Nevaeh's mother grilled on CNN
BY MARK W. SMITH • FREE PRESS WEB EDITOR • June 9, 2009
The mother of 5-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan defended herself Monday night during a contentious interview with CNN’s Nancy Grace.
Jennifer Buchanan, of Monroe, repeated what she told the Free Press for a Sunday story -- that she had nothing to do with her daughter’s disappearance.
Grace grilled Buchanan on exposing her daughters to men she knew to be sex offenders.
“I know that I have made -- I have made a lot of bad choices,” Buchanan said according to a show transcript. “And who hasn't? And I know that somehow …”
Grace interrupted, “Whoa, you know what? You can stop right there. You can just stop right there, Miss Buchanan, because most mothers that I know have never knowingly exposed their little girl, a 5-year-old little girl, to a sex offender. So when you say who hasn’t? I for one haven’t. I haven’t.”
MORE: See the transcript of the whole interview
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(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: With us live right now, the mother of little Nevaeh, Jennifer Buchanan.
Miss Buchanan, thank you for being with us.
BUCHANAN: Hi, Nancy.
GRACE: Miss Buchanan, you said that authorities cannot identify the body. Why?
BUCHANAN: I`m assuming that she`s too decomposed for anyone to look at her physically.
GRACE: Miss Buchanan.
BUCHANAN: They wouldn`t recommend it.
GRACE: What happened? Take us through the last moments you were with Nevaeh. What happened?
BUCHANAN: The last moment I was with my daughter.
GRACE: The last few moments, yes.
BUCHANAN: She come (sic) in the house. She changed her clothes. After she changed her clothes, she said she was going back to her friend`s house.
GRACE: And?
BUCHANAN: Grabbed a popsicle on the way out the door, and she, you know -- I didn`t see her -- the last time I seen her was at 6:30.
GRACE: At what time?
BUCHANAN: 6:30.
GRACE: 6:30 p.m.?
BUCHANAN: Yes.
GRACE: Was it getting dark?
BUCHANAN: No, no, not here.
GRACE: What time does it get dark?
BUCHANAN: It doesn`t get dark until approximately around 9:00, 9:30 here.
GRACE: Huh. When did you learn Nevaeh was missing?
BUCHANAN: About a half an hour after she went outside. I had a really good friend of mine and her daughter stay the night with us. And my good friend`s daughter came in and she said, Nevaeh`s outside riding her scooter in the road.
That`s when I immediately got up and I looked for my shoes. It took a couple of minutes, a few minutes to look for my shoes. And then after that, I went outside and I noticed that she was missing and called her name.
Looked through apartment buildings. Went to quite a few of her friends` houses, thinking that she could have been, you know, in one of their homes. I looked for her at least 45 minutes.
GRACE: You stated that it was about 30 minutes later when the little girl came and said, Nevaeh`s outside on her scooter in the road? 30 minutes had passed?
BUCHANAN: Yes. Yes, because she told me she was going back upstairs to her friend`s house. And that`s assuming where she went.
GRACE: Now you stated that you, quote, "got up." Where were you?
BUCHANAN: I was just sitting right there on the -- I was sitting right there on the couch. And I was like, thinking about what I was going to make for dinner because it was around dinnertime, too. And she told me that she wasn`t hungry at the moment, but I knew that she had to eat something.
So she come (sic) in and she grabbed a popsicle on the way out the door. And that`s normally about when I know she`s getting hungry. There`s a lot of times she`s told me no, but you know, she lies.
GRACE: She lies? Did you just say the little girl lies?
BUCHANAN: About her hunger. She lied about her -- normally she lies about her hunger.
GRACE: Miss Buchanan, I was just listening to what you said on the airwaves and the radio interview, and you stated something about George Kennedy may have owed somebody some money?
BUCHANAN: I`m not too sure.
GRACE: How could that possibly.
BUCHANAN: I`m not too sure on anything.
GRACE: How could that possibly be linked to your daughter`s disappearance, the fact that this sex offender, friend of yours, owed somebody some money? How could that remotely be linked to your child`s disappearance?
BUCHANAN: I honestly don`t know. What I do know.
GRACE: Well, you`re the one that said it so you must have known something?
BUCHANAN: All these scenarios are just running through my head constantly. And I think that possibly he might have owed someone money, and then to get to him is through a close loved one or -- you know, anything. All these thoughts are just running through my head.
GRACE: You also stated in an interview that, in your mind, you hold him responsible.
BUCHANAN: I don`t put it past him.
GRACE: OK, if you don`t put it past him.
BUCHANAN: I don`t put it past anyone.
GRACE: If you don`t put it past him, what were you doing exposing your daughter to him?
BUCHANAN: Well, Nancy, I know that I have made -- I have made a lot of bad choices.
GRACE: Yes.
BUCHANAN: And who hasn`t? And I know that somehow.
GRACE: Whoa, you know what? You can stop right there. You can just stop right there, Miss Buchanan, because most mothers that I know have never knowingly exposed their little girl, a 5-year-old little girl, to a sex offender. So when you say who hasn`t? I for one haven`t. I haven`t.
