Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Teen girl lured by online sex predator, kept in cage, starved, sex assaulted (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 1, 2019

In this two-part exclusive -- a Georgia man sexually abuses North Carolina teen, Hailey Burns, while holding her captive in a makeshift cageHear Nancy's emotional interview with her parents, Shaunna a...nd Anthony BurnsIn part 1, Hailey's parents wake up to learn their daughter is nowhere to be found. What's next?Nancy's expert panel also weighs in:Troy Slaten: Los Angeles defense lawyerSteven Lampley: Former detectiveEllen Killoran: Crimeonline.com investigative reporter Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A gut-wrenching plea tonight from a father desperate to find his daughter. 16-year-old Haley Burns disappeared from her Ballantyne home Sunday night. She has Asperger's and her family says she left with a man she met online who they believe is twice her age. She has not been heard from since. I don't think she realizes how much she's loved, but there are a lot of people out here that really want her home. A teen girl goes missing, and we learn the worst. We learn that she has been held in captivity in a cage for over a year. I want justice.
Starting point is 00:00:58 I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Take a listen to our friend Sarah Blake Morgan at WBTV. Everywhere you look in this Ballantyne neighborhood, you'll see the face of a girl who lives here until her parents say she chose to leave. You can't understand how it feels until you're in it. Haley's father, Anthony Byrne, says his 16-year-old vanished from her bedroom Sunday night. My wife opened the door and she was not there. She left a diary behind that Anthony says detailed a plan to run away with a 32 year old she met online. He gradually wormed his way into her good graces. He coerced her to start listening to him and not following our direction. How did it happen?
Starting point is 00:01:45 How did a teen girl end up being held in captivity for over a year, being denied food, being subjected to water torture? Why? And in a stunning, stunning blow to Lady Justice, the guy who makes off with her, Michael Weisselofsky, is walking free. Let's start at the beginning, but I want to introduce to you Haley, the victim in this case, the teen girl, mother, Shawna Burns, and her father, Anthony Burns, both joining us today. And I think I've got a lot to learn from them.
Starting point is 00:02:31 With me, Troy Slayton, renowned California defense lawyer, Stephen Lampley, detective. You can find him at StephenLampley.com, Ellen Kalorian, CrimeOnline.com, investigative reporter. Let's start with Haley's mother, Shauna Burns. Tell me about the moment you discover, Haley, your little girl is gone. You know, your little girl was just a couple of years older than my twins. And after studying Haley's case yesterday and the investigative files, can I tell you once again, I slept in their room last night and just stared at them up all night. I'm so distraught about Haley. Shawna, when did you realize Haley was gone?
Starting point is 00:03:18 I went in. It was a Monday morning and I went in to get her up for school. Haley went to a school that was out of our district. So it was about a two-hour drive, so it's about 5.30 in the morning. So it was dark in the house. No one else was awake. And I went into her room, and she was missing. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Starting point is 00:03:35 So it's 5.30 in the morning, okay? It has to still be dark outside, Ms. Burns. So you're saying you walked up to her bed, and she wasn't there. What did you do? First of all, where is she normally at 530 in the morning? In her bed. She's sleeping in her bed. Does she sleep with a nightlight? No. So you can walk in and you can see immediately whether she's in the bed? Yeah. Yeah. I immediately knew she was not in her bed. What did you do at that moment? I started searching other places in the house that I thought she might have moved to, like the couch, or sometimes she sleeps in,
Starting point is 00:04:11 that we have another bed and another room that she sleeps in. So I started searching all of the reasonable places that she could have moved to in the middle of the night to sleep. And after quickly going through those places, I started frantically searching everywhere in the house I even looked inside of my minivan thinking that she might have gone to sleep in there and after about wait a minute I just got a visual of you right now outside in the dark because when I load up the minivan in the morning it's's always still dark outside. And the first couple of times I would go outside and I think, oh my goodness, it's cold, it's dark. And I'd run to the car, load up all the twin stuff and I'd run back in. But now it's a blessing. I go out and I look up
Starting point is 00:04:57 at the stars and I think about all my blessings and what has turned, it turned from a chore into a blessing. And I'm imagining you going, okay, so she's on the sofa. You go to the sofa. She's not on the sofa. You go to the spare bedroom. She's not in there. You go look in the bathroom. Is she in there? No, she's not. Go look at the bed again. Okay. She's not in the blankets. I was right. Then you're outside looking in the minivan. What was going through your mind? What feelings were pulsing through your body? She has to be here somewhere. She has to be here somewhere. I just have to find her. That was the idea that she had left or that she wasn't here. Never even crossed my mind. I knew that she was here and I just had to find her.
