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NANCY GRACE

Arrest in 7-Year-Old Georgia Girl`s Murder

Aired December 7, 2011 - 20:00   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. Mommy has to work the night shift, kisses her 7-year-old little girl good-bye. The 7-year- old heads to a playground just 50 feet away. Mommy never sees her alive again, the 7-year-old little girl, Jorelys, snatched from the playground in broad daylight.

An intense 72-hour search leads to a dumpster just one block away, where little Jorelys is found, thrown away like trash, her body, blunt force trauma to the head, multiple stab wounds, sexually assaulted.

Bombshell tonight. In the last hours, an arrest goes down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re here to announce the arrest of Ryan Brunn for the murder of the 7-year-old Rivera child. Brunn is 20 years of age and he resided at 12309 River Ridge Drive. He is employed as a maintenance worker.

Brunn has been taken to the Cherokee County detention center. He has been arrested at approximately 12:40 PM today.

We have been actively and aggressively investigating the child murder and we have utilized approximately 65 investigators working around the clock. We`ve executed multiple search warrants in this investigation, and we still have much work to do.

We have had Brunn under surveillance since last night, and we continue to develop evidence in this case. We reached a point this afternoon where we had sufficient evidence to obtain arrest warrants for the murder of the 7-year-old child. And he is -- Brunn is now in custody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. A 7-year-old little girl snatched from the playground in broad daylight, just 50 feet away from her mother sleeping. An intense 72-hour search leads police to a dumpster just one block away. Little Jorelys found, thrown away like trash. In the last hours, an arrest goes down.

Straight out to Holly Firfer from CNN. Holly, give me the latest.

HOLLY FIRFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we found out today about 12:40 this afternoon GBI arrested 20-year-old Ryan Brunn. He was a maintenance worker, a groundskeeper who lived in the apartments. Now, what we know about him is that he had a roommate. We are told by a neighbor that his roommate was the property manager`s son. Now, yes, he did have a key to that trash compacter where they found her body.

And he`s under arrest right now. We haven`t been told if he`s talking to police yet. There is an arraignment tomorrow at 1:30, where we should learn, Nancy, the details of that brutal murder.

GRACE: A 20-year-old maintenance guy now under arrest. In the last hours, cops zero in on this man, a 20-year-old who had just started working in the complex in November. Maximum penalty, death by lethal injection.

Also with us, Veronica Waters, anchor, WSB. Veronica, this guy had only been there for about a month, a little bit less than a month. What do we know about him?

VERONICA WATERS, WSB RADIO (via telephone): Not very much at this point, but we have been able to find out a little bit, Nancy. We know that Ryan Brunn is a native of New York. He apparently moved to the metro Atlanta, as you said, not very long ago, had been working and living at that complex just since the first week of November.

He appears to be a really young-looking 20-year-old. When we saw him being brought out during the arrest today, he seemed, you know, slight build, sort of a slim guy, dark hair, slightly receding hairline. And he has a very freckled face. If you look at his mug shot, it really jumps out at you in particular how young-looking this young man actually is.

GRACE: Well, you know what? He may look young, Veronica Waters, but Jorelys Rivera at just 7, she looks a lot younger.

This little girl, everyone, out on the playground in broad daylight, her Mommy, working the night shift to support her three girls, comes home, takes a nap, Jorelys out playing on the playground just a few feet away with a teenage baby-sitter, the daughter of a friend of Mommy`s. The baby- sitter apparently goes in to get a coat, and during that time, that small window of time, the predator attacks. In the last hours, an arrest goes down.

We are taking your calls. To Natisha Lance there on the scene. Natisha, explain to me how the arrest went down.

NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Nancy, it was a SWAT team, as well as GBI, who swarmed the apartment of Ryan Brunn, this 20-year-old suspect, today. About 12:40 is when they took him into custody. Now, Nancy, his apartment building overlooks that trash compacter where Jorelys`s body was eventually taken from. Police searched that compacter. They searched that dumpster where her body was ultimately found. And again, just as Holly pointed out, He did have a key to that compacter.

