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NANCY GRACE

X-Ray Machines Used in Search of Baby Lisa`s Home

Aired October 20, 2011 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, GUEST HOST: Breaking news tonight out of America`s heartland in the search for a 10-month-old girl who vanishes from her own crib in the dead of night. Her dad works the night shift, then comes home to find baby Lisa gone. The last person to see her alive, her own mom.

After baby Lisa`s mom admits she was drunk, blacking out the night baby Lisa disappears, Mommy then changes her story. The last time she sees her baby now 6:40 PM, not 10:30 PM. That`s a full four hours` difference.

And in a bombshell development, a major raid goes down at the crime scene, the home where baby Lisa vanishes without a trace. For 17 hours -- 17 hours! -- the FBI, cops, a bomb and arson team and CSI in hazmat suits work into the wee hours of the night, combing over every square inch of the family home and yard. They even bring in a high-tech X-ray machine. And before it`s all over, investigators leave with multiple bags of evidence, including a big carpet, evidence that cops confirm is significant in the search for 10-month-old baby Lisa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH BRADLEY, MOTHER: We went around house and we`re screaming for her!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The window just on the edge of the house there, they had found open.

BRADLEY: And she was nowhere!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Snatched from her own crib.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A search warrant was issued.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A large team of people in the back yard using shovels and rakes to search an area behind a shed in the back yard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are they looking for?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it would be pretty obvious if there was a large area of ground moved, if there was anything buried or anything like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is such a different level of search here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby`s mother, Deborah Bradley, was the last person to see Lisa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are we focusing on Debbie? We should be focusing on her!

BRADLEY: The only thing I can think of is, you know, maybe somebody wanted a baby and she -- I hope that`s what it is!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in tonight for Nancy Grace. A major raid into the wee hours of the night at the home of 10-month-old baby Lisa, reported missing from her own crib.

Straight out to CNN correspondent Jim Spellman, live on the scene. Jim, tell us about this overnight search at the family home.

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a 17-hour search, Jane, inside the house. They focused on using X-ray equipment. We saw them go in multiple times, probably over 100 times, with these black panels, about three feet by two feet. We now know that those are used as X-ray equipment that came in the bomb squad vehicle.

We don`t know specifically what they were looking for here, but in general, those are used to look inside walls, inside pipes, things like that. That`s this kind of high-tech specialized search, an intense search that we saw all day here yesterday.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, Eleanor Odom, senior attorney, National District Attorneys Association, you know how prosecutors work. You know how authorities work. What are they looking for when they go into a house dressed in those white outfits, stay there for 17 hours, and they`re using X-ray equipment to examine walls, pipes and floorboards?

ELEANOR ODOM, NATIONAL DISTRICT ATTORNEYS ASSOC.: Jane, they`re looking for any type of forensic evidence -- for instance, maybe skin, blood, those are two things, perhaps -- you hate to say it, but body parts, any bits of bone, anything like that. So this is an excellent way to do that search without damaging the home, for example. You don`t want to rip out every single wall, so they`re doing it in a slow, methodical way, and I think this is great.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, C.W. Jensen, retired Portland police captain, they`ve been in the home before. But this is the very first time that they obtained a search warrant, the contents of which we have not seen. They are not releasing that. But normally, a search warrant affidavit, they`ve got to list their theory of the case. They`ve got to list what they`re looking for.

What do you make of this, really an army, an army of law enforcement going in, in these white suits, and spending 17 hours there?

C.W. JENSEN, RETIRED PORTLAND POLICE CAPTAIN: Well, what they`re doing now is what I would have done. Initially, when they went in there, they had some cooperation from the parents. But now, as they start focusing on the parents, maybe specifically the mother, they want to get a search warrant because they don`t want, in the future, when they go to court, to have the argument that the parents were pressured into cooperating.

So I would do exactly what they`re doing. You get a search warrant, and it spells out exactly the probable cause, why they probably think there`s evidence of this crime there.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, but Dr. Vincent Dimaio -- you`re a former chief medical examiner -- isn`t it a little too late? I mean, the child disappeared October 3rd. That`s weeks ago. Anything that was there, couldn`t they have cleaned up by now?

