http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1204/03/ijvm.01.htmlJANE VELEZ-MITCHELL
Ominous Find in Missing Cheerleader Case
Aired April 3, 2012 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, coming to you live from New York City. Breaking news on several fronts tonight. We`re keeping an eye on the tornadoes that have hit Texas, and we`re also covering the story of a stunning 15-year-old cheerleader who vanished from her driveway. I will talk to her frantic mother next about the race to find her beautiful daughter.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Tonight, the search for a missing California teen intensifies. Cops believe this beautiful cheerleader was abducted outside her house two and a half weeks ago. One day later, police found her cell phone less than a mile away. And now, more disturbing clues. I`ll talk to the missing teen`s mother, and we`ll investigate her mysterious disappearance.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, Sierra, come home. We miss you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, Sierra, come home. We miss you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, Sierra, come home. We miss you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fifteen-year-old Sierra LaMar disappeared near San Francisco about two weeks ago.
Steve Lamar: Come home, baby, please come home. You`re not in trouble.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her cell phone and purse were found on the road near her home.
Marlene Lamar: As each day goes, it is longer and longer, it has become more real. It`s like more real. I just want her back.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, a community desperately searches for a beautiful missing high school cheerleader as new, frightening clues emerge.
Massive search teams are scouring the area, frantically searching for 15-year-old Sierra LaMar. She disappeared almost two and a half weeks ago from the driveway of her home in Morgan Hill, just 70 miles outside San Francisco. Her mom says Sierra would never run off without telling her.
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Marlene Lamar: I talked to her, said good-bye, and gave her a hug, and things were good, and I told her I loved her. She would never want us to go through all this pain.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Sierra was reported missing after her school`s automated system alerted her mom that she had missed class 12 hours after she had last seen her precious daughter that morning.
Sierra`s cell phone and her purse, containing only a neatly folded pair of clothing, including undergarments, found in the hours after she was reported missing.
But just a few days ago, search teams, well, they made a disturbing discovery. They found an empty handcuff box and condoms at the dead end of a road less than two miles from Sierra`s home. Could these items be connected to this beautiful girl`s disappearance?
What do you think? Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS.
Straight out to my very special guest, Sierra`s mother, Marlene LaMar. Thank you so much for joining me. Our hearts go out to you. We want to help find your daughter. We know that it`s a race against time. We know having her face up on television often provokes memories and gets people thinking. And maybe they know something, and they`ll understand it. This is very significant.
First of all, I have to ask you, Marlene, what have these past two weeks been like for you?
MARLENE LAMAR, SIERRA`S MOTHER: Well, it`s truly unbelievable. You know, no parent should go through this. I have spoken with parents that are victims, and they truly feel what I`m going through. And it`s -- it`s a nightmare, and it`s -- it`s not going to end until I have her in my arms so I can give her a hug again. Until she comes home to me safely, the nightmare really isn`t over.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, I understand that cops said something in your daughter`s computer led them to believe that your daughter was being held against her will. Obviously, this is a very disturbing case, but do you know what that was? What did cops tell you? What have they told you?
LAMAR: Well, they didn`t say something specifically they found on the computer. They just said just from reviewing her Facebook and Twitter and, you know, all the data coming from her laptop didn`t indicate that, you know, there was the possibility, other possibilities leading to a runaway situation. You know, as far as her, she seemed like a normal teenager, doing the normal routine and normal conversing on Facebook. There wasn`t anything to indicate that she was unhappy and wanted to leave, for the most part of it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s talk about this case, because we want to find your daughter. Let`s dive into it, because we want to help find your daughter and leave no stone unturned as we really give you the results of what we`ve been doing in terms of investigating.
Cops believe this suspect is either from Morgan Hill, your hometown, or very familiar with that area. Now, I want to show you a map where all the key pieces of evidence have been found.
OK. Sierra`s home just down the street from her bus stop, where she failed to board the bus Friday, March 16. The next day, her cell phone was found about a mile from her house in a field by the road. Not even 12 hours after that, a search team found her purse with neatly folded clothing, including undergarments, less than two miles from her house.
And then just a few days ago in the opposite direction from her clothes, searchers made that disturbing discovery, finding an empty handcuff box and two used condoms less than two miles from the girl`s home.
So I want to go to you, Jon Lieberman. You`re an investigative reporter. You`ve been looking into this. What do you make of these pieces of evidence?
JON LIEBERMAN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, at this point, police don`t believe that this was a stranger abduction. They do believe that if, indeed, she was abducted, she had had previous contact with the person that abducted her, meaning they may have been communicating through the computer, through text messages.
One of their theories is that perhaps she left the house that morning and she went to go meet somebody to spend the day with that person. That`s one theory.
