I know I am letting myself open for a fall but ... I am anticipating in about 1 1/2 hours Nancy Grace (HLN) will have Tammi and Jack Smith as guests on her program. Maybe we will learn about today's polygraphs.
The following is an edited version of last night program. I have posted only the portions related to the Smiths.
Janet
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TAMMI AND JACK SMITHNANCY GRACE
Couple Named Persons of Interest in Missing Baby Case
Aired January 7, 2010 - 20:00:00 ETPART ONENANCY GRACE, HOST: Bombshell tonight. The would-be adoptive parents, the Arizona couple, Jack and Tammi Smith -- they were just with us live last night -- just named persons of interest in baby Gabriel`s disappearance. Repeat, persons of interest in the baby`s disappearance. Why?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACK SMITH, WANTED TO ADOPT GABRIEL: We are for the finding of this baby. We are not on a side. But I think that she`s looking at things through non-normal eyes. Our normal eyes say, That`s crazy. …
GRACE: Do you think, Tammi, that she is capable of killing this baby?
TAMMI PETERS SMITH, WANTED TO ADOPT GABRIEL: You know, from what I know of her, I don`t believe so. But I`ve only known her maybe three or four weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PART TWOGRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. The would-be adoptive parents, that Scottsdale, Arizona, couple, Jack and Tammi Smith -- they were just with us live last night -- just named -- just named! -- persons of interest in baby Gabriel`s disappearance. They are on their way to the studio to be with us live right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOGAN MCQUEARY, GABRIEL`S FATHER: Do the right thing and turn him over. You know, just like Sergeant Carbajal said, just, you know, don`t worry about getting in trouble or anything like that. Take him to a fire station, any place, a hospital. I`m just asking, please. I want my son back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is baby Gabriel`s father, Logan McQueary, on ABC`s "Good Morning America," making a desperate plea, taking to the airwaves to find his 8-month-old baby boy. And I say to law enforcement tonight, Please make a public statement. Tell whoever may have this baby that they will not be prosecuted if they bring the baby back. I challenge law enforcement to do that tonight.
PART THREEGRACE: Just now sitting down in a studio there in Arizona, the would- be adoptive parents, Jack and Tammi Smith, are joining us. This is extremely unusual. To those viewers that are joining us tonight, they have been named persons of interest by the police, yet they are coming forward and speaking with us and taking your calls live tonight.
To Jack and Tammi Smith, thank you for being with us. I`m completely stunned that you`ve been named persons of interest. On the other hand, that doesn`t mean the cops think you took baby Gabriel. I`m interpreting it to mean that they believe you know where baby Gabriel may be. What about it, Tammi Smith?
TAMMI SMITH: Well, I have tried to call the detective, Ramirez (ph), many times today, left two messages with her. It`s not that I know where he is, but like I told your staff, we`ve all been talking for the past couple days, trying to brainstorm where he is. So Yami from Fox News has been brainstorming, and she`s been digging and digging in San Antonio for us. And she gives us all of her leads. And so we go with that. And we`re working with your office, as well, and brainstorming together. So we just have our own ideas about it.
GRACE: Well, I noticed last night that you told us that you had determined the park where the handoff, the alleged handoff, was made by Mommy, 23-year-old Elizabeth Johnson, to this unknown couple that she just happens to meet at the park. How did you know the name of the park?
JACK SMITH: Yami. Yami was the one that had told me, and I -- I mentioned to you the connection aspect. Yami -- we have been somewhat embraced by them because they feel that we are trying our desperate -- desperately trying to find this baby. And help find this baby.
PART FOUR(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB JOHNSON, GABRIEL`S GREAT GRANDFATHER: Yes. I believe her. I think that she did do something that ridiculous and foolish. I also got the impression that she`s prepared to stick to her story and stay in jail as long as necessary.
(END VIDEO CLIP
PART FIVEGRACE: That would-be adoptive couple from Arizona, just with us last night, now named two -- a couple -- persons of interest in the disappearance of baby Gabriel. But why? And they have taken it upon themselves to appear with us live tonight.
To Jack and Tammi Smith. It`s my understanding, you have volunteered to submit to a polygraph to police. Is that right, Mr. Smith?
JACK SMITH, PLANNED TO ADOPT BABY GABRIEL: It is. We did that on New Year`s Eve night when the -- because the detectives were out there. And we said, you know, I don`t know what this line of questioning is, but if a polygraph will fix this -- and they said yes, yes, it will fix it.
We said well, please, bring it on. Set it up for Monday morning. And we haven`t heard from them yet.
GRACE: How often did the mom -- mommy, 23-year-old Elizabeth Johnson contact you while she was between Tempe, San Antonio, and Miami Beach?
J. SMITH: Well, between.
T. SMITH: Do you mean once she left?
GRACE: Yes.
