Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Did killer use wood chipper & concrete to hide woman's body?

Episode Date: August 29, 2017

Does a concrete wall in a Pennsylvania home hold the remains of a woman missing since 1989? Police suspect the killer used a wood chipper to grind up the body, which was then mixed into concrete. Major crimes scene investigator Karen Smith and RadarOnline reporter Alexis Tereszcuk join Nancy Grace to discuss this cold case. Other topics in this episide include a missing North Dakota woman found dead in a river, her body wrapped in plastic and her newborn baby in the arms of another woman; a teen girl who live streamed her sister's car crash death offers unusual reasons for her bizarre behavior. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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just great resources to help you protect what you care about, your family. For special savings, be sure to enter code NANCY, N-A-N-C-Y at checkout. LegalZoom.com. LegalZoom.com. then entombed in the basement of a home. Barbara Miller disappeared in 1989. Police have been very interested in the walls of a home along North Front Street in Milton. Investigators say preliminary results show the concrete contained wood chips. Now they're waiting to see if it also holds Barbara Miller's remains. A forensic pathologist is dissecting the walls, looking for links to the woman. Experts are now checking for odors left by decomposing human remains. The police chief added it's just a matter of time until we get our answers. A three-ton cement slab. Three tons of cement? I mean, that's some back patio, right? Three tons of cement?

But what is unique about this concrete slab? It may hold the remains of a woman that has been missing who many believe was fed to a wood chipper. I mean, when I hear the words fed to a wood chipper, I've got to tell you, I perk up. All right. But a three ton cement slab. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. You can't put these words, three-ton cement slab, missing woman, and wood chipper in one sentence without making my head spin around. That's what's happening right now.

We're talking about a beautiful young woman, Barbara Elizabeth Miller, last seen on a warm July afternoon after she attended a wedding. It was four days later that Barbara was reported missing. Okay. Immediately police searched the home where her boyfriend's sister lived. There was construction going on, but that meant nothing. Now we know that that cement flooring was added on and it contained wood chips. That's what we know right now. What happened to Barbara Elizabeth Miller. Sunbury Police Chief Tim Miller has stated that a three-ton slab of cement contained wood chips. What else could it hold? I wish you could see this woman, Barbara Elizabeth Miller.

Just absolutely beautiful. Kind of like brownish hair with gold streaks, natural gold streaks in it. Beautiful brown eyes, a gorgeous smile. Why did she go missing? Why did four days pass before she was reported missing? With me, investigative reporter Alexis Tereschuk from RadarOnline.com, and joining us, a brand new guest, forensic expert, former major crime scene investigator, now professor, Karen Smith. Karen and I have performed many physical forensic experiments together, the two of us.

And they were intense. And after I did those recreations or recrees of a crime scene with Karen Smith, I know she's the go-to guy. Karen Smith, forensics expert, thank you for being with us. Alexis Tereszczuk, my longtime friend and colleague, reporter with RadarOnline.com, thank you for being with us. Alexis Tereschuk, my longtime friend and colleague, reporter with RadarOnline.com. Thank you for being with us. First to you, Alexis Tereschuk, what do we know about this gorgeous girl, Barbara Elizabeth Miller? Why did four days pass? I mean, nobody has been arrested.

Nobody has been named chief suspect. What do we know about her? Who saw her at the wedding? What happened? She wanted to go to a wedding actually without her boyfriend. She wanted to go alone. So she went alone to the wedding. She and her friend. Wait a minute, right there. That's a big indicator to me. When you go to a wedding, you know, you usually take somebody with you if you've got anybody to take. And I mean, it's kind of a joke. You meet your future husband at a wedding, right? So she specifically said, I don't want to go with you to the wedding. Now, to me, that's a big red flag, Alexis. And apparently she had spent quite a bit of time before she disappeared telling friends that she was afraid for her life. She was saying that she was really unhappy in this

relationship. So let me understand this. Karen Smith, she goes to a wedding. Now, Alexis and I are, you know, making anecdotal comparisons. You're the forensics expert. To me, if you've got a gorgeous young girl who's going to a wedding and she specifically says she doesn't want to go with her boyfriend, to me, there's trouble in paradise right there. I agree. I agree wholeheartedly. Who goes to a wedding without your spouse? Now, explain to me, Karen Smith, the chief has now said, we know this much, that they have found wood chips in the cement.