Now, to the condoms and the empty handcuff box, police right now are doing DNA testing to see what they can find forensically on these items. And there are two theories there, as well. Because you`ll recall, they did an extensive search of this area prior, and they didn`t find the handcuffs box and they didn`t find the condoms.
So then, when they went back, they did find them. The question is, were they there the whole time, or something more sinister? Did somebody actually go back, if these are connected to the case and place them there, thereby taunting cops and taunting this poor family?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, cops have been examining both Sierra`s cell phone and her laptop for clues, as the missing girl`s mother just mentioned. Let`s listen to this.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we`re doing some forensics on that cell phone, try to get any information that we can off that cell phone as well as her laptop.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, let`s look again at the specific area search teams have found evidence.
The police dogs lost Sierra`s scent at the end of her driveway, which is seen right here. Then the next day, search teams found Sierra`s cell phone in the field by this intersection less than a mile from her home. You can see this is a rural area.
Then the very next day, a team found Sierra`s Juicy brand purse, containing a neatly folded pair of pants and a T-shirt and undergarments right here, just two blocks from where Sierra`s phone was found. You`re looking at the actual location.
So I`ve got to go to Marc Klaas. You are one of my heroes, founder of the Klaas Kids Foundation, and you have experienced your own daughter`s tragic abduction. And that`s why you devoted your life to try to solve cases like this.
What do you make of this box that is supposed to hold handcuffs -- and I hate to be graphic, but these are facts, and we want to get them out there -- these used condoms and all the other pieces of evidence that have been found in this case?
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, Jane, I firmly believe that the phone and the -- finding the bag are totally related to the case.
But the one thing I do agree with the reporter on is that the possibility exists that the condoms and the handcuff box were a plant.
Now, the theory that I think makes the most sense regarding Sierra`s disappearance is not that she ran away with somebody, because there`s no evidence on her telephone or in any of her computer -- in her computer or in any of her social networking profiles that she would have done something like that, and it would have been out of character.
However, that she went outside and got into a car with somebody she felt comfortable with and was familiar with, is a very real and distinct possibility.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. Absolutely. And we`re going to analyze her tweets in just a second, because we have created actually a time line of events that morning.
But first, I want to go to the phones. Joseph, Tennessee, your question or thought, Joseph?
CALLER: Yes. Hello?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi. Yes, your question or thought, Joseph.
CALLER: I want to say this thing breaks my heart. We keep hearing more and more and more about incidents like this happening. We need laws to take these sexual predators and we`re going to nail them to the wall. And we can`t be getting them and releasing them.
They have maps that show where these sexual predators live . They shouldn`t be in the street. They shouldn`t be in the jail, they should be under the jail. This is a heart breaker. Why did it take 12 hours for that school to notify this poor family about their daughter not being in classes where she was supposed to be?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Excellent question. Mark Eiglarsh, criminal defense attorney. Had the mother known sooner, she could have gotten a jump on looking for her daughter.
MARK EIGLARSH, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I don`t disagree. I`d like to know what the other side would argue, but if somehow there`s a gap that long, that definitely effected the investigation. I think the key in this case is looking at that laptop and seeing who she had contact with. I`m sure law enforcement are working on that now.
Yes. And on the other side of the break, we`re going to give you a time line of what Sierra did that morning, including tweets. We`re also going to talk to the famous judge Larry Seidlin on this case.
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LAMAR: I feel guilty because I`m always worried about where she is. If you can hear me, know I love you, want you back. I love you and I just want you back.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is a nightmare for the mother of missing teen Sierra LaMar. And you are looking at video we just got in moments ago of the teenager who is missing. And we are freezing it to show you that is the young lady, a beautiful young lady. She`s there with some of her friends, and she is wearing the white sweatshirt right there.
And this is from YouTube. We were given this because we want to help find her. Obviously, she appears to be at an amusement park. It looks like Disneyland, because she`s wearing the Mickey Mouse ears. But again, here she is, a beautiful young, happy, happy-go-lucky girl who is not despondent or depressed.
The question is, and I`ll bring this out to Marlene LaMar, the mother of this missing teen. We don`t want to, in any way, make this more difficult than it already is for you, and I know that it`s so difficult. We`ve been doing some investigating, which is what we do on the show. And we`ve come up with some social media where somebody who has the same exact name as your daughter seems a little more sophisticated than we`ve led to believe, at this point, that there was even some references to experimentation with weed.
Now listen, I say this as a person who`s in recovery for 17 years. And when I was a teenager, of course, I`m the first to admit that I tried pot, you know. It`s just something that teenagers often do. I`m not condoning it or suggesting it, but I`m saying it to put it in context.
Marlene, what I`m trying to say is do you think she might have been doing things that you weren`t aware of, might have had friends that you weren`t aware of, may have even had a boyfriend that you weren`t aware of?
