Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Cops dig under suburban fire pit, find human remains & Female doctor blinded, brain dead after horrific rape

Episode Date: June 19, 2018

The remains of a man found buried in a Florida fire pit in February have now been identified as 35-year-old Michael Shaver, a Disney technician who disappeared in 2015. Nancy Grace looks at the case with investigators private investigator Vincent Hill, Atlanta juvenile judge & lawyer Ashley Willcott, and reporter John Lemley join Nancy. Also, a Texas doctor is charged with raping another doctor 30 years ago, but who died just this year from injuries suffered in the 1988 attack. Detectives reopened the probe of the sex attack that left Dr. Kathy Bascone blind and bedridden after her death. DNA led them to Dr. George Guo, who was convicted for other sex assault charges in the 1990s. Crime Stories co-host Alan Duke reports. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It's a so-called ordinary neighborhood on a so-called ordinary street, tree-lined with cars parked along the sides, occasionally children playing ball in the middle of the street, except for one thing. Human remains found buried in a Florida backyard. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. There in Florida, in the shadow of Disney, the remains of a human body have been found in a fire pit, under a fire pit, as a matter of fact, deep under a fire pit in a suburban backyard. What happened? First of all, take a listen to this. Right now, it's very mysterious and quite suspicious. Suspicious? Well, that's certainly putting perfume on the pig. You know,

Ashley Wilcott with me, judge, lawyer, founder of childcrimewatch.com. Suspicious. I think I would use maybe a different term because if somebody dies accidentally, they die of natural causes, you don't rush in the cover of darkness to the backyard, dig deep down under your fire pit, and bury the body. Right? Right. I don't think it's suspicious. I think it's criminal. So that's that's exactly right. When you find bones under a fire pit, you got to be more than just suspicious. You got to know there's a crime. It's got to be a murder. There's really no two ways about it. The other thing is I want to talk about the discovery of human remains. Now, I know this is crazy.

I don't know if this ever happened to you. Also with me, Vincent Hill, private investigator, former police officer. Vincent, due to the nature of my business, prosecuting crime after crime after crime, literally handling about, I know this sounds crazy, 10,000 cases. By the time you add up 100 new felonies a week from the grand jury times four a month times 12 months a year times 10 years it adds up I started having dreams not related to the cases I was trying of discovering a dead body in the strangest places, like going to a mall bathroom and there's a body in there, or going out for a jog and there's a body, or raking leaves and there's a body. I mean,

you start dreaming these things, but did that ever happen to you? Nancy, it still does to this day. There's still stuff that I see. It's like, oh, that brought back a memory and I go to sleep and I dream about it. So yeah, it still happens to this day. It still happens to me too. See, I don't think, I don't in my mind perceive that I think about it all the time, but then I'll dream about it quite often. So Vincent Hill, I guess it sticks with you. What about it, Ashley Wilcott?

So Nancy, when I take my kids hiking, we love to look for things, right? Bugs and flowers and what do we see? And anytime that they see bones, it's like, oh my gosh, what is this? It looks like it might've been a mouse or a squirrel or a rabbit or a deer. Can you imagine? So you're out and what do you find human bones? So you're certainly going to find a skull, if nothing else to say, oh my God, it's a person. We know, Ashley, I don't know what kind of hikes you're taking your children on because we usually look at you know leaves or um spider webs

really go looking for bones that's a whole nother take on but actually okay i'll just i'll just store that away for future knowledge in my dewey decimal system but another thing is I would really have to see like a human leg bone or a rib cage put together, right, in its original state or a skull. For me to realize, you know, to the untrained femur or a skull or the bones together, if they are still together, which in this scenario, I believe that they were. I was just going to say my understanding is all the bones were found under the fire pit. So you're right, Nancy. It wouldn't just be one bone. It would be all of the human bones from one body. And that would, I think, for all of us would be a startling, scary, scary find.

