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CNN NEWSROOM

Missing Son Found in Basement; New Report on MH370; U.S., Iran, Syria Fight ISIS in Iraq.

Aired June 26, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN.

And we have to talk about this dramatic interview. I tell you, this is what everyone is talking about today. This father finds out his missing son was found alive during a TV interview with HLN's Nancy Grace. Charles Betheul hadn't seen his son since the boy left his house almost two weeks ago. He had gone door to door looking for him. Detroit police, the FBI had searched the home. They had searched this basement thoroughly. No signs of little Charlie. That was until his father sat down with Nancy Grace just yesterday, and she told him on TV precisely where his son was.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST, NANCY GRACE: Now to the father of the missing 12-year-old boy, Charlie. With me is his father, Charlie Betheul.

Charlie, we're getting reports that your son has been found in your basement. Sir? Are you --

(CROSSTALK)

CHARLIE BETHEUL, FATHER OF MISSING BOY: What?

GRACE: Yeah. We are getting reports that your son has been found alive in your basement.

BETHEUL: What?

GRACE: Yes. That's -- if you can hand me that wire very quickly. Yeah. We're getting that right now. From -- yeah. How could your son be alive in your basement?

BETHEUL: Uh -- uh -- oh (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I -- I have no -- I have no idea.

GRACE: Now, this is just a report that we are hearing out of Detroit that we're trying to confirm. Everybody in New York, please get on it.

Let me know when we get Charlie Langton from WWJ.

Sir, did you check your basement? BETHEUL: I checked my basement. The FBI checked my basement. The

Detroit police checked my basement. My wife checked my basement. I've been down there several times. We've all been checking. How --

GRACE: OK. This is what we are hearing, that the missing 12-year-old boy has been found alive and well in his father's basement. Now, this is what I don't understand, why you guys would have reported he's missing? And all our viewers have been -- been looking out for him.

BETHEUL: We have been on the lookout for him. We searched that entire house repeatedly. The FBI searched. The Detroit police searched. We have all searched. God, they brought dogs, everything. Everybody has searched. What -- OK. I must --

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: Have you checked your cell phone?

BETHEUL: My cell phone is dead. And I actually, getting down here, left it in the car charging, because it had -- it had died on me. Oh, god.

GRACE: And you're telling us that you -- searched your basement and your wife searched your basement.

BETHEUL: I searched my basement, my wife searched my basement. The FBI searched my basement. The Detroit police searched my basement. We all searched my basement multiple times. I mean, we -- yes. They had the dog search. We've all searched the basement. The dog searched my basement. Oh, god.

GRACE: OK. You know what, I'm going to give you a chance to call home and see what you can find out.

Charlie Langton, WWJ News.

Charlie, we're getting reports tonight that the boy has been found alive in daddy's basement.

CHARLIE LANGTON, WWJ NEWS: Yeah. Nancy, we just are getting word right now. And we've just basically confirmed that, yeah, the boy has been found alive in the father's basement. And we're just getting reports right now that that is true. And literally, it just broke moments ago.

Now, why the boy -- why the father didn't know about that for the last 11 days, if the child was afraid, if there was neglect, all things we're trying to get answers on right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: What an exchange, right? So just a short time ago, police said something -- something in particular that -- won't say what, led them to the basement during yesterday's search. Police found 12-year- old Charlie hidden behind boxes and this massive five-gallon drum. They say he smiled when they arrived. That it appeared he had gotten there recently.

So a lot of questions. Did someone hide Charlie there? His dad told reporters outside his home that's absurd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETHEUL: Any intimation that I knew he was in there somehow is absurd. Literally. I couldn't find him. You know, if the FBI couldn't find him and the Detroit police couldn't find him, for anybody to intimate --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There is deeper concern, perhaps about a homicide.

BETHEUL: Yeah, man, you broke my heart with that, man.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Tell me about your range of emotions.

BETHEUL: I thought my son was dead, man!

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you seen your son yet?

BETHEUL: No, I haven't!

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you know where he is?

BETHEUL: No, I don't! No, I don't! My wife, she left. They wouldn't let her in the House. But I want to see my son.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Pretty incredible scene. We'll be talking to this woman, talking to Nancy Grace, who conducted that interview next hour. We'll talk to her about the interview. The reaction she has received since the interview and, of course, the latest on the investigation, what she is hearing from her sources in Detroit. That is coming up next hour at 10:00 p.m. Do not miss it.

