http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1005/05/ng.01.htmlGRACE: You observed heel marks where you believe your daughter kicked into the propane tank as she was struggling to be set free?
LARRY MCCOMB, FATHER: Yes, it is. That`s the tank with the footprints on it. It was after it was dusted by the state police. They showed right up. They were dusting it for fingerprints, I believe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Michigan State Police investigators say her husband, Doug Stewart, is considered a person of interest, but so far maintains he was in Virginia at the time of her disappearance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... discovery of clear plastic packaging in the driveway that may have been used to cover a tarp.
LARRY MCCOMB: She was scared to death of her husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... tire tracks taken from a field nearby, an eyewitness account of a pick-up in a field nearby, with a white male crouching behind it about the time of the disappearance.
LARRY MCCOMB: She told me that he was going to get her.
snip
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. As we go to air, investigators using high-tech sonar, Adams Lake. It`s a body of water about 20 minutes from the home where mother two girls Venus Stewart vanishes. And specialized crime techs at this moment en route to search two vehicles both belonging to Mommy`s estranged husband.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now cops searching a local lake for evidence in the case of missing mom Venus Stewart, police using side-scan sonar equipment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 7:30 in the morning, people are up, getting ready for work, whatever. But nobody saw anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michigan State Police reportedly say they`re sending crime lab techs to Virginia to search estranged husband Douglas Stewart`s cars, a Mercury sedan and a Dodge Ram pick-up truck.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... search warrant for Douglas Stewart`s pick- up. They may have a lot more evidence than they`ve talked about. The truck description matches the eyewitness account. It`s a crew cab, a four-wheel pick-up truck very similar to the Dodge Ram Douglas Stewart drives.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We now that the husband claims that he`s been in Virginia the whole time, but police are testing that truck, looking for any evidence it might have been in Michigan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want to match the tire patterns that they found in the field with the ones on Douglas Stewart`s pick-up truck.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I pray, if he -- Doug, if you hear me, please! Those little girls love their mommy so much! If you love your children, please, please don`t do anything to hurt her! Please!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Ellie Jostad, on the story. Ellie, what`s the latest?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Nancy, today the Michigan State Police had divers in that lake again. This is the lake that they were at last Friday. Last Friday, they were only able to search the wooded area around the lake. Today, they got in the lake using very sophisticated side-scan sonar, looking for any piece of evidence that could link them to Venus Stewart and what might have happened to her.
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Very quickly, to special guest joining us out of Miami, Jordan Harvell, with underwater search and recovery. He is an expert. Jordan, thank you for being with us. Very quickly, to those unfamiliar with side-scan sonar, explain what it is in a nutshell.
JORDAN HARVELL, UNDERWATER SEARCH & RECOVERY EXPERT (via telephone): Well, side-scan sonar sends out sound waves. And when those sound waves ounce off objects, they create a shadow. And these shadows are looked at by an interpreter on a monitor who determines what the object might be, whether it`s a car or a boat or a tire or even a body. And it`s up to that interpreter to determine, you know, the best scenario to follow through with that information.
GRACE: Jordan, it sounds like a sonogram or an ultrasound.
HARVELL: Very similar. And it`s just something that you place in the water that gives out the sound waves to the surrounding area and helps the divers to have a better location to search.
GRACE: OK, Jordan, so side-scan sonar works on sound waves, but it actually does create a picture of sorts, correct?
HARVELL: Correct.
GRACE: So police could see whether they are looking at a tree trunk or a tire off a car or a body. Yes, no.
HARVELL: Yes.
GRACE: OK. Generally speaking. Everybody, we are taking your calls live. We are talking about missing mom, a gorgeous young mom -- everyone absolutely adored her, and most especially her two little girls, who are in hiding tonight. Venus Rose Stewart is just 32 years old. She goes out -- there she is. Take a look. She goes out the front yard to the mailbox to mail a letter, 7:00 o`clock AM, in her pajamas. She`s never seen again, her two girls inside, waiting on her to come back.
You`re seeing home video from Doug Stewart`s MySpace page, everybody. We have obtained some new video and we wanted to show it to you immediately, in case anyone out there has seen her. Tip line, 269- 483-7611.
