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NANCY GRACE

San Diego Woman Murders Family

Aired June 6, 2012 - 20:00   ET

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


RITA COSBY, GUEST HOST: And breaking news tonight out of San Diego. A beautiful, loving family of three, the mother a longtime financial adviser, the father a Navy veteran, and their 14-year-old daughter, a freshman cheerleader at the local high school.

By all appearances, the family has it all, enjoying their suburban life until tragedy strikes. Neighbors shocked when Daddy and the teenager cheerleader both found shot in the head, both left for dead inside the home for three days before anyone calls 911. So where`s the mother? She`s still living in the house with the bodies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A California mom shot her husband and teen daughter in the head.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shot to death...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shot to death...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then stayed with the dead bodies inside her house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Several days after the killings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops are still working to determine motive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shot to death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While friends of Regina Johnson say she was a devoted mother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aaliyah died of a single bullet to the head.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And loved her family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it was the mother police found holed up in the apartment with the bodies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They found 56-year-old Reuben Johnson and 14-year- old Aaliyah Johnson dead inside the home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) snap.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What caused this mother to snap?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snap...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her father was shot in the head and torso.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It happened just like that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was always happy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And allegedly murder her family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s accused of killing them and then staying with the bodies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSBY: And tonight, Mommy leaves her 9-year-old twins with the baby- sitter, then heads to work. But when she comes back to pick them up later that night, they are gone. The twin boy and beautiful girl and the baby- sitter, a 73-year-old family friend, are missing.

Literally, as we go to air tonight, a tragic and mysterious twist in the search for 9-year-old twins Jordan and Taylor and their male baby- sitter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators in Lowndes County tried to figure out what happened to her 9-year-old twins, Jordan and Taylor Dejerinette.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoever knows where they might be needs to get them back to me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She says her twins were last seen at her friend, Jack Mac Girdner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But shockingly, the kids and the baby-sitter vanish.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I went to go pick them up and no one was home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one was there and Girdner`s car was gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Family desperately searching for answers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to know what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dropped the kids off with an acquaintance, and now the acquaintance and the kids are missing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The three never heard from again. Now all three disappearances are being investigated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want my kids back. I miss them and I want them back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSBY: And good evening, everybody. I`m Rita Cosby, in for Nancy Grace. Thank you so much for joining us tonight.

By all appearances, a beautiful, loving family of three has it all, enjoying their suburban San Diego life until tragedy strikes, the father and teenaged daughter shot to death, their bodies left in the home for three days.

For the very latest, let`s go to Dave Mack. He`s morning talk show host with Clear Channel WAAX radio. Dave, what do we know now?

DAVE MACK, CLEAR CHANNEL WAAX RADIO: Rita, what we know is that Alfred Hitchcock must have showed up in San Diego somehow. That`s how freaky this is. She called a friend or a relative in Washington state Saturday and said, Hey, my husband and daughter are dead.

Whatever she said was enough to make them call police, and that`s when the discovery -- but they were there from Wednesday until Saturday before anybody knew anything.

COSBY: So Dave, she doesn`t call 911. The bodies are in the house, as we`re knowing now, for three days, no reference, just suddenly says they`re dead. Does she say, I killed them, or does she say what happened?

MACK: I`m not sure what she said, OK, because when -- all the reports are that she told a relative they were dead. The relative knew, somehow in the context of that conversation, that she had done harm to them because they immediately called the police while she was on the phone with them in Washington state.

The Washington state police then called San Diego, and that`s how it all started coming to an end. But she sat there for over three days with her husband and 14-year-old daughter rotting in the house!

COSBY: You know, Dave, neighbors see anything, anything unusual, any unusual smell, three days, bodies inside the home?

MACK: You would think somebody would have noticed something, Rita. They live, like, in a house down a dirt road somewhere. They actually live in a multiple apartment complex with people on either side of them. So surely, somebody should have heard something. Nobody claims they heard any shots or anything, and Nobody smelled anything or saw anything different. They just didn`t see Regina for a few days.

COSBY: Let`s got to Cliff Albert, news director with KOGO radio. Cliff, tell us what happens when cops come to the house. Again, a relative calls, says, My relative says there`s some dead bodies in the house. They show up, and what happens? They kind of have to lure her out.