Just ahead, huge revelations in the mystery of flight 370. This new report suggests the pilots lost oxygen, thus, the plane flew on autopilot. Details how that plane probably crashed. CNN's aviation correspondent, Richard Quest, says this is a big, big deal, this report. He'll join me live to walk us through it.

Also, Syria reportedly bombing militant positions in Iraq as Iran increases its support for the Iraqi army. Those developments coming up. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A new search area and revelation that could change everything. I'm talking about that missing airplane, Malaysian Airlines flight 370. Keep in mind, this has been nearly four months since that plane disappeared, but we are now learning today that the jet's crew was probably unresponsive, suffering from oxygen deprivation. The plane, flying on autopilot for at least five hours. So let me just back a half step up. This report, issued by the

Australia Transport Safety Bureau, is suggesting the plane then ran out of fuel before spiraling into the ocean.

So to our Richard Quest, our aviation expert, who has been all over this.

Richard Quest, let's begin with -- let's begin with the pilots. Because like I mentioned, the report suggests the crew was suffering from hypoxia or unresponsive for some other reason. Explain the possible oxygen loss and what that means for the final hours of this flight.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: I'm going to have to sort of slightly take issue. The report sort of puts that as a possible possibility, and a possible out there. Basically says that --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Something.

QUEST: No, it says that the plane flew for six hours without any response from the pilots. It doesn't say why. It puts out there a variety of possibilities. One of which is the oxygen deprivation, the hypoxia theory. But it most definitely -- this is the report. It most definitely does not come down one side or the other on what it believed caused this. This is a report designed to show where the plane would have crashed into the water. And what they're saying is, if you look at the way the plane was probably being flown, it was in a direct line crossing the seven arcs, in particular sequence, and that suggests autopilot.

BALDWIN: OK. So suggesting autopilot also in this report, which you have in your hand, the notion that it would be spiraling. What would cause a plane to spiral?

QUEST: A variety of issues. I mean, the actual -- the actual question of when the plane -- I mean, they have to come up with a variety of scenarios that allows the plane to hit the first arc, then the second arc, then the third arc, then the fourth arc and so on. Now, the plane has to hit these various arcs at specific times. We've known this since day one. What they have to do is take all the assumptions about the aircraft's performance. And so you get certain possibilities of movements. You get the idea, did it go this way or that way. But all it leads to, and I keep coming back to this point. Look, I have no doubt, Brooke, there will be lots of people that will wish to take this report, and make for themselves an argument as to what happened. I think that will be highly erroneous. I think it will be highly dangerous. This --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: The report is pretty big.

QUEST: Oh, it's crucial. This report is crucial as to what route the plane took, and where it ended up. BALDWIN: OK.

QUEST: What it doesn't tell us anything about is what happened at 00:22 when the plane took its left turn and did the hook. Nothing in this report helps us in that regard. So anybody who is sitting there saying, well, it clearly shows nefarious, or it clearly shows mechanical. I think they're barking up the wrong tree.

BALDWIN: OK, OK. Richard Quest, you would know. Thank you so much for the update with this new crucial report. We appreciate that.

Let's move along. Just ahead, Iran and Syria are now involved in this crisis in Iraq. Their goal actually seems to be in line with us, with America's. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: This video was out last year, a lot of people were passing it along on social media. This man playing guitar while undergoing deep brain stimulation. Well, a lot has happened since then, including a second brain surgery.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has his story in this week's "Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brad Carter is an actor. He has been on shows like "2 Detective," "CIA." But one of his latest roles might surprise you. Carter starred in this video. He played guitar while undergoing deep brain stimulation.

BRAD CARTER, ACTOR & MUSICIAN: I said, who is ever going to see this?

GUPTA: It went viral. What led Carter to the operating room, a condition called essential tremor.

CARTER: The slower I try to play, the harder it becomes.

GUPTA: For years, before that diagnosis, he was told nothing could be done.

CARTER: You just have a tremor you cannot do anything about. I had made it 30-something years with no tremor, so it didn't make sense it would come out of nowhere.

GUPTA: As his tremor worsened, Carter spent years being misdiagnosed, Lyme disease, Parkinson's. It affected his ability to act.

CARTER: How am I going to be on sets and hide this?

