatherhood.

GRACE: To Rita Cosby, what about the new search?

COSBY: Yes, they`re checking, in fact, right around her area, because as you pointed out, they found that car --

GRACE: Wait, wait, wait.

COSBY: They found that Hyundai.

GRACE: They`re just now searching around her apartment?

COSBY: This is actually -- I`m told this is multiple times that they have done this.

GRACE: Oh, OK.

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: So it`s not the first search?

COSBY: Not the first.

GRACE: Good to know.

COSBY: Not the first. The one thing, Nancy, too, that we haven`t talked about is also the boyfriend has a bit of a criminal record. He`s got a couple of things in his background.

GRACE: Like what?

COSBY: One of the things he was prosecuted for identity fraud. One of the other things, DUI, another one is destruction of property.

GRACE: Wait a minute. Identity fraud? And now he`s got somebody tapped into her Facebook account pretending to be her?

COSBY: I know. Very interesting coincidence.

GRACE: Yes, you know, I always say there`s no coincidence in criminal law. But you`ve got to give me something more than tinted windows or identity fraud for me to be, you know, really -- that kind of underwhelms me, Rita, for a criminal record.

COSBY: No. And I agree. But what is interesting, the one thing with destruction of property, it was a windshield, front and back. And then also, keep in mind, this also ties in -- again he`s just a person of interest --

GRACE: It sounds domestic.

COSBY: But also this controlling behavior. And again we may be talking about a domestic case here.

GRACE: And windshield front and back sounds like a domestic instance like a boyfriend or wife. OK, again, let me reiterate neither of them had been named a suspect in this case.

So unleash the lawyers. Eleanor Odom, Richard Herman, Peter Odom.

Richard Herman, the constitutional privileges only apply when you become an official target. Would you argue that once they`re a person of interest, they are in fact a target?

RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That`s the reality of the situation, Nancy. And we need swift justice in this case to find this woman, and exonerate these two men.

And Nancy, both these men are fully cooperating with law enforcement.

GRACE: No, no --

HERMAN: They both are.

GRACE: No. No.

HERMAN: Yes.

GRACE: That`s not actually the scenario tonight. Isn`t that right? Out to you, Rita? Aren`t they saying now that they`re not cooperating as fully as they`d like?

COSBY: That`s my impression. The other thing is, again, that their alibis are not matching. The fact that we know that information so that authorities have a lot of questions for both of these men.

GRACE: Now what was it you were saying, Herman?

HERMAN: Yes, they`re answering the questions.

GRACE: Yes. Do the backstroke.

HERMAN: And they`re cooperating. I would advise them not to.

GRACE: What about it, Peter?

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, it`s just such a remarkable case. You`ve got two men, both of them have opportunity, neither of them has an alibi, both of them have strong motivations.

GRACE: (INAUDIBLE) all that?

ODOM: And there`s just reasonable doubt all over the case. All over the place as regards both of these men. That`s why the police have to start looking elsewhere. They have to. They have no choice.

GRACE: Eleanor?

ELEANOR ODOM, FELONY PROSECUTOR, DEATH PENALTY QUALIFIED: You know, Nancy, why don`t they take a polygraph? Why don`t they step up and say here`s what I`m doing? I`m completely innocent. I have nothing to hide. But neither one of them has done that.

GRACE: We are quickly switching gears. I want to tell you about Summer Inman, age 25. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: 25-year-old mom of three, Summer Inman, was reportedly working the night shift on the cleaning crew at a local bank.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two suspects dressed in all black.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Cops think she was abducted back in the alley.

ZARRELL: By two men in the parking lot.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Witnesses told police that two men grabbed her, threw her in the back of a white car and then took off.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: To Matt Bruning from 610 WTVN Radio, a 25-year-old mom snatched in the bank parking lot? And one of the perps, according to an eyewitness, is a female with long blond hair. What happened, Matt?

MATT BRUNING, REPORTER, 610 WTVN RADIO: 25-year-old mom Summer Inman was with a cleaning crew at the Central National Bank in Logan. Apparently around 11:00, Tuesday night, she went outside, was forced into a white vehicle. They`re saying either a Ford Crown Victoria or a Mercury Grand Marquee. No license plates on the car and tinted windows. It took off with her and she hasn`t been seen since.

GRACE: To Roshelle Hawk with the "Logan Daily News," joining us out of Logan, Ohio.

Roshelle, highly unusual that a female would be involved in a violent kidnap.

ROSHELLE HAWK, EDITOR, THE LOGAN DAILY NEWS: Yes, it is, Nancy. And actually it`s unusual that such a crime would occur in our town at all.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: A 25-year-old mom kidnapped in the bank parking lot? The perpetrators include a woman with long blond hair. Is that correct? Does that description sound correct?

To Roshelle Hawk, joining us from the "Logan Daily News"? And what eyewitness was in the -- the bank parking lot?

HAWK: Nancy, that`s correct. The woman has been described as having bleach blonde hair. And as for who the witnesses are, we`re hearing that there are two witnesses and they may have actually been in the vicinity of the bank and not at the bank.

There is an intersection right there where the bank is and also there is a post office across the street that people can access after hours.

GRACE: You mentioned that it`s very odd that this crime would happen there in Logan. Why? Why do you say that?

HAWK: We live in a small town with a population of about 8,000 people.

GRACE: OK.

HAWK: And crimes like that just don`t happen here.

GRACE: Matt Bruning, WTVN Radio, 610 on the dial. It`s a bank, for Pete`s sake. There should be security cameras out the ying-yang. Did they get a tag number?

BRUNING: Well, what we`re hearing, Nancy, is that there was no tag on the vehicle at all. So there is no license plate number to get. But that`s one of the reports we`ve been told is that -- again, no license plate on the vehicle.

GRACE: Tag removed. Tip line, 740-385-6868. Where is Summer Inman?

Let`s stop and remember Army Sergeant Gene Lamie, 25, Homerville, Georgia, killed in Iraq. Awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star. Loved his family and country. Huge fan of the Georgia Bulldogs, NASCAR driver Tony Stewart. Enjoyed fishing and hunting with his dad.

Remembered for his sense of humor. Leaves behind parents Eugene and Linda, siblings Kristi and John, wife Dara, and children, Lyrean and Gene Benjamin.

Gene Lamie, American hero.

Thanks to our guests but especially to you.

And congratulations to Tim in California. He just made Eagle Scout, loves school, his family including mom, dad, sister Katie and of course the head of the family, Gus, the family`s King Charles cavalier dog. He also loves football, especially baseball and the Atlanta Braves.

Way to go, Eagle Scout Tim.

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

END