http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1409/08/ijvm.01.htmlJANE VELEZ-MITCHELL
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Aired September 8, 2014 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... as much as we can when it`s for valid reasons.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST; Tonight, breaking news in a bone-chilling mystery. In a desperate race against time, a beautiful 23-year-old Texas woman -- that lady right there -- vanishes into thin air nine days ago, but it takes four days before she`s even reported missing. Over Labor Day weekend, Christina Morris walked into a parking garage. She has never been seen again. Tonight, I`m going to talk exclusively to her mother and father. What happened to this stunning, popular young woman?
Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, coming to you live.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The frantic search for Christina Morris.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just want to find Christina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This parking garage surveillance video capturing the last known images of Morris, walking with a friend at 4 a.m. She was never seen leaving the garage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s all I can see. I don`t see anything else going on in the world right now, but her.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Cops say Christina Morris drove about 45 miles from where she lives with her boyfriend in Ft. Worth, Texas, to Plano, Texas, to spend some time with friends. Christina went to a tavern and then to a friend`s apartment.
Now look at this crucial surveillance video of Christina at the end of the evening, at about 4 a.m., walking back to her car, which is parked at a shopping center parking lot. She is with a male friend, somebody she`s known since high school.
Cops say Christina and her friend parted ways, the friend drove off, and Christina vanished. Her car was discovered right there in the parking lot, still locked up. Investigators say they do not consider this friend to be a suspect.
Christina`s devastated family spoke to "Good Morning America."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONNI LEE MCELROY, CHRISTINA`S MOTHER: Christina, wherever you`re at, I miss you so much.
Please if you have her, I need my daughter back. I need her back. I`m begging you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What happened to this beautiful young lady? We want to help. Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7297. Join my conversation. Go to my Jane Velez-Mitchell Facebook page or talk to me on Twitter, @JVM.
Our fantastic Lion`s Den expert panel fired up and ready to help solve this mother`s crisis, but first out to my very special exclusive guest, the missing woman`s mother, Jonni Lee McElroy.
If I may call you Jonni Lee, thank you so much for joining us. I know this is a hellish surreal nightmare that you`re going through. We want to help.
We want to jog somebody`s memory, get your daughter`s face out there. So let me ask you: how did you first learn, ma`am, that your daughter was missing?
MCELROY: I first learned -- I started to notice, and it was weird, that I haven`t gotten text messages back to my replies for a couple days. Me and her always will send messages. I will send her "Good morning, sunshine, hope you have a wonderful day" or "I love you the mostest."
And then about the third day, I get a phone call from one of her best friends let me know that she was very worried about Christina, because she had not heard from her either. And then
her boss was very kind of frantic that Christina didn`t show up for work for two days, because Christina has never missed work.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s give some background to our viewers. Christina lives with her boyfriend. Even though she didn`t go home for about four days, he did not report her missing.
Now, the day after Christina`s parents reported her missing, he, the boyfriend, posted a plea for help on Christina`s Facebook page, writing, quote, "I`m worried sick and will do anything to get any information on the last time anyone has seen her or talked to her. Please help and pray that she`s OK," end quote.
Now, according to Christina`s Facebook page, this young man you`re seeing right there is her boyfriend. I want to stress he is not considered a suspect, and he has been involved in the search for Christina. We`ve tried unsuccessfully to reach him. He is invited on our show any time.
I want to go back to you, Jonni Lee. There may be a very reasonable explanation, but why didn`t her boyfriend report her missing as day after day passed?
MCELROY: As he has told us, him and Christina did get in an argument on the phone, a fight, boyfriend-girlfriend fight, that evening. And he assumed that she wasn`t going to come home and needed to stay a few days with a friend and cool down.
But as I and her father and stepmother, as our loved ones, have told him, we`re very upset. It was a wrong move, plain and simple. He knows it was an idiot move. Excuse my -- you know, bluntly how we put it. He has really let me know that he knows he has to live with that mistake the rest of his life now. He`s very hurt and ashamed.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: He has been involved in the search for your daughter.