CLIFF ALBERT, KOGO (via telephone): Exactly. Around 1:30 in the morning on Saturday, after that call came in, the police were contacted. They went to the condominium. They made contact with her inside. There are officers outside.

They go in and discover what we now know were two dead bodies, had begun decomposing, and she sitting there. And we have yet to have been told exactly what she was doing, except that she was in the condominium, in the apartment.

It was the second floor of a very nice condominium complex in a very nice upper middle class area of San Diego, a very quiet area. I was just over there yesterday, just a place you would never expect something like this to occur. So the cops go in, discover her, and basically convince her to come with them.

COSBY: And Cliff, what do we know about how -- this is the husband, and it`s her husband and it`s her daughter -- how they were killed?

ALBERT: They both were shot in the head. The police have told us now that they both had gunshot wounds to the head. He also had a gunshot wound to his abdominal or his torso area, as they described it. But they were dead.

In fact, the husband`s body was found in an upstairs hallway, and the daughter, the 14-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, was found face down in her own bedroom, both shot in the head.

COSBY: Do we have any idea time of death? Do we know what time -- did it happen at the same time? Do we have any word on that?

ALBERT: The police and the prosecutors have told us that they believe it happened Wednesday. We don`t know exactly what hour. However, on Tuesday night, late Tuesday night, Aaliyah`s boyfriend had said this week that he and Aaliyah had been texting one another that night, late Tuesday night. And of course, it was some time that next day, some time after midnight on Wednesday, that the murders occurred.

COSBY: Dave Mack with WAAX radio, give us again the sense of the layout of the home, like, where her bedroom is. She was found in the bedroom. He`s found in a hallway. Any sense of sort of distance between the two?

MACK: Not far at all, actually. When you look at an upstairs area in a condominium like this, the bedroom is on one end, and then you`ve got a hallway leading to the other bedroom with a bathroom in between. So he was found somewhere in that hallway, probably not more than 15 or 20 feet away from one another.

COSBY: So is the daughter`s bedroom same floor, different floor?

MACK: Same floor. They`re both on the upstairs level of this condominium.

COSBY: C.W. Jensen, retired police captain, what are you hearing here? It`s interesting. Is it important, the sequence of events and where the bodies were found, C.W.?

C.W. JENSEN, RETIRED PORTLAND POLICE CAPTAIN: Well, I -- you know, I worked homicide for a long time, and I know people really struggle to try to figure out why something like this would happen. You know, people snap. I don`t know why people snap, but I`ve talked to a lot of crazy people.

I would assume that she went upstairs. Where the husband`s found would indicate to me that he was trying to get away, that she shot him, and then decided she would shoot the daughter.

She may have thought, you know, I`m going to shoot myself, too, but a lot of times, I see people like that, they gut (ph) out. They get afraid. And she just probably froze, and she`s got these bodies in this condo for three days.

COSBY: You know, the other thing, C.W., you hear, of course, the father was shot twice, once in the chest. So it sounds like the daughter was totally taken by surprise. And as you point out, the father maybe heard a gunshot, went running, and then he was shot, as well. Probably that`s the sequence, don`t you think?

JENSEN: Well, think about it. If she pulls out a gun, and he turns and starts to run or starts backing up with his hands up, going, Hey, hey, hey -- she`s probably not an expert marksman. She fires once, hits him in the abdomen, he goes down. It isn`t a fatal shot, so then she goes up and does the killing shot into the head.

Then what does she do? She walks in. The daughter may be asleep or whatever, kills her. And again, I think that the plan, if there was any plan, was for her to kill herself, but she just didn`t have the guts.

COSBY: And I think so, too. You know, but she had the guts to kill her husband and her 14-year-old daughter, whom she loved, by all accounts.

Dr. Michael Arnall, you`re a forensic pathologist. You`re an expert in this area. Can you tell sort of where they were? Was the husband running? What can we tell from, like, the direction of the bullets?

DR. MICHAEL ARNALL, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST (via telephone): Well, I agree with the detective. You can look at the blood spatter or blood dripping. If you see blood on the tops of the husband`s shoes, it might suggest he was standing when one of the gunshot wounds was created.

If, for instance, you look at a head wound and the gunshot went through his head and you`ve got a hole in the carpeting, that would pretty much confirm the detective`s scenario.

And then you look at the daughter. If that gunshot wound went through her head and you`ve got a hole in the mattress with blood going into the hole, then that would all confirm the scenario that the detective has outlined.