Yeah, I mean, it's not like a Natalie Holloway alleged scenario where her bones had been crushed and destroyed and mixed with other, for instance, dog remains. That was the allegation in her disappearance then you know the photographer that was murdered by Stephen Avery and Netflix making a murderer her bones were were burned and stirred up to a point where you couldn't tell what you're seeing. But what I was trying to say in a roundabout way, forgive me, is that when you find bones, most people, except for maybe you and I, don't think that they're human bones. You find a bone, you think somebody maybe buried their pet or this or that. So what stuck out?

To John Limley joining us, Crime Stories investigative reporter. John, who found human bones under a fire pit in the backyard? See right there, I find that a tiny bit odd. Why are you digging under a fire pit? For what? For instance, it wasn't construction. They weren't laying out shrubs. Why are you digging under a fire pit? Police have a very good idea. Let's talk about the identity of the bones. How did that process originate? I believe from a long-lost friend. Yes, Scott Amatuccio was best friends with Michael Shaver. Michael had moved from New York to Florida several years before. They had been in contact a good bit for a while, and then, like so many people, they sort of stopped calling, talking quite as much. They got busy with their own lives. He hadn't heard from

Michael Shaver in quite some time, and he did chalk it up to the fact that they were busy adults. But when he hadn't heard from his buddy after a few years, he thought, okay, it's time to reach out. And that's when he found out that Michael's friends and family hadn't seen or heard anything of him in almost three years. Scott said that one thing that really raised his eyebrows, really raised his suspicion, was the fact that among those that hadn't seen Michael was his two kids. Scott knew that as much as Michael loved his kids, he would not just get up, leave, and never come back. And that's when he decided it was high

time to reach out to deputies to check in on his old friend. You know what's interesting about that? Vincent Hill, former cop, were you with Memphis or Nashville, Vincent? I was with Nashville. Never a lack of business for you and me, I guess, which is good and bad vincent with some people well a lot of people maybe the majority of the population uh they don't show up somewhere you go eh meh as my daughter says meh but there are other people like i'm looking at jackie howard right now she's rubbing her knee okay i guess you're gonna have knee surgery and but she's at work. Okay. Um, if I had woken up one morning and my mom and dad didn't happen to be there, well, there'd be something very, very wrong because that had never happened before. Same thing with my husband. Um, you know,

if I go Alan Duke and I don't hear his voice pipe in immediately, I know something is wrong. You know, there are some people, they're like Big Ben. You know what they're going to do. They're dedicated to one thing or another. And not showing up is totally a red flag, Vincent. I mean, there's, I guess you can divide the world into two types of people. I never thought about it like this. The ones that show up and the ones that flake out.

That's right, Nancy. But you know what's interesting about this? He was missing for so long. No one had seen him for so long. So I really questioned what was going on with the other people in his life that didn't say anything about him. Yeah, you know, that's totally weird. You know what, Jackie? I better test my theory.

Alan Duke, are you there? I'm here. Oh, okay. All right. Just making sure. I got myself worried for a moment. You know, you're right. Why wasn't everybody looking for him?

Take a listen to this. Mr. Shaver's best friend called us, and he informed us that he had not heard from Mr. Shaver in the last couple of years at least, and he felt that that was very unusual and out of character. That's the police. John Limley, CrimeStories.com investigative reporter. What happened next? Investigators, after this call from Scott Amituccio about Michael Shaver's, well, just sort of vanishing, these investigators went to Michael Shaver's home near Claremont. This is not too far away from Orlando. They met with Michael's wife, Lori, who said she hadn't seen her husband since 2015. Deputies say at first she was very friendly.

She invited them inside to talk. After talking to her for a few minutes, though, the conversation ended up making its way back outside, and it's just about there that she stops talking. She stops being cooperative, and she said she needed an attorney. Uh-oh, uh-oh, hold on right there. Ashley Wilcott, juvenile judge, founder of ChildCrimeWatch.com. Ashley, when somebody for no reason, it's like the cop comes up and says, hey, I think your tag is expired. And suddenly you hit the gas at 90 MPH. Most people wouldn't do that. They'd say, oh, no, okay, I'm sorry, please don't give me a ticket.