Now, what we also learned, Nancy, is that, apparently, he was roommates with the office manager of this apartment complex. Still trying to find out more information about that, if there was a background check done on him when he came to work at that apartment building. Apparently, he was friends with the office manager, according to a neighbor.

GRACE: Natisha, give me the breakdown about the circumference area, how close her apartment was to the playground, to the dumpster, to the vacant apartment where, apparently, blood evidence was found. Joining me at the scene, Natisha Lance. Go ahead, Natisha.

LANCE: Well, Nancy, her apartment building, which is the 9000 building, is about 50 feet away from that playground. If you walk out the door of the apartment building where she lives, you can look over and see the playground.

Now, next to that, that is where it is still an active crime scene. There is still police tape that is up. There is still a deputy that is standing guard there, making sure that nobody goes below where they believe this vacant apartment was where this crime was committed.

And what I was told by that deputy today is that even the residents who live on that floor where the vacant apartment is located cannot go back into their home and be given access to that.

Now, about a block away up a hill, Nancy, is where the garbage compacter is located. And then a little ways away from that, maybe about 100 feet or so, is where the apartment of the suspect, Ryan Brunn, is located.

GRACE: Everyone, we are taking your calls. Unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, defense attorney Randy Kessler. Joining us out of Atlanta, Renee Rockwell, defense attorney.

All right, Kessler. Death penalty jurisdiction. What`s going to keep this guy from the DP?

RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Connecting him to the crime. The atrociousness of the crime is certainly, you know, worthy of the death penalty, but who did it? You know, they have to connect him. And when it`s going to be a death penalty case...

GRACE: Put him up. Put him up!

KESSLER: When it has to be a death penalty case...

GRACE: OK, Kessler, all right, think back, think back, law school, criminal law 101?

KESSLER: OK.

GRACE: All right. Number one, you`ve got the maintenance worker, who just comes on the scene. I don`t know if you know this fact yet or not, but -- you take a listen, too, Rockwell. Maintenance worker goes up to a resident who immediately runs to the phone and calls police and says, You know, there are a lot of vacant apartments around here. You could really - - somebody could take a kid in there and do something to them.

KESSLER: Well, that`s a bad thing.

GRACE: Hello? In a vacant apartment, they find blood evidence, Randy Kessler! The girl, the 7-year-old girl, is apparently raped. She`s sexually assaulted. You think this guy, this 20-year-old guy, who`s, like, on FaceBook arguing with somebody about a stolen XBox -- you think he thought to cover his tracks? No way! There`s going to be DNA evidence everywhere, Kessler. Connect the dots.

KESSLER: Right. Because -- because it`s a death penalty case, they`re going to have to be extra sure to connect those dots. If it was just shoplifting...

GRACE: Extra sure?

KESSLER: ... that`s all they need. But this guy, he`s got -- they`ve got to tie it 100,000 percent that he`s the guy. If you`re going to give somebody the death penalty...

GRACE: You know what, Kessler? You`re really throwing out a lot of legal technical terms here. What about that, Renee, you`ve got to be 100,000 percent sure? OK.

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, you`ll agree -- just look at the Anthony case -- when you`re asking for the death penalty, a jury will put the state to the test.

What I think is going to happen in this situation is he is so young, these jurors -- and it`s unfortunate to say this, Nancy. You`re not going to like this at all. But by the time this case finally goes to trial, if it goes to trial, these jurors are going to relate to him being young, something happened in his past, et cetera. And you know that happens.

GRACE: So here you go, already making up a bad childhood. OK.

ROCKWELL: But Nancy...

GRACE: Thank you, Renee. Thank you for that.

(CROSSTALK)

RENEE: ... a lot harder time getting the death penalty than the older, brazen criminals. If he doesn`t have a record -- and we`re talking, you know, in a vacuum now because we don`t know too much about this kid. If they prove it, they`re going to have to do a second trial to, in fact, give the death penalty.