So Ellie, they are side-scan sonar at Adams Lake. How far away is Adams Lake from the mailbox where Mommy disappeared?
JOSTAD: Well, Nancy, as the crow flies, it`s only about a mile away. But we`re told that this is a remote area. It`s not easy to find. It`s not easy to get to. And that actually, from the house to the lake -- the edge of the lake there, could take you up to 20 minutes to get there by the access roads.
GRACE: Also with us tonight, John McNeill, news director, WKZO Newsradio, joining us from Kalamazoo. John, what`s the latest? And then searching those two vehicles that belong to the estranged husband.
JOHN MCNEILL, WKZO NEWSRADIO (via telephone): Apparently, they`ve dispatched a state police forensics team to Virginia to go over those vehicles. They are currently in the possession of the Newport News police, and they will be spending who knows how long going through the two vehicles, looking for whatever they can find that might lead them to suspect the car had -- or the truck had been driven to Michigan.
GRACE: With us, John McNeill from Michigan. And with us tonight, special guest, taking your calls, Therese McComb. This is Venus`s mother. Ms. McComb, thank you for being with us. First of all, before I even talk about Venus, how are the little girls doing tonight? I know you`re in touch with them almost every hour.
THERESE MCCOMB: They`re doing good. They`re as good as they can be. They want to know where their mother is. They love her. They`re hurt. She`s their whole world. I don`t know what they`re going to do. I don`t know what`s going to happen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY MCCOMB: After police dusted for prints -- she had hard-soled slippers on, and there were prints from her slippers on the side of the propane tank, like somebody had picked her up and she was kicking against the tank to get away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Venus Stewart was last seen in her pajamas. Police believe she was taking her mail to the mailbox around 7:30 in the morning (INAUDIBLE) scuffle in the yard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police dive teams searching Adams Lake right now in the search for Venus Stewart.
GRACE: Would he have known that she would come out in the morning to leave mail or get mail?
THERESE MCCOMB: I don`t know how that was possible. I think -- I don`t know how. I can`t answer that because I really don`t understand that.
LARRY MCCOMB: I think it was sheer luck. I wonder if he wasn`t just planning on breaking in the house and taking her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mother to 3 and 5-year-old girls vanishes. Venus`s parents say she loved being a mom and would never, ever leave her children. Perhaps even more disturbing, Venus wearing only pajamas and slippers. Venus`s estranged husband, Douglas Stewart, named a person of interest because of an alleged rocky marriage. After allegations of abuse made by both parents, Venus just winning temporary custody of her 3 and 5-year-old daughters.
THERESE MCCOMB: She was the best Mommy in the world. And I know she would never leave on her own. There`s no way she would ever leave on her own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: As we go to air tonight, side-scan sonar is searching Adams Lake. It`s a body of water about 20 minutes, about 20 miles away from the home where Mommy disappeared. After much estrangement between her and her husband -- they`re in the midst of a divorce -- Mommy had moved home with her two little girls with her mother and father, the girls ages 3 and 5. She had told people she feared for her life.
Then in the morning, 7:00 AM -- all of us have gone out to the mailbox early in the morning before -- Mommy is apparently kidnapped after a struggle, an intense struggle at the family`s mailbox in broad daylight. Is it true nobody saw a thing?
Out to John McNeill, WKZO Newsradio, Kalamazoo. John, I understand that now we`ve got tire tread marks in the field where a neighbor says she sees a pick-up truck, a crew cab pick-up truck with a white male crouched beside it around 7:00 AM that morning. It`s catty-corner to the family home. Do you know about the tread marks?
MCNEILL: I would assume that they have taken molds or plaster casts of those tracks, and they probably flew them to Virginia, too, to see if they could match them up with the tires that are on the truck right now. That would be my assumption. It depends on the quality of the tread marks that were left, of course, and whether or not they can match them up.
GRACE: OK. What do you know, Ellie?
JOSTAD: Nancy, actually, in that search warrant that we obtained yesterday, police said that they had taken pictures of the tread on Doug Stewart`s truck in Virginia, but they wanted the physical tire itself to match that to those tread marks they found at the scene.
