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CNN NEWSROOM

Family Calls Death a Lynching; What Motivated Sony Hackers; Major Discovery in Bradley Stone Manhunt; Cost of Air Travel Rising

Aired December 16, 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: Just past the bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

When North Carolina police told Claudia Lacy her 17-year-old son, Lennon, had been found dead, she was, obviously, shocked, heartbroken. But when the medical examiner ruled his death a suicide, she couldn't believe it. Lennon, her son was a vibrant young man with a bright future. To her, it didn't make any sense. Neither did the physical details of this case. Now we've learned the teenager's family is calling the death a lynching, the FBI is stepping in.

Here's CNN's Victor Blackwell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLAUDIA LACY, MOTHER OF LENNON LACY: I look for him and don't see him. I listen for him and don't hear him.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The last time Claudia Lacy saw and heard her 17-year-old son, Lennon Lacy, was around the time he snapped this selfie. The caption, "Last night pic before the big game."

Lennon was a high school student in North Carolina and a lineman on the football team focused on a professional football career.

LACY: He was a physical fit 17-year-old, very athletic, down to his food, everything he drank.

BLACKWELL: But Lennon had asthma and had to exercise outside at night after the temperature dropped, something his family said he did often.

Lennon headed out for a walk the night of August 28th. They never saw him alive again.

The next morning --

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

911 OPERATOR: A black male hanging from a swing?

CALLER: Yes. He hung himself.

(END AUDIO FEED)

BLACKWELL: Lennon's body was found dangling, covered in fire ants in the center of a mobile home park.

PIERRE LACY, BROTHER OF LENNON LACY: It's out in the open, trailers all around. People work, you know, around the clock, these hours of the day. Someone should've saw something. But no one has seen anything.

LACY: It was like a dream. It was like I was not seeing what I was seeing.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): The state medical examiner's office declared Lennon's death a suicide, but Lennon's mother believes they're wrong.

LACY: He didn't do this to himself.

BLACKWELL: Do you believe your son was lynched?

LACY: Yes.

BLACKWELL (voice-over): Pierre Lacy is Lennon's brother.

PIERRE LACY: He may either been strangled somewhere else and placed there, or he was hung there while people were around watching him die.

BLACKWELL: When questioned by state investigators, Lennon's mom said he'd been depressed because a relative died recently. Lacy says she did not mean he suffered from depression.

LACY: When you just lose someone close to you, you're going to be depressed, upset and in mourning.

BLACKWELL: Lennon's family says he was focused on football and college and distracted by his ex-girlfriend. His mother says 17-year- old Lennon had been dating a 31-year-old white woman. The age of consent in North Carolina is 16. Still, some people in this small southern town did not like it. Lennon's mother did not like their dramatic age difference.

LACY: I was shocked, disappointed, and I also initially told him how I felt. I did not approve of it.

BLACKWELL: In the wake of his hanging, some wondered if he was killed because he was in an interracial relationship.

Racial tension can exist just below the surface. And here, it can breakthrough.

Local news covered a Ku Klux Klan rally in a nearby county just weeks before his body was found.

(on camera): Are there people in this community that didn't like that a 17-year-old black male and a 31-year-old white female.

LACY: I'm sure -- yes, of course, of course. BLACKWELL (voice-over): A week after he was buried, a teenager was

arrested for desecrating his grave.

Reverend William Barber leads the North Carolina conference of the NAACP.

REV. WILLIAM BARBER, NAACP, NORTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE: There are too many questions. It could be a lynching or staged lynching. We don't know. But what we do know is there has to be a serious and full investigation of these matters.

BLACKWELL: The NAACP hired forensic pathologist Christina Roberts to review the case, including Dr. Deborah Radish's autopsy completed for the state. Her first concern, basic physics. Lennon was 5'9", the cross bar of the swing set is 7.5 feet off the ground. With no swings or anything else found at the scene that he could've used, according to the NAACP's review, how did he get up there?

PIERRE LACY: His size, his stature does not add up to him being capable of, I mean, just constructing all of this alone in the dark.

BLACKWELL: The caller, a 52-year-old woman, was able to get the 207- pound teen down.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

CALLER: I need to try to get him down.