GRACE: Back to Natisha Lance, standing by there on the scene. Everyone, in the last hours, an arrest goes down in the murder, and now we learn the sex attack on a 7-year-old girl playing on the playground.

What I don`t understand, Natisha, is why Mommy is being penalized. Mommy works. Everybody, this mom works a night shift in a chicken processing plant -- it`s bad enough to go by and smell the thing, much less have to stand up on your feet and work in it every night -- to raise single-handedly her three daughters.

So she comes home from the night shift. She lays down to take a nap so she can go back to work the next day. She hands the girl over to a teenage baby-sitter. Unbeknownst to her, the baby-sitter goes in to get a coat, and during that time, the predator strikes.

Explain to me, Natisha, why has DFACS swooped in and taken her other two girls, at just 4 and 1, away?

LANCE: Well, the reason that was given was for lack of supervision, Nancy. And there was a hearing earlier this week to find out if the mother could regain custody of her children. She did not regain that custody.

I was able to speak to the mother today through a translator. She said that she wants to move out of the apartment complex, which I`m sure none of us find to be a big surprise. She may move out of the state. But she is waiting to find the outcome of her children before she does that.

GRACE: On top of her losing her daughter, now she faces this.

In the last hours, an arrest goes down. Take a look at this guy. He`s straight out of Abercrombie and Fitch! There you go. A 20-year-old maintenance man now behind bars in the death of 7-year-old Jorelys. If convicted, may he rot in hell!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An autopsy was just completed and it pretty much coincides with what the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said, this girl was sexually assaulted and that she was beaten.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are being actively and aggressively investigating the child murder. We have sufficient evidence to obtain arrest warrants for the murder of the 7-year-old child.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That this was a very calculated and planned crime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The investigation is being led into the death of 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say someone abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered Rivera. She disappeared. Police found her body in a dumpster.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The body of 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera, this little girl, was found in a dumpster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know they didn`t look for three days in that dumpster, and I`ve thrown trash in that dumpster since then.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The little girl`s body was found inside a trash compacter inside her apartment complex.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An autopsy shows she was stabbed and sexually assaulted. She died from blunt force trauma.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Welcome back. We are taking your calls. We are live on the scene. This little girl goes missing from a playground just 55 feet away from Mommy laying (ph) sleeping after the night shift. She`s never seen alive again. The child never even left her apartment complex. It`s not like she`s wandering around unsupervised. She`s just a few feet away from her own apartment, playing.

Let`s see a shot of the playground -- there on the jungle gym, the swings, having the time of her life one warm afternoon. That`s the last time her mother ever saw her alive. In the last hours, an arrest goes down, the apartment maintenance man now behind bars.

Out to the lines. Marcia, Pennsylvania. Hi, dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Thank you for taking my call. My question is for the psychiatrist. I was wondering why it is these suspects, after they do what they do to these kids, they kill them.

GRACE: You know, to Pat Brown, criminal profiler and author of "The Profiler," why? Why do they do that, Pat? And I guarantee you, Pat, that this guy kept some memento, like serial killers do. Some memento of this little girl was found on his body, in his car, in his glove compartment, in his apartment, somewhere. I guarantee you they find something of hers, Pat.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Well, Nancy, I`ll have to disagree on that because not all serial killers do that, especially this kind. He`s an anger retaliatory serial killer. He does his crime quickly, gets it over with, and he`s done.

Why did he kill her? Because if he didn`t, she would point him out. He worked right there at the complex, so she`s a witness.

And I also want to say one more thing. This guy, he raped, stabbed, beat a little 7-year-old girl to death, and I don`t give a crap what happened in his life from the day before he killed her all the way back. He gave her the death penalty, he deserves the same.

GRACE: Pat Brown joining us, author of "The Profiler." With me right now, a special guest, Heather Johnson Coker, the neighbor who reported a tip about this suspect to the GBI.

