NG transcripts from last night 1/24/2011 <snipped>
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1101/24/ng.01.html NANCY GRACE, HOST: I am hearing in my ear that the body of Elizabeth Ennen, just 15 years old, went to babysit, never was seen again. Then grainy surveillance video emerges of her being forced into a local motel and then back out into the parking lot a couple of hours later.
The perpetrator in that video, the father, the daddy of the little children she was babysitting. In the last 15 minutes, we learned her body has been found.
Out to Stephanie Berzinski, reporter, KAMC, joining us from Lubbock.
Stephanie, what happened?
STEPHANIE BERZINSKI, REPORTER, CNN AFFILIATE KAMC: Nancy, we were just informed about 30 minutes ago by police that they discovered a body in northwest Lubbock County. It`s actually about 20 miles from where Elizabeth was first abducted.
GRACE: To Michael Board, WOAI Newsradio joining us out of San Antonio. So the fact that the cops first labeled her a runaway, people saw her in a parking lot. If they had known she was kidnapped. If they had ever seen her face before, that lady would have stopped this guy.
MICHAEL BOARD, REPORTER, WOAI NEWSRADIO: And what`s tragic in this case, Nancy, is we know she went missing on the 5th. The next day, they went to her house to talk to her mom. She wasn`t there. They finally interviewed her mom on January 7th. It wasn`t until the 20th that they interviewed this guy, Humberto Salinas.
What happened for two weeks? What were the police doing for two weeks that they were not looking at, you know, footage from this motel. Shouldn`t that have been one of the first things they did in this case? Because they knew that she was there. Why not check the security camera footage in that motel. What were they doing for two weeks?
GRACE: Ellie Jostad, what do you know?
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE CHIEF EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Police are telling us that they cannot yet confirm that this is her. Obviously, they are going to need to do an autopsy, I.D. the body. But they say there are local reports saying that this is the body of a young female found just outside of Lubbock. It`s about 13 miles or so northwest of her home near the town of Shallow Water, Nancy.
GRACE: Well, Ellie, how many dead girls are there in Lubbock? Are you telling me that there`s more than her that we don`t know who the girl`s body is? It could be another missing girl`s body?
JOSTAD: Right. That`s not what I am telling you at all, Nancy. But it`s the usual scenario where police tell us they do have a body but they won`t tell us who that body is right now.
GRACE: Take it from the top, Ellie, what happened?
JOSTAD: OK. Well, this is January 4th, going into the morning of January 5th. Elizabeth is babysitting for some family friends, it is a friend of her mother`s, his wife, their children. She was -- some say she was dating. Her family says it wasn`t really a dating scenario. She called it kind of liked their eldest son.
She`s babysitting for them. She never comes home that night. Now according to the suspect, he says that she wanted to go home at about 1:00. He bundled up the little kids, took them in the car, dropped her off, he says he saw her open the screen door and, you know, start to go inside her house.
But her family says she never got inside. Now police uncovered a surveillance video that tells a different story about what happened that night.
GRACE: Michael Board, go through the surveillance video. What do you see on the surveillance video?
BOARD: It`s totally creepy when you first know the way that Salinas talked to police. When Salinas was interviewed by police he says, I love this girl. She`s like a daughter to me. And then, on the surveillance video, what we are told you see on this, is he -- you know forcing her back into the hotel room.
She tried to run at one point.. He grabbed her by the arm and forced her back into his motel room. At another point, you can see on the video, he is chasing her down the hallway and corners her.
Is that the way you treat a girl that you tell police, no, she`s like a daughter to me. It just doesn`t make sense, Nancy.
GRACE: Pick it up at the beginning, Liz. Let`s go through what we know about that video, grain surveillance video emerges and we learn what happened before this girl went missing.