It's flight.'s suggest wrongdoing where up to that point you know the officer had no idea there's a dead body in the trunk but another thing immediately she the wife wants to lawyer up but they also notice something very significant fresh concrete near a fire pit in the backyard. Okay. So she wants a lawyer and they see freshly poured concrete. Yep. Ding, ding, ding. As soon as she said lawyer and started to get uncooperative, then they think, hmm, something nefarious is afoot. But let me say this. Honestly, Nancy, how many times do we see cold cases where 20, 30 years later, they're trying to figure out what happened? That could be one of these cases if she didn't act that way, if she hadn't asked for a lawyer. So it was a red flag, a giveaway to say, wait, something's not right here.

So they notice the freshly poured concrete. The wife suddenly, instead of being cooperative, refuses to speak, demands a lawyer, and they call in the cadaver dogs. To John Limley, listen to this. Now, what can you tell me, John Limley, about the older sister? What did she say about his disappearance? Well, she also, just like Michael's friend Scott Amituccio, she had had a lot of questions about not only his disappearance, but what had been going on with Lori and at the house over these intervening years. One thing that she told investigators is that Lori had remarried, that there was no divorce that she knew of, but that Lori had remarried. And the wedding ceremony, interestingly, took place in the backyard, not too far away from

that suspicious fire pit. Ashley, Ashley Wilcott, she could have at least filed for a divorce, and when he didn't respond, get one, a divorce on her own. In this country, you don't have to have the other person's consent to a divorce, And if they don't respond to your filings, you publish it in the paper for X amount of months in periodicals, newspapers, in the area where they were last known to be. And if they don't answer, you get your divorce default. It's like not showing up to a softball game. You win because the other side didn't show up. I mean, that's pretty brazen. That's a bad move.

You know, I don't want to be a how-to manual for killers, but you don't commit bigamy in the eyes of the law and then get married, you know, exchanging your vows on the top of your fire pit with your husband six feet under it. That's right. And she could have gotten a divorce easily. But obviously, you know, what's that adage? It's not this isn't verbatim, but criminals aren't always smart, right? So she she wasn't necessarily smart about how to hide her crime or what to do next. I think she killed him and then said, oh, yay, now I can get remarried. I mean, Vincent Hill, that's such another red bell of alarm because she didn't bother to get a divorce. She just got remarried. Why? Because arguably she knew her first husband would never complain. Yeah, Nancy, I guess she knew that, you know, he wouldn't contest this divorce, if you will,

because he's not around to do it. But I'd be really interested to find out what went on in that home to make him end up in his backyard under new concrete. Under a fire pit. Listen to this, guys. Listen to this. We had some deputies out here, and they spent the night 24-7, and they came and asked me some questions and said they were looking for the guy that used to live there. Very quiet, a really nice guy, and I know he really cared about his kids a lot. So when I didn't see him here to get them or have them or visit them for a couple of years, I kept wondering, okay, this is really strange. And also, we know that he worked at

Disney, working on Disney's monorails there in Florida. John Limley, Crime Stories investigative reporter, what else do we know? Where does the case stand now? Well, when they began digging, as we have indicated, they did find bones. They first found part of an arm bone, and this really let investigators know they were on the right path. They continued to excavate. They found a complete skeletonized body along with clothing. After some testing, after an autopsy, they determined that the body was indeed that of Michael Shaver. Wow. And all these years, his children have believed dad just skipped out on them and never bothered to communicate with them again. You know, it's a big tip off when cops ask the wife, can they bring in cadaver dogs?