Is that uncommon? And what would it indicate to you as a former major crime scene investigator, wood chips in the cement? We're dealing with 6,000 pounds of concrete. That's about 70, 80 pound bags. And as we all know, concrete comes separately in bags. And I seriously doubt there would be wood chips in there. And having wood chips in the concrete highly unusual very questionable I'm really wondering what else they're going to find in there let's analyze it Karen Smith now I saw my dad lay several things in our backyard, a patio, a walkway, another patio, a front walkway, just, you know, he was a railroad

man, but he could have laid brick for a living. It's just beautiful. And I remember him mixing the cement himself. And you're right, there wasn't wood chips, there were not wood chips in it, Karen Smith. Now here's the other thing, a wood chip, and I uniformly cut if they come out of a wood chipper and that is significant that's how you can tell a stick or a twig or a branch from a wood chip subtle but important difference absolutely Absolutely. We're dealing with mulch, mulched wood, which is just square chips. So it would be much different visually. This is a subtle but extremely important difference between a twig, a stick, a limb versus a wood chip. Now I know I'm getting into deep, deep into details. That's how you win a case.

Victory or the devil is in the details. Let's analyze the difference between sticks, twigs, branches versus wood chips. Karen Smith joining me, forensics expert. Go at it. I agree 100%, Nancy. We're dealing with small square pieces of wood. And if they're buried in the concrete, there has to be an explanation for that. They didn't just get there on their own.

Nothing just happens. Either somebody put them there on purpose to throw off the search, or they were mixed in because there's something else mixed in with that concrete that came in with the wood chips. Let's talk about wood chips, okay? Let's talk about a wood chipper. Explain exactly what is a wood chipper. Go ahead, Karen. We're dealing with something that's going to break down large branches, large tree limbs, and it's going to make small pieces out of that. So it's easily disposed or made into mulch. That's what they do. They're very loud, they're very bulky, and they're very powerful. And I have actually seen a case where it was an accidental death

where a gentleman got caught into the wood chipper and it wasn't very pretty. Well, I'm sorry to say that I've covered cases where a wood chipper was used to dispose of a body. A wood chipper or tree chipper is a machine. It's used for reducing wood, tree limbs or trunks, into small wood chips. They are often portable, which means they're easy to get or rent. They are mounted usually on wheels, on frames, to tow behind a truck or a van, or even a car, really. Power is provided internal combustion engine. All right, which means they're easy to handle. They're mounted and they're powered some of them by separate engine. Now here's the kicker. They're made of a hopper with a collar now the chipper mechanism itself is optional but what happens is you insert the tree limb into the hopper and the collar is just for safety i think

of a collar on a shirt there's a collar on top of the chipper so you don't fall in. As soon as you put something in a chipper, it immediately tears it to shreds mechanically. And wood chips are used, as you know, for ground cover or fed to a digester for papermaking. I know about that because my mom used to work at Georgia Craft, a papermaking plant. Now, the thing about it is it's covered in blades. The inside is nothing but blades that are mounted onto a flywheel. The flywheel accelerates and it destroys whatever you put inside of it immediately. If it can destroy giant limbs, what will it do to a human body? Now, here's another thing, forensically, to examine Karen Smith. There wasn't just one wood chip.

There were multiple wood chips in the cement in this guy's sister's basement. And not only were there multiple wood chips, Karen Smith, but the cement was added. It wasn't as if they were just finishing her basement. This was added cement. Right now, a forensic pathologist is literally dissecting the walls piece by piece, looking for the smallest of clues. Now, what do you make of the fact that the cement was added on? It wasn't part of her original basement. Well, certainly that is a huge question that needs to be answered. When was it added and why?