BUCHANAN: Well, I just believe that everyone deserves a second chance. And that`s.
GRACE: You know, and that`s an interesting point, Miss Buchanan, you know, because Mr. Kennedy has a rap sheet dating back, we believe, prior to 2001. Marijuana possession, home invasion. There`s criminal sex conduct, accosting children. There is the rape of a 15-year-old girl that he said was consensual. I mean I`m counting it on my hand. That`s.
BUCHANAN: I didn`t learn about all those. I didn`t learn about all of those until after I got to know him, like maybe a couple of months after I got to know him. Yes, I did check him out. I confronted him about it and especially about the other girl. And he completely told me that she was 15, he was 26, and it was consensual. They`re not really.
GRACE: There`s no such thing as consensual sex with a 15-year-old in that jurisdiction. That is rape. All right? Now you just told me that you found out about two months after getting to know him, but even knowing about this rap sheet, this very extensive rap sheet, you still had him around your daughter. Why?
BUCHANAN: Because I knew that I was going to keep her close.
HOLLY HOWERTON, FRIEND OF 5-YR-OLD NEVAEH BUCHANAN`S MOTHER: She was never left alone with him to my knowledge.
BUCHANAN: Never left alone with him.
GRACE: OK, to your knowledge? Really? Miss Howerton, Holly Howerton, friend of Nevaeh`s mother. Miss Howerton, are you there 24/7?
HOWERTON: No, I`m not. I have been with her ever since her child has been missing. And I know she`s.
GRACE: Well, you know what? That`s not really doing a whole lot of good, is it? If you`re not there 24/7, then you don`t know what happened.
And my question is, forget about the sex offender just for a moment. Let`s just suspend our disbelief for a moment. The 5-year-old is out playing, it`s nearly dark outside. I`m just having a problem.
BUCHANAN: No, the sun is still out. It`s not dark at all.
GRACE: Well, you said 6:30. And then 30 minutes later, that puts it at 7:00. Isn`t that correct? You still haven`t seen your daughter. The daughter is gone. You said it gets dark around 8:00 or 9:00, yes, no?
BUCHANAN: 9:00, 9:30.
GRACE: Oh so now it doesn`t get dark until almost 10:00 p.m.? That`s not true.
BUCHANAN: Here, it is.
GRACE: Miss Buchanan, it doesn`t get dark at 10:00 at night in your jurisdiction.
BUCHANAN: Between 9:00 and 9:30.
GRACE: In the Detroit area on that day, the sun set 8:55 p.m. exactly. So your child is out. It`s been 30 minutes since you last saw her. Did you think maybe I should check on my preschooler? See if she`s dead or alive? I mean did that cross your mind?
BUCHANAN: No, because I knew that she was upstairs at her friend`s house until the little girl came up to me and said that Nevaeh was out riding her scooter in the road. That`s the point I`m.
GRACE: How did you know she was upstairs? Did you check on her? Did you go up there ever?
BUCHANAN: No, she`s -- I watched her walk in through the door.
GRACE: Really? Because earlier you said she went out the door.
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: We were just -- we just got home. She changed her clothes, everything else. I went upstairs at one point. I watched her walk in through the door. I came back downstairs. I went -- went inside.
GRACE: Because in your first version.
BUCHANAN: I knew that she was supposed to be up there.
GRACE: In your first version, you never got off the sofa. She took a popsicle, went out the door. You never said anything in your first version about watching her walk upstairs.
BUCHANAN: Right. I was still -- I was first sitting down. I got back up. I watched her walk up there. She came back downstairs. She changed her clothes. She walked back out the door with a popsicle. And then that`s whenever I was like -- she said, mom, I`m going back upstairs to Austin`s house.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that was brought up earlier by some of our callers, some of the people that listen to our show is the reason why I think that they think that you might have had something to do with this is that at no time you have shown any emotion. What would you say to them for that?
BUCHANAN: There`s quite a few reasons why I don`t, like -- I show emotion in my own home because I feel like either way I go, I can`t win out of this situation. Like, if I cry, they`re sick of me crying because they think that I`m guilty. If I don`t cry, then I`m completely guilty and not emotional. I`m not sympathetic. I`m not remorseful.
You know all that stuff, and when I go out to actually talk to the camera crew, you know, people want to hear me correctly. I`m sorry that I don`t cry or anything. I do that in my own home.
BICKLEY: The flies just started getting terrible, and they were landing on me. I was shaking them off. And then I saw them landing on the ground down where the concrete had cracked by me walking about while I pushed down into the cracks and it went down and came right back up as if there was some kind of pressure beneath the concrete.
I then proceeded to scrape the little chunks that had cracked off with my toe, and that`s when a small area of skin was visible to both myself and my father. I didn`t want it to be the child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0906/08/ng.01.htmlhttp://www.freep.com/article/20090609/NEWS05/90609017/Nevaeh+s+mother+grilled+on+CNN