And she says, no. Yeah. We are on it as the case progresses. The body identified positively as Michael Shaver, husband, father, a longtime employee at Disney there in Florida. Finally, some answers for his children. There's a brand new website causing a lot of trouble for people with something to hide. Have you ever had a bad feeling about somebody? Maybe suspected your partner's cheating? Maybe worried about your online reputation? If you answer yes to any of those questions,

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slash Nancy and enter any name to get started. A gorgeous young female doctor left blind and with brain damage from a horrific attack where she was not only raped but strangled. Then 30 years passed. In the last hours, a major break in the case. The case of Dr. Catherine Bescone. Bescone suffering a horrific brain injury that left her blind and needing lifetime care. Now, after her death, investigators finally determined that she, in fact, had been murdered. Straight out to Alan Deep, joining me out of L.A., Alan not only raped, which is a horrible

trauma to go through, but strangled to the point that she was left blind, brain damaged, and in need of constant care for the rest of her life. What happened to Dr. Catherine Bascone? It was on June 19, 1988. She was in her bed, raped, nearly strangled to death at her home. She was 28 years. She had been a doctor for just one year, an osteopath in Dallas, Texas, and as you said, left her blind, confined to a bed where she remained for the last three decades. Oh, my stars. Oh, my stars. That's a fate many would consider worse than death, to be blind and brain damaged and left in a bed for the rest of your life. You know what that says to me, Vincent Hill, private investigator, former Nashville PD,

that the perp probably thought he left her dead. Yeah, absolutely, Nancy. He thought for sure that his victim was dead and nothing would ever tie back to him. Ashley Wilcott with me. Ashley, I guarantee you the perp thought she was dead. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I think that any time that somebody has that severe of injuries and is bedridden to that extent, clearly there was a motive to kill the person, not to just hurt them. So tell me the rest. What happened then to Alan Duke?

So this woman is confined to her bed for 30 years, no break in the case. Then what happens? Well, and one of the things unusual about this, maybe not for a rape case, but it didn't get any publicity. There's absolutely no news coverage, no publicity around this case. As we researched this, we couldn't find any of that. Although I did find an article from 1987, the year before, a magazine in Dallas, D Magazine, did a profile on her where she talked about how she was excited about moving back to Dallas, her hometown, and being an osteopath with her dad. Other than that, this woman's life has not been documented. And so it sat on the evidence shelf for 30 years until she died. But thanks to

a federal grant, a Department of Justice grant, that allows the prosecutors to investigate sexual assault cases that have gone cold, they had funding to reopen the case. So what happens next? Well, they start looking at the DNA in the evidence file. You know, from 1988. They process it. They match it up.

Okay, hold on. Wait, wait. they process it they match it up and okay hold on one way alan duke who would ever have imagined the murderer the rapist who leaves this woman bedridden blind and brain damaged for 30 years was another doctor actually prestigious doctor in that same area so who is this guy that is matched up only by dna thanks to a federal grant his name is george guo i'm not going to call him a doctor because he's now a former medical doctor he was arrested in houston this past in the past few days being held on five million dollars bond get this that date I told you in 1988, in June of 88, would have been Dr. Guo's 27th birthday. Oh, my stars. Wow. Ashley Wilcott joining me, judge,

lawyer, and founder of childcrimewatch.com. His birthday, he rapes and in his mind murders someone for his birthday. Right. And he's a doctor. So so many times when I'm on the bench, Nancy, I see people are surprised by defendants because they assume, oh, defendants are going to be, I don't know, someone with mental health issues or out on the street or homeless or look funny, aren't educated. Boy, is that not true? This is a doctor. And at the time, the only reason anyone realized something was wrong is Catherine Bascone's sister checked in on her apartment there on Abbott Avenue after Catherine didn't show up for a family get-together. So when her sister didn't show, she goes by her house and finds her apparently dead having been sex assaulted in her

own bed if she hadn't gone over there it's very possible Catherine would have died right there and then neighbors actually told police at the time they had seen her outside her apartment the night before that she had been found and they heard a quote commotion in her apartment around 3 a.m. The neighbors also reported seeing a, quote, Asian man dressed in all black around the area in the days before Baskone was attacked. Now, that is what we have learned from combing through the warrant in this case. You know, that's a lot of evidence Alan Duke I mean if he raped her there had to be uh seminal fluid I mean it didn't have to be but typically there would be and neighbors saw an Asian male that's their description dressed in black around the area in the days leading up to

it which means he was stalking her he must have known her from area in the days leading up to it, which means he was stalking her. He must have known her from work in the medical practice. And not only that, neighbors hear a commotion around 3 a.m. So you've got the time of the incident, you've got a potential eyewitness, and DNA. So I don't understand what went wrong, Alan. Well, you know, they compare what happened, the evidence that they're now seeing from that 1988 crime. It is strikingly like another crime just three years later in the Dallas area where another home was broken into by someone wearing all black. And guess who that was? Dr. Guo? Dr. Guo?

