Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Man meets teen girl through online game site, lures her out of Tennessee home to his mom's Wisconsin basement

Episode Date: February 5, 2019

A Wisconsin man was arrested on federal kidnapping charges in connection with the disappearance of 14-year-old Savannah Leigh Pruitt. Nancy Grace discusses the case with the lead detective from the Monroe County, Tennessee, Sheriff's department Detective Jason Fillyaw. Her expert panel includes Cold Case Research Institute director Sheryl McCollum, forensics expert Karen Smith, Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina family & divorce lawyer, psychologist Caryn Stark, and Crime Stories reporter Robyn Walensky. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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She stole the spotlight out of the room. I mean, she really, really did. As beautiful as she looks, that's how her soul was. It's very beautiful. You guys aren't giving up hope. I'd just like to plea anybody knows anything, please come forward, help with the investigation. No lead is too small. We cannot rest until we know something about our Savannah. Please come home, Savannah, for sure. Yes, please. It is just unimaginable to tell you how it feels to lose one of yours.

Right. His heart was ripped out. That's her stepfather. Well, now he's charged with rape. But that's not the end. Listen. According to court documents, that Tennessee teen was found behind these walls inside a closet. I was shocked, if you want to know the truth. People in this quiet Northeast Madison neighborhood are beside themselves. You hear on the news, you never think it's going to be right across the street in your house. Tim Rowe is stunned after learning investigators found a missing Tennessee girl in this house just feet away from his own.

Didn't know the kid was over there, the girl at all. According to court documents, investigators found the teen inside this home on Basil Drive. When the FBI arrived, Rogers' mother opened the door. Minutes later, they found the girl inside. Julie Moeller lives across the street too. Oh my God. Oh my God, that poor girl. I mean, it's very unnerving. We knocked to see if Rogers' mother was home. Miss Rogers? But got no answer. Neighbors are now skeptical about how much she knew. I

mean, here's a grown woman with this young young girl in the house not asking any questions, not going to the police. Having to have the police find them a man facing years in prison and a neighborhood shocked and wanting answers. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Rapidly developing the case of little girl Savannah Pruitt, who goes missing out of her home. They had only been living there for four weeks in Madisonville, Tennessee,

moving from Lawrenceville, Georgia, so she could have more land for her animals. And then they wake up in the morning. The little sister says she's gone. The window sash ripped, the screen ripped, her bedsheets taken. The father, the stepfather, who swears his heart has been ripped from him, is now charged with rape. But where's Savannah? Then, out of the blue, we find out Detective Jason Filial, who is with us right now,

is heading to Wisconsin. He brings the girl home. Now a string of arrests. I don't get it. Before I go to Detective Filial, Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. What happened? Well, Nancy, detectives had a really good lead, and that is that her phone was pinging in Kentucky, about 150 miles north of the house. And then, you know, the FBI joined the case and law enforcement started looking for her.

And her picture was on your website on Crime Online. And people started seeing who this 14-year-old, extremely attractive teenager was. And people started looking for her. And the next thing you know, she turns up in Wisconsin. You couldn't even make this story up no you really couldn't with me right now um detective Jason Filyaw he is with the Monroe County Tennessee Sheriff's Department and I want to speak to him now because I've got a funny feeling there's going to be a gag order put on this case and he won't be able to say another word

detective Filyaw I can't thank you enough for being with us. To me, it was a miracle that she was found, plus so far away. Is it true that you went to Wisconsin on a plane to bring Savannah home? Yes, ma'am. And you did, in fact, bring her home. Is that correct? I did. We got home late Saturday evening.

And was she reunited with her mother? She's not at this time. She's actually with the Department of Children's Services due to everything surrounding the investigation so that she can receive counseling and therapy to help her kind of deal with what took place. To Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute, I'm going to bring in my other guest in just a moment. Cheryl, that's not uncommon because if there is any allegation at all of molestation in the home by the father, the stepfather, the brother,

whoever it may be, they got to look long and hard at the mom because she was there. So why didn't she do anything to stop it? Maybe she didn't know. I don't know the answer to that, but I'm not surprised Savannah is not with her mother. No, that's the right call, Nancy. And the detectives have done a remarkable job in this case. And what they've got right now is a parallel investigation. They're going to continue the investigation in the stepfather with the rape allegation, and now they have another separate investigation with this person that met Savannah online and essentially kidnapped her. You know, I want to circle back to that. Detective Filial, I feel like I'm drinking from the fire hydrant. There's just so much to cover the bet the big news is the headline is savannah is alive but then we hear the her