Starting point is 00:05:47 So I searched the entire house, pretty big house. So it took me about 30, 40 minutes to do that. And then after searching every square inch of the house and establishing that she wasn't here, that's when I woke my husband up and I came into our bedroom and I said, Tony, Haley's not here. And he immediately jumped out of bed and said, what do you mean, Tony, Haley's not here. And he immediately jumped out
Starting point is 00:06:05 of bed and said, what do you mean? I said, she's not here. And so we both started separately. We separated and we just started systematically searching every square inch of this house. Oh my stars. Shauna, I've got chills all over my body right now. In fact, I felt a wave of nausea when you said, I just kept looking because I thought she's got to be here. Well, of course she has to be there. And, you know, I've told the story a million times about when my son, John David, went missing and the babies are us. But ever since that, and because of the nature of my business,
Starting point is 00:06:44 when I can't find them, when they're not where they're supposed to be, I immediately get distraught. To Anthony Burns, this is Haley's dad. Do you remember that moment that Shauna comes in? I'm sure it's still dark. Probably getting now around 6, 615. What happened in your mind? What's your recollection i um i you know even sitting here right now uh i'm i'm tearing up a little bit nancy because
Starting point is 00:07:11 um as a parent you know you know my daughter never tried to run away before or never been lured away before it's a better way to put it um you know as soon as my wife woke up. I am so glad you just said that. That's got to be clear. This child did not run away. It is lured away. It is. She was lured by an online predator. She is a child in the eyes of the law. And when your wife grabbed you by the shoulder out of a deep sleep and said,
Starting point is 00:07:47 Haley is gone. What went through your mind, Anthony? I literally, I heard the distress in her voice. It was something I had never heard before. I literally jumped out of the bed on, onto one foot. And I remember I think I twisted my ankles. I jumped out, but I, I ran out of bed and I, and I immediately went to her bedroom. I couldn't see her in there. I was just kind of waking up, and I went downstairs. As I went downstairs, I looked at her front door, and the front door was unlocked, and it was a little bit left adrift. And at that point, I knew. Take a listen to our friend Sarah Blake Morgan at WBTV.
Starting point is 00:08:31 Police are investigating, but Burns says they don't have any real leads on the man he believes took his daughter. There's no telling who he is. He might not be 32. He could be 55 and running a human trafficking organization. There's program possible. You know, the U.S. Justice Department says 3 million men, 19 million women have experienced sex assault. It's so important to be aware and prepared. I believe you shouldn't have to worry about walking alone day or night. That's why I recommend Tiger Lady, the defense tool based on one of nature's best defenses,
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Starting point is 00:10:19 Thank you, TigerLady.com, for being our partner. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A teen girl suffering with Asperger's is lured out of her home. Take a listen to Ariel Placencia, WCNC, Charlotte. The 17-year-old disappeared from her home back on May 23, 2016. Her family told us then she has Asperger's syndrome and left home without her medication. Last year, her family told NBC Charlotte they tried to limit their daughter's use of the computer after discovering she had been talking to strangers online. According to the observer, Byrne's father said she left a diary behind that detailed a plan to run away with a 32-year-old man she met online. Her family says
Starting point is 00:11:15 she did not have a cell phone, but still they believe she was able to communicate with someone and left to meet that person. A teen girl lured out of her home with the safety of her mother and father, where they watch over her, taking a two-hour trek every morning to a special school to help Haley Burns, to help her achieve, to help her succeed, to just push her one inch further in life, doing everything they can to help her. So she can be happy in life after they're gone. And then one morning, 5.30 a.m., Mom Shauna goes in to find Haley is gone. The two ransack the house, the yard, the minivan. No, Haley. And with me right now,