Dr. Guo. Now, let me ask you a question. Is this the 91 incident? Yes, the 1991 incident. Oh, yeah. Where? Go ahead. You tell us. He was caught outside a home.

He was arrested for the charge was burglary of a habitation, right? He was just charged with a burglary of an apartment of a student who attended at Southern Methodist University in the Dallas area. A police came up on this as it was going down at the apartment door. They caught Dr. Then Dr. Guo standing there in the apartment wearing all black. He had condoms, a ski mask, military tear gas, and syringes filled with sedatives on him,

and they charged him with burglary. Wow. You know what? That makes me think that if they had taken Dr. Catherine Bascone's blood at the time, she may have had sedatives in her system. Now, in the one you're talking about, the 91 incident where they find Dr. Guo. My understanding is they, the police, broke down the apartment door and catch the doctor, as you said, with condoms, ski mask, military tear gas, and syringes filled with sedatives. Wow. Yeah, it was all planned out as maybe only a doctor could, you know, I mean, with the syringes filled with sedatives now catch this is also what we learned about dr guo he is a graduate of the university of texas southwestern medical school in dallas a licensed physician at the time of the break-in

um why why would someone with so much going for them, a medical degree, the potential to bring down quarter of a million dollars or more a year, he could date any woman he wanted? Why use all that intellect, all that power, all that privilege to focus on raping and assaulting women, Ashley Wilcott? The psychopath. Now, I say that knowing I'm probably going to hear it from you because, no, I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist. But clearly he's got some tendencies and psychopathic actions that he's doing. Another thing, I mean, it's like a fingerprint crime to Vincent Hill. As a prosecutor, I would have made every point of similarity in this case so I could bring the 91

incident where the cops had to break down the door in to prove the case on Catherine Bascone, because in that case, also the 91 case, he was dressed in all black. I mean, he really prepared for the attacks in a meticulously bizarre way. The gear, the all in black ninja outfit, the syringes full of sedatives, bringing all of the accoutrement he intended to use in the attack and murder. It's a fingerprint crime to the attack on Dr. Catherine Bascone. Vincent? Yeah, it matches to a T-Nancy. And, you know, most people call that an M.O., you know, something that one person always does when they're committing a crime. And it sounds like this was his M.O. to go in with the all black, with the sedatives. And to your point, had police taken her blood, you know, 30 years

ago, I think we would have found the same exact sedative in her system. Nancy. Yes. I've got a surprise for you. What? He was arrested another time. Same thing in 1999 1999 what else do we know about this guy well you know uh sometimes criminals like to repeat themselves this guy was very repetitive because it was 1991 that time he got caught uh let's fast forward to 1999. he was arrested again burglary of a habitation with uh intent to commit sexual. But this time, after being caught breaking into a woman's apartment, he was actually sent to prison, finally pleading guilty to burglary with the intent to commit sexual assault. This was in Fort Bend County, Texas. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison, finally getting out in 2013 as a registered sex offender. And guess what registered sex offenders have to do? They have to give their DNA. And that is how he was caught.

You know, it goes to prove that evil crime knows no barriers. It's not about age or socioeconomic level or race or any other barrier or differentiator that humans come up with. It's across the boards. Here you have a doctor now accused of multiple sex attacks and 30 years later, thanks to DNA, murder. Well, the party is over. Truer words were never spoken, especially for this high society now dubbed Affluenza Teen 2. I'm not talking about Ethan Couch, who got in a drunken haze and mowed down. Four people dead, a fifth left as a quadriplegic for the rest of his life.