GRACE: Everybody, we are taking your calls live. To Therese McComb -- this is Venus Stewart`s mother. Ms. McComb, what are police telling you? I know that specialized crime scene techs are on their way from Michigan to Virginia to comb those two vehicles. What are police telling you tonight?
THERESE MCCOMB: They don`t tell us a whole lot. They sort of keep us in the dark. I mean, I don`t know if it`s to protect their case or what, but all we -- we sit by the phone waiting for answers all the time, hoping, praying that just something will change. We don`t understand a lot of things. We just don`t understand why he -- he won`t talk to police. He never talked to the police. But now he`s talking to the press. I don`t understand that. And why couldn`t they find the vehicles before?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY MCCOMB: I went to the neighbor`s house across the street and asked them if they`d seen my daughter. She said, no, she hadn`t seen her. I came back in the house and I called 911 because I knew what happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cops searching a local lake for evidence.
GRACE: Mommy goes to the mailbox in her pajamas. She`s never seen alive again.
LARRY MCCOMB: I was stone dead, sleeping. I heard the kids getting really loud, and I thought, Why is Venus letting those kids be so loud when she knows I`m in here sleeping? And I got up to chew her out, and she was gone.
GRACE: What did the kids tell you?
LARRY MCCOMB: They told me that, Mommy went outside. So I went outside and she wasn`t there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: It`s almost too much to take in. You go to the mailbox to mail a letter in the front yard, and all that`s left behind is signs of a struggle.
We are taking your calls live. To Jane in Virginia. Hi, Jane.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. How are you this evening?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is, having been a felony court reporter in Charlottesville, Virginia, for many years and having seen many restraint orders issued against people, you get a sense of the ones that are more serious than others. And my question is, how come there can`t be more done to protect the ones that appear to be really genuinely more serious than others?
I know they can`t have around-the-clock police protection for all the restraining orders issued. There`s just not that many police available. But there are cases that you can tell, you know, that this is serious. But yet, you know -- that piece of paper is not going to stop a lot of people. And it doesn`t.
GRACE: Jane, Jane in Virginia, you, as a court reporter, have seen it all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, ma`am. Too much. (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: Some of my best friends I`ve ever had have been my court reporters during all those trials when I was a prosecutor. Hey, Jane in Virginia, look what I`ve got in my hand. Look at this. This is all the police work on all the TROs, back and forth, that was filed in this case. You know, I don`t understand why it`s the way it is.
Pat Brown, weigh in.
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: I have a problem with this, too, Nancy. I think that when you have a restraining order that`s about violence, it should be very clear, you cannot contact in any way, shape or form, or you go right to jail.
GRACE: But Pat...
BROWN: We don`t have that.
GRACE: Pat, there are always typically men that a restraining order isn`t worth the paper it`s written on to them. They will break it.
BROWN: That is true. And if you`ve got that kind, what I say to these women, which is so important, you cannot be alone even for one minute. We`ve seen this with Venus. Even to go out to the mailbox, don`t be alone.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police using side scan sonar equipment, searching a local lake for evidence in the case of missing mom Venus Stewart.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Where were the girls when this happened?
LARRY MCCOMB, MISSING MOM VENUS STEWART`S FATHER: They were in the front room of my house. And I was sleeping in my bedroom. Like 20 feet away.
GRACE: Is there any -- is there any way they could have seen what happened?
L. MCCOMB: No.
THERESE MCCOMB, MISSING MOM VENUS STEWART`S MOTHER: Not the way our house sits. We have no windows on that side of our house. All of our windows face down toward the river. And they were in the front room on the river side.
She told me earlier she was going to go mail a letter, she need to mail a letter. But she should have told her father when she went out.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Out to Therese McComb, this is Venus` mother.
Miss McComb, where does the estranged husband say that he was when Venus was kidnapped from the mailbox?
T. MCCOMB: He claims to be in Virginia, but the whole day -- see, he calls every day because he was ordered -- he could call us every day, once a day, to talk to the children. But on that day, he never called. That`s the only day he`s missed is the day that Venus came up missing. GRACE: Miss McComb, how long has he had that phone visitation? And is it always at the same time of the day?
T. MCCOMB: No. It was -- I think he was just told he could call once a day. You know, it was at a time where she was giving -- where she was given custody of the children.