DR. VINCENT DIMAIO, FMR. CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER: Sure. They`re not look for trace evidence. They`re looking for a body. I mean, they don`t want to tear the walls out. They want to see if there`s a body, body parts. That`s why they`re in the back yard raking, also. They`re looking for a body. They`ve given up on -- well, they suspect the mother, or at a minimum, and so they`re looking for a body.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Alexis Tereszcuk, senior reporter, Radaronline, I want to talk a little bit about the money problems that reports now indicate this family may have had. Specifically, their cell phone was turned off because they hadn`t paid their cell phone bill. And the dad is working a second job. He`s an electrician. And he takes this overnight job at a Starbucks. Now, there is surveillance video of him apparently working at the Starbucks.

What do you know about their money problems? All right, I guess -- can you hear me?

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Guess what? We can`t hear you -- OK, guess what, Alexis? Now we can hear you. And what you have to say is important, so take it away again.

ALEXIS TERESZCUK, RADARONLINE.COM: OK. OK. So starting with the cell phones, you`re absolutely right, they were not able to pay the bills. Only the dad works. The mom doesn`t work. She doesn`t have a job. She doesn`t even have a driver`s license, so he had to take a second job. This was the very first night that he ever did the overnight shift. But he needed -- they needed the money.

But they also have had -- you know, they live in a town that isn`t very -- it`s not very fancy, but they were definitely struggling through these times.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and maybe that`s why she was reportedly on anti- anxiety meds. Paula Bloom, clinical psychologist, she went and bought a box of wine earlier on in the evening, and then she comes home with a box of wine, with the baby food and the baby wipes, and then puts the child to the crib and puts the child asleep at about 6:40. And then proceeds to drink on a stoop with her neighbor until at least 10:30. That`s when the neighbor goes home.

But now we`re also hearing that she was on anti-anxiety meds, as well, which my understanding, that`s like super-sizing the booze, right, at least five glasses plus anti-anxiety meds. What does that do to your brain?

PAULA BLOOM, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: I mean, yes, I mean, they potentiate each other. I mean, listen, a lot of times people are under a lot so stress, and one of the things people go to -- and I know you know, you talk about this in your book. People want to medicate feelings away and pain away, and alcohol does a very good job. It has its own consequences, but it does a very good job of not feeling things, right? It gets worse and worse as you take more and more.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, of course.

BLOOM: And then you have the anti-anxiety medication, which for -- depending what medication they were on, can be very highly addictive, as well. So yes, the two together -- usually, it`s contraindicated to take the two.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, you`re not supposed to. And that`s a fancy way of saying when you`re taking anti-anxiety meds, you`re not supposed to be drinking any wine, much less at least five glasses, much less when you`re watching an innocent, helpless, beautiful child like this. I mean, this is extraordinary to me that all of this is going on at the same time.

Now, I want to bring in the attorneys, Renee Rockwell and Peter Odom. Renee, we`re not calling the mother a suspect. The cops haven`t called the mother a suspect. She`s brought attention on herself, however, because she`s the one who went out and told everybody that cops told her that she failed a polygraph test. She`s the one who went out and said she`s afraid that she`s going to be arrested.

We don`t know what happened. We`re not calling her a suspect. Why do you think she`s bringing this attention on herself?

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, that`s an interesting question. More interesting is the fact that she would have even said that she failed the polygraph because I think the police are saying that she did not.

What I think is important, that she manned up and even took the polygraph, Jane, because that`s not anything someone that`s got anything to hide would have just manned up and did. So I`m impressed by the fact that she`s at least cooperating.

She needs two (ph) lawyers, though, to shut her down and keep her quiet because she`s making statements that are not going to help her in the end.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. As a matter of fact, she has said that she believes that cops have a theory that there was an accident and she covered it up. That`s in a "People" magazine article.

Peter Odom, again, the cops aren`t talking. The cops aren`t saying, Here`s our theory. She is the one saying, Hey, there`s a theory out there -- is she hurting herself, or does she have some sort of brilliant strategy?

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I don`t think she has a strategy, and of course, that`s why she needs a lawyer. But Jane, I disagree when you say the cops aren`t talking. By this search, by going to that home with hazmat suits, by going to that home with X-rays, they are saying, We are starting from scratch again.

This is not a specific search for a body part or for trace evidence. This is the police searching every floorboard, carpet and closet in that home. They`re starting over again. And indeed, they do have a new theory, and it has to do with the mother.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. You want to elaborate on that?

PETER ODOM: Sure. Generally, when the police do a search -- most searches that police do pursuant to a search warrant are for specific things. Sometimes when the police do a search, they`re just searching for anything they can get their hands on that might be evidence of a crime.