If we have a finished basement, what is additional concrete being poured down there for? Not only that, but they said the walls were very thick. The slab was very thick. And there was an exhaust fan installed down there in a small room. I don't understand the need for that either. So this pathologist... Also, catch this, Karen Smith.

It was a rental home. Now, when you go to a rental home, most people don't start making permanent improvements because they're going to move out of the rental home. They're not there forever. So why would you pour a whole new floor to a basement that already had a cement floor? Why would you do that, Karen?

To hide a body. You know, with me also, in addition to forensic expert Karen Smith, Alexis Tereschuk, investigative reporter with RadarOnline.com. You know what else I found out, Alexis, is that several people have said over the years that this boyfriend of hers would talk about driving to his sister's home in Milton to quote, visit his old lady.

What? Exactly. He, they had a terrible relationship. And as you said, she didn't take him to the wedding. The last time she was seen, she'd been telling police.

She actually complained to police that she was, that he was harassing her. She told friends she was afraid for her life. And her teenage son even said that they got in a fight that night because she didn't want to take him to the wedding. So all these things lead to a lot of suspicion. And then you hear that this guy says, Oh, I'm going to visit my old lady who says that when they drive by a house, it's very creepy i don't he's i don't believe he's married so what does he mean that he's driving by this basement where the cement slab is to quote visit his old lady now this is according to several people that say he has said

this over time eddie miller her son, as Alexis just told you, said that there was a big fight the night before the wedding that she planned to attend without the boyfriend. The next day, the boyfriend, Egan, was allegedly driving his mother's car. Hey, right there. No offense, guys, but if you're a grown man and you still got to drive your mom's ride,

okay, run, ladies, run as if you had seen a monster. Okay, he's bumming his mom's car. No, N-O. Okay, right, that's a whole nother can of worms. But so the next day, he's driving his mom's car, and the tires of Lex's Touret teres truck were covered with yellow clay that he thought was related to cement work okay what about that alexis well and that's this this woman's son i mean how how much of a better witness can you have where he says it's so suspicious that this

building this this house that his sister rented had some construction work. His mom disappears. And then this boyfriend says all the time, oh, I'm visiting my old lady there. It's so sickeningly obvious that this guy had something to do with this, I think. You know, Karen Smith, forensics expert, major crime scene investigator. Karen, if you see this home, it looks like straight out of Andy of Mayberry. Okay. I mean, it's a tree-lined street. It's got the front porch with the white wicker chairs sitting on it.

It's a two-story frame, fresh painted, yellow with green and brown trim. It looks like a Japanese maple on one side and it looks like an oak tree, possibly a post oak on the other side with the shade in the front yard. I mean, the little sidewalk, even a fire hydrant. I mean, it looks straight out of Americana. I'm just telling you, you'd never dream looking at it from the outside. There could be a body buried in the cement in the basement? Oh, what a more perfect place than a piece of Americana, right? Who would suspect? I had so many questions when I read these articles and did some research on this,

and a lot of it had to do with that house. Where were the neighbors in 1989? Were the houses built around it? Did anybody hear or see anything unusual? Was it unusual to have work done on the house? A lot of questions. And when he's driving by this house and saying, I'm visiting my old lady, is it out of his way of a drive? Is he going somewhere in particular? These are all questions I'd like to have answers to. All I know is that when I look at this photo of Barbara Elizabeth Miller, it's at Christmas time, the trees in the background. She looks like she's looking right at me saying, do something for my son's sake. We're on it. Right now we are covering the body of a missing North Dakota woman has just been found wrapped in plastic. Okay, just right off the top of my head wrapped in plastic. That means it was not an accident. It wasn't a suicide. It wasn't an accident. Because what? She had an accident and It wasn't a suicide. It wasn't an accident because what? She had an accident and died and then wrapped herself in plastic.