stepfather who was going on and on and on about his heart being ripped out when she went missing he's charged with rape now i understand you're not going to tell me who the rape victim is and I accept that and I'm moving forward. Detective Filia who in the hay are these people where she allegedly was being kept? Don't know much about them at this point. The authorities in Wisconsin are taking that case or that end of it and the federal authorities are you know doing the charging and actually taking like i said taking that investigation well then cheryl mccollum director of the cold case research institute you said that she was lured online this is a very quiet and shy girl savannah pruitt rather be with her little animals and her pets so what do we understand happen Cheryl she meets

this guy online who's like 30 years old while they're playing a game Roblox Roblox you know what that is Cheryl are your children too old you know what Roblox is I mean I know it's an online game I don't know what the premise of it is but I know that's how they met and were able to communicate. And after only a week, she feels comfortable enough with this man to make an outcry that she's being sexually assaulted. So he decides, hey, I need to help her, I guess, but I need proof. So send me a video of the sexual assault which she does then he travels from wisconsin to tennessee to pick her up so this man 30 something years old travels over 1400 miles to pick this child up she's a child and then keeps her at his home where he lived with his mother for three weeks.

When law enforcement asked him, he denied knowing her. So my understanding is she was being hidden in a closet in the home. Detective Jason, feel y'all. Is that the report you received? That is the report I received. You know what? That scares me so much. I don't know if you guys remember the name Jessica Lunsford.

I always called her the girl in the pink hat. I know you remember her, Robin Walensky. Robin, the girl in the pink hat, Jessica Lunsford, was in Homosassa, Florida, and a guy kept her hidden in a closet after he abducted her. She ended up being buried alive. Okay. Do you remember that name, Jessica Lunsford? Yeah, I do. And it's so sad because when you think of her picture and her her smiley face and how lovely she was

and she was also hidden you know like some sort of prisoner you know in a closet she was about the same age as savannah pruitt was she lured for purposes of sex trafficking a 14 year old little girl who cared about nothing but her pets and her family states a way to be hidden in a closet 14-YEAR-OLD LITTLE GIRL WHO CARED ABOUT NOTHING BUT HER PETS AND HER FAMILY STATES A WAY TO BE HIDDEN IN A CLOSET. BRIAN DAVID ROGERS IS NOW FACING A FEDERAL CHILD EXPLOITATION CHARGE. SPECIFICALLY, HE'S ACCUSED OF PERSUADING A MINOR TO ENGAGE IN SEXUALLY EXPLICIT CONDUCT IN ORDER TO PRODUCE A VISUAL DEPICTION OF THAT CONDUCT AND THEN TRANSPORTING THAT MINOR ACROSS STATE LINES. in order to produce a visual depiction of that conduct and then transporting that minor across state lines. Now today we obtained a federal criminal complaint against Rogers. In it, it claims Rogers told the FBI he had come into contact with the teen through the online video game Roblox.

Rogers claiming that the girl who told him he was being molested, at first Rogers told agents the two had never met in person. Then later, agents went to the home where Rogers lived with his mother. the scene. The two were arrested in the same place. The two were told that the teen was stalking him. He was being molested at first, Rogers told agents the two had never met in person. Then later, agents went to the home

where Rogers lived with his mother. They found the teen hiding in a closet after his arrest. The documents show Rogers admitting that he told the team to get a video of the alleged rape and

admitted to driving to Tennessee to pick up the girl. Those court documents include records of chatting between the two Rogers outlining how to get the video. The team reluctant to get that video and pleading with Rogers for help and a grim paragraph in the document does show that officers found a video on Rogers computer showing an adult man apparently having sex with that teen. You are hearing our friend Gabrielle Pagan at WATE reporting. It's almost too much for me to take in. We have an all-star panel with us today. Detective Jason Filioff from the Monroe County, Tennessee Sheriff's Department,

Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute, Karen Smith, forensics expert, family lawyer, Kathleen Murphy, psychologist, Karen Stark, and joining me right now, Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter and author of Beautiful Life, CSI, behind the Casey Anthony case on Amazon. Robin, Roblox is a massively multiplayer game, and it's online, and it's a platform that allows the users to design their own games and play all different types of games. And if you look at it, the characters look like Lego characters. It's very popular. My son has played it. Of course, I'm hanging over his shoulder the

whole time. I don't know how he has a good time because I'm like, who is that? Who is that? You know who that really is? That's probably some 60-year-old man in New Jersey claiming he's a nine-year-old. All right, does that take the fun out of it for you, John David? Because it's taking the fun out of it for me. You don't really know exactly who you're playing with Roblox but it's it's a lot of fun and kids love it so Robin let's keep dummy down for me okay so many things have happened in the last days regarding missing 14 year old Savannah Pruitt so it starts with her missing from her bedroom with the window screen slashed open upon questioning I discover it was slashed most likely from the inside out

she's gone her cell phone's pinging kentucky then after much broadcasting we find out she's in wisconsin now what is this business about the video robin, the thing is that she was playing this game with this guy and she apparently trusted him or he gained her trust. And his thing, and she confides in him, oh, by the way, I'm being sexually assaulted by my stepfather. And he's like, yeah, right. Well, let me see a video of that. I need proof. I need evidence. So at first, what 14 year old, you know, traumatized by by the sex act to begin with is totally traumatized and is like, well, I'm not too sure I'm going to do this. But then he insists that he needs the evidence. And so sure enough, she records this horrendous act on the phone as the proof. Oh man. Okay. Detective Jason Filyaw, Monroe County, Tennessee Sheriff's Department. He's been on the case from the beginning. Detective Filyaw, so she vanishes in the middle of the night. That's one of the things you and I discussed. How does a girl out

in the middle of a rural area in Madisonville, Tennessee get all the way to Wisconsin? Or at that point, we didn't know where she was. How does she get to Kentucky for her phone to ping before it's turned off or goes dead? She certainly didn't walk. She didn't take an Uber or a Lyft or a cab. So who took her? That was the big question. And you and your team sifted through 2,000 pages of data, digital data.

Is that where you learned about Rogers, the guy in Wisconsin? Yes. Spoken like a true lawman. We were able to locate some of her e history, and through her email history, we were able to backtrack to Rogers and see where actually he had come to our area on the early, early morning hours of the day that she went missing. So I'm assuming, and you don't have to answer, I don't want you to hurt the integrity of the investigation, that you got that from texts, emails, or pings on his phone. Any of them may have been placing him in her area, and there you have it. You just have to follow the trail.

I know you won't answer this, Detective. Cheryl McCollum, is Rogers charged with sex exploitation? Right now, he's charged with kidnapping. More charges will come Nancy here's the thing about this guy he's hurting and he's on his game and he's able to communicate with a child and get her to confide in him something that's private as molestation from a stepfather he gets her to use an encrypted way of sending text messages. He acted when he thought he could go and get her. He's a predator. And there will be more evidence on his computer of child pornography and other people he has contacted. He's a dangerous guy.

Well, bottom line to Kathleen Murphy, family lawyer out of North Carolina, in order to, quote, get the evidence, he had her submit to another rape by her stepfather in order to get the evidence. Because she's telling him, my stepfather, and I'm deducing this, my stepfather is molesting me. And he's like, really prove it. In order to prove it she has to submit to another rape and video it now his argument is going to be well I wanted the evidence well my question is as soon as he got the girl out of the home as soon as he got the video why did he go straight to police why did he hide

her in his closet Kathleen Murphy not only did he not go straight to the police Nancy after he enjoyed watching that video because he's a sicko his excuse was I did not think the police would believe me what what what the police would believe him Cheryl McCollum hello Did you know that's what his excuse was? I didn't think police would believe. You know what I would have given in gold if I had had it when I was a prosecutor to have a video of anything? We never had videos of anything. This was on video. Yep.

And Nancy, not only did he not go to the police, he didn't go to a doctor. He didn't go to a social worker. He didn't go to a friend. He didn't go to a social worker. He didn't go to a friend. He didn't call your show and ask for advice. He did not try to help her in any way. He wasn't helping her. He was grooming her. To Detective Jason Fillion with the Monroe County, Tennessee Sheriff's Department. Detective, is he charged with sex assault on Savannah? The Rogers individual? Yes.