J. SMITH: She didn`t contact us any between here and there. We only found out when we did the MySpace thing and found her account and then we.
T. SMITH: And then she texted us that message.
J. SMITH: We text her and all that.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Now I`ve got that message and it says -- I`ve got it right here. It says, "I am ever worried this e-mail can be traced to where I am, so I probably won`t e-mail again. But I had to let you know, we are all right, because I know you must be worried sick and I am so sorry for that. I really am."
What was she worried about? Why was she worried about being traced if she had done nothing wrong, Tammi?
T. SMITH: Well, once we did start to talk to her, she said that her plan was to keep running.
GRACE: Running from what?
T. SMITH: Just -- she didn`t want Logan to have the baby and we couldn`t adopt the baby because Logan wouldn`t sign the papers. So her idea was to just keep running forever. And we told her you can`t run forever. They`re going to find you. And that`s all in the documents with all the FBI and all that stuff.
PART SIX GRACE: Right. To Jack and Tammi Smith, when did you guys try to get the father to agree and learn that he was not part of this. I believe she represented you at the beginning that he was OK with it?
J. SMITH: She represented in the very beginning that he was back and forth.
GRACE: Yes.
J. SMITH: Back and forth with that. And so he did not have -- we asked to speak with him. He did not have a cell phone at that time. I think he`s living with his father. We couldn`t get a hold of him so that`s when we took the...
T. SMITH: We were supposed to meet up with him and the father at court. When we went to court that day, it was all settled and set up for us to go have lunch together. And go to the park and have them spend time with the baby and discuss it all.
But when Elizabeth won custody, they just walked past us and left and they didn`t -- they didn`t come back and we waited for about 40 minutes and they didn`t come back.
GRACE: Now, it`s my understanding, Elizabeth never had formal custody.
T. SMITH: She did. She had -- she had the custody -- physical custody. And then when she went to court, when he was.
GRACE: Let me rephrase. It`s my understanding she had shared custody with the father. They had shared custody.
T. SMITH: No.
GRACE: That he would get to visit. No?
T. SMITH: You`ll have to look at the documents, but I can tell you that she had physical custody and then when they went to court, he was trying to get custody.
J. SMITH: Sure.
T. SMITH: And the judge gave her custody and said that he could have a visit.
GRACE: OK, hold on.
T. SMITH: That`s all I know.
GRACE: Matt Zarrell, you`ve got the documents, I`ve got the documents. What do they say and give it to me in a nutshell, Matt.
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: Mom and dad had shared custody. They had split the week. Mom took her for -- mom took Gabriel for a couple of days, dad took the baby for a couple of days.
GRACE: OK, now was there a point where mommy didn`t show up to court and she lost custody?
ZARRELL: Yes, that was December 28th. That`s when the warrant was issued for her arrest.
PART SEVENGRACE: To Jack and Tammi Smith. First to you, Tammi, did the baby have diaper rash?
T. SMITH: Yes.
GRACE: So in the short time you saw the baby, you know that -- I mean, obviously that is a sign of neglect. Right? I mean, you can get diaper rash without being neglected, but it means you`ve been sitting there in soaking wet diapers. Your body -- your skin literally sitting in feces and urine for hours on end. I mean urine is like acid on your skin.
T. SMITH: I don`t want to say -- I mean, I don`t know that that had has happened. And you know I know babies get diaper rash. I don`t want to say either way, because I wasn`t there when he got the rash but yes, he did have a rash when we got him.
GRACE: Well, I can tell you this much. Between Lucy and John David, both, at age 2, they`ve only had diaper rash twice in their life and that`s when they were on antibiotics that.
T. SMITH: Yes.
GRACE: . caused it to happen. So it doesn`t happen with every baby, I can tell you that much.
T. SMITH: And this was a yeast infection-type rash. Like a bacterial-type rash.
GRACE: Let me ask you something. You two seem very confident that the baby is alive. Because I believe in the short time that I`ve known you, if you believed that baby was dead, you would not have the demeanor you have tonight.
You love that baby.
J. SMITH: Sure.
GRACE: Now tell me why you believe that baby is alive. What do you know that makes you believe the baby is alive, Mr. Smith.
J. SMITH: It`s just a heart thing. And I`m sorry that that`s probably not the answer that everybody is wanting to hear. But it`s just a heart thing. And we saw in her eyes -- it`s very difficult for me because I came from a great home.
And it`s hard for me to look in someone`s eyes -- and I looked in Elizabeth`s eyes and I saw welling up. And I saw what I felt like was love. Am I a perfect judge of character? I hope in most cases I am. But in this situation, I looked and saw love. I saw, you know, her -- the pull and I just have a hard time believing.
GRACE: It`s OK.
J. SMITH: . that someone with that love can do that.
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1001/07/ng.01.html