A 15-year-old girl, Elizabeth Ennen, goes to babysit, at 6:18 p.m. She enters the hotel -- the motel with Humberto Salinas to babysit his children. He leaves with his wife and her sister, like 30 minutes later. 10:48 that night, he returns alone. It`s nearly 11:00. 11:47, the girl exits, walks down the hallway in a hurry carrying her shoes, trying to put her coat on.
He chases her. He returns her back, forcing her into the motel room. His arm under her jacket. This is midnight. Salinas and Ennen exit the room. He forces her into a hallway corner, grabbing her arm. The vehicle leaves the parking lot 12:01 a.m. Just 30 minutes later, he is back. Four minutes later, he leaves.
BOARD: Quick.
GRACE: Thirty minutes later, back to the hotel room. 1:23 a.m., he leaves the hotel room with his two young children. 2:00 a.m., he returns with wife, sister-in-law and children. 2:04, walks to the south entrance and meets Ennen`s mother. They walk into the motel room.
OK, what was the mother doing there, Michael Board?
BOARD: The mother, she -- we know that at one point that Salinas came back to Elizabeth`s home to drop off her purse. He said, you know, Elizabeth left her purse in my car. Here, I was bringing this back. And her mom says, well, she wasn`t here.
And at that point, Salinas, from what we`re told, told the mother, well, she might have -- she might be with my son. I know they were dating. So, you know, I`m sure there was a point where the mom was trying to --
GRACE:
But they weren`t dating.
BOARD:
Well, that`s what --
GRACE:
And they were not dating. Let`s just clear this. So you`re saying that`s what he said.
BOARD:
Salinas said that she might have -- Elizabeth might have run away with her son. That`s where we`re getting all this runaway talk. That`s why police originally thought this was a runaway. Because Salinas told Elizabeth`s mother that Elizabeth might have run away with her son.
GRACE: OK. Back to Stephanie Berzinski, joining us out of Lubbock, Texas. Explain to me what the woman in the parking lot, the footage we got of the lady in the parking lot, what she observed?
BERZINSKI: Nancy, she actually spotted Elizabeth and Salinas just last week, last Monday actually, outside that West Lubbock, Dollar General store. And she said she immediately noticed that there`s older man holding tightly to this young little girl and described her as walking robot-like.
She said the look in her eyes was just complete fear. And she -- for whatever reason, she said she was uncomfortable with stepping in between. But she hadn`t -- she didn`t know that that girl was even listed as a runaway until the following day when our story aired.
GRACE: We are talking your calls out to Pam in Florida. Hi, Pam.
PAM, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Hi. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear, what`s your question?
PAM: Well, let me tell you, I just wanted to thank you for all the things you do for the mothers and the parents of these children. The one thing I wanted to ask is -- and the thing that you`ve been showing tonight, do these kids have --
GRACE: I`m sorry. I couldn`t hear you. Could you start over, dear?
PAM: Yes. I just wanted to thank you for all that you do for all these children and their parents. And I wanted to ask you, do these kids have computers in their bedrooms and do their parents know their passwords?
GRACE: Good question. What do we know, Stephanie Berzinski?
BERZINSKI: I do know that Elizabeth did have a cell phone, did have Internet use. I do not know whether or not the mother had a password. But she`s a very protective mother. She kept a good eye on Elizabeth. And she even told us Elizabeth had baby-sat numerous times before for Humberto Salinas and the family.
GRACE: To Peter Elikan and Carmen St. George. Peter, defense attorney out of Boston, Carmen, in New York.
Peter Elikan, it`s lethal injection in Lubbock. This is a grown man. He is the father, the daddy of the children she was babysitting.
PETER ELIKAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes. If this could all be proved against him, and certainly the evidence is starting to stack up a bit in early observations. He`s certainly facing the death penalty.