Starting point is 00:12:08 in addition to Troy Slayton, Stephen Lampley, and Ellen Kaloran, Haley's parents, Shauna and Anthony Burns. Anthony, you were just telling me that you are searching frantically. You've twisted your ankle, jumping out of bed. You're looking for her. Well, you know, the next thing is we've got two other children and, you know, we don't want to distress them because we know that we've got a very major problem on our hands. I go up to her room. I actually look in her bed. And at that point, I realized that the only thing left in her bed are a big pile of stuffed animals where she should have been sleeping. When you see that door unlocked and slightly ajar, what goes through your mind? I knew she was gone with it, with my wife coming in and telling me that she wasn't where she should be. And that was extremely unusual
Starting point is 00:12:57 as was the fact that my front door was open, which, you know, I locked the door every night. I knew someone had left through the front door. Either someone had come in the front door or someone had walked out of the front door. I didn't know at that point. You know what? You know what, Anthony? I'm almost through with a book I'm writing called Don't Be a Victim, Fighting Back Against America's Crime Wave. And one of the chapters is safe at home. And I've studied and studied and studied. I've prosecuted. I can't even tell you how many, literally thousands of cases of home burglaries, kidnaps, you name it. That's one of the main things. I know it sounds so simple.
Starting point is 00:13:39 Lock your doors and windows. I mean, I got 50 other tips, but when you saw that door unlocked and slightly ajar, if I saw that, I would know immediately because before I go to bed every night, even though my husband has already checked it, I rechecked the entire house. I checked the alarm. I checked the windows. I check the car outside. I check the garage. Everything. And it doesn't take long. You just do a walkthrough.
Starting point is 00:14:20 By now, I can look at a door at 15 feet, and I can tell if the deadbolt is on, by which way it's turned. I mean, so you do that every single night? Yes. Every single night. And we have three doors. I lock them all. I make sure every window is closed, you know, for air conditioning reasons. I mean, you know, we pay for what we consume. So I make sure the house, I have a system every single day. And can I just ask you out of curiosity Neither here nor there What's your system?
Starting point is 00:14:45 Okay, my system of checking the house is I basically will I clean up everything right before I go to bed I make sure all the dishes are done And everything else like we all do So the kids when they get up They walk into a nice clean environment And then I go through each door systematically
Starting point is 00:15:00 Usually our garage Make sure it's closed Okay, can I just stop you again, Anthony? I do the same exact thing. I cannot stand to get up and walk in. I get up at about 5, 530 every morning and see a mess. I don't think the children or my husband, definitely not my husband. But if it were a pigsty, they'd walk through and they wouldn't notice the thing.
Starting point is 00:15:22 I'm guaranteeing you that. But it would just push me over the edge. So every night, the den, the kitchen, everything has to be in place and neat. Yes. Yes, absolutely. So if I see one thing out of place the next morning, I know something went haywire. I mean, I'm not a clean freak about it, but I like things to be a certain way so that the kids have the same exact experience, you know, and the expectation every day that life starts the same way, that they love it that way.
Starting point is 00:15:51 I want to interrupt here because our twins, one of our twins has autism and they are very routine driven. They are very routine driven. So he sets everything up at night so that I have an easy morning. When I get them up, our routine is easy to follow because he set us up for it the night before. So it's not so much that he's really particular. It's just that because of our routine driven child, we have a pretty strict routine. And he is not lying. He checks it. He does it every night. You know what, Shauna, I'm learning something from you. I'm learning something from you because I always say to my husband, we have to keep them in a routine.
