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Dramatic Plane Crash Photos Emerge; Waiting for Birth of Royal Baby; A Royal Baby in a Modern World; Three Bodies Found in Cleveland; Six Flags Coaster Death; China Quake Toll Nears 90

Aired July 22, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: A possible serial killer is behind bars, as we learn he idolized a monster.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

Did weight play a role in a woman's tragic death on a Six Flags roller coaster?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened now?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: She was sent to prison after telling police she was raped. Now, a dramatic twist.

Plus, a congressman gets emotional after learning the results of a paternity test.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, HOST, CNN'S "NEW DAY": Even though the biology isn't there, the bond is. And that's something that I'm sure warms your heart as well, true, congressman?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And in Arizona, drivers stranded, people trapped, as floodwaters and rescue crews rush in.

Good to see you on this Monday afternoon. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for joining me.

Just into us, word that George Zimmerman has reemerged nine days after that jury acquitted him in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Here's what we know. So it was last Wednesday Zimmerman apparently has helped a family on a Florida highway after their SUV they were riding in somehow overturned. We were told there were two parents and two children inside that vehicle. Everyone is doing OK. And it was Zimmerman who was one of two men who helped them get out. Police say he was not a witness to the crash. We're making phone calls. As soon as we get more information on that, we will pass it along to you here at CNN.

Also just in, some sad news for you on this Monday. Actor Dennis Farina has died. You know his face if you are a fan of "Law & Order." He starred on that show for years and years. He's been in multiple movies over his career including "Saving Private Ryan," "Get Shorty." After becoming -- before becoming an actor, Farina worked as a police officer in Chicago for years. His publicist sent us a statement reading, in part, quote, "he will be greatly missed by his family, friends and colleagues. We hope that he finds a new life where great roles are plentiful and the Cubs are always winning the pennant."

And just a short time ago we received these new photographs of the Boeing passenger plane that crash landed in San Francisco. And as we look at these pictures together, look at this, I mean you're likely to wonder how the crash could have produced so many survivors. We'll continue to flip through the pictures. You can see just the charred remains, the seats, the interior of this plane. Keep in mind, as you look at these, more than 300 people survived this. And this. So the story of the Asiana Flight 214 is becoming even more amazing.

With us now from San Francisco is our correspondent there, Dan Simon.

And, Dan, are you like me? I mean when I saw the pictures, I thought, how did so many people survive?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Brooke. You know these photos certainly caught our eye when they were posted on the Internet today by unknown photographer. We don't know who took these pictures, but they certainly are dramatic. I think the most dramatic is seeing that picture of the rear of the aircraft, basically a charred mess.

You are also seeing pictures from the front of the plane, where you can see that these seats basically were disjarred or jarred from, you know, the foundation on that fuselage. And then there was that dramatic picture of the fuselage being hoisted by a crane and then ultimately taken to an airport hangar. Just some amazing stuff, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We also, as we continue to look at these pictures and are amazed, Dan, we learned last Friday that one of the three victims, a girls from China, 16 years of age, it turns out that she was killed by one of the fire engines that was rushing to that scene. And we're learning today that her death could have been prevented. What do you know?

SIMON: Well, we know, of course, that on Friday, the San Francisco Fire Department and the coroner's office confirmed that a fire truck did hit this young girl and ultimately caused her death. Certainly a tragedy for everyone involved. We also know that this fire truck did not have heat sensing technology that ultimately could have spotted this young woman. As of 2011, the FAA has required that all emergency trucks at airports have this kind of technology. This particular truck did not. We're not entirely sure why. We've reached out to airport officials for more clarification. But the bottom line is, even if it did have this technology, we don't know if it would have prevented it, but it certainly does raise some questions, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Dan Simon for us in San Francisco.

Dan, we appreciate it.

And now to the news that apparently has many in this world on hold. Perhaps you've heard royal baby. Have you heard something about this? I kid. It's a baby that might someday be sitting on the British throne. But right now, it is still the waiting game because inside this ordinary looking building in London is Catherine, the duchess of Cambridge, the wife of Prince William. So Catherine went into labor early this morning. So I'm thinking about her because, my goodness, this woman has been in labor of upwards to 12 hours and soon the world will find out if the royal family is welcoming perhaps a little boy or a little girl.

Atika Shubert is outside that hospital, part of this whole watch and wait.