No. When a body is found wrapped in plastic, that means it was homicide and someone was staging or covering up the body, staging the scene or covering the body. I'm talking about the body of a beautiful young North Dakota woman who went missing. We covered it on crime online.com. And when I found out this woman, Savannah Graywind, just 22, was eight months pregnant. When she went missing, I knew right then, in my mind, Savannah's dead. Now we learned that Savannah has been found wrapped in plastic. Now, Alexis Tereszczuk, joining me from RadarOnline.com, along with forensics expert

Karen Smith. Alexis, it's my understanding that kayakers were the ones to first spot Savannah's body in the Red River. That's just east of Harwood. What do you make of that? I understand that her body, wrapped in plastic, had gotten hung up on a log, Alexis Tereszczuk. So folks are in their boat going down the river and they see a body. It's actually caught up on a log and it's wrapped in plastic, but it's not just a piece of plastic they see. They can tell that there's actually a person inside of this plastic. It's not submerged underwater completely. They can see what it is and they call the police immediately. You know,

Alexis Tereszczuk, don't laugh, okay? You may not be to the point where you can take your son on a hike yet because he's just a toddler. Well, in my mind, he's still a toddler. But Karen Smith, Alexis Tereshchuk, I just took the children on a long hike along a river. And at one part of the river, I just happened to know, there was a drop-off from an overhang where several young male bodies were thrown off the bridge.

I'm talking about serial killer Wayne Williams. And I couldn't help it, guys. When I was walking along the trail, I kept looking out at the water thinking, please don't dead body float by. Please don't dead body float by in front of the twins. I mean, it's like your nightmare come true you're out kayaking or walking along the river and you see karen smith forensics expert a dead body wrapped in plastic, caught on a log in a river? It means that somebody had to kill her, wrap her in plastic. I would be very curious to know if

tape was used. My forensic mind goes immediately to the physical evidence that may be present, you know, any kind of prints that may have been deposited on the inside of that bag may still be there, what her mechanism of death would be. And, you know, when bodies are floating, that means they've been there for at least a few days. You know, they'll sink at first and then they'll float back up once the decomposition process starts. So, you know, I'm hoping that they will be able to get some forensic evidence off of her body once they have recovered it and take it to the medical examiner's office. Well, speaking of that, the body is at the medical examiner's office right now

there in Ramsey County, Minnesota, awaiting autopsy. This has all just gone down. And what forensics expert Karen Smith just said is correct. The body sinks initially, but when the body begins to decompose, it creates gases within the body. Just like when vegetables or fruit in your fridge start getting old, they become pungent. They smell because they are emitting a certain type of gas that goes hand in hand. It is decomposition. And the body does that as well, just like the vegetables in your fridge. So when the body begins to release those gases as it

decomposes within the inside of your body, your body begins to swell up to bloat and the gases, like a balloon full of gas, floats up in the air. The body floats up in the water. Plastic wrap is not going to contain it. Okay. The other thing that Karen Smith just said, when you're dealing with plastic, like a plastic tarp, okay, that is an excellent source of fingerprints. CSI Crime Scene Investigation has got to be beside themselves trying to process this piece of tarp, Karen Smith. Plastic bag is just not going to contain a body. You have to seal it somehow. The sticky side of tape, believe it or not, is an outstanding source of forensic evidence. So hopefully they'll be able to pull some rich detail off of that as well,

if not DNA. What's wrong with the three of us? There's Karen Smith, Alexis Teresha, and myself. Other people see scotch tape and they think, oh, we're wrapping a present. We think, oh, there's fingerprints to catch a murderer. Okay, there's something really wrong with that. Okay. And I know that, but you know, I guess it's like with crazy people, if they know they're crazy, they're really not crazy. At least I recognize this is way wrong. I want to get back to this, this woman. I'm calling her a girl,

but she's a grown lady. She's 22 years old, Savannah, and she is eight months pregnant. Alexis Tereschek, I swear, I think you were with me one night on HLN when I spouted off the stat that the number one cause of death amongst pregnant women was homicide. And when I said, I'm like, uh-oh, I just said something wrong that can't be right. I looked it up. It was, as I recall, from the New England Journal of Medicine, and I was so skeptical. We actually tracked down the woman, the female doctor that wrote it, and she was right. I can't remember the journal. But homicide, the number one cause of death amongst pregnant women. And here we have this gorgeous girl, Savannah. I wish you could see the picture of her right now.