Not at this time, because at this time we don't have any evidence to support that. Detective, have all of his computers and devices now been seized by the feds? Yes. computers and devices now been seized by the feds yes do you believe there's a possibility he was looking at other child porn as well and soliciting it from other children i believe there's definitely a possibility of that a possibility and again of course more to this go ahead there's more to this story than we found out so far on his end. Man, you're not kidding. And again, let me just say, he's innocent until proven guilty, and all of this is just allegations until it's proven in a court of law. And Detective Filial is not commenting in any way on the evidence.

So to Cheryl McCollum, what do you expect we're going to find in Mr. David Rogers' computer? Child porn, child porn, child porn. And I'll tell you something else, Nancy, they've got to make sure that the video she sent him, he had not distributed. I have a real feeling that he was doing that deliberately. 46 admit to using the internet to look up somebody from their past. But Google and Facebook, the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding personal information. There's an innovative new website called Truthfinder. It's now revealing the full scoop on millions of Americans. Truthfinder can search through hundreds of millions of public records in a matter of minutes. Truthfinder members can literally begin searching in seconds for sensitive data like criminal, traffic, arrest records. Before you bring someone new into your life and around the people you care for, your children, consider using Truthfinder.

What you find may astound you. Go to truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy right away to start searching. Truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy. Truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy. Find the truth. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. According to the criminal complaint, Rogers had been speaking with that teenager for weeks through an online game, Facebook, and an encrypted messaging app. She told him that her adopted father had been sexually assaulting her for years.

Before he went to pick her up, the criminal complaint says Rogers asked the girl to make a video of the sexual assault and send it to him. Prosecutors say the teen recorded her father sexually assaulting her and emailed it to him. This afternoon, Rogers appeared before a federal judge on charges of producing child pornography. The prosecutor says she's considering a second charge of illegally taking the teen across state lines and says she'll make a decision before he faces a grand jury later this month. Because of the weight, the defense can ask to hear the evidence against him at a probable cause hearing later this week. His attorney refused to answer

this and many other questions about how Rogers and his family are responding to this charge. Have you made a decision yet on whether or not you'll have a probable cause hearing? His next court appearance will be this Thursday where he'll have a detention hearing as well as that possible probable cause hearing. He isn't expected to appear before a grand jury until the 20th. That's when they'll decide whether or not there is enough evidence for this case to move forward. You were hearing WKOW reporter Michelle Alfini earlier, KOW reporter Hunter Sines, as they're reporting on the very latest in the disappearance and the discovery of a 14-year-old girl. Turns out she's been playing Roblox online with some guy. I bet she didn't know how old he was, up in his 30s.

She confides to him her stepfather is molesting her he says prove it send me a video she reluctantly does that he comes all the way 11 hour drive each way to tennessee gets her in the dead of night takes her out of the home she's found hiding in a or hidden in a closet in w. David Rogers is the guy on Roblox, has lived with his mother. And remember, the stepfather was saying things like, it's like having my soul ripped out of my body that she's gone. You can't think, you can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't rest. Life has just ceased for us since she left. Those are a few of the statements that he made my big question to you detective jason filial joining us who went and brought savannah home from wisconsin the stepdad is behind bars randall pruitt is the mother visiting him no we No, she hasn't been up here since the day of the arrest.

Is she cooperating with the investigation? At this time, she is. You know, I'm very curious, Cheryl McCollum, because of all the cases I ever prosecuted, I never had a single mother side with the child. And all those, so many cases in the thousands, I cannot even count them. Never once did the mother believe the child. Never. Cheryl? Nancy, this mom has got some questions she needs to answer for law enforcement, obviously. She's got other children, but this child was the only one home schooled why this child obviously was being harmed inside the home if she didn't know it how

did she miss it those are things she's got to be able to answer the other thing for me nancy is when the mother was making her outcry on tv, she would go back and forth with past tense. And it seems like to me she believed this child could have been harmed to the point she was killed. Why would she believe that while this child was still missing to refer to her in past tense? So law enforcement has got to take a lot of care with her, but get to the bottom of what she knew and when she knew it. I want to get back to David Rogers, the 30-plus-year-old on roadblocks in Wisconsin. Detective Jason Filyaw, what exactly is he charged with right now?