Starting point is 00:16:34 A routine. They got to know that on Monday this happens, Tuesday this happens, when they wake up this happens, they go to bed at this time, blah, blah. Although I slide on the bedtime because it's a a foundation a security thing that you know you understand your life is not chaos but you guys have haley with asperger's i did not know one of your twins was autistic as well all of our routine is so important, Shawna. All of our kids are on the spectrum. One of them has Asperger's and the other has autism. And Haley also has autism. All three of them. Yeah, all three of our kids are on the spectrum. And routine is, and I grew up in foster care, so I grew up in a very chaotic,
Starting point is 00:17:20 no stability situation. So I understand the importance of stability for children and knowing how safe and how important it is for them to feel safe in order to be safe. So that's one of the reasons why we are so routine driven in our home. And if I could break in, I grew up in a very, very conservative, very, you know, strong family background that taught me, you know, that to have kind of a system and a structure for each day and, and that, you know, do everything a certain way and things work out. That's what I was always taught. You know, it's just actually bringing me to tears and Troy Slayton, California defense attorney. You have children. Are you hearing this about routine? And what's so
Starting point is 00:18:08 ironic is Shauna and Anthony go to such great lengths to try to make everything just right to raise their children with these challenges that they have. Asperger's's autism and and then the worst happens Troy I mean weigh in on how they're trying to raise them Nancy my heart breaks for them I too have have two children and although they're not on the autism spectrum like their fine children, I do the same exact thing. We're getting the kitchen ready every night trying to do a routine and raise them the best that we can. And then to have something as horrific as having your child be gone, I can't even imagine. I just, I can't imagine what they've been through. The yellow ribbons on each mailbox on Baldwin Hall Drive starting to fade
Starting point is 00:19:16 as the days turn into weeks, weeks turning into months. More than a year went by with no sign of Haley, but this community never gave up hope. It kind of died down on the law enforcement side. I know they just kept pushing through. Now investigators haven't said how Haley and Weisselofsky met, but her parents said she'd been talking to strangers online and tried to limit her access not long before she went missing. It's scary because this is a good area, and it just shows that it can happen to anybody,
Starting point is 00:19:47 which makes it even scarier. It was the worst feeling you could ever imagine. You feel completely out of control. You don't know what to do. You just panic. This is the worst nightmare that any parent could ever expect. Guys, let me pause and thank our partner making our program possible today. You know, between working full-time
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Starting point is 00:22:11 and CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter Ellen Kaloran. Take a listen to our friend Sarah Blake Morgan at WBTV. A gut-wrenching plea tonight from a father desperate to find his daughter. 16-year-old Haley Burns disappeared from her Ballantyne home Sunday night. She has Asperger's and her family says she left with a man she met online who they believe is twice her age. She has not been heard from since. Our Sarah Blake Morgan has more on this family's fear and warning to others. I don't think she realizes how much she's loved, but there are a lot of people out here that really want her home. You can't
Starting point is 00:22:44 understand how it feels until you're in it. Haley's father, Anthony Byrne, says his 16-year-old vanished from her bedroom Sunday night. My wife opened the door and she was not there. Police are investigating, but Byrne says they don't have any real leads on the man he believes took his daughter. There's no telling who he is. He might not be 32. He could be 55 and running a human trafficking organization. There's no telling. Shawna and Anthony, to you, Shawna. So after you determined she's gone, what do you do? Well, we have two other children in the home that we did not want to upset. So the first thing that we did was we got them up early, earlier than usual. We got them up. We went through our routine. We brushed our teeth. We got them their book bags. We got them to school. The second that they got
Starting point is 00:23:29 out of the van, I called 911 and said, we need to get police here because at that point, we still didn't know what had happened. We just knew she was missing. So by the time I got home from dropping them off at the school, which is five minutes away. Tony was already here. The police were on their way. And then from then, the investigation began. Now, let me ask you this. That night after police had come and gone and you were at home, what was going through your mind? What, if anything, did you do to try to find Haley?
