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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Desperate Search for Hannah Graham Continues; Manhunt for Alleged Cop Killer Heats Up; Family, Friends Beg ISIS to Spare Henning's Life

Aired September 22, 2014 - 12:00   ET

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


JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: "LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts right now.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Three massive manhunts underway right now.

In Virginia, a desperate search for any sign of a missing UVA student and a man seen in a video with her when she disappeared in Charlottesville more than a week ago.

In Pennsylvania, state police say they are hot on the trail of a suspected cop killer and survivalists. Nearly 400 officers and tracking dogs combing a couple hundred acres of dense forest.

And in Massachusetts, three Afghan army soldiers, in Cape Cod for joint military exercises, disappear from base, last spotted at a shopping mall with no sign of them now. What in the world could they possibly be up to?

Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. And welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

This hour, a story that strikes fear in every parent, the search for Hannah Graham is one that reminds us just how frightening it can be to send your child off to college only for the worst imaginable thing to happen. The 18-year-old University of Virginia student was last seen September 14th in an area of Charlottesville known as the downtown mall. It's been 10 days now since she disappeared and her parents are becoming more desperate with each passing minute.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN GRAHAM, HANNAH GRAHAM'S FATHER: I think that the reason that Hannah has such love and support is that this is every parents' worst nightmare. I'm certain that everybody in this room, and those watching, knows that what happened to Hannah could happen to their child. We need to find out what happened to Hannah and make sure that it doesn't happen to anybody else.

You have all, I'm sure, read about Hannah. You will have read that Hannah is a second year student at the University of Virginia. A skier, a musician, a softball player. She likes to help people and she's interested in a career in helping others. Just as a little example, last spring break, instead of hanging around on the beach like other students may have done, she spent a week in Tuscaloosa rebuilding houses and helping the recovery from the devastating tornado. That's Hannah.

That's one (ph) Hannah. But Hannah is also our little girl. She's our only daughter and she's James' (ph) little sister. She's also -- Hannah is also the oldest granddaughter both of my own parents and of Sue's parents, and she's actually my parents' only granddaughter. And she's enormously precious to us all.

And while you think of what we're going through, think of our parents as well, Hannah's grandparents. They are literally an ocean away and they're not knowing what happened to their little girl, their little granddaughter, and they're unable to help. And it's awful for them.

Now, somebody knows what happened to Hannah. We don't know who that is, but somebody knows what happened to Hannah. And others may be watching and they may know something about what happened to Hannah and they may not even know that they know something about what happened to Hannah.

What do we know? We know Hannah was downtown early Saturday morning. We know Hannah was distinctively dressed. Did you see Hannah? Did anybody see Hannah? Did you see Hannah? Did you see Hannah? Who saw Hannah? Somebody did. Please, please, please, if you have anything, however insignificant you think it may be, call the police tip line with anything that just might help us to bring Hannah home.

When I returned home from bringing Hannah back to Charlottesville for the beginning of term last month, I found that she had left this little guy behind. This is Hannah's favorite white rabbit, Bebe (ph). He was given to Hannah by one of my friends when she was less than a week old. BeBe helped out in Tuscaloosa and he was Hannah's constant guardian, companion, friend and guardian angel until last month when she chose to return to Charlottesville without him. Constant companion, that is, except for about six months when Hannah was three years old when he was lost at the nursery. We found BeBe and we brought him home to Hannah and to us. All we want to do now is to bring Hannah home safely. And I appeal to anybody who knows anything, please, please help us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So heartbreaking. There are tiny snippets of surveillance video, the only concrete clues that anybody has right now. But today, that could change and it could change significantly, too. Police believe that Jesse Matthew is the man in this video following Hannah that night. The last person to perhaps have been seen with Hannah. And they want to speak with him.

I'm joined now by Tim Longo, who is the Charlottesville police chief.

Chief Longo, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me. First and foremost, I want to ask you about the potential for forensic evidence to come back today. What are you expecting today?

CHIEF TIMOTHY LONGO, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, POLICE: Well, you know, Ashleigh, up until about 40 minutes ago, I thought it would be today. I'm told now it may not be until tomorrow afternoon. So, as you well recognize, that is a critical piece of this investigation and we can't get it back sooner.

BANFIELD: And I know that there were warrants executed on a car and an apartment. Do you know specifically what items were taken and submitted? I know the car was impounded but what items were submitted for testing?

LONGO: Sure. Well, I won't go into any detail with respect to what items were submitted, but you can well imagine that in the case of a vehicle, we're looking for forensic evidence. We're looking for evidence that will connect parties to a particular piece of property. And so that's why that analysis is so critical to this investigation and so important that we get it back sooner than later.

BANFIELD: And forgive me for pressing here, but -- and I know that you're in a tight spot as well, but were there any hair samples -

LONGO: Sure.