So you can get some information from the way the blood was dripping and the blood spatter and the location of where the bullet went after it -- if it did, indeed, exit the body.

COSBY: And Dr. Arnall, time of death because we know now, as we were hearing, that the daughter, the 14-year-old daughter, a beautiful cheerleader -- apparently, very positive person from all wonderful accounts about her, lost, of course, and not with us, way too soon. And apparently, she was texting her boyfriend Tuesday night.

But how do we know that they were killed on Wednesday? Can they determine it within a few hours, within a day or so?

ARNALL: Well, the forensic pathologist is not going to be the best source of determining time of death. After this many days, it`s difficult to determine the precise time of death based on the degree of decomposition.

But the detectives are going to have the cell phones, and they can look at things such as Aaliyah`s texting. If she`s been texting constantly or has a pattern of texting early in the morning to her friends, and then all of a sudden, that pattern is broken, then the detective would be able to tell you, You know what? It`s likely that since she broke her pattern of texting or use of the cell phone that the reason she broke that pattern is that she was dead at the usual time of her resumption of texting in the morning.

COSBY: And you know, Dave Mack, when you hear this -- you`ve seen all these stories. And I`ve been reading a lot about this case. This mother said the daughter was, like, the light of her life. She loved this it daughter. What are we hearing, though, as a possible motive for this?

MACK: We`re actually not hearing about a motive from the police. But let me tell you something, Rita, something that came up from a friend of hers that she worked with at the financial planning office, and that is this. She said that her medication had been giving her some trouble lately and she hadn`t been feeling well. But then all of a sudden, she starts feeling much...

COSBY: Medication for what, Dave? Medication for what?

MACK: Didn`t say. It just said for some health reason. But it seemed to me that if she was taking some medication, and then she stopped taking it and she started feeling better, that indicates that it could have been some type of mood enhancer, some kind of an antidepressant that causes somebody to not feel those emotions that they feel when they`re not taking it. And that could be the break they`re looking for.

Again, none of this is mentioned by the police. This is just something that I saw when reading through the interviews, but noticing that She was taking medication and didn`t feel like herself, and then she stopped taking it and felt better right before this happened.

COSBY: All right, Joey Jackson, defense attorney. She can do the, Oh, well, I was on medication, defense. She`s apparently pled not guilty.

JOEY JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes. You know, what, Rita? This is so horrific and tragic and sad, and I think it does have the makings of a type of insanity defense. Now, California doesn`t distinguish between temporary and permanent insanity. All you have to do is say that you can`t understand the nature and quality of your act, nor distinguish between right from wrong.

COSBY: But Joey, she sat there in the house with the bodies for three days! Doesn`t that hurt her, or does that help her?

JACKSON: You know, it`s a mixed bag, Rita...

COSBY: I mean, she`s clearly nuts.

JACKSON: Right. You know, it`s a mixed bag. And the reason is, is because a normal person, right, you would suggest would not engage in that behavior. And if you look at that and you...

COSBY: Far from it.

JACKSON: Right. The medication, and there`s indications that she was, you know, having financial problems. That presents an issue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A close friend says Johnson spoke proudly of her daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fourteen-year-old cheerleader...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A beloved classmate, Aaliyah Johnson.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shot in the head.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She spoke lovingly of her husband, a retired Navy man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shot in the head and torso.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police were called to the home of Regina Johnson, where they had to persuade her to come out of the home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSBY: And I`m Rita Cosby, in for Nancy Grace.

Well, it looked like they had it all, a loving, beautiful family of three, and now Mommy is accused of killing her husband, and also her 14- year-old daughter, who was apparently the light of her life, who she absolutely adored.

Let`s go to Ramani Durvasula, clinical psychologist. Ramani, I got to ask you, you know, when I hear this and you hear all these accounts that she loved her daughter, it was, like, basically, her life -- to take her daughter`s life and take her husband`s life, and so violently -- I mean, it wasn`t -- you know, in the case of Susan Smith, who we know, of course, in South Carolina -- (INAUDIBLE) South Carolina in the 1990s -- she drove her two kids into a lake.

In this case, she`s using a gun and physically shooting the husband twice, chest and head, and the daughter in the head. This is very violent.