Savannah Graywind, eight months pregnant, Alexis, when she is found dead in the Red River wrapped in plastic tarp. And this was found by a farmhouse. This is not near her apartment where she lives. She lived with her mom, her 16-year-old brother. They said when she disappeared that they had no idea. She never would have left the house and not come back. There was pizza that wasn't eaten.

She left her keys. They said her ankles were swollen, so she never would have walked the house with and not come back there was pizza that wasn't eaten she left her keys they said her anchors ankles were swollen so she never would have walked that far they knew that something very bad had happened to her when they couldn't find her her ankles were swollen oh yeah what was she doing out by a river a whitewater river where people are kayaking uh-uh n-o now here's another kicker she's eight months pregnant when she disappears but since then a newborn baby was found alive in the apartment building where savannah was last seen alive what do you know about that, Alexis? Well, she was, her neighbors were, police found, came to their apartment, they had a two-day-old baby. And so they were immediately arrested because the police suspected that this was her baby girl. And this seemed just these people,

this woman wasn't pregnant, she didn't have a baby. It was just too much of an odd, scary coincidence. So not only do we find a two-day-old newborn baby girl in her apartment building, needless to say, the two people who had the baby are being questioned. But in addition to that, a farm, a nearby farmstead is being searched. Alexis Tereschuk. Right. The river next to where near where the body was found, there is a farmstead and police have honed in on this and they're searching this and they're saying this may be the crime scene. So this is separate from her apartment saying to maybe she wasn't killed at the apartment. She was taken away. And as the mom said, she could barely walk, eight and a half months pregnant.

And so this farmstead near this river where the kayakers found the body is what police are saying may be the crime scene. So this may have been where she was possibly murdered. Well, when you say crime scene, we've got the expert Karen Smith with me. What would they be looking for at that farmstead, Karen? I hate to go into gory details, but we're dealing with a two-day-old baby, and she was eight months pregnant. We know that she probably didn't deliver it at the farmstead. How did the baby get removed from its mother?

So we're dealing with blood. Certainly, the body will give a lot of information to the medical examiner where that's concerned. And was this woman strangled? Is there evidence of injury to her neck? Did they shoot her? It's hard to tell at this point, but I know that the forensics... So definitely blood. Oh, absolutely.

Definitely blood. I mean, it's not going to be difficult to overcome an eight-month pregnant woman. I mean, again, I remember when I was heavily pregnant, I tried to walk into a restaurant with my husband. I think it was a Friday night, and someone said, you better get her to the hospital pronto to my husband. Well, that was Friday night on Sunday morning. You remember this, Alexis. I was up trying to get ready for church, and I started projectile vomiting. And my husband came in and said, you're not going to church. You're going to the hospital. I'm like, no, I'm going, I'm going. I need to pray about this baby, the babies.

And he went, you're going to the hospital. He said, you're yellow. Your whole self is yellow. Well, needless to say, we, he drove me straight to the hospital. We ran every single red light. And there was nowhere to park, so he dropped me at the front door. I was so out of it. I laid down on the floor in the admissions, in the lobby of the hospital, I did have the wherewithal to kind of crawl under a sofa-type loveseat thing so people wouldn't step on me. I at least got out of the way, and I laid on the floor. Interesting, now that I think about it, no one in the hospital tried to