You know what? Number one, God bless you. God bless you. I only wish more people would be like you and speak out. You know, a lot of people don`t realize they`ve even seen something. But you realized how you could put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Heather, explain what you observed and what you told the GBI.

HEATHER JOHNSON COKER, NEIGHBOR: What I observed was, you know, he hung around the playground a lot while he was working, and I noticed that a lot of the time, he would drive back and forth in front of the playground.

But then one day, when a little boy went missing for a couple of hours, he stood right there and -- in front of me and one of my neighbors, and said that, You know, with all the empty apartments on the bottom floor, it would be really easy for somebody to break in and do something to one of these children.

GRACE: OK. Heather Johnson Coker, neighbor of Jorelys`s family, when was it that he said that, Heather?

COKER: That was, like, a week-and-a-half or two weeks ago, when the little boy went missing for a couple of hours.

GRACE: What did the GBI say when you gave them that info?

COKER: They wrote it down and asked when I had said (SIC) it. They also talked to my neighbor who was standing out there with me when he said it. And they said that was very interesting.

GRACE: Yes, well, it`s more than interesting, Heather Johnson Coker, because in the last hours, the maintenance worker that she points out to the GBI has been placed under arrest in the murder of 7-year-old Jorelys.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a very horrific and brutal murder. We don`t know whether the child was targeted or not. We do know from what we have determined through the autopsy and the other evidence that this was a very calculated and planned crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Breaking news. An arrest has been made in the murder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryan Brunn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say she was sexually assaulted, she was beaten and murdered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The abduction took place in the immediate vicinity of the playground where the 7-year-old child was playing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoever did this had access to this complex.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brunn was well known in that apartment complex because he was employed there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just steps from where she was last seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Been charged with the murder of the 7-year-old child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are live and taking your calls. And with us, a woman who helped the GBI crack this case, Heather Johnson Coker. And I`ve got to say, the GBI did everything right that we know of in this case, immediately turning up at the scene, going door to door, speaking to neighbors just like Heather in their search not only for Jorelys but who took her.

In the last hours, an arrest goes down. But still at this hour, Mommy separated from her two other little girls because of this incident.

With us, Heather Johnson Coker, the citizen that came forward. Heather, is it true that this guy, who apparently is wearing one of those expensive Hollister jackets -- they`re all over the malls now, apparently - - who -- at the time that he made this statement, that there`s a lot of vacant apartments on the lower level where someone could assault or attack one of the children off the playground -- was that when the other little boy in the complex went missing?

COKER: Yes. That was when the other little boy went missing. He was only missing for a couple of hours.

GRACE: OK. And what happened to him?

COKER: They found him at a friend`s house, I believe.

GRACE: OK. So that aroused everyone`s suspicion, and that is when he made the comment. Heather, let me ask you a couple of more questions. Everyone, also Heather taking your calls, as well. Heather, did you know Jorelys? Had you seen her around the complex?

COKER: Oh, I knew her very well. I saw her every day, talked to her every day. She would come over to my -- to my railing and play with my dog every time we were outside. And she was a sweet little girl. And I knew her very well and I knew her mother. And it`s just really sad that she`s gone.

GRACE: Well, I`m sad tonight also that DFACS has swooped in and taken her two other girls away because of this incident. Mommy works the night shift, correct, and is the sole supporter of three little girls?

COKER: That`s right.

GRACE: What shape is the mom in tonight, Heather?

COKER: I haven`t spoken with her today, but I know that a lot of the family members have come to be with her at this time. But as far as actually seeing her, I have not.

GRACE: In the last hours, an arrest goes down. Seven-year-old Jorelys found in a trash compacter so close to her mom`s apartment. Tonight, this man in custody.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: An arrest has been made.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have sufficient evidence to obtain an arrest warrant for the murder of the 7-year-old child.