And, Atika, let me throw this at you. Is it possible that Kate has had the baby and the world just doesn't know yet?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's certainly possible, but what we understand is that once she has the baby, the first people to be notified will be the grandparents, especially, of course, the queen, but also Kate Middleton's parents. And then once that's done, the proclamation will be signed by the doctor, with a few details, whether it's a boy or a girl, the exact weight of the baby and then that notice will come out of this door, be put into a waiting car and then rushed to Buckingham Palace. And there it will be put on a gilded easel. And that will be the official announcement of the royal baby. That is the traditional method. Now, we do expect perhaps a little after that possibly a notice out on Twitter, but that will be the priority.

So it is possible, but at this point we simply do not know. What we know, the last word from Kensington Palace is that labor is progressing as normal and right now it's really up to the baby.

BALDWIN: Oh, that baby sure is taking his or her time. I'm think of Kate.

Atika Shubert for us at the hospital. Atika, thank you. We'll come back to you if there is any news whatsoever.

But let's continue the royal baby conversation, shall we? Joining me now is CNN royal commentator Victoria Arbiter.

And Victoria is unique because she lived in Kensington Palace during her teen years as her dad served as the queen's press secretary.

So, Victoria, nice to see you.

You know, reading about -- I love all the pomp and pageantry that comes along with, you know, whether it's a wedding or the jubilee or now this. And so there was a position. It was called the home secretary, right, to the -- you know, in births past, you would have this person who would have to watch the birth to make sure the baby wasn't switched, and that - that is now defunct, correct?

VICTORIA ARBITER, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Thankfully that is one tradition that they have done away with. But actually it was done away with quite some time ago. The tradition dates back to James II. It was largely believed that he had had a baby smuggled into the palace because his own child had been stillborn. And so, after that, of course, there were worries that this baby was perhaps an illegitimate baby. And so up until after the birth of Princess Alexandra in 1936, the home secretary was present, not always inside the room, sometimes sitting right outside making sure nobody could go in. But when the queen was pregnant with Prince Charles in 1948, her father said, I think we're past this. We don't need to do that anymore. So, yes, thankfully no home secretary.

BALDWIN: One more question for you because we are in the age of, you know, 2013 and not just Twitter, but text messaging. And I have to wonder, you know, we talk about this, you know, sort of archaic, but traditional system of sending, you know, the note to Buckingham Palace and notifying the queen before the rest of us plebeians find out about this child. Is there texting happening perhaps between William and the queen or is that just - am I - am I crazy to even think that?

ARBITER: Well, it's possible, but I think it's unlikely only because they'll be so worried that anything might be intercepted.

BALDWIN: Huh.

ARBITER: I'm sure Prince William is keeping in touch with his father, whose actually doing official engagements up in the north of England today. But I'm sure he's probably checking in. But like any father will tell you, when their wife is laboring away, his job is to get ice chips and make sure she's comfortable and really to look after her. So I think there will be plenty of time for family celebrations and notification once Kate has made it through.

BALDWIN: And since we know the royal standard flag is flying high over Buckingham Palace, we know the queen is in residence. What do you think - you know, you know living behind closed doors of such amazing places, what do you think is happening behind those closed doors?

ARBITER: I think the queen is probably giddy with excitement. She does already have two great grand babies, not to diminish her love for them at all, but really what's very exciting about this baby is that it secures the future of the monarchy. This is the first time since 1894 that a living monarch will have three direct heirs to the throne living at the same time. The last sovereign to experience that was Queen Victoria in 1894, as I said. So I think, really, it's very exciting and I can't wait to see a picture of the queen holding this baby because, really, it could be potentially the first monarch of the 22nd century.

BALDWIN: It's incredible. Let's hope for Kate's sake this baby comes soon.

Victoria Arbiter for us, thank you so much. Nice to talk to you.

ARBITER: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Well, police have identified one of those three women whose bodies was found wrapped in plastic in east Cleveland over the weekend. And while the bodies were badly decomposed, authorities have been able to identify one as 38-year-old Angela Deskins of Cleveland. Thirty-five-year-old Michael Madison is charged with three counts of aggravated murder and kidnapping and is currently being held on $6 million bond. Police suspended the search for more bodies today after scouring empty homes in this neighborhood amid fears Madison may have been inspired by a convicted serial killer. East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton had expressed concerns there might be more victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR GARY NORTON, EAST CLEVELAND, OHIO: This is a sick individual who appears to have been influenced by another sick individual. It's absolutely horrible. It's atrocious. And again, we believe that this individual that we're dealing with killed three women in a span of about 10 days. That is insane. And we know that if he had been out for one more hour, there's no telling what would have happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The bodies were found just within a couple of blocks of one another after neighbors reported a foul stench.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATHENIA CROSBY, NEIGHBOR: We all was complaining that it was stinking around here. We thought it was the garbage. That could be my daughter or that could be my little cousin in one of these bags that they just found.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Anna Coren is live for us in the East Cleveland neighborhood where these bodies were found.