LAMAR: Well, I wasn`t aware of any boy that she was in a relationship or had a crush with. She was pretty open with me. She would actually ask for my advice. And I was -- I was pleased with the relationship we did have, because, you know, a lot of teenagers don`t confide in their parents as far as who their crush is, and they get all embarrassed. Or they don`t think it`s any business of their parents, and there was nothing to...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Did she ever seem secretive when she was on her laptop? In other words, that she might be talking to somebody that you wouldn`t have approved of, an older man, a strange man? I mean, these -- there are men. They`re on the Internet. They prey on girls just like this.
LAMAR: I spoke with her about, you know -- when she started the Facebook thing, I just told her, you know, be really careful about your privacy. You know, there`s a lot of predators out there. Don`t put your address on your Facebook or information that may encourage a stalker.
So she was -- so she pretty street smart that way. Even when she walked down the street on Doherty (ph), she was aware of her surroundings. She would look behind her, you know.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Let me jump in, because we want to get to some very key facts in the case. This is the time line.
6 a.m., you, Sierra`s mother, you leave for work. You say you saw her in her P.J.s.
6:29 a.m. Sierra posts the last tweet to her Twitter account.
7:10 a.m., Sierra usually leaves home to start walking to her bus top.
7:11 a.m., she sent an undisclosed text from her cell phone to a friend.
And then at 7:25 a.m., Sierra usually boarded the school bus just down the street from her house. The bus driver never saw her.
Finally, 6:30 p.m., Sierra is reported missing after she didn`t attend school.
Judge Larry Seidlin, you covered so many of these cases. What do you make of it? What should cops be doing?
LARRY SEIDLIN, JUDGE: Well, the police are going to examine that time line, and that`s the most important thing: where she was and what she did.
The textbooks say that 70 percent of these cases, there`s a relationship with the victim, Sierra, and the suspect. And they`re going to look through her relationships and who she knows. And it`s very difficult. We lost a lot of hours here. We lost a lot of time. And -- and by the school contacting her so late...
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can`t believe this is happening to like one of my best friends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now we`re praying for her to come back home, and it just makes us so sad.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: Those are her friends and school mates. Sierra`s dad has also been heavily involved in the search for his daughter since she went missing. Here is Sierra`s father.
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Steve Lamar: Come home, baby, please come home. You`re not in trouble. Everyone, everyone wants to see you.
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VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is so heart breaking, Sierra`s dad, we have to mention is a convicted sex offender, reportedly in a lewd and lascivious case involving a 14-year-old girl, but cops -- it`s important to say cops have cleared him of any wrongdoing in his daughter, Sierra`s, disappearance. And he, like any other frantic father, has been searching night and day for her.
Now, she had lived with the dad in his hometown of Fremont about 40 miles away until last October, which leads me to wonder, Mark Eiglarsh, could she have maintained ties with somebody from that town? And also, what about these clothes that were found in her purse. That is odd, too. I mean, if it were sports, you`d think maybe a backpack or something.
MARK EIGLARSH, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think your speculation is dead on. Right now, we have to consider everything. Could there have been some contact made that then somehow she maintained contact while she moved? Anything is a possibility.
The clothing I also found to be very unusual. Thank God we have trained investigators looking into it. I don`t know what to make of it. I do want to say, though, the condoms and the box with the handcuffs, that I find suspicious. I can`t believe they didn`t find it to begin with.
And secondly, this area, I read, was an area that teenagers seemed to hang out in and drink. So that might account for why these items might have been placed there.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. We`re going to the phone lines again. Annie in Arizona, your question or thought, Annie?
CALLER: I have the question, he actually said it about those clothes and her bag. And I was wondering if anybody has thought -- you know, I was a teenager once myself. I`m 28 now, but if maybe somebody had talked her into doing something for the day.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Marlene -- I want to go to the mother. Why would she have a change of clothes in her purse?
LAMAR: Well, I`ve seen her borrow clothes frequently from her friends, and they would borrow clothes from her, as well. So I would see her bring a pair of pants that she`s returning that she borrowed to a friend and a blouse. So as far as clothes being in her purse, you know, that happened frequently, you know. She loved clothes, and she would borrow frequently from them and vice versa. They would borrow clothes from her, as well.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Marc Klaas, cops apparently refused to issue an Amber Alert, saying it didn`t fit the criteria. There`s a controversy about that. Because a lot of parents who have suffered tragedies, said if cops had only issued that Amber Alert.
KLAAS: They got (AUDIO GAP). You have to remember, Jane, this was about 11 hours after she apparently disappeared, and they have absolutely no information except the fact that she walked out of her house and seemed to -- the dog seemed to have lost the scent right near the freeway.
So in this instance, it really doesn`t fit the Amber Alert criteria, but I think that the response has been effective.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, please, put security cameras on every street. It would help out so much.
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