GRACE: Who in America thinks your -- your child cannot play 50 feet away from you in broad daylight?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was taken to --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: That the person who was arrested does in fact work in that apartment complex?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A vacant apartment.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Somebody who actually works in the complex, a maintenance person. Because remember, Jorelys` body was found in a trash compacter which you need a key for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Assaulted there. Murdered and then disposed of.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She was sexually assaulted, she was beaten and murdered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the dumpster and compacted into trash.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: We hear that the neighbors were screaming profanities at him, they were throwing things. So they`re very upset that this could happen in their own neighborhood.

GRACE: Who would take this 7-year-old girl, murder her and discard her like trash in a dumpster?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are live and taking your calls there on the scene.

Out to the lines. Megan in Kentucky, hi, dear, what`s your question?

MEGAN, CALLER FROM KENTUCKY: Is this -- if this monster is convicted, is it possible that he can get the death penalty if this is his first conviction?

GRACE: Megan in Kentucky, it absolutely is. Think of Scott Peterson. That was his first known crime when he murdered his wife, Lacy, at 9 months pregnant, and their unborn child, Conner.

A lot of people, including apparently our panel tonight, Renee Rockwell and Randy Kessler, think just because you`re young and attractive means you can get away with murder, but not true.

Take a look at this. There was Scott Peterson, there was the Craigslist killer, Phil Markoff, Robert Chambers, the preppie killer, Sandy Murphy, remember her? The stripper out of Vegas? Her victim Binion, later reversed on appeal. Ray Lewis, remember Ray Lewis? Acquitted.

Oh, yes, of course, a lot of people think O.J. Simpson was handsome at the time he committed double murder. There was Neil Entwistle. Remember Entwistle and his beautiful child and wife? Yes, and there`s George Huguely, there`s Jodi Arias, I mean, it goes on and on. Huguely is the lacrosse killer. I mean Arias, you can`t get any prettier than that.

All of them charged with murder. So it does not have to be your 10th, your 12th, your third offense, Megan in Kentucky. One murder will do for the death penalty.

Back to Holly Firfer, joining us from CNN live on the scene.

What do we know about this guy`s past history in answer to Megan in Kentucky`s question?

HOLLY FIRFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to GBI director Vernon Keenan, this guy has no known criminal history but they`re going to cross all their T`s and dot all the I`s. They`re taking a look at every state he`s lived in. Every county he`s lived in. Their double checking and they`re also going to check unknown unsolved cases there to see if he might have been in the area, if he might be connected to past cases, because they suspect there could be a history of violent crime.

You know, we looked on his Facebook page today and let me tell you some of his comments and some of the threads on his Facebook page, very violent, very aggressive. So they`re going to definitely check into his background pretty intensely, Nancy.

GRACE: What do you mean by that, Holly Firfer, violent? What?

FIRFER: He was talking about an Xbox being stolen, or something being stolen and he had put a very profanity-laced comment on his Facebook page and then some of his friends were commenting and he was being quite aggressive saying, I`ll kill somebody, I`ll get him, and used some very -- I should say verbose wording on this Facebook page, stuff that we can`t talk about on air.

GRACE: Over a stolen Xbox, Holly Firfer? You`re kidding me.

FIRFER: And if you see there`s a lot on his Facebook page, we looked and saw a lot of aggressive language. He seemed to be very angry from those posts that he did. So, you know, I`m sure that law enforcement are looking into everything about this guy.

GRACE: And Ellie Jostad, you`ve checked out the Facebook, too, didn`t he have a lot to say about tot mom Casey Anthony?

ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE CHIEF EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Yes, well I assume that that`s who he`s talking about, the day after her murder acquittal he said that effing B-I-T-C-H was found not guilty, and he said, she should have died and that you`ll get yours.

GRACE: OK. Well, a lot of people didn`t agree with the verdict, but to talk about yet another murder is pretty over the top. That`s just what we know about a Facebook page that anybody can look at. Cops seem to know a lot more about his past activities. He`s under arrest on murder one and the jurisdiction, Canton, is not afraid of seeking the death penalty. In that jurisdiction. The penalty is death by needle, lethal injection.