In this case, with a 17-hour search, which is a very long search by anybody`s standards, with X-ray machines -- they took out 17 bags of evidence, from what I understand. They are looking for anything at all that might help them solve this mystery, trace evidence...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes and...

PETER ODOM: ... body parts, fluids, anything, weapons. They don`t know what they`re looking for. They`re just looking for anything.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I can tell you that Captain Steve Young has told us that they found items of evidentiary value in the search of the home. He wouldn`t go into detail, but he is saying that they found items of evidentiary value in the search of the home.

So I guess my big question is, what happens next? And I`m going to throw that out to C.W. Jensen, retired Portland police captain. What happens next?

JENSEN: Well, I think that what people need to know is that this isn`t just a singular thing where they`re going after her. They`re looking at a whole lot of different things. So they`re going to gather this evidence and they`re going to move forward in a systematic way. This search warrant wasn`t for anything, it was for specific things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you have any tips at all, no matter how small.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A spotting of two women and a baby.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two women who were spotted...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two weeks after baby Lisa`s disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seemed suspicious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They left in a vehicle with Missouri license plates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A day of intense searching here at baby Lisa`s house.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Raiding the crime scene, the family home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Law enforcement has not lost their sense of urgency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`re looking for DNA and fingerprints.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Focus on the back yard, using shovels and rakes.

GRACE: Investigators seize the family`s computer hard drive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These parents are not particularly sophisticated people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Deborah Bradley, who admits she was drinking the night Lisa vanished and possibly even blacked out.

GRACE: The family has been booted. They cannot come back into the home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The community coming together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re just hoping for a tip that somebody somewhere finds her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is the baby? Seriously, where`s the baby?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s still no sign, though, of the missing baby.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still no sign of baby Lisa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`re concerned about the whereabouts of baby Lisa.

BRADLEY: Just please bring her home!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jane Velez-Mitchell, in tonight for Nancy Grace. Where is baby Lisa? This adorable, angelic child has been missing about 17 days. And cops just spent 17 hours going through the home from which she disappeared.

Straight out to NANCY GRACE producer Matt Zarrell. Give us a detailed outline of what they were doing in and around the house, and what they took out of the house.

MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: OK. Cops arrived at about 8:30 in the morning, a slew of cops, 15 to 20, including CSI and FBI investigators and search dogs. They start searching in the house. They start searching around the house. They focused on the back yard. They start looking behind a shed and start digging with rakes and shovels. They also had a ladder in there.

After a couple of hours, a bomb squad is brought in. Now, the bomb squad has X-ray technology that allows them to search in walls and the floorboards. Maybe they`re looking for DNA forensics. Maybe they`re even looking for baby Lisa`s body. Cops haven`t confirmed yet.

Then throughout the nearly 17 hours of searching, we see cops go out with bag after bag after bag of evidence, brown paper bags of evidence, clear plastic bags of evidence, all going into police vans. We don`t know what evidence was contained in there, but cops have confirmed with us tonight that items of evidentiary value were found during the search.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And the most interesting one to me, the giant carpet that they took out. Are they going to be testing that carpet to see if there are bloodstains or any kind of DNA, DNA on that carpet?

Listen, this case has transfixed the nation, the phone lines lighting up. Let`s go straight to the phones. Robbi, Louisiana, your question or thought, Robbi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, Jane. I`m calling...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... because, first of all, I`ve been in law enforcement all my life, and I find this woman`s story so farfetched, it`s just unbelievable. And I`ve never known in all of my career of a criminal taking a baby and only three -- and three cell phones. I mean, that just makes no sense whatsoever.

However, there is word that I`ve heard, a call was made on one of the cell phones around 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. Do we know who this call was made to? Also, the neighbor or friend, whoever it was that was drinking at her house with her -- has that person submitted to a polygraph? And did the father submit to a polygraph and pass?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, you`ve got enough questions to keep a police department busy, but we`re going to try to answer some of them.

First of all, Jim Spellman, I haven`t heard anything in published reports about any phone calls being made. I do know that they went to the home of the neighbor who was drinking with the mother of the missing child, and they did take items out of the home.

But what do you know about some of the questions that have been raised by this caller?