BANFIELD: At all that were found in the car?

LONGO: Yes, you're not pressing, Ashleigh, you're asking logical questions that I just can't answer at this point.

BANFIELD: And again, I'll just try one more time, but what about fabric samples, anything like that?

LONGO: Yes, again, an excellent question that I just can't answer at this time. We want to keep that information certainly close to our chest.

BANFIELD: I understand.

So one other area I want to explore with you, if I may -

LONGO: Sure.

BANFIELD: And that is that Jesse Matthew volunteered himself at the police station. And as I understand from your press conference this weekend, immediately invoked his Fifth Amendment right to have a lawyer. And what I don't understand is why the police helped in that regard. And I know that sounds crazy, but when there's a potential to find someone still alive -

LONGO: Yes.

BANFIELD: Perhaps the preservation of witness testimony and evidence isn't number one on the priority list.

LONGO: Yes, no, again, a logical and interesting legal question to answer whether it's a Fifth or Sixth Amendment right. In this case, a Sixth Amendment right to counsel. And our commonwealth attorney was a party to that discussion. And it was elected that we would allow him to exercise that right under the circumstances. I want to do whatever I can to make sure that when we make an arrest and we gather evidence, it's going to withstand constitutional scrutiny and lead to a successful prosecution. Sometimes these are hard decisions to make. BANFIELD: Yes, understandably. Was that something that you had to sort

of think about immediately? My only question here being, I've covered cases before where police worried not one bit about someone's request for a lawyer and wanted the information to lead them to what they hoped would still be a live, missing person as opposed to someone who had died.

LONGO: Well, in all cases of this magnitude, we worked this in close concert with the commonwealth attorney, our chief prosecutor was there throughout Saturday. He was there when the gentleman walked into this building. He was there when he asked for an attorney. He was an active part of that discussion. This is the gentleman that at some point in time may have to successfully prosecute this case and he does think about such issues and we respect his position as the chief prosecutor and we're typically guided accordingly.

BANFIELD: So, Chief, is it still correct we don't have any idea where Jesse Matthew is right now?

LONGO: No. We thought we had some pretty good leads last night. They didn't - they were all met with negative results. We're consistently, throughout the day, looking to locate him. Look, it's important we talk to Jesse Matthew for very obvious reasons, but it's also important that if he and Hannah parted ways on this mall, we need to know that as well. And so he -- again, he's the last person that we know she was with before she vanished, but if that's not the case, Jesse, we need to - we need to move on with this investigation and find that little girl.

BANFIELD: And to that end, seeing her parents with you at that press conference yesterday was just absolutely heart wrenching and, my goodness, when I look at the list of young women between the ages of 17 and 23 in just the last, let's see, since '09, five years, you know, this is the sixth young woman who's gone missing. And I know you've been chief for, you know, a great portion of that. They're not all from your area, but this must be really tough.

LONGO: Cares (ph). You can't help but to have listened to Mr. Graham and not have your heart torn from your body. The grief those people are experiencing, it's not - it's a difficult thing for all of us in this community. I've said before, a lot of us feel like surrogate parents with respect to those students at the University of Virginia. They come from all over the world. And I take the responsibility of safeguarding their lives very seriously. But really it's the job of an entire community, just like finding Hannah Graham is.

BANFIELD: And, look, I don't want to stir up anything that isn't there but, Chief Longo, you can't help but look at these names and their ages and I'm seeing what certainly looks like a pattern here from Morgan Harrington, to Samantha Clarke, to Lauren Smith, to DaShad Smith, to Alexis Murphy and now Hannah Graham. Once a year, typically in late summer or fall, since '09. And each of them between the ages, again, of 17 and 23. What are you and the rest of the investigators making of this?

LONGO: Well, Ashleigh, you're obviously doing the same analysis we've done. You know, we're working very closely with the FBI. We have access to the behavioral analysis unit. We'll exercise access to that unit to help us look at issues like this. Right now, make no mistake about it, my focus is on Hannah Graham. And to the extent we see a relationship between her disappearance and others, we'll pursue those accordingly.

BANFIELD: But you're not suggesting at this time that this is a serial criminal in the - you know, that you're looking for?

LONGO: I'm not going to make such an assessment or come to such a conclusion without some substantive basis. You're right, there's obviously some comparisons between these cases that we're going to need to look at and examine further. But, right now, I can't be clear, Ashleigh. My focus is on finding Hannah Graham. That's the - that's the top priority.

BANFIELD: So appreciate your time. And we'd love to check in with you tomorrow now that we know the forensics are going to be coming back tomorrow.

LONGO: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Chief Longo, thank you again and good luck.

LONGO: Thank you, Ashleigh. Thank you.