MCELROY: Absolutely. Nonstop
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Cops say Christina`s phone has been turned off since she was reported missing nine days ago. Her bank accounts have not been touched at all.
Her last 15 calls were reportedly to that boyfriend of hers, Hunter. That seems like a lot of phone calls.
So my question is -- and I want to go back to you on this, Johnny Lee. She goes to Plano, which is about 45 miles away. Now you have explained why he didn`t accompany her. They`d had a little falling out.
MCELROY: Correct.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Was she planning on driving back home to Plano that night, because that`s 4 in the morning? That`s an at least 50-minute drive, maybe an hour. That seems like a long way to go at that hour.
MCELROY: No, she was not, but she did get into an argument on the phone with Hunter, with her boyfriend, excuse me, not too long before that. And it upset her so much that she wanted to go home and wanted to get her dog and also because she did have to be at work early in the morning.
So she was not planning originally to go home that evening. She was -- already had changed her clothes and was planning on spending the night at her friend`s house.VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, that`s a very interesting point, because can you establish, then, that the boyfriend was back in Ft. Worth, Texas, when she`s talking to him?
MCELROY: I`m not -- I`m not aware of that yet. The police investigators would be the only ones that know that at this time, and they have not divulged that information to us at this time.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And again, we tried to reach the boyfriend. We`re not saying he`s a suspect, but you know, I have to bring in Mike Brooks, HLN law enforcement analyst. In a case like this, you always have to start with those who are closest to the person that vanished.
MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: That`s where you start. I`m sure law enforcement, by now, has hopefully subpoenaed his cell records and have interviewed him.
But it still bothers me that, even though that there was an argument, Jane, that it took that long for him to reach out to anybody. Because that`s where she would come and go, and that`s where she lived. That`s where her belongings where. And she was holding down a job.
But the other thing is the person who she was with at 4 a.m., when we see them on the ramp in that parking lot at the legacy in Plano, the Legacy Shops in Plano, what was discussed between them? You know, and when was the last call that she made of those 15 calls that she talked to her boyfriend? What time was that and what was said?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, police say Christina`s car never left the Plano parking lot at this mall. Listen to this from "Good Morning America."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We checked around the area where the car was. There was no signs of any foul play.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now I want to go to Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaas Kids Foundation, who is an expert. There`s three cars here that were seen on the deck in the area of this garage where she vanished. What I don`t understand is they said they`re having trouble identifying these vehicles. If they had video of her going into the garage, wouldn`t they have surveillance video of any car that came out of the garage? Shouldn`t they have other surveillance video that would indicate who else was in the area at the time?
MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT/FOUNDER, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Jane, I would think in this day and age, particularly given the fact that young women are very vulnerable in parking lots in the dark of night, that there would be multiple surveillance cameras throughout the lot that would be able to pick up almost anybody from any angle at any time. At least that`s been my experience in the recent past.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to bring in Lisa Bloom, legal analyst, Avvo.com. You and I have covered so many of these difficult cases. We have to consider possibilities. Is there -- I think that there`s a very good possibility this was a stranger abduction.
LISA BLOOM, LEGAL ANALYST: That is certainly a possibility. We can`t rule anything out at this time.
I have to say I`m a little bit more suspicious of the boyfriend than perhaps you and the mom are. I don`t know him. I understand he`s not a suspect, but his story doesn`t make any sense. You wait four days. Let`s say that you did have a fight. We know that she was a diligent employee.
She always showed up for work. How is she supposedly getting clothes for work? How is she getting her things? He doesn`t think about that on day one, on day two, on day three?
He only reports this after her boss calls and is concerned.
Also, if they had a fight, show me the evidence beyond the phone calls. Phone calls only show that there was a call made. It doesn`t show what was said. Where are the texts? Every person in their early 20s is texting constantly. Show me the texts between these two. So I`d be taking a pretty close look at him.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to give Jonni Lee McElroy a chance to address all this. Again, I want to stress that this boyfriend is not considered a suspect. He`s invited on any time. We`ve been making attempts to reach him. My understanding is that we couldn`t find his own Facebook page. He may not have one. And that in fact, he posted his statement on your daughter`s Facebook page, begging for help.