Don Rogers is charged with kidnapping at this point, and I believe receiving child pornography. So my question would be to you, Karen Stark, psychologist, joining me at KarenStark.com. He is going to be arguing he was just saving her from a horrible situation where she was being molested at home. But, Karen, how could he explain that he kept her in a closet and didn't call police? Well, how does he explain that he had her make a video to prove that this was really going on, Nancy? I mean, think about that, the fact that the guy who was her rescuer, a white knight, actually abducted her and had her make a video, a sexual video, and

who knows what he did with it so we can't leave anything that this guy had to say it's just a horrific story and what about the mother that was there with a 30 year old son laid up on roadblocks you know right there Kathleen Murphy I got a problem with a grown man playing roadblocks I mean if I walked in after working working like a dog you know cleaning doing laundry holding down multiple jobs taking care of the twins and i walk into my husband's propped up on fortnight or roblox oh oh no uh-uh no no. No, we didn't. You know, that was a red flag for me when I first heard the story that they met playing roadblocks. I could understand an older guy playing something that would be similar to another game that i know my son-in-law plays but roadblocks is so childlike it's like legally murphy are you telling me that your son-in-law is online playing kids

games and you think that's okay i'm not judging no i'm just asking the adult male kind of games like um uh what is the the army game okay well in some circles that would be considered unusual for a grown man to be playing what are you talking about call of duty something like that okay call of duty i'm not judging but i would advise him to get off his keister and get a second job if he's got time to play Call of Duty that's a whole nother can of worms okay so I'll just quiet that's the best kind do you know in all the years I've been married or with David Lynch his mother or father and I never had one crossword ever ever now that is kind of mother-in-law you want. Now off your son-in-law on the call of duty and back to this.

I don't even, what was my question? It's a juvenile game. It's a juvenile childlike game. Leads me to believe that he is the predator. He is grooming. He clearly is grooming. He clearly is a predator being on roadblocks if that if somebody doesn't know what roadblocks is again you do know it's not r-o-a-d-b-l-o-c-k-s

it's not like a roadblock it's r-o-b-l-o-x roadblocks don't ask me i didn't like robots yeah roadblocks that that's yes yes so okay i want to go back to you detective jason phill Roblox. Don't ask me. Like robots. Yeah, Roblox. Yes, yes. So, okay, I want to go back to you, Detective Jason Filyaw, special guest joining us out of Monroe County, Tennessee Sheriff's Department. He actually flew up to Wisconsin and brought Savannah home. Savannah's in protective custody right now with the state. She has seen her mother. She's not back in the home with her mother.

Detective, what about the other children in the home? Are they still with the mother? Have has seen her mother. She's not back in the home with her mother. Detective, what about the other children in the home? Are they still with the mother? Have they all been removed? They're all together. All the children are together right now. Are they with the mother? Well, that's the way it's just got to be. There's just no two ways about that. To Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, is there any evidence this Wisconsin 30-year-old on Roblox sent that video to anybody? Because that's dissemination right there. That's a crime. At this point, Nancy, we don't know. But let me just say this about this guy.

He's 31 years old, and he is living in his mommy's basement. And he is enabled to the point of being a child. And that's why he's playing a child's game. But it's not a child's game when you add insult to injury and take this 14-year-old. You know the expression adding insult to injury? This redefines that expression. He is no longer a child when he goes and drives all that way to get this girl and to make her do that sex act again, to get the video.

Now you're talking about the adult mind. But he is enabled, living in mommy's basement. Oh, and by the way, how was this girl fed in the home? I mean, it's not a big house. And so his enabling mother, the 31-year-old mother, she didn't know that there was a 14 year old girl in her basement in being hidden in the closet. Come on now. Where specifically was she found in a house outside? She was she's family in residence in Wisconsin. And that's basically all I can say.

Any relation to the person that owns this house or has been in this house? At this time, we don't believe there's any relationships to this person. Can you say who those, the rape charge that happened today, can you confirm who that rape charge was involved in that, if she was the victim in that? I would be the victim in that with her adopted father. She is safe. She is in custody. So that's a very good ending to this as far as we're concerned. You are hearing right there the Monroe County Sheriff Police Department.