SPELLMAN: A few days ago, dogs were -- with investigators went into the home of the next-door neighbor of baby Lisa`s house. And yesterday, that same next-door neighbor was out in the front, speaking with investigators. The block was closed off to the media, so we had to watch this from about three houses away. But she came out multiple times to speak with investigators. We don`t know about what, and we didn`t see investigators go into her home yesterday. But it is adjacent to the driveway where all the investigators had set up their command center yesterday.

She`ll definitely be key in this investigation because for about an almost four-hour time period, she was with Deborah Bradley right on the front stoop drinking, according to Deborah Bradley herself.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and to me the big question is, when did somebody who is not a member of the family last see this child? The mother goes to get a box of wine and proceeds to get drunk, and she says she put the child to sleep at 6:40.

But Alexis Tereszcuk, senior reporter, Radaronline, do we have any idea when somebody else who is not related to this child saw the child?

TERESZCUK: No, we don`t. It seems like the mother was the last one to see the child. The neighbor has not spoken publicly, but she has not said that she saw the child, either. It seems like 6:30 was the last time anyone saw her, but it was a family member. No strangers. The baby wasn`t in the market. either.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The police dispatch tapes from the moment police first got a call about Lisa disappearing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Residential burglary in progress on (INAUDIBLE) And their 10-month-old daughter is missing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That call initiates the intense search for Lisa Irwin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Law enforcement has not lost their sense of urgency on this issue.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they were outside that Kansas City home with shovels.

BRADLEY: I said, What do you mean she`s not in her crib? And I just knew, you know, that something was really wrong!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family, on the other hand, and their representatives are treating this as if it`s some kind of a garden party.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The changing of the story is concerning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don`t have that sense of urgency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The one thing we know for certain, still no sign of baby Lisa over two weeks after she disappeared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jane Velez-Mitchell, in for Nancy Grace. The child`s been missing for about 17 days, and for the last 12 days, cops say the family, the parents are not cooperating with them, have refused to sit down for a no-holds-barred interview. Now, the cops are not calling this mother a suspect. They say they have no suspects, no persons of interest.

But interestingly enough, the mother, the woman you see crying there, is the one bringing attention upon herself. She has said publicly that cops told her she failed a polygraph. And she has also said in a "People" magazine article that cops presented them with a theory that the child was accidentally harmed and that Deborah Bradley panicked, the mother panicked, and tried to cover it up, something they strongly deny.

Renee Rockwell, defense attorney, if this mother is innocent -- and I`m not presuming she`s anything but -- why is she running around, bringing attention on herself with -- telling "People" magazine about theories that the cops had that she did something accidentally to her child?

ROCKWELL: You know why she`s doing it? Because she obviously doesn`t have a lawyer that`s trying to shut this down. She needs to say nothing. And I don`t care if you call her a suspect or a person of interest, look at what`s going on right now, 17 hours in the house? And people are talking about X-ray machines and -- the reason why all this is happening is because the FBI stepped in, and they`re allowing the resources and they`re using these resources to help them crack this case. So it`s time for her to be quiet.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, but Eleanor Odom -- I would agree with you, but Eleanor Odom, she does have a high-powered attorney, Joe Tacopina of Joran Van Der Sloot fame, and he`s holding news conferences. And still, the articles are coming out in "People."

ELEANOR ODOM: She keeps talking and talking. And Jane, I want to refute what Renee said earlier. She`s not manning up. She`s not rushing out there, giving a bunch of information to the police. Let`s call it what it is, Jane. She is a liar! She didn`t tell the police from the very beginning that she was kicked back on her front porch drinking a box of wine. So we know she`s lied from the very beginning. So what else is she lying about?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m wondering if maybe they obtained another search warrant, went back to look for more evidence. The fact that they have marked police cars -- normally, to secure a scene...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, the recovery of baby Lisa is not the number one priority of her parents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The investigation is focused on finding that baby. Time is so crucial here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Try to find baby Lisa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can`t take anyone off the table as a possible suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Binge drinking with benzodiazepine which caused a blackout.

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: The neighborhood, a quiet family residential area.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a tunnel, sort of a drainage tunnel. But there`s things like that throughout the whole neighborhood that investigators have to search.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Evidence that there`s a window that`s tampered with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very dark in this neighborhood. The street lights don`t create a really bright environment. It`s not a grid kind of neighborhood. It`s a neighborhood where there`s hills and rolling corners.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Difficult terrain, dense woods.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Where is the baby?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jane Velez-Mitchell in for Nancy Grace.