I'm talking about a brand new Affluenza teen arrested after wrecking a $5 million Hamptons home that happened to belong to ABC correspondent and host, George Stephanopoulos. I didn't know that until later. But when I take a look at this guy, Connor Hawkins, with every advantage anyone could possibly have in this country gets drunk and high and gets picked up by the East Hampton police to seanwalshdailymail.com please tell me the whole story about affluenzatine too who is simply too affluent to know right from wrong Nancy this is one of those stories that is the gift that keeps on giving and truly shows that money can't buy you common sense.

This is a kid by the name of Connor Larkins who was picked up by the police in East Hampton after he destroyed the interior of a $5.5 million property that was once owned by George Stephanopoulos and his wife, the actress, Sally Wentworth. Now, Connor, who lives in a swanky Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan overlooking Central Park, is in big trouble. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Let's just focus on that one moment. When you say a swanky apartment overlooking the park, Karen Stark, for an apartment in New York, looking over the park, because in New York, I mean, I know out of our little tiny, tiny hovel, all you can see are other buildings. You know, you basically go right into somebody else's place. So to have an apartment looking over the park, how much would that set this guy back? Millions.

More than the Hampton South. Well, I know millions. You're talking about $10 million to $20 million. That much money. That's correct. All right, Sean Waltz. So we've established the price of his digs where he lives with his family. Go ahead.

So this young man had been attending a post-prom party in East Hampton at the $9 million home of investment banker Mark Spilker. Now, it's unclear if Spilker was at the party, but a fellow partygoer told police that the group, which included Spilker's high school daughter, had set out to the Hamptons from Manhattan at midnight. Now, Nancy, this is a two-and-a-half-hour car ride, and it's very difficult to get out there in anything other than a private car.

So at some point at around 6 a.m. on Friday, they say that Conner's behavior began to change. Wait a minute. Is this the same Mark Spilker that just got the $48.9 million payout when he left Goldman Sachs. That is it. He's now the president of Apollo Global Management. So this is someone who isn't short of cash. Well, where is he? Well, you would think if you were hosting the after-prom party at your $9 million home,

you'd want to have parental supervision. But in this case, no one knows whether he was home or not at the time. Okay. So what I understand is they leave Manhattan, New York City around midnight and take a bus after a private school prom. All right. So then what happens? This is where it gets interesting. His friends were saying at some point at around 6 a.m. on Friday, Connor's behavior began to change. And his friends suggested that they take an Uber back to Manhattan. Now, let me just set the scene here for your listeners. That's going to cost about $250 if you're in a normal UberX. Now if you choose Uber Black or Uber SUV, that's going to

be about $1,000 to get this child home. So it's no small amount of money. Now he didn't like that idea and he told his friends that he would rather have a jet pack and so they can leave this planet. So clearly there's something going on with this boy. Eventually he gets into the vehicle, but after driving just one mile, he fled from the car and his friend told the driver to continue on to the city and left Connor behind in the Hamptons. Good friend. During this brief time, Connor had been punching and kicking the interior of the vehicle. His friend reported to the police later on. Well, then do you blame the guy for leaving him behind? The guy needs to go back home, the friend, and you've got the affluenza team, too,

kicking and punching the inside of the car. I wouldn't go home with him either. So it's his choice to stay there with this brat or go home. You tell the driver to speed up and keep driving. But usually if your friends are in a situation, it doesn't sound like he's in a clear state of mind, right? So I think, I don't know, as someone grew up and we go back to my home country of Australia, where the legal drinking age is 18, which is far too young as far as I'm concerned. If your friends get in that position where they're not acting right, I think the last thing you should be doing is leaving them on the

side of the road in basically what is the countryside. You need to either get them to a house or get them to the hospital. Can I ask you another question? You first said an Uber would cost about $250 to go from the Hamptons to the city, but now you're saying $1,000. What was that for, like an Uber X? Yeah, no. So if you go a normal standard Uber, it's going to cost you about $250. But say you choose like an Uber Black or an Uber SUV, the luxury version of Uber, then it's going to go up to something like $1,000. Okay, I'm sorry.