BANFIELD: And for the legal view on all of this, because there is so much in play at this time, I want to bring in CNN legal analyst Mel Robbins and CNN legal analyst Paul Callan, who's a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor.

OK, you two, so many areas to explore in this one.

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Wow.

BANFIELD: First of all, so strange that someone would surrender himself only to say, and I want a lawyer and I'm not staying. What do you make of that, Mel?

ROBBINS: Well, from a legal perspective, I do agree with the police. I think they did the right thing. What you don't want is to continue to question somebody, violate their constitutional rights --

BANFIELD: Why not?

ROBBINS: Why not?

BANFIELD: Yes, why not?

ROBBINS: I'll tell you why not.

BANFIELD: If you can - if you can find someone before he or she dies, why not violate those rights?

ROBBINS: Well, that presumes that she's still alive, first of all.

BANFIELD: That's exactly what I'm presuming. And that's exactly what police should be presuming.

ROBBINS: You know I - and, you know, I typically am the kind of person that says, do it and ask for forgiveness later. Don't ask for permission. But what the police are very concerned about is gathering any kind of evidence that can't be used in a prosecution later. And so if somebody walks in -- he volunteered himself. He wasn't arrested. He wasn't brought into custody. He walked into the police department. He didn't even surrender himself because they weren't -- there's no arrest warrant out for him at that time and he's simply there saying, I might know something but I need a lawyer.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: But, you know, I think that's the issue that we have to focus on because the rule about stopping an interrogation arises out of the Miranda case. And that case said, you have to be in police custody in order to invoke and have Miranda rights. The police could have argued here, he wasn't in custody. He voluntary came into the police station and submitted himself to questioning. I'm not so clear that his request for counsel had to be honored.

BANFIELD: You -

CALLAN: And the police chief, obviously, wasn't either.

BANFIELD: You have to agree -

CALLAN: He asked the prosecutor about it.

BANFIELD: Honestly, I mean, look -- just look at John Evander Couey. They went after him. He asked numerous times for a lawyer during their questioning and they didn't care because they thought they were going to find little Jessica Lunsford alive. And that was the priority, get to the girl, don't worry about the prosecution now, we'll deal with it later. And, ultimately, they did have to actually take a big chunk of what he said out of the case.

CALLAN: This sounds - you know, this sounds - this sounds like great advice now. But let me tell you something.

BANFIELD: Yes.

CALLAN: If it turns out that there's been a homicide in this case and this guy, or whoever they're questioning, walks -

ROBBINS: Right.

CALLAN: Maybe to kill again, maybe people would have a different view about it.

BANFIELD: I hear you.

CALLAN: So I think the police should abide by the law. I may disagree on their -

BANFIELD: That they can. CALLAN: I think they're being a little bit too lenient towards the suspect in this case. He wasn't in custody and I'm not so sure he had the right to a lawyer. Maybe Mel and I could argue about that, but the Miranda case is not clear on that.

BANFIELD: Well, there are warrants out for him now, not related to this, somewhat related tangentially to this because he sped off and -

ROBBINS: Right.

BANFIELD: And allegedly driving recklessly. So now there is a warrant and so, if you're out there, Jesse Matthew, you have to know by now, you're wanted and you'd better give yourself up, at least for this warrant.

Mel and Paul, thank you for that.

I want to take you now to a story of another intense manhunt for someone that police say has killed a state trooper after planning the ambush for months. And he has marksman and survival training to rival anyone. Schools are closed for fear he'll strike again. We're going to take you live to Pennsylvania for the latest on the search for Eric Frein.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: A small town in Pennsylvania is on edge today as hundreds of law enforcement agents are searching for a cop killer, 31-year-old Eric Frein. Take a close look at the face.

He's wanted for the deadly ambush of a state trooper and he's also suspected of wounding another officer in the same attack. He's now been on the run for ten days and people in the area are living in fear.

Some schools in that area remain closed and over the weekend residents were asked to shelter in place, stay in their homes, don't get out, don't leave. Police believe Frein abandoned a rifle that they found in the woods.

And our Alexandra Field is in Pennsylvania following the latest developments on this intense manhunt. So where exactly are they in terms of narrowing down where this man is?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Ashleigh. They have been focusing on an area that is a few square miles and now they are making the search in a smaller area.

Police have been expressing confidence that they are finally closing in on the suspect, moving in on towards them. That's buoying the spirits of people in this town who have been waiting for this manhunt to come to an end.

We are hearing more from Pennsylvania state police this morning who are, again, telling people that they are confident that they've got the suspect now people in this town who have been waiting for this manhunt to come to an end.

We are hearing more from Pennsylvania state police this morning who are, again, telling people that they are confident that they've got the suspect now well within their range.