Starting point is 00:24:01 We called everyone we knew. We contacted every single person that we knew on Facebook, every single person that had anything to do with her. And I grew up in foster care, so my mentality was that she'd run away with a friend and she was going to go have fun for a weekend and that she was going to be back in a few days. The cops would find her. She's not street smart. She's not capable of living on the streets and not getting caught by police. So my mentality was that she would be home in a couple of days and the cops would find her. She's not street smart. She's not capable of living on the streets and not getting caught by police. So my mentality was that she would be home in a couple of days and the cops would find her. Do you guys have a security system with cameras? We do. Yes, no cameras,
Starting point is 00:24:35 but it does have a... Well, there is a camera on the front door. There's a camera at the front door. And so let me ask you, did you review the surveillance video? We did. What did you see? It doesn't record all the time. And the last footage that had been captured was from two days ago. And it was Haley walking down the stairs to go make cereal in the morning. Darn, darn. Okay, so you're hoping against hope that she has just gone away with friends. Do they take her? Does she have devices like an ipad or an iphone she did but that this is kind of complicated she did have phones but they were not ours like we had not given them to her she had gotten the phones from friends because we did we limited her internet access like the freaking guantanamo bay she was not allowed any yeah yeah let tony talk about this
Starting point is 00:25:23 go ahead may i break in for a moment? Yeah. I had recognized some behavior in my daughter that was troubling to me. I saw some behavior that I felt like was off, and I felt like she might need to talk to someone. I could see signs. She was dressing up in pigtails and using bottles, and there were things that I could tell someone was leading her to different behavior that I wasn't encouraging. And so I started to control, I mean, we were already controlling her internet access to some degree and we were, and her phone was limited. Okay. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait. Jackie Howard here in the studio has this question. Do you believe that this guy, Michael Weisselofsky, was telling her what to do to dress differently, to act differently?
Starting point is 00:26:12 Yes, we know. We know 100 percent he was. Absolutely. hold off say a laptop a phone um or if they don't get the phone can't they subpoena the any activity on those phones on that ipad or laptop most definitely nancy and i have done that many many many times uh you you certainly can do you certainly can yes so anthony and shauna did she have a laptop or an ipad no she, but not that she communicated with him on this. And this is just side note. All of the communications that happened between her and him happened at school on her school Chrome pad that was issued by the school. Oh my stars.
Starting point is 00:27:00 Both the twins have a Chromebook. Yeah. And we have not, like, we've not discussed this part of it because we don't, like, we don't harbor any ill will towards the school, but it is, so the school gave her a Chromepad. She had an IEP, which is an individualized education plan because she's special needs. One of those accommodations was she's never to be online unsupervised,
Starting point is 00:27:21 and yet she's still communicating with this grown man. She's printing out pornographic images in the school library. How did this? They did not monitor it like it should. How did this guy find her? He found her in a MyProAnnaChat website. It is a website for people that have anorexia, that don't want to hide it, that don't want to go get help for it, that want to
Starting point is 00:27:45 keep their anorexia and are proud of it. And the reason why he said... Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm drinking out of a fire hydrant here. It's just too much at once. Wait. She's in an anorexia chat room. And are you saying that it's for people that are proud of being anorexic? Yes. It's for people that don't, they don't want to hide it. It's pro-ana. It's my pro-ana. So it's pro-anorexia. Let me, if I could break. Do they want to get well?
Starting point is 00:28:11 If I could break it. Do they want to get well? No, they don't see, hold on, they don't see anything problem. They don't see a problem with anorexia and they don't feel like it's a life choice, just like your sexuality is a life choice.
Starting point is 00:28:23 They choose to believe that their anorexia is a lifestyle choice and that it's their right to have it. Can I tell you something? Already at school, and Lucy's in the fifth grade, fifth grade, okay, this started when she was 10, or I found out about it when she was 10, there was a group of girls, I call them in a euphemistic way the lettuce leaf bunch get it bunch and all they eat at age 10 i didn't even know what a salad was at age 10 okay my mom gave
Starting point is 00:28:55 vegetables every day but not a salad what kid wants to eat a salad with like vinaigrette on it. But anyway, all these little girls eat, they have some lettuce on their plate. I said, Lucy Lynch, do not, do not. And then I pop in when I can unannounced to see what she's eating. I know exactly what time they're having lunch. I don't tell her that's why I'm there. I go and go, hi, love you and leave. But I see her plate. So anorexia can start very, very early. And this freak, this perv knows to go on like a girl's anorexic website chat room, Anthony. And if I could, I mean, it wasn't that Haley felt like she was anorexic. It was that she didn't know what was wrong with her and was trying to discover through her own means and self-diagnose so that she could change all the bad things that kept happening to her. So she's out in an anorexia support group trying to figure
Starting point is 00:29:56 out if maybe that has something to do with their problems. And then she bumps into this guy who's in his thirties, who, who has been in this chat room before and has met other women and has then taken advantage of that relationship by saying he's a mentor that can help them as opposed to someone who is going to then take advantage of them, which is what ultimately happened not only in my daughter's case, but in several others. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The 17-year-old disappeared from her home back on May 23, 2016. Her family told us then she has Asperger's syndrome and left home without her medication.