I've never had an Uber X or an Uber Black luxury vehicle. Haven't you heard about the Uber Rideshare? Anyway, that's a whole nother can of worms. I guess we're running in different circles sean walsh but back to the story so the friend comes on back into the city then what happens how did the mansion get trashed by affluenza teen too well here we go allegedly so um the police report states that connor made his way down the road after leaving the uber and then he hopped over the wooden gate at 20 Dunmere Lane.

He then broke into the home by smashing through the front door and bloodied himself in the process. The current owners of the home were not home at the time, and Harkins has no relationship with any person who's ever lived in the home, according to the police. Police say the boy then ran... Did you say he smashed through the front door? Yeah, he smashed through the front door. But apparently, Joseph Scott Morgan.

Let me say something for your listeners. Out in the Hamptons, the houses are not close to each other. So someone could easily break into someone else's home and neighbors around aren't going to hear it because these houses are very big homes on very big properties basically out in the middle of nowhere near the ocean so there's not going to be a lot of ruckus caused at one home is not necessarily going to be heard by a next door neighbor so joseph scott morgan forensics expert joining us this guy was so drunk and or high that he smashed through the front door of this mansion. And that didn't stop him because he apparently flipped tables. He broke out windows, ruined the walls, everything. And then he ends up passed out on the front yard covered in his own

blood. So my question to you is how high and or drunk would he have to be? Because smashing and breaking down a door and injuring himself didn't stop him. He continued on his drunken rampage. Yeah, I got to tell you, Nancy, one of the things that I'm thinking is that if he is so numbed to this, he would have to be terribly high prior to passing out. That means that his pain receptors are essentially shut down. If he is on some type of drug that's an opioid, like fentanyl or maybe even heroin, he wouldn't have an awareness that he's inflicting pain upon himself. Sean had mentioned, you know, glass, this sort of thing breaking through the wall.

He wouldn't have an awareness of this. So, and if you combine that with alcohol, which, you know, these kids are post-prom party, you got to think that they're ingesting this as well. So it's a lethal combination where you have no awareness of pain whatsoever. Sean Walsh, DailyMail.com. Why weren't his parents looking for him or were they? You know, it doesn't sound like they were, Nancy. And I mean, this isn't just the only thing that happens. So he gets into the home and causes $10,000 worth of damage. He flipped tables, ripped out screens, he broke windows, he battered the walls, and then he passed out on the front lawn covered in blood.

That morning, he was then found by a construction worker who called the East Hampton Village Police, and officers on the scene basically had to save this kid's life. Why? It appears he had overdosed on drugs. He was revived by Narcan. As you know, that's the drug that they use to bring you back to life if you've had a drug overdose. You mean like Prince? Yeah.

And then he was arrested and booked on charges of burglary with the intent to commit a crime and criminal mischief, both felonies. He's also charged with trespassing. Hold on just a second. I'm going to circle back to the charges, Sean Walsh. Joe Scott Morgan, if you have to be revived with Narcan, what does that tell you about his shuts down the little receptors in the brain that latch onto opioids. And it prevents this kid from going into total shutdown where he would succumb to the opiates that are on board. So this would essentially freeze this moment in time so that he could be stabilized. We all know the story of the original affluenzatine, Ethan Couch. Why, Sean Walsh, DailyMail.com, is this guy, Connor Harkins, now being called affluenzatine too?

I think because everyone is always intrigued by the lifestyles of both the rich and the famous. And here is a rich kid that has everything you can imagine in life, yet is behaving in a way, allegedly, that is, like, abominable. And so people get fascinated by this because they're like, look, if I have my own children and they can behave, how is it a kid that has everything handed to him on a platter able to behave in a way like this, which is, frankly, shocking and allegedly criminal. What do we know about his background, Sean? Where did he go to school? He graduated from the private all boys Browning School in 2017, to start with that tuition for 2018 is nearly $50,000.