And, Anna, I want to begin with the victim just identified, Angela Deskins. What do you know about her?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Angela Deskins her body was found just behind me in the basement of an abandoned house. And she was a 38-year-old mother, Brooke, who, according to her friends, was a quiet girl who kept to herself and they don't understand how she got involved with Michael Madison. I spoke to a friend of Angela's a little bit earlier, and she had been missing since May. So there were these fliers that had been put out, you know her face literally pictured around the city, along with dozens of other women who are missing.

This is what is frightening, Brooke, is that there are dozens of women missing here in East Cleveland and have been doing for weeks, if not months, if not longer, which is really fueling the speculation that there could be more bodies. On top of that, we know that Michael Madison was inspired, or certainly idolized, Anthony Sowell. And Anthony Sowell is a serial killer who murdered 11 women here in Cleveland in what became known as the house of horrors. He was convict. He is currently on death row. But according to Madison, he was almost like a role model. This is why police are so concerned.

So the search is resuming tomorrow. They believe that they will continue looking around this area. There are a lot of abandoned homes. You know, this is East Cleveland. This is a place that is doing it tough. So there are many, many homes that are boarded up, that are vacant. So, you know, they have to go through these neighborhoods. They're doing it with the residents as well. And, you know, hopefully they don't find any more bodies, but the fear, the real concern is that they will, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Anna, just quickly, how are police able to so quickly link these multiple women, these multiple bodies who were found?

COREN: The multiple bodies that were found were literally found within 30 yards of where I'm standing. One in the basement, one in a vacant lot, the other in the garage of Michael Madison's. So you mentioned that stench in your introduction. There was a gentleman that we interviewed yesterday who worked close by and people at his business had complained about this foul odor. And so he eventually went and checked it out, called police. And, sure enough, they broke into this garage and they found the body wrapped up in plastic, wrapped up in a blanket.

He said that when they opened it up, there were things - there was liquid that poured out of this bag. He said it was absolutely revolting. The most revolting smell that he had ever experienced in his life.

You have to remember that, you know, if this, you know, the time span of their deaths over the last six to 10 days, last week, you know, it was a heat wave. So certainly that would perhaps, you know, explain how these bodies have been decomposing.

BALDWIN: Yes. Anna Coren, thank you.

Anna mentioned the neighbor. We'll be talking to that neighbor who can sort of describe first-person perspective what it smelled like and what this man, the suspect, Madison, was like as a neighbor and what he was like with women. That's coming up at the top of the hour.

Meantime, it was a frightening fall to her death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then when it drops to come down, that's when it released. And she just tumbled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: She just tumbled. What Six Flags is now staying about the roller coaster on which a woman fell from her seat. And one expert tells me whether her weight had anything to do with that.

Plus, floodwaters sending down a monster wave of debris. You will hear from the guy who made it out alive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It is any family's nightmare. The kind of thing you might fear, but never actually expect to happen. A woman visiting Six Flags over the weekend in Texas was thrown from this 14-story high Texas giant roller coaster. This was Friday night. It was Rosy Esparza's (ph) first trip to Six Flags. Ed Lavandera has more on what happened next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some witnesses told local news media that Esparza told a Six Flags employee she was worried that her seat restraint had not locked properly. Esparza's son and other family members rode along with her. They had to ride out the two minute roller coaster fearing the worst the rest of the way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were screaming when they came back and they were trying to get out of the restraint and they were screaming, "my mom, my mom. We've got to get my mom."

LAVANDERA: Six Flags over Texas' Hurricane Harbor refuses to answer questions on camera, but in a written statement says, "we are committed to determining the cause of this tragic accident. It would be a disservice to the family to speculate regarding what transpired."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: I want to bring in Robert Swint. He is an accident reconstructionist whose done safety tests for Six Flags.

And, Mr. Swint, nice to see you.