911 OPERATOR: If you can.

(END AUDIO FEED)

BLACKWELL: Then, seconds later.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

CALLER: (INAUDIBLE).

(END AUDIO FEED)

BLACKWELL: According to the review, Dr. Radish also noted that she was not provided with photographs or dimensions of the swing set. Without this information, she would be unable to evaluate the ability to create this scenario.

Lacy says she told state investigators the belts used to fashion the noose did not belong to Lennon.

LACY: I know every piece and every stitch of clothes this child has. I buy them. I know.

BLACKWELL: The initial report from the medical examiner, however, though notes the belts appear to be dog leashes. According to the review, Radish said she thought some portion must be missing because there was no secondary cut in either belt, a cut that would have been made to take the body down. And Lennon's family says he left home that night wearing size 12 Air

Jordans, but he was found wearing these size 10.5 Air Force Ones, shoes that were not with Lennon's body when he arrived at the medical examiner's office according to the NAACP review.

PIERRE LACY: He's going to walk a quarter mile from his house in a pair of shoes that's two sizes too small after he takes off his new pair of shoes, and this is a 17-year-old black kid with a brand new pair of Jordans on. He's going to take those Jordans off and just get rid of them and put on some shoes that ain't -- that's not his. We don't know where he got them from. No laces in them and continue to walk down this dirt road late at night to a swing set, in the middle of the trailer park and hang himself?

BLACKWELL: And there are questions in the NAACP review about Lennon's death being ruled a suicide.

Dr. Radish noted her determination of manner of death in this case as suicide was based on the information she was provided by law enforcement and the local medical examiner. She would've likely called the manner of death "pending while awaiting toxicology and investigation." But the local medical examiner had already signed the manner of death as suicide.

However, in the summary of the case written the day Lennon was found, the local medical examiner asks, did he hang self? Will autopsy tell us? And left the conclusion on the manner of death pending.

We asked to interview Radish, who declared the death a suicide. Instead, a department spokesperson sent CNN a statement confirming the conversations between Roberts and Radish in writing. "The comments that were released by the NAACP were a synopsis of the professional exchange between the NAACP's independently retained pathologist and Dr. Radish." Local police and state investigators declined to speak with CNN on camera for this story.

BARBER: We don't have confidence in this local group here to be able to carry out the depth level of the investigation that needs to be done.

BLACKWELL: Now, the FBI is reviewing the circumstances surrounding Lennon's death.

LACY: That's all I've asked for, what is due rightfully to me and my family, justice. Prove to me what happened to my child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: As for the local police department there, because it is so, so small, it says it referred this case to the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation. So far, the bureau has only acknowledged that it has the case, no further comment.

Victor Blackwell, thank you. Stay on it for us.

Sony's "The Interview," yes, it is a comedy, but the movie is also about an assassination attempt on a sitting world leader. Is that responsible? And because of all the backlash, should Sony pull the plug before the move comes out next week? Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Well, one of the big questions, no one knows for sure what motivated these hackers to attack Sony Pictures, but there's been plenty of speculation. This attack was prompted by the Sony film "The Interview." We talked about this. "The Interview" is this comedy about a dark subject, about the assassination of a sitting world leader, the very living current leader of North Korea.

I want you to take a look at a brief clip from the film and we'll take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: The CIA would love it if you could take him out.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Hmm?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Take him out.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: For drinks?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: No, take him out.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: You want us to kill the leader of North Korea?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: What?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Brian Stelter, senior media correspondent, host of "Reliable Sources," is on the phone with me.

Brian Stelter, you have sources over at Sony. We've been talking the last couple of days or week about how this is a hack. They say it's much more than that.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES (voice-over): Yes, this has really escalated even in the last couple of hours because another message came out that seems to be threatening people who might go and see this movie when it comes out in theaters on Christmas day. This message even alludes to 9/11. And this is, of course, being taken very seriously, not just by Sony, but by the federal government. Pamela Brown's reporting the FBI is aware of this and assessing the seriousness of it.

Brooke, what I find telling this afternoon is Sony is not commenting. And the reason why, I'm told, is because this is in the hands of the FBI now.