Starting point is 00:30:47 Last year, her family told NBC Charlotte they tried to limit their daughter's use of the computer after discovering she had been talking to strangers online. According to the Observer, Byrne's father said she left a diary behind that detailed a plan to run away with a 32-year-old man she met online. Her family says she did not have a cell phone,
Starting point is 00:31:04 but still they believe she was able to communicate with someone and left to meet that person. With me right now, Shauna and Anthony Burns, the mom and dad of Haley, Troy Slate and California defense lawyer, Stephen Lampley, detective at stephenlampley.com. You know, EK, Ellen Kalor and crimeonline.com. I remember sitting down, I know you remember this too, with who I now consider to be a friend, Alicia Kozolowski. I'm sure I just butchered her last name. And she was lured online at about age 12, 13, out of her home. The family was having this nice big post-Christmas dinner. It was over the holiday and she had been talking
Starting point is 00:31:46 to what she thought was another little girl online. Then the little girl admitted, hey, I'm really a boy. I thought you wouldn't talk to me, blah, blah. And they've been talking for months and months. He goes, let's meet. Come outside. I'm outside. She goes outside. She's immediately kidnapped in a car by a grown man, held hostage, and barely escaped with her life. My point is, E.K., they also met in a chat room. So what can you tell me, Ellen Kaloran, about how this complete pervert, Michael Wieselowski, meets little Haley Burns? Well, this predator is on a chat room that is frequented by young women who are dealing with a vulnerable situation. And so he knows exactly what he's doing. And as you point
Starting point is 00:32:32 out, Nancy, anyone can pretend to be anyone or be a certain type of person when they're online. And this predator spent a long time grooming this Haley. And this was not something that happened overnight. And I'm learning some new details from Haley's parents about the fact that he has done this before, which doesn't surprise me at all. But this predator knew exactly what he was doing. He took advantage of her vulnerability and he kept communicating with her and tricked her into believing that he was safe and he was her friend. At Stephen Lampley, detectivestephenlampley.com, we find so many instances of kidnap and false imprisonment based on guys, they're like wolves, finding victims in chat rooms.
Starting point is 00:33:25 I mean, this is by far not the first case I've heard of, Stephen. Nancy, it's actually an epidemic. I spent a good amount of time in the latter part of my career, and I know it's hard for you to imagine, but I was a 14-year-old girl online. And, Nancy, I would go on. Okay, yeah, that is. I didn't expect that to come out of your mouth when you said this is hard for you to imagine.
Starting point is 00:33:47 I was thinking, man, to find witnesses, I've been in every strip club in town, every crack house, every dump, you name it. But when you said I was a 14-year-old girl, I did not imagine that. You got me, Stephen. But I would get online and the chat rooms, Nancy, that I would get on were not sexually related. They were generic chat rooms, Nancy. And there were times I would get on in the chat room and in a span of less than 30 seconds, I would have 9 to 12 adults talking to me, knowing full well that I was a juvenile because of my chat room name. They readily recognized that as being a juvenile, and they latched on to me in record time. Anthony and Shauna, I hate for you to even hear this,
Starting point is 00:34:42 to think your little girl, you were doing all this to protect her. Then she goes to school where they give her a Chromebook and she meets this guy. I've learned that some of the behavior that she was exhibiting, and you knew something was way wrong. She suddenly started using a pacifier and calling somebody online, Daddy. Yes. I didn't know that. Yep. Oh, dear Lord in heaven.