RAMANI DURVASULA, PSYCHOLOGIST: It is very violent. And you know, remember, we`re also hearing issues around a lot of financial problems. There`s been many cases of men who will shoot family members in the light of terrible financial crises, and it`s quite conceivable this relates to that.

There`s also discussion of a change in her medication. So there may have been a real change in her psychiatric status, and it`s quite conceivable that the combination of those two things, the change in her financial status and the trauma and the issues that arose, as well as the issues around medication and change in psychiatric status -- that could really be a perfect storm that ends up in a disaster like this.

COSBY: But you know what`s so strange? She lost her job six months ago. And so you sort of -- sort of, what happened?

Let`s go, if we could, to Randy Rodriguez. This is a friend. This is also a former co-worker of Regina Johnson, the mother who is now charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Randy, thank you so much for being with us. I`m sure this is very difficult to grasp. What do you know about Regina in terms of what may have caused her to snap?

RANDY RODRIGUEZ, FRIEND (via telephone): You know, I really couldn`t answer that because I don`t know, other than, you know, she was a little -- she was a little depressed right before she actually left the company.

And I had spoken to her a few times since then, and most recently a month ago. And you know (INAUDIBLE) really no -- no information that`s leading up to, you know, she was, you know, worse off. She actually sounded better the last time I spoke to her a month ago.

COSBY: She did? Did she express any concerns or anything about medication, Randy, as far as you know?

RODRIGUEZ: The only thing she had mentioned to me, that her doctor had changed her medication and she felt a lot better. She felt more herself. And she sounded like the Regina that I knew. And she was -- I mean, she got -- she was talking about going back to school and spending more time with her family.

COSBY: Yes, Alan Ripka, defense attorney, what`s your reaction to hearing all this? She`s -- you know, she said not guilty. It sounds like she`s setting up an insanity plea. And would it work?

ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it`s absolutely an insanity defense. I mean, we have domestic violence in which a woman may shoot a husband. We have battered women`s syndrome, in which a woman may shoot her husband. But to shoot your daughter is unheard of. And in a case like this, it cries...

COSBY: And your husband, Alan, too! I mean, what`s so horrible -- it`s both. It`s horrible!

RIPKA: It`s horrible. But you know something? Shooting your husband as a reaction to being battered or a long relationship of hatred, but not...

COSBY: And so far, we haven`t heard anything...

RIPKA: ... your daughter.

COSBY: And by the way, we haven`t heard anything in any of these cases.

RIPKA: Not a word. Not a word. But the daughter -- the daughter, the relationship between a mother and daughter shows you that for her to shoot like this and then live with them for a few days is clearly insanity. The problem is, is where did the gun come from?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSBY: And I`m Rita Cosby, in for Nancy Grace. Regina Rodriguez -- well, rather, Regina Renee Johnson -- forgive me -- she has now been charged with two counts double murder, accused of killing her husband and her 14-year-old daughter.

We continue with Randy Rodriguez, who worked with Regina. He is a former co-worker of hers. And Randy, I want to continue with you because you knew this woman, and you hear about this horrible crime. She seems like a loving mother. She sounded like -- she, you know, obviously was a professional. She worked there at this financial services company for a long time.

Was there anything to indicate to you that this woman would just snap like this?

RODRIGUEZ: No. The Regina that I knew and even the people that I talked to that knew her, she was always the most level-headed of -- she was the person in the office that got along with everyone, and she was go and talk to everyone, and everybody shared their problems with her. And she was almost like the mother hen in the office. That`s how I kind of felt because I spoke to her (INAUDIBLE) so many different things, and there was never anything in my mind that would make me think something like this would ever happen.

COSBY: How stunned is everybody there in the office about this?

RODRIGUEZ: Very stunned. When we all found out, we were all calling and texting each other that next day.

COSBY: Let`s go to the callers. Marianne from Florida who is on the line. Marianne, what`s your question tonight?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good evening, Rita. And I say prayers for your dad.

COSBY: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve been watching you for many years.

COSBY: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are beautiful in and out, you and Nancy Grace.

COSBY: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is -- my question is already what you`ve been discussing. Was there mental or psychiatric or maybe verbal abuse with the husband? And I also have another question. There was an international case in New Jersey, where a female doctor, the head of Rutgers University...