GRACE: Yes.
T. MCCOMB: And they told him all he had was the privilege of calling them on the phone. He had no --
GRACE: OK. So, Miss McComb, was it -- did he call at the same time of the day or night every day?
T. MCCOMB: Pretty much. Pretty much.
GRACE: What time?
T. MCCOMB: About 8:00.
GRACE: 8:00 p.m.
T. MCCOMB: Yes.
GRACE: 8:00 p.m. And so how many days did he call -- I mean, how long has he been calling like this?
T. MCCOMB: Since the day that we went to court and they gave him the right to call us. And that`s --
GRACE: OK, and so -- the day that your daughter Venus is kidnapped in her pajamas, 7:00 in the morning at the mailbox, that`s the only day he has failed to call his daughters?
T. MCCOMB: Right. And he`s still calling our house. I don`t talk to him. I just pick the phone up and put it down.
GRACE: OK. How far away is his apartment? How many hours is it away from you in Michigan?
T. MCCOMB: I`ve never droven (sic) there myself, but I`ve heard it`s like 10 hours.
GRACE: OK. Now, he says, Miss McComb, that he has two eyewitnesses that will place him in Virginia, right?
T. MCCOMB: Right.
GRACE: OK. Who are they? Who are these eyewitnesses?
T. MCCOMB: I have no idea.
GRACE: OK. Let me go back to the reporters. Ellie Jostad, where does he say he was? It`s nine hours away.
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER, COVERING STORY: Yes. He does indeed say that he was in Newport News, Virginia. He says that he has two witnesses that know he was there. He hasn`t told us who those witnesses are, but he says he had two witnesses that have talked to police that can verify that he was there in Newport News.
GRACE: Did he agree to talk to any producers on our show, Ellie?
JOSTAD: Well, he`s spoken on the phone, yes. With our producers.
GRACE: Yes. But he wouldn`t tell who the alibi witnesses are.
JOSTAD: Right, he didn`t give those names.
GRACE: Would he give us a specific -- I was at a bar having a drink or I was at Denny`s having a grand slam at 7:00 in the morning, or I was at work?
JOSTAD: No. We do not have that specific information.
GRACE: OK. Got it. Back to Miss McComb.
Miss McComb, what does he do for a living?
T. MCCOMB: He`s a truck driver.
GRACE: So he sets his own schedule.
T. MCCOMB: Yes.
GRACE: So he doesn`t have to punch a clock or be anywhere at any particular time, yes, no?
T. MCCOMB: Well, yes -- well, he`s a -- he delivers food service like to restaurants and stuff.
GRACE: OK.
T. MCCOMB: So yes, he has to be pretty much on schedule or they want to know where he`s at.
GRACE: All right. Because he`s got to make those deliveries.
T. MCCOMB: I worked in restaurants all my life, yes.
GRACE: Unless he has somebody else --
T. MCCOMB: I`ve worked (INAUDIBLE) all my life.
GRACE: Unless he has somebody else make those deliveries for him. Right?
T. MCCOMB: Possibly.
GRACE: Do you know was he working the day your daughter went missing?
T. MCCOMB: No, I don`t know that.
GRACE: OK. Let`s go out to Paul Penzone, director, Prevention Programs, Childhelp.org, former sergeant, Phoenix PD.
Paul, what do you make of this? Number one, I would check the E-Z passes -- that`s what they call them in some states -- the tolls between Virginia and Michigan. And I would immediately get every single photograph, put an APB on both of these vehicles to see if he traveled back and forth.
But people these days are not idiots. All right? You know that there is video and camera surveillance all along the interstates now.
PAUL PENZONE, DIRECT OF PREVENTION PROGRAMS, CHILDHELP.ORG, FMR. SERGEANT, PHOENIX PD: Absolutely. You know, we educate them oftentimes too much, to our detriment, but you`re looking at a pretty broad timeframe. At least 20 hours of travel.
I mean if you`re looking if he`s the one, conducting some surveillance before he actually abducted her, people need to be remember that you don`t have to be a witness to a crime at the scene. You can be a witness prior to the crime or after that are critical to finding out who`s possible.