help me until my husband came in and got up on, yelled me, get off the floor. So, you know, this lady's eight months. What do we know about those two people? It's Brooke Lynn Cruz and William Henry Hone were the ones that had the baby. What do we know, Alexis? Well, we know that they lived in the same apartment building that Savannah lived with, her parents and her brother, and they have now been arrested, and they were charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Those were the original charges. This was before the body was found, so I imagine that the police are going to be adjusting those charges

if they have the evidence. And back to you, Karen Smith, what will we learn from her body? What can we learn? Well, we will definitely learn the mechanism of death, you know, whether or not she was strangled or anything else. Also, and I hate to be so gory, but you know, we're dealing with facts here. If the baby was forcefully removed, they will certainly be able to tell that from the body. Now, being in a river for some period of time, there is going to be some decomposition. However, injuries like that are not going to just go away. They'll be present, they'll be readily available, and hopefully the pathologist will be able to extrapolate whatever they need to charge whoever's responsible. If it's these two, then yeah, the police will definitely be adjusting charges for them.

The body of a missing North Dakota woman, eight months pregnant when she vanished, has been found wrapped in plastic. Kayakers first spot the body of Savannah Graywind, just 22 years old, in the Red River. Police working to try to retrieve her body and process a nearby farmstead. They say, quote, suspicious items were found there.

We don't know what that means yet. As we look for clues and follow the investigation, we want justice for Savannah Graywind. And let's send up our prayers for her tiny baby, a newborn baby girl that will now grow up without her mom. We're on it. A little girl, Jackie, dead. Why? The little girl, as she died, took her final breaths. Can somebody explain to me why her older sister, Abdulla, live-streamed her sister as she lay there dying, filming her lifeless body covered in blood, actually catching her last breaths what uh alexis teres chuck how did the little girl jackie die what happened jackie died she was in a car accident horrific accident she was crushed in the car and as she lay bleeding and dying in the car, her sister was live streaming her death. But the older sister, Adelia, says, she's my mini-me, my best friend.

She looked just like me. Anytime I look at her, it's like I'm looking at myself. It makes me like, it makes me like really sad that she's gone. So the sister, who is, I believe, DUI drunk at the time she's driving, crashes the car. And her sister is thrown out of the car, I believe, into a cornfield. And as the little girl, the tween sister, who just turned 14, is lying there covered in blood, dying, she, instead of doing CPR on her sister, instead of calling 911, instead of trying to save her sister's life, grabs her cell phone and starts videoing her little sister as she lies there dying. And that's not all because now Abdulla, the so-called big sister, is claiming that she live streamed her sister's death and dead body after the crash to raise

money because she says she deserves to be free to work on her own clothing line. Okay, hold on. Let me just get that straight. She live streams her sister's death. What does that mean? Alexis Torres, Truck Radar Online, to live stream something. You use a service. You use Facebook Live. You film something. It's live.

Your followers. She has over 5,000 followers. Friends on Facebook can watch it as it's happening. It's not a video that you took before and then upload. You're actually doing it live, and so people can watch it. And people were horrified because she's not calling the police. She's not helping her sister. She's just talking, saying, oh, I killed my sister.

I'm so sorry. She's so great, but she's my sister, and I love her, but she's dead. It was completely callous and insane. So not only are people seeing it at the time it's happening is it um curated i mean can you go back and look at it again one of her friends actually copied like took a copy of the video so recorded it as she was filming it live and she is the one that also contacted authorities about it. Now it turns out that she's trying to raise money off the video. It sounds like a grave robber, a ghoul. Now we know that she was drunk and we know that she live streamed her sister as she died. I don't know what this says about the dangers of social media, but I'm not blaming social media for this.

Karen Smith with me, forensic expert. What do we know about Jackie's death, the 14-year-old little girl? She was thrown out of the window of her sister's car before her sister live-streamed her death. Right. She wasn't the only one. Her sister's friend was also thrown out but survived. So they were both in the back seat, and they were not wearing seatbelts. So when the car rolled, this was a rollover crash.