COSBY: And Marianne, unfortunately, I got to cut you off, but no sign of any of this abuse so far.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nine-year-old twins Jordan and Taylor Dejerinette.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were being watched by a trusted family baby- sitter, but suddenly, they all vanish.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want them back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities just find their bodies on a rural dirt road, a manhunt under way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSBY: And I am Rita Cosby in for Nancy Grace.

A very big, tragic story that is taking place tonight. We just got some details in the case that is just breaking. And let`s go for the very latest.

Let`s go to Alexis Weed, Nancy Grace producer. Some big twists and turns. These two beautiful, little children, these 9-year-old twins, they suddenly go disappearing -- they go disappearing with their babysitter.

The first to look OK, maybe this guy had something to do with it. Now we find they all wind up dead. Tell us about it, Alexis.

ALEXIS WEE, NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: GRACE PRODUCER: Right, Rita. Such a disturbing development tonight. These twins, these 9-year-old twins in Alabama, found today by investigators there, dead. Their bodies along with their babysitter. As you said, it was thought earlier perhaps, the babysitter took them somewhere. No, police say.

Tonight they`re looking for a 22-year-old male. His name is Deandra Lee. He has been named so far as a person of interest in this case, Rita. Right now the story is still developing.

COSBY: Now let`s go to Krista Littlefield, reporter, WAKA-TV.

Krista, first walk us through when these beautiful little children were last seen with the babysitter, what are some of the movements in the last, you know, 24 hours or so?

KRISTA LITTLEFIELD, REPORTER, WAKA-TV (via telephone): Well, they were last seen with that 73-year-old babysitter. He was a friend of the family. The mother dropped the twins off with him. She went to work Sunday afternoon. Monday morning, she couldn`t get in touch with him. She reported them missing. Tuesday night, last night, investigators finding three bodies off that rural dirt room in Lowndes County, Alabama.

Today, they finally released the information saying they were all killed. Of course they are not releasing exactly how they were killed or any motive in the case.

COSBY: And you know, Krista, we`re looking at pictures, looks like off this dirt road. A lot of blood at the scene. That looks like a pretty gruesome scene, sadly.

LITTLEFIELD: Very gruesome and, like you said, 22-year-old Deandra Lee, he actually has a background - he is a person of interest in the case. We have learned in 2008 he was found not guilty of a 2008 triple shooting in Selma, Alabama. Also we learned he lives on the exact same street as where the twins live with their mother in Montgomery, Alabama.

So, very shocking there that this is likely someone that the mother and this family knew.

COSBY: So, he lived on the same street. Again, everybody, this news is just breaking tonight as we find out sadly that it looks like there was a triple homicide, indeed, a person of interest in this case.

Krista, walk as though again. He lived near them? Do we know how long, if they knew each other?

LITTLEFIELD: We are not sure. The AVI, (INAUDIBLE) investigation is being very tightlipped about a lot of the details in the case thinking it would jeopardize the investigation. But his last known address was Montgomery, Alabama.

Just a couple of stores down from where I spoke to the mother this afternoon. She says the entire family is completely devastated over this triple murder, not only losing the 9-year-old precious twins but a very good friend, a 73-year-old Jack Girdner.

COSBY: It is such a tragic story.

Alexis Weed, what do we know as we`re looking at a picture of this wonderful friend of the family who was just taking care of the kids, trying to help out the family? What do we know about him?

WEED: Rita, this 73 year-year-old babysitter, he was known to have met this family in church. They went to the same church together, and he`s been watching these children for about three years. He babysits them. His mother had said to many of the local reporters there. That he took them on outings. That he just really took an interest in the children, really enjoyed being around them, taking care of them.

COSBY: Now he also had a nice car, right? Do we think that had anything to do with it? Do we know if the car has been found?

WEED: We don`t know if the car has been found at this point, Rita. However, earlier police were looking for the babysitter`s vehicle. It`s a 1988 Mercedes. They have not said anything more tonight yet, about the location of the vehicle or how maybe this -- the babysitter and the twins were intercepted and what happened here. We don`t know even why this 22- year-old has been named a person of interest at this point.

COSBY: Alexis, do we know anything more about the crime scene? Where there any indications or anything unusual at the crime scene?

WEED: We don`t, but, Rita, we did see some photographs coming out there. There were investigators on the scene all day. There were early reports, in fact, that there was a suspicious homicide in that area. It wasn`t until just before we went to air here that we knew that it was related to the 9-year-old twins and this babysitter.