I don`t know why people commit crimes knowing there is video cameras everywhere anymore in this day and age. But if they do have them on there and the evidence is strong against them, maybe he should think about a deal to save his life, if they`ll even offer him one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ENNEN: The last thing she told me when I talked to her was that she loved me.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Now, police are charging 45-year-old Humberto Salinas, Jr. with aggravated kidnapping in her disappearance.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Surveillance video at a local motel allegedly shows --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Missing 15-year-old Elizabeth Ennen.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- being kidnapped and forced into room 113 at the Carriage House Motel, chased into a corner and finally forced into a parking lot.
BOSWELL: My first impression was, oh, my gosh, that beautiful little girl, why is she with that man? He is so old. The next day, I seen the little girl`s picture flashed up and I just -- that`s her, that`s the little girl that I seen.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: 45-year-old Humberto Salinas Jr. is now behind bars charged with aggravated kidnapping.
ENNEN: Yes, I`ve met him before and he didn`t mean -- he seemed to be nice.
BOSWELL: What I seen coming from over here, when I parked, coming from over here was an older man and a young girl. And my first impression was, oh, my gosh, that beautiful little girl. Why is she with that man? He is so old.
I noticed the little girl was really, really, really stiff. I mean she was walking stiff, almost robot-like. Later on that next day, I seen the little girl`s picture flashed up. And I just -- that`s her. That`s the little girl that I seen. That`s her. That`s the little girl.
It didn`t look to me like she was a runaway. Because a runaway can do -- you know come and go as they please. This child was almost hostage like. And he put her in the car like a bag of garbage. You know he just like threw her in there.
I want to choke him. I want him to tell her mother where she is at, her mother has lived so many weeks without her daughter. She needs her daughter.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls out to Laura in North Carolina. Hi, Laura.
LAURA, CALLER FROM NORTH CAROLINA: Hi, Nancy. I have two questions. First of all, the lady that was just speaking who said that she seen the look of fear and him putting her in the car at the Dollar General, why did she not contact the police immediately? I mean --
GRACE: You know what, Laura, that was my question, too, when I was calling for that sound earlier to point out if I saw that, I would call police. I guess there is the general feeling out there that if it`s your child, you can abuse them.
What about it, Caryn Stark?
CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: You hit the nail on the head, Nancy. I feel like people get afraid because they seem to believe that the person is connected. And yet really, nobody should be out there abusing a child. So why not take the risk?
Why not go forward and say, this doesn`t look good to me. If somebody says, you made a mistake. So you made a mistake. At least you erred on the side of caution.
GRACE: OK, Liz, can I go out on a limb and ask for that sound again? All right, here we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOSWELL: What I seen coming from over here when I parked, coming from over here was an older man and a young girl. And my first impression was, oh, my gosh, that beautiful little girl, why is she with that man? He is so old.
I noticed the little girl was really, really, really stiff. I mean, she is walking stiff, almost robot-like. Later on the next day, I seen the little girl`s picture flashed up. And I just -- that`s her. That`s the little girl that I seen. That`s her. That`s the little girl.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To CW Jensen, Portland Police captain, retired.
CW, a lot of people always ask, why didn`t she run?
CW JENSEN, RETIRED PORTLAND POLICE CAPTAIN: Oh, many times children, and we see it a lot of times, when someone exerts a lot of control over them and fear. This poor little girl was assaulted, held against her will. They just give up. They give up and hope if I do what they say, I won`t get hurt.
And as we see in this case, and many other cases, that isn`t what happens. It just -- the violence just gets worse and worse and worse and escalates.
And to your point, if you see someone and it makes you visceral, it makes you scared or it makes you sick, that`s when you need to call the police. We all see things every day that seem goofy but when you see something that seems as just bizarre as this woman is describing, she really should have dropped the dime to 911.
GRACE: To Dr. Howard Oliver, former deputy medical examiner, forensic pathologist joining us out of L.A. Motels can be a very complicated scene to process. Why?