What about some of the issues that Lisa has raised?
MCELROY: That is correct. He does not have a Facebook page. Christina, I know he knew all of her pass codes. She`s always been very open with that with him.
As of the -- his phone, he voluntarily has taken it to the Plano Police Department, and they have analyzed it and investigated every single phone call and text messages and conversation. They did find out -- I think they were looking into his whereabouts for certainty on that.
When it comes to the surveillance cameras, absolutely. I`m mad. I need to understand why a nice area like that with high-end shops, high-end restaurants, high-end town homes -- I didn`t see a problem seeing my daughter perfectly in the camera walking into the garage. There are other cameras in that area in the garage. I really need to understand why I can`t see cars perfectly, a license plate number. I need answers to that.
Absolutely.
Somebody has taken my daughter and I need answers. I need answers of the vehicles that were taken out of that car -- out of that garage. I feel like they would be a big start to this investigation.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I understand exactly what you`re saying. In this day and age where once somebody vanishes, money is no object. Throw everything at it. Caution to the winds. But the cheap technology that`s available, especially in a garage, we should be able to see every second of her journey in that garage and anybody else who might have BEEN with her.
We`re not done with this. We`re going to take calls that are lining up right on the other side. We want to help this desperate mother find her precious daughter. We`re just getting started. What are your theories? What can we do? Stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCELROY: I miss you so much.
Please if you have her, I need my daughter back. I need her back. I`m begging you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the eighth day of her disappearance, the search for Christina Morris grew more exhaustive and exhausting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just want to find Christina.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Before she vanished, Christina went out for a fun night over Labor Day weekend with friends. Friday, August 29, she drove about 50 minutes from her home in Ft. Worth, Texas, to Plano. Her first stop was Henry`s Tavern in a shopping center called The Shops at Legacy.
She went to a party there then went to a friend`s apartment. At about 4 a.m. Saturday morning, she and a close male friend she knows from high school went back to the shopping center where their cars were parked. They were caught on surveillance walking into the parking lot. Then Christina vanishes. Listen to this from ABC`s "GMA."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were already behind the curve on this, because getting it four days late, so we had a lot of catching up to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Straight out to Michael Board, WOAI News Radio out of San Antonio, what do you know about the search?
MICHAEL BOARD, WOAI NEWS RADIO (via phone): Well, the latest in the search, Jane, is that the famed Texas EquuSearch, the group that searches for missing people, have arrived. Today they met with Plano Police, and tomorrow morning, they will bring their massive resources to this search, which will be a big boon to the area.
One thing specifically that police really need to search in this that`s going to become part of this investigation is around this area there are a lot of toll roads. Anybody who drives through the Plano-Dallas area knows that there -- you can`t avoid toll roads in this area. If there were other cars that were in that parking lot and we can look at the license plates on those, that`s going to be part of this investigation. They can check the
toll roads to see if those license plates showed up. That might give investigators a location to start searching.
And one final thing, Jane. This is an area where a lot of young people like to go out, socialize, go out to the bars. We know that she was out at one bar in particular that evening before she went to her friend`s apartment. I wonder if, at that bar, she was maybe approached by someone who saw her again later in the evening and went up to her.
Investigators need to look at that bar, see who she was talking with, see if she was approached, maybe by a guy that was trying to pick her up that evening. If she had spurned them at the bar earlier, maybe that person was coming back at her at 3 a.m. when she was coming back for her car.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Excellent points, all of them.
Let`s go out to the phone lines. Jennifer, Pennsylvania, what are your thoughts? Jennifer, Pennsylvania.
CALLER: Well, my question is her friend that walked her to the car, would he not have waited to make sure that she got into the car and that she was safe, that the car started, that there were no problems? Isn`t that what most gentleman, most friends do for other people, especially that time of the morning?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, yes. Here`s the surveillance video again. It`s about 4 in the morning. She`s walking with a male friend that she reportedly knows since high school back to the parking lot.
And I want to go back to this missing woman`s mother, Jonni Lee McElroy, joining us exclusively tonight. It`s the first thing I thought of.