COSBY: You know, it`s so heartbreaking when you see this and you see these two beautiful, beautiful kids, Jordan, Taylor, twins, 9-years-old. A nice guy in the neighborhood who was trying to help out. And now tragically we just learned just a few minutes here before air that, indeed, these three bodies have just been found.

Let`s go to CW Jensen, retired police captain. How do you piece this together?

CW JENSEN, RETIRED POLICE CAPTAIN: Well, I want to let everybody know -- because people ask me all the time, what`s the difference between a suspect and a person of interest? And I say, nothing. They`re the same. They have information that points this suspect, this person of interest to these murders. Obviously they know he was there on the street. They`ve got some evidence. They`re throwing it out that he`s a person of interest but, believe me, there`s no other person of interest in this case but this bad guy.

COSBY: Let`s go to Dr. Michael Arnall. How do you piece it together? You`re a forensic pathologist. What kind of forensics could put this together and how did they tie this guy pretty quickly to the scene?

DOCTOR MICHAEL ARNALL, M.D., BOARD CERTIFIED FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST (via telephone): it could be a couple of ways. They may have found shell casings or something of that nature at the scene where they found the bodies, that are similar to the shell casings in this gentleman`s previous case, or people are creatures of habit. They may well have this babysitter and the kids going into some type of business as a habit, and they may have gotten some video indicating that someone was following this babysitter and the two kids out of the business or got into a car in the parking lot. So, there may be some video we don`t know about that police are using to develop this person of interest.

COSBY: And, Pat Brown, criminal profiler, author of "only the truth," what leads would you follow now?

Now, we have a triple homicide, two beautiful kids, a wonderful neighborhood guy who was trying to help out a family. How would you sort of follow the leads and get this person of interest?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER, AUTHOR, ONLY THE TRUTH: Well, Rita, I think the police are being tightlipped for a number of reasons. There`s one bad guy. And the question is, yes, was this a carjacking? He saw them some place and try to steal the car and end up seeing everybody?

COSBY: By the way, Pat, you`re great at this stuff. What do you think? That was my sort of first reaction, it`s a Mercedes, that`s one, an elderly guy, too.

BROWN: But here is the problem, I think, the police are also looking at and they have to clear with the mother. They have to clear her. When she gave her interview, she said some things that were a little concerning. She said that the babysitter was a nice man. That`s before he was found out to be dead. Why didn`t she say he is a nice man. The first word out of her mouth was she wants to know what happened to her children, not that she wanted them back. Like she knew something had happened to them.

It was very peculiar. Her demeanor was odd. But as we all said, sometimes you said, people are shock. They have weird ways of behaving. But they have to clear her and find out if she has any connections to this man they are looking at as a suspect. So, they have to look at all the possibilities to figure this out.

COSBY: You know that -- some interesting points, Pat that you bring up. CW Jensen, retired police captain, I thought Pat just said some interesting phrasing. No indication that she is a suspect whatsoever but the verbiage is kind of interesting, but sometimes that just happens in the heat of the moment, don`t you think?

JENSEN: When I`ve interviewed people, they do, they say goofy things. They`re upset. But I mean, I think what she is saying is absolutely right. You can`t look at a case singularly. You`ve got to bifurcate it or look at different things.

So, was the mother involved? Was the mother`s sister involved? Was the suspect, you know, involved with the mother -- I mean, these things can just get so confusing. The bottom line is, right now, the police are comfortable enough to say that they have a suspect, a person of interest in this case, and if you know where this cat is, call the cops.

COSBY: And, you know, Pat Brown, they zoomed in on this guy pretty quickly, so there`s got to be some pieces there at the scene tying this guy. What do you think is connecting him so quickly?

BROWN: I`m not sure. Maybe they have some information through somebody else, considering where he lives, so near to the family. Obviously he`s a really bad guy, too. They know he`s there and looking at his pattern. This guy is dangerous as heck. And, where is he now? Maybe he`s just nowhere to be found right now.

I can`t really believe - you know, the carjacking thing is kind a weird to me because, yes, it`s a nice car but it`s 20-years-old. Is that really what you need to be stealing? On the other hand, he seems to be a piece of crap, so, who knows what was going through his head it at the time.