Where is baby Lisa? She`s been missing for about 17 days. Cops went through the missing baby`s family home for 17 hours carrying out bags and bags of evidence they say they have found evidentiary value evidence. Now the question is, what happened? It remains a complete and total mystery.

Let`s focus on the dad for a second. The dad is working an overnight shift. He is on surveillance video doing electrical work at a Starbucks, comes home at 3:45 in the morning, says he finds the whole situation very weird. The door is open or unlocked. The lights are on. A window is open. A screen is pushed in.

His wife is asleep with one of the children in the house as well as a cat who apparently had been rescued and discovered, a stray cat, and he wakes her up and says, what the heck is going on, and then she becomes alarmed. They find out the baby is missing, and then they say they go into a panic, the two of them running around and running around hysterically trying to figure out what happened.

Now I want to focus in on the dad because to me it seems like -- can we eliminate at least the father as a suspect? He is on surveillance tape working at a Starbucks. There`s surveillance tape of him. Also, he says that the cops said you don`t need to take a polygraph when he offered. Although the mother says she`s been given a polygraph and the cops told her she failed the polygraph.

So I`ll put it out to CW Jensen, retired Portland police captain. Do we need to distinguish between the mother and father as we investigate the case?

CW JENSEN, RETIRED PORTLAND POLICE CAPTAIN: Oh, absolutely. And here`s the funny thing and I don`t -- I worked a lot of homicide cases. I don`t believe in coincidences. Now the father`s working overnight for the first time. The mother knows this. And then all of a sudden she decides to get drunk on that night, and then all of a sudden this precious little baby disappears.

Jane, that`s pretty creepy to me.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, it`s interesting because you raise the issue of alcohol and I`m a recovering alcoholic, I say it all the time, 16 years of sobriety, knock on wood, I`ll make it to 17 by April. But a former friend of the mother of this missing child, Shirley Pass, has come forward, said she met Bradley when they were both army wives.

And let`s stop to say that the mother and the father of this beautiful baby are not married. They live together. But Deborah Bradley, the mother, is still married to somebody who`s in the army and who`s serving in the nation`s military, and he`s out of the picture. He`s not in the area.

So that being said, they were both military wives and this friend, this former friend, says that this mom that you`re seeing was definitely an attention hound and it was almost like she couldn`t have other friends around her because she would do things to try to cause a scene everywhere.

And this former friend also says that Deborah Bradley, the mom, liked to drink but she wasn`t a drunk.

Paula bloom, clinical psychologist, your analysis of what this former friend had to say about this woman right here.

PAULA BLOOM, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST, BLOGGER, PAULABLOOM.COM: Well, it`s actually very interesting. I had a few thoughts. Number one, we were asking ourselves in perplex why would she be talking to the media? If this is true, if this analysis, this personality assessment from her friend is true, there`s your answer. She likes the attention.

I`m not saying that that`s what`s going on. But it could kind of give us a sense of why this might be going on. The other question I had is why doesn`t she have a driver`s license? Was it taken away? Does she have a history of DUIs?

All of those kind of things are ways that you support the belief and the idea that there`s a serious drinking problem here. So I`m kind of curious. Does anybody know about that with the driver`s license?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: She doesn`t have a driver`s license and we`re going to get to that in a second. But I want to ask you a follow-up. I found it peculiar that given that her precious child disappeared on her watch she was still defending her right to drink saying, Paula, I don`t see anything wrong with having a few drinks after I put the baby to sleep. I deserve to have some, quote-unquote, adult time. What does that sound like to you?

BLOOM: Well, I mean, listen, one of the core characteristics of people who have a problem is that they don`t think they have a problem and they want to justify it.

Listen, lots of people, lots of women, it`s very stressful to be a parent, come home, have a cocktail. Not saying that`s ideal. It`s not outside the realm. But this is a very different situation. Also, one of the tendencies of people who have substance abuse problems is blame everybody else but themselves. It`s a very common kind of thing.

And you know what --

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: -- often mix pills and alcohol.

BLOOM: Right. Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And they also don`t just have a glass of wine or two. They have five and I can tell you that from personal experience.

BLOOM: Right. Right. And one of the other things I wanted to say, Jane, though, is that like so many things in life, you know, often it`s not the crime that gets us in trouble, it`s the cover-up and that is very typical. You see that a lot with substance abuse, with lots of different things. It`s the cover-up of who we are and what we do that often brings more problems than the actual offense.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think you raise a very important point. And I`ve got to go back to Renee Rockwell.