So the community really needs to pay attention to those details. And what you pointed out, those areas of travel are all going to have some type of surveillance or other methods of technology that might help identify where he was if he was involved in this.
GRACE: OK. Dana -- point well taken, Paul Penzone.
Put up the map. We`re talking about from between Michigan -- rural Michigan -- to Virginia. This would have been the route. He says he has two eyewitnesses. Then why have police named him a person of interest?
Unleash the lawyers. Randy Kessler, defense attorney, Atlanta, Alan Ripka, defense attorney in New York.
Randy Kessler, don`t you think if he didn`t have anything to hide he would be cooperating fully and be open about where he was? I mean I know where I was this morning at 7:00 a.m. I know exactly where I am every morning at 7:0 a.m.
RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, the best decision he made was to have a lawyer. He obviously had connections with lawyers. He`s been through three or four restraining orders. A divorce. And I`m sure his lawyer is saying, you keep it under wraps and we`ll talk privately.
But look, if they`re naming him the --
GRACE: Put Kessler up. Put Kessler up. They have two little girls in common, ages 3 and 5.
Kessler, I happen to know for a fact that you and Ripka have children. So even if you are estranged from your wife, it is the mother of your children. Don`t you think that you would want to fully cooperate in finding the mother? Your children`s mother? As opposed to lawyering up?
I mean, why wouldn`t he tell our show where he was? Why wouldn`t he say, I was at Denny`s having a grand slam. I was at McDonald`s having an egg McMuffin.
I mean why can`t he tell us that?
KESSLER: One doesn`t exclude the other. You don`t have to not hire a lawyer to be able to help find your children. But certainly when you are the person that`s going to be looked at, when you got this family violence issue, and you are the sole suspect you need a lawyers.
GRACE: Well, you know --
KESSLER: That doesn`t --
GRACE: Alan Ripka, to me, that`s all the more reason you want to put it out there and rule yourself out immediately so cops can focus on the correct perpetrator.
ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, what`s amazing here is the person who did this would have been -- had to have been outside the house surveying the house. It`s unlikely that her husband would be out there for hours hoping she walked out to the mailbox just in time to kidnap her.
GRACE: Really?
RIPKA: More likely -- it`s more likely someone driving by.
GRACE: You think so?
RIPKA: Yes.
GRACE: Because, Ellie Jostad, what exactly did the neighbor see?
JOSTAD: Well, Nancy, there is a neighbor who said -- and this is a neighbor that lives about a thousand feet away from the home where she was abducted. She said that she saw a white male crouching behind a light-colored, four-door pickup truck, and she says that -- you know she looked again five minutes later, the truck was gone.
GRACE: To Debbie in Wyoming. What`s your question, dear?
DEBBIE, CALLER FROM WYOMING: Hi, Nancy. How are you tonight?
GRACE: I`m good, dear.
DEBBIE: I just want to let you know my mom Harriet Crystal and I never miss your show. We think you`re awesome.
GRACE: Thank you, Debbie. I`ve been to Wyoming a couple of times. It`s one of the prettiest country in the world.
DEBBIE: Yes.
GRACE: You`re blessed.
DEBBIE: It is.
GRACE: What is your country, love?
DEBBIE: You know, I have questions but it just breaks my heart to hear those parents, and I just can`t do it. So I just want to send our prayers out to them. And tell them that we`re praying every day that she comes home to her two children.
GRACE: Therese McComb and her husband, I know, appreciate that.
Everyone, we`re taking your calls live. As we go to break, we remember two fallen heroes killed in the line of duty, Nevada officer, Ian Deutch, and Louisiana officer, J.R. Searcy. Both serving Afghanistan, both canine officers.
Twenty-seven-year-old Ian Deutch gunned down during a domestic dispute in front of the Lakeside Casino. Deputy Searcy, just finishing a 12- hour shift, shot to death after volunteering to back up another deputy on a call. He also saved the life of a mother of three donating his organs.
Deutch leaves behind grieving widow Vicky, children Savannah and John. Searcy leaves behind grieving widow Carrie, children Justin, Megan, Nick.
Deputy Ian Deutch and Deputy J.R. Searcy. Good night, friends.