COSBY: Yes. Who knows what`s worth it to somebody. It sounds like a horrible individual.

Real quickly, Alexis Weed, he has a rap sheet a mile long it looks like.

WEED: It is a mile long, Rita. And it`s hard to know where to start. But this Lee, he was recently released from jail after standing trial and being acquitted of murder of two individuals and also involved in injury to another individual in a shooting in a 2008 shooting incident.

Also, he was charged with -- in 2012, January, charged with resisting arrest. Altercation of a firearm, obstruction of justice. Carrying a pistol without a license, Rita.

Also, February of this year, third-degree robbery charge. He was released, Rita, just in February on a $10,000 bond.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This young lady dropped her kids off with an acquaintance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said he was a church member who showed interest in her kids. He had been spending time with them and babysitting.

TERRYE MOORER, MURDERED TWINS` MOTHER: I went to go pick them up and no one was home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking developments -- the bodies of the babysitter, Jack, and 9-year-old twins, Jordan and Taylor, just discovered. Left on an Alabama dirt road.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t know what happened.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSBY: And I`m Rita Cosby in for Nancy Grace.

A terrible story and some details just coming in right here at airtime. Those two beautiful little faces that you see there of 9-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, and a wonderful babysitter, someone in the neighborhood just helping out. There he is. Just a kind, elderly man in the neighborhood who was babysitting the kids, trying to help the mom.

Well, the mom drops off the twins, and then she goes back to get them a few hours later. No one is home in the house. And now we get some details as of just a few minutes ago all three have been killed. And there is a person of interest.

Let`s go to Krista Littlefield. She is a reporter with WAKA-TV.

First of all, seems very quick that they found this guy. Tell us about the details in terms of getting the name. They haven`t located him. And in fact, before I go to you, Krista, I want to put up, because our viewers are amazing all over the country. And I want to put up the tip line.

Because if you have seen this man -- again, right now, he is just a person of interest, but clearly some details linking him to this case where authorities want to question him. The number is 1-800-392-8011. 1800-392- 8011. If you have seen this man, know any information, please do call authorities right away.

And, Krista, they narrowed in on this guy very fast, right?

LITTLEFIELD: Very quickly, within less than 24 hours. The bureau of investigation is considering him armed and very dangerous. He has a very long rap sheet. He`s out on bond and Dallas County, Alabama, for possession of firearm, resisting arrest and other charges.

And I`ve just been told by a family friend of the mother of the twins that she was in a relationship with Deandra Lee, being called a person of interest. Has not confirmed that, with the mother of the twins. This is coming from a family of the friend saying that she just broke that relationship off with him a couple of days ago. But it`s unclear exactly the details surrounding the motive of this murder and the details of how they were killed.

COSBY: That`s an interesting twist. Pat Brown, you`re hearing this as we are as we`re going to air. That`s an interesting connection that she knew this guy and was in a relationship with him.

BROWN: Well, there you go. I mean, it just seemed too odd to me he would pop out of nowhere would have any reason to do anything to children.

COSBY: Although, if you look at his rap sheet, that has a long rap sheet, you know, regardless.

BROWN: Right. But, he would be, you know, rise -- you still have to have a reason to commit a crime, and I didn`t think this particular gentleman was his target. So, that really bothered me.

Now the question is, was he angry with her and taking revenge on her, or is there something more to the story we don`t know? But clearly, if he`s involved, she knew at the time she was giving her statement that he probably had the kids.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSBY: I`m Rita Cosby in for Nancy Grace.

Breaking news tonight as we`re getting details about the two beautiful faces that you are seeing here on the screen. Jordan and Taylor, 9-year- old twins and also there is 73-year-old babysitter.

Now, sadly, in just the last few minutes, we`re finding out all three bodies have been found and there is a person of interest. And this guy, Deandra Lee, is a person of interest authorities believe may be connected somehow to this case. He has a long rap sheet. In fact, he was acquitted of a murder that took place, a double murder back in 2008.

And joining us now on the phone is someone connected with that case. Wayne Moore, his son was murdered in 2008 and again, it was Deandra Lee, who authorities are looking for, was connected to this case. He got acquitted in this.

But Mr. Moore, tonight, as you look at the face of this guy, and now has some tie to what looks like a triple homicide with two beautiful kids and a man who was just trying to help them out, do you feel like he got away with murder the first time?