I would mention it because I don`t know what the heck happened in that house, but the mother herself is telling "People" magazine that the cops have presented her with a theory that she accidentally harmed the child and then there was a cover-up.

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That`s not a typical --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now it only makes sense because -- it only makes sense because when you`re drinking to the point where you`re blacked out, where you don`t remember whether you checked on a child at 10:30 isn`t it possible that you could have an accident?

ROCKWELL: It could and it could be possible, and they may be giving her an out. What if you had an accident and you just accidentally killed the baby, and now we`re looking for a baby that`s already dead?

Let me submit one other possibility. What if she sold this baby, OK, because of the financial problems. That is not a murder. That`s something else. So we don`t have to jump to the conclusions that she`s the one that killed this baby. There are other things that could have happened to this baby.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me say a couple of thing, Renee. First of all, Joe Tacopina is invited on. We would love to hear from him. We`d love to hear from these parents. I don`t want to jump to conclusions, certainly it`s very, very possible because it`s happened. It`s happened before.

Jessica Lunsford taken from her bedroom and brutally murdered. Elizabeth Smart taken from her bedroom. Thank god she`s safe and sound. But it has happened, even though it seems strange. There are a lot of sickos out there.

And even though this isn`t the normal age for somebody who`s a predator they usually aim for children, girls who are older. Who knows in this sick, crazy, mixed-up world with so many sickos out there, who might be out there.

I never want to presume that this mom has done this. But I think you`re raising some good point, Renee, in terms of talking about just in the realm of possibility because we`re talking about it to find this child.

Let`s go to the phones again. Denise, Maine, your question or thought, Denise.

DENISE, CALLER FROM MAINE: Hi, yes, I had similar question. I was wondering maybe because they were hard up for money if they sold the baby under the black market, or also I`m concerned about that dumpster fire that happened like 90 minutes before the call.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me go to Eleanor Odom, senior attorney, National District Attorneys Association. They`ve gotten in 500 tips and they`re following them but none of them have panned out at this point. I mean they thought they saw the child at a deli. It turned out two women just decided to leave with the baby before they finished their lunch and they created suspicion.

How do they look at other possibilities?

ELEANOR ODOM, SENIOR ATTORNEY, NATIONAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY`S ASSOCIATION, DEATH PENALTY QUALIFIED: Well, Jane, not only are they following up on these tips but they`re going to look -- that`s why they`ve gone back to the house and looking at everything.

OK, let`s say she sold her baby. Well, we`re following up on the tips of sightings of this child. That hadn`t panned out but what they did find was something of evidentiary value in the house. So what does that tell us? Something probably happened in the house.

Statistically we also know that when children are physically abused and killed, and/or killed that a lot of times it happens when there is a new change in schedule. For example, mom goes back to work for the first time or a caregiver is in charge. In this case, dad had an unusual job and was working overnight for the first time. So it`s something to consider.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE GOMEZ, REPORTER, KTRH RADIO: Mommy did have a full box of wine. Perhaps she didn`t know at what point or where she put the baby.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And the mom came back with the wine. The dad left for work for his very first overnight shift and that`s when she sat on the front porch step and drank all the wine with her neighbor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Cops have swooped back down on the family home, the so-called crime scene pursuit to a search warrant.

MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: They swarmed to the wooded area right by the home. There was a no-fly zone. There were CSI truck, technicians out there.

GOMEZ: They`re going to go through the house with a fine-tooth comb. They are looking for any evidence that someone forcibly entered that house. They are looking for hair and fiber evidence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Law enforcement officials are doing due diligence in this case. It`s a very sensitive matter.

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: It`s absolutely unbelievable because what they`re trying to do is establish the time lines so that they can launch a viable investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What she said is basically that the police were trying to trick her into admitting that she had done something to her daughter.

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The mother, Deborah, Bradley, decided to do some media interviews and start talking about this being trunk.

JAMIE, CALLER FROM ALABAMA: Right now I really want to believe the parents but as days go by it`s just not happening.

KATHRYN SMERLING, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST: In this case, the parents are not particularly sophisticated parent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let`s not castigate her. We know she made some mistakes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jane Velez-Mitchell in tonight for Nancy Grace.