GUPTA: And play music. Carter refused to give up, especially with so much on the line. Deep brain stimulation was his best chance. An electrical current courses through his brain. It's hard to see watching him there. Carter was frightened. CARTER: As scary as that is, I'm going oh to take that chance, rather

than keep living my life in misery, in a secret hell. People say, Brad Carter, actor, comedian, you know, the funny guy, fun to be around. But when I get home, I'm dealing with this thing that is eating me up inside.

GUPTA: And get this. Weeks after the viral video, Carter's tremor came back. He had to prepare for yet another brain surgery. And the prospect that once again, the operation would not work.

CARTER: It's not perfect. You know? There's still tremors. But you've got to admit, it's a lot better.

GUPTA: The second surgery did work. Perseverance, fighting to be well. Overcoming. Led to this. An album, due out this fall.

CARTER: I think I've got something that I'm going to be really proud.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Sanjay, thank you.

And now to Iraq. Another 90 U.S. military personnel just landed there, all as part of the mission that President Obama announced last week. And the U.S. stopped short of sending in combat troops to Iraq. Iran and Syria are fighting off the militants' advance. Syria, for example, is reportedly bombing border towns. And now we're hearing reports Iran is flying a fleet of drones over the country. According to "The New York Times," as well, Iran is also apparently sending in tons of military equipment and supplies to Iraq. As for Syria, Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, telling the BBC he did not ask for their help, but he'll take it.

Coming up next, tonight, the special edition of "The Sixties," focusing on the civil rights struggle during that decade. And coming up next, we take a look at the music, the music that helped shape the fight for civil rights.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I hope you've been watching every Thursday night, "The Sixties," our CNN original series. It is gripping television, whether you lived through the era or know it strictly as history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever. Something happening here what it is ain't exactly clear

(SINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been watching today --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

"A Long March to Freedom" airs tonight at 9:00 eastern and 8:00 pacific.

And when you think of the march to freedom, like a lot of folks, you think of that hot day, August 1963. And you think about voices. Lots of voices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You know that song. That song provided the opening notes of what some like to call the sound track of the '60s at the march on Washington, August 28th, 1963. But really that was more than a sound track, though, as this was a paradigm shift for American music. Our singing entertainers, all of a sudden, they started urging young people off the dance floor and into the streets, into their own heads. You can almost say it happened at that very day, at this very moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Mr. Bob Dylan.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Look at this. Bob Dylan, a much younger Bob Dylan, that day, unveiled a brand-new song about a killing that had just happened two months before, the murder of civil rights worker, Medgar Evers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That is history there.

And I'll pause right now to bring in my colleague, Donna Brazil. She didn't just live through the civil rights era. She, like me, a little bit, is a connoisseur of music.

So, Donna Brazile, wonderful to have you on.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN COMMENTATOR: Thank you. I got chills listening to bob Dylan. I mean, you know --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: All those clips.

BRAZILE: Oh. And, you know, it is such a positive and powerful documentary that I hope people tune in tonight. This is -- I mean, I've seen them all. But this, tonight, is really going to stir the soul.

You know, music is the universal language of truth. It's the universal language of power, and the universal language of change. And it transcends all the boundaries we set up and put up in our lives. And that day -- I wasn't there. I was a little too young to march with Dr. King. But I had an opportunity, of course, to work with his wife, Coretta Scott King and so many other luminaries, as you know, John Lewis and so many others. But the language of that day, the songs, the songs that they chose to sing -- Joan Baez, "Blowing in the Wind," which gave Sam Cook the strength and inspiration to write "A Change is Gonna Come" later that year after the bombing in Birmingham. This was a very special day. Mahalia Jackson -- Martin Luther King asked her to sing the song he really loved to hear, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." And Peter, Paul and Mary. It was a beautiful day and it was a symphony.

You know, Maya Angelou said that if you hear the music, because it's so universal, then you must dance. And that day we danced for freedom, justice and equality for all people.

BALDWIN: Whether in 1963 or today, 2014, it continues to transcend. And just because we have this amazing archive, let me bring up another clip, from the march on Washington. And I'm pretty sure you'll find this familiar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All this music, hillbilly and sacred, gospel music, coming together and forming the sound track of "The Sixties." And when you think of the '60s, and you rattled off Joan Baez and many others. When you think of the '60s, what else springs to mind?

BRAZILE: Curtis Mayfield, "People Get Ready," a change is gonna -- I mean, "People Get Ready," that was a redemption song. That was a song that said, we have the power. Get Ready. You don't need a ticket to get onboard.