Joining me right now, Marc Klaas, president and founder, KlaasKidds Foundation.

Hi, Marc. What you predicted came true yet again.

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: And here`s what they`re going to find, Nancy. They`re going to find that this guy was not regurgitated from hell last Thursday, that in fact they`re going to go back, they`ve only scratched the surface now, but they`re going to -- they`re going to find his history, they`re going to realize that he does have a propensity to violence, and then they`re also going to find out that in addition to what Pat said about getting rid of eyewitnesses to his crime, he also got great gratification out of what he did to that little girl.

Just like the guy that killed my child. Just like many of these characters, they`re going to find a sexually sadistic psychopath who only gets his jollies, who only gets gratification once he commits that final, terrible act.

GRACE: Paula Bloom, clinical psychologist, explain that.

PAULA BLOOM, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST, BLOGGER, PAULABLOOM.COM: Oh, gosh. Listen. Anger is a very dangerous emotion if it`s not managed well. And I know that we`re all really angry tonight, but we need to be careful about how are we going to take that anger and transform it into something positive.

The family`s probably struggling. I can`t even imagine how they`re feeling tonight. But hopefully at least some of the people in the community can take some of their anger and some of their fear and transform it into being able to prevent these kinds of things.

Anger is dangerous. That Facebook page, that says a lot. If that person is saying that on -- in a public forum like Facebook, imagine what they`re doing when no one`s reading or observing them.

GRACE: Out to the lines, Valerie in California, hi, Valerie, what`s your question?

VALERIA, CALLER FROM CALIFORNIA: Hi. This worker that was arrested, did he have a prior record? And if so, does this complex that hired him take any steps to keep their tenants safe like a background check?

GRACE: Good question. We don`t believe he`s got a prior criminal conviction that we know of right now. But if he does, what about it, civil liability on the part of the playground, on the part of the apartment complex, Kessler?

RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Their insurance company, and they have got to be on the defensive. They`ve got a duty of care. If they were grossly negligent, they`re in trouble.

GRACE: Rockwell?

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I have to agree with Kessler. You can see a lawsuit in this situation because somebody is going to want some kind of satisfaction, not that it`s going to bring anybody back, but lawsuits mean results. Results mean maybe some kind of video surveillance, background checks, et cetera, so it won`t happen again.

GRACE: To the lines, Tammy in Georgia, hi, Tammy, what`s your question?

TAMMY, CALLER FROM GEORGIA: Hi, Nancy. I have more of a comment. I survived more than a decade of sexual abuse, that didn`t make me want to go out and kill somebody or hurt someone. This guy may not have already -- his past may not have already been dispelled but I guarantee you he has molested or raped some other child, some other woman before.

And I pray that as a result of this conviction we all get together here in Georgia and all across the world and get our government involved and have them make harsher punishment for sex offenders. That`s the only way we`re going to even begin to put a dent on getting them out.

GRACE: You know, TJ Ward, private investigator, I guarantee you this is not his first time at the rodeo. This guy didn`t just wake up and commit sex assault and murder, TJ.

TJ WARD, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Nope. This is -- they`re going to look, they`re going to look in his background, I`m sure you know sex crimes are not reported, so they`re going to look in his background and see who he`s been associated with and see what they can find.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re here to announce the arrest of Ryan Brunn for the murder of the 7-year-old Rivera child. A 7-year-old child was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The 7-year-old girl was last seen on the playground at the River Ridge apartments.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doing a search of a dumpster, which was removed from the apartment complex where the victim disappeared. She was in the dumpster.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She died from blunt force trauma.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The victim had been stabbed and sexually assaulted. Brunn is now in custody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are live and taking your calls, live on the scene. The body of this 7-year-old little girl found compacted in the trash. Will there be enough DNA, enough evidence to sustain a conviction? In the last hours, an arrest goes down of a 20-year-old.