Where is this beautiful, adorable, helpless -- emphasis on helpless -- child? She disappeared about 17 days ago. Now the parents say they`ll do anything to find her. But the cops are saying the one thing they really need the parents to do, they`re not doing.

Straight out to NANCY GRACE producer, Matt Zarrell. What do you know?

ZARRELL: OK, Jane, what happened is that initially within a couple of days of the disappearance the parents were cooperating. Everything was fine. Now cops confirm that on October 8th, Deborah Bradley, the mother, stopped the questioning and reportedly would not talk anymore without an attorney present.

Since that time police say that the parents have not submitted to questioning to answer questions that only they might know. The only thing that they`ve been able to talk to them about is to clarify tips but they haven`t been able to wash out the things that they need to wash out with them.

That`s been -- we`re at over a week now where the parents have not cooperated. We know that the parents have reportedly submitted air samples but we don`t know what else they`ve committed to beside allowing the -- allowing the cops to search the home. Right now they`re not talking to police.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And apparently now that the cops have done this very extensive search of the home that lasted 17 hours, I understand, Jim Spellman, CNN correspondent, who was live on the scene, the parents are able to come back. Have you seen any sign of them?

SPELLMAN: Have not seen any sign of them but the police here do tell us that they`re free to come back since right after this happened they`ve been staying with relatives a few miles away. Not sure why they`re staying there and not here. There`s equal -- the media over there as well, too. So it`s not like they have any privacy there but they have been over there almost this entire time.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Alexis Tereszcuk, senior reporter, RadarOnline, here`s the problem. The mother you`re looking at there who`s crying and crying but she`s got inconsistencies in her statement and the cops would like to clarify those inconsistencies. And they can`t get her to sit down.

And the husband says he insists that he be interviewed with the mother present. So isn`t that kind of a catch-22, Alexis?

ALEXIS TERESZCUK, REPORTER, RADAROLINE.COM: Yes, it really is and you`re absolutely right. And the one thing is, he`s not her husband so it`s a little strange that if, you know, with --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I say husband but you`re right.

TERESZCUK: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: She`s got another husband. She`s got another husband who is off in the army somewhere, but this is the man she lives with. I don`t know if she`s lived with him long enough to be a common-law husband. No, because that would be polygamy. She just lives with him. And they -- together they had this child. You are right. Continue.

TERESZCUK: Well, what I was going to say is there`s not spousal protection because they`re not married if it winds up in court. But the thing is she says -- well, she started off in a market buying wine at 5:00 p.m. The dad was watching the baby at home. He leaves about 5:45 to go to work for the very first time for the overnight.

She then says she puts the baby to bed 6:30. She doesn`t mention anything about the drinking on the wine -- drinking of the wine on the front porch but she says she checks the baby about 10:30. Goes to bed, everything is fine. Three, four, five days later her story changes, that`s when she says, I really had so much wine, I don`t remember what I did, and I don`t even know if I checked the baby. I don`t know if I turned off the lights or not.

The neighbor actually contradicts that story and said she left at 10:30 after they had all the wine and she saw the lights go off in the house. So the cops are really confused. They want to get to the bottom of this but she`s refusing to talk to them anymore.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I think the big question is, did she really forget because she was drunk and doesn`t know what happened in which case she may be telling the truth because little shards of memory may be coming back to her or is she using the wine as a cover-up to pretend that she doesn`t remember when she really does and doesn`t want to reveal what she remembers?

Nancy, Pennsylvania -- we`re going out to the phones again. Nancy, Pennsylvania, your question or thought, Nancy.

NANCY, CALLER FROM PENNSYLVANIA: Hi, Jane. It`s so nice to speak to you. And as always you look lovely.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you. You too. Thank you.

NANCY: The question that I have is, have they questioned the children in the family, especially the older ones? Because if you remember in the Elizabeth Smart case, the younger sibling actually provided some information, and I`m wondering if that`s why the family doesn`t want the police to talk to the other kids because they may have seen something or --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Excellent point. Excellent point. This is what gets me.

Jim Spellman, spell it out for us. The cops are being kept away from the two boys, the two older boys who were in the house. How old are they exactly? I`ve heard conflicting reports on that and when is the last time cops were able to talk to them?