That was Sheriff Tommy Jones speaking with us. His representative, Detective Jason Filyaw. Two special guests with us, Detective Filyaw and Karen Smith, forensics expert. We're hearing a lot of evidence regarding emailing, Roblox, sending videos. But we also know that this guy in Wisconsin, David Rogers, had her send this all encrypted. What does that mean to you, Karen Smith? Well, I don't know what messaging app they were using, if it was Snapchat or something like that,

that automatically deletes these messages or automatically encrypts them. But that tells me this guy, Rogers, has a criminal mind. You know, color me so shocked when I found out he was living in mommy's basement. But it also tells me that he has a criminal mind. You know, color me so shocked when I found out he was living in mommy's basement. But it also tells me that he has a criminal mind. If you have the foresight to tell a young child

to use an encrypted messaging app so that nothing that you say can be found later, or at least he thought so, law enforcement, kudos to you for unencrypting that data, that tells me that he was planning this, he was cunning enough to know to do that and law enforcement had to do that deep dive into his data and they found exactly what they needed this is also what we know according to um and released by law enforcement rogers charged in

u.s district court in madison with knowingly persuading a minor to engage in a sex act for the purpose of producing a visual depiction. I'm reading directly from the law enforcement speak. That's why it sounds so funny. Bottom line, he convinced her to do a sex act and video it. Has he sent it? Has he disseminated it to others? How many times has he watched it? We also know that he goes to Tennessee, takes her to Wisconsin. The prosecuting attorney noted that more charges could be added

when the case is taken to the grand jury, including, listen to this, transporting the minor to engage in criminal sex activity that tells me robin walensky that he took her in order to engage in sex with the minor now that's an allegation it has not been proved but that's what the law enforcement release said he did not come all those hours, all that way, to get this girl in the middle of the night,

in the wee hours, to take her back to his house to meet his mother and bake cookies. Let's just say that. And, you know, Detective Jason Fillion, I asked you point blank when we first learned about an explicit video or photo, where did it come from? Because in my mind, you know, I thought, did the stepfather record that? And I believe it was you told me, somebody told me, or I learned some way through a source, it was on her phone. And that didn't make sense to me. And I was trying to figure out how that happened. Now we know that according to the state, it was under the tutelage of this Wisconsin 30-year-old living with his mommy playing Roblox, told her to do it. We know she went missing.

She was found. She was brought home by Detective Filial. Detective Filial, what was it like on that plane? Let me back it up. What was it like when you first saw her alive? When I first saw her, she was actually in good spirits. She rang up and gave me a hug. She recognized me because she had actually been keeping up with the media coverage.

And she ran up and gave me a big hug. And very talkative, very positive outlook for everything that she's gone through. You know, I keep telling everybody she's an awesome kid. I'm very impressed. My sheriff actually said that when she turns 18 you'd like to offer a job man isn't that the truth so she could see the coverage of her disappearance right yes detective filio how did you guys figure out she was in wisconsin the uh the email and the conversation exchange between her and Mr. Rogers, and we were able to backtrack his cellular data.

Brilliant. Absolutely. Brilliant. So, Detective Jason, you find her. She comes up and gives you a big hug, and you're on the plane with her. Did she want to go back in the home with her mom didn't really come up yeah talk about her brothers her brother and her sisters a lot and you know just really just a lot of a lot of tips that never really

brought up going back mom wanted to know where she was going to go, what was going to happen at home. Told her that we were going to go. I was going to introduce her to some people. That was myself and a high patrol officer that's assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the FBI, who actually went with me, and a, you know, a designee from the Department of Children's Services. And so, you know, she basically spent a lot of time with us, you know, like all the time with us. But she was just, you know, just talkative,

and she was pretty positive. She asked where she was gonna go. We told her she was going to a house with another family to be with her siblings, and she was excited about seeing her siblings, But didn't really discuss her mom that much. You've become a little bit of a hero and all the ladies want to meet you. So just you don't need to tell your wife that but just warning. It wasn't just me,

I mean I had a team of about eight or nine individuals that worked on this thing around the clock for about four or five days. And, I mean, if it wasn't for those guys doing what they did, we would have never broke this case. We'd still be looking. Oh, I know. She is safe and sound now, and we are waiting for the evidence to unfold i guarantee my guess is they will not have a preliminary hearing kathleen murphy because then that would be putting a state's witness up on the stand and a lot of this evidence would come out public before trial if i were the defense attorney

which thank god i'm not i take a grand jury indictment keep keep my yap shut. That's what's going to happen, Nancy. You're absolutely right. And I think to court's favor with the courts and to court's favor with law enforcement, he's going to try to put on a big show, I'm not going to make this child testify against me at a preliminary hearing. Well, I got it. He is for him. You have a little girl commit another sex act with her stepfather on video. I don't know how he's going to get any favor with anybody,

but that's his can of worms, not mine. He's obviously a warped thinker. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories. Signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.