Let`s take a look at Ryan Brunn, arrested in the last hours.

Out to Dr. Bill Manion, medical examiner.

Dr. Manion, thank you for being with us. She was -- the child`s body was compacted in the trash compacter. How will that affect getting DNA, getting evidence off her body?

DR. BILL MANION, M.D., MEDICAL EXAMINER, BURLINGTON COUNTY, NJ: Well, she apparently was murdered Friday night, so the body was there for several days and there will be some autolysis, some death of cells and things, death of sperm, but I believe there will be enough DNA. I believe if he did rape her and leave semen there, there will be enough DNA that will still be viable enough that they`ll be able to test and see. And, of course, there is blood in that apartment. There`ll be --

GRACE: Right.

MANION: They`ll be seeing if that blood matches her blood so that they know that that`s where she -- where the assault took place. They`re also checking I`m sure for fingerprints on the -- if he put her in a bag, he probably had her in a bag with several bags of trash to hide it and they`ll be looking at all kinds of trace evidence, hair, hair -- and then if she scratched him or anything, they`ll be checking under her nails to see if any of his DNA is under her nails.

GRACE: With us, everyone, and taking your calls, Heather Johnson- Coker. The neighbor that reported to GBA -- GBI what she knew about the defendant, about the suspect they now charged with murder one.

Heather, again, thank you for being with us.

Heather, when you were around him, what was he like? What was his demeanor? What did he talk about?

HEATHER JOHNSON-COKER, NEIGHBOR OF SLAIN LITTLE GIRL, REPORTED TIP TO GBI ABOUT 20-YEAR-OLD MURDER SUSPECT: Well, he was a friendly guy, he -- we talked about stuff in the neighborhood, why he was hired, what happened to the guy that was there before him.

He was friendly. He wasn`t socially awkward, he just, you know, liked to chitchat about nothing, really. He told me where he was from, he`s from New York, and that he just moved down here and knew somebody that got him the job at the office.

GRACE: Did he mention what he had been doing before this?

JOHNSON-COKER: No.

GRACE: So when you were around him, he seemed to be friendly, gregarious, you know, extroverted. Would you say that he carried on conversations, approached people easily? Did you see him interact with children?

JOHNSON-COKER: Yes, he did approach people easily. He was very outgoing, he would just come up and talk to you. He`d go up and talk to the children. I saw him talk to several of the children and parents and he just didn`t seem very abnormal at all.

GRACE: But then immediately after Jorelys, the 7-year-old girl goes missing, wasn`t he also missing from the complex? I was told that no one saw him around for several days.

JOHNSON-COKER: Right after she went missing, when they first started looking for her, she was already gone for several hours, and we got a knock on the door to see if we had seen her, and later that night around 10:00 he was there helping search for her. He was actually five feet away from my husband helping him search. It turns my stomach now to think about it. But after that, after Friday night, we hadn`t seen him since Friday night. No.

GRACE: So with us, Heather Johnson-Coker, you`re telling me that he was out, five feet away from your husband, looking for 7-year-old Jorelys. Did you see him out looking for her?

JOHNSON-COKER: Yes. Him and my husband and all the neighbors were out searching the grounds. The police were there. They brought dogs in. And yes, he was there searching. It`s sickening.

GRACE: Heather, what was his demeanor when he was looking for her?

JOHNSON-COKER: Just like everybody else`s. He seemed genuinely worried. At one time I remember seeing him on his golf cart smiling, but other than that, when he was talking and searching here, searching there, he seemed genuinely concerned.

GRACE: Did he ever search anywhere around that dumpster?

JOHNSON-COKER: No.

GRACE: Heather, do you know which apartment it is that has blood in it, what we believe to be blood?

JOHNSON-COKER: I don`t know the number, but I know where it`s located. It`s the building next to hers on the very bottom floor in the backside.

GRACE: So not far away from where mommy was sleeping, her daughter, was likely murdered. During this search, did he go near that apartment? Did he walk by it at all?