HOWARD OLIVER, FMR. DEPUTY MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: The thing that would complicate the scene there is that it`s cleaned daily or it`s supposed to be cleaned daily. There are multiple inhabitants at different times. So there would be a lot of DNA evidence. A lot of the evidence would be contaminated or even destroyed.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Peter Elikan, Carmen St. George. Carmen St. George, defense attorney in New York, Peter Elikan, defense attorney, author of "Super Predators," joining us out of Boston.
Carmen, there is going to be no way around this. You know I remembered so many times saying to a jury, what else do you want? You want to see it on video? Well, this time, it is on video.
CARMEN ST. GEORGE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, I think one of the strongest things also that they have are observations of people who saw him in her custody. And also, he went in to the police voluntarily and made statements without representation of counsel. So whatever admissions he made are going to be a part of this investigation and probably a basis for establishing charges against him.
GRACE: What about it, Peter?
ELIKAN: Yes, I think the statements that he made, and I understand he made some statements that he may have already been caught in a lie. I think he mentioned that he was -- actually dropped her off with his children in the car, too, went along for the ride because he didn`t want to leave them alone in the hotel room.
But now witnesses are saying that he was, you know, escorting her out and driving her away by himself. So he`s already locked himself into a story. And he really started jabbing away to the police way too soon for his own good.
GRACE: But, you know -- back to you, Ellie Jostad, it may have been more complicated than we know. There may have been much more of a chance to save her than we know because they`ve got him on that surveillance video the night she was babysitting his children. But now we see her popping up at the Dollar General.
JOSTAD: Right, Nancy. And the other thing to keep in mind here, too, is that this suspect has a lengthy criminal history. He`s got a 1986 conviction for injury to a child. He`s got a conviction from just a couple of years ago for allegedly abusing his wife. He`s got a couple of DUIs, some theft charges. It`s not a good history for this man.
GRACE: To Micki in Texas. Hi, Micki.
MICKI, CALLER FROM TEXAS: Hi, Nancy, how are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear, what`s your question?
MICKI: Nancy, this is in my stomach.
GRACE: Me, too.
MICKI: I feel like this little girl could have been saved if that lady would have just spoken up, just went over there to that little girl and asked her if she was OK.
My question is, where was this man`s wife supposedly?
GRACE: The wife. Where was the wife? OK.
To Stephanie Berzinski, where was the wife during all this? I know she played bingo or something with her sister or was with her sister for a period of time, but then she came back home.
BERZINSKI: Nancy, can you repeat that? I can`t hear you. I`m sorry.
GRACE: Ellie, where was the wife?
JOSTAD: He actually went that night to go play bingo. The wife, you`re right, did go out with her sister. That`s why they hired a baby- sitter.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Family friend, 45-year-old Humberto Salinas Jr. is now behind bars. When Virginia Ennen told him Elizabeth had never stepped inside, Salinas even offered his help to find her.
ENNEN: I was like, you`re kidding me. He took off looking around the neighborhood and looking anywhere and everywhere we could think of.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining us right now is her aunt, Elizabeth`s aunt, Lily Huckabee.
Miss Huckabee, I am so sorry.
LILY HUCKABEE, AUNT OF ELIZABETH ENNEN, GIRL BELIEVED TO BE DEAD: Thank you.
GRACE: So sorry.
HUCKABEE: I just want to thank the people who sent us prayers, thoughts, was willing to help. And just thank you so much for you all`s time and effort.
GRACE: Miss Huckabee, how is her family? They must be just devastated.
HUCKABEE: Yes, ma`am. We`re trying to get her mother under some sedation. She`s just -- she`s lost it. She`s a basket case right now.
GRACE: Miss Huckabee, who were these people? Who was Humberto Salinas? What connection did he have to the family?
HUCKABEE: His wife, common-law wife, had been with the family since she was 15. She is 28 now. For several -- I mean, several years.
GRACE: So her mother probably thought nothing about her going to baby-sit.
With me on the phone, Lily Huckabee, this is Elizabeth`s aunt. If you have information about what happened, 806-741-1000. Our prayers with Elizabeth`s family.