This wasn't just, you know, going through a fence into a cornfield. The car flipped. So we're talking about high speeds. We're talking about a lot of energy expenditures and a lot of physics at work here. Her little sister went through the back window and was killed. And her sister's friend was also ejected. But in the video, you can see her sister's friend actually trying to flag down someone for help. So while Abdulla is live streaming this, the one that was ejected is the one that has the presence of mind

to try and get help while she goes ahead and puts this on social media. And she clearly states that she did it and that's not going to help her at trial. But now she says she's trying to raise money from the live streaming to start, launch her own clothing line. Uh, hello? Early in the note that she's just written, she writes about an album she wants to record

and dedicate it to her dead sister. Okay. And she's setting it to the song Como La Flor by Selena. What is this about her own clothing line? Help me, Alexis. Help me understand this. She says she wants,

she has, she's only 18. She has a whole life ahead of her. She's really young. So one of the things that she wants to do is start a clothing line that she thinks that she could design clothes. And then she also says that she wants to open up a boxing gym and she wants to put up a statue of her sister so that people

can remember her okay take a listen to this girl she is pleading not guilty in count one with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. That's a felony offense under penal code section 191. I'm Julia Sanchez. All right. Is that your true and correct name, Ms. Sanchez? Yes. All right. You're here today for arraignment on a felony complaint.

You're charged in count one with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated that's a felony offense under penal code section 191.5 subdivision a count two charges you with vehicular manslaughter under 192 subdivision C subdivision one of the penal code count three charges you with driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage causing injury that's's a felony offense. There's an enhancement, a special allegation for causing great bodily injury, and that is on the victim, J.S., and there's an enhancement for great bodily injury on that charge also. And count six charges you with felony driving with a.08, blood alcohol causing injury, felony offense also on J.S. with the same enhancement. Do you understand the charges?

A little bit. Do you have the funds to hire your own attorney? No, I don't. There you hear the sister, Abdulla, in court as the judge is speaking to her. I wanted you to hear that. Karen Smith, forensics expert, her defense lawyer already has a claim. What do you know, Karen? He's saying that there was a problem with a tire tread on one of the wheels of the car. And that's a little curious to me, considering I did some research on 2003 Buicks, which is what she was driving.

There are no recalls. There's no manufacturer problems reported with tires. And frankly, that is an issue, a maintenance issue for the owner. That's not a problem with the tire itself. So I'm not quite sure where this attorney is going with that. It was just interesting to me that that was going to be the defense. You know, don't you just hate it, Alexis Torres? Check RadarOnline.com when your defense attorney comes up with this great defense about the tires caused

the wreck and hey don't look at my client look at these tires and then you find out there was nothing wrong with the tires whoopsie and not only that she had been live streaming the whole day up to this showing herself driving speeding down the road like almost crashing into a van and she says you know oh we do that all the time everybody snapchats a van. She says, we do that all the time. Everybody Snapchats from the car. It's what we do. We're fine. We're young. This was something she'd been doing all day long, was driving recklessly and filming it at the same time.

And drinking. You left that part out. This is what she says. This is what she says when people have verbally attacked her about what happened. You're only going to make my parents suffer more. You're not going to help anybody. My parents are grieving. They want me back home. The house is super lonely without us. We were like the joy of the house. Okay, she's talking about her and her

sister that she killed and live streamed her death while she was drunk. And she is attacking people that have verbally chastised her, claiming that they're just hurting her parents. All right, where is this going to Alexis Teresichuk? What's happening? I mean, this is crazy. Why did her lawyer let her write this letter? I guess he couldn't stop her. Talking about she needs the money from the video of her dying sister

to start her clothing line? Yeah, I don't think that this attorney really has any control over her because no i'm not the attorney that's you but i wouldn't imagine and the cases where i've covered attorneys don't usually tell their clients to write rambling eight-page letters to news stations i would like to get them as a reporter obviously but this is she he's saying he's coming up with a lot of excuses he says you know you this is only just a few minutes of the day that you know about her that you're basing your opinion on he says she is a victim of child sex trafficking she has a terrible background and that this is what's going to