WAYNE MOORE, ACCUSED DEANDRA LEE OF KILLING HIS SON (via telephone): Yes, ma`am.

COSBY: What`s your reaction tonight? It must be heartbreaking for you, sir?

MOORE: Yes it is. So here, to see them beautiful kids to get their life took, they didn`t enjoy their life, you know. It`s a sad thing. You know, of course, number one, he should had never been put back out on the streets, you know. Because, you know, we had two witnesses, one died. And testified that he -- that he shot them, and then the other one that lived, he pointed him out on the stand, but they still put this murder person back out on the streets, you know.

COSBY: Yes. It must just be so upsetting you, to see these beautiful faces. And now, here is this guy with a rap sheet a mile long. What are your thoughts tonight? How dangerous is this man? You - you are familiar with him.

MOORE: Yes, ma`am, I am.

COSBY: What type of person is he?

MOORE: You know, I just knew him, never been around him, to me, he just -- he don`t have a heart. You can`t have a heart if you take children`s lives from them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOORER: I want to know what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twins 9-year-old Taylor and Jordan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never heard from him again. They left the care in the twins of 73-year-old Jack Gardner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities find their bodies on a rural dirt road. All three murdered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSBY: And we`re taking your calls, everybody.

Let`s go to Tammy from California. Tammy, what`s your question tonight?

TAMMY, CALLER, CALIFORNIA: My question is, with the mother, something doesn`t feel right with her.

COSBY: I agree with you.

TAMMY: It seems like she was crying or in any kind of distress. And how are you with this man all the time and not do a background check? Could he have been a pedophile? Who knows?

COSBY: You know what? I think you bring up some great questions, Tammy. There is something really awful. They were together. She - and the verbiage to that Pat Brown was using earlier I thought what`s right on what happened, was, using past tense.

Let`s go to Ramani Durvasula, clinical psychologist. Do you think something else is going on here? And by the way if this guy did do it, what kind of person kills two beautiful kids like that?

RAMANI DURVASULA, PH.D., CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: There is a lot of red flags here. I mean, the involvement he had with her, and even the mom`s language during questioning. I mean, something -- something doesn`t quite feel right.

Three reasons people usually kill, love, money, or revenge. And maybe all three are operating here. But, you know, what kind of person kills someone like this? People who have no conscience, no remorse, who don`t think about the ramifications of their actions, because they can`t think about anything but themselves, what they want and what they feel. So, that`s who does this, and that`s likely what happened.

COSBY: It is disgusting.

Joey Jackson, defense attorney, if this guy is tied to it indeed, if he is apprehended, do you think he is going to use, I wasn`t there, the mom did it or something other defense? He got off before.

JOEY JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Sure. There will be a lot of defense to use. And he point is though, you want accountability here. You want to ensure the right person is there. I don`t want police to get tunnel vision. I think we have a very sophisticated police department.

COSBY: Although, they right away zoomed in on this guy. Don`t you think there is something that they are probably going back to the mom now, if indeed they are tied. Don`t you think?

JACKSON: They`ll go back to the mom, and they are going to look at everyone else, Rita. Who knows? If there are fingerprints there, if there are footprints, if there is DNA. What they have obviously, they have something. We just hope that they get the right person ultimately and they held accountable.

COSBY: Alan Ripka, defense attorney, if you representing this guy, he has a rap sheet a mile long. You think the jury is going to go, what a great guy. He kills a beautiful babysitter and two kids? Shameful.

ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They won`t say that, but what he is going to try to do is say maybe there are life insurance policies on these kids and he is going to try to inculpate the mother in some sort of conspiracy here and, you know, and throw blame at her.

COSBY: Yes. It is I think just disgusting and I think it is shameful. Alan, it is going to be - it looks like they got a lot on him clearly, everybody, tonight.

And, everyone, let`s stop to remember army master sergeant Mitchell Young, 35-years-old, from Jones Boar, Georgia. Killed in Afghanistan. Awarded two bronze stars, three army commendation medals, third tour of duty. He loved the outdoors, street rod cars and restoring his 1932 ford. He leaves behind his mother, also his brother and also sister.

Mitchell Young, a true American hero.

Thank you to all our guests. And our biggest thank you to you for being with us tonight.

Stay tuned, everyone. Dr. Drew, well, he`s coming up next.

END