I know that much. What else do you know? I know that money can't buy you cloth. Okay, that may be true. But about the Browning School, I know this. It's a college prep school for boys. It was founded all the way back in 1888 by John Browning, and it's really hard to get into.

I know that much. What more do you know, Sean Walsh? It's a school that runs from kindergarten through high school. It's located in the heart of New York City. It takes advantage of the city's vast resources while also providing the boys with an education that only money and a lot of money can buy. And it's an all-boys school.

You know, question Detroit Slayton, L.A. defense lawyer, when you get a group of regular people like myself in a jury, and they hear this evidence, and they hear a privileged background, being fed with a silver spoon your whole life and still showing out like this. To me, that makes it even worse, Troy, when you have every advantage and you still end up in the front yard, drunk and high, administered Narcan, and you tore up somebody's home you didn't even know. People don't like that, Troy. Well, aside from the fact that Lady Justice is supposed to be blind and not show any favor or disfavor to somebody because of their background, this is a prime example of how the scourge of opioid addiction knows no socioeconomic or racial barrier. This is a kid who succumbed, like so many Americans, to this horrific, horrific problem of opioid addiction.

Thank goodness the police were there to save him in the final throes of what was an overdose. He was about to die from this addiction. Sean Walsh, DailyMail.com. I know he was charged with secondary burglary, but what else do we know about the charges and arraignment? That's right, Nancy. He was charged with second-degree burglary and second-degree criminal mischief, both felonies and also trespass, which is a misdemeanor. He was arraigned the Saturday morning after he was found in the garden before East Hampton Town Justice Stephen Tikulski. He set bail at $5,000 cash or $10,000 bond. Mr. Harkin's family posted his bail.

So we can only imagine he is now back comfortably resting at his Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan overlooking Central Park. Yes, Sean, I understand that after spending a night in a holding cell in the East Hampton Village police headquarters, Harkins was then brought to East Hampton Town Justice Court. It was early on Saturday morning he was arraigned in front of Justice Stephen Tucholsky. In the courtroom, to my understanding, was a man that was identified as Harkins' dad, Peter Harkins, who is the head of Kovler Harkins, which is a pretty big law firm. They've got offices on Wall Street and in London. Now, the judge, Judge Tucholski, asked Harkins what he did

for a living. The answer was that he had just gotten out of his first year of college and was about to start a job with J. Crew, you know, the clothing store. He told the judge he lived at Fifth Avenue and he gave a phone number. The bill was then set. The DA's office asked for a bill to be set at $20,000, but Tucholsky agreed with the defense and granted just a $5,000 bond. To Karen Stark, New York psychologist, what do you make of the defense used in the Ethan Couch case that Couch was just simply too affluent to

understand the consequences of his acts or the difference between right and wrong? Well, we went over that case so many times, Nancy, and that was outrageous to say that someone doesn't know the difference because they're too wealthy to know the difference between right and wrong. I'm not sure that it applies in this case because he was almost dying from an overdose. So it sounds like this kid was being influenced by the drugs that he was taking. We need to take that into consideration. Well, there's no doubt in my mind about that. There's no doubt in my mind he was influenced by drugs, Karen Stark, but Troy Slayton, L.A. defense lawyer, he was not in the throes of death because he broke through smashing down a door and proceeded to tear up a whole home and then fling himself down in the front yard. So he was not so near death that he couldn't destroy someone's home. That's because the drugs, Nancy, and Joseph Scott Morgan can explain this more, had not necessarily yet reached their peak. As they were absorbing, he was becoming more and more impaired. And I think he may, of course, we know that voluntary intoxication, if he took the drugs himself, is not a defense. He may have the defense of involuntary intoxication.

This is prom night. We know drugs are rampant at prom night. Someone may have just handed him this and said, oh, this is a little something. He didn't know the full effects of it and could have a very good involuntary intoxication defense. Well, but he's not in his right mind. We will wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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