BALDWIN: So given everything you just said, do we know if Sony is at all reconsidering the release of the film?

STELTER: If they are, they are not telling anybody. Even off the record, they are not saying that. I think what Sony wants to say but can't say right now is this is not just hacking, this is cyber terrorism. That is how they are perceiving this to be. Now, at the same time, even though it's very serious and these threats have to be taken seriously, it sounds absurd to a lot of people to think that a digital attack could translate to a physical attack. That movie theaters could be threatened. Take this into a whole other level and there'll be a New York premiere of this film on Thursday. That is still expected to go forward. I think another thing that Sony wants to say and hasn't said yet but might say in the days to come is this a freedom of speech issue and the studio can't feel it's being censored by this anonymous band of hackers.

BALDWIN: There are legal issues, potential lawsuits here. We're going to talk about that next hour.

Brian Stelter, thank you so much --

STELTER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: -- for you report on cyber terrorism. No longer just calling it a hack.

So how about this? You pull up to the gas pump, do a double-take on the price, right? Let me ask you this. If gas prices are so low right now, why are our plane ticket prices going up? It's insane. The answer is next.

Plus, more on our breaking news in the urgent hunt for a veteran accused of killing six family members. We are now getting word of a major discovery in the search. We'll take you there live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Want to get you an update on our breaking story following out of northwest Pennsylvania where there could be a break in the massive manhunt for the suspected killer. Authorities say they may have found a body.

Miguel Marquez is following this for us from Pennsylvania.

Miguel, what do we know?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, sounds like the sad story is coming to a rapid end. They have, in fact, found a body in near Pennsburg, Pennsylvania. And federal law enforcement saying it is likely the body of Bradley Stone. We expect to hear from the district attorney who is a top cop in this area at 4:00 p.m. at a press conference that's been hastily arranged. She's on her way back here now to talk to the media. This is something that authorities have made a huge effort in locating this individual.

They've been going through an extensive search in the Pennsburg area. The last place he was seen. He dropped off his kids, his two young daughters at a family friend's house and fled. There was a report last night that somebody may have tried to hijack a car not too far from here. That turned out to be not a viable report. And sounds like this has come to an end with yet another death with Mr. Bradley Stone taking his own life -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: We will wait for that D.A. news conference in about an hour from now for confirmation.

Miguel Marquez, for now, thank you so much.

Meantime, oil prices, they are plummeting, down by about 50 percent since this summer. Gas prices, hooray, also falling. The average price for a gallon of regular is $2.52. But guess what's not cheaper? If you have tried to grab those flights, right, for the holiday travel season? Plane tickets. That's right. The cost of airfare even higher than it was before the oil prices started falling. Airlines still hitting us travelers for fees with everything from leg room to luggage and keeping fuel surcharges in place despite the fact the fuel is cheaper.

Cristina Alesci, "CNN Money" correspondent.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Baggage fees --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: What is up with this?

ALESCI: Well, here's -- it's a little bit complicated.

BALDWIN: Of course, it is.

ALESCI: For airlines, fuel is not only a very variable cost, it's their biggest cost. It makes up about 30 percent of costs. So they try and lock in the price of oil. So that means that their contracts are very long. It doesn't necessarily mean just because oil is dropping that they're paying the lower price, they're locked in.

BALDWIN: They're locked in at a higher price.

ALESCI: Here's the thing. The real reason ticket prices are rising is because --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Don't tell me baggage fees.

(LAUGHTER)

ALESCI: Exactly. It's because there's insane amount of demand. The industry put out a stat that said 85 percent of the seats had been filled this year. That is a record high. So why lower the price when consumers just keep buying your stuff? There's no economic incentive to lower the price. And remember, these airlines have been through tough times. They're going to try to get it while the getting's good.

BALDWIN: I paid four digits for a flight to Atlanta recently. It was a family thing and I had to do it. I swallowed hard --

(CROSSTALK)

ALESCI: Don't they know who you are?

BALDWIN: Please.

ALESCI: You should demand better treatment.

BALDWIN: Chuck Schumer, Senator Schumer, he wants the Justice and Transportation Departments to investigate the fact they're hanging on to the fees and the fuel surcharges, but how likely is an investigation?