Starting point is 00:35:08 Oh, dear Lord in heaven. I found a lot of signs. But at the same time, you know, she was in therapy and the therapists were essentially saying if she uses a pacifier, it's perhaps to help comfort her. So I was watching the behavior and bringing it up. But at the same time, you know, wanted her to feel okay to express herself as well. So tell me when you first got any inkling where she was and when you first heard the name Michael Weisselovsky, Shawna. It was on June 23rd. It was about 847 at night. Tony and I had just sat down to watch a movie and we had gotten show marks,
Starting point is 00:35:48 which is a local restaurant here in Charlotte. We were just getting ready to eat. And I got a Facebook message from a woman I did not know in Romania. And she said, are you the mother of Haley Burns? And I responded back and I said, yes. And she said, I'm in communication with her she's safe and she wants to come home to which we we had been informed by the FBI to be very careful because people will call you and say I know where your kid is but you have to give me money psychic people will try to
Starting point is 00:36:16 take advantage of you so I was a lot more skeptical let's say than Tony was Tony was like oh my god it's her they said she sent a picture of Haley and Tony was like, that's definitely her. But I still needed more. I said, ask Haley something that only Haley would know. And I have a dent in my head from when I was hit in the head with a hammer when I was a kid. Very few people know that. And Haley said, tell my mom she has a big dent in her head from a hammer. And that is what I knew immediately. That is my daughter. And we, it was like an old fashioned game of telephone because Haley is chatting on a chat room with this woman in Romania. The woman in Romania is on a tablet with me FaceTiming. I am on, I am communicating with my voice to Tony,
Starting point is 00:37:02 who's on his phone with Pete, our FBI agent contact, who, by the way, was at Disney with his family on vacation when all of this happened. And he stepped up in the middle of everything and we felt so bad, but he was so happy to do it, even though he was on vacation with his family at Disney. And then Pete was on his phone with the detectives in Georgia. So every question took five minutes to ask for them to ask Pete, to ask Tony, to ask me, to ask her, to ask Haley. So the process took a little longer than normal. But after about 15 minutes, we had established that it was Haley. And we were then just trying to establish where she was, but she did not know where she was. She said,
Starting point is 00:37:43 she said, I'm in a brick, a two-story brick building in Georgia, and that's all we knew. Here is Allison Latos, WSOC-TV. Warrants reveal the level of abuse a charlatan endured while being held captive in Georgia for more than a year. The documents say that Michael Weisselofsky confined Haley Burns in an upstairs bedroom of his Duluth home, THE DOCUMENTS SAY THAT MICHAEL WYSOLOFSKY CONFINED HALEY BURNS IN AN UPSTAIRS BEDROOM OF HIS DULUTH HOME, TELLING HER THAT
Starting point is 00:38:08 SHE WOULD BE ARRESTED IF SHE LEFT. WYSOLOFSKY REPORTEDLY CONTROLLED EVERY ASPECT OF HIS 17-YEAR-OLD CAPTIVE'S LIFE, KEEPING A FOOD JOURNAL DETAILING HOW MANY CALORIES SHE'D EATEN EACH DAY, AND WITHHOLDING FOOD FROM HALEY IF HE THOUGHT SHE'D
Starting point is 00:38:24 EATEN TOO MANY CALORIES THE DAY BEFORE. DOCTORS AT THE ALANDA HAYLEY BURNS SAYS SHE WAS TAKING A LOT OF FOOD FROM HER FAMILY. SHE WAS EATING EACH DAY AND WITHHOLDING FOOD FROM HAYLEY IF HE THOUGHT SHE HAD EATEN TOO MANY CALORIES THE DAY BEFORE. DOCTORS AT THE HOSPITAL WHO EXAMINED HAYLEY AFTER SHE WAS RESCUED DETERMINED SHE WAS
Starting point is 00:38:39 SUFFERING FROM MALNUTRITION. HER PARENTS TOLD CHANNEL 9 SHE LOST 15 TO 20 POUNDS. HAYLEY BURNS DISAPPEARED FROM Haley Burns disappeared from her Ballantyne home in May of 2016. This past weekend, the FBI responded to a tip and tracked her to a home in Georgia. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.

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