Here's what they are saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIEUTENANT COLONEL GEORGE BIVENS, PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE: We're following up very aggressively on the information that we have right now and we'll see how that plays out through today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

BIVENS: No, if anything, I would say that the search area is narrowing right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How close do you think you've gotten to him, and have you been close to catching him?

BIVENS: We won't know that, I guess, until we actually catch him, but I do believe that we are close to him at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: Eric Frein has been on the run for ten days now. The area that police are searching is a wooded area. It's near the Frein family home. This is a heavily wooded area, one that the suspect knows very well.

What we heard from the police just yesterday is that they finally really had evidence that they were able to share that they were on the suspect's trail, that evidence, an AK-47 and ammunition.

And, Ashleigh, they say that they believe that Frein has recently left those objects behind. What we don't know is whether he intended to leave those things behind for police to find or whether he somehow became separated from them, all questions the police are asking right now as they continue to look for the suspect.

Helicopters are overhead, hundreds of officers in this area right now looking for this one man who is continuing to evade them.

BANFIELD: It's so eerie to see those, the weapon and the bullets that he left behind, just a strange thing. Alexandra Field, thank you.

Keep us posted, if you would.

The terror group ISIS calls for specific attacks against Americans. We have details on that just ahead.

We'll also have more on that British cab driver who is held hostage by ISIS. A woman who worked closely with him, delivering food and water to those in need, has her own message for the terror group.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a message for ISIS. As your sister in Islam, I would implore you and beg of you, please spare the life of this innocent man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: France, Britain, and Australia are speaking out today against a new and explicit threat from ISIS to kill Western civilians in their own countries.

An audio recording calls on ISIS sympathizers to, quote, "kill any disbeliever," to, quote, "hunt them wherever they may be." The Obama administration has not commented on this.

In the meantime, the group that calls itself Islamic State is causing a whole new level of misery in Syria.

An all-out siege of a city very near the Turkish border has now forced, by one estimate 200,000 civilians to flee for their lives, leave their homes, just since Friday, 200,000 since Friday.

A Turkish news service says the majority, roughly 130,000, have crossed into Turkey. It's believed to be the biggest, single displacement in the three-and-a-half year of civil war. The stream is now slowing only because several Turkish crossing sites have now been closed.

The plight of those innocent Syrians prompted a British taxi driver to risk his life to deliver food and water and ambulance services to one of the most dangerous places on earth.

Now the plight of Alan Henning is prompting his family and workers, one who calls a sister in Islam, to beg the ISIS captors to spare his life.

CNN's Karl Penhaul has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAN HENNING, TAXI DRIVER: I've spoke to the family and they're all OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this the first time you've spent Christmas away from them?

HENNING: Yeah, it's hard.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Taxi driver Alan Henning on a mercy mission to Syria. That was Christmas Day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got some presents from other members of the convoy, didn't you? HENNING: I got a nice T-shirt, "Aid for Syria" T-shirt, some aftershave and some chocolates and some biscuits. They're all great lads.

PENHAUL: Father of two Henning was the only non-Muslim on the British aid convoy.

Fellow volunteer Dr. Shameela Islam-Zulfiqar and her family drove with him.

DR. SHAMEELA ISLAM-ZULFIQAR, AID WORKER: He really wanted to make sure that he was counted as somebody that got up and did something, not just made a donation and sat in the comfort of their own home.

PENHAUL: Members of the 50-vehicle convoy affectionately nicknamed him "Gadget."

ISLAM-ZULFIQAR: Uncle Gadget, as my children called him, he traveled with us on several convoys, has the love for all things are technical, and he really was -- is the guy that fixes everything.

HENNING: Here we go. Five is through, we're behind eight.

PENHAUL: The convoy was taking ambulances to civilians caught up in the war. Henning dedicated his vehicle to a British doctor purportedly murdered by the Syrian regime a week earlier.

ISLAM-ZULFIQAR: To save the life of one means to save the whole of mankind. You know, it's one of my favorite quotes. It was a quote Alan was hoping to put on the side of the ambulance.

PENHAUL: At the Turkey-Syria border, Henning volunteered to cross over into the battle zone with a ten person advance party. They recorded their cautious progress, greeting refugees as they went. Moments after that video was taken, Dr. Shameela received a desperate call.

ISLAM-ZULFIQAR: We received a phone call about half an hour later. It was very distressed, distraught individual on the other end of the phone to say that gadget had been taken after an arm gunmen had come in.

We thought it was just a temporary measure, that they were just going, with him being a non-Muslim and being visibly English, that they would just question him further and then they would let him go.

PENHAUL: But as ISIS and rebel factions clashed, that didn't happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just dropped the bomb here. They just dropped the bomb, as you can see, it's very, very close to us. Allahu Akbar.

PENHAUL: The convoy advanced team recorded this explosion as it led back to the border.