It's frightening for me. I love roller coasters. I just have to ask, you know, when you hear the bits and pieces that are coming forth about the case, if you were an investigator, what would you be honing in on first?

ROBERT SWINT, ACCIDENT RECONSTRUCTIONIST: I would be looking at the ride and the design of the seat. We're dealing with a dynamic situation here which ejection can occur. Anything over 0.2 g's can cause you displacement. This individual, the woman that was ejected, Mrs. Esparza, was a person of very large statute. And you would look at this seat, you'd look at the design of that seat, the design of the retention mechanisms and try to determine if, in fact, she fit properly in that seat, or if there was a combination of issues of the seat design, the dynamics of the ride, maybe an issue with the maintenance of the ride -

BALDWIN: Yes.

SWINT: Or possibly the operations of the individual. BALDWIN: You know, you bring up her size. I read article after article. Many people bringing up her size. And, you know, look, when it comes to passenger size, and I've been on many a roller coaster, you know, you get on this -- the roller coasters and you see the "are you tall enough" signs, but I've never seen anything regarding one's weight. Does that even exist?

SWINT: What drives - or ride are designed to do is to reach a 95 percentile human design form. That is a 225 pounds for a man, 208 pound for a woman. This is much higher sizes than what is a normal ride. There are no documents that I have seen other than the operators themselves screening people that restrict people that size or even smaller people from rides that are at a certain age. So it's an area of concern. It's an area that needs to be evaluated.

BALDWIN: You know, it's something that we looked into once her size was taken into account, you look at past incidents. Harry Potter in Orlando had to be modified to fit bigger people. A 2001 death at Knott's Berry Farm involving a 292-pound woman. A 2004 death at Six Flags in New England. A 225-pound man who came out of a Superman ride. In terms of oversight, there is no federal oversight over roller coasters and rides. I mean this is basically up to the park who's supposed to be mounting a fair and transparent investigation. Do you trust them?

SWINT: I - you know, Six Flags, when we've worked with them, have been very good and very conscious about what they're doing. They are probably one of the top in the list. But that is a concern. That is something that needs to be evaluated and it is something the industry has talked about and dealt with. More work, obviously, needs to be done.

BALDWIN: Obviously. Robert Swint, accident reconstructionist who's worked a number of times with Six Flags, thank you very much.

SWINT: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up, the race to find survivors in China after a strong and shallow earthquake kills dozens. We will take you to Beijing, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: In Egypt today, gunfire erupted between supporters and opponents of the now overthrown President Mohamed Morsy. Eyeitnesses told us a group of Morsy supporters was marching near the palace where these opponents had been camped out and then at some point automatic gunfire erupted. One eyewitness says at least one person fell to the ground. His or her condition unknown.

And in China, the number of dead has now risen to 89 from an earthquake this morning there. CNN's David McKenzie has the latest from Beijing.

David.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This powerful and shallow quake struck northwest China early on Monday morning. It was followed by a series of aftershocks that could have been quakes in their own right.

Look at this security footage released by state media, which shows the immediate effect of this quake as it struck. The tremors lasted for at least a minute, causing people to rush out of their buildings for safety.

Gansu province is one of the poorest in China. One of the worst affected areas appears to be Minxian County, where many of the dead were found. Entire buildings were destroyed and homes heavily damaged. Tragically, it was the elderly and the very young, according to state media, who were affected the worst because they couldn't run from the debris as it fell in time.

The Chinese government and the Red Cross have mobilized hundreds of rescue and relief workers to the area to try and assist and to find any of the missing.

This area has seen torrential rain in recent days and more rain is forecast, which could make rescue efforts and relief efforts that much more difficult.

David McKenzie, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: David, thank you.

Coming up next, will Katherine Jackson lose her temper again after a testy exchange last Friday. Michael Jackson's mother faces more questioning in the civil trial over her son's death.

Plus, boy, oh, boy, to be in this courtroom. More f-bombs, more outbursts at the trial of the reputed mob boss Whitey Bulger. Wait until you hear what happened today, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Great being with you.

You know, it is arguably the most action packed trial not on television. I'm talking about the trial of reputed Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger. Not on TV because, you know the deal, no cameras allowed in federal courtrooms. But this week's testimony, keep in mind it's Monday, already off to a fiery start. Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, back on the stand today. Flemmi served as Bulger's right-hand man for nearly two decades. So the day today started with shouting and expletives aimed at Flemmi from a victim's brother.