JOHNSON-COKER: Yes, he did. He -- him and my husband walked -- because we live in the apartment that`s next to hers, and they were both on the backside searching in the back by the apartment.

GRACE: What is it that first made you suspicious of him, suspicious enough to call the FBI? To call the GBI?

JOHNSON-COKER: Well, we knew that it had to have been somebody once they found her that had a key, you know, to the trash compacter and that was one of the first things that made us think it was one of the maintenance men. He is the newest maintenance man there and nothing like this had ever happened before. Stuff like this doesn`t just happen all of a sudden.

So -- and then once I remembered what he had said to me and my neighbor, we called them again and told them that.

GRACE: And again, what did he say to you and the neighbor?

JOHNSON-COKER: He said with all these empty apartments on the bottom floor, it would be really easy for somebody to do -- to break in and do something to one of these children.

GRACE: And, Miss Coker, one last thing. About that trash compacter, could someone else have thrown her in the trash and then a different person move that trash in the compacter?

JOHNSON-COKER: No, because if somebody else would have thrown her in, somebody would have seen it, they had already searched the trash compacter a couple of times, when she first went missing. They`ve searched it like three or four times, as far as I understand.

GRACE: We are taking your calls. With us, Heather Johnson-Coker. And the latest on the discovery of the body of a 7-year-old girl in the last hour, an arrest goes down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that the abduction took place in the immediate vicinity of the playground where the 7-year-old child was playing. The child was taken to a vacant apartment unit located in a building adjacent to where the child was at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryan Brunn --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Seven-year-old girl was last seen Friday afternoon on the playground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryan Brunn --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her sister was playing with her, but then she went inside because she was cold.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryan Brunn for the murder of a 7-year-old Rivera child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Back to Veronica Waters joining us from WSB.

Has there been any talk about whether the state will seek the death penalty, Veronica?

VERONICA WATERS, ANCHOR/REPORTER, WSB RADIO: Well, that was definitely one of the questions that we asked to Blue Ridge District Attorney Gary Moss today, and he said that he has not made the decision yet to seek the death penalty.

As we talked about earlier, Nancy, the evidence has been coming together in this case, but the agents are being very tight-lipped about exactly what evidence they have against this young man. They do say that it is very certain that he is the killer, but they`re not revealing to us everything. We do know that the blood that was found in that vacant apartment, according to the GBI director, actually did belong to little Jorelys in the vacant apartment where the crime scene took place and where she was stabbed and sexually assaulted and killed.

You know, I want to add something, too, about this guy`s demeanor. It`s my understanding that he was pretty cool. Cool as a cucumber, just like Heather said, during this search. He was talked to by one of my colleagues in the leasing office. This is on Saturday, OK, the day after little Jorelys had gone missing, and he was in the leasing office.

Cops were swarming around everywhere. Dozens of volunteers scouring ground, and one of the police officers in there just looked at him and said who are you? And he points at another apartment complex staffer and says, I`m with her. Doesn`t blink an eye. Doesn`t seem to ruffle a feather, and this is the guy that now authorities are saying actually had already by this time killed this little girl the day before.

GRACE: Tonight, thank you to the GBI, and our prayers continue for Jorelys` mother and sisters.

Let`s stop and remember Army Major Douglas Sloan, 40, Evansville, New York, killed, Afghanistan. Awarded Bronze Star, Purple Heart, NATO`s Service medal. Three Army Commendation medals. Three Amy Achievement medals. Loved sports, climbing mountains, remembered as a leader.

A hall at Fort Drum and ROTC training room at Western Michigan University and an artillery base in Afghanistan all named after him. Leaves behind parents Wendy and Emery, a retired Coast Guard officer, brother, Van, widow, Carrie. Children, Aidan, Dillon, Kelan, and Kinly.

Douglas Sloan, American hero.

Thanks to our guests, our biggest thank you to you for being with us.

Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern, and until then, God bless little Jorelys.

Good night, friend.

END