ALESCI: You know, that fuel service charge is very controversial now because the airlines, actually, instituted that when they said, hey, we don't have as much demand, our businesses are really challenged by the fact that people aren't flying and the fuel costs were high, so they said we're going to charge this surcharge. Now, the situation is completely different. They're making money hand over fist, right? Profits up by $9 billion this year --

BALDWIN: Incredible.

ALESCI: -- compared to last year. We're up to about $20 billion in airline profits, so there is less of a justification for them now. So the political case could be made that they need to get rid of those surcharges, which could actually be a big deal for consumers because we're talking about an average surcharge, according to one analyst of $455 for a round trip ticket. That is real money. That is real money. I mean, it's an average, you've got to, you know -- find exactly representative of the whole picture.

BALDWIN: What about this legislation, though, too, that some say will allow them to advertise prices in a misleading way?

ALESCI: Yeah, this is great. So right now, airlines have to advertise airfares with the taxes included.

BALDWIN: So we see the real number?

ALESCI: Exactly. And if they don't do it, they could face a fine of up to $30,000 a day for doing it. But here's the thing, they're advocating that they should be able to advertise without including the tax. But all of this could backfire because, think about it, you're online, you want to book a ticket and, all of a sudden, you think you're getting a good fare and you go to check out and you're banged with a tax.

BALDWIN: Couple hundred bucks more.

ALESCI: So I don't understand how that's good for customer service.

BALDWIN: Gosh. Reality check for all of us. Buying all those plane fares.

ALESCI: Indeed.

BALDWIN: Cristina Alesci, thank you very much.

ALESCI: Take the train.

BALDWIN: Take the train.

I did this weekend, thank you very much.

(LAUGHTER)

ALESCI: There you go.

BALDWIN: Much more. I want to take you back to the breaking story to Pakistan. Taliban militants have climbed the wall, stormed the school, killing dozens and dozens of young children. One terror expert says this is Pakistan's 9/11.

We'll speak live with a Navy SEAL who says he fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden. We'll have a conversation with him about this. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: At 6'9", with hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, Kevin Durant is already larger than life. But it was in a speech earlier this year that Durant went from just another NBA player to every mother's favorite player.

Here is Anderson Cooper with today's look at "Extraordinary People."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's my honor to be here today to present Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder with the 2013-'14 Kia Most Valuable Player Award.

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations, Kevin.

(APPLAUSE)

KEVIN DURANT, NBA PLAYER: The only thing I wanted to do was just show love to everybody that helped me get to that point.

(APPLAUSE)

DURANT: I think it was important for me to do that for them. That was supposed to be all about me, but I knew it wasn't all me that got there. It was amazing how people responded to it.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, A.C. 360: On May 6th, in front of fans, friends and family, Kevin Durant was awarded the top individual honor in basketball. One of the best players in the world focused his acceptance speech outward as he thanked everyone. DURANT: First off, I'd like to thank God for changing my life.

COOPER: Singled out every teammate.

DURANT: I didn't fall in love with it just because it was me playing. I fell in love it because I've got guys like this that push me to be the best player I can be.

And last, my mom.

COOPER: And most of all, touched the hearts of millions when he praised his mom.

DURANT: You made us believe. You kept us off the street, put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn't eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You the real MVP.

(APPLAUSE)

COOPER: For Kevin, acknowledging his most valuable parent was a no- brainer.

DURANT: Your moms do so much for you, make it possible for you to do anything you want to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: CNN's "Extraordinary People" airs tonight, 9:00 eastern.

All right. Here we go. Top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Want to begin with the horrifying attack today in Pakistan.

(SIREN)

BALDWIN: An hour's-long siege at a school ended with at least 141 people killed, 132 of them children. Suicide attackers scaled the school security walls, roamed through the buildings, fired at random. Security forces killed the attackers before it got even worse, if you can even imagine that. Pakistani military official says the militants had enough ammunition and supplies to last for days. The Pakistani Taliban did not hesitate to claim responsibility for this, saying the attack was revenge for a recent Pakistani military pushed a clear militant out of this border region.