Wouldn`t a man -- and again, he is not considered a suspect. The investigators made it clear.
But it seems odd. It`s 4 in the morning. We all know parking lots are dangerous for women alone. And yet, he seems to get in his car and leave,
and she`s left there and never apparently makes it into her car.
MCELROY: Absolutely. I think it`s total -- totally unacceptable. I can`t believe it. I`m very, very livid. It`s hard for me to believe that -- that a gentleman at all, friend, whoever, did not sit and watch a young, beautiful, tiny female get into her car and drive off first. It`s just -- I`m baffled.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What has this been like for you? I know that there`s no words to describe what you`re going through emotionally.
MCELROY: Exhaustion. My mind is going 100 miles an hour. I feel like I`m just being tugged and pulled every direction, because I`m just desperate to find her, as we all are.
As a mother, I just -- I can still feel her touch. I can still see her smile. I can still hear her laughter. It`s -- it`s just -- it`s hell. If you want to be blunt, it`s hell.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I know you`re in hell right now. And I`m so sorry. I`m so sorry you`re going through this. As many of our Facebook and Twitter comment -- commenters are saying, why does this keep happening? Let`s find her safely. Let`s find her safely.
We`ve got more on the other side. We`re going to bring in another expert, Brian Claypool. We`ve really got to figure this out. There`s something, some clue somewhere. Somebody knows something. They need to come forward.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just want to find Christina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any kind of evidence, maybe an earring or something to say that she was actually here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This beautiful 23-year-old last seen on this surveillance video walking with a male friend into a parking lot in Plano, Texas. She`s never seen again. I want to go to Mark Morris, another exclusive guest, the father of this beautiful missing woman.
Mark, what troubles you about this video?
MARK MORRIS, FATHER OF CHRISTINA MORRIS (via phone): Well, I just don`t know how you can walk into a parking garage with a little girl and not -- not walk her to her car.
And I heard you say that they were close friends. They`re just -- they just went to school together. I don`t know that I`d say they were close friends. It`s not somebody she hung out with. He was just -- he was supposed to be walking her to her car.VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, have police told you anything?
MORRIS: They haven`t. No.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mike Brooks, HLN law enforcement analyst, you`ve been hearing all the evidence. What do you think? Is this a stranger abduction? Is this somebody who knew her? Is it a guy she might have snubbed at the bar?
BROOKS: There are just too many questions that -- that I want to know the answers to that they have not -- you know, it sounds like law enforcement is not talking to the parents about it. But keep in mind, law enforcement is playing catch up, because it was four days that she went missing.
So hopefully in this bar where she was -- where she was at the shops, there are cameras there also that will help answer some of those questions.
Right outside there, you`ve got Legacy Avenue. Then the next road over is one of those toll roads, Jane. So hopefully, there is video there.
Sometimes department of transportations around the states will have cameras, but they don`t record. They just monitor.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right.
BROOKS: So, you know, hopefully, they`ll be able to get something.
But this picture right here just bothers me. Why did he not make sure he got to the car? You know, any real man would make sure that a woman that time of the morning got to the car safely.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Brian Claypool, criminal defense attorney, your thoughts?
BRIAN CLAYPOOL, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Jane, you also have to look at interviewing all the people that were at the other party at the apartment. We haven`t heard from those folks. Find out who she talked to, who she interacted with there, as well, to see if there might be any suspects.
And then also, you know, I would take a look at the surveillance of cars entering that garage earlier in the evening to see whether you could possibly detect whether those cars actually exited. Because it`s quite possible that somebody pulled in the garage. Maybe then they saw her get out of her car, and then they were following her that evening. And so that might be another angle to take.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What I want to know is, if that`s the only exit and entrance to the garage, then what goes in most come out.
CLAYPOOL: Right. Exactly.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And whatever vehicle came out after she disappeared could have her. And they need to track down all those vehicles.
We`re out of time. But I want to go back to Jonni Lee McElroy. My heart goes out to you. We`re going to stay on top of this story. We`re going to do everything we can to find your precious daughter. We are praying for you and your family. And please keep us posted.
MCELROY: I will. Thank you so much.