come out and to show that what a bad life that she had so he's really setting up an extensive defense all right the jury's going to have that letter in their hands she also says that the reason she did the live streaming is, now this was before her sister died, she started live streaming. In her four-page double-sided letter to a reporter at KGPE-TV in Fresno, she said, I know I had more than 5,000 followers and it's the only way my sister could get a decent burial. I'd never exposed my sister like that. I anticipated the public donating money to me because my family's not rich. And oh yes, I'm going to start,

I'm going to launch my own clothing line. That is bad. But then she says, I accomplished my goal. She apparently has raised money. More than $12,000 was donated to a GoFundMe account created by the family to help with the funeral. Wow! She is now charged with half a dozen crimes, including gross vehicular manslaughter. And she said that live streaming was, quote, like a reflex. Okay, that's where we stand right now. The video showed Sanchez looking into the camera and singing as she was driving and the sister and the friend also in the car.

As she was recording herself, she loses control of her 2003 Buick and crashes. The video stops. She says she called 911 for help and then started recording. She panned to the body of her sister lying there out in a field who had suffered major head trauma. And as the video streamed, she says, I killed my sister, okay? I know I'm going to jail for life. She says that right then. Some reports say she said, I don't care. I guess we'll find out at trial. With me, Alexis Tereschuk, RadarOnline.com and forensics expert, Karen Smith. Now to Alan Duke.

Alan, I want to hear how I can help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Right now, I know that there is looting going on. People are homeless. They don't have power. There have been casualties. What can we do to help, Alan? The mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, has put out the call. He's got a short list of supplies in Houston that the shelters are in desperate need of right now, including dry clothing for both adults and children. You know, many of them are coming out. They're just soaking wet when they arrive at the shelter.

Diapers, as a mom, and you know how critical that is, and there's a severe shortage of diapers. Baby formula, medical supplies, and food. That is the top list. Now, if you're in the Texas area, there are local organizations you can donate to. But overall, authorities are recommending and asking and pleading for you to donate to the American Red Cross. And you can reach them at RedCross.org or 1-800-HELP-NOW, 1-800-435-7669. Okay, 1-800-435-7669. Okay, 1-800-435-7669.

You can also go to UMCOR, United Methodist Relief. 100% of the money that goes to UMCOR, U-M-C-O-R, goes to help the victims, 100% of that. Or dial like Alan just told you. Right now, FEMA is expecting more than 450,000 Harvey disaster victims to file for assistance. That's a half a million people. U.S. emergency management officials say they're trying to expedite federal resources. And let me tell you, I know, because we went on missions work immediately following Katrina, and it was devastating. We worked so hard to rebuild. People were out of their homes, out of their apartments. They had nothing, nothing at all.

Give me those numbers again, please, if you could tell me. Well, the simple thing, of course, is to go to RedCross.org, or if you want to use a phone, 1-800-HELP-NOW, 1-800-435-7669. Okay, what do we know about the Harvey victims, Alan? Well, we know they're still trying to rescue them, and it's going to go on for days and days. You know, with Katrina, it took a long time for them to really realize the magnitude. With this, they've got thousands of people still stranded either on their roofs or the second floor of their home, some of them in waist-high water or worse. So it's still a picture that is unfolding.

Please join with me and help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. They are our very own here in our backyard and they are suffering. Please call the Red Cross toll-free number 800-435-7669. Also, continue to pray for those who are suffering because of Hurricane Harvey. Also, let's pray for the early response teams, disaster coordinators, and volunteers there who are trying to help. Please dial toll-free 1-800-435-7669 for Red Cross assistance to Hurricane Harvey victims or UMCOR, United Methodist Committee on Relief, toll free 800-554-8583, 1-800-554-8583 or 888-252-6174. Please help us help our friends. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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