SPELLMAN: We believe that they`re 8 and 6 years old. Both are boys, half brothers both of baby Lisa. It was early in the investigation was the last time police were able to interview them and they would love to interview them because if mom is blacked out with the neighbor on the stoop and then god knows what happens after she leaves with the neighbor, then these two boys could be the best source of information of all that`s going on in that house if mom was drunk and blacked out.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to go back to Dr. Vincent Dimaio, former chief medical examiner and the significance of the giant carpet they brought out. Of all the things, that was one that wasn`t in bags because it was so big it couldn`t be hidden in a bag so we got to see it. What do you think they`re looking for in that carpet specifically?

DR. VINCENT DIMAIO, M.D., FORMER CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, BEXAR COUNTY, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST (via phone): The only thing I could think of would be blood, because, you know, the trace evidence would be all from the parents and the people who are living there so they would be looking for blood, either the child`s blood or somebody else`s blood.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But, Dr. Dimaio, would they be able to -- let`s say something was there. Given that the child disappeared 17 days ago and the family had been in there, I`m not suggesting they did clean something up but hypothetically speaking could they have removed blood? Could blood be removed or will you always see some sign of it?

DIMAIO: OK, you can remove the visible part. But what happens is it seeps into the weave of the carpet. And most people think they`ve removed it but it`s still there. A lot of times it seeps into the back portion. And so you look at it, you don`t see anything. But then when you use chemicals to make it appear, then you can go look for it. Because don`t forget with DNA now, you can use such small amounts, you can analyze for it.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Couldn`t they have done that with Luminal testing inside the home? Why do you think they removed the carpet?

DIMAIO: Well, maybe because they got a positive Luminal. You see the thing with Luminal It could tell them it may be blood, but they would have to do the analysis to positively identify the blood. So the best thing to do is if you got a positive Luminal would be to take the rug to the laboratory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH BRADLEY, MISSING 10-MONTH-OLD INFANT`S MOTHER: I`m terrified. But I`m trying to be hopeful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) and his 10-month-old daughter is missing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a stranger breaking into the house, taking baby Lisa.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Back to ground zero as far as --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LAUREN LAKE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Now that she has a lawyer, she can tell her full story. She can say what she was scared to say in the beginning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s concerning that she has no remorse or thinking that she`s done something wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So in this case you use extraordinary circumstances because of the fact that we`re talking about a baby here.

LAKE: I know people want to completely villainize this woman.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she also has no remorse over the fact that she clearly is telling a different story now.

LAKE: Because she did things that we think are irresponsible, maybe immoral.

WOODY TRIPP, FORMER POLICE COMMANDER, POLYGRAPH EXPERT: Courts have said, we can use lying, trickery when it comes to interviewing suspects.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Where is baby Lisa? We`re being told by the attorney for the family that cops have taken the computer hard drives out of the home from which this precious child disappeared.

Straight out to CW Jensen, retired Portland police captain. What are they going to do with those hard drives?

JENSEN: Well, they`re going to give it to a forensic expert to look at those things, to see just like in the Casey Anthony case where there were searches for chloroform and different things. They`re going to want to see if she made searches like where would you get rid of a body or where is a -- you know, a dump around the area, things like that. They`re going to look at everything, any e-mail she did, everything she did on that computer.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. And Renee Rockwell, defense attorney, I think that the image that sticks with me is that carpet being removed from the home. That`s a big carpet.

ROCKWELL: It is -- and Jane --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You just heard that there`s got to be a reason that they wanted to analyze that. Go ahead.

ROCKWELL: Or to have the carpet so that it doesn`t get mysteriously replaced in the meantime. Now that carpet right there that you`re looking at could have somebody else`s DNA in it. Or let`s say they sat her down and interrogate her, and said, when was the last time you shampooed that carpet? And she said well, I`ve never shampooed it, and then they find that the carpet was shampooed. That, too, can be used.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely. Great analysis. Thank you so much to all of our guests tonight.

Let`s stop to remember Navy Lt. Commander Erik Kristensen, 33 years old, from San Diego, California, killed in Afghanistan. Look at that handsome young man. He was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal.

He had a love for music. He played concert trumpet and guitars. He also loved to travel, he loved museums, reading. Playing lacrosse and heavyweight crew. He leaves behind his proud parents, Suzanne and Edward who served the U.S. Navy.

Erik Kristensen, a true American hero.

Thank you once again to all of our guests. Thanks to you at home. See you tomorrow night. 8:00 sharp Eastern right here. Until then, have a safe evening.

END